Paul Versus the False Apostles | May 17, 2026 Sunday School

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All right. I'm going to ask you to go ahead

and turn your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Second

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

Corinthians Chapter 11 and just stay a little more time this

morning. But I, I certainly am glad to be

here. I, I rather than retired, I like

to say I'm repurposed. You know, I, I'm no longer the

pastor at Grace Bible Baptist Church, but I still have a

purpose. I still have things to do and,

and have just been repurposed. I appreciate the song this

morning. What a day that will be.

I was just a teenager. My dad had gotten saved and

surrendered to the ministry. And so because he had

surrendered to the ministry, my pastor looked for opportunities

for my dad to preach. My dad had an opportunity to

preach at a church out in the country.

And so he took all of us with him.

And they didn't have any music. They didn't have a pianist, they

didn't have a song leader. And so my dad kind of stumbled

through it. When my dad got saved, he, he

knew nothing about the Bible, nothing about God other than,

you know, he did believe there was a God and did believe that

God existed. But he couldn't have told you,

you know, the Genesis was the first book.

If you to ask who are the, who are the 1st 4 gospels?

Who are the writers that he had no idea.

He had no idea when it came to singing about it.

But but he's going to give them his best sermon.

But he decided that they needed a little music.

He handed me the song book and said you can sing.

That's the song that I sang. Was that one?

I'm not sure how good a job I did, but but I'm thankful for

the opportunity to serve the Lord, thankful for the

opportunity to be here with you this morning.

I really wish we had a lot of time to go through the entire

book of Second Corinthians. It's a wonderful book.

Most of you are aware that the book of Corinthians, both First

Corinthians and 2nd Corinthians, Paul is dealing with some

problems that are in the church. Remember the Corinth of the

people that were saved in Corinth were saved out of a

Pagan heathen background. They had no understanding of of

of the Old Testament. They had no understanding of who

God was. There were a few Jews that were

involved in it who would have been familiar with those things.

But for the most part they, they were people who you know, they,

they had corrupt, wicked background for their life and

they heard the preaching of the gospel and the power of the

gospel radically changed their lives.

They were hearing from somebody who at one time was a hater of

the Lord Jesus Christ and his church, who was also radically

changed. And so the message of Paul

resonated with them. A good group of them got saved.

The church was started. Paul was there for a little over

18 months and perhaps a few months beyond that and developed

a deep, deep love for those people.

But if you read through the book of First Corinthians, you

discover they had some deep problems.

First problem that they had was that here, here they were and,

and, and there was there, there was a division among them.

And, and Paul reminded them in First Corinthians in the 1st

chapter that they, they, they were recipients of everything

that God had. Aren't you glad for this, that

when we get saved, God gives us all that he, I mean, everybody

who gets up from the cross saved has, has all that God has for

us. And so they, they had all those

things. He said you, you didn't come

behind in any gift. But they had a problem with the

vision, partly because part of their culture looked at people

and evaluated status of life based upon influencers and

people who had, you know, people that were popular and people

that had this and had that. And it become quite a popularity

contest. If you remember, the man of

Paulus was a very gifted speaker.

And while Paul is sometimes criticized that he was not a

very good speaker, I would think that if we listen to the apostle

Paul, we'd think it was probably pretty good.

Most of the time it was his enemies.

And the reason that they criticized him was because he

didn't, he didn't try to be what the, the, the, the, the

speakers, the, the philosophers that were round of the day that

people went to listen to Paul didn't try to be like them.

He wanted to be what Jesus Christ called him to be.

So he didn't measure up quite to the standards that the world

had, but he certainly measured up to what God had.

But they developed a division among them.

And there were those that said, you know, we are followers of

Apollos and we are followers of Paul and we are followers of

Peter. And some got real pious and

said, we're followers of Jesus Christ.

Let me just say this. That's the one we ought to be

all following is the Lord Jesus Christ.

But they were divided about that and they took some pride in it.

But there was a second, there was a second problem with them.

And, and it was this that they were, they were, they were

dysfunctional. And I used that word because

they had they, they had a lot of immorality within the church.

And it's one thing that you have people who commit immoral acts,

but it's another thing for the church to overlook it and not to

deal with it. You know, it's kind of like

parents with children. We had four kids and they, I, I

will tell you that there were times when they misbehaved.

Well, that that had to be dealt with.

You know, it has been dealt with appropriately depending on what

the circumstances of the situation was.

The same thing is true about a church, that a church can't just

be overlook everything and just kind of let things go on their

their sin needs to be dealt with.

And the best, the best advice is as, as the Bible gives us that

if we're going on our face before God and deal with it

first, it's a whole lot easier than for God to have to bring

about the discipline that's needed in our life.

But they not only had that, but they, they also had disorder.

They were they, they, they really didn't know how to do

church. And so Paul had to instruct them

about, OK, here's how you do church.

But they also had this, they were filled with doubt.

When you get to chapter 15 and 16 of the book of first

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

Corinthians, chapter 15, the resurrection chapter, remember

that part way through it, Paul said, how say some of you there

is no resurrection of the dead. And so they, they had these

ongoing problems. And so Paul wrote to bring about

a correction for that. And the good news is that most

of the church or many in the church responded to that

correction. Again, it's, it's one thing to

be wrong and then to be stubborn in it.

And it's another thing to be wrong and, and be rebuked for it

and get it right. And so most of the Corinthians

did that, but alas, he writes to them again.

And 2nd Corinthians, because there are some things that have

occurred that in Paul's absence, he's, he's, he has sent a

preachers to them. But in Paul's absence, they had

some people come in that tried to turn the heart of the people

away from the Lord Jesus Christ and away from the apostle Paul.

Second Corinthians is probably the most personal of all Paul's

letters. Certainly First and Second

Timothy, Titus, Philemon are personal letters to an

individual. But Paul reveals a lot of

himself in the book of Second Corinthians.

And we're going to deal with something that I think is

probably worth, obviously I think it's worthwhile.

God put it in the book. So it's good for us to do this.

And I want to speak about this subject in our Sunday school

lesson this morning. And that is committed to Christ,

not corrupt counterfeiters. Committed to Christ, not corrupt

counterfeiters. We live in a day where where

everything is counterfeited. You know, one of the, the

biggest things with Customs and Border is, is products made

overseas that have American brand names on them.

Then they're they're they pose to be American made, but they're

cheap knockoffs. Now, it's one thing if you know

that the shoes that I'm getting, I know they say Nike on them,

but I know that's not really Nike and you know that and

they're priced accordingly. That's one thing.

But if they're telling you they're Nike shoes and they're

an inferior quality and they're charging you the same kind of

money, a premium money that Nike gets for theirs.

Can you imagine? I'm old enough.

I I have a hard time fathoming that you would buy a pair of

sneakers. Tennis.

We call always call them tennis shoes.

That's what I grew up. We never played tennis, but

that's what we just called them, you know, but they have running

shoes, hiking shoes, walking shoes, all that.

But I, I just can't imagine paying the kind of money, you

know, 2, three, $400.00 for a pair.

It just kind of blows my mind. And I'm, I'm not saying they're

not worth it. I'm just saying I'm still, I'm

still living a few generations back or a few years back when

stuff was not nearly that expensive.

And so Paul's concerned because there are these corrupt

counterfeiters that have come in.

He's going to deal with them in the book of Second Corinthians

and the 11th chapter. And I want to begin reading, if

you would, just in verse #1 and follow down to verse #15 So just

follow along as I read it would to God.

You could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear

with me, for I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy, For

I've 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 subtility, so your mind

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 you receive another spirit which ye have not

received, or another gospel which ye have not accepted, you

might well bear with them. For I suppose I was not a whip

behind the very chiefest apostles.

But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge.

But we have been thoroughly made manifest among you.

In all things have I committed an offense and abasing myself,

that you might be exalted, because I 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've kept

myself from being burdensome to you 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 Akai.

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 the apostles of

Christ, and no marvel, for Satan himself has 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.

Let's vow for prayer. Father, even as we've read this

passage in Second Corinthians, I believe it's there because you

intend for us to read it to gain instruction, Father, that we

might be well prepared to serve you in the day and age in which

we live. Father, I pray that the Holy

Spirit of God would lead us and guide us and that you'd make the

application to our heart that, Father, that that we might be

true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ and not corrupt

counterfeiters or thank you for loving us as much as you do.

Help us to love you even more and more.

We pray and ask in Jesus name, Amen.

There was a lot of opposition that came to the apostle Paul

and if you remember back in the book of Acts, Paul had been in

Corinth for about 18 months and facing a lot of opposition and

that this the Lord sent him a message and he said I have much

people in this city. God cared about the Corinthians.

So here we are as Paul begins to give a defense of his, of his

ministry throughout this and to deal with these subjects.

The first thing that I think we see in this passage, and is that

the need for doctrinal discernment, the need for

doctrinal discernment, doctrine matters.

We live in an age where people constantly would tell you that

you know what a doctrine is, not what's important.

Love is what is important. And I'm going to tell you we

need both of them equally that that we are out of balance if we

are all doctrine, but we can't love anybody and we are out of

balance if we are all love and we're not doctrinally correct.

It is vitally important that we keep a balance in all of that.

And so doctrinal discernment is important.

It's one of the questions that a lot of times lost people will

ask, well, how can I know the truth?

How can I know which church is right?

Some of you may have even asked that question.

Well, how do I know? And like again, I think there's

some several things that God has given us and one is we have the

book, we have the word of God. And I would just encourage this.

If you have doubts, just get into the word of God and begin

to read it and say, God, I have some doubts.

I need you to show me what it is and, and trust that God will

give you the answer. One of the things that I, I

think every, every church member ought to keep in mind is that

when those questions come to our heart and mind, a lot of times

we want to add, we want to go to the Internet or we want to go,

you know, we want to go somewhere to get somebody to

give us an answer because we like things quick.

I tell you the best thing you can do, get on your face before

God in your own closet and pray and say, God, I really need to

know an answer to this. And then come to church with an

expectant heart and listen to the preaching of the Word.

And without you having said anything to your pastor, the

Holy Spirit of God will direct in his life.

He may not even know the subject that he's preaching on revolves

around the exact question that you've asked.

And chances are he won't know. But God knows and the Holy

Spirit of God knows, and you'll be sitting in the service and

all of a sudden the light bulb will click on and you'll say,

you know what? God gave me an answer.

Sometimes the answer will be no. Sometimes the answer will be

yes. But God will give you an answer.

And you walk out and shake the pastor's hand and say, thank

you, pastor, that was a great sermon this morning.

God gave me an answer to the question I have.

The good news about that is that you walk out saying God gave me

the answer. I didn't get it from somebody.

I got I got an answer from God that will give you confidence to

stand firm and the answer that God gives you, he gives it.

God promises to give us what we need through the preaching of

the word. God will reveal himself through

through that preaching. So anyhow, Paul said, would to

God, you have bear with me a little in my folly and indeed

bear with me. If you remember back in Chapter

11, Paul had had this to say about this very thing, that

verse 12 of Chapter 11. For we dare not make ourselves

of the number, compare ourselves with some that commend

themselves. But they measuring themselves

and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise.

But we will not boast of things without our measure, but

according to the measure, the rule which God has distributed

to us, a measure to reach even unto you.

Part of the false teachers that had come in was that they made

these great boast about things. And Paul had already said that

boasting is not a part of our faith.

Boasting is not a part of who we are as Christians.

And, and so when he comes to Chapter 11, he said, I, I need

you to put up with me just a little bit because I'm, I, I'm

going to seem like a fool to these people.

I hope I'm not a fool to you, but I'm going to seem like a

fool as far as culture in the world is concerned put up with

me. But he said I'm jealous over

you. I'm jealous over you and he uses

an illustration of a presenting that I espoused you to one

husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

We know in Ephesians that by the Bible says in chapter 5,

husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave

himself for it. If you remember, John the

Baptist made this comment about himself.

It was said about him that he was the friend of the

bridegroom. What was John doing?

Well, he was preparing a people for the Lord.

Well, that's exactly what the Apostle Paul was preparing a

people for the Lord. And he said, I'm jealous over

you because I'm not looking for your loyal to loyalty to me as

much I'm looking for your loyalty to Christ.

I want, I want you to be committed to him in the same way

that that a young lady has engaged her husband, espoused

her husband in that same way that she's committed to him.

I, I want to present you purest chaste virgins to the Lord and I

want to present you in purity. That's why Paul dealt with the

the, the the the moral issues, the doctrinal issues with all

those things in Corinth is because that that Paul wanted

them to be that that that precious bride for the Lord

Jesus Christ. And so he said, I, I, I, I've

espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste

virgin to Christ. I'm jealous for you.

You know, jealousy is is not always evil.

Envy is when you somebody has something that you don't have

and you. Think you'd like to have it so

much so that you're willing to do what you need to take it.

But jealousy involves a third party and it's about here's a

husband, here's a wife and a third party that's coming in

between them. And Paul said, I'm jealous about

that. I don't want anything.

I don't want anybody coming between you and the Lord Jesus

Christ. Well, as he goes on, he said,

but I, I'm afraid of this because I my fear is this, that

as the serpent beguiled Eve, that you also might be beguiled

from the simplicity that's in Christ.

One of the dangers of the day is that often times false teachers

take simple things and make them complicated and that you you

need them for the keys to understanding.

You got to have them or you have to have their book.

You have to have their wisdom to understand it.

After all they've taken, what was the simplicity that's in

Christ? They have complicated it and you

have to go to them for the key. Notice that Paul said, for he

that cometh preaches another Jesus whom we've not preached,

or that you would receive another spirit that you've not

received or another gospel which you have not accepted.

You might well bear with them. It's vital, important that you

don't put up with people that would come in, you know, people

that come to Liberty Baptist Church, join Liberty Baptist

Church. They don't come in to change

Liberty Baptist Church. If they're coming to change

Liberty Baptist Church, everybody ought to stand up and

say, you know, I'm sorry, there are probably other churches down

the road that'll welcome you and you're welcome to go there.

But you're not going to change who we are because we are

committed to Jesus Christ. We're committed to his word.

We're committed to his church. And so we, we, we live in a time

where where those kind of things happen.

Paul was committed to them and he wanted to encourage them to

be committed to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Corrupters try to influence, you know, we, I, I, some of you are

not far off from my age and I and I, I agree.

There was no Internet. There were no computers, you

know, telephones hung on a wall that had a cord to them.

We didn't have those kind of things.

Nowadays you can find information.

As a matter of fact, when the when the news was given, most of

the time the news was delayed by often times hours and days.

Something could happened a couple of days ago and it's just

news today. But it's not like that.

Everything is instantaneous now. And and it's so much easier for

people to to slip in and try to corrupt.

We live in a pluralistic society.

Our society thinks that, you know, embrace everything.

We need to be tolerant of everything that we need to be

accepting of everything, but they're not very tolerant of us

if we disagree with them. You know, there's some things

that, and everybody knows this. There's some things that you

can't be intolerant about. If you go to a pharmacy to pick

up some medicine, do you want a pharmacist that you know what?

It doesn't matter. A pill is a pill.

That's you know what? It's a blue pill.

I'm not sure what it is, but they need a blue pill.

So here you go. Here's a blue pill.

How's that going to work? Are you want to be tolerant?

You want to be tolerant when you're driving down the street

and you see a street sign that tells you that Easton down this

road and you start down that road and and you wind up in New

Hampshire. We all want to be tolerant when

it comes to the red and blue lights that light up behind us.

If you've ever had that happen to you, I haven't for a long

time. Thank the Lord.

I try to behave myself, but we want him to be tolerant.

But you know what? We there, there are a lot of

things in life we don't accept this.

We don't accept we're not tolerant of.

I wouldn't be tolerant of my wife having a boyfriend.

I'm not going to be tolerant of that.

I'm not going to be tolerant of somebody that wants to harm my

children. So you see, there's some things

we, we can't tolerate everything.

There's some things. And it's important for us that

when it comes to the word of God, that that, that we know and

understand what we believe that it comes from the word of God.

It comes from God. And and that's it.

The line is drawn. And that we're not not not going

to allow those that come in to sway us or take us from that

salvation is only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

They're not many ways to heaven. There's one way Jesus said I'm

the way the truth and life. No man cometh unto the Father,

but by me. Jesus is the express image of

God. He is God in the flesh.

And so there there's some things like this that the Bible reveals

to us that that matter and that it's important that we keep in

mind. They said that if he preaches

the they preach another Jesus, have another spirit, they have

another gospel. Well, there, there's only one

gospel that brings salvation. That's it.

There's not they're not many ways, they're just one.

It matters. It matters.

It matters what what the Bible we use, it matters.

It those things, all those things matter, but they were

corrupting. And Paul said, I, I'm concerned

about it, that you will not be naive and just simply accept

everything that comes along, but that you'll be good students of

the word. I don't know if you do this, but

I'd encourage everybody. I, I don't think our Christian

life and our Christian walk can ever be what it ought to be if

we do not spend time with God every day.

I, I, I know for myself, I have to spend time reading my Bible

and I have to spend time on my knees and prayer daily.

And if I don't, if I miss a day, if something comes up and I, so

I read my Bible, but I didn't pray.

And I'm, I'm thinking this is not good.

Or if I spent a little bit of time, but I didn't take time

read. I'm thinking, oh man, I'm in

danger. I'm in danger.

False teachers and false apostles like to prey on people

who are not good students of the Word.

Well, there's a second thing. And we find that starting in

verse #5 When he said, For I suppose I was not a whip behind

the very chiefest apostles, but though I'd be rude in speech,

yet not in knowledge. For we have been thoroughly made

manifest among you in all things Paul said It's important for you

to to understand there is a distinctive difference between

the ministry that I have the preaching that I bring to you

and that of the false teachers and the false apostles.

And now notice that Paul said in verse #7 have I committed an

offense and basing myself that you might be exalted.

You see, here were here were the opposites, the false teachers

were boasting. They were they, they, they made

a big deal about their knowledge, about their

understanding, about their abilities.

They made a big deal about that. They made a big deal about the

credentials that they had. And Paul, what did Paul say?

He I based myself, I humbled myself.

You know, truly followers of the Lord Jesus Christ don't have to

boast. God calls us to be in humility.

Remember that the Lord said if you, if you want to be chief,

the disciples, the apostles got all caught up in this about

who's going to sit on the right hand, Who's sitting on the left

hand? You know, when the Kingdom

comes, who gets to be this, who gets to be that?

And the Lord, the Lord said to them that, that if you're going

to be chief, then you need to be the servant of all.

Paul said you, you know how I lived among you.

And he goes on to make the contrast.

He said, I, I, I, I committed offense that I might be that you

might be exalted. I preach the gospel to you

freely. Paul said, I didn't make demands

on you that you have to do this. You have to do that, that that

that you have to provide for me certain financial criteria.

You have to do this for me. You have to do that for me.

Paul said we didn't do that. We just came and preached the

gospel to you. We're living by faith, trusting

God and pastoring for the 43 years being in the ministry,

pretty close to 50 years I've had, I've seen evangelist and

preachers come through that, you know, their, their first, their

first, their first conversation is what kind of place they can

stay in and how much money they can get.

I understand. I, I understand that when you go

to the gas station, you know, you can't just smile and, and

you know, let them fill up your tank.

That's just not going to work. I, I understand that.

But but when somebody comes to me and the first thing that

they're talking about is how much money what the honorarium

is or what this is or what, or I have to have so much up front to

come. Well, thank you.

But there are other places maybe could have you you're not coming

here. And I'm so grateful over the

years for the faithful evangelist and pastors that have

come to our church. And they just come and they come

because they believe. You know what we believe God's

in this. We, we, we're, we're happy to

come and we're going to trust the Lord for how he provides for

us. I think it's important for

church to be generous toward them.

You know, Paul, Paul's very pointed on this.

I robbed other churches taking wages of them to do you a

service. One of the wonderful things

about supporting missions and about supporting people in the

ministry is that we can allow, we can support them, which

allows them to go to churches that don't have the financial

means to take, really take care of them.

We, we have an evangelist that would come to our church every

year and we supported him on a, on a monthly basis.

And then we had him come to our church every year.

But, but by supporting him, he, he was able to, there was a

church in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that you have to go way

out of your way. You have to, want to go there in

order to show up at this church. Well, they, they've got a dozen

people. How do they take care of him?

Well, they're going to take care of him the best they can, but

it's not going to take care of what he needs to get there and

all that. It enabled him to go to places

that that he went to Peru and he preached in the prisons in Peru

by supporting. We helped him to do some of

those things. And Paul said, I, I took wages

of other churches, but I, because I don't want to be

burdensome to you. In Paul's day, the philosophers

and the, the, the speakers of the day, they would, they would,

they would come to in and they would have a, an arena or place

where they could make a speech and people would, would bring

money to hear them speak. And they would wait until they

had enough money in the pot or whatever it was, and then they

would go ahead and then they would start their speech.

I don't know if you've seen people, sometimes musicians be

on the streets or the corners, you know, and they're playing

and they're, sometimes they just keep playing whether people put

money in or not. And then there are other times

that they're waiting for enough people to gather around and

enough people to put money in. OK, now you can have the now you

can. Now we'll play.

Now we'll perform for you. Well, that's how they these

worked in Paul's day. And Paul said, I don't operate

that way. See, there's a distinctive

difference. Paul said here's what's

important. Substance, not style.

Substance, not style. The speakers of Paul's day were

polished. They were professional speakers.

And because they were professional speakers, they

expected a large honorarium or a large monetary gift in order to

speak because they were professional.

Paul said, I'm not professional. I'm a minister of Jesus Christ.

I'm a servant of Jesus Christ. And that Paul was about

substance, not not about personalities and verse #5 for I

suppose that I was not a whip behind the very chiefest

apostles. It's a little bit of sarcasm on

Paul's part because when you look up that word, it's about

super apostles. So there were some people that

presented themselves to the church at Corinth that they were

the Super apostles, not the 12. It's not them, but it's some

others that claimed to be apostles, sent ones.

And so they're claiming something that they don't really

have, and they're presenting themselves as that, that, that

we're experts in this and that we can tell you how things ought

to be done. Have you begun to figure this

out that experts don't always have the right answers?

You know, sometimes God's people have enough common sense, don't

really need an expert. We just need to read and see

what God said and then follow what the Lord said.

Said Paul's point in all of this that while he was not a that

while he was not a professional speaker, it does not mean that

Paul was not a good speaker. And verse, number, verse #9 And

when I was present with you and wanted, I was chargeable to no

man for that which was lacking to me, the brother, and which

came from Macedonia supplied. And in all things I've kept

myself from being burdensome to you, 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 Akai. Wherefore, because I love you

not God knoweth, but what I do that will I do that I may cut

off occasion of them that desire occasion that we're in the glory

they may be found even as we you see, they gloried in the fact

that they were these polished professional speakers and that

they, you know, they influenced people and people were attracted

to them and people followed them.

They, I, I, I, I don't know that it was necessarily like we see

today, but you know, bless her heart, I had a dear lady one day

say to me, you're just a pastor. You haven't written any books.

These people wrote books. I'm fine being just a pastor.

I'm fine with that. That's what God called me to be,

trying to be the best of that, that I can.

And if it's just a pastor that I am, I'm great.

But her measurement of what was important was that these people

have written books. I can tell you what libraries

are full of books that are not worth reading.

And I'm not against education and I'm not against reading

books. I like reading books.

My wife will tell you that I, I have well, since I've repurposed

as pastor and I am, we're now downsizing everything.

My most of my library is gone, but right, I had lots of books.

My my dad collected lots of books.

I got his books. I collected lots of books.

Now everything's digitized. It's on computer.

You don't need the books anyway. But, but what I'm getting at is

that Paul said the measures about the substance of it, not

about, not about the, the style of it.

And, and later on Paul mentions that that the, the, all the

marks of an apostle, all the, all the things of an apostle

were found in me. And so he concludes with this

thought and, and this, that it's, it's about humility, not

about honorariums. And Paul said there's a

distinctive difference, a distinctive difference.

You can have substance or you can have style, you can have

humility or you can have honorariums, which do you want?

Paul said about substance and humility.

But there's a last thing that's mentioned to us in this passage

and it's verses 10 through 15. And we'll we'll kind of deal

with that. And I but I do want to touch on

this verse 11. Wherefore.

Because I love you not, God knoweth.

Paul wants them to understand this.

He has a deep love for them and his desire is for their best.

If it cost him, that's OK. I don't mind paying the cost.

Remember Paul? Paul equated himself with

someone who wanted to present the bride to her husband, a

chaste, pure virgin. Paul also referred to himself as

a father. You know what parents, parents

sacrifice for their children and it's not a, it's not really a

burden. Is it a hardship?

Yeah, sometimes it's a hardship. But you know what?

Our kids are worth it. My kids are all grown now and

not living at home. People will tell you today, you

know, and that's kind of the, again, the culture of the world.

You can't afford kids. And if you wait till you afford

can afford them, you won't have them because nobody can wait

till they have enough money for kids.

And I'm going to tell you this. Grandparents never have enough

money for grandkids. But the thing thing about it is

that does a does a mother does? Does she worry about her

sacrifices for children? I don't think so.

I don't think dads worry about the sacrifices that they make

for their children's, not men who are men of God and women who

are women of God. They don't worry about the

sacrifices that they make for why?

Because we have a deep love for them.

You love your kids. Not hard to sacrifice for them.

I, you know, I just just retired, not from the ministry,

but from pastoring Grace Bible Baptist Church.

I want Grace Bible Baptist Church and Pastor Brett.

I want them to do far better than I ever could.

I want them to go beyond me. I don't have to be just what

what I had and it has to be the same thing forever because I I

know this that that I want, I want them to have it even better

than I had it. And Paul saying that to the

folks at Corinth that that I want the best for you.

And so this last part, verses 13 through 15 comes down to this.

Refuse dishonest deceivers. Refuse them, They're

counterfeit, for such are false apostles.

Paul didn't mention any words. False, not true.

False. Secondly, deceitful.

They're deceitful, transforming themselves into the apostles of

Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself

is transformed into an Angel of light.

Therefore it's no great thing if his ministers be transformed as

the ministers of righteousness. Who's then shall be according to

their works? The devil does not usually come

to us in a red suit with horns, a long tail and a pitchfork.

How does it come as an Angel of light?

Because the idea is to confuse. The idea is for us to think,

hey, these really are, these really are apostles.

These really are people, Paul saying you can measure the

ministry that I had with you and you can measure theirs, and

that'll tell you who the real apostles are.

Every one of the apostles of the Lord suffered, except perhaps

John suffered martyrdom. What were they doing?

They were following in the steps of Jesus.

They they didn't, they didn't have cities named after well,

they, I guess they did, you know, later on, but but in in

their time, they, they didn't have all this promotion.

They didn't have all these Paul said we're the off scouring of

the earth. Paul was involved in deliberate

sacrifice for them. They were involved in deliberate

self-serving. They were destructive and not

edifying. Eventually.

The last part of verse #15 says whose end shall be according to

their works. Isaiah 820 says, if to the law

and the prophets, if they speak not according to this words,

because there's no light on them, they don't have a truth in

them. Measure things by the book of

God. Make sure that it measures to

this and that we're not deceived by those false teachers and

false apostles, those corrupt, those corrupt people who will

try to turn our hearts from the Lord.

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.