Boasting?

So we continue to make our way through this second letter of Paul to the Corinthians. And as is often the case in the Scriptures, we run into an arresting statement, a statement that takes your breath away, at least it had that effect for me. That is an experience which can't always be predicted. You don't always know when it's going to happen. It has to do. It seems from the teaching of Scripture with the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who sometimes just kind of shows up and arrests you with a statement from the Bible. Something maybe you've read ten times or a thousand times or countless times. But on this particular occasion, it leaps off the page and it grabs you. It arrests you. Well, there is a statement like that in this second letter, at least it had that effect upon me. It isn't in the passage that we've read, but it is the verses right before the passage we read, verses 17 and 18 of chapter 10. It is sort of dropped into the midst of this argument that the apostle is making in chapters 10 and 11 and 12. And it is arresting in its nature. It is one of those statements which cuts right to the heart of things, which peels away all of the silliness, the carelessness, the external things, the secondary things, and goes right to the core of matters. And it serves as a link in this argument as Paul makes his way through these chapters. You ought to remember that the verse and chapter divisions are not inspired and that when the Corinthians received this letter and read it, there would have been movement from chapter 10 right into chapter 11. And verse 17, it seems to me, would have loomed large for them in their circumstance, in their immediate moment. And that verse reads, but he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. Let he who glories, glory in the Lord. As you read through chapters 10 and 11, you begin to get a feel for what it is that the apostle is dealing with. And I want to remind you of what it is that he's dealing with. Through the first nine chapters, he's been addressing these various issues pertaining to him and his ministry and why it is that he didn't come back to Corinth when he said that he would. He's had to defend his integrity as a minister of Christ. His reputation is on the line here, as it were, but his integrity has been called into question. And he's dealt with that. And he's also dealt with this business of the offering that the Corinthians had committed themselves to, but which they have been delinquent in gathering. And that and some other things along with a lengthy discourse on the nature of his ministry occupies the apostles' mind in the first nine chapters. And when you come to chapter 10, the tenor of things changes. And rather than focusing upon the whole of the church as he does in the first nine chapters, while continuing to address the whole of the church, he is focusing on a few within the church. Because what has happened is that in Paul's absence, some other men have come to Corinth and Paul calls them false apostles in chapter 11. He goes so far as to say that they are ministers of Satan, and he's very concerned that these false apostles, who truly are ministers of darkness and not ministers of light, will draw away the Corinthians from their pure and infant-like trust in Jesus and the simplicity of the gospel. They filled the vacuum which Paul left when he left Karen. And the fact that he is focusing upon them is reflected in any number of these verses in these two chapters. He says in verse 2, I beg you, that when I am present, I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, then in verse 10. He refers to some things that are said about him. His letters, they say, are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech is contemptible. And in chapter 12, he focuses on them particularly, he says, we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond measure. Then verse 4, or verse 5 of chapter 11, he says, I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles. Then in 1122, a little bit farther along, he asks these rhetorical questions, questions which anticipate a particular response. Are they Hebrews? Are they Israelites? To whom is he referring? Well, he's referring to these super apostles, these who would identify themselves as being eminent apostles, those who have come in in his absence and have usurped his authority and are seeking to draw away these Corinthians by false teaching. And it is that teaching that we will look at in the next couple of weeks as we consider the 11th chapter more fully. But what has happened is that these apostles, these false apostles, have come into the midst of the Corinthian Church. And in addition to discrediting Paul, they boast or they glory in their credentials. They boast or they glory in their credentials. Go back through chapter 10 some time and look at the number of times the word boasting is used or the number of times when allusions are made to boasting. They boast in their credentials. They boast in their Jewishness. Paul asks later the question, are they Hebrews, so am I. They're boasting in their lineage, in their heritage. They're boasting in their pedigree. They boast in their rhetorical skill. If you look at verse 6, the apostle says, though I am untrained in speech and I am not in knowledge, they were making much of the fact that Paul was not a skilled orator and they were commending themselves to these believers as those who were persuasive and skillful in their use of language. They had letters of recommendation. They had their connections and Paul later in this letter goes on to talk about his experiences and he does that because these super apostles have come and have made much of their experiences. That is to say, their maturity, their sophistication, their knowledge, their religious experiences and right in the midst of all of that, the apostle takes his readers back to Jeremiah 9, 23, and 24 and says, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. He's not so much concerned with these false apostles. He can deal with them. He's concerned about the Corinthians because the Corinthians have been caught up in this. They've been caught up in the externals. They've been caught up in winsiveness of speech. They've been caught up in people's claims to having superior experiences. Look at what the apostle says in verse 7 of chapter 10, do you look at things according to the outward appearance? And then he says in verse 5, somebody comes along, preaches another gospel to you, preaches another spirit, preaches another Christ, you may well put up with it. Why? Because they're so caught up in these externals, in these appearances and in the midst of that, the apostle takes these folks again back to Jeremiah 9, 23, he who glories, let him glory not in these externals, not in these appearances, not in these credentials, not in these letters of commendation, let him glory in the Lord. How desperately it seems to me we need a word like that. This is the day and maybe every day has been a day where cult heroes proliferate, are pervasive and everywhere. And where it seems in our own day, we've got to deal with the apostle, with what the apostle had to deal with in the first letter. I am of a palace. I am of Paul. I am of Peter. I am of Christ. And the apostle wants very much for these people to get their eyes off of these external things, off of these appearances, off of these credentials. He wants very much for these people to glory in the Lord alone. Look back at Jeremiah 9, thus says the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches. But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, that I am Yahweh, that I am the self-existent self-determining one. I am the creator of the ends of the earth. I am the one upon whom everything that exists depends for its existence and its continuance. Let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord exercising loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight. In whom do we glory, folks, in whom do we delight, in whom do we boast, about what do we boast? This is a word it seems to me that is needed in every day a reminder that has to come to us over and over again. Think of the psychology of this thing, we know how we deal with one another. We know how we make heroes of people. We know how we hold people up, people who are wise, or at least have the appearance of wisdom because of the sheer quantity of their knowledge. I have often said, there is more theological knowledge in this congregation per capita than probably any or almost any other congregation in the country. Save those that might be near other theological seminaries in other cities. For seminary students here, we have people in this thing almost feels like a chapel for evangelicalism sometimes, pride ourselves in those things and we can glory in those things. The appearance of wisdom which sometimes has more to do with a quantity of knowledge than real wisdom and we glory in that. Think of how we defer to people of power and position and place. Think of how we defer to people who have wealth a couple of weeks ago, I had opportunity to have breakfast with someone I met him over the telephone and then we had this breakfast together and I was with this person trying to find some resources for a ministry that I've been involved in for several years now in Morris Hill ministry. It's not for profit thing, it needs supporters, it needs funding from sources other than just the sale of its materials. I think a lot of you here know something about that and I met with this guy. This guy is rich, really rich, like richy rich rich and I didn't know just how wealthy this guy was until after the meeting when another board member and I were debriefing about our meeting and I learned just how much money this guy has at his disposal and as I learned that you know what my response was. I looked at my shirt to make sure I hadn't spilled any syrup on it from my pancakes. I wondered whether or not I had split any infinitives in my speech. I wondered if I had said anything stupid or foolish or used a personal pronoun improperly. How come because of his position, his place, his wealth, his riches. You see how we defer to one another and while slightly different in its manifestation it is not different in kind to what the Apostle saw happening here among these believers in current. They were deferring to these people who seemed to be in positions of place, who seemed to be eminent and elevated and the Apostle says, no let him who glories, glory in the Lord alone and who boasts, let him boast in the Lord alone. Go back and you meditate upon that passage in Jeremiah. It's a good tonic for us because we know that we do these things, we know that we do these things but in that tonic it seems to me that you extrapolate out from that passage in Jeremiah and even as you extrapolate out from verse 17 the Apostle has in mind that the Corinthians keep in mind a couple of things, the supremacy of God in creation and providence first, not the supremacy of any man, not the eminence of any man, not the exalted state of any man, but the supremacy and exaltedness of God in creation and providence. Every one of you in this room, from the loliest to the most exalted, from the apparent loliest to the apparent most exalted, every single one of you. You are who you are and what you are because of the supremacy of God in creation and providence and that alone and there is no place for boasting in any of it. The gifts which you have, the temperament which you have, the personality which is yours, the abilities which you have, those things are given to you by God, you're not self-created, you didn't put together the blueprints for your own life, they are fashioned and shaped by another, you're not only who you are by virtue of the supremacy of God in creation but also in providence, you are here today because of the providence of God in that alone and there is no place for boasting in that. You know what? You can't take credit for the fact that you are here. Think of the generations that precede you, think of the ancestors which you have. You weren't just dropped out of the sky by a stork and any one of those ancestors could have been beheaded at some point in history, could have had a rock fall on his head. I told you the story of my father who was involved in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, he was a radio man, he would listen to the guys out in the field, they would radio in the coordinates and the coordinates then would be conveyed to the gunners and the gunners would set the guns so that they would drop their bombs on the enemy targets and my father was on the radio for 36 hours without any rest or sleep and he finally got relief and he walked away from his radio post and a mortar shell came in and blew the whole thing to smithereens. 15 seconds earlier, if my father had stayed or longer, if my father had stayed in that chair 15 seconds longer, you'd have another pastor today, somebody said amen to what? Does that amen refer? That's true for every one of you, it may not have been a mortar shell but it could have been a rock, who knows? You are what you are today by the providence of God and there is no place for boasting, no place for glory in that and brothers and sisters, there is no place for being intimidated by the persons of the right or to the left of you because that person is who he is, is who she is because of the supremacy of God in creation and providence and you give thanks for that, but second, when the apostle says let him who glories glory in the Lord, he has in mind the supremacy of God in redemption. We had a glorious time, at least I think it was a glorious time in Sunday school this morning, I came up the stairs to the baptistry, back here where Bob and I meet before the service, Bob looked at me and said did it happen and I said it happened, it happened for me anyway in Sunday school as we walked through the nature of our salvation and this incredible thing that God has set Mike Malone apart for himself from before the foundation of the world, is that not a humbling notion to you, is that not an overwhelming notion that you have been the object of the affection of the God of heaven and earth from before the foundation of the world, somebody said last week to me, it's deep brown when he talks about election, talks about it in this way says I've always been a Christian, I've been a Christian from the four time, it's just that God didn't decide to tell me about it until I was such and such an age, being the object of God's affection, being the object of his saving and redeeming love from before the foundation of the world, that is the supremacy of God in redemption, are we not humbled by this, do we not say that there is no place for boasting? And when we consider that God is so committed to us, that he will not rest until he has brought us safely home, every one of his own beloved sons and daughters, children of his, are we not humbled, are we not glad, and is the ground not levelled for us? And we look to the right or to the left or in front or behind and we give thanks that God should be so good, not only to me, but to these family members whom he has gathered together. Right in the midst of all of this argument, the Apostle Slam's home, that there is to be no glory in anything horizontal, there is to be no glory in the giftedness, the exalted position, the eminence, the experiences, the credentials of any human being, but there is to be glory in the God of heaven and earth, who is supreme, both in creation and in providence and in redemption. There is this story told about Lionel Richie, it is a pop singer and songwriter who was a student at the University of Southern California who rented a rundown apartment somewhere near the campus who after he became famous and had millions of dollars he went and bought the apartment building where he lived as a student and he was asked why he bought the building, was he just showing off? He said no, when I bought the building I restored the apartment to the condition that it was in when I lived in it and I did it because I don't want to forget who I am, brothers and sisters. God is glorious. Let's not forget who we are, but glory in the supremacy of God in creation and in his providential care and in redemption. And may there be no boasting of any other kind. God help us so to live. Let's pray together. Lord you're good to your people and you give us so very much and for that we give you thanks. And as we come together about this table this morning we ask you that you would enable us by your grace to be realistic and honest about who we are. We ask you that by your grace we might be realistic and glad-hearted about what you have done for us in Jesus. And may we come to this table as brothers and sisters, those loved by you, those whom you have made lovers of yourself. And oh Lord may we embrace one another as a family and glory together in your supremacy and elements. We ask in Jesus name, asking you that you would hear us as together we confess our sins. Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. With the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy upon us and forgive us that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your name. Amen.