Second Corinthians 13. I have
something that we will see in this text that is very delightful. That's the word I want to use.
Delightful. This has been delightful to me. This has been so enjoyable. I've
been thinking about this since Monday and I have just enjoyed
this so much. And I hope you enjoy it too. I hope it's as much of a blessing
to you as the Lord has made it to my heart. My intention last
Sunday morning for the Bible study, we were here, my intention
was to go to verse 10. And then I felt like we would
come back and look at his final farewell. That's what it says
in verse 11. His final words of instruction to them. We've
been going through 2 Corinthians mainly in the Bible study, and
this would be a wonderful Bible study. He said in verse 11, be
perfect, mature, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace. That's all good instruction. Well, we only made it to verse
four last Sunday morning. And then we looked at verse five,
Sunday night. And what I would like to do is
finish looking at that good instruction. Finish looking at the word, the
wise word of instruction he gives us. And then I want to look at
his final farewell. And then I want to show you something. All right. And I pray the Lord
might It calls us to rejoice. Let's recap from verse one so
we can get the context of what he's saying. Verse one, he said,
this is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or
three witnesses shall every word be established. He came in person
and he came in two letters. And he said at the mouth of three
witnesses now, let these things be established. Verse two, I
told you before and foretell you as if I were present the
second time and being absent now, I write to them which heretofore
have sinned. I'm writing to those who have
sinned. and to all other that if I come again, I will not spare."
All of those sins, those open rebellious sins that he listed
throughout those two letters. He said, it's time to stop. It is time to stop. Now it's
time. Now, no man or woman can just
stop sinning. We're all sinners. He is not
asking them to do the impossible. What he's addressing is they
were doing things that was causing division in God's church. And he said the division has
to stop. It just has to has to stop. They were doing things that was
bringing reproach on the gospel. And he said, it has to stop or
else if I come and I see that it hasn't, he said, I will not
spare. Verse three, since you seek a proof of Christ speaking
in me, which to you word is not weak. But is mighty in you, they
kept calling him weak, he said, it's not weak. It's mighty in
you, they struggled to believe. the word he was given to them.
They struggled to believe that it was coming from God because
they saw Paul's own personal weakness. And Paul told them,
you have hit the nail on the head. I'm weak. I'm weak. But this message is not. This message is not this word
of truth is able to slay a man or woman with one word. One word
from God, no matter how weak the messenger is. Now, every
man or woman on the face of this earth who has not bowed to the
truth of this word, there is a truth in this word. And every man or woman who has
not bowed to the truth of this word believes he or she is God. Every man and woman who has not
bowed to the truth of this word believes he or she is God, whether
they know it or not. If they are atheist, they definitely
believe they are their own God. If they are religious, but have
not bowed the knee to the truth of this word, they believe they're
God, and this is why. They believe they have to let
Him save them. They believe they have to be
the one who initiates or finalizes their salvation. And whoever
does that is God. Whoever starts the work of salvation
and finishes the work of salvation is God. Whoever allows it to
happen is God. If He's wanting to do something,
but I'm stopping Him from doing it, and I will not allow Him
to do it, I'm God. But when God is pleased, when
He in His kindness is so pleased to send His Word in the power
of His Spirit, It slays men and women. It just slays them. Salvation is so of the Lord. It's not when the preacher has
a moment of liberty. That's not when it takes place.
It's not when everything lines up just right and this person
was going through a hard time and they were already pretty
broken down and they came and they heard something and it touched
them and they started crying. That's not when it happens. When
it pleases God, He takes one word of His. and he slays, he
opens blind eyes. People who could not see it,
they could not see it. He opens deaf ears, he breaks
hard hearts, and they see God. They don't see Jesus anymore.
They see God. They see the Lord, Jesus Christ,
and they realize, I'm not Him. I'm not him. I am not who I thought
I was. And he is not who I thought he
was. I have no control. I have no
say. I'm not God. He has all control
and all say because he is God. Fear takes over just from one
word. Fear takes over. What is he going
to do with me? That's what Saul of Tarsus was
thinking. What is he going to do with me? But with that fear, through that
truth comes the good news of the gospel. Verse four says,
though he was crucified through weakness, God on the throne made
himself to be in the form of a servant. The likeness of sinful
flesh, he willingly humbled himself from the throne of glory all
the way down to the bottom of the grave. And he did that to redeem wicked,
rebellious sinners. Sinners who hated him. Completely at odds with him.
He did that to redeem those sinners to himself. One word from God. This word is so kind. It is so
kind. One word from God is not only
able to put a man in his place, But it's able to show a man how
Christ took his place. Same word. Just one word. It only takes one word to put
a man in his place and show him how Christ took his place. It's
able to make him weep for sin and weep for joy at the exact
same moment in time. Look what I did to him and look
what he did for me. All you have to do is look to
the cross And that'll be, that question will be asked. Look
at what I did to him and look at what he did for me. Verse
four says, though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth
by the power of God, for we also are weak in him, but we shall
live with him by the power of God toward you. Not by our decision
or any other thing. It's by the power of God. That's
how we live. That right there is called amazing
grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Well,
we looked at verse five Sunday night, which says, examine yourselves,
whether you 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? He said examine yourself and
prove to yourself whether Christ is in you or are you a counterfeit? Paul said he was a pattern for
salvation. And after he examined himself,
he said, these are the three things I find, and I know these
things to be true. He said, I know that in me that
is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. So many people believe
that there is a little bit of good in everybody. So many people
believe everybody is kind of good. Not the Apostle Paul. Not him. He said, I know in me there dwells
no good thing. And I say the same thing with
him. I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good
thing. The truth is, there is none good,
no not one. But a counterfeit doesn't know
that. Does not know that. So he said, I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. And then he said,
I know nothing of myself. I know nothing. I am nothing. But he said, I know whom I have
believed. and am persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. What
have we committed to Him? Our sin. We've committed our
all. We've cast our all on Him. We've
cast our all on Him. Our literal all. Everything we
are, have, need, We've cast it all on Him. We see nothing but
sin in ourselves. We see His blood and His righteousness
to be our only hope. That's it, our only hope. We
see our total inability. We are nothing. And we see and
we bow to his absolute sovereignty. We bow to it. That's the evidence
that Christ is in us and our faith is not counterfeit. Paul
said, I'm writing these things to you. He's telling the Corinthians,
I'm writing all this to you because I trust that Christ is in you. You're not a counterfeit. He's
going to prove and establish to your heart that this indeed
is the word of truth. Verse six, he said, but I trust
that you shall know that we are not reprobates. And I trust the
same thing. I trust the same thing. This
is what gives me encouragement. This is what gives me hope. I
believe God has a people. I believe God has a people who
are not interested in Him, currently. And they don't do anything right
when it comes to His Word, obedience to Him, bowing to Him, following
Him, worshiping Him. They could care less. They're
going about their way, whether in religion, out of religion. But I believe God has a people,
in spite of who they are and what they are. And I believe
that God is going to, in time, speak the Word of Power to them.
He is, in time, going to call them to Himself. They may be
completely opposed to His message right now. This is not our message
versus somebody else's message. This is His message. We preach
His message. Not our take on His message.
We're just preaching His message. And they may be opposed to the
message that he has given. But in his good time, he's going
to open their heart, just like he did for Lydia. He's going
to bend their knee, just like he did for Saul of Tarsus. He's
going to call them into his fold. And they're going to know that
this message is not counterfeit. Verse seven, he said, Now I pray
to God that you do no evil. And we just went through No man and woman can stop sinning.
He's not asking them to do the impossible. He's saying strive
for the good instruction of God's word. Strive for it. There is
such good instruction in here. Strive for it. He said, I pray
to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved
not to make us look good. You know, we're your teachers
and you all are doing what's right and makes us look good
as your teachers. He said, not for that, but that
you should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. I just want you to bow the knee
in truth to Christ, in honesty before Christ. Like David said,
I acknowledge what I am. Paul said, you don't have to
believe me. Just believe Christ. Even if you see us as reprobates,
just believe Christ. Don't take my word for it. Take
His. Verse 8, He said, For we can
do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. His Word is
going to stand. His Word is going to stand. His
purpose is going to come to pass. He is going to work all things
together for the good of His sheep. He is going to work all
things together for the good of His sheep. Every single thing. All of His purpose is going to
stand. Nothing is going to fail. Even
our weakness. And that's what Paul is dealing
with here with the Corinthians. He's saying, You need to straighten
up and fly right. But even in our weakness, we
cannot stop his strength. Our weakness is still his strength.
You meant it for evil. God meant it for good. So he
said in verse nine, we are glad when we are weak and you are
strong. If this weakness that we feel
through the burden of declaring the truth of God, this Great
responsibility, this Paul said, I'm nothing, I'm nothing. What
God lays on the heart of the man who declares this truth,
he said, if through that weakness. It brings strength to you, if
it strengthens your faith through the weakness of standing up and
declaring this, if this word strengthens your faith. If this
word causes you to grow in grace and grow in love and grow in
hope, then he said that makes us so glad. That makes it all
worth it, and it does, it makes it all worth it. That's all the
reward that a messenger needs, just seeing the Lord bless the
word to the heart of his people, causing them to grow. In his word, he said at the end
of verse nine and this also we wish even your perfection perfection
means Maturity we wish your maturity. We just pray god might make us
all to be Mature believers. I pray god might make all of
us starting with me spiritual mature believers, grounded, settled,
grown, established believers. Verse 10, Therefore I write these
things, being absent, lest being present, I should use sharpness
according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification
and not to destruction. If you love somebody, you'll
tell them the truth. If you love somebody, you will
tell them the truth. Paul said, I love you. And that's
why I've told you the truth. All of this that I've told you,
I came to you in person. He was there a year and a half.
This first letter, this second letter, everything I've said
to you, he said, I've told it to you because I love you. I've
told you the truth. And he said, it's going to bring
edification to you, not destruction. All of these truths of God, they
will always build up His child, not tear the child down. Never
tear them down. It may tear the flesh down. Every
time I open this Word, it tears my flesh down. It'll tear the
old man down, but not the new man. It'll build the new man
up, build up his spirit. So here's His final farewell
to them. Verse 11, he said, finally brethren,
farewell. Here are his final words of instruction
to them. He said in verse 11, be perfect,
be mature, be a grounded, settled believer. Beg God to give that
to you. Sincerely beg God to give that
to you. Lord, would you make me to be a mature believer? A grounded, settled believer. Don't be running around full
of care, worried over every little thing. He's saying just trust
God. Trust God. Ask Him to mature us. Verse 11,
He said, Be of good comfort. Lay hold of the promises in His
Word. He's given them to us. Let's
lay hold of them and believe them. Believe them with the heart. Verse 11, he said, Be of one
mind. May the mind of Christ be in
us all. May God truly give us one mind. One heart, one will, one goal. Unified, may he unify us. Verse
11, he said, And live in peace. Be peacemakers. Do everything it takes to make
peace. Everything it takes, do everything it takes to make peace
at all cost. Whatever it costs, if it costs
us our pride, whatever it costs, he said, live in peace. Verse
11 says, and the God of love and peace shall be with you. Bring the love and peace of God
to the hearts of your brethren. And God will bring his love and
peace to your heart. Verse 12 says, greet one another
with a holy kiss. That's a wonderful exhortation.
Greet one another. Greet one another. Be outgoing. Don't be the kind of person who
says, well, if you don't speak to me, I'm not going to speak
to you. He said, greet one another. Greet one another. You love Christ. I love you. It promotes love
and unity and peace and communication. Greet one another with a holy
kiss. Greet one another in the love
and in the embrace of Christ. And then he said in verse 13,
all the saints salute you. I'm constantly telling people
that. Somebody from this congregation will go visit another congregation.
Or I get a call from somebody from another congregation. I'm
going to tell them, tell everybody over there Kingsport says hello.
You tell them all the saints in Kingsport Love them. They salute you. And the last
thing he said to him was verse 14. The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the love of God. And the
communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. And what he's saying is salvation
be to you. That's the last thing he said
to him. Salvation be to you. May the grace, the free gift,
that free gift. This is my prayer to each one
of you. This is what Paul's telling the Corinthians. This is what
I'm telling you. This is my prayer to each one of you. May the free
gift of God to sinners. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God the Father. and the communion of His Holy
Spirit be with you. May that be with you. I pray
God the Father chose you. I pray Christ died for you and
I pray God's Spirit calls you. I pray so. And then He said,
Amen. Now, the title of this message
is, Finally, Brethren, Farewell. That sentence struck me. I've
been thinking about that line, three words. And when I read that and got
to thinking about it, what I thought was how sad. How sad that such a sad moment. After all that time he spent
with him, he really did love them. He spoke very frankly with
them, but he really did, he truly loved them. Everything that he
said to them in his letters, this is his last time to speak
to them. Very last time. Finally, brethren,
farewell. It reminded me of Acts chapter
20 when Paul said his final farewell to the Ephesians. Look with me
at Acts chapter 20. This is the last thing that Paul
ever said to the Ephesians. Acts 20 and verse 27, he said,
I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. I have not shunned to declare
unto you all the counsel of God. He said, That's all I've tried
to do. That's all I've tried to do.
He told them over, He told everybody, I have not tried to impress you
with big words. I have not tried to rule over
you. I have not tried to put you under
my thumb. Be a lord over God's heritage.
I haven't tried to do anything but declare unto you the whole
counsel of God. Every word He's written. And this is when we get to the
end. If that can be said here, I will
be a happy man. I've declared unto you the whole
counsel of God. That is all that a called preacher
wants to do. I just want to declare all the
counsel of God, and that's all a believer wants to hear, because
that's what brings life. They sit there and they listen
to all the words of God and they know this is so, this is true. And it has quickened me. It's
made it real. It's made these things come alive.
It's not just dead. It's not a dead book. It's a
living book. It's a living word. And I've
heard it and I've fed on it. And I've needed it. And he said, I can say that.
And this is my last words to you. I love you with all my heart.
And it just gives me such joy to know that the Lord allowed
me to declare all the counsel of God to you. And he said in
verse 36, verse 36 says, When he had thus spoken, he kneeled
down and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore and fell
on Paul's neck and kissed him. sorrowing most of all for the
words which he spake, that they should see his face no more.
And they accompanied him unto the ship." Don't you know that
was a long farewell? Finally, brethren, you know how
you just can't let go? They knew it was the last time.
Last time getting on the ship. Oh, they loved him. Oh, he loved
them. Just can't let go. Now, this is what struck me about
the sentence and the thought of all that. They are all together
right now. All of them. Paul, the Ephesians,
the Corinthians, they are all literally together right now. They have all been together now
for roughly 2,000 years. More together than we are in
this room. More unified. More one. Perfectly united in Christ. Perfectly united with Christ. Right now. Right now. I got to
thinking about the fact that each one of these individual
people took their turn saying farewell. Paul had his turn. Each one of them individually
took their turn saying farewell. We all have to say farewell. All of us. We each will have
our turn. I just quoted last week and we
sang the song, Sweet Hour of Prayer. I love that song. I quote it all the time. I love
to quote it. I love to think about it. I love
to think about this. I'm looking forward to this. This robe of flesh I'll drop
and rise to seize the everlasting prize and shout while passing
through the air. Farewell. Each one of us will
have our turn saying farewell. Every child of God will say it
to this earth. Every child of God. They all
said farewell on this earth. And I want to end this message
by entering in to what it's going to be like to say farewell to
this earth. Finally, finally, finally, brethren,
farewell. Finally, here it is. Farewell. We're about to read something.
All I'm going to do is read the Word. Okay? This is all the Word. We're about to read something.
And it has just flooded my soul with awe. I've just been so awestruck
by it. It has become very clear to me
that it's not possible for a man's mouth to utter these things.
I can't convey to you what the Lord blessed my heart with. So, ask the Lord right now to
do for you what He did for me. We're just going to read the
word. and ask the Lord if he'll do the same thing. He knows what
he did for me, and he blessed my heart by it. Just ask him,
would you do the same thing for me you did for Gabe? Ask him
if he'll just open this up. Go with me back to 2 Corinthians
13. This is what we're about to enter
into. In the very moment that we drop
our robe of flesh, as soon as that happens, We will slip on
the robe of the righteousness of Christ. This right here is
a actual, literal robe of flesh. My soul is inside this body,
just living inside the body. My soul is what animates my body. Without a soul in here, the body
can't be animated. It's just a robe of flesh. That's
all it is. I have a robe hanging on my door
in the bathroom, and without me in it, it can't do anything. It just hangs there. As soon
as I get in it, that robe can walk and flow and move, okay? This is a robe of flesh. It is
actually going to drop. And we are actually going to
slip on a robe, the robe of the righteousness of Christ. As that transition happens, it's
going to happen in the twinkling of an eye, in the middle of that
twinkle. As that transition happens, finally,
farewell. As we are slipping on our new
robe, on the brink of taking our first step into eternity. Let's read this as the announcement
that is made to us as a final farewell from Earth. Okay, this
is the announcement made to us. This is the send-off, okay? Right
in the middle of it. We're dropping it, we're putting
it on, and here's the send-off, okay? Verse 11 says, Be perfect. Go be perfect. It's time. You waited for it. You read about it. You hoped
in it. You talked about it. You joyed
in it. You longed for it. Go ahead.
Go be perfect. Do you see Him? You see Him sitting
right there? Go be just like Him. You're perfect. You're now perfect. Farewell to all of that sorrow,
all of that crying, all of those goodbyes. You'll never... Farewell
to goodbyes. Farewell to disappointments.
Farewell to rebukes. No more rebukes. No more rebukes. The announcement says in verse
11, go be of good comfort. Go ahead, it's all over. It's
all over. The turmoil is over. You just
go enjoy the comfort of heart and soul. Now's the time. Be of good comfort. You wanted
it. You've got little bits and pieces
of it down here. Just a small glimpse as we sat
at the feet of Christ, but now it's time. Finally, it's time. Go be of good comfort. Verse 11 says, Go be of one mind
now. I only have one mind in this
body. I know it's always changing, but it's never divided. Whatever
I'm thinking at that moment in time, my whole mind is thinking
it. There is one mind in that body. And I mean the whole body, the
whole body of Christ. There is only one mind in the
body of Christ. There is no division. Never will
two members of the body think two separate things at the same
time. Never. No separation. As soon as this sinful mind of
this sinful flesh drops and we slip into the perfect mind of
Christ, this is the announcement that will be made to us. Go enjoy
it. Go enjoy. the mind of Christ. You're now all of one mind. Just go enjoy. No more division. Enjoy everyone having the exact
same will, heart, desire. Verse 11 says, live in peace. Go live in peace. There it is.
Welcome to peace. And the God of love and peace
shall be with you forever. I mean forever and ever. It is
time for you to physically experience God's presence with you. There we are, slipping our robe
on. Do you see your God? Yes, I do. I see Him. The God
that loved you and made peace for you, I see Him. Go live with
Him. Go live with Him. It's time. As soon as we step into glory,
we're going to hear verse 12. Greet one another with a holy
kiss. Go ahead. Just walk about Zion.
Just go greet everybody. I wonder how long it's going
to take to greet all of God's people. Doesn't matter. Time makes no difference. When you do that, talk all you
want to. No difference. The moment we
step in, this is what we're going to hear, verse 13, all the saints
salute you. Welcome. We've all been waiting.
Every saint who entered before you, they're so happy to welcome
you. Every saint here salutes you. Every saint here loves the
fact that you arrived. And verse 14 says, the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion
of the Holy Spirit is now going to be with you all. Physically with you all. The
Spirit is going to physically be with you all forever. Last word, Amen. That's what
we cry down here. That's what we're going to cry
for all glory. Amen. So be all of this. I wholeheartedly
agree with all this. All right, let's all stand together.