Herbert W Armstrong

   James 1:18 tells us that of his God's own will, He begat us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures — first ones, privileged, honored to be called early on, given responsibilities and opportunities to qualify for the Kingdom of God and Christ's second coming, and the resurrection.

   The apostle Paul likewise used the terminology 'firstfruits' over in I Corinthians 16:15, if you'll turn there. He said, 'I beseech you, brethren, you know the house of Stephanus that it is the firstfruits of Achaea,' a region in Greece, 'and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.'

   James and Paul and the others knew that they were dealing with firstfruits. They knew the meaning of this day just as we do. But, brethren I want to say, by way of introduction to the message I'll be giving you this afternoon, that as great and marvelous a privilege and pleasure and joy as it is to be called now to attain the Kingdom of God, you can't be first if you don't last. You know what I mean? If you don't endure to the end, you're not going to be among the firstfruits. You might have been called to be, you might have had the opportunity to be, but unless you and I hang in there until that time, we're not going to be counted or harvested among that first crop of believers that God's going to bring in.

   If you'll turn to II Timothy 1:15, my message today is going to focus on Paul's ministry to a certain group of people. But I just want to point out at the beginning of this message that Paul had the heartbreaking and agonizing experience of finding that after all his considerable labors with individual churches and whole regions of Greece and of Asia and other regions like Rome and Spain to which he traveled, he lived to see the day when some of those people defected from him wholesale.

   Remember the scripture, II Timothy 1 and verse 15 (II Timothy 1:15)? 'This you know,' he told Timothy close to the end of his ministry in the 60s A.D., 'that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me.' I don't know exactly what that means, but it sure doesn't sound very good that a whole region that consisted of many churches, including Ephesus, and frankly all of the churches — virtually all of them that we read about in Revelation 2 and 3 were in and around Asia, the westernmost province there of what we now call Turkey — and they left Paul.

   I don't know for sure that that means they left God, but I wouldn't want to be in their shoes. I wouldn't want to take that chance. At the very least, I would say that they would have been a lot better to stay with Paul. I think they were on real shaky ground whenever they did this thing, however they did it, of turning away from the apostle who was in the main responsible for establishing those same churches.

   Today we're going to carefully examine how and why many in a closely related church, the Church at Corinth — how and why many of them didn't preserve their honored place among God's firstfruits or early harvest. And we're going to do so by examining two letters that reveal what I call the sad story of the Church of God at Corinth.

   It's a sad story, brethren. We think of Corinthians largely as a doctrinal book, and we turn there when we want to expound about the first resurrection, as may have been done this morning — I Corinthians 15, or about spiritual gifts — I Corinthians 12, or marriage — I Corinthians 7, or you know, spiritual gifts or love or what have you, many doctrinal passages.

   But there is also woven in here very strongly, as we're going to see, a personal story — a story of the relationship of an apostle with his church, and that same church with their apostle. And I'll tell you from the beginning, brethren, it's a sad story. It's the story of a continually deteriorating relationship between the church and the man who was used of God to raise up the church, and that story revealed for us in the pages of these two books is fraught with relevant, important, timely meaning for you and I today — meaning that I assure you at the outset you will simply not escape. You won't fail to note the remarkable parallels as we go through this with the circumstances that we have today.

   Acts 18 begins the story, and we can turn there briefly to see how Paul established the Church of God at Corinth. I think most of you probably remember that from the study of the book of Acts. Paul came to Corinth from Athens. He found there, as you recall in verse 2 (Acts 18:2-10), Aquila and Priscilla, recently come from Rome. He worked with them there as tent makers, and he worked close to the local synagogue persuading Jews and Greeks, it says in verse 4, and there were converts.

   Verse 7 mentions Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue, and then Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, was converted with all of his house, and the church began to get going. And God tells Paul at night, at verse 10, 'I am with you, and no man shall set on you to hurt you, for I have much people in this city.'

   So he had this assurance from God at the outset this church is going to grow. It's going to be big. It may have been the largest church of the New Testament era. There are indications that it may well have been. I would guess this to have been a church of 3, 4, or 500 people, such as one of our larger churches today. I may be wrong, but there's a sense here of a pretty well established congregation.

   And he, Paul, continued there a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. Think of this rare privilege of a church being established not just by a church pastor, but by an apostle of God of the stature of the apostle Paul. That's a rare privilege. They had the word of God taught to them for a year and a half as Paul laid in the foundation for this church and taught them what he knew, which was considerable, and got them set up and off and running and saw certain baptisms performed and had others done through the local ministers, and the church grew.

   Now you think, you know, what a beautiful, strong start. What more could a church ask for? All right, and in some respects it was very good. I Corinthians — now will turn there and begin to go through this book of I Corinthians... I'm drawing on my epistles class in years past when I taught at Ambassador College. I'll share that with you right now. I'm gonna give you a little mini epistles course here in two letters of the epistles of Paul that relate to this day and to our responsibilities.

   Paul would say of this church then in I Corinthians one, in verse 4 (I Corinthians 1:4-9), 'I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which has given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything you are enriched by Him in everything in all utterance in all knowledge.' This church had it, so that Paul would say here, 'Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,' verse 7, 'so that you come behind in no gift.' No churches out there in front of you. You're right up there with all of them.

   This is the book that tells us about the gift of tongues — the gift of prophecy - it's all here this church had these gifts. Why? Probably because Paul was largely responsible for pointing them in that direction and encouraging it and developing it and bringing them along. He himself had many of these same gifts and used them in God's service.

   But as you very well know, this same first chapter also introduces us to the fact that this blessed church, this church that had almost everything given to it and had such a fine start, also had some serious problems. Paul was writing here about 55 A.D., only 2 1/2, 3 1/2 years after the church was established, but there began early on to be certain problems.

   He says in verse 10 (I Corinthians 1:10), 'I beseech you brethren, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment, for it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by those that are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.'

   Strife, contention, division early on began to rap this church. And he said, 'I say to everyone of you that says I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I am of Cephas, and I am of Christ.' Is Christ divided? You can't be doing this. This party spirit thing is no good. Christ isn't divided up between me and Peter or between me and Apollos. We're all, as he goes on to explain later, just Christian ministers here to serve you.

   But you see, the Greeks came out of a society like ours in this respect — it was a democratic society. They were used to selecting their own leaders. They weren't hesitant to criticize their leaders. They weren't hesitant, as we'll see, to criticize the apostle Paul. They did so quite freely in fact. And we're going to see where this leads when a church begins to be openly critical of its leadership.

   Now let's just take a look — we'll run ahead a little in the story just to show you how far this thing got going, and then we'll come back and go through more detail. For example, in chapter 4, we know in verse 3 that they were judging Paul. 'With me,' he writes chapter 4 and verse 3 (I Corinthians 4:3), 'it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. Ye, I judge not my own self.'

   The Corinthian Church set itself up to be Paul's judge. Later in chapter 9, we read in about verse 3 (I Corinthians 9:3), 'My answer to them that do examine me is this.' They judged Paul, they examined Paul! What right did they have to judge or examine Paul? Good question. I don't think they had that right or responsibility, but that didn't keep them from doing it for a moment.

   And just to give you a salient example of how far this got going, if you'll turn to II Corinthians 10 and verse 10, we'll see how belligerent, how nitpicking, how fault finding, how openly hostile and belligerent and critical these people got. He's quoting them when he says in verse 10 (II Corinthians 10:10), 'For his letters,' say they — his opponents in the Corinthian Church — 'are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech is contemptible.'

   Once again, these were Greeks, and to the Greeks the body beautiful was important. And Paul evidently didn't have a real good bod, you know — he was just a skinny little Jew with a squeaky voice, according to these Greeks. And they said we don't like Paul very much. He doesn't look like one of our eloquent orators. Now Apollos - says of Apollos in Acts, Apollos was an eloquent man, and they liked to have eloquent speakers, and maybe Paul wasn't terribly eloquent, at least not by the Greek standards. I think by God's standards, he was magnificently eloquent, but they had their own cultivated view of Paul and how Paul ought to be and how Paul ought to speak and how Paul ought to write and conduct his affairs.

   And they got on his case, as we say, and they rode the man constantly about almost everything he did, as we'll see. And we'll also see where that led. Now let's go back to I Corinthians. Paul was only human, as is any minister, local elder, up to apostle. And he didn't pretend to be anything else. He made certain mistakes, if you want to call it that.

   He says in verse 14, 'I thank God' — this is back to chapter 1 and verse 14 (I Corinthians 1:14) — 'I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any man should say that I baptized in my own name. I baptized also the house of Stephanus,' and then he admits rather candidly, he says, 'besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.'

   What? He says, 'Yeah, if I baptized anybody else, I forgot it. I just don't happen to remember.' Now don't you know that there were probably some folks out there that said, 'What kind of minister is that? How could he forget he baptized me? I mean, he's the one that put me under the water and laid hands on me, and you mean... well, I just don't think the apostle Paul has very much love if he can forget the very people he baptized. There must be something wrong with that man.'

   Now, Paul had an altogether different view of it. Paul didn't see himself as a baptizer or even as a church pastor. Paul says in verse 17 (I Corinthians 1:17), 'Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.' Paul was an apostle with a commission to preach the gospel. And he didn't get under all of the details of pastoring the local church, including the baptisms and the anointings, and the visits and the spokesman clubs or whatever else they were doing in those days.

   Brethren, apostles don't think like church pastors. You need to understand that. God doesn't ask them to. God has a different set of priorities and responsibilities for apostles and evangelists than he does for church pastors, preachers, local elders, deacons. We all have our part in the body. If you make the mistake of judging the work of an apostle by the standards of a church pastor, you're going to be making a big mistake. We need to understand that.

   Paul, like Mr. Armstrong today, had his priorities right. 'God did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel.' In our day and time, Mr. Armstrong was used of God to raise up an Ambassador College that would in turn produce all kinds of ministers who could go out and do the baptizing and the church pastoring while he kept his eyes focused on the mission of an apostle, which is to preach the gospel. So, he was doing his job right. And yet he wasn't always appreciated for that work and for that task. And as we go through here, we're going to be seeing, I think, many parallels that fit our day and time. And I'll speak about some of them, and I think you can read others of them between the lines without my elaborating on them too much.

   Paul knew this church wasn't as hot as it thought it was. He would say in chapter 3 and verse 1 (I Corinthians 3:1), 'And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, I had to speak unto you as carnal, even as babes in Christ, and I fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it. Neither yet now are you able, for you are still carnal.'

   And what did he give us as proof of that fact? 'For whereas there is among you envying and strife and division, aren't you carnal and walk as men?' Doesn't this party spirit and following after different human beings and getting split up and divided prove you're carnal? One says, 'I'm of Paul.' Another says, 'I'm of Apollos.' 'Aren't you carnal? Who then is Paul? Who is Apollos? But ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.'

   They got their eyes focused, as so many do today, on human personalities. And the limits of their vision were entirely human. They didn't lift up their eyes to God and ask 'What has God wrought?' You know, 'What is God doing through these human instruments?' But they began to play off personalities one against another — very human tendency. 'Well, I like Apollos' preaching. I know, I think Apollos is more spiritual,' you know, and they began going back and forth this and that way. It's bad when people do that. Don't fall into that. We've seen too much of that. It doesn't work well to get your mind on human beings and forget there's a God above who's working out His plan through those humans.

   All right, now over to chapter 4. Let's continue with this. Notice what Paul is saying here. It's as though chapter 4 and verse 1 (I Corinthians 4:1) begins with 'please.' Please let a man so account of us — listen to what he's saying. He's telling this church, 'Please think of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.'

   Now brethren, why should there have been any question in the mind of the Corinthian Church that Paul was a minister of God and a steward of the mysteries of Christ? They should have known that. But Paul having to almost get down on his knees and ask them, 'Please let us, please think of us as ministers of God and of stewards of God.'

   And then that verse 3 that we mentioned a moment ago, 'With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. I judge not my own self.' Because 'I don't know anything of myself that is that I'm guilty of or that I'm doing wrong,' but that doesn't really prove the point. 'I'm not justified by that either.'

   The point is, here's the bottom line for Paul: 'You're doing a lot of judging of me, Church of God at Corinth.' And he said, 'I'm sorry, I just can't get under that because he that judges me is the Lord.' You see, Paul knew he wasn't answerable to the Church of God at Corinth. He was answerable to God. So he didn't really get under this too much.

   I don't know how much they liked that because the Church of God at Corinth began to have the attitude that Paul was answerable to them for almost everything. Paul said the judgment business goes to the Lord Christ. Therefore, he told them, 'Don't you judge anything before the time until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart, and then shall every man have praise of God.'

   Now in verse 8 (I Corinthians 4:8) there's a strong clue as to again their attitude. 'Now you are full,' this church that he raised up had become so full, so proud. 'Now you are rich. You have reigned as kings without us.' 'Father, you don't need me anymore. I'm just your old, you know, ex-apostle that you don't seem to need. You cast me aside. You reign without us.' 'I would to God you did reign, that we might also reign with you.' You know what he means there? I wish it was time to be reigning in the kingdom and we'd all be reigning together. But it isn't yet, even though you've got that kind of attitude.

   And he says in verse 9 (I Corinthians 4:9), he talks about the lot of an apostle. What it's like to be an apostle. You think that's a fun job, exciting job? Paul said, 'I think that God has set forth us apostles last as it were appointed to death, for we are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake. You are wise.' There's irony in this, heavy irony and sarcasm. 'We are weak. You're so strong, you're honorable, but we are despised.'

   The Church had gotten kind of puffed up in its relationship with its founding apostle. That's something brethren that we need to be on our guard against and need to be very much aware of. So that Paul was forced to defend his apostleship to his very church. Isn't that ironic? Paul was forced to ask in chapter 9 and verse 1 (I Corinthians 9:1) — because probably plenty of people had serious questions about that then, just as some do today — he had to say, 'Am I not an apostle?'

   Why did he say that? Because again, some people probably were suggesting he wasn't. 'Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?' And then the important line, 'Are you not my work in the Lord?' Had they forgotten so quickly who it was that established them in the faith? 'If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you, for the seal or the proof of my apostleship, are you in the Lord.' You're the living proof. Just as we are the living proof of a man's apostleship in our day and time. And we need to keep that in mind.

   And then 'my answer to those that do examine me is this,' and then he had to defend himself against certain charges, and they're really ironic. You know what the charges are? The fact he wasn't married. That's one of them. 'Have we not power to lead about a sister or wife as well as the other apostles?' In other words, he has to defend the fact that he could have been married, but he chose not to.

   They were probably critical of Paul because Cephas, Peter that is, and the other apostles were married. Paul wasn't. It's kind of funny. Moses married, he was criticized for it. Paul didn't, he was criticized for it. Heads you lose, tails you lose. Mr. Armstrong married, he was criticized for it. If he hadn't married — you know the rest — probably somebody would have criticized him for not.

   The point is, brethren, when people get in a hostile, openly critical attitude, nothing you can do is right. As you lose, tails you lose. Because they're going to jump you and find fault with you at every turn, and that is an attitude we need to be aware of.

   I have no way of knowing if that's a critical problem here or not. I hope not. Very likely those who are already in that attitude probably left. But we all need to be careful about it. We need to be careful of how we conduct our relationship with all of the ministers and with one of them in particular.

   The other thing they jumped him for was, surprisingly, not taking tithes or offerings from them. He chose not to. And if you read carefully here throughout chapter 9 and elsewhere, we're going to see that evidently that became a bone of contention. And that's strange, isn't it? You can see why they'd attack him for taking the tithes, but in this case, it seems that they were critical of him for not doing so. He asked them later in the second book because we'll see, 'Did I commit some grave offense by not doing so?' So they examined Paul, as many are very quick to do today, who set themselves up to judge the work of God's apostle.

   In II Corinthians 1 — we'll see a remarkable parallel. You know, one of the things they jumped Paul for in II Corinthians, one of the issues, the hot issues of the day — Paul's travel plans. That sound a little familiar to you? It should. There might not be any stupid Crystal or motel bills mentioned in this chapter, but we do have travel plans.

   You see, Paul had written to the church that he intended to come by way of Corinth to northern Greece, visit Macedonia, and then come back down to Corinth again. In the meantime, since he wrote the first letter, he changed his mind and went straight to northern Greece, Macedonia, conducted his affairs, and planned to come down south.

   Well, if you know their attitude, the people in this book, you know how that would have gone over with them. They start saying, What? You know, doesn't even know how to make up his mind. He said he was coming here first and then he went there first. What's the matter with Paul? Is he fickle, you know? Doesn't he know what he's doing? Does he say yes about something and then turn around and say no?'

   Yes, really. They got on him that much. Really, that's what we read here in chapter 1 and verse 13 of II Corinthians (II Corinthians 1:13-15). Paul has to say, 'We write none other things unto you than what you read and acknowledge. I trust that you shall acknowledge this to the end.' He says verse 15, 'In this confidence I was minded to come before that you might have a second benefit, and I wanted to pass by you into Macedonia and come again out of Macedonia unto you and of you to be brought on my way toward Judea.'

   'Now when I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? Was I fickle? Was I lighthearted about the whole thing? Was I speaking double tongue, or the things that I proposed, do I propose according to the flesh that there should be with me yea yea and nay nay?' Am I double-tongued in effect?

   Well, he goes on to give his reason for not coming. You know, Paul had a real good reason for not coming to see those people. You know what it was? Down in verse 23 (II Corinthians 1:23), it's kind of an interesting reason. 'Moreover, I call God for a record upon my soul. Here's my reason, that to spare you, I came not as yet unto Corinth.'

   Paul had good reasons for doing what he did or didn't do. That church was way out of line. And Paul knew he was going to have to strongly correct that congregation. But he gave himself time to calm down, to become a little more objective, to get a handle on the situation, not to go down there just all blazing, you know, and take them apart. He said, 'To spare you, I thought it might be better if I just went to northern Greece first and then I came down and deal with this thing a little later.' Good reason. Very good reason.

   But many of them didn't think so. I don't suppose many of them even understood what he was talking about. 'Spare us? What's he sparing us from, you know? We're already pretty good, very good, excellent. Spare us? Man must be crazy.'

   Yes, brethren, I'm telling you whole churches can get turned around where they're not thinking right with regard to God or their spiritual leaders, and Corinthians illustrates this beautifully — if you call that beautiful — ugly, you know, hideously, wretchedly.

   They thought they were really great. Paul knew they were really carnal. Now, chapter 2, there's something that's just said in passing. Paul knew where a lot of this stuff was coming from. Paul knew how Satan worked on the churches that God used Paul to raise up. And Paul would say in the last part of verse 11 (II Corinthians 2:10-11), 'We are not ignorant of his' — that is Satan's — 'devices.'

   Remember that? He says back in verse 10, if you've forgiven this man that was put out in I Corinthians 5, all right. 'If you've brought him back in and you forgiven him, I forgive him too.' Lest, verse 11, 'Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices.'

   What does he mean? Well, how would it look if they forgave this man, the fornicator mentioned back there in I Corinthians 5? They brought him back in and Paul says, 'Wait a minute, I don't think he's ready to come back yet. I'm not sure he's repented.' Well, in the climate that existed in the Corinthian church, they would have jumped on him — 'What kind of guy is Paul anyway? What kind of self-righteous old character is Paul that he won't let our man back in, but we've already forgiven him? I mean, we're closer to the situation than he is.'

   He knew Satan would use something like that as an entering wedge, and so Paul would say, because he was savvy about these things, 'We' — speaking of himself mostly — 'I am not ignorant of his devices. I know how Satan works on the church.'

   Mr. Armstrong knows how Satan works on the church, and he's been telling about it, telling us about it for years now, plainly, accurately. You know, a lot of people haven't believed it. A lot of people just tossed it off glibly. Mr. Armstrong said years ago, 'Satan has struck at me and at Garner Ted. And he will go through the ranks of the ministers and the members.' Remember him saying that? What's happened?

   Presently, I was shocked when Dennis Luker, my close personal friend who works in the CAD area told me recently- PAD I guess they call it — we have lost upwards of perhaps 150 ministers, church pastors over the last few years, not just the recent few months, but maybe since around '71, '72, '73, right in there. We have lost about 1/4th of our ministers to various causes, including perhaps the ill-advised policy of the non-career minister status that caused us to lose a few perhaps that we shouldn't have lost and then the many others who simply defected and quit and left.

   Satan has gone through the ranks of the ministry. He's gone through the ranks of the members. He was right. He is right. Still some people naively just pass it off. 'And think the battle is just with human nature.' Well, you do have human nature, and so do I, but I assure you that some of our worst bouts with human nature are human nature plus satanic influence.

   Needling attitudes such as the ones Paul was mindful of — an unforgiving spirit. And particularly what Paul was on guard against here is that there would become an issue that could separate Paul from his church. If they forgave the man, and Paul didn't, Satan would use that as an entering wedge to cleave between Paul and the church, and he knew the further he could drive the church away from Paul, the more he could devour the church.

   Brethren, you need to understand the implications of that for us here and now. You can't fail to pick up on the meaning of these two letters, or you're going to be missing something vitally important to your salvation, and that will determine in large part whether or not you'll be God's firstfruits.

   So please hear me. Don't hear me — hear this, hear these words right out of your own Bibles. Well, let's watch or take a look here at verse chapter 3 and verse 1 (II Corinthians 3:1). You know, it came to the point that Paul had to ask these people, 'Do we need to write a letter of recommendation from you or to you?' Can you believe it? Can you believe it? Maybe some people said, 'You know, I don't see very good credentials for the apostle Paul. Where did he get all this stuff? He's unaccredited, you know. He doesn't have any diploma or degree.'

   He says, 'Do we begin again to commend ourselves or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation' — that means recommendation — 'to you or letters of recommendation from you?' Has it come to that point that I can't come down to Corinth unless I'm toting a letter from one of your hotshots that says I'm OK? Or maybe you think you ought to give me a letter of recommendation so when I go on my travels, it will say 'The Church of God at Corinth approves the works of the apostle Paul, confirmed elders, deacons, and lay members.'

   Yes, really, brethren. Why else would Paul say it? These were things that people were thinking and saying in the Church of God at Corinth. If you can believe it. He says again, 'Look, you're the epistle, you're the letter of recommendation. You're it, you're the proof. Why do we need anything else?'

   Satan had made a lot of headway in this church in a short time. It's just hard to believe. Chapter 5 — well, let's see. Paul was forced to give them grounds to boast. He didn't like to have to do so.

   Verse 12 says (II Corinthians 5:12), 'We commend not ourselves again unto you, but we would like to give you occasion to glory on our behalf that you may have someone to answer those that glory in appearance and not in heart.' So we'd like to give you some proof of our apostleship. And he says in verse 20 (II Corinthians 5:20), 'Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead that be you reconciled to God.'

   They were way out of line with God and with God's servant. And then he has to say in verse 4 of the next chapter, chapter 6 (II Corinthians 6:4-8), 'In all things,' now he's forced to go on the defensive. He doesn't like to do it, as you'll recall, he says, 'You forced me to be foolish and have to give you all my credentials. If you've got to have something to boast about, OK.'

   This was embarrassing and awkward for Paul because he was a humble man. He didn't like to do this. But he says, 'OK, in all things we are proving ourselves' — as it could read and should read — 'as the ministers of God.' What proved Paul's ministry? Well, things like patience, afflictions, necessities, distresses, stripes, imprisonments. Yes, Paul spent years in jail, if you can believe it — a couple of years in Rome, couple of years down there at Antioch or in Caesarea.

   And I wonder sometimes how people would accept that if God's apostle in our day went to jail and were simply incarcerated for a couple of years at a stretch. How many people would hang in there? And how many people would take that as sure proof that God had forsaken the man, turned his back on him, he was a false prophet, you know.

   Paul said, 'Look, you know what proves I'm the minister? Things like imprisonments, tumults, labors, watchings, fastings.' Notice what other things he mentions verse 8: 'By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers, yet true.' Paul cites both as proof of his apostleship.

   Now, some people are so naive that when they hear a bad report, when they hear dishonor, when they hear about Mr. Armstrong, it is alleged that he's a deceiver — they pick up on that and they believe it and they say, 'See, I told you. He's a false prophet. He can't be a true minister of God with all these bad reports.'

   Look, Christ had bad reports. Evil reports, Christ had dishonor. Christ went down to his grave over these things, was crucified. Jesus said, 'If they have loved me, they'll love you. You're not gonna have any different faith than me,' he told his apostles. 'They'll do to you what they've done to me. You better be ready for it.'

   But some people are naive about Satan's devices. Satan generates all kinds of filthy reports and rumors and accusations and allegations. And some of our people just take it at face value: 'That's right, that's right, that's true, you know. Must be something terribly wrong with Mr. Armstrong.'

   Brethren, note this — Jesus said, 'When you are persecuted for righteousness' sake, there's a great blessing in that, for so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.' And so there's some remarkable parallels here.

   Notice verse 9 (II Corinthians 6:9): 'As unknown' — people say, 'Oh, Mr. Armstrong, he's unknown. A lot of people haven't even heard of him yet.' No, that's probably true. And yet in other circles, well known — Japan, Israel, the Philippines, various foreign countries on a first name basis virtually with the chief top heads of state. Given the highest honors that a foreign citizen can receive in Japan. A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country. Isn't it ironic? How these foreign dignitaries will heap praise and appreciation on that man. And maybe in Southern California on some talk show, somebody's just gonna be running him into the ground. Strange thing.

   How are you influenced by these things? How do you bear up? How do you handle it? Can you stay on top of it? Can you keep your perspective? Can you see with the help of scriptures like these that evil report and dishonor and being unknown don't prove a thing? That's the lot of an apostle. That's the nature of the game of being an apostle of God.

   Notice the rest of verse 9: 'As dying and lo and behold, he lives.' That reminds you of anybody you know? Good is dead a few months ago, right back on the track and leading the church powerfully a few months later. A year later, amazing. 'Chastened and not killed, sorrowful yet always rejoicing, poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.'

   And he tells them very plainly, 'Oh you Corinthians!' Here's Paul just being very straightforward and candid and open with them.

   He says, look - our, when Paul uses first person plural, you can take it to mean usually singular. He's speaking of himself in large part. He doesn't mean Timothy and Titus. He's speaking of himself. 'Look, my mouth is open to you and my heart is enlarged. I'm open in my feeling and my affection and my concern for you, Corinthian Church.'

   'Look, you're not straitened in or by us. You're not all knotted up and constrained and uptight because of us. You are constrained in your own bowels. You're all knotted up with your picky criticisms and your fault finding attitude yourself.' That's not my problem? That's your problem, he tells them.

   And it's true today, brethren, when people get these attitudes, it's not really Mr. Armstrong's problem. They think it is. But in practical fact, they're all knotted up in themselves. And when people get in these attitudes and they're on little gossip pipelines and they're shooting this stuff back and forth, and they're just all jittery and they get together and they got these looks on their faces, you know, and they're going at it back and forth, yakety yak yakety yak, you know, what good comes of that? What joy comes of that? What peace comes of that? What unity comes of that?

   Does it make them happy? The people I know that live their lives that way aren't happy. They don't know much joy. They're always worried — 'What's this mean? How should we take that?' And they're reading into every little event and 'Well so and so said this' and there's that thing to be worried about, and they are like Paul was saying of this church, all knotted up inside. Their faith is gone. They're dealing with the situation entirely inappropriately. And they need to be told that.

   'Now for a recompense,' he said, 'I'd like you to kind of pay me back for my own openness toward you. I speak as unto my children. Could you be also enlarged?' he asked his church. 'Could you open up a little in your heart? Could you be a little more forgiving, a little more charitable, a little more kind, a little more loving?'

   Brethren, I'll tell you something as a minister that I know from having pastored great many congregations. Just as a minister has a relationship with each member of his local church, so he has a relationship with the church as a whole. And it's a two-way street. The minister has certain responsibilities about how he conducts that relationship with them. But let me tell you something — the church has a responsibility how it conducts its relationship with its ministers, if your local ministers, or our foremost leaders. Be mindful of that.

   Paul is asking them to take up their part of the responsibility, the part that is theirs. 'Could you be enlarged? Could you be a little more,' as I said, 'charitable, loving, giving? Could you give me the benefit of the doubt?' You know, a lot of people have come to their point in their relationship with Mr. Armstrong and others in the work today where they won't. They simply won't give them the benefit of the doubt. They've got the same kind of critical attitude where everything they do is wrong, and they're going to interpret it that way every time.

   That's a sad state of affairs when it gets to be that way. It's very dangerous to the people that get in the grip of that kind of attitude.

   [Tape Flipped]

   I stumbled and tripped up and had my attitude run all over the map just like you. I've had to get down on my knees and pray about some of these things and ask God to clean me up and forgive me and show me what's right and open my eyes and get me on the track just like you.

   I don't mean to make myself an exception like I've been doing this and doing it all along. The reason I know about this is because like you, I'm human. And these things affect my mind, and I don't always understand, and Satan has his fiery darts that get to me sometimes. So I'm just sharing in part some of my own experience as well as pointing you to these scriptures.

   Well, what else? I saw here the situation in chapter 6 — not chapter 7. Can you imagine an apostle having to say this to his church? Chapter 7, verse 2 (II Corinthians 7:2): 'Receive us.' Get it? Accept us, please. Will you please accept me and my fellow workers in your church?

   Brethren, these words have ominous overtones. When you stop to think that in III John 9 and 10, which we will examine before we're done this afternoon, the time came in the history of the New Testament church when John would write, 'I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to have the preeminence among them, receives us not. Neither will he receive the brethren, but casts them out of the church.'

   The day came where they not only received not the apostles, but they didn't receive the men who were sent forth by the apostles, and they would pick anybody out of the church who did. This was a little earlier in the game. This was the 50s and that was probably the 80s, maybe the 90s A.D., but the situation was moving fast. And even in the 50s, Paul had to say, 'Hey, receive us.' You could see them getting away. He could see the direction they were moving in.

   We already read in II Timothy 1, the time came when he had to say a whole area's — 'They've left me. All they that be in Asia have departed from me.' Brethren, these aren't idle words. Paul pleading with these people — 'Receive us, bear with us. Hang in there.' The relationship was critical in its importance, but they didn't see it. They thought they could thumb their nose at that man. Go it alone, like a lot of people think today.

   'Oh well, you know, I'm still in the church, even if I don't attend the church. You don't have to be in the church to be in the church, right?' Everybody who goes out of church still thinks they're in the church. You ever noticed that? They're always in the church. They haven't left the church. They don't come anymore. They don't tithe anymore, but they're still in the church. I hardly ever found anybody who just said, 'Yep, I left the church. I'm out of it, you know, I'm a lost soul.' Oh no, they're all still in the church if you talk to them. They don't come anymore. Strange. Just don't think God looks at it quite the same way they do, you know. People have ways of justifying all the things they do. It's incredible.

   'Receive us. We haven't wronged anybody. We haven't corrupted anybody. We haven't defrauded anybody. I'm not speaking this to condemn you, but as I've said before, you are in our hearts to die and to live with you. Great is my boldness of speech toward you.' I'm speaking pretty plain, pretty open. You have to admire him for that. Mr. Armstrong speaks openly with us from time to time too, as you know, and from the heart.

   Chapter 11 continues in the same theme. Chapter II Corinthians is an even more intensely personal book than I Corinthians, much more of the personal element emerges in II Corinthians as we see here. Notice this continual emphasis on this theme by this apostle to his church, to God's church, but the one he raised up.

   'Would to God,' he writes, 'you could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed, please,' he says, 'bear with me.' Can you do that, church? Can you stay with your founder and apostle? Can you hang in there? Can you bear with me now? Isn't that ironic? Isn't that sad that Paul has to ask this church to do this? Why didn't they know to do it? Why wasn't it obvious?

   The irony is so bitter that he has to get down on his knees as it were and plead with this church. 'Would to God you would bear with me.' But they were throwing him out. They were too good for him. They'd gone far beyond the apostle Paul in their minds. They were proud, they were puffed up. They reigned like kings without him.

   'I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. I have espoused you to one husband. I'd like to present you a chaste virgin to Christ, but I fear lest by any means,' and he will stoop to any means, 'as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.' Again Paul sees Satan's subtle influence. Clever. Satan isn't dumb. Satan's wise. He knows what ideas grab people, influence people, turn people away.

   He knows, as I've been saying, that if you can drive a wedge between congregations and their leaders or the entire Church of God and its human leader under Christ, you've got the makings of a real Donnybrook, divide and conquer. Turn them off from their spiritual leaders. Cut them off from the people who are preaching and teaching them the truth, and in time they'll be like sheep without a shepherd, and you can just go through the flock and take your pick. And it's happened brethren, and it's still happening.

   You know, I keep saying it recently, this keeps up. It'd be a great falling away first. You know what I mean? It's happening. It's here, it's now, and it isn't gonna stop. I have no illusions that what we have begun to see is going to suddenly just stop, dry up, turn around. I allow that we will see many additional losses until it probably will come to the time, excuse me, as the scripture says, it's gonna be maybe a half and half proposition.

   I don't know, but the figures or the factors are always kind of stated that way, half this and half that. Maybe we haven't begun to sustain as many losses as we're going to, as Christ said, you know, 'If this they begin to do in the green tree, what do they do in the dry,' you know. With so little excuse for it as people have today. What about when the crunch comes, when there's real persecution, when there's blood being spilled?

   If you want — Paul says in verse 5 of chapter 11 (II Corinthians 11:5), again it's kind of silly, but, you know — 'I just don't think that I'm a bit behind your very chiefest apostles.' See they have their own apostles? And he says, 'I really don't think I've come too far behind them.' The sarcasm there is exquisite.

   Yes, he says, 'Though I be rude in speech,' if that's your big thing against me, 'I'm not rude in knowledge, but we have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things.' And they said, as I mentioned before, 'Did I commit some kind of an offense when I abased myself that you might be exalted because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely, because I robbed other churches, taking wages of them to do you a service?' It's like he's apologizing. 'I'm really sorry, folks, if that offended you, the fact that I didn't take your tithes.'

   But again, listen to the irony, listen to the foolish charges that they leveled against him and the awkwardness of having to defend yourself against charges of that kind. In chapter 12, we kind of come to the conclusion — we're moving toward the end of these two sad books. It doesn't get happier as you go along. Sorry, if you expected this to be kind of a comedy with a 'they lived happily ever after' ending, it's not.

   There's no evidence in the slightest that this church ever shook out of its spiritually sick condition. In fact, to the contrary, there is considerable evidence which we'll examine that this church went downhill from here even further. And I'll give you that in a moment.

   He says, 'Behold,' verse 14 chapter 12 (II Corinthians 12:14-15), 'The third time I'm ready to come to you and I will not be burdensome to you. I don't seek yours, I seek you.' Verse 15, and he said, 'I will very gladly spend and be spent for you.' Although Paul has to add, and this is the sad part, 'The more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.'

   The story of the Church of God at Corinth is the story of unrequited love — love that didn't flow back and forth mutually in a cycle, but it went one way. Paul loved that church, but that church did not love Paul, and he told them that in no uncertain words. 'The more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.' That's sad. It's not just sad for Paul. I can imagine his hurt, his heartache at that fact, but it was sadder for them because where that situation took them, I wouldn't frankly care to go. I think it took many of these folks right out of the church and probably right out of the kingdom.

   It's the story of a rift between the church and its founding apostle. It happened then. It's happening now in the lives of some people — some of whom have already left because of it, others of whom probably will leave because of it in the future. And I'm talking about it today on Pentecost because I don't want it to happen to me. I don't want it to happen to you.

   If it doesn't happen to you, if this problem doesn't happen to you, it will be enormously to your advantage. There might be other problems that will come up, but if this one doesn't happen, if Satan can't use these devices to get to you, you will be enormously better off, I assure you.

   Go back to an analogy I've been using in recent months. Some of you may have heard me say it before. I might have said it up in Eugene there, LaDonn's hearing one time, but if God has bet all his chips on the life and the work and the church and the commission that's being performed by Herbert W. Armstrong over the past five decades, then you know what? That's where I'm gonna put my bet, and I'm not gonna move it unless God moves it.

   And there's nothing I see happening that indicates God's changing anything. So that's where I'm gonna keep all my bet — right there. I'm betting my life, my eternal life on the fact that God is working through that man's ministry. Now, if God wants to change his back, he can make that so abundantly clear. If he wants to put that somewhere else, he could have left Mr. Armstrong dead in his grave months ago and raised up some bright and shining new star, but you know, it just didn't work that way. And I think we ought to listen to that. I think we ought to learn from that and be instructed by that.

   It's really simple, as we were discussing in the car on the way up here, it's pretty simple. You know, Paul was concerned that people be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Either that man is God's servant, telling us the truth of God in the name of Christ, or he's a false prophet and a liar, and he's telling lies in the name of God and Christ. It's utterly that simple.

   Now, if he's a false prophet and he's telling lies in the name of the Lord, then I say God has a responsibility to deal with that, right? My faith is structured this way: If he's steering the church off into a hideous ditch through lies and error and confusion, then God and Christ better deal with that. He certainly hasn't called me to deal with that, but you know, I simply have the faith and trust to believe that God can deal with that if he must. He doesn't need my help.

   You need the help of all the people who tried to work things out where Mr. Armstrong will be thrown overboard here recently either. That was a stupid, ill-fated, rebellious attempt at radically restructuring the government of God in the Church of God, and it failed utterly. And I tell you, not all of you may have all the world's love and respect for Stan Rader. I know because he's a little different from us and didn't come up through the usual channels of Ambassador College and the ministry and all. We sometimes have our troubles accepting that man in his work.

   But I assure you that man has been used of God to fight a class A, excellent, superb legal defense of this church and its founding institutions, Ambassador College, and the Worldwide Church of God and its leadership and its funds. I don't care frankly whether you like him or not. But I hope you will appreciate how loyal and staunchly he defends this church and work.

   Read his interview with Michael Jackson in the latest Worldwide News. Could you have given answers that good? That honest? That up front? Please read it. I have to admire the man for what he says publicly. I don't think Stan Rader makes a lot of points with the local Southern California community by standing up in the name of Jesus Christ and defending Herbert Armstrong and Christ's Second Coming, you know. Let's appreciate, brethren, the contributions that many people make for this work to go on. And let's be very careful again to criticize anybody who's doing his best to help accomplish this work.

   Well, chapter 13, and it comes down to the crunch now and Paul says (II Corinthians 13:1). 'I'm coming to you and in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word's going to be established.' This is getting serious now. He's setting the stage for, you know, the gunfight at the OK corral. It's coming to that point.

   We're going to come down and he says, 'I told you before and as I foretell you as if I were present the second time and being absent now I write to those which heretofore have sinned and to all others that if I come again, I will not spare. I'm gonna root this thing out. I'm gonna deal with it. Since you're seeking a proof of Christ speaking in me which toward you is not weak but is mighty' — all right, you're gonna get it. You want to see me deal with strength and power? All right, you can have that, he promised them.

   And then the scripture we always quote around Passover time. Here's the context. Now perhaps you can see it in its original context. Verse 5 (II Corinthians 13:5): 'Examine yourselves.' You see, they were always busy examining him. Paul has to turn this thing around and say, 'Hey, you ought to take that magnifying glass out and look at yourself the same way. And you ought to prove your own self. Don't you know you're either a reprobate or you've got Christ in you?' It's one way or the other. Christ is in you, or you're turning out reprobate. You have a mind void of spiritual judgment.

   'I trust,' he says, 'that you know we're not reprobates.' And yet I suspect some thought otherwise. Some probably thought Paul was reprobate.

   He concludes the book in verse 11 (II Corinthians 13:11) and the following verses by words very similar to where it began in I Corinthians: 'Finally brethren, farewell, be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind.' Get back to unity and loyalty. You know you can only have unity in the church if the people in the church are giving their unqualified allegiance and support to the spiritual leaders God has chosen. There's no other way. There just isn't. You just can't have self-styled leaders, self-selected, local champions, and still have unity. Paul knew that.

   'Live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you.' Well, as I say, we've got a sequel to this story that comes to us not in the pages of the Bible, but from a very interesting letter written by Clement to the Corinthians from Rome. Now Clement was a true minister of God. He's mentioned in the scripture in Romans 16, I believe, and elsewhere. He became one of the first bishops of the church at Rome.

   This letter from the post-apostolic writings seems authentic. A lot of the letters that come from the same time seem very spurious, very false, full of myth and fable and paganism, but this one has the solid ring of a true Christian minister. You know what Clement writes at the Church of Corinth about? Well, the fact that this church came to the point where they threw out their ministers, probably the very ministers Paul selected to be over them, cast them right out of the church, and that's what this whole letter is about.

   It's 56 or so short chapters or sections, and I won't read very many of them, but just so you capture the flavor of it. This is Clement writing them, he says: 'These men we consider to be unjustly thrown out from their ministries.' And later he says, 'You will not find that righteous persons have been thrust out by holy men. Your division has perverted many. It has brought many to despair, many to doubting and all of us to sorrow, and your sedition' — or your uprising or your rebellion — 'still continues.'

   He says, 'Take up and read the epistle of the blessed apostle Paul. What he first wrote to you in the beginning of his gospel — of the gospel — of a truth he charged you in the spirit concerning himself and Cephas and Apollos, that because even then you had made parties. It is shameful, dearly beloved, yes, utterly shameful and unworthy of your conduct in Christ that it should be reported that the very steadfast and ancient Church of the Corinthians, for the sake of one or two persons, makes sedition' — that means uprising or revolt — 'against its presbyters or ministers.'

   That's what it came to. They finally threw out their duly appointed ministers and set up their own. 'Let us therefore root this out quickly,' he writes. And then later on, a couple more sections that I think are very interesting: 'Who is noble among you? Who is compassionate, who is filled with love? Let him say, if by reason of me there be any faction and strife and division, I retire, I depart, whither you will, I'll do that which is ordered by the people. Only let the flock of Christ be at peace with its duly appointed presbyters.'

   And he goes on to say, 'You, therefore, that laid the foundation of the sedition, submit yourselves under the Presbyters and receive chastisement unto repentance, bending the knees of your heart. Learn to submit yourselves, laying aside the arrogant and proud stubbornness of your tongue, for it would be far better for you to be found little in the flock of Christ and to have your name on God's roll than to be had in exceeding honor and yet to be cast out of the hope of Him.'

   Fascinating! And it sounds so much like that passage of scripture I mentioned earlier, III John. In fact, it sounds so much like III John that many of the commentaries suggest that III John is speaking of the Church of God at Corinth. I don't doubt it. All the facts seem to point in that direction — that this is a church that really went sour.

   III John, it says in verse 9 (III John 9), 'I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes' — there's a good Greek name for you, probably pointing to the fact that this was a Greek church — 'who loves to have the preeminence among them,' the same type of thing Clement was speaking about, men wanting preeminence, proud, puffed up, arrogant, 'receives us not.'

   The time came when an apostle like John could write a church, and that church would say, 'Forget it. We don't care what John has to say.' Just as they had come to think that way about Paul. 'Wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words and not content therewith.'

   It doesn't just stop with an attack on John. 'Neither does he himself receive the brethren and forbids them that would, and casts them out of the church.' You need to understand the way John uses the word 'brethren.' It's kind of the same way it's used in verse 3: 'I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified to the truth that is in you and that you walk in the truth.'

   He probably means the brethren in the sense that the men that went out two by two and pastored churches and preached the gospel, this type of thing which you mentioned in verse 6, 'which have borne witness of your charity before the church whom if you bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, you shall do well.' He'll be speaking of ministers that the church has helped and supported and brought forward on their journey with contributions and donations. That kind of brethren, not just local lay members.

   And so John seems to be saying here these churches and Diotrephes in particular will not receive the brethren, the ministers that come forth from me, John, and he forbids those that would receive those persons and the people that would accept John's ministers, these guys were throwing out of the church.

   The point is, in the life and times of the original apostles, brethren, certain churches got turned inside out, taken over from within by forces of evil. Yes, right here in the pages of our New Testament, we read this. That's how bad it got.

   I asked early on — where does it lead when a church begins to be openly critical of its founder, its apostle, its ministers? To this. This is where it bottoms out. You can't go any further than that. This probably sets the stage for the growth of the Great False Church. When churches got turned inside out like that, you can imagine where they went from there.

   And you know, that's why brethren, when I've heard and seen the many things that have happened in recent months and years in the church, it isn't really too surprising because it seems that I've heard it all before in the pages of my Bible — that what we're seeing today is just theme and variation of things that have been going on in the history of the church for 2,000 years. You know, human nature is pretty predictable. Satan's pretty predictable. Things have a way of repeating themselves.

   I don't know if we'll ever see that happen, this type of thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if maybe someday in the future we'd read about a whole church or two. In fact, we have. Philadelphia suffered this fate a few years ago under a minister that defected. The whole church pretty much pulled out at one time. The eastern seaboard got hit hard in '73 and '74, if you recall, maybe 1,800 members at a whack, gone.

   So yes, we have seen it. Yes, we could see it again. And if we do see it, it will be led by people whose attitudes I've been describing for you today, who won't accept what Clement called 'duly constituted authority.' That's the critical phrase — lawful authority from God. But in their own name and by their own devices they go out and establish themselves as leaders and take people out after them.

   Again I say don't let that happen to you. Psalm 133 was Mrs. Armstrong's — that is Mr. Armstrong's mother's — favorite song, he's often said, and the thing that's mentioned there is unity. And I think it might be a good reminder for us this afternoon. Keep that in mind — how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Church of God in Corinth didn't have unity, had strife, division, and it led to all kinds of other problems.

   I have a few simple suggestions for you, brethren, today in this connection — things you can do to make sure you will endure to the end and be a part of God's firstfruits when they all are harvested and brought into the kingdom. And the chief and foremost one is right in connection with what I've been saying: Watch the tendency to get openly critical. Don't set yourself up as a judge of God's servants. Brethren that — dangerous, don't do it. Don't get in that frame of mind where you start to think like these Corinthians that somehow God's servants are answerable to you and that somehow you've got superior knowledge and that you could tell these people a thing or two about how it ought to be done.

   Get that foolishness out of your mind. Let me do the same. I don't mean that as a heavy put down at all — guard against that. What did Paul say? Judge nothing before the time. He that judges me is the Lord. Let's trust God to be able to guide and direct his servants, and let's pray about it. We can do that. That's good. A lot of people get into this critical attitude and boy look out, it can go sour in a hurry.

   Remember, as we're told over in Hebrews chapter 13 (Hebrews 13:7), 'Remember those who have spoken the word of God unto you.' We know who these people are. There are many of them, many fine and faithful stalwart ministers of God in the church, evangelists and others that have hung in there through thick and thin and are still delivering the goods, you know, including, well, all kinds of them, you know their names.

   Remember verse 7, 'Those which have the rule over you' of Hebrews 13 now, 'who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow.' Follow those people, I tell you. Admire those people, back and support those people. Let's not think that's not sophisticated. Some people get the attitude these days that they're above that. 'I follow no man. I am my own man,' you know, they get kind of smug about that. That's nothing to be terribly smug about.

   Listen, there are people who've been in this church a lot longer than you and me who are more deeply converted, better squared away with their Creator God, better able to lead us than we are able to lead ourselves. It's true. We're simply told in passages like these, you follow their faith. And don't you get into critical attitudes about these people. You follow their faith, 'considering the end of their conversation' or conduct — it's Christ. It's the same yesterday, today and forever.

   And in verse 17 (Hebrews 13:17), we're told to 'obey them that have the rule over you' and notice we are reminded that these people do indeed have the rule over us. There's an issue of authority and responsibility and rulership here that we must be aware of. That's the critical thing that the Corinthian Church didn't understand. They just didn't see that. They thought they were kind of unto themselves, floating along like they didn't need any help from everybody or anybody.

   Paul says here, 'Submit yourselves,' just like Clement told that same church. Will you please submit yourselves to these ministers and repent, 'for they watch for your souls.' Corinth evidently never did it, and they just went down and out. 'Let them do so with in their giving account with joy and not with grief, that's not going to be profitable for you.' Corinth, like a stubborn self-willed little child, just simply wouldn't accept God's apostle and his authority over them. They went their own way to their own ruin. Can happen to us if we make the same mistake.

   Finally, brethren as I said before, there are going to be things that will come up, and Satan's going to make sure about that that will trouble us, needle us, get to us. Maybe right now some of you have been hearing this sermon this whole time I've been speaking, and you're still not convinced because you're saying in your mind — and I can almost hear the wheels turning — 'Yeah, but Dave Albert, I was talking to somebody recently down at headquarters and…. you know...'

   Hey, those things brethren, you're gonna have to deal with the rest of your spiritual life. Satan's always gonna be throwing out all kinds of things that you can grab onto and make a big problem for yourself out of. I encourage you to do simply this: You pray about it a lot. You get down on your knees with an open Bible before you. And you pray these things through and you let God's Holy Spirit, which is a big meaning of this day, cleanse your heart and mind of these attitudes and get you back on the track and help you to resist Satan's influence and you know you're going to be an awful lot happier person. You're gonna be a lot more stable Christian, a lot more stalwart local member if you'll pray about these things a lot and talk to your brethren about them precious little. And that just doesn't help an awful lot. Do that brethren.

   Exercise faith in God to work these things out. And see yourself for who you are, you know. Humble yourself in the sight of God, and don't take too much upon yourself. We've seen today then the story of a church that slipped away from its apostle. And it hurt them deeply. And my words to you this afternoon are understand the nature of their mistake, guard against it, and brethren with the help of God, don't let this happen to you.