I can assure you that all of the evidence we have in Scripture indicates that the Apostle Paul was truly a humble man. He had been humbled by Christ on the Damascus Road. Prior to that, he probably was one of the proudest of men, but that changed when God struck him down and humbled him and drew him into saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that God-like humility was demonstrated in his life and labors throughout the remainder of his days, and we have a record of that before us in Scripture. And therefore, boasting was distasteful to Paul, but he did it when it was necessary. And when Paul talks about boasting, what does he mean? He simply means stating evidences of his true apostleship, the call of God upon his life and the evidence of God's working in his life to demonstrate that he is, in fact, an apostle of Jesus Christ, a position which was constantly under attack by his enemies. And so when this call was challenged by critics who wanted to denigrate Paul in order to deceive those that Paul ministered to, and when undiscerning Christians were in danger of being deceived by these critics, Paul responded to their hypocritical boasting with his own truthful boasting. And we have seen a measure of that in Chapter 10, and we're looking at more of that in Chapter 11. And we are taking a big section today, verses 1 through 15, in which we will find five reasons why Paul boasted.
And I will give them to you, and then we'll go back and take them up one by one. Why did Paul boast? Number one, to assert apostolic responsibility. Why did Paul boast?
Number two, to develop increased discernment. Why did he boast? Number three, to defend his divine commission. Why boast? Number four, to correct malicious slander. And finally, why did Paul boast? It was to unmask satanic deception. So why did Paul boast? Number one, to assert apostolic responsibility.
And he opens Chapter 11 with an appeal for patience. I know that you would bear with me in a little folly, and indeed you do bear with me. Paul recognized that human boasting is in one sense folly.
It is a lower level of discourse, and it would be better never to engage in it. And yet there are times when it is appropriate and even necessary. And Paul says this is one of those times, and therefore be patient with me while I do this. Please understand that even in my boasting I have a God-honoring purpose for doing it. I would not be doing it otherwise. And Paul explains in verse 2 that he has a responsibility given to him by God, and this boasting is necessary in order to accomplish his responsibility.
And what is that? He says, For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin in Christ. Paul speaks here like a father who takes responsibility for a beloved daughter.
And in that relationship he maintains a godly jealousy, as a father would rightly maintain a godly jealousy for his daughter to protect her, to keep her safe, to deliver her at the right time to her husband in good condition, and as a husband would have a godly jealousy for his wife for the same reasons, to protect her, to guide her, to strengthen and to minister to her. So Paul has a similar relationship to the members of the church at Corinth. He has a responsibility to them. God used him to plant the church in Corinth. God used him to preach the gospel to these people. God used him to bring them out of darkness into light. He was their spiritual father, both in the sense that God used him to bring many of them to faith in Christ, and he was the founder of the church and therefore the father, the spiritual father of this church. And that gives him a responsibility which God has placed upon him to watch over them, to guard them, to protect them for the purpose of spiritual blessing, to keep them from the kinds of things that would damage them in their relationship with Christ.
He has in the picture that he's painted in verse 2, betrothed them to Christ. We've talked about the betrothal customs of that day, and so you understand that when a father made arrangements generally with the father of another man, but sometimes directly with the potential husband depending on the circumstances, but when a father made arrangements to give his daughter in marriage, even that very idea some people shrink away from in our day, but it is a very biblical idea. When the father makes arrangements to give his daughter to the chosen husband, the one that he approves of, the one that she approves of, there's a mutual communication going on here, but when he betroths her to that husband, he expects rightfully that there's going to be faithfulness on the part of both the groom and the bride, and though he doesn't have responsibility for the groom, that's not in his domain, though he does have responsibility to try to direct his daughter to a good groom, a godly groom, but he does have responsibility as much as is within him to protect her, to guard her, and to give her in marriage to her husband as a chaste virgin.
I hate to say how that's so rare in our day. We can hardly understand the concept, but that is the concept, and that is the goal, and that is the desire to deliver his daughter to her husband as a chaste virgin to protect her from the things that would damage that relationship, that would damage that record of faithfulness. That's his responsibility as a father. And Paul says that's my responsibility to you in a spiritual sense. You are betrothed to Christ. You didn't come to Christ as a chaste virgin, that's for sure, but in the mercy of God, he has cleansed you.
He has washed you in his blood. He has made you pure and chaste, and now you have the privilege and the responsibility of remaining true to Christ until the day of the marriage. This is the betrothal period when Christ returns to gather his bride. There will be the consummation of that marriage. There will be the marriage supper of the Lamb, and it is my responsibility to present you to Christ as a faithful virgin, unspoiled by your unfaithfulness in loyalty, in duty, in obedience to the one to whom you are betrothed.
That's my responsibility. And Paul declares his concern in verse 3. I fear, lest somehow as a serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Paul sees potential danger. I fear, I have a concern, a very real concern, that Satan is attempting to seduce you away from your faithfulness to Christ, and it's my responsibility to head that off as much as I can. Oh, if Eve, way back in the garden, if Eve had only rebuffed the advances of Satan instead of listening to them politely and considering them thoughtfully and eventually yielding to them, what a different story we would have. And Paul said, here are our seducers that are coming to you like Satan came to Eve, and instead of rebuffing them, instead of giving them the stiff arm, you're listening to them. You are receiving them. You are considering what they have to say with a positive reception, and I see danger there. If you don't stop that, then you are in danger of falling like Eve did way back in the garden.
Watch out. And because Paul had a God-given responsibility to protect and guide the members of the church of Corinth, he does what is necessary, and in this case, he takes up boasting because the critics are boasting and the Corinthians are being impressed favorably by their boasting, and Paul needs to come in and correct the situation. God has entrusted them into his care, and so to assert his apostolic responsibility, Paul resorts to boasting. Number two, to develop increased discernment on the part of the Corinthians. Verse four, for if he who comes preaching 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 that.
Evidently, they were giving evidence of doing that. And Paul said, you need to develop greater discernment than you're showing right now. They seemed to be as much impressed with the counterfeit as with the true, maybe even more impressed with counterfeit forms of Christianity than with the genuine that God had sent to them by his grace through the ministry of the apostle Paul, and they were particularly weak in three areas, and we see Christians weak in those same three areas today.
And what are they? Number one, they were being deceived by a counterfeit Jesus. Number two, they were being deceived by a counterfeit spirit.
Number three, they were being deceived by a counterfeit gospel. How sad that he who comes with a different Jesus receives favorable reception by you. He who comes with a different spirit receives favorable reception from you. He who comes with a different gospel receives favorable reception from you, when you ought to have enough discernment to say no and slam the door on all of these, but you're not.
I'm concerned because you're not showing much discernment when he who comes. One commentator made a distinction, I think an accurate one, between the false teachers, the ones who came, he who comes, as opposed to the true apostle who is one who was sent. Paul didn't just come to Corinth, Paul didn't just happen to Corinth, Paul was divinely sent to Corinth, but there are some who have targeted Corinth for their own selfish purposes.
They have come of their own accord and they are in danger of deceiving the Corinthians. And so they are presenting a counterfeit Jesus, another Jesus, a Jesus who has no saving power. That Jesus is abroad, many counterfeit Jesuses are abroad throughout the world today. A Jesus in some cases who is not the eternal Son of God, he's something less than that. A Jesus in many cases who is no savior from sin. In some cases he's a savior from sin's penalty, but certainly not from sin's power. He's not here to cleanse your sin and to remove it from your life, but just simply to give you a ticket to heaven so that when you die you don't have to face the consequences of your sin, but never, never a Jesus who will disturb your sinful lifestyle. A Jesus who is not Lord of all, a Jesus who is not Lord of your life, a Jesus to whom you owe no obedience or service or sacrificial loyalty.
A counterfeit Jesus, not the Jesus of the Bible. And here are people coming with that Jesus, a soft, friendly, loving Jesus who makes no demands upon your life, and that sounds very attractive. You mean I can have Jesus and salvation and eternal life and all the benefits and blessings of Christianity and I don't have to sacrifice anything? I don't have to give up my sin? I don't have to disturb my comforts in any way? I can go on with my carnal desires and still have all the benefits of Jesus and what he brought?
That sounds pretty good. Watch out, that's a false Jesus. If one comes to you with a Jesus like this, you need to say, get out of here! There's not only counterfeit Jesus's, but there is a counterfeit spirit.
And like the counterfeit Jesus's who come representing themselves as the true Jesus, Jesus Christ, the counterfeit spirit that these represent come claiming to be the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers me. The Holy Spirit guides me. The Holy Spirit told me this. The Holy Spirit told me that. The Holy Spirit enables me to do this.
And Paul says, you need to be more discerning. This isn't the true spirit of God. This is a false spirit masquerading as the spirit of God. Beloved, writes the apostle John, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits.
Examine them. Test them whether they are of God because many false, and following the line of the verse you might think he would say, many false spirits are gone out into the world, but he says, test the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. You see, the false spirits empower, guide, direct, and utilize false teachers, false prophets. And so those who bring a counterfeit Jesus comes doing that in the power of a spirit, a spiritual power, but it's not the Holy Spirit. You better be discerning.
You better be paying attention. You better be testing the spirits to see whether they are of God or you are going to be deceived. And so the counterfeit Jesuses and counterfeit spirits other than the Holy Spirit and a counterfeit gospel, gospels of human achievement, gospels of social concerns, but not of spiritual concerns, gospels that are designed to bring no offense to the carnal mind or false gospels.
Watch out. Somebody comes and brings you a false gospel and you seem to be finding that attractive when it is different. It's contrary to the true gospel of Christ. You need to be listening to these things with greater discernment.
You need to be listening for more than a few buzzwords. When you hear the word Jesus, it doesn't mean that it's the Jesus of the Bible. When you hear the word Holy Spirit, it doesn't mean that it is truly the Holy Spirit from God. When you hear the word gospel, it doesn't mean it's the gospel of Jesus Christ and on it goes. When you hear about Christianity, when you hear about miracles, it doesn't mean that they are miracles that have been produced by God. You need to be skeptical of any Christianity that seems to have a popular appeal.
I, in one sense, hate to say that, but folks, that's the case. You need to be constantly on guard. You need to have a holy skepticism. Please ask God to keep you from being bitter and rancorous, but you need to have a holy skepticism of virtually anything and everything until you check it out and particularly a form of Christianity that seems to have broad appeal. Everybody's coming to that.
Everybody likes that. Look at all the people that are coming. Yeah, look out, look out, look out, look out. Ask God to enable you to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit. The second reason why Paul boasted, because he found it necessary to counter this sort of thing, is to develop increased discernment among these people. As these false teachers came with their boasting, and they were boasting, and Paul mentions that, they were listing all of their achievements and all the things that they thought made them better than Paul, or at least ought to convince people that they were better than Paul.
And Paul said sometimes the only way to deal with that is to fling it right back at them, dispose their hypocritical boasting with the truth, unveil their deception with sharp sarcasm, which will help people to understand the difference and develop some discernment. Why did Paul boast number three? To defend his divine commission, verses five and six. For I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am untrained in speech, yet I am not in knowledge, but we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things. To defend his divine commission, and Paul talks first of all about his standing and secondly about his credentials, and since he's already talked about these before, he doesn't elaborate in these particular verses everything that he has said previously about them, but Paul tells us that in his standing, he is not inferior to the other apostles.
Apparently his critics were saying so. Paul is not a real apostle like Peter, James, and John. Paul didn't walk with Christ upon the earth. Paul didn't observe Jesus' ministry and hear Jesus speak. Paul isn't a real apostle like they are, and the insinuation is, we have a good relationship with the other apostles.
They sanction us. They approve what we're doing, which wasn't true, but they were using that connection deceptively, lyingly, hypocritically, a connection that really didn't exist, and casting aspersions upon Paul's apostleship. He's not a real apostle like the ones that we know, like the ones that endorse what we are doing, or there may be another meaning of verse 5 where I consider that I'm not all inferior to the most eminent apostles, and a number of commentators think that that reference to the other apostles here is not a reference to the genuine apostles like Peter, James, and John, but a reference to the pseudo-apostles, or some translations even call them super-apostles, which is a term that Paul applies to the false teachers because it seems to be something that they've applied to themselves. They come claiming to be apostles of Christ, and they come claiming to be superior apostles to Paul. They are super-apostles. They are pseudo-apostles. They're not pseudo-apostles. They're super-apostles. Paul calls them pseudo-apostles. Paul's not a super-apostle like we are if he's one at all. And to the false teachers, they were greater in their own eyes than the apostle Paul. They were greater apostles than the apostle Paul.
So they boasted, and so they wanted people to believe. And in order to defend his divine commission, as a genuine apostle of Jesus Christ, Paul uses these techniques, including boasting. And so his standing in verse 5 and his credentials in verse 6. And he makes reference, once again, to his oratorical performance is not one of his credentials.
The false teachers, again, seem to make that as one of the most important things. Paul can't really be an apostle of Christ because he is not an impressive orator. The critics judged Paul's oratory as inferior and unsatisfactory. And Paul seems to accept that judgment. He doesn't argue about that.
Because that's not important. He seems to accept that. I've heard what Paul says about his own speaking performance, his speaking ability. And it seems like he considered himself to be a very, not even an ordinary speaker, but even less than ordinary ability. And yet when I read the accounts of his speaking, the records of his sermons, the effect that it had upon people, it seems to me like he was a very good speaker. But he certainly was not in the style of oratory that Greek culture held up as the standard of excellence.
And he admits that. But Paul says what is really important is not my oratory, but my knowledge. He acknowledged that his oratory may not be humanly impressive, though it was that which God used and empowered in his life. But it was his superior knowledge that was one of his credentials. This knowledge of truth, this knowledge of God, this knowledge of Christ, this knowledge of God's word, his knowledge which was accurate.
It was completely accurate. It was not wrong in anything that he said that was the word of God. It was expansive. He had a large knowledge of truth, far more than nearly anybody in his day. And his knowledge was invaluable because that's what they needed. They needed the knowledge of God's word. They needed a true knowledge of God himself. They needed a clear knowledge of the gospel.
They needed a knowledge that would help them to recognize counterfeits and to reject them. And Paul says my claim to apostleship is not in my superior oratory. It's not in the way I say things, but it's what I say. It's the words that I say. It's the message I deliver. It's the truth that I'm able to communicate to you in a way that these guys can't because frankly they don't have true knowledge.
What they're spouting is a bunch of error anyway. But I have the knowledge of God. And so that was one of Paul's credentials.
But another one of his credentials was in his fruitful labors, verse 6. For though I am untrained in speech, yet I am not in knowledge. I'm very trained in knowledge.
But then this. But we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things. We have been made known.
By who? He doesn't say I made myself known. He says I have been manifested, though I think some translations do give it an indicative rather than a passive sense.
And it could be either way. But Paul is saying that God manifested in my life, in my labors, that I have the call of God upon my life. God manifested that I'm an apostle of Christ who's being used of God. In other words, this manifestation indicates much visible evidence of God's working through Paul, which anyone with spiritual discernment could clearly see. One translation says we have made our commission clear for all to see.
We have made our commission, our divine apostolic commission, clear for all to see. How did you do that, Paul? By preaching the gospel and souls were saved, by planting churches and seeing them established, by seeing Christians grow in grace and become strong. In other words, through Paul's ministry there was much fruit.
It was evident. There was a whole host of changed lives wherever Paul went. Well, when I say wherever he went, there were some locations he went to, and God didn't minister powerfully through him, and he didn't leave a large host of changed lives behind. He didn't see that happen on the Isle of Crete.
He didn't see that happen in the city of Athens. But so many places where Paul went, God poured out his Spirit upon him and worked powerfully through him, and here's the evidence of it. As Paul said to the Corinthians earlier in this very epistle, we don't need letters of commendation from others. You are our epistles, written in our hearts, known and read of all men.
Here you are, a church of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in a pagan, idolatrous, licentious, immoral city. How did that happen? Well, how did that happen? Number one, foremost, and what I'd rather say more than anything else is that happened by the grace of God.
I wish I could just say that period, and that's all that needed to be said, but I must add this to it. How did that happen? That happened by the grace of God blessing me, by the grace of God blessing my labors. I don't know why. I don't think that makes me any great somebody.
I don't really like to boast about it. It's all of grace. It's all what God has done. But wake up, recognize this is what shows clearly that I am an apostle of Christ. God has worked through me. God has changed your lives and many others. Now show me the lives that these false teachers have changed. Show me the pagan idolaters who have turned from their pagan idolatry to Jesus Christ through their ministry.
Show me the churches which they have planted. I will pause while you list them for me. I'm not hearing anything. Nothing?
Nothing. And so this undesirable boasting is necessary because of your weakness. But if you'll think about it, I list my credentials and evidences and place them up against these hypocritical boasters. And what they're boasting of is a bunch of wind. It's a bunch of nonsense. It's a bunch of nothing. And what I'm telling you is evidence of God at work.
And surely you can see the difference now if you couldn't see it before. The critics questioned Paul's commission as an apostle, but Paul defended it without apology. Number four, why did Paul boast? Number four, to correct malicious slander.
This is verses 7 through 12. It's the longest section of my five. So I'll see how quickly I can get through this.
I'll read it. Did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted? Because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge. I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you. And when I was present with you and in need, I was a burden to no one, for what I lacked, the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied.
And in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself. As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. Why in the regions of Achaia? Because that's where it's needed. He didn't do this everywhere because it wasn't needed everywhere, but he said, I do do it here, Achaia is where Corinth was, I do do it here because it's needed here, and I'll keep doing it here as long as it's needed here. Verse 11, why?
Because I do not love you? God knows that's not true. But what I do, I will also continue to do that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers.
And now I'm getting into the last section. But why does Paul boast? He does this to correct malicious slander.
Again, the false critics were, the false teachers, the critics were slandering him. So what is Paul saying here? Well, in verse 7, Paul declares his policy of free labor.
Paul did not receive any financial support, any salary from the church at Corinth. He didn't do that. And they knew that. He could say that and they knew it was true. But the critics took that and insinuated that this proved he was an amateur. If he'd been a professional, then he would have taken their support.
If he'd been a real apostle, he would have been supported by the church, as apostles ought to be. Indeed, they should. We'll get to that in a moment. As faithful preachers and pastors ought to be.
Indeed, they should. And we'll get to that in a moment. But Paul didn't take any support there. And they threw that back in his face and used that as a negative instead of a positive. Paul asks of this policy of not taking any support from them was a sin. Did I sin?
Verse 7, did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? Was that a sin? Was that an error? Was that a mistake?
Was that the wrong thing to do? So it seems when it's being misused by these false teachers. But Paul had a policy of free labor in Corinth. But he backs that up in verse 8 by telling us that he has a policy of financial support in a different situation. Verse 8, I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you. Paul took no money, no financial support from Corinth, but he gladly accepted support from other churches. He took support from other churches so that he could minister for free in Corinth. We're beginning to see what he's doing here.
We'll stick with him for a moment. And Paul was adamant about these policies. Verse 9, when I was present with you and in need, I was a burden to no one for what I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia.
That would be Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. They supplied and did everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you and so I will keep myself. Now what Paul is describing here is what I would call Paul's financial policy of missionary work.
What is that? To accept nothing from a church while it is being established, but to accept financial support from established churches in order to carry out new endeavors. This is the way missionaries operate. A missionary goes into a place where there is no gospel and he begins to preach the gospel to them and he doesn't start taking collections from them to support himself.
He doesn't do that. Well, how can he labor there? From the support of established churches, in our case, usually in America, who send support to these missionaries so they can go into these places and preach the gospel without charge until these churches become established and the people become mature. And when that happens, then they are directed to support a pastor. When God supplies a qualified pastor, they financially support their pastor and the missionary goes on to another place and starts all over again preaching the gospel without support in that location. But now he not only picks up support in many cases from the churches that were supporting him there, but now this established church that has been established by him catches the vision and they start sending support to his new location so he can do the same thing all over again there. This is the way missions operate and it operates this way because Paul operated this way and Paul tells us what he did and we can see it. We say that's the biblical pattern. But the critics said Paul's refusal to receive support from you in Corinth demonstrates his lack of love for you. Well, boy, that came out of nowhere.
What? Most people would think, if anything, that demonstrates a great measure of love, that he's willing to come in there and to labor on their behalf without any support from them. And Paul doesn't mention in this passage, but when he first went to Corinth and he didn't have sufficient missionary support from other churches, he supported himself by making tents with Aquila and Priscilla.
He labored with his hands. That's not preferable, but when necessary he did that in order not to break the terms of this policy. He would not take money from churches when he was establishing them, when they were still young and new and vulnerable to misunderstanding. He said, nope, won't take any there. And the critics said, if Paul really loved you, he'd take money from you. Somehow he's creating an emotional barrier between you and him.
He doesn't want there to be a close tie there. And Paul says, nope, that's wrong. That's a lie.
The truth is just the opposite. I do this not because I don't love you. I do this because I do love you.
That's why I'm willing to do this. And I think even the Corinthians could sort that out and see who was telling the truth. The critics are Paul. What makes more sense? That he doesn't take money from them because he doesn't love them? Or he doesn't take money from them because he does love them?
What makes more sense? So you see Paul's, what he calls boasting here, is helping them to get sorted out. And what's true? Paul boasts to set the record straight. Paul boasts to refute the slander of the false teachers.
But number five, one more. Paul boasts to unmasked satanic deception. And now in verses 13 through 15 the gloves really come off. He's going to go at them bare knuckle.
Bam, bam, bam. Up until this time he said enough about these critics to make it clear that they were not godly, honorable men. But now he's going to pull the mask off, pull the costume off, and reveal who they really are underneath. Verse 13, but what I do, or rather verse 13, here we are. For such these critics are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness whose end will be according to their works.
He unmasked satanic deception, starting with being very blunt about the true nature of his critics. Who are they? False apostles, not true ones. Who are they?
Deceitful workers, not honorable, honest ones. Who are they? They're clever actors, they transform themselves into something they are not. They're playing a role, they're masquerading, they're putting on a costume to misrepresent who they are.
They transform themselves like an actor playing a role on a stage. And what is the reason for this deception? Verse 14, they copy their father the devil.
Like Jesus said to the Pharisees in his day, you are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer and a liar, a deceiver, he's the father of lies, he's full of deceptions of all kinds. And the devil, he uses the same language here, transforms himself into an angel of light. He doesn't come to people with a pitchfork and a pointed tail and a red costume and say, hi, I'm the devil, hello, let's get acquainted.
How does he come? Like a preacher, like a divine healer, like a great visionary who's going to do great things for God, like an angel of light, that's the way he comes. Satan transforms himself, therefore we shouldn't be surprised if his ministers, his servants, his ministers do the same thing. They play a role, they deceive, they put on a costume, they transform themselves into what they are not. They are not ministers of God, they are not ministers of the gospel, they are not true ministers of the Christian church, they are ministers of Satan, but they come as angels of light.
A lot of times these people are more personable, more friendly, in some ways perhaps more attractive, at least initially. Because they don't always have to be negative, they just, true preachers don't always have to be negative, but they have to sometimes be negative if they're going to be true to God's word. But these folks can just come always smiling, always saying positive things, but of course the little digs and little insinuations in order to cause people to lose confidence in true ministers of the gospel.
Paul says that's the way Satan operates and he has ministers who operate the same way, you shouldn't be surprised and you shouldn't be deceived. Now he tells us what the end of their deception is, it's not good, whose end shall be according to their works. Bad works, bad eternity. But there's another way of understanding the last part of verse 15. If you operate on the basis of works, you're going to be judged according to your works, but if you cast yourself upon God's grace, you're going to be judged according to God's grace.
Take your pick, how do you want to stand before God? Well I did this, I did that, Lord, Lord, have we not done many wonderful works in thy name? Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you. You think your works are wonderful, I judge them to be lacking, I judge you according to your works, they're deficient, condemned. Stand before God and say, Lord, I know I have no good works of my own, I have nothing to commend myself to you, I have no merit of my own, your anger to suppress. I'm worthy of judgment, I'm worthy of condemnation, I'm worthy of your casting me into eternal hell, but, O Lord, you sent your Son and you promised that those who trust in Him would have their sins forgiven. That's all of grace, it's not of merit. I don't cast myself before you according to works, I cast myself before you according to your grace.
Welcome home! Now which one do you want to choose? Works or grace? I hope you come to understand, it doesn't matter how great your works are, they are way too deficient to get you into heaven. And I hope you also understand that you probably think your works are better than they really are. You will overestimate them every time.
So don't come pleading works, because for these people their end will be according to their works, and you don't want that. Well, what are we to learn in this passage? Don't be deceived by smooth-talking braggarts, too many people are. Number two, don't be deceived by charismatic personalities, too many people are. And I don't use the word charismatic there in the sense of Pentecostal, though sometimes they may fit into that category, but I'm talking about a very personable individual who is the kind of person who just seems to emanate about positivity and energy and attractive things. Well, that's not what's important.
Satan can do that really, really, really, really, really good, and so can his ministers. But what are they saying? Not how they say it, but what about the knowledge, what about the message, what about what's being said, what about the fruit? What should you be looking for? Number one, knowledge. Look for sound doctrine, accurate understanding of Scripture. That's what you should be looking for as you are evaluating people who claim to be ministers of God. Number two, sacrifice. Paul was a hardworking man who was willing to work for no wages or little wages.
He wasn't greedy, and that was an evidence of his godliness. And if you find people who aren't willing to do that, you better be skeptical. Number three, judge them according to fruitfulness. That is genuine spiritual fruit, and you have to be knowledgeable enough in the Bible to know what that is.
The evidence of God's blessing in changing lives under that ministry, in producing spiritually healthy churches under that ministry, that's what you should be looking for, not how big is it, not how popular is it, not how it makes people feel emotionally. But is it the truth? The biblical Jesus, the evidence of the Holy Spirit at work, the biblical gospel, that's what you should be looking for. Let's pray. Father, give Thy people discernment.
Protect them from error. And Father, all across our land there are people who are even now being deceived, some of whom are deceived because they are counterfeit Christians, but some, O Lord, are Your true sheep who at this time are wandering in unsafe places. Lord, may they hear Your voice. Call them to truth and righteousness. And Father, by the work of Your Spirit call many unto Yourself, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-12-31 14:43:50 / 2023-12-31 14:59:34 / 16