Good morning again. So good to
be here today. Always a great blessing. Again, turn with me if you would
to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We'll be looking at that passage
that Brother Brian just read. God's grace, beloved, God's grace
is immeasurable. It's immeasurable. We can't measure
it. We can't measure the height of it. We can't measure the depth
of it. We can't measure the width of it. And the reason it's so
immeasurable to the believer is because it's covered all our
sin. All of it. Past, present, and future. All
covered under the precious, precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. By his sacrifice. By his sacrifice
for us. in the room and place of his
people. And God's grace and mercy planned salvation for God's chosen
people. He planned it. He planned it
in eternity, before there was ever a world. He planned the
salvation of his people. And God's mercy moved our Heavenly
Father to send the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate in the
flesh, into this world. to redeem his people from their
sins, from all their sins, so that there's nothing left, so
that God looks upon his people and sees Christ and says, I don't
remember their sins no more. My, what a great salvation. No wonder we cry out, praise
be to our great God. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Have all our sins forgiven while
we're here on this earth? Yes. Yes. My, by the giving of the Lord
Jesus Christ and by the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
God's mercy and grace moved our Heavenly Father to send the Lord
Jesus Christ in the fullness of time to redeem his people from their
sins. And God's grace and mercy moved
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to leave the glory and
splendors of heaven. Remember, he's the Son of God
in glory. And it's his love for his people,
the grace of God that's immeasurable, that moved him to come to this
sin-cursed world to redeem his bride, his bride, to give his
life for her. And she comprises a great multitude
of sinners, saved and washed in the precious blood of Christ. And he gave his life. He fulfilled
the law perfectly in our room and place. Dying is the substitute
of his people. And God's grace and mercy moved
the Son of God to send the Holy Spirit of God. Right? To be our comforter. And because we're sons, God sends
the spirit of his son into our hearts where we now cry, Abba
Father. Gives us faith to believe. We're
born again to the Holy Spirit and given faith to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and in repentance before God that we
never did before. What a miracle. No wonder God's
people say that God's grace is immeasurable. No wonder we say,
hallelujah, what a savior. He's great, isn't he? He's glorious. And by God's almighty power,
we're born again. The unwilling are made willing
to come to Christ. in the day of his almighty power.
And God's mercy and grace and power raised Christ Jesus from
the grave for our justification, to show
that God was absolutely satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ. And where he is, we shall soon
be also. And all this was planned and
purposed and put into action by our great God. He's absolutely
sovereign. He's a king who rules over all. And what great comfort that can
bring us is God's people. Oh my. Look at the first verse
that Brian read there in verse 5 of 2 Corinthians chapter 4. I love this. Paul sets forth
again by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God that we preach
not ourselves. I'm not up here to entertain
you. I'm up here to preach Christ. I'm not up here to preach myself.
I'm here to preach Christ. And you rejoice in that, don't
you? I know when I listen to the messages of the gospel, I
just want to hear about Christ. Tell me more and more about my
Savior. Tell me more and more about the one who loved me so
much that he gave himself for me. Oh, what a Savior. What a Redeemer. Look at this here. For we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your
servants for Jesus' sake. So Paul brings forth what all
true gospel preachers do. We preach not ourselves. We don't
preach our opinions. We don't preach our philosophies.
We don't promote ourselves to supply ourselves with life's
necessities, no. We preach Christ and him crucified,
the only savior of sinners. We preach and teach Christ the
Messiah, the prophet, priest, and king, the fulfillment of
every Old Testament type and promise. We preach Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, the man of souls, numbered with the transgressors,
yet without sin, tempted in all points, and yet without sin,
the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. We preach that He is Lord
over all, very God of very God, King of kings and Lord of lords.
And note in that verse, we preachers are your servants. Now that's
key, isn't it? We don't lord over you. God's preachers aren't called
to lord over people. God's preachers are called to
preach Christ and him crucified. And we are the church's, we are
servants of the church. I told you guys when Travis and Brian and Dan became
deacons and all four of us are servants of the church. We're
not here to lord over anyone. No, not at all. We're servants
for Christ's sake. We're servants for Christ's sake. And look at verse 6 here. Look
at verse 6. This is marvelous. This is, you
know, salvation's all the Lord. It's not anything we do. We're
just acted upon. And we run to Christ because
we're born again, and we're made willing in the day of God's power.
We're given faith to believe, and we run to Christ. Look at
this. Look who's doing all the work here. This is wonderful. I'm so thankful that salvation's
not in any way dependent upon me. I'm so thankful it's all
God, aren't you? Look at this. For God, God did
this. not Wayne Boyd, God did this.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has
shined in our hearts. Now, Paul, you notice Paul, I
love the way Paul writes, he puts himself just as everybody
else. You know, I'm one of you. We're together in this body,
aren't we? He says, look at this, he doesn't
say, he doesn't say, well, I, Paul, the apostle, and all of
you. Does he? No. Paul's a safe sinner, just
like all of us. So he says, for God who commands
the light to shine in the darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. See, we would not know Christ unless he revealed
himself to us. That's what this verse is bringing
forth here. And it's God who's done that. God's revealed himself
to us. And now we rejoice, don't we?
We rejoice now. And we glory in God, in the face
of Jesus Christ. Again, take note of God, that
in the new creation, it's Christ. God makes something out of nothing.
We're dead. We're spiritually dead when we
come into this world. And he makes us alive. He makes
us alive. This is wonderful. This is mercy
beyond measure. And He commands the light. God
commands the light. Christ is the light, right? He
commands the light to shine into our dead, darkened hearts. To
give us a true knowledge of who God is. To give us a true knowledge
of who God is now. And the glory in Him. And we
say, praise be to God. Praise be to God that He's done
that. That He didn't leave me in that darkness. And oh how
great that darkness of sin was I was in. He shined the light here, which
is Christ, out of the darkness. My. See, but normally we just shy
away from Him. We don't want nothing to do with
Him in our natural state. And once He shines that light
in our hearts, once we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God,
all we want to do is be in His presence. Amen. Oh my. Now let's read verse 7. We see the gospel called a treasure,
but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. Look at that. Who's
the power of? It's of God, not of us. Not of us. We can't save ourselves. I ask you, can you pay for one
sin? One sin, just one. Can you pay
what God requires for one sin? I can't. But praise God, Christ
paid it all for me. And if you're a believer, for
you too. Isn't that wonderful? That's good news. Oh, we see the scripture declared
here, the gospel of Christ is called a treasure. Why, one might
ask. One might say, well, why is the
gospel called a treasure? Well, God's people know it's
a treasure, don't we? Oh, we know it's a treasure. It's rich.
It's rich. My. It has rich blessings, doesn't
it? It has rich doctrines. Justification
in Christ alone. Sanctification in Christ alone.
Redemption by the blood of Christ. These are great blessings. Great
doctrines. My oh my. Satisfaction. That's a good one
too, isn't it? That God is absolutely satisfied
with the sacrifice of Christ in our room and place. My. Why do you cry? It is finished. It's perfect in the Greek. It's
perfect. Can you add anything to perfection?
Nope. What a rich doctrine. Oh my. And the promises of God are rich,
aren't they? Remember all those Old Testament promises are yea
and amen in Christ. It says in 1st Corinthians chapter
1. Yea and amen in Christ. Therefore all those promises
are ours. Spurgeon used to say, take the promises and pray them
back to God. Pray them back to God. He's promised
those things. And it's not a name it and claim
it, that kind of You know how I feel about that stuff. It's
not that stuff at all. Not at all. My oh my. It's from a grateful heart. Thankful
for the grace of God. Thankful for salvation in Christ. Who's absolutely wonderful. The
gospel's a treasure to God's people. It shows forth the riches
of God's grace, doesn't it? It shows forth the riches of
God's mercy. And it really shows forth the
riches of God's eternal love. That in eternity, God was moved. Moved to choose a people in Christ. Moved to plan and purpose salvation
for his people. Moved to send his son. And that's
the great love, the everlasting love of God. that moved him to do that. We
looked at that in our study in John 17 and how this love that
God the Father has for his people and God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit, it never changes. See, our love can be fickle,
can it? Up and down. Because we're a bunch of sinners
saved by the grace of God. But God's love is unchanging.
It never changes. And that's what, personally,
that's what I marvel in is that before the Lord saved me, He
loved me even then. Even though I was saying, I'll
not have this man rule over me. It was so for all of us, wasn't
it? And then when we learn that His love has been set upon us
from eternity, this gospel becomes so precious, doesn't it? So precious. So wonderful. It's a treasure.
It's a treasure. And this treasure is in earthen
vessels, meaning God's preachers to whom God entrusts the gospel.
And then he sends his preachers to wherever he's pleased to send
them. Right? Moved me from Oregon to here
now. I'm so thankful. Oh, I love you guys. Oh my. But
he does that. I thought I was going to die
in Oregon after I went around preaching different places. I
thought I'm going to die in Oregon. No. God had other plans, didn't
he? My oh my. So we're weak and frail
creatures, all of us. We're subjects to like passions
and infirmities just as anyone else in this world. And we see
that God makes the most unlikely people vessels of His grace and
honor. It's wonderful, isn't it? It's
absolutely wonderful. Frail creatures. Unlikely instruments
of His grace. And why does He do that? Why
does He do that? Why does He choose the foolish
things of the world? Which just means the common in the Greek,
right? that we might give him all the
glory and that we might give him all the praise for the great
things that he's done for us. Salvations of the Lord. Hallelujah.
Give him all the glory. Give him all the honor. Give
him all the praise. He's the only one worthy of it
all. There's no one else worthy of it. No one else. My. And think upon this, the weaker
vessel, the stronger the power appears. In our weakness, and
I mean in our weakness, he is strong. He's strong. And he's proven that to we who
are his people through different trials and tribulations and things
that we go through in this world. He's proven to us in our weakness,
in our lowest points, he's strong. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. Never. And in the Greek, that's never,
not ever, ever. Never. The Lord has said, I'll
never leave thee nor forsake thee. My, that's comforting,
isn't it? That's comforting. I'll tell
you. And he sends weak men to preach
his gospel, frail men that the work is of God and not of man. That's why. I remember Jean-Claude
telling me when I first got here, and this is something I've never
forgotten, and I would tell it to any preacher and any believer, always remember that Christ gets
the preeminence. Always remember that. Never forget
that. He gets all the preeminence.
He gets all the glory. He gets all the honor and praise.
So we see here that God's grace and mercy is freely and sovereignly
bestowed upon whomever it pleases the Lord to give it to. And we
as God's people are weak and frail sinners, saved by the mercy
and grace of God. In and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now look at, he's going to tell us now a few things that
believers go through. Look at verses 8 and 9. We are
troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed,
but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Cast down, but not destroyed. You know those two little words,
but not? Isn't that wonderful? But not. Look at that. Troubled on every side, yet not
distressed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
God will never leave us. Cast down, but not destroyed. Troubled, oppressed in every
way. We're never free from this. I like what Scott Richardson
said. I'm going to keep repeating this too. The believer is either
going into trouble, in trouble or coming out of trouble. And
that's a trial, a temptation, or any kind of thing. We're always
going through something, aren't we? Always. Always. We go from one trial to another.
And since we are in the world, we'll face tribulation. We will.
We'll face tribulations. Yet we're not to be distressed.
In the Greek there, in the Greek there, When it says,
yet not distressed, that means not hemmed in. I was thinking about that. God
always provides a way out, doesn't he? Distressed, but not hemmed in.
Not hemmed in. No, God's got us. Remember, we're
his sheep. We're the sheep of his hand and
the sheep of his pasture. What does a shepherd do? He's
ever watchful over his sheep, isn't he? Ever watchful over
them. Oh my, notice we are perplexed. This word in the Greek signifies
doubting and uncertainty. I don't have to ask you if you've
ever doubted, right? I doubt. I have times of uncertainty. Do you? Paul did obviously, right? You see, we're not a bunch of
super Christians as people think, right? Christians are normal
people who've been saved by the grace of God, born again. We
still have trouble, don't we? Right? Paul's just laying it
out. Who's the true author of these
words? God, the Holy Spirit. He knows how we are. He says,
well, he says we're perplexed, we have times of doubt and uncertainty,
but not in despair. We don't throw our hands up in
despair. No. Any believer tells you, we
had a friend at West, and what did she tell my wife again? She
told her something. She said, oh, I never doubt,
or I never worry, or some weird thing like that. Well, it wasn't
very long after that, she had trouble in her family. You know,
come on. We're all human, aren't we? Right? We all go through things. We
all do. And notice, again, Paul penned
these words. We see that believers from the
past and even now are often uncertain and in doubt about what will
happen to us. And it's a good thing we don't
know what's going to happen to us. You know that? It's a really
good thing we don't know. It's a good thing we don't know the day we're
going to die, because we'd be worrying about it all the way
up to the day we die. Right? There goes that light again.
We'd be worried about it until the day we die. But no, we're perplexed but not in despair.
We don't despair for God's help, do we? Because we know He's ever
with us. He's ever with us. He's our support. Notice in verse
9, we're persecuted by a man, cursed, threatened, despised.
Why? Because we profess Christ, that's
all. Because we profess Christ. Paul
preached Christ and Him crucified. And he said in the reading we
looked at today in Sunday School, that he received 39 stripes times
five. We figured it out, that's 195
stripes on his back. You know what he did every time
that was done afterwards? He preached Christ. Didn't stop and did it. By God's
grace and mercy. He upheld him. He upheld him,
beloved. And he upholds every believer. We're forsaken by men, but we're
not cast down, and we're not forsaken by God. Never. Never. My, oh my. And sometimes the storms of life,
it feels like we're cast down. It feels like it sometimes. like
an earthen vessel is sometimes cast or thrown down to the earth,
seemingly forgotten, deserted. But we are ever in God's eyes,
in his almighty eyes. He never slumbers or sleeps,
the scripture says. So what's that mean? We're always
before him. Well, how can God, how can, how can God look upon
all his people at once? Because he's God. Right? He's the Almighty. And He watches over every single
one of His sheep, every single day, every single hour and every
single minute and every single second. Oh, but Wayne, that means He
sees my sinfulness too. God sees everything, doesn't
He? And this is not a license to
sin, but God says, I don't see your sin no more, beloved. Yeah. My, oh my. My, oh my. The storms of life
come, we're cast to and fro, and yet he keeps us by his almighty
power. One commentator said, we're immortal
until his work in us is done. Then they'll take us home forever.
When that day comes to die, when that appointed time comes, there
is nothing in this world that's going to keep us here. Nothing. We're going home to glory. My,
oh my. Now take note of those words.
I'm going to read these words, but not. Praise be to God for
the words, but not. Whatever our situation in life
is, there's a but not in our lives. Do you know that? Oh,
there is. To comfort us. To comfort us.
Look, it says here, we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.
We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not
forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed.
But not. That's God's intervention right
there. My, oh, my. Let us always remember that our
case in our eyes may be bad, but it's not hopeless. For Christ
Jesus, our Lord, is our hope, right? And we always have Him,
don't we? If we have Christ as our hope, we're never in a hopeless
situation. My, oh, my. Let's read verses
10 to 11. always bearing about in the body the dying of the
Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be 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. So we see in these verses Paul
bringing forth suffering of the believers for the gospel. And
every believer will suffer for what we believe. Sometimes it's
our family members that despise us. Sometimes it's our friends.
In these days, the Christians were being gathered together
and taken to the Coliseum and eaten by lions and different
things. My oh my, talk about persecution. So marvel not also that the world
hates us. It might not come out and say,
I hate you, but you start talking about Christ and his perfect
finished work and it won't take long, I'll tell you what, for
people's cackles to get up. My oh my. But rejoice in this,
even though the world hates us, because he lives, we will live. And the power of our Lord's grace,
his strength, his comfort and peace is in us daily manifest
to us, to the church and to the world. Now the apostles of old
and the preachers of the gospel all through time even to today
seem to be a special target for Satan's hatred and the world's
enmity. But even though these trials
come, God uses the preaching of the gospel of salvation in
and through the Lord Jesus Christ to call out his sheep. And all
we preachers are called to do is just faithfully proclaim the
gospel no matter what comes against us. I think I told you when I
first, the first year I was here, some fella across the road I
was talking to said, said, uh, it'd be better for this town
if this church, that church wasn't even here. I'd only been here
a year. I'm like, what? He says, oh,
what you guys preach over there would be better. This town never
had you guys here. I was like, well, we preach the
gospel. We preach the truth. And he goes, oh, no, you don't.
I said, have you ever heard me preach? Oh, no, but I know what you preach.
No, you don't know what I preach. If you never heard me preach,
you don't know what I preach. Right. My, oh, my. Here we are. The gospel is going forth into
all the world. And we're rejoicing, aren't we?
Off it goes. Say whatever you want to say.
We'll just keep preaching the gospel, see? That's what the
true preacher's called to do. We're going to face that stuff.
It comes naturally. Oh, well. I'm going to say something
here. After the Lord saved me, I went
home and my, my, uh, My dad wasn't happy that I was home. He told
me he'd rather have me back in the bars than he would have me
in church, be like I used to be. And I said, well, dad, I'm
not the same person I used to be. And he basically just sat there and
tore me apart night after night after night after dinner, or
before dinner. And here's my mom sitting there,
and I had no idea. She's watching all this, and
she's saying, how did you do that? How did you sit there while
he did that? And the only reason he did that
is because now you're a believer. And I said, by the grace of God,
it wasn't nothing to me. So if some guy like that across
the road comes at me, they're nothing after what my own dad
tore me apart, right? No worries. I'm just going to
keep preaching the gospel, right? So, we just keep loving the Lord. We just keep preaching the gospel.
We just keep moving forward, don't we? Right? That's how it's
supposed to be. That's what Paul's saying here.
No matter everything we went through, all these things we
went through, right? We're just going to keep going.
That the power of the Lord's grace and strength comfort us.
And His peace is in us daily, isn't it? And it's manifest to
us all the time. Every day, God's grace is manifest
to us. Every day. We don't even know
it. You drink a cup of coffee every day or a tea? How'd that
get to your table? Somebody grew it some other country. They harvested it. They gathered
together. They sold it. It got trucked
to wherever it's supposed to be. You picked it off the shelf,
took it home and drank it. That all comes from the hand
of the Lord, beloved. Remember that. That's all from
Him. It's all from Him. Now the apostles
of old and the preachers of the gospel, through time, even today
again, they've been persecuted. And they are on, I like what
Henry Mahan said years ago, we're on the trail of God's sheep.
That's what the gospel preachers are. We're on the trail of God's
sheep. We're gonna preach the gospel, and we're on the trail
of God's sheep. And watch what the Holy Spirit
does with it. My oh my. Listen to this in 2 Timothy 2,
verses 9 and 10. Wherein I suffer trouble as an
evildoer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound.
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they
may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with
glory, with eternal glory. So Paul says, everything I'm
going through, I'm going to go through this for the elect's
sake, that I might preach the gospel to them. See, his eye
was on the glory of God, wasn't it? And that's where our eyes
should be too. We endure things that we go through
in this life for the furtherance of the gospel. For the furtherance
of the gospel. And what Paul said there leads
us right into verse 12. Look at verse 12. In 2 Corinthians
chapter four, verse 12, it says, so then death worketh in us,
but life in you. So he's saying I'm going through
all these different persecutions, right? But I endure these things
for the elect's sake. I endure these things for the
church's sake. That they may also obtain salvation which is
in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. I endure all these things
so I can preach the gospel. And when one preaches the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace, in Christ alone by the perfect
complete work of salvation in him alone one will face persecution
even death look at verse 13 now it says we we having the same
faith spirit of faith according as it is written I believe therefore
have I spoken we also believe and speak there therefore speak
now he's quoting David there from the Psalms he's quoting
David there and he says I believed and therefore have I spoken.
I can't tell you about Christ unless I've experienced salvation
through him. I can't tell you about it. Right? Let's pick a city in the world.
Paris, France. Never been there. I can't tell
you about France. I can't tell you about Paris.
I've never been there. But I can tell you about my hometown in
Canada. Because I was there. I can't tell you about Christ
unless I know him. Right? That's what he's bringing
forth here. He says here, I believe, therefore
have I spoken. We also believe and therefore
speak. So a gospel preacher gets up and preaches the gospel and
we speak what we believe. And Paul brings forth that they're
all filled with the Holy Spirit of God, who gave us faith to
believe in Christ. And we too believe, don't we?
Do we believe in God's eternal purpose? Yes. We believe in God's
eternal purpose. We who are his people, yes. We believe in man's utter ruin
and inability to save themselves. Man can't save himself. There's
nothing we can do to make ourselves good before God. Because we're
sinners from the top of our heads to the bottom of our feet. And
even now I stand before you a safe sinner. I'm still a sinner to
my shame, but I am. But I'm a safe sinner. Praise
be to God. And we can speak now of the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and we believe it. We can speak
of the fact that there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
But outside of Christ, there's eternal condemnation. We speak these truths and we
rejoice in the grace and mercy of God, don't we? For what he's
done. Look at verse 14. Knowing that
he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus
and shall present us with you. My God, our great God, by his
almighty power, raised up the Lord Jesus Christ. You know why? Because he's the
first fruits. Because he rose, we're gonna
rise too, right? If Christ hadn't arisen, we wouldn't
rise with him. We'd still be dead in our graves,
and our religion, or not religion, I don't call what we believe
religion, but we would believe in vain. But we don't believe
in vain. Christ is risen. He's risen. And this verse brings forth that
the same power that raised Christ from the grave is the same power
that raises us from the grave, and also raises us from that
dead natural state we were in, right? when we were in darkness
and then the light came? That's the power of God the Holy
Spirit, who's just as much God as the Father and just as much
God as the Son, right? My oh my. And you know that one day we'll
be raised from the grave and we'll meet the Lord in the
air at that great day when it's all
over. No secret rapture. It's going to be, everybody's
going to see it. It's going to be on that last day. We're all going to be raised
up. My, to meet the Lord in the air. And you know, God, the son
will present his bride to the father. spotless, unblameable,
with exceeding joy. Oh my beloved, what a day that'll
be! Oh! Now let's read verses 15 to 16
here. We're going to come back to verse
15. Look at this. For 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 faint
not, but through our outward man perish, yet the inward man
is renewed day by day. We see Paul here brings forth
that the believer, although tried and troubled, will not faint. You know why? Not because anything
in us. I remember talking to a fellow out west, and he said,
wow, he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Yeah, that's
true. But it's God that keeps us enduring. We can't keep ourselves. We can't. We're so weak. We're
so frail. We just start wandering away like sheep, right? What
do sheep do? They just wander away. Oh, what's over here? Oh. Right? Yeah, Dave knows. He used to have sheep. He knows.
Off they go. Man, oh man, right? Prone to
wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Remember the hymn writer wrote
that? Lord, here's my heart. Take and seal it. Seal it for
thy courts above. Oh my. We faint not because our Lord
keeps us. And as we grow in grace, our
bodies are getting older, right? Our bodies are getting older.
Now think of this, our bodies are getting older, but the new
man is getting stronger. You ever think of that? I was
just thinking about that as I was putting this message together.
Our bodies were getting older, we're all graying now, right?
Or some of us, we're graying, we're starting to get older,
but that new man is growing in grace. getting stronger and stronger
by the grace of God. Isn't that amazing? Oh my, it's
incredible. Now in verse 17, we see Paul,
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, tell us that our afflictions
here are light, and they're only for a moment. This is true when we consider
that one day to the Lord is as 1,000 years. If one day to the
Lord is as 1,000 years, then my life so far, 59 years, has
been but a millisecond. But wonder, Paul, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, says that our afflictions here are light.
Now, they don't feel light to us, do they? They do not feel
light to us. Not at all. He writes here and
tells us, for our light affliction, now remember again what he went
through, all those beatings we looked at in Sunday school, all
that stuff, he says, oh that's just light affliction. He was caned twice, 195 stripes, persecuted, chased out of town, And he says, oh, this is just
light afflictions. My, you know why he can say that? He's got his mind on eternal
things. Not on the earth, right? That's
why the scripture tells us, in the book of Colossians, it tells
us this. If you wanna turn there, you can, or I'm just gonna turn
there. But in the book of Colossians, chapter three, it says this.
This is wonderful. I'll tell you what, this is good
instruction for us. What happens to us in this world?
We get our minds on the things going on in this world, right?
Oh, look at that. Oh, I do. Look at that. I have to shut the news app now
off my phone, because I'll get too worked up just from that. Right? or or any so i've done this to
you go someone's house all they have is the news on all the stuff
you like shut it off i'm getting depressed look at this look what
paul writes and this is such good instruction again from holy
spirit of god in in chapter three if you then be risen with christ
seek those things which are above where christ is on the right
hand of god such a reflection that your heart such a reflection
on things above, not on things of the earth. For ye are dead,
and your life is hid with, look at that, your life is hid with
Christ in God. Set your mind on things above.
I tell myself that all the time, so. I'm preaching to the choir,
aren't I? My oh my. I remember one preacher,
I went to his church to preach, and he had a mayor here. on the
pulpit. He said, always remember you're
preaching to yourself too. Right? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. My oh my. So what the flesh calls
heavy and burdensome and grievous, faith perceives to be light in
but for a moment. And our great God, he supports
us all the time. He's always with us, ever with
us, never leave us nor forsake us. We are favored by his love. So what great comfort that can
bring we who are believers. We may be tempted and tried and
persecuted and going through various things, and yet he's
always with us. And when we compare these afflictions
that we go through with time in God's eyes, they really are
but brief. Even though for us they're a
reality. Not that they're not a reality for God. He sees everything
we're going through. But for Him it's just a bleep. My oh my. Now let's look at verse 18. Oh, and along with verse 17,
our light afflictions, listen to this verse. For I reckon that
the sufferings of these present times are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans chapter
eight, verse 18. Now look at verse 18 here. It
says, well, 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 eternal. See, everything we look at in
this world is temporal. Everything, even us. We're just
temporal. Everything we see in this world,
it's gonna be gone one day. Everything. And that's what Paul's
saying. But he says, but we set our minds
on the things which are not seen. We've not seen Christ and yet
we trust him with our eternal souls. We set our minds on things eternal. And consider these, there's two
things that support the believer who's under trial. First, seeing
the Lord's purpose, knowing that all things work together, right,
for our good and for God's glory, for those who love Christ Jesus,
for those who are called according to His purpose. All things, I
mean everything, good and bad, work for our good and for God's
glory. And secondly, by looking looking by faith beyond this
world to the glory that God has prepared for those who love him.
My, one day we're gonna be in heaven, we'll be sinless. What
a day that will be. You imagine that brother Dave?
No sin, man. We're gonna be worshiping the king without sin. My, no
thought sin, no spoken sin, no sin indeed, No sorrow, no sickness,
no sadness. Just joy. Joy unspeakable and
full of glory. My oh my. My. Let's go back to verse 15 real
quick. It says here, for all things are for your sakes that
the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound
to the glory of God. Look at this verse. Long time
ago, about three or four years ago, I was going to preach a
message on this word redound. Redound. It's a word you just
fly right by in this text. As I said earlier, God's grace
is abundant grace, right? It's unmeasurable. It's pressed
down, overflowing all the time. And God's grace abounds in times
of trouble and suffering for His people. And we become more
aware of it when we're going through things. We become more
aware of it during times of great weakness. And see there abundant
grace, which in the Greek means to make or be more, that is to
increase, to abound, to be abundant by extension, to super abound,
to make, to increase. That word abound, abundant there
in verse 15. Let's read that verse again.
For all things, are for your sakes, that the abundant grace
might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory
of God." Now the believers at Corinth were suffering for their
faith. They were suffering for their
faith. Many of them had come out of idol worship. They may
have had family members forsake them. They may have lost their
jobs, right? They may have lost their family
for their faith. And Paul comforts them that in
this times of suffering, God's grace will super abound towards
them. Super abound towards them. And
then they will give glory to God. I ask you, did you give glory
to God before he saved you? Did you praise his name before
he saved you? Because I didn't. No, we didn't, did we? Have you stopped praising the
Lord since he saved you? Isn't it wonderful? I'll tell
you, it's wonderful. My oh my. See that word redound
in the Greek, or in our text? In the Greek, it means to superabound.
So not only is God's grace towards us superabounding, but the thanksgiving
of God's people will superabound to the glory of God. Isn't that
amazing? Where there was no giving glory
to God, now it's superabounding glory. And that's a miracle of
God. I'll tell you what, that's a
miracle of God. That is a miracle. Think about these things. The
incarnation, the obedience, death, and resurrection of Christ are
all for the sake of God's elect. The ministry of the apostles
and servants, their gifts, graces, comforts, and experiences are
also all, all the reproaches, the afflictions, the persecutions
are all for the furtherance of the gospel. Right? that the abundant grace
of God may move, saving lost sinners, and that their thanksgiving
may super abound to God. It's wonderful. I'll tell you,
God is so good. He is so good. And all things
good and bad, now think about this in our lives, all things
good and bad, if you're a believer, we're further and further into
the gospel. We don't understand that, but it's true. And the Corinthian believers
have this set before them now by Paul, by inspiration of the
Holy Spirit of God. That truly all things work for
good. For those who love Christ Jesus, for those who are called
according to his purpose. Not for everyone in the world.
So you get folks quoting that? They say, well all things work
for good, and they forget to say for those who are the called
according to his purpose. Right? My oh my. Are you one of God's
sheep? Rejoice! Rejoice! Now your lips have been turned
to praise! That's a miracle of grace. God's
grace. Oh my, may he be glorified and
magnified and may we think upon these traits that we've looked
at today, this week. And may our praise redound to the glory
of God. My oh my. Brother Travis, can
you close us in prayer?