Let us turn again to God's Word
in that portion of scripture we were considering this morning
2 Corinthians 6 and reading verses 9 and 10. As unknown and yet well known
as dying and behold we live as chastened and not killed, or
sorrowful, yet always rejoicing as poor, yet making many rich
as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." The Christian's
experience said, as it is said before us, and we started to
address then the matter of this paradox of the life of faith,
the paradox of the life faith so much that is mysterious and
inexplicable in the life of those who are followers of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Joseph Hart says, Lord, what
a riddle is my soul, alive when wounded, dead when whole. This paradox, a seeming contradiction
but not a real contradiction, the part and parcel of that life
that God's people must live as they walk not by sight but walk
by faith in the Lord Jesus. Now Paul here is brought to say
many things concerning himself as he has to defend his ministry
to the Corinthians. He'd been instrumental under
God in first taking the gospel amongst them as a consequence
of his preaching. The Lord had promised that he
had much people in that city. And so he had not preached and
labored in vain. Sinners had been converted. And
the gospel church had been established there in Corinth. Though those
false apostles, those false teachers had come amongst them and how
they had stolen the hearts of the people. We read there in
the 11th chapter where Paul refers to them quite explicitly. He
calls them false teachers, false apostles. Are they ministers
of Christ, he asks. I speak as a fool, I am more. In labours more abundant in stripes
above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often, and
so forth. He keeps on, in various parts of the Epistle then, making
reference to all that it had cost him to engage in this work
of the ministry of the Gospel. And we have the record, of course,
there in the Acts of his many journeys and all that came upon
him. as he went from place to place
preaching the gospel of Christ, and particularly here in Corinth. And so, Paul is speaking of very
real physical experiences. And we have it here, of course,
in the portion that we have before us in chapter 6. He says there at the end of verse
4 in Afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in
imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings,
real experiences that he was called to pass through in the
course of his ministry and At times, of course, he was on the
very verge of death, it would seem. Here in verse 9 he uses
the words dying and killed. As dying and behold we live,
as chastened, he says, and not killed. We know that when he
was at Lystra in Acts 14, he was stoned. and he was actually
left for dead. When we come to the end of the
Acts, of course, he's made that appeal to the Caesar because
the Jews are plotting to assassinate him, to kill him. And he goes
from Jerusalem across to Rome and there's a shipwreck. This
great storm erupted and brews up and The vessel he is sailing
on is destroyed. He was shipwrecked, and yet,
though he must speak days as it were in the deep, yet his
life was preserved. All these experiences, and they
were very real experiences, physical experiences that he passed through.
But as we said this morning, It's the Lord who is in all of
these things, all the problems in Corinth that he has to address
in these epistles, all of this under the sovereign hand of God.
And so in the course of seeking to address the church here, he
is continually saying something of his own experience. Let's think of the the letters
of Paul, and we divide them into those two parts, we say, well,
his normal pattern is to set out the great truths of the Gospel,
great doctrinal subjects are dealt with in the former part
of the epistles, and then when we come to the latter part, he
spells out all the practical implications. It's not just a
matter of sound doctrine, but it's how that doctrine is to
affect the lives of these churches and these believers that he's
writing to. But besides doctrine and practice, he does also, in
many of his epistles, have things to say concerning himself. He
does that very much, of course, when he's writing to the Galatians. Christ has had something of his
experience. He does the same also in Philippians chapter 3. He was apprehended of Christ
Jesus and so forth. And we know why it was that he
was brought to write in that fashion, because as he tells
Timothy, concerning himself and concerning his ministry, he is
a pattern. a type as it were, there in 1
Timothy 1.16, a pattern to them which should hereafter believe. There are certain principles. I think it was dear old Sidney
Norton who first drew my attention to that scripture and the significance
of it. He said, you know, Paul is the
pattern believer. I suppose there's a sense in
which what we read concerning the ministry of all these godly
men in the New Testament and the ministry of prophets, etc.,
in the Old Testament is something to be learned from all their
experiences. But Paul, in a sense, is that pattern par excellence.
the pattern to them which should hereafter believe. And so from
these various experiences we can draw certain principles,
spiritual principles, that apply to the experiences of all the
people of God. And surely that is the case with
regards to what we have in these two verses that we started to
consider this morning, something of that paradox. of the life
of the believer. That strange course of the life
of a child of God, walking in that narrow way that leads to
life. And we tried this morning to
unlock something of the mystery of that Christian life by considering
different views. of that life, thinking of how
the world views the child of God. It's unknown, Paul says. It's unknown. The world knoweth
us not because it knew him not, says the Apostle John. Or the
world didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ And so the world doesn't
really know or understand anything of those who are the followers
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's an ignorance there. They
don't understand that remarkable life that the Christian is living. They're in ignorance. And they
ignore the Christian. And they dismiss the Christian.
And they think the life of the Christian is such a strange and
peculiar life, such an uninteresting life. What's all this religion
they might say? I referred this morning to those
gospel sonnets of Ralph Erskine and said that part of the book
takes up the matter of the believer's life, the riddle, the riddle
of the believer's life, the paradox. But you know there are other
parts there where he speaks of the believers' espousals, and
the believers' jointure, he's speaking of the believers' relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ, and he brings it out in his poetry,
there in those sonnets, those Raufersky. But what did the ungodly
know of those espousals, the love match between Christ and
the believer? or that precious union between
Christ, that union of faith, that living by the faith of the
Son of God. The life of the child of God,
they think it's such an uninteresting, boring, something to be dismissed. Get a life, they might say, to
the believer. All the world doesn't know the
child of God as unknown. So we thought of the view of
the ungodly, the worldling, ignorant of the ways of God and the life
of the child of God, often opposed, ready even to persecute. And
we thought about the believer sometimes doesn't altogether
know himself. I mean mine own and others' eyes. A labyrinth of mysteries is what
Erskine says in those sonnets, in my own, as well as in the
eyes of others, I don't really know myself, I can't understand
the life I'm living. But the great comfort is that
third view that we considered this morning, what God knows.
As unknown and yet well known. Oh, how the Lord knoweth them
that are His, that elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father. God has set his love upon them.
He knows the intimacy of that knowledge. He has loved them
with an everlasting love. He set his love upon them from
all eternity in the fullness of time. He will call them to
himself and to the experience of his grace. And so we thought a little of
those different views, different knowledges, if we can use that
word, unknown, the main unknown, and yet so very well known to
the Lord God Himself. Well, I want us tonight to turn
to the remainder of this ninth verse. He continues, as dying
and behold we live, as chastened and not killed. as dying and
behold we live as chastened and not killed. The paradox of the
life of faith as we see it here in terms of the experience that
the people of God pass through in the way of God's chastenings. How God takes account of them,
they are his children. He instructs them, he corrects
them. And just two things I want us
to consider as we think of this. First of all, the trial of the
chastening, the difficulty in that trial.
It's not an easy path. And then secondly, the blessed
end of the chastening, the goods that God has in view, the design
of that chastening. First of all then, to say something
with regards to the trial and the difficulties of chastening. To chasten is to correct. To chasten a child is to correct
that child, to discipline the child, and to teach the child
something even by the way of sufferings. Chastening in that sense is clearly
associated with childhood, and we see that in the book of Proverbs
many a time. Look at the language that we
have there in Proverbs 3.11, My son, despise not thou the
chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction, for
whom the Lord loveth He correcteth, even as a father the son in whom
he delighteth." So he's speaking there of a father dealing with
his son. The manifesting is great love
for his child, because when the child does wrong, the father
chastens him. And sometimes that experience
of chastening is a painful thing. There's suffering involved. Again,
the wise man says, he that's bareth his rod hateth his son,
but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. We live, of course,
in the most degenerate day, really, because we're told now it's wrong
to chasten children. And it's wrong for parents to
deal with their children in any sense in the way of of corporal
punishment. You're not allowed to smack the
child. That's what they say, and if you do, well, you may
well find yourself in some trouble. That's the day in which we're
living, and yet, it's all contrary, of course, to the wisdom of the
Word of God and the words that we find there in the Book of
Proverbs. Again, the language of chapter 19 and verse 18, Chasten
thy son, while there is hope, it says. and let not thy soul
spare for his crying." Oh, don't spare him. It's difficult for
the parents sometimes to chasten the child. We don't like to see
our loved ones hurt and weeping, but if we love them, we'll chasten
them. We see then quite clearly how this chastening is very much
associated with with childhood. And the word that we have in
the text as chastened, it's a word that's actually derived from
the noun for the child. Literally, it simply means the
training of a child. But it's rightly rendered here
in the in the text as chastened. That's how you train the child,
by correcting it, by chastening it. Now thinking of these things
then, and the trial, how this chastening is so humbling. It's
humbling, isn't it, really? You've got us to deal with us
as if we're just little children. It's not always pleasant to be
treated as as a child. I know there's a certain sweetness,
I suppose, when you think of the relationship between the
parent and the child, but we like to think that we're more
mature than that. We're those who have grown somewhat
in grace. We're not little children, maybe
we're young men, or fathers even, or mothers in Israel. We like
to think that we've made some progress. It's humbling when
God when God comes and chastens us. That is the purpose of the
chastening and it's good really. Or you can think of the words
of the Lord Jesus and they are most comforting words when he
takes that little child and sets him in the midst, in the midst
of his disciples. And what does the Lord say there
in the opening part of Matthew 18? He called a little child
unto him and set him in the midst of them and said, Verily I say
unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore
shall humble himself as his little child The same is greatest in
the kingdom of heaven. And if I remember it right, the
word there in verse 3, little children, the word for children
is the diminutive. It literally means little children. But then also the adjective is
put before it. It's little, little children.
It's little, little children. There's an emphasis, you see.
But don't comfort him. That's how we become the followers
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's part and parcel of the
conversion of the sinner. We have to become as little children.
And remember when John writes in his in that first epistle,
that first general epistle in the second chapter how he addresses
my little children three times he uses that expression little
children, my little children and even when we come right to
the end of that epistle how does he conclude my little children
keep yourselves from idols oh it is good is it not then to
be humbled and to be in God's sight has those little children
whom He takes account of, whom He troubles Himself to instruct
and to correct. He doesn't leave them to their
own devices. When they walk contrary to His
commandments, He pursues them, takes hold of them, instructs
them, corrects them. Oh, thank God for His chastenings,
and it is humbling. And yet, we have to recognize
that There's that sense in which the chastening is not pleasant.
It's difficult to be chastened, it's hard to be chastened. And
what we really have here, at the end of this verse, is certain
parallel statements. As dying and behold we live,
as chastened and not killed. What are the parallel statements?
Well, we have the expression we live, equivalent to not killed. If we live, we're not killed.
And so we see the other parallel is chastening, which is equivalent
to dying. Chastening equivalent to dying.
That's not a very pleasing experience in the life of the child of God.
And in the book of Job when we come
to the end of that book remember there's those various cycles
of speeches in the earlier part Job's three friends come and
address him and he answers them each one by turn and then when
we come towards the end there's another man appears Elihu and
he makes a very long speech and in the course of that speech
he utters some remarkable things really If you turn to the 33rd
chapter there, in Job, Job 33, Elihu is addressing Job very
specifically, Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches,
hearken to all my words. Behold, now I have opened my
mouth, my tongue hath spoken in my mouth, And he goes on to
say this concerning chastening, a man being chastened of his
God. Verse 19, he is chastened also with pain upon his bed,
and the multitude of his bones with strong pain, so that his
life abhorred of bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is
consumed away that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were
not seen stick out, Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave,
and his life to the destroyers. In many ways, you can see that
it's a description of Job. He'd lost everything and now
afflicted in his own person. Struck down, covered from the
crown of his head to the soles of his feet with his awful bruises
and sores, scraping himself as he sits there amongst the ashes.
His flesh consuming away, his bones sticking out. And this,
says Elihu, is the chastening. He is chastened. All God's chastening
can be painful. Sometimes He does chasten His
people, even with regards to their physical condition. Not
always, of course. We have to be careful in these
things. There are other afflictions that
God might visit upon his people. They might find that there are
trials that come into the family. There's children who become troublesome. Or they might find themselves
in a situation in the workplace where there are many difficulties.
It's hard to conduct oneself properly because of various pressures. There can be these outward trials,
you see. And God's hand is to be discerned
in some of them. Or maybe there are those inward,
those spiritual trials, God's hiding of His face. The difficulty
of making our real needs known in prayer. was struggling even
with the reading of the word of God and God's word as it were
sometimes a closed book and we read it and we we seem to get
nowhere in the reading of it you know sometimes I would just
give a small word of advice sometimes we need maybe to prime the pump
a little bit and we can do that sometimes by by turning to another book apart from the scripture.
Of course we must always give primacy to the Word of God but
sometimes if we read the writings of some godly man or woman or
something of their experience that might touch us and help
us and bring us back to the Word of God. We need to be aware Satan
is such a subtle foe and when the Lord is dealing with us even
in the way of chasing us how cunning he is, how crafty he
is. All chastening is no easy matter at all. And what we have
to remember, of course, in the midst of all the Lord's correcting
of us, however He might deal with us, that God is never vindictive
with His people. There's nothing vindictive about
the chastings of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
One who was born all the wrath of God against the sins of his
people. We're not to forget that. Christ
is born of that punishment that was our just dessert. He is the propitiation for our
sins, says John. Here in Islam, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation. That means that the Lord Jesus
has dealt with all that Godward aspect of sin. The difference,
remember, between expiation and propitiation, I know they're
technical theological words, but they're important words.
Expiation has to do with the guilt of our sin. How that sin
has affected us. And it's got to be punished.
God can by no means clear the guilt. He's a just God. He's
a holy God. And the sinner must receive the
just recompense of his sins. And the Lord Jesus has borne
that. He's expiated. The guilt is gone. But he's also
dealt with the Godward aspect. That's what propitiation is.
How God is angry with the wicked every day. And what has the Lord
Jesus done? He's made peace. Peace through
the blood of His cross. Oh, there's nothing good or vindictive
when the Lord deals with us in the way of chastening. The psalmist
says, the Lord has chastened me sore, but He has not given
me over unto death. He has not given me over unto
death. He has a good end, a gracious end, in view. Whom the Lord loveth,
He chasteneth. and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as sons. What son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not?" Oh, it's a mark of sonship. It's a blessed thing. Chastening is hard. It's difficult. It's trying. but there's comfort to be drawn
from it because God is dealing with us then as his little children for this correction render praise,
it is given thee for thy good the lash is steeped beyond thee
lays and softened in his blood oh it's all softened in the blood
of Christ because Christ has borne the real punishment of
our sin and there's nothing vindictive then in the way in which God
deals with us. The difficulties then, the great
trial that comes when God chastens his people. As dying and behold we live,
as chastened and not killed. As the dying here answers to
the not killed, so the chastening rather let me get that right
dying answers to chastening and living
answers to not killed so there is something bitter really and
hard to endure in the chastening But let us turn secondly to the
end of the chastening. What is it God designs in all
of this? Well, it's for our profit. That's what it says there in
Hebrews 12 and verse 10, for our profit, that we might be
partakers of His holiness. No chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who exercise thereby.
There's an afterward, you see. There's an end in view. It's
profitable that we might be partakers of God's holiness. He will have
his people a holy people. and so what does he go on to
say here at the end of the chapter? Wherefore come out from among
them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you.
And ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having
therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves
from all filthiness of the flesh, and Spirit perfecting holiness
in the fear of God. You see the connection even as
he goes through into chapter 7. It's separation. God's design in chastening his
people is their sanctification, that they might be a holy people.
The Lord Jesus mentions that, doesn't he, in John 15 where
he speaks of the divine and the branches. Those great I Am statements
that we have in John's Gospel. Here is that one who is God manifest
in the flesh, the great I am. And what does he say? I am the
vine. I am the vine. My father is the husbandman. Every branch that beareth fruit
he purgeth, that it might bring forth more fruit. Oh, if we're
the branches in that vine, there will be a purging. There'll be
a cutting back. The Lord says, Abide in me and
I in you, as a branch cannot bear fruit of its half, neither
can ye. Without me ye can do nothing. And we have to learn then, by
the Chastening, our complete, our utter dependence upon the
Lord Jesus. That's the lesson that God will
teach us. Complete dependence upon the Lord Jesus. Or do we
not see that in that fourth chapter that portion we were reading
in the morning hour verse 10 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 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 or that's the design that God
has in view that we might live the more on and off the Lord
Jesus Christ himself that life of such dependence and how that
godly king Hezekiah was brought to it he was brought to the very
gates of death itself remember when the Assyrians come and The
armies of Sennacherib, the great Assyrian emperor, are there at
the gates of Jerusalem, taunting the Jews on the wall. And it
seems that Jerusalem is going to fall. And then the poor king,
and he's a godly king, or he receives letters from those Assyrians
who are taunting his people and he takes the letter and he goes
to the temple and he spreads it all before the Lord commits it all unto God but then
he's struck down with sickness and he cannot rise from his bed
and Isaiah goes to him, remember you I'm sure you're familiar
with the account that we have there not only in the historic
books of Kings and Chronicles, but also in Isaiah's book. And he's sick, and the prophet
comes and tells him he's not going to live, he's going to
die. He must set his house in order, and he can't go to the
temple now. He turns his face to the wall,
and he prays to God, and God hears his prayer. And God adds
15 years to his life. And then we have that remarkable
prayer of thanksgiving, his song of thanksgiving in Isaiah 38. And what does the king say? Oh
Lord, by these things men live. And in all these things is the
life of my spirit. All these reverses, all these
difficulties, all these trials, all these troubles, all these
chastenings, all these correctings, all that the Lord God is doing.
In all these things is the life of my spirit. My spiritual life
is here. Why? Because I'm learning now
more and more my dependence. My dependence upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, look at what it says here
in the text. There's dying. And behold, we
live. Interchastion is equivalent to
the dying. As we said it is. And then we
have these words, behold, and you know the force of that. Literally,
it means, look, see. All pixie are here, dying, and
look, we're alive. And where is that life? It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's all of the believer's life. I am crucified with Christ,
says Paul, 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. All we have to die, you see,
die to self, that we might live to Christ. Again, writing to
these Corinthians here in chapter 15 of the first epistle, In verse
31 he says, I die daily. He's a patent believer, this
man. I die daily. Or are we dying to self, dying
to sin? The Lord's dealings with us,
profitable. No chastening for the presence. It's joyous, it's grievous. Nevertheless
afterward he heared of the peaceable fruit of Righteousness and then
we'll exercise. Do we know anything of that spiritual
exercise? Some people think, you say, and
it's good, it's commendable, physical exercise is good for
us. Physical exercise profits us
little. It's profitable, but it's only
a little profitable. But what about spiritual exercise? And we need that for the Lord
to deal with us in such a way that we are brought to examine
ourselves, to prove ourselves, to know ourselves, that Jesus
Christ is in us, except we be reprobate. Oh, the Lord God has a design,
He has a blessed end in view in what He does with His people.
He'll teach them their dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ and
so ultimately we see all of this is for the glory of Christ. It's
all for the glory of Christ. Paul's physical experiences here
in his gospel ministry. What does he say in the opening
part of this chapter? We then as workers together with
him beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God
in vain, for he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted.
And in the day of salvation have I succored thee. Behold, now
is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation,
giving no offence in anything that the ministry be not blamed,
but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God. always great concern you see,
it's for their spiritual good and you will have them know what
the day is, what the time is the accepted time the blessed
day of salvation we read chapter 14 with this morning therefore
seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy we
faint not but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty
not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully,
but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God." Verse 5, he says, we
preach not ourselves. We preach not ourselves. Oh yes,
he might speak of himself, but it's no ego trip with this man.
He's defending the ministry that the Lord had given him. And as
I've sought to say, he's that man who's the pattern. These
things have to be written for our learning, for our instruction. No, he tells them, doesn't he,
right at the beginning in that first epistle, we preach Christ
and Him crucified. I determine not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. and so here as
he writes in this fourth chapter of the second letter we preach
not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants
for Jesus sake for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ all that inward
shining of the gospel That's what He knew, that's what He
wanted them to know. The inward shining of the Gospel. As God commanded the light to
shine out of darkness there in creation, God said, let there
be light and there was light. So God brings light into the
dark soul of the sinner. The light of the knowledge of
God's glory. And where is it? It's in the
face. The margin says it's the person. It's in the person of
Jesus Christ. It's all then to the honor and
the glory of Christ. And so you see how these false
teachers, they really overshoot themselves. Isn't that what Satan
always does? overshoots himself he did it
of course there in the crucifixion of Christ was there in the crucifixion
of Christ how those Jewish leaders had plotted and schemed to be
rid of Jesus of Nazareth and so he's crucified what has God
accomplished by that death? why it's a salvation of all the
people of God, that precious blood that was shed, that never
can lose its power, till all the ransomed church of God is
saved to sin no more. Well, this is the life of the
Christian. And surely, friends, we have to acknowledge it's the
life we want to live, strange and mysterious as it may appear
to be to us. What a life it is! O God, grant
that we might have grace then to live it, to live by faith
and not by sight, to live as those who do indeed see the invisible
God. May the Lord bless this word
to us. Amen.