Our Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter
11. And we'll begin in verse 1 and
we'll just read down to verse 4. We'll look at some other verses
tonight in the chapter, but we'll mainly concentrate on verse 4.
Paul begins in verse 1 and he says, Would to God ye could bear
with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me. For
I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I have espoused
you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin
to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." Now, here's
why, back up there in verse 1, here's why he said, I would that
you could bear with me." And bear with me. Here's why he said
that. Verse 4, For if he that cometh
preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you
receive another spirit which you've not received, or another
gospel which you've not accepted, you might well bear with him.
And what he's saying here is, You bear with me now in what
I'm about to write to you because these men that are preaching
another Jesus with another spirit and preaching another gospel
to you, you're bearing with them. You're receiving them and giving
them your ear, so give me your ear. That's what he's saying
here. Now, he's not commending them for that. False preachers
are never to be received and promoted by God's church. Never
to receive false preachers and promote them. John, over in 2
John 1 and verse 9, he said, Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. Now you listen
to that, that's a simple statement, but that's a very dogmatic statement.
He that transgresses and abides not in the doctrine of Christ
hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any
unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house.
He's talking about the Lord's house. Receive him not, a preacher
like that, neither bid him God's speed. For he that biddeth him
God's speed is partaker of his evil deeds. Now, this was the
one thing or one of the things that caused the most trouble
in the church at Corinth. They began to give an ear to
false preachers. That's where most of their problems
started. Now, every true preacher that's
sent by our Lord Jesus Christ must preach, first of all, repentance
from dead works and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He must
shut sinners up to Christ turning them away from their works. And
he must preach the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace
in Christ Jesus. He must preach the gospel clearly
so that there's no misunderstanding that he's declaring salvation
is by God's free grace, by God's sovereign grace, by Christ through
the Holy Spirit. And the third thing that God's
preacher must always preach is we must warn sinners of false
preachers. Brother Eric just read what we
heard our Master command us to do. forgive our enemies and love
our enemies and to not judge men, and that's what we should
do. And He also said this, Beware
of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they're ravening wolves. You shall know them by their
fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn
bushes? Or do they gather figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth
forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
So, in the same and another passage in Matthew, I believe it is,
right after he said, judge not that you be not judged, he turns
right around in the very next verse and says, don't cast your
pearls before swine. We need to learn what judge not
means. If you don't judge, you go through life, if you don't
judge every day, you'll be taken away like the Corinthians were
being taken away. It's one thing to expose somebody for preaching
falsely. It's another thing to pass judgment
on them and condemn them to hell. That's judging them. Don't do
that. But we must warn sinners of false
preachers. We must do it. Today everybody
is crying out love in the name of, you know, we are all right
and nobody is wrong. That is not so. The Bible says
salvation is by God's will, by Christ's works. So if a man comes
along preaching that salvation is in any shape, form or fashion
by man's will and by man's works, he is wrong. That is just all
there is to it. So we are not all right. There
is one God. There is one Lord and Savior.
There is one Spirit. There is one Gospel. That means
there is just one Gospel. There is just one truth and everything
else is wrong. And that truth is revealed right
here in this book. We are not saved by man-made
creeds. We are not saved by man-made
denominations. We are not saved by any kind
of feelings that men say that you have to experience in these
things or anything else that men say. Scripture says we're
saved by God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, through God-given
knowledge, taught us by the Holy Spirit, which brings us to cast
all our care on Christ. That's how we're saved. But the
question I have for you tonight is, how can we recognize a false
preacher? The Lord said you'll recognize
them by their fruits. How can we recognize a false
preacher? Paul gives three marks of a false
preacher here, and a false preacher can be detected by one or by
all of these marks. First of all, he preaches another
Jesus whom we've not preached. Secondly, he has another spirit.
He says, or if you receive another spirit, and he's talking about
receiving a false preacher who has another spirit, preaching
of another spirit. which you've not received. And
then thirdly, he preaches another gospel which you've not accepted. Three marks of a false preacher.
First of all, he preaches a false Christ, a false Jesus. He says, if he that cometh preaches
another Jesus. Our Lord warned us that in these
days we live in right now, that there was going to be many false
Christs. and that men would be pointing
to many false Christs. He said, there shall arise false
Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders,
insomuch that if it were possible, they should receive the very
elect. And He said, so when men come to you and they say, lo,
here is Christ, or there, believe it not. Now you may not think
that's happening in our day, but it happens in our day all
the time. My preacher preaches Christ, y'all come over here
and go to church with me over here. Another comes along, oh,
our pastor preaches the Lord Jesus. Y'all come over here where
he preaches. Here's Christ over here, here's
Christ over there. There's many false Christs and
many false preachers. That's what the Lord said it
would be. You may think that we ought not to warn men of this,
but if they preach another Jesus, we have to warn men. Now, how
do you preach another Jesus? Well, first of all, if men preach
and tamper with who He is, you know, some people preach that
He's not God in human flesh. That's another Jesus. That's
another Jesus. That's not the true Lord Jesus
Christ. The true Christ of this Bible
is God in human flesh, begotten of the Holy Spirit, in the womb
of a virgin, God with us, the God-man. That's the true Lord
Jesus. So anybody that preaches that
he's not God, that's another Jesus. Jehovah's Witnesses, so-called
Jehovah's Witnesses, that's... First question, you're not going
to ask them any question. Just don't give them an ear.
If you want to ask them something, just ask them, number one, who
is Christ? Who is Jesus? Is He God? And
they'll say no. They might say He's a God or
He's the Son of God, but they won't say He's God. Their Bible,
John, first two or three verses of John is totally rewritten
in their Bible so that it doesn't say the Word was God. If they
declare lies concerning what He came to do and what He accomplished,
they preach another Jesus. Now there are several things
we could say here that differentiate the vast variety of false lies
that men tell about the Lord Jesus, but there are four things
that are just clearly revealed in 1 Corinthians 1.30 and those
four things is what differentiates the true Lord Jesus from every
other Jesus. The true Lord Jesus is the wisdom
of His people. Whenever we're born again, the
scripture says, of God is Christ made unto us wisdom. That's when
we're given the mind of Christ so that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God. Before you know anything
else, you're going to know Christ. And you're going to learn everything
else in the light of Christ. That's where you come to first.
You're brought to believe Christ truly is who He says He is. And you have wisdom given you
from Christ. And everything else you learn
from Him, in light of Him. Until you have Him, you don't
have the key to this book. When you have Him, you learn
everything in light of Him. He's our wisdom. And the true
Lord Jesus Christ is the righteousness of His people. On the cross,
by Himself, He purged the sin of His people, He justified His
people, He brought an everlasting righteousness for His people.
He is our righteousness. I am not trying to keep the law.
I have when Christ kept it for me. I have perfectly kept it. You say, well, what about all
the sins you worry about in the future? I am not worried about
any sins in the future. He put those away too. You realize if
you perfectly fulfill the law, past, present and future, there's
nothing else God can do but smile upon you. And that's what we
have in Christ, the Lord, our righteousness. And another thing
is the true Lord Jesus Christ is a sanctification of His people.
He is sanctification to His people. I'm not looking to me for sanctification. Christ is my sanctification.
Of God is Christ made unto us sanctification. Scripture says,
by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
This He did on the cross. Then in the new birth, when the
Holy Spirit comes, Scripture says, Christ is formed in you
in the new birth. You made partakers of the divine
nature. And when you made a partaker
of His divine nature, That new man that is one with Christ is
holy. You can't get more holy than
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that new man is holy. And
Christ then, from then on, He doesn't further sanctify you,
He teaches you grace and knowledge of Him. And that's where you
grow in. But with Christ in you, you are
fit with that holiness without which no man will see the Lord.
You have it because Christ is our sanctification. And the true
Lord Jesus Christ is redemption to His people. Of God is He made
unto us redemption. Remember when our Lord said,
If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. If
the Lord Jesus Christ makes you free from the law, you will be
free indeed. I guarantee you. If the Lord
Jesus Christ frees you from the dominion of your sin so that
you can, for the first time in your life, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, you will be free indeed. If the Lord Jesus Christ
frees you from this body of death and resurrection, you'll be free
indeed. And if the Lord Jesus Christ
frees you from every consequence of sin and glorification, you
shall be free indeed. But Christ will be the redemption.
He'll be the one that does it. He's the only one that can free
us. That's what redemption means, is to be freed. To be freed from
the law, from the curse of the law cursing you. To be freed
from the dominion of your flesh so that you could not believe
on Christ. You had to keep adding your two cents. To be freed from
the consequence, from the body of sin when you're resurrected.
And to be freed at last from the consequence of it when you're
glorified. All that is redemption. It's
all by Christ. If Christ sets you free, you'll
be free indeed. So that's, if any man comes now and he's saying
anything else, adding anything else, that what I just declared
to you is salvation A to Z. Man adds anything else, it's
another Jesus. That Jesus he's preaching is
a failure without you. That's an idol. An idol can't
leave that. If you've got it sitting on top
of that piano, it can't go anywhere but sit on top of that piano
unless you pick it up and you take it somewhere else. Well,
that's what a Jesus is that can't save unless you help Him save. That's a false Jesus. So that's
the first sign they preach another Jesus. Now here's the second
mark. He preaches by a false spirit. He says, verse 4, if
you receive another spirit which you've not received. Go to John
8. I want you to see this. I think
this is needful. John 8, verse 44. Look here, John 8.44, he said,
he's talking to his Pharisees, and he said, You're of your father
the devil, and the less of your father you will do. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and he abode not in the truth,
because there's no truth in him. And when he speaketh a lie, he
speaketh of his own, of his own self, of his own accord, for
he's a liar and the father of it. Those three things right
there that the devil does, that's what every false preacher does
who's preaching by the devil's spirit. That's exactly what he
does. He's a murderer. He's murdering
the souls of men. He will not abide in the truth.
He's going to change the message, he's going to alter God's Word,
he won't abide in the truth. And number three, when he speaks
his lies, he's not speaking by the Spirit of God, he's speaking
of his own sinful corrupt flesh. That's the three marks of another
spirit right there. The devilish spirit causes a
false preacher to preach for covetous gain. This is at the base of all of
it, covetousness. The Lord said in Jeremiah 6.13,
from the least of them even to the greatest of them, talking
about false preachers, every one of them is given to covetousness.
From the prophet to the priest, everyone deals falsely. So what
he's saying is in some shape or form, the reason, the main
motive of a false preacher is covetous gain. Our text shows
men want the praise of men. They covet applause from men. Look at verse 5. Paul says, I
suppose I was not a wit behind the very chiefest apostles, but
though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge, but we've been
truly made manifest among you in all things. See, why is he
saying that? Because that's what these false
preachers were accusing him of. Of being rude in speech and rude
in knowledge. And they were trying to get the
applause of men by their intellectual speaking. Speaking lofty and
above people's head and make people marvel. And that's wanting
the praise of men, wanting the applause of men. And then another
reason is monetary gain. Wanting money. Look here in verse
7. Here's Paul's spirit. Have I
committed an offense in abasing myself that you might be exalted?
Because I preached to you the gospel of God freely? The one,
the richest church Paul preached in, most wealthy people anywhere
Paul preached wouldn't give him a dime. And he wouldn't take a dime from
them. He went there and preached free. He said, have I committed
an offense because I preached to you the gospel of God freely?
I robbed other churches, taking wages of them to do you service.
Other churches supported me so you wouldn't have to, he said.
And when I was present with you and I wanted, I was chargeable
to no man for that which was lacking to me the brethren which
came from Macedonia supplied. And in all things I've kept myself
from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. As
the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this
boasting in the regions of Achaia. Wherefore, because I love you
not, God knows, but what I do, that I will do, that I may cut
off occasion from them which desire occasion, that wherein
they glory, they may be found even as we." You see, he said,
these men here, if Paul would have taken money, they would
have used that to say, well see, Paul takes money from you, that's
why you should give us money. And Paul said, I'm not going
to let them do that. I'm not going to let them use me as an
excuse to try to get money off of you. And he said, I won't
do it. If they want a glory, let them
glory in the way I'm glorying. Let them glory that they came
and preached to you freely. They wouldn't do it. They wouldn't
do it. Why? Because they're coverages
for money. Coverages for money. That's why
preachers that move from church to church to church to church
and get a bigger salary or more glory with each move they make. I got a big problem with that.
Now it might, it's different if God lose a man once and a
man stays there the rest of his days and you know, and I've seen
that happen and that's a totally different thing. But I'm talking
about after the third or fourth or fifth or sixth time, there's
a problem, there's a red flag. Coverage is for glory over what
they make men do by their law mongering. Remember Paul said,
they don't keep the law. They want to have you try to
make you keep the law so they can glory in what they made you
do. Look here at verse 18. That's what these men were doing.
Paul said, seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory
also. For you suffer fools gladly, seeing you yourselves are wise.
For you suffer if a man bring you into bondage. If a man devour
you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man
smite you on the face, I speak as concerning reproach, as though
we had been weak." That's what they said. See, they used their
law-mongering and may force the Corinthians to do things, preaching
law to them, smiting them. And they used that to say they
were much bolder in preaching with the power of the Spirit
than Paul. Paul was weak. Paul said, I speak as concerning
reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit, whereinsoever
any is bold, I'm speaking foolishly, he said. I don't want to glory
at all, but I'm just doing this so that you all can understand,
I'm bold also. But you see where these men were
glorying in? They were glorying in smiting
men and getting men to do what they got them to do. That's covetousness. Coverages for the praise of men,
coverages for money, coverages for what you can make other men
do. Exalt yourself in the process.
So, these are reasons men handle the Word of God deceitfully.
It's another spirit. Now, here's the third mark of
a false preacher. Right here. He preaches a false
gospel. You say, well, if he preaches
another Jesus, isn't that another gospel? Yes, because Christ is
actually the gospel. But they preach other doctrine
too, besides just a false Christ. They preach another gospel. The
true gospel declares that all sinners are totally depraved. Totally depraved. You know, TULIP
is the best acronym I know for the gospel. Total depravity,
unconditional election, God chose His people not based on anything
but us, by grace. Limited atonement, Christ came
and laid down His life for a chosen particular people and accomplished
their redemption. Irresistible grace, the Holy
Spirit quickens whom He will. We're made willing in the day
of Christ's power. We're given faith by God. We're
brought irresistibly to believe on Christ. You can't resist it. You can't resist it. and perseverance
of the saints which is by the preserving of God's hand. So God gets all the glory in
it. But men will come and they'll preach another gospel and they'll
say that there's some goodness in man. There's some goodness
in man so that salvation is a step-by-step process. Some of them say it's
at the beginning of your salvation. You have to come down to the
front of the church. and you say a prayer that the preacher
tells you to say, and then you're baptized, and you're saved now. That's another gospel. That's
another gospel. Others put it on the back end
of salvation. They say that, no, God has to
do all, everything to make you willing by His grace. But then
once you call to faith in Christ, now you got to go back to Mount
Sinai and start keeping the law and make yourself more and more
and more and more holy till you're fit and you've made yourself
ripe to walk into heaven. Both of those are false gospel. Any work that we do that we think
makes ourselves to differ from another is law. It doesn't matter
if it's coming down the front of a church or if it's trying
to keep the Ten Commandments, whatever it is. You remember
when the Apostle Peter, he's sitting at a table. He's a believer
now. He's sitting at a table with
some Gentiles eating pork and everything that's forbidden in
the law. He probably was eating crawfish. And here comes some
Jews. And they come walking up and
all Peter did was get up from the table and went over and sat
with those Jews. Because he didn't want them seeing
him over there eating that good food. Because God forbid it in
the law. Well, he knew Christ fulfilled
all that law. He knew all that law pointed
to Christ. He knew every bit of that law was fulfilled by
Christ. Why did he get up and go over there and sit with them
then? He knew he wasn't justified before God by his works. Why
did he get up and go over and sit down then? Paul called it this, walking
not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. That's what
he called it. He called it dissimulation, bringing
believers back under the law. Now Paul was speaking of that
act Peter did as a believer. Peter wasn't trying to say by
that act that he was justified before the judgment seat of God
by that work. That wasn't what he was trying
to do at all. You know what he was doing? He was trying to show that he
was holy. That he kept the law. He just
ate what God told him to eat and he didn't eat those other
things. He was trying to show that he
was sanctifying himself. And you know what Paul said?
He said, you know we are not justified by our works. Well, of course Peter knew he
wasn't justified in heaven before God's judgment seat in matters
of righteousness. Of course he wasn't justified
by his works. Peter knew that. Paul is not talking about that.
Paul is talking about you are not justified before men by your
works either. When you think you are, Now there's
a difference between Abraham doing something and his work
justifying the fact that his faith was genuine faith. That's
one thing. But when a man's trying to justify before men himself
consciously to show that he's a holy man, that's justification
by works. It's exactly who Christ was speaking
to when He said this, You are they which justify yourselves
before men. I say that because these fellows
that tell you, want to talk about progressive sanctification, they'll
say, Oh no, we're not justified before the judgment seat of God.
No, no, no. Christ alone is our righteousness. We're talking
about sanctification. That's what Paul was talking
about. And that's what Christ was talking about right here.
You are they which justify yourselves before men. But God knows your
heart. See, there's where true holiness
is, is in the heart. And if a man is not sanctified,
that's where he's not sanctified, is in his heart. And God knows
the heart. And that which is highly esteemed
among men, looking with these eyes, is an abomination in God's
eyes. God's not looking the way we're
looking, and He don't like what we like. God looks on the heart.
He likes the heart He made holy, made new and holy. And that heart
is not... If you are sanctified, I tell
you what you will not do. You don't want to do anything
to try to make... If you catch yourself trying
to show somebody your religion, it makes you want to turn and
run the other way. That's holiness. You don't want
to do anything to try to justify yourself on purpose before men
about what you believe. You don't want to do that at
all. You don't want to try to show anybody what you are. Because that's vain, self-made
sanctification. That's justification by works. That's the sin. Remember after
that Paul said, we are justified by the faith of Christ, not by
our works. That's why we believed in Christ,
maybe justified by the faith of Christ. He said, but now once
I profess that I am justified by the faith of Christ, if now
I am found a sinner, what sin is he talking about? What Peter
did. If I am found to be that kind of sinner, he said, did
Christ work that? Is that true holiness? Christ
worked that in the heart? Go read Galatians 2. That's exactly
what he's talking about. Paul said, God forbid, Christ
didn't work that. That's what he sanctified us
from. That phony, fake, outward religion trying to put on a show
before one another. That's what he sanctifies us
from. So a man comes preaching that mess, you know, you're hearing
another gospel. It's another gospel. And that's
what y'all been in it. That's what everybody up here
in these Reformed churches is preaching. That's what you hear. Reformed Baptist won't have nothing
to do with us because we don't preach progressive sanctification.
We give Christ the glory for sanctification. I'm not any more holy than I
was the day I was born again. And if I had died, the Lord would
have taken me to glory that day. I would have had the same holiness
I got right now, and I would have had the same holiness I'm
going to have for eternity. Christ. Well, let's see here. The Lord
said this, Straight is the gate, narrow is the way, which leads
unto life, and few there be that find it. You know why the way
is so narrow? You know why the gate is so straight?
because it's just Christ. It's Christ only. It's faith
in Christ, trust in Christ, believing on Christ and resting in Christ.
Nothing else. Not plus anything, not minus
anything. Christ only. And the broad way that men are
going in is just add something. Just add something. Whether it's
your decision or it's your church membership or it's, you know,
church attendance or whatever, just add something. That's the
broad way that leads to destruction. The straight gate is Christ only. He said, I'm the door. If I told
you that's the door right there. Y'all look back there. That's
the door right there. And you see that's the door. Well, you know if you start veering
over here, that ain't the door. That's the window. That's the
door right there. Christ said, I'm the door. So
if a man starts trying to come up another way, he's not coming
the one way. He's not coming through the straight
gate. He's not coming the narrow way. He's not coming through
the door. He's trying to climb up another way. Just Christ,
Christ only. That's the true gospel. Anything
plus or minus is another gospel. Now let me say this because I
know what men are going to say. But doesn't the gospel declare
that His people serve Him? Yes, it does. His people serve
Him. And His people do good works.
They sure do. And those works do justify the
believer's faith as being the genuine gift of God. But the
believer is not trying to do that by his work. Abraham, when
God said go up there and offer up Isaac, Abraham didn't sit
there and go, well, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going
to go up there and offer him so I can show these boys my faith.
That's not what he did. Those fellows that... went with
him in little ways, they went in on his mind. He was looking
to Christ. He wasn't even trying to show
Isaac his faith. What did he say to Isaac? My
son, God will provide himself a lamb. He pointed his son to
Christ. And by that, James said, That work justified
the fact that he had real, true, God-given faith. If he would
have said, now I'm doing this because I want everybody to know
my faith is real. That's why I'm going to go do
this. The Holy Spirit would have never had James write anything
about Abraham. Never. Because that wouldn't have been
the same thing. Yes, God does cause His people
to do good works, but God does it. Christ works in His people. The Holy Spirit makes His people
fruitful. And so God gets all the glory for it. And you know,
if you think about it, think about an apple tree. An apple tree is not trying,
it's not straining to make apples. God made the apple tree, makes
it make apples. And it just does it, because
it's what it is. It's an apple tree. The Lord said, you make
the tree good, His fruit will be good. Well, God makes the
tree good. Christ makes His people righteous
and holy, totally redeemed. So that by Him working in His
people now, the fruit that they make is good fruit. But they're
not walking around straining and worrying and, oh, I'm going
to produce some fruit today. I've got to produce some fruit
today. If you start thinking like that, You're going to bring
forth a bunch of rotten dead fruit. Just get up in the morning,
thank God for the day and go about your business. And whatever
God puts in your way to do, do it with all your might. Thank
God for it, praise Him for doing it. That's the life of a believer. That's the work God puts in you.
So, what I'm saying to you, salvation a disease by Christ, even to
the good works His people do, He gets the glory. If anybody
comes preaching anything else, Show them the door. Before they even cross the threshold,
show them the door. Amen.