It's thrilling to be up here and hear your voices coming this way. What a joy it is to sing the songs of redemption, because of what Christ has done in us. Will you take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter six. We continue to make our way through this epistle; we are going to be looking at verses 11 through 13. And then jump over to chapter seven in verses two through four. These verses are actually bookends if you will, that support the intervening section and Second Corinthians six beginning in verse 14 through chapter seven and verse one. And in that intervening section, Paul will be exhorting believers to not be bound together with unbelievers in any kind of religious enterprise or event and so forth a strong warning against ecumenism, where tolerance is preferred over truth. And, of course, the motivation for this stern warning is going to be his great love for Christ and for all who belong to Christ, though some had spurned his love, as you may recall. So let me read the passage and then we will look at it closely and see what the Spirit of God has for us this morning. Second Corinthians six beginning in verse 11, Paul says, "Our mouth has spoken freely to you, oh, Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now in a like exchange--I speak as to children--open wide to us also." And then in chapter seven and verse two, the other bookend he says, "Make room for us in your hearts; we wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we took advantage of no one. I do not speak to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. Great is my confidence in you; great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort; I'm overflowing with joy in all our affliction."

Now once again, remember the context. Paul is defending his apostolic authority and the message of the gospel against the the scurrilous attacks of the false teachers that are doing everything they can to undermine him and to gain a following within the church. Satan has commissioned basically some phonies to attack the apostle Paul, they've come into the church. In fact, the ringleader is probably the thorn in the flesh that Paul mentions; they were vicious wolves in sheep's clothing. In other words, they were dressed up, so to speak, as true shepherds. They looked like real pastors. They talked like them. They talked as though they were messengers from God. And many sheep began to follow them, but they were vicious predators. They were phony believers who were superficially attached to the church, as often happens, and they saw how that becoming part of the church they could gain some recognition, gain some power, make a little money. And they began to deceive naive and ignorant believers into following them. This was breaking Paul's heart. They were the original televangelists. They were the original charismatic prosperity preachers, the original Pentecostal screamers, the original megachurch charlatans. And they said that Paul was basically immoral, and that was the reason for all of his suffering, and all of his persecution, because God was punishing him. They led people to believe that he was deceitfully manipulative; that he was trying to fill his pockets with money, just a con artist; that he was a self-appointed false teacher who merely fabricated his message and ultimately distorted the true Word of God.

Now, I want you to be reminded of something very important. And that is, Satan prefers to join a church rather than attack it. Because he knows that if he attacks the church, it will get stronger. And that's what we've seen historically. So, the great strategy then is to infiltrate the church. In fact, that strategy basically looks like this infiltrate, deceive....(glitch in audio, not transcribable). They gain influence in our classrooms, in our media, in our pulpits (glitch in audio, not transcribable)... with their immorality, and with promises they know they could never keep and today we see their foot soldiers rioting in the streets. I was reading how just last week in a place called Moscow, Idaho. Interesting name. I've been to Moscow, Russia and what happened in Moscow, Idaho is really rather similar. There, the city arrested several Christians for gathering together in the streets and singing hymns. One man was charged for not social distancing and flouting the facemask order. And a husband and wife were arrested on charges of singing too closely together. What an amazing double standard. Here we have violent antifa anarchists and BLM domestic terrorists allowed to flood our streets, intimidate citizens, and on and on it goes; they're allowed to riot, to loot and to burn. Police have even been killed, but Christians can't sing, and they can't worship and churches. You say how does this happen? The strategy was put into place. Immoral God-hating people have infiltrated positions of power. Once again, they infiltrate, they deceive, they divide, they intimidate, and they conquer. In Los Angeles County, I'm sure you're aware of how they have sought to shut down Grace Community Church, where my good friend and mentor Dr. John MacArthur is pastor and many other friends that I have there and many of your friends--some of you came out of that church. They have been accused of not complying with what are frankly irrational and draconian COVID restrictions that violate first amendment rights. The right that we have under the Constitution, to exercise freely our religion to have peaceable assemblies and so forth. And now they are being charged with contempt of court. And their attorneys from the Thomas Moore society have been successful in challenging the constitutionality of the county's orders and a judge has agreed to the fact that they are entitled to a trial and so that's coming up. Thomas Moore society Special Counsel Jenna Willis explained quote, I'm sorry, Jenna Ellis said, quote, "This is significant because no person can or should be held in contempt of a constitutionally invalid order. Los Angeles County continues to presume that its order is valid with utter disregard for First Amendment protections. It is tyranny to even suggest that a government action cannot be challenged and must be obeyed without question. This case goes to the heart of what our founders designed for the purpose of legitimate government--not to be above the rule of law. Pastor MacArthur is simply holding church which is clearly his constitutionally protected right in this country.” But again, how does this happen? In America? There's the strategy, you infiltrate, you deceive, you divide, you intimidate. And then you conquer.

Pastor MacArthur declared, quote, "We are holding Church. The Lord Jesus requires us to meet together, and we will continue to do that because we are commanded to and because it is our right. I'm very grateful to Judge Beckloff for providing full due process and recognizing the importance of these constitutional protections. The reality is that the county cannot show that their order is even rational, much less necessary. They have also applied their orders arbitrarily and discriminatorily against churches and we enjoy a heightened protection in America to hold church. I'll continue to stand firm, and we will continue to fight to protect religious freedom for the church." Those are some examples. And there's many more, you all are familiar, I don't need to belabor the point. But folks, what I want you to understand what Paul was dealing with is the same type of thing in the church. That is how Satan works in a church--infiltrate with false believers, or sometimes with believers who are just unwitting in the errors that they teach, and then deceive and divide and intimidate and conquer. And we see this all the time today. We see apostate, compromising, politically correct seminaries, training heretics, and graduating ungodly men and women and then unleashing them upon the church. Churches then begin to attract more unbelievers than believers. Therefore, they understand nothing about the Scripture, their undiscerning and being unsaved, congregations end up loving darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. This is what Paul was afraid of. This was his great concern. By the way, this is my great concern for Calvary Bible Church. This is the elder’s great concern. And I know, I would assume, all of you share that concern. And for this reason, we're on guard constantly because we know that a little leaven, what? Leavens the whole lump. If you have a little bit of cancer, what do you do? I don't worry about it, not that big a deal. Know how you get rid of it. Eventually, people that believe error and begin to promote it, undermine the truth in a church, and then they will outright attack it. And then in an effort to promote their own agenda, they will cause all kinds of problems, they will deceive. Some people in the church usually first their closest friends and enemies, I mean, and family, and they will become enemies of the church. And then they will recruit them to join their cause, and they will become the foot soldiers of slander and destruction in a church. And of course, this can just wear down a church, especially the pastors and the elders. We haven't had much of that in our church, but we've had some, and those of you that have been a part of those things, know that it's difficult. I've kind of learned to just rise above it, you just kind of keep moving on. In fact, when I'm attacked, I just fight harder and just keep moving on, you know, because I know ultimately, it's the Lord's church. In the early years of Charles Spurgeon's ministry, the pain of slander and scorn, was so great that he was tempted to quit. In fact, his wife, Susannah would often hide the morning newspaper to protect him from further insults. And he described the melancholy that he endured this way, quote, "The iron bolt, which so mysteriously fastens the door of hope, and holds our spirits in a gloomy prison, needs a heavenly hand to push it back." He also said, "Scarce a day rolls over my head in which the most villainous abuse, the most fearful slander is not uttered against me both privately and by the public press. Every engine is employed to put down God's minister; every lie that man can invent is hurled at me." End quote. We saw the same thing in the 20th century with another great preacher, Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones. And he took the same type of biblical stance that Spurgeon, and many others have taken, down through the history of the church; the stands that we take. The stands that you would see for example, in the solas that are around this worship center. And he was likewise slandered. For example, in 1966, the Evangelical Alliance Assembly he said he was quote, "wrecking evangelical unity." And regarding Lloyd Jones, J. I Packer wrote this, "His peers and official Christianity treating him as scarcely more than an extremely able freak. Bing themselves consciously and complacently," catch this, "progressive. They saw him as a throwback to a type of ministry that as a general pattern, had long since ceased to be viable." He went on to say, "that a deep level isolation for most of his ecclesiastical peers, was a permanent part of the doctor's experience."

Well, folks, this is going to be the fate of every faithful pastor, every faithful church leader and every faithful saint until the Lord returns. So, get used to it. But we got to learn how to deal with it, biblically. And the question is, how should how should a pastor, how should church leaders, respond to unfair criticism and slander? What do you do with that? And as believers, how do we respond to attacks and bitter resentment, especially from people that you know have proven wickedness in their lives? Well, of course, the answer is we are to respond in love. But what does that look like? Well, I would submit to you that we see it here in this passage, and many others. Love will manifest itself in five ways that we will examine here this morning. It will first of all speak truthfully in love. Secondly, overlook offenses and restore fellowship, walk in integrity of heart, believe the best and offer joyful praise. That's what we're going to see Paul did. Too often we're tempted to do the opposite, aren't we? We tend to speak dishonestly. Or we use flattery, or we obfuscate to avoid the hard truths. We keep a record of wrongs. We sabotage any hope of reconciliation and fellowship; we walk in hypocrisy of heart, rather than integrity of heart. We want to believe the worst about people. We want to offer bitter incrimination instead of joyful praise. So, let's look at this closely.

First of all, I find it interesting that Paul chose to speak truthfully in love. Notice the text, chapter six, verse 11, "Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide." "Open wide" literally means it is enlarged, it is warm emotionally. And notice how he's speaking with compassion here. "O Corinthians"-- can't you just hear him? Probably with tears in his eyes? "O Corinthians, our mouth has spoken freely to you." The term and the original language means that he's speaking forthrightly. He speaks to them candidly, straightforwardly, honestly, without reserve. He's saying, my mouth is open, and my heart is wide open. That's the point. And we know that the mouth expresses what is in the heart. So we know that Paul spoke to them the truth in love, telling them what they needed to hear, not necessarily what they wanted to hear. And why? Because of his great love for them. This is what we must do in evangelism. Right? We must unleash the gospel even in all of its offense and do so winsomely with great love. This is what the church must do. And throughout both epistles, here to the Corinthians, we see Paul doing this over and over. He speaks candidly, he speaks forthrightly, no obfuscation. No beating around the bush. No subtle innuendos, no watered down, I don't want to upset you, mollycoddling, none of that type of thing. No, he loved them too much for that. He spoke truth to them. He feared God more than man. I think of Proverbs 28:23 where we read, "He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with the tongue."

If I can put it this way, folks, he was willing to look them in the eye and talk straight with them. And as you will recall, if you read the Corinthian epistles, you will just see him saying things like, "you people are divisive, you people are worldly, you people are immoral." He said, I could not even speak to you as to spiritual men, but as men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food for you are not able to receive it. And even now you're not able to receive it because you're fleshly, you're worldly. You're filled with jealousy and strife, he says. You're walking like mere men, meaning unsaved men. You're arrogant, he tells them, you're selfish. He even challenged them in chapter 13 and verse five, to examine your faith to see if you're even born again. Is your faith even genuine? Then he said in First Corinthians 4:14, "I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children." Boy, as parents, we know what that's like, right? You know, when little Thurlow does something that is really bad, we have to sit him down, and we have to talk straight to him. I've done that with my kids and my grandkids. And I can remember many times where I say, I want you to look at Daddy. Or now in these years, look at Papa, look me in the eye. And what did tell Papa tell you, Papa told you not to ever do this, right? You remember that? Yeah. And you did this and this and this, now do you understand that that's dishonoring to God, and it's dishonoring to your grandparents, et cetera, et cetera, you get the point. Now, why would you do that? Because you're cruel? Because you love them. And you want the best for them. Look, folks, when you've been slandered or treated wickedly, what you need to do set up an appointment. Need to sit down with someone and say, "We need to talk. In honor of my great for love for you, I want to speak truth to you in love. But I we need to talk." Proverbs 27 verse six, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend." You need to confront these things. In fact, in Matthew, chapter 18, there's a fourfold process to do this. Galatians six says that we are to "restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness." That's the idea. And we do all of this out of love. Romans, chapter 12 and verse 18, says, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men." So you do all you can, it doesn't mean it's always going to come out well, but you're praying for that. You're seeking that and you're willing to speak the truth in love. That's what Paul did. Remember Second Corinthians two verse four. He says, "Out of much affliction, and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love, which I have, especially for you."

Now, if we go back to the text, I want you to notice verse 12. He's going to practice what he preached in verse 11. He's going to speak candidly with them. He says, "You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. The term "restrained" in the original language means to confine or to make narrow, to constrict. He's saying, basically," Look, folks, there is no restriction in my affection for you. But there is in your affection for me. My heart remains open to you. But you've closed your heart off to me. That is wrong. You're treating me with contempt, you're treating me with suspicion. You're treating me with distrust." So anyway, the first thing that Paul does is, he speaks truthfully in love.

Secondly, love will overlook offenses and restore fellowship. We could put in there, "seek" to restore fellowship, "try to restore fellowship. Verse 13, "Now and like exchange--I speak as to children--open wide to us also. Folks, this is so precious. I know as a pastor, the pain of slander, and the pain of seeing people that you love do and say things that you know are so wrong, that God is going to chasten them for it. Paul is hurting here. I mean, you would be hurting if people that you loved believed lies about you. And we're discrediting you and undermining your message. And he's saying "please, Corinthians, you're my spiritual children, I'm your spiritual father, open up your heart to me, as I have to you." That's what he's saying

Then if we jump over to the other bookend in chapter seven and verse two, He says it again, "Make room for us in your hearts." And here again, he's drawing from the verses here in chapter six verses 11 and 13. And we see the same thing when he says in verse three of chapter seven, "I do not speak to condemn you." "Condemn"--"katakrisis" in the original language. It was a judicial term. It's the act of pronouncing someone as guilty in a criminal case, it was the idea of passing final judgment. It was used only one other place in the New Testament. In chapter three and verse nine, where it refers to the work of the law, bringing condemnation upon sinners. So what Paul is saying is, look, that's not my motive here. That's not my desire. That is not my intention. There is no final verdict of condemnation in the law of love. I'm not saying look, I am finished with you get out of my life, I don't want anything to do with you ever again. That's not what he's saying. No, no, no, no, no. He was willing to overlook their offenses and restore fellowship. Certainly, that was his prayer. That must be our prayer. And that can happen where there's real repentance and asking for forgiveness. By the way, aren't you thankful the Lord is that way with us. Proverbs 19, verse 11, "It's a man's glory, to overlook a transgression." Our flesh doesn't want to do that. Our flesh wants to spot it, exaggerate it, and then publish it right? And then justify our anger. That's our flesh. First Corinthians 13 five, "Love does not take into account a wrong suffered." First Peter four eight, "because love covers a multitude of sins." Folks, it's so easy in our flesh to become "splinter hunters." We're looking along, everybody up, there's a splinter in your eye. There's a speck in your eye, rather than seeing the log in your own.

So, Paul is longing to restore fellowship with them, but only on the basis of genuine repentance and sincerity of heart. That's why he's confronting them on the real issues. Notice he repeats what he said in chapter six, verse 11, the end of verse three of chapter seven. He says, "for I've said before, that you are in our hearts." And then he adds this amazing statement "to die together and to live together." What a profound statement of Christian love. I was thinking about this. Here's what he's saying, "Look, folks, we're all going to die. That is our destiny. And we're all going to live together in glory. So, let's deal with these things. Our lives are interwoven. They're bound together by the bond of grace. So, there is nothing that you can do to cause me to abandon my affection for you. But folks, our fellowship is broken. You simply must repent of this folly that I have delineated to you candidly, so there's no mistake about it." So, he spoke truthfully, in love, he overlooked offenses, tried to restore fellowship, but number three, we see that he walked in integrity of heart.

Notice at the end of verse two, he says, "we wronged no one." The term "wronged" and the original language means what you would think it means--to treat someone unjustly, unfairly, in an effort to cause injury. We did not do that. By the way, since the same verb is used in Second Corinthians two five through 11 and chapter seven and verse 12. In the context of dealing with the incestuous man, remember that whole situation? It's described First Corinthians five, perhaps, since that same verb is used, in that context, there was some kind of accusation levied against him that somehow he had injured this guy or others wrongly, we don't know, it could be that. It's probably 100 other things because that's usually how those things work. Somebody will grab a hold of something, they'll kind of twist it and distort it. And then all of a sudden, you look and there's like this whole list of horrible things this person has done. So, it could be 100 other things. He also added, we "corrupted no one." The term "corrupt" means to pervert in Greek; to corrupt morally. So that's the connotation. Maybe they charged him with helping other people embrace libertinism by teaching freedom in Christ as he did in First Corinthians 6:12 through 20. Or it could be 100 other things that they concocted against him. But no, he walked in integrity of heart.

By the way, this is this is one of the first two qualifications of an elder in First Timothy three and verse two, is that an overseer must be first of all above reproach means blameless. It means that there must be no valid accusation made against him. It means that there's no obvious blatant sin in his life that mars his life. And then he adds this. Secondly, he must be the husband of one wife, in Greek, literally "a one-woman man." And what he's referring to here is he must be sexually pure; he must be devoted to his wife. If he's married, he must not be a womanizer. Has nothing to do with he has to be married or he can't be divorced or some of these other silly things that people concoct. Beloved, whether you're a man or a woman, you must be on guard of your heart. You must be a man or a woman of integrity. Because if you lack integrity, your life will lack credibility, and it will lack power. God promised to bless Solomon and his Kingdom. In First Kings nine verse four, "If you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My ordinances." You see, Paul was a man of integrity. He was a man of moral purity. And for this reason, he could say to the saints, and in verse one of chapter seven, "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness, in the fear of God." Folks, this is what love does. This what love must continue to do in order to deal with the inevitable attacks that will come against you for the sake of Christ. Paul said in Ephesians four beginning in verse one, "Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." And in Ephesians five, verse three, he says, "But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting but rather giving of Thanks."

So again, he said, "Look, I've wronged no one, I've corrupted no one." Notice he also says, "we took advantage of no one." That carries the idea of defrauding someone for the purpose of financial gain. He's saying we didn't do that. I didn't do that. Now, no doubt he was accused of that. And we've seen that in the text, that he was just, you know, like a lot of people today, a lot of pastors are nothing more than entrepreneurs trying to make a buck off of people. Or maybe there were 1000 other false accusations, but none of that was true. No one suffered it is at his hands, and Paul's life proved it.

Well fourthly, we see that he believed the best. Notice what he says in verse four, chapter seven. He says, "Great is my confidence in you." You know, when you read that, especially if you read that in context of both epistles, you have to say, Whoa, wait a minute here. Yeah, he's got great confidence in them. I mean, are you kidding me? I mean, these people were real scoundrels. I mean, this was a pretty messed up church. If you were to look up immature in the dictionary, you'd see a picture of that congregation. And in the forefront, you'd see this silly grin with the people holding up their wine. They're all the rich people that are destroying the time of fellowship at the Lord's table. And then in the background, you'd see all the poor people kind of looking. I mean, that was the church. I mean, this church was a mess, and he says, I've got great confidence in you. Why would he say that? Folks, the answer is he believed in the power of the gospel. He believed in the power of the Holy Spirit that indwells people, even if they're seriously immature; to somehow grow them in the grace in the knowledge of Christ. He was confident on that basis. In fact, he said in Philippians 1:6, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Beloved, look back on your life. Think of the really stupid things that you've done. The things that really dishonored the Lord. Now, granted, most people only know the tip of the iceberg, but you know what's underneath the water, right? I mean, it's bad stuff. We're all guilty. And I'm sure your parents at times said, "Oh, Lord, please do something with my child, he or she is off the deep end, please, save them or if they're saved, do something to grow them. Lord, please grow them in you." And many of us have prayed the same for our children. Oh, God, please grow them up in you. And he did. And he's still growing us. Right? That's why Paul had confidence. Paul had seen what God had done in his life. He knew the power of the word. Jesus said, "Sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth." He's praying to the Father before he goes to the cross.

And by the way, that's why we constantly take you into the word. Because it's not my words. It's not my wisdom or anybody else's that's going to help you to become more like Christ. It's the Word of the living God. Beloved, believe the best about your brothers and sisters in Christ, even if they act wickedly towards you, God is up to something in their life. So many times I pray for enemies that I know hate me with a passion. I say, "Lord, please be merciful to them as you have been to me." You know, I just go about my business. That's what you have to do. I think of First Corinthians 13 seven. Remember the passage that "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." When he talks about how love bears all things, he's talking about how love--it carries the idea, by the way, of throwing a cover over a blunder or a grievance. That's what we have to do. "Love believes all things." It believes the best and never assumed the worst. That means that love is going to be quick to interpret a fault or an injury with the most gracious explanation possible.

Love is quick to trust, it's slow to doubt. It is guarded against suspicion. It's going to take a person's word at something until proven otherwise. Love leaves no room for cynicism. It gives no quarter to contemptuous scorn towards another person; that is wicked. Love will take God at his word without misgivings and take others at their word without misgivings. It's going to believe that people are innocent until proven guilty. And love's first reaction to failure is going to be one of restoration. Never humiliation, or retaliation. He also said that "love hopes all things." That's what Paul is doing here. He hopes for the best in every situation, that the Lord would be glorified. Love never gives up right? It never despairs. Love never stops praying for the wayward child, or the wayward friend, or the enemy that is saying horrible things about you. Again, aren't you glad God never gave up on you? I'm constantly reminded of that. In fact, I'm old enough to see the hand of the Lord work in marvelous ways as a result of fervent prayer. In fact, my most fervent prayers sprang from the well of hope that I have for those who show no signs of spiritual growth, spiritual maturity, which includes a number of you in this precious church. But I have confidence in the power of the Spirit and his Word that if you're true really born again, God's gonna grow you. He is going to trim the vine in your life so that you will bear more fruit. So with Paul, I can say "great is my confidence in you."

So, love will speak truthfully in love, overlook offenses and restore fellowship, walk in integrity of heart, believe the best and finally, offer joyful praise. Notice what he says in verse four, "great is my boasting on your behalf." Folks, this is so exciting. I mean, again, think about it. These people had all of these problems, but Paul was eager to praise the Lord for his grace in their life because there were things that he could see that were worthy of praise, worthy of honor to the Lord. And that's what he focused on. My goodness, if you focused on all of my faults, you certainly wouldn't want me in the pulpit. And if I focused on yours, we wouldn't want you up here either. Right? I mean, we're all sinners, we're all growing. And that's what he did. He could see the budding fruit in their life, and he could rejoice in that. In Second Corinthians eight, verse 24, he says, "Therefore openly before the churches, show them the proof of your love, and of our reason for boasting about you." You know, I boast about you all the time. I hope you boast about your church family. I do. Whenever anybody asked me, oh, tell me, tell me about your church. I said, Oh, my, what a testimony of God's grace. These are the most, the most godly, faithful, loving saints that you will ever find anywhere. These are people that love Christ, passionately. These are people who love his Word, who have an insatiable appetite for it. These are people who crave the glory and the greatness of God. I will literally say those things to people, and mean them with all of my heart, a testimony of God's goodness in our lives. And there's no way that you folks are even close to the level of immaturity that we see in the Corinthian saints. By the way, I'm sure they all grew up rather quickly, and we'll get to meet them someday. They will know us and we will know them.

"Great is my boasting on your behalf," he says. "I am filled with comfort." By the way, this is interesting, a little technical thing in Greek grammar. It's a "perfect passive indicative verb," which means he had been and he still was filled with comfort. In other words, he's not just filled with comfort, because some of them are straightening up and they've responded positively to his severe letter. No, no, no, no, no. He is comforted all the way through and that's the work of the Spirit. He is the paraclete; he is the comforter. He is the one who comes alongside. He is our advocate. He's the fount of every blessing. You see, Paul derived his comfort from the truth, and the power of the gospel. Our joy is in Christ, it's not in our circumstances. And he goes on to say, "I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction." In other words, despite the rejection, despite the things that break my heart, I am still joyful. And by the way, he was especially joyful, as was Titus, when he learned how they responded--how many of them responded faithfully and obediently and lovingly to the severe letter. You want to ask yourself, "Does this describe my attitude towards those who wronged me? Or do I have a heart of contempt? A heart of revenge? Do I seek retaliation? Rather than reconciliation?" Well, yes, but pastor so and so really offended me. Oh, really? Boy. Oh, my goodness, I didn't realize that. You know, in that case, I mean, God's command for you to love them and to forgive them, I mean, that's out the window. I mean, if they really did that, I mean, you're off the hook here. I mean, you need to make them pay. You need to get even. They acted wickedly. They maligned you, really? Oh, they slandered...h my goodness. I just break fellowship with them. That'll show them, that'll teach him. That'll show the world how you treat people, right? Well, obviously, the Lord is not honored in any of that. By the way, we've all been there, right? We've all had those very things to deal with in our flesh. And maybe you're dealing with that now. I mean, think about it, after all the Lord has done for you, and forgiving you of the most egregious crimes against him, and you're not willing to forgive others who have offended you? You're not willing to try to seek restoration after all the promises and privileges that are yours in Christ?

As we wrap this up, I want to just read to you and I think it was put in your bulletin. I'm such a great fan of the Puritans and one of them that I became familiar with many years ago at Oxford was Thomas Manton, an English Puritan and clergyman trained at Oxford, he was a chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and forgive the Old English here, but it's worth meditating on. Here's what he has to say in light of all of this. "A defected spirit doth not behave itself answerable to its principles, privileges and hopes. Are you at peace with God? And have you communion with Him at every turn? And have you hopes of glory and you are so troubled when you are a little cut short in your temporal comforts?" He went on to say, "Dejection of spirit, argueth too great addictiveness to worldly comforts, and love of ease and flesh pleasing, and in gratitude for all the spiritual good we have received. Shall God lay in such great comforts and after such great receiving, do you take it ill to be put to a little expense?" And he quotes Job 15:11 "Are the consolations of God's small with thee." In other words, where is your priorities, folks? After all God has done all of these things? Is this your attitude? He went on to say, "If you had a due sense of the world to come, you would be glad to keep your conscience, though you lose your coat.” Hebrews 10:34 "Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven, a better and an enduring substance." Then he quotes Romans 8:18. "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." "Do you look for glory to be revealed in you, then look upon all the sufferings of this life as a feather, put into the scales against a talent. We are to have a sense of our condition. Yet in regard of the honor done to us to bear a part of Christ's cross, and in regard of the comfort and happiness provided for us, we should be cheerful, that it may not be known to be an unwilling patience and exhorted by force." End quote,

Well, folks, this was Paul's life. This was his attitude. He was filled with comfort, overflowing with joy and all of our afflictions. Imagine if the people in our country began to function this way. I know this is going to be a bit laughable. But think about it. What if the Republicans and the Democrats began to respond to each other this way? Instead of speaking dishonestly, they would speak truthfully out of a heart of love. Instead of keeping a record of wrongs and sabotaging any hope of friendship, what if they were willing to overlook offenses, and seek to restore fellowship? Rather than walking in hypocrisy of heart and being morally corrupt, they walked in integrity of heart. Rather than believing the worst they were committed to believing the best and instead of screaming bitter incriminations with the most vile and vulgar epithets, hat if they offered joyful praise for the good things that they could see in others? Well, obviously, that's impossible because they're ruled by the flesh rather than the Spirit. But not so for us. Dear friends, if we walk by the Spirit, we will not carry out the desires of the flesh, because of the indwelling power of the Spirit. These great manifestations of love can be and should be godly virtues that characterize our lives. This is how God loves us. This is how He expects us to love others. This is love in action, right. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal joy truths of your word and the way they speak so directly to our hearts. May what we've heard today bear much fruit in our lives, for our good and for your glory. In Jesus name I pray. Amen..