Okay, turn to 2 Corinthians. No, I'm going to do a different
reading to start with. We're going to come back to 2 Corinthians,
but I want you to turn first of all to Colossians chapter
1. But if you'll go ahead and turn
to both of them, I'll put them together for you. Now the first one is in 2nd Corinthians
11 and verse 3. 2nd Corinthians 11 3. 3rd verse, the 11th chapter,
2nd Corinthians. But I fear lest by any means
as the serpent beguiled Eve or tricked Eve through his subtlety,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ." That's our title this morning, the simplicity that
is in Christ. Now let's go to Colossians chapter
1. And I choose this passage because
it describes for us the wonderful superiority of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It gives Him title after title
after title that belong all to Him. And if we speak this morning
by the grace of God on the simplicity that is in Christ, here is a
wonderful passage to serve as a background. Beginning at verse
15 of the first chapter of Colossians, speaking of our Lord Jesus, who
is the image of the invisible God, Christ is the only God that we
shall ever see, who is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him, by Christ, were all
things created. Everything. Mother Nature had nothing to
do with it. There is no such character. That
is a figment in the mind of men who hate the God of the Bible.
And if you and I use it, we're slandering our Lord Jesus Christ. He not only made everything,
He rules everything He made. By Him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth. visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by Him, and I notice this, and for Him,
for Him. And He is before all things. Our Lord antedates all things. He ever is, He ever was, and
He ever shall be. And by Him all things consist. That is to say, this world is
governed and ruled by Christ Jesus our Savior. I mean everything
in it. and about it. I was talking to
a gentleman this week, and I must have said something to the effect
that God rules this world and everybody in it, and he said,
Oh, hold on a minute. He said, No, He doesn't. I said,
If He's God, He does. And I explained it to him a little
bit more plainer than that and quoted a couple of verses of
Scripture. This man doesn't know who God is, but he thinks he
does. He's been told that he does because
the God of modern-day Christianity ain't no God at all. It's one
that we let do things. That's utter and absolute heresy. Any way we want to slice it,
it's just absolutely false. We've heard a lie so long we
think it's the truth. When the truth comes to our ears,
we don't like what we hear. Verse 18, and he is the head
of the body, that is of his body, his spiritual body, which is
what? The church. Now I don't mean
everybody that's calling themselves a church, I mean the true spiritual
bride of our Lord Jesus Christ. scattered all over this world.
He's the head of the body of the church who is the beginning. Christ is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the
preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in Him, in Christ, should all fullness dwell. Now let me read
these next few verses here very carefully and slowly. Verse 20, speaking of God, and having made
peace through the blood of Christ's cross, God, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, Jehovah, has made peace with somebody some people,
through the blood of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. By
Him, by Christ, to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated
and enemies." Now look carefully at that statement. Have you ever been an alien to
God? And an active rebel and enemy
of God. Preacher, I've been a good person
all my life. That's a lie. I say it to your
face and to my face. This book says that we're born
hating God. Now, not the one that we imagine
to be God, but the real one. Having made peace through the
blood of His cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself
by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven and you that were sometime alienated all believers at one
time were alienated to God and enemies in our mind how? by wicked works and the most
wicked works that a person can do are religious wicked works
just like the characters in Matthew 7 Lord we've done this we've
done that we've done the other in your name he said not everyone
that calls me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of God
and when they got through explaining why he should accept them because
of what they've done for him he said I never knew you you
claim to know me but I don't know you depart from me you that
work iniquity wicked works, iniquity. Yet now has He reconciled. This reconciliation first took
place in old eternity, then it took place at Calvary's tree,
and when God invades our heart by His Holy Spirit to save our
poor souls, we're reconciled again. It's all one reconciliation. In the body of His flesh, this
is how we are reconciled. You notice that all of this is
about Christ, He ain't saying a thing about us, except being
alienated and enemies in our minds by wicked works. In the body, verse 22, in the
body of His flesh, through death, to present you holy h-o-l-y and
unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight. That's called perfection, ladies
and gentlemen, and nothing less than that. God cannot accept
anything less than Himself, and He's absolutely perfect. And then in verse 23 we have
a most interesting word to begin the verse. Now there are a few of these
scattered throughout the New Testament especially. Hebrews
3 has at least two within the space of about 18 or 20 verses. So here it says, all of these things in the preceding
three verses seem to be contingent on an if. But I declare to you in no uncertain
terms that if this if is contingent on us doing anything, we ain't
ever gonna make it. There are two kinds of ifs in
the Bible. One is an if of evidence and
the other is an if of condition. This is an if of evidence. It is not a condition that if
we do this then the Lord will save us. We got to cart before
the horse. Got to wagon pullin' the horse.
That cannot be right. God acts and we react. And that's just how it is. Now
let's read it in that light. If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel, these are people who have heard and by the power
of God's grace and spirit have believed the gospel and trusted
Christ. Be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel, You remember when Brother Mahan said up ten years
ago right in this same pulpit, he said, you can't move from
where you ain't never lived. You can't move away from the hope
of the gospel if you've never truly possessed the hope of the
gospel which is in Christ. Remember now this is an evidence
if you continue. In other words, continuing in
Christ is proof, evidence if you will, of one truly knowing
and loving Christ. And this Bible says if God ever
saves you, it's not for a week or a month or ten years, it's
forever and ever! It cannot be changed! It can never not be true once
it is true. Let me start again, verse 23,
"...if ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be
not moved away from the hope of the gospel, the gospel which
was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof
I, Paul, am made a minister." All right, we're going to stop
right there. I know that's not even the end
of the sentence. I had the periods marked in a
couple of these chapters, and there's a whole bunch of verses
between the sentences. All right, I need you to go with
me now. I meant to ask you to mark Colossians. Let's go back to 2 Corinthians
11. It's amazing how many times in
our hymns that the truth of grace is so evident. I just couldn't
count the times in just those three songs that it is truly
amazing and wonderful indeed. But the newer songs are the least
of that you will find and in some you won't find it at all.
but you'll find contradictory statements. Statements that Christ
does part and you do part and when you add them up together
you get the whole thing. That ain't true. If Christ is not everything to
me, He's not anything. All right, so before we read
this statement again in 2 Corinthians 11, let's ask the Lord to bless
his word today. Oh Lord God of heaven and earth, we live in this world that you've
made and we hardly recognize that
you've made it. By the grace and power of your
Spirit, some of us live in a new life in Christ wherein we've
been raised from the dead and brought to life in Him who is
our life. But Lord, we live in a world,
both religious and otherwise, that hates our God and our Savior,
Christ Jesus. And they hate His people because we bring great embarrassment
upon them This world's God can't do anything
without our help and our aid. But ours is exactly opposite. We can't do anything without
His help and aid. Lord, as we open your book this
morning, take this blessed subject as
our title, The Simplicity of Christ. Lord, open our minds and our
hearts and help this pitiful preacher to speak these words
plainly and clearly. But it's not my word. Lord, it
has to be your word. You have to own it to our hearts. Apply it to ourselves. the simplicity
that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, we beg in His dear name
and for His sake, Amen. Alright, let's take this one
statement here in 2 Corinthians 11. These words are addressed to
a congregation of believers in the city of Corinth where Paul
had ministered. I don't trust my memory but I
think at 18 months when he carried the gospel there the first time.
So now he's writing back to this
congregation. This is the second of these letters
at least that have made it into our Bibles. And he says to them
concerning reports that he has received and various other ways
of ascertaining what's taking place. But I fear lest by any means
as the serpent, that's the devil in the Garden of Eden, beguiled
Eve. Adam was not beguiled. he joined
Eve with his eyes wide open. Beguiled Eve through his subtlety. That's the correct pronunciation
now for that word. I know it doesn't look like it.
We've got a few more of those in the English language that
don't look any way like they're pronounced. Subtlety! His ability to fool us and trick
us. He said, now you know God didn't
tell you not to eat of that tree. He said, the reason He told you
that is because if you partake of it, you'll become like God.
You can be your own God. And that's what man has done.
We're born that way, being our own God. and it's the same devil who tricked
our first parent who does the same for us to this very day.
That's his favorite route. So your minds should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. Now this morning I want
to deal with just one thing about the simplicity of Christ. Now if you hang on to 2 Corinthians
flip over to Colossians go one more actually two more chapters
but it's only one page more in my Bible. In Colossians chapter
3 I give you this one single definition of what is called
here the simplicity that is in Christ. Now you understand that
when we call it simple, at the same time we acknowledge that
it is absolutely profound, deeper than our minds can ever fathom.
We'll spend all eternity and we won't exhaust the simplicity
of Christ. Here it is in just one statement,
Colossians 3.11, where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
free, but Christ is all and in all. That, my dear friends, is
what the simplicity of Christ is all about. And that, Christ
is all and in all. That is the religion of the gospel
of Christ. And if for me he's not that,
or for you he's not that, we ain't in that kingdom. We're
still lost. We may be religious. We may have
all sorts of visions and dreams and our hair standing on the
back of our head and all this kind of stuff. But that ain't
worth nothing. The devil can use that more than
you can ever believe. He's an expert at that. If all
you need to go by is feelings, he's got plenty. He'll give you
all you want. Christ is all and then all. Now, when that whole statement
has the whole thing, but that doesn't mean I'm finished. I want to explain that one. I got these words from somebody
a long time ago. is all. He who longs to know the living
God will make no progress in that venture until Christ is
all and in all. God cannot be known except through
our Savior, the Lord Jesus. And Christ cannot be known unless
Christ is all. You can't trust a partial Christ,
one who's half what the Christ is all said. It doesn't work. There's no reason it should because
it's not necessary. God saves whom He pleases and
so does His Son, the Lord Jesus. Let me read you a statement.
Y'all are kind of slow this morning on turning, so I'll just read
it to you right quick. In John chapter 14, I shouldn't
have told you that even. One of the disciples is having
a problem with what our Lord said to him. These are in verses
7 through 9, so if you're turning, I'm going to still read. If you
had known me, our Lord speaking now to his apostles, you should
have known my father also. And from henceforth, you know
him." You not only know me, he said, but you know God and have
seen him. And Philip said, Lord, if you'll show us the Father, it'll
be sufficient for us. But we ain't seen him yet. Jesus said unto him, Have I been
so long time with you, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?
He that has seen Me has seen the Father. And how say you then,
show us the Father?" The only God we'll ever know
is revealed in the personal and blessed work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now this is not hard to understand
mentally, but oh my goodness, it's hard in here, in our soul. This defies anything that we
even want to believe. We want things that show up outwardly,
that we can see with these eyes and not the eyes of the soul.
And yet the Bible is the exact opposite. Here, these were apostles. who had followed our Lord for
quite some time, but by the time we get to John 14, and yet they
had not discovered that God is revealing Himself to them in
the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. My goodness, if they could miss
it then, given the fact they've been elevated to such high position
and place along with our Savior, how on earth are we ever going
to make it? Alright, second thing, whoever it is that is looking
for pardon and forgiveness of sin will make no progress whatsoever
on that journey until he discovers that Christ is all and in all. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
7 it says, "...in whom we have redemption through his blood
even the forgiveness of sin. Christ is the only one who can
take our sins upon himself and he did that two thousand years
ago but as time brings one generation after another on the face of
this earth we discover or at least in some part we discover
who it is that our Lord Jesus died to redeem. Because I'm telling
you, if He redeemed you, you must be redeemed. And there ain't
no shortcuts in this matter, but we have to find out by the
grace and power of God the Holy Spirit, who God is, who Christ
is, and who we are. And that's never failing. It's
always going on in this world. Alright, the third thing. The Bible requires that we be
holy and sanctified. But whoever would be holy and
sanctified will never achieve either until we find out that
in sanctification and holiness Christ is all and in all. It's not made up of five or six
elements. It's not part what I do and part
what Christ does. It's all Christ from start to
finish. Here's the fourth one. He who would live forever in
heaven cannot get an inch closer than
where he is when he's lost and helpless in his sin, he can't
gain an inch toward heaven unless Christ is all and in all." I'm telling you it's all in Him.
You've heard this a thousand times. Now I want to talk about some
areas in which this glorious truth is really true. first of all regarding the eternal
plan and purpose of God. Now you do understand, I know
you understand this, that everything that happens in time was purposed
and planned in old eternity. Everything that happens in time
regarding our Savior and the persons whom He saved was the
eternal purpose of God. This Bible uses strong language
to talk about God's eternal purpose. It says as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. That word ordained is double
first cousin to predestinated. As many as were predestinated
believed and trusted in the Lord Jesus. That's in Acts 13.48. I'm just telling you what we
see in time is what was purposed in eternity. Now here are some
things to consider in that regard. Before time ever was, when this
earth did not even exist, if Christ is all, where was He then? Where was He? What was He doing? Let me read you a statement.
This time I will not tell you where I'm turning to. If you'll ask me afterwards if
it's written down, I might can tell you. And now, O Father, these are
the words of our Savior, glorify you me with your own self with
the glory which I had with you before the world was. John 17 5. That is this glory that Christ
revealed in coming into this world was the glory that he had
in heaven and yet that glory in the bodily incarnation of
our Lord Jesus Christ There's a lot hidden that we couldn't
see. Men could not see. And he prays to his father in
that wonderful intercessory prayer that when he returns to glory
he looks forward to having all this outward manifestation of
eternal deity to be displayed in himself and not just in himself. but when he was there the first
time before he came in the incarnation there was no human form but this
time when we see him the book says we'll be made like him for
we'll see him as he is first john chapter three now that's
something to ponder wonderful wonderful indeed alright the
second thing if you still got Colossians you'll turn to chapter
1, I'll tell you what that verse is in just a second. There was a time when this world
was created. It has not always existed. I
know you hear them on television talking about billions and billions
of years ago. This was there and that was here. And these
people, there is no test under the sun that they can speak with
such Precision is that. They don't know which end is
up, but they're making a killing on duping people, so if you like
to be duped, you just go right ahead. I don't buy it. There was a time when this world
was made. If Christ is really all, where
was He then and what was He doing? Colossians chapter 1 and verse
16 we just read it a little while ago here's what he was doing
here's where he was for by him this is Colossians 1 16 for by
him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in
earth visible and invisible Whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him
and for Him. Thirdly, at the very beginning
of time, when Adam and Eve were first put in the Garden of Eden, there was a time when sin entered
this world through our first parents. Eve sinned first and Adam sinned
afterwards. Did I say Eve sinned and Adam
sinned? But Adam's sin is the one that
brings it to all the human race that follows after them. Eve
was not our federal head and representative. Therefore, what
she did could not be charged to us. But everything that Adam
did is chargeable to us. God had told Adam, in the day
that you eat of this forbidden tree, you shall surely die. And he lived a few hundred more
years after that day, but he died just like that, spiritually. He became dead. dead in trespasses
and in sins. And therefore, as a result of
our federal head, every member of the human race is born a sinner. We're not born to see if we're
going to be one, we are born one. And it doesn't take us very long
to improve on that. I mean improve by showing ourselves
to be sinners in more than one respect, not only by imputation,
but by our own choice and practice. Well, if Christ is everything,
and He is, what was He doing when Adam fell? You can find this in Galatians
4. I see how it goes. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth His Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law that's where Christ was and what
he's doing when Adam fell it was no surprise to God he knew there's never a time
he didn't know But He knew perfectly and fully every event that would
transpire on the face of this whole earth and universe from
eternity past. If He had wanted to, He could
have simply decided not to do what He planned to do. But God,
who is really God, can't retract His plans because He purposed
for us to fall in Adam. that in His glorious Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, we might be raised to life in Him by representation
and substitution the very same way we fell in Adam. Why does
God have to go to such trouble to do it that way? So that He
can be just and still justify the ungodly. You mean, preacher, that God
purposed for man to fall? That's exactly what I said. If He did not, then there might
be some, I don't think there is, but there could possibly
be a little shred of truth in this thing that God didn't want
that to happen. And I'm telling you, if God doesn't
want something to happen, it ain't happening. I don't care
how many armies or rulers or dictators or presidents or whatever
are involved. Fifthly, there's going to be a time, I
have no idea when. I don't think we're supposed
to know. I think the Bible tells us that we cannot know. and yet
people still set dates and say the Lord's coming back so and
so and so and so and this one guy is fixing to do it now for
the fourth time. Now that takes stupid people
to let the guy be wrong three times already. I think it's been
three. It doesn't matter if it's three or one. The Bible says
nobody knows it, not even the angels in heaven. There's a time when this world
is going to end. God's purpose for it will be
over. If Christ is all, where will
He be on that day called Judgment Day? Now this time you can turn
with me. John chapter 5 Well, I knew it didn't look right.
I was in John 4. John chapter 5. Oh, I could read you a bunch of statements,
but I'm just going to pick out two verses. Verse 22. When are
we talking about if Christ is all? When? When judgment day
comes. And our Lord will dispense but
two sentences. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity. or come you blessed into the
joys of your Lord." Now you check Matthew 25 and see if that ain't
what that says. All right, here we are, John
chapter 5 verse 22. For the Father judges no man,
but has committed all judgment unto the Son. Now this took place,
this declaration, this glorious appointment of Christ before
time ever was, before man ever was, before this world ever was.
Look at verse 27. Here's the authority of King
Jesus on the day of judgment, and today for that matter, and
has given him authority to execute judgment also. What's this? Because He is the Son of Man. Well, what happened to because
He is the Son of God? Because the Father cannot give
anything to Christ as the Son of God. You know why? He's already
God. He has everything and they're
one. No difference at all between
them. One God in three persons. Blessed Trinity. But the name,
the title for our Lord's humanity is the Son of Man. And on Judgment
Day, our Savior is the Judge. And every judgment is eternal,
irreversible, and cannot be changed. Oh, well, I got... Can we go back to 2 Corinthians? I'm just going to let that be
it. But go back to 2 Corinthians
11 and Colossians chapter 3. I was going to talk to you about
Christ being everything in the Bible. The first person I was
going to interview was old Simeon in Luke chapter 2. The Lord promised
that man, he was a priest at the temple in Jerusalem, and
the Lord promised Simeon that, now get this, that he could not
die until he had literally seen the Lord Jesus Christ, God's
salvation! And he's there on duty the day
that Christ is brought in to offer a sacrifice for a male
child who opens the mother's womb, who is the first to be
born of this mother. And Simeon has Christ in his
arms, and he said, Now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace. And what that means is, he said,
Let me die, because my eyes have seen your salvation. He had some vision other than
physical eyesight to see in this infant, this One who was Himself
the Ancient of Days. You follow me? This man saw Christ
through the spiritual eyes of the soul, making Him ready to
go to glory. And that's when we'll be ready.
when we've seen all of God's salvation in the person and work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all there. 2nd Corinthians
11 and verse 3, but I fear less by any means
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And that simplicity,
simply put, is what? Christ is all and in all.