Welcome to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton,
the official podcast of Cross Christian Fellowship,
Route 66, in the heart of Albuquerque, New Mexico,
where Burton is the lead pastor. We're glad you're
here. Hey everybody, welcome back to the sanctuary.
It's great to have you with us as always. Now,
the past couple of weeks, we've gone through
2 Corinthians chapter 3, and, you know, we really
broke it down. And this week, we're actually
going to continue forward, and we're going to
go into chapter 4, as we look at our duty as
Christians to preach on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now, we're not going to get through the whole
chapter today, and really, as you see, I'm going
to be compressing a lot because we could spend
a few weeks unraveling everything here. So when
we're done, as always, I want to encourage each
and every single one of you to go back, read
through this passage, and continue to study this
scripture. So with that, we're going to go ahead,
we're going to open our Bibles, and we're going
to get right into it. So let's go ahead and open
our Bibles, your Bible apps, whatever it is that
you use, to 2 Corinthians 5. Chapter 4. Alright,
so 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we're going to go
right to the beginning, right there at verse
1. We're actually going to be looking at verses
1 through 6. Alright, so 2 Corinthians chapter
4, verses 1 through 6, and the word says, Therefore,
since we have this ministry as we have received
mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced
the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness,
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but
by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled
to those who are perishing. whose minds the God
of this age has blinded, who do not believe,
lest the light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ, who is the image of God, should shine
on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but...
Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants
for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who commanded
light to shine out of darkness, who has shown
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
So we start off with the word, therefore. So
I want to remind you, anytime that we see this
word in the Bible, it's a reminder that we're
not to forget the things that we've already learned,
the preceding passages and whatnot. Because what
we're about to go into, what you're about to
read, what you're about to hear, it's all connected
to what you've already learned. So keep that
in mind, especially what we've gone through the
last couple weeks. Because it's all going to
be connected, and it's that connection that helps
to give context to what we're reading now. And
as you're going to see, context, of course, without
saying, is extremely important, especially as
it pertains to Scripture. So, we're going to
see that starting in the second verse, Paul condemns
those who twist God's word. Preachers, teachers,
radio and TV personalities, everybody and anybody
who speaks about Jesus. All of us. We need to
remember that we need to ensure that we are taking
steps to fully know and truly understand what
we are talking about. This is really important
because there are way too many people who stand
in pulpits and other places of esteem twisting
Scripture as a motivational tool, or more appropriately,
to manipulate and please their audiences. So,
in fact, if we turn back and we go to 2 Timothy
2, verses 14 -16, the Word says, Remind them
of these things, charging them before the Lord
not to strive about words to no profit, to the
ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to prove yourself
approved to God, a worker who does not need to
be ashamed. rightly dividing the word of truth,
but shun profane and idle babblings, for they
will increase to more ungodliness. You know,
so we have, let me make it clear, we have a responsibility,
especially given the invaluable tool that we're
all equipped with. And of course, that tool being
the Bible, the Word of God, you know, to study,
to learn, to grow, and ensure that we properly
know and understand what God has spoken to us
in it. And there is a distinct difference between
knowing and understanding. And we need both of
these things in order to fight the cancer that
has been poured out into the world, you know,
that is poor theology and poor teaching and the
sharing of the Word. Out of context. Remember
how Satan used it when he tempted Jesus. When
Jesus was in the wilderness, he twisted the word.
And how did Jesus rebuke him? Well, he takes
the word in its full context and throws it back
at him to rebuke him. And that's why it's so
important that you don't take my word or another
person's word or anybody's word for that matter
in regards to what the Bible says. You have to
read it and study it for yourself. You have to
pray on it and ask God for clarity. And I know
I've said this before and I will say it again.
Because this way, when we do hear something that's
not right, we know how to respond. Because even
if you don't know the exact wording of things,
if you know it and you understand it, you know
when you're being lied to. You know when you're
hearing it and it's just not quite right. And
so you know something's off. So coming back to
our passage in 2 Corinthians 4, the gospel's
open. And it's easily accessible. to everyone,
right? It's not put out there for just a select
few. It's not out there for just those who have
been educated in certain places and hold special
degrees and special titles or any of that nonsense.
It's right there. The Word of God is right there
for anyone and everyone to see and to hear the
Word of God. And it is revealed to all with the
exception of those who refuse. To believe. And
Satan is hard at work to ensure that we don't
want to believe. Matter of fact, let's flip back
a little bit here to 2 Corinthians chapter 11,
matter of fact. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Hold
on a second, let me flip through it here. Usually
I have this written in my notes and I don't right
now, so give me a second. Okay, here we go. 2
Corinthians 11, verses 14 through 15. The word
says, And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms
himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it
is no... Great thing if his ministers also transform
themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose
end will be according to their works. The Bible
right here, it's telling us Satan and his ministers,
those fallen angels, the demons, those people
in his army, they pose as men of light, men of
righteousness. They pose as people in authority.
But the reality is that they are actually hard
at work to blind and deceive you using various
temptations, as the word says, to tickle your
ears. They like to use these tools. And anytime
that you hear these things, these are red flags
that you need to be very, very careful of, all
right? Because they like to talk about, you know,
health and wealth and power, you know, and all
these various other pleasures to blind you to
the true word of God. You know, they love the
show. They love the limelight. They love the
money, everything that's laid out, you know,
from the time that you enter. to that building
from the paint on the walls to the way lights
are on and the types of lights and all that kind
of stuff. It's all there to manipulate you and
your mood. Even the furniture. Most of the time
you go in these places and you'll notice that
there's a theme. Even music and lighting. that
goes with the music on stage. Sometimes all the
way down to the color scheme of the clothing
that people are wearing. All these things can
be and often are meticulously laid out to be
the best show that they can put on. And they
want to put on this wonderful show because they
don't want you to just be a spectator. But they
want you to be a part of it as you're sitting
there in the audience. And that way you get wrapped
up in the charisma and the display and all the
pomp and the circumstance and all that stuff.
stuff that's just being put on you know the enemy's
crafting he's had centuries to perfect and hone
this craft you know there's even schools out
there and you don't take my word for it you can
look this up for yourself there there are schools
out there and they actually go to great lengths
to teach people how to do this stuff and it's
not just for shows there's even you know what
they'll call spiritual schools, not so much the
seminary, but schools where people can go to
and they learn about how to craft a set list
and basically string along certain types of songs
going from the slow to the fast and the high
energy and the low energy and the lighting on
the walls and all that kind of stuff. It's a
whole thing that's aimed at mood manipulation
and bringing somebody along in through the show.
It is a huge thing out there. And this is why
when Paul preaches, he points to Jesus and not
to himself. This is why when we tell people of
Jesus, we need to make sure that we tell them
of what he's done. Not our abilities, not our
accomplishments and our awards and all that kind
of stuff. Because it's not about us. It is about
Jesus and his glory. and introducing people to
Him. It's about what He's done, what He's doing,
what He's going to do. The greatest of all time,
the GOAT, and His love for each and every one
of us. We like to throw that term out there,
the GOAT, the GOAT this, the GOAT that. Jesus
is the ultimate GOAT. He is the ultimate greatest
of all time. Period. Nobody compares to him.
Nobody. And for anybody to be out there to be
like, oh, no, this is, no. That's idolatry. Stop
doing that. The fact is, Jesus is the one. He
went out and took our sins. He went to the cross.
He died. He rose from the dead, and he ascended
into heaven and is going to return again for
all believers, for everyone in the body of Christ,
for his bride. The hope that comes from him,
that as long as someone is still here, there's
still hope for them to be saved. Because we do.
We want them to be saved. We want them to be
reborn as a new creation in Him. The limelight
should not be on any of us. It should always
be directed to Jesus. We should always be pointing
the way to Jesus and His kingdom and anything
and everything that we do. Period. The good times,
the hard times, all that kind of stuff. Here's
a great example. You look at sports. It's like,
oh, you just won the championship. And they're
like, oh, praise Jesus, praise Jesus. But then
they go and they interview the people who lost.
How often do you ever see them bring it back
to Jesus? Ah, says something right there, doesn't
it? It's one of those moments where, you know,
coming back into our scripture before I go down
another rabbit trail, you know, it's, you know,
whoa, whoa, whoa. I really feel for those who
speak for personal gain and personal power, twisting
that gospel and blinding, you know, blindingly
following Satan, you know, and the fallen into...
basically just leading people with them down
a path to eternal damnation. Don't speak out
of turn. Make sure you know the context and that
you truly understand what it is that you're talking
about, not just some garbage off of Facebook.
Because every time you do talk about Jesus, every
time you speak to someone about their faith,
their religion, all that kind of stuff, you become
a teacher. And because of that, Anytime that
you're in those moments, you are a teacher, you
will be held to stricter judgment. Because you
are seen as an authority. Matter of fact, we're
warned about this in James 3, verse 1. So James
3, verse 1, the word warns us. It says, My brethren,
let not many of you become teachers, knowing
that we shall receive a stricter judgment. This
is not just for those people who are teachers
in title. Because a lot of people say, oh, it
is. No. Because I want you to think about this.
Think hard. Every time you take on that mantle
and you're trying to teach someone and explain
things to someone, you become a person of authority.
And you are seen by those people as a person
speaking from authority. And you want people
to see you speaking as a person of authority.
So every time you speak with the intent to educate,
guess what? You are a de facto teacher. You have
influence. So you better be speaking in love.
You better be speaking in context every single
time. This is one of those places. Where it is
just absolutely paramount that you do your research
and you don't leave things out. You don't sugarcoat
anything. You have to lay it all out. Part of
how Satan twists the word and manipulates people
is by leaving things out. I started to hit on
this a little earlier. Let's talk a little bit
about the temptation of Christ in the wilderness.
We're not going to read through it for time's
sake. You can find it in the Synoptic Gospels.
For those of you who don't know what the Synoptic
Gospels are, that's Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
So any of those three books, you will find the
temptation. Read up. However, point being, when
you have time, go back. And look at how Satan
tested Jesus. I'm going to paraphrase. Basically,
you know, comes out and says, oh, you're hungry?
Turn those stones into bread. And if you throw
yourself in this mountain, the angels will come
and they'll protect you from harm. And what he
does is he omits parts of the scripture. Now,
he knows exactly what he says, yet he deliberately
left parts out. You know, ignoring, just kind
of pushed him to the side. And he did it. He
did it in a way where it sounded good. There's
enough there that it sounds really good. But
when you know the scriptures, when you have a
relationship with God, and you do your due diligence
in learning the word, when you see this, when
you hear this, you're like, ah, you know, something's
not right. Even if you can't quite put your finger
on it, you know something's not right. It's not
jiving quite right. So we look to Jesus. And
after each one of these tests, essentially, we
see Jesus respond. Jesus rebukes him. He puts
him in his place. He corrects him. And how does
he do this? He does this with the full scripture
in context. And basically, it's just a nice way
of saying, nope, nice try. Close, but no cigar.
Not today, Satan. Be gone. And Satan, he keeps
coming after him. Thing after thing after thing.
And in a final act of desperation, Satan outright
lies and says, I'll give you all this. And in
return, you just have to worship me. As if he
could just give the world to anybody. It's not
his to give. Yeah, sure, he's the prince of the
world. He can manipulate people. But you know
what? He doesn't have control of the world. And
Jesus rebukes him. And understandably, when you
go into there and you read this, you'll see what
I'm saying. He gets a little heated in his response,
saying, you know, get out of here. We're here
to worship God and God only. It's like he's saying,
you better back off or else. Pow! To the moon!
Satan! You know, be gone! Now, none of us is
perfect. Not one, right? We're going to make
mistakes. It happens. That's not what I'm talking
about here. I'm talking about those who deliberately
have selfish motivations to manipulate people
in one way or the other. Those people who they
hear things like, oh, this way, I heard it or
whatever, and they don't actually look into it
for themselves. They don't question it. That's
one thing about the Bible is we need to be open.
and understand going in. And if this is something,
no matter where you're at in your walk, whether
you're new or you've been there for decades,
you have to be ready to read it and understand
that, hey, some things that you may have heard
in the past, completely wrong. And the Bible
will open your eyes to it. It's one of those
things, it's one of those pitfalls where it's
like, well, that's what my daddy used to say
and my grandpa would say and my great grandpa,
so it has to be, no. Because sometimes that's
legalistic looking at it, and we can't be legalistic.
Because sometimes something's misunderstood and
it gets passed along out of context. And that's
what I was saying about, guess what, you're a
teacher. Because we look to those people who
we... feel are a person that we can trust, people
who are an authority and we look up to. So whether
it's a parent or a doctor or an uncle or a friend
or whatever, you're a teacher. So you have to
understand, sometimes you're going to be reading
the Bible, you're going to understand, you're
like, oh, what I was taught wasn't right at all.
So you have to be willing to change that belief
because God needs to come first. Not mommy, not
daddy, not that prosperity preacher or Uncle
Sam down the road or whoever else. People get
things wrong. There are some people out there
who deliberately twist things as well. So we
have to be careful and we need to be ready for
it. So like I said, I'm not talking about those
people who make simple mistakes. We're talking
about those people who... have those selfish
motivations and are looking to manipulate others.
We have to be careful because we have to make
sure that we don't stop caring about the true
context. Because that's what these people do.
They stop caring about the true context and they
start trying to manipulate the scripture to say
the things that they want it to say. And some
of us, we try to do the same thing. It's where
we start going, oh, I'm just going to take this
part and I'm going to add it to this part and
I'm going to just make the narrative what I want
it to be. And unfortunately, it doesn't work
that way because then it becomes a lie. We need
to see it all. The full thing. So that we can
understand the full context. Because, of course,
context is king. We've all heard this, right?
And it's very important. This is paramount. So
when we share the gospel with others, we need
to make sure we're sharing all of it, not just
a little piece. Listen, there are going to be
parts that we're not always going to agree with,
that are going to be painful, right? We're going
to be like, wait, hold on a second. But what
about, no. One of the things I used to say years
and years ago when I worked in law enforcement
is, hey, you know what? It's like, I don't make
the rules. I don't make the laws. I have to enforce
them. Period. And there are certain things that
we don't agree with, even in the law. But that
is the law, and we are obligated to follow it,
right? So we don't get to omit anything. We don't
get to just turn a blind eye. All right. And
I've said, I know I've said this a lot today.
You've heard me say this before. You're going
to hear me say it again. You can do just as much
through your inaction as you can through your
actions. What you say and what you don't can
and will have a profound impact on others, especially
when they look up to you and place you in a position
of authority in their lives. Proverbs 18 verse
21, the word says, Death and life are in the
power of the tongue, and those who love it will
eat its fruit. This is one of those places where
people say words don't have power. But the word
tells us otherwise. There's a lot of power. In
words, there's a lot of power in the things we
say and how we say them. If there wasn't, then
bullying wouldn't be such a big deal. People
wouldn't be able to say things that hurt your
feelings. And it's not just the impact that you
have on others, but the impact that your words
will also have on your own life. Because self
-talk is a thing as well. The words you speak
matter. So we need to keep things in context
when we speak to others. We need to speak in
love and gentleness. We need to speak in understanding.
We need to make sure that we are pointing the
way to Christ and not ourselves. And sometimes
it's going to be hard. So it's not enough that
we answer the Great Commission. We have an obligation
to do so properly and in accordance with God's
will for each of us. We need to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so
help us God, because we will all be held accountable
for what we teach, for every word that we utter,
every word that we think, and our intention behind
it. So let's make sure that what we're teaching
is the same as what's been demonstrated through
the love and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Remember,
you are loved and you are blessed. Now go and
be the church. Until next time, take care and
God bless.