Sunday Sermon: I Believed and So I Spoke (2 Corinthians 4:13-15)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a New Testament book.

On Thursday is our Old Testament study, and then we answer questions from listeners on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the letters to the Corinthians.

This is the sermon that was preached last week from our pulpit. Here's Pastor Gabe.

The Treasure in Jars of Clay and the Light of Christ

In honor of the word of the King, would you please stand. Second Corinthians chapter four, starting in verse seven. The apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

We are afflicted in every way, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are persecuted, but not forsaken. We're struck down, but we're not destroyed. We're always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, I believed and so I spoke.

We also believe and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Let us pray. Our wonderful God and Savior, we thank you for bringing us into your presence, access to the very throne of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, our access to God.

By his death on the cross, the curtain was torn that separated the holy of holies from the rest of the temple. So now it's not just the high priest that enters in once a year, but any day, any time, any moment, we can come into the presence of God and we know that our prayers are received by God because we have a great high priest in heaven interceding for us, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so even as we come today, we come not as orphans, but as those who have been adopted into your family. We come as those who have not been forsaken, but we have been remembered because of your grace and love and consideration.

We know that our hearts are being searched and we are known, and we know you because of this grace that you have shown us. This is love, not that we have loved God, but that you first loved us and gave your son to be the sacrifice for our sins.

So whatever our needs, whatever our cares or concerns this morning, I pray that we all know that in Christ Jesus, our prayers are heard and they are answered. We thank you for bringing Jared back home again safely, and we pray for our other soldiers that are still deployed, that they would know your perfect peace and comfort in Christ.

It's such a wonderful thing to see Ramon here today, even for the little bit of time that he's here with his family, and I pray that you continue to give healing to Casey as you strengthen the Donahoe family.

And may we as a body of Christ be an encouragement to one another, strengthening each other as we are able, encouraging one another with our words as fits the occasion. May we be encouraged by the word of Christ this morning.

In Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people said, amen.

Thank you.

You may be seated. So again, I come back to the verse that we read in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, a couple of weeks ago, and we repeated again last week, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

We've come to a knowledge of God. We've come to love God. We've come to know his son, Jesus Christ, because the gospel was proclaimed to us and because we heard it and we believed. And we talk more about that again today in the section that we will be covering from verses 13 to 15.

And each one of these verses, 13, 14, and 15 are going to be kind of their own point to the sermon this morning. So I've got my three-point sermon already laid out for me. It's in verse 13, we read, I believed and so I spoke.

In verse 14, the apostle Paul says that we know he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. So my second point is going to be, I believed and so I was raised.

And then the third point we find in verse 15, for it is all for your sake that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. So point three is going to be, I believed and so I am thankful.

Faith, Confession, and the Order of Salvation

Let's look again at verse 13. Paul says, since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what has been written. We don't believe different religions in this room. We're not following different spirits.

We are in one spirit. As Paul clarifies in Ephesians chapter four, we have one God and father of us all who is over all and through all and in all. We worship by that one spirit, the Holy Spirit that is within our hearts.

If we are in Christ, my friends, my brothers and sisters, there is no division in this.

Room.

There is nothing that divides us. Skin color does not divide us. Interest does not divide us. Political party does not divide us. We may even have Republicans and God bless you, Democrats in this room, but political party is not reason for division, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.

We have people in this room who have come from so many different states and backgrounds and ethnicities. What a blessing it is to serve in this community, Junction City, where we have Fort Riley right next door, and because of the army, God has brought so many different people to this time and place that we are in.

But it matters not where we have come from. Matters not who we are descended from. It does matter where we are going, for we are led to the same place together in the spirit of God in Christ Jesus. And that place we are being led to, we read about or we sang about this morning, we're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion, the beautiful city of God.

We came from so many different places, but we're all heading to the same place if we are in Christ Jesus, sealed for the day of redemption, as Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter one, in the Holy Spirit of God.

We have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written. And as we read in Romans 15, four, what has been written in former days was written for our instruction so that through the scriptures we may have hope.

It is from what has been written down by the prophets in the Old Testament and the apostles who gave us the New Testament that we would know the gospel of God that has the power to save for all who believe.

We have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written. And then Paul says, I believed and so I spoke in your Bible. You have that in quotation marks for he's quoting from Psalm 116, and we will go there in just a moment.

I believed and so I spoke. We also believe. And so we also speak. You speak the word of God and the glory of God and the name of Christ and the hope of the gospel because you believe it. And understand me clearly when I say that.

You don't believe it because you said it. You say it because you believe it. That make sense? There is a wrong teaching that has come about in the church over the last several decades, more so in the 20th century than any other century of the church.

And that is the idea that if you confess, you are saved. And we've come to that understanding because of something that was written to us in Romans.

10.

And it is a misunderstanding of something Paul said to the Romans in Romans 10, starting in verse 8. What does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim.

Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

There are those who have taken verse 9 by itself and have missed what Paul clarified in verse 10. The reason why you spoke what you spoke is because you believed it in your heart. Just because the confession came out of your mouth does not make you saved.

You make the confession because salvation had been given you by God, which you had in your heart because you heard the gospel and turned from sin and believed upon his name. There are many who will say that if you pray this prayer, you will be saved.

Folks, a prayer does not save you any more than saying, I am the president of the United States makes you the president of the United States. Positive confession does not bring about reality. It is God who has given his grace through Jesus Christ.

It is God who has given us faith and a spirit of repentance, as we read about in 2 Timothy 2 25. It is God who does this, and as we read last week, this is to boast not in ourselves, but to show the surpassing power of God, this treasure that we carry in jars of clay.

We are but earthen vessels wasting away and will ultimately be destroyed in these bodies, but it is the power of God that resides in us through the gospel that we heard that endures.

To the end.

And we likewise will be raised from the dead if we believe that gospel. If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That is indeed true, but do not miss the order for with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

In Luke chapter 9, Jesus said, if you are ashamed of me and my words, I will be ashamed of you before the Father on the day of judgment. And so it's not simply enough to say, I believe in Jesus and I love him, if you don't also love his words.

This past Friday on the podcast, my wife and I, who do the Friday edition together, we take questions from the listeners and respond to them on Friday, and someone had asked about that passage in Luke 9, where Jesus said, if you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before the Father.

And I clarified there, notice that Jesus says, if you are ashamed of me and my words, for there are many people who proclaim faith in Jesus Christ, but they do not know the Jesus of the Bible. They do not care for the words that he actually spoke in the Bible.

What they have an idea of is that Jesus is probably no different than Gandhi. And so many people will confess Jesus as a name, but not actually know him because they don't know his words. And one of the things I clarified is we're doing this podcast together and I'm sitting there right next to my wife, I said, if I say that I love my wife, but I can't stand it when she talks to me, I don't really love my wife.

And Becky added, that's true, I'm not feeling the love over here. If you don't, if you don't love what it is that I say, how can you truly say that you love somebody if you can't stand talking to them or hearing them talk to you?

And so through prayer, we speak to God and through his word, he speaks to us and loving God means that we will love his word. Furthermore, loving God means that we will obey his word. John 14, 15, Jesus saying to his disciples, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

So if we say we love God, we do what it is that God has said for us to do. But again, do not miss the order. First comes faith and repentance, and then comes confession and doing. Doing does not bring about salvation for it is not by our works that we are saved, not of works, lest no man should boast, Ephesians 2, 9.

It is the work of God that brings us to salvation. And then the works that we do confirm the salvation that we have received in Christ. When you speak the words of God, when you show that you love God and his word, when you do the things that he has told you to do, you show that you're no longer clothed in the filthy rags of this decrepit world, but you have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ and you wear his name.

And so doing the things that Jesus did since we've been clothed in his righteousness, this is an outward confession of the inward change that has taken place through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And still many go on believing and saying that there's a certain series of words that you must say in order to be saved.

Now, do not get me wrong. If you have prayed a prayer and that was the beginning of your walk of faith, I don't have any reason to say that you were not saved in that moment that you prayed that prayer.

But praying the prayer didn't save you. You prayed the prayer you prayed because you were saved. It was perhaps one of the first things that happened to you in your walk of faith to display the change that had happened in your heart.

And so you confess before God. God, I am a wretched, rotten sinner, worthy of death. Have mercy on me, oh Lord. And the scriptures say to us that if we ask God for forgiveness, he is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

When we read that in 1 John 1 .9, he is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What does it mean that he is just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness? It means the debt that you owe God because of your sin has been paid.

It's been paid by Christ. We understand about redemption in scripture. God doesn't merely expunge your sins. Do you know what I mean by that? It's not like God had gone to a blackboard and written all of your sins on the blackboard.

Who wants that, by the way? All of the sins you've done, here they are up on this board. Do you want everybody to see that? How about just the sins you've done today? The stuff you've thought in your mind, the ways that your flesh have betrayed the intention of your spirit.

If all of those things were written up here on the board, we would be truly embarrassed.

And ashamed.

But God does not merely go with an eraser and erase all those sins and go, eh, there.

You go.

It's all taken care of. I just erased them and they're all done. And what he does is he takes a big stamp as though all of those sins that are listed on that board were a debt. And he takes a big stamp that says paid in full and there he stamps it and it's paid for and you owe nothing because Christ has paid your debt.

So God doesn't merely expunge your sins. He expiates them, meaning that Jesus Christ has atoned for your sins by his blood on the.

Cross.

So whoever believes in him, the debt has been nailed to the cross, as Paul puts it in Colossians, and the debt has been paid. And we stand before God triumphant over sin and death because of the victory of Christ.

And when that has happened for you, you confess your sins before God and you are forgiven. He's faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then you in your heart with a passion for God will follow him for the rest of your.

Life.

No longer returning to the sinfulness that you were in before you confessed your sins before God. But walking brand new as a child of God and desiring to be a worthy son or daughter of.

God.

Yet, there has been a teaching that has come about since the end of the 19th century and all throughout the 20th century that praying a certain prayer will make you saved. There was a man that was in this church a number of years ago who believed that he was saving people when he went out into the community and had them repeat a prayer.

And no matter what happened to them from that point on, he declared them saved as long as they prayed this prayer. And I couldn't get him to understand. I tried to help him understand, but he couldn't understand.

We're not wizards. We're not teaching people to recite magic words. And if they repeat these magic words, then they go from being a child of hell to a child.

Of heaven.

That's not the way that it works. Because otherwise, we just strap people down and spell some words out on a card and say, here, repeat this. We're not going to let you go until you say it. And then once they've said it, they go, there, you're saved.

Now you're free to go. Whatever happens to you from this point on doesn't matter because at least you've said.

The words.

This received the height of popularity during the Billy Graham Crusades. And I want to be very, very careful as I address this because my grandmother was saved at the Billy Graham Crusade. She was standing in the choir at the Billy Graham Crusade.

And when she heard Billy Graham preach the gospel, she was cut to the heart and realized, I'm not a Christian. And she was the only one of the droves of people that came down front at the Billy Graham Crusade.

She was the only one that stepped out of the choir. That had to be pretty awkward for her. But she knew that she needed Christ. And it was there at a Billy Graham Crusade that she heard the gospel with her heart for the very first time and believed it and was saved.

And so there are indeed millions of people as a result of Billy Graham who came to saving faith in Christ. I read one estimate after Billy Graham passed away a couple of months ago. I read one estimate that he preached to over a billion people in his lifetime.

Can you imagine that?

But one of the things that the Billy Graham Crusades contributed to, as great as it is that there were indeed millions of people that came to Christ through those crusades, there were hundreds of millions more that were led to a false understanding.

That as long as they prayed this prayer, they were saved. And research and study was done even by the Billy Graham Organization that confirmed that five years after attending one of those crusades, less than two to three percent of people were even attending a church at all.

So there was some sort of confession with their mouths, but they believed that's all they needed to do. And there was then no understanding that a life had to change. It's not just something that you said in a moment, but repentance and faith are ongoing in the life of a believer.

This was something that Jonathan Edwards and his friend George Whitfield used to argue over. George Whitfield was a traveling evangelist, and he had tens of thousands of people that would come listen to him, just like there were tens of thousands of people that came to listen to Billy Graham.

What made George Whitfield's voice more incredible than Billy Graham's is he didn't need amplification or a sound system, apparently, because there wasn't any during that time that he was doing his evangelism.

But he and Jonathan Edwards would argue over whether or not Whitfield was actually doing anything good with the messages that he proclaimed, or if Edwards' work was better because he's feeding the flock of God in the church that they are committed to.

And so these two individuals would have conversations about that very thing. But we come to understand from the scriptures that true faith in Christ doesn't happen in a moment and then never appears in the life of that person again.

But it is something that happens, that that moment becomes a starting point that continues in the life of a believer until the day they die. For Jesus said to his disciples, he who endures to the end will be saved, not he who had a passing opinion in a moment of his life.

So again, Paul says, we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written. I believed and so I spoke. We also believe and so we also speak. And again, Paul is quoting there from Psalm 116.

And what we read in Psalm 116 is this. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed and so I spoke.

I am greatly afflicted. I said in my alarm, all mankind are liars. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

When you see that in context, what Paul is quoting from, from Psalm 116, you see how this also applies to the context of what we've been reading in 2 Corinthians, that God comforts us in all our affliction.

And so as David is praying here, I am afflicted and yet I believed. I said in my alarm, all mankind are liars. What shall I render to the Lord for everything that he has benefited me with? All the comforts he has given me and all my afflictions.

I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. And I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all of his people. I will speak because I believe. I believed and so I spoke.

The Resurrection of Christ and the Believer's Hope

The next point, point number two, comes in the next verse. Verse 14, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. When we started this series in chapter one and we went through a trilogy of sermons, the first of those sermons was that God is the God of all comforts and the second of those sermons was God is a God who raises the dead.

And so here we have Paul saying that again. We know by our belief, our faith, according to what has been written, that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

So here Paul is saying it's not just about me. I'm not just talking about the reward that I get. You get this reward and we will be together forever with God in heaven. As we are saying goodbye to Adam and Amy this morning, one of the points that Adam brought up is that if we don't see each other again on this side of heaven, we will see each other again in glory.

God will raise us all together in Christ, we who believe on his name. In 2 Kings 4, we read a story about Elisha, the successor of Elijah's ministry, who raised a woman's son from the dead, the Shunammite woman.

This was a woman who was barren, had no children. Elisha told her she was going to be with child, and she and her husband conceived and they had a son. But as that son grew up and got older, he was out in the field one day and he said, oh my head, my head, and the father said to his servant, carry him to his mother, and when they had lifted him and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died.

Can you imagine that? A child dying in your arms. A child that you did not have and had no hope of having until a prophet told you you were going to be with child, and then she has this child whom she loves, who was given to her by God, and then God took the child away.

And so the Shunammite woman traveled a great distance to find Elisha and basically say that very thing. How did you promise me this child and suddenly this child has been taken away from me? And so Elisha, seeing the faith of the Shunammite woman and her mournfulness to God for mercy, followed her back to her home and found the boy who had been dead for some time.

Laying on the bed.

And Elisha stretched himself out over the boy. And doing so, life was breathed back into him, and the boy came back to life by the mercy and the grace of God. This story that we read in 2 Kings 4 is meant to point us to the resurrection of Christ that we all are going to receive if we believe in Him.

We will all receive the resurrection on that day in glory. But there are people who will take this story and they will moralize it. They'll make it a story about how, you know, if your hopes and dreams have not happened the way that you wanted them to.

Well, if you just believe in God, your hopes and dreams will be like that dead boy, and God will just raise that dead boy back up to life again. And there are names that come to my mind, even as I'm recalling them.

I've heard teachers use this story and say that very thing. If things aren't going well in your family right now, well, your family is like that dead boy, and if you just believe, God's going to raise that boy back up to life.

If your job's not going well for you, your job's died like that little boy has died, well, you just believe, and you pray and ask God for mercy, and He's going to raise that little boy back up to life again.

See, the problem with that kind of teaching is it just simply does not go far enough. It takes something that's meant to point to the resurrection of Christ, the resurrection over the grave, which there is nothing greater than that, and it takes it and whittles it down into something simple and pragmatic that actually may not happen for you.

However much you believe, you still may never get your job back. However much you believe, you still may never get the hopes and dreams that you want. However much you believe, maybe your family will stay in disarray for the rest of your life.

So when people preach that way, they're promising something that you may never actually get. But we are promised this, that if we believe in Christ, you will rise from the dead. I don't stutter, and I don't have any second guesses about that.

It will happen for you. And how much greater is that than having all the hopes and dreams you want? I mean, Jesus said, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet forfeits his soul?

So you can have the moralistic story where you make the little Shunammite woman's son your hopes and dreams, which you never actually get, but if you did get them, you would never have the eternal life, which is truly what's promised in the story.

That's meant to point us to Christ who raises the dead. And my friends, there are people in this room who will go through things far worse than I will ever have to experience in this life. And what would I be withholding from you if I sat with you in your time of mourning and I said, oh, just believe and God will raise that dead thing in your life from the grave.

All I can do is remind you of the gospel and that no matter how bad things get, we have this promise. This isn't the end. We will be together forever in a place of glory where there is no more sorrow, no more tears, no more crying, no more pain, because the former things will have passed away.

And Jesus goes on in the book of Revelation to say, behold, I am making all things new. This is our hope. This is our confidence. And so let us not reduce ourselves to shallow teaching and belief. Shallow teaching leads to shallow belief.

Dustin Benz, who's a graduate, just received his doctorate this year, if memory serves correctly, from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He said the following, shallow theology leads to shallow preaching, leads to shallow worship, leads to shallow teaching, leads to shallow counseling, leads to shallow ministry, leads to shallow lives.

It is the hope of the gospel of the resurrection of the dead that we have in Christ Jesus. And if we know that Christ Jesus can raise the dead, then he can bring us through absolutely anything. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8, 1, I believed and so I spoke. I believed and so I was raised, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring you into his presence. And verse 15, for it is all for your sake.

It is all for your sake, Paul says, that we say the things that we say, that we go through the things that we go through, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

Thanksgiving, Joy, and the Wedding Feast of the Lamb

The last point being, I believed and so I am thankful. I believe and so I spoke. A confession of that belief. I believed and because of faith, I am raised from the dead in Christ. And because I know I am raised from the dead in Christ, I am thankful.

No matter what comes my way, no matter what I may go through, I am thankful to God in Christ Jesus, my Lord. In Philippians chapter 4, we read the following, Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice.

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. That's a promise that I can give you. Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

The God of peace will be with you. I don't know if you heard or not, but yesterday there was a wedding. I think you would have had to have been completely cut off from the outside world for the last several weeks to not know about this wedding.

An estimated 1 .9 billion people on planet Earth tuned in to watch the royal wedding that took place at Windsor Castle yesterday between Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and his new bride, something Merkel.

Anybody remember the name? I heard... Just Amy speaks. Megan, there we go. Megan Markle, right?

Okay.

American actress. Shows you how much I keep up with pop culture. But anyway, as you can expect, it was a fairytale wedding. I mean, it was a huge, lavish wedding. What else would you expect from a royal wedding at Windsor Castle?

Megan wore a diamond tiara.

Diamonds.

In her tiara. There's probably a million bucks or more on her head. She wore a custom tailored dress, of course, with a 16-foot veil. They came to the wedding in a horse-drawn carriage. They left in a 1968 Jaguar that had been converted to electric.

There were all kinds of celebrity guests that were there, of course. 100 ,000 spectators in person, not to mention the nearly 2 billion people that were watching online or on TV. There was a cake, a wedding cake, that was worth more than I have ever made in one year of my life.

The wedding cake. And, of course, that goes without saying, it was a wedding in a castle, of all places. This was an incredibly huge, lavish, gorgeous fairytale wedding. And expensive. Thank you very much, Annie.

As a father of three daughters, I'm especially aware of that aspect of any wedding. But as lavish and as gorgeous and as broad and as amazing and as wonderful and dreamy as that wedding was, it does not even compare to the wedding feast of the Lamb that we will all be participants of on the day of glory in Christ Jesus.

My friends, you may go through some serious hurts and trials in your life. I tell you to take heart and cling to Christ, for those moments will end. But the moment that we experience on the wedding day of Christ Jesus will endure forever with Him in glory.