Singing that last hymn, I thought
of this verse of scripture in the book of Revelation, which
says, And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon,
to shine in it. For the glory of God did lighten
it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. What a wonderful place
that is, we know, a home that The Lord has prepared for those
that love Him. Let's open our Bibles this evening
to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Tonight we are looking at verses
12 through 20. For our rejoicing is this, the
testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly
sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have
had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you. For we write none other things
unto you than what you read or acknowledge, and I trust you
shall acknowledge even to the end. as also you have acknowledged
us in part that we are your rejoicing even as you also are ours in
the day of the Lord Jesus. And in this confidence I was
minded to come unto you before that you might have a second
benefit and to pass by you into Macedonia and to come again out
of Macedonia unto you and of you to be brought on my way toward
Judea. When I therefore was thus minded,
did I use likeness, or the things that I purpose? Do I purpose
according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea,
yea, and nay, nay? But as God is true, our word
toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was preached among you by us, even by me, and Silvanus,
and Timotheus, was not yea and nay. but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in
him are yea, and in him amen unto the glory of God by us. Paul, we saw last week, closed
his first letter to this church making his intention known unto
them to come and visit them. To visit them on his way to Macedonia
and then when he left Macedonia to come back to Corinth. But he annexed, rather, to that
statement, if the Lord permit, if the Lord permit. And we saw
in the letter of James how this is a way we are always to speak,
God willing. We do not have the right, the
privilege to make our plans as though we somehow control tomorrow,
or this afternoon even, or next week. But it is always if the
Lord wills. And that's the way Paul had stated
his intention to come to them if the Lord permit. In God's
providence, we know from this letter that did not happen. And false teachers who had come
among the Corinthians used this to accuse Paul of his inconsistency. A minister whose yea was not
always yea, and his nay was not always nay, according to these
false teachers. This man, this man called Paul. His yea is not always yea, and
his nay is not always nay. And as yea and nay may not be
as he says. This was a very serious charge
which had implications concerning the gospel of Christ as we will
see. So there's two parts to the message
tonight. First, Paul declares what he
knew to be true concerning his conduct. Because he tells us
that his conscience witnessed to him that he was free of this
false charge of being a man who would say yea, yea and nay, nay. They charged him of not being
a man of his word because he said he would come and then he
didn't come. They used that against him. But
I want us to notice how Paul tells us that his conscience
witnessed to him. Paul's conscience witnessed that
by the grace of God, he was innocent of such a charge. Notice that
again in verse 12. For our rejoicing is this, the
testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly
sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God. Paul's conscience witnessed to
him that by the grace of God he was innocent of this charge. And you know the grace of God,
we always have to include that also in our statements, don't
we? Well, I tell you one thing I will never do by the grace
of God. Sometimes we forget that, don't
we? Paul recognized and confessed that he was what he was. He did
what he did by the grace of God. His conscience witnessed to him
that by the grace of God, he was not guilty of this charge. If you keep your place here,
but look back a few pages to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and
verses 9 and 10. 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verses
9 and 10, For I am the least of the apostles, that am not
made to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church
of God. But by the grace of God I am
what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not
in vain, But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but
the grace of God which was with me." Paul attributed his life,
his salvation, of course, and his service unto the Lord, everything
he did by the grace of God. And that's true of all of us.
If we are faithful, it is by the grace of God. If we are consistent
in our conduct, in our conversation, it is by the grace of God. And Paul's conscience witnessed
to him that by the grace of God, he had lived among them in simplicity
and godly sincerity. He was not a man who would say
one thing and then do something else. When God's providence has
hindered him, it was always covered by those three words, if the
Lord permit. If the Lord permit. He never
used artful words, deceitful words, sly words with the purpose
to deceive anyone. That was not the way Paul operated
by the grace of God. Notice again the verse. Verse
12, For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience,
that in simplicity and godly sincerity. This is the way we
lived among you. In simplicity. Not with a flamboyant
lifestyle or anything like that. But in simplicity and in sincerity. This is the way we lived among
you, and also not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God,
we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly
to you, toward you. Look over in 2 Corinthians chapter
4. This is something that these
false teachers were famous for, I might say. in bad fame, but
they were famous for using artful and deceitful words. They would say one thing, but
in their mind, they meant something else. It's kind of like as a
child, if I can still remember this, you know, if you put your
hand behind your back and crossed your fingers, any of you remember
that? then you could tell something
that wasn't true and it'd be okay because you had your fingers
crossed. And these preachers, these false
preachers, I should say, they used enticing and artful words
to deceive men. Paul said, my conscience witnesses
to me that by the grace of God I lived in simplicity, sincerity,
And the words that I used were plain and simple, and it was
never yea when I meant nay or nay when I meant yea. In 2 Corinthians
4, verses 1 and 2, he says, therefore seeing we have this ministry,
and it was a ministry that was given unto him by the grace of
God, as we have received mercy, we faint not. but have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God." So that's the first thing the Apostle Paul tells
us that his conscience witnessed to him that by the grace of God
he was innocent of such a charge. Secondly, Paul's conscience witnessed
that his letters and his life were all of the same piece, all
of one piece. Verse 13, for we write none other
things unto you than what you read or acknowledge, and I trust
you shall acknowledge even to the end. He trusted that the
believers there in Carth would and should remember his conversation
among them. His conversation by the grace
of God was one that became the gospel of Christ and his letter
was no different. What you saw when you saw Paul
and what you read when you read his letters was all the same.
His conscience witnessed to him of this truth. And he trusted
that they had observed that, that those in Corinth, as he
preached the gospel there, he remained in Corinth a rather
long time for the Apostle Paul. I believe it was three years
in Corinth. That was a long time for him
to stay in a place. He usually got ran out of town
about after two or three weeks, you know. But he stayed there
for some time. And he trusted that they had
observed that he didn't use hypocrisy, he didn't use deceit when he
was with them. And why should they think that
he would now do that in writing a letter? When he was with them,
wasn't my yay-yay and my nay-nay? Then why would you think that
I would be any different when I take pen and write a letter? He would not do so in letter.
He would not live any different or write any different, behave
himself any different than he did when he was among them. Number three, Paul's conscience
witnessed that in part, notice this in verse 14, that in part
this would be acknowledged in the day of the Lord Jesus. As also you have acknowledged
us in part, that we are your rejoicing even as you also are
ours in the day of the Lord Jesus." Now when he says in part, I believe
what he means is that in that church there, part of them, at
least a good part of them, no doubt, they would acknowledge
in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ that They would, for eternity,
bless the day when the Apostle Paul showed up in Corinth. Maybe
not all of them in Corinth. Some of them had heard the gospel
through another man, through another minister. But he says,
my conscience bears me witness that in part, part of you there
in Corinth, part of the believers in that church, you will forever
acknowledge and bless God that you ever saw my face and heard
me preach the gospel." Because they had been converted under
his ministry. God had chosen to use him as
an instrument in bringing them the gospel. Remember, they had
been begotten. He uses that term. They had been
begotten under his ministry. And not only does Paul say, I
believe that there's part of you there that will acknowledge
this in the day of Jesus Christ when He comes again. But I too,
in that day, will rejoice in part of you because you are the
fruit of my ministry. They had been saved under His
ministry. And that would be cause for Paul's
rejoicing in the day of Jesus Christ. We look forward to the
day of Jesus Christ, don't we? When he comes again to receive
us unto himself. Number four, Paul's conscience
witnessed that it was in this confidence he had purpose to
come to them. Verses 15 and 16. And in this
confidence, my conscience witnesses to me In this confidence, I was
minded to come unto you before that you might have a second
benefit, and to pass by you unto Macedonia, and to come again
out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on my way
toward Judea. He was confident that there were
in that church, that part, as he said in the previous verse,
in part, that knew him to be a faithful minister of the gospel. They had benefited by his first
coming. You notice he said a second benefit. There were those in that church,
that part, who had benefited by his first coming to Corinth
because it was from him they heard the gospel. And he was
confident that when he came a second time, they would be benefited
again by hearing him preach the gospel. Their edification would
take place under the ministry that he would have among them. And his conscience witnessed
to him that it was in this confidence that he had purposed to come
among them again. Fifth, Paul's conscience witnessed
that his conduct in this matter was not inconsistent. If you notice in verse 17, he
did not use lightness. When I therefore was thus minded,
did I use lightness? When I told you, when I wrote
to you and told you that I planned to come to you, did I use lightness? Did I just kind of throw that
out there off the top of my head? I told you, if the Lord permit,
if the Lord permit. He did not purpose to come and
then change out of any advantage to himself. It wasn't as though,
you know, he said, I'm going to come to you. And then some
church over here, a bigger church, a larger church asked him to
come to them and they would give him a larger offering or something
like that. It wasn't in lightness or anything
like that. It was not in covetousness. It
was not out of ambition. It was not out of vain glory.
None of those things directed his actions, but it was rather
the providence of God. I had purpose to come to you,
but in God's providence I was hindered. Could they, and this
is my thought, could they not recognize As all of us here tonight,
can we not recognize that man purposes, but God disposes? We have our purposes, but God
disposes. As that verse in the Proverbs
says, a man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth
his steps. Could they not recognize that?
Well, it's easy to paint the whole church at Corinth, you
know, as being guilty. We know that's not true, and
Paul acknowledged that. It was just a part of them who
had listened to these false teachers and their criticism of Paul. What they tried to do was undermine
his authority and his ministry. And so that brings us to the
second part of the message, Paul declares here what he knew was
true of the gospel. We come now to see why this is
so important. Why it was so important to Paul.
We've emphasized this in the message last week and again today
about the fact that these men, these false teachers, were critical
of Paul over that statement. Why was this so important to
the Apostle Paul? It was so important, if you notice
in verse 18, that Paul calls God to be a witness. Now this
is important. Any time Paul or any other inspired
apostle calls God to be his witness, you may be sure this is important. This is like taking an oath.
This is like swearing on the apostle Paul's part. But as God
is true, Our word toward you was not yea and nay. So important that Paul calls
God to witness to the truth of his preaching, to his doctrine. The insinuation of these false
teachers must have taken this line. Well, if he cannot be depended
upon, if he cannot be trusted to keep his word in coming after
he told us that he was coming, then how or why should we depend
upon his word in preaching? How do we know that his yea is
always yea and his nay is always nay? How do we know that he does
not say one thing and mean something else? How do we know that He
does not, when He comes among us, preach that we are saved
by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and then
go to somewhere else and preach that we must submit ourselves
to the law of Moses and subject ourselves to the rituals of that
law? How do we know that? If he is
a man who says he's coming, and he doesn't come. He cannot be
depended upon. He cannot be trusted. You see
why, Paul? This is what's such a serious
matter to him. God is my witness, Paul says. Our word, my preaching, my message
among you was never yea and nay. It was never yea and nay. My
preaching was Christ and Him crucified and therefore it was
always yea. It was always yes. It was never
yes and no. I heard this story a long time
ago of a group of men who were members of a church and they
were without a pastor and they were praying one night for the
Lord to send him a pastor, and one of the men prayed, and he
asked the Lord to send him a one-armed preacher. You've heard that story,
I'm sure. A one-armed preacher. And after
the prayer meeting, someone asked him, why'd you pray for a one-armed
preacher? He said, I'm tired of hearing
the preacher say on one hand it may be like this, and on the
other hand it may be like this. Paul wasn't that kind of a preacher.
He was a one-armed preacher. His yea was yea, and his yea
was always in Christ. Turn back to 1 Corinthians, and
he doesn't only say himself. You notice he includes Silas
and Timothy. The gospel, he says that I along
with Silas and Timothy preached to you was the Son of God, Jesus
Christ, and all in Him is yea. All the promises of God in Him
are yea and amen. Look back to 1st Corinthians
chapter 2. And I, brethren, when I came
to you, came not with excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. And most all of the writers I've
ever read commenting on the scripture, good men, I might say. But they
all point out this fact, that the Apostle Paul, of all the
apostles, he had the ability both in wisdom and in speech,
if he had desire to impress men, if that had been his intention,
to impress men, to get a following to himself, he had the learning,
he had the ability, but that was never Paul's motive that
was never his purpose. He never desired to attract man
to himself, but to point man to Jesus Christ. Because only
in Christ is there hope. Only in Jesus Christ is there
salvation. I determined, for I determined,
I didn't come to you with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. For I determined before I ever
got to Corinth, I determined, knowing full well the reputation
of this city for its learning, for its philosophy, and all of
that. Knowing that, I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was talking with Brother Daniel
the other day and He pointed out to me something that we all
know, but when you witness to people, they always try to deflect. They always try to get you off
course. Always try to get you off point.
And sometimes there's a temptation on our part to answer their questions,
just because we are able. We have the knowledge. We have
the ability. But that's not their need, whatever
that That rabbit trail is that they try to get us off on. That's
really not their issue. The most important thing, the
matter all important is, do you know Christ? Do you trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and as your Savior? Paul
said, I determined that I would preach Jesus Christ. That's His person, isn't it?
Jesus Christ, I will tell you who he is and him crucified. That's his work. That was my
message. And Paul now, back in our text,
refers to the fact that he, along with Silas and Timothy, this
is what we preach to you. Look at this back in our text,
if you will, verse 18. For as God is true, our word
toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silas and
Timothy, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. The message
that you heard us preach was the Son of God, Jesus Christ. It was not what we preached,
it was who we preached. You see that? The Apostle Paul
didn't say, I know what I have believed. He said, I know whom
I have believed. And he says the same thing here. It's not what we preached, it's
who we preached. The Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was preached among you by us. When you look at that, that
short, simple statement, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, this
is much more than saying that He was a Son of God. Many people will say that in
the sense that all men are sons of God. That's not what the Apostle
Paul affirmed. That's not what he preached at
all. He was not saying that he is
a son of God. He said he is the son of God. He's the only begotten son of
God. He is God the Son who is equal
in every way with the Father and God the Holy Spirit. That's
who we preached. Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God the Son came into this world. The eternal Son of God was made
flesh and dwelt among us. Therefore, because of who He
is, He is absolutely competent to do what He came to do. It was never yea and nay. It was always yea and amen in
Him. Because of who He is, He was
manifested to destroy the works of the devil. Was He up to the
job? You better believe it. You better
believe He was. Why? Because He's the Son of
God. He was the seed of the woman
who was promised to bruise the head of the serpent. Could He
do it? You know He could. Why? Because
He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He was in every way equal
to the matter that He came to do. Did He come to redeem us? To purchase us? To pay for our
sins by the shedding of His blood? Does His blood have that potency? Does it have that power? You
better believe it does. Why? Because He's Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. That's why. He came to establish
righteousness for all of us who He represented. Was He up to
the job? Could He do that? Could He honor
God's law and satisfy God's justice in every way so that God may
be just and justifier of men and women like you and I? Yes,
absolutely. Never was a question, Paul says,
my preaching was yea and amen. He's that sure foundation upon
which we may safely, safely rest our souls tonight. He's that
one mediator between God and man. And as our mediator, he's
our prophet to teach us about God, he's our priest to make
an atonement for our sins, and he's our king to rule and reign
over us. All the promises of God, Paul
says, in him are yea and amen. For all the promises of God in
him are yea and in him amen, unto the glory of God. Now some
of these promises concern temporal matters. He makes promises. He gives us promises to support
us as we go through this life. For instance, here's a promise.
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him,
and delivereth them. Around about us, God's angel
encamps, just like They did Job, and Satan could not touch Job.
Why? Because God had put a fence around
him, a fire. He is a consuming fire, the scripture
says. Some of these promises are, as
I said, are temporal. Think about this statement by
David. He said, I once was young, but
now I'm old. And I've never seen the seed
of the righteous, I've never seen the righteous forsaken or
his seed baking bread. Never have seen that. But most of the promises that
we think of are spiritual promises. And I believe this would include,
of course, all of those promises in the new covenant. Such promises,
let me just give you these in closing. But he promises to be
our God and for us to be his people. Now that one promise
is enough to live on a hundred different lives, a thousand different
lives. If he will be my God, if he is
my God, what more could I want? What more could I ever need?
He promises to be my God and for me to be one of his people. My sins and my iniquities He
will remember no more. That's one of those promises. And His promise to receive us
into glory and for us to be with Him forever and ever. That's
one of those wonderful promises and they're all yea and amen
in Him. Paul was very concerned about
this criticism of him. Not so much because it would
ruin his reputation, maybe, but because he preached the gospel.
And the message he preached was never yea and nay. It was always
yea and amen in Jesus Christ. I pray that the Lord would bless
our study