God's Word to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. I'm going to read the entire chapter if you'll stand with me out of reverence for God's Word. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Would to God you could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit whom ye have not received, or another gospel which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him. For I suppose I was not a wit behind the very chiefest apostles, but though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge. But we have been made thoroughly manifest among you in all things. Have I committed an offense in abasing myself that you might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely? I robbed other churches, taking wages of them to do you service. And when I was present with you and wanted, I was chargeable to no man, for that which was lacking to me, the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied, and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia. Wherefore, because I love you not, God knoweth. But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion, that were in their glory, they may be found even as we. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. I say again, let no man think me a fool. If otherwise, yet as a fool, receive me that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly in this confidence of boasting. seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. For you suffer fools gladly, seeing you yourselves are wise. For you suffer if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit, whereinsoever any is bold, I speak foolishly, I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool, I more. in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft, of the Jews five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwrecked, a night and day I had been in the deep, in journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is offended and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forever, knows that I lie not. In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison desirous to apprehend me. And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall and escaped his hands. May God bless his word. You may be seated. This chapter, can neither be understood nor appreciated unless we remember one thing. Almighty God loves His truth. He loves His Word. He loves His Gospel. He burns with white heat intensity at all times. We're speaking as men here, to preserve His truth, to uphold it. He doesn't appreciate it when men tamper with it. He doesn't appreciate it when they twist it. He doesn't appreciate it when they're silent about it. When they do not declare the whole counsel of God. He takes no delight in fools who say, we don't want any doctrine. He doesn't take any delight in fools who say, no creed but Christ. God loves His truth. He loves His gospel. He loves His Son, who is His beloved. And He loves His church. which is why He took pains to give us His Holy Word so that we might know Him as He reveals Himself to be, so that we might know Him in whom we have believed and be persuaded that He is able to keep us unto that day and to preserve us pure and unspotted unto the day of Christ Jesus. And this is why His Apostle, His appointed delegate, The one of whom Jesus said, he who hears you, hears me, in many respects is dripping with sarcasm against the enemies of Jesus, the enemies of truth, and the enemies of the gospel that had infiltrated Corinth. In many respects, the verses we'll look at this morning, 16 through the end of the chapter, are the climax of Paul's sarcastic denunciation of these false apostles in Corinth. They preached another Jesus. They preached another spirit. They preached a different gospel. And as such, and because the Corinthians were enduring these treacheries and putting up with them, Paul spares no pains in answering the fool as his folly required. In other words, this foolish talking was necessary to expose these shammers, to expose these false men who were seeking to lead away the chaste virgin of Christ into fields where neither God nor truth is found. Because God and truth are found only in His Word. And they are revealed only in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. They're not found within. They're not found in an inner voice. They're not found in public opinion. They're not found in developing all kinds of agendas and goals that we think are good and necessary to win the lost. They are found in His Holy Word. And let God be true. but every man a liar." In the process of these verses, Paul reveals, I think probably unwillingly, his legitimacy as an apostle and servant of Jesus Christ. We learn things in this passage we learn nowhere else about Paul, even though they're just hinted at very briefly. It reminds us, by the way, that the account that Luke gives in the Acts is just a bare summary. This doesn't even begin to include everything that Paul did, or better, that Christ did through His servant Paul. Two other things we ought to remember about this section. Paul wins the boasting game, in which he very reluctantly engages, even though he doesn't even mention what I consider the big three. He doesn't even mention them. He doesn't mention, for example, his Damascus Road calling. He does not mention his preaching and the numerous converts and churches that he established. He may hint at them, but he doesn't even mention them directly. And he doesn't mention his inspired epistles, which were already recognized within his lifetime and of the apostles as we learn from 2 Peter 3, verse 15. And even so, he wins the boasting game. These men who have come into Corinth and have tried to take away the allegiance of the people of God to His servant Paul and to truth, Paul utterly trounces them. And then in verse 30, which we'll conclude with in a few moments, Paul immediately switches gears and he says, but all of this I've done intentionally to tell you one thing. I don't boast in any of that. I only have one boast. And we'll see in just a minute. In verses 16 through 21, he makes a very simple plea. By the way, I'm sorry there's no outline in the bulletin this morning. We ran out of space. He makes one simple plea. Receive me as a fool. Receive me as a fool." Notice the plea in verse 16. Paul says, in effect, understand what I'm doing here, Corinthians. You need to understand what I'm doing. I'm not a fool, like your new friends. But if you think me one, then receive me like you've obviously received these fools. But I may boast a little. This is sheer, utter sarcasm. Verse 17, Paul's honesty we see very vividly here. He says, I'm not talking like the Lord would. Paul draws a clear line of demarcation. He says, I am talking like a fool because it is necessary to do so to show you the real nature of these men to whom you are listening. He says, this confidence of boasting, this boasting game that your new friends are playing, Paul says, when I do it, I'm telling you up front, I'm doing it to show you how bad they are. This is not how the Lord Jesus Christ would talk. And if nothing else, this shows you how Christless your new friends are. This has no bearing, by the way, upon Paul's inspiration. He's not discussing that at all. He is simply, unlike the false apostles, showing the Corinthians transparent honesty. In verse 18, we see a clear antithesis here that Paul makes. He says, the false apostles are glorying after the flesh, boasting in the flesh. And what does flesh mean? Flesh in this context means that their entire method of operation, their standards of judgment, their goals are of the world. They're not of Christ. They are fleshly. They do not operate in the Spirit. They may claim Spirit. They may claim to be this mystical, liberating, higher life Spirit, which is what we'll get to next Sunday morning, Lord willing, when we see chapter 12 and the first 8 or 10 verses of that chapter. But Paul says they don't operate in the realm of the Spirit at all. Because the Spirit is the Spirit of truth. The Spirit is the Spirit of meekness and lowliness and the gentleness of Christ. And the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of transparency. And the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of submission to Almighty God. These men are giddy fleshmongers, Paul says in effect. They are worldly spirits. They think they can set everybody else straight. They need no accountability. They'll tolerate no rivals. And all the while, foolish Corinthians, you're allowing them to abuse you. Now it's interesting here, in the flesh may recall certain portions of Galatians, and this has led many to assume that maybe these men had a Jewish background and so they were claiming all the rights and privileges of being a Jew. There's probably some truth to that because in this catalogue of foolishness, beginning in verse 22, Paul starts there. But I wouldn't press it too far because Paul was intentionally vague. The Corinthians knew well enough of whom he was speaking. And so he gives them a rebuke in verse 19. I hope you can see. Maybe your page is wet. If it is, it should be because it's dripping with sarcasm. He says, you tolerate fools in your midst. Tolerate me. He says, you suffer with fools gladly enough, joyfully even, tolerate me. Paul rebukes here, notice the Corinthians, for being so wise. Now if you remember, every sermon that we've preached, or at least if you've read 1 and 2 Corinthians again lately as a whole, this wise man, this higher wisdom is a sub-theme throughout both epistles. And I think what Paul's doing here is he's reminding them that the arrogant wisdom of these super spiritualists, these higher life, we've got the Spirit, God speaks to us, All of these sorts of things, it's striking again. And these men forsaking apostolic doctrine, they think salvation, holiness, relating to God, consists in following one's own wisdom, inner voice, salvation through mystic insight. Paul's rebuking the Corinthians for being influenced by this again. And in many respects, in verse 20, he expresses absolute amazement. He says five things here. Paul is amazed. Look at this verse. He says, for you suffer, for you allow, for man to bring you into bondage. Galatians 5.1, stand fast in the liberty with which Christ has made you free, and don't be entangled again in a yoke of bondage, i.e., man-made regulations. And you're allowing it, Corinthians. You've allowed them to bring you back into slavery. You've allowed them to devour you. These men were taking their possessions. Remember earlier in verse 12, we saw that's one of the reasons they were mad that Paul wouldn't get paid. wouldn't take any money because it made them look bad. Not only were they fools, but they were taking money for being fools. Paul says to the Corinthians, you're allowing these men to fleece you. Taking of you, in verse 20, the third thing is a little bit of an odd, it's uncertain exactly what Paul means there, although it may simply mean you're caught in their grip, which is probably what it means. And then exalting over you. You're allowing these spiritual nobodies to lord over your faith and lead you away from your steadfast devotion to Christ as His virgin? And on top of all that, notice here the irony reaches its climax at the end of verse 20. If a man slapped you on the face. Now some have thought, a few, that Paul's speaking ironically or metaphorically here. I don't think so. The verbiage would seem to require physical force. And if you know anything about your church history, spiritual tyranny is often accompanied by physical violence. Imagine the Corinthians being so reduced in their servitude to these men that they tolerated them knocking them around a little bit. Things were bad with these false teachers. And Paul said, hey, if nothing else, receive me as a fool. Now he concludes his first section, receive me as a fool in verse 21 by giving something of a justification, a reason for what he's doing. He says, my specific reason for this fool's talk is the reproach they're heaping upon me. They're calling me weak. Let me show you how bold I can be." And notice he adds again, I'm speaking as a fool. Honesty. This constant reference to foolishness in these five or six verses is perhaps the most penetrating accusation Paul could make of these false men. Pride. Arrogance, self-promotion are not to be found in the true servants of Christ. His genuine pastors and teachers say, genuine Christians say, He must increase, I must decrease. So in order to be a non-Christian, I have to play the fool to be like your new friends. This is biting. This is serious. Now he gives the fool's talk in verses 22-29. This is the fool's talk. Rich, and there's just, Paul's showing you his mastery. I mean, you've got, for example, language. Eight perils in verse 26. And arrangements of five. I'm not going to get into all this. I mean, it's beautiful, but I want you just to feel the force of this. This was Paul's slap in the face to the Corinthians and how much gentler it was than those of their false apostles. He says in verse 22, I am at least as good a Jew as they are. Now my guess is that by beginning with this, these men were claiming we're Jews, we're purer Jews than Paul is. Maybe they were somewhat Judaistic in their approach. Trying to combine Jesus with the Old Testament ceremonies like Paul dealt with in Galatians. I wouldn't be a bit surprised. I'm a Hebrew, he says. Hebrew is nationality. I am of Israel, he says. Are they Israelites? So am I. Israel, what? Jacob's covenant name. Israel is the nation's theocratic name, their connection to God. Are they seeds of Abraham? So am I. Seed of Abraham would be what? Heir of God's promises. Notice there's increasing privilege as you go through these three things. Nationally, theocratically, and then personally and individually. Now, in effect, Paul says, listen, no one is prouder at one level of Jewish ancestry as I am. or has a better understanding of Israel's place and history in God's unfolding purpose to use the nation to bring the Messiah into the world. But I will not have Jewishness used, as you are, as a basis of arrogant, petty, nationalistic, merely ethnic claims, ethnic superiority as the basis for a crushing spiritual tyranny. Plus, Paul says, in effect, to be a real Jew is not to have the blood of Abraham. To be a real Jew is to have the faith of Abraham, to believe in the promised Messiah as He did. In fact, Paul says, I think here by implication, without Jesus Christ, being a Jew means nothing at all. It's no more significant than being Russian. or being Polish or being American. It means nothing. And yet I wonder sometimes if our bad theology and our bad politics are going to get us in a real mess in the near future. Because the whole goal of the Jewish nation was to bring the Messiah into the world and then to be absorbed into the church of the Lord Jesus. And having failed on that front and rejected their Messiah, for 2,000 years it has been a vagabond religion, a vagabond apostate people, and their only hope is to return. to the Lord Jesus Christ, because without it, the whole purpose of their existence has been meaningless, except insofar as God has used them despite their unbelief. In verse 23, Paul says, I'm a better servant of Christ than they are. Now, you have to understand, would Paul talk like this normally? I mean, can you imagine Paul walking up to a member of the church and saying, I'm a better servant of Christ than you. I'm a better minister of Christ. Now, you have to be careful in verse 23. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool." He keeps inserting this. He wants us to know this is not the way I usually talk. I'm only talking this way to hold up a mirror so you can see these fools who have infiltrated you. But when I talk like this, it's interesting, I can only speak the truth. They have nothing to offer except false credentials Arrogance and boastful claims. He says, I am more. Now, he doesn't mean I necessarily am a better servant of Christ. That's there. The word here, hooper. I'm so much of a different and higher servant of Christ. And let me tell you what I mean by this. He says in verse 23 in the middle, I've had more abundant labors for his gospel. He says in verses 23 at the end through verse 25, I've had more persecutions for his name. Notice some of these stripes above measure. Prisons more frequently. He said in one place, I die daily. He says at the end of verse 23, and deaths often, five times I received of the Jews forty stripes minus one. The Talmud or the Rabbins had set forty stripes or the Lord had set forty stripes as the maximum. And so, as usual, the Rabbins lowered it one in case they miscounted and they didn't want to break God's law. Five times. Paul pilloried over an upright pillar. His shirt, you got, what was it, six on the front? No, sixteen on the front, sixteen on the back, and seven on the legs, I think. So you were just beaten all over. He says, three times I was beaten with rods. This would refer to Roman persecution. I was stoned once. You remember that one? Three times I suffered shipwreck. We only know of one, and that one hadn't occurred yet. by the time he wrote when he had written 2 Corinthians 11. So, four times all together that we know of, Paul was shipwrecked. A night and day I spent in the open sea, hanging on to a board. Shipwrecks were very common in that time and place. Verse 26, he says, not only, verse 23, if I had more abundant labors for his gospel, not only if I had more persecution for his name, but in verse 26 he says, I've had more journeys and related perils. for his church. Journeys kind of modifies everything in verse 26. It stands off by itself. Let me tell you about my journeys. I've had eight perils. Perils of waters, Potomac River streams. Many of these that Paul had to cross were unbridged. Perilous crossing. Robbers. There wasn't police force then, so people had to protect themselves. And oftentimes robbers hung out along the roads. Perils by my own countrymen. The Jews were always chasing him around trying to kill him. Imperils by the heathen. Romans joined hands with them like in Revelation. Remember, we saw the whore sitting provocatively on the beast. Apostate Judaism sitting on the back of Rome to persecute the church. It's exactly what we see here. Imperils in the city. Imperils in the wilderness, wandering in places where there are not many people. Imperils in the sea. Imperils among false brethren. This is an odd one. This doesn't seem to fit here. It's almost to say, as if all these perils are not enough, I've had to deal with human perils as well among those who profess to be brothers in Christ. So I've had more personal suffering, he continues then with, in verse 29, 7. In weariness and painfulness. These two words put together mean toilsome, anxious, Bone-wearing labors for the Gospel. In fact, elders, by the way, he told the Ephesian elders using one of these same words in Acts 20, that he had worked hard in his service to the church. The word means to the bone-tired. I have worked myself down to nothing. He says, in watchings often, In hunger and thirst, many times Paul didn't have enough money, enough to eat. In fastings often, this wouldn't be like the ones before, necessarily involuntary. This would be involuntary fastings. Paul had no need given his life at one level to voluntarily fast often. This was enforced because he had nothing. In cold, in nakedness. So he says at this level, we'll stop here and just catch up for a minute. He says, let me tell you how much better servant of Christ, over-servant of Christ I am than these men are. More abundant labors, verse 23 in the middle. More persecution, verse 23 at the end through verse 25. More journeys and related perils for his church, verse 26. More personal suffering. for his work, to do his work, verse 27. And now in verse 28 and 29, he gives a fifth thing, more care for his people. More care. These are beautiful words. Those of you who desire to be pastors, teachers, those of you who are elders, let these words sink in deeply. Who is weak and I'm not weak. Paul didn't know anything about a professional clergy. He didn't know anything about religious professionals. That's farce. Paul says, when men are weak, when God's people fall into weakness, I feel weakness too. I'm part of the body of Christ. Who does not grieve and I do not grieve? He says in effect here. And then he adds to it, who is offended? In Greek, this is a word for my scandal. Scandal means to fall into a death trap. Who is offended and I burn not? Paul says, when someone stumbles, when I see God's people, like you are in danger of doing here with these false teachers, falling into the traps of men, I'm set on fire with anxiety, with stress, with concern for your well-being. And so in verses 30 through 33, he switches gears completely. Okay, now it's related, but he comes back to his senses, if you will, in verse 30. He says, first of all, as true as all these things are, my care for all the churches, my sufferings, my persecutions, my hard work, my abundant labors, my journeys in related perils, as true as these things are, verse 30, he says, in effect, I'm not going to boast in any of these things. I'm not going to glory in them, though I have boasted in them to expose the foolish, the baseness of these false apostles." But he says what? I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities, my weaknesses. Paul says, in effect, you're the fools, okay, to these false apostles. Your claims are groundless. Your service to Christ, nothing, pathetic. You're boasting an empty show. You have done nothing for Christ and yet you claim everything. But he says, but I'm not going to boast. I've only done this to make a point. He says, I'm going to boast in my weakness. I'm going to boast in the fact that I am nothing and Christ is everything. I'm going to boast in the truth that I have no strength, and this whole list that I've just given you, and by the way, in verse 31 he adds an oath, which we'll talk about briefly in a moment, just to make sure they know I'm calling God to bear record to the truth of my words. I couldn't do any of this, but God did it all through me. Paul says, unless I cast away all self-confidence, Jesus Christ will reject me. For He only shows His power to those who are humbled before Him, who see their need of Him. He raises up His humbled, weak servants. Do you see now at the end here, Paul overturns their entire paradigm. You've got these religious fools, these religious professionals, these boasters. Paul says there's no power in that. Because Christ is not there. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the lowly. He adds in verse 31, I'm not lying. This is a very formal oath, because the truth of God is at stake. He says, The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I do not lie. Full title. One of Paul's fullest titles. The God and Father, calling both into mind God's omnipotence, God, and Father, His nearness, His covenant nearness to us, of our Lord Jesus Christ, full messianic name, Lord, divine, Jesus, Savior, Christ, be anointed." Paul brings in everything here and says, I'm not lying, I'm telling you the truth. Now, verses 32 and 33 seem misplaced, but they're not at all. They lead into next week, but I'm going to go ahead and talk about them at the end of this. I think what Paul's doing here is saying, do you want to see an example of my weakness? Do you want to see an example of my lowliness? For I hear that you're using something that happened to me many years ago against me. saying that Paul was a coward. Paul ran away. While you're raising yourself up high, Paul says, my whole life in service to Christ has been a lowering. Has been a letting down, pictured by, the Lord saved me by lowering me in a basket. You're lifting yourself up. God has been abasing me and lowering me from the very beginning so that I might be a true servant to Christ, which is interesting. Then in chapter 12, which we'll pick up immediately, Paul says, but now let me show you how high God's lifted me up and taken me even up into the third heavens. But more about that next Lord's Day, Lord willing. By the way, some of the historical details, the Aretas here, you may be interested in knowing, is the father of the daughter whom Herod Antipas divorced in order to marry Herodias. And as a result of this, Herodias was a determined enemy of Herod and was actually received permission from Tiberius to go to war against Herod. Tiberius died while he was en route, just as a little freebie here. But Paul says, in effect, you're so very high, I've been brought so very low in service to Christ. Now, there's some challenging implications from these verses, and I'd like for us to turn our attention this morning as we worship God together, I would like for us to turn our attention to these implications and applications of these verses. One, the Holy Spirit here gives us good warrant for answering a fool as his folly deserves. Proverbs 26, verse 4. The Holy Spirit gives us good warrant, abundant warrant here, for answering the fool as his folly deserves. Now that does not give you permission to say, great, I've wanted to be sarcastic to my wife for as long as I, you just can't imagine, but I'm going to hold my tongue. I've been wanting to be sarcastic to my boss, he's such a fool, I'm going to answer him just like he deserves tomorrow. Or I'm going to start answering my children that way. Now we need to be careful. This is authorized only when the truth of God is at stake in order to rip the mask off the false. In order to hold up a mirror and to show them, as Paul does here, what the world would be like if they were right. Now, can you imagine what the church would be like? Paul obviously had first-hand knowledge of what was going on in Corinth. He's talking here like these men were talking. Can you imagine what the church would be like if this spirit had prevailed? God would have been excommunicated from the church because there's no room for God where human pride is brought to the forefront, where human arrogance and where human boasting. So the very truth of God, the very glory of God is at stake here. Now, who is a fool? Now again, Jesus warns us against calling people fools in a pejorative, name-calling sense, but a fool is a perfectly biblical word. A fool is anyone who seeks to build his life and live his life according to his own wisdom. A fool makes arrogant claims against the faithful servant of Jesus and serves his own interests. Now here's the fundamental thing about a fool. Utters all of his mind. A fool won't stop talking. A fool is one, Jesus says in Matthew 7, who does not build his life on the rock of the words of Jesus. Are you a fool? Is this passage really showing you what your outcome is this morning? You look for opportunities to boast. You don't want to submit to God's revelation and wisdom. You're only going to submit to your own thinking. You'll go to hell that way. Let me tell you something, at the end, everybody thinks God's thoughts after him. In the end, everybody takes God's opinion. So you can either be a fool now and say, no, not me. I don't want any part of this. I'm not going to lower myself. I'm going to exalt myself. I'm going to assert my own right to think and live like I want. I may even use Jesus' words like these men did. I may even use Spirit words. I may even use Gospel words, but I am not going to bend my will to live by the Word of God. You are a fool if you live that way. And you have held up to you by the Holy Spirit a mirror to show you how ugly that is to live. Now granted, we all have areas of foolishness in our lives. I do. You do. If nothing else this morning, do you see how ugly foolishness is? Foolishness, for example, children, the Bible says is bound up in your heart. Bound up. And time out and three strikes will drive it far from you. No. And the rod, will drive it far from you. Parents, early and often, need to spank children. And they need to feel that they have been spanked. All I know is, when I got spanked growing up, and eventually we saw this was true with our children, they didn't want it anymore. Okay? You know, the Bible says, don't give them a tap on the backside. He said, don't spare for their crime. The picture is not of this docile little lamb getting a few little strokes. That's not foolishness. That's not the foolishness we're combating. We are combating within the human heart a tightly wound, tightly compressed, vehement desire to live according to the way I want to live. I will not bend my will to anybody's. I will live as a God unto myself. That doesn't call for a few taps. That calls for significance. And now parents, nobody is spanking you, so that means you have to spank yourself. And by the way, I have total biblical warrant for saying that. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 in the section on the Lord's Supper, he says if you would judge yourself, you wouldn't be judged by the world. How many would say this morning, now there's no foolishness in me, all my life has lived in submission to God. I'm always saying, not my will but yours be done. I am already got one foot in heaven. I'm like Enoch. Everything in me is walking with God. I think not. Now, that's not to say that there are not degrees of progress and sanctification, but I'm trying to make the point here. Foolishness is serious business. How serious? Matthew 7, we're going to read the song that all the children sing or used to. I did and you should have as well. Matthew 7, beginning in verse 24. This is actually the conclusion to the Lord-Lord passage, which most traveling evangelists use to create guilt and make false converts, but that's for a different sermon. Matthew 7, 24. Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that hears these sayings of mine and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended, and the flood came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." What are you built on? You teenagers. I want a half sand house. I want a half rock house. Because when I'm feeling kind of footloose and fancy free, I want to run into the sandy part. So I have a little bit of worldliness, so I have a little bit of fun, so I kind of keep my eye on what's going on among the sons of hell. But when I get scared, I want to run back into the house of rock. No, no, no. It's one or the other. You're either a wise man or you're a fool. Now, part of the wise man's wisdom is his recognition that there's still foolishness in him. And so he keeps trying to build upon the rock of Christ and he keeps fleeing to the words of the Son of God so that he may live and that he may not be brought down in the catastrophes of life and certainly that last catastrophe, the final judgment which shall befall all of those who spurned the Word of the Son of Man." Interesting, Jesus said, heaven and earth will pass away. My Word will not pass away. Do you know that your destiny and mine are tied to whether we will be judged by the Word of Christ? He is the living Word. And so we build our lives upon that Word. We're wise men. Bad times come. It doesn't mean, hey, we can name it and claim it. Everything goes away and it's always blue skies and rainbows. No, rain still comes and there's a lot of it, but the house stands. Build your house upon man's word. Build your house upon what you want to do. Build your house upon the world's wisdom and you will crumble. Why? Because we live in God's universe. We do not live in Hollywood's universe. We do not live in Barack Obama's universe. We don't live in the bureaucratic world of careful management and nobody ever gets hurt. We live in God's world. And in His world, His truth reigns supreme. And His truth decides your destiny and mine. So we can either build on that and be wise, we can be humbled, or we can build on, eh, I want to kind of mix a little sand with that. I'd kind of like to mix some foolishness with that. Who knows what will prevail in the end? The Bible says that some men's works will be totally burned up. They themselves will be saved as if their backside is still burning with hell itself. So be careful. This whole thing of being a fool or a wise man, this is a biblical thing. The whole book of Proverbs is about it, Ecclesiastes, but it's everywhere in the Bible. You either live by God's Word or you live by man's Word. Secondly, if you are a wise man, again here to follow from point number one, you are going to be a servant of Christ who is lowly before his Master. Christ's true servants never boast. of their accomplishments, their exploits, and their insights. They never boast. Why? Because they recognize, I didn't put myself on this rock. 1 Corinthians 4-7, what do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, meaning as a gift from God, why do you boast as if you didn't? So Paul reminds us here that Christ's servants don't boast. As Christians, we don't boast in what we're doing. We don't boast in what we have. We don't boast in our exploits, our insights. We're lowly before our Master, like He was. That us, the people see or smell in us, the aroma. of the lowliness of Christ? Those of you who like sports, do you boast in your football skills more than you boast in Christ? There's a problem here. Do you boast in your basketball team more than you boast in Christ? There's a problem here. Because what men love, they talk about. We've all sinned in this area. It's not just you, it's me, it's all believers. But we need to be brought back to this thing here that wise men, part of their wisdom is the recognition that I have nothing but what has been given to me as a gift of God. I can't take credit for anything. It is all then His grace. A third thing we learn here in these verses, and this helps us with respect I think to even evaluating our church life, And that is dangerous, false apostles, fools, false leaders rely upon the flesh, the world's way of thinking, the world's standard of measurement, whatever it takes to further one's own interest and influence in the world. Is our standard of judgment fleshly or heavenly? How would we measure success? You know, it's interesting, well, people will say, every now and then I'll get a question, somebody I haven't seen in a long time, well, how's the church going? And I'll, you know, how's church work going? And I'll say, well, we, you know, we have our usual struggles. We've got victories. You know, if they happen to know anybody here, so-and-so's doing well and, you know, so-and-so needs work, whatever. And many times the question I'll get back is, yeah, but how many people are there in the church? Okay. How many people now? One minute. I just told you how the church was doing. You know, part of the danger now, we expect the church to grow. We expect the Bride of Christ to grow. We expect the tent stakes to be expanded. This is prophesied throughout Scripture. God's truth in His time and way will make things grow. But I'm simply drawing this contrast here. Our standard of measurement is not the flesh. It's not the world's way of thinking. You've got to have this. You've got to look like this. You've got to be this. You've got to be this size. You've got to make these claims. That's how fools talk. That's not how servants of Christ talk. And closely related to that forth, Christ's true servants, I think we learn here from the Apostle, which is very convicting to me and probably is to you as well. Christ's true servants seek every opportunity to serve Him, whatever the personal cost. I mean, talk about a man who was washed out in service to Christ. I didn't say washed up. I just said washed out. He was emptied of himself. I can't imagine this. It's mind-boggling. Only the power of Christ could have enabled him to live this way. But if nothing else, what is He teaching us here? Spurn no hardship. Refuse no sacrifice. We don't even know what this means anymore. We don't even know what this means anymore. Now, by the way, this does not mean if you're not stopping your work in the middle of the day and telling everybody you know and being a preacher, then somehow you're sitting against God and you're not really committed to Christ. That is hogwash. I'm telling you as a mother, if you're a faithful mother at home, and you're keeping a home, in many respects, and some people are not going to like me saying this, but I'm going to say it anyway, you are more faithful to Jesus Christ than a female missionary who leaves her place and goes out around the world and does something she's nowhere commissioned to do in the Bible, and that is preach the gospel. Nowhere commissioned to do. Nowhere. Nowhere. So this is not meant to say, well, if you're not out there, we're not all called in the same sense, in the same different things. But where God has called you, Paul's already said in 1 Corinthians 7, stay there. Be faithful. And are you a servant? Stay there and serve Christ. Are you a free man? Stay there and serve Christ. Are you married? Serve Christ in your family. Are you unmarried? Serve Christ in your single stay without all of the confinements and responsibilities and burdens that family life brings. Yes, there's joys, but Paul emphasizes in 1 Corinthians 7 the divided interests that married men have. Serve Christ. Now, having led us off the hook, let me kind of put it back in a little bit again. We all ought to look at where we are and say, okay, am I doing what I could be doing? I'm not saying are we doing everything we could be doing, because that loses its effect, doesn't it? Of course, nobody is doing everything we could be doing. We could never sleep. We could never eat. Let's just ask the question, in my particular sphere of influence where God has placed me, am I seeking, in addition to being faithful and working hard, which is honoring to Him, raising my family, which is honoring to Him, in those contexts, In my work, am I doing it heartily as unto the Lord? Am I looking for opportunities to speak a good word for Christ? And if I'm praised for something, do I yield all glory to Him verbally so that everybody knows and is faced with the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? In my family, am I just seeking control? Or am I seeking as hard as it is sometimes, particularly if you have little children, to use every opportunity to show the grace, the mercy, the love, the peace of God. Are we weak? Absolutely. But it's not a question of let me add more to what I'm doing. It's let me step back and say, am I being faithful where I am? Are we doing as well as we could be doing? Or are we doing a little bit better over time with what we're doing? Be faithful. Spurn no opportunity to serve Him. And with that, we need to get out of thinking that anything in life is about being entertained. You know, this idea exerts such an evil influence. I see it in the young people. I see it in myself. I see it in the adults. Let me just say it very, very frankly. It's as true as me, and I need to repent, and I'm trying to before the Lord. There is no time of life where you are ever called, commanded, and encouraged to be entertained. None. That doesn't mean you can't go see a play occasionally. That doesn't mean you can't occasionally watch a movie purposefully. But entertainment is mindless, passive reception of disconnected impulses designed simply to create distraction. You know what? That's really harming the church. It's harming our worship. Because most people are not content anymore unless worship looks like television. At the end of the day, that's what it is. Our taste buds, you know, somebody who never drinks water, and they have a Coke when they wake up, they have a Coke at lunch, they have a Coke at dinner, or a Diet Coke, or a Diet Red, whatever that thing is. Okay, after a while, water, water, water, they don't have any taste for it anymore. And it's not because water's not good, because water is delicious. It's tasteless, but it's delicious, okay. The problem is they've lost their taste. Their taste had been corrupted. So I would encourage you, when we talk about... Let me ask you a question. If Paul had to watch the news every night, could this list have been written? If Paul had to have a two week, four week, six week, eight week vacation every year, would that list have been written? Now granted, we're not all apostles and I'm not forgetting. Each man has his sphere. But I'm simply trying to point out that many things that take up our time are things at the end of the day, if not in this life, perhaps in the next, there will be a sense of, you know what, thank you Lord for your grace, but I could have done more. I could have served you more faithfully. I could have, within my sphere, not with joining up for foreign service, I could have been more faithful. You do not have a right to be entertained. You have the privilege of serving Christ. Fifth, why is Paul doing so much boasting so that he can show us how ugly boasting is? In effect, he says here that boasting in anything but Christ is sinful. Can you imagine, Paul? Again here, we're not this sanctified. And I'm as guilty of this. I've done it so many times. Increasingly, you know, I'm back to my 5th grade Mrs. Cornelius lesson. Lord, put a watch before my mouth, keep the door of my lips. Why can't I have learned that 30 years ago and boarded it up? But I was kept in from recess all those days because of talking too much. I can't imagine Paul saying, man, I made the Silesia run in 10 hours. Now, you wouldn't believe the food I had along the way. Man, we had some great scotch and cigars in that little bar there by the end of the Five Jolly Taverns, whatever it was. I mean, it doesn't mean Paul wouldn't have liked a cigar down there or Paul wouldn't have liked a beer, but these are the trappings of life. They're not life itself. They're the trappings of life. The Lord is going to bring a lot of people into your path. You ought to just stop sometime and think. The different people that come within the sphere of your contact. You may think, if I talk to them about Christ, it's going to have to be a three hour thing. No, it doesn't. There's something in humble thankfulness to God being confessed, love for Christ, humility before His grace. Those kinds of boasts make impact upon people when given over a period of time. What are you boasting in? You know, Paul says in Galatians 6.14, God forbid that I should boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me bring this down to where perhaps some of us drive more, a more frequent road, What about our parenting? What hope do you have, parents, of your children weathering all of these temptations? I catch myself all the time. It's miserable. I hate sin. I can't wait to go to heaven. I hate sin. to have this, okay, I've got to tell them again. I'm going to hound them again. If I have to keep them up until 3 in the morning, I'm going to do it again. I'm going to hound them again. I'm going to correct them. I've had to ask my son, my daughters to forgive me of this at times. I'm not trusting in my corrective ability, my disciplinary patterns and habits. I am trusting in the grace of the crucified One. That leads to faithfulness in certain areas. But we need to understand this. Your methods, if you depend on them, become fleshly. Even if the content of them, you can use Jesus' Spirit and Gospel. Because part of fleshliness is trusting in human ability. And this is very shaky here. This is a very fine line. You need to think about this. What are you trusting in? At the end of the day, see, if you're trusting in Christ, that leads to calling upon Him. That leads to humbling before Him. That leads to repentance before Him. If you're trusting in Christ, it leads to a Christ-oriented faith. If you're trusting in yourself, you've got your books looking at methods and you're pouring over them or you're thinking about all the great cultural points you'd like to make with your children. If I can just teach them that and box off that, then they'll never know about that. And then they'll know about See, all that's ridiculous. Christ is our boast. It's our cry. It's our trust. It's our foundation for victory in all these other areas, because God will only bless the humbled with success. Because those who are arrogant can't handle it. And it will only confirm them in their pride. And that's my last point. When will the glory of the church return? If you read some of the prophecies in Isaiah, I think when you get 60, I'm down to the end there, even a little bit earlier, 59, but certainly 60 to the end. Zechariah's got many. Malachi. Paul. Glorious passages. 1 Corinthians 15. Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 5. Glorious future awaiting the church. Let me tell you one of the reasons why we don't have, and it's very difficult to look at your own time period and know anything. You know, if the Bible says it's not in man to understand his weight, then we certainly can't understand our age. Even all the pundits out there must have a crystal ball. Here's one of the glory, it's very simple. Not simplistic, but simple. As an individual Christian, as a husband and the head of your family, as a wife keeper of the home, as a young person, as a congregation, as denomination, as the whole body of Christ universal on earth, the glory will return when the church turns away from boasting in her programs, her preachers, her shows, her influence, her buildings, her numbers, and humbles herself before the cross. and has no other thought, message, or goal than to boast in the One who died for her. Short of that, there is no Dom. And by the way, there are places in Asia Minor to this day, places that John wrote the seven letters to, there's no church. Candlestick has departed. You think, it can't happen here. Oh yes, it can. because God will not share His glory with another, including the church in the United States. And when you read those first two chapters, chapters 2 and 3 in the book of Revelation, you can't help but thinking about us and about the whole church. Remember, Jesus says, you make me want, forgive me, grammarians and those with sensitivities, puke. You make me want to puke. I want to spew you out of my mouth. Look at your beauty. Look at your wealth. Look at your claim, some of these churches were saying. Jesus says, what about the cross? What about the lowliness? This means there's not exaltation, but there's only strength and weakness because God resists the proud. And He gives grace only to the lowly. So let me ask you a question. Very simple. Is God resisting you this morning? Or is He lifting you up? Very simple. He's resisting you if you're saying, I can trust my own reason. I don't want to listen to anybody else. I'm not going to bow my will before my parents. By the way, if there's issues that you're not bowing your will on young people, teenagers, young adults, until you're establishing your own household, God's resisting you, at least in that area, because He resists the arrogant. And who are the arrogant? Those who will not bend their will to do what God wants them to do. But God will lift us up. He's not a mean tyrant. He loves us. He's our Father. And He says, confess your sins to Me and I will cleanse them. I will take them away. We got any wives in here who are saying, I am not going to bend my will to my husband on this point? Lady, God's resisting you right there on that spot. And He is not going to give you victory. Men, do any of you just arrogantly say, I'm doing this no matter what and I'm not going to stop? I don't care if my wife likes it. I don't care if it's making my children nervous wrecks. I'm not going to stop. God's resisting you because here's a universal principle that's at the heart of this passage of Scripture. God resists the proud, the self-sufficient, the boastful, the I can do it myself, the only perspective that counts is my perspective, the only schedule that counts is my schedule, the only lifestyle that counts is the one I want to live. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the lowly. This is a serious passage of Scripture, made more so because we also see today how much the church is not humbling herself before the Bible. You know, you would think at one level, this is one area where the church, this is like an old lesson. Talk about ABCs. Wasn't one of the first things we learned when we were kids? God speaks in His Word. God's Word is His speaking. This is the Word of God. God has exalted His Word above His name. Is that our attitude? Let me give you a very tangible way, in conclusion, that you can know whether or not God is resisting you right now, whether you feel it or not. These men didn't feel like God was resisting them. They thought, hey, we're on God's side. We've got Jesus' Spirit and Gospel. We're good to go. What's your attitude to the Bible? I'm not saying you read it for an hour. I'm saying, does your heart break for the longing that it has for God's judgments at all times? Do rivers of water run down our eyes because men make void God's law? Do we say, Lord, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law? If the Bible is an indifferent book, a closed book, that is a sign of core arrogance, and God is resisting you, and judgment hangs over your head. Or at least chastisement, and the Lord will bring you back. If you're one of His, He will forgive your sins, but that doesn't mean He won't chase you along the way. You may say, I've forgotten. I just haven't had time lately. I don't really think about that much. Do some soul searching, brother. Do some soul searching, sister. Do I love the voice of God? Or is my staying away from the Bible kind of like Adam and Eve running off in the garden? I want to stay a little bit far away from the voice of God. I like to cover myself with my busy schedule, i.e. fig aprons. I like to cover myself when I'm tired. I'm kind of hiding. God resists the proud. Now, let me say this in conclusion. I'm thankful for each one of you, as I've said many times before. And I praise God that there is, I sense, in most of you, a core submission to God. Let me encourage you to continue it. Let me encourage you not to tire of it. Let me encourage you that wherever you happen to be right now, you've not reached the high water mark. There's more to learn. There's more to do. There's more people to talk to. There's more of God's power to see in your life. There's more of Jesus to know and love. There's more. We only see the beginnings of His ways, and we've only scraped the surface as individuals and as a body. Love God's truth. Love God's truth. This is your future. This is not an anchor. This is not only an anchor, it is a sword. And when you believe and you meditate and you teach your children and when you love God's Word and it's preaching, you know what God's sword is doing? It's just flitting through the air, cutting up the garbage of your life, penetrating to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, sanctifying you. Stay in it. Don't forsake it. Your family may hate you for it. You know, this is going to be an interesting age coming up because people in the church get desperate. They think, well, the old ways don't work anymore. We've got to try something new. We've got to stand on our head. OK, we've got to, you know, swallow creek water. I mean, whatever it takes to get people's attention. Walk in the old paths, said Jeremiah. Walk in the old paths. Stay in the truth of God's Word. But stay in it so that you can be changed. Not stay in it because it's comfortable. Not stay in it so you end up stagnating. But stay in it so you can continue to be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. God loves His truth. He will defend it. He Himself, as He did through Paul here, will answer the fools as their folly deserves. Every time we see one of these false apostles today, like we talked about two Sunday evenings ago, exposed as a charlatan, what's God doing? Answering the fool. Every time we see one of these ministries exposed for what it is, what is it doing? It's not a ministry at all. God. God answers the fools. God answers them. Just trust Him and stay in His truth. Let's pray together. Father, we thank You for the fact that You do love Your Word. That's the only reason we still have it. Men have done everything they can to burn it, ban it, twist it, corrupt it, despise it, bury it in obscurity. And yet, it's still here. Let God be true, but every man a liar. We thank You for raising up Your servant Paul to defend Your truth in this rather bizarre, from our perspective perhaps, way. Yet it was necessary to show us in a mirror the ugliness of boasting we know. Please deliver us from it. Please, Lord Jesus, may we know You better. May we walk with You more so that we will boast in You. We can't boast in something we don't love. We can't boast in someone we don't know very well. So we need to know You. We need to love You. We need to be devoted to You. Please help us. We can't do this. We're weak. And we lament, we mourn over, we grieve over our own fleshliness. The fact that we look at things only from our own perspective like the world does, please deliver us. And please help us to be faithful where we are, where You've put us, to make the most of every opportunity because the days that we live in are evil. or at least the men who live in them are. Father, we pray that you would bless us in our businesses, bless us in our families, bless us in our communities to be faithful, to boast in Christ and in His cross. We ask these things in His name. Amen.