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Turn with me please to 2nd Corinthians chapter 2, will be our location of our study this evening. There are certain smells that all of us are familiar with, there are certain scents and smells that mean certain things, the holidays just passed for example and so possibly, certainly one smell that I think of all through my life is the smell of turkey and dressing.
Sorry about that if you haven't had dinner yet, but turkey and dressing, and it automatically brings many thoughts to my mind, and a field of grass, this is not something we know much about here in Arizona, but a field of grass, maybe if you go to a golf course after a rain storm or in our case after fresh irrigation, has a special scent to it, it does not work for a rock lawn, not the same thing at all, I can assure you of that.
There are certain scents that we smell, for example there's a certain, it's not really a perfume, I guess it's an essential oil or something, it's called China Rain. I don't know how in the world I stumbled across this stuff, but I cannot help but smile when I smell China Rain, I don't know why, it's just so very pleasing to me, it's just a scent I really, really like, and when I smell it I just smile.
There are certain scents like that, but then there are other kinds of scents, we generally don't use the term scent for them, we use in English the term smell, or maybe odor, or something like that. I remember as a young boy, we lived in a farmhouse, we did not run the farm, someone else ran the farm, but we lived in a 105 year old farmhouse, and most of you know that's how I got this wonderful scar here, as I had gone down to the barn to visit a pig that we had, we had been given it as a little piglet, and it was very cute when it was a piglet, but just like with kittens, guess what happens in the passage of time?
Kittens become cats, puppies become dogs, and this had become a big, mean, ugly fowl, and I had gone down to, we had named it Princess, which was no longer at all appropriate at the time of its full growth, and it was very mean, and I had to stay away from it, but I, it scared me a lot, but I was running back to the farmhouse from having seen Princess, not knowing that the farmhand had pulled in and had a 12 foot long blade for a combine, one of these 12 foot long, freshly sharpened blades to a combine, hanging out the back of his car in the trunk, and I didn't see it, and I was running with my head down looking at the wonder, I still remember this day, it's amazing, the wonderful patterns that gravel and rock make when you're running at a high speed, and I ran straight into that farm sickle, that's a blade, and that's how I got this little thing here, and ended up at a hospital, and so on and so forth, so as my mom said many, many times, it's good you were not looking a little bit farther up, or a little bit farther down, if it had to hit any place, that was a good place for it to hit, but all of that to say that I do remember that there were certain scents and odors in that farmhouse that were not like China rain in any way, shape, or form, and there are just certain smells that just, you know, we say man, it smells like something crawled in there and died, and that means it's a horrible, horrible scent, well what in the world am I talking about, am I deciding to lecture on aromatherapy this evening or something like that, I'm not, but there is an interesting section of scripture where the issue of smell and scent is raised that I wanted to direct our attention to this evening, and that is in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14, 2 Corinthians 2 verse 14, 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 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, Paul asks, well this is an interesting question, interesting text for a number of reasons, not just the issue of the idea of the fragrance of the knowledge of him, but also because we encounter here once again phraseology that some of you will remember just a few weeks ago we addressed in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and that is the terminology of being saved and perishing, being saved and perishing, perishing, this is obviously phraseology that seems to me Paul emphasized to the Corinthian believers because he uses this terminology both in 1 Corinthians and in 2 Corinthians, remember in 1 Corinthians he addresses the issue of the wisdom or the foolishness of the cross, and he talks about the message that is preached, the word of the cross, it is foolishness to whom, to those who are perishing, it is the wisdom of God to whom, those who are being saved, and so you have the exact same in the original language, a participle being used to describe those who are perishing, those who are in the state of perishing because of separation from the source of life in God himself, those who are in rebellion, and those who are being saved.
Now there are some who would say, well you shouldn't translate those as present tenses even though they are present tense participles, that causes a problem with my theology, well it shouldn't cause a problem with your theology, it's a descriptive phrase, I mean we talk about those who are dead and thin today, and yet they're walking around, those who are dead in their sins still express their rebellion against God, they have a will, it is enslaved, and in the same way we speak of those who are perishing, it's talking about those who are walking in that path, separated from the life of God, and are not experiencing spiritual life in this world, those who are being saved, those of us who are being renewed day by day by the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives, so it's terminology that's found both in 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and interestingly enough, the contrast in 1st Corinthians, those who are being saved, those who are perishing, is then connected with the very choice of God, that is, he says, to those who are the called, Christ is the power and wisdom of God, those who are not foolishness, a stumbling block, etc., etc., and if you remember, right at the end of last year, when I had the opportunity of speaking at the end of December, we looked at 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, and there we had similar language, there talking about the light of the knowledge of the gospel, that is, of the glory of God in the face of Christ, and so on and so forth is found there, and again, the language of those who are perishing, in the case of those who are perishing, they've been blinded, they cannot see the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, so here, in chapter 2, 1st Paul gives thanks to God, this is one of those places where Paul sort of, and it happens a lot, where Paul's following a certain line of thought, and then all of a sudden he just, he breaks into it, but thanks be to God, following that line of thought has caused him to once again realize and think about the great grace of God, and so he sort of goes off the path, and doesn't actually get back to his, to where he was until chapter 7, I mean, talk about an excursus, this is what he does, he says, but thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, now isn't that an interesting phrase, leads us in triumphal procession, I don't have time this evening to go into it, it's a rather strange term that is used here, its normal use is not the way we would interpret this, in other words, when you read this, and it says, who leads us in triumphal procession, what's that communicating to you?
The idea that we are walking along behind our triumphant king, and we are in his train as his followers, and you know, as he's asserting his kingship, or something like that, and there are certainly people who understand it that way, but the normal use of this term that has been established before Paul ever used it this way, is when the Caesar, the emperor, or a victorious general, would come marching into Rome, he would be followed by the prisoners that he had taken captive in his campaigns, and so we know, for example, after Titus destroys Jerusalem, that he comes into Rome, and the articles from the temple are paraded through the streets of Rome as a demonstration of the power of Rome in having subdued its enemies, and so it could very well be that what Paul is really referring to here is here, Paul was one of the great enemies of the early church, he had killed Christians, he had stood against the truth, and yet now he, as the prisoner of Christ, follows him as he, in triumph, gathers more and more of these people who were all once, what?
Enemies. We all had stood against this one who has now subdued us. So it's not so much the idea of the shame that would be upon those prisoners, as it is, here were people who had stood against the kingdom of Christ, and now they have been subdued by the power of this mighty king, and certainly if that is the understanding, then we have to think about what that really means for us, and the fact that we always must keep in mind that we once stood against the one that we now serve, and that I think helps us in avoiding that attitude that so often pervades our thinking as we think about so many today who express their enmity toward Christ and toward his kingdom, well so did we, and he was merciful to us, he was gracious to us, we need to avoid that attitude of looking at others and boasting over them in some inappropriate fashion, but then notice as well that as we are in this triumphal procession, and through us spread the fragrance, the knowledge of him everywhere, it's literally into every place, the fragrance of the knowledge of him.
Now again, that the language that Paul uses in this second letter is, always invites us to stop and to ponder what his meaning might be, and it's unfortunate that we have only a small amount of time on a Wednesday evening, but I would just point you to these and really suggest to you some contemplation and meditation upon this particular text, but the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere, notice again the parallel of verse 4, what was it that God shined into our hearts, the knowledge, that term knowledge, very same term that is used here, there is an element of the faith that cannot be put aside, to put it aside is to completely disrupt the faith, there is a knowledge that must be communicated about who Christ is, notice it's the knowledge of him, and so we are used by God, it's not that this aroma isn't coming from us, but because we have been subdued by him, we become the mechanism as we follow him in the various paths that he assigns to us in our lives, all of us have different callings and different places that we go, but the point is that as you're going, you should be spreading the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
Now, it's not like you have a little perfume bottle in your pocket, and when it's convenient for you, and then you're okay, what was that? I don't know. That's not the idea. The idea is that that this is a natural thing, that it is natural for certain things to give off a certain fragrance.
When you see a rose, you know that when you get close enough to it, you're going to smell that beautiful scent. Or some of you in the coming months, I know Pastor Fry has this problem, and some of the rest of you too, it's going to start getting warmer, and maybe there's going to be hopefully some rain, if we don't get any rain, and nothing's going to grow, but all of a sudden, those blossoms are going to start coming out.
And around here, it's the orange blossoms, and people are doing this thing all over the place, and the sinus stuff comes after everybody, right? When I lived in Minnesota, at that farmhouse, right along the side of the farmhouse, we don't have them out here, but some of you are going to go, oh, we had huge lilac bushes.
Any of you ever smelled lilacs? Oh my goodness, when you get a bunch of them in a row like that, it can be absolutely overpowering. It's a beautiful scent, but I would imagine most of us just have automatic, oh, amazing response to it.
Well, a lilac just naturally gives off this odor, and that's what we are to do. We, as we walk the path that He gives to us, we spread the fragrance and the knowledge of Him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God, well, among everyone, because when you think about it, Paul again breaks down all of humanity into two camps.
Oh, that's too simplistic. No, it isn't. It's actually quite accurate. We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved, and among those who are perished. So, you see, when we reflect our Christian commitment, that Christian commitment is going to have a different kind of effect depending upon the person.
In the same way, remember 1 Corinthians 1, the preaching of the cross, it's the same message for those who are called the power of God, those who are not foolish or stumbling block. Same message, different effect, depending upon what God is doing in the person who hears that message.
Now, in the same way, we are the aroma of Christ to God amongst those who are being saved, among those who are perishing, to one, a fragrance from death to death. The other, a fragrance from life to life.
We are distinct to those who are perishing. We are the aroma of death, death to death. Look at us, and how many times have unbelievers looked at you? And they see that you make choices based upon the Lordship of Christ.
On the Lord's Day, they're out having a blast and you're worshipping God. You make decisions about your employment and your work in such a way that you're under the Lordship of Christ, that you can serve Him, and they're just spending it all on their lusts and their desires.
And they look at you and you've passed up opportunities of advancement so that you might serve Christ. And they look at you like you're dead while you're alive. You're not having fun. You're not experiencing life.
Of course, you and I would go, they're the ones that don't know what life is. What they're experiencing isn't really life, and it's not going to last past the brief period of time that these bodies function.
But from their perspective, death. The stench of death. I don't want that holiness stuff. I love my sin. That's light. This is darkness. And here he uses the idea of the fragrance from death to death to the other fragrance from life to life.
To those who are being saved. Seeing another person who's walking the path, what encouragement. Now see, if I was Pastor Frye at this point, I would stop and I would give an illustration of how many times Pilgrim was encouraged by someone coming along, right?
That's what you were all expecting. You were just waiting. You started running through your mind a catalogue of the number of different people who came along and helped Pilgrim. Because it's just such an obvious place to go.
But I'm not going to go there, even though I just did. We know you too well, Pastor. I've actually thought about having the Pilgrim's Progress bound into an edition of the Bible right after the New Testament, just like the Apocrypha.
I don't think that would go over too well. From life to life, the encouragement that one experiences from other believers who are walking that path. And it's not that we are trying to give off one scent to the one and one scent to the other.
It's just that that's the way it is. To those who are perishing, their senses encounter the glory of Christ and it's repulsive to them. Why? Because they've not bowed the knee to Jesus Christ. They're in rebellion against him.
But to those who have bowed the knee, oh, what a beautiful scent it is. It cannot help but cause us to smile. And Paul's final word there is, who is sufficient for these things? Because when you think about it, what he's saying is, God is using us as the means by which he spreads the knowledge of the Gospel in this world.
And that's the means by which he uses to draw his people unto himself and also the means he uses to judge those who will be justly judged. And who is sufficient for that? Who is sufficient for that? That we would be used in this grand way?
That we would be the ones through which the very knowledge of God is communicated to people, both through their salvation, which is what we want, but also to their judgment. I mean, I've said many times, I've given the illustration, we go out to Mesa, Arizona, and we pass out tracts out there.
And I've told people for years, and we were doing that, that, you know, you can't get discouraged when you see what happens to those tracts, because most of them get torn up. Some people tear them up and throw them in your face.
We call them fallen warriors. But you see, as long as you're faithful in proclaiming the Gospel, God's glorified in it. And those tracts go out for salvation and judgment. That's the nature of the Gospel itself.
And we should not flinch from that, but we should always allow that to cause us to be very serious about our interactions with the world, because God may be using us as the one that brings the message whereby someone will be judged in their rejection thereof.
Now, it's not an equal thing. I mean, obviously, for one to be saved requires the extension of the very grace of God, the power of God to take out a heart of stone and give a heart of flesh. Whereas in the other, it is the very natural, repugnant response of the one who's perishing.
That smell to turn away from it. That's why we are so utterly dependent upon the work of the Holy Spirit, to make a radical change in the person whom we're speaking. Unless that radical change takes place, what we present in our lives and our message and all the man-made programs, all the emotional manipulation and trickery in the world will never make the Gospel of Jesus Christ pleasant to an unbelieving person.
If we try to drag the unbeliever through non-biblical means into the midst of the church, we'll never be able to stand behind the pulpit and give forth the fragrance of the Gospel of Christ, because their response is always going to be the same.
That religious hypocrite might be able to hold his nose for a while, but if you really preach the Gospel, it's going to eventually offend them right out the door. Something to keep in mind as we consider this text.
I hope that you will think about how are you a fragrance amongst those in your family, your work, your community, and also to always remember, those who are perishing, those who are being saved, it's all a function of the grace of God.