Genesis chapter 17, please. I think the church must have heard what I was preaching on, so it looks like I've purified this place this week. I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid. Genesis 17, where two and more are gathered, I think the Bible says. Okay, Genesis 17. I'm going to read verses one through 14. Here God's perfect word. Now when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty walk before me and be blameless. I will establish my covenant between me and you. I will multiply you exceedingly. Abraham fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be a father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham. I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful. I will make nations of you. Kings will come forth from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant. to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. I will be their God. God said further to Abraham, Now as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, throughout their generations. This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It shall be the sign of the covenant between me and you. And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations. A servant who is born in the house or is bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your descendants. A servant who is born in your house or who has been bought with money shall surely be circumcised. Thus shall my covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant. Philippians. Philippians chapter three, one through six, my sermon will be verse two. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me. It is a safeguard to you. Beware of the dogs. Beware of the evil workers. Beware of the false circumcision. For we are the true circumcision who worship in the spirit of God and in glory in Christ Jesus. We put no confidence in the flesh. Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more circumcise the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, the Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is of the law found blameless. But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish or dung so that I may gain Christ. Let's pray. Again, Lord God, this is the day that you have made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the holy ordinance, Lord, that you have instituted for the proclamation of your gospel, to warn the sinners, to let go of their sin and fly to the city of refuge, and to, Lord God, warn the saints to beware of false teachers, even wolves, and fly to Christ, even the city of refuge. I pray, Lord, that you would give me the right words, clear, precise, true, and spoken, Lord, in adoration, love of you, and likewise love and service to your people, and likewise for all of your people, that all would have the requisite faith to hear, see, and believe. In Christ's name, amen. I changed things around a little bit once I began working through this particular text. Originally I was going to work through 1-3. My purpose this morning is just to preach verse 2. Lord willing, next week I will address the things found in verse 1 and 3. The reason I'm doing this is because generally the Apostle Paul is making a comparison and a contrast between two classes of people. In this particular verse 1-3, Paul is comparing false Jews, those who reject the true Jesus Christ and the true gospel, and what I would call true or spiritual Jews, and the latter class would be believing Christians. So, for clarity's sake, we'll take one group at a time. This morning our attention will be Paul's warning against false teachers in general, and then Judaizers in particular, and next week we'll look at the privileges that we have as true Christians. In part, some of the false teachers that Paul has in mind in verse 2, these were the same kind of fellows that were pestering and corrupting the church at Galatia. and also at Corinth, especially at Galatia, if you know that letter. I want to just walk through this particular passage of warning, and it is a warning passage. The first thing that we'll consider is we'll consider the herald of this particular warning, and that being Paul. If you look at Paul, and you see the language that he uses, beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision, it's in the imperative. He put an exclamation. Paul is obviously heated, he's animated, and I would say from Paul's tone, he is being kind and merciful to the Christian, but actually to these false teachers, we see with his tone that he is offended with and he's angry at these false teachers. Now that's significant because in part, Christians are often told that we are always, always without exception, to be meek and gentle and kind, never to be disturbed, never to use hard language, never to raise our voices. And if you're a minister, you'll hear never to be pugnacious. never to be sinfully pugnacious, but what we find here this morning, even with that, what we hear is always, always, always say good and kind things about everyone. The devil wants Christ's watchmen to be mute. But we see that God the Holy Spirit does not want Paul to be mute as regards to these false teachers. He doesn't want him to be calm, as it were. He wants him to be animated. If someone that you love is about to be run over by a truck, and they're hard of hearing, would you say to them, darling, buttercup, the truck is coming. What would you say? You would shout at the top of your lungs, you're about to be killed by the truck. That's loving, kind, benevolent, animated, but loving. And so here, too, Paul, as a faithful minister, and part of being a faithful minister, is you must warn the people of God when there is danger. In this particular case, doctrinal danger, and more specifically, the corruption of the gospel. There are people coming who are preaching a false gospel. And so Paul is angry, and he's animated against the people preaching a false gospel. Now, I want you to see something about this particular herald of warning that perhaps it might not be apparent right away. Paul is a Jew, and he's warning this Christian church against certain kinds of Jews, against Jewish false teachers. The first thing I want you to see is just this. After Paul met the Lord Jesus Christ, Once Paul knew Jesus Christ savingly, Paul's whole life changed. After he met Jesus, his eyes were opened. He thought about Jews and Gentiles radically different than he did before he was converted. He thought about rich and poor radically different, free and slave radically different. If you don't think he thinks about slavery differently, go read the book of Philemon. Let him go because he's loved by God. Let him go because he's loved by me. Radical departure that the person of the Lord Jesus Christ has wrought on this fellow. And now coming to really know Jesus Christ, Paul's first love is Jesus. Paul's first love is Christ and all of the people that are loved by Christ. His true family, no longer Jews, no longer the tribe of Benjamin. His true family, black, white, yellow, red, male, female, free slave in Christ. And his true vocation is no longer to tear down the gospel of Jesus. His true vocation is to prosper. the gospel of Jesus. Why is that significant? Apart from grace, if we are unconverted people, we have not been born again, we don't know Jesus, our sins have not been forgiven. Ordinarily, we take the side of those who look like us, from our same family, from our same race, from our same economic station in life, from our same culture, from our same political party. even when they are against the gospel of Jesus Christ. It works something like this. If you're not born again, and you hear a man preaching a false gospel, but he has the same color skin as you, he can't be deceiving me. He's got my same skin. If you're not born again, and a person is preaching a perverted gospel, you reason like this. I went to seminary with him. He can't be corrupting the gospel. If you are not born again and you hear your son and daughter believing or teaching a false gospel, your reason is like this. They are my kids. They went to catechism class. They can't be believing a false gospel. But the saved person The saved person no longer puts any stock in those things. We don't put any stock in our color. We don't put any stock in our culture. We don't put any stock in our seminary, in our denomination, in our political persuasion. None of it. For those who are being led by the Holy Spirit, we walk according to the Spirit, and we are being led by the Spirit-wrought Word. That's the only thing that matters. that hyphenated anything. So Paul teaches us as the herald, the one he places preeminently above all other things. You say, Pastor, you're wrong. I will place my family or my race above everything. I have a word from God for you. If you don't love Jesus Christ and the gospel of grace more than your race, more than your political party, more than your own flesh and blood, You're not worthy of Christ. Paul put everything aside and said, I love Christ and Christ's people and Christ's gospel. And he loved them so much, he was faithful to that gospel, even though it meant dividing with those of his natural family, as it were. So we have the herald of the warning. Now I want us to consider the recipients of this warning, obviously being the Philippian church. The Philippian church come from the ranks of heathens. They were pagans. It was a military town, probably like Pensacola, maybe. And the Roman people would go to retire there and play golf by the base. And so they were exceeding the cosmopolitan place. It was a Roman place. It was a heathen place. And so God sends his gospel missionaries there, even the Apostle Paul. And he plants a church. But how does he plant churches? Where does he get the stock? Where does he get the people? From unbelievers. The people in this church come from the ranks of heathens. They were pagans. They were living in their sin. And then something happened. A gospel minister came with a real gospel. And they heard that Jesus Christ forgives sinners. All kinds of sinners. Liars, drunkards, fornicators, homosexual offenders, idolaters. And by one look at the Lord Jesus Christ, all of your sins are forgiven. And you know what? They believed. So these people existed because they received the true gospel of grace. Their minister, Paproditus, preached sound doctrine. The people, earlier in chapter 2, we see that they're forgiving and loving and they're humble and they're Christ-like. So they're a wonderful church. But Paul tells this wonderful church, watch out for some very wicked people. Well, do wonderful churches need to hear, watch out? The very fact that these people receive this warning teach us that even great and wonderful churches are subject to corrupting influences. The main thing, if you don't get anything else, the main thing that is always, always, always under attack in churches, in good gospel preaching churches, It's the gospel. It's not guitar versus piano. It's not raise your hands or not raise your hands. It's not kneel or stand. It's the gospel. What must I do to be saved? Who is Jesus Christ? What has Jesus Christ done? And how can I receive Christ's benefits? That's always what's being assaulted. Churches that believe the gospel today, we're being taught by this passage, will suffer attacks and corruption today. And unless we hold on to the system of sound words as given to us in the Bible, unless we vigorously fight for and contend for the gospel of free grace in Jesus Christ, we will degenerate over time into a synagogue of Satan. Beloved, do you believe that? Do you believe wonderful gospel-believing churches, if they're not vigilant for the gospel, that over a period of time they will cease being a true Christian church? If you doubt me, and you're afraid to doubt me, I could be wrong. But I don't think so. Think of a major denomination. some big denomination in our land. Think of one, think of two, think of three. Once upon a time, once upon a time, all of those major denominations held the Bible to be their only rule for faith and practice. They believed, once upon a time, that man was dead in his sins and trespasses, that natural man was a wicked sinner before a holy God. And they once upon a time used to preach that man's only hope in this life and the next was the life and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Once upon a time they believed that the only way that you could have the merits of Jesus Christ was through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and that faith being a gift of God. Now, today, this very morning, if I were to go to the pulpits of these major denominations, would I hear being preached, repent of your sins? Believe upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved from the wrath of God to come. Will I hear that? Or will I hear, come to our church. We have a Life Center. Come to our church. We have Divorce Recovery, which is dating class. Come to our church. We have this. Come to our church. We preach uplifting, relevant messages. You know what that is a translation, beloved? You can be happy. You can be healthy. You don't have to be like me. You don't have to be sick all the time. You don't have to be like you, sick all the time. You can be healthy if you're a Christian. And you know what else you can be? Healthy. You don't have to be poor. Just claim it. You've got it. And you can be wise. Beloved, that is be-good-ism. That's self-help therapy in Jesus' name. Twelve steps in Jesus' name. Think about that. One of the biggest churches in town. I don't want to look at it, but I'm looking at it. Twelve steps in Jesus' name. Twelve-step program is a pagan program, beloved. Started by a pagan. I'm not going to pick on them. I'm picking on them. Self-help therapy in Jesus' name, be-goodism in Jesus' name, is not the gospel. is not the gospel of grace. I'm not picking on every single principle. Some of the principles are sound, but they're not the gospel. And those churches didn't take Paul's warning. And you know what those churches are now? You know what God calls them? Ichabod. The glory of God has departed. There's no gospel there. There's no Jesus. There's no, what must I do to be saved? There's no salvation. Oh, you can work out in the gym and get trim, but there's no salvation. You can find a new wife after you've dumped your old one, but there's no salvation. And who's not glorified? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They're Ichabod. So the church, we are the recipients of such a warning. And now let's look at the duty of the particular warning. In verse 2, we're told to beware of the dogs. Look at your texts. Some of your English translations will render it, watch out for, be on the watch against, look out for, beware. The root word here in Greek is blepo. Blepo means to look at. to consider, to perceive, and I'll use a word which I think is specifically the context, to be discerning. The Christian, you, me, are being commanded by God as regards to perverters of the gospel to be discerning, to look at them. Now, again, I believe We live in a day and an age that has lost the ability to think critically. I was told this week by a professing Christian, a godly guy who I love in the Lord, not a member of this church, well, John, when you said XYZ about that particular DVD, you're being critical. That's wrong. And my rejoinder is, I am being critical. And that's right. You are being required by God to be critical, not in a bad sense, but to be discerning, to be wary, to be able to pick out error. We live in a culture, and the church exists in a culture. We're like the frog in the pot. Don't think that the church is not influenced by the culture. Why do you think you have lady preachers? Because we're influenced by the culture. Why do you think you have be good-ism? Because we're the Burger King generation. We want it our way. It's the culture. And our culture tells us, as Christian people, they tell us to be undiscerning, to be undogmatic. But the Bible says no. We want you to be very critical and very dogmatic, to be utterly inflexible. We're not talking about those doctrines and those practices which don't strike at the gospel. and we want to be gentle and benevolent. If I sprinkle a baby or pour out water on a baby and you don't like that and you want to dunk your 7 to 12 year old late covenant baptism, I love you in the Lord. If you believe the gospel is by faith alone in Christ alone. So certainly we can differ with brothers and sisters and be benevolent and not call them dogs and mutilators. But we're not talking about differences that don't strike at the gospel. The Christian is being told to be critical as regards to what constitutes the gospel of salvation. And that, beloved, the fact that only Jesus Christ saves sinners, the fact that only his perfect death and only his perfect life imputed to us, received by faith alone, that fact, you don't give an inch. Even if it's your own mom. Says, I pray to my guardian angel. I think I can go to heaven. I pray to my guardian angel. No mom, you can't. Only Christ. Christians are being told to look at their religious teachers. To examine them. People like me. We are told here to look for certain things. We're to look for gospel error, not if the pastor stutters or stammers, you don't like his suit, you do like his beard, or you don't like his beard. None of those things. You agree with his lapsarian view, or you think he's supra and you're infra. Not that. We're not talking about that. We're talking about You are to, whatever minister you sit under, does that man, should be a man, does that man preach the gospel? Does he know the gospel? What's the content of his message? That's what we're being told to do. And along those lines, as we are examining our gospel preachers, we have to ask ourselves, has our minister, preacher, has he himself been examined. Does our minister submit to the brethren? Is there a presbytery? Is there a group of men that have examined our teacher, testing his orthodoxy? Or is he on his own? Beloved, many, most false teachers are autonomous. They're independents. They don't submit to anybody. You know who they want to submit to them? They want everyone to submit to them. Mark Schnell. They're on the TV, they're on the internet, they're on the radio. No one examines them. Self-called, self-appointed, and unexamined. No one can say to them, you've got the gospel wrong. Repent and stop teaching the people of God. So we're being told that we have to examine the ones that preach and teach the gospel. And beloved, that command to you to examine the gospel orthodoxy of your minister, it requires a few things of you. You have to know Christ. You have to know Christ, savingly. You have to be born again. If you're not born again, you can't tell that the man in the pulpit is not born again. If you don't know the true gospel, you don't know that he's not preaching you the true gospel. Beloved, do you know what the gospel is? Do you? If your coworker asked you, I'm an unbeliever, I don't know anything from anything. What's the gospel? Could you tell them in 60 seconds or less? Or do you have to write a 10-volume treatise on it? Do you know what the gospel is? Do you know how you're forgiven of your sins? Do you know how you go to heaven? Do you know Jesus? It requires that you're born again. And this particular commandment requires... Ready? You're going to have to take some time off from the beach. You're going to have to take some time off from the computer. It requires that you read your Bible. You've got to read your Bible. If you're not a student of the word, you're toast. You're not going to pick out that false teacher. You're not going to know anything. You might get Jesus as Lord. You might be on the way to heaven. But you might be deceived. And your sanctification may take a beating. And the people that are attached to you may lose hearing that gospel of salvation. It requires that we be good Bereans. The Bible says test every spirit against what? The Word. Even ministers? An old man taught me the faith when I was a baby Christian. And he told me, every time you sit under a preacher, you sit there with your open Bible going, is he teaching the Word? Am I hearing Christ crucified? Do I hear that Jesus forgives sinners? You sit with an open Bible on your lap. I want you to do that. That's what I want. It requires that we read our Bible. The Bible says to the law and to the testimony, if the gospel being taught by our minister is not according to the Bible, it's because that man has no light. And it requires something else, that we pray. I'm a man just like you. I sin daily and thought, word and deed. If I'm Orthodox this morning, is it always guaranteed that I'm going to be Orthodox? No. How do you get tons of people in the church? Change the gospel. Boy, I want to get more people in here. Change the gospel. Don't be frightened, Pastor. Pray. Pray that you understand the word. Pray that he preached the word. Pray that he continue to preach the word. Pray. Pray for the seminaries. Once seminaries used to churn out gospel ministers. You know what they churn out now? Therapists. And half the students are women. Why? You need therapists to marry the other therapists that are there. No longer gospel ministers. Pray for the seminaries. Pray. Require. The Bible uses the word here. I've already said the Greek root word is blepo. The exact word is blepite. It tells us a lot about this word. It's imperative. It's a command. It's present active. It's ongoing. And it's two plural. You all. That means that you all, us, we have to daily, constantly, actively be on guard against gospel heresy. for all time, in all churches, in all denominations, even the OP, even the PCA? Are we free from error? Can we not become heretical? And for all ministers, until you die. And then you'll be in a church, the church victorious, the church at rest, and you won't have to do this duty. This duty means that every single time you come to church, like we talk about preparing for the Lord's Supper, you need to prepare for preaching. You have to pray. You have to prepare. You have to prepare your heart and your mind. You need to actively sit under the preaching of the Word. Is it in agreement with the Bible? And Paul repeats himself, beware, beware, beware, and he's indicating the seriousness of this particular duty. Many Christians do not consider doctrine to be that serious. Many Christians don't think teachers are really that important. False teachers, even if there is such a thing as a false teacher, they really don't think that they're that serious. So the guy's a little off on the Gospel. If the guy's a little off on the Gospel, what does that mean? If you're a little off on the Gospel, what does that mean for you? You're in your sins. You're in your sins. Now let's look at the objects of the warning. Paul uses a play on words. He calls them dogs, evil workers, false circumcision. It actually begins with the kuh sound. It's kunas, is dog. Kakuas, ergotas. Kakuas is evil workers. Katatome, he uses ka, ka, ka. It's kind of a mnemonic device. He's using these three similar words to make it more memorable for Paul. Paul's audience. Now, why does God call them these things? Dogs and evil workers. When I was at Children, we would get slapped by our mother if we called other kids names, right? Well, you're not supposed to slap your kid now. You're supposed to have a discussion with him. But we would be slapped if we were, oh, yeah, your mother is this and your mother is that. Slap. Is God calling these people names? He's calling someone a dog, a bad thing, evil worker, mutilator. He doesn't even call them circumcision. He refuses. He says, you're not true Jews. You're not even Jews. You're not Christians. That's bad words. God uses bad words to tell us he thinks bad things about these people. Whatever God thinks on a subject, that's supposed to be our thoughts on the subject. Right? God says this is what the gospel is, we say this is what the gospel is. If God says a man who preaches a works-based salvation, he's a dog. He's not a believer. He's my cousin. He went to seminary with me. I don't care if he's your cousin. I don't care if he's your dad. I don't care if he's anything. Before God, he's a dog. He's unclean. We want to have God's view on these particular teachers, and so we're being warned. Now, when we come here and God says, this is what I think about these people, I want you to take a little test in your own mind. Do you know any Christian, clergy or laity, and I use the term advisedly, that actually calls false teachers by these names? Look at our beloved PCA or OPC. Look at the reports they write on New Perspective of Paul, Federal Vision. Look at their reports. Look at what they call the men who hold these views. Look at them. Go read them. I challenge you to read them. You're going to read them and go, and I've had it happen here. Pastor, are these people bad? I don't know. Are they bad? Because here's the terms that's going to be used. They're brothers. Reverend. Doctor. Coworker. We simply do not use the words that God uses against these men. We buy their books. We invite them to preach in our church. There's a name of a fellow right now who's a flat-out works-based heretic that is invited in Presbyterian reform pulpits, does seminars. Why? Why? Here's the reason. Because we as a congregation don't read our Bibles. We don't know what the Bible says. Here's another reason. Because we don't know what the Bible says, we cannot discern error. And here's the last reason. We're more afraid of men than we fear God. That's the reason. And by the mention that these fellows are circumcised, we learn that these particular false teachers are Jews. We call these men Judaizers. Paul's not saying, look out for all Jews. That's silly. Jesus was a Jew. Paul was a Jew. Peter was a Jew. All the apostles were Jews. Most of the early church, all Jews, believing Jews, Christians. They didn't call themselves Jews for Jesus. They called themselves Christians. But what makes these particular fellows, these Judaizers, so dangerous is they come from within the visible community of God. Still yet, at this time, the church in Israel was not completely established as a separate thing. So here we have these Jews. They had the covenants, they had the promises, they had the scripture. If anyone would know the true gospel, it would be Jews. We learn this principle, beloved. Enemies from within the church are the most dangerous enemies. Most false teachers and most Judaizers today are not physical Jews. Most Judaizers today are Gentiles. Most Judaizers today are Christians, professing Christians. They're ministers. They have Bible degrees. They quote the Bible. It's not as if the Judaizer didn't quote the Bible. He did quote the Bible. What they do is they twist the word here. They take a word out of context there. They change the emphasis of a doctrine. They pour a different meaning into a word. And beloved, these men actually believe that they're teaching the true gospel, though they're preaching the false gospel. What does that mean? They're sincere. All of that coupled together makes them so wickedly powerful. When they put their hands on the lie meter, they pass the test. They believe it. So we give them a good hearing. Come on, come on, preach to us, teach to us. These Judaizers are legalists. A legalist is not a Christian that says God has a holy law and as recipients of his saving grace we delight to show our gratitude by keeping His law. No, that's orthodox. A legalist is a person that adds a human work to Christ's work. To put it another way, they add one of their supposed good works to God's free grace in Christ. God says the wages of sin is death, eternal death. The Bible says, for God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son to die for our sins, to take God's wrath, so that we would receive God's mercy. Do you believe this? For all those who believe that he did this and receive him, to them he gave the right to be called sons and daughters of God. So if you confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Bible says you are saved. But you know what, beloved? The legalist says, no, you aren't. No, you aren't either, says the legalist. The legalist says if you want to be really a clean lamb, you must add some of your own works to Christ's work. The legalist says if you really want to be a worker of good, you need to keep the law of God for merit. The legalist says if you really want to be saved, you must believe in Jesus and be circumcised and be baptized and be anything. And you know what God says to that person? You're an unclean dog. You're in your sins. You're going to hell. You're a worker of evil. You think you do good? You're working against the gospel of Jesus. You think you're really circumcised? You are cut off. You've fallen from grace. Why is that? One work of yours, beloved, to the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, tramples on the blood of Christ. You treat the blood of Christ as a vain thing. Legalists. do not know the scripture. They don't know the power of God. They pervert the law of God. They don't understand the law. They don't understand the gospel. Legalists give saving power to the law. Did you hear me? They give power to the law of God that the Bible doesn't give. The law can only condemn you. The law can't save you. And if you make the law save, you denigrate the gospel. The law makes faith in Jesus to be your faithfulness to Jesus. The law makes believe obey. The law makes grace law. That's these legalists. And they do it very smoothly. The false gospel of legalism appeals to men and women and boys and girls that don't think they're that sinful. The legalist says, trust in the law and you will be saved. This is often a reaction by people against loose living by Christians. But beloved, the answer to loose living by Christians is not do the law. It's believe in Jesus. And by the very fact that we're told that they make such to-do about circumcision, we learn that legalists especially corrupt the outward signs and ceremonies of Christianity. They twist the meaning of the sacraments. They make the sign the thing signified. They give more power and meaning to the sacrament than God gives. Like the Catholics, ex opere operato. They talk more about your baptism than being born again. They talk more about taking the Lord's Supper than believing upon the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because they believe that priest is saving you. When you are baptized, says the legalist, you are a Christian. When you are baptized, says the legalist, you are in the covenant of grace. When you are baptized, says the legalist, you are going to heaven. You know what they don't see? They deny the distinction between the visible and the invisible church, except Jesus doesn't. Jesus is in the church. There's tares and wheat. There's goats and there's sheep. Beloved, the next time you hear someone preaching, join the church and be saved. Remember Judas. Remember Judas. The gospel has not come to the church and be saved. Legalists talk more about the church than they do of Jesus. Legalists multiply church ordinances. They have extra offices, extra holy days, candles, vestments. They love the pomp. They love the ceremony. But what's missing? I am a wicked sinner. I'm a wretch. Believe upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You will never hear that. in a church that has exchanged Christ for the church. I know. The Protestant movements that are doing this are cheap. You want to be works-based salvation? Go to Rome. Look at what Paul says. You worship the church more than you worship Christ. You're an unclean dog. You tell me about your holy days more than about the Holy Sun. You're in your sin. And these workers are going to deny it to your face. And being a false teacher doesn't mean you're stupid. When you oppose them, they're going to baffle you with their brilliance. But the Word of God says don't bastardize the gospel. Because you'll lose your soul. It's only the blood of Christ. It's not trusting in the Church. Hyper-Calvinists are also unwitting legalists. They say this, if you are elect, you are a Christian. What's missing? That you're a sinner under the wrath of almighty God for your sins. That you need the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ covered you or you will die in your sins. That you must believe upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. What's missing? Hyper-Calvinists make the gospel, the decree. What will you never hear with a Hyper-Calvinist? You'll never hear this, come sinner, come lost one, come fornicator, come blast fever, come the one without hope, come to Christ, believe and be saved. You're never going to hear that. And the Bible says, They're dogs. They're unclean. People that worship their intellect like this. Everything's philosophical. They're smarter than God. You're not smarter than God, beloved. The gospel is not believe in the decree and be saved. The gospel is believe in the God-man. who died for your sins and rose for your justification. And if you believe in him, you will be saved from the wrath of God to come. That's the gospel. There's one more class of legalists. This is the kind of a teacher that exchanged the gospel of salvation for sinners from their sins, for the universal reformation of the world. And I'm not speaking about all post-millennialists. I'm speaking about those teachers who preach a good news of redeeming culture, redeeming politics, redeeming movies, redeeming societies for Jesus. The gospel is not what we do for Jesus. Redemption is not what we do for Jesus. Redemption is what He does for us. Do you see the shift? The shift is away from personal salvation in Christ, by Christ, to societal salvation by Christians. Jesus Christ did not die on a cross and rise again in three days in fulfillment of the scriptures to make your political party better. He didn't do it to sanitize your movies. He came to set you free from the devil, to set you free from vile affections, to give you liberty to come to God as his beloved What's missing in this false reconstructionist gospel? What's missing? Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. What's missing? Lord, be merciful to me. people. When I say movement, I mean movement as social change agent. I'm not speaking against the movement per se. Join the homeschool movement and redeem culture. Join a political movement and redeem culture. Go get interested in the arts and politics and military and redeem culture. Beloved, the gospel is not join a movement. Jesus Christ. There are a couple of reasons why false teachers are false teachers. And there's a couple of reasons why people listen to false teachers. Not everyone in the church has faith. False teachers preach a false gospel because they don't know God. They have outward circumcision, but they have not been circumcised in the heart. They don't know God. People that listen to them ultimately don't know God. A legal gospel is attractive to the flesh. They took the pulpit because they made a lot of money. They took the pulpit because they were drawing people after themselves. Their God was their belly. And you know why people love to sit under legal gospel? You get to play God. I'm going to heaven because I keep the law. I'm going to heaven because I've been baptized. I'm going to heaven because I believe in the decree. I'm going to heaven because I'm taking over the culture. Who gets the glory? The last reason why there are false teachers and those that listen to them, because they are necessary to show those who are approved by God in Christ. True Christians listen to the true gospel, because in the true gospel they hear the voice of the true shepherd. Beloved, I want to leave you with this. This is what the Bible says. If anyone comes to you, even me, with another gospel other than through God's grace alone, in Jesus Christ alone, by faith alone. If anyone comes to you with another gospel, let them be cursed to hell, because they want to take you to hell.