2nd Corinthians – Godly Social Order

Paul Hated for God’s Sake

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Godly Social Order

Lesson: 12-25

Genre: Talk

Track: 12

Dictation Name: RR4167A

Location/Venue:

Year: 1998-2000

[Mark Rushdoony] Not unto us oh Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy and Thy truth’s sake. Help us oh God of our salvation, for the glory of Thy name, and deliver us, and purge away our sins for Thy names sake. Let us pray.

Our most good and glorious God and heavenly Father, we praise you for your goodness to us each day. We thank you for the opportunity we have to gather together as your children, as fellow servants in your kingdom. We thank you because of the atonement of your son Jesus Christ; our lives have not only an eternal reward, but have meaning and purpose in the sense of fulfillment in doing your will in this life. We pray that you would give us joy in serving you. We pray that you would encourage us and teach us through your word. We pray that the words we hear this morning might affect our lives, give us a renewed understanding of the depth, the magnitude of our responsibility to serve you with our whole heart, soul, and might. We pray that you would encourage us in hearing your word this morning, we pray that you would encourage those everywhere who hear your word faithfully expounded this morning. We pray that we would see revival in our time, that the day would come when we would see men turning to your truth and to your son Jesus Christ. We pray that you would encourage us and sustain us through the dark days we see around us. Help us never to be discouraged by what we see in man, but encouraged by what we believe you our God to be. We ask this in Christ our saviors name, amen.

[R. J. Rushdoony] Our scripture is 2nd Corinthians 6:1-10. 2 Corinthians 6:1-10. Before we begin the reading of that, I would like to call attention to something, which I do about every other year, but because it means so much to me, I hope it will come to meant the same to you. In our Psalter selection which Mark led us in, Psalm 84, there is a magnificent statement about the Godly man: “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.”

That is a magnificent statement. The valley of Baca was a desert place, where it did not rain! A rain there was very, very rare. And the psalmist says the godly man is like one who passes through that desert valley, and makes it a well or a spring because of the abundance of rainfall, which filleth the pools, ponds form. That is a magnificent figure of speech. A place which is like Death Valley, no growth, no water, and suddenly it blossoms.

Well, the psalmist says the Godly man whose godliness is manifested to others is like that man. He goes through the desert place, and makes it a spring, a well, full of ponds. I have known people like that, and I thank God for them.

As we consider 2nd Corinthians 6:1-10, I am reminded of a recent issues of John Lofton’s letter. Periodically over the years, John Lofton has made a tour of the churches in the Washington D.C. and Maryland areas. All kinds, great and small, Modernist, Fundamentalist, Charismatic, Reformed, and so on. What has he found? Well, he takes his tape recorder along and records portions of the sermon, and it is a horrifying thing to read the excerpts, because in the name of Christ they are everything else but Christian. They are so shallow. The name of Jesus is to them just an excuse to obliterate anything against them, and to put them on the right side without any obligations.

I was tempted to bring some of them and read them to you, but I did not think I could stomach them twice in a few days. Well, the church in Paul’s day too used the name of Christ to mean what it wanted, not what God wanted. Who is the Lord? most people in churches will say Jesus Christ. But in every day practice, whatever the label they wear, it is not Christ. And so Paul here is addressing that element in the Corinthian church, a powerful element although there were some great saints in that congregation, to rebuke them. They have spoken poorly of him, and in these verses as well as elsewhere he reminds them of what he has suffered for Christ’s sake.

In verse 1 he said:

“We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.”

‘I am a co-worker of Jesus Christ. He is my Lord, but He is also the one who has summoned me to my task, and I teach according to His word. Do not receive the grace of God in vain! Do not become hypocrits.’

“(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)”

Paul here tells them that their salvation is a continuous as well as a solitary, singular thing. They are saved when they accept Christ as their Lord and savior, but salvation is a continuous thing. The word salvation comes from the Latin Salve, which means health. Now, when we are saved, we are healed of our sins and infirmities. We are made a new creation in Christ. It is an event. But then our salvation is a process, if you are saved today and tomorrow and the rest of the year you go back to what you were the day before your salvation, it is no salvation. So that, to be saved is an event, but it is also a continuing process in our lives. And so he nails them. They are so much like so many today who speak of having been saved, and have shown very little evidence of it.

I recall vividly when I was young, this one minister speaking of a man in a congregation he had just left, and they had testimonies in that church regularly, who would get up and testify to the fact that some 30 years ago, “Jesus Christ filled the cup of his salvation, and has not abated a drop ever since.” And the pastor said: “Nothing has happened since that day 30 years ago.” There are too many people whose salvation is a matter of something that supposedly happened once, but is no longer valid because it is not merely an event, but also a continuous process. Just as when you become a master at something, you gain a job that you are suited for, you don’t quit the day after you reach the point and say: “I have learned the tools of my trade, I don’t need to learn any more or to do any more.”

So, Paul says we are to remember that the day of salvation is a continuous thing. We maintain and develop our health in Christ, day after day. Among other things, Paul says:

“Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:”

Now he begins to get personal. He said: ‘I have striven, ever since my conversion.’ (this is the implication) ‘to grow in grace. To show more and more that I am Christ’s man.’

“But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,”

Now Paul begins to recite, for the rest of our text, some, not all, of those things which he has suffered for Christ. And he does this not to brag, but to remind them: ‘If you are truly of Christ, it is a continuous development, you pay a price for it. This world does not like you. It may be courteous to you, but it is going to try to destroy you, because you represent its condemnation.’ So, it takes much patience, he says. Because you do have afflictions, necessities and distresses.

On top of that, he says in verse 5, it involves “Stripes, imprisonments, tumults, (riots, in other words) labours, in watchings, in fastings.”

Once you have entered this battle, there are, whether you know it or not, arrows of hatred directed against you. Resentment. Your very integrity will be hated. But:

“By pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,”

Paul says: ‘I continued. Because this is my calling, and the Holy Ghost has sustained me.’

“By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,”

‘As I have grown in grace, I have grown in the powers that God bestows on me. So that on the right hand and on the left I am stronger than when I began.’

“By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true;”

Now this is a remarkable statement; Paul says: ‘Whether I am honored or dishonored, whether people speak evil of me or good, whether we are held to be a deceiver, or a true man, makes no difference. Men may seek to destroy me by their evil words, but they all add up to the same thing in the eyes of God.’

That is a remarkable statement, because it tells us we cannot lose. We may suffer in Christ, but we are not the losers. We may endure hardships and pains, we may grow old and lame, as I have, but we are the losers only if we choose to be, because in Christ “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” So in all these things we have an eternal glory.

“As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;”

Paul was unknown, so to speak, in the Roman Empire. Nobody wrote about Paul or reported on his work or anything, we have, that is, scholars have found vague references to him here and there in various writings, where they did not even want to refer to his name. They did not want to give him even the slightest bit of recognition. So, the great man of the age was made as though unknown; as dying, that is again and again near death, and step by step with his age growing older; “But behold we live!” live forever, as chastened, as disciplined, and not killed.

“As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”

That is a particularly remarkable statement. Paul was born into a very wealthy family, was a wealthy man up until the point of his conversion, when apparently he either was cut off by the family, or surrendered what he had to the church, we don’t know. But he was one who to all practical intent had nothing, and yet possessing all things, as the heir of heaven and earth. Much to be sorrowful about, yet always rejoicing. A poor man, who was making many people rich in the faith.

With these words, Paul rebukes the Corinthians for their hostility to him, and their unwillingness to serve Christ. I began by calling attention to something in John Lofton’s monthly letter, pages of quotations, verbatim, from pastors great and small, of all kinds, in Maryland in this particular issue. And yet appalling in their lack of any Biblical content. In fact, if they stopped him after the service to ask him how he liked it and so on, and he told them, they turned on him savagely. He was not Christian, they were; no matter how faithless they were to the word of God.

Well, we are surrounded by the same kind of churches out here in the west as he is on the east coast. We are surrounded, as Paul was, but we can rejoice that there are many more now who know the truth of the gospel. But like Paul we are going to pay a price very often when we stand for the faith. But like Paul, we are summoned to realize that the price we pay is a small one, compared to the blessings and the rewards.

Paul will tell us more about his shipwrecks, his imprisonments, death sentenced as it were, because he is telling us: ‘I paid a price for my faith, and yet the rewards have been far, far greater. So that I will not dwell on these things except to remind you Corinthians of what I have done, but I will serve the Lord, knowing that in His service is perfect peace, joy and strength. Let us pray.

Almighty God our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this Thy word. We thank Thee for all the saints of old, from Paul to the present, whom Thou hast given us to witness to Thy salvation, and to the rewards of Thy service, the blessings thereof. Guide us day by day, and make us joyful in Thee, in Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions or comments on our lesson? Yes?

[Audience Member] Was Paul treated so poorly because he preached the gospel of faith and trust in God?

[Rushdoony] Did he what?

[Audience Member] Was Paul treated so poorly because he preached the gospel of faith and trust in God, and taking man out of the picture in his salvation?

[Rushdoony] Mark, could you tell me, I couldn’t quite get all of it.

[Mark Rushdoony] Was Paul treated so poorly because he faithfully preached the gospel of God instead of faith in man?

[Rushdoony] Yes, had he preached faith in man, or poorly preached the gospel he would not have had that opposition. He had it precisely because he did so. All you have to do is look around you at the big churches of America. In how many of them is the gospel faithfully preached? The minister would not be there is he did. Now I know there are exceptions, very wonderful exceptions. But in so many, many instances, it is a false gospel that seems to prosper in churches great and small.

Are there any other questions?

This doesn’t mean that it is going to continue always, the church has had its ups and downs, basically an upward direction. There have been times when it hardly seemed that the faith existed, and yet there have been tremendous revivals again and again going back into the Middle Ages, after the Reformation, and in our time.

Now, there is a difference between what some popular evangelists do and that which the faithful pastors will proclaim and preach. Any other questions or comments?

Well, if not, let us conclude in prayer. Our Father, we thank Thee for this Thy word, and for Paul, for his faith, for his endurance. We thank Thee that Thou hast summoned us into the same wholeness of faith; grant that our salvation be not merely a restoration to help once, but a continuing growth in health, in Christ.

Now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.