A Good Conscience In Ministry

Transcript

GR 1791
11/23/2014
A Good Conscience in Ministry
2 Corinthians 1:12-19
Gil Rugh

We're going to go to 2 Corinthians in your Bibles, 2 Corinthians 1. Then we are going to turn to another passage to read before we look into 2 Corinthians, turn to Hebrews 12. A constant reminder, and this is what Paul is dealing with when he writes to the Corinthians—the place of suffering, the place of affliction in God's plan for His children. And none of us enjoy in the one sense affliction and suffering, that's something we must endure. The joy we have through that is knowing that God is sovereignly at work in our lives, even in the pain, even in the unpleasantness. Paul is reminding the Hebrew Christians that he is writing to, maybe not Paul but whoever wrote Hebrews, he has reminded them of the testimony of the lives of Old Testament saints in Hebrews 11 who were faithful. They hung onto the promises of God, even though they did not live to see those promises fulfilled. They will enjoy the fulfillment of those promises in the plan of God.

Then he comes into Hebrews 12 and reminds them of that great cloud of witnesses, encourages them at the end of verse 1, “to run with endurance the race set before us.” We have to be faithful in our time in the situations that God brings into our lives, both personally and individually and into our lives as a congregation of believers, God's family in this place. We are to be, verse 2, “fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.” And the result is glory, He has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So He endured the suffering, the pain, the agony of the cross. Looked like great defeat but it was great victory. Then he reminds them, “Consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.” We noted as we studied the first part of 2 Corinthians 1, the afflictions, the suffering that come into our lives can take a variety of forms. For some like these Hebrew Christians, a lot of it centers into persecution for their faith, but then that bleeds off into other areas as we saw when we studied this book. They lost jobs, they lost homes, there was financial cost. Whatever the suffering, whatever the trial, we recognize God's sovereign hand in it.

So he moves on and tells them in verse 5, “You have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him. For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines and He scourges every son whom He receives.” That's God's plan. The discipline here is not just what we would think of as punishment for doing the wrong thing, it's the child training process, if you remember. It's what is necessary in God training us and developing us and growing us to maturity. It is for discipline that you endure, recognizing God is training and maturing me as His child. That gives me endurance. The trial, the affliction is painful, it is unpleasant, whatever form it takes. But as a believer I see the hand of God in it. He is working His purposes for what is best for me, what is necessary for me and for us as a congregation to grow, to mature.

Verse 7, “God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline of which all have become partakers, then you are not legitimate children at all.” You are not sons. Then he compares it to earthly fathers who really love their children. They bring discipline into their lives. Verse 10, “They disciplined us for a short time as seemed to them. He disciplines us for our good so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” For many of you who have been believers for many years you can testify to the truth of this, how you have grown through the difficult times, how some of the most unpleasant things you've had to go through in your life as a believer, as you look back on it you can see they were times of great growth as you learned to trust the Lord, to lean upon Him, to find Him sufficient. And He brought you through and you grew in righteousness, in your character and you learned to trust Him more.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 1. This is the very kind of situation the Apostle Paul is dealing with as he writes to the Corinthians. It has a little different focus with where he is going, but it's helping the Corinthians understand God's purpose in affliction and sufferings. We learn to experience His comfort and strength. The Corinthians had developed the thinking of the world to a large extent—when I am weak, then I am strong. Weakness was frowned upon and Paul was being presented in that light from some unsavory and unbelieving teachers who had infiltrated among the Corinthian church and were trying to undermine their confidence in the Apostle Paul.

In 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 he began reminding the Corinthians of the comfort and strength God brings to us in all our afflictions and sufferings. Doesn't matter what they are. He is the God of all comfort, we notice, at the end of verse 3 who, verse 4, “comforts us in all our affliction.” So he is reminding them of that. God is sufficient, His comfort and strength is realized most fully in trial.

He followed that up in verses 8-11 by telling them of a crushing affliction that God brought into his life. And Paul endured many things, and this obviously was one of the more serious. He doesn't go into detail of what it was, we talked about some of the possibilities. Could have been the result of persecution while he was in Asia Minor. It says this happened in Asia. A city like Ephesus where we know from the book of Acts something of the suffering he endured. We also talked about a physical affliction that seemed to plague the Apostle Paul, and he'll come and talk about that more fully when we get to the end of this letter. It was a messenger of Satan that came to buffet him and make his life miserable physically. Whatever it was, it might have been a reoccurring physical ailment. Some have projected a form of malaria. We know that sometimes it can lay dormant in the body and then flare up. That kind of illness. Whatever it was, it brought Paul to the point of death. He gave up any hope of surviving. That's how serious the suffering and affliction that he was going through. But he said God had a purpose in it. Verse 9, “We had the sentence of death within ourselves,” note, “so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” And as a believer many of you have experienced times like this where you just give up all hope. I don't see how we can get through this, I don't know how I'll be able to endure this. You may have come to the point of physical death. We give up all human hope, we just cast ourselves on the mercy of God. God, I'm in your hands, I'm ready if you should call me. There is nothing I can do. That's a time of growth. Paul said that's why God brought this into my life. You know we are never done growing, we're never done maturing. No matter how long we've known the Lord and walked with Him, there is still more growth to experience. Paul said God brought this affliction so he would learn not to trust in himself. That's a part of the growing. He wrote to the Philippians in Philippians 3 and said, I haven't arrived yet, but I am in relentless pursuit of the goal of perfection in Christ in all areas of my life.

And he reminds us in verse 10, God not only delivered in the past, He will deliver in the present. And that assures me He will deliver in the future. “He delivered us from so great a peril of death, He will deliver us. And He is the One on whom we have set our hope. He will yet deliver us.” And that's one thing that happens as we look back on those dark times in our lives, those times of heartache, heartbreak, pain suffering. But the Lord brought us through and that's a privilege of walking with the Lord for many years. We can testify. I have always found God faithful, He has brought me through and here I am today, in spite of the times I thought this can't work out, this will bring ruin, this will be the end. It wasn't. And we learn to trust Him. And we develop a firm, settled confidence that He will deliver us in the future. I don't know what the future holds, you don't know. But if you are a believer, you know God is sufficient. He will deliver you. It may come to the point as we saw in Philippians where He'll deliver you into His presence. Death will come if the Lord doesn't come, but He will deliver on His schedule and plan.

Part of the deliverance we experience in this realm comes through the prayers of fellow believers. I think we often fail to appreciate because of the simplicity of prayer, that I can go before the eternal God who is sovereign over all, who controls all and bring the request of my heart to Him. We sometimes fail to appreciate the wonder of it. Think about it. If an angel would come down and confront you and say, you can have five minutes to tell Almighty God what is on your heart, bring the desires of your heart to Him. You say, what a privilege, what an honor. But you understand as a believer you can do that every day. He encourages you to do it, He invites you to come with confidence to a throne of grace. Imagine that, the God of heaven enthroned in glory says to you as His child, come to Me with confidence. I won't turn you away. Bring the desires of your heart to Me, the burdens of your heart. Cast all your cares on Me for I care for you. And we go day by day, maybe throw off a quick prayer or two, on our way. Paul says you join in helping us through your prayers. You join with us and God responds to your prayers and my deliverance is partly explained by God responding to you praying for me. “You joining in helping us through your prayers so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor.” And we noted that word favor, charisma, it's the word grace. For the grace bestowed upon us through the prayers of many. God's grace, His unmerited favor, His provision for us and enablement for us comes in the response to the prayers of believers. Amazing.

Paul desired and prayed for the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 1:2, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord.” He wanted God's enabling grace to be given to them and He wants them to be praying for him so that God's enabling grace will be provided for him. The single most important thing I believe you can do is pray. Pray for yourself, pray for the ministry, pray for your family, your friends. Pay for fellow members of the family of God, pray for the various ministries. We go before a God who says come before the throne of grace. Tell me what is on your heart and I will respond.

When you come to verse 12 Paul now turns to address some of the criticisms and attacks that have been directed against him by the Corinthian church. How sad it is. You know, criticisms and things that bother us, sometimes when you look back they look awfully trite. Hard as you read this section to think that the Corinthian church really made such an issue of nothing, that their confidence in the Apostle Paul and the truth that he taught was being undermined. The attacks on Paul were geared to undermining people's confidence in Paul and thus in the ministry of the Word that he taught, which would naturally lead them away from faithfulness to Christ, as he'll talk about as we get to the end of this letter.

Look how he picks up in verse 12, “for our proud confidence.” First he is going to talk about he has a clear conscience in how he has functioned. The attacks are without foundation. Then he'll go on to address some of those. “Our proud confidence,” our boasting, a confident assertion. Not proud, arrogant as we would sometimes think of boasting, but his assured confidence is this, the testimony of our conscience. Our conscience comes from three Greek words, the preposition with, the verb to know, and the work myself. To know with myself would be the literal, take the three words, to know with myself. It means I am conscious. We sometimes think of the conscience as that inner voice that speaks concerning what is right, what is wrong. We talk about having a guilty conscience. Why? Because we believe we did something wrong. We say, I have a clear conscience, meaning we believe we have done what was correct.

Paul says the testimony of my conscience is good, I have a clear conscience. I'm being accused of being untrustworthy, of speaking out of both sides of my mouth. That's not true. I have a clear conscience. Now a conscience in and of itself is not totally reliable, but it is foundational.

Back up to Romans 2. We all have a conscience that enables us to function in the world to a large extent because there is a sense that certain things are right, certain things are wrong. There is not always agreement on what those things are, but certain things, there is general agreement. There is just something in us that says, that's not right. An example, it gets harder to find examples as our society becomes more degenerate, but for example child molestation. Probably universal agreement that that is wrong. How do they know that? There is just something inside that says that is not right, it's wrong. No matter how you excuse it, it is wrong. And our laws reflect that.

In Romans 2 the Apostle Paul writes in verse 14, “For when Gentiles who do not have the law,” referring to the Mosaic Law which was given to the Jews. The Gentile nations where they were did not have the Mosaic Law to be a standard for them. So “the Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively.” That word instinctively literally do by nature, by their very makeup. You see we are created in the image of God. There is a recognition of right and wrong. “They do by nature the things of the Law. These not having the Law are a law to themselves.” In other words even the Gentiles who did not have the Word of God to guide them recognize certain things are right and wrong. We see that in our society today, even with its degeneracy. Even those who would claim to reject any concept of God, refuse to consider Him in their lives, still have a sense certain things are right, certain things are wrong. It's wrong to treat people one way; it's right to treat them another. There are certain standards that are innate. We do it by nature. That's the way God created us, and in that we are unique. We are different than the animal world, for example.

“In that,” verse 15, “they show the work of the Law written in their hearts.” When God created them, He created them in His image. Now sin has marred that image. So the conscience is not a fully reliable guide and it can be marred, it can be deadened. We'll read some verses in a moment. But it is still a basic foundational guide, even to the unbeliever. “They show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience,” and that's what we're talking about, when Paul says my conscience testifies. “Their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.” That's how the conscience works within them. So in their thoughts, in their mind they are giving testimony. I believe that is wrong. I believe that is right.

Look back in Romans 1, and here you see those who have rejected God, rejected the revelation of His very character in His creation are put under the judgment of God. And that's all men universally. So God gave them over in judgment. And you'll read in verse 26, “for this reason God gave them over to degrading passion, for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural.” Sexual sin, and so they quit functioning that which is according to nature to that which is contrary to their very nature. And in their heart they know it is wrong. Fifty years ago the overwhelming majority would have voted that certain sexual activities were sinful and wrong. And the minority who didn't agree with the majority would have tried to be quiet about it. Now that has changed and we find sweeping the country and the world is a degeneracy that promotes and says it is all right. And this is what happens and we need to be aware, the world shapes us into its mold if we're not careful because what they do is change the standard of what is right and wrong. And the conscience functions in connection to the standard it has. And fallen man has determined to suppress and reject the testimony of his conscience as God created him and declare what God has said is wrong, we say is right.

Do you know what happens, what sweeps the country? I read an article, the change in voting on some of these things in public opinion polls, now you can have the majority go a different way. Why? The standard set down for their conscience is changing even though they know in their hearts that this is unnatural. They reject it.

Come over to 1 Timothy 4:1, “The Spirit explicitly says in latter times some will fall away from the faith, some who had professed the faith will depart from the faith. And they will pay attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” This is a danger the church at Corinth is facing, as Paul will make clear later on, they are following after demonic beings who have come as angels of light. “By means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.” See what has happened? Their conscience has been seared. Some of you have studied Greek. It's an interesting word. One reason is just because of how long it is. I believe it has 16 letters in it in Greek, this one word. It's a long word. It means to brand with a hot iron, so seared, cauterized, deadened. They have their consciences branded with a hot iron. It is seared, it is cauterized, it is deadened. And so they teach false things. Forbidding marriage. You see it blends into this. It's not a particular doctrine, it's the truth that God has taught about marriage and its place in the plan of God, what God created us to be and to do as male and female. Now they are denying that and teaching something else and it goes into other areas.

What has happened? They've deadened their conscience so they are teaching and promoting and practicing, and this begins to affect believers. Some will fall away from the faith because they will listen to this rubbish, and pretty soon they begin to be shaped by it. And our conscience is no longer governed by the Word of God but they are governed by the thoughts and teaching of men. And this constantly presses in on us as we try to fit in a fallen world, and we'd like an acceptance, we'd like an appreciation. Yet Jesus says, “woe to you when all men speak well of you.” But we think that's an accomplishment. It's not. So the conscience has been seared.

Turn over to Titus 1:15, “To the pure all things are pure, to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.” See the corruption of the conscience built in us as part of our very nature, humanity created in the image of God. But it is corrupted and defiled by sin and so it ends up nothing is pure. We see a tide that seems to be relentless of degeneracy sweeping over us and we say, what has happened? The world has gone crazy, don't they have any sense of what is right or wrong? They do but they reject it. The defilement of sin, now, its corruption is consuming them and thus their consciences are defiled.

We'll go to one more passage, Hebrews 10. Our conscience is cleansed in Christ, if I could summarize it. Our consciences are cleansed from dead works. Our consciences are cleansed in Christ. “Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience” because we have come to the One who is our high priest and accepted His sacrifice on our behalf. And there is a cleansing within that takes place. And now we have a consciousness, a sensitivity to sin that wasn't there before because God has made us new in Christ. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature,” a new creation, “old things have passed away, new things have come.” Our conscience has been cleansed.

And now Paul repeatedly talks about the importance of having a clear conscience, a good conscience. 1 Timothy 1:5 he says, “The goal of our teaching is a good conscience,” among other things. Meaning what? We teach the Word of God so that believers will order their lives according to the Word of God and thus have a conscience that doesn't condemn them. We believers need to take our conscience seriously. When you violate your conscience as a believer, that is sin. The conscience isn't the final guide, but to violate your conscience, “whatever is not of faith is sin,” Paul wrote to the Romans. If you are doing something that you believe God would not be pleased with your doing, it is sin. Or when you don't do what you believe God would have you do, it is son. Now it's not enough to say, I have a clear conscience because the conscience isn't a totally reliable guide. But we strive to live with as clear and good a conscience, life that is conformed to the Word.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 4. As we move on here in a moment you'll see why this area becomes foundational to what Paul is going to say in subsequent verses. 1 Corinthians 4:2, verse 1, “Let a man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ, stewards of the mysteries of God,” the truth that God has revealed. “In this case moreover it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy, handling and teaching the Word of God faithfully. To me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you or any human court. In fact I do not even examine myself.” Now be careful there because he does examine himself in one sense. He says in the next verse, “I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted.” He is not the final judge. He tries to live with a clear conscience, a good conscience. He will testify, as we will see, that he is living in godly holiness and sincerity. But that doesn't mean that he is acquitted; he's not the final judge. “I am conscious of nothing against myself,” I don't have a guilty conscience in any area. “Yet I am not by this acquitted. The One who examines me is the Lord. Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts. Then each man's praise will come to him from God.”

The problem with the Corinthian church, they keep attacking Paul's motives, his character. Not anything that he is specifically doing that is sinful, but his motivation. How do you deal with that? Paul says, I don't even take the time to answer it. It doesn't matter to me what you say about my motives. I don't know anything against myself, my conscience is clear as far as I can tell. But I don't take it upon myself even to be the final judge of my own motives. So we need to be careful. It's easy for us to say, I know what they did but I don't think they were ….. Wait a minute, I can't see what is in your heart, I can't see what is in your mind. You can't tell. Only the Lord looks into the recesses of my heart and mind and can truly disclose what was my motive. It's in His hand. It is sin for me to be judging the motives. I can judge the conflict, Paul does that repeatedly in writing to the Corinthians. He'll warn about motives, but someone doing what is biblical and yet we attack them, thinking their motives are not good, it's hard, unless there is a pattern of life that indicates that they have motives that are being clearly manifest.

Come back to 2 Corinthians. “For our proud confidence,” our confident assurance “is this, the testimony of our conscience that in holiness and godly sincerity.” Holiness, moral purity, related to the word saint, sanctify. “In holiness as though set apart by God for Himself we have attempted to live in holiness.” Set apart from sin, set apart to God. Godly holiness, that word godly modifies both holiness and sincerity. That's the character of God being produced in us. Sincerity, the transparency. The word translated sincerity is a compound word, the sun and judge. In those days they didn't have artificial light like we do, that we can turn up the light, we want to examine something. We get a brighter light to look at it. There they hold it up to the sun. So that's what it means, judged by the sun, in the brightness and fullness of light, so sincerity. I am what you see me to be. There are no hidden motives, there is no hidden agenda. I've conducted myself transparently, we might say.

“Not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God.” And the contrast here, the fleshly wisdom is the wisdom of fallen man. The Corinthians loved this. 1 Corinthians 1, the Corinthians, the Greeks desire wisdom, we preach Christ crucified. But to those looking for worldly wisdom, that is foolishness. But the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of men. So we didn't function trying to live our lives according to worldly standards, what the world would consider wise, but in the grace of God. And His grace operative in our lives, living pleasing to Him, enabled and empowered by His grace. “We have conducted ourselves in the world and especially toward you.” Paul says this is my general pattern wherever I am in the world. I don't conduct myself one way with believers and another way with the world. It is the desire and intention of my heart to live in the context of God's grace operating in me wherever I am. But you especially have experienced God's grace at work in my life.

How did the Corinthians become a church? How did they come to know the salvation that is found only in Christ and have the privilege of placing their faith in Him. Acts 18 records it, Paul and those with him, Silvanus and Timothy as he'll mention in a moment, brought the Gospel to them. So you especially have seen this.

Now he answers some of the accusations and charges. That's a general foundation. “For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand. And I hope you will understand until the end.” The point is I have no hidden agendas or hidden motives. What he wrote is what he meant. We talk about the literal interpretation of Scripture—you read it and take it, if you will, we might say at face value. This is not some mysterious book and the meanings are hidden and you have to learn something of the intention behind what was written, we might say “read between the lines.” You know, he says this but that's not really what he means. That's what Paul was being accused of. We don't write anything else than what you read and understand. It's not like these teachers come in and say Paul wasn't being up front with you. You see the attack on Paul's character becomes an attack on the Word of God that Paul was giving them. And if they can undermine their confidence in Paul, then they have undermined the confidence in Paul's message. Now they no longer are able to take in the purity of the Word of God because they have turned aside to false teachers who corrupt it, which Paul will go on to talk about in 2 Corinthians.

We write to you nothing else than what you read and understand. What I write to you is clear. You understand Greek, I wrote you in Greek. We have it in English, it is clear. I hope you will understand until the end. That's not going to change. I didn't write this to delude you or put you off, I hope you understand this is all there will ever be. This is it, what I wrote. You can understand it.

“Just as you partially did understand us.” And they did. He came and preached the Gospel to them, he spent 18 months there ministering. They appreciated his ministry, they recognized this is truth. The grace of God broke into their lives; the light of the Gospel shone in their heart. They realized he is a messenger from God, bringing us the truth of God. You did partially understand us, and in that context, “that we are your reason to be proud as you are also ours in the day of our Lord Jesus.” When we stand before Jesus Christ and are judged by Him, they can be proud of the work that God has done in their lives through the ministry of Paul, and Paul can be proud of the work that they have done in his life. You know we will stand there together on that great day. And I will look at you and say, what a joy and blessing it is to see how the Word of God that I was privileged to give was used in your life. And you will look at my life and say, what a blessing to know and joy that we were used in his life in such a great way. And that will go on in our body. We have been joined together as God's family. There will be an individual aspect at the judgment, but there will be a corporate aspect of the judgment. We'll be gathered there as a church.

That's what he has talked about, here we are. We will be there in that day. Our joy will be in one another. Why are we trying to tear each other apart? God's work of grace in your life will be my greatest joy when I stand before Him. God's work of grace through you in my life will be your greatest joy. What do we think we are accomplishing if we try to undermine one another? What do the Corinthians think they gain by trying to attack Paul's motive and undermine his credibility? They are destroying their own rewards. It makes no sense.

Turn over to 1 Thessalonians 2:19, Paul writes to the Thessalonians, another church in Greece, Macedonia. Verse 19, “For who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.” We constantly have to remind ourselves, God saved us individually, personally, but when He did He placed us into the body of Christ and we cannot escape that union. And when we come to be judged before Him our part in that growth of one another's lives will be an essential part of the joy and glory, exaltation that we have in the presence of God. We have serious involvement in one another's lives. Sometimes we have Christians who have ideas that it's just me and my relationship to the Lord and that's all I'm concerned about. I have to be concerned about more, I have to be concerned that I faithfully teach you the Word. But a burden of my heart and prayer for you is that the Word is taught to you and I will do it clearly and understandably in the power of the Spirit, and you will be open to hear it and respond to it. And there is a mutuality in that. And God is using us and all around through the body.

So come back to 2 Corinthians. The attacks on Paul are undermining that which will be their very cause for joy and glorying when they stand in the presence of Christ. What a blessing that will be.

Let's move on here. Now Paul tells what the problem was and we can overview this quickly. It's difficult to know how many contacts finally Paul had with Corinth, either by letter or by visit. Look back in 1 Corinthians 5:9. Paul says, “I wrote you in my letter.” Now wait a minute, we are reading 1 Corinthians. That's the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians that we have. It's not the first letter he wrote to the Corinthians because he says, “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people.” Then he explains what he meant when he wrote that. So he had written them a prior letter, but it's not part of God's inspired Scripture preserved for us, just a little portion that Paul includes there. So it's not something God intends for us to know. But it does remind us there were other contacts here.

Come over to 2 Corinthians 12. Paul is talking about his impending visit to Corinth. He is in Macedonia, northern Greece, planning to come down to Corinth shortly when he writes this letter. We know he was at Corinth in Acts 18 when he established the church, now he is talking about coming again. Yet he says in 2 Corinthians 12:14, “Here for this third time I am ready to come to you.” Then he says in 2 Corinthians 13:1, “This is the third time I am coming to you.” Well, where is the second time? We don't have any record of it in Acts, we don't know.

Would you put up the map of Paul's journey? Paul is at Ephesus, then you go across and see Corinth. Paul spends three years in Ephesus, he was there when he wrote 1 Corinthians. Now it is possible that Paul, during those three years, took the boat across to Corinth. It would take about a week in those days on a sailing vessel to cross over to Corinth. So in three years he could have crossed over for a quick visit. Perhaps, we don't know, perhaps there was some particular problem, it seems in the letter there were special problems there; perhaps the immorality is being accepted in the church at Corinth. We don't know for sure. It was an unpleasant experience, probably, from what is in this letter. So that is one explanation. You can see how he is going, he's going up into Macedonia and then going to come down into Greece.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 1:15, “In this confidence I intended at first to come to you so that you might twice receive a blessing.” How were they going to twice receive a blessing when he came? “That is to pass your way into Macedonia and again from Macedonia to come to you. And by you to be helped on my way to Judea.” What Paul says his plan was he was going to leave Ephesus and come over to Corinth, across the water. Then from Corinth he was going to go up into Macedonia, the churches up there—Thessalonica, Philippi. Then he was going to come back down to Corinth. So that would be a second visit. So it would be a double blessing. I'll come spend some time with you, then I'll go up into Macedonia, then I'll come back down and we'll spend some more time. That's a double blessing.

It would be like with your kids if they don't live nearby. And they're going to come for a visit and they say, we're going to come and spend some time with you, then we'll go up and visit the other relatives, then we'll come back down and visit with you some more and stay a little bit longer before we return home. That's a double blessing. It's a triple blessing because you get to see them twice and they leave once in between. But at any rate then Paul thought he would leave Corinth and go back to Judea but now he is going to change his plan.

So what happened is he didn't do that. So the accusation against him was verse 17, “Therefore I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? Or what I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh?” And say things in the flesh without really being sensitive to the Spirit. “So that with me there is yes, yes and no, no at the same time.” In other words I speak out of both sides of my mouth. I'm coming but . . . What their accusation is, he didn't really intend to come. He didn't keep his word anyway. If he can't keep his word on a simple thing like a physical trip, how can you trust him in his teaching? We look and say, is this really criticism coming from the church at Corinth? Established by Paul, ministered to by Paul, having the inspired Word of God in the first letter to the Corinthians? And now they accuse him on such a trivial matter?

And so you see failure to show up. Here the man has gone through a time of trial that he was at the point of physical death. True believers ought to think. You make certain promises are commitments. But James says I will go tomorrow to this city and conduct this business if the Lord wills. Whether you verbally say it or not, as a believer it is always in my mind. God controls tomorrow, I don't. Here's my plan for tomorrow—I'm going to meet you for an appointment at 10:15 at a certain location. I don't show up. You say, you just can't believe Gil. But I got hit by a car on the way, I'm in the hospital. That's what the Corinthians were doing. Here is a man at the point of death over in Asia and they are criticizing him because he didn't arrive on time on a trip. And these are supposed to be godly people

Come back to 1 Corinthians 3:1, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual men but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.” Verse 3, “You are still fleshly since there is jealousy, strife among you. Are you not fleshly, walking like mere men?” You act like men who haven't been converted, don't have the Spirit. They are still practicing those kinds of things. And if we're honest, we think back, a lot of the things we criticize one another for, you look back on it, they were really trivial, weren't they? We get upset about this, we are critical about that, we make a fuss over this. And now years later if somebody brought it up we would be embarrassed because it was so trivial. I can't believe I was so small when I did that, when I said that, when I carried on like that.

As believers we need to stop and think, is this pleasing to the Lord? Is this a manifestation of His grace? We are all glad that things are wiped clean because we don't want those things brought up. We can prevent a lot of it. Some of them are over doctrine, you have to stand for doctrine. You have to stand for the moral character and purity of the church and so on. We get into trivial and unimportant things, we question people's motives. We just don't like them. So we look for reasons to not like them. Paul has to deal with this.

Verse 18, “As God is faithful our word to you is not yes and no.” I don't say two different things. “For the Son of God, Christ Jesus who was preached among us by you.” Now he takes them back to their first visit when they preached the Gospel, Acts 18. “By me, Silvanus, Timothy was not yes and no but yes in Him.” It was a firm, clear statement, and you recognized it as such and you believed it. “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes. Therefore also through Him is our amen to the glory of God through Him.” All I do is give you the Word of God and confirm it with my agreement. That's where I stand. All these attacks on my character, on my trustworthiness, reliability, they are nothing to me. As he told them in the first letter, it's a small thing that I should be judged by men. But this influence is growing, it hasn't gone away. They are listening to false teachers who do have ulterior motives, undermining their confidence in Paul and thus the message that he preaches. The promises, the Word of God are yes. They are confirmed and they are clear. And that's where we stand.

So we want to be careful as a church that we don't follow the model of the Corinthians. They are addressed as a true church of believers but things have corrupted this church and false teachers have permeated. And certain conduct just ought not to be among God's people. We are linked together before the throne of the judge of all men, the One who will judge our hearts. My greatest concern is that you look as good as you can, be in the best condition you can be in because you will be my joy and crown. And that ought to be your attitude toward me and our attitude toward one another. We are in this together. I want to do all I can to help you grow, you want to do all you can to help me grow. And we're going to the throne together, God has joined us together. We want to live like people who have that kind of commitment to one another and appreciation of one another and ministry to one another.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for Your grace, the power of Your salvation that has worked in our lives. How awesome it is to be Your family. Lord, You have brought us together so that through the various things You bring into our lives personally and as a congregation we can grow and mature, we can learn to appreciate one another, we can commit ourselves to helping one another grow, to work through trials and difficulties and struggles, anticipating the time when we will stand as a family of believers in Your presence. You will judge the motives of our heart. May we be found faithful. We pray in Christ's name, amen.