Book of 2 Corinthians - Ch. 2, Vs. 1-17 (03/25/2001)

I have a question for you. The scripture says, from glory to glory. What does that mean? Glory to glory. No, the scripture has glory to glory. One knows what it means. All right? Where is that scripture?

From glory to glory. Decide what it means. Another question. I want you to find in the Bible where the Lord casts out devils from the believer. Where the Lord casts out devils from the believer. All right, the lesson for today.

Paul’s Decision to Visit Corinth in Sorrow

But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness. Why did he decide that? All right. For those of you that just come in, I had two questions that I want you to research.

No one could tell me why the scripture is glory to glory. The next one is, does our Lord, or find in the Bible, where the Lord casts out devils from the believer? All right, I just read the first verse, but I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness.

The apostle continues to give further reasons why he did not visit them at the proposed time. Because of the scandals that were among them, he could not see them comfortably. He could not come to them in comfort.

And therefore, he determined to not see them at all, till he had reason to believe that those that were evil had put the evil away. Remember, they were having a congregation of incest. And they were in turmoil after Paul had written his letter.

For I make you sorry, who is he then that makes me glad? But the same which makes me sorry by you. He says, I look to you for my gladness, and you would have only sorrow for me, so I'm not going to come.

Should he have used his apostolic authority in inflicting punishment on the transgressors?

Yes or no? David, should he have used his authority for this? And I wrote the same unto you.

He's written about the situation. When I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice, having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. So he would comfort himself with the comfort of them.

For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. Faithful ministers of the gospel are often made sorrowful by those who ought to give them joy.

Now, why is that? David, you're a faithful minister. What do I mean by the fact that those from whom we get joy are often our sorrow?

The fact of life, you know, it seems it has the ability to hurt you the most. When you're ministering to people and you're watching them grow, and you see someone who does not exhibit the fruits of the Holy Spirit in whatever manner, whether it be a mini-man, it breaks your heart.

You lose sleep over it. You pray for them. In reality, our fellowship brings great joy to one another, but it does not always do that.

Church Discipline, Forgiveness, and Restoring the Offender

All right, could we say that the correction springs from love, all right, and earnest desire for their good. But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part, that I may not overcharge you all, but in part.

He had not grieved Paul only, but the sound part of the church also. Not overcharge you all, not speaking as if all were guilty, or equally so. He was not speaking that he's not writing to the church and says you all.

He's writing to the church about one individual. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. The church body consented to the dismissal of one. So was the whole church agreed to the reinstatement of one.

But it was the pastor that had the last say in the reinstatement. It has to be up to one, and that's as it should be. So that counterwise, you ought to rather to forgive him, comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with much sorrow.

If the church as a group inflicts discipline on one, sets him aside, it's for his good. If it is going on too long, if the church forgets about him, then he can be swallowed up in the sorrow. He can be forever, well, he gets unhappy with the church.

And they did this to me, and I'm never going back. That's not the reason. As worldly sorrows cause death, so may religion sorrow also, even sorrow for sin. Sorrow is not of any worth in itself, but only as it serves to a spiritual end and purpose.

And when it is excessive, not only the comforts, but the gifts of the usefulness of the person sorrowing are in danger of being swallowed up. Wherefore, I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him.

Now, if a church has set aside a person, we're not to stop loving. We're to love him, hoping for his acknowledgement of the fact and his return. Confirming your love toward him by receiving him again into the church.

The objects of the church discipline are the repentance of the offender in honor of religion. That's the object. It's not just to get rid of somebody. Whenever these are accomplished, offenders should be forgiven and such as have been excommunicated should be received again to the Christian communion.

For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether you be obedient in all things. Paul is writing to find out. He didn't go to find out. It was a great handicap to go from place to place in that day and time, but he is writing to know one way or the other.

The arguments with which and the motive by which he presses the church, of course, to forgive the incestuous person and to readmit him to their society. Lest Satan get advantage of us. To whom ye forgive anything, for I forgive also.

For if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgive I it in the person of Christ. If I forgave anything, it was in Christ. If you forgive anything, it was in Christ. You cannot forgive outside of Christ.

Lest Satan should get an advantage of this, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Not ignorant of Satan's devices. Charlie, what are some of the devices of Satan in such a situation?

For me, Satan does not work on the unawaited. Like you were saying, he already has the world. So where does he find the status in the church? That's right. Yes. Yes. That we have to be very careful when we start pointing our finger at our brother.

And I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about. The homosexual issue in Vermont, where we live, is a very hot issue. In particular, the church we belong to is very much such an issue that that's all they preach about.

That's all they talk about. And I believe that they were taking away from God and giving the devil too much credit. And I didn't go to church every time to hear about homosexuality. That's right. And I was against homosexuality.

But we left the church because of that. Or that's the main reason. But we got labeled homosexual lovers. And we were upheld homosexuality. When, in fact, I told the preacher at my kitchen table, we are totally against homosexuality.

And that is not the issue. The issue is we want to hear God's word. We don't want to hear about the quarantine and all that stuff. That's right. You see how faith can get blown out. And this has been true.

The word got out in the community that we supported homosexuality and all that. So we have to be very careful. We have. Excuse me.

Extremely so. Fortunately, we have not discussed homosexuality to any extent in this church. I hope we never do. Satan could care less whether we're for it or against it as long as we talk about it. And we cannot talk about it.

It's just a... If they are truly a believer. Now, Satan would gladly have kept the sinful man in the church. Getting back to our story. But since he has repented, Satan would gladly keep him out. Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel and the doors opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit because I had found not Titus, my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went from Thinsen to Macedonia.

A door was opened to Macedonia because he had expected to meet Titus there and to give news concerning the state affairs at Corinth. Hence, he went on soon, hoping to meet him on the way to Macedonia.

The Triumph of Christ and the Sweet Savor of the Gospel

Now, thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the Savior of his knowledge by us in every place. If we're looking for the good, Christ is always there. Christ is there whether we're looking or not.

But I mean, if we're looking for the good, we find it. The figure is that of a sacrifice, a sweet-smelling savor. You remember the incense that was burned on the altar of incense as the smoke ascended?

It was the prayers going up. For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. We're the same. I would that each one of you were the same. Whether you're sitting here on the pew or out in the world.

And I think, for the most part, you are. To God, they are a sweet savor of knowledge of Christ, both for the message itself, they who from love toward Christ and their fellow men publish it, are most precious in God's sight, and that whether men receive Christ or reject him.

You cannot be static. You cannot sit under the word of God and it not affect you one way or the other. Even if you sleep, it's affecting you. For the one we are to savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life.

And who is sufficient for these things? Who knows these things? You cannot determine who is who in the church. From one evil condition to another, some people are actually hardened by preaching. Have you ever experienced that?

And who is sufficient for these things in himself? No one is. But someone has to preach Christ, and Paul proceeds to show that he is sufficient. For we are not as the many a bold thing to say, but necessary and only from God.

For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity. But as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. I would that each one of us would speak in Christ, no matter where we are or what we do.

I don't think all of you do. Or all of us do. But it shouldn't be that way, yes.

What? Yes, that's right. Yes.

Corrupting the Word of God and the Need to Read Scripture Directly

For we are as many, or not as many, who corrupt the word of God, like those who mix their wines with worse liquors, but as sincerity without any mixture, but as from God this rises higher still, transmitting this pure word, not of our own.

You cannot, well first of all you don't have to memorize the Bible, but it has to become such a part of you, that you look at everything, every situation in the light of God. If you fail to do that, it's in the light of Satan.

One or the other, it's never in between. In the sight of God, whom we regard as always present, and noting every word of our tongue. I forget that. I forget that God notes every word, not only of the tongue, but of my thinking.

But once you speak the word, it becomes your master. You must be very, very cautious, very capable of sending forth the right message. You cannot account for people's thinking, but you can for their receiving.

Speak, yes. I was thinking that you were talking about that, about corrupting the Bible. There are three things that give me a bit of a hard time. I think the first is probably in the sight of God. To put some of the writing in red and some in black, and say that bit's red and said by the Lord in a different way.

They didn't exactly say that, but the implication is that when I read that, I read red, I think God's, Jesus said that. There was one that was black. So that's an energy, and that kind of leads you astray.

I can put it on kind of a second level, that which is black. And then the other thing, and we all have study Bibles, and I've got one right here. I think it's been making too much time reading the commentary.

Not enough time reading what it says. That's right. And I'm not against commentary. I think it's great. It helps me see things I didn't see. But I think what we ought to always do, is we need to go back and reread what is actually said in the Bible.

Maybe after having been enlightened with what the commentary paper said, but understand that he's a man, it may be wrong. And that's the same with a lesson that you teach. When you're reading the scripture, I'm very much comfortable that anything that you're saying when you're reading the scripture is right.

But when you make a comment on it, you make it very clear that this is a comment of a bishop, and this is what you believe in, it's what you think today, but you may think something different tomorrow, because you may be better informed.

And so I think we need to be very careful that we don't have these three categories, or these two categories of proof, and that it's none of this. And we sometimes consider it more valuable than the actual Bible itself.

We go down and read that and see what it's saying to us. You're right, Bill. Always read the Word. Yes? There are too many books in the Christian bookstore, too. I was given one for Christmas that I've been reading.

It is one of the most horrible books I've ever read, doctrinally speaking. And it just stings to me, the book. But I'm reading it because I want to go ahead and see what I think the passage is that the person gave it to me and wanted me to have.

But we have to be very careful what books we read out in the bookstore. Another comment I want to make is on the interesting context that this verse is found in that we're studying, where it says, "...for we are not as many as corrupt the Word of God.".

If you read the verses right above it, you'll see that the actual doctrine that was being, well, the corruption that was happening in the same breath that he makes this statement, the verses are speaking of.

Verse 15, "...we are unto God a sweet savior of them that are saved, and them that are perished.". That's speaking about two different seeds, as you've taught it so many times. Them that are saved is Jesus' seed, or God's seed.

And those that perish are those who are Satan's seed. And then when he comes down and he says, "...and who is sufficient for these things?". He's saying, we cannot understand this, or know who is who, but we know this is a fact, and that this is the way it is.

And so as we tell the gospel, Satan's seed is going, we're going to have to be a savior of sin. They're going to hate us. And when we tell the same gospel to the Lord's seed, the lost sheep, so to speak, it'll be a sweet-smelling savior, and they'll come to the Word, and they'll be saved.

And he says, this is a mystery, and he goes right into verse 17 and says, "...but we're not as many of people who are to corrupt the Word.". One of the earliest heresies, or corruptions, was Arminians,.

As in the church, in terms of the Roman Catholicism. Everybody was born Arminian.

They began to twist the scriptures, and change the scriptures, to do away with election, and the Son of God. And that's one of the earliest corruptions. That's right, and it started from the beginning, from the very first.

And this writer said, that the whole thing, that in this chapter, where they had this disturbance in the church, was from one man, who got dead to Paul, and he started to lie, and false accusations about Paul, and had to go to church, believing in him.

And he said, that was why this stuff, that Paul,.

Used to be like, that letter. I don't know where he got that from, but anyway, he wrote it. Personally, I will read no book. My eyesight is poor, and I use that as a tertiary excuse, but books just never have held a fascination for me.

I will not read about the Bible. I would rather read the Bible, and study the Bible. I do go by commentary every once in a while, and it's good. It's good to get other godly men's viewpoint, but I make up my own mind, and I hope each one of you do the same.

Everybody is Arminian in the beginning.

The Danger of Books, Commentaries, and Human Systems

Explain that. The Arminian belief is that everything is determined by man's will, rather than God's sovereignty. An Arminian is a person who believes that man's will, his own will, his decisions that he makes, is determined by what happens, as opposed to one who believes God's sovereignty.

So when you're born, even when you're first saved, I think, even when you're first born again, you think that the whole big deal of it is that you accepted Jesus Christ, that's all you've got to say. But later, as you know the Lord better, you find out He was pursuing you first, and He responded to you, and you weren't the one who initiated, but you thought you were, when you were a baby Christian, and as you grow up, you find out God was with you.

If Arminius was a man who had an argument with the Calvinistic viewpoint, and if Arminius argued that man's will is the ultimate authority, then it came from man's faith. You put up your hand. Yes. Let's see.

Oh, I don't like that. The book that I'm reading came back to my mind. I just want to make one more comment, because you made a comment on books. A lot of times, if you haven't read a lot of books on theology, the first one you pick up and read, you may not be aware that nearly all of them are very persuasive.

They wouldn't be writing books if they weren't convinced they were right. They're all very persuasive. And so you just have to be so careful, because you have to hold it up against Scripture, or else you'll be persuaded in their argument, just because you bought it at the bookstore.

And it doesn't work that way. You cannot do that. If you read this book, if some of you had picked up this book, including myself, if I had picked this book up 20 years ago and read this book, it would have made a devastating difference in my life, because I might have believed it.

I know better now because I know the Scriptures. But these books are very dangerous, and you have to focus on the Scriptures, as a new believer, far more than you do these books. I would advise, any time you want to pick up a book at the bookstore, ask me about the author.

Ask Brother Otis. Ask folks who have been around in the city for a long time. If they've ever heard of the author, to try to determine if the person is a conservative, I would leave her in line. But this particular book I've been reading, I just have thought over and over how dangerous it would be in the hands of almost any, many church members, if they read this book.

It's very persuasive, in the wrong direction, and uses false premises to set it up. And if you buy the premises, you believe me right, I'll leave her in line. That's the way Satan works. Yeah. He'll, he'll...

I go to the back, too. Satan works in a certain way. Yeah. I'm glad you can say that, because that was really a problem, until we got away from it. Too many times, people in the past, too many times, preachers get up, and they preach on the books, and not on the word of God.

So they'll start out, in so-and-so's book, he says so-and-so. Yeah. And the entire sermon, talking about that book. We even had one preacher in the church, who actually took a Wednesday night, and taught a series of studies on these books, which is how it works.

Now, I agree with what he said, a lot of books are persuasive. And that's why a lot of times, you hear so much of the secular world, right? The targeting, and the reason that I don't believe in creation, is because in so-and-so's book, he states, well, why don't we... he states in the word of God, he says we're in the age of 18.

That's why I kept going through that, and I think, I think that's another slow way, that Satan, in their end, took the ministry,.

And gave it to the Christians. That's right. Another way is, so many translations of the Bible. Amen. Another thing, we enjoy in our own, anybody's case, actually,.

It does not belong to us, honestly, this is how it works, this is why we, so many years ago, came to your Bible studies, and your study school class, is that we did not want to go to study school, and have somebody dictate in a book, of study school, what we were to learn.

Because we weren't, we weren't in the word, we weren't learning, we were just reading what someone in, Tennessee, or wherever, decided that, we should study this anymore. Yeah. And, I think that, I mean, I'm not saying that it's wrong, but it can be very dangerous.

Because then that goes back to, control of what people think, and control of what they, whoever they are, a hierarchy in, let me say it, let me, let me say this, if you have, if you have a, a, a, churches, and the conditions that all people be running, then if they, if it comes down to laughter, of what people are being taught, and sentences, then it can be very dangerous.

Yes. Even the way its fluxed. Absolutely. Think about this verse, which we studied last week, 1st Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians, 1st Corinthians 24, not for that, but we have, dominion over your faith, for our helpers in your doing, to provide faith, you're saying, Paul didn't believe in that.

He wasn't having an opinion on it. We're just telling you what you're doing. A good teacher is a joyful thing. You know, when you sit at the feet of a good Bible teacher, it's joyful, but if you sit at the feet of a controlling group who want the whole church and the whole country to study a certain thing, it's dry, it's dead.

I've been there. You may be wrong. Yes. There's one other thing. We can't know any time your teacher has an agenda that he is supporting. You can rest assured that he is not going to cry. What you should be doing is just trying to clarify what is in the Bible at the time that you have these questions.

Not to get you to believe a certain thing or a table in a certain way. Don't use it to prove something. See, I almost have a problem with what we should use the Bible to prove that creation occurred rather than evolution.

I almost have a problem with that. If you're saying I believe in creation, I'm going to use the Bible to prove it. I think the better answer is to read the Bible and see what it says. Now, I think what the Bible says is that creation occurred, not evolution.

But if you sit out backward, you're going to get back whatever the thing you're trying to prove is. That's right.

God’s Dominion, the Present Moment, and the Red-Letter Bible

I want you all to take note of this. We are in competition with God too many times, too many places. Think about it. Everywhere you turn,.

Brother of us, everywhere you turn, you go into a bookstore and just look at what you pass by. And you can find that here is some writer who has found the perfect way of happiness. And all you've got to do is read her books, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

And that woman has never been near a Bible, a man who ever wrote them. That's right. Go out with David's bookstores in terrible places to find any kind of truth that you want to live with to be.

A partner. Bookstores are in business to sell books. And so are movies and television and everything else.

The corruption of the world is almost perfect.

Well, all right. What is the will of God for each person? Do what? Love God. Obey God. All right. How can we make it more personal? More personal than that. More personal than that. Well, that's the first part of it.

But we give ourselves to that. You're all operating secondhand. You are to do the best you can right where you are with whatever you have right now. That's right now. At this very moment, you're to do the best you can.

He takes care of bringing all the circumstances. But to be led, I must do the best I can. Right now. Yes. He has made it so personal, so positive, that right now is the only time you have. Yes. Now, there may be something said that prepares you for next week.

But right now, while you sit in that pew, now and now and now and now and now, Christ is present. Right now. The tongue is ours, but the power is God's. Don't be hurt that you don't do it. Just do it.

You can't go back, so don't be hurt. Just do it. What? You can't go back. You can't recall. I can make a statement. I can't go back and make another statement. I can't go back and redo anything. It's got to be right now.

That's right. Everything is under God's dominion. Bill? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's right. Absolutely. That's absolutely true. I missed what you said. We're laughing about something else back here.

You just had a birthday, didn't you? You're nearly as old as I am. Well, remember the tongue is ours. The power is God. That's right. Absolutely. Bill, you said something today that I'd never thought of before, but it's true.

The red letters leads to a division in the Bible. If it's taken right, that's fine. But I think we unconsciously read the black letters as secondhand. I like that. All right. Anything else? Yes. Everybody but me.