Don't Fail the Test - 36

Well, as we have already learned in our study of 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is preparing for his third visit to the church at Corinth. His first visit was when he established the church there. That was a long visit.

That was 18 months long that he stayed in evangelizing and in teaching and in organizing. This was the first visit of that congregation longer in Corinth than any other location except for the city of Ephesus. There was a second visit where Paul came and warned sinning believers who were in the congregation at Corinth that they needed to get their houses in order. They needed to acknowledge their sins and repent of them and put them out of their lives. And now, as Paul is announcing his third visit, he is making it very clear that when he comes, he will deal with those who have failed to deal with their sins. Those who have refused to repent and refuse to abandon their sinful practices will receive the chastening rod that comes to them in the hands of the Apostle Paul. And so in spite of having his apostolic credentials questioned by the false teachers and by some of the members of the Corinthian church, Paul is nevertheless determined to faithfully discharge his responsibilities as an apostle. He will do what he is commissioned to do, whether other people like it or not, whether they approve or not, whether they support it or not.

It's better for them if they do, but Paul is going to be faithful either way. And he knows that Christ will support him as he brings correction to the church. Today we are going to look at verses 1 through 7, and we can walk through these verses by hanging our thoughts on four words. Number one, examination, two, explanation, three, exhortation, and four, expectation. In verses 1, 2, and 3, Paul tells us that when he comes, he's going to conduct an examination. Now later, he's going to talk about an examination which they need to conduct in their own hearts, but Paul is talking about an examination which he will conduct within the congregation of the Corinthian church, and he tells us three things about this upcoming examination. Number one, it will be principled.

Number two, it will be painful, at least for some, and number three, it will be powerful. Paul assures the Corinthians in verse 1 that the upcoming examination will be principled. This will be the third time I am coming to you. By the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word shall be established. Paul quotes from Deuteronomy chapter 19 verse 15, which is also quoted by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 18 verses 15 and 16, and is referred to three or four other places throughout the New Testament.

And going back to the original statement, in Deuteronomy 19, 15, we read these words. One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits. By the mouth of two or three witnesses, the matter shall be established. What is Moses writing by the Spirit of God telling the children of Israel? He is telling them that nobody can be convicted of wrongdoing and can be punished for their wrongdoing unless there are a minimum of two and preferably at least three witnesses.

One person accusing another of wrong is not sufficient to carry out a judgment of guilt and punishment against them, justice, principles that are employed. Our Lord Jesus Christ takes up the very same text and applies it to the activities of the church in Matthew 18. When he says in verse 15, moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear you, take with you one or two more that, and here's the quotation from Deuteronomy, by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. Church activity, church discipline, church rules for conducting proper discipline. There are many things that we can draw out of the Matthew passage I would simply point out too. That is number one, our Lord makes it clear that affairs in the church are to be carried out in some respects like legal matters in a court of law. The words in Deuteronomy apply to civil matters. Christ applies them to church matters. Churches are to conduct their affairs in a principled way and there are some aspects of what churches are to do that will resemble what is done in a court of law. An examination must be made. Witnesses must be called.

One will not be declared guilty unless there are at least two or three credible witnesses which testify against them. But the other thing that strikes me about the Matthew 18 passage is that this is not like a court of law in that it begins by a very personal interfellowship manner of addressing the problem. We don't start out in court.

We don't begin with calling the witnesses. How do we begin? If your brother sits against you, if there's a complaint, then first you individually personally go to him.

See if you can straighten this out between you and him alone. This is the church. These are brothers and sisters in Christ.

You should be carried out in a personal kind and loving way, but as we know sometimes because of stubbornness and sin and who knows what, people do not respond to this. And so there may come in the passing of time, the time when this must be brought to the church and two or three witnesses shall be called and it shall be carried out very similar to what you would do in a court of law. And so Paul quotes these verses in 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 1, and he's talking about what's going to take place when he comes on his third visit to them. And he says there will be an examination. There will be trials. We will get to the bottom of some of these reports, and there are rules for determining guilt in a court setting.

And Paul says, I assure you that those rules that have been laid out by God in the book of Deuteronomy will be employed carefully and fairly when I come to examine these matters in the Corinthian congregation. If anybody is going to be accused of guilt and judged accordingly, it's going to be done fairly. It's going to be done according to rules. It's going to be done according to justice. It's going to be done according to witnesses. It will be a proper and thorough examination with evidence. So the examination, number one, will be principled.

The examination, number two, will be painful, at least for some. And that's verse two, and I'm going to read a different translation because my New King James Bible does not translate verse two as clearly as some of the others, and now I've got to find it. Oh, here it is. Sometimes I lose track of things. Here it is from the New American Standard Bible, verse two, I have previously said when present the second time, though now absent, I say in advance to those who have sinned in the past and to all the rest as well that if I come again, I will not spare anyone. Paul says when I was with you on the second visit, I told you what you needed to do. I told you to deal with your sins, and I told you that if you don't, when I come again, I will deal with them. And of course that's going to be painful, at least for those who are guilty and have not repented. So for those who were previously warned on the second visit, as well as others who may have not been known on Paul's second visit or may have begun entering in to guilty sin since Paul's second visit, that's the meaning of the all the rest or the others, depending on what your translation says.

Paul says all of those, those that were known to be guilty as I identified you on my second visit, and those who may be guilty in addition to those that I identified on my second visit, all those who have not repented will be punished when I come again. I have been very long suffering and patient, but the time for patience is coming to an end. It will be painful.

This examination will be principled. Verse one, it will be painful. Verse two, and number three, it will be powerful. Since, he says, you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you but mighty in you. As we've seen previously, Paul's humble manner, his meek and quiet spirit, was mistaken by some for weakness.

It wasn't, it was actually Christ-likeness, but nevertheless, some mistook it for weakness because in their minds, Paul failed to exercise that strong authority that Christ gave to his apostles. Paul is saying on my third visit, I'll present the proof that you demand. You question whether I have this kind of authority that I am, in fact, an apostle of Jesus Christ and that I do have God-given authority to deal with transgressors in a powerful way. Well, you will find out soon enough when I come on my third visit and deal with you according to that power. Paul's third visit will furnish proof of his apostolic authority and power.

When I went to the Greek to find out what the word translated power was, I fully expected it was going to be exousia, which basically means authority, but I was surprised to find out it is dunamis, the word that means the exercise of power in a mighty way, in a miraculous way, in a visible way, dunamis, where we get the word dynamite. Paul said when I come, I'm going to exercise authority and I'm going to exercise power. Now he doesn't tell us exactly what that is and how it will be exercised, but we have some hints in Scripture. You question, says Paul, that I have the same power as other apostles. You remember the power that Peter exercised in Acts chapter 5 with Ananias and Sapphira?

Sinning, unrepentant, they fell dead. There's power. You want to see my power? You want to see my apostolic power? Paul had said in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, in dealing with the man living in immorality, he would not repent.

He said, I have delivered him unto Satan for, what, the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus. That's pretty sobering, but that's power. Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 about those who were misusing the Lord's table. For this cause some are weak and sickly among you and some, what, sleep, have died. There's apostolic power. Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you but mighty, mighty in you. And I think the force of that last phrase, Christ who is mighty in you, is to say you are demanding additional proof when you already have enough proof. Where is the evidence of my power? Your salvation is evidence of God's power mediated through me. Your conversion is evidence of the power that Christ has given to me. The very fact that you have left your pagan idolatry to become followers of Jesus Christ can only be explained by divine power working in your lives. And how did that power come to you? It came by God's design through me.

Isn't that enough? And then in chapter 12 Paul said a second evidence of my power has been given to you. Remember he said in verse 12, truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance and signs and wonders and mighty deeds. So number one, the evidence of God's power working in me has been seen in your lives in your conversions. You are my epistles, known and read of all men, he said in 1 Corinthians.

You're the evidence of Christ's power in me. Paul's evangelistic ministry was amazing. Everywhere, not everywhere, but nearly everywhere Paul preached, he preached and people were saved. They just were saved, just were saved in miraculous and great numbers. Any conversion, of course, is miraculous. But when you follow the apostle Paul, you just shake your head and wonder, look at how people responded. Look at how many people believed the gospel. Look at how many people were converted under the ministry of the apostle Paul. And very frankly, we have a hard time finding other examples of that much spiritual renewal, spiritual transformation in the ministry of anybody else in the first century or even on through the centuries, once in a while. In history, we come across similar men who have a special measure of God's power upon them like, say, George Whitefield, the great evangelist who preached and thousands were converted or like Charles Spurgeon, the great evangelistic pastor who ministered so powerfully in London and thousands were converted. That's rare.

That doesn't happen very often. And the men who were used of God in this way never called attention to themselves and they never wanted anyone to think that this power was their power. They were always careful to deflect that glory and give it all to God, but nevertheless, it was evidence that God had singled them out and chosen to use them in a powerful way. Could anyone question that George Whitefield was a chosen servant of the Lord Jesus Christ? Could anyone question that Charles Spurgeon was a wonderfully chosen servant of the Lord Jesus Christ that God decided to use in a powerful way? Could anyone question that Paul was a chosen vessel of God to be used in a powerful way? What is the matter with these Corinthians that they're even questioning all of this? The existence of the Corinthian church is evidence of my power. That is Christ's power speaking through me, it's not me.

The signs and the wonders, the miracles, the healings, which were done in great numbers in Corinth, Paul says, is the second evidence of Christ's power in me. But that's not good enough. You're not satisfied with that. You're still demanding more. All right.

All right. If that's really what you want, third visit, you shall see another evidence of my power. If that's what you want, that's not what I want to do.

That's not what I love to do. I love to evangelize and see people saved. I'm delighted when God gives me the power to heal. I'm not so delighted when I have to exercise my power in discipline, but I can do that too if you demand evidence of my God-given authority and power.

Examination. Our second word is explanation. And then in verse four, Paul again, and he's done this previously, but Paul again gives an explanation of his humility and weakness and meekness and seeming, seeming lack of power. Speaking of Christ in verse four, he says, for though he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. The explanation is found in the paradox of Christ, which has a parallel in the paradox of Paul himself. In the case of Christ, it's very simple. Christ, though the eternal God of the universe in the form of a man, veiled his infinite power and walked in meekness and humility and weakness among men in this earth.

It was a deliberate weakness. He was a voluntary withholding of power. Did he have the power? Of course, the ultimate evidence of his weakness was his crucifixion on the cross.

That was the culmination of it all. He allowed himself to be nailed to the cross. And as the songwriter said, he could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world and set him free, but he didn't. He didn't exercise that power. He continued to present himself in meekness and humility, which was mistaken by others for weakness.

They were wrong. And even when he was on the cross, they taunted him, didn't they? You saved others. Let's see if you can save yourself. He's calling for Elijah. Let's see if Elijah will come and save him. Let's see how much power he has. And there in apparent weakness, he stayed. He didn't exercise his power. He stayed on the cross until he died and yielded his spirit up to his Heavenly Father.

Apparent weakness. And yet, starting with his resurrection, everything changed, and he rose again in the power that is his. And he lives and reigns by divine omnipotence upon the throne of the universe in heaven, known by his people, but largely unknown by the world. But it will be seen sooner or later.

His power, once veiled, is now being exercised, and it will be clearly unveiled for all the world to see upon his return. So you've got this paradox of Christ, this apparent weakness, which actually is masking this incredible power. Now, Paul is not saying, I'm exactly like Christ, but he's saying there's a similarity here. There's a pattern here.

There's a parallel here. Paul says, I have ministered to you in apparent weakness. I have not flaunted my power. I have not tried to make it known.

I have not tried to impress you with it. Unlike others, apparently, who exercise their leadership in an authoritarian, overbearing sort of way, and a lot of people just went gaga over that. Wow, aren't they great? Aren't they powerful? Aren't they something? Well, they're not like Jesus, so what are they like something?

What something are they like? Because Paul didn't act this way, many mistook his meekness for weakness, his Christ-like humility for an absence of power, but Paul is saying, I possess the power that has been given to me as an apostle of Jesus Christ. It has been divinely granted to me. I do have both authority and power, and I will exercise it as needed.

But that's the explanation of why it hasn't been exercised yet. Thirdly, we come to an exhortation, verse 5. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you are disqualified?

Now he turns the spotlight away from himself. They've been examining him. The false teachers were encouraging them to do this, and they foolishly were following along instead of recognizing the evidence that had already been given to them and instead of defending the apostle Paul when he was being criticized by others. They were standing by passively and in some cases actually entering in to the criticism and questions about Paul's authority, but now Paul says the examination that you ought to be engaged in more than the examination of me as to whether I'm really an apostle of Christ or not, the examination that you really need to be paying most attention to is examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves to see if Christ is in you.

And the selves, your selves is emphatic in the original language. The most important object for your examination is not Paul or others. We're so good about judging and examining and critiquing everybody else. We can look at them. We can evaluate their lives. We can tell everybody what's right and wrong about what everybody else is doing and so oftentimes are so blind to our own failures and weaknesses and not taking care of our own lives and what we ought to be doing and not doing. The old mote in the eye problem, mote and beam in the eye problem that Jesus talked about, there is a place, a proper place, a godly place at times to evaluate others, but first, first examine yourselves.

First get the beam, the log, the tree out of your own eye and then you can see clearly, critically, righteously, humbly, helpfully how to examine others, but you can't do that until you have first examined yourself and taken care of things in your own life. I have observed and you probably have too that those who are most critical of others are usually guilty of greater sins themselves, but they're blind to that. Those who are the most nitpicky, the most critical are usually the ones you say can't they see? Don't they realize what they're doing? Why are they so busy criticizing everybody else?

Why aren't they taking care of business at home? Well, that's what Paul is saying here. Examine yourselves.

The most important object for our examination is ourselves and there's several things surely that we should be examining about ourselves, but the most important subject of our examination is what? Salvation. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you are disqualified?

When the apostle Paul says it is possible, he doesn't say likely, but he says it's certainly possible that some of you members of the Corinthian church who profess to be Christians are not even born again at all. You are counterfeits. You are unconverted. You do not have Jesus Christ in you. You cannot pass the test.

You are not approved, this word that's translated qualified and disqualified has the idea of being approved or disapproved after being tested. And the most important subject of your examination is your own saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to be examining that very carefully to be sure that Jesus Christ is in you as he is in all true believers, as he is in you unless you are disqualified, unless you turn out to be unapproved, unless you turn out to fail the test. Now this tells me that Christ's presence in his people can be known, at least to the people themselves, not always as clearly to others, though there should be some evidence there as well. And if Christ is not in you, and again he can be detected, he can be discerned, he can be identified as being in you or not, Christ living in you or not, and if he's not in you, you're not a true Christian.

No matter how many aisles you have walked, no matter how many hands you have raised, no matter how many prayers you have prayed, no matter how many decisions you have made, no matter how many times you have been baptized in water, no matter how many times someone has pronounced you a child of God, the test has nothing to do with any of those. The test as to whether or not there's evidence that Christ is within you. If you are a Christian, then there's evidence of Christ within you. If there's no evidence of Christ within you, then you are no Christian.

It's as simple as that. Which then forces us to ask the question, what is the evidence of Christ within us? Because Paul doesn't, he tells us to test ourselves, and he tells us that it has to do with Christ within us, but he doesn't lay out one, two, three, four, what is the evidence of Christ within us, so we have to think about the Scriptures and what we know about Christ and come up with at least some reasonable answer to that question of what is the evidence of Christ present within us, and let's see if we can come up with some things. Let's start, number one, with humility.

That's a pretty big issue in this whole passage. Paul's Christ-like humility, in contrast with the absence of humility among the false teachers, they were full of pride and self-centeredness and overbearingness and had very little evidence of humility in their lives at all. But humility is one of the premier characteristics of Christ and it is the one that Paul is following, the one that Paul is evidencing in his presence with them. That's what Paul told us about in Philippians chapter 2. He said, let, this is an exhortation, this is an instruction, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

What mind is that? Humility. Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, wherefore God hath also highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. A premier characteristic of Jesus Christ is his humility. If Christ indeed is within you, there ought to be some humility. Is humility evident in your life? Would others say I see some real Christ-like humility in that life? Test yourselves, examine yourselves, see if Christ is in you, see if that humility of Christ has subdued at least some of your Adamic pride.

What else? Love. Everyone else would better characterize Jesus Christ and his love. Oh, how he loved his people.

Oh, how he loved his own. Loved us enough to go to the cross for us. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. The Son so loved the world that he gave himself up as a sacrifice for our sins.

You can't get better love than that. Better love has no man than this that a man should lay down his life for his friends. Christ's love for others is one of the premier characteristics of him. His love for the people of God as well as his love for the unconverted and that should be within us. If Christ is within us, then there should be a love for the people of God and there should be a love for the world around us. There should be a love for the brethren. There should be a desire to be with the people of God. We shouldn't be looking for excuses that will make it possible for us to not be here and people will know that we had a reasonable justification. We should be longing to be together with the people of God.

And we should be concerned about the unconverted and have a love for them and be reaching out to them. Several times here lately on Saturday night I have stumbled upon, because I didn't remember to turn to it but I'm going to be doing it more deliberately in the days to come, stumbled upon the program Way of the Master on Total Christian Television. There isn't much on TCT that I care for.

Two things, just mention just two things that I really like on TCT. One is Faith in History by William Federer, have any of you seen that? That comes on, I don't know if it comes on at other times, but it comes on at six thirty in the morning and if I'm a little later than I want to be in my basement on the treadmill then I can watch most of that.

Actually I start earlier than that and it's usually over by, pert near over by the time I'm finishing up, but whatever little bit, five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes of that I can catch, I love it. Faith in History. And he shows, you can't listen to that for long and all the evidence that he gives without just being one hundred percent absolute convinced of the strong Christian foundation, the Christian roots of American history, the evidence is so overwhelming, it's amazing.

And he can just lay it out day after day after day, half hour broadcast after half hour broadcast, week after week, month after month, year after year and he doesn't run out of material, it's amazing. Faith in History. And the only other thing so far that I found on that network, which I find mostly disappointing, but is Way of the Master on Saturday night, about a, I don't know if it's a half hour program I guess, have any of you seen that, are you familiar with that? That is one of the most encouraging programs on God centered, biblically centered evangelism that you'll find anywhere.

These people are sound of doctrine, they are sovereign grace and they have a passion for souls, a passion for evangelism and they tell us how they do it and it's really quite amazing and they show video clips of interviews they've had with people, a lot of times dealing with atheists, it's really neat, I like it, how they reason with atheists. You mean you believe that nothing created everything and let them think about that a little bit, one they said last night was really good, the atheist and they enter into friendly warm conversations with these people, it's evident that they have love for them and they ask this man, well why are you an atheist and he gave a standard answer that you hear so often, well because there's so much wrong with the world and if God were really, really a God of power and of love and of grace he wouldn't let the world be like this. So you've, because the world's whacked out of what it ought to be, you've come to the conclusion that there is no God who created it, right, a lot of things you could go at at that particular point, but here's the way they went. They said when an airline fails and crashes, do you conclude that nobody built that plane, nobody designed it and built it just because it didn't, didn't operate the way it was supposed to? Hadn't thought of that, that doesn't prove that it wasn't designed and created by someone, it proves that something went wrong, somebody, somebody did the wrong thing, somebody made it in there and they went on to explain the reason the world is not the way it's supposed to be is not because of God, because of us. We're responsible for the condition that the world is in, our sin, beautiful, beautiful.

I'd recommend that you tune it in Saturday night around, if Marty were here she could tell me, I think she's in the nursery, but Saturday night around eight o'clock or so, weigh the master, we've got a lot of the material from that organization out there in our track track. There ought to be a love for souls. If you want evidence of Christ within you, there should be humility, there should be love for others, what else, there should be a word centeredness, you can't go through the ministry and the words of Jesus Christ without seeing how He keeps talking about going back to the word, the word of the Father, quoting scriptures from the Old Testament, praying to the Father, thy word is truth and so forth. Jesus, when He was tempted, what did He do, He quoted scripture, Jesus Christ was a man of the word. If Christ is in you, you should have a real love for the word of God, that'll be evidence. What else, the fruit of the Spirit, what do you think the fruit of the Spirit is, that nine-fold fruit of the Spirit, that's a description of Christ. To its completeness, that is Christ-likeness to the perfect degree.

We're not going to get to that degree, but that's Christ-likeness. Now examine yourselves, is Christ in you? Do you have a Christ-like humility? Do you have a Christ-like love? Do you have a Christ-like interest, passionate interest in the word of God?

Do you have a Christ-like, whatever was the last thing I said, do you have the fruit of the Spirit within you? But now we move to number four, expectation, verses six and seven. Paul says, but I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified of himself. Now I pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved or qualified, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified.

What's he talking about? Well here's an expectation that Paul states to the church, and he expects that they will, number one, properly judge him, verse six, and number two, he expects that they will deal with their sins, verse seven. That is his expectation.

He expects, first of all, that they will properly judge him. I trust, verse six, that you will know that we are not disqualified. If they will examine Paul's claims to apostleship properly, they will confirm Paul's authenticity. The we here is emphasized in the Greek. Examine yourselves emphatic.

I trust you will know that we, emphatic, are not disqualified. And Paul is indicating that the Corinthians are capable of proper evaluation if they will evaluate according to the light that has been given to them. Paul is optimistic that they will examine him correctly. And when he says, you will know that we are not disqualified, he's not talking about salvation. It might seem like it because he's been talking about their salvation.

Examine yourselves to see if you're in the faith. But in the last several chapters, the whole question has been his qualification as an apostle. Is he a qualified apostle or not? Is he an authentic apostle or not? Does he have the evidence and qualifications of a true apostle or not? Paul says, if you will examine me properly, you'll know without the shadow of a doubt that I qualify as a genuine apostle of Jesus Christ.

They need to know this, and if they will evaluate it properly, they will know this. But then number two, it is Paul's expectation that they will deal properly with their sins. He says in verse seven, I pray that you do know evil. That is that you will act properly, not sinfully, but behave properly. Not, he tells us, for Paul's sake, not for his approval, though it makes him look good when the church is looking good. After all, he founded the church. And it's for their sake that you may do what is honorable. It's for your own welfare, for your own relationship with God, even though if you do, get your house in order, repent of your sins, clean house, abandon your sins, start living the way you do. If you do that, that will erase this opportunity for Paul to display his apostolic power in disciplinary judgment.

But that's okay. That's what he's saying in verse seven. Now I pray to God that you do know evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, even though we may seem disqualified. Even if by your doing right, then I can't come in there and demonstrate the power and authority that God has given me as an apostle to carry out disciplinary judgment. That will be proof, and some of you are demanding proof, and if you don't repent, you'll see that proof.

But I'd really a whole lot rather that you do right, that you do know evil, that you get rid of this sin, so that when I come, I can continue to be meek and quiet and humble and underbearing, not overbearing, and Christ-like. But Christ-like isn't always meek. Think of Jesus in the temple with the whip.

That's Christ-like too. And Paul says, if that's what's needed, I can do that too, and that'll be evidence number three of my apostleship. Evidence number one is your existence as Christians, your conversions, powerful, miraculous. Evidence number two is the healings, the miraculous healings that were done in your midst.

And evidence number three is when I come in and deal with the offenders after a careful examination using two or three witnesses. But if the guilt is there and repentance is missing, then you shall see evidence of my apostolic power, but, oh, I don't want to do that. Shape up, even if that means that I may seem disqualified to some because I don't come in there and blow you all away with my apostolic power. Well, quickly, some lessons out of the passage. And the first one deals with church discipline, something that is widely ignored in our day and is one of the reasons I'm convinced that there is so much spiritual weakness in the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ today. We realize that church discipline should be carried out in a very principled way.

It's similar to a legal trial. We also learned by studying this passage that patience must be exercised. It's amazing how long Paul waited before he said, okay, finally it's time to lower the boom. He didn't do it on day one. He didn't do it on day two. He didn't do it on his second visit, even though there were offenders there. He waited until his third visit.

He gave them lots of time to get things right. That's important, too. There are two errors in the area of church discipline. Number one is not to do it at all, and that's the most common error, and the other one is to be too harsh, too overbearing, too quick. And sometimes those who are trying to obey the Bible and they've never had any good examples set before them because it is such a rare practice in our day, they may err on that side of doing it too quickly, too harshly, and we all need to learn from the example of the Apostle Paul. But in American society today, it's amazing if you take up the subject of church discipline and ask the average American Christian, his opinion of it, if it's done harshly, he's sure that's a really, really, really, really, really bad thing, ought never to be done. If it's not done at all, oh, that's no big deal.

But it is. One's just as bad as the other, just like in homes. What's worse than the home? Overbearing discipline or no discipline?

It'd be hard to make a choice that you could defend there. We've all seen homes where there's been virtually no discipline, and wow, that doesn't turn out well. And then we've seen other homes where the discipline has been way too harsh, and wow, that doesn't usually turn out well either. So neither one is good, and both of them are very damaging, and that's why it's so important to carry out discipline in a Christ-like way, but not to neglect it.

Patients must be exercised, complaints must be examined and validated, forgiveness must be extended to the repentant, punishment must be exercised toward the unrepentant. And the only other lesson I'll mention is the one on self-examination. And we learn here that that should not be avoided, even though it's discouraged by many. I know a lot of Christians today who would tell people, never doubt your salvation. If you ever once made a decision, if you ever once prayed the prayer, you're saved, you're secure, you're going to heaven, never doubt it. That doesn't sound like Paul, he's saying this to people who've made that decision, but he says, examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith, really. Test yourselves to see if Christ is really in you. It's possible to make a false profession, it's possible to pray a prayer and not to be saved. Self-examination should not be avoided, but it must be based upon biblical standards, like church discipline must be based upon biblical standards, not based upon feelings. I don't decide whether I'm in Christ or out of Christ by the way I feel. When I feel discouraged, I think I must be lost, and if I'm feeling buoyant, I feel I must be saved, which I think is the reason why in some churches, every time you go, what do they do is basically have a music concert, a lot of times more like a rock concert, to get everybody jacked up so they go away feeling high, so they go away feeling saved. Feel good about themselves.

That doesn't last very long, you got to go back next week to get another dose because it never lasts. Wrong standard, got to be based upon biblical standards, get along with God, get on your knees in prayer, open your Bible before you and say, where are evidences of Christ-like humility, where are evidences of Christ-like love, where are evidences of my love for the word of God, where are evidences of the fruit of the Spirit in my life. That can be difficult, that can be intimidating, but it's good for us. We need it. It's good for our spiritual health. It's ultimately encouraging. If you are truly a child of God, you may go through a period of doubt, but you'll come out stronger and your faith will be based upon a firmer foundation, based upon the revelation of God, based upon His Word in a new and stronger way. And if you are not a true Christian, you will come to understand your need.

How sad to go through life with a false profession thinking you're on your way to heaven and you die and open your eyes in hell being in torment. So examine yourselves to see if you'll be in the faith. Let's pray, Father. Show us Thy ways and teach us Thy paths, we pray. Amen.