December 14, 2008
Morning Service

Review:

1. The Apostle Paul showed us last week that:

• The church is to be like a chaste virgin to Jesus Christ. 
• But he said he feared that false teachers were deceiving them, just as Eve was deceived by the serpent.  Deceived from the simplicity that is in Christ.  I believe it was John who said, “to the writing of books there is no end.”  Millions of books have been written concerning this man called Jesus Christ, and His doctrine.  They all mean well, but really just add more confusion to what God meant to be simple.  The Bible.
• The deception came from false teachers who would;  2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
• We have the right Jesus, and by faith have received the right Spirit, and have accepted the gospel that the Apostle Paul teaches in the Word of God.  Stay with the Bible and you won’t be deceived, or confused.

 

LET’S GO ON NOW WITH VERSE 5, IICOR.11.

 

2Co 11:5-15  For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. 

• Remember now what Paul started out with, “bear with me in my folly.”  He’s doing a little bragging.

(6)  But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge;

• Paul used this in Act 22:3  I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.    Paul new the Old Testament way of life, and the laws.
• And of course, had received direct revelation from God on his gospel message.  Gal 1:11-12  But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.  (12)  For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things. 

• While I was with you, my life was an open book.  You saw how I lived, and acted.
• Paul goes on to elaborate.

(7)  Have I committed an offense in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?  (8)  I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.  (9)  And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. 

• Paul dealt with this subject in chapter 9 of the first letter to Corinth.  He told them there the same thing he is telling them here, that he didn’t receive anything from them for teaching them the gospel message.  He finished that discourse by saying, 1Co 9:14  Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
• We can see by the rest of this chapter that Paul is confronting the false teachers, and the church leaders that would like to have control over him, and that’s why he never took anything from them, so that they could not boast that they supported him.

(10)  As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.  (11)  Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth.  (12)  But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. 

• I will continue to do, and live the way I have been. 
• Cut off occasion, means I don’t want to give anyone reason to criticize my work in the Lord.

 

 

 

(13)  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 

• The early church definitely had a dilemma.  They had no Bible to use as a guide.  They no doubt used the Old Testament scrolls for fulfilled prophecies, but the readiness, and availability of the Scriptures were not there.  When you stop and think the printing press didn’t come into existence until first assembled in Germany by the goldsmith Johann Gutenberg around 1439. 
• Then think about this, the first Pilgrim colony was in 1620.  I don’t know if they brought a printing press with them or not, but I’m sure they were mostly concerned with just surviving, and not thinking too much on producing books right away.
• However, in the churches where Paul had been accepted, I think we could be sure that they would cherish his letters, and preserve them the best they could.  We can also rest assured that they would share the letters with other congregations.  Col 4:16  And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.
• I think we can see how that our Bible came to be.  It started out in the hands of the Jews, then Catholics, then as the Protestant movement came to be, so did what we have as our Bible today.  There is a difference in the Catholic Bible, and the Protestant Bible, but both say basically the same thing.  The Catholic Bible just has more books in it.  I have read some of the books in the Catholic Bible, and they are very interesting reading.
• As Christians, we accept the Bible as the inspired Word of God, and It is our guide, and source of knowledge, or enlightenment.

(14)  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 

• Now where in the world did Paul get this notion?
• Maybe from Isa 14:12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
• Or maybe how he came to Jesus in the wilderness.  Or maybe just the power he has to do it.
• Anyway, we know he is able to deceive many people.

(15)  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

• Can’t we see how important it is to know our Bibles?
• This is how we know the kind of works a person should be producing.  If we didn’t have the Bible for our guidelines, anything could be allowed.
• WHOSE END SHALL BE ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS.
• But not only the false teachers, and preachers, all Christians shall be judged according to their works.
• Listen to this;  Rev 20:12-13  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.  (13)  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

 

And what was it we learned in our 7 churches revue? 

 

I KNOW YOUR WORKS!

 

I just want to encourage you to do your best for God, and He will reward you with blessings beyond what you can imagine.