Starting in verse 11. Let's look
at verse 11 again 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. So then death worketh in us but
life in you so In speaking about the ministry we see such clarity
Regarding what the ministry is all about or I should say who
it's all about the preaching of Christ and is the ministry
that he's talking about. And then in verse five, we're
reminded what that is, what the ministry is, for we preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and we're just your
servants for his sake. So you see what the ministry
is. It's given by a person, it's his message, it's preached for
his sake, for his glory, of him and to him and through him are
all things. Everything's made by him and
for him. And this is for him, it's by him he sins and he is
the one that gets the glory. And he is the very life that's
manifested in our text, verse 11, talking about the life of
Christ is manifested in that preaching, in the hearts of those
who are given faith. We see the word faith in the
text that we read. And we'll look at it again in
a minute, that he is the life that is manifested and received
by faith, and he's the author of that faith. And all of that
is right here in the text. We which live are always delivered
unto death for his sake, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Paul, the other apostles,
the disciples who preached to the Lord Jesus, were always under
threat of death. And even any who committed themselves
to the Lord by faith and were witnesses of him, many were dying,
had died, did die for preaching the gospel and would. But the
cause, Paul is saying, is well worth the price. The cause was
life, life manifested, life revealed by these means. And if the death
of those servants is necessary, then it's worth it. The Lord
Jesus himself had to die in order that we might have life, and
many of his sons, his daughters, had to die in order to tell of
him in his providence and purpose. And that's why Paul said that
in the book of Acts that he counted not his life dear unto himself.
I quote, so that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry
which I have received of the Lord to testify of the gospel
of the grace of God. Death in us, but so be it, because
the ministry is vitally important and more important than what
happens to us, that's Acts 20, 24, to testify of the gospel
of the grace of God, whereby God gives life to sinners. So
death worked in those who, put themselves in harm's way for
the preaching, but life in those that heard it, that heard the
message. The freedom that we celebrate tomorrow on our Independence
Day is a testament to the fact that there are causes worth dying
for. Even in the affairs of mortal
men, even in temporal matters, in the providence of God, the
freedom that is our blessing from God is so precious that
death is preferable to living without it. And I don't say that as a matter of rhetoric. I'm
sure you've searched your heart too, especially you men, and
I have. And who was it that famously
said, give me liberty or give me death? That's an easy thing
to say, really. Not everybody would say that.
That's really an easy choice, isn't it? But we will die in
the defense of it if we have to, and rightly so, because it's
worth it. It's worth it. Even in these
temporal things, even something that's a blessing from God just
on this earth, it's that precious. A real man cannot live without freedom for himself and
for those that he loves. And we've enjoyed that freedom
for so long, we tend to take it for granted. At least all
of our lives to a great extent, to a great measure, relative
freedom at least, but greatly freedom. And we tend to take
it for granted. So we have a day, don't we? A
memorial day to remember to remember what's valuable, to remember
what's precious, to remember something in a world of throwaways,
something that's so precious and honorable that it is more important than
life itself on this earth, physical life, that is. But as solemnly
as we may celebrate that freedom and as precious as it is to us
in this life, the spiritual life and freedom that we have in Christ
is infinitely more precious. Not just a lot more, it's infinitely
more precious. As infinitely more precious as
the blood of God's Son is more precious than the blood of sinners.
As infinitely more precious as eternity is boundless and spiritual
life is more abundant life than these fleeting days in the body
of this death. As more Infinitely precious as
Christ himself is more precious than the highest form of attainment
Or the richest treasure that this life can ever produce and
so death is a small price It's not really a price at all for
true life for spiritual life For the life of God in the soul.
It's not even he said I count not my life Dear to my it's it's
not it's not even really a cost. I Because we can't really die
in the sense that this world as a rule does. When we die,
it's gain. When the believer dies, it's
gain. So what have you given up if you die for the cause of
Christ? What have we ever done for him
or will do? We can't do anything for him. Everything we do is
him for us. Even if we died for him, that
would be him blessing us. You just can't, death can't separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ. And so we don't fear death like
others do who have no hope. This flesh will rise up and it'll
cause us some anxiety and some maybe trepidation in the face
of physical death because it is a mysterious and strange thing
and there's a lot of unknown to that for us. the priorities of our heart by
the grace of God are true as well. So verse 13 in our text,
we having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written,
I believed and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and
therefore speak. We believe on the same son of
God and have from God the same Holy Spirit, which takes the
things of Christ and reveals them to the heart of a sinner.
And we therefore act the same. The result is the same. The same
workings of that spirit are in us that we're in, when he says,
as it is written, back when that was written, the same spirit
and the same result. And that result is we speak,
we preach, We tell forth who he is and what he did. We preach
Christ crucified as God sends his Holy Spirit to reveal Christ
to us, to every believer. In the preaching of the gospel,
he sends us to make manifest the savor of Christ in every
place, Paul said, that we go. And by those means, the Holy
Spirit will do for those who are ordained to eternal life
what he did for us. He will give them faith in the
Son of God, reveal the things of Christ in them. Paul said,
when it pleased God, He revealed His Son in me, and He did it
by this Spirit. He'll give them faith in the
Son of God like He did us, and they will also speak, and others
by the same Spirit will believe on the same Savior when they
do. Verse 14, knowing that he which
raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and
shall present us with you. The death that we are delivered
to, he said, in the cause of the ministry that worketh in
us, verses 11 and 12, has no more dominion over us than it
did over our Savior. We preach a risen Christ and
we do so knowing that he'll raise us up. If we die in his name,
it's just game. This is why we persevere in that
which is life to dead sinners. We persevere in it, though it
may mean physical death, though death is a continual threat.
As we've already seen and said, the life is worth the death. more vital than death is fatal. But also for those who know and
testify of Christ and face death for doing so, that death is not
really death. It's just the ushering in of
us into life. So you see how Paul is just lifting, he's finding such joy in the
privilege That's why those disciples were
able to say that they counted it a privilege to be counted
worthy to suffer shame for his name. And they were under threat
of death. Those religious Jewish leaders
could have killed them and nobody would have ever lost any sleep
over it. They'd been doing that. Paul had been part of it. They knew the stakes now, they
knew the Savior and had a complete different
perspective on it than those who were the enemies of the Lord. Our afflictions are said to be
light in verse 17, and our death has been swallowed up in victory. We get so burdened, don't we?
We get so, so, so pulled down. It's because we don't see things
as they are all the time, do we? Look at verse 15. For all things are for your sakes. Everything is for you. Paul said in another place, You
have all things, all things are yours. And here all things are for your
sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving
of many redound to the glory of God. The more God shows grace
to sinners, the more he's glorified in heaven and on earth. You reckon
the angels, I don't know, I don't know if
angels get excited or not, but when God shows grace to a sinner,
I suspect, we're told that there is a reaction to that in there.
There is a reaction in heaven. So his grace is abundant. It's for our sakes that the gospel
is preached. Those who preach it can't lose.
Those who know it, those who testify the Savior, all of his
people, witnesses of him, you can't lose. Everything is for
your sake. God has a world because he has
a people. And this ministry, to be part
of that here in this place, if there wasn't ever but one sinner
saved in the 20 years, and maybe we'll go 40, who knows? One sinner saved, we're in on
that thing. where on what it's all about, what it's all about. Everything else is wasted, I'm
telling you. You know it and I know it, we just don't practice
that. We don't think that way most of the time. In eternity, if we're able to
even think about what happened here, I wouldn't know what to
choose. Would you, whether we, we're
able to remember things that happened here or just forget
it, you know, forget it. Who cares? But if we're able
to remember, you think about what we're gonna look back on
when we're in the presence of the Savior himself. And what we're gonna look back
on and be glad of and what we're gonna look back on and say, that
was a waste of time. Why did I waste my, any anxiety,
Why did I waste any thought, any effort? Why couldn't I see? Why couldn't
I see better? I kind of hope we just don't
even remember any of it. Don't you? Just forget. Maybe we can forget a little
bit now even. Thinking on things, looking on
things above. All things are for your sakes.
There are two reasons why God does everything that he does,
and both are right there in verse 15. The good of his sheep and his
everlasting glory. You talk about focus. You think
about that. The Lord focuses us in when he
declares throughout all of this book that there are two reasons
why he does everything he does. He has focused our minds and
hearts in an extraordinary way. Why has He done what He's done?
Why is He doing what He's doing? And why is He gonna do everything
that He ever does for the sake of His people and for His glory? It's gonna redound to His glory,
and we're gonna be thanking and praising Him. That's what that
verse says. For His grace, for His abundant
grace. When the Lord ate the last supper
on this earth with his disciples, he said, this cup is the new
covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. It's for your sakes. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him
freely give us all things? The reason that God has done
all things for our sake is that he himself is glorified in no
greater way than that he gave himself for sinners like us on
Calvary. Our eternal good is tied to his
eternal glory. You can't separate the two. You
give that a little thought here. That's how I sleep at night,
what about you? My eternal good is inseparably tied to his glory. And listen carefully now. We
see why God does everything he does. Why do you do what you
do? Why do I do what I do? Verse 16, for which cause we
faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man
is renewed day by day. When the outward
perishes, that is, we're dying a little bit every day, aren't
we? Inside and out, inside and out. Sometimes it seems like we die
a little faster on the inside than we do on the outside, and
sometimes it seems the other way around, but we're dying inside
and out every day. But in spite of that, the new
man, the spiritual man, the spirit of Christ in us, we're constantly
renewed. As the body dies, as the flesh
dies, And this is why we don't faint. He said, this is why we
don't quit. This is why we don't just give up. This is why we
don't despair. Why in the same chapter, we're broken down, but
we don't quit. We're not in despair. We haven't
given up. We're cast down, but we're not
forsaken. The inward man is renewed. Those who are in Christ and Christ
in us We fly on wings like eagles. As the flesh is deteriorating,
the new man is growing. Growing in the grace and in the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus. He's more precious all the time
as this world becomes more despicable to us. As the pursuits of this flesh
become Less desirable, the Savior becomes more and more
precious. For which cause we faint not. That's what we were talking about
a while ago. There are causes that are worth dying for. And
this cause he's talking about in verse 16 is the ministry of
the gospel of Christ, the saving of his people, life that comes
to his dead people as the gospel's preached. Death in us, fine,
because life in you, life in those that hear the gospel. That's
what this is, and that's why God has a world, not so that
we can cushion our bank accounts. I'd
rather have a big bank account than a little one, you know,
on this earth. But what difference does that
really make? The wise Solomon, the wisest
man, God gave more wisdom than anybody on this earth except,
of course, the God-man who is the wisdom of God. He said it's
all vanity and vexation of spirit. He said, why do you give yourself
for riches that are not for that which doesn't exist? What is the cause for which cause
we faint not? The glory of God in Christ and
the eternal good of his sheep. He just told us in verse 15.
God made a world for that reason. God gave his only begotten son
for this cause. And for that cause, surely we're not gonna quit under these
light afflictions. Surely we're not gonna give up.
Surely we're not gonna fall away or drift away By His grace and His preservation,
we persevere because He preserves us. His sustaining grace, He
holds us in His hand as He holds the stars in place. We are privileged
to be included in this ministry, in His ministry. We do what we
do for the same reasons, for His glory and for the good of
His people. Nothing could be clearer in this whole passage
of Scripture. And we're not going to be dissuaded
by His grace. We're not. That's what Paul's
saying. We faint not. That's why we don't,
because of what He's doing for us and in us and through us.
We're not left to the weakness of our flesh. When we're threatened,
we just preach louder. We see examples of that in the
Scripture. When we're discouraged, we don't
quit. He's given us that spirit of
faith. And because we believe, all it
takes is just truly believing what God said to give yourself
for him. That rich young ruler who could
not give up his possessions because they were great and follow
the one that gave them to him. If the Lord would have just opened
his eyes for one second, he would have chosen what Moses did, what
Abel did, what all who are his do in the
day of Christ's power, in the day of his saving grace toward
us. And since we believe, we preach. Nobody would preach this gospel
if they didn't believe it, I'll tell you that. Oh, they'll talk
about Jesus in heaven and all that, but for other reasons.
To get money, to get popularity, to establish some kind of religious
empire in this world, and all of the things. But nobody's gonna
preach this gospel unless God has revealed to them
the truth. of the Savior, the vital truth
of the gospel. We believe and so we preach this
gospel, the gospel. The cause is great, the cause
is eternal, and the price in this flesh is not worth considering.
It's a question of weight. That's what we see in our next
verse. Look at verse 17. It's a question of weight. For
our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for
us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. That word weight means heavy,
a heaviness of glory. Light afflictions, heavy glory. That's it. You choose the light
affliction, you choose to avoid the afflictions, And those would be so important
to you that you'd sell your soul to not have to be afflicted unless
you've seen the heavy glory. If you've seen Christ, then it's
a question of weight. Present afflictions are light
in comparison to the weight of the glory of this cause, for
which cause we faint not. The glory is weighty, not only
in the nature of it, the excelling importance of it, but also in
the eternality of it. You see how he says that? Far
more exceeding. The glory is so, this is where
a preacher doesn't know what to say. How do you describe the
glory of God? It's so surpassing that the afflictions are counted
light. It says in the scripture that
the Lord was not ashamed to be called our brother and that in
Hebrews 11, what's the wording there? That he counted it a small
thing to go to the cross for us. That's the original language.
It doesn't say it that way in the King James. Trying to remember
the exact language of it. He despised the shame, despising
the shame. If you look up that word despising, It's just a small thing, no big
deal. It was a big deal. But for the
glory of saving his sheep, the eternal glory of his mercy and
grace towards sinners, in comparison, the sufferings, even to be forsaken
of his God, he despised the shame. And can we not consider these
afflictions light in face of what's going on? Maybe we don't
think of our lives as the most important thing about
them is that we're in on this ministry. Maybe we just don't
think that way. Maybe even I don't. Being the
pastor, I may not think, I don't think that way a lot of times.
We've got to think that way. Whatever we sow, whatever the
cost, whatever the Lord, whatever storms He bring, it's light. It's nothing. Not only the excelling, surpassing
importance of the glory, but these afflictions are temporary
and the glory is eternal. Will we even remember the afflictions?
Will God even let us remember those things? I don't know and
I don't really care. I know it's in his hand. Doesn't
matter to me because we're gonna be face to face with him. I don't
need to remember, but maybe we will. Maybe it will add to our
song of praise. unto him, maybe not, maybe just
his presence will be enough. Think of all the losses that
we've suffered in this life. The pain we've endured, sorrow that we've shouldered
in this life, the agony of heart that maybe even now we still
live with. This is light in the sense that
we deserve much worse, much more, don't we? Don't we deserve? Think about what we deserve before
God. This is light in the sense that
our Savior is the only man who ever really endured suffering in the purity of its form. Our
sufferings are dulled by our sin, just as our perception of
the glory is dulled by sin. Our physical bodies have mechanisms
that protect us from overly suffering. He didn't. He's God. And our sins were laid on him.
He's God and he suffered his own wrath in order to redeem
us. We'll never know what it is to
be utterly separated from God. We're never gonna know that.
He does. We'll never know what it's like
to have God's unmitigated wrath poured out on us. You talk about
light. We can't even think about those
things. I started to say think about God's wrath being poured
out on you, but how are you gonna think about that? How am I? And this is, but for a moment,
that's impossible for us to understand now. You know, when we were kids,
children don't have any concept of later, do they? You talk about,
you know, what do they call it? Immediate satisfaction, there's
a word for immediate satisfaction. I can't think of anything anymore,
y'all. Y'all are just gonna have to shout it out to me. But you
know what I'm talking about. You tell kids, we'll do that
later. You might as well have said, no, it's never going to
happen. Their reaction is going to be
exactly the same either way, right? Maybe your kids weren't
like mine. No concept of that. And we don't
have any concept of this now as adults. Just for a moment,
we can't think that way because we've never experienced eternity.
We don't know what we're talking about. but we know up here what
God's talking about when he says that. We can ponder what the Lord said
and think of eternity. We're gonna fall short of any
grasp of the concept, but that doesn't mean don't try. Just
a moment. He didn't say just a few days. Anybody can suffer for a moment.
I wouldn't want to suffer. If I was really suffering, I
wouldn't want to suffer for days, but for a moment. Those of us that are older understand
that. We're like, oh, oh, what was that? It's gone. Oh, my knees. I got knee problems. No, I guess
I don't. That's what it's that's what
all of this is like. And Paul emphasizes heavily here,
in describing the lightness of our affliction, he emphasizes
heavily the difference between a moment and eternity, because
look at the next verse. Verse 18, 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, they're temporary.
As described previously, they're but for a moment. But the things
which are not seen are eternal. And these words, seen means experienced. What we experience in this flesh
is just for a little while. But the things that are promised
that we haven't experienced yet, it's not that salvation doesn't
include experiences. We experience His grace to some
degree here, but not like we're going to. That's what he's clearly
saying. The realm in which we operate
right now is one thing. It's temporary. Oh, but when
we experience Christ and his glory, that endures forever. We're exhorted here to look at
things which we can't see. Doesn't that sound just like
something the Lord would teach us? Don't look at what you can
see, look at what you can't see. What a wonderful exhortation. Turn with me to Colossians 3,
we'll be through. Colossians 3, 1. Instant gratification, that's
what I was trying to say. Why did that just pop into my
head, like, how much of a lag was that? Five minutes? That's
60 for you, y'all. Verse 18, 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. Listen to Colossians 3.1 and
read it with me. As we think about that, if you
then being risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Are you risen with Christ? That's
what Paul was just talking about in our text. as the Lord Jesus Christ was
raised from the dead, so he's gonna raise us up. Are you risen
with him in spirit? Are you seated on his right hand
in the mind and purpose of God? Then seek those things which
are above. Why would you still be looking
down here at things? I understand we have to live
and function in this world, but why would your gaze be fixed
on this world, your heart be attached to this world? When
you're risen with Christ, you know who he is, you know where
he is, and you know why. And you know that he included
you in that. Seek those things which are above.
Where is that? Notice how he defines things
which are above. Christ is sitting on the right
hand of God. Christ is on the throne. That's
what you wanna look at. When you're down, when you're
hurting, when you're afraid, when you're scared, when you're
confused, when you're suffering, that's where you wanna look.
You wanna look where he is and who he is and what he did for
you. where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. The right hand is the power of
God, the very throne of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead and your life
is hid with Christ in God, crucified under this world and the world
crucified under us. That's the dead he's talking
about right there. You're dead to this world. Your
true life is hid with Christ in God, it's protected. When Christ who is our life shall
appear. What does he mean when he says
life there in verse three, our life is hid with Christ? What
does he mean by life? Christ, he is our life. When he shall appear, then shall
you also appear with him in glory. In that passage, the main characterization
given to the things above where we are to look is that Christ
is on the everlasting throne. Christ's power is emphasized
in the words, right hand, that's all through the scripture. That
refers to the power, position of power, might and authority,
ability and the right. He's able to save and only he
has the authority to do it, because he's the one that we've sinned
against. Christ on that throne is our
comfort, our assurance in all of our affliction, He's the one
that makes it light. I guarantee if he gives you a
glimpse of him on his throne, him, the one that gave himself
for you, Christ sitteth in that position of power and
authority, then you'll say these light afflictions Paul could, and I reckon he had
his share of sufferings. This is why our eternal song that we might just begin right
now on this earth, we might just start singing this now. Saying
with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain. to receive
power, riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory,
and blessing. Those things are who he is. Power, wisdom, might, strength. We attribute those things unto
him. We don't give them to him. We attribute those things to
him. He receives the praise for those things because that's who
he is. That he was slain is the definition of love. Worthy
is the lamb that was slain. He receives all those accolades
because it's his character, it's his attributes, it's who he is.
Those things are attributed to him because they are his attributes.
And he is said to be slain, the lamb that was slain, because God spared not even his
only begotten son for us. defining love itself according
to scripture. The one who runs everything is
on the right hand of God, who runs everything, does it for
us. If you can't sleep on that pillow,
then there's no rest for you. I will both lay me down in peace
and sleep. For Thou, Lord, only makest me
dwell in safety. Let's pray.