2 Corinthians 11, 1-13. And I want to speak this morning
on the subject, the godly jealousy of Paul. Paul's godly jealousy
over the Corinthian church and the people of God. Here's our
text. Would you God, you would bear
with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with
a godly jealousy, for I have espoused 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 beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. For if he that comes preaches
another gospel whom we have not preached, or if you receive another
spirit which you have not received, or another gospel which you have
not accepted, ye might well bear with. For I suppose I was not
of wit behind the chiefest apostle, but though I be rude in speech,
yet not in knowledge, But we have been thoroughly made manifest
among you in all things. Have I committed an offense in
evasing myself that ye might be exalted because I have preached
the gospel of God freely? I robbed other churches, taking
wages of them to do you service. When I was present with you and
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 unto you,
and so will I 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 knoweth. But what I do, that I will do,
that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion, that
wherein they glory they may be found even as we." For such are
false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into
the apostles of Christ." We principally will look at the first of these
verses. An interesting thing about this
is that once again, out of Paul's many experiences, we find him
confronted and opposed by the false teachers trying to undermine
his teaching and also the gospel that he was preaching. And so
they make libelous statements against his apostleship, slandering
and defaming him as an apostle, and defaming his claims to be
an apostle on equal footing with those apostles that were at Jerusalem. And this attack upon his apostleship
has far-reaching consequences. For if it could be proven that
he was not a true apostle, then both his character and his gospel
are destroyed at one time, and would suffer their reputation
among the people. So to discredit him in one thing
actually carried over into another. To say his apostleship was not
real affected the gospel. To say that his gospel was not
real affected his apostleship. So their charges forced Paul
to do something which he always tried to avoid, and which he
found very abhorrent. And that is to defend himself,
both himself and his apostleship, but also the gospel that he was
preaching unto them. He tells them I am not an apostle
from men. Galatians 1 and verse 1. He did not receive his gospel
but by the revelation of Christ. Again, Galatians chapter 1 and
verse 11 and 12. And so you see how many of the
apostles' epistles begin with a declaration of his apostleship. He would say, Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ. I listed them. I looked through.
I found he used that in Romans 1.1, in 1 Corinthians 1.1, 2
Corinthians 1.1, in Galatians 1.1, in Ephesians
1.1, in Colossians 1.1, and in 1st and 2nd Timothy, he declares
himself right off to be an apostle of the Lord. Now, you might say
to me, well, that's not unusual. The apostle Peter declares himself
to be an apostle in both of the epistles that he has penned.
And yet, is not Peter defensive about it, as is the Apostle Paul? While Peter declares he is simply
a matter of factly, Paul is absolutely defensive, saying that his apostleship
is by the will of God, 2 Corinthians 1.1. called an apostle, Romans
1.1, neither by man nor of man, but by Jesus Christ and the Father,
Galatians 1.1. And such like, you see, as he
writes his epistle concerning his being an apostle. In other words, I'm saying, he
seems to go to great lengths to defend his apostleship, and
particularly to the Corinthians, mentioning it more frequently. Listen to this passage from 1
Corinthians 9, verses 1 and 2, as he says to them, Am I not
an apostle? Am I not free? Have not I seen
the Lord Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I am not an apostle unto others,
yea, doubtless I am unto you. for the seal of mine apostleship
are you in the Lord." Again, in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse
5 and 6 that we read, I am not a wit, that is, I am not the
least bit behind the chiefest or the super-apostle. And though
my speech is rude, though I am not an eloquent speaker like
some of the others, yet not in knowledge Am I lacking at all? In 2 Corinthians 12 then, 11
and 13, I am not in the least behind the chief apostle. I'm
sorry, it's chapter 12, verse 11 through 13. I'm not behind
the least of the chief apostle. The signs of an apostle were
wrought by me in your midst and in your sight, and such signs
and wonders and marvels and mighty deeds were done even in your
sight. How then were you inferior to
any of the other churches by having my ministry among you?"
Now, Paul was most uncomfortable, and Paul was most hesitant to
commend himself. You notice in what we read that
he calls it folly in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 1. And in 2 Corinthians
12 and verse 11, as he goes on, he says, Oh, I am become a fool
in glory as he defended himself. Again, he acknowledges that it
seems to be boasting what he is saying. 2 Corinthians 11 and
verse 16. The same time, he tells them
in 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 11, and this is important, you
have compelled me to do this. You have compelled me, for I
ought to have been commended by you, since in nothing Am I
behind the very chief of the apostles, though I be nothing,
yet am I not behind them at all? But come to our text now for
this morning and the first verse of that chapter. We have mentioned
back in chapter 10, Paul had, in verses 12, again in verse
18 of the previous chapter, He had spoken of the impropriety
of one commending themselves, or desiring letters from others
commending them, and yet now he finds it necessary to engage
in that very same thing on his behalf. Now, it is not simply
on a personal level, but it is in connection with the gospel,
the truth of God, his apostleship, and the ministry. And so in verse
1, he asks for their tolerance for a little bit, or for a little
while. little small requests that he
would make of them. Expositors are divided as to
whether Paul is asking their tolerance for something that
he is about to say, or as in the margin of the King James
and the New international version, you do bear with me. Would you bear with me? And indeed,
you do bear with me. Paul temporarily sets aside the
folly that he wishes them to endure or to put up with and
returns to it again down in verse 5. But first of all, in verse
2, verse 3, and verse 4, he reveals to them what motivates him to
take advantage of their forbearing his short folly. What moved him,
but what moved them to show and him to ask for their tolerance
and to act so unseemly, yet he asked for their tolerance. He
says in verse 2, I'm swallowed up with jealousy. I'm jealous
over you with a godly jealousy. I'm consumed, says the apostle,
with a spirit of jealousy that it moved him now, as we call
it, to sing his very own praises. Or, Grandma used to say, to toot
his very own horn. Calvin said jealousy sometimes
sweeps a man off of his feet. It is not only a powerful emotion,
jealousy, but sometimes it can be a sinful emotion as well. You remember what Solomon wrote
in the Proverbs 6 and verse 34? Jealousy is the rage of a man. It gives rise to furious revenge
when it is sinful jealousy. We know there are two kinds of
jealousy. A, there is that jealousy grounded
in self-interest that is spiteful and revengeful. But then B, there
also is a jealousy that is noble and honorable for the things
of God and His glory." In fact, God declares Himself to be a
jealous God. I, the Lord, am a jealous God. and verse 5. Not only that, but
he said his name is Jealous in Exodus 34 and verse 14. A consuming fire, even a jealous
God in Deuteronomy 4 And verse 24, the prophet Elijah said in
his day when he came under persecution, Kings 19 and verse 10, I have
been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts. Paul makes a very
clear statement concerning the nature of his jealousy. It is not sinful. It is not self-interest. He calls it a godly jealousy,
a jealousy of God. And the object of his jealousy,
I am jealous over you. And the Corinthian church and
the saints there, and the incidental or casual cause of his jealousy
was there paying court to the false apostles and teacher that
came among them. They're giving ear to men who
came among them preaching another gospel. And then the reasonableness
of his jealousy, he said, I have espoused you to one husband,
even unto Christ. In other words, you are betrothed
unto the Lord Jesus Christ, just like Mary was betrothed unto
Joseph in Matthew 1 and verse 18. Now consider a word that
Paul uses here, and it is the word espouse, which is more often
translated betrothed, as we think of a betrothal. Neither of them
now are exactly the same, as our word engaged in our culture
or society. Paul likely has in mind an image
from the Eastern custom and style of betrothal, when a father or
parents betroth their daughter to a man to be married unto him,
to become the wife of a man. that then and there was it binding. And after a determined time,
the groom came, took his bride to the house that he had prepared
for her, and the marriage was consummated. And some think that
the vows or the pledges were made not at the actual coming
together, but at the espousal, then and there were the vows
made and said. And in this sense, the betrothal
or the espousal was binding. It was very, very binding. From that time on, the maid or
the woman was bounded by the betrothal. She was not in any
wise to go from that and be another man's betrothed or become the
wife of another man. She was to keep herself only
and keep herself pure for the one to whom she was espoused
or betrothed. And Paul, using that metaphor,
picking up on that metaphor, the apostle says this to them,
I have espoused you I have betrothed you unto Christ." Now, his ministry,
his preaching among them, the aim of Paul's ministry as a preacher
of the gospel, was to bring them to a full saving knowledge of
that great salvation which is in Jesus Christ, and then, of
course, to lead sinners to give themselves up to him and cleave
only unto Christ and unto none other, and forsake all other
gods, and forsake all other ways of religion, and to keep themselves
from what we might call religious fornication. For Paul says, I
have espoused you to one husband, and that one husband is Christ,
Christ Jesus the Lord. Paul said, My aim, my intention,
my intent is to present you to Christ as a pure virgin. Chaste, 1 Corinthians 4, 15,
I have begotten you as if you were a father unto them in the
Lord. Now, of course, this speaks of
spiritual unity, purity, and virginity. John Owen said that
there are three things wherein this chastity consists that Paul
is talking about this morning. A. Not taking anything. into their hearts and their affection,
which is contrary to Jesus Christ, and in all things to endeavor
to keep their affections chaste and loyal unto the Savior, Jesus
Christ the Lord. And then B, to walk in the Holy
Spirit which Christ has secured and has sent forth into their
hearts for their sanctification, for their comfort, and for their
assurance as they live unto Him. And then C, in keeping his institutions
of worship as Christ has appointed them. Horace Owen, John Owen
the Puritan, wrote, the breach of this he calls adultery and
fornication. That is spiritual. For they that
are Christ do care to keep their hearts only in the way of instituted
biblical worship ordained by the Lord. Then look at verse
3 in our text. The apostle expresses a fear
that is a part of the source of his jealousy. And we see the
flow of thought here as we look. I am jealous. I have espoused
you to one husband, and I fear I have espoused you to Christ,
but I have this fear that you may or will be seduced from your
singleness of mind toward the Lord Jesus Christ." Now, to illustrate. when a man's jealousy rises to
its highest. When is that? When is it that
a man's jealousy is likely to rise and reach its highest pitch? Well, I think it consists in
two things, and we're talking personal and fleshly now. It
consists in two things. Number one, when another man
pays court unto his wife. When another man does that, when
another man heaps attention upon her, designed to win her favor,
we would call it flirting, becoming too familiar, acting as a suitor. flattering her, laughs and teases
and touches and such as that. That's number one. Number two,
the jealousy intensifies when and if she responds unto those
advances and flirts back. When she is flattered, she does
not rebuff. but is open and receptive to
the un-attention and becomes welcome and delights in that
which is being heaped upon her by another man to whom she is
not a spouse or is not a wife. Of course, the situation could
be reversed. It could be the man and the woman
reversed. And it seemed that both aspects
were in play in the church at Corinth. Number one, it is clear,
seducers had come among them, and they had begun to ingratiate
themselves unto those that were members and worshipers at Corinth,
meaning that they sought to gain the favor of those Corinthians
by a deliberate effort on their part and promise them a better
way of worship, promise them more knowledge and a more enlightened
way. Let's consider something which
Paul wrote in Galatians 4 and verse 17 concerning those who
oppose his gospel. He said this, quote, they zealously
affect you, but not well. Yea, they would exclude you that
you might affect them, unquote. Lightfoot has it this way. They
take court unto you. The same word affect is also
translated moved with envy. in Acts 7 and 9. It is translated
covet earnestly in 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 31. Desire to hell is its translation
in James 4 and verse 2. So the word is translated covet
and desire. The idea seems to be they eagerly
seek you or they court you, and that not in a commendable way,
because their aim is to shut you out or cut you off from us
so that they will seek or court them. The seducers were at work
among them in the church of Galatia, but secondly, as in our a metaphor
a while ago, the Corinthians, at least some of them, were responding
favorably to the seducers, giving them an ear, listening unto them. And this added to Paul's jealousy. Not only were the seducers paying
court to his people that he had ministered to, but they were
in turn paying court back unto them. And it caused the apostle
to express a spiritual concern for their stability. Look what
he says. I fear, says the apostle, I fear
lest you be deceived and so forth. He also told the Galatians much
the same thing. Galatians 4 and 11. I am afraid
of you. I fear lest in vain I have labored
among you." Telling them again in Galatians 4 and 20, I stand
in doubt of you. After all my preaching of the
gospel to you, I now stand in doubt. And that word doubt is
translated perplexed in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 8, as if to say,
I am perplexed. I am at a loss as to how to deal
with you on your desire and determination to be under the law. So what
does he do? He gives them that great, great
allegory in Galatians 4, 21 through verse 29. But again, in the third
verse of our text, in 2 Corinthians 11, and the gist of it is this,
I fear that your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ. And to emphasize the reality
and also the danger and the consequences of this deception, Paul uses
the arch example of Satan's deceiving and beguiling our mother Eve
in the garden. deceived her when her mind was
not yet fallen under the power of depravity. The serpent and
the tentative completely deceived her in the garden. Down in verse
13 through 15 of our chapter this morning, He reminds them
how artful at deception that Satan and his ministers are,
transforming themselves into ministers of righteousness, putting
on a cloak as if they were righteous men attending righteousness that
had come among them. Now, I call your attention now
to the fourth verse of our text. And it is the most complicated,
I believe, at least to me, in the passage and in the text.
at the beginning of verse 4 ties it in some way to verse 3 and
what has gone before. I fear your minds should be corrupted,
for if one comes proclaiming another Jesus whom we did not
preach, and if you receive another spirit which you have not received,
and if you receive another gospel which you have not received,
and we have not preached, then you might well bear with." And
you notice, at least in the King James Version, that the word
him is italicized and is not or was not in the Greek. And
herein is some of the difficulty of the verse before us. Four,
is Paul speaking of them bearing with him or bearing with a heretic. Is this his fear? There are two
views of these words, probably many more, but some see Paul
as saying, if one comes preaching a better Christ and a better
gospel, or if you do have a better such, but this is not a concession
that Paul would make. Paul would not concede that there
is a better gospel or a better Christ. There is none better
than Christ or the gospel. To Paul, there is one Christ
and one gospel only. As he tells the Galatians, chapter
1, verse 6 through verse 12, there is no other gospel than
the one that he had received by revelation, and not even if
an angel from heaven. or I or any other man preach
another gospel than that which you perceive, Paul calls down
a curse." upon the head of that one. There is an interesting
contrast in Galatians 1, verse 6 and verse 7 concerning the
two words, another, which are two different words in the Greek. Those two words, another, are
from a different word in the Greek. And especially since the
word, another gospel, in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 4, And another gospel
in Galatians chapter 1 and verse 6 are the same. Now the word
means one alike or of the same kind. That's one meaning. The second meaning of a word,
a different kind altogether. It would be like our word homo
and heteros. One of the same kind, one of
a different kind. And the false teachers preached
another. They preached a different gospel
than what Paul preached. It was not the same gospel at
all. It was not the same one that
he had brought among them and that they had believed. and had
had their minds directed toward the Lord Jesus Christ, then something
else. It was not Christ set forth more
forcefully. It was not the gospel preached
with more power or with more clarity. It was not salvation
set forth more spiritually. In fact, says Paul, it is not
the gospel at all. It is a perversion of the gospel. We know there cannot be two gospels. And since it is not the same
with Paul, then it is not the gospel at all. It is not one
of two gospels that are available, for there is one gospel. The
minute, for example, that the law is made a part of salvation,
it ceases to be the gospel of the grace of God and of salvation. The very minute that works of
any kind are added, it ceases to be grace. There are a lot
of people today who call themselves full gospel, who I think have
no gospel at all. I've used the analogy before
of a bucket of clear, absolutely pure, as white as can be, bucket
of paint, as white as possible. And then a few drops of black
paint or dark paint is dropped within it, and it is tinted,
it is stained, it is no longer absolutely pure and white. So there are some, says Paul,
that would trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. What Thomas Goodwin called deforming
and perverting of the true Christ into another, unquote. Preaching
another Jesus. Preaching a counterfeit gospel. To misrepresent and badly to
form the person and the work of Jesus Christ our Lord until,
as Goodwin said, I've never seen anybody say this before, until,
as Goodwin said, quote, they have the devil's Jesus instead
of God's Jesus, unquote. And no wonder For the devil and
his ministry have a special enmity against the truth and against
the Lord Jesus Christ. We live in a day of two phenomenons
that are all about us. Number one, we are fast approaching
a Christless Christianity. Hear that. We are fast approaching
a Christless Christianity. Secondly, we are fast approaching
and well into a gospel-less Christianity. A Christianity with no Christ
and a Christianity with no gospel. Many places it is already the
case. It is Christless in every place. where the full depravity of the
race is denied, where any deny the need of the removing or appeasing
of the wrath of God in order for a sinner to be saved. It
is gospeless where Christ is not preached as crucified for
the express purpose of bearing sin and saving sinners. and wherever he is not preached
as a definite Savior of the elect, that his death procures salvation,
that it actually saves those for whom Christ gave himself
in death. upon the shameful cross of Calvary. Much of the emphasis has shifted
away from the message of Christ. That's why I call it a Christless
Christianity in the gospel. It has shifted away from Christ
and from the gospel to a gospel of prosperity is now being preached
and heralded throughout the land. The good news, says the preacher
of the prosperity gospel, is God wants you to prosper. God wants you to live in a fine
house. God wants you to have a fine
job. God wants you to drive a fine
car and your best life now. He wants you to live the purpose-driven
life. We hear them say, if God's got
it, you can have it. Be all that you can be. Name it and claim it. If you
don't have it, it is because you have not properly exercised
your rights as a child or children of God. God wants to give it. He's just waiting on you to ask
it or to demand it in faith. One of the great scourges, I
believe, upon present-day Christianity, one of the great disgraces, are
the so-called mega-churches today in Christianity, with 10,000
members and even more, with a slick snake oil salesman who stands
in the pulpit and acts as a glorified cheerleader to those people gathered. And with his thousand-dollar
suit, most preachers like that are rich, fat cats, and yet people
keep pouring money into their coffers Fleecing the sheep under
the promise, give to promote me and you'll get yours. Give
to help me and I'll be rich. I'll buy me a ranch and I'll
buy me a private jet and you'll get yours too. And God pity the
deluded souls that are caught up in such a philosophy as that. We've come to the day, Christ-less,
gospel-less, we have come to the day when some preachers Many
preachers would recommend a troubled soul to a psychiatrist rather
than unto Jesus the Lord. They'd recommend rehab over repentance,
and total depravity is the forgotten doctrine. It is buried under
the rubble of free will humanism, and one can scarcely be right
on other things who errs at the doctrine of human depravity. Speaking of another Jesus, Armenians
in a sense have another Jesus, one that might have sinned. You
go out among Armenians, you will find many. who believed that
our Lord was capable of sinning, that it was possible for our
Lord to sin here in the flesh. This being the case, they are
ignorant of the person of Christ, of the hypostatic union, that
He was very God and very man. And they preach a Jesus who is
powerful, powerless and helpless to save, apart from the sinner's
cooperation with Him. And Jesus who loves all, only
to see so many of them perish in their sin in the lake of fire. Let's look at the cults for a
moment. You'll see another Jesus all
together. Consider the other cults, or
rather the other Jesus of the cults today. I'll just look at
some of them and their immediate view of the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, Jehovah's Witnesses. What do they think of Christ?
What is their doctrine of Christ? They deny the eternality and
they deny the deity of the Son, teaching that Jesus was a created
being, that he had a beginning and is not equal with the Father,
but was less than the Father God. That's their other Jesus. And what of the Jesus of Mormonism? Was he one and the same with
that Jesus that Paul preached? I must tell you something about
them, and that is that they hide the bad parts of their doctrine
and teaching until they get their hooks into someone, and then
they tell them all. They are polytheists. and Brigham
Young denied that the child Jesus was begotten by the Holy Spirit,
but by, quote, the same character that was in the Garden of Eden,
unquote. Young declared Jesus a polygamist,
that Mary and Martha and Magdalene and the sisters of Lazarus were
taken by the Lord as his brides or wives at the marriage in Cana."
The Christ of Christian science, as I understand it. They distinguish
between Jesus and Christ, making them two separate in this way. That Jesus is the human man and
Christ is a divine idea. And the man Jesus was not Christ. Anthony Hokema, in his book on
Christian Science, writes that Mary Baker Glover Eddy Patterson,
the founder of the cult, taught that Jesus was fallible and deceptive
and in error on certain points. And she even wrote, it would
make no difference to her if Jesus Christ had never, never
come into the world. Thus, what many bring is another
Jesus, not the Jesus of the Scripture, not the divine, eternal, impeccable,
virgin-born Son of God. but a corrupted, perversioned
person and work of Christ, and that perverts the gospel as well. Christianity has been perverted
by so many. What is passed off as the gospel
is in fact a Faster gospel, if I may use that expression, and
you understand it. In other words, it is illegitimate. It is not sent from God. Those
who preach such are transformed into ministers or angels of righteousness
and are dangerous to the churches, and many are deceived and drawn
in under their spell. Now, closing with a word of the
Lord. On one occasion, Jesus said,
I am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not. If another
come in his own name, him you will receive." John 5 and verse
43. People prefer a counterfeit to
the real and a lie to the truth. in our day, so great is the deception. Now we understand, Paul says,
I'm jealous over you. For I have presented you, I have
espoused you, I have betrothed you to Christ as a pure, holy
virgin, not to be seduced away.