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

Paul’s Suffering, Apostolic Weakness, and the Signs of an Apostle

Verse 10, I hope to finish Corinthians today. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distress for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Now, Bill, we find Paul here taking pleasure in all of these persecutions and infirmities, and he closes the statement with, when I'm weak, I am strong. What does he mean by that? I'm weak and strong, all right?

Clarence, what's he saying when I take pleasure in infirmities and so forth, all right? Verge, what kind of, from where do these sufferings come? It wasn't suffering, I'm not sure, that was physical suffering he was talking about, but Paul was talking about it.

Well, it could be, but from where do they come? Dying? Directly, God sends the infirmities, reproaches. So, if we find fault with them, joy we're finding fault with who? With God. I am become a fool in glorying.

You have compelled me, for I ought to have been commended of you, but in nothing am I the very chiefest apostle, though I be nothing. For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostle, though I be nothing.

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

God had a gift of healing. 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 the languages and dialects, all had gone throughout the Galatian country.

Do you have any idea how many dialects there were in that part of the world? Where is 2 Corinthians 12, 12? Do you have any idea how many dialects were in Galatia? Let's ask the professor that just came in.

How many dialects were in Galatia? Well, I'm not either, but there were at least 50 dialects and languages. Now, can you imagine going through the country with that many dialects and that many languages of being able to converse with the people?

Paul could. Had he studied them, Greg? No. This had to be a gift of God. Is this before or after the inferiority? Oh, it's after. In that early day, it was necessary to get the word of God out into the Roman Empire in a hurry, and so these apostles were equipped with these gifts.

Paul’s Refusal to Be Burdensome and His Pastoral Concern

13. For what is it wherein ye were inferior in other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong. Paul did not charge anything for his ministry. 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.

For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. Greg, the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. What does Paul have in mind?

And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved, even though it seems that I love you over and over and over. You don't love me. But be it so.

Though I did not burden you, nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. Did I make a gain of you by any of them which I sent unto you? I desire Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you?

Walked we not in the same spirit? Walked we not in the same steps? Again, thank ye that we excuse ourselves unto you. We speak of God in Christ, but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.

For I fear, lest when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I should be found unto you such as you would not. Lest there be debates, endings, wrath, strifes, backbiting, whisperings, swellings, tumults.

What's Paul afraid of finding when he comes, a carnal church or a spiritual church? Carnal church. How do we know this? He just said it. All these things are a derivative of being carnal. And lest when 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.

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

And you're right, it's spiritual growth that he's not seeing. Chapter 13, he says, lest when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, he's going to tell them about it, and have not repented of their uncleanliness.

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

Paul is going to Corinthians for the third time. He's going to exercise his office as an apostle, and he's going to show proof of his apostleship by the power of Christ, working through Paul's weaknesses, weakness.

I wonder, many times I have wondered, if Paul should come to the church 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, or would he find fault?

I told you before, and foretell you as I were present the second time, and being absent now, I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other that if I come again, I will not spare. When he comes, he's not going to pussyfoot around, he's going to tell them how it is.

Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you 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 I'm strong in Christ.

For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. Though he was crucified through weakness, who is he speaking of?

Yet he liveth by the power of God, for we also are weak in him. Can you be strong in Christ? You can? All right, it's Christ in us. We can be strong, but it's not my strength. Paul says, for though he was crucified through weakness.

It sounds strange to hear about the weakness of God. What is this weakness? When he went to the cross, that was the weakness of God. Yet he liveth by the power of God. I never thought of that before, about Christ being weak, but it seems that he would be strong.

But I was there. The weakness part, they talk about the suffering part of the cross, but when we talk about Christ being weak there, that the suffering is the weak side of God. Is that the weakness part there?

Yes. Let me look at it. He went to the cross in weakness. He had to be separated from God, and that was weak. Yet it was by the power of God that his weakness occurred, and that he was resurrected by the power of God.

Self-Examination, Truth, and Speaking the Word of God

That's right. Examine yourselves, whether you be in faith. Prove your own selves. Know you not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates? If you're here and you are a hypocrite, Christ's not strong in you.

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

Look at our life objectively. Is it a life of Christ? But I trust that you shall know that we're not reprobates. Paul has made an inventory of himself, and he wants them to know that he is in the faith.

Now I pray to God that ye do no evil, not that we should appear unapproved, not that you should do that which is honest, though we be reprobates. We're not reprobates. He is saying, no matter what I have done, no matter what I act like, he says, I want you to know that Christ speaks through me.

Paul is saying he just wants them to be the type of believers that they should be, regardless of what he or anybody else claims. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. Here's another great truth we should mark well.

You cannot do anything against the truth. David, why is it that worry, disagreement, that they can do nothing against the truth? Whoever it may be, they cannot affect the truth. Makes no difference what we think, what we believe.

It's not true because you think it or believe it. What does the word of God say? Yes. They cannot do anything. We cannot do anything against the truth. 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. Jesse, you don't have to defend the word of God. God doesn't ask us to defend it. 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. For we are glad when we were weak and ye are strong, and this also we wish even our perfection. Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness according to the power which the 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 because if I was there it would be very, very sharp. Finally brethren, farewell. Be perfect. Be of good comfort. Be of one mind.

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? Too many times we try to find peace without God. Too many times I try to get along with each one of you and God has nothing to do with it.

That's not right. But if you seek God, the mind of Christ first, the rest of it take care of itself. Is that right, Golden? Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints salute you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.

Amen. Do you see the Trinity in 14? All right. We have finished Galatians both first and second. Or Corinthians, Galatians, the next book, isn't it? I'll be all right. I keep telling myself. Are there any questions over today's lesson?

Christ’s Weakness, the Cross, and the Power of God

Yes, sir. I look at it as the weakness of Christ versus the strength of Christ. Strength being when he had God, when God was with him, he was strong. Weakness is when he does not have God. So on the cross, he was weak in that he, maybe we could use a different word there, abandoned.

It would certainly be weak. Golden, give me some words. That's right. Paul says, in the power of God. So it was the power of God, the Father, that raised him from the dead. Christ was weak in that he died.

Does that help any, Clarence? No, I read it and I agree. We are weak in and of ourself. All of those that maintain the weakness until the end will go to hell, from man's view. But it is only in the power of God, the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, raised us.

What do you want to say? That's right. Even in his weakness, he was stronger than I. Anything else, we're strong. I know a lot of the scripture. I can quote a lot of the scripture. Therefore, I take pride in being able to quote scripture.

But that's the wrong kind of pride. That's strong in my mind, in my memory, which isn't much anymore. But God, in his strength, uses the weak vessel to show forth his glory. Every time we get to thinking that we in ourself are strong, all that's doing is inhibiting God through us.

We don't really inhibit God, but from our viewpoint, we do. And we put ourself first. We can't do that. Never. It's got to be God only. No. Anything else, so finishes Corinthians. Greg dismisses, please.

Book of Galatians.