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All right. I'm going to ask you to go ahead
and turn your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Second
Corinthians Chapter 11 and just stay a little more time this
morning. But I, I certainly am glad to be
here. I, I rather than retired, I like
to say I'm repurposed. You know, I, I'm no longer the
pastor at Grace Bible Baptist Church, but I still have a
purpose. I still have things to do and,
and have just been repurposed. I appreciate the song this
morning. What a day that will be.
I was just a teenager. My dad had gotten saved and
surrendered to the ministry. And so because he had
surrendered to the ministry, my pastor looked for opportunities
for my dad to preach. My dad had an opportunity to
preach at a church out in the country.
And so he took all of us with him.
And they didn't have any music. They didn't have a pianist, they
didn't have a song leader. And so my dad kind of stumbled
through it. When my dad got saved, he, he
knew nothing about the Bible, nothing about God other than,
you know, he did believe there was a God and did believe that
God existed. But he couldn't have told you,
you know, the Genesis was the first book.
If you to ask who are the, who are the 1st 4 gospels?
Who are the writers that he had no idea.
He had no idea when it came to singing about it.
But but he's going to give them his best sermon.
But he decided that they needed a little music.
He handed me the song book and said you can sing.
That's the song that I sang. Was that one?
I'm not sure how good a job I did, but but I'm thankful for
the opportunity to serve the Lord, thankful for the
opportunity to be here with you this morning.
I really wish we had a lot of time to go through the entire
book of Second Corinthians. It's a wonderful book.
Most of you are aware that the book of Corinthians, both First
Corinthians and 2nd Corinthians, Paul is dealing with some
problems that are in the church. Remember the Corinth of the
people that were saved in Corinth were saved out of a
Pagan heathen background. They had no understanding of of
of the Old Testament. They had no understanding of who
God was. There were a few Jews that were
involved in it who would have been familiar with those things.
But for the most part they, they were people who you know, they,
they had corrupt, wicked background for their life and
they heard the preaching of the gospel and the power of the
gospel radically changed their lives.
They were hearing from somebody who at one time was a hater of
the Lord Jesus Christ and his church, who was also radically
changed. And so the message of Paul
resonated with them. A good group of them got saved.
The church was started. Paul was there for a little over
18 months and perhaps a few months beyond that and developed
a deep, deep love for those people.
But if you read through the book of First Corinthians, you
discover they had some deep problems.
First problem that they had was that here, here they were and,
and, and there was there, there was a division among them.
And, and Paul reminded them in First Corinthians in the 1st
chapter that they, they, they were recipients of everything
that God had. Aren't you glad for this, that
when we get saved, God gives us all that he, I mean, everybody
who gets up from the cross saved has, has all that God has for
us. And so they, they had all those
things. He said you, you didn't come
behind in any gift. But they had a problem with the
vision, partly because part of their culture looked at people
and evaluated status of life based upon influencers and
people who had, you know, people that were popular and people
that had this and had that. And it become quite a popularity
contest. If you remember, the man of
Paulus was a very gifted speaker.
And while Paul is sometimes criticized that he was not a
very good speaker, I would think that if we listen to the apostle
Paul, we'd think it was probably pretty good.
Most of the time it was his enemies.
And the reason that they criticized him was because he
didn't, he didn't try to be what the, the, the, the, the
speakers, the, the philosophers that were round of the day that
people went to listen to Paul didn't try to be like them.
He wanted to be what Jesus Christ called him to be.
So he didn't measure up quite to the standards that the world
had, but he certainly measured up to what God had.
But they developed a division among them.
And there were those that said, you know, we are followers of
Apollos and we are followers of Paul and we are followers of
Peter. And some got real pious and
said, we're followers of Jesus Christ.
Let me just say this. That's the one we ought to be
all following is the Lord Jesus Christ.
But they were divided about that and they took some pride in it.
But there was a second, there was a second problem with them.
And, and it was this that they were, they were, they were
dysfunctional. And I used that word because
they had they, they had a lot of immorality within the church.
And it's one thing that you have people who commit immoral acts,
but it's another thing for the church to overlook it and not to
deal with it. You know, it's kind of like
parents with children. We had four kids and they, I, I
will tell you that there were times when they misbehaved.
Well, that that had to be dealt with.
You know, it has been dealt with appropriately depending on what
the circumstances of the situation was.
The same thing is true about a church, that a church can't just
be overlook everything and just kind of let things go on their
their sin needs to be dealt with.
And the best, the best advice is as, as the Bible gives us that
if we're going on our face before God and deal with it
first, it's a whole lot easier than for God to have to bring
about the discipline that's needed in our life.
But they not only had that, but they, they also had disorder.
They were they, they, they really didn't know how to do
church. And so Paul had to instruct them
about, OK, here's how you do church.
But they also had this, they were filled with doubt.
When you get to chapter 15 and 16 of the book of first
Corinthians, chapter 15, the resurrection chapter, remember
that part way through it, Paul said, how say some of you there
is no resurrection of the dead. And so they, they had these
ongoing problems. And so Paul wrote to bring about
a correction for that. And the good news is that most
of the church or many in the church responded to that
correction. Again, it's, it's one thing to
be wrong and then to be stubborn in it.
And it's another thing to be wrong and, and be rebuked for it
and get it right. And so most of the Corinthians
did that, but alas, he writes to them again.
And 2nd Corinthians, because there are some things that have
occurred that in Paul's absence, he's, he's, he has sent a
preachers to them. But in Paul's absence, they had
some people come in that tried to turn the heart of the people
away from the Lord Jesus Christ and away from the apostle Paul.
Second Corinthians is probably the most personal of all Paul's
letters. Certainly First and Second
Timothy, Titus, Philemon are personal letters to an
individual. But Paul reveals a lot of
himself in the book of Second Corinthians.
And we're going to deal with something that I think is
probably worth, obviously I think it's worthwhile.
God put it in the book. So it's good for us to do this.
And I want to speak about this subject in our Sunday school
lesson this morning. And that is committed to Christ,
not corrupt counterfeiters. Committed to Christ, not corrupt
counterfeiters. We live in a day where where
everything is counterfeited. You know, one of the, the
biggest things with Customs and Border is, is products made
overseas that have American brand names on them.
Then they're they're they pose to be American made, but they're
cheap knockoffs. Now, it's one thing if you know
that the shoes that I'm getting, I know they say Nike on them,
but I know that's not really Nike and you know that and
they're priced accordingly. That's one thing.
But if they're telling you they're Nike shoes and they're
an inferior quality and they're charging you the same kind of
money, a premium money that Nike gets for theirs.
Can you imagine? I'm old enough.
I I have a hard time fathoming that you would buy a pair of
sneakers. Tennis.
We call always call them tennis shoes.
That's what I grew up. We never played tennis, but
that's what we just called them, you know, but they have running
shoes, hiking shoes, walking shoes, all that.
But I, I just can't imagine paying the kind of money, you
know, 2, three, $400.00 for a pair.
It just kind of blows my mind. And I'm, I'm not saying they're
not worth it. I'm just saying I'm still, I'm
still living a few generations back or a few years back when
stuff was not nearly that expensive.
And so Paul's concerned because there are these corrupt
counterfeiters that have come in.
He's going to deal with them in the book of Second Corinthians
and the 11th chapter. And I want to begin reading, if
you would, just in verse #1 and follow down to verse #15 So just
follow along as I read it would to God.
You could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear
with me, for I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy, For
I've 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 subtility, 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 ye have not
received, or another gospel which ye have not accepted, you
might well bear with them. For I suppose I was not a whip
behind the very chiefest apostles.
But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge.
But we have been thoroughly made manifest among you.
In all things have I committed an offense and abasing myself,
that you might be exalted, because I preached to you the
gospel of God freely. I robbed other churches, taking
wages of them to do you service. And when I was present with you
and wanted, I was chargeable to no man for that which was
lacking to me, the brethren which came from Macedonia
supplied. And in all things I've kept
myself from being burdensome to you unto you, and so will I keep
myself, as the truth of Christ is in me.
No man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Akai.
Wherefore because I love you not, God knoweth but what I do,
that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which
desire occasion that wherein they glory they may be found,
even as we. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of
Christ, and no marvel, for Satan himself has transformed into an
Angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of
righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.
Let's vow for prayer. Father, even as we've read this
passage in Second Corinthians, I believe it's there because you
intend for us to read it to gain instruction, Father, that we
might be well prepared to serve you in the day and age in which
we live. Father, I pray that the Holy
Spirit of God would lead us and guide us and that you'd make the
application to our heart that, Father, that that we might be
true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ and not corrupt
counterfeiters or thank you for loving us as much as you do.
Help us to love you even more and more.
We pray and ask in Jesus name, Amen.
There was a lot of opposition that came to the apostle Paul
and if you remember back in the book of Acts, Paul had been in
Corinth for about 18 months and facing a lot of opposition and
that this the Lord sent him a message and he said I have much
people in this city. God cared about the Corinthians.
So here we are as Paul begins to give a defense of his, of his
ministry throughout this and to deal with these subjects.
The first thing that I think we see in this passage, and is that
the need for doctrinal discernment, the need for
doctrinal discernment, doctrine matters.
We live in an age where people constantly would tell you that
you know what a doctrine is, not what's important.
Love is what is important. And I'm going to tell you we
need both of them equally that that we are out of balance if we
are all doctrine, but we can't love anybody and we are out of
balance if we are all love and we're not doctrinally correct.
It is vitally important that we keep a balance in all of that.
And so doctrinal discernment is important.
It's one of the questions that a lot of times lost people will
ask, well, how can I know the truth?
How can I know which church is right?
Some of you may have even asked that question.
Well, how do I know? And like again, I think there's
some several things that God has given us and one is we have the
book, we have the word of God. And I would just encourage this.
If you have doubts, just get into the word of God and begin
to read it and say, God, I have some doubts.
I need you to show me what it is and, and trust that God will
give you the answer. One of the things that I, I
think every, every church member ought to keep in mind is that
when those questions come to our heart and mind, a lot of times
we want to add, we want to go to the Internet or we want to go,
you know, we want to go somewhere to get somebody to
give us an answer because we like things quick.
I tell you the best thing you can do, get on your face before
God in your own closet and pray and say, God, I really need to
know an answer to this. And then come to church with an
expectant heart and listen to the preaching of the Word.
And without you having said anything to your pastor, the
Holy Spirit of God will direct in his life.
He may not even know the subject that he's preaching on revolves
around the exact question that you've asked.
And chances are he won't know. But God knows and the Holy
Spirit of God knows, and you'll be sitting in the service and
all of a sudden the light bulb will click on and you'll say,
you know what? God gave me an answer.
Sometimes the answer will be no. Sometimes the answer will be
yes. But God will give you an answer.
And you walk out and shake the pastor's hand and say, thank
you, pastor, that was a great sermon this morning.
God gave me an answer to the question I have.
The good news about that is that you walk out saying God gave me
the answer. I didn't get it from somebody.
I got I got an answer from God that will give you confidence to
stand firm and the answer that God gives you, he gives it.
God promises to give us what we need through the preaching of
the word. God will reveal himself through
through that preaching. So anyhow, Paul said, would to
God, you have bear with me a little in my folly and indeed
bear with me. If you remember back in Chapter
11, Paul had had this to say about this very thing, that
verse 12 of Chapter 11. For we dare not make ourselves
of the number, compare ourselves with some that commend
themselves. But they measuring themselves
and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise.
But we will not boast of things without our measure, but
according to the measure, the rule which God has distributed
to us, a measure to reach even unto you.
Part of the false teachers that had come in was that they made
these great boast about things. And Paul had already said that
boasting is not a part of our faith.
Boasting is not a part of who we are as Christians.
And, and so when he comes to Chapter 11, he said, I, I need
you to put up with me just a little bit because I'm, I, I'm
going to seem like a fool to these people.
I hope I'm not a fool to you, but I'm going to seem like a
fool as far as culture in the world is concerned put up with
me. But he said I'm jealous over
you. I'm jealous over you and he uses
an illustration of a presenting that I espoused you to one
husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
We know in Ephesians that by the Bible says in chapter 5,
husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave
himself for it. If you remember, John the
Baptist made this comment about himself.
It was said about him that he was the friend of the
bridegroom. What was John doing?
Well, he was preparing a people for the Lord.
Well, that's exactly what the Apostle Paul was preparing a
people for the Lord. And he said, I'm jealous over
you because I'm not looking for your loyal to loyalty to me as
much I'm looking for your loyalty to Christ.
I want, I want you to be committed to him in the same way
that that a young lady has engaged her husband, espoused
her husband in that same way that she's committed to him.
I, I want to present you purest chaste virgins to the Lord and I
want to present you in purity. That's why Paul dealt with the
the, the the the moral issues, the doctrinal issues with all
those things in Corinth is because that that Paul wanted
them to be that that that precious bride for the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so he said, I, I, I, I've
espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ. I'm jealous for you.
You know, jealousy is is not always evil.
Envy is when you somebody has something that you don't have
and you. Think you'd like to have it so
much so that you're willing to do what you need to take it.
But jealousy involves a third party and it's about here's a
husband, here's a wife and a third party that's coming in
between them. And Paul said, I'm jealous about
that. I don't want anything.
I don't want anybody coming between you and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, as he goes on, he said,
but I, I'm afraid of this because I my fear is this, that
as the serpent beguiled Eve, that you also might be beguiled
from the simplicity that's in Christ.
One of the dangers of the day is that often times false teachers
take simple things and make them complicated and that you you
need them for the keys to understanding.
You got to have them or you have to have their book.
You have to have their wisdom to understand it.
After all they've taken, what was the simplicity that's in
Christ? They have complicated it and you
have to go to them for the key. Notice that Paul said, for he
that cometh preaches another Jesus whom we've not preached,
or that you would receive another spirit that you've not
received or another gospel which you have not accepted.
You might well bear with them. It's vital, important that you
don't put up with people that would come in, you know, people
that come to Liberty Baptist Church, join Liberty Baptist
Church. They don't come in to change
Liberty Baptist Church. If they're coming to change
Liberty Baptist Church, everybody ought to stand up and
say, you know, I'm sorry, there are probably other churches down
the road that'll welcome you and you're welcome to go there.
But you're not going to change who we are because we are
committed to Jesus Christ. We're committed to his word.
We're committed to his church. And so we, we, we live in a time
where where those kind of things happen.
Paul was committed to them and he wanted to encourage them to
be committed to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Corrupters try to influence, you know, we, I, I, some of you are
not far off from my age and I and I, I agree.
There was no Internet. There were no computers, you
know, telephones hung on a wall that had a cord to them.
We didn't have those kind of things.
Nowadays you can find information.
As a matter of fact, when the when the news was given, most of
the time the news was delayed by often times hours and days.
Something could happened a couple of days ago and it's just
news today. But it's not like that.
Everything is instantaneous now. And and it's so much easier for
people to to slip in and try to corrupt.
We live in a pluralistic society.
Our society thinks that, you know, embrace everything.
We need to be tolerant of everything that we need to be
accepting of everything, but they're not very tolerant of us
if we disagree with them. You know, there's some things
that, and everybody knows this. There's some things that you
can't be intolerant about. If you go to a pharmacy to pick
up some medicine, do you want a pharmacist that you know what?
It doesn't matter. A pill is a pill.
That's you know what? It's a blue pill.
I'm not sure what it is, but they need a blue pill.
So here you go. Here's a blue pill.
How's that going to work? Are you want to be tolerant?
You want to be tolerant when you're driving down the street
and you see a street sign that tells you that Easton down this
road and you start down that road and and you wind up in New
Hampshire. We all want to be tolerant when
it comes to the red and blue lights that light up behind us.
If you've ever had that happen to you, I haven't for a long
time. Thank the Lord.
I try to behave myself, but we want him to be tolerant.
But you know what? We there, there are a lot of
things in life we don't accept this.
We don't accept we're not tolerant of.
I wouldn't be tolerant of my wife having a boyfriend.
I'm not going to be tolerant of that.
I'm not going to be tolerant of somebody that wants to harm my
children. So you see, there's some things
we, we can't tolerate everything.
There's some things. And it's important for us that
when it comes to the word of God, that that, that we know and
understand what we believe that it comes from the word of God.
It comes from God. And and that's it.
The line is drawn. And that we're not not not going
to allow those that come in to sway us or take us from that
salvation is only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
They're not many ways to heaven. There's one way Jesus said I'm
the way the truth and life. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me. Jesus is the express image of
God. He is God in the flesh.
And so there there's some things like this that the Bible reveals
to us that that matter and that it's important that we keep in
mind. They said that if he preaches
the they preach another Jesus, have another spirit, they have
another gospel. Well, there, there's only one
gospel that brings salvation. That's it.
There's not they're not many ways, they're just one.
It matters. It matters.
It matters what what the Bible we use, it matters.
It those things, all those things matter, but they were
corrupting. And Paul said, I, I'm concerned
about it, that you will not be naive and just simply accept
everything that comes along, but that you'll be good students of
the word. I don't know if you do this, but
I'd encourage everybody. I, I don't think our Christian
life and our Christian walk can ever be what it ought to be if
we do not spend time with God every day.
I, I, I know for myself, I have to spend time reading my Bible
and I have to spend time on my knees and prayer daily.
And if I don't, if I miss a day, if something comes up and I, so
I read my Bible, but I didn't pray.
And I'm, I'm thinking this is not good.
Or if I spent a little bit of time, but I didn't take time
read. I'm thinking, oh man, I'm in
danger. I'm in danger.
False teachers and false apostles like to prey on people
who are not good students of the Word.
Well, there's a second thing. And we find that starting in
verse #5 When he said, For I suppose I was not a whip behind
the very chiefest apostles, but though I'd be rude in speech,
yet not in knowledge. For we have been thoroughly made
manifest among you in all things Paul said It's important for you
to to understand there is a distinctive difference between
the ministry that I have the preaching that I bring to you
and that of the false teachers and the false apostles.
And now notice that Paul said in verse #7 have I committed an
offense and basing myself that you might be exalted.
You see, here were here were the opposites, the false teachers
were boasting. They were they, they, they made
a big deal about their knowledge, about their
understanding, about their abilities.
They made a big deal about that. They made a big deal about the
credentials that they had. And Paul, what did Paul say?
He I based myself, I humbled myself.
You know, truly followers of the Lord Jesus Christ don't have to
boast. God calls us to be in humility.
Remember that the Lord said if you, if you want to be chief,
the disciples, the apostles got all caught up in this about
who's going to sit on the right hand, Who's sitting on the left
hand? You know, when the Kingdom
comes, who gets to be this, who gets to be that?
And the Lord, the Lord said to them that, that if you're going
to be chief, then you need to be the servant of all.
Paul said you, you know how I lived among you.
And he goes on to make the contrast.
He said, I, I, I, I committed offense that I might be that you
might be exalted. I preach the gospel to you
freely. Paul said, I didn't make demands
on you that you have to do this. You have to do that, that that
that you have to provide for me certain financial criteria.
You have to do this for me. You have to do that for me.
Paul said we didn't do that. We just came and preached the
gospel to you. We're living by faith, trusting
God and pastoring for the 43 years being in the ministry,
pretty close to 50 years I've had, I've seen evangelist and
preachers come through that, you know, their, their first, their
first, their first conversation is what kind of place they can
stay in and how much money they can get.
I understand. I, I understand that when you go
to the gas station, you know, you can't just smile and, and
you know, let them fill up your tank.
That's just not going to work. I, I understand that.
But but when somebody comes to me and the first thing that
they're talking about is how much money what the honorarium
is or what this is or what, or I have to have so much up front to
come. Well, thank you.
But there are other places maybe could have you you're not coming
here. And I'm so grateful over the
years for the faithful evangelist and pastors that have
come to our church. And they just come and they come
because they believe. You know what we believe God's
in this. We, we, we're, we're happy to
come and we're going to trust the Lord for how he provides for
us. I think it's important for
church to be generous toward them.
You know, Paul, Paul's very pointed on this.
I robbed other churches taking wages of them to do you a
service. One of the wonderful things
about supporting missions and about supporting people in the
ministry is that we can allow, we can support them, which
allows them to go to churches that don't have the financial
means to take, really take care of them.
We, we have an evangelist that would come to our church every
year and we supported him on a, on a monthly basis.
And then we had him come to our church every year.
But, but by supporting him, he, he was able to, there was a
church in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that you have to go way
out of your way. You have to, want to go there in
order to show up at this church. Well, they, they've got a dozen
people. How do they take care of him?
Well, they're going to take care of him the best they can, but
it's not going to take care of what he needs to get there and
all that. It enabled him to go to places
that that he went to Peru and he preached in the prisons in Peru
by supporting. We helped him to do some of
those things. And Paul said, I, I took wages
of other churches, but I, because I don't want to be
burdensome to you. In Paul's day, the philosophers
and the, the, the speakers of the day, they would, they would,
they would come to in and they would have a, an arena or place
where they could make a speech and people would, would bring
money to hear them speak. And they would wait until they
had enough money in the pot or whatever it was, and then they
would go ahead and then they would start their speech.
I don't know if you've seen people, sometimes musicians be
on the streets or the corners, you know, and they're playing
and they're, sometimes they just keep playing whether people put
money in or not. And then there are other times
that they're waiting for enough people to gather around and
enough people to put money in. OK, now you can have the now you
can. Now we'll play.
Now we'll perform for you. Well, that's how they these
worked in Paul's day. And Paul said, I don't operate
that way. See, there's a distinctive
difference. Paul said here's what's
important. Substance, not style.
The speakers of Paul's day were
polished. They were professional speakers.
And because they were professional speakers, they
expected a large honorarium or a large monetary gift in order to
speak because they were professional.
Paul said, I'm not professional. I'm a minister of Jesus Christ.
I'm a servant of Jesus Christ. And that Paul was about
substance, not not about personalities and verse #5 for I
suppose that I was not a whip behind the very chiefest
apostles. It's a little bit of sarcasm on
Paul's part because when you look up that word, it's about
super apostles. So there were some people that
presented themselves to the church at Corinth that they were
the Super apostles, not the 12. It's not them, but it's some
others that claimed to be apostles, sent ones.
And so they're claiming something that they don't really
have, and they're presenting themselves as that, that, that
we're experts in this and that we can tell you how things ought
to be done. Have you begun to figure this
out that experts don't always have the right answers?
You know, sometimes God's people have enough common sense, don't
really need an expert. We just need to read and see
what God said and then follow what the Lord said.
Said Paul's point in all of this that while he was not a that
while he was not a professional speaker, it does not mean that
Paul was not a good speaker. And verse, number, verse #9 And
when I was present with you and wanted, I was chargeable to no
man for that which was lacking to me, the brother, and which
came from Macedonia supplied. And in all things I've kept
myself from being burdensome to you, so will I keep myself as
the truth of Christ is in me. No man shall stop me of this
boasting in the regions of Akai. Wherefore, because I love you
not God knoweth, but what I do that will I do that I may cut
off occasion of them that desire occasion that we're in the glory
they may be found even as we you see, they gloried in the fact
that they were these polished professional speakers and that
they, you know, they influenced people and people were attracted
to them and people followed them.
They, I, I, I, I don't know that it was necessarily like we see
today, but you know, bless her heart, I had a dear lady one day
say to me, you're just a pastor. You haven't written any books.
These people wrote books. I'm fine being just a pastor.
I'm fine with that. That's what God called me to be,
trying to be the best of that, that I can.
And if it's just a pastor that I am, I'm great.
But her measurement of what was important was that these people
have written books. I can tell you what libraries
are full of books that are not worth reading.
And I'm not against education and I'm not against reading
books. I like reading books.
My wife will tell you that I, I have well, since I've repurposed
as pastor and I am, we're now downsizing everything.
My most of my library is gone, but right, I had lots of books.
My my dad collected lots of books.
I got his books. I collected lots of books.
Now everything's digitized. It's on computer.
You don't need the books anyway. But, but what I'm getting at is
that Paul said the measures about the substance of it, not
about, not about the, the style of it.
And, and later on Paul mentions that that the, the, all the
marks of an apostle, all the, all the things of an apostle
were found in me. And so he concludes with this
thought and, and this, that it's, it's about humility, not
about honorariums. And Paul said there's a
distinctive difference, a distinctive difference.
You can have substance or you can have style, you can have
humility or you can have honorariums, which do you want?
Paul said about substance and humility.
But there's a last thing that's mentioned to us in this passage
and it's verses 10 through 15. And we'll we'll kind of deal
with that. And I but I do want to touch on
this verse 11. Wherefore.
Because I love you not, God knoweth.
Paul wants them to understand this.
He has a deep love for them and his desire is for their best.
If it cost him, that's OK. I don't mind paying the cost.
Remember Paul? Paul equated himself with
someone who wanted to present the bride to her husband, a
chaste, pure virgin. Paul also referred to himself as
a father. You know what parents, parents
sacrifice for their children and it's not a, it's not really a
burden. Is it a hardship?
Yeah, sometimes it's a hardship. But you know what?
Our kids are worth it. My kids are all grown now and
not living at home. People will tell you today, you
know, and that's kind of the, again, the culture of the world.
You can't afford kids. And if you wait till you afford
can afford them, you won't have them because nobody can wait
till they have enough money for kids.
And I'm going to tell you this. Grandparents never have enough
money for grandkids. But the thing thing about it is
that does a does a mother does? Does she worry about her
sacrifices for children? I don't think so.
I don't think dads worry about the sacrifices that they make
for their children's, not men who are men of God and women who
are women of God. They don't worry about the
sacrifices that they make for why?
Because we have a deep love for them.
You love your kids. Not hard to sacrifice for them.
I, you know, I just just retired, not from the ministry,
but from pastoring Grace Bible Baptist Church.
I want Grace Bible Baptist Church and Pastor Brett.
I want them to do far better than I ever could.
I want them to go beyond me. I don't have to be just what
what I had and it has to be the same thing forever because I I
know this that that I want, I want them to have it even better
than I had it. And Paul saying that to the
folks at Corinth that that I want the best for you.
And so this last part, verses 13 through 15 comes down to this.
Refuse dishonest deceivers. Refuse them, They're
counterfeit, for such are false apostles.
Paul didn't mention any words. False, not true.
False. Secondly, deceitful.
They're deceitful, transforming themselves into the apostles of
Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an Angel of light.
Therefore it's no great thing if his ministers be transformed as
the ministers of righteousness. Who's then shall be according to
their works? The devil does not usually come
to us in a red suit with horns, a long tail and a pitchfork.
How does it come as an Angel of light?
Because the idea is to confuse. The idea is for us to think,
hey, these really are, these really are apostles.
These really are people, Paul saying you can measure the
ministry that I had with you and you can measure theirs, and
that'll tell you who the real apostles are.
Every one of the apostles of the Lord suffered, except perhaps
John suffered martyrdom. What were they doing?
They were following in the steps of Jesus.
They they didn't, they didn't have cities named after well,
they, I guess they did, you know, later on, but but in in
their time, they, they didn't have all this promotion.
They didn't have all these Paul said we're the off scouring of
the earth. Paul was involved in deliberate
sacrifice for them. They were involved in deliberate
self-serving. They were destructive and not
edifying. Eventually.
The last part of verse #15 says whose end shall be according to
their works. Isaiah 820 says, if to the law
and the prophets, if they speak not according to this words,
because there's no light on them, they don't have a truth in
them. Measure things by the book of
God. Make sure that it measures to
this and that we're not deceived by those false teachers and
false apostles, those corrupt, those corrupt people who will
try to turn our hearts from the Lord.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.