The Apostle Tells Us Why - 35

Well, we are now rapidly approaching the conclusion of our study through 2 Corinthians, although we're not quite to the end.

After today, we still have chapter 13, which is filled with very important truth. But it is obvious that Paul is now winding down his instructions and appeals to the Corinthian church. He is, as we have learned, addressing a weak church that has had every opportunity to be stronger but has instead lagged behind in their spiritual development. And he's also dealing with false teachers who are undermining Paul's God-given authority as an apostle and are misleading the church. In our section for today, verses 11 through 21, the last half of chapter 12, Paul explains himself more clearly in three areas.

Number one, he gives the reasons for his unwelcome boasting. Number two, he tells us the reason for his impending visit to Corinth. Number three, the reason for his present delay, why he has not already arrived in Corinth for his third visit.

The first of the three will take more time than the other two, but all of them are important. And so today, the apostle tells us why. Paul explains the reasons behind some of his actions relating to the church at Corinth. And the first one is the reason for his unwelcome boasting, and he's already addressed this before, but he goes a little bit deeper into the reasons in this section, telling us some things that he has not disclosed before. And so we have in verse 11 the comprehensive explanation for his unwelcome boasting, boasting that he does not like, boasting that he considers to be unprofitable, boasting that he puts into the realm of the flesh, and yet nevertheless he does it.

Why? Well, he says in verse 11, I have become a fool in boasting. He's mentioned that before.

This is not new language. I have become a fool in boasting. You have compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing. So what is the comprehensive explanation for why Paul engaged in this boasting?

That is, listing his credentials and accomplishments as an apostle. Why does he do that? And the explanation is because you, the church at Corinth, compelled me. You forced me to. Now, how did they do that? Well, as previously stated in chapter 11, it is by giving ear to the false teachers.

They should not have done that. And the false teachers were listing their accomplishments and were suggesting that Paul fall short in his accomplishments compared to theirs. And so since they were not listening to Paul as they should and they were instead listening to false teachers and they were evaluating them in this way, then Paul lists his accomplishments so that they can compare them with the false teachers. And so by giving ear to false teachers and by failing to value his ministry, which is the general tone of chapters 10, 11, and 12, Paul says, you have forced me into doing something that I would prefer not to do. But secondly, he tells us, and here he is very explicit in this particular text, something he has not mentioned before. You have forced me because you, the church of Corinth, have failed to defend me.

For I ought to have been commended by you. Instead of listening to the pretenders, they should have been paying more attention to the things that Paul had taught them and continues to teach them in his epistles. Instead of remaining neutral in this back and forth between the false teachers and their demeaning the apostle Paul, and Paul standing for truth and saying nothing for a long time, but instead of remaining neutral and watching this like a spectator in a sports arena, well, let's see how this turns out. This team is doing this. This team is doing that.

These other guys are saying these things. What's Paul going to do? And they're standing by in neutrality like spectators when instead they should have been speaking up to defend the apostle Paul. Instead of speaking up in Paul's defense, as they should have, they are acting like children who fail to appreciate what a parent has done for them.

How often we see that. Just somehow can't see all of the sacrifices, all of the benefits, all of the labors, all of the love that a parent has bestowed upon a child. All they can see is maybe a few little nitpicky criticisms, which may not even be valid, but there may be some validity to them. And looking over this mountain of evidence of their parent's love for them, they focus instead upon a few little failures on their part, and they fail to appreciate them and to express it and to act like it, and that's what's going on here with the Corinthian church and Paul. Matthew Henry has a very applicable quotation that I'm going to read at this point. He says, it is a debt we owe to good men to stand up in defense of their reputation, and we are under special obligation to those who we have received benefit by, especially spiritual benefit, to own them as instruments in God's hand of good to us, and to vindicate them when they are culminated by others. That's a word we don't use very much anymore, but when they are criticized and are falsely accused by others. I'm sure every pastor has experienced things like this throughout the course of his ministry.

I'm happy to say that though I have experienced my share of this like everyone has, I've also to great joy and blessing experienced people coming to my defense. Paul, however, in this situation was experiencing those who ought to have come to his defense. They should have spoken up on his behalf.

They should have pushed back toward those who were falsely misrepresenting or falsely representing him. They should have stood up for the apostle Paul and said, in spite of the fact that he's got some weaknesses like everybody does, he is a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is an instrument of grace. He has preached to us the gospel.

He has been faithful in his ministry. Stop this criticism of God's man who has been such a blessing to us to whom we owe our eternal salvation and to the establishment of our church. Stop this carnal criticism, but instead they just said, hmm, let's see how this turns out.

Let's see who wins. Shame on you, Corinthian church. You, said Paul, have compelled me to boast in this carnal way because of your failure to do what you ought to do. And so because the church was listening to these false teachers and because the church failed to defend Paul and because the church lacked discernment. Paul tells us in verse 11 that in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am a nobody. He wants to make it clear he's not saying these things because he feels himself to be great, but he's pointing out some obvious things that they have overlooked.

And he's saying, look, it's pretty clear I don't come behind anybody. I certainly don't become come behind these false teachers and their so-called accomplishments and credentials, which are a bunch of hooey. But I don't even come behind the other apostles, the most eminent apostles like Peter and John, who apparently the false teachers were saying, Paul doesn't measure up to Paul. Peter, Paul doesn't measure up to John. Yes, I do.

Now, he hates to say these things, but yes, I do. The church lacked discernment. They misunderstood Paul's humility. In nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am a nobody.

I consider myself to be a nobody. I consider myself to be the chief of sinners, and Paul had conducted himself all the way through. But they misunderstood this humility, this Christ-like humility, and instead evaluated Paul by carnal standards instead of by spiritual ones. They mistook his humility for inferiority. The false teachers, with their abundance of self-promotion compared to Paul's lack of self-promotion, caused them to be groundlessly impressed with the false teachers' claims, demonstrating their own lack of maturity and discernment. They overlooked Paul's true worth. His humility actually manifested superior spirituality, not inferior.

So here we have the reason for his unwelcome boasting. But he moves on in verse 12 to give us the divinely given certification of his apostleship. Verse 12. Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. The signs of an apostle, he calls them. What are these signs? Well, he tells us.

He doesn't leave us to wonder. These are signs and wonders and mighty deeds, and that's language we find elsewhere in the New Testament, scattered in various places. And these all refer to miracles in one way or another. Signs, they are called. In John's Gospel, all of Christ's miracles are called signs. Signs, because they are designed to call attention to something important, because like a sign, they give instruction to those who will pay attention to them and learn from them. Like signs, they guide people into truth.

They are signs. They are wonders. They are designed to produce amazement, to arouse attention, to arrest people from their distractions to other things and give attention to what is going on over here, where these wonders are being accomplished. These miracles are being performed in a way that no one else has performed them. And they are called mighty deeds, translated in some Bibles as miracles.

Mighty deeds because they demonstrate mighty power, because they demonstrate almighty power, because they demonstrate divine power. They are mighty deeds, like Jesus performed to attest to his messiahship and like the apostles performed to attest to their apostleship, their divine appointment by Jesus Christ himself. And so these signs are attesting evidences of apostolic appointment. They are signs of an apostle. They are signs that have been given to the apostles so the people will know that they are apostles of Jesus Christ.

They are the same kinds of miracles that Jesus did, now performed by those whom he has appointed to found the church in his absence. Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone, the apostles and prophets in the foundation of the church, Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 2. And these signs, these miracles that have been given to these men by the power of Christ attest to their divine appointment. This is how you can know who an apostle is. This is how you can know who a true apostle is.

These are the marks of God's appointment of certain men to be apostles. And these signs, we read, were performed abundantly in Corinth. They are performed, my Bible says, with all perseverance. And though some take that in another direction, I think what Paul is saying is there were an abundance of miracles performed over an extended period. They were not only performed in Corinth as they were in the other churches, but they were performed extensively. The exercise and operation of Paul in performing these miracles went on perseveringly over the period of a year and a half, which is longer than Paul ministered in any church but Ephesus. So did Corinth have ample opportunity to see these signs? They had more opportunity to witness them, to examine them, to be guided and informed by them, to be assured by them that Paul was a true apostle of Jesus Christ. They had more opportunity for that than any other church besides Ephesus. Paul performed more signs and wonders and mighty deeds in Corinth than he did in Philippi or in Thessalonica or in Berea or in any of the other churches that he founded except Ephesus. They were done perseveringly over the whole course of his ministry there. Furthermore, from what is told us here and from the evidence that we have in Scripture, it's clear that these signs, these miracles were not performed by the false teachers.

They didn't do these signs. Now they had claimed to have visions and revelations like Paul did and Paul took that up previously. Now we come to visions and revelations.

I know a man whether in the body or out of the body. God knows who 14 years ago was caught up into the third heaven and so forth. We covered that earlier. The false teachers claimed similar visions and revelations but that's a little hard to certify.

How can I know what you saw in privacy? You can claim it, I can believe it or I can doubt it but you can't prove it and I can't examine it. But miracles are another story. Paul is healing people abundantly as he did. He's healing people in their community that they knew.

He's healing sick people, lame people that they knew. They saw them when they were in their time of need and then they saw the apostle Paul heal them and they saw them afterwards and they were well, they were whole, they were healed and the evidence is there. The false teachers who would have loved to have made claims like this but they couldn't do it because they couldn't make claims like this because they couldn't do things like this because these are the signs of an apostle and they were not apostles. Now these miracles were not performed by the false teachers nor by any others generally or else they would not be called the signs of an apostle. These are not the signs of the early church. These are not the signs of spirit filled Christians. These are not the signs of anybody except apostles. If they're the signs of anybody broader than the group called apostles then they couldn't be a mark that attests that this person is an apostle. They are signs of the apostles and they are clearly limited to the apostles. They were performed by the apostles or by those who were under the authority and direction of the apostles' ministry. You do find some occasional other people performing similar miracles but they're always partners with the apostles. This is all in the sphere of the ministry of an apostle which means that unless there are still apostles today you should not expect to see these kinds of miracles today, right?

You're going to have to decide. There are some people who make the claim that there still are apostles today and that's another subject for another time but if you don't accept that claim that there are apostles today then reason forces you to say then there must not be these signs today because these signs belong to apostles. These signs identify apostles. If there are no apostles then God isn't doing this today. And by the way, this is something that God did. It says these things were accomplished.

Did you catch that? Verse 12, truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished. Paul doesn't say, I did them, though he did. He didn't say I accomplished them, though in a sense he did and he's pointing to them as something that he did in contrast with others who didn't. But he's making it clear, I didn't do this by my own power. I had nobody but they were accomplished through me.

I'm a channel. They were accomplished by God using me as the instrument of accomplishment for one particular reason, so that I can be attested as an authentic apostle. It is true that there are a couple of occasions in Scripture where messengers of Satan duplicate to some extent some of these types of miracles. It happened in the days of Moses when he was performing miracles before Pharaoh. And Pharaoh's magicians were able to perform several similar miracles, though they didn't seem to have the same power. They could produce some of these things, the early miracles.

They didn't produce the later ones. But strangely, only Moses seemed to have the power to stop them, to banish them, to reverse those plagues that came upon Egypt. The magicians couldn't lift one plague, which makes it seem likely that they were actually performing sleight of hand in some way, and as the miracles got more complicated, they weren't able to keep doing it.

But at any rate, they did it. It may have been by the power of Satan. It is true that the Antichrist, when he comes, is going to be able to do something similar, and his messengers are going to do something similar. We read in 2 Thessalonians 2, 9, The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders.

Almost the same language. Power, signs, and wonders, but here not authentic wonders, lying wonders. They are performed by the Antichrist and perhaps some of his partners, we really don't know, for the purpose of deceiving people, and God at that time is going to allow that to happen. But it's clear that God has been very restrictive in who he allows to perform miracles, because he has reserved that for Christ preeminently, and a few prophets in the Old Testament days who were representatives of the one true God, and the apostles who are apostles of Christ. And Paul tells us that here. It's very clear in the language of Paul that these miracles performed by him that were the signs of an apostle were not performed by the false teachers in Corinth and Paul's day, nor were they performed by anybody else in Corinth and Paul's day. They were unique to Paul and perhaps the other apostles when they came through to visit, as Peter did. The signs of an apostle were performed among you. I did them. I don't fall behind any of the other eminent apostles who also have the power of the signs of an apostle.

I have them too in abundance, and you saw that. So when people today are claiming similar signs and wonders, it is likely that they are actually counterfeits. It is more likely that they are counterfeited than duplicated. Again, I'm not claiming that Satan is never given the power. None of his messengers are ever given the power to perform miracles. I think sometimes they are, even today.

But most of the time they are counterfeits. I probably told you this story. I'll tell it quickly of my pastor friend in another city. This pastor has been long with the Lord. But he told me that there was a crusade by a so-called divine healer that came to his city before the time that I came here.

So this goes way back probably into the 60s. He happened to have as a member of his church a man who managed the staging operations of whatever was going on in the Colosseum. So he had inside information, and he called the pastor. He said, come up here. I want you to look at what we put together on the stage.

They brought it in on their truck, but we had to help them put it together here on the stage. And he went up on the stage, and he pulled back a carpet, and there was a metal plate that was attached to an electric cord, and it had a switch on it. And when people stood on that particular carpet, they would feel something going through them.

Woo! It was a mild electric shock. Counterfeiting. How many stories have we heard about people who were truly lame, truly in need of healing, who tried to get up on a stage in a meeting like that, and the guards wouldn't let them?

You're not going to spoil our show. The only people that could come up here are people who actually don't need it but are pretending to. They come up on crutches. They go, woo, and throw their crutches away. Somebody says, wow, isn't that wonderful? Paul says, truly the signs of an apostle were done by me. Paul also talks about the uniquely Corinthian immaturity in verse 13. For what is it in which you were inferior to the other churches? Certainly they weren't inferior in the display of miracles, which they saw, or in the preaching of God's word. So in what were you inferior to other churches except that I myself was not burdensome to you?

Forgive me this wrong. Now, if you're just dropping in in the series right now and haven't been with us before, you may not understand this language, but what is Paul talking about? This, I've got to get back to the language here, this not being burdensome to them. And that speaks about financial matters, financial support that Paul refused to take from the Corinthian church. He's dealt with that before, and he's talked about that in this language, that this is a burden. And what he says is the only way you differed from the other churches is that I did not allow you to support me financially ever.

That's what's different. In the other churches, Paul didn't take support from them while he was establishing them, but when he left, he allowed them to support him as he went on to another place. We talked about that principle of missionary operation, missionary financial support. The missionary comes into a new place, new people, immature people, unsaved people to start with, and he does not depend upon them for his financial support. He depends upon Christians in established and mature churches, and they support him. But when that church gets established, well established, if it's able and he moves on down the road to another location to start over again, he'll generally be happy to receive financial support from that now established church.

And that's the way it was with Paul. He didn't take money at Philippi until he left, and then he received a lot of support from the Philippian church. He didn't take money at Thessalonica while he was establishing the church, but he took money from them when he left in Berea and likewise. He allowed them to support him. They wanted to.

That's an interesting aspect, too. Paul didn't go to Philippi and beg for money. Paul didn't go to Thessalonica and ask for support. But if they wanted to support him, he didn't turn it away.

He didn't say, no, I'm not going to take it from you. But in Corinth, that's exactly what he did. Why? He said that made you inferior to the other churches. That's the only difference.

Why? Well, because of their immaturity, because of their weakness, because of their listening to the insinuations of the false teachers who were saying the only reason Paul is ministering here is to take advantage of you financially. And to prove that that's not so, Paul won't take a penny from them until they become much more mature than they are now. They are weak, and therefore they're not ready to support the apostle financially. Unwillingness to support those in gospel ministry or reluctance to do so is actually a manifestation of spiritual weakness.

And it was a mark of the Corinthian church. They were spiritually weak. The question is, did Paul's unwillingness to take money from them do more than simply manifest their weakness? It was Paul's judgment that he could not safely take money from them without it being misunderstood and maligned and misrepresented.

So he wouldn't do it. Does this indicate more than simply spiritual weakness on their part? Did his unwillingness to take money from them also contribute to their weakness? And his language here seems to indicate, yes, it does, but I can't help it because of the situation.

I'm still not going to take it. In what ways were you inferior to the other churches? In this way only, that I have not been and will not be a financial burden to you, though I will accept finances from other churches. Please forgive me for this wrong. Now, my suggestion here that this actually contributed to their ongoing spiritual weakness all depends on how you understand that phrase.

Forgive me for this wrong. Was that a, what should I say, was that a straightforward statement or is that sarcasm? He's been using a lot of sarcasm.

If it's sarcasm, then it doesn't prove what I'm saying. If he's saying forgive me for this wrong, and you know good and well that's not wrong, forgive me for this wrong, as the false teachers would pounce on it and use it as evidence of my wrong. But if it's a straightforward statement, where were you familiar or were you inferior to the other churches only that I wouldn't take money from you?

I'm sorry that that's what I did because it left you more weak than the others, but again, you compelled me. The situation demands that please forgive me this wrong, but it also leaves you weaker than you would otherwise be because it would strengthen you to take your responsibility to support ministers of the gospel like the apostle Paul. So that is the reason for his unwelcome boasting, and now we must hurry on more quickly to the other two. Secondly, what is the reason for his impending visit, verses 14 through 18? And the intended visit is first announced in verse 14. For now for the third time I'm ready to come to you, and I will not be burdensome to you, still not going to, won't take a penny from you, even though I've established this church and I've gone on to other places. I take from this that when Paul revisited churches like Philippi, he was willing for them to take up an offering and help him on his ministry. In fact, Paul indicates that. He said even the church of Rome that he hadn't established, but it's a mature church, and he said, when I come and visit you, I hope that you will help me on my way to Spain. What's he talking about?

Financial help? I rather expect you'll want to do that because you're a mature church. Paul said when I come to you, even the third time you're not ready for this, I will not be burdensome to you, for I do not seek yours but you. The false teachers were saying all Paul wants is to get his hands on your money.

Paul says not true. I do not seek yours, that which belongs to you. I seek you. Your souls and your fruitful lives as Christians, I seek your maturity.

I seek what's good for you. For, he says, the children ought not to lay up for the parents but the parents for their children. So his intended visit is announced.

Preparations are being made. Finances will still be refused. But Paul's motive is clear. It's for their welfare, not his. That's why he continues to come at his own expense or at the expense of other churches. And then he employs this little truism to support his decision that in the normal course of things, the children don't support the parents, but the parents support the children.

Now we know that there are times when that's not possible. We know that Jesus commanded that children ought to support their parents when they're in need. And that's part of what it means to honor your father and mother. But if things are working in the best way, parents will generally be able to not only support themselves but make preparation for their retirement years, for their elderly years, and have some extra that they can use to help their children. They can lay up for their children and often leave an inheritance for their children when they die. Parents aren't living, shouldn't be, and most of them aren't, aren't living with the expectation that what I'm counting on and what I desire is that my kids support me.

Parents are living with the expectation, what I'm working toward and desiring and hoping that God will help me with is that I can not only support myself and not be a burden to my children, but also be a blessing and benefit to them. And Paul said, that's the way I'm doing it in your relationship. I'm the father, you're the children, and I'm going to help and bless you, and I'm going to labor in your midst at my expense, not going to labor in your midst at your expense.

I'm going to give to you, I'm not expecting you to give to me. Now again, as we have seen when he is dealing with a more mature church, then this little maxim about the children not laying up for the parents, but the parents for the children, that goes out the window because there he has a different principle in mind, that the laborer is worthy of his hire and you ought to support those who preach the gospel. That is the general principle of scripture. But here it's not going to happen that way because, as Paul expresses his love in verse 15, I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls, though, and here's the tragic thing, the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. Paul loves them greatly. His strong love is expressed. It is a sacrificial love.

It is an agape love. I'm loving you, expecting nothing in return. But it makes me sad that my love to you is an unrequited love. You're not loving me in return as you ought to. In fact, it looks like in many ways you're loving me less because of how much I love you and how much I've done for you. Any parents felt that way at times? The more I do for my children, the less they love me, the less they expect, the less they appreciate it. It does happen that way sometimes. When it does happen that way, it's not only immaturity, but it's actually evidence of sin present working in lives because that's not a God-honoring response.

And then Paul goes on finally in this section to expose the lives of the critics, verses 16, 17, and 18. Be that as it may, I did not burden you. Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you by cunning. Did I take advantage of you by any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus and sent our brother with him.

Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit? Did we not walk in the same steps? Now, this is definitely sarcasm in verse 16.

There's no question about this. Being crafty, I caught you by cunning. I did not burden you, but nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you by cunning. Again, reading between the lines, we think that this is answering criticism of the false teachers.

And they must have been saying something like this. Yeah, Paul's not taking anything from you now so he can lull you into complacency and even get more from you in the long run from his partners that he sends. He won't take anything from you directly in order to trick you into thinking that his motives are pure, but he'll end up getting more from others who will give him a big cut. Crafty fellow that I am, I caught you by cunning. But then he goes on to correct that notion.

He says, well, take a look at the facts. When Titus came to you, did he take anything from you? No, he operated the same way I did.

Same principle, same practice. He came at his own expense or at the expense of other churches. He received no money from you. Or the brother that came with Titus, we don't know his name. He's also referred to in chapter 8, verses 16 through 18, but again unnamed. But the brother who came with Titus, did he take anything from you? Nope.

Nope. Paul's partners demonstrated the same practice as Paul because they'd been instructed to by Paul. We've got a unique situation in Corinth. This church is immature. This church has unique problems.

This church is not one that we can take finances from, so don't take a penny from them. God will supply our needs through other ways. But finally, Paul gives his reason, a third explanation. He gives his reason for his present delay in coming.

Remember what we're talking about? Number one, the reason for his unwelcome boasting. Number two, the reason for his impending visit. He's got work that needs to be done.

But number three, the reason for his present delay. In short, he's giving them time to get some things in order before he comes. Verse 19, again, do you think we excuse ourselves to you?

We speak before God in Christ, but we do all things beloved for your edification. What's he saying there? Well, he says, I'm giving you time, and this translation isn't the best, and I meant to bring another one that's a little clearer, and I failed to do it.

Basically what he's saying is, I'm giving you time to come around and properly accept my apostolic authority, the thing you're having trouble with now, the thing the false teachers are troubling you about. I'm giving you time to get this straightened out, not because I need it for my sake. For my purposes, I'm happy to be judged by God, and the only judgment that really matters is the judgment that I had before God. It really doesn't matter in one sense for my sake. It really doesn't matter how you judge me. But for your sake, it matters a lot. Their spiritual health requires giving Paul his rightful place.

Why? Because he is a true apostle of Christ. He has been sent by God. He has preached them the word of God. He is doing what God called him to do. He does have God-given authority to establish the church. He does have God-given authority to correct what's wrong in the church. And though he doesn't need any of that for himself, it doesn't really matter.

For their sake, it matters a great deal. Their spiritual health depends upon their recognizing this and responding to it properly. I'm coming, but before I get there, why don't you do a little attitude adjustment in regard to how you view my apostleship?

And why don't you grow a little bit and mature to strengthen your development? He says in verse 19, we do all things beloved for your edification to get you strengthened and stronger. And he says, I'm giving you time to deal with your sins. Verse 20, for I fear, lest when I come, I shall not find you as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you do not wish, lest there be contentions, that's divisions, jealousies, endless toward one another, outbursts of wrath, that's angry fights going on in the church, selfish ambitions, people trying to elevate themselves in the church in carnal ways, backbiters, whispers, gossip going on in the church, conceits, deceitful things, tumult. Paul says that's likely to be found there.

He kind of puts it in the hypothetical knowing full well that it is in the actual, but he's being kind in the way he says it. But he says, when I come, I don't want to find these sins of carnal thinking that result in carnal behavior. The kinds of sins that I addressed in my first epistle to you, remember? The divisions, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas.

The anger, brother taking brother to court in angry disputes and on and on. He said, I dealt with those in the first epistle, they should be dealt with, they should be gone, they should be behind you. I hope when I come I don't find these things still going on that should have been taken care of. I'm dragging my feet a little bit in coming to you, but I'm sending you a letter to give you notice that it's time to clean these things up so they won't be going on when I get there. Word to the wise? That's why he's delaying his coming.

And then it gets even worse. In addition to this kind of carnal behavior, verse 20, he says, I'm afraid I may even find something worse, sexual misconduct. Verse 21, lest when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and lewdness which they have practiced.

Cleanness, fornication, and lewdness, those are all sins of a sexual nature. Which, as we know, was rife in Corinthian society, and unfortunately is becoming rife in American society. That's one of the things that those of us who have lived several decades and can remember back, and some of you can remember back further than I can, but my grade school years were in the 50s. I remember people then that were concerned about this or that, but I'll tell you what, things were a whole lot different then. It wasn't that there was no fornication, no sexual immorality, but there wasn't much. I only knew of my friends, I only knew one who had a divorced parent. One.

All of my friends that I can remember had two parent homes. I could go on and on. Things have really changed in America. America is getting more like Corinth every day in the level of sexual promiscuity which we have going on in our land. And so Corinth was rife with this kind of sexual misconduct, but Paul said it shouldn't be so among you, and I dealt with that in my first epistle, remember, about the brother who was living in immorality with his stepmother and how we dealt with that, and I thought we had that behind us, but he said, I'm afraid there may be some of you who are still involved in this kind of immorality and haven't repented, so I'm giving you a little bit advanced notice before I arrive. I'm delaying my coming just long enough for you to deal with this because if you don't, I will. If you don't think I'm bold, you'll find out.

If you don't, I will. And when Paul says he's afraid that God will humble him among them, it's humbling to see his converts living in immorality. That's very humbling. It's humble to have to deal again with sins that have already been dealt with and should have been gone. And so he says, I don't want to come and to mourn for you, verse 21.

Did you see that language? Lest when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and have not repented. Mourn is a term for great grief that can be applied in several areas, but the most common place where we use that word is in regard to somebody who's died. That brings on mourning. Paul says, I don't want to mourn when I come for you as if there are dead people among you. And I think what Paul is saying, though a little oblique, is clear enough if we think about it, when you see these sins that he's mentioned in verse 21, and then we think about what he wrote in Galatians 5. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, same things we just read in verse 21. He goes on to say, I have told you in times past that those who practice such things, listen to me now, will not inherit the kingdom of God. He is talking about mourning for the dead, spiritually dead, who claim to be Christians but are not, and evidence it by their continuing immorality of which they have professed to repent of and to root out, and yet they've gone right back to it like a dog to its vomit and a sow to its wallowing in the mire, as Peter talks about. And Paul says, when I come and I find people who are still living this way and have not repented and will not repent and continue on, there's only one conclusion I can draw.

They are dead spiritually and we shouldn't have any dead people in the church. We'll have to deal with this. So what do we learn here regarding sexual immorality? Number one, that it's not acceptable among believers. Though truly believers may fall into such sin and do from time to time, but if they are true believers, they will repent, they will acknowledge, they will confess, they will forsake, they will mourn over their own sin. They will grieve over their failure and the damage that it has caused to others. They will be humbled by their sin. And that will be true of all those who truly repent. But lack of repentance, lack of humility, lack of grief, lack of honesty, lack of being willing to acknowledge the sins that you have done is an indication of an absence of saving grace. It is an evidence of an empty profession of faith that will not take you to heaven, and which Paul says those who fall into that category shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

This is serious, folks. We live in a day when not only is society rife with immorality, but churches are rife with immorality and wink at it and cover it over with, we've got to be loving. Well, we ought to be loving, and Paul's being loving.

But he's saying, folks, I'm putting you on notice. I lovingly appeal to you to deal with this yourself, get it done, get it gone, repent of it, so that when I come, it's not there, because if it's still there, we're going to deal with it. That'll be loving, too. It won't seem quite as loving, but it's the most loving thing to do. Shall we pray? Father, help us to know your word, help us to understand it, help us to apply it for the honor and glory of Christ and to the good of our souls, we pray. Amen.