Second Corinthians 4.7. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not
of us. 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. Now, verse eight there, we'll
refer back to verse seven in a moment, Lord willing, but verse
eight is where our study really begins tonight, and he says we
are troubled, and that word is pressed, afflicted, and troubled,
of course. It has, particularly it seems
like to do with our resources. We're pressed in our resources
because the next word there, we are troubled but not distressed. That word is straits, not reduced
to straits, which means poverty stricken and destitute. So we're
pressed and the word straight Straightened is also in the word
trouble there. So we're troubled, we're pressed,
we're... Just like Paul said, I've learned
in whatsoever state I am to be content, I've learned to be in
want and to abound. And that's what this has to do
with. And this of course is something that comes from the outside.
We're pressed, we're, you know the disciples, the Lord's preachers
were afflicted in that way. Their homes and goods were stolen
and they were left destitute in many cases. And he may be
referring particularly to that type of affliction. But pressed
from the outside, squeezed like a grape. but not left empty,
not empty is the word distress there. And what we possess both spiritually
and physically in this world as believers didn't come from
this world. It doesn't come from the world and so it can't be
taken away by the world. It may, Manifest that way in
in physical and earthly things and it may look to the world
like we're destitute Our Lord didn't have any place to lay
his head down in this world But What people don't understand
that don't know the Lord is that having him we have everything
and And what we have of earthly goods, and we're not straightened
like they were then, we have luxury now as believers in most
cases. But no matter what this world,
no matter how it taxes us, and you can think of that in spiritual
terms too, it's like the world just pulls spirituality out of
us, isn't it? It's like a drain of, we find,
we not only don't find anything for us in this world, but it'll
pull away what we have if not for God's grace. It'll distract
us and drain us of even the spiritual benefit of experiencing God's
grace in this world. but we don't have what we have
from this world, and so the world can't take it away. Remember
what Abraham said in Genesis 14, 21. Listen to this passage. The king of Sodom said unto Abram,
give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. This is
at the time of what's called the slaughter of the kings, and
there was a battle that, strangely enough, the king of Sodom and
Abraham fought with the King of Sodom
because of the circumstances. But anyway, when the spools were
to be taken, the King of Sodom said, I'll take the people, make
slaves out of the ones that have surrendered, and you take the
goods. And Abram said to the King of
Sodom, I have lift up my hand unto the Lord, the most high
God, the possessor of heaven and earth, I've lift my hand
up to the one who owns everything in heaven and in earth, physical
and spiritual, that I will not take from a thread even to a
shoelatch it, and that I will not take anything that is thine,
lest thou should have say, I have made Abram rich. Now that's the
attitude of the believer in our hearts. We don't want
anything from this world. We know this world has nothing
for us. Judas went to the enemies of
Christ and said, what will you give me? What can they give him?
Something that when it came right down to it, he threw it down
and went and killed himself. That wasn't worth anything to
him. He'd betrayed the son of God for that money. But the Lord gives to his people
and only he can take away. And blessed be his name in both
cases, whether he gives or takes. And as we look at these situations
that the Lord's people are brought to, troubled, perplexed, persecuted,
cast down, don't think of this as bad stuff that's overruled
by God. You can't think of what happens
to believers in those terms. God is the one who cast us down
as well as the one who lifts us up. There is no bad stuff
for the believer. It's not God and Satan struggling
over us. It's not God correcting things. He's the one that threw us down
in the dust. He's the one that presses us.
He just uses other people. Sometimes he uses different means.
He may use the world. He may use the devil. He may
use our own stupidity. That's happened to me a lot.
Or any other means to bring us there. But don't forget who's
on the throne and what he's doing. May we not ever forget that.
He's the one who troubles us as well as the one who defends
us and supplies us. and sustains us. He told us what
he's doing. He's on the throne and we know
what he's doing. Philip said, how can we know?
And he said, have you been with me so long you don't know? Glance
ahead at verse 15 in our text. All things are for your sakes.
That's what he's doing. He has a world because he has
a people. So don't think of this as bad
stuff that happens and God overrules it. We tend to think that way,
but that's not how it is with his sheep. We're perplexed, the next one.
That is, we don't know what to do. That's literally the definition
of that word in the Greek is we don't know what to do and
we don't know how to decide what to do. But we're not in despair. That
is, we have not renounced all hope. We don't know what to do,
but we know who does. We're not hopeless. We may be
helpless. We don't know. We can't decide
anything. We can't do anything. We can't
make anything happen. We don't even know what to make
happen if we could make something happen. But we're not without
hope because our hope is not within ourselves. We're not hopeless
in our confusion and in our doubt. And this is something that happens
on the inside. We're pressed from the outside
and we're perplexed on the inside, in turmoil. But we endure because
our true resources are divine. We're persecuted, the text says,
pursued and mistreated, but not forsaken. Think about that, pursued. When
you're being pursued, what does that mean? You're running away. You're outmatched. You've given
up, you quit. You're running for your life
now. Just trying to get away. But
our help is not in ourselves, but in the Savior. When all we
can do is run, our champion eliminates the threat. Think of the Red
Sea in that regard. What was Israel's part in that? That's us. That's what Paul's
saying here. When all we can do is run, our
Lord is solving the problem. We're cast down, that means we're
brought to the ground, we're laid prostrate, laid low, but
we're not destroyed, we're not killed. Brought to surrender,
pursued, and then laid in the dirt with the sword
at our neck. But even then, Even then, we're
in the hand of God's mercy. Even in the fiery furnace, we're
in the dirt with the sword at our neck. Even in the lion's
den, we're spared. Even on the brink of hell, like
the thief on the cross, we're on the brink of hell with one
foot in. but we're not destroyed, we're
spared, we're rescued, we're lifted up, we're saved. Do you see all of these things
in verse six? Look back, I said we'd look at
verse seven, but let's look at verse six and seven. Really verse seven. Look at verse seven, if I'm at
the end of my resources, and yet I'm delivered? If I could say if I'm the thief
on the cross and yet I'm saved right from the jaws
of the hell that I richly deserve, then who's gonna get the glory? What am I gonna do hanging on
a cross with having done nothing but sin my whole life? That's
all of us, by the way. People that say, well, I've lived
a pretty good life. No, you haven't. You've been a devil since the
day you were born. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. That's why he brings us into
the dust. That's why he presses us sore.
That's why we're straightened, that is bankrupt. And it's revealed to us. He calls us that way, doesn't
he? You that don't have any money. You that have no resources. You
that are bankrupt. Come and buy. Buy wine and milk without money. Get for your soul all that your
soul needs without price. That's why he brings us there
that the excellency may be of God. If I'm delivered and provided
for, even though I'm brought to the end of myself, then there's
no glory for us in that. I've got to spend all that I
have and only grow worse before I will resolve that I must touch
the Savior. That's how God saves a sinner.
The Lord deliberately brings us to the dust so that when we
are lifted up, we will say salvation is of the Lord. When verse 10, let's look at
verse 10. always bearing about in our bodies
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. He's not changing
the subject here. The Lord presses us. He causes
us to be pursued. He causes us to throw down and
run. He causes us to be put in the dust, to be laid low, to
be prostrate before Him. He puts us in the dust for a reason.
And that happens continually, always, He said, always bearing
about in the body. What? The dying of the Lord Jesus. Now think about that with me.
When he's talking about the dying of the Lord Jesus, what did the
Lord say about that? He said, if any man will follow
me, let him take up his cross and follow me. And we've said
so many times, a cross is good for one thing. People die on
them. That's all it's good for. You
don't wear them around your neck. People die on crosses. That's
what they are. He said, take up your cross.
So God, it's that this flesh, Remember when Paul said that
when the law came, sin revived and I died? Who specifically
died in that comment? If we understand that, we'll
know what this bearing about in the body, the dying of the
Lord Jesus is, because that has to happen over and over, doesn't
it? This flesh is not gonna completely gasp its last breath as long
as we're in these bodies. It's something that continues.
He said, always bearing about in our bodies, the dying, always
taking up our cross and following him. God is killing this flesh
in us. And that's why he presses us.
That's why he puts us in the dust. That's why the sword of
his justice is at our neck. And we realize if he plunges
it into our throat, we deserved it. We richly earned it. And
he brings us to that place over and over because we get to thinking
pretty good about ourselves. We start justifying ourselves.
This flesh is a master at justifying ourselves. We start bragging
on ourselves. but he kills this flesh so that
more and more our life is not us, but as Paul said, Christ
which liveth in us. It's not the life that I now
live. I live by his faithfulness and it's not me. It's Christ
that liveth in me. The true life that's in me is
not me. It's not my flesh. It's not the
old man. It's Christ in me, the hope of
glory. So yes, Paul is referring to
the physical suffering that he was going through, similar to
Christ's sufferings, for the same reason, right? The reason
the Lord, he said the words, when he spoke, he said, for which
of the good things I've done do you stone me? It was the Lord
showing forth the glory of God, showing forth his sovereignty
as God. It was when he said, it's not
gonna be long now till you see me sitting on the throne. That's
when they spit on him. That's when they began to stone
him. And so what was Paul doing? He was showing forth Christ as
sovereign, as the successful savior of sinners. And he was
telling people that trusted their works that their works were nasty,
filthy, disgusting sin before God. He was being threatened
and pressed, God using those means for the same reasons. And that's why he calls it the
dying of the Lord Jesus. But these, and they were because
of Christ, but these physical sufferings had a spiritual effect. He was brought, he said, I don't
know what's gonna happen in this place I'm fixing to go, except
that death awaits me there, because it has everywhere I've gone. But that was having also a spiritual
effect. His flesh was dying. Every day,
he said, I die daily. Most important, and this is common
to all believers, though the trials and experiences may be
different. We don't suffer the trials that
Paul did specifically now, but I tell you what, the temptations
and the trials that believers suffer today are more insidious
and more subtle than physical confrontation. It's very simple. If somebody says, you preach
the gospel again, I'm gonna kill you. Then you say, bring it,
we'll find out. That's pretty simple. But we're
fighting against our own wretched self-righteous. We're fighting
against our selfishness. We're fighting against the evil
that's within us that tells us this is right, this makes sense,
but it's not according to God. You see what we're fighting,
don't you? Because you see us fail, every one of us, all the
time. Much more subtle than a physical
enemy. Takes the grace of Almighty God
either way. Turn with me to Galatians 5,
if you would. Well, let's read this one, but
let me read this to you, because it's just one verse, and I think
you can, If we just think about this, Galatians 5.24, they that
are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts. Is that our text? Bearing about
in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus. So yes, it was a
physical thing for Paul in this regard, in this instance, And
he's definitely talking about that. You know, this is because
we're suffering for his sake. And so it's the same suffering. We're partakers of his sufferings.
But there was a spiritual aspect clearly also. We die daily, this
fleck, when it says we've crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts, how are the lusts of your flesh poem dead yet?
The affections of your flesh, plumb dead yet? That's a continual
thing in this life, in this body. And that's what Paul's talking
about too. Let's turn to Jeremiah nine.
This will probably be the only verse I'll have us turn to tonight,
other than our text maybe. But Jeremiah chapter nine, I
want us to see something here regarding this thing of the death of Christ in our bodies,
what he's doing in us as believers. And also the life, as we'll see
at the end of the verse, but this starts here, Jeremiah 9.23. I'm sorry, I don't think I told
you the verse, 9.23 of Jeremiah. Thus saith the Lord, let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this, that
he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which
exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth,
For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. So what is the
flesh glory in? What are we prone to glory in?
Wisdom. But not the wise man glory in
his wisdom. What we know. Do men not glory in that? Well,
I know, if I know my heart, you know, you can't teach us anything
by nature. We glory in our wisdom, what
we know, as opposed to what God said. So we glory in wisdom, but what
does the Lord do for his sheep? We're perplexed. We don't know
which end is up. We don't know what to do. He
shows us that our wisdom is foolishness. We're perplexed. We don't know
black from white, so what do we do? Christ is our wisdom now. We don't have any of our own.
We don't know which way to go. We don't know what to do, and
we don't know how to decide what to do. That's the definition
of the word in our text. We can't glory in our wisdom
anymore then, can we? If we don't even know which end
is up, we don't have any clue as to what to do. We're gonna
have to look to Christ for our wisdom. What we know is not things,
but a person. And knowing him, Paul said, we
have all discernment. He said in 1 Corinthians 2, it
doesn't sound like we're perplexed in that sense. The old man is
by nature, we don't know anything. What was it Paul said? We know
nothing of ourselves, how to do anything of ourselves, our
sufficiency is of God. But there in 1 Corinthians 2,
Paul says, we have all discernment. And we determined to know nothing
but Christ, and when we do that, we speak the wisdom of God, 1
Corinthians 2. But first, the Lord had to put
us to confusion, didn't he? He had to show us we don't know
anything. And now Paul said, we know everything
because we know him. We have the mind of Christ. What
does the flesh glory in? Might. Let not the mighty man
glory in his might. What we know and what we can
do. Is that not what we glory in? It's not of him that runneth. It's not of him that striveth,
but we think it is by nature. That's the reason he said, that's
a not. We trust our own works for acceptance
with God, but the Lord Jesus has killed us and is killing
us yet in that, in that foolishness, in that delusion. What does our
text say? We're cast down. Paul was mighty too, wasn't he?
Until he was blind and laying down in the dust and saying,
Lord, what do you want me to do? He casts us down, doesn't He?
And He continues to do that. That's the life of the believer.
But being cast down is a blessing because that's when the Lord
lifts us up. That's when the life of the Lord is in our bodies. Paul said, when I'm weak, that's
when I'm strong. When this flesh is at its wits end, that's when
I know what to do. I look to Him, I trust Him, I
believe Him. I do what He says by His grace. Cast out, put in the dust, brought
to surrender. That's what that word is, but
God doesn't do that in order to kill us, but in order to save
us. He gives us wisdom to see that
it's not of Him that willeth, and wisdom to see that it's not
of Him that runneth. but it's of God that showeth
mercy. And he lifts us up in mercy and pours in oil and wine
and carries us to safety and pays our way with his precious blood. What's
our part in that? When the good Samaritan came
where that man was, what was his part in that? He was cast
down, but he wasn't destroyed. because somebody looked at him
and had pity on him. The son of God. What does this flesh glory in?
Let not the rich man glory in his riches. We glory in mammon. That's why the Lord said, there's
just two. You're not gonna serve God and
mammon, but it's gonna be one or the other. The words troubled in distress,
as I expressed a little bit while ago in verse seven, are also
pretty much the same thing. So much so that it doesn't make
sense unless you have spiritual understanding by the grace of
God. As far as this flesh is concerned,
we are wiped out. We are bankrupt. We have nothing
to offer. And that's an ongoing grace.
He has to keep bankrupting us, doesn't he? Whenever we begin to trust in uncertain riches in this world
or in any spiritual resources we might imagine ourselves to
have, what's he gonna do? He's gonna press us. He's gonna bring us to straits.
He's gonna show us that we're poor. Remember in Revelation,
you don't know, that you're poor and miserable and wretched and
blind and naked. But when you meet him, you're
fixing to know about it. He reminds us constantly that
our sufficiency is of God, all of it. In earthly matters, our sufficiency
is of God, Most importantly in spiritual, when we start getting
to think that we're pretty good peeps, you know, no, we're gonna
find out the Lord knows how to correct that, doesn't he? Lord
knows how to bring us to the place where we just say, how
in the world can I be such a wretched idiot? He's pretty good at that. We start trusting our own resources,
spiritually speaking. Our faith instead of the author
of our faith. Our works instead of the one
who works them in us. He gives us the will and the
desire and the ability to do them. Our wisdom instead of Christ
who has made into us wisdom, we start trusting ourselves.
We're not gonna get over that all the way in this flesh. but
then the Lord will empty us again. So that we're gonna cry over
and over in this life. God forbid that we should glory,
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ crucified is our wisdom,
our strength, and our unsearchable riches. Look at the last part of verse
10. That the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. As our flesh decreases, the Lord
Jesus Christ increases. And vice versa. We live out constantly
the death of the flesh, and so the life of Christ is made manifest
in us. What are you doing here tonight?
Is this you doing something for God or is this the Lord doing
something for you? The life of Christ is manifest
in us that we love Him. By His grace, because He first
loved us, we love Him. Dead sinners don't love Him.
Dead sinners don't worship Him. Dead sinners don't serve Him.
Dead sinners don't glorify Him. Dead sinners don't acknowledge
Him at all. The life of Christ, the more the flesh dies, the
more is manifest the life of Christ in us. We're buried in
baptism and raised, what did Paul say? To newness of life. And that's not the life of this
flesh. We cease to glory in our wisdom and exalt the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ in our life, as well as in our doctrine. His truth, His wisdom, The words
that our savior has spoken, what did he say about them? He said,
they are spirit and they are life. Those words dwell in us. I believe our brother just read
about that. My word will dwell in you and you'll bear fruit. We cease to lean to our own understanding
and trust his word. That's a living soul that does
that. We also see that without Him, we not only don't know anything,
but we can't do anything. And we don't have anything. As Jason read, without me, you
can do nothing. Are we learning that yet? People that know that, that without
Christ we can do nothing, And as I said, we are nothing, we
have nothing, we know nothing, we can do nothing. People that
know that are prayers. Those are people that pray. Those are people that find all
in all in the Lord Jesus. May God teach us what Paul wrote
in Romans 7, 9. Listen to this. I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
And again, let me ask the question, who exactly died? It wasn't that Paul didn't sin
anymore, that's for sure. But the Paul that trusted in
his works, the Paul that looked at his religious credentials
and pedigree, he died that day when the Lord revealed the law
and spiritual reality to him. That Paul died. He said then,
all of that is done and I'm running after Christ as fast as I can.
He's already apprehended me and I'm just trying to apprehend
him now. if he'll allow it. For the life of Christ, the spiritual
life in him, a life lived for him, but more importantly, a
life that manifests his life. We bear about in our body Christ
crucified In this sense, everything we are and do is because of Him
and for the glory of Christ and what He did on the
cross. God forbid that we glory anything else. And Paul said,
I am what I am by the grace of God. We see we're alive and we live
like it. We look like life people. that
are alive in Christ. We see that without Him, we know
nothing, we can do nothing, and also we don't have any, we know
that this is true. We know it up here, don't we? But Paul said that it might be
manifested in our bodies, in what we do. I beseech you therefore, brethren,
he said in Romans 12, one, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which just makes sense, which is your reasonable service.
Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God. May He continue to show
us who He is and what He's doing, His will. May He continue to
kill this flesh within us that the life of our Savior might
be manifest in our bodies. Let's pray.