Turn to 1 Corinthians 15.
The more we think about our Lord Jesus
Christ, even as Paul does at the start
of this chapter, mentioning what He delivered of
first importance, what He preached in regards to
the Gospel, and he starts out and says
in v.
3 that Christ died for our sins.
The more you're thinking about Christ dying as
a substitute in your place, bearing the penalty
that you deserve for your sins in hell
for all of eternity.
The more we think about Christ, it's going
to affect our lives.
The love of Christ controls me, the Apostle
Paul said, because he concluded something that Christ
had died for him, and therefore, he died
and he no longer lived for himself, but
he was living for the purposes of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
This morning, I want to look at verses
33 and 34.
The name of the sermon is corrupted by
false teaching.
Obviously, false teaching comes from false teachers.
And false teachers are people.
You can have company with them.
Let's start in v.
32.
The second half.
Paul says, if the dead are not raised.
That's been the error he's trying to correct
here.
Some are saying the dead are not raised.
If the dead are not raised, if this
teaching is true, what's the conclusion?
Paul says what it is.
Then let's just eat and drink for tomorrow
we die.
Because we're just going to die anyways in
Paris, there's no resurrection.
In v.
33, Paul says do not be deceived.
You always want to pause when we run
into that in the Scriptures.
Don't be deceived.
If you pass over that, then you're basically
wanting to walk into deception.
Don't be deceived.
Bad company ruins, corrupts, destroys good morals,
good character, good usefulness.
V.
34, wake up from your drunken stupor as
is right, and do not go on sinning.
For some have no knowledge of God.
I say this to your shame.
Do not be deceived.
Bad company ruins good morals.
Most of us have heard that verse.
This is a fairly well-known verse.
Even for the non-Christian.
And part of the reason is, you can
see Paul here, he's quoting someone.
He's quoting a Greek.
And he's quoting a common saying back then.
So that's part of the reason it was
well-known.
And here Paul is saying this and applying
it in this situation that we're going to
look at here.
Let's pray.
Father, Lord, we just ask for help and
grace.
Lord, to stand in the pulpit and preach
in all of the weaknesses that I have.
Pray You would help me to feed the
sheep, protect the church.
Lord, help Tim and Monterey do the same
right now.
Lord, help Tawfiq.
Be with Jeff, Aber, and Main.
Be with Mack and the brothers in Denton.
Be with Jeremy and Laredo.
Be with Craig today as he's in Corpus
preaching to the church.
Be with Mark Summers as he's in Reynosa.
Lord, our eyes are on You.
We're powerless.
Help us.
For the sake of Your Son who's worthy.
Amen.
We read these verses and one of the
first questions rightly should be, you ask yourself,
do I have any companions who are evil
and corrupting me?
Are there any companions that I have that
are evil and corrupting me?
Who are my companions?
In person?
Through the Internet?
Because those companions have an influence on the
way you think.
And if they can change the way you
think, they'll change the way you live.
Either for good, towards truth, or towards error
and destruction.
Like a rotting apple in a bag that
affects the others.
You can either throw it out.
You can be deceived and not admit it's
there and let it rot you.
What are we going to do?
So, I have four points.
First point, in the context, the companions who
are bad and evil and are ruining and
corrupting those within Corinth are people who are
misrepresenting God by teaching something false.
And let's look at that.
Look at v.
12.
Chapter 15.
Paul says, now if Christ is raised from
the dead, which it seems He was being
proclaimed that, Paul then says this, how can
some of you?
And I would put forward that some in
that church.
Some of you are saying something that's not
right.
What are they saying?
There's no resurrection of the dead.
And then Paul, he works out the conclusion
if you believe this.
But, if there's no resurrection of the dead
in v.
13, then Christ hasn't even been raised from
the dead.
And then another conclusion, and if Christ has
not been raised, then our preaching's in vain.
And your faith is in vain.
And he goes on, he says in v.
15, we'd even be found to be misrepresenting
God.
Isn't that what false teaching and false teachers
do?
They misrepresent God.
We have all been misrepresented here.
Imagine misrepresenting God.
I don't like it when people misrepresent me.
People misrepresent God.
We don't want to be one of those
people.
So, based on Paul's arguments right here, and
the some who say there's no resurrection, and
even as we look at it, v.
32 and the second half, if the dead
are not raised, that's what he's dealing with
right there.
We see they had a belief it appears
that Christ did raise from the dead, but
they did not have a belief that believers
would have a resurrection.
We would ultimately perish.
That's it.
There's no resurrection.
And they were blinded to the implications of
where that false teaching would end up.
It would end up to even denying the
very resurrection of Jesus Christ, which Paul starts
this chapter out mentioning this is one of
the things of first importance.
And he's reminding of them.
You can't go wrong on this.
And this distortion led to being deluded in
their theology and behavior that followed their bad
theology.
Bad teaching leads to a sinful lifestyle.
So, Paul here, his idea in context of
saying v.
33 and 34 is not to give us
a couple of verses that we can quote
to our kids and tell our kids that
bad company corrupts good morals.
Is it true that bad company?
Yes, there's truth in that statement.
Paul's concern is with a church that has
people who are teaching something that's in error.
And their false teaching is deceiving some.
And that bad company is actually corrupting them.
And he tells them in v.
34 to wake up.
They're not waking up.
He's trying to wake them up right now
in this letter, in this chapter.
They're in a drunken stupor.
He says don't go on sinning.
They're going on in sinning in certain ways.
He doesn't mention specifically right there.
So, Paul's focus is not lost companions corrupting
you, though that absolutely can apply.
Why do you think Paul says do not
be deceived?
It's obvious that people in the world and
all of their wickedness can corrupt us.
You know what's easier to get deceived on?
It's professing Christians who are under the name
of Christian and they start distorting truth, teaching
error.
That's where it's easy to become deceived as
Paul says right here.
So this is an attack on the inside.
And the person's weapons are primarily their words.
His or her words.
You know, there are many empty talkers and
deceivers in the professing church.
What does Paul say should happen to them
in another place in Titus?
They should be silenced.
Titus 1.11, they must be silenced because
they're upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful
gain what they ought not to teach.
Teaching something with an air can upset a
whole family.
It can corrupt.
2 Peter 3, Peter says there are some
things in Paul's letters that are hard to
understand and listen to this, which is the
ignorant and unstable.
How unstable have you got to get to
start saying there's no resurrection?
They twist to their own destruction as they
do the other Scriptures.
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care
that you are not carried away with the
air of lawless people and you lose your
own stability.
The companions we have among professing Christians, they
can cause us to lose our own stability.
They can corrupt us.
They can take things to Paul's that are
hard to understand, twist them to their own
destruction, and they can yank you along for
the ride.
That's why Paul says don't be deceived.
We should have a healthy fear.
I have the possibility of being misled.
If you say like Peter arrogantly, I'll never
deny the Lord.
I'll never be misled.
We better shut our mouths and say, God,
keep me, please.
I could be in the process of rotting
and being corrupted and not even realize it.
That's why Paul says don't be deceived.
Don't be misled from the right direction and
wander into error.
Those at Corinth, they're being corrupted in their
character.
They're going on sinning.
Verse 34 says they're in a drunken stupor.
Now, this is kind of an intro.
So, can another church have some who say,
just like v.
12 says, how can some of you say?
Don't you ask that sometimes?
You hear things people are saying in other
churches and you say, how can some of
you say that?
How did you even get to that point?
Now, Paul's not agreeing with what they're saying.
But think about it if you got to
the point where you hear what they say
and you actually say, I agree with that.
That's scary.
We could get deceived.
We could be deceived.
Our thinking could be altered, which would then
alter our conduct, which would alter the way
of our life.
The end?
We don't want to end up in that
end.
Paul's dealing with this error here.
We have our own errors to deal with.
Point number two, what we believe affects how
we live.
We must wisely see where the false teaching
leads and its consequences.
Too many people, they look at false teaching
and they say, well, you know, it's just
a little off.
Granted, is this thing very important to the
resurrection?
Yes.
Because it even deals with the very resurrection
of Christ, which is of first importance.
So are there going to be other things
that aren't as important and as high of
degrees of essentials?
Absolutely.
I'm not denying that in any way.
But what we believe makes a difference.
What difference does believing the resurrection make?
It makes a big difference.
Look at what Paul's saying their conduct should
be in v.
32.
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we
die.
If you don't believe there's going to be
a resurrection of believers, not only does that
mean you're ultimately denying the resurrection of Christ,
it basically means the life you should live
is you should just eat and drink for
tomorrow we die.
But if you conclude the truth, what should
your response be?
V.
58, Therefore, my beloved brothers, because the resurrection
is true, because death is swallowed up in
victory, and oh death, where is your victory?
Because of that, you should be steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that in the Lord your labor is
not in vain.
So there you've got the two ways.
You might end up just eat and drink,
tomorrow we die, or be steadfast, immovable, always
abounding in the work, knowing it's not in
vain.
But if you start teaching, believers aren't going
to be resurrected.
Paul shows all this logic right there.
We already looked at some of it.
V.
13, if there's no resurrection, Christ didn't get
raised.
V.
14, if He's not been raised, then guess
what?
Our preaching is in vain.
Your faith is in vain.
Misrepresenting God.
He goes on.
V.
17, and if Christ has not been raised,
your faith is futile.
And you are still in your sins.
Paul is showing, if you deny this one
thing, if some of you say that there
is no resurrection, this is where it's going
to end up.
Too many people, they look at the air,
and they don't see the end.
Paul sees the end.
That's why he's taking this bull by the
horns and not letting it get out of
control.
There is a snowball effect.
No small teaching from within just stops with
its corruption.
It corrupts and it continues to corrupt.
In the beginning, it might seem that its
initial state is of small significance, but it
builds up.
It gets bigger, larger, more dangerous.
It causes a bigger destruction.
That's why we've got to stop it before
it even starts.
So, a snowball to where?
Where does this snowball lead?
Where does believing that there's no resurrection of
the dead, as they were saying, where does
it end up?
Look at our text.
Verse 33, Do not be deceived.
Bad company ruins good morals.
Some of yours may say corrupts.
Do not be deceived.
Bad company ruins good morals.
You know what that word in Greek is
used in another Scripture?
You know how it's rendered?
Destroys.
This is more than something getting ruined and
corrupted.
You don't want to picture it as a
light little thing.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, if anyone
destroys God's temple, God will destroy him.
Here, Paul using that word, bad company destroys
good character, morals, that word morals there, usage.
It affects your usefulness.
That's one of the ways it could be
rendered.
Usage.
It destroys.
It takes you out of the game.
This is severe.
This is more than someone having a bad
influence on your life and you change your
movie standards.
This is more than having a co-worker
who's using profanity and you say that corrupts
you, that speech like that will corrupt as
we saw in Ephesians years ago.
It's more than that.
This is someone that they're going to influence
you in a way that's ultimately going to
lead to your destruction.
And Paul, he's trying to wake them up.
Verse 34.
Wake up!
Wake up from your drunken stupor as is
right.
Don't go on sinning.
Don't go on like this.
Wake up.
He's trying to wake them up.
Get back to the Bible.
Get back to the Word.
Get back to the truth.
Wake up!
And they might say, I don't need to
wake up.
Paul's saying you're deceived.
Wake up!
No, I'm not deceived.
That's the thing.
If we get deceived, we don't know it.
We need others on the outside giving us
truth, and with humility, we bow to the
truth and we recognize you're right.
I've been wrong.
I see it now.
Lord, forgive me for that wrong.
Lord, get me out of any type of
delusion.
Point 3, in view of the seriousness of
where false teaching leads, we need to strongly
reprove the error and not deal with it
lightly.
And Paul does that here.
I mean, look at v.
34.
He says, for some have no knowledge of
God.
Who are the some?
It could either mean two things.
First, and this isn't the one I agree
with, but still there's truth in it.
This is the one people rarely take.
It could read like this, wake up from
your drunken stupor as is right.
Do not go on sinning because some, the
lost world, have no knowledge of God, and
you should be ashamed that they've not heard
the truth from you because you're just eating
and drinking for tomorrow we die and you're
not being steadfast in evangelism.
That's one way people take that.
They believe that some refers to the lost
world who does not have the knowledge of
God.
And Paul is shaming the church for not
reaching that world because of their false teaching
that has corrupted their steadfastness.
As he says in v.
58, he's telling them your labor's not in
vain.
Now look, I don't think that's what that's
saying, but that's true.
That's true nonetheless.
If any false teaching, if any error hinders
you in such a way where you lose
your evangelistic zeal, we should be ashamed.
If there's people out there without the truth
and they don't have it, because we've believed
in error that's made us just live like
it's all vain.
Now, this is the second way you could
take this.
And this is how I take it.
V.
34, Paul is saying to them, wake up
from your drunken stupor as is right and
do not go on sinning.
And notice he's saying your.
Wake up from your to the church.
And then v.
34, he says for some.
Well, look back at v.
12.
How can some of you say there's no
resurrection from the dead?
I believe he's referring to the same some.
The some who say there's no resurrection from
the dead.
He's calling them out in v.
34.
For some, those people who yes, are somewhere
within the church.
And Paul, he puts them down by saying
they have no knowledge of God.
It's a put-down.
It's a rebuke.
People at Corinth?
You know what?
A lot of them, did they lack knowledge?
They were puffed up with knowledge and pretty
proud and arrogant we find in chapter 8.
And here Paul is telling these people who've
made this air, he's saying you don't have
any knowledge of God.
Guess what?
You're just like that pagan over there who
actually has no knowledge of God in the
sense that you do.
You're just like him because this false teaching
you're giving in to and all the implications
of where it leads, and Paul's just putting
them down.
He's rebuking them.
He's saying you have no knowledge of God.
And you see this in other places where
it doesn't literally mean they have no knowledge
of God.
Jesus says in John 14, have I been
with you so long and you still do
not know Me?
That didn't mean they didn't know Him.
Just like Jesus wasn't being literal there, I
don't think Paul's being literal here in saying
these sons literally have no knowledge of God.
He's basically saying because this air, this air
you have, you some, have no knowledge of
God, you're just like the pagans.
It's an ultimate put-down as Gordon Fee
said.
And he's shaming them.
He's shaming them.
In Ephesians 4, we hear that there are
people who are darkened in their understanding, alienated
from the life of God because of the
ignorance that is in them due to the
hardness of heart.
And Paul is saying you're just like them.
You're denying the resurrection.
You're ignorant just like that pagan over there.
And then, he says, so I believe that
in correcting the air?
For some have no knowledge of God is
a put-down on the false teachers in
the church.
And the next phrase is a put-down
on the church.
A rebuke of the church itself.
I say this to your shame.
So wake up from your, the church, drunken
stupor.
For some, the people false teaching have no
knowledge.
And then he says, I say this to
your, the church as a whole, to their
shame.
To their shame.
It is to their shame that these some
are still in the church uncorrected apparently, and
they're corrupting others.
Those who believe in the resurrection, they should
have known better.
They should have been leading those who did
not believe in the resurrection to a true
knowledge of God rather than allowing their heresy
and immorality to mislead and corrupt you.
He's saying you should be ashamed.
Why are you not dealing with this?
That's why on Wednesday night we're dealing with
two things.
You know why we're doing it?
Because we fear God.
And we don't want someone to write to
us and say, I say this to your
shame, GCC.
How are you letting these corrupting influences no
doubt from the outside affect you as a
church as a whole?
They should be ashamed that they're divergent from
the truth.
But sadly, people often they don't even blush.
They don't hold fast to the Word preached.
And obviously as a church, we have to
take action to remove error.
Whether it's the person itself or the error
from the mind of the person.
Because some of you, myself included, we could
have some wrong thought of God that through
the teaching of the Word, through the studying
of the Scriptures, we start to recognize that
thought does not honor God.
I'm getting rid of that.
It's a wrong conclusion.
We have to take action.
Why?
Earlier in this letter, Paul said, your boasting
is not good.
Do you not know that a little leaven
leavens the whole lump?
False teaching is like a little yeast that
spreads through the whole batch of dough.
And that's why he said, Titus, they've got
to be silenced.
They've got to be silenced.
And if they're not among us, and we
can't silence them among us, and it's people
on the outside, they're going to keep talking.
But what we can do is warn the
church in order that those who are talking
on the outside and could corrupt the church
through their erroneous teachings and misunderstandings of the
Scripture don't affect the body.
Do not be deceived.
Titus 3.9 As for those who stir
up division after warning them once and then
twice, what does Paul say?
Have nothing more to do with them.
Knowing that such a person is warped and
sinful, he is self-condemned.
Paul says nothing more to do with them.
Break association.
Silence them.
Put them out from among you if they're
among you.
Point four, in view of the seriousness of
where false teaching leads, we need to not
only correct it, but we need to actively
be preaching the truth and not neglecting the
truth.
And if you look at our chapter here,
there's so much here I cannot unpack.
And we're looking at these verses, but if
you look at how Paul started, verse 1,
how was Paul even beginning this?
I would remind you, brothers of the Gospel,
I preach to you which you received and
which you stand and by which you are
being saved if you hold fast to the
Word, the Gospel, I preached to you, unless
you believed in vain.
You see, we've got to keep preaching truth.
We've got to keep reminding people, as he
says in verse 3, what is of first
importance, because we've got to get to the
end.
We've got to keep believing, as Paul says
right here.
He says, and by which you are being
saved.
So we're being saved.
We've got to get to the end.
We've got to finish the race.
And so here, Paul, he's reminding them of
the truth.
He's putting their minds on the Gospel.
And here at the end, Paul, in these
last verses, he reminds them of the triumph
that every Christian is going to have.
The triumph of our ultimate resurrection.
The victory, verse 57 says, but thanks be
to God who gives us victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ.
When you get a bunch of believers thinking
about truth and the victory that's coming for
them and this resurrection that's coming for them,
it makes them want to be steadfast and
movable always abounding in the Lord.
But you know what happens?
With this error specifically?
Look at verse 32 again.
If I don't believe in all this victorious
resurrection and victory in Christ, look what Paul
says your conclusion's going to be.
You're going to say, what do I gain?
If humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at
Ephesus.
I mean, why go fight with beasts at
Ephesus?
Why put myself through that rather than just
eat and drink for tomorrow we die?
Why do that?
Even what he said right in verse 29.
One of the interpretations of this.
Paul says, otherwise, what do you mean by
people being baptized, immersed on behalf of the
dead, the lost?
What do you mean by people being immersed
in suffering on behalf of the lost?
If the dead are not raised, why are
all the people being immersed in suffering and
persecution at the hand of whether it's physical
beasts or beasts meaning evil beasts like Antiochus?
Why put yourself through that if there's no
resurrection?
You see, false teaching, it totally affects how
we live.
Paul says in v.
58, brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, knowing that in
the Lord your labor is not in vain.
You will raise from the dead.
So, my four points were this.
One, the some who say and teach something
not according to the Scriptures are the bad
company who will corrupt you in the context
of this chapter.
Point two, what we believe about the resurrection
affects how we live.
False teaching leads somewhere and has consequences, eternal
ones.
And again, the scary thing is, the bigger
fear is not the outside world's influences, it's
those in the professing universal church who can
lead us astray.
Point three was in view of the corrupting
power of false teaching, we need to strongly
reprove the error and not deal with it
lightly.
And the point four, in view of the
seriousness of where false teaching leads, we need
to preach the truth and not neglect it.
We need to remind people of that which
they need to hold fast to.
We need to determine it on nothing except
for Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
So, a prevalent false teaching today from what
I'm aware of is not people saying the
dead are not raised.
That's not my concern.
My concern is that other errors and false
teaching, just like this one corrupted these people,
they will do the same.
Sure, to different degrees, a certain error won't
lead you to think it's vain to evangelize.
It might lead you to do other things.
So this is obviously not the false teaching
that we're going to discuss on Wednesday night.
But in our day and age, we have
our own errors that are being propagated and
put forward out there, and they will corrupt
in their own ways as the false teaching
at Corinth did then.
Now, one other place to look at this
is Hebrews 12.
Turn to Hebrews 12.
Let's turn there.
Hebrews 12.14 Paul says to strive...
or not Paul, the writer of Hebrews.
If you believe that's Paul, then it's Paul.
Or could be.
Strive for peace with everyone and for the
holiness without which no one will see the
Lord.
Now, if you think about those in that
previous chapter, he said they were going on
and sinning.
He said they were in a drunken stupor.
They were not sober-minded.
They were not thinking right.
Here the writer says, strive for peace with
everyone and for the holiness without which no
one will see the Lord.
He's talking about holiness, and then look at
v.
15.
See to it that no one fails to
obtain the grace of God.
Persevere to the end.
True salvation.
The truth of the Gospel.
The effecting change of the Gospel in a
person's life.
That no one fails to obtain the grace
of God.
And then, the writer has a concern.
What will prevent people from obtaining the grace
of God?
And he says that no root of bitterness
spring up and cause trouble, and by it,
many become defiled.
So he says there's a root of bitterness
that could spring up.
And how does it affect others?
Defiles.
What's he referring to?
The ESV, I believe rightly, puts this in
quotes.
Turn to Deuteronomy 29.
Deuteronomy 29.
Obviously, we don't want bitterness to grow in
our heart.
The sin of bitterness.
But this word bitterness here, it's referring to
a poisonous root.
It's not referring to that sin specifically.
That would not make sense there.
V.
18, Deuteronomy 29.
This is another example of how some teaching
of error will affect and defile us and
corrupt us.
V.
18, Deuteronomy.
Beware lest there be among you a man
or woman or clan or tribe whose heart
is turning away today from the Lord our
God to go and serve the gods of
those nations.
Beware lest there be among you a root
bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.
And I believe that's what the writer in
Hebrews is referring to.
A root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.
And what is that root of bitterness?
V.
19, it's one.
Who?
It's a person.
What does that person do?
It's a person that when he hears the
words of this sworn covenant, how does that
person respond?
He blesses himself in his heart, saying, I'm
safe.
I'm eternally secure.
Though I walk in the stubbornness of my
heart.
Though I walk in my sin, and he's
saying, I'm safe.
And he goes on here, this will lead
to the sweeping away of the moist and
dry alike, or as the Holman says, this
will lead to the destruction of the well
-watered land as well as the dry land.
I'll tell you what we don't want is
root of bitterness rising up in this church
or those on the outside affecting this church.
Because if a root of bitterness comes up,
a poisonous person with their teaching, it will
defile many.
And he went on in Hebrews to talk
about Esau and his sexual immorality, and he
no longer found forgiveness.
And here we have, there is a person,
there is one who says everything's okay even
though he's living in sin.
And that person will sweep away the well
-watered land as well as the dry land.
It will defile and affect the church.
So this is not just people who say
there's no resurrection or bad company that corrupts
good morals.
Any false teaching and person who teaches that,
it will lead you to sin.
It will lead you to dishonor God.
And so one of the questions we're asking
ourselves, is there any companions?
Whether through the Internet, whether maybe something here
that I'm totally oblivious to, is there someone
who is like a root of bitterness?
A poisonous root?
What they say is poison.
They're saying I'm safe even though I'm in
the stubbornness of my heart.
We know that's a lie.
John says if you say you know Him
but you walk in darkness, you're a liar.
And the truth is not in you.
So, a couple closing applications.
Who is out there preaching to you on
the radio, on Facebook, or in an actual
book?
If it's unbiblical, yes, to different degrees, it
will corrupt your thinking and your character and
your steadfastness in the mission to abound in
the work of the Lord.
Bob Jennings told me once that he had
went to a conference as a new Christian.
It was a pretty shallow conference.
And Conrad Murrell, who a lot of them
were being discipled from, you know what he
told Bob and the others?
He said, stop getting your food out of
the trash.
And a lot of people, that's what they
do.
The food they eat on the Internet, they're
getting it out of a trash can.
Even certain big ministries out there are compromising
in areas of homosexuality or their emphasis.
We've got to be careful.
Something that used to have good food could
end up having trash.
We don't want to get food poisoning.
You don't want to get poisoned.
Because it will corrupt your character.
It will lead you to go on sinning
in all sorts of different ways.
Second is an application.
Do you have bad company with anyone who
is saying something not according to the Word?
You know, there are going to be people
who will try to misdirect us and we
always have to keep coming back to the
Word.
That's why we've got to know the Bible
better.
I've got to know the Bible better.
There's this brother out there I was just
hearing about.
He's a pastor.
He's memorized 44 books of the Bible.
Memorized 44.
Hiding the Word in his heart.
Imagine all the verses that come to his
mind.
His son wrote an article.
He said he'd see his dad in the
morning just mumbling over the Bible.
He'd see him throughout the day doing that.
Memorized 44 books.
Are you going to do that?
Hope so.
Another guy, the whole New Testament memorized.
I think Vern Poitras.
The whole New Testament memorized.
All of Isaiah.
Half of Psalms.
That's a lot of truth.
We need truth.
Paul said in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians,
holding fast to the Word.
And I would say that Word is there
interchanged with the Gospel that he preached.
Holding fast to these things which are of
first importance.
Obviously, there are areas we're going to see
different on and it's not some error that's
going to corrupt everyone.
But there are many errors out there that
will corrupt.
Is anyone giving you some teaching that's leading
you to not abound in the work of
the Lord?
You might, like we looked at last week,
be abounding in all sorts of other things.
My question is, is God's purposes the purposes
for your life?
A third application.
The truth here, no doubt, has a broader
application than just false teachers.
Obviously, it deals with them specifically.
We know from Proverbs 13, 20, whoever walked
with the wise becomes wise, but the companion
of fools will suffer harm.
But people saying the dead are not raised,
there you've got a fool.
You're going to suffer harm.
Proverbs 22, make no friendship with the man
given to anger, nor go with the wrathful
man, lest you learn his ways and entangle
yourself in a snare.
Let me read that again.
Make no friendship with the man given to
anger.
Why?
Lest you learn his ways.
That's one of the verses that's scary for
parents.
If a parent is angry at all, guess
what their kid's going to learn in those
ways.
So yes, there are all sorts of people
other than false teachers who can have a
corrupting influence on our life.
And you know, I was thinking about the
children.
Because a lot of times, this is kind
of where people take this verse.
Son, do you not know that bad company
of this person might corrupt your good morals?
Well, here my question is, if your kid's
not a Christian, I'm not saying to let
them hang out with that kid, but they're
just as corrupt as that kid in God's
eyes, and they need the same salvation, and
they're both legally condemned before God.
Whether that kid's out there cussing, and yours
isn't, and I don't want my kids cussing,
and I'm not going to want them to
be influenced into that, but I've got to
drive home to my kids.
There's something bigger there.
That little kid's not the really wicked one.
You both are condemned and need a substitute.
And thank God, there's something of first importance,
and that's Christ died for our sins.
There is a substitute.
There is a way to be forgiven.
Even among professing Christians, who are you around
the most?
I love what Steve Lawson said years ago.
He said this, our closest friends must be
those who are pursuing holiness, because they will
have an enormous effect upon our lives.
You need to find out who is the
greatest Christian in this room, and say, I
want to be your friend.
You tell me who your friends are, and
I will tell you exactly who you are
or who you're about to become.
Run with the righteous.
That's true.
Jesus said the wheat and the tares grow
together.
But even among those who are truly weak,
you're going to have different people with different
areas of growth.
And if you get all the people who
have certain immaturities hanging around themselves, they're not
going to be convicted by people who don't
have that immaturity.
They need to be around that person.
There are some young people, it's just kind
of like, well, I fall into lust and
sexual sin, and it's just not that big
of a deal.
Well, let me tell you, it is a
big deal.
And if your friends are making light of
those things, I don't know if those are
good friends to have.
I'm not wanting to condemn a struggling Christian.
But I tell you, Paul says stronger words
than me in Ephesians 5.
He says, you may be sure of this,
that a sexually immoral man has no inheritance
in the kingdom of Christ and God.
And listen to what he says next.
Let no one deceive you.
With empty words.
Like that man in Deuteronomy 29.
One who says, it's okay.
Let no one deceive you with empty words.
It's because of your sexual sin that the
wrath of God comes upon the sons of
disobedience.
If you minimize sin, if you minimize people,
well, it's okay, we're all going to fall.
I don't want a Christianity where that's the
mindset.
We're all just going to fall.
I got that from the church I used
to be at and it didn't help any.
I believe in a God who will deliver
me from every evil deed and bring me
safely to His heavenly kingdom, to Him be
the glory forever and ever, Amen.
And we should desire to say as Paul
does in 2 Corinthians 7, we have corrupted
no one.
I want to be able to say that.
I hope to God there's nothing in my
life if I had a Facebook, my Facebook,
video sermons, this sermon, I hope there's nothing
that corrupts and ruins someone else.
I want to be able to say like
Paul, I've corrupted no one.
So brethren, if you're in 1 Corinthians 15,
one closing thought.
Chapter 16.
Look what Paul says here.
Verse 8, But I will stay in Ephesus
until Pentecost.
And again, he didn't know what's going to
happen there.
Is he going to fight beasts at Ephesus?
Well, he's willing to do it.
Whether it's evil beasts, false teachers, or whether
it's actual animals, Paul's willing, because this all
isn't in vain.
And look what he says.
I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost.
Verse 9, For a wide door for effective
work has opened to me.
And then look what he says.
With wide doors come what?
And there are many adversaries.
But you know what's scary?
Who was an adversary to Christ once?
Peter.
Get behind me, Satan.
Why?
You are setting your mind on the things
of earth and not of the things above.
He called a Christian Satan because that Christian's
mind was avoid suffering.
So Peter was an adversary to Christ.
In the same way, we could be adversaries
to one another.
So is there a wide door that I
hope to God we will not be disobedient
to the heavenly vision and we will live
for God's purposes?
There is a wide door for effective work.
But with that wide door comes many adversaries
and sadly, some of those adversaries are those
among the professing church.
And we best not be duped by them
and deceived and corrupted by their bad company
and be misled.
So brethren, the dead are raised.
So forget eating and drinking for tomorrow.
We die.
Let's not be deceived.
Let's get around good company with those who
have truth.
And that will make us want to be
as v.
58 says, therefore, my beloved brothers at Grace
Community Church, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, knowing that in
the Lord, your labor is not in vain.
Our labor of the Gospel is not in
vain.
I was just reading, I got that report
from our brother who serves in the Middle.
And he mentioned someone he knew.
For 20 years, he labored in Afghanistan.
Was it in vain?
Even though he only saw a couple converts?
No, it wasn't.
The Word was going forth.
And now the one brother says there's been
thousands of converts.
So, may none of us be able to
be rebuked by Paul and said that we
have no knowledge of God.
That's all I have.