Purging and Purifying The Church

➡ Paul, the voiceover for a ministry called Your Daily Bread, discusses the importance of spiritual growth and understanding of the Holy Scriptures. He emphasizes the role of a faithful pastor in addressing sin, repentance, and discipline within the church. Paul also highlights the evidence of Christ’s presence through signs, salvation, and sanctification. He concludes by stating that Christ’s authority is expressed in the church through his word, proclaimed by dedicated preachers and teachers.
➡ The text talks about acknowledging our weaknesses and finding strength in them through faith in God. It emphasizes that even though we may be weak, we can find eternal spiritual life through God’s power. This power, perfected in our weakness, allows us to live spiritually forever. The message encourages us to embrace our weaknesses, as they are a pathway for God’s power to work within us.

Hello, my name is Paul, and I am the voiceover for a ministry provided to you by Jim Pugh at God Is Government, called Your Daily Bread, taken from Christ’s teaching of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6.11. This is a daily devotion ministry focused not only on uplifting script scripture, but scripture that will grow your spiritual connection with Christ. We hope that you receive these devotions to uplift you, encourage you, but most importantly, advance your knowledge base of the Holy Scriptures. Today’s focused discussion will be on the purging and purifying of the church.

Paul was concerned for the discipline of his people, verses 1 and 2. And now in verses 3 and 4, he’s concerned for the authority of his people. Any faithful pastor is concerned with these issues. He’s concerned about sin and repentance. He’s concerned about discipline, which is the purging and purifying of the church. And he’s concerned about making sure the people come under the authority of the truth. Those are the faithful pastor’s concerns. And we come to this third one, this matter of authority, and Paul wants to address it. So he says in verse 3, you’re seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me, huh? You haven’t had enough proof already? Go back to verse 12 of chapter 12.

The signs of a true Apostle were performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles. Well, they had a lot of proof, miracles that Paul had done there. That was proof enough. And there was even more proof. How about this? You’re saved. You’ve been justified. You’ve been regenerated. You’ve been converted. You’ve been transformed. You have changed. You’ve been born again. You’ve been redeemed. Isn’t that indicative of the fact that the truth came through me, the saving truth? Not only that, but you’re in the process of being also sanctified.

You’re in the process of growing and maturing and being nurtured and becoming more like Christ. Isn’t that evidence? They had evidence from signs. They had evidence from salvation. They had evidence of sanctification. But they were so fickle. They allowed themselves to get sucked into this false teacher’s effort and to question things that they really had no reason to question. So he says, okay, you want more proof of the Christ who speaks in me? Go back to verse two. If I come again, I’ll not spare anyone. That’s what he’s talking about.

I’ll not spare you. And that will give you more proof. What does he mean? He means when I come, I’m going to take out the sword, if need be, of discipline. And I’m going to act in behalf of Christ in dealing with your sin. Now, you remember, in Matthew 18, the Lord outlined the process of church discipline. Remember that? You know, you go to your brother and then you tell the church. And ultimately, if they don’t repent, there’s these four steps. You go to your brother, you take two or three witnesses, you tell the church, and then you put them out of the church.

And you remember, when it says right after that, it says where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I. What? In the midst. When you’re in the midst of this discipline, and you’re working to purge sin in the church, Christ says, there am I in the midst of them. So Paul says, look, you want proof of Christ who’s in me. You’re telling me signs aren’t enough proof. You’re telling me salvation is not enough proof. You’re telling me sanctification is not enough proof that Christ is speaking through me.

I’ll give you more proof. When I get there, I’m going to wield the sword of discipline, and I’m not going to spare anybody. And you’re going to feel the authority of Christ then. That’s what he’s saying. I will not spare anyone, since you’re seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me. You want Dokime? You want a test? You want the proof? You’re going to get it. Just a footnote. I love that phrase. Proof of the Christ who speaks in me. Boy, what a great statement. Every preacher who is faithful to the Lord and who understands his role would love to, to be a living illustration of that.

That, that’s our passion. That’s our calling for Christ to speak through us. What a great statement. The Christ who speaks in me. And how does Christ speak in us? Not in an audible voice. He speaks in us when we proclaim his word. Christ isn’t indicated to have given special words to Paul on every occasion. Once the word of God was revealed, Paul preached it and re-preached it and re-preached it and gave it to us. When you speak the word of Christ, Christ speaks in you. So you, that was the question. And that should be the question.

That should always be the question. Is it really Christ speaking in him? How do I know that about a preacher? How do I know that about a teacher? How do I know if Christ is speaking in him? You say, well, maybe Christ spooked him and he had a vision. No, I don’t know that. I don’t know if he had a vision. It’s not reproducible. It’s not verifiable. Remember that? Back at the beginning of chapter 12, Paul says, I went to heaven, but it doesn’t matter. It’s not reproducible and it’s not verifiable.

I can’t build my credibility on that. Don’t tell me Jesus told you this and Jesus told you that. I can’t, I can’t verify that. Neither can you. There’s only one way I know if Christ is speaking through a person. And how’s that? If he speaks what is known to be the word of Christ, right? And the word of Christ is the word of God. How can we say we need less of that in church? That’s mind boggling to me. Paul says, you want more of the Christ who speaks in me. You’re going to get it.

You’ve had it in signs and you’ve seen it in your own salvation and sanctification and you’re going to see more when I come and don’t spare anybody and apply Matthew 18 to all of you. And then you’ll see the Christ who speaks in me. Verse three, and who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. And he’s saying, you already have seen that. He is not weak toward you. You know that because you’re saved and you’re being sanctified. He is mighty in you and you know that. You’re experiencing it. Your lives have been changed and transformed.

You know that and you’ve seen the signs and wonders. You want more proof of how mighty Christ is? You want more proof of how powerful he is? Then I’ll give it to you when I come against that unrepentant person with the very same authority of the word of Christ. Beloved, always there is power when believers act in line with the truth of God’s word. Christ is the Lord of the church and he expresses authority in his church through his word, proclaimed by gifted and called and faithful preachers and teachers. One of the things the false teachers also said was that Paul just didn’t have it.

His speech was unimpressive or his speech was contemptible, his presence was unimpressive. He just lacked charm. He lacked oratorical ability. He was just a, he was a nobody and a nothing. Wasn’t very interesting. All he ever talked about was the cross. He wasn’t clever in his speech. And they were, you know, worshipers of speech makers and Paul was just not up to the standard. He was just, he just didn’t fit the picture. He wasn’t overpowering. He wasn’t domineering. He wasn’t preeminent. He wasn’t successful. In fact, he was pretty much beaten up and battered and haggard.

Didn’t have particularly great communication skills. And he was just in trouble all the time. And he was just, he’s just a weak person. Just didn’t have the power of personality and charm persona to captivate people. Didn’t have the style that it takes. Didn’t understand the cultural hot buttons. Didn’t know how to be relevant. Just kept droning on about the cross. Just a weak person. You know what? Paul was weak. There’s no question about that. He was weak. Chapter one starts talking about his afflictions sorrows. Chapter two, he’s crying. Chapter four, he gives a whole list of his suffering.

Chapter six, another list of his suffering. Chapter seven talks about his depression. Chapter eight, about more sorrow. Chapter ten, about more suffering. Chapter eleven, a long list of suffering. Chapter twelve, more suffering, verses seven to ten. Particularly verse ten. Insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties, all that, were forms of weakness. Verse ten, he says he was content with weakness. He was not only weak, but he was content to be weak. First Corinthians two, three. I was with you in weakness. I planned it that way. I came to be weak. I am weak. I confess it.

He calls himself a clay pot. Remember that in chapter four. He was weak. And that was part of their criticism. He just, he’s just not impressive. He’s just, he’s just weak. And he’s always being thrown in jail everywhere. And he’s got a lousy reputation. He’s just nothing. He’s just weak. Well, he gives a tremendous analogy, brilliant analogy. Listen to this. Verse four, middle of the verse, start with the word four. For we also are weak in him. We admit it. I admit it. I’m weak. I’m weak. And I’m in Christ. I’m in him.

That is, I’m in Christ, saved, redeemed, belong to him, but I’m weak. I admit it. Yet we shall live with him. What does that mean? What does it mean? We shall live with him. Well, what it means is that he’s found spiritual life and it’s eternal. He has found spiritual life and it’s eternal spiritual life. And he found it because of the power of God. God in power came into his weakness and made him alive with spiritual life forever. And then it says in verse four, God directed that same power through him towards you.

Wow. What’s he saying? He’s saying, well, my weakness didn’t stop the power of God. It facilitated it because there’s no other explanation for my life than that it was the power of God because there’s no human explanation. I’m too weak, too frail, too inept, too unimpressive to have pulled it off myself. Whatever has happened has been the power of God surging through my weakness. Back to verse nine of chapter 12. God said, my grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness. God says power is perfected in weakness. Wow. Most gladly therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

That’s that’s the principle. God said, I’ll perfect my power through your weakness. Paul said, I’m happy to be weak because in my weakness, God’s power came. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of the purging and purifying the church. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. Bye. [tr:trw].