I titled the message this morning,
The Doctrine You Have Learned. Now, Paul, we looked at this
last week, spent 16 verses greeting some of the beloved saints there
in Rome, talking about their service in the church, their
love for the Lord, his love for them, what a blessing that they
were to him. It's a blessing for us to know
and have some to love and have some relationship with God's
people, isn't it? That was a very easy message
for me to preach. This morning we had the same
gospel. But it's a different tenor in
which Paul writes these next verses. And I pray, I hope you
pray, that the Lord give me wisdom in dealing with them and give
you wisdom in understanding and hearing them. Because Paul suddenly
switches to the opposite end of the spectrum and gives us
a warning about those that cause divisions. In verse 17, he says,
Now I beseech you, brethren, Mark them which cause divisions
and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned
and avoid them. For they that are such serve
not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly and by good words
and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. Now, before
we look at this warning concerning those who caused divisions, it's
important for us to see the doctrine that you have believed, the doctrine. I want to be very clear here
that the stress, the importance of our text this morning is the
doctrine of Christ. It's not church discipline. It's
not marking who I can go avoid and censure. No, no. The key to the whole passage
is the doctrine of Christ. He is the stress, the importance
of every verse of scripture. Now when we talk of doctrine,
Doctrine is not a bad thing. You know, people say, don't preach
doctrine to me. You know, don't be preaching
when they say they, I mean, don't preach doctrine to me, but you
know, it's impossible. It's impossible to preach Christ
without preaching the doctrine of Christ. All true doctrine
is teaching. That's what the word mean is
teaching the Lord Jesus Christ. Doctrine teaches us everything
that Christ is to His people and everything that Christ has
done for and in His people. Now I grant you, if we only know
what men call doctrine, then we're going to be hard and mean.
I grant you that. If we would be saved, we must
know Christ. You come to Christ. You don't
come to doctrine. You come to Christ. You look
to Christ. You seek Christ. You can know the right doctrine
and not be saved. I spent years doing math. You
can know the right doctrine and not be saved, but you can't know
Christ and be lost. So you seek Christ. But doctrine
is a good thing. Let me show you that in Deuteronomy
chapter 32. Doctrine is a good thing. Don't
ever, ever run from sound doctrine. Deuteronomy 32. Verse 1. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I
will speak. And hear, O earth, the words
of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech shall
distill as the dew, as a small rain upon the tender earth, as
the showers upon the grass. Because I will publish this doctrine,
I'm dropping down, I will publish the name of the Lord. and ascribe
ye greatness unto our God. He is the rock. His work is perfect. All His ways are judgment. A
God of truth and without iniquity, just and righteous is He." That's
doctrine, telling us who God is, His greatness. It publishes
the name of the Lord in a refreshing way. As that dew upon the fine
herb, as the rain upon the grass, it's refreshing. Doctrine is
a good thing. Solomon said in Proverbs 4 verse
2, I give you good doctrine and don't you forsake it. Don't you
forsake my law. It's good. Now, in order to preach
Christ, we must be doctrinally sound. Now, nobody can preach
Christ and be unsound in doctrine. Look at 2 John verse 9. Nobody
can be unsound in doctrine and preach Christ. 2 John 9. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
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, neither
bid him Godspeed. For he that biddeth him Godspeed
is partaker of his evil deeds. That's pretty serious, isn't
it? To bid him Godspeed, knowing that he's not, he's preaching
a lie to be partaker of his evil deeds. And this doctrine is very
important. If we transgress this doctrine,
this doctrine of Christ, we don't have life because we don't have
the father and the son. That's life. But to abide in
the doctrine of Christ, to believe it and keep believing it, to
continue in it, is to have life. Because that means you have both
the Father and the Son. And if anybody preaches anything
contrary to this doctrine of Christ, we're not to listen to
him. We're not to listen to him. We're
not to get away from him, don't bend in God's speed, don't wish
on him blessing of any kind, because he's lying on God. Don't
give him or anybody else any impression that you're with him
or you think God's with him. Now, we might think, well, I
want to be loving him. Hold on a minute. Hold on a minute.
That's God's Word. Well, I want to be loving and
I don't want to be mean to him. That's not right loving to God, is it?
To do that, to bid God's speed to a man lying on God. I mean,
this is serious business. So what is here's my question. The point of all this is this.
What is the doctrine of Christ? What's the doctrines that we've
seen in our study throughout the book of Romans? Principally,
this justification is by faith, not by words. Righteousness is
imputed, not earnest. The righteousness of Christ were
justified by faith in Christ. And this doctrine of Christ really
is not just the book of Romans, but it's the entire Bible. All of the Bible is written to
show us Christ, who He is, to teach us something of Him. And
what I want to do this morning is look at just a few scriptures
that mention our Lord, our Lord Jesus, and the doctrine that
He taught. That is the doctrine. If Christ
taught that doctrine, that is the doctrine that we must believe
and preach, right? So I'm just going to take them
in order as they appear in the New Testament. First, look at
Matthew chapter 7. Matthew 7 verse 28. Here's my
first point. True doctrine. The doctrine which
you've learned. The doctrine of safe souls teaches
that Christ is the only foundation of salvation. Matthew 7 verse
28. And it came to pass when Jesus
had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his
doctrine. For he taught them as one having
authority and not as the scribes. Now they were astonished at this
doctrine. Well, what was the doctrine our
Lord just taught? He just taught them that Christ is all of salvation. And if we trust anything else,
even in the smallest way, we will perish. That's the doctrine
he taught. Look back up at verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Now, what
is it to do the will of the Father? Well, the will of the Father
is that we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we believe
in anything else, anything else, just in the smallest degree,
Christ plus something else, we will perish. Our Lord tells us
here, what is it to do the will of the Father and what is it
to not do the will of the Father? Verse 22. Many will say to me
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?
And in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many
wonderful works. And then while I profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity. Those folks that were told to
depart from Christ were workers of iniquity. They did lots of
helpful things to other people in the flesh, didn't they? What
did the Lord call them? Workers of iniquity. They trusted
in Christ plus something else. That was their hope of entering
into the kingdom. But doing the will of the Father
is just believing Christ. Just casting all the hope of
your salvation upon him and not doing any religious works in
order to be saved or in order for God to accept you. Doing
the will of the Father is putting all the weight of your salvation
upon Christ. Verse 24. Therefore, whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken
him unto a wise man. which built his house upon a
rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and winds
blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded
upon a rock. And you know that rock is Christ.
Anyone who builds on Christ for all their salvation will be saved. They can never perish if he's
the foundation. Christ is the walls, the roof,
the windows, the doors of your house, the house of your salvation.
You can never perish But verse 26, everyone that heareth these
sayings of mine and doeth them not, does not believe on Christ,
shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon
the sand. And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and
it fell. And great was the fall of it. Anyone who builds on the
shifting sands of man's righteousness, man's works, will perish. And great will be the fall of
it. It's an eternal death. Because there's no strength building
on something based upon us. We're just dirt. We're made up
of dirt, made up of sand. Well, putting any weight upon
us will cause us to just crumble. There's no strength there. There's
no stability there. Anything built on us must be
destroyed. Now you avoid anyone that preaches
anything contrary to that doctrine. Anything that's built on anything
but Christ alone, you avoid them. They're false prophets. All right,
second, look at Mark chapter four. True doctrine teaches that
God blesses the preaching of his word. God's only going to
save his people through the preaching of his word. The word of God
is the seed that God uses to give his people life. Mark four,
verse two. And he taught them many things
in parables and said unto them, said unto them in his doctrine,
in his doctrine. We won't read this whole passage.
You know the passage well. What is the doctrine that the
Lord is teaching in this parable? The parable of the sower. Well,
the sower is God's preacher who sows the word of God on all men
who hear him. And the seed is the word of God
that he preaches. It's not his ideas or, you know,
it's the word of God. Now, some hear that word and
they're wayside heroes. They hear the words, but Satan
comes and catches the word away quickly before it can take root
in their heart. Some are stony ground viewers. They're so excited. Oh, they're
so excited when they first hear the gospel, they just quickly
spring up there. Oh, it looks so promising. But
soon something comes and chokes it away, makes it unfruitful.
There are trials and troubles. They're the heat of the day.
And they dry up and they leave the gospel because they're offended
by it. They just cannot submit to it. They didn't truly believe. They
had no root down deep in Christ. Thank God, God makes some good
ground hearers. He's furrowed down deep and prepared
the ground, prepared the ground to hear the word, made it ready
to receive the word. And God causes that root plant
to take root in their heart. They get roots. It's slow growing,
but they get roots down deep in Christ. And they endure trouble. They endure the heat of trial.
They endure that conflict and they don't quit. Because they
can. They got roots down deep in Christ.
They believe Him. That's the whole lesson we looked
at in our class this morning. That's the new birth. Now this
is the doctrine our Lord's teaching. The seed that God uses to give
spiritual life is His Word. This is what's the verse in our
lesson this morning, of His own will begat He us with the Word
of truth. That's the only seed God uses
to give life is the truth of His Word. Now you avoid anyone
preaching anything contrary to that doctrine. If they use any
other means to get results other than the Word of God, You run
from them. Run, don't listen to them. They're
false prophets. If they try to get people to
make a decision by talking them into it, using psychology, using
good sales methods, whatever it is, run from them. If they use emotion, trying to
guilt you into feeling sorry for Jesus or guilt you into how
awful you are, you haven't accepted Jesus, don't you feel so guilty?
Don't you want to go to heaven? What a foolish question. Of course
I want to go to heaven. I don't want to go to hell. Of
course not. Don't you want to see mama in heaven? Someone preaching
all emotional right there. Play on your emotions or you
void them. If they say we have saved brethren
who never heard the truth of the gospel, you avoid them. It's not possible. If they've
never heard the word of truth, they cannot be saved. They cannot
have life because it's the only method God uses to give life
to his people. Anything contrary to that doctrine,
you avoid them. All right, thirdly, look at Luke
chapter four. True doctrine teaches that God
is sovereign in salvation. Luke 4 verse 32. And they were astonished at his
doctrine, for his word was with power. When you preach the sovereignty
of God, the word's going forth in power. They were astonished
at his doctrine. Well, what was the astonishing
doctrine the Lord just taught them on that day? This is what
he taught him. God is sovereign in salvation. Almighty God elected to save
a sinful people. He didn't elect to save good
people. He didn't choose to save people. He looked down through
the telescope of time and saw they chose him, so he chose them.
He didn't choose the people he thought were better than somebody
else or more number than somebody else. God Almighty chose sinful
people who do not deserve it. That's who God chose to save. He chose to save the very worst
of the worst. And those people shall be saved
because God's sovereign in salvation. Now let's look back at verse
25 and see what he taught them that led up to this, them being
astonished. But I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in
history on the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three
years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the
land, but unto none of them was a live sin. God did send his
servant to one Jewish widow, not one. Now remember the audience
he's speaking to here. Saved unto Sarepta, a city of
Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. God passed by every
Jewish widow, sent his prophet to one Gentile. against their flesh. Oh, how
that went against their flesh. You and I cannot imagine the
prejudice this audience had against those Gentiles. This had to be
shocking to them. The Lord's teaching then, God's
sovereign in salvation. He chose to save the worst. Read
on. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet,
and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. Not only did God pass by all
the Jewish lepers, and not only did he heal a Gentile leper,
he chose Naaman, the Syrian, the head of the army, persecuting
Israel. God chose to save the worst of
rebels, the worst of sinners, but that crossed their flesh.
I know it did, verse 28. And all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath and rose
up and thrust him out of the city and let him upon the brow
of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast
him down headlong. But God saw him. He passing through the midst
of them went his way. God is sovereign in salvation. And the doctrine of God's sovereignty,
the doctrine of election. You know, preachers, is the doctrine
of election so important we need to make a point of it right to
first? You know, why don't we preach on some other things and
slip election in late, you know, later on? Why don't we kind of
get them hooked and then slip election in late? The doctrine
of election is so important. The Lord God, human flesh, made
that His first public message. First one, let off with it. God
is sovereign in salvation. And don't listen to anyone who
preaches anything contrary to this doctrine of God's electing
love. You avoid anyone whose doctrine
makes God smaller and less important in salvation and makes you more
important in salvation. Just avoid it. That's a contrary
to the doctrine of Christ. All right, look at John chapter
seven. Here's the fourth thing. The doctrine of Christ, true
doctrine, teaches God's eternal covenant of grace. John chapter
seven, verse 14. Now about the midst of the feast,
Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the Jews marveled,
saying, how knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
Jesus answered them and said, my doctrine is not mine. but
His that sent me. Now the Lord's made it plain
many times in His earthly ministry that the Father sent Him. So
His doctrine is the doctrine of the eternal God. Now that
doesn't just mean that God's eternal, that God's always been,
He doesn't have a beginning, He doesn't have an end. That
means that everything God does is eternal. Whatever it is that
God has done in time or will yet do in time. is what He determined
to do before creation. Because everything God does is
eternal. He's just carrying out in time
His eternal purpose. God's not reacting to you and
me. No. He's just carrying out His
eternal purpose. So salvation in Christ, the salvation
of a soul, is eternal. God purposed that salvation before
time began in His covenant, His promise of grace. God's grace,
salvation by grace is eternal. Justification is eternal. God's elect were justified the
moment God elected them to salvation. Not the moment they believed.
No. That would be God reacting to
something we didn't. All God's elect were justified when God
chose to save them. God purposed their justification
in eternity. And that's why he sent his son
to accomplish it in time. Justification is not something
that happened when I believed. I believed because God gave me
faith. Because He justified me before
time began. And He carried out what He purposed
to do in time. So however God sees me right
now, that's how God's always seen me. Because God cannot change. Isn't that our comfort? God cannot
change. If I am saved, it's because God
has always seen me in Christ. Now that's the joy, confidence
of salvation. What God does is eternal. Now
mark your place there, because we're going to come back there
in just a minute. But look over at 1 John chapter 4. Now, avoid anyone
who teaches anything contrary to this doctrine of eternal justification,
eternal salvation. 1 John 4, verse 1. This is an example I'm talking
about. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits where they're of God. Because many false prophets
are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God. Every spirit, you know he's talking about preachers, every
preacher that confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh is of God. And every spirit, every preacher
that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is not of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist,
whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already
is it in the world. Now, to say Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh, it means more than a man named Jesus was born
in the flesh in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. To say that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh means He came from somewhere
else. He was before He appeared in
human flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
eternal Savior. He's the Son of God. The covenant
of God's grace, He's always been the surety of it. That Christ
did come into flesh. You know why He appeared? You
know why He was born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago? You want to
know why? Because God purposed to save His people through that
man in eternity. See, He's just carrying out in
time what He purposed to do in eternity. Christ came in the
likeness of sinful flesh. He came in the nature of the
people that He came to save from their sins. Now you avoid anyone
who teaches any other doctrine. If your justification is up to
you, to your decision, to something that happened in time, whoever's
saying that is anti-Christ. They are opposed to Christ and
they are pro-flesh. If they're not saying what the
Lord's saying, if they're not saying what their message will
lead to damnation every time, so avoid them. All right, fifthly,
back in John chapter 7, true doctrine. The doctrine of Christ
is salvation is by faith, by faith in Christ and not by our
religious works. That's what the whole book of
Romans is about. John chapter seven, verse 17. If any man will
do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of
God or whether I speak of myself. Now, what is it to do the father's
will? I mentioned this a minute ago. To do the father's will
is simply believe on Christ. Just rest in Him and quit trying
to save yourself all those religious things that you do. Let me show
you that back up page of John chapter 6, verse 40. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone would seeth the Son, and believeth
on Him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up
at the last day. Salvation is by faith. By faith
in Christ. Now doing the Father's will,
It cannot be keeping the law. It cannot be keeping the law
as a way to earn salvation. I've never really seen this before,
but look at verse 19 in John chapter 7. This is so clear.
Did not Moses give you the law? You all have the law. You're
doing your best to keep it, right? Did not Moses give you the law?
Yet none of you keepeth the law. Why? Why go ye about to kill
me? Trying to keep the law as a way
to earn salvation is something that opposes Christ so strongly
that it's trying to kill him, it's trying to put him off the
throne. Salvation is by grace, through
faith, faith in Christ. And that not of yourselves, you
don't even have to produce that. That's the gift of God. That's
the doctrine of Christ. Now look at Romans chapter six. This is the doctrine we must
believe if we would have life. Romans 6 verse 16. Know ye not that to whom you
yield yourself servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom you
obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness?
But God be thanked, you were the servants of sin, but you've
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered
to you. Being then made free from sin,
you became the servants of righteousness. And here's the doctrine. We came
into this world with a sin nature, a nature that's totally depraved,
that can do nothing but sin. That's what it is to be the servant
of sin. If you're the servant of sin, you can't quit sinning.
No matter how hard you try, you can't quit sinning. You can't
stop sinful thoughts and sinful desires from coming through your
head. You can't stop it. That's being the servant of sin.
Well, salvation from that is God giving faith in Christ through
the preaching of Christ. Somebody telling you who He is. Paul says that form of doctrine
which was delivered to you. How was that form of doctrine
delivered to you? It's through preaching, wasn't
it? When you heard that gospel, you obeyed it by believing that
Christ is all of your salvation. That's the doctrine. That's how
salvation comes from God. Now, avoid anyone who teaches
that salvation is a decision that you make or some sort of
life that you lead. Now, listen to me very carefully. I am not against a holy life.
Not at all. We ought to strive to be holy.
We ought to make it our goal to never sin. We ought to make
it our goal that we want to be like our Heavenly Father. Not
because we're trying to earn something from Him, because we're
thankful, because of all the blessing he's given to us. Salvation
is by God-given faith, not our works and not our decision. And
you avoid anybody that preaches anything contrary to that. Now
that's not being hard. That's not being fanatical. That's
just saying what God says. Okay. Now back to our text, Romans
chapter 16, verse 7. Now I beseech you, brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the
doctrine, which you have learned, and avoid them. And we're to
mark, we are to identify those people who cause division and
offenses by being contrary to the doctrine of Christ. They
cause division among God's people, and here's how they do it, by
focusing on something other than Christ. Now brethren, nothing,
nothing, nothing, nothing, not anything I love, not anything
you love, not anybody you love, not anybody I love. Nothing,
nothing, nothing is more important than the Lord Jesus Christ. I
was talking to Bob Boyd this week about our conference coming
up. He said, what's the theme? And Bob said, we don't have a
theme. Everything we preach is Christ. Nothing's more important
than Him. We must know Him. And don't divide over anything
but Him. Don't take your eyes off Christ. If you do, that's when divisions
are sure to come. The church at Corinth did that,
didn't they? Over preachers. I'm Paul. Oh, I'm of Apollos. I'm of Cephas. Well, I'm of Christ.
They got their mind off Christ. They got their attention off
Christ. And it caused a division. Brethren, the preacher is not
the issue. The Savior's the issue. Savior
is the only issue. And you avoid anyone who uses
any means, whether it might be a good thing. It might be something
you think is good. If they use that, though, to
divide the family of God, you avoid them. And the word offenses
that Paul uses here is a stumbling block. These folks cause people
to stumble by getting them to look somewhere other than to
Christ alone. They're looking somewhere else
and they stumble because they're not watching where they're going.
Matthew Henry said this, if truth be once deserted, unity and peace
will not last long. That's pretty good. That ought
to hang on the refrigerator. If truth be once deserted, unity
and peace will not last long. Now we're to avoid these people.
Now listen to me. That does not mean be mean to
them. Not at all. We read that. Open
the service. 2 Thessalonians 3. Paul said, now
you admonish them. You don't have anything to do
with them. Yet count him not as an enemy. Don't treat him
as an enemy, but admonishing as a brother. But we are to avoid
them. We're not to befriend them in
their error. We're not to do anything that
someone might think, that they might think, that someone else
might think. We are putting our seal of approval on their division,
on their stumbling blocks. Don't have fellowship with them.
Do not have fellowship with them that would encourage them to
continue in this division of throwing out these stumbling
blocks. Don't join in the conversation with them on these matters. Just
refuse to talk to it about it to them. Just avoid any unnecessary
conversation with them. Don't be mean. Please understand,
I'm not saying don't be cruel to them. Is it the Amish that
somebody decides to go out and they're dead to them and they
can't ever speak to them again? I'm not saying that. but admonish
them as a brother. Teach them this is not right. Quit it. That's what Paul's saying
here. Look at Matthew chapter 16. Our
Lord gave a solemn warning here. It's not just for their sake
to teach them. This is for your good too. Don't
get close to their leaven because it'll infect you. Matthew 16
verse six. Then Jesus said unto them, take
heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And the disciples spent some
time wondering what does that mean? The leaven of the Sadducees.
Are they talking about unleavened bread at the Passover at the
Lord's table? What is it they're talking about?
Well, verse 12. Then understood they how that
he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but beware of
the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. You beware
of it, you get away from it, because it don't have anything
to do with it. Because a little bit of leaven, leaven is the
whole lump, a little bit of leaven will poison the whole lump. You're not going to make them
better, they're going to make you worse. That's what the Lord
is saying there. Let's not think that, well, that
applies to everybody else, I'm too strong, that happened to
me. Just submit. Just submit. Just submit. Do what the Lord says. We are
to avoid these people. Avoid their conversations because
their words will slowly eat away as does the cancer. Now mark
them and pay attention because their words will be religious
sounding words. Back in our text, verse 18. For they that are such serve
not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. and by good
words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. These
people caused divisions by getting people to look away from Christ. If somebody would do that to
this congregation, are they going to be able to use evil words
to be able to do that? Of course not. Our youngest children
wouldn't fall for that. I've seen our children, some
of our young people, hearing a lie. And they're visibly upset. That will not fly. That wouldn't
work to deceive you, to get your mind off Christ. But they use
religious sounding words. Good words. Paul says these are
good words. They use words, biblical words.
Words like grace and salvation and righteousness and eternal
life. They talk about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
They use good sounding words. But they got a different meaning.
They got a different meaning. They use the name of Christ.
Absolutely they do. But they use it not to promote
Christ, but to promote themselves, to promote their own interest.
And they use fair speeches. They use ideas that are taught
in the Word of God, but they use them the wrong way. The perfect
example of that is the law. You know, they try to get you
to live a holy life. You know, they're mixing the
law with grace. And somebody's not doing that
for your best interest. No, they're doing it to serve
their own belly. They talk about the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. These are fair speeches. They
talk about the work of the Father, the work of the Son, the work
of the Holy Spirit. And you know what they do? They
put the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they put the Holy Trinity
at odds with one another by saying, well, the work of the Son is
more important than the work of the Father and the Spirit.
The work of the Father and the Son is important, the work of
the Spirit is not very important. They're putting the Holy Trinity at odds
one with another. Now that might sound kind of
subtle, but you know what they're doing? Not only are they trying
to divide you, they're trying to divide the Holy Trinity. This
goes deep, doesn't it? This is very important. And when
they use those good words, they use those fair speeches, those
religious sounding speeches, they cause the hearts of the
simple to stumble. And they do that because they're
not serving the agenda of Christ. They're not trying to get you
to come to Christ. have roots down deep in Christ. It's their
own agenda to get you to give money and fill the pews and all
those things for their own interest. False prophets do that. Other
people do that. In this flesh, if God doesn't
stop us from doing it, we will serve our own flesh all the time. We'll serve our own interest
on flesh, on family, on friends or on social networks instead
of putting Christ first. I'm telling you, if God doesn't
stop it, that's exactly what this flesh will do. So the people
that do that, Paul says, mark them, and you avoid them. Verse
19, he says, for your obedience has come abroad unto all men.
I'm glad therefore in your behalf, but yet I would have you wise
unto that which is good and simple concerning evil. Now Paul says
your obedience is known abroad. I could say that to this congregation. Your obedience is known abroad,
well known. And that obedience is being obedient
to God. To believe Christ. It's to bow
to Christ. It's to repent and turn to Christ.
It's to serve the living God. And how'd that obedience come?
I mean, I'm not pumping you up because you all did something
so great. How'd that obedience come? It's a gift of God, wasn't
it? God gave you faith in Christ
and you bow. Your obedience is well known.
But here's the thing about that. That's good. That's good to have
that reputation. But not just God's people know
that reputation. False prophets do too. They know
you're obedient. See, these warnings are given
to God's sheep. Sheep are obedient. Sheep follow. And they think
that makes you an easy target because you have a heart of obedience,
of tenderness and love. So Paul said, I don't want you
to be simple in this way. Simple and easy to be deceived. You need to be able to tell the
difference between truth and error. Don't be a hypocrite,
but be able to recognize hypocrisy when you see it. Be able to recognize
when someone is trying to get you to look away from Christ.
Where does that message come from? That message is satanic. It comes straight from Satan,
the old serpent, who used good words and fair speeches to deceive
Eve. You know what he did? Now you
identify people who use that message and you avoid them like
the plague. You don't know. I can't even
express it. Hal, I want you to be well taught
in the scripture. It's so important to me. Only God can do it. But it's
a vital importance as I pray and prepare to study. that I
don't get in the way, that I don't mess it up. I want you to be
well taught in a scripture so you're wise unto salvation, so
that you know Christ, so that you're wise unto kindness and
peace and love and joy. I want you to be simple. I want
all of us to be simple, just simple people. so that you don't
try to deceive others. Don't be a hypocrite. Just be
simple. What you see is what you get.
But, but, don't be foolish. Be wise as the serpents that
you're surrounded by. You're going out into the world
surrounded by these serpents. Be as wise as they are so they
don't deceive you. But when you're with them, be
harmless as doves. so that you don't fall into the
trap of doing what they're doing. Trying to deceive people and
manipulate people into doing what you want them to do. Don't
manipulate the Word of God to deceive people. Just deal honestly
with people. Just deal honestly with the Word
of God and God will bless it. Now that seems like an impossible
task to be as wise as a serpent, to be harmless as a dove. Because
those false prophets, those who would deceive and cause division
and offenses, they're powerful enemies, aren't they? Well, I'm
not strong enough to deal with them. How long am I going to
have to fight them and deal with this, you know? Well, you're
right. You're not strong enough. None
of us are. So what should we do? Just rest in Christ. He'll be victorious. Verse 20. And a God of peace. We live in a time of war and
hatred and division. That's just in our society, isn't
it? Much less spiritually. Oh, but
the God of peace, the God of peace shall brew Satan under
your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you. Amen. That's how we continue
pressing forward, trusting in the God of peace, continuing
just exactly the same way we began, by God's grace, by His
grace. Don't let anybody ever take your
attention off Christ and His sovereign grace in saving His
people.