Bible Survey - 2 Corinthians
Vern Peterman · Oct 5, 2014
Bible Survey, No. 39
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926442175091

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

And, you know, one of the points we made last week is 1st and 2nd Corinthians is actually part of what we can tell from those letters is actually four letters. So 1st and 2nd Corinthians, if we had all the letters, would be 2nd and 4th Corinthians, right?

So that would be one thing. The other thing that we did last week, I'll go quickly through, just kind of a refresher. This is Paul's third missionary journey, which was the time when he was writing this. And he actually did end up going through Corinth on that journey. So Corinth is situated as the narrow part on a peninsula, the Greek peninsula.

And here's the city street and the ruins. And then up at the top, we'll take a look at that in a minute, is the defensive structure, which by Roman times, it really wasn't used, because the Roman Empire had just basically taken over. So the defensive structure was present, but not used. Here's the marketplace called the Agora, in the Greek terminology of the temple ruins. And then here is a shot of the upper. part of Corinth here and then this is looking down on Corinth from that upper area and this is several shots of that defensive structure up at the top.

Alright, in 2nd Corinthians we have Paul writing on his third missionary journey as we showed on the map and we have kind of a graphical outline of 2nd Corinthians at a glance. And 2 Corinthians is not just like a repetition of 1 Corinthians. Instead what you find is Paul is significantly addressing suffering. Paul is significantly having to defend his apostleship.

And so we'll take a look at that in a little more detail. One of the other things that he deals with is collecting funds in support of the saints. And so that's an interesting thing. He doesn't deal with a lot of, you know, here's how you take up an offering and here's how you handle it. And so he had written to them previously briefly on that subject, but here he brings it up.

One of the things at Holly Hills is we don't bring up money a lot. You might have noticed that. We don't pass the offering plate. you know, talk a lot about money issues. We have that little slot back in the back and there's a kind of a monthly report that you can take a look at, you know, if you want.

But unless we find money in the passage, as we did when we went through this several years back, unless we find money in the passage, we don't talk about money. We figure that's the Lord's business. What I'd like for us to do is to get your Bibles out, and if you don't have one you can use the one in the pew rack. Get your Bibles out and let's turn to 2 Corinthians and kind of take a walk through it.

Paul addresses actually in a few different places in this book the topic of suffering. And Paul himself suffered immensely, and in fact, in Acts, when Paul became a believer, one of the things that was brought up is Paul is going to have to suffer greatly for Christ. So at any rate, let's start with verse 3, 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3, and it reads like this, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Now, so one of the reasons for a believer going through difficulty, and this isn't, not every difficulty is some punishment or discipline from God, right? In fact, God doesn't punish Christians, gay believers. God disciplines with the intent of putting us back into a walk of fellowship. But God does not punish believers, and not everything bad that happens is to be attributed to God's punishing you, nor is it to be attributed to Satan. So let's ask this question, why is a believer who is not being disciplined Why is a believer who's not being disciplined but going through some kind of a trial, why is that believer given that trial?

And there's actually more than one answer, but from what we just read here, what does going through those trials qualify us for? So it qualifies us to comfort. So when we're going through something and we say, boy, I didn't do anything I need to be disciplined for. I didn't deserve some discipline, so the Lord's having me go through this. Why? And one of the answers we can tell right off is, I'm being qualified. I'm being qualified.

One of the things is that there are certain things in life that you go through that there is no way you can identify with anybody else that's going through it unless you've been through it. That's right, that's right. It's just that you can't. There's no possible way.

And how can we like, I mean, decipher if we need to because of like How do we know we're not undeserving of discipline? One is we may in fact know what it is we're being disciplined for. That's part one. The other thing is we might think, you know Lord, I don't know. And we can ask the Lord to show us and to point that out. If the Lord doesn't show us and point out what it is, then it's not discipline.

And I think one of the things is Christians either make an entirely wrong assumption, attribute everything bad to Satan, right? What we finally see scripture is that a good deal of what's difficult is not attributable to Satan. Satan may, you know, buffet us, so to speak. But, you know, God's the one who works all things together for good. Even if the things that happen, we look at them and say, that's not good.

Yes? working patience, and patience works character, and character brings hope. As we trust God, if you think of Paul's prayer, three times I prayed that he remove the thorn in the flesh, and the answer was, I'm not removing the thorn, I'm going to give you grace to overcome it. Yes, and my grace is sufficient. One of the things we said at the end of the Hebrew study, grace is a sufficiency. That's a big part of it, learning what God's character is like and what that means in our daily lives.

Also, I don't really know how to say this, but the fact that Paul was going to be preaching the Gospel and preaching the gospel, presenting the gospel brings persecution so the fact that Christ knew this ahead of time obviously so the fact that he's going to have to suffer part of that is because of the fact that he's presenting the gospel and there's going to be a lot of opposition from the Jews toward Paul because of that so the suffering, what I'm trying to say is the suffering isn't necessarily directed toward Paul, but it's directed because of the gospel, right? So he's bearing a burden of suffering here because of what he's presenting for the Lord, not because of punishment to him, right?

You know what I'm saying? I think getting it square in our minds about discipline and about suffering and what God's purposes are. Let's ask this question. Does God ever send a senseless trial into our lives? No. Everything is purposeful. As a matter of fact, just in thinking this through, I would say the greater pain has the greater purpose. The greater pain has the greater purpose. And so rather than some greater pain being something we say, man, God, what are you doing? The greater pain does have a greater purpose. And therefore, we need to look to what is that purpose. And probably plural is the right way to look at it. Almost always aimed at deepening the relationship with God. Yes, and our dependence upon Him.

Because frankly, things happen in life that are beyond our capacity. I can't handle this. Things happen in life that are beyond our capacity. These things foster dependence. It qualifies us within the body to comfort. A person who has been through something can minister to the needs of another with credibility. With credibility.

I've been there. I've been through this. I know what you're going through, right? You can be a Barnabas. Yep, that's right, that's right. So, I think, you know, one of the many purposes in going through trials is to qualify us for ministry to others. We're being trained up. We're being trained up. Okay, so I think this is a key thing. He talks about suffering in here.

He talks about, you know, delivery from suffering, but also when the Lord doesn't take it away. The Lord doesn't take it away. And even in a pastoral position, sometimes I'll have someone come to me and help me get the rock out of my road. And I've got to be careful that I'm not taking the rock that God put there on purpose out of the way.

Because maybe that rock is needed. us at the end of chapter four, therefore we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing, but the inward man is being renewed day by day, and our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us and seeking to move on.

Our tendency is to want to arrange all the circumstances around us to you know, to make us happy and all that kind of thing. Yeah, comfort zone, we want to make everything comfortable around us and that's the way the world operates, you know. But the believer's perspective is, no, God's doing something internally. And things may go a little crazy on the outside. Everything from circumstances around us to this body not cooperating, right? Things can go a little crazy on the outside.

But it's what's going on spiritually that God's looking at and God's measuring and God's valuing. Okay, let's take a look here. Here he is, he's talking about suffering. He's later on going to list a bunch of things that he went through, beatings and shipwrecks and stoning and really severe, intense things. Let's take a look at the end of chapter 2. Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened to me by the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I departed for Macedonia. Oh, what they wouldn't do for a cell phone, right?

Now thanks be to God who always, how often? Always. Isn't that interesting? Always. Always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death to death and to the other the aroma of life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?

One of the patterns that you'll see in scripture is it will be death to death, life to life, glory to glory. And that's an expression meaning growing. Growing in magnitude and intensity. So glory to glory is growing in glory, right? Life to life means what? It means growing in life, right? Increasing. Yes, it means growing in life, and it says death to death, what does that mean?

Growing in death, it's getting worse, right? But it's the same aroma, isn't it? It's the same aroma, and to one it's getting better and better, and to the other it's getting worse and worse. The circumstances might be the same. Yeah, it's funny, it's the same circumstance, as he describes it here, it's the same aroma, but one person thinks this is wonderful and the other person says this stinks. The other person says it stinks. And let's ask the question, and who is sufficient for these things? Who is? Am I? I'm not. But Christ is. Christ is sufficient for these things.

For we are not, as so many, peddling the Word of God. What does it mean to peddle the Word of God? Like some televangelists are doing it for the profit of what they get out of it. They do it for the money. The most popular pastor, I guess it's not exactly an official term for that, but the most popular pastor in the United States just bought a ten and a half million dollar house. I guess he's doing okay. His peddling is working pretty good. We're not as so many peddling the Word of God, but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.

It's one of the reasons that Holly Hills, while we low-key, you know, offering, and we never charge for, you know, the use of the building. We have various, you know, people who either for an event or a regular meeting have used the building, and we're careful about who we say yes to. But we never charge for the use of the building.

And why? We don't say here's a class and it'll cost $35 for the materials. Why? Because we want it to be absolutely just flat out grace. Grace, pure grace, nothing but grace all the time. So we're not charging for the word of God. We don't say okay here come to this service and as you go out the door here's your invoice.

We speak in the sight of God and Christ. So that's one thing is everything that is said is said knowing God's seeing everything. I'm not hiding anything from Him. So everything that is done and said is done with that perspective. Now 2 Corinthians 3 is a phenomenal chapter. Let's take a look at that.

Do we begin again to commend ourselves, or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you and letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read by all men. You are manifestly an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. What was tablets of stone? What was that referring to? The Ten Commandments was written on tablets of stone. Lithos is the stone. In the Greek Old Testament, that's the word. Lithos. Stone.

And verse 4, and we have such trust through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves. Here's the sufficiency question again. Right? You ever feel inadequate? Ever feel inadequate? Yeah. And what he keeps reinforcing here is that adequacy, sufficiency, is from God. If you feel inadequate, good. Good place to start. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the New Covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills and the Spirit gives life. And when he's talking about what letters he's talking about? The letters of the law. And this, by the way, is often misunderstood and misinterpreted. It's the letters of the law because he just talked about the stones.

But if the ministry of death, the law, written and engraved on stones, was glorious so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away. Fading glory. Is that glory to glory? No. It's fading glory. It used to be glorious. I kind of still see a little bit left. Fading glory. They couldn't look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, the glory that was passing away.

But how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious than the law? Verse 9, For if the ministry of condemnation, remember it's the ministry of death and condemnation, that's the law. Anybody like to sign up for that? If the ministry of condemnation had glory and the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more than glory, what's the ministry of righteousness? It's the ministry we have in the church, right? The ministry we have here in the church age and among those in the church. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because of the glory that excels, comparatively speaking.

Right now, if you go outside, do you see stars? No, you don't. Are they there? Yes, they are. Why don't you see it? The sun is more glorious, and because of that, you can't see the stars. They're all there. They're there in great abundance, but you cannot see them because of the overwhelming glory, the overwhelming brightness of the sun.

For if what is passing away was glorious, the law, What remains is much more glorious. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses who put a veil over his face. Why did he put a veil over his face? So that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. He put a veil on initially because his face was so bright. He continued to put it on because the glory was fading and he didn't want them to see the fading glory.

Yes. I'm sorry, I don't quite understand that. So it says might not gain at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. Yes. What was being brought to an end? Here is the law. And the giving of the law is what gave Moses this brightness so bright that the children of Israel, you know, cover it. But what Moses eventually ended up doing is he still put the veil on.

Not because it was so bright, but because the glory was fading. And he didn't want them to see the glory fading. The glory of the law is a diminishing glory. fading glory. Yes, and so one of the things to look at in this passage is that the law has a diminishing glory.

Is it from God? Is it inspired? Does it reflect God's character? Yes. Right? Holiness and righteousness, yes it does. But its glory is fading. For us however, the glory goes the other way. And he gives the secret in verse 18. Okay? Let's get there. Yes.

But their minds were hardened, for until this day, when he's writing right now, for until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. As they read the Old Testament, they don't get it. They don't get what it's pointing to. What are all these sacrifices all about? Christ, right? But until they understand that, they have a veil.

Now let's see there, but even to this day when Moses read, a veil lies on their hearts. So where, the veil initially was where? The veil was initially on Moses' face, now the veil is on their heart. So the veil is moved. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. So there is a veil on the heart of the unbelieving Jew, but when one turns to the Lord, the veil on the heart is taken away. But now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with unveiled face, so notice the veil started off on Moses' face. It then moves to the heart of the unbelieving Jew, and now we all with, do we have a veil? Unveiled face, no veil at all, right? No veil at all.

We all, with unveiled faith, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. Remember what we said about life to life, death to death, glory to glory? So glory to glory means growing glory. So here as we look at it, beholding as in a mirror.

The word mirror shows up three times in the Bible. once in each of the letters to the Corinthians. Why? Because the Corinthians were famous for their mirrors. Famous for their mirrors. So Paul makes sure that each one of the letters has mention of the word mirrors. Only it's a spiritual reference, the mirror being the word of God.

Which is why we'll talk about beholding the Lord through his word. So what happens there? We are being transformed into the same image, into the image of Christ. So one of the things we taught in an elective we had a few years back here, what God's doing in the life of a believer, we are being conformed into the image of Christ by circumstances. We are being transformed into the image of Christ as we behold the Lord through His Word.

Both of those are headed in the same direction, but they're two different and parallel processes. Yes? How do we know that the part where it says the veil is over their hearts is referring to unbelieving Jews? Okay, verse 14. But their minds were hardened back then. Why were their minds hardened? Notice, the law, they didn't get it, did they? What was the law pointing to? It was certainly a reflection of God's character, but it was pointing to Christ. And they didn't get it. And so instead, oh, they're either going to say, yeah, I can do it, or they're going to say, nothing doing. Right? Yes?

Sort of like the difference between looking at the law and judging others because they're not obeying the law. And having that veil removed and realizing that neither they nor I have any standing with God except by His mercy and grace. And when the scripture talks about God saying to the prophet, I'm going to take out their heart of stone Yes. And give them a heart of flesh.

Yes. That kind of idea. The hardening of the heart leads to judgmental attitudes about, well, you're not wearing the right clothes, you're not singing the right songs, your liturgy is all messed up, your church is not, can't be true because you're not doing things the way I think you should be doing. Yes.

As opposed to The liberty that's talked about here, not liberty for license, but liberty, the freedom we have in Christ, that as we follow Him, God leads each one of us to a different kind of attitude and behavior, but within His will, He's got room for all those different parts of the body. The law will tend to cause a person to look at themselves I gotta make sure I'm doing the right things and not doing the wrong things. And they'll tend to look at other people. And what are you looking for in other people? Errors. Errors. Oopsies. Right? You did that! Okay?

And so the law causes to look at myself. The law causes me to look at other people. And I get caught in that mode. Taking the law out of the picture. Taking the veil off the heart. We're drawn to, and this is verse 18, to look to the Lord. Beholding Him. Not just glancing at Him. Beholding Him. Beholding Him. So our focus is on the Lord.

How does that happen? By taking the law out of the way. Yes. Where the law is going to come back. Yes. And it's going to be governed by the law. Yes. Okay, is it still pointing to Christ? Because Christ is going to be there. Yes, it's still pointing to Christ. However, here's the difference. Right now, if someone says, I'm going to live by the law, how are they going to do it? What's going to be the resource for living by the law? It's me. I pull it off. I do it.

In the Lord your kingdom, under the new covenant, Under the New Covenant, they will have the Holy Spirit, every Jew indwelt all the time by the Holy Spirit, for the knowing and living out of the law. No rabbis are needed, because each Jew will have the Holy Spirit to know and to live out the law, to be empowered and enabled to live out the law that they just know by heart.

We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit to live out the life of Christ apart from the law. So we have a common need, and that's why the Holy Spirit is given, but the way it's carried out is entirely different. Us, apart from the law entirely, for them, all the law all the time. But because the Holy Spirit enables them to know and to live out the law, it's no longer something that draws them to look at themselves and to look at other people. Because it's the Holy Spirit pulling it off. It's really amazing that the Lord would put the Holy Spirit in them and the Holy Spirit in us all the time.

Everyone all the time. for entirely different ways of living out life. But that's what scripture makes clear. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, as in the Word of God, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image of the Lord, from glory to glory, growing in glory, just as from the Spirit of the Lord. It is a work of the Holy Spirit to have you growing from glory to glory, to be transformed into the image of Christ. As you behold the Spirit, you behold Christ. Amazing, huh?

But it's the exact opposite of those who are under the law. They're always looking to themselves and looking to others. Because boy, you don't want to break the law. And if somebody else does, you want to be sure to catch them. You want to be sure to catch them. Okay, the very next verse.

Therefore, since we have this ministry, we have received mercy. We do not lose heart. But we renounce the hidden things of shame, walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." Here's the sight of God again. See, everything is done before the Lord. Before the Lord. In verse 5, we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves as servants for Jesus' sake.

Let's look at chapter 5, verse 9. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. So are we going to be judged? And a certain percentage of us? No, all of us. So we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

And by the way, here, that word that he uses, here is the Agora, right here, they would have a judgment seat. That's the word. So he uses a word they could relate to. There was a judgment seat there at the Bema. the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Knowing, therefore, the care of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are well known to God, and also trust are well known in your consciences." Now let's ask this question. Are you going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ? The answer is yes. Is the unbeliever going to appear at the judgment seat of Christ? No. Will the unbeliever be judged? Yes. Yes. Is it the same seat? No. That's the thing. It's a different seat.

About 50 times in the Bible, Old Testament on into the New, this is one of them, it talks about either the believer or the unbeliever being judged according to their works. Is this a judgment to determine whether you're saved or not? No. That judgment is already made as to which seat of judgment you're headed for.

This is the Bema seat and the intent is what can I reward you for? What can I reward you for? 1 Corinthians 3 verses 10-15 talk about that judgment. The things that are good are rewardable. The things that are not are burned away. For the believer it is a judgment of reward, of evaluation for reward. For the unbeliever it is a judgment of condemnation. So we will all, every person on the planet, will be judged according to their works. For the believer, for reward, for the unbeliever, for eternal punishment.

Yes? So we have the Bema, and then we have... The White Throne Judgment, Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 through 15, is the judgment of unbelievers. Okay? Yes? Wasn't Pontius Pilate What he ruled from wasn't that the same word, bacterium or something like that? Isn't that the judgment seat? It was his judgment seat, yes. And that's the thing I think for believers to get it straight is, is there a judgment for believers? Yes. There's a judgment for reward. There is a judgment also for unbelievers.

It's a different judgment. It's not at the same time. It's not at the same place. And Revelation chapter 20, 11 through 15 talks about two books. One is the book of life, and the names of the unbelievers are not there. Your name isn't in the book of life, which is why you're here at this judgment.

And what's the use of the book of works for the unbeliever? For the unbeliever? Yeah, what's the use of the book of works as Revelation 20, 11 through 15 talks about? What's the use of the Book of Works for the unbeliever? One is that the works fall short, right? There's nothing saving in it. So that's part one. You didn't believe and therefore that's why you're here and your name isn't in the Book of Life and your works fall short. But the works not only fall short, what else is there? Does it pertain to the different types of judgment given? Yes, yes it in fact does. It is not, the lake of fire is not uniform.

There are those who will have a greater condemnation, forever. What happened for them, it happened because they didn't believe and therefore because they refused Christ's payment for their sins. By the way, Christ died for the sins of the whole world, including those who are not saved. He died for the sins of the whole world, but if people refuse that payment, then they've got to pay it themselves. Whatever it is. They desired the darkness over the light.

Jesus said in John chapter 8, unless you believe you will die in your sins. So we talk about being in Christ. Being in Christ means I have His righteousness. But if you die in your sins, what have you got? You're positionally in the sins that you execute. Whether sins of the mind or of the body. The unbelievers positionally in their sins and dying in your sins is not a good thing.

That's why Jesus won them. So here we have the, Paul's talking about judgment, he talked about it in 1 Corinthians 3, 10-15 for believers. But just kind of looking at the big picture, the unbeliever has a good way to put it, I suppose it's called proportional punishment. Punishment for eternity, proportioned upon sins executed, carried out.

Yeah. So this one where you're being judged for what was done while in the body, Okay, so these are the good works that were prepared before the beginning of time, and if you're led by the Spirit, then those are the works that you're going to be doing, and thus, those are the ones you're going to be rewarded for. Yeah, that's right.

Talk to me about gold and silver versus wood, hay, and stubble. Wood, hay, and stubble. It's possible for a Christian, it's possible for a Christian to carry out works that might even look good on the outside. Let's give an example. If I come here and I teach, people say, well that's a good thing, Earth's teaching the Bible, right? If I do it in dependence upon my own strength, is that rewardable? No. It's dependence upon Him and His life lived through me, that's rewardable. Isn't it amazing that the Lord is going to reward us for eternity, for moments, of Him living His life through me. That's just amazing. That's astounding. And what will be those rewards, those crowns, they will be a capacity to glorify the Lord. Every believer in heaven will glorify the Lord to 100% of his capacity.

But our capacities will not all be the same. Very interesting. Just like in teaching, I found many times that I could say the same information to a whole group of people, but some were collecting in thimbles and some were collecting in ten gallon buckets. Yeah, yeah. It's very interesting. I guess one way to put it is, we are, as we go through life, determining the quality of our eternity.

Will every believer go to heaven? Yeah. Every believer will go to heaven. Will there be mourning and crying and pain? No. No. But there will be a differing capacity to glorify the Lord. That's just kind of amazing. That's just kind of amazing to think about. And those who are unbelieving, do you think Adolf Hitler and his henchmen are going to serve in the same judgment as someone else who didn't live that way? Someone who doesn't believe the Lord but tries to live a good life.

Will they go to hell? Yeah, they will. But the one who dies in their sins, woe unto that one who dies in their sins because of unbelief. And boy, those sins are terrible. Yeah. Okay, so the souls that go to hell, they're disembodied, right? They have bodies, but think about it. We will have bodies that will have no mourning, sorrow, crying, or pain. They will have bodies. But it won't be these. But those bodies will experience mourning and sorrow and crying and pain. So it won't be just the same as we will have. We will have bodies like Christ's resurrection body. They will have bodies that are capable of experiencing mourning, sorrow, crying, and pain. Does it say in scripture that they have bodies? If you look at Revelation 20, 11 through 15, it talks about that.

As a matter of fact, as we go through the Gospel of Luke, we'll be looking at this some more. Luke, as we'll see, has some really unique things. including some revelations about the afterlife for both the believer and the unbeliever. Okay, well we're running out of time before we get to the end of the pages here, but this is still some good stuff.

What the Apostle Paul gets to, he gets into chapters 8 and chapter 9, and then he talks in those chapters about giving One of the key ones, and we have it out by our giving slot here, 2 Corinthians 9.7, So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. I heard this story one time there were two boys and they were in a church that passed an offering plate and there was a fellow who was quite well off who sat next to these two little boys frequently and as the offering plate went by the boys noticed that that guy just didn't give very much and so one time the boys talked to the man And I said, hey, you didn't give very much. And the guy says, well, the Lord loves a cheerful giver, and that's all I can cheerfully give. So anyway, that's the key here.

It's not a percentage, is it? So under the law, what did you have to give? You had to give your tithe. And by the way, that wasn't all they gave. That was just that one. But you had to give your tithes and who was it for? It was for the Levites. And you had to put it in the Levite storehouses which were distributed around Israel. And it was in support of the Levites who dealt with the temple ministry. And so that's what you gave your tithes for. There's nothing in here that indicates that there's some magic percentage. And certainly we don't have any Levites around here, and we have no temple for the Levites to work in. So there is no magic in the giving of a temple.

Yes? So in other words, if you give to be rewarded, you won't. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. As a matter of fact, if you give under compulsion, does the Lord please if you give some certain percentage under compulsion? No. Jesus made that pretty clear. She commented about the windows giving her might as opposed to making a lot of noise rattling down. Yeah, it's amazing. Human beings, we like to give some sort of a, you know, this is the biggest gift ever given or, you know, we like to have some kind of noise or measure or something like that. Instead, the Lord's looking in the heart.

Every time I read about one's request to a school or hospital, I think you've got your reward. Yeah, yeah. And that's one thing, in my position, I have no idea who gives what. It doesn't go through me, they don't let me know, and that's the way it ought to be. Because whatever time or investment I made shouldn't be made on the basis of who gives what. It shouldn't happen that way. The other thing that, as you look at 2 Corinthians, I'm about to have the second buzzer hit us here. Chapter 11, starting with verse 22.

Are they Hebrew? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool, for I am more in labors and more abundant in stripes more above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often."

And he goes through and lists a lot of the sufferings that he went through, right? And by the way, he lists sufferings that he went through. He doesn't automatically say that Satan did it, does he? He doesn't automatically say that Satan did it. He didn't say these are all punishments.

So this is a key insight for believers to have. Paul lists all the bad things that happen, and he doesn't attribute it to Satan, and he doesn't say that they're punishments from God. So this is a very important perspective, because that's where Christians are likely to get off track significantly, attributing everything bad that happens to Satan, or thinking that everything is a punishment from God. I must have done something wrong to deserve this. No, God may in fact have all these things happen and it's exactly what he has in mind.

But it's not punishment, it's not even discipline. It's trials to which Paul was appointed and we the saints. Alright, so the buzzer is going off, people are about ready to press their noses against the glass. We're done. Okay. Thank you Lord for what you've put here in this very special book and such insights about things like trials, insights into the law, insights into grace, and the things that you're growing us in. Insights into judgments for eternity. And thank you, Lord, that you have taken the punishment all upon yourself. Nothing that happens is for punishment for us. Christ has taken that. And that everything that happens in our lives is because you love us and care for us. You'll use it all. We thank you for that. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.