Last time we were together we talked about the comforts that God affords us in our times of trouble. We said that the Lord himself is the sum and substance of that comfort. And we saw briefly that Paul had every reason to need comfort. He had been in a rough patch, to say the least—a predicament where, he says, he despaired even of life itself.
In our passage this morning we’re going to see that those were not Paul’s only troubles. Paul also had some problems to deal with in the Corinthian congregation. If you are familiar with 1st Corinthians, you know that the church there was a pastoral nightmare. Well, as we find from our passage today those troubles didn’t all disappear overnight. There were some in the congregation that continued to be troublemakers. As you might expect, some of them started to attack Paul and question his role as a leader.
And they pounced upon a particular episode to call into question his authority—and really, question his whole gospel. If you throw doubt on him, you can then disregard everything he has ever said, right? But some of these rabble-rousers were picking on the fact that he had not fulfilled his promise to come visit them. They were saying, “Look at him. He’s completely unreliable. He’s a guy who makes promises he has no intention of keeping.” So Paul takes up his pen and begins to answer these fools and set the record straight. The passage before us was written as a defense. He defends himself (and ultimately, the gospel message itself).
And as we read this section we’re going to get to peal off some good gospel based lessons. Intertwined with this defense are a number of points that are of note to us; we’re going to learn about the gospel as we hear this minister of the gospel defend himself.
With that said, let's read together II Corinthians 1:12-24...
Introduction
WL Watkinson tells the story of an ancient king who granted pardon to several criminals who had been sentenced to death. Despite their crimes they were allowed to go free and begin a new life. However, upon their release they found themselves in a severe state. They had no means of providing for their daily needs. They had no home, no food, nothing. Thus they applied for relief at the gates of the king’s palace. The servants brought the matter to the king and asked if they should give them ample supplies. The king’s response was to refuse them anything. He said, “I granted you life, but I did not promise you bread.”
Each of us recognizes the logic employed by the ancient ruler. If we were in his shoes, we’d probably had done the same thing. It only stands to reason that they had already gotten much, much more than they deserved. How is it that they could begin to think that they should receive anything more?
Yet this kind of thinking stands drastically against the rational of the gospel of Christ. Our God deals with us on the basis of his grace—a grace that may be described as exceedingly liberal.
It is true that he offers us pardon from the death sentence against us for our sins. Through His Son our sins are forgiven and we are granted a new life. But that is not where it stops. Christ not only grants us pardon; he opens up the floodgates and lavishes upon us every other blessing imaginable too. You could say that there is not one thing he holds back from us. In His grace he supplies everything we need for life and godliness.
In the passage before us we find just a few of those great blessings. As Paul writes this section of Scripture we are told of some of the bounties that accrue to us as a result of the gospel.
I. Through the gospel God grants us sanctifying grace [12-14]
We see this in verses 12-14. Paul begins his defense by saying “For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity.”
What’s he saying here? He’s saying he has a clear conscience. If he can boast in anything, it is in the fact that his conscience us unscathed. It does not have a hint of shame. (this is in opposition to the Corinthians who had been involved in all kinds of scandal and who’s consciences were probably riddled with guilt).
Now you notice that his behavior is called simple and sincere. The idea of simplicity is that he had a singular motive. He did not have double motives or motives that were fickle. We might say, he was not two faced in any of his dealings.
The word sincerity is an interesting one. It comes from a word that means “to shine.” How do you know if your children are doing the dishes? Well you hold it up to the sun and let the light shine down on it, don’t you? Once you hold it up to the light you can see if it is dirty or not.
Paul’s saying, you could hold my life up and let the sun come down on it, and if you were to examine all that I did—even down to the very motives—what you would find is that it was pretty much spotless. He’s saying that he lived in complete purity.
And notice that this wasn’t because he was such a great guy. Paul acknowledges the root and cause of his holy living. He says that it was “by the grace of God.”
You’ll notice that this is not just the testimony of his conscience though. He points out in verses 13-14 that the Corinthians will testify to it too. Some of them may be reluctant to say that Paul was being obedient, but in the last part of verse 14 he says “on the day of our Lord Jesus, I will boast in you and you in me.”
In other words, when Jesus comes back, both Paul and the Corinthian congregations will stand before Christ and brag about each other.
This is actually the text that Jonathan Edwards used in his farewell sermon. The congregation at Northampton got a bit miffed with Edwards and they terminated his service as their pastor. He used this text as his farewell message to them. And one of the points he makes is that one day they will all stand before Christ and that congregation will have to admit that he never crossed them once.
The point that Paul is making is that his life was marked by holiness. Grace had been working in him and there was obvious evidence which confirmed it.
And that will be a mark of someone who has been introduced to the gospel. There will be renewal in his life. He will demonstrate the fact that he has encountered grace. He will see an ongoing work of grace.
The second thing I want you to see in this passage is that in the gospel we gain confidence. God not only gives us sanctifying grace, he also gives us reassuring promises
II. Through the gospel God grants us reassuring promises [15-20]
In verse 15 Paul starts to explain his change of plans. You’ll see there that he had originally intended to visit them twice. That’s what he means when he says that he was going to impart a second experience of grace. He clarifies in verse 16 by saying he was going to visit them before going to Macedonia, then come back and visit them again after he was done with his business in Macedonia. So he would give them a second blessing.
But his plans ended up changing. And that’s what verse 17 starts into. Some of the Corinthians used this change of plans as a way to discredit him. And so Paul says, “Was I vacillating?” When I made these plans was I saying yes, yes, when I really meant no, no.”
Down in verse 23-24 Paul tells them why he changed his plans. He did it to “spare them.” In other words, if he would have come, it would mean that he would have had to inflict church discipline upon a number of them. So it was actually a mercy that he changed his plans.
But notice what he says in verses 18-20. Paul points to the faithfulness of God and to how all God’s promises are Yes & amen in Christ. He’s basically saying that he’s made it his aim to pattern his life after God himself. He’s made it his aim to fulfill his promises just as God is faithful to fulfill his promises.
Now that’s a good point to make. It is that we as Christians should be promise keepers. An oath should mean something to us. When we say “yes, it should mean yes—in so far as we can make it happen.”
But what is more important to see is God’s faithfulness. What is emphasized here is that every single promise of God is rock solid. That’s actually what the word “amen” means. It means “firm.” When we say “Amen” in our prayers, what we are saying is that we have the firm confidence that our prayers will be heard because God has promised that in Christ he will hear them.
And this is why I say that the gospel gives us confidence. It gives us this firmness of faith. Paul is saying, “Go through the Scriptures and harvest out of it every promise that God has ever made. From the mother promise of Genesis 3:15 to the final promise of the New Heavens and New Earth—every single one of them is absolutely guaranteed. In Christ I have given my definitive “yes!”
So if you are wondering, “Can God save a poor sinner like me? Would he turn his displeasure away and be gracious to me?” You have a firm answer in Christ. Do you doubt God’s promise to raise you up on the last day and grant you eternal life? Is your assurance of his loving-kindness flimsy? Is it possible to sure it up? Absolutely.
What about the promise of comfort? Well, we’ve already talked about that one last week. Is God able to comfort you in trials? The answer to that is “Yes & Amen.” When you are down and out He says, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”
What about when you are struggling with sin and temptation? You’ve fallen into a pattern of sin and are ashamed for having broken God’s law. The promise to you is that “He is near to the brokenhearted and he saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
What about you as a parent? You are in the trenches each day: discipling, admonishing, encouraging, correcting, rebuking, teaching, exhorting, and training. Some days it goes well, sometimes it doesn’t. What is it that you rely on and enables you to persevere in your Christian duty to raise them? It is God’s promise to be a God unto them. It is his covenant promise that extends not only to you, but to a thousand generations.
What about when you are angry? What do you do when you have been cheated or you see the unbelieving getting ahead through devious works? What recourse do you have? It is God’s unshakable promise that he will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Every promise, no matter how seemingly lofty it may be, on every single one of them lies this stamp: YES! FIRM IN CHRIST! UNDENIABLY TRUE AND RELIABLE!
IN the gospel we have so many things. We’ve seen that God grants us sanctifying grace and unbreakable promises. There are certainly so many more things we could add to the list. But the last one that we can note here is that God gives us unending hope.
III. Through the gospel God grants us unending hope [21-22]
This is what we find in verse 21-22. In these two verses we find a few images (or reminders) that we have the hope of a future. These verses remind us that we have the sure hope that one day our salvation come to is full consummation.
The first thing that is said is there at the beginning of verse 21.
It says that God has “established us in Christ.” That is talking about our election and that it was his work in saving us. This reminds us that salvation is not of our own doing. It is not by our power. It is not dependent on our will or work. It is not even our paltry little faith that we can somehow muster up. It says that it is God who establishes us in Christ.
Think about this: We are established in Christ. The word establish means, of course, to make firm; to use force to make it stable. Imagine driving a stake deep into the ground. You use all your strength to pound it in and when you are done that thing isn’t going to budge.
That’s what God does with us. He uses his redeeming power to drive us deep into Christ so that there is nothing that can shake us loose from His saving power. We are there to the very end.
But it uses another image. Paul goes on to say that we are “sealed.” A seal is a mark that would be made in a document to certify its authenticity. It was a verification that this document belonged to the king.
We see a demonstration of this in the sacraments. We say that our baptism and the Lord’s Supper are signs and seals of the new covenant. In them God verifies the authenticity of His promises. He uses these emblems to confirm the fact that He has purchased us with his blood and brought us into his kingdom.
Here it is saying that we are sealed. God seals us. He puts his mark of authenticity on us and confirms that we belong to him. And, the implication is that if we are sealed by God, then there’s nothing that can break that seal. God’s seal is permanent and cannot be revoked.
Finally, Paul uses the image of a deposit or pledge. The last part of verse 22 says that he has given us his Spirit as a guarantee.
The word guarantee is a word that comes from the realm of commerce. It is ordinarily used to speak of a sum of money that is put down as a promise of purchase. It is a way of saying, “here’s a little bit up front to assure you that I have every intention of making this item mine.”
This is what you do with a down payment on a house. You give a certain amount of money as a pledge that you are going to purchase this as your dwelling. You continue then to make payments on it until years down the road it is finally yours.
That is what this passage says that the Holy Spirit is for us. God gives us the Holy Spirit for a number of reasons. Chief among them is that his presence in our lives is an assurance to us that God will fulfill his pledge to redeem us. There’s going to come a point in which he comes back and makes good on the down payment that he has made.
So, again, all these images point to the fact that we have a hope for the future. The gospel produces in us a firm confidence that there is a better life out there still yet to come.
Conclusion:
This past week I saw some blooper clips online. They all had to do with pools and kids in the pools. There was one where a little toddler came running outside, bubbling with excitement at his new toddler pool that his parents had gifted to him. He ran from the back door all the way to the pool and dove in, only to find out there wasn't any water in it.
The next image was of a large inflatable pool. This pool was significantly bigger and held perhaps hundreds of gallons of water. Kids were swimming in the pool having a good time. But a man leaned on the edge of the pool. There must have been something sharp because the inflatable container busted. the man fell backward as the kids and the water came flooding over him. The kids were being swept along on their little flotation devices. The water submerged the yard and almost carried the children into the neighbor's yard. It looked as if they would have been lost at sea had it not been for the shrubbery in the landscaping.
Now which of these two illustrate best the generosity of our God? Are we to be excited at the provision of the great gift of salvation, but expect nothing more? Or does our God go above and beyond to supply us with overflowing blessings that continually cascade down in torrents upon us?
Surely, when we recognize the grace he gives us for our daily living and consider the number of promises to support us in our time of need, surely that alone will prove just how openhanded He is.
In our passage this morning we’re going to see that those were not Paul’s only troubles. Paul also had some problems to deal with in the Corinthian congregation. If you are familiar with 1st Corinthians, you know that the church there was a pastoral nightmare. Well, as we find from our passage today those troubles didn’t all disappear overnight. There were some in the congregation that continued to be troublemakers. As you might expect, some of them started to attack Paul and question his role as a leader.
And they pounced upon a particular episode to call into question his authority—and really, question his whole gospel. If you throw doubt on him, you can then disregard everything he has ever said, right? But some of these rabble-rousers were picking on the fact that he had not fulfilled his promise to come visit them. They were saying, “Look at him. He’s completely unreliable. He’s a guy who makes promises he has no intention of keeping.” So Paul takes up his pen and begins to answer these fools and set the record straight. The passage before us was written as a defense. He defends himself (and ultimately, the gospel message itself).
And as we read this section we’re going to get to peal off some good gospel based lessons. Intertwined with this defense are a number of points that are of note to us; we’re going to learn about the gospel as we hear this minister of the gospel defend himself.
With that said, let's read together II Corinthians 1:12-24...
Introduction
WL Watkinson tells the story of an ancient king who granted pardon to several criminals who had been sentenced to death. Despite their crimes they were allowed to go free and begin a new life. However, upon their release they found themselves in a severe state. They had no means of providing for their daily needs. They had no home, no food, nothing. Thus they applied for relief at the gates of the king’s palace. The servants brought the matter to the king and asked if they should give them ample supplies. The king’s response was to refuse them anything. He said, “I granted you life, but I did not promise you bread.”
Each of us recognizes the logic employed by the ancient ruler. If we were in his shoes, we’d probably had done the same thing. It only stands to reason that they had already gotten much, much more than they deserved. How is it that they could begin to think that they should receive anything more?
Yet this kind of thinking stands drastically against the rational of the gospel of Christ. Our God deals with us on the basis of his grace—a grace that may be described as exceedingly liberal.
It is true that he offers us pardon from the death sentence against us for our sins. Through His Son our sins are forgiven and we are granted a new life. But that is not where it stops. Christ not only grants us pardon; he opens up the floodgates and lavishes upon us every other blessing imaginable too. You could say that there is not one thing he holds back from us. In His grace he supplies everything we need for life and godliness.
In the passage before us we find just a few of those great blessings. As Paul writes this section of Scripture we are told of some of the bounties that accrue to us as a result of the gospel.
I. Through the gospel God grants us sanctifying grace [12-14]
We see this in verses 12-14. Paul begins his defense by saying “For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity.”
What’s he saying here? He’s saying he has a clear conscience. If he can boast in anything, it is in the fact that his conscience us unscathed. It does not have a hint of shame. (this is in opposition to the Corinthians who had been involved in all kinds of scandal and who’s consciences were probably riddled with guilt).
Now you notice that his behavior is called simple and sincere. The idea of simplicity is that he had a singular motive. He did not have double motives or motives that were fickle. We might say, he was not two faced in any of his dealings.
The word sincerity is an interesting one. It comes from a word that means “to shine.” How do you know if your children are doing the dishes? Well you hold it up to the sun and let the light shine down on it, don’t you? Once you hold it up to the light you can see if it is dirty or not.
Paul’s saying, you could hold my life up and let the sun come down on it, and if you were to examine all that I did—even down to the very motives—what you would find is that it was pretty much spotless. He’s saying that he lived in complete purity.
And notice that this wasn’t because he was such a great guy. Paul acknowledges the root and cause of his holy living. He says that it was “by the grace of God.”
You’ll notice that this is not just the testimony of his conscience though. He points out in verses 13-14 that the Corinthians will testify to it too. Some of them may be reluctant to say that Paul was being obedient, but in the last part of verse 14 he says “on the day of our Lord Jesus, I will boast in you and you in me.”
In other words, when Jesus comes back, both Paul and the Corinthian congregations will stand before Christ and brag about each other.
This is actually the text that Jonathan Edwards used in his farewell sermon. The congregation at Northampton got a bit miffed with Edwards and they terminated his service as their pastor. He used this text as his farewell message to them. And one of the points he makes is that one day they will all stand before Christ and that congregation will have to admit that he never crossed them once.
The point that Paul is making is that his life was marked by holiness. Grace had been working in him and there was obvious evidence which confirmed it.
And that will be a mark of someone who has been introduced to the gospel. There will be renewal in his life. He will demonstrate the fact that he has encountered grace. He will see an ongoing work of grace.
The second thing I want you to see in this passage is that in the gospel we gain confidence. God not only gives us sanctifying grace, he also gives us reassuring promises
II. Through the gospel God grants us reassuring promises [15-20]
In verse 15 Paul starts to explain his change of plans. You’ll see there that he had originally intended to visit them twice. That’s what he means when he says that he was going to impart a second experience of grace. He clarifies in verse 16 by saying he was going to visit them before going to Macedonia, then come back and visit them again after he was done with his business in Macedonia. So he would give them a second blessing.
But his plans ended up changing. And that’s what verse 17 starts into. Some of the Corinthians used this change of plans as a way to discredit him. And so Paul says, “Was I vacillating?” When I made these plans was I saying yes, yes, when I really meant no, no.”
Down in verse 23-24 Paul tells them why he changed his plans. He did it to “spare them.” In other words, if he would have come, it would mean that he would have had to inflict church discipline upon a number of them. So it was actually a mercy that he changed his plans.
But notice what he says in verses 18-20. Paul points to the faithfulness of God and to how all God’s promises are Yes & amen in Christ. He’s basically saying that he’s made it his aim to pattern his life after God himself. He’s made it his aim to fulfill his promises just as God is faithful to fulfill his promises.
Now that’s a good point to make. It is that we as Christians should be promise keepers. An oath should mean something to us. When we say “yes, it should mean yes—in so far as we can make it happen.”
But what is more important to see is God’s faithfulness. What is emphasized here is that every single promise of God is rock solid. That’s actually what the word “amen” means. It means “firm.” When we say “Amen” in our prayers, what we are saying is that we have the firm confidence that our prayers will be heard because God has promised that in Christ he will hear them.
And this is why I say that the gospel gives us confidence. It gives us this firmness of faith. Paul is saying, “Go through the Scriptures and harvest out of it every promise that God has ever made. From the mother promise of Genesis 3:15 to the final promise of the New Heavens and New Earth—every single one of them is absolutely guaranteed. In Christ I have given my definitive “yes!”
So if you are wondering, “Can God save a poor sinner like me? Would he turn his displeasure away and be gracious to me?” You have a firm answer in Christ. Do you doubt God’s promise to raise you up on the last day and grant you eternal life? Is your assurance of his loving-kindness flimsy? Is it possible to sure it up? Absolutely.
What about the promise of comfort? Well, we’ve already talked about that one last week. Is God able to comfort you in trials? The answer to that is “Yes & Amen.” When you are down and out He says, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”
What about when you are struggling with sin and temptation? You’ve fallen into a pattern of sin and are ashamed for having broken God’s law. The promise to you is that “He is near to the brokenhearted and he saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
What about you as a parent? You are in the trenches each day: discipling, admonishing, encouraging, correcting, rebuking, teaching, exhorting, and training. Some days it goes well, sometimes it doesn’t. What is it that you rely on and enables you to persevere in your Christian duty to raise them? It is God’s promise to be a God unto them. It is his covenant promise that extends not only to you, but to a thousand generations.
What about when you are angry? What do you do when you have been cheated or you see the unbelieving getting ahead through devious works? What recourse do you have? It is God’s unshakable promise that he will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Every promise, no matter how seemingly lofty it may be, on every single one of them lies this stamp: YES! FIRM IN CHRIST! UNDENIABLY TRUE AND RELIABLE!
IN the gospel we have so many things. We’ve seen that God grants us sanctifying grace and unbreakable promises. There are certainly so many more things we could add to the list. But the last one that we can note here is that God gives us unending hope.
III. Through the gospel God grants us unending hope [21-22]
This is what we find in verse 21-22. In these two verses we find a few images (or reminders) that we have the hope of a future. These verses remind us that we have the sure hope that one day our salvation come to is full consummation.
The first thing that is said is there at the beginning of verse 21.
It says that God has “established us in Christ.” That is talking about our election and that it was his work in saving us. This reminds us that salvation is not of our own doing. It is not by our power. It is not dependent on our will or work. It is not even our paltry little faith that we can somehow muster up. It says that it is God who establishes us in Christ.
Think about this: We are established in Christ. The word establish means, of course, to make firm; to use force to make it stable. Imagine driving a stake deep into the ground. You use all your strength to pound it in and when you are done that thing isn’t going to budge.
That’s what God does with us. He uses his redeeming power to drive us deep into Christ so that there is nothing that can shake us loose from His saving power. We are there to the very end.
But it uses another image. Paul goes on to say that we are “sealed.” A seal is a mark that would be made in a document to certify its authenticity. It was a verification that this document belonged to the king.
We see a demonstration of this in the sacraments. We say that our baptism and the Lord’s Supper are signs and seals of the new covenant. In them God verifies the authenticity of His promises. He uses these emblems to confirm the fact that He has purchased us with his blood and brought us into his kingdom.
Here it is saying that we are sealed. God seals us. He puts his mark of authenticity on us and confirms that we belong to him. And, the implication is that if we are sealed by God, then there’s nothing that can break that seal. God’s seal is permanent and cannot be revoked.
Finally, Paul uses the image of a deposit or pledge. The last part of verse 22 says that he has given us his Spirit as a guarantee.
The word guarantee is a word that comes from the realm of commerce. It is ordinarily used to speak of a sum of money that is put down as a promise of purchase. It is a way of saying, “here’s a little bit up front to assure you that I have every intention of making this item mine.”
This is what you do with a down payment on a house. You give a certain amount of money as a pledge that you are going to purchase this as your dwelling. You continue then to make payments on it until years down the road it is finally yours.
That is what this passage says that the Holy Spirit is for us. God gives us the Holy Spirit for a number of reasons. Chief among them is that his presence in our lives is an assurance to us that God will fulfill his pledge to redeem us. There’s going to come a point in which he comes back and makes good on the down payment that he has made.
So, again, all these images point to the fact that we have a hope for the future. The gospel produces in us a firm confidence that there is a better life out there still yet to come.
Conclusion:
This past week I saw some blooper clips online. They all had to do with pools and kids in the pools. There was one where a little toddler came running outside, bubbling with excitement at his new toddler pool that his parents had gifted to him. He ran from the back door all the way to the pool and dove in, only to find out there wasn't any water in it.
The next image was of a large inflatable pool. This pool was significantly bigger and held perhaps hundreds of gallons of water. Kids were swimming in the pool having a good time. But a man leaned on the edge of the pool. There must have been something sharp because the inflatable container busted. the man fell backward as the kids and the water came flooding over him. The kids were being swept along on their little flotation devices. The water submerged the yard and almost carried the children into the neighbor's yard. It looked as if they would have been lost at sea had it not been for the shrubbery in the landscaping.
Now which of these two illustrate best the generosity of our God? Are we to be excited at the provision of the great gift of salvation, but expect nothing more? Or does our God go above and beyond to supply us with overflowing blessings that continually cascade down in torrents upon us?
Surely, when we recognize the grace he gives us for our daily living and consider the number of promises to support us in our time of need, surely that alone will prove just how openhanded He is.