2 Corinthians 4. There are a lot of titles I could
have given this lesson. One is our light affliction.
Afflictions don't seem light, but it depends on what you compare
them to. If you compare them, as Paul
says in verse 17, for our light affliction, which is but for
a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory." If you compare the afflictions to what we have coming,
they're light, aren't they? No matter what they are, they're
light compared to what's coming. And then I could have titled
it, we have this treasure. That's what Paul calls it, a
treasure. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. Paul calls
the gospel. a treasure. It's the richest
treasure that anyone can have. It is the richest treasure that
God can give you. Because it is Christ who is the
treasure. It is Christ who is life. And it is Christ in you, the
hope of glory. You and I really have a real
solid genuine hope of standing before God in glory in a little
while. In a little while. Anymore when
I speak of dying and going before the Lord, I always speak of it
and I see it. as just a little while. When
I was young, I looked at it as down the road. I looked at it
as if I were going to grow old. We don't know how old we'll be
when the Lord takes us. I've seen Him take young ones,
and I've seen Him take middle-aged, and I've seen Him take old ones.
I don't know, but I do know this. Now I say, in just a little while. For all of us, even for the youngest
ones here, it's just a little while, really. What is 70 years? What is 70 years? I mean, Adam
was 900 and something years, Methuselah 969 years. What's
70 years? It's nothing. It's a moment.
It's barely a moment. It's really barely a moment.
But Paul says, we have this treasure, this rich treasure in earthen
vessels. We have the truth. as part of
this treasure. It's the truth about God. It's
the truth about Jesus Christ. It is the truth about ourselves. Aren't you glad that you know
the truth about God, about Christ, and about yourself? That you
can actually look in the mirror. Every time you look in the mirror,
you know the truth about yourself. You're not lying to yourself.
You know the truth. And you know that through the
gospel. And in the Gospel we have the rich promises of God.
All the promises of God in Christ are yea and amen. And we have
these promises. God's given them to us in Christ.
And it's in earthen vessels. You know, when people have a
rich treasure, They either hide it or they put it in a bank vault
or in a safe. They buy a safe and they put
it in a safe. But you know where God put this
rich treasure? In clay pots. In clay pots. That's where He put it in. Earthen
vessels. God put this rich, rich treasure,
the richest treasure there is, in clay pots. And the reason
God did this is that He may display His power in salvation. and not our power. We don't have any. We're just
clay pots. That's all we are, clay pots.
Easily broken. Let an affliction come along
and if God pulls his hand back a little bit, we fall apart.
We just fall apart. We see something going on in
the world and fall apart. That's just an evidence of these
clay pots. But God has put this treasure,
this rich treasure of the gospel in clay pots. And we possess
it. We possess it. You know, one of the best places
to display a beautiful bouquet of flowers is in a clay pot.
The pot doesn't take away from the beauty of the flowers. All
you see is the beauty of the flowers. Oh, what beautiful flowers. It doesn't matter that they're
sitting in a clay pot. God's grace and mercy are best
displayed in clay pots like ourselves. It's best displayed in weak vessels,
earthen vessels. And Paul says here in verse 18,
as far as we apostles are concerned, he gives their experience. He gives the experience of the
clay pots. We are troubled on every side, surrounded by the
enemy on all sides. We are too. If we could see what
God sees, if we could see the unseen spirits that are against
us, the evil spirits, if we could see that, if we could really
see the heart of lost men and women, we would see that we are
surrounded by the enemy. But we are never... Cast down. I mean, we're not
troubled in the sense that we can't get back up, is what he's
saying. Surrounded by the enemy, but
we're never without trouble. It's our constant companion.
Trouble seemed to be Paul's one constant companion everywhere
he went. There was trouble with him. But not distressed. We have the peace of God in our
hearts. We know that God is for us. You
know, sometimes you look at the preacher, and I especially, when
I was a young man sitting under Henry, you know, I saw Henry
up here on his pedestal as somebody that had overcome these things. But as I grew older, I realized,
no, he's just a man like me. He's just a man like me. He suffers
trouble just like me. Distressed. and troubled, but
we have the peace of God in our hearts. We know that God's for
us. We have access to the throne of grace. We know that these
things are from our Father's hand. We know that. We know that. Troubled on every side, but not
distressed. We are perplexed. You think I'm
never perplexed? Let's call John and see what
we ought to do. Well, call me, but we'll pray about it and see
what we ought to do. We're perplexed. Paul's saying,
I don't know what to do all the time. Sometimes I don't know
which way to go. Sometimes I don't know which
way to go. Perplexed, but not in despair. There's a difference. We can be perplexed. Job said,
I'm full of confusion. The psalm we looked at last Thursday,
he spoke about confusion, perplexed, but not despair. We have our
doubts and at times we don't know which way to go, but we
know this, we know that our Lord will lead, guide, and protect
us, don't we? We know that. And the more we
grow in grace and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, The
easier it is to settle down when these things come along, the
easier it is when we are perplexed to just step back and just wait
on the Lord, wait and see. Then it says in verse 9, persecuted.
Men curse us, they hate us, treat us like we have some type of
disease. Paul became one of the most hated men of his day. Not by the church, not by the
true church, but by the world and by the unbelieving, those
false apostles and false teachers and preachers, they hated him. They hated him. And they let
him know it too. You know, oftentimes Paul was
run out of town. He had to leave. Persecuted,
but not forsaken. Not forsaken. Just because one
of God's servants may be persecuted doesn't mean God has forsaken
him. Not at all. Not forsaken. Our
Lord said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Cast down,
but not destroyed. Cast down, you know what, that
really has the term, you know, like in the Olympic games back
in Rome of boxing. That word, that means knocked
down. I was knocked down in a boxing match one time. Guy knocked me
down, I hit the floor, I bounced back up, and the ref made me
take an eight count. And then after that eight count, we went
back at it. I was knocked down, but I was not knocked out. Knocked
out means you're out, it's over. And believers get knocked down.
They get knocked off their feet. There will be times in the life
of a believer that something will come along and it'll knock
you off your feet. You get a phone call and it'll
knock you off your feet, but it won't knock you out. God won't
let it. He will not let it. You'll get
knocked down, but not knocked out. Thrown away by men and family,
looked upon as worthless, but not destroyed. Satan and men
have tried to break these clay pots. They've tried to break
these clay pots, but they've not been able to. The easiest
thing to break is a clay pot, but yet in the hand of God, they
are unbreakable. Unbreakable in the hand of God.
One of the prophets said this, Rejoice not over me, O my enemies,
though I fall, yet shall I rise again. Don't rejoice. I might be laying on the ground
right now, but if I were you, I wouldn't rejoice, because I'm
going to stand back up. I assure you, as sure as God's on the
throne, I'm going to stand back up, because He's going to stand
me up. He's going to pick me up. He's going to dust me off,
and He's going to put me on my feet, and I'm going to continue
on the way. Guarantee it. If you're a child of God, that's
what He'll do. Now always, He says in verse
10, "...always bearing about in the body the dying of the
Lord Jesus." We die daily to self. And this is part of what
He's talking about. We die daily. We deny ourselves. We die to self daily. We die to ourselves daily. What
I want doesn't matter. And the older we get, and the
more we grow in Christ, the more that grows. It really doesn't
matter. What matters is the Lord's will
be done. What matters is that my life and my time on this earth
is to the glory of God. That's what matters. We die daily. Paul is saying
this also. We are the subject of the same
hatred and cruelty that our Lord was subject to. In that sense,
we don't die the death on a cross, but we do die daily in the sense
that He sacrificed Himself daily, He had no place to lay His head,
and daily He suffered the taunts and the hatred of men and Satan,
and we do too. We do too, and we do it willingly.
The Scripture says, the servant is no better than his Lord, his
Master. If He suffered, we suffer. But the power of His grace is
working in us. Satan may attack us, and he will,
if you're a child of God. You're not going to be without
attack. We're not going to be without a warfare. Every one
of us is in a warfare. Yet in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we live, and we enjoy the resurrected power of His life. That's what
Paul's talking about over in Philippians 3. Turn over to Philippians
3. Show you what Paul's talking
about here. Let me start at verse 8. "'Yea,
doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may
win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may
know Him and the power of His resurrection, that I may know
the power of His resurrected life in me.'" The power of His
resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. Paul said,
I want to know also the fellowship of His suffering. Did Christ
suffer? Then I'll suffer. I'll suffer. Being made conformable
unto His death. Now in verse 11, For we which
live are always subject to death. We live in this world, we live
in this body, and we're always subject to death. In other words,
the sentence of death is on us everywhere we go. The sentence
of death is always hanging over our heads. And the reason it's
hanging over our heads is for Jesus' sake, the gospel we preach. As Paul said, the sentence of
death is always after us, not because we have done something
wrong, but because we preach the gospel. We preach the truth. We give God the glory that's
due unto His name, and we are hated for it, and because of
that, death is after us. That is, men are after us to
take our lives. They want to kill us, just like
they did the Lord Jesus Christ. But the life, he says here, but
the life of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal bodies. It's evident,
it's evident that the life of Christ is in us, in this world. We live because He lives. If
it were not for Him, they would kill us. They would. But they
can't. They can't. It's like, When Satan
and the Lord was speaking about Job, He said, you can touch everything
you had, but you can't touch his life. You can't touch his
life. To do that, he would have to
touch God, because He is our life. So then, in verse 12, so
then, death works in us, but life in you. Death is after us.
The death sentence is over our head. It's like you go to the
post office and there's a picture of Paul and a reward for his
life. Instead of dead or alive, it's just dead. They wanted him
dead. They didn't want him dead or
alive. They wanted him dead. But that sentence of death that
is after us is that we might bring life to you. Everywhere
Paul went, he came preaching the gospel. The gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of life, eternal life. Our death is your life. The things
which we suffer is for your sakes. It's for you. Paul said in one
place, I endure all things for the elect's sake. I endure all
things, suffer the loss of all things for your sake, God's people,
the elect's sake. We preach this gospel at the
expense of persecution and trials and death in order to bring to
you life, the gospel, which is the gospel of life. And then he says in verse 13,
we have the same spirit, the same faith, the same spirit of
faith that David had. And he's speaking of Psalm 116,
verse 10. That's the verse he's speaking
of. David believed God concerning
his son, concerning the Messiah, and he spoke about it. He spoke
about it. Faith always leaks out, wherever
it is. It's always going to come out.
And he says David spoke of it, and he says here we believe the
same God, we believe the same gospel, and we speak, we preach. We have the same spirit of faith
because it's the spirit of Christ. Same spirit. We don't have two
different spirits, we have the same spirit. And we are assured in verse 14,
we are assured that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will raise
us up also. Do you have that kind of hope
that here in a little while, when you and I die, that you're
gonna be raised up, that you're gonna have a new body that's
gonna be raised up out of the grave, wherever they bury you,
that there's that body, there's gonna be a new body that's gonna
come up out of that grave. Paul said this, we are assured,
we are confident, we are absolutely confident that the same person,
God, who raised up the Lord Jesus is gonna raise us up also. This is why we don't fear death.
We don't fear it. We believe that God will raise
us up after we die. If we die, he might come back
today. I would to God that I could live
in more of a reality of that. instead of the reality that I
got to get up and go to work in the morning. I would rather
live in the reality that the Lord may come back. That's a
real possibility. That's not some fairy tale. No, that's a very real possibility.
The only thing that needs to be done... You know, all the
things that's holding off is that last sheep to be saved.
And who knows? That last sheep might be here.
God could save that last sheep right here at Bethel Baptist,
and that would usher in the end of it. I wish, I would, God, I'd live
more in the reality of that instead of what I'm gonna be doing tomorrow.
I mean, I know we have, if tomorrow comes, we need to be prepared
to do whatever we gotta do, but to live in the reality, the reality
that there's an end to this, there's an end to it. In all these things, verse 15,
this caught my attention as I was going over this this morning.
For all things are for your sakes. Everything that's going on right
now in this country, in this world, is for your sakes, is
for your good. It's bringing about the end to
where finally the church as a whole will be with the Lord. The Lord's
bride will be fully complete. The Lord's body will be fully
complete. When that last one is brought
in, all things are for your sakes. Whatever you're going through
right now is for your sake. That's for your sake. It's for
your good. And all things that concern Jesus
Christ, all things that concern the purpose of God, is for you." It's for you. The sun came up
this morning for your sake. It came up for your sake. Whatever
happens, come up, it's for your sake. "...that the abundant grace
might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory
of God." Verse 16, therefore, for which
cause we faint not. I put the therefore in there,
seeing this is, I kind of add, I'm kind of like my own amplified
Bible. For which cause we faint not. Since everything is for your
sakes, since everything is of God, we faint not. We have nothing
to just faint over and just fall apart over. But though our outward
man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. Our outward man is dying, but
that inward man, that new man, that my soul, and spirit, they
never grow old. There's no wrinkles on my soul. There's no wrinkle on my spirit.
It's only on my body. I thought about this this morning.
Listen, only the bad part is dying. Only the bad part's dying. What am I complaining about?
The bad part's getting rid of. God is getting rid of the bad
part. This old flesh, this old body that I have committed all
my sins in, it's going to the grave. But my soul, my spirit
is renewed day by day. It never grows old. You're just
a part of me that's growing old. Not my spirit though. Our aim
with man is renewed daily. Daily, daily, daily. And these earthly trials, these earthly trials are just
light afflictions. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory. My brothers and sisters have
been sending out a group text, mom and dad, you know, staying,
you know, what they've been going through tough times, their age,
you know, and these group texts. And those things never stop.
I mean, you just like shoot yourself, get out of. But anyway, I never
answered them. I didn't, I didn't get into answering.
Anyway, this morning I sent this verse. I said, someone read 2
Corinthians 4, 17 and 18 to mom and dad. I said, maybe they'll
find a little comfort here. Our light afflictions are but
for a moment. That's all. You know, how long is a moment?
Well, it just went by. It goes by that quick. It doesn't
seem like it, but it's just for a moment. They are light compared to the
eternal weight of glory. They work for us. You realize
that, you realize the affliction that God puts us through. Some
of you, I don't know your day-to-day lives, I don't know everything
you're going through, but whatever it is, it's working for you. You put your money in the bank,
you put it in investments. Why do you put money in investments?
Because you want it to work for you. It's called your money working
for you. Afflictions are working for you.
It's like money and investment. They're working for you. Not
working against you. You think everything's against
you. No, it's working for you. I'm teaching myself here too. The work is for us a far more
exceeding, not even comparable, there's no comparison, eternal
way of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, which is Which is hard to do. It's hard not to look at the
things that are seen. It's hard not to look at what's
going on around you, isn't it? It's hard not to do that. It's hard not to take what's
happening to you and turn it toward heaven. It's hard. But
while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen, that's what we look at, the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporal. Let's learn to do this. And I
say let's, me first. Let's learn to do this. Everything
that comes our way, whether it's a happy day, whether we're having
a good day, whether it's a bad day, we call it a bad day. Let's
remember to just say, well, it's just temporal. Everything is
temporal. This headache, it's temporal.
Heartache, it's temporal. Now, I may have to die to get
rid of it, but it's temporal. It'll be over with. Right? I
may have to die to get rid of it, but it's over with. When
I die, it's done. It ain't following me. It's not
going with me. The things which are seen are
temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Oh, those unclouded days. that that time when God said
He'll wipe away all tears and all sadness and all sorrow, those
are the things not seen. That glory that we can't behold
in this flesh, we will one day behold. I look forward, I look
forward to, first of all, to seeing the Lord Jesus Christ,
my Lord and my God, the one who created me, made me, saved me,
died for me, went back to glory for me, intercedes for me, gonna
receive me. I look forward to seeing Him,
and I look forward to sitting down with Henry and Rupert and
Scott and Abraham. I look forward to doing that.
I do, I look forward to that company, that innumerable company. We are compassed about, it says
in Hebrews, with an innumerable company. And the angels, Gabriel, I mean that whole host. Boy, the things that are not
seen, it's going to be amazing. It's going to be amazing. But
keep your mind on the things not seen, not on the things that
you see. Don't fall apart when everything
else has fallen apart. Don't you fall apart. Because it's ordered of God. It's specially ordered, tailor-made. Every affliction and trial is
tailor-made for me. I mean like a suit. It fits me. And God made it for
me.