2 Corinthians 11:16-13:14

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

January 19, 2013


 *AUG 20 - 2 CORINTHIANS 11:16-13:14 - PAUL’S WEAKNESS: FURTHERS THE GOSPEL*


 *1. 11:30-31 (11:16-33, NNT) PAUL: GLORIED IN HIS INFIRMITIES. “If I must
glory, I will glory of the things of my :weakness. 31 The God and Father of
the Lord Jesus, who is blessed unto the ages, knows that I lie not.” *Father,
You are King of Your Kingdom, the King’s Domain! Like Paul we will glory in
our weaknesses, and magnify Your grace! *Hallowed be your :name!*


 *2. 12:1 (12:1-9a) PAUL: GLORIES IN VISIONS AND REVELATIONS. “I must
glory, though it is not expedient; but I will come to visions and
revelations of the Lord.” *If it is Your will, like Paul we will receive
visions and revelations. If thorns in the flesh are necessary to keep us
humble, we will receive them with thanksgiving. *Your :kingdom come!*


 *3. 12:9b (12:9b-10) PAUL: TAKES PLEASURE IN WEAKNESS. “Most gladly
therefore will I rather glory in :weaknesses, that the power of the Christ
may spread a tabernacle over me.” *Your power Father, rests upon us in
Christ as we rejoice like Paul and Silas in prison following beatings. *Your
:will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.*


 *4. 12:12 (12:11-21) PAUL: VINDICATES HIS APOSTLESHIP. “Indeed the signs
of the apostle were wrought among you in all patience, both by signs and
wonders and powers.” *Father, we see the forgiveness of Paul toward the
unfaithful Corinthians. We see his faithfulness in supernaturally working
among them as an apostle. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.*


 *5. 13:1 (13:1-10) PAUL’S LETTER : TO SPARE THEM HIS PRESENCE. “This
is thethird
time I am coming unto you. At the mouth of two witnesses or three shall
every word be established.” *We arm ourselves with Yourself Father, as our
armor. We will not be reprobates, but prove our life in You. We will save
ourselves from judgment by heeding Your words. *And forgive us our :debts,
As we also have forgiven our :debtors.*


 *6. 13:11 (13:11-13) PAUL: HIS FAREWELL SALUTATION. “For the rest,
brethren, farewell. Be perfected; be comforted; be of the same mind; be at
peace: and the God of :love and peace shall be with you.” *Father, You are
our hedge round about. Keeping Your words is our protection. We rejoice in
Your words of life. *And bring us not into temptation.*


 *7. 13:14 PAUL: HIS TRIUNE APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION. “The grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the love of :God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
be with you all.” *What a triune Benediction! What a triune God! We are
made in Your image: body, soul and spirit. Our body is for *You*, blessed
Holy Spirit! Jesus, You have saved our souls! Father, our spirit is for
You. *But deliver us from the evil one!*


 *NOTE**: 12:8-9a (12:1-9a) PAUL: GOD’S WISDOM IN PAUL’S THORN. **“Concerning
this thorn I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9a And
he said to me, My :grace is sufficient for you: for the power is made
perfect in weakness.” *Father, what a passage! What a truth! Open our eyes
that we may increasingly see our lives from Your perspective. And for *Your
pleasure*, we are created!


 *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: “Desires”. *Why, the Christian, above all men,
should have what the world calls his, “holidays and bonfire nights” - his
days of rejoicing, times of holy laugher, seasons of overflowing delight.
No, I think he should strive to have them always, for we are told, “Delight
yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart!”


 *Our Psalm for the day: 50:23 (50, ESV) GOD HIMSELF IS JUDGE. “The one who
offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his
way rightly I will show the salvation of God.” *Father, our life is Yours:
it is our sacrifice of thanksgiving for You and Calvary. We embrace our
White Funeral! Now we can *hallow your :name!*


 *Title: *“A Psalm of Asaph.” This is the first of the Psalms of Asaph, but
whether it was the production of that eminent musician, or merely dedicated
to him, we cannot tell. The titles of twelve Psalms bear his name, but it
could not in all of them be meant to ascribe their authorship to him, for
several of these Psalms are of too late a date to have been composed by the
same writer as the others.


 50:5. *Gather My saints together unto Me.* Go, you swift-winged
messengers, and separate the precious from the vile. Gather out the wheat
of the heavenly garner. Let the long-scattered, but elect people, known by
My separating grace to be My sanctified ones, be now assembled in one
place. All are not saints who seem to be so - a severance must be made;
therefore let all who profess to be saints be gathered before My throne of
judgment, and let them hear the Word which will search and try the whole,
that the false may be convicted and the true revealed. *Those that have
made a covenant with Me by sacrifice: *this is the grand test, and yet some
have dared to imitate it. The covenant was ratified by the slaying of
victims, the cutting and dividing of offerings; this the righteous have
done by accepting with true faith the great propitiatory sacrifice, and
this the pretenders have done in merely outward form. Let them be gathered
before the throne for trial and testing, and as many as have really
ratified the covenant by faith in the Lord Jesus shall be attested before
all worlds as the objects of distinguishing grace, while formalists shall
learn that outward sacrifices are all in vain. Oh, solemn assize, how does
my soul bow in awe at the prospect thereof! The address which follows,
beginning with 50:7, is directed to the professed people of God. It is
clearly, in the first place, meant for Israel; but is equally applicable to
the visible church of God in every age. It declares the futility of
external worship when spiritual faith is absent - the mere outward
ceremonial is rested in.


 50:9. *I will take no bullock out of Your house.* Foolishly they dreamed
that bullocks with horns and hoofs could please the Lord, when indeed He
sought for hearts and souls. Impiously they fancied that Jehovah needed
these supplies, and that if they fed His altar with their fat beasts, He
would be content. What He intended for their instruction, they made their
confidence. They remembered not that “to obey is better than sacrifice, and
to hearken than the fat of rams.”


 50:15. *And call upon Me in the day of trouble. *O blessed verse! Is this
then true sacrifice? Is it an offering to ask an alms of heaven? It is even
so. The King Himself so regards it. For herein is faith manifested, herein
is love proved, for in the hour of peril we fly to those we love. Who shall
say that Old Testament saints did not know the gospel? Its very spirit
andessence breathes like frankincense all around this holy Psalm.
*And you shall glorify Me. *Thus we see what is true ritual. Here we read
inspired rubrics. Spiritual worship is the great, the essential matter; all
else without it is rather provoking than pleasing to God. As helps to the
soul, outward offerings were precious, but when men went not beyond them,
even their hallowed things were profaned in the view of heaven.


 50:16. *But unto the wicked God says, What have you to do to declare My
statutes? *You violate openly My moral law, and yet are great sticklers for
My ceremonial commands! What have you to do with them? What interest can
you have in them? Do you dare to teach my law to others and profane it
yourselves? What impudence, what blasphemy is this! You count up your holy
days, you contend for rituals, you fight for externals, and yet the
weightier matters of the law you despise! You blind guides, you strain out
gnats and swallow camels; your hypocrisy is written on your foreheads and
manifest to all. *Or that you should take My covenant in your mouth.* You
talk of being in covenant with Me and yet trample My holiness beneath your
feet as swine trample upon pearls; do you think I can brook this? Your
mouths are full of lying and slander, and yet you mouth My words as if they
were fit morsels for such as you! How horrible an evil it is that to this
day we see men explaining doctrines who despise precepts! They make grace a
coverlet for sin and even judge themselves to be sound in the faith, while
they are rotten in life. We need the grace of the doctrines as much as the
doctrines of grace, and without it an apostle is but a Judas, and a
fair-spoken professor is an arrant enemy of the cross of Christ.


 50:21. *You thought that I was altogether such a one as yourself. *The
inference drawn from the Lord’s patience was infamous; the respited culprit
thought his Judge to be one of the same order as himself. He offered
sacrifices, and deemed it accepted; he continued in sin, and remained
unpunished, and therefore he rudely said, “Why need believe these crazy
prophets? God cares not how we live so long as we pay our tithes. Little
does He consider how we get the plunder, so long as we bring a bullock to
His altar.” What will not men imagine of the Lord? At one time they liken
the glory of Israel to a calf, and anon unto their brutish selves. (*From
“The Treasury of David” by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)*



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