Let's turn back to 2 Corinthians
chapter 11 while you're turning there. Chuck and John. Are going to
have a surgery tomorrow, a kidney transplant, and everybody remember
them in prayer that the Lord will help them in this, and I
believe he will. And I'm thankful they're in the
Lord's hands, aren't you? Also, Tonight, we're going to have
a baptism. Shawn Stapleton is going to confess Christ in believers
baptism. And if you want to be baptized
tonight, let me know. Baptism is very important. It's
the believers public confession of Christ. And I really don't
have confidence in somebody until they have confessed Christ in
believers baptism. Second Corinthians, Chapter 11. I've entitled this message. The
simplicity. The simplicity. That is in Christ
Jesus. Paul, under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit, says to the Corinthians, I fear. Now, this
was a great fear. Paul had for the Corinthians,
it's a great fear I have for you, it's a great fear I have
for myself. I really am afraid of this. I
fear. Lest by any means, as the serpent,
the devil, beguiled and deceived and turned upside down Eve through
his subtlety. through his craftiness, through
his deception. So your minds should be corrupted
from the simplicity that's in Christ. That word simplicity is the singleness. The onlyness. The simpleness. that is in Christ
Jesus. The simplicity that's in Christ.
Now, I don't know of anything much more complicated than religion.
Now, I love the simplicity that's in Christ that Paul speaks of,
you know, something simple. That means there's only one thing
there. You don't have two things to choose from. I like that.
I don't like to be given a choice. I like there to be only one place
to look. Nowhere else. We read of the
simplicity that's in Christ Jesus, but how complicated is religion
with all the smorgasbord of choices you're given? While we have the
seven great religions of the world, Christianity, so-called
Judaism, Islam, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucianism, Taoism, and there's
hundreds of branches in all those different religions. And all
of them claim to be ways to the Supreme Being, and some people
say, well, there's truth in all of them. You pick out the best
part. That's so confusing. That's so convoluted. That's
so complicated. What about within Christianity? You have Eastern Christianity
and Western Christianity. You have Protestant and Catholic. How many religious denominations
are there? I don't know, but there's a lot.
There's Baptists and Methodists and Catholics and Presbyterians
and Church of Christ and just go on and on, all these denominations. And let me say this, all denominations
are man-made. You won't find them in the Bible.
Is Christ divided? No. Denominations are man-made. But it's so confusing when you're
given all these choices. Which denomination is the best?
Which one should I pick? You got charismatic. You got
non-charismatic. I think of Baptists. How many
different kinds of Baptists are there? I mean, I guess there's
hundreds of different kinds of Baptists, you know, even under
the banner of Sovereign Grace. I remember three or four years
ago, we were going to Phoenix to see the Grand. We flew into
Phoenix. We're going to see the Grand Canyon, but we're going
to be there on Sunday. And I thought, well, I'd like to go to church
somewhere there on Sunday. I typed in Sovereign Grace on the Internet
and 300,000 things came up, literally 300,000 things. And I looked
at Phoenix and it said there's a Sovereign Grace Church in Phoenix.
I looked it up and it was a Pentecostal church. It was charismatic. I
mean, they speak in tongues. They did all that kind of stuff.
Well, if that's Sovereign Grace, so is Hindu and Buddhism and
everything else. You know, I mean, it's just complicated
and convoluted. There's so many choices involved. You know, you have different
modes of worship. Well, you can choose traditional or Contemporary,
whatever you want. You can have rock and roll or
you can have pipe organ music. You can have high church, low
church, formal, informal, liturgical. We have preachers. We have reverends.
We have clergymen. We have men of the cloth. We
have bishops and cardinals, pastors, reverends and right reverends.
Religion. It's so confusing. You know,
we even use rigid religious words. We call these benches. We call
them pews. Where did that come from? We call this auditorium. This is a big room. We call it
a sanctuary. Where is that coming from? We have cathedrals and steeples
and spires. Where is the simplicity that
is in Christ Jesus? Wouldn't you agree that religion
is a very complicated layer upon layer and upon layer, compound
and complex, where is the simplicity that's in Christ Jesus? And oh,
the hodgepodge of doctrines, while contradictory, they each
claim to be true, and they're all a variation of the same thing.
They're compound. They're a mixture of grace and
works. Now, it's got to be one or the
other, but religion makes it compound. Where is the simplicity
that is in Christ Jesus? We have different views of baptism.
Well, you can be baptized by immersion or you can be baptized
by being straight. Take your pick. Take your pick.
There's always a choice involved. You think of the emphasis that
religion gives on political activism and numbers and so on. You want
the first thing somebody always asks me about this church. First
thing, you know what it is? How many you got? How many people
go there? If the Lord's there, why would
you care? If the presence of the Lord there,
if the gospel's there, why would you care about how many? Something
wrong with that. There's other things involved.
Regarding the question, how does God save sinners or what must
I do to be saved? How many different answers will
we get? And they're all compound. What
does salvation by grace mean? Everybody says they believe in
salvation by grace. What do you mean by that? Tell
me, what do you mean? What did Christ actually accomplish
on the cross? You know, for instance, Does the blood of Christ actually
save? Well, yes. Yes, he shed his blood
for you. He shed his blood for everybody.
He accomplished forgiveness for everybody if they accept him
or if they, well, If I say that, all of a sudden I've introduced
something else. No, it's not the blood of Christ that saves.
It's what I do with the blood of Christ that saves. You see,
it's compound. Oh, we couldn't be saved without
the blood of Christ. But the blood of Christ alone isn't enough.
I need to do something to make it work for me. That's compound. That's convoluted. That's complex. Where is the simplicity that's
in Christ? Even under the banner of reform
doctrine, people talk about reform doctrine, I think reform from
what? You know, if you're reformed, that means you started out bad
and now you're good. Something's wrong with that. That's. Where's the simplicity
that's in Christ Jesus? Paul feared corruption from the
simplicity that's in Christ, didn't he? And I do, too. Now,
for something to be corrupted, what takes place? Well, if I
have nothing but pure water in this glass in front of you, it's
probably making you thirsty when you look at it. If I put a drop
of gasoline in it or a drop of arsenic or a drop of ink, it's
become corrupted, hadn't it? Corruption is the addition of
something. If something is simple, that
means it's all alone. We just heard in that song, other
help have I none. Hangs my helpless soul on thee. Now, the writer of that hymn
understood something about the simplicity of Christ. He said,
Other help have I none. Other hope have I none. Hangs
my helpless soul on thee. That simplicity. Looking nowhere
else. If something is added to something,
it's no longer simple. It's become complex and understand
this. The truth is always simple. Always. No exceptions to that
rule. If it seems complicated, if it
seems convoluted, if it seems complex, if it seems brilliant,
it's not the truth. The truth is always simple, the
simplicity that's in Christ Jesus. You know, I think of the evolutionary
theory and it is a theory. It is not founded upon verifiable
facts. It has things getting more complex.
It says, look how far we've come, look where we've come from, where
we were. Creation says, look how far we've fallen. Big difference. Now, corruption, Paul said, I
fear lest you be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ
Jesus. Corruption is the introduction
of the word and. That's all it takes. It's the
introduction of the word and. The scriptures and our traditions,
the scriptures and our customs, the scriptures and the scriptures
and our creeds, the scriptures and our constitutions. No. Scriptures
alone. The introduction of anything
else is a corruption from the simplicity that's in Christ Jesus.
I don't care what it is. It's a corruption. Christ and
your works, Christ and your decision, Christ and your will. No, Christ alone. Anything added
to that is a corruption from the simplicity that's in Christ
Jesus. You see, God's grace. It's not
an offer. Here's grace, it's up to you
to accept it, to reject it. No, that's the corruption of
it. God's grace saves. You know, I was thinking about
this, this thing of simplicity. If you have a simple view of
man, what do I mean by that? All he is, is sin. That's it. He's not a mixture of good and
bad. He isn't a bad person, but still he has the power of free
will and he can decide to accept Jesus and be saved. No, if you
believe, if you have a simple view of man, all he is, is sin. Totally depraved, totally unable
to save himself. You're going to have a simple
view of grace, aren't you? You're going to believe the only way
you can be saved is by the grace of God. His grace must do everything. Turn with me for a moment. Ephesians
chapter 4. While you're turning there, you
know, in the next verse, Paul warned of another Jesus, another
spirit and another gospel. And that's what we have when
we're corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ Jesus. But look
at these words in Ephesians chapter 4. Verse 4. There is one body. There's one
church. There's one body, the body of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the church of God's elect, and not two churches.
You only have to make a choice which church. There's no choice
involved. Hold your finger there and turn
over to Joshua 24. Joshua 24. And we'll
get back to this idea of one in just a moment. Verse 14. People use this passage of Scripture
to show that there's a choice involved in religion. Choose
you this day whom you'll serve. Remember that? Choose you this
day. Make a choice. Choose you this day whom you'll
serve. This proves that there's a choice involved. Well, let's
see what's actually said. Verse 14. Now, therefore, fear
the Lord. And serve him in sincerity and
in truth and put away the gods which your father served on the
other side of the flood in Egypt and serve you the Lord. If it
seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, well, choose your poison,
choose this day whom you'll serve, whether the gods which your father
served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods
of the Amorites in the land whose you dwell. But as for me in my
house, we'll serve the Lord. Now, what's he saying? He's saying
Serve the Lord. And if you don't want to do that,
go ahead and choose whichever area you're going to go into.
Do you know error is always chosen, isn't it? Error is something
you choose. When you believe the truth, you
don't choose to believe the truth. You believe the truth because
it's the only thing to believe. You're not given a choice. You don't
have to choose this one. No, this is the truth. You believe
the gospel. You believe what God's word says.
Now, if you want to go some other direction, well, Amorites choose
that way or But there's no choice involved in this thing. One,
nothing to get confused about. Now back to Ephesians chapter
four. There's one body. And one spirit,
God, the Holy Spirit, verse four, even as you're called in one
hope of your calling, there's only one hope. That hope is that
Christ lived for me, died for me, and was raised for me. That's
the only hope there is. There aren't two hopes. Verse five, one Lord, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who's in control of everything. One Lord. You know, I was thinking about most people's
concept of God, you know, the choices they have in their different
views of God. People talk about, oh, we need
to get America turned back to God. It's too bad we kicked him
out of our government. We kicked him out of our society.
I'm thinking, poor God. Poor God. You know, a God like
that isn't even worth worshiping. He's a non-existent God. He's
a non-existent God. There's one Lord. That's the
Lord of glory. That's the one who controls everything
and everyone, and everybody's in His hands, and He does whatever
He wills. He's the Lord. He's the Lord. There's one Lord. Then He says
next, there's one faith. You know, every believer believes
the same thing. Exactly. Exactly. They believe
that Christ is all in their salvation. And they believe if anybody's
saved, it's because Christ saved them. There's complete agreement. There's complete unity. I don't
have to argue with any believer about this. They give God all
the glory and salvation. There's one faith. That's the
faith of God's elect. It's the faith that all of God's
people have. There's one baptism. There's
only one baptism. Baptism is so important. Baptism doesn't save anybody,
but Christ's baptism saved everybody. He was baptized under the wrath
of God, immersed in the wrath of God. Submerged under the wrath
of God, raised from the wrath of God, and every believer in
him was saved by what he did. And there's one baptism, that
baptism by immersion. That's the believer's confession
of Christ. Oh, it's so important. There's
one baptism. And then he says, there's one
God and father of all who is above all and through all and
in you. All. One. Nothing to get confused
about. Don't you love that? Don't even
have to make a choice. There's one Lord. There's one
faith. And there's one baptism. I couldn't help but think of
Paul's words to the men in Athens when he was there and the Scripture
says he saw, he beheld their devotions. He beheld their devotions. He saw that the city was wholly
given to idolatry. He said, I perceive in all things
you're too religious. You're too superstitious. Same
word as religion. You're too religious. You've got all these
choices. You've got this smorgasbord. You've got a God for this, a
God for that. This God and that God. He said the God. And then
he saw that devotion to the unknown God. And what they were saying,
they're saying, just in case we left out one, we'll make an
unknown God. We want to cover all of our bases.
He says the one that you ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. The God of the Bible. Now, simplicity, I hate this
complexity, I hate all the choices involved. It's so confusing.
God's not in that. Where is the simplicity? The singleness, the onlyness
that's in Christ Jesus. Now, for the most important part
of this message, I've spent a lot of time on this introduction.
The introduction lasted a whole lot longer than the message.
What is the simplicity that's in Christ Jesus? You see as well
as I do that religion is anything but simple. It's very complicated. And you think, I can see why
people just become overwhelmed and just give up. What's the
use? But there is something called
the simplicity of Christ Jesus. What is the simplicity that's
in Christ Jesus? Now, first of all, I have a very
simple message. And I preach this message every
time I preach. If you want to hear a different
message, you're going to have to go somewhere else. Because this
is the only message by the grace of God that I... One message. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2,
verse 2, For I determined, I made this my resolve. I determined
not to know anything among you, not even count it. I'm not even
going to talk about it. It's not even an issue. I determined
not to know anything among you. Say, Jesus Christ, who He is,
said Jesus Christ and Him crucified what He did. That is my only
message. Every time I preach, I don't
care what the subject is. This must be the sum and substance
of it. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Who He is, He's God. He's the ruler. And what he did,
he was crucified. And what did he accomplish by
that? The salvation of his people. And I must preach that every
time I preach, no matter what the subject is. There was a young
man in the last century in England that had just preached a great
message, so we thought. And he was walking home with
another older man and feeling pretty good about himself. He
said, what do you think about my message? Man paused, he said it was a
very poor message. The guy was shocked. Poor. He said, did I preach any error?
He said, no. He said, was my speech bad? No, it was great. Were my illustrations
good? Yeah, they were fantastic. Well,
what was wrong with my message then? He said, you didn't preach
Christ. And the fellow replied, Christ
wasn't in the text. And he said, young man, every
road leads to London. And every text leads to Christ. And the job of the preacher.
Is to get to Christ in that text, there's only one message, Jesus
Christ and him crucified, we have a very simple doctrine.
It's the doctrine of Christ. Very simple. Now that it's mysterious,
it's glorious. I mean, the things that we preach,
it's not like it's simple in the sense of, you know, one on
one. It's mysterious and glorious and high and holy, no doubt about
that, but it's simple, it's single, it's not compound. We have the
doctrine of Christ. All of the doctrines of the Bible
make up the one doctrine of Christ. And if you add anything, you
no longer have the doctrine of Christ. You have been corrupted
from the simplicity that's in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is
the sum of every doctrine in the Bible. Now, let me give you
some examples of what I'm talking about. Election. God's choice of his
people before time began. Now. Somebody doesn't preach
election. does not preach the gospel. Now
you can just write that down. He doesn't preach election. He
doesn't bring one. Well, explain election. According as he's chosen
us in him. Christ is the key to election.
It's not some arbitrary choice on God's part. He didn't just,
well, I'm going to pick out God and I'm going to put him in Christ.
No, I've always been in him. Mysterious, but simple. The only
reason for election is Christ. God didn't foresee you'd believe.
And then choose you because he foresaw you believe. Yeah, he
foresaw you believe because he because he foresaw he give you
the faith. But God's people have always been in the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a secure place to be. There's
never been a time when I'm not in Christ. Christ is election. Christ be my first elect, he
said, and then chose us in him, our living head. When you talk
about justification. Well, I'm justified by his righteousness. That means before God, I stand
without guilt. I stand without sin. I stand
perfect in Christ Jesus. And it's because his righteousness
is given to me. That's the only reason. You can't
understand justification without understanding Christ's righteousness.
When we talk about redemption, being redeemed, having my sins
paid for. Well, my sins were redeemed by
his blood. He is my redemption. He's made unto me wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption. If I talk about
calling, Paul called the Corinthians the called of Christ Jesus. He's
the one who does the calling by his spirit. And we're the
called of Christ Jesus and those who are called. I love this scripture. To the Greeks, the preaching
of Christ crucified is foolishness. To the Jews, it's a scandal.
But unto them which are called. Both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God and Christ, the wisdom of God. Do you see
in Jesus Christ, the very power of God to your salvation? And
he's everything in it. Do you see that? Do you see that
he's the very wisdom of God? God is so wise. He's made a way
to be just and yet justify all who are in Christ. And you've
been called by God. That's what's called, see. We're
sanctified in him, we're accepted in the beloved in whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
If we even talk about the doctrine of the second coming of Christ,
the emphasis is not when, but who's coming, who's coming, not
all religion, all offensive. When, when, when? Well, I hope
it's today. I don't know when it'll be, but I know this. I
know who's coming. That's the emphasis. Now. I have the simplicity
of Christ. I have a simple reason for the
forgiveness of my sins, not two reasons, only one reason. Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. That's the only reason for the
forgiveness of my sins, not because I asked I do ask. I ask every day for
the Lord to forgive me of my sins. But here's the reason for
forgiveness. God does it for Christ's sake. Not two reasons, only one. I have a simple reason for not
being condemned. In Romans 8, 33, it says, Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. That's
the only reason. The only reason I'm not condemned.
And what a blessed reason this is. I can give just one reason. The only reason I'm not condemned
is because Christ died for me and he was buried and raised
again. That's the only reason. I don't
have to have another reason for forgiveness. For not being condemned
is because Christ died. I have a simple reason for all
that God gives me. Now, if you ever thought, oh,
how can you bless me with my sinfulness? How can I even be
a Christian when I think this way and I think that way and
I do this? How can God bless me? I can tell you how He can
bless you. There's only one reason for God's blessing on me or you.
Listen to the Scripture. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up, For us all, how shall He not? What could
possibly prevent Him from freely giving us all things? Everything I have, there's only
one reason why I have it. Because He spared not His own
Son. But He delivered Him up and He
freely gives us all things. I have a simple cause of salvation.
Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 says, by grace are you saved. By the
unmerited saving grace of God. That's why I'm saved. That's
why every believer. Very simple. By the grace of
God, I'm saved. I have a simple ground of assurance. Now, I'm assured right now while
I'm speaking to you, right now at any rate, I might go out here
and start looking to myself, but right now, I have assurance
that the Lord saved me. How do you know? Is it because
you see in yourself some goodness in yourself and you see some
kind of growth? Here's where my assurance comes
from. Paul said Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
And I'm one of them. Are you one of them? Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. I'm one of them. Therefore, he
came to save me. And beloved, if he came to save me, he saved
me. That means I'm saved. That means I'm saved right now.
My assurance of salvation is because he came to save sinners. I have a simple faith. Looking unto Jesus. The author
and the finisher of our faith. I look to Him only. And this
is one of the glorious things about the gospel. Every believer,
here's what a believer is. He's someone who's continually
looking to Christ. And his sin drives him to Christ. It doesn't drive him away from
Christ. Oh, he hates it, but it drives him to Christ to find
mercy in Him. He's looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Simple faith. I've got a simple
motive for service. Now, I want to give myself totally
to him. I want to serve him. And here's the only motive behind
that. I got a simple motive. His glory. It's not to be saved. It's not to earn a higher reward
in heaven. It's really not. It's his glory. I have a simple
desire. A single desire. It's to win
Christ and be found in him. Here's the only thing I desire.
that I might be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that when
God looks at me, all He sees is His blessed Son because I'm
in Him. That's all I want. That's my only desire, to simply
be found in Christ. I don't have two desires. I really
don't. I don't want to be found as a creature. I don't want to
be found as somebody who witnesses. I don't want to be found as a
great theologian. I want to be found in Christ. That's all I
want. I've got a simple desire and I've got a simple objective.
Like David said in Psalm 1715, as for me, I'll behold thy face
in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness. That's the only objective I have
is to awake in the very likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ so I
don't have any sin. I'm just like him. And I have a simple hope with
regard to judgment. Turn with me to first John, chapter
four. Verse 17. Herein is our love
made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Now, can you stand can you even
imagine standing before God being judged by God with boldness?
Boldness, confidence, cheerful confidence, no fear. No nervousness. How could that be? The way He tells us. Here's how
we have boldness in the day of judgment. Because as He is, so
are we in this world right now. Is He altogether lovely and without
spot? We are too. Is He perfectly accepted
by God? We are, too. Can he stand before
God's holy law without guilt? Oh, yes, we do, too. And this is our boldness in judgment. The simplicity that you know,
heaven. You know what heaven is? It's being with him and seeing
his glory. That is heaven is being with
the Lord Jesus Christ, beholding his face and seeing his glory. That is heaven to the believer,
the simplicity that's in Christ Jesus. Somebody once asked a preacher.
And they were worried about the state of their soul. And they said, if all I have
is Christ. Is that enough? And the preacher said, it is
if he's all you got. That's the simplicity that's
in Christ Jesus. Is he all you got? Well, he's all I've got. And
that is the simplicity that's in Christ Jesus. It's not complicated
at all. May God deliver us from being
corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ Jesus. Let's
pray together.