2 Corinthians - Lesson 7B

• Welcome back guys. This morning, we return to our journey through Paul’s second recorded letter to the Corinthian Church. We ended our teaching last week by focusing in on verses 14-18 of Chapter 6 and then finishing up with Chapter 7, verse 1.

  • At the end of Chapter 6, Paul told this church a couple of things. First, he made it crystal clear that we as believers, that our bodies are carriers, housing for the Spirit of the Living God. For the Creator of the Universe.

  • And if that’s the case, and we know it is because that’s what the Bible tell us, then we should always be aware of this fact and never take it lightly. It’s extremely important that we take seriously who it is we say we represent. Which means how we act and react matters.

    • And why? Because you (if you are a believer) just might be the only Jesus anyone ever sees. You see, the scriptures are clear. God’s primary method for drawing men to Himself is through your life, through the life of a believer, which (once again) should force us to reflect and ask ourselves the question. Which is what?

    • How are we doing, or how are we handling our responsibility as an ambassador for Christ? And let me say, this is probably not an assessment we should be giving ourselves. Not if we really want to know how we are doing.

  • Rather, we should ask a fellow believer. Or better yet, ask a non-believer, someone who deals with you on a daily basis. They would be the ones who could give us the truest and most accurate grade or score on this matter.

• Guys, I believe this is the most pressing issue facing believers in the 21st century, our behavior. Which by the way is simply a biproduct of spiritual maturity. It’s somewhat of a mathematical equation.

  • Your behavior as a Christian man or woman is directly proportional to your walk with the Lord; to the amount of time you spend daily in prayer and in God’s Word. The process of spiritual growth and sanctification is simple. The more you get to know Him the more you grow.

  • And the result is, the less likely you are to act or react like the world, and the more you are likely to act and react like Christ Jesus. We should always be asking ourselves that question, how are we doing? How are we doing when it comes to our lives and its power to influence the world around us for the Kingdom?

    • Are we neutral? Not really having any effect. Are we negative, which would cause the opposite effect of drawing men closer to God? Or are we having a positive effect, making a difference for the Kingdom?

• Let me also say one more thing related to this topic. If we do decide to assess ourselves, give ourselves a self-evaluation of sorts on how we are doing for the Kingdom, don’t do it using the obvious methods like attending church or helping someone change a flat tire or getting a cat out of a tree.

  • Those are the easiest and most obvious ways to assess ourselves. And if I am being honest, these probably have the least effect on the world around us. If we want to truly give ourselves this Spiritual Self-Evaluation Examination, do it in the hard ways, using our everyday lives as gauges. Evaluate ourselves as we move about in the highways and byways of life when our patience is tested, which by the way, brings out the worst in everyone.

    • It's in those moments when our countenance and behavior speak the loudest to the world around us. Those moments create the truest test. Those are the times that reveal just how mature we are as believers. When we are caught off guard.

    • In those times, are you slow to speak and slow to react, or do you jump and blurt out the first thing that comes to mind, saying whatever “excites” your flesh in that moment? As I said, that is the true test!

• Next, Paul ended Chapter 6 by quoting from the Prophet Isaiah, where he wrote the following,

2 Cor. 6:16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,
            “I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM;
            AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.
2 Cor. 6:17 “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord.
            “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN;
            And I will welcome you.
2 Cor. 6:18 “And I will be a father to you,
            And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,”
            Says the Lord Almighty.

• Remember, Paul wrote 2 Corinthians (along with most all his letters) with a few purposes in mind, with his primary objective being that of exhortation, of correcting the church’s behavior. And so, when he quotes Isaiah, He does so for two reasons:

  • First, he’s referring them back to something that all Jewish people held near and dear to their hearts, and that was and still is, the OT Hebrew Scriptures. The Jewish people were raised on the OT Scriptures, and when it came to the prophets, as well as other stories from the OT, they respected them immensely. And really, that’s probably an understatement. They actually revered them.

    • And so, when Paul quotes from the OT, this tells us something; it tells us that he is really trying to drive his point home and grab their attention. It was as if he was saying, “Hey - Hey - Hey - listen to me folks - look up here! Remember what the prophet Isaiah said. Pay attention.”

  • That’s kind of the concept here. He’s trying to drive a heightened awareness to what he is saying by comparing his words back to what the Prophet said. And what did the Prophet say? Good question, and one that takes me to my second point.

    • He wanted them to know that if they made a choice to do something, that God would in turn do something for them. And what was that? Repent and turn. Come out from among the pagans (the non-believers), from those whom they were living with in Babylon.

    • And if they did that, then God would in turn do something for them, which was what? He would be their God and Father, and they would be His sons and daughters. To you and I, this may seem insignificant, but I assure you that’s not the case. It wasn’t insignificant for them. As a matter of fact, it’s not insignificant for you and I sitting here today.

• Isaiah’s words still hold true for all of us sitting here today. The message and promises of God haven’t changed. If we obey God; His statutes - His commands - His expectations - and do what’s right by him, He will also be our Father, and we will be His sons and daughters as well.

  • Jesus himself confirms this in Matthew 12:46-50 when he says,

Matt. 12:46 While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him.
Matt. 12:47 Someone said to Him, “Behold, your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.”
Matt. 12:48 But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?”
Matt. 12:49 And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers!
Matt. 12:50 “For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

• Pretty easy to comprehend. Jesus says those who do the will of my Father, they are my brothers and sisters. Another way to say it is, those who obey and follow my commands, these are my sons and daughters, and obviously this makes sense, right? Not real hard to understand.

  • The question is, are you following the will of the Father? If you are then Amen. If you aren’t, then repent and get back into a right relationship with Him. And if you do you can rest on a promise of God, which is; If you honor God, He will honor you. And this isn’t just a statement. As I said, it’s a promise of God.

    • And it’s backed by the credibility and reliability of God’s Word, and in a world of uncertainty, that means a lot. But the interesting part is, you actually have a choice in this process. You have a say in the matter. All you have to do is believe it. All you have to do is make the choice and know that God will honor His promises, and that He will be faithful. And this is always the case, even if we are not always faithful!

• And so, Paul, in an effort to grab their attention (one more time), quotes from the Prophet Isaiah, and he tells this church to repent and turn from what you are doing. Return to God. And nothing moves God quicker than repentance. And this is the overarching theme of Scripture. As a matter of fact, Proverbs screams the exact same thing, albeit in a different way. Listen to Proverbs 3:5-8:

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
Proverbs 3:8 It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.

• In these verses we have a powerful set of statements and commands, and they start with us and end with God. Proverbs say trust in the Lord. But how much? Just a little? No, with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding.

  • And in all your ways (not some of your ways), in all your ways acknowledge Him. And He will do what? He will make your paths straight. Then the Proverbs says do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn from evil, and it will be (not might be), it will be healing to your body and refreshing to your bones.

    • The Hebrew manuscript says it this way, “And it will be strength to your bones”. And so, paraphrasing here for a minute, obey the Lord and the Spiritual Health Benefits will be tremendous. And I would tell you to do this regardless of whatever tough decision you may be faced with.

• As I said last week, I challenge you to put this concept to the test, and experience what the Psalmist said in Psalm 34:8-9, which was what?

Psalm 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good;
            How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
Psalm 34:9 O fear the LORD, you His saints;
            For to those who fear Him there is no want.

• And so, once again, it boils down to the same ole theme: Choices - Choices - Choices

  • It all boils down to choices and decisions. Which means, - when faced with difficult decisions, do the God-honoring thing. Honor Him and He will honor you.

• Moving on. Last week we finished our teaching by studying Chapter 7 verse 1, where once again they (and we) are commanded to do something. And what is it? Well, let’s read it and see. Chapter 7:1-4:

2 Cor. 7:1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

• Real quick, I want you to remember from last week’s teaching, Paul’s command for them to cleanse themselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. This incorporates the use of what’s known as Merism, which is simply a rhetorical device (or figure of speech), in which a combination of two contrasting parts of the whole refer to the whole.

  • Which tells us that Paul was not saying cleanse the spirit that lives inside you. He’s simply using this language as a way of saying clean up your entire being, your whole self, all of it. And once again, in this process you do have a choice. You can do it or not do it. But if you choose to do it, you can do so knowing you have the promises of God accompanying your decision.

  • Which was what? That He will be your Father, and you will be His sons and daughters! Moving on, next Paul says this in verse 2-4:

2 Cor. 7:2 Make room for us in your hearts; we have wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one.
2 Cor. 7:3 I do not speak to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.
2 Cor. 7:4 My confidence in you is great; my boasting in your behalf is great. I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction.

• In these verses, Paul reiterates what he has told us time and time again, which was how that he and the other Apostles are not the enemy. That they can trust what they are saying.

  • He says, “We have not wronged you; we have not corrupted you; we haven’t taken advantage of you, we have not condemned you. You guys are in our hearts, and my confidence in you is great. As a matter of fact, I boast about you (brag on you) and I am filled with comfort (when it comes to you). And finally, I’m even overflowing with joy in all our affliction.”

  • Last week, I told you that the header in my Bible at the beginning of this section is entitled, “Paul reveals his heart”. And now we see why.

    • Even though this church has lost its way, gotten off track, started listening to unbelievers inside their church, Paul still loves them and desperately wants to see them repent and return to the place where they once were.

    • Another way to say it is, he hasn’t given up on them. And guess what? His model is our model! If someone you know is off track, where once they appeared to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, and mind; but now finds themselves seemingly far away from God, pray for them and encourage them and love them.

  • Ask God to prick their hearts once again, so that they may return to the place they once were. Because the scriptures are clear, that if they repent and if they return back to God, He will be faithful and just to cleanse them of all unrighteousness. So don’t give up on them! Back to the text.  In verse 5 Paul writes:

2 Cor. 7:5 For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts on the outside, fears inside.
2 Cor. 7:6 But God, who comforts the discouraged, comforted us by the arrival of Titus;
2 Cor. 7:7 and not only by his arrival, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted among you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more.
2 Cor. 7:8 For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it—for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while—
2 Cor. 7:9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.
2 Cor. 7:10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.
2 Cor. 7:11 For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.
2 Cor. 7:12 So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the offender nor for the sake of the one offended, but that your earnestness in our behalf might be made known to you in the sight of God.
2 Cor. 7:13 Because of this, we have been comforted.
And besides our comfort, we rejoiced even much more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.
2 Cor. 7:14 For if I have boasted to him about you regarding anything, I was not put to shame. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, so also our boasting before Titus proved to be the truth.
2 Cor. 7:15 His affection abounds all the more toward you, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.
2 Cor. 7:16 I rejoice that in everything I have confidence in you.

• This is a long section, and one that can’t be broken up, because obviously, it creates one continuous statement from Paul. In this section we clearly see why Paul makes a shift in his writings. Where in the previous 6 Chapters he was defending himself and his authority as an Apostle, now his tone has changed.

  • And why? Because he has received good news about the Church’s response to his letter.

• Backing up in verses 5&6, Paul says that when he arrived in Macedonia, he and the other Apostles’ flesh had no rest. They experienced conflicts on the outside and fears on the inside. Now before breaking this down any further, let me say something.

  • Let the record show that the Apostle Paul, along with the other Apostles, were dealing with some abusive situations. And we know this to be the case from his earlier writings, writings that clearly describe how they were beaten, imprisoned, attacked by mobs, etc. So, when they arrived in Macedonia, they were pretty beat up.

    • And just a side note; you and I are no more immune to these types of abuses than Paul or any of the other Apostles. And this is the truth. Regardless of what popular church culture says, suffering is a part of life and it’s certainly a part of the Christian life. The difference for the believer is their outlook. It’s our reaction to suffering that makes all the difference in the world.

  • Paul says, “our flesh had no rest.” And then he says they were, “afflicted on every side: conflicts on the outside, and fears inside.” Here, in Paul’s own words, we receive another fundamental truth of God’s Word; which is what? That the greatest writer of the NT, the greatest of all the Apostles, and the greatest evangelist to ever live, was scared. That he and the other Apostles were fearful and scared.

    • And that’s okay, because that is how God created us! If He didn’t want us to experience fear, He wouldn’t have created us with that emotion. But the larger teaching for us here today doesn’t lie in the fact that they were scared (although it is encouraging to know they we are not alone). The greater teaching lies their reaction to that fear. That’s what we should be interested in.

    • And how did they react when faced with persecution, beatings, and imprisonment? Well, let me begin explaining it by first telling you what they didn’t do. They didn’t Google what to do, they didn’t ask the opinion of their unbelieving friends and family, and they didn’t seek out wisdom or knowledge from the world around them.

• No, just as Paul writes many times throughout his letters, he sought the Lord’s wisdom and knowledge. A wisdom that finds its origin in the will of God! And this is key folks, over and over again, when we see Paul praying for people, his prayer seems to always revolve around the same theme: Lord God, please give them knowledge and wisdom as it relates to Your will.

  • And isn’t that interesting because it’s so counter to what we’ve been taught. Very rarely do we read where Paul says, “God please give them this or fix that”, rather it’s almost always, “Lord, give them knowledge and understanding of your will”.

  • Another way to say it might be, “Lord, give them eyes to see and ears to hear”. And why is that the case? Because as a believer, regardless of how you may feel, all you really want is what God wants, and all you need is what He provides. Nothing more, nothing less!

    • But unfortunately for us (because we haven’t been taught the scriptures properly), many times our prayers find their origins with our wants and our desires, which is usually not in accordance with the will of God!

• Now, this statement may leave you asking the question, well okay preacher, but how do you ever truly know what the will of God is? The answer is, you must know Him more intimately; so much so that the Spirit that lives inside you moves you, touches you, and compels you in one direction or the other.

  • And how do you get to know him more intimately? You pray and study His Word, just as you’ve heard me say over and over again. You study His memoirs! And as you study, you will get a better understanding of who He is, how He operates, and what He expects. And it’s then, and only then, that the answers to your prayers will become clearer.

  • And so, this morning, if you don’t leave with anything else, leave with this: our prayers must be directed in a way that leads us to the Will of God in all situations, and we should always ask God to give us eyes to see and ears to hear as it relates to His knowledge and understanding.

    • And the obvious inverse of that is, our prayer should never have anything to do with our wants and desires. Now I realize this is a hard pill to swallow, and many times it is much easier to say than do. But that is the testimony of scripture. Paul never prayed, “Lord, keep me from harm, or keep me from any trial and or tribulation”, for that matter.

  • Rather he always prayed, “Father, give us knowledge and wisdom and direct us in the way of your will”.

  • And so, for Paul and for us, when the world beats us up - hold on! Wait. Because God will show up. Look at verse 6, Paul says,

2 Cor. 7:6 But God, who comforts the discouraged, comforted us by the arrival of Titus; 

• But God who comforts the discouraged, comforted us, and how did he do that? Not in the way you might expect. He comforted them by the arrival of Titus.

  • Let me start out by saying, God comforts the discouraged, and many times He does so in the most unusual way. Could be through someone’s words that resonate deeply inside the believer, even though the person speaking those words has no clue how God is using it.

  • It could be through a sign; a bird, a rainbow, a symbol; something that only we and we alone will recognize and connect with. A few weeks ago, I had someone who worked for me pass away, and his daughter was talking out in the parking lot.

    • She was talking and then suddenly she began staring, somewhat in a trance. I immediately turned around to see what she was staring at, and she said, “look, a Redbird. My dad always said when you see a Redbird it’s a sign that the person who just passed away is watching over you.”

    • What’s interesting is that Redbird just set there as if it truly was watching over her. I don’t have any Biblical basis for this, only to say God gives comfort to the discouraged, and that’s exactly what the Lord does here for Paul and the others. And in this situation, He does so by sending Titus to meet them in Macedonia.

  • And when Titus arrives, what does he tell Paul? Well, first, before I tell you what he said, you need to understand the background, the history between Paul and the Church at Corinth.

• You see between Paul’s first letter to the Corinth Church and this letter (2 Corinthians), he wrote another letter called the sever letter. A letter we don’t currently have a copy of, but we know he wrote it because he tells us he did right here in Chapter 7.

  • That letter was a very harsh letter written to correct the poor behavior of this fellowship, and when Paul wrote it, he gave it to Titus to carry to the Church at Corinth, and then to read it to them as well.

  • Based on Paul’s on words, we know he didn’t know how it would be received; it could be bad, or it could be good. And so, he wrote the letter and sent it with Titus. But it’s been sometime, and he hasn’t heard back from him. And so, you could say he has been anxiously awaiting Titus’ response.

    • And then finally he meets up with Titus in Macedonia, and fortunately for Paul, Titus brings him good news.  He tells him that the church received Paul’s letter of exhortation, his rebuke, and they repented and turned back to God. And as you can see by Paul’s own writings, he received great comfort.