2 Corinthians 10 Paul is continuing
his letter to the Corinthians and it's very sad to say but
he is once again having to defend his ministry and his calling
as an apostle. He has to do that over and over
again and once more he's having to defend the word that has been
given to him, the word that he is sent to declare. And the reason
is because this church at Corinth was told so many things, so many
of the churches, Galatia was too, and many of the congregations,
but they were told so many things about Paul that were not true.
He was just lied on. men in their wickedness hated
him. They just hated him. This precious
man who delivered God's word. In Galatians 2, he called them
false brethren, false preachers. And it was because he preached
the truth. That's the reason. That's always
the reason. It's because he had the message of truth and the
flesh doesn't like it. The flesh does not want it. It
was for Christ's sake, but these false brethren were telling the
Corinthians, he's not who he thinks he is. He's not who he
thinks he is. This is what they said. We'll
see it in a moment. They said, his bodily presence is weak and
his speech is contemptible. He's not an apostle of God. That's
what they were telling everybody. He's not an apostle of God. Nothing
to this man. And they were telling them, he's
lying to you. He's putting on a show for you.
When he's with you, he acts like he loves you. But when he's gone,
he writes letters to you. And these letters are hard. They're
stifling. They're condemning. He's strict. He's mean. He wants you under
his thumb. And that's what they wanted.
In reality, that's what they wanted. But look how Paul responded
to all of this that was said against him. Verse one, chapter
10, verse one. Now I, Paul, myself beseech you
by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I beseech you by the meekness
and gentleness of Christ." That deserves a pause just for a minute,
just to dwell on that. The meekness and the gentleness
of Christ. Every time we find ourselves
in a moment where we want to fire back, every single time,
An eye for an eye. If you're going to get rough
with me, I'm going to get rough with you. Every single time that we
feel that welling up inside us, let's take just a minute and
dwell on the meekness and the gentleness of Christ. Meekness
and gentleness that he would humble himself like he did considering
who he is, considering who this was. This was God Almighty. God Almighty. And he humbled
himself that he would be so meek and so lowly in his heart for
us. So kind, so patient. All that man did was rebel against
him. That's all man did. Wanted to
have nothing to do with him. But when he was reviled, he reviled
not again. Amazing humility. He said, I'm
meek and lowly in heart. And he said, if you take that
upon yourself, you'll find rest for your souls. I think that's
an amazing statement. He said, I'm meek and lowly in
heart. He said, you take this upon yourself,
and you'll find rest for your soul. With that being said, though,
The apostle Paul is going to do in this chapter what God has
commanded him to do. He's going to tell the truth.
He is going to tell the truth. Turn with me if you would to
2 Timothy chapter 4. 2nd Timothy 4 verse 1 says I
charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ
Who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and
his kingdom? preach the word Be instant in
season out of season Reprove rebuke Exhort with all long suffering. That means patience with patience
and with doctrine. That's the word of God itself. For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust, shall
they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They'll
go find them some man who will tell them what they want to hear.
and they'll just pile them up, they'll just start heaping them
up. Oh yeah, we love him, we love him, we love him. And they
shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned
unto lies, fables. But watch thou in all things,
endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, Make full proof
of thy ministry, and if you have a reference, a center reference
there, for make full proof, it says fulfill. Fulfill the ministry
that you've been called to. Do it with long-suffering, do
it with patience, but preach the word. Preach the word. Tell
men and women the truth. Tell them what God has said.
Be instant in season, out of season, at all cost. Tell men what God has said, even
though the flesh naturally does not want to hear it. Preach the
word. Preach the reproofs of the word. Preach the rebukes of the word. Exhort the word. But do it with
patience. Across my page, look at 2 Timothy
2, verse 24, it says, and the servant of the Lord must not
strive. And that's all of us. If we're
called, and we'll see that here in just a second, if we're called,
we're called to be servants of the Lord. Servant of the Lord
must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, if
he's called to teach, he must be patient. in meekness instructing
those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. And that's exactly
what Paul did. That is exactly what he did. He said, I'm going
to tell you the truth, but I want to do it with the meekness and
the gentleness of Christ. Now go with me back to second
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, am bold toward
you. He said, in presence. And if
you have the center reference there, you'll see that means
in outward appearance. I am base among you. Base means
lowly. In outward appearance, I'm lowly.
Look at verse 10 here in this chapter. This is where they said. For his letters say they are
weighty and powerful, and that's a that's not in a good way. They
mean it in a bad way. They he's got his heavy thumb
on you and they're harsh. But his bodily presence is weak. and his speech contemptible,
weak and contemptible. Paul did not have a strong commanding
presence like some men have. He did not, when he preached
to people, There was literally no glorying in the flesh that
took place, none whatsoever. None of them said, you remember
when the Lord smoked that man, he literally ate that man up.
Herod might've been his name, ate him up with worms, didn't
he? Because he gave a speech and all the people said, it's
the voice of a God and God just. When Paul got up and spoke, he
was not a man that you were impressed with. The way he carried himself,
the things that he said, it was just not, it was, It was weak
and contemptible. Chapter 11, look at chapter 11
verse 6. He said, but though I be rude
in speech, rude means unlearned, illiterate. He was one of those
men that didn't get his tenses, didn't put all that stuff together
correctly. And it means uneducated, unskilled. It means an ignoramus,
ignorant. Paul said, I know that's what
I sound like when I speak, unlearned. He said, but I'm not unlearned.
I'm not unlearned. Verse six, though I be rude in
speech, yet not in knowledge. He was taught by Gamaliel. Paul
was a brilliant man. A brilliant man, the Lord brought
him, though, to a place where he said, and this is what I love.
This is what I love. He brought him to a place where
he said, and you know, these verses of scripture, he said,
I'm going to on purpose. On purpose, count all those big
words that I learned. All that doctrinal debating I
learned. Everything that impresses the
flesh. I'm going to on purpose count all of that stuff Dung
It's worthless. It's worthless a man stands up
and he wants to impress you with his big words. They're worthless
He wants to impress you with all his doctrine. It's worthless
If a man gets up in all of his religion, it's pitiful. It's
worthless. Don't listen to him and Paul
said on purpose from here on out. This is what he said. If
anybody asked me any question about any subject other than
Jesus Christ and him crucified, this is going to be my answer.
Oh, I don't know. That's what I'm going to say
from here on out. I've determined. to know nothing
among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And for the
self-righteous, for the self-glorying, for the religionist, that's not
good enough. That's just not good enough.
Is that all you know to talk about? Is that all you know to
say? Back in chapter 10, verse 1 says, Now I, Paul, myself,
beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in
presence embase 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." Now
here's what he's saying. He said, yes, I had to be bold
with you in my previous letter. And he was bold. We went through
first Corinthians one and he had a lot of bold things to say
to him. He had to say these things because
he had to declare God's message to them against their sin. It's
a, it's a bold message. At one point he said to him,
do you want me to bring a rod or do you want me to come in
the love and the spirit of meekness? And what he's saying right here
is, I'm beseeching you, heed God's word. Heed God's word,
bow to his word so we can be done with all that sharpness
and just have love for each other, just fellowship in the meekness
and gentleness of Christ. And he said, as for those who
think we're walking according to the flesh, those who do not
believe that the things we're saying are of the commandment
and of the spirit and the authority of God, God will deal with them. That's what he's telling them.
God will deal with them. We're going to keep preaching
God's word and God will deal with them. Verse three, he said,
for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. Now, He's about to tell them the confidence
that he has in the gospel that he preaches. And I love this. I love this. This is this is
just I can't tell you how much this has encouraged me. This
has been such a help to me, such a blessing to me. The life that a believer lives. The message that a believer preaches,
the message that we preach, the message we believe, the life
we live, both the preacher of the message and the believer
of the message, both of them are going to find themselves
involved in a spiritual warfare. Both of them. And that's what's
happening right here is there's a spiritual warfare going on.
And these Corinthians are caught in the middle. God's apostles
holding the truth, and they've got men telling them a lie. And this spiritual warfare is
going to come to every single child of God, whether they want
it to or not. He's coming. He's coming. Look with me at
1 Timothy chapter 1. First Timothy chapter 1 verse
18 says, This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according
to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by
them mightest war a good warfare. He said this is being committed
to you with these prophecies. War a good warfare. Look at 1st
Timothy chapter 6 verse 12 says, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life where
unto thou art also called and has professed a good profession
before many witnesses. Fight the good fight of faith.
If you look at 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 3 says, Thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. So there is a war that takes
place. But thank God we're not fighting
it with anything that this flesh produces. Nothing. Look back in 2 Corinthians 10. Verse 3 says, For though we walk
in the flesh, And we do, we're right now walking in the flesh.
And in Romans and in other places it said we don't walk after the
flesh, we're not going after the things of the flesh, but
we are walking in the flesh. 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 to the pulling down of strongholds. That means God is in charge of
this battle. God is in charge of the outcome
of it. And it's going to go exactly
like God wants it to go. Exactly like God wants it to
go. Do you have any idea how much that
comforts my heart? Every person involved is going to stand or fall according
to the will of God. This is not carnal. Men go on
crusades. They have these big, we're going
to try to go out and win souls. We want to win souls. We're hoping
that souls will be won. We want to win a million souls
because we'd rather people be saved than lost. We're not trying
to win anything. The battle's won. Isn't that
right? Isn't that relieving? We're not
trying to get anybody saved. We're trying to get men lost,
because that's God's means. That's our only goal. We just
want men to get lost. Every soul born into this world
is born in their own mind. Saved. They're saved. I was born
saved. I went to the nursery at church,
saved. And then I went to Sunday school, saved. And then I sat
in the congregation, saved. And then I quit going, saved. All of a sudden, if God ever
saves a person, they'll realize, I'm lost. I'm so lost. I didn't know I was lost. This battle is not carnal. Martin
Luther said, here I stand, I can do no other. Here I stand. I
literally can't do any other. This battle's not carnal. Not
one piece of this battle is dependent on Gabe Stoniker's ability. Not one piece of this battle.
I'm not fighting any of this battle with my weak, pitiful
weapons of war. I'm not fighting it with my knowledge.
Boy, he really knows a lot. I'm not fighting it with my knowledge.
I'm not fighting it with my zeal. I'm not fighting it with my commitment. I'm not fighting with my charisma. I'm not fighting with my ability
to communicate. I would whole lot rather this
person hear that preacher than that preacher because he's a
better communicator than that one. We're not fighting with
the ability to communicate. Paul was weak and contemptible. He was the kind of man that you'd
think, I don't know. I mean, Paul said, don't worry about
what you see on the outside. That's what he told him. Don't
worry about what you see. Are you looking on the outside?
It's irrelevant in this battle. This battle is the Lord's. He said it's mighty through God. It is so mighty. It is going
to pull down every stronghold, every defense that he goes to
war with. Victory is going to be His every
single time. We're not trying to get men to
believe God's Word. We're not trying to. When God
goes to war with that particular sinner, that particular sinner
will believe God's Word every single time. Soldiers, as soldiers,
all of us, in God's predetermined, sure victory war, He does not
equip us with carnal weapons. He equips us with spiritual weapons. Look with me, if you would, at
Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6 verse 11 says, put
on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil. But we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Remember that when you find resistance
and opposition to the gospel, you're not wrestling against
flesh and blood. You're not wrestling against
flesh and blood. This is a spiritual warfare that's taking place.
Verse 13 says, Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done
all to stand. What he's saying is, if you wear
this armor, you'll stand. Verse 14 says, Stand therefore
having your loins girt about with truth. We're going in with
truth. We're going in with truth. If
a man or a woman knows the truth, the truth will set him free. Free from what? free from being the enemy of
God. Every soldier. Well, these are
good people and these are bad people. No, everybody's bad. Everybody starts out bad. Everybody
is a sinner against God. Everybody's a rebel against God
starting right here. Every soldier that the Lord calls
for war started out on the other side. Everyone. All of a sudden, they
were notified of the fact. They were at war with God, in
ranks against God, all of us, held captive by the adversary,
the captive of the enemies of God. But thank God he went to
war with us. He went to war with every single
one of us. He assaulted us with his truth. That's what happened
to me. One day he assaulted me. with his truth, and that truth
is Christ himself. This man who everybody portrays
to be so weak, begging people and pleading people, please won't
you let me save you, Christ himself came and assaulted each one of
us. Just like he did with Jericho,
that big walled city, he busted down the walls of our stronghold. He led captivity captive. And then he said, I want you
to take these weapons and join the ranks, you're going to war. Verse 14 says, stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the
breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate is what guards
your heart, your vital being. That breastplate of righteousness
is Jesus Christ himself. It's his perfection, it's his
glory, it's his holiness. He said you're going in with
the protection of the holiness and the glory of God. Verse 15,
he said, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace. What is the gospel of peace? It's the blood of Jesus Christ. You're going to go against sin
with the blood of Jesus Christ. Sin cannot stand against the
blood of Jesus Christ. Every sin that comes in contact
with the blood of Jesus Christ is purged clean. He can't stand. It's taken into that blood and
it's put away. Verse 16, he said, above all,
taking the shield of faith. What is the shield? It's Christ. He said, you're going to get
behind that shield and you're going to march right in. You just keep your
eyes on that shield. You just run in with your eyes on that
shield. Verse 16, above all, taking the
shield of faith where with you shall be able to quench all the
fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation.
That's Christ. That's the mind of Christ, the
will of Christ, the purpose of Christ. Take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the Spirit, and he tells us what that is,
which is the Word of God. The Word of God. You take the sword
of the Spirit, Christ and His Word, and when you do that, you're
going to see God's results. You go into this battle with
Christ and His Word. You just stand behind the shield,
wearing the breastplate of righteousness, with the helmet of salvation,
and then you just stand back and you see the victory of God.
Go back to 2 Corinthians 10. Verse 3 says, 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 to the pulling down of strongholds."
And then he said, this is what happens. Every time God goes
to war with a sinner, verse 5 says, casting down imaginations. That's the first thing he does.
Every wrong way. Did you know that every single
human on earth has a way in their mind that they think people are
saved? Every one of them are wrong. There's only one way. It's not
by being a good person. That's what most people think.
They think it's by being a good person. I got to be a good person.
And then all of a sudden God's truth assaults that sinner. And
he takes that silly, vain imagination of me ever thinking I could actually
be a good person. And he casts that down. And every
other way that man naturally thinks will make him acceptable
to God, every one of them get thrown down. They just start
getting cast down. The way comes and every false
way, every idol is thrown down. Verse 5 says, casting down imaginations
and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God. People are so high on themselves. so high on evolution and so high
on science and so high on all these things, thinking themselves
to be wise, all of a sudden God assaults them with the war of
his truth. And they realize, I'm a fool. Oh, I'm a fool. I'm such a fool. That pride gets brought so low,
all that confidence in myself and confidence in my works, confidence
in my decision is shattered. And then verse five says, it
brings into captivity every thought. Every thought that a sinner has
to the obedience of Christ. Now it does produce obedience
to Christ. It does. But when that truth
assaults a sinner, they become consumed with the obedience of
Christ. They're consumed with it. They're
consumed. His obedience to His Father in
redeeming His people. His obedience that took Him all
the way to the cross and then to the grave. Hebrews 5 talks
about the things He learned through His obedience by the things that
He suffered. His obedience. That's our salvation. Not my obedience. Well, God said
you better do this. I can't. But He did. And that's my salvation. His
obedience. Verse 6. Having in a readiness
to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. That means after God's gospel
slays a sinner, he hates everything he sees in himself. He hates
it. After the obedience of Christ
is applied to a sinner, and they see, my hope before God is everything
he did, all of his obedience. There is a readiness to revenge
all of the disobedience that a sinner knows he's committed
against God. I hate it. Slay me. Lord, slay me. And thank
God I was slain in Christ. I deserve to be slain myself
and put in the ground. But thank God, through His obedience,
He went into the ground. So that's why Paul says in verse
7, Do you look on things after the outward appearance? Don't
worry about the lack of carnal abilities. Don't worry about
that lack. Don't worry about the frailties,
the weaknesses. We have them. We do have them. Nobody in the flesh is sufficient
for these things. Nobody. But thank God we are
not warring after the flesh. And he goes on to say in verse
7, if any man trusts to himself that he's Christ, let him of
himself think this again, that as he is Christ, even so are
we Christ. The Lord said to a man named
Zerubbabel, it's not by might, nor by a man's power, but by
my Spirit, saith the Lord." And I'm going to tell you, that's
my hope. That's my hope. As I stand here
and preach, if I did not, if I believed that I had to stand
up here in my own carnal abilities and do this without God's Spirit,
I would have already quit. But His promise is, it's not
by man's might, it's by my Spirit. You stand up there and Preach
this word, I'll do all the warring. I'll take care of all the battling.
I'm so thankful for that. I know you are too. Aren't you
so glad I'm not standing up here with my own flesh? Thank God
for the captain of our war. All right, you're dismissed.