As was so often the case, sad
to say, with the Apostle Paul, those that he had given himself
to, like the church at Corinth, given himself to them faithfully,
sacrificially, in preaching the gospel to them. What better, anything better
than he could have done for those folks? That glorious gospel of the blessed
God, that gospel which is the power of God unto salvation,
that gospel by which also you are saved, the gospel which concerns
God's the Lord Jesus Christ. All those several expressions
are from God's Word. And I mention them, read them,
quote them, just to remind us again of the precious gift of
the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a treasure. What a treasure. How blessed
you are to have a man to preach it to you each time he stands
here. But these folks that Paul had
given himself to in declaring that glorious gospel had been,
as Paul says in verse 13 here in 2 Corinthians 11, had been
beguiled by Satan, had been led away by Satan's false prophets,
deceitful workers, verse 15, ministers of Satan, and they
were led to even doubt Paul's sincerity, Paul's motives, even his apostleship. They were
whispering, perhaps we shouldn't even listen to him. After all,
he may not even be an apostle. This is what the false apostles
were saying about God's Brethren, that had to hurt. That
had to hurt. Paul wasn't made out of stone,
but he doesn't make mention of it, does he? After he had denied
himself of his right to be paid, taken care of materially. He
said, I forgo that. I didn't do that just so you
wouldn't have, Satan wouldn't have reason to accuse me and
say I'm just preaching for money. Paul said, I didn't take none
of that from you. But now, with that in mind, let's
read beginning at verse 1. We're going to read just four
verses. 2 Corinthians 11. Paul says, I would to God ye
could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with
me, For I am jealous over you. I am jealous over you with godly
jealousy. For I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, I fear, lest by any
means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, his
slyness, his cunning deceit, so your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh
preacheth another Jesus," this is our text, verse 4, "...for
if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached,
or if ye receive another spirit which ye have not received, or
another gospel which we have not accepted, ye might well bear
with him." Now, when I first read that, I scratched my head. Why would Paul tell them concerning
these false apostles, these ministers of Satan bringing another gospel,
why would he say to these people that he had preached the gospel
to and had believed, Why would he tell them concerning these
deceivers, ye might well bear with them? You would think he'd
say the very opposite, kick them out the door and don't be slow
about it. This is what I'm sure Paul meant. This is how we're to understand
what he says in verse 4. He says, if he that comes to
you, whoever he may be, if he brings a better gospel than I
did, then you bear with him. You take it. If he preaches a
better Christ than I did, bear with him. Which is just another
way of Paul saying, that's impossible. That cannot happen. But that
gives me the title of my message. From verse 4, these two words. Another Jesus. That's what Paul
said, didn't he? If he that cometh unto you preacheth
another Jesus." My message is simple. It's got a simple outline.
Only two divisions. And the first, taking those two
words for both divisions, the first, another Jesus, exclamation
point. That should bring an alarm. That
should sound an alarm. Exclamation point. And then the second one, The
second point is this, another Jesus, question mark. Why? Why? Why would that be necessary? Why would that be needed? Now,
first of all, another Jesus, exclamation point. That sounds
an alarm. I hope immediately in your mind,
that sounds an alarm. I mean, you don't even like the
sound of that, do you? Not a child of God, no matter
who says so, no matter who claims so. No, another Jesus? Oh no, no. I was in a motel room
several years ago in Danville, Kentucky, getting ready to preach
in the conference there at Don Fortner's church, Grace Baptist,
and it was about midnight. And I was looking over my notes,
reading the scripture, and man, a fire alarm went off. I'd never
had that happen in a motel. It was loud. Of course, they
wanted everyone to hear it. And as I say, I'd never had that
happen, and I thought, well, am I supposed to run outside
in my PJs? But I did pick up the phone and
call the front desk. Man, what's happening? Is there
a fire? Are we to get out? And this guy
shouted back, no, no, no, it's a false alarm. It's a false alarm. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
I'm glad that was so. But this here, another Jesus,
it wasn't a false alarm. That's why Paul wrote this. He
was warning them. As I said before, I don't even
like the sound of that. Do you? No. Oh, I hope not. Nothing good can come of that. There's nothing good about that. Because if I trust, if you or
I trust another Jesus other than the one that Paul preached, other
than the true Christ of God, The one mediator, the only Savior,
the only name given among men whereby we must be saved. If we profess faith in anyone
other than Him, another Jesus, and they're out there, then we'll
lose our immortal souls. Oh, what a deceitful, cunning,
clever maneuver it was on Satan's part, as Paul says here. How
cunning! How damning it was of the liar
from the beginning, the devil, not to deny the existence of
Christ, but to introduce a fake, an imposter, to push him out
there deceitfully, cunningly. You remember the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself said, He warned us of this, this very thing. The last
time he left the temple with his disciples, you remember,
Matthew 24. And they, being Jews, were proud
of the temple. Lord, you see all these stones? Have you noticed this? Oh, look
at the temple. The disciples said this. And
the Lord said, you see all this? There won't be one stone left
upon another that shall not be thrown down. And he walked out,
never to return. went to the Mount of Olives and
sat down. And his disciples came to him in private and said, Lord,
when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of
thy coming into the end of the world? Those were three questions
and they gave three answers. But the very first thing he said,
do you remember? Remember the first thing he said?
In answer to their question, take heed that no man deceive
you, for false Christ shall arise and deceive many. And throughout
his discourse, he repeated that again and again and again. "'Take heed,' he said, "'Behold,
I have warned you, I have told you before.'" Oh, brothers and
sisters in Christ, what he said today, or rather what he said
to them, is still binding and needful and necessary today. Another Jesus, that must be alive. That has to be alive. Notice
again verse 3, when Paul says, I'm concerned, I'm fearful of
you, Satan's beguiled you, he's corrupted you from the simplicity
that's in Christ. That word, as you probably are
aware, simplicity, it means singleness, singularity. In a class by itself,
like none other, Jesus Christ Singular, our great God and Savior,
as the Lord in mercy cried, Look unto Me," he said. I'm God. There is none else. I'm God. I'm a just God and a Savior. Oh, thank God, His mercy always
comes to the sinner on the wings of satisfied justice. He's faithful. Christ did not
set the justice of God aside. He fulfilled. He satisfied God's
justice. And now God is just when He justifies
a sinner. That's the one true Jesus. Oh, my soul, tell me concerning
this imposter that's everywhere today, this other Jesus. My soul, tell me you hear the
alarm sounding. Tell me you recognize that he's
false, because you know that one that is true. The only God
and Savior. Not long before I moved to Danville,
Kentucky from West Virginia. And that's been 30 years ago. Yeah, about 30 years ago. Soon as I got a job, I applied for a loan at the credit
union at the University of Kentucky. I hope you don't hold that against
me for any reason. But I worked there for 20 years.
And everybody doesn't say go big blue, you know. But anyway,
I needed a loan for a car because the one that I came to West Virginia
in was just about dead on arrival. I mean, it was gone. And I looked in the newspaper
and saw an advertisement for a car that belonged to an individual,
a private sale. So I got the address and I called
them up and they told me where they lived in Lexington. So I
went to their house and, man, there sat this blue Taurus, Ford
Taurus. It wasn't new. It was new to
me. It looked good. And, man, Carol, there wasn't
a scratch on that car. And, man, they polished it up. You know, they wanted to sell
it. And I sit in it, and like I said, man, it just, man, it
shined. They'd armored all that thing.
Man, it looked good, and I thought, I look good in it. And I asked
them, well, what do you want for this? And, you know, of course,
I kicked the tires. I don't know what, you know.
They ain't not dealing with no dummy, so I kicked the tires. What's that for? I saw my daddy
do it, so I did it. Anyway, I bought that car. Let me tell you what. Instead
of kicking tires, I should have lifted the hood. That car had
to use a quart of oil every week. I'd bought a lemon. I thought
I was smarter than that. But I'd bought a lemon. Let me tell you this. Sad to
say, many today concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, they're buying
a lemon. They're trusting another Jesus. They've been, as Brother Henry
Mahan used to say, blindsided. Blindsided into a profession. been saved and never been lost. Because this imposter, he doesn't
even demand that you bow to him. I mean, he can be a fire escape
out of hell. He can be a doormat to heaven. That's not the Jesus of Scripture. He says, if any man, that's you
and that's me, comes to me, he must. It's not an option. He
must deny Himself and take up His cross and follow me, or what? He'll lose some reward? No. He
cannot be my disciple. Is that not what He said? That's
exactly what He said. And this imposter that's being
pushed out on people, this deceiver, he says, Oh, you don't have to
bow to me. That's okay. You can just accept
me as your Savior, but my Lordship, we can deal with that another
time. That's not the Jesus of Scripture. That's not King Jesus. That's another Jesus. And that's
why Paul warned them of that. Oh, my soul, Larry, that's not
real nice. Shouldn't you be more tolerant?
I've been told that. Darwin and I discussed this this
morning Hotel over breakfast. Tolerant. We talked about if
I've got an inkling, I mean a whisper, that any man that claims to be
a gospel preacher doesn't preach the gospel of God's pure and
sovereign grace, he'll never step into my pulpit. Never. I'm jealous. One old preacher
said he was as jealous of his pulpit as he was his bed. Nobody. Nobody. And brother, thank God
that you have a pastor that believes that. Nobody is going to stand
here and tell lies on God. Be tolerant? Am I so tolerant
of another gospel? Tolerant of another Jesus? Tolerant
of men insulting my Redeemer? And my great God and Savior,
belittling Him, His work, His accomplishments, He said, it's
finished. And they say, it's not finished
until you make it finished. It's not effectual until you
make it effectual. Oh no, that's another Jesus.
That's not King Jesus. When I was young, you remember
the Twilight Zone? Remember when it first came on,
that tight-lipped guy used to narrate it, I forget his name.
But we only got about one channel. There wasn't satellite dishes,
there wasn't all this other stuff. We got one channel. There wasn't
cable. I lived up the hall and we got
one channel. But the Twilight Zone came on
that channel. Oh, I like to watch that. And
I remember an episode where this alien came from Mars or someplace. And the premise of this particular
episode was this. That alien appeared in the eyes
of whoever looked at him, whatever they wanted him to be. A mother
lost a son, she looked at him and saw her son. A son had lost a father, looked
at that alien, and saw his father. He had that ability to portray
himself to be whatever folks wanted him to be. Does that sound
familiar? Psalm 50, verse 21, God said,
you thought, you thought that I was altogether such a one as
yourself. Isn't it amazing people you talk
to, your loved ones? And it's heartbreaking. It's
heartbreaking. But they seem to think that God
is whatever they want Him to be. I mean, you speak to them
of what God says about Himself, the one true God, high and lifted
up, the Judge of all the earth, who will in no wise clear the
guilty, We'll call every evil deed into judgment and folks
will just brush it aside and say, but this is what I think.
This is what I think. My idea of God is this. Someone
told my wife not long ago that when they died they wanted to
be buried at a certain cemetery because that's where friends
were buried and she thought she would, you know, be more comfortable
there. And my wife said, what? But God,
oh, she said, well, you know, I think God understands. Whatever
folks want Him to be. I want to get to my second point.
Enough of the crooked stick. Let's lay down the straight stick. The Lord Jesus Christ. High and lifted up. This is what
I want to do. Speak of Jesus Christ Himself. Speaking of, I have TV programs. I hope this doesn't insult anybody,
but I don't see a lot of spring chickens in here. Uh-oh, maybe
I should have turned that off. All I mean by that, we're old
enough, I know I am, Anybody remember a game show called the
Tell the Truth? Remember that? It ran, and I
had to Google this, my memory's not that good, but it ran, I
think, from 57 to 72 or something like that. You remember the premise
of that show? There were four celebrities,
and then there was a moderator. And he would read something unique
concerning the contestant that was to come on. But there would
be three of them. And they would come out and he
would say, pronounce your name. I'm Joe Smith, number one. Number two, I'm Joe Smith. Number
three, I'm Joe Smith. And the celebrities would question
them to try to determine who was the true Joe Smith. The true
person would have to tell the truth in response to the questions.
The two imposters, they were allowed to lie. to be deceptive. And then, at the end of the questioning,
the moderator would say, would the real Joe Smith please stand
up? You remember? And those imposters
would act like they were standing up, and you know, I'd be watching,
and oh, I knew that was him. But then the real one would stand
up. The real Joe Smith, please stand up. God Almighty, has already
identified His Son as the real Jesus Christ. He has set Him
forth. Remember what He told John the
Baptist? John said, I knew Him not. I knew Him not. That is Jesus Christ. But God
told me, this is in John 3, that upon whom you'll see The Spirit
of God descending and staying on Him, remaining on Him. John,
that's your clue. That's your signal. That's how
I'm identifying Him to you. He's the Christ. And that day,
here comes Jesus from Nazareth to be baptized. And John said,
I have need to be baptized again. He said, sufferer, allow it to
be so now, John. Thus it becometh us to be Fulfill
all righteousness. And John said, he baptized him,
and just as God told him, he saw it happen. When Christ came
up out of the water after being immersed, the heavens opened. And God spake as He never had
before. Abraham, we read, was the friend
of God. Oh, David, a man after God's
own heart. Oh, but concerning this Jesus,
God said, This is My beloved Son, hear ye Him. And after that,
every time John saw Him, he'd point and say, There He is! There
He is! Behold, the Lamb of God! The one and only Savior of men. Yes, God has set forth His Son
as the only Redeemer. Turn, if you will, to Revelation
for just a moment. Revelation chapter 5. The Lord Jesus Christ has stood
from eternity as the surety of His people. He stood in that
everlasting covenant of grace, promising His Father that in
the fullness of time, as Darwin preached last night, that He
would come. I come to do Thy will, O God. But he promised that before time
was. There's never been a time that
he wasn't the surety of his people. Look here in Revelation 5, verse
5, you know this very well. And one of the elders said unto
me, Weep not, behold, behold, oh, what a sight! The Lion of
the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed, he
always does, to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof.
And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the
four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb,
as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which
are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.
And He came, He came, and took the book," it's His book, "...out
of the right hand, of Him that sat upon the throne." Turn, if
you will, a few pages here in Revelation over to chapter 14. The Lord Jesus Christ stands
in sovereign, reigning majesty, ruling everything for the glory
of God and the salvation of His people. I hear people talk about
why God allows the world to exist. He's waiting for the Jews to
do something over there in Jerusalem. Oh, no. Jesus Christ is still
calling out His sheep. That's the only reason this world
exists. He's calling out all of His elect. Look here in verse
1 of chapter 14. And I looked, and lo, a lamb
stood. Stood. not begging for a hearing,
not begging for the entrance into someone's heart, but lo,
He stands in sovereign reigning, omnipotent power, having been
given power over all flesh. He stands on the Mount Zion,
but He's not alone. With Him, 140,000 and 4,000 representatives
of all God's elect having His Father's name written in their
foreheads. Oh yes, this same Jesus stands
high and lifted up. Lifted up. Did I mention this
last night or am I thinking of two messages at once? Well, if
I did, it bears repeating. When He went out on Mount Olivet
and the disciples stood there and they saw Him ascend up, we
read in Acts 1 verse 11, this same Jesus that is taken up,
up, up higher and higher and higher to the place that's reserved
for Him at the right hand of the Majesty on High. And God
says concerning His Son and to His Son, Set thou here, My Son,
until I make all your enemies your footstool, and they'll bow
before you and confess. Every knee shall bow and tongue
confess to the glory of God the Father that you're the Christ. And we'll all cast our crowns
at His feet and sing like we've never sung in our life, Carol."
I can't sing. I wish I could. I think I can,
but everybody tells me I can't. Our piano player at church, I
always say, are you going to back me up, give me a little
musical accompaniment? She said, nope. I refuse to play
if you sing. Oh, but I'll tell you what, I'll
tell you what, Darwin, one day I'm going to sing. I'm going
to sing. Oh, there won't be one sour note. I'm going to sing as I never
could here. Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is
the Lamb. He's worthy. He's worthy of all
praise and glory and honor. Oh, another Jesus, why? Why? Was there a defect in Him? Was
He not enough? Did He not say, I do all that
my Father's will? I do always those things that
please Him. And remember, children of God,
God the Father, the true God, He's hard to please. He's hard to please, darling.
He's not easily pleased. I'll tell you how hard to please
He is. He won't accept anything less
than perfect. That's exactly right. What did
He say? It must be perfect to be accepted. He demands perfection. And unless
He ceases to be God, He cannot demand anything else but perfection. Now where is the Holy Lord God
going to find perfection? Where will He direct His all-seeing
eyes to and detect absolute perfection? You? Me? Oh, no. All flesh is grass. Where will
He look to find satisfaction in every jot and tittle of His
holy law? Where will He find perfect satisfaction
in the accomplishment of all His will. Where is He going to
look for it? The Lord Jesus Christ. He looks down and says, I found
it. There He is. My beloved Son in
whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him. He's perfect. He's perfect. And children of
God, Every believing, redeemed sinner is perfect in Him. That's
right. I was visiting my granddaughters
in Kentucky several years ago, and I was babysitting for them,
or for their parents. And my oldest granddaughter,
Laurel, she was probably 10 at the time, And her little sister
Allie, Allison we called her, she's about seven at that time. And Laura, I look over there.
I'm sitting on the couch and I'm talking to Allie. And I look
over and Laura, she's got one. She's taking my picture with
her phone. She knows more about them things than I do. And I
said, what are you doing? She said, I took your picture,
Pawpaw. I said, let me see that. And I looked at her and I said,
my soul, I need to lose some weight. I said, I need to go
on a diet. And Allie, the young one, said,
what's that mean, Pawpaw? What's a diet? I said, Allie,
don't you think Pawpaw needs to lose some weight? She said,
no, Pawpaw, you're perfect. Love her heart. You're perfect. Listen to this. Listen to this.
You know where I'm going, don't you? Ezekiel 16. Here's the result of God finding
us in our own blood, dead, thrown out as an aborted infant. Nobody
pitied you. No eye looked upon you. No, you
were disgusting. But God says, I came by, and
I saw you, and I loved you. And I put my skirt over you,
and you became mine. And I washed you, and I suppled
you, and I decked you out in the best jewels. And I clothed
you, I clothed you, and this is the result of that. And thy
renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect. It was perfect through my comeliness
which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord." Oh, what did he say
concerning the prodigal son? Go get the best row, the very
best row. What is that? It's the perfect
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, with His holy garments
on, as holy as God's own Son. Perfect. Perfect. Accepted in
the Beloved. I've told you... Can you bear
one more story about my grandchildren? If you were up here, you'd be...
I bet he talks about his grandchildren. But one time, They came down
to Alabama several years ago on spring break, Laura and Allie,
in April. And during the month of April
they have Marble City Festival, don't they? The little town we
live in, Sylacauga, has the largest marble deposit, marble of that
type, in the world. They've used that in the Lincoln
Monument, I think the Washington Monument, places overseas. It's
just something. So I took them out to a quarry.
Oh, they just loved that. And they were having, as I said,
at that time, the festival for a week. And we went downtown
on the courthouse lawn, and there were people sculpting from big
chunks of marble that they had chosen out of the quarry. And
my granddaughters just stood there looking. And one fellow
said, would you all like to try this, one of the sculptors, and
let them try it? And they just thought that was
something. Then I took them across the street, Carol, there's the
Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory. And you know Pawpaw's going to
be a hit there. And we took them upstairs, and they had ice cream.
Got in the car, and they're sitting in the back seat. And I'm driving,
and my son, their father, is up front with me. And Laura says,
boy, Pawpaw, you live in a great place. I said, well, thank you.
I'm glad you enjoy it. And she said, Daddy, we ought
to move here. We ought to move here. They were
just wide-eyed wonder. Just wide-eyed wonder. And I
thought to myself, God help me. Because if He doesn't, I'll do
it. God help me never to get over the wonder of Your grace
and mercy to this sinner. You remember when Nathan God's
prophet went and told David who wanted to build the Lord a house,
and Nathan told David, no, but God told me to tell you this,
He's going to let your son do it. Oh, behold, a greater than
David is here. And David went in, the king,
the king, the king David, king over all Israel. He went down,
we read, and fell before the Lord, sat down, sat down before
the king of kings and Lord of lords. He said, Lord, who am
I? Who am I? Who am I that you've done all
these marvelous things for? Who am I that you've made such promises
to? And when I think that God His
Son not to spare Him, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it
in. that on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died, and He took away my sin." Oh,
Lord, who am I? Who am I? Let me wrap this up. When we drove here tonight, I wanted to... Darvin drove last
night, and I wanted to drive the night, especially because
I have a CD by my Good dear friend, David Coleman, he was in the
church in Danville. He was about my best friend. And every time I would go in
after I moved from Kentucky, I'd give him a call and we'd
try to get out and chase that golf ball around. We had some
times. Up until the last three or four
years. He became ill, and he just couldn't play anymore. Each
time I saw him, he was just weaker and weaker. This past May, May
the 25th, on a Saturday, I was in my study, and the phone rang,
and it was Dave's daughter. Dave was a great singer, by the
way. And she said, Larry, I wanted you to know, my daddy is now
singing in heaven. God just took him home. Would
you do the committal at the gravesite?" I said, Amy, it would be an honor.
When Darwin and my wife and I drove over here this evening, I put
that CD in, and my buddy was singing a song. I never heard
anybody sing it but him. I am so glad. God saves old sinners. I'm surprised and amazed. how
He sets them free. Oh, but the biggest surprise
in God saving old sinners is that He would save an old sinner
like me. Oh, my God, who am I? Who am I that Your Son should
lay down His life for me? God help us never to get over
the wonder of that. God bless you. God bless you.