Loving Rebuke

All right, well, let's turn to 2 Corinthians here this morning. Lies are broken, my oh my. They're all over.

And you heard of two broken lives that were mended. But suffering for the Lord and going out to try to mend broken lives. We were there, and Brother James was with me and the Brooks family.

We were, the Brooks are not here this morning. One of their friends, a 30-year-old young man, a neighbor, was on a four-wheeler and evidently was killed. And they're not here with us this morning.

I was talking yesterday with Brother Sean. But last Tuesday, we were at the meal. And just down the road there at the stoplight, we heard pop, pop, pop.

And within just, what, a minute or two, sirens were all over the place. There was, I think, we totaled nine police cars, a fire engine, ambulance, and all kinds of activity going on. And we were watching what was going on, come to find out that there was a man right down the road from us that was shot and killed by someone.

And laying there, and no identity on him. But just two blocks down, another tragedy. You know, we look at it as something, wow, that's awful.

But down in that society down there, it's just like everyday normal. It's routine. And trying to help people who are broken.

Their lives are broken, and some of you have experienced those kind of lives. We listened to that this morning. Broken drugs.

Even in that situation, looking for something spiritual, something satisfying, something with purpose and meaning to life. Well, that song and what we shared here this morning is something that's good to launch into our message. I'd like you to turn there to 2 Corinthians chapter 2. We're going to look at verses 12 to verse 17.

I want to do a little review. It's been two weeks. Brother Sean was here with us last week.

But just to review last time, the message that I shared, because this is going to kind of tie into what we talked about some last time. But in the first half of this chapter, Paul is representing to us some balance in the Christian experience. If you look there in chapter 2, verse 4, he says, for out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly towards you.

Now, Paul has a balanced perspective of what biblical love is. And we talked about this last time. Love has great compassion for people.

As Jesus said, there's this man that's laying in the ditch. And he's half dead. He's been wounded.

His life has been taken. He's been robbed. And many religious people walk by that man.

And they look at him and say, that's a sad situation there. But they go on their way. They don't have time.

They don't have a compassionate heart to care for that individual. And he said, there's a Samaritan that comes by. And this Samaritan is moved with compassion.

And this Samaritan sees this individual who's in the ditch. And he goes to him. He goes where he's at.

And he tries to minister to him. And he tries to heal him. He tries to give of his substance.

And he gives money to help in this situation. And just the idea of having compassion upon people of humanity. There's a lot of fallen humanity we can have compassion on.

There's a lot of it out there. A lot of people who are in the ditch, half dead. And that's a part of love.

It's a part of being a child of God and walking with God. But there's also this other part in verse four. He says, out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you.

And this idea of 1 Corinthians and how he wrote this letter. And in this letter, there was much rebuke. There was much chastisement.

And we talked last time about the importance of rebuke and chastisement. Because this rebuke and this chastisement led to godly sorrow. We saw that last week, how that this man, and we'll see it later on in chapter eight and nine, how that this man who had committed an act of fornication was led through that rebuke to a godly sorrow that led him to repentance.

And there's a restoration coming up here in 2 Corinthians, that this man is gonna get right with God. Now, that rebuke and that reproof doesn't always lead to a godly sorrow. Sometimes, as we shared last week, it leads to anger.

It leads to hostility. You take Stephen's example. You hear Peter, what a day.

Peter's preaching to many thousands of people and he tells them, you know, you're the murderers. You're the ones who killed Christ. He rebukes them.

Bible says they're pricked in their heart and they repent. And they get right with God and 3,000 people are saved and there's a lot of excitement there. That's a good thing.

But then seven chapters later, you see a man named Stephen who also rebukes a group of people, the Sanhedrin, for their murdering and betraying Christ and he gets stoned and he loses his life over it. And so as you go through the Bible, you see the preaching of the word. It sometimes leads to a blessing.

It sometimes leads to a Philippian jailer in his household getting converted and washing Paul and Silas's stripes. And boy, this has been a blessing. But sometimes it leads to being stoned and he found that out in places too, that the same preaching brought him to being stoned.

And sometimes rebuke and reproof falls on hearts in different ways. But that leads us to this passage here and I'd like to start reading here in verse number 12 of chapter two. Furthermore, 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.

But taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia. Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph. I like that.

Thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the Savior of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved and, and I have a red circle around that word and in my Bible, and in them that perish. To the one we are the savior of death unto death and to the other, the saver of life unto life.

And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. We're gonna look at that passage here this morning. Let's pray.

And then we'll try to open that up for our hearts. Heavenly Father, Lord, we pray as we were taught last Sunday by brother Sean to go a little farther and to raise our standard and to launch out and to be different and to challenge ourselves in many different ways. And Lord, the message here this morning is a challenge to me and I know a challenge to others.

And so Lord, give us grace, give us repentance and the acknowledging of the truth and that we might rise up and walk according to the will of God. We pray your blessing on us here this morning and give me grace as I try to communicate your word. We pray here in Jesus' name, amen.

All right here in the start, Paul is in verse 12 referring to this Macedonian vision that he had. And I'd like you to go back with me if you could to Acts chapter 16 and hold your finger in second Corinthians. But in Acts chapter 16, something is happening here and he alludes to it in second Corinthians.

In Acts chapter 16, starting in verse number six, we'll jump in here. He says, now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Messiah, they have said to go into Bithynia but the spirit suffered them not. Now two times here, Paul is trying to go into a certain region and Paul is acknowledging here or Luke is writing this about Paul and those that are with him that he tries to go into a certain area, but it says that the spirit suffers him not.

Now we're not told exactly here what happened, why the spirit hindered, but there was certainly closed doors because there's gonna be a door opening here in a minute. There may be a situation where there is great persecution. There may be a situation where like in some countries today that he was not allowed legally to go into the country and preach, he was just thrown out of the country.

There are different reasons why Paul was trying to go into these areas, but he was forbidden. But then in verse number eight, and they passing by Messiah came down to Troas and a vision appeared to Paul in the night and there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying, come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel unto them.

Now, Macedonia is this open door and that's where the Corinthian church is going to be planted. So here is someone or a vision, Paul sees he's been rejected. He's tried to go maybe like Jerusalem.

He's going to Jerusalem and there's nothing there. It's just nothing but persecution and they throw him out. He's thrown back up to Rome.

He's trying to go in different directions, but the door has been closed. And then as he is waiting or just seeking the Lord, the Lord opens up a vision to him and this vision represents open hearts. There's an open door.

Come to Macedonia and help us. We're open. We want to receive the word of the Lord.

And so this closed door, these open doors, I believe these closed doors may mean no reception. There's no desire. There's no openness to the gospel.

It may mean opposition, but certainly this open door here is a desire to go into Macedonia because there's hungry hearts. There's people who are wanting to receive the word of God. And he found that in the church there at Corinth.

And so verse 12 says, furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ gospel, a door was open unto me of the Lord. That's his vision. And I had no rest in my spirit because I found not Titus my brother.

Now they didn't have telephones back then. And so Titus was preaching somewhere and Paul felt an urgency to follow this vision. And yet he could not find Titus.

But taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia. Now, verse 14 to verse 17 is what I want to focus on here this morning. Verse 14 says, now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ.

Now, is that your testimony this morning? Is that your testimony this morning? That I thank God this morning that I always triumph in Christ. You know, the context here, we're going to see what it is, but Paul is giving thanks unto God who he says is always causing us to triumph in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you look at his life and you wonder, my, how could you say that? And I've read already the list there in 2 Corinthians.

I think it's chapter 9 or 10. All the things that Paul suffered. You know, here he's under a pile of rocks.

He was stoned. He was three days in the deep. He was scourged many times.

He faced a lot of perils. We've gone through all those already in the past. And yet throughout all of those things, he is affirming here that the Lord always causes me to triumph in Christ.

Now maybe we have a different idea here. And I think after we finished the message, you'll have a different understanding of what triumph actually is. But Paul is talking about here triumphing and it's the will of God for us to triumph.

Now notice how he triumphs. Verse 14 says this. Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place.

Now here is what triumph actually is. It is making manifest the savior or the fragrance of his knowledge by us in every place. Fragrance, savor.

I like those candles up there at Walmart. You know, that butternut squash that you put up here, the candle, you light it and it puts a beautiful fragrance into the room. That idea of fragrance is what he is talking about here.

We used to have these, speaking of my past life, Brother Yoss and we used to have these, what you probably are familiar with those, these sticks, I don't know what they call them, but you light them and they put off a fragrance. And when I went to school at Ohio University, it was the first time I came across these people burning fragrance. And I thought that was interesting.

I've come to realize they were doing that to hide the marijuana smell so that back then it was against the law to smoke marijuana. And so they would have all this fragrance that they would burn. But fragrance, making manifest the fragrance or the aroma of his knowledge by us in every place.

In other words, triumph is this. Everywhere Paul said, I go, I am making manifest the aroma or the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. I am spreading the word of God, whether it's received or whether it's not received.

My triumph is not in, you know, most of us think of triumph as people getting saved. Oh, we triumph in Jesus. We preach today and there was four or five people got converted or a Paul preached or Peter preached and 3,000 were converted.

We triumph in Jesus. Well, here Paul's learned a lesson. And I'm thankful that I learned this lesson a number of years ago.

It can be very discouraging. The ministry can. But the triumph here is making manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place.

Go into all the world and preach the truth and you will triumph. Whether you go into every corner of the world and they stone you or whether you go into every corner of the world and they bless you and receive your message. The triumph is not in how they receive it.

The triumph is in spreading forth the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the only way we fail, the only way we don't triumph is if we run in fear, is if we are ashamed of the Lord, is if we don't spread the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And in Mark chapter eight, Jesus said these words in verse number 38, you don't have to turn there.

He said, whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his father with his holy angels. That's a shame. That's not triumph.

And so when we shrink back in fear or when we don't want to be persecuted or we don't want to face the animosity that the preaching of the word will bring, then we fail. But Paul says, we're triumphing. We're triumphing.

The early church, they triumphed. And those first couple of chapters when the authority said, you cannot preach in Jerusalem in the name of the Lord Jesus. But they said, we cannot speak the things that we have seen and heard.

That was a triumph. Stephen actually triumphed when he was stoned for speaking forth the word of God and spreading the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. I think that some people have said this, but Stephen saw the Lord standing at the right hand.

It's like he was sitting. Now he's standing. It's like, good job.

Now, was there anyone converted there? No. And we're gonna find out that there's sometimes a savior of death, sometimes a savior of life. But the triumph is in not being ashamed and being a bold witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Paul certainly was that very thing. Did Jesus himself triumph when he was killed on the cross? Yes, it was a triumph. Yeah.

Did John the Baptist triumph when he spoke of the adultery of Herod and yet lost his life? Yes, those things are all triumphs. And by the way, I was sharing this with someone this week. Our society is demonic.

There's spirits of darkness that are trying to lead our society. But one thing you notice in society, there's two things that society is trying to criminalize. And one is rebuke, and the other is chastisement.

Those very things that God is trying to use to bring conviction and godly sorrow and repentance, the devil is trying to criminalize them. Don't speak against sin. We're gonna make it a law.

It's called hate speech. Don't spank your children. Don't discipline.

We'll criminalize the behavior. And so you see the enemy at work trying to criminalize the very thing that God has intended to bring about a sincere godly sorrow and repentance. And let's keep reading here.

This Savior, verse 15, for we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. Now here's something very important. Very important.

Listen as I share this. We are unto, not myself, or we are unto other people in the church, or we are unto the world out there. No, we are not a sweet-smelling Savior to any of those, but it says for we are unto God a sweet saver Now I'm just talking here today about from the Lord's perspective.

Ah, that smells good. That's a good fragrance. And I have no doubt that the Lord, when He saw Stephen spreading the knowledge of the Lord Jesus in a difficult situation, ah, that's a sweet aroma, a sweet fragrance.

So it's not about what other people think. It's not about what I think. It's not about what my brothers and sisters in the church think.

But this is a matter that God is looking for a sweet-smelling fragrance, a sweet aroma. And here's what this aroma is. It's not the butternut squash one, or it's not those candles that we used to burn in college that put off all different kinds of fragrances.

Look what this fragrance is. For we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ. This is the fragrance.

It's a sweet saver of Christ. In other words, as God looks down upon us, He wants to see His Son in us. Amen.

I wanna see my Son lived out in the life of the body of Christ. And when I see my Son, by the way, remember when the Lord was baptized and there was another place also when there was a thundering voice from heaven. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

I like it. I like how my Son lives. I like how He responds.

I am well pleased with Him. And it's a beautiful fragrance to me when I look at my people and I see Jesus in them. So this sweet fragrance, this sweet saver is the fragrance of the Lord Jesus.

Now just stop and think about this. The Lord came to the earth and, you know, God the Father could watch His Son being birthed there of the Virgin Mary and grew up and lived a perfect life. And God the Father said, I like that.

I like the way my Son lives. I like how He responds. I like His attitude.

It's a beautiful fragrance, a sweet saver. Then the Son leaves, He ascends back to the Father and the Spirit of God comes and He dwells in this body right here. He dwells in the body of Christ in each one of us.

And who are we supposed to represent? That same person, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we're called the body of Christ. And so the Lord is looking to see us in the very same way He saw His Son.

You know, it's not one thing where your Son did this and the church did something totally different. No, we represent Him, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as God looks down from heaven, His desire is to smell a sweet smelling fragrance.

And that comes when we put off Jesus. We put off Him in every aspect. And we'll see here some of these aspects that are important for to put off this fragrance.

Verse 15, let's keep reading. For we are unto God, a sweet Savior of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. Now here's something that's a light bulb went off in my mind many years ago because I do ministry out there in the world.

You know, it can be discouraging being a Noah, being a Stephen, being an individual who is sharing the knowledge of the Lord Jesus and preaching the gospel and talking about reproof and rebuke and dealing with sin and nobody can hurt it. Where's your fruit, they ask? Where's your fruit? Well, I don't go anymore for fruit. I go for fragrance, amen.

I'm out for the fragrance. I want to be the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I leave the fruit to Him.

I simply want to be, as Paul says here, the sweet-smelling Savior of Christ, not only in them that are saved. And I love to see that. Those at the day of Pentecost who received the rebuke, who received the reproof of Peter and his preaching and 3,000 were saved.

Ah, that's a beautiful thing. You know why? Because Jesus led people to the Lord, Zacchaeus and many others. And that's my son, that's my son.

I can see my son there preaching the truth and people receiving it and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are many examples of those who did, the Philippian jailer. It's all a Savior of Christ.

Mary Magdalene, many examples of people who came and said amen. Mary, your life is wicked. Mary, you're living an ungodly life.

And Mary said amen, I agree with you. I want to repent. And that's a beautiful Savior.

But something that we have a little bit more difficulty grasping, it says not only in them that are saved, but also in them that perish. In them that reject the Word. In them that throw stones at you.

Even in them, there is a sweet smelling Savior. There's a fragrance that comes off of that, that God is desirous of. You know, the fact that many reject and hate us also is an aroma of Christ because He Himself was despised and rejected of men.

You know, when the Father looked down and saw Jesus there despised and rejected of men on the cross, then laughing and ridiculing and spitting upon Him, that was a beautiful, beautiful thing to the Lord. The Bible says the cross is the glory of God. And there's my Son.

My Son is suffering. My Son is forgiving even those who are persecuting Him. My Son is loving those that hate Him.

Ah, it's beautiful. Smells good. And even in those that perish, there is a sweet fragrance.

And that fragrance is, that's my Son. That looks like my Son. And that's the thing that pleases the Lord.

When people hate us for speaking the truth, it is an aroma of Jesus who also was hated for speaking the truth. When people persecute us for speaking the truth, it is an aroma of Jesus who also was persecuted for the same. And so whether it is salvation or damnation, it is an aroma of His Son.

Matter of fact, most of the people that heard Jesus hated Him. Most of the people that heard Jesus when He was in His ministry are in hell today. They rejected the gospel.

But the life of Jesus is beautiful. And whether they are saved or whether they perish, being faithful to spread forth the knowledge of the Lord Jesus is the savor that the Lord is looking for. So I don't get discouraged anymore when I go forth and preach.

We're living in a society that's rejecting the Lord. I wonder sometimes whether the Lord's given up our society and given it over to a reprobate mind. And so that we're just like a Noah in a sense, we're preaching.

The Lord likened the days of this time, the end to Noah and Lot. And if you look at Noah and Lot, there were no converts in either of those two men's lives. I mean, Lot didn't do the best, but Noah was a preacher of righteousness, but there was very few converts.

And so I'm going for the fragrance. I'm going to be an example of Jesus that the Father can look down and say, there's someone who reminds me of my son. And that's going to take maybe doing a miracle, maybe using your gifts, maybe winning a soul on the positive side.

That's my son. My son did all those things. Or on the negative side, it may mean taking a brick or maybe being putting on a cross.

It may be losing your life like James did in the early church. It may be Stephen's loss of life. But even as God looks upon that, that's a picture of my son.

I'm sure I don't want to bring out these things and cause any difficulty, but you know, the Salatinos lost Kavana and thought about her often, probably this week. And there's maybe times when they're going through life and they see a young lady and they say, boy, she reminds me of Kavana. There's some of the things she does.

And that's a good thing, reminds me. And you know, when the Lord looks down and He sees us and we're responding in a proper way and we're being faithful to communicate the truth and whether they receive it or whether they reject it, the Lord can say, that looks like my son. That's my son there.

And that's a good thing. The preaching of the cross sometimes brings salvation. Some people get saved.

Sometimes it brings damnation to those who reject it. But, and I'd like to convince you of this, both are a sweet smelling fragrance. And it's hard to understand that, but the fragrance is, that's a picture of my son.

He was rejected. His words were rejected. Look over to 2 Corinthians here, chapter four.

Paul's going to go deeper into this subject here in 2 Corinthians 4, verse eight. He says this, we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair.

Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

You know, sometimes you have favorite verses. This is one of my favorites, a number of years ago, and these two verses here in 10 and 11. But always bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus.

You know, Jesus had to bear about a lot of death and a lot of dying. He actually went to the cross and died. But he endured a lot of affliction.

He endured a lot of suffering. He endured a lot of persecution. And as we do that, as we go forth and bear about in our bodies, the dying of the Lord Jesus, like He did, look what it says happens.

That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. That out of that death comes something beautiful. Out of that death, our death, our suffering, our being persecuted, our dying, our being martyred, out of that comes a manifestation of Jesus Christ.

You can just imagine this. Maybe someone like Brother Chris here, we're in a country where there's crosses, and he unjustly is taken and put up on a cross. And he endures this great difficulty and people mocking and spitting at him.

And he says, Father, forgive them. And he does all that Jesus does. And people look at that and say, that's what Jesus did.

That man is manifesting the life of Jesus Christ. And God says, I like it. I like that.

And in some cases, it's not just in the miracles and it's not in the conversion. It's not in the answer to prayer. We like those kind of things to manifest Jesus.

But in many cases, like Paul uses examples here, many cases it's in enduring great affliction and suffering, just like Jesus did, that we manifest him. And there's a fragrance that comes off of it. You could almost say this.

You know, if someone persecutes you or blasphemes you and reviles you and you bless them, those who are watching could say, you know, that has kind of a fragrance of Jesus. There's some fragrance there. I like it.

Yeah, there is a fragrance. Keep reading here in verse 11, chapter four, for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So it's not only in life and in good things and in miracles and in, you know, these many people get converted that, wow, the power of God.

But it's also in the difficulty and the suffering that we manifest who Jesus is. So the Lord looks down and says, sees one of you doing a miracle and maybe one of you casting out a devil. He says, that's reminding me of my son.

Good, I like the fragrance. And we like those kinds of things. But then he sees you being hated and persecuted and you're just trying to teach the truth and make rebuke and bring conviction and people are throwing stones and rocks at you.

And I like it. That's what they did to my son. You remind me of my son.

And so as you bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, you are manifesting the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's an aroma of the Lord when you're called Beelzebub, when you're hated, when you're hanging on a cross, when you're spit upon and you're mocked. You know, many people have a hard time with that.

You know, are you doing the right thing when people spit on you and mock you? I personally rejoice in it because Jesus was spit upon and mocked. And I'm simply trying to be like him. I'm trying to show the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You don't have to turn there, but we've looked at this passage before. The early church had a different concept of suffering. In the Acts chapter five and verse number 40, it says this, and to him, they agreed.

And when he had called the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus. Don't spread the knowledge of the Lord Jesus and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

Now, we're gonna get to that word worthy in a little bit, but they were happy that they could stand in the place of the Lord Jesus Christ and represent who he is. And yeah, Jesus, he was beaten and scourged. I got beaten and scourged.

What a privilege. Their mind was, we're rejoicing that we were worthy. God deemed us worthy to stand in his place.

Boy, that's something that we are lacking in. So I don't go forth. I used to, but I don't go forth to win souls as much as to just spread the fragrance of the knowledge of his son.

And whether it's by life, salvation, new life, or whether it's by death, persecution, hatred, suffering, I can be Jesus and represent him in either way because that's what he did. And we triumph. And so God looks down and says, that's a beautiful thing.

That reminds me of my son. You know, he was preaching the truth and he was sharing the knowledge of the gospel and he was hated. Or he was received and he was accepted.

And either way, it's an aroma. Verse 16 says, to the one, we are the saver of death unto death. And that is a saver.

I want to remind you of that. That is a saver to God. Not to you, maybe.

You don't like it. I don't like people rejecting me. I don't like people hating the gospel.

I don't like people throwing stones. I don't like it. But it's a saver.

It represents Jesus. God says, that's what happened to my son. I like it.

And I like the body of Christ to represent the person of Christ. To the one, we are a saver of the death unto death. And to the other, the saver of life unto life.

And I think many of us, we like that kind. And I like that kind, life. And then he says this, and who is sufficient for these things? And you know, his mind is like those early apostles.

And the word sufficient there is a word worthy. Who is worthy? Who is worthy? It's like he's thinking about, am I even worthy to be associated with the Lord Jesus and to stand in his place and to be a vessel unto life and a vessel unto death? Am I sufficient for these things? Am I even worthy to be a sweet-smelling saver to the Father of Jesus Christ? People loved Jesus. People hated him.

He was a saver of life to many. But to the majority, he was a saver unto death. And most of the people who heard Jesus were angry, hated him, and they're in hell.

Some heard him, and there was life. And they received it. But either way, the Lord triumphed.

So our goal here is to live out the life of his son. And I know it's human nature, and we're gonna see this here in a minute, it's human nature to choose the life side. And the next verse is gonna tell us what we gotta be careful of.

But choosing the life side, it's not an easy thing to choose the death side, to be a saver of death. But that's a part for all of us to participate in. Let's keep reading here in verse 17, because he's gonna close here with a lesson.

For we are not as many which corrupt the Word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. You know, there's a tendency in this context here, saver of life, saver of death, there's a tendency to speak the Word in such a way as to avoid the death side. And you see this going on in the liberal churches everywhere.

To speak the Word in such a way as to avoid the suffering side of Jesus' life. We want miracles. We want salvations.

We want gifts. We want all the positive things that Jesus represents, but the negative side, the fact that he is persecuted and hated and he was crucified, we don't want it. Even though that's as much a saver as the other.

And so what happens is there's a tendency, and you know, I face it, we all face this, a tendency to speak the Word in such a way as to avoid the saver of death. Avoid being rejected, avoid being despised, avoid the whole thing, and try to make this more acceptable. Right? Right.

And that's what's happening all over in church life. I talked about it last time, but are we as, for we are not as many which corrupt the Word of God. Why would you corrupt the Word of God? Well, I don't wanna be a savior of death.

I want people to like me. I like to be liked. And so I'm going to corrupt the Word of God and only share things from the Word of God that will get people to like me.

That's where you get this whole love, sloppy agape message. Everybody's about love, love, love, love, love, love, because people love the message. People will love me if I just tell them about, God loves you and has a great plan for your life.

Everybody will accept that. Right? So the liberal church no longer rebukes. By the way, this book is full of rebuke.

It's full of rebuke. We're gonna see here in just a minute that very thing. Try to make it acceptable.

And I don't wanna go down that road. Maybe you do, but I don't have any desire. I'm getting a little older in life and it doesn't matter at this point.

I don't have any desire to try to water down the Bible and make it acceptable. To corrupt it. To take out those things that are offensive, like divorce and remarriage and gay marriage and covetousness and head coverings and non-resistance.

You know, a lot of this stuff, people, many churches are down to just the bare minimums. They just only have a few passages that they preach on. And it's because they don't want to offend.

You know that Jesus, if you're gonna represent Jesus, one of the ways he is defined, he's a rock of offense. He's a rock of offense. People were offended.

Disciples came to him and said, don't you know the Pharisees were offended at what you said there? And the Lord said, oh my, I'm so sorry, I'll change what I said. I don't wanna offend anybody. No, he didn't say that.

He said, every plant which my heavenly father has not planted is gonna be rooted up. In other words, let him alone. God's just distinguishing between true and false.

And that's one of the reasons why we have so much false today is because the entirety of the word of God is not dividing between sheep and goats. So we corrupt it to get people to like us. You know, it's a temptation to stand up here and not preach on certain things because there's someone sitting here in the congregation that might be upset, right? So if you have two or three families that's sitting here that might be upset, then you need to get some offering money to pay the bills.

You skip that passage or you avoid saying anything. And pretty soon that list of things gets bigger and there's more and more people. And pretty soon you're limited to what you can preach and you begin to start corrupting the word of God and giving half-truths.

My mother always told me that a half-truth is as much as a lie as a bold-faced lie. And of course, that's not gonna be the aroma, the fragrance of Christ. I mean, the Lord looks down and says, that's only half my son.

You're not giving an aroma of my son. I don't like it. It doesn't smell good to me.

It's not my son. Amen. So when the Lord says at a very basic level, follow me, follow me.

In miracles, yes. He that believes on the Son, the works that I do shall he do also in greater works than these shall I do because I go to my Father. Praise God for that.

Follow me. Also includes take up a cross and deny yourself. Amen.

Follow me. But human nature doesn't like that aspect. One more passage here in closing.

Turn to 2 Timothy. Paul warns here about this coming in the last days in 2 Timothy chapter four, starting in verse number one. People corrupting the Word of God because they don't want to, and they don't know this, but they don't want to give the full picture of the Son of God.

In 2 Timothy chapter four, verse one, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul is writing to Timothy, who shall judge the quick and the dead it is appearing in his kingdom. Preach the Word. Timothy, preach the Word.

Be instant in season and out of season. Always be ready. And here's the first two words, reprove and rebuke.

And by the way, if you preach the Word of God faithfully from verse to verse and you don't compromise, you're gonna have a lot of reproof and rebuke in it. There's a lot of reproof in it. If you read it, it rebukes me a lot and reproves me.

Reprove and rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. I like that. There's the compassion.

I'm gonna rebuke you for what you're doing, but I'm gonna wait and wait and wait and wait with all longsuffering for you to get right. Isn't that how God is? He sends a rebuke, but he's certainly longsuffering. And then verse three, here's what we're facing right now.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. In other words, they're gonna take the reproof and the rebuke out. Sound there means whole.

They don't like the whole thing. And so they take this page and this page and pretty soon they got a Bible that's just about that big. And they'll not endure it.

It's hard sometimes to endure rebuke. I've said this before, that's why people don't read the Bible. If you start reading the Bible, there's a good reason probably for that is because you don't want the Lord to rebuke you where you're at.

I don't like reading this book because it rebukes my lifestyle, it rebukes my thought life, it rebukes my attitudes. There's many rebukes here and so I'm not gonna read it anymore. I'll go to church and I'll find a church where the preacher doesn't preach it and I won't get rebuked in church either.

Verse three says, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts, their own desires, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And I believe that means this. Their ears, they just tell me what I wanna hear.

Take that rebuke and put it aside preacher and just tell me that God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life and that's what I wanna hear. That's what my ears are itching to hear. And you do that and I got some money for the offering and we'll support you.

Tell us what we want to hear. Well, you all know that Jesus was not that kind of an individual. He told them what they needed to hear, not what they ought to hear.

And there's a lot of pressure on us. Even the government's imposing upon us. You can't go out there and preach the truth.

You can't do that. Trying to stop it. And when the enemy of our souls gets a hold of this government like he has many other governments around the world and he controls this government, he will stop the preaching of the word.

He'll stop what he calls hate speech. And if you speak against the homosexuals, the adulterers, the fornicators, the liars, the covetous, you speak about any of that, it's gonna be a criminal offense. You're going to prison.

Just like it was in the early church. We'll send you to prison. So we have to be willing to say, hey, it doesn't matter.

I'm willing to go and suffer. I'm gonna speak forth the truth. And so Paul here is simply teaching us.

He's learned. How do you triumph? Is you just speak forth the truth with love. And sometimes it's a savor of life.

People receive it. People are born again. Wonderful.

Other times it's a savor of death. People hate you. They ridicule you.

They spit on you. But either way it comes. God says, that brings a fragrance of my son to me.

I like it. It's a sweet smelling savor of Christ. And like I said before, I don't get discouraged because I don't see a lot of fruit from ministry.

I'm more encouraged because of just being opened, giving some fragrance to the Lord. So being Christ on both sides of the aisle, being willing to be a savor of life, a savor of death and letting fragrance. I love the idea.

Even down there in Columbus, just having some fragrance of Jesus Christ there in the midst of a very dark system and society. Or anywhere you go, whatever you're doing, just leave some fragrance of Jesus Christ with your life, your example, and also with your words, spreading forth the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yes, we can teach knowledge by example.

One of, either way. All right, does anyone have anything here this morning they'd like to add to that?