2 Corinthians - Grow in Grace, Serve the Lord

When I am writing a letter to my friends, I can usually tell when I've come to the end and I'd better quit. I start talking about the weather. Now, nobody really is concerned about the weather, but that's my sign that you'd better just say, "Well, thank you for writing, God bless you," and sign off.

But when Paul came near the end of 2 Corinthians, he didn't talk about the weather. He didn't waste any time or space. He got right down to business. He had three final attempts to help these people get straightened out in their church and in their personal lives.

2 Corinthians 12:11-21, he shames them for their lack of commendation, their lack of appreciation, their lack of consecration. Then in 2 Corinthians 13:1-8, he warns them. That's our subject for today. "This is the third time I am coming to you."

He warns them to prepare themselves. Paul had been there twice. He had written some letters to them, and he had done everything possible to try to straighten out the problems of the church. Now he says, "I'm coming for the third time, and I have written to you, I have prayed for you. You had better prepare yourselves for my coming."

Now, you and I are not waiting for the coming of the Apostle Paul, but we are waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus. And the Lord says to us, "I am coming again," and He doesn't want to find us unprepared. He wants us to be prepared for His coming. Well, how were they to prepare themselves? "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established."

This is a quotation, of course, from Deuteronomy 19:15. In the Old Testament, if someone accused another person of a crime, there had to be at least two, preferably three witnesses to back up whatever had happened. And we have a similar experience and requirement today.

I could go to someone and say, "You know, so-and-so did this." Well now, do you have witnesses? Paul wrote and said against an elder, receive not an accusation save in the presence of two or three witnesses.

I wonder what would happen if every church member, when he started to hear some gossip about the preacher, would say, "Hold it, let me get some witnesses." You see, when you look at 2 Corinthians 12:20, you find out why you need these witnesses. Debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, conceit, disorders, my oh my, swellings, tumults.

And Paul says, "I know what's going on in Corinth. A lot of gossiping, a lot of getting off in the corner talking and criticizing. Now, when I arrive and we face people with all of these problems, I want witnesses." That straightens things out, doesn't it?

A lot of people are willing to talk behind your back, but they won't stand up for the truth in public. He said, "You better prepare yourself. I want everything done honestly. I want everything done in an orderly, wonderful, clean, aboveboard way." That's the Christian way, isn't it?

"I told you before and tell you beforehand, I'm warning you now, as if I were present." And remember, I'm an apostle. "As if I were present, I'm telling you before and I'm telling you the second time, and being absent now I write to them who heretofore have sinned."

Of course, nobody would apply it to himself, would he? These letters are always for somebody else. The sermon is always for somebody else. The fellow who went out of church and said, "Oh, preacher, you really gave it to them today." Well, he didn't take it for himself, did he?

"I'm writing to those who have sinned and to all others that if I come again, I will not spare." There is a time for loving patience, there is a time for patient prayer, and there's also a time for action. Wise is that parent who knows when to act. Wise is that mother, that father, who knows when to lay down the law, when to let the child know, "All right, you've gone far enough." Wise is that pastor, that church officer, who knows when to step in and take hold.

"Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me." Isn't that interesting? You know, it amazes me how many Christians don't know when God is really saying something through a preacher. They think unless the fellow is storming up and down the platform, pounding the pulpit and screaming and having contortions, he's not really ministering the Word of God.

I had a dear pastor friend who's now home in heaven. He was a great man of God, built a great church. And when he preached, it was very quiet and very conversational. He rarely raised his voice. And a lady came to hear him preach one day, and as she was going out of the service, she said, "Well, he never did start to preach." Oh yes, he did. And what he said was worth listening to.

"Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who toward you is not weak, but is mighty in you. For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God." The Lord Jesus in His ministry appeared to be weak. And when He died on the cross, it was weakness. His hands and feet nailed to wood, and dying there, hanging between heaven and earth.

"Now," says Paul, "the Lord Jesus when He was in ministry on earth was crucified in weakness; He lives by the power of God. Now, we also are weak in Him. "Now, not weak in ourselves, but weak in Him. When you are serving the Lord Jesus Christ, you sense more and more your own weakness.

Paul talked about that back in 2 Corinthians 12:9. "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities—weakness—that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities—weakness—in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong."

But I'm not strong in myself; I am strong in the Lord. The Lord Jesus when He was here on earth did not put out the smoking flax; He didn't break the little reed that was bent. He was patient, He was kind, He was loving, He was tender. He could have spoken the word and destroyed His enemies.

What are the evidences of spiritual power in a person's life? Is it eloquence? Is it a great pulpit manner? Is it oratory? Is it eloquence from the—from the lips? No, no, no. Paul says, "You just wait till I get there and you'll see God's power at work in my life: the power of truth, the power of integrity, the power of the Holy Spirit of God."

"Prepare yourselves." Then 2 Corinthians 13:5-8, "Examine yourselves." They had been examining Paul. "Examine yourselves whether you are in the faith." Now, he doesn't mean by "the faith" a body of truth so much as "Are you born again? Are you saved? Are you really a part of the family of God? Prove yourselves." You see, they'd been examining Paul. It's a lot more fun to examine somebody else, isn't it? They had been examining Paul's ministry. "Is Paul really an apostle? Is Paul really a Jew? Is Paul really a Christian?"

Paul said, "Alright, you've had a good time examining me, now examine yourself to find out whether or not you're born again." In my own pastoral ministry, I have discovered an interesting thing: not everybody who's a member of a local church is really born again.

"Examine yourself, prove yourselves. Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you?" Then he adds this very, very solemn word: "Except ye be reprobate, except you are discredited, counterfeits." Counterfeit Christians? Yes, that's the way the devil works. The devil goes around sowing the tares; the tares were counterfeit wheat.

And Paul is saying, "You're wondering whether or not the Apostle Paul is a real Christian and a real apostle. Don't worry about that right now. Examine yourself. Examine yourself. You're a member of the church—are you really born again? Or is it something you just inherited from your parents?

You're on that church board and you're giving the preacher trouble and you're breaking his heart. I want to ask you a question: are you really born again? Do you love the Lord Jesus? Is the Holy Spirit witnessing in your heart that you are a Christian, or is it just something you were raised with?"

"But I trust that ye shall know that we are not discredited, we are not reprobates." Paul said, "Go ahead, I can pass the test. Examine my ministry. Go look at the churches where I preached. You'll find people got saved, people grew, people were edified in the Lord. Go ahead, examine me, but you better examine yourself."

"Now I pray to God that ye do no evil, not that we should appear approved." He said, "I'm not—I'm not asking you to approve me. But that ye should do that which is honest." In other words, do the right thing. "I'm not asking you to do this for my sake; I'm asking you to do this for your sake. Examine yourselves, prepare yourselves that ye should do that which is honest though we be as reprobates, though we appear as discredited."

Now 2 Corinthians 13:8 is the capstone: "For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth." There's a reference here to Proverbs 21:30. Let me read the verse to you: "There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord." That's good.

He said, "You people have been guilty of lying and you've been guilty of hypocrisy. I want you to know something: the truth is going to prevail. Even if it does not prevail on this earth, at the judgment seat of Christ, the truth will prevail."

Are you prepared to meet the Lord Jesus? I wonder if somebody today needs to do what I had to do years ago. I had to go to my pastor's house and apologize for the way I had treated him. I had really hurt him, and I had to go and apologize. And I appreciate the fact that he loved me and he accepted my apology because I had broken his heart.

Are you ready to meet the Lord in the relationships you have now? The way you're getting along with your husband, your wife, your children, your Sunday school class, your elders, your deacons, your pastor, your missionary? Paul said, "You be prepared. Prepare yourselves and examine yourselves."

Oh, it's a lot of fun to sit around and examine everybody else. Let's examine ourselves and find out: are we really born again? Are we growing in the Lord? Do we have the witness of the Holy Spirit? Are you a part of the problem or a part of the answer in your church? Jesus is coming again. I think it would be good for all of us to start being a part of the answer, ready to meet Him.