 Paul goes on then in verse 12, he goes on, truly, in support of that statement, in nothing I was behind the most eminent apostles, Paul says, truly, the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. Can you imagine? Right? Can you imagine? Truly, without question, Paul's ministry was validated. It was authenticated in their sight. In their sight, surely they could see it. Right? Surely it was unmistakable, signs, wonders, mighty deeds. They witnessed those acts, those acts uniquely set apart the apostle Paul from the false apostles. Right? God himself, through those works, testified to the truthfulness of Paul's claims through signs, wonders, mighty deeds. According to the ungrateful Corinthians, it just seems as though that wasn't good enough. Beyond contempt, right? Beyond contempt, notice how their ingratitude expresses a greed for something else, something better, something different, right? In gratitude will show up in greed. Notice how they greedily take for granted all that God had given to them, all that Paul had done. Now notice in verse 12, the word translated signs. That word for signs is a word that pulls double duty in verse 12. The first time it's used at the beginning of the verse, it means marks or characteristics of an apostle. Those signs of an apostle are those marks, those characteristics that distinguish an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ in distinction from those who are false apostles here. Right? And so what follows, what follows will be signs or marks, characteristics that point to the authenticity of Paul's apostleship. Now these signs, these marks of authenticity were accomplished. Notice that. Were accomplished. That word is passive. Passive. This is another example of a divine passive where God is the agent behind the work. It wasn't that Paul accomplished them in his own strength, Paul accomplished them in his own power. In the grammar, it's a divine passive. God is the agent behind those works. Notice that the one is the one working through the apostle Paul to accomplish these mighty deeds. Right? Paul knows he's not the one producing these signs. He's already said that he's nothing. And further he says in Romans chapter 15 verse 17, Paul says, I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ himself has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done by the power of signs and wonders through the power of the spirit of God. In other words, not by my own power, right? Not by my own power. These signs, these signs authenticate a genuine apostle and notice they were accomplished among you in the midst of the Corinthians. These authenticating signs were accomplished. You see these signs in verse 12 manifested in two ways, in perseverance and in power. In perseverance and in power, first these signs verse 12 accomplished in the midst of the Corinthians with all perseverance. That word perseverance refers to patient endurance. Paul patiently endured in faithfulness to his ministry in their sight through great affliction, great trial, right? All perseverance here referring to patient endurance to the highest degree, the false teachers in Corinth faced no persecution. They were refusing Paul of being weak because he was constantly suffering, weak because he was constantly being persecuted. There was no opportunity for them to endure affliction as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. They were false apostles, but Paul sees a distinguishing characteristic of God's minister here being patient endurance, patient endurance through persecution, through trial, through affliction, through difficulty, right? That perseverance, these signs, secondly, these marks of an apostle accomplished with a great display of God's power, God's power, signs, wonders and mighty deeds. Remember the word signs, not referring now to marks or characteristics of an apostle, but now referring to signs, wonders, and mighty deeds, signs refers to miracles, right? Miracles performed at Paul's hands in the power of the Holy Spirit among them in their midst and not three different kinds of miracles here, right? Not signs, wonders, and mighty deeds as three different kinds of miracles, but three different perspectives on the miracles, right? Signs, what does a sign do? A sign authenticates, it validates, hear these signs, authenticate Paul as a genuine apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, signs authenticate the preaching and teaching of God's Word as it is God's Word, signs authenticate, wonders, that word speaks of arousing awe and amazement. These would have been amazing, astonishing miracles. You see a genuine miracle, it's going to be astonishing, right? It's not the fake garbage that goes on today, right? My toothache disappeared, you know. My arthritis feels better all of a sudden. These were miraculous displays that aroused awe and amazement. Mostly mighty deeds displayed divine power. These were mighty deeds. We don't have a record in 2 Corinthians of the miracles that Paul performed in Corinth during this time, but we can use our imagination, right, from the record that was provided elsewhere in the New Testament. We see this time period being a time period where miracles are performed for the purposes of validating or authenticating God's Word. So we can imagine that, right, healing, casting out demons, miraculous circumstances, accompanying conversion, we certainly see that, spiritual gifts. In all of this, Paul says he does this with patient endurance, right, with perseverance. He did this under duress, under great opposition in the face of great persecution he endured with great perseverance. The Bible is abundantly clear that these signs were meant to validate the Word of God, to authenticate the Word as the Word of the living God. Mark 16, verse 20, the disciples went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the Word through the accompanying signs, right? What were the accompanying signs? Signs, wonders, mighty deeds. They did what? They confirmed the Word. That was the purpose of signs, wonders, and mighty deeds. Acts chapter 14, verse 3, the disciples were speaking boldly in the Lord who was bearing witness to the Word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. Same principle, right? Signs and wonders bearing witness to what? The Word. That's the purpose of signs, wonders, and mighty deeds in the Bible. It authenticates God's Word. It points to, confirms, and bears witness to it as the Word of his grace, as the very Word of God. In other words, in other words, those signs not done for the aggrandizement or the pride of the preacher, wasn't done to exalt a preacher, wasn't done to even exalt a ministry. It was done to validate God's Word, to attest to God's Word. They weren't done in contradiction to God's Word. In other words, when God says tongues or languages, they didn't come along and speak gibberish. These signs attested to the validity of God's Word. They were authentications of God's Word. They were not done to validate or bear witness to the false doctrine of a false teacher. They were to validate or bear witness to the very Word of God. When the New Testament was complete, when the canon was closed, we see those miraculous works fade away. You see that even in the New Testament. What you see today are parter tricks performed by liars. We have now, as Peter says, the prophetic Word confirmed which you do well to heed. God doesn't produce these characteristics, these signs, wonders, mightedies. He doesn't produce them through false teachers. He doesn't. Some miracles can be counterfeited. You get a snake oil salesman, a charlatan. Some miracles can be counterfeited. Really difficult to counterfeit a restored, withered hand. The withering or the restoring before your eyes. So we'll heal a toothache. Won't go to the hospital to heal a toothache, right? So those some miracles can be counterfeited. Miracles aren't the only sign of a true apostle, according to Paul here. Paul specifically mentions a godly and steadfast perseverance, patient endurance through trial and affliction that we've seen from Paul throughout this letter. In other words, Paul's godly life, Paul's godly example is an authenticating, validating mark of God's true apostle. Paul's example, the false teachers then and false teachers today, those that would claim to be apostles, simply can't fake that. Cannot fake it. It's a work of the spirit. Now all of this, right? What's the purpose of this in this text? All of this, all of this is unmistakable evidence that Paul is ordained by God in his ministry to this church at Corinth. Unmissible. You can't mistake it. It is unmistakable evidence that Paul is the Lord's apostle and he's ministering the church in Corinth. The perseverance of Paul's godly life, Paul's godly example, his godly perseverance, his endurance under trial, connected with the power of God, displayed through signs, wonders, mighty deeds, validating and attesting to the words that Paul's preaching as the very word of God. And in the midst of that, the Corinthians are estranged from him. Can you imagine? They're keeping Paul at arm's length. They had begun already to replace Paul in their affections. Paul has to cry out to them earlier. Remember in chapter 6, open your hearts to us. We've wronged no one. We've not cheated you. We've not deceived you. They were courting other suitors. This goes way beyond a mere issue of discernment. Someone claimed, well, in the Corinthians, they lacked discernment. No, no, no, no. It's not just discernment. These things were obvious, signs, wonders, mighty deeds. The apostle Paul, the word of God, conversions, their own salvation, if they are. This goes way beyond discernment. The Corinthians knew better. In fact, there's an interesting contrast. Look at Revelation chapter 2 with me quickly. Revelation chapter 2, there's an interesting contrast here with the church at Ephesus. Some would say, well, the Corinthian church, they lack discernment, and so lacking discernment, they let these false teachers in, got their nose under the tent, so to speak, and now they're being influenced by false teachers and they're being led astray. True. There's an interesting contrast here with the church at Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2. Look at verse 1. An angel of the church of Ephesus writes, these things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, he says, the Lord says, I know your works, your labor, your patience, that you cannot bear those who are evil and you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars. You don't mind using that word of lying false apostles today because the Lord Jesus Christ himself calls them liars. They are liars, liars. Here the church at Ephesus had that discernment. The Lord commends them for testing those who say they are apostles and are not. They are false apostles, they are liars. You have persevered and have patience and have labored for my namesake and have not become weary. In contrast with the church at Corinth, the church at Ephesus has tested those. They found them to be liars. What's the difference here? What's the difference? In Corinth, it's not an issue of discernment, only or merely. This was willful. It was willful on the part of the church at Corinth to ignore signs, wonders, mighty deeds, to disregard the example of the Lord's apostle, to set aside the preaching of the apostolic word. Why? Why? This was the fruit, the fruit of ingratitude. Manifested in contempt. Manifested in a groovy covetousness for something else, something different. A fruit of an ungrateful heart. This is, like the Israelites, rejecting God as king for what they thought would be better. God tells Samuel, right? They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting me. In other words, they were taking these gifts for granted. They were taking them for granted. They were, in fact, despising the gifts of God himself, despising the gifts to them, despising Paul. It seems that for the Corinthians, these amazing blessings simply weren't good enough. It's on point, right? How does that work? They just become ordinary? Yeah, I went out and Paul healed this guy again, and the priest says, well, this guy got converted, right? I don't feel like going to church today. Yeah, the word of God is being preached there by an actual apostle. I don't want to go, you know? They were despising the gifts, receiving the grace of God in vain. Blessings simply weren't good enough any longer. There was something else that they wanted. They simply didn't want Paul. Whatever it was, whatever it was, they thought they could get by trailing off following after false teachers. I'm not going to listen to that any longer. This is what I want. Maybe it's, listen, I'm convicted every time he opens his mouth. I don't want to listen to him anymore, right? I'm weary under the accountability. Listen, I've had a couple of hard letters from this guy, and I just don't want to listen to him anymore. You know what? What the false teachers are saying sounds pretty good to me. I'm willing to disregard all of that so I could have this over here because it makes me feel better. It makes me feel what we can use our sanctified imagination to consider these things. It leads us to think about whatever it was as it pertains to us. What is it that causes the same lust in people today? Maybe even some of you or me when at times I am ungrateful. What is it that causes the same ingratitude, discontentment, selfishness, self-centeredness, self-exaltation, right? Gratitude takes humility. In order for me to be grateful, sincerely grateful to someone else, I've taken myself out of the equation. It humbles me. I'm grateful to them. And to express gratitude is humbling, right? So maybe it's selfishness, maybe it's self-exaltation, it's self-involvement, self-indulgence, discontentment, complaining, that's all what it is, and that's all that. Weary of the oversight, maybe tired of battling sin, tired of the conviction, Christian life becoming wearisome, whatever it is, not acknowledging in all of that the goodness of God. I am just tired, or I don't want to do it anymore, whatever the case may be, right? Whatever you think to yourselves, not acknowledging the goodness of God, what they've been given, maybe what you've been given, what I've been given, maybe sometimes you don't think that's sufficient. Those words might not come out of your mouth, that's certainly how you're acting toward those things. If not by your words, then by your heart attitude, what I've been given isn't good enough anymore, isn't sufficient. The word of God being preached isn't sufficient. I need something else, I need a kids program over the summer, I need fellowship with these people and not with these people. I need warmer temperatures in the auditorium, whatever it is, pick your discontentment. I don't like the way that guy talks, he sounds negative. I'm tired of the conviction. I'm weary of being talked to, weary of being accountable, weary of whatever it is, right? Living the Christian life in a group of people who love you. And all of a sudden, that isn't what you want anymore. Where does that come from? It comes from ingratitude, comes from a thankless, ungrateful heart. We don't see the good of God in the preaching of God's word, the blessing that we have. We don't see the goodness of God in an auditorium you've come to that is actually air-conditions. Right? Somehow we start despising those blessings and we complain and we grumble. We become self-involved, self-exalting. My desires, my wishes, my, my, my, my, and we show contempt for the gifts that we've been given. We show contempt for the gift-giver and their discontented, ungrateful, wandering heart follows off after what they think will be greener pastures. They count the gifts and graces of God to be a common thing. They despise them. Right? They despise them. Often, you don't realize that greener pastures are become because there's a big pile of manure over there and it's not going to be good for you and your ungrateful heart will only lead you into further and further sin the more that you indulge it. Be grateful. We need to be a grateful people. The Lord has tremendously, unimaginably, into such a degree blessed this church. We must be grateful people. It is shameful to the degree that we aren't abounding in gratefulness for what God has done here. This is the sin of the Israelites again, isn't it? In the wilderness, God rescued them out of Egypt. Mighty signs. Right? Signs, wonders, mighty deeds brought them out of the iron furnace. From out of their bondage to slavery brought them out of Egypt, part of the Red Sea for them destroyed the armies of Pharaoh. Exodus 15, they complain because they didn't have enough to drink. Exodus 16, they complain because they didn't have bread. Exodus 17, they complain about the water again. Numbers 11, they're complaining because they don't have meat. Numbers 14, oh, that we were back in Egypt, right? They hardened their hearts to the point that they no longer saw God as the source of all their blessing. They hardened their heart to the point where they no longer acknowledged God for His goodness to them, His grace toward them. And they stopped seeing the gifts of God as blessings at all. They were blinded to it, right? Those things were not seen as blessings. It's as if they passed from their sight as blessings at all. This is what's happening in Corinth. You have an apostle, the apostle Paul, an exemplary, eminent man of God preaching the word of God to you in the midst of all perseverance with signs, wonders, mighty deeds. And it somehow vanishes from your sight as a gift and as a blessing and as a grace of God. In gratitude, ungrateful hearts, selfish, greedy, heart-hearted in gratitude. Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful. But they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Congratulations, you won a new car. Six months later you don't like it because it's not the right color, right? Someone may experience the grace of God through a church like this, and a while later they're often looking for greener pastures. What God has given them here is no longer good enough. They despise the gift of God. They count the gifts and graces of God a common thing. They want their own desires instead. It's amazing to me how, in gratitude, breeds within the heart of a person this continuous drive to leave, to escape, right? This isn't a grace of God. I'm going to go over here and then eventually, I don't see that as a grace of God anymore, I'm going to go over here, never satisfying, not sufficient, preaching of God's word is not sufficient, the fellowship of God's people is not sufficient, the work of God is not sufficient, what He does here is not sufficient, it's not sufficient, why? In gratitude, ungrateful, always seeking some new thing, counting the gifts of God as a common thing, counting the gift giver, as someone who is common. It's the Corinthian disease that Paul is referencing in verse 12. It all flows from in gratitude. Incidentally, with respect to verse 12, the authenticity of a sound ministry today is still the same. The authenticity of a sound biblical ministry is still the same. What is it? Apostolic authority. Apostolic authority. Not come and follow me, I'm an apostle, but it's not that. Not come and follow me, we're performing miracles here. But rather, our adherence to apostolic doctrine, our adherence to the teaching, preaching of the apostles, perseverance in godly living, endurance through trial, through adversity, and the power of God at work through that which the signs were meant to validate. Now, the power of God, signs, wonders, mighty deeds, the power of God is at work through that means that the signs, wonders, and mighty deeds were pointing to. It's at work through that which the signs were meant to validate. That is the word of the living God. We have the word confirmed. The problem with that today is that it's not sufficient. We're greedy for something different, greedy for experience, right? Greedy for the country-western band, you know, it's going to get me on my feet before and right, I'm worshiping God. Listen, right, it's the word of God. It's the word of God, and if that's not sufficient for you, you have a heart problem. You are ungrateful. You don't have a gratitude, an appreciation, an acknowledgement of the value of God's word. It is God's word, all right, furthermore now in Corinth, they're in gratitude, not only seen in contempt or in greed, but it shows up in their pride. Look at verse 13, shows up in their pride. Paul asks them in verse 13, for what is it in? In which you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burdensome to you. Forgive me this wrong. There's some sarcasm on the part of the Apostle Paul there in verse 13. But Paul here in verse 13 is addressing another accusation against him. This accusation, not coming from false teachers this time, this is coming out of the Corinthians themselves. This is coming out of the Corinthians themselves. Inferior verse 13 means worse off. In what way were you worse off than other churches? In what way have I slighted you? In other words, the Corinthians felt slighted by the Apostle Paul. Can you imagine? Right? Can you imagine? The Corinthians felt slighted by Paul. This is textbook in gratitude. They are ungrateful, shamefully so. They have witnessed miracles. They themselves converted under his ministry. They know the way that he has suffered for them in love. And the one way in which they differed, Paul says, was that they had been charged absolutely nothing for his services, right? And even that was a gift in love from Paul that he intended for their good, that he would not be burdensome to them. Think about that with me for just a moment, right? That's the one thing they pick out. The one thing they point out, Paul, he's here, free. It's even difficult to imagine how they found fault in that, right? He's laboring at night, making tents, working with his hands, support himself to support others around him. He's not taking anything from us and that just sounds wrong to us for some reason. By picking out that one thing, what are they doing? They're ignoring, not only painting that in such an ugly light, that is Paul's sacrifice for their good. He sacrificed for them in love. That was a loving act on the part of the apostle Paul toward them for their good. They picked that one thing. They jumped to use it against him and they ignore countless other sacrifices he's made for them. How many times had Paul been persecuted and slandered and accused? We just got done with a record of that in chapter 11, didn't we? And they ignore all of Paul's other sacrifices on their behalf. It's just appalling pride, isn't it? Appalling, ingratitude. You can see the poisonous, diseased fruit of an ungrateful heart. It seems to me, and I'm thinking about this, it seems to me as though they had just become ashamed of Paul. They were ashamed of him. Paul's teachers were accusing him of being weak, Paul being nothing, his speech is contemptible, his physical appearance, right? All these things that they had, these accusations, it seems as though in the hearts and minds of the Corinthians who were, they got started from ingratitude, right? They're just ungrateful, began to view Paul in that light. They didn't come to his defense because they were, at the end of the day, ashamed of him. Ungrateful. It's like the teenage kid, right? He wants to be dropped off three blocks away from the school because he doesn't want to be seen with mom. They are blinded, blinded by ingratitude, manifesting itself in a deplorable, a deplorable form of pride. I believe it was this ingratitude, right? It was an ungrateful heart that then opened them up to the influence of false teachers. Not the other way around. Why not the other way around? Their ungrateful heart led them to look elsewhere, unlike those faithful disciples in Ephesus. Their ungrateful heart led them to be attracted to the false teachers, attracted to something different. Their ungrateful heart painted Paul as insufficient. The goodness, the grace of God is insufficient. Rather than acknowledging the gifts of God, loving the gift giver, they looked at him with animosity as insufficient. The attitudes and actions of the ungrateful are shameful. They're shameful. Paul says in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1, he says, But know this, know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unthankful. Kids, when you're disobedient to your parents, you are ungrateful, unthankful. When you blaspheme God, you are ungrateful. When you continue to turn a deaf ear to his gracious offers to you in the gospel to turn from your sin and put your faith and trust in him, you are ungrateful, ungrateful. You are a lover of yourself, a lover of money, proud, boastful. A grateful heart is a humble heart. The ungrateful are proud. The ungrateful exalt themselves. They despise the grace of God, receiving it in vain. The grateful heart is a glad heart. How hard is it to get a grateful guy down? Just a grateful heart is a glad heart. Hard to find, isn't it difficult to find a bitter, grateful person? Impossible! They're not bitter, they're not angry, they're not discontent, they are grateful. One said this. If we do not believe that we are deeply indebted to God for all that we have, then the very spring of gratitude has gone dry. When the high spring of gratitude to God fails at the top of the mountain, soon all the pools of thankfulness begin to dry up further down the mountain. And when gratitude goes, the sovereignty of the self condones more and more corruption for its pleasure. When gratitude goes, the sovereignty of the self condones more and more corruption for its pleasure. The antidote to that is gratitude, grateful heart. We need to pray for a great awakening of humble gratitude, right? At the heart of all in gratitude is the love of self. Genuine gratitude acknowledges that all the good that we have is unearned, undeserved. You don't deserve it. The ungodly hate to think of it that way, right? To think of things that they don't deserve. I'm entitled. Not by your words, by your actions. You walk around like you're entitled, ungrateful, right? The ungodly hate to think of it that way because it robs them of the glory that they are currently attempting to rob God of, right? They want it for themselves. And so they hate to hear of it that way because it robs them of their own self-exalting glory. Jesus said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. We are undeserving. We need to acknowledge His goodness. We need to acknowledge our need of Him. The Lord says, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. We need to pray for grateful hearts. Amen. Let's be grateful. We have so much to be grateful for. It's incalculable. We don't see the ends of it. It stretches out beyond our capacity to know or understand. We have so much to be grateful for. All praise, honor, and glory to Him from whom all blessings flow. All praise, honor, and glory to Him from whom all blessings flow.