Good evening. Let's all turn
to the book of First Peter, chapter five. The elders which are among you,
I exhort who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.
Feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight
thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre,
but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage,
but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the
proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour. Whom resists steadfast in the
faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all
grace, who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. By Sylvanus, a faithful
brother unto you, as I suppose I have written briefly, exhorting
and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein you
stand. The church that is at Babylon,
elected together with you, saluteth you, and so doth Marcus, my son,
greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you
all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Oh, our kind and gracious and
merciful Heavenly Father, we join our hearts together tonight
as one. Lifting up the praise of our
hearts to thee. For your great goodness and mercy
to us in Christ Jesus, our Savior, our blessed Redeemer. May we learn of him tonight. Be taught of him. And taught
by him. as the word is preached. We ask you, Lord, that you'd
empty us of self and fill us with the knowledge of Him. Fill
our thoughts and our hearts and our minds with Him. And cause us, Lord, to, as we're
admonished in the scripture we just read, to cast all our care
upon Him. For He cares for us. and knowing that he cares for
us all as well. Though there is trouble on every
side, yet if you care for us all as well, we find peace and
rest and comfort. Oh Lord, enable us to cast all
our care upon Christ our Redeemer. Come and provide for us make a way for us, teach us,
guide us, keep us, keep us believing, keep us trusting, keep us clinging. We cannot do any of these things
in our own strength. We look to you to provide for
us and enable us to to believe,
to trust, to the saving of our soul for all eternity. Lord,
you're worthy of our trust and our confidence. And we cannot
trust you too much. We cannot lean on you too hard.
And we do. Oh, we need you. We need your salvation. We need
your keeping and saving grace. We need you to come and speak
to those that we love, our children and our grandchildren, and we
lift them up before you. Save thy people in this place,
those that are here tonight. Lord, speak to their hearts in
power. Show them Christ as their only
hope. Send them trouble that they'll
call out and cry for mercy. Nothing else matters, Lord. If
a man doesn't know Christ, nothing else matters. Be with our speaker
as he speaks to us tonight, Brother Bob, a faithful preacher all
these years. We love him and we pray for him
as he stands before us. Thank you, Lord, for bringing
us together, giving us a heart to be here, desire to be here
and gather with your people. Help us to love one another and
esteem one another more than ourselves. Cause us to be truly
humble. From a truly humble heart. For you have said you resist
the proud and give grace to the humble. Thank you for all things. Once again, bring honor to yourself
in this service, we pray in Christ's name, amen. Good evening. Turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians
chapter 11. Thank you for your kindness to
Rebecca and I. We've enjoyed being here. been a blessing to us. Second Corinthians chapter 11. You know, the apostle Paul who
wrote this, he had experienced a lot of things. If you look here in second Corinthians
11 verse three, he begins But I fear, but I fear. Now, no doubt Paul had experienced
some fearful things. He'd been thrown off his horse
on his face in the dirt. He'd been made blind for days. God took him to the third heaven,
wherever that is. He found out his highfalutin
education wasn't worth the diploma it was printed on. Paul found himself suddenly in
the hands and at the mercy of the God whose followers, whose
children he was setting about to persecute and kill. Boy, that'd
be fearful, wouldn't it? You're trying to kill a man's
children and all of a sudden you find out he's got you by
the scruff of the neck. So when we read here in verse
three, that Paul says, but I fear, maybe we ought to pay attention
to what he's afraid of, what's caused him to fear. We might
be very wise to see what that is, to pay attention. Because
if something alarmed Paul, maybe I ought to be alarmed too. Now, look at the next part of
this verse. It says, Paul says, but I fear,
lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
so your minds should be corrupted. Paul here has a godly fear or
concern for some of these believers in Corinth. And he's written
this letter to them and said, I'm afraid. I'm afraid. that your minds have been corrupted. Now that tells us some important
things. Number one is that these were
believers he was writing to, and what he wrote them was, I'm
afraid your mind has been corrupted. So what that tells us is that
the mind of a believer can be corrupted. I didn't know that
before I paid attention to this, did y'all? I never thought about
my mind could be corrupted. That's what it says here. So
I looked up the word corrupted. Now, you know what it means?
It means shriveled or withered. Aren't you glad it doesn't use
a different word there that Paul didn't write him and say, well,
I'm afraid your mind's been destroyed. God doesn't destroy the mind
of his people. Aren't you glad it doesn't say, your mind's been
forsaken. I've had enough of you and your
sin. Oh, I'm glad it doesn't say that. It doesn't say that your mind, it's been condemned. It's been damned. Oh, I'm glad
it doesn't say that. What this means, Paul was writing
to him and he said, I'm afraid. that your mind's not working
right. Your mind's not working correctly.
It's not at full capacity as it should be. It's not processing
information correctly. It's not understanding truth
in its context. It's getting the facts without
getting any revelation from God. It's a terrible thing to have
a diminished mind, a shriveled or a withered mind. Let me tell
you folks, I'm beginning to experience it in real life. I told you I
was going to make an example of you, Herman. We're sitting
back here in the study tonight and Herman gets to tell a little
tale and he says, you know, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, he can't, it
won't come to him. And I know about it, too. I'm
apt to introduce Brother Gary, who I've known I don't know how
many years, and I'm apt to go, and this is my, it's gonna come to us now. It
is gonna come to us. With age, the natural mind begin
to empty itself out. Brother Henry, is he the one
that tells the story about the lady who used to, every time
This preacher'd go see him, she'd end it with, Christ is all. He'd
grin and go on to Pastor Wood. And over time, as he came to
visit her in the home, it got to where she was saying, Christ
is, Christ is. And then after a while, he came
and all she said was, Christ, Christ. Well, that was enough. She remembered enough. Well,
it's a terrible thing and a fearful thing to have a diminished mind
in this natural, ordinary world of information. But I tell you what we ought
to really, really fear is what Paul's warning in these Corinthians
about. He said, I fear that you have
a diminished mind spiritually. and God deliver us and our pastors
from this great evil, a withered spiritual mind. Remember who
Paul is writing to here, to those in Corinth who are believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to us in his word, to all believers,
he's writing this. Let me tell you something that
makes a difference here. Paul's not writing this to unbelievers. Saying, oh, I'm afraid that your
mind is diminished. Because he's talking about the
spiritual mind. You know, the natural man, he
lost his mind in the garden. He doesn't have a mind to be
diminished. He's just out of his mind. Boy,
I tell you, pick up a newspaper or look at the news. on the internet. It doesn't take much to find
plenty of people who are out of their mind, isn't it? It's
a miracle everybody's not doing what's being reported there.
Because natural man's plumb out of his mind. But Paul here's
writing about the spiritual mind. And the unbeliever isn't suffering
from a withered or shriveled spiritual mind. He's got no mind. Genesis says, every imagination
of the thoughts, it's only evil continually. In Adam, we lost
our mind spiritually and the gift of God to all believers,
you know what that is? He said, I'm gonna give you a
new mind and a new heart. What a blessing that is, to have
a new mind and a new heart. And Brother Herman, we won't
always, we won't always, There's coming a time real soon, we'll
remember every name we ever heard, that mattered. And we're going
to know the one name. Christ is all. Christ is. Christ. That's all we need to
know, isn't it? He's the only one we really need
to know. The gift of God to all believers, to all his children
is a new mind and a new heart. One that understands and believes
the truth. a mind that knows Christ and
a heart to love him. Paul says here, I fear that your
mind is being corrupted. Now, how can a believer's mind
be corrupted? That's the next thing that occurred
to me. How's that happen? How's that happen? Well, verse
three, read this next part with me. But I fear less by any means. You see that there? How can your
mind be corrupted? Oh, there's so many ways it's
hard to list them all. It can be by any means. So strong
is that old man in us, that old dead mind. So fragile and weak
is the new mind. Any attack, any temptation, any
situation is apt to corrupt or shrivel and to wither us. So then Paul gives a good example.
the very first means used to corrupt the mind in the Garden
of Eden. You see what he says? But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. So your mind should
be corrupted. As the serpent beguiled Eve.
Turn over to Colossians chapter two. The pattern can be by any means,
by many means. Pattern can be by many means,
but there's only one pattern. He said Eve was beguiled. That
means she was deceived or seduced or enticed. Eve had a much better
mind naturally than many of us have. yet she was beguiled. And it says a lot about our vulnerability. Look here in Colossians 2, Colossians
2 verse 1. For I would that you knew what
great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and
for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their
hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and unto
all riches of the fullness, the full assurance of understanding
to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father
and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. And this I say, lest any man
should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent
in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding
your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. You
see right there what that says? He says, lest any man should
beguile you with enticing words. If your mind's gonna be affected,
it's gonna be by enticing words. Beguiling is usually done by
enticing words. That means clever words, or listen
to this, the twisting of God's word. And it comes with subtlety,
cunning, trickery, craftiness. Listen, if false preachers told
the truth, they wouldn't fool anybody. It doesn't work with
God's people. God's people If they're told
the truth, they recognize it. No believer's mind would ever
be corrupted if the truth were told. Now turn back to Genesis
chapter two, where Paul, where Paul's referring to, and
let's read what God said, and then let's read what Satan said
here. in this beguiling. Subtlety and
error usually take a lot more words than the simple truth.
Let's compare what God said and what Satan said. In Genesis 2
verse 15, here's the sum total of what God told Adam. And the
Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to
dress it and keep it, verse 16. And the Lord God commanded the
man saying of the tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. That's pretty
plain, isn't it? You eat it, you'll die. All these
other trees you can eat, that one you eat, you die. That's
what God said. But now look over Genesis 3 and
let's see what Satan said. I got to read more verses here
because Satan had more to say. In chapter 3, verse 1, now the
serpent was more subtle. There's that word. You see where
Paul got it? The serpent was more subtle than
any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he
said unto the woman, yea, Have God said, you shall not eat of
every tree of the garden. I'm telling you, it's subtle.
Watch it now. And the woman said unto the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden. God
has said, you shall not eat of it. Neither shall you touch it.
Lest you die. I tell you, I don't know where
she got that. Lest you touch it. I don't wear that. God didn't say that. Did he?
You see, adding to or taking away from the word of God, it's
gonna affect your mind. Even the spiritual mind, it'll
affect it. Let's pray God won't have us
do that or our pastors and preachers do that. Look at verse four. And the serpent said unto the
woman, you shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the
day you eat thereof, And then your eyes shall be open, and
you'll be like God. You'll be as God's, knowing good
and evil. Did God ever say any of that?
He never said any of that, did he? In verse 6 and 1, the woman
saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant
to the eyes. How'd she see that? She's watching
Satan and not the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what a withered
man will get you doing. It'll either get you looking
in the mirror, it'll get you looking at Satan, but it won't
be looking at Christ. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof, and did eat, and gave it also to her husband with her,
and he did eat. I tell you, you can't always
believe what you see. How'd she see it was good? I don't know whether Satan ate
it. I don't know what happened. But somehow she got it in her
head. She saw something. God never
mentioned that, did he? That's why sitting, listen to
me here now. This may be the most important
thing I can say to you. That's why sitting under a pastor
who has the mind of Christ is crucial. It's vital. A person's well-being is dependent
upon it. The minds and the hearts of God's
people are dependent on a man preaching the gospel to us. So how did this subtle corruption
of the mind of the Corinthians come about? Well, if you go back
there, let's turn back there again. Turn back to 2 Corinthians 11,
and let's read the last part of verse 3. But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should
be corrupted, now listen to this, from the simplicity that is in
Christ. Let me give you an illustration
about this. And simplicity here doesn't mean simple-minded. It means oneness, singleness. And let me see if I can illustrate
this. The point I'm trying to make
is that if you give somebody 10 choices, it can get tough if they got
just one. That's not so hard, is it? But
let me give you this illustration. Let's say mom's got the kids
coming down for breakfast. And she does this, and I know
this isn't realistic, but go along with me here. She says
to the kids this morning, hi kids, she said this morning,
here's your choices. You can have number one, fried
eggs, bacon, toast, and marmalade. She says number two, you can
have sausage, biscuits, blackberry jam, and scrambled eggs. Or number
three, you can have waffles and syrup and poached eggs and hash
browns. Number four, we got cherries, eggs benedict, and croissants
with honey and butter. Number five, we got granola,
breakfast burritos, taco sauce, and tea. Number six, we got cheese
souffle, Canadian bacon, French crullers with milk. Number seven,
we got cheese omelet, French toast, and maple syrup, orange
juice. Number eight, corned beef hash, soft-boiled eggs, fresh
strawberries, and grapefruit juice. Number nine, bananas foster,
bagels, Denver omelet, fried potatoes, and coffee. Or number
10, we got chocolate chip pancakes, chocolate mousse, cocoa puffs,
and hot chocolate. Is your head hurt? Who would
do that to a child? What preacher would do that to
a child of God? That's complicated, isn't it?
That's confusing. And children ought not be subjected
to that kind of foolishness. Not your children, not God's
children. On the other hand, the children come back down to
breakfast, and mom says, we got oatmeal for breakfast this morning.
One of them says, I don't much care for oatmeal as much as some
other things you make. She says, well, tomorrow morning
we'll have French toast. You get the picture here? Oatmeal's
simple. And apply that to the gospel
of God. Folks who say this kind of thing,
They get up in a pulpit, they get on television or on the radio,
and they say this kind of thing. Salvation is dependent on a person's
obedience to the law and the performing of good works. And
given a tithe, and you got to join the church, and we observe
all the ordinances, and you must be baptized. You got to love
one another, and we're going to pray through on some Thursday
nights. And faithful church attendance.
And you must abstain from alcohol and tobacco, of course. And you
gotta do the best you can at all of that stuff, or at least
all you can do. That's complicated and confusing
too, isn't it? Not to mention simply not true.
Salvation's not in that stuff. But it sounds good. You know
what that is? That's subtle. It sounded good
to Eve, You can eat it and you'll be like God. Sounded good. This wasn't true. Now, am I saying
that Jesus Christ is simple? No, that's not what I'm saying.
He is unfathomable. Eternity won't be long to see
all the facets of that gem. You can turn it every time you
think, I've seen all those, oh, there's another facet over here.
Oh, and there's more and more and more. He's not simple in
that way. He's glorious. He's altogether
lovely. He's holy. He's righteous. He's
undefiled. He's man and God. And we can
go on and on and on with that. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
simple in his majesty or his being. No. His command. is simple and it's singular. You know what
it is? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. The little children understand
that here tonight. Believe on Christ and you'll
be saved. That's simple and it's singular
and it's all Christ. The simplicity Listen real carefully,
I'm gonna make two statements here. The simplicity of the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he came here and lived 33 years. The simplicity of the life of
Christ is this, you kids will understand this, you listen to
me here. You know what he did? He always did the right thing. That doesn't sound much like
me. Sound like you kids, you always do the right thing? You
always do what your parents tell you? Never do anything you shouldn't,
right? Yeah, he always did the right thing. It's pretty simple,
isn't it? And that's why we say he's righteous,
he's holy, he's perfect. Here's the second thing, the
simplicity of the death of Jesus Christ, the simplicity of his
life is he always did the right thing. The simplicity of his
death is that he didn't do anything worthy of death, but he died
anyway. For all the sin of all of God's
children, they therefore have no sin. That's pretty clear and
simple, isn't it? That's why he lived and that's
why he died. That's simple enough for all of us to understand.
And the good and simple message of the gospel of God is this.
Christ Jesus put away the sin of his people. Christ Jesus gave
his people his righteousness. And you know what that means?
They're saved. They're saved. That's pretty clear and plain,
and that's the simplicity, the singularness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And don't let anyone by any means
beguile or corrupt your mind and tell you something else.
It's not true. How do we best do that? How do
we protect our mind? Well, I'll give you another illustration. I'm not trying to pick on all
us old folks, but it's so easy, I am one. I know what I'm talking
about here. Y'all see these internet ads
you see on TV? I don't want to turn the TV on
late at night anymore because all it does is tell me I'll take
this pill, I'll take this juice, I ought to get this supplement,
I ought to have a healthy, happy life and live longer and all
that. Y'all see that stuff too? I tell you, part of that's preying
on natural man's fear of dying, which is going to happen no matter
what we take. But they say, take all this stuff so you'll live
longer and be happier and have a more complete life. It'll keep
your mind sharp and healthy and all that stuff. Well, and they
say, do this diet or this exercise or these pills. I've got a question
for you. Is anybody here interested in
a long and healthy spiritual mind? That natural mind, her mind is
just flying away, just flying away so fast. It's going to be
gone soon and my body may even still be here and the mind be
gone. It doesn't matter much. If anybody's
interested in a healthy spiritual mind, I got a simple suggestion. Listen to me. Get on a regular,
steady diet of Christ and Christ alone. Get on that diet. Take that supplement. You say, how do I do that? Get
in this word. Get in this word. Hear the word
preached. Don't let a Wednesday night or
Sunday night go by and not come hear the word. It'll do you good. It'll protect your mind. Seek his face by the word of
prayer. Say, Lord, keep me, keep me from,
keep me from being deceived and keep that subtlety out of my,
don't let it come at me. Protect me, Lord. I tell you
what, he will. Asking you shall receive, that's
worth asking for. That's a simple, a steady diet
of Christ and Christ alone. It's a simple remedy for all
of life's trials and tribulations. We'll be much happier for it
because we're less apt to have our mind corrupted. The word
of God, you know what it's called in the scriptures? It's a shield.
And when Satan comes at you, with that subtlety or however
it comes. He'll protect you with it. His
word is a shield and a buckler. Understand, we don't do anything
so we will be saved. We don't get in the Word, we
don't come here and preach, we don't pray so God will save us. We do that because he has saved
us. People don't do those things. You know why? They're out of
their mind. Who in their right mind wouldn't come to the Lord
Jesus Christ? He's the God of glory come down
in human flesh to save His people. Who wouldn't just run to get
a hold of Him? And once you got a hold of him,
who would let somebody deceive you and try to pry you away and
get all fretted and upset about things? We seek Christ through his word
because he's revealed to us we have been saved. Now, let me
go back just a minute to the breakfast illustration. Who would
ever offer anyone, much less children, all those choices?
Let me make this statement first of all, salvation is not offered
to God's people. No, buddy, he rips open that
chest and he shoves it in there and we got it. Salvation is not
a choice, not our choice, it's his choice. He chose us from
the foundation of the world and he's going to save us. And if
we've got to be hog tied and laid out and surgery and that
new heart go in and have a little, cut it off and put the new mind
in there, if that's what it takes, so be it. But it's not a choice
that we make. It's God's choice. Let me say
that first. But then back to the breakfast filtration. You
know, who would give a child those choices? Let me answer
that for you. Listen, someone who's trying
to impress somebody else with their cooking skills. And you
know what I'd call that person? A culinary Pharisee. And do you know what modern so-called
preachers are? They're Pharisees. They're trying
to give you so many choices that people go, yeah, I can do that. I can give $10 a week. At Christmas
and Easter, I can show up and act like I care. I can sing. Coming out this morning in that
hotel, there was a bunch of people in fancy bow ties and all gussied
up. And they were just going. They
had crosses all over the back of their car. They were going
to sing somewhere. Well, good for them. Good for them. Good for them. It won't count
for a thing in salvation, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, it just won't. Well, you know, if you gave a
kid that choice, all those 10 things I had, how many of them
you think gonna pick anything but the chocolate stuff? And
how good would that be for them, huh? Here, have more chocolate. Let me just pour it over your
head, the sauce. I mean, it just wouldn't do us
any good. Wouldn't do the children any good. And all this false
religion doesn't prosper anybody one bit. The only thing that
does is Christ and Christ alone. The religious person who makes
complicated or confusing or misleading the scriptures of the word of
God. Those who want to argue and fuss and divide, they cannot
possibly have the glory of Christ at heart. Can't be so. Or the welfare of God's people,
they're Pharisees. And Paul was writing to the Corinthians
because he could see it coming. He could see it coming. He said,
oh, don't let these Pharisees come in here and corrupt your
mind. Don't let them do that. You see,
those who would try to persuade God's people that sinful behavior
is acceptable among God's people, they're not telling the truth.
And that's what's going on with the Corinthians. They were trying
to, these fellows came and said, well, you can do that. You can
do that. You can do the other. It's not true. They don't have
the glory of Christ or the good of God's people as their goal. The Lord preserveth the simple. You know what that means? The
one. He preserves the one. You know
who the one is? Everybody who's in Christ. You
want him to preserve you? You want him to preserve your
children and grandchildren? Get them in the one. I don't
mean that we can You know what I mean? We can't get them in
Christ, but we can bring them here, can't we? Where Christ
is preached. Tell you what, the one, he'll
keep us and give us maturity in the gospel, growth in grace,
discernment, wisdom. You know, that doesn't come with
debating the doctrines or debating the mysteries of God. No, no. It comes by the Spirit of God.
When the Word is preached, you know what it does? It comes right
on in and goes right on down. And everybody gets up when it's
done. I don't have to make 15 things
for breakfast the next morning. And I will give you this little
hint. You know, when your kids get
up for breakfast, you know what might be the best thing you can
give them for breakfast? I hadn't planned to say this, but it just
came to me. When mine were little, every
day when they came to breakfast, they heard one verse of scripture
every morning. And I understand that God didn't
save them because we read them a scripture. It sure didn't hurt
them any, though. Anyway, may the Lord protect
our mind from corruption by all and any means, enabling us to
focus all our attention on the one, the simplicity that's in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I'm grateful your pastor
asked me to come. He slipped in the back there.
For a minute, I got real nervous. He's been dear to me for a lot
of years. I'm grateful for your brother,
Donnie. But thank you all for having me. And I pray the Lord
will bless his word. OK. You know what, my heart?