2 Corinthians 11

SPEAKER 01 : 0:08

Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Allen J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.

SPEAKER 04 : 0:23

Here we are coming down the home stretch of 2 Corinthians. Today we are in chapter 11, only 11, 12, and 13 to go. So we will listen in to Faith Comes By Hearing’s reading of the 33 verses of 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians 11

SPEAKER 03 : 0:44

I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me, for I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles. Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge. Indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself, so that you might be exalted, because I preached God’s gospel to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do. And what I do, I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do.

SPEAKER 02 : 2:25

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

SPEAKER 03 : 2:47

I repeat, let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. What I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not with the Lord’s authority, but as a fool. Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves. For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I am speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? So I am a better one. I am talking like a madman, with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea. on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.

SPEAKER 04 : 5:13

The danger that Paul faced in the Corinthian church is the same danger we face today in our churches. Let’s look at the initial verses of this chapter. Verse 3 says, For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. Powerful words for the Corinthian church and for us as believers today. I have challenged some pastors to do a little survey to stand in front of their church and ask five to ten people what the gospel is or what does it take to be saved. And to see if they could get five to ten consistent answers. And then go outside the church. Go out to people who say they’re Christians. And ask them, what does that mean? What does it mean for you to be a Christian? The answers are all over the map, aren’t they? That is exactly what Paul is warning in these verses. Let’s look at them again. He says… But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. Where are we going to find the one true gospel? We’re going to find it in the word of God. But we have many who are deceiving the people in the churches today. Paul explains it this way in verse 13. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, their end will correspond to their deeds. Some tough words from the Apostle Paul, tough words that our churches need to hear today. As Christians, we need to be careful not to be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. We must be careful not to follow another Jesus, not to follow a different spirit, not to follow a different gospel. How do you know what your preacher is preaching if you don’t measure it against the yardstick of the word of God? As Paul said, so it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Servants of who? servants of Satan himself. I heard it said not so long ago, we have today notional Christianity. That is, whatever we want it to be, that’s what it is. That cannot be according to God’s Word. It reminds me of a flight I was on recently when I sat down next to a 30-something-year-old woman, and she said, as she began to share her spiritual journey, that her spirit was mixed with Judaism, Islam, Catholicism, and a variety of other things. And so I got out a New Testament, and I just pointed out John 14, 6. I had her read, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. After reading it, she closed the Testament, and I asked her, what do you think? And she said, I pick and choose what I believe out of the books that I read. That is exactly what Paul is warning here in this chapter of 2 Corinthians. Our very practical application out of this chapter today is to guard ourselves from another Jesus, a different spirit, a different gospel from the one you accepted. Guard your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. How are you going to know the one true gospel? Stay in God’s Word. Stay in AdBible. We cover the gospel many, many times in the various books that we will be going through in AdBible. Father, please guard our hearts against another Jesus, against a different spirit, against a different gospel. Do not let Satan come as an angel of light to us. Please, Lord, guard your church against Satan using his servants in pulpits to disguise truth and righteousness. You said that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. We pray it so, and we pray it so in our own lives as well. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. Across our listening audience, more and more of you are supporting AdBible by visiting our website at EzraProject.net and purchasing resources like Club 365 subscriptions, Bible reading journals, and one or more of our day-by-day through the Bible devotional books. We thank you so much and encourage more of you to do the same. You will find helpful and inspirational tools to enhance your personal time in God’s Word. Today I want to review the three tools we see most listeners getting. First, Club 365. This is a monthly subscription opening our vault of all AddBible audio recordings and all printed pages of the entire Day by Day through the Bible devotional series. By joining Club 365 for only $7 a month, you have access to both audio and written information on all 66 books of the Bible. Club 365 is a goldmine, and it is completely flexible to your personal Bible reading plan. So if you’re reading Matthew or Isaiah or Psalms or Revelation, you have access to audio or written comments, applications, and prayers on any of them at your fingertips. Get Club 365 at EzraProject.net today, like so many others have. Secondly, another hot seller are our Bible reading journals. We offer two. One is a chronological Bible reading journal that contains a daily Bible reading plan chronologically. You don’t have to buy a chronological Bible. Just get our chronological Bible reading journal. It has over 200 pages, so you can journal your way through the entire Bible. This book is our number one bestseller over the last two decades. The other journal is called the Trio Bible Reading Journal because it has three annual Bible reading plans in it. A New Testament schedule, an Old Testament schedule. But if you do them both on the same day, a complete Bible reading plan, you’ll finish the Bible in 365 days. We have a limited supply of the Trio Bible Reading Journal. The cool thing about our journals… is they start when you start. Day one of the schedule is the day you start, not January 1. Again, completely flexible to your Bible reading habits. Order your journal for just $9 at EzraProject.net and we ship it free. And the third product people are ordering is one of our day-by-day through the Bible devotional books. There are only 11, but they cover all 66 books of the Bible, filled with comments about passages, applications from the passages, and prayers related to the passages. Listeners are understanding Bible passages in a whole new way, thanks to digging deeper with a day-by-day supplement to their daily devotions. You can find all 11 books on our website at EzraProject.net. They are available in print and digitally. Get one today and start understanding your Bible in a whole new way. So that’s all for today. Join me tomorrow for another chapter of AdBible. I know you’re going to enjoy it. And want to share it with others.