goes to receive, to listen, and to understand the Word of Jesus today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, we're here in Romans chapter 16, and we're going to finish up Romans
chapter 16 here today. And so we finished most of it last week. We'll finish it up
here today, though. And so the name of the sermon is A Warning Against False
Brethren. A Warning Against False Brethren. And that's the context here in
Romans 16. And so point number one is teaching against doctrines. Notice what
it says in verse 17. Romans 16 verse 17. Now I beseech you brethren, mark them
which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have
learned. And so Paul warns people. He says, you know what? You need to be very
careful about false doctrines. Things that are against the things that have
been taught to you. Things that are against the things you know. It's like
you need to mark those people. And it says when they teach things contrary to
the doctrine which ye have learned or have been taught to you. Okay? And so
look, in the context of a church, if somebody were to come to our church and
start teaching things against what the church teaches, that's a major, major red
flag. Right? This is what Paul is warning about. Right? And this is something
you're going to see in churches. Sometimes people will come in and teach
things and say, well, the church is actually kind of wrong about this. Right?
I remember we had somebody who came in Sacramento and he lasted two services.
Okay? And the first service he just kind of came with his family and he said, I
want to come soul winning next week. And so he came soul winning and the guy was
was was different. Right? The guy said he's like, you know, his wife didn't come so
he brought like seven kids. He's like, is it alright if I leave them in the car
while I'm, you know, out soul winning? I was like, well, I don't know what the
legal laws are of leaving, you know, young kids in a car in California. So I
don't know. Right? And he was my soul winning partner and he said to me like
five minutes into soul winning, he's like, you know, a lot of people, a lot of
churches think that, you know, soul winning, door-to-door is taught in the Bible. The
Bible actually never teaches door-to-door soul winning. He said this to me while
we're out soul winning. And I'm just like, it was funny because I had just read
that morning where it says, you know, I've taught you publicly and from house to
house. Right? It's like, well, it doesn't say door-to-door, but it does say house to
house. Okay? And then all of a sudden he's trying to convince me because it took me
a second to find the verse. I was like, I just read it this morning. I said, hold on.
He's like, see? You think it's in there, but it's not. And then I showed him the
verse. Oh, I guess I was wrong. And it's like we went back to the church and this
guy's trying to teach us the King James Bible has all these errors. It turns out
this guy had a YouTube channel teaching there is no hell. He didn't believe in
hell. And it's like, I don't know what he was doing there. But look, this is
actually a situation that can happen. And the Bible teaches people that would
teach contrary to the doctrine which you have learned. And what that means is
you need to know what you believe. You need to know what you believe and why
you believe it. You need to read the Bible for yourself and know what you
believe. See, if somebody asks you, why do you believe this doctrine? The
correct answer is not because I heard Brother Stuckey preach it. That's the
wrong answer. Because I'm not perfect. I make mistakes. The correct answer is
Romans chapter whatever teaches this. This is what the Bible says. Why?
Because your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of
God is what Paul says. Meaning you know what the Bible says and you read it for
yourself. Go to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4. Ephesians chapter 4. And
look, this is not really something I really remember us having
major problems with. I do know we had someone at our church who was
going soul-winding teaching something against what the church did back when
we were at, I think we're still in Bayview, right? A couple years ago, you
know, before we got here and everything like that. But it's like,
you know, this is something that will happen at churches. And you say, well, I
don't think it would ever happen. Look, when Moses was around, there was Korah
and Dathan and Abiram. And they were people that were respected and loved and
revered inside the church. People looked up to them. They thought they were
spiritual leaders. And you know what, when you read that story, Korah already had
people on his side. Once he decides to war with Moses, he's got a hundred people
supporting him, right? This is something that will take place in churches, which
is why you need to know why you believe something. It's not just that I preached
it, but you read the Bible for yourself. Now that does not mean that you're going
to agree with every single thing that I say, because people have different
opinions and that's fine. But the key is that, you know what, you're not fighting
against the doctrine of the church. And the key is that you know why you believe
something, okay? There's a reason why our church uses a lot of verses in our
sermons. Because a lot of churches you're probably used to, you're like, man, there's
like one verse in a story, right? Or two verses in a story, right? You say, Brother
Sucky, you read through like a hundred verses in a sermon. You say, why? Because I
want you to know what the Bible says. I want you to see, well, this is why I
believe something. It's not just my opinion, and I'm not going to give you
any reason why I believe that. I'm going to give you this verse and this verse and
this verse. This is why I believe it. And my hope is that you're going to remember
these things and remember what the Bible says, okay? Ephesians 4 verse 11. And it
says, and He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some
pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Verse 13, till we all come in the
unity of the faith. One of the key things about a local church is that you're
united, okay, in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God
unto a perfect man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now
what's interesting is this. Some people have this attitude of unity, and they
take it way too far and outside of what the Bible says. Because Jesus said, I
didn't come to bring peace, but division, right? I've come to set a man at
variance against his father, and he goes through that whole list of things. We're
not trying to just have world peace, world peace, world peace. Look, I am for
peace, but when I speak, they are for war. That's reality, okay? But I want you to
realize when He talks about unity, He's not saying, well, just forget about
doctrine, because doctrine doesn't matter. Because we're all just trying to be
united. Is that the context? They're united because they have the same
doctrine. Because notice verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children tossed
to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sight of men and
cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. And the Bible is saying,
to be united as a local church, you need the same doctrine, which means I need to
teach doctrine. So you know what the church believes, and it's up to you. Do I
agree with that doctrine or not? And if you don't, that's fine, right? You can
either stay at the church and just accept the doctrine that you might
disagree with, or find a church you line up with more. But see, here's the thing. If
you go to a church like Joel Osteen's church in the U.S., one of the biggest
churches in the world, and you go around and start asking people Bible questions,
you're going to get 20 different answers on every question. It's like, what do you
believe about salvation? 20 different answers. Do you think baptism is required
for salvation? 20 different answers. Do you believe in speaking in tongues? 20
different answers. I mean, Joel Osteen's dad was a big tongue-talker. I mean, Joel
Osteen's not very public about it, but he's a tongue-talking Pentecostal, even
though he doesn't call his church Pentecostal because he doesn't want to
be known as a tongue-talker. But he does. And in this church, there's some people
that support it, and there's some people that don't support it. Now I'd imagine
everyone at this church says, no, there's no tongue-talking, right? And look, there
might be people that are new to church, and it doesn't mean that they believe
everything, but here's the thing. When the things are being preached, they're going
to either decide, I want to link up with that church or not. And that's fine. But
the doctrine needs to be taught. So it's not unity by basically not talking about
doctrine. It's unity around the same doctrine. Because think of this logically.
All of us have unsaved Catholic family members, right? Is that not true?
Probably every one of us in this room, I have no family that's Catholic, but I
married into my wife who has a Catholic family that's not saved, right? Every one of
us has a Catholic family that's not saved. How united can you be with unsaved
Catholics at her family? Can you just talk to them about any topic and agree?
No, you're going to disagree. They're going to criticize why you go soul-winning.
They're going to criticize this kind of preaching. They're going to criticize the
stance. You can't have unity because you have different doctrines. The only way to
be united is if you just talk about the weather. And look, you can only talk about
the weather for so long. It gets boring, okay? We're united as a church because we
have the same doctrine. We agree on the core doctrines. We don't separate the
doctrine. No, we make it very clear what our doctrine is. And look, you know what?
When you're very clear about your doctrine, your church is never going to
be a megachurch. This church is not a small church anymore. Like, when we
started, there were some Sundays where I was like, man, you know, you're
praying for people to come and one family misses. It's like, oh man, you got
like 24 people at church or whatever or 30 people at church. We have plenty of
people each Sunday, sometimes more, sometimes less. Last week we had more
people, but we still have plenty of people here today. But we will never be a
megachurch. You say, why? Because I'm just too clear with what we believe. Because I
say vice pangit and some people get offended. It doesn't change the fact that
he's still vice pangit. He, she, whatever you want to say, right? Turn your Bible to
Jude 1. Jude 1. Jude chapter 1. Jude chapter 1. And so look, you need to know
what you believe about the Bible, right? Every January we do the January New
Testament Bible reading challenge. And we had half or maybe, you know, a little bit
more than half our church who read through the entire New Testament in
January. Praise the Lord for that, right? But February through December you should
still be reading your Bible. I understand our lives are busy, but you should have
woke up this morning and spent some time reading the Word of God. And then the
Bible talks about you hear things preached and you search the scriptures
whether those things are so, which means you don't just take for granted that
everything I say is a fact. And look, when they're saying search the scriptures to
make sure those things are so, they're talking about a church is with good
pastors that know the Word of God. And the Bible is still saying make sure you
know what they're saying is right. Make sure you understand it. And it could be I
say something and either I misspeak or I say something and you know what, I'm not
right about it. And you need to go home and make sure you agree with it. Make
sure you believe it. Now here's the thing, if you go home and you see something in
the Bible and you say, man, I don't know if Brother Stuckey's right about that, I
disagree, that's okay. But here's the thing, you don't go and just tell
everybody at church about it because that just causes problems. Now with your own
individual family that's a little bit of a different story. Meaning if you're a
husband and you hear something I preach about raising kids, for example, you know
what, I talk about kids in sermons, I give advice on spanking, I don't expect
everybody to agree with every single thing I say. Right? It's not two plus
three equals five, people can have different opinions. And that's fine as a
husband and wife saying, hey, we've got to decide about our own family. I don't
lord over God's heritage. I give you advice from the pulpit and you make the
decisions in life. If that first sermon you said, I disagree Brother Stuckey, I
think the secret to happiness is drugs and sin, then go for it. Right? You don't
have to follow my advice. It's up to you. Right? But, you know, you don't want to
cause problems because we need to have unity in the local church. Okay? And so in
Jude 1 verse 3, beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the
common salvation. By the way, it says common meaning it's available to all.
It's the same for everybody. It's not different for the Muslim. They have to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. Well, you say Brother Stuckey, you
know, that's salvation for, you know, and it's funny because in the U.S. they'll
say, well, this is the Western world, but go to the Eastern world and it's not
Jesus. Well, we're in the Eastern world. It's still Jesus here, right? People
believe in Jesus in the Philippines. But in terms of like China and those
countries, it's like, no, Taoism is not your secret to get to heaven. Confucianism
is not your secret to get to heaven. Islam is not your secret. It's Jesus
Christ because it's the common salvation. Meaning, Muhammad didn't die for us. Buddha
didn't die for us. Only Jesus Christ died for us. So it's the common salvation. It
also means it's available to anybody. Jesus died for the sins of the whole
world, not just for a small group of people, okay? Then it says, it was needful
for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the
faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Why? For there are certain men
crept in unawares, who before or before the Lord ordained this condemnation.
Ungodly men turned the grace of our God into lasciviousness in denying the only
Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Jude 1, or the book of Jude, is about false
prophets. And the Bible talks about these people creeping in, okay? Now, when
you think of creeping, think of a bug, okay? That's the analogy the Bible's
trying to give us. Look, if you have an ant or an e-piece or a spider that
creeps into your house, are you aware of it? Probably not, right? I mean, we see
bugs in our house, but if you see seven bugs, that means you have seven thousand
somewhere, right? It's just like, yesterday my wife brought home some food, and then
all of a sudden it's just like, you know, where did all these ants come from? It's
just like, food's there, and then they come out from every crawling place. They just
creep in, and it's like, what in the world, right? This is what happens. See, what the
Bible's saying is this, that when there's people that want to teach doctrines
against the church or to take down the church, they oftentimes creep in. Meaning
that, not saying that we don't notice that they're here. We're not a mega
church. Saying, though, that they'll basically, you know, be a church, and you
would never guess that they're not the same, right? They seem like a normal
person, they seem like a nice person, and then they're trying to tell people hell
is not real, right? Now that person was pretty obvious pretty early. I mean, that
was the second church service, okay? But the Bible warns about people that would
be at a church for years, and then start teaching people at the church, well, you
know, the Bible doesn't really teach the Trinity. It teaches oneness. It doesn't
teach that Jesus is eternally the Son of God. But see, the way they do it is
they're not just really blunt and obvious about that. It's very subtle,
because they don't want to make it obvious. And then what they're doing is
slowly fighting against the church. This happens at church. You say, Brother
Stuckey, how do we avoid this? Do we want to just have something at the front
where we ask them one million questions? No, we accept people to visit our church,
absolutely. But what it means is everybody at church should know what
they believe and why they believe it. Now we're not a church that has a church
membership and says you must believe this to be a member, but we have a Bible
and we encourage you to read it so you know what you believe. Everybody in this
church should be reading the Bible. And look, if you could say that I have not
read my Bible in the past week, you know what, you need to make some changes in
your life. You need to know why you believe things. You shouldn't just go to
a church because it's entertaining and it's fun. You need to know what you
believe. And I'll tell you what, if you just spend 30 minutes reading the Bible
a day, you get through the Bible twice a year. And I'll tell you what, when you
start reading the Bible, you're going to start seeing why we believe things and
what the Bible teaches, and you're going to know what you believe and why. This is
like a puzzle that only makes sense when you put all the pieces together. Meaning
you've got to read this entire Bible, read the Word of God. Now turn back to
Romans 16. Romans 16. Romans 16. Now look, it's funny because at the end of this
this book, I mean it's such a great book, the book of Romans. It's one of the best
books in the Bible. I think everyone would agree on that. And in Romans 16,
Paul is mainly just trying to thank all these people that have been an
encouragement. I'm sure he doesn't want to talk about this, but it's needful. He's
like, I still got to warn you because there could be bad people, right? So he's
encouraging, naming all these people, so-and-so's a blessing, so-and-so's a
blessing, they bestowed much labor. Then there's a small section where he's
warning against potential false brethren. And this is why we're preaching a
sermon on it, because it's in Romans 16. Right? Point number one is they teach
against doctrines of the church. Point number two, these are people that the Bible tells
us we should avoid. Mark and avoid. Okay? Verse 17,
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses
contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. Now it's
interesting because it says here about marking and avoiding them, but it says
the people teaching the false doctrine are the ones causing the divisions. So
you think of the church of Galatia, and that was a church where Paul never
questions, you know, I mean Paul starts questioning their salvation because
they're changing their doctrines, right? But what's interesting is the people
that are causing the division are not the people of the church that are right
on salvation and the people, you know, teaching the right things. It's the
people bringing the false doctrine are the ones causing division. You say, why?
Because this is what the Word of God says. This is the truth. So look, if
somebody comes to our church and they start teaching, you can lose your
salvation. And then they start teaching people at church, and I've got to deal
with it and say, hey, you know what, you're not welcome to teach, you know, that you
can lose your salvation here because that's not what we believe. People might
look at me and say, well, you know, you're causing division, you're being so mean,
Brother Stuckey. No, they're causing division because they're the ones
bringing the false doctrine. The false doctrine is saying you can lose your
salvation. The false doctrine is saying you've got to be baptized to go to heaven.
The false doctrine is saying you've got to give your life to God to be saved
rather than just believe. And look, if somebody teaches opposite of that and I
deal with that, I'm not the one causing strife and problems. I'm trying to
protect the unity around the doctrine we believe and we stand for. This is
always what happens at churches, right? I mean, I know churches in the U.S. where
they had situations where there's people that were coming in and
caused false doctrine, and then the pastor dealt with it, and then it's like,
well, the pastor's so mean. It's like, no, he's trying to keep the unity at the
church, right? I mean, I've known people that were at independent Baptist churches for
a while, and then they join like the Orthodox Church or the Catholic Church.
It's like, look, you know, then go to the Orthodox Church. It's like you're not
going to fit in here if you believe the doctrine of the Orthodox or the Catholic
or some false doctrine like that. So point number one was they teach against
the doctrine. Point two, the Bible says these are people to mark and avoid. So if
somebody caused a major problem and we had to deal with it, I would
have to make mention of that if it was a major doctrinal thing where they were
here at the church for eight months teaching a false doctrine, like a majorly
false doctrine, and those are people that you as members should avoid. And what
that means is if somebody got kicked out of church and they're not welcome at our
church, those are people to avoid, the Bible says. You say, why? Because they
cause divisions. They cause problems in our church. They destroy the unity of the
church for one reason or another, and the Bible says these are people to mark and
avoid. Notice what it says in verse 19. For your obedience has come abroad unto all
men. I am glad therefore on your behalf, but yet I would have you wise unto that
which is good, and simple concerning evil. Now I do believe when it says simple
concerning evil, this is a phrase we often quote, but it still ties together
with the false prophets. Meaning this, if somebody's at our church and they're
teaching some major, major heresy and they're a false prophet and they get
removed from church, don't just go to their YouTube channel after they've been
removed and just listen to everything they have to say. You don't need to hear
all the evil, false things being said. Look, if somebody got removed for being a
oneness Pentecostal and teaching people how to speak in tongues and stuff like
that, look, don't go to their YouTube channel to watch it. I mean, if you want
entertainment, there's a million things on YouTube to watch other than that,
right? The Bible says be simple concerning evil. Go to 1st Corinthians 5.
1st Corinthians 5. 1st Corinthians chapter 5.
1st Corinthians chapter 5. 1st Corinthians 5 is an example of church
discipline the Bible talks about. And you know what? I'm thankful at this church
this is not something we've had to deal with a whole lot. I mean, it's been over a
year since anybody's ever been kicked out of this church, and it's only
happened on a small number of occasions, but every time we kick somebody out, they
were destroying the unity of our church. And that's a fact. Every single time
somebody was kicked out, they were destroying the unity, and removing them
gave us unity. It put us on the same page. I feel so bad they got kicked out of
church. Well, I feel bad that they destroyed the unity of this church. You should be
thankful that the cancer is removed, because we're a united church now. We
don't have any problems. I don't know of major fights. It used to be I'd go home
from church and get text messages all the time like, my goodness. It's like, quit
getting in fights. And you know what? I don't have to deal with that now. And I'm
not saying it will never happen. I'm not saying there's not something that I'm not
aware of. I'm just saying we had major problems with unity. We dealt with the
problem. Do we have problems with unity now? The proof's in the pudding, man. I
don't know if Brother Stuckey's making the right choice. Well, the proof's in the
pudding. I obviously did make the right choice, right? And every time I've had to
kick somebody out of church, it helped their unity. Right? And look, I'm very
long-suffering with people. If you remember when we were meeting at the hotel,
you know, the pastor, the 20-year-old pastor that's not married, you know,
Jeremy. And I was very long-suffering with Jeremy. I was trying to give him a
chance and everything like that. And what really made me mad is when he was
stealing money from people at church. He was guilting them into giving him money,
and he did that at our missions trip. And that was the thing that was kind of the
final straw. But you know, I knew that he was not really like-minded on his stuff.
I mean, he came soloing with us, and you know what? It's just like, you know, he
starts talking to someone. One minute later, the heads bowed. It's like, what in
the world? It's just like, what are you doing out there? Right? I mean, and then he
disagreed with us on doctrines, and he was pretending to be like us, but he
wasn't like us at all. You know, he's falling asleep during the services for
an hour, and then just like, you know, hanging out in the bathroom for an hour
during church. It's like, what are you doing? Right? I mean, everybody at church
wanted me to kick him out like immediately. I'm like, well, you know, we'll
give him a chance and everything like that. But it was destroying the unity of
our church. Right? I mean, I was very long-suffering, but sometimes it gets to
a point where it's just too much, and it has to be dealt with. That's reality. It's
not a fun thing to do, but it is a necessary thing. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 7.
Purge out there for the old leaven that he may be a new lump, as he are unleavened
for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. 1 Corinthians 5
verse 8. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the
leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth. And so the local church, the truth is very important. Verse 9. I wrote unto
you an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with
the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with
idolaters, for then must he needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto
you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or
covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such
in one know not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are
without? Do not ye judge them that are within. And Paul's saying, you know what,
God judges people that are outside the church, but you're supposed to judge the
people within the church. And that's referring to the local leadership is
supposed to deal with that, and unfortunately in Corinth it wasn't being
done. Now when you read Paul, he was basically in charge of the church of
Corinth because he says, other people might doubt my apostleship, but I am
doubtless an apostle unto you. But they weren't doing what they were supposed to
do, and the church was becoming a free-for-all at the church of Corinth.
Then it says in verse 13, but them that are without God judgeth, therefore put
away from among yourselves that wicked person. Meaning, kick that person out of
the church. Now here's the thing, none of us are perfect. We sin every single day,
but the Bible is referring to sins that are very grievous, right? Being a
fornicator. Fornication is a major sin. Now I understand we have a church full of
plenty of people. I'm sure in the past people have made this mistake, but if
you're part of a local church, you need to be unified on doctrine, and you need
the church to stay pure. And if we allow that sort of sin, it's going to be
teaching the kids that it's okay. It mentions being a drunkard. Now let me say
this, drinking a beer once a month does not make you a drunkard. It means you're
committing a sin, but that's not being a drunk. A drunk is something where it's
very obvious and everyone would call you a drunk. And look, I don't condone
drinking. I preach a whole sermon against any amount of drinking. I'm just saying, I
wouldn't kick somebody out of church if they drank one beer once a month. That
wouldn't get you kicked out of church. But if you're stumbling into church
because you're drunk, then you know what? That has to be dealt with. Now I will say
a long time ago I learned my lesson, though, about you can't always, you know,
jump to judgments. And this is something, a lesson we always learn from time to
time. Because actually, there was actually a time I was part of a church, and it
was a small church, and somebody stumbled into church like that. Turned out they
had just had a stroke, and they actually needed to rush to the hospital. And we
didn't even notice after the service because the pastor thought, we all
thought they were drunk. And it turned out that they had a stroke, and they
actually needed real help. So we got to be careful rushing to judgments, okay? So
somebody's stumbling in here, it's like, first let's make sure they're okay, okay?
That's the lesson I learned. But it's like that would teach people that it's
okay if we allow that to take place, okay? It's not acceptable. It says an
idolater. Now look, if we get a Catholic saved here today, I do not expect them
to necessarily destroy all of their idols from day one. But if they're
trying to convince people to join them at the Feast of the Black Nazarene, then
we got a problem. It's one thing if you got your little Buddha statue or a
little Mary statue or whatever at your house and nobody knows it, but when
you're trying to get people to go to the Feast of the Black Nazarene, we
got a problem because we're not a Catholic Church, okay? But here's the
thing, it also said in verse 11, if any man that is called a brother, and the
same would be if any woman is called a sister. And the way I take that is this,
if somebody first starts coming to church, they're very new, and you know you
don't necessarily know everything about them, but as they're coming regularly you
start knowing them as brother so-and-so. Brother Stuckey, Brother Marlin, Brother
Jay, right? You start calling them brother so-and-so, right? Or sister
so-and-so. That's at the point where they're an established member, meaning if
somebody's here on their first, meaning if you get somebody saved here today and
they're guilty of one of these sins, they're welcome to come to our church
next week and visit our church because they're not brother so-and-so yet. Even
if they're saved, I'm saying they're not known as brother so-and-so, if any man
that is called a brother, meaning at church you call them brother so-and-so
because you've gotten to know them. So I'm going to be long-suffering with
people. Sometimes I hear situations and people say, hey, is this something you're
going to deal with? It's like this person's at church once every three
months, nobody knows their name. It's like it would cause more problems
making it a big scene. It's like it's not an issue, you know? Hopefully
they'll come more regularly and maybe that sin will leave them, right? Now I
remember there's somebody in turn of Romans 16, Romans 16, there's somebody in
Sacramento that on my last day he told me this, my last day before, you know, my
family moved here, my last day at the church, and he just told me one to thank
me because he started coming to the church just like about a year and a half
before, you know, we moved here to the Philippines and, you know, he still was
guilty of, you know, drinking a little bit. That was still a sin of his but it was
not known in the church and he was kind of new at church so this was not
something people were aware of. See, if nobody's aware of it then it's
not really a major thing. If I end up becoming aware of a situation and people
are not aware, I'll try to deal with it quietly because there's no point of
making it a big thing. But people didn't even know. They would have had no reason
to know this but he just told me he thanked me because I preached a sermon
against alcohol and he said after that sermon he's like I've never drank since
then because I was preaching against drinking alcohol during the sermon. But
see that's a situation where if somebody's new at church you don't
expect them to be perfect from day one. I mean if somebody first starts coming to
church you're like you're still listening to rock music. They just
started coming to church. Of course. It's like, you know what, I was listening to rock
music for a couple years after I got saved. It's like, you know, I was watching
the wrong movies for years. I mean it takes people time and, you know what, it's
like sometimes we make the mistake of expecting people to be just like us from
day one. It happens. You need to give people a chance to grow. So point number one, the
warning is against people teaching false doctrine meaning you need to know what
you believe and why you believe it. Point number two, if somebody ends up getting removed
from church or you're aware of somebody at church who's teaching something false
these are people that you should avoid. Now look, if you know of a major situation
this is something that you should tell me quietly and nobody else at church. It
doesn't need to become a big situation at church. You can tell me quietly about
it. Now realize something. If you just came to me after the service and told me,
hey, you know what, secretly, you know, Brother Marlin's a drunk, right? Well, first
off, I don't know if that's true. I very seriously doubt that's true. My first
reaction would be like, is it April 1st? Is it April Fool's Day, right? But just
because you give an accusation to me it would be foolish for me to just
automatically assume it's true. I mean, where's the proof of that, right? You
could come to me with an accusation and here's the reality. If you cannot
prove that accusation then it's something I got to just keep in the back
of my mind and you know what, maybe if a few other people come to me with the
same thing then things start tying together. But if one person tells me
about a problem and look, this has happened at our church. People have
messaged me and told me about something and look, oftentimes if I don't think
it's too big of a thing I try to let those situations resolve themselves
because it's not worth making a big deal. Then when you find out it is a big deal
then you got to deal with it, okay? But just because you give me an accusation
doesn't mean I'm automatically going to kick somebody out of church. But realize
this, if you and several other people say the same thing to me, well then you start
having two plus witnesses, right? At the mouth of two or three witnesses
everything shall be established. So look, if there's something major it doesn't
mean I'm going to deal with it immediately because I need to prove it
and verify it and things such as that, but you should still let me know about
it so I am aware of that, okay? Point number three, these people are serving
themselves, not you. What do I mean by that? If somebody's trying to teach you a
false doctrine they don't care about you, they care about themselves. Romans 16
verse 18, for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own
belly. The Bible says these people, they're not serving God, they're serving
their own belly. They're serving themselves, right? That's what the Bible
teaches about these people. Go to Philippians chapter 3, Philippians 3,
Philippians 3. Now let me just also say this, that Paul and other writers in the
Bible give a lot of warnings about people like this and, you know, the
reality is he's talking to people that are at good churches, right? He's talking
to people that have good churches. Unfortunately around the world not
everybody's in that situation. You say, I mean, people have asked me this question
before, you know, like, if your pastor is not saved but it's the best church in
your town, should you go to that church? And I was like, I have absolutely no idea.
I mean, if the pastor is not saved and preaching a false gospel, should you be a
member of that church? That's a good question. I mean, the Bible does teach
forsake not the assembling of ourselves together but, you know, the idea is that
people are like-minded. I mean, if the only religious thing in your area was,
you know, a Hindu temple, am I going to tell you to go there? No. So it's just
like, you know, that's obviously just a terrible situation but here's the
thing, we're not in that situation because we have a good church here. We
have a church that's very clear on doctrine, that's very clear about
salvation, so you're not in that situation. Now maybe a few years ago,
maybe you were. Maybe you say, Brother Stuckey, before I just I went to church
because I felt obligated but honestly it's like, you know, many of the members
weren't even saved, you know, and the church preached a false gospel. I know
stories within our church where people said, you know, that they tried to get
members of the church saved because they weren't saved. It's like, that is a tough
situation to be in. I don't think you're wrong for doing that but it's obviously
not an ideal situation but I'm saying if you're part of a good church, right, then
this is where this applies and we're part of a good church. It's not a perfect
church but it's a good church. We teach our doctrines, you know what you believe
about salvation, you know what our doctrines are, we're doing work for God,
we're going soul winning, we're trying to get churches started, we're trying to get
you to read the Bible, so this applies to our church, okay, and it says in
Philippians 3 verse 18, for just a few people walk. Is that what it says in
verse 18, right, kuntilang, just a few people? For many walk, a lot of people,
for many walk of whom I have told you, pomenson, menson, long, you know, often, for
many walk of whom I've told you often and now tell you even weeping that they
are the enemies of the cross of Christ. There are people that are enemies of the
cross of Christ and here's the thing, if you were to look at Muslim leaders or
Hindu leaders, of course they're enemies of the cross of Christ. The Mormons and
Jehovah's Witnesses that are out there, they're enemies of the cross of Christ
but sometimes the enemies of the cross of Christ actually don't seem to be the
enemies of the cross of Christ. They seem nice. They seem like a good person. In
reality, they're not. That's what the Bible's teaching because what Paul's
warning, he's not trying to warn them about, be careful about the Muslim that's
going to creep into your church. It's like, I'm pretty sure we'd be able to spot
them by the way they're dressed pretty easily, right? Beware of the Buddhist
monk that enters your church. I'm pretty sure we're going to be able to see that
giant orange garb around them. That's not hard to see, right? Beware of the
Catholic priest who creeps into your church. I'm pretty sure we're going to
notice the color turned around backwards. But there's people that seem
to be just like us but they're actually creeping in a church and they're
actually enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction. Notice the link
whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly
things. You say, Brother Stuckey, why does it say whose God is their belly? Well, I
think the reason why is he's giving an analogy we can all understand. Think
about going on a diet. Because every single one of us that is not under the
age of 15 has probably gone on a diet at least for a short time or some period of
time before, right? Every one of us has gone on a diet to some degree. I love
diets, personally. I know a lot of people are anti-diet. I love diets. I love that
diet we did in October. It helped me trim down before the anniversaries and the
Christmas. It was great for me, right? But when it comes to diets, it's just like,
you know, you've got a choice. Am I going to just, you know, do what I want to do,
meaning abstain from the desserts and the ice cream and the sweets, or am I
going to feed my belly, right? When you're going on a diet, you have to deny what
your flesh wants because your flesh doesn't want to go on that diet. Your
flesh wants the ice cream. Your flesh wants the junk food, right? And you've got
to deny your flesh and what your belly wants. But you know what? What's
really very easy to do is just, you know, you're trying to do the diet, and then
all of a sudden it's like, I know I shouldn't. I know I shouldn't eat a cookie.
And then all of a sudden it's like, and you ate like 20 Oreos in like five
minutes. And what the Bible is saying is these false prophets, they can't help
themselves. They just, you know, cannot help themselves from teaching false
doctrine. It's like, man, they just got to do it. And the Bible says they're enemies
of the cross of Christ. They're feeding themselves. This is something they enjoy.
It's what their flesh enjoys to do, the Bible says. Go to Jude 1. Jude 1. Jude 1.
Jude 1. Now you say, Brother Stuckey, if these people came into church, I would be
ready immediately. I mean, I would know. I mean, I think if this person came in, it
would be very, very obvious. It would be like a Buddhist monk walking in here.
It would be so obvious to me. Well, I mean, there's 12 apostles that were directly, I
mean, there's more, but there's 12 specific, right? The 12 apostles of Jesus,
right? And you know what? Nobody thought it was Judas Iscariot, right? And Jesus
pretty much said it's Judas Iscariot, and they're like, I wonder what he meant by
that. I mean, it's just like, you know, they really just don't come across that
but, you know, what that teaches us is that we would probably be in the same
sense of denial if that situation happened. Like, if you had five people
that came to you and said, I saw that person speaking in tongues, you'd be like,
no. I wonder what they meant by that, right? Because they're gonna do a good
job fitting in. We all think that we're better at being able to tell, but, you
know, the Bible says you're not actually going to be able to tell. Judas Iscariot
was the last person they suspected. I mean, he was literally the last one they
suspected. Now, when you're actually reading through the Gospels, you can see
the subtle stuff he's doing, but, you know, here's the thing. When you already know
the end result, it's very easy to see the clues. Like, you know, I don't advocate
watching movies, but, of course, I used to watch movies, and you know what? When
there's a twist ending, if you actually go back to that movie, there's clues
along the way, subtle little clues, and you're like, oh, I should have known, right?
But, you know what? We just don't usually pay attention to those clues. Or
you might see something that's a red flag, but it's people who want to give
people the benefit of the doubt, and the Bible says, charity believeth all things.
That's not necessarily a bad trait to want to give people the benefit of the
doubt, because if you're filled full of charity, you will. I don't want to think
people are bad people, right? I want to give people the benefit of the doubt,
okay? Jude 1 verse 16, these are murmurs, complainers, walking after their own
lusts. See how they're serving themselves in Jude 1, walking after their own lusts,
and then in verse 18, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last
time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts, okay? Now, go to Romans 16.
Romans 16. Romans 16. Now, I want you to realize, you know, as I've said, no two
people agree 100% about every single topic. I mean, even amongst husband and
wives, you know, there's going to be different opinions on various things,
okay? Every single one of us has different opinions. I mean, the Bible has a lot of
verses that can be taken different ways. Some stuff is very clear in the Bible.
Some stuff, people could have different opinions, and that's okay. I will say this,
though, you know, we are still underneath Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento,
California, and I know of a few things that I have a different opinion than
Pastor Jimenez. I don't preach those things. You say, why? Because I consider
him the authority of this church, and I'm running this church on behalf of him. And
so, you know, obviously when people guest preach on the midweek service, obviously
we have a rotating schedule. I mean, to the best of your ability, you should try
to stay within the doctrines of our church. Now, that doesn't mean that there
can't be a verse that comes up where maybe you say something and I'm thinking,
oh, I actually don't agree with that. Of course, they're going to be something where
you have a different opinion, but you should try to stay within the doctrine
of the church. There's plenty to teach in the Bible, right? 66 books, you know, over a
thousand pages in most Bibles. I mean, plenty of great information, okay? So
point number one, they teach against doctrines. Point two, the Bible says avoid
these people. Point three, the Bible says they're serving themselves. And point four,
how do they do this? Like, how can they creep in a church? What is their
technique? Bola. Bola is their technique. Flattery is their technique. They
basically butter you up to take advantage of you. That's the secret. Now, I
know we all think, man, I would never fall for that, but in reality everybody
falls for Bola, right? Romans 16 verse 18, for they that are such serve not our Lord
Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the
hearts of the Bobo, of the simple. My bad. I misread. But they deceive the
hearts of the simple. The simple-minded person will be without
knowledge. People say, man, Brother Stuckey, I learned that. I've never heard
that before. But you need to be very careful with not going over the top, okay?
Because I'll be honest, if people go over the top with compliments to me, I'm just
thinking, thank you, red flag or red check mark. I'm thinking, all right, that's
strike one, right? That's a big red flag. It's funny because I preached against
flattery in Sacramento one time, and you know, there's a lot of homeless people
near the building in Sacramento, and as I said, most of these people are drug
addicts. So we have people that come in from time to time, and this guy came in,
and he was a homeless person, and he was kind of half in and half out, like in
his mind and everything. And I preached against flattery, and after the service
he told me, that is the greatest sermon I have ever heard in my life. And we're all
just kind of laughing about it because that's like the exact opposite of what I
said during the sermon. It's like, did you get anything from the sermon, right? But
the Bible's speaking about flattery, and the Bible says, using good words and fair
speeches, they butter you up, they flatter you. Okay, go back to Jude. Jude 1. Jude.
Jude chapter 1. Now sometimes flattery can be very obvious. Sometimes it can be
very subtle. I personally feel like I'm ready for very obvious flattery, but you
know what? Honestly, with subtle flattery, I've had my wife tell me sometimes, oh,
that seemed like flattery to me. It just went over my head. Didn't even notice it,
right? Most of us are probably going to be ready for very obvious flattery, but
then there could be the person at church that's just always giving you just a
little bit, and then you start to trust that person, and then they're getting you
on their side because they're trying to take advantage of you or use you for
their benefit for whatever reason. Jude 1 verse 16. These are murmurs, complainers,
walking after their own lust, and their mouth speaketh great swelling words. What
does that mean? It means they give you flattery to swell you full of pride,
right? It's like, man, you are the greatest soul winner I've ever met in my life.
Yeah, I mean, I really am. You are the most spiritual person. Yeah, you know, I was
thinking the same thing, right? Because inside of our own hearts, you know,
honestly, all of us have a little bit of pride that we struggle with, and what
they do is they take advantage of that pride, and if you're a very prideful
person, they're really going to take advantage of you, and then they complement
you, and they swell you full of pride. And once again, I'm not saying it's wrong to
give compliments. I believe it's good to give people compliment.
you
the cubicle right beside me kind of in the workspace this woman was like the
head everybody would go to her for the information and she would gossip to
people and she was always like everyone's best friend and then you know
five minutes later I'd hear gossiping about that person that she was just
gossiping to about somebody else and it's like she was addicted to the
cheese meats right and I don't think she was a reprobate I don't think she was a
bet she wasn't saying but I don't think she was a bad person but she just loved
the cheese meats and it's just like she was just gossiping and she was just
gathering information you got to be very careful about that if they're willing to
gossip to you they're willing to gossip about you that's the way it works
problems 26 verse 24 he that hateth dissembles with his lips and layeth up
to see within him look if somebody hates somewhat buddy they're not going to tell
you I hate so-and-so they're going to tell you I love so-and-so and then
they're going to try to get you to hate them right they're not going to be
honest to you they're going to deceive you they're going to lie to you
ok verse 25 when he speaketh fair believe him not for there are seven
abominations in his heart and the Bible says when this person speaks fair
swelling words don't believe him because he's a liar he's a fraud he's a phony
don't automatically believe what people tell you it's not necessarily true it
might be true it might not that's reality but people make accusations
about a lot of different people it doesn't mean that it's true you don't
know whether it's true or not ok verse 26 it says whose hatred is covered by
deceit his wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation who so
dig at the pitch shall follow in and he that rolleth the stone it will return
upon him a lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it and a
flattering mouth worketh ruin the Bible is warning about people that will
flatter
ok go to roman 16 roman 16 roman chapter 16 and once again this is not mean that
this person is necessarily a bad person but I'm just telling you if they flatter
to you they're probably going to flatter about you you need to be very careful
and look you know what when it comes to gossip gossip is wrong anyway
I mean it's one thing if you say hey brother so-and-so man you know he he did
really great at this but if you're trying to criticize people that's wrong
now I know our flesh enjoys that but it's wrong so look you know what you
shouldn't be involved in any gossip anyway of criticizing other members like
did you hear that so-and-so did this did you see that so-and-so did this I mean I
just saw on Facebook that so-and-so made this post and it's just like you know
what there's no reason for that there's no purpose for that right
point number five the last point is they deceive the simple they deceive the
simple roman 16 verse 18 for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ
but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of
the simple the reality is if people are trying to come in to teach false
doctrine or cause problems for whatever reason they're going to try to do it
with people that they think they can deceive it's not very likely let me just
help you out with something it's not very likely if somebody tries to come in
and teach some major false doctrine that they're going to come to me they're
probably going to come to you you say why I'm the one preaching the sermons
they're probably not going to come to people that they think are leaders of
the church because they just don't think that they're going to I mean honestly if
somebody tries to come in you should be offended if somebody tries to teach you
false doctrine I mean it's like when that guy came out sowing with me and
he's trying to teach me so when he's not biblical I was offended I was like you
came to me it's like what in the world right but it's just like you know what
they're probably going to come and so here's the thing you say what's the
secret to not being a simple person reading the Bible that's the secret I
mean isn't the opposite of being simple is having knowledge or wisdom well how
do you get wisdom by serving God right and we're not talking about wisdom in
terms of like I can prove to you that four and a half billion years ago the
earth blah blah blah you know whatever lie science is going to tell you we're
talking about the wisdom found in God's Word and any saved person has the
ability to have it just being saved alone does not mean that you're gonna
have wisdom you need to read the Bible memorize the Bible go soul winning serve
God and you will have wisdom and you know what you're gonna be ready for
those situations that's reality but if you don't prepare yourself you're gonna
be like the house that is founded upon the sand and you're just gonna crumble
let's close up here in the chapter Romans 16 verse 21 to Mothius my work
fellow and Lucius and Jason and Sospitur my kinsmen salute you I churches who
wrote this epistle salute you in the Lord Gaius mine host and of the whole
church salute with you Erastus the Chamberlain of the city salute with you
and Cortis a brother the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Amen
now to him that is a power to establish you according to my gospel and the
preaching of Jesus Christ according the revelation of the mystery which was kept
secret since the world began but now is made manifest and by the scriptures of
the prophets so in verse 25 it talks about being established which is
basically like having your feet settled you know what you believe you're
established in the faith and kind of the secret is well to be saved the gospel
the preaching of Jesus Christ you hear the word of God being preached and you
know you know the scriptures of the prophets meaning you know the Bible you
know the word of God that's going to make you establish in the faiths you're
not tossed to and fro and cared about with every wind of doctrine according to
the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the
obedience of faith to God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever Amen
so that's the end of the book of Romans we've been here for like 25 30 weeks or
whatever like that we'll get started on first John here in a little bit and kind
of the application of the sermon is as a thriving and growing church especially
if you consider this your church you want to be you know planted in this
church you need to know what you believe you need to be ready for situations like
this because here's the thing we we cannot stop these people from creeping
into church just like you cannot stop an ant from getting inside your house I
don't care if you found every crack in your house and you've done everything
possible bugs are still getting in that house right but what you can do is be
prepared for the bugs you can have the bug spray ready right you can be
prepared for the bugs because they're gonna come in you need to make sure you
know what you believe in why you believe let's close in order prayer dear Heavenly
Father thank you for allowed us be here in your house today and if we're getting
to see this message and I ask you to help protect our church from situations
like this and I ask you to allow us not to encounter these problems unless our
church is ready for it and our members are ready but help everybody at our
church be ready for when these sorts of situations do occur we pray this in
Jesus name amen