2 Corinthians, 10:13-18
Hal Molloy · May 8, 2005
2 Corinthians (2004-05), No. 44
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262325391671

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

Okay, open your Bibles please to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. By the way, we do have a visitor in class this morning. His name is Larry Johnson over here. They let him out of Texas for a couple of days. Okay, we're going to start at verse 13. Would somebody like to read verse 13 through 18? Is there, got it? Volunteers? I'll read it. Okay, Bev, thanks. Once I find out. 13 through, okay.

18. We will not boast of things without our measure. but according to the measures of the rule which God has distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, and so we reach not unto you, for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ. Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men's labors, but having hope when your faith is increased, we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly. to preach the gospel and the reasons beyond you, and not to boast in another man's line of things, made ready to our hands. But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is accrued, but whom the Lord commended.

Thank you, Beth. Did you notice a recurrence of a word there? Measure. Measure. It was measure, measure, measure. I could tell right out of the King James, all of you who have New American Standard, there was one measure that wasn't there that Bev read. But notice that the focus on this passage of Scripture is on measure. We will not boast of things without or beyond our measure. In verse 13, verse 13, but according to the measure of the rule of God or which God has distributed, a measure to reach even as far as you. In verse 13 also, in verse 14, we are not stretching ourselves or going beyond our measure. And so what Bev read was added in the King James, but it's implied. So it's OK. It's called an ellipsis in Greek. It's understood.

And then in verse 15, not boasting beyond our measure. Now, when you look at this word, when you look at the context, when you look at this word measure, what in the world is Paul talking about in terms of this measure? We're not going to boast beyond our measure. It's a measure according to the rule of God. It's a measure to reach you, the community of believers. and we're not stretching ourselves beyond our measure.

We have a measure, it says, or Paul has a measure. What comes to your mind in just looking at that? A limit. Pardon me? A limit. A limit. Okay. The area that Paul was speaking of. Okay. The Spirit very definitely can He gave him strong signals to go here and not to go there. OK. So there's an implication of of an area. OK. Interesting. Here's the word. The fact there's two words which which are pretty similar in the passage of the word measure is metron. Look at the word in the English here, metron. Is there an English word that you can think of? Metro meter.

OK. So and literally it means that which is used for measuring like a yardstick or a measuring stick. That's a rule for measuring whatever, whatever the whatever the measure is. It could be liquid. And let's see, you moms are not going to be cooking today, so you're not going to be using measuring cups. But but if you had, you know, a measuring cup is is a measure. So in the literal sense, anything that measures out something, whether it be liquid, solid, whether it be. of length, height, depth, it's a measure.

So metaphorically, though, it's that which is metered out, that which is measured out. And so that when it's talking about metaphorically and in the context that we just read, what do you think it's talking about? Physical things, spiritual things. OK, we have one physical. We have no spiritual. And everybody else is. But it's the I think in the in the context that Paul's speaking about.

It's a measure of ministry or work. It's a ministry or work that God gives to every believer. And with that ministry, with that work, there may be spiritual gifts that are required, or a spiritual gift, singular, or spiritual gifts, plural. Does every believer have a spiritual gift? At least one. You may have several. So oftentimes in order to carry out the work, there's a spiritual gift that's required.

So the word measure, now, I've got to introduce to you my newest granddaughter. This is number five. And this is my daughter, Lisa, and my son in law, Andy. Let's see. Maybe we could pass a handout back to those guys. I'll pass the baby up. Okay, so this measure that Paul's talking about in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, that's where we are at least, Andy, is a ministry, something that is measured out. Now, it's interesting. As you go through...

When it says according to the measure of the rule which God has given us, is that the same rule? Is that also the same? It's a different word, which is somewhat similar, and we'll get there in just a minute. And we'll talk about those two words. Yeah, good question, because it's very interesting.

What I did here is this, is that when we think of God measuring something out, or portions out. So when God measures something out, measures something to us, or He apportions something to us, He apportions a ministry or a work to us. So these are some of the things that He apportions out or measures out to us.

One is spiritual gifts. And as you go through scripture, there's a series of spiritual gifts in scripture. But he apportions out spiritual gifts. We don't all have the same spiritual gift. So he apportions it out. And as you look at Ephesians 4-7, it says, but unto every one of us is given the grace And in the context, it's talking about the spiritual gift. I won't go back to prove this, but in fact Verne went through this a couple of weeks ago. According to the measure of the gift of Christ, it's something that is apportioned. Christ apportions. Christ came and he gave spiritual gifts.

In Ephesians 4.16, from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and this is the body, and we're part of the body. Talking about the whole body of Christ, all believers, the whole body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which is every joint supplies.

You're one of the joints, I'm a tendon, somebody's a little toe, an eye, ear, whatever, right? We're part of the body. According to the effect of working in the measure of every part. Every one of us has a measure, something apportioned to us in that body to make us function together as one body. So if one part of the body is hurting, the whole body is hurting.

So I've been playing racquetball Monday. And so, you know, six weeks ago I tore a tendon in my ankle. Now this week, I think I tore a tendon in my shoulder. And I don't know if I tore my rotator cuff or not. But my body can't function now. Tomorrow I'm supposed to play racquetball. No way. So I can't function. So the body can't function unless every part is functioning, and we're all part of that body.

The other thing that God apportions out is ministry, or His work. And we know from Ephesians 2 that God has a plan for good works. And we are his handiwork in his plan. And that plan of good works has been determined when. When did God make that plan of good works? before the foundation of the world. He's got this plan of good works, and he's got the plan, and he wants us, his vessels, to function in his plan.

And so he uses us, and he gives us a ministry or a work. And so in 2 Corinthians 1015, which we just read, Paul said that he wasn't bursting of things without, outside of our measure, outside of the ministry that God gave us. God gave Paul a specific ministry. He says we're not going beyond. that ministry that he gave us, which is a little different than location, and we'll see the difference between the two in just a minute.

Okay, that's a good question. Marilyn's question, I shouldn't have answered it. Marilyn's question was, is it okay to boast within things of our measure, within our measure, within our ministry? And what does the word boast mean? Does it mean we're proud? We're proud of this wonderful ministry that God gave us. and we're all puffed up about it. Is that what boasting means? The word boast, equity of which we looked at a couple of weeks ago, is the word glory. We glorify in the ministry. And who do we glorify? We glorify the Lord, and it's okay.

And it's a right thing to glorify the Lord in the ministry that he gives each one of us. So, let's talk about this ministry. When you think of ministry, what do you normally think of? So, if I tell you that God has given you a ministry, what do you think of?

Okay, feeding the poor. Teaching. When I first became a believer, ministry to me was, oh, you've got to be a missionary, or you've got to be a teacher, or you've got to be a pastor, and so I'm ready to quit engineering and go to seminary. Because, right? In order to minister. Right? Is that the only ministry there is? All my life I've wanted to be able to minister. and aimed at teaching Sunday school or being a missionary or whatever it was that I wanted to do at the time. My main ministry has been to my family. Okay. Now, excellent point. Think about it.

Your ministry may just be a mom. Your ministry may be just a dad. Your ministry may be just a grandpa, but we have a ministry. Your ministry may be the vocation that you have, that you're a truck driver, that you're a doctor, an engineer, or a street cleaner or whatever.

I remember I learned this lesson when I was back in California. I was a brand new believer. There was this fellow who used to clean the bathrooms. He cleaned those bathrooms. They were sparkling clean. He cleaned the urinals, the toilets and everything. He was so happy about it. And I'm saying, what is wrong with this guy?

And then we started a Bible study back there. And who shows up but this janitor. And we start studying the Bible. He starts speaking. And whoa. His ministry was doing what he was doing. And people would come in. and see, and they could see, the Lord Jesus Christ through him. That was his ministry to those people in that building. I saw it. The other thing that got portions out is authority, because along with any ministry, there comes the authority. We saw that a couple of weeks ago.

Now there are things that God doesn't apportion out. He doesn't meter out some things. The things that He doesn't meter out is first of all, He doesn't meter out the Holy Spirit. You as a believer are indwelled by the Holy Spirit and He doesn't give you 25% of the Holy Spirit and give me 10% and give Floyd 92% or he doesn't meter out the Holy Spirit.

So in John 3.34 it says, For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. He doesn't meter the Spirit out. How about His love? Do you think He meters out His love to you? And each day He says, well, I'll give you 10%. No. He gives it to you all.

And I like Romans 5.5 because as we're walking by faith and we're resting in Him and we're walking in the hope of the glory of God, we're walking in who God is, his essence. It says, and hope makes us not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. How? By the Holy Spirit. Is the Holy Spirit metered out? No. So therefore the love of God is not metered out. He doesn't meter out His grace.

And when Jim was teaching in chapter 9, he went through verse 8, which says, And God is able, that He has the inherent power, is what the word is there, to make all grace. Notice the all grace? all grace abound. He doesn't ever hold back His grace. It's all grace abound towards you, that you always having how much sufficiency? All sufficiency in how many things? In all things, in every aspect of your life. Isn't that incredible? I hang on this verse every day.

Then how about His glory? His glory is the totality of who He is, of who Jesus Christ is. And we've gone through this in John chapter 17. Christ's prayer for you and me to the Father. He says, Father, the glory that you have given me, I have given them. The totality of His glory. You have it. I have it. He doesn't meter out His glory. OK. So those are the things that he doesn't figure out. There are several ways to approach how to go through this passage of scripture. One thought I had is like what we've been doing.

You know that in chapters 10 through 13, Paul is addressing a subset of believers in the Corinthian church. These believers who were swayed by these false teachers who came into Corinth. And they came in right behind Paul. And no matter where Paul went, here comes the false teachers. And so they swayed many believers in Corinth into their false doctrine.

So Paul is in these four chapters addressing those believers. He's not addressing all the believers, but he's addressing specifically those believers. Now, we could go through this passage, verses 13 through 18, and look at either the false teaching or the charge of the false charge, or whatever, and then Paul's correction to it. But what I thought is, here's Paul talking about his ministry, and the thing is, you're no different, and I'm no different than Paul. God has given each one of us a ministry, and what applies to Paul's ministry applies to us. So what I've done is to make it more application than correction. of their mindset.

So look at verse 13. Verse 13 says, But we will not boast of things without our measure but according to the measure of the rule of God, which God has distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you." I want you to notice, as you look at this passage, it's talking about the source of our measure. And as you look at the passage, I want you Put your nose in the passage.

Tell me what the source of where the source comes from. OK. It's according to the rule. according to the measure of the rule which God has distributed. Right? God is the source of the measure. And so if we take ministry or if we take measure as a ministry or work That ministry or work has to be from the source, and the source is God. And oftentimes, we can make the source ourselves.

So when I became a Christian, I said, I've got to tell the world about Christ. And so I'm knocking on doors in Los Angeles for a year and a half, and with the four spiritual laws and trying to share Christ with them. That wasn't a measure that God gave me, that was a measure that I thought maybe I should be doing.

So it didn't come from His will, it came from my will. And so whatever measure we have is not to be out of our will, but His will. And in Philippians 2 it says that God is working in us, both to what? to will and to do. It has to be his will. So in our measure, it's not a question of human choice or judgment.

I think I'm going to witness now to the people at work. And so every day, as we'd go up in the elevator, I'd pick out one or two people. I'd say, that's the person that I'm going to witness to today. So at lunchtime, Man, I buttonhole this person. One thing is right. Let me tell you something.

I lost all my friends. All the people used to come over to our house Thanksgiving dinner. Then these friends, they said, They started not showing up until one of our friends, one of her friends, was honest with me. And she says, Hal, I'm not coming over here anymore.

I said, why? She says, because You put so much pressure on me. You force me into a corner every time I come over here as if I didn't believe anything. You put yourself so much above me. I mean, she just, and she never came back. But it was, I won't tell you the rest of the story, because we don't have the time. But the thing is this, we can do that out of self, you know, and as opposed to the Lord giving us the measure. Okay, now, here comes the question.

What does it mean about the rule according to the rule of God? And the word rule here is kanun, or as it looks like in the English transliteration, And this is where we get the canon of scripture, which is interesting. But originally, it's a straight rod or it's a ruler or carpenters rule.

And metaphorically, it means a sphere of influence. And I think the new American standard translates it sphere, right? So it translates to sphere. So it's a sphere of influence. So the rule of God is a sphere of influence. It's a line. And God, if you will, makes a line or a sphere of influence of our measure. So the measure, which is the ministry, is within a sphere of influence. So I tried to draw this. So here's the Kanun, or the sphere of influence, or the rule of God. Here's your measure, your ministry. The ministry is within a sphere of influence. That sphere of influence may be at home.

That sphere of influence may be at work. And so God gave me a ministry of teaching and a Bible study at work. And it was very unique because we were in a place which is compartmentalized in terms of secrecy. And what was very interesting is that God's Word can get anywhere. God's Word can get behind any locked door. And these doors were locked.

So we can have a measure of ministry within that sphere of influence. And so, boy, it was 20 years of Bible study for 20 years. And that was the ministry that God gave me in the sphere of influence. And so when I became a believer, I was going to go up to seminary. until I read in, I think it was 1 Corinthians, it says, stay where you are.

Just stay where you are. The Lord lets you be an engineer. You love engineering, you can be an engineer, and He can use you as an engineer. You're a carpenter, just stay where you are. He can use you as a carpenter, and He'll give you a ministry right where you are.

So, and then Paul says, we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure. beyond our sphere of influence. So what Paul is saying, and that word for stretch means overstepping or overextending. So Paul says that God has given me a sphere of influence, and I'm not going to take my sphere of influence and that I'm going to extend it into another person's sphere of influence. And he never went anywhere where someone has ministered before him. If you look at the ministry of Paul, he never went somewhere where God had someone else ministering. But, to Judaizers, The Judaizers came into Paul's sphere of influence, right? They followed him. And they were taking these young converts and then getting them off out of out from grace into law and giving followers.

And they were proud. I got six today. Well, you got six. I got eight today. Last week, remember, we were looking at, they were comparing themselves among themselves. And they were boasting about their ministry, glory in their ministry, not glory in the Lord.

So that's what it means, I think. in terms of stretching beyond the sphere of influence in verse 14. Look at verse 14. For we stretchen ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you, for we have come as far as to you also. in preaching the gospel of Christ but notice what he says there that we have come as far as to you and what Paul is saying is that you know Corinth was way out here at the end of his sphere of influence we've come as far as unto you because you are You are on the line of our sphere of influence, and that's how far we've come to the edge of our sphere of influence. And that's where you guys are sitting, at the end of our sphere of influence.

But in verse 14, what appears to be the purpose in the measure that God's given Paul over the ministry? He doesn't go beyond that. He doesn't go beyond it. But what does it look like it's the purpose? Okay. He says in verse 14, we come as far as you are in preaching the gospel of Christ. Okay. Here's the question.

What's the gospel of Christ? When we talk about the Gospel of Christ, what's the first thing that enters your mind? Salvation? Okay, so we think of 1 Corinthians 15. verses 1-5, the gospel, in terms of Christ coming, dying, buried according to scriptures, rose the third day. And don't we tend to limit the gospel to salvation? Salvation from the penalty of sin? the penalty of sin, but we don't think so.

So the gospel as it's used in scripture can be used two ways. It can be used in a narrow sense, like Doris just said from first Corinthians 15, or it can be used in a wide sense because gospel means what? Good news. So good news about salvation from the penalty of sin. good news about who you are in Christ. So the gospel is the entire, it can be in the white sense, it can be the entire Word of God. And so Paul came preaching the gospel, not only in the narrow sense, but the entire Word of God. So the purpose then of the ministry or the measure, in Paul's case, is the gospel of Christ.

In our case, what do you think it might be? In our ministry, in our measure, we're talking about Paul's measure, gospel of Christ. How about How about our measure, our ministry? Somebody said it? Should be the same. Okay. Should there be any difference?

And when we're talking about the gospel of Christ, it could be in a narrow sense to unbelievers. It could be in the wide sense to believers. And in a wide sense, to believers, it's for edification. And we've seen that Paul's purpose in these four chapters that we're going through, in chapters 10 through 13, his purpose is what? Is to edify, to build up those believers in Christ. That's his purpose.

Would our purpose be any different? And the question is, why wouldn't our purpose be any different? Because I want you to think about whose purpose? God's purpose. Okay. So it's God's purpose. And so if it's God's purpose, it's Paul's purpose. If it's God's purpose, it's your purpose and my purpose, right?

No difference. Okay. Okay. You want to say that again, Jack? The Lord's purpose on the cross was... He was fulfilling his Father's purpose. Okay. It was as much a work for God as it was for you and me. Sure. Okay. And just so we're off on the rabbit trail here, What purpose was that? What was the father's purpose? To glorify himself. To glorify himself? To reconcile men. To reconcile men? Okay. Sure. Sure. Okay.

Now, Marilyn was talking about glorifying or boasting in our measure. And in verse 17 it says, but he that glories, let him glory where? In the Lord. Is it okay? Is it okay to glory in our measure or our ministry? Yeah, if we're glorifying God for it or boasting Boasting sounds too much like it's coming out from pride. It's interesting, as you go through this passage of scripture, it has a lot to say, not only about a measure, but it has a lot to say about boasting or glorifying, in terms of what to glorify, what not to glorify. And verse 17 says, if you're going to glory, let him glorify in the Lord.

And the reason is this. Only God is to be glorified because He's the source of the measure. He's the source of each of our ministries. Wherever you're ministering, if you're a dad and your ministry is at home, if you're a mom and your ministry is at home, if you're a former pilot, whatever you you do, wherever God has you in your ministry, He's the source of it. He's the one to be glorified. Not only He's the source of it, but He performs it. We think that we have to perform the ministry, and my biggest problem is When I'm teaching, I think that I've got to do this.

And when I told you I spend a lot of time over in 2 Corinthians 9.8, I spend a lot of time over in 2 Corinthians 3.5, where it says that we don't have the sufficiency in ourselves, but our sufficiency is where? in Christ. And when I come to something like this, I'm thinking that I've got to do it out of my sufficiency, and the Lord has got to remind me every single time. Because the sin nature comes along and says, you can do it. And I know that I can't.

So here's the things that we're not to glorify Him, and things beyond or outside of our measure. Now, Paul is really putting down these Judaizers here, because guess what they were doing? They were glorifying in things within Paul's measure, in Paul's ministry, because they were coming to these young believers and pulling them out from what Paul taught them. He taught them to live by faith in God's grace, and they were pulling them into living by works under a lost system. He says, no, you've got to do works.

And so I can remember as a young believer when I heard Dr. J. Vernon McGee on the radio, I think I've told you the story, and he invited people to come down to the Church of the Open Door where he had Bible studies. And I said, wow, yeah, I'd like to do that. And I went down to the church at Opendoor, and there must have been a thousand people there, and I couldn't believe that there were a thousand people that believed the Bible. It was because I never knew anybody that really believed. So anyhow, but as I went week after week after week, before the Bible study started, you'd stand outside the church and just hang out with people and talk.

And this one older man kind of took me under his wing. And I didn't realize he was doing this. But he found out where I was in terms of my walk, that I just became a believer. And he just kind of watched out for me and not realizing he was doing this until one night.

I was standing outside the church. Here come these people through the crowd. And this one person comes up to me and asks me, do you know this about Scripture? Do you know that about Scripture? Our church down the street here teaches this. Why don't you kind of come along? And this guy says, he's not going anywhere. And I didn't know what was going on. I had no idea what was going on, but here were these false teachers trying to draw me away from what was sound teaching.

Okay, so Paul goes through in verse 15, 16, 17, in things that were not to glorify in, were not to glorify in other man's labors. We're not to glorify in things accomplished in another man's sphere of influence, so that here you have a person over here and within his sphere of influence. We're not to glorify in that. We're to glorify God in our measure, our ministry, within our sphere of influence and not another person's. And the last thing is we're not to glorify in self. And here are these Judaizers, and that's all they were doing. They were glorifying themselves in their ministry, which they infiltrated into Paul's ministry and were glorifying themselves in their ministry.

Look at verse 15. Verse 15 says, Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other man's labors, but having hope, having confidence, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly. What in the world does that mean? but having hope. And the word hope, alpes, is to have absolute confidence. And we're to have absolute confidence in our measure that the ones within our measure, the ones that we're ministering to, that their faith would be what? enlarged or increased.

And that's what our focus should be, is those who are within our sphere of influence, within our ministry, are they coming to know Him? and is the focus on Christ and not us. They're coming to grow. And I can tell you this, that the only way that our faith is going to be increased, as you look over in Galatians, and we won't go there, but our faith is energized by the love of Christ. As we come to know Him, As we come to know His love for us, that's the thing that energizes our faith. That's how our faith is increased. So the two go together. His love for us and our knowledge of His love and our faith is energized or increased.

So as we go down, Paul says that our ministry or our measure be enlarged. The word there is to be magnified as opposed to be strained or rejected. And these believers, remember these believers, were rejecting now some of the truths that Paul taught them. So there was a strain. in his ministry. There was a rejection in his ministry. And so his confidence is that there wouldn't be that, but that the ministry would be magnified.

How would that happen? How would that happen? Remember we talked about a couple of weeks that Paul is, what does he have to do first before these believers could be edified? He had to what? Do some correction? Do some correction of their mindset in terms of correcting their mindset? as he corrected their mindset, then they would be open to be edified. But up until then, the process of edification couldn't happen until all of that garbage, false teaching is cleared away.

So that's what will happen here. And he says that our measure of ministry results in a superabundance or overflowing. And verse 16 describes that superabundance. It's to minister beyond our present sphere of influence. So that as these people in Corinth, as their mindset was corrected as they come to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, then that ministry would be enlarged and overflowed and overflow then into, overflow the present, Paul's present sphere of influence, but never to interfere or encroach on someone else's sphere of influence.

The last thing in verse 18 is commendation. We looked at that a couple of weeks ago. The word commendation means worthiness, to be counted as worthy. And these Judaizers were in self-commendation. And with self-commendation, God doesn't approve. God doesn't approve those who are commending themselves. But God's commendation the one he approves are those who he counts as worthy, who he has put to the test, who are proven, tried, true, and love him and ministering with the love of Christ. Five factor questions. Things are in third.

Yes, I have an interesting picture of this. out through the content and surveyed out all the facts of land, everything, the townships. But God's rule is God's chain that's measuring out the boundaries of each of our spheres of. Yeah, that's a that's a good analogy. Yeah. In fact, one of the translations. I think translates one of those words as province. You use townships. N-I-D is field. Field. Okay. Okay. Just a comment.

I appreciated what you said when you asked about what our ministry should be and that Paul's was the gospel. And then the idea that ours is also the same. And you went on to say that The gospel is the good news of salvation, but it is also the good news of identification for you. And what good news when I realized how free I was in Christ and how secure I am in Him.

And not just secure, but free from the law and free from having to be what I'm not. Be better. Be good. Reach out. All those things that you try to make yourself do. all the time so that you feel like okay I'm okay with God. Right. And what news to come to somebody that's all tied up in that. I can tell you this, in a lot of counseling that I do, people are bound up by guilt, people are bound up by fear, and they're bound up by guilt and fear because they're putting themselves under a law system, and it may not be the Mosaic law system, But it may be a lost system that they themselves in their life come up with, and they don't understand that they are free. But when they understand the freedom that they have in Christ, that they're dead to self, and alive unto God, it's incredible, wonderful to see.

Father, we are just again so thankful for this study. We thank you that in your grace that you've given each one of us a measure of ministry in our life, wherever it would be, whether it be at home, whether it be in the occupation that we have, we just do thank you for it. And we just pray, Father, that you would keep us mindful. of that ministry that we have to edify others within our sphere of influence. And we pray that would be all done to your honor and to your glory, that you would get the praise for it and not us. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.