You know, if you plead the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the stuff you are doing—He gives you power to get victory. You know, that stuff isn’t going to be up there against you, you do know that, right? The Blood of Jesus Christ’ Blood cleanseth us from all sins. The problem is not occupying. The problem is faith—losing faith. He said, ‘Shall I find faith?’ He told us to ‘Occupy till I come.’ That means to ‘stay by the stuff,’ to stay in there.
And so, the Apostle Paul knows that these people are under attack.
“For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things. Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?” (II Corinthians 11:4-7).
He goes on to say . . .
“I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service” (II Corinthians 11:8).
What does he mean? He didn’t ask them for any money—he wasn’t a professional preacher—He was a man of God. He didn’t go there because they had bucks. When he said he robbed other churches, other churches gave him money so that he could go to this church and do what he could do. He had to survive. He didn’t charge them. It would be amazing if some people on TV would stop doing that.
But the text here is verse 3, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
In John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible, I go to a few of those guys and I learn from them, back in the 1800’s. Some of them are Calvinists—some are not—but I know the difference. So, don’t get sucked into something. Amen? If you are a ‘babe in Christ.’ These guys had time to think. They didn’t have all this technology and stuff. So, all they did was the mercy of God, the holiness of God, or the justification of God. They started getting into it, nice and slow. And you glean from the older ones in the 1600’s, the 1700’s, the 1800’s. And how they walked with God. So, that’s why I’m using them.
He says, “But I fear, lest by any means . . .” That phrase, ‘Jealousy is always attended with fear, care, and solicitude, whether in things natural or spiritual. The apostle, as things were in this church, could not but express his fears, lest . . .
“as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty . . .” that is, the old serpent the devil, who made use of a serpent, the most subtle creature of all the beasts of the field, and seduced Eve from her obedience to God, to transgress his command, by eating the forbidden fruit. The apostle here speaks the language and sense of the Jews, who say, that, “Satan and the serpent have one name”, i.e. are the same; and that it was the old serpent (the devil), “that beguiled Eve”, and who is said to be corrupted by him.
So, what the author is saying, the Jews already knew. The serpent and the devil were one. They knew that. As Bible believers, we know that from reading that Bible. Now, the serpent was corrupted first. After that, Eve was corrupted, and after that Adam was corrupted.
So, the Apostle was jealous and fearful knowing that the false apostles were ministers of Satan, artful, cunning men—lest through their craftiness and sophistry, ‘subtilty’—’your minds’ (the Bible says) says he, “should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ,” that is, lest their judgments should be misled, their minds be vitiated with corrupt principles, and be carried away in any degree with the error of the wicked, from off the pure and simple doctrine of the Gospel, which respects the person and grace of Christ; and chiefly lies in this one plain, easy, and important truth, salvation alone by him.
You’ll find it in Corinthians, you’ll find it in Galatians, by Paul. Every religion is trying to attack ‘the simplicity that is in Christ,’ today, all of them. Intellectually, even physically. It’s a mess out there.
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;” (I Corinthians 15:1).
Speaking to those that are saved—that received the same Gospel that he preached.
Now, I use these authors and expositors, but I am really trying to keep it simple with this here, with transcript and trying not to get off track too much, with the way my mind goes. But just so you can get the simplicity of these doctrines that we believe. And these are the ones, right now, that are really under attack.
And this is the Gospel he preached . . .
“By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain” (I Corinthians 15:2).
“. . . unless ye have believed in vain . . .” Now this doesn’t mean that they lost their salvation, that means when they heard Paul preach the Gospel, some didn’t understand it. If they believed what he preached—they got saved! And what he preached was the Gospel! Yet, some of the message fell on rocky ground.
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (I Corinthians 15:3-4).
“. . . that which I also received . . .” Right now, you are wondering what people are preaching and teaching—what they actually received—because of the corruption that is on the airwaves and the modern movement. There is so many things going on that it is hard to keep up with it. And always remember that there are different ways that people interpret Scripture. It is either literal—every word—what I believe, or it’s thought. And thought seems to be winning out today, in these large churches.
“What I ‘think’ God is meaning.”
“What I ‘think’ about this.”
People today are using, “I think” to explain the Bible instead of “God says!” A ‘thus saith the Lord’ is world’s apart from ‘I think.’
And we are seeing a fluffy weak, anemic Christianity that is happening today, and it is going to be easily consumed into this globalism. I can already see it happening. Barriers are down, and everybody is saying that that is good. It isn’t good.
When you break that separation—you see, it’s about the Book—it’s either the Book or it’s not the Book. If you don’t have the inspired, preserved, perfect Word of God that you believe—that you have—then you’re going to fall for anything out there. Anything that sounds good. Oh, this is archaic, it’s a little obscure. Well, I like this better—but while you’re liking all these thoughts—you are destroying, DESTROYING doctrine. Destroying the chain of references that God has put in this Book. Some things you just got to dig in and fight for.
And the Apostle Paul is telling these folks, ‘Hey, they are coming in, they got some Bible. Oh, they got some thoughts.’ He was fearful because he wasn’t staying there, he is writing these letters to them. He wasn’t there yet. And so they were at the mercy of these people that knew the Bible. They were older—more religious—you know. After all, we are taught to obey our elders.
And so there is a mess going on here, and it boils down to the simplicity of Christ. It comes down to the Gospel which Paul preached. Once again . . .
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (I Corinthians 15:3-4).
Thank God that it says ‘according to the Scriptures.’ Because that makes you go to Scriptures to see how He dies. ‘Well, the Blood ain’t emphasized.’ Have you read the Scriptures about the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ? Have you read how He suffered—how He bled, how He died? All of that, believe it or not, is involved in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For as you see the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ—which is the very Gospel.
You go, and you research about the death—you read about the rich guy that gave up his tomb—you know, the burial. Next thing you know, lo and behold, that was prophesied in the Old Testament. Wait a minute, this is getting good. See, all the Scriptures! You get into Isaiah 53 and you start saying, “My goodness! 700 years before it happened! No wonder the Jews don’t like talking about Isaiah 53.” Isaiah is their favorite prophet, but chapter 53? They’ll say, “Well, I’m unlearned.” It’s just amazing. We, that are saved, if you read that—if you really read it solemnly—you could even shed a tear. Isaiah 53.
So, you think about the Gospel—it is the death, burial and resurrection—but each one of them can be defined. And that’s where you get to see the suffering of Christ, and what really took place on Calvary. And how God provided the tomb, and how God worked on Nicodemus and the rich man that was there, Joseph to give up his tomb, and how they took the Body there. And you really start to get a fuller picture.
And then you come to the Pauline epistles and you begin to learn about that Blood of Jesus Christ. Wow. Then you understand the Old Testament, how that the blood of goats and bulls could not take away sin—they just covered it up—and that there was one sacrifice for ever, and then He sat down.
All that stuff, you see, that they messed up by adding works to it. By polluting it.
That’s why Scripture, when you get into this King James Bible—when it tells you something—like, ‘according to the Scriptures,’ you may go to some other translation and they don’t have that there.
MacLaren says about this,
“Mark how ‘that Christ died,’ not Jesus. It is a great truth, that the man, our Brother, Jesus, passed through the common lot, but that is not what Paul says here, though he often says it. What he says is that ‘Christ died.’ Christ is the name of an office, into which is condensed a whole system of truth, declaring that it is He who is the Apex, the Seal, and ultimate Word of all divine revelation. It was the Christ who died; unless it was so, the death of Jesus is no gospel.
“passed through the common lot . . .” What do you mean? He was born in a manger, I guess that’s as poor as you can get. A carpenter’s son. According to Hebrews “He learned obedience.” Yea, the flesh part of Christ—100% —the common part of Jesus Christ.
“the death of Jesus is no gospel . . .” This author points out, ‘Christ, not Jesus!,’ and that is so true. Christ is the anointed One. Christ is the Messiah. If he had said Jesus, he would have got the man part. So, the Word of God is expressive, man. Definite! And we see here that Christ died. Big difference!
MacLaren continues . . .
‘He died for our sins.’ Now, if the Apostle had only said ‘He died for us,’ that might conceivably have meant that, in a multitude of different ways of example, appeal to our pity and compassion and the like, His death was of use to mankind. But when he says ‘He died for our sins,’ I take leave to think that that expression has no meaning, unless it means that He died as the expiation and sacrifice for men’s sins. I ask you, in what intelligible sense could Christ ‘die for our sins’ unless He died as bearing their punishment and as bearing it for us? And then, finally, ‘He died and rose . . . according to the Scriptures,’ and so fulfilled the divine purposes revealed from of old.
What are you saying? ‘Christ died for our sins.’ A lot of verbiage, they were thinking about it. We know—in simplicity—that man, I was once lost, but now I am found. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, I once was blind, but now I see! How’d that happen? God! That’s all that happened. Simplicity of the Gospel should drive us to know more about our new life.