Turn back where we read this
morning in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. I call this message a true pastor's
fear. This man Paul was a believer. A believer just like all of God's
people are brought to be. And he was also an apostle. He is the Apostle of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But you cannot read these letters
written to the various churches without seeing that he is also
a pastor. He is an under-shepherd of the
Lord's flock. And he has a pastor's heart. And he expresses it here in this
text by speaking of a fear that he has. Look back at verse 3. He says, "...but I fear, lest
by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. The fear he has is a fear that
is born out of love. We can have fears born out of
love, we have fears concerning our children living in this day,
and our fears for them are born out of love. We love them. If
you look back at verse 2, Paul expresses it like this. He says,
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. And his fear, he says here, is
lest by any means." And I couldn't help but notice as I looked at
that verse that the indication is that there are many means
that might be used. I thought of that verse in Proverbs
that says, there is a way that seemeth right unto a man But
the end thereof are the ways of death." A way that seems right. But the end thereof are the ways
of death. And his fear, lest by any means,
is that as the serpent beguiled Eve. He's talking about He's
talking about Satan, who is described in the Revelation by this same
title. And the great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world. By whatever name he's called,
he is a deceiver. He seeks to deceive even the
Lord's sheep. And it says here that he beguiled
Eve. He deceived her through his subtlety,
through his cunning. through his craftiness, through
his shrewdness, by his counterfeit. And if you remember, as Paul
writes to Timothy, he says, and Adam was not deceived. Adam took of that fruit in the
full knowledge of what he was doing. And he is in that a type
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He does it for his bride. Christ is likening, through the
apostle here, all his church to being his bride. But it says,
Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the
transgression. She was deceived through the
subtlety and the cunning of the devil. Genesis 3 verse 1 says,
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Yea,
hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? He knew that God had not told
Adam and Eve that. So in His very words and statement,
and here questioned to her, there is deceit bound up in it. There
is untruth at the heart of it. He beguiled her. He deceived
her. And that is exactly what those
that Paul describes in our text seek to do. Look down in verse
12. He says, "...but what I do, He
says, if you think it's not out of love, He said, God knows it
is. And what I do, that I will do,
that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion, that
within wherein they may glory, they may be found even as we. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ, and no marvel, there will be those who, like the devil,
being described as they are of their father, the devil, will
use this very same technique and methodology, deceit by cunning
and craftiness. And no marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. He doesn't appear to
be darkness, which he is. He doesn't appear to be error,
which He is. He doesn't appear to be wickedness,
which He is. He transforms Himself as an angel
of light. Therefore, it is no great thing
if His ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness. They appear to be. They present
themselves as ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according
to their works." Their end will be according to their works,
not according to Christ's works. but according to their works. And so, here is Eve, beguiled,
deceived by the devil through his subtlety. And for an instant,
she considered that God might not have her best interest at
heart. God is keeping from you all the
trees of the garden. That was not true. Only one tree. One tree that signified His right
to be God. His right to rule over His creatures. His right to determine things
within. But for an instant, He made her
to think that maybe God was not looking out for her entirely. or that he might actually be
holding back the best from her, and that there was knowledge
to be had beyond his word. There was more than what he had
told her. more than what He had given her. And so, her deception began with
listening to and taking for fact something other than that which
God said. My friends, that's where all
deception begins. When we take as true when we
receive as right that which has not been said to be so by God. It always begins by departure
from His Word. And what he was in fear of concerning
these professing believers at Corinth, and the same in every
age, is that they might be corrupted. That word means to destroy or
wither or waste away or shrivel up. That they might be corrupted
In their minds. In their minds. You see, the
Bible sets forth the minds of men and women as the stronghold
of the devil. In their minds. He feared lest
they be destroyed or corrupted or shriveled up or brought to
waste. In their minds. And what all
of it had to do with, what all this concern, this fear, this
deceit and such, what it all had to do with, this corruption,
it was characterized by a departure from the simplicity that is in
Christ. I fear, he says, lest by any
means And the devil has a host of them. The serpent, as the
serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be or might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Now, what some have said concerning
this simplicity is they use it to say that the gospel is simple. We preach a simple gospel. Or the gospel is simple and it
has no need of you thinking or no need of your studying or having
any understanding. You just believe on Jesus. That's not what Paul is saying
here. Simplicity here does not simply
mean uncomplicated. What it means in this verse is
singleness, singleness, oneness, singularity, single-mindedness. I fear lest by any means, as
the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be corrupted from a single mindness that is in Christ." from that
singleness, that singularity that is in Jesus Christ alone,
and a single-minded or singleness of affection for the Lord Jesus
Christ. He says, lest you think, lest
you come to believe that there is more than Christ, or that
salvation can be found in anything or anyone less than Christ. You see, he knew this, and he
stated this in many ways, and that is that Christ is In other
words, if Christ is all, and that is what He's saying here,
I fear lest you be deceived in your minds into thinking that
there is something other than or more than the One who is Himself
all. He is all. He is all in creation. There's nothing else, there's
no one else, there's no other force, power, whatever it might
be, in creation except Christ, who made all things. He's all in providence. He works
all things after the counsel of His own will. You can look
at second cause as all you want to, but behind everything is
the first cause, and that is the fact that He works all things
according to His own will. But the real difficulty, the
real danger, you see there are some people who would attribute
creation and providence to the Lord Jesus. But the real area
of difficulty, the real area of danger, is when we might be
directed away from, or led away from, or deceived from this truth
that Christ is all in salvation. He's all in salvation. Paul said, I fear. lest by something,
by some means of subtlety and cunning, that Satan might beguile
you or deceive you and draw you away from this singleness of
Christ. Turn over to Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. And look here
in Acts chapter 4 and verse 12. When the apostle here is talking
about Christ, and he is describing Him in this way, he says in verse
11, "...this is the stone which was set at nought." of you builders."
But he said, he's the head of the corner. He's the chief cornerstone. You're seeking to build a salvation,
a righteousness, whatever. You're seeking to do it without
the foundation, the one foundation. No other foundation can any man
lay other than that which is already laid, that is of Christ,
by Christ. And look at what he says in that
next verse. He says, "...neither is there
salvation in any other." Is that plain? There is no salvation
in any other than the true Christ. And the true Christ is how He
says He is, not how you and I think He is or how religion makes Him
to be. There's no salvation in any other
than Him. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There's
no other Savior. There's no other name. There's
no other equal. There can be no other rival other
than the Lord Jesus Christ, that name that is above every name. There is no other name given
by God. whereby we must be saved. Salvation
in its entirety is in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And Paul in
these verses warns about the danger of somebody coming along
and preaching another Jesus. He warns them against another
gospel. He warns them about being led
by another spirit. There is no other name other
than Christ Jesus the Lord under heaven, given among men, whereby
we must be saved. Turn over to John chapter 14.
John chapter 14, and listen to the response that Christ gives
to Thomas. In verse 5, Thomas saith unto
him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know
the way? He in some part acknowledges
his own inability, their own inability to know the way, And
so, in response to that, listen to what Christ says. Verse 6,
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way. There are not many ways. I don't care what these evangelists
who get so renowned, I don't care what they say, if it seems
to appeal to everybody. Jesus said, I am the way. What's he talking about? Well,
he's the way to God. That's what it all boils down
to. He says, I am the way to God. I am the way of righteousness. There are not many ways. I am
the way that God can be just and yet justify sinners. I am the way to glory, to heaven. There's not any other way. You
can't make a bomb and blow a bunch of people up, believing that
you, by doing so, be received in the glory for the doing of
it. That's foolishness. Jesus said,
I am the way. And then he follows that, he
says, and I am the truth. Now, I know what people say.
They say foolish things like this and reveal a great ignorance
in doing so. They said, there is no ultimate
truth. We're always in search of the
truth. No, what you're in search of
is something other than the truth. Because the natural carnal mind
is enmity against God, Christ said, I am the truth. That is, He's the truth about
God. You'll never find out how God
is apart from Christ. And most especially, we'll never
find out what kind of God He is in His entirety until we are
enabled to see Him as such the truth in Christ crucified. when He opens our eyes to see
who He is as the God of the cross, how He is in how He deals with
Christ in the matter of sin, how He is as a just God in applying
the benefits of Christ's death to all His people. He's the truth
about God. You don't learn that in a sunset. You can't find that out by looking
into a baby's face. You can't read that in some book
of philosophy or such as that. He says, I am the truth. And not only that, he tells us
he's the truth about salvation. He's the truth about what righteousness
really is. He is the truth about the meaning
of life. They used to have these old catechisms. I've never been much on a catechism. Because we've got everything
written in the Word of God. We're to be teaching the Word
of God. But they'd always begin with
a question like that, what is the chief end of man? To glorify
God and enjoy Him forever. That's why we were created. And
everyone will glorify God. either as He administers His
grace to them or as He executes a judgment upon them when left
in their sins. He's the truth about why we're
here. He's the truth about what we're
here for. He's the truth about the future. He's the truth about eternity. There's no truth separated from
Christ. That's why it doesn't matter
how much you learn. It doesn't matter how many true
facts you might learn, how many biblical facts you might accumulate
in your little feeble mind. Christ is the truth. He's the
truth. And then He says this, I'm the
life. The life. Life. Now, I passed
a church sign this week, several times. This is what it said. Life. Christ offers it. Christ offers it. Oh, that sounds
so generous, doesn't it? But suppose you and I offer something
that would be really appealing to us naturally. Suppose we were
to offer a million dollars to a dead man. You see, life has
to do with our being made alive. You don't offer life. The gospel
is not about an offer, it is about an offering. The offering
of the blood and body of the Lord Jesus Christ, that by one
offering He perfects that people He dies for forever, and by His
life they are made alive. A man that puts up a sign like
that, he doesn't know the truth. Therefore, he cannot preach the
truth. And so he goes about deceiving
men and women into think they have an ability or a goodness
or something that enables them to do something in order to get
something from God. Christ Himself is the life. Paul said, Christ who is our
life, when He shall appear, He's going to appear. But He's already
our life. If He's the life, that shows
that we are dead spiritually. If He's the life, He is the life
of God. And in our death, we are dead
to God and truth. He is that eternal life. We're not just going to live
forever, because eternal life, is to know God through Jesus
Christ whom He hath sent." There is no life apart from Christ.
Everything is death. Everything was death when He
was here on this earth. But when He came there, even
physical death, when He was there, nobody stayed dead because He
is the life. Isn't He the other life? He feared
lest they be deceived into going to or trusting in another mediator
or another priest. Where can we go to meet God,
to talk to God? to receive from God, to be blessed
of God. Who can stand for our cause? Who can stand in our place and
deal with God on our behalf in a manner that will be suitable
for both us as sinners and God in His holiness? Paul tells us. He says, for there is one God
and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There is neither preacher or
earthly priest or past living being outside of Jesus Christ
that can mediate your case and cause before God Almighty, if
one. Paul said, I fear lest you forget
that. You depart from that. It's just one. And the danger,
the danger that Eve succumbed to is to believe what men believe
about God rather than what God says about Himself. I keep trying
to tell you this. Just because I say something
does not make it true. Just because the best preacher
you ever heard, the one you idolized maybe, has said something, that
does not make it true. And you and I do not really believe
something. We do not really believe it until
we have read it, received it from God's Word as coming from
Him. Paul said there are a lot of
people that are going to be deceived because they are easily deceived.
They don't do like the Bereans. They don't take Bible in hand
as they did standing there listening to the Apostle Paul. They did
not stand there and just take what He said as Word from God,
but they searched the Scriptures to see if the things that He
said were true. Thank God what He said was true. He's led by the Spirit of God. These words are literally God-breathed. But here is the test and the
measure of all that might be true, that all that might be
spoken and preached in the name of God. If they speak not according
to this law, they speak not according to this testimony, it's because
there's no light in them. They may appear as angels of
light, They may shine with radiant countenances, speak with golden
words, inspire. They may lead us up, caught up
in their charismatic personalities, but if they speak not according
to this Word," he said, there's no light in them, no light in
them. Old Robert Hawker had this to say about this very thing.
He said, the serpent beguiled Eve by his subtlety in doing
what? Even in seducing her to believe
that the simple act of faith, of believing in God and depending
wholly upon Him, was too simple to give credit to. And likening
to his devilish devices, she fell." This was written a long
time ago, but he continued. And what is the artifice of the
archfiend now? To tempt men to swerve from the
simplicity that is in Christ. by supposing that Christ's person,
work, and righteousness, and bloodshedding are but procuring
causes. Christ's work, Christ's blood,
Christ's person. They are just the things by which
this salvation is made available to us. That's what he's saying.
"...and that our faith, sincerity, repentance, and the like must
be added in order to render it effectual. It sounds like He
might be living today then. Christ died for everybody, they
say, made this salvation possible for you. He offers it to you. He offers this life to you. He
does all this. Oh, He's done a lot. But you've
got to do something to make what He did effectual. And thus men
and women are seduced, deceived, drawn away from that singleness
of Christ. That salvation is not only procured
in Christ, it's accomplished in Christ. It's applied by Christ. It began with Christ. And so
the greatest deception becomes Christ plus. Christ plus some
work done by us. Christ plus some imagined good
in us. Christ plus some experience experienced
by us. that we exalt above what God
thinks. That's deception. Paul said to
these Corinthians, I fear less than Satan by his subtlety. You
see, you have to remember that what the devil says, what he
teaches as truth, is the most appealing to our natural ears
and mind. Men and women are characterized
in the last days as heaping to themselves teachers having itching
ears, preachers who will tell them what they naturally want
to hear. what they naturally want to believe. That salvation is either by something
I do, or it's either by a cooperative effort with myself and God. Instead of what this says in
this book, that salvation is of the Lord in its entirety. It's all of God's grace in Christ. It's all by virtue of God putting
His people in this union of grace with His Son, making Him responsible,
making Him their surety and their substitute. making Him their
very righteousness. They're deceived into making
allowances for other faiths. You've got to be real careful.
You've got to be real careful. More careful than you think.
Because it's easy if somebody is guided by a religion by which
they set out to destroy you physically and blow you up. That's pretty
easy to figure out. Will these such people come to
our area? Well, yes, probably. But the
worst part is, the deceivers are already here. The counterfeits
are all around us. And they're whispering their
lies every day from the lips of their followers. Not just
their preachers, but their followers. Sometimes what they say is kind
of appealing. But it's a lie. It's deception. Paul said, there is one body,
one spirit, even as you are called in one
hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God,
and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in
you all." Just one. And there's a lot of other things
that might be included here. He said, I fear lest you be guiled
and be drawn away from a singleness of affection toward Christ. May
be a family member, may be a possession that steals away your affections. But our Lord said, if any man
come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life,
he cannot be my disciple." He's talking about comparatively.
Don't ever love anybody outside of Christ to the point that they
become an idol to you. Most dangerous thing. This is
always a sobering statement to me. The Apostle says, if any
man Love not the Lord Jesus. That's affectionate. Not believe
something about him, though we certainly do. Not agree mentally
to some creed or confession or said a doctrine, if any man love
not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha. Let him be accursed at the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I fear lest you be beguiled
and be drawn away from the pure doctrines of Christ. John said,
whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ,
You can be aware of that person, that preacher that says, well,
let's don't get into doctrine. Let's don't get into this discussion
about doctrine. Let's just talk about Jesus.
You can't talk about Christ without talking about His doctrine. You
can't identify and distinguish Christ from Antichrist Jesus
from this other Jesus except by doctrine. As a matter of fact,
the gospel itself is called doctrine. It's a report. Isaiah said, who
hath received, believed a report? It's the testimony of God about
His Son. Paul said, I determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I don't ever want to be drawn
away from that. I don't ever want you, I'm jealous over you
with a godly jealousy lest you by the cunning of the adversary
of your soul and the enemy of God be deceived and by his subtlety
draw you away from that. I fear lest you be drawn away
and deceived from that single goal of following Christ and
living for His glory and serving His people in this world. You
always need to remember this. I pray that I will. Apostasy. That apostasy which the age prior
to Christ's coming is characterized by. That falling away from the
truth. That apostasy always begins with
a first step. A step away from reading His
Word. A step away from uniting with
His people. A step away from His public worship. A step away. Just one step. It always begins with that one
step. He said, I fear lest you be drawn
away from that simplicity or that singleness of worship, that
worship that characterized the early church in the New Testament,
where there's just a plain preaching of Christ. They didn't have all
the programs or all the cantatas and all the ceremonies and all
the activities and such like that. They didn't even have a
building. They gathered from house to house
for the sole purpose of worshipping God, praising God through His
gospel. A lady told me once that she
gave me the reasons why they were no longer coming. She said,
well, I'll have to say you preach the gospel as clearly as anybody
I've seen, but really we're looking for More. More. More than the
one that's everything. I fear, Paul says, lest you be
drawn away from those things which ascribe all the glory to
God. One thing for sure, we don't
have a preacher to brag about here. We don't have ceremonies
to brag about here. People sometimes ask, what do
you do? What do you all do out there? We just preach the gospel. Oh, is that all? That's it. Because
God has taught us that He's everything. You know, man, fallen man, who's
always seeking to glorify himself, he never can get enough glory.
But when God, by grace, brings him to see the glory of God in
Christ, he's amazingly satisfied with that glory. I don't need
any glory. I don't deserve any glory. But
bless His name, He's shown Himself to me as the One who is all-glorious."
All-glorious. Paul feared no doubt that they'd
be drawn away, deceived from a simplicity of life, from a
simple lifestyle, from simple faithfulness. There are people
who've got to have everything, who've got to do everything,
who've got to possess everything. John said, love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the
world, The love of the Father is not in it. You see, Satan's
deception is on every hand, both from the religious world and
the irreligious world. Paul had been taught something
of human weakness, of natural unbelief. He could remember how
deceived he was as a Pharisee, as a good moral man. As a man
who thought he was doing something for God. As a man who was zealous. As a man who had even a religious
pedigree. But now even maybe more so as
a man who so easily, if it be not for the grace of God, can
be deceived. And be deceived through the subtlety,
the cunning, and the craftiness. He could be deceived in fixing
his mind and attention to be such a zealot and soldier as
to this one cause of Christ. And in doing so, take his eyes
off Christ. Paul wrote to Timothy and he said, everyone that will
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Evil men
and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being
deceived. Oh, so that's coming. That's
all about us. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned and been assured of, knowing of whom thou
hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the holy
Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation,
through faith which is in Christ Jesus, all Scripture is given
by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be perfect, mature, throughly furnished,
unto all good works." That's a true pastor's fear with regards
to those he preaches to. Less by any means, all means,
the most cunning means, just like the devil did to Eve, our
mother. We might be deceived. We will
be deceived, but for God's grace. Drawn away from that singleness
of Christ and Him crucified. God save us. Keep us. We're so
weak, frail, full of pride, natural self-righteousness, prone to
idolatry, more naturally inclined to hear the devil and his emissaries
rather than you. Keep us. Keep us, Lord. Oh, keep
us cleaving. Keep us believing. Prone to wander,
Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.
Oh, here's my heart. Take and seal it. Seal it with
Thy courts above. Paul said, I fear. And there's
always a reason to fear. There's always a reason that
would be greater than our fear. And that is that if we be the
people of Christ, given to Him, redeemed by His blood, called
by His Spirit, He will present us faultless before the throne
of glory. And we'll sing on that occasion
something comparable to the fact that salvation is in its entirety
in Christ by grace and declare that what He said to us in His
Word All true. All true. Father, this morning
we give you honor and praise. We thank you for your mercy.
We pray that you'd keep us. That you would rebuke the one
who would deceive us. That you'd give us understanding
and faith to cleave to Christ. Trust only in Christ. Plead only what you give as a
free gift in Him. Glorify only Him. Hold none to our bosom. so that
they become idols but the Lord Jesus. Help us. Keep us for Thy
name's sake. For we ask You to, we beg You
to, we plead for You to, and we thank You. In Christ's name,
Amen.