Opening Blinded Minds

Pastor Al

2 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Many years ago, we had a Norwegian woman in Fairplay who had a shop for massage therapy. For whatever reason I was always averse to having anyone give me a massage, but I had reached a level of discomfort that my chiropractor highly recommended such treatment, so I reluctantly set an appointment.

Early on in that first treatment, she mentioned that my upper back was very tight and that I must be under a lot of stress. I told her that I didn’t feel that I was stressed in any manner. She then said, “Well, you’re a pastor, right?” To which I obviously replied, “Yes.” She then said, “You hold people’s lives in your hands.” I then said, “Well, now I am stressed!”

While I do not literally hold people’s lives in my hands, there is a responsibility that I have been given by our God to watch over those of whom He brings to this church. There is also a burden that most if not all of you carry as well, and that is concerning lost souls – those in our family, close friends, and even simple acquaintances that are journeying through life without Christ as Lord.

In his classic work, “Lectures to My Students”, Charles Spurgeon writes:

“Our work, when earnestly undertaken, lays us open to attacks in the direction of depression. Who can bear the weight of souls without sometimes sinking to the dust? Passionate longings after men’s conversion, if not fully satisfied (and when are they?), consume the soul with anxiety and disappointment. To see the hopeful turn aside, waxing more bold in sin—are not these sights enough to crush us to the earth? The kingdom comes not as we would, the reverend name is not hallowed as we desire, and for this we must weep. How can we be otherwise than sorrowful, while men believe not our report, and the divine arm is not revealed? All mental work tends to weary and to depress, for much study is a weariness of the flesh; but ours is more than mental work—it is heart work, the labor of our inmost soul… Such soul-travail as that of a faithful minister will bring on occasional seasons of exhaustion, when heart and flesh will fail.”

In the accounts of Scripture, I think it is safe to say that nobody experienced more of what Spurgeon describes than the Apostle Paul – at least nobody else expressed this burden for the lost and burden for believers, like Paul does. We only need go to chapter 11 in this Letter of 2nd Corinthians that we have been studying to read of the horrible physical conditions that he has endured yet Paul emphasizes “the daily pressure on me of concern for the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?” (11:28-29). Paul asserts that the beatings, the hunger, the shipwreck, and all the other perils paled in comparison to his concern for the churches and for lost souls.

But Paul did not faint or grow weary under these attacks and these pressures.

Turn with me in your Bible to the Book of 2nd Corinthians. I’ll begin with the verse we ended with last week in chapter 3 before reading the first six verses of chapter 4.

2 Corinthians 3:18-4:1-6

Let’s pray.

Let me say up front, what I thought was going to be a sermon that covered this entire passage today, turned into a passage that will take another week at least when I am in this pulpit again in two weeks. My pastor’s conference was postponed but I am still having Brother Sam preach in my place next Sunday so I can spend this week putting a dent into my seminary studies. So, do not get concerned when my time is almost up this morning and we are still only working through the second of these six verses.

As Paul closed out his last thought in chapter 3 about the process of sanctification, of experiencing growth in becoming like Christ and reflecting Christ to others, this glory to glory as he puts it, he was not only encouraging the Corinthian church about this but was also expressing how this was his reality as well. And thus, his next thought is…

2 Corinthians 4:1

“Since we have this ministry” – Paul is not writing this in a burdensome manner, he isn’t saying, “Well, we have this ministry that we have been saddled with” or anything of the sort, he is just stating the fact that he and the others have been given or entrusted with a ministry.

I’ll throw in a quick observation and potential application right away. We are all given ministry opportunities that we are compelled to take on. We often ignore these opportunities but at other times we take that step of faith and jump in.

With any ministry, there is excitement but also some aspects of that ministry that we feel the weight, or the burden. The burden can come in the form of drudgery if you will, or the physical and emotional strain of the time devoted and wondering if you are accomplishing anything of worth, or even feelings of nobody recognizes your sacrifice, or as Paul is alluding to, the burden for the people you are serving.

Be prepared. Know what you will be facing. Settle in your mind and heart that whatever the ministry is that you are compelled to take on, that you are doing this for your Lord, that you have as I have said before, an audience of One. Do not lose sight of the truth that your efforts are to serve and please God first and foremost. Resolve to be faithful to your calling even if the results you expected are not materializing or that nobody seems to notice your dedication and sacrifice. God notices and records every act of service and will reward you accordingly. Ministry is service to God first, and to the others who benefit from your service, secondly.

Paul then writes, “Since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy”. The motivation to engage in and to be committed to and dedicated to ministry is that we have received mercy. The Greek word translated as we received mercy is similar in meaning to the Greek word translated in our Bibles most often as grace. It means to receive leniency and compassion that is not deserved and even incomprehensible. And this is the heart of God toward us and Paul applies it to ministry.

We do not deserve the privilege of being saved, first of all, but we also do not deserve to be able to participate in and be engaged in God’s ministry.

Let’s approach this from another angle – from the angle of God’s heart.

Hold your place in 2nd Corinthians and turn with me in your Bible to the Book of Isaiah. I’ll read the same passage that I read earlier in our worship time.

Isaiah 55:1-13

This passage deserves a series of sermons on its own, but I want to point out just a few things about God’s heart toward us in saving us by His grace and in then allowing us to be used by Him in His grace.

In the first seven verses, Yahweh extends His grace in salvation to anyone who will come to Him. “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat”. “Incline your ear and come to Me”. “Seek Yahweh while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near”. Isaiah even says that the wicked and the unrighteous may come, which includes us in that designation., “and He will have compassion on” us.

We then have the familiar verses of which we probably take out of context more so than not, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways”. There is nothing wrong with applying this to the truth that God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours in all things, but the context is that God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours in extending His grace in salvation. It makes no sense for holy God to justify us, but He does. And our thinking in this not simply off by a few degrees, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than yours ways and My thoughts than your thoughts”.

Isaiah then completes the chapter with how God then allows us the privilege by His grace to enjoy His abundance and to be engaged in His ministry of service by spreading His glory.

That was an extremely brief overview of that chapter with a ton of truth left on the table, but I trust that you can see the connection of God’s heart in His grace towards us, to Paul’s words, and our topic this morning.

2 Corinthians 4:1

“Since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart”. Through the years even just in this church, I have experienced again and again, people who get excited about serving in various aspects of God’s ministry but allow one thing or another to derail them and to cause them to lose heart, to lose focus, to lose the passion they once had, to lose their love and desire to be engaged in God’s ministry. The Apostle Paul is imploring us to follow his example.

2 Corinthians 4:2a (…craftiness)

From the time that Paul witnessed the grace of God and the glory of Jesus on the road to Damascus, he renounced his former hidden life of shame. Paul despised his sin so vehemently that he cried out for deliverance in Romans 7:24: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”

When people experience this grace and witness the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ in salvation, when they understand who God is, what His holy Word demands, and the provision of the Holy Spirit in sanctification, they renounce and turn from the former shame of their sin and devote themselves to becoming like Christ. A repentance that does not involve turning away from sin is not found in Scripture. Genuine conversion will result in renouncing sin and the shame that it brings, a shame that has been removed from us by God’s grace.

The application of the grace of God to our lives will also eliminate any temptation to be walking in craftiness, meaning we will in the power of the Holy Spirit cease from being phony in any aspect of our lives. We will stop leading double lives, we will stop hiding our sin and pretending that we are holier in our own strength than we are, we will stop wearing masks that hide the reality of our weaknesses, we will avoid being hypocritical, and we will simply fall on the grace of God as an undeserving sinner who desperately needs the grace of God applied to our lives every moment of every day. We will be transparent and vulnerable in our reliance on God and God alone.

2 Corinthians 4:2b – “or adulterating the word of God”

Paul adds to repentance, or renouncing his past sinful life, and he adds to his resolve to not be walking in craftiness, with never adulterating the word of God. The sense here is to never distort or twist or add to or take away from what Scripture says and teaches in its full and proper context.

This common practice, not only by believers in general but by those who have been entrusted to teach and preach and counsel others, is a terrible breech of trust and the cause for so many to fall away from their devotion to God and their faith. This practice is the polar opposite of the grace of God that Paul has been teaching throughout this Letter. Instead of applying and extending God’s grace, adulterating the word of God is trampling on God’s grace, either through ignorance of the Word of God or by insidious adherence to and demands of legalism.

The Greek word translated as adulterating speaks of adding corruption or inferior ingredients to that which was pure. In common Greek usage outside of the Bible, it was used of those who would water down wine or incorporate inferior materials into gold and silver.

Adulterating the word of God would then be adding things to the teaching and preaching of God’s Word for their own purposes and benefit. It is akin to what Paul said earlier in 2:17 of “peddling the word of God” – manipulating Scripture to achieve their own unscrupulous ends.

I can’t help but think of those who misuse and abuse the passages of Scripture on giving, which is almost invariably to pad their own bank accounts and satisfy their own greed. Adulterating or peddling the word of God is a travesty or monumental proportions.

I am by no means infallible in my presentation of Scripture week-to-week, which is yet another reason that I desperately need your prayers as I study and prepare for the various avenues that God gives me to teach and preach, but please know that I fully understand the gravity of my responsibility to you. I know the potential influence that I have up here each week, especially to those of you who are still growing in your faith and are not as knowledgeable as you would like to be with the Bible. I truly endeavor with the Spirit’s help to never lead you astray and I appreciate those of you who ask for clarification on things after the message when something I said doesn’t seem to fit with what the verse or passage teaches.

There are so many in today’s pulpits who do not handle Scripture accurately, but instead they use a verse or a portion of a verse to support what they want to promote. And the lack of biblical literacy among those who call themselves Christian causes people to accept what is taught as being from God, and many lives have their faith shipwrecked in the process when what they believed was a promise of God does not come to pass in their lives. And in the context of what Paul is teaching us means legalism more often than not.

Beloved, no matter how well-intentioned you are, when you mandate that which Scripture does not mandate, the consequences can be immense in the lives of those you lay down such unbiblical laws. Do not be guilty of adulterating and peddling the Word of God even when your intentions are pure.

2 Corinthians 4:2c

Probably the surest mark of a believer’s growth in the faith is a love for biblical truth, regardless of how that truth can sometimes be uncomfortable, how it can crush a long-held but false belief, or how it impacts behaviors in your life that you have grown accustomed to. One of the surest marks of a stunted growth in the faith is the stubborn refusal to let go of and repent of your pet sins and unbiblical habits. Which again in the context of what Paul is teaching, includes legalistically adapting, or more bluntly, twisting Scripture to fit your beliefs and to attempt to control the behavior of others.

I often catch myself justifying my actions or the actions of loved ones, and/or telling others how to act based on my sense of what’s right instead of what the Bible really teaches. My actions can sometimes prove that my love for biblical truth is actually lacking at times, as my love for my own sense of truth can overtake biblical truth when I allow my selfish motives to rule the day.

When the clear manifestation of truth in Scripture reigns supreme in our lives, no matter the opposition from man, no matter the scorn and persecution from others, no matter even the resistance of other believers who are for some reason blinded to the truth, the spiritual power and impact will be transforming in your life and the lives of those who will listen and hear. Quite the opposite of the impact that will come from adulterating or peddling the word of God.

Teaching, preaching, and living the truth of Scripture has the effect, Paul says, of commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And please remember that everything you do is in the sight of God. When the pure truth of Scripture and only the pure truth of Scripture is on display in what we say and how we live, the conscience is activated in other people’s lives, which will bear witness to the truth of the Word of God.

Some may reject and resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit when the truth of the Word of God is proclaimed, but nothing you add or alter, or twist will bring the desired results. Only the pure unadulterated Word of God can bring about changed lives and even utterly transformed lives.