Following the Follower II: Staying Steady in Hard Times

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Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snyder, and with me again is Chuck Baggett, and we are looking at the largest autobiographical passage in Scripture on the

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Apostle Paul, where we learn not only how did Paul approach service, reaching out to people, whether it's evangelism or helping

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Christians grow, but also he gives us the interiority of his life.

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What things did he believe? What things did he have to think about in order to hold the course when things were very difficult?

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And in 2 Corinthians, things are very difficult. And especially at the end of chapter 2 through chapter 7, we find him explaining these thoughts, these truths he lived on, the way that they affected him, all the therefores, because this is true, and I believe it, therefore

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I act this way. He gives all of that in one of the darkest moments that we have for the

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Apostle Paul in the Scriptures. So Chuck, why don't you give us a quick recap of verse 12 and 13 of chapter 2, and what's going on.

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Let me begin by reading that. Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and when a door was opened for me in the

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Lord, I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother. But taking my leave of them,

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I went on to Macedonia. After the writing of 1 Corinthians, the church had taken a turn for the worse, and they had begun to question

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Paul's being an apostle. And so he had sent a letter to them by Titus, and he's now waiting to hear back from Titus to know how did the people respond.

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Did they receive it well? Did they repent? Have they become hardened in sin? And he's anticipating a visit, and he wants to know whether it's going to be another tearful visit, or whether it's going to be a pleasant visit.

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So that's what's happening here. He's waiting for Titus, and Titus didn't show up where he expected him to show up.

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And so in Troas, even though a door is open for him to preach, and he's finding the people responding, he cannot rest there, and he leaves the town of Troas to go into Macedonia looking for Titus, so he can know how the

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Corinthians have responded. Well that leads to verse 14 through 17, and we're going to just hit some high points from this passage.

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And this is where we find it's like the hinge on the door. Paul goes from expressing honestly how burdened he was to the point, as you mentioned

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Chuck, where he cannot bring himself to take advantage of a divinely appointed opportunity to preach the gospel.

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He leaves, and we don't find this in other places in the writings of Paul, and we want to know, well, how did you hold the course when things were that deeply troubling?

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And verse 14 begins with a wonderful contradiction to verse 12 and 13.

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He says, But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place, for we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to the one an aroma from death to the other an aroma from life to life, and who is adequate for these things?

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For we are not like many peddling or corrupting the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

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So this is this first paragraph where Paul explains some big picture realities that hold him steady and faithful to Christ, even at one of the worst points, perhaps, of his

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New Testament ministry. And so we find that these come in very simple pictures.

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There is a triumphal procession with Christ at the head. There is an aroma that God is spreading around the world, or a fragrance that he himself smells.

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There is a reaction from the world. There is a refusal in Paul to become a headler of God's word, a corrupter of God's word.

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And there is a picture of a man in all of his labors doing things in a way that the people see the sincerity of his ministry, but God also watches.

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So, wonderful themes for us, and Chuck and I thought that we would just kind of talk about those from the passage and, you know, from our own experiences and, you know, and how this applies both to leaders in church or to home, to witnesses at work, to anyone who is an older Christian reaching out to a younger

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Christian, as you're serving other people in the name of Christ, when there are seasons where the response, perhaps, is so disappointing that you are tempted to throw up your hands and say,

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I'm so bad at this, obviously, that I should just let someone else better at it do it.

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Or maybe you're attempted to join the voice of the enemy who whispers accusations against God, and, you know, you join your voice to the enemy, sadly, and you accuse

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God of not keeping up his end of the bargain. You know, here

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I am, I'm serving you in my family, I'm doing this, and it's not getting any better, it's getting worse. My church is shrinking, you know, my relationship with my spouse who's not a

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Christian has become strained, our children have become less interested in church.

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How do you hold to a course of faithfulness? So, these word pictures help.

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Chuck, this issue of being led by God in triumph in Christ, what is that about?

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Well, there's a couple of views, and one is that as Christ leads this conquered foe in this victory march that Paul and other believers are also in this parade, but as we're in his triumph, but we're like lieutenants or, you know, we've been conquered by Christ to be believers, so we're in his army now, that kind of idea?

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Yeah, yeah. So, the pictures from the Roman armies, when the

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Roman general returns to Rome, if he's been victorious, he is, you know, there's great celebration.

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The Roman general comes in in this parade, all the city turns out, and like you said, he has these captives from the wars, which would be brought back into Rome to be turned into slaves.

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So, one understanding of that is, at times, sometimes the general would let key captains or lieutenants, ride in his chariot with them and share in those glories.

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But while that is true, in a sense, in Scripture, there are passages in Scripture where we see the

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Christian being allowed to share in the triumphs of Christ right now, and we need to be aware that that's reality, that Christ is still in this triumphal procession.

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Throughout the last 2 ,000 years, he's been doing it. He's still doing it. It's going into every country throughout every generation.

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He is spreading his kingdom, and we are allowed to be a part of it, and we are allowed to share in that great privilege and glory.

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But there is another interpretation. What would that be? That we are the ones who've been conquered, and we're being led as slaves through this march.

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So, the triumphal procession, as you said, you're people being led to slavery or even to death, and here's

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Paul who is, and us, we are being led in this triumphal procession as people who have been conquered.

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I believe that that is a continuation of the theme that he's already begun on suffering.

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As we are being led by Christ, he suffers, but it's in the suffering that this aroma takes place.

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You know, it is victory, but as we've said, it's God's victory, and Paul is a conquered one.

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We're conquered ones who are being led about by him. Yeah. So, if that's the picture that Paul's painting there, because that certainly is taught in other places in Scripture.

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So, if that's the picture he's applying here, it is explaining to those who mock his claim to be an apostle and try to mislead the

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Corinthians into another version of Christianity, you know, a warped, distorted, false version.

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Part of their argument, as you mentioned in the last episode, was that Paul doesn't seem very impressive.

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His life doesn't seem very good. I mean, if he is an apostle, if he's the representative of the risen and ruling king, wouldn't he look a little more triumphant?

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Why is there so much suffering? Why are the scars all over his body from, you know, abuse that he received from his own countrymen for telling them of the

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Messiah? You know, if you are kind of a health, wealth, and prosperity person, even though you may not consider yourself that, if you think, well, obeying

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God always leads to pleasant consequences, then you would look at a person like Paul and say, he's disobeyed

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God somehow, because look how God is allowing him to be treated. But when you look at Christ, it is the same thing.

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There is the glorious triumph of the Son, but it is through death and suffering and, you know, the victorious resurrection and the ascension to a throne, yes, but suffering first, glory after.

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And so, Paul certainly is a picture of that. And we were talking earlier, it's tempting for us, especially in the

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Western culture, to not want to be a picture of suffering to people who we're trying to recommend

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Christ to, or we're trying to say to them, you can trust him, you can risk everything, you know, in your marriage, with your kids, at work, church, you can risk it.

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You can risk everything, trusting Christ, following Christ. And you don't want then people to look at you, and they think, wow, but look how, you know, you have a pretty hard life.

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And not that we're sad and miserable in Jesus, because Paul wasn't, but that life was hard, and there was suffering.

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So, we were talking about the fact, it can be tempting sometimes to mask that, and to not let people see that sometimes suffering is a part of following Christ, and sometimes there are heartbreaking costs.

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Now, it is worth it, but you need to know, you know, count the cost. So, Paul obviously doesn't put a mask on.

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When Paul talks in chapter 4, he mentions the fact that all the glorious wealth and the riches of the gospel are actually contained here on earth, you know, in clay pots in the lives of average people, and they are weak pots, they're frail, they're, you know, they're not strong, and they're not impressive.

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What's impressive is what they contain. And he even gives a list of how he suffers, but he says this has a very clear purpose.

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He's not earning his salvation, you know, it's not meritorious. It is so that people can see that the mighty work of the gospel transforming families, individuals, towns, it is not

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Paul. Paul is weak. So, the power must come from Paul's God.

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And so, if we are tempted to mask the suffering of Christianity, we need to remember that we may be covering a great reality that people need to see.

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We are very common, and life can be difficult, and this world can be a place of great sorrow, but what we have is of infinite value.

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And so, God is viewed even through our suffering. I think one thing that also that that verse shows is, you know,

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Paul's not talking about, he doesn't say, but thanks be to God, he comforts us day by day, you know, he backs up from himself.

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He doesn't say, thanks be to God, the gospel does have this effect in certain people, you know, so I trust that the church will hold the course.

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He even backs up from the bigger picture, bigger than himself, bigger than the church of Corinth. He backs all the way up, and it's like he sees the cosmic picture of the unfolding of the kingdom of God in that metaphor of a victorious, triumphant procession, the general, the captain of our salvation, is marching toward the ultimate goal still, ruling from heaven, and he is gathering captives, believers, as he goes, and he is not slowed down in his march at all, just because the person we've been sharing the gospel with, or the person we've been helping, you know, to grow in Christ, we hoped, that that seems to have completely failed.

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Or that the suffering that Paul, or we have endured, has somehow thwarted his efforts either, is the suffering so often the vehicle through which

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God is at work, and outside of the section of 2 Corinthians that we're considering, there is that passage that many people are familiar with, you know, where he describes having a thorn in the flesh, but how he glories in that weakness, because through it, the power of God is displayed.

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Yeah, I mean, and I think that sounds very adventuresome, and romantic, and glorious, when it's Paul, and you think, oh, a thorn in the flesh, but oh, but you know, and he glories in his weakness.

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Well, can I glory when there's someone that I love, and I have been trying to point them to Christ, and all my prayers, and my efforts, and every book

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I've handed them, and every time I've tried to be a living witness of what

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I've been saying, you know, you've tried for your life, and your message, to point people to the beauty of Christ.

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Can you glory in the fact, when they seem completely disinterested, and maybe they brush you off, and say, look,

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I've heard enough about your Jesus, no thanks. Or when people in the church that you thought were walking well with the

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Lord, seem to just fall away. Can you glory, not in the fact that they've sinned, but in the fact that it is a demonstration that nothing, you know, lastingly good, could be accomplished through the hands of a man, or a woman.

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And what is being accomplished, that is lastingly good, is the evidence of the living

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God. And for that reason, I can rejoice. Yeah, it really brings it down from kind of Bible talk, to reality, when you consider, you kind of plug your own suffering and circumstances into the equation, and is

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Christ still enough for me? Another great thing we see here, is this picture of aroma, and then it's repeated using a different word, fragrance.

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Chuck, what's the significance of the two different words? From what

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I remember, both of these words could be translated, fragrance or aroma, but he does use two separate words.

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And the word in reference to being a fragrance of Christ, is a word that's tied to sacrifice.

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And so you can imagine, you know, kind of the Old Testament picture of a fragrance rising up to God, and he's appeased by it.

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It's a sweet -smelling aroma to him, as is the aroma of Christ. Well, Paul says that we have become that kind of fragrance to God, as we are in this.

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Yeah, two wonderful pictures, or maybe, you know, two aspects of one great work of God.

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And I think, again, other than backing up from the narrowness of your present situation, when things are very discouraging, and seeing the big picture, that's always helpful.

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Martin Lloyd -Jones, you know, in every sermon, it seems, he always says, you never start with what you're dealing with.

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That's the wrong place to start. Back way up. See the big, unchanging, cosmic truths.

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Then you move, you know, you funnel into the present situation. Another general principle,

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I think, that Paul uses here, though he doesn't explain it to us, we just see him using it, is that he backs up and considers the work of God, what

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God has made Paul. He has altered Paul. And that is far more significant.

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That is far more lastingly important than whether, at that moment, a group of people is responding well or not to Paul.

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Whether they are being repelled by the aroma of Jesus in Paul, or whether they're being attracted.

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Now, of course, he wants the Corinthian church to be attracted. And if they are repelled, it would be a heartbreaking thing.

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But whether they are repelled or attracted, and they are attracted. But something that is far more significant is that God has done something to make

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Paul a different thing. Paul has become a living aroma.

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And he talks about it in those two ways. You are an aroma of the knowledge of God. And God is spreading that everywhere.

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So, religion, you know, when he was a Pharisee, he knew a lot of facts about God.

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He was never an aroma of the knowledge of God. He didn't know God. But the gospel brings us to God.

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And when we are brought to God, there is a relational knowledge, not just concepts that we can repeat now.

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Not just good books on doctrine that we hand to somebody who's asking questions. We smell like a life that has been altered by knowing the

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Creator. And that is noticeable in different ways by those around us.

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He says, He manifests, God manifests, God spreads that perfume of the knowledge of Him in you everywhere.

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I always think of, you know, when you go, maybe if you go on a vacation, and you're at a hotel, and you get in the elevator, you know, and I don't get in elevators very often, you know.

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So, you get in an elevator, it's kind of odd, especially if there's a bunch of people, and you think, well, is there too many? And you squeeze in. They say, come on, you squeeze in, the door's shut, you know, and you're going to your floor.

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And you take in a breath, and whoo, somebody is wearing too much perfume, or too much cologne.

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You're like, and you think, I'm going to smell like this for like all these clothes until we wash it. I'm going to smell like this cologne or this perfume.

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But we ought to be that way as believers, that people who are around us think, man, that person is different.

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They smell like a person who has met God. And we hope that that then draws them.

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But the other thing that you mentioned was the sacrificial language, where it's not just people that smell us, but God has made us to be a different thing, alive in Christ, newborn, washed, justified, adopted.

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We smell like Jesus to the Father, which is such a privilege that He has done it all.

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But we know that whether our efforts right now with our children, with church members, with a co -worker seem to be successful, or humiliatingly defeated by the enemy, you know, it's just like, no matter what we do, in a moment, everything seems to be unraveled by the enemy's lies.

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And again, you are brokenhearted, but you have to remember, what has God done?

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He has made you, in this situation of apparent failure, He has made you to smell like His Son, a pleasing sacrifice.

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Ephesians 5 mentions the smell of Christ. Paul says in verse 1 and 2,

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Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave

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Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

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So, He smells good to the Father, but so do we, because He is fashioning

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His Son in us. And while both of those are important, one is really more important than the other, isn't it?

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One's more of a byproduct. Far more important that we smell like Christ to the

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Father, and then the other is wonderful, but how terrible to smell like our life or death to other people, but not smell like Christ to God, if it were even possible.

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Yeah, I think the two have to go together. They can't be separated, but one is certainly primary, and one is primary to us.

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We want to smell like Christ to other people, because God has given us a heart in the new birth that loves the lost.

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But we, more than that, want to know that He is pleased.

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Not because we're, you know, I'm doing better today, God, and I'm earning your love, but because of what

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He is doing in us, He is pleased with His own workmanship, but He is pleased.

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Our very imperfect, childlike expressions of love to Him in the way that we serve others, that is handed to Him, we could say, through the hands of our mediator, perfected, washed, purified, and the

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Father looks on us and our efforts to serve Him with pleasure. And, you know, when you love someone, compared to when you're trying to maybe get something out of them, you know, you give someone at work, you give your boss a little present.

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You do something that pleases them. I'm going to work extra hard this weekend, because then the boss will be pleased, and then

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I'll get the promotion. I'll get the praise. I'll get whatever, the bonus. That's very different than, you know, a child, and Christmas is coming, and the child asks the dad, you know, a young child who can't make money,

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I want to give mom something. You know, it's all from love.

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I want her to look at it, and to be pleased, and to know that the child wants the mom to know that the child loves her.

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And, you know, so the loving Christian heart, primarily toward God, but also toward others.

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Now, He talks about two different responses, though, and those are not within our control, and that's very freeing, but it is not optional for us to have a smell.

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We have to smell like Christ. We must make sure that we live in harmony with this book, with the

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God of this book, so that what God is doing, and what He has done in altering us, and saving us, that that smell is clear, that that's unclouded.

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We don't want it mixed, and we don't want to be Christians that smell like nothing. Yeah, there's probably a number of applications to this, but kind of in the context of Paul's suffering,

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I would think that part of this aroma is his response to God in the suffering.

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And so, he humbles himself and walks with the Lord through it. It does come out, and Christians see it, and it's life, and others see it, and it's death.

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But if he had responded differently, you know, if he pitched a fit in the middle of the suffering, then he would have smelled, but it would have been a stink, you know?

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Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, just, you know, in chapter six, he talks about it a lot, and we'll look at it when we look at that first 10 verses, but he just talks about how he gives a long list of ways that he is suffering as he is trying to serve, to bring the gospel, to grow

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Christians. So, he's serving in the kingdom, and we, again, we could apply it in the home, in the church, at work, you know, as a

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Christian, you're trying to take the opportunities God has given you. And Paul talks about all the costs, but he says, in all of these unfair treatments, all of these costly situations, in all of them, he says, commending myself and my message.

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You know, I am what I say I am, and the Lord that I serve in the gospel is what

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I say it is. And he doesn't complain and say, why do I have to be treated this way? But I trust the

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Lord, you know, and one day, you know, when the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.

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But this life is so terrible. He never talks that way. He never complains of ill treatment. He sees each ill treatment, which the

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Father has allowed as an opportunity for the weakness of Paul and the strength of God to be on display, as a billboard for the realities that he's telling.

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If you think about it in our day, if everything is going great in your church, if everything's going great in your marriage, and everything's going great with your kids, if you are the person with the dreamy life, you just have it all, and you are never, seems like you're never even touched by sorrow.

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And you turn to the person next to you at work, and you say, I'm a Christian, and I serve

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Jesus because he's worth it. It might carry some weight. But if a person who has, who appeared to have it all, suddenly finds themselves, and it's not because they've chosen to go down some wrong path, but God has allowed, like with Job, God has allowed some very difficult circumstances, and that crushing of you, real crushing, the kind of crushing where you can't sleep through the night because people you love are in spiritual danger, and you pray the same prayer, and you wake up in the night again, and you say,

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God, I don't have any more words. I just say it again.

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You know the situation. When are you going to act? When that kind of crushing comes that is too heavy to even explain to your closest friends, and what smell comes off the life is

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Christ -like trust to the Father, love to the

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Father. What an amazing witness. It's the kind of thing that can never be preached from the pulpit, you know, and it's just a costly but precious, and when we see

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Christ face -to -face, we will know it was a precious opportunity to say something about Him.

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Yeah, and of those two scenarios that you described, one of them you would think, you better be ready to give a defense, you know, an answer for the reason for the hope that's in you.

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The other one, you know, a person looks at the life and thinks, well, obvious, the reason's obvious, you know, you've got it all together.

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Yeah, yeah. As he talks about the fact that this smell, this

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Christ -like aroma, this knowledge of God, that God is spreading through his efforts, so it is happening, even if Paul at the moment feels like he's failed or, you know, feels overwhelmed with grief.

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He says it is an aroma that God spreads everywhere. So everywhere

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Paul goes, it's being spread. Everywhere the Christian goes, it can be spread, but it has a different effect.

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Some people, it is an aroma that leads them to life. It smells good, and they think,

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I want that. Or as a Christian, I want more of that. You know, to be the kind of person that one man described,

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I was talking to Richard Owen Roberts, and he described an older believer when he was younger, and he said, the man walked so close to the

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Lord, you just wanted to be close to that man, to be that kind of life.

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But sometimes that very same smell, through no fault of your own, drives a person away from you.

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I don't want God. I don't want to live for Jesus. I don't want to give up my rights.

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And so, even though you are kind and loving, they run away from you. When Paul looks at those two responses and the fact that God is causing that to happen, he says, who is adequate for these things?

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So, he feels inadequate. But what follows then is a number of statements that tells what he refuses to do and what he does do.

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Chuck, in verse 17, as you look at that and you think about applying that to yourself or to others,

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I mean, what stands out to you as particularly beneficial there? I would think the most significant is the fact that even though you speak in front of other people, you are also speaking in the sight of God.

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God is watching. He's listening. And I think you've talked about it before, is there being two audiences.

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And the knowledge of the fact that God is listening has to control the things you say and the way you convey the message to people who are the other audience.

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Yeah. I think that when you see your inadequacy and the task is here and your skill, your fuel is here.

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And as a baby Christian, sometimes kind of a bit of a blind optimism grips us and we think,

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I'm going to be right here. But I'm 54 now, so I've been a

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Christian for 34 years, longer than I was not a Christian. And I have enough examples, countless examples of how insufficient

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I am for the task. So, we are tempted at times by the enemy to make some shortcuts, some adjustments, so we could alter what we're aiming at.

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God said, we are to be this. But I think that I'm not the apostle of Paul, so I'm just going to aim here because I can handle that.

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I can do that on my own. But it's disobedience.

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And that might be above the culture. It looks pretty good. Yeah. And everyone in your church may say, what a great

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Christian. But God knows you have adjusted my command, my task

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I entrusted you with. You are an unfaithful servant in my home. I gave you this.

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You said, I can't do that, God, so I'll just do this instead. And you left this undone. That's one thing we can do.

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We can adjust. We can also use excuses and say, well, you know, none of us can do anything.

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We're all weak. Jesus is the strong one. And kind of this evangelical, you know, maybe reformed, maybe hyper -Calvinistic flavor that sounds so spiritual, where you talk about how weak you are and God has to do it all.

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But what it becomes is a blanket, a smokescreen for inactivity. Well, I just can't do it.

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None of us can. It's all of God. And then you disobey the king.

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And instead of serving in the house exactly as he says to serve, you just quit work.

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And you say the king will do it because the master is so great, he has to do it. You know,

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Paul talks about other shortcuts. He talks about being a peddler. The Greek word can also mean corrupt, like the idea of selling something that's not quite what it looks like.

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So, let's say you're a wine merchant in the ancient world, and they used this word back then for a wine merchant who pours out a part of the bottle, you know, or the skin, and he adds some water.

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So, he's diluted it. So, he's making full money on a diluted product.

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You can do that in religion. You can dilute the gospel. You can say, well, I don't know how

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I'm going to be adequate for this. So, I'm going to try to accomplish what he said to accomplish. I'm not going to adjust it down.

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I'm going to grow my church. I'm going to have a happy marriage. I'm going to have religious kids.

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You know, I'm going to be a witness at work. But you do it by altering or corrupting or watering down the message, and you've become a peddler of the word of God.

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As we look at these verses, and Paul begins to explain these things, he's not explaining how things worked in the first century only, or how they worked for apostles only.

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But he's really explaining, in a sense, how God works, and he's laying a pattern for us as he follows

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Christ. Here is, you can follow me. I'm a safe guide as I follow Christ, and he's not going anywhere else except he's following that path.

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If he had become a peddler of the word of God, then he would not have been following that path any longer.

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So, he sticks to the path that's been laid for him, and that really is what he's calling us to do.

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Whether you are a pastor, a parent, a spouse, a child, whoever, if you belong to Christ, and especially if you're trying to point other people to Christ, a pattern has been set for you, and you don't get to adjust that pattern.

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We can point people to good resources, hand them books, podcasts, things like that, and there's nothing wrong with that, unless that's all you do.

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If you stop there, then you've made an adjustment. It's not the pattern that's been given to us. So, what we hope to do over the next few weeks is to lay this pattern out before people, as Paul's given it to us here in these verses.

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Yeah, I think that's such an important point, because especially with the good materials that we have available now, it's easy to think, if I could just get them so -and -so's book on this topic, that would fix them.

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Well, that may help them. But Jesus Christ, when he ascended, did not say, I am about to create libraries.

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He could have. I'm going to create millions of libraries, and you just carry these libraries on these donkeys.

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You just carry them throughout the world, and you set up libraries everywhere, and that's how

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Christianity will spread. But instead, it's, follow me. And then when people say to you, what's this

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Jesus stuff about? What's this Christian marriage about? What's a quiet time?

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What's holiness? You can say, by the grace of God, come and see. And that's a scary thing, but he will make us adequate.

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And we'll talk about that in our next session, when we look at where Paul talks about, where did he find adequacy?