We will begin with our traditional opening Youtube video:
We are continuing our Series on the occurrences in Scripture of the word, “If.” Tonight will be the 10th Installment of our Series. In our previous 9 Studies, we have gone through the the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the Book of Acts, and just the first two epistles, Romans and 1 Corinthians. There are yet 19 Epistles, and the Book of Revelation that we have to cover. I don't know how many more Installments of this Series there will be. I do know that tonight will not be the last Installment. And, I hope you have experienced, in attending these Discussions, the same enlightenment and the same edification that I have received in preparing my Notes. I never expected a Study of the word, “If,” to yield the profitable review and clarification of so many Biblical precepts and doctrines. I hope it has been the same Blessing to each of you that it has been to me.
As a reminder, each of the previous 9 Installments are now available in the Forum, in the Thursday Bible Study area.
So let's begin.
There is one last Scripture that I would like to cover in the Apostle Paul's 1st Epistle to the Church at Corinth.
1 Corinthians 16:7: “For I will not see you now by the way; but I trust to tarry a while with you, IF the Lord permit.”
IF the Lord permit...
Paul qualified his plans about his visit to and tarry at Corith with the words, “IF the Lord permit...”
He did not know, and could not say that the visit he looked forward to, would ever take place. He recognized that his life, and twists and turns of his life were Divinely appointed. He certainly expected, when he originally started out to go to Damascus, to get there, and arrest those who he viewed as traitors to Judaism, embracing, what he was convinced was the heresy of Christianity.
He never made it to Damascus...
God had other plans for him. So now, when he speaks of a future visit to a city, he writes... “IF the Lord permit...”
James echoes a similar sentiment beginning in James 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, IF the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
Of this, Matthew Henry writes: “Go to now," is a call to any one to consider his conduct as being wrong. How apt worldly and contriving men are to leave God out of their plans! How vain it is to look for any thing good without God's blessing and guidance! The frailty, shortness, and uncertainty of life, ought to check the vanity and presumptuous confidence of all projects for futurity. We can fix the hour and minute of the sun's rising and setting to-morrow, but we cannot fix the certain time of a vapour being scattered. So short, unreal, and fading is human life, and all the prosperity or enjoyment that attends it; though bliss or woe for ever must be according to our conduct during this fleeting moment. We are always to depend on the will of God. Our times are not in our own hands, but at the disposal of God. Our heads may be filled with cares and contrivances for ourselves, or our families, or our friends; but Providence often throws our plans into confusion. All we design, and all we do, should be with submissive dependence on God. It is foolish, and it is hurtful, to boast of worldly things and aspiring projects; it will bring great disappointment, and will prove destruction in the end.”
We have to keep in mind as we move into the Second Corinthians, that Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians was, for the most part, a letter of correction, and sometimes rebuke for their departures from the Faith into ungodly behavior, and heretical beliefs. Let's look at just three of these corrections:
First, there is 1 Corinthians 5:1: “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.
2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh...”
Next he had to reel in the Corinthian believers for their behavior at Church Services, in particular, during the Lord's Supper: He writes beginning in 1 Corinthians 11:20: “When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.
21 For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.
22 What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.”
And lastly, as we read last week, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:12: “Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?”
As we can see, much of First Corinthians was a letter of correction, if not rebuke. He came down hard on them because he had to. Their ungodly behavior and drift into apostasy threatened the entire Church. His rebuke was not because he hated them... just the opposite. But First Corinthians caused some hurt feelings in Corinth. He indicates that he was aware of the impact he had on them later in this Epistle where he wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:8: For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:
9 That I may not seem as IF I would terrify you by letters.”
But our first actual “if” tonight from Second Corinthians directly addresses that hurt. One of the first things he talks about is his concern for the state of the man he instructed the Church to put out for his immoral relationship with his step-mother. Now he officially establishes Church precedent for accepting BACK a member who had been put out.
We read beginning in 2 Corinthians 2:1: “But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness.
2 For IF I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?
3 And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.
2 Corinthians 2:5 ¶But IF any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.
6 Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many.
7 So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
8 Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.
9 For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.
10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for IF I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;
11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
Matthew Henry writes: “The apostle desired to have a cheerful meeting with them; and he had written in confidence of their doing what was to their benefit and his comfort; and that therefore they would be glad to remove every cause of disquiet from him. We should always give pain unwillingly, even when duty requires that it must be given. The apostle desires them to receive the person who had done wrong, again into their communion; for he was aware of his fault, and much afflicted under his punishment. Even sorrow for sin should not unfit for other duties, and drive to despair. Not only was there danger lest Satan should get advantage, by tempting the penitent to hard thoughts of God and religion, and so drive him to despair; but against the churches and the ministers of Christ, by bringing an evil report upon Christians as unforgiving; thus making divisions, and hindering the success of the ministry. In this, as in other things, wisdom is to be used, that the ministry may not be blamed for indulging sin on the one hand, or for too great severity towards sinners on the other hand. Satan has many plans to deceive, and knows how to make a bad use of our mistakes.”
Let's move on.
As I said earlier, Paul went from being the Church's persecutor-in-chief, to the Church's chief Evangelist. In making that about-face, he had to understand to superiority of the Gospel of Christ to the Old Covenant, also know as the Law of Moses.
We read beginning in 2 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6 ¶Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
7 But IF the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
9 For IF the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
11 For IF that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.”
Matthew Henry writes: “The letter killeth: the letter of the law is the ministration of death; and if we rest only in the letter of the gospel, we shall not be the better for so doing: but the Holy Spirit gives life spiritual, and life eternal. The Old Testament dispensation was the ministration of death, but the New Testament of life. The law made known sin, and the wrath and curse of God; it showed us a God above us, and a God against us; but the gospel makes known grace, and Emmanuel, God with us. Therein the righteousness of God by faith is revealed; and this shows us that the just shall live by his faith; this makes known the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ, for obtaining the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. The gospel so much exceeds the law in glory, that it eclipses the glory of the legal dispensation. But even the New Testament will be a killing letter, if shown as a mere system or form, and without dependence on God the Holy Spirit, to give it a quickening power.”
As we proceed in Paul's Epistle to the Church at Corinth, we come to our next “if.” Paul reiterates his love for the members there, and his great concern for their remaining Faithful to the Truth.
We read beginning in 2 Corinthians 11:1 ¶Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.
2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For IF he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or IF ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”
This is somewhat clouded in the King James: Let's read that, again, but this time in the New Living Translation: “But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.”
Matthew Henry writes: “The apostle desired to preserve the Corinthians from being corrupted by the false apostles. There is but one Jesus, one Spirit, and one gospel, to be preached to them, and received by them; and why should any be prejudiced, by the devices of an adversary, against him who first taught them in faith? They should not listen to men, who, without cause, would draw them away from those who were the means of their conversion.”
Our next “if” is a continuation of the Paul's concern regarding deceivers and false brethren beguiling and undermining Church members. Satan's mission, as it was from his first conversation with the first humans on earth, is to deceive us, and introduce a wedge between us and God. He does not do that personally with us as he did with Eve. Let's notice how he does it, now:
We read of the men who do his work for him, beginning in 2 Corinthians 11:13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is no great thing IF his ministers” (Satan's ministers) “also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”
Matthew Henry writes: “Hypocrisy may be looked for, especially when we consider the great power which Satan, who rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience, has upon the minds of many. And as there are temptations to evil conduct, so there is equal danger on the other side. It serves Satan's purposes as well, to set up good works against the atonement of Christ, and salvation by faith and grace. But the end will discover those who are deceitful workers; their work will end in ruin. Satan will allow his ministers to preach either the law or the gospel separately; but the law as established by faith in Christ's righteousness and atonement, and the partaking of his Spirit, is the test of every false system.”
For our next “if” this Evening, Paul answers those in Corinth who challenged his authority, and reminds them that he will address any departure from Godly behavior and Godly Doctrine. Let's read the complete thought that followed what he said when he spoke of his letters terrifying them:
The complete thought is this, in 2 Corinthians 10:9 That I may not seem as IF I would terrify you by letters.”
Notice, now, the disrespectful dismissal of Paul by some at Corinth in verse 10: “For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.”
Paul then reiterates his authority in verse 11: “Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present.”
Our next “if” re-establishes his authority: 2 Corinthians 13:1 ¶This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.
2 I told you before, and foretell you, as IF I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, IF I come again, I will not spare:
3 Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.
4 For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.
5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
6 But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.”
It is unthinkable to me that a man of the stature, standing, brilliance and dedication to Christ and the Gospel should have to defend himself against such disrespect. But he tells them in no uncertain terms that “ye shall know that we are not reprobates.”
Of this, Matthew Henry writes: “Though it is God's gracious method to bear long with sinners, yet he will not bear always; at length he will come, and will not spare those who remain obstinate and impenitent. Christ at his crucifixion, appeared as only a weak and helpless man, but his resurrection and life showed his Divine power. So the apostles, how mean and contemptible soever they appeared to the world, yet, as instruments, they manifested the power of God. Let them prove their tempers, conduct, and experience, as gold is assayed or proved by the touchstone. If they could prove themselves not to be reprobates, not to be rejected of Christ, he trusted they would know that he was not a reprobate, not disowned by Christ. They ought to know if Christ Jesus was in them, by the influences, graces, and indwelling of his Spirit, by his kingdom set up in their hearts. Let us question our own souls; either we are true Christians, or we are deceivers. Unless Christ be in us by his Spirit, and power of his love, our faith is dead, and we are yet disapproved by our Judge.”
As I did last week, I saved for an “if” out of its chronological order as it appears in 2 Corinthians. It is from Chapter 5. I put it last because it is the longest “if” examination, but it is also the most powerful and positive “if.”
In our last 2 Corinthians “if,” we have the opportunity to review who and what we are in Jesus Christ. It is how God sees us. It is a reminder to all of us, and to each of us that we are not who we were. As Paul put it beginning in Colossians 1:9 ¶For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
12 ¶Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:”
We are not who we were before God called us, before God forgave us, and before God adopted us into His Family. We have been “delivered … from the power of darkness.” We have been “translated … into the kingdom of his dear Son.” We have become “partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light...”
So let's look, now at our last “if,” tonight as it applies to who we were, and who we are. It is found beginning in 2 Corinthians 5:16 ¶Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
17 Therefore IF any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us , who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Let's not read over that last verse too quickly. Let's notice two things:
First, notice that the word sin is in the singular, just it was in the singular when John the Baptist identified Him in John 1:29: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin (singular) of the world.”
As I thought about this, and I went back in Scripture. I noticed that the account of Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac was the first time a lamb is specifically identified as the animal that would be sacrificed. There had been three other significant sacrifices before that incident, where an animal was killed but not specifically named. Can anyone name those three?
The first time an animal was sacrificed was when “the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. (Adam and Eve)” in Genesis 3:21. He did not clothe them with more fig leaves, or nice big palm leaves. He clothed them with coats of skins. Blood had to be shed to cover their nakedness and shame, a clear picture of the future sacrifice of the Messiah.
Next, we see a sacrifice when Abel made an offering to God in Genesis 4:4 “of the firstlings of his flock.” Although the word sacrifice is not applied, here, it certainly was that, and a blood sacrifice at that. So far no specific animal is named.
The third offering was made by Noah. We read of it in Genesis 8:20: “And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” As opposed to naming just one specific animal, Noah sacrificed one of every clean beast.
Note: An uninformed critic of the Biblw, (but aren't they all?) may leap on this and proclaim: “Aha! IF Noah sacrificed one of every clean beast, and he only brought TWO of every beast onto the Ark, the how can clean beasts have possibly reproduced and replenished their kind with only one left after the sacrifice?”
As we read in Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” This kind of challenge can only be raised based on ignorance of what Scripture actually says! Most people hear about Noah bringing two of every kind of bird and land animal on the Ark. He did no such thing! According to Genesis 7:2: “Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.” Clean beasts were taken aboard the Ark “by sevens,” or seven pairs of male and female, each. So even if Noah sacrificed representative male and females from each kind of clean beast, there were still six pairs each left to reproduce and replenish their numbers and kind.
But this brings us, now, to the first sacrifice where one specific animal in named. It is found in Genesis 22:7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
I once heard a minister say that the entirety of the Old Testament is an echo of Isaac's question: “Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” John the Baptist answered Isaac's question: “Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Jesus takes away the “sin,” singular, of the world. To make sure that the all of the sins and all of the offenses and injustices and lies and murders and abuses and faults and rebellion and acts of vengeance and betrayal and every abomination... to make sure they are ALL covered by Christ's sacrifice, God compacts them all into a single consolidated package of unrighteousness, and calls it the “sin of the world.”
Let's get back to our other reference to sin in the singular that we just read:
2 Corinthians 5:21 says that the Father made Christ “to be sin for us.” Christ took away the sin of the world, by first becoming sin, and then accepting God's full wrath being poured out upon Him. That allows us to better understand, now, why Jesus cried out in Matthew 27:46: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Jesus had become sin for us. The full fury and righteous indignation of God was poured out on His Son, because He had become the consolidated and concentrated sin, singular, that every one on this earth had ever and will ever commit. And in accepting the wrath of God in our place, Jesus made it possible for each of us to be forgiven for our individual contribution to that combined and concentrated sin. “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,” as we read in Isaiah 53:10. There was no other way for the death penalty to be carried out, a death penalty that we earned and brought down on our own heads. There was a righteous demand that the death penalty for sin had to be satisfied. And God could not overlook or simply dismiss that demand. And so we read of the remedy that God supplied, that we did not ask for and could never earn or work for or deserve: “... he hath made him (His Beloved Son,) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Let's read the whole “if” passage, again with this clearer understanding:
2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore IF any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Of this, Matthew Henry writes: “The renewed man acts upon new principles, by new rules, with new ends, and in new company. The believer is created anew; his heart is not merely set right, but a new heart is given him. He is the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Though the same as a man, he is changed in his character and conduct. These words must and do mean more than an outward reformation. The man who formerly saw no beauty in the Saviour that he should desire him, now loves him above all things. The heart of the unregenerate is filled with enmity against God, and God is justly offended with him. Yet there may be reconciliation. Our offended God has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. By the inspiration of God, the Scriptures were written, which are the word of reconciliation; showing that peace has been made by the cross, and how we may be interested therein. Though God cannot lose by the quarrel, nor gain by the peace, yet he beseeches sinners to lay aside their enmity, and accept the salvation he offers. Christ knew no sin. He was made Sin; not a sinner, but Sin, a Sin-offering, a Sacrifice for sin. The end and design of all this was, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, might be justified freely by the grace of God through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Can any lose, labour, or suffer too much for Him, who gave his beloved Son to be the Sacrifice for their sins, that they might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
This concludes this Evening's Discussion: “If, Part 10.”
This Discussion was originally conducted “live” by Romans on April 10th, 2014
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