Now here in 2 Corinthians 11,
as Paul has done often in his two epistles to the Corinthians,
he's dealing with false prophets. And you know, that subject is
a downer. It just is. There's many, many
things I'd rather talk about than false prophets. But we must
deal with them. deal with their area. I certainly
wouldn't want a ministry. All I ever did is point out what
somebody else is doing wrong, but we must deal with these men
and their message because their message is devastating to men's
souls. So we must deal with them appropriately. And because of the influence
of false prophets that they had on the people there in Corinth,
the apostle Paul, now the apostle Paul, is forced to defend himself. That's where he picks up here
in verse one of chapter 11. He says, Would to God you have
bear with me a little my folly and indeed bear with me. Now,
I just the first thing I thought when I sat down looking at these
verses this week is that's a shame. That God's servant is forced
to defend his ministry and his message. against these false
prophets. And Paul calls this his folly
that he's defending himself. This is my folly. And normally
it is folly when somebody starts to commend themselves or, you
know, brag on themselves or talk about themselves. Normally that
is folly, but it's not in this case. Matthew Henry made this
statement is excellent. He says as much against the grain
as it is with a proud man to acknowledge his infirmities.
So much it is against the grain of a humble man to speak in his
own praise. And that's why Paul calls this
his folly. He is a humble man. Yet he's
forced to commend himself and he felt foolish, but it was necessary. Because Paul was God's messenger
to the Gentiles. That's what the Lord called Paul
to do, made him to be the apostle to the Gentiles. Now false prophets
can come in. various places that Paul preached
and they could discredit Paul by deceiving the people, the
gospel that Paul preached to them would be lost and the souls
of people would be lost because they're deceived into following
another gospel. So it's important, Paul says,
bear with me a little bit in this while I remind you one more
time about my credentials and the credentials of my ministry.
He goes on, verse two, he says, for I'm 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."
Now, jealousy, that can have a bad connotation, can't it?
Somebody can take that feeling much, much too far and make it
a horrible thing. But a certain amount of jealousy
is good and it's natural. You know, I'm jealous over my
wife Janice. I strongly prefer that she only
have eyes for me. I mean, I really strongly prefer
that. And I will do everything that I can to preserve and protect
our relationship. Because I don't want to open
a door for a rival for her affections. I'm just going to be as good
to her as I possibly can. So a door for a rival for her
affections could never be opened. And I don't think that's a bad
jealousy. That's the appropriate amount of jealousy. Well, that's
the way Paul is feeling about his Corinthian brethren. He says,
I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy. He wasn't really trying
to preserve his relationship with them or preserve his place
of honor, you know, in their eyes or something. Paul's goal
was that nothing would rival Christ in their minds and in
their hearts, that nothing would take them away from Christ. Paul
says, I've espoused you to Christ. He had preached Christ to them
and seen many of them joined to Christ. You know, one of the
most beautiful ways that Scripture pictures the believer's relationship
with Christ is the marriage relationship. John the Baptist called Christ
the bridegroom. He said, I'm just the fellow
that's staying with him. He's the bridegroom. He must increase. I must decrease. Christ is the
husband. And we're the bride. The bride's
taken up with him. That's what the Song of Solomon,
she says, if you see my beloved. Oh, he's my beloved. He's the
husband. He's the one that I'm married
to. And Paul didn't want to see the bride to ever leave her husband. Because there's no hope for her
if she does. He said, I've espoused you to
one husband. I didn't just marry you to some
fella you picked off the street. I espoused you to one husband.
To one particular husband. Not just any Jesus that's preached
out there. To one. I've espoused you to
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's just one husband. There's
one Lord, one faith, one baptism. One husband. And Paul did not
want to see these people that he loved leave their one husband. Because if we'd ever leave our
one husband, we would leave the love of our husband. Now, there's
a love that a husband has for his wife that's unique, it's
special, it's reserved for her. Well, how could a believer ever
walk away from the love of our one husband, that love that's
unsearchable? Don't walk away from that love,
the love of our husband. Second, if we walk away from
our one husband, we walk away from the provision of our husband. You know, primarily the husband
is called on to provide for his wife. Well, that's what our husband
does for us. He provides blood to cleanse
us from all of our unrighteousness. He provides us with a righteousness
that makes us accepted with the father. He provides us with grace
that's sufficient for every need. He provides us with food. And
not only does he provide us with food, he is our food. He is our
bread. He provides us with clothing.
But He didn't just go buy us clothing, you know, off the rack
at Penny's. He is our clothing. We're clothed in Him, found in
Him. He provides us with a home where
we'll dwell eternally. Now, Paul says, don't leave Him.
Don't leave that one husband. If you do, you leave his provision.
Third, if we leave our one husband, we leave the protection of our
husband. Husbands feel like they've got
to be the protector, you know, of their home. I'm going to defend
my home and my family. That's what you ought to do.
But don't leave the protection of our one husband. If you do,
you're going to meet God outside of Christ. Don't leave your one
husband. Fourth, if we leave our husband,
we leave the leadership of Christ our husband. And I'm telling
you, if we ever leave his leadership, we're going to go the wrong way.
He leads us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. The husband's
responsibility is to lead the home. Don't leave the leadership
of your husband. And fifth, if we leave our one
husband, we leave the strength of our husband. The husband is
to be the strength of the home. And the only way we're ever going
to find ourselves strong is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Realizing
I'm weak, then am I strong. Don't leave our one husband.
That's what Paul is telling all of us. Do not leave the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, I've espoused you to
Him. I've brought you to Him as a chaste virgin. Now, how
does a chaste virgin come to her husband? Well, she comes
to him in sincere love. This is the man for me. This
is the one I'll be with for the rest of my life. She comes with
a heart and an affection that's only for Him. This is my husband. I've reserved myself for him.
And she comes faithful. She's a chaste virgin. She's
come faithful to her husband. Now, Paul says, that's the way
I've espoused you to Christ. Now you stay that way. Don't
change that. You come to him with a sincere
love and you remain in love with him. You come with a heart that's
only for him. Now stay that way. Don't let
your heart be divided. Don't let your heart look somewhere
else. Come and stay with his heart that's only for him. And
come faithful to him. And God keep us faithful to him. Stay that way. Don't let these
false teachers distract your heart away from Christ, your
husband. Don't let him divide this home.
Now read on here in verse three, he says, but I fear. lest by
any means as a serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. So
your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that's in
Christ. Now, Paul, he so loved these Corinthian believers and
he wanted what was best for them. And he was afraid that they were
going down the path to be deceived like Eve was deceived. Now, how
did Satan deceive Eve? He beguiled her by twisting the
words of God, didn't he? He beguiled her, twisted the
words of God. He added a word. He changed a
word. He didn't change it much, did
he? Just a little bit. Just change it just a little
bit. And when he did, he changed the whole meaning of what God
said. Now, there was no problem understanding. On Eve's part, there was no problem
understanding what God said. She understood exactly what God
said. But Satan twisted God's word. And he listened to him and she
thought, that sounds a lot like God's word. That sounds a lot
like what he said. But the meaning was changed.
Something was added and she was deceived. And false prophets. How many years ago that was?
Six thousand years, you know, the historians say roughly. In
six thousand years, False prophets haven't changed. They're still
like their father, the devil. That's what our Lord told the
Pharisees. You're like your father, the devil. They subtly changed
the Word of God to deceive people. And they're crafty. I mean, they're
deceptive. Otherwise, you wouldn't be deceived.
If they were obvious about it, you'd walk away from them. They
disguised themselves in righteousness. Look over here at Same chapter
here, verse 13. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no
great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end should be according to their works.
Now, these false prophets tell you what they always do. They
complicate matters. The gospel is simple, the simplicity
of Christ, and the reason the gospel is so simple is because
it has a single message. That word simplicity is singleness. The reason the gospel is so simple
is it has a single message, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the gospel
really is not all that hard to understand. People can come here
and understand exactly what it is we preach. They shouldn't
have any problem understanding what the gospel says. Believing is our problem, isn't
it? We cannot believe unless God gives us the gift of faith. Believing is our problem. Eve
did not have any problem understanding God's commandment. Don't eat.
That fruit, the fruit of the tree, the knowledge of good and
evil. Don't eat it. If you do, you'll die. She understood
exactly what God meant. Her problem was the same problem
we have. She didn't believe God. She was
deceived and didn't believe God would do what he said he'd do.
The gospel message is simple. We find salvation in a sinner's
substitute. Christ the substitute died for
sinners. God is just and justifier through
imputation. The sins of God's elect were
imputed to him and his righteousness imputed to us. And he shed his
blood to pay for that sin. And that sin's gone. The father
satisfied. We're accepted in the beloved,
in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's
simple, but false prophets will complicate those simple truths.
And if we start to follow their logic, we'll be deceived just
like our mother Eve was deceived. And listen, they're not going
to be obvious about it. Satan is smart. I promise you
he's a whole lot smarter than we are. And he's been in this
business of deceiving people a whole lot longer than we've
been around. And he knows what works. And he will use anything
to take our mind off of Christ. That could be things we call
bad things or evil things. You know, we've seen a person
can just fall and follow the pleasures of sin for a season.
But typically, a religious person, a person who attends, you know,
worship service and people read the Bible and pray and give some
mental ascent at all to believe in God. They see that as a dangerous
thing, and they typically are not going to be fooled by that.
I'll tell you where the subtlety of Satan comes in to deceive
people. He uses things that we think are good to deceive people. False prophets use the Bible. Every one of them stands holding
a Bible. They use the Bible to deceive people. Now, they don't
say what God's Word says. Because they're not satisfied
with the simplicity of Scripture. They have to. They can't. They're
not interested in that. They're not interested in the
simplicity of Christ. They're interested in subjects
that are not plainly taught in Scripture, you know, so they
have to use their own ideas and their own logic to explain those
things that are not explained in Scripture. And the things
that they say might sound a lot like the Bible, but it's not
the word of God. They twist it. They just deceive
people the same way Eve was deceived by just adding a word here and
there, changing a word here and there and lead people astray.
And when they add a word or they change a word or they twist a
word, the message is totally different. You can't pick it
out. We are coming back. Jan and I went out last night.
We're coming back. And she said, oh, I got this.
CD. I want you to listen to it. It's
a CD of hymns just played on the piano. And she put it in
and it started playing. She said, no, Savannah doesn't
like it. And I said, well, it sounds pretty to me. Why doesn't
she like it? And she said, they add a bunch of notes in there.
And when they add those extra notes, and she's not a lot of
them, but you start adding those notes here and there, you can't
pick out the melody. They're playing Amazing Grace.
It took me a long time to hear what it was. Just an extra note
here and there, and you can't pick out the message. That's
what they're doing. And we're deceived. And the height
of subtlety is that Satan takes our mind off of Christ by somebody
pretending to use the Bible. They take our mind and our heart
off of the incarnate word by pretending to use the written
word. That's the height of subtlety. And the Reformers had this theme,
Christ alone, alone, the Scriptures alone, grace alone, faith alone. And if we'll, by God's grace,
be determined to never move away from Christ alone, that'll fix
a lot of doctrinal error. Honestly, it will. And that's
what Paul is telling them. Don't you move away from the
simplicity, the single message of the Lord Jesus Christ, that'll
fix you being led away into error and being deceived. Now he says
in verse 4, he says, for if he that cometh preaches another
Jesus, whom we've not preached, or if you receive another spirit,
which we've not received, or another gospel, which you have
not accepted, you might well bear with them. Now Paul's worry
is that it seems like you're willing to tolerate these fellas.
You're willing to tolerate these false prophets who preach another
Jesus in another gospel, in another spirit. Look over Galatians chapter
one. You know, now we must be patient
with people and kind and understanding and forgiving with people, but
not when they insist on another gospel. You cannot tolerate that. Galatians one, verse six. Paul says, I marvel that you're
so soon removed from him. See, this is Paul's concern was
that you not be moved away from Christ. I marvel that you're
so soon removed from him that calls you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel, which is not another. But there be some
that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though
we are an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than
that which we've preached unto you, let him be a curse As we
said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel
unto you than that which you have received, let him be accursed. Now that's strong language. Let
him be sent to hell. That's strong language. But that's
how serious this matter is of being corrupted from the simplicity
of Christ. Because listen now, there isn't
another Jesus. There isn't another Jesus who's
more glorious than the Jesus that's been preached to you.
There's not another Jesus whose sacrifice is more sufficient.
There's not another Jesus who's more able to save than the Jesus
that we've preached unto you. There isn't another Jesus whose
blood atones for sin by himself. Now, there's this other Jesus
who shed his blood that you got to make effectual, but that's
not this Jesus. This Jesus, the Jesus, His blood
alone redeems. By Himself, He purged our sins
and He sat down on the right hand of God because sin was put
away. There isn't another Jesus that
can make sinners like you and me accepted with the Father.
We're accepted in the Beloved. There's one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There isn't another Jesus who's
as dependable, that you can cast your soul, you can cast your
entire soul on Him and He'll keep you. He will never leave
you nor forsake you. He'll stick to you closer than
a brother. There is not another Jesus who's
more dependable than this Jesus. You'll never find another Jesus
who can make you more saved or make you more complete or improve
the condition of your soul. We are complete in Him. There isn't another gospel other
than the gospel that we preach. What's better than free grace? Can you find something better
than complete forgiveness of sins? Can you? Can you find a
life that's better than eternal life with Christ? Can you find
something better than being conformed to the image of Christ? Can't
do it. If there is another gospel, tell
you what that means. There's better news than what
you can find in the simplicity of Christ. And there's not. It's
a single message. There isn't another spirit other
than God, the Holy Spirit, who gives life and shows you the
things of Christ. Now, since there isn't another
Jesus, there isn't another gospel, there isn't another spirit. We
cannot tolerate the message of false prophets. There's just
one message. Now, verse 5, Paul says, for
I suppose I was not a whip behind the very chiefest apostles. Now,
here's a good reason to bear with Paul while he's forced to
defend his ministry. He didn't come behind the chief
apostles. I mean, the most well-known apostles,
the ones who are the most gifted in the ministry and preaching
and in the word. Peter, James, and John had nothing
on the Apostle Paul. How the Lord blessed him. This
guy is no piker. Like Brother Henry said, he didn't
come into town in the back of a pickup truck. This man was
sent of God. Men didn't send him here. Men
didn't give him his commission to preach. He was sent by God. Look over at Galatians chapter
1 again. I know he's not one of the original
12. But he's still an apostle by
the will of God. In verse 15, Paul says, But when
it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and
called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach
him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and
blood, neither went I out to Jerusalem to them which were
apostles before me. But I went into Arabia, and returned
again unto Damascus. And that's where the Lord taught
him the gospel. Then, after three years, I went
out to Jerusalem to see Peter in a boat with him. But the Lord
didn't send him out, or Peter didn't send him out to preach.
It was the Lord. He sent him there. He's the apostle
to the Gentiles. Now, look back at, I'm sorry,
over at 2 Corinthians chapter 12. You know, a person can recognize
the gifts the Lord gives them without being full of themselves.
Mike and I were talking about this the other day, you know,
we're raising our daughters, you know, how do you give them
the self-confidence they need to go out into the world, but
also teach them you're nothing. I mean, you're absolutely nothing
before God. Well, it can be done. It happened
to Apostle Paul. Look at chapter 12, verse 11. He says, Am I become a fool in
glory? You've compelled me, for I ought not to have been commended
of you. For in nothing am I behind the
very cheapest apostles, though I be nothing." The Lord blessed
him in a special way, but he says, I'm nothing. And we'll
never grow beyond being nothing, even though we're complete in
Christ. Now, verse six, back in our text, Paul says, but though
I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge, but we've been
throughly made manifest among you in all things. Now Paul was
an intelligent man. He had the best education money
can buy. He grew up at the feet of Gamaliel,
the best teacher of his day. Paul had intelligence, but he
also had some wisdom. He had some street smarts. He
used the language of the people that he was with. He didn't just
always go around showing off all the things that he knew.
He used the language of the people he was with. Kings. and governors and philosophers,
those Greek philosophers who were so smart, were all comfortable
speaking with the Apostle Paul. He spoke their language to tell
them about Christ. Then Paul went to the dungeon,
a bunch of other prisoners down there, more than likely men of
absolutely no education whatsoever, and they were comfortable with
the Apostle Paul too. He spoke their language. And
the Corinthians were impressed. with these false prophets. They
were impressed with their vocabulary and their way of speaking and
their pulpit presence. And, you know, I'm just sure
they leave service saying, well, that guy's smart. Oh, man, he's
smart. He's so impressive. Well, did
you understand what he said? Well, no, but he's so smart.
He's smarter than me. Well, then what good did he do
you if you didn't understand what he was saying? And they
held it against Paul that they did understand what he was saying.
He spoke to them in such clear, unmistakable terms. Henry said
this in his outline. He says, too often flowery words
and sermons are used to cover a deficiency in the knowledge
of Christ. And it's a big advantage to be
able to understand exactly what it is the preacher is saying.
Now, you may not believe it, but I'm telling you this, you
can't believe it if you don't understand what the preacher
is saying. And that wasn't the problem with
many of the people in Corinth. They understood what Paul was
saying. They said they believed it. Paul says, we've been made
throughly manifest among you in all things. Well, how is that? Well, the Lord saved them through
Paul's ministry. Through the gospel that Paul
preached, the Lord revealed himself to them in mercy. Well, what
other proof do you need? This is God's servant. This is
the message that revealed Christ to me. This must be God's servant. There can be no doubt. He's preaching
the gospel of God because in that gospel, in that message,
I see Christ. Then he's God's servant. Well,
then what are you doing entertaining these other men, regardless of
how impressive you think they are? Now, verse 7, Paul says,
Have I committed an offense in abasing myself that ye might
be exalted? Because I preached unto you the
gospel of God freely. Now, you know, some people in
the church congregation and we all have to be aware of this.
We're still very impressed with the flesh. And the flesh is always
impressed with a big show. You know, we read about the miracles,
these men who come flaunting themselves and their knowledge
and, you know, their ability and their importance so that
people are impressed with them. The flesh is impressed with that.
The flesh is not impressed with a simple man who has a simple
message and he keeps himself simple because he doesn't want
you to be impressed with him. He doesn't want to stand out
to you. He wants to preach the gospel to you so that you're
impressed with Christ, so that you see Christ. He doesn't care
if you forget all about him, as long as you stay espoused
to the Lord Jesus Christ, so that you're taken up with him.
Someone actually told me this one time. I mean, you could knock
me over with a feather. He said the fault with Henry's
commentaries is they're too simplistic. What are you not impressed with
because you understand what he says, is that not impressive? You know, I thought this morning,
you know, I never preach, never teach, never speak without reading
John Gill. I mean, I just I love reading
John Gill. But I'm telling you the truth,
sometimes I've got to read what he said three or four times,
and I still don't understand what he said. I can go to Bob
Henry's commentaries. Yeah, I see that. These folks
were not impressed that Paul came to them and preached simply
and freely. He didn't take any money from
them. We'll deal with verse 8 next week. But he says, I robbed other
churches, taking wages of them to do you service. I didn't take
any money from you. Other people sent me money. I
worked with my own hands making tents so I could preach the gospel
to you freely. You know, that should have been
impressive to them, shouldn't it? Here's a man who's coming
to us, didn't ask us for anything. All he's doing is preaching the
gospel to us. That should have made them thankful.
That should have made it obvious to them, this is God's man. He's willing to preach the gospel
and depend on the Lord to provide. In stark contrast to that should
have been these false prophets that they were entertaining and
tolerating. I don't know much about them,
but I'd stake everything I got on this. They didn't preach to
them freely. No way in this world they did.
Because false prophets don't do anything for free. Their goal
is their belly. And that should have stood out
in stark contrast to Paul's goal. The simplicity of Christ. to
fall in love and find everything that you'll ever need in the
Lord Jesus Christ. If I see that for you, oh, I'll
be happy. I'll be satisfied. All right.
The Lord bless you.