2 Corinthians 10:17-18 (KJV) But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. 18 For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.

2 Corinthians 11:2-4 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 subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. {4} 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.

The SIMPLICITY Of Christ

The faith that God gives to us is not complex or confusing. It is simple. God has never been difficult with us. He has always asked us to follow Him simply. Jesus illustrated this when He called a little child to His side. Jesus said:

Matthew 18:2-6 (KJV) … Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, 3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

That is very simple. There is a simplicity in Christ. How is a person saved? It is very simple. Jesus illustrated it with a child. He illustrated it with His disciples.

Matthew 4:19 (KJV) … Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Come. Follow Jesus. What God does for us is complex, but what He expects of us is simple. “Follow Me”. God made us simply.

We are not Gods, but we are God’s (G O D APOSTROPHE S).
We belong to God.
But we are not GODS.
We are NOT GODS but we ARE GOD’S.
And we are most like GOD when we imitate Him.

We cannot be gods, though we were made in the image of God. Sunday we studied these words:

Isaiah 55:6-11 (KJV) Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

God’s ways are NOT our ways. Our ways are often confused, foolish. But God’s ways are HIGHER than our ways. God is God. We are not. God’s Word is always true. The Spirit of this age – which was the spirit that entered and destroyed Eden – says:

Has God REALLY Said?

God gave Adam a very simple rule. You can have everything, but ONE thing you will not touch. That ONE thing is mine, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:17 (KJV) But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Very simple. Easy to understand.
You can trim the tree.
You can rake up it’s leaves.
You can till the ground around it.
You can polish its leaves if you want to.
You can water it.
You can string a hammock between it and the Tree of Life.
You can lay in the hammock, and snooze between the two trees
like a squirrel in its nest.
But YOU SHALL NOT EAT IT.

I’m going to give you a woman, Adam. She will be the most beautiful woman in the world. She won’t interrupt you while you’re watching TV because there won’t be any TV. You and her are to multiply and fill the earth. You’re a man, she’s a woman. She is to follow you as you love her. She can eat anything she wants. But YOU, Adam, are NOT TO EAT OF THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.

So what does Adam do? God has given him very clear instructions. Don’t eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. That’s very clear. But the spirit of evil creeps into the Garden. Here is Satan. He doesn’t go to Adam but to Eve, the wife. He says to Eve:

“Has God REALLY SAID that you shall not eat of EVERY TREE in the Garden?”

Notice how subtle the devil is. He doesn’t come right out and contradict God, but he opens the door to contradiction. His implication is that God is STINGY. God is keeping ONE THING from Adam and Eve – after all, don’t they work hard? Haven’t they worked hard enough to deserve EVERYTHING? Opening the door with the wife, the Bride of Adam says:

Genesis 3:2-3 (KJV) … the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

Now God never said that. His orders were specific. You could TOUCH the tree all you wanted, but were not to eat of it. So Eve did what people have done from the beginning of time.

SHE ADDED TO THE WORD OF GOD.

When I was in school I was taught that 1+1=2, not 1+1=3.
When you add to the Word of God you turn it into a half truth.
When you take away from the Word of God you turn it into a half truth.

When the Word of God is simply read and simply applied you have the whole truth. For instance, the Scripture says:

Colossians 3:18-24 (KJV) Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. 20 Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. 21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. 22 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: 23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; 24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

That is very clear. Wives, SUBMIT to your OWN husbands
AS IS FIT in the Lord.

You don’t have to submit to sinful things that he asks you to do, but if he is following Christ and leading in Christ you are to follow him as he follows Jesus. The same principle is found in:

1 Corinthians 11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

Paul said “Follow me as I follow Christ”. If the husband is following Christ, the wife is to follow the husband as he follows Christ. That’s simple.

Husbands, love your wives, and do not be bitter against them.

Again, a very clear statement.

Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.

Everything is very simple. Where we go wrong is when we add to or remove from what God has said.

When Eve added to what God said the devil came back and said:

Genesis 3:4-5 (KJV) And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Here the devil’s plan is revealed. He opened the door. Eve added to the Word of God. Then the devil goes “Well, God is just trying to DEPRIVE you, to HOLD YOU DOWN, to keep you from your FULL POTENTIAL and ROB YOU OF HAPPINESS.” Once Eve heard this she began to look at things with her own intellect and feeling.

Genesis 3:6 (KJV) And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

When Adam ate the world fell into sin.

As the devil did with Eve, he tries to do with the Church today. Look at the Apostle’s words:

2 Corinthians 11:2 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.

The Church is the Bride of Christ. Each member in the Church is married to Christ by faith. When people are added to the Church they are ESPOUSED to Christ. The Bible teaches us elsewhere that:

Ephesians 5:22-24 (KJV) Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

The Church is Christ’s Bride, His Wife. As the wife is to obey her husband in the Lord, we are to obey Christ. We are to follow Him. We are to love Him. We are to do as He does. In the Great Commission Christ said:

Matthew 28:18-20 (KJV) …. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

We follow Jesus as Jesus follows His Father. This is salvation. This is the Church. We are to heed His Word and do it, not adding to or subtracting from it. When we add to His Word what happens? CONFUSION.

1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

How is a person saved? By faith in Christ. Faith follows. Faith does. Faith imitates.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: {9} Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Christianity is quite simply a love story. The simplicity of our faith means that we who believe do what we do because God loves us – and we have been led to fall in love with Him. Simplicity means a sincere and pure devotion to the One Who saved you. The Christian exists to glorify God! To love God!

If I am following Jesus, I will do what my Jesus says. What has He said? WE MUST LOVE.

We are told in:

1 John 4:20-21 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

I must love you, and you must love me. I do not love you if I add or subtract from God’s Word, nor condone you in doing so. This is not love. We are to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). Love as Christ loved. Love as Christ said.

Matthew 5:43-45 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. {44} But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; {45} That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

The Gospel is to follow Christ. The Gospel is to give Him the preeminence. The Gospel is to glorify God. A person is not saved if that person is not routinely and as a matter of course following Jesus. The Apostle warned:

Galatians 1:8-10 (KJV)8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. 10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

The Gospel is to live following the Lord, pleasing Him, doing as He has said we must do. Jesus Christ died for our sins. The Bible declares

1 Peter 2:24 {Jesus} his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Jesus died for us to bring us to righteousness, and righteousness is defined as that which “is RIGHT with GOD”. I am not saved by my works, but by Christ’s. But once saved I am wed to Christ on the spiritual level. I am to follow Him, to love Him, to do as He has said do, simply, just like a child, an obedient child.

This is what our Lord would have us to do – to follow Him as He follows the Father. Here then is power. Here is the way of Christ. Let’s be like Jesus.