Hey, good morning. Good morning. Friends, Welcome to Coffee and devotions. It's so good to have you together. This morning. This is where we get together every day. We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's word and we grow and our love for the Lord together and this year, Lord willing, we'll get through the book of Acts to the book of Philemon. I'm so glad to be with you. This morning when we have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word together. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. What a blessing it is to hear from our teachers of the past, but Father, not just to hear from Holy men of the past, but to hear from men who were inspired by your word. Or do thank you that when we come to your word we hear from your spirit, that we get the words of Christ. Father, we pray that you would teach us this morning. We pray that we would walk after you in Jesus's name, Amen. And we will go we are at Second Corinthians second. Corinthians chapter one. And we'll begin at verse 12. And we'll work our way through chapter two. Verse two, for our boasting is this. The testimony is of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God and more abundantly toward you. For we are not writing any other things to you than that what you read or understand. Now I trust you will understand even to the end. And also, you have understood us in part, that we are your boast as you also our hours in the day of the Lord Jesus and in this confidence, I intend to come to you before that you might have a second benefit to pass by way of you to Macedonia to come again from Macedonia to you and be helped by you on my way to today and therefore when I was planning this Did I do it lightly? Or the things I plan? Do I plan according to the flesh? That with me, there should be yes, yes and no, no. But as God is faithful, our word to you was not yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me Sylvanus and Timothy was not yes and no but in him was yes. For all the promises of God in Him are yes and in Him. Amen. To the glory of God through us. Now he who established it establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God who also has sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a guarantee Moreover, I call God as witness against my soul, that to spare you, I came no more to Corinth. Not that we have dominion over your faith, but our fellow workers for your joy, for by faith you stand but I determined this within myself, that I would not come again to you and sorrow. For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad, but the one who is made sorrowful by me, well, we need to ask ourselves a What's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarizes and see, what are we called to do in response to these words, right. So first, what is this about? Oh, Paul had written in First Timothy, or sorry in First Corinthians, how he was looking forward to coming and visiting them how he was intending to come and spend time with him. But he didn't show up. And this was a huge front in the ancient world in the ancient Mediterranean world. Hospitality was a big deal. Right. If somebody didn't come visit you, it was kind of seen as an affront like Oh, are we not good enough, he's able to go to Macedonia. But he's not he will come and visit us. Is it that the people in Asia are so much better than us that he'll write a letter and say he's going to come but then he doesn't come? I mean, imagining imagine, speaker, a lecturer, a pastor, somebody writing to your organization, and saying hey, I'm gonna come and I'm going to, I'm going to give some special lectures. I'm going to come and I'm going to preach to you, I'm going to come and we're going to do a revival meeting or something.
And then you're sitting there waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, and they don't show up. Anything what in the world is going on here? Is this guy fickle? See wishy washy, as he just not really true. And Paul is defending himself here. Right, Paul? In these passages. He says that, for our boasting is this a testimony of our conscience that we conduct ourselves in the world and simplicity and godly sincerity? He's sincere, and they have a simple ministry, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God and more abundantly towards you. He's saying, Remember how we conducted ourselves among you remember, the ministry I had there in Corinth? He was there for almost a year ministering to them caring for them. They knew him well. For we are not writing any other thing to you than what you read and understand. Right now I trust that you will understand even to the end, right? So he says, I'm not writing to you anything different than what I preached to you when I was there. You understand these things that I'm writing to you? What I told you in First Corinthians, you understood those things, because they were in line with what I taught you when I was there. So he's, he's going through and again, he's defending himself. And so he says, that we're your boast and your Ouroboros that's what he says there in verse 14. On the last day, when Jesus Christ appears, and there's the resurrection, and there's the judgment, the boast of the Corinthian church is going to be Hey, we received the gospel from the Apostle Paul himself. And Paul and his companions, their boasters, we saw the Corinthian church receive the gospel and flourish. Their boss is going to be that the Holy Spirit had worked in them. And so he's writing this this letter reminding them of this relationship that they had, reminding them of the work of God amongst them. And he says, this is the confidence I intended to come to you before that you might have a second benefit, and he tells them his travel itinerary, what he had planned to do in verses 15 and following, he's talking about why he had planned to come there, but ended up not coming there. Right to pass by you, by way of you to Macedonia to come again from Macedonia to you and to be helped by you, on my way to Judea, right? That's what we had read in First Corinthians chapter 16 and his plans. So he didn't make his plans lightly right. What is he saying versus 17 Therefore, when I was planning this,
did I do it lightly raises I was serious about my plans. I wanted to go there. I want to do do this.
And then he says, are the things I plan? Do I plan according to the flesh? That with me, there should be yes, yes and no, no, right. He's saying, I didn't just plan this on my own accord. But as thinking about what God's will was, I wasn't trying to be fickle about this. I would be Yeah, yeah, I'm coming but in reality, oh, no, no, I can't actually just, I'm not trying to be wishy washy here. So he says, But he says, That's not how I was. You know me, not fickle. I'm not wishy washy. I'm not double minded. Are Jesus Christ Himself. So let your yes be yes and your no be No. And verse 18. But as God is faithful, our word to you was not yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ who was preached among you by us by me so Venus and Timothy was not yes and no, but in him was yes. Right. Just like God's gospel promises are yes. So my plans to you we're sure. But there's a I'm gonna give you the justification for this, but he wants to go and tell them some theological truth here. God's promises to us in Jesus Christ are not fickle. But Jesus has fulfilled his promises. And so he says in verse 20, for all the promises of God in him that's in Christ, our Yes, and in Him. Amen. All the promises of God are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. All the promises of God are true in Jesus Christ. Now to the glory of God through us, now he who establishes us with you in Christ, and has appointed anointed us is God is God who has established us who has made a stand firm in Christ. It is God himself who has anointed us. And this is like First John chapter two, right? You need not anyone to be your teachers because you have been anointed. Right? This is this idea that you have the Holy Spirit in you. God has saved you. God has made you stand firm God has anointed you. And what does it say? After there and he has sealed us verse 22, who has also sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a Garin t you have the first fruits of your salvation. You have the seal of the Holy Spirit pressed upon your soul. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven and has given His Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our redemption. Or you have been sealed for the day of redemption. You are God's own people, the transaction is done the certainty assure. So it's this is how he's speaking to them about his his gospel witness to them, that it hasn't changed. That he's not being fickle, you know, his both his love for them, and his gospel for them isn't wishy washy. And so in verse 23, says, Moreover, I call God as witness against my soul that despair you I came no more to Corinth. Oh. Now we understand. Now we understand what he's saying. Now they know why he didn't come. You want to spare them? Man the letter in First Corinthians is really tough, wasn't it? A lot of really hard things. Pastor Paul had written to the church, many difficult things that he said he was going to have to set an order when he got there.
Stuff that needed to happen church discipline that was going to have to go down
and he didn't want to go he wanted to spare them. There are times for this right?
I mean, between you and I, right. I'm a pastor. And there are times I have to give somebody a little bit of space.
I've rebuked them and now I'm waiting to see are they going to be obedient to Christ? I think in a follow after God's ways, and I don't want to come down heavy on them. So I want to give them a little bit of space. And I've been accused of this before, right. Well, if you really loved me, you would have had more contact with me. I'm kind of like I didn't want I didn't want to be that guy who made you feel like I was overbearing here. I was trying to love you. This is what he's trying to say here. Not trying to say this is what he is saying. Moreover, I call on God as witness against my soul, right he is calling an oath, saying God knows that this is true. That despair you I came no more to Corinth that we have dominion, not that we have dominion over your faith, but our fellow workers for your joy. For by faith you stand, but I determined that within myself, I would not come again to your sorrow,
saying, I'm not the king of your soul. You might be their pastor, he might be the apostle.
But they stand by faith before God and he didn't want to crush their spirits. He didn't want to come in and just heap sorrow upon sorrow upon sorrow. He wanted to give them time, to reflect, to pray, to think, to repent, to heal. Didn't want to come down as a domineering tyrant of their souls. You didn't want to steal their joy. For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad, but the one who has made sorrowful by me Hey, Paul's dealing with a church passed orally. Paul loves them and cares for them. And so he needs to justify why he didn't come to them and they need to see that he's not being fickle that his gospel hasn't changed. That even though he's written them heart letters, his actions following had been in line with First Corinthians 13 that he didn't want to just be a clanging cymbal. He didn't want to be a tyrant over their souls but that he wanted to care for them and love. Well, what's the best verse to summarize this might be what is the best verse? To summarize this section. I don't know why I close my Bible before that was kind of foolish, huh? Let's see here. I really, this is kind of a digression. Maybe this is I would highlight instead of underlining, I don't know right? But I love absolutely love the gospel truth here of verses 21 and 22. Alright, now he who established us with you in Christ has also anointed us and God, who has also sealed us and given us a Holy Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee, I just love that part. Right? But I'm not sure that's the best. I'm not sure that's the best verse to underline is what the main point of this section is, while I love those two verses, maybe I wouldn't rely on verse 18. Right but as God is faithful, our word to you was not yes and no. Or maybe I would underline verse, chapter two, verse one and two. I don't know what would you underline in your Bible helped me out here. Well, last see calling what are we called to do in response to this? Well, I want to actually make an application for this from the silence. We're hearing Paul sigh but we're not hearing the Corinthians sign. And I'd like to give you an application of faith and by faith, I don't mean faith as an trusting in God. I mean, taking people at their word. I'm talking about caring enough about people that you don't spin stories, or come up with reasons for why oh, I'm I guess this is what this person is doing. I bet they're doing this reason for this. I wonder if because they didn't do X, Y or Z? I bet it's because and then you spin out stories. You know what this is like, right? When you start making stuff up in your head and then you haven't talked to the person so you don't know what's actually going on until you actually speak with them? Well, I don't think that that's a healthy thing for Christians to do. Or maybe your pastor has failed you maybe your elders. Haven't you don't think they've done you're right. But instead of going and talking to them directly, you've kind of harbored things in your heart or maybe even have started talking with others about them and there's stories made up or in a taking people at good faith. This can be dangerous to the church. I'm also going to bring out another application here. This is for elders, for pastors. Do we deal with people in love? Do we deal with people with kindness and gentleness even when church discipline is needed. Another application I want to bring out from this is what Paul is showing them is the motivation for what you're doing. Rooted in the Gospel, or Paul's ministry for what he's doing, is rooted in his love for Jesus Christ is how you treat your family rooted in your love for them, and your desire for them to know Jesus Christ.
When you go to church and you interact with people at church is your interaction with them. Rooted in your new love for Jesus Christ? Do you treat people as those who have been anointed by the Holy Spirit who have been given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee for their souls? Do we treat one another as a blood bot? Sheep of our Lord. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. And we pray that we wouldn't be fickle people. We pray that we would have our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ that we would follow after you. Lord, we pray that you would watch over us this day. We pray that we would be faithful. And God we thank you for the sealing of your Holy Spirit. We thank you for the work you have done in our hearts. In Jesus's name, Amen. Or may your Yes be Yes. And your no be No. May you know that all the promises of God in Jesus Christ are Yes. And may you have hope until the last day. I'll see you next time. Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai