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. The title
of the message today is this, The Simple Truth of God's Word. The Simple Truth of God's Word. And I'm going to be preaching
from the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 11, basically in verse
three, but I'm gonna share some other scripture with you too.
And I wanna remind you if you've listened to the last few programs
or watched them, that this is part of a series of messages
in which I am giving you the rules of biblical interpretation,
how to interpret the Bible. There are rules. You know, so
many people go to the scripture and read the scripture and try
to get meaning out of it willy-nilly without any set plan. But there are rules of interpretation.
It's not just you read it and get what you can out of it and
what it means to you and I'll read it and get what I can, what
it means to me. That's why there's so much confusion,
so many denominations, so much disagreement, so many wild ideas. So much criticism of the Bible.
But the rules, and I've given you, I have eight rules. You
look at different interpreters, and they might have more or less,
but basically they're all the same. But I have eight rules,
and I'm not going to mention all eight again, but I'm going
to go through them. But the first rule that I dealt
with was what I call the rule of Jesus Christ, crucified and
risen from the dead. That's the rule of the gospel,
the rule of grace, which tells us that everything in this Bible
is Christ-centered, and everything is ultimately, it's founded upon
the truth of God's way of salvation by His grace through Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory. And salvation, the gospel, the
gospel is the good news, of how God can be just and justify the
ungodly. How God can be both a righteous
judge as well as a merciful, loving father. And the answer
to that question is in the gospel message of it is by his grace
based on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Which
righteousness is the entire merit of his obedience unto death imputed,
charged, or accounted to his people, and which brings life
to them through the new birth, whereby we receive and believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ and have a personal relationship
with him. So that's the rule of Jesus Christ
crucified and risen from the dead. The second rule that I
dealt with last week was the rule of first mention, where
a truth, especially the gospel truth of salvation by grace,
it's first mentioned, And that concept, that truth never changes
throughout the scripture. And I hope you'll get, if you
haven't heard those messages, I hope you'll get them and watch
them or listen to them. Today, I'm gonna talk about the
third rule of biblical interpretation, how to interpret the Bible. And
it's called the rule of simplicity. The rule of simplicity. That's why I entitled the message,
The Simple Truth of God's Word. Now, a lot of times you'll read
somebody talking about the rule of simplicity and they define
it this way, they define it as this, the simplest explanation
of a text is usually the right one. Now, did you hear that?
The simplest explanation of a text, a verse of scripture, a passage,
is usually the right one. Now, I don't use the rule of
simplicity that way. And the reason that I don't use
it that way is because of what the Bible teaches us about the
natural man. And the natural man, now whenever
the Bible speaks of the natural man, it's talking about all of
us by nature as we are born dead in trespasses and sins. We fell
in Adam, and as a result, and we're guilty of Adam's sin. He was the representative of
the whole human race. We fell in him, and as a result,
we're born spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. And as a
result of that, we come forth from the womb with that human
sinful nature that sins against God. All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. That's the natural man. That's
why Christ said we must be born again in order to see and enter
the kingdom of God. We have to be given spiritual
life from above. That's the powerful, sovereign,
invincible, irresistible work of the Holy Spirit. And when
we're born again, the result of that, the evidence of that
is we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We come to understand
some things in the word of God. But before that, the natural
man, what does it say in 1 Corinthians 2.14? The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. You understand that. He can't
receive them, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually
discerned. And so what that teaches us in
order, and I'm gonna talk about that in the next rule. of interpretation,
which I call the rule of revelation. But in other words, what the
Bible tells me is that apart from a work of the Holy Spirit
giving me spiritual life, which includes spiritual eyes to see
spiritual things and appreciate them and see their glory and
love them, believe them, spiritual ears, all of that, a new heart,
a spirit, apart from the Holy Spirit giving me that, I will
not receive the things that are in this book, the word of God.
I won't receive, see the glorious truths that involve the salvation
of a sinner. So what I'm telling you is this,
when you look at the rule of simplicity, and if somebody says,
well, the simplest explanation of a text is usually the right
one, there may be sometimes that applies, but to the natural man,
what is the simple meaning of the text to him may be wrong.
And the reason is this. Over in John chapter three, listen
to this in John chapter three. This is right after the Lord
told Nicodemus he must be born again. And listen to what he
says in verse 19 of John chapter three. He says, this is the condemnation. that light is coming to the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. Now the light that he speaks
of there is Jesus Christ, who is the light of the world, the
light of his people. But it also translates down to
his word, this is a lamp. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
the psalmist said. This is a light, you see. And
this light shows me things that I must face about myself, but
by nature do not want to face and believe and hear. My deeds
are evil. That's what it says. Their deeds
are evil. Now that's not talking about
the immorality of the world. That is evil. Immorality is evil. When you see a person who's a
lawbreaker, who hates society and the rules of society, that's
evil. But the light here of God's truth
in Christ exposes an evil that I by nature don't see as evil.
What is it? Well, notice who he's talking
to. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a religious man, a moral man, a sincere man. And what he's saying is this
light of Christ, this light of scripture, tells me that my best
efforts to obey God, when aimed at saving myself, or keeping
myself saved or making myself righteous in order to be accepted
with God. Those efforts are evil. Now why
are they evil? Is it because they're immoral?
Not necessarily. Is it because I'm not sincere? No. Why are they evil? I'll tell you why they're evil.
Because they do not glorify God. You see that? They don't glorify
God. They don't exalt God. They exalt me. They glorify man. And God will not share that glory.
They deny the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners and to do so by establishing in His obedience
unto death the only way of righteousness which is Himself and His work
of redemption. You see, Christ, Romans 10, 4,
Christ is the end of the law, the fulfillment, complete perfection,
finishing of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
So that if I'm going about trying to establish my own righteousness
by my works, I'm denying Christ. I'm saying that he died in vain.
That's evil. You see what I'm saying? Now,
how do I know that? I know it because of one thing.
This book says it. God's Word says it. And that's
where I go first with this rule of simplicity. And it says simply
this, simply put, if God says it, it's true. That's the simple
truth of God's Word. I may not feel it, and I certainly
may not know it, Listen to me, I may not even agree with it.
It may make me angry. Listen, I remember when I first
began to study the Bible, my purpose was to prove it wrong
and there was a lot of things in here that I read that I didn't
think was in here and they made me angry. But you know what? My disagreement, my ignorance,
and my anger did not change the fact that they were here. God
says it. It's true. I remember years ago,
I was driving through a particular town, and I saw on the sign,
the marquee of a particular church, this saying. It says, God said
it. I believe it. That settles it. And I thought to myself then,
I said, no, that's not right. God said it, that settles it. You see, whether I believe it
or not, it's true. And that's what I mean by the rule of simplicity.
If it's in this book, it's true. Now, I may not understand it
all. I may not even be able to reconcile it all in this old
head, my human logic and reasoning. But I know this, if God says
it, it's true. Now, the thing about the natural
man, and I know this by experience, is that this book, God's Word,
tells me some simple things that I don't want to, by nature, didn't
want to hear. And didn't want to hear them
and believe them until God the Holy Spirit gave me spiritual
life. Listen to the writer of Hebrews
in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12. Listen to this. For the word
of God is quick. That means life, living. It's a living thing. And it's
powerful. and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. That's your desires, your motives,
your thoughts. Verse 13, neither is there any
creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things
are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
You see, God's Word goes all the way to the heart. It doesn't
just condemn evil actions, evil doings, it condemns evil thoughts,
evil desires, evil motives. If you're out there listening
to what I'm saying and you claim to be a Christian, you claim
to believe in Christ, And some of you, I know some who claim
that they're not sinners anymore. Let me ask you this question.
Do you ever have any thoughts, or any motives, or any desires,
which you can't control, that you would be embarrassed for
even man, even your friends, to see flashed up on a screen?
Let alone God. And the Bible tells us that God
does see those thoughts. He knows those thoughts. So that's
how this thing goes. God is God. And if God says it,
it makes it true. There are many things in this
Bible that we don't understand in the sins. Now I know in salvation
the Bible says the Son of God hath come and given us an understanding.
We who know Christ, we who are sinners saved by grace, who give
evidence of being one of God's elect, because we've been born
again by the Spirit and have come to Christ. We've run to
Christ for salvation. We've repented of our dead work.
We understand some things that we didn't understand before because
God has taught us by His Spirit and by His Word. But there are
a lot of things here that we think about God and His nature,
His majesty, His infinite being. His purposes, how He works things. You know, we quote Romans 8,
28. All things work together for good to them that love God,
who are the called according to His purpose. How all those things work together,
and that's all things good and all things evil, according to
a sovereign God. It boggles my mind. How about you? But you know what? Here's the simple truth. I know
it's true because God says it. People say, well, you mean God
controls everything. Well, He says He does. I don't
understand that. Oh, that makes Him the author
of sin. No, it doesn't. And I can't explain that to you.
You can't explain it to anybody. But it's true because this book
says it. That's the simple truth. Listen
to the psalmist in Psalm 139. He says in verse 1, O Lord, Thou
hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting,
my uprising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou compassest my path. He surrounds me. Am I lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways? There's not a word in my
tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all together. This
is the omniscience of God. He knows everything. Not because
he's a crystal ball gazer now. Verse five. Thou hast beset me
behind and before and laid thine hand upon me. That means God
controls me. You say, well, are you a robot?
No. How do you explain that? I can't. Neither can you. But let me tell you how most
preachers and people who claim to be Christian today or Bible
believers explain it. They deny it altogether. They
make God a puppet in your hands. They make God his purposes, his
works contingent upon what man does. It's like God is some kind
of a cosmic chess player up there and he makes his move and he's
just waiting for you to make your counter move. My friend,
this book does not teach a God like that. That's an idol. Listen
to this. Verse six, now listen to it.
What the psalmist is saying, this is David, he's saying God's
in control of me. And he's not the author of sin.
And you say, well, that boggles my mind. He said the same thing.
Look at verse 6. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. I cannot attain it. You see,
David, the psalmist, his approach to this mind-boggling truth was
not to ignore it, not to deny it. Even though it boggled his
mind, he said, That's the way it is. God is God, and I am who
I am. We could go on and on with things
like this. I want you to turn to, if you've got your Bibles,
turn to Romans chapter nine. Now you know, this chapter here
is a mind-boggling chapter. In fact, there are many preachers
who start through the book of Romans And they quit whenever
they get around Romans 8, especially Romans 9, because they just can't
understand it. And the problem is this. It's
not the understanding that's the problem. It's just they don't
want it. They don't like it. How do most
people deal with these truths in Romans 9? They deny it. And they fashion a God like themselves. Limited. I have heard preachers
say that God would not step on man's dignity. Well, where in
the world in the Bible do you find anything about man's dignity? It's not there. Man's a sinner. My soul, if God gave any of us
what we deserve or what we've earned, it would be eternal damnation. You say, well, you don't believe
that. Well, you don't believe the simple truth of God's Word. But
you know what the issue of Romans 9 is? It's simply this. We're sinners and salvation's
of the Lord. It's not of us. It's not conditioned
on us. And he goes here. Here's where
people hate to deal with it. Romans 9 and verse 13. Listen
to this. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now how are you going to interpret
that? I know preachers who say, well,
that's bad. God hates Esau. And then I've heard say, well,
that doesn't mean hate. That means he loved Esau less. That's
not what it means. The word means hate. It's God's
wrath upon a sinner who deserves it. You see, God hated Esau because
that's what Esau deserved. But here's the point. You know
what Esau did. He sold his birthright. He was
a sinner. But so was Jacob. Jacob was a
sinner. He deserved God's wrath too,
God's hatred. I'm a sinner. I deserve God's
wrath, God's hatred. What's amazing about this verse
is not that God hated Esau. I can understand that. I can
understand why God would hate all of us. It's justice. It's not like my hatred now.
Mine's sinful. Yours is sinful. But God's is
justice. What is amazing about this verse
is that God loved Jacob. Is it possible that God could
love me, a sinner, who deserves nothing but his hatred? Well,
what does the Bible say? 1 John 4, 10. Hearing is love. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins, a sin-bearing sacrifice that brings satisfaction. God's
love is in Christ. Outside of Christ, there's nothing
of God's love. And why did he say that? Well,
look at verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Is God unjust to do this? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. God's sovereign as to whom he
loves and whom he hates. And so then it's not of him that
willeth. It's not of your will or my will.
There's no such thing as free will. Our will's in bondage.
Nor of him that runneth, that's the works, but of God that showeth
mercy. Now back in 2 Corinthians, you
see, and I can't explain all that to you. I know God does
what's right. He chooses whom He will. He saves
whom He will according to His grace. None of us deserve it.
None of us have earned it. The only reason these people
go around talking about God loving everybody is because they think
we deserve God's love. We don't. How do I know it? The simple truth of what this
book says. But here in 2 Corinthians 11, look at verse 2. He says, I'm jealous over you
with godly jealousy, for I've 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. Now that's the next issue to
me of the rule of simplicity. Number one, if God says it, it's
true. It may boggle my mind. I might
not be able to give you a human, logical explanation. I might
not be able to reconcile it in my way of thinking. But it's
still true. God is not the author of sin.
The secret things belong to God. The revealed things belong to
God. God is sovereign. Man is responsible. If man's
left to himself, he will deny God, he will deny Christ, he'll
go his merry way to eternal damnation. But God has chosen a people to
save. What's my responsibility? The
revealed things. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. I heard a man say one time, he
said, well, that means if I want to come to Christ and I'm not
elect, God won't let me. Oh, no. If you're one of God's
elect, you'll come to Christ and any who come to Christ, God
never turns them away. How do I know that? That's what
this book says. Well, what is this? Here's the
second phase of it. Simply put, it's all about Jesus
Christ. My friend, do you have a desire
to be saved from your sins? It's all about Jesus Christ,
who he is, the God in human flesh, what he accomplished on Calvary.
He put away the sins of his people by the sacrifice of himself.
He drank damnation dry. He paid our debt in full. He
established the only righteousness whereupon God could be just and
justify sinners like me. Do you want to experience the
love of God? Run to Christ. Outside of Christ there's no
love, nothing but hatred. Do you want to experience the
grace and the mercy, the compassion of God? Run to Christ for salvation,
for eternal life, for the forgiveness of sins. What is it? The blood
of Jesus Christ. for justification before God?
How can I stand before a holy God who sees the intents of my
heart, sees what I am, a sinner, not just outward but inward?
How can I stand before that God and Him pronounce me not guilty? Him pronounce me righteous? How
can I do that? Only in Jesus Christ. That's
the simplicity that's in Christ. It's that single message that
all of salvation and every blessing and benefit of salvation is in
Christ. Don't sit around here and worry
about these things that you can't reconcile. Don't even sit around
and worry if you're one of God's elect. You just flee to Christ
and believe in Him. That's what God's elect do. That's
what the scripture teaches. Did Christ die for me? Well,
if He did, you know what I'll do? I'll flee to Him for salvation. I'll run to Him. I'll cling to
Him. And it won't be by my own power
or my own goodness or my own will. It'll be by God's power,
goodness, and will through His Spirit who makes me willing in
the day of His power by giving me a new heart, a new spirit,
and life within. by causing me to walk in his
statues. And I'm responsible to look to
him. You're responsible. How can you reconcile that? You
worry about that. Listen, God says it, and that
settles it. 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 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.