Good morning, everyone. Be turning to 2 Corinthians 10. 2 Corinthians 10. And while you're turning, let
me publicly thank our God for allowing me this honor to be
here. And I thank God for your pastor as well. It means a lot
to me that He'd have me stand here in this place. having preached
for about 31, 32 years, and actually having for the past 15 or so,
I know that not just anyone gets to stand in this place. And it's
an honor, not only to believe on His name, but to actually
be able to speak His name. I don't deserve that. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. And if
anyone wants to know what it means when I'm looking at my
watch, it means absolutely nothing. So just remember that. No, I
won't keep you long. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 this
morning. I want to read just three verses,
verses 4, 5, and 6. The Apostle Paul writing to the
believers at Corinth writes these words in verse 4 of 2 Corinthians
10, of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,
casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ, and having in a readiness
to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Let me just get right to it.
My message is about the gospel warfare. There are two unassailable
facts embedded in my text this morning. They are things that
I will not debate with anyone. They are unassailable facts embedded
in the text. Here's number one. Humanity erects
walls, castles, if you will. That's the metaphor that Paul
uses here. Walls, castles, Citadels, strongholds
against the truth of God. These are strongholds of the
mind, strongholds of the heart, strongholds of the will, and
strongholds of the affections all. There is not one part of
our being that was not totally affected by the fall of our father
Adam. All of our being was affected.
Some today, and they have for many years, tried to teach us
that at least one part of our being wasn't affected by the
fall. I'm not even going to mention it. You know what that one already
is. But by nature, we erect walls against the truth of God. Strong
citadels, Paul himself calls it strongholds, right? We were made sinners in Adam.
Now notice the terminology of Scripture, made sinners. I'm
going to say this, not even just imputed Adam's sin, made sinners. Made sinners. Made sinners in
Adam. We're born sinners. Yay, I should
even back up a step and say conceived and born sinners by nature. That lets me know I can't avoid
this. You can't avoid this. But not
only that, we build up barriers of thought and will and affection
and deed. We're sinners through and through.
From the top to the bottom, on every side, everything about
us is sinful. We're corrupt and depraved. Some say totally depraved, and
I don't even know if that really describes it. We're depraved. We're corrupt. But it's not a
neutral depravity. We build up strongholds. Picture
in your mind's eye some far distant castle. You've probably seen
them on TV, maybe. Some of you have been able to
go over to England or Ireland and see some of these old majestic
castles built out of these large stones. That's what we do against
the truth of God in our hearts, in our minds, in our will, and
in our affections. That's the first unassailable
fact embodied in this text. There are strongholds. Ah, but
here's the second unassailable embedded fact in this text. God's
Gospel. God's Gospel by His might. By His might. The weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God. They're not
mighty through me. No. But they're mighty through
God. And somebody says, well, the Gospel's not mentioned here.
Oh, yes it is. and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ." Not just obedience
to Christ, though that's true, but it's the obedience of Christ,
and that's the gospel. Everything that God does when
He conquers us by His grace is to bow us down before the obedience
of Jesus Christ. So I say the second unassailable
embedded fact in our text is God's gospel by God's might,
it pulls down these strongholds. It casts down imaginations. And proud reasonings are brought,
crumbled in the dust before our sovereign God. God's gospel crushes
our defenses and it exposes our errors. Picture, see in your
mind's eye, your heart, mind, will, and affections by nature,
and it's like a strong citadel set up against the glory and
the truth of God. But God Almighty, if He's pleased,
He'll crush your castle. He'll crush your castle. Now
listen to me. Don't prejudice your mind against
what I'm about to say. You'll regret it if you do. Gospel
preaching is not academics. It's warfare. And even when you
try to testify the glory of your God to someone you know, someone
you work with, or whatever it might be, it's not academics,
it's a warfare. They have within them this castle
built up against the truth of God. And we feel like sometimes
we're sitting there with a spit washer, ping, ping. But let me tell you, the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds. The gospel preaching is not academics,
it's warfare. Conversion is not information
to work reformation. We're not just informing sinners. Thank God He forgave me, but
I used to talk like that years ago. We're not just informing
sinners. This is a warfare. This is castles
being assaulted. This is walls being knocked down. It's not academics. It's not
just information being disseminated out amongst the population. Conversion
is to be conquered by the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what
conversion is. Now listen to me again. Don't
prejudice your mind. Salvation is not accepting certain
doctrines. Let me pause a moment. Salvation
is not accepting certain doctrines, even true doctrines. Salvation
is being made a captive to the Savior. That's what this says,
right? And bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ. If God has ordained to assault
your citadel, it will crumble. You youngsters here this morning,
let me tell you something. And I pray God it's so, but I'm
not in control of that. If God Almighty has been pleased
to assault your citadel, your castle, the walls you built up
against Him one day, your walls will crumble before the feet
of the Savior. And He'll bow you down. And you
know how I know that? Well, one, I have the Word of
God. That's the main thing. But you know how I know that?
You ask any captive here this morning, and he or she will tell
you, God will knock down your castle walls. I don't care how
large the stones are. I don't care how carefully you've
crafted them and stuck them together and mortared them with your pride
against the truth of God. If God has ordained to assault
your citadel and bring you down, down you will come. I want to give you just a little
something. There's an individual here, maybe more than one, but
one I know of quite well. And for over 25 years that person
professed the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ. Did so
since they were 16 years old. Was baptized by a sovereign grace
preacher. And just about four or five years
ago, God Almighty finally crushed their castle walls and brought them to see that
all they had for all of those years was just doctrinal profession. They'd never been conquered by
the Savior. And that's what this is talking
about. Salvation is not accepting what brother Paul Mayhem preaches,
nor accepting what Brother Walter Pendleton preaches, it is being
conquered by the gospel of Jesus Christ. There comes a time when
God Almighty will send someone to you with the gospel and He
will assault your castle walls and God will crush them down
at your feet. That is what conversion is. That
is what salvation is. Ask the captive. Ask somebody
here. Now look at it, verse 4 again,
for the weapons of our warfare. So we have weapons, but I know
this. You remember the armor in the
Ephesians, is it 5 or 6? So there's some armor Paul speaks
about. But there's only one piece of
that armor that is offensive. You ever seen that? And what
is that one piece of offensive weapon? It is the sword of the
Spirit And then he explains it. Some of the others we may debate
about, disagree on. What's this? What's that? He
tells us what that one is. It's the Word of God. It's the
Word of Truth. And let me tell you something,
the Word of Truth is embodied in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You can know all about the Bible
if you missed the Gospel of Christ. You've missed the Book of God
from Genesis to Revelation. for the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down. Do you see it? pulling down of
strongholds, casting down imaginations, and you can add, say, casting
down every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, but it doesn't bring it to a neutral state, it says,
and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Picture in your mind's eye that
castle. has, let's just say, four walls for this morning.
Let me show you what these four different walls are made of.
There are far more than this, but let me give you some of these
strongholds. One of these strongholds is self-righteousness. You know
what self-righteousness is? I'm going to boil it down and
get all the froth off of it I can. Self-righteousness is this. Something about me. I said something,
not everything. There's something about me that's
good. That's self-righteousness. Self-righteousness
is, you don't have to have the phylacteries. You don't have
to toot the horn when you're in public. All you got to do
is have the attitude before God, there's something in me God's
got to like. There's something in me God's got to respect. That's
a wall erected up against the truth of God, self-righteousness. Here's another wall, arrogance
and pride. Those two always go together.
You don't separate those two. Arrogance and pride. What is
that? It's me. Just me. Whatever it is, it's me. Me. Wait a minute, here's a third
wall. Self-indulgence. Did I really say that? I mean,
we're not supposed to preach against stuff like that nowadays,
right? Self-indulgence. You know what self-indulgence
is? I will have that, I don't care what. I'll have that. It doesn't matter to me what
anyone... I don't care what God thinks. I don't care what anybody
else thinks. Self-indulgence is I will have
that. That's the third wall. Here's the fourth wall. Self-will. Self-will. You know what self-will
is? My choice. My decision. My volition. God's got to respect
what I want. That's one of these castle walls
we build up against God's truth. But now let's compare their gospel-conquered
counterparts. Okay? When self-righteousness,
being erected by our fallen human nature, and we say, there's something
in me that God's got to like. Something there. When that self-righteousness
is assaulted by the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace
through the power of the Spirit of God, and it is pulled down
and crushed, then that person begins to cry out that even my
righteousnesses are as filthy rags in God's sight. Your wall didn't change, it got
crushed. God's not changing walls. He's
crushing down our walls of rebellion. And King Jesus marches in. What about that second wall?
What about arrogance and pride? What about its gospel-conquered
counterpart? And let me stop for a minute.
I'm not talking about them out yonder. I'm talking about us
in here. I ain't said this is what we
take to them out there. I'm saying this is what you and
I need right here. When arrogance and pride are
thrown to the ground, then that person confesses, God, I'm a
dog, but I want to be your dog. You remember that Syrophoenician
woman? She was a Gentile. And she came to our Lord begging
our Lord not even for herself. Do you remember the account? She was begging for, I think
it was her daughter, wasn't it? And you know what it says our
Lord did? He ignored her. It doesn't say it that way, but
it said He answered her, not a word. If I do that to my wife,
she's going to tell you what that is. You're ignoring me,
big boy. He ignored her. And what does our arrogance and
pride say? Who is He? He is the God of all glory. He
doesn't have to listen to anything we say. But yet this arrogance and pride
being assaulted by the truth, she cries out even the more.
And the disciples say, Lord, send her away. This is getting
embarrassing. And then he turned to her and
you'd think, well, okay, now Jesus is going to be the loving
one. You know what he looked at that
woman and said? He said, basically this woman, it's not me, it's
not proper for me to take the children's bread and give it
to dogs. That's tough language. You know
what he was calling her? You're a dog. You're an unclean
animal. He was breaking down the citadel. Do you see it? crushing it at
her feet. Oh, but this woman had grace.
She was given grace. And you know how I know that?
Because she said, truth, Lord. He said, you're a dog and it
ain't even right for me to give anything of Israel to you. And
she said, you're right, Lord. That's the truth. But even the
dogs eat the crumbs that fall from not just any master's table,
but from their master's table. You're right, I'm a dog, but
I'm your dog. That's not arrogance and pride,
John Davis. That's a wall being crushed by
the truth of God. This third one, this third wall. Self-indulgence. Let me get even closer. So no
one misunderstands what I'm talking about. I'm talking about unrighteousness. We don't mind talking about self-righteousness
sometimes, but we feel a little uncomfortable talking about unrighteousness. You know one reason why I even
feel uncomfortable talking about it? Because I am so that. I am
so unrighteous. Self-indulgence is crushed by
the Gospel of Christ. Unrighteousness is crushed before
God. And its counterpart is this,
the heart cries out, Oh God, be merciful. And that's a different
Greek word there. That old sinner said, Oh God,
propitiate me, the sinner. Now, we preachers like to be
theological and use all them big words. I do. I like them. But that doesn't matter. All
that doesn't matter. Here's what to perpetuate means.
It means to expiate. Well, what's expiate mean? Well,
you go right on down the list with all these. And I don't understand
half of them unless I look in the dictionary or something.
And, of course, you've got to be careful about looking in the
dictionary. It's not going to tell you the truth of God. You've
got to look in God's Word. So I'm back to square one. Here's what it is. Oh God, deal
with me, the sinner, in the merits of another. That's what propitiation
is. It's not God, here's something
I'm offering to you. That's not propitiation. That's
reward. Propitiation is when God Almighty
deals with you, the sinner, in somebody else. That man way back
there knew that. God be merciful to me, the sinner. It's a little bit different than
self-indulgence. There is but one propitiation. There is but one expiation. And that is Jesus Christ the
Lord. It doesn't matter whether you
understand all about that, you understand that you need that.
Has God crushed that castle wall to where you realize, I need
that, whatever all that entails, I need it. Why? Because I'm the
sinner. I've erected walls of rebellion against God Almighty. Oh God, crush that before me. And when you do, oh God, propitiate
me. Because you know what? When your
walls start crumbling, that means you're exposed. Doesn't it? Now, listen to me, when we talk
about unrighteousness, you go through the scripture, you'll
look at it, you'll find it in Galatians 5, you'll find it in
1 Corinthians 6, Paul details a long list of unrighteousnesses,
doesn't he? We're not even going to go through
all that, let me give you this, unrighteousness is not immorality. Now listen to me, unrighteousness
is not immorality because immorality and morality are human standards
and they're fluid. They change from one generation
to another. That is immorality and morality. Have you ever noticed that scripture
never is even translated into the English immorality? Why? Because it's a human invention.
Unrighteousness though is always the same. Unrighteousness is
always the same. You go ask different people,
is that moral? Somebody will say no. That's fine. Go ask another
person, is that moral? They say, oh yes, that's bad. Why? Because morality is based
upon human standards. Unrighteousness is based upon
the holy character of God Almighty. That which is offensive to Him
is unrighteousness. And people who live that way,
Paul says, they go to hell. But you know what the book says? That's what it teaches. They
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But you want to know
the counterpart of that? God be merciful to me, the sinner,
because you can't change what you are. Somebody says, I used
to be a drunk years ago. Well, if you was one then, you're
still one today. Even if you haven't had a drink
in 20 years, you're still a drunk. And of course, today we call
them alcoholics, right? So, you know exactly what I'm
talking about. But I'm saying this, when God
sends the gospel to you, it will crush every defense that you've
raised up against God. Unrighteousness is fixed and
it's criminal against God. The only answer to that is Jesus
Christ. And Jesus Christ, when He marches
in, He don't just march in and set up on top of your walls of
pride and arrogance and self-righteousness and self-indulgence. No, He doesn't
go and set up on top. He crushes those walls and He
comes in and conquers. Number four, self-will. When
self-will is cast down, here's its gospel-conquered counterpart,
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. That's what it
does. That man knew he was able. The
only question is, is he willing? You see, that's when you know
God Almighty is bringing you somewhere. When you quit talking
about my will, my will, my will, and it's God's will. I've often
mentioned this to the people at Sovereign Grace Chapel. Think
about this. Jesus Christ always did that which pleased the Father.
Always. And yet even He in the garden
prayed what? Lord, not my will, but Thine
be done. Now if He's praying that, how
much more ought I to pray that? And you know the only way you
will? and really mean it if God Almighty by the Gospel comes
in and conquers your castle, crushes your walls before you. Now, let me just give you a little
something on this thing about self-will. Today, it's been for a long time,
there's always been an argument, is it free grace or is it free
will? First off, free will is a lie. I've even tried to stop saying
to people, you're free will, but you ain't got one. Might
not be correct English, but it's truth. You ain't got one. Your
will is not free. It is as bound to your corruption
in Adam and your corruption by nature as the rest of you is,
as even your heart is. Because the book says, in the
Old Testament, whose heart made them willing. So therefore, if
the heart controls the will, that means my will is corrupt.
Because the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things, who
can know it? That's basic smarts 101 right there. That's that
simple. But let me tell you what free will really is. Free will
is really self-will, clothed in human opinion and religious
rhetoric and emotionalism. They call it free will. It is
nothing more than self-will. That's what it is. And self-will
is abhorred by God. It's one of those castle walls
that God Almighty crushes when He comes in and conquers a soul.
In other words, free will is nothing more than self-will dressed
up in sheep's clothes. That's what it is. Think about it, everyone here
whom Jesus Christ has sent the gospel to, and I'm not talking
about just a one-time thing. No. He just will keep battering
you. Keep battering you with the gospel.
Keep battering you with the gospel. Keep a-banging and keep a-banging.
And I'll show you why here in just a moment. But everyone,
everyone who's ever been conquered by the gospel, you know this,
Christ's condescension. He's God Almighty. He's God the
Word eternally. He's the One who spoke all things
into existence, the universe and all that there is. He's the
One who can say to the wind and the waves, peace, be still, and
a great calm comes about. And that One was made flesh. Made flesh. My old pastor used
to say he confined himself to the womb of a virgin for around
nine months. Have you ever thought about that?
The God of all glory confined himself to the womb of a virgin
for nine months. His condescension crushes my
ego. It crushes my ego. I bow in awe
before Him. Christ's cross work? Do we really
understand all that it is? No, we don't. Because it even
goes so far as to say, He was made sin for us. And my mind
can't even hardly get around that. His cross work crushes my self-worth. When God enables me to see that,
my self-worth just... It's like a balloon. Just stick
it up here and then... It's gone. It's gone. My self-worth is ground into
powder at my feet because of His feet. And I find myself believing
Him in confident expectation in His righteousness, His wisdom,
His sanctification, His redemption. I can't help it. My castle walls
have been crushed all about me. I'm exposed. I've got nowhere
else to go. And if you've turned to anything
else, you might think your castle walls are crushed, but they're
not. They're still there. Something has just painted them
over where you don't see them for what they are. Christ's preeminence. The book
says that in all things, He might have the preeminence. Why? Because
that pleased God the Father. Christ's preeminence, it crushes
my will. Every time God sends that truth
to me, it crushes my will. What does my will matter? But. There is no but. Every time
you say but, you're trying to take one of the pieces of that
stone He's crushed and trying to set it back up. Christ's preeminence crushes
my will and I have to submit to His delights. His delights. But I still have trouble. And having in a readiness to
revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
Think about that. That's a little convoluted. You read that and you think,
What's Paul talking about? Who's he writing to? People he
calls saints. Doesn't he not? Go to the first
part of the book, 1 Corinthians 2, he calls them saints of God.
These saints of God had a lot of trouble, didn't they? They
had a lot of problems. Think about it. Picture it in
your mind's eye. And you can, if you try, because
if you've really been saved by God, if you've really been converted,
you've experienced this, God Almighty has crushed your castle
walls before your feet. And He's constantly, constantly,
by His Gospel, by the truth of His Word, grinding those things
into powder, your self-righteousness. Your arrogance and your pride,
your self-indulgence and your self-will. And He's constantly
grinding, grinding, grinding those things into dust around
your feet. But therein is the difficulty.
It's still dust around my feet. Every particle of dust from that
wall still reeks with every character that that wall was erected with.
You understand? Does anybody here get what I'm
saying here? You see, when God saves us, He doesn't separate
us from what we are. He just gives us something we
didn't have before. I'm still just as corrupt as I ever was.
Just as corrupt. That's why Paul's even talking
to these people. and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience.
How do you revenge all disobedience? I won't go back there and whack
you with a stick. Nobody's talking about no. Talk about preaching
the gospel to you. Preaching the truth to you. Because
that's the only thing that's going to conquer these walls
and remind you of what this particles of dust is about your feet. Every particle of my crushed
wall still reeks with pride. It still reeks with arrogance.
It still reeks with self-righteousness. It still reeks with self-indulgence.
It still reeks with self-will. My walk, my walk is defiled. Now a preacher is supposed to
say, am I supposed to tell you all that? Is that something we
just show one another with a little card maybe? No, you know that's
the truth. God Almighty has conquered my
soul, He's crushed my walls, but I still walk about in all
that dust all the days of my life. Don't you? If you don't think you do, your
walls ain't really been crushed. They're still erect and you're
walking around inside that castle oblivious to what's really going
on. No, my feet still tread that
dust every day of my life. Oh, but hear Christ's obedience.
Hear it. Hear it. You remember, and supper being
ended, he took a towel and he girded himself. And he said,
fellows, I'm going to wash your feet. Now that was really no
big deal back then. The big deal was it was after
the meal. You didn't do it after the meal. You always did that
when you first get there, before the meal. So this was a little
out of character for what they were used to. So things were
happening. He said he disrobed and put a
towel about himself. Went to wash their feet. You
remember what Peter said? Lord, you ain't washing my feet. Christ said, Peter, if I don't
wash your feet, you ain't got no part with me. That's scary. Peter, if I don't
wash your feet, you've got no part with me. Peter said, well,
Lord, just wash me from head to toe. And basically Christ
said, no Peter, it's not necessary. I didn't wash you. You just need
your feet cleaned. Why? Because every step you take
defiles you in some way or another. You're still treading around
in all that dust of those castle walls that God's crushed down.
But you know what? He's the one that washes our
feet. Does He not? That's His obedience. It says in the blood of Jesus
Christ, the blood of God's Son, cleanseth. That means it keeps
on cleansing us from all sin. I need that. I need that. What are you saying then, preacher?
I'm saying like we looked at in our lesson this morning, oh,
wretched man that I am. If that's not your next response,
you've never been made a captive. You can cry, oh boy, I'm a bad
sinner, and then you start looking at what? You don't get it. Oh
wretched man that I am, go look at it, who shall deliver me? Paul had finally been conquered
by God's who. Here I want to sum this up. I say to every captive here this
morning, and you will be able to relate to this, praise God
for His conquering gospel wrought by His conquering reigning grace. Praise God for it. When God begins to salt your
castle walls, at first you won't like it. You won't like it. But as you see those walls begin
to crumble, and even when you see the dust that you walk in,
but when you see His obedience, you'll say, oh, praise God. Now if that's not enough to make
you come to church, then you might as well stay home. Praise God for His conquering
gospel wrought by His conquering grace. You can relate to this
if you're a captive. God, still yet, God conquer me
even today. God cast down my strongholds. And God cleanse me because even
that which you cast down defiles me. Somebody says, sounds like you
believe salvation is all of God. You might just be starting to
get it. I hope so. I hope so. Father, teach us Thy
ways. Bow us. Bow us before Thy Son
and to Thy Son. For it's all to His name's honor
and glory. And I thank You in Christ's name,
Amen.