Triumphant in the Lord

We'll open your Bibles, please, to 2 Corinthians, chapter 2. And I'll read, and then

God willing, preach from verses 14 through 17. As you're turning there, we notice that this is one of those outbursts of praise that the

Apostle Paul was prone to, these outbursts that sort of afflicted him, where as he considers what he has written prior to this, he just can't help but, as we call it in an ejaculatory way, just burst out with praise and doxology, praise to God.

In our passage, having been faced with every sign of failure and defeat, he pens this hymn that is so triumphant that it would make a

John Philip Sousa march song sound like a funeral dirge. And so with that short introduction, please stand for the reading of God's word, just 2

Corinthians, chapter 2, 14 through 17. But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

For we are the aroma of Christ to God. Let me try that again. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.

Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.

Please be seated, and let us pray and ask

God's blessing upon us once again. Now, Heavenly Father, we come to hear your word.

We come to encounter the true and living God in the living word that you have given us. I pray,

Father, that you would bless the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart. May they be pleasing in your sight, Father.

May hearts be well -prepared to receive the word and to grow thereby more and more into the image of your

Son, Jesus Christ, for whom and in whose name we are assembled this day. Indeed, his name is the

Lord. Amen. Let me begin by asking you, how do you measure success?

How do you measure success? This is particularly appropriate this time of year as we're anticipating the end of this year, and it looks like the

Lord is going to give us the year 2022, and so in a few days, it'll be New Year's Eve.

Very common to look back and say, well, what did I do last year? How did I do in accordance with what

I had planned back in 2020, what I thought I'd accomplish this year? Were we successful or not?

And based upon that analysis, what do we anticipate for next year, for 2022, and how do we as persons individually, as members together in this church, how do we then plan for the year to come?

How do you measure success? Today we use the term metric for the standards by which we measure whether this plan or this program achieved any success or whether it succumbed to failure.

The metric you see is the key. The metric rules the day, doesn't it? In many businesses, corporations, it's the metric, and that's how we rule things, that's how we analyze things.

And the term is even used sometimes in church where we determine where we need to go, and then the measures by which we're going to see whether we got where we said we're going to go.

And we don't want to turn this into a corporation, but we also don't want to be the parable of the man who hits his target every time because he aimed at nothing.

Nor do we want to become one that is so strict and so business -like and so corporate -like that the metric is everything.

But the question still stands, how do we measure success? How do we look at it?

Well, what God calls success, as you might expect, is different than the worldly view. And I chose this passage in 2

Corinthians as our final message for the morning of in 2021 because next year,

God willing, would be 2022, so we can look back on the year and judge it rightly, judge it by God's standards, by his metric, if you will.

And I do have to admit that I had an idea in mind, I had a topic in mind, which was what I just said, what I just explained to you, and I found a text for it rather than the normal way of expositing the text that Conley and I delve into, which is to go through a book in series.

But God willing, you'll see that this is a good way for us to end our morning services here in 2021.

And I do hope, as my prayer, that Paul's hymn of God's triumph in these few verses

I read will do just that, will give us the metric, will give us the right way to look back upon the year that is passing and the year that,

God willing, will come. So I'm gonna look at these verses, but I gotta tell you, I'm gonna go through them pretty quickly because my main purpose is to talk about what we've done in 2021.

What is the metric? Have we succeeded in anything or are we just wallowing in failure?

We have to look at this God's way, and I believe these verses will do that. The text divides into two portions pretty nicely.

First is verse 14 to the first part of verse 16, 14 to 16a, the triumphal procession.

And then in 16b to verse 17, we'll see that success is found in our integrity, our integrity according to the gospel.

See, success in the gospel ministry is the spread of the fragrance of life in Jesus Christ. How it is received is not the measure of success.

Rather, the metric Paul uses, the measure by which God judges, is that the aroma of Christ is spread abroad.

And this is just what we'll see here as we go through these verses, especially the first few, where it speaks about this fragrance of Christ that is being spread by the apostle

Paul. And by that, we'll note that he cries out triumph, success, eureka, we have landed.

And we need to analyze ourselves in accordance with how Paul does. There's a quick context of 2

Corinthians generally. It's largely a defense by Paul of his ministry. See, the

Corinthians had fallen under this spell of what are called false apostles, sometimes called super apostles.

These were eloquent men, these were impressive men, they were charismatic, they were convincing, and they drew men to themselves, which was, of course, the problem.

They drew men to themselves and not to Jesus Christ. They drew men to themselves, not to the

Lord. They drew men to man -made regulations that they could follow, not to freedom in Christ.

They drew men to themselves, the way rotting food draws flies. And these are the ones who are being held up against the apostle

Paul and say, well, we like these men who are eloquent and have all the right training and all the right credentials and they're just good to be around and all these things that would attract you in a fleshly, worldly sense.

Like Satan, who masquerades as an angel of light, they had all the look and the feel of true apostles, but only on the outside.

Their success had nothing to do with God's metric. And this is largely what 2 Corinthians is about and what drew me to this passage for my purpose this morning.

You see, these men lacked the marks of a true apostle. Therefore, even though their success would be grand in a worldly sense, from God's metric, it was nothing.

It was less than failure. So as we think about ourselves and how we want to measure success individually and especially as a church,

I wanna go through a quick summary of Paul's successes. Paul's successes, and keep in mind as I read this,

I'll go through them quickly, that Paul says, but thanks be to God who in Christ always, note the word always, leads us in triumphal procession.

Triumph, success. Here's what he says. Five times I received at the hands of the

Jews the 40 lashes less ones. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.

Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the sea, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

But thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, says that same apostle.

In Philippi he was arrested for having the audacity to have cast a demon out of a woman and ruined some men's income that was based upon her possession by that demon.

He was arrested, he was beaten by the lictors, he was thrown in jail and kept there in stocks.

But thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession. In Lystra they called him and Barnabas gods, they worshiped them, then they tried to kill them.

And what does the apostle Paul say? But thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.

Do you remember when he went to Jerusalem to fulfill his vow? And his very presence there caused such a riot that they had to call out the

Roman guard to quell the riot? And that began his journey to Rome, where tradition holds he was beheaded for the audacity of being a follower of Jesus Christ.

And what does that apostle say? But thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.

Romans 8, 39, for your sake we are killed all the day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered, triumphal procession.

In 1 Corinthians 4, 9 he says, for I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all like men sentenced to death because we have become a spectacle to the world to angels and to men.

He's last in the Roman victory parade, that's the picture he gives us here, behind the conquered royalty, after the defeated generals, and in trailing in the wake of the animals that were gathered, these exotic beasts that no one had ever seen before.

And so he's piling through what they leave behind. Last in the parade, good only to walk through that.

But thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.

That list that I gave you only begins his list of what we could call successes.

How does he call this a triumph? What metric would possibly allow a man as brilliant as the apostle

Paul, many commentators look back on him and say, man must have been a genius, in the literal sense.

And with that list of successes, he calls out triumph, by what measure?

By what standard? Are you telling me, Paul, that you listed these things out and you say, okay, if I'm last in the parade, check, accomplished what

I want. I need to get stoned and beaten these many times, check, check, check, success, of course not.

But the point is, the measure that God uses. How do we look at 2021?

How do we look as a church back upon the year that is passing away and forward to the next year by God's standards and so unlike the worldly standards?

You see who leads in that procession? Not the Roman general who won the battle or the campaign.

It's Christ. Thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.

It is Christ who went ahead and secured a victorious triumph. Jesus is the one who led captivity captive.

You can read of that in Ephesians 4, 8, where the apostle Paul quotes Psalm 68, 18, that he led captivity captive.

So it's thanks be to God who always leads us in Christ in this triumph.

To be in him is how the list of trials is transformed into glorious triumph.

This is how the apostle Paul could be last in the parade. This is how the apostle Paul could be beaten half to death.

This is how he can have enemies and dangers wherever he goes and opposition and rulers who want to kill him and peers who want to kill him.

Was his success because every time he showed up like a George Whitefield revival, hundreds and thousands of people would come just to hear him.

He'd go into a room and of course, he'd be bursting at the seams because so many people want to hear the great apostle Paul.

No, you know, if you read through the book of Acts, you find the only place where the numbers are given is early on when the gospel first goes forth from the apostles, mainly

Peter. We have 5 ,000 converted the first day and then 3 ,000 were added and numbers were added.

And with the apostle Paul, we don't get any of that. So no, it's not the pews got so filled that the church couldn't hold them all.

We had to add more room to it. No, it wasn't disciples flocking, say we must be around Paul and hear what he has to say.

He was rejected as much as was his savior. Yeah, he says, thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphant procession.

Procession. Think of how that would relate to our savior,

Jesus Christ. Our founder, whose Jesus was born to poor, insignificant parents, so poor that they couldn't find an inn as the hymn would, the

Christmas carols we have played a day or so ago. His followers were a bunch of bedraggled people, fishermen and misfits, a tax collector, a traitor to his people, as he would have been thought of, a zealot who became a traitor to our

Lord. Our savior, our founder was arrested and condemned to the disgrace of the cross where only the worst criminals would suffer for their crimes.

Jesus' only possible claim to worldly success in that sense might have been, it might have been that his tomb was donated by a wealthy man of status and prestige enough to approach

Pilate for his body. And yet, with all this, with all this metric before them, what does

Paul say? Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.

So these are not failures, when you read through that list that I did before. It's triumph, it's success, and how is it success?

It's success because of him who is leading us, it's Jesus Christ. It's success by the resurrection of the

Lord Jesus Christ. On the third day, after his victory on the cross, after he suffered and died for our sins,

God raised him up. It's triumph, it's triumph in Jesus Christ, it's triumph because by the cross and his resurrection, sin and death are defeated.

It's triumph, it's success because when God raised him from the dead, he certified that he would raise up those who are in him.

You who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That triumph that Jesus Christ secured and that God certified by the resurrection is our triumph.

And this is how the Apostle Paul can transform all these persecutions, all these trials, all these dangers, all this human disgrace and cry out success.

Triumph, we did it. Our triumph is as God leads us in Christ.

For our part, we read, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one, a fragrance of death to death, the other, a fragrance of life to life.

You see, our metric of success is not the numbers who come to Christ, though we pray for numbers.

It's not the church pews being filled, though we pray for that. As we faithfully proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ as best we can, we do pray that more and more souls will be here to hear it.

That sinners would hear the gospel and come to faith by the hearing of the word. That saints would come closer to the image of Jesus Christ.

But what is the metric of success? What does God look for when, by his spirit, he inspired the

Apostle Paul to crawl out this triumph as he's at the disgraceful end of the parade? It's the fragrance of Christ.

It's putting forth the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's proclaiming salvation in the name of God because of the work of his son,

Jesus Christ. The King James Version adds, in its translation, the words leading to, death leading to death, where the fragrance of death leading to death and life leading to life.

The gospel is proclaimed in words, but it's really more than words. Deuteronomy 32, 47,

Moses tells Israel that the word of God is no empty word, but your very life. 1

John 1, verse one, Jesus calls himself the word of life. It's not just words, it's life that we're proclaiming.

And rejection and disgrace and ridicule we can't call those failures unless the

Apostle Paul was wrong. He says we are the fragrance of Christ.

We're the fragrance of death to some, we're the fragrance of life to others. This fragrance, we need to think about this for a moment, what the

Apostle Paul is saying here. You know, when I was a kid, I learned from my grandpa Harry, my mom's dad, how to shine shoes.

I think I mentioned to him before, he was a career master sergeant in the army. He had all the stripes, and he taught me how to shine shoes.

And he was a guy, he could go all day in Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada, where he retired, and when he got up in the morning, tuck in his shirt and crisped his pants, he'd go through that whole hot day in the desert, and at the end of the day, his shirt was still perfectly tucked in and crisp.

He was a master sergeant. He's the one who taught me how to shine shoes. Well, this is going somewhere. I was really proud to be the family shoe shiner.

My parents used to go out for nice, fancy dinners when I was a kid, and I would shine the shoes before they left.

And when they left, my mom would give me a hug, because she wore perfume. My dad would shake my hand and thank me for the shoes, which were spit shine, military grade polished, and I would have that aroma on me.

And my mom's perfume, where she had hugged me goodbye, my dad's cologne in my hand. They do the same thing with my brother and my sister, but it meant two different things.

You see, to my sister, it made her sad, because she would have that fragrance that reminded her of mom and dad, and she'd be worried, where are they?

How long are they gonna be gone? Why aren't they here? And to me, I would smell that, I would remember that, and it meant they were pleased with me because of the offering that I gave them in their spit shine, military gleam shoes.

It was pleasing to them. So the fragrance is one in the same fragrance and it's received two different ways.

And here the Apostle Paul says, we are the aroma of Christ to those who are being saved and to those who are perishing.

Do you notice it's one aroma, it's one perfume, it's one fragrance, it's all of Christ.

What does this have to do with this triumph in the Lord, this metric of success? You see, our success, as we might judge it, our metric, is not in the reception of the gospel.

We all know as conservative, biblicist, reformed believers, that's up to God. Our part is to proclaim that gospel.

Our part is to live out that gospel. Our part is to be the fragrance of Christ to whomever is around us, be it family, be it friends, whatever that sphere of influence is.

And some are going to smell that fragrance, hear that word of God, and by the hearing of the word,

God will incite faith within them, give them faith to believe. That's the fragrance of life.

Others will reject and say, that's a stench to me. No, that's my dad's cologne, it smells great.

No, I can't stand that smell. Get that thing away from me. How do we measure success?

How did the Apostle Paul measure success? He had no great numbers around him. He had only these rejections, these trials, these persecutions.

The success is in the proclamation. The success, the metric by which

God measures it, as have you testified of his son, Jesus Christ? Yes.

Was it rejected? No matter. Did you spray the fragrance of Christ into the room?

That's where God calls out triumph. God is the fragrance of life.

You read in 2 Kings 13, beginning of verse 20, how Elisha took death from the pot.

You remember they said, oh, master, there's death in the pot, and he took care of that, and the pot gave life, it gave nutrition.

God is the fragrance of life. He healed the

Shunammite's son, brought him back to life. Well, there's one fragrance to everyone.

However it's received, we cannot say, therefore, I have succeeded, or I have failed, because it's not about the

I, it's not about the you, it's about Jesus Christ, and proclaiming his gospel.

So the fragrance of Christ, some know it to bring life, others can't wait to wash it off and ignore it.

Some of you have heard that fragrant gospel, and have been trying ever since to be rid of the aroma.

You're like Lady Macbeth, where she says, out, damn spot. But it lingers, oh, you poor sinner, it lingers.

And wherever it lingers, smell it as the aroma of life. Have you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ? Have you heard the call to repent of your sin, and put your faith, and trust, and hope in him?

That's the aroma of Christ. Well, let it linger, don't wash it off.

Don't put those clothes in the laundry so that the aroma will be done away with. Think about it, let that aroma permeate you.

It's one fragrance to everyone, it's one Lord, it's one gospel, it's one God who secured our salvation in his

Christ. This word fragrance, a very special term, it's used six times in the

New Testament. Only six times, five of them by Paul, and once in John chapter 12, verse three. And each time it has a special meaning.

And each time that it's used, we can call it triumph, we can call it success. Philippians 4 .18,

Paul tells the Philippians that their support of him was a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

Ephesians 5 .2 is about Jesus' sacrifice. Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

In John chapter 12, verse three, when Mary anointed Jesus, the fragrance filled the room and Jesus said, she did this for my burial, she anointed me with that for my burial.

And we have it here in 2 Corinthians 2 .14, it's once and 2 .16 is twice, all referring to the gospel that Paul proclaimed.

It's used many more times. And generally in this context of the

Old Testament sacrifices, the incense of the burnt offerings. But even before all that, just one more

I want to mention. I want to lock in your minds this idea of the fragrance of Christ and how putting that forth is what we must call triumph and success.

That's got to be our metric. In Genesis chapter eight, verse 21, when the floods had receded, we read, and when the

Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, now this is Noah's burnt offering, when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the

Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth, neither will

I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. It was a pleasing aroma.

You know, King James says it was a soothing aroma because when he smelled that sacrifice, that burnt offering that Noah gave after God's anger had been poured out in the floods and all mankind, except for Noah and his eight sons, or Noah and his three sons, the eight souls were saved.

They smelled that offering come up to heaven. It was a soothing, a pleasing aroma to him.

That's the same word we have here, that fragrance. This is the fragrance of your gospel witness.

This is the fragrance of this church's gospel witness. The triumph of gospel ministry is not in its reception.

Only God knows those whom he has chosen to believe. The triumph of our gospel ministry is in our gospel proclamation.

That's why Paul bursts into this hymn of victorious praise of God who always leads him in triumph. Stonings, he says triumph.

Beatings, he says triumph. Imprisoned, he says triumph because the gospel went forth.

We tell the good news of salvation in Christ when your parents reject you, when your friends abandon you.

You have every reason by the metric that God uses to say success.

Not just success, but triumphant success. God is triumphant as he leads us in Christ.

Unless that is, unless that is our failures such as we call them are enough to negate the triumph of the cross itself, which would be absurd.

Proclamation, putting forth that fragrance of gospel of life in Jesus Christ is triumph.

That is success. Success is found in our integrity.

In 16a, he says who is sufficient for these things? For we are not like so many, peddlers of God's word, but men of sincerity as commissioned by God in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

So who indeed, who is sufficient for such a gospel as this? Paul at the back of the parade going through all the stuff that those animals left behind being jeered by the crowds are not even worth jeering at.

He's so far back in that victory parade. Who is sufficient to stand for such a

God as our God, who sent such a savior as our Jesus as he walks through that, having been stoned and beaten and so forth, and now at the back of the parade as he sees it.

Who's sufficient for such an honor as that? Who's sufficient to stand there after all he endured and say triumph, who can do that?

2 Corinthians chapter three verse four, he begins to answer such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God who has made us sufficient to be ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit.

For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. What does this mean to us as a church?

Have you ever wondered, we look and we have so much room in these pews, do you say we're a failure church? We better not.

This is not the way God would do it or view it. This is not the metric that he uses.

When we distribute food in Jesus's name, when we can hardly even mention him to some people because they leave so quickly, when all they see is us praying and singing hymns in worship of our savior before we pick up that rope and let them come in and get the food, which is a blessing to us and God willing to them, when the employees at the abortion mills hate us and deride us and use foul language against us, if it is all for the gospel's sake, if it is all the fragrance of Christ and the gospel of life in him, what do we say?

Triumph, success, God's triumph in the success of his son, Jesus Christ. Not our triumph, not our success, but God's success.

He gets all the glory and all the credit for it. You see, it's the fragrance of Christ that permeates.

Some smell it as a stench. To them, it is death leading to death leading to death. If you're one like that,

I plead with you again. Smell that fragrance for what it is, it's the fragrance of life to life to life to life.

Believe this gospel and repent. Believe this gospel that Jesus Christ died for your sins and that God raised him up on the third day and you will be saved.

Believe this gospel and participate in Jesus Christ's triumph over sin and death in the world.

And God certified it by raising him up and he will raise you up. Even as Pastor Owens taught through the catechism, we'll all be resurrected.

We'll all be raised up and stand before God. One resurrection will be disgraceful.

Death leading to death leading to death. Smelling that beautiful aroma of God's salvation in Christ Jesus as a stench.

And there'll be a resurrection to life leading to life leading to life. With that aroma of the gospel salvation in Christ is a beautiful fragrance, like nothing else that you ever smelled or experienced in your life.

And God gives you faith to believe this gospel. A couple of things we need to know here.

It's one in the same fragrance of one in the same Lord and one and only one gospel.

How it is received does not change what it is. Whether it brings salvation or becomes one more piece of evidence against those who reject it has no bearing on the quality of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Nor has it bearing on whether we can say triumph or not. Because God says through the apostle

Paul, the triumph is in the proclamation. The triumph is in living it out.

In spreading this word. And then the end of verse 16 and verse 17, in integrity, not being a peddler of the word, not having any motive of any kind other than the glory of Jesus Christ.

Not peddling it for any purpose, not peddling it for satisfying my ego, not peddling it because I set up a metric because I think these things will show success.

It's what the scripture says is success, which is to proclaim, oh, we want the pews filled.

And we want to have measures by which we look and say, did we accomplish these gospel things that we said we're going to try and do?

And we work hard on having godly measures, metrics, if you will. So, but we must always keep in mind what

God says the true metric is. What is that pleasing aroma that rises up to God?

It's when the aroma of his son, Jesus Christ, that beautiful fragrance is proclaimed. So we do strive for excellence, this is the second thing.

We strive for clarity, we strive for numbers, numbers of people to hear this God -soothing fragrance. And while we do set forth these metrics, these measures to assess ourselves, the fragrance of our offering, as it is the fragrance of Christ's self -offering, is pleasing to God.

His metric is that we do proclaim. His pleasure is found in sinners hearing about his love in his son.

And if they reject it, and they smell it as a bad odor, they answer for that.

But it's one and the same beautiful, fragrant gospel. So what about 2021?

And this metric, which we've gone so quickly through, this triumph, thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.

And through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. Do you feel like you're at the front of a parade with the drum major and the great hymns of triumph, and you're calling out success?

Well, let's look at this year that's gone past, just so quickly. You know, many churches, some churches in the organization that we're part of,

FIRE, the Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals, have been struck by the

COVID virus, some harder than others, some have lost some people, some pastors have fallen to it. Many churches have blown up over COVID of all things, to blow up over masks and vaccinations and distancing and conspiracies and good signs and junk signs and all these things.

God has kept us together. We've had our little disturbances here and there.

None of them have been major. Conley and I have not been able to try and tamp them down.

That sounds sort of manipulative. We've been able to talk them through with good biblical sense.

And God has given us unity of spirit, has given us the ability to accommodate all manners of sensitivity.

And so here we are, we few, as King Henry said, we happy few, and still worshiping together, and still singing the hymns together, and still serving together.

Does the world look in and notice? Makes no difference. We're together.

And we've gotten through this by God's grace and by good biblical sense. So what do we call out?

And thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.

There's social movements that started in the last year and a half or so. We all know what they are. They've torn some churches apart, literally.

Splits and anger and people yelling at each other, and churches have just completely collapsed. And here we are, we're adding members.

God willing, in a few moments, if I can finish this sermon, we'll hear from a prospective member.

Triumph is Christ's. Here we are on Saturday, serving food to the hungry. Do they hear the gospel?

Well, they do see us praying. They do hear us singing hymns of praise to Jesus Christ. They do know at some level that this is in the name of our

Savior, Jesus Christ, because of the love of God that sent him to us. At some level they know that.

Has anybody fallen down in repentance and asked Jesus into their heart, as it's said? Makes no difference.

Because we're standing on Jesus's name. We're standing on the streets on behalf of the yet to be born.

We're yelled at, we're derided, we're sworn at, foul language, almost violence. Is that failure?

Well, if you're driving along the street, you might look at it and say, what are these loony tunes doing? We're spreading the aroma of Christ.

And God leads us in triumphal procession just by this proclamation of his name and standing for him.

Our counseling ministry is helping people find gospel answers to their dilemmas. And so here we are.

After such a rugged year as 2021 has been, we continue to gather together each

Sunday. We continue to hear the gospel. The Lord's table is administered each

Sunday. You see, the fragrance of Christ, I believe, is in this place. It is in wives who forego careers to nurture their home.

It is in wives who forego nurturing their home in order to help supply the family's needs. It is in the faithful support of our ministry through labors and donations that everybody gives.

It is you who are in the background pitching in where it is needed. This fragrance of Christ wafts through here every time one of us has victory over besetting sin and carries just a bit more of Jesus' image in here with them.

We've committed to clarifying our doctrines, which is essentially the 1689. As we announced this morning, we have a family that's graduated from our 1689 class, orientation classes have been held all year.

The doctrine of the Lord's return has been preached from the pulpit and taught in our home groups. We have a team that is working towards more consistent personal contact with our missionaries.

The world would look at this and say, get to the back of the parade. Who's interested in that stuff?

I have one answer for you. God is. And as these things are done in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ, so sometimes they're faltering, sometimes we're stammering, sometimes we're falling all over ourselves because we don't quite know how to do what we're trying to do, but we do it in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ. We proclaim his gospel. That's the fragrance of life leading to life to those who will hear it for what it is.

The fragrance of death leading to death for the others. And yet one in the same fragrance and a pleasing aroma to God.

How do you measure success? By what metric are you gonna look back on 2021 and judge yourself?

By what metric are we gonna judge the church? O 'Connell and I have put together some measures and we hold to those because we don't wanna hit the target every time because we aimed at nothing.

We wanna aim at something for the gospel of Jesus Christ. But let's always keep in mind that the world could look down their collective noses at us, yet we look with the eyes of Christ.

We look with his eyes. And where he is proclaimed, we have every right and every biblical cause to join the

Apostle Paul and say, with all these things that the world would look upon, say, yeah,

I wanna join that, right? Because we're calling out triumph because the triumph is God's in Christ, because it's

God who's leading us in Christ in triumphal procession. And that port word,

I'll read it one more time. But thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.

How are we gonna look at 2021? As the Apostle Paul did. Are we at the back of the parade?

No matter, cry out your triumph. Proclaim your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Be that aroma wherever you are.

As we are in this church, that is success. That is what Paul calls success.

That is why Paul could go through all the things he did and still call out the triumph of God in his son,