Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us today for this message. I'll be preaching
from the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, if you'd like to
follow along in your Bibles. And the title of the message
is The Simple Truth. The Simple Truth, from 2 Corinthians,
chapter 11. Now, I've often said to people
concerning the ministry of the gospel, that when it comes to
preaching the gospel, it's a very simple message. Now, I caution
you when you hear that because I want you to understand that
a lot of things that are being preached today as gospel, have
been oversimplified to formulas and sayings and repeat this after
me, step one, step two, repeat this prayer and all that. And that's not what I'm talking
about when I say the gospel is a simple message. What I mean
by that is it's a singular message. And that singular message is
that which emphasizes that all of salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. who is none other than the Messiah,
God in human flesh without sin, and who accomplished the redemption
of his people through his death on the cross, wherein he established
righteousness for his people. The ground of salvation is the
righteousness of Jesus Christ, freely imputed, charged, accounted
to his people. And whereupon by the power of
the Holy Spirit, they receive him by faith. And it's a simple
message, and I preach it over and over again. This is an evangelistic
program. I mentioned last week and on
several other occasions that the Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
this program is called Reign of Grace, but it's an outreach,
evangelistic ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia, where I pastor, and I've often People tell me, say,
well, tell people, you know, to come to church, you know,
visit us at our church service. We, on Sunday morning, we have
a 10 o'clock Bible study and 11 o'clock we have a main worship
service. And we certainly do invite you
to attend those services, visit with us. We'd love to meet you
and get to know you and love to have you there with us. And
also we offer those services on live streaming, if you have
a computer, at 10 o'clock on Sunday morning and at 11 o'clock,
following this program. So this program comes on at nine
o'clock. Well, following this at 10 o'clock on the computer,
go to our website or go to a page called Sermon Audio and look
up Eager Avenue Grace Church or Reign of Grace Ministries,
either one, and you can follow the services. But we preach the
gospel. We preach the simple gospel.
So the gospel is a simple message. The Bible, however, when you
look at the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, is not a simple
book. It takes some effort, it takes
some time, and mainly it takes the revelation of the Spirit
of God. to help us to understand and to discern the scripture,
rightly divide the scripture. So it takes some time and I do
that as I go through the scriptures. Here's one passage, 2 Corinthians
chapter 11. The apostle Paul had been dealing
with the church in Corinth concerning false preachers who had crept
into the church. And false preachers and false
prophets, one thing they do when they come under the guise of
Christianity and preaching the gospel. They always, they'll
deny essential truth. They will ignore essential truth. They will complicate essential
truth. They'll corrupt it. And some
are more subtle than others. There are some who call themselves
Christians that true believers have no difficulty in exposing,
but there are others who come closer And Christ talked about
that in the last days. He said, some will be even so
close that if it were possible, they could deceive the very elect.
He spoke that in Matthew chapter 24 and Mark 13. If it were possible,
but thank God it's not possible for the elect of God, those whom
God chose before the foundation of the world and gave to Christ,
to be ultimately and finally deceived. They can be deceived
for a while. I was deceived in false religion,
calling myself a Christian for years before I really heard the
true gospel. And that's what Paul's talking
about here. These Corinthians who had heard the gospel from
Paul, their minds were being corrupted away from the true
gospel. And here's what Paul writes.
This is 2 Corinthians 11, verse two. He says, for I am jealous
over you with godly jealousy. And that jealousy there is a
good jealousy. A lot of times jealousy is nothing
more than envy or selfishness, but this is a good jealousy.
I don't want you to be drawn away from Christ. He says, for
I have espoused you to one husband. Now who's the husband there?
He says, well, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. The church, the true church,
is the bride of Christ. Christ is the husband. Over in
the book of Romans chapter seven, he talked about how believers
who are brought into the kingdom in the new birth by the power
of the Holy Spirit are married to Jesus Christ. not married
to the law, not married to the hierarchy, not married to the
church, they're married to Christ. They're married to Christ, they're
united to Christ. In the book of Revelation, the
church is presented as the bride of Christ wearing the white wedding
garment. What is that white wedding garment?
That's the righteous robe that Christ by His work, His obedience
unto death, His merits made for His bride and put on them. It's
what the scripture tells us is the righteousness of God which
is imputed. That means accounted, charged
to His bride and put on them. And the bride Each individual
member of the church, when they're brought to faith in Christ, another
way of saying that is they put on Christ. They put on his righteousness. Now, Christ is the one who put
it on, but by faith, they receive him. And so that's what he means. I wanna present you as a chaste
virgin. What is that chaste virgin? It's
a pure bride. Now, how can you talk about the
members of his bride being pure and chaste virgins when they're
sinners. Well, only as they stand in Christ,
washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness. That's
the only way that we who are saved can claim purity and virginity,
that spiritual virginity. But look at verse three. He says,
but I fear less by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety. Remember Satan beguiled Eve through
his subtlety. Remember what he did, Genesis
three, half God said, half God said. He brought planted the
seed of doubt concerning the truth of God's word. And then
he just openly denied what God said. God told Adam and Eve in
the day that you eat thereof of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, you shall surely die. What was Satan's message? You shall not surely die. Satan
told a lie. That's what false preachers do
to people who are not truly trusting Christ. Oh, you're okay. You're doing well enough. You
know, don't listen to that guy. He just, you know, he just talking
about some other things, but no, no, no. If you're not trusting
Christ, you shall surely die. You need to trust him. So he
says through his subtlety. Verse three, so your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. The simple
truth. Now, what does that word simplicity
mean? Well, it doesn't mean, and listen
to me, the gospel is a simple message. It's so simple that
even a child can understand it, but don't reduce it to just religious
formulas of sayings, of what I call bumper sticker religion.
That's not the way the gospel is to be presented. It's a message.
And it's a message. First of all, we need to understand
this, that no one by nature, child, teenager, young person,
old person, by nature, can understand it savingly. No one. That's why
the Bible says over here in 1 Corinthians 2, Look at verse 14. He says, but the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Now, what is the
natural man? A lot of times when we read the
scripture, we look at terms like that and we have a tendency to
put that off onto other people whom we think fit this description. For example, what do you think
of when you think of the natural man? What does Paul, what do
you think? Well, some people say, well,
that's got to be those worldlings, or those people who don't go
to church, or those people who haven't made a profession of
faith, who have never been baptized, who've never joined the church,
or the most immoral people. Well, here's what we need to
be concerned with. What does Paul mean? What does
the Holy Spirit intend to mean by the natural man here? Well,
the natural man, now listen to me, the natural man refers to
all of us by nature as we are born as fallen, sinful, spiritually
dead creatures, human beings. In other words, before I was
born again by the Spirit, what was I? I was a natural man. I was religious. Maybe you were
too. Maybe you are now. Dedicated
and sincere. Saul of Tarsus was a religious
man. He was part of the moral majority
in Israel. But before he was converted by
the Holy Spirit, born again by the Holy Spirit on the Damascus
Road, what was he? He was the natural man. The Bible
says that even God's elect have to be quickened by the Spirit.
That means made alive spiritually. You must be born again. And up
until the time we're born again, we are by nature children of
wrath, even as others. No difference. between the unbeliever
and those who come to faith before they come to faith. As far as
spiritual life, there may be other differences, culture, morality,
religion, but as far as salvation goes, no difference. The natural
man includes all of us by nature as fallen in Adam. We fell in
Adam. Ruined by the fall when Adam
fell he as the representative of the whole human race He brought
the whole fat human family into sin and death for as by one man
sin entered in the world and death by sin for that death passed
upon all men for that all sin all have sinned and That's what
happened. We fell in and as a result were
born dead in trespasses and sins. We have physical life and but
we have no righteousness before God. We can't work righteousness
with God and we don't desire righteousness God's way. So he
says, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. That's why Christ said you must be born again or you
cannot see or enter the kingdom of heaven. He says, for they
are foolishness unto him. The things of the Spirit of God
are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them because
they're spiritually discerned. Now what is foolishness to the
natural man? Well, he tells us up here in
verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 2. He says, now we have received
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God.
Now he's talking about believers there. And he says that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God. That's what
the natural man does not understand. What things are freely, unconditionally,
without a cause, given us of God? Well, here's the answer
to that. All of salvation, all of its
blessings, all of its rewards, its reward, rather, are given
to God's people freely, unconditionally, without a cause, by Jesus Christ. The simple message. Christ is
my whole salvation. He's all my redemption. He's all my sanctification. He's all my righteousness. He's all my wisdom. You see that? The forgiveness of my sins, it's
all by the blood of Christ. None of it is conditioned on
me. None of it is given to me by God because I did something
for Him. That's the single message. Jesus
Christ and Him crucified and raised from the dead. That's
my whole salvation. He's my whole salvation. I stand
before God justified not guilty, righteous in God's sight. Based
on what? Something that I did? No. Something
that God enabled me to do? No. It's totally by what Christ
accomplished on Calvary as my surety, as my substitute. He is the Lord my righteousness. My sin was imputed, charged to
Him and He was made guilty. He went under the wrath of Almighty
God as my surety, having my debt charged to his account. And he
suffered, he bled. He died, and in doing that, He
drank damnation on my behalf, totally dry. He paid my debt
in full. He satisfied the justice of God. In my place, He made an end of
sin. He finished the transgression,
and He brought forth an everlasting righteousness, which God has
imputed, charged, accounted to me. He took my demerit. of all my sin, and gave me His
merit of all His righteousness. For God made Him to be sin, Christ
who knew no sin, for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. It's all in Him. So the forgiveness
of my sins is by His blood alone. My tears of repentance do not
wash away my sins. Christ's blood does, and if you
ever see that, you'll repent. His righteousness alone, that's
the single message. That's what that, the simplicity
that is in Christ, it means a singularity. I have one, somebody said, you
just preach the same thing over and over again. That's right,
basically. I preach the scriptures, I deal
with other subjects. But listen, over here in 1 Corinthians
2 again. Listen to what the apostle Paul
says. Here's the simple message, the simple truth. He says in
first Corinthians chapter two in verse one, He said, and I,
brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech
or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. What
he's saying there is, he said, I didn't come interjecting human
philosophies, human religion, human reasoning, human turns
of phrases and things like that. I just simply put it out to you,
here's what God says. And that's what I try to do every
week on this program. This is what God says. I hope
and pray that you believe it. I know that if you do, that's
the power of God. It wasn't the power of your goodness.
It wasn't the power of your free will. It was God changed your
will. I know that. That's what this book says. If
you believe the gospel, that means you've been born again
by the Holy Spirit. You say, well, then if it's not
up to me and not about me, then I don't have to do anything.
You seek the Lord. You don't live in the realm of
God. You're not God. And I'm not. And we just do what
the Bible says. The revealed things belong to
us. The secret things belong to God. But this is what he's
saying. I'm just telling you what God
says. Now, you may not like it. And you may disagree with it.
But that's not the issue. I hope and pray that you do like
it and you do agree with it. But if you don't, I'm still going
to tell you the testimony of God. I'm not going to water it
down. I'm not going to philosophize it. I'm not going to use beautiful
language to cover it. I'm just gonna tell you what
God says, and here's what He says in verse two. Now here's
the simple truth, listen to it. For I determined not to know
anything among you save or except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, Paul said I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus Christ, who He is. God
in human flesh, the God-man, the Word-made flesh, Emmanuel,
God with us. He is God and man in one person. He's the Savior. He's the Messiah. He's our prophet, our priest,
our king. He's the surety of His people. He substituted Himself in their
place. He's the Lamb of God. And we
could go through the Scripture describing Him. Oh, the Lion
of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb that was slain. for the sins
of his sheep, the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep.
And that's what he means him crucified. Jesus Christ, not
only who he is, but what he accomplished on Calvary. What did Jesus Christ
accomplish on Calvary's cross? Did he just bring a possibility
of salvation? No, he saved his people from
their sins. His death secures and ensures
and even demands the salvation of all for whom he died. You
say, well, how do I know if he died for me? Do you believe?
Do you rest in him? And he was raised from the dead
for the justification of his people. Righteousness was established.
Now what's Paul saying there when he says, I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Well, here's the simple truth. Here's the single truth. It's
all about Christ. It's all about Him who He is.
It's all about what He accomplished on Calvary. It's not about you.
It's not about me. It's not about our felt needs.
It's not how we can feel good. It's about Christ. And anything
that applies to me as a saved sinner by way of blessing, by
way of commandment, by way of assurance, by way of growing
in grace and knowledge, by way of worship, service, love, which
all things that we preach need to promote, anything that's about
me always will redound to the honor and glory of Jesus Christ
and not me. That's what he's saying. There's
the simple truth. Salvation and all of its blessings. and all that true believers experience,
it's all founded upon, grounded upon Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It all centers around Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And it is all aimed toward the
glory of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You see, that's why
on this program, I'm not here to brag on me. I'm not here to
brag on our church. I'm not here to brag on you.
I'm here to brag on Christ. God forbid, that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything is unto
Him and about Him. Christ is the foundation of the
church. Christ is the heart of the church.
Christ is the head of the church. Now, because He is the foundation,
the heart and the head of the church, all who believe the gospel
are so blessed of God It ought to bring us together in Christian
love, in obedience and service, motivated by grace and love and
gratitude. It ought to make us fellow helpers
with each other. All of those things that we are
to do in order to be Christian, in order to evidence Christianity,
it's all about Christ. It's all about His glory. It's
all about His preeminence. So that any subject I'm talking
about, whether I'm talking about worship, service, love, giving,
anything, it's all about Jesus Christ and Him crucified, who
gave Himself for His people. And I don't want Paul saying
to the Corinthian church back here in 2 Corinthians 11, 3,
I don't want your mind to be corrupted from that single simple
truth. I don't want you to promote anything
that would promote self-righteousness, selfishness, self-glory, because
that's where you have the fightings and where you have the hatred
and where you have the division. The glue that holds God's people
together is that simplicity that's in Christ. That simple message
of how God justifies the ungodly through the blood and the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. How it's all of grace. You see,
I don't have anything to look to myself and to exalt myself. I'm a sinner saved by grace.
I don't have anything to look down upon you as far as a right
relationship with God is concerned. Because my friend, if you have
a right relationship with God, it's not due to your works, or
your efforts, or your goodness. You don't have any, I don't have
any, or your will. It's due to God's goodness, God's
grace, God's will, His sovereign will. God determines these things
and He's determined that everything that He has for a sinner in salvation,
in mercy, in grace, and in love is found in Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. That single message. And outside
of Jesus Christ, outside of His perfect work of substitution
on the cross of Calvary, outside of His blood and His righteousness,
there's nothing good from God for a sinner, ultimately. That
doesn't mean a person cannot receive some good things, but
they'll end up being a curse. God is for His people in Christ
Jesus. That's the simple truth. And
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather, is risen again and
is seated at the right hand of the Father, which is in heaven.
You see, this is the simple truth. You say, well, you keep saying
it over and over again. Well, we need to hear it over
and over again. We're not hearing it enough today. We're hearing
a lot of preaching. We're hearing a lot of moral
pep talks. We're hearing a lot of self-help things. That's false
gospels. Look to Jesus Christ, stay with
Jesus Christ, and continue to honor Him. That's the simple
message. Paul said, I don't want your
mind to be corrupted. It's my prayer that God will
bring you to see that and that He will keep me seeing that.
That's the issue of the gospel. That's the simple message. God
saves sinners by His grace through Jesus Christ alone. I hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.