Timely Truths That Pack a Punch

So turn with me to the next two verses in the passage that we started last week.

2 Corinthians chapter 13.

We looked at verses 1 and 2 last week.

Let's move on to verses 3 and 4.

As the Apostle Paul is really mid-sentence here, so I can't fail to read the last part of verse 2 just to give this sense.

You might remember he said, if I come again, bottom of verse 2, I will not spare them.

Who's the them? Well, look at the top of verse 2.

I warned those who had sinned before and all the others.

We even went back to 1 Corinthians to think about that.

Certainly the pattern was there in 1 Corinthians.

He talked about the incest that was involved in the church of Corinth.

And he said, you guys were just sitting around putting up with it because you thought you were all about grace and it was no big deal.

And aren't you great because you're not even condemning the sin in your church.

Well, I rebuked the sinner and I rebuked the people that were putting up with the sin and they weren't dealing with it.

And I warn them now while absent.

I'm doing it in letters, as I did when I was present on my second visit.

And if I come again, which you talked about in the first verse of this passage, I'm going to come a third time, I will not spare them.

Now, we didn't look and speculate about what that means, but it isn't good.

We can speculate about it.

Maybe if we have time, we'll get to that today.

He's going to come and bring some kind of discipline.

And there are hints.

If we read 1 Corinthians as to how that might look, he's going to show up with apostolic authority and do some things that are going to bring some unpleasant realities to the Corinthian church if they don't listen.

Just like I say, there are some unpleasant realities if you disregard the message from the Superior Court of California, Orange County.

There's going to be some unpleasant consequences if you keep disregarding it.