We're going to turn now to Second Corinthians and we come to Chapter 11 tonight. And I intend for us to look together at verses one through 15 in Second Corinthians, Chapter 11, and then, Lord willing, next month when we come back, we will finish out the remainder of the chapter. So let us read. together from God's Holy Word. Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly. And indeed, you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 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. 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. But we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things. Did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted? Because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge, I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you. And when I was present with you in a need, I was a burden to no one, for what I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself. As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. Why? Because I do not love you. God knows. But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness whose end will be according to their works. Thus far, the reading of God's Holy Word. You may be seated. I believe it was yesterday in our family worship, going through the book of 2 Thessalonians, it suddenly struck me how in virtually all of Paul's letters he addresses the subject of false teaching. Some more than others, and especially in an epistle like 2 Corinthians, the idea of false teaching and especially false apostles becomes prominent. And it is as though when we look at the teaching of this apostle as a whole, his concern about false teachers is a dominating theme. In other words, one of the great things that Paul was concerned about, especially contemplating the time when he would leave this earthly scene, is will the church be protected from false doctrine? Well, here in this part of the epistle, The apostle begins to take his opponents head on. In other words, he's not mincing words. He's coming directly to the opponents and those who want to accept them. And he confronts them with very direct language. Now, what's very important about this text is we begin not simply to learn about how Paul dealt with the church in the first century, but we learn about the danger of false teaching in general. And especially we learn about the deceptiveness of false teaching. And I believe as we approach this text tonight, this is the one thing about false teachers that is the most misunderstood and underestimated. I think if we're honest with ourselves and we talk about false teaching, especially if we're Christians, We think of somebody walking into the doors of the church with a big plaque on their forehead who says, I don't believe in the Bible or I deny the authority of scripture. And yet at the same time, that's not the nature of what we're talking about in our text. And that's not the way that Satan attacks the church today. But he does so through deceit and he does so with subtlety. And the funny thing about being deceived is by very definition, the people who are deceived don't know it. And that is exactly at the heart of what Paul is talking about here. Now remember, he is talking about the character of his apostolic ministry. But we also learn from that, by his example, how the ministry of the church is to operate in general, the types of concerns it should have, and how it affects all of us as God's people. So the thing we're going to consider from the text tonight is simply this, that the Christian ministry must aim to protect the church from Satan's deception. And in essence, the thing that ties together these first 15 verses is verse 3 and then verses 13 through 15, where it comes back to this idea of satanic deception as though it's two bookends on the entire discussion that he's setting forth here. I want to break this down actually into five parts today and hopefully we'll go through each of them briefly. But the first of these is Paul's care. The second is this matter of satanic deception. Then the nature of Paul's teaching. and then Paul's self-indication and then his confrontation of these people. I know those aren't very catchy and none of that will probably stick in your minds well at this stage, but such is the nature of jumping into a text where, as it were, it's as though we're overhearing a conversation in the first century and getting into the middle of a dialogue between Paul and his opponents. So, the first thing is his care. that he sets forth, and he sets this forth particularly in verses 1 and 2. Now when he says, O that ye would bear with me in a little folly, the folly that he is referring to is basically a type of boasting. And we know Paul says elsewhere, and perhaps we all know this intuitively, that as Christians who trust in the mercy of God alone, who hope in Jesus Christ and not in any good thing that we've done, boasting is excluded. It's excluded from the gospel. It's excluded from our own selves. We can't boast in anything we've done. If we boast at all, we boast in Jesus Christ and all that he's accomplished for us. And yet, Paul engages in a form of boasting in this particular passage. And we'll explain what that is in just a minute and why he's doing But at the outset, essentially what you're confronted with is this. The situation is he is addressing a group of false teachers, a group, if you use biblical language, of fools, if you will. Have you ever wondered, in reading the book of Proverbs, when you come across chapter 26, that in two verses side by side, on the one hand we're told, do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him. And then immediately, without pause, without taking a breath, the next sentence says, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own opinion. So, which is it? Don't answer him according to his folly or answer him according to his folly? Well, the overall picture is that when you're dealing with a foolish person, and a foolish person is defined in Scripture as one who does not fear the Lord, there's danger on both sides. You come to them on their own grounds on their own terms you might end up being like them and that wouldn't be a good thing for your own soul. But on the other hand as the fool is boasting in his pride we can't allow that either. So answer him according to his folly deal with him expose the folly lest he be wise in his own opinion. And so you see the danger on both sides. But the two proverbs really balancing each other out. Well, this is essentially what Paul is being dragged into almost unwillingly in this particular situation. Remember back in chapter two, these false epistles apparently were, I'm sorry, the false teachers were apparently sending epistles or letters to commend themselves before they even came to the church. And these people, as we saw in chapter 10, are those who measure themselves by themselves. Well I'm a better teacher than Paul. So therefore you should like me better than Paul is essentially the type of thing that they were saying. They're comparing themselves with others in the church and other human beings rather than measuring themselves by the righteous standard of God. And essentially this is the situation that Paul finds himself in. These people are fools. They're judging by earthly means, and when he says, and by the way, I should say this at the outset, at this point onward in 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul's writing is laden with sarcasm. It's almost oozing out of every verse through the rest of the epistle, and it's a very impassioned speech. And it begins here. Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly. Well, the folly he's talking about Is you want me to prove my credentials? Fine. That's what I'm going to do. And initially what he's saying is this is not my normal way of operation. I don't want to commend myself. I don't want to boast about my achievements as an apostle. I don't want to have to prove myself to a church that I planted. But now he comes ironically and says, oh, that you would bear with me with a little folly. as I seek to prove my credentials." Now, the last part of the verse, the New King James, which I read, says, indeed, you do bear with me, implying that they're already doing that. I think it's better to read the original as a command. In other words, oh, that you would bear with me, so do it. Bear with me while I'm about to instruct you on my conduct and my credentials as an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now, in verse 2, he gives the reason why he's proceeding in this fashion. You see, think about the picture. This is a man who, in some sense, doesn't like defending himself, does not enjoy trying to prove himself before others, and yet he recognizes that there's a serious problem going on here that must be addressed. I always think of the evangelist George Whitefield in the 19th century. And essentially, Whitfield was slandered everywhere he went. And his policy was not to defend himself. But you see, there came a point in his ministry where people associated the man and the message together. And you see, as they slandered the man himself, then they began to slander the gospel as well. And you see, this is the same situation that Paul finds himself in. It's not simply his own reputation, but the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he hints at this in verse two. I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. Usually, jealousy is something that we have a negative connotation for. I will say at the outset, there's a difference between jealousy and envy. Jealousy is simply wanting something that somebody else has. Envy is wanting to harm them because they have it. And you see, when we talk about jealousy, there can be a jealousy that is good and a jealousy that is bad. For instance, in the Old Testament, if a husband had strong evidence that his wife was committing adultery, he was jealous, and rightfully so. And he was vindicated in that jealousy. You see, he wanted something that somebody else had, namely the faithfulness of his wife. And he was right to be jealous. And so we would be in such a situation as well. Well, this is why God is jealous. God is a jealous God. God loves the worship of his people. He hates the idolatry that his people fall into. And therefore, he says in the very surface of the second commandment, I am a jealous God. The Lord your God is a jealous God. You see, the Lord enters into a special relationship with his people, and he guards that relationship as it were, as though it were his most precious possession. And he's jealous over that relationship. So what Paul is saying here is I'm jealous for you with a godly jealousy. What he really means is a God like jealousy. The jealousy I have for your faithfulness as a church is actually mirroring God's attitude towards you. It's a godly jealousy. And the reason for the jealousy now is I betrothed you to one husband that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ. Engagements in the Old Testament and the New Testament were not quite the same as they are today. Somebody was engaged in the first century the only way to break that engagement was to go to the court and have a divorce. We tend not to view engagement that seriously but that was the culture that was the time and there's even some warrant for that to some extent in the Old Testament. But this is the imagery that Paul is picking up on here. Now, let's let's put the picture together of what he's actually doing. I came to you. I preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to you. You embrace Jesus Christ. But now these false teachers have come and you've embraced them instead. And now you're forcing me to prove my credentials as an apostle. Well, I'm jealous over you because God is a jealous God. And I have been the one who has engaged you to Jesus Christ. And the image here, there's many suggestions, but the image here is probably that of a father giving his daughter away in marriage. And Paul is essentially saying, this is my relationship to you. When you believed in Jesus Christ, it was like I was the father taking you as though you were my daughter and engaging you to Jesus Christ. And you see, in some sense, he's really describing the Christian life as we live it right now. If you're a Christian today and you're trusting in Jesus Christ, you are in your engagement period. You're in a binding relationship with Jesus Christ. It is no accident, therefore, that entering into heaven is described as the great marriage supper of the Lamb. You see, right now we're engaged. but were to be married on that last day. And so, as Jesus Christ is the husband and the Lord of the church, the one who cares for her, the one who died for her, the one who sanctifies her, we are in that great time of engagement. And of course, that means that as Christians, we must be anticipating the consummation of that engagement. Sometimes we are so wrapped up in the things of this world and in our time in this life that we act as though the worst thing possible is to depart this world to be with Jesus Christ. Though death, though all of the thoughts that we face in connection to that are difficult for each of us, let us remember this is the engagement period. Can you imagine a bride saying, well, I'm engaged to be married to this man? I love him. I want to spend the rest of my life with him, but never wanting to consummate the marriage, never wanting to have the ceremony. Well, see, Paul has this big picture in view, saying you're engaged to Jesus Christ and you must be chaste. And notice chaste here, interestingly, doesn't mean living the right way, but believing the right way. Paul's not denying that holiness and personal obedience to Jesus Christ is necessary. But here, there is a type of adultery that is theological. And you see, sometimes we make a division between the way we think and the way we feel and the way we act that the Apostle Paul didn't understand at all. He saw this as all one thing. You see, they could be adulterous spouses to Christ just as much by receiving false teaching as they could by living ungodly lives. So, this is the first thing that the Apostle sets before us here. And, of course, as we come to the supper today, is this not what we are reflecting upon? That we are engaged to Jesus Christ as his church? We're anticipating at the supper today the day when we will sit with him and drink of it anew in the kingdom of God, when we shall sup together at the great wedding feast of the Lamb with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the saints who have worshiped from the foundation of the world. And in a sense, the Lord's Supper is embodying the cause of Paul's jealousy. And verse 2. So here is this care, here is this concern. The second thing is the deception that Paul is concerned about in verses 3 through 4. And notice what he says, I fear, lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. The idea here is that Paul knows his enemy, and he wants God's people to know the enemy as well. And the enemy, of course, is Satan. And we can make too much of Satan, we can make too little of Satan, can't we? We can make too much of him as though we may treat him sometimes as though he's some real rival to God. There's a good God and a bad God. Well, that's not how it is whatsoever. There's no contest between God and Satan. Jesus will cast Satan into the lake of fire by speaking a word. So this battle is really no contest at all. And yet at the same time, we can make too little of him. Because you see, does it not change the way that we think about things when we wake up every morning and realize that there is someone, someone we may not see, someone we may not know, may not have been aware of his personal presence or any of the fallen angels. Remember, Satan's not omnipresent either. And yet he's trying to deceive us. That there's someone trying to actively deceive you every day that you live. And I believe simply failing to recognize this principle stood at the heart of the Corinthians problem and it often stands at the heart of ours. This is why we don't recognize the subtlety of false teaching. Now, he uses the explicit illustration of Eve and if you think back to Genesis, what happened? Well, Satan doesn't immediately come out and tell Adam and Eve, God's a liar and you need to stop believing him and believe me instead. Well, in effect, that's what he said by the end of the process. But he begins by asking a question. Has God really said, don't eat all the trees of the garden? Is that really what he said? And as he begins to question God's word and question God's instruction to her, Slowly step by step she falls into the deception until at the end He's got her convinced that God is really withholding something good from her You see God really doesn't want you to enter into this knowledge that he has and he's privy to something special And he knows that that the day you eat of the tree you'll be like him and your eyes will be opened And you see he really does come into outright lying at the end But it is a gradual process and gradual deception that leads them astray. And this is all important for us to consider. The deception that comes into the church by false teaching is rarely open. Most of the time, and I'll say more about this in a minute, most of the time the way false teaching comes in is by people speaking our language, saying the same things that we're saying, but then redefining every single term. I remember vividly one time there was a young woman that I knew in a youth group in California, and she had gone on a trip to Italy, and I hadn't seen her for about a year. And she came back and said how wonderful it was. And the whole time she was there, she visited and she worshiped in the Roman Catholic Church. And my first response was, well, they deny the gospel. They don't believe that we're saved through Jesus Christ only. They don't believe we're justified by faith embracing Christ alone. She said, no, no, no, I know that's what they used to believe, but you see, They said, we're saved by grace alone. That's what they told me, we're saved by grace alone. And my response is, do you realize that Roman Catholicism has always said that? Hasn't changed at all. But they've redefined the terms. Hopefully we say grace, what we mean is that we're absolutely helpless apart from Jesus Christ. If God looks upon me in my sins, I will perish instantaneously and there is no question of standing before the sight of God. And grace in that broad sense is Jesus Christ obeying where I could not. Dying where I should have died. Suffering wrath where I deserved it. Being raised from the dead when I should fester in the grave. being exalted to the right hand of His Father in heaven and making me and you as Christians co-heirs with Christ when we deserve to inherit Satan's punishment, body and soul forever in hell. And you see, grace means that we come and we can't do anything else than cast ourselves into His arms. We embrace Him by faith because we don't have any works to rest upon. But do you see in this other scheme, when they say we're saved by grace alone, they mean something far different. It's not Christ doing all of those things, it's really the Holy Spirit working in my heart. The Holy Spirit enabling me to do the good works I need to do to be saved. The Holy Spirit enabling me to have enough goodness and enough merit that if I just live by faith, in that, then somehow I will stand before God. If I've fallen short, I may suffer temporarily in purgatory, but eventually reach the end goal. That's what they mean by grace alone. Is that what we mean? But you see, how would this friend of mine, how would any of us ever fall into such a thing if Satan did not come using the same exact language? This is most deceptive. In lands where Christianity is prominent. When everybody thinks they are a Christian. And this is more dangerous than ever. I don't mean this to shake anybody up and in any unnecessary way, but the fact is, unless you are resting upon Jesus Christ and him alone and his gospel. and not in your works, not in the work of the Spirit that's enabling you to do anything good, not hoping that somehow God is going to balance the scales and you're going to come out on the right side, but embracing Jesus Christ as He's offered to you in the Gospel. Are you doing so? Have you come to know this Lord and this Savior, Jesus Christ? Have you embraced Him by faith? And you see, Paul is afraid. That's exactly what he preached to these people. And everything that I've said to you, I could quote proof texts from Paul's own letters. This was his gospel. And yet he's afraid. Lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Jesus Christ. Well, contrast this, on the other hand, to drive us back to Jesus Christ, to Christ's own temptation. Was Satan any less subtle with Jesus in the wilderness than he was with Adam and Eve in the garden? You see, with Jesus in the wilderness, he even came quoting scripture. Throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple because Psalm 91 says God will give his angels to watch over you and you won't dash your foot upon the stone. Let's put that to the test. How much do you really believe the Bible? He was dead wrong. He misunderstood the entire significance of that passage and he abused it and he knew what he was doing. Not every false teacher knows what they're doing. But you see, there is still this satanic deception behind it. Now, notice how he makes this even more powerful in verse four. And I realize now we're not going to get through the whole text. We're probably going to stop halfway. If he who comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached or if you receive a different spirit, and that should be spirit with capital S. This is a reference to the Holy Spirit, which you have not received or a different gospel, which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it. You see what the false teachers are doing. They're preaching Jesus. They're preaching the work of the spirit, they're preaching a gospel, they're at least using the word. They're claiming all of these things. That was just not a bleak picture. Somebody can come into the church, be a teacher in the church, preach a Jesus, preach a spirit and preach a gospel and be completely false. Sometimes are we not too ready to say That if someone simply names the name of Christ, then all is well. We don't need to ask any further questions whatsoever. Well, they say they believe in Jesus. They say they believe in the work of the Spirit. They say they're preaching the gospel. And yet, here Paul's saying that, and notice, this is Paul's teaching under the inspiration of the Spirit. This is not me trying to be mean to people out there and trying to pick on other churches. And that's not what I want you to take away from this at all. This is Paul saying, Satan is the agent behind these people who are preaching Jesus and the Holy Spirit and claiming to preach the Gospel. And yet, Satan still is standing behind it. Does that not strike you? There's a line in Lord of the Rings, if I can risk using an illustration from Lord of the Rings, but you have a point where one of the characters is talking about Aragorn has come and they're wondering whether he's come there to help them or not. And one of the characters, I don't remember which one, says, well, I think if he was an enemy, he would look fairer and feel fouler than he does. Well, that's exactly what's happening here. These people look great. They're naming Christ, they're preaching the spirit, they're claiming to preach the gospel. But it's foul. It's satanic at its heart. And you see, this means that as God's people, we need to be discerning. We need to be able to search the scriptures. We need to pray. that the Spirit would accompany us when we open the Bible. We need to study the history of the church. We need to study those who have gone before us. We need to pray for those who proclaim the word, not only here in this church, but to the ends of the earth. Because you see, the purpose of teachers in the church is the exact opposite of what these people are doing. Now, perhaps if we just go into the next part and then we'll stop there. We get something of a picture of what this looks like and what's going on. Notice what he says in verses five and six. I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles. You see, when he says the most eminent apostles, there's an ironic phrase here, it's literally super apostles. This is probably a derogatory term that the false teachers were using for Jesus's twelve apostles. In other words, they think they're so great over there, those super apostles. We're just as good as they are. We want to be accepted in the same way that they are. And that's essentially what they were doing in Corinth. They were coming in. And so Paul says, look, I consider that I'm not at all inferior to Peter and James and John and all the rest. You see, when he contrasts himself to the false apostles later in the text, he's a lot less kind in his words for them. He doesn't want to be classed with those people in any sense whatsoever, but these people, he says, no, no, no, I am in this category. I belong to this group. I'm one of the twelve. And you see, as one of the twelve is essentially saying that I have the same commissioned authority as these other people. Just as John wrote Holy Scripture under the divine inspiration of the Spirit, so his words are the word of God, that's the group I belong to. I'm not inferior to those people, even though I'm untrained in speech and not in knowledge. But we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things. And there's really a hint that two charges brought against him here. They're charging him of being inferior in his preaching. And inferior in his knowledge. But they're really saying is, and this is usually how false teaching comes into the church. People will come in and say something like this. It's not so much that all these other people got this wrong, but I've got something else we need to hear, something else we need to add, something else we need to consider beyond what you've already believed and what you've already taught. Now, I don't mean to deny that as Christians, we need to grow in the faith and we need to grow in our understanding of the Bible and our knowledge of the Lord. But we don't add doctrines to what the scripture teaches. And somehow, sometimes this is the best way to negate the truth itself. Well, the other thing is the externals. Notice again, there's stress on the external form. These people are really stressing form over content. And Paul is saying, OK, I can see that. I'm untrained in speech now. If you're at all familiar with Paul's letters, you may immediately recognize that Paul was a brilliant man. No doubt he was under the inspiration of the Spirit, but the Spirit preserves the personalities of the authors. There is a rigid, logical mind and presentation in Paul that is different than John and Peter. They're all equally inspired, all equally God's Word. But you clearly see Paul had great rhetorical skill and great skill at arguing. And he uses that throughout his epistle. This whole epistle is an exercise in this very thing. So what does he mean then when he says, I'm untrained in speech? Well, what he probably means is I'm not trained in Greek rhetoric. Remember, Paul spoke Hebrew. He spoke Greek as well. He wrote in Greek. But he wasn't trained like the philosophers of the day. And in the philosophy of the time, many of the philosophers stress form over everything. Presentation is everything. And in a certain sense, that's how our modern society works as well with advertising and all the other things we're inundated with. How it's presented catches us and influences us and shapes us even more than the content of what is said. And sometimes we don't even realize it. Now, Paul is not saying here, that somehow preachers shouldn't seek to speak well. I think Paul exemplifies the exact opposite in his own writings. But what he is saying is this is not the primary element. Fine, I don't have your training, but that's not the primary thing that counts. The primary thing that counts is what I am saying. And so when we talk about false teaching, it's not only the subtlety of it that we must be aware of. But it is the fact that usually the stress falls upon the external form. I've heard people say they walk away from a sermon from a certain preacher and make a comment like this, that I could listen to him talk about buttering toast and just be enraptured with everything he's saying all day. Well, that's not necessarily a blight against that preacher. He may just be a good speaker, maybe engaging, maybe interesting. But sometimes is that not the case? that because someone is polished, because they come across in just the right way, we think they have to know what they're talking about. It doesn't have to simply be teaching. It could be a college professor. They've got PhD next to their name. They speak with an authoritative voice. They sound like they know what they're talking about. They could say something absolutely ridiculous and convince everybody they know what they're talking about. Well, essentially, that's what's happening here in Corinth, and this is the thing that Paul is combating. So you see the elements put here. When we think about ourselves as Christians, the first thing we must think about is we are espoused to Jesus Christ. This means we must be pure, pure in doctrine as well as in life. This means we must study the scriptures. We must study the scriptures on our knees. You must search out the mind and the will of God. as best as he enables you from his word. You must benefit from the church and from the teachers that he's appointed, from the literature of the church as well. And yet, at the same time, you must actively recognize that your greatest loyalty is to Christ, your husband, who has a jealousy over you and who has charged his ministers to have a godly jealousy for your soul. And that means whatever anyone presents to you, regardless of how good it sounds, how good the speaker is, how polished he may be, this is the first thing you must come back to. Ask yourself, is this promoting my chastity to the Lord Jesus Christ? Is this in line with the Gospel that I've heard from Him in His Word? Is this drawing me near to Him in fellowship, in communion, Is this drawing me to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only standard for truth and righteousness? And this is where you and I must always begin. Too often we begin in the practical side. I remember I don't want to and I'll say this here with the application I'm struggling with. How do I be specific? How do I illustrate this so that you understand the principles Paul's setting forth without necessarily being offensive or singling out certain groups or making your mind turn to people you may know. But if I can use just one historical example, there's the evangelist in the 19th century, Charles Grandison Finney. And people look to Finney, and I've heard men tell me that he was responsible for the conversion of over 500,000 sinners to Jesus Christ. Preaching Christ. Preaching Spirit. Preaching Gospel. And all of these people came to embrace Christ by the Spirit, to lay hold of the Gospel. Is that not wonderful? He said, well, I've read some of Finney's theology. And he didn't believe that we're dead in our sins. He didn't believe that we died in Adam. He said it's impossible. Impossible for Jesus Christ to keep the law on my behalf. That I cannot have the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the best I can get from Jesus Christ is he forgives everything I've done in the past, but now I'm on my own. And make it worse, he says, then now if I'm going to be saved, I've stopped sinning today. Well, that was the condition God placed upon us, which of you in this room, including myself, would enter into the gates of heaven. Every single one of us would perish without hope whatsoever. Clearly, this man preached an entirely different gospel. And yet to this day in evangelical churches, he is heralded as a great hero of the Christian faith. I don't want to be judgmental, but I'm not sure the man's in heaven at all. Not if he believed what he taught, God alone knows the heart, but I don't see how you could possibly deny the gospel more clearly. Do you see what's happened? We look at the results, we look at the people coming in, we look at the crowds coming to hear the Polish speech speaker and we never ask the question, what does he believe? And then when someone figures it out, then we turn around and say, you've got to be reading that wrong. How could all these people be following somebody who's teaching something so wrong? Because it was already happening in the first century. And that's exactly what Paul was confronting here and exactly what we must confront today. We must not be judgmental. We must not be harsh towards others. We must not look to find fault. But brothers and sisters, be aware of Satan's devices. We are so woefully ignorant of him. And sometimes I think we run into spiritual warfare thinking, here am I. Born again. Maybe I've been a Christian for 10, 20, 30, 40 years. And somehow I'm going to outwit one who has been tempting sinners and leading them to hell for several thousand years. It's not going to happen. So, dear friends, cling to Christ. He will never lead you astray. Cling to Christ and the Lord's Supper tonight. Cling to Christ in His promises. Cling to the Lord Jesus Christ who is Himself the gospel. And anything that would divert us from Him, from union with His person, communion with Him in His work, is a false gospel no matter how good it sounds, no matter what terms it uses. And we must remember these principles. I trust as you come to the supper tonight, you come looking to the Lord and Savior Christ and to him alone. Let us close the prayer. Almighty Lord, we recognize that we are hopeless without you. We ask you, our blessed God and Savior, to forgive us of all of our sins. We plead with you that we would not be led astray into error And we thank you that you have promised us the presence of the Holy Spirit, that he prevents us from falling away, that he leads us in the truth as you've revealed it in scripture. And we pray that we would all rest upon Jesus Christ and him alone. And indeed, Lord, that we would define Christianity and define our faith and our hope by scripture only and not by anything else that is going on around us. And we ask this in Christ's matchless name. Amen.