Well, I invite you tonight to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, and we'll be looking at verses 1 through 6. My initial title, I think, was The Wrecking Power of Christianity, but this one seemed a little more tame to just put Kingdom Warfare explained. So that's what we're looking at tonight. Verses 1 through 6 of chapter 10 of 2 Corinthians, page 1150 in your Bibles. Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord. I, Paul, myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I'm away. I beg of you that when I present, when I am present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of god and take every thought captive to obey christ being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete there will end of the reading of god's word well at times in our times there have there has been a great concern that christianity has become weak that christianity has become effeminate and a religion they say that we hold that is for losers in this present age and there are a lot of reasons for this the warfare is on every side and we know all the movements that are presently happening that i have often addressed there is no doubt that such a description of christianity may be true in some quarters of the christian world but much of the present attack on the faith comes at a time when we are living in an intense culture war. We have sides. On the one side, we've got wokeism. On the other side, you've got Christian nationalism. All of this really is two sides of the same coin in the way that they look at power and how to handle these challenges. But the fear is, is because Christianity is losing its ground as the favored religion of the land what has arisen is sort of a robust militant approach to our faith in response to all this that's really what's happening was warned about years ago that in light of our times that's what we're going to see a robust sort of militant approach to the faith of people looking for a strong man in our day to solve our problems someone who will fill the void and showcase a Christianity that's tough. That answers these problems. A Christianity that's more brazen, you might say. That will bring out the crushing of Christ's enemies in the present. I hear this language. All of this in response to a changing culture that is becoming more hostile to the gospel. These are the days in which we live. but one of the most helpful ways to think clearly through all this is to ask the important question how did the apostles deal with changing times and changing seasons and what sort of oppositions did they face in the first century and i think what you'll find as you look at the scriptures is that things are not so different in the first century it's amazing to look at the attitude of paul in the midst of some of the attacks that he faced it's amazing to look at the things that were said against paul and you're going to be surprised because it sounds like a lot of today's challenges but through it all paul would say i have learned in the ministry to be controlled by the mind of christ and that's what he's going to help us with we want to look at tonight how they conducted themselves and how they thought when these challenging seasons came upon them and it's easier to live in the soil of a constantine world than it was in the first century acts where they didn't have the government to support them these were challenging times to live in the first century and i thought it would be helpful tonight before we go back to our series to think because i think it's easy at moments like this to fall into trying to approach our present challenges in our own wisdom that's a big theme in the book of corinthians worldly wisdom versus godly wisdom and everything is backwards to us in that and i think what is so important about tonight is that this particular passage helps us to understand what god is doing in the midst of these times, what he's always been doing. God is not taking a nap. God is not asleep. God is doing certain things. God is acting. And tonight's passage gives us a window into the spiritual warfare that we are in and how the battle is to be fought. That's what I want to think with you a little bit about. How is this battle to be fought? And it helps us to understand what God is doing and how he is fighting and what we can expect and what that's going to look like in all of our frustrations in the moment. And there are many frustrations we have. It can be right at the local level of dealing with people who are just ignorant about the faith and say and do things that are just ignorant all the way to active opposition to the gospel. And what do we do when it seems like nothing is happening? And what do we do when it seems like the air continues to grow and everything seems to be going sideways. What is the perspective that the scriptures give us? How does it teach us to handle these sort of things? And what is the spiritual warfare that we're in? What does it look like? And that's a particular angle that Paul gives us tonight in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Paul is explaining something that happened to him, his own warfare. It's an intensely personal section of second corinthians and he uses his himself as an example to understand the kind of attack that he faced in the ministry and how he was indeed controlled by the mind of christ to think about what god did for him and what god is doing and that's what i want to consider tonight to encourage us there is no doubt that we are engaged in a great spiritual warfare a warfare that we do not give enough attention to. I still haven't been able to get to Ephesians 6. I have all these plans, of course, but I would love to do the armor of God with you. That is one of my goals here. But this section was inspired for us to look beyond the surface of things to understand what God is doing and how God is undermining evil in different ways in our present age, in the different forms that it comes at us, to encourage us to stay the course. to not lose heart, to believe that the Lord is indeed working and winning the war even when it comes in its most fierce forms to us. So that's what we look at tonight, Paul's, briefly here tonight, Paul's weakness that he describes, the weapons that he uses and the warfare overall, that we would have a good understanding of this and that we would be committed to look a lot like christ in our approach the um the passage before us tonight in second corinthians chapter 10 some have labeled this it's a big shift in the book for those who have spent their time in second corinthians and you know that the first nine chapters were considered the we section some designated that way and then when we get to chapter 10 it's a radical shift to the i section of the book where paul is pastorally addressing to the corinthians certain problems that he is facing that are challenging his apostolic authority as an apostle and helping them through again still this thread that goes through both books the world their very worldly view of ministry this continued on for the corinthian church well into the next few hundred years it was a problem in this church but here we see in the sort of eye section of of chapter 10 paul now addresses some very severe assaults on on him and i think it's an interesting window into what the apostle faced which was meant to encourage the church throughout this age and i i believe you'll see how important it is for our context you'll notice in verse one we read i paul myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of christ i who am humble when face to face with you but bold toward you when i am away paul is um they're addressing you can't really pick this up in in your just reading of in english but i think if paul were sitting in front of us he'd say i'm quoting something here i'm quoting what they're saying about me so he's he's using it to go back at them of this terrible thing that has been said about paul in the ministry to undermine paul's whole authority and paul is here addressing attack attack that had risen in corinth on him personally challenging his legitimacy as an apostle and calling into question his entire ministry as to whether it's even from god it seems that in corinth there were a group of false apostles there were super pastors he designates them as ministers of satan we know in the next chapter calls them that who were constantly attacking paul and he captures that in this first verse almost quoting it verbatim the attack i who am humble when i'm with you face to face but bold when i'm away from you that's an interesting statement here's what they were saying this paul is a total phony here's one reason why when you get him in person he's soft he's humble and he refuses to get in your face about stuff but notice this glaring inconsistency in him when he sends you letters he's all bold and he's ready to rebuke you that's a two-faced apostle that's a phony and then they said just look at him i mean we can kind of add to the attack second corinthians chapter 12 and just two chapters we know a thorn in the flesh was given to him a messenger of satan to torment him and these false apostles these super pastors were saying are you kidding no one who is from god has that kind of weakness in their body he's pathetic that is not someone whom you can trust nor is he true just look at him they derided paul for his appearance he seemed to be i mean we know early descriptions of him were a little bald man i didn't write that i'm not offending any bald people here i hope but they they ridiculed him for his appearance he seemed to be weak outwardly they questioned him because of his speech and that was purposeful on paul's part paul didn't choose to do the stomping that cicero said you should do when you speak in the oratory great oratory skills. He was not an eloquent speaker by any means, but he refused to use the sort of powerful tools of the day, devices, he would call them, to try to win people with chicanery. And they used that against him. Weak, pathetic. But the attack here is really interesting, what he zeroes in on. He's such a wimp when he's with you. but when he writes what a coward then he gets tough he's all combative on you that's a player that's someone who can't be trusted the essence of it is that paul was weak might even said effeminate soft refusing to be combative in what when he's right in front of you but then he gets away and he blasts you this is what paul is um setting out to address at the outset did you notice how he began i entreat you by the meekness and the gentleness of christ paul raises at the outset why he was like this maybe he even concedes a little bit of that the letter in the pen we know this about history always comes across stronger but paul is explaining he says my my whole approach to ministry you need to think through here for a minute because you're not understanding something corinthians about the ministry my whole approach to ministry is what i have learned from christ what did christ say in the gospels learn from me for i am what gentle and lowly of heart i'm meek jesus had said it's the meek who win the earth paul understood that ministry those ministering in his name should always demonstrate this kind of meekness that quality of humility gentleness that shows compassion on people and compassion on sinners that's what's required of pastors that's what's required of servants now you can see in our day the challenge of this where we want strong men who are brash and who push boundaries this is what jesus wanted from his pastors this is what jesus teaches his pastors and how we deal with sinners in everywhere when there's rebuke and whenever there's correction it's always done with gentleness, isn't it? You always find that right after. Do it with gentleness. It was always the challenge, and you think of the apostles in that village that didn't believe the gospel when the first thing they wanted to do was call fire down from God to destroy them, and Jesus says, you don't know what manner of spirit you're of. The Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. to be gentle and merciful and helping god's people even when we combat evil is is the character of christ now that doesn't mean jesus didn't overturn tables at times but it's a remarkable thing that our lord when he was here when he saw the multitudes it welled up within him of compassion for them in their lost estate he was always willing not to crush the bruised reed but you know there were times when jesus was was very strong in addressing evil of course that has to be and paul will address that here but paul took on this what he understood was to be the directive of ministry from jesus himself paul took this approach but there are always those in the history of the church now here we go there are always those in the history of the church who find that as weak who find that as effeminate who find that as self-defeating who find it as pathetic to behave that way before sinners in fact at this moment this is one of the great charges against the ministry today many have no place don't even understand the categories and qualities of meekness and gentleness and dealing with people. And we have to learn that. It's not easy for any pastor. What will that accomplish today in this environment? I mean, come on. You got to be somewhat brash in this environment to get heard, don't you? This will always be a conundrum throughout history. It always has been. People will always be more attracted in the flesh. Well, this is really important because flesh is, there's a play here on flesh. It's really interesting it will always be more attracted in the flesh to those who are brazen to those who are brash to those who are boundary pushing to those who are loud to those who are showy to those who are combating evil to fight the fight brother making a showcase of it that's what it has attracted people every colton ism that we've ever seen this is what you've seen at the helm it's outwardly perceived to be strong it's outwardly perceived to have strength and paul faced this attack on him as one of the chief underminings of his entire ministry paul lived with this assault not only in his physical presentation but in these qualities of meekness and gentleness even though in his letters he had to rebuke at times sure so what has to happen there is correction but he lived with this charge as he was controlled by the mind of christ these super apostles stood up and they claimed we'll fight rome these super apostles lambasted paul and said he was weak and and he would never amount to fixing anything and he's hypocritical and he he doesn't have any power in him well we feel that today is anything happening unless we're fighting is anything happening unless we're fight because we're fighters well paul answers this surprisingly he makes a plea precisely because these opponents were carrying away many into corinth with this to reject paul's message as a hypocrite so listen to the plea listen to the plea now for a minute I beg you that when I'm present, this is really fascinating, I may not have to show my boldness to you with such confidence as I count on showing against them. It's a remarkable verse. Let me summarize. Dear Corinthians, I beg you, don't fall into that. I caution you, I'm not afraid to come to you as they're saying. let me say i'm not as weak as you think i don't want to exercise what i could i don't want to exercise my boldness on you if you fall into this as i'm about to exercise and i'm confident i'm going to do to them let me paraphrase this even more clearly so you get the sense of it because i don't i don't think it comes across real clear and strong here for us i believe paul's really worked up about this in this particular passage and let me say this this is a frustration of every true minister as we seek to control ourselves by the mind of christ and and we learn and try to be meek and gentle and dealing with sinners these fools paul's saying don't know what they're asking for it's like he's saying here you want me to come and bring the sword you want me to come and bring he says the rod they don't know what they're asking for as if i should be bringing judgment before the time but here's the paraphrase don't fall into this you don't want me to come and show my boldness that i'm confidently about to bring down on them when i come i will demolish them and i will wreck them i think that's the sense of this now it may be too strong but i think he's making a point with that here's what we don't understand about apostolic authority there were moments the apostles exercised it there were moments the apostles exercised it and it was terrifying you think of peter with ananias and sapphira i mean as soon as he pronounced the judgment they dropped dead or paul with the limas the sorcerer when he spoke he blinded him and Acts 13. The reality is that they had apostolic authority to do this. They had that much power behind them. But you rarely see it because they were controlled by the mind of Christ. And they rarely exercised it that way. There are some today I see who celebrate the death of the wicked. Who seem to have no understanding of the day of mercy. And that the Lord said, I do not delight in the death of the wicked, but that they turn and that they live. Paul is saying, I'm going to deal with them. But may it not be on you. There's nothing weak about what we're involved with. There's nothing effeminate. There's nothing passive. But Paul at this point addresses how they are to understand warfare and how god is working in the midst of all this which they don't appreciate so that they would have understanding and look at things differently so notice what he says here in the next verses for though we walk in the flesh we're not waging war according to the flesh there's that play there on flesh it's used in different senses so he says for though we're walking in what appears to be fleshly bodies jars of clay as he said earlier we're not companion companion um campaigning after the flesh in that way meaning yeah we're not impressive outwardly yes i have a thorn in the flesh i carry that all the way to the door of glory yes we're just as weak as others in our bodies some have better appearances than us some use their abilities in different ways to try to showcase outward power to win people we are not doing that purposely we're not waging warfare using our bodies that way it's really important paul had to address this everywhere there are some who use crafty ways through their speech to draw in disciples after themselves and in our day you look at the movements right now that get the most attention if you if you're wise to it at the helm at the front is usually a man and at the front of that movement that gets all the attention in our days usually a man who really is not tough but he's presented himself as tough he's presented himself doing all kinds of provocative things blow torch things make a big display to show strength to gain a following i'm not campaigning and use campaigning i'm messing up the word forgive me why can't i get it right now it's late i'm tired campaigning thank you i'm not campaigning this way there are all kinds of crafty ways that we could show you know in the church i think even under my leadership that we're doing something that's really powerful that nobody else is doing. And you see, people like figures like that. This is what people are gravitating to in our day, all around us. Now, how does Paul view ministry? Here's what he says. How do we fight the warfare? So important, so important tonight. I was waiting to get to this. We use entirely different weapons. Because we are in a spiritual warfare. And it's a spiritual fight. And our bodies, think about it, our persons, are not what is winning it. So notice the weapons he speaks of. For the weapons of our warfare, Corinthians, you've got to understand this, are not of the flesh this way, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy, and notice what he's destroying, we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of god and take every thought captive to obey christ see paul paul says what's happening here we don't appreciate this as we should that that there is a sword we wield but it's it's not it's not a physical sword it's the sword of the Spirit. It's the Word of God. Paul said that in chapter 4. We don't preach ourselves. We preach Christ. This is what the aim of our ministry is. For it is God, as we preach Christ, who did this. He commanded, as we preach Christ, he commanded that light would so shine out of the darkness which has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's how we're casting down false stuff. We preach him. I feel like I constantly have to say this because it's just a battle to get people in the church to appreciate this. You know, we think we've got to be doing all this other stuff. And it's interesting here that the biggest fight in the church often is simply to get people to appreciate that the means of grace of what God is doing as the church gathers and fellowships around the Word of God, He is destroying strongholds in people's lives. For you and your children. That's how powerful the ministry of the Word is. In general, we don't understand how God is fighting for us and our children. Paul is explaining here what he's doing. Notice he says he's demolishing and wrecking fortifications, strongholds um do you know how many strongholds happen in people's lives things that are set up against god think of all the ideas out there think of all the false ideas think of all the philosophies think of all the false teachers think of all these things that people embrace it's a marvel we still have a church why do we he's wrecking these things uh the imagery here is that god is storming the fort with this with this word that god through the ministry is making war that god is taking every thought has the power to take every thought captive to the obedience of christ that's god's power through the ministry you don't realize who the spirit is working right now to shatter strongholds in their lives that they could be taken away now this is really the heart of the sermon how many times are you frustrated with people who are ignorant i mean one of the great frustrations in our day is just ignorance in the church to truth. Frustrating. People who should know better doing things they know they should know that they shouldn't do. People making all kinds of bad decisions, even dangerous ones, in our institutions. Christian institutions are the worst for this sometimes. I've always been frustrated. Why doesn't God act? Why doesn't he stop this nonsense? Why doesn't he do more? Why doesn't he immediately showcase power for us? That's what's in me. I think we want God to intervene right there and right then on especially the person, not only who's being stupid, but especially the false teacher. especially the wolf why doesn't God put a stop to it right now why does he allow such corruption why does he allow ideas to creep in so easily and you see I think we live with this constant frustration and so we take sort of a defeatist posture do you hear what god's saying to us tonight do you hear what the scriptures are saying to us what is god doing he's constantly undermining it for his people he's constantly frustrating their plans and their ideas behind the scenes through the ministry of the gospel i'm sure the uans have seen this out on the field and preaching into human sexuality and all the craziness and all of the bondage that people are in how the power of the word shatters but maybe they don't always see it but that's the confidence paul's saying that we have to have that the word is doing that he's constantly working to tear it down and this is where we have to be controlled by the meekness and the gentleness of christ because we get angry and we get combative and and notice he may not strike down that false teacher right then and there often doesn't but what he does do is undermine what they are trying to do so that they're the ones in frustration he works that way to free people he has the power to do it we have to look at what god is doing differently than our immediately fleshly desire he is working this way he is undermining he is preserving his sheep this way and that's what where paul realized the the power was he explains to them yes there is a judgment coming and we will be we are ready to punish every disobedience but your obedience is not yet complete god is not done with them that has a little echo i think of the tares doesn't it why lord why are those tares growing up with the wheat oh they'll be pulled up don't worry they're going to be pulled up at the harvest it's going to be exposed but i don't want any of my wheat to get hurt in the christian life the ministry warfare happens this way as we learn to be controlled by the meekness and the gentleness of christ the warfare is entirely spiritual we we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but with powers you don't even see them at times how present they are with principalities with rulers of this age and god has taken his mighty sword which is the word and he has shattered the darkness in people's lives and your testimony to that i think we need to hear that today the kingdom of god has indeed come in power and those who know this power can testify of it in their own lives that's what jesus said in john three we know what we've heard we know what we've seen don't get caught up i think is the message here with a ministry according to the flesh don't listen to those who attack a ministry who think that we are soft because we're not noisy enough or because we are compassionate on sinners that's not weak it's not effeminate there's nothing weak or effeminate about it it's the mercy of christ that's what we need that's manly judgment will come in its time but for now let us see i think paul's saying be content with the ministry of the word god is working. God's spirit is working. God is undermining. God is shattering dominions in people's lives constantly. God is delivering his sheep. God is tearing down. Sometimes we worry about all these things. God is tearing it down. And remember those who are the ignorant caught up in it maybe what they most need from us is to see not our wrath and anger but the meekness and the gentleness of christ he has the power to shatter that darkness in people's lives if we're obnoxious who will we ever win we have to believe god works this way and let us receive that ministry without doubt knowing as the whole theme of corinthians is what it is god is showcasing that what is foolishness to the world is the power of god for salvation to all who believe amen let's pray heavenly father help us with this to have a greater understanding of the work that You are doing. Give us confidence in Your ways which are not ours. And let us trust Your Word that as that ministry is faithfully tended to and as Your Word sounds out, that it is shattering. You are storming the fortress of people's heart and shattering dominions and undermining darkness and bringing people into the light. Thank you for the powerful ministry of the gospel. Give us confidence in your work and let us put on the mind of Christ in the ways that we treat one another. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.