Evening, everybody. I'd like
to turn to your text. It's 2 Corinthians chapter 4.
2 Corinthians chapter 4. Last time I was with you, Rex
read this entire chapter before the service. I was incredibly
blessed by that reading. So I started looking into this
chapter, and verse 1 caught my attention. Read it with me. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. It says, therefore, seeing we
have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. Now in the context here, Paul
is talking about the preaching of the gospel. He says we have
this ministry. He said we have this word, we
have this gospel, we have this Christ that must be preached.
This is our charge. And he says we faint not. We
don't quit. We don't cower. We don't lay
down. We preach the gospel. We don't
faint. And this is true of Paul. Everywhere
Paul went, he was beaten. He was falsely accused. He's
cast into prison. All these troubles befell him
for the preaching of the gospel. Every time he would get up, he'd
clean his wounds, he'd kick off the dust from his shoes, and
he'd move on to the next town. And he'd do it all over again. That's
what his life was all about after the Lord called him to this ministry.
We respect Paul in that. But this is what I respect greater.
Paul is an honest preacher. He gives the reason that he didn't
quit, that he didn't faint, that he didn't lie down. Read it again.
He says, therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have
received mercy, we faint not." He said, there's one reason.
There's one reason after all those beatings I got back up
and I kept on going. There's only one reason. It's
because I'm an object of eternal and great mercy. The Lord strengthened
me. Every time he got up, he moved
on to the next town. He did the exact same thing all over again.
He said, that's the reason I fainted not. It's the reason I didn't
cower. It's the reason I didn't lay down. Because I am an object of mercy. This
was the Lord's strength that had absolutely nothing to do
with me. He's an honest preacher. I can
appreciate that. I invite you to read this tonight
and look at it through a slightly different lens. If you would,
read this as Paul being a representative of every believer concerning
the persevering in faith as we walk through this world. Read
it again. Therefore seeing we, who's the we? Every elect child
of God. Every man that God loves and
loved before the foundations of the world were ever built.
Everyone given to Christ in the covenant of grace. Every sinner,
that's how we identify them in this world, they're sinners,
they've got nothing to bring to the table. Everyone whose hope is in Christ,
that who he's talking about, that's the we. If that's you,
you can put your name in here. Therefore seeing we, have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, we don't
quit, we don't back down, and we don't cower. I want to make what is
hopefully a very, very clear statement. There is only one
reason, and one reason alone, that every true child of God,
every believer, every blood-bought sinner, is going to persevere
all the way to the end in faith. There's only one reason. It's
the same reason that Paul persevered in his preaching, because we
are objects of great and eternal mercy, preserving grace, the
power of God keeping us all the way to the end. Philippians 1.6,
Paul says this, he says, being confident of this very thing,
that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ. That good work he began with
you, what was it? It was that spark of faith. It was that new
nature, that heart that had that spark of faith. He ignited that
fire and that fire is going to burn. He's going to feed it.
God himself is going to feed that fire all the way into the
end until you'll take your last breath and then the fire is going
to go out because faith is going to give way to experience. and
you're going to see your Savior face to face. But that is the
one reason every believer is going to persevere to the end,
because we're objects of eternal and great mercy. We think not. We're not going to quit. Nobody's
going to be lost. And that being said, that does
not mean that in this life we are not without discouragement. I jotted down some things here
that are discouraging to me, that I get discouraged with in
this life. I'll give them to you. Maybe
you can identify with them. The first one is this. It is the
habitual nature of my sin. It's the same sins over and over
and over. It's the same lusts of my heart
over and over and over, just like a child who can't learn
his lesson. Right now, as I believe a saved man, those same sins
that I dealt with before the Lord saved me, it's the same
sins I'm dealing with today. In that respect, absolutely nothing
has changed. Paul said this, Romans 7.24,
he said, O wretched man that I am. He was speaking as a saved man,
and yet this is his confession concerning himself. Wretched
man, not that I used to be, not that I was before the Lord saved
me. He says, presently, right now, a man saved by the grace
of God, a wretched man that I am. That's what he said. And this
is how he finished it. He said, who shall deliver me
from the body of this death? And I used to think that that
was poetic language, but I looked it up. There's more to this.
This is actually an illustration. It's a metaphor. There was a
cruel and unusual punishment in Paul's day. They would take
a prisoner, a live man, and they would take a dead prisoner, a
dead body, and they would take that dead man and put it on the
live man. The dead man would be face-to-face with him, chest-to-chest
with him, arm-to-arm, leg-to-leg, and they would shackle that dead
man to that live man. And that live man would just
sit there, stand there, do whatever he was doing with that corpse
rotting on him. If you moved his arm, the corpse
would move his arm. Moved his mouth, the corpse moved his mouth.
Face to face, chest to chest. And you know what? That's what
it's like to be a sinner in this world. We've got that old man,
we've got that old dead nature, we're still dragging him around.
Everything we do, that old man's right there with us. Every step
we take, tainted by that old man. Everything we say, tainted
by that old man. Every beat of my heart, tainted
by the old man. He's there, we're dragging around
that body of death with us all the way through this life. That's
what it means to be a sinner, it truly does. And that's discouraging,
discouraging to me. Here's another thing that's discouraging
for me. It is the constant fluctuations of my heart. In Revelations 3,
the Lord addresses the church in Laodicea, and he says this.
He says, I know thou works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.
I would thou were cold or hot, so that because thou art lukewarm,
and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Now, three states of being are
mentioned here. Here's the first one, hot. I
love being hot. You love being hot. Burning with
admiration and gratitude and love and fear and worship for
the Lord Jesus Christ. Constantly being able to detect
His presence. Constantly being able to detect His hand upon
you. The world fleeting away, being absolutely consumed with
the greatness of God, the greatness of His Son, the greatness of
the sacrifice of Christ. We love burning white hot. That's
one extreme. And here's the other extreme,
cold. Cold hearted. Blind. Can't see. Can't see the
beauty of Christ. Can't pray. Can't worship. Feel
naked and exposed before a sovereign and a holy God. Can't detect
the Lord's presence. Can't detect His hand on you.
Feel so far away that's cold. And that's bad. But you know
what? At least with cold, at least in that extreme, you have
a need. You're conscious of your need. But here's the worst one.
Lukewarm. And here's what the Lord says
about lukewarm. If you had to use one word to describe this
thing of being lukewarm, what would it be? Apathy. You just
don't care. You can't see the beauty of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You can't detect any need. Just spiritually numb. That's a terrible feeling. And
you know what? There's the three sensations of my heart. That's
the revolving door that is my heart. Hot, cold, lukewarm. Constantly.
The constant fluctuations of my heart. That's discouraging.
Here's another thing that's discouraging for me. Me being a discouragement
to others. And we do a pretty good job of
cleaning up the outside of the cup, don't we? We mind our manners,
we're objects of restraining grace, we try to put our best
foot forward around other people, but every once in a while, the
Lord removes the restraints. We act out. We say something,
we do something. And in that moment, you find
out, you see, you're a discouragement to one of your brethren. Instead
of being encouraging, being someone who's encouraging to your brethren,
you've been a discouragement. That discourages me, me being
a discouragement. is a discouragement to me. Being discouraged by others. You ever put a brother or sister
on a pedestal? You find a brother or sister you admire so much,
you think so highly of them, what do you do? You put them
on a pedestal. When we put people on a pedestal, here's what we
do. We hold them to a higher standard than we hold ourselves.
You know what happens after that? We get close to them. We get
to know them. And all of a sudden you start seeing the cracks in
the facade. You start seeing the chinks in the armor. And
what happens? They fall off the pedestal. And you're reminded
of this, the best of men are men at best, vanity of vanities,
all flesh, all men, just vanity. That's a discouragement. Life. The trials and tribulations
that accompany being a sinful man, living in a sinful world. Sickness. disabilities, financial
problems, family problems, substance abuse issues, on and on, all
just the trials and tribulations of this life. And we believe
Romans 8, 28. We believe it in our soul. 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. We believe that,
and it's easy to see that when everything's downhill and everything's
going on tape. When you're in the pit at the bottom, it becomes much
harder to see that. Is everything working together
for my good? Because it doesn't feel good right now. Things don't
feel good. They don't look good. But they are just all the same.
They are. All these things are discouraging.
All of them are absolutely discouraging. But all these things are necessary.
Discouragement has its place. It has a purpose. And the purpose
is found in this chapter. Look at verse 7. Paul says, but
we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of
the power may be of God and not of us. That's the purpose for
all this discursion, that we might see that the excellency
of the power in all things is of God and not of us. I'm not
going to find any peace or hope or comfort or salvation looking
at myself. I'm not going to find it looking at you, and you're
not going to find it looking at me. I'm certainly not going to find
it in my circumstances, that revolving door. There is one place I can
look, I can find hope and peace and comfort and salvation, and
that's Christ alone. I don't know who said this. He
was a wise man, whoever said it. And I'm probably messing
up this quote, but it went something like this. Don't look to yourself
or others for that which you will only find in Christ. You
want to look to somebody you're not going to be disappointed
by? Look to Christ. Want to look to a perfect man? Look to Christ.
Look to somebody, put them on a pedestal, they'll never fall
off. Look to Christ. Now, we just talked about discouragement. And I don't want to talk about
discouragement anymore, because it's discouraging. I don't want
to talk about that anymore. I want to talk about encouragement.
I want to give you reasons today, every believer, right now, I'm
talking to people right now, if you're a sinner and your hope
is in the shed blood, the broken body, and the righteousness of
Jesus Christ alone, Him and Him crucified alone, I want to speak
to you tonight. I want to give you five reasons to faint not,
to not turn back, to not lay down, to not be discouraged,
to persevere. Here's the first one. It's in
our text. Let's look back at it. Paul says, therefore, seeing
we have this ministry, as we receive mercy, we faint not. Now you can take that word ministry,
and you can take it out, and you can put that word gospel
right back in there. It means the exact same thing.
Seeing that we have this gospel, we have the good news of the
gospel, we faint not, we don't turn back, and we don't quit.
What type of ministry do we have? I'm happy you asked. 2 Corinthians
5, look there. Look at verse 18. Once again,
this is Paul speaking. He's talking about our ministry.
And all things are of God, who hath, that's in the past tense,
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. and hath given to us
the ministry of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing the trespasses unto
them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation."
We have the ministry of reconciliation. Now, what does that mean? What
does reconciliation mean? What does it mean for two parties
to be reconciled? Well, here's what we normally
think of, right, in human terms. You have two parties, and they're
at odds, right? They have a quarrel, a contention
between the two of them. And when you're dealing with
men, you know what? There's plenty of blame to spread around for
this quarrel. They're a little wrong. They're a little wrong.
And what happens is they get together and they make some compromises.
And they work through their issues and then they reconcile. Right?
They come back together. And that is not what we're talking
about here. In this relationship between God and His people, there
is an offending party, and there is an offended party, and we
are the offending party. The blame only rests with one
party, and that's us. There is one thing that separated us from
our God. There is one wedge that separated us from Him, and that's
our sin. That was it. We sinned against God, we offended
against God, and we separated ourselves from God. But this
is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, His death. In being made
our sin, in carrying our trespasses, our sins and our iniquities,
making them His own, burying them in His body, putting them
away on Calvary's tree, He reconciled us back to God. There was a wedge,
our sin, that separated us from our God. The wedge was removed.
True unity now is. He hath reconciled us. We're one with God. And this
is the extent of that work, that work on his cross. This is the
extent, this is what the scripture says. He says, not imputing their
trespasses unto them. Let me be as clear about this
as I can. The Lord only imputes to a man what is already there,
and he only refrains from imputing to a man what is not there. And here's the reason, if you're
a believer today, that God does not impute your sins to you because
there is nothing there to impute. There is no wedge anymore. Nothing
has been swept under the carpet. Your sins have actually been
removed. They've been paid for. They are
over. You have true union and acceptance
with God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We could almost
stop there, couldn't we? Amen. That's the gospel. But
look at the end state of this, look at verse 20. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Now, I don't know of a more mysterious
passage of scripture in the whole Bible than this right here. This
is the sovereign creator, the omnipotent one, speaking to the
creature, the speck of dust, the nothing. And he says this,
be ye reconciled to me. I'll put up my weapons. I'm not
mad at you. If you're a sinner and need a
mercy, I'm not mad at you. The Lord Jesus Christ put away
your sins. There's no reason for anger anymore. I put up my
weapons. They're in the armory. Now you put up your weapons too.
Be ye reconciled unto me. And live that way. Live in joy. Live in peace. Live in hope. God's not angry with you. You've
been reconciled back to God. Now be ye reconciled. It's another
ministry we have. Turn to 2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians 3, look at verse
4. Paul again, he says, in such trust we have through Christ
to God. Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything of ourselves. but our sufficiency
is of God. You know, isn't that everything
we believe? Not that we are sufficient of ourselves. No sufficiency
here. Nothing I can bring to the table. My sufficiency is
of God. You know what happened on the cross? God satisfied God. That's what we believe. That's
what we hope in. Who also hath made us able ministers. We're
talking about a ministry here. Ministers of the New Testament. Not of the letter, but of the
Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. Now, when he's saying the New
Testament there, he's not talking about the second half of the
Bible. He's not talking about Matthew through Revelations. This New
Testament he's talking about is the new covenant. He's talking
about the covenant of grace, the one that was created before
time began, where God the Father chose a people. He loved a people,
and he chose a people in Christ, and he gave them to Christ. And
Christ agreed to be our surety. And the Father looked at him
and said, I'm going to hold you 100% responsible for them. I'm
not going to hold them responsible for anything. It's all on you.
It's all on your shoulders. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
I will. And because He is the successful Savior, the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world, as soon as that covenant
was ratified, as soon as He agreed, we were saved. That was the end
of it. This is the New Testament He's
talking about right here. And He poses it against the Old
Testament, the Old Covenant. What's the Old Covenant? It's
the covenant He made with Adam in the garden. Now you remember
that covenant. God had Adam in the garden. He
said, you want to continue in the state of blessedness with
me? You want to continue in the state of favor with me? It's
very simple. Here's the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. Don't eat that fruit. That's the deal. A covenant was
made with Adam, and that covenant entailed Adam holding up his
end of the bargain. Here's what you have to do to
stay in the state of blessedness with me. You have to hold up
your end of the bargain. You have to not eat that fruit. The covenant
of the letter of the law. One upright and innocent man,
one command, and what happened? He couldn't keep it. Any covenant
between God and man that relies on man holding up his end of
the bargain is always doomed to failure. It's always going
to end this way. A man's going to die. That's what happened
to Adam. He died. He died spiritually. He would have died the second
death if it wasn't for the grace of God. But he died. Any covenant between
God and man, if you do this, God will do that, is no good.
The letter killeth. The law always killeth. But you're
not under the law. You're not a minister of the
letter. You're not a servant to the letter. You're a servant
of grace. You're in the covenant of grace, a servant to the covenant
of grace. And in this covenant, where you're
a servant, you don't have any responsibilities you have? Absolutely
none. I don't know, I hope, that I
never get over this. My salvation, the salvation of
every believer, is in no way dependent on what you or I do. It is completely dependent on
the merits and the actions and the obedience of another man. Another man who has already completed
that obedience and those actions that were necessary to save me. Salvation is historical. It is
already done. Now, the writer of the Hebrews
gives a commentary on this statement right here. You don't have to
turn to it, but I'll read it to you. This is Hebrews 9.15, he says, and
for this cause, he, speaking of Christ, is the mediator of
the New Testament. You know what that means? He's
the doer of the new covenant, the covenant of grace. There's
a doer involved in here. Somebody has to do something.
It's not you and me. It's not the believer. It's Christ.
He's the mediator of the New Testament. And here's the means,
that by means of death, Here's how this covenant was ratified,
here's how it was completed, by the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But why did he die? For the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the first testament. We sinned against the law and
somebody had to die. And the Lord Jesus Christ took
those sins and those transgressions in his body and he suffered the
consequence for it. And here's the end state, the
results. They which are called might receive the promise of
eternal inheritance. And this is the inheritance to
be the sons and daughters of God himself. True sonship with
God. That's what we have presently
right now in this world. We have another ministry. Turn
to 1 Corinthians 16. First Corinthians 16, look at
verse 15. Paul says, I beseech you, brethren,
you know the house of Stephanas, that is the firstfruits of Achaia,
and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. Now I want to use this illustration
here, and it involves substance abuse. And I want to preface
this statement. I'm in no way making light of
substance abuse or people who have addictions. I've seen those
things firsthand. It destroys people. It destroys
family. My heart goes out to those people. But the word addiction
is used here. And this is a good addiction.
This is a good illustration. Here's the key thing with someone
who has a substance abuse problem, who has an addiction. They form
their entire life around getting that thing they're addicted to.
If it's a drug, their entire life is built around getting
that drug. They have a craving, they have a need, and they have
to have that thing, that substance. Nothing else will do. Their whole
life is based around getting this one thing. The craving is
so strong, the need is so strong, they have to have this one thing.
And you know what? It's not unlike what happens
when God the Holy Spirit does a work of grace in a man's heart.
He becomes addicted to Christ. He has a need. He's a sinner. He's a great need for the Lord
Jesus Christ to have put away his sins, to have died for him,
for him to be his righteousness. He has a need for Christ to have
done everything. And you know what? He's not going
to get his fix anywhere else. You can go to the law. You can
preach salvation by works. You can tell him, here's what
you have to do. You do this, this, and this, and God will
accept you. And he can't take it. It doesn't satisfy the need.
The only thing he'll have is Christ. It's the only thing that
satisfies the need. Preach another Christ to him.
Preach one that is not effective in what he did. Preach a thwarted
Christ. Preach one that's not sovereign.
Preach him. Won't do him any good. Preach
a God that can fail, won't do him any good. Preach anything
other than pure grace to him, it won't do him any good. And
this is the beauty, this is a good addiction. I'm so thankful for
this addiction because it means we will always come back. We
may wander, we may go wayward, but at the end of the day, we're
addicted to Christ, we're addicted to this ministry, and we're always
going to come back. Preserving grace. Now, that's
the first thing, here's the first reason That every believer, you
can faint not. You have reason to continue on.
We have this ministry. Here's the second thing. Turn
to 2 Corinthians 4. And look at verse 16. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16. For
which cause we faint not. That's the key here, the theme.
But through 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. While we look not at things which
are seen, but at things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temperable, temper. But the things which
are not seen are eternal. Now here's the second reason
every believer fights not. He doesn't quit. Because we don't
look to things which are seen. We look to things which are not
seen. A couple scriptures came to mind
here. I'm going to read you this. This
is Hebrews 4 verse 3. Listen to this. Says, for we which have
believed do enter into rest. As he said, as I have sworn in
my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest. And he stops. He's
got a sidebar statement here. Listen to this. Although the
works were finished from the foundation of the world. Now if there is a plainer scripture
that describes the eternality of salvation, I don't know what
it is. He says the works. That means all the works of salvation
They were completed before the foundations of the world were
ever built. Before time ever began, before the foundations
of the world were ever built, God loved people. He chose those
people. He gave those people to Christ
in the covenant of grace. And this is what Revelations
13 says, verse 8, it says, He is the Lamb slain, speaking of
Christ, before the foundations of the world. That means in the
mind of God himself, it was all done. Christ was going to come
and die in time, but before the foundations of the world were
ever built, He had already died. That means every believer, every
elect child of God coming into this world, before we ever sinned
once, there was already a Savior. There was always a sacrifice
that had put away those sins. Here's the thing. I didn't see
any of that. I was there in the person of
Christ, but I didn't see any of it. And I don't want to be
reverent in saying this, but I want you to understand what
I mean. I don't have a certificate that says God loves me. And I
don't have a pin that I can put on my shirt that says Christ
is my surety. And I don't have access to the
Lamb's Book of Life where I can open up those pages and I can
see that my name's written there. But I don't need those things.
Because we have Hebrews 11.1 and it says this, Now faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Yes, I can't see my name written
in those golden pages. And I don't have a certificate
that says God loves me. And I don't have that pin I was talking about.
I don't need that. I have faith. You know what faith
is? It is a simple, childlike reliance on the person and work
of Jesus Christ to do everything in your salvation. That's all
it is. It is a very simple thing. It is confidence in His ability. That's it. And if you have that,
that is the evidence of everything you can't see. your election,
your love of God, the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
on his mind and on his heart as he hung on the cross. He can't
see those things, but your faith, that's the evidence of those
things you can't see. Let me give you another one here. Turn over to John chapter nine. Look at verse 39 of John chapter
9. Remember, we're talking about
things we can't see, looking to things we can't see. Verse
39, and Jesus said, for judgment I am coming to this world, that
they which see not might see, and they which see might be made
blind. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said unto him, are we blind
also? Jesus said unto them, if you were blind, you should have
no sin. But now you say we see, therefore
your sin remaineth. Now what in the world does that
mean? What is this good blindness he's talking about? He said if
you were blind. you'd have no sin. What's he
talking about? What is this good blindness?
We think of blindness as a bad thing. What is this good blindness
that he's talking about? Right now, when you look in yourself,
can you find any reason in and of yourself that God would show
mercy on you? Can you find a reason? If you
can't, that means you're blind. You're blind to any reason that
God would have mercy on a sinner like you. This is one of my favorite
scriptures. I think I've quoted it to you
every time I'm here. 1 Timothy 1.15, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into this
world to save sinners. And here's the reality of the
situation. If right now you're blind, when you look inside yourself
and you can't find one reason that God would show you mercy,
you have no sin. You're a child of God. Christ
has put away your sin. It does not remain. But also
understand this, the opposite of truth. Right now you can see.
If you can see something in you, if you can see a reason that
God would have mercy on you, in and of yourself, your sin
remains. Now that's the second reason. We look to things we can't see. Turn to Galatians chapter 6.
I'm going to give you the third reason. Galatians chapter 6 and look
at verse 7. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be
weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint
not." Now, this is the third reason. Every believer can faint
not. Don't lose heart. Don't turn
back. It's for this reason, in due season you're going to reap.
Now, two men are posed here. One man, he sows under the flesh
and he reaps corruption. You have another man, he sows
under the spirit and he reaps eternal life. These are very
simple illustrations. It's very, very simple. The man
who sows under the flesh, it's a man who's looking to the flesh.
It's a man that is trusting in his own works. He comes before
God and he says, you should accept me because I. Here's the best
I've got. I've sown to it. I've nourished
it up. I've been keeping the law. I've been pushing down my
sin. I've been living a holier life over and over. Don't misunderstand
me, folks. Do well. Don't do evil. But don't
dare bring that before God. He sows to the flesh. And what
does he reap? He reaps corruption. depart from me ye who work iniquity."
Get out of here. That's what he's going to hear.
And you have the other man, he sows the spirit and he reaps
eternal life. Here's a scripture that sums
all that up. Philippians 3.3, for we are the circumcision,
we're the true Jews, we're the true Israel. For we are the circumcision
which worship God in the Spirit. You know the man who sows to
the Spirit? That's the man who looks to Christ
alone. That's it. And the only way a man can look
to Christ alone is if he has the very Spirit of God. If God
has done something for him. That's it. For we are the circumcision
which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in this flesh. That's the man who sows unto
the Spirit. He looks to Christ alone because he has the very
Spirit of God. He's been given a new man. He's been given a
new nature. God has saved that man. What does he do? He looks
to Christ. He sows to the Spirit and he reaps eternal life. This
thing of two men sowing and reaping and harvesting, it reminded me
of two other men. Can you think who they are? Go all the way
back. Cain and Abel. Cain sowed. He sowed. He meticulously watered
the ground. He raised up crops. Gave meticulous
care. And when he thought they were
ready, when he saw that those crops were big and beautiful in his own
eyes, he harvested them off and he put them on an altar. And
he tried to get acceptance with God. Told God, here's what I
have. Here's what I've done. Look at all the hard work I've
put into this. Accept me because of everything I've done. Salvation
by works. And it says, on the Canaanite's
offering, the Lord had not respect. He was rejected. And then you
had Abel, that man who had the Spirit. On that altar, all he
put was the slain lamb alone. And I tend to think that on that
altar, he was very careful that nothing else went on. I bet he
made sure there wasn't a speck of dust on there. All there was
was the slain lamb alone. His confession was this, all
I have is Christ. The only thing I have to bring
before you, my only way of acceptance, is the slain lamb. That's it.
And unto Abel and his offering, God have respect. Turn to Ephesians 3. I'll give you the fourth reason,
and thank none. Ephesians 3, look at verse 13. Paul says, wherefore, I desire
that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. Now, evidently, some of the Ephesians
had either witnessed or at least heard of all the troubles that
befell Paul. The fact that he was beaten.
All the tribulations he had suffered over the preaching of the gospel.
And no doubt they felt bad for Paul. Their heart went out to
him. I had no doubt. But I'm sure they thought this too. If
this is happening to him, these same things are probably going
to happen to us too. If this is what it costs, these same
things are likely going to happen to us as well. And here's what
Paul said. He said, I desire that you faint not at my tribulations. Don't faint at tribulations.
And he says it's your glory. Now what does he mean by that?
Does that mean we glory in these things? We find honor in them?
No. What he's saying is these tribulations, these trials, these
afflictions we suffer, he says they're for your good. They're
beneficial. Here's the commentary on that. It's in Romans 5. You
don't have to turn there. You probably know it. I'll read
it to you. Romans 5 verse 3 says, and not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also. Once again, he says that we glory
in tribulation. What are you saying? These tribulations are
beneficial. They don't feel good. They're very hard. They're very
painful in the moment, but they have a purpose. They're good
for you. Knowing that tribulation worketh patience. and patience
experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us. Now what does tribulation do?
It works patience and experience and hope. Here's how this works. This is almost cliche, it's said
so often, but I like this. This is a good statement. The
believer is always in one of three states. He's either in
trouble, He's about to be in trouble, or he's just coming
out of trouble. That's the revolving door. And
here's what happens. The Lord puts us in trouble.
We go down that deep, dark pit, when all we can do is wait on
the Lord. Seek the means that He would
use to redeem us, to remove us from this trial, to set us free.
And sit there and beg for mercy and wait on the Lord. And it's
a solid revolving door. And you know what it builds?
Patience. Patience. Waiting on the Lord. You learn
to wait on the Lord. And that happens for long enough.
You know what that builds? Experience. You have an experience of Him
delivering you. And after a while, you know what
that builds? Hope. And this is the hope. That if He thinks of
me, And I don't want to downplay this, but in the relatively small
things. Paul calls them our light afflictions. Trials never feel
light for me. Whatever trial I'm currently
going through is the worst one I've ever been through every single time. It destroys
me. But this is what it is. If he thinks of me in the tribulations
of this world, and he is faithful every single time to deliver
me in one respect or another, how much more meticulous care
has he given to take care of my greatest need, my real need,
which is my salvation? What does tribulation do? Why
is it our glory? Why is it good for us? Because
it galvanizes faith. It builds patience, waiting on
the Lord. You build an experience out of that and you have hope
that if He takes care of me, if He thinks of me, this speck
of dust, that means in the broad scheme of things absolutely nothing.
If He thinks on me and He takes care of me in these small things,
how much more has He taken care of me in the larger things? Let's finish Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18, I'm going to
give you the fifth reason to not lose heart, to faint not. Luke 18, look at verse 1. And he spake a parable unto them
to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. Now I think that first statement
is beautiful. You know what he says? He says
men. He doesn't say believers, although only the believer can
truly pray to God, because only the believer knows who he's praying
to. The man who doesn't believe on Christ, the unregenerate man,
he can't pray to God because he doesn't know Him. He may pray,
he prays to his own God. He prays to the God of his own
imagination, or someone else's imagination that's been sold
to him. Only a believer can pray, only a believer is heard by God.
But this is the encouragement we have right here. He says,
men, you ought to pray. We have that encouragement. Are
you a person? You ought to pray. Verse two, saying there was in
a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that
city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.
And he would not for a while. But afterward he said within
himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this
widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming
she weary me. And the Lord said, hear what
the unjust judge said, and shall not God avenge his own elect,
which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with
them. Now, the teaching of this parable
is very clear. Men ought always to pray. And
here is the last reason to think not, because you have a God who
hears your prayers and grants your requests. This is an amazing thought that
the God of all glory, when you speak to Him, when you come to
Him, asking everything in Christ's name, He hears you. He hears
me. This is a God who hears prayer
and grants requests, and He gives us encouragement in this story
to come with importunity, with shameless continuing. And ask, and ask, and ask. Here's what he says in Philippians
4, 6. He says, be careful for nothing. You know what that means?
Don't hold back. Don't rehearse your prayers. Don't try to pray
with a 12th century theologian. Just ask. Be careful for nothing. Don't hold back. But in everything,
by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known unto God. And that means everything. And
I thought about this. I'm going to leave you with this
thought. You know, we have loved ones that don't know the Lord. We talk about it often. I think,
Mark, you prayed for them back in the study. As long as there is life, there
is hope. And we have this encouragement to come continually and to ask
for those people and ask for ourselves. And we will never
weary our Lord. Now, those are five reasons if
you're a believer to not lose heart, to not faint and to not
turn back. I'm gonna leave you there.