Let us turn to the chapter that
we were reading in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 and directing your
attention to the words that we find here in verse 3 in 2nd Corinthians
chapter 11 and verse 3 but I fear lest by any means as the serpent
beguiled Eve through his subtlety So your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. And it's those final words, the
simplicity that is in Christ. Paul, of course, as we know,
writing in the second epistle to the Corinthians, is having
to defend himself against all the various machinations of those
false teachers, those false apostles that had crept into the church. He speaks of them in verse 4. For
he that cometh preacheth another, Jesus, whom we have not preached.
or if ye receive another spirit which ye have not received, or
another gospel which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear
with him. Paul speaks very explicitly concerning
the character of these false teachers. Verse 13 he says, Such
are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves,
into the apostles 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 the ministers
of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works they
were those who were influenced and motivated by Satan And so, here at the beginning
of the text, I fear, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled
Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. We're familiar with the
historical accounts in Genesis chapter 3 concerning the entrance
of sin and the fall of our first parents, how it was through Satan,
who comes, remember, by means of the serpent. The serpent was
more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God
had made, and he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye
shall not eat of every tree of the garden. Now, here we see
him contradicting God contradicting the words of God the serpent
said unto the woman ye shall not surely die for God doth know
that in the day that ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened
and ye shall be as God's knowing good and evil. And we read much there then of
the subtle ways whereby Satan comes and influences men, acts
upon men. These false teachers were of
that spirit and Paul sees it to be so necessary for him therefore
to defend himself. It's something that he is so
loath to do. The opening words of the chapter
would to God he could bear with me a little in my folly and indeed
bear Wismarck, who is so obliged to speak in this manner, really
his determination was always to know nothing amongst them
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And yet, now he must come and
he must commend his own ministry. Go back to chapter 3. Do we begin
again, he says, to commend ourselves? Or need we of some others epistles
of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye
are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all
men. How we had ministered there in Corinth, and how that ministry
had been fruitful to the glory of God, and fruitful to the good
of their souls. He could say to them, writing
in the first epistle, though ye have ten thousand instructors
in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers. For I have begotten
you in Christ Jesus by the gospel. For they were the very proof
of the genuine nature of his ministry, in spite of all that
these false teachers might be saying. And so he puts those
questions at verse 22. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I.
Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of
Christ? I speak as a fool. I am bore.
And then he goes on to speak of his various labors and all
that those labors costed. Now he makes mention of many
of those great trials and troubles that came upon him in a physical
sense. Besides those things that are
without, he says, that which cometh upon me daily, the care
of all the churches. All his concern is for them.
And so he addresses them here in our text. But I fear lest
by any means As the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so
your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth
another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another
spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which have
not accepted ye might well bear with him, bear with the false
teachers, will they bear with the Apostle and all his faithful
dealings with them. Well let us consider then what
he says here with regards to his own message, the subject
matter of his own preaching. And we see it in these few words
at the end of verse 3, the simplicity. the simplicity that is in Christ. The simplicity really concerns
the very purity of the gospel and that's what I want us to
take up tonight to consider the simplicity of the way of salvation,
as we have it unfolded in the Gospel, and also the simplicity
that should be associated with all true worship of God. And we begin with the latter,
how that true worship of God is simplicity itself. Through worship, of course, is
that that is spiritual in nature. And yet, today, there are many
who worship God and their worship is essential worship. It's a
worship that simply appeals to the senses. It is not primarily
that that is spiritual. we have the conversation recorded
between the Lord Jesus Christ and the woman of Samaria remember
there in John chapter 4 Christ must needs go through Samaria
and of course we see in it the great purpose of God he must
meet with this woman the Samaritan and he enters into conversation
with her And she recognizes that this man is a prophet. Sir, I
perceive that thou art a prophet, she says. Her father's worshipped
in this mountain. She was a Samaritan. She belonged to that mixture
of nations that peopled what was once the kingdom of Israel. After that kingdom had fallen
and been destroyed by Sennacherib and the Assyrians, And it was
just a little southern kingdom of Judah that was preserved at
that time. The Assyrians didn't destroy
the kingdom of Judah, they destroyed the northern kingdom, the ten
tribes. But Judah was to be preserved,
although taken subsequently into captivity by the Babylonians,
but yet they were preserved. There was the true remnant, the
true Israel of God. but where were once those of
the ten tribes there was an intermingling and a mixture and the Samaritans
who were so much despised by the Jews and this woman is a
Samaritan woman and she says to the Lord our fathers worshipped
in this mountain and the Jews say that in Jerusalem is the
place where men ought to worship Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe
me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor
yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not
what. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth." The Lord Jesus speaks of what is
the true worship of God. And all that true worship is
governed by those two things, it is in spirit and it is in
truth. God is a Spirit. When the Lord God gave commandments
to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, when He entered
into a covenant with them, you remember the terms of that covenant
expressed in the Ten Commandments, and how explicit God is in that
second commandment. We were reading only this morning
there in Deuteronomy chapter 5, those 10 commandments. And in the previous chapter,
in Deuteronomy chapter 4, we find some very significant words
spoken. Chapter 4 and verse 12 of Deuteronomy. Moses says, The Lord spoke unto
you out of the midst of the fire, You heard the voice of the words,
but saw no similitude. Only you heard a voice. They
didn't see anything. They didn't see a similitude.
They didn't see any representation of God. They heard the voice
of God. And he continues, verse 15, Take ye therefore good heed
unto yourselves, for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day
that the Lord spoke unto you in Horeb, out of the midst of
the fire, lest ye corrupt yourselves. and make you a graven image.
The similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness
of any winged fowl that flyeth in the air and so forth. They
were not to make any sort of image. It was quite explicitly
forbidden there in the commandment. Thou shalt not make thee any
graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters
beneath the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
unto them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. and showing
mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. It could not be plainer. God
is a spirit, therefore God's worship is to be spiritual in
nature. There's not to be any image making. There's not to be any attempt
to make any sort of representation of God. And as God is a spirit,
so the true worshippers will worship him in spirit their worship
will be a spiritual worship but the God who is a spirit is the
one who is also a sovereign and so his worship must also be in
truth his worship must be in accordance with the truth of
his words in line with the commandment that he has given and so it was
with regards to the children of Israel As we said this morning,
after the giving of the commandments, we see how the people desire
that Moses should be the one who becomes the mediator. They
don't want God to speak directly to them. They want Moses to go
into the mount, and this is what he does. He's there in the mount
40 days. And he's receiving further instruction
and direction and commandment with regards to how the Ten Commandments
are to be worked out in the life of the children of Israel, how
it's all to be worked out with regards to the way in which they
worship the Lord God. And there in the New Testament
in Hebrews 8 and verse 5, Paul makes reference to what was said
repeatedly to Moses. Moses was admonished of God,
when he was about to make the tabernacle, for see, saith he,
that they make all things according to the pattern shown unto thee
in the map. It is all to be in accordance
with that that God himself had commanded. There was a certain
pattern. God had given very explicit instruction
and direction concerning all the furnishings. and all of these
things were to be closely followed. Now that Old Testament worship
was clearly physical and typical in its form. We know that the
Levitical laws are all types. Those various offerings that
they were required to presents to God. The various sacrifices,
they're all pointing to the Lord Jesus. It's a typical form of
worship and it's very physical. Again, Hebrews chapter 9, we
read, Verily the first covenant had a worldly sanctuary. That's Old Testament covenant. worldly there simply means of
this world. It is physical in its very form. Calvin's comment is very interesting
with regards to the worship of the Old Testament, the worship
associated with the Law. The Reformer says the worship
of the Law was spiritual in substance because all worship must be spiritual.
It was spiritual in substance, says Calvin, but it was carnal
and earthly in form. There's a difference between
the form and the substance. The substance is spiritual, but
the externals, the form of it, it was, says Calvin, of this
earth. It was a worldly sanctuary. In other words, there was a great
deal of ritual. and there was much ceremony,
constantly associated with that worship of the Old Testament. Why? There was musical instruments. There was even dancing before
the Lord. We see this, do we not, in the
Psalms. When we come to the end of the
book of Psalms, there in Psalm 149, and verse 3 the psalmist says
let them praise his name in the dialogues let them sing praises
unto him with the timbrel and harp again in the last of the
psalms, psalm 150 praise him with the sound of the trumpet, praise
him with the psaltery and harp, praise him with the timbrel and
dance, praise him with stringed instruments and organs, praise
him upon the loud cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
There's much music. and even dancing before the Lord,
and it's all part and parcel of that worship of God in the
Old Testament. We see David, even David himself,
when they bring the Ark of the Lord to Zion, he dances before
the Lord. in 2 Samuel chapter 6 and Michael,
his wife, she so despised him. There he was, he was dressed
in a linen girdle, he has on the attire of a priest as it
were, he's worshipping God and he's dancing before the Lord. That's all part of the Old Testament,
why? It is a spiritual worship, yes,
and yet In its form, it is so much of
this world. It is that that is sensual. But under the New Testament,
those externals are all passed away. You see what Paul is saying? But I fear lest by any means
as the serpent be guarded through his subtlety, so your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. New Testament
worship, the great hallmark of it is, of course, it is spiritual
in its substance. What is it in its form? It's
simple. There is not that elaborate ritual. There are not those ceremonies
that are to be attended to anymore. There's not that that is meant
to appeal to the senses. There is the simplicity that
is in Christ Jesus. Now Speaking of those things
of the Old Testament, Paul refers to them as elements of the world
and weak and beggary elements. In Galatians chapter 4 and verse 3, Even so we when
we were children were in bondage unto the elements of the world. He's speaking of the Old Testament
way of the worship of God. And then again at verse 9, But
now after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God,
I tell you again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto
ye desire again to be in bondage. Ye observe days and months and
times and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have
bestowed upon you labour in vain. And not only to the Galatians,
we see him saying similar things when he writes to the Colossians,
there in Colossians chapter 2, verse 8, he says, Beware, lest
any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. And he speaks of these things
at the end of that chapter, which things have indeed a show of
wisdom in will-worship. We see there are those who say,
oh well, it's nice to introduce this and that and the other.
Doesn't it make the service of God something that's more attractive
to those outside? It's will-worship. It's men doing
what they will. It's not observing that that
God himself has will. that it is revealed in His commandment. No, the worship of the New Testament
is to be spiritual, not only in its substance, it's to be
spiritual also in its very form, the simplicity that is in Christ
Jesus. And it's all solemn. It is a
solemn thing. When Paul writes in Hebrews of
course he makes that contrast between worshipping as it were
under the law and worshipping under the gospel in Hebrews chapter
12 verse 18 he says you are not come unto the mount that might
be touched and that burns with fire nor unto blackness and darkness
and tempest that was Mount Sinai in Exodus chapter 19, the man
that might be touched, a physical thing. But you have not come
to that. No, he says at verse 22, I have come unto man's eyes
and unto the city of the living God, the heaven of Jerusalem,
to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven, and to
God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect, and to Jesus. the mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of ages. Or this is the New Testament
word. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they
escape not you refused him that spake on earth, much more shall
not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. It is a solemn thing to worship
God and to be careful therefore that we seek to worship God as
he himself has directed us. We don't appeal, we recognize
the importance of the Old Testament Scriptures, of course we do.
But we see them in terms of that old covenant, we are under that
new covenant. Our worship is not to be sensual then, our worship
is to be altogether spiritual both in substance and in form. It is the simplicity. The simplicity
that is in Christ Jesus. Or the plainness, you see. of
that way of worship. And of course it was this that
the Puritans were contending for. That's why they received
that nickname. They wanted pure worship. And they called them Puritans
and they dismissed them as being extremists. We say no, these
men were right, they were appealing to the word of God and to that
that God himself has given in the way of instruction. The true
worshippers worship Him in spirit and in truth. Their worship is
spiritual. Their worship is according to
the truth. Their worship is, therefore, that which is regulated
only by the Word of God. It's not will-worship. It's not
what men will do. It's what God Himself has commanded. We see then the simplicity that
is in Christ in terms of the way in which we are to worship
him but then also we are to recognize surely that the simplicity that
is in Christ also concerns the way of salvation and this is
the context group because Paul is having to answer these false
teachers who have crept in and how subtle they are Are they
those who are so devilish in the way in which they are coming
in and persuading these Corinthians and stealing their hearts and
misinstructing them and corrupting them? And so they are departing from
that simplicity that is in Christ. What is that simplicity? Well,
is it not this, that Christ is the only way of salvation? We know that there were in the
early churches those Judaizers, there were those who came in
who were trying to say that Gentile converts, and there were many
through the ministry of the Apostle Paul, many of the Gentiles were
converted and there were those who wanted to bring those Gentiles
under the yoke of the Old Testament law. They were demanding that
they be circumcised. And if they are circumcised,
Paul says, why then they are debtors to do the whole law.
There is a departure from the simplicity that is in Christ. There is an adding. They are
saying that there is something more required than faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. There must also be submission
to the Jewish way. Not so. why the Lord Himself
says, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Christ the way and Christ the
only way of salvation. That high way of holiness that
is spoken of by Isaiah is Christ. Now this is true objectively. Neither is there salvation in
any other for there is none other name under heaven given amongst
men whereby we must be saved. That's the great apostolic message,
is it not? Salvation can be found nowhere
else. This is the truth that they declare
throughout their ministry, those apostles. They preach Christ. They preach Christ crucified.
They preach Christ risen again from the dead. They preach the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That great mystery of godliness.
God manifest in the flesh. And they preach the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They preach His obedience, how
He was made of a woman and made under the law. and coming into
this world as the seed of the woman, as one who is subject
to the Lord of God, he has stood there in the place of his people
and on their behalf he has honoured and magnified the Lord of God.
Why? He has obeyed it. And he has
obeyed it in living and he has obeyed it in dying. He has honoured
it with regards to all of its precepts, all of its commandments.
He has obeyed every one of them, holy, harmless, undefiled and
separate from sinners. But He who honoured it in terms
of all its holy precepts has also honoured it with regards
to all its terrible penalties. Why? He has died. And He has
died just for the unjust. He is that One who was born in
His own person. All that holy wrath of God that
was the just desert of sinners. He died in the room and steds
of His people. Neither is there salvation in
any other. There is none other name under
heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved. Isn't that
what the angel said to Joseph when he was betrothed, when Mary
was with child and he was minded to put her away? But now the
angel assures him she is with child of the Holy Ghost and she's
going to bear a son and they shall call his name Jesus For
He shall save His people from their sins. He shall save His
people. For salvation in Him is not merely
a possibility. This is the simplicity of the
Gospel. Salvation is not merely a possibility in Christ. Salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ is sure and certain. That is the great
doctrine, is it not, of limited atonement. The great truth of
particular redemption. And of course we are a particular
Baptist church. This is the doctrine that we
believe. That the Lord Jesus Christ has made that one sacrifice
for sins forever and by that death he has actually saved his
people. and it would be impossible for
those that he died for ever to be condemned to hell because
that would be unjust as Toplady says payments God cannot twice demand
first at my bleeding short his hand and then again at mine all
God is a just God and it would be most unjust to demand a second
payment if the payment has been paid and Christ has paid the
price that the law demands the price of redemption therefore
all that he died for they must go to heaven his work is a finished
work doesn't he say as much to His Father, when He prays, I
have finished the work that Thou gavest Me to do. A finished work. From the cross in triumph the
others have cried, it is finished. He has finished the transgression,
made an end of sin, made reconciliation for iniquity. and brought in
everlasting righteousness. That's the language of Scripture
there in Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24. He has finished the
transgression. He has made an end of sin. The
great truth is in the simplicity or the simplicity that is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a great work and it is
a work that is final, a work that is truly accomplished and
accomplished once and for all. I'm thinking of words that appear,
I thought it was in Jeremiah. Ah, here it is. in Jeremiah chapter 15 verse
20, in those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none, and
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found. For I will pardon
whom I reserve. Who are those that God reserves?
They are the election of grace. And God will pardon them, their
iniquity, their sin, though it be sought for, it can never be
found, it's gone. Oh, that's what Christ Jesus
has done, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for
sin forever, sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. This is the one, you see, that
we have to, this is the one that we have to look to. Isn't that
the great message of the gospel? What is it that is to be preached?
It's the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. It's a fact that
Christ has come and actually saved his people. And what therefore
is a sinner to do? Well, Christ says it, look unto
me and be ye saved of all the areas of the earth for I am God
and there is none else. Oh, it's to look away from every
other object. It's to look away and to look
only unto the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was
set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and He sat
down on the right hand of the throne of God. Oh, are we those
who would be looking there? You see, it's so objective. when
it's objective it's a looking into ourselves it's a considering
ourselves but here is the objectivity of it we look away from ourselves
and that is what faith does, is it not? faith looks to the
Lord Jesus Christ and looks to that work that he has finished
that salvation that has been accomplished once and for all
all the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus it's true objectively
but then also there is a subjective because it must also be true
subjectively God must come and God himself must also in his
sovereignty bring that salvation into our hearts God must apply
that salvation to our souls true religion is more than notion
something must be known and felt the Lord Jesus himself in the
course of his earthly ministry says to the disciples behold
the kingdom of God is within you it's an inward kingdom the
kingdom of God it's that vine of grace that is established
in the heart of the sinner an amazing thing is it not? Because
that sinner is brought to feel something of his own sin. Maybe
he's brought to feel even this, that he's very hard. He's the
sink of all iniquity. Oh friends, do we not know it
sometimes? We have to confess it. What are we by nature? We're
full of every unclean thing. Our hearts. Poor hearts they are. Wanton,
wicked, unbelieving hearts. And yet, it's there in the heart
of the sinner that God comes and it's there that God establishes
His Kingdom. Behold, the Kingdom of God is
within you. And how God comes, what a mighty
work it is when God comes and establishes that inward Kingdom.
It's the work of faith, we're told, the work of faith with
power. It's the exceeding greatness
of His power to us who do believe. And it's according to the working
of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised
Him from the dead, remember. That's what it is. It's such
a mighty and majestic work. Only the God who created the
world, who created all things out of nothing, can create a
Christian. That's what we believe, is it
not? You see, when we talk about the simplicity that is in Christ
Jesus, it's a million miles away from any teaching of easy-believism. Or there are those who preach
that sort of gospel, it's easy. It is not easy. Or do we not
have to prove it sometimes? We feel it's almost impossible.
How can we believe? It must be that faith that is
of the operation of God. It's God's work. God's operation. I'm struck by those words that
we have. Remember that familiar passage,
that great 53rd chapter in the book of Isaiah concerning the
Lord's suffering servant. And remember how that chapter
begins. Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Two questions. And these are
parallel questions. Who has believed our report? And the implication in the question
of course is that few believe. Who has believed our report?
Who believes these things? And then that second question,
to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? The only ones who can
believe the report are those who know what it is for the Lord
to reveal His arm. And what is it for the Lord to
reveal His arm? Why, it's what a man does, of course, when he's
getting down to some serious business. He bares his arms. He's going to have to exert himself.
he's going to have to exercise his strength to perform this
task and so it is when he comes to saving faith, the Lord has
to make bare his arm, he has to reveal his arm all it is you
see the work of faith with power, it's the power of God that must
come into the soul of the sinner and this is how it was for those
Thessalonians our gospel came unto you says Paul not in word
owner not just a preaching not in word owner well there was
that there was the apostle there he was proclaiming the message
raising his voice preaching Christ but the gospel came not in word
only but in power he says and in the Holy Ghost and in much
assurance it must be it must be like that it is I say a mighty
work of God in the soul of the sinner and yet it's the simplicity
that is in Christ Jesus. It's not easy believism but it
is simple. Again in the Gospel what does
Christ say? Verily, except ye be converted
and become as little children ye cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. That's what conversion is. you
have to become as a little child and as a little child then you
can enter into the Kingdom of God you have to be spoiled of
all your own imagined wisdom you have to be brought to confess
and to acknowledge your own great ignorance you know nothing you're
just like a little child And yet, you see, when we see
that particular figure, does he not remind us of the simplicity? Why a child can understand these
things? It's so simple. What is the great
message of the Gospel? It's sin and salvation. It's the sinner and the saviour.
It's as simple as that. this man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them and then when they when they have that faith
when they know that grace is working in their own souls and
they come to look away from themselves and they are trusting only in
the Lord Jesus Christ why then they have to live by grace they
have to live by grace that way of life is so simple a life really
when Paul writes here in chapter 1 in verse 12 he says our rejoicing
is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity
and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace
of God we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly
to you would. When he speaks of our conversation
in the world, he's not speaking of talking of course, it's the
old-fashioned meaning of the word conversation, it's the way
in which he's living his life, the manner of his living. And
his living was not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God
in simplicity, he says. In simplicity and godly sincerity. How is the Christian believer
to live his life he lives his life by faith by the faith of
the Son of God who loved me Paul says and gave himself for me
we walk by faith and not by sight this is a great burden of the
Apostle then as he comes to address his church at Corrie and they
alas have been bedeviled And it's the right word, they were
bedevilled by the false teachers, these wicked men who were the
instruments of the devil himself. But I fear, lest by any means
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Oh God, preserve
us that our minds be not corrupted. that we delight in that plainness
that we recognize to be true worship, spiritual worshipping
in substance and in form under the gospel we would contend for
it and we would contend for those glorious doctrines of the sovereign
grace of God in the accomplishment of salvation Christ has accomplished
the salvation of his people But we contend not only for the accomplishment,
but also the application. It is God. It is God who must
work in the sinner's heart how we need it, that faith that is
of the operation of God. Oh, the Lord then be pleased
to bless His truth to us. Amen. And the tune is Southport No.
69.