Alright brethren, let's go back
now to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Lord willing, this I hope
to be the message I preach in Crossful Sunday morning. I don't
think I've been this excited about a message in a good while.
Now when God has shined in our hearts, He gives the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of our Lord Jesus
Christ. the light of the glory of God,
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.
But Paul said we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Now the earthen
vessels is more than just our physical body. Our text is going
to talk about our body, our outward body. But it's talking about
our human nature, that which we got from Adam. with all its
weakness and all its limitations and all its confusions and all
its misconceptions and distortions. That's what he's talking about,
the human nature, including the physical flesh, but the human
nature, earthen vessel, that which is earthy. And he's telling
us that Christ our treasure is eternal. He dwells in that new
inward man. but our human nature is temporal
and perishing. The inward man is holy and without
sin, being made a partaker of the divine nature by Christ dwelling
in us. But the outward, the mortal flesh
is sinful and it's earthy and it's returning to the dust. Our
calling to preach Christ you and I that have been called. We've been called to preach Christ.
We've been called to support the Gospel, to send it forth,
and everything involved in that, from cutting the grass, to carrying
out the trash, to whatever's involved in making sure we have
a place where we can worship and the Gospel is set forth.
He's called us to do that. But the earthen vessel that we're
trying to carry this out, in is totally without strength,
totally insufficient. Why? Verse 7 says that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. Now this applies to
God's people and His preacher. We're totally insufficient for
this work, but God is our sufficiency. that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. Then Paul goes into our text. And what I want you to see in
this is not only does God work His power through the preaching
of the gospel to call out His lost sheep and call us to faith
in Christ. He does that. It's only by His
power that He calls out His lost sheep and calls us to faith in
Christ. But not only does he do that,
Paul shows us here the power of God in accomplishing four
particular things in the hearts of you and I who are His earthen
vessels, in whom He's already begun this work. He shows us
here some things He accomplishes by His power in us who He's already
called by His grace. So our subject is the accomplishments
of God's power. Now I had brother Rob read Philippians
3 in verse 10 because there are the four accomplishments that
Paul is talking about in this text. Have you ever read Philippians
3.10 and wondered what Paul is talking about? He said that I
might know Christ. He knew Him, but he wanted to
know Him more. and the power of His resurrection, and the
fellowship of His sufferings, and to be made conformable unto
His death. Those were four things Paul desired,
and those are the four things believers desire. Now we're going
to take these four accomplishments that God works by His power In
us, we're going to take these four accomplishments as they're
given in our text. They're not in that same order
in our text. We'll take them as they're given
in our text. Now, these things, I want you
to remember now, these things are done through suffering. And Paul is speaking here mainly
of the suffering we suffer for the cause of Christ. Suffering
we suffer for believing Christ, for trusting Christ, for standing
with Christ, for proclaiming Christ, for standing with His
people. These are sufferings we suffer for the cause of Christ. Now Paul is using himself and
the apostles as the example. But this applies to all his people.
The thing that God teaches us here, these four accomplishments
of God's power, is what He works in all of His people, His believing
people. And this is accomplished through
suffering. You remember when Peter said,
know that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world. Afflictions are accomplished?
This is the end accomplishment that God uses affliction. Afflicting
you and I who are His children. He afflicts us to accomplish
these four things by His power. Now first of all, the first accomplishment
of God's power is the fellowship of Christ's sufferings. He makes
us to experience the fellowship of Christ's sufferings. Now before
we read what Paul wrote, let me refresh your memory on what
that is. What is the fellowship of Christ's
sufferings? Go back to 2 Corinthians chapter
1. And here it is right here in
verse 5. He said, as the sufferings of Christ abound in us. You see, as we suffer for the
cause of Christ, sufferings are going to abound in us because
we stand with Christ. We preach free, sovereign grace
in Christ that the work is finished by Christ. So these sufferings
are going to abound in us by Christ. But, our consolation
also aboundeth by Christ. That's what it is to know the
fellowship of His sufferings. To suffer by Christ, for Christ,
and also have the consolation of Christ to abound. Now, the
first thing that he mentions in each of these examples, these
examples are the translation, the English translation does
not convey what the Greek words convey. I don't know enough Greek
to tell you, but this is a play on words he is using here. But
the first statement he makes is concerning our flesh, the
earthen vessel. The second statement is concerning
the power of God, the consolation of Christ in the inward man.
Look here, 2 Corinthians 4.8. He's talking about the earthen
vessel and our suffering in the earthen vessel. And then he's
talking about the power of God. He says, verse 8, we are troubled
on every side, yet we're not distressed. In our earthen vessels,
in our body, in our human nature, God causes us to be afflicted.
He causes us to suffer, to press us very, very hard on every side
so that we're straightened in our flesh. We come to the point
where we have no strength in our flesh. But while that's happening,
inside, inwardly, in the new man created by Christ, Christ
is our consolation so that He doesn't allow us to be straightened.
You experience that where, you know, in your flesh you're just
pressed, but you know at the same time, inwardly, you have
sweet comfort. And that's what he's talking
about. It's like that air pressure that's all around an airplane.
But because of what's going on inside, it won't allow it to
decompress. It won't allow it to be distressed
inwardly. And that's what Christ does in
His people. Though we're pressed on all sides. And then he says
this in verse 8, we're perplexed but we're not despair. God uses
trials on purpose to cause us in our outward nature to just
come to a point that we're at a total loss. We don't know what
to do. We don't know which way to go.
We don't know what to say. We're just at a loss. We're perplexed. But while that's happening in
the inward man, by Christ's comfort, by His consolation, we're not
in despair. We're not without hope. That's
what it means. We're not without hope. Because
within is the treasure. Within is Christ. And you know
what Christ is? Christ in you is the hope of
glory. Remember, we glory in tribulation
because tribulation works patience. And patience, experience. And
experience, hope. And hope is never a shame because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us. So we'd be perplexed outwardly
in our flesh, but inwardly we still have hope by Christ. He
says there in verse 9, we're persecuted but not forsaken. Brethren that we thought would
never forsake us, family, friends, because of the gospel, for the
sake of the gospel, they will forsake us. But while they forsake
us, Christ promises He'll never forsake us. He bore our sin and
bore being forsaken by God to satisfy justice in order to glorify
God in the salvation of His people. And because He did that and He
justified us, now that same glory demands what He speaks into our
hearts. And that is, I'll never leave
you and I'll never forsake you. You see, that's why we're persecuted
but not forsaken. And then He tells us this in
verse 9, He says, we're cast down but we're not destroyed.
When these trials come, He just over and over again brings you
and me to the absolute end of ourselves. And the Lord has a
way of pressing you with the trial and hedging you up to where
you're just at the end of yourself. Your fleshly strength is gone,
what little you thought you had. But by Christ's power working
in that new man, we're not destroyed. In fact, in that new man, we've
not even touched. There's not even a scar or any
damage done in the inward man whatsoever. In fact, he's been
benefited by the trial. So that's a description, brethren,
of the fellowship of Christ's suffering. And this is the first
accomplishment that God causes to be accomplished in His people
by the excellency of His power. He sends the trial because of
Christ's gospel. And He says, we abundantly suffer
by Christ because of His gospel, standing with Christ. The consolation
also abounds inwardly by Christ. That's the fellowship of His
sufferings. I want to know the fellowship
of His suffering. I want to be in fellowship with
Him while I suffer so that I'm upheld and I have comfort in
my heart even though my outward man is perishing. So that's the first thing. Here's
the second accomplishment of God's power. He makes us know
the power of Christ's resurrection. Now, this is real close to the
first thing, but it goes a little further. He makes us to know
the power of Christ's resurrection. Look at verse 10. He says, ìWeíre
always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.î
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
For we which live inward, in that new man, we're always delivered
unto death for Jesus' sake, so that our flesh just wilts. But he does it that the life
also in that new man, the life of Christ, might be made manifest
in our mortal flesh. Now he sums it up down in verse
16. For which cause we faint not,
here's what he's saying, though our outward man perish, yet the
inward man is renewed day by day. As we suffer for the sake
of Christ, and all God's people are going to suffer for the sake
of Christ. If we're His, He's going to open the door for us
to bear witness of Christ, and we're going to suffer for that. Should our Lord Jesus be a man
of sorrows, acquainted with grief? And shall not we be a man of
sorrows, acquainted with grief? He is the man of sorrows. And
we are going to, in a lighter way, we are going to be afflicted. He said the Lord was rejected. Shall not the servants be rejected
too? Sure. We are going to suffer for His
sake. But God manifests the power in that suffering. is not of
our earthen vessel. The power is not of our flesh.
Paul says, we bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. Now that does mean we are suffering
for Christ's sake, but that word dying right there means a process
by which death comes. A process by which mortification
occurs. And what he is saying, brethren,
is Christ through this suffering mortifies our flesh. He makes
you to see your flesh is dead and dying and worthless so that
you just treat it like it is dead. He makes you to do that. Christ does through this suffering.
This is what every trial, this is one of those things that's
worked in every trial we suffer. And this is the purpose, to mortify
our flesh, to make us see that we ought not trust in our flesh
whatsoever. Why does He do that? That the
life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. See, He brings our flesh to nothing
to make you and me know the power of His resurrection. The power
that sustains us and preserves us is the power of Christ. We saw Sunday where Paul prayed
that by the wisdom and knowledge of God that you might know the
exceeding greatness of His power toward usward who believe. Don't
you want to know that exceeding power toward usward who believe? It's the same power of God that
raised Christ from the dead. And now Christ is raised and
the Scripture says He's made higher than the heavens. A God-man
is seated at God's right hand and He has a name above every
name. He has power above all power. And He's been made the
head of the church, the body, so that He might fill all in
all. That's why Christ has been made
the head of the body. And so, He makes us to know that
He justified us by His death on the cross, and now, having
justified us, He's at God's right hand, resurrected with all power
in heaven and earth, and it's by His power. By His power. He's ever living to make intercession
for us. And He's always with us. He said,
I'll always be with you. I'll be with you always, He promised
His people. And it's by His power, His Spirit
dwelling in us, working in us, that we experience the power
of His resurrection to keep us and preserve us and keep us looking
only to Him rather than this flesh. So these two things are
work. He mortifies our flesh through
the affliction and makes us experience the power of His resurrection.
in keeping us. And the proof of it is these
frail, weak, helpless sinners that we are keep on trusting
Him and keep on believing Him through all the trouble and all
the trial and all the affliction of this life. You know, you hear
religion talking about you know, telling so-called believers to
let your light shine and everything, and the Scripture says that.
But the way God makes the light of Christ to shine is totally
different than the way this world talks about it. You remember
Gideon? In that army, I talked about
Sunday. You know, when they went forth, their weapon was a trumpet
in one hand. Our weapon is the preaching of
the gospel. But who's God going to use to shine that light? Well,
in the other hand was an earthen vessel, a pitcher, an earthen
pitcher, a clay pot. And in that pot was a lamp. There
was a light burning. And when they got to where the
enemy was, they were to break that earthen vessel. And here
was the point, and this is the point Paul is making. The more
that earthen vessel is broken, the more the light shines forth. Isn't that different in the way
this world talks about your light shining? Christ is the one who
breaks our earthen vessel, so that He makes His light shine
forth, showing that it's the power of His resurrection that's
keeping us. To temporal men, they'd look
at us like they looked at Paul and said, His speech is contemptible. His bodily presence is weak.
How in the world does anybody follow after this man? How has
anybody been made a convert by this man, this little ugly, short,
crippled Jew? But his people have the power
of Christ working in their hearts so that They are able to have
that. They are the epistle of Christ. And He is commended to them because
Christ has written the gospel on their heart. And while the
world looks something, they have no idea how that can be. But
we understand it, don't we? God has chosen foolish things
to bring to nothing things that are. He has chosen weak things. He has chosen things that are
totally without any power and without any strength. Talking
about you and me to bring to nothing. Those that think they're
mighty and powerful and really something. Why? That no flesh
should glory in His presence. That's why. So He teaches us
that the power is of Him and not of us. Remember what He said
back in chapter 1? Go back there. Chapter 1. You know, Paul, when you read
the Scriptures, when you read what Paul is writing, Paul will
say something. And then he'll get caught up
talking about something he said and he may not come to that subject
again for two or three pages later. We've come to chapter
4 and he's talking about what he started talking about right
here. Look here at 2 Corinthians 1 and look at verse 9. He's talking about the trouble
that came to him. Look how he describes it in verse 8. We were
pressed out of measure, above strength. It's 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 raiseth the dead." He is saying what we just saw. Through
this suffering Christ mortifies our flesh so that we learn to
trust in the power of His resurrection. Who delivered us from so great
a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that He shall yet deliver
us. See, the excellency of the power
is of the resurrection of Christ. Not of us, it's of the resurrection
of Christ. That's why He's put us in exerting
vessels and sent us forth preaching this gospel. You think about
it. We're foolishness to the world.
The gospel, the means itself, the preaching of Christ itself,
just the means itself is foolishness to the world. The substance we
preach, a bloody cross, Christ and Him crucified, the Son of
God come down into the earth, the Son of God going to a cross,
laying down His life for guilty sinners, that gospel is foolishness
to men. And God's done it so that we
can't glory in our flesh and no man can glory in our flesh,
but we're made to see the powers of God. Only God can make this
means not foolishness to us, make it the power of God unto
us. Only God can make us behold Christ and behold God's righteousness
revealed in Christ and make us delight in the subject matter
of the Gospel. And only Christ can send us forth
and by the power of His resurrection preserve earthen vessels like
us, cause us to be so broken that there's no light coming
from our flesh at all. And we don't want it that way.
We want the light to be Christ shining. We want people to be
hearing of Christ and looking to Christ only. That's what He's
working. So it's by His power. Now, here's
the third accomplishment of God's power. As He works this, we're
made a little more conformable unto Christ's death. I've looked
at that statement all my life and I've never really... well,
since God called me, I've never really understood what that meant.
To be made conformable unto Christ's death. Paul tells us, verse 12. He says, So then death worketh
in us, but life in you. Look at verse 15. For all things
are for your sakes. For all things are for your sakes.
See, by Christ making Paul experience the power of His resurrection,
He made him experience all these sufferings Paul suffered. They're
deaths. That's what they are. They're
deaths, plural. Every trial we go through, every suffering we
encounter is a death. Because our old man is dead. And if it wasn't for Christ resurrecting
us inwardly, renewing us inwardly, we'd perish. So we're constantly
experiencing death and resurrection. Death and resurrection. And that
resurrection is by Christ. And as Paul experienced that,
It made him more and more persuaded that Christ was able to raise
him up. So he was willing to suffer these
deaths for this reason, that God's elect might be made to
hear the gospel and call to faith in Christ. Paul was made willing to suffer
death that God's lost sheep might be given life through the preaching
of the gospel. Now that's called being made
conformable to Christ's death because that's the motive why
Christ went to the cross. That's exactly what Christ did.
When you're conformable to somebody, you're made like them. And that's
exactly why Christ went to the cross. The Scripture said He
saved others. Himself He could not save. He
became poor that we through His poverty might be made rich. He
was obedient unto death that we might be made righteousness
and live. You see that? Hereby perceive
we the love of God because He laid down His life for us. And when He makes us conformable
unto His death, here's what He makes us do. He makes us lay
down our lives for the brethren. And that's what we do. You know,
we're never going to lay down our lives like Christ laid down
His life. But He don't call us... Well, some He does call to do
that. Martyrs He does. But in our day, we don't suffer
like Paul and the earlier church suffered. But He makes you give... of your money, that's a huge
thing, brethren, that the world just won't do. Because they think
this thing is foolishness. He makes you give of your time.
He makes you give those things that we value in this life. He
makes us give of those things. Why? So this gospel goes forth. You see, you want to see other
lost sheep that Christ redeemed. You want to see them called out
just like you were called out. You want them to hear the Gospel
just like you've heard the Gospel. You want us to be united together
in Christ. And so, experiencing Christ's
power, raising you in all these trials and preserving you and
keeping you, makes you more and more willing to be conformable
to Christ's death. It makes you more and more willing
to lay down your life for the cause of Christ and the furtherance
of the gospel for the sake of the brethren. That's why Christ
went to the cross. And there's another thing mentioned
here, how Paul was made conformable unto Christ's death. He was made
willing to preach Christ even unto death. because he believed
God's covenant promises in Christ. He said in verse 13, ìWe, having
the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, ìI believed,
therefore have I spoken,î we also believe and therefore speak.î
Why? ìKnowing that He which raised
up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall
present us with you.î What he's doing here, as it is written,
he's quoting David in the Psalms. He quotes the 116th Psalm, and
here's what David said. David said, Thou hast delivered
my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from
falling. See, Paul's talking about having
experienced being delivered in all these different trials, being
delivered. How do we learn Christ's power?
How do we learn anything? by experience. And as you experience
Him delivering you from your falls and from your tears and
from all these different things, you experience His ability to
do it. And so here's what David said,
I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believe
He's going to resurrect me one day. into glory, and I'm going
to walk with Him. I'm going to do it right now,
throughout this life, and one day I'm going to be with Christ
in glory. Because I've discovered that from Him delivering me through
all these trials and all these falls. And He said, I believe,
and therefore have I spoken it. We're preaching Christ's resurrection.
We're preaching Christ's who redeemed His people and is resurrected,
and now He's resurrecting us over and over and over through
this life, making us more and more confident, more and more
trusting of Him, more and more believing Him. And I'm convinced
here that whenever He says the same spirit of faith, He's not
talking about... He did have the same spirit of
faith that David had. But when we're made conformable
unto Christ, Christ gives us the same spirit of faith that
Christ had by Christ dwelling in us. You know what the Apostle
Paul said? He said, the life I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. It's the spirit
of faith that Christ had by which I'm now living, by Christ being
in me. And you see, we're made conformable
unto Him when we, like He was, made conformable unto the Father.
He laid down His life because He believed the Lord's covenant
promises. Our Lord Jesus came to this earth
And he came on a covenant promise from God the Father that when
he had justified his people and glorified God, God would justify
him and raise him from the dead. And he believed God. It made him go forth and preach
the Word unto death. It made him obedient unto the
death of the cross. He said, I gave my back to the
smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I
hid not my face from shame and spitting, for the Lord God will
help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded.
Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know I shall
not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me
who will contend with me. And through all these resurrections,
through all this suffering and these resurrections and experiencing
the power of Christ, you and I are made to believe more conformable
to Christ who believed the Lord. We are given the Spirit of the
Lord, that Spirit of faith to trust our Lord Jesus Christ and
God our Father in Him. So that we say what Paul said.
We say, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God to justify. Who is He that condemned us?
It's Christ that died, that's risen again, who ever lives to
make intercession for us. That's just almost word for word
what Christ said in Isaiah. Because we have the same spirit
of faith as Christ. He's making us conformable unto
Him. This is true growth in grace
and knowledge of Christ. This is not this phony thing
that men call holiness whereby they try to act better than other
people. This is true growth right here that I'm talking about.
And it's worked by Christ. make conformable to Christ. Number
one, for the sake of the brethren, willing to lay down our life
for their sake. Number two, in the same spirit of faith Christ
has, so that we look and trust all God's covenant promises are
yes and amen in Christ, so that we're preached now. And God keeping
us and God strengthening us, we'll do it unto death. That's
easy to say right now, but I know this, I'm not suffering somebody
sitting here putting me in a guillotine right now. But I know this, if
that time comes, it won't be by my flesh that I persevere.
It will be by Christ's power making me faithful. And here's
the third thing about being conformed to Christ's death. He makes us
preach Christ for the glory of God. Look at verse 15. For all things are for your sakes,
that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many,
redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not.
God creates His people in an entirely new righteous creation
by the work of Christ Jesus, by His abundant grace. Remember what Paul said? In Romans
5 about how grace abounded, I mean sin abounded so that it reigned
over us unto death. But where sin abounded and death
abounded, grace did much more abound unto eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. And this is what... He does everything
by abundant grace. And this is all... I know this.
When you are made to experience the abundant grace of God, and
you experience what Christ is talking about here, your glory
only in the Lord Jesus. Your glory only in God. You'll
say, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and
power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure
they are and were created. Talking about the new creation.
Everything He's created is in righteousness for His pleasure.
Created by Him and for Him. And how's that being made conformable
to Christ? That's why Christ did what He
did for His people. for the glory of God. He said
in that high priestly prayer in John 17, He said, Father,
I've glorified Thee on the earth. I've finished the work which
Thou gavest Me to do. So you see that? By God's power,
He makes us conformable unto Christ's death for the sake of
brethren, in the spirit of faith, and for the glory of God. And
then here is the fourth accomplishment of God's power. In all this,
He grows us in the knowledge of Christ. In all this, He grows us in the
knowledge of Christ. Verse 17, He says, For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us. You know, that's what Peter said.
The same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren in the world.
These light afflictions are accomplishing something. They are working for
us. These light afflictions work for us a far more exceeding eternal
weight of glory. You see the difference there?
We have light afflictions which are for a moment. contrasted
with an exceeding, a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory. And what is that? What is He
doing in all this? While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. by the power of God, by the excellency
of His power, by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, our resurrected
Redeemer, by His power, He takes these light afflictions which
are but for a moment. We think they're heavy at the
moment and we think they'll last forever. But they're light and
they're just for a moment compared to the eternal weight of glory
that's so far more exceeding that He's working for us. And
what He's doing is, in all these things we've seen, He makes us
experience the fellowship of Christ's suffering. You think
about this. Through this He makes you realize,
my consolation, my only comfort is Christ. It's not my flesh,
it's not anything of Adam, it's not anything of me. It's Christ. in my new man. That's to know Christ. That's
to grow in the knowledge of Christ. To know that by experience. And
then He makes you experience the power of Christ's resurrection.
He makes you experience that you really have a Redeemer right
now living in glory at God's right hand. And He's working
this power. It's the only reason you keep
going. I love that illustration Pink gave, you know, of a candle
being carried across an open bay during a hurricane and staying
lit. This is what God's doing. Christ
is doing this by His power. He's carrying you and me across
this ocean and there's a hurricane blowing and there's a storm raging
all around us all the time and yet Christ our light keeps us
lit the whole time by His power. keeps us resurrected inwardly
by His power. And that's eternal. We're never
going to lose that new man that He's created in us. It's eternal. The eternal life you're going
to have in glory is the eternal life you have right now in you,
Kevin. Right now. And that's by Christ's
power. The power of His resurrection.
And that makes you know more of Christ, doesn't it? That makes
you know something more about Christ. Grow in the knowledge
of Christ. And then He makes you to know
what it is to be a little more conformed to Christ's death,
a little more willing to bear suffering for Him, for your brethren,
a little more willing to believe on Him and trust Him and preach
Him, a little more willing to do everything for the glory of
God. And you know, you're made to see it's by Him making you
conformable to Him, and that grows you a little bit more in
the knowledge of Christ. and all of this together, every
bit of this together. When that trial comes, man, we
start looking at the waves, we start looking at the second causes,
we start looking at, you know, if I hadn't done this and that
and the other thing, then this wouldn't have led to this and
that and the other thing wouldn't be here. And we're just looking
at all the temporal stuff. And the reason that the Lord
sent that trial is because all we've been doing is looking at
the temporal stuff and thinking this is the lasting thing, this
is the thing that's going to be forever. And while all that's
going on, in the midst of all that going on, He teaches you
these things we've been looking at and He takes your eye of faith
and He turns your head and sets your affection on things above
and says, there's your life with Christ at God's right hand. There's your life. Here's what's
eternal. Everything you've been looking
at and trusting in is temporal, perishing and will be gone like
that. Do you kids remember that time,
y'all are grown now, mostly, almost, but you remember when
I first came here and I showed up one Sunday and I took that
little bottle of bubbles and blew that bottle of bubbles in
the air and we sat there and watched those bubbles float down
and I said, there's Pennington and there's Rocky Hill and there's
New Hope and there's a big one, there's the whole world right
there. And we watched them float down and we watched them all
just burst. That's everything you can see. That's everything
I can see. It's not real. It's not lasting. He turns you to Christ. Christ
is our temple. Christ is our abiding place of
abode. And He's created for us a house,
eternal, in the heavens, made by Him. And we're going to have
it. It will never be taken from us,
brethren. And that's what's real. A new
heavens and a new earth. Just like the one we are dwelling
in now, but no sin. And no effects from sin. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
having a perfect government? run by the monarch of heaven
and earth that made us righteous and holy and complete in Him. Can you imagine what it would
be like to serve Him and to love one another and have no malice
in our hearts at all whatsoever? I can't really fathom that. I
can't imagine it. It's like a fish trying to imagine
what it's like not to be wet. But that's how it's going to
be. And that's what He does. He turns us and He says, if you
be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where
Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection, singular,
on things above and not on things of the earth. He said the things
that are above are eternal. Things we can't see, that we
see by faith. The substance of things hoped
for is faith. We see them by faith. We believe
God. And those things are eternal. And He said, here's what they
are, you are dead. Not as if you are dead. And your
life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ who is our life
shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. Now brethren, this is why that
God so chose to give us this treasure in these earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power,
of the power to call out other lost sheep through this gospel,
and of the power to teach us who He's called out, these things,
make us to grow in the knowledge of Christ and encounter these
four accomplishments of His power. These are things He's making
us experience by the excellency of His power. And that's why
he's done it. That's why he's chosen a foolish
means of preaching, a foolish message that's foolish to this
world, and foolish people to preach it. So that all the power
is of God. Everything. Paul said, so my
desire is this, I want to know Him. And I want to know the power
of His resurrection. And I want to know the fellowship
of His suffering. And I want to be constantly being made conformable
unto His death. That's what He's doing by His
power. That's true growth. You know what that's going to
end in? It's not going to end in this superficial thing that
men talk about where they get so big for their britches that
they're about to bust and then God has to permit them to come
into heaven because they're just so perfectly holy and they've
mortified sin so much in their flesh. No, you're going to have
sinful decaying flesh right up until the minute you die. And
it's not going to be different then than it is now. Now this
growth is to make you look only to Christ because you've experienced
that everything you have has been of Christ. And to not look
to your flesh. Treat it like what it is, dead. And just look to Christ. What's
at the end of that funnel? All these things, this shelf
keeps getting narrower and narrower and things just keep falling
off that aren't necessary. And when we're all done and we're
brought into glory, where are we going to be? Standing right
before the one thing that we needed all along, Christ. That's
the purpose. Amen.