Finding God's Purpose in All Things

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In 1946, some Bedouin teenagers were tending their flocks near the northwest shore of the
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Dead Sea. One of the young shepherds tossed a rock into a cave, and he heard from within the cave the echoing of a smashing sound.
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And so he and his friends went to investigate the sound and found a collection of large clay pots.
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They stood about as tall as they did, and when they began to investigate within those pots, they found that there were some leather scrolls, some papyrus, some vellum, but they noted that these might be worth some money.
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So they went and got their associates. They came back and investigated, and lo and behold, they had found one of the greatest treasures of biblical archaeology that has ever been discovered.
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They found the Dead Sea Scrolls. And over the next few years, many archaeologists and treasure hunters went and searched out and found that there were actually ten more caves that had these collections of pots, and within these pots they found almost a thousand manuscripts.
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And included in those manuscripts were copies of the Old Testament. And those
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Old Testament copies were valuable not only because they were not discovered before, but because at that time in history, in 1946, the oldest copies of the
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Old Testament that we possessed were from around the year 900.
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It's called the Masoretic Text. But these texts took our Old Testament back a thousand years, because these texts had been written somewhere around 100 to 200
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B .C. So it took our copies that we had of the
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Old Testament back a thousand years. And so to say that what was discovered in 1946 was a treasure of biblical archaeology would be saying the bare minimum.
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It is absolutely an understatement to say that that is a treasure. Well, I tell this story as an introduction because today we're going to read a text where Paul says something about a treasure in a clay pot.
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But the treasure that he's talking about is not the written Word of God, not manuscripts from a thousand or two thousand years ago.
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The treasure that he is going to talk about is the knowledge of God's glory in Jesus Christ, which we carry around in all of us who believe in Him.
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Paul says, we are the jars of clay. And within us, we carry the great treasure of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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So with that, let us stand together and read the text. We're going to read from the
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English Standard Version and we're going to read verses 7 to 15.
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But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
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We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
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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.
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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,
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I believed and so I spoke, we also believe and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the
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Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.
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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.
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May we pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for your word, and your word deserves to be proclaimed, every single word of it.
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So I pray, oh God, that today as we continue our verse -by -verse study, as we continue the study of God's word,
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I pray that you would keep me from error. For Lord, I am a fallible man, I'm capable of preaching error, and I don't want to for the sake of your name, for the sake of my conscience, and for the sake of your people.
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Lord, I pray that your word would be proclaimed rightly, that your spirit would apply the truths to our hearts.
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For Lord, if the spirit is not within me, if the spirit is not among us, if the spirit is not doing the teaching, then everything today will be for a waste.
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So Lord, I pray for the strength and power of the Holy Spirit to preach your word aright, and Lord, if there are those who are here who do not know
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Christ, I pray that today they would see the great treasure of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is in fact the pearl of great price, that he is the one that we should be willing to forsake all to seek out, that he is the one utmost worthy of praise and adoration, he is the only one who can save.
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And Lord, if there are those who are here who do believe, and I know there are, I pray that this would be a time of edification, a time of instruction, maybe,
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Lord, a time of rebuke and correction, for we all, Lord, are in these jars of clay, this weak flesh, and we need to be corrected and encouraged.
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So we pray for that now, in Jesus' name. Amen. We have been in our study of 2
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Corinthians now for several months, and for those of you who are visiting with us, or maybe you are new, this is our method of preaching.
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In general, we go through books of the Bible, going one passage at a time, one section at a time, seeking to understand it.
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And part of the benefit of that is we get to maintain the context of the book as we study, rather than simply jumping from one passage in one book to another passage in another book to another passage in another book, which tends to break up the continuity of our study.
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And we have been learning in 2 Corinthians that this is Paul's most autobiographical epistle, meaning that it speaks more about him personally than any of his other epistles.
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He is defending his ministry against those who would question his integrity.
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We've seen this in chapter 1, when they said that he was suffering, and his suffering indicated somehow that he was not really
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God's man. How can God's man go through all these times of trouble and suffering? We saw him accused of vacillating in chapter 2, where they were accusing him because he didn't do exactly as he said he was going to do.
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His plans changed. They said, well, look at this. Here's a man who can't be trusted. His yes is not yes, and his no is not no.
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He addressed those who demanded letters of commendation in chapter 3, those who would demand from him some kind of credentialing.
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And he said to the Corinthian church, you, in fact, are our letter of recommendation. We planted the church.
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We brought you the gospel. You are, in fact, our letter of commendation. So when we come to chapter 4, we see that Paul is continuing to defend himself against this onslaught of accusation.
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And he begins and ends the chapter with the same phrase. I want you to simply notice this.
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He begins and ends the chapter with the phrase, We do not lose heart.
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He says that in chapter 4, verse 1, and he says it again in chapter 4, verse 16.
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So that phrase, we do not lose heart, is really the theme of this chapter.
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He's saying that he's not willing to manipulate his message. He's not willing to alter his teaching.
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He's not willing to manipulate or trick his hearers. He is not going to give in.
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He is going to continue to move forward, even as he's faced by those who use unscrupulous ministry tactics.
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And even as he is faced by those who will not hear and believe. He says there are those who won't hear and believe what he has to say because a veil is over their hearts.
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But even in the midst of this, he will continue to preach Christ. And in verse 7,
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Paul points to his own weaknesses. And he spends the remainder of this chapter explaining how
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God's power is what overcomes in his weakness, in his affliction, in his confusion, even in his persecution.
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God's power is what will overcome. Why? Because one of the accusations against Paul is that his suffering means that somehow
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God's not at work with him. That his affliction is somehow proof that God is not pleased with him. Somehow his struggles are proof that God is not using him.
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And Paul contends the opposite. He says my weakness is actually proof that God is at work in me.
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Because God can take the weak and give them his strength.
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And through his strength they will move forward. And so this is the context of chapter 4.
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So now I want to dig in a little bit more to some of the particulars. One of my favorite areas of study, brother
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Mike and I were talking about this the other night because we're getting ready to teach hermeneutics.
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Hermeneutics is the art and science of studying the Bible. And we have an academy here at Sovereign Grace.
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And our next academy class is going to be hermeneutics. And brother Mike and I are going to be co -teaching that class.
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And as we were having our discussion and having our meeting about the class, we began to talk about the fact that one of our favorite parts of study is to investigate the way that biblical writers use language.
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And if you want to call me a grammar nerd, I won't be offended. Because I think it's somehow true.
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I've always enjoyed how language can be used to make certain points. And there is an important form of language which we need to recognize in chapter 4 of 2
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Corinthians. In Greek it is called a henoklos. I don't want to get too much into that because I don't want to bring any confusion to you.
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But a henoklos is basically a clause of purpose. A clause of purpose.
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It gives the purpose of something. In writing you have main clauses and you have subordinate clauses which are often connected by some form of conjunction.
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And that conjunction in this sense is what we would call a purpose conjunction. See, I'm doing it. I said
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I wasn't going to do it. Sorry. Let me give it to you in layman's terms.
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You all know John 3 .16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
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That's the first clause. So that whosoever believeth in him will not perish but have everlasting life.
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That's the subordinate clause. And it is connected by the word hena which is the purpose connecting word.
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And it's translated so that. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
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So that. This is the purpose that he did it. This is the reason why he did it.
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So that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.
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See how it works and how it's connected and why that matters. Well in this particular text we actually have four of the hena clauses.
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We have one in verse 7, one in verse 10, one in verse 11 and one again in verse 15. And so what
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I see when I see that happening over and over again in this short of amount of time. What I recognize here is that Paul is trying to identify to us the purpose for these things.
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And what he's going to show us. He's going to show us the purpose of our weakness. He is going to show us the purpose of our struggles and our afflictions.
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He's going to show us the purpose of why we seem to always be struggling against the world.
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And he's going to show us that all of this has an ultimate purpose. And that is to extend the grace of God and increase thanksgiving to God.
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You see this is what we see in this chapter when we take a step back. And we see Paul is talking about the purpose of our struggles.
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The purpose of our affliction. Might I say, as I said in the title, it's the purpose in everything.
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Do you believe everything happens for a purpose? Now I really want you to step back and ask.
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Because this is one of my biggest issues when we talk about reformed theology. Because I am convinced that those who do not hold to a robust reformed theology.
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Have to come at some point a conclusion that some things just happen for no reason.
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That some things happen for no purpose. And beloved that is not what the
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Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that there is no such thing as purposeless anything.
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But that God has, and this is what the confessions say. That God has from all eternity ordained all that comes to pass.
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That doesn't mean you're not responsible for your sin. That doesn't mean that you don't make choices. That doesn't mean that you're not engaged in the world around you.
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But what it does mean is that God has a purpose even in your actions which are opposed to him.
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You see God has a purpose in all of it. That's key. It really is.
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This is one of the things. People want to talk about purposeless evil. I know it's hard to say when we say
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God has a purpose for everything. Even the evil acts of men. That's hard. But would you rather step back and say
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God just doesn't have any control. Years ago there was a book written. Why do bad things happen to good people?
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The man who wrote the book came to the conclusion. The reason is because there are just some things
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God doesn't have control over. And if that is your theology
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I am sad for you. That if your theology has led you to the point that you believe
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God just doesn't have sovereignty over everything. Now does that make it easy to be reformed?
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No it's hard because we look at the hard things and we say God had a purpose in this even if we don't know what it is. Even if we don't know what it is
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God had a purpose in it. And sometimes that's hard. Amen.
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But again where do you want to end up? Do you want to end up with a God who is playing everything by chance?
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Or do you want to trust a God who is sovereign over all and not one molecule in this universe does not obey him? I believe
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Paul is clear throughout his writings but particularly in this passage. That God is in fact working all things together.
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For the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Is that not what Romans 8 says? And is that not impossible to believe if we don't believe
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God is sovereign? Now as we walk through this text today
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I want to make this point. All of this text can apply to us.
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But when we study the scripture and this is again if you take the hermeneutics class this is one of the first things.
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You need to understand who the audience is. You need to understand who the author is. And you need to understand to whom and about whom the author is speaking.
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And in this text Paul is talking to the Corinthians about himself and about his companions.
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Does what he say applies to us? Yes. But it is a secondary application.
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The primary application is to Paul himself. So this is why I've outlined it this way.
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The purpose of Paul's weakness. Because in verse 7 he's talking about himself. Does it apply to you?
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Yes. But it's not primarily about you. It's about him. Number 2.
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The purpose of Paul's affliction. That's verses 8 to 12. It's about his affliction and the things that he struggled and the things that his companions and he have endured.
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See here's the problem with a lot of Bible study. A lot of Bible study is neither exegesis nor eisegesis.
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A lot of Bible study is narsegesis. You know what narsegesis is?
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When everything is about me. The narsegesis makes everything about himself. And therefore every time he opens the
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Bible he places the I's and the W's and the S's in referring to himself. That is not always what we should do.
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We should understand the text in regard to who it's speaking to, who it's speaking of. And then we may make application to ourselves.
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Only after we have properly understood the audience and the author's intention.
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Last one, of course, the purpose of Paul's endurance. Whether or not we get to all of this today will be up to the
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Lord. But we can certainly try. So let's look first at the purpose of Paul's weakness.
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This is verse 7. He says in verse 7, But we have this treasure in jars of clay.
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We have this treasure in jars of clay. Now before we even get to the clause, which is the next word, which is the to show that.
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That's the Hinnah clause there. Let's just look at the first half of the verse. It says, But, why would it begin with the adversative conjunction?
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Well, it's because it's contrasting what he said right before this. And what he's talking about right before this is he's talking about having the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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That God has said, let this light shine out of darkness. He's shown this light in our heart.
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What's the comparison? He's comparing that to those who have a veil over their heart. Who are unable to see the truth of the gospel.
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Who have not been able to believe because they have this veil of unbelief. And he says, we have this light shining in the darkness.
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It's shining in our hearts. It gives the light of the knowledge of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you understand, church, that the very reality of your own conversion and faith is a gift from God?
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That you did not arrive at your knowledge of God nor by your faith in God by happenstance.
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Think of all of the things that God did to bring you to faith in Him. Maybe it was the family you grew up in.
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Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe you grew up in a family that rejected the Bible. Maybe you rejected the scriptures.
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And yet you still came because God sovereignly drew you in. And He placed the light of the knowledge of the
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Son of God in your heart. Maybe it was recent. Maybe it was 50 years ago.
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But God did that work. Beloved, we cannot for a second give up our understanding that this is a work of God.
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Is conversion a supernatural act? Absolutely it's a supernatural act.
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It's a work of God. This is the work of God. That you believe in Him who
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He has sent. And now we have the adversative conjunction but.
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Why but? Here's what He says. But we have this treasure.
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And what's the treasure? It's Christ. It's the gospel. It's the message. It's the light of the glory of Him. We have it in jars of clay.
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That's why He said but. We've got this tremendous treasure. We've got this tremendously valuable thing.
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We've got this pearl of great price. This diamond. And we have it in an earthen vessel.
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That's the King James rendering. We have this treasure in an earthen vessel.
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What's Paul talking about? He's talking about our weak flesh.
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And we can bear this out later in the context. Because twice he uses the word soma which is body. And once he uses the word sarx which is flesh.
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That's literally the context of what he's saying. So when he says jars of clay.
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He's talking about our weak flesh. He says we are carrying around the greatest treasure in the history of the world.
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And this. This broke up body.
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I thought what better time to be limping than preaching this text.
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Because he says this is carrying the greatest treasure in the history of mankind.
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It's all of the gold. All of the silver. All of the platinum. Cannot for a moment be compared to the value of the gospel.
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And any man who would sell his soul for anything this world has to offer is a fool.
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Because the Bible says what? What does it profit a man that he gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul?
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We have this treasure in jars of clay. Why would
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Paul compare our flesh, our bodies to jars of clay?
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Well, clay jars have two outstanding qualities.
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Number one, they're weak. And number two, they're cheap. Clay is weak.
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It's made and it's fired in the oven. And when it comes out, it's brittle and easily broken.
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How did those boys find those clay pots? They threw a rock and they heard a smash. The clay is weak.
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But it's also cheap. It's common. Comes from the very dirt of the ground.
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It's not in itself special. It's not like porcelain which is weak but valuable.
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And it's not like iron which is strong but cheap. It's both weak and cheap.
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It seems to have very little value in and of itself. And that's
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Paul's whole point. Is that these bodies of flesh in and of themselves have very little value.
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That is not to say they have no value at all. Paul talks about the value of the body. He talks about even exercise as being good for the body.
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And it does have some value, right? So it's not to say it has no value. But the point is the comparison.
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You don't take a diamond ring and put it in a cardboard box. You don't take a valuable piece of gold, a gold bar and hide it in a pile of hay.
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But you take valuable things and you put them in places where they are protected.
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But that is not what God has done with His gospel. God has not taken the gospel and put it in a safety deposit box.
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He's not taken His gospel and put it into a bank or into Fort Knox or somewhere where it would be protected.
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No, He has put it in jars of breakable weak clay.
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Us. This is
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Paul's point. We have this massively valuable treasure in this ridiculously weak body.
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For what purpose? Well, it tells us the purpose.
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To show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
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That's the purpose. Why would God take the most valuable treasure in all of history and deposit it into weak, cheap vessels?
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Because in doing so, when that gospel does amazing things, when that light shines and does powerful things,
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God receives the glory. Now, I want to take you into the
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Old Testament for a moment. You don't have to turn. I just want to remind you of a story because I think it is possible that this may be a story that was on Paul's mind when he wrote this verse.
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Now, I can't prove it from the text. And I am not saying that this text is an
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Old Testament type or something like that. What I am saying is I think that Paul may have had this on his mind.
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When he said, we have this light of the gospel, this treasure in jars of clay.
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If you go back into the book of Judges, you remember there was a man named
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Gideon. You remember Gideon? Gideon was charged of God to go against the
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Midianites, who had been oppressing the people of Israel. And at first, he started out with some 30 ,000 or so troops.
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And God said, no, we are not going to do it that way. Because if you do it that way, it is going to show it is your might and not my might.
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So let all of them that want to go home, go home. So 20 ,000 or so,
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I think it was 22 ,000, cut out. But he still got 10 ,000. God said, still too many.
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Take them down to the creek. This is the Keith version. I mean, they have creeks in Israel, do they?
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I guess the river, wherever. Take them down to the brook. The creek. Take them down where there is water.
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And see which guys lap it up like a dog and which guys don't. So he goes from 10 ,000 down to, remember the last number?
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300. Now we got something. We have gone from a massive amount to a very small amount.
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And does he give them all a sword? No. He gives them a trumpet and a jar.
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And inside that jar is a torch. They surround the camp of Midian.
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Now there are other things that happened. I am leaving part out of the story. He went and he heard the story of the dream and gave him confidence that what was going to happen was works of God.
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I am narrowing the story down only to the part that I think is relevant here.
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Because they circle around the camp. The people of Midian are there. It is in the dark. And Gideon, at a certain point, he says, okay, break the jars.
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What was in the jars? The torch. The light.
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So when the jars are broken, the people of Midian see all these lights all at once all around them.
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They hear the trumpets. They see the lights. They freak out and they start killing each other. And then they run away.
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Now you say, why would God do it that way? Why not God send in 30 ,000 troops with swords and shields?
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Why would he send 300 guys with a jar and a torch and a trumpet?
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Because when all was said and done, they could say, God did this. God did this.
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So when Paul says, we have this treasure in jars of clay.
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Again, I can't prove that he is thinking about this story of Gideon in the Old Testament.
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But it certainly seems to resonate that that's a story where God showed his power.
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And here is Paul saying, we have this tremendous light, this tremendous treasure.
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It's in a jar of clay. Why? So that God will show his power through us.
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Beloved, that is the blessing in knowing that God in his grace will show his power through our weakness.
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God will show his power through our weakness. If you do have your
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Bibles open to 2 Corinthians, just for a moment, I want you to go over to chapter 12. Hold your place there at chapter 4.
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But I want you to see that this thought stays in Paul's mind even to the end. This thought of God's strength being shown in Paul's weakness is the theme that continues on.
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Look with me at 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9. Paul is speaking about God and his word to him, he says in verse 9.
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But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
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Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so the power of Christ may rest upon me.
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For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecution, and calamities.
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For when I am weak, then I am strong. That is the great paradox of the
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Christian life. That in our weakness we have strength because our strength is not our own.
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In our suffering, in our affliction, in our persecution, we have strength that doesn't come from us.
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We have strength that comes from God. When I am weak, Paul says, then
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I am strong. Why? Because when I am weak I have to rely on Christ.
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Beloved, I have seen it so many times. You talk to a person who is wealthy.
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You talk to a person who is strong. You talk to a person who is healthy and full of vitality about their need for Christ.
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And often those people will laugh in your face. Why would
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I need Christ? Look at all that I have accomplished without Him. But the person who is broken, the person who is battered, the person who is at their wits end and realizes they have nothing is often the person that is ready to receive the gospel.
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Because they realize there is no strength in themselves. Nothing in my hand
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I bring. Only to your cross I cling. It's not always that way.
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Thankfully, the Bible says not many rich, it doesn't say not any rich will be saved.
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There are those who even in their wealth recognize that God is the one who provided. There are those who even in their strength realize that their strength is nothing compared to God's.
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And there are those who are weak and broken and broke and still don't want Jesus. So I'm not making a blanket statement.
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But what I am saying is this. Until we realize how weak we are, until we realize how desperate we are, until we realize the jars of clay in which we're in, we won't cry out for a sake.
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It's a desperate condition we're in. Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a good person like me.
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Now, that's what many people want to think. But John Newton knew.
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He said, amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a rich like me.
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Paul understood his weakness. And he understood that in his weakness he had strength.
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Because in his weakness his strength came from God. Now, I just want to go a little further.
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We're not going to get all the way to verse 15. But I want to show you how the next part ties into this. And then next week we'll bring it together more fully.
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So go back with me to chapter 4 and verse 8. And let us now look at this as he is now going to describe his weakness.
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And again, remember this is Paul. He has said the purpose of my weakness. What is the purpose of my weakness?
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The purpose of my weakness is to show the surpassing power of God. Now he shows the purpose of his affliction.
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Notice what he says in verse 8. We, he's speaking of himself and his companions, but certainly could be of us.
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But we'll keep it to him and his companions right away. He says, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed.
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Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
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Struck down, but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies.
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Beloved, this is a, I think, poetic portion.
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Some might even call it a rhetorical portion. Rhetoric is a form of language that's used to, it's used to move people.
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It's used to try to get them to think a certain way or to go a certain direction in their mind.
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Politicians are usually skilled in rhetoric. Well, rhetoric is not something that we don't find in the
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Bible. We actually do find rhetorical use of language in the Bible. And what Paul is doing here is he's saying, we are afflicted in every way.
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Why would he say this? Because he just said, we have this treasure in this clay pot to show the surpassing power of God.
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And then he says this, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.
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We are persecuted, but not forsaken. We're struck down, but we're not destroyed. We see here a parallelism that's going on.
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He's paralleling his ideas and his thoughts, and he's compounding them. And he's building, as it were, in music like a crescendo.
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The first word afflicted there. He says we are afflicted in every way.
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It comes from the word to press. So certain translation says we are pressed.
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There's a song, me and Rachel were singing it before church. It's a song, trading my sorrows.
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It used to be contemporary. Nothing I sing is contemporary anymore. Now it's old. But it talks about being pressed, but not crushed.
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And see, the reason why some translators translated the word pressed, because this word for affliction is literally the word for stepping on a grape.
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When you're pushing the grapes down, trying to push the juice out of the grapes to create the grape juice, which would be fermented and create wine.
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And Paul says in this analogy, he says we are pressed, but not crushed.
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Sometimes we feel crushed. Can't say amen. You better.
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Because you know it. Some people read this, and I honestly think some people say
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Paul's got to be talking about himself, because he ain't talking about me. Because I know I've been crushed. And I get it.
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I really, really do. I get the fact that some of you could come up and you could give a testimony from this pulpit that you have been crushed by this life, and in this life there is seemingly nothing in which to find any comfort in the situation that you have been through.
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But Paul says, and again, hearkening back to what he just said, because of the power of God, you are still here, and you're still saved, and you're still in God's hand, and he still has you, and you are not yet crushed.
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Being pressed does not feel good. I think
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I told the story recently. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. But I have a tremendous fear of enclosed spaces.
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I truly do. I have terrible claustrophobia. And they tried to put me in an
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MRI machine. I had to figure out another way.
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Because when I went in, I felt like I was being crushed. And it wasn't even touching me.
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It wasn't even on me. But I felt like my whole body was under a constraint of a weight that I couldn't take.
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And it wasn't even touching me. Beloved, we can feel crushed.
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Paul says we're pressed, but not crushed. Why? Because God is sustaining us.
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God is sustaining you. Pressed, but not crushed.
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Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Perplexed literally means to be without resources, to be in doubt, to be utterly embarrassed by a lack of knowledge.
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You ever been there? You just can't figure it out. You don't know why. He said, but even in that, you're not in despair.
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Why? Because I know why. Persecuted, but not abandoned.
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King James and the ESV say forsaken, but I like abandoned. Because that really is the modern way. We don't usually use the word forsake anymore.
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But we do use the word abandoned. And this is what people think. They say I'm being persecuted, therefore God is not with me.
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But God is with you. He has not left you. He has not forsaken you.
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He has not gone away from you. In fact, he's closer to you than he's ever been. When Jan Hus was being burned at the stake for preaching the gospel of Christ, he died singing.
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Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.
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Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.
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And those were the last words people heard as the very breath was pulled from his chest as the flames came around his body.
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Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck down, but not destroyed.
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The word struck down, the root of that word is the Greek word balo. And it's one of the easy words that I remember because it means to throw.
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And you think if you throw the balo. Hey, I do it my way, you do it your way.
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But literally the Greek word balo means to throw. And this word literally means to be thrown down.
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Thrown down, but not destroyed. Beloved, I can't help but think this has to be one of the most beautiful things that Paul ever wrote outside of Romans 8.
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28 to 32, and we're going to read that in a moment. But just think of what he's saying here. He's saying in your affliction, you're not crushed.
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In your perplexion, you're not driven to despair. In your persecution, you're not abandoned.
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And in being thrown down, you're not destroyed. Because the power of God through the
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Lord Jesus Christ lives within you by his Holy Spirit. And you have him.
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Therefore, you have the power that gives life to these jars of clay.
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So as we close, let us hear Paul's words in Romans 8.
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I said verse 28, I meant verse 31. What shall we say to these things?
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If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
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How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
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It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died.
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More than that, who was raised. Who is at the right hand of God. Who indeed is interceding for us.
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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword.
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As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
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No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
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For I am certain that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our