We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ
2 Cor: 10:1-6 · Mike Doyle · Aug 21, 2022
Letters to the Corinthians, No. 121
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261928126059

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

You know, when you prepare to teach in a sermon like this, you spend a lot of time, at least I do, reading what other people have to say about the verses you're going to discover. So I've decided the wrong guys up here, Eccle ought to be up here. Class on these verses and it's much better than mine.

It's going to be So Probably don't want to wait on that so in little luck catch-up work I So from the teaching of giving and receiving, which Roger went through was really good, according to Christ which filled the two preceding chapters, Paul now turns to assert his authority that was given to him by the Lord.

Satan, through a small group of Judaizing men in Corinth, and I think this was a small group, had been bringing into question among the Corinthians, not merely to discredit Paul, because that's what they were trying to do, but they were trying to undermine his testimony and separate the believers from Christ. I don't know if you've ever noticed, but that's really where the assault comes, is to separate you from Christ. So when we looked at the beginning of 2 Corinthians, The Corinthians had begun to evaluate themselves after the first letter in God's sight more honestly than they had before.

Paul could open his heart and speak to them now like he couldn't before, and his motives, which had been so dishonorably misrepresented, he could state them in a way that they would understand. Paul had alluded to his authority as an apostle a lot of times. And the fact that he had it, but he did it in such a calm way, a calmness of spirit, that it was receivable to them. And even as we studied, he appeals to God as his witness upon his soul as he wanted to spare them any harshness. He didn't want to be harsh with the Corinthians. but he wanted to be gracious and with tact and skill, he would correct them and correct any misunderstanding that they would have. But he had a divine certainty about what he was saying. And the believers in Corinth should enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ by God's Word. And they should enjoy the power of the Holy Spirit that's been given to each one of us.

And then, He's just touching on the case of the disciple in 1 Corinthians that was put out of the church. But Satan had used that circumstance and was still seeking to use it to separate the Corinthians from Paul. Not only in judgment, but in the affections and in the mutual confidence which comes from it. And Paul even told them back in those verses that there had been open to him a door of evangelism, which was kind of what he was all about, establishing churches. And it was at a critical juncture, and in spite of all of that, he thanks God for always including him in what he learned about his triumphant parade, but he turned away from that opportunity to deal with the Corinthians. So it gave him a chance to set forth the gospel of the glory of Christ to them.

The service of the Spirit in an earthen vessel is in contrast with the law which false teachers would ever mingle in with it. And you remember the earthen vessel. And the demonstration of the superiority of the life of Christ over all that can be obscured or anything that would menace hinder or destroy.

And that's pretty much the first six chapters of 2 Corinthians. So then he turns to the relationships with the Corinthian saints and encouragement to keep them clear of every association that isn't of Christ and his allies and Satan's allies and the flesh and the world. All of that is inconsistent with Christ. And we'll talk more about that in a few minutes. At the end of 2 Corinthians 7, he speaks about what had tended to make practical breach between him and them.

That in true grace and wisdom, he took nothing for himself in terms of the money that they were collecting for the saints in Jerusalem. And he informed them of the grace displayed by the Macedonians who gave so much and who had nothing, but they continued to give. And not only did they want to give more, they wanted to be involved in the process of raising the money and being involved in the enterprise itself. And then he says to them, this gives you Corinthians an opportunity to prove the genuineness of your love, especially since you began a year ago But you hadn't finished yet the raising of the money that you had said you would raise. And along with Titus, you shared all that with him.

And then he shows with equal strength and avoidance of all circumstances and criticism of those involved with him in administering the money, and various blessings of such freedom to give, and God's delight in it, whether one thinks of the saints that give or the saints that receive, through God's grace, who is himself the unspeakable gift of God, the Lord Jesus.

And the other interesting thing you see so far in 2 Corinthians is that Paul, he doesn't like to talk about himself, but he does because it's part of his ministry. And he doesn't like to talk about his authority as an apostle. He would rather not do it that way. But there was a need for the Corinthians just like in Galatia. But here he reserves it and he saves it for the very end of this epistle. So starting in today's verses, Paul says, I, now I, Paul myself, urge you, how? By the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold towards you when absent."

So it seems that Paul, and I think this is a pretty accurate description, physically he was not a really attractive man. He was little, and obviously if you were, you know how the Greeks thought of men, everybody talks about that phrase, a Greek god, a Greek god, big, strong, guy that is very tough. Well, Paul doesn't like that at all. So that's one hurdle he's got to overcome with the Greeks. And besides, he was lowly and gracious and bearing because he was judging himself about who he was in Christ and who he wasn't in Adam. And he sets aside everything that doesn't aggrandize the old man. Especially when he has the task of dealing with others.

The way he dealt with other people, the Corinthians didn't admire him the way he did that. They admire people that are straightforward and get to the point. And this kind of demeanor doesn't seem to be consistent with the apostolic office that he has.

I don't think a lot of times we appreciate how powerful these twelve men were, that the things that they could do... Don and I were having a talk about it a week or so ago, and she said, do you realize that the people would tear off a piece of fabric from an apostle's clothes and take it and heal people with it? I mean, these guys were just amazing. what God did through them. And Paul especially had all of those powers and he realized that he was dependent on the use of them with the Holy Spirit. But his adversaries took advantage of that. And in all this, they're trying to inflate themselves by lowering Paul and his teachings.

That's something that the world is really good at. I'm going to raise myself by criticizing you. Now, Kenneth Weiss says in these verses, now I myself, Paul, beg of you. So he's not saying urge, he's actually begging of you through the meekness and sweet reasonableness of the Christ. who indeed in personal appearance am, as some of you say, by way of reproach, that I'm groveling, I'm slavish, I'm mean-spirited, and that's the pagan's attitude towards the Christian's grace of humility. That's how they view the grace of humility. And among you, being absent of good courage towards you, however that may be." So he introduces himself. they had forced him to do so. He's going to tell them, here's who I am. And he's very straightforward and he does it with dignity. And he urged them by what examples?

By meekness and gentleness of Christ, which was of great value in his eyes, as it seemed to have no value in theirs at all. So, let men be careful of despising in the servant of God what was the fruit of the perfections of Christ. Paul was criticized for being meek when face-to-face, face-to-face with the Corinthians, but really bold when he wasn't face-to-face with them. That as long as he was at a distance, he would write them really strong letters, but face-to-face he was In other words, they called him two-faced.

So let's look in a minute at what meekness and gentleness is all about. Helmer Law used to, which was great, used to demonstrate or define meekness as quiet strength. In Matthew 11, 29, the Lord Jesus said, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle, and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. In 1 Peter 3-4, Peter says, But let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. Gentleness and forbearance.

I find it interesting. I had a conversation with a guy this week in a hassle with an associate. And I just said to him, you know, and I happened to be studying these verses when he called, and I said, it seems to me that if you would just sit there quietly and just not say anything, just be quiet, because you are a believer and inside you is the hidden person of the heart, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you don't see him jumping up and screaming and yelling. He's quiet. What's interesting about quietness like that is it unsettles your opponent. They don't know what to say because you're not reacting.

So, it is what he had seen in the Lord Jesus that he served. He beheld the glory of Christ. He was in the process of being conformed to his image. And every one of us As we behold the Lord Jesus and are conformed to His image, there will be meekness, quiet strength, gentleness, and forbearance as a part of our character. It's served, reproduced by the Holy Spirit in the heart.

In 2 Corinthians 3.18, which is my favorite verse in the New Testament, but we all with unveiled face, every one of us get to do this. Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, the beholding is done in God's Word, reflectively. What happens? We're being transformed into the very same image from glory to glory, justice from the Lord of the Spirit.

So the gentle and humble heart, the hidden person of the heart, is described as gentle, forbearing, and meek. His detractors describe him with poor appearance when face to face, but very bold when he's absence in his letters. Whatever the energy and zeal and depth of feeling and strength of will found in the natural character, Paul had conducted himself among the Corinthians with a crucified self of humility. and the forbearance of active love towards them, which is a description of the conformity to Christ. So people say, well, I'm trying to be conformed to the image of Christ. Well, what does that look like? Well, here's a good explanation of what it looks like.

So he says, I ask that when I am present, that I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. Again, a quote from Wiest, I beg you please that when I am present I may not be courageous with the confidence with which I am counting on myself to be bold towards certain who take account of us as ordering our behavior in accordance with the mere human considerations. He says, I beg you, I don't have to. When I get there, I don't want to be bold like an apostle with the confidence which I'm thinking against some who think of us as walking according to the flesh.

In other words, he's not going to tolerate this criticism. But his enemies insinuated that he really liked to censure people. We've all met folks like that who really love inquisitions. He begs that he'll not have to discipline anyone when present or to exercise his authority with the power.

The power of an apostle, you could say, wilts the opposition to the Lord and seek to conceal their own carnality under such an accusation against him. It was his deepest grief to see the saints misled by Satan, forsaking their own grace and mercies, grieving the Spirit, and putting the Lord's name in dishonor. That should grieve any of us when you see that. But he was a servant in all he had received of the Lord Jesus.

He recognized he was a servant. And he's responsible to use his authority when it's required. And as he had spoken out in his letter, so he would act when present. But he would really rejoice if that didn't come up. He didn't have to do that. Because he didn't seek to gratify himself, nor his things, nor their things, but them. He wanted to encourage them. have to be in there disciplining them.

So verse three says to us, and this is where I think the meat of these verses comes in. For though we walk in the flesh, we don't war according to the flesh. Though we walk in the flesh means that we live, every one of us has a body, we live in this fleshly body. We says for though we are ordering our behavior in the sphere of human experience, not in accordance with mere humor considerations are we waging warfare. The interlinear area was interesting here, it says Through in flesh for walking, not according to flesh we wore."

So what is he bringing up here? We live in a body and we're in conflict. It isn't maybe we'll be in conflict. Everybody in this room is in a war whether they appreciate it or realize it or not. So when we're talking here, we're talking about our bodies. What does this war thing have to do with? Vine says, for the service of Christ is war. That's what it is. And this word speaks of military war according to the flesh.

Vine says, the substance of the body, whether of beasts or of men, the human body, And then Galatians 2.20 is probably the best place where you can see this laid out. I have been crucified with Christ. It's a very familiar verse to all of us. And it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And here's where it comes in. The life which I now live in the flesh, the life that I now live in this body, I live by the faith of the Son of God. who loved me and gave himself for me.

Also the same idea in Philippians 1.22 or Colossians 2.18, let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels taking his stand on the vision he has seen inflated without cause by his fleshly mind. The reason I like that verse is that it connects the physical body with the physical mind. You have a mind of the flesh.

We all have that. So when we come to the Lord Jesus, we have this mind when we show up. But the idea we're going to see in the next few verses, something's going to be done about that, the way we think. I was thinking about this the other day, and we do this on the earth.

If you ever have spent time in the military, where's the first place you go when you enlist or you get drafted? You go to a place called boot camp. And what's boot camp all about? Well, I was in the Marine Corps, and they say, well, boot camp's 12 weeks long. We're going to spend six weeks trying to strip you of the way you think as a civilian, and then we're going to spend six weeks to build you up so you think like a Marine.

So what are they telling you? We're going to take this thought process out, and we're going to replace it with this process. Okay? I thought, well, that's really applicable. And then, so now, after 12 weeks, you're quote-unquote a Marine, but you're really pretty stupid at that point.

So they say, well, you're going to have to specialize in something. You're going to have to be a pilot or a gunner or a platoon leader or whatever, a sniper or whatever. So now you go off to school to learn how to do that specialty. And when you learn that specialty, now you can serve. Well, the same thing goes on in the body of Christ. We're saved. We have to learn about being a believer, and then the Lord gifts us to some specialty, which we have to learn to how, so we can serve the body.

It's a little different in the sense that there is no Holy Spirit that enables you to be a good Marine. Anyway, that went through my mind. For though we walk in the flesh, we don't war according to the flesh. War is, this word just means to serve in a military campaign. That's what the word means. So it's not in accordance with mere human consideration are we waging warfare against evil. All who live here on the earth can say we walk in the flesh. Few can say we don't serve as soldiers according to the flesh. But at least one person could, and that's the Apostle Paul. He could say that. Flesh, the natural attainments of men.

1 Corinthians 1.26, For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble.

It is a war But you know what? There's great satisfaction that the Lord has included us in serving in this war. And it's a war between the flesh and the spirit. That's what the war is. And Ron Merriman said, you can't be involved in this war based upon the flesh. In other words, the opposition, which is your fleshly mind and the world and Satan, they all use fleshly armaments. But we don't. We use spiritual ones.

A good example, if you've studied Revelation, which we've been studying on Tuesday a lot, at the end, Satan will have raised, now think of the size of this, a 200 million man army. Imagine an army that big, and it's going to march from the east to the west. And it's going to come across the Euphrates River, 200 million soldiers against one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. They're going to fight with the flesh. The Lord Jesus is going to deal with them spiritually. The armaments that we have are way, way superior than the flesh. The Lord Jesus is just going to speak and that army is going to be defeated. That's how strong our armament is compared to the flesh.

Verse 4 says, For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the purpose of the destruction of fortresses. So weapons just means weapons of war. or the weapons of Christian warfare. They're not fleshly. Your weapon and my weapon in this war is not fleshly. It doesn't mean we don't try to use fleshly weapons, but the weapons we really have aren't.

And so, they're divinely powerful. That means that the Word of Truth, the Word of Truth, in the power of God by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left. Back in chapter 6 of 2 Corinthians, we talked about that. The word of truth is one of the weapons we have that is spiritual. And it's in the power of God, and it's a weapon of righteousness. And you have in your right hand and your left.

1 Timothy 1.18, Paul tells Timothy, This command I to entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight." What's the good fight? The good fight of faith. Faith is way more powerful than anything fleshly.

So the reason we can't conduct war in the flesh It's really sort of a simple reason that our weapons aren't fleshly. So we don't have those weapons because we're not fleshly, positionally. But we're divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. So, what is the nature of our or His weapons? In terms of effectiveness, they're divinely powerful. This verse does not say we fight fire with fire. We don't fight on their battlefield. It's like having the First World War against the kind of weapons that are available now. There's been arms race since Adam and Eve. So we don't use the enemy's tactics, nor do we use his weapons.

And what's the purpose? What are the terms of the purpose? What are we fighting for? For the destruction of fortresses. Fortresses, strongholds of those things in which mere human confidence is imposed. We have within us, within our minds, fortresses. We have a sense of right and wrong. We have values. We have things we really like.

And this verse says that those are the fortresses out of the flesh that the Spirit wars against. They're strongholds. They're firm. Vine's expository dictionary says, of those things in which mere human confidence is imposed, what do you have your confidence in? If you have your confidence in your ability, and your intelligence, and I can do this. Those are the fortresses. We are out there to tear them down and replace them. Isn't that interesting?

The Lord gets us involved in that work. In Jeremiah 1, 9, and 10, then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, and to build and to plant." The nature of our victory is the tearing down, and the nature of our victory in terms of what it is, is to destroy the things that we think we have confidence in.

And it further explains them here. We are destroying speculations and everything raised up against the knowledge of God. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. So what are we fighting for? To destroy the fortresses? We're out there to tear them down and replace them. What kind of fortresses? Speculations and reasonings and value systems, all in the mind and all in the will. This is what the self-centered old man considers to be His whole identity. They're coming down.

Isaiah 2.11 says, The lofty looks of men shall be humbled, the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

So let's say, here I am, a brand new believer, and I'm introduced to God's Word. Chester McCauley says you can receive God's Word in one of two ways. The Word of God is something to be added to my life. Here I am, out of Adam, with my mindset and my value system, and I'm going to add the Word of God to that in my mind, into those fortresses. Or, the Word of God is to replace my fleshly way of thinking, First, our fleshly thinking must be destroyed.

Every raised up thing against the knowledge of God. The only lofty thing or anything in the way between me and the Lord. And then, it's to be replaced by personal, experiential knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God. Replaced. The knowledge of God It has always been Satan's plan to keep us away from knowing God. That's his number one goal. He'll even make us religious as long as we don't know God. So he builds towers. He builds lofty things.

Any human act or attitude that stands between us and knowing God, those things need to be destroyed. Demolishing reasonings, and every haughty mental evaluation which lifts itself up against the experiential knowledge of God and leading captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ. Macaulay made a little interesting statement here.

He said, why does Paul deal with the mind and the will? His answer was, the thoughts of the mind plus the acts of the will equals conduct. I'll say that again. The thoughts of the mind plus the acts of the will, you use your will to believe, equals conduct.

So we're to bring every thought into captivity. Every thought that presents itself into captivity. We're to take control of those thoughts by our will and the Word of God in us. As that is what enters our mind, we're to take those things captive. So how do we control them? We're not trying to make every thought pleasing to Christ. You can't do that. We take control via our will and the Word of God. Those are the two most important things. We have positionally the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ and the mind of the flesh can't live in the same space. So what happens? We have God's Word, and we have a will, and we have the Holy Spirit, and we have faith. We take God's Word, and by our will we believe what He says, and that replaces whatever that speculation is.

If you're like me, thoughts show up in your mind and you think, where did those come from? Well, we know where they came from. They're those thoughts that are just there from the flesh. We take control. We make faith choices by applying God's Word. If that doesn't work, if that doesn't fit God's Word, we reject it. And you know what? We cannot choose what comes into our mind. We don't have any control over that. But we can choose how we deal with it once it gets there. And you know what else? The least protected part of a human being is his mind.

I can go out and get a COVID shot, and they tell me I'm protected against COVID, whether I am or not, who knows. I can get inoculated about all kinds of things. I can eat a good diet. I can do all these other things. I can't control what comes into my mind, but I can control what I do with it when it gets there. That's the point.

Our flesh prides itself on its own resources within which cements itself against God. I don't think we appreciate how much the flesh cements itself against God. We choose what we listen to. We choose what we have on the radio or what we watch or what we do. We get to choose all of those things.

God who works in his children, it's interesting, he works in us to teach us dependency. We talked about that in Sunday school this morning. And least of all in his own children who act independently. He's dealing with us and teaching us to be dependent and to live by faith.

What's the opposition doing? The entity we're warring against. They're always trying to bring us back again to fleshly wisdom. That's always what it's trying to do. And we like all that is of the first man that attracts us to nature and exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

For this is inseparable from Christ and from Christ dead and risen. Christ died, and when He died, He died to all of that. So, there's an object and an effect of being dependent. that's produced by the Spirit of God. For there's nothing harder to a man than being content with just being nothing, with just being dependent on God Himself. We don't like that. It just goes against us. It's the flesh it goes against. And there's nothing harder for us than obedience of Christ, more than self-seeking. We go after God's Word sometimes selfishly. Don and I joke all the time.

We had a lot of people in Sunday school class years and years ago, and there were two groups of people. There were those who were really interested in learning, what we were teaching in God's Word. There was a few that all they cared about was having the right answer and being able to answer the questions. So they studied all week and got the right answer. But there was this group that said, through this process, we want to know Christ. That's the difference.

So Paul says in 6, we're ready to punish all disobedience, whatever your obedience, whenever your obedience is complete. You know what he's saying to him, really? He's saying to him, look, I'm writing this ahead of time to give you a chance to get your act together. That's really what he's saying to him. And punish here is an interesting word.

Paul's ready to use his apostolic authority in punishing disobedience on the part of his readers. Vine says that disobedience means hearing amiss. I'm not listening. Hence it signifies a refusal to hear. It's classified as an act of disobedience. I'm guilty of that myself. I read something in God's Word and I think, nah, that can't be right. But it always is. It always is. When he talks about, in this verse, to punish all disobedience, he's talking about subjugation, to bring everything under control of what? Of the mind of Christ.

And it's said of the effect of the law on one's members in bringing a person into captivity under the law of sin. Those who are under law, Christians who are under law, what have they done? They have amplified the flesh and kept it in focus by keeping the law in place. When you live under grace, you amplify the grace of God and His Word and His power, and it makes you dependent. If you could keep the law, you would be self-righteous.

Of subjugating the thoughts to the obedience of Christ. What does that mean? That my mind in Christ, the mind, the resurrected life of Christ, It takes precedence in the way I think over every other thing that comes into my mind. If I am presented with something I don't know the answer to, I do have a Bible, and I can find out what God has to say about that.

Those who take Captain, when you go forward to 2 Timothy 3.6, Paul referred to Timothy, of those who took captive, quote, silly women laden with sin. And by the way, that word in the Greek isn't women, it's silly people laden with sin.

Captures your mind. So, if we are not, if we war not against the flesh, if we don't do that, by definition, we must and every high thing exalted or exalting itself against God. And we must be leading captive every thought into the obedience of Christ. So let's close.

Our dear Father, how we thank You. Boy, You're so clear in Scripture about our minds and how they work and how You have come with the resurrected life of Your Son to replace everything that's not pleasing to You. And we're so thankful You have. And we pray in Your Son's precious name, Amen.