This morning, we turn to 2 Corinthians 11. Let us read the first four verses.
I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness; but indeed you are bearing with me.
For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I have betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.
But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.
Let us pray.
Lord, even that thought that we started with this morning of standing on Your promises—we are thankful for the fullness of all Your promises and how they are all yes and amen in Christ.
Lord, as we come to Your Word now, we have the promised One, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, that Paraclete, to take these words that are written upon a piece of paper and cause them to be words of life implanted within our hearts.
Lord, we do come and offer ourselves to You. We sing of Your coming; we sing, “Maranatha.” But, Lord, we know that unless You are able to do that work of preparing us and drawing us unto Yourself, we simply hinder Your return instead of hastening it.
So, Lord, as we come today, we want to be open to Your Spirit, that You could speak into our hearts and lives and continue to cause us to have that affection, that love, and that deeper yearning for the bride to be made ready.
Lord, we are so thankful for this great salvation. We step into the provision that we have in You for this day. In Jesus’ name, amen.
These verses in 2 Corinthians have been on my heart recently because of the days we are living in. These are days in which there is a great battle and a great conflict going on. There are many things, both within and without, that are trying to draw our devotion away from Christ.
The Lord has one desire: that we be those who focus upon His beloved Son. The enemy not only wants to weaken that personal devotion, but he is also trying to weaken the testimony of Jesus.
So we want to consider these verses, that we could be encouraged in these days, see the necessity of this vital relationship, and, by His grace and by His Spirit, see that relationship grow and be made stronger.
A lot of this came to my heart as Brother Kong was sharing on those marriages from the Bible. He started with that marriage at the beginning of the Bible, and then we have those two marriages at the end of the Bible. You see this thought of marriage throughout.
This gives us a beautiful picture of God’s heart and purpose for man. God has this desire that there be that union—that uninterrupted, unspoiled, undefiled union—between God and man. He is jealous for that, and He is so jealous for it that He sent His Son to die for us, that we could be brought back to the place where we should be.
There is this desire that all that is of Christ could really be made ready, and we could hear those words: “The bride has made herself ready.” As we have heard, it is nothing of ourselves.
It is not that we have a good part and a bad part of self. Everything of self, in the Lord’s eyes, is evil. It is bad. There is nothing good, no matter what we say, no matter what we do, no matter how many good works we do.
Nothing of ourselves goes into eternity. It is simply that element, that portion of Christ, that deposit, that richness of Christ, that we have allowed the Holy Spirit, through the cross, to work within us.
That reality is what goes into eternity. That is the reality that the Spirit is able to echo and testify: “The bride has made herself ready.”
This is really Paul’s burden for these dear ones in Corinth. As he is writing to them, he is not writing simply for the present moment. He is writing with this purpose in view.
As you see in verse 2:
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.
There is a present work that the Lord wants to do in these ones, but there is also an eternal work. There is that coming together, that presenting of this pure virgin, this blessed one, to the Lord.
This is so much upon Paul’s heart that it provokes this word of jealousy. Paul is able to write this to these dear ones in Corinth because he has a special relationship with them.
If we remember his second missionary journey, when he got to Corinth he spent eighteen months there. Imagine the Apostle Paul spending eighteen months, day in and day out, among the brothers and sisters there. There was a richness of deposit that went into these dear ones.
Out of that, Paul had a relationship with them. He was able to pour out his heart and address issues within the ones in Corinth because he had a foundation. He had a relationship in Christ with them.
Because of this relationship, he knew them. Because he knew them, he was able to sense that something was not right. We know in the first Corinthian letter how Paul noted there was so much carnality there, and he wrote to them.
As they responded to that first letter, he noticed that the enemy was trying another tactic—leading them away from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. Out of a heart of jealousy, he noticed this and cared for them.
It is interesting: one of the characteristics of love is that when you love someone, you start to notice the finer things in their life.
I do not know if you have ever noticed, but if your wife goes and gets a haircut, you notice it that night—or at least you better notice it. We do not bat a hundred percent, but sometimes you come to a meeting and see someone has a new haircut, a new beard, or no beard, and you say, “Oh, you do not have your beard.” They say, “Yeah, I got rid of that three weeks ago.” You do not notice it as much.
But when there is that special relationship, even with things—what is most precious to people these days? Their cell phone. If your cell phone starts working just a little bit off, you notice it. It is not responding; something is not right here.
Those things that we value and treasure in our hearts, we notice quickly. Because Paul had this heart for these ones in Corinth, he noticed it quickly. He said, “You are starting to be led astray here from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
He uses a word that can sound strange. He says, “I am jealous for you.” Oftentimes we think of jealousy as a negative word, but jealousy in and of itself is a neutral word. The issue is the object and the desire involved.
What helps me is using a couple of different prepositions. When you are jealous of something or a person, that is negative because there is something in you that wants something for yourself or for your own selfish interest.
But Paul says, “I am jealous for you.” He is jealous for the Lord in them. It is not about himself; he is jealous for God’s interest. We are not to be jealous of things or people, but we are to be jealous for the Lord.
The same Greek word for jealousy is the same word we use for zeal. Many times in the New Testament, when it is used positively, it is translated as “zealous.” But you could just as easily say “jealous” there.
We speak of godly zeal; that is godly jealousy. It is the exact same word. In English, we use “zealous” to help us understand the positive sense, but in Greek it is the same word. The context tells you whether it is positive or negative.
So Paul, in a very positive way, is jealous for them here. He is reminding them of this call God has upon their lives: they had been espoused to the Lord; they had been engaged to Him.
Paul had this desire to present them as a pure virgin. Now, during this engagement period—and back in those days it was something pretty formal—it was not like the casual way we get engaged today, break it off, get engaged again, and break it off. This was a settled thing.
During that time, the bride was occupied with one thing: preparing herself for that wedding day. She was not occupied with other things.
That is why Paul uses this double expression that sounds strange in English: “a pure virgin.” You stop and think, “How do you have an impure virgin?” But he is trying to add emphasis here.
Paul is not simply talking about the physical. He is speaking spiritually—of that virgin, that one set apart for the Lord. He is adding emphasis: this is a pure virgin, a single-hearted virgin, with one desire and one purpose in view—to get herself ready for the Lord.
She does not have a divided heart. During this time of espousal, there is one thing upon her heart. Sometimes we can keep ourselves as that virgin, cleansed, but our hearts can become divided and occupied with other things.
Paul is saying, “No, do not have that divided heart. One thing, one thing: your desire is to be made ready for this wonderful wedding day.”
Paul is jealous for them. This is the same call God has upon us today. In the days of confusion and everything that we are living in, these verses are very relevant for this day and time.
Just as Paul noticed the danger of being led away, we need to be aware of this today also.
Paul says in verse 3:
But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
These two words, “simplicity and purity of devotion,” are found in the New American Standard translation. Not all translations have that exact phrase, but the New American Standard gives it to emphasize the clarity of what is being spoken of.
When you think of simplicity, it simply means something singular. It is not complex. There is a single heart toward the Lord. Nothing has been added to it.
Complexity is often what happens when we get away from simplicity by adding something to it in an effort to make it better. How much of that is done in Christianity today? We get away from the simplicity we have in Christ because people are trying to add to it: “Oh, this will make you better. This will do this. This will do that.”
The Colossians fell into that trap: “If you do this, you will be more spiritual.” It is getting away from that simplicity in Christ. It is a single-mindedness.
Do not confuse simplicity with making something simple because of our own mental laziness. No, it is not mental laziness. There is a simplicity there, and the things of the Lord are simple. They are simple, yet profound.
When we take this table, it is a simple table: His body broken, His blood shed. But there is a profundity to all that this table speaks of.
We come every Sunday and take this table, and every Sunday you see another aspect, another profound truth, another reality of all that it speaks of. Every time we have a baptism, even though you know baptism and have experienced it, you see the reality, and more profundity comes forth.
The more we return to the simplicity of Christ, simply having our eyes focused upon Him, the riches of His very life begin unfolding to us in a fuller and greater way.
It also speaks of being pure. Again, that means free of impurities, with no mixture at all. When you have something pure and mix something with it, you dilute it and corrupt it.
People may try to make it better, but purity is without mixture. Simplicity and purity are not very popular words in the days we are living in, but they are absolute words, not relative words.
We love relativity today, but these words are very absolute.
We were with the young people last year and looked at these verses from another perspective. We had a big glass pot of water—a gallon or whatever—and it looked like pure water. I even got purified water from the store.
We had one little drop of food coloring. If you put one drop of food coloring into that glass of water, to the normal eye it looks exactly the same. But in reality, it is now impure.
Often in our Christian life, outwardly we can look the same. We can even have a sense that we are okay. But there is one drop, then another drop, and another, and finally our impurity becomes evident.
Would we have the sensitivity to realize how even the slightest impurity, the slightest getting away from the simplicity and purity of our single devotion to Him, affects us? Would we have the sensitivity to say, “Wait a minute. I am adding something. I am taking something away from Christ.”
It is that singleness of heart by which the bride is able to make herself ready and prepare.
Last weekend, we were up in Flushing. They had asked us to come and share on how we can maintain a good Christian testimony toward the LGBT community.
One of the things we talked about was how we have even made sin relative today. Instead of sin being absolute, sin becomes relative. We have consciously and unconsciously sensationalized the sin of homosexuality and made it out of proportion in relation to other sins.
Do not make any mistake: it is a sin. But in relation to other sins, is it really any worse? God hates sin. Yet we have elevated it to such an extent.
If you look at 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Paul gives us one example of how he writes about this. We can end up focusing on one particular sin—and it can be different sins for different people—and they get elevated.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived;
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.
Praise God, it does not stop there. Paul includes it with other sins. Just as we have this problem of sensationalizing some sins, we have an equal issue among Christianity today of becoming desensitized to other sins.
We have become accustomed to certain sins and do not realize how much God hates them. We are desensitized to them in these evil days.
Do we realize how much God hates pride? We spoke of covetousness, lying, rivalry, spreading strife among brethren, hypocrisy, gossip, jealousy, and wasting precious time on frivolous things.
Maybe it is not that we have elevated some sins; maybe the issue is that we have become desensitized to others.
We have heard someone share concerning the normal Christian life that the reason many of us are not living the normal Christian life is not because it is super-Christian, but because so many of us are living as sub-Christian—a subnormal life. That makes the normal life look so high.
The norm is being recovered: God hates sin, and He has the same answer for sin—the blood of the Lamb. Praise God for that.
But it seems throughout Christianity today that we have lost the spirit of holiness. We have become insensitive to sin.
This is what Paul is writing about. He wants them to return to that simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. When we become insensitive to sin, we hinder the Holy Spirit within us.
In these evil, critical days, the more we lose our sensitivity to sin, the more insensitive we are to the moving of the Holy Spirit and to spiritual things. We fail to recognize what is happening.
In this place of insensitivity, we can substitute soulical actions to try to replace the things of the Lord. This is why there is a great work of purification that God desires among His people in this day and time.
As this purification goes on, as this work of dividing soul and spirit occurs, that is the process by which the bride makes herself ready. It becomes very practical within our daily lives—the sensitivity that we have.
If anybody has smoke detectors or motion detectors in their home, you know that if you do not dust them off and allow dust to build up, they lose their sensitivity. The sensor cannot recognize when something is happening.
It is like allowing the sin and dust of this world to cloud our spirits so that we are not sensitive to what is not of the Lord. Then, because of that, we miss what the Lord is doing.
He is calling us to return to Him and allow Him, in a fresh way, to create that sensitive spirit, so that we may know His moving in this last day and time.
Paul says, “I know the craftiness of the enemy.” He has always been crafty. Remember the story of Eve. Through the craftiness of the enemy, minds were led astray. There was a trap there.
Paul did not want these ones falling into that trap. He desired that they could be set free to follow the Spirit and follow the Lord, and that when the enemy comes, they would not fall into the trap of even engaging with him.
Sadly, we know the story in the Garden of Eden. God had said that they could eat freely of any tree, but they could not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The enemy tempted Eve and challenged her in two ways. First, he challenged God’s Word. The attack was upon God’s Word.
I appreciated Kenny mentioning how the Lord has pressed the value of God’s Word upon our hearts—reading and being in the Word—because from the very beginning we see that the enemy attacked God’s Word.
“Did God say? Did God say?” We see that attack continuing today.
Eve tried to add something to the Word. Instead of the Word being simple, she added something to it, as though the Word needed a little help: “I am going to add a few phrases to make it stronger.” In doing so, she made it complex and lost its simplicity.
Not only is the Word continually under attack, but God’s authority is also under attack. The enemy challenged God’s authority.
Where Eve tried to add to the Word, the enemy was taking away from God’s authority. He said, “You will be like God.” That brings God down to our level. It challenges and fails to recognize God’s true authority.
The thing within Eve was the same thing that was in Lucifer, which turned him into Satan: pride.
The issue of pride manifests itself in many ways. As I mentioned some of those other sins, pride is really the root of almost all of them. I do not know if you can be absolute and say it is the root of every one of them, but think of jealousy, lying, envy, and covetousness.
There is a proud desire to elevate yourself. Why do you put the brethren down? Why do you complain about brethren? Because you want to elevate yourself. “You know better. I can do this better. They do not know how to speak. They do not know how to do this.”
There is an issue of pride in our hearts, and this has got to be dealt with in the day that we are living in.
You expect the challenge to God’s Word and God’s authority from the world. But the tragic thing today is that we see much of this even coming from Christianity.
Sadly, within Christianity today, God’s Word does not have the authority it used to have. Sadly, within Christianity, God Himself does not have the authority that He used to have. It is being challenged in these days.
This is why we need not get caught off guard or caught up in this trap, but remain in this place of intimate, personal relationship with Him.
We need to be alert to the craftiness by which the enemy deceived Eve. There is a subtlety to the enemy. Sometimes it is not subtle; it is blatant. Other times it is very subtle.
If our senses are trained to recognize the subtle ways the enemy tries to come in and attack our devotion to the Lord and weaken His testimony, we will be able to stand. This is the training process that the Spirit wants to teach us.
The more we know of what is of Him, the more we are able to recognize what is not of Him.
When we come to the end of the New Testament, the church was already in a time of crisis. Many things were coming in, and believers were being led astray from this simplicity and purity. That has continued to today.
But throughout the writers of the New Testament, especially in their final words, there is a common theme, a common thread. The answer to every crisis is Jesus Christ.
The answer to every crisis in our lives, every crisis an assembly goes through, every crisis God’s people go through, is Jesus Christ. It is not someone making America great again. It is God bringing us back to the simplicity and purity of devotion to Him.
That is what strengthens us and allows us to go through. But understand what I am saying: it is not simply returning to Jesus Christ. It is returning to what I am calling the purposeful Christ—the Christ of purpose.
It is not merely seeing Christ as a person, but seeing Christ as that Person with a purpose. Through all His movements throughout Scripture, He is moving with purpose.
As we come to the purposeful Christ, He enables us to press on because He has eternity in view. He has that eternal purpose in view. Each of these dear ones, as they close out the New Testament, has this purposeful Christ—His heart and His purpose—upon their hearts.
Paul’s last letter was 2 Timothy. It is often referred to as Paul’s last will and testament. He is in prison and getting ready to die, and he sends this letter to Timothy to strengthen and encourage this young man.
How does he do that? What are the phrases Paul uses to encourage Timothy? In 2 Timothy 2:1, he says:
Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Later in that chapter, in 2 Timothy 2:8, he says:
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.
But he does not stop there. There is a purpose in view for Timothy. Paul is not just drawing Timothy back to remember Jesus Christ and grow in the grace that is in Him.
Why is he sharing that? So that Timothy, as it continues in 2 Timothy 2:2, can entrust to faithful men the things he has seen, heard, and knows of the Lord. He can share them with faithful ones so that they can continue strengthening the testimony long after he has departed.
There is purpose in view. Paul is bringing Timothy back to Christ so he can see Christ’s purpose and continue carrying the torch of the testimony.
Think of Hebrews. We do not really know who wrote Hebrews. I personally think it was Joseph—but what was Joseph’s other name? Barnabas. I was just seeing who was awake.
At least that way I know some of you are listening. But back to Hebrews.
These were people who had been following the Lord, but because times were getting difficult and they were being pressed in, they were starting to fall back into Judaism and some of their old customs.
The writer exhorts them, “Do not neglect so great a salvation.” This great salvation has brought us into better promises, the promises we worshipped the Lord about today. Do not neglect all that.
How does he do that? He brings them back to Christ. In Hebrews 3:1, he says:
Holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.
He brings them back to Christ, but he reminds them that there is this heavenly calling upon their lives. When you return to Christ, it puts things back into perspective.
Later, in Hebrews 12:1-3, he encourages them to press on. I am paraphrasing: fix your eyes upon Jesus. In the midst of this race set before you, fix your eyes upon Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith. Run with endurance the race set before you.
He wants them to finish well, to finish God’s purpose, and to run in such a way that they receive that crown.
You can see how these writers bring believers back to Christ, but it is what I am calling the purposeful Christ. They are seeking to describe all that the Lord is after.
Even when you come to 2 Peter, this is Peter’s last will and testament to believers who had been scattered. Peter knows that he is getting ready to die also.
Peter wants to bring things back to their memory—the things he has shared, what they have heard, and what they know of the Lord. He reminds them of the Lord and of His eternal kingdom.
He closes 2 Peter with a beautiful prayer and encouragement. In 2 Peter 3:17-18, he says:
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness;
but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
That knowledge is not merely mental knowledge. It is experiential knowledge. It is knowing Him in a real way in your life as you experience all the truths that we have in Him.
Peter realizes there are many false teachers and false teachings. He says, “Continue to grow in grace. Grow in the Lord,” with the kingdom in view.
We have a tendency to separate things from Christ. Can Christ be separated from the kingdom? He is the kingdom.
We begin separating the things of Him from Him, and then we go off. We make it complex. When you say Christ, Christ is the kingdom. It is not Christ plus the kingdom.
This is what Peter is trying to encourage: as you see Christ, you see His heart and His desire for the bride to be made ready.
Then you come to John’s epistles. The three epistles of John are his last three letters, the last letters written in the New Testament, at the very end of the first century.
John’s ministry was a ministry of recovery among believers. He was recovering the vital and essential things they had lost.
What do you sense throughout John’s letters? His burden is for the recovery of that foundational issue of having living, intimate fellowship with the Lord and with one another.
It is fellowship—knowing Him and sharing that life together. John saw how vital it was that we know the anointing we have within us.
Brothers and sisters, we often pray for anointing, and there is a place for that. But often we fail to realize that we already have the anointing within us. It is a matter of, by faith, stepping into that anointing.
We have Christ, the Anointed One, living within us. Do we allow that anointing to come forth? All that we have is the riches of Christ.
John desires that they would know more of Christ, and that Christ would enable them to continue on even though there were many antichrists around and much going on against Christ.
Finally, we come to the book of Revelation. It is the last book, as we have the books numbered in the Bible. But what is the title of that book? It is The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Every one of these dear ones, as they write in times of crisis, focuses upon Christ. Again, it is with a purpose in view. We see Christ so that we can press on.
Revelation draws our hearts to Him. It speaks of many events and sequences, but the focus—the main issue—is seeing Christ. If we see Christ, the other things fall into place, because He is the way through any situation we find ourselves in.
When we think upon those seven letters in Revelation 2 and 3—whether we have left our first love, are suffering, have compromised, have false teaching, appear to be dead, are faithful, or are lukewarm—what is the call?
The call is back to Christ. It is to allow the overcoming One’s life to be expressed through us, that we overcome.
Where do those overcomers end up? Those overcomers are the ones invited to that marriage supper in Revelation 19. There is that testimony: “The bride has made herself ready.”
They loved not their lives unto death. They allowed that dividing of soul and spirit to prepare them in such a way that they remained in a place of simplicity and purity in Christ.
The Lord is calling to us in a similar way today. He is calling us to return. We have gotten so complex with everything.
But the Lord wants to bring us back, not simply for our sake, but for His sake—for His purpose, to His heart, and to see Him as the way of life.
As His life is manifested in us, as His life works within us, what do you begin to see? The righteousnesses of the saints—the righteous acts of the saints—come forth.
They are a response. It is not that we have our own righteousness to offer. But as we see Him, we respond in obedience, and the righteous acts of the saints come forth.
The Lord has been speaking to us about this for a good while: returning to Him and really allowing this.
We have to ask ourselves: do we really think that we are different from the Corinthians? Sometimes we can look down on those in Corinth because of all their carnality.
But do we really think we are better than the Corinthians? Do we say, “Well, that was Corinth. They had so much sin, so much division, so many problems. But look at us. We have been together forty years. We have a great website, Christian Tape Ministry, testimony ministry going all over the world. We have Christian Family Conference. We are not like Corinth.”
That makes us lower than Corinth. We are worse off than them. We need to awake and see our condition in Christ, and then all that Christ wants to do in us to strengthen us, that we can finish well.
He calls us in a very simple way to return to Him. This is what Paul was writing about.
What did Paul notice as he was writing? There are really three issues that Paul addresses. Look back at verse 4.
For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.
You put up with it. There is another Christ, a different spirit, and a different gospel—three things impacting these dear ones in Corinth. They are impacting Christianity today, and they can impact each one of our lives.
This is why we need to know the Lord in such a way that we are able to discern and judge what is of Him and what is not of Him.
When it says “another Jesus,” there are two words in New Testament Greek that are translated “another.” Greek is a beautiful language. I know nothing about it, so everything I ever share about Greek is totally plagiarized. I will disclose that.
According to Vine’s and some of these dear ones, there are two words for “another” in Greek. One is the word we remember from John 14, where Jesus says, “I will send another Comforter.”
That refers to One of the same exact character and nature as Christ. The Holy Spirit came; it is the same life. They share the same life.
The word used here is different. In my paraphrase, it means something that looks alike on the outside but is different inside.
It is like if I had this shirt on, and at lunch today, as I normally do, I spill something on it. I go and change into another shirt that looks exactly like this one. I have put on another shirt.
You might not be able to tell the difference. It looks just like this shirt, but it is a different shirt. That is what another Christ is like. It may look like Christ on the outside, but inwardly, in reality, it is of a different nature.
That is what Paul is warning these ones to be aware of and recognize. In the end times, we know there will be many false christs. We need to know Him in a very precious way.
Often what happens—and we saw it throughout the New Testament—is that people make it Christ plus something. We saw the destruction the Judaizers brought in the New Testament. Christ plus something is normally something good.
We mentioned the kingdom, but it can be Christ and the church. Once we separate Christ and the church and make them two entities, we have lost the preciousness of it. Christ is the church.
As we see Him, the more we see of Him, we see the church. Just as when we see Him, we see the kingdom. We can say, “Christ and God’s eternal purpose,” but Christ is God’s eternal purpose.
We do not need to separate things and add onto Christ. There is a focus upon Him that He wants us to know: Christ and Christ alone. It is not Christ plus anything, but simply Christ.
This is how confusion impacted people in the New Testament, and it can impact us. We can become separated from this place of simplicity and fail to distinguish what is of Him and what is not.
This is why we have to allow the Spirit to do that wonderful work of dividing soul and spirit, that we may have that witness. We will know, “This is the Lord,” and, “This is not.”
Tragically, when we divide Christ and the church, you end up with a cult. Or you have Christ and God’s purpose, and people begin going off, looking at this or that. We have kingdom followers over here, and we get off on good things.
Good becomes the enemy of better. We have that better promise, a better covenant—that is Christ—and good can be the enemy of that.
Often we are alert to the bad and evil things, but we miss the good. That is the trap we can fall into. Would we be stirred and awakened to know this in this hour?
Finally, Paul mentions two other things: a different spirit and a different gospel. Sadly, the King James Version uses the word “another” here instead of “different,” but the actual word is different.
It should be another Christ—something that can look similar on the outside. But this is a different spirit. It is like taking off this shirt and coming back with a white shirt on: totally different. It is not the same.
That is what is happening when Paul speaks about a different spirit and a different gospel. It is a different nature, adding to or taking away from truth and reality.
There are many spirits in these days. We know in the end days there will be many. But do we know His voice? Are we in that place of intimate fellowship and communion, so that when the Spirit says, “Go this way,” or, “Go that way,” we know His voice?
How do we know it is the Lord? How do we know it is the Holy Spirit leading and guiding us?
I appreciate our brother A. W. Tozer. In his book Man: The Dwelling Place of God, he has a chapter on how to test, or try, the spirits.
John’s epistle tells us to test the spirits. One thing about the Holy Spirit is that He never gets offended by being tested. The things of the enemy, the flesh, and the soul get very offended when they are tested.
Tozer says that whenever we face a new teaching, a new doctrine, a new view of truth, or a new experience, we need to ask how we know whether it is from the Lord. He gives seven questions.
If anybody is interested afterward, there are copies of these questions over on the chest of drawers. Do not go over there now and get distracted. Let me just go through them.
Obviously, the answer to each of these should be yes. If the answer is no, watch out.
It is a focusing upon Him.
These things we experience, these things that come into our lives—what effect do they have? Basically, are they bringing us closer to Christ and all that is of Him, or is there a distraction here?
These are very practical helps when we speak about the moves of the Lord and the things of the Spirit. What is the fruit of it? Do we see it drawing us closer to Him and back to Him, seeing our relationship with Him more clearly?
This is what was happening with the dear ones in Corinth. Certain spirits had come in and were beginning to deceive them, and they were being led away from that simplicity and purity.
Would we learn in this hour to return to Him and remain in this place of the Spirit?
Paul also speaks of a different gospel. We already talked about the gospel of the Judaizers—Christ plus something.
Today we see social gospels: “Do good works.” Praise God for good works that do much good on this earth, but they are not necessarily of eternal value unless their origin is from Christ.
We have the prosperity gospel: “God wants to bless you.” How popular that gospel is.
We have the self-improvement gospel: “God will improve your life.” God has no desire to improve your self-life. That has been crucified with Christ.
He has given us a new life in Him, and He wants that life to grow.
We also see a crossless gospel, so popular today: “God wants you to be happy. Do not suffer; be happy. If you are suffering, you do not really know the Lord.”
It is tragic how this crossless gospel has infiltrated so many.
We were talking with some people a while back about a couple we knew who had gotten a divorce and were in the process of separating. The wife simply said, “God wants me to be happy, and I am not happy in this marriage.”
I will not touch all of that, but I saw a lot of problems. God has brought us together. That is where the cross, the dividing of soul and spirit, and seeing beyond ourselves become necessary.
It is not about us. It is about Him, His heart, and His purpose.
We mentioned 1 Corinthians. There we see how Satan tried to destroy the testimony in Corinth through immorality, division, and blatant sin. Now he is using a different tactic. He is trying subtly to lead them away into corruption.
We need to wake up. That same one is working today. We too can be led away into corruption by everything trying to settle within us.
I read one brother’s quote that is helpful in showing how we can get caught up in this trap:
Some love complex error more than simple truth.
Some love complex error more than simple truth. Complex error can make you sound so spiritual. You can say, “Wow, I can do this and do that. You get Ezekiel here and this there,” and all these different things make you feel good.
But actually, it takes far more faith to believe simple truth than complex error. It takes simple faith to trust and believe Him.
This is what Paul is doing. He is reaching out to these dear ones and calling them back to this place of simplicity and purity in Christ.
Praise God, the Lord remains the same forever. He never changes. His purpose is eternal, and He is calling us back to Himself in the same way in this day.
But we need to be aware that the enemy does not change either. He is trying every tactic he can to distract us and get us off course, that we would not be ready for the Lord’s return.
Praise God, just as we read of these Corinthians, we have been espoused to Him. He desires us, and He is jealous for us.
There is a desire that comes with jealousy. Are we jealous for one another? Are we jealous for one another that we can all be pressing on?
Are we jealous for the Lord’s interest? Are we jealous for His heart? Are we jealous for His return? Are we jealous for that bride to be made ready?
How does that jealousy manifest itself? As we stay in that place of simplicity, purity, and devotion to Him, allowing the Holy Spirit to do that simple yet profound work of dividing soul and spirit.
It is not complicated. He has a work He wants to do, where we say no to ourselves and yes to Him. It is a simple work, yet very profound.
This is the work, the call, that He has upon us: that we can be part of that bride who has made herself ready.
He is jealous that each and every one of His saints, each and every one of His dear children, would respond to His call in this hour; that the life of Christ would be formed within us; and that we would be a bright testimony in the midst of this dark day.
Would we be those responding to His grace? As Peter said, “Grow in the grace.” There is grace that we have in Him. There is a love that constrains us, and all of this is found in Christ.
Grace is a person. Love is a person. Knowing Him is a person.
There is a life within us that is jealous to burst forth and display Himself in this day and in the days to come. May we be those who are simply cooperating with that life that we have within us.
Let us pray.
Lord, once You start to touch on this matter of simplicity and purity, You start to see how quickly we love complex things.
Lord, we are thankful in Your mercy and loving-kindness, as You speak to us day by day through Your Word.
We do want to be those who open our hearts, that Your Spirit could do that dividing of soul and spirit.
Lord, would You touch those parts in our lives that we are even unconscious of, where we have allowed an insensitivity to come in or allowed a corruption to come in?
Bring us back to Christ and Christ alone.
Lord, we are thankful that it is not merely You telling us, but You within us crying out for us to let You do what You are there to do.
We simply want to cooperate with You. In Your name we pray. Amen.