Our Lord Jesus Christ promised
that he would give to his people new life, eternal life and everlasting
life. And this is the ministry that
the Apostle Paul was speaking about here in this letter to
the Corinthians. A reading in 2 Corinthians chapter
4 talks about the ministry which he and the other apostles were
carrying out into the world. And he's saying it's not a difficult
message. It's been clearly revealed. And at the end of chapter three
it's talking about the way in which the Lord Jesus Christ is
more clearly seen now than ever it had been in the past. But we all with open face beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same
image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of our Lord. The glorious things of the Lord
Jesus Christ having been so clearly set forth. So that men are without
excuse, that if they don't believe these things it's because it's
been hidden from them. Either because Satan has blinded
their eyes or because we interpreted that the Lord hasn't revealed
it and granted it to men. understand it as you like. But the God of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of
the glorious gospel of Christ, or the gospel of the glory of
Christ, which can equally be a reading there, should illuminate
their minds and their understanding. Paul goes on in verse 5 to say
we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and we ourselves
are your servants or are your ministers for Christ's sake. He then goes on to say in verse
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. What's he talking
about there? He's talking about the frailty
of the ministers. And we don't need to limit it
to the ministers. We recognise it also as extending
to all the Lord's people. This treasure that we possess,
this treasure of the Lord Jesus Christ, this glorious gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's in earthen vessels, and he's
speaking about our bodies. He's speaking about our physical
bodies, and he's speaking about those natural aspects of our
humanity, our human frame, our emotions, and our psychology,
our minds, our mental stability. These things which are part and
parcel of our humanity. And he's saying, we have this
treasure. It's a supernatural revelation. It's a glorious, eternal, heavenly
truth. It is the majesty of the revelation
of the God-man come to earth laying down his life for his
people, risen again from the dead and ascended into glory
where he sits now at the Father's right hand. Wonderful truths,
amazing revelations, but its glory is contained in a physical
frame that's no more than dirt. that's no more than just our
physical bodies, earthen vessels. You know, it's often the case
that if somebody is trying to sell something, they'll package
it up in the nicest packaging that they can possibly get in
order to make what looks like 10 bucks worth $100. But that's not what it's like
when it comes to the gospel. When it comes to the gospel,
the value is in what's in the packaging, not the packaging
itself. And we are earthen vessels when
it comes to the preaching of the gospel. We are frail, we
are fickle, we are feeble in so many ways, both in the declaration
of the gospel and in the hearing of the gospel. That in so many
ways is why the world looks on and says, well, what's all that
about? Because they can't see beyond
the earthen vessels. They can't see the Lord of glory
that these earthen vessels contain. Paul says in verse eight, how
many of us, how many of us can testify to these words that the
apostle speaks? He's not just speaking about
the ministers of the gospel, although perhaps that's what
particularly he has in mind at this moment. We are troubled
on every side. Well, that's us, is it not? We're
troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed. but not in despair. Persecuted,
but not forsaken. Oh, the Lord doesn't forsake
his people, even in the midst of their troubles. We're cast
down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about the body
of the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. And so we carry these great truths
of the loveliness, the glory, the wonder of the Lord Jesus
Christ around in these fail, feeble bodies. And as this chapter
unfolds, what drew my attention was that as he goes down and
he's speaking about the fact that these apostles are spending
themselves for the well-being of the church, they're prepared
to endure and undergo and engage in and enter into these troubles
for the sake and the well-being of the church of Jesus Christ,
that the church might be blessed even at the expense of their
lives. He goes on in verse 16 to say,
for which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. This is what I want
to think about with you this evening for a little while. The
Lord Jesus Christ told his followers that they would enjoy life in
him. And you'll remember that he spoke
to Nicodemus and he said, whosoever believeth in me should not perish,
but have everlasting life. We know that the new life that
we have, that which we contain in these earthen vessels, that
which the Lord Jesus Christ has given us, that new life, that
everlasting life, eternal life, comes from the Lord himself. It is he who says in the book
of Revelation, behold, I make all things new. The beholds of
the Lord are lovely to consider. We love it when he says, behold,
because he's telling us to watch and wonder at the things that
he has done. Behold, I make all things new. So if something is made new,
then it's the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That all things
in there means that nobody else makes anything else that's new.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ that makes new things. And he makes
a new creation. And he gives that new creation
his name. And he calls them his people. And he establishes them as his
church. And they are his flock. And he
has made all things new. And the new life that we have
is new life in Christ. How did the Lord Jesus Christ
achieve and accomplish this new life? How does he apply that
new life to his people? By his death. He has wrought
life out of his own death. And he has died that we might
have life. And then He rose again as that
first fruits of a new creation. He rose again and He shares with
us that resurrection life, that life that He took to Himself
again. He bestows upon His people. And
we who were dead in sins are made to enjoy the sweet participation
in the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes all
things new. Lovely little picture is granted
to us, I think, in the book of Judges where Samson is going
around disturbing the Philistines. It's always a good thing to disturb
the Philistines and Samson can be a hero for that alone. But he says to the Philistines,
Out of strength comes forth sweetness. Out of strength comes forth sweetness. And of course, what is it that
men have feared? Wherein has the strength of sin
been? What is the power that men have
dreaded all their lives? But the power of the grave, the
power of death, and out of death comes forth sweetness because
the Lord Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and he has brought
his people into the experience, the sweet experience of that
new life which he has given. He says in John 14, 19, because
I live, ye shall live also. And so here we are with our earthen
vessels But we possess the life of Christ. We possess that resurrection
life, that new life. Paul says in Romans chapter six,
verse four, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into
death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness
of life, or newness of spirit, he also calls it in chapter seven,
verse six. And yet the Lord said to Nicodemus,
that those who have faith will not perish. But these earthen vessels that
we have, these bodies, this flesh, we know that it does perish. We know that The experience of
the church down through the years is that these earthen vessels
spoil and fracture and crack and break. That's just what happens. And these bodies that we have
and the saints have had in days gone by, we read in Hebrews 11
recently, these men and women of faith, they all died. except for Enoch, he didn't die,
but they all died. And when they died, they were
still looking forward to the entering into the promise. That's
the thrust of Hebrews 11. And we daily experience the frailty
of these earthen vessels. I'm looking at you here. I'm
looking at you. Every single one of you. We've
all got these frailties, haven't we? We come in and we start talking
together and before very long we're telling each other about
all the problems that we've got. And that's okay, I'm not knocking
that. That's what we do. But it is
what we do because that's the truth. We've all got these problems
and we're carrying them around. Even the young men are exhausted. We daily experience the frailty
of these bodies, these earthen vessels. How do we reconcile
these two things then? How do we reconcile the fact
that the Lord Jesus says to Nicodemus, he that believeth in me shall
never perish. And that the apostle Paul is
saying in this very chapter, our outward man does perish. Well, that's the point, isn't
it? That he's drawing a distinction here between the outward man
and the inward man. Though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. We need to distinguish
between the spiritual and the flesh. We need to understand
the difference between the body and the soul. Time and eternity. This world and the world which
is to come. Now, many people won't like to
hear this, but the reality is, the truth is, that these bodies
of ours have no good in them at all. Earthen vessels. You know what an earthen vessel
is? We buy them nowadays from second-hand
shops and we put them in the middle of our living room or
our kitchen table because we think that they look good. They were packed together with
bits of clay in days gone by. They were made with just the
dirt and the dust of the ground. Earthen vessels is exactly that,
they're made out of dirt. and they're fired in a furnace
or in a kiln or something. And nowadays we like them because
they look old fashioned and a bit twee. But earthen vessels is
just made of dirt. And that's what we are. That's
what the man says at the funeral. He says, dirt to dirt. dust to dust, ashes to ashes,
because that's all this is, an earthen vessel. These bodies of ours have two
states, dying and dead, and that's it. And there's nothing good
in them. There's nothing good that is
going to come from our flesh. and the pride of our flesh because
we look after it so carefully. We value it so much. We were smiling the other night
at the symphony. One of the lads was playing the
tuba and he kept going like this. He kept on grooming himself on
the stage because he knew everybody was watching him. And we all
do it, don't we? all do it. We take pride in our
appearance and we look after our health and we eat properly
and we try to make sure that we get a good night's rest and
all of these things are to pamper and care for these bodies. These
bits of dirt. These earthen vessels. We protect it and we prize it. And all the days of our life,
the reality is that the body is telling us that it's corrupt
and it's sinful and it's worthless. And we know that we are condemned
in this body because this is the body that fell in the garden. This is the body that the curse
of sin came upon. And we know because it's appointed
unto men once to die, and then the judgment. We know that the
condemnation of God is on these bodies, and it is relentlessly
following through. And it may be we've got three
score years in 10, or maybe because of our strength a little bit
longer, or maybe less. The outward man is perishing,
make no mistake about it. It is declining, it is decaying
here and now. It's just a matter of time. And no good will ever come of
these bodies because the Lord said, the flesh profiteth nothing. And coffins and graveyards and
headstones prove that God is right. John 6, 63, it is the
spirit that quickeneth. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. This glorious gospel, this
gospel of the glory of Christ, this doctrine of Christ, this
message that the Apostle Paul was saying here, that they are
carrying forth in all of its clarity, in all of its beauty,
in all of its sweetness. What is that message? The message
is that after these earthen vessels are laid down, and returned to
the earth whence they came. There is a life after death. That this is not the end. That this body shall live again. That it will be raised again
from the grave. That the lid may be nailed down
as tight as it can be, but it will spring again. The clay might
be heavy, the years might be innumerable, but live again these
bodies' will. John 5.28 says, Marvel not at
this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in
the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth They that
have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation. But these bodies will
all be called back together again, and they will all be raised.
What is the doing good that is spoken of by the Lord in that
verse? Not our good works, not our good
deeds, not what men call good, but God calls filthy rags. Doing good in the sight of God,
and it's his word that matters, doing good in the sight of God
is believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, is trusting God's word
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a group of people once
said to the Lord Jesus, what shall we do then? What shall
we do that we might work the works of God? What might we do
to impress God? What might we do to please and
satisfy God? Jesus answered and said unto
them, this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent. Well, I had two things that I
wanted to share with you tonight. That's the first one. Second
one is connected with the same verse that we were looking at.
For this cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. This new life that
we've been speaking of, this new life that we have in Christ. It's a resurrection life that
comes to us because Christ is risen from the dead. But it's
not an end-of-life experience. Not for the believer. The believer
has entered into that resurrection life right now. We have that
new life. That new life is created in us
by the power of Christ, by the power of God the Holy Spirit. We call it quickening. ye hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. It's to do
with a calling out of life, a calling to life, and it is the bestowing
of the life of Christ in his people. It's a here and now experience
for the Lord's people, and it's something that the world cannot
understand and cannot participate in. It is the product of God's
work in the lives of his elect, and it comes to them as his gift
because of what Jesus Christ has done for that people who
are under the benefits of the decrees and his eternal covenant. The inward man is what is being
spoken about. The contrast that Paul is making,
the contrast we have before us, is the distinction between the
outward man that perisheth and the inward man that is renewed. And note this, this new man is
renewed day by day. He's renewed day by day. And that struck me. I thought
to myself, that's nice, that is good. He's renewed day by
day. He's renewed every day. So every day, Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, he's getting renewed. Every day
he gets up, he gets renewed. That resurrection life, that
resurrection life is renewed. And that ought not to surprise
us, because resurrection life is eternal life, and eternal
life isn't linear. Eternal life doesn't follow the
course of time. It is outside of time. And therefore
it is new every day. It's ever presently new. And so every time we get up in
the morning, we have new life. Every time our days unfold, we
have new life, eternal life, resurrection life, being bestowed
upon us by Christ. a daily renewal that flows from
the Spirit of God to His people. It's not something we're having
to wait for, it's the present experience of the Lord's people
here and now. So much so that as the body,
the vessel that's made of earth and dirt, the earthen vessel,
as the body perishes, as it does day by day, getting weaker, getting
frailer. As the body perishes day by day,
the inward man, the spiritual man is renewed day by day. So how does that occur? What
is the experience of that? What happens in the souls of
God's people that allows them to experience a renewal of spiritual
life every day? Well, that I think is what we're
talking about, we're seeing in this passage. The answer is in the word of
God. As the body decays, yours and
mine, so the spirit abounds. As the flesh putrefies, so the
spirit replenishes. As the natural winds down to
the grave, the spirit soars to glory. And what is teaching us
these things but an ever increasing reliance upon the promises of
God? That's what it is. That's what
we see happening to us in our life. I'm not talking about sanctification
here. I'm not talking about the fact
that we're getting holier. I'm not talking about the fact
that there's a progression of holiness that we are attaining
to as we go through our life. What I am saying is this, that
as we get older, As these bodies begin to fail and the reality
of our demise dawns upon us, our spirit is being renewed day
by day by the Holy Ghost working in our hearts and in our lives. We faint not, says the Apostle. We don't faint because the Lord
is preserving us. every day, because we are persevering
in the faith every day, because we are getting a renewal every
day of those helps, those blessings, those mercies of God. So 2 Corinthians 4 verse 18 down
to the last verse of that chapter says, 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. That means they
come to an end. The things that we see as we
look around these bodies 10, 20, 30 years, I don't know how long
it's going to be. But these bodies, we soon won't see them because
they're temporal. They're going to come to an end.
But that's not what we're looking at. We're looking at things that
are eternal, things that are not seen, the eternal things. And we see these things being
revealed. in the way God teaches us about
himself. Turn with me to Lamentations. Lamentations in the Old Testament. Isaiah is the big one. Isaiah, Jeremiah, then Lamentations. You'll find Lamentations. It's
just a wee book, but written by Jeremiah the prophet. Look
at chapter three. Lamentations, chapter three. If you want to read the whole
of the passage at some stage, I think it'll impress you just
the way in which it speaks so clearly about the frailty of
the body. But then, halfway through, or
in verse 18, is where I want to start our reading. Verse 18. the writer, the prophet, he gets
a glimpse beyond the natural, beyond the temporal, beyond the
physical, beyond the earthen vessel. And he realizes that
there is a spirituality, an unseen, an eternal thing going on here
because of God's love towards his people. And he says, and
I said, my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Remembering mine affliction and
my misery and the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance. and is humbled in me. See that's
what happens, that's what happens to the Lord's people. They go
through these experiences and these experiences don't harden
them, they humble them. My soul hath them still in remembrance
and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore
I have hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto
them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is
good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation
of the Lord. Aren't those lovely verses? Isn't
that lovely? What's happened here is but that
the writer, the prophet, has looked beyond the perishing body
And he has seen the faithfulness of the Lord. And he has seen
the love of the Lord. He has remembered the mercies
of God. And these things are where our
daily renewal comes from. These are the mercies that are
new every morning to us. It is a remembering of the things
that the Lord has said. That's where we get our spiritual
energies. There's where that vitality comes
from. It is remembering the promises
that we have learned from the Lord's hands. And so when we
feel the pressures of nature, when we feel the weakness of
our frame, when we know something of the earthen vessel that we
carry around with us, this flesh, this nature, this body, we remember
the promises of God. And we understand that while
this body is perishing and must perish, that our souls are being
renewed every day because the promises of God are yea and amen
to us. What are some of those promises
that he's giving us here? Well, the everlasting love of
God towards us. That's what the writer of the
Lamentations says. He says, his compassions, they
fail not. His compassion doesn't fail.
Oh, our experience of it might vary and waver. Our view of Christ
might be dimmed from time to time. The pressures and the troubles
and the problems of our life that come upon us and beset us
and distract us, but his love is constant. His compassions
they fail not. Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. They are new every morning. The
Lord's mercies great is thy faithfulness. The love of the Lord renews us
every morning and it does us well to remember and to reflect
upon the everlasting love of God towards us. and our union
with Christ renews us every morning as we think about what we possess
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are so united with the Lord
Jesus Christ in our souls, in our spirits, that everything
that he has, we have. Everything that Christ has, we
have. Every blessing he possesses,
we possess, we presently possess it. We died in him, we are risen
with him, we are ascended on high with him, and says Paul
to the Ephesians, we are presently seated in heavenly places with
Christ Jesus. It's just that this earthen vessel
hasn't caught up. This earthen vessel has to go
to the dirt, but our souls, our spirits are already seated together
in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. We are heirs and joined heirs
together with the Lord Jesus Christ. And with that God-man,
every blessing that God has bestowed upon the Son is also the possession
of the Bride. We're united to Him. That's the
great mystery, that Christ in His humanity has united Himself
with our humanity. And it's these earthen vessels,
these bodies, that will rise again, and they will be changed,
they will be transformed, and we will be united with Christ,
with these bodies, for all eternity. What else have we got to renew
our spirit every morning? that the life that we now live
is eternal life. It is that life that we have
in Christ. Galatians 2.20 says, I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for
me. What can this world do to you?
if you have Christ's eternal life in you. If every day that
we get out of our beds, every time we begin to engage with
this world, that life of Christ, that never dying life of Christ
is what we are and how we subsist in these earthen vessels. These
are the blessings that renew us every morning. And fourthly,
It is our hope, our faith, if you like, our trust, our dependence
upon the promises of God. For he has declared, the just
shall live by faith. And as we have that faith, that
faith of Christ, that faith that he has given, that faith that
focuses on the object Christ, so we live. The just shall live. and we live justified before
him in faith that he has granted and gifted to us. We read the
verses, let's read them again. Lamentations 324. The Lord is
my portion, saith my soul. That's a lovely thing to be able
to say. That's a wonderful truth to be
able to lay hold upon. The Lord is my portion. That's something to rouse our
spirits each day as we begin to experience the fresh mercies
of the Lord, His renewal morning by morning, day by day. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto
them that wait for him. Well, it's so easy for us to
run ahead. It's so easy for us to think
that we know the answers and we've got the initiative and
we can act and we can do things, but we wait on him because he's
controlling all these things. We wait on him. The Lord is good
unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. Day by day let us be those who
ask, who knock, who seek, who find. It is good that a man should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. We feel so frail, these earthen
vessels look so frail, feeble, but the truth is that our days
are in his hands, that there's an appointed time, that nothing
can touch us, nothing can harm us, that this providential outworking
of the predestinating purpose of God is running its course
exactly according to his will and his purpose, and it will
come to its conclusion precisely when he deems it appropriate. And that's what we trust in.
And every morning that renews the spirit of the Lord's people
as we get up once again and face the trials and difficulties of
this world, knowing that it is not the flesh, but the spirit
that profits our souls. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us and encourage us day by day in our everyday Christian
walk. Amen.