 The title of our sermon this morning is Jealous and Jealous Love from 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 1 through 6, Jealous and Jealous Love. As we consider this text together, it seems that dire circumstances, difficulty, has frequently bestowed the church at Corinth. In its relatively short history since the church has been planted, the church has been plagued by sin, immaturity, division, discord, disunity, strife, contention, sexual immorality, idolatry, unbiblical understandings of marriage, unbiblical understandings of Christian liberties, unbiblical understandings of spiritual gifts, unbiblical understandings of eschatology, problems surrounding the Lord's Supper, problems with the role of women in the church, and unwillingness to deal with the sin, biblically to deal with sin in the church, and unwillingness to practice church discipline, a relationship with the Apostle Paul that at times could best be described as estranged. But of all the problems that this church has had to face, there is no greater threat in Corinth than the cancerous plague that has gained a foothold among them as Paul penns this text. Paul's teachers have invaded the church. They have portrayed themselves as apostles or sent one to the Lord Jesus Christ, but Paul says they're preaching another Jesus whom we have not preached. They claim that their ministry is the ministry that is fueled by the Spirit of God, and yet Paul says that they have a different spirit. They preach what they profess to be the gospel, the good news of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and the Lord Jesus Christ alone, and yet Paul says they're preaching a different gospel. These men who have infiltrated the church, these intruders, these usurpers, they don't look like serpents. They don't look like dragons. They don't sound like snakes. They don't come looking and smelling like wolves. Paul says in verse 13 that they are deceitful workers. They're deceptive, sowing their deception among the people in the church at Corinth, transforming themselves, Paul says, into angels of light. They presume to be doing the Lord's work. In verse 15 they are ministers of Satan who transform themselves into ministers of righteousness. So cunning, so conniving, so convincing is their deceit that many in the churches of Galatia were made to stumble by these same deceivers. In Galatians 3 verse 1 Paul says, he cries out to them, oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth. That's what it is to believe the lie of these false teachers. Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. And though many in Corinth have already made shipwreck of their faith, Paul writes to those remaining in verse 3, 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. Paul's not ultimately concerned that the false teachers in Corinth are going to rob them of their joy in Christ, though that certainly will be the case. Paul's not ultimately concerned that these people in Corinth are going to lack assurance, or that they're going to lose their hope, or lack hope, or that they're going to lack peace, though that will certainly be the case. Paul's concern is apostasy. Paul's concern is that they will fall away from the faith, that they will turn from the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, chasing after another Jesus, another gospel, another spirit, sinning willfully after receiving a knowledge of the truth, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 26, trampling the Son of God under foot, counting the blood of the covenant, by which he was sanctified a common thing and insulting the spirit of grace, and facing forever the fire of God's righteous indignation, which will devour his adversaries. Paul's concern is apostasy. Paul's concern is that they will go to hell when they die. Paul's concern is that they will turn away from the Lord Jesus Christ forever. It is heart-wrenching when someone you love steps onto the path of apostasy, when someone that you have served with, that someone that you have prayed for, when someone that you have shed tears over, when someone that you've been evangelizing with, that you've fellowshiped with, that you had over to your house for lunch, like someone that you have served the Lord with. It is heart-wrenching when that one forsakes the faith very often at the beginning of that process, the beginning of that fall, it doesn't look like a headlong plunge into sin, it doesn't come across that way, it doesn't begin that way. It often begins with a simple change in their thinking, often begins with a seemingly simple thought, a curiosity, a scruple. It often begins with just a simple change, what would appear to be a simple change in their theology, the way that they think, a subtle step away from the truth as it is in Christ and a step toward error. Most often, overwhelmingly often, the battle that we are fighting is not a battle with a personal demon, as the Charismatics would say. Be sure that it is satanically charged, but Paul says in chapter 10 verse 5 that it's an argument, it's a thought, it's a battle for our mind in the beginning. He says we do not war according to the flesh, it's a thought, it's a reason, it's an excuse, it's an excuse, it's a justification, it's a scruple, it's a presumptuously high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, that's what it is. In other words, it's a lie, it's a lie, and specifically it's a lie about him. It exalts itself against the knowledge of God, it's a lie. Plausible, comes across sounding very reasonable, doesn't it? Pleasing to the ear maybe, something they want to believe, because there's an agenda behind it. May have the scent of something true about it, they may claim grace is behind it. Smooth, flattering, simple, desirable to make one wise, right? Has God indeed said that you shall not eat of every tree in the garden? The serpent asked Eve. Has God indeed said that there isn't anything that you can hold on to and still call yourself a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ? Tearing out your eye and cutting off your hand, really? Has God indeed said or has God indeed said that Christ has accomplished it all? And that it's all of grace, all that's required of me is faith, and even that is a gift of God? Has God indeed said that? No, certainly, certainly, right? If I don't do that thing, then I'm not acceptable to him, right? And if I do it, if I do it, well then I must be acceptable. Subtle lies. And soon enough, soon enough they take that fire into their bosom, whether it's legalism or licentiousness, they take that fire into their bosom, imagining that they won't be burned by it. And Paul cries out all fools, foolish Corinthians. I fear that if someone preaches to you another Jesus, or a different spirit, or a different gospel, you may well put up with it. You might very well become bewitched with the lie. So what we see in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verses one through six, is the ache of Paul's heart for these dear people in Corinth. There are, as he writes this text, people that he's preached the gospel to, people that he knows, that are being led astray by these presumptuous, wicked, deceitful false apostles. They're being led off into sin and error. They're making shipwreck of their faith. They will die and go to hell if they don't turn from their sin. He has a jealous and a zealous love for the Lord's people, a jealous and a zealous love for these people. He's labored among them, preaching the gospel, pleased to impart to them not only the gospel of God, Paul says to the Thessalonians, but his own life also because they had become dear to him. And he said, as he said to the Galatians, he's afraid for them, unless he might have labored for them in vain. And so Paul has to take action. He has to take action. He must address the false teachers, the church themselves. They must address the false teachers. But as much as Paul will be going to war against the arguments of the false teachers, Paul will also be fighting for the hearts and minds of the Corinthians themselves. There are false teachers in Corinth, just like there are false teachers today, everywhere you look. So Iraq, you'll hit one. Just as there are false teachers, lies and deceptions in Corinth, there are false teachers, lies and deceptions in our day. But the weakness, do you see? The weakness lies within the hearts and minds of the people who are being seduced. These dear brothers and sisters in Corinth, the church being seduced by false teachers. So Paul's strategy over the next two chapters, as he lays out his strategy, he plans to attack, so to speak. Not only will he be defending his own ministry, not only will he be speaking out against false teachers who have infiltrated the church, but Paul's strategy will have the effect of exhorting the Corinthians themselves, exhorting them to hold fast to the truth, to labor for the truth, to stand for the truth, to pour contempt on the lie, to remain steadfast and faithful to our betrothed, our bridegroom. Paul announces this strategy with both a hope and a command in verse one. Paul announces this strategy with a hope and with a command in verse one. He begins with this hope, verse one. Oh, Corinthians, all that you would bear with me in a little folly, all that you would endure with me in a little foolishness, Paul says. And, that's the hope, and in the New King James, indeed you do bear with me. Now, once again, the ESV in verse one gets it right. Translating this not as an indicative, not as a statement of fact, indeed you do bear with me, but translating it as an imperative or as a command. Paul commands them, so bear with me then. Bear with me. He gives them then three reasons why they should. Oh, that you would bear with me, the little folly. So, bear with me, Corinthians. And he gives them three reasons why they should. Each one of those reasons indicated by the little preposition four at the beginning of the verse. Bear with me four or because verse two. I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I want for your spiritual good, Paul says. I'm laboring for your eternal benefit. Bear with me. Bear with me four because verse four. Bear with me, Corinthians, because if a false teacher comes alone, you might lack the discernment or the will to do anything about it. In fact, you've already been tolerant of their lives. In fact, you've already allowed them in the front door of your house, and you're not doing anything about it now. So, Corinthians, bear with me in a little folly as I defend this ministry to you. Bear with me four because verse five. I am not inferior as I am accused of being. I am an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. I do preach the true gospel. This is a ministry of the Lord, and you should be listening to the message that I preach. So, Paul announces his strategy and he gives them three reasons why they should bear with him in it. So, what is the strategy then? What is the strategy? What are the Corinthians being asked to bear? Paul calls it in verse one a little folly, a little foolishness. Theologians have called it the fool's speech. That speech is beautifully and rather sarcastically set up for us in verse 16. Look down in verse 16. He sets up the speech in verse 16. He says, I say again, let no one think me a fool. If otherwise, at least receive me as a fool. You've already received these other fools. Receive me as a fool. That I also may boast a little. Paul is about to boast. Verse 17, what I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were foolishly in this confidence of boasting, seeing that many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast. Paul is compelled now to boast. False teachers in court have already gained a deadly influence through their lies, through their own boasting. They boast of their reputation, right? They boast of their association. They boast of their vain accomplishments, all that they have done. They boast of their eloquence. They boast of their ability. They boast of their authority. They boast of their commendation. They boast of the people that they know. And Paul says, seeing that they boast and they boast in this way to gain your favor, then I also will boast. Listen, Corinthians, if it takes this to gain your favor, then listen, I'll humble myself. I'll crawl through broken glass. I'll boast to gain your favor. Why, Paul? Why would you do this? Why would you pursue this strategy? Why are you compelled to boast? Look at verse 19. Because, Corinthians, you put up with fools gladly, since you yourselves are wise. For you put up with it if one brings you into bondage. That's what the false teachers are doing. That's what false teaching does. That's what error and lies do. They bring you into bondage. You put up with it if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you on the face. Paul is putting it in plain words, isn't he? This is what the false teachers are doing. Verse 21, two hours shame. I say that we were too weak for that, but in whatever anyone is bold, I speak foolishly. I am bold also. And so, I too, Paul says, I too, to win you for the Lord, I too will boast. And then Paul launches into his fool's speech in verse 22. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 9, verse 20, Paul says, I became a Jew to win Jews, right? As one under the law, to win those who are under the law and so on. Here, it's as if Paul is saying, for the benefit of you foolish people, I will become a fool that I might win fools. So please, Corinthians, please, Corinthians, tongue planted in cheek. Please, Corinthians, bear with me in a little folly. Bear with me in a little folly. In doing this, Paul's really living with attention of Proverbs, chapter 26, verses four and five. Proverbs, chapter 26, verses four and five. Listen to this. Verse four, do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. Verse five, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. Well, which one is it, right? Which one is it? Don't answer a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him, answer a fool according to his body, lest he be wise in his own eyes. The wisdom is how you apply the tension of those two together. In other words, the wisdom in applying the proverb lies in the tension between these two truths. Whatever direction you take with a fool is a dangerous endeavor. Whatever direction you decide to take is fraught with peril. Answer him to take him down a notch or two, but answer him and you may end up just like him. The Corinthians have forced Paul into this absurd predicament. They have welcomed false teachers. They're running unchecked. These false teachers running unchecked in the church, many are being led away by their error. They have repeatedly spurned Paul, disrespected him, refused to hear him, and so Paul now doesn't appear to him that he has any choice at all. He must play the fool to answer fools and to win these people who are in court who have conducted themselves foolishly. He'll stoop to their level if he has to. And in Paul's heart and mind, their eternal well-being is worth it. The state of their soul is worth it. Sometimes it takes crawling through broken glass on your hands and knees to plead with someone to turn from their sin. Out of love for their soul, you do it, don't you? You do it. You'll humble yourself, won't you? If you love that person, Paul says, I'm going to do it. I am fighting for your soul. Paul says, in chapter 12, verse 19, Paul asked, do you think we excuse ourselves to you? In other words, this is not for me. This is not to boost my reputation. I'm not boasting for my own namesake. We speak before God in Christ. With God as my witness, he says we do all things beloved for your edification. Why does Paul do it? Why does he continue to crawl through broken glass on his hands and knees and sweat and toil for these people? Same to himself, right? The more that I love you, even though the more I love you, the less I'm loved. Verse two, he gives us the answer. Because, verse two, I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Calvin, commenting on his text, said this. He says of Paul, mark why it is that he acts the fool. For jealousy hurries a man that were headlong. Paul says, do not demand that I should show the calm temper of a man that is at ease and not excited by any emotion. For that vehemence of jealousy with which I am inflamed toward you does not suffer me to be at ease. You ever felt that jealousy in your service to the Lord's people here? You ever felt that jealousy about someone? They begin to turn into error and jealous emotion is inflamed for them in your heart and mind such that you begin to pursue them with a vehemence of jealousy that will not suffer you to be at ease out of love for that person. It is a jealous and jealous love. Not just that they're leaving the church because of a disagreement. Oftentimes it goes far beyond that. They're leaving the church in error. They're on the path to apostasy. They've begun trailing long ago. They've been trailing. People have poured themselves out talking to them, poured themselves out praying for them. They've interceded and talked and pled and now the time has come and they're leaving. Does that vehemence of jealousy take hold of your heart and mind because you know where they're headed? It doesn't suffer us to be at ease. We've ever felt that jealousy in your service to the Lord's people here. Jealous for them, zealous toward them because their soul matters because of love. There is a kind of ungodly jealousy, a sinful jealousy that moves someone to zealous action. We know that. It's motivated by self-love, motivated by selfishness, by self-indulgent ends. It is self-centered. Terminate on self. You'll find this jealousy in the sin list of Galatians chapter 5 verse 20. James says that where this jealousy is, same word, and self-seeking exists confusion and every evil thing are there. Strife, contention, discord, disunity, discontentment, despair, selfishness. This kind of jealousy is fueled by covetousness, fueled by envy and rivalry and discontentment. When the Bible calls us the contentment, amen. This jealousy, though, that Paul's talking about in verse 2, he describes as a godly jealousy. It's not a sinful jealousy here. It's a godly jealousy. Literally in the Greek, Paul says, I am jealous with the jealousy of God. It's a jealousy that finds its source in God. The jealousy that Paul is experiencing is like God's own holy jealousy. It has substance in common with God's own jealousy. So what does Paul mean by that? What does God's jealousy look like? Well, it's an interesting question to think about. What does God's jealousy look like? How is it that God describes himself as a jealous God? We know from the Bible that God is not excited or doesn't respond to circumstances moved by an emotional response. God is immutable. God is unchanging. There is no variation or shadow of turning with God. God does not change. Our statement of faith explains that God is without body, parts, or passions. He is then impassable. He does not change. He does not move acted upon by some external force moving upon him. God is immutable. In other words, he doesn't experience emotional responses or emotional changes. Malachi chapter 3 verse 6 says that this is for our good. For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. If God were given to passions, how long would we last? Who could stand before him? The Lord does not change. There is no variation or shadow of turning with God. The language in the Bible for emotional responses in God are called anthro-popaphisms. Anthro-popaphisms, compound word. From anthropocs meaning man and pathos meaning suffering or emotion. Anthropopathisms. It's language to help us to understand. It's language that helps us understand. One has said that we can no more contain God in our language than you can contain the ocean and the thimble. He is not comprehensible through our language, and he's not limited by our language. The language in the Bible is accommodated to our weakness so that we can understand. That's why the Bible uses anthro-poporphisms. Anthropost meaning man, morphe meaning form in the form of man. So when the Bible talks about God having an arm or an outstretched hand or a backside in the case of Moses, it's an anthropomorphism to help us understand. All that to say is that when the Bible speaks of God's jealousy, it's not speaking in terms of a human responsive emotion. When the pagans at Lystra wanted to worship Paul and Barnabas, in Acts chapter 14 verse 15, Paul cries out to them, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same pathase, passions, same word, same pathase as you. In other words, God is not subject to passions. God is not subject to emotions like we are. He is of a different nature altogether, not like you or I. Isaiah chapter 46 verse 9, God says, for I am God. There is no other. I am God, and there is none like me. So what does it mean that God is jealous? And what does it mean that Paul is jealous for them with a godly jealousy? Well, one key to help us understand is found in Exodus chapter 20. In Exodus chapter 20, in the giving of the law, the 10 words, the 10 commandments, right, the Lord says there in Exodus chapter 20 in verse 4, he says, you shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth, you shall not bow down to them nor serve them because I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, a jealous God. Exodus chapter 34 verse 14, he says that his very name is jealous. That jealousy tied up in no other worship but mine, right. I, God says, am worthy of worship, you shall not bow down nor serve an idol, a graven image. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 23. Moses says in verse 23, take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you because the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God, a jealous God. So what does it mean when God describes himself as jealous? God commands full and complete devotion to him alone, full and complete devotion to him alone. He does not permit the worship of idols, he does not permit the worship of carved images, no matter what Catholic form or shape they take. He does not permit the worship of idols, he does not permit idols in worship because he alone is God. He is said to be jealous in the sense that he expects full devotion, full commitment to him alone. He will not share his glory with another. Isaiah chapter 42 verse 8. I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved images. Worship belongs to the Lord our God. So through the law, then God commands through the law, God maintains, protects, preserves what is rightly his. God's jealousy, godly jealousy is that which demands what rightly belongs to him alone, and that brothers and sisters is for his glory certainly, but for our good, for our good. It's with this kind of godly jealousy that Paul makes his statement in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 2, where Paul says, for I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. In other words, Paul is saying to the church there, he says to us, I am out to protect you, preserve, maintain, and to guard what is right and good and true about you. I am jealous for you to be fully devoted, fully committed to the Lord Jesus Christ, not half-hearted, not nominal, not lacking commitment, not lukewarm. I am zealous for you to be fully devoted, fully committed to the Lord Jesus Christ, put away the idols of your heart, stop flirting with false teachers. Paul is saying worship God alone, worship Christ alone. Why? Why? For because I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. We have no other acceptable suitors. Amen? God alone is worthy of our worship. That's really interesting here to note the language, right? Notice the language that he uses to communicate this jealousy. Paul himself, Paul is a man given to passion. That's what he's saying in Acts 14. Paul is mutable. Unlike God, there is a sense in which Paul is responding emotionally to his circumstances. He is moved by a vehement jealousy, by an excited emotion here, but it's a godly jealousy. That jealousy also comes attached to Paul's emotional response. And when we think about it in terms of our own understanding of this, we see the reason why. Husbands, husbands, if you knew that your wife was being courted by another man, if he made his intentions obvious, he was pursuing her behind your back, bad mouthing you along the way, undermining you along the way. And then you found out that she was entertaining his overtures. She was entertaining him. You saw her smiling, that smile when he was around, batting her eyes at him like she used to do with you. Imagine your wife. Imagine that. Her affection for you, her affection for you, her love for you, beginning to wane. Because of his influence. Her love and devotion to you, her husband, beginning to grow cool. Beginning to show signs of a lack of commitment. Beginning to show signs of a lack of devotion to you, her husband, her loyalty being divided. Would you not sense a vehement and righteous jealousy? If you don't, or if you wouldn't, that's another problem. Another conversation. Listen, that is the jealousy that the bridegroom has for his bride. Ephesians, chapter five, verse 25. Paul says this, husbands, love your wives, how men, just as, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious bride, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. The church is the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he loves her with a jealous love. He loves her with a jealous love. Isaiah, chapter 54, verse five. Prophet says your maker is your husband. The Lord of hosts is his name. Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. He is called the God of the whole earth. For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a youthful wife when you were refused, says your God. He didn't take you in because you were worthy, didn't take you in because you were beautiful. He called you as a woman forsaken. The Lord is the one who addresses us like a loving and faithful husband. The Lord addresses us that way. The Lord cares for us. He provides for us. He protects us. He redeems us from the filth of our own sin and calls us his own. There is no husband who has done more for his bride. He gave himself for her in death to win her, to pay her debt, to cleanse her, to wash her in his own blood, and then he calls her to come to me and I will give you rest. No husband has ever done more for his bride. This is why the idolatry of his people, this is why the cool commitment, the cooling devotion, this is why half-hearted religion, why moralistic ritualism, why formalism is so disgusting in the sight of God, is an abomination in the sight of God. This is why the idolatry of his people is considered harlotry, whoredom, fornication, uncleanness, and adultery. Will you find your satisfaction in another? Will you entertain their entreaties? Will you defile yourself with lust for another? Will you give access to the marriage bed of your heart and play the harlot? Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter 16. When we depart the living God, the Lord Jesus Christ, for the passing trinkets of this world, when we entertain idolatry in our heart and our mind, when we fabricate the God of our own imagining, a different Jesus, a different spirit, a different gospel, we are committing adultery against our maker who is our husband. We are playing the harlot against our bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, if you claim to have been saved by him. And that's painted for us. That picture is painted for us in Ezekiel chapter 16. Look at verse 1. Again, the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations and stay. Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem. Your birth, your nativity are from the land of Canaan. Your father was an amorite. Your mother was a hitite. As for your nativity on the day you were born, your naval cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you. You were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No, I pitied you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you. But you were thrown out into the open field where when you yourself were loathed on the day that you were born. In other words, you have no ethnic heritage to speak of. You have nothing with which to commend yourself. You are thrown out as a worthless thing out on the open field to die. And God says in verse 6, when I passed by you saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood live. Yes, I said to you in your blood live. I made you thrive like a plant in the field and you grew matured and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare. When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was for the time of love. So I spread my wing over you, covered your nakedness. Yes, I sworn oath to you and entered into a covenant with you and you became mine, says the Lord God. Then I washed you in water. Yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, anointed you with oil. I clothed you in embroidered cloth, gave you sandals of badger skin. I clothed you with fine linen, covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver. Your clothing was a fine linen silk and embroidered cloth. It wasn't that these things added value to her. It was that the Lord God Almighty bestowed that favor upon her. It's because of God that she was valued in this way. Because God chose to love her. He says you were exceedingly beautiful, succeeded to royalty. Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through my splendor, which I'd bestowed on you, says the Lord God. But what did she do? She failed to trust in God. She entertained Paramours. She played the harlot. She became an adulterous. Verse 15, you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it. You took some of your garments adorned multicolored high places for yourself and played the harlot on them. Such things should not happen nor be. You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from my gold, from my silver, which I had given you, made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them. You took your embroidered garments, covered them. You set my oil and my incense before them. Also my food, which I gave you. The pastry of fine flour, oil and honey, which I fed you. You set it before them as sweet incense and so it was, says the Lord God. Moreover, you took your sons and your daughters whom you bore to me and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter that you have slain my children and offered them up by causing them to pass through the fire? And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare struggling in your blood. And the Lord goes on and on and on. Brothers and sisters, we are betrothed to the bridegroom. He is worthy of our entire devotion. He is worthy of our full commitment, heart, soul, mind and strength. Don't play the harlot with presumed adulterers. Don't play the harlot with other paramours. Don't give entreaty to their claims upon you. Don't listen to their lies. Clean to the bridegroom. Clean to truth. Paul says, I'm jealous for you with a godly jealousy for I betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. It's interesting that language in verse two, right? Paul, in verse two, back in 2 Corinthians 11, Paul isn't saying or presuming that he himself is playing the jilted husband. He's not the jilted husband in this metaphor, right? It's as if Paul here sees himself in the role of the father of the bride. Paul says, I'm the one who has betrothed you. I'm the one who's betrothed you to one husband that I might present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. He's playing the role of the father of the bride. The reason for his jealousy is that he has betrothed her to one husband. That's the reason for his jealousy. Paul sees the Corinthians as his own spiritual children. He's invested in them and he sees the Corinthians as the bride of Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 15, Paul says to them, for though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Paul sees himself as the father of the bride. It's fascinating the use of singular and plural pronouns here in verse two also. He says in verse two, I am jealous for you plural. I'm jealous for each one of you with a godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you, plural, each one of you, to one husband that I may present you singular as a chaste virgin singular to Christ. The body of Christ is the bride of Christ made up of her members, each individual member making up the body, but that body is presented to the Lord as a chaste virgin singular to the church is the bride of Christ. All those redeemed in Christ are the church. All those redeemed in Christ are the bride of Christ singular, that bride presented as a chaste virgin to her betrothed, to Christ. It's interesting in the Old Testament, New Testament times, betrothal, betrothal was a formal contract. It was a contract for marriage. And in betrothal, a young woman passed out from under her father's authority to be under the authority of her new husband. We see that today enacted in a marriage ceremony, don't we? When the father walks his daughter down the aisle and the one officiating the ceremony says, who gives this woman to be married? It's the father who gives his daughter's hand in marriage. We see that enacted in the marriage ceremony. He takes her hand and he places her hand in the hand of her new husband. She's passing out from under the authority of her father to be under, to be subject to the authority of her husband. In the betrothal period, the couple were legally husband and wife. So during the betrothal period before the consummation of the marriage, if the husband dies, the woman would be considered a widow. If they were going to break up the betrothal, it required a certificate of divorce. So when Joseph was going to put Mary away secretly, he intended to end the betrothal in that way. That betrothal was a contract for marriage. So when the Corinthians, if you put that metaphor in place in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 1 through 6, when the Corinthians responded to the preaching of the gospel, on the part of the apostle Paul, when they responded to the preaching of the gospel and they turned from their sin, put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, it was as if Paul in the preaching of the gospel betrothed them to their heavenly bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because he then acts as spiritual father, so to speak, responsible for that daughter, that chaste virgin Paul now responsible, taking upon himself that responsibility, Paul has a responsibility to guard her virginity, to guard her from wicked defiling influences, to guard her from any so-called paramour that would seek to violate her. You see, Paul took responsibility on himself for that, to maintain her total commitment, undivided loyalty to Christ, her bridegroom, until that day when the marriage would be consummated that Christ's coming. We consider what Paul is saying in verse 2, if we take this as a lesson for ourselves, there are several lessons, we'll talk about this more as we work through the text. One, you and I, brothers and sisters, you and I must maintain faithfulness to our bridegroom, wholehearted devotion while we await the marriage supper of the Lamb. Don't be a foolish virgin, trim your wicks, fill your lamp with oil, and remain steadfast, loyal, committed, devoted, looking for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior. Amen. But, brothers and sisters, we also, to take a lesson from Paul's statement here in verse 2, each one of us ought to take responsibility for our brothers and sisters in this church as spiritual sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, brides of the bridegroom. We should take responsibility, commit ourselves to guarding and protecting and preserving and helping and maintaining them. Amen. Each of us ought to feel a sense of that godly jealousy for our brothers and sisters. When someone begins to trail away, we should sense a godly jealousy to pursue them and to help them remain steadfast. We should be moved, as Calvin said, excited by a vehement jealousy to see them remain steadfast in the faith. We must stir one another up to love and good works, considering one another in love until our Lord comes. We are our brother's keeper. Amen. We're all called. We are all called to ministry in the Lord's church. You're called to the one another. You're called to love your brother, love your sister. You're called to bear their burdens. You're called to pray for them. You're called to exhort them. You're called to encourage them. We're called to lay down our lives in ministry in the Lord's church. And so then our heart, our minds, should be, ought to be motivated by a godly jealousy for their spiritual health, for the health and well-being of their soul. And we need it, too, don't we? Our brother, our sister, to watch out for us, invested in our spiritual well-being, invested in our preservation, in our perseverance. May we burn with a godly jealousy for one another in that. I'm extremely grateful to the Lord for the relationship that we have in this church. We know one another here. We're involved in one another's lives. We eat at one another's houses. I got to be careful to come out of our own dress because we've got people in our house all the time. I don't know who's there, who's not. And that is wonderful. We need to cultivate those kinds of relationships. We need to maintain that. We need to pursue that. If you find yourself skirting along the fringe, my exhortation to you is don't skirt any longer. That sheep on the edge of the flock is lunch. Get involved in the body. Have people over. Go to fellowships. Meet with guys during the week. Hang out with sisters during the week. Call one another. Text one another. Email one another. Visit one another. And if you know someone who is on the fringe of the flock in that way, not plugged in, then pursue them and pursue them with a godly jealousy for the sake of their own soul. Knowing that the one on the edge of the flock is lunch, we've got to spend time laboring, laboring for those kinds of relationships. Paul was moved by that reality, moved by it. Paul betrothed the Corinthians to one husband with the purpose, with the intention that he might present her to himself, to the Lord Jesus Christ, a glorious church. Present her to him a chaste virgin. But in verse three he says, But I'm afraid 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. He who comes, preaches another gospel, then we've not preached. Or if you receive a different spirit, which you've not received or different gospel, which you've not accepted, you may very well put up with it. We'll take a look at Paul's strategy to battle that as we continue working through the text next week.