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Now, this is kind of a strange thing to start out this chapter with, and he kind of takes this chapter a strange direction later on, because he keeps saying over and over again how I speak as a fool, I'm speaking foolishly, bear with me a little bit in my folly, right? And he says that over and over and over again in this chapter, and I'm not going to tell you how I speak as a fool, I'm speaking foolishly, bear with me a little bit in my folly, right? And he says that over and over and over again in this chapter, and I'm going to get to that when I get to that point in the chapter and explain that. But what he's basically saying is, I'm going to speak as a fool just to make a point to you, so I want you to bear with me and realize that I'm not being serious here when I say these things. So he's giving a lot of disclaimers. But he doesn't jump right into that subject matter. He gets into the foolish thing he wants to say starting in verse 16. But before that, leading up to verse 15, he's explaining why he's going to do this, why he's going to say these things, because he says in verse 2, For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. So I want to start out by talking about that concept of godly jealousy. When we think of jealousy, we typically think of it as a bad thing. But actually, in the Bible, jealousy is typically a good thing. And here it's called godly jealousy. Now, what happens is people mix up envy with jealousy. So in 2019, when people say, oh, you're just jealous, what they actually mean is you're envious. And envy and jealousy are two very different things. But unfortunately, the words have changed in meaning to where now we don't really use the word envy very often. And we just use the word jealous, and we've changed the meaning of it. So what do these words mean in the Bible? Because that's really what we care about when we're studying the Bible. OK, jealousy is when you are possessive of something that is rightfully yours. Something belongs to you, and it's rightfully yours, and you're possessive of it, and you don't want to share it. That's jealousy. Envy, on the other hand, is when you look at something that belongs to someone else, and you wish that it were yours. So today in 2019, when people say, you're just jealous, what they really mean is that you're envious, OK? That you're looking at someone else, and you want what they have, or you wish you were them, or whatever. That's what the Bible calls envy. So those are two different things. So for example, if I am a husband, and I'm a jealous husband, then that means I rightfully have my wife, and I don't want to share her with other men. Now that's a normal feeling. That's a godly attitude toward your wife. Or how about a jealous wife would be one who says, well, I don't want to share my husband with other women. And that's legitimate, because her husband rightfully belongs to her, and so she doesn't want to share him, and that makes perfect sense. Amen? You know, if I have something that means a lot to me, and I don't want to share it, I'm jealous of that object, OK? The wrong thing is when you covet another man's wife, or when you covet another man's car, or his house, or other things. Being possessive of your own things can often be appropriate. God said that he is a jealous god, and that his name is jealous. Why? Because he said, I will not share my glory with another. He wants to be worshipped alone. He doesn't want you to worship him and other false gods. He wants all the worship for himself, because he is the creator. He's the only true god. So when Paul says, I'm godly over you with a godly jealousy, he's saying, look, I've won you to Christ, I've preached the gospel to you, I've taught you the Bible, I have espoused you to one husband. OK? He's saying, I'm not your husband here, but I, by preaching the gospel to you, I've espoused you to one husband, which is Christ, and I want to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. I'm godly over you with a godly jealousy. So what he's saying is, he wants to make sure that they don't go after the false teachers, and the false prophets, and get into heresy. He's jealous over them with a godly jealousy. He wants them to be faithful. The jealous husband wants his wife to be faithful to him. The jealous wife wants her husband to be faithful to her, right? And Paul here is jealous over them. He wants them to be faithful, not to him per se, but to be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he's jealous over them with a godly jealousy. But I fear, verse 3, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. So here's what he's afraid of. He's afraid that they're going to go after false prophets, false teachers, and be corrupted by the devil. Now, it's interesting here. He says that he fears that they'll be beguiled and corrupted away from the simplicity that's in Christ, the simplicity of Christ. Now, is simplicity good or bad? Well, it depends. There are places in the Bible when God rebukes the simple one for being simple. And he's telling him, get more knowledge, get more understanding, get more wisdom. So when it comes to us as people, we don't want to go through life as a simple person for the rest of our life. We need to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, so we want to get more complicated, right? We want to learn more and get smarter. So in that sense, being simple is a bad thing. But when it comes to the gospel, keep the gospel simple. Why? Because the gospel is a starting point, right? Getting saved is just the beginning of the Christian life. And so getting saved is easy. Getting saved is simple. Getting saved is so easy that a little tiny child can be saved. And not only that, the Bible says, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. You can't even go to heaven without having the mentality of a little child. Well, guess what? A little child doesn't understand trigonometry, geometry, calculus. They don't understand complicated things. They're simple, aren't they? Children are supposed to be simple. When you get to be 30, 40, 50, and you're still simple, that's a bad thing. But children are supposed to be simple. The gospel is simple. It's simple enough for a little child. And in fact, even a very intelligent, intellectual, smart adult is going to have to become like a little child in order to be saved, accepting that simple free gift of salvation. You know what the simplicity is that's in Christ? Here's the simplicity that's in Christ. Jesus died on the cross for your sins. He was buried and rose again. And you get to heaven by believing in him. It's really simple. I mean, it's not complicated, right? Oh man, it's so complicated. You know, well, what about works and all that? Look, here's how simple it is. Jesus did everything. All you have to do is just believe in him. Just like a little child, just trust their parents to put food on the table. Trust their parents to pay the rent. They don't pull out a few quarters and say, mom, dad, let me help with the rent this month. You know, I'm going to help pay the bills. They trust their parents to take care of those things. Okay. And we have to fully trust the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior. And that's a simple gospel that just says, Hey, we're sinners. We deserve to go to hell, but Jesus loves us. He died for us. He was buried. He rose again. And if we believe on him, we're saved. And once we're saved, he'll never leave us or forsake us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. There's nothing complicated about that, but you'll hear people that will corrupt your minds away from the simplicity that's in Christ. And they'll take you down these complicated gospels. Won't they? Where they'll sit there and say, well, you have to be willing to turn away from your sins and you're like, well, do I have to turn away from my sins though? Well, you just have to be willing. Well, how willing do I have to be? Do I have to be so willing that I will do it? Or do I just have to be willing to be willing or willing to be willing to be willing? I mean, how willing are you to give up which sins, this sin, that sin? Look, workspace salvation gets complicated because you never know where to draw the line. So which sins do I have to repent of? Or which ones can I continue doing and still be saved? Or how many good works do I have to do? How good do I have to be? Where's God going to draw the line where he accepts me or doesn't accept me? How bad would I have to be to lose my salvation? How good do I have to be to go to heaven? Boy, these things are all just confusion. Nobody can give you a straight answer to these questions because they have no answer because they're false, okay? The true story is that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. That's simple. Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Piece of cake, simple, easy to understand. So there are complicated things in the Bible. Peter said that there are things in Paul's epistles that are hard to be understood. And so we don't want to go through lives remaining simple. We want to get smarter and dig into the deep things of God and understand Paul's epistles and understand the whole Bible and continually grow in knowledge. But it starts with a simple plan of salvation. So when you're out soul winning, don't go out there and make the gospel complicated. Don't get all crazy on your gospel presentation and get into all this elaborate, deep doctrine. The best thing that you can do is to simplify the gospel as much as you can. Use the word of God, use the Bible because the Bible has the power, the word of God is quick and powerful, and make it easy to understand. Break it down. Simplify it. Use basic illustrations. Don't get complicated. Don't confuse people. Try to make it easy and simple. So don't let the devil corrupt you from the simplicity that's in Christ. He said, I fear, I fear that the devil is going to try to trick you. I'm jealous over you. I'm concerned here that you could follow the wrong people. For, he says in verse four, if he that cometh preaches another Jesus whom we've not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you've not received or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him. I'm afraid that you're going to bear with false teachers. What does it mean to bear with someone? I mean, Paul said at the very beginning of the verse, or chapter that is, would to God, you could bear with me a little in my folly. If I say bear with me, it means what? Be patient with me. Hang in there, right? Stay with me. Bear with me. Put up with me. Be patient with me. Okay, you know what he's saying? I'm afraid that you're going to put up with another Jesus. I'm afraid you're going to put up with another gospel. I'm afraid you're going to put up with another spirit. Guess what? We shouldn't bear with those things. We shouldn't bear with that. So what are the three things? And here's a three-point outline right here. He said, another Jesus, another spirit, and another gospel, right? These are the three bad guys that Paul's afraid that they're going to get sucked in by. Who is another Jesus? Well, here's the thing. If you just have a guy that you call Jesus, that doesn't make him the Jesus of the Bible. The right Jesus is the Jesus of the Bible, because he's the Word made flesh. So if he's the Word made flesh, he's the Jesus of the Bible, amen? So basically, what you have out there are a lot of Hispanic people named Jesus, okay? And I'm not against you if you're here tonight and your name's Jesus, but you're not my Savior, okay? Well, just as much as Jesus down the street is not your Savior, just because people say that they believe in Jesus does not mean that they believe in the Jesus of the Bible. In fact, you'll even hear people say things like, well, the Jesus I believe in, and then they'll just make up things out of their own heart that aren't in the Bible. You know, well, the Jesus that I believe in is just tolerant of everything, and he's for homos and everything. You know, it's just like, well, that's a different Jesus. Or how about this? What about the Jesus of Islam? Is Jesus of Islam the same as Jesus of the Bible? No, because the Jesus of the Bible is the Son of God. The Jesus of Islam is not the Son of God. They believe that Jesus is just a prophet, not the Son of God. That's not the same Jesus, is it? Okay, what about the Jesus of Mormonism that's a created being, his brother's Lucifer? That's a different Jesus, okay? The Jesus of the Jehovah's Witnesses is not the Jesus of the Bible, because he's Michael the Archangel, and he's not coeternal with God the Father. He's a created being, okay? He's a lesser God. In fact, their Bible changes it, where it says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. In their Bible that they've corrupted, it says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was a God. A God? How many are there? There is only but one. So you can't have a God, all right? Just that, unless you have a false God. The Bible talks about a God and gods, plural, but it's always false gods, which are demons, okay? When it comes to the true God, there's only one. So the Jesus of the Bible is the Son of God, okay? Also, the oneness Pentecostals have another Jesus, right? They have a Jesus that's God the Father. They don't believe in the Trinity. They believe in modalism, and that's another Jesus. That's not the Jesus that's the Son of God that's divine, that's co-eternal, that's the creator. So we want to make sure we have the Jesus of the Bible, not the Jesus of liberal social justice warriors that say, well, the Jesus I believe in is for Bernie Sanders or whatever, you know? You know, that's not the Jesus of the Bible. And so we want to make sure that we have the biblical Jesus, not another Jesus, amen? Okay. Then we also want to make sure that we don't receive another spirit. Now, there's the Holy Spirit, and then there's another spirit that could be received. This is a scary thing because the other spirit would be an unclean spirit. All throughout the Bible, we see people that are possessed of an unclean spirit or an unclean devil. They have a fallen demon that comes into them, and we don't want to have anything to do with those unfruitful works of darkness. And so we're to beware of another Jesus, we're to beware of another spirit. You know, this spirit that takes over people's bodies, and they're, that's not the Holy Spirit. Because the Bible says the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets. And when the Holy Spirit comes upon someone, they don't lose control of their body, they don't lose control of their voice box. The Lord speaks through them, but they're actually still in control. They're in the driver's seat. They don't just black out, and five minutes later, people, oh, what happened? What did I say? What did I do? Oh, you rolled around on the ground, and you barked like a dog, and laughed hysterically, and spoke in tongues. You know, that's, folks, when you see people, and they're not in the driver's seat, and they lose control of their bodies, and they're flopping on the ground, and foaming at the mouth, and speaking with another voice that's not theirs, that's not the Holy Spirit. It's not, that's another spirit. Beware. And then, and that's the charismatic movement that I'm talking about. And then the next thing he says is beware of another gospel. Okay, gospel means the good news, right? The good news that Jesus Christ died for us, and was buried, and rose again, and if we just trust him, we'll be saved. Okay, but there's another gospel out there that Galatians warns us about. We talked about it this morning. The gospel of follow the law, and you'll be saved. The gospel of obey the commandments, and you'll be saved. And Galatians spends all six chapters rebuking that other gospel. So people say, I believe the gospel. But is it the biblical gospel? I believe in Jesus. Is it the Jesus of the Bible? I've received the Holy Spirit. Is it the Holy Spirit, or is it another spirit? Okay, we need to try the spirits whether they're of God. Because many false prophets are gone out into the world, the Bible tells us. So he says in verse number five, for I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles, but though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge. Now, if you remember from chapter 10, they were accusing him of being a poor speaker. And they were saying that Paul did not speak well, that he was a weakling, and that his presence was contemptible. And they said that he writes these great letters, but he's a paper tiger, basically, is what they were saying. So he's saying, okay, well, though I be rude in speech. And that's what they were saying. He says, well, I'm not in knowledge though. What is he saying? At least I know what I'm talking about. And the Bible talks about how false prophets and false teachers who preach another Jesus and another gospel, they'll often be very eloquent. And with fair speeches, they'll deceive the hearts of the simple because they're good at speaking, they're convincing, they're funny, they're interesting, they're dynamic, they're crying, they're just great speakers. You know, being a great speaker doesn't make you right. And being a great speaker doesn't mean you know what you're talking about. You hear a lot of these radio personalities and they're really good at speaking. They have a great voice and they speak well, but often they don't know what they're talking about, but boy, they're convincing, aren't they? It's more important that the people that you listen to are trustworthy and that they, you know, that they know their stuff, you know, that they know the Bible and that they're teaching you sound doctrine. I'd rather listen to a guy stammer and stutter and struggle behind the pulpit, but he's given me good doctrine. He's given me solid teaching. Then to hear some silver tongue order with all the best illustrations and stories and he's got me laughing one minute and crying the next, but it's all lies, right? Or it's just all shallow as a Frisbee, right? I'd rather learn the Bible. And so he says, though I be rude in speech yet not in knowledge. I'm not rude in knowledge though, Paul said, but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things. Have I committed an offense in abasing myself that ye might be exalted because I've preached to you the gospel of God freely? He's saying, look, have I made a mistake by being so humble around you that now you think that basically you can just talk down to me, push me around. And you know, you remember from the last chapter, they're making fun of him. They're saying that he's rude of speech. They're, uh, not taking his correction. They're not accepting his authority. And then he says in verse eight, I robbed other churches, taking wages of them to do you service. When I was present with you and wanted, I was chargeable to no man for that which was lacking to me, the brethren, which came from Macedonia supplied. And all things I've kept myself from being burdensome unto you. And so will I keep myself. Now here's what we have to understand. You can't take everything in the Bible super literally. Paul did not literally rob other churches. Okay. And this is where people get dumb when they interpret things hyper literally. He didn't go in and say, all right, give me your money. You know, faithful word needs money. And I know I'm getting it from you. You know, I'm robbing other churches to do you service. He's, he's exaggerating. You know, this is how the Bible often works where, uh, things are in extremes. Okay. You know, I robbed other churches to do. What he's saying is, look, he took money and resources from other services from other churches and he used them to help the church at Corinth. Which this happens all the time. And it's perfectly legal for one church to give another church money. You know, one church says, Hey, this other church needs help. Let's send them some money to help them out. So money can be transferred from church to church. Totally legally. It's totally obviously morally and ethically right because of the fact that if one church has a surplus and another church needs help, you know, you can send them a one time gift or whatever to help them out with a specific need. And that happens all the time and it always has, and it always will. That's all he's saying. You know, I robbed other churches to help you out, you know, and, and this is how you treat me. I'm nice to you. I treat you well and I meet your needs and you turn around and bite me. He says, you know, I basically was not chargeable to you. The, the churches from Macedonia, they supplied my needs. They paid my way. And then he says in verse 10 as the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Akia. Wherefore, because I love you not, God knoweth. So what's the boasting? He says, no man shall stop me of this boasting. The boasting that he's doing here is saying, Hey, I didn't take a dime from you. In fact, I put money into the plate in Corinth. The men, the men from Macedonia, they're the ones who paid my way. They met my needs. Macedonia is what we know today as Northern Greece. And then Akia is what we know today as Southern Greece. Corinth is in Akia. Okay. So he's saying, you know, yeah, I'm boasting in Akia saying I didn't take a paycheck. I didn't take any money from you guys. All I've done is give and put in. So I'm not here to get something from you. I'm here to give something to you. Okay. So basically what we see in this chapter is Paul defending himself. He's under attack. He's being slandered. They're accusing him of all kinds of things. And they're, they're, they're rejecting his authority. They're rejecting his teaching and preaching. And he's defending himself is what he's doing in this chapter, which is, which is what makes it kind of a different chapter because there aren't a lot of chapters like this in the Bible where we have a man of God defending himself against attackers, but this is one of them. So he says, you know, why did I do these things? Is it because I don't love you? Is that why, is that why I took from other churches and gave to you? Is that why I didn't take a paycheck from you? Is that why I served you night and day? Because I didn't love you. And he says, well, God knows. God knows that I do love you. God knows my heart and say verse 12, but what I do that I will do that I may cut off occasion from them, which desire occasion that we're in they glory, they may be found even as we for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ and no Marvel. For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light, wherefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works. So he's warning them that these people that they're getting sucked in by these people that they're listening to that are such good speakers and that they prefer to the apostle Paul, he's warning them, look, these guys are false apostles. They're actually of the devil. Okay. These guys are of the devil. And you say, well, but they're preaching the gospel. It's another gospel. Well, but you know, they're, they believe in Jesus. It's the wrong Jesus. Yeah, but man, they've got a lot of spirit. Wrong spirit. Okay. The devil himself, the Bible says is transformed into an angel of light. Okay. So think about this. Mohammed says, Oh, an angel came and gave me the Quran. That's the devil. Because the devil's transformed into an angel of light. He brought Mohammed another gospel, another Jesus and another spirit. Okay. The book of Mormon. Oh, I got it from the angel Moroni. You got it from the angel Lucifer. Okay. Because the devil himself is transformed into an angel of light. Okay. And so he brings lies and false doctrine in the guise of an angel. But not only that, the Bible says that his ministers are transformed into the ministers of righteousness. So his ministers, they don't go around and say, hello, we're here from the church of Satan. They are transformed into the ministers of life. The ministers of Jesus Christ. They are disguised. Okay. Now here's the thing. If you would flip over to Ephesians chapter number two. I believe that a lot of people that are not saved, that are false teachers, false prophets, or whatever, I believe that a lot of them know that they're bad, but I believe that a lot of them don't necessarily know that they're bad or how bad they are. You see, when a person is unsaved, they are open to being a pawn for the devil. Now, when we're saved, we have the Holy Spirit living inside us. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. And so as Christians, we're not going to be demon possessed or anything like that. But unsaved people do get demon possessed. But even if they're not demon possessed, they could often be manipulated by the devil and unwittingly be a pawn in his plan and fulfill his agenda without even knowing it, without even realizing that that's what they're doing. Because you wonder to yourself, you know, why do bad people infiltrate churches or why do they do these horrible things and why would they pretend to be a good person? And look, you can preach this stuff until you're blue in the face and people don't get it, until they see it for themselves. And even then, they often don't get it. But when you point out to them, hey, this person that's been going to our church for years, actually, that person was a false prophet. That person was an infiltrator. That person was a Judas Iscariot. That person was false brethren. They'll say, no, there's no way. I mean, that guy, he, you know, I knew that guy. I was soul winning with that guy. You know, he wasn't a phony. He was the real deal. Why would someone do that? Why would someone go to a church for years and they don't even believe the truth or they're a false teacher? There are a lot of reasons why. But one reason is that the devil just has them there and they're just fulfilling the devil's will, whether they're conscious of that or not, they're fulfilling the devil's will, whether they realize it or not. Now, a perfect example of this is Judas Iscariot. And to sit there and of course, Judas Iscariot was also ultimately fulfilling God's will. And even the devil ultimately fulfills God's will. That's why the devil, that's why God lets the devil out of hell on purpose in at the end of the millennium to go out and deceive the nations, because ultimately all things work together for good to them that love God in the end. Okay. Including all the devil's attacks on you. God's going to turn that around and use that for good in your life. Okay. But look what the Bible says here in Ephesians chapter two, and then we'll get into the example of Judas, but in Ephesians chapter two, it says in verse one and you had the quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others. The Bible's talking about here people that before they were saved, that they are doing what? They are walking according to the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. What's that spirit that's at work in the children of disobedience? Is that the Holy Spirit? No. That's the spirit that's of the devil. And that spirit works in the children of disobedience. The prince of the power of the air is the devil. And the Bible's saying that we walked according to his plan. We were on his program. We were doing what he wanted to do. And there's a spirit at work in the children of disobedience. And it says among whom also we all had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh. So we think, oh, I'm just fulfilling the lusts of my flesh. I'm just doing what I want to do. I'm just going to do what I want to do. God's not going to tell me what to do. My parents aren't going to tell me what to do. Church isn't going to tell me what to do. I'm just going to follow my flesh, my lust. But you know who you're really following? When you do that, you're actually following the devil. So you think you're following your own lust. The Bible says you're walking according to his plan, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. So unsaved people are fulfilling the devil's will, even if they don't set out and say, man, I'd like to worship Satan. They do it. They do his will. They do his bidding. They are his pawns. He manipulates them. He brainwashes them through the media and through false teachers and liars that will manipulate them, brainwash them, and then he'll send them into churches as infiltrators to do damage. Judas Iscariot. I mean, I can't emphasize this enough. I mean, Judas Iscariot is an important character in the Bible that we all need to understand because this is a guy that Jesus at the beginning of his ministry says, have not I chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil? He knew from the beginning who it was that didn't believe in him. He knew from the beginning who it was that would betray him. And this devil was with them for three and a half years. Now, three and a half years might not seem like a super long time. But here we have church three times a week, right? We have church three times a week and church lasts a little bit over an hour, maybe an hour and a half, okay, three times a week. And then we go soul winning a few times and maybe you show up to this soul winning time or that soul winning time. Okay, Jesus and the apostles were together every day. I mean, they are going out every day full time. Okay, this is all they do, folks. This is not just something that they do on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights and Sunday nights, no. The apostles are out with Jesus and with each other for three and a half years. This is what they do full time. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I mean, they are out doing it. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? So, yeah, they were with Judas for three and a half years. They were intensely with Judas for three and a half years. It would be like the equivalent of going to church with somebody probably for twenty years just seeing them on Sunday morning or something. Okay. And Judas was a devil. He was literally demon possessed. He did not believe in Jesus Christ. He was stealing from the offering and no one suspected him. No one knew that he was bad except Jesus. And, in fact, when Jesus says at the Last Supper, one of you shall betray me, you know what they are all saying? Is it I, Lord? Is it I? None of them said it's Judas. You know, or is it Judas? They thought it was more likely to be them than Judas. And, in fact, when John leans over to Jesus and says, Lord, who is it? Because John was right next to Jesus leaning on him literally at the Last Supper. He leans into Jesus and says, who is it, Lord? And he says, it's the one that I'll give the sop to after I've dipped it. He dips the sop, hands it to Judas. I mean, he just told him, I'm going to dip the sop and give it to him. That's who it is. Dips the sop, hands it to Judas, and says, that thou doest, do quickly. Judas gets up and walks out of the room. Wouldn't you think at that point, OK, we just solved that mystery? It was Professor Plum, you know? There it is. It's Judas. He's our guy. Folks, they still didn't know. They did not have a clue. Even when he hands him the sop, that thou doest, do quickly, they said, oh, he must be going to buy something. You know, we have to buy something for the Passover. They still did it. I mean, that's pretty interesting. And then people say, well, how did you not know these people were bad? How come you didn't realize they were bad when you spent so much time with them? I don't know. Did I spend three and a half years with them every day? Well, if so, I still wouldn't have figured out Judas. They didn't figure out Judas. They didn't think Judas was bad. And you say, well, three and a half years. Okay, what about Absalom? Absalom for decades is lying, hypocritical, pretending to be something he's not, a total phony for decades, okay? The devil is a patient individual, okay? He will just slowly attack at the foundation, slowly chip away at things, creep in, creep in, change the water like the boiling water with the frog in it. He'll keep on turning up the heat and so forth. So we need to understand that Paul is warning them that the devil's minions are transformed into good, godly Christians. Now, look, we should keep our eyes out for them. And there are certain things that we can look for like flattery. I just preached about last week. Flattery is something that we can look for. Another thing that we can look for is the fake humility and the hyper spirituality. And these things all kind of go hand in hand, right? With the infiltrators, the false apostles, the false prophets, the devil's minions. They'll use flattery. And this is just a super quick review from last week's sermon. What's flattery? It's when they tell you how great you are and how much they love you. When they don't really like you, they pretend to like you. So they make you feel really good by saying nice things to you. But it's not from the heart. That's flattery. What goes hand in hand with that is the overboard, fake humility of they just come... They're just so humble. You know, and they just talk so much about how important it is to be so humble. And because these are two sides of the same coin. You know why? Because you're awesome and I'm a loser are two sides of the same coin. You understand what I'm saying? So let's say I'm going to flatter brother Nick here, right? I'm a false teacher and Nick is my victim here. And I'm going to tell him, oh man, when you read the Bible on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights, man, my heart just burns within me, man. That is powerful. I mean, you have a gift that can't be taught, okay? You know, and if I'm just praying, man, you look sharp. That outfit, I mean, it just works, man. You know, so I'm just going to tell him how great he is. And here's the thing, what's the other side of that coin is, is, you know, yeah, I wish I could read like you, but man, I'm, I'm just not good at it. You know what I mean? Isn't that kind of the, do you see how those two things can go together? The overboard humility, the fake humility of, oh, well, you know, just whatever you say, you know, because I don't know anything anyway. I mean, I'm, you know, I'm just brand new. I don't have a clue, man. You know, I, I heard a guy get up one time and say, and, and he said this about a false teacher, pastor Jack Scott, here's what he said. He said, I have more confidence in pastor Scott's opinion, or he actually said, I have more confidence in pastor Scott's guess or opinion than in my own certainty. If pastor Scott guesses at something or thinks that something is right, I would have more confidence in that than in my own certainty. What I know for sure, what he thinks is probably right. I trust that more than what I know is true. Isn't that kind of a weird thing to say? So that's like a flattering thing to say. And people are just constantly telling you how, yeah, I don't know anything. And yeah, I, well, I, I don't really matter. I'm not important. I'm a loser. You're awesome. You know, it, those are two sides of the same coin, the flattery and the false humility. And then the other thing is the hyper spirituality, the hyper overboard spirituality. Like for example, just think saying that we just have, all we do is just read our Bible, pray, go soul winning, no fun allowed, no recreation allowed, no taking a break. This is the guy on the missions trip who says, what do you mean you want to take a break? So you just want these people to go to hell? So you're going to stop soul winning after five hours straight. What do you mean? You just don't love people. You just don't care about souls. I'm going to get out there and do it for nine hours, 10 hours, 12 hours, you know, the hyper spiritual. Now look, if somebody wants to go out and, and do extra soul winning, but, but the, the sincere person, they go out and do it and they don't make a big deal out of it. And they don't try to tell other people that they have to do it too, or they don't love Christ or they don't love souls. Right? Look at Judas exhibiting the hyper spiritual attitude when he says to the woman who opens the alabaster box and puts the expensive ointment on Jesus Christ. What does Judas say? Well, this, we should be giving this to the poor. You know, he's just so hyper spiritual. How can we waste this? You know, really he wanted to take the money and go spend it down at the casino or whatever, but he basically instead, you know, says, Oh, well we should be giving this to the poor. He didn't care for the poor, but he's pretending to care about the poor. So you get these hyper spiritual types pretending to care about the laws, pretending to care about the poor, pretending that they think you're awesome, pretending that they don't think that they're worthy. But you know what? You'll notice that these people are the most prideful, arrogant people. They're only, they only pretend to be humble. They put on a big show of being humble because in reality they're puffed up in their vain fleshly mind. And they don't think you're great. They hate your guts, but they'll tell you, Oh, I love you so much, brother. Oh, you're such a blessing. You're like the father I've never had. You know, you're like my brother from another mother or whatever, you know, just, Oh, you're so great. So these flattering people and here's, here's how they also get you. They give you gifts, you know, they'll give gifts and praise you. And look, giving gifts is a great thing. I'm not against giving gifts. I think giving gifts is great, but when it's coming from an insincere heart, it's wicked. When you give gifts to someone that you hate, not because you're trying to overcome evil with good, but because you're trying to seduce them. You're trying to deceive them. You're trying to throw them off the trail. And you know, those that are naive when they're getting praise and they're getting flattery and they're getting gifts, they think like, man, these are great. This Judas is a great guy. What a heart for the poor. This guy loves the poor. And by the way, you know, when Judas made that stupid statement about, Oh, it's for the, we need it for the poor. Did you know that the other apostles got caught up in that too? And then they started thinking, yeah, maybe we should give this to the poor. You know, why were they dumb? No, but it's easy to get sucked in by these people. That's why the disciples were fooled after three and a half years. Only Jesus knew the truth because he's Jesus. Okay. So he knew what was in man. He knew all things. And so he could figure this out. They did. So I can't warn you enough about the false teachers, false prophets and infiltrators. They're out there and you won't believe it sometimes until you see it. And then even when you see it some, I just can't believe that these people are bad. Well, look at their fruits, look at their works. Guess what? They're bad. So let me get through the rest of the chapter here. So there's a major gear change at the end of verse 15. And from verse 16 on, he gets into the foolish speaking. Okay. Because remember at the beginning in verse one, he said he was going to speak foolishly that, you know, bear with me in my folly. Then for the first 15 verses, he warned us about another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel, the devil's transformed into an angel of light, et cetera, et cetera. Now he's going to get into his foolish speaking. Now it really cracks me up. How many disclaimers he gives. There are a lot of disclaimers. Okay. Let me just show you the disclaimers in verse one. He says, bear with me in my folly. Okay. Then in verse number 16, he says, I say again, let no man think me a fool. If otherwise yet as a fool receive me that I may boast myself a little, that which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly. So he's warning us over and over. I'm going to speak foolishly. I'm going to speak as a fool, right? It's a forewarning so far. Verse 19, for you suffer fools, gladly seeing yourselves are wise in verse 19. So he's saying, look, I'm going to speak as a fool since you like, since you love following fools so much, since you're following all these full false teachers. And then he says, again, if you look at the end of verse 21, look at the parenthesis. I speak as I speak foolishly. And then look at verse 23 and the princess, I speak as a fool. How many disclaimers? So I think Paul really wants us to know that he's not serious here. Is everybody getting that seven times? He says, look, what I'm saying is about to be stupid. It's about to get stupid. I'm being stupid. All right. Just letting you know. I don't because he didn't want people to read this and think he's, he's for real. So he's making sure that they know seven different times. I'm going to speak as a fool. Okay. And that's why he says in verse 17, that which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord. Saying this isn't the Lord telling you this, what I'm about to tell you here. This is me speaking as a fool. Okay. Does everybody get that? As it were foolishly in this confidence of boasting. Now, what is the foolish speaking? He's going to do is he's going to boast. He's going to brag. And you know, we should learn from this right away. That if you're a braggart, you sound like a fool. If you boast and brag, Hey everybody, look how good I am. Look how smart I am. Look how spiritual I am. Look how much I do for the Lord. You know what he says? You sound like a fool because he's saying, I'm going to speak as a fool. I'm going to boast like these blowhard wind bags that you're listening to. That boast about how great they are. And you just get sucked in by these hyper-spiritual flattering, boasting Judases. Hey, you know what? I can do the same thing. So here's what he does. He does some foolish boasting. He demonstrates this. He says in verse 21, I speak as concerning reproach as though we had been weak. How be it whereinsoever any is bold. I speak foolishly. I'm bold also. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they the ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I'm more. So he's bragging about what? He's bragging about being bold. Oh man, I'm so courageous. I'm so bold. I'm of Abraham. I'm a Hebrew. I'm an Israelite. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin, right? I'm a minister of Christ, right? I've got the title. I've got the doctorate. I've got the masters of theology. You know, I am. And he's bragging, right? He's boasting. He's saying, I'm speaking as a fool. I'm speaking foolishly by saying that. Right? But then what's interesting is then he transitions from bragging about being a Hebrew, an Israelite, bold, you know, the best minister of Christ or whatever. Then he gets into this. He kind of transitions into talking about all the bad stuff that's happened to him. Because he says in verse 23, are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I'm more. And labor's more abundant. I did more work. And then he says in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths up. So he switches to talking about all the persecution he's gone through, all the bad things that have happened to him. Look at verse 24. Of the Jews, five times received I 40 stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned thrice. I suffered shipwreck and night in a day. I've been in the deep and journeyings often in perils of waters and perils of robbers and perils by my own countrymen perils by the heathen and perils in the city perils in the wilderness and perils in the sea and perils among false brethren and weariness and painfulness and watchings often in hunger and thirst and fastings often in cold and nakedness beside those things, which are without that, which comes upon me daily. They care of all the churches who's weak and I'm not weak. Who's offended. And I burn not. If I must needs glory. And this is the key verse that explains it all in verse 30. If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities. What's he saying? He's saying, look, if I, if I brag, I'm going to sound like an idiot. You ever hear somebody bragging and you kind of get embarrassed for them? Like, you sound like an idiot right now, the way you're bragging. You ever feel that way? Just tell you how great they are and how awesome they are. And you're just like, Oh, that's embarrassing. Right? So he's saying, look, if I'm going to brag about something, if I'm going to sit here and brag and boast to you about something, I'm not going to sit here and brag that I'm a Hebrew. I'm an Israelite. I am a minister of Christ. You know, I've got this title. I am bold. He said, no, actually I'd, if I'm going to brag about something, I'll brag about all the times I got beaten, shipwrecked, thrown in jail. You know, I would brag about the fact that I'm weak and that I'm offended and that I was hurt and harmed and rejected and hated and despised, thrown in jail, beaten with rods, shipwrecked, robbed, et cetera. If I must needs glory, meaning if I have to glory, if I have to brag or boast about something that all glory of the things which concern my infirmities, the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore knoweth that I lie. Not saying I'm not lying in Damascus. You want it? You want to brag and Damascus, the governor under Aretas, the King kept the city of the Damascenes with the Garrison desiring to apprehend me. I mean, they brought in troops to arrest me and through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall and escaped his hands. All right. So that's, you know, Hey, that's what I'll boast about. That's what I'll glory in. Not the fact that, Oh, I'm such a good speaker and I'm a Hebrew and an Israelite and I'm one of the chosen people because I'm of Abraham and yada yada yada. But then look at the first verse of chapter 12. He comes back to his senses. He comes back to reason and he says, it is not expedient for me, doubtless to glory. And then he moves on to another subject. I'll come to visions and revelation of the Lord. And he starts to talk about visions and revelation of the Lord. And then he comes back to that subject, but he says in verse five of such a one. Will I glory? This is chapter 12, verse five. Yet of myself, I will not glory, but in my infirmities for though I would desire to glory, I should not be a fool for I will say the truth. But now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me, unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. So this is kind of an odd chapter because he decides to speak as a fool. And this doesn't really happen very often in the Bible that somebody is going to demonstrate to us, Hey, let me show you some foolish speaking here. Okay. And he's bragging and telling them all his credentials and I'm better and I'm more. And he's saying, you know what? That's not expedient. So the lesson is that we don't want to boast and brag about ourselves. And we certainly don't want to brag about how great we are. You know, the, the, the closest thing to bragging that we would ever do is maybe to say, Hey, I got arrested or I got thrown out for soul. I got thrown out of that apartment for soul winning, you know, or I got, I got beaten or I was, you know, harmed or whatever. I made this sacrifice or whatever. But he said, even that is not expedient. You know, it's just, we need to take the emphasis off ourselves. Okay. And the thing with the flattery, the fake humility or the boasting, you know what they all have in common is, uh, focusing on yourself, making everything about you. So stop and think about it. If somebody is overly humble, they're still focused on themselves because you know what people who are overly humble are called self-conscious. Isn't that what they call it? I'm a little self-conscious. That means, Oh, I'm really worried about what people think. And I'm down on myself. That's self-conscious. And then the prideful person thinks that they're awesome. And then the overly humble person just tells you how, Oh, I'm just nothing. I'm dirt. You're so much better than me, you know, and whatever. So it's not about us. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul later says, God forbid that I should glory. Glory is the same as boasting or bragging. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Okay. So the biggest takeaway from the second half of this passage is that when you boast and brag, you end up sounding like an idiot. You end up sounding stupid. Okay. You're not impressing anyone. You should glory in your infirmities. If anything, cause when you're weak, then Christ is strong. Okay. But you don't need to go around and have this fake, overly humble, you know, trying to convince everybody, look how humble I am. Everybody just want to show you how humble I am. You know, what we need to steer is a middle course here of basically just seeing ourselves as God sees us a sinner saved by grace, not putting the emphasis on ourselves, but putting the emphasis on Christ and the work and the gospel and those things. Those are the things that are important. Paul said, I magnify my office. I magnify my office. What he means there is it's not him, the person that's just the greatest person ever. It's that he fills an important role. He does an important job. So we need to steer a middle course from the over the top humility and self deprecation and the bragging and boasting about how great we are and just be a real humble person who just sees ourselves as Christ sees us. And it doesn't go to either of those two ungodly extremes. Okay. And just take it to the bank. When you brag, you look like a fool to the people that are listening. So if you're trying to make yourself look good by bragging, it doesn't work. And if you try to make yourself look good by just talking about how lame you are all the time and being overly humble and self deprecating, then you'll fool only the simplest of people because most people are wise to that and they see through that hyper spiritual facade where you're the devil's angel transformed into a minister of light pretending to be something that you're not. Okay. Just be real. Look, I want you to be humble, but it should come from your heart, not a fake humility, right? Humility needs to come from within and not this attitude that says I'm nobody. I'm dirt. You know, I personally, I'm not nobody. Oh, I'm expendable. I can be replaced. I don't believe that. I don't believe you're expendable. I don't believe you can be replaced. I believe that there are people that need to be reached by you. I believe that there's work that God has for you to do and that if you don't do it, it won't get done. And I believe that we're important because we're ambassadors for Christ. We're important not because we're great people in and of ourselves. We're important because we're ambassadors for Christ. We're important because we have an important job. Paul was important because he's an apostle, because he's been given a job by Christ. And you know what? He said, if I have to brag to you to try to, to try to keep up with these braggarts that you're listening to, these false teachers and prophets, I'll just brag about all the punishments I've gone through and all the beatings and persecutions I've gone through. The God forbid that I would glory in how great I am or something like that. Because you know what? We as Christian need to be humble and not brag, not boast. We need to get the emphasis off of our self and think about other people and not be constantly focused on self is what he's saying here in this passage. So it's kind of an odd chapter, but I hope that helps you kind of put it all together and understand this chapter of what Paul is getting at as he continues defending himself from chapter 10 and then just kind of goes off the rails with it just to show you how extreme it can get. And then he lands the plane again in chapter 12. Let's buy our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord, and we thank you for the apostle Paul who shows us what it means to be a godly man. And Lord, we could feel his frustration in this chapter with people just attacking him, criticizing him, rebuking him, and then also just the sadness in his heart when he sees people following after the Judases and following after the false prophets and false teachers. Lord, help us to take this warning and realize that they're out there, Lord. Help us not to just get sucked in by the braggarts, the false humility, the hyper spiritual, or whatever these false teachers use to try to trick us, Lord. Help us to follow the apostle Pauls who are just real and they serve you, they love you. Help us to have the discernment to know who is legit and who is not legit, who we should follow and who we should not follow, Lord. Help us to search the scriptures so that we're not tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.