Let us open our Bibles tonight
again to 2nd Corinthians, and tonight, chapter 10. 2nd Corinthians, chapter 10. I'm going to read the entire
chapter, but we're only going to look at the first seven verses
tonight. Now, I, Paul, myself, beseech
you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. who in presence embase
among you, being absent and bold toward you. But I beseech you
that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence
wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of
us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk
in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down of strongholds, 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,
and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when
your obedience is fulfilled. Do you look on things after the
outward appearance? If any man trusts to himself
that he is Christ, let him of himself think this again, that
as he is Christ, even so are we Christ. 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, that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by
letters. For his letters, say they, are
weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and
his speech contemptible. Let such in one think this, that
such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will
we be also in deed when we are present. For we dare not make
ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend
themselves, But they, measuring themselves by themselves and
comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. But we will not
boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure
of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even
unto you. For we stretch not ourselves
beyond our measure, as though we reach not unto you, For we
are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ,
not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other
men's labors, but having hope, when your faith is increased,
that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly,
to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast
in another man's line of things made ready to our hands. But
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that
commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commended. Beginning with this chapter,
the tone of the Apostle Paul changes radically from this point
on almost to the very end of the epistle. If you look over
to chapter 13, the last part of the chapter. He continues
with this same tone until he gets to verse 7. Now pray to God that you do no
evil. From chapter 10, verse 1, over
to chapter 13, almost to the very end, his tone completely
changes in this letter. And it's suggested that the Apostle
Paul, the first nine chapters He was writing especially to
those believers in Corinth, those preachers and believers in Corinth
who had received that first letter, the first epistle, and had heeded
his admonitions in that letter. And then from this point forward
to almost the end, he begins to deal with disobedient and
unfaithful teachers of the Word of God. In fact, in chapter 11
and verse 13, he refers to them as false apostles. Chapter 11
and verse 13, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. This reminds us that we should
not be surprised. There's so many false teachers
today, so many false preachers. We should not be surprised because
it has always been the case. There's nothing different today
than what has always been the case as we see even from the
very beginning in the church at Corinth. And if you will look
at a few verses of Scripture here with me to point this out.
Over in 2nd Peter, 2nd Peter chapter 2 and verses 1 and 2. The apostle writing to these
New Testament believers, as we would call them, says, but there
were false prophets also among the people, that is, among the
nation of Israel. There was always false prophets.
Every time you had a true prophet of God, there were always false
prophets who opposed the true prophet. And by far, the number
was the false prophets, was the greater number. You remember
that history of the prophet Micaiah and how the king Ahab said, he
always says something bad about me. I don't like to hear him
preach. But you know, there was a lot of prophets there. A lot
of prophets there were prophesied to Ahab and Jehoshaphat, go up,
go up. God's going to give you the victory.
And Micaiah was along. The long prophet had told him
that Ahab, King Ahab, you're not coming home today from the
battle. And who proved to be right? The true prophet of God. But there's always been false
prophets and there's always been false teachers and preachers.
But look at the verse. But there were false prophets
also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you. who privilege shall bring in
damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and
bring upon them swift destruction." We see that they are preachers
in the church because they confess that the Lord had bought them.
But they deny Him. They deny Him. bringing in, as
he said here, damnable heresies. Also, remember here in this small
letter of Jude, just over a few pages, Jude only has the one
chapter, but verses three and four. When I gave all diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for
me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Now notice, for there are certain
men crept in unawares. In other words, they've come
in among the Christian church. These are false teachers. And
yes, they go under the name of Christian. They stand in pulpits
where the gospel should be proclaimed and where the Word of God should
be foremost. And yet many of them deny the
very Word of God that they should be preaching. They bring in,
as Jude says, certain men crept in unawares who were before of
old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace
of God, our God, into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. And then, of course, look back
a few pages in 1 John. 1 John chapter 4. Beloved, believe not every spirit... He's talking about preachers,
prophets. Believe not every spirit, but
try the spirits, whether they are of God. Because Many false
prophets have gone out into the world. Now how do you try a man
who stands up and preaches and says that God's called him, God
sent him, how do you try him? With the word of God. If they
speak not according to this word, it's because there's no truth
in him. And you know our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount, you
remember, he warned, he warned, Beware of false prophets. And then he said at the end of
that message, many shall say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name and done many wonderful
works in thy name? And then shall I profess unto
them, depart from me, I never knew you. So what Paul experienced
in Corinth has been the experience of the church down through the
years and even in the Old Testament in the days of the nation of
Israel. False prophets, false teachers,
bringing in damnable heresies, denying the only Lord God, turning
the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Now back to our text tonight.
Let's go through these first seven verses. Now I, Paul, myself. Some say there's a play on words
here, that the name Paul evidently means a person of very small
stature. And Paul, this is what they accused
him of being, a very small man, not necessarily in height, but
just in his ability, his ability to speak, his ability to teach
a small man. Now I, Paul, myself, beseech
you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Remember the words
of our Lord when he said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Now, Paul,
he was meek, as he said here. I beseech you by the meekness
and gentleness of Christ. Yes, as a minister of Christ,
shouldn't I be meek? Shouldn't I be gentle? Isn't
that the way a man of God should be among the flock of God? Like
the Savior. He was meek and lowly. Meekness
has to do with inner and gentleness has to do with outward. Yes,
Paul said, now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and
gentleness of Christ. And now you notice he begins
to speak of himself as they spoke of him, as these false teachers
and false prophets, as they spoke of him. As we go through this
chapter, it becomes evident that the false teachers accused Paul
of being one person when he was here. In other words, if he was
here tonight preaching to us here in this building, he's one
person, but when he goes over to another town and writes us
a letter, he's a completely different person. Here he's weak. Here he's, as they said about
him, base. But when he gets over there and
writes a letter back to us, he becomes very bold, very forward,
very powerful in his word. Now the lesson for us, I think,
is evident. When we are inclined to be angry,
the Apostle Paul had, as we would say, every reason to be angry.
But we see him, as he says, beseeching you by the meekness and gentleness
of Christ. We too profess to be followers
of Christ. We profess that he's our Savior,
he's our Lord. Those of us tonight who confess
him as our Savior. And he was meek and lowly. And he has left us an example
that we should follow. So shouldn't a preacher, shouldn't
a Christian, shouldn't every believer, every child of God
be meek and lowly? Gentle, as the scripture here
says. The Lord Jesus Christ, think
of him, what we have recorded of him here in the world when
he was here in the flesh. He never compromised the truth. Not one time will you ever find
when he was confronted by religious men or unreligious men, he never
compromised the truth, but yet he was gentle. He was gentle
with those meek and gentle toward all. And I see this, if you look
at one other place with me, back over to 2nd Timothy. When Paul
was writing to Timothy, and you know Paul referred to him as
his son. He was his son in the ministry,
wasn't he? His son in the faith. But notice in 2 Timothy chapter
2, in verse 24 and 25, he tells Timothy, and the servant of the
Lord must not strive. You're not supposed to take somebody
by the neck and back them up against the wall and say, you
believe this or else. You're going to do this or else.
might feel like it sometimes. But no, the servant of the Lord
must not strive, but be gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient,
in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God
peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. So there, notice he exhorts Timothy
to be gentle In meekness instructing. But then notice in chapter 4,
verses 1 and 2. I charge thee therefore before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and
the dead at his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. Don't ever stop preaching the
word. Yes, be gentle. Be patient. Absolutely. But at
the same time, preach the word. Be instant. out of season, reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. So again I say
the Lord Jesus Christ never compromised the scripture, never compromised
the truth about men and yet he was meek and gentle toward all. And so we see the Apostle Paul
likewise. They accused him, these false
teachers, of being weak, of being base And he confesses that he
was like his Lord, really. That's what he's confessing.
Verse 2. But I beseech you that I may not be bold when I am present
with that confidence wherewith I think to be bold against some,
not everyone, but some which think of us as if we walked according
to the flesh. We see here in verse 2 what it
is that Paul beseeches these believers in Corinth to do. He
beseeches them to act in a way that it would not be necessary
for him when he came to act toward them with severity. He had that
authority, and we're going to see this. An apostle was sometimes
referred to as prime ministers. in the kingdom of Christ. And
we will see, God willing, as we go through these remaining
chapters, there were signs of an apostle. An apostle had power
that preachers like myself, we don't have. And what Paul is
praying for and hoping is that they would repent So that when
He came among them, it would not be necessary for Him to use
that authority, that power, that boldness. They said He's bold
when He's absent. When I come, we'll see, I'll
be bold towards some. If they don't repent, if there's
no change, they'll see that I'll be bold in their midst. I will act with confidence. In
other words, I will act with the authority which I have as
an apostle, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, the power which
He has given me to put down all opposition. I'll do that if it's
necessary. He begs them to follow Him as
He followed Christ. And this would not be necessary. It wouldn't be necessary when
He came again among them to act with boldness. Use that authority,
that apostolical authority which he had. Now we have an instance
of it in the book of Acts. Let's turn to Acts chapter 13. We have an example where Paul,
he's here called Saul, but where he used this authority that was
given unto him. In Acts chapter 13, And beginning with verse 6, And when they had gone through
the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet,
a Jew, whose name was Barjesus, which was with the deputy of
the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man who called for
Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word of God. But
Elymas, the sorcerer, for so is his name by interpretation,
withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.
Then Saul, and we're going to see Saul, the apostle, used authority
which he was given as an apostle. Then Saul, who also is called
Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said,
O fool of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil,
thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert
the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of
the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the
sun for a season. And immediately there fell on
him a mist and a darkness, And he went about seeking some to
lead him by the hand. That's the kind of power, the
authority the apostles had. You remember Ananias and Sapphira. In the case of Peter, the apostle,
when that man brought that money in and laid it down, he said,
I've sold the land. This is all the money I got from
it. He was lying. He was lying to
the apostle. He was lying to the Holy Ghost.
He was lying to God. And God killed him immediately.
And it wasn't long before his wife came in and she told the
same story. And Peter said, the ones, the
young men who carried your husband out are at the door. And she
fell down dead. Yes, these apostles, they had
authority. And Paul hoped that it would
not be necessary when he came back to Corinth to use that boldness
But he had confidence, he said. The false teachers, you notice
back in our text tonight, they accused him of walking according
to the flesh. They accused him of doing exactly
what they did. Walking according to the flesh.
In other words, seeking their own advantage. Being governed
by selfish motives, they used fleshly wisdom to accomplish
it. But the Apostle Paul, his preaching
was not with the wisdom of men, but with the power, the word
of God and the power of God. Now, notice how Paul says they
accused him at the end of verse two, as if we walked according
to the flesh. Well, in verse three, he said,
for though we walk in the flesh, Paul did not, Paul did rather,
as all men do, we all walk in the flesh in the sense that we
are in this body and we walk. The apostles were no different.
They were not angels. They were subject to like passions
as we are. They did walk in the flesh, but
they did not walk after the flesh. And there's a big difference,
isn't there? All of us walk in the flesh. All of God's children
walk in the flesh. As long as we are in this world,
we're going to be in this body. And it's subject to temptations,
to sin, to failure. We know that. But to walk after
the flesh is something altogether different. It's to mind the things
of the flesh. It's to walk in pride. And it's
to walk, not seeking God's glory in all things, but seeking our
own glory. And notice what Paul said, for
the weapons of our warfare. Well, let me read verse 3. For
though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.
The Christian life is a warfare. I'm afraid that Many times we
forget this. We forget that we are in a warfare. Every child of God. We have spiritual
enemies. We usually mention the world,
the flesh, and Satan. And yes, all three of these are
the Christian's enemies. But Paul is speaking especially
here, I believe, about pastors, about preachers, about teachers
and prophets. And the weapons of our warfare. Now the weapons of our warfare
are the same for every child of God. That is, the Word of
God, the sword of the Spirit, and all prayer. We sang that
hymn just a moment ago, didn't we? Sweet hour of prayer. What
a weapon. What a weapon that God has given
us, all of us. But to ministers of the gospel,
he has given gifts also besides the Word of God. the sword of
the spirit and prayer. Gifts that Christ gives those
that he puts into the ministry. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal. I could not help as I was going
over this this week to think of that advertisement for that
Christmas program out here at this big Baptist Church on Stupner
Airline. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal. There's nothing that you see
inviting you to come out there for that Christmas special that's
not carnal. Can you believe bringing an elephant
into the church? How in the world would anyone
associate that with the gospel? Those are weapons that the flesh
uses. That's all you can say about
it. Our weapons are not carnal, they're spiritual. The Word of
God and prayer and the gifts of preaching and the power of
the Spirit of God. And notice he said, the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds. What are these strongholds? Well,
you look in verse 5, they all have to do with the mind. as
far as I can see, casting down imaginations, or reasonings,
and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ. With the Word of God and the
power of the Holy Spirit, these vain imaginations, these reasonings
that men have, they are cast down. Someone says, well, you
believe the Word of God teaches that God is a trinity. Yes, I
believe that. Well, that can't be. That's impossible. That doesn't make sense. How
are we going to bring that down? By preaching the Word of God
and the Gospel, the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit,
men who are God's children will see that yes, What is past our
reason is revealed to us in the Word of God. That there's one
God and yet He exists in a trinity of persons. And the same thing
is true about the incarnation. How could God become a man? What
did Paul say? He said, great is the mystery,
didn't he? How's that vain imagination,
that vain reason, that can't be possible. And when you think
about the resurrection, the resurrection, some of those martyrs, some of
those men, their bones after they had been killed by the so-called
Christian church, then they buried them and then they dug their
bones up and burned their bones and threw the ashes into the
river and it was taken out to the ocean. And how in the world
can there be a resurrection? Well, the answer is simple, isn't
it? God. God. With God, all things are
possible. That's how these vain imaginations
and reasonings and high things that exalt themselves
against God. You know, all of us by nature
are like that rich young ruler. You remember him. He came running
to the Lord. He came trotting, didn't he?
Kneeled down. Good master! What must I do to
inherit eternal life? We're all like that. Just tell
me. Just tell me what it is. I'll do it. I'll do it. We're
born like that. Believing in our ability and
our free will. And the only thing that brings
those high thoughts down is the Word of God and the power of
the Holy Spirit. All right, verse 6. And having in a readiness to
revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
Paul had the authority and he was determined to do what he
declared he would do, but he tells them here that he would
not resort to that severity until all other means were exhausted. All other means had failed, and
that it could be determined who would and who would not submit
to God. Now, church censure and excommunication
may be administered. But what we learned from this
is that that should be the last resort. We should do everything
we can, just like Paul here. He wanted to, he wrote to them,
he sent Titus to them, he wanted to do everything, giving them
the opportunity and time to repent. But if they didn't, he had that
authority and he would use it. Henry Mahan in his commentary
said, Church censure and excommunication are painful, but necessary where
the honor of Christ, the glory of God, the well-being of the
church, and the testimony of the gospel are concerned. And
the last verse, verse 7. Paul asked a question, but you
see it's really a rebuke. Do you look on things after the
outward appearance? Do you really? Do you really? Are you so immature in grace
that you judge things by the outward appearance? Do you judge
men by their faces, by their outward appearance, their claims,
and their voices, and their words? Is that how you judge people?
Remember this, a man may appear to be gracious and not have any
grace in his heart. A man may appear to be learning
in the scriptures and not know Christ. Don't be mistled by outward
appearances. Redemption is a hard work. And I suppose that's one thing
every pastor, every good pastor, desires to instill in his congregation,
listen to what the man says. Not so important how he says
it. He may be very charismatic and very articulate and very
moving and have the gift of oratory, but pay attention to what he
says. Is it according to the Word of
God? That's the important thing. And Paul just reminds them that
they trust that they're Christ. Well, remember this, he said,
we are Christ also. The same reason that they believe
they're Christ, that applies to us. And we must not think
that none belong to Christ but ourselves. And all of us, we
are what we are by the grace of God. And His grace is effectual
to save others, though they differ from us. His grace is effectual. You know, I tried to learn many
years ago, and I still haven't learned it completely. But people
say, well, I don't believe they're saved. Well, I just want to leave
that up to God. That's His business, not mine. But the important thing for each
one of us here tonight is that we be able to say, I'm his. Christ is mine. Let's sing a
hymn, David. Let's turn to hymn number 323,
and let's also