Gather our thoughts again, I
thought, returning your scriptures to 2 Corinthians 11. And here we have a great description. of a man who's made a pastor
after God's own heart, who's ordained of God to feed his people
with wisdom and knowledge, has promised, he says in chapter
3, that he's made, he's made an able minister of the new covenant,
not of the letter but of the spirit, for the letter kills
but the spirit gives life. And who is sufficient? He says
our sufficiency is of God. Here he is with this church that's
racked by all sorts of divisions and schisms and now has been
seemingly inundated and captivated by super-apostles, as they're
called, coming with great eloquence, coming with great boasting of
their activities and their abilities. And it's a remarkable thing to
think that in the very presence of the apostles, who were so
clearly and publicly ordained of God, that all this opposition
would arise. And there are many reasons for
it, of course, brothers and sisters, but the main one is, of course,
that this sets us an example, is that nothing happened to the
apostles or in their time which is not common to the church throughout
all time. And we are set not only the examples
and the warnings of these things, but we are set the apostolic
admonitions and the apostolic guidance for the people of God
in the midst of these trying circumstances. Paul says, would
to God that you could bear with me a little of my folly. Indeed
and indeed bear with me. And he gives them the purpose.
He says, for I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For
I have espoused you, I've betrothed you to one husband that I may
present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by
any means as the serpent beguile thee through his subtlety, so
your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. For if he that comes preaches
another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive another
spirit which you have not received, or another gospel which you have
not accepted, you might well bear with him. For I suppose
though I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles, but
though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge, but we have
been thoroughly made manifest before among you in all things,
have I committed an offence in abasing myself that you might
be exalted, because I have preached the gospel of God freely? I robbed other churches, taking
wages of them to do you service. And when I was present with you
in need, wanted, I was chargeable to no man, for that which was
lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied. And in all things I have kept
myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself."
As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this
boasting in the regions of Achaia. Wherefore, because I love you
not, God knows. But what I do, that I will do,
that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion, wherein
they glory, that they may be found even as we. For such are
false apostles. deceitful workers, transforming
themselves into angels of Christ, and no marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no
great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works."
I say again, let no man think me a fool, if otherwise, yet
as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it
not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence
of boasting, seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will
glory also. For you suffer fools gladly,
seeing you yourselves are wise. For if you suffer, if a man brings
you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if
a man exalt himself, if a man smite you in the face, I speak
as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak, howbeit whereinsoever
any is bold. I speak foolishly, I am bold
also. Are they Hebrews? These false
apostles seem to be Hebrews, like the Judaizers of Galatia.
Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites?
So am I. Are they of the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of
Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more,
in labours more abundance, in stripes above measure, in prison
more frequent, in deaths often. Of the Jews, five times I received
the forty stripes, save one. Three times I was beaten with
rods, once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck.
A night and a day I have been in the deep. in journeyings often,
in perils in waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own
countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city,
in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils
among false brethren. In weariness and painfulness,
in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often,
in cold and nakedness, besides all those things are without
that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
Who is weak? And I am not weak. Who is offended
and I burn not? If I must need glory, I will
glory in the things that concern mine infirmities. The God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore,
knows that I lie not. In Damascus, the governor under
Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes in garrison,
desirous to apprehend me. And through a window in a basket,
I was let down by the wall and escaped his hands. Who is not weak? Who is weak
and I'm not weak? And rather than Paul being the
boastful, proud super-apostle to get to escape, he was put
in a basket and let down by the wall. He writes as a man with a burden. He writes as a man in verse 2
who is reduced, is jealous, and is reduced to folly in verse
1 because of this jealousy. To be jealous According to the
dictionary is a feeling within which demands complete loyalty,
resents any rival or competitor for attention and affections. That was his purpose, isn't it?
I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy. He wants Christ. to be all in all to them, for
Christ to have their whole heart. You can see that's what he says,
isn't he? He relates his work amongst them and the gospel coming
to him espousing you to one husband, promised to him, set as part
to him that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. free of spiritual adultery, free
of spiritual fornication, a chaste virgin. He's jealous. That was his purpose in writing. And his love and his experience
and the testimony of the scriptures caused him to be a man who feared. He says, but I fear. I see you. There's a mixture
of love and fear, isn't it? He's afraid of them being taken
away, them being deceived. You see, Satan's wiles are extraordinary,
aren't they? He says, lest by any means as
the serpent beguiled Eve, through his subtlety, through his craftiness,
So your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. Paul's purpose is godly jealousy. He is espousing them. He has
a fear. and he has a declaration of a
Gospel, doesn't he? He came in verse 4, he came preaching
a Jesus, he came proclaiming a Spirit's work, and he came
proclaiming a Gospel. And these people have come along
with another Jesus, another Gospel, and another Spirit. But it's
lovely, isn't it, how Paul focuses on this simplicity. It just means
singleness, oneness in the Lord Jesus Christ. Who He is and what
He has done. The simplicity. I don't know
about your experience, but as time has gone on, and we have
borne witness to the faithfulness of our God in the scriptures.
Two things, several things have become more evident, I think
the weakness of my flesh, the wonder of God's redeeming love. And we have reason, we have seen
so many reasons for But also in the midst of all
that we've actually, I have, I believe, found a growing simplicity. Whether it's just old age and
infirmity, the things of the Gospel get simpler and simpler. and I trust they become clearer
and clearer and more and more profound as time goes on. There is just a simple message,
isn't it? The scripture's message is about
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We read it in Colossians, didn't
we? Who He is and what He has done. Not a chance, not a possibility. Who He is and what He has done.
And who He is and what He has done is unchanged in eternity,
isn't it? I love to think that before this
world began, Before Adam fell and I fell in him so appallingly
in the garden and brought all of what we see into this world,
God had set apart His people. set apart His people, named and
known and perfectly complete in His Son. But the love of God
is a simple thing, isn't it? There was a famous book that
came out about ten years ago called The Difficult Doctrine
of the Love of God. Why was it difficult? Because
He broke the love of God up into five, I think it was, five different
things and so you had five different ways of looking at the love of
God. So you can include some truth and you can include a whole
bunch of other things. But the love of God is a simple
thing, isn't it? The love of God is in Christ
Jesus. God loves his people for Jesus'
sake. God chose His people for Jesus'
sake. God accepts His people. We just
read it. Unapprovable, holy, unblameable. The world will blame us. Satan
will blame us. Religious people will blame us.
We'll blame ourselves. Someone says we are accepted
in the Beloved, complete in Him. It's a simple new covenant, it's
a simple eternal covenant in His blood that governs and determines
all of what happens in creation. We have a simple idea of the
sovereignty of God, a single idea of the sovereignty of God.
It is completely absolute. And so you cannot, you cannot
use God and try in the same sentence unless it has a negative in it.
Let me read something I read on the internet from the church
that's just started very nearby. It says, the Bible is a love
story about a father desperately trying. to bring restoration
and freedom to his children. Our God doesn't desperately try
to do anything. He knows the end from the beginning.
He's sitting on the throne of this universe. He's not trying
to do anything. There's no possibility created.
He is God. He is God. He is our great, great
God. It's simple. We have a simple
declaration of what happened on the cross. The Lord Jesus,
in perfect substitution for his people, bore all their sins and
bore the infinite wrath of God on their behalf until God says,
it is finished. It is complete. The debt is paid. There cannot be a sin brought
against the children of God. Unreprovable. Unblameable. Now, now, says the scriptures,
now there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. We have a simple
Simple declaration of sanctification. Christ is our sanctification,
completely and perfectly. We have a simple source of wisdom. Christ is our wisdom. We have a simple hope. We have
a simple hope that our God sits on that throne and he reigns
over all things and he's coming back again. He's coming to gather
his own to himself. Simple, isn't it? A simple church with a simple
gospel declaring the singleness of a God who is absolutely sovereign
will worship God in simplicity. will worship God with unadorned
activities. We just have one purpose, isn't
it? This one purpose of us meeting is that you might see again from
this book something of the glories of our great God and Saviour
and that we might go away from here with our eyes fixed on Him
with our hearts rejoicing in who He is and what He's done.
And despite what happens in our flesh, we have a God who creates
simply. His creation was just a simple
word. I love the Hebrew, I repeat it
often. He just said these first words
are, Light be, and light was. And in the new creation, he speaks
by a word, the word of the Gospel, and he speaks and creates life. And the life that he creates
is a life that he sustains, a life that he jealously guards. It's a simple message. It's a single message. It's a
single message about the glory of God, about who He is and what
He has done. Paul sees these false apostles. He encounters them throughout
his ministry and throughout his life as an apostle. He encounters
them again and again and again. It's interesting. But Satan is subtle, isn't he? He deceived Eve by craftiness.
He deceived her by deceit. He promised something that looked
good. He promised. He promised friendship,
and he designs ruin. He brings a lie that is appealing,
and the lie that is appealing is a cloak for murder. It's interesting, isn't it, that
in the garden in Genesis 3, Satan is depicted as a serpent. See, the truth is singular. It's simple. It's one about who
our God is. It's not meant to be complex,
but Satan is depicted as a serpent. A serpent is continually slithering
and twisting and turning, and there's nothing straight about
their movement. It's always bending here and
bending there. And Satan is cursed, isn't he?
The Lord God, Genesis 3.14, said unto the serpent, Because thou
hast done this, thou art cursed. He is a cursed beast, cursed
above all cattle and every beast of the field. And upon thy belly
thou shalt go, and the dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life. He goes on his belly. He is earthy and in contact with
the earth. He is one who just eats dust
and lives on dust. He is a subtle foe. He is an incredibly deceptive
foe. And that's why Paul contrasts
the subtlety and the craftiness and the evil of Satan. And the
answer is simple. The answer is the simplicity
that's in Christ and the singleness, the oneness that's in the Lord
Jesus. It was interesting here some
little time ago we had a some people asking about an American
preacher. I didn't know a whole lot about
him, but I just knew from people that I trust that he was dodgy.
And these people asked for information and I put them mistakenly, I
think, onto one of those sites on the internet. And I think
some of you might have read the stuff. But it was unbelievably
complicated. Here you had two groups of people
and they were arguing and it was It was way, way, way beyond
this tiny brain, I promise you. And it became more and more convoluted
and more and more just rubbish at the end of the day. And that's
Satan, isn't he? He can deceive and he can lead
people down paths where they think that they are fighting
God's battles. And our job is a simple job. We declare the Gospel and leave
the fights. Leave the fights that are of
the earth and are of Satan, where they twist and turn and they
use earthy wisdom and earthy logic to achieve what? Earthy purposes. And Christians
get caught up in it all the time. He's concerned, he's fearful.
And he's fearful for a good reason, because he's seen it happen.
He's seen people that he thought were genuine. He's seen people
that he walked alongside and people that ministered with him.
He'd seen them be turned away and he'd seen the path of their
lives going from bad to worse. The Lord Jesus warns, doesn't
he? Paul is issuing a strong protest. If these people are
going to continue down this path of this subtle deception, they're
going to have to walk over his tears and his prayers and his
calling and his warning. He's jealous. And the Lord Jesus
said, beware of false prophets. Beware. Beware. And they're not easily discernible.
We think that they're easy to find. And if we think they're easy,
we deceive ourselves. He says, the Lord Jesus says,
for false Christs, Matthew 24, 24, false Christs and false prophets
will appear with great signs and with great following and
they will reach even to the very elect, the very elect. Mercifully
will not be deceived, but the impacts of that deception will
be things that they are aware of. If it were possible, they
shall deceive the very elite. Thank God. that the very elect
are kept by the power of God and not kept by their wisdom,
not kept by their thinking and their activities. See, Satan's
ministers, as you read the rest of 2 Corinthians, you read that
Paul contrasts his weakness with these strong people. Satan's
ministers are strong and God's prophets are weak. Satan's ministers
are deceptive and crafty. Peter talks about them in 2 Peter
2, he says, But there were false prophets
also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you, who shall privately, subtly bring in damnable heresies. even denying the Lord that brought
them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall
follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of
truth shall be evil spoken of." They'll be popular. Tens of thousands
will follow them. The biggest mission organisation
in the world. It's called YWAM. 20,000 full-time workers. 20,000
full-time workers. And it's extraordinary, isn't
it? It's based upon a vision that a man called Lauren Cunningham
had in the 70s. And the scriptures are absolutely
clear. We're not to base things on visions ever. And the second
part of his vision, part of the vision that has caused it to
be so popular is that he actually in this vision saw that the Gospel
was going to be proclaimed by sending out waves of children
throughout this world. And God says that those things
are not to be put in the hands of novices. the children need
to grow and be nurtured in the church, not to be sent out as
preachers and evangelists under a false gospel. One of my children that I was
incredibly close to at Hebron, Honey, was there for a couple
of years but she was one who came from a Pentecostal background
but was really, seemed to really have a great seriousness for
the Lord and a great delight in the Gospel of Grace." And
she wrote to the church that she was a member of in Germany
saying, why do you people disobey the scriptures? And they just
ignored her as they always do in those situations. And after
I left Hebron, a really sweet old man and his wife came along
and they had a remarkable ministry in Thailand for 30 or 40 years,
a ministry that was marked by the most extraordinary miracles. the most extraordinary events. And this man had the ability
to see angels in the room. He had the ability to tell children
all sorts of things. He had the ability to give them
the ability to speak in tongues. And even if they said they did
speak in tongues, he said, oh, I'll give you a second gift.
And he did. He performed all sorts of things.
And it was just extraordinary when I went back there seven
or eight months after I'd left. I spent two weeks in the school
and I spent the whole two weeks dealing with this man and the
influence he had. And I wasn't denying that they
had experiences. I was just saying to them, what
does God say about that experience? How do you assess that experience
in light of the Word of God? Anyway, my little friend from
Germany that I was telling you about went and joined this organisation
YOM and it's a cultish organisation and it binds people to it and
it causes them to think that they alone are the vanguard of
bringing the message, the Christian message to the whole world. And
so she had her six months, whatever it is, of their introductory
course and then she, like so many of them, are at a loss to
know what to do because they've been so imbibed into this world
of their own abilities and their own power and all of what they
think they're doing, performing miracles and healing people and
casting out demons and all sorts of stuff. And she went back the
second year and joined the staff. and she went to North Africa
leading a team. And in North Africa she had a
nervous breakdown and it was discovered she has schizophrenia. And schizophrenia is brought
on by all sorts of things that are obviously is a predisposition.
But schizophrenia is brought on by huge emotionally traumatic
events. Is that right, Evelof? I'm not
a medical person, I'm not claiming to know, but I just have spoken
to medical people about it. And I was speaking to one of
my student friends the other day, he was a doctor, or about
to become a doctor, and just talking to him about what this
means in her life. Not only are the drugs appalling,
but the prognosis for her to live beyond 50 years of age without
committing suicide is slim. It's an extraordinary thing,
isn't it? False teaching. false teaching
and evil, evil people. And if you met that couple, that
old couple who claim they're blind and deceiving people, you
would be incredibly impressed with how nice they were. And
you'd be incredibly impressed with how zealous they are and
how moral they are. Satan transforms himself into an angel of light. Verse
13 of chapter 11. Such are false apostles, deceitful
workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. They're not happy just preaching
a gospel. They want to be in the top run. Peter says, through covetousness
shall they with fine words make merchandise of you. These people
make merchandise. 20,000 or more young people make
merchandise of these covetous people. Covetous. Make merchandise of you. false apostles, deceitful workers,
for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. In verse
15 you'll see, therefore it is no great thing if his ministers
also be transformed into ministers of righteousness. They're always
going to preach righteousness. Satan's not going to come along
to a group of believers and say, here's some sin, imbibe in it. What he's going to do is come
along and preach righteousness, preach morality, preach law,
preach doing good things. They won't and they'll be preaching
their own righteousness and they'll be preaching your righteousness. And Paul writes with this jealousy. He has seen people deceived. He's seen people who walked along
beside him, not the silly, wacky Pentecostals that I'm talking
about, but people like Demas and others. Judas preached the
Gospel with all of the apostles for three years. cast out demons,
preached the Gospel, lived before them in such a way that they
had absolutely no idea, even at the Last Supper, they had
no idea who He was and who was living in Him and who was guiding
and directing Him. Of course, when we think of Judas,
we have to remember that his presence amongst the people doesn't
stop God's plans and purposes. God's plans and purposes will
be fulfilled. Satan pretends friendship and
designs ruin. He quotes scripture. He's a great
theologian. There's not a theologian on this
planet who is a match for him in anything at all when it comes
to the scriptures. He is the greatest theologian, except he doesn't know God. He
doesn't know God in any saving way. He knows the doctrines that
he can use them to subtly deceive. He uses a cloak of morality and
orthodoxy and he uses good deeds. And he brings along truths that
are partial truths and he introduces error and damning lies. And we live in this world where
we have, if you chart the history, you can follow Satan's windings
in the 3rd century denying the deity of the Lord Jesus, bringing
in all that Arminian rubbish, bringing in the church, into
a place where it had to do with all the formality and all the
power of Rome. And finally, in the 19th century,
and it's continued for a long time, we have this subtle, subtle
heresy, isn't it, that the death of the Lord Jesus is sufficient
for everyone and efficient for the elect. And it sounds so good,
doesn't it? It sounds so good. It's talking
about the infiniteness of the death of the Lord Jesus and it's
talking about the sufficiency of it. And yet, couched in all
of that is a denial of the simplicity and you go and listen and you
read what these people say, and you try and get them. I go on
websites, especially churches that are in some contact, and
I went on this website of this church so that I would want to
find out. Just tell me, I have one purpose, tell me simply who
the Lord Jesus is and what He achieved in His death on the
cross. And you cannot find in all of
their works. in all of what comes out of the
Bible College, you cannot find them saying a simple statement
that the Lord Jesus Christ was a perfectly God-appointed mediator
and substitute for His people, and He came with a purpose. He
came with an eternal purpose, and He fulfilled that eternal
purpose. They just cannot, they cannot,
leave him on his throne. They have to have man doing some
little thing. And the Christ that we read about
in Colossians is a sovereign, he's omniscient, omnipotent,
he's powerful, he's king of kings and he's lord of lords, and he
has the keys of hell and death. And he will do what he will. when He will, with whom He will,
and He will not be confounded, He will not be frustrated, He
will not be defeated. He came and is satisfied. He came with the joy set before
Him. He is God. He is God over all. So Paul comes with a godly jealousy
for these people. He comes with a real fear for
people who leave the apostolic declaration of who the Lord Jesus
is and what He did. The apostolic gospel, to leave
the apostolic gospel is to no longer be in fellowship with
them, and if you're not in fellowship with them, you're not in fellowship
with God. He says, John says, Beloved,
believe not every spirit, but try the spirits. Test the preachers
whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone
out into the world. Hereby we know the Spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that
confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of
God. To say that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, you can
read that in an encyclopedia, in a dictionary. you. What John
is meaning is that Jesus is the Christ who fulfilled all of this
and all of the promises of yes and amen. He came with eternal
purposes. He came as both God and man and
he did all of that and he sits in heaven and represents his
people before the throne of grace and intercedes for them and he
loved them, he's married to them, he's not going to let them go.
All to be the Christ. he has to be man. To be the Christ,
he has to be God. And you mine the Old Testament
scriptures as Paul did, and he proved, he reasoned with them
and he proved with them that this Christ must suffer, this
Christ must die, this Christ must rise again. This is the
Christ of God and anything that denies Anything of his attributes
is another Christ, another Jesus. Every spirit that confesses not
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God and this
is the spirit of antichrist which you have heard should come and
even now already is in the world. It goes on to say in verse 6
of chapter 4, 1 John, We are of God. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us,
and he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby we know the spirit
of truth and the spirit of error. You can see why Paul was fearful.
to reject John and follow the attractive false teachers around
Ephesus was to turn away from God Himself and have no reason
for any hope in this world. For these corinthians he goes
on in chapter 13 and verse 5 he says, test yourselves to see
that you are in the faith. It's a simple test according
to John. Do you walk side by side with Paul, or do you follow
these other men into another gospel? We are of God, we apostles. He that knoweth God hears us. He that is not of God heareth
not us. Hereby we know the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. a subtle and dangerous enemy. Paul is fearful, rightly fearful. It is extraordinary, isn't it?
The reality is, brothers and sisters, such is the corruption
of our heart that we can justify anything. We can justify anything
and think that we are still serving God. We can justify anything
and still think that we will be all right. A number of times you hear people
and see and we've witnessed people who have imbibed of Satan's subtle
poison. And Satan, it says there, doesn't
it, blessed by any means. How many means does he have?
millions of them. He loves religious means. Take
your pick. He loves religious means. He
loves worldly means, doesn't he? He will pour riches on someone
and then they'll gain more by not turning up to church and
not worshipping God and they'll justify it. And then we see that
they justify it more and more and they drift more and more
and more. And we're frightened, fearful. Paul is fearful. He's
not playing games with words. He has seen people walk a path. Brothers and sisters, we have
been together long enough to see people walk a path. And at the beginning of that
walk were they justifying their activities. I would say every
single time if you spent time with them, they would justify
their activities. Satan by any means, he has so
many means, doesn't he? So many means. So many means
at his disposal and the means that he can use are the means
that are within our flesh. He can use the enticements of
the world, he can use Tricks of our wisdom, can't he? He can
cause us to think that we are wiser than God. He can use the
doctrines of grace. Nothing better than good theology
to take people captive. The Pharisees were five-point
Calvinists. which is why I'm not much interested
in talking about Calvinism. I'm very, very much interested
in talking about the Lord Jesus, who's revealed in great glory
in the doctrines of grace. And I'd like you to know that.
But I'm not interested in you knowing a doctrine. God's servants
want you to know Him, know Him in the singleness the singleness
of who He is, the singleness of what He has done, because
therein is the solution to all of our difficulties, to have
our eyes fixed on Him, to have our eyes again and again,
taken off the things of this world and taken off our flesh
and taken away from our wisdom that we might find that He alone
is our wisdom. He alone. As the proverb says,
isn't it, you lean not on your own understanding. What does
he say? In all your ways acknowledge
Him and lean not on your own understanding. And what's the
promise? That He will direct your paths. He will direct your paths. We
are prone to using our wisdom and using our wisdom to spite
what the scriptures say. I want you to be knowledgeable
of the scriptures. I want you to be knowledgeable
of the God of the Scriptures. I want us to have a simple, simple
gospel. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This singleness, onlyness, this
plainness, this sweetness, this simpleness. It's impossible to
be mistaken, it's plain. Paul, because he had a simple,
single gospel, and he wasn't, as 2 Corinthians 2.11 says, he's
not ignorant of Satan's devices. And so as a result, what he does,
he just makes plainly manifest. He sought to know two things
amongst them, which is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He
wasn't interested in following history and other things. I was
caught up with some people in India for a while, and they went
to enormous lengths to prove that the baptism that they had
was a baptism that could be traced all the way through history and
linked to the doctrine that they believed all the way through
history, right back to John the Baptist. So their baptism was
the only real baptism that ever mattered. And if you didn't have
their baptism, you weren't baptised. And they would spend hours and
they had these charts and these other things. You've all been
involved to some extent in people that have these charts and try
to dissect revelation and find what the three and a half years
and the seven years and all the other things are. And they have
these huge books and you try and get them to sit down and
tell us simply, tell me simply what's happening. You remember,
Simon, how many weeks did they say, we can't do this in a week,
can't do this in an hour, give us weeks. And people were just
led apart, led away, aren't they. And then they think, as a fellow
told me just a couple of weeks ago, is because I didn't grasp
his understanding of this three and a half weeks and this thousand
years, that was the root of all of my problems. Until I understood
that. I wouldn't understand anything.
Satan loves to take people down those winding, circuitous paths
that are more and more complicated. The singleness that's in Christ
Jesus. The everlasting love of God the
Father for the Church in Christ. For God so loved the world that
he sent his only begotten Son. The everlasting love of God the
Son. See, Paul reminds them that it's
a marriage union. When was that instigated? Before the foundation of the
world, brothers and sisters. The Lord Jesus came for that
bride. He loved that bride. His love
is simple. The love of God is simple. The
love of God is in Christ Jesus. And if you're in Christ Jesus,
you are loved of God as much as the Lord Jesus is loved. There
is no difference in the eyes of God. We are bone of His bone
and flesh of His flesh. We are one with Him. the love
of the Holy Spirit, the everlasting love of the Holy Spirit, to come
and to wash and to regenerate, to come into the hearts and bring
life where there was death and bring light where there was darkness,
and to bring the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit does that. All
of our mercies, or it's a simple message, isn't it? All of our
mercies flow from this one united source, our great triune God,
who has a singleness of mind and a singleness of purpose and
a singleness of will. He doesn't have a whole bunch
of purposes. He doesn't have a plan A and
a plan B. When plan A failed and Israel
failed, he instigated plan B. He only ever had one plan. We
are the Israel of God. We are the circumcision. It's
simplicity that's in Christ. We have a simple, single oneness,
a simple doctrine. It's Christ. Christ, mysterious
and glorious and high and holy. It's Christ, as Colossians 3.11
says, Christ is all. Christ is all. We have a simple declaration,
a simple understanding of election. We are chosen in Him before the
foundation of the world. We have a simple justification,
we are justified by His righteousness. When I stand before God, we stand
as we read in Colossians, we stand without guilt, without
blame, we stand perfect. because we are robed with the
very righteousness of God. His righteousness is given. His righteousness adorns all
of His people. We have a simple redemption.
Our sins are redeemed by His blood. There's a simple calling. At the time of love he comes
and he calls his own to himself and they hear the shepherd's
voice and they find the shepherd's voice delightful and they find
the call of the shepherd on their lives sweet and simple. We have a simple and a single
reason for the forgiveness of our sins. God, for Christ's sake,
forgave us, Ephesians 3, verse 432. We have a simple, single
reason for not being condemned. Romans 8, it's Christ that died. There is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. It's Christ that died. Who can condemn? It's Christ
that died. We have a simple reason for all
that God gives his people. It's in him. He that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him freely give us all things? What will he give us? Will there
be any lack? Will any of God's children ever
be able to say, if only I've had this little thing? He's given
us His Son. He's promised to give us all
things. We have a simple reason for being
saved. We are saved by grace through
faith. Saved by Him. We have a simple
ground of assurance. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Why are you a sinner? A sinner. We have a simple ground
of faith. We look unto the Lord Jesus,
the author and perfecter of faith. He is the faithful one. We have
a simple motive for serving and worshipping Him. It's just His
glory. We have a single desire to win
Christ and be found in Him, not having any righteousness of my
own. but in Him. A simple aim for the end of our
days, that we will meet Him and find it delightful as Job did,
looking forward. The children of God in the scriptures
are looking forward to meeting Him and looking forward to being
with Him. As the psalmist says, as for
me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. His righteousness
and my righteousness are one. I can behold his face as John
says. We can see him as he is. Why? Because we'll be like him. I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness. A simple hope. We have a simple
hope. regarding the judgment. What
does John say? We have boldness. We have confidence in the day
of judgment. As He is, so are we in this world. I pray that the Lord would work
in our hearts that we would find that Christ is all. To know the
living God, Christ must be all. To know of pardon and forgiveness
of sins, Christ must be all. To be holy and sanctified, without
which you cannot see God, Christ is all. To live forever in heaven,
Christ is all. He was all in eternity. Christ
was all. He was all in creation. He was all the salvation of His
people when they fell. He was all the redemption of
His people when they came into this world as Adam's children
in sin and sinning. Christ is all for them in that
judgment. They're hidden in Him. Their
lives are hidden with Christ in God. And when the new creation
comes, Christ will be all and in all, our unchanging, unchangeable,
sovereign God and Savior. Let's pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, we
thank You that in Your precious Son we have not just access to
the heavens, but we have boldness of access to the throne of grace.
We praise You, Heavenly Father, that as we go through this life
and we struggle with all sorts of things, Our Saviour, our Redeemer,
our Husband, our Representative is now interceding before the
Throne of Grace. Heavenly Father, we praise You
for the life and the death and the resurrection of Your dear
and precious Son, and we praise You now for His prayers for His
people. We thank You, our Father, that
none of His can ever be lost. We thank you Heavenly Father
that you place us in this world with the infirmities of our flesh
and the temptations and the wickedness and the evil of Satan enveloping
so much of our lives and causing us such consternation that like
Paul we fear. We praise you, Heavenly Father,
that all of these things are perfectly and purposefully designed,
and you control all of these things perfectly for the esteem
of your glory and for the good of your people in this world.
Heavenly Father, help us not to be unaware of Satan's schemes. to be protected, Heavenly Father,
from moving away from the simpleness, the singleness, the simplicity
that is in Christ Jesus. Help us to grow in that, our
Father. Help us to be protected from following the wiles of Satan
down all sorts of paths. Help us to draw the lines and
boundaries of Your character and Your purposes in this world
with such clarity, Heavenly Father. that we won't be led astray by
those things and that you would cause us to have our eyes fixed
on Him who died for us, fixed on Him who came with eternal
purposes, fixed on Him who reigns in heaven and has all of this
creation, His creation, under His perfect and sovereign control. We thank You for humbling circumstances,
Our Father, and we pray for grace to look to Him, and to love Him,
and to serve Him, and to worship Him, and to delight in Him in
this world. May He be all in all for us,
Our Father. We pray in His precious name.
Amen.