Good morning. What a great joy it is to worship
a God that's sovereign. In every way He's sovereign.
He's sovereign in creation. He's sovereign in providence.
He's sovereign in salvation. He reigns. And what great hope
and comfort He gives to His people that believe that. We're going
to continue our study the first hour in 2nd Corinthians. If you'd
like to turn with me there in your Bible, 2nd Corinthians chapter
10. Terri Petroski had another stroke
on Friday and she's back in the hospital. This one seems more severe than the last one
she had. I haven't talked to Jerry this morning, so I don't
know what the latest is, but she has some paralysis as a result
of the stroke. Let's pray together and ask the
Lord to bless His word to our hearts and ask Him to have mercy
on the Petroski family. Our glorious, sovereign, and
merciful Heavenly Father. What great hope we have in knowing
that we can come before your throne of grace and find help
in our time of need. Father, we confess to you that
we are a needy people, always in need of your grace, always
in need of your mercy. always in need of your loving
kindness. We ask, Lord, that you would
minister that grace to our hearts this morning. As we open your
word, we pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would cause it to
be living and effectual, sharper as you've said it is than any
two-edged sword. able to divide asunder the thoughts
and the intents of the heart. Lord, that you would use your
word to expose us before you and cause us to flee to Christ
for all our salvation, all of our righteousness, all of our
hope. We pray that he would be lifted
up and that you would cause us to set our affections on him. We pray for the Patowski family
and we ask, Lord, that you would be merciful to them. Pray you'd
give them hope and encouragement. Pray for the medical staff that
ministers to Terry and ask that you'd make them able. We know,
Lord, that you do all things well and that you work all things
together for our good. those who love you and those
who are the called according to your purpose. And we ask Lord
for the hope of that comfort to be applied to our hearts. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Wayne read from Isaiah chapter
45 this morning in the study before the service and in that
chapter, The Lord says, let the potsherds of the earth contend
with the potsherds of the earth. Now a potsherd is a broken piece
of pottery. And he's speaking of those who
would want to make the gospel a subject of debate. And he's
saying, just let those who want to debate the gospel debate with
people who enjoy debating the gospel. We're not here to debate
the gospel. The gospel's not to be debated,
it's to be believed. It's not our responsibility to
persuade people of the truth of the gospel, it's our responsibility
to preach the gospel. The Spirit of God is the one
who persuades the hearts of his people to believe it. And when
he does, they don't have any interest in debating it. They
just want to rejoice in the finished work of Christ. Now, Paul in
2 Corinthians chapter 10 is addressing a problem in the church at Corinth
with some men who have brought in a contentious spirit. They want to debate the gospel. And he's setting things straight
with them and speaking to the church and telling them that
this is not something that ought to be tolerated. This is not
something that ought to be done. Let the men of religion debate
with the men of religion. That's fine. We'll just leave
that alone. We don't have any interest in
trying to fix that or change that. But let someone come into
the assembly of God's people and begin to stir up trouble
by making the glorious gospel of God's grace and the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ a subject of debate. And you will find God's shepherds
doing all that's necessary to defend and protect the sheep. And that's exactly what Paul's
doing here. Look what he says in verse 1
of chapter 10. He said, Now I, Paul, myself,
beseech you. He's speaking that the Word of
God is written and will be heard and believed by God's people. And so that's who this is being
addressed to. He's speaking to the believers
and he's saying that as an apostle he's beseeching them. He's coming
along beside them with the meekness and gentleness of Christ. God's
sheep aren't to be beat. They're to be encouraged. They're to be loved, they're
to be cared for. If there's any beating that's
to be done, it's to the wolf that comes in among God's people
and tries to... Paul said in Acts chapter 20
that grievous wolves will come in among you and will seek to
destroy the flock and be on guard for them. He's speaking to the
elders in Ephesus and tells them, don't tolerate that. Attack the
wolf, don't attack the sheep. And so that's what he's doing
here in this chapter. He's saying, I'm not here to
attack God's people. I'm coming to you in the meekness
and the gentleness of the Lord Jesus Christ to encourage you. And he says, who myself am in
presence and in base among you, but being absent and bold towards
you." Well, look at verse 10. He says, but I beseech you that
I may not be bold when I am present with you with that confidence
wherewith I think to be bold against some which think of us
as if we walked according to the flesh. Now, there were those
who were accusing the Apostle Paul of the very thing that they
were guilty of. And isn't that always the case?
Not always the case. They accuse us of being antinomian
when they want to justify their own sin and unbelief. You know,
God's church and God's gospel and God's people are accused
of all sorts of things that the accusers themselves are guilty
of. And Paul said, I know that my
bodily presence is not impressive. And he goes on in the same chapter
to say that my speech even is contemptible. I'm not an eloquent
orator. But I am an apostle and God has
taught me the gospel. And there is but one gospel and
we're not going to tolerate anything in the church that would be leavened
to that gospel or compromise that gospel in any way. And so
he said, I know I'm apart from you now and I want to speak very
boldly to you on this subject. I don't want to pull any punches. I don't want to leave room for
any ambiguity. I don't want there to be any
confusion about what it is that I'm saying, because the gospel
is at stake here, and when the gospel is at stake, the salvation
of your soul is at stake. And we can't have that. We can't compromise that in any
way. So he's being accused of being
a fleshly man. They're saying he's not been
a son of God. He doesn't have a message from
God. He's just promoting himself. That's what he's doing. He's
just a self-promoter. He's just traveling around trying
to get disciples after himself, which is exactly what they were
doing. But they were accusing Paul of that. And so he says
in verse 3, he says, For though we walk in the flesh, yes, we
are men of flesh, Yes, we walk in a physical body. We're just
like any other man in that regard. We do not war after the flesh. The weapons of our warfare, he
goes on to say, are not carnal. We're not going to engage in
this debate by competing intellectually with these men. We're not going
to lower ourselves to debate the gospel on their level. That's not the weapon that we're
going to use. This gospel is not to be debated
intellectually. The powers of persuasion are
not the thing that gives the gospel success. The truth of
the gospel is what makes it successful. And the Spirit of God is the
one who causes God's people to hear and to believe and to love
the truth. And so we're not, you know, these
men want to make it a matter of persuasion. They want to make
it a matter of debate. We're not going to go there.
We're not going to do that. We don't oppose them on their
ground of human reason. We're not philosophers. We're
not philosophers, we're preachers. We're preachers. God has called
us to stand and to say without compromise, thus saith the Lord. This is what God says. And God's
people just want to be shut up to that. God's people want to
be shut up to what God says. They don't want there to be any
room for discussion. They don't want there to be any
room for debate. They just want the simple truth of what God
says to be declared and Paul says that's what we're going
to do. We're not going to engage in this battle with them on their
grounds. We're not going to make it a
matter of debate. We're going to stand and declare
unapologetically what God says and we know that God's people
will hear it. and they'll believe it and they'll
rejoice in it. So, though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal. They're not carnal. That's what's
used in religion. I like the little saying, you
draw a zero and put a line under it and under that you've got
PhD and PhD and DD and all these other doctorate degrees, you
know, and three degrees below zero is what it is, you know.
Doctor sounding brass and tinkling cymbal, but it's very impressive
among men, particularly in religion. Men love having their degrees,
and they love having their debates, and that's what Paul's saying.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We're not going to
use the powers of persuasion or our intellect to prove this
gospel. We're just going to preach it. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but they are mighty through God. to the pulling down
of strongholds. These detractors, these men who
have come in to stir up trouble will be put in their place by
the power of God. Now, the principle here also
applies to the spiritual warfare that every believer engages in,
in terms of their flesh and their spirit. We are, though we walk
in the flesh, we are men of flesh. Though we don't war after the
flesh. We don't use our flesh to try
to squelch our flesh. We don't do that. We don't fight
fire with fire. It just makes the fire bigger.
If we try to put down the passions of our flesh with the strength
of our flesh through some sort of outward conformity to the
law or some impressive thing that we might do with other it's
just gonna make things worse the the the strength that God
has given us against our flesh is his spirit. Paul says in Romans
that if we if we walk in the spirit we will not fulfill the
lust of the flesh and that's what I was trying to say last
week that that verse right there if you walk in the spirit you
will not fulfill the lust of the flesh is exactly what I was
saying last week when I said Love God, look to Christ, and
live like you want. Live like you want. That's what
the Lord's saying, and that's the weapon that we have. We're
not trying to buffet the flesh with the disciplines of the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal. They are mighty through God to
the pulling down of strongholds casting down imaginations you
see that in verse 5 this weapon is there a warfare yeah there's
a warfare and it's a very real warfare isn't it we we have this
body of flesh that we carry around who would deliver me from this
body of death Paul said in Romans chapter 7 thanks be to God through
Christ Jesus I'm free So that now there's no condemnation to
them that are in Christ Jesus. The only hope that we have of, what's the word that the scripture
uses, mortifying the flesh, is not with the power of the flesh,
but by the obedience of Christ. It's through the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's looking to Christ. Looking
to Christ in faith. And that's what cast down. Now
he's talking about these imaginations, these reasonings, that's the
word there that's being used, that are being brought into the
church to try to make the gospel a subject of debate. And he says,
the weapons that we have are mighty through God to the pulling
down of strongholds and casting down these imaginations and every
high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. This human reasoning, these things
that we struggle with in our own lives are exalting themselves
against the knowledge of God, aren't they? There's something
in our flesh that would resist God and seek to overthrow Him, to be in control. And how do we do this? bringing
into captivity, bringing into captivity every thought by my obedience to Christ. Is that what it says? That's
what you hear in religion. If you'll just obey God, if you'll
put yourself under the law and live by the law and buffet your
flesh and discipline yourself and strengthen yourself and pull
yourself up by your bootstraps and you'll do more, then you'll
be able to control yourself and that's fighting the flesh with
the flesh. Now, are we advocating the sins
of the flesh? No. Do we hate the sins of our
flesh? Yes. Do we sin all we want? Truth
is we sin more than we want. We don't want to sin. How are
we going to control it? The obedience of Christ. Looking to Christ, who is the
author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was
set before Him endured the cross. You've not yet suffered under
blood, Paul goes on to say there in Hebrews 12, doesn't he? We look to Christ, looking to
His obedience, rejoicing in His accomplished work, knowing that
our righteousness before God is the obedience of Christ. You see, the law just aggravates
sin is all it does. It just aggravates it. It's the
love of Christ that constraineth us. And the only power against
our flesh is the obedience of Christ. Looking to Christ. Resting in Christ. Relying on
Christ. Loving Christ. Rejoicing in Him. Believing that He is all my righteousness
before God and I can't add to that and I can't take away from
it. And what does that do? It quenches
the fire of the passions of the flesh. That's what it does. It's the only thing that does.
It's the only thing that does. Now Paul is saying, we're going
to preach the obedience of Christ. And that's going to be the weapon
that will that will slay the enemies of the gospel, whether
they be men who have come into the church to try to make the
gospel a matter of debate, or whether it be the enemies of
the gospel in your own flesh. Preaching the obedience of Christ
will be the message that will comfort the heart and give the
believer strength to, yes, to mortify the flesh. to put it
to death again and again and that's a daily thing isn't it
mortifying the flesh how often do we come to Christ that's how
often we mortify the flesh look at verse 6 and having in
a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled
Paul's making it clear from the beginning of chapter 10 to this
verse right here, I'm not here to beat up the sheep. I'm going
to be strong. I'm going to say some things
that are going to hurt some people, but their objective is not to
hurt the sheep. My revenge is against those who
are disobeying the gospel, which is the obedience of Christ. That's
the gospel. It's not to, it's not to injure
those who believe and have their hope and their trust in Christ. So having, he's saying, I'm ready
to revenge, to exercise my apostolic authority in the gospel against
all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. So he's speaking
to two different groups of people here, isn't he? Speaking to the
believers, saying, I'm here in the meekness and gentleness of
Christ to comfort you and encourage you, and I'm here to point out
those wolves that have come in to ravage the sheep. Do you look on things after the
outward appearance? Is that how you figure out your
righteousness? by looking at your outward behavior
and your outward appearances to see that's what men do in
religion. They whitewash the tomb full of dead men's bones.
They clean up the outside of the cup. They go around trying
to impress one another about how righteous they are and how
holy they are. And Isaiah says they're holier
than thou. That's their attitude. And they
set up hierarchies of righteousness within the church. They've got
some that are holier than others. And it's all for the sake of
outward appearances. God told Samuel, man looks at
the outward appearance. So this is very impressive to
man, but not to God. God's looking at the heart. He
sees the heart. He sees the unbelief that's in
the heart of these self-righteous religious people that are going
around trying to impress one another and intimidate each other. Do you look on the outward appearances?
If any man trusts to himself that he is Christ, let him of
himself think this again." He goes on to say, don't compare
yourself to yourself and don't compare yourself to other men,
it's not wise. Think this of himself again,
that is, as he is Christ, these men have come in, they put on
their robe, their self-appointed robe of righteousness. They pretended
to be somebody that they're not. They're giving the sheep trouble.
And he said, they tell you they're believers. We're the believers.
We're the ones that are standing for the truth. For though I should
boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us
for edification, That's so important. The authority that God gave to
the Apostle Paul and the authority that he gives to his under-shepherds
today is for edification. It's for edification. There's
no place in the pulpit for beaten up sheep. There's just no place for it.
They don't need to be beat up. They need to be encouraged. That's
what the word edification means. It means to be encouraged. It
means to be comforted. You know, people like to be beat
up. People go to church in order
to get... I mean, how many times have I heard somebody say, Boy,
you really bloodied my toes today, preacher. You stepped on my toes. You know, I've heard people say
that. And they came for that. Why? Because that's their penance.
You know, if I can come to church, have somebody put me under the
law, tell me what I ought to be doing that I'm not doing,
and give me something to do, then, you know, I can leave feeling
like I've, you know, I've paid my debt. I've done my dues. Made me feel bad about myself,
and that's a good thing. Now I've, you know, I've done
my penance. And Paul said that's not what
God gave us this gospel for. We're not here to put men under
the law, make them leave feeling like they've somehow satisfied
the demands of God's justice through some religious catharsis
that they've gone through. It's not what it's for. The Lord has given us this gospel
for your encouragement, for your comfort, for your edification,
and not for your destruction. And if I was to boast in my authority,
I wouldn't be ashamed of that boasting. And what Paul's doing,
he's comparing himself to the believers, to these other men
who have come in and accused him of not being of God, who
are bringing in a different gospel. And that's exactly what he's
doing here. He's comparing himself to them and he's saying, now,
we're here for your encouragement. We're not here for your injury. God has given me authority as
an apostle. Verse 9, that I may not seem
as if I would terrify you by letters. I'm not here to put
you under fear. The spirit of fear is not of
God. The spirit of love is of God. We're not here to terrify
you with our letters. For His letters say they, Now
did Paul have to identify some issues in the church? We've been
already now the last few months through 1st and 2nd Corinthians,
you know he did. And now these gainsayers are
saying, well the Apostle Paul is just trying to scare you. He writes these strong letters,
but in fact he's a weak man. And so now he's defending himself
against that accusation. Look what he says. For his letters
say they are weighty and powerful but his bodily presence is weak
and his speech contemptible. His bodily presence of all indications
of what said about the Apostle Paul was weak. And his speech
was not something that would be impressive to men. But I'm
so very thankful. that God doesn't have to have
a man with eloquent speech and impressive presence in order
to deliver the truth of His message to the hearts of His people.
And more often than not, He uses men who don't have that eloquence
to do just that. Verse 11 Let such a one think
this, that such as we are in word by letters when we are absent,
such will we be also indeed when we are present." He's warning
these gainsayers. He's speaking to the church now.
He's not trying to beat the sheep. He's comforting them. He's saying
to them, when I come, they're going to find out what sort of
authority I have as an apostle. because I'm going to confront
them face to face in the same way that I'm confronting them
in this letter. There are just times when gospel preachers have to do that.
There's been a time or two in the history of this church where
I've had to, one time in particular I had to tell somebody, if you
don't stop that, I'm going to expose you from the pulpit. I'm
going to have to. I mean, they were stirring up
contention in the church, going around doing stuff. And I warned
them and warned them and encouraged them and asked them not to do
it, and they just kept doing it. And I finally had to say
to them, I'm going to expose you from the pulpit if you do
it one more time. And they left. I've never been back. But it's just that important.
And that's what Paul's saying here. We'll just have to, that's
the only thing we can do. The care of the sheep is too,
it's too important. Verse 12, for we dare not make
ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend
themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves and
comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. Now isn't that
what we did? Isn't there something in us still
that has that temptation to do that? You know, am I getting
any better? Am I getting any better? If you look to the obedience
of Christ, you will come to one conclusion. You're worse today
than you were yesterday. You compare yourself to yourself
is not wise. Compare yourself to other men
is not wise. Stand in the presence of God and He will leave you
to be what you are, a mercy beggar sinner in need of His grace. That's it. That's it. Verse 13, but we will not boast
of things without our measure. outside of our responsibility. We're not going to boast beyond
our legitimate province that God's given us. We're not going to compare ourselves
to those men. We're not going to fight that
battle on that ground. We're just not going to do it.
I know that's what they want to do. They want to tout their
degrees and their presence and speech more eloquent than ours.
We're not going to fight on that ground. We will not boast of
things without our measure, but according to the measure of the
rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even
unto you. You are the reason why we're
fighting this battle. The glory of God and the care
of His sheep is the reason why we're doing this. And we're not
interested in trying to fix them or change them. For we stretch not ourselves
beyond our measure. We're not overstepping our limits
or stretching beyond our ability to reach, as though we reach
not unto you. For we are come as far as to
you also in preaching the gospel of Christ. Our concern is to
preach Christ to you. And that's what we're writing
this letter for. And if we come to confront these men, that's
what it'll be for. It'll be for the preaching of
the gospel. That's what we're here for. We're
not here for anything else. It's the only thing we have, isn't
it? Churches and religious organizations
get so involved in so many things. We had such a sweet fellowship
yesterday with the men, and we were talking about how, back
in religion, how we used to fight over stuff, you know. And we've
been meeting now for almost 20 years, and we just haven't had
to do that, have we? Why? Because we're in agreement
on the gospel and we don't have all these other issues that we're
trying to be involved in. Verse 15, "...not boasting of
things without our measure, that is, of other men's labors, but
having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be
enlarged by you according to your rule abundantly." Now what
he's saying here is that if these men have the truth let them do
what I'm doing you see these men came in behind the Apostle
Paul everywhere he went and preach the gospel and God would save
a people and a church would get established and before long these
men would come in behind him and Paul saying we're not building
our ministry on somebody else's work that's what they're doing
see they were accusing him of the very thing they were guilty
of If what they're preaching is
true, let them do what I'm doing. Let them go into a place where
there's no church and no gospel and preach and see if they can
find a following. And our desire is to preach the
gospel, verse 16, in regions beyond you and not to boast in
another man's line of things made ready to our hand. We're not interested in building
on someone else's foundation. We're not interested in taking
advantage of something that somebody else has done. That's what they're
doing and trying to build a name for ourselves. Here's the conclusion of the
whole chapter. Look at verse 17 and 18. But he that glorieth
let him glory in the Lord. These men were glorying in themselves.
comparing themselves to themselves, comparing themselves to the Apostle
Paul. Paul says, let him who glories glory in the Lord, for
not he that commendeth himself is approved of God. The one who
promotes himself and commends himself, he's not the one approved
of God, but the one that the Lord commends. The one that the
Lord uses the one that God is pleased to deliver the truth
of the gospel through, that's the one that's to be commended
and to be approved of. Alright, let's take a break.