Avoid False Teachers Rom 16:17-24

Intro: Good Morning FE, it’s great to be together worshipping our Lord together on this Lord’s day. For those watching online, welcome we are glad your watching. We have two weeks left in the book of Romans… can you believe it? We have taken a wonderful journey through this book and now FE is full of experts in the book of Romans. Hopefully you have taken notes and can go back through the things you have learned, or things the Lord has challenged you to grow in, or sins to forsake. It would be our joy, that you in turn disciple others on what you have learned from Romans.

When we get to the end of a biblical book, we rush through it thinking there is not much there. If you here last week we learned quite a bit from a list of names Paul wrote. We must remember that all of God’s word is profitable for growth in godliness, there is not a wasted word in the Bible, because it is the inspired, authoritative word of God. Let’s open our Bibles to Romans 16:17-24,

Romans 16:17–24 “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen”

17 Y os ruego, hermanos, que vigiléis a los que causan disensiones y tropiezos contra las enseñanzas que vosotros aprendisteis, y que os apartéis de ellos. 18 Porque los tales son esclavos, no de Cristo nuestro Señor, sino de sus propios apetitos[i], y por medio de palabras suaves y lisonjeras engañan los corazones de los ingenuos. 19 Porque la noticia de vuestra obediencia se ha extendido a todos; por tanto, me regocijo por vosotros, pero quiero que seáis sabios para lo bueno e inocentes para lo malo. 20 Y el Dios de paz aplastará pronto a Satanásdebajo de vuestros pies.La gracia de nuestro Señor Jesucristo sea con vosotros.21 Timoteo, mi colaborador, os saluda, y también Lucio, Jasón y Sosípater, mis parientes. 22 Yo, Tercio, que escribo esta carta, os saludo en el Señor. 23 Gayo, hospedador mío y de toda la iglesia, os saluda. Erasto, el tesorero de la ciudad, os saluda, y el hermano Cuarto. 24 [j]La gracia de nuestro Señor Jesucristo sea con todos vosotros. Amén.

Before Paul wraps up on this letter to the church in Rome, he wants to end on an important reminder. Now Paul has been systematically presenting Gospel Doctrine, concerning man, sin, how a person can attain peace with God, what happens to a person who has been justified by God, how to live a holy life, what it means to be chosen by God in Romans 1-11, in Romans 12 he has been teaching us how Gospel Doctrine leads to Gospel Culture. In other words, if you believe the Gospel, if you believe Romans 1-11, then it should lead you to live like Rom 12-16.

But one of the most dangerous, destructive, and damning problems the church throughout the ages has faced are those who have strayed from the Gospel and have become false teachers who try to seduce the church in believing their “doctrine of demons” causing some to shipwreck their faith, causing divisions and burdening people with obstacles to the Gospel. Now it is important to note that Paul isn’t talking about Romans 14 issues here, if you were not here during that sermon or don’t remember go to our website and watch it. Paul is talking about those who stray from the essentials of the Christian Faith and teach something contrary to the Gospel , the essential doctrines like

The Authoritative, Inspired and Inerrant Word of God

The Triune Nature of God

Fallen and Sinful Man

The Diety and Humanity of Jesus

The Virgin Birth

Jesus death and bodily resurrection for our Salvation

Salvation by Grace alone

God is working through redeemed people through the church.

The Second coming and restoration of all things

Hell and final judgement of God

Every heresy and false teaching, denies, adds to, or removes key components from one or more of these essentials of the christian faith.

If you remember we talked about prayer two weeks ago, and Paul said church, I beg you, I implore you, I urge you to pray for me. You can feel the urgency of Paul’s request. With that same urgency, Paul writes this passage, Paul says church please, I am begging you, I urge you watch out for those who try and teach you something contrary to what you have been taught. This warning, this urgent request doesn’t come in chapters 1-15, but it comes in Paul’s most intimate part of the book, his farewell address to the church of Rome. You feel Paul’s concern but you also feel Paul knows the danger. When I read this I think of Acts 20 when Paul is on the shore, meeting with the Ephesian elders and telling them to watch out for wolves who come in and teach false doctrine, but then he says from among your own selves” meaning some of you may arise and teach false doctrines. You get that same feel of concern from Paul here, and rightfully so because Paul finally arrived in Rome as a prisoner and as he was imprisoned he wrote the book of Philippians, listen to what he writes

Philippians 1:15–17 “Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition,

15 Algunos, a la verdad, predican a Cristo aun por envidia y rivalidad, pero también otros lo hacen de buena voluntad; 16 [m]estos lo hacen por amor, sabiendo que he sido designado para la defensa del evangelio; 17 aquellos proclaman a Cristo por ambición personal,

Paul’s concern was real and came to fruition. Paul’s concern still echoes through time to us today. The problem of false teachers is still around today and their are many false teachers inside and outside the church. There are many dangerous and destructive false teachings today, like

Prosperity Gospel, which teaches Jesus purchased health and wealth for you on the cross. Many of the false teachers who promote this, teach that God has given the power to create and you do this by your positive confession or speaking things into reality because you are a little God.

Universalism - Which teaches all people will be saved, regardless of their faith in Christ. Is this what we have learned in Romans?

Faith Deconstruction Movement - Which encourages we must deconstruct the Christian Faith without Biblical reconstruction.

Moral Relativism - This sees truth as flexible and views the Bible as an archaic book which doesn’t speak to our culture.

Progressive Christianity - which is the sister of Relativism, redefines doctrines of the Christian Faith like Hell, Marriage, Biblical Sexuality to align with modern culture and its ideology. Puts the OT against the NT instead of looking at the whole of God’s revelation and how it reveals Gods plans throughout history.

There are many destructive teachings and teachers out there and they shipwreck peoples faith, they destroy lives. This is why Paul is issuing the warning to watch out, which meant more than to be on the look out, the word means to mark or identify those who teach false doctrines. He want us to look out and identify them. Paul’s warning is to

Mark the false teachers who teach against Biblical doctrine

Paul says look out, identify and mark those who teach against the doctrines that you have been taught. These teachers infiltrate the church and one of their goals is to divide, to disrupt the unity of the church with their doctrines of demons and these teachers create a following for themselves. They are personality driven vs. Christ driven.

The other thing they do is create obstacles to the Gospel. Whether the obstacle is their actual false teaching which keeps people from hearing the truth or the obstacle is adding to the Gospel, teaching you need the Gospel and circumcision, or the Gospel and good works, or the Gospel plus or they tell you they reason God has not healed you is because you don’t have enough faith, or they cause you to doubt the truth, they add burdens and obstacles, burdening people more and more and leading them away from the truth.

Paul says if any one comes teaching you something contrary to what you have been taught… AVOID THEM! That is the command in this passage,

The Command in this passage is AVOID THEM.

Paul says, watch out for them, mark and identify them and then he issues the command, avoid them. How can we obey this command?

We need to become people of the book, we must be Bible people. If we become familiar with the Bible, we will be able to identify truth from error.

We must become people who love the truth. When we are people who love the truth then when someone is teaching something false it ignites a fire of action inside of us to refute the false teaching.

We must become a people who love the church. If we know the Bible, and love the truth, and love the church, then we will become people who desire to protect the people of the church from the false teachings they will encounter and disciple others to see the truth and avoid the error.

We live in the information age, where information travels faster now than any time in the past, which is true of false doctrine, whether it comes through TBN, the radio, movies, music, twitter, tik tok, or any other social media. You are bombarded with false teachers and false doctrines everyday. We as a church need to know our Bibles, love the truth and love the church so that when you hear false doctrine, you are able to identify, speak lovingly and truthfully about it, and protect the church. As elders, this is one of our duties to guard against false teachers. Paul puts the responsibility on every believer here in this passage, be on the look out, identify them, mark them and avoid them.

Paul continues and he describes the characteristics or

The Marks of False Teachers

Reject the Lordship and Gospel of Christ - Paul says these people do not serve Christ, they serve their own appetites. in other words what they are after is serving their sinfulness, whether that is their lust for power, possessions, pleasures, these people create a following for themselves to serve themselves.

Reject the authority of the Scripture - These people reject the authority of The Bible, whether that is an out right rejection or by their actions of teaching things contrary to the Bible. They reject the authority of the Bible over their life and teaching. If I ever stand here and teach something contrary to the Gospel I would expect you to remove me, that goes for anyone who stands on this stage, The truth of God’s Word and God’s glory alone is what takes center stage at Fellowship Bible Church

They do so for selfish gain - these men pursue selfishness and take advantage of people. How many expose’s do we have to watch of prosperity Gospel preachers robbing people for their own selfishness before people stop sending them money. How often do we support ministries by buying their books, or the music they produce, and other materials so they can use that money to spread their false teachings across the world and gain a greater following to serve their selfish desires.

They deceive - Pauls says with smooth talk and flattery they deceive, I will be the first to admit that many false teachers sound so good, they talk so good that they will have you shouting amen. But in their smooth talking ways, they deceive. In the words of the great song writer and theologian, Elvis Presley

Look like an angel

Walk like an angel

Talk like an angel

but I got wise

your’e the devil in disguise,

That is the truth of false teachers.

We need the church to get wise. This is what Paul says, I love you guys, I rejoice over you guys and your obedience to the Gospel is known across the world, protect the church, guard against the church, because the false teachers are coming. Be wise as to what is good and innocent to what is evil. This is exactly what Jesus tells his disciples in

Matthew 10:16 ““Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

16 Mirad, yo os envío como ovejas en medio de lobos; por tanto, sed astutos como las serpientes e inocentes como las palomas.

Be wise for what is good and innocent to what is evil. This is Paul’s way of encouraging the church in Rome to continue growing in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, keep learning what it means to Love God and Love neighbor, and refuse anything to do with evil, with anything that goes against the Gospel and the essentials of the Christian Faith. As Tim Keller puts it “There must be no complacency and no compromise.”

Before Paul closes the book of Romans, he leaves the church in Rome an encouragement “The God of Peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” This is a great and vivid picture of the victory that God has over Satan and a picture that is given to us all the way back in Genesis

Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””

Y pondré enemistad entre tú y la mujer, y entre tu simiente y su simiente; él te herirá en la cabeza, y tú lo herirás en el calcañar.

This is the first prophecy of a messiah, of one who is coming who will be the one to bruise and crush the head of the serpent. God told Adam and Eve, that an offspring is coming, and he will crush the serpents head, he will destroy the works of devil, he will defeat the power of sin and death and thousands of years later, Jesus came and through his death we have victory over sin and the great deceiver, the serpent the devil. Through his resurrection we have victory over death and the grave. This victory is a promise for all those who repent and trust in Jesus as rescue from sin because

The God of Peace will be victorious.

For all who trust in him, God’s victory becomes your victory, because Jesus crushed Satan, one day soon the God of peace will crush Satan under your foot.

As Paul closes out his letter, he sends greetings from his band of brothers, which should speak to us as believers if Paul needed friends, partners in the Gospel then so do we. We need to surround ourselves with people who love the Bible, love the truth, and love the church. Men like Timothy, Lucious, Jason and Sosipater, Tertius, who Paul dictated the book of Romans to, Gaius, who was the Pachi of the early church, hospitable and gracious to all and Erastus, a government official and Quartus these men send their grettings. But most of all may the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen!