2 Corinthians chapter 11. I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you are bearing with me. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. For I consider myself not in the least inferior to the most eminent apostles, but even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not so in knowledge. In fact, in every way we have made this evident to you in all things. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted? Because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge. I robbed other churches by taking wages from them to serve you. And when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone. For when the brethren came from Macedonia, they fully supplied my need. And in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and I will continue to do so. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia. Why? Because I don't love you? God knows I do. But what I am doing I will continue to do so that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it's not surprising if His servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. Well Father, we are grateful that You have shown us the truth. And we pray, Lord, that each day as we look into Your Word each day as we travel in our pilgrimage in this world, that you would keep us from error, that you would help us to hold fast to your truth. In Christ's name, amen. Well, you notice Paul's tone has turned very personal here in these last couple of chapters. And it will be all the way through the end of this letter. And the reason is he's responding to criticisms of himself by false apostles, as he calls them, false teachers. Some of them were Judaizers, but others were of another stripe. But they'd infiltrated the Corinthian church. And his objective, in part here, was to remind his readers that while he had been called to his apostleship by Christ, his opponents had not been called by Christ. They were imposters. And this was, of course, a serious problem because false apostles were not only undermining his authority in Corinth and elsewhere, but they were seeking to undermine the gospel and lead people away from Christ. Last week in chapter 10, Paul addressed the criticism that he spoke authoritatively when he wrote his letters, but was less so when he was present with them. That he was meek and gentle. And some mistook that quality, biblical qualities, fruits of the Spirit, as weakness. Paul responded to that charge how? By reminding them of the meekness and gentleness of Christ. And he told them, when I come back to Corinth, I'm going to be dealing boldly with these false apostles. He also reminded them he did not preach Christ according to the flesh, but in the power of the Spirit. That he didn't minister according to the flesh, toward fleshly standards of rhetorical and oratorical greatness. that he relied upon divine truth and the power of the Spirit. Divine truth and the power of the Spirit. And these divine truths had been imparted to him by Christ, by Christ Himself. And so Paul goes on to show us in chapter 10 that the battle is not one of the flesh, it's a spiritual war. And so we don't engage in this spiritual war according to weapons of the flesh, which would be the ways of the material world. The weapons of our warfare, which is against falsehood, are divine truth and the power of God. That's our weaponry. And I would add to that prayer that the power of God would be imparted and act upon the preaching of the Word. He says these weapons that we have are divinely powerful for the destruction of the fortresses that are false teaching. The intellectual arguments and reasonings of human wisdom. And so these people were seeking to bring false teaching from false apostles into the Corinthian church. And the battle then as now. is one of truth against falsehood. It's the same battle that we've been waging for 2,000 years. One underlying theme in chapters 10, 11, 12, and 13 is that while the forces of darkness seek to prevent the truth from coming through, I mean this is the battle in the schools today. The gospel and the power of God will win in the end. They're sufficient. They were sufficient then, they're sufficient now. to win this battle between truth and falsehood, this battle between light and darkness. Now the danger here is that some may have seen these false teachers as pretty good. That makes sense what they're saying to some of them. That was the danger. Because what they were preaching were lies, falsehood. But they may have thought these people are better preachers, bringing a better message. But people think that today. of false preachers. Paul told them he stood ready to punish his opponents in Corinth. Obviously, he wasn't going to physically attack them. He was going to bring the truth of the gospel and rely on the power of God to convey truth. Again, his authority was from Christ himself. He asserted his apostleship in all his letters that had been sent by Christ. It was for the purpose of building them up. Some claimed his letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible. And here's what Paul said in chapter 10, verse 11. Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters, when absent, such persons we also are indeed when present. He was the same man who wrote those letters when he was present with them. They just saw him differently. So the one who sent those strong letters was going to stand in opposition to these false apostles when he got to Corinth. Now, the false preachers, what's the problem with them? Well, they haven't had the truth revealed to them. They're living on the basis of the wisdom of men, and they're preaching the wisdom of men. As natural men, as unregenerate, not born of the Spirit, they could never please God. They couldn't really know God. And so they were preaching without understanding. It isn't that they were taught something that had some error in it. Their whole teaching was one that was without understanding. It was rooted in paganism or Judaism. So, in verse 18, Paul, we see, desired to see sinners come to repentance. I mean, that was his immediate objective. But his ultimate objective was to be approved by God. That he was faithful to God in his presentation of the gospel. So, turning to chapter 11 now, Paul strongly implies that the most critical issue in Corinth was this. They were preaching a different Jesus. than the Jesus that Paul preached. See it here in verses 3 and 4. They were preaching a different gospel. Now we can sit here and say, well, obviously, if somebody comes in and preaches some different Jesus or a different gospel, we know they're an Arab. But it wasn't so easy back then in Corinth in 57 AD. They didn't have what we have. They didn't have the truth of God in written form yet. They preached about Jesus of Nazareth, but not the Jesus that we meet in Scripture. Not the Jesus who saved his people by his incarnation, by his sinless life, by his atoning death, and by his bodily resurrection. And there were such false apostles among these people who Paul cared deeply about in Corinth. Now, he's still in Macedonia, in Thessalonica or Berea, one of those places, as he writes this. And his concern for them is obvious. On top of all of that, look what he says here in verse 4, I think it is. You bear with this beautifully. They weren't throwing them out. They were allowing these false apostles to remain among them and preach their false message. Now this was not only a problem in Corinth, it's a very serious matter still today. All over America, and I don't know where else, churches are succumbing to this social gospel where essentially salvation by works is preached. It's not a gospel that speaks of the necessity of forgiveness of our sin and salvation only in Christ, but of trying to do good works in the world, which we should do, but not as a way of salvation. And now, and I keep hearing this more each day as I listen to preachers from around the country and read about the things that are happening in these churches, these matters of transgenderism and tolerance of homosexuality and critical race theory are being taught and tolerated from the pulpits in churches that call themselves Christians. It isn't any different today. And this is far more widespread than we might imagine here in our little corner of the world. There's been thousands of religions of the world. There are thousands of religions in the world today. All religions of men, and not one of them, not one of them can save any man from the fires of hell. None. Only Christ can save one through faith in Him. So those religions, including some which now call themselves Christian, seek to direct people's conduct in this world. And they may direct their conduct in this world. And they may do some things that bring some relief to some people. But they have no ability by the gospel they preach to impart eternal spiritual life to anybody. They're without divine power. Paul was dealing with the same thing here. This passage in chapter 11 is very relevant to our situation today. Now, Paul begins, they've called him a fool. They've called his message foolishness. The message of the cross is foolishness, he said, to those who don't believe. Now he's going to respond in verse 1 here in what seems to be an ironic tone, at the same time almost an apologetic tone, to this criticism that he is a mindless person. That he's bringing in truths from somewhere else, which he was, but not in the way they said. Evidently his critics were mocking the Corinthians for listening to Paul. Why are you listening to him? You see when he writes these letters, he's Mr. Tough Guy, and then he comes and he's all... So he says, I wish you'd bear with me in a little foolishness. Indeed, please do bear with me. Paul regards his defense of himself here, and specifically the recitation of his credentials that's going to follow in this chapter, as foolishness. He's being reduced to dealing with these false apostles on their own terms, in a sense. He's just told them he seeks only the approval of God. And that's why we kind of went back and looked at what he said in chapter 10. But in light of this criticism that was being hurled his way, he often found it necessary to defend his apostolic credentials. I mean, if somebody is genuinely sent by Jesus Christ, who appears to him in a vision and speaks to him, One should listen. And so he would do this according to the same criteria his opponents evaluated themselves by. He would talk about his commission. And it seems some of the Corinthian converts now accepted the criteria that the false apostles were using. They were saying, look, this guy doesn't even get paid for what he's doing here. And he doesn't care about you. He won't let you support him. He's not a great speaker. Message isn't all that great. So Paul's going to deal with them on their level here. But he regards all this as a little foolishness. His motive is love for these people. Remember, we see people believe in the parable of the sower. But some only believe for a time and then the emotion of the moment goes away. Some encounter the persecution of the world and they walk away. So there is such a thing as people who believe but then stop believing. That's not the same thing as being born again. Once you're born again of the Spirit, it's forever. Once you believe and have saving faith, It's forever. But there is a kind of belief that is temporary. And again, the parable of the soils is a great example of this. So he says to them, and he's going to use an illustration here from the Jewish wedding practice. He says, I'm jealous for you with a godly jealousy. And look what he says, for I betrothed you to one husband. Well, who would that one husband be? Jesus Christ, yes. so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin." Now we recall that we saw it in the case of Joseph and Mary. The Jewish wedding procedure was there would be a betrothal, in which case you had to be divorced in order to have that betrothal dissolved. But the marriage wasn't completed until it was consummated at the marriage ceremony, which would be several months after the betrothal. And Paul's describing these Corinthians as betrothed to Christ. He's worried they're not going to make it to the altar, to the wedding ceremony. So the situation for these people, in Paul's eyes, was grave. Because these other people were trying to, look, don't go through with it. Don't go through with it. He had brought these people to Christ. The false apostles were seeking to draw them away from Christ. So he draws on this practice of the two stages of the marriage, betrothal and consummation. And he's alarmed that these Corinthians, having been betrothed to Jesus, are flirting with another Jesus. That's what he says here. You're letting them in here and they're talking about another Jesus. They're in danger of becoming unfaithful to the true Jesus. And this is what's reflected here in verses 3 and 4. He says, I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray. By whom? By Satan influencing these false apostles. This is very serious. He's looking back to the serpent deceiving Eve and comparing that to their situation. I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. Paul uses these terms false teaching and deceit interchangeably. False teaching is deceit, like Satan's deceit of Eve in the garden. False teaching is a greater danger, I would say, than no teaching. Why? Because one who has not yet heard the gospel may still hear and believe. But one who has been persuaded by false teaching is going to find it more difficult to respond in faith to the true gospel. This is what occurred when Charles Finney obtained many converts to his false gospel in upstate New York in the mid-1800s. Now many see him as a great evangelist. The problem was 98% of them walked away and were not reachable after he had led them into belief in his false gospel. He preached against the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers. He preached against justification by faith. And so it was rightly said After most of these converts had fallen away, that the territory in which he preached his false gospel was burned over. So the people were more difficult to reach than if they'd never heard him in the first place. Those thought to be converts to Christ had made nothing other than an emotional response at a big crusade type event to a false gospel. And so they were no longer willing to even listen to or hear the true gospel. Now this is one of Paul's concerns here, that your mind will be led astray from the simplicity of Christ. And to illustrate this, Paul recalls the serpent's deceit of Eve. Now think about this. This is the biggest, most significant instance of deceit in all of human history. It led to the fall of all humanity. The serpent deceived Eve, by denying the truth of what God has said, and simply by getting Eve to doubt what God had said. Just to doubt. Genesis chapter 3. And the story of Eve, Paul says, depicts the kind of danger the Corinthians were facing. that their thoughts would be led astray. What's a perfect example? What's a good example of the world and Satan using the mind, intellectual thinking, to lead people away from Christ? Anybody think of a good example of that? Modern science. And what would be the real linchpin of that? Evolution. You see, if you can convince people intellectually that we evolved from apes, well then what we read in Genesis 1, 2, and 3 can't be true. And what we read in Genesis 1, 2, and 3 is what informs us as to why we need a Savior. The word here is minds. No amada. Paul is concerned with false teachers beguiling the minds, deceiving the minds of their hearers. And Satan often attacks people through their minds. That's what evolution was all about. It was a godless way of explaining how we got here. If we got here without God's doing, without God creating us, then where does God enter the picture? And they remove God as lawgiver and judge by doing that. So Satan attacks people through their minds with doubt, with the foolish wisdom of man through science, scientism, which is in opposition to the Word of God. Remember, the study of the natural sciences excludes even the possibility of the supernatural. They're just looking at what they can see and observe. So Satan uses that. It's very effective. And as Ron just indicated, the now disproved theory of evolution, disproved because of genetics. If you go down to the smallest single cell, it contains millions of bits of DNA, of information. So Satan seeks to attack, though, through the mind. We want to understand that. And our minds, remember, are fallen. They're corrupted by sin. We don't have the clear mind that Adam was given when he was created. We have fallen minds. So in Corinth, these people had heard the true gospel from the great evangelist, Paul, sent by Christ himself, and they had initially responded in faith. So the question was, would this prove to be saving faith? Or would they be like the rocky soil on which the seed fell? Paul is concerned about which way this is going to go. So, he says this, verse 4, if one comes and preaches another Jesus, now just think about that, another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit, the true believer has received the Spirit of God. The one who's born again of the Spirit receives the Spirit of God. These people were bringing an evil spirit. They were inspired by Satan. They were servants of Satan, as Paul calls them. And they're bringing an evil, wicked spirit into their midst. Or if they bring a different gospel, which you've not accepted, you're bearing this beautifully. You're allowing this to happen. So Paul doesn't state in this letter what was the exact content that was being preached by these false apostles. And to speculate really is useless, although that doesn't keep the commentators from doing so. What we can discern from Paul's accusation here is they did not preach a Christ who died to atone for sins and who rose to overcome death to accomplish the justification of His people. And who declared that all who do not believe in Him have condemned themselves? John 3, 19. Because you've not believed in the one whom God has sent. In this teaching, Paul says, of the false apostles, what's under the influence of a different spirit? There's only the spirit of God and evil spirits and the spirit that we each of us is. In the true gospel, the Spirit of God comes and awakens our spirit and makes us spiritually alive. He awakens the dead spirits of those who receive Christ in faith. It's a different spirit they're bringing. Those who receive the Spirit of God, by the way, they manifest the fruit of the Spirit of God. Those who receive these false apostles and their teaching were being led by an evil spirit. False teaching is always being led by an evil spirit. We don't like to always think in these terms, but this is what goes on in places where false teaching is being tolerated. The spirit which moved Paul's opponents drew its inspiration from Satan. That's what he says in verses 13 through 15. a different gospel. They didn't preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, of which we just spoke. Some say a gospel stressing the need for Gentiles not only to believe in Christ, but also to conform to the ceremonies. And we know there were such Judaizers in Galatia and in elsewhere, in Corinth as well. There were Jews who came to some stage of belief in Christ, but who were saying, look, we've got to keep doing the ceremonies. We've got to keep honoring the Sabbath. We've got to keep celebrating the feast days. We cannot eat pork. We're saying that. And Paul said, if you try to add the law onto belief in Christ, you will be severed from Christ. You are severing yourself from Christ. All of this created a clear and present danger to the eternal destiny of the Corinthians. In metaphorical terms, the false apostles were seeking to persuade the Corinthians to break off their engagement with Christ. That's how he saw it. So this is why he felt it necessary to defend his own credentials. Look, you better listen to what I'm saying. I'm bringing you the divine truth. I'm bringing you the only truth that can save you. And Christ himself sent me. So in order that the Corinthians not be lost to eternal damnation, Paul has to speak of himself. Has to defend his own credentials. And he says in verse 5, For I consider myself not in the least inferior to the most eminent apostles. Some translate this to these super apostles. When I first read this some time ago, I thought he was talking about Peter and John and Matthew. No, he's talking about the false apostles here. And this word is actually, the literal is super apostles. He's not comparing himself to the true apostles here, but to the false apostles. He's not inferior to them. That's who's at issue here. And he's not conceding that they're his equal either. He's responding to their claims. He says, even if I'm unskilled in speech, and the implication is these false apostles were very good orators. Even if I'm unskilled in speech, yet I'm not so in knowledge. In fact, in every way, we've made this evident to you in all things." So Paul acknowledges he was perhaps a lesser orator than those who opposed him, but what he had, his knowledge, was divine truth. He had been taught by whom? By Christ Himself. And so his knowledge far exceeded the knowledge of these false apostles. And his work among them, he says, was evidence of One writer said, Christians need to think about what they are being taught rather than being impressed by who is teaching them, however winsome he or she may be. Some wisdom in that statement. Verse 7, did I commit a sin in humbling myself and abasing myself so that you might be exalted? Because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge? The fact that he did not charge them was a problem here. It may seem like a strange thing to us, but that was their custom. Among the Greeks in those days, it was considered degrading if a philosopher or itinerant speaker came to town and didn't get payment, didn't receive a fee for his teaching. And it was certainly considered degrading for an intellectual man, a speaker, to come into town, a philosopher, and then go home at night and have to do some work making tents in order to supply his own needs. Paul was guilty on both counts. He wouldn't take money from them. And we're going to see the reason he wouldn't take money is because he didn't want them to be able to say, see, he's just like us. He's in it for the cash. And he was working at his trade as a tent maker. He doesn't talk about it a lot, but he does talk about it. And we infer here the Corinthians were offended that Paul had not accepted payment from them from his earlier ministry. When he was in Corinth the first time, five years before he's writing this letter, the Macedonians were sending him support. In fact, Macedonians came down from Thessalonica or Berea and provided support to him. And remember, Paul had described some of the false teachers as peddlers who were preaching for profit. So here's Paul not accepting any fee from the Corinthians, and that seems to be a problem. Verse 80 says, I robbed other churches by taking wages from them to serve you. Maybe they were embarrassed by this. I don't know. And when I was present with you, which was five years earlier, and was in need, I wasn't a burden to anyone, even though I may have needed food, whatever. But when the brethren came from Macedonia, they fully supplied my need. And in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you. And I'm going to continue to do so, he said. I'm not taking any money from you. He was, of course, sending Titus and two others to administer this collection that he was going to have sent to the needy and the poor saints in Jerusalem. But he wouldn't take any money. And in their minds, this could only mean that he had a closer, more intimate, more affectionate relationship with the Macedonians than he did with the Corinthians. Or that even, as he implies here, that they thought he didn't love them. Now remember what we read. back in 1 Corinthians earlier tonight. He says, I'm just going to read 1 Corinthians 9, 16. He said that one preaching the gospel has a right to share in the proceeds of the altar. But he says, if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of because I'm under compulsion. Woe is me if I don't preach the gospel. And I think this is true for every faithful preacher. You are called to preach the gospel. It isn't like there's a choice there if you wish to be obedient to God. Then he says, for if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward. But if against my will, I'll have a stewardship entrusted to me. If he didn't want to do it, he still had a duty. Well, he says, then what then is my reward? And here's what he says. Here's how he viewed this matter of support. that when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel." That's how he looked at it. The Macedonians were coming down and bringing him support. Well, Paul doesn't explain this, why he's accepting the support from the Macedonians for his work in Corinth. One possibility, we don't read about these money-hungry false apostles in Thessalonica and Macedonia. But we sure do read about them in Corinth. And one possibility was that because of that, Paul did not want to be numbered among them. As I said, so that they could say, look, he's no different than the rest of us. He wanted to be seen as different than them. Because his message was different. And what his message could accomplish, the power in it So others were compromising the gospel for money in Corinth. And he may have seen that as a danger. I think that's a pretty good explanation, but we don't know for sure. Well, at this point, it seems, as I'm reading through this, that Paul almost seems to take a breath. And then he says, "...as the truth of Christ is in me." That's essentially the form of an oath. This boasting of mine that he won't take money. will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia." Corinth was in Achaia, southern Greece. I'm going to not take money from you because I don't love you? No! That's not the reason. God knows I do love you. So this boast that he refused to take payment from the Corinthians, he's going to continue it. He's going to continue it. And, you know, we just read some of the possible reasons. Why? He just said he wanted to preach the gospel without charge in 1 Corinthians 9. He didn't want to be a burden to those among whom he ministered. And he did not want to lose his independence and be put in a position where he was being accused of being no different than the rest of us. In the ancient world as today, acceptance of any gift can sometimes bring the recipient under a real or imagined sense of obligation to the benefactor. This is how big money people control politicians. They give them gifts. Now they feel obligated. Paul did not want that between him and these people he was shepherding. In verse 12 he explains his reason for declining any fee in Corinth. What I'm doing, I'm going to continue to do, so that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting." He's going to continue. What he's talking about is, again, he's going to refrain from placing any financial burden on the Corinthians. And this profiteering, remember, peddlers of the gospel for profit, who market the gospel for profit. He had described them as. They weren't going to forego remuneration, not the peddlers. But they wanted to be regarded at least as highly as Paul. So they may have sought to goad Paul into taking payment just as they did. We read these people were greedy, some of these false apostles. We're going to see it in verse 20 next week. Many were in it for the money. He did not want to be seen as they were. And this is what he finally says to us here in verse 12. So he wouldn't take any payment. to undermine their claim that they work on the same terms as he does. And I think that's how the ESV renders this, and rightly so. So now in these last three verses of this passage, in the strongest possible language, Paul tells his readers exactly who and what these men are. Look at verse 13, 14, and 15. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ." You couldn't be any clearer. No wonder he says, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Now he's compared them to Satan. But he goes farther in verse 15. Therefore, it's not surprising if his servants, he calls them servants of Satan. It's not surprising if His servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. Christ has won the victory. Never, never doubt that. So verse 3, Paul alluded to Satan's deception of Eve. Now he shows that Satan's deception of humanity is ongoing. It's still going on. I don't know what you could say that could be more condemning than to call someone a servant of Satan. A deceitful man who disguised themselves as servants of righteousness. Remember, Satan's attacks on the church are usually subversive, deceptive. His primary weapon is deceit. And he has to carry out his attacks on people in the churches through the hands of men. He has to work through men, just as Christ works through men in spreading the gospel. Men in pulpits, women in pulpits, who either misguidedly or for their own ends, their own purposes, carry out Satan's ends and serve his ends. And that's why Paul's writing in such language. When there's a false preacher, Satan is there working through him. This is a usual tactic of Satan. And that's what this social gospel and this preaching of critical race theory, this tolerance of transgenderism, and the sins of homosexuality and even adultery. have no place in the church. And yet, Satan has infiltrated by appealing to the tolerance, calling tolerance of sin love, and deceiving people with this stuff. All of this sets aside every man's need for atonement, for recognition of his sin, for atonement for his sin, for forgiveness of his sin, and at best, teaches that one's own works. may be meritorious to save a person. It won't. The Bible's clear. And of those servants of Satan, Paul says, their end will correspond to their deeds. Paul speaks pretty often about the fact that all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ and receive good or evil according to what they've done in this body. This is how Satan worked in the garden. This is how Satan worked in Paul's day. This is how he works through his servants today. Paul's preachers are usually good speakers, good looking, telegenic, all those things. But they abound in Christian churches today. And just as Satan led Eve to doubt the Word of God, so do compromising preachers today. This tolerance of sin, this tolerance of teaching racism to people, of trying to divide people, is anything but Christ-like. And the Corinthians, they were in danger of being severed from Christ by these people. So, you know, because somebody says they believe and for a few weeks or even a couple years gives a sign that they believe. You don't know where a man, a person falls in the parable of the sower. You don't know what kind of soil a person is till we get to the end. And these people, though they'd profess Christ, had come to Christ, were working miraculous gifts, were in danger. And if they're in danger, Paul wants to thwart that danger and oppose it. And these false apostles, despite their claims to be Christian ministers, were agents of Satan. As believers and disciples in Christ, The one thing we must do always is hold fast to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and to all of the Word of God. We cannot compromise the Word of God or we start to fall into the same danger these Corinthian people were in. If you listen to false teaching, you've walked into a danger zone. This Word has been given by Christ through His Spirit preserved for us for the Old Testament for four or five thousand years, the New Testament for two thousand years. And one other thing, false prophets and false teachers are uniformly condemned in Scripture. There's no allowance for even the slightest bit of false teaching in Scripture. And so we, as believers in Christ, must always stand resolute to resist all of Satan's efforts to try to reclaim us from eternal life in Christ. So the message, hold fast to the Word of God. We're so blessed that you would open our eyes to the knowledge of the truth. And though we still fall short, Lord, we are blessed to know of your grace, of your mercy, of the true gospel, of the Son of God incarnate who came into this world to rescue us. And so, Lord, I thank you that you've sent Paul to impress this word upon our hearts tonight. May we stand resolute. May we reject all falsehood. May we reject the agents of Satan, the servants of Satan, and proclaim truth, both in our word and in our lives, in Christ's name.