2nd Corinthians.
I so appreciate the Lord this morning because
of His goodness and His grace and His
mercy.
And I am confident that this morning we
have experienced in spirit what we're going to
read in the Bible.
There is something about the heart of God
and the heart of Paul that wept,
that was grieved, that was distressed, that was
ever desirous to express itself.
When in some way, in some form, in
some subtle device, the church of God had
somehow departed from the head Jesus Christ.
There's nothing greater in the heart of God
as far as that which brings joy than
when His dear children walk in truth.
John the Beloved said that in the second
and third epistle, and I'm sure that John
was sharing the very feeling of Christ Himself.
Now we're going to be reading a portion
of Scripture, and then we're going to take
and share in communion and allow the Holy
Spirit to continue to knit our hearts together
to the Lord Jesus Christ and to one
another in love.
But in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12, beginning in
verse number 11, I just want to give
you a little bit of what Paul has
just done.
Paul had founded the church in Corinth and
had done it through prayer and weeping and
crying and preaching the gospel.
And he had went to the area of
Corinth and God sent him there, and there
was a people that God had called out
from the world, and there they experienced the
glorious gift of salvation.
They were very dear and near to Paul's
heart.
They were beloved in the Lord's eyes, they
had experienced the wonders and glories of salvation.
But the Apostle Paul could only stay for
a certain amount of time, and then he
had to move on as God stirred his
heart.
And as he moved on, he continued to
preach the gospel, but from time to time
he would receive word from either certain members
that were in the church at Corinth or
other visiting ministers who would go there and
then speak to Paul.
And at the present time in this epistle,
2nd Corinthians, Paul's heart is distressed, he is
troubled, and he is very, very sorrowful, and
it only revolves around one major purpose, and
that's what we want to see this morning.
Something was happening in the heart of the
Corinth church that was tearing them away from
Paul and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
They had gotten off on some tangent, they
had gotten under some so- used and
made merchandise of, and somehow the subtle serpent,
as he did Eve, was beginning to seduce
their mind, and this broke Paul's heart.
This broke Paul's heart to such a place
where I believe he spent days and nights
weeping over the church in Corinth, that it
might get back to loving Jesus Christ.
In the last few chapters, Paul just got
done describing to the Corinthian church why they
should listen to him.
Now Paul was very grieved because Paul didn't
want to have to boast about the things
that God did in his life, but he
had no choice because the Corinthians had become
so carnal and so spiritually insensitive that they
couldn't relate to anything but boasting and bragging.
They were in the realm of men, so
Paul said, all right, you've compelled me to
be a fool.
Now see, Paul would have preferred the Corinthians
to be able to discern by the Spirit
the genuinity of his ministry, the authenticity of
it, and thereby their hearts would have responded,
but they were so spiritually insensitive because they
were departing from the head that he had
to go and talk like a mere man.
So he tried to convince the Corinthians that
he was truly a messenger of Christ bringing
the mind of God by telling the Corinthians
all of the marvelous things that God had
done for him.
Visions, dreams, persecutions, caught up in the third
heaven, and after he gets done mentioning this
great list, communicating to them on a carnal
level because they couldn't comprehend any other way,
he picks up in verse number 11, 2nd
Corinthians chapter 12, I am become a fool
in glorying.
You have compelled me.
You see, the Corinthian church compelled Paul to
speak like a fool because they weren't listening
to the Holy Spirit.
They weren't listening to the Lord.
For I ought to have been commended of
you.
You see, Paul was saying instead of having
to try and convince you, I should have
been commended by you.
Now remember, beloved, though we're talking about a
man, yet who is speaking through the man?
Can you see what's happening?
Christ himself is trying to win back the
Corinthian church.
Paul often said, ye seek proof that Christ
is speaking through me.
It was Christ himself that was concerned over
the church.
For I ought to have been commended of
you, for in nothing I am behind the
very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.
Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought
among you in all patience and signs and
wonders and mighty deeds.
For what is it wherein ye were inferior
to other churches, except it be that I
myself was not burdensome to you?
Forgive me this wrong.
Now we're going to begin to really see
the heart of God regarding the flock, and
this is a perfect illustration of the heart
of God regarding the church in this hour
that we live in.
Behold the third time I am ready to
come to you, and I will not be
burdensome to you, for I seek not yours
but you.
For the children ought not to lay up
for their parents, but the parents for the
children.
Verse number 14 lays the absolute foundation, it
sets the precedent.
Paul is saying, listen you Corinthians, I or
Jesus whom I preach is not after anything
that you own, but I'm you.
Paul said, I want you.
Jesus is saying, I want you.
The first true sign of a genuine word
from the Lord by any so-called apostle
or prophet, any so-called preacher or teacher,
is an overwhelming zeal for the heart of
God's people to be brought back to the
headship of Jesus Christ.
It's not what's in your pocketbook.
It's not how you can help me build
my ministry.
Paul said, these false apostles that had come
in since I left, they're not after your
hearts for God, they're after your pocketbooks.
They want to get rich off of you.
They want you to become their servants.
Earlier in this epistle, Paul said, they smack
your face and you let them do it.
It's what he said.
Paul said, not so with me.
I don't want what's yours, I want you.
Isn't that good?
Jesus wants you, beloved.
He wants you, and I
will very gladly spend and be spent for
you, though the more abundantly I love you,
the less I be loved.
Here Paul makes it even clearer.
Not only do I want you, but I'll
do anything within my power and within God's
grace to win you back to Jesus Christ.
Paul said, I'll sacrifice and not take a
penny from you if that's what it takes
to bring your heart to Jesus Christ.
But yet he says, the more I love
you, the less you love me.
But be it so, I did not burden
you.
Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.
All Paul's talking about there, we're gonna go
on, we just want to get through this
introduction.
All Paul is saying is, listen, I was
crafty.
I didn't take a penny from you so
that you couldn't come and say, you robbed
us, so therefore we have a right not
to listen to you.
Paul said, I was crafty.
I knew the serpent was gonna come and
sift you, Corinthians, so before I even got
there, the Holy Ghost said, don't take a
penny from him, so that when you leave
and the devil comes and lies to him,
they won't be able to say in order
to believe the lie, well, he did take
our money, so really we don't have to
listen to him anymore.
Isn't God wise?
That's what the Lord, that's what Paul's saying
here.
I was crafty, I didn't take a penny
from you, and I caught you.
So you can't even say, Paul, we don't
want to listen anymore because you robbed us.
No, you can't even say that, Corinthians, because
I never took a penny from you.
See, God stripped the Corinthian church from all
legitimate excuses, knowing that there would be a
day when they would begin to question what
they had experienced because of the subtlety of
the serpent.
That's all Paul's saying here.
Did I make a gain of you by
any of them whom I sent to you?
I desired Titus, and with him I sent
a brother.
Did Titus make a gain of you?
Walked not we in the same spirit?
Walked not we in the same steps?
Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto
you?
We speak before God in Christ, but we
do all things dearly, beloved, for your edifying.
For I fear, now here's the ultimate results,
beloved, here's the ultimate results.
Now remember, the heart of God, the heart
of
the always fear.
Now this isn't the fear of torment, this
is the fear of anguish.
There's always fear when people start drifting from
the head.
For I fear, for I fear, lest when
I come, here's what, here's the problem, I
shall not find you as I would, and
that I shall be found unto you such
as ye would not.
Here's what Paul's saying.
Whenever we somehow drift from communion with head,
communion with the head, here's the dilemma.
Christ isn't going to find us, the Word
of God isn't going to find us the
way it wants us, and sometimes we're not
going to find it the way we'd like
it.
Now listen to what happens.
Lest there be debates, envies, wrath, strife, backbiting,
whispering, swelling, tumults, and lest when I come
again, my God will humble me among you,
and that I shall be well.
Many which have sinned already, and have not
repented of the uncleanliness, and fornication, and lasciviousness
which they have committed.
This is the third time I am coming
to you.
In the mouth of two or three witnesses
shall every word be established.
I told you before, and foretell you as
it were present the second time, and being
absent, now I write to them which hereto
have sinned, and to all other, that if
I come again, I will not spare.
Now beloved, Paul was not speaking as a
carnal man here, with fleshly anger, but Paul
was simply coming and saying, listen beloved, when
I come to you, I cannot come in
anything but the person of Jesus Christ, and
if I come in the person of Jesus
Christ, and things are not right, that person
of Jesus Christ is going to have to
set things in order, and there's going to
be tears, there's going to be sorrow, there's
going to be anguish.
So Paul is basically saying, please get things
in order before I get there, so that
when I can get there, we can rejoice
together instead of cry together.
Paul didn't like to make people sad and
unhappy, but he knew that it wasn't his
doing.
He said he was a bondservant of Jesus
Christ.
He didn't choose his own way.
Now you see what the heart of Christ
is?
Christ longs for his people to stay under
his headship in communion with him, so this
doesn't have to resolve.
Verse number three, since you seek a proof
of Christ speaking in me, which to your
is not weak, but is mighty in you.
For though he was crucified through weakness, yet
he liveth by the power of God.
For we also are weak in him, but
we shall live with him by the power
of God towards you.
Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith.
Prove your own selves.
Know ye not that your own selves, how
that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye
be reprobates.
Now I pray to God that ye do
no evil, not that we should appear approved,
but that ye should do that which is
honest, though we be as reprobates.
For we can do nothing against the truth,
but for the truth.
For we are glad when we are weak,
and ye are strong.
And this also we wish, even your perfection.
Now what Paul's saying is this, we wish,
that word perfection simply means the way to
maturity.
Paul's saying, listen, I wish, I wish that
you will fix your eyes on Christ every
single day of your life, so that by
fixing your eyes upon Christ, you may continue
on the way to perfection, continue on the
way to maturity, continue on the way to
spiritual adulthood.
This is the burden of God in this
hour that we live in.
Verse 10, therefore I write these things being
absent, less being present, I should use sharpness.
Can you see the heart of God in
this hour that we live in?
Paul wanted things to be right, so he
wouldn't have to use sharpness.
You see beloved, there is a sharpness, there
is a boldness that Christ has, but he
only turns to that boldness when everything else
fails.
Paul knew the power, he knew the boldness,
he knew the sharpness that God could give
him, he knew how he could openly rebuke
sin.
Remember Paul looked at someone and said, thou
child of the devil, you are full of
iniquity.
Now that was boldness, wasn't it?
But he didn't want to do that.
He wanted to be able to walk softly
in the church and rejoice with the saints
and walk with the saints.
So see he's telling them, listen, find Jesus,
less being present I should use sharpness according
to the power which the Lord hath given
me to edification and not to destruction.
Finally brethren, farewell.
Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of
one mind, live in peace and the God
of love and grace or peace shall be
with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the saints salute you, the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of
God and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all.
I'm going to ask if brother Beach and
brother Spenson would pass out the communion emblems
and we'll share communion this morning.
And as we do, may we think on
these things and see that the very burden
and heart of God for the Corinthian church
was their perfection.
You could pass it out.
What is the Holy Spirit doing?
You can continue to take the emblems and
I just want to share, this puts on
my heart, what is the Holy Spirit doing
in our midst?
He's putting the church back under the headship
of Jesus Christ.
Isn't it precious?
Back under the true heart burden of Paul.
You know, I often think what would Paul
do if he came back in person and
walked in the churches?
See, we can see what he would do.
The reflection of his own heart.
He would bewail and weep.
He would bewail and weep because of the
abundance of stripes and envies and jealousies and
whisperings and divisions and contentions.
He would do as he did to the
Corinthians.
He would say, come on back to Jesus.
Let's come to the altar.
And this is what God is doing every
service we come here.
Not just here, he's doing it all over.
Wherever he can find people though that are
willing to do it his way.
See, so we ought to be so thankful
before God that he is establishing us once
again in the Holy Faith under the headship
of Christ, filling us with love one for
another.
Amen.
Does anyone have anything they want to share
from the Lord before we partake of communion?
Anything at all?
Anything welling up in your heart?
Debbie, go ahead.