Chapter 12 Our subject this morning is the
power to mournfully rebuke. The power to mournfully rebuke. This is a message for concerning God's pastor, but
it's also a message for all of us, because what's true of him
is true of all of us. The only way that God's minister
can rebuke and sorrow over sin is by God
humbling him in power. We're talking about when it's
done in faithfulness and in truth, in spirit, the only way that
a faithful minister of God can rebuke, faithfully rebuke those
who are in error, those who are in sin, the only way He can faithfully
rebuke and the only way He can do so, mourning over their sin,
truly mourning over their sin. by the power of God. Now this is so of all God's faithful
ministers. Let's go down to 2 Corinthians
12 in verse 20. Paul said, For I fear, I fear,
lest when I come I shall not find you such as I would, and
that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not. meaning
he would sharply rebuke some. He says, lest there be debates,
envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults,
lest when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and
I shall bewail many, I shall mourn many, which have sinned
already, and have not repented of the uncleanness, and fornication,
and lasciviousness which they have committed." Now notice Paul
said here in verse 20, I fear. I fear. He says, I fear lest
when I come, I shall not find you such as I would. Now the
fear of finding brethren refusing to repent. The fear that's involved
for a faithful pastor, the fear that's involved in finding brethren
who refuse to repent from their sin is the fear of God. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter
3. This fear that Paul had and the fear that God's faithful
minister has in finding professing believers who are impenitent. This fear is the fear of God,
Ezekiel 3. And look at verse 16. It came to pass at the end of
seven days that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son
of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. God
said, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. That's
whatever pastor he is and that's how he's made. True pastor, that's
how he's made. God made him a watchman unto
the house of Israel. Therefore, hear the word at my
mouth and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked,
thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest
to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, the same
wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require
at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked,
and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall
die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul. Again,
when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness and commit
iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die,
because thou hast not given him warning. He shall die in his
sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered,
but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless,
if thou warn the righteous that the righteous sin not, and he
doth not sin, he shall surely live because he's warned. Also,
thou hast delivered thy soul. Now this charge is very, very
serious to God's faithful minister. This is a very serious charge
that God gives his faithful minister. We're to rebuke, we're to warn
when it's a necessity. Because God says, take the word
from me and go and give warning. And it's a necessity. And so
God's messenger fears offending God rather than fear offending
men. God makes his messenger, what
we just read, in Ezekiel 3 will never happen to one of God's
ministers. They'll never be held accountable for the blood of
others. You know why? Because God has the power to
make them fear God rather than fearing offending men. They fear
offending God rather than offending men. When Paul said, I was with
you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, he wasn't
talking about being fearful to preach in front of a congregation.
That's not what he was talking about. His fear was of offending
God. His fear was of not speaking
truthfully concerning God and leading God's people in the wrong
way. That was his fear. It's the fear
of God. And when Paul said, I fear lest when I come I shall not
find you such as I would, it's the fear of offending God because
he knows that God will have him rebuke them. God's given him
that charge. Now how did Paul want to find
them? How did he want to find these professing believers at
Corinth? He wanted to find them exactly
how the Apostle John said he wanted to find those to whom
he ministered. John said, I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came
and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest
in the truth. I have no greater joy than to
hear that my children walk in truth. When a believer walks
in truth, it's to the praise of the glory of God's grace alone. It's by God's grace that we have
the truth in us and it's by God's grace that we walk in the truth.
God gets all the honor and all the praise and all the glory
for that. And so when God's pastor sees
the people to whom he ministers walking in the truth, he rejoices
his heart because it's to the praise of the glory of God. It's a testimony to God's grace,
to God's power working in His people. But what was Paul fearful
that he was going to find in them? Look back at our text in
2 Corinthians 12 verse 21. He says, lest there be debates,
contentious arguments. There's a whole lot of religion
that is taken up and they teach their people to be taken up with
debating. arguing doctrine, pitching doctrine
back and forth like you hit a volleyball back and forth over a net, debates,
envying, jealous, being jealous of brethren, wraths, being angry
at one another, strifes, that is to be a politician in the
church, to use a brother's faults to promote oneself, just like
you see the political ads and they sling mud on one to try
to make themselves look better. That same kind of thing. And
trying to promote oneself thereby by belittling another brother
and so creating division in the church. He said backbitings and
whisperings, secretly speaking evil of a brother behind his
back. Swellings, being puffed up in pride. Tumults, confusion,
disorder. Verse 21, he says uncleanness. That's impure motives of heart. He says fornication. Perhaps
they were guilty of physical fornication, but they were certainly
guilty of spiritual fornication because they were playing the
harlot with the devil and these false preachers when they claimed
to be the chaste bride of Christ. and lasciviousness, unbridled
lust. Now this was not walking in truth. This is not the spirit of Christ.
This is the spirit of Antichrist. This is the bondage of the depraved
flesh is what this is. And yet the reason Paul was fearful
to go and find them this way is because that same sinful depraved
flesh is in God's faithful pastor. That same sinful, depraved flesh
is in God's pastor. And therefore, it takes God humbling
him in power to make him obedient to God, to make him submit to
God and be obedient to God in that he sorrows over sins and
he faithfully rebukes his brethren. It takes God to do that. He says
there in verse 21, lest when I come again my God will humble
me among you and I shall be well many. I'll mourn for many which
have sinned already and have not repented. And it's obvious
right here that it's by God humbling Paul that he would sorrow over
the impenitent. It's obvious here that that's
by God's humbling power that he would humble Paul and Paul
would have a sorrow in his heart to mourn over these impenitent
professing believers. But read on now. In order to
rebuke, it's going to take the same humbling power of God. Look at chapter 13 verse 1. This
is the third time I'm coming to you. In the mouth of two or
three witnesses shall every word be established. Paul had given
them two prior warnings and this is the third warning. God says,
in the mouth of two or three witnesses. Let every word be
established. He warned them twice already. Now this is the third
time. I told you before and I 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. He's saying I will rebuke. Now
watch this. Since you seek a proof of Christ
speaking in me, which towards you is not weak, but is mighty
towards 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
towards you." Now, what's Paul saying here? You see, the sin
nature, the sin nature in God's preacher would make him wilt
before his enemies. It would make him wilt before
those to whom he ministers, towards professing believers who are
fallen into sin. It would make him wilt before
them. One, if left to his flesh, he'd never sorrow over their
sin. He never would. Why? Because
our flesh loves sin. The flesh that's in every believer,
including God's pastor, loves sin. And if left to our flesh,
we would never mourn over sin. God has to humble us in power
and subdue that old man and in that new man cause us to mourn
over sin. And there would never be a time
that he would rebuke the impenitent because to have to rebuke somebody
goes against our flesh. You don't want to do it by nature. It goes against your flesh. And
so, in order to rebuke and be faithful, God's going to have
to use power to humble His pastor and make him submit to God and
faithfully rebuke those who need it. Now, many would look at a
pastor who never rebuked anybody and they would say that he's
meek and he's humble and they would say that that he's just
so concerned about the well-being of everybody. But in truth, what
it would be, would be disobedience to God. It'd be disobedience
to God while he submitted to his own sinful flesh. That's
what it would be. But Christ in power, He humbles
His minister before God just like He humbles all His people.
Christ in power humbles His minister to submit to God and obey God
rather than his own sinful flesh, just like he works in all his
people. Paul says his mourning over the
impenitent is by God's humbling power. He said, When I come again,
my God will humble me among you, that I shall bewail many which
have sinned already and have not repented. And Paul says,
and when I rebuke, it'll be by the same humbling power of Christ. He says, since you seek a proof
of Christ speaking in me, which towards you is not weak, but
mighty in you, or among you. Now when we hear of Moses, and
you hear about Moses being the meekest man on the earth, we
tend to think incorrectly about what that means. You know, it
does not mean that Moses was a pushover who never used sharpness
to rebuke the children of Israel. That's not what it means at all.
It means God humbled Moses. He humbled Moses, making him
submit to God rather than submitting to his own sinful flesh and rather
than submitting to men. It means he was humbled by God. He was brought to submit to God
and obey God rather than submit to his own sinful flesh and to
men. We see the greatest displays
of Moses' meekness, of God humbling Moses and making him obey God
rather than men whenever men would rise up against him. And
Moses would go and hit his face before God and pour out his heart
to God and then stand up and come in front of those men and
rebuke them sharply. That's when you see the meekness
of Moses. That's where you see it the greatest.
That is bowing to God. That's by the power of God, making
him bow to God rather than men. Everything about that went against
Moses' flesh. Everything about it went against
Moses' flesh. But God is able to make His child
bow and submit and obey and do what He would have him to do.
You see, true meekness of humility is submission and obedience to
God produced by God's power. It's not this phony fake stuff
that men put on and try to act all meek and humble. True meekness
of humility is submission and obedience to God produced by
God's power. And sometimes the way it's manifest
is a man is able to stand up and rebuke when rebuke needs
to be poured out. He's able to do it. The example
of God's power that Paul gives us here is Christ in His humiliation. He says there in verse 4, 2 Corinthians
13 verse 4. He says, Though Christ was crucified
through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. Now, as
God, as the God-man, when Christ walked this earth, He had all
power over heaven and earth to do as He will. As God. We see it sometimes. When they
came to arrest Him, He said, Who do you seek? And they called
His name, He said, I Am. I Am. That's His eternal name.
I Am. And when He said that, they fell
backwards. See, we see it sometimes. He's
God. He is the great I Am. Able to exercise His power over
heaven and on earth. But as a man, Christ was subject. He submitted Himself to all the
same weaknesses and infirmities as His people, and yet in that
human nature He was without sin. When it says He was crucified
through weakness, that includes His entire work from the cradle
to the grave. When it says He was crucified
in weakness, it's talking about His whole work on this earth
from the cradle to the grave. You think about this, when He
was tempted of the devil, in the wilderness. He didn't look
to strengthen Himself. He hungered in the wilderness.
Yet He liveth by the power of God. Mark tells us He was there
in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan and was with
wild beasts and the angels ministered unto Him. He liveth by the power
of God. Concerning the words He spake
and the works that He wrought, our Lord didn't glorify His flesh,
He didn't glorify himself for that. He glorified the power
of God. He says, He whom God hath sent
speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by
measure unto him. He's saying, I'm speaking by
the Holy Spirit of God, by the power of God. He's saying, I
live by the power of God. And concerning His works, He
said in John 14, 10, Believest thou not that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you
I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, He
doeth the works. You see, he was in weakness in
his flesh, yet he lived by the power of God. He spoke by the
power of God. He did the works he did by the
power of God, working in him. In the garden of Gethsemane,
when he was in the garden of Gethsemane, we see him experience
the weakness of flesh. Being in an agony, he prayed
more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of
blood falling down to the ground. That's the weakness of the flesh.
Yet He liveth by the power of God. Scripture says there appeared
an angel unto Him from heaven strengthening Him. On the cross
when He was made sin for us, we see Him crucified in weakness. Romans 6.10 says this. Listen
to this now. From Romans 6.10 it says, In
that He died, He died unto sin once. We know that our substitute
was made sin. Really and truly made sin. How
do we know that? Because He really and truly died. He died. You don't see the weakness
of the flesh? He died. He died unto sin once. Yet, having satisfied justice,
having fully redeemed His people, having fully glorified God, He
liveth by the power of God. Go over to Ephesians 1, look at verse 19. Paul said, God would
open your eyes so you would know, verse 19, what is the exceeding
greatness of His power to us who believe. According to the
working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He
raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand
in the heavenly places for above all principality and power and
might and dominion, And every name this name, not only in this
world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all
things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things
to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him, that Christ
himself might fill all in all." Now why was Paul saying that's
the power of God toward us? When he raised Christ in power,
why did Paul say that's the power of God toward us? Look over at
chapter 2. Look over to Ephesians 2 and
verse 5, because even when we were dead in sins, God quickened
us together with Christ. You see, it's by grace that you're
saved. He hath raised us up together
with Christ and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. That's why, brethren, that's
why it's the power of God toward us because when He raised Christ
in power, He raised His people in power. And so Paul is saying
now, go back to 2 Corinthians 13. Paul says, now we saw Christ
in His weakness, and yet He lived by the power of God. And he says
to us now, now that Christ has power over everything, as the
God-man, as the head of His church, he says this, verse 4, we also
are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of
God exercised towards you. Do you see that? He said, now
just like he was weak, we're weak. But just like he lived
by the power of God, we live and we do what we do by the power
of God. And that's the power that's going
to be exercised towards you, Paul said. Paul was weak in his
flesh. He was weak in his flesh. But
Paul lived with Christ by that same power of God. Everything
about him personally, everything about Paul personally, And everything
about every branch of His work was by the power of Christ dwelling
in Him. Now you think about this. His ability, Paul's ability to
mourn over his own sins and rebuke himself over his own sins was
by the power of God. When God's dwelling in His child,
He gives you the power for the first time ever to actually see
your sin and mourn your sins. And do we not rebuke ourselves?
Do you not constantly rebuke yourself? Why are you like the
way you are? Why do you do the things you
do? Why do you think the things you think? We rebuke ourselves.
And that's by the power of God. His ability to repent and believe
on Christ, that was by the power of Christ. He had no ability
to believe on Christ and repent from all his works, but by the
power of Christ. And that same ability to mourn
over their sin, and that same power he had to rebuke them faithfully,
was by the power of God. Just like he had the power to
do it in himself. towards himself. The only way
he had the power to do it towards others was by the power of God.
That was by Christ humbling him to submit to Christ and obey
Christ rather than men, rather than obeying his own sinful flesh. So lastly now, having declared
himself to be totally dependent upon the power of Christ working
in him, That's what Paul's shown us here. He's totally dependent
upon the power of Christ working in him, humbling him so that
he mourned over their sin, humbling him in power so that he would
be able to rebuke them as he ought. He's shown us that now,
and so now he gives us this admonition to you and me, verse 5. 2 Corinthians
13, 5. 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
you be reprobates? How do I know if Christ is in
me and working in power? How is it that I'm supposed to
prove myself whether I be in the faith? It's the same proof
that was in Paul. It's the same proof that's in
each one in whom Christ dwells. Can you mourn over your sins? Do you have ability to mourn
over your sins? Can you rebuke your own self
because of your sins? Do you repent from yourself,
from your will and your works and your wisdom? Do you repent
from everything about you? Are you able to cast all your
care on Christ, trusting Christ, believing on Christ to be all
your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption? Not trusting
anything about yourself, trusting Christ alone to be all your salvation. Do you rejoice? Now get there. Do you rejoice that you are totally
weak and incapable of doing one thing to save yourself? and rejoice
that Christ is all your strength. Brethren, the only way, the only
way that helpless sinners like us can do any of those things
is by Christ dwelling in us and by His power giving us repentance
and faith, making us hate our sin, making us mourn our sin,
making us take sides with Him and rebuke our own selves. and
cast all our care on Him. The only way we can do that is
by the power of Christ dwelling in us. And since Christ never
fails to work this in His people by His power, Paul says this
in verse 6, But I trust that you shall know, I trust that
you shall know that we, you, me and every true believer are
not reprobates. He's saying, He's giving them
the benefit of the doubt that Christ really does dwell in them
and that they really shall be able to examine themselves and
shall have this proof in them by the power of Christ and shall
know. And if they're His, this is with
all certainty, you shall know because Christ, it's not because
there's any power in us to make us know, it's because Christ
never fails to work this in His people. The man who trusts his
will and trusts his works and trusts his wisdom in any smallest
regard is not believing on Christ. Christ is not dwelling in him.
But those in whom Christ dwells know we are Christ by the power
of Christ. We are His by the power of Christ,
by Him working repentance from dead works and faith in Christ.
That's how we know. That's how we know. Now, let
me tell you the two things we saw here. God's true pastor confesses
like Paul. I confess to you, I have no power
in me, in my flesh to mourn over my sin or yours. I have no power to do it. comes, Christ comes and dwells
in me and He makes me to mourn over my sin and makes me to mourn
over your sin. I have no power to rebuke myself. I have no power to rebuke you.
God leaves me to myself. I'll just look over it. Not because
I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, because I'm trying
to save myself the trouble. God has to work work in us to
make us rebuke our own selves and another. And the one way we know that
Christ dwells in us is by His power making us able to rejoice
that we're totally without strength in our flesh and that Christ
is our only strength. Men are always looking for these
proofs and these evidences. And men are always telling poor
believers that, you know, this is how you can tell and this
is what you want to look for. And it's always things about
how well you've handled your sin and how much you're living
above sin and all these different things. That's not what God's
minister did. God's minister said there's one
way to know that you live by the power of Christ. He alone
can make you mourn your sin, make you rebuke yourself, make
you mourn over the sin of others, make you rebuke others. He alone
can bring you to rejoice that you have no ability in yourself
and He's all your strength. And if you have that, Christ
dwells in you. Christ dwells in you. That's
the only proof there is. It's not a proof that we can
muster up in ourselves. It's a proof Christ gives. All
right, brethren, let's stand together. Father, make us bow to you and
make us obey you. Make us repent from ourselves
and trust Christ alone. Make your pastors faithful to
do that which is so uncomfortable to our flesh. Make us, Lord,
to mourn the sin of those to whom we minister. Make us willing,
Lord, by your power to rebuke when it's needful. And Lord,
keep all of us, all your people constantly looking to Christ
only. Don't let us dare start looking
to ourselves and trusting in some evidence that we think we've
produced in our flesh. Make us look outside of ourselves.
Make us look to Christ alone and abhor ourselves. Lord, we
ask you would be with us and meet with us. We ask that you
would be with those in trials right now and that You would
bless the sick and be this power in them. Lift them up and be
this saving power in them. And Lord, we ask it for those
that mourn over their sick loved ones and mourn that they're in
whatever trial You've given. Lord, make them truly have this
power by Your indwelling Show them, Lord, that whatever you
are doing is good. That the outcome is going to
be good. It may not be good to our flesh, but it will be good. Whatever you do will be good.
Spiritually, it will be so much for our good. Lord, bring us
to submit to your will and trust you and what you are working,
what you are doing. Help us now, Father, to worship
you. worshiping your Son, giving Him
all honor and all praise. We ask it in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.