Parabellum

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2 Corinthians chapter 10 beginning at verse 1 says, I Paul myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when
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I am away, I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh.
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For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
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For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
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We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey
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Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.
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Father in heaven, I ask now that as I seek to preach your word, that you would keep me from error.
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Lord God, as I pray every week and will continue to pray as long as you give me breath to preach, Lord keep me from error, tie me to the post of the word, fill me with your spirit, open the hearts of your people to understand the word, and as your word is proclaimed, may it be life to life.
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Because we know that when the word is proclaimed it is either life to life or death unto death. May it be life today to those who hear it.
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May it call us to repentance in areas of need. May it remind us that our only weapons in the battle of evil and the battle against sin are weapons of the spirit.
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And I pray, oh God, that you would give us now the blessing of understanding your word.
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May your spirit be the teacher. May I decrease, may Christ increase in this place. We pray in Jesus' name.
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Amen. There's a fairly famous Latin phrase, which is civis pacem para bellum.
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Civis pacem para bellum means, if you want peace, prepare for war.
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Thus the phrase para bellum means to prepare for war.
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That phrase has become somewhat popular in modern culture as a call to arms in battle.
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You'll see it emblazoned on bumper stickers. You'll see it printed on billboards.
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Para bellum, prepare for war. Even the firearms enthusiasts among us may recognize that if you own a 9mm pistol, it's called a 9mm para.
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Well, para is short for para bellum, which means prepare for war.
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Well, I titled my sermon, Para Bellum, because it is in this text that Paul uses a series of military terms as he begins his final portion of this letter, 2
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Corinthians. In a spiritual sense, he is about to, over the next four chapters, wage war against those who are opposing his gospel, those who are, in fact, false teachers.
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We could really call chapters 10 -13 Paul's direct assault against his enemies.
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And we will see some of his words are, in fact, very direct. If you look at 2
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Corinthians, it breaks down into three parts. Chapters 1 -7 is Paul's defense of his ministry.
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And if you go back to 1 -7, you'll hear him. He talks about how he is a minister of the new covenant.
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He is a minister of reconciliation. And he talks about how he's gone through all of this suffering for Christ, and yet that suffering just continues to point to the fact that he is a minister of the true gospel.
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He's defended his self. And then in chapters 8 -9, as you know, we did the last several weeks looking at chapters 8 -9, he puts on to display the importance of generosity, specifically because there was a need in the church in Jerusalem, and he was calling the church in Corinth to give generously as the
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Macedonians had given to that church. So, the third portion of 2
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Corinthians is what I call Paul's offensive. Chapters 1 -7 were his defense.
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But as you may have heard the old saying, the best defense is a good offense.
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And so, the last four chapters are
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Paul's offense, going on offense against those who are attacking his ministry.
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Some critical scholars have even come to the conclusion that we don't have one letter of 2 Corinthians, we actually have three letters of 2
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Corinthians. I talked about this in our introduction, I've talked about it a little bit along. Some people actually believe because these three letters are so different in tone, or these three portions are so different in tone, that it's actually three letters.
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I don't think that is the case, I don't think history bears that out, we don't ever find the portions separated in any of the manuscripts or anything, and that would be one of the indicators that maybe it was different letters.
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I don't think that's the case, but I do see a major tone shift. And so,
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I understand why someone would say, this seems like almost a different Paul, because now he's coming in force.
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He has spoken in defense of himself, now he's going to come in an offense against his opponents.
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One of the historical terms for the church, maybe you've heard this term, and I don't know why
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I'm so stuck on Latin today, but it's a Latin phrase, Ecclesia Militans, which means the church militant.
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This refers to the state of the church which is embattled against sin and against evil.
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And this is usually juxtaposed with the Ecclesia Triumfis, which is the church triumphant.
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And that is the church which is those who have left this earth, who are now with the
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Lord, who are no longer battling sin, who are now in a position of triumph. And I bring this up because even though some don't like the phraseology of church militant, church triumphant, some people feel that's not an appropriate term.
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I think at least it does bite a certain point, or rather bite a point to a certain truth that I want to press today, and that is this.
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Paul tells us throughout the New Testament, and the other writers as well, tell us throughout the
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New Testament that the Christian life is very much a battle. The Christian life is very much modeled after the language of war in the
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New Testament. In fact, if you follow along in the New Testament, you will see just various places where the objects of war, or the tools of war, or the instruments of war become
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Paul's very analogies for the things that we are using in our fight of faith.
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He talks about the armor of God in Ephesians chapter 6. Many of us are familiar with the armor of God.
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We like to teach it to our children because it's a very easy, visual thing. We've done VBS here at the church, and we've had the armor of God be the focus of VBS because you can walk through everything, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the shoes of the gospel, the sword of the
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Spirit, and the shield of faith. It's easy to even remember, right? So we have this lesson that Paul gives us in Ephesians 6, and all of it is military language.
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We're also called soldiers of Christ in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 3 and 4.
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We are told to fight the good fight, 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 12.
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And even Peter uses the language of war when he says that we have an enemy who is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, speaking as an enemy that we have to fight in 1
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Peter chapter 5. So the language of war, the language of the church militant, the language of what we are doing here is not wrong.
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It's appropriate. And as we look at today's text, what we're going to see is a series of words that Paul uses that point to directly or at least allude to the concept of warfare.
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He uses the phrase waging war in verse 3, weapons of war in verse 4, warfare in verse 4, destroying fortresses in verse 5, taking captives verse 5, punishment and obedience and submission in verse 6.
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We see all of this language and all of this language points to the concept of battle. But the key to this entire section, the key to verses 1 through 6 is actually found in verse 3.
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And this is the key. This is the key to today. This is what we are going to focus on in our sermon today.
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For when Paul talks about the warfare he's engaging in, when he talks about the warfare in which we will engage, he says this very clearly, for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
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So really today's sermon is going to be fleshing out what that means with what Paul says around it.
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Paul knows what kind of battle that he is in. Paul knows that he is not in a battle against the flesh.
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Paul knows that the battle that he is in will not be won by fleshly means, by worldly means, by means of worldly manipulation and strategy, but rather it is a spiritual battle that will be won with spiritual weapons.
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And we are reminded of what he says in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12 when he says,
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For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
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Notice again, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but ours is a spiritual battle.
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And so we need to understand the weapons that God has given us for this battle.
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Do we realize that we are in a spiritual battle, that there is one raging around us all the time?
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Think about the times in the Scripture where God brought back the veil just for a moment to show certain men those scenes of what was actually happening in reality.
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We are so limited by what we can see and taste and touch and feel and observe and hear.
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We are so limited by that and it forces us into this situation where often we are very much like the anti -supernaturalists who think that this is all there is.
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That this plane of existence is all that is. That this type of life is the only life that really is.
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You realize there are still spiritual battles raging. And oftentimes
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I think we either forget that or we fail to believe it.
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And one of the things we are going to notice, and I am going to point this out as we go through the next few weeks and I guess a few months of study now, as we go through chapters 10 to 13, one of the things we are going to see is that Paul indicates that the enemies of his gospel are actually the servants of Satan.
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That's not my words, that's his words. He is going to say that those who oppose his gospel, who are teaching falsely are actually ministers of Satan.
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Do you ever think about that? Do you ever think about the false teachers that are out there, that are teaching from the pulpits, who are preaching a false gospel are doing so as an agent of evil?
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We don't think about them being agents of evil, but they are. We think, oh, well, he's just... No, he's not just...
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Somebody asked Wednesday night actually, should we pray imprecatory psalms? Well, the imprecatory psalms are the psalms of the
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Old Testament where David would pray against the enemies of God. Wednesday night we had our
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Q &A with the elders. So if you want to go back and hear a longer explanation of our answer, you can go back and listen to it because we did record it and we did post it.
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But a short answer is sometimes in the New Covenant we think, well, we have to pray for our enemies.
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That means we can't pray against the enemies of God. But that's not true. There are times where we should and must pray against the enemies of God.
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And one of the enemies of God, we often think of like political enemies and things like that.
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No, no, no. The greatest enemy is in the pulpit. The greatest enemy is the men and women, who shouldn't be there anyway, but the men and women who are in the pulpits who are preaching false gospels and we pray,
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God, shut their mouths because they are being led by the evil one.
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And I pray, God, break their teeth, shut their mouth, do what you got to do, get it wired shut because they are dangerous.
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And we're going to see as Paul, he's going to say, these people create fortresses of unbelief. These people insulate.
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This is what cults do. They insulate their followers as it were like high walls.
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And the only way to overcome those walls is with the truth of God and prayer. That's it. And that's what we're going to see.
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But as I was saying, I want you to just think about this. This is coming later.
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2 Corinthians chapter 11 says this. We are told, Satan masquerades as an angel of light and his servants disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.
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Satan masquerades as an angel of light and his servants disguise themselves as agents of righteousness.
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The most dangerous person is not the devil worshiper. I used to work for America Online.
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America Online is when you used to get the internet in the mail, kids. It came on a CD. I used to work for America Online once a year on Halloween.
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America Online was a weird place to work. And there were ladies there who considered themselves to be real witches.
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Not like witches like on TV like they considered them. And they had a cauldron out in the parking lot on Halloween night.
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And they were chanting around the cauldron. It was weird. But you know what?
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That's not the greatest enemy. That's foolishness and it might attract a few. That's not where the devil is at work.
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I mean, he might be working in the midst of all that. But the devil is at work in the false teachers. The devil is at work in the false ministers who disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness.
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That's the dangerous ones. So keeping that in mind, that's what
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Paul is dealing with here. Paul is dealing with a church, the church in Corinth, that had ministers who had infiltrated after he had planted this church and he had left it.
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There were ministers who came in. Ministers I'm using, again, false teachers. But they are men who considered themselves ministers.
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Men who somehow came about having letters of commendation and they brought in destructive teachings.
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And Paul is calling these men out. He is saying these men are the ones who are dangerous.
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He's going to call them, I've told you this already, but as we get into 2 Corinthians 10, 11, 12, he's going to call them super apostles.
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And that's not a good thing. Super apostles is an insult because that's the way they considered themselves.
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These men considered themselves to have a ministry which itself was one that could call
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Paul's ministry into question. Paul says we're at war, we're in battle.
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There's a demonic enemy. And that enemy desires to devour all that it can, even within the church.
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The enemy can make his way into the church. The enemy can divide the church. I've seen it happen. I've seen churches divide over the dumbest things and Satan sits back and laughs.
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You know what? One of the worst sins, according to Scripture, the Scripture does assign certain things as things God hates.
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You know one of the things God hates? Sowing discord among the brethren, right? Somebody who comes in to divide the church, to destroy the church, sowing discord among the brethren.
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And that's the way Satan does it. I read a thing last night.
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And I don't know this person and certainly I'm not calling into question his integrity, but it was a younger man and this is sometimes the thoughts of younger men.
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He said, I'm thinking of starting a ministry. Where I train men to send them into churches to try to help the churches become more confessional.
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These small churches, we're going to send them in and try to help them become more confessional. And I thought to myself,
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I said, what you're doing is you're training a bunch of men to go in and split churches. You're training men to be divisive.
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Because what he said in his little thing that he wrote, I read the whole thing, he said their pastors need to be taught. And I thought, wait a minute, who are you?
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What are you thinking? Not that pastors can't be taught. Not that all pastors need to be taught. But you think the best thing to do for these little churches who probably have some really godly people in them.
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Some of these small churches that don't have titles like Calvinist and Arminian and don't care about all that stuff have some of those godly people, some of the most prayerful people, some of the people who are going to spend hours and hours with you in the hospital when your kids are sick because they love the
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Lord and they love you. Some of those churches are the greatest churches in the world and they don't have 1689 on their door.
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We're so concerned with whether or not people are being theologically correct that we step back and we say, but wait a minute, are we being theologically correct by sending infiltrators in to divide these churches?
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Again, I'm going off the topic here, but this is what I'm talking about. We divide rather than seek to see what is
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God doing in these little churches. That was free. That wasn't part of the sermon. But it really caught my attention.
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As I said, all you're doing is you're going to create a ministry that divides churches. So Paul reminds us in this passage that there is a war going on, there is a way to fight the war, and it's not with swords and clubs, but it is with the power of God.
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Here's the outline for today. We're going to look first at Paul's plea, verses 1 and 2. We're going to look at Paul's pushback in verses 3, or verse 3.
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Then we're going to look at verses 4 and 5, or Paul's plan, and verse 6 is
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Paul's penalty. So let's look at verse 1. Paul's plea.
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I, Paul, myself, entreat you. Notice right away he changes the tone of the letter in specifically changing the use of the personal pronoun.
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Up until this point, he has primarily used the personal pronoun we. Speaking of him and his associates, him and Titus and Luke and the others who are with him.
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He said we this and we that, and we and all of these places. But in this place he says,
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I, Paul, myself. Why is he changing to the personal pronoun?
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Because as we're going to see, he is the point of conflict. The opponents of Paul that are in Corinth, the opponents of Paul that are at issue, are not taking issue just with what he says.
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They're taking issue with who he is. They're calling into question his integrity. They're calling into question his speech.
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They're calling into question even the way he behaves. We're going to see that in just a moment. So he says,
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I, Paul, myself, entreat you. And then immediately he says, by the meekness and the gentleness of Christ.
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He appeals to Christ's qualities of meekness and gentleness. Because what he is about to do in the rest of this letter is he is about to lay down some very harsh words.
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But he wants them to understand that he is coming to them in the attitude of Christ who was meek and gentle.
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But understand this. Christ was meek and gentle, but he was not weak and mealy -mouthed.
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Meekness is not weakness. And gentleness does not mean you don't speak the truth.
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Jesus was the one who when he was dealing with the one who was broken, like the woman who came in and washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair, he looked at her with compassion.
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But he is also the one who when he looked at the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the false teachers, he looked at them and he said, you brood of vipers.
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So Christ is meek and gentle, but he is not unwilling to speak the truth.
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This is the most dangerous thing that you can think today. And that is the only way to demonstrate kindness is through not speaking the truth.
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It is the greatest disservice to anyone's soul that you hold back the truth from them. Now you don't have to be a jerk.
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You don't have to add to the truth with your own jerkness. Some people do.
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We talk about that, right? We talk about those who just add to the truth their own unpleasant disposition.
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I like being kind. I do. I like to be kind to people.
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It opens doors that might otherwise be shut. But I speak the truth.
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We should speak the truth even in kindness. Truth is kindness. Paul says,
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I myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. And this next line, understand this, and I think
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I can bear this out in the rest of the chapter. When he says, I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when
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I am away. That is not Paul describing himself as he sees himself.
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That is Paul answering a description that's been placed upon him. Because if you see later in this chapter, he will say, some of you say,
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I am weak when I am away, or excuse me, I'm weak when I'm present, but I'm strong when I'm away. So the idea here is he's being accused of being a person who writes strong letters, but when you meet him in person, he's a little weak.
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He's got a bold pen, but a very weak presence.
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You've met people like that. Call them keyboard commandos. They'll write you that harsh email at work until they come into your office, and then they're, oh, they're scared to death.
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You know what I'm talking about, right? The person who's got all bark and no bite. And Paul says,
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I appeal to you in the gentleness and meekness of Christ, I who am, as he said, as those who have accused him,
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I'm humble when I'm face to face, but bold toward you when I'm away. Then he says in verse 2,
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I beg of you that when I am present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh.
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Verse 2 is important because what he's saying in verse 2 is, he's saying, I actually like being humble when
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I'm with you. I like coming with humble words. Because the other position
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I could take is a position of boldness, and I don't want to have to be that way. I don't want to have to come at you in a bold way.
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I would rather you just simply do what's right, and then I don't have to come as a corrector.
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I can come and enjoy our time together. Because notice what he's saying.
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He's saying, some of you I'm going to have to be bold with. Some of you are going to have to receive the boldness.
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Notice what he says. I beg of you that when I am present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh.
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Notice the some. Who's the some he's talking about? He's talking about those who are calling into question his integrity and are saying that he is actually walking according to the flesh.
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That's the some. And think about it for a moment, exactly what he's saying.
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I would prefer not to have to come as a corrector to all of you.
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But I know I'm going to have to correct some of you. In fact, he's going to use in verse 6, he's going to use the word punish. I'm actually going to punish some of you.
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You say, what does that mean? We'll talk about it when we get there. But he's going to come in boldness towards some.
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Just think for a moment as we consider that. There's three types of people in Corinth right now.
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Not now, but there's three types of people in Corinth in the moment of Paul's writing. There are those who are
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Paul's friends, who have received his message, who have heard what he's had to say, and they believe what he has to say.
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They are Paul's companions, the ones who have agreed with him. That's the first group.
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The second group are those who are opposed to Paul. They are the enemies of Paul. That's the group he's saying
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I'm going to have to show boldness to. That's the one, that's the some that I'm going to have to correct when
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I get there. But there's a third group. And that's the ones who are still not sure.
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That's the ones he's talking to. Because the ones who are already on his, the ones who have already received his message and already received his correction have already repented.
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And he talked about those in chapter 6. He talked about the fact that there were those who received his letter, who repented of their sin, who are doing what's right.
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Those people he doesn't have to worry about. And he knows he's going to have to correct the false teachers.
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But what about that third group? They're the ones who are unsure. These are the ones
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Paul is saying, I beg of you. I plead with you. That's why I call this Paul's plea. I plead with you that when
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I am present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing to those who accuse us of walking according to the flesh or suspect us of walking according to the flesh.
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Paul is begging them to not be among those whom he will inevitably have to correct.
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It's almost like he's saying, don't make me do this. I'm going to have to do it to some.
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Don't let it be you. And then we get to, again,
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I said it's the verse that sort of brings everything together. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
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We walk in the flesh. What does that mean? Well, it's simple. We are all human beings. Paul is saying every one of us walks in the flesh in the sense that every one of us is in this body dealing with the things that we deal with in the body.
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And what do we deal with in the body? Failures, temptations, struggles, lusts, desires, things that shouldn't be.
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Those are battles we fight. Those are battles we face. Paul's been accused of walking in the flesh.
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He's been accused of a man who is inconsistent. He's been accused of being a man, as we saw in chapters 2 and 3.
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He's been accused of a man whose word is not his bond. He says, for though we walk according to the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
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These men have accused Paul by his words, by their words. Paul says, we're not fighting that way.
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We're not going to fight with tools according to the flesh. And therein begins verses 4 through 6, which is the passage that really is the focal point of how he plans to fight this battle.
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There's a lot of books. There's a lot of videos.
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There's a lot of ministries that are committed to the concept of spiritual warfare.
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You've probably seen, back when there were Christian bookstores, I don't even know if they exist anymore. I know they're not hanging in Jacksonville.
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It used to be Lifeway and Family Bookstore. You'd go and walk through the bookstore and you'd see all these books that say, spiritual warfare.
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Learn how to fight spiritual warfare. And many of them would go to passages like Ephesians 6 or this passage, and they would say, see here is the battle plan for spiritual warfare.
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Well, that's not untrue, but oftentimes when you read those books or watch those videos or listen to those sermons, oftentimes they miss the point.
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Because oftentimes you'll hear spiritual warfare is to be fought through some type of incantation or saying certain phrases or casting out demons with certain words and all kinds of things.
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But that's not what Paul's going to say. In fact,
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Paul gives us a very practical battle plan here.
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This is why I call this section Paul's plan. This is Paul's battle plan. This is the battle plan I'm going to use to fight my spiritual battles.
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This is the battle plan that I'm encouraging all of us to use to fight our spiritual battles because this is the way
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God wants it to be. This is the way the battle plan is supposed to play out. He says, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but the
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ESV says have divine power to destroy strongholds. Now, this is translated differently in different Bibles, whether you have the
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King James or whether you have the New American Standard Bible or whether you have a different translation.
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It's going to be translated different. So let me just break it down in simple terms. When he says the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power, that literally is the phrase dunata totheo, which is the power of God.
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The weapons of our warfare are not the flesh, but the power of God. That's his point.
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The power that we have, the power that we possess, the power that is going to actually destroy these fortresses, the power that's actually going to overcome these arguments, the power that is going to do this, is not our power, but it is the power of God.
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As I thought about that phrase, as I was preparing to preach,
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I thought about how often the word power of God is used. It's used throughout the Bible, used in different ways.
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But probably the most connected verse in my mind to this is when
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Paul is describing the gospel in Romans 1 .16.
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If you're not familiar with Romans 1 .16 and 1 .17, please make that one of the ones that you commit to your memory.
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That one passage changed Martin Luther's life. He says, when I read this passage, it was like the gates of heaven were finally opened to me, and I was born anew from God simply by hearing the words.
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I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the
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Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
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And Martin Luther said, it's like the scales fell off my eyes. And I finally saw for the first time the actual truth of the matter, is that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.
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Not the one who works, but the one who trusts in what Christ has done. Not the one who does for himself, but the one who says,
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I can't do for myself, but I'm actually going to trust in what God has done for me. And I'm going to place my trust not in what
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I've accomplished, but what has been accomplished for me. As it is written, the just shall live by faith.
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Quoting from Habakkuk 2. So connecting that here, when
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Paul says in this passage, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but as the
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ESV says, but have divine power. It literally is, they are the power of God. The greatest weapon that we have in the battle against error, the greatest weapon that we have in the battle against false teaching, the greatest weapon that we have in the battle against our own spiritual failures, the greatest battle that we have in our own lives where we struggle with doubt and depression and all of the other things that come along with the struggle of life and sin and temptation.
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The greatest power that we have is not our power, but it is the gospel of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. That's the power that we have, because that is able to do exactly what
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Paul says it does. It is the power of God to destroy fortresses. And you say, the
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ESV says strongholds, but the NAS says fortresses. I think fortresses is better, because that's the idea of this word, fortresses or strongholds, is literally a high -walled protected place.
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That's the concept of the... And understand, everybody in Paul's day understood what this meant.
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So when Paul says we have the power of God to destroy strongholds, he was literally, in the mind of the people, he was painting a picture of how all of the ancient cities protected themselves.
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How did ancient cities protect themselves? With high walls like a fortress. Think of even
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Jerusalem, which was a walled city. What did Nehemiah do when he came back?
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They had to rebuild the walls to protect the city. Paul grew up in Cilicia, right?
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This is a place that had walled cities. There were places near Corinth that had walled cities.
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They would have understood this idea as a picture in their mind.
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But Paul is using this as an analogy, not for a physical wall, but the walls that are put up by the enemy.
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False teachers, almost always, will erect some form of spiritual defense around themselves and around their people to keep those who would call into question their false teaching out.
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Think of how many cults run off into these places where they're behind fences or they're in distant,
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I'm thinking of a word and I can't think of it right now, but compounds, thank you.
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They're behind walls in a compound. Why? Why? They do not want those who are hearing the false teaching to have anyone else from the outside.
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This is a very physical, visible manifestation of what Paul is talking about here. They do not want them to hear the truth.
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I'll give you a good example of this. I think I've told this story before. I'll keep it brief. Years ago, I was sleeping in on a
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Saturday. Jennifer comes in the bedroom. And she said, the
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Jehovah's Witnesses just came by. Send them away. And I sat up real fast. Why would you send them away?
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I want to talk to them. Oh, I just told them we weren't interested. I'm very interested.
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So I throw on my shorts and my t -shirt and I run out front and I'm looking around.
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Can I get them back? Well, they were across the street at my neighbor's house. So I walked out and I pretended like I was going to get the paper.
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I didn't even order the paper. I don't have a paper to get. But I was like, well, I'll pretend like I got a reason to go to the end of the street.
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Or the end of the driveway. So I walk out to the end of the driveway. And they're walking back. And I hollered across the street.
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I said, hey, what y 'all doing? And they said, we're just sharing some good news.
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I said, well, I love good news. Come talk to me. Within five minutes of our conversation, there was a man and a woman.
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Within five minutes of the conversation, the man looked at me and he said, you know what you believe.
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I don't want to talk to you anymore. Goodbye. And he walks away. But the woman stayed.
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The woman stayed. And we had another talk for about a minute and a half, two minutes.
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And the man from a distance yelled at her, leave that man alone. Do not listen to what he says.
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Putting up the wall. If you know the truth, you can talk to anybody. If you have the truth, you can engage with anybody.
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Muslim, Mormon, Jehovah Witness, it doesn't matter. Because you know that you have the power of God to overcome the strongholds of their false teaching.
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And it's not going to destroy you. You don't have to be afraid to talk to anybody.
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You may not know everything about Islam. You may not know everything about Mormonism. You may not know everything about any of these things. But if you have the power of the gospel to overcome strongholds, you don't have to be afraid.
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The truth is going to stand when the world is on fire, my mama used to say. Just speak the truth.
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Make sense? Paul says, we destroy strongholds and we destroy arguments.
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That's, by the way, if you wonder what he's talking about with strongholds. He basically repeats the phrase, but he uses the word argument the second time so that we understand what the strongholds are.
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The arguments are the false teachings, the strongholds, the false arguments of the enemy.
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We destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments. And every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.
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You understand, that's the war you're in. There are lofty opinions being raised against the knowledge of God.
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And we have the power to overcome that because we have the truth. You might say,
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I don't feel confident. That's okay, we'll help you get confident. But know that you've got the truth, that's what matters.
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We get so afraid. I don't know if I'm going to articulate it right. I don't know if I'm going to say it right. I don't know if I'm going to be able to engage.
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Not everybody is made for debating. Not everybody is made for arguing. Not everything deserves that. Not everybody has to do that.
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That's not, when I say, not every conversation deserves to be a debate. I'm not saying it all has to be that way. But you don't have to be afraid.
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If you have the truth, you don't have to be afraid. And so we have the power of God to destroy fortresses, to overcome arguments, to every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.
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And then this last phrase, which I know many of you probably have heard before. And I want to give you a little different thought on it.
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Because he says, and take every thought captive to Christ. Most of us, when we use that phrase, we think of it as taking our thoughts captive.
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Like we'll talk to people, we'll talk to, like if a man comes to me, you know, I'm struggling with this, and it's my thought life that I'm struggling with.
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And we'll say, well, you know, the Bible says we should take every thought captive to Christ. So when we're having those thoughts, we should put that in submission to Christ.
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That's how normally we think. And I don't think that's an inappropriate application.
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But the immediate idea of this passage is that we're actually capturing the thoughts of others.
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Because what he's saying here, again, he's saying, I'll read it again. The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
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We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey
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Christ. Paul is saying to the Corinthians, my goal is that your thoughts be not captive by the enemy but that your thoughts be captive to Christ.
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So I'm going to preach the gospel to you so that your thoughts will be captive to him and not captive to them.
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Think about this with our kids. I thought about this last night as we were doing family worship.
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And I thought about how much the world wants to capture my kids' brains and minds and hearts.
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How much does the world want my children's thoughts? And it's trying every which way it can to provide them with something that will fascinate them more than Jesus.
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And so my goal for my children is to try to capture their minds for Christ.
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I know I can't change their heart. I cannot give my children regeneration. It will be God above and only God who gives them the gift of life.
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But I can point them to Christ and I can point them in the only direction I know is the truth. And I can say this is the power of God unto salvation.
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This is the only way to know the way of eternal life. This is our only hope.
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And pray that God would do that. We have the truth.
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We have the power. We have the tool. It's not chanting.
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It's not slapping somebody in the head and saying, Come out ye in Jesus' name.
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That's not spiritual warfare. That's assault. Spiritual warfare is preaching the truth of the gospel and seeing the
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Holy Spirit of God work in the hearts of men and women and children. That's it.
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Paul says, We have the power of God to tear down fortresses, to destroy arguments, every lofty opinion raised against Christ.
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And we take every thought captive to Christ with the truth.
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The truth is our greatest weapon. Think about all that armor
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Paul talks about. You got the helmet of salvation. And I don't have time to go through what each one of them means.
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But he says you got a helmet of salvation, a breastplate of righteousness, a belt of truth. Notice the belt of truth holds everything together.
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Truth holds it all together. You got your shoes with the gospel of peace.
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You got the shield of faith. But what's the one weapon? Sword of the
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Spirit which is the word of God. I come to you, I don't have anything.
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I'll give you the word of God. This says the Lord. That's the weapon.
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Thus saith the Lord. Now I'm going to finish up with just verse 6 and then we'll close.
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Paul says being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.
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Now what does that mean? Basically this. This is what he's coming to do at Corinth. Paul is coming in Corinth with the weapons of warfare, not of the flesh but with divine power to destroy strongholds.
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What were the false teachings of the false teachers? It was a false gospel. Paul is going to bring the true gospel in.
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He's going to bring a true message in. He's going to destroy their arguments. He's going to destroy their lofty opinions. He's going to bring everything raised against the knowledge of God into captivity to Christ.
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And those who obey are going to be fine. But those who continue to follow the false teachings will be punished.
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Now you say, wait, is Paul bringing a bat? No. But he is bringing the ability to call to account those who believe that which is false and to call them to repentance.
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And if they refuse to repent, to put them out. There is a reality that the process and practice of church discipline has a punitary function.
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We often talk about the fact that church discipline's first reason for church discipline is to try to reconcile and bring people back.
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But it also has the responsibility of putting out the dangerous people. Church discipline is like removing cancer at times.
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Something has to be removed. And Paul says, I am going to be ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.
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Because again, he's calling for them. He's calling for them to repent and not follow after the false teachers.
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There's going to be those who receive the punishment. Don't let it be you, is what he's saying to them. So, as we close, just a few thoughts to consider.
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What are our weapons in this spiritual war? Our greatest weapon is the truth.
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And the truth is found in the word of God. We are told Jesus said these words when he prayed to the
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Father in John. He said, Father, sanctify them with your truth. Your word is the truth.
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In the fight against falsehood, in the fight against false teaching, in the fight against all things that would lift themselves up against Christ, whether they be religious or secular, whether they be from the left or from the right, no matter where they're coming from, if they are against Christ, our weapon is the truth.
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And we preach the truth and proclaim the truth. And in our fight against despair, anxiety, hopelessness, and against the enemies of the truth, we have an additional weapon.
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And I know Paul didn't mention this, and I know that this maybe seems like I'm just tacking this on at the end, but I promise this is also a powerful weapon of truth, is we have access to the
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Lord through prayer. We go and we proclaim the truth, and we pray that God does only what he can do.
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Only God can change a heart. Only God can save a soul. Only God can give us victory.
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I remember years ago, I thought I was going to have to resign, and God gave a victory.
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God moved in a way that I could not have done on my own, and he did it merely through prayer and the proclamation of the word.
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Do we trust that he can continue to do that? Do we? That's what we have to.
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That God's word and trusting in him are our greatest tools in this fight.
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So do you trust him today? Do you trust his word today? Maybe you came in here, you're a believer, and you say, yes, and I hope that this word has been to you a savor of life.
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Maybe you came in here today, and you're an unbeliever, and you just hate everything I've said, and you're looking forward to leaving.
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I pray that's not the truth, but that may be. But you might be like that third group in Corinth who came in here unsure today.
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You didn't know. The Bible says all men are sinners.
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Every person in here deserves the wrath of God, but Jesus came, lived a sinless life, died a substitutionary death to take upon himself the punishment for everyone who believes.
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And if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved. And if you've never heard that, if you've never believed that,
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I pray that today you would turn from your sin, turn from your unbelief, and turn to Christ, and trust him to save you.
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Let's pray. Father, as we think now about the words that we have just heard, the battles that we have all had to face at times,
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Lord, help us to see that all of our battles ultimately have a spiritual component because all of our battles are either going to be against the flesh, the world, or the devil, or all of those things.
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So I pray, Lord, that you would give us more and more confidence in the gospel.
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Not confidence in ourselves, but confidence in Christ. To trust him.
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To trust your word. To know the truth and have confidence in the truth.