The Christian's Mind; Faithful

A photographer friend of mine told me a very sad story about a wedding that he was covering. The minister pronounced the man and woman husband and wife, and the organ began to play the recessional and the proud couple turned and came down the aisle. The photographer was waiting outside the church to get a picture of the bride and groom coming out. The doors opened, out they came. Now the photographer had noticed that across the street from the church a car was parked, the motor was running, and a young man was seated behind the wheel. The bride came out, looked across the street, saw this young man in the automobile, left her husband, ran to the car, got in, and the two of them drove away. 

Well, I guess it was the father of the bride who got in his car and chased them down, discovered that it was an old boyfriend of the girl's. And he had said to her, "I can have you anytime I want you, just wait and see." And sure enough, she comes out of the church a brand new bride, and she runs off with her old boyfriend. Now, we—we don't like that, do we? Something in us says, "No, that's not right." In fact, if it happened a week after the honeymoon or ten years after the honeymoon, it makes no difference. The bride and the groom belong to each other. The husband and the wife are pledged to each other. 

By the way, in Paul's day and back in Old Testament and New Testament times, engagement was very serious. Today people flit in and out of engagements, you know, not thinking much about it. Of course, it's better to break an engagement than to go through with it if it's wrong. But in those days, Paul's day, back in the New Testament, back in the Old Testament too, when a man and wife were engaged, that was serious. And if a woman or a man proved unfaithful, then that engagement was broken and that sin was considered adultery. 

Now, this is what Paul's talking about in 2 Corinthians 11:1. "Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly, and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it." 

Now, the word "simplicity" in 2 Corinthians 11:3 means single-hearted devotion. He's referring to the love of the wife and the husband. He's referring here to the love of a couple engaged to be married. You see, there are several comparisons here: Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom, the Church is the bride—that means you and I individually are a part of the bride—Paul is the father of the bride, and Satan is the enemy who wants to seduce the bride. And Paul, as the father of the bride, is trying to protect the bride from seduction. 

Now, let's look at these comparisons and understand what it means to have the faithful mind, the mind that is loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ. Not duplicity, but simplicity—single-hearted devotion to the Lord Jesus. Christ is the Bridegroom. Now, he said so himself; Matthew 9:15, Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom," referring to his disciples, "mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast." Jesus Christ is referring to himself as the Bridegroom. John the Baptist gave him that title; John 3:29, "He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease." John the Baptist said Jesus is the Bridegroom. 

Now, the Apostle Paul tells us that here in 2 Corinthians 11:1: "I have espoused you," I have betrothed you, "to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." Who is that one husband? Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom. Paul repeats this same image over in Ephesians 5:25: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it." So, we don't have to go on discussing this; Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom. This speaks of love, this speaks of hope, it speaks of joy, it speaks of sharing. In my pastoral ministry, I have experienced the joy of preparing young men and young women for marriage. And we'd meet together and talk from the Word of God, and their joy gets deeper as they anticipate that wedding day. They look forward to it. Now, this should be our attitude, which leads us now to the second comparison: Christ is the Bridegroom, and the Church is the bride. 

Now, the Church is made up of individuals. Let's not talk about a group of people; let's talk about you, let's talk about me. When you were saved, you were engaged to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the marriage has not yet taken place. You are saved, you belong to Him. The engagement ring that He gave you is the Holy Spirit of God. He is the down payment, He is the—the seal, He is the guarantee that the wedding is going to take place. We have the Holy Spirit of God as the engagement ring. We've been betrothed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is serious. We must be loyal to Him. 

Now, the marriage will take place when Jesus Christ returns. Revelation 19:7 talks about that: "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." And it goes on to talk about, "Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb" in Revelation 19:9. You don't invite the bride to her own marriage supper; she's there because she's married to the Lord Jesus Christ. So, in between the engagement, which is salvation, and the marriage, which is glorification, there must be loyalty and faithfulness to the Lord. 

Now, in the Old Testament, one entire book is devoted to this. You see, the Old Testament Jew considered the nation of Israel married to Jehovah God. They entered into that marriage compact at Mount Sinai when the nation accepted God's law. Jeremiah uses this image, Ezekiel uses the image: God as the Husband whose wife has proved unfaithful to Him. But the book of Hosea is the one book that talks about the brokenhearted God who sees His people unfaithful to Him. Hosea the prophet was married to a woman who became a prostitute. Now, some think she was a prostitute before he even married her; that's a possibility. But be that as it may, she was unfaithful to him. And God said to him, "Go buy her back." She finally ended up in the slave market. He said, "Go buy your own wife back." And then he preached a sermon to the people and said, "This is what you've done to Me. You've not been faithful to Me, you've not been loyal to Me, and I've had to bring you back, and I've had to woo you once again." 

The Apostle John talks about this in the book of Revelation, the letter that Jesus sent to the church at Ephesus. He praises them for their works and their labor, their patience; Revelation 2:4, their perseverance. But in verse 4, He says this: "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love." You've not lost your first love, you've not drifted from it—you've left it. You are not living a loyal, faithful Christian life. Now, Paul is saying to the church at Corinth, "Be careful. You have been betrothed to the Lord Jesus. When He comes, I want you to be pure. I don't want you to be guilty of spiritual adultery." 

Now, in the Old Testament, idolatry is looked upon as adultery. When the Jews went off and bowed down before Baal and all these other false gods, the prophets said they had committed fornication, they had committed adultery. In the New Testament, false doctrine—following false doctrine and false teachers—is the equivalent of adultery. Being unfaithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know when our Lord's going to come back. I don't know when we shall experience that beautiful marriage ceremony and the marriage supper of the Lamb. But all I know is this: you and I are expected to have single-hearted devotion to the Lord so that when He comes, we are not corrupted, seduced. We are faithfully chaste as we stand before Him. 

Christ is the Bridegroom, the Church is the bride, Paul is the father of the bride. He started the church in Corinth. He begat them through the gospel; 1 Corinthians 4:14, "I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel." So, Paul begat the church at Corinth. He won these people to Jesus Christ. He was, as it were, their spiritual father. 

Now, as a father, he has to warn them; verse 14. As a father, he has to discipline them. For this reason, he says in 1 Corinthians 4:17, "I've sent Timothy to you, to remind you of my ways." In other words, you've got to keep reminding your children what they should learn. "Some of you are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills, and I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power." Verse 21, "Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?" Paul begat the church, Paul disciplined the church, he warned the church as a spiritual father. He faithfully cared for this church. 

Now, along come these false teachers. In the case of Corinth, it was a group of people we call the Judaizers—that is, those who said, "It's all right to believe in Jesus Christ, but don't forget Moses." It's one of the problems that was faced in Acts 15:1, that a Gentile has to become a Jew before he can become a Christian. And they had laid down all kinds of regulations for people who were Gentile Christians. They preached another Jesus; 2 Corinthians 11:4. Not a Jesus who redeems us from the law. They received a different spirit. There are false spirits that are abroad. Some people who think they're filled with the Spirit are being fooled by the spirits. A different gospel. Now, Paul says in Galatians 1:6 there is only one gospel; there cannot be another gospel. Any other gospel is not a gospel at all; it's not good news, it's bad news. And their gospel was: you've got to obey the law of Moses, you've got to keep up the diets and the regulations, otherwise you cannot be saved. 

Now, Paul as the father of the bride sees this as spiritual seduction. And one day he is going to have to give an account of his ministry. The next time you're prone to criticize your pastor for preaching against sin, you better read the book of Hebrews 13:17. Let me read it to you; Hebrews 13:17: "Obey those who rule over you," that means spiritual rule, "for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you." It doesn't say it's unprofitable for them; it's unprofitable for you.

I know in my own pastoral ministry, I've gone to warn people about false teaching and false doctrine that they're getting a hold of, warning them they're being seduced by the devil. And they would not obey. And when I give an account of my ministry, I'm going to have to say, "Lord, I was faithful to tell them the truth. I tried to protect them from the seduction of the evil one. I'm sorry, they have gone off, and it's not going to be profitable for them." Every minister, every servant of God is like the father of the bride, having to protect God's people from spiritual adultery. 

Now he tells us that Christ is the Bridegroom, and the Church is the bride, and Paul—or whoever the minister is—is the father of the bride, and Satan is the seducer. "I fear lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity," the single-hearted devotion, "that is in Christ." Genesis 3:1 tells us how the devil did it. He's not doing anything new today. What he did to Eve in Genesis 3:1, he is still doing. He still uses the same seductive approach. And if God's people will just learn what the devil does, they will be able to cultivate the loyal, faithful mind, and their minds will not be led off into false doctrine and false religions. 

It is an alarming fact that many of the members of false cults used to sit in fundamental evangelical churches and Sunday school classes, but they allowed their minds to be seduced. What does the devil do? First, he questions God's Word. Genesis 3:1, he said to the woman, "Has indeed God said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" He questions God's Word. If God loved you, He would really give you everything in the garden. Then he denies God's Word; verse 4, "You will not surely die." And then he substitutes his own lie; verse 5, "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." You will be like God. Man has always wanted that; Satan has wanted that. "I will be like the Most High." 

Notice now, this is his crafty plan. Get a hold of it. If he's going to seduce you into spiritual adultery, he begins by questioning the Word. "Does God really mean that?" Then he will deny the Word. Once he sees that you and I are questioning God—"Does God really mean that?"—then he will deny it, and then that leaves the way open for him to substitute his own lie.

Now, how did Eve respond? Well, she took away from God's Word. "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden." Now, she left out a word: "freely." God had said, "You may freely eat." She's sort of denying God's grace, isn't she? First she takes from the Word, then she adds to the Word; verse 3, "But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" "Nor shall you touch it"—we don't find that written in Genesis. Now, God may have said it, but we don't find it written there. So she adds to the Word, makes it harder than it really is. Then she changes the Word: "lest you die." God didn't say "lest you die"; God said, "You shall surely die." What happened? She sinned, and you know the results. Our love for the Lord Jesus Christ must be loyal and true. We must believe His Word, and we must be aware of the seduction of those who would lead us astray. God wants us to have the loyal mind, the faithful mind that is true to the Lord Jesus Christ till He comes. 

[Interview]

And now Warren Wiersbe is with Back to the Bible CEO Arnie Cole to dig a little deeper into today's message. 

Arnie: Warren, there's so many lies in our culture today. Lies about relationships, lies about who God is, lies about what's right and wrong. And our young people in particular—really any age—they're being seduced by these lies. You know, they make so much sense, especially if you grow up in a culture with these lies. So what's the best way to help people grow and know the truth? 

Warren: One of the problems we face today has been caused by our universities. They start teaching relativism—there are no absolutes. And yet, there are absolutes. You go into the hospital for surgery—they have absolutes. "Well, what are we supposed to take out today?" "Well, what difference does it make?" Nobody would talk like that. You take your car to the garage to have it serviced. "Well, what are we supposed to do?" "Well, it needs this, this, and this." "Well, what difference does it make?" It makes a lot of difference. I said to a person who was preaching that kind of doctrine, I said, "You know, when you go to the bank, you've got a check for a thousand dollars and they give you a hundred dollars, what are you going to do?" "Well, they owe me money!" "No, there's nothing absolute about that. Both of them have one-zero-zero, what difference does it make?" 

So today our kids are surrounded by this relativism that is so dangerous. Proverbs 23:23 says, "Buy the truth and sell it not." That's a great verse. The truth costs something, and today we've got to teach our young people that you stand for the truth. You stand for the truth because that's the only way to let the truth control your life. Buy the truth and sell it not. 

Arnie: So really they teach there's no absolutes in the spiritual world, isn't that where relativism is being one-sided? 

Warren: Yeah, yeah. You're right, I'm glad you brought that up. Because God's okay for you but not for me, you know, that—that type of thing. And yet, without absolutes, where would we be? 

Arnie: Well, and without the Bible, you've got a tremendous problem. If you don't accept the Bible, then that makes it really tough, doesn't it? 

Warren: I think you're right on track there.