2 Corinthians 4:1-5:10, What’s the Difference? (Part 2)

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2 Corinthians 4:1-5:10 What’s the Difference? (Part 2)

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Genesis 38, The Veil

Genesis 38, The Veil

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Second Corinthians chapter 4 starting in verse 1 here the word of the Lord Therefore having this ministry by the mercy of God we do not lose heart, but we have renounced disgraceful underhanded ways
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We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word but by the open statement of the truth
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We would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God and even if our gospel is veiled
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It is veiled only to those who are perishing in Their case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers
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To keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ Who is the image of God for what we proclaim is not ourselves?
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But Jesus Christ is Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus's sake for God who said let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 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
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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 also be manifested in our bodies
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For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus's sake
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So that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh So death is it work on us?
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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 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 So we do not lose heart
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Though our outer self is wasting away. Our inner self is being renewed day by day for this light
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Momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen
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But to the things that are unseen for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal
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For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed We have a building from God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens for in this tent
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We groan longing to put on our heavenly dwelling if indeed by putting it on We may not be found naked for while we still while we are still in this tent
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We groan being burdened not that we would be unclothed But that we would be further clothed so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life
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He who has prepared us for this very thing is God who has given us the spirit as a guarantee
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For we are always of good courage We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the
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Lord for we walk by faith not by sight Yes, we are of good courage and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the
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Lord So whether we are at home or away We make it our aim to please him for we must for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ So that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body whether good or evil
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May the Lord has blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well beginning in the mid 1970s and through the 1980s
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Mike Warnke gained more and more popularity in the church scene through his books his recordings were sold well, so popularly and his appearances
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Evangelists had long found that it helped to have a dramatic testimony and Warnke seemed to have the most dramatic
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He told audiences of his involvement in Satanism as a high priest of a Satanist coven leading over what he said 1 ,500 other
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Satanist it's pretty big group with ritual kidnappings probably some sacrifices satanic orgies summoning demons using magic soon
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Warnke wrote the book the Satan seller telling of his exploits as a Satanist leading
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Satanist but ending with his conversion and his living happily in California with his wife the book made an enormous splash
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Becoming a religious bestseller one of the best -selling religious books in the country I read it myself it launched
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Warnke into church stardom. He became a popular speaker at Christian meetings
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I saw him myself in Birmingham a Birmingham Church in the mid 80s to make him more popular
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He didn't just have a startling exciting testimony He was also a comedian and he was hilarious, too
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I mean he was really funny and so here you have the perfect Christian speaker
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I mean you could not have you could not in your wildest dreams thought up Oh, maybe you could have such a great speaker such an attractive speaker someone with this incredible conversion story
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From the from the depths of the worst sin and to top it all off you would be bent over in laughter
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You would just have the greatest time coming to hear him the result for Warnke was incredible popularity And of course lots of money his ministry took in over two million dollars each year from 1987 to 1990
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There was only one problem with Warnke's testimony It was a pack of lies in 1991 a
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Christian magazine called cornerstone investigated Warnke and found that his testimony was entirely
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Fiction that at the time of him supposedly being a Satanist high priest He was actually attending a community college and occasionally went to the campus crusade for Christ meetings there
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Photographs of him during that time showed him rather than being an emaciated Drug addict spouting long fingernails and waist -length hair as he described himself in the book showed him as a typical square of the night a mid -1960s short hair
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Conservative clothes not only that his personal life was a disaster he was on his fourth wife having gotten into an
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Affair and then divorcing to be with his mistress and then doing that again and some domestic violence along the way on his part
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He claimed first to have had two master's degrees and a PhD all faults He was ordained in a church that gave him the title bishop
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He was using his ministry to get rich sending out newsletters Claiming that they needed urgent donations to keep the ministry afloat while at the same time
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He was taking in a salary of eight hundred and nine thousand six hundred and eighty dollars and that in the late 1980s and all that he carried on for almost 20 years
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High -profile prominent and he was a total one hundred percent grade -a fraud
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The question is not well, why would he do such a thing? Well, that's obvious if the money the question was
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How could we be so stupid? I mean really there should be an obvious red flags even to me as a college student in Alabama I mean, come on an ex -satanist supposedly his mind should have been addled with all the drugs
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He said he took and he's a comedian speaking lucidly. Come on. Something's up Warren Key got away with it for so long because he appealed to exactly what we want fantastic stories about him lurid exciting funny
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Heartwarming with a positive happy ending And so even if next year he showed up with another wife and then a year after that still another one
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Driving an expensive car and staying in four -star hotels while begging for money You didn't ask too many questions.
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It was too good Not to be true What's the difference?
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between that and real ministry Well, the Apostle Paul tells us here in the passage
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I just read really continuing the thing same things we looked at last week this is really a very imperfect chapter division beginning with chapter 4 because And where we were we stopped off last time.
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It's really an imperfect place to stop off There's one continuous idea really flowing from chapter 2 verse 12 to the end of chapter 5 verse 10
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So because that's the case This is really one long passage that I've broken off kind of artificially in the middle
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Allow me to reuse my outline of last week. May I? This passage has three major themes.
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Do you remember anybody remember Micah Mike? sincerity sufficiency and Spirituality that is from chapter 4 verses 1 to 6
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We see the sincerity of true ministry from chapter 4 verses 7 to 18
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The sufficiency of real ministry and from chapter 5 verses 1 to 10 The spirituality the focus on the spirit of real ministry and all of this
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Answering same question as last week What's the difference? What's the difference?
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between the gospel and the message of self -help moral self -improvement what's what's the difference between the showman who impress you with themselves and the real ministry of the gospel and And Finally what difference does that difference mean for us?
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Well, what's the difference the difference is that we have a Holy Spirit at the end of chapter 3 who transforms us who opens?
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The eyes of the blind takes the veil off our eyes so that we can see what that what difference that meat makes to us
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Is that first? We don't lose heart We're not discouraged Because we sincerely believe
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That the Lord Is is true that this gospel is is right.
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It is true. It's not some fictional story. We made up just a Sensationalized people it's we sincerely believe that he is a treasure and that his grace will extend to more and more
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People he doesn't need us to tell colorful stories to get people's attention.
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He doesn't need our mood music or Manipulation. He just asked for our
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Sincerity what's the difference the difference is? sincerity Chapter 4 begins continuing the idea that we have this ministry
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That is the ministry buddy called the New Covenant He talked about in chapter 3 the ministry of the
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Spirit that really makes a change in people's hearts We don't have to rely on what he called the letter on the law on rules keep these rules and you will improve yourself
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That's the letter. He says that kills he says no we have the Spirit that makes alive
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We have this ministry by the mercy of God. He says in verse 1 the result is because we have this
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We do not lose heart Which sort of implies if you think about it, there's coming things that will tempt you to lose heart
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There's probably gonna come hard times. Let's make you think I feel like giving up But we don't give up because we believe in the power of the
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Spirit and so we don't resort to our own tactics to somehow Manage people maybe to salvation in verse 2.
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He says we have renounced disgraceful underhanded ways That is we reject deception.
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We reject manipulation in the second half of verse 2. We refuse to practice cunning
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You know, what can we how can we make these people do what we want them to do give more money or whatever it is
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We probably refused to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word let's take this out because this is this parts too unpopular this we just camp on these few themes here that we find here and there sew them together to To appeal to people to what they want to hear.
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No, we refuse to tamper with God's Word. We will give you what it says notice in those first two verses
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That there there are two approaches to the ministry to evangelism and to be the church in the world
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Correcting the world in the church on the one hand. There is sincerity With a ministry by God's mercy on the other hand
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Come back there is the way of being disgraceful or the word there could mean disgraceful could mean being secretive
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That is the goal secretive the goal of what we're doing the real goal of what we're doing is
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Not plain it's not it's not open. It's not what we say is our goal The real goal may be to make money or to have a grand title like look at me
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I'm a bishop while they tell people that their goal is is ministry, but they do
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What they do for themselves Not for what they say they're doing it for so in one test of that would they do ministry?
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Maybe if it's for poor kids who can't do anything for you Who won't make you rich and who really don't care about your grand titles
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People like Mike Warnke are not really new in the history of the church Although he is one of the most brilliant recent examples of a charlatan
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There have always been those who exaggerate who manipulate who use psychological ploys emotional tactics to get their way try to all
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You with their grandiose titles Paul is here implying that some of the super Apostles that so impressed the
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Corinthians with their letters of recommendation And their self -confidence their their swagger their spiritual gifts and tales of conversions and revelations.
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Well, they're like that managing the word While massaging people's feelings, that's the world in The church, which interestingly that's also what
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Psalm 79 it was about the world in the church Ravaging the church destroying
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God's house on earth, but understand why those These worldly people who are in the church why they do things
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Most of them I think are not outright frauds like Warnke Most of them
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I think Mean well, I mean worldly people but in the ministry
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They mean well often to the best of their knowledge. They think they're serving
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God Most of our like Warnke Billy just fraud spouting fiction to make a lot of money.
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Most aren't nearly that Fraudulent they just think God needs their help
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People need to be managed. God needs to be managed to get the result They want it's just people maybe people salvation.
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Maybe the growth of their church God needs their help. They think they need to he needs their cunning.
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Maybe sometimes you to hide some things and Not be fully open about what
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God's Word says God needs The help of our strategies, I'm gonna turn through translation and evangelists in Ethiopia manipulating incastigating the people to give more
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I don't know what they didn't have much to give but he was trying to get them to give whatever a little they had Promising them special blessings if they if they do give making a spectacle out of his own giving
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You know saying things like you give so much God will give you more in return Almost like a prosperity gospel kind of thing.
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I criticized that to the missionary. He was translating for me. I said, you know, that's manipulative The response back.
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Well, if we don't do that, the church doesn't get built The same missionary later told us how a supporting church in the u .s
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Sent them a questionnaire asking if they believed in a certain doctrine about the end times They they knew if they answered the question sincerely
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They would probably lose their support from that church so they wouldn't have enough money and so they would then
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Have to go back to the u .s. About to go home So they lied and said they did said they did believe that doctrine the rationale was simple
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If we tell the truth, we'll have to leave Ethiopia unable to support our mission. Those are disgraceful underhanded ways and people resort to them because They've lost heart
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They've lost heart that that God will support them that he always leads us in Triumphal procession as he
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Paul talked about in chapter 2 verse 14 When we're when we given ourselves to the spread of the gospel that he will supply our needs they've lost heart
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They don't really believe that anymore. God needs their help They think he needs maybe us to lie about some things so we could do the ministry
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So they think God needs their cunning to keep his work alive. Paul says he's renounced all that Of course some will say well just like those there's pragmatic missionaries, that's what that is
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That's pragmatism got to do what works. So lying cunning is what works Just like those pragmatic missionaries
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Some say, you know, if you don't do that, if you don't manipulate people if you're not cunning if you know you know
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Like basically try to deceive people about what God's Word really says. Well, then people won't believe
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The church won't be built People won't be saved. They won't accept the gospel. And so Paul admits at verse 3 our gospel is is veiled
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It stinks to some people as I said in the previous chapter to people on the broad road destruction
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It's associated with death to them. Some will say that well, then we need to find the key to unlock their hearts
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Maybe we need since it stinks to them. Maybe we need to perfume it so we hide the stink You know, that's what many people's strategy today.
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There's always a key some people think There's always a new tactic a
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Perfume that you can get to obscure What they what they say is the stink some way to get through to everyone if you just find it
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But scripture says that some people it says it right here are on the road to destruction Since here that they are perishing that's their destiny.
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That's where they're going and because they're perishing There's the gospel is veiled to them.
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They can't see it some That people on that broad road to destruction for them the gospel repulses them it stinks
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Notice the order of ideas in verse 3 We normally think people today normally think well people are perishing
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Because they can't see the gospel and so anything that we can do
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Even if it's cunning if it's manipulative if it's underhanded, it's not fully honest with scripture about what it says
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Any perfume we can put on it to obscure what they says thinks about it anything that we can do
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To Take the veil from their eyes Well, then they'll believe and then they won't be perishing anymore the ends
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Justify the means if you have to lie to a supporting church to stay in Ethiopia well, you got to do that if you have to promise people that if you give a
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Ethiopian money's a burr you have a burr that God will give you 100 back To get the if you had to lie to people to tell them that to get them to give
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Well, you got to do it You have to castigate him tell them they're going to hell because whatever whatever was said To get them to give with you got to do it the ends justify the means but he doesn't say that in verse 3
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He doesn't say that That they are perishing Because they can't see the gospel, but he says it the other way around They can't see the gospel
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Because they are perishing notice our gospel is veiled Only to those who are perishing
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They're on the road to destruction. And so the gospel is veiled to them. Notice It's not the gospel is veiled to them.
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So because of that they are perishing but it's the gospel is veiled to them because They are perishing that makes this perishing people can't see the gospel
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They are perishing people. And so the God of this world Satan veils the gospel to them
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For such people the God of this world in verse 4 has blinded their minds Satan prevents them from seeing this is other words.
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There's the light of the glory of Christ That is in the gospel and they can't see it because Satan won't let them and God is letting
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Satan not let them the light that is not fading that he wrote about in chapter 3
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They can't see that Because they're perishing but those who are perishing can't see the light because Satan keeps them from seeing their need is
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To see the light from Christ He says here who is the image Christ is the image of God that is the representation of God To all his people to all people now
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He doesn't mean by their by image that there's a like a picture of Christ on an icon or an image that we if we see
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That well that shows his glory and somehow will believe through that No, he means the message that the ministry of the
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New Covenant. He's talked about already That in and the Spirit speaking through that about Jesus and when you hear that Ministry when you hear that message you see
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Christ through that And if you're one of those he's saving you're not on you're not perishing
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Then you see that light you see that glory But if But if you're on if you're perishing you can't see it when the people whom
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God is saving those who are being saved We talked about last week when they hear the gospel. They see the glory of God in it
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It's not just facts about the gospel. They accept It's it's the image of God that they see in Christ and that message of Christ it shines with the glory of God that's why in verse 5 we are to proclaim
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Jesus Christ as Lord he says notice is not Jesus Christ as Savior or just forgiver or healer or sugar daddy
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But Lord we proclaim that and that shows the glory of God to those who are being saved
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They see that glory they see God in Christ and they believe and are saved we don't proclaim ourselves
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You look at me all my horrible history now, I'm You know now look what's happened
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Is though I'm such a good example if you turn your life around and follow my seven habits You too can become a highly successful person that may be fine out of a motivational speaker, but it's just not what we're about We we don't hold up ourselves
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He says even though that's what people love so often I love to hear stories of success people have autobiographical stories
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But those there should be rare In church because we're not supposed to be living up to ourselves
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But Jesus and besides if I was always telling favorable stories about myself, I'd be practicing cunning and deceit
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Even if I never overtly lied like Mike Warnke I'd be leaving you the deceptive impression because I'd be editing out the parts that aren't so favorable to myself
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I'd be loving you the deceptive impression that I'm this great saint the super Apostle Maybe you'd be looking at the wrong person
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Then you're supposed to look at the image of God in Christ and you look at him through through hearing the gospel
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Notice in verse 5 we don't lose heart resorting to manipulation because because we
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Because we long ago gave up believing that the Lord can save We don't do that But we lift up Jesus Christ as Lord and then
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We first God then others we proclaim Jesus as Lord Then ourselves as your servants for Jesus's sake as we serve you by proclaiming
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Jesus So your faith is attached to him now Why for this is the reason he explains the verse 6 others because we do all this we proclaim
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Jesus as Lord and Ourselves as your servants for his sake because the same
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God who created physical life who said let there be light He did that miracle without human help
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He didn't need our cunning and deceptive tactics to do that Did he to create light in the first place?
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He's already done the miracle of shining the light of the gospel in our hearts And so that we have the knowledge of the glory of God by knowing
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Jesus He didn't do that with our cunning and deceit either today many think we don't need a miracle That what we need are we need tactics we need strategies that we could get to know
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God ourselves We just follow the right steps if we manage people in the right way But here
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Paul says do not lose heart in what God can do even if you go through long dry spells
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But it seems that no one's responding. No, but no one's listening Those none of those kids are turning around God created light out of nothing
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He gave you spiritual light when you were blinded by Satan and he could do the same for many others
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What's the difference? Between the gospel and the cunning strategies of people the difference is the miracle working
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God Who gives light? what's the difference between trusting in our tactics and trusting in Jesus The difference is where the sufficiency comes from earlier in chapter 2 verse 16
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Remember he asked this rhetorical question, which sort of which is important for the whole passage Who is sufficient for these things this ministry of the
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New Covenant who is sufficient for this and the end and he answered that the Message that brings life and faith comes from Christ.
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He's sufficient. He writes the letter He writes the life and faith of the hearts of his people, but we are sufficient to deliver it not by ourselves
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But we're not by ourselves our sufficiency. So we have some sufficiency He says but chapter 3 verse 5 our sufficiency comes from God He develops that idea here from chapter 4 verse 7 to verse 18 contrasting ourselves by ourselves on the one hand with ourselves with God on the other
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He contrasts also our outward in our inward The scene and the unseen the eternal and the transient
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We are jars of clay. He says a Cheap container. It's what a jar of clay is.
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It's a cheap container. It's easy to make easy to break We aren't sufficient by ourselves
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But we're not by ourselves we have a treasure within us Christ in you the hope of glory a
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Transform life that is to be read like a letter of recommendation By others as in chapter 3 verse 2 and so we have this sufficiency and the insufficiency
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By ourselves insufficient if we're by ourselves but sufficient With God that's where our sufficiency comes from the jars of clay but the treasure inside and the contrast is on purpose to show as he says in verse 7 that the surpassing power belongs to God and Not to us.
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So we have a surpassing power It belongs to God Though not to us, but it's in us
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But it belongs to God. Where does the power the sufficiency come from? now revivalist in the past and those people are trying to manufacture
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Revivals that they were the right music the right tactics the right meetings have said that if you want to make a revival happen
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All you need to do is follow these steps. We are sufficient for these things. We can manage it
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But Paul says the treasure is in clay jars to show that the power of salvation the surpassing power it belongs to God That's what
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God is trying to show The power belongs to him and he's going to show it through us in our jars of clay.
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It belongs to God specifically Not to us and so we and others see that contrast look there's a passing power
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It belongs to God not to them we see that contrast verse 8 tells us picking up from chapter 1 we see in that the surprising fact of The if what affliction can bring we are afflicted in every way
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We're afflicted in every way so that people can see the surpassing power
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That belongs to God One of my old professors Paul Hebert tells this story about you know in India that some he was a missionary in India and The prosperity gospel was becoming popular with some
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Christians and some people, you know That you would show God's power by how successful God has made you that he's he's kept you
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Healed and healthy for your long lengthy life and made you wealthy the whole time and then in this one village a
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Young girl forgot how old exactly but a young girl gets sick and the villages the Christians are there are praying for that She'd be healed.
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They want the surpassing power to be demonstrated in the healing of this girl Look, we
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Christians have this power that raises our sick up so that we Christians we don't die young That's what some wanted
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But she died There were enough mature Christians among them and when they had the funeral
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Sure, they mourned but they more not like the world they mourned as people with hope and their neighbors saw
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Saw in them the surpassing power that the hope brings
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That's where the surpassing power is demonstrated to the world. They saw that it belongs to God not to us
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Here in verses 8 to 10, there are four contrasts each to show us what religious manipulators never learned
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That we are insufficient by ourselves But there were not by ourselves first afflicted in every way
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But not crushed Like a kind of like a nut pressed on hard But it won't crack
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We're a jar of clay easy to break If it's empty, but we're so full of treasure now, we're hard to break second perplexed by people who smell the gospel as As we're in triumphal procession smells like the aroma of life to us
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Yet it stinks to them that's perplexing to us We're wondering why why don't they understand it?
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It makes no sense to us, but we don't give up We don't throw up our hands. What's the use they are learning.
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It's a waste of time. They hate it It stinks to them. Let's cancel Jim jr So we can stay home and watch
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TV or let me give up preaching the word. I'll just give you some some few superficial
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Inspirational thoughts for 10 to 15 minutes. What's the use they aren't listening anyway perplexed sometimes.
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Yeah But not in despair not giving up third persecuted rejected
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Rejected Even for us I Religious people tell me straight to my face as we were contemplating moving in here that if we move into this gym
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They will oppose us We should be thankful that thankful to God that such people don't have the power of the government or they would have persecuted us
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Like they did Paul as it was they could only quote persecute us by refusing cooperation and money
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But we were not forsaken We had earnest Christians living in Houston in Singapore who who gave us the money for this place we were not forsaken fourth struck down Maybe as our jars of clay are shown to be only that very fragile easy to make
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Easy to break but not destroyed. We are he says in verse 10 always caring in The body of in our in the body the death of Jesus that is we suffer right now real
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Physical things for Paul. It was lashings and stoning and imprisonment For us, maybe not anything's quite so severe
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It may be just tiredness from coming to help with Jim jr. Over the gym We suffer that we might manifest the life of Jesus.
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We endure these things that our jars of clay May be shown to be insufficient there were just cheap pottery
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We're not even painted or glazed We're not fine China We're not good porcelain just jars of clay but holding a more than sufficient treasure
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The result of all this being hard -pressed perplexed persecuted struck down Maybe death for our insufficient jars of clay
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But it brings life for others our our tactics our cunning strategies
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Stories we make up to keep people's attention are almost always geared to spare us from having to suffer from having to die
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Just that the Lord Jesus was tempted in the desert To have a have a kingdom if only you bow down you can have a kingdom without dying
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He was tempted but he brought us life Through dying and he'll expect us like him
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To be willing to die if we want to bring life But but why in the world would we be willing to die to do that to die like him to have to spend part?
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of your retirement To return a decrepit old gym into a ministry center to miss quiet Saturday afternoons from for more
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Jim jr Because we we believe We believe that this is a treasure.
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We believe he raised God raised Jesus up We believe that he will raise up us up because we believe in God's grace and believe our purpose is to glorify
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Him so in verse 16 Again, just hear this refrain. We do not lose heart
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The contrast again between the insufficient jars of clay and the sufficient treasure
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Our outer self is wasting away our inner self Belonging to the kingdom of God to the age to come is being renewed
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So all the things we endure the being squeezed the perplexity the persecution
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The striking down sometimes the disappointments are in comparison to what we believe is coming light trifling
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It's almost as if it were nothing in the long run It would be as if you were asked in 1986
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Some of you were alive in in 1986 to invest every penny you had in Microsoft stock It was it was then that Microsoft went public its rise in stock produced four billionaires and 12 ,000 millionaires now imagine if you if you're alive in 1986
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You had scrounged together every penny you had to invest and Microsoft stock you sold your car
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So you don't have anything to drive you lived in the tent of the sidewalk So you could put your rent or mortgage money into it you ate beans and rice so you could put your food money into it
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Would you look back on that on that suffering that deprivation you put yourself through not having for a time any money
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Because you had invested it all in Microsoft Would you now look back on that all that was such a horrible?
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Burden and sacrifice can't believe I did that. Oh, of course not Yet they were the things you suffered for a short while To get rich.
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They were slight That's momentary. It's trifling Compared to the to the there's enormous wealth now that you've gained so Paul says the same about us.
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We don't lose heart even when we suffer because we're getting something so much better an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison
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There's nothing to compare it to What's the difference? between the treasure of the gospel and The jars of clay it's the difference between the transient and the eternal
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What's the difference between the treasure of the gospel in our jars of clay? Well the the home that the gospel gives is is spiritual built by God and lasting
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Again more contrast in chapter 5 verses 1 to 10. He compares our outer selves
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These jars of clay in chapter 5 verse 10. All right verse 2 to a tent
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Now tents are temporary dwellings. We don't expect to live in a tent For the long term, maybe most most of them probably just a few days maybe camping
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We live in houses for the long term not tenants what we long Whether we know it or not.
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He says in verses 2 to 4 to have that perfect spiritual body Talked about that last fall from tap from 1st
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Corinthians chapter 15 and he's building on that there So the same group of people reminding them this is the this is the body you have
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We groan for that. We want a what he calls a spiritual body. And if you remember from 1st
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Corinthians 15 That doesn't mean That we're just kind of looking forward to being these disembodied spirits floating around and you know on harps
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Sitting on clouds on harps now playing harps sitting on clouds having nothing more to do with with matter
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No, I may come as a shock to some but the Bible simply does not teach that our final goal is to be spirits in heaven
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That's not the end for us What what Paul's calls that's what Paul calls here being being naked in verse 3 or being unclothed in verse 4
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We were made to be clothed in a body to be to be without a body Would feel as unnatural kind of strange to us as being without clothing, especially if we're around other people
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It's just it's just that with sin our bodies our clothing Became mortal came subject to deterioration and death
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So our goal now is not Like in Shakespeare's Hamlet to shuffle off this mortal coil
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To be or not to be is not the question It's not to die and so with ourselves of the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to No, it's not
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Do not take from from this passage What is really an essentially pagan idea from Hamlet that death is a quota a consummation that is a final goal
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Said Hamlet devoutly to be wished for to die to sleep to sleep perchance to dream
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I there's the rub for in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil great poetry
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But it's bad theology. What we long for is not taking off this body
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But putting on a better one a spiritual one now spiritual doesn't mean non -physical
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It means immortal means eternally living in submission to God that we will have that spiritual body
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We are assured by the fact that we have the spirit Already living in us now.
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What's the difference? between the gospel and A religion that's about escaping this body detached being detached from this body the difference is the gospel gives us the
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Holy Spirit who assures us with it we will one day and eternally
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Have a spiritual body So because of that guarantee for the third time in this passage you hear that refrain we are of good courage we don't lose heart don't lose heart
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Sure now we are physically We're away from the Lord. We cannot that is we can't physically see him spiritually
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He's present but not not physically sure We should rather in verse 8 be we should rather be away from the body so that we can be home with the
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Lord But we're here now We have no sight of him as we can't
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See him physically There's no there's no man that we get to look at and no no the man we get to listen to his stories about himself
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People love testimonies often because they can then see their hero look there He is right in front of us, but our hero is
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Jesus whom we can't see yet We can know him
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We can be transformed to be like him. We can have the fellowship of his spirit.
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We can know his presence We can have his Holy Spirit in us and follow him every day
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But that's by faith We walk by faith. It's through faith
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That we live for him and living for him now by faith means that we're able to we're able to accept the reality that our body is temporary that It's jars of clay
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Fragile easy to make easy to break that is we're going to die
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Someone introduced me in a church, Oakland, California About to come up to preach
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John Carpenter is here to tell you how to die. I Thought that was a pretty good introduction. Actually, we're not terrorized by a virus because deep down we really you know
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Because because we're not people who deep down really think that we're not going to die Secretly thinking that our bodies are immortal surprised
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When they show us that they are mortal We of course we often people around us they deny that they that they're thinking that because we all know we're supposed to know better and If we're caught living or talking like we're immortal
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We'll say well, we're just pretending to be immortal But the fact is as a switch foot song puts it we pretend like we're pretending to be immortal and Another great switch foot line goes.
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No, I'm not sentimental The skin and bones is a rental and no one makes it out alive
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Then when we exchange our temporary body for our permanent one, we will be judged by Christ He says in verse 10 and then we'll receive a reward or punishment for what we did while we were in this
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Temporary dwelling did we sin with it or did we glorify God?
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with these jars of clay What we do in this body matters We cannot say well since the real loss is a spirit and it really doesn't matter
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What I do with my body just jars of clay would just throw it away It's cheap and no matter it doesn't matter whether committed morality with it
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Or we get drunk with it that his cravings as pleasures lead us. We will be judged He says for what we did in this temporary dwelling
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What's the difference between the gospel and the culture that lives for the body? the difference is the gospel gives us a spirit who guarantees that we can be of good courage that we can in the words of a children's prayer
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Learn to live that I may dread the grave as little as my bed
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The passage this passage all the way from chapter 2 verse 12 is about contrast about differences
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What's the difference? The gospel is different than anything that we can do for ourselves and that difference enables us
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To be of good courage to not lose heart Not be like Mike Warnke But be like William Carey Who went from England to be a missionary to India?
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He was sincere He was scoffed at by fellow believers He suffered the death of a son within his first year there in India and his wife went insane
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His own British government persecuted him and so he had to move to the Danish controlled parts of India Just so he could be free to be a missionary.
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He labored for his first seven years in India having lost a son His wife is insane.
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He's preaching. He's learning the language. He's translating and he did not have one convert He had absolutely nothing to show for it
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No visible signs of success But he believed He did not lose heart
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He believed in the gospel sincerely and he knew that he was an insufficient jar of clay
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But he was guaranteed by the Spirit that there's a treasure within him after seven years of being hard -pressed and perplexed
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And persecuted and struck down fruit Finally started to grow
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Glorious fruit more and more people came to believe so much so that today William William Carey is known as the father of modern missions
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He did not lose heart. He said expect great things from God attempt great things for God.
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He believed He was different Are you
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Do you lose heart? Do you believe are you different you say yes, then