Well, as we've been saying, Paul has been under attack from false apostles who have infiltrated the church in Corinth, and they have been discrediting him in a multitude of areas and falsely accused him to others as well, claiming that he is not an apostle of Christ, nor does he have apostolic authority. And they have swayed many in the Corinthian church to doubt Paul, but some have repented and been restored to him. But there are still some who are being influenced still by these imposters. And for their sake, and for the church's sake, Paul is forced to defend himself. So he said in chapter 10, even if I boast a little, what I boast about is not myself or my achievements, but what I boast about, I boast in God and what he has done through me. And although his opponent said Paul's letters were bold and scary and hard and weighty, he says my letters to you were not for destroying you, but for building you up. Then he said, the problem with the false apostles is they measure themselves against themselves. They make themselves the standard of what an apostle should be. And since Paul doesn't meet their standard, well, he can't be an apostle. But the problem with this is that they are using a human standard to judge a spiritually God-ordained position. Their criteria is human and not divine. Therefore, it's faulty. And Paul says, because of that, they are without understanding, they are unwise, and they are fools. But Paul won't do that. He compares himself to no man, but only to the Word of God. And concerning his reach of ministry, the false apostles said that the Corinthians were not in his reach, they were not in his sphere. Yet Paul said, you were clearly in my jurisdiction, you're clearly in my sphere. If I was ordained as an apostle to the Gentiles, which you are, The Lord has specifically sent me out to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. So Corinth was definitely on his radar. In fact, he says, I was the first one to come to you with the gospel. The reason you're saved, the reason there is a church in Corinth is because I came with the gospel to you, and I spent 18 months with you, and I shared the gospel with you, and I taught you, and some got to save some of you, and I told you what you needed to know. to be saved and to grow in Christ. So I didn't come to build on someone else's foundation. I didn't come to an existing church and try to take credit for it, like the false apostles have done in Corinth. No, Paul took the gospel to where the gospel has not gone before. Which is why he said, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. And what's the first thing you do is the planting, right? And Paul's hope was that the Corinthians, that they would mature in their faith and that they would then become co-laborers with him in taking the gospel to new places. That they would send him and support him as he branched out further and further with the gospel. And he said, listen, it's not the person who commends himself that is approved, but rather the one who the Lord commends. Well, in chapter 11, Paul continues to defend his ministry and his integrity. But from now on until really the middle of chapter 12, what he's going to do is take on, head to head, these false apostles. He's going to go toe to toe with them. And the reason he does is because what's at stake here is the saints' allegiance and devotion and fidelity to Christ. The saints who he loved were being deceived and seduced by these unscrupulous imposters. And Paul is defending himself so that he could protect the gospel which he preaches and also the saints who have been saved through it. You see, Paul has a pastor's heart. He has a pastor's heart. And he can't sit by and allow the wolves to come in and hurt the sheep. What I'd like to do today is I want to look at verses 1 to 4 of chapter 11 in a sermon titled, Godly Jealousy, using three points. A pastor's heart has godly jealousy. A pastor's heart fears disloyalty. And finally, a pastor's heart fears disinformation. So let's look at A Pastor's Heart Has Godly Jealousy, verses one and two. Oh, that you would bear with me 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. Well, this is the cry from Paul's heart. He wants the Corinthians to hear him. He wants them to know his deep affection for them. They've been under attack, and he wants to protect them. He's spoken to them hard in the past, i.e. the severe letter that he wrote to them. For those who are still on the fence concerning him, he wants them to reconsider these things, and he wants to win them back. So he says, oh that you would bear with me in a little folly. The word bear with me means to endure, go the distance. He will say in verse 19, for you put up with fools gladly, since you yourselves are wise, and put up with means to bear with. And since you bear with these false apostles, since you give them an ear, well then bear with me, give me an ear. Give me an ear. Bear with me as I boast about what God has done through me. And this Paul hates doing. He hates talking about himself. He considers it foolish. He doesn't want to do it. But for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the saints, for the sake of the glory of God, he will do it. He said in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 19, he did all things for their edification, even boasting. So as distasteful as it was to him, Paul had to defend his integrity, his ministry, not because of pride, not for self-esteem, not for some self-exaltation, but for the gospel's sake and for the saint's sake. So he says, bear with me, because I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. A godly jealousy. And the word jealous comes from a Greek word, zelos, which means zeal. It actually describes a pot of water that is boiling and is about to boil over. And when we hear the word jealousy, we immediately think That's not good. We think negative. We think negative because our jealousy is usually sinful. It usually is. Like we're jealous of the guy who got the good-looking girl that we like or the girl that got the good-looking guy that we like. We're jealous. Why not me? Or we're jealous of the co-worker who got the promotion that we wanted to have. Or we're jealous of the person who has the nicer house, nicer car, better husband, better wife, you name it. We're jealous of what other people have and we don't have. Proverbs 27.4 says, wrath is cruel and anger a torrent. But who is able to stand before jealousy? We know that King Saul was crazy jealous of David. Saul is slain his thousands, but David is slain his 10,000. And that made Saul tick. He hated the idea that people exalted David more than him. Crazy jealousy. Pilate, Pontius Pilate knew that the reason the Jews handed Jesus over, and we read it, they were jealous of him. They were envious of him. But listen, jealousy isn't always bad. Sometimes it's actually good. Sometimes it's godly. And the scriptures tell us that God is a jealous God. God is a jealous God. And he is jealous for his glory. And he doesn't want his people going after false gods. In Exodus, chapter 34, verse 14, God said that his name was jealous. For you shall worship no other God. For the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. Moses told the Israelites in Deuteronomy chapter 4 for the Lord your God is a consuming fire and a jealous God and again, God is jealous for his glory and when his people worship a false god or false gods, they diminish God's glory and certainly among his people as well. And the Old Testament says that God is wed to his people. Isaiah 54, 5, for your maker is your husband. The Lord of hosts is his name, husband. And when Israel went after other gods, they were committing spiritual adultery against God. And because of their adultery against him, Jeremiah 3, 8 says that he put her away. He gave her a certificate of divorce. Spiritually speaking. Speaking of Israel worshiping idols, Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 10. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? So God is a jealous God. And his jealousy is a praiseworthy zeal to protect the love relationship that he has with his people and to avenge it when it is broken. So God loves his people. God loves himself. And the reason he loves himself is because he's the most perfect, flawless being in all of humanity, in all of history, in all of creation. Therefore he is most jealous for his glory. He is jealous that his people stay faithful to him and and we should be jealous for that as well and Paul was jealous for the Corinthians with a godly jealousy so his jealousy is godly not human his jealousy is a godly jealousy not a human jealousy and He's not self-focused here, but he's savior-focused here. And what he has jealousy over are that these false apostles are coming in and trying to woo the Christians away from Christ. Or as Paul will say, the simplicity that is in Christ. So he says, I am jealous because I have betrothed you to one husband, and of course that is Christ. It's like a husband being jealous of another man who's trying to seduce his wife. I mean, who would be happy with that? or a wife being jealous of some woman trying to seduce her husband. And that's exactly what these false apostles are doing. They're trying to seduce the Corinthians to leave their true husband, which is Christ, by committing spiritual adultery. And they're trying to get the Corinthians to leave the simplicity that is in Christ. You see, Paul viewed himself as the Corinthians' spiritual father. He said in 1 Corinthians 4, 17, for though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. I have begotten you through the gospel. So he brought the gospel to them, and he stayed with them for 18 months, and he preached to them, and he taught them, and God was pleased to save many of them. And Paul then saw them as his spiritual children. And he, as like the spiritual father, and for the analogy here, they were his spiritual daughters, if you will, which he betrothed to Christ. Now listen, I know this word betrothed might not be one that we know well at all, but it was very common in Paul's day and certainly in Israel. And they would have understood this very well. And for the Jewish marriage to take place, it had three stages. And the first stage was an engagement stage. which was an official contract signed by the father of the young man and the father of the woman. And that would bind them to a contract. The second stage was the betrothal stage. Here we go. Which was an official ceremony, like a wedding ceremony, where the couple would exchange vows. And it legally bound them together. Legally bound them together as husband and wife. And the only way that could ever be broken was by death or divorce. That was it. And this is the place that we find Mary and Joseph in when Joseph finds out Mary is pregnant. They're betrothed. They're legally married, but they haven't come together yet. They're legally married. And the betrothal period lasted about one year. And during that time, they did not live together. She stayed with her parents. He stayed with his parents. And they did not come together intimately. There was no coming together. How else could I say that? The third stage was the wedding feast or the banquet, and it would be the most festive of occasions. It was a celebration. This celebration would last about a week, as the bride and groom would come together, and then they would consummate the marriage. Now, during this patrodal period, the bride was expected to be chaste, which means to be sexually pure. And during this patrodal period, it was the responsibility of the bride's father to make sure that she stayed pure. She remained faithful to her husband. For her father wanted to present her to her husband at the wedding feast as a pure virgin. Well, Paul uses a literal betrothal as an analogy of his relationship with the Corinthian saints. He says, you're the bride. I'm the father. And I have betrothed you to one husband. And the one husband is Christ. In fact, the whole church is betrothed to Christ. We're all betrothed to Christ. He's the bridegroom. We are the bride. We are the bride. John the Baptist said in John 3, he who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled. He's the bridegroom, not me. So John is a friend of the bridegroom. Paul said in Ephesians 5, dealing with physical marriage and how that's a picture of the spiritual marriage between Christ and his people, the church, he said, husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So he prepares the bride for the wedding. And Christ being the bridegroom, it's seen in Revelation chapter 19, Revelation 21. There we read, let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come. And his wife has made herself ready. Then he said to me, right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Then I, John, saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for a husband. That's beautiful language, right? So Jesus is the bridegroom. We are the bride. But our being went to Christ has stages as well, and there are two stages. The first one is the betrothal stage. If you will, that's the first one, the betrothal stage. The moment we are born again, we are betrothed to Christ. The moment we are born again, we are betrothed to Christ. He is our husband. We are his bride. We are legally married to Christ, spiritually speaking. But there's a waiting period. There's a waiting period for the consummation of the marriage. That comes at the wedding feast when Christ returns, which is what the parable of the 10 virgins is talking about in Matthew 25. So right now, every saint in this room is betrothed to Christ. You are legally, spiritually speaking, married to Christ. And the reason you're betrothed to him, here's why, is because the Father elected you to be his bride. And he did that before the foundation of the world, Ephesians, chapter one, verse four. And Christ came into this world to change your heart, to change your nature, so that you could be like him and a partaker of his nature. He came to pay off her sin debt, even though that debt was astronomical and would cost him his very life. And here's the thing, for the wedding day, how's that gonna be? Well, he's given her a beautiful gown to wear. What is that? It's a gown made from his own righteousness, his own righteousness. The fabric of that gown? His perfect obedience to the Father. The analogies here are beautiful. They really are beautiful. Paul wants nothing to get in the way of this for the saints at all. He doesn't want anyone to lure them away from Christ. He wants the Corinthians to remember who they are wed to, and they want them to remember his beauty, right? Before a wedding day, I mean, what you're thinking about is the wedding day. Guys who have been married, you're married, you know, on the day you get married, nothing nicer than seeing the woman you're marrying, like, come down the aisle in her dress with her father. I mean, that is a beautiful, wonderful, exciting time. We're going to see Christ when He comes back. A lot greater, though, than a physical marriage. So he wants the Quintet to remember. He wants them to remember who they're wed to. And it is the work of the preacher, or the teacher, to show the loveliness of the heavenly bridegroom to the people, and to those who don't know them. You need to be encouraged. If you're not saved, you need to know. You need to know that there's a wedding going to take place, and if you don't have Christ, you're not part of that wedding, but if you do, you are. You do, you are. To the most beautiful, wonderful, glorious person in all of history, in all of humanity, Jesus Christ, that He would want to be wed to us? He does. The Father gave you and I as a gift, a wedding gift. He loves it. He came to make it ready. That's the job of the pastor. and then to go on instructing and warning and protecting them until they finally adjoin to Christ as a pure virgin. So you see, Paul, who is their spiritual father, wants to present them to their spiritual husband. He said in Colossians 128, him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, why? That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Perfect in Christ Jesus. So he wants to make sure that they're the real deal. He wants to make sure that they are really Christ's. And they're flirting with the false gospels? And they're latching on to these false apostles? giving Paul some concern, giving Paul some concern. And so we see a pastor's heart has godly jealousy. Secondly, a pastor's heart fears disloyalty, disloyalty. Verse three, 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. Well, Paul tells the Corinthians he has godly jealousy for them because as their spiritual father, as the one who has betrothed them to Christ, he's troubled that they are being wooed away from Christ by these false apostles. So he says, I fear the way the serpent deceived Eve, you may be deceived as well. And what Paul does is he reminds them of the greatest deception in the history of man by the greatest enemy that man has, and that is Satan. And he goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden saying that Satan is the master deceiver. And the way he deceived Eve before there was sin is the same way he deceives today through his ministers and emissaries. So Paul says he is deceptive, he's crafty. Deceptive means to beguile, to seduce. Speaking of sin, Paul said in Romans 7.11, for sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, deceived me, and it killed me. I was killed by it. Craftiness means a subtlety, it means cunning. When the Jews were asking Jesus his questions, they were trying to trick him. And we read in Luke 20, 23, but he, Jesus, perceived their craftiness and said to them, why do you test me? Why do you test me? Paul said in Ephesians 4, 14, we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. Gotta be careful. And men are deceptive and crafty. And I know that. You know that. And maybe before God saved us, we were cunning and deceptive. Maybe even now at times we are. But men get their deception and craftiness from their spiritual father, Satan. Jesus said in John 8, 44, you, he's talking to the Jews now. Not being literal. Spiritual. You are of your father, the devil. Then be fighting words, right? And the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth. Does not stand in the truth. Because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. Satan's a fallen angel. He rebelled against God because he wants to be God. He wants to be worshipped as God. And he hates God. And he hates the people of God. And he hates you. And he hates me. And the last thing he wants is for the people of God to be worshipping God. This annoys him. You on your knees in your prayer closet? He doesn't take well to that. You reading and meditating and praying and having fellowship? He doesn't like any of that stuff. And the last thing he wants is for us to be worshiping. So his mission is to derail and hinder and cripple the church in any way possible. By the way, a little plug for the Tuesday night series we're having. on the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3, well, that's Jesus giving a report card to the seven churches. And you can see how some of them have fallen in areas and some of them are doing well. So this Tuesday night, 7.30, come on out. Mike Archer is going to get up and bring the word. Come 6.30, eat some snacks, but we're going to learn more, so come and learn. Come and learn. He wants to cripple the church in any way possible. Paul's already said in this book, in chapter two, that he was not ignorant of Satan's devices. He knows how Satan operates. He knew that he was cunning. He knew that he was crafty. And looking at how cunning and crafty he is, we see how he deceived Eve. So go back to Genesis chapter two, verse 16 and 17, where God says to Adam, of every tree of the garden, you may eat freely. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. Why? Because in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Well, there's your first equation in the Bible. Sin equals death. Right there. You eat this, you die. Physically, spiritually, eternally. Now we see Satan at work in chapter 3. Eve's in the picture now. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, here it is, has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree in the garden? Well, God has already clearly said you can't eat from one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And Satan knows that, he knows what God has said. And he brings it up to Eve as if it were unclear. And so he casts this doubt over the truth. And that's what false teachers do, they cast doubt over the truth. And Eve says in verses two and three, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, you shall not eat, nor shall you touch. unless you die. And so, and she recalls chapter two, 16 and 17, but she adds something. She adds something. She says, nor shall you touch it. And when you start adding to the word of God, you're on shaky ground right there. Then Satan responds in verse four, very clearly, very boldly. You will not surely die. You won't die. You won't die? Hey Eve, listen. God is good. God is gracious. He is a giving God. He is a loving God. He is kind and merciful. Listen, He put you in this magnificent place, the Garden of Eden. So you must have misunderstood Him. Why would this good God do that to you? You must have misunderstood Him. You must have misunderstood this thing about eating and dying. You must have. So he calls God a liar. And he contradicts his word. And he calls truth error and error truth. And this is the playbook of every single false teacher. Every single one of them. That's what they do. Then Satan says in verse five, but let me now give you the truth. And the truth is, God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened. And you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So he's luring Eve away from God, from the simplicity that is in God. He's luring her with the promise that she will be like God. Now understand, Eve does not believe she is sinning. She doesn't believe it. She doesn't believe she's rebelling against God. She has been deceived. She's been deceived, and the deception here is that she thought Satan gave her the right information, that he filled it out for her. She thought she had the wrong information, and now that things have been clarified for her, she's good. The serpent has clarified it. That's the nature of deception, is it not? Listen, another plug while I'm up here plugging. Next month, Contending conference. Contending for what? Contending for the faith, contending for the truth, contending for the gospel. One day, I think it's in your bulletin, July 27th, come out. Learn how to defend your faith. Learn how to be discerning. Learn how to know truth from error. So when you hear it, you're able to dispel it. We need to defend the faith for our own selves and for those around us in the body, right? You'll hear three good words, three good preachers will bring three good words for us in that area. Sign up for that if you will. All right, enough of the showing. All right. Well again, this is the nature of deception. And false teachers are masters at this, saying things like, God is not really sovereign in everything. You can't put him in control of everything. I mean, bad things happen. How could God be sovereign over all of this stuff? He would never do that. He would never say that women couldn't preach. He loves women. Why would he say women can't have authority over a man anyway? How could that possibly be? He would never send anyone to hell. God is loving. Send someone to hell? He never said we're all sinners with a sin nature from conception and so on and on and on. They just take the word and they turn it and twist it and say, he didn't say that. He doesn't mean that. You've got to look a little closer. And what false teachers do is they come in and they put error right besides truth. Here's truth, and they stick error right next to it. And you don't know it because they don't They do teach some truth, but they mix it with error. And once you've taken the bait of the error, then they scale back the truth, they scale back the truth, they scale back the truth, and all you're left with is error. And the danger of the false doctrines they teach is that when they are believed, they establish strongholds in one's mind. You know this. You meet people, they don't care what you say. Chapter and verse doesn't mean a thing. I believe this because I was told this, and they're gonna believe it no matter what you say. You can sit there and unload 50 verses, and they don't care, because they were taught something. They don't care. It's a stronghold in the mind. That's what happens. And the only way to tear down a stronghold? Well, as we saw in 2 Corinthians 10, verse five, is to hold every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And some may think they're immune from deception and the tactics of Satan and his ministers. Hey, I've been a Christian for a long time. I can't be taken by this. But Paul's fear is exactly this for the saints. For if Satan could tempt Eve and deceive Eve, who was sinless, who had perfect fellowship with God, he can deceive me and you. He could do it. who are corrupted. I mean, he could do it to us. He can corrupt the minds of many. And that's where the battleground is, by the way, in the mind. Paul says, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ, the mind. Corrupt means to lead astray, to destroy, to spoil. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, do not be deceived, evil company corrupts good habits. He said in 2 Corinthians 7, we have wronged no one. We have corrupted no one. We have cheated no one. So I haven't led you astray by starting with the truth and then going to error. I haven't preached grace and then all of a sudden did a turn on you and now I'm preaching law. I didn't do that to you at works. I didn't do that. And many minds throughout the centuries have been corrupted with other Jesuses and other Gospels, as we will see in verse four. And listen, all it takes is one pastor, one elder, who can corrupt a church with faulty teaching, with man-centered teaching, with emotionally driven teaching. It doesn't take much. That chain can easily be broken with one man starting to bring in Era. And people will buy it because the pastor has charisma. He seems so knowledgeable. He's a good speaker. He's a likable guy. He's funny, personable. So people get drawn to the man. And then what happens is they buy into the rotten fruit. They get drawn to the man and buy into the rotten fruit. And like physical adultery, which starts in the mind, so too spiritual adultery starts in the mind. And the warnings are great in scripture to beware of these guys and these ladies today. And it's just a few, I'll give you three. Colossians 2.8. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the traditions of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. 1 John 4.1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. And how do we test them? Oh, he looks shifty. I notice his eyes are coming together a little bit. No, no. You test them by the word, by what they teach and preach. And then you look at the life. There's your testing. 1st Timothy 4, 1-3. Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times, and when are the latter times? Cross the second coming. In the latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. If it's a doctrine and it's not in the scriptures, Well, there's only one other place it's coming from. It's the doctrine of a demon. Doctrine of demons speaking lies and hypocrisy. Having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. Forbidding to marry. Well, there's a whole religion that does that one. And commanding to abstain from foods. There's a lot of them there. Which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. And so you're getting some warning signs here. They're going to shift and change and taint the scriptures on you. And the reason Paul fears that the Corinthians might give in to these lies is because he says it'll take them from the simplicity that is in Christ. Simplicity that is in Christ. Or it will take them from sincere and pure devotion to Christ. And brothers and sisters, this is what we should want to be known for. This is Christianity 101, Christianity at work. We are to be a single-minded, wholeheartedly devoted people to Christ. That's it. The songs we sing, the word we hear, the life we live, it should be Christ and Christ alone. He should be the umbrella of everything, our thoughts, our deeds, anything else that goes on in our life. He should be, have set a place, heart, the throne of the heart. Or as Paul would say, that this is when Christ is our life. In Philippians 121, for me to live is Christ. If we could say that, and say that without any reservation, without adding five or six or eight other things to that, Then dies gain. Then we have assurance and hope and joy and all those other blessings that flow from that. That's the simplicity that is in Christ. This is when you can say without reservation, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So Paul fears that the Corinthians would fall prey to the false apostles' deception, which would lead them away from the truth of the gospel, and it would steal, if you will, their devotion to Christ and their pursuit of holiness for his sake. And Paul, like a father to these saints, cares deeply about their walks, and he cares about their joy in the Lord, and he cares about their growth in grace. And he knows these false apostles are out to rob them of all of those things. He knows that. And his concern is that the Corinthians wouldn't let him do it. That they'll just like hand over the farm, so to speak. Oh, go ahead, lead me. You have so much charisma. You seem so smart. You have all those recommendations. You have all these quote unquote spiritual experiences that you brag about. He's afraid that they're gonna lack discernment to know better and end up being disloyal to Christ. So he's warning them. And he'll engage them in a little folly to show them what a real apostle looks like. And he's gonna do that for the next chapter and a half. He goes, you wanna talk about real apostles? You wanna talk about who's really Christ sent? Let's compare, let's compare. And he hates doing it, by the way. He's gonna tell you he hates it like five times. But he's gonna do it for their sake. All right, so we see a pastor's heart has godly jealousy. A pastor's heart fears disloyalty. And finally, a pastor's heart fears disinformation. Disinformation, verse 4. 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. Paul fears that the way Satan deceived Eve, he would do the same to the Corinthians through his false apostles and his ministers that are working for him, which we'll see, by the way, when we get to verses 13 to 15 of this chapter. And now he shows us some ways in that they do that. And they do that by bringing three things, three things. They bring another Jesus, they bring a different spirit, and they bring a different gospel. So he starts by saying, if he who comes, if he who comes, and that's interesting when he says, if he who comes, because an apostle doesn't come An apostle is sent. That's what the word means. The word apostle in Greek means sent one. That's what it means. But these false apostles came on their own. They just showed up and said, we're apostles. Look at the credentials. Ask this place and that place and ask these guys. We're the real deal. Well, they're not. And what they came with was another Jesus, which Paul says he didn't preach that. He didn't preach that. There's only one Jesus. That's the biblical Jesus of the Bible, not the counterfeit Jesus of all false apostles, of all false teachers. The Jesus, which Acts 4.12 says, there is salvation in no other name. No other name under heaven can men be saved but through Jesus. So if there's another Jesus going on around here, you can't be saved by that Jesus. He can't save you. Only one name can save you. Only one person can save you, and that is Jesus. And you need to be saved if you're not saved. The Jesus who said in John 14 6, and by the way, the world hates this verse. It is so stinking narrow. Think of a postage stamp. That's how much room you have to move in this one. He said, I am the way. Not me, Buddha, Mohammed, you know, Koresh or anybody else. I am the way. I am the life. I am the truth. No one comes to the Father except through me. How are you going to get there? How are you going to get to heaven? Good works, good looks, a lot of money? Try your best? He says no. Him alone. This is the Jesus who said in John 6, 44, no one can come to me, you can't come, I can't come, unless the Father who sent me draws him. God has got to do the moving here. God has got to draw the heart. This is not what I can do for you, I couldn't do it for me. None of us can play the Holy Spirit here, God must do it. God must do it. That's what we pray for, for God to move. I pray that God would move through the power of the Spirit as I'm up here, or we're doing a Sunday school, or you're talking to a neighbor or something. God's gotta move. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up the last day. There's the promise. If God draws you, I'm gonna raise you up. I'm gonna raise you up. There's the promise of eternal life. This is the Jesus who said in Luke 13 3, I tell you, Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And here it is, this whole idea of repentance, which is confessing your sin, crying out for forgiveness of your sin, you are unholy, unworthy, you're a worm before a holy God, you sin against the holy God, you need to repent. Oh, that's a very hard teaching. We don't like that. No one preaches that anymore, really. And yet, Jesus said, unless you repent, you're gonna perish. So there needs to be repentance. There needs to be an acknowledgement of sin. There needs to be a thrusting yourself at the mercy of God like a beggar who hasn't eaten in a month and you're saying, please, I beg you, give me something to eat. It's this coming at him and coming at him and coming at him. Striving, striving, striving, striving. Don't stop, don't stop. Begging him, forgive me of my sin. I'm telling you, you keep coming, he's going to save you. When? I have no crystal ball here. All I know is you keep coming, you keep coming, you keep coming. At some point, He wants you to be so empty. He wants you to be so helpless that all you want is Him. If coming to Christ is the most important thing in your life, then no other thing will get in the way of that. It'll become the ultimate priority. Repenting and coming will be the ultimate priority. You're not going to be satisfied until He brings you in. And Jesus said a lot of things concerning hell, and sin, and judgment, and the cost of discipleship. That doesn't really sit well with a lot of people. But another Jesus, well, that's not so radical now, right? And that's not so hard to get along with. For some people, preach a Jesus that is tolerant of all sin. So you can live sexually and morally, you can have sex, you can be a frequent one on pornography. You can do all kinds of things. He's okay with that. He's not going to condemn you for that. You can live exactly the way you want to live before you claim that you were saved. He's good with that. Listen, if you're living today the same way you were living before you claimed you were saved, I'm telling you, you've deceived yourself. You have deceived yourself. If there is no change of heart, no change of mind, no change of action, well, then there's been no salvation. I'm not saying perfect. We're still sinners, but there's a radical change of heart when one is born again. Some preach a social justice Jesus or a political Jesus. They want to right the wrongs as they see them in society. So we need Jesus to stand up for us in this social area or political area. Let me tell you something. Jesus is not a political party. But what you should do, and I should do, is when we vote, and we should vote because we've been given the blessing to vote, is we should vote with biblical principles. Don't throw those out the door. That's how you and I should vote. If somebody doesn't stand up to the principles you believe, don't vote for that person. Vote for Phil Sessa. Write his name in. I've done it twice already. I'm only kidding. I'm only kidding. But you know what I'm saying? Use biblical principles when you go to vote. And then there's some preach the liberal Jesus, or the Jesus who wants to heal you, or grant you wealth and prosperity. Jesus is all about helping you now in this physical life. And then there's the Jesus of the cults. They say he's a man, but he's not God, or that he was created by God, who himself they say was created in some cases. And that Jesus is actually the half-brother of Satan, so they were born together, like twins, Jacob and Esau. They say that. And that's what actually the Mormons say. So there are a lot of Jesuses being preached out there, but there's only one Jesus, and that's the Jesus Paul preached. That's the Jesus of the gospel. And that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. 100% man, 100% God. And as man, he was sinless. And he perfected God's law for those he came to save. And he was crucified for our sins. And on the third day he rose for our justification. And he has ascended into heaven where he reigns now and is seated at the right hand of God and is coming back again to judge the living and the dead. And he will bring his bride to himself. And to reject him is to be damned. And to receive him as your Lord and Savior is to be given eternal life and glory with him. That's the true Jesus. That's the true Jesus. Do you intimately know the true Jesus? Do you know him? Is your heart beating for him because of him? I hope and pray for all of us. Well, Paul then says, or if you receive a different spirit, which you have not received, And when the Corinthians were saved, they received the Holy Spirit. Everyone who is born again, the moment they are born again, they are given the promise of the Holy Spirit indwelling them. So He's in you. He's in you. But the false apostles, they're unregenerated men. They don't have the Holy Spirit of God in them. Instead, they are under the spirit of the wicked one. And so there is no edification, there is no spiritual fruit born from their ministry. Just lies, deception, and ultimately they're gonna be death. And finally, Paul says, or if they come with a different gospel, which you have not accepted. And when you have another Jesus, it is only logical you have another gospel, or a different gospel. And Paul was so adamant that this had to be absolutely squashed. He said in Galatians 1, 6 to 8, and by the way, he'll say it again in verse 9 to 10, so he says it twice. He says, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ. To what? To a different gospel, which is not another. But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, this is hypothetical now, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. You know what that means? Let him be damned to hell. Anathema, let him be damned to hell. Anybody else preach another gospel? Let them go to hell for that. And that's not cursing there, that's just saying you're futzing with the most critical, important, precious thing in all of life. So there's only one gospel. But many are peddling a different gospel, like the gospel of works. Like the gospel of works, which says you've got to do stuff. Listen, 90% of all religion out there, quote-unquote Christian religion, you've got to do stuff. You've got to keep doing stuff. in order to be saved. Or the Gospel of Law, which is what the Judaizers were pushing, saying, if you want to be a Christian, you've got to keep the ceremonial stuff, the washings and the fastings and circumcision and days and all that kind of stuff. So you've got to do that stuff to be saved. Or the Gospel of Law. what you've got to do. Or the easy believism gospel. Just name and claim a gospel. And the list is very long here. And Paul's fear is, he says, is that you may well put up with it. You may well put up with it. And here's the thing. We won't put up with it if we know the Word of God. You won't be hoodwinked or duped if you know the Word of God. Listen, there's eight million people out there on the internet preaching something, teaching something, and it's easy to get sucked in. Oh, that guy seems smart, and they are smart, and they seem biblical, and they use a lot of theological terms, and they're giving you Greek terms, and they're parsing verses for you, and using Hebrew terms. You'll say, well, I don't know any of that stuff, so he must be pretty smart, and he's got a PhD in theology. Any of the apostles have PhDs? fishermen, tax collectors, zealots. No PhDs there, just men who were with Christ. He taught them. So Paul's fear is they might put up with it. And here's the thing, if we don't know the word of God, we might too. We need to test everything we hear by the word. We need to test it. It's the job of the elders to do that overall and to equip you to do that. But ultimately, the first line of battle for us are your elders. Something comes in here and it's not right, we ought to shut it down. We have to shut it down. But I don't know what happens when you're alone or someone talks to you, what you're surfing through on the internet. You need to know. You need to know as well. So we test by what we hear in the Word of God. Not by the culture, not by popular opinion, not by what some pastors said. Listen, we need to be a discerning people who will not put up with error that it will corrupt us from the simplicity that is in Christ. That's the key verse, from the simplicity that is in Christ. We want to stay close to Him, not add stuff or take away stuff from it. We want to stay close to Him. We want to be devoted to Him, worshiping Him, fellowshipping with Him. Let me close by asking one question and leaving you with a quick three thoughts. The question is this. Has anything corrupted your mind from the simplicity that is in Christ? Has anything corrupted your mind from the simplicity that is in Christ? Have you bought into any teaching or philosophy or worldly wisdom that is taking Christ's place in your heart? Let me ask it this way. What, if anything, has disturbed your single-minded devotion to Christ? What, if anything, has disturbed your single-minded devotion to Christ? If there is anything, you need to repent, you need to go back to the truth, and you need to gaze upon, once again, the beauty and glory of Christ. First thought. Every time you give your heart to something other than Christ, you commit spiritual adultery. Gentlemen, it's like you're cheating on your wives. Sisters, like you're cheating on your husband. Why? Why do I say this? Because you are betrothed to Christ. And when you go after idols, you go away from Christ. When you find satisfaction from something else or from someone else, Well, you're not finding it in Christ. You're not finding it in Christ. So every time you go after something other than Christ, you commit spiritual adultery. Second thought. He says, remember that Christ saved you for himself to be his bride. It's a beautiful thought. He didn't have to save any of us. None of us deserve salvation, and yet he came to save us because the Father gave us as a gift to him. I give you a wife. I betrothed you to her. Who's her? Her is every single believer since day one, and everyone else who's to come. He's betrothed you and I to Christ. He loves his bride. Ephesians 5, he died for his bride. He loves his bride. He loves his bride more than you could even love yourself or anybody else. Again, he died for the bride. He lives for his bride. And he will present it to himself as a chaste virgin on the day he returns. Brothers and sisters, you are the bride of Christ. Think high thoughts. Think high thoughts of who you are to him. It will deter us from going this way and going that way. My third thought, as great as Satan's temptation and deception is, it does not trump the grace of God in the gospel. It does not trump the grace of God in the gospel. It may have looked like it was lights out for man when Adam and Eve sinned. It might have looked like it was all over. It may have looked to Satan like he had eternally doomed all men forever. But Satan could not have known just how much greater God's grace is than our sins. And he could not have known how great God's love is for sinners. He doesn't know who the elect are. He doesn't have any special insight to what God knows. He could not have known those things. He could not have known those things. And if you're not saved today, well here's what you need to know. You need to know that. You need to know that because so far you have been deceived and your mind has been corrupted, buying into the lies of the wicked one. And you've been thinking you're okay. And you don't really need to surrender to Christ. You don't really need to repent of your sins. You don't really need to stop living the way you're living because God's okay with that. I go to church, I give some money. I do a little here, I do a little there. You gotta know that's not okay with God. It's not okay with God. You need to know before God you're a sinner, and you're going to answer for your sin. That's a very unpleasant thing, but you will. You're not okay. You need to surrender. You need to repent, because you think maybe God won't judge you, because deep down, and I thought this, you're a good person. You try hard. You do the best you can. You try to help people. You try to be a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout in the world you live around, and even they're a little shaky now. But you try. But the truth is, He will judge you, and He will judge you for every sin you've ever committed, thought, word, and deed, and that'll end you up into an eternal hell. But know this, the true Jesus, the Jesus of the Gospel, He can save your soul. He can forgive you of all your sins. He can do that. He can forgive you of all your sins. for the real gospel says that he came into this world to save anyone who would trust in him and that he suffered for their sins at the cross so that they wouldn't have to suffer eternally for them and thus they can be forgiven forever and be given eternal life. And here's the deal, if you cry out, even today, if you come to him and say, Lord, I've been duped, I've been brainwashed, I have believed lies, I think all is well, but before you it's not well, and you don't want to find out it's not well when it's too late. When you're in eternity, when you breathe your last, you don't want to find out then, because then there's no hope. But there's hope today. And the hope today is, you turn from your sins, you cry out to Christ, you see the beauty and glory of Christ, you see the wonder of what it means to have eternal life, you ask Him to forgive you, and He will forgive you. He will forgive you of all your sins, and you will be forgiven and given eternal life. And He will not only forgive you, but He will betroth you to Him. That's the thing. You don't just get forgiveness, You get relationship forever and ever with the beautiful and wonderful and glorious Christ. Amen? Don't let it go. Let's pray. Father, how good you are and how merciful you are and how deep is your love that you would save sinners, that you would give us Christ as our betrothed, as our bridegroom. Father, I praise your people, that we would be encouraged in our souls. Lord, that we would have godly jealousy for his glory. Lord, that we would not entertain, Lord, idols, commit spiritual adultery against the one who loves us so and has given his life for us, that you would make us very aware of that. And Father, we pray that We would not be disloyal, we would not buy into disinformation, that we would trust the one true gospel, the one true Christ, and have the Holy Spirit to ensure that is the case. And for the unsaved, Lord, please, we pray, please have mercy on their souls. And we ask in Christ's name, amen.