WWUTT 1652 All His Promises are Yes in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:15-24)

The Apostle Paul had to write a stinging, rebuking letter to the Corinthians, so that they would be convicted over their sin, and then he had to let them be in sorrow for a little while, as we should be over our sin, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ, that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in 2 Corinthians today, and we're knocking out a pretty sizable chunk.

I'm going to start in verse 16, and we'll go through chapter 2, verse 4. Let me, to keep things in context, start in verse 12.

This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible, the word of the Lord, through the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth.

For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you.

For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand, and I hope you will understand until the end, just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason for boasting, as you also are ours in the day of our

Lord Jesus. And in this confidence I intended at first to come to you, so that you might receive grace twice, that is, to pass your way into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be helped on my journey to Judea.

Therefore was I vacillating when I intended to do this? Or what I purpose, do

I purpose according to the flesh, so that with me there will be yes, yes, and no, no at the same time?

But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no.

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yes and no, but has become yes in him.

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 us.

Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave the pledge of the

Holy Spirit in our hearts. But I call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you

I did not come again to Corinth, not that we lorded over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy.

For in your faith you are standing firm. But I determined this for my own sake, that I would not come to you again in sorrow.

For if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad but the one whom I made sorrowful?

And this is the very thing I wrote you, so that when I came, I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice, having confidence in you all that my joy would be the joy of you all.

For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears, not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which

I have abundantly for you. And we're going to get through all of that today, a pretty big chunk and the biggest chunk we've gone through in quite a while, in fact.

So what is Paul saying here? Well, remember, recapping briefly yesterday, we looked at verses 12 through 14.

Paul says our boasting is not in ourselves, but in Christ.

And of course, that that same statement Paul makes at the beginning of 1 Corinthians in chapter one there as well.

So our boasting is that the holiness we have, the godly sincerity that we have, the wisdom that we have comes not from ourselves.

It is by the grace of God. And it's in this grace that we've conducted ourselves in the world and especially toward you, toward the

Corinthians. So we're starting there in verse 12 with Paul talking about it is in God's grace that we conduct ourselves.

And then in verse four, chapter two, verse four. So we're kind of bookending with those two things, right?

Verse 12, chapter one, verse 12, it's in God's grace that we've conducted ourselves in the world and especially toward you,

Corinthians. And then in chapter two, verse four, where he says that I want you to know the love which

I have abundantly for you. That's grace. That's talking about grace there. It's in the grace of God that we've conducted ourselves in this way in the world.

And it's in the grace of God that I want you to know the love that I have abundantly for you.

There's our bookends to this section, verses 12 through chapter two, verse four. So then in verse 13, we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand.

And I hope you will understand until the end. So these words that have come from the apostle Paul have been in the spirit of God, which has led

Paul to write exactly what God means for him to write. All scripture is breathed out by God, as we have in second

Timothy three 16. And Peter says in second Peter three 16 by the providence of God, those would both be three 16.

But anyway, Peter says there that the letters that Paul writes are scripture. It is the word of God written for the people of God.

So Paul says, we write these things to you that you may understand, just as you also partially did understand us.

Verse 14, that we are your reason for boasting as you also are ours in the day of our

Lord Jesus Christ. So we boast about you, that you came to know

Christ through our testimony, which we spoke in the confidence of the grace of God.

And and we are your cause for boasting that you might say it was because of this gospel proclamation that came from the apostle

Paul, that we came into the family of God by faith. And Paul says in verse 15, and in this confidence,

I intended it first to come to you so that you might receive grace twice.

So first of all, what are we talking about with regards to this confidence? Well, it's because this has all been provided to us by God.

So it's not in Paul's ability to preach. It's not in it's not because Paul is in and of himself holier than thou.

Right. Paul is saying here, as we kind of go through this, and he's talking about, I intended to come to you, but I didn't come to you.

Right. But his previous letter was tearful and sorrowful. Okay. What Paul is saying here is that the reason that I didn't come to you is not because you're unholy, but I am holy.

Paul is very humble in his approach here. So he wants the Corinthians to know it's not because you did something bad and therefore you have to shape up before I can come to you because I'm holier than you are.

So you need to be holy in order for me to come and visit you. Paul is not lording himself over them.

In fact, he even says that in verse 24, not that we lord it over your faith. We are workers for you, for your joy, for in your faith, you are standing firm.

He says to the Corinthians, you are believers. You are of Christ. I wouldn't be writing to you in this way if it wasn't for the fact that you're in Christ Jesus.

Back again in verse 14, you partially did understand us, that we are your reason for boasting as you also are ours in the day of our

Lord Christ. So you do believe, you do understand these things that we have written to you.

But this sorrowful letter that Paul had just written to them, that he wrote with tears and the

Corinthians received with tears, with conviction of heart, because realizing the things that they needed to repent of in their midst,

Paul wrote this letter for them because he cares for them, not because he wanted to lord it over them or because he was trying to make them feel bad.

And because they were convicted in this, he did not want to come to them in person because that would have caused them greater anguish.

And it would have caused him sorrow as well, because he was the one that brought them to that anguish.

He wanted to experience joy from the Corinthians and wanted them to experience joy from him as well.

So that's the reason why he didn't come and visit with them. So as we continue on and see that here in what he says, well, first of all,

I didn't finish up verse 15, where he says, so you might receive grace twice. What is twice grace here?

Well, in verse 16, that is to pass your way into Macedonia and again from Macedonia to come to you.

That's the first grace, not that he came through Corinth twice, but coming to them and visiting with them in person two times, that's the first grace.

The second grace is the next half of 16 and by you to be helped on my journey to Judea.

So the first grace is that we get to visit with one another.

We get to enjoy one another's company and not just once, but twice on my way through Macedonia to you.

And then when I come back through to stop in and visit with you again, that's by the grace of God.

We get to enjoy one another's company, but then the next grace is by you to be helped on my journey to Judea.

So it is by the grace of God that you get to be a part of this mission's work to help me and send me on my way as I go to Judea with an offering that will come from you.

Paul will talk about that later on in chapters eight and nine, but all this to say that the

Corinthians get to be involved in this mission's work that is going on and that's by the grace of God.

So you get to be included in this spreading of the gospel. We have, uh, we have received love from God that we may show love to one another.

As it says in first John, this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he first loved us.

And also in first John chapter three, we read this, I'm going to start here in verse 16 by this.

We have known love that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. And by this, we will know that we are of the truth.

If we obey his commandments and among his commandments, uh, are this command among, among his commands, how do you say this, uh, properly in English among his commands is this command.

There we go, that we must love one another. So Paul says,

I want to come with love for you. You want to receive me with love and you have this opportunity by the grace of God to even show your love for others that I am going to with the gospel and in ministry work and to encourage one another in this faith.

So that's the second grace there in, uh, in verse 16.

Now we likewise, we have this opportunity as members of the household of God to encourage one another and build each other up.

And so we must, so we must do. We look first to our own household, right?

Because just like, just like you might receive a paycheck and where does that paycheck go? It goes first to the members of your household.

It might be paying bills, but Hey, paying bills is to the benefit of the members of your own household, right? So it helps out the people in your house before you might give a portion of it out to somebody else or, you know, family, extended family, maybe friends you want to help.

Uh, uh, the, uh, the extra, um, a pair of church ministries that you might give a donation to or something like that.

You give first to your own house, your own household benefits from your income. Then you give to your church and then you might give to somebody else.

And so it's going to be the same way in the household of God. We care for one another among the brothers and sisters in Christ.

Before we take some of that money or some of what we have, that hospitality time, whatever it might happen to be, and then extend that to others who have need.

Paul said in Galatians chapter six, as we have opportunity, let us show charity to everyone.

And especially to the household of faith. So we show it first to our brothers and sisters in the

Lord. And then as we have opportunity, we do charity for one another as well. So, so that's what Paul is mainly talking about here that the

Corinthians have by the grace of God, this chance to show charity to others.

Therefore, uh, Paul says verse 17, was I vacillating when I intended to do this vacillating is a word we don't really use in the

English language all that often. You might. I don't. But vacillating simply means to be indecisive.

So was Paul being indecisive when he intended to come to the Corinthians, but then had a change of plans or what

I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh so that with me there will be yes, yes and no, no, at the same time.

So at one point he said to the Corinthians that he was going to come to them and then he wasn't able to plans change.

Something happened, but it was by God's plan that something changed.

And so everything that happens is by the plan, the ordination of God and God is not indecisive.

So Paul was not being indecisive either by following the Lord's will. He was not vacillating.

He was not a man that lacked integrity, like telling them he was going to do one thing, but instead doing something else.

His response to them wasn't yes, yes, but then maybe not. And I've got a better offer.

I got a better deal that just came up, guys. Sorry, I can't come to you. I'm going to take this better opportunity instead.

That wasn't the reason Paul did not come to them. Verse 18, but God is faithful as God is faithful, so our word to you is not yes and no.

God does everything with a clear and deliberate intention. Well, I say clear.

It may not be clear to us at the time, but as Paul said previously in first Corinthians thirteen, now we see as though through a glass darkly, but soon we will see face to face and then we will know just as we are fully known.

So a day is coming in which we will see those things clearly to God. His intentions are always clear and there's always a reason for for everything.

Again, God is not indecisive. He has foreordained all that is going to take place from before the foundation of the world.

So as God is faithful and remember, Paul is is operating in the grace of God back in verse twelve as God is faithful.

So our word to you is not yes and no. For the son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yes and no, but has become yes in him.

Everything we preach to you about Christ was absolutely true. There wasn't any waffling there.

There was not indecisiveness. It was absolutely true. And every promise that is given to us in Christ Jesus, as we preached among you, every promise becomes real by faith in him.

Verse twenty, 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 us.

Amen means so be it or to be in agreement with it, to say yes,

Lord, to be in agreement with God. So therefore, the promises of God that have been given to us in Christ Jesus, they are yes, therefore also through him, because Paul conducts himself in Christ.

We have our amen to the glory of God. Remember Paul's introduction to the

Ephesians, Ephesians chapter one, starting in verse three, blessed be the God and father of our

Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

And when you have faith in Christ, every one of those blessings are yes in him.

And remember how Paul started this letter, second Corinthians chapter one, verse three, blessed be the

God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction.

All of that is yes, in Christ Jesus, not well, maybe we're comforted in our affliction.

I don't know. No, that's not the way that we're to understand that we're to know that we are comforted by God.

We have all the mercy that God has to offer us when we put our faith and trust in his son,

Jesus Christ. And just as we are guaranteed these promises through Christ, so Paul says here, we conduct ourselves in Christ Jesus.

So this is not waffling. This is not indecisive. When we could not come to you, verse twenty one.

Now, he who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave the pledge of the spirit in our hearts.

We have all of this. All of these promises in Christ, we are children of the father, we have fellowship with the son, we have the sealing of the

Holy Spirit on our hearts, all who believe in Jesus Christ. And so,

Paul says in verse twenty three, I call God as witness to my soul that to spare you, I did not come again to Corinth, not that we lorded over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy, for in your faith you are standing firm again.

He knows that they are in the faith. He's not saying to them, see, you're not really Christian. So that's why

I'm not coming to you. I'm going to go hang out with these other brothers and sisters in the Lord who are much better Christians than you are.

That wasn't the reason why Paul did not come to them. So he explains chapter two, verse one, but I determined this for my own sake, that I would not come to you again in sorrow.

For if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad, but the one whom

I made sorrowful, like, in other words, the Corinthians were in sorrow because of that tearful letter that he had to write to them.

And and they would be the ones that need to bring him joy. So if he comes in there in sorrow, he won't have joy.

Who gives me joy except the one that I made sorrowful? So he wanted to wait. He wanted to give them that opportunity to be convicted of that sin, to have sorrow over it and to repent and be restored in righteousness before he came to them again.

And then they wouldn't be they wouldn't be burdened by excessive sorrow, because here Paul comes and we see that he's sorrowful because of us.

So now we're sorrowful, too. And then it would just be a really sad visit with one another.

Paul wants to receive joy from them and he wants them to receive joy from him. So it was going to be better for him to wait to come to them later.

Verse three, and this is the very thing I wrote you so that when I came, I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice, having confidence in you all, that my joy would be the joy of you all for out of much affliction and anguish of heart.

I wrote to you with many tears, not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which

I have abundantly for you. We just finished up Proverbs. It's there in Proverbs that we have read better is open rebuke than love that is concealed.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. That's Proverbs twenty seven, five to six.

And Paul has for the Corinthians here open rebuke and open love because he has called them to repentance that they might know that they might know the reality of their sin and their need to repent of that and come back to the path of righteousness.

And again, he wanted to give them time to be sorrowful over that so that they would repent and be restored.

There are times when we're going to have to rebuke somebody who is walking in sin and when they when they weep, when they mourn over that, when they recognize their sin and they're convicted in heart over their sin, we need to let them be in that morning.

Don't try to soothe them and say, oh, it's OK or, you know, it's fine. It's not that big a deal.

Have you ever had anybody apologize to you and your response to them was it's OK or that's all right, man, or something like that?

Yeah, they're apologizing to you because they realize they did something wrong. And if it's if it's a sin, they're asking for your forgiveness.

Don't respond to that by saying it's OK because it's not OK. They needed to be convicted and they needed to repent.

And so if they're asking for your forgiveness, say I forgive you rather than it's

OK. And there's the grace of God that's being exercised between us there.

So there are times when we we need to confront somebody who is in their sin and when they are convicted over that sin, let them mourn over it so that they will repent and and be restored by the grace of God.

First, John one nine. God is faithful in this, that when we ask forgiveness for our sins, he is faithful and just to cleanse us, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Let us be faithful in that individually. We're convicted over our sin. We mourn over it.

We ask for forgiveness. We repent and let us do the same for one another in the body of Christ that we call one another to repentance, to be restored to righteousness.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word that we have read here today. And may it convict our hearts as we brothers and sisters in the

Lord should be convicting one another's hearts as the as the need arises. Help us to be an encouragement to one another or admonish one another as needed and building one another up in this most holy faith that we are in by the grace of God.

It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .utt