WWUTT 1711 I Will Boast Also (2 Corinthians 11:18-20)

There are a lot of false teachers out there that many professing Christians just put up with and do not realize that they are being devoured by the false teaching that these liars peddle when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Paul’s Boasting in Weakness Against False Apostles

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 2 Corinthians, still in chapter 11. And I'm going to begin today in verse 18. We'll go through verse 33 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. This is the word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth.

Since many boast according to the flesh, I will boast also. For you, being so wise, are bearing the foolish gladly. For you bear it if anyone enslaves you, anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, anyone hits you in the face.

To my shame, I must say that we have been weak by comparison. But in what respect anyone else is daring, I speak in foolishness. I am just as daring myself. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites?

So am I. Are they Abraham's seed? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as if insane. I more so, in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, in beatings without number, in frequent danger of death.

Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times 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 Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the desolate places, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brothers.

I have been in labor and hardship, in many sleepless nights, in starvation and thirst, often hungry, in cold, and without enough clothing. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.

Who is weak without my being weak? Who is made to stumble without my burning concern? If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

In Damascus, the Ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me. And I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and so escaped his hands. We've been talking about from the beginning of our study in 2 Corinthians how this is a very autobiographical letter.

Paul talks about the love and affection he has for the Corinthians and things that he has been through as an apostle of Christ, sharing the gospel throughout the world. And here in particular, we have Paul just laying out those things that he has suffered as an apostle of Christ.

Now he calls this boasting, and you might be looking at it, you might be hearing what it was that I read there going, how is this boasting exactly? I mean, the guy has been beat to a pulp sharing the gospel of Christ.

Isn't boasting where you just kind of inflate yourself? You know, you go through all your numbers, all those things that you have accomplished. If Paul was really boasting here, wouldn't he be laying out, here's how many people I've baptized, here's how many churches that I have planted, here's how many teachers that I have trained?

And as I list those things, you might be going, wait a minute, wasn't there a pastor recently that was in the news because he was doing exactly that? He was boasting about all these things he's accomplished, churches he's planted, pastors he's trained.

Yes, indeed. And we'll get to that as we go through Paul's boasting here in 2 Corinthians 11. He says, if I'm going to boast, I'm going to boast in my weaknesses. That's verse 30. If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness.

And we'll get to this later on in chapter 12, I'll boast all the more of my weaknesses for where I am weak, there he, Christ, is strong. So Paul's going to boast about his weaknesses so that Christ is exalted.

He's not trying to exalt himself. The reason he's doing this is because the Corinthians have been convinced by the boasting of the false apostles, those most eminent apostles, or as it says in the English Standard Version, the super apostles.

So since they've been convinced by these more eloquent speakers, just because of all the boasting as they're like walking resumes of themselves, if that's what's going to be convincing to the Corinthians, Paul says, fine, then I'm going to boast.

I'm going to boast so that you will not be fooled by these guys and go after their false teaching and you'll come back to the sound teachers of the gospel of Christ. So he says in verse 18, since many boast according to the flesh, I will boast also.

They're boasting according to their flesh. So I'm going to boast according to my flesh. So Paul's going to lay out things that he's been through in his flesh. And then he's going to talk about some things that he got to experience out of the flesh.

We'll talk about that next week when we get to chapter 12, some things that he experienced perhaps even out of the body, not in his flesh. But this that he's laying out here in the latter half of chapter 11, these are those things that he has gone through as an apostle, taking the gospel to the world.

Boasting in the Lord, Not in the Flesh

Now let me reflect on verse 17 and kind of keep these things in context as we go on. Paul says, what I am saying, I am not saying according to the Lord, but as in foolishness in this confidence of boasting.

So we should not be boasting at all. If anybody boasts, let him boast in the Lord. That's what Paul said at the end of verse 10. And really all this boasting is ultimately going to direct the Corinthians to Christ, not to himself.

But the boasting that he's doing, he's going to say, this is foolishness. This is madness. I should not have to do this. You should already know, because as he will say later on in chapter 12, verse 12, the signs of a true apostle have already been demonstrated among you.

So why is there even this question of who is a true apostle and who's a false apostle? You should already know this. So it's foolishness. It's madness that he even has to go here and do this. But he does so out of affection for these Corinthians that they would know the truth and so live.

So since these false guys are boasting according to the flesh, I'm going to do it too. Verse 19, for you being so wise are bearing the foolish gladly. You're putting up with these yahoos, these guys who you've been persuaded by because they boast in themselves.

That's really the card they have that has won some of these Corinthians into their camp, into their schools, into their false church that they're planning, whatever it was these guys were doing. They're certainly getting money from the Corinthians.

They're getting their attention. They're benefiting from them somehow. But what they have to teach is not of Christ. It's false. It will lead to death and not to life. And so Paul says, you're bearing with them just fine.

If you're going to bear with their foolishness, you can bear with mine. You being so wise are bearing the foolish gladly. Verse 20, for you bear it if anyone enslaves you. And that's really what these false teachers are doing.

They're enslaving the Corinthians to sin and to lies. They're not set free. It's the gospel that sets us free. It's Christ who sets us free. If the son has set you free, you are free indeed. But anything else is enslavement.

Anything apart from Christ is to be a slave, to be a slave to that which enslaves you. If you're in sin, you're enslaved to that sin. If you're following lies, you're enslaved to those lies. So if anyone comes and enslaves you, you're putting up with it just fine.

Go to the next one. You bear it if anyone devours you. That's what liars do. That's what false teachers do. They devour you. You think that what the false teacher is promising you is going to benefit you.

No, the only person that benefits from what they peddle is the false teacher. Let you just look at the prosperity gospel. Okay. Thinking of teachers like Benny Hinn, Bill Johnson, who is the pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California, Todd White, the pastor, was it Lifestyle Church in the Dallas area?

I think Lifestyle Church is what his church is called. Anyway, Todd White's been around for a while, claims to be an evangelist, but he's a conman. The thing that he does where he pretends to heal people or straighten out a leg to even it with the other one so he can fix your back problems.

All of these things are gags. He does this stuff to con people and then follow him. And then who benefits from that? Todd White does. People like Kenneth Copeland, Paula White Cain, Joyce Meyer. Now, a lot of these folks are older and aging and kind of phasing out Joel Osteen.

They're still immensely popular. You go to their social media accounts, they get millions and millions of retweets or shares or views or whatever else. Millions every week. So even though they're the aging side of the prosperity teachers, they haven't lost a step in terms of the popularity that they have among the people that they're conning.

But then you've got younger guys who are doing it too. Stephen Furtick, who's about my age, I think he's a year younger than me. So he's around 40, but he's still young by comparison with these other names that I mentioned to you.

He is an offshoot of T .D. Jakes. Whatever T .D. Jakes believes, whatever he teaches, that's what Stephen Furtick believes and that's what he teaches. Yes, Furtick is even heretical on his understanding of the Trinity, just like T .D. Jakes is.

So Furtick is also one of those prosperity preachers, Ed Young Jr. Rick Warren is probably a prosperity preacher lite, but he does it. Beth Moore is also prosperity preacher lite. She will also promise you things that the scripture doesn't promise.

So you just need to believe this and you'll unlock the blessings that God has for you. That's been in Beth Moore's past. And the teachers that she's partnered with have all been these prosperity heretics.

Brian Houston, Joel Osteen, Victoria Osteen, the Crouches with TBN, the Trinity Broadcasting Network. They're all in cahoots with one another. Pictures recently that Beth Moore was posting on social media of being with Christine Kane.

Christine Kane's a false teacher. They're all in the same group, all in the same club together. The stuff that they promise you does not benefit you. It benefits them. So that your itching ears will be tickled and you'll follow after them to listen to what it is that they have to say, and then you're buying their books, you're attending their conferences and their seminars, you're giving them money, they're getting rich, you're getting nothing.

The only person who benefits from the false teaching is the false teacher. They get richer, you get poorer, you give your money to them, and you become spiritually bankrupt in the process. Because what it is that they have to give you is not really sound doctrine or the gospel of Christ, or that which flows from the gospel of Christ that leads to godliness.

As Paul warns Timothy in 1 Timothy 6, that if anyone teaches a different doctrine, except for that which comes from our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, meaning that it's teaching that produces godliness in you.

If anyone is teaching anything else, then they are puffed up with conceit and they understand nothing. They're just full of themselves. That's really what Paul is saying there to Timothy. False teachers are full of themselves.

They're not full of Christ. They're not full of the Holy Spirit. They're full of themselves. They teach themselves. Man, Stephen Furtick is a champion at this. Like he just preaches himself. And I've heard him read a passage of scripture and then give you a basic meaning of what it means.

And usually his rundown, like his summary of what that passage means, it's usually spot on. Like he'll take 60 seconds to two minutes to tell you, here's what this passage actually means. Here's what it is in context.

And a lot of times I've heard him do that. I'm sitting there going, yeah, that is exactly what that passage means. But then he doesn't teach that. Then he goes on and teaches himself, reads himself into that text.

And it's because of him doing that, Chris Roseborough of Pirate Christian Radio has termed this narcissus, taking the word narcissist and eisegesis and coining a new phrase, putting those two words together into one.

It's called a syllogism. When you make up a new word, two words together is one. And he's applied that to Stephen Furtick's teaching. It's narcissus. He just reads himself into the text. He preaches himself instead of Christ.

And you'll notice a lot of false teachers will do that. They'll teach themselves. When I saw a TV interview with Joyce Meyer and she was confronted with being a prosperity teacher, the interviewer asked her, aren't you a prosperity teacher?

And Joyce Meyer says, what is that anyway? Like she tried to play it off that she was not a prosperity heretic. And then she turned it around to, why can't people just see the good that I'm doing? And gave like a resume of stuff that she's accomplished.

Rick Warren does this too. He just did it recently, a couple of weeks ago at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting that was held in Anaheim in his backyard, because that's where Saddleback Church is located.

Rick Warren was given an opportunity to come to the floor and defend himself against the accusation that he was ordaining women pastors, which was exactly what he was doing. But instead of having to biblically defend himself because he can't and he knows that he can't, he instead tried to divert attention toward all the wonderful, great things that he has done.

He just preached himself. And I hear false teacher after false teacher do this over and over and over again. Look what I've done. Look at this. Look at that. And they just, they devour. They devour the people that they are conning.

No one benefits from this, but the false teacher and their benefit will only be in this life. It won't be in the next. Jesus said in Matthew chapter six, beware of those who practice their righteousness before men.

If what they want is the praise of men, they have received their reward in full. Great will be their reward on earth, but they'll get nothing in heaven. If they don't repent and turn to the Lord Christ, if they don't humble themselves before the Lord at the proper time, he will exalt who is, it says in James four.

So Paul says, you bear it. If anyone else enslaves you, you bear it. If anyone else devours you exactly what false teachers do, that's what these false apostles are doing to the Corinthians. It's what false teachers do today to those who will follow after them.

Now, Paul makes the point to Timothy in second Timothy chapter four, that false teachers are a judgment. The people will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from the truth and wander off in the midst.

They want to have their itching ears scratched, so they will find the teachers that will tell them what it is that they want to hear. So in that sense, false teaching is a judgment. The people want these things.

This is what they want. They want these things in their flesh. They want to, they want to be appeased by these things. And so God gives them a delusion, as it says in second Corinthians, or sorry, not second Corinthians, second Thessalonians chapter two, God sends them a strong delusion so that they may do what is false and have pleasure in unrighteousness and therefore come to judgment.

So false teachers are a judgment upon those who desire those things in their flesh. They don't truly desire Christ. They want those things that they want teachers to tell them that they can have. So that's why they go after those teachers.

That's why false teachers are so popular. So they're devoured by these false teachers, but it's what the people want. They go after the teachers who will tell them what they want. Paul says, you bear it if anyone takes advantage of you.

It just kind of goes right along with devours you. So you bear it if anyone takes advantage of you. You bear it if anyone exalts himself. Yeah, I've already kind of given examples. I've jumped ahead. I've already given my examples of these things before we got to them.

So you bear it if anyone enslaves you, if anyone devours you, if anyone takes advantage of you, if anyone exalts himself, if anyone hits you in the face. Now there's another one. That's another thing that false teachers will do.

Like they'll turn it back on you. You know why you're not getting the stuff that I've promised you? Because you didn't believe hard enough. It's your fault. You're the reason why you didn't get the things that I said that you can have.

You know, and they'll quote their scriptures to say, hey, the Bible says you can have it. All you have to do is believe it and you'll receive it. They twist the scriptures in that sense. They're not really telling the truth.

So they'll they'll punch you in the face. They'll smack you. Like make you think that you're the problem. Gaslighting is the modern term that we're using for this. I'm not the one that's at fault here.

It's you and get you to believe that. Rick Warren did that also when he did his bloviating speech on the floor at the Southern Baptist annual meeting. At the end of that speech, he said, let's stop bickering and arguing over these secondary issues and let's keep the main thing the main thing.

That was a smack in the face. You who want to say that pastors have to be men and Bible, the Bible prohibits women from becoming pastors. See, you're you're the ones who are causing the problem. You're the ones who are fighting and squabbling over the secondary, non-essential issues.

You're the ones who are not keeping the main thing. The main thing. That's what I'm doing. I'm keeping the main thing. The main thing. Listen to all this stuff that I've accomplished. So they'll smack you in the face.

The false teacher will turn it right back on you. You're the one who's being divisive. Not me. Oh, you want to you want to teach doctrine? Doctrine divides. Listen to how divisive you are. I'm for unity.

You're the one who's dividing. Are you going to put up with that? That's what Paul's saying to the Corinthians. You are. You're putting up with it. You being so wise are bearing the foolish gladly. You bear it.

And if anyone enslaves you, if anyone devours you, if anyone takes advantage of you, if anyone exalts himself, if anyone hits you in the face. To my shame, he says in verse 21, to my shame, I must say, we've been weak by comparison.

Like you're so much stronger than we are. That's what Paul is saying to the Corinthians. But in whatever respect anyone else is daring, I speak in foolishness. I am just as daring myself. They're daring to boast about themselves.

I'm daring to boast about myself. And then Paul's going to lay out this resume. That's going to look way more humble by comparison compared to the things that these most eminent apostles were boasting about.

We'll pick up these things tomorrow as we come back to our text. Heavenly Father, thank you for bearing with us. I think of the words that Jesus said to his own disciples in the Gospel of Mark. How long must I bear with you?

You put up with us, you put up with a lot, but you do so because you're gracious. You've been merciful to us. We deserve judgment, but you have shown us such kindness through Jesus Christ, our Lord. He who died on a cross for our sins and rose again from the dead so that whoever believes in him, our sins are forgiven.

We will not perish, but we have fellowship with God right now and the promise of eternal life in your eternal kingdom. May we not be about ourselves. May we be about Christ. And in doing the things that Christ has done for us, we would consider the needs of others ahead of ourselves.

We would not boast in ourselves. We would boast in the Lord and share the Gospel of Christ with others so that they too may believe and so live. Thank you again for your kindness to us and help us to be kind to one another today.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt .com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page.

Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand the Text.