Lord, we thank you that we can be
together again, and we ask you to be
with us and to help us by your
grace.
Amen.
Let's read the 2nd Corinthians, and we read
from chapter 11.
I start with the first verse.
Oh, that you would bear with me in
a little folly, and indeed you do bear
with me.
For I am jealous for you with a
godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you to
one husband, that I may present you as
a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I fear lest somehow, as the serpent
deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds
may be corrupted from the simplicity that is
in Christ.
But I fear lest somehow, as the serpent
deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds
may be corrupted from the simplicity that is
in Christ.
For if he who comes preaches another Jesus
whom we have not preached, or if you
receive a different spirit which you have not
received, or a different gospel which you have
not accepted, you may well put up with
it.
For I consider that I am not at
all inferior to the most eminent apostles.
For though I am untrained in speech, yet
I am not in knowledge, but we have
been thoroughly made manifest among you in all
things.
Did I commit sin in abasing myself that
you might be exalted, because I preached the
gospel of God to you free of charge?
Then from verse 13.
I
speak
as
a fool.
I am more.
From the Jews five times I received forty
stripes minus one.
Three times I was beaten with rods.
Once I was stoned.
Three times I was shipwrecked.
A night and a day I have been
in the deep.
In journeys often, in perils of waters, I
have been in the deep.
In perils of waters, in perils of robbers,
in perils of my own countrymen, in perils
of the Gentiles, in perils in the city,
in perils in the wilderness, in perils in
the sea, in perils among false brethren.
In weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in
hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold
and nakedness, besides the other things what comes
upon me daily, my deep concern for all
the churches.
Who is weak and I am not weak?
Who is made to stumble and I do
not burn with indignation?
If I must boast, I will boast in
the things which concern my infirmity.
We will read thus far.
If I must boast, I will boast in
the things which concern my infirmity.
We will read thus far.
There are so many messages from the Lord
you can receive.
It's a sermon on its own.
Paul wasn't a preacher like others.
He wasn't just a mere man like others.
Probably since the time of Adam and Eve
till his time, there was no one who
went through difficulty and suffering and opposition and
harm and danger to him like Paul.
You should sit down with this word and
meditate upon it slowly, considering it for hours,
and I think you will agree with me
that there was never a man that had
gone through the world like this man at
that time.
He was a man amongst men.
What can I say about him?
How I love him and how I admire
him and respect him.
How I wish to congratulate him.
If I feel what I feel now in
heaven one day, I wish that if I
receive a crown, I would say to the
Lord, Lord take it and give him, that's
Paul, another one.
I don't think that there's ever been a
man, of course excepting our Lord Jesus Christ,
there's been no other man that has changed
nations like this Paul.
And if he says, when
it says in verse 23 that where he
asked, are they ministers of Christ?
Our speakers are full, I am more.
I can only say Paul indeed, so true
it is.
A lot
of these
experiences which he relates here are hidden from
us in that we don't know the details
and historically how they happened, what exactly it
was.
He refers for instance to being a day
and a half in the deep, that is
he was in the ocean and what was
it like?
How cold was the water?
Was he treading water?
Was he holding on to one of the
logs or one of the pieces of wood
or in a boat that was being splashed
by enormous waves?
We don't know.
He was in danger of death often, beaten
with rods three times.
Once he was beaten four times with the
catinine tails or with a special type of
rod.
Remember when Jesus was to be crucified?
And he was whipped also 40 times minus
one.
Because there was the law regarding the exact
number and they were afraid that if they
exceeded that number the person could die.
Think of it.
Four times he was brutally beaten in that
way, there was not a part of his
flesh that hadn't been beaten and bruised on
his back.
One wonders whether there was any flesh left
on his back.
I don't think that you'll ever see a
back of a person like his.
One day he was stoned and they left
him for dead.
But God raised him up again.
He said, I know famine and cold.
He knew times of want of clothing and
food.
Nevertheless, nothing quenched the fire of God in
his bones, nothing could dampen the zeal despite
all these sufferings.
And having to go through experiences of false
apostles, false brethren, but with all these experiences
he was made stronger.
I don't want to sin against the Lord,
but I would say Lord after the second
crown give him a third one as well.
And yet many of the people in his
day didn't want him.
And as you know those in Asia deserted
him towards the end.
Paul preached and wrote.
But there were other apostles who were full
of self praise.
They were full of self praise.
The false brethren, false apostles brought a very
smooth message, very subtle and very convenient and
pleasing.
So much so that many of the brethren
forsook Paul and latched on to this more
comfortable gospel.
They said these words are much sweeter than
those of Paul's.
And they said, but this is rather the
better gospel, we choose this.
And Paul then said, if that Jesus is
not the Jesus which I preached, then you
are deceived and you have gone off the
track.
These were
not
genuine apostles that Paul was referring to.
They were rather false apostles.
Those who were imitating, like you can get
false teeth, it's not the genuine teeth.
So Paul said, was I failing you in
offering you the gospel free of charge because
he was showing that these false apostles were
charging them, they had to pay them.
So
Paul
said, if
that Jesus is not the Jesus which I
preached, then you are deceived and you have
gone off the track.
Who sent us
money
so that we could go and preach the
gospel there in the church.
500 preachers came to the meetings and he
said he had to leave out some of
the churches.
I said to him, why didn't you just
invite them even if there were up to
1,500 or even more, we would gladly
help and assist also in bringing food.
He says, he limited to only five in
a certain area.
So I said, never make such a mistake
again.
Never.
When we are there, don't make that mistake.
He says, there may be 3,000.
I said, that's nothing.
The more the merrier.
He says, there may be 3,000.
I said, that's nothing.
The more the merrier.
The false apostles brought...
They brought a sweet and buttered up message
that was very appealing.
And Paul said, I will become foolish then.
If by that I can expose their foolishness.
Because indeed, foolishness, you don't have to go
into the world to find it.
There's plenty of foolishness among Christians.
In Zulu, it says, my madness.
Excuse my madness.
He's just showing their madness by saying that.
And their foolishness.
It's heartbreaking if you see Christians being mad.
Not right in their heads.
Mad people with their Christ.
People devoid of wisdom and discernment.
To such an extent that one asks them,
what's wrong with you brethren?
That your eyes were not open.
Why is it that you can be so
foolish?
For a long time, I have preached and
repeated again and again, the importance of asking
for discernment from God.
But you find people who are so foolish
and so blinded, they are as if bewitched.
These
people...
They came
with
great oratory and eloquence in speech.
So much so that Paul said, well, even
if I am not trained in oratory, but
then he spoke about and showed for what
he was and what he was known to
be.
And yet these brethren forsook him when the
case was so obvious.
And they then submitted to these people who
brought this appealing message, this which was a
false Christ.
And Christians who follow after this and join
in with this lack discernment.
They don't have Christ in their hearts.
Read in Acts how he says, I know
that when I've left you, there are wolves
which will come into your midst and rise
up from your midst, who will tear at
you and break into pieces.
And one wonders why they didn't have any
more discernment than they had.
And he said, the
Jesus they have is false and the spirit
which they bring among you is false.
But it's amazing that a person can, in
their madness, just be swept off their feet
and taken away.
And God commanded Paul that these should be
written so that they would be put into
the Bible and canonized as the word of
God.
And so the Lord said in the last
days, because he knew that these words would
be necessary for us in the last days
where the Lord Jesus referred to as being
so difficult that if God didn't enable his
elect, they would all be lost.
If God wouldn't shorten the days, hardly anyone
would be saved.
Just think about that.
And those are times in which we are
living.
And
so So
Paul said, you have been deceived by this
self-seeking.
False apostles who beguile you and deceive you
into having to give to them.
Instead, I do not seek my own.
I seek for you.
I'm jealous for you.
I don't know, brethren.
Where are you counted?
With which group, Paul says.
I am jealous for you with godly jealousy.
There was something which burned within him, consumed
him.
It was a heavenly jealousy.
For I have betrothed you to one husband
that I might present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ.
Do you see where Paul's jealousy lay?
Do you see the zeal which consumed him
that he might present them in purity, in
virginity, not with another Jesus, but to Christ
alone?
This is likened to a pure chaste girl
to be presented to a bridegroom.
So the alternative being one who is not
chaste, one who has given away through sinfulness
her virginity.
She has defiled herself.
Now Paul says, I don't want to present
you like that, but as a chaste virgin
to Christ.
But he said, I am afraid for
you.
In the same way as the serpent deceived
Eve by his craftiness, so too your minds
might be corrupted from the simplicity that is
in Christ.
And you be deceived by the serpent through
his craftiness.
The serpent came to Eve asking, is God,
does he really mean it when he is
so severe in his command?
The serpent was trying to smear God's character,
trying to imply that what God had said
was wrong.
I have said, well, lo and behold, the
serpent came to Eve asking, is God, does
he really mean it when he is so
severe in his command?
The Zulus came and then they said, it's
a Ispamu.
The Zulus came and then they said, it's
a Ispamu.
They said, but what type of Ispamu is
this, gun is it?
They said, but what type of Ispamu is
this, gun is it?
And then they were told, no this is
a real gun.
And then they were told, no this is
a real gun.
And then the British said, buy and buy.
Not now, but we'll show you, buy and
buy.
And then the Zulus said, oh, so it's
Mbaimbai, which is the word till now for
the word cannon.
And then they were told, oh, so it's
Mbaimbai, which is the word till now for
the word cannon.
In this book.
I am.
And at the end you realize, mm-mm,
I wasn't in it, in the real thing.
You can be busy with Christ, with the
gospel, and then one day your eyes will
be open.
Was the wrong thing, not the right thing.
I wasn't on the road, I was next
to it.
And the regret and remorse for all eternity.
That's why in closing now, I want to
close with this question.
Have you got the right Christ, the right
Jesus, the right gospel?
You may claim to have him, but at
the end of the road he'll shake his
head and say no.
No, that wasn't the right way.
You just look at Paul, the features in
his face, look at his back, tell him
to take his shirt off, and he'll show
you the marks and the scars, and show
me yours.
And then these ladies ask our opponents, you
are busy, you want us to get, or
you want to fell a good tree?
And you yourself haven't even a shrub that's
got some shade for us.
But those people that have proved themselves for
30 years, over 30 years, you want us
to fell down their tree.
But all those that left us to this
very day, they haven't even got a shrub
that would have a bit of shade.
Do you know of one man who's forsaken
the right way, and who's got a bit
of shade where you could be quickened?
It's madness and foolishness.
And when the leaders, the politicians, the leaders
of this country, and
when the leaders in the political field, business,
and ministers say, people preachers come from all
over the world, that they don't preach the
gospel that you preach.
You go straight for our hearts and deal
with sin in our lives.
They speak sweet words to us, and tell
us many jokes, and making us laugh.
And then they go, but they haven't helped
us.
What kind of a gospel do you preach?
Ask yourself.
Ask yourself where you are.
And answer that question before the sun sets
today.
Let us pray.
Lord, help us never to be brethren or
apostles of lies.
And be false.
But rather, that we would be in the
truth, the truth of heaven.
So that we would be in it and
live in the truth.
The whole earth and all people long for
such people.
Lord, be merciful to us and everybody in
this hall today, that they wouldn't be beguiled
by the old serpent.
Amen.