The first reason is given here
in verse 7. We have this treasure, this gospel,
this gift of God in an earthen vessel that was created from
the earth and sustained by elements from the earth and will one day
go back to the earth. Dest thou art, to dest shalt
thou return. That's all it is. But God's put
this treasure in an earthen vessel, number one, that the excellency
of the power may be of God, not of us. All of God. The power is all of God. It's
not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. And the other reason is given
in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 5, where Paul says that your faith
your confidence should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in
the power of God. Then verse 8, we looked at this.
It's not an easy road, it's a difficult road. We're troubled on every
side, yet we're not distressed. We're puzzled, perplexed. We don't have all the answers,
but we're certainly not in despair. We're persecuted, but never forsaken. We're cast down, but we're not
destroyed. And then he says here in this
10th verse, that's where we'll begin this evening. And I believe
the apostle is speaking primarily of the apostles and ministers
of the gospel. I believe he is. When he says
in verse 10, continually, all the time, bearing
about in this body, this clay vessel, this earthen vessel,
bearing about in this vessel the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Always bearing about in our bodies,
in this earthen vessel, one message, Christ and him crucified. That's
our message, that's what we carry with us. We sleep with it, we
eat with it, we're awake with it. One thing is constantly on
our minds and on our hearts and our lips, and that is Christ
and him crucified. He said, I'm determined to know
nothing among you, save Christ and him crucified. The obedience
and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, that's my message. That's my
comfort. That's my strength, that's my
hope, and that keeps me from discouragement, and certainly
keeps me from quitting. And then he says that the life
of Christ, that the life of Christ Jesus also, the life also of
Jesus Christ, may be made manifest in our body. Now, our Lord sealed
his testimony with his blood. And like their Lord, these apostles,
Paul and the rest of them, had to seal their testimony with
their blood. Christ told them that. Let's
look at several verses here. Turn back to Matthew chapter
20. Matthew chapter 20, verse 22
and 23. Matthew 20, verse 22 and 23. In verse 21, the mother of James
and John had said to our Lord, she had a certain thing to ask
him, and he said, verse 21, What do you want? What will thou?
She said to him, Grant that these my two sons, James and John,
may sit one on the right hand and the other on the left hand
of thy kingdom. Jesus answered and said, You know not what you
ask. Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?"
To be baptized with a baptism. It's not talking about water
now, that I'm baptized with. They said, we're able. And he
said to them, you shall drink indeed of my cup. You shall.
You shall drink indeed of my cup, and you'll be baptized with
the baptism that I am baptized with. You're going to die too.
And they did. Peter was crucified at Rome.
James the Less was stoned to death. Andrew was crucified. Philip was stoned and then crucified. Thomas was killed with a spear.
Bartholomew was beaten and then nailed to a cross. Matthew was
slain with a halberd, and James the Great was beheaded. Simon
Zelotis was crucified, Jude was crucified, and John was the only
one who survived. And God kept him on the Isle
of Patmos to write the book of Revelation. It just couldn't
be. I just feel definitely when these
men say, when Paul said, I bear in my body the dying of the Lord
Jesus, that the life of Christ might be manifest in our body,
in our testimony, in our witness. It couldn't be that our Lord,
the world, would crucify our Lord for what he said, and that
apostles who preached the same message would live out their
lives and die of old age. Just not what it was meant to
be. John 15, turn over here. John
15. They all sealed, even Paul. I don't know how Paul died, but
he was martyred. John 15, verse 20. He said to his disciples, verse
19, if you were of the world, the world would love his own.
Because you are not of the world, I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I
said to you, the service not greater than his Lord. If they
persecuted me, they will also persecute you. And they did. And they murdered these men.
And over in John 21, our Lord told Peter how he would suffer
for Christ and the glory of God. He said, for the glory of God.
In John chapter 21, verse 18. Our Lord said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, talking to Simon Peter, when you were young, they
girded Thou girded thyself and walkedest, whither thou wouldest.
But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands,'
he was crucified, and another shall gird thee and care thee,
whither thou wouldest not. This faith he, signifying by
what death, Peter would glorify God. And these men did, they
glorified God. in their bodies, in their messages,
in their conduct, in their conversation, in the efficacy of their ministry. He said that we always bear about
in our body the dying of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the life
of Christ, who is now in glory, might be manifested in our bodies. And Peter, he said, you are going
to glorify God in death. And he did. And that's what the
apostle went on in verse 11, and he said, we which live, we
apostles who live, even while we're living, we're delivered
unto death. Even while we're living, we're in danger of death,
we're delivered to death, we're under the threat of death, all
the time, from religious people and from the Gentiles. And not
because they were malicious men, not because they were wicked
men, Not because they were lawbreakers, for one thing, they preached
Christ and him crucified. They're pimps of the cross. They
preached the doctrine of Christ. And the reason they preached
it, the doctrine of Christ, is that the life also of Jesus might
be manifested. God might manifest his life. Make it manifest in our conversation,
in our life on earth. Make it manifest. And to them,
their lives meant nothing. I want to show you that in Acts
chapter 20. Their life on this earth meant
very little to these men. Very little. Actually, Paul said,
I'm already dead. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live, yet not out of Christ lives in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh, I don't live at all. I live by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. He
loved me. And here he was preaching his
last message to the elders of Ephesus down at Antioch, and
he says in verse 22, he said, Now, behold, I go bound
in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall
befall me there. Say, that is, accept, that the
Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions
me, that word abide me, wait for me, bonds, imprisonment,
affliction, even death. But none of these things move
me. I don't count my life here on earth dear to myself. It's
not my life, it's his. It's not my ministry, it's his.
That's what Paul said. God gave us this ministry, and
we bear that all the time in our bodies. Christ in him crucified,
the message and the life of Christ. And I don't count my life dear
unto myself. Here is one goal, that I might
finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received
of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. These were apostles. These were
preachers of the gospel. These were men separated under
the gospel. Dedicated to the gospel, obsessed
with the gospel, whichever preacher ought to be. Whichever preacher ought to be.
Consecrated, dedicated, sold out to the gospel. But he's not motivated by covetous
spirit. taking care of himself and his
holdings and his interests and his this, that and the other. That's what he's saying here.
We which live and preach the gospel, we're always delivered
to death for Christ's sake. That's all right. We're not our
own, we're bought with a price. We only live because he lives.
I'm crucified with Christ. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified
to me, and I unto the world. That's what he's saying here. Now watch verse 12. So then,
death works in us. Now remember, this is the apostle. This is a man given a ministry. And his ministers Christ him
crucified, and I carry it around everywhere I go, all the time,
24 hours a day. I'm involved in the life of Jesus
Christ, who's glorified in glory. So death works in us, but life
in you. What does that mean? Death works
in us, and life in you? Well, death works in those apostles,
and we're indebted to those men. how we are indebted to those
men, the prophets, the apostles, the early martyrs, the reformers,
and men who are dedicated to the gospel. We are indebted to
them. You see, our Lord on the cross, our Lord on the cross,
death worked in him. Judgment came, sorrow came, suffering
came, and death came, and he died, and because he We live. Substitution. Because he died,
we live. Death worked in him, and by death
working in him, life worked in us. Turn to 1 Peter, let me show
you that. 1 Peter 3, verse 18. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
He's put the death in the flesh, quickened in the spirit. And
his death was our death, and his life is our life. And if
he hadn't gone to the cross, we wouldn't live. Because he lives, we live. His
death brought us, he died, but we live. All right, Paul. God sent him out with this gospel.
He went to these places and preached the gospel, and died for that
gospel, and suffered Sorrow, suffering. I read you Sunday
some of the things he endured. And he said, death worked in
me. Death worked in me. And by my dying, and by my suffering,
and by my sacrifice, you live. I brought you the gospel, he
said. I brought you the gospel. Let me show you that in 2 Timothy.
You see what I'm saying. 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 7. You know,
the scripture says, if you call on the name of the Lord, you'll
be saved. But how are they going to call on him in whom they do not believe?
And how are they going to believe in him in whom they are not heard?
And how are they going to hear without preaching? So when that
man in Macedonia said, come over to help us, Paul came over. But
you know what happened to him? He put him in jail. They beat
him. Beat him with stripes. Beat the
daylight side of him. put him in jail, and he stayed
there suffering. But by his suffering, and by
his sacrifice, by his sorrow, and by his enduring these things,
the people of Macedonia heard the gospel. He said, I'll die
on you later. That's what he's saying. Now,
look at 2 Timothy 2. Consider what I say, verse 7,
and the Lord gives you understanding of these things. Remember that
Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according
to my gospel. For we and I suffer trouble as
an evil doer, even under bonds, even under prison, but the word
of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all these
things for your sake, for the elect's sake. Why? That they may obtain the salvation
which is in Jesus Christ with eternal glory. Now, the only
way to obtain salvation is through Christ dying for me. But I also
obtained the hearing of it by the preacher who came and brought
it to me." That's what Paul said. So death works in me. Death works in me, he said, but
because I die, you live. Because I come down there and
go to prison and suffer and preach the gospel to you, you hear it
and you live. And that's what he's saying there. Death works
in us. We're always in danger of dying
and delivered unto death and suffering and on the verge of
death, and finally all of them dead. But bless God by their
suffering, and this means God uses, through the hearing of
the gospel, the belief of the gospel, and the determination
of somebody Walter Groover and his wife left
Texas 35 years ago with five children, sold their home, quit
his job, went to Mexico, learned the language, and they suffered.
They went without enough support, and they did without. They suffered
under that culture, and all these things. They did it for one reason,
that men like Jose, and Retilio, and Feichlin, and Rogelio, Gustavo and Gilberto, that those
men might live in Christ. God Almighty still uses men to
preach the gospel. And he'll use them effectually,
but they're going to be committed to this gospel. They're going
to be committed like this man was. Nobody's going to be successful
in the ministry or effectually in the preaching of the gospel
if it's not sold out to this gospel. And I want to ask a lot
of preachers in this day, where's the offense in your message?
Where's the offense? Nobody's offended. Nobody on
the verge of getting killed for preaching what they're preaching,
because nobody hates what they're preaching. But Paul said, death
works in me all the time, all the time. But that's all right,
because life works in you. God uses the means of a committed,
dedicated, separated to the gospel preacher. God will use him, God
will bless him. In verse 13, he says, I'm like
David of old. I have the same spirit of faith
David had, same faith and same spirit of faith that David had. David wrote in Psalm, you don't
need to turn to it if you remember it, David wrote in Psalm 116,
verse 10, I believe, I believed, therefore have I spoken. Boy, that's it, isn't it? And
old Paul says, that's what I say, I believe God. Oh, I believe
God. I have the same faith Abraham
had who believed God and went out. I've got the same faith
Noah had who believed God and started building an ark. I've
got the same faith Moses had who believed God and kept the
Passover. I've got the same faith that those men have, so I renounce
my works and I count it all but done that I may win Christ and
be found in him. I believe, therefore I speak. A man will speak what he believes. If he doesn't believe it, he
won't preach it. But if he does believe it, he will. As a man
thinketh in his heart, so is he out of the heart of the mouth
speaketh. Yes, sir, I've got the same spirit of faith. And
just come on down, Paul says, I've got the same spirit of faith
that David had, and I say what you say, we've got the same spirit
of faith that Paul had. This is my gospel. This is my
committal. Isn't it yours? Committed. I'm
committed to this gospel. All right, verse 14. Knowing
this, knowing this, that he who raised up the Lord Jesus. Who
raised up the Lord Jesus? Well, let's turn to Acts chapter
2. See who raised up the Lord Jesus. Peter preaching at Pentecost
in Acts chapter 2, verse 24. Whom God raised up. He said in
verse 23 that Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, and you have taken, and by wicked hands
have crucified and slain whom God hath raised up. God raised
him from the dead. God did. Look at verse 32. This
Jesus had God raised up. He raised him up as the first
fruits, the dynamo. And he says here in verse 14
of my text, knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus was
going to raise you up also, you believers. That's who he's writing
to, those folks down in Collin. He said the same power that raised
Jesus Christ from the grave is the power that will raise you
from the grave. And Almighty God is going to raise you from
the dirt grave, and he said he's going to present us with you.
He didn't say he's going to present you with me. Paul didn't have
that kind of pride. He said he's going to present
me with you. I'm going to count it a glorious
privilege and honor to be raised with you, with you, to meet the
Lord in the air. That ought to encourage our hearts.
He's going to raise the same one, Almighty God, who raised
up the Lord Jesus by the same power, is going to raise up every
believer by Jesus and present all of them together when we
meet the Lord in the air. So we don't fear death, we don't
dread death. His resurrection is our foundation
of hope. No matter how different his people
are, they all have the same hope. And that is that we'll meet him,
see him as he is, and be like him. Because, verse 15, and I
touched on this Sunday morning, oh, how it ought to be touched
on again. For all things are for your sakes. All things. All things are for your sakes.
Over here in chapter 5, verse 18, all things are of God. All things are of God. Romans,
don't turn to it, you're familiar, all things work together for
good to them that love God, so called according to his purpose.
What are these all things? Here he says, all things are
for your sakes, for the Church, for believers. God's going to
raise you, the same God who raised Christ by the same power is going
to raise you and me, and he's going to present us without holy,
unblameable, unreprovable in his sight, he's going to present
us with you. What is this all things are for
you and are yours? Well, here's what it is. It's
all things the Father's created, all things that the Father's
decreed, all things that the Father has and will bring to
pass, all things that the Son purposed, all things that the
Son purchased, all things that the Son inherited, he is the
heir of all things, all things promised, in the Old
Testament, prophesied in the Old Testament, pictured in the
Old Testament, and brought to pass in the New. Everything connected
with God Almighty in creation, providence, the universe, the
New Kingdom, the Old Kingdom, past, present, and future, is
purposed and accomplished for your sake, for the sake of his
elect. That's right, everything. That's exactly what he said.
Let me show you that in 1 Corinthians 3. Now this is awesome. God didn't make anything in this
world for rebellious people, for wicked people. They're just
using it. It belongs to him, it belongs
to the Church. That's exactly right. They're just squatters. Squatters are squatting on somebody
else's property. That's what they are. Abraham,
he lived in tents, but that land was his. Isn't that right? God gave it to him. And all those
Canaanites and Hittites and Amorites and the Malachites and Philistines,
they were squatters. He didn't belong there. And everybody
in Ashland, Kentucky who doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ don't
belong here. They're squatters, that's right.
Everything's yours. That's what I'm telling you.
Listen. Listen to 1 Corinthians 3. Verse 21. Therefore let no man grow in
me, and all things are yours, whether Paul, the great apostle,
Apollos, Peter, the world, the earth is the Lord's. Well, it's
mine too. I'm a joint heir with him. The earth is the Lord's,
and the fullness of the world, and they that dwell therein is
mine, and yours, it's his. The world, life, this life and
that life, all life is mine. Death, I'm going to win out in
that too. I'm not going to lose a thing,
I'm going to gain everything by dying. Things present now,
things to come, things in the past, it's all yours. And he's God's! And you have joint heir with
Jesus Christ. Now, that's awesome. Christ said,
I don't pray for the world, I don't give them anything, I pray for
those that you gave me. All things are theirs. That scripture,
you could preach for a week on that, maybe two. All things are
yours, for your sake, that's the reason it's made. that the abundant grace might
through the thanksgiving of many, many multitudes which no man
can number." Then don't think little when you think of God's
kingdom. These people are talking about 144,000, that's all that's
going to be there? Forget that stuff. 144,000 multiplied by an innumerable
number. A multitude which no man can
number to the glory of God. That's why everything is done.
Those two statements live. Verse 15, both in verse 15. For
your sake and for God's glory. Write her down. Scott said, write
that in C Penn. For your sake, for the church,
and for his glory. To the praise and the glory of
his grace, but for your sake, for your good. You're so wealthy you can't even
imagine it. We've got an inheritance incorruptible
and defiled. Fate is not a way reserved in
heaven for you that are kept by the power of God through faith.
It's all yours. It's all yours, for your sake
and for the glory of God. Verse 16, For which cause? I
don't quit. That's pretty good motivation,
pretty good motivation. I might take one step forward
and two backwards, but I don't quit, because I've got an inheritance
unbelievable, for which cause I don't faint. The outward man
now, it perishes. The outward man, it ages, it
weakens, mentally and physically. It grows weary. But this inward
man, it's renewed every day, every day. Stronger in faith. Stronger in hope, stronger in
love, stronger in confidence in Christ, our souls are in good
health. That's exactly right, they're
in good health. That old man perishes, get weaker
and older and feebler, but that inward man, because that's Christ,
Christ dwelleth in you. It's renewed day by day, feeds
on bread from heaven, feeds on manna. Then he says, for our
light afflictions, our light affliction, which is but for
a moment. You know, I pretty call these
things light afflictions. Well, they're light compared
to the glory that God's going to give us. Our life's afflictions,
which is but for a moment, it lasts but for a moment compared
to eternity. It's a light affliction because
it's nothing compared to the weight of glory, the eternal
weight of glory. That's the reason they're called
light. They hurt like blazes. It's just these afflictions hurt,
how painful, how painful they are to this flesh. But when you
compare These afflictions with the glory of God, this is light. That's heavy. That's monumental. That's awesome. And they're for
a moment. Well, they seem like they last
a long time, don't they? But it's just a moment, compared
to eternity. Just a moment. It doesn't last
long at all. At the time they occur, they
seem off of it, but they're light compared to the eternal weight
of glory. And when they're taking place,
they seem like they're never going to end. The morning's never
coming, but it always does. And it's only a moment compared
to eternity. And they work. You notice this
word here, and all of a sudden they work it for us. Let me see
if I can do something with that. I like affliction, which is,
but for a moment, working. But what do they work? These
means and these experiences don't earn us any reward. That's not
what we're talking about. They don't earn us any eternal
glory. They don't merit us any special
place. Because God's kingdom and God's
glory is prepared from the foundation of the world. When our Lord said
to the righteous, come ye, blessed of my Father, enter into the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
It's been prepared. Christ said, I'll prepare a place for you.
You don't do it through your suffering and toil and sorrow
and work and heartache and crosses you badly. No, they work. But
they don't work on that. They work on this. They don't have anything to do
with them. That's his doings. But let me
show you. By the means, by these trials
and troubles and sorrows that God uses in our lives, by his
Spirit he turns our hearts to Christ Jesus and his kingdom
and weans us from the world. and weans us from the things
of this earth and the fashion of this world. And he trials
our faith and proves it to be genuine. And through these trials
he strengthens us in patience and in grace and in love. And he draws our hope and desire
and affection from the things of this earth to the things of
his kingdom, so that when the time comes For us to depart, we're more
than glad to go. That's right. So that when the time comes,
somebody said to Spurgeon one time, I don't have dying grace.
He said, you dying? He said, no. He said, you don't
need it. But he'll work it out if you're
his. He'll fix it so that when the time comes, you've got your
bags packed. You'll just be more than obliged
to get on that chariot of fire and go home. Because these things
work. Our light afflictions, but for
a moment, worketh in us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory. That's right. The preparation
of the glory is His. That's his work. Preparation
of youth by glory is the work of these means that God's pleased
to use, you and me. While we look, I'll close with
this first thing. While we look, not at things
which are seen, but at things which are not seen. A preacher,
I look at the things that are seen. I still have a certain
attraction for things that are seen. Let me see if I can explain what
he's saying here, or help us with it. Our Lord Jesus said,
Look to me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. I'm
God, there's none else, there's none like me, I'm a just God
and a Savior. So where on earth would I look
besides there? Well, do you not look at anyone
else? Do you not love anyone else?
Do you not need anyone else? Oh, yes. We need our wives and our husbands
and our children. And we need our friends. We need
our church family. We need our preachers, our elders,
our friends. We need our home and fireside,
but we don't look at these things like we look to him. We don't
need these things like we need him. That's what he's saying,
see, so listen. Look to me, but take care of your family. Look
to me, but husbands love your wives like I love you. Look to
me, but wives take care of your husbands and children. Be a good
wife, but look to me. That's what he's saying here.
Why do we look not on these things with desire to keep them, or
with our affections set on them, or desire them above all things?
We desire him above all things, eternal life! That's what we
desire above all things, because we know these things are temporal. To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. These things are temporal. Treat
them as such. Use them, don't abuse them, and
don't let them abuse you. We look at things not seen. Those things are eternal. I hope
that's a blessing to you. I certainly pray the Lord will
use it for your sake and to glorify his name.