Well, once again, we come together to look into the Word of God and see what the Spirit of God has for us. Having spent the last, about three weeks, I believe, dealing with the issue of the pandemic, looking at it from a biblical perspective, trying to bring encouragement and even exhortation to your hearts during this difficult season, I believe that now it's time to return once again to our verse-by-verse exposition of Second Corinthians. So if you will take your Bibles and turn there turn to second Corinthians chapter one. Notwithstanding the seriousness of the days in which we live and in an effort to not in any way minimize what we're experiencing, I believe that if we continue to just focus on all of our problems, that really can be counterproductive. I frankly, think it's unhealthy to deal with this all the time. Yes, people are sick. And yes, people are dying, and that's a tragedy. But people are always going to be sick, and people are always going to be dying. We live in a fallen world, and the wages of sin, obviously his death, but to obsess over this pandemic, 24/7, I believe is unhealthy. And I believe it can be dishonoring to the Lord and certainly distract us from the hope that we have in Christ and the glories that are ours in our inheritance. And it even distracts us from the opportunity to really fulfill the Great Commission. We need to be all about telling other people about the transforming saving truths of the gospel. And I might add that the inconveniences that we are experiencing and the uncertainties about the future, even the loss of income, it's tragic. Frankly, all of those challenges for us are minor, compared to what most people in the world are dealing with. Frankly, most people around the world are struggling just to find enough food to eat. Many of them are afraid of violence. They're afraid that someone will come in and take all that they have, even take their lives. Most people live in fear of starvation and disease and dying on a daily basis. And frankly, most people around the world would give anything to exchange their struggles for our struggles. So we want to keep this in perspective.

And this is certainly true of the first century saints in the nascent Church, the new church that was being birthed during that time. They were undergoing enormous difficulties in those early days of the church. And I might even add, on a lighter side, but if you're like me the media's 24/7 obsession with this Coronavirus, is beginning to to play on my mind. I was telling some friends the other day that I feel like I'm turning into that guy on television "Monk," the OCD germaphobe that was, I think he was the detective. I've never seen the show. I've seen these commercials and he's always wiping his hands and cleaning everything off. And that's how I think I'm getting and maybe you're getting that way too. It's like I've got a germ phobia. I'm afraid to touch anything. I'm afraid to get near anybody. I'm afraid to breathe the air. It's getting insane. And I'm even keeping a close eye on our stock of toilet paper. I mean, it's really insane when you begin to think about what's going on. People are lost and they're dying in this world; they need the gospel, and we're obsessed about toilet paper? I mean, really, it can get silly after a while.

Moreover, I must add one final thing while I'm on a roll here on all of this. I think if I hear one more news conference, where biased liberal reporters interrogate the President and his administration, in an effort to somehow make them look bad I think I will vomit. I believe I heard some amens. So may I humbly ask you to join with me by refocusing on matters that have eternal rather than temporal significance; matters pertaining to the gospel; matters pertaining to the church, and the body of Christ; which is to be the pillar in support of the truth. And may I also remind you before we look at our text of the Apostle Paul's encouraging words, of exhortation to the saints at Philippi, remember, he was writing from a prison cell, a prison cell. And he knew that he was soon going to be executed. And in Philippians, four, he said, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and my crown, in this way, stand firm in the Lord, my beloved." He said, "Rejoice in the Lord always, again, I will say, rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." And then he went on to say this, and this is my encouragement to each of you, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things, the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me," he says, "practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you."

Now, with that brief introduction, let's go back to the context of what's going on. In Second Corinthians, you will recall that some wolves had infiltrated the ranks of the church, some false teachers. And these were predators that were spreading lies, false accusations about the apostle Paul. They were telling the people, you know, this guy is secretly immoral. This is why he's constantly suffering. God is punishing him. And they were telling the people that he was deceitfully manipulating them, that he was just a con man trying to get money from them. And he was also just a self-appointed false teacher who merely fabricated his message and distorted the true Word of God that we're teaching to you. So that was the message. Bottom line, they were telling the people that he was just a phony, and that you shouldn't listen to him. And so they sought to ruin his credibility by undermining his authority and destroying his character; to discredit his teaching so that they could teach their own deceptions. So, this was obviously very convincing to some of the people in the church, because some of them actually bought into the deception, bought into the slander. And of course, that was heartbreaking to the Apostle Paul.

So, Second Corinthians is a letter where he responds to all of this. His concern is not only to express his joy and relief, because most of them repented, but also to defend his apostleship and confront these false teachers. In Second Corinthians one, verses 12 through 14, you will remember he spoke of his proud confidence and how God had manifested himself through the apostle Paul, in his grace, in the power in his life, in his ministry, and his message. And he glories and what God has done in and through him. And he gives testimony as to how his conscience affirmed his moral, his relational, and his doctrinal integrity. But now, in chapter one, beginning in verse 15, through chapter two and verse four, where we will be this morning, he is going to zero in on more a specific bogus accusation attacking his trustworthiness. You will see that they were claiming that he was duplicitous, that he would say one thing but means something else; that he was therefore dishonest that what he said about spiritual things, about doctrinal matters, really couldn't be believed; that he was erratic. He was unpredictable. He was, he was vacillating. He was indecisive, so he can't be trusted. Don't pay any attention to him, he's a deceiver. He's just playing you. He's just using you. And what we're going to see is that the reason they were making such a charge, now catch this, is because...he changed his travel plans. Really? He changed his, yep, he changed his travel plans. Oh my goodness, you can't be serious. Talk about a flimsy feeble, unconvincing, unconvincing piece of evidence. But you know, that's what deceptive control freaks do. In order to advance their agenda, they must discredit their opponent, and they will come up with anything to somehow do that.

By the way, this is how dishonest, divisive, narcissistic politicians function on a daily basis. We see it all the time. And sadly, wicked people in the church can do the same type of thing; bullying tactics to somehow get people to believe that which is false about another person. Now, what we see here in Second Corinthians, especially in this passage, is not only helpful in learning how to spot this type of thing, but also how to defend against it. So I want to give you just a real simple four category outline, we're going to see, first of all, the tactics of deceivers. And then Paul is going to explain the defense of the gospel. And then thirdly, the appeal to God. And then finally, the motive of love. That's what we will be looking at. And it's my prayer and my confident assurance that you will be instructed, that you will be encouraged; you will be exhorted, as we examine this frankly, rather obscure passage of scripture that perhaps you've never studied closely. But I believe the Spirit of God has much to teach us here.

So first of all, I want you to notice the tactics of deceivers. Notice in verse 15, "In this confidence," he says, "I intended at first to come to you." Well, in what confidence? Well, we go back to the end of verse 14, he says that "we are your reason to be proud as you also our hours in the day of our Lord Jesus." In other words, he's saying, "you should be proud of me, as I am proud of you. I am your spiritual father." He mentioned this in First Corinthians four verse five. And he's essentially saying, "Look, folks, it was through my ministry and my gospel message, along with Timothy as well as Silas, that God saved you by his grace. And as a result, together, we anticipate--what he says here, "the day of our Lord Jesus," that day when we can proudly point to you as our spiritual children. In First Thessalonians chapter two, he says the same thing to the saints at Thessalonica. In verse 19, he says, "For who is our hope, or joy, or crown of exultation? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy." So essentially, what he's saying is "folks look, had I been a con man who distorted the Word of God, a false apostle, that merely came to deceive you for my own benefit, then how can you explain your salvation? I was loyal to you, you have been loyal to me. So how do you explain this?"

Now, by the way, not everyone believed the deceptions. But obviously, there were a number that did. So again, verse 15, "In this confidence, I intended it first to come to you, so that you might twice receive a blessing; that is, to pass your way into Macedonia, and again for Macedonia, to come to you and by you, to be helped on my journey to Judea." Let me explain this. This is really interesting. You will recall in First Corinthians 16, verses five and six he revealed his initial plan, what we might call Plan A, that he would leave Ephesus, that he would go directly to Macedonia, and then, after that come to Corinth where he would winter. Because it's difficult to travel during the winter. But after writing First Corinthians, he altered his original plan. He came up with, shall we say, a plan B. And he decided to go from Ephesus, first to Corinth, and then go to Macedonia, and then come back to Corinth again the second time before he would go on to Jerusalem. And this way they would receive as he says, twice the blessing, twice the benefit of his fellowship, of his shepherding. And this, by the way, demonstrated just how much he loved them and how he wanted to be with them and minister to them. However, later in chapter one of Second Corinthians, verses 23, through the first verse of chapter two, he explains why he had to change from Plan B, back to basically Plan A, which, as we will see, was to spare them the rod of discipline, to avoid unnecessary conflict, to give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to work in their hearts and bring conviction and repentance to those who had sided with the false teachers against Paul.

So with that background in verse 17, he says, "Therefore, I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? Paul uses an interesting word here, "vacillating." "Elaphria' in the original language, it means fickleness. It means levity of character or of behavior that is capricious, that is whimsical, that is impulsive. The type of person that starts to do one thing, oh, I think I'll do something else. That's what they were accusing him of. And he's saying, Surely you don't think that I changed my plans, on some whim? On some motive to just benefit myself, like men of the world? He went on to say "Or what I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, so that with me, there will be yes, yes and no, no at the same time? In other words, you think I do this according to the mood of the moment on the basis of self-interest? Obviously, that was what the false teachers were accusing him of. That he was somehow guilty of either prevarication. In other words, being deliberately vague and evasive, or just being a two-faced liar; speaking out of both sides of his mouth, as we would say, in our vernacular, they may have even been using Jesus words against him. Remember, in Matthew 5:37, Jesus said, "'But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes,' or 'No, no,'; anything beyond these is of evil.'" By the way, there, Jesus was condemning false vows. The people were taking oaths, or I should say making oaths in the name of the Lord and appealing to God as the punisher of all falsehood. And therefore, the oath would be binding when they did it in his name. And unfortunately, the people were misusing this. They felt as though they could tell little white lies to people. They didn't have to be truthful, if an oath wasn't attached to what they were saying. Therefore, they didn't have to be truthful because it wasn't binding. But Jesus was saying that look, even in your everyday speech, you should be truthful, you should mean what you say. If you say yes, it should be yes. If you say no, it should be no; you should never be evasive. You should never be duplicitous. But of course, the false teachers aren't interested in an accurate interpretation of what Jesus said. They didn't care about that. They have one thing in mind, and that's to score political points.

So again, Paul says in verse 18, "But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no." I mean, he's simply saying, Look, you know that what God says is always true. And you know that I was sent to you by God to preach the gospel. Now, do you really think that he would send me and that I would speak on his behalf, if I was duplicitous? If I was vacillating? If I was whimsical or capricious, just a deceiver?

By the way, one of the things that I noticed, as I meditated upon this passage is that Paul is dealing with the same kind of tactics that Satan has used ever since the Garden of Eden. Remember what he did with Eve? He would spin what God said, and do something that God didn't say, get her off balance, get her confused, and then create doubt, and suspicion in God's character, in his plan, in his purposes, and then to get you to believe that somehow you're being hoodwinked; that maybe you're being treated unfairly. That maybe even you've been deceived, and then encourage you to reject what was said, and rebel without any consequences. Now, over the years, I've seen and experienced this kind of wickedness, in my life, especially in the church. I've seen this on a regular basis. People outside of this church, and even in our own church. And practically, the tactics of divisive deceivers kind of goes like this; I'll give you six of them very quickly. Number one, they will make mountains out of molehills. Number two, they will seize upon the very worst possible interpretation of the situation. Number three, like a poisonous spider, they spin facts into fiction in order to ensnare their victim. And then number four, they secretly keep a record of wrongs, whether real or perceived. And number five, they are always looking for more wood to fuel a fire, rather than water to extinguish it. And then number six, they're constantly recruiting other malcontents to join their cause. And this was what was going on there.

Let me give you an idea of what they would have would have heard there in that first church in Corinth. "So did you hear that Paul changed his plans? You hear about that? You know, I wonder what that's all about. I mean, really, I mean, it's hard to trust the guy who says one thing, and then all of a sudden, boom, he's going in a different direction." "I don't know. I'm just uncomfortable about this. Or maybe he never even meant what he said. I mean, clearly, he said he was going to come here first, and then nope, going to do something different. I guess he's unaware of what Jesus said, 'But let your statements be Yes, yes or no, no, anything beyond these is evil.' I don't know. Yeah, there just seems to be something going on here. I just don't like the smell of this thing. I'm not sure what it is. And I mean, I don't want to falsely accuse anybody, but there's something not right with this. I got a funny feeling about it. I mean, really, he makes special plans to see us before he goes to visit Macedonia, as if he really wants to spend time with us, as if he really loves us, as if he really wants to shepherd us and then whoops, changed my mind. I mean, really, who wants a pastor like that? How can this guy even call himself an apostle of Jesus Christ, if he vacillates like this? And you know, if you really think about it, if you can't trust the guy on the little things, how can you trust him on the big things?"

Well, you get the picture. Again, politicians do this all the time. False teachers do it all the time and wicked people, divisive people in a church, will do this as well. So these are the tactics of deceivers. Secondly, notice how Paul speaks of the defense of the gospel. In other words, he's going to use the gospel as part of his defense. Now, apparently, these false teachers were attacking the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I find it interesting that Paul uses the full Christological title to describe him in verse 19, "For the Son of God, Christ Jesus," you just got to stop there, folks. Don't miss this. I mean, what an amazing truth and what astounding power there is in this title, and in this name. And here, Paul appeals to the highest of all witnesses. This "Son of God" who is faithful and true, as he said in verse 18. This reminds me by the way of a time when I was in Siberia, on one of my trips there teaching pastors, and I was asked to speak at some of the various churches in the area around Lake Baikal. And I went to one church one evening, church of about a couple of 100 people, in Angara. And I'll never forget it. The pastor was such a dear guy, he was a converted Russian Olympic boxer, a champion boxer, and he had come to saving faith in Christ. And so I remember coming into that church, it was meeting in an old Communist Party building, which was now a library, it was up on, I think, the second floor. And it was a huge room with these kinds of tall tables that you could fit probably six people around at least. And all of the people were leaning over on the tables, and they were praying. It was, it's their custom there to never pray seated, they either pray on their knees, or they're standing and they're leaning on something. It was a precious sight to see. And, and after a little bit, the prayer meeting was over. It was time to start the service, and the interpreter introduced me, and I remember standing before them and I began by saying something like this "on behalf of the saints at Calvary Bible Church and Tennessee, I greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." And as soon as I said, that, to my astonishment, they all jumped up. I had no idea. I thought, Oh, my goodness, I have said something wrong here. As soon as the interpreter said what I said, they jump, they stand up, and they immediately say something back to me. And so I looked at my interpreter, and he said, "and they greet you as well, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." And I thought, Oh, good. And I told the interpreter, I didn't know what just happened. And he kind of expressed that to them. And, and we all had a great laugh, but my what a, what a tremendous response. And what an appropriate response of the people of God when they think about the lover of our souls, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Well, "For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us--by me and Silvanus and Timothy--" "Silvanus is another name for Silas, "was not yes and no, but is yes in Him." In other words, we weren't duplicitous. Three of us have been called and gifted, to come to you to give you the gospel. And you believed and you were saved. Three of us have preached the transforming truths of the Word of God to you, the truth of who the Son of God is. And since two or three witnesses are required to verify the truth of something, here they are. Surely you don't think that my preaching was deceitful. But what they preached, which was the same message, was not. Surely you don't think that we are all duplicitous, vacillating, whimsical deceivers?

By the way, there's a great lesson to be learned here. Whenever you hear some accusation against someone, certainly against a pastor, you want to measure that against the pattern of that man's life and the pattern of his message, to see if that would in any way contradict the allegation. I mean, don't judge a man on the basis of some strange scenario that's really out of character, that is not indicative of who that man is, and what he has preached for many years. Or on the basis of some flimsy evidence tantamount to Paul changing his travel plans--on the basis of something like that; believe the worst about a man.

Verse 20, he goes on, he says, "For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us." My what a powerful statement. Think about it, he knew that the most all of them would agree that the covenant promises of God to believers are all ultimately fulfilled in Christ. In him they are "yes." In other words, I really want to camp on this for a moment; this is so precious to me. I'm a Gentile. Most of you are Gentiles. And may I remind you that all of the promises of God, were also given to the Gentiles; promises that were fulfilled in Christ. In fact, Jesus told his disciples in Luke 24:44, "all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled. And indeed, they were fulfilled in Christ. But we also, even as Gentiles, are the recipients of these blessings. I mean, this is what Paul said, for example, in Ephesians, two, beginning in verse 10, and by the way, this would have been the same truths that he would have given to the saints at Corinth. Remember there he says, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them. Therefore, remember that formerly you the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision, by the so called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands. Remember that you were at that time, separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now," oh, what precious words, dear friends, "But now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

The apostle Paul spoke of this as well in First Corinthians 1:30, where he declared that Christ Jesus "became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." So, Paul is speaking here in verse 20 of the many "promises of God" affirming the fact that "in Him they are Yes." And I was thinking about those promises; there's so many, but fundamentally, they are rooted in the unconditional unilateral, irreversible, covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis 12, and Genesis 15 and again in Genesis 17. An everlasting covenant that contained four elements. It contained the promise of a coming seed, referring to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, that would become the Savior of all who would believe in Him. Also promises concerning a specific land, a specific territory. And the promises of a nation. And promises of divine blessing and protection for Abraham's posterity. And ultimately, we as Gentiles, have had been grafted into the vine that is rooted in the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant. Romans 11 is very clear about this. And indeed, according to Galatians, three and verse nine, Paul said, quote, "those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer." So I think of the promises that God has made, that they are true. The promises that he gave, for example, to Abraham, that was later reaffirmed to Isaac and Jacob. And then the Messianic Kingdom promises that he gave, for example, to David in the Davidic Covenant, in Second Samuel seven. So the promises of God that Paul speaks of would include all of these things, all of the promises about the coming Messiah, all of the promises about the kingdom that were given to the Old Testament patriarchs and to the prophets; all of these are fulfilled in Christ. Indeed, they "are yes in Him." The promise of a coming Messiah who would bring salvation to all who would believe in him, who will rule the earth in an intermediate kingdom, prior to the eternal state. The Messianic Kingdom where Jesus will reign as the last Adam; where he will reign from and over the realm where God first tasked the first Adam to rule and to reign--but where he failed, a visible reign in the realm where the Messiah was rejected, and where his people had been persecuted, a time in history when all aspects of the biblical covenants and promises will be fulfilled. A time of great blessings for the nations of the earth; all those who believe in the Lord.

And by the way, during this pandemic, dear friends I find myself often just longing for the Lord to come and snatch us away in the rapture of the church. To take us unto himself, and then to return with us to establish his promised earthly kingdom. And when I think of the promises of God that are yes, in Christ, my heart is stirred to worship, it is stirred to praise. And it is animated with anticipation. O, how I long for the Lord to return.

So back to verse 20, since all God's saving promises are true in Christ, "therefore," Paul says," also through Him is our Amen." Amen means mean, "surely," it's a transliteration of the Hebrew word. "A-mon," I think is how they pronounce it. A-mon."" And it was a term that was used to solemnly affirm the truthfulness of what has been said. And we say that a lot, we say "amen" after certain things, and that's what he's saying here. "Therefore, also through Him is our Amen, to the glory of God through us." And then he expands upon this firm faith that Christ is wrought within our souls. In verse 21 he says, "Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God." Now, this is interesting. The term "establishes" it means "strengthens" or "solidifies" or "makes us stand firm." And what's amazing, folks, when you think about this, God is currently in the process of establishing us together with each other in Christ. He goes on in verse 22, and says, "who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge." Now, I'm going to get technical for a moment, but I hope that it will become very clear to you. It's interesting here that he uses three aorist participles, or past tense participles, to affirm this amazing reality of this establishment that we have. And each of them are antecedent actions of the main verb, which is "to establish." And the grammar indicates here, therefore, that something has happened in the past, that has ongoing results. Well, what has happened in the past was certainly he has "established us," but also he has "anointed us", "sealed us", and "gave us"; in other words, he has given us the deposit of the Spirit.

Now I want us to look at this closely for just a moment. This is so precious. First notice, he "establishes" us in Christ, referring to our salvation, when we are born again, when we're united to Christ in saving faith. It's that marvel of being in Christ. I've recently written a book and it's just now been released one of my many books, entitled, "The Marvel of Being in Christ: Adoring God's Loving Provision of New Life in the Spirit." And I go into great detail about our union with Christ; an amazing doctrine. Beloved, think about this. Christ is not a a means to an end, but he is the all-sufficient and all glorious end himself. We now share a common spiritual life with Christ. He lives in us and we live in him; Galatians 2:20; Colossians three, three; we have died and our lives, our life is now hidden with Christ in God. So he first of all establishes us, but then notice, secondly, when we were established in Christ, we were also anointed with the Holy Spirit. And this happens at the moment of our new birth. "Anoint" denotes the idea of dedicating something, even commissioning something, consecrating something, someone especially to serve God. First Corinthians 12:13. Paul says, "For by one Spirit, we were all baptized," in other words immersed, "into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit."

So we have been established, we've been anointed. Thirdly, we've been sealed, God has sealed us. A seal, of course, is a token that assures that someone owns something, a piece of property, or whatever. And here, God's stamp of ownership is on all those who belong to Him. And that stamp of ownership that mark, is the indwelling Spirit of God, who instructs us and empowers us and guides us in our life and helps us put the glory of Christ on display. In Romans eight and verse nine, "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." The point is, those that have the Spirit of Christ, belong to him, that is the mark of ownership; we have been sealed in him. And certainly a transformed life that is devoted to the glory of Christ through faith and obedience is always the certain mark that individual belongs to God in Christ. In Second Timothy two, verse 19, Paul said, "The firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, "'The Lord knows who are His' and, 'Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.'" Folks, what a joy it is to know that we belong to him, that nothing can separate us from his love.

And fourthly, we see that God gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. A "pledge” refers to a down payment or a deposit. You might say he is the "earnest of our inheritance," the first installment of all the promises of redemption, that belong to the redeemed; all that awaits us. Romans 8:23, we have the "first fruits of the Spirit." He goes on to say "waiting eagerly, eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." And in Second Corinthians five, verse five, Paul says, "Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the spirit as a pledge." And also in Ephesians, 1:13 and following, he says, "In Him, you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory." Now, Paul's point here, in reminding them of all these magnificent realities that he has preached, and they have embraced in saving and transforming faith; the point of it all is simply this: how, in light of all of this, can you question my integrity simply because I felt it was necessary to change my travel itinerary? Really, folks?

So we've seen the tactics of deceivers, the defense of the gospel that he preached that changed their lives in eternal destiny. And thirdly, we see now that the appeal to God, notice verse 23, "But I call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth." You see, here, he's explaining why he didn't come to them, why he changed his plans. "Not that we lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are standing firm." Then verse one of chapter two, "But I determined this for my own sake, that I would not come to you and sorrow again. For if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad, but the one whom I made sorrowful? This is the very thing I wrote you so that when I came, I would not have sorrow from those who want to make me rejoice; having confidence in you all that my joy would be the joy of you all." He said again, the reason he decided not to go to Corinth on his way to Macedonia, as he changed his plans to do, was to spare them of the rod of discipline, as I mentioned earlier. To avoid unnecessary conflict; to give the Holy Spirit of God an opportunity to do his work in their heart, to bring conviction and repentance; especially those who had sided with these false teachers and had joined in a mutiny against the Apostle Paul. He knew that those who believed those slanderous lies, those lies of the false teachers, and those who joined against him, needed time to really think about and pray about the severe letter that he had written them confronting them. I mean, we all know that you don't want to confront a man or a woman when their bloods up; when they're mad, let them cool down, let them think about it. Let them be encouraged by other godly people. Don't be guilty of provoking them more at a time when they haven't really cooled off and thought about things rationally and biblically; that just causes unnecessary confrontation. So he's basically saying, folks, look, I didn't walk, don't want to walk, into a hornet's nest. I didn't want to have to assert my apostolic authority. I didn't want to have to lord it over you. I didn't want to come in and let's get into big fight. I don't want to bring sorrow upon sorrow. My goal is always to work with you for your joy.

If I can add a little footnote here, folks, when you see me and the elders make a change in the church, maybe a change in ministry, or personnel or whatever. Please don't immediately think that this is some whimsical idea. Please don't think we're being duplicitous; that what we're saying is poorly conceived, that we just kind of up and changed our travel plans. But rather realize that there's a good reason for what we're doing. Reasons that have the glory of Christ, and your best interest at heart, knowing that we love this church and also know that, that we are privy to information that you do not have. And that in most cases we're not able to give to you. And if you knew what we knew, undoubtedly you would agree Oh, yes, that's absolutely the right thing to do. So, despite all of the hysterics, and all of the drama, that sometimes goes along with some change in the church, all of the accusations that start flying, and all of the weeping and wailing and the gnashing of teeth, know this dear friends, we can honestly say, as Paul did that we can call on God as witness to our soul. That what we have done is for his glory, and for your joy, for your good.

So having seen the tactics of deceivers, Paul's defense of the gospel and his appeal to God, finally, in closing, notice the motive of love. Even though his love was under heavy fire, he still loved them, verse four, he says, "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears;" referring to the severe letter that he had written, "not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have, especially for you." Folks, Paul's passion was the truth of the gospel. His passion was for the purity of doctrine, for the purity of the church--for unity within the church for the glory of Christ. Why? Because of his great love for Christ, and because of his great love for the people. And I trust you share these passions. I would just challenge you to learn these lessons.

Well, beware certainly of anyone that stirs up divisions in the church. Beware of false teachers. Guard your heart against being sucked into whatever the drama is of the moment, but also celebrate the fact that we have been established in Christ. Celebrate the fact that he has anointed us he has sealed us and he has given us the deposit of the Spirit of God. Oh, what hope and joy and promise and peace we have in Christ. What a glorious future awaits us in him. Let's think about these things, especially during this difficult season. Will you join me in prayer?

Father, we are always humbled by the power of your word, and we are often moved to a place of deep reflection and joy when we consider the saving, transforming truths of the gospel, the inheritance that is ours in Christ. And we're also moved when we consider the dangers that are all around us, not only outside the church, but even within the church. And I pray that as we reflect upon what we have heard this morning, that by the power of your Spirit, you will bring conviction, you will bring encouragement, you will bring comfort and certainly peace and joy to each of us who know and love you. And if there be one that does not know you, as Savior, and Lord, I pray, as always Father that by the power of your Spirit, you will bring conviction to their heart. Help them to see the wrath of God that abides upon them, but the grace and the mercy that's available to them through faith in Christ, our Redeemer, save them by your grace, Father. Save our children, save our grandchildren, save our friends. We ask all of this in the precious name of Jesus, the Son of God, our Lord and our Savior. Amen.