False Teachers by Pastor Steve Lombardo (2 Corinthians 11:1–15)

``There's wolves. That's the reality of the world in which we live. And we're not to put up with the wolves. We're not to coddle the wolves or definitely not to feed the wolves. We're to shoot the wolves. And and and we wanna be a people who are protecting the work that God is doing in your life, in my life, and in the life of our church. Today, the apostle Paul is gonna speak directly against his detractors in Corinth. The people who had come into the church and spoken ill of the apostle Paul, questioned his authority, and come in with a different gospel, a more powerful gospel, a more triumphant gospel, a more charismatic gospel, gospel, a more flashy gospel, a more expensive gospel, and he's gonna speak directly to them, to the people of Corinth to not put up with these false teachers any longer. [00:08:04] (54 seconds)  #ProtectTheChurch

In what I am doing, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission, they work on the same terms as we do. See, he's determined. I'm gonna keep undermining them. They're not doing the Lord's work. They're not doing the same gospel work that we are doing. Verse 13, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, so it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. Notice the strong language that the apostle Paul uses here. He says, I'm going to continue to do what I'm doing. I'm gonna continue to defend the gospel. I'm gonna continue to defend you. [00:22:16] (55 seconds)  #ExposeFalseApostles

We are building a church of Christ followers, by God's grace, we're building this, who are amiable but not always agreeable. Here's what I mean by that. Amiable means pleasant. You're nice. You get along with people. You're you're you're not a sore loser. You're a good guy. You're a good gal. Christians should be that. Christians should be salt and light. Salt makes things better. Light pierces through the darkness. You're a good person, but we're not always called to be agreeable. [00:14:03] (39 seconds)  #AmiableNotAgreeable

If Jesus exists to make you rich, then he is no longer your lord. He's your savior. No. He's not your savior. He's your servant. He's your servant. The apostle Paul says that these people who to pretend they're pretending to be servants of righteousness, They're servants of Satan. And look at the last part of verse 15. Their end will correspond to their deeds. Their deeds are wicked and evil, and their end will correspond to that. It'll be a bad ending for them as they stand before the judgment of God. Little Red Riding Hood is a very dark fairy tale fable. It it's a story. Do know the real story of Little Red Riding Hood? I mean, it's not the real story, but the real fable. [00:32:39] (58 seconds)  #JudgmentForDeceivers

And the bricks that we are using are people and their lives, and you're part of the building of God. You're part of God's temple. We're doing this work together. And while we're doing this work, the world's not happy with the work. The world's not happy with what we're doing here. And so the apostle Paul wrote he warned the church in Ephesus that when he left, there were gonna be false teachers that were gonna come in. He said this, so guard yourselves and God's people. Feed and shepherd God's flock, his church purchased with his own blood, over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders. I know that false teachers like vicious wolves will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. [00:07:08] (40 seconds)  #ShepherdTheFlock

And and that's the way false teaching is. Until Christ returns, there's gonna be one after another. There's gonna be another shining object. There's gonna be another McCorkle. There's gonna be another papil. There's another false teacher right around the corner. And he's gonna be better than the last one, and he's gonna have more interesting ideas than the other one. And he's gonna have his own TV program. He's gonna have his own exploding church ministry, and and and, of course, he's gotta be right. Look at all the attention he's getting. Look at how smooth he is. And we have to continue to be determined to stand against everything that stands opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ and his word. [00:24:54] (42 seconds)  #StandAgainstFalseTeachers

But the point was I was too nice. I was too agreeable to the detriment, potential hurt of my own family member because I wanted just to be going along with everything. There is such thing as gullible Christians, and that's what the Corinthians were. And if they were gullible to receive false teachers, how much more are we? Because they had the apostle Paul as their pastor for eighteen months. The apostle Paul who raised people from the dead. The apostle Paul whose handkerchief healed somebody. Nobody's gathering my tissue papers out there. [00:16:05] (45 seconds)  #DontBeGullible

And so I am jealous for you so that you would be presented as a pure bride of Jesus Christ, that you wouldn't be defiled, that you wouldn't lose your fire for Jesus Christ, that you wouldn't be led astray by false teachers with all their good fancy ideas. Verse three. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. He uses the example of Eve in the garden. She was deceived by the serpent. Adam was too. He pushed his wife forward first to do the deed, probably because he was too scared. He wasn't the man that he was called to be and to lead in that way. [00:10:03] (47 seconds)  #GuardYourDevotion