So we'll read together 2 Corinthians
chapter 13 and verse 1. This is the third time I am coming
to you. In the mouth of two or three
witnesses shall every word be established. I told you before,
and foretell you, as if I were present the second time, and
being absent now, I write to them which heretofore have sinned,
and to all other, that if I come again, I will not spare. Since
ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to youward is not
weak, but is mighty in you, For though he was crucified through
weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are
weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God
toward you. Examine yourselves, whether ye
be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you? Except
ye be reprobates. But I trust that ye shall know
that we are not reprobates. Now I pray to God that ye do
no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that ye should
do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. For we can
do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. For we are
glad when we are weak and ye are strong. and this also we
wish even your perfection. Therefore I write these things
being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness according
to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification and not
to destruction. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. There is a sharpness about the
way in which the Apostle Paul is speaking in these verses,
and it almost appears as if he's bringing his thoughts to their
conclusion, but he wants the Corinthians to be aware that
he is serious and purposeful in the writing of this letter. And we'll come to that in a moment.
But the little intro that he puts to this section, he speaks
about, this is the third time I am coming to you. That has
caused a lot of examination and thought and ideas as to what
that actually means with respect to the number of times Paul visited
Corinth and perhaps the number of letters that he wrote. But
I'm just going to suggest to you that most likely by this
reference, the third time, Paul simply means that this is the
third witness that he has given to the Corinthians. He had one visit that he made
to them. that lasted for 18 months, and
he has sent them already one letter, and now this is the second
letter, so that it is quite right for him to say, this is the third
time. One visit, one letter, and now
this third letter. And I simply take that to mean,
to be the meaning of the apostle here. He's drawing upon a sound
biblical principle of two or three witnesses to a matter,
verifying the truthfulness of that matter. And that's a teaching
that comes all the way back from Moses' writings in Deuteronomy. Chapter 19, verse 15, where Moses
wrote, So the Apostle is here basically saying, I've warned
you. This is the third time that I've warned you. and he is establishing the matter
or the issue that has been before him here. And it was the issue
of the wickedness that was there amongst the Corinthians. And the Lord, of course, uses
the same argument in his own ministry. In Matthew 18, 16,
we find the Lord using the same argument duplicity or threesome
of twofold or threefold reference to witnesses to prove a matter
based again on that Old Testament reference. And it might be just
an interesting study sometime to examine the occasions where
scripture itself follows this example. For instance, God the
Father, testified three times to the Lord Jesus Christ being
his well beloved son. And I thought I would give you
a quiz. Do you know when those three times were? Can you think
in your head when those three times were? Once at his baptism,
God spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved son. Once
in the transfiguration, Again, the voice came from heaven. And
once when the Lord went into Jerusalem just before his crucifixion,
in the early days of that final week of his life when he went
up to Jerusalem, there was also a voice from heaven testifying
to the Son. And John in his epistle, 1st
John, tells us that there are three who bear witness in heaven
and upon earth to the gospel that God has given to us eternal
life. and this life is in His Son. So again, even the synoptic Gospels,
Matthew, Mark and Luke very often repeat the same incident in the
life of the Lord. And I think that there is a general
principle here in the Word of God. It's not to say that one
reference doesn't prove the authority of Scripture. But when we see
two and three times these things being presented to us, then it
shows us that the matter is well proven. But Paul's purpose of
drawing together this threefold witness is to tell the Corinthians
they had received multiple warnings regarding these cases of immorality
that existed among them. And if the matter was not dealt
with amongst themselves, the Apostle Paul would act severely
and he would call upon his apostolic authority when he came amongst
them. And remember that there was evidence
of sharp rebukes by that apostolic authority. On one occasion, Elimus
was made blind by the apostle and had to wander around blind.
On another occasion, with Ananias and Sapphira, Peter, they were
made to be dead by Peter. He slew them, or the Lord killed
them by the word of Peter. So verse 3 I think here is a
strong warning and we may even regard it as a threat. It's almost unbelievable in a
sense that these Corinthians were saying to Paul, are you
really an apostle? Are you really speaking with
the power of Christ? as well as showing Paul's confidence
in his own apostolic calling and his own apostolic power,
here the Corinthians have questioned that apostolic ministry and they
have indicated to him that they seek a strong proof of Christ
speaking in him. And Paul says, well, I'll give
you that proof all right. If I come and find things unchanged,
you will most surely see such a strong proof. And he is leaving
them in no doubt of the seriousness of this matter. And Paul's enemies
at Corinth had been denying his apostleship. They'd been claiming
that he didn't have the power and authority of the other apostles. And it may well be, as it was
in Antioch, that these people had come from Jerusalem or they
had come from Judea or somewhere else, who knows, but that they
had come and they were reintroducing an erroneous gospel. The Galatians
had encountered this as well. Maybe they even said they had
come from James or they had come from Peter and they were undermining
Paul's gospel. And they accused Paul of being
weak and of being poor, of lacking presence, of lacking charisma. There was no aura of power about
him. But Paul then goes on to remind
them that the outward appearance is not a measure of divine power. Christ, after all, says the apostle,
appeared in weakness. He appeared in human flesh to
put away sin, but now he lives by the power of God. So that
what he's telling them here is that power in weakness Just think
about that phrase for a moment. Power and weakness is a feature
of Christ's apostles and preachers. Power and weakness is a feature
of Christ's apostles and preachers. There's no need for us to be
haughty or dominant or to lord it over people. but rather a
humility attaches to the Lord's preachers, but the power is in
the message. And that's what he goes on to
say. The sense is not that Christ's ministers will be raised in power
in some way in the same as the Lord was, but rather that despite
their apparent weakness, and despite their apparent foolishness
in preaching the gospel, they will perform powerful things
by that preaching, and they will accomplish the power of God in
gathering in the elect and building up the church. Paul had made
that very point in his first epistle to the Corinthians when
he wrote, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness. doesn't seem to be wise, doesn't
seem to be powerful. But to us which are saved, it
is powerful because we see the effects of the gospel in our
own lives. For after that in wisdom, in
the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So
preaching Christ is foolishness and weakness to the world. But by that message, God saves
his church and the Holy Spirit gathers in the elect. It's the
gospel, not the preacher, that is the power of God unto salvation. And so here the apostle is calling
on the Corinthians to testify concerning themselves. They sought
an example of apostolic power from Paul, that's what these
false apostles or false teachers were saying. Well ask for some
example of power from Paul. And Paul writes back to them
and says, you're the example. You are yourselves the example. Had they faith? By what power
had they faith? If Christ be in them, by what
power is he in them? And so Paul is saying, examine
yourselves to see whether or not you're of the faith. They
can tell if their hope is in Christ or not, unless Paul says,
of course, you're reprobates and you've never believed. But
in the absence of that, unless they hadn't received saving grace,
unless they had been rejected of Christ, rejected of God, they
were able to look to their own lives and see that they had hope,
they had faith in Christ. Where did that come from? That
was the evidence of the gospel's power. That was the power of
God in their lives. And Paul goes on to speak in
verse 7 and he says, it tells us that Paul prays to God that
these people do no evil and they do that which is honest. That
is, they show themselves to be men and women of faith and not
to be reprobates. What a terrible condition to
have been passed over by God and how blessed we are rather
to have had the gospel revealed to us and faith to believe it. So in a sense, it shows the apostles
pastoral care of these people here, because despite the Corinthians
being tempted of the false apostles to treat Paul with scorn, he
wishes that they be accepted by God, not to vindicate his
own ministry, but for the eternal wellbeing of their souls, which
Paul calls their perfection. And he goes on in verse eight
to say, we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. And again, he's speaking, I think,
for all gospel ministers here, not just apostles. Gospel ministers
have no inherent power or authority over believers, nor do they,
we, desire it. It's not my role as a gospel
preacher to tell you what to do or tell you how to live your
life. Gospel freedom is possessed of
all the sons and daughters, all the heirs of grace. And those
who have faith in Christ have nothing to fear, even in the
presence of an apostle. The preached word condemns the
reprobate. and the gospel itself renders
them without excuse before God. This section shows, I think,
where the power of spiritual life is found. Paul prayed for
honesty and purity and perfection amongst the Corinthians, and
such comes only by faith. and faith is the gift of God.
So Paul is seeking, Paul is praying God's goodness and mercy for
the Corinthians and that is a testimony of sovereign grace. It was always
and ever the Apostle's desire to minister to the good, to the
edification, to the benefit of the saints. He doesn't want to
be involved in sharply rebuking or destroying the reprobates. And there's little value, I think,
and there's an important point here, there's little value in
a preacher using a gospel pulpit to criticize and to declaim and
to expose all the sin that's in the sinful world. But there
is much value in building up the saints by preaching the gospel
of God's love and grace and mercy and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. I want just to mention a couple
of things, as it were, to draw a few strands together in this
little passage and maybe just reinforce them if I can. The apostle speaks about Christ's
weakness. Christ's weakness. That was a
reference earlier in the passage. He says, that Christ, He was
crucified in weakness. And we often think about Christ's
humanity, and rightly so. But let us not forget the consequence
and implications of that humanity. The Saviour's union with us in
our flesh brought upon Him all the frailties of flesh, though
without sin. And our lives are beset with
sin. So we find it difficult, hard
probably, to conceive of life without sin. And yet what Paul
is telling us here is that the Lord Jesus Christ knew the feelings
of our mortality. He knew the weaknesses of our
humanity. Yes, he was willing to die, but
he was crucified through weakness. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
be made like unto his brethren. He must take the very nature
of his people in order to redeem us into union with his Godhead. He must be made like unto sinful
flesh. Like it but without sin. Weak subject to all the frailties
and infirmities his sinless nature could bear, capable of sustaining
sufferings and death in his flesh and his body. And we're reminded
from Isaiah 53 of some of the pictures that the Old Testament
saints had of the Lord. He hath no form nor comeliness,
nothing attractive about him. When we see him, There is no
beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And I
want us just to hold on to that for a moment, that weakness of
the Lord, because surely we can draw comfort in that view of
Christ. It's as though it's stressed
here for us, this multiple witness again, from the Old and the New
Testament, to show the depths of sympathy and empathy and understanding
that our Saviour has for us in our most testing times and in
our most trying moments. Whatever the trials are that
this world lays upon our shoulders, We find solace and comfort in
the arms of one who has walked this way before us and who was
crucified in weakness. He knew the weakness. And just
another point, apart from this weakness of Christ, the apostle
speaks about examining ourselves. And this is another phrase that
the apostle, as it were, just drops into this closing section
of the letter to the Corinthians, but it calls for a personal application. Examine yourselves, whether ye
be in the faith, prove your own selves. And it might be good
for us to know what that means and what it doesn't mean. Believers
examine themselves when they look to see their sinfulness and their need
and their dependence upon the Lord. And every such look should
be a motivation to afterwards look to Christ for the satisfaction
and the provision of those needs. The sufficiency that is absent
from ourselves but present in the Lord is what we are being
called to identify. Robert Hawker has a lovely phrase
in connection with this self-examination. This is what he says, listen
to this. The only caution to be observed in doing this, this
self-examination, the only caution to be observed in doing this
is to form our conclusions by the Lord's standard and not our
own. That's a very powerful phrase
and it's useful advice. Our conclusions upon examining
ourselves must be based on God's word, his gospel and his grace
towards his people. It's not our feelings, it's not
our senses that determines our state. If we don't feel God's
love, If we don't feel Christ's forgiveness, if we don't have
the Spirit's joy, it doesn't mean that these blessings are
themselves in any way altered. God doesn't change. Grace never
leaves us. And self-examination must always
be with a view to discovering our need in order to go to Christ
for his provision. I thought I would try and get
a little example of that. When I first started work many
years ago, I worked in an office and I had to keep a little, what
was called a little impressed cash book for petty cash. And every time I spent something
for the business, I took a note of what I had spent. And then
at the end of the week, I examined that little book and I went to
the cashier to have my cash balance replenished to the full amount
again so that I could start the next week afresh. I had to examine
my account at the end of the week and then go and have what
I had spent reimbursed. And I think that that's a picture
of our relationship with the Lord. Our saviour is the constant
supply. He is ever giving, but not beyond
our need. He gives us what is needful. The Lord told Paul, my grace
is sufficient for you. So we examine ourselves. And
upon that examination, we go in our need to our supplier. and he freely and he graciously
replenishes our stock of grace and mercy. And one final point
and then I'm done. The Apostle says at the end of
this little passage that on behalf of the Corinthians I pray to
God. And here again we see the Apostle's
understanding of sovereign grace He says, I pray to God for the
spiritual needs of the Corinthians. As he prayed for the spiritual
needs of the Ephesians and the Thessalonians and the Galatians
and all those people of all those towns and cities where he ministered.
Because he knew that their spiritual state and condition was a gift
from God. There's no need to pray to God.
that the Corinthians do no evil, if they by their own efforts
could do no evil. There's no need to ask that they
might be honest and perfect if those were conditions that they
could attain by their own effort, their own dedication and their
their own human resources. So the Apostle Paul's words are
a reminder to us always to trace our blessings back to their proper
source. Let us always give credit where
it's due. He prayed to God on their behalf. Let us always confess that our
holiness, our purity, our uprightness, our perfection of heart and soul
is no human accomplishment. but this is the gift of God to
us by Jesus Christ and it is by faith that we lay a hold upon
those blessings. Have you got a need today? Have
I got a need today? Have I found that there has been
an expenditure, there has been a spending, there has been a
diminution in my spiritual well-being, my spiritual state? Well then
let us follow the Apostle's example and pray to God for what we require. What is our prayer to be? Let
it be what Paul prayed for the Ephesians. that He would grant
us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened
with might by His Spirit in the inner man. May it be so for one
and all of us today. Amen.