Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20010930.htm

2 CORINTHIANS: OVERCOMING WHEN GOD'S SERVANT FACES RESISTANCE
Part XVII: Deprogramming Fellow Deceived Believers
(2 Corinthians 11:1-15; 11:16-12:13)
  1. Introduction
    1. The increase not only of cultism but of false teaching within Christendom, one may wonder how to minister in "deprogramming" a fellow believer who is very carnal and badly deceived!
    2. Paul handled such delusion in a very instructive way in 2 Corinthians 11:1-15; 11:16-12:13 as follows:
  2. Deprogramming Fellow Deceived Believers, 2 Corinthians 11:1-15; 11:16-12:13.
    1. Paul reluctantly chose to use human reasoning on deceived believers to deprogram them, 2 Cor. 11:1-15:
      1. He shared how badly he felt to use "boasting" to make a point with believers who had been deceived to heed false apostles, 2 Cor. 11:1 with Ryrie St. Bib., KJV ftn. here: "my folly (KJV) I.e., the boasting of vv. 21-33. But Paul knows he must do it to make the false apostles appear in their true colors."
      2. Paul nevertheless decided to use this earthy line of reasoning to expose error, 2 Cor. 11:2-12.
      3. Another reason Paul worked so hard to communicate truth was that Satan's chief goal was to appear to believers as God's angel of light, cf. 2 Cor. 11:14; as such, Satan tried to get his false apostles to act like credible ones, 2 Cor. 11:13, 15. Paul thus resorted to all methods short of sin to deprogram others!
    2. In thus resorting to the human reasoning of his deceived readers, Paul compared his own human resume to that of the false teachers as proof he was to be heeded at least over THEM, 2 Corinthians 11:16-12:10:
      1. Paul stacked his lineage up against that of the false teacher competitors for comparison, 11:22a,b,c.
      2. He stacked his dedication to service up against that of the false teacher competitors, 11:23-33.
        1. Paul noted he had suffered for Christ far more than all the false apostle competitors, 11:23-27.
        2. Paul had a concern for more believers' welfare than did all his false apostle competitors, 11:28.
        3. Paul had a greater concern for the flock of God that all of his false apostle competitors, 11:29-31.
        4. Paul had faced a more overbearing opposition and remained faithful over the dedication of his false apostle competitors: he had faced having the city he lived in held in a hostage-deal until he escaped over its wall, 2 Corinthians 11:32-33 with Acts 9:2, 24.
      3. Paul stacked his spiritual vision record up against his false apostle competitors, 2 Cor. 12:1-10:
        1. Paul had actually ascended into the "third heaven," a reference to the abode of God in Judaism (1st heaven = atmosphere, 2nd heaven = stellar space and 3rd heaven = God's abode), 2 Cor. 12:1-3.
        2. In heaven, Paul heard words no living man was allowed to report to others, something apparently as an encouragement to him when perhaps stoned at Lystra in Acts 14:19-20, 2 Cor. 12:4.
        3. This revelation was so great and its potential of tempting Paul to be proud so intense, God even assigned a demonic spirit to buffet Paul and keep him from pride thereafter, 2 Cor. 12:5-7.
        4. Though he tried to rid himself of this spiritual persecution, Christ refused, urging Paul to lean on His grace for effectiveness, 2 Cor. 12:8-9. Paul then learned to appreciate his weaknesses that God might continue to use him in those weaknesses, 2 Corinthians 12:10. No false apostle competitor of Paul's could come close to this GREAT a heavenly vision from God!
    3. To clear the air of his motives, Paul finished this "resume" by again expressing his true regret for having to resort to such foolish human boasting in his effort to deprogram his carnal readers, 2 Cor. 12:11-13.
Lesson: Sometimes it is NECESSARY to put aside one's SPIRITUAL approach and just use BASIC HUMAN REASONING that DECEIVED believers who are CARNAL understand to deprogram them out of deception!

Illustrations: (1) A weak believer might be deceived to think he must use professional counseling for handling a severe life crisis. We can use human reasoning, telling him, "There were no professional counselors for the millions of believers who were fed to Rome's lions and buried in the catacombs in the third century! Did God thus let them down?" (2) A believer may be deceived to think only large, multi-program Churches are godly. We can use human reasoning, telling him, "All of the New Testament churches were HOUSE churches that lacked the SIZE and PROGRAMS of today's large churches. Does that mean the New Testament Church epistles are NOT APPLICABLE for TODAY?!"