Oh, ladies, that song. That's
just the worst of that and the way y'all sing that together
and that's so hard to follow that. It'd be as hard as getting
kissed by John. I want to thank you all for this
weekend. Brother Donnie said y'all had
the best singers in Tennessee and best cooks in the country
and the best hosts, and I believe it. I agree with him. And thank
you, Brother Donnie and Shirley. I appreciate y'all's hospitality. Before we begin, I want to thank
this church, too. You all have been so very generous
to us up in New Jersey. And the brethren there just been
so encouraged by you helping us get in the building and all
the other brethren across the country. And it just means so
much to know that you have that many brethren. And I think it
did something for them. Because they're so far up there,
they're beginning to meet some of you. But to know they had
that many brethren, wanting to see us get in a building and
what have you, that just really, really encouraged us and we're
thankful. Thank you very much. Let's turn
to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Now Paul declares here why you
and I as the church of God why we preach Christ and Him crucified. This is why we don't preach ourselves. This is why we preach Christ
and Him crucified and believe on Christ and rest in Him. He
said in verse 6, For God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And then Paul declares how God
chose to send us forth into this world preaching his gospel. And that's what we're all doing.
It's not just the preacher, it's his whole church that is preaching
the gospel. We're sending it forth together
into this world. And this is how God has chosen
to send us forth into this world preaching his gospel. Verse 7,
but we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Christ is the
treasure within us. And because we have Christ within,
that inward man that's been created by God is eternally alive. We right now have eternal life
by Christ, our eternal treasure, dwelling in us. We have that
life. But our old nature and our old
bodies that are just earthy and temporal and sinful and perishing. That's all they are. Now, why
would God choose to send us forth to preach such a wonderful treasure
in such fragile earthen vessels? He says in verse 7 that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. God chose foolish,
weak, despised nothings. to bring to nothing things that
are. And I'm talking about you and me. And he did that, that
no flesh should glory in its presence but of God. It's of God that you're in Christ. It's of God that Christ is made
unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
It's of God's power, the excellency of the powers of God. And so
every believer glories only in the Lord. But this is an amazing
thing to me about the gospel. Not only does the Lord get all
the glory for calling out his lost sheep through such earthen
vessels, but as he's using us earthen vessels to preach his
gospel, he still to himself gets all the glory for growing you
and I in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus. That's a two-fold
thing he's doing through the gospel. He's calling out lost
sheep and the ones he's using to proclaim his name. At the
same time, he's teaching us and growing us in the grace and knowledge
of Christ. And how does he do that? Verse 8 says, we're troubled
on every side. That's how he does it. We're
troubled on every side. You know, there's different professions
you study for. The ones that come to mind is
a physician or a nurse. When they're studying in school,
they have their book learning. You know, they go to class and
they get their, some learning through the books and what have
you. But then they have to go do a clinical. And that's where
they get experience. To learn that what they, by first
hand experience, that what they were taught in the book is true. And the Lord does that with us.
He teaches us right here. We've heard the gospel all weekend. We've heard Christ exalted all
weekend. And what great messages we've heard. You men have preached
some terrific messages. Christ has been exalted. And
the Lord renews our inward man through the gospel. Well, in
a little while, we're going to go out into this world and we're
going to start facing trials again and afflictions again.
And as we do that, we're going to be troubled and we're going
to be troubled on every side. But the reason that God does
that is on purpose. God causes his people to suffer
for the sake of Christ in order to make us learn by experience
what he's taught us in the gospel. He grows His children in the
grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ through affliction,
through affliction. Now in our text, there's four
things that we see our Lord accomplish through His excellent power.
And these four things are four things that the Apostle Paul
desired above all things. This is what he wanted to grow
in. Now he gave it to us over Philippians 3.10. Let me just
give them to you in the order that they're in our text. Number
one, Paul said he wanted to grow in the fellowship of Christ's
sufferings. Number two, he said he wanted
to grow in the power of Christ's resurrection. And number three,
he wanted to be made conformable unto Christ's death. And in all
of this, The reason for all of this was number four, he wanted
to know more of him. And he gives us here in verses
8 through 18 an illustration of those four things. And that's
what I want us to look at this morning. First of all, as Christ
sends us forth to preach the gospel, he grows us in the fellowship
of his sufferings. He says in verse 8, that for
His sake, in our mortal flesh, we are troubled on every side.
You know how it is when trouble comes. We begin to be pressed
down above strength. We can't handle the pressure
in our flesh and in our old nature and in our body. It's just, we
get pressed down by trouble on all sides. He says, but in that
inward man, we are not distressed. The Lord will not allow us to
be straightened and fall flat in that inward man. He won't
allow the pressure to do that to us in the inward man. And
then in our mortal flesh, he says, we are perplexed. Do you ever have such trouble
sometimes that you just, you're at a loss, you just, you don't
know what to do, you don't know what to say, you don't know where
to turn, your flesh Misconceives everything and you misunderstand
what's going on. You don't understand what's happening.
You're just perplexed. And yet, in the inward man, we're
not in despair. We're not without hope. Because
Christ in you is the hope of glory. And we know this, he said
that tribulation works patience, and patience experience works
hope. And the reason our hope is not
ashamed, the reason we'll never be confounded for hoping in Christ
is because the love of God is shed abroad, not in our flesh,
but in our hearts, that new heart by the Holy Ghost that's given
unto us. So we have a hope. We always
have a hope. So in our moral flesh, brethren,
we might be cast down. But in that inward man, we're
not destroyed. Now the Lord Jesus called us
to suffer. That's why he's called us to
suffer, for his sake. And I know we can suffer for
things sometimes that are our own fault. We're not talking
about that. The world suffers for that reason. We're talking
about when we're promoting his gospel and bearing witness of
him and And I mean everything from cutting the grass out here
to cooking the food in here, everything that you're doing
together for the promotion of this gospel. And we're come into
trouble because of it. The Lord caused us to suffer
trouble. He called us for that. The scripture says it's given
unto you in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but
to suffer for his sake. Remember when he called Paul?
He told Ananias, he's a chosen vessel unto me. Go and tell him
what great things that he must suffer for my sake. See, they're
not by accident. Christ told Paul that he must
suffer a lot of things before he ever took a step. They're
already ordained. And God's going to bring us to
them right when we need them. If it's needful, He said. And
He's going to bring us to them when they're needful. Now, why
does He do that? One reason is to show us that we don't have
any strength whatsoever in our flesh. This old man, this outward
man that he's talking about here is our human nature. It's that
sinful nature. It includes our whole natural
being, our whole earthy being that we got from Adam. Nature
and body and everything. And he brings us to know that
we don't have any strength in our body, in our flesh, in our
old nature, at all. We don't worship God in that
part of us. But as he does that, he makes
us to know he is all our strength. He is all our strength. At the
same time, He does that. He makes us know He's all our
strength. And that's called the fellowship
of Christ's suffering. When we suffer for Christ's sake,
we're suffering for Christ. It's the fellowship of His sufferings.
And the scripture says, as the sufferings of Christ abound in
us, so our consolation, our comfort also abounds by Christ. It's
the fellowship of his sufferings. One time the apostles, you remember,
they boarded an earthen vessel, called in scripture a ship, a
little boat, and they went out in the big water there, in the
big lake, and a big storm came. And that earthen vessel began
to sink. That ship began to sink. And
their earthen bodily vessel did sink. They lost it all. I mean,
they just sunk. And they ran to the Lord. He
was in the back of the boat asleep on a pillow. And they ran to
the back of the boat where he was. And now, the reason their
suffering was abounding was because they were going to preach Christ.
They were going for the cause of Christ where they were headed.
Their sufferings abounded because of Christ, but their comfort
also abounded because of Christ. See, he was in fellowship with
them while the storm was raging, and he was in fellowship with
them to comfort them, too. He taught them their faith was
just nothing. He taught them, don't look to
yourself, don't look to your faith, you don't have any. And
at the same time, he calmed the storm and put them in awe of
him. And that's what He's doing all
the time through the fellowship of His sufferings. In the midst
of every storm, Christ is showing us how we can't trust ourselves,
we can't trust our flesh, but He's all our strength. And He
calms the storm. Sometimes the storm's raging
around you. And yet within, He's just as calm. He just calmed
it. Because the calming of the storm,
not calming what's going on around you, it's making you know in
your heart, He's got it. The truth of the matter is that
day if that boat, if those apostles would have sank to the bottom
of that lake they was in, they'd have still been in the hand of
he who holds the waters in the palm of his hand. Here's the
second accomplishment of Christ's power. He teaches us the power
of his resurrection. He says in verse 10, we're 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. Now Paul says here, we bear about
in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. And that word dying
means the process that puts us to death. It's a process, a process
of mortification. And that's what's going on. That's
why we're here. There's a process going on that
Christ is working to mortify our flesh. He tells you and I
in the scriptures that we're to mortify our flesh. He tells
us to do that, but you and I won't do that. We won't. We won't mortify our flesh. We
can't mortify our flesh, but Christ does. He does. He makes our human nature and
our body to die every day. And he does it through affliction.
Paul calls it in deaths often. He said, I die daily. That's
what he called it. Why does the Lord do that? That
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
flesh. that you and I personally might
be made to know that the reason that we have life, spiritual
life, in a way that we continue and persevere in the faith, the
one way is because we have a risen Redeemer who's working in power
and keeping us. That's the one way. Paul prayed
for the Ephesians and he said that you might know the exceeding
greatness of His power. which He worked in you that believe. Now get this now, He said it's
according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought
in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. The same power
it took to raise our Lord Jesus from the dead, it took to raise
you and me from death to life. And it takes that same power
to raise us, resurrect us in all these little deaths we go
through constantly to keep us walking in Him and trusting Him
and looking to Him and believing Him. The God-man mediator really
does live. The world does not believe this.
That's why the world has all the programs and all the rules
and regulations and all the hierarchy set up to keep everything running
because they got to have that. You know, how is it that we were
talking about down the way over here, how is it all of us could
not be under any, you know, united organization and yet have such
fellowship and have such desire to help one another and all this?
It's the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is alive.
The God-Man Mediator has been given all power in heaven and
in earth. God is so well pleased with the
satisfaction that He made on Calvary's cross in redeeming
all God's people that He raised Him, the God-Man. According to
covenant, He raised Him and gave Him all power in heaven and earth.
He had all power as God, but now He's got all power as the
God-Man. Glorified. Put all things under
His feet. Put Him above all power and principality. And He made Him head over all
things to the church. And that church is His body.
And so each member of that body is being filled by Christ our
Head. He filleth all in all. That's the work of Christ. And
he's doing that through the preaching of his gospel, he's doing that
through working providence to bring us into afflictions to
teach us that what we've heard in this gospel is true and real. So you experience it first hand
and know, my redeemer liveth. He lives. And that's so, that
same power is working. And now here's what he teaches
you and me personally. It's not just power, sheer power. It's not just power like you
win an arm wrestling match with. It's just not sheer power. It's
the power of justice satisfied. You know, it's the power of covenant
promise. Christ couldn't stay in that
grave. He did everything the Father sent Him to do. He accomplished
everything the Father sent Him to do. And He justified His people. He declared God just. He honored
His law. He declared Him the justifier. He did everything the Father
called Him to do. That grave couldn't hold Him.
The power of satisfied justice and the power of divine promise
would not let that grave hold Him. It let Him go. It had no
claims on it. And that same power demands that
everybody that Christ justified has got to be given life and
kept and brought to glory. This resurrection power of Christ
is the power of justice satisfied. He's at God's right hand, ever
living to make intercession for us. And the proof of it is, just
look around you. And better yet, just look in
the mirror. that we continue trusting Him through all the
hills and valleys and curves and falls and flops and everything,
we're still here believing Him. Don't look back and try to say,
look back and get discouraged looking at things you did in
the past. Just rejoice that you believe Him right now. That you
believe Him right now. And we learned this, we had the
sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves.
But in God which raised us to death, He delivered us from so
great a death, He does deliver us and He shall deliver us. That's
the power of His resurrection. Now, this world is talking a
lot about, they're taking our Lord's words when He said, let
your light so shine before men. And they take that and they try
to tell you how to do that. And it's nothing compared to
how God says do it. And we see right here how God
does it. Do you remember Gideon and his
little ragtag army. God whittled that army down to
nothing so that it would be evident to everybody that the glory is
God's and not the army. And he sent them forth to take
on a huge army. And surely now, if he's going
to do that, surely he's going to send them forth with a mighty
strong weapon. Yes, he did. He sent them forth
with a trumpet in one hand, and a clay pot in the other hand
that had a light in it. And the only way that light shined,
they say, let your light shine. You know how that light shined?
That earthen vessel had to be broken. And the more thoroughly
that vessel was broken, the better the light shined. And as that
shined, the trumpet was blown. And what Paul's telling us here
is, through this work he does, in the power of his resurrection,
he teaches us, brethren, that we're the broken vessel. And
he breaks your heart, he breaks you, he breaks you down and mortifies
that flesh and at the same time gives you a broken and a contrite
spirit so that it's his light shining and not our light shining.
It's his gospel trumpet we're blowing and not our own trumpet
we're blowing. And that's how he does it. Now
let's go to the third accomplishment of his power. We're made a little
more conformable unto Christ's death through each of these trials
that he brings us to. I've always wondered about that.
What does that mean exactly, to be made conformable unto Christ's
death? Well, by all this that Paul suffered,
Paul tells us here that he was made a little more willing to
suffer these deaths just so the gospel could go forth and his
brethren could have life. He was willing to suffer death
that the gospel would go forth and his brethren could have life.
Look there in verse 12. He says, ìSo then death worketh
in us, but life in you.î And heís not being sarcastic here.
Heís being serious here. Death works in us, but life in
you. Look at verse 15, ìFor all things
are for your sake.î That's being made conformable unto Christ's
death because that's exactly why Christ laid down his life
for us. I laid down my life for the sheep. He saved others, himself
he cannot save. He said, I'm willing to be forsaken. I'm willing to go to the cross
and be forsaken so that you'll never be forsaken. I'm willing
to be made sin that you be made the righteousness of God in me."
That's what Christ did. That's why he died. And so Paul
was made a little more conformable to his death, be willing to suffer
whatever God brought his way, knowing God brought it his way
and God's his strength. The Lord Jesus is holding him
up so he could go forth and preach the gospel and his brethren would
have life. This is how John worded it. He said, Hereby perceive
we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Now, here's
another way he made him conformable unto death. He made him be grown
in the spirit of faith that Christ had. The same spirit of faith
Christ had, Paul was grown in that, and you and I are grown
in that same spirit of faith. so that we believe God's covenant
promises in Christ. And that makes you more willing
to speak Him more boldly as we ought to speak. Look here in
verse 13. He says, That's Christ and the believer,
Christ and Paul, Christ and me and you who believe. We, having
the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed
and therefore have I spoken, we also believe and therefore
speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall
raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. Go
to Psalm 116, that's what he's quoting. He's quoting David out
of Psalm 116, but this is Christ speaking. Psalm 116 in verse
8. And that's why I'm saying to
you, he said, we got the same Spirit of Christ. You know what
Paul said later? I'm crucified, but the life I
now live in the flesh, I live it how? By the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. We live by the
Spirit of Christ faith. He's the author and finisher.
So look here in Psalm 116, verse 8. Now read this here in Christ's
feet. Through all He did walking this earth, through everything
Christ suffered walking this earth, in the Garden of Gethsemane,
when they came to arrest Him and they fell backwards, here's
what Christ was experiencing as He obeyed the Father. He said
in verse 8, Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes
from tears, and my feet from falling. So I know I'm going
to walk before the Lord in the land of the living. Paul said,
this is why we have the same spirit of faith, why we believe
and preach, because we know anything happens to this mortal flesh,
He's going to raise us up. He's going to raise us up right
now and He's going to raise us up at last to be with Him in
that final day. And he says this, verse 10, I
believe Therefore have I spoken. I believe, therefore I have spoken.
Look down at verse 13. I will take the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the Lord. I'll pay my vows unto the
Lord now in the presence of all His people. Precious in the sight
of the Lord is the death of His saints in Christ. Precious is
the death of His saints when we died in Christ. And I'll tell
you something else that's precious, another death that's precious
is when our flesh is mortified. That's precious to God. When
in our hearts we give Christ all the glory and all the preeminence
and look only to Him. And how does He do that? In all
these little deaths that He brings you through, He proves to you
over and over and over that every promise He's ever made to you
is yes and amen in Christ. So that you go to the next one
and by His grace, You know, He's going to bring me through this.
I may fall because I'm still flesh, but He's going to raise
me. He's going to carry me. And I know that if they take
my body for speaking as I ought to speak, He's going to raise
me. You see, we have life, brethren. We're not going to die. We have
it. We have life. Christ our life. Listen to what the Lord said.
I'll give you another example where the Lord said something
like this. He said, I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks
to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from
shame and spitting, for the Lord God will help me. Therefore shall
I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face
like a flit, and I know I shall not be ashamed. He is near that
justifieth me. Who will contend with me?" And
when he's conformed you to him in the spirit of faith and made
you trust Christ like a little more, conformed to how he trusted
the Father, then we say this, just almost what he said, it's
God that justifies, who is he that condemns? It's Christ that
died, yea rather that's risen again, who's going to contend
with me? That's what he said, he trusted the Father, we trust
him, we trust him, nothing goes separate us from the love of
God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, there's one more way here
that Paul was made conformable to Christ's death, And that's
in that he preached Christ for the glory of God. Look here,
he said in verse 15, all things are for your sakes that the abundant
grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory
of God, for which cause we think not. God saves us, making us
a brand new creation, his new creation. Like he spoke in the
beginning and created light, Or He didn't create that light,
that was Christ's light. But the light shined in darkness.
And He spoke and Christ's light shined in our darkness. And there
was a new creation made. And in that new creation, everything
is going to be the work of Christ. And it's going to be all totally
righteous. Everything. And everything that our Lord
Jesus did when He walked this earth was for His people and
for the glory of God. Every bit of it. Everything he's
done for us has been by the abundant grace of God that we might thank
God for everything he did that God might give all the glory.
He said, Father, I've glorified you on the earth. I've glorified
you. I've glorified you. How? I've
finished the work. I've finished the work. Father,
glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory I had with
you before the world was. And I want my people to be where
I am so they can behold my glory. It's all about his glory. And
when He's made us to want Him to have nothing but all the glory
and us to have none, that's being made conformable unto Christ's
death because that's what Christ wanted. That's why He died. Now
let's go to the last thing. Through all of this that He's
working, Christ in the excellency of His power is accomplishing
this. He's growing us in the knowledge
of Him in all of it. Verse 16, he said, for which
cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the
inward man is renewed day by day. When you get through today,
I want you to go read Colossians 3 and just see how much Colossians
3, the first 15-16 verses go right along with 2 Corinthians
4, 8-18. But over there when he talked
about being renewed, the new man being renewed, He said we're
renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him. And that's not just in the first
hour. That's constant. We're constantly being renewed
in knowledge after Him. That's growing in grace and knowledge
of Him. And as he does this, from the first hour he does this,
Christ is all. In that new man, Christ is all.
And the more he does this, the more Christ is all. The more
Christ is all. So that through all this work,
brethren, when he brings you into the fellowship of Christ's
sufferings, and you grow in knowledge of Christ, who is the one who
is in fellowship with our sufferings, he suffered more than you and
I have ever suffered, and he did it for us. And by his suffering,
all our stripes are healed. And he makes you know he suffered.
And He eases that suffering by showing you how much He suffered,
and at the same time, by showing you what He did, what He accomplished
by that suffering, He's your consolation. You grow in knowledge
of Him. And then, through the power of
His resurrection, as He teaches us our flesh is nothing, and
He shows us that He's really alive, and He's really filling
all in all, and He's really working everything in poverty, it's just
for His people. He grows you in the knowledge
of Christ just a little bit more. And then when He brings you into
these different trials and He makes you just a little more
conformable under His death, He teaches you a little bit more
why Christ laid down His life. He trusted the Father. He wanted
to glorify the Father. He loved His brethren. And it
makes you, by His grace, love your brethren a little more and
want to see Him glorified a little more and want to lay down your
life a little more. And there's no possible way you
and I could get any glory for any of this. And I guarantee
you this, I don't have to prove that to you that know Him. I
don't have to prove that to you that are going through trials
and have been through these. You know it. I've seen some of
my brethren go through trials way, way, way worse than anything
I've ever been through. You know what it proved to me?
Everything we've been seeing right here. It manifests the
life of God at God's right hand. and working in them, keeping
them. That's what it manifests to me. Now brethren, as this
takes place, here's what happens, verse 17. Our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us. It's working for us. God's working it for us, these
afflictions. These light afflictions which
is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal
weight of glory. They don't seem like when they're
happening and they're not like to us because we don't have any
strength. But in comparison to what he's working, and in comparison
to what he's revealing, and in comparison to what he shall reveal,
oh, they're light, and they're just a moment, and these things
that he's revealing are far more exceeding and eternal. They're
heavy. They're eternal. This is eternal
glory he's making now. And so here's what he does in
all of it. He takes us reaches into us and he takes that inward
man and he lifts your eye of faith from all the things of
this earth and it says here, we look not at the things which
are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which
are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are
internal. One time I showed up not long after I got to New Jersey
And I showed up with a bottle of bubbles. We had 22 young people
from about 5 years old to 18 years old. And I showed up with
a bottle of bubbles and I just dipped that little wand in there
and I just blew them bubbles in the air. And they all sit
there looking at those bubbles, you know. And I said, there's
Pennington, and there's Rocky Hill, and there's Newtown, and
there's New Hope, and there's a big one. That's the whole world
right there. Let's see what happens to them. And we just watched
them go down, and they busted. Nothing you see with these eyes
is going to last. Nothing. Not this flesh that
we pamper, it's not going to last. Not this earth, not all
the things that we pay so much money for and act like it's the
end all be all if we don't have it. None of that's going to last.
And one thing's going to last. This life, we're on a path, the
path of righteousness. Was it Bruce that preached that? Yeah, we're on the path of righteousness.
And it's like as he carries you along, this path is getting a
little more narrow and a little more narrow. And what don't matter
and what you don't need is falling off the side. And you're learning
that as you go. And it's getting a little more
narrow and a little more narrow and what you don't need is falling
off the side. And the last thing that's going
to completely fall off is this flesh. And you know where we're
going to be when that happens? You know how wide the path's
going to be then? We're going to be standing right
in front of, face to face, the one thing that we've needed the
whole time, Christ. And then we're going to know
him. Then we're going to know him. We're going to know him
as we're known, and we're going to be just like him. Now, won't
that be good? And now I wish you girls would
come back and sing that song again. Thank you all so much. God be
with you. Thank you so much.