Turn your bibles, please, to
Ephesians chapter three. And there's a bit of debate with
some of my peers over the style of preaching that I deliver.
Some people say, well, it's not expositional preaching. You go
through the Bible, but you go through it at such a rate that
it takes forever. Thus, you are adding to what
the text teaches. I pray that if I do that, you
call me on it. I don't believe I do. But if
I do, please call me on it. If my commentary overpowers the
truth of the rhetoric that's written there by Paul or John
or James or Anybody else that might write it. And secondly,
I've seen people debate, say, well, you pull out a specific
phrase, for example, like verse 13 of chapter three of Ephesians,
where we see here. So Paul says, I ask you not to
lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. What is the glory he's speaking
of there? We'll learn about that today. In that context, though,
we see Paul is speaking directly to these people and he's telling
them not to lose heart. So or some versions say, therefore,
that conjunction moving from the chapter three, really, I
believe, from chapter one all the way into verse twelve of
chapter three. But specifically here in this
grammatical instance, we see Paul culminating verses two through
twelve as this therefore. And so the therefore then comes,
as he says, do not lose heart. I ask you not to lose heart.
Paul, technically, I'm not saying technically as in quotations,
but technically in the grammar, he is speaking to these people
and he's asking these hearers to not lose heart. He's saying,
I, Paul, ask you to not lose heart over me and what I'm suffering,
which is your glory. He's not asking God yet. He will
pray in verse 14. He will begin to pray as he began
to. Prepare to pray for this reason.
Verse one, chapter three. Now he gets down to verse 13.
He's saying to them, he's not preaching. He's not asking them,
asking God to help them not lose heart. He will teach us that
in the next verse and subsequent verses. But in this, he is saying,
do not lose heart. So the message is very clear.
There's an instruction given here. So I ask you, church, do
not lose heart over what I'm suffering for you, which is your
glory. And so it came to my attention.
And this is where people start to say, OK, you're really coming
outside the text. I don't believe so, but I believe
what happens here. And maybe there are men who are
great men who are smarter than me. I was sharing with one of
my children yesterday that when I was a child, we I used to play
with nickels that were made from lead. There were plugs, lead
plugs. We used to play with them. We'd
mold them and shape them and carve them and throw them at each other
and put them in slingshots, lead balls. You know, we played. And
I thought, how smart would I be if I had not played with lead?
I don't know. But in my ignorance, God, I pray,
would be honored in my preparation and my delivery of the Word of
God. And in this, though, I have seen many sermons and many commentaries
and many dialogues and things over this text. It sort of culminates. And so people will preach all
of 13 and they'll preach all this text. They'll preach large
passages of text. And then they'll say, now, because
all of this, don't lose heart. Let's move on. God, Paul begins
to pray. And I think that way and I look,
OK, and I see how the organizational structure of so many of the of
the great preachers of the world would just stop and just keep
on going. And they would they would look
over verse 13. So as I preach this, I'm not
saying that I'm better than them. I'm saying that I'm not as good
as they are, that I need to stop here. I need to ask myself what
it means to lose heart and how am I not to lose heart? Because
I think there's some assumption here in the argument as it builds
up because of all these blessings, because of all that God has done,
because of all that is effectual in Christ, because of everything
that you have, which is yes and amen, that is sure, because you
are now one body in Christ, because the power of God, by God's grace,
has given me this ministry to suffer for you Gentiles. I am
now a prisoner of Christ for the sake of the gospel, that
you might know the mystery that was hidden for ages of Jesus
and the immeasurable riches of His glory. So all these things.
So because of all that, Paul says, don't lose heart. And so
in some sense, there's like five or six weeks of preaching that
then you have to re-preach because You know what Paul's teaching
there doctrinally, and then he's given some sense, some instruction.
So don't lose heart. I ask you not to lose heart because
all of this. And so you've got to go back
in and look at it and say, how do we not lose heart and why
should we not lose heart? And so you see how frustrating
that can be. Of course, we're never going to get it all. So
we've got to just take it as it is. So today I'm going to
take this verse. I'm going to prove. I don't care
what you do, just do it. I'm like the pilot who says we're
going to fly this way, we're going to get this high, we're going to go
around here, we're going to do that, we're going to land. Here we are. We're going
to I'm going to look at this verse. I'm going to show you
that argument that I believe could be two or three more sermons
within chapter two, one, two and three of Ephesians. But I'm
going to also partner it with Paul, some of Paul's other writings
and then jump into Peter a little bit. And Peter, first Peter,
chapter one, where he gives that doxology and talks about the
inexpressible joy. And then I'm going to go into
Paul's It's the greatest thing that I think has been written
in a long time. It's the second Corinthians, chapter four, and
we're going to read that entire chapter and then we're going to quickly
not going to preach that chapter. We're going to preach Ephesians
3, 13, using that chapter to show us a little bit deeper of
what Paul's talking about when he says, so do not lose heart. I ask you not to lose heart.
But as we get into that, let me ask you this. What does it
mean in your own mind to lose heart? You know, we've talked
about the suffering of Paul. We've talked about the joy that
comes from Christ. We've talked about how God gifts
suffering. But is losing heart always suffering? Can you have everything going
in your way? For example, I believe that there is suffering in our
lives as Americans. There is suffering in our lives
today in this body. But I don't believe that that
suffering is because of or directly related to our proclamation of
the gospel. Some of it may be, but it's not
so bad that we could put our finger on it. We could think
about, you know, that God treated me like dirt. You know, that
person that doesn't give me a good deal at the store or, you know,
they probably treat me badly or maybe you're shunned a little
bit, but we're not running for our lives. We're not hiding in
cellars and we don't have to worry about everything being
taken away from us and being thrown in prison and beaten and
flogged and shipped around. so that we could be eradicated.
We're not worried about the direct persecution because of our faith. For example, if I got on the
street with a with a with a sign like some people do and just
stood there in the middle of the traffic, the worst thing
that could happen is that people think I was crazy, but they wouldn't
hate me and burn my house down for it. Now, there may come a
day when true preaching, when the true gospel, as it begins
to have greater numbers, the church will always be small,
friends. But as the church grows greater in number, the true believers,
as they begin to impact the culture in which they live, people will
hate them for no reason except that they hate Christ for no
reason. And so with that, what does it
mean to lose heart? How do we lose heart? Well, I thought about
that this week, and I've been thinking about that for years
in my own life. And as I look at losing heart,
some thoughts came to mind. And here is sort of my thoughts
as an introduction. Everlasting hope and confidence
and assurance is certain in Christ alone. I'm sure of that. I think
there's a certain guaranteed, courageous assurance that we
have that hope and confidence and assurance is certain in Christ.
I know there's some redundancy there, but that's the way Paul
writes it. He is the final victor over all things. Christ is victorious. He's the ruler of all things.
He's the creator of all things. He's the owner of all things.
Christ has power and his power is the power of grace, which
is the power of the gospel, which is creatively and actively at
work in the world today within the church. And so God's gospel
is not this mystery of all that was made known two thousand years
ago in the life of Jesus to be looked back upon. The gospel
is not a story as much to be looked upon from history as it
is a present reality to be embraced and empowered by. So just like
our faith is not a point in history, but a present reality. The gospel
is not a story of historical significance. It's most certainly
historically significant. Because Jesus lived at a certain
time, at the fullness of time, when the time was pregnant and
it was time to give birth. That's how we see the Gospels
presented. And at that perfect time, God
brought forth his Son from Bethlehem, then out of Egypt, then out of
Galilee, then to the cross, then to the sky. And so in that we
know that is historic. However, it is actively working,
powerfully working right now. God is operating in the power
of the gospel among us. It is not a passive power. It's
an active pursuing power that goes after people who are dead
and unregenerate. And he catches them and he saves
them and he sets them free to be slaves to righteousness. It's
a beautiful thing. And I'll tell you, it may not
make much sense to you, or you may be thinking, I know that.
Well, friends, for years, I never knew that. I never thought about
it. I never contemplated how God's
gospel was at work in my life or at work in the lives of the
people of the world presently. The gospel was always a past
point. The gospel was always something
that I looked at that happened way back when. But what's not
happening right now in my life, the Romans 116 is that the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation, first to the Jew, then the Gentile.
But we're not ashamed of that. So we look back and that's where
all the methods and the madness of apologetics and evangelism
have birthed out of that blindness that we don't believe by way
of methodology and by way of our thinking. Our belief system
says that God did something. Now, we must show people what
God has done in order for them to believe in what God has done.
But it's up to us to effect in the lives of the world. That's
wrong. God is actively working in the
world. This God, this God has power
and this power is seen visibly. It's not, as I've said, passive
or historic. to look upon, but present reality
in the life of the church, God's gospel gospel. And this is the
way I sort of summarized it for myself. God's gospel is actively
presently saving, pursuing, sanctifying and empowering his church to
live out the gospel power and in the gospel power. And so when
we say we're all about the gospel, it means that it is the glue
and the jolts of our existence. It gets to be really exciting
when you understand that the mission of the gospel is proclaimed
through the church by a passive display that it exists. Therefore,
we know that Christ has been raised from the dead and that
he has lived and that he is he is he is accomplished all that
he came to accomplish in saving all who he will say. Not that
everyone who will be saved has been saved, but they have surely
been atoned for already. Christ's blood has not been wasted.
It has not been blanketed over the world and such that people
are washing it off, that it might not take effect in their lives.
But it is actively and powerfully presented and effectually applied
and plastered over those who are the sheep of God's pasture. And with that, I'll ask myself. than how is God's power and how
is this gospel that's active really seen? And we've looked
at that in the last few weeks. We see it in the fact that God
is empowering his church to live, I've just said this, live out
the gospel and in the power of the gospel so that through preaching,
partnered with suffering, or let's use P, let's do alliteration,
through preaching, partnered with pain, We see a pleasant
glory that is awaiting us. So God's grace and his power,
to summarize it this way, God's power is the gospel, is his mercy,
is his grace, is Jesus Christ, who is the mercy seat, good news
of God's gracious favor on an undeserving people. So there
we go. There's a tweet for you. Put that out there. So if that's
the truth, if God's power is the gospel, And God's gospel
and power is His mercy, and God's power is His grace, and God's
grace is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is God's power, and that
Jesus is the mercy seat. He is the good news. He is the
gospel. He is the effectual agent of
God's gracious favor. He is the Lamb of God that takes
away the sins of not only the Jews, but the world. And it is
the way God affects graciously undeserving favor toward sinners. If that's true, then do not lose
hope. When we see people suffer for
us and for our sake, and then at the same time, when we see
ourselves suffer. And you might say to yourself,
man, we have really heard a lot about suffering in the last few
weeks, that's because that's what the scripture is teaching.
It's teaching that the gospel is proclaimed greatest under
the suffering of saints with joy, proving just by existence
that God's power is wise. And not only is it wise, but
it's present and it's active because through the darkest of
suffering, then the outlay and the expression of inexpressible
joy baffles the minds of those who are not believers. And then
they express an awe and a wonder. And they think that we're nuts
because we are because we are not of this world. We've been
created and recreated. We've been put to death and made
alive in Christ, and it's not we who live, but Christ who lives
within us. And as Paul proclaims, he lives this life, the life
that he had in the flesh, by faith in the Son of God who loved
him and gave himself for him. And so, well, we look at this
suffering and we see why did people lose heart? Why do we
lose heart? We lose heart because of the attacks on the church.
Remember a few weeks back, I mentioned that there are many saws in the
church today, many saws, if you will, saws of Tarsus, not saws
that saws us in half, although those saws could saw us in half
in some aspects, either metaphorically or literally, depending on where
we live. But in that, these agents of
the enemy are always attacking the church. But we also know
that it is the only way that temptation trips us, if you will,
is because the desires of our heart are there. And because
one of those desires is drawn out of us or something that's
put before us, it draws that desire to practice, to affection. And that desire comes to affection,
according to James chapter one. And that affection gives birth
to sin. We desire something that our
flesh desires, but that is not greatest for us and our person
or be in our life, nor is it greatest for the glory of God,
but we desire it anyway. When we see Acts chapter seven,
where they called out Acts chapter six, rather, where they called
and the elders were spending so much time dealing with all
of the administrative and the ministry needs of the church
and the communities, they had to find men who were qualified
to serve and oversee the distribution of food. And there's some other
things there because there were some Hellenistic Jews, those
Jews who were culturally Greek, and then there were some. Orthodox
Jews, and there was this conflict that some were getting more attention
than others, and others were getting better food than others,
and all this kind of stuff. And so they called for the church
to select men to be deacons. The word diakonos, or doulos,
the word diakonos is where we get the English word deacon.
It's called transliterated. Instead of translating the word
as it is in English, which is slave, They didn't want to call
people slaves because there was a difference in those who were
slaves at that time and those who were actually nice, just
highfalutin people, lords, ladies and others of that nature. They
didn't want to call them slaves in English, but that's the literal
translation of diakonos. So when you see the word deacon
or you see the word bondservant in the New Testament, it literally
means slave, one who is owned by another. And so they said,
we need to find men who can be slaves to the church. And these
slaves will serve the church so that the elders won't spend
all their time serving. Nothing wrong with serving. An
elder who doesn't serve is worthless. They're not above it, but that's
not the call that they've been given. So find men who have been
called to serve and let them help administrate the needs of
the church so that we can continue to teach the Word of God and
preach and pray and tend to the oversight of the shepherding
of the flock. And so what happens then in Acts chapter 7, Stephen
is targeted because he's proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ and
the Pharisees decide this cannot be. We want it done. So they
hire people to come and lie and give false witness against Stephen
and Stephen being full of the Holy Spirit. He is accused and
dragged before the council and they say we have And they put
it in the negative. He's never ceasing to blaspheme
against God and the temple and against Moses and all of this
kind of stuff. And saying so by saying that Jesus, who was
here, has said he will destroy the temple and he will destroy
the precepts. And I'm paraphrasing here, but
he'll destroy the precepts. He'll destroy the traditions
of Moses. Of course he did. He destroyed
them at the cross. They're done. There's no reason for the traditions
of Moses any longer, for he is the eternal high priest. All
of the Old Testament liturgy, if you could dare call it that,
pointed to Christ. Therefore, it is nullified, void. That's why God, in his great
divine providence, destroyed the temple in Jerusalem in 70
AD. So it is no longer there. There's no longer a way to make
Sacrifices to God for Christ was the final sacrifice, the
perfect man, the God man becoming the perfect lamb and offering
himself, not a beast, but himself in his own blood. So the church
begins to be attacked at that time and it has not stopped.
Saul. Saul goes after the the the Christians
of Jerusalem, he persecutes them going door to door, you've heard
this, you know this story, then they kill Stephen. Stephen says, well, the reason
that you've killed Jesus is because Moses and the prophets and Abraham
looked for Him, and now He's come and you've crucified Him.
And you've crucified the prophet that spoke before Him as the
prophets have foretold. Don't ever forget that the Jews
themselves in the New Testament, in the first century, affirmed
the divinity of Christ and affirmed His divine power and the fact
that He truly was the fulfillment of prophecy, but they killed
Him anyway. They knew who he was, but they
could not believe and trust in him. They hated him, for he took
away their role and their power. The glory that comes from men
is what they love. Except for the glory that comes
from God, and that's really important. So we can lose heart over attacks,
over suffering. We can lose heart over standing
for righteousness in our lives, sometimes in a passive way by
not engaging in things or not dialoguing in a debating way
or a hateful way like the rest of the world. Sometimes we suffer
the suffering of the church. Suffering in this life comes
because of sin, but so does suffering for the glory of God and for
the sake of glory. And so we are to not lose heart.
Well, this is how I've defined losing heart. And this is, for
sure, not all-encompassing. But losing heart in such a way
is having no hope. Just taking a few things that
Paul has said in the letter of Ephesians. Being separated and
alienated. Feeling alone in the world. You
remember those terms that Paul used in the second chapter of
Ephesians? losing all courage when he just told us just a few
verses prior to this one, that with great assurance and boldness
and courage, we proclaim and we preach the gospel. We fail
to abide by faith in Christ. We look and put our eyes on the
temporal abilities of our members, of our bodies, of our minds,
and we begin to plot out and plan our way as though God is
not interested in it. And if he was, we need to make
sure that our plans are set in stone so that God might orchestrate
them instead of his own. Sometimes I think losing heart
means to fail in our faith and to fail in our discipline in
the word and to not abide with Christ and trusting in his completed
and accomplished work. I think losing heart means giving
up, throwing your hands in the air, quitting and then regretting. I believe we can rightly say
that losing heart means spiritually that we're not praying, that
we're not praising and we're not preparing and we're not proclaiming. I hate those raw peas, but they
come like that. But what we should do. In order
that we do not lose heart as we remember, we remember what
we've learned and we go back to what we've learned as the
sustenance of our faith, as the grace and the power of God. We
go back to the word. We don't turn the page of the
scripture and go, I've got that now. I'll teach it to somebody
else and I'll hold on to it. It would be great if we taught
it with someone else because we know we would not let it go. But ultimately, what we do is
just say, I've got that now. I'll hold on to that here. And
I'll move on to something else. Friends, don't ever get in that
attitude when it comes to the Word of God and to the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, because your grace power, you will not lose
your grace, but your freshness will dry up and you will dry
out and you will give up. You will lose heart and you will
lose hope. We have to remember and we have to hold on to several
things. This is going to be quickly,
but they're straight from this letter. And then I'm going to
pair them with other portions of Paul's writing. So if you'd
like to take notes, I saw that there was an opportunity for
that right there on your sheet. We must remember by not losing
heart means we remember and we hold on to. God's mercy, and
I'm going to use God's mercy and God's power. So God's mercy
is powerful. God's affection is powerful.
God's grace is powerful. God's love is powerful. So everything
God does is powerful. He's divinely powerful. All power
belongs to him. So everything he does, you can
interchange it. God's powerful mercy. You can
put that adjective before everything that we talk about. But in this
context, God's mercy for our calling. What is our calling?
To make disciples in the name of Jesus Christ, in the name
of the Father, in the name of God, the Holy Spirit. To teach
others, and this is how we make disciples, to teach others to
obey all that Christ has commanded us. And then to baptize them,
in other words, to embrace them, to bring them into the body of
Christ, baptize them publicly, that they might be part of a
local body of believers, to be held accountable, to grow in
discipline and discipleship, and to display the glory of God
in unity and doctrine and affection and service, good works, which
He had prepared beforehand for us to do. So we can have mercy
in our calling. We can look at the world and
the circumstances and know where God has called us. And then we
say to ourselves, there is no way that I can accomplish that.
You're exactly where God needs you to be, because when there's
a simple way and a simple stare and a simple sign, that's usually
not God calling. Very few times have we in our
lives, as short as they've been, had a clear, simple path to the
call of God, but rather a clear call that had a very hazy path
before us. And so we walk toward that goal. We walk toward that call, knowing
that we have God's mercy for that calling, that if God is
called, God will provide and he will equip and he always will. Oftentimes, though, we miss God's
provision and mistake it for necessity, which is really won't. And there's a big difference
in won't in necessity. But God has given us mercy. We
must hold on to that understanding. We must remember, Paul says in
2 Corinthians chapter 4, we'll read this whole text at the very
end of this message. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy
of God, we do not lose heart. Just as Paul says in Ephesians
3, 7 of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift
of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power.
And so God's power and mercy for the call in our life is reason
for us not to lose hope. Also, we ought to remember and
hold fast to God's mercy for good works. We have the ability
to continue to serve and to love and to give and to die to ourselves
for the sake of the gospel. Paul teaches this in Galatians
6, 9. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season
we will reap if we do not give up. The same type of mindset
he teaches to the people of Thessalonica in 2 Thessalonians 3, 13. And
when he says, as for you, brothers, Do not grow weary in doing good. A pastor friend of ours from
years ago used to always say we might grow weary in the work
of God, but we should never grow weary of the work of God. I think
it's a fairly true statement. In Ephesians 3, last week we
even dealt with this. This was according to the eternal
purpose a week before that he has realized in Jesus Christ
in 311. Our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with
confidence through faith in Him. So I ask you not to lose heart
over what I'm suffering, which is your glory. In Ephesians 2
10, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Friends, we can rest and feel confident in remembering and
holding on to God's powerful mercy for the call in our lives
and for the works in our lives. We must remember that we are
the church created by God for good works through Jesus Christ.
These good works include, but not all inclusive, they include
us to be His people in holiness, to walk in a battle against sin,
to be His vessel of mercy through preaching and proclamation and
teaching others. to obey all this commanded us
in Scripture, every single thing. And we also are to be his wisdom
displayed to the enemies of God, to the powers, the principalities
of darkness. As Paul teaches in Ephesians,
I mean, excuse me. Yes, Paul teaches in Ephesians six. And
as he couples there in Ephesians three, ten. and also to be the
proof of Christ's death and resurrection. We, by God's mercy and his powerful
mercy, I have have grace and mercy for a calling as well as
our good works and also to to suffer and to suffer. Well, we
will suffer. But the question is, how will
we suffer and are we walking in such good works that the world
hates us? See, John teaches us in first
John that the reason tame. murdered his brother Abel because
he hated his brother because his brother was righteous. He hated righteousness. One of
the greatest compliments, though it's not seen that way, is to
be hated because you do not partake in the things of this world.
I don't be hated because of your self-righteousness and your haughtiness.
But you will be hated for your righteousness. People love to
see a godly person fall. They love to see a godly man
get addicted to pornography. They love to see godly children
rebel against their parents. The world loves to see godly
people fall. They love to see people take
control of what's not theirs to control. They love to see
people supersede the authority of Christ in the government.
The world loves to see it when Christians fail. Because it puts
them on the same plane. I call it the tabloid syndrome.
As you're at the grocery store and you see all that garbage.
Why do people buy that garbage and none of it's true? Because
they see someone who is an untouchable that looks just like them when
they're in their bathing suit. Or acts just like them when they're
drunk on an airplane. Or acts just like them when they're
at the supermarket and their check bounces. And it makes us
feel better about who we are when we take those who have been
lifted up and high and exalted and we bring them down to where
we are. And we step upon their weakness. Well, the world wants
to see that happen to the Christians of the church, and they hate
us because we're righteous. Be hated for your righteous place,
but do not be hated for your righteous pride. There's a big
difference. God's mercy for suffering, as
Paul says in the first three verses of this text. For this
reason, I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ on behalf of you Gentiles,
assuming that you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace
that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known
to me by revelation as I have written briefly. God's ministry
results in a ministry of suffering. God's ministry, why did I say
God? Because God gave it to Paul.
God's ministry for Paul results in a ministry of suffering for
the good of the power of the gospel in the lives of other
people. We see this in Colossians chapter 1. Paul teaches in verse
24, says, therefore now I rejoice. That's probably the wrong words
there, but therefore now I rejoice in my suffering. For your sake
and in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in the suffering
of Christ or for the afflictions for the sake of the body. That
is the church of which I became a minister. And he says also,
again, according to the stewardship of God's grace that was given
to me for you to make the word of God fully known, the mystery
hidden for the ages, excuse me, hidden for ages and generations,
but now revealed to the saints. So God gives mercy for suffering.
His power enables us to suffer. So we must not lose heart, for
we have been placed there by God. We also do not lose heart
because we hold on. Remember that God's mercy is
for joy. And this will be the whole meat of the rest of this
message in the short time that I have left. The mercy for joy,
God's grace and God's power and God's mercy affects joy in the
life of our of his children. Losing heart, I believe, ultimately,
is defined as losing joy and giving up. We lose the joy of
God's grace. We lose the joy of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, who is the joy of heaven. Why do we do that?
Because we sin. Why do we sin? Because we do
not believe. At the moment of sin, we fail
to believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, which means we look at
the temptation before us and we go, that's more beautiful
than my Savior, and I'm going to touch it, and I'm going to
eat it, and I'm going to embrace it. And I'm going to take it
as mine. And then we realize immediately, just as Adam and
Eve did in the garden, that we have sinned and we try to cover
up our own sins, but we can't do that. And praise be to God
that Christ already has. He's taken, not only covered
them, but eradicated them for he who had no sin. God made him
a curse and crushed him and disciplined him as a son that deserved, but
he did not deserve it at all. And now we are free in Christ.
That's God's mercy for joy. Jesus is the bread of life. He
is the living water, the eternal life, the way, the truth, the
resurrection and the life. He's the glorious creator, the
majestic king, the humble lamb, the ruler of the nations, the
commander of angels. The Alpha and Omega, the omnipotent
one, the author of our salvation. Jesus is the giver of grace,
the healer of hearts, the lifter of the depressed. He's the divine
one, the anointed one. He is the one for whom all the
cosmos points and two for whom It was created, and to whom it
points. He's the giver of the law. He's the fulfiller of the
law. He is the victory of the saints, the first of many brothers,
the redeemer of the bride, the glorious atonement, the satisfier
of the judgment, and He is also the eternal judge. So, in Christ,
our joy is fully complete. There is nothing else that truly
matters, for Christ is the guarantee of our glory. His glory in which
we share as the inheritance of God. This joy is working actively
in our lives. Peter knew it. James knew it.
John knew it. Jesus knew it. And you know it. Or do you know it? Do you know
that the power of God for your joy is working in your life actively
today? See, the gospel is the joy of
glory, who is the person of Jesus Christ. Suffering, according
to the scripture, is the means through which we can measure
the greatness of glory in Christ and that we hold so insignificantly
the suffering here in this world that we look forward and call
what we experience now light and momentary in comparison to
what Christ has suffered, and then also in comparison to what
God has promised that is ours already, and that we're looking
forward to receiving. We are His children, and on us
He has placed His eternal and divine love and affection. The
song I heard this morning on the radio, on the gospel radio,
whatever it is, the channel that barely picks up, a choir singing
Jesus Loves Me. How simple a song, most of the
stanzas. How beautiful the lyrics. How
simple the truth. And that Jesus loves me, this
I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. We are weak, but He is strong. That's an incredible message.
The Scripture teaches us that in our weakness He is strong.
Therefore, what Paul says is that we boast in our weakness
evermore. So because the more we are weak,
the more we are crushed, the more we are destroyed, the more
we look like vessels of clay that are broken and shattered,
the more glorious God is to work through us, which is impossible
for the world to grasp. Jesus loves me, Jesus loves his
bride church, his The bride is His treasure. He proves it through
the Incarnation. He steps out of glory into the
humanity of Mary, the womb that He created and was born out of
it. And then He lived a perfect life and died a perfect death,
willingly, obedient to suffer for the sheep. This is God's
manifold wisdom. And holding on to that is faith.
Faith is knowing, holding. Listen to this. Fighting, resisting,
assuring, returning, abiding. Wrestling, knowing without a
doubt and boldness and confidence with mighty courage that Jesus
is done and that He is alive and He is working for us today
in the power of His might. Joy is the only thing that truly
comes from this. Do not lose heart. Paul says,
do not lose heart. Do not lose heart. to the outcome
of this inexpressible joy as we see in 1 Peter. You listen
to this as I read it. Blessed be the God and the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ according to His great mercy. He has caused
us to be born again to a living hope through Jesus Christ's resurrection
from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled
and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power is
being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now
for a little while, if necessary, you may be grieved by various
trials so that the genuine, genuine, tested, excuse me, the tested
genuineness of your faith that was more precious than gold,
though it is perishes when tested by fire. is found or may be found
to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Though you do not see him, you
love him. Though you do not now see him,
you believe in him and you rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible
and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, which
is the salvation of your soul. So there's a common theme that
we see here in the apostles. This joy, as Peter says, results
in something. It results in praise and glory
and honor and that it's inexpressible. And it's filled with glory. The
outcome of our faith, which is about salvation of our souls
at the revelation of Jesus Christ, Paul says, is no longer a mystery. We are adopted and redeemed as
children. We are the true effectual product
of a new creation that is one day going to be holistic to everything
God has made. And we are the crowning jewel
of that creation at the cost of Jesus. And as we close our
time today, we look at this final issue that Paul teaches and that
it is your glory. This suffering. Do not lose heart
for my suffering. Do not lose heart because this
power of God, this mercy of God is giving you glory. So we see
the mercy for glory. Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter
4. Turn there with me. I'm going
to read the whole chapter and I know it's a little lengthy. And it will be done. So I think. Therefore, Having
this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart, but
we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to
practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. But by the open
statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's
conscience in the sight of God. And verse three, and even if
our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In
their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers
to keep them from seeing. The light of the gospel, the
glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim
is not of ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord with ourselves
as your slaves for Jesus sake, for God, who said, let light
shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give us the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. But verse seven, we have this treasure in jars of clay
in order to show that surpassing power belongs to God and not
to us. We are afflicted in every way, but we're not crushed. We're
perplexed, but we're not driven to despair. So he says we don't
lose heart. We're persecuted, but we're not
forsaken. We're struck down, but we're not destroyed. Always
carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of
Jesus may be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always
being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life
of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death
is at work in us, Paul says, but life in you. Since we have
the same spirit of faith, according to what has been written, I believe.
And so I spoke. We also believe. And so we also
speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us
also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For
it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and
more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of
God for 16. So we do not lose heart. See
why we had to go here. We do not lose heart. Though
our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed
day by day for this, listen to this, for this life momentary
affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory that
is beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are
seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that
are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Why do we suffer? It's all here.
I'm going to ask some closing questions. Why do we suffer?
Why do we not lose heart? We suffer that we don't lose
heart. We don't lose heart and we suffer so we don't lose heart.
Why would we lose heart if we had no reason to lose heart? If we do not suffer, we have
no way of displaying the power of the gospel in our lives by
not losing heart. We have to suffer. Why do we
suffer? We suffer according to this for
the glory of God in verse seven there. But to show that we have
this treasure in God's place to show that the surpassing power
belongs to God and not to us. That's what Paul teaches us there.
We suffer for the sake of others. We die and we waste away in our
bodies, rot and we suffer. But Christ lives and you live
and all who hear and believe live and are saved in Christ
because of suffering. Paul says of the Ephesians, by
the working of his power. See, Paul is strengthened. He's
about to pray. Next week we'll look at the prayers
of Paul. We're about to pray for these Christians to be strengthened.
Why would we be strengthened if we're not suffering, if we're
not broken, if we're not downtrodden, if we're not despaired? But we're
not despaired, are we? We're persecuted. We're not forsaken. We're crushed, but not destroyed.
We don't give way to despair. We do not lose hope. We do not
lose heart. We hold our hearts in the joy
of Christ and the power of the gospel. And nothing can take
that away from us. Paul suffers and we suffer, and
the result is that through suffering, grace is given. Grace is given
through suffering. God's grace was effectually applied
and affirmed and accomplished on the cross where Christ suffered. Christ had to suffer that grace
could be given. We must suffer that grace must
be given to those who need it and to hear it. That's what's
so damnable about the prosperity gospel. It's a damnable heresy. It is something that is God forsaken. I don't know why he allows it,
except that his judgment, his glory be seen in the judgment
against such teaching. God's grace is revealed and delivered
to those who are perishing, not the righteous, not those who
haven't made how to the power of God. The question is, how
do we know? How do we know that this power? is effective in establishing
our life. Well, because the Scripture teaches
us that we have been raised to life in Christ and our spirit
and our body dies, it also will be raised to life in the flesh.
We will be renewed, although we are dying, always carrying
in the body the death of Christ so that the life of Christ may
be manifested in our bodies. Christ was raised from the dead,
Peter says, and we, because of the mercy of God, have been Excuse
me, how does he say that? Blessed be the God, the Father,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who has caused us to be born again to a living
hope through the resurrection of Christ from the dead. An imperishable,
undefiled, unfading inheritance that is kept in heaven for us
by God and the working of his power. So see, that's what it
says there. I got all tongue-tied the first time I said that. So
we are suffering and we know we have glory to look forward
to. We suffer to the praise of His glory. We suffer so because
we know we are going to receive glory. We are co-heirs with Christ
to be glorified in the same manner, to the same level that He is.
We are not Lord, but Christ in some sense is incomplete until
His bride is with Him. He longs for that day. to bring
his bride to the marriage supper. Being raised to life is not our
hope in this life. We don't look at this life and
hope that we can live in it. We look forward to the day when
this life ceases and we live with Christ. We hold on and we
do not lose heart because we remember, just as we have seen
in the letters of the Ephesians, and also because we know that
this suffering is several identifiers, several adjectives that Paul
uses here. He says this suffering is momentary
and light. Look at verse 17 there in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. This light, momentary affliction. Light, momentary affliction.
Now, momentary means that it's short-lived. It's not going to
last long. No matter what we go through,
it's going to end. Even by death, it's short. You
understand that? It's not horrible to die as a
Christian. It's the ultimate gain. But it's
also light. Now, Paul didn't say, oh my,
it's nothing. I didn't hurt it, feel it. No,
it was bad. It was bad, but in comparison. Preparing us for an eternal weight
of glory beyond all comparison, I will be honest with you, I
have spent. a long time thinking about an
eternal weight of glory, and I just still can't get the edge. I feel like a kid that can barely
reach the edge of the shelf and the cookie jar. I can touch it
with my fingers, but I can't get it to come to the edge. And
I'm desperately looking for that stepstool to get up there to
move that jar. I want that jar to come off the
shelf and to bust at my feet into pieces so that I can just
lay in the crumbs of those riches. There's no angels in the eternal
weight of glory. So what do we know about it?
Well, this eternal weight of glory is the suffering that we
have today, as harsh as it is, is not compared, cannot be compared. What does Paul say in Romans
8, verse 18? For I consider that the sufferings
of the present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is
to be revealed to us. There's no comparison to what
we go through, even though it's hard and it's horrible and it's
awful as it is. It's light and it's momentary.
It's almost like a breeze compared to the greatness of the eternal
weight of glory that is unseen. It's unseen. We don't hold tightly
to what we have in this world. We hold loosely to it because
God owns it all. And we look with hope to that
day where Christ is going to take it all and get rid of it
anyway. And he is the greatest prize and the greatest treasure.
And the glory that is given him will be shared with us. And so
this suffering moves us to that glory. Are you living for glory? Not self-glory, Christ's glory.
And you share in that. You receive that glorification.
You become a new man. You become a new woman. You become
imperishable, undefiled, no sin. We hold on to what we know we
already have. And as Hebrews teaches, we hold
on to the confession of our hope in Christ Jesus, which is faith.
I mean, we hold on to what we cannot see, but we hold on to
what we cannot see because it is already ours and we know that
it's there and nothing's going to shake our resolve to that
goal. Our joy, therefore, is complete.
Our lives are in the hands of our Redeemer and nothing can
take us from him. Even our losing heart will not
separate us from the love of God. The question is, where do
we hold? What do we hold and to whom do
we hold? And we hold fast with joy to
Christ, knowing that the suffering that we experience and others
experience for the sake of the gospel is for our glory. Do we
remember and do we hold fast, do we not lose heart when we
remember that God is strong, when we are weak in the power
of Christ? He's strong in our lives for the sake of others.
We suffer, but we're not destroyed. We're given unto death, but yet
we live. See, the enemy knows and sees
the wisdom of God. And he's defeated and we are
victorious. Do we really hold on to that? Why is it so hard? Because we don't come here. We don't go here. We go here. We talk to ourselves. And we
regurgitate, oh so horribly, what we think we know instead
of going to who knows it. to God alone. We ought to hold
on during these light and short momentary afflictions, for they
are preparing us for an eternal weight of glory that is incomparable
to the things that we have seen or experienced or suffered. And
that's what it means not to lose heart, to hold on to Christ. I want you to hear that, I want
you to grasp that. And I want you to keep grabbing
it and keep holding and never let it go. Because there is no
other message under the sun but that. Let's pray. God, we are grateful that you
have shared your word with us today. Father, we are just... We're spoiled. Rotten. We have so much. And we don't even know it. We suffer so little that we complain
the loudest. Help us to just embrace. The
absolute sufficiency of the gospel, the active, present, working
gospel that's working in us right now as we sit here and hear this
prayer. Lord, your power is at work in
us. Thank you that nothing can change
that. Father, plant it in our hearts
so deeply that we have to go and be alone when we bring it
to heart so that we might worship you and praise you. Father, as we leave this place
today, let our love be in Christ. Let our unity be in Christ. Let
our peace be in Christ. Let our joy be in Christ. And
anything that steps up to the plate to try to get into the
lineup, God, I pray you take it away. Even if it causes pain. Use us. And pursue us and prepare
us to go and be the church, to be your body. To display your wisdom, to proclaim
your son. It's in his name we pray. Amen.