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The Immutable "Yes": Christ as the Guarantor of Divine Veracity (2 Corinthians 1:19-20) · Reformed Thinking

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  Hello and welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  I am so glad you were here with us today.
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  It is good to be back. You know, I was thinking on the
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  way over here about something that happened to me last week.
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  It was one of those small, annoying moments that just
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  sticks with you nagging at the back of your mind.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
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  I had a lunch date scheduled with a friend, someone I haven't
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  seen in ages, and at the last minute I had to cancel.
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  My car wouldn't start, the battery was dead, the whole
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  morning just sort of fell apart. It was a logistical nightmare.
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  That is always frustrating. The worst?
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  Incredibly so. But the worst part wasn't the
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  car trouble, or you know, the repair bill.
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  It was the text message I got back from my friend.
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  It was just chilly, they wrote. Oh, sure, whatever works for
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  you. You know that tone?
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  I know that tone very well. The tone that implies.
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  I don't believe you one bit. Precisely.
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  It felt like my integrity was being put on trial because of a
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  dead battery. Suddenly, I wasn't just a guy
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  with car trouble. I was a flake, a liar, someone
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  who couldn't be counted on to follow through.
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  It made me realize how fragile our reputation for honesty
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  really is. It stings when our character
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  gets questioned over something so ordinary.
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  We want people to trust us, know that our word means something.
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  It does. And that brings us actually
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  right to the situation in Corinth we are looking at today.
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  We are opening up Second Corinthians, specifically
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  chapter 1, verses 19 and 20. And honestly, Paul is dealing
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  with something very similar, isn't he?
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  He is, but the stakes are, well, infinitely higher than a missed
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  lunch, right? We are talking about the
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  credibility of an apostle and by extension, the credibility of
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  the gospel itself. OK, so help us set the scene.
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  What is the drama happening behind the scenes here Because
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  reading the text you get the sense that Paul is on the
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  defensive right from the get go the.
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  Relationship between Paul and the Corinthian church is, to put
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  it mildly, strained. It's very complicated.
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  Put it mildly. There are these opponents in
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  Corinth. Paul later calls them super
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  apostles with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
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  We're looking for any reason, any little crack to tear him
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  down and. Who are these guys?
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  What was their angle? Well, we don't know for sure,
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  but the picture we can piece together is that these were
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  likely polished speakers, impressive men, perhaps wealthy,
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  who looked at Paul, who was likely not much to look at
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  physically and even admitted he wasn't a polished orator and
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  they despised him. They wanted to undermine his
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  authority and, you know, take over his church.
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  And they found a loophole to attack him with.
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  They found a scheduling conflict.
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  That just seems so petty. It is petty, but it's effective.
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  See, Paula told the Corinthians He was going to visit them
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  twice. He planned to go from Ephesus to
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  Corinth, then up to Macedonia, and then come back through
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  Corinth on his way to Judea. A double blessing, he called it.
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  He wanted to spend significant time with him.
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  But that didn't happen. The plan changed.
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  No Providence or what seems to be pastoral necessity changed
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  his route. He realized that visiting them
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  at that moment, with the tensions as high as they were
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  after his severe letter, would just result in a painful,
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  difficult confrontation. So he stayed away to spare them.
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  That sounds like a wise pastoral move, actually.
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  It was, but he didn't show up when he said he would.
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  And these opponents pounced. They didn't just say, oh, Paul's
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  busy. They said, look at him, he
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  vacillates. He says yes one minute, no the
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  next. He is blowing like a leaf in the
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  wind. They weaponized his calendar
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  against. Him they did, and the accusation
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  was incredibly damaging. They were calling him fleshy.
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  The Greek is katasarca. Can we pause on that term?
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  Because when we hear fleshly, we usually think of carnal sins,
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  you know, lust, gluttony, that sort of thing.
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  Is that what they meant? Not in this context, no.
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  Here katasarika, or according to the flesh means operating by
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  worldly standards of wisdom. It's about human centered
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  thinking. So like spin PR.
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  Exactly. They were accusing him of being
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  principled only by self-interest.
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  They were saying he makes decisions based on his mood, his
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  convenience, or whatever advantage he can gain for
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  himself. They painted him as a man
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  without a rudder, a man who is untrustworthy.
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  So the logic is Paul said he would come, Paul did not come,
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  therefore Paul is a liar. And if Paul is a liar about his
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  travel plans? Then he is likely a liar about
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  everything else. That is the leap.
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  That is the dangerous part. They argued that if he can't be
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  trusted with a travel itinerary, he certainly can't be trusted
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  with the gospel. If the messenger is a flake, the
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  message must be flaky too. That is a terrifying thought.
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  I mean, if the apostles were just making it up as they went
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  along, then the whole foundation we stand on is just sand.
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  That is the thesis of the attack, and that is why Paul
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  takes this so seriously. He doesn't just brush it off.
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  But notice what he doesn't do. He doesn't pull out a train
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  ticket or a calendar to defend himself.
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  He doesn't say hey, the donkey threw his shoe or my ship was
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  delayed. He goes vertical.
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  We go straight to the nature of God.
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  He argues that the stability of the Christian message, and by
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  extension his ministry, depends on the stability of God's
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  character, not on human scheduling.
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  So let's unpack this defense. Paul refuses to use what he
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  calls fleshly wisdom. He doesn't spin it.
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  He doesn't hire APR firm to smooth over the
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  misunderstanding. No spin.
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  In the verses just before our main text, verses 12 through 14,
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  he appeals to his conscience. He talked about godly sincerity.
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  He says my conscience testifies that I have behaved with
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  simplicity. When you say simplicity, that
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  sounds almost naive, like he is simple minded.
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  But in this context does it mean something more like a lack of
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  hidden angles? Like he isn't playing 4D chess
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  with them. That is a good way to put it.
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  The Greek word implies singleness, not duplicity, not
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  double mindedness. The world operates on spin.
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  If you can frame the narrative, you win.
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  Paul says no, I answer to God. He is claiming that his motives
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  were transparent, his intentions pure, even if his schedule had
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  to change. But notice how he connects his
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  integrity to the message he brings in witnesses.
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  Right, he mentions Sylvanus, That's Silas and Timothy.
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  Why you think he does? That, well, presumably to show
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  it wasn't a solo act. It wasn't just Paul making
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  things up as he went along in a corner.
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  These were other leaders they knew and respected.
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  Correct. It is a unified corporate
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  proclamation, he is saying. Ask Silas, ask Timothy.
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  Were we ever inconsistent? Do we preach A vacillating
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  message? Do we preach a gospel that
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  changed with the weather? So if the apostle is fickle, the
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  gospel appears fickle. That is the core issue he's
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  getting at. It is, Paul realizes that if he
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  allows them to paint him as a yes and no man, someone who is
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  duplicitous, then the message of salvation becomes a yes and no
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  message. And the yes and no salvation
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  saves nobody. You cannot build your life on
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  maybe. So he moves from his own
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  behavior to the content of his preaching.
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  Let's look at verse 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom
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  we proclaimed among you Sylvanus and Timothy and I was not yes
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  and no, but in Him it is always yes.
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  There is so much weight in that verse.
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  Look at the title. He uses his.
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  Son of God, Jesus Christ. He doesn't just say Jesus.
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  He brings the full weight of his deity, Son of God, and his
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  messianic office, Jesus Christ, into the room.
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  He's reminding them who the gospel is actually about.
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  It is not about Paul's travel plans.
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  It is about the eternal Son. And he starts with a negative
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  assertion. He says Christ was not yes and
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  no. That phrase, yes and no.
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  Nye Caillou in the Greek. It describes ambiguity.
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  It describes A dialectical tension where truth is in flux.
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  It is the language of hesitation, of maybe, of.
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  I might, but then again I might not.
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  Like a politician who tells one Group One thing and another
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  group the opposite depending on the polling data.
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  Or a God who is capricious. Think of the Greek pantheon.
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  The gods of Olympus were Moody. They were driven by their whims.
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  They might help you today and ZAP you with a Thunderbolt
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  tomorrow because they woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
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  Paul is saying that the Jesus they preached is not
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  duplicitous. He isn't a trickster deity.
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  He isn't a Riddle to be solved. OK, here is where it gets really
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  interesting for me, and I think it's a bit of an aha moment in
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  the text. I was looking at the notes on
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  the Greek grammar. Here there is this phrase 9 and
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  outagalonin. Yes, the grammar here is
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  absolutely vital. It's the key that unlocks the
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  verse. In him it is always yes, but the
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  verb there gagonen, that is a perfect tense verb.
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  Right now I'm not a Greek scholar, so walk me through
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  this. My understanding is that perfect
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  tense is different from just a simple past tense.
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  It is, and the difference is huge.
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  In English we often blur the lines, but in Greek the
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  distinctions are sharp and meaningful.
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  The ARS tense is usually simple past it happened.
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  Think of it as a snapshot. The present tense is It is
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  happening a video. But the perfect tense is a
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  powerhouse. It signifies an action that was
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  completed in the past but has results that abide permanently
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  in the present. The action is done, but its
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  effects continue to be the reality.
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  So it's not just it happened once and it's not it is
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  happening right now. It is it happened in.
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  The state of it having happened is now the reality we live in.
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  Precisely. Think of a verdict in a court of
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  law. The judge slams the gavel and
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  says guilty or acquitted. The act of slamming the gavel
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  takes a second. It is in the past, but the legal
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  status of the defendant is now fixed.
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  They are acquitted. That status continues.
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  The past action defines the present reality.
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  Or like a cornerstone being laid in a building, The ceremony is
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  over, the crane has moved on, but the stone is there, holding
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  up the wall. Its placement in the past
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  determines the shape of the building in the present.
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  That is a great analogy. Paul was saying that the yes of
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  God in Christ isn't a mood that God is in today.
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  It isn't a temporary feeling. It is a historical reality.
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  It was spoken in the incarnation, it was shattered at
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  the cross, and it was sealed in the resurrection.
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  It is done, Kikonen, it has happened and it's reality
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  stands. The theological implication
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  there is massive If Christ is the yes, and that yes is a
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  permanent settled state, then he is the Incarnate affirmation.
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  Yes, just as the Father cannot lie, Titus 1.2 tells us that the
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  sun cannot be ambiguous. He is the truth, not a version
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  of the truth, but truth itself. So if the sun is fixed, steady,
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  immovable, then the message about him must be the same.
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  And the messenger who carries that message must strive to
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  reflect that same character. You see how Paul has trapped his
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  accusers. By attacking Paul's integrity,
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  they are inadvertently attacking the character of the gospel he
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  preaches. Paul turns the tables and says
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  my yes is yes because I serve the God who is yes.
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  That is a brilliant defense. It's unassailable.
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  But he doesn't stop with just the person of Christ.
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  He expands it in verse 20. He brings in the promises.
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  Verse 28 For all the promises of God, find their yes in him.
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  The word for that little connector, it grounds
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  everything, doesn't it? It connects what he just said to
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  what he's about to say. It does.
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  It connects the specific certainty of the gospel to the
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  universal faithfulness of God throughout history.
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  And the scope here, all the promises, not some, not the ones
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  we like, all of them. The Greek is hosa, as many as as
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  many promises as God has ever made.
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  From Genesis to Malachi, every single one of them finds its
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  affirmation. That's fulfillment.
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  That's guarantee in Jesus. That is a staggering claim when
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  you think about the size of the Bible.
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  I mean, scholars say there are thousands of promises in
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  Scripture. Thousands.
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  And Paul sweeps them all into one pile and puts the stamp of
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  Christ on top of them. He's saying that Christ is not
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  just an adjective describing God's faithfulness.
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  He is the person in whom that faithfulness becomes a reality.
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  I want to take some time here because saying Christ is the yes
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  to the promises can sound like a nice bumper sticker, but we need
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  to see the mechanism. We need to see how this actually
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  works in history. If we look at this through the
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  lens of Covenant theology, which is how we view Scripture, how do
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  we trace this? Yes.
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  It's a great question because this isn't just a theological
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  idea, it's a historical one. We have to start at the very
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  beginning, at the moment where it looked like the answer from
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  God was a permanent no. Genesis 3, the Fall.
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  Exactly. Adam and Eve have fall, gone.
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  They are hiding in the bushes. The universe is fractured.
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  Curses are being pronounced. Everything seems lost.
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  And God shows up. He does, and he pronounces
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  curses, but right in the middle of the judgement in Genesis
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  3.15, he speaks to the serpent. He promises that the seed of the
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  woman will crush the serpent's head.
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  The proto evangelium, the first gospel.
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  The first whisper of yes in a world of no.
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  For thousands of years after that, the faithful looked for
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  that seed. Eve thought it might be Cane
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  disappointment there and then Seth, then Noah.
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  Every generation was asking, is this the one?
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  Is this the yes? And then, finally, Jesus
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  arrives. And God says yes, here he is.
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  Christ is that seed. He is the answer to the first
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  desperate hope of a fallen humanity.
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  He is the fulfillment of that ancient promise.
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  Then we move to Abraham. This is a crucial one.
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  God calls a moon worshipper out of UR and makes him a promise
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  land, a seed and that he will be a blessing to all nations.
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  And think about how impossible that promise was.
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  Abraham is old. Sarah is barren.
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  Their bodies are, as Paul says in Romans, as good as dead.
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  Every single physical indicator said no.
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  It was laughable. Literally.
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  Sarah laughed. She did, but God said yes, and
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  that yes was not just about Isaac.
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  Isaac was a shadow, a type in Galatians 3.1 sees.
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  Paul tells us explicitly now the promises were made to Abraham
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  and to his offspring. It does not say and to
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  offsprings referring to many, but referring to 1 and to your
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  offspring, who is Christ. So when God promised Abraham
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  that the nations would be blessed, he was promising Jesus.
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  He was Christ is the Abrahamic, yes, He is the one through whom
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  the blessing flows to the Gentiles, to us.
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  He is the fulfillment of that promise.
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  That seemed impossible. OK, then you go to David.
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  God promises him an eternal throne, a king from his line who
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  will reign forever. And again, look at the history
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  of Israel. It looked like that promise
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  failed spectacularly. The Kingdom split.
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  The kings were by and large wicked.
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  Finally, Babylon comes, burns the temple, and ends the Davidic
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  line of kings ruling in Jerusalem.
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  That feels like a definitive no. The throne is gone.
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  The line is broken. It felt that way to the Exiles.
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  They were weeping by the rivers of Babylon, wondering, has God's
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  word failed? But the promise remained.
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  It went underground, so to speak, for centuries until the
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  Angel Gabriel comes to a young girl in Nazareth and says the
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  Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and
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  of his Kingdom. There will be no end.
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  Christ is the son of David. He is reigning now at the right
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  hand of the Father. He's the Davidic yes, that
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  survived the Exile and the Silence.
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  And then the new covenant, Jeremiah 31, the promise of
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  forgiveness of a law written on the heart of a new relationship
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  with God. Christ is the mediator of that
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  covenant. His blood is the blood of the
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  covenant. He's the one who makes it all
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  happen. I want to pause here on
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  something you mentioned in the notes regarding the scope, the
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  distinction or rather the inclusion of Israel and the
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  Church, because when we say all promises, that includes promises
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  made to national Israel, right? This can be a point of confusion
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  for people. It does, and this is where we
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  need to be careful not to fall into replacement theology or
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  supersessionism. We don't want to say that God
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  cancels his specific promises to Israel in order to say yes to
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  the church. Because God isn't yes and no.
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  Indeed, he doesn't say yes to Abraham and then no, change my
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  mind later. All means all the future
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  restoration of Israel and the current blessings of the Church
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  both find their guarantee in Christ.
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  He is the glue that holds the entire redemptive plan together
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  for all of God's people. So practically speaking, why is
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  Christ the yes? I mean structurally, how does
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  that work? You brought up the Munis
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  triplex, the three filled office.
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  I feel like we breeze past this in Sunday school, but it is
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  actually the mechanics of how the yes is delivered.
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  It's a classic category in systematic theology for a
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  reason. It's so helpful.
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  Christ is prophet, priest, and king.
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  It helps us see the different facets of his work, how he
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  actually accomplishes this. Break that down for us.
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  Let's start with Prophet. As prophet, he reveals the yes,
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  a prophet is a mouthpiece for God.
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  In the Old Testament, prophet said, thus says the Lord, they
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  pointed to the Word. But Jesus comes and says truly,
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  truly. I say to you, he doesn't just
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  bring the message, He is the message.
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  He is the Word made flesh. He reveals the Father's heart to
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  us. So there is no ambiguity about
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  God's love and His plan. OK, that makes sense.
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  He is the communication of the Yes now priest.
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  This seems like the heavy lifting.
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  As priest, he secures the yes. This is crucial.
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  God cannot simply bless sinners without dealing with sin.
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  That would make him unjust. He can't just sweep our guilt
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  under the rug and say yes to fellowship with us.
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  Right, there is a debt that has to be paid.
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  The scales of justice are out of balance.
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  Exactly. Justice must be satisfied.
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  Think of it like a mortgage. You can promise to pay the bank,
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  but until the funds transfer, that promise is just words.
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  The priest doesn't just say it's paid.
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  The priest provides the currency.
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  In this case, the currency was his own life.
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  He didn't just secure the promise, he became the
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  collateral for it. That is a helpful image.
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  The atonement funds the promise. It clears the obstacle sense so
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  that the yes of blessing can flow to us without compromising
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  God's holiness. It makes it possible for a holy
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  God to say yes to unholy people. And finally, King.
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  As King, he enforces the yes, he rules over Providence.
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  He ensures that history, that your life actually moves toward
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  the fulfillment of what God has spoken.
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  If he were only a priest but not a king, he might have paid for
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  our sins but be powerless to get us home.
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  But as king, He defends his people and conquers all his and
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  our enemies. He makes sure the promise comes
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  to pass. So he announces it as Prashit,
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  he pays for it as priest, and he makes sure it happens as king.
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  That is the comprehensive nature of the Yes, it's a closed
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  system. There are no leaks.
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  I love that it makes the gospel so much more solid than just a
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  vague sentiment that God loves you.
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  It shows the machinery of redemption.
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  It is objective, it is outside of us.
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  It's a historical and theological reality.
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  Now, Speaking of objective versus subjective, we need to do
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  some polemics, we need to put up some guardrails because people
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  can take all promises or yes, and run into some strange
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  territory. They certainly can and have.
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  Throughout church history, people have taken this verse and
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  twisted it to mean things Paul never intended.
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  Let's start with Neo Orthodoxy. This is associated largely with
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  Karl Barth. Now I know Barth is a giant in
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  theology and we don't want to dismiss him entirely, But there
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  is a specific error here we need to address, right?
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  Right. Barth was reacting against
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  liberalism, which is good, but his view of scripture had a
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  serious flaw in Neo orthodoxy. There is this idea that the
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  Bible becomes the word of God in an existential encounter.
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  So it's true when it hits me, when I feel the ZAP, it's not
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  objectively the word, but it becomes the word for me in a
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  moment of faith. That's the idea.
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  It emphasizes the subjective experience of the reader.
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  It says that the text is a witness to revelation, but it
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  becomes revelation when the Holy Spirit brings it home to your.
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  Heart. But isn't a spiritual experience
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  a good thing? We want the Spirit to bring it
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  home to our hearts. We do.
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  That is called illumination. But illumination helps us
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  understand what is already true. Neo Orthodoxy suggests the
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  truthfulness itself depends on the encounter.
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  But look at Paul's grammar again, Chiagonen.
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  It has happened. It is a settled fact.
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  So whether I feel it or not. It is true.
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  The promise is true whether you are having a spiritual high or
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  the darkest night of the soul. It does not depend on your
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  reception of it to make it true. It is objectively true because
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  God spoke it and Christ secured it.
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  If the yes depended on my ability to encounter it
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  properly, you would be a maybe. That is incredibly comforting
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  because my feelings are definitely yes and no.
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  Some days I feel it, some days I don't.
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  Our feelings are the definition of yes and no.
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  If the validity of God's promise depended on my emotional state,
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  I would be lost, and so would you.
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  OK, second guardrail. This one is everywhere.
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  The prosperity gospel. I think this is the most common
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  misuse we see today. All promises are yes.
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  So does that mean I get the Ferrari?
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  Does that mean I never get sick? Does that mean my business will
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  always succeed? It is easy to see the appeal.
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  Who doesn't want health and wealth?
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  But context is king here. Paul wrote these words in Second
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  Corinthians. Read the first chapter.
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  He talks about being burdened beyond measure, despaired of
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  life itself. He thought he was going to die.
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  He was having a terrible time. He was likely sick, poor, beaten
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  and stress out of his mind. He was suffering immensely.
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  If yes meant comfort and cash, Paul was doing it wrong.
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  Paul was the greatest apostle and he was not living his best
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  life. Now, in terms of material
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  comfort, not even close. So what does the yes mean in
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  that context? If it doesn't mean I get the
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  job, what does it mean it? Refers to the covenant promises,
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  salvation, sanctification, resurrection, the promise of the
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  presence of God and suffering. Sometimes God's yes to our
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  ultimate good. Our conformity to Christ is
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  wrapped in a no to our immediate comfort or our worldly desires.
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  That is a hard pill to swallow, but it's the only one that makes
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  sense of reality. Otherwise, every time a
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  Christian gets cancer, you have to conclude God failed on his
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  promise. Exactly.
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  And that is the cruelty of the prosperity gospel.
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  It sets people up for a devastating crash of faith when
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  suffering inevitably comes. The yes is that God is with us
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  in the valley, not necessarily that he will airlift us out of
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  the valley instantly. 3rd guardrail open theism.
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  This is the idea that the future is well open, that God doesn't
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  exhaustively know what's going to happen because he respects
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  human free will so much that he limits his own knowledge.
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  This view tries to make God relatable.
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  It makes him seem like a friend who is on an adventure with us,
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  facing the unknown together, hoping things turn out OK.
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  But if the future is unknown, known to God, he cannot
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  guarantee a yes. He can't.
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  He can only offer a probably or a I'll do my best.
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  If God doesn't know what you will decide tomorrow or what a
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  dictator will decide next year, He cannot promise that Romans
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  8.28 is true. He can't promise that all things
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  work together for good. Because he doesn't know if he
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  can keep it, he doesn't have all the variables.
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  Right. A promise requires the power and
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  the knowledge to fulfill it. If God is looking at the future
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  and saying well I hope this works out, he isn't the God of
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  the Bible. The text presumes exhaustive
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  foreknowledge and absolute sovereignty.
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  The yes is fixed because the future is fixed in His purpose.
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  And finally, pluralism, this idea that all roads lead to God,
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  that every religion is just a different path up the same
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  mountain. The text is so clear.
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  It says in him, in Christ. There is no yes outside of
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  Christ. Outside of Christ, the answer is
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  actually no. It is judgement.
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  It is separation. The yes is exclusive to the Sun.
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  That is not a popular message today.
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  It sounds intolerant. It isn't popular, but it is the
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  faithful message. And actually it is the most
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  loving message because it points to the only place where the yes
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  can be found. It's not loving to let someone
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  walk down a path that leads off a Cliff.
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  So we have the yes, God's part. It's objective, historical,
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  certain. Now we move to verse 20.
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  B. The response.
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  That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God
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  for His glory. This is the therefore the Greek
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  is deal, the logic of the gospel.
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  God acts, therefore we respond. Worship is a reflex to
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  revelation. Let's talk about that word.
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  Amen. We use it all the time.
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  We end prayers with it. It's almost like a punctuation
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  mark, a period at the end of a sentence.
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  But it means so much more than that.
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  Much more. It comes from the Hebrew root
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  Amman. It means to be firm, reliable.
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  It is so. It shares a root with the word
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  for truth and faithfulness. When you say Amen you are saying
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  this is true and I am building my life on.
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  It it is legal language, isn't it?
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  It has a courtroom feel. It is binding.
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  When the Old Testament assembly said Amen to the blessings and
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  the curses and Deuteronomy, they were signing the contract.
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  They were saying, we agree this is true.
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  We stake our lives on this. It's a solemn oath.
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  So when we say Amen in church, it's not just over and out, it's
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  a roar of agreement with what God has said.
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  If a combat cry against unbelief, it is the church
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  standing on the promises and saying we believe this is
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  reality no matter what our feeling or circumstances say.
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  But notice the mediation again through Him.
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  Just like the Yes is in Him, our Amen is through Him.
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  Yes, this is beautiful. We utter the Amen through
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  Christ. Why do we need to do that?
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  Why can't I just say Amen directly?
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  Is my Amen not good enough? Well, honestly, no.
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  Think about our worship. Think about your mind during a
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  typical church service. It wanders.
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  I'm thinking about lunch or work or the argument I had on the way
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  to church. My focus is all over the place.
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  Exactly. Even our Amen is imperfect.
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  Even our faith is weak. We are yes and no people trying
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  to say Amen to a yes God. Our hands are dirty with doubt
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  and distraction. Our worship is tainted.
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  So what happens to our messy Amen?
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  Christ takes our imperfect worship, our distracted prayers,
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  our weak faith, and He cleanses them.
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  He presents them to the Father as our High Priest.
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  He perfects our Amen. He takes our shaky voice and
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  makes it a perfect sound in his Father's ears.
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  So my Amen gets to the Father, because Christ carries it there
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  purified. Indeed, it safeguards us from
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  thinking our worship is worthy in itself.
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  It's accepted in the Beloved. Our confidence is not in the
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  quality of our AMN, but in the quality of our mediator.
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  And it is corporate, we utter. It is not a private Whistler.
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  It is the collective voice of the body.
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  There is something powerful about the gathered church
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  agreeing with God together, a unified voice.
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  And the goal? What is all this for?
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  To God for his glory. The endpoint of salvation is
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  doxology. It isn't just to make us feel
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  secure, though it does. It isn't just to fix Paul's
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  reputation. The whole point of the yes and
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  the Amen is to glorify the God who keeps His Word.
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  Man's chief end. To glorify God and enjoy Him
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  forever. This verse is a perfect picture
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  of that. So we have this incredible
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  theology, the fixed yes, the mediated, Amen.
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  How do we live this? Let's get practical application
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  time, because if this stays in the clouds, we have missed the
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  point. First and foremost, assurance of
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  salvation. This is a big one for people in
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  our circles. We introspect a lot.
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  We are always checking our spiritual pulse.
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  We do. We are navel gazers by nature.
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  We look inside for the yes, we check our spiritual temperature.
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  Do I feel saved today? Did I pray enough?
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  Was my repentance sincere enough?
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  Do I love God enough? And since we are inconsistent,
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  the answer we find inside is often no, or at best, maybe it's
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  a roller coaster. The Puritans used to say that
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  for everyone, look at yourself. Take 10 looks at Christ, Paul
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  says. Stop looking in, look outward.
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  The performers called it extra no's outside of us.
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  Look to the objective work of Christ.
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  The yes is written in the blood of the lamb, not in my mood
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  ring. Correct.
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  When you doubt, you don't look at the strength of your faith,
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  you look at the strength of your Savior.
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  His work is the yes, it is finished.
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  It is Gigonen that is the Rock You stand on, not the shifting
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  sand of your feelings. That frees us up so much.
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  If my standing before God depended on my consistency, I'd
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  be in big trouble. We all would.
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  It takes the pressure off of our performance and places it on
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  Christ's. Second application, integrity of
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  speech. This brings us back to where we
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  started, the lunch date, the travel plans.
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  Because God is not yes and no. A Christian cannot be yes and
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  no. It's that simple.
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  We represent him. We are his ambassador.
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  We are. We bear his name.
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  So we reject situational ethics. We reject spin.
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  We reject telling people what they want to hear just to get
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  them off our backs or to make ourselves look better.
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  If you are in Christ, your word must be your bond.
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  Meaning, if you make a promise, you keep it, even if it hurts.
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  Psalm 15 describes the righteous man as one who swears to his own
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  hurt and does not change. That's a person reflecting the
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  character of God. That has a high bar.
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  It is, and if you can't keep it because Providence happens like
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  a dead car battery, you communicate honestly.
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  You don't make excuses, you apologize.
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  You own it. You treat the other person with
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  the dignity that says I value your time and our relationship
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  enough to be truthful. It seems so basic, but it's
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  rare. It is rare, and that is why it
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  is such a powerful witness. In a world of spin, a person who
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  speaks the plain truth is like a lighthouse.
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  And this applies everywhere business contracts don't look
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  for loopholes. Keeping appointments, telling
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  your spouse the truth about spending the little white lies
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  we tell our kids. All of it.
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  It all falls under the umbrella of living out the Amen.
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  We are reflecting the character of the God we serve, who is the
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  God of truth. And finally, worship.
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  We need to recover the weight of the Amen.
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  It's not just a throwaway word at the end of the pastor's
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  prayer. No, when the word is preached,
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  when the promises are declared, we should be active
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  participants. It is a dialogue.
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  God speaks his ease. Yes, we respond with our MN.
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  We should say it out loud with conviction.
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  It challenges me to be more engaged on Sunday morning, to
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  not just be a spectator checking my watch or thinking about the
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  football game. We are not an audience watching
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  a show. We are a covenant people,
• 28:46
  renewing our oath When we sing, when we pray, when we listen to
• 28:50
  the sermon, we are actively receiving God's yes and
• 28:53
  returning it to Him as praise and agreement.
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  That changes the whole dynamic of the service and makes it
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  alive. It does.
• 28:59
  It transforms it from a lecture into an encounter with the
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  living God who speaks, speaks and listens.
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  So to recap, Paul is under attack.
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  They say he is flaky, a yes and no man.
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  He says I can't be flaky because my gospel isn't flaky.
• 29:13
  He points to Christ as the fixed, historical, grammatical,
• 29:16
  theological yes of God, and he calls us to live in that yes
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  with a loud corporate mediated Amen.
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  That is it. The gospel is not a maybe, it is
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  a rock. I love that it gives me a place
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  to stand when everything else is shaking.
• 29:30
  And here is a thought to leave with our listeners.
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  A provocative one, perhaps? Lay it on us.
• 29:35
  Right now, to the unbeliever, to the person outside of Christ,
• 29:38
  God's answer is actually no. The law says no to your sin.
• 29:42
  Judgement says no to your rebellion.
• 29:44
  The door to fellowship is closed, but the yes of grace is
• 29:47
  being offered. The door is open in Christ.
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  But it won't be open forever, no.
• 29:51
  The invitation is for today, but for the believer, for you
• 29:54
  listening who are in Christ, let your life be lived.
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  Amen. Let your integrity, your
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  worship, your assurance be the echo of God's faithfulness.
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  Amen to that. Thank you so much for walking us
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  through this text today. It has been studying.
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  My pleasure. And to our listeners, thank you
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  for joining us on this deep dive into Second Corinthians.
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  We hope you find rest in the yes of God this week.
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  Until next time.