If you would please turn to 2 Corinthians 12, we'll begin in verse 11. We'll read through the end of Paul's epistle, chapter 13, verse 14, as we conclude our journey through 2 Corinthians this morning. This is the Word of God. And we do well to hear it and heed it. and give it our full attention.
2 Corinthians 12. Verse 11. I have been a fool. You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commanded by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing.
The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. For in what were you less favoured than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong. Here, for the third time, I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours, but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.
I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was. crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you?
I urged Titus to go and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps? Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you?
It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved. For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish. And that you may find me not as you wish. that perhaps there may be quarreling. Jealousy, anger.
hostility, slander, gossip. conceit, and disorder. I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced. This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
I warned those who sinned before, and all the others, and I warned them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not spare them. Since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power.
of God. Examine yourselves. To see whether you were in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?
Unless indeed you fail to meet the test. I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test. But we pray to God that you may not do wrong, not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. for we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong.
Your restoration is what we pray for. For this reason, I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come, I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up. and not for tearing down. Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration.
Comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace. and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
and the love of God. and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Be with you all. Let's pray. Lord, guard us from.
The sin of failing to listen when you speak. Perhaps through familiarity or callousness. Or through Unbelief or even hostile rebellion, whatever the reasons may be, we often have a bent towards ignoring what you say. But you have the words of eternal life. Your words are true and living and strong.
Your words are right. Forgive us when we think we know better than you. Forgive us for failing to fear you and keep your commandments. And Lord, thank you that the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, your Son, covers the sins of all those who look to Him in faith. May we be found looking to Christ this morning.
and in looking to him find forgiveness. and in finding forgiveness, enjoy peace, and happiness. but also enjoy holiness and righteousness and perfection. that we might be pleasing in the sight of our God, our Creator. Holy Spirit, make us holy.
Even as you open our minds to understand your word and convict us of sin. Grant us repentance and faith. And make us whole in the love of God the Father through the power of the gospel. Of Jesus Christ, in whose name I pray. Amen.
The book of 2 Corinthians, as we have seen, is a very focused rebuttal of Corinth's dismissiveness of Paul's authority as an apostle. And so Paul has, out of necessity, spent the majority of his letter defending himself. It's awkward. It makes us uncomfortable. It made Paul uncomfortable, but it had to be done because of Corinth's stubbornness.
Verse 11, I have been a fool, you forced me to it. Corinth's gigantic character flaw had forced Paul into the unenviable position of having to commend himself. To assert his own qualifications and competence, to function in the role that God had given him. When faced with the challenge of impostors, fake apostles, Corinth should have run to Paul's defense. Instead, they ran to the fake apostles and left Paul to fend for himself.
As we reach the end of this uncomfortable, awkward letter of self-defense, we find Paul summarizing what he's tried to convey to the Corinthian church. He highlights one last time the evidences of the authenticity of his apostolic ministry, and he highlights some specific sins that have exacerbated the situation in Corinth. And he admonishes them with a list of necessary commands to obey. As I read and reread our sermon text this past week, I was struck by the simplicity of Paul's summary of the situation. When it's all been said and done, Paul's appeal to the Christians in Corinth essentially comes down to this: fear God and keep his commandments.
Fear God and keep His commandments. As we wrap up our journey through the second letter of Paul to the Corinthian church, I want to highlight just a few particular points of emphasis that we find in these closing verses. And I want us to use these closing points as an opportunity to search ourselves. And see if we bear any resemblance to those early Christians at Corinth. Do we share their vulnerabilities?
When it comes to the blessings that God is giving to us, have we missed out because of our own blind spots, our misplaced loyalties and affections, our pride and our love of self? Let's begin in chapter 12, verse 1. Here Paul puts his finger on the root. Of Corinth's problem when he says, I ought to have been commended by you. Commendation has to do with approving of something.
Judging something as good and right and valuable. Paul's authority as an apostle. And by extension, his teaching, his instruction to the Corinthians should have been affirmed and followed by the Corinthians. Instead, they became enamored with fake apostles. Impostors.
Pretenders, enemies of Christ. And so at the root of Corinth's troublesomeness as a church, and believe me, they were troublesome. Was a tendency to commend the wrong thing while failing to commend the right thing.
So the question is, what do we command? As a church, what captures our loyalty, our attention? By what standard do we measure our health and effectiveness as a church? By what standard do we evaluate our personal spiritual maturity or faithfulness to the Lord? By what standard should we evaluate these things?
In other words, what ought we to commend? when it comes to our spiritual health.
Now I've pointed this out a few times throughout our time in 2 Corinthians. We don't have apostles today, like Corinth did, visiting us and giving us direct word from the Lord. But what we do have is the written record of the apostles' teaching. We have God's direct revelation in written form. We call it the Bible.
And so the equivalent source of authority, that thing that we ought to be commending, like the Corinthians ought to have commended Paul, is scripture. The Word of God. Church, we live or die as a people, as a covenant community, on our commendation of the Word of God. Do we hear and heed what God has spoken? Or do we let a dozen different voices drown out the word of the Lord?
Maybe we're listening to the voices of consensus. What do the majority of my friends and colleagues say? Maybe we listen to the voice of personal preference. What does my own mind and ego want the truth to be? Maybe we listen to the voice of prestige.
What do the rich and famous, the the powerful movers and shakers say? If I want to be successful and well respected like them, I should commend what they commend, believe what they believe, conform to what they expect. For Corinth, it was the voice of human wisdom and strength that spoke the loudest to them. Not the voice of a Messiah who had died by crucifixion on a Roman cross. That was weakness.
How could that be true? Corinth loves strength.
So, Corinth was in danger of missing the very truth that they ought to have commended. We learned back in chapter 11 that we will naturally follow what we love. Do we love the word of God? Do we command scripture? And do our lives reflect that commendation?
Are we obedient to what God says is true and right? Fear God. and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. A people who fail to command the word of God are a people who fail to obey God.
And so we see a scathing remark that Paul makes of Corinth in chapter 12, verse 20. He says, For I fear that perhaps when I come, I am. I may find you not as I wish. that perhaps there may be quarreling. Jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit.
and disorder. Paul was planning a visit to Corinth. What would he find when he arrived? He was fearful that he would find the kinds of sins that characterize people who command human wisdom and strength above God's word. Sins like quarrelsomeness, jealousy, anger, hostility.
These are traits of people with an elevated sense of self-importance. Slander, gossip, conceit. These are the speech patterns of people with an elevated sense of their own virtue and everyone else's vice. These are the kinds of sins that come from a heart that thinks of itself as being in good standing with the Lord because it's measuring that standing by the wrong standard. It's not commending God's commands.
It's making up its own commands and doing what is right in its own eyes. This is the kind of heart That can justify slander and gossip. This is the kind of heart that lives in quarrelsomeness and disorder and thinks all is well. When Paul arrived in Corinth, would he find a functioning, healthy covenant community? You know, Jesus asked a similar question in Luke 18.
He was speaking about his second coming, and he questioned: when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? A people who neither fear God nor keep his commandments are a people who eventually reach a point where they don't even realize they're not fearing God or keeping his commandments. They're just going about their lives as if all is well, oblivious to the fact that judgment is coming. They've normalized their self-centeredness to the point that they don't even realize they've forgotten God. Christ's description of the second coming for such people is chilling.
He compares it to the days of Noah's flood and to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. And the description of these periods of judgment is not one in which people were willfully ignoring God. It's one in which people had so hardened their hearts to the things of God that they were simply unaware of their true spiritual condition. Listen to how Jesus describes it in Luke 17. Just as it was in the days of Noah.
So will it be in the days of the Son of Man, at the second coming. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came. and destroyed them all. People were going to the mall, running errands, having birthday parties, weddings, just normal everyday sort of stuff, right up until the day of the flood, as if nothing was amiss, as if nothing was wrong. Jesus goes on, likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
But on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulphur rained from heaven and destroyed them all.
So will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. Yeah. Paul dreaded going back to Corinth because of the moral bankruptcy he expected to find there. What will Jesus find when he returns to Grace Presbyterian Church? What does Jesus see when he looks at what's going on in your home?
When he looks at what's going on in your heart. Does he find a heart and mind that commend what ought to be commended? Or does he find a heart that's consumed with jealousy? in anger and gossip and conceit. Fear God and keep his commandments.
For this is the whole duty of man. Paul is not simply fearful of finding unbridled sin at Corinth when he arrives. He means to deal with whatever he finds when he arrives. In chapter 13, verse 2, he says of unrepentant sinners within the Corinthian congregation: if I come again, I will not spare them. If I come again, I will not spare them.
You want strength, Corinth? You want power? You want decisive action?
Okay, here it is. When I come, I'm coming with a rod of discipline. Those who have been duly warned and yet insist on continuing in their sin will not be spared, Paul says. It's a threat of judgment. Paul had the authority to remove unrepentant sinners from the church.
Jesus has the authority to cast unrepentant sinners out of his presence for all eternity, separated forever from anything that is happy or peaceful or beautiful or good. There will be people who are grocery shopping in the produce aisle one moment and standing before the tribunal of Jesus Christ the next. Facing the eternal consequence of their refusal to commend what they should have commended because they were too busy admiring themselves and convincing themselves that they were morally fine. Friends, that day is coming. But that day is not yet come.
There is still time to repent. God is long-suffering. God does not judge without warning. You're hearing the warning right now. What will you do?
Beloved, fear God. and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Well, Paul's tone in these closing verses has gotten progressively more intense, more direct, more threatening. What should the Corinthians do? They've already messed up, so what recourse do they have?
Well, Paul, as a faithful apostle, does not leave them without clear instruction or without gospel hope. And so, in the closing verses of his letter, he tells them to examine themselves. Verse 5. Examine yourselves. To see whether you are in the faith.
Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless Indeed, you failed to meet the test. Paul called the Corinthian Christians to examine the authenticity of their professed faith. Corinth had spent plenty of time and energy examining Paul's authenticity and finding him wanting by their standard.
It was time now for Corinth to turn that critical analysis in on themselves and ask of themselves: Am I truly in the faith? Do I bear the marks of a genuine Christian? How do we go about doing that? How do we examine ourselves?
Well, let me point out two things that clarify the sort of self-examination Paul intends us to engage in. First, we notice that the Admonition to examine ourselves occurs in the context of Paul reproving a church for its sin habits. and threatening church discipline for their unrepentant sin. It's in this context in which Paul says, examine yourselves. In other words, examine your moral conformity to the law of God.
Are you walking in obedience to God's word? That's how you commend. God's word. Or are you indulging your flesh in anger and gossip and pride and slander? What is your attitude towards sin?
Is it one of permissiveness or war? Do you foster disobedience or do you fight against sin's dread sway? The Apostle John, in fact, made this a test of the genuineness of one's faith when he said in 1 John 2:3, By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.
So, the sort of self-examination that is being called for here is that of examining the fruit of your Christian profession. Does your life Specifically, your conformity to the moral demands of God reflects genuine saving faith.
Now don't be confused. Obedience doesn't make us Christians. But it does demonstrate the genuineness of our profession of faith. We are to examine, then, the fruit of our lives. But there's another aspect to the kind of self-examination Paul is calling for here.
On the heels of telling Corinth to examine themselves, Paul says in verse 5, Or do you not realize this about yourselves? That Jesus Christ is in you. The telltale sign of a genuine conversion, of sincere, saving faith, is that Christ is in the true Christian. If you do not have Christ, you do not have Christianity. Obedience is the fruit.
Christ is the roots. And without Christ as the root, whatever obedience or virtue or moral goodness you think you have will fall short of the mark. Because perfection is the bare minimum, and only Jesus Christ has attained moral perfection.
So, the sort of self-examination Paul is looking for is one that takes an honest look at the moral fruit of one's life. An examination that will yield a failing grade for every son or daughter of Adam, but also one that takes an honest look at how the self responds to that failing moral grade. Do I lower the moral standard to make it easier to meet? Do I just pretend that I'm not all that bad? Or do I honestly acknowledge the depths of my sinfulness and run to the perfect righteousness and substitutionary death of Jesus Christ and look to him to be my representative, my advocate, my replacement, my acceptance before a perfectly holy God?
Am I rooted in Christ? And does the fruit of my life come from that root? Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. But, friends, we are incapable of fulfilling this essential duty of man apart from Christ. And I don't mean apart from Christ giving us a little nudge, giving us some help from time to time.
I mean apart from Christ fulfilling that duty for us. in our place. Examine yourself to see if you're in the faith, in this kind of faith. The kind that insists on the sufficiency of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The kind that says with the hymn writer, Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are my glorious dress.
Is that the ground you stand on? The ground of Christ. the solid rock, because all other ground is sinking sand. If your life is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and your life demonstrates the sincerity of that reality. When you're confronted with your own sin, you don't run and hide.
You confess it. and repent of it. And run back to Christ, and back to Christ again, and back to Christ again, and back to Christ again, and again, and again. If that's the reality of your Christian faith, then Paul has some marching orders for you, and it begins. with joy.
Verse 11. Finally, brothers. Rejoice. For all of its ups and downs, its failures and victories, its uncertainties and unknowns, and missteps and redirections, the end of the Christian life is joy. We don't go to the trouble of repenting of sin and turning back to Christ for the umpteenth time in order to somehow make up for our sin or somehow pay God back for all the wrongs we've done.
We cannot do that. No, we repent and return to God because that's where joy is. That's where true peace lies. He's the one who has the truth. He's the one who offers life abundant and full of joy.
And so at the end of a scathing letter of rebuke and correction and exhortation, Paul is able to say, brothers and sisters, rejoice. You're still in the kingdom. You're still God's child. Heaven is in your future. Death has been defeated.
So rejoice. Be glad. Even as you fight against your bent towards sin, be glad. Paul also gives some helpful instruction with regard to the kinds of moral habits that will help foster this joy that he's commanding. The kinds of moral habits that get the redeemed unstuck and back on the path of righteousness when they've fallen into the muck and mire of sin.
He lists several reminders in verse 11. Aim for restoration. Comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Paul even says, greet one another with a holy kiss.
You know, it's hard to kiss someone you hate.
Now, perhaps the cultural equivalent of a holy kiss in our day is a warm, affectionate hug or a handshake. Or a sincere smile, whatever it is, Paul is calling the church to get over their self-centered introspection and jealousy and posturing and simply give ourselves in service and love with joy to one another, because God is the God who makes all things right through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ.
So repent. and rejoice.
Well, this brings us to the end of Paul's second and final letter to the Corinthians. The letter concludes with what is arguably the second most frequently used benediction in Reformed worship services. uh second perhaps only to the iaronic blessing of numbers six This final verse of 2 Corinthians is a beautiful, beautiful Trinitarian statement that leaves the church with a reminder that everything we need. For salvation and eternal joy is provided to us by the Holy Trinity. We are so prone to running to a million substitutes for validation and happiness, for acceptance and friendship, for moral fortitude and the ability to do better and be better and rise above our sin nature that enslaves us and accuses us and pulls us down.
The Corinthians ran to seemingly important people saying seemingly important things. We run to our own version of super apostles. But time and time again, Paul reminded the Corinthians, And he reminds us that our triune God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is enough. We have The grace.
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that familiar statement is simply shorthand for saying. Christian, every single blessing that the redeeming work of Christ has secured or will secure belongs to you. The grace. of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have the love of God. And I hope that that phrase, the love of God, has not become so familiar to you that you fail to stop and think about what it means. the most important and powerful person in the universe. In fact, the one who stands outside of the universe and holds it all together not only knows who you are, not only provides you with existence and life-giving sustenance, but he loves you. With an everlasting love, with a love that casts out fear, with a love that conquers the consequences of your sin.
with the love of a father, who pities his child. And then lastly, we have the fellowship. the communion, the intimate friendship. of the Holy Spirit. He is with us.
He is in us. He walks alongside of us, teaching us and comforting us and ensuring us that not a single blessing secured for us by Christ is lost on us. If these things are ours, what else do we need? What else could we possibly desire that would outrun the love and acceptance and redemption and friendship of our triune God? Matthew Henry ended his commentary on Second Corinthians with this sentence.
We can desire no more to make us happy than the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost. We can desire no more to make us happy. than the grace of Christ The love of God. and the communion of the Holy Ghost. and the beauty of the gospel.
Is that we already have each of these things?
So, Christian, let go of your pointless idols and high places, your foolish attachments to things and people that cannot ultimately satisfy and live your life. rejoicing in the grace and the love and the fellowship of a God who says, I am yours and you are mine. Let's pray. God, our hearts are full as we contemplate all the riches of your grace. And yet, Lord, how prone we are to wonder, how prone to leave the God we love.
So we ask you to save us and keep us. until the day of your return. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we need you. And we thank you that we have you. I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen. Yeah.
