Dale Partridge - Romans 16_17-23 Avoid Those Who Divide the Church

00:00:00.000 Amen. Going off the heels of what Pastor Joseph just said, it is extremely rare for a child

00:00:12.120 to take notes on a sermon if he or she never sees their parents doing so. And so if we

00:00:20.060 would like to create a generational church of note-taking Christians, it begins with 0.87

00:00:25.840 the parents. Now, today we are going to continue on our discussion of Romans 16, 17 through 23. 0.88

00:00:36.540 The title of the sermon is Avoid Those Who Divide the Church. Avoid Those Who Divide the Church.

00:00:46.020 Now, when studying scripture, I have learned to never neglect the introduction and the conclusion

00:00:53.420 of a particular passage in the Bible.

00:00:56.660 As I mentioned a few weeks ago,

00:00:57.940 many pastors have looked at chapter 16

00:00:59.460 and they're like, hey, you know what?

00:01:00.500 There's not any doctrine in it.

00:01:03.700 We don't need to teach on this.

00:01:05.020 In fact, Martin Lloyd-Jones spent many, many years

00:01:07.320 preaching on Romans and stopped at the end of 15.

00:01:11.660 It is shocking to me because

00:01:13.600 just because a passage doesn't have any doctrine

00:01:16.520 doesn't mean that it doesn't have any instruction.

00:01:19.780 And as we hear in 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17,

00:01:22.720 it says that all Scripture is breathed out and is profitable for teaching.

00:01:28.360 That would include the introductions.

00:01:31.120 That would include the lineage lines and all of the difficult passages of Scripture

00:01:36.780 filled with names and greetings and conclusions and salutations.

00:01:43.540 If you recall, two weeks ago we studied the first 16 verses of this book or this chapter,

00:01:49.960 which touched on a number of important topics.

00:01:53.860 We talked about the viability or was there grounds for female deacons?

00:02:02.180 We talked about the structure of the early church, debunked the idea that Junia was an apostle,

00:02:07.880 and we understood that the holy kiss was a custom of that era, not a command for all time.

00:02:17.260 Now today we turn to 17-23, which is really broken up into two sections of Scripture.

00:02:24.580 Verses 17-20, Paul addresses this matter of division.

00:02:32.180 And he goes on also to teach about false teachers.

00:02:36.000 and i don't know if there is a more relevant passage of scripture to the modern church

00:02:45.780 than to talk about divisiveness so i believe that it will be certainly helpful and fruitful

00:02:53.860 for each of us to hear in verses 21 to 23 it's just the salutations the closing remarks

00:02:59.740 of Paul and those who are with him. Now, if you've been in church for any length of time,

00:03:10.440 you know that division is the most effective tool of the enemy. It causes the most pain,

00:03:19.920 the most harm, the most distrust, the most confusion, the most lasting damage to the body

00:03:27.840 of Christ. Beyond that, I would say the division also plants the seeds of doubt about the power

00:03:38.160 of Christ in the eyes of the world. We know that Jesus says in John 17, 17, or 17, I forgot

00:03:44.960 the specific verse, but 17, his high priestly prayer, Father, I pray that they are one like

00:03:50.600 unity is actually the means by which the world believes that Christ was sent from God.

00:04:08.360 One pastor said, division in the church always breeds atheism in the world.

00:04:17.220 I think he's right.

00:04:18.160 if you sow division in the church you are a form of antichrist that's how extreme

00:04:28.840 the biblical theological argument against division truly is

00:04:34.160 you should be just as afraid to be divisive as you should be afraid to cheat on your wife or husband

00:04:40.860 It should be something that is of the utmost carefulness.

00:04:50.720 The entire testimony of Scripture talks about God hating divisive people.

00:04:58.420 Proverbs 16, 16 through 9, sorry, Proverbs 6, 16 through 19 says,

00:05:04.820 And this is a Hebrew poetry that is structured climactically.

00:05:12.140 So the last thing is the most important thing. 0.87

00:05:15.720 There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him.

00:05:21.440 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans,

00:05:26.980 feet that make haste and run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies,

00:05:31.880 and one who sows division among the brethren.

00:05:38.480 In other words, all of those things the Lord hates,

00:05:42.260 but the Lord hates the one who sows division the most.

00:05:50.560 Division is like fire.

00:05:53.660 It's like fire.

00:05:55.020 Now, it destroys everything that you've built for decades.

00:06:04.940 Many congregations have been burned and leveled because of divisiveness.

00:06:13.000 Thomas Watson once wrote,

00:06:15.080 When the devil sees a church warm in faith, he blows upon the coals of division.

00:06:20.060 we have to guard against that reality you want peace in this church take these passages of

00:06:30.860 scripture today as a warning to each and every one of us as we will see divisive people are never alone

00:06:40.400 because, hold on, I lost my spot here.

00:06:48.780 Divisive people are never alone

00:06:50.500 because a divisive spirit, it's infectious.

00:06:57.120 It's contagious.

00:07:01.000 They're like vampires.

00:07:04.620 They bite people and then they recruit and they multiply. 0.90

00:07:08.240 It's this gross fellowship of grievances that forms up and turns into this fire that burns the entire congregation and splits churches in twos and threes.

00:07:22.420 I don't know about you, but I've seen church splits.

00:07:25.260 I've been a part of church splits.

00:07:28.600 I've heard of church splits.

00:07:30.560 I don't care outside of it being because of the sheer fact that it's full-blown heresy or unrepentant sin in leadership.

00:07:42.960 Church splits are like looking upon gangrene.

00:07:48.440 It is so incredibly sad to see among God's people.

00:07:54.620 so today we're going to look upon paul's instruction regarding the matter of division

00:08:01.600 and false teaching if you look at verse 17 he says i appeal to you brothers

00:08:08.040 to watch out for those who cause division and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that

00:08:19.360 you have been taught, avoid them. So first, Paul uses this kind of emphatic language. He says,

00:08:27.260 I appeal. Your passage depends on what translation you're using. It might say,

00:08:32.060 I beseech or I implore you. It becomes this kind of serious call to action here at the end of his

00:08:40.620 letter. It can almost be translated as, I beg of you. And notice that he uses the word brothers.

00:08:49.360 In our feministic culture, we can't understand the reality of the past.

00:08:55.440 Paul is never writing to women.

00:09:00.400 It would be very strange.

00:09:01.480 He might address the women, but he's expecting that these letters are delivered to men who will be leading the church and the congregation.

00:09:10.500 It's a patriarchal society.

00:09:12.740 This is the structure.

00:09:14.320 The word brothers in the Greek is a delphos or a delphoi in the plural.

00:09:18.180 and he is speaking to the men.

00:09:22.940 So your passage might say brethren,

00:09:25.580 but it's not talking about the brethren.

00:09:27.860 It's really meaning brothers, men.

00:09:30.900 I appeal to you, men, be watchful.

00:09:33.700 Where else does Paul use those terms?

00:09:35.680 Well, 1 Corinthians 16, right?

00:09:37.120 Or yeah, 16, you know, men be watchful.

00:09:42.180 That's the duty of men to watch, to be vigilant.

00:09:46.760 Well, and why? 0.99

00:09:48.180 Well, because we know that women watch with their emotions. 1.00

00:09:53.700 In fact, it's the great reason why America has fallen into so many deceptive laws 1.00

00:09:59.760 is because the 19th Amendment allowed women to vote instead of household voting. 0.75

00:10:05.260 Household voting where a man comes together with his family and says,

00:10:08.420 what do we think? Covenantally, let's get together and let's cast a vote as a household.

00:10:13.480 but when women vote they vote with their hearts and they vote with their emotions

00:10:18.300 and it is taking a really wonderful and glorious and nurturing and compassionate thing that is used 0.82

00:10:25.920 to raise up godly kids and to love people and to have mercy ministries and it's being perverted

00:10:31.460 to be used by politicians and different people to to essentially get them to be manipulated

00:10:39.420 in supporting that which may not be righteous.

00:10:45.000 And so Paul lays this duty of looking out for divisiveness,

00:10:49.340 looking out for false teachers at the feet of the men.

00:10:53.480 I appeal to you, brothers, watch out.

00:10:58.880 Watch out.

00:11:03.480 He says for two things.

00:11:06.040 Watch out for divisiveness.

00:11:09.420 and watch out for false teachers, both of them.

00:11:17.760 Now, the word watch out in the Greek is skopeo.

00:11:23.860 And skopeo is the word that we get for the English word scope.

00:11:29.420 And the word there, it really means to fix your eyes,

00:11:33.400 to look out for something.

00:11:36.280 It's more than just a, hey, keep an eye out for that.

00:11:39.140 No, it's watch, look for it, pay attention, fix your eyes on something.

00:11:47.320 And so we're to scope out these two groups, those who are divisive and those who bring in false teaching.

00:11:56.260 And so I want to deal with these two issues and let's start with division.

00:12:02.240 So contextually, we have to ask ourselves, well, what is Paul talking about?

00:12:04.940 Because again, we're not going to just project ourselves onto the text.

00:12:07.120 We want to find out, why is he even bringing this up?

00:12:09.460 Is there some context within Romans that gives us some sort of idea that we go,

00:12:13.400 why is he bringing divisions up here?

00:12:16.940 Is there any text that will clue us in to a particular person or group that he might have in mind?

00:12:23.520 Well, there is.

00:12:25.580 In Romans, we deal with two groups causing division in doctrine, or division in false doctrine. 0.50

00:12:31.120 The first is the antinomians.

00:12:33.900 Antinomians means anti-law, right? 0.81

00:12:36.820 Namas is law in the Greek, so it's anti-law.

00:12:39.940 And the idea is these people would say grace is so good that we can keep on sinning willfully

00:12:47.420 because the more we sin, the more we magnify God's grace.

00:12:52.060 Those are the antinomians.

00:12:53.960 And that was dealt with in chapter 4.

00:12:58.460 And, or sorry, that was chapter 6. 0.84

00:13:01.320 And then we have the Judaizers. 0.94

00:13:03.760 And those are those people who want to bring Christians who are under grace back under the law. 0.98

00:13:11.260 It's these people that are want to get you back into religious externalism or what we might call legalism. 0.94

00:13:20.900 And Paul spends a lot of time, chapters two through four, chapters nine through 11, chapters 14 and 15, talking about the risk there.

00:13:28.020 now this doesn't mean that paul doesn't uh that this principle isn't just a general principle

00:13:37.280 this is something that he would tell to all the churches watch out for divisive people

00:13:41.560 watch out for false doctrine but again we must understand the author's original intent

00:13:51.060 before we start assigning the text to some broader principle or to broader meaning

00:13:57.920 And so, men, we are to watch out for those who cause divisions.

00:14:02.740 And as a pastor, my first line of defense here is prayer.

00:14:07.900 I know my wife can attest, almost every night when we pray at our dinner table,

00:14:13.480 I am praying for the unity of this church.

00:14:17.400 I am praying for the protection against divisiveness.

00:14:20.620 divisiveness, because I know that all that we have built can be destroyed by the flame 0.98

00:14:27.720 of some fool that is a divisive brother or sister. 0.96

00:14:34.900 Second, as a pastor, and I think men, I'm calling you to this, is that we are to develop 0.98

00:14:40.280 a sensitivity to the subtle signs and seeds that give birth to division.

00:14:46.260 Bitter words, complaints, gossips, whispering.

00:14:55.400 These are the things, the warning signs that you go, I'm on guard.

00:15:02.040 I'm watching you now.

00:15:06.220 Division rarely begins openly, by the way.

00:15:09.980 It almost always happens discreetly.

00:15:12.700 It slips in.

00:15:13.800 It's like a serpent.

00:15:14.680 You don't even know that it's there.

00:15:16.260 And then all of a sudden, poison is all over everybody.

00:15:21.760 And so I believe the skills here are essential.

00:15:25.120 And there's two of them.

00:15:26.640 Vigilant watchfulness and righteous, active peacemaking.

00:15:33.860 You need both.

00:15:35.540 You need to watch for it.

00:15:37.300 And then you need to know how to bring about peace.

00:15:43.120 Peace with your wife, peace with your children, peace with a brother, peace with a sister.

00:15:51.060 Peace is essential. 0.99

00:15:54.280 Now, division, again, can be caused by both men and women.

00:15:58.180 In fact, I see many instances throughout church history. 0.84

00:16:00.800 We often see heresy entering in by the men. 0.91

00:16:05.260 And in modern times, we see division often entering in by the women. 0.87

00:16:11.280 Now, again, it doesn't mean the division doesn't happen by men. 0.83

00:16:15.300 But what I will say is this. 0.55

00:16:16.900 My experience in my generation as a pastor is the division either happens by men or happens by women or by men who act like women.

00:16:25.940 OK, that is really what happens.

00:16:28.240 It is emotionally led men or women who are not in subjection to their husband or to their pastors or to their fathers.

00:16:38.620 Now, why do I say that?

00:16:41.260 And this, I hope, will make a lot of sense to you.

00:16:44.640 Division begins when someone has a complaint or an offense, but lacks the courage to address it.

00:16:52.760 You want to get down to the root?

00:16:54.940 Division begins when someone has a complaint or an offense, but lacks the courage to direct a conversation to it, to confront it.

00:17:06.800 And yes, you know what? 1.00

00:17:08.360 Women do struggle with that.

00:17:10.360 Women are not as confrontational as men.

00:17:13.860 So what they do, historically, is they will grieve and air their grievances, what we often call gossip.

00:17:23.140 Unfortunately, we live in a time with many effeminate men who are also afraid to confront with courage a discussion that might need to be had,

00:17:33.260 and instead turn into women and start heckling and gossiping with other men. 0.73

00:17:38.900 it is cowardice

00:17:41.020 it's rooted in fear

00:17:43.620 and it's our duty

00:17:46.680 as men

00:17:48.780 to watch out for this stuff

00:17:50.780 and to shepherd our wives

00:17:52.960 and to shepherd our daughters

00:17:55.040 and to shepherd our young sons

00:17:57.160 and

00:17:58.580 to be sure that ourselves

00:18:01.060 are not afraid of confrontation

00:18:03.120 because it is very possible

00:18:06.360 for all of us to fall into this

00:18:08.760 sin. Now, if these

00:18:12.840 people don't deal with their fear of confrontation, they

00:18:16.720 end up doing what? Farming sympathy.

00:18:22.500 Farming sympathy. Oh, let me go around

00:18:24.740 and see who can feel bad for me. Just how I feel. Maybe

00:18:28.720 you have the same grievances and they start to build alliances.

00:18:33.140 They start recruiting. They start building out a fellowship

00:18:36.980 around other people that can feel them

00:18:40.700 and understand them.

00:18:47.280 Robert Haldane once said,

00:18:49.780 the most dangerous and mischievous divisions

00:18:51.800 are those which do not call for separation

00:18:54.420 but remain in the shadows of the congregation.

00:18:59.340 If you're going to be divisive, just leave.

00:19:01.420 I would rather you take your flame somewhere else

00:19:03.600 than just stay here and keep burning things down.

00:19:10.060 So men, again, a great way to guard against division

00:19:16.220 is to be watchful, to encourage when someone comes to you

00:19:20.200 and makes a complaint, you go,

00:19:21.620 hey, brother, you know what you should do?

00:19:22.800 You should bring that to the person who offended you.

00:19:25.740 That's what big boys do.

00:19:28.020 I'm tired of this, hey, oh, yeah, yeah, I get that too.

00:19:32.100 you know. No. If someone brings a complaint about another person to you,

00:19:37.000 the biblical model, according to Christ, is to bring

00:19:41.120 that complaint to the person who offended you

00:19:44.480 first and alone.

00:19:49.080 And if that person does not

00:19:52.820 accept or receive your complaint,

00:19:55.940 what does it say? Well, then bring two or three.

00:20:00.340 then you are free to invite someone

00:20:03.360 hey I've gone to a brother here

00:20:04.800 and

00:20:05.640 he did this and I thought it wasn't right

00:20:09.780 I'd like to gather a few of us

00:20:11.660 together to see if we can get the facts straight

00:20:13.380 that could be elders

00:20:16.080 that could be another brother or sister

00:20:17.640 that might be involved in the situation

00:20:19.480 and if this

00:20:21.820 brother or sister still does not listen

00:20:23.580 to these two or three

00:20:25.020 that have been gathered together

00:20:26.760 especially if those are elders

00:20:29.000 the process is supposed to get more and more public but controlled it's supposed to get more

00:20:36.960 and more humiliating oh you're gonna deny your sin oh well let's bring more people into it

00:20:45.540 oh you're still gonna deny that you've sinned against this brother then we're gonna bring

00:20:50.180 more people in. This is the proper process to deal with offenses and contentions, and the vast

00:20:59.760 majority of them, the vast majority of them, can be dealt with privately on step one. Do you know

00:21:07.260 how many times a church didn't have to split just if one person would have just been willing to walk

00:21:13.300 up to somebody and have a private conversation with humility and grace. The church can be saved

00:21:21.100 by the faithfulness and willingness to confront people instead of having the cowardice

00:21:28.880 to become a divisive member of a church. Now next, I want to speak to the group that we are called

00:21:36.460 to observe which is those who quote create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you

00:21:44.640 have been taught now false doctrine can only be recognized and measured against the backdrop of

00:21:55.620 sound doctrine the reason false okay i often say this at the big mega churches there's not a lot

00:22:02.440 of correction around false teaching because nobody believes nobody understands what they believe

00:22:06.540 now in a reformed church where we have a confessional church we have a standard of

00:22:13.860 understanding of interpretation and we can measure what somebody else might be teaching

00:22:20.460 if it is in contrary to what has been taught according to the word of god and so the first

00:22:28.900 step is that we need clarity. Now, I think at some of the bigger megachurches, you do have a

00:22:37.200 sense of unity. In fact, you have a unity. I think it's a superficial unity. It's a unity that

00:22:43.880 if everybody actually stood and you stood together and you went up to every single person and you

00:22:51.300 asked them what they believed truly about a variety of different important topics, there

00:22:55.800 would be a wild variation but because they stick to kind of the shallow waters of the gospel

00:23:02.880 they never actually expose the vast variations of what they believe and so it's a superficial

00:23:11.880 unity though it is a form of unity now it's more difficult to have unity with more clarity

00:23:17.820 the more clarity you have the more opportunity you have to be different upon it and so you still

00:23:25.700 to have the ethic of being willing to be unified without being uniform and it's very important

00:23:32.700 to learn how to have peace and not to be so dogmatic that you're separating on secondary

00:23:37.940 and tertiary matters left and right that's what creates the splintering of the reformed community

00:23:44.200 and all the factions and arguments that's going on on social media

00:23:48.260 we need to be able to disagree but with grace and not divide among one another

00:23:57.000 now every generation faces heresies okay every generation faces heresies all heresy all heresies

00:24:06.980 fall down in five categories five categories the nature of god the nature of christ the nature of

00:24:16.520 church, the way of salvation, and the mode of revelation. When I say the mode of revelation,

00:24:25.400 I mean, is it scripture alone? Is it tradition? Are there modern day prophets and apostles? Okay,

00:24:30.020 those are the categories. Those are the categories. Now, in my experience, the vast majority of

00:24:37.360 heresies that we deal with in the church these days has to do with category number three,

00:24:42.440 the way of salvation. And I say that because it turns into particular arguments around legalism.

00:24:53.080 Generally speaking, that is what I fight against most as a pastor, not necessarily even amongst

00:25:00.220 our congregation, but certainly in the greater ministry that I have in the world. Now, Paul says

00:25:07.220 to watch out for those who create obstacles.

00:25:10.500 Look at your text.

00:25:11.720 Who create obstacles, contrary to sound doctrine.

00:25:16.240 Now, the term obstacles suggests some form of added works,

00:25:23.120 something in the way,

00:25:25.420 indicating that Paul is likely addressing legalism.

00:25:29.620 That's probably what he has in mind here, is legalism.

00:25:34.280 You know, he might be thinking of the requirement

00:25:36.760 that some people, you must be circumcised if you're going to be saved, or you must keep

00:25:40.740 the Sabbath on Saturday if you're going to be saved, or you have these old covenant duties

00:25:44.820 or these festivals, whatever it may be. But I do believe that he has

00:25:48.660 that in mind. Now today

00:25:52.820 the most common example of this is found, I believe, in the Roman

00:25:56.780 Catholic Church, the Roman Doctrine

00:25:59.660 which teaches that salvation requires faith plus

00:26:04.860 All these sacramental meritorial systems that have been put in place, it replaces Christ's, it is finished with, it is never finished.

00:26:17.240 You have to continue to push forward.

00:26:20.460 You have to do these things to maintain your salvation.

00:26:26.080 And then it piles on more and more extra-biblical realities.

00:26:31.080 the veneration of Mary

00:26:33.600 the praying to the dead saints

00:26:36.000 indulgences to buy down time

00:26:38.580 and the imaginary development of purgatory

00:26:41.360 all of these things are surrounding us

00:26:45.060 in Christendom constantly

00:26:47.060 to this Paul says at the end of verse 18

00:26:51.620 avoid them

00:26:53.520 avoid them 0.80

00:26:56.240 hey those divisive people

00:26:59.300 those false teachers? 0.74

00:27:04.420 Avoid them.

00:27:07.760 One scholar commented saying,

00:27:10.880 what did Paul say?

00:27:14.200 Excommunicate them? 0.99

00:27:16.140 Burn them at the stake? 1.00

00:27:17.980 No. 0.98

00:27:19.380 Avoid them.

00:27:21.420 Don't listen to them.

00:27:23.300 Don't pay attention to them.

00:27:25.160 Don't give audience to them.

00:27:27.120 Don't let them take your time.

00:27:29.300 I think this applies well, he says, to those zealous cultists who come around so frequently to our doors with books under their arms that claim to be the explanations of the scriptures, but which are so contrary to its teaching and doctrine, end quote.

00:27:47.120 Avoid them.

00:27:47.940 in matthew 15 13 to 14 jesus says he's responding by the way to the disciples

00:27:59.080 who are frustrated with the words of the pharisees and jesus says every plant that my heavenly father

00:28:09.100 has planted or every plant that my heavenly father has not planted will be rooted up

00:28:16.160 Leave them alone.

00:28:17.460 They are blind guides.

00:28:20.560 He's just like, leave them alone.

00:28:24.420 Avoid them.

00:28:27.240 Now, this doesn't mean that pastors and teachers like Paul or other ministers

00:28:32.320 should avoid these people to the same extent as the average Christian. 0.91

00:28:38.620 I recently had some Jehovah's Witnesses come to my house, 1.00

00:28:41.360 and i spent an hour debunking every single one of their claims i do not expect my wife to do the 0.99

00:28:51.080 same and in fact i don't want her to because as you will see in this passage of text they will

00:28:57.180 use smooth talk and flattery they are a threat and if you're not ready and totally able to defend

00:29:07.120 against this, you will be

00:29:09.240 taken by some of their lies.

00:29:11.820 I see it all the time.

00:29:15.040 So if you're a wife and you're at home, or

00:29:17.200 if you're just a new believer, you're not ready

00:29:19.040 for such type of spiritual warfare

00:29:21.120 and they come knocking at your door,

00:29:23.440 no thank you. Close the door.

00:29:26.260 Avoid them.

00:29:28.160 Avoid them.

00:29:28.800 i've actually felt a temptation when you're when i'm writing my book right now reformed versus rome

00:29:41.320 and there's this temptation of kind of misplaced sympathy for those who are promoting error

00:29:52.460 It's hard to explain.

00:29:55.580 But it's easy to kind of find yourself agreeing with portions of what they say.

00:30:00.220 A counterfeit is good because it's 98% right.

00:30:07.100 That's the problem.

00:30:09.820 So you're looking and you're like, man, this looks pretty good.

00:30:12.680 And you go, you know, we really are aligned with like 90-something percent, you know?

00:30:17.860 and so it's easy to find yourself kind of agreeing with those portions while the serious lies that

00:30:28.380 corrupt the gospel just kind of fall to the backdrop of the conversation and you're willing

00:30:34.100 to find some sort of unity with these people that are leading people to hell it's very common

00:30:40.620 and again I even found myself like huh man I like that point this guy's really smart

00:30:46.660 I find this great appreciation for these Roman Catholic scholars.

00:30:53.220 But in the writing of my final chapter, 0.98

00:30:55.640 I had to remind myself of just kind of the hellish nature of Roman Catholicism. 1.00

00:31:01.880 The real threat that it is. 0.99

00:31:05.660 Again, there's kind men and women in all of these cults,

00:31:10.040 all of these perversions of doctrine.

00:31:12.500 They're kind.

00:31:13.980 They're nice.

00:31:16.660 I might have a great time having a drink overlooking the lake.

00:31:21.840 Good conversation. Wonderful.

00:31:27.860 But you cannot forget that they are deceived and that they are interested in deceiving others.

00:31:34.520 Truly.

00:31:36.140 They do not hold a biblical gospel and many of them will perish

00:31:40.260 and they will be judged for their perversions and for those that they have misled.

00:31:44.780 Jesus says, for any of those who mislead one of these little ones who believe in me,

00:31:51.660 it is better for you to have a millstone wrapped around your neck and thrown into the bottom of the sea.

00:32:03.640 Deceivers are deceptive because they look like they're not deceivers. 1.00

00:32:07.480 Paul says of these heretics 1.00

00:32:13.720 he says for such 1.00

00:32:15.500 persons now he's talking about both groups

00:32:17.680 the divisive people

00:32:19.380 and the false teachers

00:32:21.340 for such persons he says

00:32:23.580 do not serve

00:32:25.400 our Lord Jesus Christ

00:32:27.680 think about that

00:32:29.520 have you ever been the divisive party

00:32:33.400 at a church split

00:32:34.160 this verse is to you

00:32:36.660 have you ever convinced people of false doctrine and maybe repented of it later

00:32:43.820 this verse was speaking of you at that time it's a scary verse for such persons do not

00:32:49.320 serve our lord jesus christ

00:32:51.060 it says what do they serve contrast clause the word but right there but what do they serve

00:33:01.600 their own appetites and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive

00:33:10.000 have you ever been a part of a church split and how much alliance building the recruiting goes on

00:33:18.560 do you know how much smooth talk and flattery happens in that environment it's wicked it's 0.97

00:33:26.940 wicked and gross. 0.98

00:33:32.120 Paul says it 1.00

00:33:32.940 plain. These people do not serve

00:33:34.980 our Lord Jesus Christ. They are the

00:33:36.820 chaff among the wheat. 0.99

00:33:39.900 They are the ones

00:33:40.780 that Jesus speaks of in Matthew

00:33:42.660 7, 21-23. Not everyone

00:33:44.780 who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven,

00:33:47.280 but those who

00:33:47.820 but the one who

00:33:50.800 does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

00:33:53.040 On that day, many will say to me,

00:33:54.880 Lord, Lord, did we not

00:33:56.840 prophesy in your name? Do we not cast out many demons in your name? Do we not do many mighty

00:34:00.940 works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart

00:34:04.840 from me, you workers of lawlessness. The ethic

00:34:08.920 of this entire passage of scripture is this. Spiritual activity does not

00:34:12.900 equal spiritual security. You can do all the things for God in the world.

00:34:17.080 And the Roman Catholics are out there. They're doing it. And the Mormons are out there. And

00:34:20.720 spiritual activity does not equal spiritual security.

00:34:24.000 you must be born again

00:34:27.700 you must be made new 1.00

00:34:31.980 since they do not serve Christ 0.99

00:34:39.300 they serve themselves 0.95

00:34:40.600 or as Paul says

00:34:41.700 their own appetites

00:34:43.160 their own desires

00:34:44.480 their aim is not to lead people

00:34:47.160 under the light yoke of Christ

00:34:48.720 it's to lead people

00:34:50.100 under the heavy yoke of legalism

00:34:52.040 that is what happens

00:34:55.340 just last night

00:34:58.080 Veronica showed me a video 0.94

00:34:59.320 of a Roman Catholic female

00:35:01.640 apologist and she's

00:35:03.760 defending her practices against

00:35:05.800 Protestant critiques

00:35:06.980 and I'll tell you what

00:35:09.640 she was a smooth talking 1.00

00:35:11.420 flattering woman 1.00

00:35:12.620 very smooth 1.00

00:35:15.760 in fact it's the kind of stuff

00:35:17.840 that I thought wow

00:35:18.800 I bet many women have been deceived 0.63

00:35:21.900 by this woman. I'm going to paraphrase her words. She said, if you pray to Mary and later find out 0.97

00:35:33.240 that it wasn't necessary, there's no harm done. If you pray to past saints and discover that they

00:35:38.640 never heard you, there's no harm done. If you take the Eucharist and it's not really transformed the

00:35:43.460 body and the blood, you're still going to heaven. But if Roman Catholics are right, you avoid these 1.00

00:35:48.300 things, you have missed the way of salvation. 1.00

00:35:51.640 Oof.

00:35:54.200 What do you do with that?

00:35:56.680 Now the kind of reasoning that she's

00:35:58.420 using is called Pascal's Wager.

00:36:02.440 And it's deeply flawed in its

00:36:04.180 application here.

00:36:06.240 Here's why.

00:36:08.220 Disobedience always has a cost.

00:36:10.340 Always has a cost.

00:36:11.580 It is sin to do

00:36:13.660 what scripture does not command us

00:36:15.680 to do.

00:36:16.160 Paul says do not go beyond what is written

00:36:19.880 Jesus says that God is spirit

00:36:23.860 and he must be worshipped in spirit and in truth

00:36:28.220 it's John chapter 4 verse 24

00:36:32.260 anytime we pray to someone other than God

00:36:35.920 we're not praying to God

00:36:37.120 every time we have our devotion

00:36:39.320 given venerating some other saint

00:36:41.460 it's not being given to Christ

00:36:43.220 hey there's no harm no foul

00:36:47.580 go give your worship and praise to something else that is not Christ

00:36:51.260 no no that is wicked

00:36:55.640 God is a jealous God what is the first

00:36:59.620 commandment there shall be no other gods what is the second commandment there shall be no

00:37:03.480 idols

00:37:04.160 God doesn't just

00:37:11.620 tell us that he is to be worshipped, but he tells us how he ought to be

00:37:15.600 worshipped. I have now taught through 16 chapters

00:37:19.600 of the book of Romans.

00:37:23.440 Over 150 sermons on the book of Romans.

00:37:27.380 It's the magnum opus of the New Testament. It is

00:37:31.260 the book where all Christian foundations of doctrine

00:37:35.140 have been developed. How many times

00:37:39.500 was mary mentioned not once how many times did we hear of praying to dead saints never

00:37:49.640 how many times did we learn about purgatory or indulgences not once 0.85

00:37:56.480 i i always find it extremely odd that roman catholics would make mary the center of their

00:38:06.440 worship service when after the narrative of the Gospels, and I say narrative, of the Gospels

00:38:13.080 and the first chapter or first two chapters of the book of Acts, you never hear of Mary again

00:38:18.780 in all of the rest of the New Testament. By emphasis alone, we should say, how can you make

00:38:26.460 Mary this massive focus when she is this much of a focus in the scriptures? She falls to the

00:38:33.920 backdrop. It's not that she's not important. She's incredibly important.

00:38:38.640 The virgin birth is absolutely a necessity

00:38:41.640 of core Christian doctrine. She is blessed

00:38:45.740 among women.

00:38:49.580 But Peter doesn't talk about it. James doesn't talk about it.

00:38:54.380 Paul doesn't talk about it. John and his epistles do not

00:38:57.740 talk about it. There is never one example,

00:39:01.160 there is never one passage

00:39:03.440 there is never one command

00:39:05.260 ever in the Old Testament

00:39:07.700 or the New Testament to ever pray

00:39:09.760 to someone who is passed on

00:39:11.120 or to venerate somebody

00:39:12.940 or any sort of adoration

00:39:15.480 that we see from the Roman Catholic Church

00:39:17.360 to someone like Mary

00:39:19.140 we have to remember

00:39:25.020 that humanity naturally drifts

00:39:27.360 toward legalism

00:39:29.140 your tendency in the flesh is to become a legalist i promise you that it's mine too

00:39:36.860 because legalism offers a system in which people can perform and compare and elevate themselves

00:39:44.080 above others it creates the system that is really great for social media right you get to go hey

00:39:49.360 watch me follow me i know the way it creates a thing that points inward instead of pointing

00:39:58.360 outward. As someone once said,

00:40:00.440 we are all born legalists.

00:40:02.640 It is the grace of the

00:40:04.300 gospel that turns us into Christians.

00:40:09.880 So whenever you see someone,

00:40:12.540 whether it's for a moment or

00:40:14.080 completely, abandoning the gospel

00:40:16.060 of grace for some form of legalism,

00:40:18.760 you are looking at

00:40:22.200 a legalist. And I know that sounds

00:40:24.220 weird to say, but it's really that simple.

00:40:27.580 Legalism

00:40:28.140 attracts legalists.

00:40:32.840 Grace is difficult.

00:40:34.440 Grace requires

00:40:35.600 trusting on Christ

00:40:38.000 for the assurance of your salvation.

00:40:41.060 Legalism says

00:40:41.920 just do this and you can make yourself

00:40:43.960 assured from self-works

00:40:45.960 and self-righteousness.

00:40:47.720 You don't have to have faith anymore.

00:40:50.120 Just trust. If you just do these

00:40:52.100 things, you will be saved.

00:40:53.460 they can't handle the simplicity of grace

00:41:00.060 they can't handle that everything is already done

00:41:04.040 and so as a result they say you have to do

00:41:06.300 it's a massive difference of the gospel

00:41:10.120 in verse 19 Paul clarifies

00:41:13.980 his motives for writing these people

00:41:17.280 these words around division and false teachers

00:41:19.800 he says for your obedience is known to all

00:41:22.720 so that I rejoice over you.

00:41:29.420 But I want you to be wise

00:41:30.860 in what is good and innocent

00:41:33.660 in what is evil.

00:41:38.000 In other words, Paul is not just giving these instructions 0.94

00:41:40.600 because he believes that the Roman people 0.94

00:41:43.600 are just such a gullible and overran church. 1.00

00:41:48.300 And I would say, I'm saying the same to you. 0.95

00:41:50.120 I don't think that Kingsway is this church filled with divisive people and overly emotional women that don't have any self-control. 0.95

00:41:57.460 I don't think that. I think actually our church is very healthy.

00:42:00.800 But what does Paul do? He still warns them.

00:42:06.140 He still warns them.

00:42:08.680 And that's the same thing I'm doing here.

00:42:10.280 I'm just going, hey, I have not one concern over anybody in this church.

00:42:16.100 And Paul says the same thing.

00:42:18.200 Your obedience is known to all.

00:42:19.820 Kingsway, your obedience, you are a great church.

00:42:23.040 But why?

00:42:24.360 Because I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent to what is evil.

00:42:28.860 That is the reason that we look at this passage of Scripture.

00:42:32.120 He concludes his warnings by saying in verse 20, he says,

00:42:37.180 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

00:42:41.300 What an amazing passage of Scripture.

00:42:44.580 Think of it.

00:42:45.340 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

00:42:53.620 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, he says.

00:42:56.860 All right.

00:42:57.800 First, I want you to notice that after all these warnings about division and enemies,

00:43:06.640 that Paul immediately strengthens their confidence by reminding them that they serve the God of peace.

00:43:12.500 okay you serve a god of peace that's a great thing this church serves a god of peace and it

00:43:21.920 should be a place of peace it should not be a place of strife and division it should not

00:43:27.860 be contentious it should be a place of peace second he gives them an optimistic prophecy

00:43:36.280 an optimistic prophecy

00:43:38.640 look at this

00:43:39.400 just as Christ the head of the church

00:43:41.960 crushed the head of the serpent at the cross

00:43:44.400 so now the body of Christ

00:43:46.900 will trample over the body of Satan

00:43:48.920 those who are under his power

00:43:50.980 that's an amazing prophecy

00:43:53.580 soon

00:43:54.500 he says

00:43:56.280 the God of peace

00:43:57.760 will soon crush Satan

00:44:00.720 under your feet 0.99

00:44:02.460 the church's feet

00:44:05.520 now there's a little bit more prophecy going on here

00:44:09.880 this is a prophecy

00:44:13.340 that was fulfilled I believe in part

00:44:16.220 for the church of Rome

00:44:18.680 the church of Rome by the way

00:44:21.020 must have according to this verse

00:44:24.560 optimistic eschatology by the way

00:44:27.380 and now why

00:44:29.480 well at that time Rome was under intense persecution

00:44:34.380 Think about this, you're a Roman Christian in the first century, and it's bad.

00:44:39.020 Okay, it's bad, it's real bad. 1.00

00:44:43.140 You have every reason to be a pessimist.

00:44:46.380 Every reason to believe that it's just going to get worse.

00:44:54.980 Yet just a few centuries later, what happens?

00:44:59.340 The entire Roman Empire bows to Christ. 0.96

00:45:04.380 Rome becomes a Christian empire. 0.92

00:45:12.540 Now, why is this important?

00:45:13.860 Because it was foretold in Daniel's prophecy.

00:45:17.420 In Daniel 2, God revealed to Daniel Nebuchadnezzar's dream.

00:45:23.020 And it's a statue.

00:45:24.520 And it was successive world empires that were built on it.

00:45:27.940 You can go back and read it and read all the commentaries.

00:45:29.840 Everybody agrees with this structure that I'm about to say.

00:45:33.200 no matter what eschatology you hold.

00:45:36.100 Okay, it's talking about Babylon,

00:45:37.860 Medo-Persia, Greece,

00:45:39.000 and then finally Rome,

00:45:39.940 which is this clay feet

00:45:41.180 in this prophetic dream.

00:45:44.740 And it says that there will be a stone

00:45:46.740 not cut with human hands

00:45:48.440 that will essentially strike the feet,

00:45:54.080 which is Rome,

00:45:55.120 shattering it.

00:45:56.220 And then it says that it will grow

00:45:57.840 into a mountain.

00:46:00.200 So it starts off as this small stone

00:46:02.480 a cornerstone maybe

00:46:05.240 Christ

00:46:06.520 and it comes in in Rome 0.88

00:46:09.580 and it crushes Rome

00:46:11.420 and it grows into this huge

00:46:13.880 mountain

00:46:14.240 and it says that that

00:46:17.760 mountain fills

00:46:19.320 the whole earth

00:46:21.160 Daniel explains that that

00:46:25.320 mountain and I think we have

00:46:27.520 more commentaries that I could bring up which I don't have

00:46:29.640 time for that that stone

00:46:31.460 obviously was christ that mountain is the kingdom of god he inaugurated during the reign of rome

00:46:38.700 and though the roman empire initially sought to crush the church the church crushes the empire

00:46:46.900 it's an amazing thing that soon the god of peace is going to crush satan under your feet

00:46:57.160 I just can't imagine how you could

00:47:01.760 that would be difficult to believe when you're watching your friends die

00:47:05.120 because they won't drop some salt to the emperor

00:47:08.600 or because they won't say that Caesar is Lord

00:47:13.760 and your neighbor just died

00:47:17.040 and your brother just died

00:47:19.360 and they turn back to this passage of scripture

00:47:23.520 that says, soon, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet.

00:47:33.060 Paul closes with his salutations.

00:47:35.120 He says, Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you,

00:47:40.360 so do Lucius and Jason and Sassapater and my kinsmen.

00:47:46.540 I, Turchis, who is an amazing guy that we never hear about,

00:47:51.780 who wrote this letter.

00:47:53.420 He's Paul's scribe.

00:47:55.540 Greet you in the Lord.

00:47:57.660 Gaius, who is the host to me

00:48:00.200 and the whole church,

00:48:01.620 greets you.

00:48:02.940 Erastus, the city treasurer.

00:48:04.980 Love that we have

00:48:05.980 political Christians right there.

00:48:08.520 And our brother, Quartus,

00:48:10.480 greets you.

00:48:12.640 And so let me just leave you

00:48:14.140 really quickly with just three

00:48:16.300 points of application and we'll close.

00:48:20.000 Number one.

00:48:21.780 confront or overlook.

00:48:27.320 Confront your offenses or your offender or overlook them.

00:48:33.480 Proverbs 19.11 says,

00:48:34.740 It is a glory to a man to overlook sin.

00:48:40.260 But if you cannot, now a lot of people think,

00:48:43.400 I'm just going to overlook it, the bigger person.

00:48:47.000 All the while, you're actually getting bitter.

00:48:49.940 So if you can't actually overlook it, then you go confront it.

00:48:56.340 There are only three options.

00:48:58.780 Confront it, overlook it, or get bitter.

00:49:03.480 Don't get bitter.

00:49:07.720 Number two, if you leave any church,

00:49:12.960 for whatever reason

00:49:16.500 unless it's again for clear sin

00:49:18.440 condemned, anathematized by their

00:49:20.540 denomination, heretics, whatever

00:49:22.500 I'm just saying is you just leave your

00:49:24.640 church for whatever reason

00:49:26.600 speak well

00:49:28.720 speak well

00:49:30.700 we speak well of those who leave

00:49:34.380 and those who leave

00:49:36.260 ought to speak well of us

00:49:37.520 that is an ethic that must happen

00:49:40.120 it's kind of the same way 1.00

00:49:44.460 you know a wife

00:49:45.900 may have problems with her husband 1.00

00:49:48.220 but she doesn't speak

00:49:50.460 ill

00:49:51.020 toward her husband or about her husband

00:49:54.380 publicly

00:49:55.160 doesn't mean that problems go away

00:49:57.520 you can still have a frustration with the church

00:50:00.600 don't go air those grievances

00:50:02.740 publicly

00:50:03.420 if you can't say anything nice

00:50:05.600 don't say anything at all

00:50:07.380 it's a basic principle

00:50:10.140 Because what it does is it breeds atheism.

00:50:14.400 Just don't do it.

00:50:15.360 The Lord knows.

00:50:16.380 You don't need to go tell someone else,

00:50:18.160 Oh, that church had a thing.

00:50:20.100 I don't care.

00:50:21.900 Don't say it out loud.

00:50:24.060 Go speak to the person. 1.00

00:50:26.160 Stop being a coward. 1.00

00:50:27.640 Or shut your mouth. 1.00

00:50:29.040 That's what we do as Christians. 0.99

00:50:31.340 Number three.

00:50:33.540 Avoid the divisive or false teacher.

00:50:36.960 okay if someone is being divisive

00:50:40.400 or teaching error

00:50:41.780 don't engage them

00:50:43.380 don't give them a platform

00:50:45.120 ignore them

00:50:46.980 if their behavior becomes consistent enough

00:50:50.160 bring the matter to an elder

00:50:53.920 hey I'm concerned over here

00:50:56.440 and then let the elders deal with it

00:50:59.520 but don't

00:51:02.080 embrace

00:51:04.100 the divisive

00:51:05.380 all of these things

00:51:07.780 are for our benefit

00:51:11.140 why does Paul tell us these things

00:51:13.400 we're the beneficiaries of this by the way

00:51:16.160 do you want to avoid pain

00:51:17.940 okay you think that

00:51:19.840 self-control is hard

00:51:21.580 try a church split

00:51:23.100 it's way harder

00:51:24.420 okay it's way harder

00:51:26.540 and so let's work by God's grace

00:51:30.000 and by the power of the Holy Spirit

00:51:31.280 to remain united amen

00:51:32.860 amen let's pray

00:51:35.200 Father, we thank you. Lord, we ask for your blessing. We ask for the work that you do in us

00:51:41.020 and through us to be unifying. Lord, we ask that you'd protect us from divisive people and from

00:51:46.560 false teachers. Lord, that you would give us humble men and women. Lord, that we would be able to have

00:51:51.800 the love that allows a culture to confront one another when we have offenses and issues.

00:52:00.120 Lord that you would cultivate that here that we might be blessed

00:52:03.920 in Jesus name we pray amen

Dale Partridge - August 12, 2025

Romans 16_17-23 Avoid Those Who Divide the Church

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