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[MUSIC ENDS] Thanks for leading us in that time of getting ready for worship. Welcome to everybody. Glad you're here, especially if you're not normally part of our fellowship. Or just passing through or visiting family, we're very glad you're here.

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And we welcome you warmly in Jesus' name. We had a good congregational meeting last Monday. [APPLAUSE] Thanks for that great ministry, Ashley.

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Let's turn in our hymnals to number 379, "Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord." Let's use that. Will you continue in that spirit of prayer with me together now? Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the great love

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you have for your bride, the Church. Help us to take seriously our relationship to you, that we have been, as it were, betrothed to you. And wait that day when, at the marriage supper of the Lamb,

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our relationship will be perfect, permanent, united, completely holy, and totally in honor to your name. May we now learn, by the illumination of your Holy Spirit, how we can be warned against dangers to us on that pathway,

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and more eager to be the sort of bride that you want us to be, for the glory of your name, which we pray. Amen. I don't know what comes to your mind when you think of the father of the bride.

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Maybe you saw the movie by that same name, in which Steve Martin plays the role of a sort of outsider to this whole process. And all the arrangements are made, and he has precious little to do with it, except when it comes time to write these rather large checks.

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Hopefully that isn't typical of our culture, but even if it is, it certainly isn't typical of first century culture. And it's important that we understand a little bit about how parents of the bride functioned in biblical times, to understand the picture that the Apostle Paul is drawing from us in the passage to which we come this morning.

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In our culture, we have engagement. A young man and a young woman decide to get married. They're engaged. It's a serious thing. Often an engagement ring is given. There are pictures in the paper. All kinds of important things happen.

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If that engagement has to be broken, it's sad, it's painful, it's difficult, but it's not exactly the end of the world. In fact, in premarital counseling, I say to young couples, "I won't put your name in ink in the church calendar

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until we've had two or three premarital counseling sessions, because a broken engagement is better than a broken marriage. We want to make sure that the basic ingredients of a solid relationship are there." But it wasn't like that in biblical times.

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For one thing, marriages were mainly arranged. We're talking about a reason to have a good relationship with your parents. Isn't that one? The parents basically decided, and gifts were given,

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but they weren't so much between the couple as between the families. It was an economic way of solidifying this. A sort of dowry or bride price was paid that made it crystal clear that we're going through with this. But there were other legal sanctions in place as well.

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Sure, they had a celebration. Sure, the father paid for all of that. They really gave it all they had. But betrothal was binding, so much so that if one of those two,

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betrothed to each other, had sex with someone at all outside of that, though, it was adultery. And it was punishable, as other adulterers were, by stoning. And the two who were betrothed to each other were referred to, in a couple of places at least,

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as husband and wife. And furthermore, if it had to be broken, what that took was divorce. A formal divorce proceeding. So, it was a very serious arrangement, and therefore the role of the father of the bride was different.

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Yes, he had those ceremonial functions, but his primary role was to present his daughter, as a pure virgin, to this man to whom he had committed to do so. Often, the betrothal period was a year. And his responsibility was to see to it that she who would have been a virgin at the beginning of that time,

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remained a virgin during that time, and was presented to him in that state. It's this analogy that the Apostle Paul uses to explain his serious concern, and his fear, even, he uses the word, for the Corinthian Christians. I'm referring to 2 Corinthians 11, the first 15 verses, to which I now invite you to turn.

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While you're turning there, let me just remind you of something in the context that makes sense of that first verse. Paul has just said, and if you were here last week and have good short-term memory, you may recall that we're not to boast in anyone but the Lord Himself. Now Paul turns around and actually does that.

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He does this in his ministry, but he recognizes what he's doing. He says, "I'm going to engage in some foolishness. Just put up with it." He knows that ultimately we only boast in the Lord and who He is and what He's done, but I'm going to engage in some foolishness, but I know it's foolishness.

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And he says, "After all, you're great ones to put up with foolishness already." 2 Corinthians 11, verse 1. I hope you will put up with a little bit of my foolishness, but you're already doing that. "I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy.

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I promised you to one husband to Christ so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached,

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or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those super apostles. I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge.

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We've made this perfectly clear to you in every way. Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you? Free of charge? I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you.

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And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone. For the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I've kept myself from being a burden to you in any way and will continue to do so. And surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine.

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Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do. And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about.

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For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of life. It is not surprising then that his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

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Although the Scripture says, "Fear not," perhaps more often than any other commandment, there are some things we should be appropriately afraid of. And Paul here straightforwardly confesses that he's afraid. He has a concern, a deep concern concerning the Corinthian Christians. What caused them to fear that their sincere devotion to Christ was in jeopardy?

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Well, he gives us two reasons. One relates to a historical precedent he describes in verse 3, and the other to contemporary evidence. And they're not weighted equally. The first he treats more briefly. It's there in all cases.

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The evidence he treats more extensively because it was only there in their case. And we need to take both of these seriously. And that's the historical precedent, verse 3 of 2 Corinthians 11. "But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning,

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your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ." One of the most fundamental parts of Scripture that we've got to understand right after the creation is in Genesis 3. It's what we call a fall of humanity. We might call it. It's when our first parents, Adam and Eve, were led astray, were beguiled,

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were drawn into sin and disobedience to God. It's so significant because their circumstances were so much better than ours. For one thing, they lived in absolutely perfect environment. There wasn't a thing wrong.

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Luscious fruit trees all over the place, the rivers flowing through, all the vegetation. There was an absolutely perfect environment. They themselves at that point had an unfallen nature. That is, they didn't have the sin nature, what the Bible calls the flesh that we have,

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that which tugs against us and wants to draw us away from obedience to Christ. They didn't have that at that point. They were unfallen and in that sense perfect. And they had face-to-face communion with God.

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They could see and hear Him, sense His presence in the surroundings of the garden there. And He had given them a widespread permission. He said, "Eat anything you like." I mean, when's the last time anyone said that to you?

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"Eat anything you like with one single exception. There is one tree in the midst of the garden of which you must not eat." Widespread permission and a single prohibition. Not only that, but He gave them work but not toil.

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Toil came later. Work is part of the unfallen state because responsibility is part of what we've been given. God gave them dominion over all of creation. He put them in the garden to till it, to look after it.

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Not harsh domination, not raping the earth, not exploiting the environment, but looking after what God has given. And they exercised that stewardship. There was such openness between the two of them that they were naked, but there was no shame.

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And into this perfect environment where they had an unfallen nature, face-to-face communion with God, meaningful work but no toil, complete openness with each other, came slithering a snake.

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Now, whether this was a snake co-opted by the devil or more of an incarnation of Satan, the scripture doesn't say, but it makes it very plain that the devil was at work here.

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After all, this snake could talk. And he did what Satan always does, characteristically does. First, he questioned God's Word. God had said to Adam, and Adam had passed it on faithfully at that point to Eve,

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"Don't eat of this tree in the midst of the garden." Satan says, "Did God really say?" Sowing the seed of doubt about the Word of God. That's basic to Satan's strategy.

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He always gets us to doubt the Word of God. He adds to it, subtracts from it, twists it, or otherwise distorts it so we won't take it seriously. And then he denies the consequences of sin. God had said, "The day you eat of that fruit, you will surely die."

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What did Satan say? "You will not surely die." God says sin always has consequences, and you cannot control and predict them once you sin.

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Satan says just the opposite. "Oh, this won't have those damaging effects. You can get away with this. Just give it a try." And Satan, in the third place, promises what he cannot deliver.

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"You will be like God." That's what Satan always promises in one form or another. He says, "You know, if you just do this, you're going to see things. You're going to understand things.

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You're going to have a new perspective that you wouldn't have otherwise." He promises what he cannot supply. Just like he said to the Lord Jesus when he was tempting Him in the wilderness, "Bow down and worship me in all of these kingdoms. I'll give to you."

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They weren't Satan's to give, and Jesus was Lord of them all. He's always promising what he cannot supply. Now, Satan has other tactics. These are three basic ones, but he also sows weeds where God has sown seed.

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You ever notice how he does that? Weeds like the worries of this life or the deceitfulness of wealth. Always planting weeds. Or he accuses where God acquits.

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God says, by the blood of Jesus, "Not guilty. Your sins are taken away." Satan comes along and says, "You are guilty." And accuses us.

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Satan divides what God has put together. God has put together marriages. Satan loves to divide them. God has put together churches.

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Satan loves to divide those. God puts together doctrine and life. Satan loves to separate those two. Because Satan is a liar and a murderer.

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Just the opposite of who God is. He always tells the truth, and he is the God who gives, because he is life. My point is simply, if Satan could deceive Eve,

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and through her get to Adam, and he disobeyed as well, when they were in a perfect environment, and had an unfall of nature, we may be sure that he will attempt to deceive us,

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now that the world and the flesh are his allies. Paul understood this. Paul understands who the victor is. He knows he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.

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He understands that we are no longer debtors to the flesh, to do its bidding. No longer servants of sin or Satan. But if it's an error to take Satan too seriously,

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it's also an error to disregard him completely. His downfall is certain, but it's not yet complete. We need to remember that. So the historical precedent sets the stage for what he wants to say.

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If Satan did that once, in Eve's case, "You, my daughter, my spiritual daughter," says Paul, "need to be careful, because he will attempt it again." But he spends most of his time on the second bit of concern,

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that is the contemporary evidence, where I want to notice two frightening indicators that the Corinthian church was in danger of being led astray. Notice carefully here that this is not an exhaustive treatment

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of the subject of backsliding. And if you're going to do that, you need to put it in its bigger theological context. But here Paul is just saying,

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"I know what's happening in the church in Corinth. "There are these super apostles, these interlopers, "who've crept in and who are trying to make a name for themselves "at my expense, trying to set up their own authority

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"at the expense of apostolic authority. "And when you treat them the way you're treating them, "I see some things that cause me to worry, "not about them, but about you."

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First is an uncritical acceptance of false messengers. Notice that in verse 4. "For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus, "other than the Jesus we preached,

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"or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, "or a different gospel from the one you accepted, "you put up with it easily enough." This is not a bad definition, actually,

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of what it means to become a Christian. A Christian is someone who has heard preached the apostolic gospel, the true gospel of Christ, who accepts Jesus and therefore accepts the Holy Spirit,

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who comes with him, and who therefore is in a position, having accepted the gospel, to receive that Holy Spirit. Well, Paul says, "When any one of these is not in place, "a little red flag ought to go up."

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You ought to say, "There's a problem here "if what is preached, if what is to be received, "if what is to be accepted is not the biblical gospel "and receiving of the Holy Spirit,

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"when that was preached by people who were in connection with, "or were heirs of the apostles." Let's take these one at a time. These people, when messengers came who preached another Jesus,

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weren't alarmed by that. We don't know precisely what they said about Jesus. It's not crystal clear what they were saying about him. Very likely, they preached a Jesus

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who wasn't able to completely save, whose work, in effect, needed to be supplemented by Jewish acts of righteousness, maybe circumcision, maybe washings, who knows what all.

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We know that historically, people have distorted Jesus from the very beginning. Some have elevated him to the neglect of his humanity. Some have denigrated him to the neglect of his deity.

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Some have said he's a sinner. Some have said he's incapable even of being tempted. The biblical Jesus is a single Jesus of whom it can be truly said he is fully God

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and fully man in one person, who, though tempted in every point, like we are, was still without sin. If we don't understand who Jesus is,

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the gospel won't make sense. And from the very beginning, people have tried to distort that. In our own day, many are saying Jesus was not a historical person.

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They treat him as a myth or a legend or the creation of the early church. Or they say you can't really know about Jesus. Some, despite the clear inconsistency,

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say he was a good moral teacher. Well, of course, Jesus can't be good and moral if he says he is the Son of God, God in the flesh, if, in fact, he isn't the Son of God.

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That makes him a liar. It's popular today to say Jesus is an avatar, that is, one of many incarnations of God. Sounds good, doesn't it, on the surface,

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to say he's an incarnation of God, but if he's just one of many, then that's pulling Jesus down rather than lifting him up. There are so many of these.

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I even saw on a bumper sticker here in Fargo just the other day a bumper sticker that said, "I am Jesus." No, he wasn't, and he couldn't have been.

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There is only one Jesus. The second kind of messenger they accepted too readily was messengers who come with a different spirit from the one you received.

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In the NIV, that word is not capitalized, and I think that's for this reason. Little s spirit here is opposite the Holy Spirit. They received Jesus, they received the Holy Spirit.

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These people, however, were coming in a very different spirit, and they didn't discern that. They didn't pick up on the fact that they were not of the Holy Spirit.

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The apostle John noticed the same problem in the church that he was writing to, and he says in 1 John 4, "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit,

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but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ

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has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist,

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which you have heard is coming, and even now is already in the world. Any spirit that doesn't acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ

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is not going to be the Holy Spirit." They didn't have the discernment to recognize that that was what was taking place. The third instance of this that Paul mentions in verse 4

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is there are messengers who bring a different gospel than the one that had been accepted. You say, "Well, what other gospel can there be?" The sky is the limit.

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People invent them all the time, but they fall into certain patterns. Some people who are relatively biblical will talk about the cross,

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but they will always add something to the cross. They'll say, "Yes, Jesus died for our sins, but it's really the works that save you." Or they will say, "Yes, Jesus died on the cross,

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but it's really a ritual that we partake in that saves us, or church membership." Some people don't like to talk about the cross. They'll just say, "It's morality that saves you,

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or zeal, or knowledge." Some, when they talk about the cross, will say it was the example that Jesus had saved us, or the moral influence.

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Some even believe it was automatic, that after the cross, everybody is saved, and we just need to tell them about it. No, the biblical gospel is very simple,

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that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, his unique Son, to die for us, that whoever believes in him should not perish,

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but have eternal life. And that gift of the Son is to be received as a gift by faith, to receive Jesus by faith, he gives us a new nature.

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He makes us new people. We become part of the church, and the church is his outpost of his kingdom, and the kingdom will gradually impact the world,

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not remaking it, because that will happen only when Jesus returns. That's the gospel. But Paul notices it's not only an uncritical acceptance

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of false messengers, but also an undiscerning rejection of true messengers. The problem here wasn't just that these Corinthian Christians said, "Yeah, we like these super apostles,"

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when they shouldn't have. They believed what those super apostles said about Paul and his co-workers, and rejected them wrongly.

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And the kind of way they did so, people still do. For instance, they were rejected when they valued training more than knowledge. They were rejected when they valued ethics.

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Paul says, "I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge." Surprising in a way that Paul should say, "I'm not a trained speaker,"

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because he had tremendously good training. He sat at the feet of Gamaliel. He had all the training a Pharisee could get. He had all the right pedigree.

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What he meant was, compared with the rhetoricians of Greece, he didn't have that kind of training. He didn't have training in the externals, in the ways of public speaking,

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but he had knowledge. He knew the truth. It's always humbling when I travel to cross-cultural situations, having had the blessing of lots of training,

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and I meet people there who have in their theological library a Bible, and maybe two or three other books. I discover they don't have the training, but boy, they know the Bible.

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They have knowledge. They know the Word. And there are times when it's a blessing not to have too many books, and when you read it,

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and the Holy Spirit opens our eyes, you get that knowledge. Now, Paul had both, and there's nothing wrong with having both, but he knew where his authority lay.

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And if we reject people just because they don't have a certain kind of training, we haven't understood how God equips people for ministry. And the second way they rejected Paul and his co-workers is still repeated, too,

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"I will not allow you the paid professional over what is offered free," verses 7 to 12. Now, I can tell by the expression on some of your faces that you realize I am sitting on a limb and sawing,

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and I'm on the outside of the limb. Thank you, by the way, for paying my salary to allow me to do this every week. Can you imagine being able to study the Word of God as many hours as I do every week and getting paid for it?

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That doesn't seem fair. What you have to understand here is that the Greek teachers who went around were really hawking their wares. They sold their teaching.

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They were a little bit like modern-day consultants. The more you charge, the better your advice is supposed to be. And when they did this, they had a corollary, which was if you don't charge anything, your message is worthless.

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And they were saying to Paul, "Your message is worthless because you don't charge anything for it." Paul saw this as a trick. What they really wanted him to do was start charging so they could then criticize him for charging for what he taught.

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He didn't buy into it. He said, "I'm not going to buy into that. I'm not going to do that." But it is still true that people think that just because someone isn't paid to minister, they can't minister. Not true at all. Not true at all. And the third thing is they do this, that is, they reject true teachers

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when they are taken in by deceitful workmen as opposed to following the genuine. Verses 13 to 15. Here Paul gives his direct, unabashed assessment of these people. "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder.

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For Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. And he is not criticizing them if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness." He said, "The reason you're rejecting me is because you believe these people behind these masks. And you have bought into their assessment of true teachers.

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You have an exercise of discernment. You've looked at the exteriors. You've looked at what is superficial." The point is this. Paul feels like a father who has a daughter and whom he has already committed by this family transaction to a perfect husband-to-be.

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A guy you just couldn't want a better example of someone to give your daughter to. And then she starts bringing home someone I could only describe as a creep, as a jerk. How would you feel if you were the father in that case? What would you do? Well, I'll tell you, this makes prayer warriors out of lots of fathers.

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Instantly, they get on their knees and begin asking God to change the circumstances. But they also counsel and say to the daughter, "Something has got to change." That's what Paul is doing here. He is speaking to people he loves and saying, "This isn't right. I want better for you. I have committed you to one groom, even Christ."

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What's the application for us? It is take counsel if someone cares enough about you to say, "I think you're going off the rails here. I think you're leaving the faith behind." With no disrespect to teenage girls, teenage girls in love are not in a position to see the whole picture. And if their dad needs to say to them, "What you're doing worries me," they need to listen.

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But all of us are in the position of that teenage girl when we are spiritually wandered in the past. We are not in a position to see it. We are blind to what's going on. We need to listen to someone who cares enough about us to say, "Be careful, because what I see here concerns me." More than that, we need to examine ourselves and ask the question, "Am I enamored with dubious leaders?"

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When I turn on the radio or television and someone is offering something that is unbiblical and impossible to swallow, and I like it, what does that say about me? And do I resist proven leaders? And if you're in a position, the third application is exercise leadership. Don't just pray for people who are in this concerning circumstance, but speak to them. Speak directly to them.

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One of the great benefits of my recent trip to Tatarstan was to be in the midst of a people, the Russian people, who are very good at this. I was really taken aback. They spoke very directly to each other. And in the preaching labs I conducted, these guys would critique each other's sermons in a way that would have left most people bleeding internally. They just told them, "This wasn't very good. You didn't do this very well."

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I thought, "Boy, as always, I'm going to learn more here than I am able to impart." We need to learn from our brothers in that sort of society and be willing, faithfully, to tell it like it is. And I see it, biblically helping people see if they're in danger of going off the rails. Jesus loves us. He wants our relationship with Him to be perfect.

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And therefore, He wants to warn us ahead of time when we are flirting with something or someone that we shouldn't be. I'm going to ask you to bow in prayer and then we're going to baptize four who've taken the step of saying, "I am a follower of Jesus and now I want to publicly profess that." Father, we thank you that you love us. We pray now as four come to be baptized that you would protect them from the evil one.

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Get honor for your name as they confess faith in Christ. Amen. It's easy to be led astray if we're not abiding in Jesus the divine. Please stand and let's sing the song as the candidates prepare for baptism. You are the vine, we are the branches. Keep us abiding in you.

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You are the vine, we are the branches. Keep us abiding in you. And we'll go in your love, and we'll go in your name. That the world will surely know that you have power to heal and to save. You are the vine, we are the branches. Keep us abiding in you.

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You are the vine, we are the branches. Keep us abiding in you. Please be seated. Andrew, would you come out now? We'll baptize you first. Our Lord said, "Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, I also will confess him before my Father who is in heaven."

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So I want to ask you to confess your faith publicly by answering yes to these questions. Andrea, have you repented of your sins? Yes. Do you believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son,

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and in the Holy Spirit as co-equal and co-eternal members of the Trinity? Yes. Do you believe in Christ's death for your sins and his subsequent physical resurrection? Yes.

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Do you confess that your only hope for salvation from sin and eternal punishment is found in Christ alone, in whom you trust? Yes. Do you fully intend to live for God and serve him in obedience to his word? Yes.

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John Olson, I now baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Number 372 in the hymnals, "Have Thine Own Way." Please join me, verse 1. Luke, I want to give you an opportunity to answer yes to those same questions as we went over in our preparation time. Luke, have you repented of your sins?

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Yes. Do you believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son, and in the Holy Spirit as co-equal and co-eternal members of the Trinity? Yes.

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Do you believe in Christ's death for your sins and his subsequent physical resurrection? Yes. Do you believe that your only hope for salvation from sin and eternal punishment is found in Christ alone, in whom you trust? Yes.

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Do you fully intend to live for God and serve him in obedience to his word? Yes. Luke Raymond Hallberg, I now baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Verse 2.

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Lisa, people probably feel like they know you, they've heard you sing already this morning. Let me ask you these questions too. Have you repented of your sins? Yes.

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Do you believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son, and in the Holy Spirit as co-equal and co-eternal members of the Trinity? Yes. Do you believe in Christ's death for your sins and his subsequent physical resurrection?