Good morning, everybody. If you
would, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. The last couple of months I've been
with you, we've looked at this chapter. I think this will be
the third message out of this chapter of scripture. And Lord
willing, if you have me back again, we'll do one more. And
I think we'll have touched on the entire chapter, everything
in here, everything Paul has to say. But if you would, pick
up in verse 7, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Paul says, but we have this treasure
in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. 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. Now in the context
of this chapter, what Paul has just given us is a description
of every gospel preacher, every minister of the gospel. And he
calls them earthen vessels. What's an earthen vessel? As
I understand it back in those days, if you're going to carry
a candle around with you, a candle is a source of light. You're
going to carry a candle, take a clay pot, an earthen vessel
made from the earth, clay pot. You put that candle down and
it would carry that light. It was a vessel like a ship,
a vehicle. And that clay pot would carry that light. And folks
that's all the preacher is. He's a clay pot. He's an earthen
vessel. He's common. He's ordinary and
he's fragile. He's a sinner just like every
other man. There's nothing special about him at all, just an earthen
vessel. But what he carries, that's the
treasure. He carries the gospel, the message
of the gospel. What is that? You know, I thought
about that. What is the message of the gospel? I'm going to try to paraphrase
in 30 seconds what God wrote down in that much. What is that
message? And Jesus Christ, who was no
one else but God himself, came into this world. He was actually
born. God became a man. He was manifest
in human flesh. And he came to save sinners. People who can't bring anything
to the table. People who all they do is sin. They sin against
God. That's all they can do. They
have no ability in and of themselves. They're a sinner before God.
Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners, and he did exactly
what he came to do. And if you're a sinner, this
is your command now. Rest. Do absolutely nothing. Just cling to Christ. That's
it. That's the message of the gospel. That's the treasure that
he carries around with him. But I want to give you this scripture.
I'll read this to you. It's Psalm 103, verse 21. It
says, Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of
his, that do his pleasure. Now, David uses that word ministers,
but in that context, in that verse, he's not just talking
about preachers. He's talking about every believer. Every believer
is a minister. Every believer is a servant of
God. Every believer is one who does
the pleasure of God because they're in Christ. They're in that one
place. They're in that one person where
God is pleased. They are in Christ, so they are
pleasing to God himself, and they do that which is pleasing.
Without faith, it is impossible to please God. What does the
believer do? He believes. He clings to Christ. That's it.
They're part of the heavenly host that sings the praises of
God. Every believer is a minister. Now in that, in understanding
that, Paul's not just giving a description here in these verses
of the gospel minister, he's giving the description of every
believer. Now look again at verse 7. This
is the believer's profile. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us." This is the believer's profile. Here's what he is. He
is an earthen vessel, a clay pot. Now what parallels can we
draw? Where does a clay pot come from?
What's it made out of? It's made out of the dust of the earth.
You know who else was made out of the dust of the earth? Adam,
our first father. What is Adam's crowning achievement?
that downfalled the entire human race. Adam was brought before
God, Adam disobeyed God, and when he did, he died. He died
spiritually. He took on a sinful, wicked,
and evil nature, and that is our inheritance in Adam. That
we have that nature, that we can do nothing but sin, stripped
of any spiritual ability whatsoever. That's that clay pot. We're all
from Adam. But understand who Adam was,
and Adam's role in all this. Somebody says, how can that be
fair? How can it be fair that through the disobedience of one
man, another man, that I am the way I am? Adam was a federal
head. He was one man, but he was man
in union. He was humanity in union. It
wasn't Adam that disobeyed God. It was me, and it was you. The
way we are born is exactly what we deserve. We earned it. Clay
pot comes from the dust of the earth. It's fragile. This is
Hebrews 12, 1 says, let us lay aside every weight and the sin
which does so easily beset us. Fragile, weak, full of sin. Isaiah said, Lord, what shall
I cry? He said, cry this, all flesh is grass. That's all it
is. It sprouts up for a little while,
it's going to be here for a little while, and it's going to die, and it's
going to blow away, and that's man. Fragile, prone to cracks, prone
to breaking, constantly beset by sin, and it's common. I went
looking around my house, when I was looking at this, I said,
let's see if we have any clay pots. Turns out we have a lot
of them. I didn't even notice them. And I looked at those clay
pots, and you know what? One had a little different color
than the other, one was a little bigger than the other, one held more
than the other, but they were all just clay pots. Common, ordinary,
there's no difference between men. All sons of Adam, all dust
of the earth, all fragile, that's all of us. But for the believer,
for the child of God, there is a difference. And the difference
is the treasure that he carries in him. The question is, what
is that treasure? We don't have to guess at that,
because Paul tells us. Turn over to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 and look
at verse 7. This is the apostle Paul, the
same writer. Philippians 3 verse 7. He says, but what things were
gained to me? Those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do
count them but dung that I may win Christ. Folks, what is the
treasure? What is that treasure that every
believer carries around in him? It's Christ. Christ is that treasure. And this is what happens when
a man sees Christ, when a man is given Christ. Everything else
that he counted as great gain before, he sees it for what it
is. It's dung. It's nothing. It's something he wants to part
with and get away from. One of those things that we had
so much confidence in, those things we counted so dear to
our works, Our best actions, our best thoughts, our best tryings,
our best attempts, all those things are will, but when you
have Christ, when you're given this treasure, you see it for
what it is, it's done. It's nothing, it counts as absolutely
nothing before God. But to have this treasure, this
singular treasure, to have Christ, he is the treasure, there are
many treasurers, plural, found in Christ. Now go on reading,
look at verse nine. There's five of them he mentions
here. Here's the first one, Philippians 3 verse nine. and be found in
him, that's first treasure. Here's a second one, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. Here's the third one, that I
may know him, and more importantly be known of him. And here's the
fourth one, and the power of his resurrection. And finally
the fifth, and the fellowship of his sufferings being made
conformable unto his death. Now, if a man has Christ, if
he has this great treasure, he has these treasures in Christ. Let's talk about all of them.
If a man has Christ, he's found in Christ. I'm gonna read you
this, you don't have to turn there. This is Revelation 6,
and what this deals with, it gives us a picture, an illustration
of what the day of judgment is going to be like. Just listen
to this. Revelation 6, 15. It says, in the kings of the
earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains,
and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman. You
know who that is? That's everybody. It covers everyone. Hid themselves
in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to
the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face
of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,
for the great day of his wrath has come, and who shall be able
to stand? And folks, that's real. A day
is coming where the wrath of God is going to be unleashed
on man for sin. And men are going to cry out,
and they're going to look for what they should have been searching
for the entire time, a hiding place. A place to hide. And men are going to call on
rocks to fall on them, to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb.
But there will be no hiding place except for one. It will be found
in Him. That one place of safety, that
one place of security to be found in Christ and the wrath of God
can't touch us. You want to know why? Because
it's already touched the land. He's already borne the burden. He's
already borne the wrath of God for his people. That one place
of safety in Christ, there will be no wrath there because he's
already suffered it. That's what it means to be found
in Christ. It's the place of safety. It's the place of shelter.
If a man has Christ, He has not his own righteousness, but he
has the very righteousness of Christ. This is the great demand
of God, righteousness. perfection, sinlessness, a perfect
life. And in Christ, having Christ,
we really do have His righteousness. And that's real. The life of
the Lord Jesus Christ, His perfect law-keeping, His perfect obedience
to His Father in all things, that really is ours in Christ.
And we're going to talk about this more in depth here in a
second, but God is just. And on that day of justice, when
we're in the Lamb, in Christ, there's no chance the wrath of
God can touch us because it cannot touch a righteous man. Not a man who is counted righteous,
not a man who has a pasted-on righteousness, but it cannot
touch a righteous man. And that's what every believer
is in Christ, righteous with the very righteousness of Jesus
Christ. If a man has Christ, he knows
Christ. And more importantly, he's known
of him. Now, I think this is an amazing thought. If you're
a believer right now, if you're a child of God, you actually
have a relationship with God himself. You actually do know
him. He is your father. He is your
brother. He is your friend. He is your
husband. He is your advocate. He is your
great high priest. He is your savior. He is your
lord and your king. You have a relationship with
the living God. And I'm thankful, and I want
to know more of Him. Folks, what I'm more thankful for, infinitely
thankful for, is the fact that He knows me. For Him to know us, to know His
people, is to love His people. We have the very love of God. And His love, monumentally different
than the love of man, that people have for love for one another.
I was thinking about this. If you all watch the news, Afghanistan,
I think we've had up to 13 service members killed over the weekend.
And I don't know them, but I suspect they have families. And I suspect
that those families love those individuals. And they wanted
them to be safe. And they wanted them to return
home. But here's the issue. Their love was without power.
They could love them all they wanted. They could desire them
to be without harm. But at the end of the day, they
still died. The love of their family members had no power. That is not the love of God.
The love of Christ for his people is with great power. Everybody
he loves, he saves. There won't be one person in
hell that God loves because his love comes with that omnipotent
power to save all by himself. Our love can change. We can love
somebody and we can stop loving them. The love of God never changes.
He's immutable. If we have the love of God, that
means we've always had the love of God and that's never going
to end. We can love somebody and we can fail to put their
best interest above our own. Yet on the cross, that's exactly
what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He put the best interests of
his people above his own. Taking our sins, taking on the wrath
of God, dying in our place, he put the best interests of us,
of his people, above his own. That's not the love of man, that's
the love of God. If a man has Christ, he not only
knows Christ, but he knows the power of his resurrection. Now what is the power of the
resurrection of Christ? It's what it symbolizes. The
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is this, it symbolizes
this, victory. Three days in that grave and
on the third day he opened his eyes and he walked out. Why?
Because he did exactly what his father sent him to do. Had he
failed to pay for even one of the sins of the elect, he would
have stayed dead because he wouldn't have done what he told his father
he was going to do. But because he suffered perfectly,
he perfectly satisfied God and put away all the sins of all
the elect. God had to raise him from the
dead. And that's the sign. That's the
flag. That's the ensign. This is the sign to every believer.
If you're a sinner, it's over. The battle's won, the flag has
been raised, Christ is victorious, and there is nothing left for
you to do. You are complete in Christ. And you know what that breeds?
That knowledge of his resurrection. Peace. Right now, if you're a
believer, you have peace with God. The Lord Jesus Christ has
made your peace with God. There is absolutely no wrath
from him towards you because Christ has already swallowed
up that wrath. The reason for that wrath, your sin, it is no
more. It's gone as far as the East is from the West. And you
know what? Let your shoulders roll back. Relax. Have perfect
peace because God is at peace with you. Finally, this. If a man has Christ, he has a
fellowship in Christ's sufferings, and is made conformable to Christ's
death. Now, we talked about it a moment
ago. God is absolutely just. He must punish sin, and he will
never punish, he cannot punish an innocent man. God's justice
demands something from me and you. It demands that we suffer,
and it demands that we die. This is personal. I have to suffer. I have to die. For we're partakers
of Christ's sufferings and we're partakers of Christ's death through
our union with him. When he went to that cross, he
didn't go alone. He went with every member of the elect in
him. It was our sins he was suffering
for. We were in him. We are partakers of his sufferings
on that cross. When he suffered, we suffered.
And when he died, Fully satisfying God for sin, we died in Him. Partakers of His sufferings and
conformable to His death. Now, go back to 2 Corinthians
4. This is the profession, the confession
of every man, every man, woman, and child that has this treasure. that actually has Christ and
all these treasures that are found in him. Look at verse seven
again. But we have this treasure, this Christ, in earthen vessels,
that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. That's the confession of every
believer. There's power, power involved in my salvation. And
the excellency of the power, it's of God. And it's not of
us. It takes great power to save
a senator. The power of God's election.
His choosing power. His sovereign choosing power. Who made the choice? He did.
And I'll mean to be cliché when I say this, but this is the reason
why election is so necessary. This is why God must be sovereign
in salvation. Because if it was up to you and
me to make a choice, to choose God, to seek Him, we would not. It took power. His sovereign
power in choosing us and growing to Himself. His power in justification,
the power of the life of Christ, living the perfect life for us,
the power of His death, taking away our sins, His power in justification,
His power in sanctification and regeneration, drawing us to Himself,
us not seeking Him, but Him coming to us where we're at, in our
sins, in our hatred of God, and drawing us to Himself and giving
that new man and that spirit of faith, that power of preserving,
preserving us all the way to the end. I have this question
for you right now. in your salvation, your hope
of it, where does the power lie? Because this is the confession
of every man who has this treasure. The excellency of the power,
every bit of it, the power it took to save me, it's all of
God, and it's not me. I tell you what, folks, if that's
your confession, you have this treasure, you have Christ, and you have
all the treasures that are contained in him. Now let's go on reading. Look at verses 8 and 9 again. Paul says, 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. Now he mentions
four things here. Four things. Here's the first
one. He says we're troubled but not distressed. What trouble
can we expect to have in this life? Well here's the first one
I can think of. The trouble we make for ourselves
through our sin. Through sinful decision making,
sinful actions, sinful faults, backed by sinful and wicked motions,
we kindle fires at our own feet. We make trouble for ourselves
all the time. But we're not distressed. We
have no reason to be distressed. And I'll tell you why. Because
the Lord has this power. And I don't know I had fully
appreciated this power until now. This great power, this thing
he does that only he can do, he brings good out of our evil.
I'll give you an example. Remember Joseph. Joseph's brothers,
they were jealous of him. They wanted him dead, so they
took him off and they sold him into slavery. They went back to Jacob and said,
he's dead. Let their father go through all that. What a wicked,
vile act. They sold their brother, their
youngest brother, in slavery. All that wickedness, all that
trouble they made right there. But through that trouble, you
know what the Lord did? He used that to send Joseph down
to Egypt. And through all that, he became
the most powerful man in Egypt. And everybody on that continent
ate because Joseph was there. The Lord brought great good.
out of that evil. And this is what Joseph said
to his brothers when he met him long after it all took place.
When he's sitting up there, he's the most powerful man, he said
this, but as for you, you thought evil against me, but God bent
it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much
people alive. You meant it for evil, but God
meant it for good. God brought good out of this.
And folks, isn't that the cross? It's the most evil thing man
has ever done. There's humanity, collective, right there. Crucify
Him. Crucify Him. We nailed the Son
of God to a pole. We murdered the Son of God. The
most evil thing that has ever taken place is the cross. And
yet, the most good that has ever come out, the very salvation
of all God's people out of that evil act. We meant for evil.
God meant for good. What other trouble do we have?
Trouble that comes from God. Trial, tribulation, those things
the Lord sends to galvanize faith, to expose it, to strengthen it.
These things are very hard. Illness, financial woes, loss,
all these things, very, very troubling, very hard, very hard. And yet, Romans 8.28 still stands,
folks. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. to them who are thee
called according to his purpose. Folks, our God is sovereign.
He's sovereign over everything. He's sovereign over the troubles
we create for ourselves, the fires we kindle at our own feet.
He's sovereign over the trials he sends to accomplish his purposes. And at the end of the day, once
his purpose has been accomplished through that trouble, he comes
down and he relieves, he redeems all over again. We're never without
help. We're never beyond his grasp. All things work together
for good. Here's the last one I thought
of when it comes to trouble. Being troubled over our sin. I'm going to confess something
here. I'm not quite sure I know a whole
lot about this. And I'm not sure anybody else does either. I don't
see my sin for what it really is. I see the tip of the iceberg.
And I don't mourn over my sin as I ought. Neither does anyone
else. If we could see it for what it
was, and we did have to mourn over the way we should, we'd
never be able to. But we're not distressed. I'll
tell you why. I'll give you two reasons. One,
because Christ sought for what it was, and he owned it. I'm
going to read you this scripture. This is Hebrews 12, 2. It said,
looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.
Listen to these words. despising the shame. In Gethsemane's garden, he said,
Lord, if it's possible, let this cup pass for me. Here's what was in that cup.
It was my sin. It was the sins of every one of God's elect.
He saw it for what it was. I don't see it for what it is.
You don't see it for what it is. But he saw it for what it
exactly was. All the filth of it. All the
disgustingness of it. The filth. And he drank that
cup dry. He was willing to be made the
sins of his people. And I don't know how else to
say this, but he became perfectly ashamed. He suffered everything
involved in my sin, other than the commission of it. And he
became perfectly ashamed. I'm not perfectly ashamed of
my sin. I experience very little shame. Much, much less than I
deserve to. But he became perfectly ashamed
of my sin. And this, because Christ was
appropriately sorry. This is David speaking, but it's
in the Messianic. It's Psalm 38, 18. It says, for
I will declare mine iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin. Folks, I am not appropriately
sorry for my sin, but I'm not distressed. Christ was. He bore
the shame. He bore my sins in His body.
He saw it for what it really was, and He drank that cup dry,
being made the sins of His people, and He was appropriately sorry,
perfectly sorry. Folks, when we say Christ did
it all, and He did it perfectly, He did everything. Everything. Paul says, we're perplexed, but
not in the spirit. That word perplexed, it means
a couple different things. The first thing it means is to be in want. Now,
when you look at yourself, yourself before God, what do you see?
I see a man who is in want. I see a man who is completely
and utterly lacking before God. His demand is holiness. His demand
is perfection. His demand is righteousness.
Yet I can't come up with anything. I can't even come toward Him
in it. Everything I breathe, it's just sin that comes out
of me. And you know what? That is the appropriate view. If that's
how you view yourself, as a man who is in want, please recognize
you have all things in Christ. It's only the believer that has
eyes to see that. This is the first beatitude.
Matthew 5, verse 3 says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of God. Folks, if you are a person who
absolutely lacks before God, you have no hope in and of yourself.
There's nothing you can bring to the table. Please understand,
you lack absolutely nothing. You are complete in Christ. Don't despair. You're complete
in Christ. It also means this. Perplexed.
It means to be in doubt. In doubt. And I have no doubt
that that speaks to unbelief. Now does a believer experience
unbelief? Let me ask you, do you experience unbelief? I do. As long as we have this old man,
we're going to be riddled with unbelief. We're going to experience
unbelief. Here's who I thought of, though.
I thought of Thomas. Remember Thomas? He's one of
the twelve. The Lord was crucified. The Lord came back, he spoke
with the disciples, and Thomas wasn't there. The disciples,
when Thomas came back, said, the Lord was here, and here's
what Thomas said. This is one of the Lord's disciples right
here. He said this, this is John 20, 25. Except I shall see in
his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print
of the nails, and thrust my hand in his side, listen to this,
I will not believe. He didn't say, I can't. He said,
I will not believe. There's the old man. He's right
there. This is one of God's people. This is God's disciple right
here. I will not believe. That old man is still very lively.
He's still there. He's still rearing his ugly head right there.
Unless I can touch it, unless I can touch those nail prints
in his hands and thrust my hand in his side, I will not believe.
Eight days later, this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to
Thomas. Reach hither thy finger. and behold my hands and reach
hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless,
but believing. And Thomas answered and said
unto him, my Lord and my God. Now, are we going to suffer with
unbelief in this life? Yes, we are. As long as we have that
old man, that old nature, we're going to suffer with unbelief,
but don't despair. for all the Lord's people. He
always revisits him. He always renews himself to his
people through the preaching of the gospel. And this is exactly
how he does it. Touch me one more time. Here I am. Touch the nail prints. Put your
hand on my side. He renews himself. He reveals
himself to us all over again. And you know what? I hope that's
what's going on this morning. Truly, I can't think of a better metaphor
for the preaching of the gospel, the Lord meeting with us, and
him revealing himself to us all over again. And one more time,
he says, touch it. Put your hand in my side. See
me all over again. This is your salvation, folks,
right here. He says we're persecuted, but
not forsaken. I was thinking about the standpoint
that Paul was writing from when he made that statement talking
about persecution. This is a man who was beaten
everywhere he went for preaching the gospel. This is a man who
was imprisoned for preaching the gospel. This is a man who
was falsely accused. This is the type of persecution
that this man suffered. I don't think me telling you
a story about somebody getting mad at me for preaching the gospel
is really going to compare. I don't know much about this,
this physical persecution that Paul went through. But I can
tell you this, this gospel we have, this truth concerning Christ,
this is worth dying for. Now, in the moment, if we were
given that honor to die for the truth of God, whether we would
chicken out or stand is completely and utterly up to the grace of
God. And if we were left to ourselves, we'd be just like Peter. Say,
I'll die for you. I'll die for this. And then a
little maid will have us in derision. But that doesn't take away from
the value of this gospel and this Christ. It is worth all
of our lives. I can't say I know much about
this physical persecution that Paul was going through, and I'm
not going to speak to it. But there is a persecution I know
of that every believer can get in on. I'm going to read you
this. This is David speaking. It's Psalm 35, one through three. He says, plead my cause, O Lord,
with them that strive with me. Fight against them that fight
against me. Take hold of shield and buckler and stand up for
mine help. Draw out also the spear and stop
the way against them that persecute me. Say unto my soul, I am thy
salvation. Now, David had a lot of enemies.
There are plenty of people persecuting David. It's not what he's talking
about here. The persecution that David's talking about here was
his old man and his sin. The persecution that his new
man, that new man that dwelt inside him, felt from that old
man. This is how Paul described it.
This war that rages inside every believer. He said in Romans 7.15,
for that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do
I not. But what I hate, that do I. Does that pretty much sum up
your experience? That which I do, my sin, I hate, I allow not. I don't want to do it, but I
do it. That which I want to do, never
sin again. Love the Lord my God with all
my heart and all my soul and all my strength and my neighbor
as myself. That which I want to do, I can't. That which I
do daily, sin, unbelief, perplexity, I hate. That's the war that rages
in every believer between those two natures, the new man and
the old. You know what he says here? He
says we're persecuted but we're not forsaken. And it can feel
like that sometimes. But at the end of the day, folks,
the very evidence we are not forsaken is that this war rages
inside of us. It is the very evidence that there is a new
man in you right now. There is a perfect and holy man
that believes God perfectly, believes everything he says,
that loves God perfectly. And he's daily at war with this
old man who never believes, who never loves God, who all he does
is sin. This war rages, but the fact
that that war rages inside of us, that is the evidence that,
folks, we're not forsaken. We've been blessed with God. Finally, he says, we're cast
down, but we're not destroyed. Now, as I understand it, I was
reading about this, when Paul uses that term cast down, he's
actually giving kind of a metaphor, because it was a term used back
then for wrestlers. So two men are wrestling, wrestling match,
and one's got the other one pinned to the mat. He's cast down. He's
pinned, right? I know exactly what he's talking
about. You ever feel like your shin's got you pinned against
the mat? Let me give you the scripture. Romans 6.14 says,
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under
the law, but under grace. Now you read that. I tell you
what, my experience is the exact opposite of that. It says you
are not under the dominion of sin. It sure feels like it. It
sure feels like I am pinned to the mat by my sin. I can't get
away from it. I can't stop. I can't stop having
wicked thoughts and evil motives and evil desires. It's got me
pinned to the mat. But it says right here, for sin
shall not have dominion over you. And what does that mean?
Folks, if you believe the gospel, if truly right now your hope
is in Christ and his power alone, that is the evidence that sin
does not have dominion over you. When sin has dominion over man,
he cannot believe. He cannot see the beauty of Christ.
He cannot trust him. But for you, right now, who look
to Christ, who trust him alone, understand this. Sin does not
have dominion over you, although that is completely and utterly
contrary to your experience. Let's look at the last two verses. Verse 10, Paul says this. 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, what does
this mean? What is Paul talking about here?
He really identifies two concepts here. He says there's two things
we bear about, two things we carry in our body everything
we've done. Where do we go? The life of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the dying, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what does that mean? What
does he mean we bear those things, we bring them around in our bodies?
Let me give you a description I think will make sense. Romans
5.10 says, When we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more being reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life. Now, we just went through verses
eight and nine, and Paul talks about all the things we experience. Trouble, perplexity, want. in doubt, persecution, cast down,
all these four things we just talked about. What is the common
theme with all those four things? It's my sin and it's my sinful
nature. That is the common thing in all
those four things that we bear about with us every single day.
The question is why? Do you ever wonder that? Act of the Lord saves us. Why do we have to deal with this
old man? Why can't he just die off? Why do we continue to sin? Why can't we just be perfect
right here after the Lord saved us and continue on? Why do we
have to bear these things around our body? Why do we have to drag
this old man with us everywhere we go to the day we die? Why
is that? Because it is the constant reminder
that we bear in our body every single day that the life and
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ truly is everything in our salvation. always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus. Every believer, we're going to
drag around our sin. We're going to drag around the
shame of our sin. We're going to drag around the
regret of our sin. We're going to drag it with us everywhere
we go. And it's for this reason we will be in the constant remembrance
that my only hope is the Lord Jesus Christ lived for me. That
when he honored God and he kept God's holy law, That really is
my righteousness. And when he died, he died bearing
my sin, and he put it away. And folks, that is my only hope. I can say this honestly, I believe.
My only hope, when the Lord Jesus Christ said, it is finished,
that he was talking about me. And there is nothing left to
do. And that's the truth concerning
every believer. I'm gonna leave you there.