Let us turn once more to God's
Word. I hope you'll excuse me, it's strange
to try to preach from this position, and I might well be a little
shorter than normal. We'll see how things proceed.
At the moment I feel quite comfortable, but let's turn to God's Word.
In that portion of Scripture that we read in 2nd Corinthians
chapter 4, And I want really to direct your attention to the
words that we have in verse 11. In 2 Corinthians 4, 11. For we
which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake that
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
flesh. The verse is made up of these
two clauses, and I want us simply to consider each of the clauses. First of all, that that's spoken
of as the deliverance to death, and then, in the second place,
the manifestation of life. The opening part of the verse
then, for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus'
sake. Of course, Paul is speaking here
out of his own personal experience. Those things that Paul had known,
in his life lie behind the statement that he is making. We see that
quite clearly from the context. He has spoken in those previous
verses of some of the troubles that he had to endure. We are
troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed,
but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. And then the words, for we which
live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. Throughout the epistle he time
and again makes mention of these bitter experiences that he had
to endure as he sought to exercise his ministry as an apostle of
Jesus Christ. We go back to the first chapter
and there at verse 8 he says, We would not, brethren, have
you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were
pressed out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired
even of life. But we have the sentence of death
in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God
which raises the dead." Of course, there he's referring to events
that would have occurred in Asia Minor, what we would now call
Turkey. and he makes a special reference
to the events at Ephesus, writing in his first epistle to the Corinthians
there in chapter 15 at verse 32 he says if after the manner
of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus there was of course
there as we have it recorded in Acts 19 a tremendous uproar
at Ephesus there was that man Demetrius the silversmith who
made his living by making images of the goddess Diana and as Paul
is there seeking to make known the gospel the whole of the city
of Ephesus is moved into greater uproar if you turn over to that
chapter in Acts 19 and there at verse 29 we're told the whole
city was filled with confusion And having caught Gaius and Aristarchus,
men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one
according to the theatre. And when Paul would have entered
in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not. and certain
of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring
him that he would not adventure himself into the theatre. They
saw what great danger he was in." In fact, he can speak of
how throughout his ministry there were those occasions in which
he was in deaths. In deaths, oft is the expression
that we have here in chapter 11 and verse Verse 23. Not only at Ephesus,
if we go back to the Acts, we see there in chapter 14 at verse
19, when he was at Lystra, he was stoned and left for dead. He wasn't only during his ministry
in Asia Minor, but also when he moves into Greece again. He knows nothing but troubles. Constantly he's experiencing
these dreadful trials in every part of his ministry. In verse 5 of chapter 7, when
we were coming to Macedonia, he says, Our flesh had no rest,
but we were troubled on every side. Without were fightings,
within were fears. It was Paul's constant experience,
and wherever he went, there was trouble. His life was in the
gravest of dangers. There were many things that he
had to suffer and to endure in the course of his ministry. Not only here in this fourth
chapter does he speak of being troubled on every side and perplexed
and persecuted. and cast out but you're aware
of how he goes into some detail concerning his troubles at the
end of the epistle there in the 11th chapter for example at verse
24 or verse 23 speaking of himself and contrasting his experiences
with that of the false teachers Are they ministers of Christ?
He says in verse 23, I speak as a fool, I am more. In labors
more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent,
in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received
I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods,
once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck,
a night and a day. I have been in the deep and so
on and so forth. He is constantly aware then of
these things that had befallen him in the course of his ministry
and it is this I say that lies behind the words that he speaks
here in a text this morning. We which live are always delivered
unto death for Jesus' sake. He says therein that opening
chapter at verse 9, we had the sentence of death in ourselves. He was ever conscious of his
mortality. He knew that all his times were
in the Lord's hands. He's the man, of course, who
writes in Hebrews 9 and says, it is appointed unto men once
to die. Oh, he knew his life was but
a mortal life. The Lord himself must be the
one who would preserve him, and so he would, because all these
things were ordained and appointed in God's eternal covenant. To everything there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under heaven, a time to be born, and
a time to die. These things then lie behind
what Paul has to say. But when we come to consider
those words in verse 9 of chapter 1, we have the sentence of death
in ourselves. He's really there speaking of
something inward. He's not so much the externals
of his life, those things that he was having to suffer from
others as he sought to execute his ministry. It's interesting
there, in that 9th verse of the opening chapter, that the margin
gives an alternative reading. Not the sentence, but rather the
answer. We have the answer of death in
ourselves. He had that inward persuasion
in himself. It's something spiritual that
he is really speaking of. He goes on in the next verse
to speak there of so great a death. And is it not the same here?
We which live are always delivered unto death. There's that spiritual
death, that is the experience of those who know anything of
the grace of God. And Paul certainly was one who
was aware of that. He was a man who had been quickened
by the Spirit of God. He was aware of spiritual things. He's not just speaking then of
the externals of his life. But he's speaking of that that
was transpiring constantly in his soul. When he writes in the
familiar words of Romans chapter 7, I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. He has the sentence
of death in himself. And that's the same as we have
here in the text. as he is spiritually alive, so
he is delivered unto this death for the sake of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is aware of his sins. He is aware of his sinnership. He has experienced that very
real conviction of sin. Isn't that really the first sign
of spiritual life? And this is what he is speaking
of, we which live. Where there is spiritual life
in a person's soul, they know what it is to be delivered onto
death. It's a strange paradox of the
experience of the godly, that they're those who are made aware.
of their fallen condition. We are familiar with the language
again of Paul when he writes at the beginning of Ephesians
chapter 2 addressing these Christians at Ephesus. He says, "...you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the Prince of the power of the air, the Spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience." among whom
also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." They
made aware, these believing Ephesians, that they're quickened, and what
is the evidence of that spiritual life? Why, they know what it
is to be those who by nature were dead. in trespasses and
sins. Those who were once the children
of disobedience, they were the children of wrath, that was their
fallen nature. We sang it in our opening hymn,
did we not? New life from Him we must receive
before for sin we rightly grieve. That is the conviction of sin.
There must be that spiritual life brought into the soul that
is dead in order that there is that realization of what our
true status as a real condition is, as those who are dead. We which live are always delivered
unto death. There's that ministry of the
law of God, as we have spoken of time and again by the Apostle,
writing there in Romans chapter 3, And we know that what things
soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty
before God. For by the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the
knowledge of sin, or that law of God. How terrible it is, it's
administration of condemnation. That's the lawful use of the
law, to condemn the sinner, to make him feel what he is, to
show him what he is. Administration of condemnation,
he says, administration of death, how it shuts the sinner up to
his spiritual impotence. And it shuts him up to what he
is as an unbeliever, who cannot help himself, who cannot save
himself, the impossibility of him exercising that true faith. In the language again of this
blessed apostle Paul, writing in Galatians 3, it says, Before
faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up to the faith
which should afterward be received. Shut up to what we are in our
fallen nature. I am shut up, says the psalmist,
and I cannot come forth. God hath concluded all in unbelief,
says Paul, that he might have mercy upon all. Those that God
has mercy upon, those that God is pleased to deal so graciously
with, why he shuts them up. He shuts them up to their own
impotence, shuts them up to the awful truth of their fallen nature. And it's these characters that
he's speaking of in the text, we which live, are always delivered
unto death for Jesus' sake. Or we have the sentence, the
answer of death in ourselves, he says. that we should not trust
in ourselves we which live are always delivered unto death for
Jesus sake that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest
in our mortal body but this deliverance unto death we not only to think
of it in terms of the conviction of sin there is that and that
Of course, he's so basic to the Christian's experience. The Lord
Jesus himself makes it plain that he came not to call the
righteous but sinners unto repentance. It's those who are dead in trespasses
and sins who need new life and who are made to fill all that
they need of the grace of God. But it's not just the beginning
of the Christian's experience that he's being spoken of as
we look at the words in the text it says we which live are always
always delivered unto death for Jesus sake it's a continuous
a continual experience that these people must know It's a constant
warfare that they're engaged in. There's that dreadful conflict
that they have to have daily with sin. And it's all for Jesus'
sake. Delivered unto death, it says,
for Jesus' sake. Now, where there is that true
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is that constant trying
of the same faith. That's a very striking statement
that Paul makes at the end of Philippians chapter 1, where
he speaks of the great gift of faith. And again he says there
that it's all for the sake of the Lord Jesus unto you. It is
given in the name of Christ to believe on his name. not only
to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. These two
come together. The believing in the name of
the Lord Jesus, but at the same time also that suffering for
the sake of the Lord Jesus. As I said, where there is faith,
that faith that is genuine, saving faith, there will be in the dealings
of God, that constant testing of the faith. Peter speaks of
the trial, the trial of your faith being so much better than
of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might
be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. We cannot avoid it. God, by various ways and means,
will come and He'll test us, and test the reality of our faith
and our trusting in Him. And as I say, here in this epistle,
as in all His epistles, Paul is writing out of a full heart.
He's not just writing something theoretically. He's writing out
of many bitter experiences. But look at what he says at the
end of the chapter, our light affliction, which is but for
a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but
at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Oh, the believer then is in the
testings of his faith being weaned from the things of time and of
sense. There is that daily dying that
the life of the Lord Jesus might increasingly be made manifest. We which live are always, always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. Or was it not just as the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself told His disciples when He came to
the end of His ministry? Remember those blessed chapters
that we have in John's Gospel? Those valedictory discourses,
as we call them? At the end of chapter 16 He says,
These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have
peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." This is
the believer's comfort. He is increasingly brought to
that where he must cast himself upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so as there is this being delivered onto death for the sake of the
Lord Jesus, be it in the beginning with that conviction of sin,
Be it in that daily conflict with sin, that good fight of
faith, there is that being delivered unto death, but at the same time,
as we see in the second clause of the verse, there is the manifestation
of life. Look at the language, that the
life also of Jesus. might be made manifest in our
mortal flesh. And it's what's called a purposive
clause, and this opening word in the clause is a significant
word, it's a very strong word, and it has this idea of in order
that. Here is the purpose. Why are
we always delivered unto death? Well, it's for the sake of the
Lord Jesus. In order that. It's in order that the life also
of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Oh, there is then this constant
need of deliverances, a constant experience of the Lord Jesus. If we're those who have a testimony,
it's to be a living testimony. It's to be a daily testimony.
It's not simply to tell of what the Lord did for us when first
He began with our souls and brought us out of darkness into light.
But isn't there an ongoing experience for the Christian? We see it
again there in that opening chapter. He says, "...who delivered us
from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust He
will yet deliver us." It's interesting how that the language there is
so similar to what we have here in the fourth chapter. Remember
what he says in verse 9, we have the sentence or the answer of
death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in
God which raiseth the dead who delivered us from so great a
death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver
us, ye also help him together by prayer for us." Now, in all
these experiences the believer is brought to see his great need
of prayers, his constant calling upon God, his continual seeking
of God. How the Lord must come and appear
for him and deliver him time and time and time again. And we have it in the Psalms,
of course, because those Psalms so often are in the forms of
prayers to God, how the Psalmist cries unto God. Psalm 44 and
verse 4, O God, command deliverances for Jacob. God must come and
God must grant those blessed deliverances. Many are the afflictions
of the righteous, but the Lord will deliver him out of them
all." Well, there's our comfort. There are deliverances with the
Lord. In spite of these many reflections, there will be this
manifestation of the life of God in the soul of these sinners. And in it all, what are we taught?
That we can do nothing of ourselves. The guy in the psalmist reminds
us, none can keep alive his own soul. It is God who must first
give us spiritual life. It is God who must preserve that
spiritual life, just as in the physical realm. It is God who
gives us our being. It is God who forms us in the
wombs of our mothers, brings us to the birth. And it is God
who holds our very breath in His hand. Well, what is true
with regards to our physical life, how much more so is that
the case with regards to our spiritual life. The life is given.
And that life that is given, how is it manifested? It is manifested
as the Lord is pleased to preserve us. Thank God that we have recorded
time and again in these scriptures. the experiences of these godly
men and women and all these things as we know are written for us,
are written for our learning says Paul that we through patience
or endurance that's the real meaning of the word there in
Romans 15 that we through endurance and comfort of the scriptures
might have hope and some of these what we might call lesser known
characters are most interesting. One thinks of that man Barak
who served as a scribe to the prophet Jeremiah in that little
45th chapter in the book of the prophet. The word of Jeremiah
the prophet spake unto Barak the son of Nariah. When he had
written these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah In the
fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah,
saying, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, unto thee,
O Baruch, Thou didst say, Woe is me now! For the Lord hath
added grief to my sorrow, I fainted in my sighing, and I find no
rest. Thus shalt thou say unto him,
The Lord saith thus, Behold, that which I have built will
I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up,
even this whole land. And seekest thou great things
for thyself, seek them not. For behold, I will bring evil
upon all flesh, saith the Lord. But thy life will I give unto
thee for a prey, in all places whither thou goest." All the
life is given. This is Barak's, or to be Barak's,
experience. God has given him spiritual life. Thy life will I give unto thee,
he says, but it's given for a prey. It's that that he's constantly
being preyed upon, it's under assault. Why we have the sentence
of death, the answer of death in ourselves, says Paul, that
we might not trust in ourselves, but in God that raises the dead. Here is the purpose of it all,
you see, that the life of the Lord Jesus might be increasingly
manifested. That's what it says in the words
of the text. In order that the life also of
Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. There's not only these lesser-known
characters in Holy Scripture, There are those that we're much
more familiar with. There are those we might say
were the great men in Israel, the priests or the prophets or
the kings. And you can think of a man such
as that godly king Hezekiah. Now Hezekiah bears testimony
to the fact that real religion is something experimental. that
real religion is the very life of God in the soul of a man. The Lord must communicate that
life. Remember what he says in his
prayer of thanksgiving in Isaiah 38, having suffered so much at
the hands of the Assyrians, seeing his kingdom under dreadful threat
and yet his kingdom preserved in the goodness of God and then
afflicted in his own person. And then he makes that blessed
prayer, O Lord, by these things men live. By these things men
live. Here is life. Life in the midst
of all these trials, all these troubles, all these afflictions. This is the very life of godly
Hezekiah's soul. By these things men live. In
all these things, he says, is the life of my spirit. But these trials and these troubles
that these men knew, Paul, as I said at the outset, is writing
out of his own troubles. We're troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We're perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Cast down, but not destroyed. But these experiences are useless,
really, unless unless we're brought to that where we're all together
cast upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the significance,
you see, of this second clause. It's in order that the life also
of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh, always bearing
about the dying, of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of
Jesus might be made manifest in us. Think of that great text
that we have in Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.
who loved me and gave himself for me what a verse is that for
us to contemplate and to meditate upon to know that life of the
Lord Jesus all spiritual life it comes only from the Lord Jesus
Christ himself he is our life I am the way he says the truth
and the life no man cometh unto the father but by mercy. Again he says, I am the resurrection
and the life. In that fifth chapter of John
we are reminded, are we not, as the Father raiseth up whom
he will and quickeneth them, so the Son quickeneth whom he
will. Verily, verily, says Christ,
the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." Well,
surely this is the one thing needful, that we're those who
know that voice, who hear that voice of the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself speaking, and speaking life into our souls. That we might have more than
this Word of God, as it were, set before us on the the page
of Scripture, the inscripturated Word. Oh, we want that Word to
be inscribed in our very souls. We want that Word to be graciously
applied in our hearts, to become the engrafted or the implanted
Word, able to save the soul. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that in order that the
life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Almighty please the Lord then
to accomplish in us all that good will and good pleasure for
our soul's eternal good. The Lord bless his word to us
now. Well let us conclude our worship this morning as we sing
the hymn 181 the tune is St Stephen 229 the
hymn 181 believers own they are but blind they know themselves
unwise but wisdom in the Lord they find who opens all their
eyes 181