Those are good resolves, although
we ought to say God willing, Lord helping me, I resolve. All good. One time, I was just
trying to find it, I couldn't find it, but the Lord told the
people through Moses what they need to do. And they all said,
this is what we'll do, we'll listen, we'll hear the Lord,
we'll obey, and we'll do this. And the Lord said, the people
have spoken well, it's good that that's what they intend to do. But they didn't do it. But it's
a good resolve, and we ought to say God willing. 2 Corinthians
4, this is marvelous. passage, I think of this often,
several verses in this chapter I think of quite often. Quote
one of them, as you know, quite often, verse 6. And then there's
verses like 17, our light affliction. I think that was one of our memory
verses, wasn't it? We need to think about this all
the time. And all through here Paul said, we're ready to die.
ready to die. We need to think about that.
You remember the message from 2 Corinthians 1, the sentence of
death? You remember that? We need to
remember that. But this was the first message
when God called me, brought me here to preach to you, be your
pastor. It was the first message that
I brought to you. We have this ministry. Verse
1, seeing we have this minister as we've received mercy. We think
not. Down in verse 7, we have this
treasure. That's the title, that's the
subject. We have this treasure. What's he talking about? Christ,
the gospel. This treasure. But this ministry
of the gospel is what he's talking about. In the previous chapter,
he talked about the ministry of the law was death. Now, you know, some people sit
and listen to, like the Seventh-day Adventists and Mormons and Jehovah's
Witnesses, and they sit and listen to law. Oh, and then the Reform
law. It's death. I wouldn't want to
sit under that, would you? We don't. We have this gospel
ministry, glorious good news, the gospel. Isn't the Lord merciful
to us and given us the gospel? Paul called it our gospel, verse
3, our gospel, the gospel. There's only one. There's another
gospel that many most preach, believe. It's not the gospel.
Well, look at verse 1, he says, we faint not, we're not going
to quit. We have this ministry. The gospel, the cause of Christ,
we have it. We're members of His body. I'm
talking to the church, I'm talking to God's people. We're members
one of another. Christ is our head. And how you
know the body is, the body serves the head, doesn't it? We serve
His glory and His honor. We really do. We really do, don't
we? Somebody say amen to this. We
preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. Is that not true?
It is. You don't come here to see the
band. You don't come here for the family
programs. Don't have that. You don't come
here for the entertainment. You don't have that. What do
we have? Such as we have, we give unto you the gospel of Christ.
Now, if that's all you need, Christ must be all to you. He
must be your treasure. That's good news. Brother, seriously,
that's nothing I'd rather do. No place I'd rather be, no one
I'd rather be with. Now, who did that? We've received
mercy. There was a time it would be,
I'd rather be anywhere than here. I mean it with all my heart.
I don't want to be anywhere but here. Do you? We have this treasure. And we receive mercy. Oh, so the Lord's mercies were
not consumed. He's shown us, He's revealed
us like old Manoah's wife. Oh, Manoah saw glory, God's glory. He saw Christ ascend in the altar
of the fire, and he said, I don't want to die. God's going to kill
me. I'm such a sinner. And she said, honey, he's not
going to kill us. He wouldn't have accepted that
sacrifice. He wouldn't have shown us these things. He wouldn't
have told us. He came all the way down here to tell us and
show us Christ crucified. He's not going to kill us. He
wouldn't have done that. Do you understand that? Oh, we've
received mercy. We're not going to quit. Are
we? To whom shall we go? You only
quit things you don't love, right? And when we retire from a job,
you don't say, you're not going to wake up one day and say, you
get 70 years old, honey, I'm not a husband anymore. I'm tired
of this. No, your love, you've got a relationship. We're not
going to faint, we're not going to quit. We're in love with our
Lord, we're His bride. We look forward to being with Him.
We faint not, we quit not. I've told, and one of my favorite
verses, and one we need to, I don't think I've given it yet as a
memory verse, but where it says, Let us consider one another provoke
to love not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together some if
some do But exhorting one another So much more as you see the day
approach. Come on. Come on sister. It's
almost over. Come on now What are you worried
about? What if it's almost over? We're
almost there And I've told this story. I'm gonna tell it again.
This is one of my favorite and it's why it happened. I Brother
Don Bell was visiting years ago. And we used to love to go to
Peaks of Honor. And so I said, Don, you've got to come with
me to Peaks of Honor. We're going to climb that mountain
and wait till you get to the top. It's just glorious. It's just
beautiful. You're going to love this. So
we did. We went there, Brother Don and
I. This was a long time ago. So we started walking up that
path. We've all walked it. The whole church went there one
time. We all walked it. Remember Charles and Barbara?
We thought they were lost. That's their hearts. But we all started walking up
that, Don and I started walking up that mountain, you know. We
walked and walked and walked. Now you could have taken, you
know, you can take the bus or you can walk. We're healthy young
men, let's walk. We did, started walking and we
got along pretty long ways. And Don said, let's take the
bus. I said, no, there's a sign right
there, look, right up ahead. It can't be too much further.
The sign said, you've come a quarter mile, you've got a mile and a
quarter to go. I said, yes, take the bus. He
said, no, you've come this far, and we're going to keep walking.
Well, this went on all the way up that mountain. He'd want to
quit, I'd want to quit. He'd want to quit, I'd want to
quit. But we got to exhort one another, come on, it's not much
further. And when we got to the top, And
the whole way, you know how we exhorted one another? You know
how we got strength for the task to woke up that man? You know
how we made it? We're talking about heavenly
things. Talking about the gospel. Having profitable conversation.
Iron sharpens iron. We started talking about our
Lord and we forgot all about the fatigue. Forgot about the
journey. And before you know it, we were
there! And we were both. Mount Pisgah's lofty heights. Would you look at that? Brothers
and sisters, we're almost there. Come on now. Are you going to
quit? For what? By God's grace, you're
not going to quit. Verse 2, he says, we've renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty. We're not walking in craftiness,
handling the Word of God deceitfully. No, no, no. We're not corrupt.
God's true people and God's true preachers are not corrupt. One
of my favorite verses is chapter 2, verse 17. We're not as many,
but corrupt the Word of God. for evil purposes, covetousness,
trying to build big programs and money and all that. You know that's not so here. Somebody came in, a visitor came
in, and they saw that box in the back there, just a little
label on donations, you know. They don't pass the plate anymore.
We quit doing that years ago. He said, I like that. I said,
yeah. That religion, all you think
about today, all religion is about is making money. And we won't be so far from that.
We won't give any semblance of that whatsoever. Anybody would
think we're in this for money. The hidden things of dishonesty,
handling the Word of God deceitfully. But, verse 2, he says, manifesting
the truth Our ministry is the truth. What is the truth? Christ is
the truth. True God. Eternal life. It's
in Christ. And we commend ourselves and
every man's conscience in the sight of God. Do you know what
commends a preacher and a people as a true church of God? The
truth. That's what committed. You want
to try them or put them to the test? Test them. Test the spirit. Try the spirit. How? By the truth.
By the word of truth. If they... Isaiah 8, 20, John.
You know it well, don't you? To the law and to the testimony.
If they speak not according to my word, there's no light in
them. The law and the testimony. That's
the law and the gospel. What does the law and the gospel
say? What does the law witness of? What was the law written
for? To bear witness of Christ. What the light is in you. We
preach the law and the prophets and they bear witness of Christ,
the gospel of Christ. And this commends the preacher
and the people and the church. If anybody's seeking the truth,
But Isaiah said, none calleth for truth, Isaiah 59. None calleth
for justice, truth to anybody. There's another verse that says,
anybody that stirs himself up to take hold of God, Lord, tell
me the truth. Well, by God's mercy and grace,
some do. And they find it. If you're searching
for the truth, you'll find it. Where is it found? In Christ.
You'll find a place, and you'll find a man who's preaching what?
Christ and Him crucified. That's the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth. So help me. God. Right? It commends the true conscience,
one bathed unfamed, and a true conscience seeking the truth,
you'll find Him. He'll find you. Christ will find
you. Verse 3, but if our gospel be
hid, it's hid to them that are lost. The God of this world blinded
the minds of them which believe not. They're not hiding anything. I told you the other day about
the so-called Founders Movement, Southern Baptist. start toying
with the old professions, confessions of faith, and there's Calvinism
and doctrines of grace in there, so they have to, they start playing
with it, and they say they believe it, but they don't preach it.
What's that? It's hiding it. Ashamed of it. Right? But if somebody came out
and saved you, and gave their life doing it, what are you going
to talk about? Are you going to say you let
him save you? Who are you going to glorify? Our gospel is head to them that
are lost, the God of this world. What blinds people's eyes? How
does Satan blind people's eyes? Lust of the eyes, lust of the
flesh, pride of life, and religion. It's the same thing. Look at
this. Look at this. Look at this. Experience
this. You got this for your kids. You
got this for you. That's the God of this world. That's the
God of this world. When we do one thing, we preach
Christ. It's like holding that verse
5. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord. It's like holding that brazen
serpent on the pole. Who's going to look? I was bitten
by sin. Dying. That's the purpose of
the church, the pillar and ground of the church. That's the purpose
of the preacher, like that pole. If he doesn't lift up Christ
and hold up Christ, he's worthless. And he's not God's preacher.
It says, here's the gospel, verse 4. It's the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, the image of God. That's the gospel. The light. Down in verse 6, 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. Paul wrote that. Paul was religious,
Paul was moral, Paul was zealous, Paul was legal, Paul was this,
Paul was that. Okay? Paul knew the letter, didn't
he? He didn't know the Lord. On one
day, he's walking on the road to Damascus, or driving, and
God, who caused the light to shine out of darkness, God, who
said, let there be light. See, you don't let God do anything. God's the one that said, let
there be light. What happened? There was light.
And nobody's going to have the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God. Nobody's going to know God, going
to know Christ, not going to know themselves, not going to
know the world, not going to know anything except in the light
of the truth. And God's the one that does it.
He has to. Because we're blind, we're deaf,
we're dumb, all right? Paul was that. He was religious.
He said he knew God. He said, but he didn't. But God,
rich in mercy, had chosen this worthless fellow, chief of sinners. And bless God, one day he came
and said, I'm going to apprehend him. And Christ came. And it says, the light shone
round about him. What's that? That's the glorious
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of Christ. Paul didn't
see the light. The light laid hold of him. Like a net. Put him on the ground. Blinded him. See, you can't see
unless you're blind first. That was Christ. Jesus standing
outside your heart's door. That's not the Lord Jesus Christ. He dwelleth in light which no
man could approach unto. And he came to Paul that day
in the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Oh, we could just stay right
there, couldn't we? The knowledge of the glory of God. You remember,
I do want you to turn here to Exodus 33. Exodus 33. If you don't know these verses,
you need to. Exodus 33. This is the gospel. This is the truth. Exodus 33.
Now you know what all God brought Israel through. The Red Sea and
so many things and saw the plagues and all of that. Well Moses said
in verse, Exodus 33, Moses said verse 17, Lord if The Lord said unto Moses, I will
do this thing that you've spoken, for thou hast found grace in
my sight. I know thee by name. For whom
he did foreknow, he did predestinate. Whom he predestinated, he justified.
Whom he justified, he did what? Glorify. He said, Moses, I beseech
thee, show me thy glory. And the Lord said, I will make
all my goodness pass before you, before thee. And I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. Who's the Lord? Jesus Christ
is Lord. And in His name every knee should
bow and every tongue should say. And I will be gracious. Here's
God's glory. That He will be gracious. He'll
give salvation. It belongs to Him. It doesn't
belong to us. It's not ours to will. It's not
ours to choose. The wages we've earned is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. By grace you say it's a gift, not an offer, it's a gift. And
bless God if He gives it to you. And what He gives you, He won't
take it back. I will be gracious. Does that sound good to you?
I will be gracious. To whom I will be gracious. My choice. My will. Right? You believe that? You
know it's so. And those that feel unworthy,
they know it's so. And I will show mercy on whom
I will show mercy. Now this is what God says is
His glory. Sovereign grace. Sovereign mercy. Grace. Salvation given to those
that don't deserve it. Mercy. Not getting what we do
deserve. Sparing not His own Son. but
deliver him up for all of his people." And then read on. God said, you
cannot see my face. See that? There shall no man
see me and live. Well, brothers, the glory of
God is in the face of Jesus Christ. He did come. God did come down
to earth. God manifests in the flesh. We've
seen His face. Whom have we not seen? Read on. It says, verse 21, Behold, there's
a place by me. Here's God's glory. Here's where
He's going to show us His glory. And you'll stand upon a rock.
And it'll come to pass, while my glory passeth by, I will put
thee in a cliff to the rock, and cover thee with my hand,
while I pass by. Now take away my hand, you'll
see my back part, but my face shall not be seen." And down
in verse 4, God said, be ready. And Moses rose up in the morning,
and verse 5, the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him
there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ passed by before him, proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord
God, merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and mercy,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin. He'll by no means clear the guilty,
but I'm guilty. God laid on him the iniquity
of his soul. And Moses bowed his head in worship. He said, I found great. You've
shown me your glory. Have you seen God's glory? Well, he said, verse 7, we have
this treasure, we have this treasure, the glorious gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ in earthen vessels, like fine wine in a clay pot,
like gold and silver in a box of Shittem wood, like that ark. A wooden box covered with gold,
but then it was covered with blood that looked like a brown
box. Oh, on the inside. What was on the inside? The Word
of God, the Covenant of God, the Truth of God, kept, preserved. He keepeth Covenant and Mercy
for them that love Him. The Mercy Seat, sealed. Do you know what all that is?
I'm sure you do. That's Christ. It's the Gospel
of Christ crucified. We've got this treasure. He is
the treasure. He's the Mercy Seat. He's the
Covenant of God. He's the Covenant Head. The verse
7 says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Our Lord
himself took an earthen vessel, didn't he? The Lord Jesus Christ
took a vessel of flesh. Aren't you thankful? Aren't you
glad? I'll never forget. You remember
when Herman Moore preached that message, there's a man in glory.
Tammy, were you there? In one of the conferences, there's
a man in glory. Herman Moore was an old man at
the time. Well, he's probably my age right now, but he seemed
like an old man, and he preaches a man in glory. This same Jesus, the Lord Jesus
Christ, God, Dwelling in light became flesh and dwelt among
us. We beheld his glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. You
see, we have not a high... We've got a high priest, we've
got a prophet, a priest, a king, but he's touched with the feel
of our infirmity. Made in all points like as we
are, yet without sin. Cup us with infirmity. He knows
our frame. He came, he dwelt in flesh, treasure. And you know, everybody didn't
know who he was. People didn't know who he was.
I'll tell you some that did. All his chosen disciples. Thomas
said, you're my Lord and my God. The Pharisees, he said, that's
the carpenter's son. Thomas said, no, he is the carpenter. He's
the one that made this world. Well, that's Mary's son. No,
no, Peter said, that's the son of God. Well, that's his flesh. No, that's just discovery. He's God. Light. They saw. He took them up on the mountain
that day. Remember? And He peeled back that veil
of flesh. The veil was... And they saw. This is God. Light. Now we see. Now we see. He's no earthly, He's no mere
man. He's the Son in whom we live
and move and have our being. He reigns and rules. He's the
King. He's the Governor. He's the Lord. We're in His hands. Our ways
are in His hands. Our times are in His hands. This
is light. This is glory. This is salvation.
What have I to fear? Oh, and God did this. This is
treasure. We have it in earthen vessels.
I'm of earthen vessels. And here's what he says, that
the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. The
excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Listen to this, back in 1 Corinthians
2. He said, my speech and preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. but in demonstration
of the Spirit and power. That your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. We have this
treasure in earthen vessels, God showed by the foolishness
of preaching. What kind of preachers did he
choose? Who did he choose to be his apostle? High, the mighty, the noble,
the educated? None of them. Paul was the only
one. Paul was the only one. And he
renounced it all. He said, everything I thought
I knew, I renounce it. Had to become like a baby. He
chose fishermen. Fishermen. Fishermen. To go out and preach the gospel,
all right? They went out, and all these Pharisees and doctors
and lawyers, you know, these fishermen are going to preach
for us, standing there. What can this earthen, this uneducated,
poor, pitiful fellow tell me? Teach me. Stephen, a deacon, a table waiter,
said they couldn't resist the spirit and the wisdom which he
spoke. They all had to take notes that
these men had been with Jesus Christ, that this is of God. William Huntington, one of my
favorite old preachers, was a coal heaver. He would deliver coal
from house to house. He quit school when he was about
sixth grade, took to work, had a big, large family. He delivered
coal. If you hear somebody preaching,
you say, this is of God. God did this. Brother Scott Richardson
was a coal miner, eighth grade education, raised in his uncle's
attic, abandoned by his parents. He was traded for a chest of
drawers by his father to take care of him and lived in the
attic of his house. Sounds like Cinderella, doesn't
it? You know what God made of him? A king and a priest. We
have this treasure, an earthen vessel, that the excellency of
the power might be of God. God did this. I've told you so many times,
but it's just my story. But, you know, my dad was always
my dad. He's my dad. He's just my dad.
And always was my dad. But one day, I was sitting there
listening to him preach, and it wasn't my dad speaking. It was the Lord, like Samuel. Samuel came to Eli, speak, and
he said, go lie down. And he said, it's the Lord. The Lord is speaking to him.
We have this treasure in earth and vessels, that the excellence
of the power may be of God, not of us, that God may get all the
glory. Let me just read these verses.
This is wonderful. We're troubled on every side. See, when the truth comes, When
you're born again by the word of truth, then trouble starts. That's when real trouble starts.
Then you start experiencing trouble within that you never had before.
You never had trouble within before. What do you do now? And it's a lifelong struggle. It's the message Wednesday night.
And trouble without. You never had a problem with
the world. It didn't bother you. You loved it. But when the truth
comes, when Christ comes to your heart, the world is just trouble. It's everywhere. Trouble on every
side, yet not distressed. There's literal trouble. Man,
this morning woman was a few days full of trouble. There's
literal trouble everywhere. Why? God said there's not going
to be any peace for the wicked. There's going to be trouble.
God's the one stirring up trouble. I never would have thought how
God would win over the threshing floor and try people and all
that by sending a disease. But He did. And the whole world
is troubled. Aren't they? And in distress. Our Lord said that in Luke 21. He said, men's hearts shall fail
them. You know what the leading cause of death is? Heart failure. From what? Stress. We're not in distress. My heart is fixed. You say, but
you're wearing a heart monitor. That's because they told me to. I'm going to take it off real
soon. Maybe it'll quit. Not in distress? What do we have
to be stressed about? Hmm? A dear lady told me, she said,
you know what will cause your heart to do this, anxiety. Our
Lord said, don't be full of anxious care, don't be full of... what
are you anxious about? Oh, oh, oh, oh, what? God's on the throne. You've got
food and rain. You've got the gospel. Since
all this has started, has anything changed? Since all this has started,
has anything changed? Brought us back together. What's
going on? We're worshiping the Lord together.
We're waiting on the Lord to come. Anxiety? The only anxiety
I ever feel, brother, is to feel like I might be left out. Don't leave me. Jacob said, don't
bury me in Egypt. Take me with you. Is that your
desire? Is it? Either is or isn't. Don't leave me here. Take me. Anxiety, distress, we're perplexed. We don't have all the answers.
Why this? Why that? Perplexed. Paul said
that. Perplexed. Don't you know? I don't know why the Lord did
that. In despair. You ever been in
despair? It means, I can't do anything. What we need to despair of is
ourselves. We need to be in despair of ourselves. Despair of finding any good,
any answers, any goodness, any merit, any worth in ourselves. Despair of yourself. But don't
ever despair of God. Not without hope, it means, in
the margin. Not without help. Oh, we're perplexed. Why this? Why that? Why has this
happened? That's not the way I would... Why did God do that?
Why did God take this person? We needed Him. Why did He take
Cody in the height of His ministry? Why did He take John the Baptist?
Why did He take my father? Why did He take my sister? Why
did He take my brother, my daughter? Why did He do that? Because it's
the Lord. We shouldn't be in despair. Our help, we're not
without help. Where's our help come from? Not
Egypt, not Pharaoh, but from above, from our Lord. Our help
cometh from the Lord. Are you getting any help right
now? Getting any hope right now? Where's your hope? What are you
hopeful? Don't live too much on this side
of life. We're hoping for eternal life. We're looking for eternal
life. And we have it. He's promised us that. And He
said, He that spared not His own Son, He'll give us all this,
and then when it's time, He'll take it away. You see, we need to look, the
last verse, at things that are not seen. So, He said, verse
9, we're persecuted. And if you believe the truth,
you believe Christ, you'll be persecuted. Our adversary will
persecute you. The world will. And your own family will. But
we're not forsaken. You begin to feel alone. You'll
feel alone. Like Enoch. But you're not alone. You remember old brother Montgomery
in the nursing home? Put himself in the nursing home? Crippled
with Parkinson. All bent over. What a way to
die. He was happy. I said, Brother
Hubert, are you alone? He said, no, brother, the Lord's
with me. He's a Virginian. Sound like
you, Betty. The Lord's with me. He wasn't alone. Our Lord said,
I'll never leave you. I'll forsake you. When you die, He's going to come
put you in His arms, take you all back to glory. You're beloved. And you'll be happier than you've
ever been. It'll be the greatest day of your life. Oh, we're cast
down. David said, I'm cast down. Lord,
you know I'm cast down. I get cast down. I get cast down
all the time. Don't you? Downcast. Well, David
says, why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope in God. I'll
yet praise Him. And His presence is salvation. We're not destroyed. Not destroyed. Nothing's going to destroy us.
Who can separate us from the love of God? Death, life, principle
of power. Huh? Not going to be destroyed.
God's going to destroy this world. and everything in it. We just
read that. But God's people are not going to be destroyed. He
said, Behold, rejoice in that which I create. I create a new
heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And He
said, The former things will not be remembered or come to
mind. That's Isaiah 65. Not be remembered or come to
mind. It's like it never happened. All these things that give us
so much stress and so much anxiety, like it never happened. And we're
all going to say, Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, may the Lord
put this faith here. It comes by the Word. And I can't
tell you enough to quit listening to voices and listen to the Son. I don't care. There are many
voices. Don't listen to anybody, anything that's telling you anything
contrary to what our Lord said. Do you hear me? I didn't say
that. He did. Okay? There's peace. There's joy. There's
hope. There's help. There's contentment. There's freedom from fear and
worry by trusting the Lord. His Word. We have His Word on
us. Okay. Well, John, you come. Number 334.