Make a Personal Appeal to You
1
Fordoche
09-30-01
DR. JERRY VINES
SERMON TEXT
2nd Corinthians 10:1-5, 7, 10,12, 16-18
“What’ya Doing ?”
2 Cor 10:1-5 (HCSB)
1Now I, Paul,
make a personal appeal to you
by the gentleness
and graciousness of Christ—
I who am
humble among you in person,
but bold toward you when absent.
2I beg you that when I am present
I will not need to be bold
with the confidence by which
I plan to challenge certain people who think we are walking
in a fleshly way.
3For although
we are walking in the flesh,
we do not wage war in a fleshly way,
4since the weapons
of our warfare are not fleshly,
but are powerful through God
for the demolition of strongholds.
We demolish arguments
5and every high-minded thing
that is raised up against
the knowledge of God,
taking every thought captive
to the obedience of Christ.
Now look at verse 7...
2 Cor 10:7 (HCSB)
7Look at what is obvious.
If anyone is confident
that he belongs to Christ,
he should remind himself of this:
just as he belongs to Christ,
so do we.
Look at verse 10...
2 Cor 10:10 (HCSB)
10For it is said,
“His letters are
weighty and powerful,
but his physical presence is weak,
his public speaking is despicable.
Look at verse 12...
2 Cor 10:12 (HCSB)
12For we don’t dare
classify or compare ourselves
with some
who commend themselves.
But in measuring
themselves by themselves
and comparing
themselves to themselves,
they lack understanding.
Look down at verse 16-18.
Paul is saying that my desire is...
2 Cor 10:16 (HCSB)
16so that we may preach the gospel to the regions beyond you,
not boasting about
what has already been done
in someone else’s area [of ministry]
17So the one who boasts
must boast in the Lord.
18For it is not
the one commending himself
who is approved,
but the one the Lord commends.
Up until this point
he has been very loving,
dealing with problems
that exist at Corinth
he's been very positive and upbeat.
When you close the ninth chapter
Paul is rejoicing,
he's thanking God for them,
he's praising the Lord
for their wonderful
Christian response.
But when you get to the 10th chapter
there's a different atmosphere.
Paul becomes very stern,
he's confrontational
in his language.
Why such a sudden change in tone
such a transformation in attitude
on the part of Paul?
Well the reason is,
as you may recall,
The Corinthian church
had a division in the fellowship.
In the first letter he said,
I hear there are divisions among you
and there were.
So Paul,
in the first nine chapters,
is writing to the repentant majority,
but now in chapters 10 and on:
he addresses the rebellious minority.
There were some people
who had come to the city of Corinth
who were trying to undermine
everything he had done
in the name of Jesus .
They were the Judaizers,
trying to destroy the gospel
of Jesus Christ,
leading the people
in legalistic bondage.
Launching their attacks upon Paul
and, in essence,
they were doing
a spiritual demolition job
on the believers
in the city of Corinth.
So Paul just meets them head-on,
Paul just launches a counter attack
he deals openly and directly
with his accusers.
It's never pleasant
to have to deal with problems
or to deal head-on with people who're opposing you,
but we can be thankful
and grateful to God
for the fact
that it did happen to Paul
because it teaches us
some very important lessons
about the Christian life.
First of all, in the first six verses,
there is an attack on his approach,
and basically in verse 1
he is reflecting
what his opposition is saying about him in the city of Corinth.
What they were saying was this:
Paul is real tough
when he's not around.
If he's just writing you a letter
he's a real tough guy;
He's altogether different
when he's here in person.
Paul responds to that attack
on his approach
and what he says to them is:
I'm a soldier in the army of the Lord,
I'm a commander-in-chief,
I'm a general in the Lord's army.
So he says, first of all,
you don't understand our warfare.
Now look at 10:verse 3.
He says,
3For although
we are walking in the flesh,
we do not wage war in a fleshly way,
Now when you read those words,
all of a sudden you hear
the firing of the guns
and the booming of the cannons,
And you look at Paul
and he is now a commander-in-chief
and he's leading a military operation,
And he's saying to them:
Folks, I want you to know
that this life we live
is more that just a
normal kind of existence,
we're in a warfare, we're in a battle.
So he says now,
We walk after the flesh,
In other words
we're living our lives
just like everybody else lives it.
We go through the same situations
and we live the same existence
but, he says, I want you to know
there is more than
just living in the flesh,
we're warring in a spiritual battle.
The Christian life is not a playground
it's a battleground.
And Paul says,
I want you
to understand our warfare.
What he's dealing with here
is the fact that the devil
has taken certain strong holds.
Notice what he says inverse 4
The pulling down of strong holds?
There are certain areas of life
where the devil's got a strong hold
For the most part,
in theworld of politics
the devil has a strong hold.
And on thecollege campuses
the devil's got his strong holds.
And in themedia
the devil has got his strong holds.
So Paul is saying
we're in a military campaign
we have got to be on the offensive
in this warfare.
Now notice what he says inverse 4.
He says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.
In other words
you don't fight spiritual battles
with physical,
fleshly,
carnal weapons.
You don't fight fire with fire
in the battle of the Lord.
Well what are our weapons?
Well, one of the weapons
we use is theWord of God.
Paul, inEphesians chapter 6,
was talking about the armor
of the Christian soldier
and out of all the pieces of armor
he listed
most of them were defensive,
The one offensive weapon he gave
wasthe sword of the Spirit
which he said isthe Word of God.
In other words,
The Bible is our offensive weapon.
God has placed in our hand a tool,
God placed in our hand a weapon,
and it is not a carnal weapon,
it is not a physical weapon,
but it is a spiritual weapon.
Folks, I want you to know
that there is power in this Bible.
I never cease to be amazed
at the power of God's Word
and how God uses His Word.
The Lord Jesus, you remember,
did battle with the devil
I think Jesus looked at the devil
and said:
Now, Devil, I know and you know
that I'm the eternal Son of God
with one word
I could wipe you out forever
But, Devil, I want you to know:
I'm going to take you on
just exactly like believers
of all of the ages
will be able to do
and I'm going to demonstrate
to the Christians
through all of the ages
how the battle is to be won.
He gave Jesus Christ
three temptations:
The FIRST ONE, the devil said,
All right, if you're the Son of God
take these stones
and turn them into bread.
That was the physical temptation.
And the Lord Jesus
just reached in the sheath
and pulled out
the Sword of the Spirit
And He said:
It is written,
Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word
that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God.
And, boy, the devil took off running,
wiping his wounds
and licking his bruises.
Then he came back again the SECOND TIME
this time with
the EMOTIONAL TEMPTATION,
and he said to Him:
If you're who you say you are,
cast yourself down
from the pinnacle of the temple
so the people will believe in you.
Well how did the Lord win the battle
Did He turn on His charm
Show off His charismatic Personality,
Whip him with
the keenness of His mind
Nope.
Jesus reached again into the sheath,
He got outthe Sword of the Spirit
and He said:
It is written,
Thou shalt not tempt
the Lord thy God.
And, brother,
the devil took off running again,
he lost that campaign.
And then theTHIRD TIME
the devil came
he showed the Lord
all the kingdoms of the world.
Now the devil knew
what the Father
had promised to Jesus
He was going to be King of kings
and Lord of lords
that the kingdoms of this world
would become HIS Kingdoms.
Yet the devil came to Jesus
with the temptation
to take a shortcut
and not go to the cross of Calvary
and he said:
I'll give you all of those kingdoms
if you'll fall down and worship me.
Well what did Jesus do?
How did He win the battle?
He reached in the sheath
of His sword again,
He got out the Sword
and He said,
It is written, Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God
and Him only shalt thou serve.
And I want you to know,
in a cloud of dust the devil took off
and Jesus had won the battle.
I want to tell you something, folks,
that's why
you ought to get in the Word of God.
The Bible is not only a medicine
that heals the heart,
The Bible is not only a road map
telling you how to get to heaven,
The Bible is
not only a psychology manual
that tells you
how to live a wholesome life,
But the Bible is a Sword
that can give you victory
and pull down the strong holds
of the devil.
Paul says:
you don't understand our warfare you don't understand our weapons,
they are mighty through God
to the pulling down
of strong holds.
This gospel of Jesus Christ
is the power of God unto salvation,
it'll do to live by,
it'll do to die by,
It'll take you into the gates of glory.
That's what it'll do.
Paul says,
I've got news for you, friend,
you don't understand
the methods of my battle,
I'm in a warfare
and I am not battling
with carnal weapons,
I'm battling with spiritual methods
and it doesn't matter
whether you understand it or not.
And Paul says
you don't understand my identity,
you don't understand my authority.
Look at 10:verse 8:
2 Cor 10:8 (HCSB)
8For if I boast some more
about our authority,
which the Lord gave
for building you up
and not for tearing you down,
I am not ashamed.
It's not the commendation of men that counts,
he says in verse 18,
2 Cor 10:18 (HCSB)
18For it is not
the one commending himself
who is approved,
but the one
the Lord commends.
He's saying the bottom line is:
Is God pleased
with what you're doing?
Is Jesus pleased with your work?
That word "approved"
means to be put to the test,
and the Bible says:
at the judgement seat of Christ
every man's work
shall be tried by fire
according to what sort it is.
And in that day
it's not going to matter
what men think about your work,
what's going to matter is:
is the Lord Jesus
pleased with your work?