The Arrogance of the False Apostles - 2 Corinthians 11:4-8

Kootenai Church

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Father again, we look into your word with anticipation and delight knowing that it will point us to you point us to your son

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And that your Holy Spirit will use it to make us more like your son this morning as we as we look into your word give us wisdom and discernment and Obedience father we thank you for what you're going to do in our lives today in Jesus name.

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Amen So let's we're gonna be in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 and What I'd like to do is read the whole chapter and 33 verses we'll read the whole chapter 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 11. I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness

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But indeed you are bearing with me for I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy For I betrothed you to one husband that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin

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But I am afraid lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness Your mind should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ For if one comes and preaches another

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Jesus whom we have not preached or you receive a different spirit Which you have not received or a different gospel, which you have not accepted you bear this beautifully

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For I consider myself not in the least inferior to the most eminent Apostles But even if I am unskilled in speech yet,

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I am not so in knowledge in fact in every way we have made this evident to you in all things or Did I commit a sin in humbling myself?

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That you might be exalted because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge I robbed other churches taking wages from them to serve you and when

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I was present with you and was in need I was not a burden to anyone for when the brethren came from Macedonia They fully supplied my need and in everything

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I kept myself from being a burden to you and will continue to do so As the truth of Christ is in me this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia Why because I do not love you.

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God knows I do But what I am doing I will continue to do that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded

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Just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting for such men are false

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Apostles deceitful workers disguising themselves as apostles of Christ and no wonder for even

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Satan Distinguishes disguises himself as an angel of light Therefore it is not just surprising if his servants also disguised themselves as servants of righteousness

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Whose end shall be according to their deeds Again, I say no one think me foolish

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But if you do receive me even as foolish that I also may boast a little that which

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I am speaking I am not speaking as the Lord would but as in foolishness in this confidence of boasting

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Since many boast according to the flesh I will boast also for you being so wise bear with the foolish gladly

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For you bear with anyone if he enslaves you if he devours you if he takes advantage of you if he exalts himself if he

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Hits you in the face to my shame. I must say that we have been weak by comparison But in whatever respect anyone else is bold.

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I speak in foolishness. I am just as bold myself Are they Hebrews? So am

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I are the Israelites? So am I are they descendants of Abraham? So am

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I are they servants of Christ? I speak as if insane I'm more so and far more labors and far more imprisonments beaten times without numbers

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Without number often in danger of death five times. I received from the Jew through the

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Jews 39 lashes Three times I was beaten with rods once I was stoned three times.

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I was shipwrecked a night in a day I have spent in the deep I have been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers dangers from robbers dangers from my countrymen dangers from the

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Gentiles dangers in the city dangers in the wilderness dangers on the sea dangers among false brethren I Have been in labor and hardship

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Through many sleepless nights in hunger and thirst often without food in cold and exposure

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Apart from sex from such external things. There is the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches

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Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern if I have to boast

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I will boast of what pertains to my weakness The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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He who is blessed forever knows that I am not lying in Damascus the ethnic under Arteas the king

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Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascus in order to seize me and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and so escaped his hands

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So in this chapter, we're gonna see quite the gamut of Paul Retailing the difficulties he went through to bring the gospel especially to the

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Corinthians, but to all the churches For whom he says he has great concern And it's an it's understandable when someone is put in a position of responsibility in a church they they they experience great some concern for that church and prayer and concern

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Doesn't necessarily consume them but is necessarily and part of what

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God has intended for leadership to have a Love for the disciples a love for the body and a care for them.

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And so Paul in The last chapter had just finished saying if you're gonna boast boast in the

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Lord then In this chapter, he has to defend himself

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From the false Apostles the accusations of the false Apostles which he likens to emissaries of Satan and and frankly

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That's what they are whether yesterday or today if there are people bringing a false gospel

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They're not emissaries of God. They're emissaries of Satan on the other hand as We go through this and study this

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I want to make sure we don't always blame Satan for things that we ourselves do The devil didn't make me do it often

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The devil wasn't even around When I did the wrong thing, I did it all on my own with my own sin nature

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So we want to keep that in mind as well. But in this particular case It would have behooved

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Satan greatly to Unsettle the establishment of the New Testament Church And so he did everything he could and that included working through false

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Apostles that Paul calls out here Now imagine those people in Corinth this getting back to them that Paul had not only defended himself

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But had called them emissaries of Satan It would hopefully have some kind of an effect on them

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But it obviously had an effect on the church because they we see the Corinthian Church has made a has made a an about -face

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If you will it continues to make an about -face for they're no longer talked about for many years. There's no

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Very little if any division and problem in the Corinthian Church that had to be dealt with Because the letters that Paul wrote and the time that he spent there had their effect in bringing them back to the true gospel of God And so last week we ended off with verse 3

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But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness your minds will be led astray

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From the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ and isn't Devotion to Christ really quite simple

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Do you love me? He asked Peter three times feed my sheep feed my lambs and he says the same thing to us.

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Do you love me? He who loves me does what? Obeys my commands and His commands are not onerous

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He wants us to love one another He wants us to tell the truth. I Mean there's more to it than that, of course

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But when you remove all the extraneous, that's the basis of it but what was happening was not only were the

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Corinthians being Tolerant they were being intolerant of Paul.

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Does that happen today? Oh So there really is nothing new under the Sun is there

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They were being tolerant of the false teachers who knows why they want to offend them

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Uncle Joe Or whatever the German the Ascribed Greek name of the day was his nephew is one of the false apostles and he's a nice guy

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And and so we ought to listen to him. No, you compare it with Scripture whoever it is

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Trust everyone it says but cut the cards Compare it with Scripture. So he says to these

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Corinthians if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached Or you receive a different spirit

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Which you have not received have not heretofore received or a different gospel, which you have not accepted

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Which you have not accepted you bear this beautifully It's almost a question.

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Why are you bearing the false gospel beautifully? so Paul had always and has always preached the simple biblical fact that there's only one

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Lord and Savior and That is the Lord Jesus Christ in Ephesians chapter 4. He says it very simply one

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Lord one faith one baptism One Lord one faith one baptism Acts chapter 2 verse 36

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Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him the

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Lord Jesus Christ both Lord and Christ This Jesus whom you crucified Don't bring in extra people

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It's the Lord Jesus Christ that we are to focus on and Paul wants The Corinthians to focus on Romans 4 14, excuse me

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Eight and nine for if we live we live for the Lord if we die we die for the Lord Therefore whether we live or die we are the

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Lord's for to this end Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living and Then in first Corinthians 8 6 for yet yet for us.

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There is but one God the Father whom all whom are all things From whom let me start over Yet for us there is but one

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God the Father from whom are all things and we exist for him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we exist through him

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Those are the parameters around which Paul preached the gospel They were accepting an extraneous gospel

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Whatever it was the false apostles had brought in and Paul is calling them out. These false apostles were preaching another

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Jesus There's only one Jesus and If he's a different Jesus than what is explicitly outlined in the text of Scripture He's the wrong

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Jesus is what he's telling the Corinthians This was the same thing that happened in Galatia when the

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Judaizers came in and preached a false Christ and Paul had harsh words for Those in Galatia who were leading the church away from the simplicity in Christ He said to the

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Galatians in chapter 1 verses 6 through 9. I Am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel

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Which is really not another only Only he says there are some disturbing you and and want to distort the gospel of Christ, but even if we

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Paul and his countrymen his his assistant Preachers even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you

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He is to be accursed as We have said before so I say again now if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you have received

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He is to be accursed those false apostles in Corinth were to be accursed. They weren't supposed to be just ignored

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They were to be summarily dismissed from the church There was to be some church discipline here because they weren't just mistaken

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They were they were trying to lead people astray into a false teaching there were two groups of at fault here those who brought the different gospel in a different spirit and those that Received the different gospel and that different spirit.

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They're both at fault The people who preach the false gospel and the people who did not call those people out

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They're just as much at fault. They had the truth Paul had been there Apollos had been there other other teachers had been there

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They knew what the scripture said and they bore it. They bore the false teaching beautifully Paul said that was a

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Indictment it wasn't he wasn't being polite to them. That was an indictment Paul is amazed that the

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Corinthian Church not only received this false gospel that they bore it beautifully That is they seem to wholeheartedly accept it.

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This seems to be the way that churches proceed through deception They allow false teachers They don't think they don't check things out carefully by comparing them with Scripture the false teachings often resonate with the sinful nature and So those who sit under it begin to delight in those teachings

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It's the ear tickling that goes on in false churches false teaching all the time

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It goes on with false teaching all the time Paul does not give us any detail about what the false teachings were

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But most certainly they were similar to all false teachings that have come down through the ages they would denigrate the person of Christ whether denying his deity or Making him out to be something other than he was and is he wasn't a great teacher

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He claimed to be God. I Think it was CS Lewis that said Might have been him

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But it's that said he was either he was God or he was on the order of someone who had a stewed tomato in his

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Tennis shoe and said this is God either he was who he said he was or he was a liar and You can't make make him two different things.

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He did not give us that option He was and is the Son of God living Son of God Now I lost my place

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Paul's statement that they were preaching another Jesus explains this Christ was not just a good teacher

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He was not he is not Satan's brother Who had a disagreement in heaven about who would save mankind and he came and Satan became the bad guy

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He is not Michael the Archangel He's not an emanation from God or just a prophet for his time

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He is the Son of God the second person of the Trinity God and the flesh come to earth to redeem sinful man

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Anything less is another Christ and is therefore an idol and what does God say about idol worship?

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It's to be condemned It's wicked. It's evil. It's it was blasphemous

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This is what this is what Paul was saying about the church in Corinth back in Corinth where they were allowing these false teachers

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To bring in another gospel Another spirit and they were bearing it beautifully don't bear false teaching beautifully don't bear it at all because once you do

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The chink happens and you begin walking down that path It's just like anything else in life you it be it starts to become a way of doing things then it becomes a habit then it's really hard to break and the

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Corinthians needed to have a bad habit broken and The only thing that would break it is the truth of God's Word So any questions or comments about verse four?

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Yes It's so Nathanael's pointed out that there's no accountability to those who preach the false gospel and the gospel does hold us accountable

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It holds us accountable to a number of things Jesus said very simply in the gospel if you love me, you will keep my commandments and There's two extremes to that there's the legalists that put

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You under their commandments and there's the antinomians who say there's no law at all do whatever we want

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Long as you feel good about it. Well, you'll feel good all the way right into hell is what you'll feel. Yes, Pat Well get them toes out in the aisle and I'll walk down there

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Generally speaking I guess I should say any good Impartation of the gospel of Christ will bring with it genuine conviction until we're all perfect and That doesn't happen in this life

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I'm looking forward to that But meanwhile, I go away from every Sunday going just realizing how far short

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I've fallen What an incredible God would choose to save me.

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Why would he do that? What a lose -lose for him? But he did and that's that's what

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Paul was dealing with he was dealing with people and you're gonna see it they were bragging They were Hebrews. They were Israelites.

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They were teachers They were just they were everything that you all need to be and someday you'll be like me is what they were saying

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We're actually we're probably saying someday you can never be like me and Paul. That's why in the last chapter He said don't brag most only in the

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Lord But then he had to call out the false apostles and he had to make he had to make Comparisons between what they were saying and what he had said what the gospel was

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And he's gonna do that through chapter 11 and 12 So he says for I consider myself not the least inferior to the most eminent

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Apostles eminent showing oneself above others

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It's not a word that necessarily is Detached from the personality.

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It's a word that tells you what that personality is doing. He's telling you how good he is

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He's telling you how wonderful he is how much you need him this is what the false Apostles were doing they were

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Showcasing their eminence. They were wonderful people just ask them They're proud arrogant they were and it was disdainful and and We've all been around proud arrogant people.

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We know exactly what that means You really don't even want to approach him. Do you you just kind of like to get away from him and take a shower

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It's just Really unsettling to be around that type of person. Well, guess what?

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We're all that way. We'll accept her Pat Pull your feet back in the aisle.

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I'm not gonna step in your toes We're all that way and if we don't realize that we're not paying attention to our own sin nature

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So Paul says I can so what he's saying here Here then if you will begin some of the and they can't see it

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Well, yeah, I guess they can the foolishness that he talked about he doesn't like defending himself

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But he must because in defending himself, he will be defending the gospel

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That's a big difference. If you're just defending yourself to be defending yourself Let God defend your reputation, but if it's tied up in what has been said wrongly about the gospel

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Well, then you might have to do something like that someday Paul says he says here He says the word that is only used five times in the

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New Testament to describe the self -proclaimed super Apostles The word is translated what we just talked about arrogant and eminent arrogant and proud these men

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Whoever they were were self -proclaimed luminaries They were the cats

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PJ's when it came to being a Christian. They were the example. They were the wonderful ones they were the

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Celebrity Christians at least they thought themselves they denigrated Paul but more importantly they denigrated his authority and his ability to speak and They elevated themselves now, you can always find something wrong with any teacher

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He dresses bad. He doesn't cut his hair. He he whatever he has a lisp or or or We don't really know what it was with Paul But apparently he didn't have a commanding appearance when he was in front of people

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It sounds like and and I'm still gonna be excited to Whenever I get to the front of that line in the next 10 million years talk to him about it

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But whatever it was they were using that against him and often it will be Some personality quirk that people will use to denigrate someone who's a who's a good teacher

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They denigrated his authority This would be bad enough for what because but what Paul was truly consumed about concerned about was their ability the false

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Apostles ability to mislead people they were good at what they said They were good at what they did and they misled people.

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They were misleading people in the Corinthian Church They were misleading some in the Corinthian Church I should say the translation of here the translation here of the word eminent connotes sarcasm

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These people thought they were extra special and Paul alludes to that in his remarks Now there are some who believe that this report this this particular verse

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For I consider myself not in the least inferior to the most eminent Apostles refers to the other 12

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Apostles Although Paul was most certainly equal to the other 12 Apostles That's very unlikely that he had them in mind here because he would never use first of all a sarcastic term to refer to them

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He held them in high regard Nor would he have you accused them of preaching another Jesus as he did earlier and the context bears this out further in verse 6

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Paul admits his comparative lack of training and speech to the false Apostles He would not have made this comparison to the true

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Apostles because they were uneducated men as well Nor would Paul have acknowledged less spiritual knowledge than the twelve

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Remember he claimed to be instructed by God himself as he acknowledges in Galatians chapter 1 verse 12 where he?

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Acknowledged that Christ that he was he was instructed not by the other Apostles, but by God himself when he became an

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Apostle so He's not inferior. He's telling the Corinthians. I'm not inferior to these eminent these super Apostles So then he he'll allude to one of the things that they were

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Slamming him for I guess in verse 6, and then I'll ask if there's any questions But he says but even if I am unskilled in speech yet.

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I am NOT so in knowledge in fact in every way We have made this evident to you in all things any teacher that thinks he can hide stuff from those he's teaching or that well certain things are just too difficult for you to understand and and Get me a bucket you know

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I mean please the Lord instructs

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The Holy Spirit illuminates who in here that's saved doesn't have the Holy Spirit good

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That was correct. Don't raise your hand Is the Holy Spirit capable of illuminating you to the meaning of the

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Word of God? wonderful so he says

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Yet, I am NOT so in knowledge in fact in every way we have made this evident to you in all things any teacher that thinks he can hide stuff from those who are teaching or that we have made this evident Paul didn't hide any of the counsel of God to the

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People he taught he didn't come forward like the the Gnostics did and say that you have to have some elevated form of understanding in Order to understand the great secrets

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God makes everything Evident to his children everything he hides nothing

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Paul dear does though acknowledge his lack his relative lack of rhetorical skills But he reminds his leaders his leaders his readers that he is not lacking in knowledge

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He was instructed as we mentioned earlier directly by God himself in Galatians chapter 1 verses 11 and 12

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He says for I would have you know brethren that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man

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Verse 12 for I knew received it from man nor was I taught it But I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ Which is what

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Apostles did true Apostles these these lackeys in Corinth didn't do it that way

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They didn't receive it from Jesus Christ. They actually received it from their own Stupid ideas or from Satan himself

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Paul says he also reminds them that he had made Full knowledge evident to the girl to the

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Corinthians in all of his teachings He had nothing from them But brought to them the whole counsel of God Remarkably Paul is telling the

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Corinthians that while he hid nothing because the whole counsel of God is available to any who trust him for salvation the super Apostles Apparently were those that adhered to that form of religion called

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Gnosticism which insisted only certain devotees Have access to certain knowledge which we mentioned earlier.

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This is a doctrine of demons I Can't call it anything

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Less than that people who claim that they're able to understand things that you aren't are liars and They are not speaking now from God now

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Let's let's let's Peter just fixed my computer. So this would work. I Don't know what he did.

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I Don't know if he has computer holy water or what? But he knows more about that than I do

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That's not what I'm talking about, but when it comes to the scripture when it comes to the Spirit of God He teaches all of his children

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So that's a doctrine of demons and it goes right along with his concern in verse 3 about the serpent deceiving

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Eve in the same way that the false Apostles were deceiving the Corinthians just as The serpent deceived

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Eve and brought down the human race So the false Apostles were deceiving the

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Corinthian believers. It's that that it's that bad He's calling that they are calling the

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Corinthian believers away from the gospel into some false teaching whatever it was probably some form of Gnosticism some form of I'm better than you ism and Paul would have none of it any questions or comments about verses 5 4 and 5

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One of the other things I especially appreciate when Jim's preaching He doesn't he has no problem telling you what all the different views are on Scripture and then walking us step by step

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Through the accurate understanding and interpretation of the scripture God's Word isn't afraid of that stuff

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God himself The Lord Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit. They're not afraid of our questions

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Afraid is the wrong word. They're not concerned with our questions They're concerned with our doubts if they manifest themselves as disobedience, but wondering about things is a good thing

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God's Word has answers and he is not going to hide them from you so verse 7 or Did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge

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So in in another ironic statement Paul challenges the Corinthians asking them if he had sinned

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By not charging them when he preached the gospel to them initially This will get there will this airplane will land but the mindset at the time is different than what we have here

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It's very interesting It was Paul's prerogative to charge the churches for his support as he brought the gospel to them

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But he chose not to do that with any church. He was planting Later, of course

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If they wish to support him and send the gospel into the further regions for the reaches of the world

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He would take that support as he did with other churches in bringing the gospel to Corinth apparently the false

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Apostles Preoccupation with money there it is money jets power.

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That's what their preoccupation That's what their preoccupation was and is today with money The look you almost want to say the love of money that money is the root of all evil

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But we know it's the love of money and that's what was part and parcel of what was going on in Corinth So it was his prerogative to charge him but he chose not to Paul did not charge

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Therefore said the false Apostles his message must not must not be worth anything if he didn't feel like he had to charge for it

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He had set a value on his own message of zero by refusing to charge for it.

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This was the this was the statement of the false Apostles one of them Unfortunately, some of the

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Corinthians had believed this The Corinthians could have simply looked back in their memories or possibly more easily simply reviewed the first letter

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Paul had written to them where he explains to them why he brought them the gospel free of charge

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It's a long passage That's a different section, but this is a long passage But I want to read the whole thing in 1st

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Corinthians chapter 9 verses 1 through 18 Am I not free am

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I not an apostle have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the

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Lord? He says to the Corinthians if to others I am NOT apostle at least I am to you for you are the seal of my apostleship in the

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Lord My defense to those who examine me is this do we not have a right to eat and drink? Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife?

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Even as the rest of the Apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas or do only Barnabas and I Not have a right to refrain from working

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Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the?

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I am NOT speaking these things according to human judgment am I or does not the law also say these things for it is written in?

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The law of Moses you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing God is not concerned about oxen is he or is he speaking altogether for our sake yes for our sake it was written because the plowman ought to plow and hope and The thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops if we sowed spiritual things in you

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Too much if we reap material things from you if others share the right over you do we not more nevertheless?

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We did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple and those who attend regularly to the altar have?

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Their share from the altar so also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel but I have used none of these things and I am and I am not writing these things so that it will be done so in my case

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For it would be better for me to die than have any man make my boast an empty one for if I preach the gospel

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I have nothing to boast of for I am under compulsion for what was me if I do not preach the gospel

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For if I do this voluntarily I have a reward, but if against my will I have a stewardship entrusted to me

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What then is my reward that when I preach the gospel? I may offer the gospel without charge so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel

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Paul now you're reading through the scriptures daily and You come upon a section of scripture, and it jogs your memory about something you read earlier or somewhere

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What do you do you go back there and read it and you go? Oh, yeah, and this is related. That's what the Corinthians should have done here when they read when they were preached

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Whoever read them the letter to second the second Corinthians letter there should have been plenty of them in the in those Audience that went

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I've heard Paul say something about this I wonder where that was so they get out the parchments of the papyrus and they go back to first Corinthians chapter 9 and there

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It is he had a right to earn a living, but he chose not to Shouldn't they have been grateful for that of course they should have and It should have increased their gratefulness to the other churches that had provided the money the

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Macedonians They came and met Paul and made sure he had enough subsistence to get by to continue to preach the gospel

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So in some ways it's kind of difficult for under for us to understand this preoccupation with payment for teaching

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In the Greek world of Paul's time especially in Corinth and the urbane cities of Greece It was deemed to be below a man's dignity.

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This was the culture of the time it was deemed to be a below a man's dignity to work with his hands and Especially teachers who expected to make a living they were expected to make a living off of their teaching

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Paul's inclination not to take any support from churches He was currently planting or teaching was very wise

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Especially in the early days of planting the church first churches and spreading the gospel for the first time the

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New Testament Paul needed to remain independent of these churches that he was planting But he could not take some but he could take support from those who had received the gospel and were growing in Christ Barclay puts it this way.

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He gives us some background. So I'm gonna read it. You can see it up there But before we go any further with this passage we must ask how could

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Paul maintain this attitude of utter independence with regard to the Corinthian Church and Yet accept gifts from the

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Philippian Church He was not being inconsistent and the reason was very practical and an excellent one

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As far as we know Paul never accepted a gift from the church at Philippi when he was in Philippi He did so only after he had moved on the reason is clear

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So long as he was in any given place He had to be utterly independent under obligation to no man

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It is hardly possible to accept a man's bounty and then condemn him or preach against him

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And actually you can but it's much more difficult Give me your money. Okay now you're a jerk

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Well, only the government can do that I Probably shouldn't said that When he was in the middle of the

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Philippian community Paul could not be beholden to any man It was different when he had moved on. He was then free to take what the love of the

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Philippians chose to give Because well, I'll get to I don't want to get ahead of myself for then it would commit him to no man or party

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It would have been impossible for Paul when in Corinth to receive Corinthian support and at the same time maintain the independence

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Which the situation demanded he was not in the least inconsistent. He was only wise Why were the

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Corinthians so annoyed for this about his refusal for one thing? According to the Greek way of thinking it was beneath a free man's dignity to work with his hands

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The dignity of honest toil was forgotten and the Corinthians did not understand Paul's point of view

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For another thing in the Greek world teachers were supposed to make money out of teaching There was there never was an age in which a man who could talk could make so much money.

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I Don't know maybe today Holy mackerel Maybe today

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Augustus the Roman Emperor paid various flakas the rhetorician an annual salary of a hundred thousand sesterces

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Which in present -day purchasing power was the equivalent of a quarter of a million pounds? Every town was entitled to grant grant complete

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Exemption from all civic burdens and taxes to a certain number of teachers of rhetoric and literature

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Paul's independence was something that the Corinthians could not understand and frankly the preoccupation with money will produce that well

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I'm a teacher. I shouldn't have to pay taxes Well, I'm a teacher. I'm above the things that other people do

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It's an unfortunate Elevation that should never come by the way that figure of 250 ,000 pounds

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I went to the Consumer Price Index and and translated it from when Barclay wrote this to today's terms 2 .1

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million dollars I Could make it on 2 .1 million dollars a year, you know,

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I think I could I Have to save for a couple years to buy my first leer probably but you know

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So I could get from Segal to Sandpoint really quick By implication it was clear that the super Apostles were taking money from the

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Corinthian Church in payment for their false teaching And that's kind of what Paul was alluding to you bear this beautifully

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They were receiving payment for false teaching Paul brought them the truth and eschewed being paid

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Paul's humility was evident in his willingness to risk everything to bring the gospel of life to these people in Corinth whom he had never met before that and their

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Exaltation from darkness to light From death to life from unrighteousness the holiness by the gospel being preached to them.

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That's what he's talking about He is their father in the Lord He is he by God's grace.

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He was the one that was responsible that brought them from darkness to light from death to life

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How much gratefulness should that entail? First gratefulness to the

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Lord, of course and most certainly but the man that brought them the gospel Their father in the Lord was being ignored and denigrated and they bore it beautifully

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We should never let that happen. We should never let that happen when we have true teachers of the word who are

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Exalting the Lord Jesus Christ calling people to holiness elevating the gospel Pointing people to Christ being denigrated.

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We should we should do something about that But in the same way when we have people who are Calling people away from the gospel preaching for money

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All about themselves. We shouldn't be afraid of calling that out either and Then I'll read verse 8 and we'll see if there's any questions

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I robbed other churches by taking wages from them to serve you. You know, Paul was a master of hyperbole and I really personally

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This is just my own personal view that he used this word here on purpose To kind of stir the

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Corinthians. I robbed other churches The word robbed is a strong term and it's widely used. You know what? This word was used for it was used for stripping a dead soldier of his armor

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So you killed him now you take what was his that would be what was playing through their minds as they read this word it was used of He was speaking metaphorically and he was trying to instill the current into the

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Corinthian minds Just how valuable he believed the gospel was in that he wanted nothing to stand in their way of receiving it or of Coming back into obedience to it

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Which they were coming out of obedience to or out of obedience to as they listen to the false teachers.

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I Robbed I pillaged I plundered other churches Taking their wages to serve you

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Hopefully that would have made the Corinthians especially in that culture who saw that a teacher should earn his living by Making a living off of his teaching.

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He was not doing that. He was plundering other churches He wasn't and we know he wasn't plundering them

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They gladly and delightedly gave of their of their ability and beyond Remember he talks about in 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 8 how they they? Sacrificed so that the gospel could be brought to the Corinthians and they also sacrificed much

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To send a love offering back to the church in Jerusalem who was really struggling It's amazing any questions about those three verses that I got carried away with It's amazing how much comes back to money, isn't it?

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Now you got to have it to live You got to have it to subsist But you don't have to love it

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You don't have to look at it as the most important of all things Will not

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God take care of those who are his I? find myself sometimes Here I am a

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Christian of how many decades Wondering that's a sin.

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I Know I know he will take care of us. He will take care of me I know he will he will never bring into my life anything that will not be for my my benefit my blessing

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But these people when you start letting money be your gauge when they started letting money be their gauge

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They fell away. They taught the wrong things and the people whose ears were tickled under them did the same

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Don't think we can't do that. I mean, I'd like to think it wouldn't happen to me

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But I trust and rely on my brothers and sisters in Christ who know me to say razor. What are you doing that for?

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Are you you know? I'm good with that. I really am and the Corinthians needed to be good with that and Paul is doing that So we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna close there are there any other questions or comments you want to bring

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Don't be ruled by money Use it as a tool and then put it aside

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The Corinthians the teachers in Corinth were not doing that They were ruled by their love their obsession with importance and money and power and anytime someone is that way

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If they're a believer, they need to be called to account if they're not they need to be called to account Especially if they're teaching believers false

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Gospels, let's pray Lord, there is only one true gospel and it comes directly from the pages of the

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Lord of the scripture And it is your son who is the embodiment the word in flesh of that gospel

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We look to you. We look to one another as we are guided By your

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Holy Spirit in the study of Scripture to keep each other accountable to that gospel

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Paul was doing this for the Corinthians our love for one another should drive us to do it for one another