2 Corinthians, 11:28-12:5
Hal Molloy · Jul 3, 2005
2 Corinthians (2004-05), No. 52
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262328597663

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, turn your Bibles please to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. And we're going to start at verse 28. Now I'm going to read from the King James. It says, Beside those things that are without, that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak? Am I not weak? Who is offended? Am I not offended or indignant? If I must need glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forevermore, knows that I lie not.

In Damascus, the governor under Aretas, the king kept the city of Damascus, or Damascus scenes, with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me. And through a window, in a basket, I was let down by the wall and escaped his hands." Okay, as Bob introduced this a couple of weeks ago, he said this was kind of a transitional verse, going from those things Paul talking about those things which are from without, versus those things that come upon him daily, the care of the churches.

And those things that are without, what did we say last week those were? He contrasts two things here, those things that were without, and we said those things that are within, within the Apostle Paul, within his heart. So what were the two things? that he's contrasting here. The things that are without, okay, the things that are without, persecutions and the suffering and the trials that he's going through, and those things that are within, in verse 28, the care and the concern that he has for the churches, and notice that we saw it was plural, it's the churches, all of the churches, and we started in verse 29 last week, we didn't get very far, and he asked the questions, who's weak, who's offended, so very quickly, I just want to go through the first part, what I've done is in these verses, like verse 29, what's in red is discussed below. What's in blue will be discussed on the following charts.

So he says, who is weak? Am I not weak? We saw last week that the word weak means to be powerless, without strength. And the question is, Why is he asking us? And we said, you know, he's talking to believers who, number one, are relatively immature believers. They probably observed Paul going through trials and persecutions, and they're saying, boy, if I have to go through a trial or persecution, there's no way. There's no way that I can go through what Paul's going through. So, he's saying, who's weak? Who's powerless? Do you feel weak? Do you feel powerless? Answer, you know, that's okay. In fact, I venture to say that the best place to be is in a place of weakness and powerlessness, where you feel powerless. That's the best place to be.

Why? Why would I say that? But then it's God's obligation to make up for that. Yeah, because if you get this... Okay. Because oftentimes we rest in our own strength, our own ability, and when we're doing that... So he has to put us in a place, and he often does, puts us in a place where we're weak and powerless. Wonderful place to be. So he says, he asked the question, am I not weak? And the answer is what? Definitely yes.

Because he goes through and he says, you know, I've been through trials and I've had this thorn in the side and I was totally weak and powerless. And I went to the Lord three times about that. The last point. which I don't think we got to, is the question, why? Why did Paul have concern for those who were weak? Why was his concern so great for those who felt that they were weak and powerless?

Turn over to 1 Corinthians 9.22. Whoever gets there, would they read that please?

Okay and just read, go back up and read 20. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. To them that are under the law as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that are without law as without law, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law. Okay, so what's Paul's concern in all this? Becoming weak? What's he saying? He became as them. He became as them because what? Yeah, to show them, to be an example. And he wanted to gain them, right? He wanted to gain them. But how?

I mean, the question comes up, did Paul become weak? In other words, intellectually decide he's weak so he could reach them with the gospel? I don't think so, right? I mean, isn't that the way Paul walked? It's not like he kind of put on weakness to kind of get their attention, right? Okay. It wasn't his walk in total dependency, at least that's what the scriptures indicate. Okay. What I'm thinking here, Doug, a little bit is that, you know, he exemplified that weakness in terms of bonding with this group of people. Okay. And so when he says I became a Jew, He put on his Jewish history, right? Which he could identify with.

As Saul also, he was powerful. As far as conversion, he was powerful as Saul. As a Pharisee, as a myth, everything. But he became weak with the conversion and all of the things that he considered were perfect. So Paul saw that his sufficiency was not in and of himself. His sufficiency was in God. And if the sufficiency was in himself, what is he? Weak or strong? Totally weak. But if his sufficiency is in the Lord, he is strong. where you're at.

The first verse of the chapter said, would the God who could bear with me a little in my folly, indeed bear with me. In other words, Paul is appropriate for the circumstances to allow the Lord to work through him in ways that might get the attention of those he's ministering to. He's not putting on a cloak that he can't wear or doesn't wear anyway.

You know, he could identify with those outside of the Jewish law by, in fact, his Roman citizenry, right? Okay, and I think one of the answers to Bob's question is this. Was there anything about Paul, 24-7, that reminded him of his weakness? Bob's saying, hold it, if you take a look at the walk with Paul, he walked in strength, right? Independence upon the Lord.

But is there anything in his life, 24-7, turn over to 2 Corinthians, chapter 12. And we're jumping ahead. where he says in verse 7, lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there is given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure for this thing I besought the Lord three times that it might depart from me and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in what? weakness in your sense of powerlessness Paul, which is 24-7, he had a thorn in the flesh, something, an infirmity in the flesh, 24-7.

And if he were to dwell on that, it was dwelling on his weakness. So he had a weakness, an infirmity in the flesh, that would, if he were to dwell on that, would cause him to feel powerless, without strength. But, you know, his next words, most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities if the power of Christ rest upon me. So, could he be weak to, could he show his weakness to others? They saw it, right? They visibly saw his weakness in his body. Yes, Bill.

Earlier, he refused to be the first in updating a good public speaker than a poor public speaker. Greek culture valued that ability to debate and worry so highly that that was becoming like the masses who couldn't do that, and he couldn't do that to the degree that the culture expected of a learned teacher. Good point. So the way of becoming like them and showing a weakness something of that culture at all.

Okay. Good point. Everybody hear what Bill said? Good. Okay. The other concept, too, very quickly, Hal, is the fact that in Romans 8.3, he refers to law for what the law could not do because it was weak through the flesh, right?

I mean, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and forcing condemned sin in the flesh. I mean, the idea, his weakness was personified constantly, don't you think, spiritually? I mean, the flesh is weak, the law is weak. I mean, his walk was weakness. I mean, I think Paul is a dependent member of the body. But in his walk, as he abided in Christ, his walk was in strength, right? But he had that weakness 24-7. It was with him. But in 1 Corinthians, Again, you need to get on, but the idea of appealing to the weak, don't you think that that's not just physical weakness that that appeal could be made?

I mean, somebody, especially an unsaved person, is frustrated with all his or her attempts to please God and doesn't believe that God is loving because of their sister dying of cancer. I mean, you know, somebody who's in a position of dependency but doesn't know where to turn. you can appeal to them in spiritual weakness. And that's why, I think we said last week, there's that immaturity in the faith. So spiritual immaturity. part of the verse, said, who's being caused to stumble?

It's interesting, the word stumble there, standalidzo, just means a trap, a stumbling block. Let me do this. Something that is put in the way, and it's always used in a metaphorical sense. Can somebody think who is a stumbling block in the New Testament? He's a rock of a fence. He's a stumbling block. The Lord Jesus Christ, right? He is a stumbling block. Who is he a stumbling block to? The Jews, and why? A stumbling block is something you trip over and you fall. And they tripped over Christ and they fell. They couldn't give up the law. And they couldn't see grace.

So the question is, who is being, and it's a passive voice, that these people are being acted upon in terms of being caused to stumble and fall. And so the question I ask is, How and why were some of these believers being caused to stumble and fall? And I think that Paul is looking at the condition of these believers and the circumstances that prevail in current with these false teachers. And so I think the answer is that the source of these believers stumbling and falling are these false apostles.

And they're acting, as the text says, as ministers of righteousness. And it's very much like the Pharisees. They were dressed in their garments, and they sat in the high places, and people looked at them as ministers of righteousness. And how did Christ... Christ saw right through them.

And he says, you guys are like whited sepulchers. You're clean on the outside, but you stink and you're rotten on the inside. And that same thing is true about these false apostles. And so their work was this false doctrine. And so they were putting these believers under a legalistic system, under a law system. So these believers were in bondage. Bondage to legalism versus the wonderful and the glorious liberty that we have in Christ. And they weren't experiencing the glorious liberty in Christ. They fell from law. It's interesting. In the book of Galatians it says that those believers there that were under legalism, they fell from grace. What does that mean? When a believer falls from grace? I think that's what people have interpreted that to mean, fall from grace.

Okay, so a believer positionally is in Christ. Position is something that is eternal. something that's immutable, will never, ever, ever change, right? So we're always in Christ. We can never fall out of Christ. So the fall is, as Winnie says, is that we fall from walking in grace, in which we stand, that's our position, but we walk out of our position into another condition, not the condition of grace, but to law. So we fall from grace to law. a lower condition, a much, much, much lower condition.

So, the next part of verse 29, he says, Am I not being caused to burn? The interesting thing about that word burn is Pura or pyro. Does that look familiar in terms of an English word? Pyrotechnics. We got our word pyrotechnics from that means to be ignited or set on fire, kindled. And the Fourth of July is tomorrow. And you're going to see a lot of this Pura going on.

So. So. Does Paul sound angry here? He says, am I not being caused to burn, to be ignited, to put on fire? Certainly a righteous anger. And by the way, this is passive voice too. He is being acted upon. and he is being caused to burn, to be ignited, to be put on fire. Paul is angry, and he's intense, and the intensity is shown in this verse by the fact that when it says, being caused to burn.

See that I there, that personal pronoun? Usually the personal pronoun is part of the verb. As you conjugate a verb, it's first person, singular, second person, singular. You don't have to put a pronoun in there to say I, you, or me, or they. In this case, the personal pronoun is there. When the personal pronoun appears with the verb, it makes it what?

Although Greek students, it makes it intensive. Yeah, it makes it very intensive. So, he's angry. And what he's saying, he says, I'm burning up! I am fuming! I'm being set on fire! Why? Because there's this sorrow and indignation that he has. Sorrow for the believers who are being put under legalism, indignation against these false teachers who are teaching these believers with false doctrine. So, Paul's intense indignation is directed at these, and he calls them servants of Satan in chapter 11.

He says they're false apostles. And I don't know who covered this, Jim or Bob, but they're false apostles and the word there is pseudo-apostles. And that's their position. They are positionally pseudo-apostles or false apostles. And the text says that they're corrupt or deceitful and they're play actors and they're play actors of righteousness as we just talked and they have no clue in terms of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then Paul goes on in verse 30 to say, if it's necessary to glory I will glory in the things of my weakness." So, the question is, why would Paul say this? Or what is he saying? Why is he bringing up, if it's necessary, to glory? I will glory in the things of my weakness. Remember back In verse 1, chapter 11, Jim went through and Paul says, Would to God you could bear with me in my folly or my foolishness and indeed bear with me.

So Paul, as Jim described when he went through this, I'm going to demonstrate some foolishness just like what you... I have to rephrase that. It's not just like, but it's foolishness in the sense that I'm going to try to imitate the foolishness of these false teachers. But the foolishness is not going to be the same foolishness. because their foolishness was coming out from the flesh. Paul's foolishness is not coming out from the flesh.

And that's the key, I think, in looking at this. On a conditional sentence, I'm going to give you a Greek lesson now. It's a first class conditional Greek sentence. In a Greek sentence, it's always best to look at it this way. And forget about the word since. Because, often times, people take a first class conditional sentence and say, oh, it's reality. It's a condition of reality. So therefore, you can translate it since. But the problem is, you can't. Because there are many passages in scripture that if we translated if as since, then you find out it's incorrect doctrine. So the best way to translate if is, if the condition is true, then the resultant is true. If the condition is false, then the resultant is false. Simple way to translate a conditional sentence.

So, if it's necessary to glory, then, conclusion, I will glory in the things of my weakness. So, the first part of this sentence is, if it's necessary to glory, the answer is yes. Then, if that's true, then this is true. Then I will glory in the things of my weakness.

Isn't it interesting? We're Paul's glorious. Where was, maybe I'll ask the question. Yeah. Okay. Here's the question. What were the false apostles glorying in? Okay. Yeah. what they look like, how they spoke, their position in the community. I mean, their pride. Their presence, okay. I think they were boasting a lot about their pride. Okay.

Boasting by nature is all, I, I, I, I did this, I did this. And that's the way that Paul sort of imitated them, was he did go into a series of I's with what he'd been through. rather than focus all his healing on God for that little period. But by varying it back to weaknesses, he's pointing out that it was God all along. Sure. And all of the things that he set eye on, were they true? In terms of, if you're going to boast, let me boast about my ministry, about my persecutions, about my sufferings, about my trials.

Were they all true? were they all as a result of Paul walking by faith, abiding in Christ and walking by faith? Right? Every one of them was as a result of Paul walking in the Spirit, not walking in the flesh, right? Okay, so we're going to get now to that, because it's going to say, is that profitable? The question is going to be asked, is it profitable? We'll see in just a minute. So, the false apostles were glorifying themselves, weren't they?

So, as Margaret said, number one, an appearance, an outward appearance, and we see that in 2 Corinthians 5.12, I'm not going to turn there, but in verse 18, chapter 11, since you're there, look at verse 18. And Paul says this, seeing that many glory after or according to the flesh, I will glory also. Now, is that saying that Paul is going to glory in his flesh? What does it say? Then he goes down there and tells us what he is going to do.

But it's not the flesh. So when you see that word flesh, question, negative or positive? Negative. It looks negative. When Paul uses it about glorying in his flesh, negative or positive? Tough one, isn't it? So the question is, and the point is this, that the word flesh can be used in a negative sense, it can be used in a positive sense, right?

And listen to what Paul says in Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live Where?

In the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Positive or negative in terms of flesh? Positive. The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. So when Paul talks about flesh concerning himself, It's always in the positive realm, not the negative realm. So when we talk about flesh in terms of these false teachers, positive or negative? Negative. It's out from the sin nature.

You can look at it this way, in terms of the flesh. I look at the flesh It depends upon the context in the scripture. The flesh often times is used as our total body, our mind, our soul, our spirit. It's the totality of us. So we can be energized one or two ways. We can be energized by the sin nature. like these false teachers who are being energized by the sin nature, and therefore flesh is negative. We can be energized by the very nature of our Lord Jesus Christ as we abide in Him, and our body, our soul, spirit, and mind is being energized by Him. Positive. One way to look at flesh. Don't always think that flesh is negative.

But, as you go through, and we're not going to go through all these scriptures, but there's no question, when Paul glories, he's glorying only in the Lord. He's never glorying in his flesh, he's never glorying in man, he's never glorying in himself. turn over one chapter to chapter 12 again and look at verse 5 and look at verse 4 he's talking about a man and we're going to try and get there this morning in verse 4 how he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which is not lawful for a man to utter Of such a one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory. So what Paul is saying is that he's not going to glory in self. His only glory is in the Lord.

So what is this all saying? I think what it's saying is, and Doug's asked the question in terms of the if, and it's true, and it's necessary that he glory, that he continue on this apparent foolishness to show these believers that glorying in what the Lord is doing through you, in his case, It's not where it's at. But he says, if it's a necessity to glory concerning himself, there's only one thing he's going to glory in, and that's his weakness and infirmity. Why would he glory in that?

Because then he could defend it entirely on the Lord. So, take your own life, your own circumstances, where the Lord has allowed an infirmity, a situation to occur in your life. And you may have a physical disability which is for the rest of your life. Question, can you glory in that? Okay, that's an excellent point.

So what Vicki is saying is that, you know, in terms of the Lord coming at us with the trial, And there is no trial or temptation that is come to you, but such as is common to man. But over in 1 Corinthians it talks about the fact that He's the God of comfort. And He comforts us in every problem, in every tribulation, in every situation in life. Whatever the infirmity is in life, He comforts us. And it goes on to say There's a purpose clause, that we may comfort others who are in the same situation, what Vicky is talking about.

So, can we glorify the Lord in our weaknesses? Can we? And even without sharing our weaknesses with others, we can glorify the Lord because In our weakness, we know that we're powerless, that we have no strength. But when we're abiding in Him by faith, we can say with the Apostle Paul, Apostle Paul is no different from us, right? And we can say, in my weakness, then I'm what? Strong. Because we're resting in Him.

2 Corinthians 4.15 says, For all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might be the thanksgiving of many who rebound to the glory of God. And then it takes you on as a reminder of your citizenship for that light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh in as a far more eternal weight of glory, right? I mean, it really takes us to position, which is really where our citizenship is anyway.

Yes, absolutely. And that's a key. For we look not at the things which are seen, but the things that are not seen. So the things that are seen are temporal, and the things that are not seen are eternal. I mean, how uplifting can a section of scripture be? Absolutely.

And that's a key point that Bob makes, is that we tend to focus on our condition, you know, in whatever it is, but that weakness in our condition causes us to focus on our position and our citizenship. That's huge. And that's glory, right? And that's glory. That brings glory to the Lord. In verses 31 through 33, it says, The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore, knows that I lie not."

And he goes on and he talks about an experience in his ministry. He says, in Damascus, the governor under Aretas, the king, kept the city of Damascus with a garrison, desires to apprehend me, and threw a window and a basket. I was let down by a wall and escaped by his hands.

The question is, why would Paul Why would Paul bring this up? I read this and I said, I don't understand why. Why would Paul bring this up in the context here, in terms of the trials and sufferings and persecutions, etc.? But when you go back to the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 9, You find out that this is the very first trial of persecution that Paul went through.

And I think that was the key. That was the key to thinking in terms of unlocking the door with respect to Paul. So Paul recounts his very first trial of the Lord's ministry through him, the very first one. If you go back to Acts chapter 9, we won't go back there, but it says, they laid in wait to kill him, and God delivered him through their trial. So I think Paul is glorifying and praising God for God's faithfulness from the very first trial, the very first persecution, up until the present time. And so that's why I think he recounts the first one, because he's talking about the faithfulness of God. And God is faithful. And you in your life, and me in my life, we go through trials. We're going through trials all the time, and no sooner does one trial end, guess what? There's another, right? Are you sure about that?

There was one fellow in our fellowship, we were on a four-day fishing trip, and he says to me, I don't go through any trials in my life. And he said that to me, and I said, boy, what am I doing wrong? No. And I said, wow, that's interesting. He doesn't sense that he's going through any trials.

So when somebody says something like that, I put them in a fishbowl. It's just like if you witness to the Lord, if you witness for the Lord, in some way, guaranteed, the person you're witnessing to puts you in a fishbowl. You are being observed 24-7 by that person. So I put him in a fishbowl.

And I saw trials come, what I consider trials, come into his life. financial trials, personal relationship trials, and all kinds of trials, which is a trial to me. But I noticed his response. His response was as if it wasn't a trial, it was just the normal part of the Christian life. He just abided in Christ, walked by faith, and didn't see that as a trial. I said, wow, wow, what a testimony to me. All right. Chapter 12, verse 1.

It is not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knows. Such a one caught up to the third heaven, and I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell, God knows. how he was caught up in paradise and he heard unspeakable words which is not lawful for man to utter." I know we're not going to get past there, so let's look at this.

It's a very interesting passage of scripture. I just read the King James. If you look at the New American Standard in the Amplify, just to get a feel of what he's saying, He says, it's not expedient for me. Doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. What does that mean? I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. Is that future? Or what? And if you look at the New American Standard, the New American Standard is more of a literal translation.

So, when it says, boasting is necessary, and that's what it says in the Greek, boasting is necessary, though it's not profitable. But I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. And the Amplified brings out a little bit more and says, true, there is nothing to be gained by it, but as I am obliged to boast. So they add these few words that Paul says, I'm obliged to boast, I will go into visions and revelations of the Lord. So, question? Why is it necessary for Paul to continue in his boasting or glory?

Well, we looked at that just a while ago because it's a continuation now, still the continuation of his request to them to speak, quote unquote, foolishness. So he's obliged And if he is to demonstrate what the false teachers are like, right? And so that's what he's trying to do. He's trying to demonstrate what these false teachers are like. But there's the one difference. We'll get to it. So here's the big question.

If the glorying of these false apostles is out from the flesh, and we just talked about that a moment ago, that flesh in terms of their body, soul, spirit, mind, heart, energized by the sin nature, if their glorying is out from the flesh, is Paul's the same? Is it out from the flesh? I'll ask the question again. Is it out from the flesh? In a good sense, flesh?

Pardon me? Okay. Okay. So let's take it negative here, because this is the negative, talking about the false apostles. I just tried to throw in a trick question. So, here's the way I've summarized it. There's just a tremendous contrast in the object of glory. What I did, and I didn't type it out, but I went through all of chapter 11 and put it into two columns.

The life and ministry of the false apostles, what that life looks like, and that life looks like it's the life and ministry of self, self-righteousness. And then the other column is the life and ministry of Paul the apostle. And as you look at the life and ministry of Paul the Apostle, it's the very life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. This whole book that we're studying, 2 Corinthians, is about the life and ministry of Christ. You look at Paul and you will see the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other book in the New Testament that I know that has 16 chapters talking about the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. But it's one of Christ's righteousness as opposed to one's self-righteousness.

So here's where it's at. So here's the question. It says up in the passage, that in the New American Standard, boasting is necessary, but it's not profitable. Question. Why isn't boasting or glorying in the Lord's work through us not profitable? We're talking about the Lord's work through us as we walk in the Spirit and His work through us. Why isn't that glorying profitable? So, to answer the question, you might ask... It's a game, so we aren't supposed to gain anything from living our life for Christ. Okay. I don't know where I'm going with this thought. Okay, Vicki. Maybe, how about this? Look at it this way.

What is profitable? If this is not profitable, then what is profitable? Don't you think what's profitable is that people see, as you have said many times, we are the only people that people will see. And so it's not our boasting that gets their attention. It's our lives. It's life living out through us in our lives. And they see that and how, as you pointed out about your friend, how he dealt with trials and how he lived his life. That's what people notice.

And if you remember back, months back in our class, we talked about what Paul's purpose was in all these churches. What was the purpose of Paul in teaching? And he's teaching. What's the purpose in teaching? Pardon me? To glorify Christ. To glorify Christ. And how about all of the believers that he's teaching? What's the purpose there? That Christ be formed in them? Edifying the believer, right? Edifying the believer, building them up in the knowledge and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's profitable.

So for me to tell you about how the Lord is working through me, it's not going to build you up, okay? It might give you an encouragement in a time or two, but it's not going to build you up. Only the truth. Only the truth builds us up. So, that's why Paul says, you know, it's a necessity that I boast to carry on this example, to show you what these false teachers are doing.

But it's not profitable. See, it's not building you up in the faith. OK. Our copy machine is still down. So I should say down again. It worked. It worked. Yeah, it worked for a while. And we'll get you these overheads sometime in the future. Let's close.

Father, as we go through your Word, there is so much there. We just thank you, Father, for it. As I think about your Word, it's infinite, as you are. We just thank you for the few truths that we glean today through your Word. Father, our prayer is that it would fulfill its purpose in terms of edifying each and every one of us, that we might be conformed to the wonderful image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.