We'll be continuing our study this morning in 2 Corinthians by starting at the first verses of chapter 10 of 2 Corinthians. So if you'd open with me there. Chapter 10 is transitional, especially this first few verses, from the subject of arranging the giving which was kind of central to his thoughts or his need to write the book of Second Corinthians, back to the ministry. And I would argue that Paul, throughout much of this book, is spending a lot of time explaining the difference between the true Christian ministry that he as an apostle represents and those faithful pastors that are with him represent, and the ministry of these troublemakers and rabble-rousers seeking their own glory that I've been calling scholastics. They're using the Greek and Roman philosophical tools to try and wrestle some of the people of God away from God and away from the scriptures and certainly away from Paul and put Paul out and take his place because they were envious of his power, envious of his popularity, envious of the success he was having, while at the same time despising the problems that came with it. and thinking that by changing the Word of God, tampering with it, as Paul says earlier in the book, soft-pedaling it, that they can have the best of both worlds, Paul's popularity without Paul's opposition. Now, when we read this passage in these first six verses, and I checked on sermon audio, I didn't really see a single sermon on those six verses about anything other than applying the idea of taking every thought captive and applying that to the battle with sin. And yes, that's a possible application. Yes, it's a universal truth, really. We need to take our thought life captive. But that's not really the meaning here. That's not the context here. I may well do a sermon on that next week and just focus on that point and bring it out to all of our lives, starting with where Paul is and bringing it to where we are. Other people, they look at this and they love the part about the divine power to destroy strongholds and arguments and every lofty opinion. I raise my opinions above theirs by proving I'm superior. Yeah, not really. That's not his point. I think his point gets more to the point of what Vody's been talking about in his apologetics book, that having an answer for the detractors, the opponents, and for those who have questions, you know, we destroy the strongholds of sin, we destroy the strongholds of false religions and false worldview and false teachings by the power of the Spirit and the power of the Word of God. And so that's what we'll be focusing mainly on this morning. First let us read the entire chapter because it's one chunk. We'll just be looking at the first five, six verses. So 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 starting at verse 1. I, Paul, myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I whom humble one face to face with you, but bold towards you when I am away. I beg of you that when I am present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but of divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is in Christ, let him remind himself that just as he is in Christ, so also are we. For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for the building you up and not for the destroying of you, I will not be ashamed. I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters, for they say his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech is of no account. Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when we are absent, we do when present. Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding. But we will not boast beyond limits. But we'll boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigns to us to reach even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. We did not boast beyond the limit in labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged. So that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you. without boasting the work already done in another area of influence. Let one who boasts boast in the Lord, for it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word. Let us pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, as we come to this matter of the lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of you and your word, we pray that you would open our hearts to consider these things. to understand them properly, to bring them to application in our own hearts, in our own lives. I pray, Lord, for your grace in this, in Jesus' name. Amen. So as I mentioned, this is a transition from the Ministry of Mercy in Jerusalem back to defending true Christianity, the true Christian ministry, and defending that from those who are trying to hijack it. This is one of the major themes of the book. defining what is the true ministry of God. What is the purpose? How is it conducted? How is it rewarded in places? How is it done? And how, in particular, are these other people who are against the teachings of the Bible, how they are wrong in what they are doing and how you may recognize them. And so In the first seven chapters of the book, Paul has to defend himself and his ministry against all of these people who are trying to hijack Christianity. The unbelieving Jews who want to be saved through their faithfulness to their interpretation of the law, and to the pagans who basically want to worship the self and sin. And he's answering both of those and fighting against them. And one of the common threads we see is this being Corinth, One of the hotbeds of Greek and Roman philosophy, they're using Greek and Roman philosophy to try and attack him, the lofty speech, the sophisticated arguments, what ultimately comes down to sophistry, trying to trick you and make somebody look bad by misrepresenting what they say or trying to prove that it's wrong even though it's right. It's terrible. We mentioned before that we see this in America. When I was in school, I was encouraged to join the debate club because I have, you know, an analytical mind. Well, that's the worst thing you could have for the debate club because they assign you which view. There is a God, there is no God. Okay, Mark, you get this one, you get that one. What does it say? Oh, I'm to prove that there is no God, but I'm a Christian and I believe in God. I could never get along with that, but that kind of thinking that we have today goes all the way back to the Greek and the Roman philosophers. That's where that rhetoric idea comes from, and that's always the result of it. Carry it far enough down the road, and no matter what position you're taking, you win based on your skill and your lofty speech and sophisticated arguments. And so one of the big themes we see through this book is Paul is contrasting that with speaking the truth of God and love. And that's a huge contrast and one we need to keep in mind when we're evaluating ministries and ministers and when we're evaluating what we ourselves are going to do and what we are saying in living. Where is our heart in these matters? So in the first seven chapters, he reestablishes his place as the apostle, the one who brought them to the Lord, the one who has been doing right. And all these insults are hurling against me and all these things are using to undermine the ministry. He's answering as many of them as he can to reestablish his place. Once it's reestablished and he has that corrected relationship, he moves on to the practical matter. which he shouldn't have even needed to write them about, and that is the gift for Jerusalem. They had been eager, excited, demanding an opportunity for taking this gift for the people of Jerusalem a year ago. But now all of this fighting, a lot of these efforts to sabotage Paul and turn people away from Paul and turn people to, you know, the wisdom that's acceptable in the world, Paul has had to correct their thinking bring them back to where they need to be looking at Christ, and then remind them, we have this great ministry to do. But we notice that even in the middle of this, he takes time to explain one of the differences between the true ministry and these false ministers. And that was the passage we studied about being transparent, being honest, having everybody know how he is accounting for the money, how he's moving the money, send a representative to observe for themselves. You know, we don't want anything hidden. We're not misusing the money. We're not in this to line our own pockets. We're not giving 5% to Israel and the other 95% to our life and our living stature here in the city of Corinth or wherever Paul was in Ephesus at the time and traveling. And so, That argument, that problem is very big. And if we look at verse 1 and 2, and I'm not going to go into them too much now because I'm going to connect them down at verse 10. But if we look at verse 1 and 2, we see the context really for this whole chapter. Dealing with those who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. And that was one of the arguments they were making. They seem to be making. Paul wants to raise money so that he himself doesn't have to live in squalor, doesn't have to do tent making work, doesn't have to suffer. He wants your money so that he can live high on the hog. And Paul is saying, no, that's not true. Now, the word here, I think, is mistranslated by the ESV. Those who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. That's a terrible choice of words, I suspect, for the word here. The word literally means to reckon, to count, to compute, to calculate. And metaphorically, it means to impute. And we see that use in Romans 4, repeatedly. What did the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now, the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And he goes on to explain. So that accounting, that imputing, is really the primary idea of this. In the case of Romans 4.4, Paul is saying, it was basically taken from the account ledger of Christ and put on you. Your righteousness and your sin was taken and put on Christ and the cross. The imputation. But this word has a slightly broader meaning than that. It can mean to reckon something is equivalent to another, to number it among them. So, to be numbered amongst the worldly is, I think, one of the applications here. They're numbering him as one of or considering to be equal to those of the world. A second meaning is to inwardly consider things, to deliberate. And a third one is basically to judge. You've considered everything and come to your conclusion. Now Paul uses this word quite a bit. It's a fairly frequent word in the New Testament. Not real common, but fairly common. He uses it in Romans 2. He says, Do you suppose, O man, you who judge those who practice such things, and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? The phrase, do you suppose, is this word. Are you reckoning? Have you concluded? Have you judged? Not. Haven't you judged yet, old man, essentially. Another use of it is in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 5, where he says that we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but of sufficiency as God. So he's saying, you know, we don't think, is the word translated in the ESV, of anything ourselves, you know, as it's coming from ourselves, as of ourselves. Our sufficiency comes from God. And the word think there is also this, to reckon, to consider. And the reason I'm making a big deal about this is because that word actually occurs two times in verse two. The first one is a verb, the second one a participle. The tense and the mood are the same, so the meaning could possibly be the same. Or he's drawing attention to that idea. The way it says, in the ESV, such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. To count there is the same word as to suspect. And I think a better translation that leaves it up to us to figure out is, I reckon to be bold with some who reckon us among those walking according to the flesh. The understanding being he's going to be bold with those He's judged to be bold with those who are judging him to be walking in the flesh, not in Christ. Now, interestingly, he uses that phrase, walk in the flesh, twice in this passage. Walk according to the flesh, walk in the flesh, and he makes a contrast. between them in waging war according to the flesh. So starting with verse three and four, we need to think about that. What does he mean to walk in the flesh? Well, normally when we think about it, walk in the flesh is opposed to walk in the spirit. In order to, for the righteous requirement of the law to be filled in us who walk, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, Romans 8, 4. A different preposition there, But also, this can't be the meaning. Because if Paul is saying, I walk in the flesh, and that means he walks as an unbeliever, it wouldn't make sense. But also, he would be giving credibility to what they're accusing him of walking in the flesh, or according to the flesh. The second way we could look at that is walk in the flesh in verse 3 is being contrasted to waging war in the flesh. Paul's referring to our living in our bodies, our literal flesh. not walking, waging war according to the flesh, meaning according to the sinful man. You know, he's transitioning and using two ideas here. We see this for, know that the tent of our earthly home is being destroyed. We have a building from God, not made with hands, and eternal in heaven, 2 Corinthians 5 that we read. And Peter says, as long as I am in this body, to stir up by way of reminder, Since I know the putting off of my body will be soon, as the Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. Second Peter 1, 3 through 16. So I think Paul's using the flesh in the sense of the body. And he does use it that way in Colossians chapter 1 verse 24. I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, the church. So he's talking about being in the flesh, in the flesh just meaning while I'm walking in this world. According to the flesh, I think in this passage, which is a little different, is living the sinful life that was my first example, first verse I just showed you. So what he's meaning is, well, as long as I'm alive, I'm not waging war according to the principles of this world. for the weapons of our warfare, not of the flesh, but of divine power, having divine power. So if we look at that meaning of in our flesh is our pilgrimage in this world, how is he contrasting it with according to the flesh, making war according to the flesh? We need to remember our context in this book. Paul has been defending and defining the true ministry of God against those opponents who are attempting to usurp power in the church and supplant him and other godly ministers as the leaders. And there are some who will, to some extent, follow them. They have success in doing this. Sometimes they convert whole churches. The few who are absolutely firm in their faith end up having to leave. And the weak in their faith follow the godless and wander off, as Paul tells Timothy, into myths instead of into the truth of Scripture. John, who's sometimes called the apostle of love, Talks about this. He says these false teachers, these antichrists in that text, are of the world. Therefore, they speak from the world and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. First John 4, 5, and 6. The point being that, you know, the world will listen to these men. who aren't teaching the truth from God completely. And the world, the unbelieving world in particular, will not listen to the truth. And so they do have success. And these men were not, you know, just a nuisance on the fringe. They were in there disrupting the church and trying to take over. So what were their weapons of warfare, according to the flesh? I think the primary one were the slanderous attacks upon Paul, particularly that he was walking the flesh, that he was after their money, that his goal was to fleece the flock. In this chapter, they're trying to number him among the worldlies, implying that he's going to use the money from this charitable gift for his own comfort, his own purposes. And this love gift from the people of Corinth to take Israel to the Jewish capital, Jerusalem, was something we'd spoken of back in Chapter 8. And that's where that whole transparency thing comes in. Send somebody along to keep an eye on it. You guys hold the money, not me. I'll just take you and help raise the money and help you deliver it. That's his answer to their attack. And it's partially a successful answer. I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not touching the money. You are taking care of it. Usually ministers do not get in on the counting of the money on Sunday morning or the accounting for the money because we don't want that people thinking we're doing something wrong. We leave it to God's people in the church to have it counted and put it away. In chapter 11 of 2nd Corinthians, He talks about his preaching the gospel free of charge as opposed to others who are fleecing the flock. He's serving at his own expense. Acts 18, he talks about being a tent maker. In chapter 11, verse 8 of this book, he talks about how he has robbed other churches to pay for the ministry to them, that he isn't taking from them and they shouldn't be thinking of him in that manner. In chapter 11, he says in verse 12, And what I am doing, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission, they work on the same terms as we do. So in other words, to undermine the claims of these false teachers, he's saying, I'm getting support from other churches. I'm earning my own money to pay for the ministry here so that you don't have to, so that you can hear, so that you can learn. So not only can you have the gospel and be saved, but you can be discipled and raised up into full adult Christians. But as to those men continuing on, as to those men, these people, his opponents, he's saying, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. That was 2 Corinthians 11, 12-14. So Paul's answer to them was to deny himself. the financial support that was his due. They owed him. If he was bringing the gospel, you know, the workman deserves his wages. Don't muzzle the ox while he's treading out the grain. He makes those examples to the Corinthians. He deserves that payment, but he's denying himself that to silence his enemies. And this was one of the crosses he had to bear. But remember, Jesus said, if anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me, Luke 9.23. He was doing this to help them to see the truth of the gospel without getting in the way and allowing false accusers to bring these slanderous accusations. Fine, I won't take money from you guys. I'll work it out. To help you see that these people are liars. So first, these slanderous attacks concerning money and greed. which is idolatry, which is one of the things these leaders seem to want. And remember, it was one of the things they said, you should follow us. Why? Well, look at Paul's life, poor and poverty, going from town to town, danger from beasts and hunger and thirst and cold and heat. We live like sophisticated, intellectual, modern people. We have a place to live, a roof over our head. We have food to eat and people to take care of us. Be like us, not like him. We talked before about how the Bible says the disciple is going to be like his master. They said, you want to be like us, successful, not like Paul, beaten and chased from town to town and having to earn his own money. Paul, however, points out that he's willing to suffer all things for the sake of the gospel. The next thing seems to be a lot of insults about his ability. And this is common today. as well. You know, they say, Paul's adversary speaking against him in chapter 10, verse 10, which we read a minute ago, they say his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech is of no account. It makes me think of 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 2, where he talks about, you know, where is the wise man? Where is the rich? Where is the scholar among you? They wanted to be the scholars and they despised Paul because he wouldn't use their rhetoric. He wouldn't use their games. He wouldn't use their forms of speech. He was willing to be considered a fool and would rather be treated as a fool than to raise lofty arguments, as he calls them. So they insulted his ability. He can't speak like a philosopher. Why would you want to follow him? People in politics today, they love the eloquent speaker, the beautiful person, and they despise the one whose speech is a little rough, whose arguments are more homey and less articulate. And it's sad. Paul says, when I was with you in weakness and much fear and trembling, and my speech and my message were not of plausible words of wisdom, but a demonstration of the Spirit and power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2, 3 through 5. So he's already explained this to them. If you're putting your hope in men, that's where your hope is and what happens. I've met people who, oh, the pastor was so firing, so wonderful, and so great, and that's where I was converted by the wonderful ministry he had. Twenty years later, he skipped out with his secretary. And what have I done? Why have I bothered to go this religious route? And, you know, it's a crisis of faith. If you put your hope in the man, in the pulpit, that hope can be crushed. Paul is saying, I don't want that. I'm not using worldly wisdom and plausibility and convincing people to come to Christ. He's preaching the Word of God and letting the power of God's Word bring them to Christ and bring them to faith so that their faith is in Christ and the Word of God and not in Paul. You tell that to men today and they're not going to be happy because they want you to have the faith in them. They build their ministries. I remember talking to a retired missionary He built, I probably mentioned this before, many churches in Africa and he built an organization and everything was well and he was the grand leader. I liken him to the bishop. When he retired, things started to unravel and the churches became independent or closed. And you'll see that because they followed the man because the man wanted to be followed instead of humbling himself and telling people follow Christ. know the word. Paul says, even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge. Indeed, in every way, we have made it plain to you in all things. That's 2 Corinthians 11 verse 6. So we'll come back to that idea probably in chapter 11 since there's quite a lot to be said about it. But they were attacking him. We have beautiful, sophisticated speech. And we have all the rhetorical arguments. We understand the Greek rhetoric perfectly. We know how to use that to make our point and to persuade people and to bamboozle them sometimes or generally. And that makes us superior to Paul. But which is better? The sophistication? their sophistry, or true spiritual knowledge, true spiritual truths. I think Paul makes his argument very well throughout this book. Another attack against him was challenging him concerning the reception of his ministry, his message. Paul is stoned. Paul is in prison. Paul has changed from town to town. His message is the problem. And I would agree. Paul answers this one pretty often through the books of 1st and 2nd Corinthians. He says, this is our boast, our testimony of our conscience. We have behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God, and supremely so towards you. 2nd Corinthians 1.12. His point is we behave with simplicity. We don't have two motives. We tell you what we believe. We believe what we say we believe. There's no shell game, no hidden meanings, no, I'll tell you this because I know I can get this reaction from you. None of the tricks people use today. One heart, one mind, one purpose. And with, excuse me, with sincerity, No deception, no trickery, no fraud anywhere. And he contrasts that with what he calls earthly wisdom, which would be guilty of being of multiple purposes. I tell you, this is my purpose. We all know children love to do that. Oh, but if we do this, mummy, it'll be good for me because I'll have more time to read my Bible. But this will help me get away from Bible reading secretly. We all understand that kind of thing. A sophisticated speaker can trick you, and they do. If you've ever talked to a salesman trying to sell something, be it a car or a refrigerator or whatever, they're really good at that, while saying, we don't practice that. That's what you guys do. And Paul declares, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring you to the whole council of God, Acts 20, 26, and 27. What does that mean? Well, that is his claim. Everything that was needful for you, I told you. We talked about that. Some people soft peddled the word. If Paul had only, when talking to the Jews, stopped talking about Christ crucified and the value of that in being our substitutionary atonement, Then the Jews wouldn't have been so upset, and they never would have opposed him, and they'd have been happy to come into the church. You drove them away by preaching controversial things that they wouldn't like. Paul says, I preached the whole truth of God, the whole counsel of God. The same to the Gentiles. If you would just stop bothering them about their idolatry, they would come. They would not stone you. They would not drive you out of the city. They would not throw you in prison. But Paul says, I cannot do that. I am innocent of the blood of all people because I have preached the whole counsel of God. If I didn't tell you what you needed to hear to repent of, then I would be guilty of your blood. You would still die in your sin, but I would be guilty of your blood. That's the message Paul is giving them. He says, we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To one, the fragrance of death to death. To the other, the fragrance of life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not like so many peddlers of God's Word, but as men of sincerity, commissioned by God in the sight of God, we speak of Christ. We speak in Christ. 2 Corinthians 2, 15-17. They were soft-peddling milquetoast in their own ideas and making people comfortable and happy and encouraging them and getting them all fired up. to follow them and depart from God. You want to know the results? That's what they said look for. Look at his results. He gets stoned. He gets imprisoned. He gets chased from city to city. Nobody likes him, except the Christians. From a worldly point of view, you know, his popularity, his numbers, his acceptability in society, they were all much lower than these other men. And Paul writes to Timothy on that very subject. He says, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate in themselves teachers to suit their own passions, turn away from listening to the truth, and wander off into myths. The idea of myths there is, you know, made up stuff. That's what the word means, mythos. Stuff that's the stories, particularly, that are made up. You know, we see this today. How many stories are out there today? Christ loves you and wants you to be happy and healthy and wealthy. Christ, you know, will do this or that for you and become a Christian and everything will be better. Ignore that verse behind the blackout in our Bible. It says, all who want to lead a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Just black that out. Ignore that verse. They peddle it. And they tell stories that aren't truth. Paul insists we look at the results from God's point of view. Faithfulness to the truth. As commissioned by God in the sight of God, we speak in Christ, we just read. He was not a peddler of Christianity. I did not shrink from declaring the whole counsel of God. More could be listed, basically dishonesty, sophistry, and appeals to the flexible nature where the worldly warfare they're applied to. You want to get people fired up, you just know what buttons to push and you can push them. And then they'll be fired up and they'll follow you anywhere, even to death, even to eternal death. But that was not what Paul wanted to do. Those are the worldly ways we do not use. And by not using those, we then have the power to destroy strongholds and every argument and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. Because we're unwilling to use worldly ways and feel that the truth, properly and boldly proclaimed, has that power Because it is the truth God uses to transform souls. It is the truth God uses to convict our hearts. Our hearts are not convicted by soft-pedaling. If the pagan is worshipping God through idols, and you don't talk about idolatry, it doesn't convict him of the sin of idolatry. He can't turn from his idolatry. If you don't speak about sexual immorality and homosexuality to the Corinthians and to the others in the Greek and Roman Empire, if you don't tell them those things are sin and they go to hell for them and you can't get into heaven if you're one of those people, they won't know to repent. And if they don't know to repent, they won't repent. And that's where the blood was on his hands if he did not tell them what they needed to know. But when you tell those things to the unbeliever, what happens? The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. He is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. First Corinthians 2.14. Foundational principle of his dealings with the Corinthians stated in the beginning of his first letter. They would not able to believe, the unbelievers are not able to believe. So if your goal is to persuade the unbelievers to hang out, You can't do that to the Word of God. You can't do that to the whole truth. You can't do that to the whole counsel of God. If your goal is just to bring them in, make them happy, and they'll hear something, and that'll change them. But if you never talk about the something that will make them angry and walk out, then how are you going to reach them? How are they going to know what to repent of? Oh, I repent of whatever is really wrong, but we won't talk about that. It doesn't work that way. With that in mind, how are we persuading them successfully? Paul says, even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel, of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus is Lord, with ourselves as servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, let the light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give us the light of knowledge and the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 4, 3 through 6. Whose hearts is the light shining into? Is it shining into the world's hearts? Is it shining into everyone's heart equally so that everyone can understand these things? No, Paul is saying no, unless the light shines in their heart They will not believe. When Paul was preaching in the city of Lydia, I mean the city of Thyatira, there was a woman there named Lydia. And in Acts 16, I'm going to read 14 and 15. One of those who heard us preaching was a woman named Lydia in the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple and a worshiper of God. And the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us. Remember, he said, we impart this word, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The word of truth will fall on deaf ears if the person doesn't believe. But when God has opened their heart, when God has taken out that heart of stone and put in that heart of flesh, and they're now looking at the world from a whole new perspective, and they hear the truth, they say, wow, what a wonderful thing. I've shared my testimony. A bitter atheist who hated Christians and hated God. Hear the pastor up there pounding the pulpit. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And because God was working in my heart, I'm like, wow, I never heard anything like this. This is amazing. This is truth. This explains all the things I see in the world that make me so miserable and so depressed as I see the world is falling apart and getting worse. And I understood. Why? Because God had opened my heart. If God has not opened the heart, You cannot understand those things. They're spiritually deserved. And unless you're spiritual, you can't interpret spiritual things. You can't understand them. You'll reject them. Well, if we're just persuasive enough, then the Spirit works in their heart. No. No one will ever know when the Spirit of God will open somebody's heart. Remember what Jesus said about being born again? Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel, I said to you, that you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3, 5 through 8. When we are born again, it is the Spirit's work, not our work. And we don't know and nobody else knows when that might happen. We preach and we evangelize and we share the gospel and we disciple people in the hope that God will work in their heart and help them to understand. But we don't know when that will happen. And the only things that can work on them, the only things that can take care of that is really the spirit using the scripture that's been taught. God can work without means, but he has established the means. How shall they believe in the one whom they haven't heard, etc. God has established the means He wants to use. It is really only the truth of Scripture that can demolish strongholds. All of their lofty arguments, all of their lofty speech, all of their clever rhetoric, Scripture and God's Spirit are needed. Now, we can and should and do try to persuade the unbeliever. Not because we think our persuasion will convert them, but that God can use the arguments we give them to work in their heart as the thing that he will use then to bring them to faith. And so we do go forward with that desire. And we do crush their strongholds, their lofty speech and their clever arguments. They won't accept it. They refuse to believe it. They refuse to face the facts. You know, we've all been there with somebody, right? It's plain as day. What you're saying is foolish. The Bible says the opposite. Reality is represented by the Bible. And you can see that in your own life and in the world. And they still won't believe. But it's there. The argument has been crushed that may make them more angry and more bitter and more resentful of Christianity. But you have broken the stronghold. where it's really important, though, is with the believer or the one who God has worked in who doesn't know these things. You crush the fine sounding arguments and the clever speech and the worldly wisdom that they've been infected with. How many of us came to Christ perfectly understanding all the things we understand today? Many people were led astray in one area or another. It sounded plausible. It sounded right. It sounded like what happened to me. It sounded like what I believe and what I know. And we follow off these clever arguments. Somebody uses not worldly weapons. You'll agree with me or you'll be thrown out of the church. Not that kind of thing. Not clever trickery, but the word of truth. And when they see that, they go, ah, the Bible says this, but I believe that. Everything I know is wrong. That's how we destroy their temples, their strongholds, their lofty speech, and their clever arguments. And that's important. People still, though, they want to tamper with the Word of God. Remember, Paul talked about that earlier in the book. They want to, you know, if we just make a few adjustments, we can improve the message so that it's more palatable and they will believe. The question I ask, if you're clever arguments of what you can use, and even somebody who's all completely sound and believing and understands things correctly, if they think their arguments are the things that will persuade somebody, you got to ask yourself, Are you really wiser than those people who are opposing God? Can you really defeat them in your wisdom alone? Now that's what the devil wants you to do, right? Set aside your Bible and argue with them in the realm of human wisdom, and human ideas, and human experience, without the Bible and its teachings. If you can persuade me that way. No, Paul says, Vodi says the same thing, right? No, you're being a fool. You've given up your weapon. the spiritual weapon of the scriptures and the truth. And having to do that through their worldview won't work. But people think they're wise enough that they can do that. And that's where that passage I mentioned earlier in First Corinthians chapter one comes into play. For consider your calling brothers, not many of you are wise according to worldly standards, not many powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what was foolish in the world to shame the wise, chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who began for us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, one who boasts, let him boast in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 1, 26-31. He became for us the wisdom from God. And how are we to access that? We have it in Scripture. And how does somebody know that it's not just me and my wisdom and my skill and my ability? That's what they were arguing with Paul, right? His words come to no account. In other words, he wasn't clever in his rhetoric. How did people know the truth? Well, God says. And how did we know God says? Well, in their case, Paul had done miracles among them, and they could see God was with Paul. And we can see it is in Scripture. We have confidence. We can believe it. Shouldn't we be like Paul in dealing with the wise? He's dealing with the worst of the worst and offenders in this sophistry and scholasticism, you know, trying to marry Christianity and Roman and Greek philosophical thought. And what does he say in dealing with the wise? First Corinthians chapter two, verse one and two. When I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. I decided to know nothing among you except Christ Jesus and Him crucified. He said he wasn't going to use wisdom. He wasn't going to use essentially rhetoric. He wasn't going to be clever. He was just going to bring to them the truth of God's Word. And that wisdom from God crushes the world's wisdom. If we try to argue from the world's point of view, we'll lose. We need God's wisdom, God's word, God's revelation as the center of what we teach. So these scholastics are using this lofty speech, which Paul despised. And we should decide which group we want to be in before we set out. If you just read, you're either with Paul not willing to use lofty speech and wisdom, not wisdom, worldly wisdom, or you're with these scholastics and you're going to glorify yourself through your work. Paul was determined to destroy their arguments and their sophistry without using their tools. He's going to use the biblical tools. The lofty speech and all of that was not for him. And then he says, bringing every thought captive. And this really is about restraining our hearts. I see I'm running out of time. In fact, I've gone well over. So we will maybe look at that more next week, both in the context Paul is talking and then the general application of it to the rest of scripture in the world. But basically, how do we overcome the temptation that Paul talks about to use sophistry, to use worldly arguments, to soft-pedal things, to tamper with the Word of God. How do we overcome that? By taking all of those desires and all of those thoughts captive and making sure they're one with Christ and living according to what we find, even though we might be tempted differently. But Lord willing, we'll look at that next week. Let us pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, We are often impressed by the eloquent speech, the sophisticated rhetoric, the abilities of great public speakers. And we forget, Lord, that they generally use such skill to make yes, no, to make up, down, to make right, wrong, to make us believe what is bad for us is good. And what is good for them is good for us, even though it's bad for us. It's a temptation we all fall into, and when we try to reason with others, we are often tempted to show our superior wisdom, our superior ability, our greatness. We thank you for Paul's reminder that we don't use the tools of the world in our warfare, because our warfare is spiritual. We use the tools of the kingdom of heaven. We use the scriptures. We use prayer. Reuse, Lord, our understanding of your word. And Lord, we know the temptation can be to try and fix things, to adjust things, to tamper with things, to soft-pedal things, to, Lord, shy away from the trials and troubles that come and to make people happy so they stay. But we pray you'd remind us always that It is the truth brought to people in love that transforms lives and saves souls. Help us, Lord, to always be lovers of your truth, lovers of your word, lovers of your Son who died for us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.