Let us turn again to that 6th
chapter in the 2nd epistle to the Corinthians, Paul's 2nd letter
to the Corinthians, chapter 6, and I'll read the verses 9 and
10. as unknown and yet well known,
as dying and behold we live, as chastened and not killed,
as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich,
as having nothing and yet possessing all things. In these words of course we have
a series of paradoxes or riddles we might say and There is much that is truly paradoxical
in the experiences of the people of God. And the theme I really
want to take up today is that of the paradox of the life of
faith. The paradox of the life of faith. The paradox is what seems to
be contradiction that's what we think it is and yet when we
analyze it we discover that it's not altogether a contradiction
there's much that is strange about the experience he's in
of the people of God and in his gospel sonnets Ralph Erskine
that great Scots minister from the 18th century as a whole section
on what he entitles the believer's riddle. And how mysterious is
that life? This is how Erskine describes
it. My life's a maze of seeming traps,
a scene of mercies and mishaps, a heap of jarring to and fros,
a field of joys, a flood, of wells, I'm in mine own and others'
eyes, a labyrinth of mysteries, I'm something that from nothing
came, yet sure it is, I nothing am, once was I dead and blind
and lame, yea, I continue still the same, yet what I was I am
no more, nor ever shall be as before, and so it goes on, strange
language in many ways, and yet an attempt to describe something
of the experience of one who knows the grace of God. And here, of course, we have
to recognize that Paul, as he writes to this church at Corinth,
is describing something of his own experiences, his own physical
experiences. He says at verse 4, how he wants
to approve himself as the minister of God in much patience, in afflictions,
in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments,
in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings. There were certain
problems that he was trying to deal with in the Church there
at Corinth. At home recently we've been reading
these two epistles and they're quite remarkable. We see the
problems that there were. There were those false teachers
who had come amongst the Corinthians and they'd embraced so much of
the teachings of those men and he goes on at some length to
describe them later in chapter 11. And there at verse 23 asks the
question, are they ministers of Christ? That's the false teachers.
I speak as a fool, I am more. In labours more abundant, in
stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft
of the Jews. Five times received I forty stripes,
saith one, thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned,
thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I've been in
the deep." And so he goes on explaining something of the tremendous
cost of his ministry, not that he wants to in any sense draw
attention to himself, he must do this. because he has to defend
himself against what was being said by those false apostles,
those false teachers. But there were other problems
in that church. He has to deal with the matter
of the incestuous person. He has to deal with the fact
that they were in many ways greatly gifted as a church and yet there
was much abuse of those gifts that they had and all of this
is under the sovereignty of God and so when one reads through
these epistles time and again we find Paul having to speak
of himself and there's a purpose in it of course because this
man who is the great apostle to the Gentiles is also that
one who is a pattern he's a pattern really of the life of faith he
says as much there in 1 Timothy 1.16 He's a pattern to them which
should hereafter believe. There are principles in his life,
in his experience, that will relate to all the people of God,
not that all are going to have the same depths of experiences. He was called to be the apostle
to the Gentiles. But there are those lessons that
we can learn, and so God, in his inscrutable wisdom, so orders
matters. that as he writes here to the
church at Corinth he continually makes a reference to his various
experiences and how his life is that labyrinth of mysteries
that Ralph Erskine speaks of. When we go back to the Old Testament
in the book of the Prophet Zechariah where mention is made of the
Lord Jesus Christ as the branch, one of the names of Christ. And
those who are the followers of Christ are there described of
as men wondered at. Those who follow the Lord Jesus
Christ, men wondered at. The psalmist says, I am as a
wonder unto many, but thou art my strong refuge. How the child
of God then His life is so paradoxical, there's that that is a mystery,
there's a riddle so much in all that he has to endure, as he
seeks to live by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so,
as I said, I want to try to say something today with regards
to this paradox of the life of faith. And here, as we turn to
these words at the beginning of verse 9 in particular, as
unknown and yet well known. Different views, or different
knowledge as it were, of the believer. And first of all, to
say something with regards to the way in which the men and
women of the world would view the people of God. John tells
us in his first epistle, the world knoweth us not, because
it knew him not. That is the world's view. The
world really knows nothing of the people of God and the life
of the child of God who lives, of course, by the faith of Jesus
Christ. There is ignorance. The world
is ignorant with regards to what believers are or what they're
about. And the word that we have here in our text, unknown, literally
means ignorant or ignored. Again, writing in the first letter,
to these Corinthians, Paul says, if any man be ignorant, let him
be ignorant. What do unbelievers know of the
strange experiences of the people of God? They know nothing, you
see, of those doubts, and those fears, those temptations, those
trials, those troubles that come with the life of faith because
it is given on the behalf of Christ not only to believe on
him, says Paul, but also to suffer for his sake. And it is a strange
life. There are times when the believer
feels he cannot pray because God's face is, as it were, hidden
from him. He wants to pray and yet he finds
himself oftentimes struggling in his prayers. There are certain
dark sides to the life of faith. But there are also bright sides,
of course. There are times of spiritual
joy. There are times of spiritual
blessing. And again, the world cannot understand
why it is that these people become so excited when they come to
some fresh discovery of the wonder of the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And of course, what a mystery
is that? The great mystery. of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh to have some understanding of the wonder of just who Jesus
of Nazareth is. That one who is truly God and
yet at the same time a real man. And when the believer's eyes
are open to these precious truths it causes him to rejoice that
there is one who is able to sympathize with him in the midst of all
his trials and all his troubles but the world is ignorant of
all these experiences and there's a two-fold reason we might say
for that ignorance Paul tells us a natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God that foolishness to him Neither
can he know them because they are spiritually disturbed. And
there is one reason then why the world's view is one in which
they simply dismiss these believers as strange people who seem to
get excited over things that to the worldling is of no value
at all. But then there's the other reason
also and that's what Paul says to the Colossians concerning
the believer, your life, he says, is hid. Your life is hid with
Christ in God. And so, what can the worldly
know of that hidden life, that life of faith? The world then
is ignorant with regards to the believer. Knows nothing at all
of that life that the child of God is seeking to live by the
grace of God. But there's not only the ignorance
of the world, alas, there is also the hatred of the world. As unknown, as unknown. Gill, in his commentary here,
remarks of the believer not owned not esteemed, not approved of,
but slighted, despised, hated, persecuted. That's what it means, you see,
to be unknown in this world. It's not just a matter of ignorance.
It's also a matter of hatred. We are made, says Paul, as the
filth of the world, and as the offscouring of all things." That
was the life that Paul had to lead. He was one, of course,
who was oftentimes very much misrepresented. What does he
say here at the end of verse 8, as deceivers?
And yet true. How they misrepresented him.
They said he was a man who came deceiving. And yet, that was
not the case. The gospel that he was preaching
was that that he had received from God himself when he writes
to the Galatians. He makes that quite plain in
the very opening verse of that epistle. Paul, an apostle, he
says, not of man, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ. and God the Father who raised
him from the dead. He had not simply set up himself.
He'd had that definite call, and there had been that special
revelation to him. He goes on to say, I certify
you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not
after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. It pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in me." Oh, what he was! He was altogether by the grace
of God, and yet, how these false teachers there in Corinth were
putting it about that he was one who was a deceiver of the
brethren. or he says by honor and dishonor,
by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true. But wasn't the Lord Jesus Christ
himself also dismissed as one who was a deceiver? That was
the attitude of the Jewish authorities, the scribes and the Pharisees,
how quick they were to dismiss the Lord Jesus. Even after he
had been crucified, and after he had been laid in another man's
tomb, the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. What do we find these Jewish
leaders doing at the end of Matthew 27? There at verse 62, the next day, that, following the day of the
preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto
Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while
he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command
therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third
day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away,
and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead, so the last
error shall be worse than the first. Even after they had him
crucified, they were ready to accuse him again of being one
who was a deceiver. Oh, he came, you see. He came
unto his own, and his own received him not. He was in the world,
and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. And as was the experience of
the Lord Jesus, Not surprisingly, this must also be the experience
of those who are his true disciples. The Lord says as much. If he were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because you are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have
kept my saying, they will keep yours also. Or as Christ was,
so must his children also be in this wicked world, in this
fallen world. This is the beauty of the world. and they're ignorant of the life
of faith, the life that the child of God is to lead. They might
ignore the believer, but worse than that, they'll manifest something
of a certain hatred, a despising of them, and a rejection of them. Well, that's the world's view,
but let us turn in the second place to consider something of
the believer's view of himself, how does the child of God see
himself? we refer to those words in Colossians
that their life is hid, hid with Christ in God and at times we
have to acknowledge that that life is even hidden from ourselves
how do we walk? we walk says pour by faith not
by sight and therefore because it's the life of faith there's
a tendency at times to to lose sight of the privileges and the
blessings that really belong to the people of God even in
this present evil world we can think of the words that are spoken
to Baruch in the prophecy of Jeremiah. It seems that Barak
served Jeremiah as a sort of secretary. He would often write
down the sayings of the prophet. He served as a sort of amanuensis
to him. He would write those things down
and then these messages would be reported to the people. He
was a man of some significance then, was Barak. and we read
of him a few times there in the book of Jeremiah in that little
short 45th chapter at the end we have that statement where
the prophet addresses as the mouthpiece of God. Seekest thou
great things for thyself? Seek them not. For behold, I
will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord, that thy life
will I give unto thee for to pray in all places whither thou
goest." Words of address to Baruch. It's a great text. And it was
from those words that back in the 1840s, J.C. Philpott preached at the old
Salem Chapel here in Portsmouth. It's to be found in Philpott's
early sermons, and I do commend it to you. I think it's one of
the best of Mr. Philpott's sermons. Life given
for a prayer. God's words to his servant Baruch. And that is the life of the child
of God. and we have to recognize that. Our life is given for a
price. We must, through much tribulation,
says the Apostle, enter into the Kingdom of God. And isn't
Paul simply echoing the words of the Lord Jesus? In the world
ye shall have tribulation, says the Lord. But be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world. Well, this is why at times the
the believer's life seems to be swamped with trials and troubles
and difficulties and problems and we lose sight we lose sight
of the privileges that we have as those who by the grace of
God can address him as our God and our Father which is in heaven
oh it's a strange life it is a strange life, it's a life where
there will be at times even persecutions. Yea, all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And we know that
there are some in this world, some of the Lord's dear saints,
who suffer great persecutions, who languish in prison cells,
who are under sentence of death, who fear for their very lives.
In many ways, of course, we are so favored. Though we bemoan
the state of affairs in our nation, yet we still enjoy a measure
of liberty. We still have some protection
from the law. Whether these things will always
be so, we know not. But we need to recognize that
we are often in danger of losing sight of what our real privileges
are. Such a strange life. How strange
is the cause that the Christian must still how perplexed is the
path he must tread. It's not only a man like Ralph
Erskine who can speak of that riddle of the believer's life,
but he comes out also in many of the hymns, certainly in the
hymns of Joseph Hart. Here Paul then is speaking of
all that came upon him as he sought to faithfully execute
that ministry that the Lord had given to him. In afflictions,
he says, verse 4, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in
imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings. Oh, what a life, what a life
is this! And again, we didn't just read
this sixth chapter, we read that fourth chapter and we see the
same truths being set forth in that chapter. He says, verse
7, we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of
the power may be of God and not of us. All these poor bodies,
these tabernacles. Chapter 5 he says, we know that
if our earthly house are these tabernacles were dissolved we
have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in
the heavens for in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed
upon with our house which is from heaven if so that being
clothed we shall not be found naked for we that are in this
tabernacle do groan being verdant he speaks then you see of the
the tabernacle the poor body an earthen vessel, 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 mortal
body. You see, then how necessary it was that this man has to have
these problems, these difficulties, dealing with these Corinthians,
and all the troubles that had come into that church, because
he has to write these things, all these things written, for
our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures,
might have hope. And here is our comfort. Although
at times, as a believer, we might come to the conclusion that we
hardly know ourselves, and we can hardly understand what's
going on in our lives, but our comfort is that God knows. All
God knows is well. God knows us better than we know
ourselves. Remember David, The sweet psalmist
of Israel brings it out in the 139th psalm, O LORD, Thou a searcher
and knower, Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising, Thou understandest
my thought afar off, Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and
art acquainted with all my ways. or like as the father pitieth
his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him he knoweth
he knoweth our frame he says in Psalm 103 he knows us better than we know
ourselves and what are we to do? we are to commit ourselves
then into his hands search me O God and know my heart try me
and know my thoughts see if there be any wicked way in me and lead
me in the way everlasting. All the believers sometimes,
you see, lose his sight of what his privileges and what his blessings
are. He has a God that he can turn
to and a God that he can cast all his cares upon. And yet the believer's view of
himself is such that at times he seems to be so ignorant. He
knows not himself. And it's not only that he loses
sight of the blessings that are his in the life of faith, he
loses sight also of that glorious inheritance that God has laid
up for his people in heaven. We know, I have not seen, nor
ear heard, neither hath entered into the hearts of men the things
that God hath prepared for them that love him. It is God, of
course, who has to reveal these things to us. It's God who has to assure us,
time and again, that there is that that will yet come, the
vindication of the life of faith, the rest that remains to the
people of God. Oh, God has to reveal them. God
has revealed them unto us, it says, by His Spirit. It is the
Spirit that searcheth all things, aye, the deep things of God. The Lord has to show us what
the mystery of the life of faith is. We cannot give ourselves that
faith. We read in Colossians 2 of that
faith that is of the operation of God. that faith that is the
work of God. It is given on the behalf of
Christ to believe on Him. It is the work of God that you
believe on Him whom we are sent. And how often we have to come
with that man in the Gospel and cry out, Lord, I believe, help
thou my non-belief. Alas, so often we feel ourselves
to be like that, we're believers, yes, and yet we're such unbelieving
believers, there's the paradox there's the paradox, we're believers
and yet all that sin which hath so easily beset us hath accursed
unbelief the paradox of the life of faith, the losing sight even
of those things that God is laying up in store for his children
in heaven. Those things that the eye has
never seen, that we can only anticipate by the eye of faith. But the whole life of the Christian,
the prayer life of the child of God, again in the language
of Joseph Hart, he says, "'Tis to credit contradictions, talk
to him one never sees, cry and groan beneath afflictions, yet
to dread the thought of these." That's the life that we have
to live and we have to ask God to give us some understanding,
some knowledge of what the life of faith is. But there's not
only the the view of the worldling who knows nothing of that life.
It's not only the view that the believer has of himself. In the
third place, we have to remember God's view and God's knowledge
of his people. We've already hinted something
of that. Let us turn as we come to a conclusion
to that view, the Lord's view. What does it say in the text?
It's not just unknown. It's unknown and yet well-known. Unknown. Unknown in the world,
despised in the world. Unknown sometimes in our own
foolish ignorance of what the life of faith is. But not just
that, it also says, well known. And let us mark the adjective. These little words that we have
in scripture. All scripture given by inspiration
of God. The verbal inspiration of the
word of God. And God granting us such a faithful
rendering of those original autographs in the authorized version. It's
such a the faithful rendering. Almost a word-for-word rendering,
we might say. It can't be that, of course,
because what they're doing is they're translating from one
language into another. And as we've said many a time,
they seek to be faithful by indicating additional words introduced which
are not a rendering of any word that would be there in the original,
by the use of italics. And we have it here in the text,
that word yet. The contrast is drawn, you see,
by introducing that word that's not there. Literally it says
as unknown and well-known. But they bring out the force
of the contradiction, the paradox, by introducing the word yet.
But that word that follows well, the adjective, is there in the
original and so they might be unknown and yet there's one who
well knows them and who is that one who knows his people well
well of course it is the Lord God himself it's that special
knowledge it's that special knowledge that God has of all his people
and it's spoken of in scripture isn't it as his foreknowledge It's the first link in that golden
chain that we have there in Romans 8. Whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. that chain that reaches, as it
were, from eternity to eternity. The one that God foreknew. Ultimately,
those that God will glorify. For the Lord knoweth them that
are His. And He has laid up in store for
them a glorious inheritance. But what of that foreknowledge
whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate. Now, you know how the Arminian interprets
those words. He speaks of that foreknowledge
simply in terms of God's foresight. How the God, because He knows
the end from the beginning, He foresees who's going to believe. And on the basis of that for
knowledge, he forms his purpose. That's Arminian's interpretation.
But what does it amount to? It means really that salvation
is not of the Lord, but salvation is of man. The man is able to
produce his own faith. and God sees that faith and on
the basis of what he foresees in the man he predestinates him
to the adoption of sons it's nonsense really what is really
being spoken of there in Romans 8.29 is such a special knowledge
such an intimate knowledge such a loving knowledge well known
the Lord knoweth them that are His that elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father all that are preserved in Jesus
Christ are called but it's that special knowledge that God has
of His own. Yea, I have loved thee, He says,
with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness Have I drawn
thee? This is God's knowledge of His
people. And what a knowledge it is. It's
the knowledge of a gracious purpose. Job could say, He knoweth the
way that I take. when he has tried me I shall
come forth as God he knows God knows the way that Job is taking
in all the mystery of the experience of that man and all the calamities
that came into his life the depth of his experiences, the bitterness
of his trials, the loss it would seem of everything and yet he
makes that confession concerning God he knows the way that I take,
when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold." And what
does the Lord God say to the children of Israel as they're
taken away into exile after the overthrow of Jerusalem by the
Babylonians, the destruction of the temple, and they're taken
away there into captivity? I know the thoughts that I think
towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil. He says to give
you an expected end. Oh, he knows the end from the
beginning. Too wise to be mistaken, he. Too good to be unkind. It is the knowledge of a gracious
purpose. It's God's eternal decree. And
now that decree centers in the person and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That one who is the head of the
body of the church. Our God's eye then in all his
dealings with men in this world is ever always upon his people. He is fulfilling his eternal
purpose. the glory of Christ in the salvation
of all those given to him in the eternal covenant and he cannot
be frustrated or they are well known unknown in this world and
often they feel so confused in their own minds they scarcely
know themselves and yet they are always well known to God
and it's not only the knowledge of a gracious purpose It's also
that knowledge of a tender care. All the tenderness of God's care
of his people, those that he knows. We've already referred
to those words in the 103rd Psalm. He knoweth our frying. He knoweth our frying. He is
the one who created us. He knows all our frailties. What does it say there in the
psalm? Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him. He knoweth our frame. He remembereth
that we are dust. And he will never allow that
his children be tempted or tested above what they are able. With
the temptation, he will always make that way of escape that
they may be able to bear it. nor the tenderness of God. And
of course we see that revelation of God ultimately in the Lord
Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God. We cannot but
read the Gospels, the fourfold Gospel that God has given to
us, that fourfold record of the birth and the ministry, the preaching,
the miracles. The death, the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus, how he goes about doing good. How he doesn't break
bruised reeds nor quench smoking flaxes. How kind, how compassionate,
time and again he's moved with compassion. Always the knowledge,
you see, of the tender care. The Lord's knowledge of his own. He knoweth them that are his. This is our comfort then. What
matters is what the world might seek to do to destroy the faith
of God's people. But what matters is that we so
often are foolish and ignorant and scarce know ourselves. The
Lord knows us as unknown and yet well known. As dying and
behold we live. as chastened and not kilt, as
sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich,
as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. It's a paradox of
the life of faith. And if we're the Lord, it's a
life that we have to live. And it's a life that all the
saints of God have ever known. May the Lord be pleased to bless
His word to us. Amen.