Turn with me, if you would, to
2 Corinthians chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. The last
time that we looked at this portion, we were in the first seven verses.
And let's read through those again. 2 Corinthians 10 verse
1 says, Now I, Paul, myself, beseech you by the meekness and
gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but
being absent and bold toward you, But I beseech you that I
may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith
I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked
according to the flesh." Meaning they don't believe, this is what
Paul's saying, they don't believe that the commandments and the
instruction that we must give, they don't believe they're coming
from the authority of God. They believe that I'm saying
what I'm saying and doing what I'm doing to lift myself up.
That's what Paul's saying. They believe that I'm puffing
up my own flesh. Verse three, for though we walk
in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God. And I'm so
grateful for that. We're not fighting with carnal
means. We're not fighting with carnal
weapons. It's mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, all
of these vain imaginations that men and women have in religion
about the things of God. Casting down imaginations and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringeth into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ, and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when
your obedience is fulfilled." What he's saying is all we have
to do is preach the truth of God's Word. And God's Word will
do every work that needs to be done. It will convict, and I'm
telling you from personal experience, God's Word, just focus on the
Word. Whatever God has written in the
Word, you just preach the Word, and it will convict, it will
convince, it will instruct, stay on the Word. No matter what's
going on around it, stay on the Word, And it'll do everything
that needs to be done. Every child of God who by God's
spirit receives ears to hear it. God will do the teaching. God will do the instructing.
So he says in verse seven, do you look on things after the
outward appearance? Even if that's the only ability
that someone has to go on, just what they see in outward appearance. He said, if any man trusts to
himself that he is Christ, let him of himself think this again,
that as he is Christ, even so are we Christ. Even if it's just
based on outward appearance. Paul said, recognize that I am
not trying to get anything out of you. I'm not trying to get
a following. And God's people are not. If
they were trying to get a following, they would compromise the Word.
He said, I'm not trying to get a following. I'm not trying to
get any money out of you. He never took a dime from them.
I'm not trying to get you to do anything, but believe the
Word. Hear the Word. Heed the Word.
Our Lord said the exact same thing. Look with me at John 14. John 14 verse 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. Believe me that I am in the Father
and the Father in me or else believe me for the very works
sake. Believe me for the work that
you've seen that I've been called to. Believe these outward evidences
that I've called to the ministry. When God sends a servant with
a message from his word, it is all about that word. It's all about the word. He is
consumed with that word from God. Just like when Abraham sent
his servant to get a bride for Isaac, his son. Don't you love
that story? Genesis 24. Abraham sent his servant to go
find a bride for his son, Isaac. And his servant came and through
God's providence, he met Rebekah and Rebekah invited that servant
to her house. and they came and her family
had food set out on the table ready for them to eat and the
servant said, I cannot sit down. I cannot sit down until I've
told my message. I must tell my message first. It's urgent. It's a message from
authority. It's a message with authority,
and that's the subject that Paul is dealing with in the text in
our study this morning. Go back over to 2 Corinthians
10. He's going to tell us something about the authority that has
been given to a servant with the Word. 2 Corinthians 10, verse
8, here's where we pick up. For though I should boast somewhat
more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification
and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed. This
is a critical piece of information for anyone who handles the word
of God. I mean, this is critical, critical,
critical. In Ephesians 4, it says God gave
some apostles. He gave some prophets. He gave
some evangelists. He gave some pastors, and he
gave some teachers. They're all different. He said
it's for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. That's why. As the pastor, I have been given
the authority, I've been given the commission, I've been given
the responsibility to declare God's word to this congregation. You in turn have been given the
authority, you've been given the commission, the responsibility
to go out and tell every person that God opens a door for you
to tell the truth of his word, the gospel. How great things
the Lord has done for you. What he has to say right here
applies to every single one of us. Every single one of us have
been given the word, given the responsibility of the word. And
this is critical, critical knowledge on how we are to handle the word
of God. What authority he's actually
given us in handling the word. All right, this is what he said,
verse eight. For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority
which the Lord hath given us for edification and not for your
destruction. He said the authority that we
have been given is for edification. It's for building up. And it
is not for your destruction. The authority that God has placed
in our hands is for building up and not for tearing down. It's not for tearing down. Go
over to Ephesians 4. This is what we just quoted. Ephesians 4 verse 11 says, He
gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors
and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we
all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ. That's the reason for the authority. It's to bring all of God's people
together into the unity of the faith. This gospel is an inclusive,
inviting, bringing, welcoming message from God's word. It's
to bring all of God's people together. God knows who his people
are. God does the bringing, God does the drawing. but it's for
the purpose of bringing all of his people together into the
unity of the faith. It's not for the purpose of tearing
each other apart and driving each other away. Now, if a person
does not believe God's word, and there's an instance that
I'll remind us of in just a minute, but if a person does not believe
God's word, we can't help that. God-given faith is of God. There
will be division. There will be. But for those
who do believe God and are trusting in Christ, trusting in his blood
alone, Paul says we've been given a particular authority concerning
each other in this word. Look back at 2 Corinthians, this
time chapter 13. 2 Corinthians 13. Verse 10 says, 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. It's for edification, not for
destruction. We've not been given the authority
to use this word to tear each other down. We've not been given
that authority. I am so grateful for that. I
am so, so grateful for that, that He, in all of His wisdom
and kindness, has not placed that in our hands. God's Holy
Spirit is the one who tears down sinners' pride. God's Spirit
does that through the preaching of the Word. God Himself will
abase He will abase as he sees fit, and I'm to leave all that
in his hands. Every bit of it. The authority
that we've been given is edify each other. Edify each other. Build each other up on the promises
of God to sinners. God has given so many great promises
to sinners. And that's the authority we have.
Edify with it. Leave the destruction in the
hands of the judge of the earth. Leave it right there. Aren't
we supposed to tear down men's idols? Preach the word. God will tear
down men's idols. Men get lifted up in pride. They
get to know a little bit about doctrine and they want to go
around and start straightening everybody else out. Preach the Word and
God will straighten everybody else out. He'll make the crooked
straight. Just preach the Word. Aren't we supposed to rebuke
and reprove? Yes. How did Paul tell Timothy
to do it? Preach the Word with longsuffering. Do it that way. Do it that way. God will take care of it. God
will handle the end result. He'll handle it. Let me show
you what our Lord had to say about this. Go to Matthew 13.
Matthew 13 verse 24 says, Another parable put he forth
unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man
which sowed good seed in a field. But while men slept, his enemy
came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when
the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the
tares also. So the servants of the householder
came and said unto him, sir, didst not thou sow good seed
in thy field? From whence then hath it tares?
He said unto them, an enemy hath done this. And the servant said
unto him, wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? Do you want us to go root out
all the tares? You want us to get everything
that we think doesn't look just right out of here? You want us
to take care of that? Verse 29, but he said, nay, I'm not giving you that authority. I'm not putting destruction in
your hands. Lest while you gather up the
tares, you root up also the wheat with them. He said you would
throw away a lot of wheat. You couldn't imagine how much
wheat you would throw away. Because to you it would look
just like a tare. You would be absolutely convinced
that's a tear. No doubt in my mind, that's a
tear. You see that? That's a tear. And you'd be throwing away my
precious wheat. That's what the Lord said. You'd
gather up my wheat and you'd throw it out. He said, this is
what I want you to do. Verse 30, let both grow together
until the harvest. I want you to water all of it. I want you to be patient with
all of it. Edify it. Edify it. Edify it. That's the commission I'm giving
you. Edify it. Build it up. Help it to grow.
Help it all to grow. Verse 30. And in the time of
harvest, I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the
tares and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the
wheat into my barn. Leave the dividing and the destruction
to me. Just leave it to me. All right,
let me show you another one that he had to say on this. Go to
Luke 9. Luke 9, verse 51. And it came to pass, when the
time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly
set his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his
face. And they went and entered into
a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. And they
did not receive him, because his face was as though he would
go to Jerusalem. And when the disciples, James
and John, saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command
fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elias
did? They said, we're going to destroy
them. That's what we're going to do.
That's the last thing we do. We're going to destroy them. We're going
to do this in the name of the gospel. We're going to do this
for Christ's sake. We're going to do God a favor.
And we're just going to get rid of them right now. Verse 55,
but he turned and rebuked them and said, you know not what manner
of spirit you are of. He said, that spirit is not the
spirit of God. That's a spirit all right, but
it's not God's spirit. If that is the desire of the
heart, that heart is being sifted by the adversary himself. Peter
said, oh, the adversary is a roaring lion, seeks whom he may devour. And that heart that has that
mindset is being sifted by the adversary, that dividing, that
destroying. Verse 55, he turned and rebuked
them and said, you know not what manner of spirit you are of,
for the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives. but to
save them. And he went to another village.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not. The ones
that he gave the ability to, they received him. But had he
not done that, no one would receive him, no one. The very ones that
hated him all the way to the cross, the very ones that hated
him all the way to the cross, thousands of them were weak. Thousands of them They were his
and James and John they said you want us to destroy him. He
said no, I sure don't But they're rejecting you they're cursing
you they're spitting on you he said I know But that's the very
person I came to save that's the very person I came to die
for That's who I came to give my life for shed my blood on
I Verse 56, the Son of Man has
not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. If we'll leave
all the destruction in God's hands, a lot less people will
be destroyed. You know that. Our God is so
much more merciful than we are. He is so much more gracious than
we are. He's so much more forgiving than
we are. You say, yeah, but you know this
guy over here, man, he's just a real sinner. Yeah, I know he
is. You're right, he is, just like the rest of us. Yeah, but she's hard to get along
with. I know she is, just like the
rest of us. But they don't do everything
just right. I know they don't, just like the rest of us. Thank
God Christ came to save sinners who are hard to get along with
and don't do everything just right. That's who he came to
save. Our Lord said, don't pick the moat out of your brother's
eye when you have a beam sticking out of your own. I can't tell
you how badly, as I preach this, I want to hear this. I can't
tell you how badly, as it's coming out of my mouth right now, I'm
thinking, Lord, please let this be a boomerang straight back
into my heart. Teach me. Teach me. I know you pick, mode is a splinter. I know you pick splinters out
of each other's eyes, because I do it too. Lord, please cause
me to dwell on the beam in my own eye. Let me dwell on that. Our Lord just, he's saying, point
us, point each other to me. You just point each other to
me. I'll take care of it. That's edifying. That's what
edifying is. Point them to me. Go back to our text, 2 Corinthians
10. Now, with all of that being said,
God's Word is going to stand. We know it is, don't we? God's
Word is going to stand. He said at the end of verse 8, I'm not ashamed of what I've
been called to declare. I should not be ashamed. He said
in verse nine, I don't want it to seem as if I'm trying to terrify
you by these letters. That's not the goal. He said
that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters. For his letters say they are
weighty and powerful. They're hard, they're condemning,
but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible,
which we talked about that last time. He's saying this is not
meant to be hard. It's not meant to be hard. It's
not meant to be condemning. And I tell you a situation that
I've thought a lot on in studying this is you remember that man
in 1 Corinthians 5, that Paul told them, put him out of the
congregation. Put him out of the fellowship.
He was in an incestual affair with his stepmother. And Paul
said, put him out. Well, what about that? Well,
Paul said that, number one, on the authority of God's word.
Number two, that man was in open rebellion to the word. He was
openly spitting in the face of God, bringing that into the worship. It was a hindrance. But here's
the most important thing. Do you know why Paul told them
to do that? He said, and let me just listen to this. I'll
turn, I want to quote it correctly to you. He said, that the spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord. He said, I don't want him,
he wanted his flesh to be destroyed, he called it. That his spirit
might be saved. He said, this is for his edification.
He said, I'm telling you to do this, because it will bring repentance
to him, it'll bring crying out for mercy. And then in 2 Corinthians
2, Paul told them, he said, the punishment is sufficient. He
has repented, he's begged God for mercy. And he told them,
I want you to forgive him and comfort him. And I want you to
confirm your love toward him, edify him, the same man. He didn't
say, cast him out never to receive him again. He said, this is the
only hope the man has. He's literally defying the word
of God. And he said, this is the only
hope he has for his edification. And the Lord blessed it. And
he said, receive him, restore him. It was all for edification. So these things written in this
word, they're not meant to be hard. They're not meant to be
condemning. but they're gonna stand. God's word is going to
stand. Verse 11, let such in one think
this, that such as we are in word by letters when we're absent,
such will we be also indeed when we're present. We're not gonna
back down from anything God has to say. This thing of edification
and love and compassion, it does not mean compromise the gospel. We're not going to compromise
the gospel. We're not going to cater to the
flesh. And Paul said, we're sure not going to bring any glory
to ourselves. Verse 12, for we dare not make
ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend
themselves. And we're about to see a little
bit more of that in the next service. Commend themselves. But they
measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among
themselves, they're not wise. They're lifted up in pride and
in their authority. They think they've been given
authority by God. And he said, this is not wise.
He said, we're just going to preach God's word. We're just
going to preach God's word. Verse 13, but we will not boast
of things without our measure. We're not going to go beyond
the authority that God has given us. 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,
as though we reached not unto you, for we are come as far as
to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ. We're not going
to try to lord over God's heritage. We're not going beyond the measure
given to us. You do not need to be under my
thumb. We're all under the authority
of God's word only. And Paul said, we're not going
to go beyond what God has given us in his word. We're going to
preach the gospel of Christ. We're going to keep preaching
the good news of Jesus Christ crucified. Every time we run
across a sinner, we're going to tell him how Christ died for
sinners every single time. Every time we find someone who
seems to be absolutely hopeless, we're going to point them to
the only hope of glory, the blood of Christ. Every time we hear
somebody cry, I need mercy, we're going to edify that person. I'm just a sinner who needs mercy.
We're going to edify that person through the gospel. Verse 15,
not boasting of things without our measure, that is of other
men's labors, but having hope when your faith is increased
that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly
to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you and not to boast in
another man's line of things made ready to our hand. After we finish preaching the
gospel, we're not gonna boast in it. We're not going to take
credit for it. We're especially not going to
take credit for the labors of other men that God has called
to preach the gospel. We're going to edify them too.
And that's important. That's important. God's preachers
are not in competition with each other. God's preachers need to
edify each other. Edify. Yeah, but he doesn't do
everything just right. I know I don't. But be patient with
me, help me, point me to Christ. I'll learn. Give me time. God
will teach me. And our hope, he says, is that
God will open doors for this gospel to keep going. He said,
I hope that the Lord enables you to send us on with it as
far as God is willing to send it. and that many more sinners
will be edified in the process. That's the hope. Here's the final
word. May God teach us to never destroy,
only edify. Even if the word is clearly strict,
may it be handled in a way, said in a way, used in a way unto
edification. May we hold out hope for mercy. preach Christ crucified and leave
everything else in God's hands. All right, you're dismissed.