2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and
verse 8. 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. 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. So then death worketh
in us, but life in you. we having the same spirit of
faith according as it is written, I believed and therefore have
I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that
he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus
and shall present us with you. 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 though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. which we look not at, 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. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Since the Lord Jesus Christ told
Ananias at the conversion of Saul of Tarsus that the Apostle
would be shown how great things he must suffer for my name's
sake, we may read such autobiographical passages in the Apostle Paul's
epistles without surprise. He suffered a lot for the cause
of the Gospel. These are passages in which this
faithful servant of the Lord briefly describes and tells of
the trials that he and his fellow labourers endured. the gains
of the gospel amongst the nations, amongst the Gentile nations,
were not achieved effortlessly. And those who carried the message
often paid a high price for the privilege granted to them and
for their labour for the Lord. But it's noticeable, I think,
that the apostle employs several words which we are undoubtedly
personally acquainted with in our own lives also. He speaks
of being troubled and perplexed, of being persecuted and cast
down, and he speaks of sufferings directly inflicted for the cause
of Christ and for the Apostle's stand for the Gospel. Jews and
Gentiles alike hounded the Apostle Paul from the time of his conversion
until we leave off his history in a Roman prison facing trial
and death. And yet Paul also tells his readers
that for all his trouble, he was not distressed. For all the
perplexity of his life, he did not despair. He was persecuted,
but the Lord never forsook him. And though he was often cast
down, or the word also means thrown down like a wrestler,
he was not destroyed or smashed as one might expect an earthen
vessel to be, which was how the apostle described himself in
the previous verse. So that from this, the apostle
draws two conclusions for us, I think. He counted it an honour
to serve his master and to spend his life preaching the gospel
to sinners, and to tell them of eternal life by the death
of Jesus Christ. And he proved by his personal
experience of deliverance from danger that he himself bore testimony
to the protecting hand of the living God, Christ with him. And those two principles Him
counting it an honour to serve the Lord, even although it was
such a hard thing to do. And His experiencing daily the
deliverance and the delivering hand of Christ. These two principles,
they don't just apply to apostles, or ministers, or preachers, or
leaders in that sense. They reflect the experience of
all the Lord's people. who discover divine mercy and
forgiveness of sins through the death of Jesus Christ, who discover
divine grace and the gift of an acceptable righteousness by
the Lord Jesus Christ, and who also discover the faith by which
to enjoy all the blessings of divine goodness. Our hardships
and our trials and our troubles and our perplexities and our
persecutions and every reason to find ourselves cast down or
downcast and depressed are sweetened and softened with the knowledge
of Christ's hand in them. His presence with us through
them and his consolation by them. Now I'm not talking about the British penchant for a stiff
upper lip or stoicism in some way or the power of positive
thinking. I'm talking about the fact that
the Lord's people are taught in scripture and learn by experience
that our afflictions and our trials are light, they are of
a moment, they are eased and relieved by the presence of our
Saviour, and that they work for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory. And that's what the Apostle says
in verse 17. And I don't want to be frivolous
or trite or appear dismissive of people's hardships. But the
image or the picture of a cork at sea comes to mind. No matter
how heavily the waves of life crash upon us, no matter how
deep they drag us and plunge us into the depths beneath, the
Lord's people always bob back to the surface. And even death
itself will be a blessing to us when the Lord takes us home.
and everything else is merely a public witness of his care
and keeping towards us. The elect of God bear up in times
of pressure because they find that they have daily help, they
have renewed spiritual strength to carry on, they are witnesses,
living witnesses that Christ's mercy and grace are sufficient
to counteract the natural inclination that we all feel to give up and
lie down. And what mysterious power is
that that makes such a difference? It's faith. Not simply faith
in the doctrines of the gospel that we believe, but an active
experience of leaning and trusting and relying and depending on
the Saviour in the knowledge that we can't manage ourselves
and we can't overcome by ourselves, but we have confidence that the
Lord will be sufficient for our needs. And when our time is done,
and our race is won, and our earthly pilgrimage ends, and
we leave this veil of tears, this valley of the shadow of
death, and enter into everlasting life, we will know, like as Paul
says in verse 14, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus
shall raise us up also, up also by Jesus. Let me just finish
by drawing your attention to a couple of tremendous statements
that the Apostle makes here in these closing words of the chapter.
He says, all things are for your sakes. All things are for your
sakes. That's a very large and wide
assertion that the Apostle Paul makes there. All the purpose
of the covenant of grace is for you. All the doctrine of grace and
all gospel truths are for you. All the work of Christ is for
you. All the blessings of the church,
all the providences of this world, all the apparent vagaries of
circumstance, the vagaries of life are for you and are for
your good. Nothing is outside of God's plan
for your good. We often quote the verse, don't
we, in Romans 8, 28, we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. But we should know this verse,
2 Corinthians 4, verse 15, we should know it and quote it as
readily. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant
grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory
of God. We shall discover that all that
we experience in this life was forged on the anvil of grace
and decreed an eternal purpose for our everlasting good. and
we will spend eternity praising the glory of God for his wisdom
and his mercy towards us. Here's another amazing statement
from these last few verses. It says, is it 16? Oh, I've lost
it. Yeah, verse 16. He says, though
the outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by
day. And that's just a fact of life. Getting older brings problems. This flesh, these muscles, these
minds are getting more and more frail, and they ultimately must
perish. We once spent hours educating
our minds and exercising our muscles and entertaining our
passions. May we be as dedicated to renewing
the inward man as we once were to renewing the outward man. And here's the third and the
last one that I just want to draw your attention to. He says
there in verse 18, We look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen. May God grant us the grace
day by day to see beyond the things that are seen, the earthly
things and the physical things and the temporal things and the
natural things, the things that take our attention and our mind
and our anxieties and our concerns constantly every day of our life. May we see beyond them, to see
rather the spiritual and the eternal and the heavenly. and
all those things as only the eye of faith can see. And therein
we will be blessed. May the Lord encourage our hearts
in these things. Amen.