 Our sermon title this morning is Jealous and Zealous Love. This is part three. We're continuing to work through this text in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verses one through six. There's so much in these words, so many subjects that so many sermons could be preached, right? So many hours we could spend talking about these things. And they're worth our time, amen. The word of God is worth our effort, worth our time. We should value it more than gold, yea, much more than fine gold. And so we come again now to 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verses one through six, continuing to work through this text. And as we come to this chapter, as we come to this passage, Paul is about to embark now on what he would ordinarily consider to be a fool's errand. He knows that what he's about to embark on is a little foolish. It is a little folly, as he would say in verse one, the one who said that we boast in the hope of the glory of God, the one who said we boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who said, let the one who boasts, boasts in the Lord, that one is the one who now feels compelled to boast in himself, so to speak, and boast in his ministry that is commended through his boasting by God. And many have called this Paul's fool's speech. It's his fool's speech, they say, which, after some explanation, begins in earnest in verse 22. For the apostle Paul, it's foolish to him that he has to do it. He feels foolish, stooping to this rather mundane level, and he introduces the whole endeavor as foolish in chapter 11 verse one. Oh, Corinthians, that you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Indeed, bear with me. Now this section of text is riddled with highly appropriate sarcasm. When Paul doesn't have his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, Paul seems to be biting it. And you can tell that Paul here feels stuck between a rock and a hard place. Don't answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. And Paul is trying to navigate a tricky ground between those two truths. And as we know, the initial or the most obvious reason for this course of action on the part of the apostle Paul is the coordinated attack of false teachers who have infiltrated the church at Corinth. They commend or they boast about themselves as true apostles they say of the Lord Jesus Christ. But Paul says they're preaching a different Jesus. They claim these false apostles claim that their ministry is fueled by the spirit of God. But Paul says they have brought a different spirit. They preach what they profess to be the gospel. But Paul says they're preaching a different gospel. And if you judge according to appearance, these men don't look like false teachers, whatever that is supposed to look like. It's there's a certain hair, certain style of suit. They've got the little and the wire. No, we can't tell, right? These guys don't look like serpents. They don't look like snakes. They don't sound like demons. They don't come looking and smelling like wolves. But Paul says in verse 13 that they are deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. In verse 15, they are ministers of Satan who transform themselves into ministers of righteousness. And listen, they are a dime a dozen in our day. And these wicked men now, these wicked men, have gained an influence among many in Corinth through their boasting. They boast in their credentials. They boast in their commendation. They boast in their reputation. They boast in how much money they make. They boast in their speaking ability. They boast in who they know. Paul describes them in chapter 10 verse 12 as those who commend themselves, comparing themselves and measuring themselves among one another, make themselves look good. And they have many in the church at Corinth convinced that those worldly things, that boasting according to the flesh, that carnal boasting gives them right then to speak for the Lord in the Lord's church based upon those worldly standards, those worldly parameters. You've got many in the church at Corinth that think, yeah, they earned a right to speak for the Lord in the Lord's church. So Paul then, Paul is compelled to play this little game with them. He's compelled to throw his hat in the ring, so to speak. And so Paul boasts himself. He says in chapter 11 verse 12, what I do, what I do, I will also continue to do so that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded as we are in the things of which they boast. In other words, what Paul is saying is I'm going to boast now to show you how foolish their boasting really is. It's not what I want to do. Paul is reluctant to do it, but it appears that on the ground in Corinth it's necessary. And it's necessary in large part because the boasting of these wicked men is having an impact among God's people in the church there. They're so eloquent in the eyes of the Corinthians. They speak so well. They're wise in their eyes, persuasive. They sound so smart. And Paul, who's Paul, Paul's a tent maker. Paul has got his hands dirty. Paul himself is probably dirty. They're so polished, right? They're so professional, so professional. And Paul is beat up. Doesn't preach well by their standards. His speech, they say, is contemptible. And all of a sudden, all of a sudden, through the wicked lies, the wicked slander of these false teachers in the church at Corinth, Paul's relationship with the church is that of an embarrassing dad trying to hold hands with his teenage daughter as they walk through the mall with their friends. She wants nothing to do with you. In fact, you've got to drop her off at the mall three blocks away so that her friends don't see you with her. They act like they're ashamed of them. And there's a sense of truth to that. There is a sense of shame with this humble, not worldly, not worldly wise in a way that they would think, not speaking in a way that they would think is good. They act like they're ashamed of them. What's Paul's response on all of this? How does Paul respond to this rejection? Right? How does Paul respond to this shameful, disrespectful treatment on the part of people in Corinth, brothers and sisters, that he has ministered among, that he has shed tears over, that he's prayed with, that he's preached the gospel to? What's Paul's response when they treat him like this? It's love. Right? Paul responds with humble love. Paul responds with humiliating himself by entering into this foolish boasting for their sake. Paul says what I do, I do for you. In chapter 12 verse 15, he says, I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls. Whatever it takes, Paul says, even though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. Sad, isn't it? It's shameful. He tells them in verse two, I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I have betrothed you to one husband so that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. In love, like the father of a petulant, immature teenager, the teenager thinks he knows everything. Right? I was never one of those. Paul assumes a fatherly responsibility for the immature Corinthians. He portrays himself like the father of the bride, like the father of a petulant, immature teenage girl. And following the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave his very life to redeem his bride, the church, Paul's purpose here is to see these people prosper, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants to see the people that he has betrothed to Christ through the gospel. He wants to see them persevere to the end and be with her bridegroom when he comes for her. The virgin bride, maintaining her purity and devotion to the bridegroom until the day of her wedding. But now as much as Paul intends to see her prosper in this way, in verse two, Paul very well understands that his fatherly responsibility is the labor for her protection in verse three. And listen, that's necessary and Paul's been doing that all along the way. It's often that you try to help the teenager who thinks they know everything by instructing them, by correcting them, by rebuking them or reproving them, by trying to help them, by walking them step by step through wisdom, right? You try to help them. It's sometimes the case, isn't it, that they won't listen to anything you have to say because they believe they know it already. Paul has been instructing them, correcting them, rebuking them, reproving them, working with them, pleading with them, preaching to them the whole time. And here he is again in verse three. He says, I fear that somehow as the serpent is eaten by his craftiness, so your minds also may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. We have an enemy that is at work among us. There is an enemy of the Christian. There is an enemy of your soul. Listen, if you're here today, you've never turned from your sin. You've never put faith and trust in Christ. You have an enemy who is actively working against you. The world, your own flesh, that heart that is within you is deceitful above all things. And the devil himself, who's orchestrated this world system to work against your repentance, to work against your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have an enemy that enemy is cunning, that enemy is deceitful, and that enemy is deadly. And since the very beginning, even in the garden with Eve, he has been seeking to devour and to destroy. And Paul fears now that the church in Corinth is easy prey. This deception, Paul says, like it did with Eve, begins in the mind. It then poisons the heart and destroys your life. We can see that, don't we? The worldly reasonings of ignorant men, the foolish, darkened thoughts of wicked women who presume in themselves that they are the source of truth, and then they die. So as we pick up the text in verse four, Paul has good reason here to fear, good reason to be concerned. Just like Satan, in the Garden of Eden, there is an intruder in Corinth who wants to lure the bride away from her single-minded devotion to the bridegroom. So he says then in verse four, for if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it. Now as we begin to unpack verse four, make the connection with me between verse three and verse four. Paul's concern is that their minds may be corrupted from the simplicity, the single-minded devotion that they should have for the Lord Jesus Christ. That their minds would be corrupted from that simplicity that is in Christ. The deception begins in the thinking of Eve, the corruption begins in Eve's mind, and Satan intends to get to her heart, Satan intends to get to your heart through your mind, through your thinking. And this is a serious concern because verse four, what's the status of those believers, those people in Corinth? What's the status of the church in Corinth? If someone comes along preaching another Jesus, a different spirit, or a different gospel, Paul said to them verse four, you may very well put up with it. In other words, what Paul is saying is you don't have any discernment. You have no discernment. You don't recognize the danger of that false teaching. You don't recognize the false teaching. You let them in the front door of your church, you're giving them an ear, they're persuading you, you don't see it, you're putting up with it. Do you see? Paul's concern in verse three is well-founded in verse four. The enemy that we have doesn't come announcing that he's a wolf. They're those that you see that are wolves, right? This guy coming along says, I'm a worshipper or a Satan. I want you to worship Satan with me. I'm not going to be deceived. It's going to be tough to pull that one over on us, right? Not long ago, I had Jova's witnesses come to our door. So I'm outside talking to Jova's witnesses. Listen, there's so much unbiblical about what they think and believe. It's going to be difficult to persuade a reasonably thinking person, a thinking person, going to be difficult to persuade them away from the truth of God in his word if they're thinking about the truth of God in his word. But the enemy doesn't come all the time looking like or sounding like a wolf. He comes dressed in sheep's clothing. He doesn't come announcing that he's speaking for the prince of the power of the air. He prays upon the weak. He prays upon the undisturbing. So what do the cults do? The cults pray upon the weak. The cults pray upon the undisturbing. The cults pray upon those who lack knowledge. The cults pray upon those who sit in churches week in week out who never teach doctrine. The enemy prays upon the weak. The enemy prays upon the simple-minded. He prays upon the undisturbing with subtle deceptions until they are turned away to destruction. Those that do not know and love the truth are simply then unwilling or unable to defend themselves against the smooth sounding words of the enemy. They're unable or unwilling to defend themselves against their persuasive arguments. In fact, in verse 4, they have absolutely no trouble with their teaching. They literally, as it says at the end of verse 4, bear it well or bear it beautifully. They are marvelously tolerant, blissfully unaware. Well, to know this is true, to know that what Paul is saying is critical for us to understand. You just have to look around. Look around us today, right? The enemy flag is raised over virtually every so-called church around this place. They are synagogues of Satan because they're not teaching the truth as it is in Christ. They're teaching something else, a different Jesus, a different spirit, a different gospel, which is really not another Paul would say. The strategy of the enemy since the very beginning with even the garden is to assault the truth and assault your thinking about it. He comes slithering into your mind with the subtle lie on his forked tongue to pollute your understanding of the nature of God, to pollute your understanding of the attributes of God, to pollute your understanding of the doctrine of justification, the doctrine of sanctification, to pollute your understanding of the poison, your conception of the grace of God and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He knows, the enemy knows that love of the truth is that which fuels and fires and motivates true, genuine devotion to Christ. He knows that. We're to worship the Lord, our God in spirit and in truth. The one who says, listen, I don't need theology. Don't give me theology. I just want to have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not going to worship in spirit and in truth. You're going to worship in spirit and something else, emotion, feeling, opinion, but it won't be truth if you don't know and love the truth. Truth doesn't come naturally to us. It has to be given to us and it's given us by God in his word. He knows that truth is necessary. The enemy knows that truth is necessary to genuine love. And he knows that those who do not know and love the truth, those are easy pray. He prays on the weak. He prays on the ignorant. He prays on the undiscerning. We are called of God to love the Lord, our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Peter instructs us to gird up the loins of our mind, right? Where to add to our faith virtue, to our virtue, knowledge. In 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 9, the coming of the lawless one at the end of the age is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish. In other words, it's not among those who get a bad grade on a test. It's not among those who miss a couple of points until get an 88 instead of a 92. Sometimes we're accustomed to this. This is not a light matter. All power, signs and lying wonders and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish and they perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. So how do you battle the unrighteous deception of Satan? How do you battle it? You know and you love the truth. You know and you love the truth. Stop acting like a petulant teenager that thinks he already knows everything, right? Sometimes we think we act that way, don't we? We wouldn't say it out of our mouths, but that's the way that we act. I act like I don't need this when I don't read it. I act like I know it all. I got this. I act like I got this when I don't speak him in his word. I act like I know exactly what I need when I don't search for truth in his word but I search for truth in other places. We're acting like a stubborn, rebellious teenager when we do that. So many will say, so many will say, I don't want to study theology. I don't want to study theology. Listen, I just want to be a better mom. If you don't apply yourself to studying good theology, you are a prime candidate for deception and you will likely lead your children into damning error. That's what you'll get for that, mom. You need to learn to know, to love good theology, truth from God's word. Some will say, I'm not going to apply myself to learning sound doctrine. We're doing this study in church. It's just too hard, too hard to work. We're doing this book. I don't really like it. I'm not going to apply myself to learning sound doctrine. I just want to love Jesus. I just want to worship Jesus. I just want to have a relationship with Jesus. The less that you know of sound Christology, the more likely that you are an idolater. You have fabricated or imagined a false Christ in your heart and mind, a different Jesus, which is not another. Some might say, I don't learn very well. Well, you'd better apply yourself to learning. Apply yourself to learning. The Lord has been gracious, gracious. Satan prays on the undiscerning. How long will you persist in not making progress from milk to meat? Satan prays upon the ignorant. Satan prays upon the undiscerning. How many do we need to see? Leave the Lord's church because they didn't understand the Christian Sabbath, because they didn't understand that the Christian life is a life of commitment and delight in the work of the Lord. How many the enemy prays on the undiscerning? When I was thinking about this, I couldn't help but think of a time when I was in college. I try to forget all of that time. By the Lord's grace, He's helped me to do that. There was this point in college, joining this group. There was an initiation involved. In this initiation, they took a bunch of us guys out in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't even tell you where it was. They had been out in this area cooking up a huge batch of this like an abominable stew. An absolute abhorrent concoction of whatever animal parts and weak old milk. All the stuff that was in this thing. Part of the initiation was that they were going to make us drink it. We're out there. It's dark, so I can't see. My allergies are acting up, so I can't smell. They handed it to you. You're going to have to drink this. I was going to drink it. Well, thank the Lord. I had a buddy with me at the time that stopped me from drinking any of that stuff. It was absolutely disgusting, but I couldn't see and I couldn't smell. That compares, doesn't it? How likely are you and I when we can't see, we can't discern, we don't understand, we don't know the truth of God as it is in Christ. The way that we should, far more likely that you will suck that down and tolerate it, be okay with it, not know any different. The water looks clear and you don't see that there's arsenic in it. You can't see the enemy praise on the undisturbing. In second Corinthians chapter 11, verse four, Paul says, listen, I have good reason to be concerned, you Corinthians. It's my loving duty, Paul says, as a spiritual father to you to protect your purity, to protect your single-minded devotion. Well, listen, you are in great danger. You're in danger like Eve was in danger with a serpent in the garden. What's worse is that you don't see or perceive the danger that you're in. You're undisturbing. Someone comes along preaching damning heresy and you may very well put up with it. Literally verse four, you bear it well, you bear it beautifully. You have no problem welcoming someone who comes along preaching a different message than the one that we've preached to you, different than the one that you've originally believed. Now you believe something different, something else. Now oftentimes apostasy is revealed or exposed by the truth that we deny later. In other words, you come to Christ, you think you come to Christ, you turn from your sin, you put your faith and trust in him, you say you believe what the Bible teaches about what the Bible teaches, and then a year later, two years later, you fall prey to some heretical teaching and now you deny the trinity. Listen, you're not a Christian. You can't be a Christian and deny salvific doctrine. The fact that you now expose that unbelief in your heart is proof you were never safe to begin with. Often apostasy is exposed by what you fail to affirm or what you affirm later. And remember that it's subtle. In fact, the scenario now that Paul is referencing in verse four, not hypothetical. It's not hypothetical. That little preposition if at the beginning of verse four might better be translated since false teachers have already come into the church at Corinth. False teachers were already there and the Corinthians were already tolerating them well. Paul is drawing attention to a present reality going on in this church. This is a church that was getting apostolic instruction directly from the apostle Paul himself. And today, after having Paul with them, teaching them himself 18 months in Corinth, they let a bunch of snakes through the front door. In fact, the snakes are living there now. They're eating out of the refrigerator and the Corinthians are giving them the pulpit. And notice how Paul describes it as they come, right? They come. They're not sent by Paul. They're not sent by another godly biblical church. They're not commended by the elders of that church. And yet they come. Do you see? They come. Present active participle. They are coming and you are marvelously tolerant. The women's ministry is so good. You got to read this book from Sally so and so. She touches my heart. I don't want a theology book. Just give me a book that speaks to me as a woman. Ladies, you have a book that speaks to you as a woman. I'm not objecting. We're not objecting to books outside the Bible that get us into the Bible to help us understand the Bible. But you need God's word or the truth of God. Listen, the truth of God comes mediated through his word. The truth of God is mediated through his word. Therefore, for us to know the truth, and the truth will set us free, we need to be readers. It comes mediated through his word. But I don't want to read. I don't want to read. I just, I'll watch a video. Give it to me on video. I want to hear Johnny Cash read the Bible. You can actually get a recording of Johnny Cash reading the Bible. I'll listen to a podcast, right? I want to listen to a podcast. As long as it's not about theology, give me something practical. There's the dichotomy, right? Give me something practical. I'm telling you, there is nothing more intensely practical than God's word. If it sounds a little sarcastic to you, what I'm saying, it's because it is. If Paul sounds sarcastic to you in verse four, it's because Paul is. Paul is being sarcastic here. Paul is beside himself. I can hear my dad like echoing in my ears. Act like you got some sense, boy, right? Act like you got some sense. You tell that to me all the time. Paul is saying to us, listen, act like you have some sense. You are undisturbing and the undisturbing are easy pray for the enemy. Paul summarizes the error of the false teachers in Corinth under three headings. He says in verse four that they preach another Jesus, a different spirit, and a different gospel. The error or the heresy of these false teachers come under three headings. They preach another Jesus. They preach a different spirit. They preach a different gospel. Now remember, it's subtle. The error is subtle. They're not coming preaching Buddhism. They're not coming. They're not Mormons, Jova's witnesses showing up on your doorstep with crazy false doctrine invented by a single man with his head in a hat. It's not what we're talking about, okay? Satan has to be able to get it past the simple minded and undisturbing. So it's going to come wrapped in velvet. It's going to come smelling like cotton candy, but Paul makes no mistake here. He says we're talking about damnable heresy. It will send you to hell to believe this bill, okay? So what was the error that Paul then describes in this way? What were they teaching in Corinth? Well, the text doesn't explicitly say, but we can reconstruct a likely candidate, and we've done that in previous sermons. We looked at evidence from the text that it would appear to identify them, these false teachers, as Judaizers or Hebrews from Jerusalem. They profess to be Christians, but according to Acts chapter 15 verse one, they are Judaizers. Turn there with me to Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter 15, and let's take a look in the example of what they were teaching, and then let's apply some of that to our understanding today. According to Acts 15 one, they taught that unless you are circumcised, according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Faith in Christ was necessary for salvation, but faith in Christ alone was not sufficient for salvation, right? We're saved by grace through faith. They would affirm that, they would say that, but not saved by grace alone through faith alone. You had to add your own works to make it sufficient. I like this example given by a commentator. The illustration is this, that oxygen, oxygen is a necessary condition for fire. You have to have oxygen if you're going to have a fire, but oxygen isn't a sufficient condition for fire. You've got to have other stuff too. Oxygen alone isn't going to do it. If oxygen alone were sufficient for fire, then the whole world would be on fire right now, right? But it's not sufficient. It's not a sufficient condition. In other words, you need something else. So faith was necessary for salvation. Faith was necessary to make one righteous, but faith was not sufficient to make one righteous in their thinking. Do you see the comparison? It shows up. This error shows up in all kinds of ways, all kinds of ways. And if you think to yourself, listen, if you think to yourself, well, this is not going to impact me, I'm clear, right? Salvation stopped by works. I got it. Listen, this shows up in all kinds of ways. And as we work through our law in gospel study, in small groups, in Sunday school, on Sunday night, as our brother preaches through the book of Galatians, you're going to see that this error shows up in all kinds of ways to deceive even you and I if we don't know and love the truth, okay? Paul calls it another Jesus, a different spirit, a different gospel. Here's what it looked like in Paul's day, Acts 15 verse 1. Certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren that unless you are circumcised, according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Now the attack here is on justification, right standing with God, justification by faith alone in Christ alone. That is what the enemy is attacking, that doctrine. That's something that you and I must understand, get a hold on what is justification by faith alone in Christ alone. It would be like someone coming in verse 1, like someone coming in and saying, listen, unless you are baptized according to the custom of the Roman Catholic Church, you cannot be saved. Unless you are baptized like the churches of Christ say that you must be, you cannot be saved. It'd be like someone coming and saying something similar to that, okay? Verse 2. Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small detention and dispute with them, the guys who were claiming this nonsense, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question. Now Paul and Barnabas knew the answer to this question, but they're arguing with these guys who want to say that you have to add works to faith. And so let's go to those who are reputed to be pillars in Jerusalem. Let's settle the matter clearly for everyone involved. Paul is not unsure about the answer. Paul wants to handle this decisively, okay? So verse 3 then, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia, Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy to all the brethren. Gentiles are pouring into the church. It's awesome. Verse 4. When they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them. But some of the sects of the Pharisees who believed, they would have said they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see? They believed. They professed. They believed. Some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up saying it is necessary, necessary for justification. It is necessary for right standing with God. It is necessary to be acceptable to God, acceptable by God, acceptable for salvation. It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. Now the apostles and elders in verse 6 came together to consider this matter. When there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them, men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them, those who put their faith alone in Christ alone, apart from the law of Moses, apart from circumcision. God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us. Now listen, that's the reason that miraculous sign gifts were observably evident in the first century upon conversion. It's because those sign gifts attested to the truth of a Gentile conversion, a Gentile receiving of the Spirit of God. Now that's been attested to in the word of God and those sign gifts don't continue today. There are many, there are many who will say that they are saved because of some experience. They're adding some, it's because I spoke in tongues that I know I am saved. No, if you're saved, you know you're saved because the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, paying the penalty for your sin, and has justified you by his work alone on Calvary, and has forgiven you by virtue of that perfect work. Not because you experience something, not because you've done something, no. But that's a deception. The enemy comes preaching another Jesus, a different gospel, and a different spirit, not the Spirit of the Bible. He, verse 9, made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. And what is meant there is by faith alone. Now therefore, verse 10, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved in the same manner as they. Amen. Right, Paul would later say to Peter in Galatians 2, verse 21, if righteousness comes through the law, or any work of our own, if righteousness comes in any way, shape or form through our own work, Christ died in vain. What is it for? If righteousness comes through my own effort, my own experience, if righteousness comes through my own work, if righteousness comes through my keeping of the law. And there, this is what it looked like in Paul's day, Acts 15, verse 1 and following, but this exists all over the place today in our day. Let me give you just a few examples, the example of Catholicism. Baptism, considered to be the instrumental cause or the means of justification, it is the means. So the way that the Catholic would conceive of this is that the grace of God comes through the sacrament of baptism. At baptism, righteousness is not imputed, not given, it's infused or given to you in order that you may do works that make you righteous. Do you see the difference? It's not the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness alone that is credited to me, that righteousness, the basis on which I am justified before God, no, no, no, the grace of God makes it possible for me to do works of righteousness so that I can be righteous in and of myself. Do you see the difference? A damning, damnable error, you trust in that for your salvation and you will perish in hell forever. If Jesus Christ, if that's true, Jesus Christ died in vain. Well, as you can imagine, if you're made righteous through the sacrament of baptism, made righteous through your own good works, then what happens when you sin? Well, if you sin, now you've been made unrighteous again. What do you have to do? You have to confess. You have to do priestly absolution. You have to do works of penance, which are works designed to make you righteous again, right, to secure your justification all over again. It's the same heresy, the same heresy that's explained in Acts chapter 15, verse one and following. You see, packaged up, republished 2000 years later. We have the example of easy believism today. Easy believism. I am going to, and wow, right, it just boils down to this. I am going to get up my courage. And when that altar call comes, when the music starts playing, listen, the lights go down, the music starts playing. I know what's about to happen. I'm getting myself geared up for it. All right, I want to placate my guilty conscience. Who doesn't want to go to heaven? I'm going to work out my courage. I'm going to make it down that aisle. So what happens? The invitation is given. This manipulative, this coercive plea, listen, just as I am, the 17th time you better come because on time 18, we're going to stop at him. And so you white knuckle it, you make it down the aisle. And what do you do? You pray a prayer believing that if I'm sincere, when I pray that prayer, the Lord Jesus Christ has promised to come into my heart, misinterpreting a text of scripture, twisting scripture. I believe that Jesus Christ now coming into my heart is going to save me by virtue of what? By virtue of your sincerity. If it's on the basis of your sincerity, then Christ died in vain, by virtue of you getting up the courage to walk the aisle and say that prayer when the invitation started. Listen, if it's by virtue of a decision that you make and not on the finished work of Christ alone, then Christ died in vain. It's not on the basis of your decision. It's not on the basis of your act, not on the basis of your experience, not on the basis of your sincerity, the same error repackaged. Listen, Paul would call it a different gospel. There's the example of the marrow controversy we're talking about in our studies along gospel. The basis of the marrow controversy is that you must forsake sin in order to come to Christ. Well, doesn't the Bible say that we're to repent and believe? Repentance and faith are gifts of God. I'm not a Christian because I don't do this and I don't do that, which the reverse of that is, if I do this and if I do that, then I am a Christian. You say, no, I'm not going to fall prey to that insidious lie. No, no, no, no, we fall prey to that. It's a short step it's a short step. It's a short step to replace the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ in whom is to be our faith, to replace him with the evidences of a work of grace in the heart of a true believer. We can easily make that switch and we begin to think, if I do this, then I'm acceptable with God. And if I don't do this, then I'm not acceptable with God. When I do this, I'll know that I'm saved. It's the same error repackaged, republished 2000 years later. Turn with me to Galatians chapter one. Can you see how damning and dangerous that is? You're preaching the gospel to your kids. You get any notion, right? Listen, young person, young girl, young man, listen to me. You are not a Christian by doing this, that or the other thing. I'm going to be a Christian. If I'm going to be a Christian, I need to read my Bible to become a Christian. I need to pray in order to become a Christian. I need to repent in order to become a Christian. I need to mourn over my sin in these ways. In order to be a Christian, that is a lie from the pit of hell that will send you to that will keep you from the gospel. Or if you think to yourself, if you think to yourself that I'm only acceptable with God, if I do these things in this way, that is a damning error. If righteousness comes through our works, our efforts, then Christ died in vain. It is by faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone. You see? Galatians chapter one, verse six, Paul says, I marvel. He told the Corinthians, didn't he? You are marvelously tolerant. He's telling the Galatians the same thing. They're faced with the same heresy, the same error. I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another. But there are some who trouble you who want to pervert the gospel of Christ. They want to corrupt your mind from the simplicity that is in Christ. You see the connection. But even if we, Paul says, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you, then what we have preached to you, now that's not going to come, listen, packaged up like, in order to be saved, you need to stand in a corner and whistle Dixie and you're going to be saved. It's not going to come looking like that. We're not going to be fooled by that. It's going to come very subtle. It's going to come in deceptive ways. And the way that you battle that deception is by knowing and loving the truth. Paul says, even if we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you, then what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. Let him be damned. As we have said before, so now I say again, verse nine, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you, then what you have received, let him be accursed. Listen, it can't be stated more clearly than how it is stated frequently in the New Testament. Doctrine is critically important. Theology is critically important. And listen, the way that that works, you understand, right? So in our church, we'll study various topics, various subjects, and we want to edify you, the people of God through these studies. We believe that they're very edifying to you. And time being what it is, we can't just give you a chip implant so that you know it all at once, right? This is a marathon, not a sprint. The Lord tarries. We're going to be studying the Bible together for a long time. Many opportunities to study. Many subjects praise God, but we're going to take them, you know, how to eat an elephant one bite at a time. We're going to take it one study at a time. But while you're studying law and gospel in our church over the next four or six months, you're going to be gaining for yourself rich, blessed, theological understanding that will impact you in every area of your life on the job, in the classroom, as parents of your kids across the dinner table in church, serving the brothers and sisters. If you're working in the nursery, you can hear me over there, law and gospel will make you a better nursery worker, right? Listen, and let me bring it home even a little closer. If we decided to spend a year studying eschatology, what do you think that eschatology is going to do? A study of what God has in store for us, what he's promised us, what's going to come. The promises of God can have the same impact, right? Doctrine is important. What this teaches us clearly is that there will be people who call themselves Christians, who say they believe what God says in His Word, and they're not Christians. This tells us that deception is real. This tells us that we can be easily deceived, easily let astray into error, tells us how desperately we need to know and love the truth of God. There are people who will say that they believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for sinners. There will be people that say He died on the cross for sin, that He was raised from the dead on the third day. The only way to be saved is to turn from your sin and put your trust in Him. Never mind all those false gospels, right? They'll come saying, you've got to turn from your sin and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And then they'll believe or teach something that is fundamentally unbiblical or undermines those glorious truths, proving they're not actually Christians at all. They're preaching a different Jesus, a different spirit, a different gospel, which is no gospel, no Jesus, and no spirit at all. This is a passage that teaches us that simply the presumption, the ignorance of saying that I'm a Christian, I claim Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and that profession alone is the reason I'm a Christian. If there's anything that teaches more clearly that that is a falsehood, it's this text, you could teach a parrot to say that, right? Given enough time and you don't aggravate the parrot. We've got to know and love the truth. What Jesus are we talking about? What gospel is the Bible referring to? How is the gospel described in Scripture? How does the Lord Jesus Christ save? In whom am I placing my trust if I describe my wife? And I said that Karen is six foot two. She's got a Yankee accent, plays basketball for the audience. We laugh because that's clearly not my wife. People can come professing and saying all sorts of things. It doesn't make it true. It doesn't make it saving. It may mean that you were in horrendous and perilous danger. Paul understands his responsibility in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verses one through six. He understands his responsibility as their spiritual father to prosper her. I intend, Paul says, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ. Paul understands that in that responsibility to prosper her is woven blended together with the responsibility to protect her because there are other suitors. There are seducers who would seduce her away from single minded devotion to Christ. And so Paul feels compelled. He understands his responsibility to protect her. There are those that would preach a different Jesus, a different spirit in a different gospel. But lastly, Paul understands verse five as a spiritual father. He is to provide for her. He prospers her, protects her and provides for her. Verse five, Paul says, for I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles. Even though I am untrained in speech, yet I am not in knowledge. We have been thoroughly manifested among you in all these things. I believe that in verse five, when Paul makes a reference to eminent apostles, he's making a reference to the false teachers there and not to those who are considered to be or reputed to be pillars in Jerusalem. The other apostles were apostles before Paul's conversion experience on the road to Damascus, right? Before the Lord Jesus Christ called him. I think he's talking about here the false apostles, the reason that we would draw that conclusion in verse five because he references his untrained speech in verse six. That was an accusation that the false apostles had against him. Okay, even though I am untrained in speech, I'm not behind those guys who claim to be eminent apostles, those guys who profess to be sent one to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not behind them inferior to them, even though they say I'm untrained in speech, I'm untrained in speech, right? And they profess to speak so eloquently. Paul says, I'm not behind them in knowledge. Even though I am untrained in speech by their standards, I'm not untrained in knowledge. We have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things. The way in which Paul is manifested among them will be spelled out clearly in the fool's speech that follows this introduction. We'll see that more clearly as we work through the text. Paul in providing for this church, providing for the bride provides them that which they need. He provides them with knowledge. With the truth of God in his word, Paul preaches Christ and him crucified. That's how it's summed up, right? They come preaching a different Jesus, a different spirit, a different Christ, a different gospel. What does Paul come preaching? Paul comes preaching Christ and him crucified, right? The Lord Jesus Christ, remission of sins through his name. There is no other name given among men by which we must be saved, right? Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ that your sins may be blotted out. Paul comes preaching them, providing for them the truth of God and that truth manifested in Paul's life. You see in verse six, there's this connection, this connection between knowledge and the truth of God and the life and example of Paul. That truth, Paul is not behind them in knowledge and Paul's knowledge of the one true and living God. Paul's knowledge of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the truth of God that as it is in Christ and now Paul living out that truth, that truth is manifested among them in all things through the life, actions, work, labor and love of the apostle Paul. And that's the way it will be, brother and sister, for every one of us. That truth, what you know will be manifested in your life, manifested in your labor, manifested in the way that you love the Lord, manifested in the way that you love one another and serve in the Lord's church, manifested in the way that you preach the gospel to the lost, manifested in the way that you delight in the commandments of God, right? Manifested among you in all things. When you believe savingly upon the Lord Jesus Christ, it has a transformative effect on your life. No question about it. But as you come to grow in wisdom and in knowledge and in maturity, in the truth as it is in Christ, you become more and more like Him and that is manifested in the way that you live, right? It has an impact on your life. We become sanctified. Paul is saying in verse six, we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things. That's what Paul is bringing to the table, right? As an apostle, a sent one of Jesus Christ, Paul brings the preaching of God's Word and that's what they need, right? He's providing for them what they need. What do those false apostles bring? Lies, deceit, error. What do lies and deceitfulness and error produce? Not the fruit of a godly life. No, we see it all over the pages of 1st and 2nd Corinthians, what those lies, what that deceit produces. It produces strife. It produces contention. It produces apostasy. It produces starving so-called Christians, right? Produces error. Produces danger. It produces peril. It produces peril. Brothers and sisters, let's heed Paul's gracious entreaty here, right? Let's heed the warnings that God gives us in His Word and let's cling to the Word of God. If you cling to the Word of God, if you value it as gold, where will you be when the Word of God is preached? It's not a rhetorical question, right? We talk about that, that there are times when you are providentially hindered, not speaking about that. But be careful when you claim providential hindrance because you're saying God kept me from it. If it's important, if you value it, if you say, God, I need your truth. I need to know you more. I need to understand these things. Then what are you going to be doing? Where are you going to be? What's going to occupy your time? What's going to occupy your thoughts? What are you going to be doing? You're going to be seeking the Lord in His Word. Listen, God blesses through His Word. He grows and matures His people. I can't say it any clearer than that. I can't say it any more compellingly. If you value the truth of God, if you acknowledge and you understand how desperately needed it is, how desperately you personally need it, that will be evident. It will be manifested among you in all that you do. Brothers and sisters, let us not neglect the gathering of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but let us come together, clean to the Lord, clean to the Lord's Word, clean to the teaching, love one another, stir one another to love and good works, and may the Lord bless the preaching of His Word to our hearts and minds for His glory and our good. Amen. All praise, honor, and glory to the one who has done all of this for His bride.