WWUTT 1726 I Will Not Spare Anyone (2 Corinthians 13:1-4)

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The Apostle Paul has warned the Corinthians that if they do not turn from their sin, he is going to come and visit them again.

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And this next visit that he makes to them, there might be punishment because of their unrepentance when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it.

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Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of 2 Corinthians and, God willing, finishing this study this week as we have one chapter left, 2

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Corinthians 13. It's just 14 verses, so I'm going to start out by reading the whole thing from the

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

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This is the third time I am coming to you. By the mouth of two or three witnesses, every matter shall be confirmed.

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I have previously said, when present the second time, and though now absent,

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I say in advance, to those who have sinned in the past and to all the rest as well, that if I come again,

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I will not spare anyone, since you are seeking proof that Christ speaks in me.

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He is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. For indeed, he was crucified because of weakness, yet he lives because of the power of God.

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For we also are weak in him, yet we will live with him because of the power of God toward you.

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Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves, or do you not recognize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail the test.

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But I hope that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test. Now we pray to God that you do no wrong, not that we ourselves may appear approved, but that you may do what is right, even though we may appear unapproved.

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For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth. For we rejoice when we ourselves are weak, but you are strong.

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This we also pray for, that you be restored. For this reason

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I am writing these things while absent, so that when present, I need not use severity in accordance with the authority which the

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Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down. Finally, brothers, rejoice, be restored, be comforted, be like -minded, live in peace, and the

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God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss, all the saints greet you, the grace of the

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Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

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So it comes down to this, the final chapter of 2 Corinthians, where Paul makes this final appeal that they would turn from the false teachers that have been misleading them, and they would come back to the truth.

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And Paul says, I hope that when I come to you, I not need use any severity, for you will have already listened to the warnings that have been given to you, you will have turned from your sin back to Christ and have been restored.

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We saw that word come up a couple of times, be restored. That's right there in verse 9, and also in those final instructions in verse 11.

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Finally, brothers, rejoice, be restored. Now this has been a pretty rebuking letter.

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Not all of the Corinthians are following after the false teachers. But Paul very boldly, very strongly, very straightforwardly telling the

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Corinthians not to go after these false teachers. And it's the false teaching that is causing their division because they are not holding steadfast to the gospel and growing in the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

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But they have gone after other strange teachings. It is causing division in the church. There are occasions in which we see these churches that Paul addresses, we see them going after false doctrines, and it causes division.

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The Corinthians and the Galatians especially. There are other times when these churches will go after false doctrines, or there may be some members in the body that are, they're vexed by false doctrines, they're shaken in spirit because a false teacher has come to them and said something falsely.

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And Paul is a lot more gentle with the way that he deals with them. So they too have had false teachers that have, you know, kind of unsettled the church.

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But he's not nearly as rebuking as he is with the Corinthians and the Galatians. Why are those three letters, 1st and 2nd

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Corinthians and Galatians, unique? Whereas Paul addresses false teaching with the

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Romans, he addresses it in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. We even see in Colossians that there is some false philosophies around Colossae that have attempted to woo people away from the church.

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Why isn't Paul as rebuking in those letters when he deals with false teaching? Because those churches aren't divided.

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It is the Corinthians and the Galatians that have allowed the false teaching to divide them.

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Now with the Thessalonians, it's rather interesting. They're clearly shaken by what somebody has said.

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Because you consider what Paul says in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2. I encourage you not to be quickly shaken by either a spoken word or a letter that seemingly came from us.

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So it appears as if somebody has claimed to be an apostle or has forged a letter in Paul's name and has claimed that the day of the

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Lord has already taken place. That's what Paul is responding to in 2nd Thessalonians. But he praises the

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Thessalonians, he encourages them in their unity, and says right at the very start of the letter that you are growing in steadfastness in your faith and in your love toward one another.

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So the false teaching has not caused division in the church. Therefore, there's no need for Paul to be rebuking of the

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Thessalonians. He warns them about the false teaching, but he doesn't rebuke them for giving in to it and therefore causing the division that's in the church.

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Once a church starts following a doctrine that is not from the Lord Jesus Christ, then what inevitably happens, there's division.

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That's exactly what Paul addresses with the Galatians. You are biting and devouring one another, he says to them, because they have quickly gone after a false gospel, which he says in chapter 1 is really no gospel at all.

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Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, he says to them. And those who go after a different gospel are anathema.

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They are accursed in Galatians 1, 8 and 9. With the

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Corinthians here, this is the warning that he gives to the Corinthians and does so very pastorally and lovingly.

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It's not overbearing. It's not Paul showing himself to be smarter than all they are.

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Where you see how he's boasted in weakness, not in his strength and power, but in the fact that he's gone through persecutions on their behalf so that they would see everything that Paul has given, what he has sacrificed for them, that they would hear the gospel and live.

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The false teachers have not done that. They've taken from the Corinthians. They've not given to them. They've taken from them and have made themselves rich while the

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Corinthians benefit in no way. There's just division that has been caused in the church. Paul confronted division at the very start of 1

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Corinthians. It's the first thing that he gets into in 1 Corinthians, even though we see later on that there is sexual immorality that is in the church.

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There is there's class separation. There's the misuse of the Lord's table. There are even some that deny that Jesus has risen from the dead.

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And yet what's the very first thing that Paul addresses? Their factions, their divisions that have been caused among them.

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So the false teaching and the passions of the flesh that they have gone after have caused division. This is the rotten fruit of this false doctrine that you have been following after.

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There's no unity in the body, but rather there is this this breaking up of of the body.

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I think the illustration that I used was it last week. Oh, no, I used it with my Sunday school class.

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That's why I was thinking it was something recent. So it was just yesterday. The illustration I use with them is what

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Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy. The false teachers have caused it's spreading like gangrene.

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So it's causing parts of the body to rot and fall off. False teaching causes disunity.

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So Paul addresses that with the Corinthians here. And the reason why he takes such a harsh tone is because the love of Christ is not being seen among them.

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He knows that the false teaching has been embraced because of the factions that have developed among the brethren.

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I've read to you many times or quoted to you 1 Timothy 6, beginning in verse three.

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If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our

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Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, in other words, when it's a teaching that is affixed to the gospel, it will develop godliness in its hearers.

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But if anyone strays from that, the teaching of the gospel or that which flows from the gospel, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

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He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

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And the Corinthians have believed that way. They thought that this Christian faith that they have newly adopted would make them better than their

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Greek counterparts. This is the new philosophy on the block. And so if I become a

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Christian, I have that thing that now makes me smarter than the Greek guy who doesn't have the teachings of Jesus Christ.

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Paul addressed that in 1 Corinthians. No, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

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We don't become Christians to get smarter or look more intelligent to the rest of the world, because the worldly who are out there, they're going to look at us and think that we're crazy.

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They're not impressed by what it is that we believe. This gospel that we proclaim,

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Paul went on to say to the Corinthians, is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.

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Christ crucified whom we proclaim. So even the Corinthians have, there are some of the

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Corinthians that believe becoming a Christian makes me more popular, makes me smarter, may even benefit me financially in a certain way.

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That's certainly gone on with these false teachers here regarding the second letter, where they've gone after these most eminent apostles who are preying off of the

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Corinthians to make themselves rich. And so since they've gone after this false teaching, there are divisions that have started up among them.

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Now, Paul addressing those divisions in the previous letter said, there must be factions among you so that those who are genuine may be revealed.

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Who are the ones that are truly followers of Christ in the gospel? They're the ones that are going to be revealed through this time of testing.

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And this really is kind of the summation of this letter that Paul is putting in to chapter 13 here, or we have summarized in chapter 13, because in verse five, he says, test yourselves to see that you are in the faith.

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Examine yourselves, or do you not recognize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless you indeed fail the test?

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We're going to come back to that tomorrow. That's where I'm going to pick up tomorrow as we talk about the way that the

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Lord tests the church with false teaching so that it might be plain who is living by the truth and who is living by lies.

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At the start of this chapter, Paul says, this is the third time I am coming to you. Now, he's talking about the physical personal visit that he's going to be making with the

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Corinthians when he comes the next time. By the mouth of two or three witnesses, every matter shall be confirmed.

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So Paul is saying this is not me just hearing by word of mouth or taking in by secondhand accounts, the divisions and things that are going on among you.

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I have received these things by the evidence of two or three witnesses, and I am going to see it even with my own eyes.

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Who is it that is following the false teaching? Who is it that is that is allowing these false teachers in your midst?

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And apparently these most eminent apostles, it's not like they've started another church down on the corner or they have their own little school of philosophy over here.

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And some of the Corinthians are going over to their school. It has all the appearances of the Corinthians have let them in the church.

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These most eminent apostles are even the guys who are teaching in the Sunday morning gathering.

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So Paul wants to know who is letting these guys in. Why have they not been dealt with?

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They are causing division and Paul's going to find out who it is. So every charge may be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses.

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Verse two, I have previously said when present the second time and though now absent.

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So he's talking about I've said this to you when I was with you the last time I was with you, I said. That those who have sinned in the past and to all the rest as well, that if I come again,

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I will not spare anyone. So he's warned them about this face to face now in the in the letter previously said the reason

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I didn't come to you when you were expecting me was because it was not going to go well for either one of us.

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I was going to be filled with grief and then you were going to be grieved and we were just not going to have a good visit.

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So for your sake, I did not come to you. And there was also this it's not really a threat that Paul is making, it's a warning that if he has to come to them again and these sins are still present within the body and they haven't done anything to deal with them, then when

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Paul comes in the power of the Holy Spirit, there is a punishment that's going to come upon them that would be much more severe than just what they're receiving through this letter.

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Now, we don't have anything after second Corinthians to indicate to us how many of the Corinthians truly repented.

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And if that power of the Holy Spirit had to be demonstrated among them to show who was genuinely in the

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Lord and who was not. But earlier in chapter 10, Paul said, like in verse seven.

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So second Corinthians 10, seven, you are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is

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Christ, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ, so are we.

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For even if I boast somewhat further about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for tearing you down,

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I will not be put to shame. For I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters, for they say his letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is weak and his words contemptible.

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Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also indeed when present.

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For we do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves, but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.

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So Paul is talking about coming to them and demonstrating power among them, and he is withholding.

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His next visit, because he knows that if they have not repented, there's going to be some severity, there will be some severe consequences among them if they've not repented of the false teaching that they have gone after.

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So, again, it's not really a threat, but it's been a warning that he's going to come to them again in power. And he says here in verse two,

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I will not spare anyone. If you'll remember back to previous lessons when we talked about this, I said, you know,

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I compared it to what happened with Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts. They lied.

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They tried to make it look like they were more genuine of heart than they really were.

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We sold a field for this much money. We're giving the whole amount to the church when really they were withholding like half of it for themselves.

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And so Ananias falls down and dies because he had lied. And then Sapphira comes in fully in compliance with the lie that Ananias had told to the apostles.

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And so she also fell down and died when was buried with her husband. This was the power of the

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Holy Spirit demonstrated in the church so that all would stand in fear. And Paul is is kind of making that same kind of warning here with the

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Corinthians. If you don't repent of this false teaching, whoever it is that is allowing this to be there after these continued warnings.

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There's going to be a strict punishment that will come if they do not repent. Verse three, since you are seeking proof that Christ speaks in me, he is not weak toward you, but mighty in you.

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For indeed, he was crucified because of weakness. Yet he lives because of the power of God.

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For we also are weak in him, yet we will live with him because of the power of God toward you.

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So this is Paul saying here, yeah, Jesus died in weakness. He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself and made himself nothing, as we read about in Philippians 2, 5 through 11.

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And he took on the form of a servant, the likeness of sinful man. And he became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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This was Jesus humbling himself for our sakes. Paul had talked about that previously in chapter five, and we had that in chapters eight and nine as well as Jesus had given up his royal throne for us.

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So we must be willing to give of ourselves for one another. And the Lord loves a cheerful giver.

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We give not out of compulsion, but in cheerfulness, just as Christ gave himself for us for the joy and glory of the

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Father. And so as Jesus has humbled himself, so we must humble ourselves, but recognize he was crucified in weakness because he humbled himself to the will of the

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Father. Yet he lives by the power of God, which raised him from the dead. And he is seated on high at the right hand of the throne of God with all power and authority given to him.

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Jesus said that to his disciples even before he ascended. Matthew 28, 18, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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So do not think of Christ's power as being weak. He was crucified in weakness, but he lives in power.

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And we know as we read in Revelation that when he comes again, it will be in power with a rod of iron to strike down the nations.

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And so Paul means for the Corinthians to understand his power is at work in you even now, and that power will be demonstrated further.

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Against those who do not believe, but have been causing division that have been causing divisions in the church if they do not repent.

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And Paul adds to that further sins as well, not just the factions, not just the false doctrines, but consider what he had said at the end of chapter 12.

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I am afraid that when I come to you again. God may humiliate me before you,

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I will mourn over those who have sinned in the past and they have not repented of their impurity, sexuality or the yeah, the sexual immorality and sensuality which they have practiced.

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And so, my friends, this must be for every single one of us. You may not fear an Ananias and Sapphira moment happening in your church, maybe not even a first Corinthians 11 moment where people are getting sick and dying because they're misusing the

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Lord's table. But as it says in Galatians, God will not be mocked for that which one sows, he will also reap.

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If you are sowing bad fruit, the sins and passions of your flesh, then what are you going to reap from that?

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You'll reap the consequences of your sin and then ultimately the judgment of God if you do not repent. So let us turn from those sins to the

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Lord Jesus Christ, that the power that's demonstrated in us is not the judgment of God, but the glory of God for his greatness, the grace he has shown to us through Jesus Christ, our

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Lord, that we may rejoice in him day by day. Once sinners, we have turned from sin to the

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Lord Jesus Christ wearing his righteousness. So walk in his righteousness today.

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My friends, the wages of sin is still death. Maybe God will not strike you down today, but you will stand before him in judgment, fear and turn from your sin to Christ and live.

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We'll continue talking about this some more tomorrow. Heavenly Father, I pray that we would examine ourselves.

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We would test ourselves to see that we are really in the faith, convict our hearts that we would turn from our sin to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and live in his righteousness. It is in his name that we pray. Amen.

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Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt

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.com. And click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our