BELONGING Relationally and Functionally Involved Attend • Connect • Give • Serve OFFERINGS Worship and Stewardship Online • In Person • EFT PRAYER Staff • Elders • Prayer Team DAugustr. Miche 21-22, 2021le Knight Warning about Troublemakers Keep your distance from false teachers and divisive people. Romans 16:17-20 Warning about Troublemakers 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. Romans 16:17-19 The Marks of False Teaching • Divisive • False Doctrine - Unbiblical • Self-centered • Power Hungry • Persuasive • Manipulates the gullible • Destined for Judgment Romans 16:17-19 Warning about Troublemakers The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Romans 16:20 It may seem strange that in this context Paul refers to the God of peace (as in 15:33), since enjoying peace and crushing Satan do not sound all together compatible with each other. But God's peace allows no appeasement of the devil. It is only through the destruction of evil that true peace can be attained. John Stott Resources "THE IMPORTANCE OF ORTHODOXY" "HOW TO DEAL WITH BOARS IN GOD'S VINEYARD" "PAUL'S WARNINGS" (Romans 16:17-20) (Frank Theilman) (Romans 16:17-20 (Romans 16:17-20) John Stott (Chuck Swindoll) The first part of the passage (16:17-20) focuses on remaining unified around the body of teaching Paul begins his exhortation with the same words which he has used to introduce an earlier that all Christians have learned. It begins with a warning against a form of false teaching that creates On June 15, 1520, Pope Leo X issued an official decree condemning the teaching of one: I urge you brothers (17, cf.12:1). He issues a threefold appeal - to vigilance, to separation division and hinders progress in the faith by insisting that some new form of the faith is better than the Martin Luther. In it, he likened Christendom to a vineyard, planted by God and entrusted to and to discernment. ancient form (v. 17). When Paul speaks of "the teaching that you learned," he implies that both he and Peter and his successors. He also likened Luther to a wild boar from the forest seeking to the Roman Christians, many of whom he had never met, agreed on what the gospel was and that the First, Paul pleads for vigilance; watch out for those who caused divisions and put obstacles in teaching they had received and believed was the teaching that all Christians follow. destroy and devour the vineyard. This is ironic, coming from a man who consumed the papal your way, hindering your progress, that are (both of them) contrary to the teachings you have treasury within two years—not to support works of charity, but to surround himself with lavish This teaching had made its way across the Mediterranean Sea to Rome, and not only had the learned (17). Of course some divisions are inevitable, like those caused by loyalty to Christ (see. Roman Christians become famous for embracing it (1:8; 6:17; cf. 16:19), but Paul was confident that abundance and to stage extravagant festivals. After Pope Leo X had swallowed the last morsel Mt. 10:34ff.), and so are some obstacles, especially the stumbling-block of the cross (Rom. 9:32, they could encourage one another (15:14), and himself also (1:12), to remain committed to this faith. of worshipers' penance, he sold church positions off to the highest bidder. When every 1 Cor. 1:23). Paul urges the Romans to look out for those who cause them because they Clearly Paul thought that the gospel he had just outlined at length in the letter, and the ethical vacancy had been filled, he created more positions and sold them as well. Still, as the treasury contradict the teaching of the apostles. He takes it for granted, even this early in the church's principles he had articulated on the basis of it, were not merely his ideas about the gospel and its shrank, the pontiff's appetite grew. Eventually, he reduced the Catholic Church's assumed role history, that, there is a doctrinal and ethical norm which the Romans must follow, not contradict; it implications but a widely accepted understanding of what all Christians should believe. They were a of dispensing grace to little more than a business transaction, most notably by selling is preserved for us in the New Testament. summary of the Christian faith. indulgences as fast as they could be printed. Articulating the content of the gospel in the way he had just done did not divide Christians from The corruption of Leo X wasFalse not new. There have always been boars who ravage God's Secondly, Paul calls for separationFalse from those who deliberately depart from the apostolic one another but brought them False together. As Paul would say a few years later, in a letter written from vineyard. Jesus stood alone in opposition to hypocritical Pharisees and proud Sadducees. Paul faith. Keep away from them, he writes. There's no question of approaching them with a holy kiss, Rome, "Christ himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the warned the elders in Ephesus of wolves in their midst (Acts 20:29) and routinely confronted but rather a standing aloof, and even turning away. Why is this? What is the essence of their dividing wall of hostility" (Eph 2:14). The gospel, with its message of God's reconciling grace, pulls false teachers and deceivers throughout his ministry (Acts 13:6-11; 2 Cor. 11:11-15,26; Gal. deviation? Paul tells us. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites people together instead of dividing them from one another. 2:4-5; Phil. 3:2; 1 Tim. 6:20; 2 Tim. 1:14-15; 2:16-18; 4:14)- Many of John's writings were an (18a), literally "their own belly" (AV). This is very unlikely to be an allusion to the controversy over In contrast, the false teachers that Paul warns against in 16:17 divided Christians from one another. answer to one kind of heresy or another, and near the end of his life he wrote letters to the Jewish food laws. It is rather a graphic metaphor of self indulgence (as in Phil. 3:19, "their god The divisive tendency of their false teaching stemmed from their advocacy of some new form of the encourage churches to reject false teachers (1 Jn. 4:1; 2 Jn. 1:7-8; 3 Jn. 1:9-11). Peter and is their stomach"). The expression is used in the sense of serving oneself, of being the willing slave faith that hindered a Christian community's progress in the commonly held, traditional form of Jude faced the same difficulties (2 Pet. 2:1-3; Jude 1:4). So it should come as no surprise that of one's egotism. These false teachers have no love for Christ, and no wish to be his willing Christian belief. They were not outsiders expressing an interest in the Christian faith and asking sincere the church in Rome was susceptible to boar-like intruders. slaves. Instead, they are "utterly self-centered" (JBP), and also have a banefull affect on the questions, nor were they fringe members of the traditional group who were expressing real doubts gullible. By smooth talking flattery they deceive the minds of naïve people (18b). Better, "they and occasionally registering dissenting opinions. Paul's welcoming approach to outsiders and the To prepare the Roman believers, Paul taught them how to detect the presence of boars seduce the minds of simple people with smooth and spacious words" (REB). weak in faith is clearly visible elsewhere in his correspondence (Rom 14:1; 1 Cor 14:16-17, 23-25). (Rom. 16:17) and revealed Teachingtheir quintessential character traits (16:18). Fortunately, the Teaching Rather, these false teachers Teachingwere disingenuous people with sophisticated rhetorical and analytical congregation was strong, so his instruction on how to defend God's vineyard was brief and Thirdly, Paul urges the Romans to grow in discernment. On the whole he is very pleased skills, who were using those abilities to serve their own greedy impulses—"their own belly"—as Paul mostly took the form of affirmation (16:19-20). His with them. Everyone has heard about your obedience he says, "so I am full of joy over you" (19a). memorably puts it (16:18). They must have been people with advice is succinct, which makes it especially valuable. Nevertheless, there are two kinds of talent and experience in leading social groups. They were Anything worth protecting will eventually come obedience, blind and discerning, and he longs people who had enough power and influence to lure large under attack. But don't expect the assault to come for them to develop the latter: but I want you numbers of Christians away from the gospel. In short, the false teachers of 16:17-20 were divisive, novel, self-serving, and from barbarians at the gate. More often, churches are to be wise about what is good, and innocent persuasive.