Divine Jealousy

2 Cor 11:2-5, ESV
2 I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. 5 I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.

Divine Jealousy

(2 Cor. 11:1-5)

Intro:

              A.  The 10 Commandments begins with a simple statement to follow.  “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  You shall have no other gods before me.”  The covenant between the people of Israel and God, was rooted in the Ten Commandments.  Jehovah, and Jehovah alone, is your God.  It was He who saved you and based upon that action you shall have no other gods.  God then followed that first commandment with the second stating that they shall not make any carved image for the purpose of worship.  He again tells them why, “You shall not bow to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God.”

              B.  Have you thought about that?  When we talk about jealousy, it is often from the viewpoint of the sin of jealousy that is rooted in covetousness.  But divine jealousy is rooted in love and unity.  It the same type of good jealousy that a married couple would have for each other.  If I was being unfaithful to Kerri, because she loves me, she should be jealous that I was giving my affection to someone other than her.  When we give our heart to something or someone other than Jesus, he gets divinely jealous.

              C.  At the beginning of worship, we read together from the Shema taken from Deut. 6:4-5.  Look again at those words.  When we give our life to Jesus, when we accept his grace from the cross to cover our sin, we enter into a covenant relationship with him.  It is as if Jesus is the husband and we are the wife.  That depth of relationship so great that when we turn aside from Jesus, he become jealous. 

              D.  Paul couldn’t make that any clearer than when he wrote 2 Cor. 11:2.  This morning we want to consider what caused Paul to feel a divine jealousy.

I.  Deception Then

              A.  READ 2 Cor. 11:3-5.  Paul uses the story of Eve in the garden as his example of what is happening in Corinth.  Her story has been told by many over the years.  But the way Moses gives it to us, is to start, not with Eve, but with the serpent.  Moses says, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the beast of the field that Lord God had made.” 

              B.  Forget for a moment that the snake could talk, or that Adam and Eve communicated with any animal.  I am not even convinced the snake referred to here was a snake as we know today (for part of its cure was to loose its legs and slither on its belly).  There is no doubt that just as God took on some form that Adam and Eve could walk with in the garden, Satan took on a form of a creature to communicate with them.  As Moses stated, this snake (Satan) was the most cunning, crafty and now evil creation God had made.

              C.  Just as mankind has free-will, it appears so do heavenly beings that God as created.  What Satan did with Eve was to take that which is good and godly and twist it into something that is unholy.  Satan weaves his way into the heart of Eve and seeks to bring out a desire to be like God.  Not like God in showering love, protection and all that is good, but a desire to have the wisdom of God, a desire to be a god of your own making.  Her taking, eating and giving to Adam brought sin to mankind.  Our heart to this day seeks that which we think benefits self more than that which brings us into a deeper connection with God.

              D.  Just as Satan was the instigator to lead Eve away from God, now false teachers were proclaiming Jesus in a different way; were trying to get people to follow a different spirit than the Holy Spirit; and accept a different gospel than the one they had already accepted when Paul shared Jesus with them. 

              E.  Sometimes we listen to voices we want to hear instead of the voice of God.  The sign out front fits this message so well, “Don’t be so open minded that your brains fall out.”  Test the spirts to see if they are from God.  Open your Bible and study to see if my preaching is truth.

II. Deception Today

              A.  Paul spoke about those who come in in and deceive the believers as ones who seek to undermine the truth of the Jesus, the grace that comes from Jesus, and the joy that is found in Jesus.  Paul speaks about this people as coming across as if they were “super apostles.”  These people speak with us boldness and set themselves up as great so as to almost intimidate the Christians and manipulate them into believing the false gospel they were touting.

              B.  We saw in verse 4 that these Christians were putting up with a false gospel.  That came with a consequence.  Listen to what Paul says has happened (READ 2 Cor. 11:20).  How can anyone be so foolish as to accept a fool?  How could Eve and Adam listen to the lie of the serpent and then follow that lie to a death from God?

              C.  READ  2 Cor. 11:13-15.  There are many churches in our community today.  I am not going to tell you they are all evil and led by wicked people who are disguising themselves as servants of righteousness.  What I will tell you, is better make sure that when you listen to someone who is seeking to guide you spiritually, you better know if they are really following Jesus or simply seeking their own greatness.

              D.  If you believe Satan looks like some being dressed in red with horns and carrying a pitchfork, then you are foolish in your thinking.  Satan wants you to see him like you would an angel of light.  Let Paul’s warning being a lesson, not every angel belongs to God or is a messenger of truth.

Conclusion:

              A.  Why is Paul jealous?  What caused this divine jealousy for the Christians in Corinth?  It was because Paul had shared with them Jesus, preached the gospel without charge so they could freely know truth that would release them from the bondage of sin; and now, they were so willing to listen to anything that sounded like Jesus that no longer followed the truth.  Instead, they followed people who set themselves up as the greatest spiritual guides and all it cost them was everything.

              B.  God is a jealous God.  Paul was a jealous apostle.  What God and Paul desired was that Jesus be the center of their life.  Grace and truth were given, yet human manipulation and spiritual jargon was winning them over. 

              C.  The plea is the same today.  I pray you hear the voice of God over all the noise that is going on in our country today.  I pray you don’t find yourselves enslaved to one who devour you, but instead give yourself to the one who has the power to make you clean and bring you home to heaven for all eternity.  If we can help you walk hand in hand with Jesus, then come as we stand and sing.

Because of Jesus,

Jeffrey Dillinger, minister