Brother Al was talking about
the blood and whether or not the river was actually turned
to literal blood. And I would concur that I do
not believe that it is literal blood that the Lord was speaking
about when He said that the river was turned to blood. But it brings
up a different line of thought in considering such things as
that, and that is that when the Scripture speaks about sins being covered in the blood
of Christ, it's not even then speaking literally of blood. The substance of blood is not
that which is pleasing in the Lord's sight. It's not bowls of the fluid that flows
through men's veins that is precious in God's sight. That's not the
blood that he's speaking about. When the Scripture speaks about
the blood of Christ, the significance is not in the corpuscles and
the fluid that was in his veins. but rather in the fact that the
life is in the blood and that the blood of Christ, the significance
of the blood of Christ is the life of Christ. That is, that
He poured out His blood, surely He did, the literal blood of
Christ poured out. And it is the literal blood of
Christ that is visible as a visible means whereby we might know that
He did die. Now, he could have gotten some
disease and died, and he would have been dead, but that's not
the same thing, is it? As though he was sacrificed and
is a visible representation of the pouring out of his life before
Almighty God. And so when we read about the
blood in the Scripture, it's not the blood per se. that ought
to come to our mind. It's not the fluid, but it is
rather what the blood is that is important. When we take the
communion wine and the Lord said this is the blood of the New
Testament, He wasn't saying that, as you pointed out, that this
was actually His blood in that cup, but it's what this represents. And that what it represents is
what it is, because it is the giving of the Lord Jesus Christ
in His whole self unto His people. And so, you know, when we read
in the Scripture about the blood, we don't need to get hung up
on that. Now some would say, well, we
need to emphasize it. Well, we need to emphasize the
blood of Christ, but we need to emphasize what the blood of
Christ is. And what the point of it is,
it wasn't just blood, because the blood of bulls and goats
was poured out. That wasn't of any good. What
made the blood of Christ important was whose blood it was. Not the
blood itself, but whose blood it was, because it was the life
of Christ poured out for His people. Now, we're looking in
II Corinthians, in chapter 2, And I am going to read this chapter.
It says, But I determined this with myself, that I would not
come again to you in heaviness. For if I make you sorry, who
is he that maketh me glad? But the same which is made sorry
by me. And I wrote this same unto you,
lest when I came I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought
to rejoice. having confidence in you all
that my joy is the joy of you all. For out of much affliction
and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears, not
that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly, but that
ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. But if any have caused grief,
he hath not grieved me. but in part that I may not overcharge
you. Sufficient to such a man is this
punishment, which was inflicted of many, so that contrarywise
he ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps
such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore
I beseech you that ye would confirm your love towards him. For to
this end also did I write that I might know the proof of you,
whether ye be obedient in all things. To whom ye forgive anything,
I forgive also. For if I forgave anything, to
whom I forgave it for your sakes, forgave I it in the person of
Christ. Lest Satan should get an advantage
of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Furthermore,
when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was
opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because
I found not Titus my brother. But taking my leave of them,
I went from there into Macedonia. Now thanks be unto God, which
always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest
the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are
unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved and in
them that perish. To the one we are the saver of
death unto death, to another the saver of life unto life.
And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many
which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of
God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ." Now, the first
part of this chapter, I believe, is written. Paul, of course,
he has reference to the matter that he had written to the Corinthians
in the first epistle, which was having to do with the man who
was overtaken in a fault and was living in an incestuous relationship. he had upbraided the Corinthian
church pretty strongly concerning their lack of doing anything
about this or saying anything about the error that this was. And obviously from what he's
writing here that they did follow up on what he said that they
ought to do and they did remove their fellowship from him. that
he might be brought to repentance. And, as it appears, that this
was a successful thing. The man was brought to repentance.
And so he's saying there to them that he wanted to come this time
when he came to see them. He didn't want to come having
to bring such a heavy message to them. He didn't want to have
to be getting on to them about dealing with such things as this.
And so that's what he says, I determined that I would not come again to
you in heaviness. I didn't want to come to you
up, Brady, because I don't want to make you sorry. He says, I
don't want to make you feel bad. I don't want to rake you over
the coals. But he says, I want to build
you up. I want you to be encouraged.
Because he said, if you're not encouraged, neither am I. That's
what he's basically saying there when he says, is he that maketh
me glad but the same which is made sorry by me? Because he
says, my joy is to see you walking in joy. Now that's the desire
of those who are sent to declare the truth of God to men. It's
not just to see men walking around with long faces. That's not our
purpose. Now we might speak things that
cause God's people to have long faces from time to time, but
that's not the goal. In other words, our goal is not
to cause God's people grief, but it's to bring God's people
joy that we might rejoice in Christ. And so sometimes, though,
it's necessary in the course of that that grief be brought
in order that joy might be seen because the only time God's people
are really going to be walking in joy is when they're walking
in the truth. I mean, we cannot ignore something and make out
like something is okay if it is not. For out of much affliction
and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears, not
that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which
I have more abundantly unto thee. So he is just reiterating that
very fact. But if any have caused grief,
he hath not grieved me, but in part, that I may not overcharge
you all." He said, I don't take these things personally. And
he says, if some of you have said things that maybe you were
critical of me, and he said, you know, maybe you thought I
was too hard on you, he says, I'm not holding that against
anybody. I fully understand. what it is because he says, it's
not my purpose to overcharge you. It's not my purpose to bring
great affliction there. Sufficient to such a man is the
punishment which was afflicted of many. In other words, he's
saying what you've done is sufficient. You don't need to take this man
and destroy him over this. In other words, all of us, because
we need to be reminded that in whatever fault we might find
someone overtaken in, we are apt to be overtaken in the same
fault ourselves, because we are all prone to the same things. And so he's saying, don't be
overly hard on this man. Sufficient to such a man is this
punishment which was inflicted of many. So that contrary-wise,
you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him rather than bring
this up every time you see him. Now, you remember what you did
back so-and-so. Now, you know, sometimes that's
a hard thing to do is to get over something, isn't it? You
know, it's easy to say we forgive somebody for something, but then
later on we kind of hold it in the back of our mind so that
if the need arises, We can bring it up again. Paul said, Don't
bring it up again. He said, It's over and done with.
Move on. So that contrarywise, you ought
rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one
should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. You know, sometimes people
are more affected by our our correction of them than we
might think. They might not appear that they
are corrected. People do not always react to
our rebuke like we want them to. When we rebuke a child, for
instance, we want them to express sorrow. right then, don't we? I mean, we want them to be sorry
right then. But you know, sometimes things
don't work like that, do they? Sometimes it takes a while. And
you know, the child may become angry when he's rebuked in the
immediate thing, but later on, as the Lord works, especially
in them, And He brings these things to their mind and their
conscience, and in His time, He brings about the sorrow. You
can't determine that somebody ought to be as sorry as you think
they ought to be when they ought to be sorry, because if they're
the Lord, the Lord will bring about that in His own time. And when He does, it will be
real sorrow. You know, I mean, do you want
somebody just to express sorrow right then? Or do you want that
to be a work that is a lasting work? And so that's what he's
saying here. So that contrarywise, you ought to rather forgive him
and comfort him, lest perhaps such one should be swallowed
up with overmuch sorrow. I mean, if the Lord has broke
the man's heart and you keep bringing it up to him, what are
you doing for him? Are you helping him? No, he's
already weighed down with it enough. You don't need to add
fuel to the fire, but sufficient is that sorrow. Wherefore I beseech
you that ye would confirm your love towards him. So what's it
there saying? Don't keep telling him what he
did wrong. Tell him how much you love him. praying for him and wanting to
help him along the way. Confirm your love towards him.
For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of
you, whether you be obedient in all things." He said, that's
why I'm writing to you. I want to see this carried out.
As much as I want to see you rebuke him for his sin, I want
to see you also loving him and forgiving him now that he has
been brought to repentance. and so that this might have its
perfect work. To whom ye forgive anything,
I forgive also. He said, you know, I'm not harboring
something back about this thing. He says, if you have forgiven
this man, I forgive him also. For if I forgave anything, to
whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of
Christ. Now that's how we ought to be.
Is that not how we are to look at forgiveness, as the Lord forgave
us? What does the Lord teach His
disciples to pray? Forgive our debts even as we
forgive our debtors. It is the work of God in us. We are not unforgiving people
if we belong to the Lord. But forgiveness is part and parcel
of the Spirit's work in the Lord's people. For your sakes forgave
I am in the person of Christ, lest Satan should get an advantage
of us. For we are not ignorant of his
devices. Now what are the devices of Satan? To take good things
and turn them around and turn them into bad things. And just
like when we see a fault in a brother, And we go to Him and we seek
to correct Him in that thing if we should go beyond what it
is that the Lord requires of that. Then Satan has got a device
where he can use that to tear down the people of God rather
than build them up. So Paul said, Be careful about
this. When you forgive somebody, forgive
them. lest Satan should get an advantage of us. For we're not
ignorant of his devices. He's constantly working to cause
us to be unforgiving, to harbor things in our heart, to hold
grudges. And what does that... You know,
a grudge doesn't hurt anybody but the person holding the grudge.
It doesn't hurt the other person at all. Unforgiveness hurts no
one but the person who is unforgiving. Furthermore, when I came to Troas
to preach Christ's gospel and a door was opened unto me of
the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit. He said the door was
opened in Troas and I went there to preach the gospel, but he
said I was troubled in my spirit because I went there expecting
to see Titus and he wasn't there. Now Paul was close to Titus and
Timothy, to Barnabas, and Silas. They were men that worked together. He especially speaks of Titus
and Timothy as being very close to him. And he said, I had no
rest in my spirit because I found not Titus my brother. He wasn't
there. I was expecting to see him. And
evidently, Paul felt like that he either needed to see Titus
to impart something to him, or he felt perhaps that Titus could
impart something to him. But in any event, He said that
I had no rest in my spirit because I did not find Titus there and
taking my leave from them I went from there to Macedonia. Now
evidently his original plan was to meet up with Titus in Troas
and then they were going to come to Corinth because remember he
had said up here that he had a change of plans in the first
chapter. how that he had originally told
them he was coming by there, but he said it didn't work out
that way. Now the enemies of Paul use that
as a means whereby they might turn the people against him and
say, Yeah, look, Paul says one thing and does something else.
That's why he said, No, when I say, Yea, my Yea is Yea and
my Nay is Nay. But he said sometimes things
don't work out just exactly like our intentions are. But I had
the purpose to do so. So he said, so instead of coming
to you after leaving Troas, I went from there to Macedonia. And
evidently that was where Titus was. Now thanks be unto God,
which always causes us to triumph in Christ and make it manifest
the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. I think one
of the things Paul's doing right here is he is expressing the
humanity of even the apostles. Paul said, you know, I was impressed
that I needed to go to a certain place, but it didn't work out
that way. Things changed around and I wound
up going to Macedonia, but he said it was the Lord's purpose. See, the Lord doesn't always
lead us to do things that we might think He's leading us to
do. But He does always lead His people
to do the thing that ultimately is for their benefit. Now, it might not appear that
way sometimes, but in the ultimate case, in the ultimate outcome
of all events, it's for the good of God's people. Is that not
what the Scripture says? All things work together for
good to them that love God who are called according to His purpose.
Even this young man who was in this church and fell into a grievous
fault, if he belonged to the Lord, the Lord had ordained all
of these things not to aggrandize the wrong that he did, but for
the benefit of him as he is brought to repentance. over that. Now, you know, these are deep
things, and the Lord's purpose is beyond our comprehension.
But we know this, that the Lord is guiding His people daily,
and He's causing all things to work together for their good.
And there is no way that can be overturned or thwarted by
any power outside of the Lord, because He is bringing those
things to pass. And so Paul says, now thanks
be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ. We always
triumph in Christ. God's people always triumph in
Christ. Now, it does not always appear
that they are triumphing in Christ. Perhaps when Paul was, maybe
he was going away from Troas with his head between his legs
and he was feeling down and he was thinking, well, you know,
I thought I was supposed to be doing this and that didn't work
out and now I'm going over here to Macedonia. But he sees, well,
wait a minute, we always triumph in Christ. Because what the Lord
means, just like as the Lord sent Joseph down into Egypt and
what Joseph's brothers meant for evil, God meant for good. He determined that and He worked
that out. And so in the same way, He says,
"...which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh
manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place." because
the Lord causes his Word to bear the fruit that he purposes for
it to do. The Word of God does not return
to him void. It does not fail in any way. It is not wasted. When we cast
our bread upon the waters, it's not wasted. It's not useless. Now, I'll give you an example
of this. You know, we, of course, we've
got the, our broadcast goes out on the radio, and sometimes you
get to thinking, well, you know, it seems like nobody's hearing
that. But usually when I get to feeling
the worst, just the other day a guy called me up and he said,
hey, he says, are you on the radio? And I said, well, yeah. And he said, yeah. He said, you
know, I turned the radio on the other day and I heard this voice
and I said, well, I know who that is. And so he said, you
know, I started listening to that and he said, I've really
been blessed by it. And, you know, the Word of God
triumphs. It's nothing to do with us. Paul
said, it's not us. He said, but the Word of God
triumphs. Now it might not be that, and
as he says, everybody didn't embrace what he said, but he
said those to whom God sent it did. It was a good thing. "...which always causeth us to
triumph in Christ, and make it manifest the savour of His knowledge
by us in every place." Now the savour of His knowledge. That's
the aroma of it. When you're cooking something
that smells good when it's cooking, the savor of it fills the house,
does it not? But you know if you're cooking
something that doesn't smell good, you know sometimes some
things you cook don't smell good when you're cooking them, but
they taste good when you eat them. And sometimes that savor,
it's not a savor you like. But he said here, We triumph
in Christ and He makes manifest the savor of His knowledge by
us in every case. Now the savor of the knowledge
of God is not sweet to every man, is it? Everybody won't hear
that. I imagine those people probably
have heard some of this stuff that I've preached on the radio
and they turned it off. They probably saw it and said,
that guy, I mean, he don't know what he's talking about. And
they're probably right in many cases, But you see, God causes
the savor of His knowledge to go forth, and it's sweet to those
who are given that desire. Now listen to this, for we are
unto God a sweet savor of Christ. Now why do we preach the gospel? We preach it for the glory of
God. Our desire is to magnify the
name of Christ. It's not to try to get converts. It's not to try to get people
to come to church. It's not to try to accomplish
anything except to magnify the glory of His grace. And that's
what Paul said here, for we are unto God. a sweet savor of Christ. The Lord, He delights in the
savor of Christ, does He not? He delights in the glory of Christ. He sent the Spirit into the world
among the people of God to do one thing, to testify of Christ. He said when He has come, He
will not speak of Himself. but He will glorify me." Because
you see, that is what the purpose of the preaching of the Gospel
is, is as a savor unto God. It comes up as a sweet aroma
before the throne of God. He says, "...in them that are
saved, and in them that perish." Now that's an amazing passage
of Scripture, is it not? I mean, the Gospel is a savor,
a sweet savor unto God, whether it goes forth to them that are
saved or whether it goes forth to them that perish. It doesn't
make any difference. It's the same sweet savor unto
God. And then he says, to the one,
speaking of how men react to that, to the one we are the savor
of death unto death. They don't want to hear it. People
don't want to hear the gospel. I mean, the rank and file person
out here in the world does not want to hear the gospel of Christ. Now, they want to hear a message
that they like if it's in keeping with what they think the gospel
is. They won't hear that. They want
to hear somebody pat them on the back. They want to hear somebody
tell them what they can do. They want to hear somebody tell
them how they can get their prayers answered. They want people to
tell them how they can get wealthy. They want somebody to tell them
how they can feel good. They want all these things. But
you see, the truth of Christ is not a saver unto all of them. Now, I don't know who the people
of God are. I don't have the slightest idea. The only way we can have any
inkling of it is as to whether or not they love the brethren
and they love the gospel of Christ. Those are the only ways in which
the Scripture indicates that there is any manner in which
it would be possible for us to know. We don't know who they
are, but we do know this. that the message we preach, the
preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, is going to be,
to some, a glorious message. And to some, it's going to be
like the thing they hate. Now, is it possible for a man
to hate the gospel of Christ and be a believer? I mean, is it? I mean, that's
a rhetorical question, I guess. I don't think it would be possible.
that you could hate the gospel of Christ and yet believe it. So Paul says, to the one we are
a saver of death unto death, to another the saver of life
unto life. And then he says, and who is
sufficient for these things? I mean, how can you explain that? I mean, can you come up with
an explanation for that? Can you determine who that is? I mean, can you set it forth
in such fashion that it fits well with all men? No. We're
not sufficient for these things. I don't know. But the Lord hasn't
called me to be sufficient for it. Our sufficiency is what? Christ. I mean, our message is
Christ. We just want to preach Christ.
And so we can't determine what people are going to do with it
or how they're going to react to it, but that's not up to us
to do that. All we're doing is declaring
what the truth is, which is a savor, a sweet savor in the nostrils
of God. Who is sufficient for these things?
I'm certainly not. For we are not as many which
corrupt the Word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God,
in the sight of God, speak we in Christ." Our purpose is not
to turn men one way or the other. Our purpose is not to try to
get men to follow what we're saying. Our purpose is not to
get men to pat us on the back. Our purpose is to declare the
truth and the glory of Jesus Christ. in the earth. And in
doing so, Paul says, he always causes triumph in Christ. If
we're preaching the truth as it is in Christ. Now how do we
know if we're preaching the truth as it is in Christ? Is our message
Jesus Christ and Him crucified? If it is, then that's the gospel. As far as I know, I don't know
of another one, I don't know how you can preach any other
message than that and be preaching the gospel. It's not about theology. It's not about explaining things
one way or explaining things somewhere else. Is it Christ
and Him crucified, the hope of glory of the people of God with
nothing added to it, nothing taken from it? Is that what we
believe? then that is the truth of God.
And it is a sweet savor in the nostrils of God. The glory of
Christ, not the glory of men, not the satisfaction of men,
not the happiness of men, but the glory of Christ. May He ever
give us a mind and heart that we might desire to speak the
Word of God sincerely. not slanting it one way or slanting
it another. There it is. That's it. Take
it or leave it as it sets forth there. If it's Christ and Him
crucified, I mean, if a man comes to us and he says, men and brethren,
what must I do to be saved? What would we tell him? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. If a man
comes and he says, what can I do to earn the favor of God, what
would I tell him? Not a thing in the world you
can do. It's Christ. He alone is that One who is our
message and nothing else. Somebody have a question or a
comment? It's interesting what you just spoke. Today, in some
country, you'd be going to jail for hate speech. For sure. Well,
exactly. And that's a good point. I mean, that's exactly what he's
saying. It's the save or death. Now, we've never really experienced
it in this country yet. I fully believe that if things
continue as they're going, it is going to come to the place
where There is going to be open rebellion against the preaching
of the gospel. Now, most of these outfits can
continue right on because they're willing to modify and change
things around so that it's not abrasive. You know, men don't
want something that's offensive to them. It's like a fellow I
had heard the other day, I forget, He was being interviewed for
some cabinet position, not a cabinet position, but an under-cabinet
position, and he had written a paper some time back. He was
a professing Christian, and he had written a paper that basically
said if a man wasn't in Christ, he was condemned. And I think
it was Bernie Sanders or somebody who really took issue, oh, did
you write this? And all that stuff. And the guy,
I mean, he wasn't as strong as I wish he had been about defending
what he wrote. But nonetheless, he didn't back
up from it. Because, I mean, I wouldn't ever
be confirmed. But he was trying to mince his
words. But the reality is they're brethren. If we preach the gospel as the
Scripture says it, it is going to be very offensive to all manner
of people, especially in our society where people just figure,
well, whatever you want to do is all right, and one religion
is as good as another. Well, it's not so. Now, one religion
is as good as another if you're looking for religion, but if
you're talking about eternal things and the veracity and truth,
of those things God has revealed, there is but one way, one truth,
one way to life, and that is through Jesus Christ. And those
who are not in Christ are indeed condemned, not because we condemned
them. See, that's what they want to
make it out, is like we're condemning people. I don't condemn anybody.
The only reason I'm not condemned It would be by the grace of God
if I'm not condemned. I mean, that's the only thing. I mean, who maketh thee to differ
from another? But you see, that's not good
enough for the people of this world. They want you to make
them feel good about where they're at. See, people want to feel
good doing what they're doing. They don't say anything about
what I'm doing. You know, just let me go on.