Thank you, Michael, for leading worship. Thank you, Frank. Not with swords loud clashing nor roll of stirring drums. Talking about the coming of the kingdom and how the kingdom advances. And the writer says, it's not with swords loud clashing. It's not a war, a physical war. It's a spiritual war. And the way that it increases is by deeds of love and mercy. The heavenly kingdom comes. It's a beautiful idea. Please turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. We're marching our way through, we're getting close. Getting close. And I failed to mention this in my announcements this morning. All the cooks are in Louisiana. The Edward cooks, the Roy cooks, the Brady cooks. They went to Louisiana to be with their family. Edward is probably preaching this morning. So be in prayer for them. Last time we read chapter 10, If you remember, Paul was determined to show them that he's humble and gentle, like Jesus. He's not trying to be harsh with them or very forceful, but patient. And he's telling them that because he's been accused of being two different people. One person, if he writes them a letter, and a different person in person. Meaning in person, he's like this humble guy, like almost timid. And then he writes us this letter. He's like bold as a lion. And wait a second, which guy is this? He wasn't that impressive when he was here. Did y'all think he was impressive? He didn't see me. That's kind of what's going on. And Paul reminds them, he says, well, I was being patient. I hope I won't need to be more forceful when I come to you again, because if I do, then it'll mean y'all are still not right with God, and y'all still haven't repented." And he reminded them of the true fight of the Christian faith, which we talked about last time, and it's why I read that section from the hymn, not with swords loud clashing, or roll of stirring drums, The fight of the kingdom of God is against spiritual forces of evil that are in the world and move men and women into wickedness. Born with fallen natures and influenced by the spiritual forces of evil, humans have no chance whatsoever They will be lost eternally without a massive intervention by God Almighty. And thanks be to God. He made one. He said the Lord Jesus. But the fight that we have it's not against flesh and blood. The Crusaders wrongly thought that. And by the way, I don't have just a terrible opinion of the Christians who fought in those wars. Many of those countries were being overrun by Muslim invaders. They should defend themselves. But many things were done as it relates to protecting the kingdom of God, which is false. His kingdom is not of this world. That's not how the kingdom advances. It doesn't advance through wars. We don't carry a giant golden cross into battle and know that Jesus will be with us because we have the holy icons leading our armies. That is folly and idolatry, Eva. The fight is against the spiritual forces of evil that move men and women to wickedness. And since the battle is spiritual, Paul's gonna use spiritual weapons, prayer, and the sword of the spirit, the word of God. Those are the weapons he's gonna use for the fight. That's all from chapter 10. And he talks about that these weapons, these spiritual weapons that he has, they are able to bring down strongholds. We've discussed that, you know, what's a stronghold? If you're like me and you like medieval movies and medieval stories, I love that genre. Books, movies, anything. Strongholds, right? They're in the field, here comes an army, they run to the stronghold. The army now can do nothing unless they have some sort of advanced siege weapons to tear down that stronghold. Well, the mind is a stronghold of bad ideas. and many people even being oppressed by spiritual forces of evil. Paul says, "...through the sword of the Spirit and through prayer, I can bring down strongholds." Thoughts and opinions and all sorts of ideas and arguments that stand against the real nature of things. Paul says, with our divine weapons, we can bring down strongholds. Even the mind. The mind, was it Calvin that said the mind, the human mind is an idol factor. It's always cranking them out. If you're not careful. Paul says, I'm gonna take thought captive and I'm gonna teach you to take every thought captive and don't let there be strongholds of evil in your minds. Control your thinking. Is it that hard to do? How can I control my thinking? It just happens. You can. It's not easy to do. In fact, this requires the Holy Spirit of God to give someone something called self-control. Not just your actions, your thoughts. With the Holy Spirit's help, the gift of self-control can help your mind, does help your mind. So be spiritually minded is Paul's point. Take every thought captive, Don't let thoughts go run wild. Did like, did God really say that? Does he really care? Is he really gonna bring me to account? Does he really see? Can this meek and gentle savior really save me? I've never seen him. Is he really real? Is he really alive? Did he really rise? If you read the scriptures, the scriptures will inform your thinking. But you have to take captive thoughts of doubt. And if they don't, you know, just think about your thoughts. That's an interesting concept. Think about your thoughts. Put them into the crucible of God's word. And then you'll know which is the real good stuff and which is the stuff that should be scraped off and gotten rid of. Got it? Take every thought captive. In this modern era, information is plentiful and much of it is not beneficial. Much of it is not helpful. What it will do is fill your mind with a bunch of mischief. and it's not helpful for your Christian faith. Take those thoughts captive. I use the internet, and I like it, and there's many things that make me happy and improve my life. But there's other stuff that doesn't. Reject that part. And if you're not able to control it, then push away from it until you are, or forever. But you must take every thought captive. Remember Paul's teaching to the Romans. Do not be conformed to this age. It can also be translated age. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Can we know the will of God? Can we know what's good? Yes, we can, by reading His Word. When we conform our minds and our thinking to God's will, then you'll be in a good place. You know this, right? You know, if you read the Bible more, it would be helpful to you. You would be better than you are now. You know, if I prayed more, I would be better than I am now. I don't mean the more lovable to God. That's not what I mean. I just mean a more devoted Christian. Don't you know that? Of course you do. Well, why don't you do it? I don't know either. It's part of our struggle. We're weak, but God's strong. But if you do control your mind, strongholds of bad thinking are pushed back. Darkness is dispelled and light comes in. Well, then that's the context of chapter 11. We're going to not read the whole chapter this time. Verses 1 through 15. Even though really it needs to be done all together, but we don't have time. Verse 1, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me, for I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I'm afraid as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if If you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you received, you put up with it readily enough. Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least in fear to these super-apostles. Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge. Indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and I was in need, I did not burden anyone, for my brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way, as the truth of Christ is in me. this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia." And why? Because I love not you? Or because I do not love you? God knows I do! And what I'm 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. 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. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds." Amen. We'll stop there for this session. Verse one, Paul is still thinking about the minds of the Corinthians. They must keep their minds on the true gospel, that's forgiveness in Jesus only. They have to protect their devotion and their thought life. And he's concerned because they seem to be allowing different versions of the gospel to be taught and entertained and discussed and considered. And Paul admonishes them to not be deceived by Satan's tricks. He's like, when somebody comes and they bring these different things, which we did not teach you, you just entertain it. You just accept it. You're listening. It's all good to you. Why don't you reject this? I'm jealous over you. I wish I could present you pure to the Lord Jesus, but you're entertaining all sorts of bad ideas. And that's basically verses one through four. Verse four, where he talks about, you put up with it readily enough. Verse 5, Indeed, I consider that I am not the least in fear to these super apostles. Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge. Indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you, in all things." Paul rarely does this, but he is doing it now. He rarely boasts, like, these people are corrupting your minds, and they're not as good as we are. You should not be listening to them. They're not as good as we are. In all aspects, we are better than them. It's something that Paul does rarely. John Gill has a good comment on this. He says, The false apostles boasted so much of their gifts and their abilities and usefulness, that the apostle found himself under a necessity of saying some things in his own defense. for the honor of God and the good of this church, which otherwise his modesty would have prevented him, in which he saw would be accounted and censured as folly in him by others. And therefore he entreats their patience a little while." At the beginning there he says, bear with me, bear with me in a little foolishness. He said, I'm gonna buzz for a minute. Just bear with me, you know me, you know I'm not actually boastful like this, but just hear me out. And Gil goes on, and that they would suffer him to say a few things in vindication of his character, and not be offended, though it would be in commendation of himself, which, were he not forced to, would look vain and foolish. Because in other places, Paul says, we're not commending ourselves. God commends us by working through us. Verses 7 through 9. This is an interesting section to me. Paul begins to question whether he was wrong in not accepting material support from them. You see that? Did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preach God's gospel to you free of charge? He said, this is what he's saying. When I preached to you, y'all didn't give me any money and I didn't accept it from you. Was that a sin on my part? Did I humble myself too much? Verse eight, I robbed other churches. That's a pretty intense, Accusation, isn't it? He says, they were supporting me, but I didn't use their support to minister to them. I used it to minister to you. Paul says, did I commit a sin in doing that? Was that wrong? I mean, really, the principle is the Corinthians who are being ministered to by him should be the ones who support him. Not a different church somewhere else. Paul says, I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone. My brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So various people are taking care of him and supporting his ministry, but not the Corinthians. And Paul seems to have not wanted them to. But he wonders whether, was this wrong? I mean, he had every right to be supported by them, but he was concerned they might get the wrong impression about the nature of his ministry. But let me tell you this, this is not to be considered the normal state for gospel workers. I've heard many preachers use the fact that Paul did not accept money from the Corinthians as proof that all ministers should be bivocational, work somewhere else to get their bread, and minister to the church free of charge. That is not the normative principle in the scriptures. That is wrong. That is the exception to the rule, not the rule. Sometimes it's right to not accept support or payment for ministry, but that's not normative. The normal state is that a minister is supported by the flock that he ministers to. And by the way, as I was preparing this, I was wondering, would somebody in the church think that, boy, Brother Bill is sure talking a lot about support. It's in our text. We're dealing with what's in the text, okay? And I'm trying my best to speak to you honestly about it. It may benefit me, but so what? It's in the text. The normal state is the minister should be supported by the flock that he ministers to. Quote, in the same way the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel, end quote. Let me ask you a question. Where should gospel ministers get their living? What did the scripture say? Those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. 1 Corinthians 9 14. Paul didn't use this right among them because they were immature and he thought it was unwise at the time. They might get the wrong impression. They might think the reason I'm ministering to them is for money, not that they're giving me money because I need to live while I'm ministering to them. I will say, as a minister, it is a complex issue. Am I here because the church supports me to be here? Or am I here because I want to be here and the church is supporting me to say, thank you for being here. Do you understand the difference? There's a whole network of preachers all across America that have gone to seminary and they graduate and their career is to be a preacher. And if their church closes or the church goes in a different direction or they fire him or whatever, that preacher then puts his resume into the pool of open pastorate churches throughout the whole United States and they move around to different churches. The New Testament does not anticipate this scenario. Elders are raised up from within the church that they're in. It's not, it's not, It's not a job that you would post on indeed.com or zip recruiter and we're looking for a pastor. Does anybody know of one? We can pay this. Here's our benefit package, right? That seems to me, it's just like the world. But the churches, listen, do you wanna work two full-time jobs at the same time? Of course not. It's a lot of... Well, no minister can do two full-time jobs at the same time. One of them is gonna suffer, probably both. If the church, any church, is able to support their ministers, they should, because it's the teaching of Scripture. Those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. That's the normative principle, their exception. Of course. Chang, I think, should not be supported by the people that he's working with. They're very, very poor and they're not able to anyway. Or if there was a case where, like Paul, he thought the people are immature or they might get the wrong impression. But it's definitely true that Paul thinks he's thinking out loud and saying, I think maybe I made a mistake in not accepting money from you. I should have. Maybe I humbled myself too much and now y'all got the wrong impression about me and think that I'm like not a worthy apostle or something. When I was in need, I didn't ask you for money. My brothers from Macedonia brought stuff to me. Okay, well, let's move on. 10-15, the last few verses there. He's not going to quit boasting. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced. He's not boasting out of self-commendation. He's boasting so they will clearly see how much more superior the true apostles' ministry is compared to these false teachers. Next time we'll discuss this in more detail, where Paul says, Oh, are you a Jew? Well, I'm a Jew too. Oh, are you devoted to the law? Oh, I was a Pharisee. Oh, have you suffered? Okay, well, let me tell you about all the times I've suffered. And you tell me, do yours exceed mine? I doubt it. Why is he doing that? Because at the beginning, or while he's doing that, he's saying, I'm speaking as a madman, because he's just boasting so much, which he knows is a ridiculous thing to do, except in this case they needed to hear it. The ministry of Paul and his companions, it's a superior ministry when compared to these false teachers. These teachers are, he discusses there, verse 13. Well, let's look at 12. What I'm 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. Paul's like, these people say they work just like we do. No, they do not. They are deceitful. They are servants of Satan. They may put on a garment of light, but so does their mask. Their works show that darkness is at work. Verse 13, 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. This is the struggle when we talk about bad ideas. They're not presented right as in the horror films. Where when you hear the idea, you're frightened by it and run away and want nothing to do with it. That's not how it's presented. It's presented as a good thing. It's presented subtly, right? When Eve is deceived, it says that the serpent was more crafty than others. Subtle. Did God say that? He's just putting a seed of doubt in their mind. Yeah, maybe we could eat it. Paul says that these people that are contending with me, they're deceitful. They're not real apostles. They're like their father, Satan, and he disguises himself as an angel of light. They disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. speaking of judgment that we talked about this morning. So what's the cure? What's the cure? Paul's trying to... This has been a lengthy section about the mind, ideas, falseness versus truth, light versus darkness. And he's saying they look Christian, but they're not. They look like they're authoritative, but they're not. The ideas that they're bringing to you, these bad actors, they're moving you away from the true message. The true message. I can't remember the name of this right now. It was really big in the 60s and 70s, which was before my time, but started in Argentina by a Catholic priest who said that we were viewing Christianity all wrong and that really the goal of Christianity was the liberation of the poor. I want to say maybe it's called liberation theology. Anybody heard of that before? That the liberation of the poor is the main point of the gospel. And that all the rich, we need to just pull everything together and liberate the poor. And on one hand, it sounds good, right? I mean, Jesus talks about the poor all the time. And He condemns the rich. And He talks about blessings for the poor and the meek. But that is not the gospel. That is a twist. That is something that if you're not careful, you don't realize. The point of the gospel is that Jesus came to save sinners, not the poor. The poor, we should pity them because God has pitied us. And we were poor and miserable and naked and wretched. And he was merciful and gave us all manner of good things. And we should pity the poor, but that is not the gospel. And also this movement that talks about the family oriented church. and almost all members do homeschool and they're all integrated together and every single thing they do and they say the family is the building block of the church. It sounds really good, but it's not true. The believer is the building block of the church. The believer, not the family. Believers have families, and God bless you and your families. But a whole collection of families does not equal a church. Believers that God has saved, that's the building block of the church. So you see, there's many things that either have aspects of good or aspects of truth, but they redirect away from the real truth. Paul says, be careful, take every thought captive. If they say, we need to liberate the poor, then okay, well, let me compare that to what Jesus's ministries talked about. Is that what his ministry talks about? And you refocus and you look at those passages and you say, no, no, no, no, no, that's not the point. You'll, especially older people, especially people who haven't studied very much or recently maybe or as they get older their minds that they've just forgotten things and they'll watch Joel Osteen on TV and they'll say he's a nice boy I like that Joel Osteen he's so positive and he is positive he's a great motivational speaker but as a preacher he's a poor preacher he's not preaching the truth aspects of the truth but not the truth But how do you know? How can you keep these things straight? There's all manner of bad and bad actors at work right now, motivated by the spiritual forces of evil. How can we possibly survive? Because we know the mind of Christ. We have it. It's been told to us. If you read it and you study it and you seek understanding, God will give it to you. Quote, if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God. Who gives? Doesn't he? James chapter 1. You need wisdom? Have you prayed for wisdom? Because He will give it to you. Well, listen, there's many more. Do you remember when Brother Edward went through a series of ancient heresies? And there was heresy after heresy after heresy, very close to the truth, but wrong, and leading to all kinds of other falsehoods. The cure for this, these bad ideas, is to remember the true message, to read the true message, to listen to people who teach you the true message. How many times do you need to hear the gospel? all the times, that's how many times, all the times. Your brain, it's surprising how quick, at our church, I would challenge to find an America that reads more scripture when they meet than we do. If you go home, I'll think sometimes we read like six chapters, discussed ancient documents, all sorts of things. We forget stuff all the time. Even though we're immersed in it regularly, it's the protection for us. It's the sword of the spirit, the word of God. It's our spiritual weapon. And by grasping them and taking hold of them, we have the divine power too, to bring down stronghold. But we have to take every thought captive. We have to stay focused. We have to read the testimony from God's men in the scriptures again and again and be thoughtful Christians. You know the word disciple is a student, right? Be good students of Jesus, your master. Read what he says, do what he does. He's the way, he's the truth, he's the life. He's ordained Paul for the work that he was doing, appointed him even. He said, I'll show him how much he's gonna suffer for my work. He's definitely my man. I'm choosing him. I'm changing one of the opponents of mine into the greatest ambassador. And he's gonna suffer, but the church is gonna grow. Listen to this verse. 1 Peter chapter 3, But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you're slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame." 1 Peter 3, 14-16. In your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. You have to prepare your mind ahead of time. You have to take thoughts captive and prepare them so that you're ready to make a defense. Not just that you're gonna take down strongholds, you're gonna prevent strongholds too. You're gonna make a defense. And God will help you with gentleness and respect. Well, that's the text this time. Next time, if you wanna read ahead, We'll read about Paul's continued... He says, if you'll bear with me, I'm going to speak like a fool for a while. And then he goes on to say a bunch of stuff. We'll get to that next time. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for all the things that are in it. And we confess that we are not suitable for these things. And yet, by your Spirit, you remind us of your commandments. And through your providence, you bring your lessons to us. And through your power, these messages weave together into our minds, and help us to make our defense, and to be ready to give reason for the hope that is within us. And to protect against bad ideas, Father, would you please help us in this walk, in this struggle? They're all around us, they're in us, they're outside of us, they're evil in nature. Oh Lord, be merciful that we might think truly about you, that we might worship you as you are and not as we want you to be. You are God. light of light, true God, true God. We worship you and thank you for your goodness to us. We pray that you'd be with us for the rest of our time together. We pray in Jesus name, amen.