Our text for today is taken from
2 Corinthians chapter 10, and I think it's helpful to begin
with if we'll keep in mind why Paul was led to write this letter
to the Corinthians. False apostles who sought to
undermine Paul's authority and to discredit the gospel he preached
and made charges against him and his ministry. So Paul thought
it was necessary to vindicate both his message
and his authority before he visited Corinth. Forgive me for my raspy
voice. I can't seem to clear it these
days. Well, here when we get to chapter 10, he's primarily
refuting the malicious accusations that these false teachers had
made against him and against his ministry. And in the process
of addressing these accusations, in verses 3 and 5, which are
the verses we're going to concentrate on, He gives a clear description
of the nature of a true gospel ministry, a description, see,
which showed that their accusations would have no bearing on the
effectiveness of his ministry, because he depicted his ministry
as, one, being engaged in a spiritual warfare, two, describing the
weapons of this warfare that are employed in the warfare,
and three, at what those weapons are targeted. And in so doing,
Paul provides us a stark contrast of the nature of a true gospel
ministry with the nature of false ministries, ministries that compete,
so to speak, all vying for the souls of men, seeking to win
converts to their way of thinking. So you can think of this as a
spiritual warfare waged in contrast to a carnal warfare being waged. And that kind of results in a
religious battle of sorts between the two, especially when you
consider as we look at the nature of a true gospel ministry. On
one side of this battle, we have true gospel ministries supported
by true believers, ministries that set forth God's one true
gospel of God's sovereign grace. wherein we see all of salvation's
conditions being set forth as having been fully met by Jesus
Christ and him alone. And without fail, all these true
believers, they previously had been engaged in this war, if
you would, on the other side. on the wrong side with the multitudes
of religious people who, unlike true believers, have yet to be
given the gifts of genuine faith and repentance. And that's the
reason God calls on all men everywhere to repent, Acts 1730. And that
repentance in Acts 1730, that's not a call to repent of our sinful
behavior, our immoral thoughts and behavior, although we are
called to repent of those things, but there in Acts 1730, it's
a call to repent of religious people's initial religious notions. And that's because all true believers
initially were engaged in this warfare believe in what's natural
to us in that unregenerate state in which we all began, spiritually
dead, spiritually blind. So knowing we all start out with
notions that are aligned with Satan's ministers, the title
of today's message is in the form of a question, have you
switched sides? Or another way of putting it
would be, which side are you now on? The scripture clearly
teaches that the God, as we naturally and initially imagine him to
be, is in fact not the one true and living God of the Bible,
but rather it's an idol of our own imagination. And that's an
imagination that typically has been fed by the various false
preachers under which many of us once sat. We're taught, we're
taught in keeping with our natural notions, typically. So let's
begin here with our text in verse three, where we read, for though
we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, or as the
previous verse suggests, according to the flesh. When Paul says
we walk in the flesh here, in this context, he's referring
to the physical body and our physical existence in these bodies
in which we walk around in our respective lifetimes. But he
says our warfare is not physical. See, Paul is saying, even though
I'm in the flesh, I'm a physical body in a physical world, with
all of Paul's physical weaknesses and infirmities, weaknesses that
his accusers had been quick to point out, some of which, as
we'll see, Paul conceded to be true. He says, but I do not war
accordingly, not after the flesh. So he's asserting here that his
ministry, the ministry of the true gospel, is a spiritual warfare. And that's in contrast with that
of his accusers and their ministries that promote a false gospel,
a gospel which stands in opposition in this battle vying for the
souls of men. And then Paul proceeds in verses
four and five, to describe, one, the nature of the weapons that
are to be employed in spiritual warfare on God's side of the
battle, and two, at what these weapons are to be targeted. Verses
four and five. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but mighty through God. Two, the pulling down of
strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ." So we see the contrast
right away, warring after the flesh versus the spiritual warfare,
using carnal weapons versus spiritual weapons. So the language here
presupposes the concept that there's a war of sorts going
on. And it's interesting that God
calls it that. You know, we can relate to that
to physical wars in the physical realm. People engage in war to
defend the rights of men and women. They do it to defend property
or territory, sometimes to seize territory. They do it in defense
of liberties. They do it to weaken an enemy's
power, sometimes to dominate an enemy. Likewise, we can see
in the spiritual waging of this war, we see the defense of the
truth and the glorious liberty of the gospel. And that for the
weakening of Satan's kingdoms as in a gospel ministry, false
ministries are exposed to be just that, false. And that on
the basis of what God's word tells us, this word of truth.
And this takes place by liberating captives from the bondage of
sin and Satan, from the dominion of the law, or of sin, the dominion
of sin, not the presence of sin, but that bondage of sin, brings
them instead into captivity to Christ and God's way of salvation.
So you're captive to him in that it's a way that's exclusively
by and through the Lord Jesus Christ, based on his person and
his finished cross Turn to Romans 6, or look with me on the screen
there if you want to, where Paul is also speaking of this. Here
in Romans 6, he's expressing his thankfulness for other believers
who have been taken captive under the spiritual warfare of the
gospel. As he says to them, beginning in verse 17, he said, but God
bethink, now he's talking to believers, that you were the
servants of sin on the other side of this battle. But ye have
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine, speaking of the
gospel of God's grace, which was delivered you, or literally
that would read to which you were delivered, being then made
free from sin, liberated from its bondage, its dominion. Ye
became the servants of righteousness. See, that's your thoughts, having
been brought into captivity to righteousness. That's the obedience
of Christ, even unto the death of the cross. That's his righteousness
which believers are brought to trust solely in as the ground
of their eternal salvation. They're brought captive to the,
as the scripture says, the simplicity of Christ, that singular hope
of salvation in and by Christ Jesus. Let's look back at our
text at verses four and five again. As you look at verse four,
it says the weapons employed by a true gospel ministry are
not carnal. They're different from that which
carnal men. When I say carnal men, I'm talking about those
who lack the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. They haven't
been born again, at least not yet, by the Spirit. So they're
different from what they would fight with. It's obvious that
spiritual warfare doesn't involve physical weapons such as guns
and swords. Christ's kingdom is not of this
world. so it's not to be defended and
propagated according to the ways of this world. But in this passage,
the distinction is made in contrast to the weapons that these false
accusers used in their ministries, their fleshly wisdom, their natural
reasonings, their eloquence and their persuasiveness, which they
accused Paul of lacking and which he conceded, as we'll see in
a moment. And those carnal weapons are
consistent with their false doctrine. And the false refuges are strongholds
that they promote. You know, after all, salvation
is presumed to be conditioned on some response from the sinner
or something he or she does. If it's based on that, you being
a less obstinate sinner or a more cooperative sinner than those
that are presumed to remain lost. In other words, if that's the
real difference maker, something that proceeds from you, the sinner,
something other than the finished work of Christ alone, his righteousness
being imputed, being the only ground of salvation, as Paul
preached, well, if it's anything other than that, then it stands
to reason that the persuasiveness of these false apostles would
effectively win converts in belief of a false gospel. I think, when
I think of that, I think of, I've been in some large churches
where there's beautiful music and very eloquent speakers. Think
about how emotions are stirred by the beautiful music and the
pageantry of their services, the entertainment aspect, if
you will. Well, in contrast, you see a true gospel ministry,
the weapons are said to only be effectual toward achieving
their end because they're mighty through God. As Jonah put it,
salvation is truly of the Lord. The weapons of a gospel ministry,
see, are not powerful of themselves. They're passive instruments.
They're only effective or efficacious when the ministering of the gospel
is attended with what Paul calls in 1 Corinthians 2, the demonstration
of the Holy Spirit and of power. Look at that with me in 1 Corinthians
2. Beginning verse 1 it reads, And I, brethren, when I came
to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom. I came
declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not
to know anything among you save or except Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. It's as if Paul's saying here,
if I were to use the carnal weapons such as you use in my ministry,
it'd kind of be like me bringing a knife to a gunfight. I mean,
because he concedes these weaknesses himself, as he goes on to say
in verse four, and my speech and my preaching was not with
enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit
and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of men, but in the power of God. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but mighty through God. In Romans 1, we often quote,
we're told the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth. Verse 17 tells us it's because
therein is the righteousness of God revealed. And that revelation
of faith, that's a mighty work of God. It's His blood-bought
gift of faith, given to each and every one for whom Christ
lived and died. So when the gospel ministry,
its teaching and its preaching, when it's attended with a demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, well then, and only then, is it effectual
to achieve the objective stated here, to the pulling down of
strongholds, as we read in verse 4. A gospel ministry is not aimed
at closing what I'll call an easy believism deal, as in if
all you have to do is just repeat Franklin Graham's prayer or accept
Jesus into your heart. No, see a true gospel ministry
is aimed at the sinner's repentance. It's aimed at tearing down the
strongholds of false notions about how God saves sinners.
Strongholds here is another word. It refers to fortresses. The
fortresses being the walls of a man's heart, his mind, his
affections, his will. And we get that from the context,
the wording, casting down imaginations, bringing thoughts captive. And we can see from that the
battleground is indeed the heart of sinners. And it begins with
our minds, our understanding of things. The scripture says,
God gives an understanding to those he saves. So we see then
the preaching of the gospel in a true gospel ministry, it's
aimed at the understanding. And it calls on sinners to reason
with God based on his word. Reveal truth, as the Lord said
in Isaiah 1. Come, let us reason together,
saith the Lord. It involves the casting aside,
the pulling down, the destruction of the strongholds of the mind.
That's those preconceived notions and imaginations that we all
by nature will assume or presume about God, about Christ, about
His work, about the way of salvation as typified by He will save you
if you'll just do your part. It can vary from different denomination
to denomination, but it always involves some idea that it's
something that you do to close the deal on your salvation. And
that's a false gospel that we're naturally inclined to believe.
The natural man will cry out, if it were any other way, it
wouldn't be fair. You see, the natural man doesn't really need
mercy as long as he's thinking all he needs to do is do his
little part, as they call it. You don't need mercy, you just
need to cut your end of the deal. But God brings his children to
be mercy beggars. And if he brings you to be a
mercy beggar, you're one of them for whom he lived and died. You
can't do that without the power of God, the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches we all start
out as spiritually dead sinners, that we're all gone out of the
way, Romans 3. So that unless a mighty work of God, a spiritual
awakening, a new birth takes place, we'll remain allied with
the enemies of God, thinking we're worshiping the one true
God, but really on the other side of this battle. Inside the
fortresses of our natural reasonings, reasonings the Bible tells us
seems right to us, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
And men hold these natural reasonings, they hold them in high esteem.
But those thoughts are contrary to God in the revelation of who
he is. As the scripture tells us in
Luke 16, 15, that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination
for God. And these fortresses, they're
indeed strong. They take a mighty work of God
to be pulled down. They're strong because of what
the scripture says about us by nature. We start out, we're depraved
sinners. all initially strangers to and
enmity with the true God of the Bible. Some commentators believe
that this reference to strongholds or fortresses is an allusion
to the walls of Jericho that fell at the sound of the ram's
horns. See, that's a feat that must
be ascribed not to those passive instruments, the horns, but to
the power of God that accompanied the very means he instructed
them to use as they walked around the walls of Jericho. See, God
will use the means that he's determined to use. And he tells
us in his scriptures, he's determined to save sinners by what the natural
man calls foolishness, the foolishness of preaching. But God must do
a mighty work. to make that effectual in the
sinner's heart. And if it were any other way,
who would get the glory? It'd be that decision maker.
It wouldn't be the mighty God who saves his people. Well, how
does this truth that, in contrast to the weapons being carnal,
that instead their money through God, listen, to the pulling down
of strongholds, how's that useful to religious-minded people such
as you and me? Well, it's useful as a viable
means of examining which side we're currently on in this warfare
over the souls of men. From this passage, we can know
that genuine believers should be able to identify that such
a transformation has taken place in their own hearts, in their
minds, affections, and wills. And it's a miraculous transformation.
It requires a new birth, being born of the spirit, regeneration
and conversion. And when I say that, I'm not
talking about anything mystical or some vision or emotional experience,
although emotions may be involved. But it's miraculous in that it
causes those who are saved to completely reverse course, to
change sides in this warfare, in this battleground of the understanding.
if you truly consider yourself to have God-given faith, and
yet the knowledge and understanding that you now have of God and
how he saves sinners, your gospel, if it's not different from what
you once imagined, if it's not a 180-degree reversal of what
you formerly and naturally thought would commend you to God or find
you in his favor, well, then these verses should cause you
to ask yourself, Has God really visited me with his mighty power,
so as to pull down my former strongholds? Those things I naturally,
but erroneously, but unwittingly, not knowing I was in error, that
I once thought would gain God's favor and remove his wrath. You
know, like me, you might not be able to identify the exact
moment in time when that took place. But if you've been converted
under a true gospel ministry, Where in these spiritual weapons
were aimed, you should be able to personally identify with what
Paul's written here that you've come to see things radically
different from that which at one time in the past you previously
imagined. In other words, your former strongholds
pulled down. You know, for some, identifying
this may seem a bit more subtle than it was for someone like
me who was brought up under the popular heresy, that God loves
you all, that Christ died for you, and if you'll just do your
part, you too can be saved. That it's really a disguised
system of salvation by words. Though we called it grace, but
admittedly, it was based upon the imagined free will decision
of man. But you know, even those that
are brought up under the sound of the true gospel, They have
to confront those natural notions that all initially entertained
prior to the new birth. You know, it's like that Philippian
jailer when he was interested in salvation, but his first question
was, sirs, what must I do to be saved? We all say, what do
I have to do to find myself among the elect, to be sure I'm one
of those for whom Christ died? It's a natural question. of the
natural mind. And see, that too, as Paul and
Silas corrected him, he said, when they gave him the answer,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, they
were saying, you've got to believe on the doing and dying of another.
They were correcting the assumption embodied in that question, in
that answer or question. So that's an imagination, too,
that has to be cast down by the mighty work of God and true regeneration
and conversion. As you find out, there's nothing
you can do. It's all done by your Savior,
the substitute Jesus Christ. Look with me again further at
verse five. He describes here what the pulling
down of strongholds involves when he says it's casting down
imaginations. and every high thing that exalted
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ." So here we see further
where the weapons are targeting. They call on men and women to
faith and repentance. Repenting of that which was false,
so as to turn by faith to the only thing that will find a sinner
acceptable before God. the obedience of Christ on our
behalf in our place as our substitute. His righteousness imputed or
put to the account of those he saves. The spiritual warfare
or ministry of the gospel is described by Paul earlier in
this same letter to Corinth back in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. There
it's described as a ministry of reconciliation. Look at that
with me in 2 Corinthians 5 beginning in verse 18. Again, he's speaking
to believers here, and he says, And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, or namely, God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. That's not everyone
in the world. That's out of the world, Gentile
and Jew. reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them. This ministry's message
has really liberated these sinners from their bondage to sin as
they learned of being a people, not being charged with their
sins. Boy, that's good news. And he
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. That's the
engagement of God's preachers and those who support a true
gospel ministry. in spiritual warfare through
the preached gospel. He says, verse 20, now then we
are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by
us. We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. How
can I, a sinner, be reconciled to a God? Holy God. Verse 21, for he, God the Father,
hath made him God the Son. to be sin for us, Christ, who
knew no sin, not imputing their sins to them, having charged
them to Christ, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. We know from going back to verse
19 and the non-imputation of sins to those who are saved,
we know from the context that Christ being made sin for those
He saves is the imputation of their sin to Christ. Because
the scripture tells us he wasn't contaminated with our sins. He
offered himself up, it says, without spot. Now, he was made
sin by imputation. And instead of them being charged
with their sins, they were charged to Christ. And not only are they
not charged with their sins, he states likewise, in the same
way, the merit of his work of righteousness That is, His perfect
obedience unto death on the cross is made to be theirs. His very
righteousness is imputed or accounted or credited to their account.
Listen, this righteousness that is accounted to those who are
saved is no less than the very merit of the sinless, the perfect,
the finished work of obedience even unto the death of the cross
that Christ rendered to fully satisfy the law and justice of
God in their place. The law and justice of God being
satisfied both in precept, His perfect obedience, and in penalties,
His obedience even unto the death of the cross, whereby He paid
the debt due unto the sins for which He died. A true gospel
ministry directs sinners to look to Christ and to Him crucified. That's His work of righteousness.
Well, that's the same as bringing every thought as it pertains
to the ground of salvation into captivity to the obedience of
Christ, His righteousness. So look back at 2 Corinthians
10.5. We know that bringing these thoughts
captive can't be speaking of our every conscious thought being
continually focused on Christ's work of obedience. We know that
because, for example, the scripture elsewhere exhorts us to be good
employees as we work for a living. Well, that demands your attention
to the task at hand. But remember what the subject
is here. It's a gospel ministry, a spiritual warfare. So what
he's conveying is when it comes to that, when it comes to the
basis of your hope for salvation, that the whole understanding
is to be brought captive to this one work of righteousness, the
obedience which Christ rendered, so as to embrace it as the sole
ground of our salvation, of how we, those sinners in ourselves,
are counted righteous. You know, in Colossians 1, it
describes a saved sinner as holy and unblameable and unreprovable
before a holy God. You, a sinner, the only way that
can be is to have this righteousness, which you can't produce. The
very righteousness of God freely imputed to you. And any other
notion as to the ground of our salvation, that's an imagination
or or high thing that exalteth itself against or in opposition
to the knowledge of God as He truly is. Knowing God as He is,
as both a just God and a Savior, as is uniquely revealed in the
gospel of Christ and Him crucified, this is a big deal. It's essential,
it's vital to our eternal welfare. Christ said as much in his high
priestly prayer in John 17 3 when he prayed, and this is life eternal
that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. So anything in opposition to
the knowledge of God as he truly is, well that would be an idol.
And it may be made evident by religious indifference, whereby
we demonstrate a lack of the presence of God's spirit, neglect
to even seek after the one true God. It could be being consumed
with other worldly interests that would rival or displace
our interest in Christ, through whom we come to know the one
true God. But you know, more specific to this context, in
which Paul is writing, this is referring to those sincere religious
imaginations concerning God and how he saves sinners. Faults
of being accepted by God based on anything other than, anything
in addition to the imputed righteousness of Christ. And we know that because
that's what Paul was addressing due to the accusations made against
him by these religious accusers who were promoting a false gospel.
The Greek word that's translated imagination there is those which
are to be cast down. It's a word which simply means
reasonings or thoughts. In fact, in Romans 2.15, the
same Greek word is translated thoughts. But remember, as I
alluded to earlier, what the scripture says about our thoughts,
what we all naturally think. As we often quote from Proverbs,
there is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof
are the ways of death. In other words, the way that
seems right isn't. In other words, apart from the mighty work of
God making effectual to us the preached gospel of God's grace
in Christ so as to pull down our former strongholds and cast
down our former imaginations, what had seemed right to us will
all remain mistaken. So that's why it's eternally
vital that our imaginations or thoughts be cast down. It's because
our natural thoughts or imaginations will have us worship an imaginary
God, not the true and living God of the Bible. That would
be an idol. So we aim our weapons at casting
down that which is opposed to the knowledge of God, opposed
to the gospel that teaches salvation is conditioned on Christ alone.
You see, because it's that doctrine of Christ that uniquely reveals
to us the knowledge of God. How all of God's attributes,
they're not pitted against one another as if God has to dispense
with one attribute in order to show mercy. That he has to dispense
with his justice in order to show mercy. Just overlook your
sins. No, they must be justly dealt
with. And think of the injustice that
we accuse God of when we imagine that Christ died for all the
sins who lived, but most of them perish anyway. Christ, having
paid their sin debt with His infinitely valuable blood, that
would be an unjust monster. You see, no, that's not God as
He's revealed in the Scripture. No, in the Gospel, we see how
all of His attributes are brought together to behold His redemptive
glory. He can be both a just God and
a Savior. through the person to finish
work of Christ. How God can justly punish sin
and still show mercy to the sinner. Doesn't it make you love the
doctrine of imputation? Any thoughts or reasonings, imaginations,
any high thing that exalteth itself, that is, it places itself
in rivalry with knowing God as he's uniquely revealed in the
gospel. Well, by a gospel ministry, that's targeted to be discredited,
to be proven vain. It's because we don't know what
is right apart from having learned where we're wrong about God and
how He saves sinners. If you think there's any merit
or saving contribution derived from anything that proceeds from
you, the sinner, that's exactly what you're doing. You're placing
that which proceeds from you in rivalry with what it took.
Christ and His bloodshed, His righteousness. So that needs
to be cast down because it exalts itself against the knowledge
of God and to persist there is to remain on the carnal or the
worldly side of this battle. Well, I hope you've seen today
from 2 Corinthians 10 the nature of a true gospel ministry, the
ministry through which we see how reconciliation Peace can
truly be made between God and all those he saves by the doing
and dying of Christ and by that alone. To summarize this ministry
or this spiritual warfare that God's people are to engage in,
it's identified by two clear and vital truths that will have
been applied, and this is my emphasis today, applied to all
who have been or will be blessed by God so as to be saved under
such a ministry. One, their natural refuges are
strongholds. How we naturally would presume
to be saved, it will be pulled down. And their natural imaginations
cast aside, so as to bring their thoughts captive to the obedience
of Christ. And you know, neither one of
those occur apart from the other. So until both of those things
happen, our God, little G, he's just a figment of our spiritually
dead imaginations. But just as we cannot know what
is right without knowing what is wrong, the reverse is true.
We don't come to know what is wrong without seeing what is
right. So therefore, faith, turning
to what is right, is always accompanied by God-given repentance, turning
away from what was wrong. By faith, we turn to the true
and living God, which requires turning away in repentance from
the former idol of our imagination. You know, we don't perceive that
we're on the wrong side of this war. We think we're worshiping
the true God, until by God's mighty power, through his gift
of faith and belief of his gospel, we're shown what is right, the
very righteousness of God that we must possess, the absolute
necessity of Christ's work for us, whereby we come to understand
and embrace how God reconciles sinners unto himself. by having
imputed my sins to Christ and his righteousness to me. And
until we're convinced of the impossibility of being accepted
before a holy God any other way, we've not yet been brought captive
to the obedience of Christ. Not captive so as to look to
Christ and his righteousness alone. Have you switched sides? Which side are you on? You know,
there's nothing more dangerous than to be steeped in religion
only to find out too late that it had been a false refuge. Remember
what Christ told the Pharisees in Matthew 23, 15. He said, Woe
unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye accomplish
sea and land to make one proselyte or convert. And when he is made,
you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. To believe in a false refuge
is promoted by the Pharisees, such as basing your hope on some
decision you made. Your law keeping is a Pharisees
promoted. Your determination to do right,
anything that proceeds from you, well it's prone to keep you to
stop seeking. From further examining yourself
as to whether you be in the faith as we're all commanded to do.
It's to have a refuge, see, which gives you assurance but it's
a false assurance because it's a refuge of lies. If it's contrary
to God's truth, it's set forth in his word. And given that false
sense of spiritual well-being, it's in that sense that many
such converts, and sadly, as many to the popular version of
so-called Christianity in our day, they've been made two-fold
more the child of hell as they're engaged in religious industries,
unwittingly on the wrong sides. Have you switched sides? Well,
that would be the prayer of this ministry in keeping with our
Lord's command to repent and believe his gospel. Gospel wherein
he gets all the glory, bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ. Thank you.