If you will, let us turn in our
Bibles tonight to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Tonight, the Lord willing, we
will only look at the first eight verses in this chapter. And this is a chapter in which
the Apostle Paul engages in what he called folly. Folly. The message tonight has three
divisions. First, what does Paul mean by
the folly? in which he engages. If you notice
in verse 1, he said, Would to God you could bear with me a
little in my folly, and indeed bear with me. What does he mean? What does he mean when he asks
these Corinthian believers to bear with him in his folly? Well, to get a definition of
that word and what the Apostle means. I know we are all familiar
with the word folly, but the Greek word that's translated
folly in verse 1 is found two other times in this chapter.
And I thought if we look at these two other places, we get the
definition that the Apostle Paul would have us to have as what
he meant by his folly. If you look down in verse 17,
he confesses in verse 17, that which I speak, I speak it not
after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, foolishly in this
confidence of boasting. Same word, same word which is
translated folly in verse 1 is translated foolishness. And the
foolishness we see was him boasting. And then again in verse 21, we
have the same word in verse 21. I speak as concerning reproach,
as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is
bold, I speak foolishly. I speak foolishly. I am bold
also. So the folly that Paul engages
in in this chapter is boasting, boasting in himself, which he
confesses several times to be foolish, foolish to be boasting
in himself. I thought about the proverb,
Proverb 27 in verse 2, which says, let another man praise
thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger, and not thine own
lips." All of us recognize how foolish it is to boast, to brag
on ourselves, don't we? I'm speaking about in things
spiritual, especially. Matthew Henry made this comment.
He said, as much against the grain as it is with a proud man
to acknowledge his infirmities. A proud man. A boastful man. It's hard. It's against the grain
for him to acknowledge his weaknesses, his infirmities, his sinfulness. Matthew Henry went on. So much
is it against the grain with a humble man to speak in his
own praise. Against the grain for a humble
man to speak in his own praise, to brag on himself. Paul acknowledges
to do so is to speak foolishly. Paul, at one time, when he's
first introduced to us in the word of God, was not a humble
man. He was a very proud man. He was a very proud religious
man. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. But God did a work of grace in
his heart, as he does in the hearts of all whom he saves. And from being a very proud person,
he makes us to be poor. in spirit. Blessed are the poor
in spirit. So, as Matthew Henry said, it's
difficult, it's hard, it's against the grain for a proud man to
speak of his infirmities, so it's against the grain for an
humble man to speak of in his own praise. Paul knew as he wrote this letter
to the Corinthians, that it was necessary, he felt it was necessary
that he write in this way. But he knew that people who read
the letter, they would look upon him as doing something very foolish
for man to boast of himself in matters of Christ. The truth
of grace is is contrary to boasting, isn't it? It's just the very
opposite. The antithesis of grace is boasting,
being proud of ourself. Because a believer, a child of
God, a person who is saved by the grace of God knows, as Paul
said, I am what I am by the grace of God. We all know that. And you notice in that text we
read here in our first text tonight, two times, not just once, but
two times he asked these Corinthian believers to bear with him. Bear with me. Notice that. Would
to God you could bear with me a little in my folly. Indeed, bear with me also. So the first thing, what does
Paul mean by folly? Bear with me in my folly. He means boasting, foolish boasting
in self. Now the second part of the message
is, what compelled Paul to engage in this folly. He calls it folly. What compelled him to engage
in this folly? Well, let's look in verses two
through four. For I'm jealous over you with
godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may
present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by
any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so
your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth
another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another
spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you
have not accepted, you might well bear with him. It was his jealousy, his jealousy
over these Corinthians that compelled him, that moved him to this folly,
to boasting in himself and of himself. The word jealous, of
course, means zeal. The zeal that he had for these
Corinthian believers encouraged him and moved him to engage in
what he himself calls folly, boasting in himself. John Gill made this comment. He pointed out that in jealousy,
jealousy is always attended with these three things. And he said
whether it's natural or spiritual jealousy. Jealousy is always
attended with these three things. Number one, fear. Number two,
care. And number three, solicitude. And I'm going to use those three
words, those three descriptions that Mr. Gill said are always
included in jealousy as we look at those three verses, verses
two through four. Always in jealousy, there's fear,
there's care, there's solicitude. Now, number one, solicitude for
the Corinthian believers. Concern might be a word that we're more comfortable
with. His concern for the Corinthian
believers. For I'm jealous over you with
godly jealousy. Here's his concern. For I have
espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ. Paul, we all know, we recognize,
he had been instrumental in bringing these in the church at Corinth
to know and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you notice
he uses the term espoused. For I have espoused you to one
husband. He uses a term which properly,
now listen, which properly belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every
child of God, every one of us here tonight who know Christ
as our Lord and Savior, we recognize that he is our husband. that
he espoused us unto himself. Paul uses this term that properly
applies to Christ because every child of God stands in relationship
to Christ as a bride does to the husband. He's the husband,
he's the bridegroom, we make up his bride. As a husband, he
loved his people first. That verse in 1 John reminds
us that we love Him, and we do, as the bride loves her husband.
So the church, so God's children, we love the Lord Jesus Christ,
but we recognize we love Him because He first loved us. And He espoused us unto Himself
even before the world began. He made us to be His bride. And as a husband provides for
his wife, so the Lord Jesus Christ, He provides for us. He provides, first of all, a
righteousness. He provides clothing for us. A righteousness in which we stand
justified before God. A husband pays the debts of his
bride, his wife. So the Lord Jesus Christ is our
husband. He paid our sin debt. Can you imagine that? Doesn't
that just thrill your hearts tonight to know that you couldn't
even begin to compute the number of your sins? None of us could.
And yet, by His blood, He's satisfied and paid for each and every one
of our sins. So much so that the scripture
says they are removed from us as far as the east is from the
west. How many times have you heard
it pointed out that the psalmist there, he didn't say as far as
the north is from the south. Why? Because that may be measured
from the North Pole to the South Pole. But the east To the west,
you just go around and you just keep going east, right? You just
keep going east, east, east. And you come back to where you
started and you still can go east. That's how far our husband
has removed our sins from us. Not only did he provide us clothing,
not only did he pay our sin debt, but he provides us food. And
it is himself. He is the bread of life that
we feast upon. By Paul using this term, he means
that when he says, I have espoused you to one husband, of course
he means that God the Holy Spirit used him. No man, no minister,
no preacher, no evangelist, no apostle, has the power, has the
ability in and of himself to espouse anyone to Christ. But Paul recognized that God
had blessed his ministry there in Corinth. Remember when he
visited there, and maybe was somewhat discouraged, some of
the writers think he was, thinking about even leaving, and the Lord
appeared unto him and told him, I have much people in this city,
Paul. Yeah, they had to be found out,
didn't they? They had to be found out, they
had to be brought out. God knew them, and God would
search them out through the preaching of the gospel. I have espoused
you, he says, unto one husband. Paul, like all ministers, you
know a beautiful picture of the work of a minister, is that servant
of Abraham. I don't believe he's even named.
He may be, as a servant who was the main servant in the house
of Abraham. But Abraham charged that servant
with finding a wife for his son Isaac. And how did he go about
it? Well, he prayed, first of all,
didn't he? He prayed and he asked the Lord to direct his steps,
to guide him. And the Lord directed him right
there to that place where Rachel would come, or Rebecca, rather,
Rebecca would come and draw water for the camels. And he goes into
her house, you remember, and he starts bringing out all the
beautiful bracelets and earrings and all the jewels he had. And
he said, this is just a little part of it. He said, everything
my master has is going to Isaac, his eldest son, his only son. And he needs a wife. And you
remember, put all of that out, and then they asked Rebecca the
question, will you go with this man? And she said yes. That's the work of a preacher,
isn't it? Paul, that's what he had done in Corinth. He had preached
the Lord Jesus Christ, brought out all of the wonderful things,
all the wonderful truths about him, his person. who he is, that
he's God manifested in the flesh, who came into this world, and
all of his glorious attributes, and all of his finished work
on the cross. He said, I have espoused you
to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Paul was concerned his desire
was that the believers in the church at Corinth be as a chaste
virgin who comes to her husband. He was concerned that their love
be sincere for Christ only and worship Him faithfully and not
be distracted by these false teachers. Remember that's at
the bottom of all of this, isn't it? The false teachers who had
come to Corinth. and began to add to the person
and work of Christ. So first of all, he tells us
why he would resort to this folly. It was because of his jealousy. And the first thing about his
jealousy, we see, is his concern. Now, the second thing, his fear. His fear. Notice in verse 3,
he said, but I fear. I fear lest by any means, as
the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtleties, so your mind
should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. He feared that just as the old
serpent, Satan, with his craftiness, his wildness, was able to deceive
Eve, our mother, and she was deceived. The Scriptures tell
us that. She was deceived. He was concerned. His fear was
that as the serpent beguiled her by his craftiness, beguiled
her and thus she disobeyed God, that these believers in Corinth
by Satan's craftiness would be corrupted, notice, from the simplicity
that is in Christ. You know the word simplicity
means singleness. The singleness. The singleness. The gospel respects the person
and work of Jesus Christ alone. All false teachers, all false
religion that go under the name of Christian, they will all admit
that salvation is by Christ. But they won't put a period there.
It's Christ and. Christ and. Christ and. Christ and the church. Christ
and the ordinances. Christ and good works. But it's
always adding something to Christ. Paul said, he feared as Satan
had beguiled Eve, so they would be beguiled by his craftiness
and turn away from the singleness, the simplicity that is in Christ. Look over a page or two, if you
will, to Galatians, just a moment. In Galatians chapter one, The same problem here. Remember
in the churches of Galatia, false teachers had come in. And what
they were teaching the believers was, yes, that's all good and
fine and good, what you've heard and what you've believed, but
now you need to submit to the law of Moses. And you men, you
need to be circumcised. In Galatians chapter 1 and verse
6, I marvel, I marvel, Paul said,
that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into
the grace of Christ unto another gospel. To be moved from Him, from Christ. He said, I marvel that you are
so soon removed from Him from Him, from Christ. I'm marveled
that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into
the grace of Christ unto another gospel. When a person removes
from Christ, from the simplicity in Christ, the singleness in
Christ, when a person moves from that, we move to another gospel. because the gospel is single,
it's simple in that sense. And remember this, I know that
you are familiar with this, but Satan, he doesn't care. He doesn't care what it is, if
he can deceive one to add anything to Christ, whether it's good
works or bad works, he could care less. His objective is to
convince a believer to add something to Christ. It's Christ plus. Christ plus. That's the reason
the word sola. The word alone was so important,
wasn't it? During the Protestant Reformation. It was all important because
they were up against the Roman Catholic Church that believed
in grace, that believed in faith, that believed in the scriptures,
that believed in Christ, but it was always the scriptures
and, faith and, grace and, Christ and, oh no, sola, alone, Christ
alone, the scriptures alone, faith alone, grace alone. That was the whole issue, wasn't
it? And it's always been the issue. And we see that here tonight
in our text. Well, number three, first of
all, his concern, then his fear. All this is included in the jealousy
that he had for the church at Corinth, for the believers there.
But third, his care for the Corinthian believers, verse four. For if
he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached,
or if you receive another spirit which you have not received,
or another gospel which you have not accepted, you might well
bear with him. Now, Paul knew that they had
listened, they had heard, even though he speaks in the singular,
we know there was more than one, but Paul knew They had heard,
these believers had listened to false teachers teaching and
preaching. Matthew Poole made the point
that the Greek text, the Greek text here demands that instead
of, notice where it says, you might well bear with him. Matthew
Poole made the point that the Greek demands it should be You
have well borne. Now the way it's translated in
our Bibles has allowed some to come up with Paul saying something
like this. If some particular preacher comes
to you preaching another Jesus, another spirit, or another gospel
which is more for the glory of God and the comfort of believers
than the Christ, the spirit, and the gospel which I have preached,
you might well bear with him. I like what Henry Mahan said
about that. He said, I can't imagine a more
ridiculous thing. since there's one Lord, one Spirit,
and one Gospel. And Paul knew the Lord Jesus
Christ, he knew God the Holy Spirit in him, and he knew the
Gospel. Paul knew that the message of
the false teachers was It was another Jesus, another spirit,
another gospel. It was another gospel which was
a mixture of grace and works. They just won't mix. They just
will not mix. It's just like water and oil. They just will not mix. And salvation is either of grace,
or it is of works. But it is not a mixture of the
two. It cannot be. I want you to keep
your place here, but look with me in John chapter 5 just a moment. In John chapter 5, our Lord made this comment about, or this
statement about receiving false teachers. In John chapter 5 and
verse 43, he said, I am come in my Father's name. Now notice,
and you receive me not. Now, think about that. Someone
comes in God's name, but you don't receive it. But the opposite
is, If another shall come in his own name, you will receive. Paul had come to Corinth in the
name of Christ, preaching the gospel of the grace of God, and
these false teachers had come in their own name, boasting of
their gifts and their abilities, and they were received. And that's just typical of human
nature. A man comes in his own name and
people will receive him. But a man comes in the name of
Christ, preaching Christ and him crucified, him alone, and
not a whole lot of interest in that message. Now go back with
me. I have a third point here. Paul
defends his apostleship, his knowledge, and his refusal to
receive financial support from the Corinthians, verses 5 through
8. For I suppose I was not awith
behind the very chiefest apostles. He defends first of all his apostleship. The false teachers They used
the fact that Paul was not one of the original 12. And they
used that to belittle Paul and to suggest that he wasn't a real
apostle. He wasn't a real apostle of the
Lord Jesus Christ because he had not accompanied with the
Lord during his earthly ministry. But Paul here, refutes that,
defends his apostleship. He said he was not behind any
of them in being called an apostle, being sent by the Lord Jesus
Christ. in seeing the resurrected Christ. These are requirements for an
apostle. He had to be sent by Christ,
had to have seen the resurrected Christ, had to have received
his gospel from Christ. He didn't learn it from another
man. And he also had these gifts and graces that were peculiar
to an apostle. And then, of course, he labored
as an apostle and the Lord blessed his ministry, obviously. Paul defends his apostleship. For I suppose I was not a wit,
not a wit behind the chiefest apostles, be it Peter or John
or James or any of the others. I was not a wit behind them.
I was called, commissioned, and anointed to preach the gospel
by the resurrected Christ. Number two, he defends his knowledge. For I suppose, verse six, but
though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge, but we have
been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things. His
knowledge, he defends his knowledge. It is suggested that of all the
apostles, probably he more than any other was the most educated. Remember, some were fishermen,
one was a tax collector, and others came from other occupations. Paul was educated at the feet
of Gamaliel, one of the greatest of the Jewish teachers. In Paul's
public ministry, He confesses he may not have been a skilled
orator, as some may have been, but it could be that Paul chose,
Paul chose to use the simplest language that was possible, because
his one goal was not to be accredited as a great speaker, His one goal
was to win men to Christ. Reminds me of that story, I've
told it here before, but the American couple that was visiting
in London back in the late 1800s, and they wanted to hear Charles
Spurgeon preach, but they could not get in to the tabernacle
Sunday morning. It was, you know, you had to
have a ticket to get in only hold so many people. And so they
went that morning to hear another great preacher in London. And
when they left there, they said, boy, what a great preacher. What a great preacher. But that
night, they got into the tabernacle. And when they left there, they
said, boy, what a great savior. What a great savior. Paul's goal,
it wasn't to impress men by his ability to speak. He said, he
came not unto them, he told the Corinthians this in 1st Corinthians,
with excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto you the
testimony of God. Now listen, I determine I determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
That was my goal from stop, from first to last. It wasn't to impress
men with his speech. And number three, his refusal
to accept financial support from the Corinthians Now that was
his personal choice and the Lord willing we will see more of this
in other studies but notice that in verse 7 and 8 when he said,
have I committed an offense in abasing myself that you might
be exalted because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely? I robbed other churches Now he
didn't, he wasn't a robber. No, he took support, financial
support from other churches, but he would not take any from
the believers in Corinth. That was his personal choice,
even though in that first letter he writes about supporting a
pastor. He uses that Old Testament text
about the ox, you know, being able to eat the corn to show
how that God provides for those who preach the gospel, they live,
should live of the gospel. Did doing this, Paul says, did
doing this out of love for you cause you to give more credence
to these false teachers? Because they would accept your
financial gifts. But I know Did I, did I do, did
I commit an offense in abasing myself that you might be exalted
because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely? He
would not. And like I said, the Lord willing,
we may see more of this in weeks to come as to why Paul was determined
not to receive offerings from this church. I pray that the
Lord would bless his word to all of us here tonight.