2 Corinthians chapter 10. I'm going to begin reading in verse number 7. I wish I had time to preach this whole chapter, but of course that would take about two hours or so. And being that they have a clock so big, I can't not see it. I don't have two hours. Verse number 7. Do you look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trusts to himself that he is Christ, let him of himself think this again, that as he is Christ, even so are we Christ. For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed, that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters, For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible. Let such a one think this, that such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also indeed when we are present. For we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed unto us, a measure to reach even unto you. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reach not unto you. For we are come as far as to you also in preaching of the gospel of Christ. Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of another man's labors. But have in hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand. But he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord, For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth." We're dealing with a passage of Scripture this morning where Paul is not just defending his authority. He also, in a very subtle way here, is attacking those that have attacked his authority. Now, the whole book of 2 Corinthians is, for a large part, a defense of Paul's apostolic authority and Paul's ministry at Corinth. See, a bunch of Judaizers had come into the church, had taken the group of people that Paul had led to the Lord and had founded the church and sort of had absorbed it and sort of had taken it over and claimed Paul's success for their success. In order for them to do that, of course, they had to diminish Paul's authority in the eyes of these people. And here in this section, Paul as led by the Spirit of God, does a very good job of defending His authority and setting forth a standard for His authority. What is this I hold in my hand? Oh, a tape measure. Got all kinds of little marks on it, doesn't it? Now, those little marks, of course, stand for something, right? Other than just a tape measure, this is something else. It's called a standard of measurement. Now, I don't know if you noticed or not, but beginning in verse number 12, the word measure or measuring appeared a number of times, right? The word rule also appeared. Rule, ruler. By the way, the Greek word that's translated rule appears another time and we'll point that out as we go through. But this is a standard of measurement. What is this thing? A measuring cup. What does this thing have in common? A standard of measurement. You know, you have one out in your car, too. It's called a speedometer. Some people like it, some people don't, but most of the time, you should be glad that it's calibrated to a standard. Because it would be bad if you're driving down the road at what you think is 55 and you're really doing 65. That would be bad, right? There's another standard this school has called a grading scale. Some of you appreciate that, some of you don't, you know. But it's a good thing to know what the scale is though, right? You make a 93, what is that? An A. What's a 60? Yeah. But there's a scale. You know, it's amazing to me to see that we really appreciate scales, standards most of the time. You go to the store, aren't you glad that you can sort of be sure that when it says 5 pounds of sugar, it's 5 pounds of sugar? Not that you're getting 3.8 pounds or whatever. You understand that there's a standard. You want to buy 5 pounds of meat, you get 5 pounds. There's a standard and we appreciate that. But it's amazing to me to see how people don't like standards when it comes to spiritual things. This section clearly lays out there's a standard and you and I need to accept the standard that God's put into our life. Now, I'm not talking about standards, plural, that deals with dress, per se. I know that's what people immediately think when I talk about standards. Well, it's the way we dress, the things we can do, things we can't do. No, that's not what this passage is about. Title this morning would be the standard of authority. The standard of authority. You're going to hear me use two descriptions this morning. One, a standard. Two, the standard. By the way, is there a difference between those two terms? Oh, big time difference between a standard and the standard. A standard, of course, implies that there could be a whole lot of others, but the standard means what? There's one. You Greek students should appreciate the definite article, right? If you don't appreciate it, make them study it. The is huge. In this passage, I'll deal with a standard and then I'll deal with the standard, but the first thing I want you to see in verse number 7 is what I call a standard is not appearances that deceive. Verse 7, do you look on things after the outward appearance? Now notice that's a question, right? You Greek students should understand that this question expects a yes answer. And expecting a yes answer, it could be saying, you are looking on outward appearances, aren't you? Yes, you are. And these people, and by the way, the Roman Greek world really worship the human body, really. And an unspiritual person today will look for the wrong kind of leadership. These individuals here, and we know from 1 Corinthians that the church at Corinth had some major spiritual issues. They were not spiritual people at all. But we see here that they were looking on the surface. Outward appearance here literally means according to face, according to what you see. And here they were looking on the surface. I promise you a surface investigation will ignore under the surface problems. For years, or for 10 years, I was a public school teacher. And during my summers, for about three years, I worked for a plumber. And we'd go plumbing in the morning, but he had another business in the afternoon that we'd go to. We'd leave plumbing, we'd go plumbing, say, from about 6.30, 7 o'clock to about 11, then we'd go eat lunch, and then we'd go to the river. He owned a canoe business and an inner tube business. And it was my job, being that I grew up on a river, of directing the canoe people down the river, up in the mountains, up Lake Lure area. And I learned something real quick. Most people didn't know how to notice undersurface problems called rocks. And I got tired of having to stop and get people out of the river and try to get them back in their canoe. So instead of me following them like I used to do, and they would go in front of me, I started leading them and said, you follow me. because I could read the river. I could tell the way the water swirled if there was a rock right underneath the surface and I would guide them around those dangers. But if you don't learn how to do that, you're going to be wet. And if you don't learn how to do something deeper than a surface evaluation spiritually, you're going to be wet spiritually. There's going to be problems in your life, and he is saying to these people, a standard is not appearances that deceive. Learn others. Icebergs create a problem, don't they? Yeah, under the surface problems. You got to learn to evaluate deeper than the surface. And by the way, the way you do that is know this book, and knowing this book will help you have wisdom to deal with problems that are not seen right there in front of your face. Let's go on. Verse number 7 again, the last part. It says, If any man trusts to himself that he is Christ, let him of himself think this again, that as he is Christ, even so are we of Christ. The second thing I want you to see about not just a standard, but the standard is an appointment from Christ. Notice the first thing. If. A condition. Greek student of first class. Literally, since some man is trusting in himself that he is Christ. The word trust here means to convince or to persuade, so this person had persuaded himself. In other words, his persuasion wasn't from the Word of God. It was from his own little pea brain. You know, we humans, all of us in this room can put together our minds, and all of our minds' conclusion is not worth anything close to what this book's conclusion is. But they had thought themselves, hey, I have a position because I'm in Christ. Now, Paul is going to confront them about their thinking. By the way, the word think, trust in himself that he is Christ. Let him of himself think. So, you have the condition, but here, secondly, you have a command. Him of Himself think an imperative here. He's challenging them about their thinking. May I challenge you this morning about your thinking? Your thinking should become more and more biblical all the time. Every single day as you get in this book, you read this book, you meditate on this book, you ask the Spirit of God to help you in this book, you should become wiser in the Word of God every single day, and your thinking should become more and more biblical all the time. And if these people had been thinking properly, Paul would not have had to confront them like he is here and challenge their thinking. The word think is quite interesting. It's not the normal word that's used sometimes for thinking. It's translated many places, reckon, impute. It means to put to the account. It carries the idea of adding up all the numbers until you get an answer down here at the bottom. It's the idea of balancing a checkbook and understanding what you have. Now, you guys need to understand how to balance your checkbook. It would be bad if you didn't take care of your checkbook and you took your girlfriend out on a date and you went to pay for it and you couldn't. That would be embarrassing, wouldn't it? And if I were one of you girls, I went on a date and the boy couldn't pay for it, I would think twice about going with him again, you know? You could end up in a real bad situation there. But thinking this way, adding this up, is hugely important. Third thing, notice this standard is an appointment of Christ. Notice the contrast here in this verse. It says that as He is Christ, even so. Two statements of contrast. Paul's saying, you think you really have a position of Christ? Look at me, he said. You've got to recognize my position of authority. Now, Paul was an apostle, of course. But Paul's leadership as an apostle and the leadership of these false teachers, and by the way, in chapter 11, Paul points out these individuals are really working for Satan. Sort of interesting. Paul gets pretty bold here toward the end. But go with me to Matthew chapter 20. Matthew chapter 20. In Matthew chapter 20, our Lord gives some direction to His apostles that's contrary to the Greek Roman mind. And by the way, it's contrary to the independent Baptist mind in many, many, many, many, many churches today. Matthew chapter 20, notice verse number 25, but Jesus called them, His disciples, His apostles, unto Him and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them, but it shall not be so among you. But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many." Now, Christ's description of leadership is totally different than the leadership that happens in many Baptist churches today. The first independent Baptist church that I was ever a member of. I was raised in Southern Baptist churches. And the first independent Baptist church I was ever in, the pastor was a dogmatic dictator. He'd get in your face, stick his finger right underneath your nose and say, young man, don't you know you're not supposed to challenge the man of God and I'm the man of God. Totally violated what Christ has said. He didn't minister to people other than he stood and preached. He expected everybody else to minister to him. Now Paul had the attitude that Christ had just said there in Matthew 21. Paul went in. He was not a dogmatic, do this, do this, do this. He was a servant. He didn't expect them to take care of him. He worked and waited on God to work in their heart to help as the Philippian church to send him finances and help take care of things. Notice verse number 8, we see a conclusion in this standard is an appointment from Christ. Verse 8, for though I should boast somewhat more of our authority. What's he saying? He said, I could. The should here is I could, I would. Paul could have stepped up and said, I'm an apostle. I have apostolic authority. And he does sort of say that here in just a few minutes, but listen, he said, I have an authority, notice the next phrase, which the Lord hath given us. The word given here literally means appointed to me. He said, the Lord has appointed this to me. So the standard is an appointment from Christ given for edification, not destruction. You know, Paul could have reminded them, and he did over in 1 Corinthians 3. He said, listen, I planted the church at Cairn. He could have reminded them again, but he did over in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse number 15. Listen, I led most of you to the Lord. You don't have a whole lot of spiritual fathers. That's what he pointed out to them. He said, the ministry God's given me is for edification, not for destruction. The level of my authority as a pastor is not in how much I tell you to do something. My authority as a pastor is in how much I help you spiritually. Would you let that soak in, please? And that's true for any leader. Notice number three, please, verse number nine. Not only do we see a standard is not appearances that deceive. Second, we see a standard is an appointment from Christ. Number three, we see the standard answers critics when necessary. Verse nine, that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters, for his letters say they. are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contentable." See, the first thing I want you to see in this standard answers critics, when necessary, is the critics' accusations. See, the critics were saying, Paul is really not a leader. And if you really want to know why I think Paul's not a leader, let me give you three reasons. Number one, the fear that his letters cause. Now, you know, that's sort of interesting. Paul could write a letter, and if the people were not guilty of what he said, would that cause them to fear? No, it would not. It would cause them to rejoice. Now, if you're being disobedient about what Paul wrote, yeah, I can understand how that would make you fearful. You know what I've learned in 38 years of fastening? That principle is still true today. When you preach God's Word today and people are obeying it, they rejoice and they can say, Amen, glory, but if they're disobeying it, They can sit there, and when you're finished, well, Pastor, I didn't like that message. You didn't do this, Ryder. You didn't do that. You should have said this. You should have said that. It's easier for people to criticize when the Word of God smacks them right in the face. So, yeah, they could come up with this criticism, but they had another one. They said, not only the fear His letters cause, but the feebleness of His presence. They said, His bodily presence is weak. Well, the word weak means feeble. In other words, they were looking on the outward appearance. He's not the normal Greek-Roman specimen of manhood. Nope, he wasn't. History tells us. I say history because one of the early, early writers that wrote in a time period which possibly could have seen Paul or knew people that saw Paul said that Paul was a short, stocky, ball-headed man with a hooked nose. That doesn't impress a lot of people, does it? No. It's sort of like the old Baptist pulpit committee. They were talking one day about what kind of man and what I'm saying. Well, we need a man that's strong, that visibly would be a good leader. And they went around the room and each man put forth a different thing. And they finally came to this one old guy and said, what do you think, George? Well, I don't care what he looks like. I just want him to be able to reach heaven from his knees. You know, when we define leadership, ultimately we only follow ourself. Let that soak in. See, you don't have the right, neither do I have the right, to define what leadership is. This book has already done it. Just read 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and chapter 2 and see what God chooses to confound the wise, the humanly wise, and the mighty people of this earth. He takes the weak beggarly things. He can take a short, stocky, ball-headed, hook-nosed man and change the world. But the third accusation, they said, his speech is contemptible, not only the fear of his letters and the feebleness of his presence, but the failure of his speech. Contemptible means something to be disdained or something that is dishonorable. They rejected his leadership because, again, they had defined leadership. Notice verse number 11. Not only do we see the critics' accusations, we see the challenge announced in verse number 11. Let such an one think this. Now, that's the second time Paul's put forth that statement almost. The let such a one is a command. Now, who's the one? the ones that were criticizing, the ones that were saying these crazy things. Paul now is confronting them with his apostolic authority. Now, we don't understand what apostolic authority is. A pastor doesn't have this type of authority today, and thankfully for that. You know, if an apostle could raise the dead, do you think it's possible that he could cause the living to die? That's an interesting thought. When Paul came, how was he going to exercise his authority? Because of his physical strength? No, he's going to step on the scene with spiritual power from the Spirit of God and the Christ that has called him and commissioned him to sit him forth to do exactly what he's doing. As he said back over in the first part of this, he said, my weapons are not carnal. But mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. When Paul stepped on the scene, he wasn't going to use flesh to do discipline and confront these people. No, he's going to let the Spirit of God do it. And that could be a scary thing. It's amazing to me to see how brazen people are today with pastors. I mean, every single week that I've been gone from this place and pastor at Victory Baptist Church, I've received one to two calls every single month from young pastors that's been attacked all across this country. Pastor Kemp, how do you deal with this? I've gotten that question time and time again. And one thing that I've said to every one of them is, just stick by the stuff. If you were as old as me, this wouldn't be a problem. It's amazing. People will not confront an older man like they do a younger man. You know, Paul told Timothy, you know, don't let them despise your youth. You say, well, how do you stop them? Biblical, be biblical, be biblical, be biblical, be biblical. And then their argument is not with you, it's with the Word of God. But here the challenge is given. So we see the command. But notice back in this verse again, not only the command, notice the comparative in verse number 11. As we are in word by letters, when we are absent, such will we be also indeed when we are present. I mean, he says, look at this comparison. He said, when I come, things are going to be different. This time when I come. We're going to get some understanding. We're going to get some clarity. But then there's verse number 12. For we dare not make ourselves of the number. The fourth thing I want you to see is what I call the standard is approved by God. Look down at verse number 18 real quick and then we'll come back to verse 12. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. Understood? The last part is approved. So, the standard is approved by God. Now, in the passage now, verse 12, as I pointed out earlier, the word measuring is used, measure over and over. In this section, clearly, a standard becomes clearly the standard, and the standard here, Paul explains again, verse number 12. For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves, but they measure in themselves, by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise." Paul sure got repetitive here, didn't he? Why? He's trying to put forth the fact that the standard that is approved by God is not a self-appointment. It's amazing to me to see how so many people want to self-appoint them the leader or the person that's going to challenge leadership. I pastored a church in the area here for almost eight years called Tri-City Baptist Church. And I had one man, and during those years, almost every single business meeting we had until a certain man joined, we had a 100% vote. This man joined, all of a sudden, he would vote against something. And he did that for about three years, and then when I resigned Tri-City to come to work here, this man came to me. He said, Bass Camp, before you leave, I just want to apologize for voting against things. I said, well, I just have one question. Why'd you do it? He said, well, I'd never been in a church where I saw this kind of unity, and I didn't think you should have that kind of unity. There should be another perspective. I mean, one, we presented to the church we were needing to borrow some money and we refinanced our church loan and dropped like four percentage points on our church loan at that time. And the bank gave us $30,000 and lowered our monthly payment by $200 and he voted against it. And I just couldn't cover it just because he didn't think that you should. Listen, the local church is supposed to have unity. And by the way, the Spirit of God brings unity. And when you're not in unity, when the rest of the church is in unity, you need to stop and evaluate your critical heart. And here, we see that a standard that's approved by God is not one of self-appointment. Now, he talks about comparing themselves among themselves. They say they're not wise. Now, why is that not wise? Because we are not the standard of what's right. You're not the standard. I'm not the standard. None of the men on the platform are the standard. This book is the standard. But it's amazing how you're going to go out and people will, a lot of you young preachers that go out and get into the ministry, they're going to compare you by who they had before you. And so you've got to live through that. You've got to deal with that. Now, if you'll let it, God will use that to mature you. If you don't rely on the Spirit of God, the devil in your flesh will discourage you. And if you're not careful, like many young men that I know, they're not in the ministry today because they got their eyes on people. That's not the standard. Put it on God. He's the standard. And remember what all the Lord Jesus Christ endured for your salvation. we see that the standard approved by God is not a self and appointment. Secondly, verse number 13, we see the standard that is approved by God is not without a scale. By the way, this flies in the face of our society today. Everything in our society is, well, we want to remove the standard for this. We don't want to remove the standard for that. You mean to tell me that a man should be a man and a woman should be a woman? I'll try not to become political, but back to this. Verse number 13 says, but we will not boast of things without our measure. Now notice, please, in that passage the word our. What can you tell me about it? It's in italics. Okay. So I could read it this way, but we will not boast of ourselves without measure. The word without measure is interesting. It literally means unmeasurable. What's Paul saying? Everything has a measure. By the way, the word measure means a scale. You want something fun to do? Teach 7th graders what all these little marks mean. And if you want something even more fun, Teach them what, quote, a scale is. Now a scale is an instrument where a quarter of an inch will equal a foot, or three-eighths of an inch, all kind of increments will equal a foot, and it's a little tool that architects use to draw things with. Now, probably not too much they've been to use computers, but I taught architectural drafting for 10 years. And teaching a scale to 7th graders was nearly impossible. But sort of interesting, I taught just six weeks of minor or minimal drafting skills in the 7th grade and they almost never grasped it given two years of mental development in the 9th grade. Oh, they understood it then. It's amazing to see how the mind develops with age. May I make a spiritual application there for you? Your spiritual mind will develop with age if you stay in the book. If you don't stay in the book, you won't. You'll become more carnal. You'll become more critical. You'll become a pain to every pastor you have and a discouragement to other Christians. You better make sure that the standard you're following is the one that the Lord puts forth and it's a scale. Come back to verse 13. But we will not boast of things without measure, but according to the measure, the scale of the rule, which God hath distributed to us a measure to reach even unto you." Now, there's a couple of word plays here. The word rule, and this is where I've gotten the thought of my title and the thought of every point. The word rule means the standard. It is the Greek word kanon, the canon of Scripture. the rule, the standard, the boundary. And Paul said, it's the scale of the standard. A standard of measurement. And he said, it's that which has been distributed to me. Interesting, the word distributed means to measure out. Now, if I had a gallon, say, of milk. And I was gonna divide that milk out equally until I got rid of it. I'd sure need one of these, wouldn't I? So I could pour it in, all right, 12 ounces to this person, 12 ounces to this person, 12 ounces to this person. So I could be distributing it out. That means to measure out. Here's the idea, to measure out equally. And Paul said, I am following the scale which the Lord has distributed to me. And by the way, that's the responsibility that is upon Paul. I have been given a responsibility. Right now my responsibility is the pastor of Victory Baptist Church in Darlington, South Carolina. Some people would laugh and say the race capital of NASCAR. The NASCAR racetrack is a half a mile from our church. You step outside our church and you see all the stands where people, they're going to have a race there on the 14th. We can't have church in the evening because they close our road. That's one reason. The second reason, you've got 50 cars going around and around that have their what do you call it, intercom system in their car, and it bleeds through over into our church, and what they say is not presentable in church. So we don't have church on Sunday evening. But anyway, this is the responsibility upon Paul. Every single pastor has been given missionary evangelist, you know, president of a Bible college, teacher of a Bible college, has been given a responsibility dealt out by God. And that's what Paul says here. It's been distributed to me. But I've learned that people don't measure things the same way. Some of you men in this room will have a wife like me. When it comes, you know, she wants me to hang a picture, and I put it up and fix it, and I say, okay, that's good. She says, not level. Wait, did I get it? No, it's not. Turn it a little bit. So I turned a little bit. No, a little more. Turn it a little more. Okay, that's level. You know what I do at the end of that? I go to my shop, bring my level back. She was right. That aggravates me to no end. My wife has an eye for that which is level. Oh, by the way, this is advice to you young husbands. Your wife will probably be the same way. Just don't argue with her. Just put it where she wants it, because she's the one that's going to notice it anyway. And just leave it. Say, yes, hun. By the way, they keep the kissing good. And you need that. Anyway, back to this. We see that a standard approved by God is not without a scale. We see the responsibility upon Paul, but notice again in verse number 13, a measure, a scale to reach even unto you. We see not only the responsibility on Paul, but we see the reach for the Corinthians. Aren't you glad that God had a responsibility upon somebody's life to reach you? You know, for Paul, to get to Corinth. It took God doing a special work in his life. We call it the Macedonian call. Paul was going here and the Spirit of God said, nope, can't go there. I'll go over here. Nope, can't go there. Go over here. Nope, can't go there. And then all of a sudden, hey, come over here and help me. And immediately it says in Acts, we took that to be God's will. God's standard for his ministry at that point. We have that reach. We have that responsibility. Go in all the world and preach the gospel. Go to every nation. Preach the gospel to every creature. We have a responsibility. We have a reach. And by the way, that is the standard scale that God has put upon every single Christian. Now the way you fulfill that might be a little different. But we still have it. Next, notice, the standard that is approved by God is not a self-appointment. It is not without a scale. But in verse number 4, we see it cannot be stretched. Verse 14, for we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure. Now here, stretch is another one of those word plays that's used with this word measure because this word stretch means to overstep a measure, to overstep a limit. Now, I don't know hardly anything about music. I know when I hear it, I appreciate it when it's good, but I don't think you piano players could play too well if you passed over a measure. Could you? Would it sound real good if you stepped and didn't play every note like you're supposed to? It would come out sounding a mess, wouldn't it? Guess what? Our ministries sort of get messed up when we try to stretch out something and do something other than what God wants us to do. See, the Messeconia call was God keeping Paul within his scale, within his limit, within the measure that God set for him. Listen, let God do the directing in your life. If He wants you to do something, let Him be the one that points that, not mama, not daddy, not even your preacher, and not a teacher here. It's what the Spirit of God does in your life and leads you through all kinds of ways. You know, apply Scripture. Get answers to your prayers. Yes, get advice from spiritual men, but the ultimate answer is what God does in your life. And here, that's what Paul said, hey, I can't stretch what God has measured out in my life. He said, for we stretch not ourselves. Now what Paul is saying, what Paul is saying he does not do through this whole passage is what the Judaizers were doing. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you. For we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ." Verse 15, not boasting of the things without our measure. not boasting of the things outside of the measure of our life and ministry which God has given, that as that is of another man's labors." Again, I've said in my introduction that the Judaizers had come in, had sort of taken over the church, the people that Paul had led to the Lord, the church that he had founded, and sort of took it over, and sort of said, look what we have done. And Paul said, hey, you can't boast of things that you didn't do. So, the standard that's approved by God cannot be substituted. You can't substitute something else in its place and say, look, I'm doing God's will. No. Verse 15, not boasting things without our measure, that is, of other men's labors, but having hope when your faith is increased that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly. Next, the standard that's approved by God should bring spiritual growth. Notice he says, when your faith is increased. In other words, he's saying, the last part of that verse is saying, when your faith is increased, when you become spiritual, you're going to see me for who I am. He says, I will be enlarged by you according to our rule. Now what's his rule? We already found out that his rule was something that Christ had distributed to him. Something that the Lord had given to him. So Paul's standard was God's standard. He said, so when your spiritual growth takes place in your life, you're going to see me for who I am. Now who was he? He was the spiritual authority. He was the one that was trying to edify them and strengthen them so they would grow spiritually. Listen, you need to really learn to appreciate and give honor to whom honor is due when those are trying to help you grow spiritually. Now, I promise you, those that are gonna try to help you grow spiritually, sometime you will not appreciate it. I mean, over the years, as Brother Bill said at the beginning, many young men and young ladies too, I'd call in my office and I'd say, now, I've noticed this and I want you to pray about something. And I'd put in front of them what I'd noticed in their life and what they needed to do about it. And I'd give them verses to meditate on so they could grow. I had one man come to me one time. This is a little different tactic, but he came to me and said, Pastor Kemp, I want to take your daughter to the Valentine's banquet. And I looked at him and I said, nope, can't be done. And he had the audacity to look at me and say, well, why not? And I said, well, glad you asked. You got a piece of paper? And he said, yeah, I do. I said, well, start writing. And the first thing I told him is, why should you be taking my daughter anywhere? You don't have a job. You can't take care of yourself. Why do you want to add another person to the list? I said, number two, you're not paying your school bill. Until you pay your school bill, you can't take care of a wife. I said, number three, you don't have a car. If you go on a date, you're going to have to get somebody to take you. I gave him a big, long list. And then I looked at him. I said, all right, I want you to pray about these things. And when God gives you an answer and God reveals to you out of scripture what's wrong with each one of these things in your life, come back and talk to me." Well, he listened. About three months later, he came back and he said, Pastor Camp, I've been praying about this and God's convicted my heart right here in this area. And he gave me the verse that God had used to convict him. And he said, I'm asking God to help me change. I said, good, praise the Lord. No, you still can't take her. This happened a number of times for two years. In two years of time, I kept watching him. In two years of time, he wasn't interested in anybody else. Two years later, he came back and said, can I take your daughter to the Valentine's banquet? I said, yes, son, you can. He's my son-in-law now for 22 years. He's given me three grandchildren, and he's been in the ministry for 22 years. He grew. He listened to rebuke. He didn't accept no and let that discourage him. He let the no motivate him to grow and change. May I suggest to you that's a good process for all of you to take? When a teacher confronts you, don't take, well, he doesn't like me. I've had that said, well, he, I just can't, you just don't like me. I said, son, that has nothing to do with what I'm doing. I said, matter of fact, it's right the opposite. I love you is the reason why I'm confronting you. So when people confront you and say, hey, you need to grow up as Paul did, what's he saying right here? When your faith is increasing, what's he saying? Your faith is weak. He's saying to them, you're not where you should be. But we see that the standard that is approved by God is for spreading the gospel. Verse number 16, we see that growth taking place. Now, question. Is your standard God's standard? Notice 1 Thessalonians 16-18 real quick and close and we see again that the standard that is approved by God is for spreading the gospel. It says, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. Go where God directs you. Now, God can use people to help you to see where He wants you, no doubt about it. But again, let God direct you. Notice the second thing, verse number 17. Well, let's read the rest of verse 16. To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready by our hand. Now, notice the word line. That's the same Greek word that's translated rule. Back up in verse number 15, the word kanon, the standard. He said, "...and not to boast in another man's standard of things." Again, he's emphasizing, as a man, we don't have the right to decide what the standard is. The standard is something that God gives and God distributes. And it's our responsibility to make sure that we find out what God's standard is for our life. Notice verse number 17. But he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Now that's a direct rebuke to the Judaizers because they were glorying in themselves. Look what I've done. Not only in spreading the gospel go where God directs, but glorify God for the results. Not yourself. You are not something special. I'm not something special. Brother Hankey's not something special. Dr. Bill is not something special. Matter of fact, I don't know anybody on staff here that's something special. We're simply servants of the Lord, sinners saved by the grace of God. Don't ever give to man the glory that God deserves. So don't glorify yourself and don't glorify other men. Glorify God that's given the strength and the direction and the mercy and the conviction and the saving that He does. But notice one more thing quickly, verse number 18. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. Not only go where God directs and glorify God for the results, but genuineness is going to be tested. The word approved, it means to approve genuine by testing. Now, with that said, don't ever bemoan the fact that you are going to be tested. School should prove that to you. That's the reason why we give tests around here. That's the reason why you're going to have an exam here come pretty soon, to see if you're genuinely worth passing the class. And when you get out in the ministry, you're going to be tested. Guess who's going to test you? God is. Why? Not because He doesn't know. He wants you to know that He is faithful and you can trust Him in the difficulty. Not only are you going to be tested by the Lord, but usually you're tested by some old knothead in the church. It's absolutely amazing how people say, Pastor Camp, have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? Why didn't you do this? Why didn't you do that? Listen, one thing I am more than thankful for is where I pastor now, I've not had that issue. The people at Victory Baptist Church have been unbelievably supporting and thankful and grateful for the ministry that the Lord's allowed us to have there. It has been one of the most refreshing ministries that I could explain to anybody. Thank God for it. But you're going to be tested to prove again to yourself that you can trust God and you can be faithful through all the difficulties that come. It's going to happen. Concluding thought is this. Let us all be faithful to the standard that Christ has given to us. We all have one. Lord, we thank you for your word. Pray, Lord, that you'd use it in our lives now for your glory in Jesus' name. Amen.