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Alright, 2 Corinthians chapter 2, and please look at verse number 7. It says, So that contrary wise ye ought rather to forgive him. The title of the sermon tonight is Forgive Him. Forgive him. This whole chapter, if you've not realised, well not the whole chapter, most of this chapter, the theme of it is forgiving one another, especially forgiving one that has done wrong to this Corinthian church. Okay, now let's pick it up from verse number 1, verse number 1, 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 1. Now, I know it's been a little while since we did chapter 1, but why would it be coming in heaviness? If you just look at the previous chapter in verse number 23, remember that Paul had not yet come to visit this church, though he had planned to do that, and then in chapter 1, verse 23, Paul says, So you remember that Paul had spared the church from his rebuke, from his wrath, from his presence, and rebuking this church sharply for the many faults that they had, the many sins that they had, and that was the reason why he had not yet travelled into this church. So then when we get to chapter 2 and look at verse number 1 again, just to continue that thought, He doesn't want to go to this church in sorrow, in heaviness of heart. Because of that purpose, if he comes with that heaviness of heart, and he sees the continual sin that the church had, he would have let it rip, and he would have really hurt this church. But for what reason, we look at verse number 2, for what reason would he come in heaviness of heart? He says, Sounds a little selfish there, Paul. Like, if I come and I make the whole church sorry, if I come and bring great sorrow to this church, and you guys are all depressed and all upset and grieved to the heart, which of you are going to make me glad? Saying, who's going to give me the opportunity to rejoice, but the same which is made sorry by me? So we see that Paul is mindful that if I go into this church and I cause more sorrow than they've already received by my first letter, then when I come, I'm going to be sorrowful. And we're just going to be a very sorry church. Everyone's going to be down and depressed. There's not going to be any life in that church. There's not going to be any encouragement. There's not going to be any edification. It's just going to be a sorry church and a sorry apostle. So what we see Paul, what he wants is to find joy in this church. He wants them to find joy in him, and he wants to find joy in that church, which is why he's given this church extra time to get right with the Lord. He gives them extra time to correct the sins that they have in their church, so that way he doesn't have to come in this sorrow. He doesn't have to come and rebuke them even more so for the mistakes that they've made in their church. And so Paul's ultimate desire is to be glad. He wants to come into this church and rejoice. He wants to be happy. He wants to encourage this church. We see that's the ultimate goal. The reason why he wanted to cause this church to grieve and be sorry is so they would fix the problems in the church. But I think we can take a principle and apply this to our own life. What are you like as an individual? Are you someone that's always sorry? Are you always someone that's full of sorrow, always depressed, always cast down, always angry at the world? Because what we learn out of this, if that's who you are, if that's your natural disposition, then you're going to cause people around you to be sorrowful. You're going to cause people around you to be depressed. You have an influence in the people you interact with in your church, your family, your work colleagues, whoever it is that you interact with, your demeanor will have an impact on other people. If you're someone that's always upset, always have a negative outlook on life, you're going to be a very depressing person to be around. People won't want to be around you. People won't want to be your friend if you're that way. But if you're someone that's rejoicing, if you're trying to find that silver lining, if you're always someone that's trying to find that positive aspect, always trying to say, yes, this is a bad state, but how can we improve things? Then people will want to be your friends because they see you as an encouragement. So just think about this. I know this is the context of a church, but think about your own personal life. How can you apply what we see here? Obviously, a sad church is going to make Paul sad, and he's an apostle. And so he wants to be glad. He wants to make sure that we as a church are rejoicing in one another. And if you have friends that are in a constant state of sorrow, constantly depressed, constantly cast down, you know, and I think we've all had friends like this, or at least one, we've experienced this, we know that just being around them is depressing. We don't really even want to be there. We don't even want to be like, you know, I mean, first of all, you want to encourage them. First of all, you want to get them, you know, get them out of that depression and get them, you know, excited and happy again. But when you're there week after week after week and constantly sorrow, constantly that negative outlook on life, you know that has an impact on you and you just don't want to be there anymore. Don't be the reverse. Don't be the one that's always sorrowful. You know, try to, you know, it's not that sorrow is bad. Sorrow has a purpose, right? And the purpose was, so this church would go, man, we're in a bad state. Let's do something to fix this. Let's make sure we fix this. At least when Paul the apostle comes, you know, we're on the road of improvement. Like he can see that we've changed as a church. Yeah, we might not be perfect. Yeah, we might still be struggling in some of these areas, but we're trying our best to put into practice the things that we received in his first epistle. Verse number three. And I wrote this same unto you, lest when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice, having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all. So I think what we see with this second letter is that Paul is setting the tone for his visit to this church. He doesn't want to come, like I said, to a church that's sorrowful. He wants to come to a church that's rejoicing, okay? So he's setting the tone, look, I want to be there and I want to be, I want to rejoice in you. I want you to find joy in me and for me to find joy in you. He doesn't want to, he doesn't want them sorrowing at his arrival, but that Paul would find joy in them, join them and in return they would find joy in him. Look at verse number four. For out of much affliction, now pay attention to this. Now as we read through 1 Corinthians, Paul let it rip, right? He really took down this church. I mean he was using sarcasm, he was using every everything that he had to just tear down the pride of this church, right? To make them realize just how foolish they were, how carnal they were, how many problems they had and now you reject, you know that some of them were not believing in the resurrection of the body. You know they had divisions, they had their favorite preachers and they had all these problems, they were allowing major sins into the church and you know on the sidelines we might look at a letter like that and go yeah let it rip Paul, you know tear them apart, they deserve to be taken down, right? You might be rejoicing going yeah this church deserves it, but then look at verse four. In what way was he rebuking this church? Verse four. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears. Is that the impression you got reading 1 Corinthians? That he's writing this with many tears? That's what he's saying. He was weeping over this church. Yes he was letting it rip, yes he was rebuking them, yes he was telling them some hard truths, but then he was weeping about it. He had anguish in his heart that he didn't even have to write these things, that he didn't even have to address the problems that he had to with this church. And you know that would make you, you know if you ever think about being a preacher or a pastor or anything like this, there are times you have to let it rip okay to your own church. There are times you have to call out those sins, there are times you have to make those hard decisions, kick people out of the church like we saw the Corinthians had to do right, but at the same time you ought to be someone that when you're at home you're weeping about the fact that you have to do that because it shows the sincerity that you have in your heart. It shows that it's not just in the flesh that you're doing these things right, and people in the church may not even see that, but the Lord sees the weeping, and if you remember when we went through Psalm chapter 6 and we saw how King David was weeping because the chastisement of the Lord was upon him, that's one reason to weep right, that's one reason to to seek God's mercy and forgiveness. But in this case if you want to be a preacher that loves your people, yes sometimes you've got to give them those hard truths, but hey they ought to see that you're a sincere person you're doing it because you love them right. Look I wrote unto you with many tears verse number four, not that ye should be grieved but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you right. It's out of love okay, it's not out of this desire to be you know seen as this I don't know you know some hotshot preacher you know full of pride and full of zeal. No you know when we preach people ought to see that it's out of love, it's out of sincerity, and you probably know of preachers that when you hear them preach you don't just you don't see the sincerity in them. You don't know I mean what is this is this are you just you know make it trying to make a name for yourself or do you truly have a love for God's people okay. So I just want to quickly we don't need to turn there I'll just read to you quickly Proverbs chapter 27 verse 5. Proverbs 27 verse 5 it says I like reading it but I don't like applying it to myself okay. Proverbs 27 verse 5 it says open rebuke is better than secret love. Being rebuked is better than secret love and then verse 6 faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. So if I ever preach from the word of God and it wounds you and maybe intentionally or unintentionally it doesn't really matter as long as it's coming from the word of God if I wound you with my words I want you to know that those words are from a friend that they're faithful wounds that I want us as a church to fix and if you come and you rebuke me in love right the bible says how we ought to address and one day I'll probably have to cover that how we need to address an elder but still if I hear rebuke from you then I'm going to receive that in love and that's hard it's hard because the flesh is there you get offended you think well who are you to tell me you know that I need to fix this or who are you to tell me and look even if your advice is wrong even if the rebuke is wrong if I know you're someone that loves me if I know you're my brother in Christ and we've been we've been in this church together for a number of times you know number of years we've been preaching the gospel together I know you're a genuine believer I know you genuinely love me and when you come to rebuke me in love you know as an elder then I will take that seriously even if I think you're wrong I will still pause and think about it are these faithful wounds of a friend I'd rather receive that and I hope you would rather receive that than the kisses of an enemy but in the flesh I want the kisses of the enemy I'd rather have the enemy just you know kiss and speak well of me but really the reason they do that is because they want to they want to come in and cause you harm and damage you and hurt you hurt you or hurt the church hurt your family hurt believers right I mean at first those kisses seem nice but they're there for an ulterior motive remember when Judas came to kiss Christ he had an ulterior motive right he was picking him out as the one that needed to be cured and crucified so let's look at verse number five second Corinthians chapter two verse five second Corinthians chapter two verse five but if any now let's read these slowly but if any have caused grief now I want you to think of this any as the man that was kicked out of the church well the man that in first Corinthians chapter five the man that had that inappropriate physical relationship with his stepmother that Paul said you've got to kick him out of the church that's what I believe the any is being referred to here okay so just keep that in mind as we read it but if any have caused grief so this is someone in the church that has caused grief in the church he has not grieved me but in part so actually he has grieved me but it's more about grieving the church that I may not overcharge you all now I don't know if if reading that makes any sense you kind of have to think about it for a while but I truly do believe that this any person this person is that man that was caught in that serious sin with his stepmother and then he's saying it has not grieved me but in part so it's nothing personal toward Paul but it still grieved him that this person had this sin in the church now he says that I may not overcharge you all think about what that so if you've been overcharged you know you've gone to a shop and you've bought let's say this how much was this water brother two dollars did I just remove your blessing there yes by making yeah sorry man two dollars all right let's say you you went to the shop and you paid three you gave a five dollar note and they didn't give you change and you you and then you realize later you would say well I was overcharged that wasn't fair that wasn't right okay but think about what's happening here in this passage is that Paul is rebuking has rebuked his church has said hey you've got to kick this individual out of the church so in what ways you're being careful not to overcharge them is that he's not blaming the whole church for the sin he's saying look that individually is to blame that that guilty party is to be blamed for the sin of the church and yes the rest of the sin that's sorry the rest of the church was to blame as well because they allowed it to continue but Paul is being very careful that when we're trying to point out sin that we make sure that the guilty party knows they're the one that's being talked about they're the one that's going to be kicked out of the church and not to criticize the whole church because of one person otherwise you're kind of overcharging everybody else you're like hold on Paul that wasn't me that was this person over there okay this is important and if I ever have to pull you aside and have some stern words with you first of all it's because I love you but it's also because I don't want to hurt all the church okay it's something that I may need to deal with you directly and I will do that if the need comes okay so I hope that kind of makes sense of what that verse is about uh but let me give you a bad example of how we can overcharge let me give you a business example okay because I told you guys that I had a lot of employees under me at one stage in my life and one thing that I found uh of one one bad business practice that I found was let's say you had a group of 50 employees but there's only like two or three that are causing some problems they're having a fight or they're they're not doing the work problem uh properly uh you know what I believe should be done and what we see here is that those two or three individuals should be taken aside and dealt with but bad business business practice was to get everybody out for a team meeting and then rebuke the whole group you know and and what you you know and the intention is right you want to make sure these two or three individuals are the ones that get the message but they're not the ones that get the message and it's everyone else that goes well why are we being rebuked why are you having a go at us when it's these people over there why aren't you telling them and that caused bad morale okay because they're like why why am I in this meeting why are we copying this flag it's not even me you got nothing to do with me and that was I saw that as bad business practice and so whenever there were people that I needed to pull up I would pull them up and not embarrass them in front of everybody just pull them up privately and deal with it and usually more often than not you could get things fixed that's the same approach that Paul has had is having here right he's saying hey that that individual that's the person that needs to be dealt with you know I don't want to overcharge you all I don't want to make you all feel uh destroy the church with bad morale let's look at verse number six verse number six sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many so this man who was kicked out of the church they did the right thing thank god that they listened to Paul in the first letter and they didn't think of themselves so prideful that they'd made the decision hey this person yeah all right let's let's take that on board we need to kick him out of the church because this is a major sin we need to make sure this leaven is out of the church otherwise it's going to leaven the whole lump this man was kicked out of the church he served out his punishment Paul is saying sufficient to such a man is this punishment he had served out his punishment which means to me that this man had repented of what he had done he had realized yes I'm in the wrong yes I need to stop having this uh this relationship with my stepmother and I need to go and ask for forgiveness from my church that's the point of kicking someone out is not because you hate them and you just want them destroyed in their life but then they would get right they would repent and come back and apologize for what they've done okay this is why the theme of this chapter is forgiveness forgiveness is hard as well though I don't know about you I find I find forgiving people sometimes if they wronged me personally very hard even if they say sorry I still I still want I want more never look sufficient to such a man is this punishment okay now uh let me just quickly what do you mean like sorry the last bit there which was inflicted of many so of many means it wasn't just the church sorry it wasn't just the pastor that kicked this man of the church if we ever have to make a decision to kick someone out of the church it's a church decision it's a decision of many meaning you need to back your pastor if such an action needs to take place okay it's a it's a decision of many and I'll just quickly actually you can turn there because you're you're in you're in uh uh second corinthians first corinthians chapter five turns to first corinthians chapter five first corinthians chapter five which is the chapter about church discipline first corinthians chapter five verse 11 verse 11 it says but now I have written unto you you guys probably know this off by heart now after we've we keep reading this every time we have that series of being you know sins that will get you kicked out of church but now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat so this is the inflict the uh the punishment this is part of the punishment not that they're just kicked out of the church and they're not allowed to come back in but that nobody in the church would fellowship with that person you wouldn't be feel ah man I feel really sorry for that person I'm going to take him out for a coffee and cheer him up no otherwise you're not allowing the punishment to serve its purpose it is harsh on purpose okay it is harsh on purpose so they could you know realize I've just lost all my the fellowship that I have in my church I've just lost all my friends that I have in my church and realize man I need that fellowship back right we want them to repent and come back and seek forgiveness but if you're listen if I kick someone out of let's say Cameron because let's say I kick Cameron out of the church right and all of you we feel really sorry and you and you and you fellowship with Cameron you invite him over you take him out you go to Aussie world and and and you know go on the rides he's going to be like whoo this is awesome this is better than church it was a good thing that I was kicked out of the church but it but if everyone shuns him I don't like that word but you know that's kind of the idea if everyone he's going to realize man I'm alone I'm alone you know anyway then you'll get a hold of God and go God please what do I need to do to restore this this fellowship with my Christian brethren we want them back we want these people back that get kicked out of the church even in such a terrible sin like this individual man did okay and I don't know if I will ever see a sin like that in this church but anyway I mean even a sin like that they're allowed back and we ought to forgive them uh look at verse number seven second Corinthians chapter two verse seven so that contrary wise ye ought rather to forgive him so we've inflicted him now it's time to forgive him and comfort him whoa like forgiving someone is is one thing right but then to comfort him as well lest perhaps such a one should be not swallowed up with over over much sorrow so if someone if someone's kicked out of this church they they repent they ask for forgiveness yes we forgive them but we don't just oh okay you're back in the church we let you back in no you comfort you comfort that person you go and encourage that person well done good work that you've turned from that brother it's such a blessing to have you back in the church we want to see you back in there winning souls knocking doors let's get back out there you know uh you know this has been dealt with let's we don't need to address this anymore thank god that you've come back and be an encouragement to this person but I've seen people leave church come back to church and no one comforts them no one comforts them and then it's like it's it's like they were it's it's like they're still kicked out because no one's talking to them you know no you forgive them and then you comfort them as well and look this is the same thing with child discipline when my child does something wrong and they get that rod of correction they cry then the expectation is that they would would say sorry that they would ask for forgiveness and I forgive them but then we comfort them and say well it's all over now you know it's been dealt with you know let's all right let's move on let's go back and continue otherwise what's the problem if we don't comfort them it says less perhaps such and one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow otherwise we don't comfort them they're just going to be full of depression full of sorrow and they'll probably leave the church anyway because no one's there loving them no one's showing them that comfort that that you know he deserves I mean someone that's coming and ask for forgiveness you know that it takes them that their ego has been taken down you know you know they've come in humility it's not an easy thing to ask for forgiveness right and if someone's done that you know all right come on you know let's let's be fair all right let's stop you know criticizing this person this person's you know doing what's right let's forgive them and comfort them and get them back into the church verse number eight verse number eight wherefore I beseech you what does it mean to beseech to implore its urgent importance wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him that's part of the comfort part of the comfort he's saying look you need to confirm your love you need to tell him that you love him that you that you know that you miss him that he wasn't there for church during that period of time comfort that that person and look let me encourage us like we are a small church and we all know one another and we all converse you know with one another but should this church ever grow and get larger there's going to be there's going to come times where individuals feel a bit left out okay there might not be people that are kicked out of the church or anything just they just feel left out you know it might take them a while to adjust look we need to confirm our love toward our brethren we need to comfort them make sure they feel that they're important to that church because they are important if they're important to the lord if they're our brothers in christ they're important to the lord they have to be important to us verse number nine uh for and by the way let me just say let me say one more thing with the love confirm your love toward him I was just talking about child discipline there I always tell my kids after I discipline them that I love them you know I don't want them to think that when we discipline them and cause them pain oh mom and dad hate us no I always tell them I love them and I always tell them why do we discipline you you know it's because because we hate you no you love us yeah that's right you know we do it out of love even though we don't really want to do it because we know that it hurts our kids to discipline them but it's out of love and this is the same idea you know Paul has to do it he grieved him in the heart but he does it his this is his expression of love toward the church so they would improve verse number nine for to this end I also did write that I might know the proof of you whether you be obedient in all things so you know he recognizes that they've been obedient to kick this guy out of the church but now he's trying to prove their obedience are you going to forgive him are you going to bring him back are you going to comfort and love him you know verse number 10 to whom ye forgive anything I forgive also and if I forgave anything to whom I forgave it for your sakes forgave I forgave I it in the person of Christ so what I get out of this verse is that Paul obviously has the authority of the an apostle of Jesus Christ okay and he's he's speaking as he is moved by the Holy Ghost as he writes these scriptures okay and what I think Paul is trying to reinforce in this church is yes this man deserves forgiveness but it's not just you that's forgiven him but Jesus Christ has forgiven him as well through me because I've forgiven the man and he says there are at the end of it for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ okay so why is it important to forgive someone that's been kicked out of the church bring them back in love them comfort them is because Christ has forgiven them also and if Christ has forgiven them then who are we to not forgive them okay but you know you know so how do we apply this principle because we don't have apostles today just the fact that if a repentant sinner comes back to the church seeking forgive forgive forgiveness that the church ought to forgive him because Christ has forgiven him okay that's the that's the practical application that we can take out of this verse we don't have apostles to tell us that Christ has forgiven us but as a church if we forgive someone yes it's because Christ has forgiven them uh verse number 11 verse number 11 lest so if we don't do this lest Satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices this is amazing so you we might be like I don't know I mean that guy made some serious sin there Kevin I mean yeah I mean how can we be confident that this person's really sorry you know should we really forgive them all right let's allow them into the church but let's not encourage them let's not do any of this look that's pride within ourselves if we do that if we don't forgive him if we don't comfort him we don't love him it says that Satan this is an area in a church that Satan can get advantage of Satan can use the lack of forgiveness in a church to destroy us Paul says for we are not ignorant of his devices Satan will use whatever weakness he can see in a church to come and hurt the church okay so you know it's one thing to allow this man in the church in his sin because that will hurt the church but once he's kicked out and he wants to come back we forgive you know repenting uh we forget you know asking for forgiveness if we don't forgive him then Satan can use that to his advantage as well okay Satan can use that to his advantage as well and just hurts us so it's not just for the benefit of the guy that gets kicked out of the church but it's the benefit for the church that we forgive him otherwise Satan will come and use that to his advantage now in verse number 12 Paul gives further reason as to why he had not yet visited the Corinthian church let's look at verse number 12 so we're moving on from this topic of forgiveness now um but Paul explains here that furthermore when I came to Troas now I've not looked at where Troas is I'm not sure but he says when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel and a door was opened unto me of the Lord I had no rest in my spirit because I found not Titus my brother so he goes to Troas to preach the gospel but then it troubles his spirit he has no rest in his spirit because he doesn't find Titus there you know Titus is meant to be there and he doesn't find him anywhere this bothers his spirit and then it says here but taking my leave of them so he leaves the people in Troas I went from thence into Macedonia because if you remember in first Corinthians in the first epistle he said I'm gonna I'm gonna make journey to come and see you well as he's planning his trip he gets to Troas so he's supposed to meet Titus but Titus is not there and he worries where's my brother in the Lord so he goes looking for him he goes into Macedonia and so his plans to go to the Corinthian church are foiled okay because he's worried about where Titus is and so that's why he doesn't end up going to see them um now let me just say this that you know God had a range and and you know he sees this in hindsight but God had arranged a distraction for Paul in his attempt to visit the Corinthians okay so let me encourage you with this one this happened to Paul your best laid out plans the goals you have for your life even if it's the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ even if it's serving him and doing the work of the Lord sometimes those plans will be foiled so sometimes those plans will be undone and you might say well it's Satan Satan's coming in and hurting my plans but no it was God sometimes it's God's plans to distract us okay so God had put this I don't know why I don't know where God sent Titus but it caused Paul to be um to to not follow the plan that he had laid out to go see the Corinthian church and Paul probably at the time didn't even know why why that's the case but he recognizes in the letter it's because if I came I would come in great sorrow and you would be in sorrow and I'd probably even hurt you even the more God knew that if I had come in the state that I was it was going to hurt the church even more and so he had to be delayed so this church could get these things right that they'd have a greater time to improve so that way when Paul would come and see them he would be filled with joy and that he would bring joy to this church so don't get discouraged if your plans don't work out it might be the Lord you might not even know it at the time but then you can look back and go yeah if I turned up earlier it could have been bad it could have been bad and we see this here in verse 14 following out he says now thanks be unto God which always called so even if our plans are foiled which always calls us after triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place so it doesn't matter if our plans go according go according to plan or not we still try if we're in Christ we triumph in Christ as long as we're trying to serve the Lord with our lives it doesn't matter if things don't work out the way you planned you have victory in Christ one statement that I've always liked said and I don't know which pastor came up with this but this statement was we're not fighting for victory we are fighting from victory we already we're already victorious in our life we're already saved already going on our way to heaven we're already forgiven the battles that we fight is not for victory Christ has already triumphed and if we're in Christ we've triumphed with him and we know how it all ends up yes we see the wickedness of this world yes we know there's going to be a rise of the Antichrist yes we're going to see a persecution of believers to come but we know how the end of the book like how it ends we know that Christ comes back we know we rule and reign with him for a thousand years and then we know that we well before that we're given these resurrected bodies and then we're going to be in the eternal state with God the new heavens and the new earth we know we've already won if we're in Christ so even if things don't work out in the in this world you've already won spiritually with Christ okay now he spoke about being a saver now saver means like a smell like something that smells nice you know I don't know if you've you guys like barbecues I don't like it when it's like lunch time or dinner time and some neighbor somewhere is doing a barbecue because I can smell it I'm like I really want that it's so it smells so good now you might like there might be other savers that you like but barbecue really does it for me or if I if I if I smell Christina cooking spaghetti for dinner oh I'm really I'm like oh yes you know I'm gonna have a big plate tonight you know that's that's what I'm thinking so look at verse 15 for we if you're in Christ for we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ so as pleasant as Christ is because we're in Christ we to God are a sweet saver okay we smell good to God all right he likes us he loves us okay but how in them that are saved and in them that perish well what's this about in them that are saved and in them that perish so to God we were a pleasant odor okay and this is about soul winning this is about knocking doors this is about preaching the gospel there are some that we see saved and unfortunately there are others and that's the majority that are going to perish and you know some days you might be out there and everyone rejects the gospel maybe everyone you even speak to will ultimately die and perish and go to hell and you might be discouraged by that you might think my work that was worthless why did I spend my day doing that why did I spend an hour two hours serving the Lord there's no success here they've all rejected the gospel they might all go to hell but God says you're a sweet saver even to them that perish if you're working for the Lord look at verse 16 it adds a little bit more to this to the one we are the saver of death so we're not just a saver to God but we're also a saver to the people we preach to to the one we are the saver of death unto death and to other the savor of life unto life and who is sufficient for these things so let me start with the life unto life so obviously we come with the words of eternal life obviously we come with the everlasting gospel that will give them everlasting life and if they should receive the gospel believe on the Lord call upon the name of the Lord they will be saved praise God they are saved we have seen a number of people saved since the start of this church praise God okay and we are to them a sweet saver because we brought that life to them it smells good all right but even a saver of death unto death now because see even people that come and reject the gospel when we talk to them we say we're from you know the local baptist church we ask them you know we're all going to die you know are you 100 sure that your soul will be in heaven and so what we're doing is we're bringing that savor of death making them remember that they're just mortal men and that death could be a right around the corner at any point in time and that they need to think about what's going to happen after this life you know are they right before the Lord have they been forgiven for their sins or not and so we bring the savor of death unto these people okay we remind them that they're just mortal and there's judgment after this death even if they reject the gospel but we bring that to their remembrance and hopefully hopefully we knock on the door again hopefully someone else in the church knocks on the door again hopefully another believer in another church knocks on the door again and gets a chance to talk to them once again and that they can grow from that they already had that savor of death hopefully the next person can give him the savor of life if they rejected the first time but even when we feel hey we weren't successful today you know this area is really difficult they're not receiving the gospel hey it's it's worth it to God it's a sweet savor okay it's worth it verse number 17 we're almost at the end here verse number 17 for we are not as many which corrupt the word of God so what's this there are many that corrupt the word of God please get that Paul says we are not as many which corrupt the word of God meaning there are there are many preachers there are many pastors there are many evangelists there are many ministers of God so called that corrupt the word of God and and why what does he mean he's not someone that corrupts the word of God but as of sincerity but as sorry but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ so pay attention to those words just because someone says they're a Christian just because they say I love Jesus Christ don't start listening to their preaching don't just accept any teaching of someone that says they love Jesus don't just start reading any book of any person that claims to be a Christian because they might be someone there are many there are many that means there's few that don't corrupt the word of God there are many that corrupt the word of God and if you don't if you're not careful you know the first thing you should do before you listen to any preacher before you read any book is make sure is this person even saved do they believe the gospel or are they corrupt in the gospel and if they're corrupt in the gospel you know the rest of the things that they're teaching are corrupt but it says as of sincerity we saw the sincerity of Paul that he would write to the Corinthian church and yet in anguish of heart and in tears right you know this is to me this clear conscience before the Lord you know being sincere before the Lord because it says here but as of God in the sight of God so he recognizes that whatever I do whatever I teach it's in the sight of God um in the sight of God speak we in Christ which is why you know as a pastor um sometimes I'm very careful with what I preach and I make sure before I say anything stupid you know I've at least fact checked it a number of times um and I still say things that are wrong sometimes okay because you know we're not infallible but what's important to me is that I have a clear conscience before God whatever action I take whatever I teach whatever decision I make for the church that I have a clear conscience that's important to me okay so there might be times you're like well why aren't you preaching on this topic well maybe my conscience isn't that clear on that just yet you know maybe there are little things that I need to refine first okay why haven't you made that decision because I want a clear conscience before God I want to make sure that I've um you know um I've I haven't left any stone unturned before I deal with a situation or deal with things a certain way okay it's important look I would rather I would rather preach something incorrectly and wrong but have a clear conscience before God just unknowingly preach something wrong but just make sure that my conscience before God was you know was clear then to be forced to preach something that my conscience is not clear but I think well maybe everyone wants to hear this maybe if I preach this this will make me popular maybe this will make me friends with certain people out there but if I don't have a clear conscience before God I don't want to do it okay I want to make sure at least the things that I teach are as right as I can be and that's why when I preach and I and I picked this up when you guys preach that you we use a lot of bible right that's why I love going through a whole chapter because the more bible we use the less wisdom you're going to get out of Kevin's flesh you know the more doctrine that we based on the clear teachings of God the more correct we know that the teaching is and we know that it's out of sincerity because we're using God's word but you know when you hear preaching and it's like that one little verse and then the next 20 minutes of talking about whatever their life that's not sincerity that's not a clear conscience that's not you know speaking in Christ that's just man's wisdom that's just man trying to entertain you and and man lifting themselves up with pride and showing you how how studious they are how intelligent they are you know all the the bible college and the and the things that they learned they're just putting that on show they're going back to the Greek going back to the Hebrew just showing off and they're not doing that out of sincerity you know when a man uses a lot of bible verses you know it's because they just want to have a clear conscience before God the more bible I use the less I know I can mess it up you know so we need to make sure that as preachers we keep that in mind let's pray