Book of 2 Corinthians - Ch. 12, Vs. 10-Ch. 13, Vs. 14 (06/03/2001)

Park Meadows Church

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Verse 10, I hope to finish Corinthians today.

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Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distress for Christ's sake.

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For when I am weak, then I am strong. Bill, we find

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Paul here taking pleasure in all of these persecutions and infirmities.

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And he closes the statement with, when I'm weak, I am strong. What does he mean by that?

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I'm weak and strong. All right.

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Clarence, what's he saying when I take pleasure in infirmities and so forth?

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All right. Verge, what kind of, from where do these sufferings come?

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Well, it wasn't physical suffering he was talking about, but Paul was talking about it.

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Well, it could be. But from where do they come? Dying.

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Directly God sends the infirmities, reproaches. So if we find fault with them, joy, we're finding fault with who?

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With God. I am become a fool in glorying. You have compelled me, for I ought to have been commended of you.

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But in nothing am I the very chiefest apostle, though I be nothing.

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For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostle, though I be nothing.

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Someone should have come to his aid or his defense, and no one did. Truly, the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.

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There were certain sign gifts that were given to the apostles, and David, they were given for what purpose?

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Exactly so. They had the gift of healing. They could raise the dead and speak in tongues, which does not mean an unknown tongue, but languages and dialects.

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Paul had gone throughout the Galatian country. Do you have any idea how many dialects there were in that part of the world?

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We're at 2 Corinthians 12, 12. Do you have any idea how many dialects were in Galatia?

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Let's ask the professor that just came in. How many dialects were in Galatia?

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Well, I'm not either, but there were at least 50. Dialects and languages.

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Now can you imagine going through the country with that many dialects and that many languages of being able to converse with the people?

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Paul could. Had he studied them, Greg? No. This had to be a gift of God.

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Was this before or after the Comperians had returned to the palace? Oh, it's after.

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After. In that early day, it was necessary to get the word of God out into the

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Roman Empire in a hurry. And so these apostles were equipped with these gifts.

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13. For what is it wherein ye were inferior in other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you?

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Forgive me this wrong. Paul did not charge anything for his ministry.

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Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be burdensome to you, for I seek not yours, but you.

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For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

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Greg, the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

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What does Paul have in mind? All right.

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And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly

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I love you, the less I be loved, even though it seems that I love you over and over and over.

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You don't love me. But be it so, I did not burden you.

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Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. Did I make a gain of you by any of them which

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I sent unto you? I desire Titus, and with him

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I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? Walked we not in the same spirit?

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Walked we not in the same steps? Again, thank ye that we excuse ourselves unto you.

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We speak of God in Christ, but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.

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For I fear, lest when

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I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I should be found unto you such as you would not.

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Lest there be debates, endings, wrath, strifes, backbiting, whisperings, swellings, tumults.

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What's Paul afraid of finding when he comes, a carnal church or a spiritual church?

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Carnal church. How do we know this? He just said it.

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All these things are a derivative of being carnal. And lest when

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I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanliness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.

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Yes? It seems like all this spiritual idea is concerned with spirituality more than anything else in our

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Christ. That's right. I'll get to that first question. Verse 14, it says, when

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I'll be first with you, I think I'm wise to do that. It's not going to affect me. Money, you know, as you asked me about that in the past.

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I did not seek yours, which is your possessions. But I seek you, which is seeking your spiritual throne.

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And all that, even the next verse after that, I'll play up to the parents of the children.

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As a parent provides for the child from a young age, he's using that as an analogy stand that he wants to provide and look at in the same way he wants to provide spiritual guidance to them at the church.

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He is basically the one who calls them and gives them the message.

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That's right. He looks at this church as his, as Christ, but he looks at it as the overseer, as the protector, as a provider.

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And you're not responding right, and I'll tell you so, but they were not to provide for the parent, the parents to provide for them.

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And you're right, it's spiritual growth that he's not seeing. Chapter 13.

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Brother Hodges. Yes. In response to what you want, is he fearful that he will be, he will feel that he has failed in what he was trying to do?

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He says, lest when I come again, my

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God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already.

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He's going to tell them about it. And have not repented of their uncleanliness.

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He's afraid that when he comes, all of this will come alive and he'll find it out firsthand.

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Last chapter. This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

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Paul is going to Corinthians for the third time. He's going to exercise his office as an apostle.

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And he's going to show proof of his apostleship by the power of Christ working through Paul's weaknesses.

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Weakness. I wonder, many times I have wondered, if Paul should come to the church

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I'm in, what would he say? Would he pat us all on the back? Would he be awed by our growth, our experience, our knowledge?

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Or would he find fault? I told you before, and foretell you as I were present the second time, and being absent now,

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I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other that if I come again,

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I will not spare. When he comes, he's not going to pussyfoot around.

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He's going to tell them how it is. Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you word is not weak, but is mighty in you, even though I seem to be weak and stammering and can't find the right words perhaps, you think

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I'm strong in Christ. For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God.

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For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

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Though he was crucified through weakness, who is he speaking of?

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Yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him.

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Can you be strong in Christ? You can?

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Alright, it's Christ in us. We can be strong, but it's not my strength.

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Paul says, for though he was crucified through weakness. It sounds strange to hear about the weakness of God.

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What is this weakness? When he went to the cross, that was the weakness of God.

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Yet he liveth by the power of God. I never thought of that before, about Christ being weak.

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But it seems that he would be strong. Yes, let me look at it.

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He went to the cross in weakness. He had to be separated from God.

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And that was weak. Yet it was by the power of God that his weakness occurred and that he was resurrected.

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By the power of God. That's right.

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Examine yourselves, whether you be in faith. Prove your own selves.

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Know you not, your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you. Except you be reprobates.

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If you're here and you are a hypocrite, Christ is not strong in you. But I ask you,

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Paul says, look at yourselves. It's good two or three times a year to do this.

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We should be willing to do this whether we're in the faith or not. We ought to go back and just look at our life objectively.

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Is it a life of Christ? But I trust that you shall know that we're not reprobates.

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Paul has made an inventory of himself and he wants them to know that he is in the faith.

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Now, I pray to God that ye do no evil. Not that we should appear unapproved.

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But that ye should do that which is honest, though we be reprobates.

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We're not reprobates. He's saying, no matter what I have done, no matter what I act like, he says,

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I want you to know that Christ speaks through me.

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Paul is saying he just wants them to be the type of believers that they should be.

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Irregardless of what he or anybody else claims. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

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Here's another great truth we should mark well. You cannot do anything against the truth.

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David, why is it that worry, disagreement, that they can do nothing against the truth?

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Whoever it may be, they cannot affect the truth. Makes no difference what we think, what we believe.

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It's not true because you think it or believe it. What does the word of God say?

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Yes. They cannot do anything. We cannot do anything against the truth.

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We should declare the word of God and not spend our time defending it. I would that you would all spend the word of God wisely and not forever be defending it.

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Jesse, you don't have to defend the word of God. God doesn't ask us to defend it.

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No place in the Bible do you find where he said, now you defend this. He asked us to declare it, to give it out.

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For we are glad when we were weak, and ye are strong, and this also we wish even our perfection.

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Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness according to the power which the

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Lord has given me to edify and not to destruction. He said, perhaps it's good that I'm removed from you where I can write to you.

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Because if I was there, it would be very, very sharp. Finally, brethren, farewell.

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Be perfect. Be of good comfort. Be of one mind.

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Live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you. Now, is it mandatory that we be of one mind, live in peace, for God to be with us?

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Too many times we try to find peace without God. Too many times

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I try to get along with each one of you, and God has nothing to do with it. That's not right.

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But if you seek God, the mind of Christ first, the rest of it take care of itself.

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Is that right, Golden? Greet one another with a holy kiss.

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All the saints salute you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the

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Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. Do you see the

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Trinity in 14? All right.

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We have finished Galatians, both first and second. Or Corinthians, Galatians, the next book, isn't it?

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I'll be all right. I keep telling myself.

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Are there any questions over today's lesson? Yes, sir.

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I look at it as the weakness of Christ versus the strength of Christ.

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Strength being when he had God, when God was with him. He was strong.

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Weakness is when he does not have God. So on the cross, he was weak in that he...

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Maybe we could use a different word there. Abandoned would certainly be weak.

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Golden, give me some words.

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I think...

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That's right. But Paul says, in the power of God.

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So it was the power of God the Father that raised him from the dead. Christ was weak in that he died.

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Does that help any, Clarence? No, I read it, and I agree.

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And since you see that God was so powerful, in fact, he was definitely weaker.

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I just look at that and say, well, maybe, you know, you could all see that in our weakness, that there's

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God's own clarification of our weakness. Well, we are weak in and of ourself.

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All of those that maintain the weakness until the end will go to hell, from man's view.

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But it is only in the power of God, the same power that raised

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Jesus Christ from the dead, raised us. What did you want to say?

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The greater love, the power of love, in that he was weak and had to separate himself from God.

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I mean, that's the only way that the whole plan worked. And it laid it down in his life.

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Although his weakness and his demands were from God, they were great through our eyesight and love for others because there's no other way that we could reach him.

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All right. If you think about that respectfully, Paul, even the fact that Jesus Christ is sitting in the form of man, became man, and he put himself in an inferior position to one that he had prior to becoming man, prior to becoming a pure form of man.

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The weakness of him, I think, was associated with his short life.

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Oh, yes. The extent of him was associated with his doctrine of life. Yes. He willingly came down and took on this feeling of this position of inferiority not because of being of the doctrine of life and out of the...

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I don't know what that is. Well, that's right. Even in his weakness, he was stronger than I.

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Anything else? We're dependent on the heavenly power to save and deliver us.

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The word I keep coming to mind is the contentment for the faith, which is in Jude in the first year, and it's talking about contending for the faith, which is being ready to give an answer.

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So I... What's the difference between... I guess that's my question.

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What's the difference between defending and contending for the faith? If you raise that purpose while you're doing an argument about the faith, it's to put the faith on the counter on the sound of the plateau to the position of the leftist who is playing the soul of man ...

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I think that's what...

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You don't have to prove that...

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... ... Yes. ...

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... Yes.

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... ... ... ...

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... ... ...

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... ...

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... ... That's good. Yes.

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... ...

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Yes. ...

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... ... ... Yes.

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... ... ... ...

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... ... Yes, when we are weak, well, when we think we're strong,

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I know a lot of the scripture I can quote a lot of the scripture.

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Therefore, I take pride in being able to quote scripture. But that's the wrong kind of pride.

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That's strong in my mind, in my memory, which isn't much anymore.

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But God, in his strength, uses the weak vessel to show forth his glory.

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Now, every time we get to thinking that we in ourself are strong, all that's doing is inhibiting

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God through us. We don't really inhibit God, but from our viewpoint we do.

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And we put ourself first. We can't do that. Never. It's got to be

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God only. No. Anything else?

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Well, so finishes Corinthians. Greg, dismiss this please.

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Book of Galatians. That's all right.