Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 1. 2 Corinthians 1, I'm going to begin reading at verse 12. We're gonna be meditating tonight on verses 15 through 22, but I will be reading to the end of verse four of chapter two. Paul here is giving a defense of his ministry, and we'll be looking at verses 15 through 22, and the reason why I chose this passage tonight is that's where we're next in our preaching series in Twin Falls. So, just, it worked out this way that this is where we're gonna be. And I pray that the Lord will give us a blessing. Let's look at the scriptures, actually 2 Corinthians, I think I've been saying first, it's 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 1 at verse 12. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and acknowledge. And I hope you will fully acknowledge, just as you did partially acknowledge us, that on the day of our Lord Jesus, you will boast of us and we will boast of you. Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first so that you might have a second experience of grace. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say yes, yes, and no, no at the same time? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not yes and no, but in him it is always yes. For all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. But I call God to witness against me. It was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. Not that we lorded over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you, for if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice. For I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. I do encourage you to keep your Bibles open We will be meditating on verses 15 through 22 this evening. Let us pray for the Lord's blessing. Father, we thank you for your word tonight and we thank you for your servant, the Apostle Paul. We thank you for the brothers and sisters in Corinth. And Lord, we would truly be embarrassed if our lives were such an open book as theirs are to us this evening. We are grateful that you have allowed it to be so. And we pray that we may learn, we pray that we might also receive grace, and that we might also say amen to the glory of God. May you bless your word to our hearts and may your spirit be poured out upon us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, as we in the teaching or the, it's called the teaching service, because that's what I'm used to. In the Sunday school lesson this morning, we were thinking about the providence of God and the mysterious ways of the Lord that are past finding out. And it's often in those dark providences that we are put in the crucible and we begin asking difficult questions. Why? Why me? Why this? How can God be good? How can God be faithful? And we are asking those challenging questions, and we don't always get the answers. Seldom do we get the answers that we desire, but we do see God. We come to the awareness that God is faithful, that God is good. And that's what the Corinthians were having to learn. They were having to learn that Jesus is God's answer. We oftentimes make things far more difficult than they need to be, but it is quite simply this. The Corinthians and us tonight are reminded in scripture that Jesus is God's yes to everything. And the Corinthians had a hard time with that. They liked to make things difficult. And of course, they had all these issues going on of synchronism, of taking their paganism and kind of baptizing it in Christianity. And it was, first and second Corinthians, this was the problem child of all the churches that Paul dealt with. These people were a mess. And what we see going on in 2 Corinthians, as you would see in 1 Corinthians, is Paul is continually having to defend himself. Never a pleasant thing for an apostle or minister to do. They do that with complete reticence. But Paul here has to defend himself because he really sees that the gospel is at stake. So it's not that he's concerned about his name or his reputation, but he is He's defending the gospel. And so, unfortunately, you're just going to be parachuted into the middle of a text, in the middle of a story and everything, and I'll just try the best to kind of bring you up to speed. But Paul here defends himself in the passage, and his defense particularly is for the sake of proving the trustworthiness of God in the gospel of his son. that if God has taken his one and only son and crucified him and raised him from the dead three days later, then this God is a faithful God. And we can trust him in all the dark providences of life. If he has done this, then we might say amen to the glory of God. Paul begins a defense in chapter 1 verse 12 that will continue to verse 4 of chapter 2, but really actually doesn't conclude until the end of chapter 7. But just in verses 12 through 14 of chapter 1, Paul makes the case to the Corinthians that he has conducted himself toward them with simplicity and sincerity of heart. And he bases this conviction on the basis of a testimony, the testimony of his conscience, the testimony of his letters, and the testimony in God's grace that one day they and him will boast in each other at the last day, and they will say on that last day, yes, Jesus, Paul was a faithful man of God. It sounds really presumptuous, but it is what it is. Paul sees the grace of God at work in them, and he says, one day you will be boasting in me, I will be boasting in you, and that will be the glory of God. So he has already stressed that he has been faithful to them, presenting the word of God to them with simplicity and sincerity. Now in our text tonight, He continues to defend his character and his conduct by expounding on God's affirmation of the gospel. Paul is very intimately connected to the ministry of the gospel. He identifies himself with it. And so God's affirmation of the gospel, Paul presents as an affirmation of Paul himself. and his ministry of the gospel. This will become clear hopefully as we look at it. I have a theme for us tonight, Jesus Christ is God's yes, and to that we say amen to the glory of God. We see three things in our text, Paul's motivation, Paul's affirmation, and Paul's confirmation. And I'm saying it that way because that's what Paul is saying here. But what he is saying is that his affirmation is God's affirmation, his confirmation is God's confirmation, not merely or only of Paul the apostle, but of Christ the gospel. It's rather complicated. God's confirmation of Paul is essentially a confirmation of Jesus and of the gospel that Paul preached faithfully. So let's look at that tonight. Paul's motivation, he says, Because, verse 15, because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first so that you might have a second experience of grace. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say yes, yes, and no at the same time? Here's what's going on. Paul's made travel plans and he's changed the plans, and then he changed those plans and made other plans, and they had a problem with that. Little bit of history, Paul spent 18 months, a year and a half in Corinth, a beautiful time. God tells him, I want you to stay in Corinth because I have a lot of people there. He's there a year and a half, and then he goes off to Ephesus. He takes a boat, crosses the Aegean, and now he's in Ephesus. And from there, he communicates His plans to them, and those plans are in chapter 16 of the first book of Corinthians. In chapter 16, Paul says to the Corinthians, he says, you know, I'm going to stay here until Pentecost, so we're thinking late fall. Then I'm going to go through Macedonia on the north, and I'm going to come back down through Greece, and I'm going to come to Corinth, and Lord willing, I'm going to spend the winter with you. That was his plan. But while he's in Ephesus, he hears of a crisis going on in Corinth. It is a very severe matter, which warrants a quick trip across the Aegean back to Corinth, and it is not a pleasant visit. It's painful. And he returns to Ephesus, and from there he writes a harsh letter to them. So your first Corinthians is actually your second Corinthians. He writes a painful letter, which is actually a third Corinthians, and second Corinthians in our Bibles is actually a fourth letter that he sends to them. So we don't have the third letter, but it is a very harsh letter, and he tells them there that, He plans to visit them again, but he's going to hold off for the moment. We see that in chapter 2, verse 1. I made my mind not to make another painful visit to you. So, not going to visit them right away. He's penned this harsh letter. He thinks it's probably better if we just let everything cool. But he does communicate to them his plan, and we see that in verse 16, that he hopes to visit them. He wants to go back across the Aegean and see them. see them, go through Macedonia, visit all the churches, then come back and see them a second time, and then go to Jerusalem, have them send him on his way. And so that's kind of his third plan, or second plan. But probably because he realizes it's a little too dicey, he doesn't want to push the matter too much, it wasn't a good visit. So that plan is actually changed, and in the end, He actually reverts back to his original plan. You see in verse 13 of chapter 2, so I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia. He's writing 2 Corinthians from Macedonia. He reverts back to the original plan and he's going through Macedonia. We don't even know if he waited a year. In total, he's three years in Ephesus. He's gonna pass through Macedonia to see them, then he's not gonna do that. He's in Ephesus, he makes a quick visit, comes back, and then he's gonna go there and go through Macedonia, but then that changes, and you see what's going on. He's changing his plans, made it look like he was vacillating. He even uses that word in verse 17, was I vacillating when I wanted to do it? Was I flip-flopping? Did I just change my plans willy-nilly? This is what they charged him with. Not only was he vacillating, but actually they're charging him that he lacked integrity. He wasn't trustworthy. That's why he's so keen here to impress upon them the trustworthiness of the gospel. It's because, Paul, you're not trustworthy. You say one thing and then you say the other. In fact, you say it emphatically, yes, yes, I'm gonna do this. And then he changed, no, no, no, I'm gonna do this. And you have the repetition there that He's all emphatic. He's gonna do this. Then he changes his mind. And that they say here that he's changed his mind out of self-regard. You see that there in verse 17. Do I make my plans according to the flesh? In verse 12, the same thing already when he begins his defense. They're charging him that he's changed his plans according to earthly wisdom. Paul, you're just motivated by self-concern. What's in it for me? What's best for me? And so he's having to defend that he is not operating on the basis of self-regard or self-concern. And he's not vacillating, he's not flimsy or flippant, that he doesn't lack integrity. He says in verse 15, because I was sure of this, sure of his own integrity, that he conducted himself toward them with simplicity and godly sincerity. He says, I know that I was toward you integrity. I want you to know I wanted to visit you first. I was going to go, you know, after this hasty visit and painful letter, I was going to visit you first and go through Macedonia and come back again. So that you could have a second experience of grace. He loved them. In verse 4 of chapter 2, I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears. It was a father to them. He begot them. He betrothed them as a chaste virgin to Christ. And he wanted to come to them and minister grace to them. They were in great need of it. Paul knew the beauty of grace. Paul, the persecutor, saved by grace alone. He says, I wanted to come to you to give you a second experience. Perhaps referring to the first 18 months that he was there, the original visit, and now a second time, kind of forgetting the bad visit. Or perhaps he's just thinking about going there, passing through Macedonia, and coming back a second time. But the point is that he says, I wanted to be with you as long as we could be together to administer grace. You're hurting. Brothers and sisters, this is God's motive to you in Christ. God is toward you with grace, unmerited favor. He sent his son to us. God is grace to us. Paul begins every letter to the churches, the good ones and the struggling ones. Grace to you. And peace. This is the motivation of Paul. They faulted him for this and for that. Thought he was motivated out of self-regard or fear. Paul says, no. I put my hand on the Bible and swear to you. That I am toward you with grace. Not self-interest. And I'm not just changing my plans on a whim. Paul's motivation is this. What is the most opportune moment? And what is the best way in which I can minister to them? And for a time, it meant letting them be. Even think in some respects of the father of the prodigal son. Much as he wanted his son to stay in his house, had to release him. The prayer that he would come home. Paul deals with them with wisdom, but he assures them that God and himself are toward them with grace. A remark, or I am reminded of Solomon's wisdom, there's a time for everything. Paul says, this is my motivation, grace to you. And then secondly, Paul says, here is the affirmation. We're gonna center on this for a little bit. Paul says, In verse 17, was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Was I flip-flopping? Was I disinterested? He says, in a sense, you know, do I make my plans according to the flesh ready to say yes, yes, and no, no at the same time? Paul's like, do I say yes and then change my mind and say no and then change my mind? And we might wonder for a moment, why is this such a big deal? We change our plans all the time, and we just know that we need to give people flexibility. Plans change, life happens. Why are they so, you know, out of sorts about this? Well, here's the thing. They had a problem with the foolishness of the gospel. And Paul worked through that in 1 Corinthians. Whoever in their right minds believes in a savior who gets himself killed. Saviors don't die, saviors kill others. And Paul's telling them, I want you to believe in this man who got himself executed by Rome. Stay criminal. You know, this is incredulous. We're going to believe in a guy who got himself executed? By Rome? Paul said, yeah, it's the folly of the gospel. But it's God's wisdom. I say, so they faulted the gospel. Well, then, you know, what do they say? Kill the messenger. Paul's all bound up in that. That's why this is such a big deal. They found fault with Paul because they found fault with the gospel. Paul seeks to bring them back to the gospel in which God's saving power is hidden in weakness. As surely as God is faithful, our word to you, our word about our plans, our changing plans was not yes and no and no and yes. This is an oath-like statement, as surely as God is faithful. He's saying, brothers, God is trustworthy. God is reliable. God does not vacillate. God does not change His mind. And neither do we. This is the sense of what Paul is impressing upon them. Balaam put it best of all, God is not a man that he should lie or a son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said and will he not do it? Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it? Balaam is saying to Balak, Balak, you could give me all the money in your kingdom, but I can't make God change his mind. God has said he will bless and I can't tell him to curse. God can't change his mind. He doesn't vacillate. Paul is saying just as God is faithful, so are we. He doesn't vacillate. Neither do we. Remember what Paul said to the Galatians? If any person preaches another gospel or a different gospel, let him be anathema. There's one gospel and it is not capable of being tinkered with or changed or altered. It is a divine gospel and it will always remain the same. Paul here says, as surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no. Now you got to look at your Bibles because there's something pretty interesting here. Because Paul here is talking in verse 18 about his plans. We did this, and we did that, and then we did that, and then we did that. But he links it to verse 19. God is faithful. Our plans were not yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not yes and no, but in him it is always yes. Paul links something as relatively insignificant as his travel plans to the gospel he preached. Here's what he's saying. The method of his ministry was in agreement with the message of his ministry. Paul, in a sense, incarnated the gospel like Jesus. Jesus comes to earth and he's going to die. The method of his ministry was in sync with the message. He wore the servant's mantle, he washed the disciples feet. He fed the hungry, he cast out demons. His ministry and then also the message he preached and his death on the cross were of one piece. Paul is saying the same thing to them. The gospel that Paul preaches is God's unequivocal, unambiguous, and unretracted yes. Jesus is the abiding yes of God. The gospel is not yes and no. It's not one thing and then another. It's not your truth or his truth and that person's truth. It's not what you make it out to be or hope it to be. The gospel is one thing. And it is God's yes. Now, if you look at verse 19, Or ESV kind of does something with it. It inserts the adverb always, which is not there. But here's what Paul is saying. He says, Jesus did not come to be yes and no, but yes has come about in him. You see in this verse 19, the final yes is the subject. The it is also supplied. Here's what's interesting. He's using the verbs to become. He's saying, Jesus Christ has not come to be in a past tense. He has not come as yes and no, but yes has come in Jesus. And so a lot of the commentators look at this and they're thinking, yes has come. And they look at the historical event. of the incarnation. Some look at the historical event as the resurrection, but they're seeing that Christ is the yes of God coming to this broken world that's filled with sin. Think about it like this. The cross appeared to be the biggest no there ever was. You who are older women, what if you were Mary? and this was your son. You men, imagine for a moment you're one of the disciples, Peter, James, and John, and you see Jesus on the cross and you're going, no, no, no, this can't be happening. You can't believe it. This wasn't supposed to happen. God hides his yes in a no. drawing the Corinthians away from themselves and their own wisdom to His wisdom, which is Christ crucified. What appeared to be the worst no was the most definitive yes of God. Paul here impresses upon us with even greater intensity in the reference. He doesn't refer to Jesus frequently as the Son of God, but he does so here with purpose. For the Son of God, Jesus, is the yes that has come, not the ambiguous yes and maybe so, no, or hopefully so, but God's yes. He's the Son of God. If the Son of God If the Son of God has come to earth and done something, the Father will be pleased with it. He won't find anything wrong with it. There won't be any defect in it. It won't have any deficiency. If the Son of God comes to earth, to take upon himself the responsibility of making atonement for unworthy sinners, then surely the father will say that is acceptable. If my son has laid a hand on it. I am well pleased. This is my beloved son. I think the father was never more pleased with his son. than when His Son was making atonement on the cross. And though the Father was forsaking His Son in all His just wrath, the Father in His heart must surely have been saying, this is my Son, and I am most pleased with Him. Here is the Father's yes to human sin. Here is the Father's yes to this world that is broken. And Paul here, interestingly, takes that yes of God and he applies it to the manner of his ministry to something so insignificant as changing his travel plans. Paul's no with regard to his travel plans was a yes in keeping with the gospel he preached. How so? because his motivation was to bring grace to them. So that yes was hidden in his own no. He told them no, I'm not gonna visit you now. I'm gonna change my plans. Like Paul, you don't have integrity. Paul's like, you don't understand. I said no because I say a yes to grace. I said no because I say a yes to the gospel. I said no because I say yes to preaching Christ to you when you are able to hear it. When you are ready to receive me and receive the grace I so greatly desire to give you. When you say no to your children when they exhibit sinful behavior, you are saying yes to their spiritual formation. The trials God gives us in life are His no to pleasures withheld. But His no is an ultimate. A yes is hidden in his no. His yes is your very best. All things will work together for your good. The gospel of the Son of God is God's yes to suffering and sin. Yes, there is an answer. Yes, there is a message of hope and peace. Yes, there is forgiveness and a future. Yes. God's Son, Jesus Christ, is God's unretracted yes. Yes. And Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. When the world was full of sin and God told Noah to make a boat, all the time God was saying yes. Never condoning sin, always planning to punishment. The punishment of sin, but the Lord himself in heaven had a yes. His son was his yes. The answer Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes of this passage explaining how joy is hidden in suffering and life is hidden in dying. Paul here says in verse 19, as they have quarreled with him over his travel plans, really not being fully persuaded in the gospel itself, he says to them, I don't vacillate. God doesn't vacillate. The gospel's not one thing and another. It's not yes and no. Jesus is God's yes, and that's what I preach to you consistently. He now develops the case here as we proceed. He says here in verse 20, all the promises of God find their yes in him, in Christ. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory. God's Word is full of so many promises. So many plans, so many words and assurances and guarantees where God says from the very beginning, this is what I'm going to do. This is my plan for my people. Here are my purposes for them. And as you read, this is why I love Christmas time, right? It's because we're grabbing all this Old Testament stuff. And you have all these promises in the prophecies, and they all converge on Jesus. Think of that. The mother promise given in Genesis 3 verse 15, we mentioned it this morning, the seed of the woman will crush the head of the seed of the serpent. And all of those, and Noah, and he's gonna give rest, and a covenant made with Abraham, and a covenant made with with Israel and they all find their yes in this child. You could imagine any faithful Israelite seeing the baby in the manger could have summarized the greatness of that event in one word. He could have walked into the stable, seen the baby in the manger and said, yes, yes, yes, praise God, yes. Emmanuel, God with us. Yes, the Redeemer. Yes, this world of sin will be fixed by this child. Yes. Yes. We have all these promises given us where Paul is speaking about them in verse 20. All the promises of God find their yes in Jesus Christ. God's Word from Genesis to Revelation is an unchangeable, unbreakable Word of God because it finds its affirmation in the child of whom the Scriptures say, He is the same yesterday and today and forever. The unchanging Christ of Scripture is the one who proves to us the faithfulness and integrity of God's Word. Everything that God has said finds its yes in Jesus. Jesus has died, Jesus has come. That means God is faithful. His Word is true. Will he fulfill his promise to Adam and Eve? Yes, in Christ. Will He fulfill all the obligations and responsibilities of His covenant made with Abraham? Make Him a Father of nations, and you, all the peoples of the earth will be blessed. Yes, in Christ. Will He fulfill all the stipulations and requirements of the Mosaic covenant? Yes, in Christ He will. Will He establish His kingdom and do away with all sin? Yes, in Christ. Will He make all things new? Yes, in Christ. Will He wipe away every tear that is strained down your cheek? Yes, in Christ. Will He be our God and will we be His people? Yes, in Christ. Yes, in Christ. With his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ certified every single word of God and gave it his own resounding yes. As he rose from the grave the third day, satisfying all the just demands of the law, appeasing his father's wrath, drinking the dregs of the cup of wrath, Christ emerges from the tomb to say yes. validating every word of God, giving us a word that we can bank our lives on. What more can we say to God's grand affirmation of the gospel in Jesus except this word, Amen. Amen means it shall truly and surely be. The word Amen It comes from the root, you know, arena of words, firmness, certainty, even faithfulness. He chooses that intentionally because he says prior in verse 18, God is faithful. And we say, yes, he's faithful. That's what amen means. It's certain. God is true. His word is true. Amen. So we say our amen. The church's communal amen makes God's yes valid for it. When we say amen, we are saying, God, your yes, we agree with. Your yes, who is Jesus, we agree with. He is our yes, And we say amen to Christ, the faithful servant of the Lord, when he died on the cross for us. We say amen to God for his glory. The plan, the promises, the path of history, the purposes for you and me, all receive God's affirmation in Christ. And we say amen, and that glorifies God. God doesn't need our agreement, but he likes it when we say yes and amen to his yes and amen. Revelation chapter three calls Christ the amen. We say yes and amen to Christ. This yes and amen is so boldly set forth in Romans chapter 8, just as a second. What then shall we say to these things if God is for us, who can be against us? He did not spare his own son, but freely gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? Then he mentions trials, sorrows, things that would pull us away, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger of the sword, et cetera, et cetera. Know in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Yes, in Christ. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Yes, in Christ. Amen to the glory of God. We are more than conquerors through Christ, who is God's yes, and we say amen. That takes faith. It's hard work. Could the Corinthians say amen to all that Paul had written them about? We got problems in this church. Lawsuits, people getting drunk at the Lord's Supper table, somebody whose stepmother is his whatever. Problems. And they're still partaking of pagan feasts and think this is all okay. If they said amen, they were going to have to change. A lot was going to have to change. Could they say yes? Can you say yes? In Christ. I believe in Christ we can. He is God's yes. Paul says later on in this very letter, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. I think the Corinthians wanted to say yes to that. We are all messed up. But in Christ, God's yes. We will say yes. God change us. And amen. God's providences, mysterious and strange, may disturb your soul, but in Christ we can say amen. God, do what you're pleased to do for your glory in Christ. Christ is my yes and our amen. God's affirmation of the gospel in Christ was an affirmation of the gospel Paul preached. And so Paul is able to say, my method and my message were in sync with the gospel. My yes was hidden and my no, even as God's yes is hidden in the no that is the cross. Yes, we have forgiveness in Christ. Let's conclude with the last two verses, Paul's confirmation here. He says here in 21, God establishes us with you in Christ and he has anointed us. He has put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. Paul here is He's spoken about the affirmation of the gospel he preached. And now he speaks about the confirmation of his ministry. And the confirmation of his ministry is the Holy Spirit's confirmation. He says God's establishing us together in Christ. He's Christocentric. It's in Christ. It's through Christ. It's with Christ. And God's doing this. He's rooting us together in Christ. And he's anointed us. And the us in these verses is not the Corinthians, it's Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. Though they faulted him for changing his plans and they questioned the gospel as he presented it to them, Paul is confident that his methods and his message has received God's approval. And that sounds a little presumptuous too. How does he know that his method and his message has God's approval? He says, because the Holy Spirit has told me so. The Holy Spirit revealed Christ to him on the road to Damascus. Paul's entire life had been one screaming no. No to Jesus. No to the Christians who followed the Nazarene. No to the apostles. No, no, no. His whole life was a big bad no. And God says, Paul, yes. Paul, yes. The heavens split open and he sees Christ. And Jesus Christ says, yes, Paul. I am the Lord whom you are persecuting. And Paul thenceforth becomes the apostle of Jesus and can write his own yes over his life. To live is Christ, to die is gain. The Holy Spirit had opened his eyes and he saw that Jesus, the Son of God, is God's yes. His soul had been notarized with the seal of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who says who has anointed us and has put his seal on us, notarized by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ. And he says here that he's not only notarized us, but he's given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee, a down payment. You put some money down and you pay the rest later. God says, Paul's saying here, brothers, God put down a down payment on me. When God puts down a down payment, he's going to pay the rest on the last day and the down payment is the Holy Spirit. Paul is confident. And he's humble. That his method and message were in sync with the foolish gospel of Christ. And they would come along and they would see it. But he's saying, quite simply, the Holy Spirit has confirmed this, brothers. My soul has been notarized and my heart has received the downposit of the Holy Spirit of Christ. Having been anointed, sealed, and having received the deposit of the Holy Spirit, Paul has received God's yes. in Christ. How about you? Does your soul agree? Has your spirit, have you received the Holy Spirit? Has the Spirit opened your eyes? Do you possess the same anointing that Paul did? That's something we all must ask ourselves. If you know God as your Father, if you turn to God in prayer tonight, and you don't just mouth the words, but you know God as your Father, then you have the Spirit's anointing. You have the notarization of the Holy Spirit. the down payment. If you lament your sin and trust in Jesus Christ for full atonement, you have the Holy Spirit's anointing. If you desire to lead a godly life and you long to be with Christ in glory, you have the Holy Spirit's anointing. You look to Christ for salvation. The guarantee of the Holy Spirit is in your soul. And God says to you here and now, my grace is toward you. My love is with you. He says to you, yes, in Christ Jesus. Yes. In your trials and in your tears, in your doubts and in your fears, it is God in heaven who says to you, yes. And over your life, He has said, yes, in Christ. And He directs you at last to consider the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit says within your own heart, yes. in Christ. Yes. And to that yes of Jesus, we say, Amen, for the glory of God. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we see but a little. But what we see, we know to be real. That Jesus Christ, your Son, came down to earth He suffered and died on the cross for our sins. He paid the price in full. He rose from the grave in triumph. He gave us his righteousness freely as a gift, and we are clothed in it so that now we are made worthy of heaven. We know this and believe this, not because we're smart, not because we're educated, but because your Holy Spirit has sealed our hearts, has anointed our heads, has guaranteed our souls. And we have come to see this and know this as something you have revealed to us. We also, by your grace, agree and say that Christ is your yes and he is ours. And we say amen for your glory. Father, receive your praise and bless your children. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.