The Weapons of Our Warfare — 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 Explained

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, once again we're going to just pick up where we left off after our last program, and I realize we've taught two half hours now on giving, and we're not going to run a good thing into the ground, so we're going to move on into some new territory. But we'll go on into 2 Corinthians chapter 10 for this next half hour. Again we always like to let our television audience understand that we're just an informal Bible study, and I stress the word informal. And you have no idea how many people write and say, don't ever put on a suit and tie. And I write back and say, don't you worry, because when we first were invited to do this by this particular station in Tulsa, and I came up, and Iris was with me, and we sat down at a breakfast meeting here in town, that was one of the things I stipulated. I will not come up here in a suit and tie. Well, that's all right. You don't have to. Well, we've proved a point, and our audience is in full agreement that my kind of teaching does not demand a suit and tie. And so we're informal, we're not backed by anybody, and somebody just reminded me today that they came back from one of our listening areas, and a lot of people do not understand that we are not underwritten. We don't have a big church congregation to help us pay the bills, and we pay our television bills strictly with money that comes from our listening audience. I don't like to ask for money, I won't, but I guess we do have to let people know that we pay for television time, and Lord knows I can't afford it, so it has to come from our viewing audience. And we do. We just thank you so much. My, so many of these folks are so faithful. Month after month after month we can just about bet the farm that their checks are going to be in the mail, and we appreciate that so much. Now we have everything available on the videotape, and now we have started producing them on the same 6 hour format that is available on the audio tape, and of course they're also available on the little books as you see them on the screen. So if you're interested you call us or write to us, and we like to send the list out that shows the table of contents of all these things, and then you can order from that. Now again, we're going to go right back in. This is a Bible study, and this is where we like to use most of our time, and let's go ahead now to II Corinthians chapter 10. Now I know that some of these things are repetitious, and it's not just me that's repetitious. The Scripture is. How many times the Bible will repeat and repeat and repeat. And of course the Holy Spirit is the Master Teacher, and He knows better than any secular teacher that that is the very basis of good teaching, is repetition. One of these first programs I'm going to have to go back and put my timeline on the board again, because you have no idea how many people have written or called to say it was the timeline that got them interested in this program and in Bible study. It's been a long time since we've put it on the board, so maybe if we need a little filling up of time in finishing II Corinthians we will go back to that in a later program. But whatever, we just trust that people will begin to enjoy their Bible, to study it, to read it, not just to be able to say, well I read my Bible today, but to really feed on it, and to understand what it's talking about. Now I said repetition. How many times haven't I used the statement, Paul has to defend his apostleship. And here we have it again in chapter 10. Because you see the poor man was under constant attack, especially from the Judaizing Jews, that he was an imposter, he had drummed all this up himself, that after all he had no badge of authority, he had no letters of commendation, he couldn't claim to have walked with Jesus three years like Peter, James and John. And so this was the thing he had to constantly overcome. Well who are you? Who do you think you are? That reminds me of a lady who called from Minnesota several years ago, and that's just exactly what she said. I said, Feldicks, and she said, Is this Les Feldick? And I said, Yes. She said, Who in the world are you? Well I said, I'm a nobody, and that's all that I have ever claimed to be. Well Paul didn't have to say that, Paul says, I'm somebody. I have been commissioned as an apostle to the Gentiles. And so here again, verse 1 of chapter 10. Now I, Paul, myself, beseech you, I beg you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence embase among you, speaking now of himself, but being absent I'm bold toward you. Now as they'll say a little later in this chapter, his letters are weighty, but his presence is weak. So he said, being absent I'm bold toward you, but I beseech you that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. Now do you see what he's saying? There were people out there, probably amongst his congregations, who did not recognize his divine appointment as an apostle of Christ, because he couldn't claim to have walked with Jesus in his earthly ministry. Let's go back a minute, I think this is an appropriate time to review for just a second. Let's go back to Acts chapter 9, where we have the first of three accounts in the Book of Acts of his conversion on the road to Damascus, which of course I think most people have heard from their pulpits and Sunday school material. But I'm afraid that too many totally overlook one of the crucial statements of the Lord Jesus Himself here in Acts chapter 9, and beginning at verse 11. After Saul has had that tremendous experience outside the city, and now the Lord says unto a Jew inside Damascus, Ananias by name, and the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street, which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight." In other words, the Lord is preparing everything. Verse 13, "...then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, and how much evil he hath done to the saints at Jerusalem, that is, in his persecution. And here in Damascus he hath authority from the chief priests to bind, or to bring back in prison, all that call on thy name." Now you want to remember this was the sole purpose of Saul of Tarsus working in the name of Judaism, was to totally remove from the nation of Israel anybody who had recognized Christ Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. And Ananias knew that, and so he's arguing with the Lord, and he says, but Lord everybody knows what kind of a man Saul is. Now verse 15, "...but the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles." My, you want to remember that up until this time that was almost a dirty word in the language of a Jew. And there this man is going to go first and foremost to the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. Of course Paul never lost his desire to see Jews saved. But now look at the next verse, verse 16, "...Jesus saith long before his ministry even began, I will show him," that is Saul, "...how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." What goes around comes around. Now you want to remember he had caused utmost suffering. In fact stay in Acts and go to chapter 22, no 26. There are three accounts, it's in Acts chapter 9, 22, and again in 26, but I want the one in 26, where he readily admitted the havoc that he had wreaked amongst the Jewish followers of Jesus of Nazareth. Acts 26, verse 9, dropping down to verse 9, and Paul of course is speaking in the first person, he's addressing this crowded courtroom before Agrippa, and now he says, "...I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which thing I also did in Jerusalem. Now look at it, and many of the saints," that is the believing Jews who had embraced Jesus of Nazareth, "...and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death." You see that? It wasn't just a nominal persecution. He persecuted them to the death, and so he says, "...and when they were put to death," and it was made a vote, he said, "...I gave my vote," or voice, "...against them." In other words, as these people came up before the Sanhedrin and made their confession of accepting Christ as the Messiah, the Sanhedrin would vote for it, and Paul says, "...I voted to put them to death." He had no mercy, and his persecution, I think, was cruel. Verse 11, "...I punished them oft," now you've just got to stop and think, what kind of punishment did the Jews like to use? Well, the lash, 39 stripes, and Paul was all in favor of it. Whip them. Make them deny their confession. And so he says, "...I punished them oft in every synagogue, and caused them to," what? Blasphemy. Now listen, he didn't do that with words. He did that with the actions of the authority and the whipmasters and what have you, until these poor Jewish believers were either beaten to death, or would finally succumb, "...and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even to strange cities," he didn't confine it to Jerusalem. Wherever Paul or Saul of Tarsus heard there was an element of believing Jews, that Jesus was the Christ, he went after them, and of course this is his whole purpose of going to Damascus. He thought he had pretty well cleansed the little nation of Israel, now he had to leave the country and go to Damascus and get those Jews up there. Okay, now all of that is the ground work. First God commissions him to go to the Gentiles. God tells Ananias, this man is going to suffer great things for My name's sake. And on the other hand, Paul tells us how much suffering he had caused. And I have to feel that every time that Paul came under one sort of oppression or another, that was his first memory. But look what I did in opposition to this myself, and how God had the perfect candidate to take all of the abuse, because he had handed out so much himself, and it just carried him I think until the day, as I read someplace the other night, that of course we all believe that Paul was beheaded by the Roman government, but I read the other day that the last few yards to the chopping block he literally ran. He was ready to give it all up. He was ready to offer himself, and I think it's probably true. Back to chapter 10 of II Corinthians. So here he is defending again his apostleship. Verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh, he was not an angel, he was a man. And he walked, and he ate, and he talked, he fought the same temptations that you and I do. Now I've made the point over and over how many times, and I think I can probably show you the one that's the quickest in Philippians. That's just over a few pages to the right, and go to Philippians chapter 3, and just look at verse 17. Now this isn't the only time he says this by inspiration. Now I know I'll have people jump on me once in a while, fortunately not too severely, but they'll say, but now Les, I go by what Jesus said. I'm following Jesus. And I say, well that's not what my Bible tells me. Look what my Bible tells me, and I trust yours tells you in Philippians chapter 3. Verse 17. Brethren, he's writing to Gentile believers up there in Philippi, Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them who walk so as you have us, Paul, as an example. Now that's not taking anything away from the Lord Jesus, not at all. But you want to remember that when Jesus walked the footsteps of Galilee and across the Galilee Sea, He was God. I can't walk in the steps of God, and I put it graphically to one individual one time when he started walking across the Sea of Galilee, I couldn't follow. I had to be like Peter, I'd go down. So we have to be careful how we take some of these things. But this man, he was just as human as I am. He got just as hungry, I think he got just as angry be times, and he had just as many failures and temptations as I have and as you have. Now that's the kind of a person I can follow, because I know that that is humanly possible. And so again, Philippians chapter 3. Be followers together of me, and mark them who walk so as you have us for an example. And my if more believers could only walk in the footsteps of this man, as he, as he put it, followed Christ. Of course he did, that was his whole life, for he says, for me to die is gain. But he lived in order to follow and to please his Savior. Now verse 3, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. In other words, all the things that he is writing to the Corinthians and to us about, were not the material and the physical, but the spiritual. And so yes, he says, I'm walking in the flesh, I'm an ordinary human being. But where was the warfare? In the spiritual realm. And we're going to see it more and more. My Satan is pulling all the plugs today, isn't he? And when Lord Jesus warned the disciples that one of the first signs of the end time would be mass deception, He said, Be not deceived, beloved we're seeing it on every hand, and we have only one alternative. Don't run to me, don't run to some denomination, you run to the Book. What is the Book saying about it? Over and over people will call and tell me what they're up against, and I say, Well alright, what does the Bible say about this particular thing? Well I can't find it. I say, Alright, if you can't find that the Bible teaches it, you run from it. Because if it's not scriptural, then God has no intentions for you to follow that kind of teaching. But Paul says that his war was not after the flesh, it was in the realm of the spiritual. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're not of the flesh, but they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Did he? Oh you bet he did, as he moved into those pagan cities. Why do you remember the city of Ephesus which was so completely taken over by the worship of Diana? And he made such an impact on that city that it was literally destroying the work of the idol makers, those silversmiths, until they caused a riot. Now one man did that to a complete city. So that was an example of pulling down strongholds. Verse 5, "...casting down imaginations, and everything that exalted itself against the knowledge of God." Now just stop and think a minute. Are we seeing it? On every hand, oh we're seeing all this stuff that looks so great, but does it line up with the Book? Is it the power of God? That's what we have to ask ourselves, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Now that's quite a statement isn't it? Now I think I'm just like everybody else, where do we have our largest problem? In the thought processes. That's where we have to fight most of our battles, the temptations in the thought. I mentioned in the last program, before we do anything, before we say anything, what do we have to do? We have to think it. And so we have to consider that this is where we have to fight our major battles. Verse 6, "...and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled," now that's just plain language, the more obedient we are to the Word of God, the more disobedient we're going to be to the things of the world. And when you get disobedient to the things of the world, you're going to start hearing about it, you're going to start feeling it. Verse 7, "...do you look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trusteth himself that he is Christ, let him of himself think this again, that as he is Christ, even so are we Christ." And then he's going to go on to say that we have to be able to examine our own faith, to be sure that you're certain of your eternal destiny, and never take it carelessly. Verse 8, "...for though I should boast somewhat of our authority, which the Lord hath given us," He didn't get it by working for it. He didn't get it by coming up through the ranks like we normally think of things in our present world. When a corporate president reaches that pinnacle of success, usually he's paid his dues. He's come from the lower echelons, and he's worked his way up. But the Apostle Paul didn't do that. He came from an abject persecutor, to the Apostle of the Risen Christ, to the Gentiles. So he says, "...so if I should boast of our authority, which the Lord hath given us, for edification, and not for your destruction," now what's that a flashback to? His days as a persecutor. How many lives did he persecute as a religious Jew? But this isn't his role as an Apostle now. It is to edify the saints, and not for your destruction. He says, "...and I should not be ashamed." Now he comes on to verse 9, and I alluded to this in our last program. He says, "...that I may not seem as if I would terrify you with letters." Well they were making reference to his first letter, where he really read them the riot act, and we pointed that out as we taught I Corinthians. How he was correcting their abuses, and he called a spade a spade, and he made no bones about it. So he says, "...that I may not seem as if I would terrify you with letters." Now he's quoting some of the rumors that had come back to him, and don't think for a minute the Apostle didn't hear just about everything that was ever said. Now you have to stop and think about some of these things. There was something about the Apostle that did not just automatically draw people to him like some charismatic men can do. But he had something about him that was almost the opposite, and I think I know what it was, and if I don't get into it in this program, we'll cover it when we get to Galatians. But he had a physical appearance that did not turn people on, as we say today. It just kind of held them at bay, and his speech was contemptible. Now that's hard for me to believe, except as I look at it in one light. Paul said back in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, that he spoke in languages more than all of them. Now I think his basic language was Hebrew and Greek. Now there were no doubt throughout the Roman Empire, people from other language backgrounds to whom he ministered. Now I gave you the example several weeks ago, one of the guides we had in Israel, who when he was guiding us had perfect English, although you could tell it wasn't his mother tongue. But he told us before the tour was over that he could speak 7 languages. But I'm willing to bet that some of those 7 languages were not always grammatically pure. They did not always just ring 100% true, even as he did with us. I could catch him in English once in a while where he did not have perfect grammar. And so for people that get picky, that's all they need. And so I think what they're saying is that when it came to some of these other languages other than his native tongue, that he may not have had the perfect grammar, and they would just grasp at anything to criticize. And so the man is so human. Now verse 11, "...let such a one think this, that such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will be also indeed when we are present." Now of course as he dictated these letters, and I think everyone's agreed that except for Galatians, he always used a secretary of sorts, and so maybe this secretary was able to help him with some of the grammar or whatever, but his letters they couldn't find fault with. They were perfect, and of course they were Holy Spirit inspired. We don't want everyone to take that away. Now verse 12, "...for we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not one." Now in so many words, you know what he's saying? Folks I know you have people coming into the congregation who are finding fault with me, and they're trying to elevate their own position, but in their lack of knowledge, they really don't know what they are doing. Now when we get to Galatians, I'll be pointing this out, especially in chapter 2, because when Paul makes reference in Galatians 2 to the twelve down in Jerusalem, he speaks of them as men who seemed to be pillars, and that's exactly what this verse is saying. There are men that were ridiculing and criticizing his ministry, who no longer had the power and the clout that they thought they had, and they hadn't realized that it was slipping away. But, Paul says, I am the apostle of the Gentiles. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK, 74552. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time, for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.