Guardians of the Gospel: Paul's Call to Humility

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to

this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now, come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

Well, Anyway, we're in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11.

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

If you have your Bibles, you can turn there with me.

Second Corinthians, chapter 11.

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

We're going to continue our series looking here at Second Corinthians

and seeing how Paul is dealing with the church here.

And.

And I need to give you some context to what's going on.

Again, if you were here last week, Paul is defending his ministry

against people who are questioning him, they're challenging

him.

And, and really what's happened as.

As we have noticed that these false teachers have seeped into the

church of Corinth, and they begin to teach a different Jesus.

They begin to teach about a different spirit.

They teach a different gospel.

And so what Paul is doing is, yes, he is defending his own ministry,

but in a greater way.

He's defending the message of the truth.

He's defending the Lord.

And so he has to go through this with them, to explain to them

that, hey, your eyes are on the wrong thing.

You have turned your affections away from the truth, and

you've turned your affections to the things of this world.

You have attached yourselves to some false teachers.

And by attaching yourself to these false teachers, you have attached

yourself to a way that is not the way of the Gospel, not the way

of Scripture.

And so the title of the sermon this morning is Humble Honesty in

the Face of Hypocritical Hoaxers.

I know that's a long title, but there's a lot of H's in there

for you to remember.

Humble honesty.

Paul's humble honesty in the face of hypocritical hoaxers.

There's these individuals that have moved into the church, and they

are presenting a hoax.

They are presenting a false way of doing things.

And so they're hypocrites in that.

And so Paul is calling them out in honesty.

Now, he does it in a humble fashion, which we're going to talk

about here today.

But what we need to do as believers is understand that there

is a time and a place to proclaim the truth, but to do it

in humility, to do it in love.

And so Paul is going to toe that line of I'm going to challenge

you with the truth, but I'm going to do it the best I can in,

in honesty and humility.

And so 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 5.

2 Corinthians 11:5

He says this for I suppose I was not a wit behind the very chiefest

apostles.

Now you would say, what is he talking about here?

Well, we're gonna see a lot of that in this passage.

You're gonna say, what is Paul trying to get across here?

Well, essentially what he's saying is this.

He's like, I, I don't consider myself less than these people that

you're calling the chiefest apostles.

Now who are these chiefest apostles?

We need to know what he's talking about here.

Some people would argue that he's talking about people like Peter

and John and, and the great apostles there in Jerusalem.

That could be one.

Take that, you could take on this.

Or you could say that he's referring to these people that are

the false teachers in the church at Corinth.

And everyone's referring to them as these chief apostles.

These, these super apostles.

That's the, the original Greek here actually means this, these ultra

super apostles.

And so we almost get a sense that Paul is using a little bit element

of sarcasm here.

He says, you know what?

I'm not less than these super apostles that you're following here.

And, and I believe by way of context that that's probably what

he's talking about here.

The, the people in Corinth are like, hey, Paul, these guys are better.

These guys are the super apostles.

We like what they're preaching, we like what they're teaching.

He goes, hey, I'm not less than them.

Um, I, I, I have the same calling in my life.

And so he compares himself to these people that are referred to

as these chiefest apostles.

And so apparently these Corinthian Christians were preferring

their message over Paul's.

And so in the original language, Paul goes, hey, you know

what?

I'm just as important, I'm just as called as these super apostles

that you are referring to.

Now the reason why he does this is because he wants to make

a case.

He wants to make a case that what they are preaching is actually

false teaching.

He, he wants to make a case that, hey, you know what?

I have a call in my life that is an important call, and that is

to proclaim the truth.

And I think for all of us to, to, to take it to application this

morning.

All of us have a call in our life to proclaim the message of the

Gospel.

Now, we aren't Apostles.

But all of us are called to be ministers of the Gospel.

All of us are called to be messengers of the Gospel.

And so what Paul is going to do here is he.

He's not gonna say that these people necessarily are, you know,

at first.

He's not going to say that they're evil.

He's going to make a case to prove that what they're teaching

is evil, and therefore that they are evil and that they are sent

from somewhere else, not from the Lord.

But he does this in a fashion to basically explain himself before

he immediately starts accusing them of these things.

And so verse five, he says, for I suppose I was not a wit behind

the very chief apostles, meaning I'm not behind them, I'm

not under them.

Verse 6.

But though I be rude in speech, now we have to stop there.

Say, what is he talking about?

Why is he being rude?

That word rude just means basic, common.

Doesn't mean that he's being rude to how he speaks to them.

He's not being mean, he's not being abrasive.

That word rude in the original language just means that he is coming

to them not with fancy speech.

He's not coming to them in articulate fashion.

He's coming to them just in everyday speech.

And what's happened is, is that on the other side of things,

these individuals that are coming into Corinth, they're using

fancy speech.

They're using very high methods of what we would even call

manipulation to get people to begin to believe in what they're

preaching.

So Paul says, I'm not coming to you with great speech.

I'm coming to you with just basic language explaining to you

the truth.

He says, so though I'm not speaking like them in their style.

What does he say next?

He says, yet not in knowledge, meaning he's not basic in knowledge.

He has a true knowledge of who God is.

He has a true knowledge of the truth.

He has a true knowledge of the love of Christ.

He has a true knowledge of the gospel.

So he says, what's lacking, what's lacking in comparison to these

preachers are that are false.

And the preaching of Paul is that, hey, I have a knowledge of

who God is.

They don't have a knowledge of who God is.

They might be impressive in speech, but they don't have a relationship

with God.

They're not proclaiming to you the truth of God.

They're proclaiming to you the truth of their own opinions.

And so what can we learn from this?

Well, Paul is basically saying this.

The distinction Between a true teacher, a true messenger of the

Gospel, and a messenger of evil, a messenger of hypocrisy, a

messenger of false teaching is this.

The knowledge is not based in the knowledge of this world.

The knowledge is not based in the knowledge of the individual that's

standing in front of them.

The knowledge is based in the truth of God.

And the.

And.

And so the check and balance is just this.

It's the truth of God.

And so anytime that we are hearing someone teach, anytime that

we're teaching, anytime we're listening to a podcast or a video

or a radio show or any sermon, what we have to do is we have to

match it up to the knowledge of God, the knowledge of his Word.

It doesn't matter how well someone's speaking.

I mean, there are some very, very accomplished public speakers

that have no understanding of the knowledge of God.

No, no, I'm not saying that.

Every single speaker that has articulate speech, every single speaker

that has a wonderful way of bringing forth the truth is evil.

But that's not the test.

The test is not in how well someone speaks.

The test is in not how someone presents themselves in the outward.

Look, we're going to see that here in a few moments.

The true test, as he says here, is a knowledge of God.

And I would tell you that there.

There could be someone that gets up here and sings a song.

Maybe, let's say, Amazing Grace.

And they sing it perfectly.

They sing it in tune.

They sing it to the understanding of, wow, that person

is technically right in everything that they're singing.

But the true test on whether or not they understand that Amazing

Grace is if they have the knowledge of who God is and what

he has done for them.

You can get up here all day and read passages of scripture.

I could.

I could print out a sermon online.

I could print out one of the greatest sermons ever and read it

to you in a way that is captivating.

But the truth is, is that if I twist any of those words to the place

where it's contrary to the knowledge of God, contrary to the

word of God, folks, that's misleading.

That's false.

And so that's what Paul is warning them about.

And so the warning for Corinth is this.

Be careful in who you are listening to.

Don't look at the way it's presented.

Look at the content that is being presented.

And so I would say the same thing to you here today, as a church,

as an individual, as a believer in Jesus Christ.

Really be on the lookout for the message, the content.

Go Deeper.

Go deeper.

I don't know if you've.

You've heard someone get up and they've talked for like 20 minutes,

and then at the end you're like, what have they even talked

about?

They've just basically rambled on and you're like, I don't.

I don't understand what they're saying.

If you cannot take someone's message and boil it down to one theological

truth, you've wasted your time.

If a speaker gets up and talks about himself the whole 30 minutes

to an hour, and you say, well, what did he talk about with God?

What's happened is, is that he has now presented his own knowledge.

And, and it's not the knowledge of God.

So that's what Paul is talking about here.

In verse six, he says, though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge,

but we have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things.

Meaning this.

Paul says, we've proven ourselves to you.

We've demonstrated the truth of God.

So we talk the talk, but we also walk the walk.

And so one test in a false teacher is this.

Are they proclaiming the knowledge of God?

But the second test would be this.

Do their actions match their teaching?

Do.

Do they say, trust in God, but yet trust in the world?

Do they say, believe in the goodness of God, but then believe

in the goodness of themselves?

So what Paul is saying is this.

At the end of verse six, we have thoroughly made manifest among

you in all things.

Meaning.

We've demonstrated to you, we've been transparent.

We.

We've allowed you to see the deepest parts of us when we come

to you.

And so Paul couldn't, or, or even in this case, he wouldn't give

the Corinthian Christians the.

The polished preaching that they wanted.

They wanted to be entertained.

We as human beings have a desire, we really do, to be entertained.

And that's okay.

The problem is, is that sometimes we place the realm of entertainment

to a place where we should be learning and growing.

And to be entertained might mean that we are not learning and

growing.

And so what happens sometimes within the church, what happens sometimes

within our own Christian lives is that we seek entertainment more

than we seek the truth of God.

And so that entertainment causes me to be excited, that entertainment

gets me to a place of feeling good about myself.

Sometimes the preaching of the word of God doesn't bring me to a

place that I'm going to feel really good about myself.

Actually, on the other side of things, sometimes the preaching of

God brings me to a place of conviction and brokenness and humility.

And that's what Paul is going to talk about here in a few moments.

He says there's a time and a place to be humble.

The.

The gospel message will always humble us.

Scripture will always humble us.

Understanding who God is in his power will always humble us.

Understanding what God has done for us in the Gospel, as Brother

Michael sang this morning about coming to this earth, living

a perfect life, dying on the cross, that will always humble us

if we see it from the proper perspective.

And so what he says here is, hey, you've seen it in our lives,

demonstrated to you.

And so God has made himself clear in the preaching of Paul.

God has made himself clear in his word.

And so here, in this case, Paul has allowed himself to be inspected.

He wasn't a polished speaker.

We looked at that back in First Corinthians, chapter three.

He says, I come to you in trembling.

I come to you in pain.

I come to you with fear.

So.

So Paul is not known.

Even though I used to think this, the way that Paul was described

to me as growing up in my Sunday school classes was that Paul

was this guy who would get up and have this thunderous voice and

be.

Be an attractive guy.

And everyone would say, well, that guy is the preacher.

That guy is the teacher.

And so therefore, everyone would respect Paul because of his

power.

But if you really study Paul, if you really look into his life,

if you look into Scripture, Paul was not an individual that people

would look at and go, wow, he's powerful.

So where did he get his power from?

Power was from the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The power comes in the message, not in the person.

And so we don't worship Paul.

We don't worship anybody.

We don't worship any person that gets up here.

And the truth is, is that Paul in First Corinthians, chapter 3,

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

mentions that.

He says, you know, some say that you're a Paul, and some are

of Apollos.

You know, some say you're from Peter, some say you're from John.

Whatever it is, he says, it's not that you are a follower of that

person.

You're ultimately a follower of Christ.

Why?

It's because of the power of God working through the message.

And so he says in verse six, we've made ourselves manifest unto

you.

He was honest and transparent.

So that's another element of a true teacher of the gospel.

So.

So if you go back, what was it?

It was this idea that it's based in the knowledge of God.

Okay, Based in the knowledge of God.

It was walking the walk, demonstrating action connected to

the teaching.

And then we see here, it's transparency.

Transparency.

It is important for a messenger of the truth to be transparent.

If I get up here and tell you that my life is perfect, that I don't

struggle with anything anymore, that you guys need to get

on my level, because when you're a super saint, you will get

there one day, I would not be transparent.

Because, folks, I struggle too.

I, I, I have big issues in my life.

And someone says, no, no, no, no, Pastor, we don't want to hear

about your issues.

We want to think that your life is perfect.

My life is not perfect.

I'm just going to be honest with you.

Wednesday afternoon, seeing my son come out of surgery and not being

able to tell him why.

We left him seven hours ago, and he woke up and he wasn't around

us.

I was in pain.

I was, I was weeping.

I couldn't do anything.

I felt so helpless.

I wanted to just take that pain away from my son.

I want to just take it out of his body and put it into my body,

but I couldn't do it.

And that point in my life, I was struggling in the concept of

Lord.

Why?

Why?

Why?

But the truth is, is that in that very moment, I realized, you

know what, Lord?

You are teaching me a lesson.

Who knows what you're going to do in Silas's life?

Who knows what you're going to do in his brother and sister's life?

Who knows what you're going to do in these nurses life?

And so the point is, is seeing it from a bigger picture.

And so, transparently speaking, folks, I struggle as a

pastor, and if I struggle, the implication would be that all of

us struggle.

And so there's transparency in the gospel message.

Paul says, you've seen us be true with you.

We're not trying to create an environment here and then present

to you this perfect scenario.

That's what the Corinthian false teachers were doing.

They were trying to tell the church at Corinth, hey, you can do

this, and this.

And they're creating a facade.

The moment that we create a facade in the church is the moment

that we are allowing ourselves to become false teachers.

And so in this case, Paul says, be transparent.

Okay, so we're going to move on a little bit further here.

Verse number seven.

He says, have I committed an offense?

Have I committed a sin?

He's asking them a question here.

He's making them think, now, aren't.

Aren't you so thankful that people can teach through asking questions.

Jesus did a lot of that, right?

He would ask a question and make you think.

Instead of just telling you what to think, he asked questions.

So Paul is asking them a rhetorical question.

He's like, did I sin when I did what?

Well, it says in verse seven, in abasing myself.

Now, we don't use that word abasing very often, but it means

humbling myself, lowering myself, putting myself in a state

of humility so that what would happen here that ye might be exalted

talking about the church in Corinth?

And so a true test of someone who is presenting the gospel, presenting

the message, would be that they are willing to be humbled so

that other people are lifted up.

They are willing to take a back seat when the people of the

church need to take the front seat.

You know, I would say it this way.

Paul says, I was willing to humble myself.

I was willing to go through difficulties.

I was willing to go without.

For you, that's a true test of someone who is preaching and teaching

the gospel with the right motives.

I'm going to tell you, if there's an individual that's not

willing to be put out for the cause of the gospel, they're a false

teacher.

That's gonna.

That's gonna take me out of my comfort zone.

That.

That's gonna put me to a place where I feel uncomfortable that I'm

not first place.

If someone has a desire to put themselves in first place, they're

not a humble presenter of the gospel.

Jesus is always the focus.

The gospel is always the focus.

And so what Paul is saying here is he's.

He's implying.

He's explaining that those other false teachers in Corinth were

about themselves.

They were not willing to humble themselves so that the people

of Corinth would be lifted up.

That word exalted could be, you know, used as edified.

So.

So my goal as a pastor should be to do what I need to do to lift

you up as the church.

But on the same level, it should be that the church members

are called to lift each other up, to lift your pastor up.

And you do that.

Thank goodness for that.

Last week, my heart was touched that the church should be

willing to pray for us and take time throughout their week to

pray for us.

Folks, everybody needs that edification.

Everyone needs exhortation.

Nobody is beyond that.

I don't care if you've been saved for 50 years or 50 minutes.

We all need to be lifted up in the power of God.

And so Paul says this is that we all as ministers of the gospel.

And by the way, if you're a Christian, you're a minister of the

gospel, you might be ministering a different way, but

you're a minister of the gospel.

It is our job to humble ourselves so that other people are

lifted up.

Now, you would say, where is that found in Scripture?

Because I.

I've always been taught God helps those who help themselves.

I've always been taught that it's all about me and I got to get

what I get because other people are going to get in my way.

Well, I'm going to tell you this.

There are going to be people that get in your way in life.

Okay?

That's.

That's part of it.

But the Bible speaks a lot about humility.

And I want to take you to a few passages of scripture that specifically

deal with this humility.

And Jesus spoke of this very same principle.

If you have your Bibles and you want to follow along with me,

you can go to Matthew, chapter 23.

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

Matthew, chapter 23, verse 12.

Matthew 23:12

Lest you think that this is just a doctrine that Paul is teaching

about humbling yourself so that other people are exalted, I

want you to see that Jesus taught this very same message.

This very same message.

And if this is the heart of Christ, if this is the heart of our

Savior, this should be the heart of his people.

So.

So if you look at Matthew, chapter 23, verse 12, you have a

Matthew 23:12

red letter Bible.

This is red.

This is Jesus speaking.

And we could read this whole passage of Scripture, but for the

sake of time, we're only going to read a little bit here.

But Paul is.

Excuse me.

Jesus here is explaining the same thing Paul was teaching.

But he that is verse 11.

But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.

And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased.

And he shall.

He that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

It's the principle of scripture that, hey, you know what?

If I want to be exalted, I humble myself.

If I want to be humbled, I exalt myself.

If I.

The world has a way of humbling us.

God has a way of humbling us when we exalt ourselves.

But the moment we humble ourselves, that is when God lifts

us up.

And that's the kind of lifting up we need.

You know what?

A lot of times in our life we think that, hey, no one else is going

to lift me up, so I got to lift myself up.

That's the worst scenario.

Because the more that I talk about myself, the more that I try

to promote myself.

The more I try to tear other people down while I'm being lifted

up, the more God is going to humble us, the more God is going

to bring into our minds and in our hearts ways that we can see the

truth of his word.

And therefore we're tested in our pride.

There's other passages of scripture that speak to humility

and you could go through all of them at some other time, but I

do want you to see a few others.

James, chapter 4, verse 6.

James 4:6

But he giveth more grace.

And by the way, I've said this many times, we need to desire God's

grace, folks.

I, I need God's grace.

I'm hungry for God's grace.

I don't know, I don't know.

The time in your life where you've been the most hungry, right?

Maybe you've fasted and you've gone through a period of time where

you haven't eaten.

And like you are so hungry.

And that food tastes different when you get it.

And you're willing to eat a lot at that point, right?

Sometimes you gotta be careful if you've been fasting for a long

time.

That is what the Bible says that we should be about grace.

We should be so hungry for God's grace, we should desire it.

And it says here, it says in verse 6 of James 4, but he giveth

more grace wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth

grace unto the humble.

The Bible says that it is humility that brings us to a place

of understanding.

His grace, pride gets to a place where God resists that.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you

up.

James, chapter four, verse six, First Peter, chapter five, verse

five.

Likewise ye younger, submit yourselves under the elder, yea,

all of you, be subject one to another and be clothed with humility.

That phrase clothed with humility means taking the form of

a servant, literally putting your garments in a servant's attire.

What would happen is, is they would have, they didn't wear pants

like we wear today.

Men, Peter would have been wearing kind of like a robe.

And the longer the robe, the more important you were, the shorter

the robe, the more servant minded you were.

And so what he's talking about here is this.

Take your robe and put it into the form of a servant, roll it up,

tuck it into your belt and be a servant.

Be clothed with humility.

And you know, when Peter wrote down First Peter, chapter five, verse

five, I can't help but think that he was thinking about when Jesus

In John chapter 13 showed them what it meant to be a servant.

John 13 · chapter mention

What did Jesus do?

He clothed himself in humility and wash the disciples feet.

Paul says that the mark of a messenger of the Gospel in honesty

is a mark of humility.

Humble yourselves therefore into the mighty hand of God that

he may exalt you due time.

It's the exaltation of the Lord, not the exaltation of ourselves.

So we're back in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11.

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

If you go back with me.

Paul says in verse number seven, question, have I committed

a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted man, I don't

know about you, but if I was sitting in the church at Corinth

at the time, I'd feel some conviction in my heart.

Paul says, you're calling me a sinner.

You're calling me a false prophet.

Did, did, did I sin against you when I humbled myself and lifted

you up?

And they're most likely probably like, wow.

Oh that's, that's a tough one.

That's a tough one.

Paul's just speaking the truth.

He's not bragging about himself.

Paul's just bringing to light the truth.

He says I have to deal with.

Remember what he said back last week in the first verse he says,

I have to deal with this foolishness.

I have to go back and explain to you the truth of God.

So he says, did I sin?

And then he goes on even further.

In verse number seven he says, because I have preached to you the

gospel of God freely.

Now we don't know all the details of what those false teachers

were doing, but we can basically understand what they were

doing by seeing what Paul says he did.

So Paul says, I came to you presenting the gospel freely, meaning

most likely that these false teachers were coming, trying to present

a gospel that was linked to finances.

Exalt us, pay for us, take care of us.

It's all about the almighty dollar.

And so Paul says, did I sin when I humbled myself and lifted

you up?

Did I sin when I presented the gospel to you freely?

Well we know the answer to that.

The answer is no, he didn't sin.

But he's trying to put it in their minds in a way that they can

understand that these people are the false teachers because they're

all about the almighty dollar.

They were all about sucking the Corinthian church dry with their

resources.

So, so a false teacher looks at an individual as a resource instead

of a soul that needs to be saved, instead of a opportunity to

Lift them up.

So how would that look like?

That would look like this.

Okay?

You come into a scenario and someone sees you and they go, ooh,

you do that.

You have that talent.

Well, we want you in our church a lot more than maybe someone

who doesn't bring that talent to the table.

You see?

You see how an individual can preach a way of the Gospel that brings

people in, that can help them.

Now, does that mean that we don't use the resources given to

us within the church?

No, but it goes back to the motivation.

If my motivation as a preacher and as a pastor is just to bring

people in, that can help me, I've got the wrong mindset.

The mindset should be, how can we as a church.

How can me as a minister of the Gospel, minister to somebody

and help them serve God in the midst of that, in the midst of their

life, in the midst of their struggles, in the midst of their

blessings?

And so what I would say here is that Paul is calling out these

individuals.

Motivation, these false teachers.

Motivation.

So you've heard it, okay?

You've heard it on maybe the Internet or back in the day on tv,

they would say, if you just send in this much money, we'll give

you an extra blessing.

Okay, well, here's the thing.

I don't have the ability to extra bless you, okay?

Now, if you said, pastor, we want to give you some money in the

parking lot, I might not fight you on that.

But here's what I'm going to say.

I'm not going to bless you anymore.

I don't have the ability.

I don't have the power.

The only one that can bless you is God.

Right?

And so therefore, all my job is to do is to bring you to him as

a pastor.

And so if an individual was giving you, like, hey, there's this,

and then there's another level.

If you just unlock this next level and this next level, you can

become closer to God if you just get to this next level of your

position by just giving this much money per month.

Now, let me stop here, okay?

Let me just get transparent this morning.

I get a.

I get a wage here at Middletown Baptist Church.

I get paid to live, okay?

But the truth is, is that the Bible never teaches against giving

ministers money.

It doesn't, okay?

It actually says the opposite.

It says that we should support those that are bringing forth the

gospel message.

But if the motivation is, we need to go farther, and that's the

whole point that you're here.

I had a pastor say it this way.

I think I might even mentioned it last week.

Some, some churches are all about nickels, the money and noses,

people in the seas.

If that's our motivation, we're missing the point of the gospel.

And so what Paul says is, I came to you freely.

And then this is really interesting, in verse eight, he says,

I robbed other churches.

Now some of you are like, well, Paul just disqualified himself

from ministry here.

He robbed from another church to give to the Corinth.

Well, not so much in that way.

That word robbed means basically, literally means this in

the battlefield, what would happen?

You guys know of the old days in the battlefield when someone would,

would get killed, right?

They would have their armor and they would have their goods.

This literally means I took from this person and gave to you.

Okay, so it's not robbing in an illegal way.

He's talking about taking something from somebody else and

giving it to them.

This was a biblical thing.

And actually Paul praises the Macedonian church for giving to the

Corinthian church.

So, so he's not saying that he underhanded, stole from one church

and gave to another church.

He's just talking about a church gave up their resources for

another church.

Right?

So we do that as a church.

We, we give to other churches, we give to other ministries, we give

to other missionaries.

So we take what we have.

We can put all that money in our church.

But we know that it's the, really, I believe the plan of God

for us to support other churches.

So therefore, Paul says, other churches have supported you.

You didn't even have to support me.

He says, I robbed other churches, taking wages of them to

do you service.

So what is Paul trying to do here?

Paul is preaching honesty.

He's preaching honesty to humble them.

Honesty humbles.

And so what does he say here?

He says this.

He says, we took money from other churches.

We know in the context of this passage, it was the Macedonian church.

He says, I robbed other churches, taking wages of them to

do you service so that there wouldn't be a burden upon them.

He, he was considerate of the Corinthian church, even though the

Corinthian church had a lot of resources.

He was like, I was being considerate of you so that you could

be able to do the things that you needed to do.

Verse number nine.

And when I was present with you and wanted, I was chargeable

to no man, meaning I didn't want to burden you.

A, a, a pastor or a minister of the truth does not want to burden

others for the cause of the Gospel.

He says, I didn't want to be chargeable unto you for that which

was lacking to me, Paul says, the things that I was missing out

on, the brethren which came from Macedonia, supplied, he says,

other people supplied my need.

You didn't have to supply my need.

God supplied it through the Macedonian church.

And in all these, in all things, I've kept myself from being

burdensome unto you.

And so will I keep myself, meaning I will continue this way.

And so a mark of a pastor, a mark of a minister, a mark of anybody

who's proclaiming the truth of God would be that the desire is not

to burden other people in the work of the ministry.

So we know then in the case of Paul, Paul was a tent maker.

And so he was bringing in money that way, but he was getting

money from other churches as well.

He had to support Silas, he had to support Timothy and the others

that were with him.

So what does this mean?

What does this look like in practice?

It means this.

If I become a burden to someone, I am not properly presenting

the gospel to them.

If, if I'm weighing them down with all the needs.

And then that's an issue.

And so what I would say for us as believers is how can we get to

a place in our life where we're presenting a message of the

gospel that's free?

A message of the gospel that's not burdensome.

A message of the gospel that allows for individuals to see the

truth of God and the truth of God alone.

If it's.

So, again, I got to take it to the context that I understand the

church.

So if I said, hey, we want a bunch of people to come to our church

in Middletown, but when you come to the door, we want to see

your W2s because we need to make sure that you have a financial

burden to the church.

And you know, you are a mouth to feed.

And so therefore, when you come in, you gotta support.

And when you come, you gotta be in a ministry.

Before we can really give you the gospel and support you in the

truth, you gotta get into a ministry.

Cause you gotta start producing, right?

Do you see how that becomes not a church, but a business?

It becomes not a ministry, but a.

A work of man.

And so you say, well, Pastor, are you preaching that we don't have

to give?

That's between you and the Lord.

But, but again, we do believe that the Bible says that there are

commands to give.

We do see, say that the Bible does teach that there is a need for

service within the church.

But if that's what I'm holding Over your head in the gospel, like,

well, I'll give you the truth of God only when you do this.

That's not presenting it freely.

I'm putting a burden upon you so that you can come to the gospel.

And that burden, folks, the burden should come through the conviction

of the Spirit.

The burden should come from the word of God.

I can sit here and make rules all day, but the Bible says it's

only truly the heart change that changes your life to be that

transformed individual.

And so Paul says, I didn't want to be a burden.

We don't want to be.

We don't want to be.

Okay, so let's take it to the, the idea of, of Middletown Baptist

Church reaching our community for Christ.

Do we want to be a burden to our community or do we want to be

a blessing to our community?

I want to be a blessing to our community.

And, and so therefore we want to do everything that we possibly

can to not be a burden to those that we're trying to reach

for the gospel.

Oh, it's that church over there that just gets mad all the

time about everything that we do.

No, we want to be a church that's not a burden.

We want to preach the gospel freely.

We want to preach the gospel in a way that opens the door for

change, opens the door for hope, opens the door for transformation

in individuals lives.

Does God require things of us?

Yes.

Does God, Does God challenge us with change?

Yes.

Should I live my life differently than the world?

Yes.

But that change comes after the gospel is presented.

I can't expect someone to change not understanding the goodness

of the gospel.

And that's what Paul is talking about here.

If you go back and, and you can see what he says there in verse

number seven, he says, I preach to you the gospel of God freely.

Freely.

And so there's no strings attached.

Let, let me put it that way.

To be a true messenger of the gospel is being a messenger that

doesn't put strings attached to the gospel.

And so I think that that's important for us to see.

All right, moving forward, we're going to go down a little bit

quicker here in verse number 10.

As the truth of Christ is in me, so again, he's attached to the

truth of Christ.

He's attached to the knowledge of God.

No man shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.

You say, what is he saying here?

He says, no one's going to stop me from boasting in Christ,

boasting in his provisions.

That word boasting is an interesting word there.

Now, you have maybe been taught, don't boast.

I'm going to challenge you on that.

The Bible says, don't boast in yourself.

But you can boast.

You said what?

I can boast.

The Bible says to boast in Christ.

He's the only one that we can boast in, right?

So, you know, we.

We're going to have softball coming up here in the summer.

Some of you fellas are on the softball team.

Some of you might come out and watch our softball team.

If someone hits a home run, right?

The temptation is what?

To boast.

Look at me.

Look what I did.

Sometimes temptation for us to boast in our own life.

Look.

Look at the raise I got at work.

Look, look.

Look at all the things that I've brought to my own life, folks.

That's boasting in myself.

Now, why is it wrong to boast in myself?

Because I'm a flawed individual.

I'm.

I'm characterized by my failure.

And, and then two, we're stealing the credit that should be

given to the Lord.

Every good gift comes from God.

And so therefore, what happens is, is that when we boast in ourselves,

we're sinning.

When we boast in Christ, we're glorifying him.

So Paul says, there's not anybody, there's nobody that can

stop me from boasting in him and what he is doing.

I would say that should be our testimony as well.

Don't let anybody stop you from boasting in Christ.

Sometimes people like, like you go, well, thank the Lord.

He did that for me.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's a kind of like a Christian cliche.

We just.

Yeah, the Lord did this, folks.

Proclaim the Lord more everything.

Hey, the Lord brought me today safely to church.

Hey, the Lord gave me this, the Lord gave me that.

The Lord provided here.

The Lord did that.

Paul says, no one's going to stop me.

And by implication, we can see that it's those people, those false

teachers that are trying to stop Paul from proclaiming the truth

of Christ.

He says, no one can stop me from preaching this everywhere.

And then verse number 11, he asks another question.

We're getting there, okay?

He says, wherefore?

Because I love you.

Not meaning this.

Why do you think I'm doing everything that I'm doing in this

ministry?

Because I don't love you.

He says, you think I'm doing this because I hate you?

It's a, It's.

It's a rhetorical question.

He obviously has proven that he loves them by sacrifice place.

He says, God knoweth.

God knows that I love you.

I don't care what you think.

He says, you might think I don't love you.

You might think those false teachers love you.

They don't love you by telling you lies.

I love you by telling you to the truth.

And he says, the reason why I boast in Christ, the reason why I'm

sacrificing, the reason why I'm transparent, the reason why I'm

humble is this.

Because I love you.

It's all based in love.

And so Paul loves the church of Corinth so much that he would

do these things that God has called him to do.

Verse 12.

But what I do, that will I do, that I might.

That I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion.

So you say, what.

What is he talking about here?

If.

If you read that out of context, you might be saying, Paul

is just talking gibberish here.

No, he's saying this.

I'm doing what I'm doing to cut off these people that are trying

to fight against the Gospel.

He says that I might cut off occasion from them, opportunity from

them which desire an opportunity to stop the Gospel.

He says, I'm doing this to fight against the people who are

teaching the wrong things that wherein they glory, they may be found

even as we are.

Meaning, if they're gonna glory, they should only glory in

the things that we're glorying in.

If they glory in their own stuff, they're glorying in the wrong

things.

Now, this is where Paul doesn't pull any punches.

He comes at him here, and this is a time there.

There's a time in our Christian life that we need to get

strong with the truth.

Remember honest humility.

Honest means sometimes that we have to tell the truth.

So, like, for example, like, if.

If someone came in to me and they were talking to me, and maybe

they had.

Okay, this is kind of humorous.

Okay, so just follow me here.

Let's say they had a piece of food just hanging off of their face,

right?

And, you know, I'm like, okay, kind of feeling awkward.

But if I love them, okay, if I love someone, I'm gonna tell them

that it's on their face so they don't embarrass themselves.

Okay?

There might be a little bit uncomfortable nature to tell them

that they have something there, but at that point, I'm protecting

them from the things that could happen.

And that's basically in a spiritual sense what Paul is saying.

There's gonna be some awkwardness when I tell you the truth,

there's gonna be some discomfort when I tell you what's

going on.

But I'm doing this to protect you.

I'm doing this to serve you.

I'm doing this to love you.

And so here it is.

He says, for such are false apostles.

He gets there.

He didn't start with calling them false apostles.

He, he started with them, you know, saying basically they're self

proclaimed, you know, chiefest apostles.

But now he gets to the real thing.

He says, these are false apostles, these are false teachers.

Now we're going to see where these false teachers come from here

in a moment.

He says these are false teachers, deceitful workers.

Deceitful.

They're liars, they're hypocritical.

Going on a little bit further, he says, transforming themselves

into the apostles of Christ, meaning they're apostles of someone

else, but they're.

That word transforming is not the transform when we're talking

about the Christian life.

A spiritual transformation.

It's an outside transformation.

So what is he saying here?

He's saying they're disguising themselves as teachers of Christ.

Apostles of Christ.

So wolves in sheep's clothing, that's what he's basically saying.

He's not saying that they, they have been saved and they're

transformed from the inside out.

He says these people are trying to deceive you, therefore

they're changing from the outside, trying to make you think

that they're from Christ.

So who are they if they're not apostles of Christ, if they're not

messengers of Christ, who are they messengers of?

This is where he gets strong here, verse 14.

And no marvel meaning don't be surprised, for Satan himself is transformed

into an angel of light.

He says that these false teachers are from the enemy, whether

they know it or not.

Just as Satan transforms himself, disguises himself as an

angel of light, so false teachers will disguise themselves

as apostles of Christ.

They don't wear the message around their neck saying false teacher

warning.

They come as messengers of light, but fake light, not real light.

And what we can see here is this.

If they are not a messenger of Christ, they're a messenger of Satan.

And what Satan does is he transforms himself to a place of

being attractive.

Now when you think of Satan, you think of Satan, how he's portrayed

in Hollywood, maybe like cloven hooves and big long tail and

a pitchfork and he's red or whatever.

That's not what the Bible teaches that Satan is like.

That's how tradition and paganism has taught different gods

and merged it into to Satan.

We don't have time to go into that.

But Satan is an angel of light.

Satan is an angel created for the purpose of glorifying God.

And we don't need to go into all the history of this, but biblically

speaking, Satan was created to glorify God.

He turned in pride and in sin and therefore became evil in his

desire and his motivation, but still has many of the opportunities

to present himself in an attractive way.

So let me say it this way.

A minister of Satan, an apostle of Satan, is going to be

very attractive and their message is going to be very desirable.

Get what you want, be attractive, be rich, be powerful,

right?

It's always going to appeal to our flesh.

So, so easy test.

Is this message a message from God or a message from Satan?

Does it appeal to our flesh or does it appeal to our spirit?

If the message is all about you and getting better you and becoming

more successful and becoming more attractive and becoming more

powerful, it's a message of the flesh that's appealing to our

flesh.

If it's a message of dying to yourself, serving Jesus, more exalting

others, humbling yourself, as Paul says, that's the message of

the spirit.

Folks, if I get up here and I begin to do a self help series on

how to become a better you and your own wisdom and your own strength,

that's not me, okay?

Someone's taken over my body.

That is not me.

Folks.

We are in love.

We are despicable human beings that fall short of the glory of God.

But because of what God has done in our life and because of his

presence in our life, we now, as Brother Michael was singing today,

there was value in us because of the image of God.

We, there's value in our lives because of the transformation.

And so therefore what Paul is preaching here is that these people

are following their master.

Satan comes and he tries to deceive folks.

Satan comes to us in different ways.

We, we saw last week that Satan came to Eve in the garden as

a subtle serpent.

He came in kind of like tricking, teasing, under the radar.

Satan comes, as we know in First Peter, Chapter 5, as a roaring

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

lion seeking whom he may devour.

So sometimes Satan comes just like that.

He comes openly and in a way that's bold, in a way that is in

many ways what we would say is evil from the outset.

But then we don't often think about this way, that Satan comes

to us as an angel of light, meaning as something that is good.

And again, we don't have time to go down this rabbit trail too

far.

But what I would say is this.

In your own life, inspect the message, not the appearance.

Okay, so, so let's say it doesn't always come this way, but

let's say something comes to your table.

There's a deal that comes to the table here and you've got it

in front of you.

And you say, okay, if I choose this path, this will bring me X,

Y, Z.

This will bring me as promised, good things.

This will bring me promised blessings, this will bring me promised

whatever, peace.

But then if I look at what the deal actually says, let me say it

this way, for, for ways that we can understand.

Read the fine print, read it all.

If this proposal from wherever is telling us to go contrary to the

word of God, folks, all those things that it promises is, it's

not really what's going to happen, that that contract's going

to be broken.

Sin always leads to destruction.

We might think it's worth it.

We might think that there's thrill in that.

And maybe even what Satan is bringing us will have a thrill, will

have excitement.

The Bible says sin is pleasurable for a season, but it

will eventually turn to destruction.

And what Paul is warning of here is this.

Don't be confused when something comes your way with great

promises.

And so what I would say is this.

The only promises that we want to trust in are the promises of God

that never fail.

Never fail.

So let's look at verse number 15.

Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers.

So, so lest you think that I'm kind of reading between the lines

saying that Satan doesn't, maybe Satan has ministers, maybe

he doesn't.

You see it right here, verse 15.

Therefore it is no great thing, no surprise if his ministers,

Satan's ministers also be transformed as they as ministers

of righteousness.

He says people will use the name of God, people will use Jesus,

people will use the Spirit, people will use the gospel and they

will twist it to become, as we see here, ministers of Satan, not

ministers of righteousness.

They will proclaim some level of righteousness.

But the righteousness that's proclaimed from a false teacher is

self righteousness.

And the righteousness that comes from the Lord is God's righteousness,

righteousness that comes from him and him alone.

So what's the outcome of these false teachers?

What's the outcome of those that follow these false teachers?

Well, it says here this whose end shall be according to their works.

Now that might not sound scary, but let me tell you this,

you and I do not want to Be judged by our works.

You.

You.

You understand that none of us want to be judged by our works.

You say, no, I'm a good person.

My good outweighs my bad.

That's not Bible.

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

For the wages of sin is death.

There is none righteous.

No, not one.

Our goodness, our righteousness is like filthy rags,

folks.

We do not, not, not.

I can't emphasize it enough.

We do not want to be judged by our works.

What do we want to be judged by?

We want to be judged by the work of our Savior.

We want to be judged with where our faith is placed.

And so what does he say here?

He says, the thing that they're missing is not the righteousness

of.

They're missing not their own righteousness.

They might have their own righteousness.

What are they missing?

They're missing the righteousness of God through faith.

And so therefore, they're not judged by their standing before God

in faith.

They're judged by their own works.

And so what I would say here this morning is this.

What do you want to be judged by?

I want to be judged by my justification in Jesus Christ.

My justification is this, that Jesus, because of his work on the

cross, offers the gift of salvation.

And when I trust in that gift of salvation and faith, I now have

what the Bible says is justification.

That means I am declared righteous before God.

Think of me sitting in a courtroom, and I'm sitting there,

and God is the righteous judge.

And.

And God is sitting up there, and he says, okay, let's see what

Josh has done in his life.

Well, he's done this, this, and this.

Are you guilty of those things?

Yes, I'm guilty of those things.

And then he says, okay, well, here's the sentence.

The sentence is for the wages of sin is death.

I have a death sentence on my life.

But then what happens is this.

Jesus, The Bible says, our advocate, the one who fights for

us, comes in and says, wait, wait, wait.

Look, my blood's on his account.

He's one of mine.

And therefore, what happens is this.

God no longer looks at us and says, well, you're guilty.

Or he doesn't look at us and go, well, you know, I'm gonna turn

my back away from that sin.

Just do what you want to do.

That would not be a good judge.

What does God do?

He looks at us, and he doesn't see us anymore.

He sees our righteousness in Christ.

He sees his Son, and that's what we rest in, everything that

we do.

In ministry, in service, in sacrifice, in love, goes back to

not being judged by our works, but being judged by who we are in

in Christ, his work.

Every other religion in the world says, work, work, work to get

salvation.

The Bible says this salvation comes through Jesus Christ.

It's not a work that you do.

And that is the difference between a false teacher and a true

messenger of the gospel.

Now you would say, pastor, were you just preaching to yourself

today?

Well, yeah, a lot of it was preaching to myself.

But remember, this isn't just talking about pastors.

This is talking about all people that are presenting the gospel

to the world.

So you can be a false messenger by the way that you present

yourself to the world.

The.

The Bible says here that there are.

What we see here is ministers of Satan.

You say, whoa, ministers of Satan.

Where is that at?

Just open your eyes, get on the Internet, look at the news.

There's ministers of Satan all around us.

All that means is servants of the message of the gospel, opposite

of the gospel, Satan's gospel, which means work your way to heaven.

Because Satan doesn't mind people being religious.

Satan actually wants people to be religious.

He wants people to be away from Christ, be as religious as you

want, as long as you don't come to Christ.

Why do you think there's so many false religions out there?

It's all about going another way.

Satan wants us to pick the other ways.

He only wants us to choose another path because there's only

one path that leads to salvation.

That is Jesus Christ.

And so what I would say is this.

Yes, the responsibility is on you to be a professor of the gospel

of truth.

But number two, there's a responsibility for us to discern

those ministers around me is this person that I'm listening to

trusting in a minister of the gospel or a minister of, not Pastor

Josh's terms, but 2 Corinthians terms, a minister of

Satan.

Well, that movie just told me to trust my heart, go after what

I want in life.

This person makes me feel good, so I'm just gonna go for it.

That's what Hollywood tells you.

And those are the people at the end that are lifted up as the

hero.

Guess what?

I'm going to be a little mean today.

And I'm probably going to be on some type of list somewhere that's

a minister of Satan that's leading you to think about a way

that is anti biblical.

Now, I'm not sitting here saying smash all your TVs, but be

discerning on what you take into your brain.

Be Discerning what you're reading.

Be discerning what you're following.

Allow yourself to say, nope.

That's the test.

That's the test.

And so Paul warns against that.

So Paul says, humbly, I bring to you the message of the gospel.

It's humility that brings us to that place.

Humility is this, I can't earn my way.

Humility is this.

I'm not good enough.

Humility is this.

I have fallen short.

And every time we see Christ, every time we see the message of

the truth, we should be humbled before him.

Because the Bible says, humble yourselves.

God will lift you up.

You lift yourself up, God will lower you down.

But there's beauty in this.

And the beauty is this.

God's forgiveness.

You say, well, I've been in the wrong place doing the wrong things.

I've been looking in the wrong areas.

I've been trusting in the wrong, wrong people.

Hey, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us

from all unrighteousness.

If we confess.

That's the beauty of our Savior.

He doesn't put us out.

When we fall short.

He doesn't reject us.

You know what?

There's times in my life with my children that I'm like, come on,

what are you doing?

You should have learned this lesson.

But what the Bible says is that in James 1, when we come back

to God and seek his wisdom, he gives it to us, and he doesn't hold

it over our heads.

He doesn't condemn us for seeking after his will.

And I would encourage you to seek after his will today.

Be a messenger of the truth.

Be a humble messenger of the gospel, but allow yourself to be

a humble hearer of the gospel as well.

And that's the message that Paul is giving.

Next week, we're gonna look at Paul's suffering.

You would say, well, if Paul is the true preacher of the gospel,

he won't go through any problems.

He'll be the one that is actually running a smooth life.

He'll get extra payments.

He'll have extra power.

No, no, no.

Paul's going to explain that the outward is not the true test.

It's what's going on in the inward.

Because no doubt those chief apostles that were claiming to be

the true messengers, their life probably was looking good because

they had finances, they had followers, they had friends, they

had people that were, you know, really exalting them up.

And what Paul says is, look, no, this is what it looks like to

be a servant, to go through the difficulties, but still have

the hope of Jesus Christ.

And so that's what we're going to talk about next week.

I'm gonna ask if you're able to.

To stand with me, every head bowed, every head close, as the music

plays here this morning.

I know it's a tough message.

This isn't a passage of scripture that we would normally

go to just in everyday conversation, but it's a passage

of scripture that we have to deal with.

If God talks about false teachers so much, hey, guess what?

It's probably a reality that we're gonna be facing false teachers

in our life.

So be on guard.

Hey, this morning, one of the things that you can do in the time

of invitation is, is just come forward and ask God to give you wisdom

and strength and protection and boldness in this world from the

ministers of the enemy.

Maybe, maybe not for you.

Maybe you're where you need to be, but maybe you want to come forward

and pray for your children.

Maybe you want to come forward and pray for your grandchildren,

your, your.

Your nieces, your nephews, maybe for the next generation that,

that they can be protected from the dangers of this world.

Folks, I pray every day that my children are spared from the pains

of sin.

So therefore, maybe today it's just this.

Hey, Lord, protect me, protect my family, protect my children, protect

my home from the enemy, from the messengers of evil.

May we be the messengers of the truth with boldness, with humility,

with transparency, with the knowledge of God.

Folks, it's one thing to know that God exists.

It's another thing to know who he is and what he has done for you.

And that knowledge changes us.

That knowledge changes us to the place where we can live in light

of the urgency of the world that we live in today.

Maybe you want to be a messenger of the truth.

Maybe you want to be like Paul and say, hey, I'm willing to do all

these things.

I'm willing to be humbled so that other people can be lifted up.

I'm willing to take a second place so that other people can hear

the gospel.

Hey, folks, it's time to give it over to him today.

Maybe you've been.

Maybe you've been drifting.

Maybe you've been allowing yourself to get to a place where

you've been trusting the things of this world come today and

allow yourself to be aligned with him.

And lastly, if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, we talked

about that justification.

What is God going to see when he looks at your account?

Is he going to see your good works or is he going to see what

Jesus Christ did for you on the cross and faith trusts in him

today.

If you need that, we've got some folks up here that can show

you from the word of God what it means to know you and to know

the Lord and to know where we stand before Him.

Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation working hearts

and lives challenge our hearts to a place where we can walk in honest

humility before the hypocritical hoaxers of our day.

We ask all these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

As the music plays, follow as the Lord leads here today.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church

podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church

or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org

or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro, middletownbaptistChurch.com

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Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.