Solution to stumbling blocks – singleness of heart toward divine revelation; John 16:1; 2 Cor 11:1-4.

Title: Solution to stumbling blocks - singleness of heart toward divine revelation; John 16:1; 2 Cor 11:1-4.

 

The greatest area for stumbling blocks is in the arena of false gospels, which are often found in so-called churches, Matt 11:6; 2Cor 11:4.

 

This is the greatest area because of the end result, which is the lake of fire as judgment for rejecting Christ and thus choosing independence from God.

 

Matt 11:6

"And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me."

 

Verse 4 states:

2 Cor 11:4 For if one comes and preaches [referring to public communication] another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully

 

Verses 1-3 are about protecting the pulpit and the local assembly from false Jesus’, false gospels, and a false Holy Spirit.

 

2 Cor 11:1 I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness; but indeed you are bearing with me.

 

2 Cor 11:2 For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin [for the husband’s use].

 

The engaged virgin bride to be should be loving her groom to be only and not losing that love and becoming the lover of another while He is preparing their wedding chamber. Jeremiah told this to Israel.

 

JER 2:2

"Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the Lord, "I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth,

The love of your betrothals, Your following after Me in the wilderness, Through a land not sown.

 

The same warning was given to the church at Ephesus.

 

REV 2:4

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

You can be a hard worker, witness, doer for Christ and have lost your love.

 

A lack of occupation with Christ leads to failed mechanics in application of sound doctrine and the believer becomes like the seed among the thorns, filled with MAS’s and wrong priorities.

 

The problem is a divided heart as we’ll see in verse 3. 

 

2 Cor 11:3 But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

 

“craftiness” - panourgi,a[pan = all; ergon = work] = literally - to do anything and everything in order to deceive while ignoring all decency; capable of anything, unscrupulous conduct, craftiness.

 

This is used for a creature who has the brains, wealth, and power to do anything, but is severely corrupted by these assets to only do evil in the form of deception. It really speaks of satan’s fall and his desire to take as many with him as possible.

 

This word would also describe the arrogant snob who thinks he knows everything. Ironically, arrogance makes a person stupid, as the most arrogant creature, satan, is the most gifted physically is the dumbest.

 

“minds” - no,hma[noema] = the activity of the mind or what is thought, therefore it is more descriptive of the heart where the thoughts of the mind are put into action.

 

Again the Koine does us a great service here for clarity. The standard Greek word for mind is nous, but this is more descriptive of the activity of the mind.

 

And what should the activity of the mind or thought application have?

 

“simplicity” - a`plothj[haplotes (hop-ah-lotes)] = singleness of heart, noble simplicity of heroes, unaffected by perversion of thought, opposed to double mindedness.

 

This singularity is the thought process of Phil 2:2:

Phil 2:2

make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

 

All religions are not the same. The lies in this world concerning the origin of the scriptures, especially the OT, do not bear the truth. There is one truth and the believer must keep his eyes on it.

 

I give this example because it was on a new series being done by the history channel in which the OT was denied as being divinely inspired, in fact it wasn’t even suggested. What was stated as fact is that the OT writing was done in Babylon by Jews in captivity and that the Torah was not written by Moses. What is convenient about this is that it puts OT theology in the same time period as Hinduism and Buddhism and so the conclusion that was suggested to the listener with wonderful graphics and confident assertion is that all religions are the same. They are interpreted differently only because of culture, race, and language. This is at the heart of post-modern thinking.

 

I quote some excerpts from the Complete Biblical Library. The JEDP theory of the origin of the Torah or Pentateuch.

 

Modern literary criticism of the Pentateuch started with a French physician named Astruc (1684-1766). He decided that Moses compiled Genesis from sources, some of which referred to God as Elohim, other used the personal name of God YHWH.

 

Eventually K.H. Graf and J. Wellhausen developed a theory, published in 1877. This theory alleged there were four documents that become the sources of the Pentateuch.

 

The first, the Jehovistic (J) they claimed was written in the southern kingdom of Judah about 850 BC supposing that writing was not invented until just before that time. (something that the show also suggested, but didn’t come right out and say) Now we know that writing was invented at least by 3500 BC, and an early Canaanite script has been found in the Sinai Peninsula.

 

The second, the Elohistic (E), they claimed was written in the northern kingdom of Israel about 750 BC. The J and E were supposed to have been combined by an unknown person about 650 BC. The third, the Deuteronomic (D), they said was written shortly after the combination of the J and E documents. This was supposedly in order to promote Josiah’s reforms (621 BC).

 

[Josiah ordered that the temple be restored and the priesthood put back to work and the high priest found the book of the Law that had been neglected for centuries.]

 

The fourth, the Priestly (P), they claimed was written in stages from the time of Ezekiel down to the time of Ezra (the show suggested this strongly). They included in these such things as details of measurement and worship which they supposed would be late. However, early writings of surrounding countries from before the time of Abraham give such details. 

 

This JEDP theory proved attractive to those who were accepting various theories of organic evolution, and it is still standard in “liberal” seminaries. Most of their professors are so committed to the JEDP theory that they will not listen to the many objections to it that have been raised by archaeological discoveries. Nor do they bother to read scholars who have shown that the theory is unscientific and was developed by the a priori [assumptions made without empirical evidence] method, not by the a posteriori [assumptions made after examination of empirical evidence] method scientist’s use.

 

When a book is written and the identity of the author is not a matter of faith but of fact.

 

John 5:46

For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me.

 

2 Cor 11:3 But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

 

“purity” - a`gno,thj[hagnotes] = pure from defilement, not contaminated. The contamination is cosmic viewpoint.

 

Some good manuscripts don’t have this phrase “and the purity” but some of the older ones do, so we’ll include it.

 

The believer is to have a singleness of heart as to devotion to Christ is as His adoring virgin bride. This will overcome all stumbling blocks.

 

This is what did not happen in Corinth and Paul had a right to be concerned over them, for they were a product of his work and his work in the gospel presented them to Christ as a virgin bride and they turned from their betrothed and became double minded. They got ecstatic over their tongues gift, lost sound objective thinking and replaced it with emotionalism and then took great interest in the spectacular and the false.

 

2 Cor 11:4 For if one comes and preaches [speaks publically] another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully

 

Wonderful sarcasm is used to really open their eyes to the danger that they have let through the doors of the church and the false doctrine that is being preached from the pulpit. These false teachers were being supported by the Corinthians while Paul and Barnabas were ignored. They let these men teach salvation by works, by circumcision, by following the Mosaic Law, etc.

 

“you bear this beautifully” - you tolerate them with honor.

 

They actually honored false teachers while they criticized Paul.

 

The false gospel was also in Galatia and it was a mixture of grace and the Mosaic Law and therefore it was not a gospel at all.

 

GAL 1:6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;

 

GAL 1:7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

 

GAL 1:8 But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

 

GAL 1:9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.

 

GAL 1:10 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.

 

GAL 1:11 For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

 

GAL 1:12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

 

Phil 3:9

and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

 

The false teachers of the gospel said that they were better than Paul, that they were some kind of super-Apostles. They had superb oratory skills but no true content and they had the audacity to point out that Paul was not a very gifted speaker.

 

2 Cor 10:10 For they say, "His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive, and his speech contemptible.

 

2 Cor 11:6 But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not so in knowledge; in fact, in every way we have made this evident to you in all things.

 

This reveals the schemes of the devil. Make an issue out of something unimportant to discredit the messenger or the true doctrine.

 

This is the greatest stumbling block.

 

The stumbling block of false doctrine and false Christ’s in the Olivet discourse, Matt 24:3-14.

 

Matt 24:3 And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"

 

Matt 24:4 And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you.

 

Matt 24:5 "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many.

 

Matt 24:6 "And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.

 

False messiahs and local wars began the Church, as well as false doctrine, all becoming stumbling blocks.

 

Since Christ, the first to claim messiahship, there have been recorded in history 22 Jewish claimants, 34 Christian claimants, and 15 others from Muslim and other nations.

 

Rumors of wars refer to local wars in the Roman Empire, which began very early in the CA.

 

The command is to not be afraid. The word of God warns us about historical trends beforehand so that we don’t stumble in fear.

 

We know about the one world government, and we gain insight into the schemes of the devil and so we expect them, are not shocked when they happen, and therefore do not become afraid because we are confident that Jesus Christ controls human history.

 

ROM 8:38-39

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Matt 24:7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.

 

Nation against nation refers to the World wars. Famines continue and have existed in every generation, and earthquakes continue to increase.

 

Matt 24:8 "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.

 

So we go from “not the end” to birth pangs” meaning signs leading up to the end.

 

The “end” is not a reference to the Rapture, but to the Second Coming of Christ. However, the birth pangs have begun, yet no one knows how long a woman will be in labor.

 

There is much debate over the meaning of nation against nation.  In the OT there are two references which speak of civil war in Egypt and war in the Middle East. It is quite possible that it refers to the world wars; noting, interestingly, that WWI started the Zionist movement and WWII led to the reestablishment of the Jewish state.

 

Both wars caused incredible famine, but that was not the only time of great famine. In fact famine continues today as does a steady rise in the number of earthquakes. Birth pangs mean that the age is in labor and things are moving right on schedule. In my opinion, when the world wars broke out the birth pangs began.

 

Fear of violence, war, famine, earthquake, disaster all become stumbling blocks.

 

Vs. 6, “see that you are not frightened.”

 

I’ll add; falling off the fiscal cliff, global warming, gas prices, unemployment, increased government, gay marriage, birth control, abortion, loss of traditional America, Israel and Iran, or any other thing that Christians may fear. Look at the lilies and the birds.

 

Verse 9 begins a description of the Tribulation in which many will stumble, hate each other, and kill one another, but the Church will be delivered from that time by the Rapture.

 

However, the Luke account reveals something that the disciples will go through before the wars, famines, and earthquakes.

 

Luke 21:12

But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name's sake.

 

This looks the same as Matt 24:9, but it’s not. Matt 24:9 is a description of the Tribulation while this is a warning to the disciples over what they will face.

 

Before nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom Luke indicates that the Lord specified some things that they personally would go through, so this is for them specifically and before the world wars and the great increases in famines and earthquakes.

 

Most Christians are not sentenced to death, but we do go through undeserved suffering, which complaining about and failing to apply doctrine to will lead to stumbling.

 

Undeserved suffering can be a stumbling block when doctrine is not applied.

 

The answer to this one is not to attempt to avoid all suffering, for we have seen over and over that it is inevitable in the CWL. We are to use the gracious provisions of the plan of God and not to spend our valuable time trying to avoid it.