II Corinthians 11:1 Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.
2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
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.
A few days ago I mentioned that the Muslims had managed to convince the powers that be in Regina to broadcast their propaganda disguised as prayer. They had permission to broadcast that over a one kilometre distance on Friday at 1:00 pm.
There was enough resistance raised over this foolish plan so that it has been postponed for the time. However, the police are examining the opposition for “hate speech”. Intimidation is one of the tools the devil uses to advance his evil. The Muslims will hold discussion with the community to try to convince the community they are not a threat. They will bring out their best lies to try to convince the people. Apparently there is an Anglican church and a Catholic church in that area that have stated they have no problem with the Muslims being there and with their plans. That is to be expected from those two false religions. The devil will enlist as many servants as he can to advance his wicked plans. After all God calls him the “god of the world”. The Bible further states:
II Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
The fact remains that God has been gracious to the residents of Regina. He is giving them a short window of time to consider the need to repent and turn to Him. We need to pray for the true Christians in that city. They need to be bold and remind people of the truth. As we have mentioned before, Islam is not just a religion. It is an ideology. It is designed to control the world. It has the same goal that Catholicism has. Catholicism also has a history of violence. They have beheaded those who opposed them. They have burned others at the stake. They tried their best to stop the Word of God from being translated into English. All their efforts failed to stop God’s Word from being translated into English. What they did not realize then and still do not now, is that God is bigger than the devil.
We know that the devil used subtlety to trick Eve and to get Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit. The Muslims will use subtlety to get a foot hold and then they will push harder. After all Catholicism had a part in the development of Islam. They are a team. Just look at the relationship between the recent popes and the Imams.
Today is the Lord’s Day. We will be at our church proclaiming the truth. We do not apologize for the truth. The time is short. Thousands are on the broad way that leads to destruction. We encourage true saints to be sure you are in your true local church today. Prayer and preaching are essential to Christian growth. We also need to pray for the many who have rejected the truth. The time is short.
In our text, God directed the apostle Paul to continue to expose the folly of the thinking of some of the saints in Corinth. God would lead the apostle Paul to warn of the dangers the saints were willfully ignorant of.
In verse 1 Paul challenged them to bear with him as he had a little folly at their expense. Sometimes a preacher needs to sound ridiculous to get the listeners’ attention.
In verse 2 Paul spoke of his heart. As a saved man, the love of God was in him. He was motivated by that love. He was jealous over the saints. It was a good jealousy. He was not wanting what they had. He was wanting them to know the blessing of the Lord that should have been theirs as saints. They were pushing God aside for their foolish ideas. They were listening to false teachers who did not care about their souls. The apostle Paul wanted to see the saints stand before the Lord as a pure virgin. He did not want them stained by false teaching. A true saint can be deceived. He or she can miss out on rewards because they choose not to believe the truth.
In verse 3, Paul was concerned that the saints had been deceived just as Eve was years earlier. The devil used subtlety. He tricked Eve. The saints in Corinth were in danger of being tricked by false teachers. They had the Truth. They had the indwelling Holy Spirit. They had been taught the Truth by the apostle Paul. However, all the teaching in the world will not help if a person does not want to receive it.
As we mentioned in a couple of the last devotionals, summer time is the time people like to get outside. The devil knows that and he also knows that music is a great distraction. Thus there are “entertainers” who are willing to keep people away from a true local church. Many people are willing to go to these distractions. Jesus did not tell us that He would build His church as something to attend when it was convenient. The book of Acts and the epistles show us the importance of faithfulness in a true church. It is not for the sake of the preacher. It is because the true saints need to be taught every week. The fellowship of the saints is very important. Psalm 1 tells us we need to meditate in God’s Word daily. That begins with reading God’s Word in the morning and then thinking on what you have read as you go through the day. The weekly church services are there to help keep us from getting off track. We need God’s ordained messengers to help us to understand God’s Word properly and grow in Truth. Lost people need to be exposed to the Truth. It is a shame that so many people choose what they will listen to based on their feelings.
Trusting in Christ is not difficult. It requires humility. That is something that is in short supply among those who are lost. Pride is a powerful tool the devil likes to nurture. A person needs to come to realize he was wrong and turn to the true God Whom he has been resisting. The repentant sinner needs to trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, not in self and lies.
Where are you at today? Who or what are you trusting in? The false teachers are numerous. They have honed the art of deception. They have a “good” teacher in the devil. However, the Holy Spirit is greater than the devil. He is at work with every person. He is working with the lost to show each one their need to repent and be saved. He is dwelling in every true believer and seeking to encourage the saved to be obedient to the Word of God. For the saved, the blessing is in submitting to the Truth and growing in the Lord. For the lost the blessing is submitting to the Truth and getting saved.
John 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Pastor Bartel