I hope you ladies enjoyed our Bible
study last night. You're all shaking your heads,
so good. I hope you're not lying right now. I know it was somewhat, as I
said at the outset, it would be It's somewhat more difficult
and in-depth, but that's what I like about those studies. We
dig a little deeper and look into some things you wouldn't
normally look into. That's what I like about them.
I hope you did as well. overburden you with too much. I think you enjoy what I did. And me and Will will have a Bible
study. I'm not sure But soon, I hope, I'll be gone. I can't have it this weekend.
I'll be gone to Crossville. And the next week, I'll be gone
to Rocky Mount, North Carolina. So it'll probably be three weeks
from yesterday for the month. OK. Turn in your Bibles to 2
Corinthians chapter 1. I'm very thankful for this rain,
much-needed rain. We need to give God the glory,
don't we? 2 Corinthians 1, let's ask
the Lord's blessings upon this study. I call upon you first and foremost, and you only,
for help, for your presence, for your leadership, your guidance,
your instruction. Lord, we're so helpless in this
thing of worship and understanding. When we stand before your holy
word, we like to think that we know something, but we don't.
We know so very little. We have only touched or tasted
of these things and not plumbed the depths by any means. There's
so much here. It's a gold mine that needs to
be digged, and Lord, we We don't have the tools. We don't have
the potential. We don't have the wisdom, the
understanding to do this in and of ourselves. We need your divine
help. Without thee, we can do nothing. And that applies more than anything
else. It applies to spiritual things,
what we're doing this morning. Even right now, as we attempt
to pray, our minds wander, and it's so very difficult for us
to gather our thoughts and our attention for five minutes, undisturbed,
five minutes, undisturbed time, thinking about our God. We can't
even do that unless you, by your Spirit, enable us. And Lord,
I ask you, not only for myself, I know how difficult this is,
how impossible it is for me, whom less than the least. No
man is sufficient for these things, certainly not this man. And I also know how difficult
it is to hear. So I pray more than anything
that you would give people hearing ears. They are in need of your
spirit even more so than I. And because you can take one
word, whether the preacher has what is thought to be liberty
or not, you can take one word of yours, one word, Whether it
be spoken or read, you can take that one word and bless the heart
of the hearer if you're pleased to do so. You can take one word,
this incorruptible seed, and plant it indelibly, eternally
in the heart of someone this morning if you're so pleased
to do so. And so that's what I ask. I ask not so much that
you'd make me feel good in teaching or preaching, but rather that
you'd give the people hearing ears and receptive hearts, that
you would speak to them. Inspire the vessel. We have this
glorious treasure, Lord, and we thank you for it. We esteem
it highly. And it's in earthen vessels,
so we need your help. We need your help in the preaching
and the hearing. In singing, praying, playing
of instruments, we need your help. May everything be done
for your glory, for your honor. Here and everywhere, your people
meet together. We pray for them, our missionaries,
all our dear brothers and sisters in Christ. May God be honored,
glorified, Christ exalted, in a spirit of unity and brotherhood
A true preacher of the gospel must be able to say these two
things in all sincerity. and with confidence and in all
honesty from the heart and all honesty. Number one, he must
be able to say and really every believer should be able to say
these things. He must be able to say, I know
whom I have believed. I know, believe and preach Jesus
Christ and him crucified, I know, believe, and preach the one true
gospel. There is no other. There is no
other. It is God's gospel. As Brother
Pledger preached so wonderfully to us, it is the gospel revealed
in the Scriptures. It is the only gospel there is.
It is the gospel of the grace of God. It is the one that gives
God all of the glory. The one that exalts the person
and work of Christ, it is the one gospel that actually saves
sinners. So we must be able to say that
in all honesty and sincerity with utmost confidence. And he must be able to say, I
have preached this gospel and I endeavor to live this gospel. I have kept back nothing profitable
from you, nor shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of
God, that is, all of the doctrine of God's Word, but also all of
the practice, all that we are called upon to practice in God's
Word. He must be able to say, I endeavor
to live as I exhort you to, that I live what I preach, And he must be able to say, like
Paul said, I believe it's in chapter four, that he is willing
to have his ministry and his life scrutinized by all that
hear him and all in the world. And this is what, that he has
nothing to hide, in other words, nothing to hide. And this is
what Paul is saying in verse twelve. Look at it. is this. Our rejoicing is in
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, chiefly. That is our
rejoicing. And the testimony of our conscience,
testimony of our heart and conscience, is that we have lived, walked,
talked, and conducted ourselves in a manner that is befitting
this gospel. A matter that is befitting this
gospel and we recently went through first and second Timothy and
there's this. Serious charge given to a preacher
of the gospel in first Timothy four twelve he says that we're
to be that he is to be an example of the believers in word. And
in conversation in life A talk comes cheap, so he has to back
up what he says with how he lives. And in charity, or that is love,
he must reveal a true heartfelt love to those to whom he preaches
in spirit, in faith, in purity. That's a serious charge, isn't
it? And no man belongs in the pulpit,
or really no one can rightly call himself a believer who does
not possess these things in principle and in degree. But most importantly,
Paul says our testimony and rejoicing is that in simplicity, look at
it, verse twelve, and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but
by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world
and more abundantly to you. More importantly, we have preached
this message of simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly
wisdom, but the grace of God. Let's break this down and look
at it word for word. He says that in simplicity, simplicity
or rather plainness, using great plainness of speech or clarity,
and brevity, straightforwardness, plainness, clarity, or brevity. Do you know what clarity means? Clearness, clarity, brevity,
brief, plainness, or to the point preaching, in other words. To
put it very plainly, preaching that is to the point, not mincing
words. And I think that's what you most
appreciate about all of the preachers that you know and love and esteem
so highly. They are men who get to the point
in preaching. They do not mince words. They
tell it like it is. There's a lot of pointless preaching
going on today. No getting to the point. No telling
it plainly. You remember when they said to
Christ, tell us plainly. And he said, I told you, he could
not have spoken any more plainly. Could he? He couldn't have spoken
any more plainly. Paul said we use great plainness
of speech. He said if our gospel be hid,
it's not that we're hiding it. We're not trying to cover it
up. We're not trying to say things to make them more palatable or
more that men might receive them or like what we say any better.
But we're saying it just like it is, the naked truth, just
as it is written, simple, plain. He said we haven't handled the
Word of God deceitfully, crassly. Some men think that they can
go some places and sneak the gospel in on people. I've known
men who have taken pastorates, and that's what they did. They
took it. But they've gone in to a so-called church, maybe
a Southern Baptist church, and tried to sneak the doctrines
in, you know, try to slip it up on their blind side. And that
just is not the way God tells us to preach, not at all. I,
for one, would rather have all my, so to speak, cards on the
table from the outset, so that there won't be any big fuss or
fight in the end, right? Tell it like it is. Paul said,
if our gospel be hid, it's not because we're hiding it. Not
at all. It's because it's hid to the
lost. It's hid to the lost. We haven't handled this word
deceitfully. So he says, in simplicity, in simplicity, or that is in
very plain speaking and clarity. And then he says, in godly sincerity. Godly sincerity or openness,
honesty from the heart. A man needs to preach from the
heart to the people, not just deliver discourses, but preach
from the heart to the people, communicate, preach to my heart,
not my head, preacher. And he needs to do that as though
God did beseech the people by him. That's what Paul said. We
are ambassadors of Christ as though God did beseech you by
us. Be you reconcile to God. If you look over chapter two,
verse 17, Paul said this over there. Similarly, he said, we
are not as many which corrupt or that is deal deceitfully with
the Word of God, but as of sincerity. We are sincere about this thing.
We sincerely desire for God to be glorified, God to be honored,
Christ to be exalted, for men and women to know and young people
to know Christ, to win Christ, be found in him. We sincerely
have a heartfelt concern for the souls of those to whom we
preach, not just doing this because it's a job or to receive a paycheck,
but doing this out of a true love, sincere desire that the
hearts of men and women might be one to Christ. All right? Back in verse 12 again,
he says, and with godless sincerity. and not with fleshly wisdom,
not with fleshly wisdom. Now, the things we discussed
last night, as I said at the beginning when
we began that study, I wasn't trying to impress anyone with
my knowledge. I don't feel as though I have
very much, but we were looking into some very deep things which
required much thought and much consideration. But we endeavor to speak very
plainly and not use fleshly wisdom, or Paul said several places,
we don't use the wisdom of words. That is, high-sounding oratory,
high-sounding intellectual doctrinal discourses. Lest the cross of
Christ be made of no effect, he said. If you preach too high
with a wisdom of words, use too much intellect, high-sounding
words and so forth, the plain, the plain naked truth will be
hidden. And it will be the cross of Christ
will be made of no effect. The offense of the cross will
be removed and and the glory of God will be masked. And man
is a conviction of sin will not be rightly convicted of sin.
And Paul said, we don't use enticing words of man's wisdom, enticing
words of man's wisdom. And he said in another place
and not with the wisdom of this world. We don't use logic. We don't preach with logic, but
we merely endeavor to say what God's Word says, not using the
logic or the scientific study of science falsely so-called
in order to prove what we believe. We merely preach the Word of
God. OK. Because for this reason, people
will go away. If you preach in that manner,
people will go away thinking of the sermon and not the Savior. They'll go away thinking of the
sermon and not the Savior. They'll go away thinking of your
and being amazed with your eloquence instead of being amazed by the
grace of God, by the precious blood of Christ. Over in chapter
eleven he feared that if Satan. Satan beguiled Eve that our minds
should also be. Beguiled from the simplicity
that is in Christ the simple gospel verse twelve. And he says
this is it this is the summary of what we preach that that right
there he told how we pray. simplicity, godly sincerity,
not with fleshly wisdom. And this is what we preach, the
grace of God, the grace of God. Our rejoicing is this, the testimony
in all sincerity, from our heart and conscience, we can say, by
the grace of God we have preached. It is the grace of God that we
have preached, our preaching, our speech, and our lives. He talks about our conversation
that generally is speaking of our life, not only our speech,
but our life. Our preaching and our speech
and our lives have been established with the grace of God. That's
what someone else said, wasn't it? It's good to be always established
with grace, grace, the grace of God. We preach grace, grace,
grace. You ever get tired of hearing
that we preach grace and we mean grace when we say say grace when
we preach grace we mean grace as the scriptures reveal it free. That is unearned sovereign. That is the state discriminating
unmerited unearned unsought Grace, grace, not a general offer, but
a gift bestowed, not something that we improve upon that God
offers to us and we improve upon it. and therefore get some glory
to ourselves, but a gift, a divine, supernatural gift, an effectual
one of that, that is bestowed upon us. Unmerited, unsought,
unbought, unearned, undeserved favor, acceptance, life, love,
salvation. And all of that comes from God
Almighty, by grace, and it's God's grace, sovereign By grace
you are saved. Grace. Grace. God unconditionally
loves. God unconditionally chooses.
God unconditionally saves. Whom he will. Whom he will. It is not of him that willeth
or him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Or as he
said in 2 Timothy 1 9, God hath saved us and called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his
own purpose and grace, which was given us, not when he saw
how good we would be, but in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Grace, grace, that is the testimony
of our conscience. In all sincerity, we can say
that we have preached grace, not a mixture of grace and work,
but pure grace, pure grace, no denying it. Salvation is of the
Lord. It's all because of God's amazing
grace. All right, verse thirteen, and
he said in verse twelve, we have had our life in the world before
the community and before you more abundantly toward you. Verse
thirteen. For we write no other things
unto you or preach no other things unto you than what you read or
acknowledge. In other words, we're not preaching. or telling or writing anything
but what you are reading from God's word what you have already
come to know and learn from God's word just what you read is what
we're preaching nothing more nothing less and we are not as
those who compare themselves with themselves or compare what
we believe with what men believe, but we compare Scriptures with
Scripture. Carefully, systematically, God
is God of order and things. If we had the understanding,
we would see a perfect order in every single line of God's
of how he says who he is and so forth. We'd see a perfect
order in it all. That things are not randomly
put together, but they are divinely ordered systematically, which
is called systematic theology. But we do things expositionally
or we preach expositionally. That means verse by verse, verse
by verse. And I've told you so many times,
I'm a firm believer in that, because you cannot dwell on one
thing at the exclusion of another that way. I'm a firm believer
in that, that you are forced, when you deal verse by verse,
as we have done, and I counted it up last week, We have studied,
I forget, eleven, twelve books in four short years. And verse
by verse, that's the way you do things. That's the way people
learn. That's the way we learn. That's
the way we become acquainted with Scripture. Exposition, verse
by verse, speaking according to God's word. Because, he said,
to the law and to the testimony. If they don't speak, according
to this word, it's because there's no light or understanding in
them. There's no light and there's
no understanding apart from a working knowledge of the scripture. And
that's what's wrong with this generation. They do err not knowing
the scriptures or the power of God. They don't know God's word
and they don't know the sovereign God. That's the whole problem. This is eternal life, that they
might know thee, the only true God. I would ask one of you women
where that's found. If you memorized it since last
night, John 17, 3. This is eternal life, that they
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom God
has sent. How do you know the only true
God? Go out in the woods and see it? No, from this book. from
this book, so a knowledge of God's Word, knowledge of God
himself. There's no lighter understanding
apart from it. Verse by verse, nothing other
than what you read or acknowledge, OK? If you don't read or acknowledge
what is being preached from God's Word, you're ignorant of it,
OK? The only reason anyone could
take issue with what I preach here is that they're ignorant
of it. The only reason people argue, and they do it ignorantly,
they argue against God's electing love and sovereign grace and
unconditional election and particular redemption and the irresistible
grace of the Holy Spirit and the perseverance of the saints
and the sovereignty of God and so forth. The only reason that
anyone would argue that is they're ignorant of the scriptures and
the power or the sovereignty of God. That's what Christ said
to those scholars of his day, those scribes and Pharisees.
Don't you know that that really upset those boys? I might. But the fact was they were ignorant.
They had it all perhaps memorized. I don't even think they had it
memorized. I don't even think they had their little pet verses
memorized, I'm sure. They had the Ten Commandments
memorized. But they didn't even know the Ten Commandments, did
they? Our Lord magnified that and showed where they erred in
that. All right, we preach verse by verse, or as the Scripture
says, line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept
upon precept. Same things. Paul said it in
Philippians 3, didn't he? To write the same things to you,
to me is not grievous, but to you it's safe, it's salvation. Precept upon precept, here a
little, there a little, brick at a time, truth at a time, the
gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ. That is the whole,
that is the whole counsel of God Almighty from the word of
God. All right, so he says, in simplicity
and godly sincerity, by the grace of God we have preached, we have
conducted ourselves. And we don't write or preach
anything other than what you read from God's Word, and I trust
that in the end you will acknowledge or believe the same thing, right
up to the end. You won't come to some higher
doctrine or higher learning, but you'll be believing the same
thing just a little more persuasively, a little more convinced of the
same old, old truth. Same thing. By God's grace, we'll
be preaching and believing the same thing 30 years from now.
Nothing different, nothing new. Verse 14, when he says, You have
acknowledged us. in part that we are your rejoicing. You have acknowledged us in part. You have acknowledged us and
we are your rejoicing. We are your rejoicing. One of our ladies one time wrote
me a letter and told me how much she appreciated me and preaching
and so forth. And she said something like this.
I don't remember exactly how it was stated, but she said something
to the effect that I appreciate you being in the study. In other words, she would rather
have me in the study than even in her home visiting with her. Or certainly more so than being
down in the hospital walking around visiting the sick and
so forth. And these are the things that
the modern I hesitate to say preacher so-called pastor are
doing. You see, they have fifty-two
sermons that they get out of a book. You think I'm lying,
don't you? I'm not. You have fifty two or
however many double that to two messages of Sunday at one hundred
and four that they get from the association and down to them
and they just keep rotating preach it through the year and start
over. You think I'm telling you the truth this goes on and the
rest of the time which is ninety percent Is anyone, but this lady said
to me in that letter, I'd rather have you in the study. And sitting
in my sitting in my breakfast table. Because. That's where a message from God
comes from, right? In a study, a careful and diligent
seeking of God's face and God, a message from God, from God's
word in the study given to much study. And so she acknowledged
me. That's what this is saying. She
acknowledged me, and I was a cause for rejoicing to her. And that's what Paul is saying
to these people, that they rejoiced in him and his message, his faithfulness
to them. And he said this, and even as
you also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus. Paul rejoiced
in them and their faithfulness and their love for him their
support of him their faithful support of the gospel their desire
to hear and that's all the grace of all of the. Is the grace of
God we started out to say we have had our conversation by
the grace of by the grace of God we are what we are by the
grace of God I preach the truth and not heresy by the grace of
God I'm not a rank Armenian. By the grace of God, you don't,
you're not a rank Armenian. But my rejoicing is in you as
well. I rejoice in you as well. Look
at this, this crowd this morning. Now the world would think this
would be a failure. But I would count you that don't
have time. There's a good group here. That
pleases me. That causes me to rejoice. Last
night, we had, I don't know how many ladies we had. Anybody count
them? Sixteen, seventeen ladies. I
rejoiced in that. Every chair was full. I rejoiced. Oh, how I rejoiced in that. That
people would take their free time and come out and sit and
listen for two hours. That's the grace of God. grace
of God. Now, you don't need to be congratulated. I'm not congratulating you for
that. It is your privilege and your high honor and a blessing
of God Almighty and your reasonable service to come out. But I rejoice
that you're there and that you're here this morning, and I acknowledge
that. I acknowledge that God has done
something for many of you. Verse fourteen or verse fifteen
and in this confidence, Paul said, I was minded to come to
you. Paul was away from him writing
this letter and he said, I wanted to come unto you fully confident
you receiving me and blessing the benefit that you might have
a second benefit and to pass by you. Verse sixteen. into Macedonia
and to come again out of Macedonia unto you and of you to be brought
on my way toward Judea. Paul was confident with their
need for and love for the gospel and he wanted to see them again
and preach to them again. Verse seventeen, now he says,
when I therefore was thus minded, when I had a mind to come preach
to you, what was my purpose? What was my purpose? Did I use
lightness? Lightness, or the things that
I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh? In other words,
what Paul's saying, what is my motive in preaching? And this is something every man
should ask himself. And you should ask yourself,
what is my motive in being here this morning? We ought to ask
ourselves that every time. Every time. I need to ask myself
every time I stand up here. Before God Almighty I need to
ask myself, why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? And you need to ask the same
thing of yourself. Did I purpose? He said, did I take this lightly?
The things that I do, did I use lightness? You see that? Did
I use lightness? I believe, well, I think you'll
notice about most true preachers. The one characteristic you'll
notice about true preachers, the men that you have a great
deal of respect for and highly esteem them, you'll notice this,
and it's something, it was a glaring, or lack of a better word, a glaring
or very distinguishing trait of brother pleasure. This is
the reason I was so anxious for you to meet that man. Did you
notice it? They are men. He is a man of
a serious and sober demeanor. Serious and sober concerning
this thing of preaching. Not morose this not morose this
I have known preachers to be like that man who you were very
uncomfortable to be around me and whom you would be very intimidated
by that's mostly found in the reformed circle. Our Lord. Was a very serious
man was enough. Very serious. But it says the
common people they like to be around. So it wasn't that he
was. Morose or melancholy is that
a good term. Is a man of sorrow and pain with
grief but he did not. Let it show all the time to people
around there wasn't a sense of complaining in himself. He wasn't
a man of morose or morbid countenance and all that. People,
they liked to be around him. But what he was was very serious,
very sober, very sober and serious. And you'll notice this about
the men that you have a good deal of confidence in, that they
are serious and sober. They're not social sissies, social
sissies or clowns or in the entertainment business, right? They're joyful,
but more than anything, they are purposeful, purposeful. And that's what Paul, I believe,
is alluding to, that he did not use lightness in the sense of
this, of frivolity. And the things he said, the things
that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh? In other
words, do I have fleshly or ulterior fleshly motives? Is there something
in the background, really something back there that causes me to
do what I do? Am I professional? That's what
Paul, do you take me as just a professional preacher or do
I have your Do I genuinely have your eternal good in my mind
and heart? Am I a professional? You've seen
fellows like that. I've seen men who are one way
in the pulpit and entirely different out of it. And you can't have
any confidence in a man like that. Not at all. Paul said,
The things that I purposed were not according to the flesh. not
according to the flesh, not for fleshly purposes, not for fleshly
ambitions, not for goals and future security or whatever. And he said, I didn't plan this.
The things I purpose according to the flesh, I didn't plan.
Look at verse seventeen, the end of it. He says that with
me there should be yea, yea, and nay, nay. Yay yay and nay
nay. I think what he's saying here
is that I don't say one thing and mean another. I don't claim
to believe one way and preach another. I don't preach one message
here and a different message elsewhere. I've heard it said
that about certain men. Haven't you? I've heard people
say about their own pastor after hearing him speak in a Bible
conference And I've heard people say, he doesn't preach that way
at all. And I've known a lot of people
that leave for that reason. In other words, he says what
he says, or he tempers the message according to wherever he is. I've known a lot of men like
that. And Paul says, that's not the way it is with me. I don't
claim to believe one thing and preach another. I don't preach
one message here and a different message elsewhere. I don't have
an ulterior motive, so I hide the truth. Paul said, I'm not
trying to please men. If I am, I'm not deserving of
Christ. I'm trying to tell you the truth. This is what he said.
But as God is true, verse 18, our word toward you, for God
is my witness, or as God is true, our word is true our word are
preaching toward you was not yet in a one thing one time and
another thing the next. Verse nineteen of the son of
God this is our message the son of God. Jesus Christ the gospel
concerning God. Jesus Christ in him crucified
all said I'm determined not to know anything but him our message
is a person person and his work the son of God Jesus Christ who
was preached Among you, by us, even by me, Silvanus, Timotheus,
and I can name names just like Paul did of other men that preached
the same gospel. It was not yea and nay, or yes
or no or maybe. Or what are you saying, preacher? Well, I'm saying this, and he
goes on a long spiel and he still don't know what he's saying after
he said what he said. No, it was not yea and nay, but it was
yea. Yeah yeah it was in him to in
him all the promises of God in Christ you notice that but in
him in Christ all the blessings of God are in Christ the truth
of God. is in Christ. He is the truth,
the way, the truth, and the life. Salvation of God is totally in
Christ, and it's yea. It's certain. Yea. Yea for that. And verse twenty, all the promises
of God in him, in Christ, are yea, and in him, in God, in Christ,
A man. A man under the glory of God
by us under the glory of God. All the promises of God are for
the glory of God and for our certain and sure and eternal
salvation. They're all found in Christ.
Promise certain and sure of God who cannot lie now. Let's read
on and I'll quit verse 21. Now he which establishes to you
or us with you. in Christ. And hath anointed
us is God, or that is, the God who gives you faith, the God
who has drawn you by his Spirit, the God who has called me to
preach to you all of this in and through the person and work
of Christ, the God who hath anointed us, called us Verse twenty two
who have also sealed us. I like that you feel what we
feel we have. The blood the blood is the seal
of our redemption we're covered in the blood seal and given the
earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. I want to preach on that
sometime. The earnestness of the Spirit
is found several times throughout the Scriptures. The earnestness
of the Spirit, the earnestness of the Spirit. Have you ever
received any earnest money for something? Somebody's going to
buy, say somebody's coming to you, Joe, to buy a truck off
of you, and they give you a down payment. That's earnest money,
right? That means they're sincere about
it, and they really want it, and they give you some money
to show that I'm going to do this thing with the Holy Spirit
is the earnest in our hearts of this seal is redemption. He said, I'll not leave you comfortless.
I'll not leave you without some sure and certain promises. Some
have some sure tokens of my love and my salvation. I will send
the Holy Spirit to you. any assurance that we get any
joy and comfort. The pleasure we get from here
in the gospel the blessings of God that the. Provisions of God so many things. All the blessings of God are
earnest. Earnest or tokens of God's love
for us and his assurance to us that we are here and all through
the agency of the Holy Spirit, verse twenty three, and I called
God for a record. Moreover, I called God for a
record. God is my witness. God for a record upon my soul.
That to spare you, I came not as yet on the current. In verse
twenty four, not for that we have dominion over your faith,
but are helpers of your joy by faith you stand. In other words,
Paul, you remember the story back in first Corinthians, I
believe it was chapter seven. About that man who got caught
up in such a terrible. Seeing. With his mother. You remember that. I'm going
to you remember the story and. This is what he deals with in
Chapter two here. He's going to deal with that.
There was some great. Terrible sins that crept into
this church. As all churches have their problem. All these things, to some degree,
creep in. And Paul said, I waited a little
while. Speaking as a man, I believe,
he got angry. He got angry just like anybody
else. Remember, he and Barnabas had a real falling out, a real
argument. And Paul was put out to spare them. In long-suffering,
in grace, in mercy, in patience, in order to have some compassion,
he said he didn't come yet to Corinth and deal with the problem
so quickly. But to give it time, to give
it time, wait on the Lord, the Lord take care of the problem.
And it's what he's saying in verse twenty four, the Lord is
the one who has dominion, not me. I'm not a lord over you. But a helper. Just a helper and
a pastor and leaders of the church
don't delight in church discipline. I don't even know what that means.
Church discipline. God does the discipline. He's
the father, right? Children don't discipline one
another. The father does the discipline. And I've seen this
from experience, watching a man for quite a few years, where
he never, very few times anyway, had to ever take any action whatsoever
in regards to some real problems. And there have been some real
problems. But the Lord will take care of the problem. He'll take
care of the problem. And that's what Paul, I believe,
is saying there. I waited a little while to come
to you. And it's not though that I had
dominion over you anyway. But by the grace of God and you
stand by, you're going to stand by faith in God. All right. You're dismissed. All right.