Let's turn, brethren, to 2 Corinthians
chapter 10. 2 Corinthians 10. Now there were believers at Corinth
that Paul was convinced were true believers. He had hope. He was convinced they were true
believers. But they were being deceived
by false preachers. When you're being deceived, you
don't know you're being deceived. They were being deceived by false
preachers. And it appears from what Paul
writes here that they were being turned away from Paul, turned
to outward appearances, and that they were beginning to listen
to these false preachers and follow these false preachers.
And so in verses 1 and 2, He told them why He beseeched them
by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. This was one of the
things His accusers was accusing Him of. That He was mild and
gentle. And He told them why He beseeched
them by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. He's talking to these
believers. And He said it was so that He might not have to
be bold when He got there and He was present with them. He
didn't want to have to use boldness. And then in verses 3 through
5, he told them it was because he did not war after the flesh. We do walk after the flesh, but
we don't war after the flesh. And he said there, it's because
our spiritual weapons, the preaching of the gospel of Christ, this
is a mighty weapon because it's mighty through God, through the
power of God to pull down all the defenses of a sinner. And so then in verse 6 he said
that he was ready to use his apostolic authority against those
false preachers and against any who proved to be disobedient. He said in verse 6, having a
readiness to revenge all disobedience. But Paul knew that Christ's fan
is in his hand. Brother Eric preached Thursday
night. He knew Christ is the head of the church and Christ
is the authority of the church. And Christ's fan is in his hand
and he's fanning that floor. The picture is of a, you know,
when they went to separate the wheat from the chaff, they would
go into this big room and they had a floor that was a little
bit, you could bounce up and down on it, sort of like a trampoline.
And they put all these, the harvest in there and they would bounce
on that floor. those crops bounced on that floor, the wheat was
heavier and it would go stay on the surface and the chaff,
the hull and the shells and like when you peel a corn, all that
extra stuff was light and so then they would be fanning a
fan at the same time and that chaff would blow over to the
side and all they would be left with is the pure wheat. He said,
Christ's fan is in his hand, he's purging his floor, he's
separating the wheat from the chaff, that's not my job. So
even though Paul had the authority to discipline or to tell those
who were disobedient, you have to go, you've been a distraction.
He had that authority, but he said, I'm not going to do it
until your obedience is fulfilled until Christ has turned you from
these fellows and brought you to obedience. He said there in
verse 6, I have a readiness to revenge our disobedience but
I won't do it until when your obedience is fulfilled. He didn't
want to run the risk of pulling up the wheat and leaving the
chaff. submitted to Christ to do that for him. So, in our text
today now, we get to verse 7 where our text begins. It's to the
same believers that Paul is speaking. He is speaking to these same
believers. Now, verses 7 to the end of this chapter have always
been difficult for me and I think I've got some light on this and
I hope I can help you understand what he is saying here. Now he's
talking to these same believers and he asked this question in
verse 7. Do you look on things after the outward appearance?
Now that's what the false preachers did. These carnal men that would
come in there, they looked on the outward appearance and they
were encouraging these believers to look on the outward appearance.
And like I said, it seemed like they had succeeded to some degree.
They were causing these men, these believers to look on the
outward appearance. And so Paul met these erring
believers on the ground where they were. He met them right
there on that ground. Okay, you want to look at the
outward appearance? I'll meet you right there. And
he says, verse 7, If any man trusts to himself that he is
Christ... Now let me tell you what he's
saying here. If any one of you who are believers,
trust to himself that this false preacher, that he, this false
preacher and his fellow ministers bear the marks of Christ's minister. Now read that again. Man trusts to himself. Any of you that are true believers,
if you trust to yourself, you really believe in your heart
that He, this false preacher, whoever this ringleader was,
and these other ministers that were with Him, if you believe
He is Christ's minister, you believe He bears the outward
marks of Christ's minister, He says, then let Him of Himself
without having outside influence from these false preachers. Let
him of himself think this again, that as that false preacher is
Christ and he bears those marks, even so are we Christ. He's saying,
he doesn't accuse the false preacher of being a false preacher. That's
what the false preachers were doing to him. He doesn't come
out and say they're false preachers. He didn't do that. He said, he's
trying to win these believers. And he says, you want to judge
by outward appearance? Alright, let's just judge by
outward appearance. If you really think in yourself
that these false preachers bear the marks of Christ's minister,
be honest. Do we not bear the same marks
as they do? Do we not bear the same marks as they do? These false preachers, they were
glorying, they were boasting in themselves, they were commending
themselves, and so Paul uses the word boast. Look at verse
8. He says, ìNow we bear the same
marks as they.î If youíre honest, youíll see we bear the same marks
as they bear. Weíre Christís ministers, as
far as our appearance, we bear the same marks and are Christís
ministers just like they are. Verse 8, For though I should
boast somewhat more, I have something to boast in more than they have
to boast in, of our authority, which the Lord hath given us
for edification and not for destruction, I should not be ashamed. If I
should boast somewhat more of our authority, I won't be ashamed. I'll be telling the truth. He's
saying, I bear the same marks as them, but I should boast somewhat
more of our authority. We have something they don't
have, he's saying. If you want to base this thing
on outward marks and on the outward appearance of things, we have
something these men don't have. And they did. As apostles, the
Lord Jesus Christ gave the apostles. special authority, special power
and ability that He didn't give other ministers and preachers.
And no man today has this special apostolic authority that Christ
gave to His apostles. You remember when we were going
through Acts, this was way back, Gunnar, and we came to Ananias
and Sapphira. These folks went out, they had
some land, they went out and they sold their land and they
came and they deceived the brethren into thinking that they gave
all the money that they got from selling their land, they gave
all the money to the church. They were playing the hypocrite.
And Peter came to Ananias first and he said, you've lied to God
is what you've done. And when he who spoke, when he
got finished rebuking Ananias, Ananias died. And then it says,
Sapphira came in and he rebuked her and it says, He said this
to her, he said, Behold the feet of them which have buried thy
husband are at the door and shall carry thee out. He's sitting there talking to
her and he says, the men that just buried your husband are
standing at the door and they're about to carry you out and bury
you. And when he said that, then she fell down straight away at
his feet and yielded up the ghost. They had that power. Paul had
that power. He said of Hymenaeus and Alexander,
these men who were leading the sheep astray, he said, I've delivered
them unto Satan. that they may learn not to blaspheme. I don't know what all that included,
but it was a power that men today don't have, that Christ has. So Paul says, if I was trying
to convince you, if I was trying to convince you by outward appearances,
then I could boast much more of the gifts that Christ has
given us. I could certainly show you by
outward appearance I have something these men do not have. I could
persuade you that way. And I wouldn't be ashamed to
do it because it's true Christ gave me that authority. That's
what he's saying. Now for the next verse here, most every commentary
agrees that some words are left out in our translation. But John Gill and several others
have the best the best supply of words that go here and they
get it from an ancient translation and this is what they said. Now
he said then, I could boast somewhat more, I could tell you about
our apostolic authority, if we are going to base this thing
on outward appearances and I am going to try to sway you by outward
appearances, I could say, I could boast to you about how I have
the authority to to deal and take revenge on men's disobedience. He says, but I do not boast of
that gift when I write to you. Verse 9, that I may not seem
as if I would terrify you by letters. He says, but I don't
say that to you. I'm not boasting. I'm not I'm
not making that boast of a gift God gave to me because I don't
want to terrify you by letters. He said Christ gave us this gift
for the edification of the church, not for its destruction. And
if I terrified you and persuaded you to follow me based on that
because I'm using an outward appearance of things, and I'm
trying to use a gift God gave me to make me look better than
another, and I just simply terrified you, that wouldn't be for your
edification, that would be for your destruction. So I don't
do it. And he said here, as he is, just
beseeching you right now by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,
my accusers already say this. Verse 10, they already say, for
his letters say they are weighty and powerful, but his bodily
presence is weak and his speech is contemptible. He said, I don't
want to give them any more ammunition. They are already accusing me
of being too bold. Why would I want to speak about
my apostolic authority? But he said this concerning his
accusers in verse 11, ìLet such a one think this, that such as
we are in word by letters when weíre absent, you say weíre bold
when weíre absent, such will be also indeed when weíre present.î
He said, ìWhen I come, Iím going to talk to these men who are
popping off and being accusing us, Iíll deal with them.î But
now towards the believers he was dealing gently, meekly, And
he wasn't using any of these outward appearances whatsoever. Now why did he not appeal to
believers by glowing in himself? Why did Paul not compare himself
with himself and compare himself with these false preachers? Why
didn't he do that? Verse 12, For we dare not make
ourselves of the number. We dare not make ourselves like
them. or compare ourselves with them that commend themselves.
But they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves
among themselves are not wise. They don't understand. They don't
have spiritual discernment. That's what the word means. He's
saying, this is why we don't, this is, you want to look at
our appearance. Now let's just start on this
ground. The same marks they have. That makes you think they're
Christ's minister? Paul says, I and my fellow apostles have
the same marks. But we can go further, he said.
We could boast, if we're just looking at appearances, we could
boast of gifts that Christ has given us, apostolic authority
whereby we can take revenge on men's disobedience. But he says,
but I won't do it. Because I'm not going to try
to persuade you by terrifying you. with my letters. And he
says, because we dare not make ourselves like those false preachers. We dare not compare ourselves
with ourselves and measure ourselves by ourselves because that is
a mark of a man who does not have spiritual discernment. That
is a mark of one who is not wise, who does not have the wisdom
of God, who doesn't understand spiritual things. And he says
this, ìNor will we boast without measure.î Verse 13, ìBut we will
not boast of things without our measure.î but according to the
measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure
to reach even unto you. For we stretch not ourselves
beyond our measure. We don't go beyond the bounds
that God's appointed for our ministry. We go where Christ
has sent us, where He's set the bounds where we can preach, and
He sends us there, and that's where we've gone to. We don't
boast that we've gone further than that, as though we reach
not unto you. For we come as far to you as
also in preaching the gospel of Christ, but we're not boasting
of things without our measure. That is, we're not boasting of
other men's labors. Apparently the false preachers
here were boasting that they had come and planted the church
at Corinth and that they were responsible for all the converts
at Corinth and what have you. And Paul said, we're not boasting
of what other men. have done, what God's done through
His other laborers, but having hope that when your faith is
increased that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule
abundantly to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. He
said, we're not even going beyond you to preach the gospel right
now because until God has finished the work in you before we'll
move on and go further and preach in another region. He says this,
ìBecause weíre not wanting to boast in another manís line of
things made ready to our hand.î Now, so heís talked about how
these glory in appearance, youíre looking at these marks these
men have, we have the same marks. But we have even more. When I
donít use those things, I don't use those things to compare myself
to these men and glory in myself and commend myself to you. I
don't use them because I don't want to terrify you. I don't
want to use these outward things to persuade you. And because
we dare not make ourselves of that number, we dare not compare
ourselves with those who commend themselves. Because that's a
sign of having no spiritual discernment. And here's the point. We don't
glory in ourselves and we don't commend ourselves. But he that
glorieth, verse 17, let him glory in the Lord, for not he that
commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. Our subject is glory in the Lord,
seek His commendation. Glory in the Lord, seek His commendation. Believers should glory in the
Lord. We should glory in the Lord. We should rejoice in the Lord.
We should praise the Lord. We should glory in the Lord.
And we should seek no other commendation, no other approval, no other praise
but that which is of God our Father in Christ Jesus. We should
glory in the Lord and seek no other commendation, no other
approval but that which is from God our Father in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now first of all, here's the
first point. Do not look on the outward appearance. Don't look on the outward appearance.
Use spiritual discernment. He begins in verse 7 and he says,
Do you look on the outward appearance? Now religious folks who have
not been born of the Spirit of God and folks who are not religious,
who have not been born of the Spirit of God, all men naturally
look on their outward appearance. When you young people see an
entertainer and, you know, they got on all their shiny things
and they got their entourage and they've got their fancy stuff
and all that, that's because that whole business is based
on outward appearance, everything about it. They change it to the
latest thing and they want to be the first one with the latest
thing because it's all based on outward appearance. Well,
those that are in religion, who have not been born of the Spirit
of God, do the same exact thing. It's all based on outward appearance. Outward appearance. They look
on things after the outward appearance. When a person does that, what
are they doing? When a person looks on the outward
appearance, they're glorying in appearance, And they're commending
themselves. They're seeking commendation
from others. They're seeking to be praised
by others. They want glory for themselves. And so they glory in appearance.
They commend themselves. Paul said that. Go back to 7
Corinthians 5.12. He spoke of these fellows earlier. And he said this. I'm saying,
I'm making the point that when you look on the outward appearance,
your glorying appearance, and you commend yourself, you're
trying to get commendation from men. He says in 2 Corinthians
5.12, we commend not ourselves, again to you, That's not what
God's preachers are doing. We're not commending ourselves
again to you, but we're giving you occasion to glory on our
behalf. We're giving you occasion to
commend us to others. See, you don't ever want to glory
in yourself. You don't ever want to commend
yourself. Scripture says, let another mouth commend you, not
your own. We don't ever want to commend
ourselves. There's nothing wrong in Scripture though with you
commending others. If I ever come to one of you
ladies' house and sit down and eat a meal you've prepared and
I don't thank you and commend you for that meal, don't invite
me back because that's pitiful. It's okay to commend others.
That's fine. But we're talking here, we don't
commend ourselves. We don't glory in ourselves.
But he's saying here, what I'm saying to you is reasons why
you should commend others on our behalf. Look here, that you
may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance and
not in the heart. You see that? That's just what
they were doing. They were looking on the outward
appearance and they were glorying in appearance. It was all about
how they made themselves appear to others. so that they could
commend themselves to others and get others to glory in them
and like them and follow them. In Luke 16, 15, our Lord Jesus
Christ said to the Pharisees, look here, go there with me,
Luke 16 and look at verse 15. And this is what religion is
based on right here. This is what vain, carnal religion,
men that don't have spiritual discernment, all they've got
is carnal sight. And the carnal mind minds the
things of the flesh. And this is what it's all about
right here, Luke 16, 15. Our Lord said, you are they which
justify yourselves before men. That's right. You know all this
talk about being sanctified by the law and keeping the law and
making yourself holy by the law and all this? You know what that
is? That's men trying to justify themselves before men. That's
what that is, trying to commend themselves before men and get
the praise of men and the applause of men. And he says, look here,
but God knoweth your hearts. God knoweth your hearts, for
that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in God's
sight. That which men look upon and
in their sight, oh, they highly esteem it. Now just mark that
down as a rule. If this world and this religious
world is highly esteeming something, God hates it. God hates it. What's he said when he says God
looks on the heart? He's saying God's not looking
on the outward appearance. God's looking at the source.
He's looking at the fountain. He's looking at the motive where
it came from. What he told Samuel, when Samuel
went to find David, Jesse brought all his big fine sons in there,
big strapping boys in there, and thinking surely one of these
is going to be the king. Just look at them. And they all
came through and there wasn't any of them. And the Lord said
to Samuel, look not on his countenance, Don't look on the height of his
stature, because I refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man
seeth. Man looks on the outward appearance,
the Lord looks on the heart. The Lord looks on the heart.
And he said, what else you got? And he said, well I got another
one out there, but he don't look nothing like a king. He said,
go get him. And God said, that's him, King
David. Brethren, true religion is spiritual religion. It's spiritual
religion. Christ said, the hour cometh
and now is when the true worshippers... This was by Him because He knew
in just a short time He was going to pour out the Holy Spirit.
And the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. For God seeks such to worship
Him. For God is a spirit. And they
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. There is no other way to worship
God but in spirit. What does that mean? Well, that
means if I'm judging everything by the outward appearance, I
can't worship God. Men judge the Word of God by
the outward appearance. We see it here in the example.
They read Paul's epistle and these men judged it by the outward
appearance. They said, well, he's overly
bold in what he's saying. Well, men today are reading that
epistle of Paul and reading it only with the outward appearance.
They don't understand the spiritual meaning. They don't understand
why Paul wrote what he wrote or why he wrote in the manner
he wrote. They don't understand the things Paul wrote about.
Men go to these scriptures and they see the practical things
he wrote and they think, well, that's what life is. I do those
things and I'll have life. That's looking on the outward
appearance. There was a spiritual meaning behind those practical
things. They were so... Paul was telling the believers,
so that you're out of the way and unnoticed and men can hear
the gospel preached and realize life's in Christ, not in what
you do. That was why. A man so spiritually dead that
he'll go to this Word and all he looks at is the outward appearance.
And he sees the practical things. Paul said, do this, don't do
that. And he says, well, that must be what salvation is. Christ
said, you search the Scriptures for in them you think you have
life. You see these things that are written to do and not to
do and you think that's how you'll earn salvation and work out your
salvation. And he said, and all these things
are they which speak of me. All these Scriptures. And you
won't come to me that you might have life. Just this week I had
somebody email me and they asked me this question. Do you use
unleavened bread at the Lord's table? And a whole host of other
questions. And I emailed them back and I
said, well of course we do. Why is that important? And they didn't know. They had
no idea. They had no idea. Well, the Lord said, beware of
the leaven of the Pharisees. That's what they wrote. They
said, well, the Lord compared leaven to a woman that put leaven
in some meal, and the whole bread rose, and He said the Kingdom
of God is like that. I said, well, those things are
true, but that's not why we use unleavened bread. You see, men
just look on the letter and they just think that, you know, on
the outward appearance, they think, well, this is how you
do something. But they don't understand the spiritual. Christ said, He
said, judge not according to appearance, judge righteous judgment. He came and He healed a man on
the Sabbath day and these Pharisees came out there and they said,
well, the Scripture says we're not supposed to do anything on the
Sabbath day. He healed a man that had always been lame. And because he did it on a day
that they thought the Scriptures told them you don't do anything
on that day, they rebuked and rejected Christ the Great Physician.
Ain't that something? That's looking on the outward
appearance. Men will say, well, I believe we ought to interpret
Scriptures with a literal interpretation. What they're saying is, I only
look on the outward appearance. That's exactly what they're saying.
And by that they say, well I believe that all the natural sons of
Abraham are Jews and all of political Israel is God's elect. But the
spiritual discernment says he's not a Jew which is one outwardly.
Circumcision is not that which is outward in the flesh. Circumcision
is at the heart. He's a Jew which is one inwardly.
That's what the Jews pictured. That's what political Israel
pictured. It pictured God's Israel, the
Israel of God. You see what I'm saying? Men
look on the Scriptures with their outward appearance. And men judge
others in what they practice by their outward appearance.
Religion is spiritual. Religion is a heart matter. That's
why Christ said you must be born again. You must be born of the
Spirit of God or you can't see the Kingdom of God. You can't
even talk about the Kingdom of God, or understand the Kingdom
of God, or love the things. We speak that which... We've
not received the Spirit of the world, we receive the Spirit
which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. And we speak those things, not
in the wisdom which this world speaks, but we speak in the language
which the Spirit of God speaks. We compare spiritual things with
spiritual things. But the natural man receives
not these things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to
him and he cannot know them because they're spiritually discerned.
They're spiritually discerned. And he's just looking on the
outward appearance. But he says, but you that are
born of God, you have spiritual discernment and you judge all
things and yet you're judged of no man. This was what was
happening with Paul. These men were looking on Paul
and these apostles and they couldn't judge these true apostles. They
couldn't understand them. They had no discernment. Not
at all. So Christ said, don't judge according
to appearance. Judge righteous judgment. Use
spiritual discernment. Now here's the second thing.
I've got to move along. We dare not make ourselves of
the number that commend themselves. Verse 12, ìWe dare not make ourselves
of the number.î We donít make ourselves to be like them or
compare ourselves with them that commend themselves. But they
measuring themselves by themselves, comparing themselves among themselves
are not wise. Or as the Margin says, ìThey
donít understand it.î They have no spiritual discernment. You
see, Paul refused to make himself like those in false religion.
I'm not trying, you know, people are coming... When we first started,
you know, here, there was a whole lot of talk about, well, why
don't we do things like this or that or the other? And it
was about copying what people do in religion. That's the last
thing we want to do. We don't want to make ourselves
like folks in false religion. Self-made men, men who've made
themselves and are comparing themselves with themselves, they're
pleased with themselves. They are pleased with themselves.
They are the measure by which they measure themselves. They
compare themselves with themselves and that makes them more self-righteous. And also, it makes them despise
others. Remember the Lord's parable?
He spake a parable of certain which trusted in themselves that
they were righteous and despised others. That's what will happen
when you start measuring yourself by yourself and comparing yourself
with others. You'll become self-righteous
in yourself and you'll despise others. It feeds the flesh. Isaiah said, the Lord said, which
say, Stand by thyself, come not near me, for I'm holier than
thou. That comes from comparing ourselves with ourselves. That's
where it comes from. Our Lord said, those are the
smoke in my nostrils. They are fire that burns all
the day. Paul had gifts that were so far superior to these
men that Christ had given him. He had these gifts and yet he
wouldn't compare himself to them. He wouldn't boast of the gifts
he had. He wouldn't use that. Why? Remember
what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1? Go over there with me. Why
did he say he didn't use excellency of speech? He had a lot of gifts
that he did not use. Why not? Why not? Look at 1 Corinthians 2 and look
here at verse 5. that your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. That's
why. That's why He said, I could boast
somewhat more of our authority that Christ has given us, but
I don't do it because I don't want to terrify you and turn
you because I've written those things in my letters. I don't
want your faith to stand in the wisdom of men. I want it to stand
in the power of God. Do you get that? Do you understand
that from that Scripture? That's what he's saying. You
see, the Lord gave him that gift.
The Lord gave him that authority. And he knew that the Lord was
the one who's the head of the church. He knew the Lord's the
one who gave his preacher. God's made him head over all
as the reward of his obedience in redeeming us from the curse
of the law. And you can't be made a preacher,
a true preacher, to preach in spirit and truth except Christ
give you that authority. And so, knowing that power, knowing
that authority of Christ, He said, I'm not going to use that
gift He's given me to try to persuade you. I'm going to trust
Him to do it by His authority, by His power, by the same power
by which He gave me that gift. See that? If a man really has
gifts from Christ, he understands where they came from and by whose
power he has them. And so he don't have to use those
gifts to try to persuade men to believe on Christ. He trusts
the one who has the power to. They gave him the gifts. That's
what he's saying here. Christ is the head. Paul wouldn't
even use his authority before Christ made it obvious who were
his and who were not. He had that authority to go and execute justice upon the disobedient. When men came in and disrupted
the service and were causing problems and lying to God and
playing the hypocrite and trying to lead men astray from Christ,
he had the authority to lay them in a box in the grave. But he
wouldn't even dare do that until Christ had brought his people
to obedience. Christ's preachers today have
authority. They don't have that kind of
ability. They have authority. The Scripture
speaks to them to have the rule over you. But Christ's preacher
is just like Paul because they are speaking by the Spirit of
Christ. The last thing they really want to do is to have to rebuke
you sharply and have to try to do anything sharply to anybody. And they certainly won't do it
trying to separate the wheat and the chaff, separate God's
elect from His non-elect. They are going to wait on Christ
to do it by the Word of God. That's why we don't... His fan's
in His hand. I'd rather have His authority
and His power working this out than me trying to do it with
my hand. Paul said, Christ gave us this authority for edification,
not for destruction. Anything that I do for self-promotion,
to turn you and make you believe what I'm preaching or make you
want to unite with this church or make you confess Christ in
baptism or do anything just simply because I want to commend myself
and I want to try to build up a work myself and I want to try
others to see what I've done myself and commend me and praise
me. That's destruction. That's not
edification. And Christ is not in that. He's
not in that. And then besides all that, brethren,
how can we boast about anything that we have or compare ourselves
to anybody else when everything we got we received from God? What do you have that you didn't
receive? We make sure to differ from another. If you received
it, why glory? Why boast? Why try to commend
yourself as if you didn't receive it from God? He said. Brother Kevin, will you turn
that heat up just a little bit? Usually when men boast and compare
themselves to others, they exaggerate. And they do it without measure. And he said there also, we won't
boast of things without measure. We will boast according to the
measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us. Paul
wouldn't go beyond his God-given sphere of service. He wouldn't
even do that. He said God's drawn a line and
said this is where you'll serve me and this is where you won't
serve me and he said I'm not trying to go beyond that line.
These false preachers were going around, and you see this all
the time, you hear this all the time, churches constantly bragging
about how many places, missionary fields they've gone into and
where they've preached, and how many churches they've planted,
and how many converts they had, how many they had attendance
today, and how many they had attendance last week, and how
many they had attendance at this thing or that the other. What's
all that about? It's to commend themselves, to
persuade men to follow them rather than somebody else. That's what
these false preachers were doing. Paul said, we dare not do that. We dare not do that. The only boast we're going to
make is, God sent us to this place, and God worked this work,
and God called these people, and God did this work. Remember
what Paul said, let me read this to you. Let me read this to you.
In Romans 15, he said, I have, he said, Christ called me, Romans
15, 16, to be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles,
ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up to the Gentiles
might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Ghost. I have thereof
where I make glory through Jesus Christ in those things which
pertain to God. But he says, verse 18, I will
not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not
wrought by me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed. He
is saying, in other words, if I am going to speak of those
things, I am going to say, God did it. God did it. I'm not boasting
of me. I'm not trying to draw attention
to me. I'm not trying to persuade you to turn and just join us
and our group and what have you. I want you to see God. I want
you to see what God's done. You see the difference? The difference? He wouldn't intrude into other
men's work, therefore. And that's a lesson for us, brethren.
Wherever God's put you in His church, Be content with where
He has put you. Find out what it is God has given
you to do for the Kingdom of God, for His service, for His
people, for His church, and do it. And be content with it. Remember
the illustration Paul gave, we are all like members of a body.
You know, and just because the hand is not the foot, he can't
say I am not of the body. Or the foot is not the hand,
I can't say... You know, people get... People get discontented
with where they are and they want to serve and go beyond the
measure or the rule or the sphere of God's put them in. They want
to serve somewhere else. Paul said, we're not going to
do that. We're going to serve where God's put us. And we're going to do
it by His ability. So he gets the glory for this.
Learn to serve where God's put you and be content where He's
put you. Thankful that He would use you
at all. and serve Him right there. And don't envy what somebody
else's service is. Christ didn't put you in that
area. He put them in that area. You
see, all the malice and envy and glorying in appearance, all
that, brethren, is all in the same camp. Envying what somebody
else's sphere of service is that you don't have and you want it,
it falls into this whole thing of glorying in the flesh. And
now, for these reasons, Paul said, any sinner that measures
himself or compares himself with another sinner, he says they're
not wise. They're proving they don't have
spiritual discernment. They're proving they don't understand
that this ministry and this worship of God is not outward in the
flesh. We're not trying to get men to
be impressed with us, brethren. We're not trying to get men to
look at us. This is a heart matter. God's
got to give you a new heart. He's got to bring you to the
feet of Christ, cause you to worship Him. And we want to worship
Him from the heart and have others worship Him from the heart. Worms
measuring themselves by worms is not very wise. Maggots comparing
themselves among maggots. Can you imagine that? Can you
imagine if a ball of maggots, one maggot said, I'm not as bad
a maggot as that maggot. Would you want to still have
anything to do with them? They still are all just a bunch
of maggots. Well, think about God. Here we are, a bunch of
little maggots. Well, I'm not as bad as that
maggot. We're just still a bunch of maggots. Now lastly, every
believer, glory only in the Lord. Look here, verse 17. He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth
himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. Now what
does it mean to glory in the Lord? What does that mean? Well, it's to regard God as our
only confidence and to give God the glory, the praise as the
source of all our salvation and all the good things we have.
It's to ascribe everything we have, everything we are and all
our hope to God and His grace. That's what is glory in God.
Listen to this, now tell me how all-inclusive this is. Of Him,
and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. That's all inclusive, isn't it?
God our Father gets the glory and the praise for choosing whom
He would save by His free and sovereign grace. He gets the
glory for that. Nobody else gets the glory. We
didn't choose Him. He chose us, Scripture says.
And He blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ before we had anything to do with it so we can't glory
in it. All spiritual blessings He blessed His people with in
Christ before in eternity. He predestinated us to the adoption
of children and to that eternal inheritance that brother Eric
spoke about. We have nothing to do with being children of
God. God predestinated us to that. Read it in Ephesians 1.
It's by Christ that we have redemption from our sins, by His precious
blood, by Him laying down His life. He justified His people
from our sins. He made His people righteous.
Scripture says we're complete in Christ. And it's of God, being born again
of God, that we're in Christ and even know Christ. Listen
to this. Of God are you in Christ, who
of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, so that according as it is written, He that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. We don't have anything to glory
in. We're in Christ of God. We know Christ of God. And Christ
is all to us. Righteousness, sanctification,
redemption, and wisdom. So we have nothing to glory in
but Him. And furthermore, now, when we
start talking about things we do in this life, anything we
do in this life in His kingdom and in His service, it's His
gift to us. So we praise Him and give Him
the glory. Paul said there in verse 4, The
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're mighty. Through
who? Through God. He's the one pulling down the
strongholds, making it effectual, not us. Concerning His authority
that He had, His gift, and the thoughtiest preachers have, and
any gift you and I, anybody has, that's one of His. He says, verse
18, the Lord gave it. The Lord hath given us. When
we serve and we do all things, we do it, verse 13, according
to the measure of the rule which God has distributed to us. The
gospel we preach, look at verse 14, it's the gospel of Christ. It's His gospel. Scripture says
we're waiting on the Lord rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God.
That's what we're waiting on. And so brethren, Scripture says
whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of
God. Give in God all the glory and
all the praise. Now listen to this. I can't glory
in myself and glory in God. And this is the difference between
true religion and false religion. True religion is glorying in
God. False religion is glorying in
man. Can't do both. Can't do both. But now let me
show you something else here. The meaning here is concerning
God's approval of us. Listen to this. We're talking
about commendation. We're talking about men commending
themselves and trying to get the approval from men. Let me
read this translation to you. For he that glories should glory
in the approbation, the approval of God, not in his own good opinion
of himself, nor in the praises of others. For not he who commends
himself is approved and worthy of approbation, but he whom the
Lord commands. You see that? That's what he's
talking about. That's with the context. He that
glories in the approval of somebody ought to glory in the approval
of God. Not in his own opinion of himself,
not in the praises of others, because it's not he that commends
himself that's approved or worthy of approval. It's he whom the
Lord approves. If we're going to be seeking
somebody's approval, we ought to be seeking God's approval.
That's what he's saying. Paul didn't commend himself and
he didn't rely on the commendation of others. And quite frankly,
he said in another place, he said, I'm not really all that
concerned whether you commend me or you don't commend me. I
want God's approval. I want to be accepted of God.
Not him that commended himself of himself that's approved as
whom the Lord commendeth. Remember the Lord's parable?
The publican went up there and he commended himself. I mean,
the Pharisee, he commended himself. I'm not like this man. I do this,
I do the other. The publican went up there and
he didn't commend himself. He hit his face and said, Lord,
have mercy on me. I need your approval. I need
the acceptance of you. Which one did God approve? That
publican. He hit his face. So you see what
he's saying here, brothers. So instead of commending ourselves,
instead of looking at our high estimation of our attainments,
instead of allowing ourselves to be puffed up by the applause
of men, our greatest joy, our greatest satisfaction should
be that in Christ we have the approval of God our Father. That's what matters, being accepted
of God, being approved of God. You want to over glory in something?
Glory in this, that you've been accepted of God in Christ Jesus. And until that day when Christ
presents us to the Father, and because of Christ's righteousness,
robed in His righteousness, God the Father says, well done my
good and faithful servant. Until that day, everything we
do in the Kingdom of God, May the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of
the sheep to the blood of the everlasting covenant, may He
make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working
in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, that which He approves
of. Because it's not He that commends
Himself that's approved. Don't judge by the outward appearance.
Just because men approve themselves and commend themselves and maybe
other men approve of them, that don't mean He's approved of God.
It's He that God that commends that's approved. Seek His approval. Glory in the Lord and seek the
Lord's commendation. Amen.