Tactics of False Teachers

Transcript

GR 2101
10/29/2017
Tactics of False Teachers
Galatians 4:17-20
Gil Rugh

We are going to the book of Galatians in your Bibles and the 4th chapter, Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches. There were several churches in this region. We have looked at a map in different cities so this would be a letter to be circulated among them. Perhaps they would make a copy and then pass it on to the next church and so on. It is a letter to the Galatians. A little different as an example, addressed to a church in one city like Corinth or Ephesus but this is the Galatian region and cities in different churches in this region. Paul had founded these churches on his first missionary journey. That was recorded in Acts chapters 13 and 14. We looked at that as well.

When you look at Paul’s life and ministry you are reminded that the ministry of truth is a ministry of conflict. Not because believers love to be in conflict but we are in a spiritual war. When Paul established the churches in the Galatian region, it was in the context of difficulty, trial and opposition. Paul referred to this in verse 13 and 14 of chapter 4: “You know it was because of bodily illness that I preached the Gospel to you the first time. That which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you didn’t despise or loathe. You received me as an angel of God, as Christ Himself.” Not only did he have opposition from outside but you have normal, as we might call it, trials of life, physical difficulties. We don’t always know the cause. Paul had a messenger of Satan that buffeted him. That may have to do with his physical trial. It may have just been a bodily weakness that it was God’s plan that Paul have. We noted that Paul in his letter to the Corinthians noted that part of these troubles were to keep him from becoming too proud. None of us outgrow the danger. Even a man of Paul’s maturity spiritually had certain things the Lord brought into his life that kept him humble, as Paul said, “To keep me from exalting in myself and thinking of myself as something special.”

Remember Paul’s disappointment. John Mark before they went up into the region of Galatia they were in Pamphylia. John Mark decided to go back home. They had come through Cyprus on this trip. Perhaps Paul was already having some physical problems, whatever. John Mark decided I am going home; another discouragement, another disappointment. Here is a young man that Paul and Barnabas were taking with them. They were going to depend on him. He would be an asset. Now he leaves. You not only have the discouragement of him leaving but you are also left without that worker. It had such an impact on Paul he would not allow John Mark to travel with him again on his missionary journeys. We looked at the division that brought between Paul and Barnabas.

You might as well jump back to Acts 13 just for a moment of review. In Acts 13 where Paul is dealing with these matters come down to verse 45 as Paul is preaching, verse 44: “The next Sabbath day the whole city assembled to hear the Word of the Lord but when the Jews saw the crowds they were filled with jealousy. They began to oppose Paul.” We are in the Gentile part of the world but there are Jews here in the synagogue and Paul had a ministry in the synagogue where he often started because he had a point of contact. He’s a Jew, from a line of Pharisees, strict adherence to the Law. He had been converted. He can deal with them out of their Old Testament Scriptures. It is a point of contact. But the Jews are opposed to Paul’s ministry so they are contradicting him as it is put in verse 45, blaspheming, attacking Paul and his teaching saying it is not true and so on. So Paul says, “Well you consider yourself unworthy of the life that God has provided in Christ. So we are going to turn to the Gentiles.”

So verse 48: “When the Gentiles heard this they were excited and as many as God had appointed to eternal life believed.” You see the sovereignty of God in this. So these would be some of the people that are going to form the churches at Galatia. It is like this. They heard Paul’s word and respond to it but verse 50: “The Jews incited devoted women of prominence and leading men in the city and instigated persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.” So they move on to a different city, Iconium, and there are believers coming.

So you come into chapter 14, “A large number of people believed both Jews and Greeks but” (verse 42) “the Jews who didn’t believe stirred up the minds of the Gentiles, embittered them against Paul and Barnabas.” Verse 5: “When an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat and stone them they became aware of it.” They go to Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, other cities in the Galatian region. So you see there are believers but there is conflict constantly going on.

Down in verse 19, Paul was even stoned and left for dead, an amazing miracle here. You are aware how stoning goes. They pick up stones; throw them at you until they beat you to death with the stones. Looks like Paul is dead and God miraculously lifts him up and then he goes back through the cities where he has established churches.

Verse 23 he said, “They appointed elders for them in every church.” So at the very beginning of Paul’s ministry, under the direction of the Spirit, there is leadership provided for God’s people but he reminds them all in verse 22 “That it is through tribulations that we will eventually enter into the kingdom that is promised that Christ will establish.” So the kingdom is yet future and tribulation is part of what is going on.

Now you see the mixture of the Jews and some of them have professed faith. Some of them are overtly opposed and then the devil brings that compromising mixture. Jews who claim to believe in Christ but also say we are required to keep the Mosaic Law and that is that compromise that does the most damage to the church and undermines it. That is what Paul is dealing with in his letter to the Galatians. After he left you have this Judaizing element arise and say, “Alright, we agree with Paul as far as he went but what he taught you isn’t the complete picture. ‘You must also submit yourself to the Mosaic Law.’” Well you have undermined the Gospel. This is the battle.

I read you from the article earlier this evening about the compromise going on as followers of Luther now at least by name moved back to the Roman Catholic Church. What did they do? They compromised the truth that Luther stood for. They undermine it; nothing new under the sun.

So come back to chapter 4. Paul has worked through with them what is going on. He is concerned in verse 11 “that perhaps he labored over them in vain” because as they continue down this road, they demonstrate them not to have ever really been saved but just gone through that superficial, emotional conversion, that partial agreement but you can’t be saved by partially believing the truth in Christ. You can’t partially trust Him. The mixture means you are under the curse of God.

So verse 16 as we ended our last study: “Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Paul is concerned. He told them the truth of the Gospel. If they continue to follow the Judaizers they will end up in the position of being Paul’s enemy, opposing Paul. There is no other alternative. Paul started out in chapter 1 remember “If you teach any other gospel than the one I preached to you, you are under the curse.” You are cursed to hell. You are anathema. So if you are going down that line of the Judaizers, mixing the Law with the message of Christ you will begin to view me as the enemy and that’s the process going on. If they view Paul as the enemy, they are viewing the truth that he taught as the enemy. Not true!

So verse 17 he picks up, “They eagerly seek you. Not commendably but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them. It’s always good to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, not only when I am present with you.” There is a word repeated three times in these two verses and our translation makes it a little difficult but I just mention it to you and we will see it as we go along, “Eagerly seek” in verse 17. That is a translation of one word ‘to be zealous.’ Eagerly seek is not a bad translation but since it is translated differently. They are zealous. They eagerly seek you. Then at the end of the verse, “So that you will seek them.” Well it is the same word ‘zealous.’ So you will be zealous for them. They didn’t put the eager on this but it is the same word.

Then you come down in verse 18. “It is always good to be eagerly sought.” The word ‘zealous’ again. I mention that because there is an emphasis on this word, ‘zeal.’ There is good zeal and there is bad zeal. So people could be zealous but zealousness in and of itself isn’t good. You have to be zealous for the truth.

So Paul picks up: “They are zealous for you,” verse 17. “They eagerly seek you.” These Judaizers, these false teachers who are corrupting the truth and you can see they have an appeal because it seems they are going to bring both together. You had Gentiles that opposed Paul. You had Jews that opposed Paul. Here you come and we can have the best of both worlds. We can have the message that Paul preached and we can continue the Law that the Jews believed and then the church like, well we have got a mixture here that will work.

So these false teachers are zealous. That is sometimes something that confuses Christians. They have such a zeal. You know I have to admire how zealous they are. Well there is nothing admirable about being zealous for error, passionate for error. So they are zealous but all they are doing with their zeal is causing division. Sometimes it seems they have such strength and passion that they are just making headway. So that causes division. It is dividing Paul and the churches in Galatia. You are going to have division. They are zealous so don’t make a mistake. People who are going to promote error are going to do it with passion, zeal, conviction. They were doing it. “They are zealous for you. They eagerly seek you but not commendably.” It is not in a good way, not commendably, not good. Their zeal is not good zeal but they wish to shut you out so you will seek them.

The Judaizers have a two-fold purpose. First they want to shut you out. Really what they are trying to do is cut them off from fellowship with Paul, create a division between them and Paul, undermine their confidence. You know Paul didn’t really teach you the whole truth. You know this is constantly an attack on Paul and others as well but Paul what? “Oh he can’t be trusted.” We saw that in a letter to the Galatians. Well you know he is not reliable. You know he has ulterior motives in this. So are trying to cut you off from me, undermine your confidence in me and the message I preach. That is what he means when he said “They wish to shut you out,” a tactic of false teachers. If they can cut you off, put a barrier between you and those who would teach the truth, now they have got you out where they want you and they want you to seek them.

So you see that’s the second purpose. First, let’s break that relationship they have with Paul, that trust they have in him and what he teaches them and then let’s get them to be zealous for us. This is not just to get people out of the neutral realm but first you have to wean them off the truth. You have to undermine their confidence in those who have been teaching them the truth. Because if all of a sudden now I have doubts about them, their character, their motives, whatever with that goes probably can’t trust what they teach. They go hand in hand. Then what? You can trust us.

So they want to transfer and make them zealous for them and their teaching and that is why Paul said in verse 16: “Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Whatever way we could put together a list of the ways that the enemy has tried to undermine Paul. Remember in Corinthians they even said, “Well didn’t he say he was going to come visit you at such and such a time and he didn’t;” so that is an evidence you can’t trust him. Paul said there was a good reason why I couldn’t come then. He explains that so they are using all kinds of things because what? If you lose confidence in the one who is teaching you the truth, you lose confidence in the truth he is teaching. Well he didn’t really teach you the whole truth. Why wouldn’t Paul teach you the whole truth? Well so you really see they are transferring allegiance. The word ‘zeal’ here that is why is becomes important. It is used three times here. They are zealous for you, they eagerly seek you, they want to cut you off from me so you will be zealous for them.

So now the false teacher and these members of the church at Corinth share a relationship with each other and Paul has been moved out of the picture and they get removed from the truth.
They don’t come in saying, “Well we don’t believe the truth.” You’ve got to be more subtle than that. So it is the way the work goes. You create a division. Now you trust us and they will transfer their allegiance, their zeal for the false teacher and in effect what Paul said his concern was in verse 16: “He will have become their enemy because he tells them the truth” because the false teachers have succeeded in undermining their trust in Paul and the message he preached so he is the enemy because they have chosen to follow those who are teaching error; that zeal.

You know it is the same pattern. Come back to Jeremiah. So long before Paul, the work of the devil goes on and he is brilliant and he has had a long time to work his tactics, Jeremiah chapter 2. The prophet Jeremiah, you remember, prophesying during the Babylonian captivity, that period of time. Note what he says in chapter 2. It opens up with “The Word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem saying ‘I remember concerning devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothal.’” And remember earlier in chapter 4 Paul talked to the Galatians and said, “What has happened? You know you treated me with such love. You responded with such a love for the truth. You overlooked the things that could have been loathsome to you” in evidently in some of his physical condition reminding them this is what God is doing now with Israel back in Jeremiah chapter 2. “I remember the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothal.” What happened? Why now have you gone after other gods? “Why have you rejected Me” God is saying.

So you see the same work of the devil because he is trying to transfer allegiance from God to himself through his workers and then what they did. The end of verse 5: “They went far from me, they walked after emptiness and became empty.” Once you abandon the truth and the true and living God where do you go? To a life of emptiness and hopelessness.

Keep on coming down, down to verse 8 the priest and those who handled the Law they got off track so you have the blind leading the blind. Down to verse 13: “For My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters and (secondly) to hue for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” They turn from the One who can give them the water of life and follow those, the false gods and so on as it is in Jeremiah 2, the same pattern. Because if the Galatians are lured away from Paul who is representing God and His truth and become followers of the false teachers where will they be? They will be in a world of emptiness. That doesn’t necessarily happen in an instant. The relationships are built. The confidence is undermined and they have got the Galatians ear. Paul can’t even be there physically. That is where he is going.

So these false teachers have an up on him. Here they are and they can tell their side of the story. They can present what they say is the truth and they begin to doubt and it begins to make sense.

You know if you give your ear to the devil, pretty soon you will be doing what he says. Even Peter became a spokesman for the devil. Remember when Jesus had to tell him, “Get behind me Satan?” Because Peter became a mouthpiece for the devil. These Galatians are giving their ear and listening to these false teachers and you know it is like the words of the whisperer that goes down inside, that error that the devil, remember he is the slanderer. He is the liar and the father of lies. Pretty soon it gets in us and then you know it is like a little bit of disease. If it is not caught and dealt with it begins to get worse and that is where the Galatians are. They are listening to this, these false teachers have come, they hear them, they listen to what they have to say, the lies begin to be not so clearly lies and yes, there were things about Paul, yes I can see what they are saying and yes, maybe Paul didn’t have the complete message. If they don’t stop then Paul will become their enemy and that is what the false teachers want because then they can abandon his truth more openly and completely.

In chapter 5 of Galatians verse 4: “You have been severed from Christ you who were seeking to be justified by Law. You have fallen from grace.” You see Paul is concerned where they are going. If you don’t stop on this, it just indicates I have wasted my time with you. You never were saved. You can’t have grace and Law mixed together.

Amazing! There is just a relentless battle that believers have with error. There are hardly any letters in the New Testament that don’t have to deal with it. So here we are.

Alright, back to chapter 4, verse 18: “But it is always good to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner.” The Galatians ought to be zealously pursued by those who have the truth and are faithful to the truth. That is always good, not only when Paul is there but other faithful teachers. So Paul is not the only teacher of the truth. He demonstrated a zeal in what he was willing to go through to bring the Gospel, the truth of God to these Galatians. That is a good commendable zeal and he is not saying, “Oh, there is nobody can have zeal except me.” This is not that kind of approach. It is good always to be eagerly sought, to have people zealous for you in a commendable manner and that is the key, with the truth that are going to be bringing them the truth to build them up so there has to be discernment and you will note it is expected and required that these believers have discernment early on. True believers should be discerning and that means certain things we don’t listen to.

I have shared with you at a time when I was involved in some theological studies and I had to leave. My fear was if I continued there and they had a corrupted teaching that it would begin to alter my thinking. I didn’t go there thinking, “Well I am strong enough. I can do this. I have sorted it all out.” They say you don’t sit and listen to the devil and think, “he can deceive others but he can’t deceive me.” What I have to do is refuse to listen and here are the Galatians. They didn’t have Bibles like we have. They couldn’t go and take their copy of the whole Bible and go through it and have the all completed New Testament but they were expected to be discerning and sort out truth from error and that should be a growing thing in the foundational issues of the Gospel. If you are not clear on that then that is where Paul says, “This is beginning to sort out whether you were truly saved or not.”

Come back to 2 Corinthians, just before Galatians, just a few pages 2 Corinthians chapter 11. You see Paul uses the same kind of language. Verse 2: “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy,” that zeal. “For I betrothed you to one husband that to Christ I may present you as a pure virgin but I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. 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,” same problem with the Galatians.

Somewhere there has been a movement for that love for Paul and the message he preached and that allegiance now being transferred to those who are corrupting the truth and calling for their devotion and zeal and the problem with the Corinthians, they were going along. The problem with the Galatians, they were going along. Problem with churches today, they go along. You will note down in verse 13: “Such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” So it is not surprising.

So this is serious business. We don’t underestimate the enemy of our soul, the devil and what he can do through his workers and the kind of workers he can use. It is the history of the church. It started early. Here we are in the beginning days and years of the church and this is already going on. 2,000 years later it is still the tactic and the battle.

You are in 2 Corinthians, back up to chapter 10. Paul talks about his authority but it is an authority within a realm. “If I boast somewhat further about our authority which the Lord gave me” (note) “for building you up not for destroying you.” That is what Paul has to say. He’s in a battle for their allegiance. Not because he wants them to just be his personal “disciples” because they are abandoning him because they are abandoning the truth. They are inseparable. “But I have authority to build you up, not to control your life, not to run your life but authority to build you up.”

And you note what they say, verse 10: “His letters are weighty and strong. His personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptable.” What does that have to do with it? Is it on who looks the best? Who is the most eloquent? You see how the little ways that they begin to weaken the attachment to Paul and thus to his message. Tactic of the devil.

Over in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 10: “I am writing these things while absent and so when present I need not use severity in accordance with the authority which the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.” Paul’s desire is not to weaken the churches at Galatia any more than the churches at Corinth. He wants to strengthen them. You don’t get strengthened by being moved away from the truth.

So come back to Galatians chapter 4. And this is the burden for Paul. We noted in verse 12-20 in your previous study this is a personal section, it is an emotional section. Paul talks about his attachment to them. Verse 12 he said “I beg of you brethren.” Talking about how gracious they were in their treatment of him and the relationship they had.

Now he addresses them in verse 19: “My children with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.” Becomes parental in his appeal to them. You know a parent with a child, motherly. It is like a mother in labor and he says, “I have to go back. I am again in labor.” He brought them to spiritual life when he brought them the Gospel but I am going back; going through that process again of having to bring the clarity of the Gospel to you. Something is wrong. I thought and the analogy, “I had birthed you in Christ.” And he addresses them as “my children.” So the bond that he is expressing with them but is it like the labor process wasn’t completed.

You know we talk today about hard labor, a woman going through hard labor, difficult labor. Sometimes they talk about the amount of time. This is the picture Paul has here. He had to back up. “My children, there is something wrong here. I shouldn’t be going back through the labor process with you.” And he calls them, “my children” but the pain and agony they are causing him is like going back through the labor process again. “My children with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you,” great statement.

The birth process and the clarity of belonging to Christ is not complete now in the Galatians. If you are back now in doubts about the genuineness of the Gospel I preached we have to back up. I can’t stop with you. It is like you have not really come to birth yet. Whether you have a breach birth or something of the analogy but it won’t be complete and clear until you are settled in your relationship with Christ. He is looking for transformation, not alteration. Christ has to be formed in you. Your allegiance is to Him.

That’s why I say “Even early on in the young stage there ought to be clarity.” And you see that often. Some of you have probably experienced that where you come out of a religious system or a religious background but it was clear as a bell Jesus Christ is the Savior. I have been saved by faith in Him. It is God’s grace that did it. Often we see those believers both. That ought to be clear and remain clear. It ought to get clearer but it has to be clear but until Paul sees that “I am in labor until Christ is formed in you.” It has to be clear.

You can’t have one foot in the Law and the other foot in grace. So now I am backing up. That is what he said earlier in verse 11: “I fear for you. I have labored over you in vain.” He will come to verse 20: “I am perplexed about you.” “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation, a new creature. All things pass away. New things come.” There is no excuse if you have trusted Christ to be confused on this. We make excuses. Paul says there is not an excuse. Something is wrong here and I am like I am going back through the labor process of the trials, the troubles, the tribulation and all I went through to bring you the Gospel and to bring you to faith in Christ alone. Now I have to back up. Maybe you weren’t done. Maybe you truly weren’t born again but he calls them “My children,” because he is going on to what they professed at the time. A good reminder for us. You know you have to seek Christ.

Back up to chapter 2, verse 20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.” So that is what he is talking about when he says, “Christ formed in you.” when you are crucified with Christ it is no longer you who live but Christ who lives in you, “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” “I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the Law Christ died needlessly.”

You see now why in chapter 4 he can say, “I am again in labor with you” because you know when you truly trust Christ you are identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. You are “crucified with Christ. The life you now have is the life of Christ in you and I live this life by faith in the Son of God understanding He loved me and gave Himself up” but you are going back under the Law. That would nullify the grace of God. You are saying in effect “Christ died needlessly.” You can’t be truly born again, become new in Christ if that is where you are.” The starkness is to keep it clear. We muddy the waters thinking we are being nice and kind. It is not both and. It is either or. That is what he is saying.

Come to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, look at verse 18: “But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” This is Paul’s passion in Colossians chapter 1, verse 27: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27. Colossians 1:28 “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man, teaching every man so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” And this is why I am laboring and striving.

So something is wrong among the Galatians. You are running off the rails here for an analogy. Something is wrong. Verse 20 of Galatians 4: “But I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone.” I mean always when you have a disagreement, been involved in disagreements. You know you communicate. Today you have e-mail or texting you know you do that. Sometimes could we sit down together and talk? But Paul doesn’t have that option. I wish I could be … and the letter can come across seeming harsh. Remember that’s what the enemies of Paul told the Corinthians. “Oh, his letters are weighty but in person he is a light weight.” I would love to be able to be with you.

Like your kids. If there is a problem or difficulty you would like to sit down and work through it. “I wish I could be present with you now to change my tone,” because the letter is harsh and sometimes you read a letter and say, “Boy, he really was hard on me. I thought it was harsh what he wrote.” But Paul says “I wish I could talk to you” because he loves them. They are his children. He views them that way. “For I am perplexed about you.” He would like to have clarity here. So he does it in confidence. “I am perplexed about you.” The word means to be at a loss, to be in doubt, to be uncertain. So Paul says, “I am genuinely concerned. Something is wrong here. There shouldn’t be this confusion.” The life of people who have truly trusted Christ. You shouldn’t be so easily wooed away. “I am perplexed about you.”

Verse 11: “I fear for you that perhaps I labored over you in vain.” Something is wrong. I am troubled. I wish I could be there and have the conversation. It would be so much nicer to get the reaction and the response and you to see me and me to be there face to face with you but it can’t be and I have to say, “I am perplexed.”

So you see that section, verses 12-20 was very personal. Then you get to verse 21: “Tell me, you who want to be under Law, do you not listen to the Law?” Do you know what the Law says? So now he is going in effect into a more direct, firm way he has to do but you know he is emotionally wrapped up with them and concerned. But we have to keep sorting this out because I am troubled. I am concerned.

Alright, let me summarize with you what we have looked at in verses 17-20 just as a reminder. Put these up on the screen. Number 1 – False teachers are zealous to convert believers. We don’t want to confuse their zeal. They can be zealous. They can be passionate for you. They can be convincing with you. They prey upon believers. Why don’t they just go away? Why don’t they go develop their own group? Why don’t they let it go? They are followers of Christ. We have a different view. The devil can’t let it go. He won’t let it go. He is out to win and to win them over, win you over, win me over, to weaken us, to weaken our attachment to those who are faithful with the truth and us to the truth. So false teachers are zealous to convert believers and sometimes that impacts us. Oh they seem so genuine. They seem so passionate and they seem to be really concerned for me and after me. They are zealous to convert believers.

Secondly, false teachers are zealous to control believers. They want to bring believers under their authority. The end of verse 17: “So that you will seek them.” Ultimately they want you to become their follower by agreeing with them and what they are saying. I mean that is what they are after and so they can assert authority over you and so they want to control you.

Number 3 – believers are to be zealous. This is not an issue of we are putting down zeal. In verse 18: “It is always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner. Not only when I am present with you.” They ought to be zealous for the truth and teachers who teach the truth when Paul is there and when he is not. You know it is like your kids. You don’t want them just to do what they should when you are there. You want them to be committed to do what they should do when you are not there. So that is what Paul is saying. “You know I want you to be zealous but don’t just focus – My, I have a zeal like I didn’t have it before” but if your zeal is being transferred to false teachers or people who are lying that are corrupting the truth it is good to be zealous but it has to be a zealousness in the context of the truth and those who are teaching the truth. So believers are to be zealous with discernment and that is key, zealous with discernment.

Number 4 – we labor that believers may become like Christ. Paul uses that analogy of being in labor, giving birth and that is our desire to be instruments that bring the Gospel that the Spirit uses to bring people to Christ but we pour our life into them. We just don’t want them to make a profession and then we leave them. That is why we want to draw them in, let them into the study of the Word, get them involved with other believers who will help them to grow in the truth. We want them to be like Christ, Christ-like. “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” We have become a new creation, a new creature. We have become partakers of divine nature and that is manifest that the character of Christ and our conformity to Him is seen. That is why we labor. That is why we are here studying the Word. That is why we are involved in one another’s lives and we minister together and serve together. That is an ongoing process. We haven’t yet arrived but we are zealous of continuing the process and growth.

And number 5 – we have to be honest. It is difficult to discern where some people are spiritually. They begin to wander. The more they wander, the longer they wander the more doubt you have. Did they ever really know Christ? Have true salvation? Something is wrong. There have been people here. I am thinking about a long ministry in one place and today they openly deny the truth that they were so passionate about. A great man and he wanted to do what he could to be involved and help getting all these messages. They are so rich I would like to be involved in whatever I could to help get them in print and all this and that and the other thing. Today by his own testimony, gone. What happens? You begin to develop a concern. You see things happening. Sometimes many of you, you talk to people, you see things, you try to pull them back but if they continue to go it just becomes clear. There would be those who can say, “Lord, Lord, I did all these things” and He says “I never knew you” because they have really not been committed to truth.

So there is an attachment the Judaizers were trying. They are not saying, “abandon Christ,” they are saying “add the Law to your relationship with Christ” which was another way of saying “abandon Christ” but it is so much more subtle.

So it is difficult to discern where people are always spiritually because when they begin to move doctrinally and in their life you see something here. I want to help pull them back. I don’t come out and say, “They must not be saved.” But we do have concerns and we don’t give up on them. We want to pull them back. We want to get together with them, try to help them. Clarify their thinking because believers can get confused. You let the devil talk in your ear you will begin to get confused. And this is not just some mystical thing because he uses his people to talk in our ear so we want to come with the truth and love with them but we can’t see the heart. So we could say with Paul, “I am perplexed about you.”

Now Paul is clear. If you continue on this road he will just tell them chapter 5, verse 4 “You continue on that road to this point then you cut yourself off from Christ.” So it becomes clear. There are the times that it is not so clear.

Alright let’s have a word of prayer together. Thank You Lord for Your truth. Again we are reminded very early the devil worked to sow discord, distrust, opposition in subtle ways to the truth and the teaching of the truth, the teachers of the truth. Lord his tactics continue today. How blessed we are to have experienced Your grace in salvation, to have Your truth entrusted to us that we might learn it and study it and grow in it. Lord above all we want to be faithful to You by being faithful to Your Word and then used by You in the lives of others. Thank You for our fellowship together as a body of believers. We pray You will continue to use us in the ministry of truth. Thank You for the fellowship we are about to enjoy. Thank You for the refreshments. We pray You will bless our conversation. In Christ’s name, amen.