2 Corinthians 13. Our subject today is the unselfish
love of God. The unselfish love of God. When
a sinner is born of God, God creates within us a new heart. And in that new heart, He gives
Fruits of the Spirit. And when Paul talked about the
fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, the first thing he says is
love. Love. When God creates a new
heart, He puts love in that heart. The love of God in the new heart. Christ said, by this shall all
men know you are my disciples. And when you might think he was
going to say something else, he said that you love one another. That you love one another. And
God's people love one another. They really do. It's not a maybe
or a possibility. God's people really do love one
another. Paul said here, this was his
heart, he says there in verse 7, Now I pray to God that you
do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you
should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. Paul's prayer here for his brethren
is that you do no evil. You know that was Christ's prayer
for his people In that high priestly prayer in John 17, our Lord Jesus
said, I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but
that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. And I have no
doubt that our Lord meant keep them from suffering evil, but
more importantly, He meant keep them from doing evil. That's
something we should pray for, for ourselves and for our brethren
constantly. Lord, keep me from doing evil.
Because left to ourselves, that's what we'll do. We'll do evil. It's only by the Spirit of God
that we do not do evil. You know, in Romans 7, when Paul
is talking about what I would do, that do I not. He's talking
about what he would like to do from the new man. And he can't
do the things because sin is mixed with everything he does.
But in Galatians 5, you know, he's talking to them. They were
biting and devouring one another. They were in their old man. They
were walking in their old flesh. And he was saying, I pray Christ
be formed in you again. And he told them there, If you
walk in the Spirit, you shall not fulfill the lusts of the
flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that
you cannot do the things you would. There he's talking about
the Spirit keeps you from doing the lustful things that you would. And that's what we need constantly.
We need the Spirit of God to keep us from doing evil. And so Paul's spirit here toward
his brethren is the spirit of love. He's praying for them what
every preacher prays for those to whom he ministers and what
all our brethren pray for Christ's church. He's asking God to make
it so that their conversation would be as it would become at
the gospel of Christ, that whether He was there or He was absent,
He might hear of their affairs, that they stand fast in one spirit,
with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.
The love of God that He creates within each believer does not
seek our own. It's not selfish. It doesn't
seek our own, but it seeks the well-being of our brethren. I want you to see that in this
passage. First of all, we see the unselfish love that God creates
in the believer's heart right here in Paul. He said there in
verse 7, I pray to God that you would do no evil, not that we
should appear approved, but that you should do that which is honest,
though we be as reprobates. Paul's enemies were telling everyone
at Corinth that he was a reprobate apostle, that he was a counterfeit
apostle, and that he was preaching a false gospel. That's what these
enemies were declaring about Paul. And it's because Paul preached,
and one thing that they accused Paul of, he was accused of this,
he talks about it throughout Acts, but they accused him of
preaching against the law of God. Antinomian. If you preach Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone believe. If you preach
that the believer is under grace, not under the law. That we walk
by the rule of faith which works by love. If you preach that,
those that don't understand it are going to call you an antinomian. That you're anti-law. That you're
preaching against the law. And that's what they were doing.
But all Paul had to do to prove to everybody that he was not
a counterfeit, that he was not reprobate, all he had to do was
come to Corinth and work the power that Christ had given him
as an apostle toward his enemies. That's all he had to do. You
know, Paul had the power to take a man's life. Christ gave His
apostles that power. You remember when Ananias and
Sapphira came in and they pretended like they had done this great
work in selling this land and giving all the money to the church
and actually they had kept most of it. And they lied against
the Holy Spirit. And Apostle Peter came to the
husband first and spoke against him and he died. And several
hours later, Sapphira came in and he spoke against her and
she died. And so Paul had that power too. And all he had to
do to prove he was not reprobate was come there and work that
power. And everybody would know it. They'd all know it. But Paul says here, instead of
proving himself faithful, Paul says, I'd rather see you do that
which is honest, though my accusers will go on telling everyone I'm
reprobate. He had power to go there and
to discipline those believers and to cast out those enemies. He had power to do that. But
he said, rather than do that and prove that I have this power,
that Christ is working in me and I'm not counterfeit, rather
than do that, let them call me a reprobate. They can go on ruining
my reputation. That's worth it to me if you
do no evil. You see the unselfishness in
that? You see how unselfish the love of God is? God-given love
seeketh not her own. Remember Paul said that in Corinthians? The love God gives charity seeketh
not her own. Not selfish, doesn't seek personal
gain. Herein is love, not that we love
God. but that He loved us and sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. You see how love
seeketh not her own? God gave His only begotten Son. He gave His only begotten Son. We wouldn't even give one...
If we had a child that was trouble to us and caused us pain all
our lives, we wouldn't even give that child to lay down their
life. He gave His only begotten Son. And Christ, our Lord, love seeketh
not our own. Christ left heaven's glory, the
glory of being with God. He left heaven's glory, came
down to this sin-cursed earth where He was despised and rejected
of men and walked among us, despised and rejected, hated, It hurts
when you're hated by just one person or a couple people. He was hated by everybody he
came in contact with besides those he called out. And then he went to that cruel
cross, that shameful cross. You talk about somebody that
was willing to forego their reputation for the good of his people. Christ despised the shame of
the cross. But He went there anyway for
the redemption of His people, for the glory of God His Father. And so, you see that love seeketh
not her own. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. That's the manner in which God
loved us. He sent His Son. He gave the
very best He had. And Christ didn't... He wasn't
worried about His reputation before men. He was more concerned
with the salvation of His people, so He gave Himself. That's unselfish
love. That's unselfish love. Sometimes
I come across men who have something or another against someone who
is my friend and my brother in Christ. And I've come across
men say something against one of my brethren and be critical
of them. And sometimes they'll ask me,
how can you love them when they act like that? And my answer
is simple. Just like Christ loved me when
I acted far worse. If He loved us that way, we ought
also to love one another that way. So Paul was willing to lay
down his life and his reputation for his Corinthian brethren.
And he was given this love from God, like all believers are given
this love in the new birth. It wasn't of his sinful flesh.
He didn't have this by nature. By nature he was going to kill
believers. But you see the new heart God
gives, now he's willing to forego his own reputation for them.
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.
That's a certainty, isn't it? Whosoever believeth on the Lord
Jesus Christ, the reason he believes is he is born of God. That's
a sure certain statement. Well, this is sure and certain
too. And everyone that loveth him that begat, loveth him also
that's begotten of him. That's a certain fact. That's
a certain fact. We know that we've passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. You love the brethren? You want to be with your brethren
more than you want to be with people of this world. We know
we've passed from death to life because we love the brethren.
He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Hereby perceive
we the love of God because He laid down His life for us. We
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath
this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth
up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of
God in him? You know, about six or seven
years ago, I don't think I've ever told anybody this. I might
have told Scott about this, but about six or seven years ago,
a group of men from another church called me, put me on speaker
phone, and they rebuked me. said I was preaching against
the law and that I had divided their church because of it. And
I told them, I said, I don't even know who you are. Some of
y'all's folks must have been listening because obviously the
Lord's got a hold of some of them because believers are not
under the law. But you see, that doesn't concern
me. That's not going to make me change
my gospel just because men of this world call and rebuke because
my care, my concern is you to whom the Lord has given me responsibility
to minister to. So that was what was going on
with Paul. He wasn't about to change his
gospel because men spoke against him. Matthew Henry said this,
The great desire of faithful ministers of the gospel is that
the gospel they preach may be honored however their persons
may be vilified. And that's true. That's very
true. Alright, secondly, we have a
sure, certain rule here that guarantees that Christ's preacher
and Christ's people will only do that which is good for His
church. Even His enemies will only do that which is good for
His church. Christ's preacher, His people, and the enemies will
only do what's good for the church. This is a sure and certain rule
right here. Verse 8. We can do nothing against
the truth, but for the truth. The truth spoken of here is the
gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the gospel of Christ
crucified. You know why the chief reason
I'm not fearful of my enemies ever harming this church or doing
anything harmful to God's people? You know why I'm not worried
about that at all? because we can do nothing against the truth
only for the truth. They can't do anything against
the truth. The enemy of God cannot do anything against the truth
and succeed. There's no way. When Korah, remember
Korah, Dathan and Abiram, remember when they came and they began
to speak evil against Moses? Moses, you're taking too much
on yourself. We're all just as holy as you are. Did they succeed
in speaking against the truth? God caused the earth to open
up and swallowed them into the earth and shut it back. God does
that very thing today. Men start speaking evil of God's
church. God allows men to be carried
away from the gospel back into the world and swallowed up. But
they're not going to harm God's church. Never going to harm God's
church. Paul knew Christ. He knew Christ
would make him triumphant over all his enemies because Paul
was doing what he was doing for the truth of Christ. And we can
do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. You and I,
who God has given a heart to serve Him and do everything we
do for the truth, you can be assured God will make us triumph
over our enemies. Because we can do nothing against
the truth, only for the truth. Remember when we looked at that
passage where that king, he kept sending his captains of 50 with
their 50 men? He would send a captain that
was over 50 men. He would send the 50 men. They
would come up to Elijah and they would try to speak against Elijah. You remember? God caused fire
to come down from heaven and consume them every time. Every
time. Why? They were speaking against
the truth. They were speaking against the
truth. There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against
the Lord. Look to the cross. Men took counsel. They came together and they took
counsel with each other. The wisest of the wise. And by
all their understanding and all their wisdom, they crucified
the Prince of life. Crucified God. Did they succeed against the
truth? Were they successful against the truth? No. They did exactly
what God purposed from eternity to be done. They fulfilled the
will of God. On that cross, Christ declared
God just and the justifier of His people and redeemed us all
from the curse of the law. He accomplished what He came
to do. And then He arose and entered into glory at the right
hand of the Father. Look over at Psalm 2. This is
what God says about that, about their counsel against Him. Look at Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? What's the vain thing they imagine?
That they're going to succeed against the truth. The kings
of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His anointed. saying, Let us
break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have
them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have
I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. They haven't stopped
Christ. They haven't stopped God. Everything
that He determined before to be done, now Christ is set on
that holy hill of Zion, ruling and reigning with all power in
heaven and earth as the God-man mediator. They didn't stop God's
truth at all. And brethren, you and I can be
assured that as we go forth with this gospel, spreading this gospel,
we have great comfort to know nothing, nothing, can be against
us so long as God is for us. And then here's Paul's point
in the context. This is the point in the context.
He's saying here, if these Corinthian brethren repented and did that
which was honest for the truth of Christ, that Paul couldn't
use his apostolic power against them. Because we can do nothing
against the truth but for the truth. And that's his point in
the context. He's saying, I would rather you
do that which is right. And if you do that which is right,
I'll have to appear as a reprobate before men because I can't do
anything against the truth, only for the truth. I can't work that
apostolic power if you're obedient. And that's a good thing. That's
what he was saying. That's what he wanted. He didn't want to
have to work He said the same thing in verse 10 at the end.
He said, ìThe power the Lord has given me is to edification
and not to destruction.î Donít we see that in Christ? We see
that in Christ. He said, ìThe Son of Man has
not come to destroy menís lives, but to save them.î He said in
John 3.17, ìGod sent not His Son into the world to condemn
the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.î
He that believeth is not condemned because he believed on the name
of the only begotten Son of God. But he that believeth not, he's
already condemned. Christ didn't have to do anything
to condemn him. He's already condemned by his
own sin. So unbelievers, you're not doing
anything against God. Men, you know, have tried to
do everything they can to speak against God and to put down the
truth and to stamp it out. They've never been able to do
it. since the beginning of the world, never been able to do
it. Here we are, 2018 years since Christ died, and the gospel is
just going as strong as ever. God has always had His witness
in every generation, because men cannot do anything against
the truth. Christ came into this earth and
He said He didn't come to condemn it, He came to save His people. Did He do that? He justified
us from all our sin. He justified us from all things
from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses. Christ succeeded. God said He would. He cannot
fail. What He did, He did for the truth. And He is the truth. No man can do anything against
Him or against His gospel. or against His work. It will
never be undone. It will never be otherwise. He
accomplished it. And there is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. If you don't
believe Christ, you're under the condemnation. You're condemned
already. But if you believe on Christ,
isn't this the comfort of a believer? There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that believe on Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit
of Christ has made us free from the rule of sin and death. Made us free from it. The law
of sin and death has no more claim on us anymore. We are free
in Christ. Let me look at this last thing
now. Paul's love for Christ and for his brethren even made him
rejoice to suffer in the cause of Christ. Not only was he willing,
not only was he unselfish, he was willing actually to suffer
in the cause of Christ. Look at 2 Corinthians 13, 9.
He says, For we are glad when we are weak and ye are strong,
and this also we wish, even your perfection. Paul says we're glad. We're glad. We rejoice when we're
weak. When our enemies are calling
us weak, or when they are causing us to be weak, to suffer when
they make us suffer at their hands. In both cases, we are
glad, we rejoice even when we suffer. Do you remember what
Paul's enemy said about him? His bodily presence is weak.
He told everybody that. He went around telling everybody
that. His bodily presence is weak. His speech is contemptible.
He is not wise. And then they He gave that big
long list of things that men did to Him. Whipping Him and
putting Him in jail and causing Him to suffer. Paul said, I'm
glad when we suffer. I'm glad when we suffer persecutions
in contempt if it means Christ makes you strong in faith and
strong in love through the gospel. I'm glad. It makes it worthwhile. He considered suffering the gift
of God. Go to Philippians 1.29. We don't
like to suffer. I realize that. But this is one
thing that will make suffering easier to bear right here. Suffering
is the gift of God. Philippians 1.29. Unto you it
is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but
also to suffer for His name's sake. Having the same conflict,
the same suffering which you saw in me and now hear to be
in me. Paul was in prison when he wrote
that. And he said, you're going to suffer like I'm suffering
too. It's the gift of God. To be able to suffer for Christ's
sake, that's the gift of God. It's the fulfilling of Scripture
too. Go to John 15. And when we suffer, it's not
only a gift of God, it's fulfilling Scripture. John 15 verse 20. Christ said, ìRemember the word
that I said unto you, ìThe servant is not greater than his Lord.
If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept
My saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will
they do unto you for My nameís sake, because they know not Him
that sent Me.î If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had
not had sin. But now they have no cloak for
their sin. You bring it right down to where the rubber meets
the road, brethren. That's the reason why men hate
the gospel. That's the reason why men sit
here for a little while and leave it because they got no cloak
for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my
Father also. If I had not done among them
the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But
now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. Watch
this now. But this cometh to pass, that
the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they
hated me without a cause. And that's true of you and I,
brethren. Christ said when they reject you, they're rejecting
me. And when they reject you, they reject Christ and it's the
fulfilling of Scripture. They're hating Christ without
a cause. There's no cause in Christ for
any man to hate Him. Christ came and did only that
which is good for His people. It's because of Christ that right
now this world is kept in store. Because He has a people He's
redeemed and God's not willing that any of those elect, redeemed
children shall perish. He's willing that they all be
brought by God to repentance. And so God's holding this earth
in store right now until He's called the last one home. And
so, every time one of Christ's people suffer, just like when
Christ Himself suffered, that's Christ suffering. What they do
to you, they're doing to me, Christ said. Remember He said,
I'm going to put the goats on one side and the sheep on my
right and the goats on my left. And He said, I'm going to say
to the sheep, you gave me water when I was thirsty. And they
said, when did we give you water when you were thirsty? And He
said, you did it to one of these, my brethren, you did it to me.
And He told the goats, you didn't visit me. And they said just
the opposite of what the sheep said, when did we not visit you?
Look at all the works we did. When did we not do for you? He
said, you didn't do it for my brethren. And so you didn't do
it for me. Whatever is done to his brethren
is done to Christ. So the scripture is still being
fulfilled today. When God's people are persecuted,
Christ is being persecuted without a cause. Now those are reasons,
brethren, as painful as rejection is, those are things that make
us want to suffer for Christ's sake because, number one, it's
the gift of God. And number two, it's the fulfillment
of Scripture. And if you want to see a third
thing, we just read there, the servant's not greater than his
Lord. If they persecuted Christ, I expect to be persecuted, don't
you? I don't want to go through this
life in ease and be better than my Redeemer. I want to suffer
for the cross of Christ. So I'm learning, slowly but surely,
I'm learning to try to rejoice whenever I get to suffer for
the cause of Christ. Instead of being down and troubled
by it, I'm learning to thank God for it. It's a privilege. It's a gift. to be able to suffer
for the sake of Christ. And Paul meant something else
too in our text. He said, I'm glad, back in 2
Corinthians 13, he's also saying this, I'm glad we're weak in
the sense that we have no apostolic power against you because Christ
has made you strong in the faith. He means that too. I'm glad we're
weak so as we can't work this apostolic power towards you.
because Christ has made you strong. And we can't do anything against
the truth. And I'm glad that we're weak
and regarded as weak by our enemies. I'm glad that's the case. And
we not only want to see you made strong, we want to see you perfectly
brought out from this division and this confusion and all this
backbiting that's going on in the church. We want to see you
brought out of that completely. Totally saved from it. Men who
preach law, look back there at verse 10. He said, Therefore
I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use
sharpness. You know, those who preach law,
they love to use sharpness. I've heard men who preach the
law use sharpness. I was at a place one time and
a man got up and preached and he was preaching law. And He
was whipping everybody. I mean He was whipping everybody
in the congregation. And men that preach law love
to use sharpness. They love to whip people. That's
not the heart of love that God puts in His people. Paul didn't
want to use sharpness. He didn't want to have to whip
God's people. That's the last thing he wanted.
And that's the heart of love God puts in the heart of His
people. You know, I put this in the bulletin. Advocates of
free will are chief. They're number one in imposing
their will on others. Have you ever noticed that? We
talked about this the other night, Kristen. People who are for free
will are the very first. You think if they are for free
will, they would tell you, do whatever you are willing to do.
But they don't. They want to impose their will
on you, make you do what they want you to do. But God's people who are for
the sovereign will of God, we know God is able to make His
people willing. So we don't have to impose our
will on anybody else. We can wait on the Lord to work
in the hearts of His people and make them willing. And if men,
instead of using the sharpness of the law, I'll tell you the
law is not nearly as sharp as the sword of the Gospel. God
says, I kill and I heal. That's a two-sided sword. And
He kills, this Gospel kills all the so-called righteousness in
us and all the goodness in us. It kills us. It smites us down. And at the same time, He heals
us in that inward man. And the law won't do that. You
can whip people with the law you want to. I used to go out
and cut wood with my dad. And if the axe is dull, you have
to put forth a whole lot of effort to try to cut the wood. But if
the axe is sharp, it doesn't take much effort at all. And
these folks who are have taken the offense out of the gospel
and they are preaching works, they are using a dull axe is
what they are using. And so they got to go around
corralling people and checking up on people and have all these
committees watching this committee and that committee watching the
other committee and everybody watching one another and nobody
trusting anybody because they don't have a sharp gospel. It's
dull. But where the gospel is going
forth in spirit and in truth, you don't have to do all that.
Because we trust God is reigning, God is ruling, and our Lord is
able to make His people willing in the day of His power. So you
don't have to worry about all that. So the last thing God's
child wants to do is use sharpness with the brother. Sometimes,
occasionally, you have to. And Christ does that for the
sake of the preacher or the brother that's having to use sharpness.
He does it to make you humble yourself and look to the Lord
and trust the Lord and correct when in your flesh you wouldn't
want to. And that's to put down the flesh
in the person that's having to use the sharpness. And it also
puts down that flesh in the one to whom you use it. But that's
a rare thing that that happens. Most of the time, God does it
all through this gospel. And you don't have to rebuke
anybody. The gospel rebukes. Gospel rebukes. I think I told
you this one time, I was preaching in a place and this lady I've
known all my life, older lady, I was sitting there preaching
this gospel and I didn't even know, I had no idea she was hearing
the word like she was hearing it. But this kind lady, just
as kind as she can be to me today, she came up to me after that
message, mad as a hornet, and said, Are you telling me I'm
going to hell? I said, What? I didn't even say anything, no
such a thing. But the Lord rebuked her. The
Lord rebuked her. And that's how I knew I wasn't
supposed to be the pastor in that place because I grew up
in that church and to them I was just a little clay. And anytime
that word would come across being rebuking, they'd be in my face
wanting to know, what are you doing saying this to me? We need
to have somebody that we're not that as familiar with that they
can preach and you can hear the gospel and you can hear the Lord
rebuke you and know that's the Lord doing it, not the preacher.
We get so caught up in this world and our duties and our jobs and
all these different things that sometimes we can't hear the Word.
And we start wanting to shoot the messenger right off the bat.
We ought to pause and we ought to give it some time and think
about it and consider the Lord's rebuking me. We read that scripture
last week. The Lord won't allow us to be
carried away with the world. That's why He's going to rebuke
His people. It's a great reason to rejoice when I'm rebuked,
as painful as it is, because the Lord is not going to let
me be carried away. But we ought to really consider that anytime
we hear the gospel. You know, we're quick to be able
to say, oh, thank you, that message was a blessing to me. And we
know, we say, the Lord did that. A man couldn't have done that.
Well, we were rebuked. You know who did that? The Lord
did that too. A man couldn't have done that
in the heart. and work obedience. So, this
right here, brethren, what we've seen, this is the unselfish love
of God. Paul would rather know nothing
among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He didn't
want to use sharpness. He was willing to forego his
reputation. He was willing to do all things
for the truth and nothing against the truth. And he was rejoiceful
when he suffered for Christ's sake. I want to be like that.
I want God to make me like that. Don't you? That's what the believer
is striving for. He told the Thessalonians, grow
in this love. Grow in this grace. I want to
grow in it. Don't you? Alright, Brother Eric.