All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn to 2 Corinthians 13. This will be our final lesson
in 2 Corinthians. And it's my hope that these studies
have been profitable to you and that God will be pleased to use
them to establish both you and myself in the faith. Paul's about
to close his letter to the Corinthians. And he again states his desire
and determination to come and visit with them. He wanted to
come and visit with this church. This church was established under
his preaching, under his efforts as God led him there. And they
were important to him. He thought about them and he
prayed for them. And he sent people to him to
minister to them and sent people to him to find out how they were
doing. So he states his desire and determination
to come to him and he warns them concerning those who have openly
and boldly ignored his teaching and his apostolic authority.
There were some men, it never says who they are, and they come
in and and begin to cause problems in the church, begin to talk
down Paul's station and authority and talk down his affection for
the people. They had no basis for it, but
that's how false prophets operate. They don't need a basis. They
just say things. And so he warns them concerning
them men and He didn't want to come to this church, and perhaps
that's why he didn't come earlier. He didn't want to come there
in judgment. He loved these people. The last thing he wanted to do
is come there in person and have to exert apostolic authority
over that church and make judgments in that church. But Paul does
assure them in this letter that he will, if it be necessary,
and he'll And for the good of the church and for the glory
of God that He would indeed come. And He said, and I will not spare.
And then He exhorts them to good things. And He prayed that they
might have these things both in their understanding and in
their experience of life. And He tells them rather than
to examine Him, which is what these false prophets kept telling
them. You know, you just look at Him.
You examine Him. He don't come here, he don't
do this, he don't do that. And he said, rather than examine
me, it'd be more profitable for you to examine yourself. Examine
yourself. And that's what I titled the
study this morning, Examine Yourselves. Now, this is the third time Paul
said, verse 1, this is the third time I'm coming to you. In the
mouth of two or three witnesses shall ever word Now, that's a
quote from Deuteronomy chapter 19 and verse 15. It's the law
of God concerning the false witness. And Paul thought this was a good
law and that this law was practical. It made sense to him that these
things be established. This law is again used by our
Lord concerning dealings with church members, dealings with
one another. He uses this same thing over
in Matthew chapter 18 and verse 15. He said, moreover, if thy
brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault
between thee and him alone. And if he shall hear thee, thou
hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee,
then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two
or three witnesses every word may be established. That's why
you're taking one or two with you, to establish the facts,
to establish what's going on. Verse 17, And if he shall neglect
to hear them, tell it unto the church, the whole assembly. But
if he neglect to hear the church, Let him be unto thee as a heathen
man and a publican. And then Paul uses this law again
in his pastoral letter to Timothy. In 1 Timothy chapter 5. And here
he's talking about elders. He's talking about pastors of
churches. Men in authority in the church. And he says in verse
19, against an elder, a pastor, receive not an accusation, but
before two or three witnesses. Paul came to the Corinthians
and preached the gospel. Both he and his message were
confirmed in them. That's what he said in 1 Corinthians
1 verse 6. He came to them the second time
by way of his first epistle. He didn't come in person, but
he came by letter. And having heard of their problems,
he states the names of those who were his witnesses. And then
again, this third time, in his second epistle, he's received
encouraging news concerning these Corinthians, encouraging news
concerning some of their problems, but was still somewhat suspicious
of these false brethren. He still has some things to say
about these men. Verse 2, I told you before, and
foretell you as if I was present the second time. And being absent
now, I write unto them which heretofore have sinned, and to
all other that if I come again, I will not spare. Now turn with
me this time to Matthew chapter 18. You know, what goes on in the
average church I'm talking about if you just go down the road
here and you join one of these churches here, and they have
members that they receive, and they have folks every now and
then that have kickouts, they have troublemakers. And the things
that happen in an average church concerning these admissions or
discharges of its members is really without consequence. It's
without consequence. And what I mean by that is that
they had no authority to either admit or reject anybody. They're not real ambassadors
of God. If they were ambassadors of God,
they'd have God's message. They'd have the gospel. That's
how His messengers are known. But that which happens in the
church of God is a different matter. And this is the scripture
that I quoted to you just a few minutes ago. This offender will
not be reconciled one-on-one. He won't do it. And he won't
be reconciled before two or three witnesses or even before the
whole church. He's to be treated like a heathen
and a publican. Now watch this, verse 18, Matthew
18, verse 18. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever
ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever
ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I
say unto you, that if two or three of you shall agree on earth
as touching anything, Anything that they shall ask, it shall
be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For whether
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them." Religion is a joke. Once you know what it's about,
once God's revealed to you what it's about, that it's all just
deceit, It's all just ignorance and superstition, tradition. Once he reveals that to you,
religion is a joke. It's just a joke. And if you
want to defend it, that's your business. But in religion, anything
and everything goes. It does. It just depends on which
church you go to. Anything and everything goes. You can preach anything. You
can say anything, and it's okay. even though it has no basis whatsoever
in the word of God. But it's not so in the church
of God. There's consequences to our hearing. There's consequences to our submission
and to our obedience. We're told in the book of Hebrews,
he said, obey them which have this authority over you. What
authority? The authority that God's given
to us. Just like we have a president, and then we have the Senate and
Congress, and we have things that come all the way down, even
in our local civil government, come all the way down to the
police department, the mayor of a city or whatever, judge,
and all these things. They have authority over us.
And we're told in the Book of Romans that there is no power,
there is no authority except of God. And these are ministers
of God. Over you, you're to obey these
things, but especially in the house of God, when we're talking
about authority there. Especially there. There's consequences to our hearing.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth
not shall be damned. You remember when the Jews at
Antioch become filled with envy? They saw under Paul and Barnabas'
preaching, there was masses of men and women that were converted
who heard the gospel and believed the gospel. And the Jews looked
at them and become envious because of the multitudes. And they began
to speak against Paul and against God's apostle. And Paul finally
turned to him and he said, it was necessary that the word of
God should first have been spoken to you. But seeing you put it
from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life,
lo, we turn to the Gentiles. We turn to the Gentiles. The hearing of the gospel is
not like reading a newspaper or listening to the evening news.
There's consequences. And there's consequences to such
judgments which are carried out in the church. Even though we
may not see them immediately, even though we may not see them
right now, there's judgments. There's judgments. Religion under satanic influence
has led this unbelieving world to believe that they can just
say or do anything without fear of consequence. One fellow in
this congregation was witnessing to another fellow who was coming
here at the time and bringing his family, and he began to talk
to him a little bit, and this man was just going. way out off
the deep end talking about this and that and his beliefs and
his grandmother's beliefs and all this type of stuff. And he
finally told him, he said, yes, but the Word of God, he just
kept telling him, but the Word of God. Finally, the man turned
to him, he was red in the face and mad, and he said, I don't
care what the Word of God says. Well, then you just loop yourself
together with the rest of this unbelieving world. God's Word has consequences. But religion under satanic influence,
it's just led this unbelieving world to believe that it can
say or do anything without fear of consequence. I want you to listen to what
the Holy Ghost says to those who come into God's house and come into His presence. This
is in Ecclesiastes 5, verse 1. He said, keep thy foot when thou
goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to
offer the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they
do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and
let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God,
for God is in heaven. And thou art upon the earth,
therefore let thy words be few." Brother Clay preached to us when
he was down here. God is not mocked. He's not mocked. If you mock His Word, you'll
pay for it. If you do despise it under the
spirit of grace, you're going to suffer the consequence. And
if you despise His Gospel and the one who preaches it, you're
guilty. of despising both Christ and the Father that sent Him.
Now that's just plain statements from the Word of God. You receive
God's warnings and you go on in defiance of it, you're in
danger of eternal reprobation. How are we going to escape, Paul
writes to his own kinsmen, how are we going to escape if we
neglect so great salvation? Now, I don't claim any apostolic
authority, but I do claim the authority of a pastor, which
authority we're exhorted to obey, and for good reasons. We watch
for your souls. We watch for your souls. All
right, verse 3, back in 2 Corinthians 13. Since you seek a proof of Christ
speaking in me, which to you is weak, but it's mighty in you. Now, I was reading this verse
and I thought to myself, this is what most of this world does
when it comes to listening. They seek a proof of Christ speaking
in a man. My own relatives have asked me
that question. You're teaching this thing in
the wrong fashion, they tell me. You're trying to teach this
thing dogmatically. Why don't you leave a little
room for argument? Because the truth is the truth.
That's why. The truth is the truth. I know
God's minister by the grace of God. And that's the only way
you'll know him. The only way. There is no other
way. There's no other way. Otherwise, he's just another
man with another interpretation and another opinion. Unless God somehow opened your
mind and heart to understand that what that man's preaching
is the gospel. And if it's the gospel, the only
way he could preach it and know it is by the revelation of the
Holy Spirit. And if this man has this gospel
revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, he's God's messenger. And he's
to be listened to. But the only way you can know
that is by the grace of God. If God does not give you spiritual
discernment, you'll never know one from another. Secondly, know God's ministers
by their interactions with God's churches and pastors. God doesn't
have any rogue preachers. You beware. I'm telling you the
truth. I don't care what that man says he knows, and I don't
care how well he knows the five points of Calvinism. If he's
a rogue preacher and he has no fellowship with the rest of God's
churches, you shun him like he got the plague. God's preachers
have interaction with all his preachers. They all preach the
same thing, they all exalt the same Christ. They all worship
the same God. They're just one spirit and one
body. You find a grace church that
separates itself from others, they've got a problem. And thirdly,
you know God's preachers by their message. They preach Christ.
And as Paul told Titus, they acknowledge the truth, which
is after godliness. And men see that. They see that,
and they understand that. And you know Christ's ministers
by what takes place in the hearts of their hearers. You seek a
proof of Christ speaking in me, Paul said, which to you, word,
is weak. But listen to this. But it's
mighty in you. You're looking in the wrong place.
How did you come to believe? How did you come to rejoice in
Christ? How come you don't know what you know? That's what Paul
tells these people. Of all men, the Corinthians had
the least reason to question his ministry. God had converted
these people under his ministry and convinced them of the truth.
And he was a part of the means which brought them to Christ,
made his gospel, the power of God unto salvation in them. accompanied
his presence in preaching with apostolic evidence, signs, and
wonders. He said, I wasn't one whit behind
the cheapest of apostles when it comes to these things. And
true converts are the living proof of a man's calling in ministry. That's what Paul said. Do I need
a letter of commendation from you or to you? He said, you are
my letter. written not with a pen, but written
in the heart by the Holy Spirit of God. Verse 4. Now Paul's talking about this evidence
of Christ being in him. For though he was crucified through
weakness, talking about his Lord, yet he liveth by the power of
God. For we also are weak in him,
but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. You know, I always see these
pictures of Christ and statues of Christ, and he's above average
in height, and he's a fine, handsome-looking man with long hair and a beard
and all. Did you ever look at him? There
are no ugly statues of Christ. But listen to what Isaiah said,
he hath no form or comeliness. He wasn't a comely man. And when we shall see him, now
listen to this, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He
was despised and rejected of men. We hid, as it were, our
faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Well, what are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying that Jesus of Nazareth did not have the look. He did
not have the look of a great man. If you looked on him, you
wouldn't say, boy, there's the future king. No. He's like David. They didn't
even consider David when the prophet come down to anoint the
king. They came down to Jesse's house.
Jesse called them all in except David. They said, no reason to
bring him in. Leave him out there at the sheep.
Now that's how this world looked upon Jesus of Nazareth when he
came. Same thing. No beauty in him
that we should desire him. He didn't have the look of greatness,
and no one in seeing him would have thought this might be the
Christ. Yet in the weakness of his flesh
was continually manifested the power of God. They just were
bewildered when they heard it. They said, never a man spoke
like this man. Never. Even the devils are subject
to him. Even the winds and the waves
obey his voice. They wanted to do things with
him. They wanted to get rid of him. They wanted to get him out
of their hair, and they couldn't do it. They couldn't do it. The
power of God was manifested in him even in the weakness of his
flesh throughout his whole life. In his knowledge, in his preaching,
in his behavior, and in his judgments, the power of God in him. And I'll tell you this, the power
of God in his church is not in the flesh either. It's not in
a man's education, reputation, or physical strength. It's strictly
and purely a spiritual power. And he purposely put it in earthen
vessels. He tells us in Romans, in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, he purposely put this treasure in earthen vessels that
the excellency of the power might be of God, that men would know
that. And we, like Christ, walk in
the weakness of our place that the power of God might be manifest
in us. And what takes place in the ministry
of the gospel is of a spiritual nature. That's just so. I'm totally dependent this morning,
even on this lesson that I'm teaching you. It's just going
to go out and fall on the ground, except the spirit of God take
it and empower it and open your eyes and your heart to receive
it. Our weapons are not carnal, but
spiritual, mighty through God. And it's entirely possible that
God could do more through a tiny assembly than he might do through
a church of thousands. You know, the enemies of Christ,
they said, these few men, this handful of men have turned the
world upside down. Turned the world upside down. He might very well cause a greater
impact on society through a poorly educated unknown man than through
a highly educated and well-known man. He might well do it. Was it Owens, Winston, you read
those books that wished he could preach like that tinker? Was
it John Owens who said that? One of the great writers. Highly educated, man of great
reputation. He said he'd give everything
he had if he could preach like that old tinkerer, that old tinkerer. What gives the ministry of a
man or a church its power is the Holy Spirit. You take John
the Baptist. He was a recluse, wasn't he?
He was a recluse. He lived out in the middle of
nowhere. He didn't mingle with people. He didn't drink. He didn't socialize. He stayed
out there. girded himself with camel skins
and fed on wild locusts and honey. He lived way out there. God turned
that whole area inside out and made every one of them go out
to John the Baptist. Isn't that something? That's
what he's talking about. That's what he's talking about. Alright, verse 5, 2 Corinthians
13. Now these enemies of God had
looked on Paul's flesh and made a judgment that he could not
possibly be God's minister. They said, look at him. Now,
verse 5, examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith.
Prove your own selves. Know you not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobate? Paul
said, you want proof of my ministry? Examine yourself. Examine yourself. Do my words fill your heart with
joy? Does my preaching satisfy your
appetite for Christ? Do you listen and find rest for
your souls in what I'm saying? Do you discern any compromise
in my message or in the character of God or in the doctrines of
Christ? or in the law of grace by which men walk and live? Examine yourselves, whether you
be in the faith. Do you believe on Christ? Have
you embraced Him? Are you persuaded of His efficacy
and power to keep you and save you, perfect you in that day? Do you have an understanding
of how He can be just and justify sinners? Examine yourselves,
whether you be in the faith. If you can find out if you be
in the faith, you'll know if I'm a man of God or not. That's
what Paul's telling us. If Christ dwells in your heart
by faith, you're a new creature. His Spirit's in you. His graces
and fruit are in you. His love is shed abroad in your
heart by the Holy Ghost. And you have a good hope through
grace. And if not, you're a counterfeit. You're a counterfeit. Worthless,
good for nothing. You're a reprobate. As a reprobate. Examine yourselves, Paul.