2 Corinthians 11:3 The Most Important Thing

Smedly’s Introduction of Rick Holland All right, you may be seated. Well, this has already been a little foretaste of heaven. That little two-minute meeting and greeting needed to go for another eternity, I suppose. It’s good to see so many friends from Gilbert Bible here this morning, too. We love you guys. Thankful for you. We miss you. I had the distinct privilege this morning of introducing Rick Holland. He’s a longtime friend to this ministry, no stranger to many of us, but perhaps a new face to some of you. He is the senior pastor at Immanuel Bible Church in Shawnee, Kansas. He is a pastor, a double doctor, a professor, a friend, a mentor. And Rick Holland is a Christian. He’s a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s a sinner saved by grace. And he’s been faithful over decades to lead other sinners to the cross of Christ. The only place where grace is found. And if you’re a part of Grace Bible Church, whether you realize it or not, you have been impacted by Rick’s ministry. Many in this church have sat under his preaching, have been discipled and counseled under his pastoral oversight, have served with him in various ministries, or have been taught by him in a seminary classroom. And if you spend any time with Rick, sooner rather than later, you will be compelled to think more about Christ. You’ll be compelled to think better about Christ. It’s what we’ve already heard this morning in equipping hour. It’s what you’re going to hear again in the next few moments. And it is what we all need this morning to think more about Jesus. So thankful to have you here, Rick, this morning. I’m also thankful that you get to hear the Rick Hollandisms from the horse’s mouth. I didn’t mean to call him a horse. There are Rick Hollandisms all over the warp and woof of this church. Whether you realize it or not, you’ve probably been quoting Rick. We just haven’t been giving him any credit this morning. We get to know where they come from. So Rick, this is now the third time you’ve preached for an anniversary service at this church. We’re so glad that you’re here. Please welcome Rick Holland. Christ Builds His Church Such gracious words. Thank you, Jacob. The best introduction I think I’ve ever had was when you said Rick is a sinner saved by grace. And if we could just close in prayer, we’ll get to that barbecue really fast. So thankful to you, so thankful to this church. I was able to preach in this church the first year of its existence and several times since then. I am so encouraged to see you still walking with the Lord Jesus Christ. A few months before his execution, Jesus took his disciples away for a retreat about 30 miles north of the Sea of Galilee to the base of Mount Hermon. There was a city called Caesarea Philippi. And that was where Peter made his famous assertion of Christ, Jesus as the Christ, the son of the living God. When Jesus asked him, “Who do you think I am?” In response to Peter’s confession, the Lord Jesus made the timeless ultimatum of the centuries that would bring his church into existence and promised that the gates of hell itself could not stop or hinder his church. Every faithful church since that day is the fulfillment of Jesus promise. And today we celebrate Christ’s continued spiritual construction of his church here at Grace Bible Church in Tempe, Arizona. In April of 2001, Christ began a work of construction here in this local body. 25 years later, the construction continues. Not on buildings, but on you. You are his workmanship. You are his signature. You are what Paul says, you’re his poem that he’s writing in the cosmos. I’m honored to be a part of this celebration. Humbled. My wife Kim is here with me and we have been so encouraged. We just feel like this is home in some senses just because of so many friends that we have here in this local body and even in the churches associated with this local body. I was starting to do some math, and I stopped when I was over there thinking of faces that I’ve interacted with this weekend and even today. And if you start to add up not the years, the decades of impact that you’ve had on my life, you’re into the centuries, and those years added up are being accumulated with you as well. What a stewardship. What a gift of grace. So from my wife Kim and me, please accept our congratulations and thankfulness on this 25th anniversary of Grace Bible Church as you enter into the next season of life as well. Today is not so much a celebration of leaders or leadership or even servants and service. It’s a celebration of what Christ has done for a quarter century in this local body. I was speaking with some of your elders yesterday and we had a great meeting and just were reflecting on that interesting passage in 1 Samuel 7:12 where an ebenezer is raised. You’ve probably sung here I raise mine Ebenezer. You know what that means? It’s called a stone. It’s a rock of remembrance. In other words, God pointed to that moment and he did it in a rainbow and piles of stones and other monuments over history and said, “I want you to do something that reminds you of what I’ve done.” That’s what today is. Today is an Ebenezer that we’re raising to say, “God, look at what you’ve done.” And we are so grateful to be a part of it. Today is truly historic and I trust that you understand you are not participating in this history. You are this history. You are what God is doing here in the life of this local body. With that, may I ask you to meet me in second Corinthians chapter 11? 2 Corinthians chapter 11. The Most Important Thing What’s the most important thing when it comes to ministry? What’s the most important thing when it comes to life? What’s the most important thing when it comes to living? And what’s the most important thing when it comes to dying? This passage is going to answer that for us. It is a watershed passage in the history of the church that Paul was a part of. It’s an angle-setting moment for ministry. Paul says this 2 Corinthians 11:3. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. John Knox is one of my heroes. About a year ago, my wife and I were able to spend a few days in Scotland and did a tour of John Knox’s surroundings and where he ministered. 400 years ago, he rocked Scotland and Great Britain with the power of the gospel by preaching the exclusivity of Christ under a Roman Catholic crown. One of the things for which he’s best remembered is his bravery. It was said of John Knox, “Nox fears no one. Absolutely no one.” End quote. When he was debating Mary, Queen of Scots about the impotency of the Catholic way of salvation, he was told that his language was discourteous to the Queen and disrespectful. And to this he responded, quote, “It is no more privilege of the rich and the powerful than of common people to offend God’s majesty.” She burst into tears, by the way. She ran out of the room and her corders came and charged Knox to stop upsetting the queen with the Protestant gospel. Knox answered, “I cannot let the tears of the honorable lady suppress the voice of my conscience or silence me to the hurt of my nation.” End quote. He could have had his head chopped off for such language. Mary was keenly aware of Knox, especially of his imprecatory prayers against her. And she said, “I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.” At his funeral, Earl Morton pointed to John Knox’s grave and said, “There lies a man who never feared the face of any man.” Kim and I went to John Knox’s grave less than a year ago, and we stood there and thank the Lord for his legacy. It’s in parking space 21. It’s been paved over and it’s only marked by a yellow dot. as brave as Knox was just a slim distant echo of the Apostle Paul. Have you considered his audacious bravery? He proclaimed the gospel in hostile synagogues. In fact, God said, “Paul, I want to charge you and bring you to be a messenger to the Gentiles of the gospel.” Okay, God. And every single city he goes in the book of Acts, where does he go first? The synagogue. And it never goes well. And he does the same thing in the next city. And in the next city, he preached the gospel in open gentile markets. He debated on the Areopagus of Athens. He evangelized before the intimidating council of Jerusalem who had murdered Jesus. He had been beaten so badly at Lystra that they dragged him out and left him for dead in a ditch. He stood before Agrippa and Felix. Even to the Roman guards who were holding him at sword point, he proclaimed the gospel. In Acts 20, the Holy Spirit told Paul—we find this from his interaction with the Ephesian elders at Miletus. The Holy Spirit had promised Paul, “Everywhere you go, Paul, you’re going to have chains and imprisonment and eventually you’re going to be killed for what you’re saying.” How’s that for God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life? I love how Acts 17 describes Paul. They’re looking for him. They knock on Jason’s door and they said, “Where is he? Where are these men who have upset the world?” His fearlessness cost him. It cost him dearly. You can read, beginning in verse 23 and following of 2 Corinthians 11, all that he went through. When Paul began his ministry, the Roman Empire was fully entrenched in heathenism. And by the time his head was severed, the world had been shaken by the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ through this man. Paul was indescribably brave. What Made Paul Afraid? More than John Knox. He feared the face of no man. So when you open up 2 Corinthians 11 and you read this—”But I am afraid”—that has my attention. What made Paul afraid? What made him shudder? What shook him? This audacious, brave man—what made him fearful? The answer to that sets the course for what I would like us to consider today. What was this fearless apostle, this audacious missionary, bold pastor, ferocious theologian, fearless evangelist? What was he afraid of? He was afraid that the Corinthians would defect in their love for Jesus. Paul was no hypercalvinist. He wept over the fragile nature of every soul’s faith. Some background that we have to have before we drop into this passage: false teachers had infiltrated the Corinthian church and were preaching a false gospel. Further, they were doing it in a way by attacking Paul’s character, his ministry, saying that he was discredited because he was a bad speaker and he was ugly. I’ve had those same accusations. And the reason that they were trying to get the attention off Paul was so they could get the attention on themselves. So in chapter 11, it’s the climax of Paul giving a defense of his heart about pastoral aspirations to the Corinthians. I know that Jacob is teaching through 1 Corinthians here. 2 Corinthians is at least fourth Corinthians. It may be even more. We don’t know. There was a letter that Paul wrote, and then the response to that letter is what we call 1 Corinthians. Paul references that letter in chapter 7. Then there was another letter in between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. That was called the severe letter that he references in this letter that’s not first Corinthians. So this is really at least the fourth letter and there could have been more but it’s the second inspired letter. Paul had to defend himself, and he hated it. He didn’t do this in Phil when he was in jail in Philippi. He says in Philippians 1, I’m in jail. People are outside. They’re preaching against me, but they’re preaching the gospel. Let him preach the gospel. I don’t care what they say about me. But what was going on at Corinthians was actually affecting the gospel because of their attacks on his character and his ministry. And he said, “Enough. I have to tell you what this is about. And in the middle of that defense is this heart where he says, Forget me. I’m afraid for you. A survey of the scriptures shows an obvious accent on protecting believers from spiritual dangers. There are false Christs in Matthew 24 and 1 John. There are false apostles, false prophets, false evangelists, false teachers, false pastors, false shepherds, false elders, false brethren. And at the point that we’re coming to in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, false teachers had gained a foothold on this little church at the isthmus of two seas and two land masses, the Peloponnesian isthmus. And interestingly to me in this passage, Paul’s concern is for the disloyalty of his readers’ minds, not the compromise of their morals. Because he understood as the mind goes, so does the morals, so does life. Paul’s converts here in Corinth were being led astray by those who denied the truth of his gospel and substituted it for what he calls in the next verse a different gospel. It’s likely that this gospel that they were preaching had none of the power of the glory of Christ in it was probably about social implications, self-help, betterment, and not about the Lord himself. And we know that because of what Paul’s fear is expressed ultimately in this verse. Here are three theological evidences of a healthy church. When Paul expresses his fear, he actually inadvertently unloads what a healthy church should look like: three theological evidences of a healthy church. A Fearful Ecclesiology The first is a fearful ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church. Now, you might be tempted to say, “Oh, this is about apostles and the first century church.” No, this is about pastors and elders and the church. And you would be right, just incomplete. These principles are for all of us. They work for us as parents. They work for us as influential friends. They work for us as disciplers. A fearful ecclesiology. This comes from the little phrase, “But I am afraid.” Now, to understand the force of this fear, you have to go back to verse two for a moment. Look at the imagery of a father with a betrothed daughter. His priority was to keep her pure for the wedding. Look at verse two: I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. Paul understood himself to be the spiritual father of the Corinthians, and Christ is the bridegroom. During the betrothal period in this time, a father took the public responsibility for the virginal fidelity of his engaged daughter until the marriage day. And if you go back to chapter 1, verse 14, Paul spoke of the day of the Lord Jesus Christ when he wanted to be the proud presenter of these Corinthians to Christ in holiness. I think it’s interesting he doesn’t say a husband but one husband exclusively to Christ. Not the concept of possibility, but exclusivity. He says I’m jealous in verse two. This is not regular jealousy, human jealousy. It’s not motivated by envy or self-interest. Paul was not jealous like a fiance or a husband but like someone protecting a treasure for someone else. It was deep, emotional, vigorous, a response to seeing a blood-bought son or daughter in Corinth flirting with a worldview that would diminish unilateral exclusive devotion to the Lord Jesus. This jealous fatherly protection made Paul afraid for the flock. It’s impressive to me that Paul’s ecclesiology, his understanding of the body of Christ, the church itself had such a working application in his shepherding. The word fear here is a word. You know the Greek word isphobia. It meant originally to put a horse to flight by smacking it, to startle. It was a protective reflex, a strong alarm. Paul was that kind of fearful for the Corinthians. But he was fearful because he was jealous that their hearts would drift away, which is what we’re going to see in a moment, from Christ himself. Do you have a developed and healthy and prioritized ecclesiology? You are all ecclesiologists, theologians about the church. based on 1 Timothy 3 that says the church is the pillar and support of truth that your understanding of the church might be the first and most important theological doctrine you understand because it’s the first domino that holds all of the rest in check. All of the rest in definition, all the rest in application, all the rest in accountability. I’ve seen that over the 25 years of this church that you love the church and you love what it means and you understand what it means. Does your affection for the health of this body make you fearful? Sends you to the prayer closet. Well, this sets up the second theological evidence for a healthy church. And this one is a little bit of an ambush. A Functional Bibliology A functional bibliology. Here’s what he’s afraid of. Illustration aside, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, Paul now points to the epic illustration that functions in two dimensions. It illustrates the point he’s making, but it also shows us how he uses the Bible. How he illustrates the truth with another biblical truth. Paul goes back to Adam and Eve. Folks, don’t miss the fact that Paul believed in a literal Adam and a literal Eve. He believed Genesis 1 and 2 and 3, as we’ll see in a moment. Paul believed in a talking snake. Not mythology. Not little stories that we told to scare our kids so they’d be good. Paul believed the Genesis narrative at face value and that Eve was deceived by a talking serpent. People say, “Ah, Genesis 1 and 2, the creation, that’s not really days; it’s years, and it’s not really this, it’s that. The Bible says that, but that’s not what it means.” And I said, “Okay, so Genesis 1 and 2 you have trouble with. So you start Genesis 3 with a talking snake. Is that where we’re going to start believing the Bible?” He points to Eve was deceived by the serpent’s craftiness. If you don’t believe that, there’s really nothing else in this passage for you. Paul believed it. Even the abnormality of a talking serpent was not too fantastical to Paul. If it was in the scripture, he believed it. Don Carson says, “When Eve fell, it was not because she was battered into submission by a wicked overlord, but because she was taken by cunning. She was deceived. She was snookered. 1 Timothy 2:13 says, “Eve was deceived.” Same thing, questioning God and offering a lie in its place. Satan is always, Satan is today, Satan is right now sitting in this church with us trying to trick believers into following a self-centered Christ-distancing faith. And here’s the problem: Satan uses our words and his dictionary. He redefines everything, especially Christ. He uses the phraseology of the faith but denies it by self-interest, self-affirmation, and flattery. He makes error seem reasonable, and the best way to do that is by making people feel good about themselves so they don’t need a saving Savior here. This is the age-old protocol of liberalism. It’s the same method as the old emerging church. Liberalism just changes clothes. Satan wraps his successive coils around us and tries to get us to look away from Christ. Can you hold your finger there for a moment and go back to Genesis 3? Let’s make sure that is fresh in our minds. “Has God Really Said?” Genesis 3. Now the serpent, verse one, was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Moses writing this down doesn’t have a footnote where he says, “Yeah, snakes talked then.” He just says the snake talked and took it at face value. He said to the woman, “Indeed, has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die. For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. Where was Adam when Eve fell? Standing beside her. My mentor John MacArthur used to say, “I believe that the first sin of humanity was Adam refusing to protect his wife Eve.” I think there’s something to that. So when you go to Romans 5 and it says all the sin came in humanity by Adam. It doesn’t say Eve. So Adam had to have sinned before this. And what’s the first sin? Probably that he didn’t protect Eve from the craftiness of the devil. It’s a great marriage lesson in that for all of us men. But that’s another sermon, right? But here’s what I want you to see. Back up in verse one. Indeed, has God said? There is the ultimate expression of Satan’s lies. I know the Bible says this, but is that what God means? I know the Bible says this, but that’s not really what it means. My wife always gets nervous when I’m off my notes. I watched a video a few months ago of a guy who basically was trying to express a theological novelty and he spent an hour and 15 minutes basically saying over and over and over, passage after passage says this, but that’s not what it means. I know the Bible says that, but that’s not what it means. Do you think God has a speech impediment? Does God speak with a lisp? He is what theologians callperspicuous, which is a big word for clarity. Why do we have an unclear word for clarity? He is clear. He said what he meant and meant what he said. So the ultimate attack of Satan here to which Paul is alluding to back to 2 Corinthians 11 is has God really said? Do you believe what God has said? He deceived Eve by asking her and tempting her to question God’s Word. And friends, he still does the same thing. That’s his attack. Now, he disguises himself. He never comes looking like Satan. I think he must laugh and the demons must laugh at Hollywood. These ugly, pitchforked, red-faced things, and they must say, ‘They think that’s what we look like. No, we go to church with them and they don’t even recognize us.’ He comes later in the chapter as an angel of light. Verses 13 to 15 tell us that counterfeits try to make their money look as much like the real as possible. He doesn’t care about scaring you in a horror film. He wants to deceive you into thinking that Christianity is something that the Bible doesn’t affirm. He deceives. He’s the father of lies. John 8:44. He distracts, putting attention on anything and everything other than Christ. He distorts. He’s a master of eisegesis. Putting into God’s Word distorted, out of context, incomplete, augmented, and diminished ways to think about it. He would much rather us think of Christianity as behavior modification and self-improvement than the worship of the living, resurrected Lord Jesus. Galatians 3:1: Who’s bewitched you? Galatians, before whose eyes Jesus was publicly portrayed as crucified? Who’s bewitched you? Who’s snookered and tricked you into thinking something different than the truth? Romans 16. Why are you turning away from truth and believing lies? Satan’s supreme ambition is to prevent Jesus from having supremacy in your heart. Can I say that again? Satan’s supreme ambition is to keep Jesus from being supreme in your heart. I think one of the ways he does that is by bifurcating or even trifurcating the gospel and the Bible, making the Old Testament God the mean one and the New Testament God the nice one, rather than seeing Jesus Christ as the God of the Old Testament in flesh. Do you have a functional bibliology? And do you believe what Paul is saying here that Satan deceived Eve by saying, “Has God really said what you think he said?” Hermeneutics are the key that opens everything, how you interpret the Bible. Now, all of that is basically introduction to point three. A Jealous Christology The third theological evidence for a healthy church is a jealous Christology—how we deal with Christ. After the parenthetical illustration of Eve being snookered by the devil, Paul now finishes the thought: he is afraid that your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. That last phrase, Paul explains the target and ramifications of his godly jealousy that he mentioned in verse two. His point is simple. Jesus is the integrating centrality of the Christian faith. Jesus himself is the integrating centrality of the Christian faith—of your faith, of my faith. Christianity is fundamentally a rational religion. It is for thinking men, not merely for feeling. Feelings are great, but they come after the thinking. It is rational. It makes sense. And Paul understands that if you trick the mind into thinking wrong theological moorings and anchors, then you will get wrong application, wrong living, and wrong worship. It’s all about our mind. Christianity is rational. That’s why we teach on Sundays instead of holding pep rallies. Our minds as Christians are the primary target for the assault of the devil. I’m afraid your mind is going to go. Your thinking is going to be tripped up. What would that look like? Look at verse four. 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. Another gospel, a different Jesus. This is where Satan uses our words in his dictionary. Oh, he’s happy for us to talk about Jesus, just not the Jesus of the Gospels or the Jesus of the New Testament or the Jesus predicted by Isaiah 53. He is so crafty and there’s not one angle of attack. He attacks our thinking and our minds from every possible angle to get us to think about Christian realities in wrong ways. That’s one reason I praise God. Think about this: for 25 years, this church has not taken one step away from believing the inerrancy, the inspiration, and the infallibility of God’s Word. There’s a reason the word Bible is in your name. And I thank God for your testimony of taking God’s Word at face value and believing it, living it, and applying it and understanding it and cherishing it and loving it. Now, the fact that Paul made such a big deal out of the preaching of the cross gives us an idea of what this false message might have been. The great assessment of our faith from the world is that we’re crazy, foolish for believing that God would save sinners by the execution of his son alongside criminals on a Roman cross in absolute shame. So much so that Paul uses this wonderful sarcasm again. He says, “Oh, it’s wonderful to see God’s foolishness. We believe such foolishness. Have you really pushed back and thought about what we teach and believe? We believe that if you believe, and only believe, you don’t have to do anything. Just believe that God sent his son, his only begotten son. If you believe that he said all of your sin that deserves fiery judgment and eternal hell, he will pay that penalty instead of you and for you by dying for you on a Roman crucifix. And in exchange, he will give you in your spiritual bank account the perfect righteousness of Christ so that when God looks at your account, he sees perfection. Do you hear how crazy that sounds? It’s so striking that after five chapters of teaching that exact gospel, by chapter 6 of Romans, Paul says, “What shall we say then? Should we sin that grace would increase? I mean, if it’s just as easy as believing, why not have your sin and your salvation at the same time?” And he says, “May it never be? How can we who died to sin still live in it? There are consequences of belief. Satan wants us to think about the gospel differently than that, wrongly. “I pray that your mind is not led astray.” And then he uses two words, simplicity and purity. And the New American Standard, I think most translations say, of purity and devotion to Christ. Those are helpful additions. But the original text says that your mind will be led astray from simplicity and purity to Christ. Translators add devotion; the point is basically simplicity and purity of everything you are. Your whole life and being simplicity is single-mindedness. He was saying, Don’t have your mind be led astray from being single-minded about Christ. It’s used in Ephesians 6:5 and Colossians 2 of the same devotion and purity. I looked up purity in four Greek dictionaries. You know what it means? Pure, unstained, unfiltered, uncontaminated. Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 16:21, “How clear is this? If anyone does not love the Lord, he’s to be accursed. I think this is fascinating. J.C. Ryle, one of my favorite people who’s in heaven right now, he said, “Who would have thought that under the very eyes of Christ’s own disciples, while the blood of Calvary was hardly yet dry, when the age of miracles had not yet passed away, who would have thought that during that day there would be any danger from Christians departing from the faith.” End quote. Look, if they were in danger in the first generation, where do you think we are 2,000 years later? Simplicity and purity here to Christ. In the first hour, we looked at Colossians 1:28 and 29. And we proclaim him. Jesus is our message. Christ in Everything Now, don’t try to turn. Just listen. Paul says to the Corinthians, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:1. In 2 Corinthians 4:5: For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Christ’s sake. For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Second Corinthians 13:5, test yourself to see if you’re in the faith. Examine yourselves 2 Corinthians 13:5: test yourselves to see if you’re in the faith. Examine yourselves or do you not recognize this about yourself that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail the test. Galatians 2:20, I’ve been crucified with Christ. It’s no longer I who live but Christ. Christ lives in me. Galatians 4:19, “My children with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.” I was talking to your elders yesterday, morning and night actually and I walked away thinking about this passage that your leaders have a burden that Christ is formed in you that you become like Christ which means they have the responsibility to show you Christ to preach to you Christ to live Christ in their own lives. For to me to live as Christ and to die is gain. I want the surpassing value of knowing Christ. Philippians 3. And then Colossians 1:18, one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible because of a preposition. Paul says Jesus is the head of the body of the church and he’s the beginning the firstborn from the dead so that he himself will come to have first place preeminence in everything. Paul did not believe— Paul did not believe that Jesus should be first place over everything in your life. It’s not what he taught. It’s not what he said. It’s not like you have this priority list—Jesus, then family, then work, then job. That’s not what he said. Listen again that Jesus Christ would come to have first place not above everything in everything. He saturates it. Meaning that Jesus is first place in our family in our marriage in our parenting in our jobs in our recreation in everything. He’s not over everything. He’s in everything. He’s always our focus and our present. First hour we proclaim him. A few minutes ago, we celebrated the Lord’s table. Can I add a devotional thought to what Jacob led us to understand in that moment? the night he was betrayed. It’s interesting that he doesn’t say at the last supper. He says the night he was betrayed. He says it twice in 1 Corinthians 11 to focus our attention on the fact of the betrayal of Christ. But then he quotes Christ and he says, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Have you ever thought about why would he say that? Because he knew we would forget. And instead of hammering us because of that, he reminds us of himself. He says, “As often as you do this, remember me because I know that you need the reminder because you forget me.” What a precious Savior we have who woos us back in fresh memory. He doesn’t condemn us in judgment. You don’t tell people to remember things that they remember. You tell people to remember things that they have a tendency to forget and that’s every one of us with the person and the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This chief pastoral concern that Paul had was to rivet the hearts and affections of the sheep to the person of Christ to keep them from thinking that Christianity is behavior modification, social constructs, or merely generating awareness. Do you believe in the omnipresence of God? I hope you do. Do you believe, according to John 16, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit forever will reside with us? The permanent abiding presence of the trinity. I hope you do. Which means the spirit of Jesus is always with us. Two other times in the New Testament, we’re told, do you believe that Jesus is always present? Then why do we sin? A.W. Tozer answers it. He says in the moment of sin every Christian momentarily becomes a practical atheist. He may say he believes in God but by his actions he denies him. We understand that. God understands that. That’s why he says do this to remember me because we drift away from that. Our minds will be led astray from simplicity and purity of devotion to our Lord. John Owen said, “Christ is the way. Men without him are Cains, wanderers, vagabonds. He is the truth. Men without him are liars and in the devil’s hold. He is the life. Men without him are dead in their trespasses and sins. He is the light. Men without him are in darkness and know not where they go. He is the vine. Men that are not in him are withered branches prepared for the fire. He is the rock. Men built on him are not carried away with a flood. He is the alpha and omega, the first and the last, the author and ender, the founder and finisher of salvation. He that has not him neither has beginning of good, nor shall he have anything but an end of misery. Oh blessed Jesus how much better were it not to be than to be without thee. A thousand hells come short of this: eternally to want Christ. Grace Bible Church and the Next 25 Years Why talk about this passage at a 25th anniversary? Because I want to look back and look forward. Your minds can only be led astray if you had them anchored in the first place. You have anchored your life and ministry to the right things in 25 years. Praise God for that. But I think if Paul were here, he would probably say, “Don’t drift. Stay strong. Don’t dislocate your spiritual shoulder patting yourself on the back. Stay at the plow. Can I give you an exhortation based on your name? I want to do it in reverse order. Grace Bible Church. Let’s talk about the church. New Testament identifies Christ’s gathering of believers, their commitment to one another as a church.ekklesia. Jesus founded his church. Jesus promised to build it. He promised to make it healthy. You are a church, which means you are the bride of Christ. You just finished the book of Revelation. It goes further in John. He says, “The wife of the lamb.” Not just the bride, but the wife. Incredible. That’s how intimate we are with Christ as a church. Second, you’re a Bible church. This is an intentional, unabashed, unashamed declaration that God’s Word that you hold—your Bible—is your authority, the only life-giving source of truth from God. Grace Bible Church. I love that unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor of God that finds its ultimate expression in the good news that God gave his son for the salvation of those who would believe. So, by being a part of Grace Bible Church, you’re making quite a declaration. And I think if you would stay true to that declaration that’s in your name, the next 25 years, you’ll stay attached. You won’t be led astray because grace is your application of truth, Bible is your authority, and church is your assembly. You are committed to each other and the one anothers of the New Testament that makes you related to each other by spiritual eternal relationships. I feel so inadequate to stand before you, so humbled and honored that you would even ask me to be here. I just don’t have anything to say except thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your love for each other, for your love for our Savior, for your testimony in this community, for your testimony to the truth of God’s Word. Thank you for being friends to other Christians, other ministries, and myself who are trying to do the same. Thank you for raising this Ebenezer to look at what God has done. Just look around at the people. Just look around. Just look. You’re going to see smiles. You’ll catch eyes. Just look around at each other. Friends, this is God through his son building a redeemed humanity to bring into his kingdom citizenship. You are Ephesians 2 trophies of grace which is your name. I pray that you will excel still more, that 25 years from now, I wonder who’s going to be here. Your job is to make sure that the ones who sit in this building understand what grace Bible church means. Closing Prayer Let me pray. Father, I am struck with fear again reading this passage that the possibility of being led astray is so real. As we sing, prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave you, the one we love. Forgive us where we have erred and gone astray. Thank you for the reminders, communion, fellowship, attendance, assembling where we can be reminded of you. Keep us tethered to the reminders that you’ve put that we might not be led astray from you. Simple and pure adoration, love, affection, responsive obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for these men and women, these young people. Thank you for the testimony of this church. Cause them to be light in the darkness, food for the hungry, water for the thirsty, and answers for the questions that this community desperately needs. We pray this so that you, our Lord and Savior, the one who would die for us and ever lives for us, the Lord Jesus, and it is said that if we talk to you, our Father, in your Son’s name, you will respond with such wonderful grace that’s beyond all we ask or think. We pray in his name. Amen. The post 2 Corinthians 11:3 The Most Important Thing appeared first on Grace Bible Church.