a Our adversary diguises himself and boasting by Paul

Well, good morning. Well, we're going to continue on in 1 Corinthians 11. This section actually has kind of, it seems like two parts, but actually they're really connected. And I started a little bit last week, but so we're going to talk about our adversary disguising himself and more the idea of boasting by Paul. And actually what's today I think is kind of cool is we're going to kind of talk a little bit more about You know, there seems to be this play between Paul saying, I don't want to be foolish, but I want to boast. And he goes back and forth, boasting, foolishness, and it kind of gets confusing.

So hopefully we can make it a little bit clearer today. So here's the outline, the same one I had from last week, basically. So we're down to the person disguising himself as Satan, of course. Satan disguised himself as an angel of light. And then Paul's boasting.

And then next week we're going to get into the section which is probably one of the most familiar sections in chapter 11 where Paul goes through his his sufferings. And actually that's what he's, you know, that's what he's been struggling with through all these first 21 verses about saying these things. And I was thinking about that. That's boasting when you talk about how many times you were beaten, hit, put in jail, all these things that we think would just be tragedies in our life. Paul was not anxious to share those. In fact, he found a hard time to do that. And we'll see the tension here in this section. So let's get into it here. I'm going to go back at least one verse here for context.

So actually 13, 14, and 15 all talk about this idea of false apostles They're deceitful in the disguise themselves or they're transforming themselves. So let's go back and review last week about false apostles For such or such men are false apostles deceitful workers disguised themselves as apostles of Christ so Paul gives He now he's going to now kind of give them the true aspect of who these false apostles are who the call super apostles earlier and And he'll tell us about their office, their character, and their methods.

And that's kind of, Macaulay kind of took that from just those three words. They're false apostles. That's their sort of office, so to speak. Their character is they're deceitful. And their methods, they disguise or they transform themselves. Actually, the word transform is probably better. And we'll see that shortly. For, or indeed, such men, the ones mentioned back in verse 12, R has been supplied here. They're false apostles. And actually, it's two words in the English, one word in the Greek. It's just pseudo with apostolos together. A false apostle who pretends to be an apostle of Christ.

So Paul, by the very fact that he makes... These are truly people in this church in Corinth. If you think about it, Paul was there. He started the church in Corinth. that he left and then apparently over time these false apostles came in and they started preaching a different gospel, we saw that earlier, a different gospel, a different Jesus and over time they criticized Paul and Paul's whole reputation was in jeopardy and what he taught was in jeopardy so Paul is very concerned that their true nature is revealed here and so I thought this is a really good verse in Revelation that talks about false apostles and this is the church in Ephesus and the Lord Jesus is speaking here I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not and you found them to be false very to the point of what we're talking about here so going on the second part of the verse They're deceitful workers.

And deceitful is kind of a really colorful word. There's three ideas present. And this is from Macaulay. Deceit. It sounds like the gruesome threesome or something like that. Deceit, treachery, and cunning. How would you like to have that for a resume, right? Here's my resume. I'm deceitful, I'm treacherous, and I'm cunning.

Well, that's the false apostles. So their aim is deceit. They're willing to commit a treacherous act, but the intent is to cover it all in the cunning aspect, to be cunning about it, not truthful, sly. And now like this, rather than saying they're disguising, it's this word meta. You can actually almost see it in looking at the transliteration. Meta, the first part, schematidzo. to transform to change the outward form or appearance so you know in scripture we read about the believer and the Lord Jesus wants to change us on the inside make us a new person in Christ well this is exactly the opposite of that The false apostles, and we're going to see Satan himself, wants to cover himself with a covering or an exterior that hides his true character, hides his internal appearance. So it's all about the appearance, all about the outward appearance is what we're talking about here. So it's literally transforming themselves.

So it's present middle and And the word is used, we saw it, it's in 13, 14, and 15. It describes the false apostles and also it describes Satan and again the false apostles. So it's the word that describes Satan and his servants. And actually the middle says it's for their own benefit.

So he's transforming himself to achieve his purpose, to achieve these purposes of of treachery, deceit and cunning. And what is he transforming himself into? It's into, or as, an apostle of Christ. So Macaulay says, the eye would see an apostle of Christ, not a false apostle.

You know, as I study through this, the next two verses, you get the impression that Well, it's all about the outward appearance and many times we're concerned about things that we see are dark. We'll say, what's a dark situation? Well, it's interesting that Satan doesn't seem to be hanging out there or these false apostles. They're hanging out where it seems to be bright and light, you know, light. It's the opposite of what our minds think. We think, well, that's a very dark situation. And there are dark situations. But the takeaway here is that this is being presented to you as something that's maybe good even, so it implores us to be careful.

Okay, so here's the verses. I'm not going to reread them again, but just one point. Toward the end there, he's going to talk about tolerating. He's going to be very hard on the Corinthians because you tolerated these men I'm just talking about, these people who transformed themselves. You tolerated them. It's like he said, how could you possibly tolerate these people who did these things to you? They enslaved you. They devoured you. They took advantage of you. How could you possibly do that?

It's just you know just amazing that they had gone that far Okay, so verse 14 kind of saying the same context about this disguising or transforming so he says no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and this is one of the passages in the scripture that's Many passages that describe the character of Satan it gives us a real insight into him to his character It's it It is no wonder Wonder is the idea of to gaze in wonder. And literally this should be, you shouldn't be surprised.

For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Satan himself, and here's our word again, metaskimats, I'll stop there, transforms himself Again, it's in the middle voice. So Satan is continuing at present tense middle voice He's continually doing this for his own benefit. So he's it's not like he they says well, sometimes I'll show my true character It's like he he's always in in the process of doing this transforming himself Therefore we cannot see Satan's true nature This is a method or tactic of Satan.

I And he transforms himself into an angel of light. So this is the outward appearance of Satan. This is a mask that Satan wears. So this is from Merriman. So the prince of darkness does not come to you with darkness. And that's where I kind of got the idea, we got the wrong picture. We're thinking darkness and Satan is coming to us as light. I know.

But the wonderful news is, so what's the believer to be about? What's our life to be about? What's our character to be about? And we know that from many passages of scripture, just the converse of this. So in contrast, a true believer is described as, in Ephesians 5.8, For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light. and then in 1 Thessalonians 5.5, You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of night or of darkness. So we're in total contrast to who Satan is.

But he wants to appear like us so he can do his terrible deeds. So verse 15, this is the third time around on this word transforming. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants, and I believe that's in the context of these false apostles, also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. So you can translate, it's no great thing, so it should be no surprise, if they're Satan's servants, they're going to follow after him. And the if here is assumed to be true. Also, these ministers of Satan transform themselves, And ministers is Deaconos, servant, minister, deacon. And the verb again is transform themselves. The same word for the third time. Present, middle again. All three times it's present, middle. So these ministers are continually doing this for their own benefit.

It kind of comes up to thee. You kind of wonder, You wonder about their salvation. Are they truly saved? And I'm not sure this actually addresses all that, but it just kind of made me think that do they really know, do unbelievers know what's really going on? I think many times they don't. Many times if an unbeliever thinks he's doing righteous things, he thinks he's pleasing God, and he doesn't know God, he doesn't really know what's going on.

So, I don't know. So these pseudo-apostles, were they really saved? I don't know. Maybe they were. We don't know for sure. But they're masquerading as ministers of righteousness. The masquerade is that of righteousness by these ministers. So the last part. So now he's going to describe the...

And this actually might give us a clue to whether they're saved or not. It says, "...whose end will be according to their deeds." I think as I read that, I thought, well, praise the Lord. We know according to, because we're in Christ, we have His life and our deeds are righteous because we're righteous in Him. But these people are not. That's according to the deeds that they've done.

His servants, in will be, end is teleos, the final result of a state of process. It points to the fate of something. Paul now declares the fate of Satan's servants. according to their deeds or works. So, you know, it kind of takes you back and you think, well, okay, Scripture talks a lot about the men outside of Christ. What will happen? They will suffer based upon their deeds. So it reminds us of how God will deal with those who don't know Him.

So we see this in Romans 2.6, For He will render to every man according to his work justly as his deeds deserve. So Paul describes the one rejecting the truth in terms of their ultimate destiny. Okay, so that's kind of those three verses, 13, 14, 15, that talk about these false apostles. And behind those false apostles, Satan is doing his work.

So now, actually I was trying to think of a case in scripture And Vani and I listened to Macaulay. We're listening through Revelation. We're ahead of the class, the men's study. We're in Chapter 12 now, so we're a bit ahead. So in Chapter 12, this verse showed up. And it was yesterday, I think we were looking at it. Or maybe it was Friday. I guess it was Friday.

So in Revelation 12, verse 4, it says, And the dragon, Satan, stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that she, when she gave birth, he, Satan, might devour her child, Christ. So in that context, it's kind of a flashback to the birth of Christ.

So you go back there, and I think we'll see a person that Satan used for his purposes. And I don't know whether he realized that. He probably didn't. But it's our old buddy here, Herod. I think Satan, you know, fulfilling this verse, we see in Matthew 2.8, And he, Herod, sent them to Bethlehem, and this is the Magis, he said, Go and search carefully for the child, and when you have found him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship him. So was that Herod's true feelings about the child? I don't think so. And so here are his true feelings about the child.

Then, when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, he became very enraged and he sent and slew all male children who were in Bethlehem and its vicinities from two years old and under. starting in Revelation and kind of working backwards, we see that who was behind what Herod's intent? Herod is probably, I think from other contexts, Herod seemed to be concerned about power, right? He was afraid this was the Jewish Messiah who's going to take over and he's going to be out of a job. But behind that was Satan's intent to devour to get to Christ.

But we know the rest of the story. Joseph was warned in a dream. So it's kind of interesting. This is kind of an example, possibly, of how Satan is working. Okay. So now, again, I say, so Paul again will talk about boasting as a fool. So let's think about this for a second. So what's the reason What's the reason Paul always is concerned about being a fool?

And I think it comes from this statement hereby that Macaulay made, and Scripture makes too, certainly. The reason he says this is because Scripture says, and I'm going to quote Paul's writings, one who boasts in himself is a fool. So we see that in a couple of verses.

1 Corinthians 1.31, so that, just as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

And then we see in Galatians 6.14, but may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let me just go back here for a second. So basically you see that Paul had already stated in his writings, in his letters, he already had pointed out that the only boasting a man should do, who knows the Lord, is boasting in the Lord. So when he comes to this struggle about, well should I boast or not boast, he's always kind of looking at the fact that I'm contradicting what I've said before. So that's going to play out a little bit more here in a second. So now in verses 16 through 21, Paul will tell us why he needs to boast. He has a valid reason why he needs to boast. Okay, starting in the second part of the verse, let no one think me foolish. Okay? So you can literally have it, stop thinking about me as a fool. So why should we do that?

He's writing the Corinthians. A fool is a compound word. It's literally the A negates it. It's reason with an A in front of it. So it's without reason. So a fool acts without reason. So Macaulay says, Paul's saying, I'm going to do some boasting. Please don't think me foolish. I'm not without reason. But even if you do, as is the case, so it's first class condition, yet receive me as a fool in order that I may boast a little." So here's a verse that would kind of give some credence to being foolish.

Because Proverbs 26.5 says, answer a fool as his folly deserves, that he be not wise in his own eyes. So using that verse, you could say, wow, you know, a fool doesn't deserve, sometimes a fool doesn't deserve, he deserves to see his own folly, basically. So Paul says, Merriman's kind of saying, I'm really not a fool, but tolerate it for a little while. He says, down in my core, I'm not a fool. I'm going to act like a fool on my exterior, but I'm not really a fool inside, if you will. And please tolerate that.

So on to 17. What I am saying, I speak not according to the Lord. That's the inner linear of that part of the verse. According to a norm or standard. Literally, I'm speaking not according to the norm and standard of the Lord. Lord would not use this kind of approach so Paul kind of steps away for a second and he says, you know I'm gonna going down this path of boasting and and and playing and being foolish That's not something the Lord would would do but I think I need to do it because it's so important And notice it the word as he's Paul's not saying but in fully but as in foolishness and as this kind of in the manner of and That's really important. Smaller words are important, right? As in foolishness, as in the manner of foolishness. Paul will be speaking in the manner of foolishness, which I think is really key. So that's part of this whole struggle he's doing between foolishness and boasting.

Since many boast, speaking to false apostles, boast according to the flesh, so they boast in what they've done, their accomplishments, and Paul doesn't want to, Paul's not that kind of person, he doesn't want to do that. According to the Norman Standard, the Norman Standard of these false apostles is the flesh and not the spirit. This is the way the flesh speaks.

So Paul says, okay, I'm going to go down the same path. I will boast also. And we'll see that shortly. We'll see it next week when Paul goes through that incredible list of his sufferings for the Lord. And boy, if you call that boasting, it's a different kind of boasting. You know, most of the boasts are like, I did this, I accomplished that, I was head of this corporation, I did this, I made all this money. Well, Paul talks about all his sufferings for the Lord, which is a different kind of boasting to me. Okay, let's go, so 19. So now he's going to start in, he's really going to, let's see, I actually have it right here. Now Paul will use irony and cutting statements. Some of these statements are just incredible that he's going to make in 19 and 20.

For you Corinthians, being so wise, this is sarcastically or ironically, being so wise. Wise is the idea of practical knowledge. You see yourself as wise in relation to others. This is from Merriman. You're real smart, aren't you? You think you're real smart. And apparently they did. Amazingly enough, they thought they were pretty intelligent people. You tolerate or put up with these foolishness gladly. You put up with them. You allow that. You tolerate fools.

Two statements by Merriman here. I almost laughed. I'm listening to the recording and I'm writing it down and I start laughing because it's just, It's just so funny. Okay, so here's Merriman's take on this. You tolerate fools so well, you encourage me to speak as a fool. Okay, that's the first one. The second one. You make it easy to act as a fool because you like fools so well. You make it easy to act as a fool because you like fools so well. Pretty amazing statements. But it seems like it fits.

I mean, Paul was just kind of at wit's end, so to speak. You guys are just going off the deep end. How can you do this? So 20 just goes even farther. For you tolerate, you tolerate it, the actions of the false apostles. So this is the second time I talk about tolerate. You tolerate it in verse 19, you tolerate it again in 20 here.

So in each of these statements, and it isn't in the translation, they've kind of left it out. But in the original, the if statement is there, but it's all first class. So I can see why they left it out. So it's assumed to be true. So each of these statements is assumed to be true. If anyone enslaves you, and they do, and they have, they make a slave of you, control you. We see that in, I tried to find a verse that kind of matched up with each of these statements.

In Galatians 2.4 it says, but it was because of false brethren secretly brought in, in order to bring you into bondage. If anyone devours you, and they do, to gobble up your substance and spend your money, a really kind of abiding verse here, but when his, and this is the cool one about the, my mind's going here, Yes, it's the two brothers, right? Anyway, so this is the older brother talking about his younger brother. He says, when the son came, the prodigal son, But when the son came of yours who had devoured all your wealth you killed the fatted calf and called for him So his brother's little upset.

They stand so generous and so benevolent, but it kind of points out This is either devouring your wealth. So these false apostles were they were enslaving them. They were devouring their wealth We got three more to go If anyone takes advantage of you to capture you to prey upon you to deceive you We have an example here of the scribes and the Pharisees. Because you devour the widow's houses.

If anyone exalts himself to lift yourself over someone. And I kind of thought of the verse we studied just recently about. And every lofty thought raised up against the knowledge of God. Exalting themselves against who God is. They exalted themselves, these false apostles.

And then lastly, if anyone hits you in the face, to put you down by insult, and I believe this could be either physically or it could be by speech, but the example we have in scripture that I found easily was the one in Acts, and that's the case where Ananias told one of the people standing next to Paul, Paul said something, I've forgotten exactly the statement, he finished his discussion with Ananias, and Ananias said to the person standing next to Paul, hit him in the face. He wanted to insult Paul. So here are the five things that these false apostles had done and were doing to the Corinthian church there. And Merriman says, and I kind of agree, all these actions are a disgrace and you should know better. That's kind of Paul's heart. Why did you allow this? Why are you allowing these guys to come in and do all these terrible things to you?

Verse 21 is actually divided. Most of your translations you'll see, it'll come down. The paragraph will start a new paragraph at 21b. So 21a, so now will Paul, so amazing, this is so Paul, if you will. Who's at fault for this disgrace? And he points to the Corinthians, but no, he says, you know, I'm really at fault here. He will lay the disgrace on himself. It's disgraceful what you've done. I'm going to take the blame, so to speak. And here, I think it's a little bit better translation. I speak according to dishonor as we ourselves have been weak. Dishonor here is the shame or disgrace to disparage oneself. This is, Merriman says, this is total irony.

Paul did not act in the way. So how did Paul act? Did Paul act like those five things we saw about the false apostles? Did he act that way? No, no way. No way, Jose. He acted this way. 1 Corinthians 2.3.

I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Now I, Paul, myself, urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold towards you when absent. We did not act, so basically Paul is saying, we did not act like authoritative apostles. So that just was not Paul's character.

So just some final thoughts on this kind of last section of the verses here. And this is from Constable. The Apostle Paul was most ironical in these verses, 17-21. He says, feigned, I don't know whether that's the best word. Paul feigned shame that he had behaved so weakly among them to make his point. He took the blame on himself, right? His conduct was Christ-like. Now he was experiencing the abuse for such gentleness at the Master's hand.

So really interesting verses. So next week we get to have the big The boasting is finally going to come. Paul is going to boast. But like I said, it's the weirdest boasting I've ever seen. When I list all the times I've been put in jail, beat up, done this and that, all these different things, it doesn't sound like it was something I like to boast about. But Paul was careful about tooting his own horn, so to speak.

So next week we'll see that. So let's close. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for the blessings that we have in our Savior. Thank you for Paul's life and how he was such an open person that shared his heart. He shared his struggles with The Corinthian Church and it's examples for us that we see how your servant Who desires that your word be heard and people be saved? Will will trust himself to you and we thank you for that Christ's name. Amen