Good morning. I was in good shape
until they sang that. One of the fellas said, my, it's
hard to behave yourself. What a blessing. What a blessing. I love that song. And I thank God for that grace
that reaches deeper than the Stains gone, grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Such a delight to be with you.
Would you turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. We'll read the first four verses
in just a moment. But I have to just thank the
folks here at Grace Baptist Church. For you that may not know, I
was a member here for 20 years until I went to Sylacauga nearly
six years ago to pastor. And I'm like Don. I usually make
a mess out of announcements, but not long ago I did. I was here preaching before my text, doing as I'm
trying to do now, say a few things, and just said something upon
stupid. I was talking to my pastor on
the phone, and I said, Don, you'll edit that out, right? I mean,
on the DVD and CD, because it wasn't part of my message. He
just laughed that big belly laugh of his and said, no, man, we
don't edit nothing. If you stuck your foot in your
mouth, it's stuck in there. And I'll try not to stick it
in there again. But thank you, Don, for having
me. What an honor. I don't know that
I've heard any better preaching anywhere than I've heard this
weekend. Have you? My, my, how these men
have exalted the Lord Jesus Christ. And Clay, he saved the best for
last. You just gonna leave me hanging
out there? I'm talking about you, buddy. Ladies, thank you
for the food. My, my. It's just ready. When we go down, it's all ready. And I thought, how much work
it must have took just getting it all here and getting it out
on the table. I mean, it just didn't happen. It wasn't a big bang, was it? No. I mean, just getting each
meal ready and all the cooking before that, preparing that food,
then serving it. I declare, you just spoiled us
rotten. And we love it. I do. One more thing. Our conference
at Fairmont Grace Church in Sylacauga, Alabama is at the end of this
month, the last weekend of this month. Actually, it's September
29th, 30th, and Sunday, October 1st. All the information is on
Free Grace. And I think I do this every year
since I've been pastor. You're all invited. You're all
invited. I've not seen too many of you,
but you're still invited. I'm not gonna retract the invitation. We would love to have you. Brother
Don's preaching. Brother Darwin Pruitt, and Bruce
Crabtree. I hope you can come. Come any time you're in the area
and visit us. We would love to have you. All
right, now here in 2 Corinthians, we want to read the first four
verses. Would to God, Paul writes, you
could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with
me. For I am jealous over you with
godly jealousy. That's a good kind of jealousy.
For I haven't spoused you to one husband that I may present
you as a chaste virgin to Christ. And now these words are so sad.
Paul says, 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. And that's what was happening. Verse four, for if he that cometh
preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, Or if we
receive another spirit, ye receive another spirit which ye have
not received, or another gospel which we have not accepted, ye
might well bear with him. Often, sad to say, in the ministry of the Apostle
Paul, when Paul had given himself to those to whom he preached
the glorious gospel of the blessed God, that gospel which is the
power of God unto salvation, which we've heard this weekend,
that gospel by whom these people that Paul was writing to, that
gospel by which they were saved, that glorious gospel that concerns
God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That message that Paul brought
to them, they were turning away from. Those people, as Paul said,
were being beguiled, led away by Satan. Verse 13, Paul speaks
of false apostles and deceitful workers. Verse 15, ministers
of Satan. That's who they are. And they
were led through these false apostles. They were being led
away to doubt Paul's sincerity, his motive, his apostleship even,
and the gospel, that blessed gospel he had preached to them.
That had to hurt. Don, that had to hurt. And that's why he warns them.
Verse 4, he says, I'm amazed. For he that cometh to you preacheth
another Jesus. You might well bear with him. Now, when I first read that,
those words, especially the latter part that says, ye might well
bear with him. I thought, now this is a false
apostle that's bringing this other gospel, preaching another
Jesus. And yet Paul says, ye might well
bear with him? I thought, hmm, thought about
that a while. And I thought, we've all seek
some assistance on this. Went to Mr. Hawker, listened
to what he had to say, Robert Hawker. In the opening of this
paragraph, in which Paul speaks of one coming and preaching another
Jesus or another spirit or gospel, to which he adds, ye might well
bear with him, the meaning, the meaning at first sight does not
seem so clear to be understood. And I thought, well, Mr. Hawker
had a little difficulty with that, too. And he went on to
say, but it should seem that as the apostle was complaining
of their late unkindness to him and the jealousy he felt lest
they should be led away from his ministry, he put the issue
of judgment upon this point, that if there was a preacher
that could hold forth another Jesus, more divine, more lovely,
more powerful to save, and more easily to access, to commit their
souls into his hands for salvation and happiness than Paul had showed
them, or another gospel which contained more glad tidings than
he had preached to them, they might have cause for turning
from him. In other words, if you have found
a better gospel than I preached, a greater Savior than I preached,
bear with those who are preaching him." Which is the same as saying,
that is impossible. Mr. Gill said the very same thing,
but I'll forgo Mr. Gill. I know he's my pastor's
favorite commentary, but he pretty much said the same thing that
Robert Hawker said. But let me share one more comment
from another fellow. He's still living. These other
two have done gone to glory, Gill and Hawker, but this fellow
is still around. And this is what he wrote concerning
this. He said, but it is a great mistake
to imagine that Paul wrote this epistle merely to defend himself
or to give us an account of what he did and suffered through Christ.
Paul was far too concerned for the glory of God, the souls of
men, and the gospel of Christ than that. His defense of himself
and his ministry was not a personal defense. Rather, it was a defense
of Christ and the gospel of his grace that Paul preached. As he said, you've compelled
me to do this, to remind you of what I've done for you. And
the man who wrote that, or I just read from, is Mr. Fortner. In his commentary, discovering
Christ in all the scriptures. Now that hit the nail on the
head. Another Jesus. That's the title
of my message. Another Jesus. And I've got a
simple outline. I've only got two divisions,
Chris. Usually have three, but I've
only got two. And it's this. Another Jesus,
exclamation point. And then second, another Jesus,
question mark. Why? Why? Why another Jesus? First another
Jesus, exclamation point. The very words should sound an
alarm. Another Jesus, I hope when you
even hear the expression a red flag comes up. Hmm? Good. Somebody said, yes, sir.
That doesn't disturb me. Amen. That's so. When I was sitting
in my room at the motel Thursday night, it was rather late, and
at the very time that I was putting my notes in order and writing
this very note, the alarm went off in the motel. I've never
had that happen before, Mark. Man, that thing's loud. And,
woo, woo, woo. And I thought, well, I'm sitting
there in my PJs. And I said, well, what are you
supposed to do? And I thought, do I have to gather
up my belongings and run out in the parking lot? And of course,
it's raining. Well, I had enough common sense. Let me call the
front desk. And he finally picked up his
phone and said, he said, I said, what's going on? And I couldn't
hardly hear him because boom, boom, boom. He said, don't worry
about it, it's a false alarm. That's all I needed to hear,
all I needed to hear. But you listen, this is not a
false alarm. Another Jesus, another Jesus. Paul says, beware, beware. Like Paul, I don't even like
the sound of those words to you. There's nothing good can come
of that. Another Jesus? There's nothing
good about it. I noticed on the news the other
evening, they were telling about some FEMA agents. They were going
to folks' homes that had not yet evacuated in Houston and
that area. All that devastation. And they
were telling them, you need to leave. You need to get out of
here now. It's going to get worse. These guys were fake FEMA agents. And when these people left, they
robbed their homes. Now that's some low lives, isn't
it? That's pretty low lives. But as bad as that was, those
folks that were deceived by those fake agents would only lose their
property. some possessions. If you're trusting
another Jesus, you're going to lose your immortal soul. You're
going to lose your immortal soul. If you trust another Jesus, He's
a fake. He's an imposter. This is what's
so concerned the Apostle Paul. He's been sent, this Those preaching
another Jesus, they're ministers of Satan. Don't listen to them. Don't be beguiled by them. What a diabolical maneuver on
Satan's part. How clever and how damning. Not to deny the existence of
Christ, but to introduce another. a fake, an imposter. And my soul, brothers and sisters,
that another Jesus, that imposter, that deceiver that Satan has
panned out on our generation, that's the one that's being preached
in the majority of the churches this morning and that's sad.
That's sad. He's not the Christ of God, another
Jesus. You remember in Matthew chapter
24. And I believe it was the last
time our Lord is leaving the temple with his disciples. And
he said to them, and you know how proud the Jews were of their
temple, and so were the disciples at that time. The Lord said,
you see all these stones? The day's coming. There won't
be one stone left upon another that won't be torn down. And
he left, went out to the Mount of Olives and sat down. And his
disciples came to him and said, Master, when shall these things
be? When's this going to happen?
And what will be the sign of thy coming and of the end of
the world? And the very first thing he said,
take heed that no man deceive you. That was on top of the list.
because many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and
they'll deceive many. And he repeated that again and
again throughout his answer. Take heed. Another Jesus? Impossible. Impossible. It must be a lie. Notice again
what Paul said in verse three. I'm concerned. I'm concerned. that your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. Frank, where's Frank? He preached the message. What
are you trying to hide for? I'm not going to embarrass you.
He preached the message from this text, if I remember right,
two years ago during the conference. The simplicity of Christ. And
as he pointed out, the word means the singleness of Christ. the
senior larity of Christ. There's only one. There's only
one great God and Savior. There's only one, Paul says.
Oh, and my heart breaks to hear that you may be turning away
from that single, singular, glorious, only Redeemer and listening to
someone that's telling you about another Jesus. Don't do it. Don't
you do it, Paul says. God said through the prophet
Isaiah, I am the just God and Savior,
none beside me. And why do you pray unto a God
that cannot say? Oh, what sad words. And I know people that do. praying
unto a God that cannot save. And these false apostles, these
ministers of Satan, as Paul calls them, they even admit it, Gene. How smart is that? They even
admit that there are other Jesus cannot save, as has been pointed
out this weekend, with words like this. He can't save you
if you don't allow him. Well then what good is it? What
good is it? You must open up your heart or
he can't enter. I want to trust Him. He needs
help. He can't help me. He needs help.
Another Jesus indeed. My soul, tell me, brothers and
sisters, each here, tell me, those that have gathered here
this morning, tell me you hear the alarm sounding when you hear
these words. Tell me. Tell me. Please tell
me that you're not trusting, believing in another Jesus. Not long after I came here, 26, seven years ago, moved from West
Virginia, came here looking for work and to have a place to worship
God. And Don said, Larry, why don't
you come down, stay with Shelby and me and see what God is pleased
to do. So I did. And God opened a door
for me to work at the University of Kentucky. And then I moved
my family down. But while I was here looking
for work, I might mention that the car I came here in, it was
DOA, Mark. It's pretty much dead on arrival.
And it was parked in the driveway. And Don noticed. I think I was
out with Bob Poncer this day. And Don noticed my tire was flat,
and he called AAA, and the fella came out. And he told Don, man,
that guy's riding on bologna hides. He doesn't need to. I mean, them tires are thin.
You know what a bologna hide is? He said, he doesn't need
to fix the flat. That guy needs new tread all
the way around. So not long after I began working
at the university, I joined the credit union, and I went shopping
for a car. And I did my homework, did my
homework. And I thought I did. And I saw
a private owner. I said, well, good. That's good.
I don't have to deal with one of these car salesmen. And so
I found their house up in Lexington. And I went to them. And man,
it was a blue. Ford Taurus. Remember that, Don?
I mean, it wasn't, did I say new? No, it was a used car. But
man, it looked good. It looked no dense. They had
it polished and shining. And I said in that thing, it
looked good, and I looked good in it. And you know, I walked
around and I kicked the tires. I wanted them to know, you're
not dealing with no country bumpkin. And I didn't just get off the boat. And these folks were Indian.
And the first, the man said this to me, and then he went in the
house, and the lady, she's standing there with that dot between her
eyes, she said, this is a good car, good car. And she said,
repeated what he said, we wouldn't lie to you. I said, okay, okay. And I thought, well, I certainly
don't have anything in common with these folks' religion, whatever
it is. But if it keeps them from trying
to rip me off, I said, you know, I won't lie to you. So I bought
the car, bought the car. Yeah, I kicked the tires, but
I should have popped the hood. That car used more oil than it
did gas. I was putting a quart of oil
in that thing every week. Larry Dale Rodge, y'all probably
remember that. I'd bought a lemon. I'd bought
a lemon. Paul says, if he that's coming
to you preaching another Jesus, even though he claims to be an
apostle, or he claims to be a doctor of
divinity, or reverend, or preacher, priest, or pope. If he comes
preaching another Jesus contrary to the Christ of God, contrary
to the Lord Jesus Christ of this book, then he's lying to you. He's lying to you. And if you
trust that other Jesus, you've bought a lemon. You've bought
a lemon. God forbid, God forbid, he can't
save you. He can save you. If you're trusting
another Jesus, He can save you. You're not safe trusting Him.
You say, well, Larry, that's pretty firm. Don't you think you should be
nicer, a little more tolerant? Really? Now think about it. More
tolerant of another gospel? more tolerant of those lying
on God, as Scott Richardson said. Tolerant? When I see multitudes,
Don, and some of them are my loved ones, trusting another
Jesus, and I know he's a fake, be tolerant and say nothing?
God forbid. That's just what Paul said. God
forbid. Warned them. Warned them. Years
ago, I remember watching, and some of you remember this, The
Twilight Zone, remember that? That fell on there. What was
his name, Rod? Somebody tight-lipped when he talked and introduced
each episode. But I remember as a kid, that's
one of the few channels we got, living up at the Hollow. And when I was a kid, we had
two TVs. We were uptown. We lived up in
the Hollow, but we had two TVs. Because one, and this is true,
one had the picture but no sound. So somebody gave us one that
had sound without the picture. So you set one on top of the
other and it worked just fine. Watching the Twilight Zone and
there was an episode on there about an alien that came from
space And everybody that looked at that fella, that's who he
was. I mean, like a woman that had
lost her husband. When she looked at him, she saw
her husband. A son lost a son or daughter,
whatever. When they looked at that alien, in their eyes, that's
what he became. And that's what God says. in Psalm 50. Thou thoughtest
that I was altogether such a one as yourself. You thought that
I was like you. I'm not like you. I'm not like
you. I'm not whatever you want me
to be. I'm not whatever you imagine me to be. You witness the folks
and talk to folks about the one true God and Savior, and they
say, well, this is what I think. Like that makes it so. No matter
how far-fetched, how idiotic it might be, they think, well,
if I think it, that's what He is. Whatever I want Him to be.
No, no, no, no. You thought wrong. God says,
you're thinking wrong. It's not so. Second point. The first one, another Jesus,
exclamation point, an alarm. Enough of that. Let's look at
the straight stick. Another Jesus, question mark,
why? Why? This is what I want to get
to. The true God and Savior, Jesus
Christ himself. The man that preached before
me, Don and Todd and Gene and Frank, Frank Hall, Frank Tate,
Martin, they all preach the Savior better than I do. But I'll tell
you what, there's not one of them that can preach a better,
greater Savior than what I'm trying to preach to you now.
My granddaughters, a few years ago, they were visiting. Larry,
my son, their father, and Donna, their mom, were visiting in Sillicog,
Alabama. We're there on Sunday morning,
went to service with us. And we had lunch, happened to
be having lunch that day after service. And Allie reminded me
of this, that she gave me an illustration, my youngest granddaughter,
when I was at their house the other day. Laurel, the older,
said, Pawpaw, you pastor a little church, don't you? And before
I can answer, Allie said, yeah, Laura, but they got big desserts. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
we've heard about a big savior this weekend. One that is mighty
to save, a big savior with grace that reigns and abounds. that's
able always to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him,
without question, without doubt. Another Jesus, why? Why? Was there something wrong with
the first? Was there a defect in Jesus of Nazareth? Did he
not do all things that pleased his Father? Did he not? He said He did. I do always those
things that please my Father. And remember, God is not easily
pleased. Is He not? He's hard to please. He's hard to please. You know
how hard He is to please? You know why He's so hard to
please? He demands perfection. He demands perfection. Now you
bring your decision or whatever, bring anything up to that standard
of God Almighty which says it must be perfect and see how it
measures up. Where is the eye of the omniscient
God going to look to find perfection? Where is he going to look? And
remember, if he doesn't find it, Nobody's going to be saved. Isn't that right, brethren? If
God Almighty is not perfectly satisfied, every one of us are
going to open our eyes in hell. Where's God Almighty going to
find perfection? How about that day when He who
was God in flesh came to John the Baptist to be baptized, and
John said, wait, wait, you should be baptizing me. And you want
me to baptize you? Remember what the Lord said,
thus it becometh us, John, to fulfill, not to destroy, to fulfill
all righteousness. And he was baptized. You know
the story. You know the picture. And when
he came up out of the water, And the clouds rolled back. A
dove descended, lighted on him. At the same time, God Almighty
speaking from heaven and said, this is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. He's perfect. He's perfect. He offered himself, that is Christ,
without spot to God. He offered himself not to you.
He offered himself for his people. But he made atonement to God. The atonement is not brought
before you to see whether you'll accept it or not, whether you
approve of it or not. He offered himself to God Almighty. And after he did so, he said,
it's finished. And God saved and raised him
from the dead. Amen. It's perfect, my son. Sit on my right hand until I
make every enemy bow before you. That's where our perfection is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone read it the other night,
was it Todd? In Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 10,
Paul asked concerning the animal sacrifices, if those sacrifices
made the comers thereunto perfect, wouldn't they cease to be offered?
Because once their sins were cleansed, they would have no
more remembrance of those sins. And of course the answer is yes,
they would have ceased to be offered if they would have actually
taken away sin, made the comers perfect, and then on down in
the chapter. Verse 14, I think it says, by
one offering he hath made perfect, perfected all them that are sanctified. Another Jesus, why? God himself
said in Isaiah 42, behold my servant. Here's God's estimation
of his son. Behold my servant in whom my
soul delighteth. My righteous servant, he shall
not fail. Man, I like that. Huh? I can't go through a day, I can't
start my day without failing, doing something wrong, thinking
something wrong, saying something ignorant. Oh, but he shall not
fail, and he's the one that God committed this sinner into the
hands of that one who shall not fail. I'm in his hands. He's
responsible to keep me, Gene. He accepted that responsibility
in that covenant of grace. He became my surety. God looks
to him to answer for Larry Criss. And he shall not fail. He's perfect. Remember when Gabriel appeared
to Mary? and said, Mary, you're going
to have a son. And when he's born, call his name Jesus. He shall be great. He shall be
great. And when the son of God grew
to manhood, he said, behold, behold to the religious Jews
of his day, behold, one greater than the temple. Behold, one
greater than Solomon is here. Behold, one greater than Abraham,
Jacob. Behold, one greater than all
is here. Yes, he shall be great. After the angel appeared to Mary,
he appeared to Joseph and said, Joseph, call his name Jesus for
he, he, not that other Jesus, but he, The God sent one, the
Messiah, the only begotten of the Father. He shall save his
people from their sins, and he shall not fail. What did he say? I have trod the winepress alone,
and of the people there were none to help. Don read it to
us earlier. God made him alone to be seen. to be sin for us, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him, and He did not fail. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, He did so completely, eternally, effectually, and He
did not fail. I hear folks sometimes professing
Christians, it's religious folks that talk the nuttiest, but talk
about creeping into heaven, having to slip through the back door. Because, and just not sure whether
they'll have any rewards or not. What was that silly little song
years ago? Well, if I've got any crowns,
give them the mother. Build my mansion next door to
the mother, well ain't that special. No, no, no, no. No, we're not,
We're not those who have been chosen by God, redeemed by the
blood of Jesus Christ, are not going to crawl into heaven ashamed
like maybe we're not sure whether we should be there or not. Oh
no, oh no. That's not what I read in this
book. That's not how the story ends in Revelation. We'll all
march into heaven under the banner of King Jesus, under the banner
of the captain of our salvation. We'll not creep in. Oh no, we'll
march in behind our elder brother, waving the palm leaf of victory
and saying, worthy is the lamb. He's perfect. He's perfect. Another Jesus? No, no. There's
only one name under heaven given among men by which we must be
saved. Let me come to a close here.
Don't want to infringe on my younger brother's time. I drove up here Tuesday from
Alabama, and the reason being, as you may well guess, I wanted
to spend some time with my sons and their families, their wives,
but especially those granddaughters. Those granddaughters. The reason I enjoy spending time
with them, one of the reasons, is they still enjoy being around
Pawpaw. How about that? They're not teenagers. I've got some granddaughters,
teenagers. I don't hear much from them. But they still enjoy being around
me. And you know one reason, one thing that I enjoy so much
about being around them. They haven't lost that wide-eyed
wonder of things. Since they were just that high,
I've taken them from time to time golfing with me, and let
them sit behind the steering wheel of the cart, and they couldn't
even reach the pedals, but that was fine. I need my foot on the
brake. They just wide-eyed wonder. Oh, they just loved that. They
visited me this past April. And on spring break, Allison,
Allie, and Laurel. And I took them out to the marble
quarry in Sylacauga. It's one of the largest marble
deposits in the world. They've used it everywhere, all
over the world. Lincoln Memorial and so forth. And oh, they just loved that.
Love that. Then I took them to the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory. Now that was a hit. We stood
and we watched that ice cream just roll off gallon after gallon
after gallon. And they've got a little ice
cream parlor. So we went to there and they've got 50 different
flavors. Just wide-eyed wonder. And they're sitting in the back
seat of the car as we're driving back home. And Laura, Says, Pawpaw,
you live in a great place. And her father, my son, sitting
up front with me, Daddy, she said, we ought to move down here
with Pawpaw. And Allie, her little sister,
said, Laura, we can't do that. What about all of our friends?
Just wide-eyed wonder. And I thought, God, please, please don't Don't
let this sinner ever get over the wonder of your grace to me. Don't ever let me, don't let
me get over it. When David heard the faithful
prophet deliver God's message to him, I think Frank referred
to this last night, concerning the building of a temple for
God, God said, go tell him, Nathan,
that he'll not build it, but his son will. His son will. After David's gone, the son of
David shall build a house for my name, and I will establish
the throne of his kingdom forever. Behold, a greater than Solomon
is here. But when David heard the message,
We read in 2 Samuel 7 verse 18, then went King David in and sat
before the Lord. And he said, who am I, O Lord
God? And what is my house that thou
hast brought me hither to? King David, king of Israel. And he goes before the king of
kings and sits down like a little child. And he said, in wide-eyed
wonder, oh God, who am I that you've done all this for? Old John Bunyan said when God
had gotten him lost, oh, he was so fearful. Fearful days, he
remembered, when he first saw his sin. And he said, surely
God, God won't have mercy on me. He won't save a rebel like
old John Bunyan. How can he? How can he? I'm the sinner, Bunyan said.
But he said, so far was God from rejecting him when he came to
him by Jesus Christ. So far was God from casting him
out. He received him. And there was rejoicing in heaven
because old John Bunyan had come home. They had a party in glory. And old John Bunyan stood in
wide-eyed wonder. Why me? Dave Coleman sings a
hymn that goes like this, and I'll close by quoting a portion
of it. I am so glad God saves old sinners. Aren't you? I'm surprised and
amazed how he sets them free. But the biggest surprise in God
saving old sinners is that he would save an old sinner like
me. My soul, that deserves wide-eyed
wonder, does it not? God bless you. God bless you.