2nd Corinthians 11:1-33

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2^nd Corinthians 11:1-33

“Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly; and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Bur I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. [Comment: “him” is italicized, and not in the original Greek. In this case, the word “him” changed the whole meaning of the verse in an adverse way. The translators should have put in an italicized “me”, “ye might well bear with me” because that is the intent of what Paul is saying.] For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chieftest apostles. But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things. Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely? I robbed other churches, taking wages of them to do you service. And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia. Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth. But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great wonder if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me: and through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.”

Paul Acts As A Jealous Dad Toward The Corinthians

“2^nd Corinthians chapter 11, now we know it’s a beginning. 2^nd Corinthians, Paul is, ah, these last chapters at least 10, 11 and 12, dealing with false teachers, dealing with those who have come in, following the work that he established in Corinth. Paul coming in as a trailblazer, coming in where no man had been before, saying he hadn’t built on someone else’s foundation, pioneering the work, and whatever suffering that came along with that, and difficulty, evangelizing, not proselytizing. And Paul, laying this foundation, in Corinth, and now of course after him there are others who have come in, with their ideas and their deeper spiritual truths, and particularly Judaizers that are leading people back under the Law again, and Paul is dealing with all of this. And as we come to this 11^th chapter he takes another step, and he’s almost, he’s addressing the church [at Corinth] as a dad, really, he had said to them in 1^st Corinthians, ‘For though you have ten-thousand instructors in Christ, yet you have not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you though the gospel.’ Paul looks at this church and remembers the early days, remembers when there was a few there, remembers the sweat, remembers the tears and the laughter and the years that have gone by. And Paul is the one who has this more than phileo relationship, a parental relationship. And he really, he bares his heart in this chapter, and he begins to talk about it in the terms of jealousy, that he’s jealous in regards to the lives of these believers. Because others are coming in now, laying claim to them. And the Corinthians are so ready to listen to these other things, to follow. And Paul, you know, certainly the heart of Christ, God in the Old Testament says that he’s a jealous God. In fact in Exodus 32 or 34 he says ‘My name is Jealous.’ That’s how he describes himself, that he’s a jealous God. And the idea is he was always jealous over his people, with almost, you know, a human emotion. I mean, human emotions are fashioned after God, we’re created in his image and likeness. So, yes we’re in a fallen state, and yes, jealousy plays a very wrong role sometimes now. But there’s a godly jealously, and that’s what Paul is talking about, and he’s jealous over their lives because he loves them. So he said, “Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.” (verse 1) Now he just finished the last chapter, remember, by saying, “But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” Now Paul’s going to say in this chapter, ‘but these guys are getting me in the flesh a little bit, so, if you would, bear with me a little bit in my folly,’ “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (verses 2-3) ‘I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy,’ he says, and he says, ‘I’ve put myself in the position of the father, I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.’ That was the father’s responsibility, the father was the one who made the arrangements for his daughter, often from childhood. In fact [in Hebrew society] it was a big production. If your son and your daughter were grown and arrangements had not been made from the time they were little, there was a whole routine that they had to go through, with the suitor coming to the father’s house, sitting around the table, with the father pouring the wine in the cup, it’s beautiful, and is certainly a picture of Communion [the Christian Passover] in some ways. More often than not, the arrangements were made when you were little kids, often before you were even in what would have been in Kindergarten age, you’re just a toddler. And for one reason or another, maybe your dad and this gal’s dad were fishing buddies. And maybe they said, ‘Look, you’ve got a cute little daughter, I’ve got a cute little son, why don’t we make the arrangements now. And when they grow up and have kids, the wives can be busy playing with the grandchildren, we can fish for the rest of our lives.’ [laughter] You know, for one reason or another they made the arrangements. It’s scary of course, because you realize you could spend sixteen, seventeen years growing up watching someone who you knew, whose going to be your spouse for the rest of your life, because somebody had arranged it. Now that could be great, you could be growing up, and as you’re growing up, that girl could be getting more and more beautiful as the years went on. You could be saying, ‘Yes dad! Yes! Va-va-voom dad! You did something right, man, look at that, I can not wait! She ain’t getting’ away!’ Or you could be saying, ‘Dad, I hate you, look at that, dad, no don’t look at it, yea, do look at it, ohh dad, you say you love me, mmmm.’ Marriage was cultural, had little to do with our idea of marriage today, Love Boat, you know. [We used to call that show on TV, The Lust Barge] It wasn’t based so much on emotion as it was on covenant. And if you got one you loved, that was gravy on top of everything else, I guess. But Paul says, ‘I’m jealous over you,’ now this is the way a father is jealous over his daughter, ‘I’ve espoused you, I’ve made the arrangements, and I want to present you,’ that means “to place alongside,” that Greek word, and of course it speaks of when we do a wedding, ‘Who gives this woman to be married?’ and the father will take and place that young girl beside the guy. ‘I want to present you’ Paul says, ‘as a chaste virgin to Christ.’ Now that was the father’s responsibility, to make sure that when that girl got married she was a virgin. And of course in the culture, there would be, and very strongly amongst the Hebrews, there were the tokens of her virginity, the cloth from the wedding night that would prove that she was a virgin. If she wasn’t, the girl could be stoned, put to death, and the father would be humiliated for the rest of his life. Paul, just think of this, saying to the Corinthians, now if I was going to pick a church to present to Christ as a chaste virgin, it wouldn’t be the Corinthian church. I mean, this is the church that’s guilty of drunkenness at the Communion [Christian Passover] table, suing one another, famous for fornication, divided, ‘I’m of Paul, I’m of Apollos,’ and Paul was saying that he is jealous over them because he’s looking forward to the day that he places them next to the Bride Groom, and presents them as a chaste virgin to Jesus Christ.

How Satan And His False Apostles, Ministers, Beguile The Churches

‘My fear is,’ he says, ‘you might be corrupted from the simplicity that’s in Christ.’ “I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (verse 3) Well, that speaks to us, you know. You can be a spiritual virgin. Maybe you’ve made mistakes, maybe you’ve done things wrong, maybe in the natural there’s some stain on your character. But Paul says, ‘No, through Christ, there’s a simplicity to this that is so powerful and so cleansing, and so incredible,’ that Paul says, ‘In the light of that, I’m jealous over this Corinthian church.’ They had given him ulcers. He said, ‘I’m jealous over you. When I look at these other false teachers coming in, my heart’s desire, you know, I’ve made the arrangements, I’ve espoused you to one husband, Jesus Christ, not to anyone else, and I want to present you that day as a chaste virgin.’ Paul says, in his mind, you know he’s going to tell us in the next chapter, he’s even caught up to Paradise, he’s seen things that are unspeakable, he’s longing for the day that he presents this Corinthian church to Jesus, spotless. He says, ‘My fear is,’ and again, let that be an encouragement to you, that whatever mistakes you have made, even since you’ve been a believer, that when confession and repentance is genuine, those stains are removed forever, never to be seen again. Jesus will never bring them up and throw them in your face. Yes, there’s consequences sometimes, yes, there’s struggles, but when God’s ledger is seen it’s blank, when our repentance and confession is genuine, so is the cleansing, and it’s complete. Paul’s fear is that ‘as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.’ Isn’t it interesting, ‘But I fear lest by any means,’ here is what his fear is, ‘as the serpent beguiled Eve through subtlety.’ Satan didn’t come to Eve and say, ‘Here, smoke some of this.’ [sucking, inhaling sound] ‘Good stuff, isn’t it?’ He didn’t come to Eve and say, ‘Hey, snort some of this. [snorting sound]’ He didn’t come to Eve and say, ‘Hey, Adam’s ok, but look at that guy over there.’ He didn’t come to Eve like that, my point is, it wasn’t carnal. It wasn’t appealing to the flesh. He came to Eve with subtlety, not over obvious things. Paul’s talking to the church, they know those things are wrong. There’s something else that’s before Paul’s mind here. There’s a beguiling, a subtlety, something that’s harder to detect. And it’s like Satan’s deception with Eve, because he appealed to spiritual things when he deceived Eve. ‘This fruit, it’ll make you wise. It’s good to the taste, but most of all, God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, you shall be as God, knowing good and evil,’ appealing to Eve that there was some thing that was more spiritual beyond God’s Word. God had established his Word, ‘That in the day that you eat thereof, thou shalt surely die.’ ‘Hast God said,’ he [Satan] questioned the Word of God and the simplicity of the Word of God, and had Eve replace it with something else. And it was appealing to her in a spiritual way, not in a carnal way. And Paul’s saying to this Corinthian church, ‘I want to present you as a chaste virgin, in that day when we stand before Christ.’ That will happen simply, by the power of his blood and his redemption. There is no other way in the world the Corinthian church could be presented to Christ as a chaste virgin, except through the redemption that is there through his blood. If you make it any more complicated than that, you’re destroying the power of it. And Paul says, ‘I’m concerned, my fear is, these other false teachers and these other guys around, that as Satan beguiled Eve with subtlety, and took her away from the simplicity of God’s Word, that you’ll be corrupted from the simplicity that’s in Christ Jesus.’ ‘Well, yea, you do need to be saved, oh yea, the Bible’s important, oh, yea, fellowship, but you know when you get to this point of genuine spiritual maturity, you don’t really need the Church anymore.’ There are people in the Church that are saying that. ‘Oh yea, that’s great, but look, that’s milk, and you’ve got to move on to these other things, and if you don’t understand these other things, you’ll never grow spiritually. If you don’t embrace this doctrine, if you don’t understand more points than Calvin understood, if you don’t embrace this, if you don’t do this, if you don’t act like this, if you don’t wear this, if you don’t look like this, if you don’t worship in this way.’ And people that are guilty tend to be drawn to putting stars on the refrigerator, putting another notch on their gun. And the Corinthians in one sense, who should have been of all churches the church that was drawn to the beauty and the power and the simplicity of redemption that’s in Christ, and that power to transform a life. And listen, we hear this today, ‘Oh cheap grace, oh they’re talking about cheap grace, all you need to do is trust Jesus.’ Let me tell you something, there is no such thing as cheap grace, the Son of God, when I go to a hospital and see a dad weeping over the death of their child, and it’s hard for me to imagine God the Father, who loved his Son more than any earthly father has ever loved their child, and to see that Child, Jesus Christ, pure and spotless, brutalized and maligned, and torn apart, and the sin of the world placed on him. There’s no such thing as cheap grace. [Comment: the subject of Law & Grace can at times seem like a complex subject, and there is doctrinal disagreement within the various parts of the Body of Christ in how to explain it. But amazingly, those real parts of the Body of Christ, regardless of how differently they define God’s Grace, all obey God in the same spiritual manner and fashion. But without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, there is no grace of God, it all hinges on that. For more about Law & Grace, see: http://www.unityinchrist.com/whatisgrace/whatisgraceintro.htm] There’s no such thing as cheap grace. The grace that’s been extended to us has a price on it beyond anything that we could ever imagine. It is not cheap. And it has the power to change and transform a life that will walk in the light of it. And it will win your heart so that you love Christ, and so that you want to serve Christ, and that you’re not doing things that are right because you’re trying to be a Christian, that’s a bummer. That’s being under the Law. That you will serve Christ because you love Christ with all of your heart, and you realize what’s at stake, you realize your own sin, your own frailty, your own depravity. And at the same time you realize the power of what he’s accomplished. Paul says, ‘I’m afraid that the same way that Satan beguiled Eve, through subtlety, subtlety, that you might be corrupted from the simplicity that’s in Christ.’ Now George Whitfield said before he died, that he observed better and longer lasting fruit from preaching God’s love and grace than he did from preaching hell-fire. Martin Lloyd-Jones before he died said if he had it all to do over again, he would preach the grace of Jesus Christ throughout. Love [God’s agape-love] is a very powerful, powerful force. And we love him because he first loved us. And if we’re corrupted away from that simplicity of the power of his love towards us, then we are poor responders. Once we get under the Law, and it comes subtly and slowly, we pick a little bit of self-righteousness at a time, we don’t pick it up all at once, a little bit at a time, it starts to make us a little cranky, and then we look for somebody else that’s not as good as we are, it makes us feel a little bit better, and then we’re trapped into this thing of measuring horizontally instead of measuring vertically. And Paul has brought them through that.

Beware Of Those Preaching Another Gospel

“But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” (verses 3-4) ‘You know, what are you doing putting up with this stuff?’ Paul would say, when we come to Galatians, chapter 1, verse 6, ‘I’m amazed that you’re so soon removed from the gospel that we preached unto you, unto another gospel.’ Well then he says, ‘It’s not another gospel, it’s a deformed gospel.’ They use the name of Jesus, they talk about Jesus, they talk about the Word, but it’s a different Jesus. And you know, not only do we see it in major movements. What do we do when we see a movement who comes and says, ‘Well, Jesus is really Michael the arch-angel, that’s who he really is.’ Well that’s not the Jesus that the Bible talks about. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God [and John 1:1-14 is talking about the creation before the physical creation, and that of time & space and matter. John chapter 1:1-14 goes way back. Jesus Christ’s lineage, lifespan goes back to forever, as John 1:1-14 clearly shows.] All things were made through him, nothing that was made except that which was made through him. Phillip saying to Jesus, ‘Show us the Father and we’ll be satisfied, ‘Phillip, have I been with you so long, yet hast thou not known me, if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father.’ That’s the Jesus presented to us in the Scripture, God in human flesh, not Michael the archangel. Well there’s other men who will say, ‘Jesus and Lucifer were really brothers. Neither one of them is powerful as God, and God of course needing suggestions, asks his two boys, Lucifer and Jesus, what was the best plan of salvation. And because Jesus came up with a better plan, then his other brother, Lucifer, when God decided to use Jesus’ plan, Lucifer was not a happy camper, and he started all of this trouble.’ That’s not the Jesus of the Bible. [Comment: Pastor Joe has just exposed a heresy that some teach, and this heresy, just like Pastor Joe said in the last transcript, can at times come into a church denomination from one of it’s own, wolves from within. The Sabbath-keeping Churches of God has had that happen to them as well, with these very deformed doctrines being promoted, which is called Arianism, by one who had gotten his start from within one of the major Sabbath-keeping Churches of God. See: http://www.unityinchrist.com/wwcofg/What%20is%20Arianism.htm. Or you have the Jesus of the Aquarian gospels, or the Jesus of the Ascended Masters. No, this is the Messiah of Israel, of the seed of Abraham, of the seed of David, born of a virgin, in Bethlehem, died on the cross, rose on the 3^rd day, ascended to heaven, and is returning, and on his thigh it will say “Lord of lords, and King of kings.” That’s the Jesus that the Bible talks about. [see http://www.unityinchrist.com/prophecies/1stcoming.htm and http://www.unityinchrist.com/prophecies/2ndcoming.htm, and to see what the Gospel really is, see http://www.unityinchrist.com/misc/WhatIsTheGospel%20.htm] Now look, that’s very obvious to us. Well then, what about the Jesus, ‘Yea, Jesus, but you have to do this too. Yea, Jesus, but you have to perform,’ but there’s a subtler theme that happens in regards to legalism. And again, if Satan can’t get us to backslide, he loves to get us to front-slide. And Paul is looking at that with these Corinthians, his heart is broken, there’s pathos here. [Comment: Most of the grace-oriented, yes, Calvary Chapels, and other Sunday-observing churches, denominations, like to throw stones at the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God, calling them legalists, all because they keep a different day of worship, a day which historically is beginning to be realized by Messianic Jewish historians, that the apostle Paul, and yes, the Corinthian church and churches of Paul in Asia Minor kept, they were all Sabbath/Holy Day observing Christian churches at the time of Paul, John, Peter, Polycarp and Policrates, right up to around 255AD in Asia Minor. It was the proto-Catholic Church in Rome under Constantine which forced Sunday-observance on all they could, and drove the rest underground. See, http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/earlychurch1.htm, http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/earlychurch1a.htm and http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/earlychurch3.htm. Now while some Sabbath-keeping Churches of God are legalistic, so are some Sunday-observing churches and denominations as well, with nothing to do with the observance of a day or not. The early English Separatists in Plymouth Colony, and their Puritan neighbours up in Boston were extremely legalistic about Sunday-observance and the Law of God. Legalism tends to be a label one group likes to stick on another one for their observance of a different day. Time to put the rocks down, folks, we all live in glass houses in a sense.] As a father he [Paul] saw this church founded, and now he’s seeing the hearts of people that were growing in Christ, they were struggling, there was sin, and yet God told Paul, ‘Go back into the city, I have much people there.’ And Paul’s heart was broken, as he wrote the first letter he asked for church discipline, he corrected them, he gave them spiritual things, and of course now he’s hearing that many are being lured away by the Law, they were never Jews in the first place, and they’re being lured to the Judaizers that are saying, ‘Oh yea, Jesus the Messiah,’ but they’re saying, ‘oh yea, but you have to perform this, that your righteousness is not just by faith, it’s not just that simple.’ And Paul’s concerned, to see that happening to those that he loved. [Comment: These Judaizers were trying to get all these churches, many of which were Judeo-Christian in Asia Minor, to go back to the Old Testament sacrificial and ceremonial laws which Paul showed in Hebrews 10 were yes, abrogated by the very sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The coming of the Holy Spirit, circumcising of the heart and mind replaced literal circumcision (Acts 15), and the animal sacrifices at the Temple were no longer necessary (Hebrews 10) because Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross as the Lamb of God, on Passover, had superseded these ceremonial laws found in the Torah. Tithing was now to the Priesthood of Melchisedec (Hebrews 7). Judaizers where trying to get even these Sabbath-observing churches of God to go back into these practices. That’s what the Judaizers were all about, and most of them were believing Pharisees that were convinced of the physical facts of Jesus’ Messiahship, but couldn’t make the step to give up the ceremonial laws (especially circumcision) so they’d travel from church to church, stirring up trouble for Paul. The Sabbath, as part of the Ten Commandments, which all the churches kept, was not a legalistic issue back then, nor should it be today. To call a Sabbath-keeper a legalist is just plain dumb. Sorry Pastor Joe, have to beg to differ on this one. Yes, many of us in the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God are legalistic, but some are not, we just believe in keeping the letter and spirit of God’s laws, just as you do, in the power given to us by the indwelling Holy Spirit. That’s something you guys do too, I know, I spent 10 years in a Calvary Chapel, and I’ve met you in person twice J. I call the legalists within our groups “Goose-stepping Nazi’s” and I have to be careful not to offend with my “opinions” there, but keep them “under my hat.” See, http://www.unityinchrist.com/galatians/Galatians5-1-26.htm and http://www.unityinchrist.com/galatians/Galatians6-1-18.htm] ‘So if they come with another Jesus…what are you doing?’

Paul Defends His Ministry To Them, Going After The False Apostles and Teachers

“For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chieftest apostles.” (verse 5) Now, you know, they were saying, ‘Now Apollos is, you know, the real deal. Or Peter of course was with Jesus. Paul’s not even from Jerusalem,’ They were putting apostles on different levels, and down here, Paul, it’s very interesting he starts to talk about the cost of caring for them, just what every father does. You know, ‘Here, here’s money for this, here, here’s money for that.’ ‘Well I’ll pay you back, dad.’ ‘Na, don’t pay me back.’ Paul’s got that attitude, and he says in one of his letters, that the father lays up for the children, not the children for the parents. “For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chieftest apostles. But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.” (verses 5-6) Now it doesn’t mean that he cursed. What it means “rude in speech” is rudimentary, that he was not an eloquent speaker, that he was not like Apollos, he was not an orator. Evidently Paul himself was not a great public speaker. Imagine that. “But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge…” there’s nothing lacking in his knowledge. “but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.” Remember 1^st Corinthians chapter 2, he had told them, ‘Look, when we came to you, it wasn’t with man’s wisdom, it wasn’t with eloquence of speech, because we didn’t want to be known among you for anything but Christ and him crucified, and we wanted that to happen in the demonstration and the spirit of power, so that your faith wouldn’t be founded on man’s wisdom, but on the power of God.’ And he says, ‘We’ve been completely manifested before you.’ “Have I committed an offense in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?” (verse 7) Paul says, ‘Is it really an offense to you that when I came, I didn’t ask you for money? We didn’t charge you anything, we didn’t ask you for support. I was abasing myself, finding my own support.’ “I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.” (verse 8) And he’s going to say that the church in Macedonia was supporting his missionary efforts, and he tells us earlier they were a poor church. And yet they had scraped enough together to get Paul into furthering his missionary journeys. Paul’s going to say, ‘I came to you in Corinth, and there was no cost to you. I was being paid by those in Macedonia, they were supporting our missionary journeys.’ Now, of course, part of the culture was, in Corinth and in the area of Greece and Athens, Corinth and some of the Roman, proper Roman provinces, are some towns which would have as many as three professional orators. And they would just pay them to talk, and the Greeks liked to listen to all kinds of things. So, if you got elected as a professional orator in that town, you charged exorbitant prices to come and to speak to a crowd, and they’d all come, and it was great. I mean, the more they paid you the better they thought that you were. Either that or the stupider they felt when they went home. So, with those two options, you were great. It was expensive, but ‘Man, you should hear that guy speak.’ Paul says, ‘What, I’m an offense because I come and don’t charge anything, it doesn’t cost you anything when I come? It was other churches that supported me.’ “And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.” (verse 9) ‘I don’t want anything,’ just like a parent, ‘I don’t want to take from you. I want everything for you. I have no desire to be a burden to you, no desire to take from you.’ [Comment: Paul was taking tithes and offerings from the Macedonians, who were giving them freely to Paul for his missionary work. See http://www.unityinchrist.com/hebrews/Hebrews%207%201-28.htm and http://www.unityinchrist.com/gifts.htm for more about Christian principles of tithing and giving.] “As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.” (verse 10) ‘I’m not going to give anybody a chance to say I was here for what I could get from you,’ “Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth.” (verse 11) ‘You think that’s why I’m doing this? God knows. You think it’s because I don’t love you?’ And that’s what the false teachers must have been saying. Paul says, ‘No, I came determined not to burden you at all, I came to give, my heart is after you, I don’t want to see you taken away from the simplicity that’s in Christ. On that Wedding Day when this marriage is consummated with the rapture of the Church and they stand in the Lord’s presence, I look forward to the day that I can present you faultless before his throne, like Jesus says, with exceeding joy. And I’ve done it in a way, when I came to you I didn’t lay any burden on you. When I had personal needs I didn’t ask for anything. Contrast me,’ Paul is saying, ‘with those, you know, false teachers, with those who come,’ and you know, you see them on the radio, TV, you see this ‘Dig-deep, you know, this is triple-tithe Sunday,’ or ‘if you don’t give this is going to happen, or ‘the whole ministry is falling apart, God’s filing chapter 11 and it’s your fault.’ I remember a guy on the West Coast, and it was remarkable, because he would be on television, and the last time I saw him he had this coon-skin cap, a cigar, a can of beer, name was Gene Scott, and he was saying, he cursed, ‘You blanket-blank people down there near San Francisco, if don’t send me money, we’re going off the air in your neighborhood.’ And people sent that guy money to keep him on. [like the Greek orators, they thought this guy’s side-show was amusing enough to pay for J] Any of you guys from southern California, you remember him. I mean, to me that’s unbelievable. It was refreshing for me to get to Calvary and be somewhere where nobody was hocking me for money, where they were saying to me, ‘Study the Scriptures, see if what we’re saying is true. Do what you do because you’re led of the Lord. That’s the relationship we want to bring you into, is a living relationship with Jesus Christ.’ And that’s what he wants, that’s what he paid for. And Paul, I can sense Paul’s heart in this, as he’s going through this. “But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion, that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.” (verse 12) Paul says, ‘I’m going to cut off their opportunity to take opportunity of you to fleece the flock instead of feed the flock, they’re after your wallet, they’re after your money,’ Paul said, ‘I determined to come and not cost you anything and not ask you for anything, so that I could cut occasion off from those that are phony.’ “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.” (verse 13) Isn’t that interesting? “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” (verses 14-15) This is what Paul said earlier. He’s saying, ‘I don’t want to see you corrupted from the simplicity that’s in Christ as Satan beguiled Eve through subtlety.’ Well it was through spiritual things. And that’s what he’s saying here, Satan comes, you know, not with a black cloak, going ‘Aah, here’s some drugs, here’s some sex, here’s some alcohol,’ no, Satan comes disguised as an angel of light, that’s what counterfeit is. False prophets, pseudo-prophets, counterfeit apostles, pseudo-apostles, subtlety, deception, beguiling, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, outwardly different from what they are inwardly, for sure. “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” You know, I wonder, when we hear all this stuff about near-death experiences, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter what you believe, or how you live, it doesn’t matter what religion you are, because when we talk to people who have had near-death experiences they see a beautiful light, they hear beautiful music, and whatever you did in life it doesn’t matter, because when you have these near-death experiences, you see this beautiful light.’ Well, the problem is, we ain’t getting near-death, we’re getting dead. Near-death experiences shouldn’t impress us. Dead experiences should impress us. Because in a near-death experience you can see a beautiful light that can get brighter and brighter, and it can be Jesus if you’re saved, or get hotter and hotter and be something else if you keep moving towards it. Satan himself, disguises himself as an angel of light. “Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness;” but look at this, “whose end shall be according to their works.” (verse 15) Now, I don’t want to stand in front of Jesus according to my works. And Paul wasn’t going to present this Corinthian church as a chaste virgin according to their works. Paul says they’re (these false apostles and ministers) going to stand in front of God some day according to their works. And that’s how they’re going to give account. And you know, you can see some of these guys on TV, and I think we should pray for them, because you look at them and say, ‘How can they do that? How can they be, you know, we find out they’re in an affair, they’re living in sin, they’re stealing money at the same time they’re on TV preaching every week, telling everybody…’ and when it all comes out, you think, ‘How can they do that? How could they do that? How can they use the name of Jesus, and how can they preach against these things, and how can they hold the Bible in their hand, and in the mean time all of this stuff was going on?’ It’s because there’s no fear of God. Either they’re a wolf in sheep’s clothing, someone whose never known Christ in the first place, or they are those who are deceiving others themselves, being deceived, who have hardened their hearts. And we need to pray for them, that God will break them, restore them. Because they’ll stand before him according to their works.

Paul Boasts About What It’s Like To Be A Real Apostle

“I say again, Let no man think me a fool;” ok, if you want to think I am a fool’ “if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.” Now this is interesting, Paul says, “I speak not after the Lord, but as it were, foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.” (verse 16-18) Paul says, ‘These guys got me so mad, I’m going to get in the flesh right now.’ He said, ‘Don’t blame Jesus for this.’ That’s what he says here, “That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.” (verse 17), ‘Don’t blame him for what I’m about to say, but I’m speaking foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.’ Like Paul says he should be boasting about anything. “Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.” (verse19) ‘Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I’m gonna do that too. I’m gonna tell you about my experiences, “For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.” That’s a little bit of heavenly sarcasm, if it hasn’t cut you, it cut them, I’m sure. “For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.” (verse 20) Now again, we talked about the culture a little bit, he said, ‘You allow somebody to come in and take advantage of you, take from you, put you into bondage,’ you know, this is pointing to their culture, those professional teachers that were paid, but also it’s pointing to those sometimes in religious schools, sometimes in rabbinic schools, if the rabbi was walking around and it looked like some kid or somebody wasn’t paying attention, he might walk up to you and smack you right on the face, WHACK! And then you woke up and you paid attention a little more. I remember in high school once, we had those desks with the arm, and this kid fell asleep, and my homeroom teacher, Mr. Bennett walked up and kicked this kid’s desk, and didn’t mean to kick it that hard, and the whole thing flipped over, the kid woke up sprawling around on the floor. That’s the picture here. ‘You know, you allow guys to be mean to you, you allow them to put you into bondage, you allow them to take from you, they want to get into your wallet, you allow them to put you under the Law again, you allow them to slap you in the face.’ Some people are like that, you know they, I don’t know what it is, they leave church on Sunday, and they say ‘Man, that was a good sermon, that hurt! Man, I’m bleeding,’ they got blood all the way to the car, they feel like, ‘I was so bad all week, I needed to go to church on Sunday morning and get brutalized, you know, get preached at…’You sinners, you fornicators!!! You’re going to go to hell!!’ Boy, that was good today.’ And you know, isn’t it amazing, some people put up with that, you now, Satan can beat us up all week, and then we can go to church and get beat up on Sunday too. Paul says, ‘You allow that.’ Isn’t it interesting? “I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.” (verse 21) ‘You think I’m weak, and you think the difference is, ‘We don’t brag, and we don’t take your money, and we don’t come demanding or slapping you, because they’re bold and they take your money, and they yell at you, and they smack you in the face, let me be bold too,’ Paul says. “Are they Hebrews?” now that tells us they most likely are Judaizers, trying to put them partially back under the Law. “Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant,” now he’s going to go into these, he’s going to outline them here, “in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.” (verses 22-23) “in deaths oft”, in the threat of death, at the point of death. Now here’s Paul, bragging a little bit, welcome to the ministry. “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;” (verses 24-25) Now maybe it wasn’t the Roman flagellant, maybe it was a regular cat-o-nine-tails, without the bone and without the metal, he doesn’t go into a big explanation, but who wants to have this happen five times. Paul says, ‘Of the Jews received I forty stripes, minus one, five times.’ They want to brag, ‘three times I was beaten with rods.’ He was caned. Remember that, two years, three years ago, Indonesia or somewhere they caught some American kids selling pot or something, they took them, they beat them with canes, they caned them. ‘Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.’ Remember that, I think that’s Acts around chapter 14 when Paul is stoned, left for dead. ‘Three times I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep.’ Now I have in my Bible ‘Never complain’ next to that. Three shipwrecks, and one of those times he floated in the ocean for a day and a half. Man, I would have a heart attack. I’d hear that dun, dun, dun, dun, that Jaws music, floating out there. Satan would make fins that weren’t even real, going past me. Now remember, this is written chronologically, Acts 19, before Acts 20. This is before Paul’s in the storm in the Eurocliden that we hear about, in the end of the Book of Acts. This is early stuff that the Book of Acts doesn’t even tell us about, ‘Stripes, from the Jews, five times, 39 lashes. Three times beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times, and we don’t have the details, I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I floated in the deep.’ That’s probably why in the end of the Book of Acts they said, ‘Well, we’re going to sail around Fairhaven,’ and Paul said, ‘Ah, I don’t think we should do that, I’ve got a bad feeling, no let’s wait till Spring.’ That’s why Paul said when they got in the storm, ‘I told you so,’ remember on the deck, he said, ‘I’ve been through this before.’ This is where we get the information. This stuff takes years off your life, he must have looked terrible. “In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often,” going through nights without sleeping, so that he could pray, “in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.” (verse26) Now look, as we’re reading through this, Paul’s saying ‘What did these other guys do for you, these false teachers? This is what I did getting here, and this is what I’ve been through.’ We don’t have any record of that, “in nakedness”, was there some time where Paul was persecuted in the winter, they took his clothes away and sent him out into the snow naked? He doesn’t tell us. “In cold and nakedness.” Now, “Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.” (verse 28) Paul said all of that stuff is external, beatings, shipwrecks, robbers, freezing, nakedness, starving. ‘Besides all that, besides the external stuff,’ he says, ‘there’s the internal part of this, the heart of a father, that comes upon me every day of my life, the care of all of the churches.’ “Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?” ‘You think that I don’t get indignant?’ Paul’s saying, ‘I have feelings too.’ “If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed evermore, knoweth that I lie not.” (verses 30-31) Paul says, ‘If I’m going to brag, I’m not going to brag about somebody else’s, you know, I’m not building on somebody else’s foundation, I’m not budding in on somebody else’s labor, I was in Corinth when the whole thing started, I watched the whole process go, there was heartache and tears, and there was difficulty getting there, and sustaining myself there, and aches and pains, and fastings, and persecution,’ and then Paul says, ‘that’s just the outward stuff. Inside then, there’s the care of the churches that’s on my heart, daily. Whose weak, and I’m not weak? Whose offended? You think I don’t get indignant at times? Paul says, ‘You don’t think I don’t have feelings? You think that it doesn’t hurt, sometimes?’ He says, ‘I have feelings too.’ No doubt that’s why in chapter 5, verse 8, he said, ‘To live is Christ, to die is gain.’ He must have said that lots of times. ‘Is this the time, Lord? Is this the time, Lord?’ [Comment: I’m reading a wonderful book about redemption, about a WWII flier whose B-24 Liberator crashes in the Pacific, and he and the pilot drift for 2,000 miles, without food or water, sharks all around their raft, only to drift into Japanese territory and get captured, and end up in some of the most notorious Japanese POW camps. Louis Zamperini, it appears, went through a lot of what Paul went through, although Paul seemed to get a lot of breaks inbetween his trials, and with Louis they came one on top of another. The name of the book is “UNBROKEN, A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption” by Laura Hillenbrand. It would seem that Paul’s sufferings somewhat matched Louie’s.] “If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.” ‘I don’t have to brag or build on somebody else’s foundation, do what somebody else has done, “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” I love this “which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.” (verse 31) ‘God knows.’ Consolation. But let me tell you something about that. It’s lonely. God knows, Paul could say. ‘The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, he knoweth.’ The Corinthians don’t know it. You know, here’s a guy, you look at his labor, you look at everything he’s done, he goes back to Corinth where he labored for two years, all of the sin, the failure, the difficulty. And then the Galatians, which is Gentile territory, he hears from them that they’re circumcising themselves, these were Gentiles, why are they doing that? You can’t get a Jew hardly to do that if he’s an adult, a proselyte to Judaism. Now these Gentiles are getting circumcised? The Thessalonians, he talked about the 2^nd coming of Christ, and they’re all quitting their jobs, standing around looking in the air, Paul said, ‘No, no, I didn’t say that, if you don’t work you don’t eat.’ You know, if he were to look at the fruit of his ministry, at the end, he says to Timothy, ‘I don’t have anybody else but you.’ He doesn’t trust the churches too. But he could say ‘But God knoweth, God knoweth, knows my heart, knows that the care of the churches is on my heart every day, knows that I don’t lie, God knows.’ It’s a lonely, wonderful place. “In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me: and through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.” (verses 32-33) That’s a very inglorious way for the great apostle to make his exit from the city, ‘they put me in a basket and lowered me down over the wall, I looked like a big container of bread coming down on the outside.’ Again, all of this written, chapter 19 of Acts, before the [later] shipwrecks and some of the difficulties we see. I mean, just what a guy, I mean, just, somewhere along the line most of us say, ‘That’s it, Lord,’ ‘I’ve been beaten, three times by the Jews, now I’m done.’ No, Paul’s been beaten five times. ‘Oh Lord, I got caned, this is what I get for serving you? I’m done.’ Shipwrecked three times? You know how many times I need to get shipwrecked before I have a ministry in the desert somewhere? Shipwrecked three times, once floating in the ocean for a day and a half, and then we still have the storm in the Book of Acts after that. What a remarkable man.

A Peek At Next Week’s Study

Now, to be honest, look, we’ll go here next week. But he says this, “It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory”, ‘It’s not necessary, I just gave you a little bit of light stuff there, a little bit of light reading.’ “I will also come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man” in verse 7 we’re going to find out he’s talking about himself, “in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.” There’s the heavens, the Bible talks about the atmosphere, the sky then there’s the heavens of heavens, outer space, the stellar heavens, and then there is the third heaven, Paradise, the presence of God. “caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) how that he was caught up to paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” Literally he’s saying “it would be a crime for me to try to describe to you what I experienced there.” Paul was the pragmatist. Caught up to paradise, fourteen years before this. No doubt that fueled his fire of it, as he was beaten the second time, the third time, the fourth time, the fifth time, he said, ‘Hey, the worst thing that could happen, I die, go to Paradise. That’s where I want to get anyhow. [that’s pragmatism for you now.] Shipwrecked three times, beaten with rods three times, floating in the ocean a day and a half, stoned. Must have went back in and said ‘Next time you stone me, FINISH THE JOB!’ Eternity was before his heart. ‘The outward man perishes,’ he told us, ‘the inner man is renewed day by day, while we look, not at those things that are seen, but those things that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporal, the things that are not seen are eternal.’ Paul says ‘I find myself renewed daily when I have eternity in view.’ And necessary for us also. This is all about life and death, in this world, and life and death in the next. That is really the bottom line, life and death. The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, God the Father allowing human history to roll out, describing for us the days we would live in [i.e. Bible prophecy, see: http://www.unityinchrist.com/prophecies/2ndcoming_4.htm], with the Euro-dollar, all of these things we’re where he said we would be, and all of that is in relationship to life and death. And in the next world, where it is eternal life and eternal death. 2002, never thought we’d get here, did you? 2002, never thought I’d be 50 years old. That’s worse. [laughter] I don’t believe it now, I’m in denial. The great thing is, by the time you finally accept it, you can’t remember anymore how old you are. Your hearing starts to go, you don’t hear people saying ‘Poor guy.’ Life and death, it drove Paul, not just in regards to himself, but in regards to the church, in regards to those that he loved, that he laid his life down for. And he knew that the simplicity, the power, the center, was Christ and him crucified. It had transformed his life as an observant, zealous Jew who persecuted the Church because he hated the grace that he heard about, because it was an antithesis to the Law. And Christ appearing to him on his way to Damascus, transforming his life, changing him forever. And then saying ‘Paul, don’t be afraid, I’m going to send you to the Gentiles, to kings, the ships aren’t going to be all that good…’ You know, Jesus appeared to him in Jerusalem in his cell and said, ‘Paul don’t worry, I’m sending you to Rome.’ I’m thinking El-Al, he’s flying me to Rome. ‘No, this is not another one of these, Lord.’ no, just the Eurocliden, when you hear that coming you’re in trouble. So you know, this is a guy, just what will it be like to meet him? What will it be like? I mean, we have tidbits. You’ll be able to see him and say ‘Paul, you know that place where you bragged in 2^nd Corinthians?’ ‘Oh don’t remind me, I can’t believe I did that, those guys got me in the flesh.’ ‘You know, give me some more details. Tell me about that.’ I’m going to talk to him. ‘Weren’t you scared to death floating in the ocean?’ ‘Of course I was scared to death.’ Don’t be beguiled from the simplicity that’s in Christ, don’t abuse it, there’s another side to that coin. God’s given us tremendous liberty, he hasn’t given us license to live in the flesh. That’s immaturity. That’s carnality. But it’s grace that accompanies us through our entire walk, teaching us, feeding us, keeping us. [For more about living in a sinful lifestyle, see http://www.unityinchrist.com/whatisgrace/whatisgraceintro.htm] “As you have received Christ Jesus, so walk ye in him” he says in Colossians 2 verse 6. Just as simple as you receive Jesus, hey, you were in love with him the first day you got saved, you were on fire, your mind was blown because he forgave you and you were cleansed, your first love. ‘As you have received him, so walk ye in him.’ And don’t let anybody beguile you from the simplicity that is there in Christ, you have all things through Christ Jesus, and don’t need anything any man can demand of you. [Comment: When people go through horrible experiences, similar, and sometimes worse than what the apostle Paul went through, without Christ in their lives, it can wreck them. I was struck by the similarity of Paul’s trials in the life of Louie Zamperini, yet worse for the constant duration of them, who was a WWII bomber flier whose B-24 bomber crashed in the Pacific Ocean, leaving him and his pilot in a life raft, where they drifted for 2,000 miles, right into Japanese territory, where they were captured. He and the pilot spent just over two years in various notorious Japanese POW camps. Louie Zamperini after being released from the final Japanese POW camp he was interned in, was a wreck. “The Bird”, the camp commandant pursued him in nightmarish dreams almost every night, until he became alcoholic to escape the nightly nightmares, which turned into flashbacks that could occur anytime, day or night. Most Pacific POWs, as they called them back then, had a very low long-term survival rate, very high mortality rate within the first five years of their release in August-September 1945. Louie’s chances of survival on the road he was on were very slim, until he met Billy Graham, received God’s Holy Spirit, and his whole life turned around. The nightmares left, the flashbacks left, the alcohol left, no need for it. He went back to Japan and sought reconciliation with the surviving Japanese POW camp guards who were in Sugamo Prison. What Paul went through, even though Paul had periods of respite and recovery inbetween his trials, was similar to what Louie Zamperini went through. The difference, the Holy Spirit of God, giving a person a direct relationship with God, changes everything. The Holy Spirit of God enabled Paul to keep on going through such things, like a spiritual Eveready Bunny, and the same Spirit of Christ gave Louie back his life, better than he had ever had it before. For the book, go to http://www.amazon.com and order: “UNBROKEN, A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption” ]