Now, verse seven is where our
lesson begins. Paul writes, but we have this
treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may
be of God and not of us. Now, the treasure that Paul is
referring to here is the gospel that we have received. Back up
in verse one, he talked about this ministry that we have received.
That ministry of the gospel is a treasure. And he calls the
gospel a treasure because it is, it's a great treasure. It's
a treasure because the gospel proclaims the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the pearl of great price. Christ is the treasure and this
gospel reveals Christ. That's why he calls it a treasure.
You don't have Christ revealed anywhere, but in the gospel.
And it's a treasure. This gospel, second of all, is
a treasure because it proclaims the unsearchable riches of Christ. It proclaims the rich mercy of
God in Christ. If you have Christ, if you have
this gospel, you're rich. I mean, wealthy more than human
language can express. Rich because it's such a treasure.
Third, the gospel is called a treasure. Because it proclaims all the
precious promises of Christ that are so precious to the believer.
The promise of forgiveness of sins, the promise of righteousness,
the promise of peace with God, the promise of his presence,
the promise of his coming. Those are precious promises.
And then the gospel is called a treasure because the riches
that we have from this gospel are inexhaustible. They're eternal. You can't spend it all. You can't
be like the prodigal son and go off and waste it all on riotous
living. This gospel is inexhaustible. It's better than earthly riches
that are just temporary. Look over at Psalm 119. Psalm
119, verse 72. The law of thy mouth is better
unto me than thousands of gold and silver. So much better than
earthly riches, better than thousands of gold or silver. This is a
treasure. And every time we meet together
here, we're opening up the treasure chest and looking at Christ,
looking at the treasure of the Lord Jesus Christ. You go home
and you open this book to read it. What you're doing is cracking
open the treasure chest. God's treasure chest. This is
a treasure. And we have this unspeakably
valuable treasure in an earthen vessel. You know, if we have
a treasure, you know, we go down and put it in a safety deposit
box in a great big vault at the bank, you know. They have this,
all this gold down at Fort Knox. It's so carefully guarded, security
God puts this treasure that dwarfs what's down there at Fort Knox
in clay pots. Can you imagine such a thing
in just pots that are made out of clay that comes from the ground?
And you know, the thing about clay pots is they're so easily
broken and cracked. They're just so fragile. Mom,
when I was growing up, she had all these little porcelain figurines. Every single one of them, without
exception, has been decapitated. Because, you know, it was Jonathan
and I roughhousing and stuff. They're so easily broken. And
we have received this gospel, this treasure, that's been poured
into us, put into us like you pour water into a porcelain water
pot. God's just put this treasure
into us. And the Lord chooses to put this
treasure in the most unlikely clay pots. He doesn't choose
an ornate, beautiful, decorative pot that stands out from all
the other clay pots on earth. He chooses plain, ordinary, just
undecorated clay pots, just simple men to put the gospel in so that
all the attention will be on the treasure, not on the clay
pot. You know, the more ordinary the
pot, The less we'll look at it and the more we'll look at the
treasure. The more that we'll be taken up with the beauty of
the treasure, the more ordinary the pot, the more the beauty
of the treasure will stand out. The weaker the pot, the more
the power of God is seen in that treasure. And that's why Paul
said back up in verse five, for we preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus, the Lord. We don't preach ourselves because
there's just nothing but a clay pot. We preach Christ because
he is the treasure of God. He's God's treasure that he's
given to us. Now, we have this treasure, this
unspeakable treasure that God's put in us. But look at verse
eight. Even though we have this treasure, we're troubled on every
side, yet not distressed. We're perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Cast down, but not destroyed. Now, no child of God is ever
free from some sort of trial for very long. There's always
some sort of trial, one sort or another, that seems like we're
just always in. Believers are told to expect
trials and trouble in this world, so it just seems like you're
always in them. But even though we have a life
full of these troubles and trials, the believer is never left without
hope. Because Christ is our hope. In
every storm, I don't care how dark and fierce it is, in every
storm, a child of God has a but not to offset that storm. We're
troubled, Paul says, on every side. Trouble has us surrounded,
just completely surrounded so that it looks like there's no
way out. But we're not distressed. And
I looked this up yesterday, the word distressed means to be sorely
straightened in spirit or to be in a narrow place. You know,
as a kid, I loved Westerns and, you know, every Western, the
good guys get trapped in a box canyon, don't they? Well, that's
what this is talking about. We're not trapped in a box canyon. We're not in a narrow, straight
place. We're surrounded by trouble,
yes. But I'll tell you this, we're surrounded by something
better, too. Look over at Zechariah, chapter
2. Zechariah, next to the last book in the Old Testament. We are surrounded by trouble,
but Zechariah 2, verse 4. And he said unto him, Run, speak
to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without
walls. Now, if I'm surrounded, I'd like
walls for defense, wouldn't you? But God says Jerusalem's going
to be inhabited as a town without walls for the multitude of men
and cattle therein. For I, saith the Lord, will be
under her a wall of fire round about and will be the glory in
the midst of her. God's going to be the wall of
fire, the defense on the outside, and he's going to be the glory
on the inside. We're surrounded by a wall of fire. Now look at
2 Kings 6. We'll see more about this wall
of fire. 2 Kings 6. We are surrounded
by trouble on every side. Look here at 2 Kings 6. Verse 14. Therefore sent he thither horses
and chariots and a great host. And they came by night, and compassed
the city about, they surrounded the city. And when the servant
of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, and host
compassed the city, both with horses and chariots. And his
servant said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do? What are we going to do? We are
surrounded. And he answered, Fear not, for they that be with
us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed. And said, Lord, I pray thee,
open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man and he saw. Anytime the Lord opens the eyes
of a man, he sees. He saw. And behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. Yeah, he was surrounded by trouble,
but he was surrounded by something greater too. The protection and
mercy of God. And if the Lord will open our
eyes to see it, will not be distressed. So he says, and next he says. We're perplexed. We are perplexed. We don't know what to do. We
don't know why the Lord's doing what he's doing. We don't know
why the Lord's allowing certain events to happen the way they
are. We're perplexed. But we're not in despair. We're
not without help. We're not without hope because
God is our help and Christ is our hope. We don't know which
way to do. We don't know what's going on,
but we're not left without leadership. We're not left without help because
David said in Psalm 33, he is our help and our shield. So we're
not left without leadership. Then Paul says we're persecuted.
You know, he doesn't say we're going to be delivered, never
experienced trouble, we're never going to not be perplexed. We
will be and we will be persecuted. We'll be persecuted by the world
because an unbelieving world hates God and hates his Christ.
And men will hate us and curse us and forsake us and leave us
all alone or persecuted. But the child of God is never
alone. He never forsaken. Look over
Hebrews chapter 13. We're persecuted, but not forsaken. Hebrews 13, verse five, let your conversation
be without covetousness and be content with such things as you
have. For he has said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake me so that we may boldly say the Lord
is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Man
is going to do a lot of things unto me. Men will hate you, but
God loves you. Men will curse you, but God blesses
you. Men will forsake you, but God
won't forsake you. When men forsake you, God takes
you up in his arms. We're persecuted, but not forsaken. Then Paul says we're cast down.
Cast down by men. Now, that's a bad situation for
a clay pot to be cast down. That's when a pot gets broken,
isn't it? You just cast it down. They just shatter. But a child
of God. is cast down, thrown aside and
ignored by men, but never destroyed. Cast down, but not destroyed,
not shattered. What does scripture say? He shall
give his angels charge over thee, and in their hands they shall
bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a
stone. You're cast down by men, but God sends his angels to hold
you up, so you're not destroyed. Look over at Deuteronomy chapter
33. Deuteronomy 33, verse 26. There is none like unto the God
of Jessarin, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help. See,
here he is, he's your help. He rideth upon the heaven in
thy help and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is
thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. That's
why when you're cast down, you're not destroyed, because underneath,
holding you up, are the everlasting arms of God Almighty. I mean, this is not just some
angel. This is the everlasting arms of God held up, not destroyed. And I can promise you our case
will look bad at times, without question. But the child of God
is never left without comfort, never left without support, never
left without strength. Because Christ is our help and
our strength. So Paul goes on in verse 10,
he says, We are 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 this is why
we have affliction on earth. Because the believer is one with
Christ. They hate Christ and they'll hate Christ in you when
they see it. You know, the servant can never
expect to be treated better than the master. So we're going to
always carry about the dying of the Lord Jesus in these bodies.
Well, then how are we going to live? By the power of Christ. He is our life. Our life is his
life. And the believer's desire is
to live in this world. so that others can see Christ
in us. Even though the natural man will
hate it, God's sheep will see it and love it, be drawn to it.
We desire to live like those disciples of old so that people
would take note. They've been with Jesus. There's
a difference. They've been with Jesus. His
life is our life. So, verse 12, he says, so then
death worketh in us, but life in you. Primarily here, he's
speaking of the ministry of the apostles. You know, the apostles
faced death every day for preaching Christ. And they paid a very
real cost for preaching the gospel. They were thrown in prisons,
they were beaten numerous times. Eventually, they all suffered
death at the hands of men for preaching the gospel. They didn't
die, you know, an old man, a peaceful, you know, death. They suffered
as they died. And they were willing to pay
that price because they loved Christ and they loved His sheep. They were willing to die to preach
the gospel so someone else could have life in Christ. They were
willing to die for it. Now, we don't face that kind
of persecution today. But God's servants are still
willing to spend their life to preach the gospel. They'll give
themselves over to spend themselves to preach the gospel. Death worketh
in us, Paul says. You know, these bodies are dying. Death is constantly working in
these bodies. I think it was John Gill I read
this week talked about death constantly, slowly, unpinning
this tabernacle until eventually it falls down. It's just death
working in us. And shockingly soon, these bodies
are going back to the dust, just in a blink of an eye. It's just
going to be dust and nobody's going to remember we ever stood
here. Even though that's true, God's servants are still willing
to spend this short time that we have preaching the gospel
because it's life to you. Now, I know that sounds pretty
extreme. Someone says. Why are you willing to do that?
Why are you willing to just give your life to this? Nobody's listening.
Nobody cares. Nobody's believing it. What seems
like some time. What keeps you from just throwing
up your hands and quitting? Why don't you just quit? That's
what Paul says in verse one. Seeing that we've received this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. We cannot
quit. Well, why can't you quit? Why
do you refuse to quit? Well, in these next verses, Paul
gives us six reasons that we don't quit. And the first one
is faith. Look at verse 13. 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. Now Paul quotes David, the sweet
psalmist of Israel, who never quit speaking of Christ. Even
on his deathbed, who is he speaking of? Christ, that covenant ordered
in all things and sure. He never quit speaking of Christ.
The Old Testament prophets and the apostles, you know, they
were persecuted. They faced death, but they never
quit preaching the gospel. They just wouldn't quit. And
we've received that same spirit of faith, we've received the
same faith given to us by the same Holy Spirit. By God's grace, I believe the
Lord Jesus Christ, I believe him, therefore I speak of him. I speak without any doubt and
without any hesitation, just as plainly as I possibly can,
to point men to Christ because I believe Him. I desire for you
to believe Him, for you to come to Him, for you to have life
in Him. I believe Christ. I love Him. Therefore, I speak
of Him. I speak of His Word. I speak
of man's ruin in Adam. and man's redemption in Christ.
I speak of man's death in Adam and life for God's elect in Christ. You know, you wonder sometimes,
well, someone would ask you, are you getting any results down
there? Well, it depends what you call results, I suppose.
But regardless of the outward circumstances, we still speak. Why? I believe God. I believe
him. I believe God will honor his
word. This is how God feeds his sheep.
I asked Janet yesterday. I said, you've been teaching
those little ones a long time. Three, four and five year olds,
that'd be a job I couldn't do. And, you know, she says, you
wonder sometimes, are they, are they even listening? You know,
they're picking their nose and looking up at the ceiling and,
you know, just first chance they get want to talk about Spiderman
or Barbie dolls or, you know, just am I completely wasting
my time? I asked her, then why do you
still do it? And I quote this verse. I said, that's got to
be a big part of it. And she said, it is. I believe. Therefore, have I spoken. It's
their only hope of life. Just like it's our only hope
of life. That's why we cannot quit. Cannot quit. Because God's given us faith.
Second, we don't quit because we have a good hope of the resurrection. We speak because this life is
not all there is. 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. We know Christ, our Redeemer,
liveth. And because he lives, We live. Now that's true spiritually because
he lives, we have life. That's going to be true eternally.
And that's going to be true eternally physically. These bodies are
going to be raised to live in a body just like his precious,
glorious body. Now, Christ died, our substitute
died for our sins, according to the scripture. I can't think
of a better reason not to speak of him. That's the best reason
I know of to speak of Him. He died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. I can't get over that God would
do that. I can't get over that. And I
can't get over He'd do that for me. I can't quit speaking of
Him. He died for my sins according
to the Scriptures. And He was raised again the third
day. Now every believer is in Christ when he arose spiritually,
we arose in him. But he's the first fruits of
them that slept. And one day we're going to be raised just
like he was raised by his power, called out of the tomb. And we're
going to be presented to the father with our Lord to ever
live with him, to ever sing the song of the redeemed. I'm telling
you the truth. I intend to start singing that
song right now, right now. I don't say I'm not going to
sing it as good as I will there, but I'm going to sing it. And
when you know that this world is not all there is, and you
care less about this world and more about the one to come, you
cannot quit speaking of Him. You just can't do it. So thirdly,
we don't quit for the good of God's elect. Look at verse 15. For all things are for your sakes,
that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many,
redound to the glory of God. Everything the apostles have
gone through, everything our pastors go through today, are
for the good, for the sake of God's sheep. Someone has to preach
the gospel if God's sheep are going to be saved. Isn't that
right? Because it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them which believe. So you can't quit. The Lord's
given us all these children. John, how many, you counted them
up there, David? Fifteen or sixteen? All these children. Some of them
are God's elect. Well, what happens if we just
quit? We just said, you know, it's not worth it anymore. Let's
just quit this. What's going to happen to them? God's command
to his servants is feed my sheep. Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Don't quit. Don't starve them
out. Feed my sheep. So we can't quit. In all things, Everything God
has ever done is for the sake of his elect. God created this
world for the sake of his elect, so you could be born and called
to Christ. God electing a people was for
his elect's sake. He sent us the types and pictures
of the Old Testament for the elect's sake. Christ became incarnate
for the elect's sake. He lived a life of perfect obedience
and righteousness for the elect's sake. He didn't do that for his
own sake. He was already righteous. He didn't have to work out a
righteousness. He's inherently perfectly holy. He worked out
a righteousness for his elect's sake to impute to you and to
me. The death of Christ was for the
elect's sake. He died for his sheep. The resurrection
of Christ was for his elect's sake. He's raised again for our
justification. He ascended back to glory for
the elect's sake, to prepare a place for us. He sends his
servants out preaching Christ for the elect's sake, to call
us to him, to give us faith in him, to feed us in his word.
And one day Christ is going to return for the elect's sake,
to gather that innumerable host together. And when that innumerable
host is brought together, And they're all singing a song of
thanksgiving and praise. It's going to redound to the
glory of God. All of His glory and salvation
is going to be revealed. So we can't quit because all
things are for your sake. Fourth, we don't quit because
of the power of God in us. We don't quit because God won't
leave you alone. Look at verse 16. For which cause
we faint not, but though our outward man perish, Yet the inward
man is renewed day by day. We don't faint because the inward
man is renewed and strengthened day by day, every day. Now obviously
from this verse you see there's an outward man of flesh and there's
an inward man who is spirit. And we don't do anything by the
power of the flesh. All this flesh is, is dying depraved,
decaying flesh. That outward man of flesh is
born dead and he grows weaker through life. Now the power of
sin doesn't grow weaker. The power of the flesh grows
weaker. But the inward man is born from above, created in Christ
Jesus. And that inward man doesn't live
on bread and water. He lives on faith. He lives on
the green grass of God's Word. And he grows stronger. in grace
and knowledge every day so that he can't quit. See, it's the
flesh that's weak. The Spirit is willing, and God
is the one who, by His power, enables us to not quit, to preach
Him. Fifth, we don't quit because,
verse 17, we have a good hope of glory. For our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. Now, the trials and afflictions
and battles of this life do not make us quit because Paul says
they're just light. They're too light to make us
quit. They're not light to the flesh,
are they? These things to the flesh are heavy. The flesh would
never call these trials and afflictions light. They call them hard and
grievous. But Scripture calls them light.
Because when the Lord holds us up, they're light. They're light
when we rely on the strength of the Lord, not our own strength. Then they're light when we rely
on Him. These things are light when we have the Lord's presence.
When we have the presence of our Lord, everything else is
secondary. You just don't even look at Him
because you're taken up with Him when you have His presence.
These things are light when we compare them to what Christ suffered
for us, for our sin. They're light compared to that.
They're light compared to what we deserve. We suffer these things
for just a moment, not the eternal suffering that we deserve. That's
what Christ suffered for us on the cross. Scripture calls these
things light because they're light compared to how bad it
could be. if it weren't for God's mercy,
restraining, and only giving us as much as we could bear.
These things are light when we compare them to the sufferings
of hell and they're light compared to the glory and joy that awaits
us in His presence in heaven. These things are light. These
sufferings of this present world are light if we'll weigh them
in the balance. On the one hand, we have the
suffering of this flesh. On the other, we have the value
of Christ. Light, compared to the value
of this treasure. On the one hand, we have temporary
suffering of the flesh. On the other, we have the eternal
and changing love of God. Light, just like dust on the
balance, just light. They're light. These things are
light when we consider why the Lord sends us these trials. He
sends us these things to wean us away from this present world
and prepare us to leave here and go be with him in glory,
to be with Christ, which is far greater. These things are light
compared to Christ, who is far greater. And six, we don't quit. Because we see these things of
this life, trials and troubles and battles of this life, we
see them as they really are. Look at verse 18. While 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, we don't judge the value
of what God is doing and what little bit we're doing in His
service. By what we see with these eyes, if we judge things
that God's doing by what we see with these eyes, we would quit.
Because everything we see with these eyes is temporary, it's
changing and it will quickly be gone. We don't quit because
we judge what God is doing and the little bit that we're doing
in his service based on what we see with the eyes of faith. What do we see? with the eye
of faith. We see the Lord Jesus Christ
who is eternal. We see all the blessings that
we have in Him which are eternal. The eye of faith sees the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen with these
eyes. These eyes see the blessing of
the Lord Jesus Christ. So we don't quit because we've
been given this treasure. I believe. God help us to speak. All right. Lord bless you.