[0:00] Now as we continue our progress in this latter part of 2 Corinthians, Paul has been, if you like, boasting or acknowledging the foolishness of boasting in the latter part of the previous chapter.
[0:13] Saying if anyone wants to boast about their credentials as an apostle or a super apostle as it were, then I can do even more. And what he glories in however is how much he has suffered and the things to which he has been exposed.
[0:28] And even in the case of the final verse of chapter 11, something that some people would consider something ridiculous, being let down in a basket and escaping from the hands of those who wanted, being let down over the wall in a basket.
[0:43] How humiliating, how undignifying, yet he's quite happy to speak about these things to indicate all that he has been subjected to, all the ways in which he has perhaps been made a fool for Christ.
[0:56] And quite content to be so, just as long as Christ himself is exalted. Now as we go on then for him, as he speaks in this opening part of chapter 12 about revelations and glorious visions that he has had, it's necessary for us to recognise that in speaking of this, his objective is not so much to say, oh how great these revelations were, because look, look how glorious and spiritual I am.
[1:23] But rather to draw attention to the contrast between these glorious visions and the reality of his earthbound physical frame, which is afflicted with infirmity and with weakness and with that which you would think was combining to inhibit and to obstruct the free flow of the gospel through him.
[1:49] But rather he says it is the reverse. The more that I am weak, the more that I am insignificant, the more that I am constricted, the more anything that is seen to happen is seen to be of God and not of me.
[2:03] So he says it is not expedient for me, doubtless to glory. I shouldn't be glory, but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ about 14 years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell God.
[2:18] Such an one caught up to the third heaven. Now it's not immediately in this opening verse is apparent that he is definitely talking about himself. But this becomes clear in verse 7, where it says, Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.
[2:41] Now this of course is totally inapplicable unless he himself is the man to whom he is referring. So the man that he knew in Christ, no, I was a Christian, above 14 years ago, and the things that he saw, the visions that he experienced, he doesn't know whether he was in the body or out of the body, he can't tell, but God knows such an one caught up to the third heaven, and he saw, heard unspeakable words which is not lawful for a man to utter.
[3:07] Now, as we've mentioned, I think, briefly in passing on previous occasions, this reference to the third heaven, again, just to reiterate, as in the past, the ancients understood, certainly the Hebrews or some of the Greeks understood, there are to be three levels, as it were, of heaven.
[3:28] Not that heaven was in sort of layers, but rather three things which they described in terms of heaven. One was simply the air around us. Anything that is above ground level is described as being sort of in the heavens, the ether.
[3:42] An example of this, which you usually use, is that in 2 Samuel, chapter 18, and verse 9, where we read, Absalom met the servants of David, and Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth.
[4:03] Now, we wouldn't normally describe just the level of the branches of the tree as being heaven, sort of thing, but between the heaven and the earth, in other words, in mid-air. Anything that is in the air is at that sort of level of heaven.
[4:16] It's the ether. It's that which is not ground. It's not soil. And yet it's not quite God's dwelling place. So it is taken to be the heavens, just as we read elsewhere how Moses took the ashes and scattered them toward heaven.
[4:31] They didn't get up very high, you know, not much higher than a man's height, or that Abram stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and the flame of fire on an altar went up toward heaven. It only goes up to just, you know, a few feet in the air.
[4:44] But the fact that it's in the air at all is taken as being, as it were, the first heaven. It is the air, the atmosphere, that which is the air around us. Anything above ground level.
[4:55] So Absalom was hanging between the heaven and the earth, and the mule that was under him went away. The second level, as it were, that's described as heaven is the sky.
[5:07] The starry host, as it were, up in the sky. Genesis 15 at verse 5. He, that is the Lord, brought him, that is Abraham, forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them.
[5:22] And he said, And so shall thy seed be. Now, of course, it's not God's dwelling place Abraham was looking on. It's the night sky, filled with the stars. Look now toward heaven.
[5:33] Likewise, Psalm 8, verse 3. When I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained. What is man that thou art mindful?
[5:45] So that's the second level of heaven, as it were. So there's the air around us, above ground level. So there's the skies, as it were, the heavenly hosts, the stars and the skies.
[5:57] And that's the second heaven, as it were. The third heaven is taken as being the dwelling place of God. That is heaven as we would know it, where God dwells.
[6:07] We turn a couple of pages from Psalm 8. We read in Psalm 14, verse 2. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men.
[6:17] To see if there were any that could understand and seek God. They had all gone aside. Likewise, Ecclesiastics, chapter 5, verse 2. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God.
[6:31] For God is in heaven, and thou upon earth. Therefore, let thy words be few. So these are the three sort of levels of heaven, or that's described as being heaven in Scripture, at any rate.
[6:44] So when Paul says he caught up to the third heaven, he means the dwelling place of God. He means the presence of God. Such an one caught up to the third heaven.
[6:55] And he says, whether in the body or out of the body, he doesn't know. He regards almost, one reason he refers to this other person, although it's himself he's talking about.
[7:06] It's almost as though that one that saw heaven's glory, that's the real him, as it were. That's the him that he wants to be in God's presence, beholding the Lord.
[7:17] That's his soul set free, as it were. But the earthbound reality of what he is here is one that is beset with infirmities, to which he returns in just a moment.
[7:29] I knew such a man. Whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. God knoweth how that he was caught up into paradise. Different word here. But if you think of Revelation chapter 2 and verse 7, where it says, you know, he that overcometh will I give to eat of the fruit that is in the garden in the midst of the paradise of God.
[7:50] So again, the presence of God. The holy presence, perhaps, and who sank them even of the holy presence of God. But rather he was caught up to paradise and heard unspeakable words, which is not lawful for a man to utter.
[8:05] Now that chimes in, remember, with some of the encounters that men record of their experiences of heaven or heavenly beings. When Jacob, for example, or others ask angels what their name is, they say, why do you ask my name, seeing it as a secret?
[8:23] And they're not allowed to tell them their names most of the time. Gabriel is an exception, of course. But most of that, they're not allowed to tell anything. And there's also that, sections in Revelation, where John is told, you know, write not.
[8:40] They said, seal up these things and don't write down what you hear because they're not to be revealed. As yet, some of the things he heard, some of the utterances, some of the visions to which he was exposed, he was not allowed to write down.
[8:54] Now, this is part of what Paul means, by, you know, things which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Perhaps because it would almost defile them by the utterance in an earthbound context.
[9:04] Perhaps just because they are indescribable. Because we can't put into words that which is beyond us. We don't know. But it is not lawful for a man to utter. Clearly he is speaking about himself in this out-of-the-body experience.
[9:18] And that is the reality of the person that he wants to be. He really longs to be. Almost like that's the real him. But the him that is earthbound and with which the Corinthians have to do is the one beset with infirmities.
[9:33] Of such a one, a heavenly one, will I glory. Yet of myself I will not glory. The self that I am here just now. The earthbound.
[9:44] This clay and dust of the earth. I will not glory. But in my infirmities. Why are the infirmities glorious? Because they are the evidence of his faithfulness.
[9:57] They are the battle scars. The metal ribbons, as it were. Of his service and faithfulness to the Lord. Though I would desire to glory. I shall not be a fool.
[10:08] For I will say the truth. But now I forbear. Lest any man should think of me about that which he seared me to be. For that he heareth of me. In other words, I'm not going to go on and on about my visions and about my revelations that I've had.
[10:21] Because then you might think, ooh, Paul really is something special after all. Because look, this has happened to him and that's happened to him. Maybe he is just as good as the super apostles.
[10:32] Maybe he is on the same level as all these pretenders and charlatans. In other words, we might deign to raise him up to the level of these other ones and say he's just as good as the rest.
[10:42] He says, I don't want that. I don't want to be thought, I'm just as good as them. Or I'm special. He is not interested in reputation for himself.
[10:53] He will only glory in the signs of his weakness. Of his infirmity. Because he desires to do, as it says, as John the Baptist says at the end of John chapter 3.
[11:04] He must increase. Christ must increase. But I must decrease. Paul desires to be the infirm weakling. Beset by difficulties.
[11:15] Problems and all manner of obstacles. And weaknesses and frailties. Just so long as Christ is glorifying. Because the more insignificant he is, the more anything that is done in Corinth or anywhere else glorifies not him, the messenger.
[11:35] But the one who is the living message itself. Christ himself. If we go back to chapter 4, remember, verse 7. For we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
[11:47] That the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair.
[11:59] Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
[12:15] The fact that we have not been destroyed, not been overcome, not been completely defeated, despite our weakness, ought to be evidence, he says.
[12:26] Not of our strength, but of the fact there is another strength keeping us alive. Keeping us always on the winning side eventually. Always overcoming. Always having the victory in the end.
[12:37] And it's not in us. Therefore it can only be in Christ. It can only be in a treasure which is within the earthen vessel. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations.
[12:52] In case I should get to thinking that I am something special. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh. The messenger of Satan to buffet me.
[13:03] Lest I should be exalted above measure. Bring me down a peg, as it were. For this thing I disought the Lord Christ, that it might depart from me.
[13:13] And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Of course, people have speculated for 2,000 years as to what this thorn in the flesh might be.
[13:27] And all manner of possibilities have been conjectured as to what it might be. What particular ailment, what particular problem, what sufferings it might be.
[13:37] Is it something physical? Is it a weakness in the mind? Is it some, unbelievably, even suggested it, like a problematical wife that he had in a previous life or something.
[13:48] But the most likely, going by the text, as I think we've dealt with on previous occasions, the most likely, though not definite, of course, explanation is that there is perhaps some kind of semi-blindness or weakness in the eyes.
[14:07] Now, in some of his letters, I haven't got the exact reference here. You know, when he finishes up with his personal little sort of PS at the end in many of the letters, it says in one, see how large a letter I write.
[14:21] How big the lettering is. Only if somebody who has poor eyesight is going to write big, just as perhaps if our eyesight is not as good as it used to be, we need bigger print than we used to be.
[14:32] I'm at that stage myself half the time. But what do you say? The weakness of his eyes, that's just implied. It's not stated. If we turn to Galatians, just turn a couple of pages from where you watch that, and you'll see in chapter four, it says, Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh, there he is again going over, I preached the gospel unto you at the first, And my temptation which was in my flesh, ye despised not, nor rejected, but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
[15:08] Where is then the blessedness he speak of? For I bear you record that if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me.
[15:20] Now, of course, that could just be an exuberant expression of loyalty. You know, we pluck out our eyes and give them to you if that's possible. That's maybe one explanation. It is more likely that Paul's own eyes had difficulties.
[15:36] They were ineffective. Maybe he wasn't able to see as clearly as he would like. Maybe his eyes were down. Maybe he was suffering from partial blindness. Who knows? But that's just a sort of hint in Galatians that perhaps there is some weakness in the eyes, which despite his physical disability, did not hinder the gospel from flowing freely to the Galatians and causing it to be readily received.
[16:01] He was receiving as an angel of God. And even as Christ Jesus, where is then the blessedness? I bear you record. If it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me.
[16:12] So, whilst we don't know for certain, it's entirely possible it may have been some kind of affliction of the eyesight. For this I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me.
[16:24] He said unto me. Now, the literal Greek is, he hath said. Now, the sense of that is, he has said it once and for all. And that's the end of it.
[16:35] No, don't ask me again about it. He said, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
[16:47] Now, if his grace is sufficient, then it means there will always be a means of overcoming. Think of what Paul wrote to the Corinthians at 1 Corinthians. In chapter 10, verse 13, he goes, There have no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man.
[17:01] Well, perhaps particular weakness in the eyes or any other part of the body may not be common to all men and women. But there will certainly be thorns in the flesh. There will certainly be physical difficulties we all have to contend with.
[17:15] Absolutely nobody goes through their entire life without a single ailment or complaint. Or minor illness or problem of some kind. We all have difficulties physically some way.
[17:28] Whether it's our eyes begin to grow and we get a little bit deaf. Or whether we get bad teeth that have to be pulled out. Or whether we get appendicitis and need an operation to get our appendix out.
[17:39] There's always something goes wrong with your body at some point in your life. So, whether it's that physical ailment or whether it's other temptations, there is no temptation taking you, but such as is common to man.
[17:55] But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it.
[18:09] In other words, yes, there will be problems, but not such as you can't overcome. There will be difficulties, but not such as you won't be able to deal with. So, my strength is made perfect and weak.
[18:20] It's most gladly, therefore, that I have a glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Treasure in earthen vessels. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake.
[18:37] For when I am weak, then am I strong. If I am being attacked for the gospel's sake, he says, then clearly, it must be that the gospel is hitting the mark.
[18:49] The gospel is finding its target. It will not necessarily be well received, but it is certainly going out in that power. And some will react against it.
[19:01] But for all that will react against it, the Lord will always have his individual souls amongst them. Who will set apart for salvation. Remember how the Greeks, of course, at one stage, they took Sosthenes and beat him in front of the governor, Galio.
[19:17] Because they were trying to lynch Paul at the time. And so the Greeks beat up Sosthenes, who was representing the Jews as ruler of the synagogue. And subsequently, of course, from the least likely circumstances, Sosthenes becomes a Christian.
[19:32] He becomes the fellow author of one of the letters to the Corinthians. So he's used of the Lord wherever the Lord sends his gospel.
[19:43] There will be those who receive it. So Paul says he's quite happy, no matter what happens to him. Take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions. And the stress is for Christ's sake.
[19:54] For when I am weak, then am I strong. If it is seen not to be of me that the gospel goes out. If it cannot be me that it is flowing through, then it must be Christ.
[20:07] And if Christ is at work, I am delighted. He says, if Christ is the one pouring his gospel through me and reaching souls, I couldn't be more happy. I am delighted if that's the case.
[20:19] Because if I am weak, then I am strong in Christ. Because I can't get puffed up. I can't make my own personality or my own pride or something else come in the way. It won't become a problem because I am nothing.
[20:31] So let Christ be everything. When I am weak, then am I strong. I am become a fool in glory. You've compelled me, but I ought to have been commended of you.
[20:42] For in nothing lie behind the very cheapest apostles. That is the super apostles, of course. Those who think they are something special. But are in fact, as we saw in chapter 11, verse 13, false apostles.
[20:54] The pseudo apostles. Though I be nothing. Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience. In signs and wonders and mighty deeds. You know, you had all the things that you think are so special.
[21:06] Now, you had signs and wonders and all the mighty deeds of an apostle. That happened when I was with you, he says. You know that that's the truth. For what is it when you were inferior to other churches?
[21:17] What did you not get that they got? Except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you. Forgive me that's wrong. This is almost like sarcasm creeping in here.
[21:28] Oh, I didn't burden you. I didn't expect you to put me up at your own expense. I didn't expect you to feed me or look after me. Oh, I'm so sorry. Forgive me that's wrong.
[21:39] Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you. Now, this indicates that the paucity, the rarity of his actual times of visiting Corinth. Those times when we know he was there, for sure, we read in the Acts of the Apostles.
[21:54] There's chapter 18, verses 1 to 18, where the time in Corinth, the first visit to Corinth was described. Then in chapter 20, we read after the uproar was ceased.
[22:06] That's in Ephesus. Paul called down to the disciples and embraced them and departed for to go into Macedonia. That's northern Greece, Philippi, that sort of area. And when he had gone over those parts and given them much exhortation, he came into Greece.
[22:21] And we think, well, it's all Greece, surely. But Macedonia is the northern part of Greece. Achaia is the southern part of Greece. Here it referred to simply as Greece. And we know that that's where he was going because if you look in chapter 19 of Acts, at verse 21, it says, After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem.
[22:47] Achaia, remember, is the region of southern Greece of which Corinth is effectively the capital. So he plans to go through Macedonia and Achaia. Chapter 20, we read even going into Macedonia and Greece.
[23:01] For that, read southern Greece, i.e. Corinth. So that's the second time that he goes. So he has been to see the Corinthians twice. One is the initial bringing to them of the gospel.
[23:14] We've stayed for quite a long time. And the second time, we don't know how long it was. But now he's planning to come again. This is the third time I am ready to come to you.
[23:25] And I will not be burdensome to you. Even this time. I'm not going to change my policy. For I seek not yours, but you. I'm not interested in your money, in other words, he says. I don't want great gifts from you.
[23:35] I don't want to be put up at great expense. All I want is you. All I want is your salt. All I want is your salvation, you Corinthians. That's what I want. I seek not yours, but you.
[23:46] Because I don't expect you to provide for me. You're my children. And the Lord is saying. The children shouldn't provide for their parents. It should be the parents who provide for the children. The parents for the children.
[23:56] And I will very gladly spend. Like a parent shelling out for their child. And of course, the older they get, the more you have to shell out for them. In the different circumstances and situations.
[24:07] And more they gladly spend and be spent for you. Although, the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. But be it so, I did not burden you.
[24:18] Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. Now, this isn't so much a statement in the original. As I caught you with guile. I don't know why clever. But it's rather almost like a question.
[24:30] Is this what you think? Did you think I was trying to catch you out? Did you think I was trying to put you at a disadvantage to the other churches? Being crafty, I caught you with guile.
[24:40] Is that it? That I'm trying to be all deceptive with you all. I'm just determined not to be a burden to you. I'm determined that there be nothing that anyone can lay to my charge, he says.
[24:53] Other than the fact of giving you the gospel, which I desire to do freely. Nobody is going to say that I went to the comparatively cash-rich city of Corinth.
[25:06] Just for what I could get out of it. Just so that I would be well paid and well funded. Reap in some apostolic fees. I was so determined not to do that.
[25:17] I didn't even charge you bed and board. I didn't even seek your provision. Other churches provided for my needs. I didn't make a gain of you by anyone. Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you?
[25:31] And as I, Titus, with him I sent my brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? Walked we not in the same spirit? Walked we not in the same steps? Again, thinking that we excuse ourselves.
[25:42] Do you think I'm making excuses? I'm complaining here. Because I've got something to apologize for. We speak before God in Christ. But we do all things, dearly beloved, for you edify. Why am I trying to tell you all this, he said?
[25:54] It's not so I could say, look, you owe us. Because we haven't been a burden to you. Look, you should be providing for us. Look, we are due some apostolic fees next time we come.
[26:05] I'm not saying any of that. It is simply to build you up. It is simply to show you how everything that you have received, you have received freely.
[26:17] Why is he ramming this home to the Corinthians? Because this is the nature of the gospel. The good news of Jesus Christ. Absolutely none of us in this day and age or in that day have done anything to merit.
[26:33] We have never paid for it. We have never earned it. We have never made God our debtor as though he somehow owes us salvation because we are so good.
[26:45] That which we have received, we have received totally free. We are debtors to God. We are debtors to his gospel, to his apostles.
[26:56] Not the other way around. You know, this is all for the building up, the edifying of the Lord's people. And then there is this little barb at the end in the last two verses.
[27:09] Because I fear, lest when I come I shall not find you such as I would. And that I shall be found unto you such as you would not. Lest there be debates, endings, wrath, strife, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults.
[27:24] Now why is he going on about these things? Because, well, as he says to the Galatians, if you look at just after we get, just before we have the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5 from verse 22 onwards. Just before that, you've got the works of the flesh which are manifest, which are these.
[27:40] And then he gives a whole long list of all the bad things that the flesh, earthbound, religion or ideology brings forth. Lest when I come I shall not find you as I would.
[27:52] And I won't be found as you would want me. In other words, I'll have to be strict with you. I'll have to be facing down the opponents. I'll have to be exercising discipline. And I don't want to be doing that. I don't want to find debates and endings and wrath and strife.
[28:05] Why? Because that is evidence of another spirit or spirits at work in the church rather than the spirit of Christ. Where the spirit of Christ is, there won't be this kind of enmity amongst brethren.
[28:20] There won't be swellings of pride. There won't be tumults and sort of infighting. There won't be whisperings and gossiping. There won't be backbiting and strifes and rats and envyings. There won't be any of these things if the spirit of Christ is there.
[28:34] And remember that the Corinthians pride themselves on their spiritual gifts. They think they are so superior to other churches because, oh, they are just drenching spiritual gifts.
[28:48] He says, if I come and I find these things there, I know that the spirit that is among you is not the spirit of Christ. And lest when I come again, my God will humble me among you.
[28:59] Notice how he puts it on himself. He doesn't say, he'll show me where I belong, you are. But rather, he'll humble me. He'll say, look, Paul, these are the ones that you said were converted.
[29:10] These are the ones that received your gospel. These are the ones to whom you're a father in God, an apostle. Look at them now. And I be humbled. I have my heart broken because of some who I shall bewail, which have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.
[29:32] Now, two things here. One is that we have to recognize that no matter what uncleanness somebody may commit, there is nothing that the blood of Christ cannot cleanse.
[29:43] And his problem is not that some people may be guilty of these things. It's that having been guilty of it, they haven't repented. They think it's okay to carry on doing these things, to be like the rest of Corinth that's around them, to just be like the world.
[29:58] Because that's what happens in the world. Why shouldn't we just be like it too? After all, we're saved by Christ. We're redeemed anyway, so we're pretty much free to do as we like. You know, we don't want to be legalists. We don't want to be Pharisees.
[30:10] So, you know, we can pretty much have quite a bit of a way. They have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed. Now, if they were to repent, it would be a recognition that these things are wrong and need forgiveness.
[30:25] If they don't repent, what does it mean? It means they're just an easy-ozy about their Christianity. It says, no, it's rather an indication that Christ was never in them in the first place.
[30:38] Because the seed that is planted will produce its own particular stem, stock, and fruit. If I plant an acorn in the ground, and if I could stay there watching them grow for the next hundred years or whatever, I would not come up with a pear tree.
[30:56] If I were to plant grapes in a vine, I would not have a beech tree. But likewise, you will have the plant and the growth of that which you have planted. And if it is the seed of Christ that has been planted in the hearts of the Corinthians, then the fruit, the evidence, the boughs, the leaves, as it were, which reflect that, will be what they bring forth.
[31:21] And this is his anxiety that if he finds all this evidence of a different kind of seed, a different kind of spirit, a different kind of fruit, it means that no matter what was planted there before, clearly it was not the seed of Christ.
[31:39] And that is his worry. And that is his fear. Not that he will find sin. But that that sin is not being repented of. That it is not being recognized as sin.
[31:51] It is being thought to be perfectly consistent. But yes, say it on the outside and go through the outward of an era of religion. And you do what you like on the inside. No, you can't. If you have been changed by Christ, then that will have begun within and it will work its way outward.
[32:09] And the fruit that it brings forth will not always be sin-free. Of course it won't. But the sin is recognized as being, as it were, a wild weed that shouldn't be there. It will be repented of.
[32:20] It will be removed. It will be wrestled with. It will be fought against. Yes, it may keep coming back like weeds do. But it will be attacked. It will be repented of. It will be confessed.
[32:31] And that is the thing that he is looking for. A spiritual warfare of the right kind. Not internal warfare amongst the churches. You see, this is the thing we have to recognize.
[32:45] That sin there will always be within us. As long as we are in this fallen world. And that every Christian will have in them. But when they recognize the sin there.
[32:57] When they are guilty of it. They repent of it. They acknowledge it. They confess it. And as 1 John tells us. The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. But if we say we have no sin.
[33:10] We make him a liar. And the truth is not in us. If we say I can do these things. That's not specially bad. That's okay. That's just normal. That's just natural. It is inconsistent with the spirit of Christ.
[33:23] It is inconsistent with the seed of Christ. It is inconsistent with the word of God. His law and his gospel. And we needs must measure.
[33:35] And inspect. Our Christian lives. Judging ourselves. Looking within. And yes, we will find sin there. But the question is not.
[33:45] Are you going to find sin? Or how terrible you must be if you do. You will find sin. But how do you react when you find it? How do you respond to its presence? Is it to accommodate?
[33:57] Or is it to seek to remove? Remove. And there is only one thing that will remove it. And that is the blood of Christ. Which cleanseth from all sin. And there is only one thing that will make you want to remove it.
[34:09] And that is that the seed of Christ. Is already planted in your heart. That is the thing we must strive for in this day. As it was in their day. In scalpy or in Corinth.
[34:22] The gospel is the same. And the remedy that it is addressed to is the same. And the need of the sinner is the same. The 3rd and fact that it is MI+, that is the measure of these My glory.
[34:42] And the beautiful theen and the fact that it is in this day for the pastors and the family of God and the peoplehelp do not