Now the goal of our preaching,
we looked at this last week, is in verse 5 of chapter 10. This is the goal of our preaching.
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. Our goal is that the
Lord would bring into captivity every thought of ours into subjection
to Christ, to the righteousness and obedience of Christ. Our
goal is to preach Christ so that men and women believe Him, that
they would submit themselves to the righteousness of Christ.
That's what Paul said was wrong with his Jewish brethren. They
have a zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge. They
haven't submitted themselves to the righteousness of Christ.
And we want to preach Christ so that people will trust Him.
They'll trust the obedience of Christ. And put no hope, put
no confidence in our obedience, anything that we've done or we
haven't done. And that message always meets with opposition,
always. False prophets have always been
in business. You know, we see them today in
our day and we get so just been out of shape about them. But
I'm telling you, this is nothing new. During our Lord's earthly
ministry, he warned us to beware of false prophets, which come
to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravening wolves.
Way back then, our Lord warned us about them. And the preacher's
job is to preach the word. The preacher's job is not just
to point out false prophets and talk about everything they're
doing wrong. Although that's part of it at times, but the
preacher's job is to preach the word. Now, in this passage, in
this chapter, Paul is dealing with false prophets. And the
best way to do that is to preach the word. You lay a straight
stick down next to a crooked stick and the difference will
be obvious. Just the difference will be obvious. Just preach
the word. The Lord will make his people see it. And that's
where he's that's what he's doing here. So our lesson begins in
verse eight. He says, for though I should
boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us
for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not
be ashamed." Now, when the Lord calls a man to preach, He gives
that man the gifts and abilities to be able to do the job. And
that's true for every one of us. Whatever it is the Lord's
called you to do, He's given you the gifts to be able to do
it. Now, it's human nature to want to be in charge, isn't it?
Everybody wants to be in charge. Because human beings love power. You know, if you're the one in
power, you can do whatever you want to everybody else, and nobody
can do anything to you that you don't want them to do, because
you've got all the power. That's why everybody thinks it'd be
great to own their own business, to be the boss. I can set my
hours, I can tell everybody what to do, and nobody can tell me
what to do. I make all the rules. But the authority that God gives
His pastors is a completely different matter. It's not that. The Lord
gives his pastors authority for the good of the church. Not so
they can be the one making all the rules, for the good of the
church. So that they can promote faith
and holiness, a holy walk in those that hear them. So that
they can comfort and feed the sheep. Not so they can have power
to lord it over the sheep or oppress the sheep, but for the
good of the flock. Look over a page here at 2 Corinthians
13. In verse 10. Therefore I write these
things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness,
according to the power which the Lord hath given me to what?
Edification, and not to destruction. That's what the Lord gives his
pastor's authority for, is for edification, not for destruction. And this is always true, always. The person who has the authority
It's the person who has the most responsibility. And with this
authority comes the responsibility to build up the church, not for
its destruction. And Paul was not ashamed to say
he had this authority. God gave it to him. So it's true. This is the authority that he
had. And you read Paul's epistles, it's obvious this man had authority,
power in the word. He wrote the biggest part of
the New Testament. He had power and authority in preaching, and
he was even given authority to punish offenders. But even that
power was used for the good of the church, to protect the church
and cut out a cancer, to protect the body. Look over 1 Timothy
chapter 1. Here's a time when Paul used
this authority, and it was used for edification, for good, not
for destruction. 1 Timothy 1 verse 19. Holding faith in a good conscience,
which some, having put away, concerning faith, have made shipwreck,
of whom is Himanias and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan."
Now that's power. That's power men don't have today.
This is apostolic authority. I've delivered them unto Satan.
Why? That they may learn not to blaspheme. Now you'd think delivering someone
over to Satan would be for their destruction. That's not why Paul
did it, is it? It's for their good. that they
learn not to blaspheme. And it's for our good, too, that
we see how the Lord deals with them, that we learn not to blaspheme. That's for our good. And that's
what this authority that the Lord gives his pastors is always
for, is for the good of the church. Now, verse 9, he says that I
may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters. That's not my
goal, to write letters to you to terrify you. For his letters
say they are weighty and powerful. But his bodily presence is weak
and his speech contemptible. Now this is a charge that false
teachers used against Paul. They say, now he writes weighty,
powerful, forceful letters that demand obedience to God in his
letters. But when he's with you in person,
he doesn't talk to you that way. He's meek and he's humble. His
bodily presence doesn't give you the impression of a guy with
a lot of power. His bodily presence is weak and
contemptible. All the historical writers say
that the Apostle Paul was a short man. He was bowlegged. He had gray thinning hair and
a long, thin gray beard. He had a crooked nose and a weak,
squeaky voice. He had bad eyesight, probably
like Mr. Magoo or something, you know.
Well, you might fear reading Paul's letters, but you see the
guy in person. This guy is not, he's not all
that powerful. Well, Paul was meek when he was
with people. He had a humble heart. You can
tell that from his letters, too. He had authority. You can tell
that in his letters. But you could tell this man had
a humbled heart. Because what did he say about
himself? I'm less than the least of all the saints. I'm the chief
of sinners. He had a humble heart. And he
didn't use his power, his authority, to go around pressing people
all the time. Because what stuck out to people?
When he was with you, he was meek. What? That's what stuck
out to them. He didn't use his power to impress
people. And that was on purpose, because
Paul didn't want to impress people. He wanted people impressed with
Christ. He wanted people impressed with
his message and not with him. He wanted sinners to be impressed
with Christ. Now, we're on the trail of God's
sheep. And I'm telling you this, the
sheep are impressed with Christ. And that's why we preach him.
We preach his blood, his righteousness, his mercy, his grace, his sufficiency,
his love, his sovereignty. We preach Christ and the sheep
will hear that. They'll come running. Now, Paul's
physical presence was not impressive, but his gospel was. And there
were some people that were disappointed in that. But the people that
were disappointed in that were people who are looking for hero
worship. If you want hero worship, Go find King Saul. If you want
to hear the gospel, go find this humble man, Paul. He'll tell
you about Christ. You see, sheep, God's sheep care
about the message, not about the characteristics of the under
shepherd. They don't care about that. What
they are thankful for is Christ. It's the message. And we should
be thankful for God's preachers. Now we should. Scripture teaches
us that. To love them and respect them for the work's sake. But
don't get too impressed with them. Don't put them in some
sort of hero status because they're the same as everybody else. Now
at the same time, don't let Paul's weak physical appearance fool
you because he does indeed have power of the Lord. Look at verse
11. Let such in one think this, that such as we are in word by
letters when we're absent, such will we be also indeed when we're
present. Now maybe Paul's referring to
one particular person who's making these charges against Paul. And
these fellows judge Paul's spiritual gifts and spiritual authority
by his physical strength and appearance. Well, those guys
are going to get a rude awakening because Paul has the authority
to make good what he's written in his letters to the Corinthians.
Now, Paul conducted himself like all of us should, and particularly
pastors should, in meekness. and humility before men and before
God, a man who's easy to be around. But don't mistake that meekness
and that humility for lack of authority. Now, there comes a
time that it is time to forcefully deal with rebellion and disobedience. And God's servants are willing
to do that, too. They're willing to be humble and meet men and
preach the gospel, but they're willing to deal with this disobedience
when the time is necessary. And Paul says, if this stuff
doesn't change when I get there, it's going to be time and I will
deal with it. Now, verse 12, he says, for we
dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with
some that commending themselves, they measuring themselves by
themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise.
Now, Paul's not going to evaluate his ministry by comparing himself
to other preachers. John Gill says he's writing this
in a very sarcastic way, saying, I'm not going to dare compare
myself with these fellows. They're giants. Just look at
them and listen to them. Let them tell you about themselves.
They're giants. I'm not going to compare myself to them. That's
what Gill said. I don't know if he's true or
not, but I can understand. But that's the way false prophets
evaluate themselves. That's the only way they can
make themselves feel important, is by comparing themselves with
each other. And what is the things they talk about? Well, how many
did you have in service this morning? Oh, we had this many.
How many did you have walk the aisle this week or this month?
How many did you baptize this year? That's the way they're
comparing themselves. Or they like to get together and sound
smart and compare their knowledge with each other. They try to
find some intricate detail of scripture and, oh, you don't
know about that? Well, let me tell you, they sound so smart.
All those fellows are doing is comparing themselves to each
other. That's one maggot comparing himself to another maggot. And
it's foolish, Paul says. You know, when I was in college,
I joined an under six foot basketball league. Nobody was taller than
six feet tall. Now in that league, I could play
center. I mean, I could get down on the
post and just root people out and I had a deadly turnaround
fallaway jump shot. I mean, you know, you'd think
I was something. Well, if I compare myself, my skill level, to all
those other short people, I might think I'm something. But if I
try to do that against Patrick Patterson, the ball's going to
wind up deep in the seats. You can't judge yourself compared
to other short people. And we can't judge ourselves
compared to other maggots. That's just not wise. It's offensive
to men and it's offensive to God too. Look at Isaiah 65. Isaiah
65 verse 3. a people that provoketh me to
anger continually, to my face, that sacrificeth in gardens,
and burneth incense upon altars of brick, which remain among
the graves, and log in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and
broth of abominable things is in their vessels, which say,
Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than you. These are smoke in my nose, a
fire that burneth all the day. It's not wise to say, well, I'm
holier than you. Don't stand by me. God says that's
offensive. That's a smoke in my nose. Now,
if the Lord's given you gifts, and he gives gifts to his church,
doesn't he? If he has given you gifts, be
thankful for them. Don't use, you know, false humility
and say, oh, I don't have that gift. No, if the Lord's given
you that gift, that's fine. Be thankful for it. But don't
get proud of gifts of grace. Because if the Lord's given you
that gift, don't be proud of it. It's not an inherent gift,
is it? It's a gift God's given you. Look over at 1 Corinthians
chapter 4. It's a gift the Lord's given
you. You've got nothing to be proud of. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 7. For who
maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why didst thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? Now just
don't get proud of the gifts of grace. And secondly, don't
get too proud of the gifts that the Lord's given you. It's always
easier to find someone else who's more gifted than you. So just,
you know, don't get proud of these things. Be thankful for
them, but don't be proud of them. Now verse 13, Paul says, but
will not boast of things without our measure, outside of our measure.
But according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed
to us, a measure to reach even unto you. Now, when Paul uses
the word measure, he means what the ministry that the Lord had
given him, what the Lord had measured out and given to the
Apostle Paul is his ministry. Now, don't go beyond the measure,
the commission that the Lord's given you. That's what Paul's
saying. I'm not going beyond my commission. Paul's commission
was to preach everywhere. He was the apostle to the Gentile
world. His commission was to go to that
Gentile world and preach the gospel. That's why he came to
Corinth in the first place. This was his commission to preach
the gospel to the Gentiles. Now, that's what he'd done. And
the Lord had raised up a mighty church there. Well, these false
prophets come in and they are so full of themselves. They're
boasting about the gifts that the Lord had given them and the
ministry that the Lord had obviously not given them. And they were
exaggerating the scope of their ministry. They're exaggerating
their gifts and their talents so that they feel more important.
Now, a believer does not need to do that, does not need to
brag about things that are not true in order to make himself
feel important. Every child of God is important.
Every one of them, every child of God and every child of God
has been given a ministry, a work to do. John talked about Wednesday
night. Whatever it is the Lord's given you to do, that's your
ministry. Now do it and serve where the
Lord's put you. And don't envy the service of
someone else. Just take care of what the Lord's
given you to do and take care of that. Maybe the Lord will
give you more. I don't know, but it's up to
him. And if he does, it'll be for the good of the church, not
for our glory. Now, what's more important than that? What's more
important than doing what God has given you to do? So don't
go beyond your commission, don't boast about things that the Lord
hasn't given you to do. So verse 14 says, For we stretched
not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto
you. For we came as far as to you, also in preaching the gospel
of Christ. Now these false prophets had
accused Paul of going beyond his authority. to correct the
errors that he found in Corinth. Now Paul's commission from the
Lord extended to Corinth. And the proof of that was look
at Paul's ministry when he did come to Corinth. The Lord blessed
that ministry. The Lord blessed his preaching
there. Many people believe there was a large church formed there
because the Lord had many sheep there. And so it's obvious Paul's
commission reached to them to preach the gospel to them. And
it's still extended to them, even at this time, to be corrected. Now the sheep are comforted.
They're led and they're corrected by the rod and staff of the shepherd.
And the rod and staff of the shepherd, to us, is found in
the preaching of the gospel. And that's what Paul's doing.
He's continuing to preach the gospel to them to correct these
errors because his commission extended to them. Now, you know,
if I was trying to do these things, That wouldn't work. My commission
doesn't extend to them. But Paul's did, so that's why
he could write this letter of correction. So verse 15 says,
Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other
men's labors, but having hope, when your faith is increased,
that we should be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly,
to preach the gospel in regions beyond you, and not to boast
in another man's line of things made ready to our hand. Now you
read these two epistles to the Corinthians. It's easy to see
Paul's love and care for them. They had a special bond. He was
the man that first preached the gospel to them. And Paul rejoiced
in the Corinthians as his children, children begotten in his labors
in the gospel. And when he did that, he wasn't
rejoicing in another man's labor. But now these false prophets
had come to Corinth. When they got there, What did
they find? They found an established church with many believers that
the Lord had given many gifts to. And they claimed the Corinthians
as their converts. They puffed themselves up and
belittled Paul. They wanted the people to forget
about Paul and love them like they were the ones that taught
them everything that they know. Now, there is nothing wrong with
a man coming in after a pastor has left, or maybe after a missionary
has come and established a church, a pastor to come in and continue
to preach the gospel, to continue to build on a foundation that's
already been laid. Gary prayed it. That's what we
hope and we pray happens in Williamsburg, that the Lord will raise up another
pastor who can continue Brother Charles' ministry. He's been
laying that foundation and building that ministry up for 17 or 18
years. But when a new pastor comes in,
those two fellows, he's not in competition with Charles Pennington.
They're fellow laborers together. You know, sometimes it becomes
necessary. Charles can't continue. So it's
necessary another man come in. There's nothing wrong with that.
As a matter of fact, that's exactly what Paul hoped would happen
in Corinth. He wanted a pastor to come in
and continue establishing the people in the truth. to continue
preaching the gospel to them so they grow in grace. Then Paul
the evangelist, Paul the missionary could go on. He could go to further
places and continue his commission to preach the gospel to the Gentile
world, to continue preaching to people who'd never heard of
Christ before. Paul's measure, his calling wasn't
to stay in one place and preach the gospel. His calling was like
a missionary, to go establish churches, have a pastor, and
then go to the next place. His commission wasn't to stay
there and preach. But he's not free to do that if these false
prophets are running wild in the church and bringing in all
this error and tearing down what Paul built and claiming that
work is their own. That's the way of the flesh,
isn't it? What happens in a business when
a new CEO comes in? I mean, day one, He's trying
to put his stamp on that company. He's trying to remove the stamp
of the former CEO and put his stamp on the company. This is
my company. God's servants don't put their
stamp on anything. God help you. If I put my stamp
on you, you're in trouble. Now that's so. We don't put our
stamp on anything. We desire that Christ be formed
in your heart. You know, this business of saying,
well, this is my work or my converts. No man can take credit for the
salvation of a sinner. I don't care what he's done.
Salvation is the work of God. Now, you might be able to take
credit for using your personality and forming a message that appeals
to the flesh to put a lot of people in the pews, but you can't
take credit for the salvation of a sinner or for the new birth.
That's the work of God. We can't take credit for that
at all. So that's what Paul says in verse 17. But he that gloryeth,
let him glory in the Lord. You see, none of us can glory
about anything that we've ever done. All of our glory is in
the Lord. You want to glory in your possessions?
You want to glory in your abilities? You're going to lose them all.
Aren't you? One day you're going to lose them all. Everything
you have, God gave to you. Our glorying is in Him. You're
going to glory in your salvation? We didn't contribute anything
to that, did we? Look over Galatians chapter 6. We didn't contribute
anything to that except the need to be saved. Galatians chapter 6 verse 13. For neither they themselves,
who are circumcised, keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised,
that they may glory in your flesh, that they may glory in the number
of their converts. But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature." And that's the formation of God. How about
your faith? You're going to glory in your
faith? The second you start glorying in it, it's going to fail. It'll
utterly fail. We glory in God, who's the author
and finisher of our faith. You're going to glory in your
wisdom? You're going to glory in your discernment that you've
got some understanding of the scripture? Well, remember this,
the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men. We glory
in Christ, who is our wisdom. You want to glory in your righteousness
and think you act pretty righteous? No. Christ is our righteousness. Now, we have a righteousness,
a perfect righteousness that is in us, but we don't glory
in it because it's not of us. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Our glorying is in Him. You get
a glory in your sanctification? Christ is our sanctification.
You get a glory in your redemption? Christ is our redemption. We're
not redeemed with our works, we're redeemed with the blood
of Christ. You get a glory in your election? Think God chose
you because you're any better than anybody else? Absolutely
not. Look back at 1 Corinthians chapter
1. Remember this when we studied it? 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 26. For ye see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. And base things of the world
and the things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not, to bring to naught the things that are, that no
flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, Righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. That according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. How about the new
birth? Are you going to glory in the
new birth? Huh? No, you didn't make yourself
born. God did that. God the Spirit did that. Bloweth
where it listed. You hear the sound thereof, but
you can't tell where he came from or where he's going. God
the Spirit did that. How about your good works? Are
you going to glory in those? It's God which work within you
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. You need glory
in the success of your ministry and your converts? No. Look over 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 5, Paul says,
Who then is Paul? And who is Apollos? But ministers
by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. I
have planted Apollos watered But God gave the increase. Now, we should plant, water,
preach the gospel. But God gets all the glory because
if there's any increase, if there's any salvation, if there's any
growth in grace, if there's any faith, God gave it. We're so
sinful, we've got to be taught and be careful of the glory and
our humility. That's just the way we are. All we are is clay
pots. And if the Lord's pleased to
use us for His purpose and His will, that's His doing. And He
gets all the glory. We don't have anything to glory
in ourselves. We glory in God's electing love. We glory in the power of His
blood to put away sin. We glory in His willingness to
become our substitute. We glory in His wisdom that He
found a way to be just and justifier. We glory in His grace to forgive
sin. Now verse 18 in our text, for
not he that commended himself is approved, but whom the Lord
commended. Now man is not great because
he brags on himself. You know, we don't like that.
Think how offensive that is to God, a maggot going around bragging
on himself. But this word command That doesn't
mean to make stand out or, you know, to raise up to a place
of fame or whatever, or put our seal of approval on. You know,
we use the word command. If I commend someone to you,
I'm putting my seal of approval on them. That's not what this
word means. I looked this word up yesterday.
It means to bring together or to set together. Look at Colossians
chapter one. It's set together. Colossians 1 verse 17. And he
is before all things and by him all things consist. That word
consist is the exact same word translated command in our text. By him all things consist. By
him are all things set together, put together. And the man who
is commended of God is used of the Lord for the good of the
church. For the edification of the church to use that preaching
to do one thing, to bring together, to unite us to Christ. That's the man who's commended
of God. And you know how you'll know
him? Just listen and you'll know it. You'll know it by his message.
Not by how much he tells you that he's telling the truth or
how great of a preacher he tells you he is. You'll know it by
his message. Does his message unite your heart
to the Lord Jesus Christ? that he's commanded of God. All
right, Lord bless you.