False apostles and foolish Corinthians - 2 Corinthians 11:14-20

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Start by reading Chapter 11, and we'll read To keep the context let's go from about Verse 10 and we'll read through 26 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 11 verse 10 as The truth of Christ is in me this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia why?

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Because I do not love you 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 just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting for such men are false apostles deceitful workers disguising themselves as Apostles of Christ and no wonder for even

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Satan disguises himself as an angel of light Therefore it is not 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 Let no one think me foolish, but if you do receive me even as foolish that I also may boast a little

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That which I am speaking I am NOT speaking as the Lord would but as in foolishness in this confidence of boasting since many boast according to the flesh

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I will boast also for you being so wise Bear with you the foolish gladly For you bear with anyone if he enslaves you if he devours you if he takes advantage of you if he exalts himself

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If he 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 I speak in foolishness.

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I am just as bold myself Are the Hebrews so am I are the

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

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I speak as of insane I More so far more in far more labors and far more

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Imprisonments beaten times without number often in danger of death five times I received from 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 and 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

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I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights and in hunger often and thirst often without food and in cold and exposure

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Apart from such external things there is a daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches

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I read a little farther than that because it made more sense So we finished up last week if we didn't finish up we began

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The three verses we began we were working towards the verses where Paul Is no longer using irony or He's no longer you not using irony or sarcasm

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He gets right to the point and he names these men what they are He calls them in verse 13 so 13 14 15 and 16

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He says for such men are false Apostles deceitful workers disguising themselves as Apostles of Christ and That has been with us down through history and continues today.

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There are many who disguise themselves as Apostles of Christ They think they're not wearing a disguise in many cases in most cases

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But they are if they deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ if they add to or subtract from the scripture

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Especially silly silly doctrines that just make no sense. Well any doctrines for that matter?

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They are false Apostles and they are denying Christ We talked about the four and there are there you can make all kinds of lists, but I tried to Boil it down to four

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Four things that every false teacher will do false Apostles will do they will deny

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The identity and the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. They'll deviate from proper biblical teaching some new

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Unheard to for unbefore seen teaching that no one else saw in the last 2 ,000 years

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I'm the only one that saw it and it's amazing to me that no one has seen that and And it's coming to the fore now because God gave me you that's that's basically what happens

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And so we have Mormonism in the early 1800s God hid from everyone, but a salamander the truth and I if any of you studied

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Mormon theology, you'll know what I'm talking about So they'll deny the deity and the identity of the

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Lord Jesus Christ Number two, they will generally be motivated by greed Lust power and fame and not necessarily in that order, but they're all tied together

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The love of money is the root of evil and so because of their love for money they also lust after power and fame and the things that money and Prestige and purchasing power can bring in the world

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The fruit of their lives will be wickedness They will be exposed if not here in the last times they will be exposed

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Number three, they will deny the Bible as the inspired and infallible Word of God They will start at Genesis or somewhere else and there'll be some section or sections

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Oh, and by the way false doctrines don't come one little item by itself.

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They always come in a package There'll be a package of false doctrines because you have to have this to support this and well

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You've got to throw out that if this is true, and and so there'll be a picking and choosing throughout the scripture they will reject the idea that God's Word answers every question that is necessary to be answered and Unfortunately much of this has crept into the

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Christian Church where supposedly scientific inquiry has Yielded to us the idea that Genesis is myth that Genesis is a story.

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It's a Stylization that is false Genesis is fact It says in the beginning

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God created and he said and the evening and the morning were the first day I mean he couldn't have made it any clearer it now.

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I'm anthropomorphizing this so forgive me because I'm not God but Turns to the other three and he says what can we do to make this word so clear that nobody can foul it up?

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And then the other two laugh It they'll foul it up Give them two seconds, and they'll foul it up in the beginning

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Starting there men have rejected that and once you reject that once you reject the authority of Genesis It's an easy stretch to begin rejecting many other places because Genesis Is where everything begins and so we've got to give credence to every part of the

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Bible number four They will claim their own authority And they'll be and they will often refuse to be subject to spiritual authorities they won't be subject to their own body

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You do realize that the elders in many respects are subject to you if if you as Bereans Discover that one of us has been teaching false doctrine.

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It's incumbent upon you to do something about that Because nobody else will you're the nobody that will you're the somebody that will and Everybody who is in a position of responsibility is subject to the teaching of the

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Word of God If they will not be subject to that then they need to be Disciplined church discipline needs to take place they will often as well take on special titles bishop

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Apostle father or others and we see lots of that today the New Apostolic Reformation These men are calling themselves apostles with a big a now as we all know the word apostle can in scripture designate just an emissary

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But when we're talking about the original apostles who actually saw the risen

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Christ There were only the ones that are depicted in scripture and at the end of the apostolic era

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No more of those kind of apostles have ever appeared Because it's been unnecessary because we have the finished word as Peter said we have a more sure prophecy right with us right here

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This is the Word of God So with that said let's move on to our next section actually that's the not the next section.

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It's just a Continuation where he says that in verse in verse 13 for such men are false apostles deceitful workers

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Disguising themselves as apostles of Christ, and then he says had no wonder For even

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Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Where's the first time he did that in the garden in Genesis?

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And isn't it remarkable that if we if we dismiss that book how much we dismiss we dismiss the fall

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We dismiss the fact that we are depraved individuals who will every single time without the grace of God choose darkness

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All of us everyone that's ever populated the planet No wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light continuing with his stern denunciation of these wicked men

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Paul compares themselves Paul compares them to Satan himself now isn't that kind of?

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uncomfortable That he would call them out that badly these men are emissaries of Satan.

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He said they're not just mistaken They're leading believers away from the truth.

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They're emissaries of Satan They are the type of people that will adopt any disguise necessary to confuse or subvert those whom they purport to serve

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One of Satan's best tools is deception Deception flows out of his character as a liar and thus those who would deceive the church

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Whether knowingly or unknowingly in some cases for many have so thoroughly believed their own lies

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That they've come to believe they are truly a messenger of God when in fact their message is perverse those men

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Are dangerous They are not to be trifled with they're to be exposed as liars and charlatans in Matthew chapter 4

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Satan himself Comes to tempt just to attempt to subvert the word work of the

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Lord Jesus Christ And he guess what he even quotes scripture correctly. Do you think he knows the

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Word of God? Absolutely he knows the Word of God. There's no surprises in there.

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He just hates it He hates it with a passion we cannot imagine I'm gonna read Matthew chapter

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We're gonna go through Matthew chapter 4 verses 1 through 10 just look at it real quick then

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Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and After he had that fasted 40 days and 40 nights then he became hungry and the tempter at this point of weakness came to him and said and Said to him if you are the

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Son of God command these stones become bread But he answered and said Jesus answered and said it is written man shall not live on bread alone

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But on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God So Just as an aside here. What did

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Jesus used to counter the false statement? That's the statement that Satan made he used scripture and That's some of the things we need to remember as well

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Yes, science is wonderful and important in math and all those things, but at the end of the day It's the gospel that will change men's heart

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Yes Yes He's an excellent counterfeiter

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People the fellows mentioned that people will bring in something from Scripture and then twist it context and proper hermeneutical

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Application is so important because we can we you I remember when

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Walter Martin one time was demonstrating How easily it was easy it was to just kind of go through the

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Bible and come up with your own and he he went like this he flipped and he said and And he said

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And Jesus said what thou doest do quickly And he turned the page and he says and he went out and hung himself

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Yeah, it's an old story and you can you can do that you can flip through Scripture and just pick and choose and Make all kinds of interesting doctrines that have absolutely no truth in them

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But you can confuse many and it's unfortunate the relationships that people develop often

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They're afraid that this person wouldn't do that Every single one of us is subject to the flesh

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Every single one of us, right? If you distort the scripture, it'll confess to anything

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And it will defend itself to yes so then then Satan says then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and Said to him if you are the

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Son of God Throw yourself down for it is written He will command his angels concerning you and on their hands

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They will bear you up so that you will not strike your foot against the stone So Satan quoted scripture correctly there, but he misused it to try to get

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Jesus to do something just absolutely Unnecessary and stupid Why would

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Jesus need to do that to prove who he was? Jesus said to him on the other hand

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You shall not put the Lord your God to the test and again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and Their glory and here's where a lot of the a lot of people fall

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Most people fall and he said to him all these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me then

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Jesus said to him go Satan For it is written. You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only marvelous response

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Marvelous response and so Satan was dispatched summarily by the Word of God not yes by Jesus himself

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But by the Word of God He could not he could not bring anything to bear on Christ out of Scripture, and so he had to leave for instructional purposes notice a few things from this passage

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Satan waited until Jesus was tired and hungry to come to and then he Suggested something that was not out of the ordinary

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Go ahead and get something to eat You're okay with that He suggested that Jesus would eat now of course he insisted that Jesus use his divine power

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To facilitate the eating and that was certainly not in keeping with what Jesus had come to do

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Notice also that the devil seems to be able to transport Jesus around at will So he does have great power and we should not be forgetful of this

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Next he correctly identifies Christ as the Son of God even though in an oblique way, and then he correctly quotes

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Scripture Although misusing it just to prove his own incorrect point

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Christ counters with Scripture correctly quoted correctly and correctly applied finally

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Satan Finally Satan seeks the worship of the

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Lord Jesus Christ Because that is let's let's let's put our cards all on the table basically when people elevate themselves above Scripture They are elevating themselves above Christ, and that is blasphemy

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That is blasphemy Satan is seeking the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ These are the things that false apostles will do they are able to correctly read people and in many cases

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And they tailor their deception they think that they have great power although that is a delusion that they live under They will often correctly quote

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Scripture, but it will be misapplied and misused This is the deception of a false angel of light

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They bring light, but it is not the true light a candle might light your way But the

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Sun is a far better illuminator The light these false apostles apostles brought to Corinth was a false light

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And it led many away from the truth both in and out of the out of the both believers and unbelievers

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So it's not what I'm saying is is we as believers who have studied the Scripture for years in many cases decades

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Must always be careful to pay attention to what Scripture says To prayerfully approach it to treat it with respect and to interpret it

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Contextually and hermeneutically correct because we can be led astray It's happened all of us even in small ways, but small

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Deceptions lead to big deviations eventually they really do a small wedge

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Can what can widen the doorway that that will allow you to that will cause you to walk down a path that you never would have

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Anticipated you'd walk down and so that's why we need accountability to accountability with one another

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So it's not surprising. It's False, and that's why Paul says and no wonder for even

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Satan disguises himself as an angel of light any other comments about verse 14 before we move on verse 15 therefore

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Following after these things it is not surprising if his servants also disguised themselves as servants of righteousness

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Whose end shall be will be according to their deeds and I Connie have already alluded to this that that the followers of Satan the false apostles disguised themselves as well as servants of righteousness as angels of light the word surprising comes from the

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Greek word from which where we get We get the word mega you can actually translate this well

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It's no big thing then if his servants also disguised themselves if Satan does it's no big thing that his servants will also do the same thing

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In the same way that this is the great deceiver disguised himself throughout time to pervert the way they pretend to serve righteousness when in fact they are actually truly serving unrighteousness and serving themselves and Ominously Paul reminds the

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Corinthians and because those false apostles were still among the Corinthians He reminds them that their end will be in keeping with their wicked deeds

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Their names are not written in the book of life and thus they will suffer the same fate as the great deceiver

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And what is that fate? Then I saw

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Revelation 20 verses 1 through 3 then I saw an angel coming down from heaven Holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold of the dragon the serpent of old who?

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was the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and he threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him so that he

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Would not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed and after these things He must be released for a short time then in chapter 20 again in verses 11 through 15

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Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it from whose presence heaven and earth fled away

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And no place was found for them and I saw the dead the great and the small Standing before the throne and the books were open and another book was open which is the book of life and the dead were judged

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From the things which were written in the books according to their deeds and the sea gave up the dead which were in it and Death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them and they were judged every one of them according to their deeds

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Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire This is the second death the lake of fire if any man's anyone's name was not found written in the book of life

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He was thrown into the lake of fire That's their end and it's right to remind people of that There are those who say we don't want to heal he'll hear hellfire and brimstone sermons.

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I Would rather hear about the hell in the brimstone and then spend eternity in it and so Thus it is that we don't want our ears tickled here.

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I hope Although Paul was not trying to shock to you shock treatment on the Corinthians This certainly should have shocked at least some of them

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Those who were believers it must have woken them up Because as we've mentioned earlier

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After after this period of time in the 50s the Corinthians are not heard about again until the ad 95

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It seems like the church really really came to its senses and cleaned up its act if you will the

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Lord cleaned up their act They had in the midst of them in the midst men who were teaching perverse things and would end up in the lake of fire

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They had men in their congregation teaching things that would send those men and any that believed it to the lake of fire in a

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Christian Church That happens today it happens today, especially amongst the prosperity gospel preachers

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If all you're after is money just go get it and leave God alone Keep leave him out of it for crying out in the sink so They would end up in the lake of fire

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Paul was not given to improper hyperbole This should have brought to mind this teaching that Paul gave to the

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Corinthians in the Corinthian Church through this writing through this epistle Should have brought to mind the teaching of the

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Savior himself in Matthew chapter 7 where Christ describes how? Where he describes how the father will deal with false apostles

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Matthew chapter 7 21 through 23 not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven

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But he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter many will say to me on that day Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles

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Then I will declare to them. I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness

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The things that they did that they thought were great because they were done by Disguised apostles false apostles were actually lawless

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They were practicing deeds of lawlessness not just mistakes. They were unrighteous deeds

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They were deeds that earned them if you will the lake of fire, and that's that's kind of the

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The thrust that Paul is giving here he's trying to wake these people up in the Corinthian Church that are succumbing to these false teachings and It's just it's kind of cool to be on the forefront of some kind of new idea new for the

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What do you call them the trailblazers? Nobody's ever thought of this before? Well, you know, it's it may sound boring, but it's not but pretty much every doctrine that's ever been properly

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Brought from the scripture has has is with us over the last 2 ,000 years. There's nothing new under the

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Sun What there is is us learning how to correctly Apply it and obey it in our lives and bring glory to the

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Lord that glory that you bring to him in your life is new glory That no one else ever brought to him

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That's something and that itself is not a view that is of him as well And that's what we should look for not to boast in ourselves, but to boast in the

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Lord as Paul said earlier so then As we finish up this little section here, which ends pretty much in verse 16

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He talks about foolishness again. He says in verse 16 again. I say that no one think me foolish, but if you do

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Receive me as foolish so that I also may boast a little Paul it grinds on him that he has to do this

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Comparison this placement of comparisons between himself and the false apostles He shouldn't have to do that the

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Corinthians should know better But they have been perverting the gospel so badly perverting the truth so badly that he feels it's incumbent upon him to remind them about who it was that God sent to them and what what

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What kinds of things had to be endured to bring the gospel to the Corinthians the real gospel so from verse 22 of this chapter?

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To verse 13 of chapter 12 so 11 20 22 to 12 12 13 11 22 to 12 13

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Paul will be presenting his apostolic credentials He will be I'm open quote little quotes boasting if you will

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This is something that he was loath to do he preferred to simply teach the Word of God boasting was propellant to him and Such and and as such this next section caused him great discomfort

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And he talked about it all he talked about it quite a bit earlier about the foolishness that the Corinthians would endure and how they would

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Endure even people that enslaved them. He's going to talk about that as well Prior to that though he one more time one more time before he goes into this

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Litany of his his accomplishments if you will he reminds the Corinthians of his reluctance to brag the

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Corinthian acceptance of the false apostles And their perverse teachings made it necessary for Paul to remind them about his credentials who he was and what he did for them in This verse he allows the boasting is foolish

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He did not want the Corinthians to ascribe to him the same kind of foolishness that the false apostles were displaying in Everything he tried to distance himself from them as much as possible remember they were claiming equality or even superiority to Paul himself and To Paul's message must not be much of a message if he doesn't charge for it remember that Must not be very important if he if you don't have to pay for it you gets what you pays for That's what they were saying, and he don't charge so you're getting nothing complete false completely false

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Here he asked the Corinthians to grant him the same privileges They were granting to those perverse men at least listen to him with the same attention in this he said

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I will only boast a little So any comments before we plunge into the boasting yes

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Every one of them yes Yeah, there are plenty of warnings in the

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New Testament about false teachers And in the book of Acts as well.

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There's plenty of warnings about it in Luke's History if you will of the early founding of the church

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It's a danger that will always be with us right to the end there will be those people who when the

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Lord comes back and They see it happening They'll stick their fists in the air revelation say says and call down the mountains upon them rather than bend the knee

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That's who we're dealing with people who hate God. They hate him.

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They don't believe him and they hate him Referring back to verse 1. He says in verse 17.

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He says what I am saying I am NOT saying as the Lord would but in foolish as in foolishness in this confidence of boasting

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So referring back to verse 1 where he asked the Corinthians to bear with him in a little foolishness

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Paul continues his defense he apologizes He apologizes here for having to resort to what he considers foolish to the foolishness of boasting he is in effect

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Answering fools according to their folly this does not mean This does not mean when he says this

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I'm not saying as the Lord would this does not mean that what he is saying here Is not inspired Paul had the

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Lord's permission to write what he does But he owns that this is not the usual way his servants are expected to speak of themselves

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How would you like it if I stood up here and told you all about me and how wonderful I am I hope you would get rid of me so fast.

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My boots would still be here That's what the Lord doesn't want his servants to spend their time

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Retailing themselves and their adventures all of us struggle against that He wants us to exposit and to study his word and himself and to love him

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So Paul is is is he's reminding he keeps reminding them. I'm gonna have to engage in some foolishness

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So he is in effect as I said answering fools according to their folly so this as well is

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Scripture one commentator put it this way we must not conclude from this verse that Here we have a part of Scripture Which is not inspired

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Paul had the Lord's permission to write as he does, but he owns that this is not the usual way

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His servants are expected to speak of themselves had any other course been hopeful of success

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This one would have never been taken The wise acres at Corinth had fed too long at the table of fools to relish the normal diet of Saints So he is compelled to set before them what they can digest even though he himself

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Regards it as unpalatable further

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Interestingly enough. There's a number of Greek terms One one of the interesting things about the richness of the Greek language that the

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Holy Spirit chose to write write the New Testament in Is we can have a very accurate? Assessment of what went on in the sentences they wrote

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If we do a little study he does this the word foolishness that can be translated also as an idiot

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It is a word that It's not a moron or a dimwit, but rather someone who no longer has the correct sense of himself

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Nor the word around world around him. He's not he's not correctly assessing himself He thinks he's more than he is that's what these are false apostles were

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Or in some cases people think they're less than they are which is often the very same thing in a weird perverse way

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But I'm not gonna get into psychology This person is not a dimwit. He's not a moron.

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He no longer has the correct sense of himself or the world around him The irony would have been lost the irony in here in this would not have been lost on his readers

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Paul is dealing with men who had no sense of what was right or wrong, but were just forging ahead for their own game and Making what they said, right?

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What I say is right you need to believe me I have this from the Lord himself those kinds of things

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Hello, this is from the Lord himself everything else is is just words

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This statement is just as inspired that Paul just made as anything else Paul wrote Paul is disgusted with the fact that he has to deal with the false apostles in this way

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But it seems to be the most effective way to get the Corinthian Church to understand what they are allowing right in their midst foolishness foolishness foolishness

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And if that is what they are looking for they will get some rung from Paul in order to set them straight Charles Hodge and his commentary said it this way all the expression implies is that self praise in itself

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Considered is not the work of a Christian Self praise in itself is not the work of a

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Christian It is not a work to which the Spirit of Christ impels a believer But when it is necessary to the vindication of the truth or the honor of the religion it becomes a duty so Paul has to Give a comparison to him of himself to these false apostles

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So the Corinthians will be able to see the difference and remarkably it was effective Now he says here's where it comes

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Here's where the beginning of the boasting comes verse 18 since many boast according to the flesh I will

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I will boast also the false apostles spent their time bragging about the things that were not true that they had spent time

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They had not they had spent no time there was they spent their time bragging about things that weren't true

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They had spent no time delivering the gospel to the Corinthians indeed They had no litany of abuses they endured to bring to the gospel to bring the gospel to the known world

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They didn't struggle to bring this to Corinth They just drove up there and made a mess is what they did or wrote up there and made a mess

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But what might have been in a carriage might have been in a carriage They were con men peddling the

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Word of God for gain only Paul continues his disclaimers before he actually begins to explain to the

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Corinthians the Qualifications he had and the difficulties he endured by God's grace to bring the gospel to the world

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Their boasting was according to the flesh That is he says according to human nature since many boast according to the flesh

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I will boast also he's gonna boast but not according to the flesh Their boasting was human nature driven and according to the flesh.

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It was fleshly for you Corinthians being so wise

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You tolerate the foolish gladly that had to be a marked rebuke to hear.

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I mean, I don't know how this was Imagine you guys tolerate stupidness gladly

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How would you feel if I said that to you? I'd be dead This is a packing church.

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I'd be dead They had to have been startled I hope well, obviously it's past tense, but they were

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So throughout this entire section as Paul builds up to his defense of his apostolic authority

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He continually uses irony and sarcasm other than that done the section from 13 to 15 here again

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He speaks as though acknowledging what others are saying about him that by comparison to the self -proclaimed false apostles

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He has been weak I jumped ahead So back up ignore what

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I just said, can you all rewind? rewind Verse 18 since many of us according to the flesh.

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I will boast also the false apostles spent the time bragging So his boasting was not according to the flesh.

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There's was He called them Earlier on he said you tolerate this foolishness

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Gladly he the Corinthians had to had to understand and he says it here as well for you being so wise tolerate the foolish gladly

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So now he has a bit more sarcasm or maybe it's not I'm not so sure

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It's sarcasm, but a lot of commentators think it is. Did you have some Brian? And they do put up with it

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He's repeating it and in many cases You've heard good preaching is tell him what you're gonna tell him tell him and then tell him what you told him

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And that's what Paul's doing here. He tell him what he's gonna tell him He's telling him and now he's gonna tell him what he told him.

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I Called you out. I told you you were foolish. It's foolish to bring these men into your midst It's even more foolish to listen to him, but you tolerate them very well

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You tolerate stupidity very well This is in fact no expression of wisdom in fact tolerating foolishness is foolishness itself

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And that is what he said he is attaching to those Corinthians who would believe false apostles.

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He is saying if you gladly tolerate foolishness You're foolish you are foolish and So therefore

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Paul's not afraid to say what needs to be said even to people that are beloved to him

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Even to people that he loves very much that he cares a great deal for he calls them out for their foolishness

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Then he says in verse 20 for if you taught for you tolerate You tolerate it if anyone enslaves you if anyone in fact devours you anyone takes advantage of you anyone exalts himself

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And then one of the great evils anyone hits you in the face enslaves devours takes advantage exalts over hits you

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These are not descriptive works Descriptive words that envision a servant leadership that loves and cares for those it serves

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Yes, I think he meant just what he said.

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I think there was some physical things going on I I think in many cases when people get into a position like that and There begins maybe to be a little bit of subversion under them that they don't like they'll resort to physical violence

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They will resort to physical violence There's not when we get to that there'll be a number of different commentators that thought different things some people thought it had to it was

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It was metaphorical it could have been I personally think that they were whacking people

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Who were not agreeing with them? so So these are descriptive of foolish the foolish and wicked ones that the

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Corinthians were gladly tolerating These are the false Apostles and their lifestyle exposed So to enslave in the

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Greek is to put someone under bondage under stern bondage This is reminiscent of the whips in the in the 1800 early 1800 south of the

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United States Disregarding the fact that there might have been some good slave owners. It's there were this is this calls to mind physical abuse

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And here it's pretty much metaphorical, but they were in the false Apostles were enslaving the

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Corinthians They were lording it over them and the Corinthians were gladly tolerating that so to devour

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Interesting Greek word which has a financial overtone, and it means to plunder someone and to steal from them taking what is not yours so to take advantage is to lay hold of something or someone in order to use it for one's own purposes and To exalt oneself is to place yourself over others

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Superior to and more important than others in every respect That doesn't sound like servant leadership to me

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Not at all To strike someone would have been considered the ultimate insult to the pugilistic

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Greek It is uncertain, but it sounds as though some of these false Apostles were actually physically intimidating some of the

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Corinthians It may be metaphorical But nevertheless those in Corinth who submitted to this to these diabolical teachers were allowing themselves to be

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Humiliated there's a humiliation that goes along with this yes Yeah Yeah, I personally don't believe it is

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I think that there was something going on in some cases when people who are who are in self -imposed

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Self -assumed authoritative positions are challenged they can become physical they get angry I don't like you a

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I don't like you challenging my authority And so I'm gonna do whatever I have to do about and if words won't put you down Well, then maybe a couple of good swift kicks to the nose will you know?

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And so that's what was I think that's what was going on in some cases, and that's and Paul says they tolerated it gladly

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Gladly yes, I you know there's a there's a dynamic that goes on in in Churches that are populated by Unbelievers and taught by false apostles that we can't really

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I think fully understand anecdotally or Here because we haven't had it, but there's

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They want the teachers to be right Because they've been believing it this stuff More and more for a long time and to stop believing it is telling myself.

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What a fool. I've been to make the change It's really difficult it's kind of like what happens when a friend gets into political office a

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Good friend gets into political office, and he starts doing things that are not constitutional You you don't want to call.

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He's your buddy his nephew works for you and and His mother and your mother went to school together

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And and I I can't do anything about this just somebody else will do it, and that's kind of what that's some of what happens

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And so that's I think that's some of the dynamic that was going on in this church There were people that were just they let their relationships get in the way of the

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Word of God Our relationships should be founded on the Word of God. They should be based on the truth and That means that in a loving way we all have the right

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To bring before our brothers or our sisters in a proper way in a prayerful proper way any deviation

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They are making from the Word of God. They wouldn't do this Some did Apparently they got rid of them because for 50 years.

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We don't hear anything more 45 years We don't hear anything more And that's just a that's an assumption that a lot of commentators make on we don't have anything written in stone

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That says it well the Corinthians finally came around and started worshiping the Lord properly But we do know that until Clement writes to them in 95 not much went on So we'll finish up here, but the word that is used the only other

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This particular word for enslave By the way, the first word to enslave in the greek

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The only other place that's used is in galatians chapter 2 4 Where it refers to the judaizers enslavement of the galatian believers and you remember what paul said about them?

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devourers This next word devours is reminiscent of a lion Or a bear killing and eating prey the lord jesus christ used this term when he described the pharisees devouring widows homes

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Taking from the most helpless What they the only thing they had and gleefully using it for your own for your own ends

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That's what these people were like paul is and and none of this would have been lost on the corinthian

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Corinthian believers corinthian church It's probably a reference to the false apostles demands for money

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He gets what you pays for you pay for us. We'll do you right you don't pay for us.

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We'll move on Only they didn't move on Improper toleration generally results in wicked people taking advantage of and exalting themselves over the ones that are following Finally the ultimate into the ultimate humiliation is physical threats in force.

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This is what the corinthians were gladly tolerating One can clearly see why paul was so anxious to get the believers in corinth out from under these wicked despots

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These are men who believe they knew best their word was law and any insubordination would be summarily dealt with The opposite of proper leadership the opposite of servant leadership

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A person if if your leadership won't help you clean the toilets Hopefully he's just too dumb to know how and you can teach him.

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But if you won't That's not the kind of people you want in leadership These corinthians were gladly suffering foolish men to teach them and paul is bringing that to the fore

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And I imagine as this epistle was brought to second to corinthians to the corinthian church

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That as it was being read or disseminated through the through the book to the believers. They're in letter form

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Many of them were having their eyes open for the first time maybe No kidding

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What have we what have we been doing? What we have been we have been

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Shaming the lord. Jesus christ. That should be the first thing that comes to mind and so i'm i'm i'm excited that paul was

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Not afraid to do this not afraid to do this under the inspiration of the holy spirit for sure so They're not going to tolerate it anymore.

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I'm hoping they're not going to gladly suffer people to enslave them to devour them to take advantage of them

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To exalt themselves over them and to hit them They're going to change they're going to come back

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To the straight and narrow the true word of god and they're going to begin to serve the lord Jesus christ and not these false apostles because that's who they were serving.

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They were serving men not the lord And anytime men call you to serve them in a church in a believing church

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It's wrong. It's unrighteous So any comments or anything else before we close? Yes jason

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Right Yeah And and didn't he kick a baby or a something

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I mean And and people and you know, wasn't there someone in that audience that would have gone.

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Hey do that again, mister And i'm gonna break your leg There should have been or maybe not quite that excited.

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But nevertheless They tolerated it And that's a good good example. That's that's an example of what we will tolerate

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I to my shame This will take too long so just suffice it to say that when

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I was a very young christian I played the piano in a slaying in the spirit service

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And my eyes were this big and I think I made 23 000 mistakes in amazing grace

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But I didn't have the courage to walk out Afterwards, I I confronted some people but I didn't have the courage to walk out.

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There it is. There it is I was like two years into the lord Still in my real excited stage though.

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I mean if I today Well today I would have been in there in the first place but That's what happens and and The guy was knocking people down Knocking people slain in the spirit.

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Anybody ever heard of that? Knocking people down and i'm playing I think if my eyes got any bigger they would have fallen out

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And and I remember the person that invited me looked up at me. They didn't know what was going to happen They looked up at me and they went

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Yeah And so none of us left though. We didn't leave chickens. That's what we were.

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We were chicken really but and Really last quickly last as I looked some of the people that are laying there on the floor

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I'd see them open their eyes look around and close their eyes again You know, that was my first experience and last with that kind of stuff.

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But All the all the humor aside. This is what the corinthians were tolerating They were tolerating false teaching and it may have been out of fear may have been out of uh out of being

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Lack of courage, whatever it was, but paul is calling these men out. He wants to free the corinthian church that he loves

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To come back to service to god and that is what a true teacher of the word of god will want for everyone

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That is is they are responsible for and responsible to to see them joying in serving the lord not serving them

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Let's pray Father we thank you lord that that you watch over us with your word and your spirit

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And father that your grace is sufficient and your word is sufficient for every challenge. We will ever meet

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And we look to you. We look to you alone For comfort for encouragement for correction for instruction for rebuke for the necessary Changes that must come in our lives so that we might even even more every day serve you with love

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With great honor and respect for you and and fear As we should right kind of fear

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Lord, we just marvel that paul you you use paul to write these words to these corinthians Let us hear them today.