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....(audio/transcription not available)...Corinthians chapter six. We will continue our verse-by-verse exposition of this epistle. And this morning we will be in verse 14 and go through chapter seven and verse one. And I've entitled my discourse to you "The Damning Consequences of Being Unequally Yoked." Follow along as I read the Word of God to you, Second Corinthians chapter six, beginning in verse 14. "Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, 'I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,' says the Lord. 'AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness, in the fear of God."

I have experienced a progressive alienation, especially over the last year, from some of my distant family members and friends and even other pastors; perhaps you have experienced the same thing. In fact, recently, a Christian friend felt he needed to confront me on my stand against the whole social justice movement, the social justice gospel. He rebuked me for not being what he called woke, and you're familiar probably with that term. He lectured me on the fact that I was blind to systemic racism, that I was blind to my white privilege, that I was blind to the needs of others to be somehow compensated for the way they have been abused over the years. He rebuked me for denouncing Black Lives Matter as racist, Neo Marxist, frankly, a satanic group. And as he proceeded and kind of gained steam, I finally said, "Brother, we need to stop here. Because I find everything that you have just said utterly reprehensible, and blasphemous. It is contrary to the Word of God, it is certainly a misrepresentation of what I believe, and with all due respect, I want to hear no more of this." And then I took him to this passage. Friends, this is a very important passage of Scripture, very instructive.

Obviously, there are cultural issues that are dividing our country today. And even dividing people in the church. To be sure, truth and error cannot coexist. As we are going to see there can be no partnership between righteousness and lawlessness; light and darkness cannot coexist. There is there is no harmony between Christ and Satan. And whenever the church embraces the things of the world, Christ is dishonored; Satan is exalted. And the church is weakened and divided. Now to be sure, America is in an ideological civil war right now that threatens the very survival of our country. Conservatives believe in individualism and personal responsibility. They believe in limited government, that's kind of at the heart of capitalism. Whereas liberals believe in a socially owned economy that requires broad government control to promote egalitarianism, which is really at the heart of democratic socialism that is gaining so much steam these days. They believe that individualism, that is inherent in capitalism, empowers the rich to oppress the poor. They believe that a white, patriarchal society, where white men enjoy power and privilege has disenfranchised other people. Now, here's the problem with this, our country was founded on Judeo Christian ethics that are inscribed in the Constitution of the United States. And since the Constitution holds sacred the doctrine of individualism that ensures, for example, private rights, and ownership to citizens, like you would read in the Fifth Amendment. This means that biblical Christianity is considered oppressive. In a current book that I'm writing entitled "Why America hates Biblical Christianity" I say this, quote, "The democratic socialists envision an egalitarian utopia that requires all social, gender, economic and political inequities to be eradicated. Practically speaking, this means the government must be in charge of defining what is fair and unfair. The government must determine what is morally and socially acceptable, then the government must equally distribute wealth opportunities, outcomes and privileges for the citizens; a subjective and arbitrary system of justice based solely upon the moral authority of man, not God. Obviously, Republicans or capitalists, and Christians believe this political ideology will not only infringe upon the rights of those the state deems morally and socially unacceptable and oppressive, it will also continue an aggressive, cancel culture and legal campaign to silence and eradicate all who oppose them. Especially those people who oppose a woman's right to dismember her inconvenient baby in her womb. Those who find the LGBTQ agenda morally reprehensible and those who believe gender is based upon biology, rather than personal preference."

Of course, Jesus fought for none of this. None of this has anything to do with the gospel. Who would have thought that a nation founded on Judeo Christian ethics would stray so far that by the year 2020, as some research indicates, only 6% of Americans hold a biblical worldview? And here we are. And what is even more unimaginable is that many Christian churches not only support many of the things that I've just described but are co-conspirators with them. And it's heartbreaking to me. Oh child of God, please understand, Satan is far more lethal when he joins the church than when he attacks it. This is at the heart of the text that we have before us this morning. Remember the context, Paul is defending his apostolic authority and his character against the scurrilous, slanderous attacks of false teachers that had infiltrated the church. They were wolves in sheep's clothing. They were predators in pulpits. They were teaching a mixture of Jewish legalism and pagan mysticism. And frankly, we have similar things today. We have legalists and sacramentalists and pragmatists and health/wealth charlatans and all kinds of other characters that are out there in churches. But theirs was a very appealing message to the very immature believers there in the church of Corinth; many of them still caught up in the worldly ways that they had been saved from. In fact, if you were to take the most depraved parts of the most immoral cities around the world and mix them together, you would have Corinth. Imagine coming out of that kind of culture, all the baggage that you would have that you would bring into the church.

They had temple prostitutes that roamed the streets at night. The sexually transmitted diseases were rampant, especially syphilis. Idol worship was a part of their trade guilds and their workplace environment--you think we have canceled culture today, it's nothing compared to what they had back then. But friends, this passage of Scripture is not demanding, that we as believers, be separated from ungodly people in the world and not have any social contact with them. That's not what this is about. However, I might add that there are other passages that warn us against not being conformed to this world like we would read in Romans 12 two. James four and verse four tells us that "friendship with the world is hostility toward God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world, makes himself an enemy of God." And we read likewise, in First John two beginning in verse 15, "Do not love the world nor the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." That said, we must remember that Jesus was "a friend of tax collectors and sinners," Luke 7:34. We must remember that we have a great commission to go into all the "world." So the people that are opposed to God, that are opposed to us, warrant maybe our pity, but they do not deserve our contempt. We should love them for the sake of the gospel.

You will recall in First Corinthians five beginning in verse nine, Paul says, "I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people." "Associate" means to keep intimate close company with--I don't want you to keep intimate close company with immoral people--"I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world." Evidently, some must have broken off all contact with unbelievers; he's not advocating that. Verse 11, "But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolatry, or a reviler"--which means an angry verbally abusive person--"or a drunkard or a swindler--not to even eat with such a one." By the way, that's not a representative list. That's not the intention here. We read, for example, in Second Corinthians three that we're not to associate with people that are lazy people that are unteachable, Titus 3:10, tells us that we are to reject a "hairetikos"--a factious man, and so forth. But he goes on in verse 12 of First Corinthians five and says, "For what have I to do with judging outsiders?" And the point is nothing. I mean, we evangelize the lost, we don't judge them for the purpose of maintaining purity in the church. They're not part of the church. He goes on to say, "Do you not judge those who are within the church?" Well, of course we do. You simply cannot allow persistent unrepentant patterns of sin and heresy to infect the church. Verse 13, he says, "But those who are outside, God judges. And then he adds this, "REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES." Dear ones, like an enemy spy embedded in a military, or like a terrorist living in your neighborhood, there is nothing more dangerous in a church than a person that holds beliefs that are contrary to the Word and to the will of God. There's nothing more dangerous than a person who calls Jesus "Lord", but refuses to do what he says. In fact, Jesus said that in Luke 6:46 "'Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?'" Tolerating this kind of unrepentant sin in a church will actually cause three things to happen. First of all, when you tolerate these things, it will cause the church to grow like crazy. Secondly, it will cause it to become more like the world and finally it will cause that church to lose its power and to lose blessing. Ichabod will be written across its doorway--the glory has departed.

And here Paul helps us see the damning consequences of being unequally yoked. Ignoring the Lord's commands will betray five frightening characteristics. Let me give them to you, and then we'll discuss them. It will betray a depraved mind, a dead faith, a defiant heart, a divisive spirit and a defiling religion. Once again, this is a very instructive, very important passage of scripture and I hope the simple outline will help you to grasp the great truths here in.

Notice again in verse 14, he says, "Do not be bound together with unbelievers." You see, Paul understands that unless the people in Corinth make a clean break from the false teachers attacking him and his inspired message, there will be no reconciliation; he understands that. "Bound together," translates a participial verb, "heterozygeo" which means "to be unequally yoked"; that's where we get that term. It could be translated "Do not be harnessed in an alien yoke with unbelievers." And Paul, no doubt, drew his analogy from Deuteronomy 22:10, where we read, "You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together." Obviously, such a mismatch of disparate species would be disastrous. Their temperament, their natural instincts, their gait, everything about their physiology would prevent them from working together.

I have to smile as a former horseman. I know the difference between what cattle can do, what horses can do; what mules can do and what donkeys can do. And believe me, you do not want to hitch them up together, or you will have a Chinese rodeo. Moreover, according to the dietary laws, the ox was considered a clean animal, but the donkey was unclean. Very interesting, the distinctions between that which was considered clean and unclean, was God's way of teaching great spiritual lessons with respect to being set apart from those things that God rejects. That which was clean was considered holy or set apart unto the Lord and therefore were worthy of God's blessing. That which was unclean symbolizes a state or a condition of being unclean, unholy, separated from God. I suppose the unclean donkey is a fitting mascot for the Democratic Party that embraces virtually everything that God abhors. So, Paul's point is simple, believers and unbelievers are two radically different species. And any intimate religious association between them is impossible. So do not be bound together with unbelievers in the spiritual religious realm, as you will see.

Now Satan wants just the opposite, right? How often do we see the little "coexist" bumper sticker on cars? I cringe every time I see that. And I pray for the poor fool who proudly affirms such deception. Again, Satan loves to join a church, he loves to fill it with unbelievers who have no discernment, who considers the things of the Spirit to be foolishness, who cannot understand them, because he's spiritually appraised. And then a church has no discernment, and they begin to believe anything and everything.

Politically and biblically speaking, we are to separate, or to refuse to have intimate fellowship and collaboration with believers essentially on two things, the gospel and the authority of Scripture, to put it real simply. Not personal preferences that have no legitimate basis in Scripture. We don't break fellowship with believers because they don't use the version of the Bible that we do or because they wear different clothes or they, I don't know, they have a different style of music, or they have tattoos or they drink wine or all of those types of things. We separate on matters pertaining to the purity of the gospel, and the authority of the inspired, infallible word of God. This is why I will not join in the local ministerial alliance. This is why I will not be a part of any of the ecumenical associations--I get these things all the time wanting me to be a part of those things. Because too many of the people in those organizations preach a false gospel and they have no respect for the authority of Scripture. I'm not going to join in with lesbian pastors and women pastors and people that embrace all of these crazy things that are out there. This is why evangelicalism frankly, today, is kind of an amorphous amalgam of Christians in name only. In fact, I was reading a recent article by John MacArthur, "Is the Evangelical Movement Really Evangelical?" I'll give you a little sample he writes, quote, "Recent surveys reveal that a large percentage of people who self-identify as evangelical do not understand even the most basic principles of gospel truth. In a recent poll of self-styled evangelicals, 52% said they reject the concept of absolute truth. 61% do not read the Bible daily. 75% believe people are basically good. 48% believe salvation can be earned by good works. 44% believe the Bible does not condemn abortion. 43% believed Jesus may have sinned. 78% believed Jesus is the first being created by God. 46% believed the Holy Spirit is a force rather than a person. 40% believe lying is morally acceptable in certain circumstances. 34% accept same sex marriage as consistent with biblical teaching. And 26% reject Scripture as God's word. And 50% say church attendance is not necessary." Folks, we're not to be bound together with people that believe those kinds of things. We can be kind to them, cordial to them, but we're certainly not going to pursue spiritual ends with them. And to do so makes a person a co-conspirator with them. Moreover, it provides them with a false assurance that somehow all is well between them and God, when in fact it is not.

We're not to join together with unbelievers in any kind of a spiritual cause, or union, by the way, including marriage. Marriage is to be a sacred covenant, one that God ordained to illustrate God's covenantal love for his bridal church. And you're gonna marry somebody that rejects Christ? To do so will result in disaster and you'll forfeit God's blessing and initiate his chastening. So such disobedience betrays these five frightening characteristics. Let's look at them for a moment here this morning.

First of all, to embrace these things, to ignore what God has commanded in this regard, betrays number one, a depraved mind. And I'm using this in the sense that it was used in Romans 1:28. You will recall there, Paul describes those that do "not see fit to acknowledge God" are given over to a "depraved mind to do those things that are not proper." "Depraved"--"adokimos" in the original language--means "worthless," it means "irrational." Morally reprehensible, despicable. And here's why I would say that, and Paul gives us a series of questions here to prove his point. First of all, in verse 14, he says, "For what partnership," literally what fellowship, "have righteousness and lawlessness?" Obviously, the answer is none. They are opposites. Righteousness marks the heart and the life of a believer. Lawlessness is the mark of an unbeliever. God has imputed his righteousness to believers. We see this in the new nature of a believer. First John three beginning in verse four, "Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness." He goes on to say, "Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil; and the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he's born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God." And Paul tells us in Romans chapter six and verse 19, that unbelievers are "slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness." And we know that the unbeliever will one day stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and hear that dreadful sentence "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness," Matthew 7:23.

So, the question is, why would anyone want to participate in a spiritual endeavor to honor God, when that person, who in truth, rejects him and is destined to eternal wrath? What kind of depraved mind even considers that kind of thing? Secondly, he asked another question, "or what fellowship has light with darkness?" I mean, think about it, light is the absence of darkness, and darkness is the absence of light, the two cannot coexist. Light in Scripture is always a metaphor, for truth, and for holiness. In fact, in John 8:12, Jesus said, "'I am the,'" what? "'The light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the Light of life." And we read in First Thessalonians five, beginning of verse five, we are "sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do but let us be alert and sober." And we know that our eternal destiny will be the ineffable and glorious light of heaven, where, according to Revelation 22, verse five, "there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever."

Now, contrast that with darkness, a metaphor that describes evil and deception, and Satan's kingdom of darkness. We see this all through Scripture. We know that Satan, at times, will disguise himself as an angel of light to deceive people in churches and seminaries and Bible colleges and Bible universities, and every other influential world system that he controls. Jesus said, in Luke 22:53, that Satan has the power of darkness. Why would you want to be a part of somebody that's a part of that. Ephesians 6:12, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers against the world forces of this darkness." And tragically, we know that sinners love darkness, rather than light. John 3:19, we read, "This as the judgment, that the Light has come into the world. And men love the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his the deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

I think of Paul who in Acts 26, in verse 18, was sent by God, quote, "to open their eyes, “referring to the Gentiles, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me." So, what Paul is saying is, really are you going to dialogue with other faiths that reject Christ, that reject his Word? Are you going to join together in an interfaith initiatives for global peace and climate change and social justice and same sex marriage and transgender rights and radical feminism and all of these kinds of things? Really, you're going to do that? We're told in Ephesians 5:11, "Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them."

He asks another question, number three in verse 15, "Or what harmony has Christ with Belial?" "Symphonesis"-- harmony; it means "agreement." We get our English word "symphony" from that word. "What harmony has Christ with Belial?" Belial was an ancient word for Satan. I mean we serve Christ, we're not part of Satan's kingdom, we've been delivered from that. It's an opposing kingdom. Colossians 1:13, "He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Causing us to, according to Acts 26:18, "turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God." And my friend, I would ask you this morning, "to which kingdom do you belong?" To the kingdom that is accessed by repented faith in the living Christ, or to the kingdom of Satan that opposes God and seeks your eternal destruction? Don't be deceived. One day, every single person in here, every single person who has ever lived, will bow before the Lord Jesus Christ and will do so either in humble adoration or defiant trepidation. One or the other. If you reject Christ, you will hear him say "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master," Matthew 25:22. But if not, you will hear him say throw out "the worthless slave into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And my friend, your response to the King's provision of saving grace, set forth in the gospel, will determine your eternal destiny.

He asked the fourth question in verse 15. "Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?" You've probably heard what I've heard many times, "you Christians are from another planet." You ever heard that? Or something along that line? And you know, at some level, they're really right. I always laugh when I hear that. Jesus said in John 17:14, "'they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.'" And boy, the more you are around ungodly people, the more you realize you're just a freak. You're an alien. I just don't belong here. Jesus said in John 15:19, "'If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you." So to be unequally yoked with an unbeliever in a spiritual enterprise to honor God, betrays a depraved and irrational mind. God asked apostate Israel in Amos three three "Can two walk together unless they are agreed?" And of course they can't.

But not only does this betray a depraved mind, but secondly, a dead faith. Notice verse 16, "Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? We are the temple of the living God; just as God said, 'I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.'"

Here Paul harkens back to the numerous examples of Israel mixing pagan, idolatrous practices with the worship of the one true and living God. And sometimes they even did this inside the temple, which is inconceivable. In fact, the kings of Judah, you will recall, had erected, according to Jeremiah 7:31, "the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom." That is an East West Valley at the south end of Jerusalem. The term "Topheth" comes from the Hebrew word "tof", which means drum. It was in that valley of Hinnom, where the ancient Israelites would sacrifice their children to the idol of Molech, by throwing them alive into the fire, and the drums would be pounded loudly to drown out their screams. In Jesus' day, the Valley of Hinnom was also called Gehenna. A garbage dump where fires burned continually, and it was a place of massacre and now a place of perpetual flames that became a symbol of the eternal fires of hell. In fact, Jesus described it in Matthew 5:22 as "pyrho geenna" which means fiery hell. Dear Christian, this is where spiritual compromise and being unequally yoked will take you. This is why we have to guard it in our in our lives, in our heart, in our families, in our church. As believers, we are the temple of the living God. Think about that. He has redeemed us that he might inhabit us; the triune Godhead dwells within us. Anyone wishing to bring some blasphemous counterfeit into God's sanctuary betrays a dead faith that cannot save.

Thirdly betrays a defiant heart. Verse 17, he says, "Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,' says the Lord. AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN.'" In other words, make a break from all that defiles the temple of the living God; all of the false religious beliefs; all of the unclean false teaching described in the New Testament, doctrines of demons. I know of churches that have embraced, for example, evangelical pragmatism, this idea that you've got to become more like the world in order to win it. If they like us, maybe they'll like Jesus. So they removed everything that spiritually dead sinners that walk in the futility of their mind that are darkened in their understanding, might find defensive. They present some phony gospel that will appeal to everybody. They avoid sound biblical doctrine. They think it's too divisive. They dumb everything down to a point where people don't know anything; they have no spiritual discernment. They never discipline sin and as a result, they become nothing more than a religious country club. You know, people today are empty. We see this so often, we're seeing it more and more. People are crying out for truth. They listen to the media, and even to many of the politicians and they know they're being lied to. We are drowning in an ocean of deception. Here, tickling preachers have banished their congregations to an island of spiritual infancy at best or spiritual bankruptcy at worst. Because they won't preach the truth. Oh, if you do that people are gonna get mad and leave your church, let them leave. Give them the truth of the gospel. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. I talked with a prominent teacher in a large evangelical church just recently. I was fascinated that he did not understand the phrase, "the doctrines of grace." Didn't know what I was talking about. And he also admitted that he knew nothing of the Protestant Reformation. And he also believed that Roman Catholicism and Mormonism are Christian denominations. Dear child of God, avoid being in close fellowship with these kinds of people. As nice and as friendly as they might be. They are to true believers and to the church. What Round Up is to grass--a little bit will make you sick and a lot of them will kill it. It will kill a church; it will kill your family. Avoid reading their Facebook pages, unfriend them. I think I know what that means, I'm not a Facebook person, but I think that's kind of a Christian cancel culture, right? You can punch a little button and unfriend them. You don't have to put that poison in before you. I've read some things...Nancy will call me, "Honey, you gotta read this thing. Okay, what is it? She says, "look what's so and so said." And I read this godless venom and we both just kind of roll our eyes. Can you believe that person goes to such and such a church? Can you believe this person calls Jesus Lord? Incomprehensible.

By the way, Be especially careful interacting with apostates. Their lies are like an opiate that clouds the mind and corrupts the soul. In fact, Jude tells us to handle these type of people with "much apprehension lest you be contaminated by them." We've all been around some notorious false teachers before. Jude 23 says "snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear." But he says "hating even the garment polluted by the flesh." They are a contaminating influence. That's the point. By the way, false teachers are demonic, you must understand that they are demonic. But their counterfeit truths are both brilliant, and compelling to the naive and to the ignorant. And often they know error better than Christians know truth. Dear church family, young people in particular, guard your heart and your mind with the truth of the Word of God. Fill your heart and your mind with God's wisdom, not man's wisdom, Peter says in First Peter 1:14, "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, 'YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.'" And folks, refusing to come out and be separate from these kinds of people, even if they're in your family puts you in a place of contamination and pollution, and it betrays a defiant heart. God has told you not to do that. Do you really think you're somehow excluded from that command, because of your unique situation?

Number four, it betrays a divisive spirit when you do this, notice, verse 17, God says, "'And I will welcome you.'" The term, "eisdechomai" in the original language; it carries the idea of finding favor from God as a result of obedience to His command; to be separate from phony worshipers in the church. That's the context here. To disobey, therefore, betrays the divisive spirit. It betrays a person that says, you know, God, this doesn't really apply to me. I'm not really worried about being cut off from intimate fellowship and blessing that you would like to lavish upon me. So I'll kind of do my own thing. But he says, "I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' says, the Lord Almighty." You know, I am sure I speak for all of you, there is nothing I wouldn't do for my children and for my grandchildren. I love them, I would give my life, just like this, for them. There is nothing that would cause me to not love them. But boy, there are things that even our children can do that can break fellowship.

Paul was probably drawing his analogy here from God's unconditional covenant with David in Second Samuel seven. You remember there he made an irrevocable pledge, that a king from the line of David would rule forever--that will be fulfilled ultimately in his millennial kingdom. We read about this in Ezekiel 37, and Zechariah 14 and Revelation 19. And then Second Samuel seven, verse 14, God speaks of a coming descendant of David, and he says the same phrase, "'I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me.'" Same phrase that Paul uses here First Corinthians 6:18. Now, the immediate reference was Solomon, although the ultimate reference is the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. But indeed, we know that when Solomon obeyed God, and remained separate from their idolatrous practices of the culture, God blessed him, but when he disobeyed, God judged him. That's why in the last half of Second Samuel 7:14, we read, "When he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men."

And you will probably remember the story of Solomon. Solomon was supposed to be the wisest man, and I'm sure he was, but he still had an evil streak in him. And he disregarded God's command. He had a divisive spirit; he preferred his own pleasure over God's blessing. So he decided to have fellowship with idolaters and God judged him severely. We read about this in First Kings chapter 11. He says, "Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the sons of Israel, 'You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.'" And then we read this, “Solomon held fast to these in love." He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem. And for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon." I described that to you with some of their child sacrifices. The text goes on to say this, "also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. Now, the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded. So the Lord said to Solomon, 'Because you have done this, and you have not kept My commandment and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.'" Beloved, this is what happens when you ignore what God has commanded. This is what Paul is saying here, Second Corinthians 6:18, that he wants intimate fellowship with us. He wants to bless us, but if you spurn his commandment, and you refuse to separate yourselves from those who are even a part of the church who call themselves Christians, who believe things that are an abomination to the living God, you will forfeit blessing in your life and God will chasten you. And we see evidence of this everywhere today.

Well, you notice he closes this passionate section of admonitions by saying, chapter seven verse one, "Therefore having these promises." What promise? What's he referring to? Well, those that he just described in chapter six, verses 16, through 18..."THAT I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; I WILL BE THEIR GOD AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE...I will welcome you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me." By the way, all of you, who know and love Christ, and who walk with Him in obedience, understand the soul satisfying joy, that exhilarating reality of the presence of the living God within your soul. Because you're walking in harmony with Him, you're being obedient to Him. And it's for this reason he tells them, "Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,' says the Lord." Those are the promises.

It not only betrays a depraved mind, a dead faith, a defiant heart and a divisive spirit, but finally, a defiling religion. Any religious alliance with unbelievers is an insult to the Most High God, because it defiles. The word "defile" means "to corrupt," "to pollute." It defiles you, and it defiles your family, and it defiles your church and as a result, you forfeit God's blessing. Worse yet, you've sacrificed the joy and the power of having an intimate communion with God. O dear Christian, come out and be separate from professing Christians who advocate things that are unbiblical. Yes, love them, be kind to them, present truth to them. But don't join in with them. Don't be a part of their church. Don't sit under their teaching. Don't read their books, don't read their blogs. Again, separate on the purity of the gospel and the authority of Scripture. Because to embrace these things, or have close fellowship with those who do, betrays a defiling religion, that is frankly a stench in the nostrils of God.

"Therefore, having these promises," he's going to bless us and those who fail to take this seriously know little of the joy of his presence in their life because they grieve the Spirit of God, they quench the Spirit of God in their life. And that begins to manifest itself in how they live their life. They begin to have a secret life that is morally reprehensible to God. Their marriage, reversed to kind of a roommate status, at best, divorce at worst. Their children do not walk with the Lord because they get no shepherding in the home, and on and on it goes. They have chosen division over unity. They have chosen estrangement over fellowship, and how ungrateful for we as believers to embrace these kinds of things that God finds have abhorrent. And therefore, in essence, say, "God, thanks for all the wonderful things that you've done in my life and all of the things that you want to do, but you know what, this is really important to me. I really like these people. I don't want to cause any disunity. I don't want to rock the boat. I mean, after all, we all need to get we want to love everybody, right? So we just need to be tolerant here." No, dear friends, you've got to be careful with that. We need to be separate. We don't need to be unequally yoked with ungodly hypocrites.

"Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves." "Ourselves" is a reflexive pronoun, we call it in Greek grammar, and in this context, it acknowledges God is the one who does the cleansing. Nevertheless, it also reveals that we, as believers, are required to put forth effort. "Let us go cleanse ourselves from all defilement of," notice, "flesh, and spirit." In other words, let's be clean on the inside and on the outside, any of us can put on a good show but God sees the heart. Then he says, "perfecting,"--could be translated "completing" or "finishing"--"holiness in the fear of God." In other words, we do all of these things because we have a reverential awe of his glorious person and work in our life. Maurice Roberts said, quote, "If society is to be awakened one day from its deep slumber, it will only be done by Christians who have first woken up themselves to the full splendor of their privilege, and who have taken seriously the call to live holy and entirely for God."

Well, dear friends, providence has placed these truths before you. The question now is, what will you do with them? What will you do with them? I challenge you to take these things seriously. May I plead with you to take these things seriously. I have lived long enough and worked so many hours with so many people. I know, horror stories, by the 1000s, of what happens to people who ignore what God has said here. Spiritual, doctrinal compromise is a slippery slope. And once you go too far, the gravity of evil will overpower you and pull you into a life of untold misery. And so because of my love for you and my love for the Word of God, I warn you, this is the damning consequence of being unequally yoked. But for those who are willing to cleanse themselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of God, the outcome is very different. That person will be marked by the fruits of the Spirit. And I'm so thankful that I can honestly say, what I have preached today is basically preaching to the choir, because you are these people, and I rejoice that you love the truths of the Word of God and you're willing to separate yourselves from things that are an abomination to Him. May God's Spirit plant these truths deep within your heart and cause them to bear much fruit for the glory of Christ Jesus, our Savior and our coming King. Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for your Word, it speaks so practically to us. But I plead with you that by the power of your Spirit, you will help us to live out these great truths. I pray as Paul did that, you will grant us according to the riches of your glory to be strengthened with power, through your Spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. And then each of us being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that we may be filled up to all the fullness of God. I pray that you will grant all these things in Jesus name.

It's thrilling to be up here and hear your voices coming this way. What a joy it is to sing the songs of redemption, because of what Christ has done in us. Will you take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter six. We continue to make our way through this epistle; we are going to be looking at verses 11 through 13. And then jump over to chapter seven in verses two through four. These verses are actually bookends if you will, that support the intervening section and Second Corinthians six beginning in verse 14 through chapter seven and verse one. And in that intervening section, Paul will be exhorting believers to not be bound together with unbelievers in any kind of religious enterprise or event and so forth a strong warning against ecumenism, where tolerance is preferred over truth. And, of course, the motivation for this stern warning is going to be his great love for Christ and for all who belong to Christ, though some had spurned his love, as you may recall. So let me read the passage and then we will look at it closely and see what the Spirit of God has for us this morning. Second Corinthians six beginning in verse 11, Paul says, "Our mouth has spoken freely to you, oh, Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now in a like exchange--I speak as to children--open wide to us also." And then in chapter seven and verse two, the other bookend he says, "Make room for us in your hearts; we wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we took advantage of no one. I do not speak to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. Great is my confidence in you; great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort; I'm overflowing with joy in all our affliction."

Now once again, remember the context. Paul is defending his apostolic authority and the message of the gospel against the the scurrilous attacks of the false teachers that are doing everything they can to undermine him and to gain a following within the church. Satan has commissioned basically some phonies to attack the apostle Paul, they've come into the church. In fact, the ringleader is probably the thorn in the flesh that Paul mentions; they were vicious wolves in sheep's clothing. In other words, they were dressed up, so to speak, as true shepherds. They looked like real pastors. They talked like them. They talked as though they were messengers from God. And many sheep began to follow them, but they were vicious predators. They were phony believers who were superficially attached to the church, as often happens, and they saw how that becoming part of the church they could gain some recognition, gain some power, make a little money. And they began to deceive naive and ignorant believers into following them. This was breaking Paul's heart. They were the original televangelists. They were the original charismatic prosperity preachers, the original Pentecostal screamers, the original megachurch charlatans. And they said that Paul was basically immoral, and that was the reason for all of his suffering, and all of his persecution, because God was punishing him. They led people to believe that he was deceitfully manipulative; that he was trying to fill his pockets with money, just a con artist; that he was a self-appointed false teacher who merely fabricated his message and ultimately distorted the true Word of God.

Now, I want you to be reminded of something very important. And that is, Satan prefers to join a church rather than attack it. Because he knows that if he attacks the church, it will get stronger. And that's what we've seen historically. So, the great strategy then is to infiltrate the church. In fact, that strategy basically looks like this infiltrate, deceive....(glitch in audio, not transcribable). They gain influence in our classrooms, in our media, in our pulpits (glitch in audio, not transcribable)... with their immorality, and with promises they know they could never keep and today we see their foot soldiers rioting in the streets. I was reading how just last week in a place called Moscow, Idaho. Interesting name. I've been to Moscow, Russia and what happened in Moscow, Idaho is really rather similar. There, the city arrested several Christians for gathering together in the streets and singing hymns. One man was charged for not social distancing and flouting the facemask order. And a husband and wife were arrested on charges of singing too closely together. What an amazing double standard. Here we have violent antifa anarchists and BLM domestic terrorists allowed to flood our streets, intimidate citizens, and on and on it goes; they're allowed to riot, to loot and to burn. Police have even been killed, but Christians can't sing, and they can't worship and churches. You say how does this happen? The strategy was put into place. Immoral God-hating people have infiltrated positions of power. Once again, they infiltrate, they deceive, they divide, they intimidate, and they conquer. In Los Angeles County, I'm sure you're aware of how they have sought to shut down Grace Community Church, where my good friend and mentor Dr. John MacArthur is pastor and many other friends that I have there and many of your friends--some of you came out of that church. They have been accused of not complying with what are frankly irrational and draconian COVID restrictions that violate first amendment rights. The right that we have under the Constitution, to exercise freely our religion to have peaceable assemblies and so forth. And now they are being charged with contempt of court. And their attorneys from the Thomas Moore society have been successful in challenging the constitutionality of the county's orders and a judge has agreed to the fact that they are entitled to a trial and so that's coming up. Thomas Moore society Special Counsel Jenna Willis explained quote, I'm sorry, Jenna Ellis said, quote, "This is significant because no person can or should be held in contempt of a constitutionally invalid order. Los Angeles County continues to presume that its order is valid with utter disregard for First Amendment protections. It is tyranny to even suggest that a government action cannot be challenged and must be obeyed without question. This case goes to the heart of what our founders designed for the purpose of legitimate government--not to be above the rule of law. Pastor MacArthur is simply holding church which is clearly his constitutionally protected right in this country.” But again, how does this happen? In America? There's the strategy, you infiltrate, you deceive, you divide, you intimidate. And then you conquer.

Pastor MacArthur declared, quote, "We are holding Church. The Lord Jesus requires us to meet together, and we will continue to do that because we are commanded to and because it is our right. I'm very grateful to Judge Beckloff for providing full due process and recognizing the importance of these constitutional protections. The reality is that the county cannot show that their order is even rational, much less necessary. They have also applied their orders arbitrarily and discriminatorily against churches and we enjoy a heightened protection in America to hold church. I'll continue to stand firm, and we will continue to fight to protect religious freedom for the church." Those are some examples. And there's many more, you all are familiar, I don't need to belabor the point. But folks, what I want you to understand what Paul was dealing with is the same type of thing in the church. That is how Satan works in a church--infiltrate with false believers, or sometimes with believers who are just unwitting in the errors that they teach, and then deceive and divide and intimidate and conquer. And we see this all the time today. We see apostate, compromising, politically correct seminaries, training heretics, and graduating ungodly men and women and then unleashing them upon the church. Churches then begin to attract more unbelievers than believers. Therefore, they understand nothing about the Scripture, their undiscerning and being unsaved, congregations end up loving darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. This is what Paul was afraid of. This was his great concern. By the way, this is my great concern for Calvary Bible Church. This is the elder’s great concern. And I know, I would assume, all of you share that concern. And for this reason, we're on guard constantly because we know that a little leaven, what? Leavens the whole lump. If you have a little bit of cancer, what do you do? I don't worry about it, not that big a deal. Know how you get rid of it. Eventually, people that believe error and begin to promote it, undermine the truth in a church, and then they will outright attack it. And then in an effort to promote their own agenda, they will cause all kinds of problems, they will deceive. Some people in the church usually first their closest friends and enemies, I mean, and family, and they will become enemies of the church. And then they will recruit them to join their cause, and they will become the foot soldiers of slander and destruction in a church. And of course, this can just wear down a church, especially the pastors and the elders. We haven't had much of that in our church, but we've had some, and those of you that have been a part of those things, know that it's difficult. I've kind of learned to just rise above it, you just kind of keep moving on. In fact, when I'm attacked, I just fight harder and just keep moving on, you know, because I know ultimately, it's the Lord's church. In the early years of Charles Spurgeon's ministry, the pain of slander and scorn, was so great that he was tempted to quit. In fact, his wife, Susannah would often hide the morning newspaper to protect him from further insults. And he described the melancholy that he endured this way, quote, "The iron bolt, which so mysteriously fastens the door of hope, and holds our spirits in a gloomy prison, needs a heavenly hand to push it back." He also said, "Scarce a day rolls over my head in which the most villainous abuse, the most fearful slander is not uttered against me both privately and by the public press. Every engine is employed to put down God's minister; every lie that man can invent is hurled at me." End quote. We saw the same thing in the 20th century with another great preacher, Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones. And he took the same type of biblical stance that Spurgeon, and many others have taken, down through the history of the church; the stands that we take. The stands that you would see for example, in the solas that are around this worship center. And he was likewise slandered. For example, in 1966, the Evangelical Alliance Assembly he said he was quote, "wrecking evangelical unity." And regarding Lloyd Jones, J. I Packer wrote this, "His peers and official Christianity treating him as scarcely more than an extremely able freak. Bing themselves consciously and complacently," catch this, "progressive. They saw him as a throwback to a type of ministry that as a general pattern, had long since ceased to be viable." He went on to say, "that a deep level isolation for most of his ecclesiastical peers, was a permanent part of the doctor's experience."

Well, folks, this is going to be the fate of every faithful pastor, every faithful church leader and every faithful saint until the Lord returns. So, get used to it. But we got to learn how to deal with it, biblically. And the question is, how should how should a pastor, how should church leaders, respond to unfair criticism and slander? What do you do with that? And as believers, how do we respond to attacks and bitter resentment, especially from people that you know have proven wickedness in their lives? Well, of course, the answer is we are to respond in love. But what does that look like? Well, I would submit to you that we see it here in this passage, and many others. Love will manifest itself in five ways that we will examine here this morning. It will first of all speak truthfully in love. Secondly, overlook offenses and restore fellowship, walk in integrity of heart, believe the best and offer joyful praise. That's what we're going to see Paul did. Too often we're tempted to do the opposite, aren't we? We tend to speak dishonestly. Or we use flattery, or we obfuscate to avoid the hard truths. We keep a record of wrongs. We sabotage any hope of reconciliation and fellowship; we walk in hypocrisy of heart, rather than integrity of heart. We want to believe the worst about people. We want to offer bitter incrimination instead of joyful praise. So, let's look at this closely.

First of all, I find it interesting that Paul chose to speak truthfully in love. Notice the text, chapter six, verse 11, "Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide." "Open wide" literally means it is enlarged, it is warm emotionally. And notice how he's speaking with compassion here. "O Corinthians"-- can't you just hear him? Probably with tears in his eyes? "O Corinthians, our mouth has spoken freely to you." The term and the original language means that he's speaking forthrightly. He speaks to them candidly, straightforwardly, honestly, without reserve. He's saying, my mouth is open, and my heart is wide open. That's the point. And we know that the mouth expresses what is in the heart. So we know that Paul spoke to them the truth in love, telling them what they needed to hear, not necessarily what they wanted to hear. And why? Because of his great love for them. This is what we must do in evangelism. Right? We must unleash the gospel even in all of its offense and do so winsomely with great love. This is what the church must do. And throughout both epistles, here to the Corinthians, we see Paul doing this over and over. He speaks candidly, he speaks forthrightly, no obfuscation. No beating around the bush. No subtle innuendos, no watered down, I don't want to upset you, mollycoddling, none of that type of thing. No, he loved them too much for that. He spoke truth to them. He feared God more than man. I think of Proverbs 28:23 where we read, "He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with the tongue."

If I can put it this way, folks, he was willing to look them in the eye and talk straight with them. And as you will recall, if you read the Corinthian epistles, you will just see him saying things like, "you people are divisive, you people are worldly, you people are immoral." He said, I could not even speak to you as to spiritual men, but as men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food for you are not able to receive it. And even now you're not able to receive it because you're fleshly, you're worldly. You're filled with jealousy and strife, he says. You're walking like mere men, meaning unsaved men. You're arrogant, he tells them, you're selfish. He even challenged them in chapter 13 and verse five, to examine your faith to see if you're even born again. Is your faith even genuine? Then he said in First Corinthians 4:14, "I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children." Boy, as parents, we know what that's like, right? You know, when little Thurlow does something that is really bad, we have to sit him down, and we have to talk straight to him. I've done that with my kids and my grandkids. And I can remember many times where I say, I want you to look at Daddy. Or now in these years, look at Papa, look me in the eye. And what did tell Papa tell you, Papa told you not to ever do this, right? You remember that? Yeah. And you did this and this and this, now do you understand that that's dishonoring to God, and it's dishonoring to your grandparents, et cetera, et cetera, you get the point. Now, why would you do that? Because you're cruel? Because you love them. And you want the best for them. Look, folks, when you've been slandered or treated wickedly, what you need to do set up an appointment. Need to sit down with someone and say, "We need to talk. In honor of my great for love for you, I want to speak truth to you in love. But I we need to talk." Proverbs 27 verse six, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend." You need to confront these things. In fact, in Matthew, chapter 18, there's a fourfold process to do this. Galatians six says that we are to "restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness." That's the idea. And we do all of this out of love. Romans, chapter 12 and verse 18, says, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men." So you do all you can, it doesn't mean it's always going to come out well, but you're praying for that. You're seeking that and you're willing to speak the truth in love. That's what Paul did. Remember Second Corinthians two verse four. He says, "Out of much affliction, and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love, which I have, especially for you."

Now, if we go back to the text, I want you to notice verse 12. He's going to practice what he preached in verse 11. He's going to speak candidly with them. He says, "You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. The term "restrained" in the original language means to confine or to make narrow, to constrict. He's saying, basically," Look, folks, there is no restriction in my affection for you. But there is in your affection for me. My heart remains open to you. But you've closed your heart off to me. That is wrong. You're treating me with contempt, you're treating me with suspicion. You're treating me with distrust." So anyway, the first thing that Paul does is, he speaks truthfully in love.

Secondly, love will overlook offenses and restore fellowship. We could put in there, "seek" to restore fellowship, "try to restore fellowship. Verse 13, "Now and like exchange--I speak as to children--open wide to us also. Folks, this is so precious. I know as a pastor, the pain of slander, and the pain of seeing people that you love do and say things that you know are so wrong, that God is going to chasten them for it. Paul is hurting here. I mean, you would be hurting if people that you loved believed lies about you. And we're discrediting you and undermining your message. And he's saying "please, Corinthians, you're my spiritual children, I'm your spiritual father, open up your heart to me, as I have to you." That's what he's saying

Then if we jump over to the other bookend in chapter seven and verse two, He says it again, "Make room for us in your hearts." And here again, he's drawing from the verses here in chapter six verses 11 and 13. And we see the same thing when he says in verse three of chapter seven, "I do not speak to condemn you." "Condemn"--"katakrisis" in the original language. It was a judicial term. It's the act of pronouncing someone as guilty in a criminal case, it was the idea of passing final judgment. It was used only one other place in the New Testament. In chapter three and verse nine, where it refers to the work of the law, bringing condemnation upon sinners. So what Paul is saying is, look, that's not my motive here. That's not my desire. That is not my intention. There is no final verdict of condemnation in the law of love. I'm not saying look, I am finished with you get out of my life, I don't want anything to do with you ever again. That's not what he's saying. No, no, no, no, no. He was willing to overlook their offenses and restore fellowship. Certainly, that was his prayer. That must be our prayer. And that can happen where there's real repentance and asking for forgiveness. By the way, aren't you thankful the Lord is that way with us. Proverbs 19, verse 11, "It's a man's glory, to overlook a transgression." Our flesh doesn't want to do that. Our flesh wants to spot it, exaggerate it, and then publish it right? And then justify our anger. That's our flesh. First Corinthians 13 five, "Love does not take into account a wrong suffered." First Peter four eight, "because love covers a multitude of sins." Folks, it's so easy in our flesh to become "splinter hunters." We're looking along, everybody up, there's a splinter in your eye. There's a speck in your eye, rather than seeing the log in your own.

So, Paul is longing to restore fellowship with them, but only on the basis of genuine repentance and sincerity of heart. That's why he's confronting them on the real issues. Notice he repeats what he said in chapter six, verse 11, the end of verse three of chapter seven. He says, "for I've said before, that you are in our hearts." And then he adds this amazing statement "to die together and to live together." What a profound statement of Christian love. I was thinking about this. Here's what he's saying, "Look, folks, we're all going to die. That is our destiny. And we're all going to live together in glory. So, let's deal with these things. Our lives are interwoven. They're bound together by the bond of grace. So, there is nothing that you can do to cause me to abandon my affection for you. But folks, our fellowship is broken. You simply must repent of this folly that I have delineated to you candidly, so there's no mistake about it." So, he spoke truthfully, in love, he overlooked offenses, tried to restore fellowship, but number three, we see that he walked in integrity of heart.

Notice at the end of verse two, he says, "we wronged no one." The term "wronged" and the original language means what you would think it means--to treat someone unjustly, unfairly, in an effort to cause injury. We did not do that. By the way, since the same verb is used in Second Corinthians two five through 11 and chapter seven and verse 12. In the context of dealing with the incestuous man, remember that whole situation? It's described First Corinthians five, perhaps, since that same verb is used, in that context, there was some kind of accusation levied against him that somehow he had injured this guy or others wrongly, we don't know, it could be that. It's probably 100 other things because that's usually how those things work. Somebody will grab a hold of something, they'll kind of twist it and distort it. And then all of a sudden, you look and there's like this whole list of horrible things this person has done. So, it could be 100 other things. He also added, we "corrupted no one." The term "corrupt" means to pervert in Greek; to corrupt morally. So that's the connotation. Maybe they charged him with helping other people embrace libertinism by teaching freedom in Christ as he did in First Corinthians 6:12 through 20. Or it could be 100 other things that they concocted against him. But no, he walked in integrity of heart.

By the way, this is this is one of the first two qualifications of an elder in First Timothy three and verse two, is that an overseer must be first of all above reproach means blameless. It means that there must be no valid accusation made against him. It means that there's no obvious blatant sin in his life that mars his life. And then he adds this. Secondly, he must be the husband of one wife, in Greek, literally "a one-woman man." And what he's referring to here is he must be sexually pure; he must be devoted to his wife. If he's married, he must not be a womanizer. Has nothing to do with he has to be married or he can't be divorced or some of these other silly things that people concoct. Beloved, whether you're a man or a woman, you must be on guard of your heart. You must be a man or a woman of integrity. Because if you lack integrity, your life will lack credibility, and it will lack power. God promised to bless Solomon and his Kingdom. In First Kings nine verse four, "If you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My ordinances." You see, Paul was a man of integrity. He was a man of moral purity. And for this reason, he could say to the saints, and in verse one of chapter seven, "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness, in the fear of God." Folks, this is what love does. This what love must continue to do in order to deal with the inevitable attacks that will come against you for the sake of Christ. Paul said in Ephesians four beginning in verse one, "Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." And in Ephesians five, verse three, he says, "But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting but rather giving of Thanks."

So again, he said, "Look, I've wronged no one, I've corrupted no one." Notice he also says, "we took advantage of no one." That carries the idea of defrauding someone for the purpose of financial gain. He's saying we didn't do that. I didn't do that. Now, no doubt he was accused of that. And we've seen that in the text, that he was just, you know, like a lot of people today, a lot of pastors are nothing more than entrepreneurs trying to make a buck off of people. Or maybe there were 1000 other false accusations, but none of that was true. No one suffered it is at his hands, and Paul's life proved it.

Well fourthly, we see that he believed the best. Notice what he says in verse four, chapter seven. He says, "Great is my confidence in you." You know, when you read that, especially if you read that in context of both epistles, you have to say, Whoa, wait a minute here. Yeah, he's got great confidence in them. I mean, are you kidding me? I mean, these people were real scoundrels. I mean, this was a pretty messed up church. If you were to look up immature in the dictionary, you'd see a picture of that congregation. And in the forefront, you'd see this silly grin with the people holding up their wine. They're all the rich people that are destroying the time of fellowship at the Lord's table. And then in the background, you'd see all the poor people kind of looking. I mean, that was the church. I mean, this church was a mess, and he says, I've got great confidence in you. Why would he say that? Folks, the answer is he believed in the power of the gospel. He believed in the power of the Holy Spirit that indwells people, even if they're seriously immature; to somehow grow them in the grace in the knowledge of Christ. He was confident on that basis. In fact, he said in Philippians 1:6, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Beloved, look back on your life. Think of the really stupid things that you've done. The things that really dishonored the Lord. Now, granted, most people only know the tip of the iceberg, but you know what's underneath the water, right? I mean, it's bad stuff. We're all guilty. And I'm sure your parents at times said, "Oh, Lord, please do something with my child, he or she is off the deep end, please, save them or if they're saved, do something to grow them. Lord, please grow them in you." And many of us have prayed the same for our children. Oh, God, please grow them up in you. And he did. And he's still growing us. Right? That's why Paul had confidence. Paul had seen what God had done in his life. He knew the power of the word. Jesus said, "Sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth." He's praying to the Father before he goes to the cross.

And by the way, that's why we constantly take you into the word. Because it's not my words. It's not my wisdom or anybody else's that's going to help you to become more like Christ. It's the Word of the living God. Beloved, believe the best about your brothers and sisters in Christ, even if they act wickedly towards you, God is up to something in their life. So many times I pray for enemies that I know hate me with a passion. I say, "Lord, please be merciful to them as you have been to me." You know, I just go about my business. That's what you have to do. I think of First Corinthians 13 seven. Remember the passage that "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." When he talks about how love bears all things, he's talking about how love--it carries the idea, by the way, of throwing a cover over a blunder or a grievance. That's what we have to do. "Love believes all things." It believes the best and never assumed the worst. That means that love is going to be quick to interpret a fault or an injury with the most gracious explanation possible.

Love is quick to trust, it's slow to doubt. It is guarded against suspicion. It's going to take a person's word at something until proven otherwise. Love leaves no room for cynicism. It gives no quarter to contemptuous scorn towards another person; that is wicked. Love will take God at his word without misgivings and take others at their word without misgivings. It's going to believe that people are innocent until proven guilty. And love's first reaction to failure is going to be one of restoration. Never humiliation, or retaliation. He also said that "love hopes all things." That's what Paul is doing here. He hopes for the best in every situation, that the Lord would be glorified. Love never gives up right? It never despairs. Love never stops praying for the wayward child, or the wayward friend, or the enemy that is saying horrible things about you. Again, aren't you glad God never gave up on you? I'm constantly reminded of that. In fact, I'm old enough to see the hand of the Lord work in marvelous ways as a result of fervent prayer. In fact, my most fervent prayers sprang from the well of hope that I have for those who show no signs of spiritual growth, spiritual maturity, which includes a number of you in this precious church. But I have confidence in the power of the Spirit and his Word that if you're true really born again, God's gonna grow you. He is going to trim the vine in your life so that you will bear more fruit. So with Paul, I can say "great is my confidence in you."

So, love will speak truthfully in love, overlook offenses and restore fellowship, walk in integrity of heart, believe the best and finally, offer joyful praise. Notice what he says in verse four, "great is my boasting on your behalf." Folks, this is so exciting. I mean, again, think about it. These people had all of these problems, but Paul was eager to praise the Lord for his grace in their life because there were things that he could see that were worthy of praise, worthy of honor to the Lord. And that's what he focused on. My goodness, if you focused on all of my faults, you certainly wouldn't want me in the pulpit. And if I focused on yours, we wouldn't want you up here either. Right? I mean, we're all sinners, we're all growing. And that's what he did. He could see the budding fruit in their life, and he could rejoice in that. In Second Corinthians eight, verse 24, he says, "Therefore openly before the churches, show them the proof of your love, and of our reason for boasting about you." You know, I boast about you all the time. I hope you boast about your church family. I do. Whenever anybody asked me, oh, tell me, tell me about your church. I said, Oh, my, what a testimony of God's grace. These are the most, the most godly, faithful, loving saints that you will ever find anywhere. These are people that love Christ, passionately. These are people who love his Word, who have an insatiable appetite for it. These are people who crave the glory and the greatness of God. I will literally say those things to people, and mean them with all of my heart, a testimony of God's goodness in our lives. And there's no way that you folks are even close to the level of immaturity that we see in the Corinthian saints. By the way, I'm sure they all grew up rather quickly, and we'll get to meet them someday. They will know us and we will know them.

"Great is my boasting on your behalf," he says. "I am filled with comfort." By the way, this is interesting, a little technical thing in Greek grammar. It's a "perfect passive indicative verb," which means he had been and he still was filled with comfort. In other words, he's not just filled with comfort, because some of them are straightening up and they've responded positively to his severe letter. No, no, no, no, no. He is comforted all the way through and that's the work of the Spirit. He is the paraclete; he is the comforter. He is the one who comes alongside. He is our advocate. He's the fount of every blessing. You see, Paul derived his comfort from the truth, and the power of the gospel. Our joy is in Christ, it's not in our circumstances. And he goes on to say, "I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction." In other words, despite the rejection, despite the things that break my heart, I am still joyful. And by the way, he was especially joyful, as was Titus, when he learned how they responded--how many of them responded faithfully and obediently and lovingly to the severe letter. You want to ask yourself, "Does this describe my attitude towards those who wronged me? Or do I have a heart of contempt? A heart of revenge? Do I seek retaliation? Rather than reconciliation?" Well, yes, but pastor so and so really offended me. Oh, really? Boy. Oh, my goodness, I didn't realize that. You know, in that case, I mean, God's command for you to love them and to forgive them, I mean, that's out the window. I mean, if they really did that, I mean, you're off the hook here. I mean, you need to make them pay. You need to get even. They acted wickedly. They maligned you, really? Oh, they slandered...h my goodness. I just break fellowship with them. That'll show them, that'll teach him. That'll show the world how you treat people, right? Well, obviously, the Lord is not honored in any of that. By the way, we've all been there, right? We've all had those very things to deal with in our flesh. And maybe you're dealing with that now. I mean, think about it, after all the Lord has done for you, and forgiving you of the most egregious crimes against him, and you're not willing to forgive others who have offended you? You're not willing to try to seek restoration after all the promises and privileges that are yours in Christ?

As we wrap this up, I want to just read to you and I think it was put in your bulletin. I'm such a great fan of the Puritans and one of them that I became familiar with many years ago at Oxford was Thomas Manton, an English Puritan and clergyman trained at Oxford, he was a chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and forgive the Old English here, but it's worth meditating on. Here's what he has to say in light of all of this. "A defected spirit doth not behave itself answerable to its principles, privileges and hopes. Are you at peace with God? And have you communion with Him at every turn? And have you hopes of glory and you are so troubled when you are a little cut short in your temporal comforts?" He went on to say, "Dejection of spirit, argueth too great addictiveness to worldly comforts, and love of ease and flesh pleasing, and in gratitude for all the spiritual good we have received. Shall God lay in such great comforts and after such great receiving, do you take it ill to be put to a little expense?" And he quotes Job 15:11 "Are the consolations of God's small with thee." In other words, where is your priorities, folks? After all God has done all of these things? Is this your attitude? He went on to say, "If you had a due sense of the world to come, you would be glad to keep your conscience, though you lose your coat.” Hebrews 10:34 "Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven, a better and an enduring substance." Then he quotes Romans 8:18. "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." "Do you look for glory to be revealed in you, then look upon all the sufferings of this life as a feather, put into the scales against a talent. We are to have a sense of our condition. Yet in regard of the honor done to us to bear a part of Christ's cross, and in regard of the comfort and happiness provided for us, we should be cheerful, that it may not be known to be an unwilling patience and exhorted by force." End quote,

Well, folks, this was Paul's life. This was his attitude. He was filled with comfort, overflowing with joy and all of our afflictions. Imagine if the people in our country began to function this way. I know this is going to be a bit laughable. But think about it. What if the Republicans and the Democrats began to respond to each other this way? Instead of speaking dishonestly, they would speak truthfully out of a heart of love. Instead of keeping a record of wrongs and sabotaging any hope of friendship, what if they were willing to overlook offenses, and seek to restore fellowship? Rather than walking in hypocrisy of heart and being morally corrupt, they walked in integrity of heart. Rather than believing the worst they were committed to believing the best and instead of screaming bitter incriminations with the most vile and vulgar epithets, hat if they offered joyful praise for the good things that they could see in others? Well, obviously, that's impossible because they're ruled by the flesh rather than the Spirit. But not so for us. Dear friends, if we walk by the Spirit, we will not carry out the desires of the flesh, because of the indwelling power of the Spirit. These great manifestations of love can be and should be godly virtues that characterize our lives. This is how God loves us. This is how He expects us to love others. This is love in action, right. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal joy truths of your word and the way they speak so directly to our hearts. May what we've heard today bear much fruit in our lives, for our good and for your glory. In Jesus name I pray. Amen..

I invite you this morning to take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter six as we continue to make our way verse by verse through this amazing epistle, and see what the Spirit of God has for us this morning under the heading, "The Bittersweet Realities of Serving Christ." Let me read the text to you, Second Corinthians chapter six, verses one through 10. And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain--For He says, 'AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.' Behold, now is 'THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,' behold, now is 'THE DAY OF SALVATION'--giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished, yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things."

Mature Christian saints are always characterized by their selfless service and their devotion to Christ; come what may. They will have a love for the word, they will have a zeal for evangelism; a deep burden for the lost; desire to worship. They will have a song in their heart-- the songs of redemption. And we all know who these people are around us, you young people know who they are in school. Families, you know who they are. You families know when you've got a mature Christian father, who has a passion to shepherd his family. You wives know what that's like, to have that for a husband. And husbands you know what it's like to have a godly wife that is committed to the Lord and will do all she can to see her children come to saving faith in Christ. And every godly servant of Christ, who is willing to take a stand for Christ regardless of the cost, is part of what Paul is talking about here. I find it fascinating the mature believer will actually thrive in his or her service for Christ, regardless of the cost. Like Paul who said in Romans 8:18, "I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us."

But the immature believer will struggle all the way. They will not thrive in their service to Christ. They'll just survive at best. The mature believer will persevere with joy in the power of the Holy Spirit. They will manifest spiritual and theological discernment, but the immature believer will be as Paul said, in Ephesians, 4:14, "children." "Children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine." And my how the winds are blowing these days. By the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming. The immature believer will trudge along in their service to Christ doing as little as possible, whining and complaining all the way; ruled by their flesh, miserable and making everybody around them miserable. But the mature believer will bear the fruits of the Spirit. Love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness self-control. But the immature will bear sickly fruits; the opposite of the fruits just mentioned. You will look at the vine of their life and see the fruit of selfishness, bitterness, conflict, impatience, rudeness, impropriety, unfaithfulness, harshness, and self-indulgence. Of course, there's a third category of Christian that's just a Christian in name only, the cultural Christian. Matthew seven, Jesus said that that will make up the majority of those who call me Lord, and they will never enter the kingdom. These are the self-deceived, the worldly; the politically and religiously correct. The ones who embrace and promote false gospels like the prosperity gospel, the black liberation theology gospel, the social gospel, the gospel of permissive grace, the gospel of New Age, spirituality, the gospel of my sexual preference, the gospel of interfaith dialogue and on and on it goes. Paul says of them in Second Timothy three, beginning in verse two they'll be "lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power."

Well, for those of you who know and love Christ, this text will minister to your soul. It's encouraging, it will help you see better how to savor the sweet and ignore the bitter, if I can put it that way. Because as we all know, when we're serving Christ, you're going to have both. And that's what we see here. Let me remind you of the context, Paul is defending his apostolic authority against the savage, just the ruthless attacks of the false teachers that had infiltrated the church at Corinth. They were trying to undermine his apostolic authority; they were trying to discredit his gospel message. And of course, they had accumulated a group of sycophants who were agreeing with them. They wanted to replace the truth of the gospel of grace with the lies of a gospel of grace plus works. Lots of legalism. Paul had returned to Corinth to confront them, but that trip didn't work out very well as we know. So Paul is heartsick. He loves these people; he hates to see what's happening to them. But as we will see, Paul was able to transcend the pain of the slander. And he did this basically on the basis of what we see emerging from this text. And I've divided it into five convictions that we see in Paul's heart that we'll look at this morning. Number one, we will see that he was delighted to be a co-laborer with God. Number two, he was defensive of the true gospel of grace. Number three, he was driven by evangelism and discipleship. Number four, he was devoted to a personal pursuit of holiness. Number five, he was disciplined in the face of suffering. Dear friends, no matter who you are, or what sphere of influence the Lord has placed you in to serve Him, these convictions are absolutely essential. If you're going to thrive in ministry--and for those of you who say you love Christ, but really, you live on the periphery of the church, you really don't do much of anything, you just kind of live for yourself--I pray that this will bring conviction to your heart, because you don't know what you're missing out on in serving Christ. So let's look at the text closely.

The first phrase, verse one, he says, "And working together with Him." "Working together", "synergeo" in the original language; we get our word "synergy" from that, and it just means to collaborate with someone. And this brings us to my first observation as I look at Paul's life, number one, he was delighted to be a co-laborer with God. Now you will notice "with Him” is italicized. That has been inserted. But it's the proper translation because it goes back to chapter five and verses 19 and 20. There we read that, that God is the one he's talking about here. "God," he says, "has committed to us the word of reconciliation." He goes on to say, "we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us." Also, in First Corinthians three nine, Paul says we are "God's fellow workers." Folks don't just gloss over that. That is absolutely astounding when you think about it. What a privilege to co-labor with God; to be on his team. Think about that. To experience his power, surging through the veins in the muscles of our spiritual life. And Paul recognizes this in Colossians 1:29. He says, "For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me." And he reminded the saints in Ephesus that he was, according to Ephesians, 3:7, "made of minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power." And he also prayed for them in Ephesians 1:19 that they would comprehend "what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might." That we are co-laborers with God is an astounding reality, dear friends, that should motivate all of us, in our service to Christ. Think of the many times where you have been absolutely astonished to see how, in some small way, God used your life to impact somebody else. And maybe you didn't even realize it at the time, and you hear about it later. Parents, you know what that's like to see a child finally come to saving faith and to walk with Christ. What a joy it is for me to see that in my family, and to see grandchildren come to faith in Christ. And then know that somehow, you were a little part of that, co-laboring with God. For a camp counselor, or a Sunday school teacher or a student ministries worker, a musician, a godly man or woman in the church, to have someone come up to them and say, "you know, I just want to thank you, you may not realize this, but I've been watching your life over the years and, and your life has impacted me for the sake of Christ. Thank you for that." Isn't that a wonderful feeling. And to know that that was God working through you. "Thank you for sharing the gospel with me when I was so rebellious." "Thank you for gently confronting me when I was living in sin." I jotted down a few that I've received over from over the last year. "Thank you for being an example of Christ, speaking to my dear wife, and because of your life, I want to be more like Christ." Folks, that's co-laboring with God. Never underestimate that. Beloved, know this, whatever you do for God, you do with God. And that's such an exciting truth that we may sow the seed, but he's the one that gives us the strength to do so, right? He prepares the soil, he causes the seed to germinate, he causes it to bear fruit for his glory.

Think of what Jesus said in Mark four beginning in verse 26, "The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows"--obviously, he didn't have anything to do with that--"how he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." Dear friends, may I ask you, are you a co-laborer with God? Or are you a freeloader? Are you sowing the seeds of the gospel or do you just kind of stand back and watch other people do that? Does the very thought of the privilege of co-laboring with God animate your heart to praise and to service? Or is your attitude one of, that's just not for me? Can you point to any fruit as a result of your co-laboring with God? Dear Christian, look at the mission field all around you. Your family, right? Your friends. And we have this amazing tool that can be used for such evil; the internet, that can be used for such good. Get on social media and start spreading seed. Paul says in First Corinthians three remember, he says, "I planted, Apollo's watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants or the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth." That's what's so exciting. I just sow the seed, that's what we do.

First Peter four, verse 10, Peter says, "As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." Let me remind you of that. We studied this in the past in First Corinthians 12. Remember, in verse five, Paul says "there are a varieties of ministries." In other words, there's a variety; apportionments that God has allotted to each one. "And the same Lord," he says. And then he says, "there are varieties of effects." "Energema" in the original language; it carries the idea of implementation; the practical means by which something is accomplished. So he's saying here, there's a variety of ways that that is worked out, that that is energized. And the point is, God is the supernatural power source that makes our gifts effective in serving Him. And it's working with them. But he goes on to say, "but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." "Manifestation" refers to a genuine work of the Spirit of God, and what's the common good? It's to edify the church. So we've all been gifted to do this. And God wants us to work with him; Paul understood this. And it's the Spirit that produces visible effects of his transforming power in our service for him. And when our gifts are being used properly, we're blessed and God is honored.

And if you're a Christian, and you're not using your gifts, and you're just sitting on the sidelines, God is dishonored, and you are forfeiting blessing in your life. Moreover, you have placed yourself in the pathway of divine chastening. Folks, there's no such thing as the Lone Ranger Christian, biblically, a do nothing Christian that just kind of hangs out in the periphery of the church. All that does is grieve the Spirit. Those kinds of people are miserable. They're unproductive, they dishonor God. Rather than co-laboring with God, they're in the way. I remember back, somehow, my mind went to this illustration; I was unloading a big truck, somebody had moved in and we had a couple of teenagers with us. And every time we would go in to get something else to move out, they were pulling their phone out working, they were just in the way. And I remember I finally said to one of them, why don't you go over there to that tree, and sit down under the tree and play with your phone so that we can get some work done. That's sometimes how I feel in the church, right? You know, either get with it or get out of the way, but the Lord wants you to get with it. That's the point. A lot of people would prefer to sit back and watch rather than join the fight.

Well not so Paul, he labored to the point of exhaustion, he was number one: delighted to be a co-laborer with God. But notice, secondly, he was defensive of the true gospel of grace. Again, "And working together with Him, we also urge you,"-- present tense, a constant pleading here. This was habitual part of his life--"we urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain." And the context tells us here that he's saying, "Don't let these false teachers with these with this false gospel, cancel out the true gospel that I have preached to you." Now obviously, some of these people had an intellectual understanding of the gospel, but they had never fully embraced it wholeheartedly. So they really weren't saved. Paul was fearful that they would be deceived. And by extension, according to the context, he's also saying, "failure for you to be reconciled to me would prove that you reject the gospel that I have preached. We can't have that; all my preaching would be in vain. By joining the slander against me, you're being distracted by these false teachers lurking in the shadows and therefore you will either not see and understand the truth and be saved, or if you are saved, you're not going to understand how to grow in Christ and be sanctified."

So he was concerned about this. You know, this was Paul's great concern for the saints in Galatia. Remember, many of them were also deserting grace to pursue the heresies of legalism that the Judaizers were teaching. And in Galatians, one and verse six, Paul says, " I am amazed," I just see him pulling his hair out. "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel." That's like, what, what's going on here? He goes on to say, if anyone "preach to you a gospel contrary to that which you have preached to you, what we have preached to you, let him be accursed!" Now, some of those folks were truly saved by grace, but they were being misled by the Judaizers. Once again with this false gospel. They were telling them, you know, you're gonna have to keep the law if you expect, stay saved. None of this grace alone stuff. Galatians three, one, Paul says, "You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?...Are you so foolish?" He went on to say, "Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain?" Beloved, this is why we, like Paul, must defend the gospel against all those who would seek to distort it. And there are so many subtle distortions out there today. That's why Jude said we are to "contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." He went on to say, "For certain persons have crept in unnoticed." This is a battle we must fight constantly, lest people, as Paul says, "receive; the grace of God in vain."

Again, let me just make it real practical. Let me remind you of some of these false gospels that's out there today. The prosperity gospel, I mentioned the permissive grace gospel, the New Age spirituality gospel, the gospel of my sexual preference, the gospel of interfaith dialogue, the black liberation theology gospel, the social gospel. In fact, I was reading the other day, Tim Keller, former PCA pastor and founder of The Gospel Coalition, and a prominent social gospel advocate, said this quote, "If you have white skin, it's worth $1 million over a lifetime. You have to say, I don't deserve this. I am the product of, and standing on, the shoulders of other people who got that through injustice." Then he says, "the Bible says you are involved in injustice even if you didn't actually do it." End quote. Well, first of all, the Bible does not say that. We're accountable for our own sins, not for the sins of others. Don't have time to get into it but look at Deuteronomy 24:16. And look at Exodus 18, I'm sorry, Ezekiel 18:19 through 22. Here's the problem with these subtle things that come out, especially as related to the social gospel, when social justice becomes the focus of the gospel, God's justice will inevitably be pushed aside. By the way, we don't want God's justice, we want His mercy. And that's what the gospel is all about. You see, man by nature, sees himself as deprived, not as depraved, as a helpless victim, rather than a guilty perpetrator. And the social gospel plays into all of this. It's constantly looking to accommodate man's ever-changing definition of social justice rather than focusing on God's righteous judgment. Suddenly the focus becomes trying to reconcile sinful man to sinful man rather than sinful man to a holy God. And so the gospel becomes much more social than gospel. Folks, we've been given the ministry of reconciliation, not reparations, which is a blatantly unbiblical concept. And everyone who believes they've been victimized with a social gospel thing, including the most sexually deviant, are lining up to somehow get their victim badge so that they can cash in on perhaps reparations, and they're already starting this in some states, or political power, whatever it might be. And by the way, once they gain power, mark my word they will outlaw the true gospel because it cannot coexist with the social gospel.

As a footnote, the allegations that the US is inherently racist; an inherently racist society designed to serve the interest of white supremacists. The idea that the police are intentionally brutalizing black people, that our country is intrinsically patriarchal; benefiting male oppressors at the expense of women, all those things, folks are lies. It's classic Marxism to incite class warfare; use race and economic status to divide and conquer. And of course, these types of things galvanize the support of all those who perceive themselves as being oppressed, and therefore entitled. And of course, the left needs them to somehow enforce their, their utopian goals of wealth redistribution and totalitarianism and all of these things. So chaos and fear and intimidation is all a part of that. So my point here is, this is the danger-- once you start getting a focus off of the true gospel and on something else, even though you may be well intentioned, it leads you in a very different direction. By the way, communism has consistently held to the belief that quote, "out of chaos comes cosmos." ""Cosmos a Greek word for "order." So what do you have? Well, let's have the chaos of an exaggerated pandemic. Let's absolutely destroy the country. Let's have these draconian measures to shut down everything and destroy the economy, because after all, poor people are easily manipulated by the government. And socialism always needs a permanent underclass in order to survive. They also need atheist allies in the media, and in the social media realm, along with the godless militia called Antifa and Black Lives Matter. They need political surrogates in positions of power to somehow support their lawlessness. By the way, all of this is to be expected. This is another whole topic, but prophetically, America will cease to exist as we know it, and will ultimately be absorbed into the globalist rule of the Antichrist. So what are we to do as Christians? Well, the answer is Colossians two, eight, for example, "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of man, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ." You see, again, folks, remember, we are not part of this fallen world system, so don't get sucked into it.

My mind, as I was thinking about this, went to Paul's words in Ephesians two beginning in verse one, just think of this, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, (by grace who had been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus." Beloved, that's the gospel. Never be ashamed of the gospel. The old gospel, the only gospel, the only gospel that will save. You know, Paul lived in an age that was far worse than what we're living in, far worse. Talk about people hostile to the things of Christ. But what did he urge the saints to do? Take up social causes in order to moralize ungodly men, to make them more just in their dealings with fellow man? No. He said things like "put on the whole armor of God, so that you will stand fast against the schemes of the evil one." "Stand firm in your faith." "Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." And here he's saying, I'm urging you "not to receive the grace of God in vain." The context of all these false gospels. In Second Corinthians 11, he's going to say in beginning of verse three, "But I am afraid that"--and beloved, this is my fear as a pastor for you--"I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully." In other words, I can't believe this, instead of rejecting these things, you're tolerating it. And here in chapter six, Paul is pleading with them, do not exchange the magnificent message of God's grace and reconciliation for some phony, distorted substitute that cannot save and cannot sanctify.

Now to be sure, professing evangelicals that are chasing these phony gospels, are I don't know, they're like a dog chasing his tail. Though they're fervent in their pursuit, they're on a fool's errand. And in the end, they will accomplish nothing, which was Satan's intention in the first place. Paul was delighted to be a co-laborer with God. He was defensive of the true gospel of grace.

Thirdly, he was driven by evangelism and discipleship. You will recall, by the way, in First Corinthians two two he said, "I determined to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." In a culture even more decadent than ours, that's what he preached. He knew that he wasn't called to be hip; he wasn't called to be trendy, or woke, or missional, or incarnational, all of these crazy things that you hear these days. He wasn't called to be relevant or innovative or creative. He wasn't called to be clever, culturally savvy, broad minded, entertaining, extreme, inclusive, and all of this type of stuff. And he did not found an organization called Jews lives matter and then lead people to somehow overtake Rome. He cared nothing about having a conversation, or a dialogue with people who are spiritually dead; deceived by doctrines of demons. Dear friends, he came as we must come to preach the word in season and out of season, the true gospel. Notice his zeal for evangelism and discipleship. He says, "Again, working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain--For He says," and here he is, quoting Isaiah 49:8, 'AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENEDTO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.'" Paul says, "Behold, now is 'THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,' behold, now is 'THE DAY OF SALVATION.'" You see, as the divinely appointed spokesman of the message of reconciliation, Paul understood the urgency of bringing the Gospel to sinners, so that they can see the grace of God, so that they could repent and be saved. That's what drove him. And he wanted to do that while that opportunity was still available. Just think about it. If he was urgent back then, how much more urgent should we be today? We don't know when the door will close. So he's saying don't be distracted, folks. Don't be deceived by these false teachers. Isaiah 55 Six "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near." I think of God's call upon sinners prior to the to the great flood. You will remember that prior to that judgment the Lord warned the world; Genesis six three "'My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless, his day shall be 120 years.'" And Noah preached for 120 years and then the season of grace came to an end. Dear friend, please hear me, you'd never know when the door to the ark of saving grace is going to be shut in your life. You don't know how long you're going to live. And certainly, we don't know how long it'll be before the Lord comes and shuts that door.

Paul understood this. So he says, "Behold, now is 'THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,....Behold, now is 'THE DAY OF SALVATION....'" Dear friend, let me ask you, are you driven by a consuming zeal to see other people come to saving faith in Christ? Or are you caught up in all of these religious sounding pursuits? The priority is defined in Colossians 1:28. And here it needs to be our focus, "We proclaim Him." Okay? I love it when God makes things clear to me. "We proclaim..." Dave, this is what I want you to do. When you preach to this congregation, I want you to proclaim me all right? Don't get off on that other silly stuff. I want you to proclaim me. So we proclaim Him and here's what you need to do. "Admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose, I also labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me." Folks, he was delighted to be a co-laborer with God; he was defensive of the true gospel of grace; he was driven by evangelism and discipleship. And number four, he was devoted to a personal pursuit of holiness.

Notice verse three, and four, "giving no cause for offence in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, but in everything, commending ourselves as servants of God." The term commend carries the idea of to present as worthy of regard or of confidence. Our life is our letter of commendation, if you want to think of it that way. And as someone has well said, our life may be the only sermon some people ever read right? Or ever hear or ever see; what does your life preach? What sermon does your life preach? We're all too familiar with the immoral escapades of pastors and church leaders that render themselves disqualified from ministry. Paul talked about this in First Corinthians nine verse 27. He said, "I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified." Folks, may I remind you that the world hates Christ and they hate all who belong to him. And therefore, the world is hyper-vigilant to find fault in Christians. The slightest indiscretion, the tiniest act of political incorrectness, the smallest sentence spoken in anger, will be magnified 1000-fold and put all over the internet right with your picture. Beloved, we're all in Christian ministry in one way or another and people are watching, you need to realize that. People are watching. And does your speech, does your dress, your conduct, your overall character, does it adorn the gospel, or does it tarnish it?

You know, as I was reflecting upon this, it occurred to me that I very seldom hear anyone described as a God fearing man or woman. You ever hear that? Very seldom. And I was thinking about it, most people have come out or have been around evangelical pragmatism that basically teaches that that we must become like the world in order to win it. The Spirit of God needs some help after all, and because, you know the gospel is so offensive we need to, you know, kind of tone it down, to help him out so that people can get saved. So we've got to be more relevant and attractive. The Church must reinvent itself it must adjust its gospel. It's got to adjust its message so that it's less dogmatic, more therapeutic, more tolerant, more entertaining. It must pander to the culture. It must take up social causes, even conformed to the culture. But whatever you do, don't ever oppose the culture. So most Christians in churches like that never mature. They're banished to an island of spiritual infancy. You will never hear in those kinds of churches any emphasis on the dangers of worldliness, the dangers of adopting the values of the world. The idea of not being conformed to this world as Romans 12 two tells us. Being separated from sin; you're not going to hear sermons on what it means to be Christ-like, what it means to be holy, godly. Most church leaders, in fact, are products of evangelical youth ministries, where the primary goal is to keep the kids entertained. Make sure they're having fun, so they keep coming to church, as if that's some measure of spiritual blessing and maturity. Kind of a religious version of hanging out at the mall. But whatever you do, let's don't get too serious. Let's don't get too biblical. You know, that can tick people off and then they won't come. So let's keep things light and superficial and funny and non- judgmental and inclusive. And what does that produce? Well, it has produced today pastors and church leaders that dress, talk and act like immature kids and the whole church, looks like a superficial youth group that we've all been around. I've had conversations with some of these pastors, and it's frightening. I love these guys. I hope they know Christ. But I can tell within a few minutes, their theological acumen is as shallow as water on a plate. They have no real spiritual maturity. They're undisciplined. They're like a worldly adolescent. What a contrast to Paul's admonition. First Corinthians 14:20, "Brothers, do not be children in your thinking." What a great statement. "Be infants," he says, "in evil, but in your thinking, be mature." And he describes sanctification in precisely these terms. In Ephesians 4:13 he spoke of mature manhood. Oh what a joy that is to be around men, and women, who are mature in Christ. Mature manhood--the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. I address this in my book "Seven Key Principles for Effective Ministry." If you'll indulge just a bit of a quote here. "It has been my observation that there exists a marked difference among evangelical pastors as it relates to character. There's a dissimilarity between the mediocre and the exceptional, the weak and the strong, the ineffective and the effective, the immature and the mature. Very few have what I would call a godly presence about them. By godly presence, I mean a man with a noticeable aura of godliness about him, both in and out of the pulpit. A man like Jesus, a man who possesses a palpable sense of humility, and love that draws you into His presence. A man who exudes spiritual strength, confidence, boldness, wisdom, and a noticeable fervency that marks him as a man of God, and a man on a mission. A man so lost in the wonder of the majesty of God, so filled by the divine presence that nothing in this world causes him to despair or tempts him to distraction. This is that rare man whose authority enters a room with him and commands respect without ever asking for it. I'm speaking of that extraordinary man who is quote, "full of the Spirit and of wisdom" Acts six, three. The qualifications that early saints were to look for in choosing the first deacons. Virtues not every man possesses. A man who, according to First Timothy 4:12, "in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, shows himself as an example of those who believe." What Paul called a quote, "man of God," First Timothy 6:11.

Well, Paul understood this, and this is why he was so careful not to cause any offense that was unnecessary to cause people to stumble. He didn't want to do anything that would distract people from the gospel in his life. You know, the gospel is offensive enough without us throwing gas on the fire, right? And people are looking at us. He was devoted to a personal pursuit of holiness. Second Corinthians seven one, he says, "Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Paul summarizes this so beautifully. And so practically, let me read just 10 verses here. What he told Titus in Titus two beginning in verse one, just look how practical this i is when you're thinking about pursuing holiness in your life. He says, "But as for you," he's talking to Titus now, a young pastor. "But as for you, speaks the things which are fitting for sound doctrine." Let that be your focus. Again, if I can add this, don't get off on all that other stuff. "Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subjected to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored." By the way in most churches, if you were to preach that passage, you'd clean out most of the church. He went on to say, "Likewise urge the young men"-- young guys hear this, "to be sensible; in all things, show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech, which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us." And he added this, "Urge bondslaves to be subjected to their own masters in everything, to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect." "Adorn"-- "kosmeo" in the original language. We get our word "cosmetic: from that. It means to make something more attractive with an ornament or with color. That's what our lives are to do; to adorn the gospel of God.

Well, finally, Paul was disciplined in the face of suffering. And here we see the bittersweet realities of serving Christ. We're all aware of this. Moreover, we see the most important virtue that is worthy of commendation and that is: steadfast endurance. Empowered by the Spirit of God to faithfully withstand extreme hardship and stress. Notice what he says, "in much endurance"-- "hypomone" a term that is used throughout the New Testament to describe that inward fortitude, that is necessary to bear up under extreme adversity, under unfair treatment. It's the idea of triumphant, patient, endurance in suffering, empowered by the Holy Spirit. He was disciplined in the face of suffering. It's the Spirit empowered ability, according First Corinthians 15:58 "to remain steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord."

Now, I want you to notice as we wrap this up this morning, Paul gives nine examples. And there's three sets of three here that serve as commendation, frankly, to the integrity of this person, and of his ministry. Set one just describes general pressures beginning in verse four, he says, "in afflictions," that's referring to those spiritual and physical, emotional types of things that we encounter that cause us to suffer for Christ and hardships. A term that is used to describe being deprived of necessities, just necessities to live. "In distresses," a term that describes being constricted; squeezed into something and you feel like there's no way out; an oppressive situation.

Set two he gives some specific examples. "In beatings"-- the term is used to describe the beatings from a fist or from a rod. It's also used to describe the lashes from a whip. "In imprisonments." Oh my goodness, if you knew anything about the prisons in those days, talk about squalor. They were filthy, beyond description. And then he says, "in tumults." A term referring to riots and mob violence, like we see today.

The third set speaks of hardships that he willingly endured. He says "in labors"--the idea of hard, strenuous labor, especially with Paul to somehow support himself. "In sleeplessness, in hunger." You know, there was no Motel Sixes back then. Inns were these vermin infested brothels, dens of debauchery. So he was sleepless, he was in hunger.

Notice how he responded to all of this beginning in verse six. First of all, "in purity." I mean, here's a man of God; a man with godly integrity, a God-fearing man. Might I add, a man with a godly presence about him. Also "in knowledge." It carries the idea of having a deep grasp of theological truth. "In patience"-- I mean, think of all of the nut jobs he had to deal with over the years in ministry, and he was patient with them. Oh, that God would hurry up and teach me patience. "In kindness, in the Holy Spirit, ingenuine love." Love being the first of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22. Number seven, or verse seven, "In the word of truth"-- referring to the purity of the gospel. That's what he preached, the whole counsel of God. Then he says, "in the power of God." Not in the power of his own flesh, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left." Later on in Second Corinthians 10, he's going to speak of the divinely powerful weaponry that we have been given for the destruction of demonic fortresses; fortresses of lies, and of course, they are primarily the word and prayer.

And then he describes the inevitable paradox of ministry that you can all identify with. And everyone that's that serves Christ can understand this. And you have to always ask yourself, am I going to be committed to being faithful or popular? Because you can't be both. So, you have to decide which one you want to be. He chose to be faithful obviously. So, he says in verse 8, "by glory and dishonor." You see the paradox. "By evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown yet well known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things. Dear friends, as you serve Christ, you will find that over the years, two lines will form behind you. One will be long, the other will be short. The long line will be those that hate you and everything about you and would love to see you dead. And the short line will be those that love you, because they love Christ. You've got to be motivated by the short line, not the long line. That's what was going on with the Apostle Paul.

I love that last phrase. He says "as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things." When I read that the other day, I was meditating on the passage, my mind went to as it often does, a chorus that I used to sing as a little boy. That's why our music is so important; it's to be didactic. The Spirit of God uses that. The little chorus, the lyric says this, "He owns the cattle on 1000 hills, the wealth in every mine. He owns the rivers and the rocks and reels, and the sun and stars that shine. Wonderful riches more than tongue can tell. He is my father, so they're mine as well. He owns the cattle on 1000 hills. I know that he will care for me." What a wonderful truth dear friends.

Dear Christian, our God reigns, our Redeemer lives. He's coming again. Be delighted to be a co-laborer with God. Be defensive for the true gospel of grace, be driven by evangelism and discipleship. Be devoted to a personal pursuit of holiness so the Spirit of God can use you and bless you. And be disciplined in the face of suffering; for the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Amen? Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths. They speak so directly to our heart. Lord, there's so many voices out there vying for our attention. Oh, Lord, help us to stay focused. To not be distracted in our simple devotion to God through Christ. Thank you for the glory of your grace and all that it means to us. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

So we come now to Second Corinthians chapter five and verse 21. And I've entitled by discourse to you this morning, "The Greatest Problem in the Universe Resolved." Let me read the text to you. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." My friends, deception is deadly, especially as it relates to the gospel. A false gospel will literally destroy a nation. And we are seeing that happen in the days in which we live. I could give you many of examples of false gospels that contribute to this, but I wanted to begin with one to provide a contrast to the true gospel that we will examine in more detail here in a moment. And that false gospel is that of the social gospel that is preached by black liberation theology. Let me give you some background here. According to black liberation theology, Jesus is the savior, to liberate black people from the bondage of white people, not from the bondage of sin. For them, Jesus was not the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world, but rather, he was a revolutionary who sought to free his people from Roman bondage. That gospel is all about victimhood and oppression between men. Salvation is all about equality and social justice and the mission of the church is to affect political change. It's essentially a religious version of Marxism. The experience of oppression is their authority, not the scriptures. It is a man-centered rather than a God-centered religion. It's humanistic and pragmatic to the very core, it's about man and his needs, not God and his glory. The message of Christ, they say, is black power. In fact, Dr. James H. Cohn, one of the preeminent and predominant intellectuals, that gives voice to all of this, elucidates this theme, he says, quote, "It is my thesis, that black power, even in its most radical expression, is not the antithesis of Christianity, nor is it a heretical idea to be tolerated with painful forbearance, it is rather Christ's central message to 20th century America." He described black power as, quote, "complete emancipation of black people from white oppression, by whatever means black people deem necessary," end quote. He added this, quote, "The black intellectual’s goal is to aid in the destruction of America as he knows it." Similarly, and more forcefully, another one of their voices. Dr. Hayward Henry, who, by the way, wrote a book, maybe you've heard of it" Toward a Religion of Revolution," says this, quote, "Black Power is not the antithesis of Christianity, it is Christianity." I remember a number of years ago when I heard of a man by the name of Barack Obama, I'd never heard of him. I knew he served on the Illinois State Legislature. I had a relative who also served in the legislature, and I called him up and I said, "Do you know anything about this guy, I see that he was wanting to run for president." And of course, he knew him very well, knew his wife as well. And I got lots of information. And anyway, I thought, well, I want to find out what this guy believes theologically, because as a theologian, naturally, that's the first place I'm going to go. And by the way, that's first place you should go. So I found out that he went to a church that teaches you guessed it, black liberation theology. In fact, his pastor Jeremiah Wright, has said, quote, "There will be no peace in America until whites begin to hate their whiteness," and on and on it goes. Well, I thought, oh my goodness, I mean, this is the stuff, I knew it was out there, but, you know, surely a guy like this would never be president. I mean, this is the old socialist, Nicaraguan Sandinistas of the 1960s that modeled the Cuban revolution. This is the same stuff. And by the way, if you study critical race theory and Black Lives Matter, you will see that this is at the core of what they believe. In fact, Alicia Garza, one of the three militant feminists that founded Black Lives Matter said this, quote, "Black Lives Matter affirms the lives of black, queer, and trans folks, disabled folks, black undocumented folks, folks with records, women and all black lives along the gender spectrum. It centers on those that have been marginalized within black liberation movements. It is a tactic," now catch this, "to rebuild the black liberation movement."

Well, it should be no surprise that in 2011, then President Barack Obama issued an executive order that required all federal agencies, government workers, even our military, quote, "to promote diversity and inclusion through mandated training courses." And what sounds innocent was, in fact a very sophisticated scheme to indoctrinate federal officials with a virulent strain of identity politics that's rooted in critical race theory, which is an extension of black liberation theology. For them, all of the problems of the world are the result of systemic racism. And if you read their material, they will say white supremacy and white privilege permeates all our institutions, policies, culture, all white people are racist, whether they realize it or not all white people must confess this or be punished, the American system must be torn down and rebuilt. And folks, this is what fuels Antifa and the Black Lives Matter criminal movement. And I might also add this is that the core of the platform of the progressive Democratic Party. This is what's being taught in our public schools. And in our universities. In fact, if you look at the mug shots of a lot of the people that are arrested, in the Antifa, demonstrations, you will see they're public-school teachers.

Well, I applaud President Trump for issuing an order to, quote, "cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars for the dissemination of critical race theory." Maybe you've heard about that. On the news the other day, the order directs all of the federal agencies to begin the process of "identifying and eliminating all contracts or other agency spending related to any training on critical race theory, white privilege, or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either one, that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or two, that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil."

Well, of course, as Christians, we're all opposed to any kind of injustice, any kind of so-called racism, any kind of in inequities or hatred. Nor do we harbor grievances against other people. We don't keep a record of wrongs; we don't take revenge. But dear friends, I would submit to you that there's a far greater evil in the world and certainly in our country than social injustice. Much of which is grossly exaggerated and demonstrably false. The greatest problem is sinful man's need to be reconciled to a holy God. But fortunately, there is a solution and that's the gospel of Jesus Christ. Of course, lots of people laugh at this and they say all don't talk about sin and hell, all of those antiquated ideas, that Jesus somehow died for sinners. My goodness, that's absurd. As some have said, that's cosmic child abuse, nobody believes that. And we would never serve such a God. God is a God of love. For many people, everybody goes to heaven--universalism. Man isn't depraved, he's deprived, and if you will give him more stuff, if you will treat him better, then his true nature will manifest itself. Final part of that statement I agree with. So we need to defund the police, stop incarcerating people, change the environment; basically give people reward without responsibility, and on and on it goes, you know the drill.

But dear friends, as we look at the word of God, we see that sin is the very cause of the curse upon the world. Sin is man's innate inability to conform to the moral character and desires of God. What we see is that sin is lawlessness, as John tells us, it is high treason against the Most High God; we have all offended our holy God. And it's not only a failure to obey God's moral law, but it also includes just living as if that law doesn't even exist. Certainly, it's a violation of the foremost commandment that we are to "love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength," and that God has revealed himself in the Bible. We read in Scripture that the wrath of God, Jesus said, abides upon all those who do not believe in him as the only Savior of the world. And that the wages of sin is death, eternal death. So the message people need to hear today is not how to be delivered from social injustice, the social injustice of man, but how to be delivered from the righteous justice of God. And the only remedy is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Folks, if you get that wrong, it's like building a skyscraper on sand. Eventually, the whole thing will collapse in a heap of ruin. But sadly, that's what has happened. Over the years, the true gospel has been hijacked by other forms of gospel like the one I've just demonstrated to you. Far too many professing evangelicals have taken up this this bogus social justice movement rather than being ambassadors of Christ and the true gospel. I like the way John MacArthur put it quote, "That's precisely how evangelicals in the mid-20th century became obsessed for several decades with positive thinking, self-esteem and psychotherapeutic methodologies. After that it was marketing savvy and promotional strategies. By the beginning of the 21st century, it was post-modernism, repackaged and aggressively promoting itself as the emerging church movement. Today," he goes on to say, "critical race theory feminism, toxic masculinity, intersectional theory, LGBT advocacy, progressive immigration policies, animal rights, and other left wing political causes are all actively vying for evangelical acceptance under the rubric of social justice." He went on to add, "evangelical leaders are beginning to employ the same rhetoric and rationale of victimhood versus oppression that is relentlessly employed by secularists who advocate for all kinds of deviant lifestyles and ideologies. It is a worse form of worldliness than Christians in earlier generations ever contemplated." End quote.

Well, dear friends, I pray that we are all woke today, but not in the traditional use of the term. I pray that we are all woke to the deceptive ideologies of false gospels, including the social gospel, and the social justice movement, which by the way, offers no guarantee of salvation; no guarantee of forgiveness and all it will do is continue to promote further division and discord and violence. You will never be able to appease these people. But I pray you're woke to the true gospel, and here it is before us. Here it is in a sentence, "He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." All of the narcissists and politicians and peoples of the world will fight amongst themselves until the day they die. And their children will take up their causes. And there will be no end to the strife. There will be no peace until the Prince of Peace returns. Think about it, what happens when all these warring factions die, as they will. All their histrionics and rioting and looting and posturing will be instantly forgotten. And their noble causes, real or perceived, will evaporate like morning mist before the sun. I wish I could stand before the world today and say, "Don't you realize that you all stand guilty and condemned before a holy God? Unless you repent and ask Him to save you, you will perish in your sin. But God has provided a way for you to be reconciled to Him through faith, and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Now, this inspired text also provides the answer to what I'm calling the greatest problem in the universe. And that problem is simply this, how can a holy God forgive sin? And still be just? How can that happen? Of course, we have the answer here before us. And in this text, you will notice three magnificent truths. Actually, you'll see more, but I'm going to give you three magnificent truths as they relate to the Father, and as they relate to the Son; each of these form the bedrock of the Gospel--the only truth that can not only save sinners from their sin, but transform them; completely change their disposition; make them new creatures in Christ.

First of all, I want you to notice regarding the Father, number one, we see the sovereignty of his grace in reconciliation. Notice the very first two words, "He made." This is of course speaking of the Father. We know that because earlier in verse 18, he says, "Now all these things are from God." And there Paul was referring to the divine work of regeneration that occurs at conversion. "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ." You see, folks, this was the Father's plan all along. There's no such thing as a Plan B with a sovereign God. It's always plan A. And his plan was to rescue fallen creatures from sin and death, to remove the barrier of sin that separated them from him, and to restore us to a right relationship with him. That was his plan all along. According to the Father's eternal, electing purposes before creation, he set his love on certain individuals solely because of his good pleasure, not because of any merit of their own. We read in Revelation 13 eight that "from the foundation of the world" he wrote the names of his elect in the "book of life of the Lamb who has been slain." By the way, this technically is called the doctrine of unconditional election. Paul said this in Second Timothy one nine, he "saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity." A phrase that literally means "before time began." Folks, had he not chosen us, we would have never chosen him because we were dead in our trespasses and sins. "There is none righteous, not even one," Romans 3:10 tells us. All of us are sinful. In fact, as we look at Scripture, we see that all that we are, and all that we do are fundamentally offensive to a holy God. And the reason why that sounds so offensive to so many people is because they have a very low view of God and a very high view of themselves.

Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 64, beginning of verse six, "For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment." He went on to say, "There is no one who calls on Your name." Again, as we look at Scripture, we see that before a man comes to Christ, he is hostile to God. He is alienated from God; he is separated from God. His spiritual ears are deaf, his spiritual eyes are blind. His heart is deceitful, above all things, and desperately sick. A heart of stone, cold and unresponsive. And then on top of all of that, we are told that "the god of this world," referring to Satan, "has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." Second Corinthians four, four. Once again, remember man cannot affect his reconciliation by doing something, it is solely a work of God. And it was accomplished in the person of Christ through the efficacy of his blood. This was the Father's eternal purpose according to Ephesians 3:11, which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You know, I find such great comfort in this. I've often thought I could never be an Arminian pastor, because I think I would just go, I don't know, shoot myself, I suppose. Because salvation is not up to me, it's up to God. What a heartbreak that would be to spend your life preaching the gospel, and see people die and you think, as I've heard, Arminians say, "Oh, if I'd only done this, if I'd only done that." And that's not to say we should be passive, but folks, ultimately, we can trust in a sovereign God to accomplish his good pleasure that he decreed in eternity past. Acts 13:48, amazing text; there we read, "When the Gentiles heard." By the way, that's referring to here that salvation was now offered to them, "they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed." Oh, I'm so thankful for that. What an amazing passage, and each one of us, who know and love Christ, and have believed in him, have experienced that very thing.

So again, in verse 21, we see, first of all, the sovereignty of the Father's grace in reconciling sinners. Secondly, we see the justice his holiness demands. Look at the verse yet again, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." You see, this resolves that great problem, as I mentioned earlier, of how can an infinitely holy God, forgive sin and still be just, because all sin must be punished? Otherwise, there's no justice. And how could his justice ever be satisfied? Because to be sure, sinful man deserves that punishment, he cannot atone for his own sin. So God's holy justice could not be satisfied, apart from a holy ransom. And only by his provision, could such a remedy be accomplished. God could not deny his own justice. And in the incarnation, and sacrificial death of his son, we see his justice being satisfied. You see, dear friends, nothing but perfect righteousness could ever satisfy perfect holiness. So the father had to provide a way to appease his own wrath against sin. And so what did he do? He made "Him," referring to his own beloved son, "who knew no sin to be sin." Now, this was all set into motion in the garden, as you will recall. Because of sin, Adam and Eve lost their innocence and it was replaced with guilt and shame. And what did they do? Frantically, they tried to soothe their conscience by covering themselves with the fig leaves of their own efforts, but it was all in vain. And God cursed them and all who would come from them. Yet although Adam and Eve should have died on that day, God set into motion, his mercy and his grace. We read, "and the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." What an interesting statement. You see again, man could never cover his sin with his own efforts. So God had to do something; man's best efforts would never be good enough to satisfy divine justice. So a substitute needed to die, to cover sin, to satisfy the demands of God's holy justice. And with that, we see the first sacrifice occurring, a shadow of a coming Redeemer that would one day make atonement for sin. And I can almost see the faces of Adam and Eve on that day, the astonishment when they look down and they saw the blood on the ground when they witnessed the very first death, an innocent death, when suddenly they saw that crimson stain that was required for their sin. And of course, all of that was a picture of an innocent lamb that would one day come, that would one day spill his precious blood as a substitute for all who placed their faith in him. Thus, the glorious story of redemption was set into motion that day, a plan that God had sovereignly ordained before time began. And all through Scripture we see the scarlet thread of redemption, don't we? It is woven into every story. It is the theme of every song and what a glorious thought to know that, though our sins may be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

So we see the Father's sovereign grace to reconcile sinners in the justice his holiness demands. But thirdly, will you notice the marvel of his infinite love? I mean, folks, can there be any greater love than this--than to offer your son to save rebellious sinners like you and like me? I mean, I cannot fathom such a sacrifice. "Yet God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Romans five beginning in verse eight, the apostle Paul says "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Folks, this is fundamental to the gospel. This is at its very core. We read, for example, in First John four, beginning in verse nine, "In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this as love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." And likewise, in Ephesians, chapter two beginning of verse four, Paul says, God is rich and mercy, "and because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive together with Christ." Oh, dear Christian, consider this: we're it not for that infinite love, we would still be in a state of spiritual death, like many of our family members, and many of our friends and all the wicked people of this world. I think of what Paul said in Romans three, beginning verse 14, he speaks of those in spiritual death, as being those whose "mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." But dear friends think of this, because of the divine work of regeneration that occurs at conversion, suddenly, we are raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, having died and been resurrected with Christ and made a new creature in Christ. This is the good news of the true gospel; the only gospel that can save men souls, the only gospel that can deliver men from the bondage of sin and transform hearts as opposed to false gospels like the social gospel. And frankly, just rearrange the deck furniture on the, on the Titanic. It's all they're doing.

Well, let's turn our attention now to three marvelous truths pertaining to the Son. Notice, first of all, the sinless purity of his person. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf." Now, this is a startling statement. And deliberately so. Of course, we must understand what he's saying here. Some will say, well, because the same word for "sin" can be translated in Hebrew as "sin offering." Paul is here using a Hebraism. Now to be sure Jesus was a sin offering. But I would submit to you that linguistically and grammatically and contextually, it makes no sense whatsoever. The Greek word translated "sin"-- "hamartia,” we get hamartiology, the study of the doctrine of sin, from that word--that word is never used any place in the New Testament, translated "sin offering." We don't see it anywhere. So why would you do that here? Moreover, the same term, "hamartia" is used twice in the same sentence. So you would think that the word means the same both places. Sin offering would make no sense. I mean, read it. He made Him who knew no sin offering to be sin offering on our behalf. Makes no sense whatsoever. And finally, Paul was using the word "sin" here to contrast the word "righteousness." He's basically saying he made him to be sin that we might be made righteous. So none of that makes any sense. Others will argue something that is far more heretical. They say that Paul is saying that Christ became a sinner on the cross. Folks, that is pure heresy. Christ was God in human flesh, he was utterly holy, blameless, he was the spotless Lamb of God. It's beyond the realm of imagination even, that God, who according to Habakkuk, 1:13, "whose eyes are too pure to approve of evil," that God would make his own beloved Son, a sinner? That's incomprehensible. It is blasphemous to think that somehow, the Lord Jesus Christ would lose his righteousness on the cross, and take upon himself our corruption and guilt, and become a transgressor like all of us. According to Hebrews 4:"W5, we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin." Why? Because according to chapter seven and verse 26, of Hebrews, he is, "holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens." No, no dear friends, what we see here is that "He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin." We see that this is referring to imputation-- a very important concept. The father treated him as if he were a sinner, by charging to his account, the sins of all that he had given to him in eternity past. You see, imputation is, it's really that judicial reckoning or sometimes we use the word "forensic." A forensic transfer of one person's sin or righteousness to another. That's what's going on here. By the way, you'll will never see this in Roman Catholic theology, the concept of imputation. Because if it were there, the whole system would fall apart; the works righteousness, we got to keep doing something because nothing was imputed to us. But dear friends, a great exchange took place on the cross of Calvary--Christ took our sin and gave us his righteousness. Isaiah 53, that we read earlier, beginning of verse four, "Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him." But dear friends, nothing about His sinless character changed on the cross. As a man, as our representative, Christ "knew no sin," as we read here. He was a perfectly sinless substitute, a man who lived a perfectly sinless life, fulfilling every aspect of the law perfectly. Unlike the slaughter of an innocent lamb in the old covenant sacrificial system, according to Hebrews 9:14, Jesus offered himself without spot to God. When John the Baptist saw him, what did he say to the people? "Behold, the Lamb of God." That's who Jesus was. John MacArthur said this, "He was personally pure yet officially culpable; personally holy yet forensically guilty. But in dying on the cross, Christ did not become evil like we are, nor do redeem sinners become inherently as holy as He is. God credits believer's sin to Christ's account and his righteousness to theirs."

Dear friends, we not only see the sinless purity of his person, but secondly, the selfless love of his sacrifice. And here we can go to other passages of Scripture that speak to this. I think of what Paul said in First Timothy two, beginning of verse three that Christ "gave Himself as a ransom for all." Can you imagine that? He gave himself. And Jesus himself said in John 10, in verse 18, "No one has taken it," referring to his life, "away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative." And Peter said in First Peter 2:24, "He bore our sins in His body on the cross." The idea that he willingly did that, incomprehensible. Absolutely astounding. And in First Peter 3:18, we read, "Christ died for sins, once for all, the just for the unjust." And of course, you will recall this was what fueled Paul's testimony. This was why he was so devoted to serving Christ. This is why he had such a zeal for evangelism. It was because of Christ's love for him. Remember, in Second Corinthians five, verse 14, he said, "For the love of Christ controls us. Having concluded this, that one died for all therefore all died, and He died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf." It is absolutely staggering that our sinless Savior voluntarily bore our sins, on the cross in his body; that he willingly endured the wrath of God that we deserve. You will probably like me when I was a little boy, I shouldn't say as a little boy, because I still sing it, especially with my grandkids, we sing the little chorus, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Great doctrinal truth there. To think that Jesus loved those who hated him. In John 13 one John says of Jesus, "Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end"--"eis telos" in the original language. It means "infinitely", "to the ultimate extreme", "eternally," "completely." Jesus spoke of this himself in John 10:11. He said, "I am the good shepherd; and the good shepherd gives His life for the sheep." Paul reminds us of this in Ephesians, chapter five, verse 25. He says that "Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for her." And then that great passage in Romans 8:35, and following. Paul says, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" The answer is nothing. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Beloved, I hope these truths animate your heart to praise and motivate your will to serving Christ.

So we not only see the sinless purity of his person and the selfless love as of his sacrifice, but finally, the saving merit of his substitution. This is such a great doctrinal truth. Again, notice, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." You see on the cross, God punished Jesus, as if he had lived our lives of sin. So that God could treat us as if we had lived his life of perfect holiness. I don't mean to be in any way sacrilegious, but folks, what a deal. It's just amazing. And of course, this is pictured in the Levitical sacrifices instituted under the Mosaic Covenant.

Will you join me for a minute, I want you to go with me on just a brief journey back into the Old Testament. Let's go back about, I don't know, roughly 3500 years ago. Two years after the Exodus, the exodus was in 1445 BC, God gave the law to Moses. And one aspect of that law is recorded in the Book of Leviticus. Don't worry, we're not going to go through Leviticus this morning, but I want to remind you of something here, because a key theme of the book of Leviticus is the presence of God. And that's confirmed by the fact that that idea was used 59 times and the phrase "before the Lord." "Before the Lord" literally in the Hebrew is "before the face of Yahweh"--a signifying presence. And Leviticus answers a very important question, and that is, how can the holy presence of God dwell in the midst of a sinful people? And how can we ever enter into that presence? Well, the answer is that we see in the Old Testament and in the sacrificial system, that sinners had to make sacrifices to the Lord to atone for their sin, so that they could be rendered acceptable in his presence. Now, not all of the sacrifices made atonement for sin, but certainly the most dominant one that did speak to that was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. There the high priests would enter into the most holy place, according to Leviticus 16:17, "to make atonement for himself and for his house, and for all the assembly of Israel." Now, remember, atonement literally means to provide legal or moral repayment for a fault or an injury. And atonement always requires two things: satisfaction and substitution. Satisfaction for the offended holiness of God accomplished only by an acceptable substitute for the guilty party. Now, let me remind you of this, this is fascinating history that we see, especially as it relates to Yom Kippur, described in Leviticus 16 and 17. Let me tell you what the high priest would do during that time. The day would seem to begin like every other day with the offering of the morning sacrifice, which would include the burnt offering of a one-year-old lamb. Then the high priest would move methodically through the ceremonies that God had prescribed on the Day of Atonement described in Leviticus 16 and 17. Aaron was required, for example, to remove his normal priestly garments, he had to wash, he then had to put on the prescribed special garments that God required to allow him to enter into the Holy of Holies. He would then secure the necessary sacrificial animals, he had to have a bull for his own sin offering, and he had to have two male goats for the people's sin offering. He also had to get two rams--one for Aaron's and then the other for the people's burnt offering. And then the next thing that he would do would be to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. Now mind you, these sacrifices were deliberately gruesome. There was blood absolutely everywhere. This was because God wanted to provide a graphic reminder of the hideous nature of sin and that there is no forgiveness of sin apart from the shedding of blood before entering into the Holy of Holies. With the blood of the bowl, Aaron had to create a cloud of incense and the holy of holies that would cover the the Mercy Seat. The mercy seat--the hilasterion--the Septuagint tells us--the place of propitiation, which was the lid that was on top of the ark of the covenant that held the violated law, the Shekinah glory of God hovered above the mercy seat. And the mercy seat was that dividing line that prevented sinful man from entering into the presence of God. And only when that blood was spilt there, was that allowed to happen. And all of that was symbolic, of course. And so he would create a veil to dim the glory of God that was there, lest he lose his life. And it's interesting when he entered into the holy of holies, he had to pass through three areas first in the tabernacle, later on in the temple. As a footnote, as indicated in Hebrews 4:14, this was symbolic of Jesus, our Great High Priest, who passed through three heavens, after making the final and perfect sacrifice of himself. He went first through the atmospheric heaven, and then through the stellar heaven, and finally, into the very abode of God.

Then the high priest would take the blood; he went through the door into the outer court through another door into the holy place. And finally, he would disappear behind the veil into the Holy of Holies. And once inside, he would take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. And he would do this seven times. That was the place of propitiation. And there dear friends, the justice of God was temporarily appeased. Once again, because all sin must be punished. There, atonement was made for the sins of the people. And then lots were cast for the two goats. One goat would have to be slaughtered. And the other would be the scape goat that we'd be driven out and loosed into the wilderness. The goat to be slaughtered was the goat of the people’s sin offering that was then sacrificed. Its blood was taken into the Holy of Holies and applied to the mercy seat where the blood of the bull had been applied. And then the second goat, the one that was kept alive, had the sins of the nation symbolically placed on its head. And then it was driven from the camp to some desolate place, from which it would never be able to return according to Jewish tradition. That goat was led to a high cliff and pushed backward over the precipice to prevent him from ever returning to the camp. Now dear friends, those two goats symbolized propitiation, and expiation. To "propitiate" means to appease the righteous wrath of God against us. First John 4:10, "God loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." And to "expiate" means to remove the guilt of sin. So the goat slaughtered, symbolized propitiation, and that you had an innocent substitute that was slaughtered to appease the wrath of God against the people. And then the one that was sent into the wilderness, symbolized expiation--the permanent removal of the guilt of our sins. And what we see is by sprinkling the sacrificial blood of one substitute on the mercy seat, imputation occurred. Imputation of sin into a second substitute. The priests then atone for the sins of the people. What a magnificent picture of what Christ did on our behalf. You see, he was the only substitute that could do this on our behalf. And here by the way, we see the doctrine of justification by imputation, when he, through Christ declared us to be righteous because "He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God."

You see beloved, Christ, Jesus offered himself in our place to both propitiate--that is appease the righteousness of God that we deserve--as well as expiate--remove the guilt of our sin from us. God alone covers or erases, he blots out our sin from his sight through the blood of Christ. That's what God told Isaiah in Isaiah chapter six, verse seven, "Behold, your iniquity is taken away." Second Corinthians 5:19, "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our trespasses against us." And therefore the author of Hebrews instructs us saying, in chapter nine, verse 11, "But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption."

Dear friends, what we've reflected on here today is the old gospel. And I might add, it is the only gospel. If someone asks you and I hope they will, "what is it that you believe is a Christian?" You tell them, "I believe that God made Jesus Christ who knew no sin, to be sin on my behalf, that I might become the righteousness of God in Him. And you young people, I want you to hear me this morning, should the Lord tarry beyond the years of my pulpit ministry, here at Calvary Bible church, and somebody else take my place, as probably will happen, even though we don't know--if that man or any other man dares to stand in this pulpit and preaches another gospel, let him be accursed. And you take that man and you remove him from this facility, before he can finish his blasphemous sermon. Because we've got to stand upon the truth. This is the only gospel that will save. You say, "oh, that will never happen, the pylons of truth have been driven so deep over the years." Let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. It has happened many times. Look at some that were once great denominations, the Methodists, the Baptist. We've got Southern Baptists today that I wouldn't allow to teach Sunday school. Not that they're all that way, but there are some. Presbyterians, some wonderful Presbyterian brothers and others are absolute heretics. And on and on it goes. Princeton, Yale, Harvard, all of those Ivy schools were founded on the true gospel. They were dedicated to training men that would preach exactly what I'm telling you here today. And now look at them. They are thoroughly apostate. Oh, dear Christian, may we all bow in breathless adoration before the Lord our God, and thank him for his marvelous work of grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. And may we all be faithful in carrying that torch; in our families, amongst our friends and future generations. May we all celebrate the great exchange that took place on the cross. Amen? Let's do that. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths. May they bear much fruit in our hearts for your glory. And if there be anyone here today that knows nothing of what it means to be reconciled to you through faith in Christ, Oh, Lord, would you overwhelm them with such great conviction that they will have no rest until they bow their knee before the cross and plead for the mercy that you will so instantly lavish upon them. May today even be the day that they experienced the miracle of regeneration. We thank you, we give you praise, in Jesus name. Amen.

Will you join me by taking your Bibles and turning to Second Corinthians chapter five. In the providence of God, we have now arrived at verses 18 through 20, that we will examine this morning, under the heading, "Reconciling the World to God through Christ." Before I read the passage, perhaps I can frame it this way--given the skyrocketing violence in our country through the domestic terrorists, foolishly described as protesters, we see more and more people arming themselves out of fear that the government is going to be unable to protect them, maybe not even unable but unwilling to protect them. And so gun and ammo sales, if you've read anything in the news, you see that it's just skyrocketing. Many of the ammunition manufacturers say they're as much as three years behind; it's just amazing to see what's happening. But dear friends, may I say to you, and please hear this, we face a far greater danger than what we see burning down our cities, and in our government. And that danger is Satan and his minions that basically fuel all of this. For "our struggle," the apostle Paul says, "is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers against the powers against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." And from the outset, I want to remind you that my responsibility before God, and therefore unto you, is to equip you, not entertain you. My responsibility is to prepare you and to train you, not to boost your self-esteem, or in any way rouse you to social and political change. That has nothing to do with the gospel. That has nothing to do with the plan of redemption and our great commission. I am called to frankly help you put on the whole armor of God, right? And learn how to wield the "sword of the Spirit," which is the word of God, as Paul tells us. Second Corinthians 10, beginning of verse three, he says this, "For though we walk in the flesh"-- in other words, that we have human limitations--"we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses." And our divinely powerful weaponry, as we see in that passage and others, is the word and prayer by the power of the Spirit. He goes on to say, "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."

Dear friends, our ultimate mission is evangelism; to preach the gospel that men and women, boys and girls will come to a saving knowledge of Christ. So we must understand what the gospel truly is. And unfortunately, we live in a day and age where the gospel has been so distorted, it bears little resemblance, in many churches, to the New Testament gospel that Jesus and the apostles preached. Many people today, many Christians, do battle in the flesh, not in the Spirit, and they wield a plastic sword against a formidable enemy with weak arms. We must do better. And by God's grace, we will. The subtitle of Shepherds Fire, which is the ministry that I have to pastors and church leaders, is this, "proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ." For indeed, they are unsearchable, right? They are unfathomable when we contemplate them. Paul said in Ephesians, three eight, "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ." Oh, dear friends, I trust that you share that kind of awe, that kind of enthusiasm. In fact, Job said in Job five, verse nine, "Who does great and unsearchable things, wonders, without number." And indeed, when we look and see all that God has done, in creation and so forth, the things are wondrous, they're unsearchable.

But perhaps the most unsearchable miracle of all, is the miracle of reconciliation, whereby he breathed life into the spiritual cadavers, gave us the ability to see the horror of our sin, the glory of the cross, and he saved us by his grace and made us new creatures in Christ, that we might one day enter into the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy. And this is the theme of our text this morning. In Second Corinthians, chapter five, beginning of verse 18, under the inspiration of the Spirit, the apostle Paul says, "Now, all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."

Dear friends, herein is the glorious good news of the gospel news that is so desperately needed in a world where it seems like all we hear is bad news, right? It gets to a point where you don't even want to turn on the news, because it's so depressing. But here, the inspired apostle reveals how God has a plan, and he has a purpose in redemption, and how we have a high calling to preach this gospel of reconciliation. And you might want to ask yourself from the outset of our time together this morning, what is my highest calling in life? Is this indeed the priority and the passion of my life? Or does it come up way down on the list, if at all. Paul said in Romans one, verse 15," I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who were in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." And similarly, in First Corinthians one, verse 17, we read, "For Christ did not send me to baptize," Paul says, "but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who were being saved it is the power of God." Sadly, down through the course of redemptive history, ever since the church was established at Pentecost, we have seen Christian people, churches, that are ashamed of the gospel, the gospel of reconciliation, and therefore they ignore, for example, Paul's testimony in First Corinthians 1:22, where he went on to say, "We preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness." You would think that he would have caught on to pragmatism; my goodness, quit preaching that if people think it's so foolish. No, no, no, no, this is what I'm going to preach. And here's why, "but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greek, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God."

Now, the truth of what God has really done to reconcile sinners to himself, is indeed horribly offensive to fallen man. In fact, our text this morning, as you will see, will either hardened hearts or soften hearts. People will either resent what the Word of God has to say or they will cherish it, one or the other. They will either argue against it or they will accept it by faith. But for the apostle Paul, the truths that are contained herein were the very fuel that caused his heart to burn with passion to preach the gospel; a fuel that could not be extinguished, even by the most severe forms of persecution, and death. And the same can be said of countless millions who have been reconciled to God. They are about the business of the ministry of reconciliation.

I was thinking about this--the great reformers of the Protestant Reformation, which happened around 1517 through about 1648 or so, taught the true gospel. And in order to do that, they used five basic theological principles, called the Five Solas, Latin phrases or slogans, and you can see them around our worship center here: Sola Gratia, by grace alone, Sola Christus, through Christ alone, Sola Fide, by faith alone, Sola Scriptura, by Scripture alone, and Soli Deo Gloria, glory to God alone. And we see these great doctrinal distinctives in our text this morning, where God's great work of reconciliation is described; a reconciliation, catch this, that occurred on the cross. Here, we see how that barrier was removed between sinful man and a holy God. That barrier being the guilt of our sin and the punishment of God's wrath. He bore our sins in his body, and accomplished peace. Paul speaks of this in Romans five, verse 10. He says, "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation."

Now, as we examine our text this morning, I want to use these five Solas as headings and you will see them emerge from the text as we go through it. First of all, I want you to notice Solo Gratia--reconciliation is by grace alone. Notice verse 18, at the very beginning he says, "Now all these things are from God." Well, what "things" is he referring to? Well, what we read in verses 14 through 17, just prior to this text, he's speaking, he's referring to the divine work of regeneration that occurs at conversion when a believer is raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, having died and been resurrected with Christ and made a new creature in Christ. He's referring to that magnanimous, unmerited love of Christ that changed his perception, his identity and his character; the glorious reality that Christ came to this earth, not only to pay the penalty for my sin and your sin, but also to establish an intimate living, eternal union with us, whereby we are in Him, and He is in us. So he says, "Now, all these things are from God." By implication, you had nothing to do with that.

Think about this, all things of our new creation. We contributed nothing to it, because frankly, we had nothing to contribute to it. Moreover, we were incapable of making any spiritual contribution, because we were spiritually dead. Well, then, how can a man or a woman respond to the gospel invitation? Well, the point is, he can't, she can't, unless the Spirit of God, through the power of regeneration breathes spiritual life into that corpse, because all things are from God. In the miracle of regeneration, God causes the sinner to see the horror of the sin, to see what Christ has done and to believe in utter desperation by the power of the Spirit. He causes us to voluntarily submit to the gospel invitation. May I ask you, dear friend, why did you respond positively to the gospel invitation when you heard it, when your friends and family members did not? Why was that? Was it because you were smarter than they were? Was it because you were a more spiritual person than they were? Folks, if that were the case, you would have reason to boast and you could not say with Paul, "Now all these things are from God." You would have to say now all these things are basically from God but I also made my contribution to. Because after all, grace merely facilitated my salvation, but it was not absolutely necessary for it. Grace only made salvation possible. But it was up to me to exercise my free will to believe so I took the initiative in my salvation, not God.

By the way, this is the freewill heresy of the British monk Pelagius, that was condemned by the council at Ephesus in 431 AD, and a number of other councils. In fact, this is the most condemned of all the heresies by numerous councils, more so than any other heresy. And his doctrine of free will became known as Pelagianism. Perhaps you've heard that theological term bantered around. He emphasized human ability and free will, rather than depravity and sinfulness. So Pelagians believe, for example, that it is possible to live without sin; that the effect of Adam's sin on his descendants was simply a bad example. So all people are free to obey or free to disobey apart from God's grace; man can initiate salvation on his own apart from God's intervening grace. And there's a hybrid of that called semi-Pelagianism, which maintains that, yes, grace is necessary, but that the free that the will is free by nature, to choose whether or not to accept it, when that grace is offered. So again, man is the one that must take the initiative in salvation, and then God must help him along on the way to be saved.

And then there's yet another version of it. I have many dear friends who will believe this. And it's not necessarily as much a heresy as it is just a wrong understanding of soteriology. That's called Arminianism. They would argue that God provides salvation-in that he takes the initiative by providing salvation, but having made that available, that plan available, he leaves man to his own devices to choose to respond a right to God's plan. So God and the believer cooperate together in attaining salvation. And then, of course, there is another view, which I think is the biblical view, it's sometimes called Augustinianism, or Calvinism. It's reformed soteriology that we believe here at Calvary Bible Church. And it basically says this, that God brings man to Christ for salvation. That the power and the glory all belong to him and to him alone. That salvation is all of grace. You might think of it this way-- to the Pelagians, They would say that the natural man is well. To the Armenians, they would say that the natural man is sick. To the Augustinians or the Calvinists, we would say the natural man is dead. That's a simple way of putting it. RC Sproul said this, "The grace that is considered in all semi-Pelagian and Arminian theories of salvation is not efficacious grace." Efficacious is kind of a big word, it means to affect, to benefit, to cause something to actually happen. "Rather," he says, "it is a grace that makes salvation possible, not a grace that makes salvation certain. Therein the great difference. In the parable of the sower, we see that regarding salvation, God is the one who takes the initiative to bring salvation to pass. He is the sower. The seed that is sown is his seed corresponding to his word and the harvest that results is his harvest. He harvests what he purposed to harvest when he initiated the whole process. God doesn't leave the harvest up to the vagaries of thorns and stones in the pathway." Sproul goes on to say, "It is God, and God alone, who make certain that a portion of his word falls upon good ground. A critical error in interpreting this parable would be to assume that the good ground is the good disposition of fallen sinners-- those sinners who make the right choice, responding positively to God's prevenient grace." "Prevenient" means preparatory. "The classical reformed understanding of the good ground is that if the ground is receptive to the seed, that is sown by God, it is God alone who prepares the ground for the germination of the seed."

Well, indeed, as James says, In James one beginning of verse 17, "Every good thing given and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow and the exercise of," catch it, "His will." Not our will, but in "the exercise of His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures." Beloved, the only reason any of us ever believed the gospel, ever responded in repentant faith is because God in His sovereign election, set his love upon us in eternity past. And then in time, he took the initiative to change the disposition of our heart, that we might voluntarily believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm always so deeply humbled by that. You must understand that in election, God demonstrates his resolve to save sinners. And that is what actually happened at the cross of Calvary. These are truths that Armenians and Pelagians would deny. J. I Packer said this, quote, "For Arminianism, salvation rests neither on God's election, nor on Christ's cross, but on man's own cooperation with grace, which is something that God does not himself guarantee." My, my, that's no gospel at all too me. That's not good news. If salvation rests on me, I'm in trouble.

Notice again, our text in verse 18, "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ." "Reconcile," the Greek term "katallasso"-- it means to restore to a place of fellowship by removing an offense that had destroyed that fellowship. It speaks of the removal of hostility, and the restoration of "shalom," of peace.

Now, I want you to notice, who is the one doing the reconciling? It is God, it is not man. Beloved, you must understand that in the true gospel, we see that man cannot affect his reconciliation by doing something. It is solely a work of God, accomplished by the person and the work of Christ, through the efficacy of his blood. Man is unable to do anything to remove the hostility that God has toward his sin. Instead, you might think of it this way; man passively receives the gift of reconciliation through the atoning work of Christ on his behalf. Man cannot cause himself to be born again. He cannot raise himself from spiritual death. Think of Lazarus. There was Lazarus, laying in the tomb, wrapped in grave clothes, stiff as a board, reeking of the stench of putrefaction. Did he have the faculties to cooperate with Jesus' command to come forth? Did he contribute anything to his resurrection? Well, obviously he did not, not until God gave him life. Then he came forth. Yet you hear something different in many gospel presentations. I've heard it many times oh, it's like a man that's drowning in the sea, and we have to throw him the lifeline of the gospel, but he's got to grab it. And so then you have to have altar calls and manipulative stories and 48 verses of "Just as I am" and the organ and all this stuff to get the mood going so that people will finally grab that line and be saved. But folks, a corpse can't grab anything. And that's what Scripture tells us--that we are spiritually dead. We are hostile to God. We are alienated from him. Our spiritual ears are deaf, we are blind. Our heart is deceitful, above all things and desperately sick. It's called a "heart of stone." It is cold, it is unresponsive, and on and on it goes. And if that isn't bad enough, we read that the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers. Why? To keep them from seeing "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ", Second Corinthians four four. But the Word and the Spirit gives life dear friends, that is the glorious news of the gospel. So regeneration must always precede faith if I can put it that way. Sola Gratia, reconciliation is by grace alone. We don't initiate reconciliation, beloved, we receive it. John MacArthur said this, "Reconciliation does not happen when man decides to stop rejecting God, but when God decides to stop rejecting man. It is a divine provision by which God's holy displeasure against alienated sinners is appeased, his hostility against them removed and a harmonious relationship between him and them established. So indeed, we see Sola Gratia, reconciliation is by grace alone.

But also notice in verse 18, we read, "God reconciled us to Himself through Christ." there's Solus Christus-- reconciliation is through Christ alone. We must understand that only Christ could satisfy the righteous demands of a holy God. Only Christ could appease his wrath. That is propitiation, meaning satisfaction or placation. It's his sacrifice alone, that propitiated God's holy wrath against us making reconciliation possible. First, John 4:10, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Indeed, he alone is the mediator between God and man. Colossians one, verse 20, God chose through Christ, "to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you and His fleshly body through death, in order to you present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach." Oh, beloved, this is staggering. This is good news beyond anything you can imagine.

Likewise, in Ephesians, two beginning of verse 13, Paul says, "But now in Christ Jesus you who were formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by having put to death, the enmity." Folks, this is what happened at the cross.

But what you also notice in verse 19, God gave us the ministry of reconciliation. This is another way of describing the Great Commission. He goes on to say, "Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation." So here again, we see that Christ is the agent of reconciling; we are united to Christ saving faith; we are in Christ. In fact, earlier you will recall in verse 17, in Paul's testimony, he says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." And therefore, because of that, every believer enjoys an intimate, living, eternal union with Christ whereby we become one with him.

But notice the content of our message of reconciliation. And here's where the rubber really begins to meet the road, as we might say. In verse 19, "Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." Beloved, this is what we celebrate in worship, and this is what we preach to the world. But we must be careful. Paul's use of the word "world" is used by the Universalist to argue that God's death reconciled all mankind, without exception. Perhaps you have run across these people. Everyone goes to heaven. Very, very popular view. They will also use John 1:29, where John the Baptist declared of Jesus, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Well, there it is, they say, he paid everybody sin. They will use John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." And they will point to John 4:42. And First John 4"14, where Jesus has called, quote, "the Savior of the world." John 6:51, Jesus declared, "The bread which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh." First Timothy two, six, "He gave Himself as a ransom for all." Hebrews two nine says that by the grace of God, "He might taste death for everyone." First John, two, two, "He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the world." And I'll explain that a little more in a moment. Well my goodness, when you look at those verses, it seems like there right. You paid everybody sins, everybody ought to go to heaven. And certainly a superficial reading of these passages, especially when you don't compare them with other passages of Scripture, seem to indicate that very thing; that Christ paid the penalty for everyone's sin. The problem is, what do you do with hell? Why call anyone to repentance, if everybody's going to be saved anyway. Why preach the gospel if Christ satisfied God's wrath for everyone? Now, obviously, we know that can't be true, that there is a hell. Jesus said in Matthew 7:23 that I read earlier, he will declare to false professors, "I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness." Sounds like some people didn't get their sins paid for right? Revelation 21, verse eight, "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

So how do we answer the Universalist? Ah, but I'm glad you asked. You must understand that the terms "world" and "all" and "everyone" are used to describe mankind in general. They are used to speak of all men without distinction. But not all men, without exception. Big difference. For example, I had a conversation not too long ago with a Universalist and he brought up First John two two, "He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the world." And he wanted me to explain that. And I asked him, "Well, what is the context of all of this, and along with a lot of other things?" Well, he really had no answer for that. And that's what happens; many times people pull these verses out of context. And well, there it is. Well, the context here is that John is writing to saints who had been snookered by false teachers who embraced Gnosticism. And the Gnostics were saying that the only ones that could be saved were the initiates that had the secret knowledge. Likewise, many Jews thought that they were the only ones that could be saved. Certainly not those Gentiles, certainly not those wicked rulers of Rome. So John is refuting this kind of exclusivism. Christ died for Jews and Gentiles. He died for Gnostics. He died for barbarians, for kings and for paupers. So the whole world, that phrase refers to mankind in general. All without distinction, but not all, without exception. He's referring to, as John said in Revelation seven, nine, "A great multitude, which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues." So it is in this sense, that God in Christ is reconciling the world to Himself. And what is the barrier that has to be removed in order for that to be accomplished? Our sin. and that's why he goes on to say, "not counting their trespasses against them." I've got a little note "hallelujah." Aren't you glad he's not pulling up the list and saying, "Are you kidding me?"

He goes on to describe in verse 21, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God and Him." And folks, when did this happen? On the cross of Calvary, Christ's death actually atoned for the sins of all whom the Father had given him in eternity past. His death actually, not potentially, expiated the sins of those who would believe--the elect of God. By the way, the word the word "expiate" in Greek it means "out of" and it speaks of him taking our guilt away; it's been removed. But you must understand that there can be no expiation apart from propitiation, you understand that? Our guilt cannot be removed until God's wrath has been satisfied. That's the point. But indeed, on the cross, he was our substitute. And Peter said in First Peter 2:24, that he bore our sins in his body on the tree. Beloved, the efficacy, that is the effectiveness of Christ's atonement, is not based upon the decision of the sinner to repent and to believe. Boy, if that was the case, none of us would ever be saved. Something actually happened at the cross. We can go all the way back to Isaiah 53 and verse five and read what happened, "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. Folks, there is no potentiality there. We don't preach, "well, Christ made your salvation possible. And now it's up to you to complete the process." I hope you don't preach that? No, we declare to sinners, "Christ died for you." Only a perfect, efficacious atonement provides a salvation that has already been accomplished; nothing more needs to be added. It is a gift to be received by faith alone. Charles Spurgeon said this, "We say Christ so died, that he infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number." Can't you just hear him thundering this across the audience there in London about 150 years ago?

"We say Christ so died that he infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who through Christ's death, not only may be saved, but are saved, must be saved, and cannot by any possibility, run the hazard of being anything but saved." Now that's the gospel. J I Packer said this, "God's saving purpose in the death of his son was not a mere ineffectual wish, depending for its fulfillment on man's willingness to believe, so that for all God could do, Christ might have died and none be saved at all." He goes on to say, "The Bible sees the cross, as revealing God's power to save, not his impotence. Christ did not win a hypothetical salvation for hypothetical believers; a mere possibility of salvation for any who might possibly believe, but a real salvation for his own chosen people. His precious blood really does save all. Its saving power does not depend on faith being added to it. Its saving power is such that faith flows from it. The cross secured the salvation of all for whom Christ died." Oh, what a magnificent truth this is. This is the gospel, we preach; that God in Christ, as Paul said, reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them. Solas Christus; reconciliation is through Christ alone.

Again, if I can put it this way, his atoning sacrifice, his work on the cross, was efficacious only for quote, "Those whom the Father had given Him," John 17, nine. Those whom God determined from all eternity past to believe on the Son Ephesians one four, "He chose them in Him before the foundation of the world." Revelation 13 to eight, "and their names have been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain." People don't like this. We have a rabid commitment to self-determination. We don't like a God that is fully in control, do we? Well, you do once you come to Christ, and you rejoice in it. Jesus declared, "I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." And then he added, "I lay down My life for the sheep." Romans eight beginning of verse 32, "God did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all." He went on to say God's elect, those whom He justifies. So dear friends, what a comfort to know that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them," verse 19. But please understand, reconciliation could never take place, apart from the forgiveness of sins, because it is sin that caused the separation to happen in the first place, right? And therefore we can sing with David, "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man whom the LORD does not impute iniquity," Psalm 32, one and two.

Now, notice again, in verse 18, God gave us the "ministry of reconciliation," verse 19, "He has committed to us the word of reconciliation." The word "word" there is "logos" in the original language, as opposed to the Greek term mythos. It's a synonym for the gospel. It is the word of truth. And here we see Sola Scriptura; reconciliation is by scripture alone. You see, we understand all through Scripture, that it is God's word, that is the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice. It is not the Bible, plus tradition. The word of God is central to our life, it's central to our faith, it's central to our worship. James 1:I8, "In the exercise of His will, He brought us forth by," what? "The word of truth." Romans 10:17, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ." Paul said to the Thessalonian believers in First Thessalonians 2:13, "For this reason, we also constantly thank God, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe." I remember when that happened to me, and it's still happening, as it is with you, if you know and love Christ. Well, obviously, there's something else here. The gospel is freely offered to all, but sinners have to respond in faith in order to be saved. We see that here as well.

And here is number four Sola Fide; reconciliation is by faith alone. Verse 18, again, "God gave us the ministry of reconciliation." Again, we have to call sinners to repentance, we have to preach the gospel, so that they will believe. Verse 19, "He has committed to us the word of reconciliation." Verse 20, "Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled to God." Now it's common for people to ask, "well, how in the world can a person respond to the gospel invitation if he's spiritually dead?" Very fair question. And as we've answered before, it's by the work of the Spirit. It's regeneration: the sovereign act of God whereby he imparts spiritual life to a sinner, again causing that sinner to voluntarily respond to the gospel in repentant faith. You see, regeneration is the cause, not the consequence of saving faith. You will recall in Second Corinthians four, Paul speaks of regeneration in terms of suddenly being able to see the light of the gospel; that's regeneration. When God saves the sinner, the Spirit's work causes these blind eyes to suddenly see what they could not see before; to suddenly perceive the light of Christ and all of his glory, resulting in saving faith. But God had to take the initiative. Well, then people will say, "Well, how can man be held responsible for his unbelief? If God is sovereign over salvation?" Well, I've heard that before. And usually the chin is up and the chest is out, and it's like, explain that one to me. Have you heard that before? Of course, there's a sense of, you know, if you believe that, well, then God's unfair, you know, that's the idea. Well, how do you answer that? Well, the answer is real simple. God doesn't say God's sovereignty and man's responsibility run parallel all through Scripture. They never intersect. We see it all over scripture. But you know what, they are perfectly compatible in the mind of God, even though they are an inscrutable mystery to us. By the way, as soon as you try to explain it, you cease to be biblical.

In fact, in Romans chapter nine, we're told to not even ask that question. There we read, "Who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this,' will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use?" Obviously, we are the clay pot; we have no capacity to even really ask the question much less understand it. We accept it by faith, we see it all through Scripture. "Well, I want nothing to do with a God like that,” I’ve heard that before. And all I have to say is well dear friend, if that's the case, you must understand that you will have an eternity to curse him in the solitary confinement of hell, for what you believe to be his injustice. And I hope that's not the case. All I can do is beg you, as Paul says, "on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled to God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." He will forgive your sins, He will make you a new creature in Christ. By the way, this is what the church is to do. We get all these things of what churches are supposed to be about--we're to be ambassadors of Christ, ministers of reconciliation, begging sinners on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. This is our great commission--to make disciples and to teach them to obey all that Jesus has commanded them. We have the ministry of reconciliation. We're not to be, I don't know, social justice warriors, for example, that's where many churches have gone, as if they can somehow appease that crowd, which is absolutely ludicrous. We have the ministry of reconciliation, not the ministry of reparations, which is utterly absurd, and totally unbiblical.

Oh, dear Christians, we have a glorious calling because we serve a glorious God. We have the ministry of reconciliation. I hope you take that seriously. I hope that is your calling, your ministry.

Well, you're probably wondering, our time is almost gone. Aren't we going to get solar day of glory in there? O yes, we're going to do that real quickly. Soli Deo Gloria. Reconciliation is ultimately for glory to God alone. Notice again, back to verse 18, "Now all these things are from God." Whenever I think of that, I think of how Paul for 11 chapters, explains the depravity of man and the glory of God in justification. And at the end of that, he says, in that glorious benediction; that glorious doxology in Romans 11:36 He says, "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen." Beloved, God is the originator. He is the sustainer. And the goal of all things that exist; everything comes from him, everything is preserved by him, and everything ends in him. And it's for this reason that even in that text Paul ascribes to God not merely glory, but he says, "the glory"; the supreme glory, the glory of redemption. Then he says, "Amen." What a fitting conclusion to Paul's arguments and explanations of the plan of redemption. We see this as well, by the way, in First Corinthians eight six, Paul says, "There is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we want exist for Him; and one, Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him." Beloved, we exist for him, not for ourselves.

And even in the Old Testament, God spoke through his servant Ezekial, in Ezekiel 36:22. He says, "'It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name." He went on to say, "I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, when I prove myself holy among you in their sight.'" Dear Christians please hear this, we are not central in God's plan of salvation. He is. Ultimately we are incidental to it. The whole plan of redemption in creation is the glory of his name that is uppermost in his plan and in his purposes of salvation. It's a humbling thought is it not? The ultimate purpose of election to salvation is according to Ephesians, one six, "the praise of His glorious grace." He went on to say in verse 11, "Having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end of that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.

Oh Child of God, we are ambassadors of Christ, begging people, as I'm doing today--if you don't know Christ, please be reconciled to Him, by placing your faith in Christ, your only hope of salvation. And dear Christian, is this the passion and priority of your life? Or do you merely live for yourself? Moreover, when you present the gospel, is it the true gospel of reconciliation anchored in the atoning work of Christ? Or is it some man-centered, watered down cotton candy version that exalts man and diminishes Christ that promotes works at the expense of grace that promotes free will, at the expense of God's glory. I trust our time together this morning has indeed equipped you with the truth. I hope your sword has been sharpened, and you will be willing to wield it by the power of the Spirit. And I trust you've also been encouraged by the truth as I am. Therefore with Charles Wesley, we can pray "oh for 1000 tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. My gracious master, and my god assist me to proclaim to spread through all the earth abroad, the honors of your name." Let's pray together.

Father, we're always profoundly humbled when we look at the great truths of your gospel. Thank you for reconciling us unto yourself. Thank you for the hope that is ours in Christ. If there be one here within the sound of my voice, I pray that you will save them by that grace even as you have us. We commit it all to you knowing that ultimately your purposes will be accomplished. And for this, we rejoice with exceeding joy. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

What a privilege we all have to be able to look into the Word of God and to be able to worship together in freedom. Let's hope that that continues. It's certainly under threat. Will you take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter five. If you haven't been with us, we make our way vers- by-verse through every book of the Bible, whatever we're studying, and this morning, we come to verses 16 and 17 in Second Corinthians five.

Before I read it to you, let me remind you of the context here. And also, to let you know that I want to make this imminently practical for each of us for indeed this is a verse--or these two verses that we're going to be looking at--are very timely, given what we're seeing in our world today. In the course of defending his integrity against the scurrilous slander of the false apostles that had entered into the church of Corinth and gained popularity, Paul has just stated in verse 15, how the love of Christ controls him. And he is astounded at the reality that Christ died on behalf of his sins, bore his sins in his body; that Christ died for all who died in Christ on that day, and therefore all who were raised to walk in newness of life. So he's overwhelmed with this magnanimous, this unmerited love of Christ, for him specifically.

And then he says this in verse 16, "Therefore from now on, we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." Last week, as I heard our president give his speech at the Republican National Convention, there was a part of me that wished that he would have preached this passage. You laugh because you know, that would never happen, right? He said many wonderful things, very inspirational things, many things that are true, many things that are important to protect our country, to maintain our economic prosperity. But I was thinking of what Jesus said in Mark eight. "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of Him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angel." As I say, I want you to understand the power of this passage as it relates to our lives right now.

Let me take you to some things that I know you're seeing. It's all around us in our culture. We are witnessing a socialist takeover of our country. Sometimes you say, Well, where have these people been? Where they come from? I'll tell you where they've come from; from our colleges, and our universities, and our apostate churches, and our cultural Christianity churches that refuse to teach and preach and apply the truth. I heard just this morning, John Ratcliffe, the Director of National Security describe the tremendous threat of communist China and some of the things that he was allowed to say, in public; obviously concealing enormous amounts of truth. He was talking about the enormous influence that China is exerting on our government officials, congressmen and senators, and women in their various districts. The enormous influence that they are exerting over our electorate to make sure that Joe Biden gets elected--frightening. Folks, this is Lenin's Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 that spawned the Communist Party. This is the same type of stuff. If you don't believe me read your history. These are the brown shirted hooligans of the nationalist Socialist German students League of 1933, Germany. One thing we learned from history is that we never learn from history. You notice that? You know, in Scripture, we're told in Ephesians 5:11, that we are not to "participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness." But we are to "expose them." And I want to expose some of these things, to make sure you have a biblical perspective of what's going on and so that we can apply even this passage. Especially I want you young people to hear this. I am frightened for the kind of world my grandchildren are growing up in, and what they will experience in the days to come. Today we see Antifa thugs destroying cities, attacking people, even in our capitol, you saw them attacking people coming out of the convention, even one of our senators Rand Paul and his wife. They tell us that America is an evil country, that capitalism is an evil system, that the Constitution and Christianity are evil tools of white supremacy. And today, we see growing numbers that find their identity in being a social justice warrior; foolishly believing that their ideologies that are going to somehow bring in a glorious utopia, despite the fact that that has done just the opposite historically every place it has been tried. Of course, social justice is rooted in postmodern ideology is derived from things like intersectionality, and radical feminism and critical race theory. All ideologies that are not just antithetical, but hostile to Christianity. Wherever these things have been applied, millions of people have died. Social justice is really a deceptive label, it should be called socialist injustice. The theme needs to be "you make it we'll take it." We have Black Lives Matter thugs entering restaurants, intimidating people to raise their fist in apparent solidarity with them, screaming "white silence is violence." Basically saying if you don't agree with our ideology, then you need to be canceled. By the way, every totalitarian regime that has ever existed started this way. Black Lives Matter has become a religious cult based on exaggerated claims of systemic racism, and racially motivated police brutality, although all of the statistical metrics say otherwise. So we watch so-called protesters loot and burn, vandalize and murder, while leftist governmental leaders watch on with smug satisfaction. And of course, the answer to all of this is to elect them, give them the power, defund the police and replace them with social workers. Reparations, which if you read this, it's a laundry list that should terrify every law abiding, taxpaying American. It's basically reward without responsibility. It's an attempt to gain political power. In fact, these people really leverage the sin of covetousness in the 10th commandment, to gain political power and to seize wealth from those who they have deemed it to be their oppressors. A vicious lie based upon revisionist history that appeals to the naive and the gullible; lies that need to be challenged but are canceled by a well-organized system of intimidation and propaganda with a complicit media. And folks, you must understand, and we know that Satan is temporarily allowed to be the god of this world until the Lord takes back what is his, but until that happens, these things are going to continue. And ultimately, they're coming for us. They're coming for our church. Don't be naive.

Of course, there's a stark difference between even the parties that we see today. We see for example, the Democratic Party. It's almost--like I listened to some of these things--and it's like some evil foreign country has invaded us. You have people that advance the idea of it being morally okay to kill unwanted, unborn babies. That is so incomprehensible to me. I can't even put it in words. They embrace the most deviant forms of sexual immorality and sexual perversion, major planks in their party platform. Evils, according to Scripture, that are such an abomination in his eyes that he describes, for example, in Leviticus 18, how he vomits out nations the practices those things. Obviously, no Christian could ever vote for such a party. John MacArthur said the other day, something to the effect that the Democratic Party has adopted Romans one as their platform, I thought that was a good statement. He also said this in something else that I read from the Daily Wire, quote, "We have literally watched this play out in living color, with Jerry Springer narrating, as our culture has sped down the exact path of spiritual decline Paul outlines in Romans one. Hollywood, hip hop, shock radio, and host of other pop culture obsessions, helped by mainstream media and the secular academy have indoctrinated recent generations to accept and even encourage every imaginable kind of depravity, and radical," quote, "alternative lifestyle," end quote.

Dear Christian friend, you must understand that the stark difference even between the Democratic and the Republican Party pales into utter insignificance in comparison to the difference between any of those groups, and the kingdom of God. We are citizens of another kingdom. That's why we feel like aliens here, right? We serve the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, we are part of his body, the church. Every church that honors him, as we try to do here at Calvary Bible Church is a celestial outpost of an eternal kingdom that is not of this world. We are a people who have received a word from another realm and who long to leave this earth at God's appointed time. And when we meet together to worship, we do so because an unfathomably glorious God has summoned us to do so; to worship him, and to hear from him through the stammering lips of his servants. My friends, please understand regardless of party, politicians and government can never solve the problems of our world. At best they can do is protect us from evil. Right now, they're not doing a very good job of it. Man's only hope, here this, is in Christ. Only Christ can change the heart. And this is the message of the gospel. This is the message America needs to hear. If I were running for president, which obviously I would never do. And I say this humbly, I have a much higher calling. This would be my platform, and it would be yours. Bottom line, dear friends, you are either in Christ, or you're out of Christ.

Let me tell you what the Bible says about those who are out of Christ. In other words, you have never yielded your life and repentant faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. You've never been saved. Okay? If you're out of Christ, according to Colossians 1:21 You are "alienated and hostile in mind engaged in evil deeds." You're "separate from Christ," according to Ephesians 2:12, "having no hope and without God in the world." Ephesians 4:17 and following says, you walk in the futility of your mind being darkened in your understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in you because of the hardness of your heart. You are controlled by your flesh, according to Romans eight five "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." The life of an unbeliever is dominated by his or her fallen nature with which they were born, they live under the authority, under the bondage of their flesh that binds them in their thoughts and their desires. Such as according to Galatians 5:19 and following: "immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and the things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." If you're out of Christ, according to Ephesians, two beginning in verse one, you are "dead in your trespasses and sins." You walk "according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." You live "in the lusts of your flesh, indulging the desires of your flesh and of the mind, and are by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." Second Peter one, I mean two verse 10, says that you "indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires." Philippians three and verse 19, you're among those whose "end is destruction, whose God is your appetite and whose glory is in your shame." You set your mind on earthly things.

I want you to contrast that horror with the remedy that bridges that estrangement, which is called union in Christ. Ephesians two, verse 13, we read, "But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ." What a magnificent truth. And that's what Paul is saying here in Second Corinthians 5:17. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away, behold, new things have come." These people that are apoplectic with rage, protesting all of the stuff that you see, my heart aches for them, because they need Christ, and they don't see it. America doesn't have a skin problem and has a sin problem, right? People want justice, but they don't understand the justice of God. Otherwise, they would cry out for his mercy and be saved. And this, frankly, is what must be preached from pulpits today. People need to have a sobering recognition of the terrifying separation that exists between a holy God and fallen man, which makes union with Christ an indispensable necessity for salvation.

Well, with that little introduction, these are the magnificent streams of saving grace that flow from the well of truth that's in our text here this morning. I want you to see that salvation changed three things in Paul's life. And we can, all of us who know and love Christ, we all identify with this. It's real simple salvation changed his perception, his identity and his character. Notice closely the text verse 16, "Therefore," and here he is referring back to verses 14 and 15. He's just overwhelmed by the love of Christ who bore his sins. The reality that Jesus died for all without distinction, but not all without exception.

Jesus’ atonement was not a potential propitiation, but an actual propitiation for him and for all who trust in Christ. "Therefore," he says, "from now on, we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way, no longer." So number one, we see that salvation changed his perception. Notice closely he says, "From now on we recognize." "Recognize "—“oida” in the original language, it means "to know or to perceive." We don't perceive anyone according to the flesh anymore. The flesh referring to sinful humanity, whereby we're blinded by sin and by Satan. You see his conversion changed his ability to discern between that which is true, and that which is false. You might say it gave him a new set of lenses with which to see himself and to see the world and certainly to see Christ. No more seeing things through a hopelessly biased, self-serving, superficial, depraved criteria, as he once did. And you know, what's really ironic here is the false apostles were judging him in that same way that he used to judge Christ and Christians. Really interesting to think about that. But now he saying, he's talking about being recognized according to the flesh. You see, before Paul's conversion--remember, he was saw the self-righteous Pharisee who judged Jesus according to the flesh, and that's why he says, "even though we have known Christ according to the flesh," in other words, that's how I used to see him, through the eyes of my flesh--Paul saw Jesus as a messianic pretender, as a phony, a fraud, an enemy of Judaism, as a blasphemer who deserved to die. In fact, he, along with others, saw his crucifixion as evidence of that very thing. Because the cursed are going to be killed by God, even on a tree. Deuteronomy 21:22, "If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree..." And so this is what Paul's thinking about, who Jesus was; as many people today. He hated all who belonged to Christ. In Acts 26 verse nine, and following, he said this, "So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death, I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often, in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities." You might say that Paul was a radical Jewish protester of his day. He was the king of cancel culture in his day. And of course, this is typical of unsaved people because they only know Christ according to the flesh. You ask the average person who Jesus is, people who are not in Christ, will not be able to give you an accurate answer. In fact, I read a new survey conducted by LifeWay Research, and released by Ligonier Ministries, that revealed that 52% of Americans, and 30% of Evangelicals say they believe that Jesus was a quote, "good teacher," but he was not God. In another part of the survey, 65% of Evangelicals agreed with the statement, quote, "Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God." Folks, anybody that believes that is unregenerate. You can't be a Christian and believe that. It's like calling yourself a geophysicist and believing that the earth is flat. Jesus repeatedly claimed that he was God. He was, by his own admission, the great "I Am" of the Old Testament, thus bearing the Old Testament, divine name of Yahweh. John 17 five, "Now," Jesus said as he goes to the cross, "glorify Thou Me together with Thy self, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. Repeatedly the apostles spoke of him as "Our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." Indeed, he is the Creator, the one who upholds all things by the Word of his power, the coming King of kings, the judge of the living and the dead and so on and so forth. A man simply cannot be in Christ and deny the deity of Christ.

Well, that was Paul's problem. He was religious, but he wasn't in Christ. But when he was converted, God opened his spiritual eyes. And that's why he says "yet now we know Him in this way, no longer." So salvation changed his perspective, as it does everybody who comes to Christ. His ability to look beyond his own preconceived biases, and ignorance was blown away. He can now see people in Christ through the lens of truth.

But secondly, it changed his identity. And here's where it gets even more exciting. Verse 17. "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." I mean, think about it. Saul of Tarsus, as he was called, prior to his conversion, found his identity in being a Christ hating Pharisee. And of course, that determined his character. He was a self-righteous fool. He felt fulfilled, even virtuous, in destroying Christians. But on the road to Damascus, what happened? Suddenly, the Lord of glory revealed himself. And all of a sudden, Paul, the apostle, got a new identity. At that point, he was in Christ, which radically changed everything about him; everything about his character. Now he's a new creature in Christ. And many today find their identity, for example, in being a social justice warrior. They're considered to be the woke, which unfortunately--and I'm gonna say this kindly--t's really a synonym for being deceived. Sadly, Satan has provided other sources of identity that can determine your character. For example, gender identity-- what an amazing thought. You can now choose your sexual orientation. If you don't identify with your biological gender when you were born, you now have, and I did a little research on this, I found anywhere from 56 to 112 variations of gender identity you can choose from. ABC News listed the 56 Facebook genders, I'll give you just a few of them: a-gender, androgynous, bi-gender, cisgender, gender queer, non-binary, trans female, trans male, and on it goes. Of course, it's all absurd. And of course your identity is based upon your desires, they will tell us your attractions. And whenever you're attracted biblically to something that God forbids--"epithumeo," the term that is used is translated "lust." But they will say that your identity is based upon your desires, and that determines your sexual orientation. In fact, the American Psychological Association's definition of sexual orientation is this quote, "Sexual orientation refers to an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic and/or sexual," here it is, "attractions to men, women, or both sexes. Sexual orientation also refers to a person's sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors and membership in a community of others who share those attractions." I was reading the other day in the Washington Post. There was an article that caught my eye. It said "Advice to Parents on Raising a Happy and Healthy LGBTQ Child." I’ll just quote one little section. "Parents aren't always aware of their child's sexual or gender identities." By the way, I watched all three children of mine, being born and there was no doubt as to what their gender identity was. "Parents aren't always aware of their child's sexual gender identities, especially when they are young. And their identities are in many ways just emerging. This is why family members should consider that any child might be LGBTQ."

Dear Christian, these people need Christ. That's the only thing that can give them a proper perspective of life, of themselves, of others and certainly of Christ. Now Paul is saying here that everything about him changed when he was placed in Christ, a new identity. The believer’s union with the Lord Jesus Christ is such a precious doctrine. I have written on it, maybe some of you have read one of my books on it. Because indeed, he is our representative. He is our substitute; he is the sacred mediator of all of the blessings of the redeemed. According to one of my esteemed professors, Dr. Richard Mayhew, our union with Christ is, quote, "The source of every spiritual blessing we receive from the Father's election in eternity past to the Son's redemptive life, death, burial and resurrection, all the way to the glorification of the saints with Christ in heaven. And I love the way Charles Spurgeon put it, "There is no joy in this world like union with Christ. The more we can feel it, the happier we are, whatever our circumstances." Think about it, and I think I have this available for you to look at. For we have been "crucified with Christ." Galatians 2:20. We have "died" with him, Romans six, eight, We have been "buried" with him, Romans six, three. We have been "raised up with Him to walk in newness of life," Ephesians, two, five through six. And we have been "seated with Him in the heavenly places," Ephesians two, six.

Dear friends, when we behold the marvel of being in Christ, we find ourselves just adoring God's provision of new life in the Spirit, which is summarized so comprehensively by John Murray. Here's what he said, "Union with Christ has as its source the election of God, the Father, before the foundation of the world, and has its fruition in the glorification of the sons of God. The perspective of God's people is not narrow. It is broad and it is long. It is not confined to space and time; it has the expanse of eternity. Its orbit has two foci: one the electing love of God the Father and the counsels of eternity, the other, glorification with Christ and the manifestation of His glory. The former has no beginning, the latter has no end." And he went on to say, "Why does the believer entertain the thought of God's determinate counsel with such joy? Why can he have patience in the perplexities and adversities of the present? Why can he have confident assurance with reference to the future and rejoice in hope of the glory of God? It is because he cannot think of past, present or future apart from union with Christ." Knowing that we are able to consciously commune with our ever-present Savior, who can sympathize with our weaknesses, who has been tempted at all things even as we are, yet without sin, it's just a reality that boggles my mind, and delights my soul.

And with these truths resonating within our heart, we can better understand Peter's poignant words in First Peter one eight. He said, "Though you have not seen Him you love Him. And though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy, inexpressible full of glory." Dear Child of God, this magnificent mystery, once again, is the foundation of all of our spiritual blessings. And this is what Paul is saying. And that's why your walk with Christ is so important. And when you come to Christ, you're so dramatically changed. Rather than seeing Christ as a means to an end, as many people do, when they hear the Gospel, you suddenly discovered that Christ is the all-sufficient and all, glorious end in and of himself. We are in Christ; he is in us. In fact, Christ is esteemed in such a way that when he describes this, we see him talking about it, even in his high priestly prayer to the Father. Remember, he's preparing to endure the agonies of the cross on your behalf and mine. And he says this, he prayed, "that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in you, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and the loved them, even as You have loved Me." John 17:21 and following.

You see, it is impossible to fathom the gulf that exists between our holy God, our Creator, and his sinful creatures. For the Son of God to purchase our redemption; to be willing to marry such a wretched bride, is just unfathomable. It's like he looks, and he sees me and says, yeah, there is a rebellious, mean, selfish and submissive, ugly one. I want to marry that one. That's what he did. There was no merit in me. There was no merit in any of you. It's the glory of the gospel. It's amazing. Nevertheless, the intended unity that we have with him was decreed before the foundation of the world and it was this very unity that occupied the heart of the Lord on the eve of his crucifixion. It's just amazing to me to think about it. And that this is recorded in Scripture, a certain proof that He wants us all to apprehend, accurately; the nature of this mystical union, and all that it means to the redeemed. Again, it was his desire for his bridal church to relish the profound implications of this everlasting marriage. That she might enjoy the staggering benefits of what it means to be in Christ. This is at the heart of Paul's doxology recorded in Ephesians, one, three, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." That little preposition "in", "in Christ" signifies the deep wonder of Christ being more than just with us, more than existing outside of us, but rather he is one who is in us, and we are in him. One who is more than just our Sovereign King and our risen Savior, our Lord and Master, our teacher, and friend, and so forth; although he is all of those things. But to be in Christ is not some mystical form of pantheism whereby we are absorbed into the wholeness, which is God. It's not at all what Scripture teaches. Nor is it a physical union taught as some of the Sacramentarians would teach where Christ somehow enters men physically when they participate in some rite or ceremony, like Roman Catholic, transubstantiation, or whatever. Nor is it a union of essence, where somehow, we lose our humanity and become one with God and absorbed in Christ. I've heard those things before. But rather dear friends, to be in Christ is an expression of inter-connectedness, whereby we share a common spiritual life with him. For "we have died and our life is hidden with Christ in God," right? Colossians three, three. He is "our life”, Colossians three, four. And he "lives" in us Galatians 2:20.

Scripture reveals some amazing truths about this nature. I've summarized them for you, so that you can look at quickly as we move along here. Union with Christ is a supernatural union authored by God. "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him." John 14:23. But it's not only a supernatural union, it is a vital union by which Christ becomes our very life. Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."

But it is also an organic union, in that with Christ, believers form one body, the church, and we respond to Christ as the head. Colossians 1:18, "He is the head of the body, the church."

It is also a spiritual union in that Christ dwells within us, by the Spirit, who is the "Spirit of Christ", First Peter 1:11. "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body... and we were all made to drink of one Spirit," First Corinthians 12:13.

But also, and this is very important, it is a legal union; in that Christ is our representative head who has made us the beneficiary of his substitutionary work of salvation, Romans five eighteen, "So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. Whereas through the one's disobedience, the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One, the many will be made righteous."

Ah, but dear friends, it is also a mysterious union, in that it has no analogy in human experience. Colossians 1:27, "God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." And finally, it is an everlasting union that can never be severed. Romans 8:38 and following, "For I am convinced," Paul says, "that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." And as we look at Scripture, we see various figures that the Spirit of God uses to help us grasp this unfathomable mystery. We are "married to Christ," Romans seven four. We are to Christ as a bride is to the bridegroom, Ephesians 5:22 and following. We are "branches of the true vine," John 15, one through 11. We partake of Jesus, the "true bread of heaven," John 6:51. We are" the body" and Jesus is ""the head Ephesians 1:22 and following. We are a spiritual building, quote, "joined together and growing into a holy temple in the Lord," Ephesians 2:21.

Folks, the implications of these descriptions are staggering. Not only with respect to how they relate to the doctrine of salvation, but with respect to how they cause us to live out this union, in our everyday life; in our gospel proclamation, in our worship, in our service, and all of our relationships with other believers. And even the unsaved world. And I stand in awe when I reflect upon the glorious reality that the Christ came to this earth not only to pay the penalty for my sin, but also to establish an intimate, eternal union with me, where I become one with him. My head blows up. I trust you share my amazement, as well as my eternal gratitude, for what Christ has done. You see, folks, this is my identity, I hope it is yours. I am in Christ--that's changed everything.

It changed Paul's perception, his identity and finally his character, verse 17. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." The little adjective "new"--"kainos" in the original language, means "unseen," "of a kind not seen before," is the idea. It's new in quality, not in sequence. This is the miracle of the new birth. This is the miracle of regeneration. "Palingenesia", we're born again. It is that instantaneous, supernatural impartation of spiritual life to the spiritually dead, where he causes us to raise from death unto eternal life. A miracle that is beyond our comprehension. So what Paul was speaking of here is a radical departure from his whole life, a dramatic change has taken place between his "pre" versus "post" conversion experience. There is a total restructuring of who he is. All of the biased, selfish, ignorant, sinful perspectives, of ourselves, goes away when we are in Christ. All of our biased perspectives of the world and other people, all changed. David Garland said it this way, "The new heaven and new earth and the complete transformation of believers remain a future hope. But for Christians, they are so certain to be fulfilled, that their lives are controlled by this new reality that still awaits consummation for individuals to become a part of this new creation. They must choose to be in Christ."

Beloved, you must understand that what validates true saving faith is a changed life. Not some profession, not some prayer, not some ritual that you did once upon a time when you were sprinkled or baptized or whatever it was that happened. But a changed life. As I say, "you say you're an apple tree, let's see the apples", right? If you're a new creature in Christ, the old things pass away the new things come. At the moment of our new birth we are made new creatures. And that sets into motion, this process of sanctification, whereby the Holy Spirit that dwells within us gradually conforms us into the likeness of Christ. Jesus said in John 3:64, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and what and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." You see the life of a Christian, someone who is in Christ, is characterized by being able to overcome the wicked influences of this fallen world system. It includes a newfound hatred for the things that we once loved, and a love for the things that we once hated. All of you who know Christ can identify with this and tell your stories. The Spirit plants within us new desires, new loves, new passions, new inclinations, new beliefs, new values, so that we manifest the fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, as we read in Galatians, five. Moreover, with the disposition of the soul so radically changed, what's fascinating is God's desires become our desires, Psalm 37:4. He causes us, as Paul said, in Romans 6:17, to "become obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which we were committed." For indeed, "If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness, is born of Him," First, John 2:29.

Well, dear friends, does this describe the longing of your heart? Does this describe the essence of your character, the trajectory of your life? Or are you merely, as so many are, a cultural Christian? A Christian in name only, going with the flow. You don't really find your identity in Christ; you find it in all the other things that are out there in this world that is passing away.

I want to close with a quote from Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher. He said this about 150 years ago in London. It spoke to my heart I hope it will to yours as well. He said this, "But what is it to be born again?" In other words, to become a new creature in Christ? "Well, I've already said that I cannot tell you how the Spirit of God operates upon the unregenerate making them to be new creatures in Christ Jesus. I know that He usually operates through the Word, through the proclamation of the truth of the gospel. So far as we know, He works upon the mind according to the laws of mind by first illuminating the understanding. He then controls the judgment, influences the will and changes the affections. But over and above all that we can describe, there is a marvelous power which He exerts, which must remain among the inscrutable mysteries of this finite state, even if we can never comprehend it. By this power, such a wonderous effect is produced, that a man becomes a new man, as much as if he had returned to his native nothingness and had been born again in an altogether higher sphere. The new nature is created within him. Although the old nature is not entirely eradicated, it will ultimately be destroyed, but it is not destroyed at first. Yet a new nature is born within the man, A nature which hates what the old nature loved, and loves what the old nature hated. A new nature, which is akin to the nature of God." Dear friends, you're either in Christ or you are separated from him. And I plead with you as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ that if you're outside of Christ, and you feel that conviction, you simply must come to Christ in repented faith. Because unless you repent, and trust in Christ as your Savior, you will remain separated from him forever. You say, "Well, I don't believe in those things." I'm sure you don't, and you won't believe it until you humble yourself and when you become placed in Christ, you will see it in ways you never have before. You may think it's all fine now to be outside of Christ. And it's no big deal. But it won't be that fine in that day when Christ casts you into hell and banishes you forever, from the blessings of the kingdom of God. So I plead with you come to Christ, and watch what he will do in your life, both now and for eternity.

Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word that speaks so directly to our hearts. I can only pray that your word will soften hearts. Even here today. We know that it will either soften or harden and that's up to your sovereign purposes. But Father, you have asked us to pray, you have asked us to repent. And that's what we do this day. Take your word, make it powerful. Change even the lives of the redeem that we might walk more in fellowship with you. That others might see the transformation that you have wrought within our souls by the power of your Spirit. For it's in Jesus name that I pray. Amen.

Thank you musicians for helping us express the doxologies of our soul here this morning. We now come to a time where we open up the Word of God. And we find ourselves this morning in Second Corinthians, chapter five; we're going to be looking at verses 11 through 15. If you have not been with us, we go verse by verse through whatever epistle, whatever passage we are in. And in the providence of God, this is where we are today. I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, "The Fear of the Lord." Before we look at this, I want to frame our thoughts a little bit and just express to you how thankful I am, that you are willing to come here and humble yourself before the preaching of the word. It's a very rare thing, frankly, these days. I was noticing last week, the Democratic National Convention featured a person named J, MAI, the letter J and then capital MAI, who expresses himself; actually, he prefers the pronoun "they" or "them." He is a quote "black, Vietnamese, transgender, non-binary, gender transcendent, mermaid, queen-king. Who was also a licensed minister in the progressive National Baptist Church. Of course, his big thing was we need to abolish the police, abolish ICE, abolish prisons and all kinds of other absurdities. Folks, this is evidence of what happens when a person, and frankly a people, have been given over to a reprobate mind, as Romans describes. A mind that can no longer function, a depraved mind that is irrational. And I don't say this to in any way humiliate that person, but to let you know that here's a person that needs our prayers, because this guy needs Christ, as we all do. But I'm thankful that by God's grace and his mercy, we don't have a mind that doesn't function. We've been given the mind of Christ. And we've been given the Word of God. And so we find ourselves once again, immersing ourselves in his Word.

You know, when Paul came to Corinth, that wicked, vile, immoral city, what did he do? He preached Christ and him crucified. So that's what we're gonna do once again today. Remember the context of the passage, in which we find ourselves. The false teachers had infiltrated the church at Corinth, as they will always try to do in every church and every denomination, and every college and seminary that tries to take a stand for Christ. And as they came in, the first thing they wanted to do is to insult the apostle Paul, who founded the church. He was no longer there; he had been there for about 18 months. Now he's gone, and they are doing everything that they possibly can to assault his integrity, to frankly, deny his apostolic authority; to distort his message and his motives for ministry. In fact, you will recall in chapter 12, Paul speaks about this thorn in the flesh, that was a messenger from Satan; we believe referring to one of the kingpins of that group. Paul asked three times if the Lord would remove it, and remove this person, but the Lord said, No, "My grace is sufficient for you." For power is perfected in weakness. And Paul understood that. But what we see here in this passage is Paul defending himself for the sake of the truth that he preached, as well as for the sake of the unity of the church. Because certainly if the people began to follow these characters, the church would splinter. Left unchallenged, these scurrilous assaults against the Apostle Paul would cause the people to lose confidence in him, to lose confidence in his message. And of course, that's always Satan's strategy, right? To get you to doubt and to wonder...I don't know. So much of this epistle is devoted to Paul defending his integrity as an apostle of Jesus Christ. And certainly, that's the context that we have here. And I might also add that here we see power being perfected in weakness, okay? Which will have application to all of us who love Christ.

Now you will recall in verses nine and 10, that we looked at the last time we were together, Paul stated that his ambition in life was to be pleasing to the Lord. And he added, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." So now we come to the text before us that we will examine. Notice, beginning in verse 11, "Therefore," he says, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer to those who take pride in appearance, and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of a sound mind, that is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf."

Now, Paul, knowing that his ambition was to be pleasing to the Lord and knowing that one day he would stand before the Lord--he would be rewarded for his service--we see three virtuous priorities emerge from this text. You might say, in order to be pleasing to the Lord, Paul had to do three things that you will find have application, frankly, to all of us. Number one, he had to defend his integrity for the sake of the gospel. Secondly, he had to unify the church under the banner of truth. And then number three, he had to live for Christ in light of his astonishing love.

Now you will remember, the inspired apostle admonishes all of us in First Corinthians chapter four and verse 16, "Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me." Powerful statement, "be imitators of me." And in chapter 11 and verse one, he says, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." In Philippians, chapter three and verse 17, "Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us." So, folks, what we have here is a pattern to live by; a model of Christian living and Christian service. So, bear that in mind.

So, you might say in order to be pleasing to the Lord, he must number one, defend his integrity for the sake of the gospel. Now, mind you, he did this with great reluctance. Now, let's look at the text closely. He begins by saying, "Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord..." let's pause here for a moment. It's a powerful statement. The grammar in the original language helps us understand what he's referring to. First of all, let me tell you what he's not referring to. He's not referring to the fear of God's judgment upon unbelievers that's inspired by the Lord. Like those who, according to Romans two, five are stubborn and "unrepentant heart are storing up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath and revelation to the righteous judgment of God." That's not what he's referring to here. Nor is he referring to some kind of an all-consuming angst or terror regarding the nature of God, as Moses did, and the children of Israel, remember, at Mount Sinai when Moses said, I am full of fear and trembling, although it indeed it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But what Paul is referring to here, when he says, "Knowing the fear of the Lord" is this, he has a reverential awe, that is directed toward the Lord. He has a humbling sense of adoration for who God is, and that's what animated his heart to praise and to worship and to serve the Lord come what may? This is what would cause him to write to all of us in Second Corinthians seven one, "beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Beloved, is this the attitude of your heart? Do you fear the Lord in that way? Was that in your heart and your mind when you came into this place to worship him this morning? I hope it was. In Psalms 22, verse 23, we read, "You who fear the Lord, praise Him." Certainly, that's what we're doing here today. In contrast to the ungodly, described in Romans three, beginning in verse 14, "'WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS; THEIR FEET ARE SEIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN. THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.'" Dear Christian, do you fear the Lord? Do you have a soul captivating wonder of God's intrinsic glory; the very glory that resides within you and waits its full expression one day, when we see Him face to face, does this motivate who you are as a person; that you long to see the perfections of God manifested in his works and his word, and in his people and your family? In your life? Are you looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us? Folks, this is what drove the Apostle Paul.

"Therefore," he says, "knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men." The term persuade, "peitho," in the original languages, a verb better rendered here, "we seek the favor of" now he's not talking about persuading people with the gospel, the truth of the gospel. Sometimes you hear this passage wrongly used in that way. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about persuading them with respect to the truth of his apostolic credentials; of his personal integrity, the sincere motives of his heart. And notice he persuades them, he says, in the fear of the Lord, because he knows the Lord knows his heart. He knows that he will one day have to give an account before the Lord. And thus, he goes on to say, "but we are made manifest to God." In other words, his conscience is clear. And he knew--God knew--what is true character, what his true motives, and conduct were all about. Can you say that of yourself? I hope you can. Frankly, this is an extension of what he said earlier in chapter one and verse 12. He said, "For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness in godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you." And so again, he's saying "we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences." He's essentially saying this, "Come on, folks. I was with you for 18 months, and you can all give testimony to the radical change in your lives, when you place your faith in Christ. You know what happened when you embrace the truth? Now, can you honestly say in your hearts, that I'm a fraud, really? I appeal to your conscience, not to what others are saying, but to your conscience."

You will recall his statement in Second Corinthians four two, "We have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the Word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." Folks, very practically speaking, our lives will either adorn the gospel of God, or they will detract from it. Those who know us best will know what is true of each of us. I might ask you to ask yourself, what would others say about my life? Do you conduct your life in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, as Paul said. Or is that not something you really ever think about that much? And you renounce the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the Word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, does that describe you? Or do you have a secret life that you wish nobody would ever know? Thinking foolishly that God doesn't see it? Well, sadly, I know many professing Christians that, frankly, I don't want to around unsaved friends. I really wouldn't want them to know that these people claim Christ. They are like those described a second Timothy three. They're lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, they hold to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.

Well, not so the Apostle Paul. So, to be pleasing to the Lord, he had to first of all defend his integrity for the sake of the gospel. But secondly, he had to unify the church under the banner of truth because these characters were raising up another banner for them to follow. You see, men and women of godly integrity will not only be committed to defending the gospel, but also committed to defending the unity of the church, the Body of Christ, under, as I say, the Banner of Truth, not the banner of culture. But the banner of the gospel that the world hates. It's interesting, I keep hearing a new term, because I'm hearing new terms all the time these days, right? I don't even know some of the language that's being used anymore. But you've heard the term cancel culture. And I'm beginning to understand what that's all about. Of course, frankly, as Christians, we were used to that; we should be. Cancel culture, I looked it up, "public shaming and withdrawing support of people or organizations that do or say something you find objectionable or offensive." Well, as a result of that, what we see is many churches; many, Christians caving into the mob, and beginning to erect another banner, under which they will march, maybe it's the rainbow banner of the LGBTQ perversions or the Black Lives Matter banner, or the feminist banner, or whatever it is, there's so many satanic movements out there today. And certainly, those three that I just mentioned, are as wicked as they come. And of course, nothing is more offensive than the gospel. So naturally, Satan is going to want to cancel it. You know, he's been trying to do that from the beginning. And the way he does that primarily is through false teachers, false doctrine. But we're thankful that Christ is promised to build his church, right? I rejoice in that. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life."

And again, that's what Paul preached when he came into Corinth, and you see what happened there. And what has happened down through the centuries, and what has happened to us. But frankly, dear friends, when a church follows the wrong banner, or Christians follow the wrong banner, they forfeit divine blessing, they forfeit their effectiveness when they get divided. You will recall at First Corinthians one and verse 10, Paul addressed the issue of factions, remember that, when we studied that? Right off the bat, he lets him know, look, I know what's going on. And he's trying to stress the importance of humility and unity. He said, there in that text, "Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there'll be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, "I am of Paul' and I of Apollos,' and 'I of Cephas,' and 'I of Christ.' There was all this sectarianism going on within the church. And of course, factious divisive people will develop fierce loyalties on their own and they will begin to promote themselves and other people, other agendas. That's why, in First Corinthians, Paul described them as being "puffed up"; six times he used that phrase. "Puffed up" referring to, you're filled with self-promoting pride. You love to grandstand like politicians that we see all the time. They're puffed up. They were acting as well, like spoiled infants, demanding their own way. In chapter three verses one through four, he said, "You're still fleshly," which means your worldly, your unspiritual, you're pursuing your own ends. He went on to say, "For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?" referring to unsaved people. "For when one says, 'I am of Paul' and another, 'I am of Apollos," are you not mere men? And later on in chapter 11, he says that every church is going to have some selfish factious divisive people in it from time-to-time people. He says, "In order that those who are approved may have become evident among you," verse 19 of chapter 11. In other words, the Lord will use that wickedness, that bickering among people to contrast those who are humble, and the spiritual leaders that are there, people of integrity and so forth. So, Paul knew their immaturity, he knew what was going on there. And he knew how the false teachers were playing into that. He knew their proclivity to sectarianism to, to cliques to factions, and of course, Satan knew it as well. So, he inspires these false teachers to turn folks against Paul. So, he has to defend his integrity for the sake of the gospel and the unity of the church.

And notice what he says in verse 12, "We are not again commending ourselves to you." Now, obviously, he had been accused of that. That's why he's saying that. He had been accused of tooting his own horn, as we might say, in our vernacular, making himself a hero of every story. So that's what hypocrites do. The only thing Paul boasted about was his weakness. Remember? Chapter 11, verse 30, he says, "If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness." You see, he wanted to magnify the power of God that was work; it was at work in and through Him. And when the Lord declined his request, to have that thorn in the flesh removed from him, Second Corinthians 12 Nine, the Lord says, "'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'" So, Paul said this, "Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me."

So again, verse 12, "We are not again commending ourselves to you, but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us." In other words, I want to give you a legitimate basis to rally to my defense, if I can put it that way. I want to bolster your confidence in my spiritual integrity so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. And there he takes a shot at the false apostles, self-righteous hypocrites. So many passages that speak to that. You remember what Jesus said, regarding the Pharisees and scribes, Matthew 23, beginning of verse 27. He called them "whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they're full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." He went on to describe them as those who outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. You might say they were all sizzle, but no steak. Like we see in so many people today. Everything from pastors to politicians, we see this; people that tout themselves to be paragons of virtue and justice, when in truth they are sexually deviant, greedy, power hungry, liars. But not so the Apostle Paul. What we see here is that he was controlled by the love of Christ in verse 15. He was passionately devoted to the truth. But of course, the enemies of Christ hate the truth. They hate anybody that believes the truth. And so they call them crazy. That's what they did with Paul. And we see that here in verse 13. Notice what he says, "For if we are beside ourselves it is for God; if we are of a sound mind, it is for you." What a curious statement. What's he talking about here? Beside ourselves? Well, the Greek verb "existemi." It's very interesting. It literally means, "to be beside oneself; it carries the idea of being out of one's mind. That's the idea. And that's how Paul's accusers judged him; that he was out of his mind. He was crazy. As we might say he was irrational. He was mentally deranged, and therefore he can't be taken seriously.

You will recall Paul's passionate testimony of his conversion and the transforming power of the gospel when he stood before King Agrippa. The Roman governor Festus was standing there and he heard what Paul was saying. And in Acts 26:24, he says with a loud voice, "'Paul, you are out of your mind! Your great learning is driving you mad." And I love what Paul said in response in verse 25, "I'm not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I utter words, of sober truth. To the natural man, the things of the Spirit are foolishness, and he cannot understand them. For he was spiritually appraised. Paul wasn't insane, he was merely passionate for God's glory. He had his zeal for evangelism. So he says, "For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God;" In other words, look, I'm a steward of the gospel of God. I have a blazing zeal for the glory of God that cannot be extinguished. Then he adds, "If we are of sound mind," which literally means sane, or mentally healthy and behaving responsibly--"if we are of sound mind, it is for you." Again, we know that God has given for example, Pastor, teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ--Ephesians four. He goes on in verse 12, to say until we all attain to the unity of the faith. That was Paul's passion, not only the unity of the faith, but also of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man. And later on, he explains why. "As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming." You see, Paul was uncompromising. He was indefatigable in his proclamation of the truth, there was nothing that could stop him, because he knew that the gospel is the only thing that can save sinners. And it's also the only thing that can unite saints together in a church. Oh Child of God, is this the passion of your heart? Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and he must take up his cross daily and follow Me." Folks do you follow Christ or man? Do you carry the banner of Christ, or culture? Do you have the mind of Christ or the mind of man? Do you fear God? Or do you fear man?

Well, Paul was committed to defending his integrity for the sake of the gospel and unifying the church under the banner of truth. But finally, to live for Christ in light of his astonishing love. Notice what he says, "For the love of Christ controls us." I think the old King James has" constrains us." The Greek term, "synecho." It speaks of a force that propel, a pressure that results in action. You might say, Paul, in light of this verb, Paul was compelled by an overwhelming reality. There was something that motivated him. And he tells us what it is--"For the love of Christ controls us having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died." What's he referring to here? He's referring to the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, bear with me a little bit, we're going to plunge into some of the ocean depths of theology. I don't have time to get real deep, I need to be brief, I need to be succinct. I'm probably going to leave far more questions unanswered than answered. But I want you to bear with me and think about these things, so that you can understand what drove the apostle. Certainly, what drives me more than anything else. And I hope what drives you. And ultimately, he's saying here it's the atonement.

Now, if we look at atonement, biblically we understand that atonement required two things. It required satisfaction and substitution. There had to be satisfaction for the offended holiness of God. And that's why Jesus is called "the propitiation for our sins." "Propitiation," the term that means "to satisfy." The Greek term "hilasmos", it basically means to appease the wrath of God. So not only must there be satisfaction, but there also has to be substitution for the guilty party.

And as we understand the gospel in Scripture, we see that as sinners, we all stand liable to punishment. But by God's grace, he has provided a substitute the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus has been judicially accounted a sinner in our stead, as our substitute and the infinite offering he made suffices in our stead to satisfy the righteous demands of a holy God, the one that we have offended. That's why Christ had to die in our stead. So, when we, by faith, place our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as our only hope of salvation, our sins are not only forgiven, but we are also declared righteous. So why did Christ have to die? To reconcile sinners to a holy God. To put it simply; this is the gospel. This was what was so overwhelming to the apostle Paul; this is why he was so devoted to Christ. His heart was absolutely overflowing with gratitude for Christ's love for him. Christ's love for him was the motivating force of his life, the dominating theme of his songs. He was driven by the reality that Christ--and I want you to catch this--was his personal substitute and sacrifice. He was driven by the fact that Christ died for him, specifically, on the cross. Verse 14, he says, "having concluded this, that one died for," which could be translated in the place of "all,"-- "therefore, all died;" verse 15, "and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf."

Now, here, we plunge into some deep, rich, profound theology. I want you to notice what he says, "One died for..." "hyper" in Greek meaning in the place of, "all." Okay, this is where he begins. In other words, he was the substitute and satisfaction for all and then he goes on to say, for all who died in him, well, that's interesting. And we know according to second Corinthians 5:21, that "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf." Why? So that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Now, when it comes to this word "all," some will say he died in the place of everyone who will ever live. Well, if you believe that, then you have to either say that you agree with universalism, that therefore, everybody is going to go to heaven, or you're going to have to say, my goodness, must have been an deficient and an impotent atonement. Because most people reject Christ as their substitute and Savior, and they will be required to pay for their own sins, in an eternal hell. So, help me understand this. So who are the "all" ? Paul answers the question, they are the "all" who died in Him, verse 14, one died for all, therefore all died; ultimately a reference to all who place their trust in Christ.

And to understand this better, I'm going to take you to just one passage in Romans six. If we look at Romans six, one through four, for example, you will see that we have "died to sin," an amazing concept. And when we look at that text, we see that that's in the "aorist" tense in the original language, which speaks of something that has happened in the past, once and forever. That there was any event that took place, once in the past. And what is that event? We died to sin. What an amazing concept. We died to sin. When we placed our faith in Christ, you must understand at that point we ceased to exist in Adam, and we became alive in Christ. Therefore, in verse four, Paul says, "We have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead, through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." And so what we see here is Christ is only the substitute for those who by grace, through faith, died in Christ. Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." Now, if we stay in Romans six, Paul tells us who these people are. Who are these people that died in Christ? Well, we could go for example, to his salutation in Romans one, six, he's referring to "the called of Jesus Christ." Okay? Verse seven, those" who are beloved of God...called as saints." He's referring to specific individuals. If we were to go to chapter eight, we would read more about who these people are. They are the ones whom God foreknew and predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. In other words, the elect of God. You go to chapter nine, and see that he's referring to those whom he chose to have mercy and compassion.

The point is, dear friends, Christ knew specifically, each person for whom he suffered and died. Even at the end of verse 15, he says, "He died and rose again on their behalf." On whose behalf? On the called, the elect of God. Ephesians, one four, "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world." Verse five, "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of his will."

Now, you ask the average Christian, "For whom did Christ die?" And the response will typically be "everybody, you know, for the whole world." So, in other words, what you would be saying is that Jesus paid the sin debt for everyone, when he died on the cross. Well, yes, that's what he did. Okay. Well, then why would Jesus speak more of hell than heaven? Why would there be people in hell? Why would you call people to repent, or you're going to die in your sins, if your sins have already been paid for? How do you explain that? Why it must have been a rather unsuccessful atonement. Most Christians will say, "Well, yes, he died for the whole world, for everyone, but his death did not really guarantee the salvation of anyone in particular, but rather his death on the cross removed an obstacle and made salvation possible for all men in general." Okay. Well, if that is true, then Jesus’ death on the cross was merely an act whereby he accomplished a potential salvation, not an actual salvation. So, the sins of sinners had been atoned for potentially, but it is not actual unless they activated by faith. Well, if that's true, then both heaven and hell are filled with people for whom Christ died. The only difference is that those in heaven somehow made the right choice. You see where it begins to go. I told you it's going to be a little complicated here. Just bear with me some. So, you're telling me that Jesus was only a potential substitution and satisfaction. You're telling me that God intended nothing specific at the cross. Moreover, nothing specifically was accomplished at the Cross affected by his death that there was no real benefit in his death for anyone in particular, or just one in general. And that's what people will say, and many people will say, Well, yes, his was a general ransom. Salvation does not directly depend upon a divine decree and subsequent act of God, but on man independently exercising, his free will in believing. So, you're telling me that the atoning work of Christ is ineffective unless those who are spiritually dead, somehow activate his grace. I mean, Jesus must be a forlorn, frustrated impotent savior, somehow knocking on the door of man's heart, hoping that somehow that spiritually dead person, whose blind, and at enmity with God, who has no fear of God, will open up the door and let him in. That's what we hear in a lot of evangelism today. In other words, God is pacing the throne room of heaven, hoping spiritually dead people will somehow cause themselves to be born again.

Folks, if that's the case, evangelism is nothing more than a political campaign where we try to get people to decide for Christ. And we present Christ as the one who offers himself as a candidate. Well, I would humbly submit that this is part of the error in the doctrine of salvation that's known as Arminianism. They would have us believe that the atonement is unlimited in extent, but limited in power. When in fact, I believe the Bible teaches just the opposite, that it is limited in extent, and unlimited in power. You see, under Arminian theology, the atoning work of Christ, is incapable of saving us unless you allow him to do so by cooperating with him. So ultimately, man, not God, is sovereign over salvation. So, Christ's death on the cross has made the option of salvation available. It has removed an obstacle of our inability to save ourselves, but now it's up to you. But beloved, I would humbly submit to you that what Christ said on the cross is "It is finished." Something happened at the cross. Jesus satisfied the wrath of God, for all that the Father had given him in eternity past. Something actually happened at the cross, not something just potentially happened. That's why we sing "Long my imprison spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eyes diffused, a quickening ray, I woke the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose went forth and followed Thee." Dear Christian, if I can put it this way, we were all saved 2000 years ago. He knew who we were by name. This is John 10:11, "I am the good shepherd." Jesus said "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." Verse 14, "I am the good shepherd and I know", referring to I have an intimate relationship with, my own. And my own know me." Verse 15, "I lay down my life for the sheep." Later on in verse 26. And following Jesus told the unbelieving Jews, "You do not believe that because you are not of my sheep." And then he says this, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me and I give eternal life to them. They will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. And I and the Father are one." By the way, at that point, that message was so wonderfully received that they picked up stones and tried to kill Jesus. It's still not a popular message is it?

Folks, this is the love that humbled and motivated the Apostle Paul, he understood that the names of the elect were written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world--Romans 13, eight and other passages. There's no ambiguity here. I want you to think of it this way. Christ volunteered for the work of redemption, with the full knowledge of those whose names were written in the Lamb's book of life, and they would therefore be the reward of his ransom. John 17 that we read earlier this morning. Before his death, Jesus prayed to His Father, quote "for all whom the Father had given Him." Jesus is going to the cross. That's who he's praying for, "All whom the Father had given Him." That through His death, they would be granted eternal life. You see, folks, here's where I'm going with all of this. This is what I believe the Bible teaches, the atonement is not a potential salvation for all, it is an actual salvation for the many. For the bridal church, it is limited in its extent, but it is unlimited in its power to save to the uttermost. Paul understood this Romans 8:29, "For whom he foreknew," a term that literally means "for loved with an intimate love,"-- "those whom he foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son." Verse 30, "And whom He predestined, these He also called and whom He called, these He also justified, and whom He justified, these He also glorified. Ephesians 1:11, "We have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will." So, for whom did Christ die? Well, He died for his chosen possession, his holy offspring, those who were "bought with a price" for, First Corinthians 6:20. I mean, surely he knew whom he was purchasing. John 17:9, "I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou has given Me. For they are Thine." Verse 19, "For their sakes, I sanctify Myself." Folks, he didn't die for no one in particular, but for those whom the Father had specifically given to him. Ephesians 5:25. And he gave himself for his bride, the church. I mean, do you really think Jesus had no idea who he would be marrying?

Well, indeed, this plan includes specific persons. Now, I'll be the first to admit, there's many things we don't understand when we start looking into the inscrutable mysteries of God. In fact, I was thinking about this, this morning, when I was on my front porch where I love to spend time with the Lord as the dawn breaks. I looked down and there was one of those little fuzzy caterpillar guys, and he was coming up the thing and I was watching him and I was thinking, you know, there is an amazing chasm between that little creature that God made and me. I know things that I mean, he's too ignorant to even know he's ignorant. It's impossible for him to even fathom what I know and understand. And then I was thinking, you square that by some infinite number, and that's me compared to God. There's so much that we don't understand about a God who loves us with an infinite love. He does tell us enough to motivate us and to humble us. And I can't think of anything more humbling than to know that Christ, paid for my sins, knowing who I was on the cross of Calvary.

Beloved, if I could summarize it this way, in eternity past, the father ordained a plan to demonstrate his infinite love for his son by providing for him, a chosen bride. And he chose them by name. And he recorded that their names in a book of life. Elect sinners hostile to him. Desperately in need of forgiveness and transforming grace. A vast multitude of human humanity, pledge to the Son, a gift of the Father's love, a pledge that was also sealed by the Holy Spirit, a promise and in time, in the miracle of salvation, the Father would irresistibly compel those sinners to voluntarily exercise their will and repent of their sins and believe in his Son. And central to this whole plan of inner-trinitarian love, and for his glory, was the Son's death. He had to be a perfect substitute for each specific sinner whose name had been written in that book of life, in order for them to be reconciled to a holy God--"the ones to whom thou hast given me," as Jesus says. Yes, in some sense, Christ has appeased the wrath of God temporarily for every human being, thus allowing them to live, to hear the gospel and to respond. But the efficacious effect of the atonement is only for those who trust in Christ as Savior. And according to his eternal purposes, that will only be the elect that will respond and be saved. Oh child of God, never think of the cross in general , vague terms. But remember that he died specifically for sinners. He bore your sins and mine in his body. He died for us, personally.

And this is what motivated the Apostle Paul. This was the love of God, that motivated him. Friends, the cross actually saved specific people. That's the point. and never say, well, I could not have gained my salvation apart from the cross. No, no, no, please don't say that rather, say, Christ gained my salvation for me at the cross. With this brief overview of the doctrine of the atonement, we can better understand what Paul says in verse 14, "For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this.." in other words, here it is, "that one died for all, therefore all died, and He died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him, who died and rose again on their behalf."

As I close this morning, I want to share something from my heart, one of the hardest things in the world to do is to preach funerals, for people who you know are unsaved. But I might add, it's also very hard to preach funerals for people who you just really don't know if they were saved or not. Because they really have no basis to claim that they've been born again. And when I prepare for funerals, one of the things that I have to do is compile information about the deceased from the family, in order to give a fitting eulogy. So I interview the family members. And I can't tell you how many times I will hear from the family about their Christian relative that has deceased. They will say things like well, "oh, yeah, well, he was a good man; he loved his family, loved to hunt and fish. Worked hard. Had a great sense of humor. Look out if he ever got upset." And then you hear all the funny stories and things that people want to share. And I understand some of that. Or "well, that's a good woman, yeah, she was a great woman; loved her family would do anything for those kids and grandkids. Fantastic cook. Loved to sew, loved to read. Love those game shows on television. Never met a stranger. You know, everybody liked her." Oh, yeah. And here goes the stories. And I always want to be careful, but I will always say to them, "You know, I'm curious. You said that your loved one was a Christian? How would you describe his or her love for Christ, their walk with Christ." And time and time again, I will see people look at me with a blank stare as if they don't know what to say. And typically they'll say something like, "well, oh, yeah, well, she belong to such and such a church, yeah. Gotta love that gospel music, used to sing in the choir years ago. Yeah, he used to go to such and such a church. And yeah, he was a member up there. And he did such and such in the church." Or sometimes I'll hear, "Well, he, you know, he wasn't much organized religion, he liked to worship in the great outdoors, you know, that type of thing." Folks, how tragic to live for yourself and leave that kind of a legacy. Contrast that to a man or a woman who fears the Lord, who is so awestruck over the fact that the Lord gave himself on the cross, to satisfy the righteous demands of a holy God that you could not satisfy. And to be so overwhelmed with that, that everybody knew what type of person you were. I want to have a eulogy prepared for me and for you where people the first thing they would say is, "oh, that man loved Christ, and the love of Christ controlled him. He had but one goal in his life, and that was to live for the glory of God by preaching Christ, and him crucified and presenting his body as a living in a holy sacrifice, acceptable to God." Oh Child of God, the only thing that matters in life is living for Christ. And you're never going to really live for Christ unless you're absolutely overwhelmed by his unmerited love on your behalf when he bore your sins, specifically in his body, on the cross, as our Savior.

Well, my role this morning is not to bring you to Christ, but to bring Christ to you. And having done so I hope that you will cast yourself wholly upon him, if you don't know him, and receive his pardon and his peace. But for those of us who know and love Christ, may will truly be able to say with the Apostle Paul, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Father, thank you for the great truths of your word. May they bear much fruit in our hearts, for our good and for your glory. And for those who do not know you, I pray that you will overwhelm them with such conviction that today will be the day that they will cry out to you for salvation, knowing that ultimately, you are the one that drew them unto yourself, gave them the gift of faith and caused them to be born again. So Father, to that end, we trust in you. We give you praise; we give you thanks in Jesus name. Amen.

Indeed he is the Prince of Peace. This world will have no peace until the Prince of Peace returns. In the meantime, we will live our lives for him. In the providence of God, we now come to Second Corinthians five, verses 9 and 10. If you will take your Bibles and turn there, Second Corinthians chapter five, we're going to look at verses 9 and 10.

Having just celebrated the certainty of the resurrection, the Apostle Paul says this, "Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."

I recently read an article this last week by a man named Ryan Berge. The title of the article was "On LGBT and Women's Equality: Stark Statistical Reality is Coming for White Evangelicals." That heading caught my eye. Let me read just a little of what he said because it fits in well with where we're going with this text this morning as we look at what the Apostle has to say. The writer said quote, "Evangelicalism is on a collision course with a culture that is rapidly liberalizing on two areas that define evangelical theology: their view on homosexuality, and the role of women in the life of the church. A tradition quite literally named for its ability to bring new people to the faith is finding that task harder each passing year as the doctrines of the tradition move further out of step with the country at large." He went on to say, "In 2008, just one in three white evangelicals between the ages of 18 and 35, believed that same sex couples should have the right to be married. Beginning in 2012, though acceptance of gay marriage jumped from 36 to 56% in just six years. There's a reason to believe the writer went on to say that two thirds of young evangelicals now disagree with their Church's position on this issue. When it comes to women," the writer says, "women taking on leadership roles, support for women's equality among evangelicals under the age of 35, has also exploded. A poll conducted by Denison University political science, Paul Jupe. In March 2020, found that just 12.4% of the youngest evangelicals objected to the idea of a woman preaching in the pulpit during a worship service." Well, my purpose here this morning is not to address issues of homosexuality, which is an abomination in the eyes of God. And thankfully, there is hope for all sinners, all of us regardless of what the sin might be, nor am I here to talk about women preachers and authority in the church, which is something that God clearly forbids. God's divine principle for subordination and authority is to reflect the inner Trinitarian relationship that exists between God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But my purpose, with this illustration, and I could give many others, is to merely demonstrate how most so-called Christians do not have as their ambition. to be pleasing to God. They fear man more than God and they seek to please man more than God or please themselves, because their spiritual authority is not the word of God so they can understand the will of God, but rather it's the word of man. This writer went on to say, quote, "One of the dominant understandings of how churches attract new members is referred to as religious economy theory. In this view," he says, "churches are equated with businesses. Each provides a product to a potential audience. If the product is palatable, it will see an increase in quote 'sales,' expressed as church attendance. If the Church does not meet the needs of consumers, attendance will dwindle, and the church will go out of business. From this perspective," he says, "the evangelical church is selling BlackBerry's while Apple has just begun shipping iPhones." Interesting insight.

Sadly, this is true in this age of pragmatism where many people believe that man, rather than God, is in charge of salvation. And so therefore, we've got to do everything we can to somehow get people to like us so that they will like the gospel. Paul warned about this in Second Timothy four, you will remember, beginning of verse three, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and they will turn away their ears from the truth and they will turn aside unto myths." Well, folks, we are there. Most professing Christians are Christians in name only; they really know nothing of what it is to be in relationship with the living Christ. Their lives bear no resemblance to Christ. Moreover, many people today embrace a gospel that bears no resemblance to the true gospel. To this end, Paul said in Galatians, one and verse nine, "if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed. For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ."

Dear Christian, let me ask you this morning, what drives you as a person? What is the real ambition of your life? If we could look at how you spend your spare time, and how you spend your monies, we would get a pretty clear picture of that right? Is your ambition to please God or to please yourself, or to please other people, your friends, your colleagues? Well, as we examine this text this morning, and other texts that are associated with it, we will answer two questions. Number one, what does it mean to be pleasing to God? And then secondly, why is it important to be pleasing to God? I pray that it is your heart's desire to be pleasing to God. Friends, this is what separates the hypocrite from the true Christian. The hypocrite strives to please himself, and others, while a true believer strives to please God, because he wants approval from God, not from man. And if this is your ambition, God is going to pour out blessing in your life. And if it's not, you will forfeit blessing in your life, and you will live under a cloud of divine chastening because he chastens those that he loves.

So let's begin by examining the language that Paul uses here in the text. He says, "Therefore, we also have as our ambition," the word "therefore"--it could be translated, "that is why." Of course, the question would be therefore what is why? Well, he's referring to the reality of death that will usher us into the presence of Christ that he's been describing in the previous verses. Notice at the end of verse six, he says, "knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord--for we walk by faith, not by sight--we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord." That is why also, we have also our ambition. Well, let's stop there for a second. "Philotimeomai" in the original language. It's an interesting term; the word ambition. It means a cherished goal, a lofty desire, a noble ambition. That's the idea. We see it used in some other passages in Romans 15, verse 20, we read, "I aspired," there's the same word, "I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man's foundation." First Thessalonians four and verse 11, "But we urge you, brethren, to make it your,: here it is, "ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands."

So again, back to verse nine. "Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent," in other words, whether resident in this physical body, or absent from it, "to be pleasing to Him." In other words, to be pleasing to Him imperfectly on Earth, or perfectly in heaven. So let's answer this first question by looking at this text and some others. What does it mean to be pleasing to God? You might recall that he urged the Ephesians in Ephesians 5:10, to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. That's what we need to do. That's what we're doing here this morning. I think of the passage in Hebrews 13, where the prayer is that, "that the Lord will equip you in every good work, to do that which is pleasing to the Lord," and so forth. Now, the idea of being pleasing to God, as seen in other passages of Scripture, for example, in Colossians 3:20--kids listen to this very carefully, I heard this a lot when I was a young child growing up--"Children," ah, "be obedient to your parents in all things for this as well pleasing to the Lord." Likewise, in Philippians, four, verse 18, Paul described the financial gift that they gave him in support of the ministry as an "acceptable sacrifice, well- pleasing to God." In Titus, chapter two and verse nine, Paul urged the slaves "to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect."

And he urged the saints in Rome, you will recall in chapter 12 and verse one, and I want to camp on this text for a few minutes, "by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and a holy sacrifice, acceptable to God"--that's the idea of being pleasing to Him--"which is your spiritual service of worship," Romans 12:1. In that text, when he says, "to present your bodies," the word "present," is a Greek term that is used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It was a technical term used to describe a priest placing an animal on an altar for sacrifice. And what are we to present, not an animal, but our bodies, the totality of who we are, not just this physical shell in which our soul abides, but the sum of all that we are the sum of our humaneness.

It's interesting when you think about it, worship has always included sacrifice, but the form of sacrifice changed under the New Covenant, you will recall and the Old Covenant, the sacrifices were always dead, right? They offered dead sacrifices. Under the New Covenant, the sacrifices are living. And under the Old Covenant, you would make a sacrifice. Under the new covenant, you would be a sacrifice. And that's what the text is saying. So we are to be a living sacrifice. "Living" suggests the voluntary nature of the act, we are to continually make a decisive and deliberate choice to voluntarily surrender every aspect of our life to God. That's what he means by "a living." And then he says, "a holy sacrifice." In this context, "holy" means to be set apart from sin, to be set apart from the world, from our dreams, our ambitions; from our own agenda, our selfish passions, and to be set apart unto the Lord. This speaks of a total voluntary surrender of all that we are. But even as Old Testament animals were to be without spot and blemish, so too, we must present ourselves in the purity of holiness and purity of heart; a heart solely devoted to the glory of God. And this is the kind of sacrifice therefore, that is, as Paul says, "acceptable to God." That's what's pleasing to him.

And how do we do this? Well, he goes on to say, in verse two, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind transformed," the Greek term "metamorphoo;” we get our word ""metamorphosis from that. And it connotes a change in outward appearance that reflects an inner nature, like like that of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. And of course, this is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration and transformation. And he is the one that animates this outward transformation, by an inward transformation of our mind. He changes our desires, our thinking, our attitudes, our disposition. That's why in Second Corinthians three and verse 18, Paul said, "we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord," referring ultimately to seeing Christ in Scripture. What's happening? Well, we "are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." Beloved, you cannot present yourself as a living and holy sacrifice that is acceptable to God, while at the same time allowing the world to make you look and act like it; by allowing the world to conform you into its image. Moreover, you cannot be a living and holy sacrifice, unless you are allowing the Word of God to renew your mind so that there will be this transformation, where the inward part of who you really are, as a believer clothed in the righteousness of Christ, will manifest itself. Those things cannot happen unless you're guarding yourself against the world, and all that it teaches, all of the lies.

By the way, this is why so many so-called Christians embrace, for example, just the unimaginable corruption, and satanic lies of the liberal leftist that we see; all of the stuff on the media. This is why they will embrace a social justice gospel, Black Lives Matter, the feminist movement and all of the women preachers stuff. This is why people will embrace the Word of Faith cult that is just kind of taking over the world. They see nothing wrong with any of this. Now, how can that be? Well, in most cases, they're not even born again. And to the natural man, the things of the Spirit are foolishness. And Paul says, and they cannot understand them, because they're spiritually appraised. But many are truly believers. Why don't they get this? Well, the answer can be seen in many passages, but certainly right here, they are not presenting their bodies as a living in a holy sacrifice acceptable to God. They've allowed the world to squeeze them into its mold. They refuse to allow the authority of the Word of God to saturate their minds so that they have the mind of Christ and live consistently with that. Because friends only when your mind is saturated with the Word of God, will you automatically do the will of God. Many pastors today are nothing more than entrepreneurs, or entertainers, not divinely called and gifted pastor teachers. I was thinking about this--my mind went to Jeremiah six. The context there's the false teachers and all of the deceptions that they were preaching to Israel, and Jeremiah says, well, actually, God says this through his prophet, Jeremiah six, beginning of verse 14, "'They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, 'Peace, peace.'" In other words, you're good with God, everything's good. Everything's great. You have nothing to worry about. "'Peace, peace,' but there is no peace. "And he says this, "'Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done?'" The answer is, “'They were not even ashamed at all; they did not even know how to blush. Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punished them. They shall be cast down,' says the Lord." Instead, we are to be as people, and certainly as pastors, men and women who according to Colossians 1:28, "proclaim Him," the Lord Jesus Christ, "admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ." Not that we may get them to like us, oh we hope that they do; but that they might be presented to Christ complete. That's why in chapter three and verse 16, he tells us, tells us to, "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in our hearts." This is why Jesus prayed before he went to the cross, Father, "Sanctify them in the truth, Thy word is truth." In other words, it's only your word that can cause them to be conformed into my image.

Practically speaking, dear friends, you must expose yourself on a consistent basis to sound teaching. You should always be reading something. There should never be, oh, "I don't like to read"--learn to like it. We're in war, we're in a war. Whistling "Jesus Loves Me," and parading around and coming to church and thinking that God is going to bless you and use you--we have got to have soldiers of the cross and you cannot be a soldier unless you train. And you must train yourself by getting into the word, studying the Bible, listening to expositors, reading, learning, applying these things. You will never be "a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship," as he says, unless your mind is constantly being renewed by the Spirit of God, and he uses, as his instrument, his word. So, get disciplined. Start reading.

By the way, notice the result at the end of verse two, "that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." The word "prove" it's carries the idea of putting something to the test, and it being approved. You see, only the renewed mind can know and live the will of God and thus prove, or in other words demonstrate it, and thus give glory to God. That's the point. And his will, if you'll notice, is good. It's acceptable. It's perfect. And beloved, when his will becomes our will--our living and holy sacrifice--guess what? We will be pleasing to Him. That's the point. Why? Because it is an expression of his very nature.

Similarly, in Colossians, one beginning in verse nine, Paul says this, "we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be," catch this now, "filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding." Why? "So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects." Doesn't say this there, but it's almost you could add the word, "duh." "Bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light."

By the way, here we see Paul's ambition to please the Lord being manifested in his prayer life, right? If you want to see if you're pleasing the Lord, just examine your prayer life. What is that, like? What are you praying for? I think of the godly 19th century Scottish Minister Robert Murray McShane, he said, "What a man is on his knees before God, that he is and nothing more." Folks, there's perhaps no better gauge of a man's spiritual maturity, and desire to be pleasing to God, then his secret devotion to God in prayer. You show me a man or a woman who is lacks in private prayer and I will show you a spiritual infant that lives to please him or herself. But for the man or woman who has as their ambition, to be pleasing to God, prayer will be the very air that they breathe. Because they know that apart from Christ, they can do nothing. The praying for the sake of praying is meaningless. The real issue is what are you praying about? Are we asking the Lord to show us specific ways where I am displeasing you; show me ways where I can please you more; show me ways where I can just to put it real simply, make you happy, glorify your name. Or is the content of our prayers, basically, God helped me to get this and get that.

Philippians one beginning of verse nine, we see the same thing. Paul says, "And this I pray," okay, here's the content of his prayer, "that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." So again, folks, is this the priority of your life? Are these the types of things that you pray for in your life? So that you can say to your family, as Paul said to the saints in Philippi, in chapter three and verse 16, "Imitate me, even as I imitate Christ?" Can those who know you best say, "Oh, yes. my father, my husband, my wife, my daughter," whatever? "Oh, it's so obvious that it is their ambition to be pleasing to the Lord, we see it in so many ways." Or would they say, "You know, frankly, as nowhere on their radar." Their Sunday morning Christians, cultural Christians, therefore vulnerable to all of the deceptions of the world.

To get even more specific in First Thessalonians, four, beginning of verse one, Paul says, "Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you receive from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and," here it is, "please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more." Folks, we don't ever come to a place where we've finally got it. I mean, there's always more ways that we can please him and he gets specific here. He says, "For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God," you young people, you're wondering what is God's will for your life--here's one passage you need to underline, you need to copy and you need to put it on your mirror, where you see it every morning when you brush your teeth, which I hope you do every morning. "For this is the will of God," he says, "your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel and sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles, who do not know God." But again, dear friends, you simply cannot be pleasing to God if you do not know his Word, and therefore know his will. And if you don't obey what you know to be true, in this case, especially in the realm of sexual immorality.

Turn to Second Peter chapter one. And I believe it will be on the screens here for you as well. Beginning in verse two, Peter says, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord." I love that phrase, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you." It carries the idea of "I'm praying that the grace and the peace of God will come to you in unending and abundant streams, I just want it to be lavished upon you." That's the idea. And how? Well, it comes "in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence." That term "excellence" carries the idea of just living in a sense of breathless adoration over the glory and the excellency of Christ. He goes on to say, "Now, for this very reason also," and here we have a little list here, ways to be pleasing to God, he says, "applying all diligence"--in other words, there needs to be a sense of urgency here, this is important--"applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge." A term that refers to biblical doctrinal discernment, so that you have the mind of Christ; so that you think biblically about things, and you don't get snookered by people who know error better than you know truth. "And in your knowledge, self-control"-- refers to self-restraint, self-discipline, to make our bodies subject to our mind. "And in your self-control, perseverance." Boy, we live in a day where we need perseverance, don't we? The idea here of perseverance is having the ability to resist temptations and to endure trials. He goes on to say, "in your perseverance, godliness"--a term that is almost forgotten in our world today. The term literally means a reverence for God, a reverence for God, true worship. I want you to be diligent about adding these things now. "And in your godliness, brotherly kindness"--speaking of affection for God and affection for others--"and in your brotherly kindness, love." Especially love for other believers.

And then he says, "For if these qualities are yours, and are increasing"--not just stagnant, they're growing, they're increasing; it's a sign of life, right? "They render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you." You want to have assurance of salvation, look at your life, match it up against these things. He says, "For as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble"--the idea of falling into doubt or despair or fear--"for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ will abundantly be supplied to you." In other words, these virtues will serve as a way of giving you assurance of salvation. That you look at your life, you see these things growing within you; this is your desire, your passion, and you're enjoying what it is to be pleasing to God.

Well moving quickly, this was Paul's ambition, but we'd have to answer the second question which he does here. Why is it important to be pleasing to God? Well, if we looked at all of the passages, we would see things like well, it's important because of all that Christ has done for us his mercy, his grace, his love for us, that he has lavished upon us. The abundance of blessings that he has given us, the promise of resurrection, the promise of eternal life. But also verse 10 he says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."

Beloved, please hear this, man is not autonomous. He doesn't just live on his own. He will ultimately answer to a sovereign God who created him. God has made it clear in his word that a day of reckoning is coming. And all men will stand before their Creator to give an account of every thought and every deed. By the way, that is why it's so important for churches to be considered essential during the so-called pandemic. I forget exactly the words that John McArthur used in something that he that he spoke about, but it was something like this--it's infinitely more important to be about the business of rescuing souls from hell than rescuing people from the flu. Indeed, a day of judgment is coming, Hebrews four verse 13, we read that there "is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." And in chapter nine, verse 27, "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment." Revelation 22 verse 12, "'Behold,'" Jesus says, "'I am coming quickly and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.'"

Now all believers, whose bodies are raised from death and Hades, according to Revelation 20 and verse 13, will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, at what is called the Great White Throne Judgment. You read about this in Revelation 20. Helpless, they will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. They will stand there in their sin, with heaven and earth, having fled away, no place to hide, and they will hear the verdict on their life which is guilty, absolutely horrifying. And then the sentence of eternal judgment will be carried out, and they will be thrown into the lake of fire, which is also called the second death. Jesus says they will be cast out into the outer darkness. In that place, "there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth," Matthew eight and verse 12. The passage is so frightening. It speaks of a place of outer darkness, that is the furthest removed from the light of God's glory. And a place of just inconsolable grief, continuous torment, the solitary confinement of an eternal hell. By the way, if you're here today, and you've never wholeheartedly embraced Jesus Christ as your Savior, this is your destiny. And so I plead with you to come to Christ in repentant faith to believe on him. For this reason, according to Acts 17 and verse 30, "God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed," referring to Christ, "having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." But the context here is that of a believer. Then Second Corinthians five, the judgment of the believer is far different, obviously, than that of an unbeliever. When Jesus returns, he will evaluate our life and reward us according to our works, that is referring to our earthly service for his glory, as you will see. He's not going to judge us according to our sins. You see that penalty was already paid in full on the cross, right? We can celebrate that. Ephesians, one beginning of verse seven, "In Him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us. There is therefore now no condemnation, to those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans eight one. But we all will be judged, in other words, we're going to be evaluated on the basis of why and what we did for the glory of God. And this is called the judgment seat of God or the judgment seat of Christ. Two passages that speak to this.

Let's look at the one here again in Second Corinthians five verse 10. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad"-- referring to what was worthless, or of poor quality or of low standard, not bad in the sense of evil. Jude 24 says that Jesus is the one who will make you "stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy." I got that word underlined, highlighted and you know-- "blameless with great joy." Oh, how we celebrate that. Psalm 103, verse 12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far, has He removed our transgressions from us."

By the way, this refutes the giant projector doctrine boy that scared that "we-willy-wink-em" when I was a kid. I heard some preachers preach on this; I remember one time it was a camp. And it's this idea that you better watch out because one of these days you're gonna have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. There's gonna be this projector and everybody you know--the Lord, everybody's gonna see all the stuff you've been doing. I mean, that was terrifying. It probably made me a better boy for a while, you know, but it's also unbiblical. All right? There was some bad theology there too. I was thinking, Okay, if that's the case, Wait a minute, I thought there was no more tears in heaven. I mean, there's going to be some serious tears in heaven if they show me but anyway, it's ridiculous. Second Timothy four, verse eight, we read, "in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness," Paul says "which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing." And every believer loves his appearing, those that truly know Christ. But again, like in Romans 14, verse 10, "we will all stand before the judgment seat of God." And because the Father has given all authority to the Son, John five; that authority, the one that will be the judge, will be our precious Lord, Jesus Christ.

Now, it's interesting, the Greek word for judgment is "bema," a raised platform that was used for athletic events or in the political arena where an authority figure would stand and be elevated to a "bema seat" to judge competitions, and award the winners. Even in legal cases, you will remember, Pilate judged Jesus and he was on a bema, he was on a bema Seat, Matthew 27. There he would render the decisions. So let's look at another passage here in light of this, it's so exciting. Turn to First Corinthians 3:10. Again, I think it'll be on the screens here for you. And here's where Paul gives further explanation concerning Christ's evaluation of good and bad worthless deeds. Speaking to believers, he says in verse 12. "Now, if any man builds on the foundation," referring to Christ in the Gospel, "with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work." You see, here we see that believers, all believers, are continuing to build upon this foundation of the gospel. It was originally laid by the apostles, in chapter, or in verse 10, he says, "But each man must be careful how he builds on it." And here in verse 13, "...each man's work will become evident..." So think of it this way, we are all part of the church, we are all part of building upon this foundation of the gospel laid by the apostles. And I might add that if the gospel--if the truth of the Word of God is not your foundation, your life and your family will collapse in ruin. Jesus made this clear in Luke 6:49, he says that you will be quote, "like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it, and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great." So believers are the builders in Paul's little analogy here.

But Paul's point is simply this, some of our works will have lasting value, and will endure the testing fire of divine evaluation and some won't. God-centered service that we render in the strength of the Holy Spirit for the glory of Christ, will be of great value. Man-centered service offered in our own strength, for our own glory will have no value. Verse 13, "...each man's work will be become evident; for the day will show it because it has to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work." And even as fire is used to purify metal, it is also used symbolically in Scripture. And we see that here; the consuming fire of divine omniscience and divine holiness will test the purity and the value of our service to Christ. And practically speaking, anything we do that is just done in the flesh, for people to notice us; or anything that's done based upon man's wisdom, those types of things will be of no value. God wants us to build with the very best materials, he wants us to give of our very best, not give our leftovers, not give some cheap imitation. Not see Church and the body of Christ is something that's kind of you know, you can take it or leave it, rather than a priority. No cutting corners, no winging it in Christian service. Wow, how I hate that. The Sunday School teacher that prepares on the way to church, the musician--and I'm glad we don't have this--the musician that didn't prepare at all. You can tell it. He wants us to build things right. With quality workmanship according to his divine standard for the church. He wants us to use our gifts and our opportunities to love and to serve and to worship the Lord Jesus Christ with the right motives.

But notice something else in verse 12. He says, "Now, If any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it has to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work." Now, good works here are the building materials. Now be very careful here, we are not saved by good works. We're saved by grace alone, through faith alone. Good works do not earn our salvation. Good works prove our salvation. That's the idea. Every believer according to Ephesians 2:10 has been "created in Christ Jesus for good works." Not because of good works, but for good works, "which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Colossians 1:10, "We are to bear fruit in every good work." Now, what's fascinating here is Paul describes two different categories of building materials: gold, silver, precious stones. These would have been valuable, noncombustible materials that would stand the test of fire. And then wood, hay and straw. Less valuable materials: combustible materials that would not stand the test of fire. And because most of the dwellings in the ancient Mediterranean cities were thatched structures, thatched roof structures, on top of clay combined with wood and hay, which is grass and, stubble--which is straw--and because the climate was hot and dry, fire was a serious problem in that day. And this analogy may have been quite vivid to the Corinthian believers in particular, because in 146 BC, much of the city was destroyed as a result of the Roman conquest. Later on, in about 44 BC, Julius Caesar rebuilt it, but it is likely that many of these ruins, the remains of these buildings, were still evident in various parts of the city where structures had been burned, and only noncombustible materials would remain. And that would have been more of the wealthy homes, the government buildings, pagan temples, and so forth. And we know that many of them were made of marble and granite, and some of them even had gold and silver and jewels embedded in the walls and so forth.

In fact at the "bema" it's interesting, he's not going to only evaluate what we did, but why we did it. Paul speaks of this in First Corinthians four. Remember, in verse four, he says, "For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I'm not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will," catch this now, "both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God. So to be sure, anything that is done for the purpose of self-promotion, anything that is done out of self-interest or self-gain or applause; anything that's done lacking in love, that's just wood, hay and stubble.

But Paul goes on to describe how Christ grants these rewards in verse 14, again, "If any man's work, which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. It's as though there's two kinds of workers in the church, those who build with quality materials and those who use inferior materials. But all those who build, which includes every believer, will be rewarded for what they did by the power of the Spirit. We're not sure what all these rewards might be, perhaps a reference to those who came to Christ as a result of our service. And we all have a part to play in those things; faithful teaching, living, all of those things, they shall be, quote, "our crown of exultation," Second Corinthians 1:14. First Thessalonians 2:19 says, "For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy."

My what a joy it will be, someday, to be able to see people in heaven that somehow by God's grace, he used me, and used you to bring them to faith in Christ; my what reward. And perhaps it will include some degree of ruling with Christ. We know that, from what Jesus said faithful service in this life affects our position in the coming Kingdom, according to Luke 19:11, through 27, some will be granted more ruling authority than others. We can't be sure what all the rewards will be. They're going to be magnificent beyond our ability to fathom. But our works that are done in the flesh, or based on wrong doctrine or whatever will be burned up. He will suffer loss Paul says, But he himself will be saved yet so through fire. In other words, he himself will escape the fire of judgment as if someone just kind of pulled him out of the fire. The phrase "so through fire," was probably a metaphor like a "brand plucked from the burning," as we read in Amos 4:11.

And since we will stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy, evidently, we're not going to experience any remorse over our loss of reward. We just don't know all of these things, but what we know is the Lord is watching and he is going to reward us. Nevertheless, we want to do everything we can to build with the very best materials for the glory of God and be workman that do the very best we possibly can. First John two verse 28, "Now little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming." Second John 8, "Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward." Colossians 2:18, "Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize." The context there promoting legalism and other forms of false doctrine.

Well, dear Christians, in summary, get serious about your ambition in life. Get serious about being a person that wants to be pleasing to the Lord. Ask yourself, am I using my gifts for the glory of Christ? Am I serving Him? Are there any areas in my life that are displeasing? Husbands, wives, sit down together and talk about this, sit down with your family? Think this thing through, so that one day we can hear from the Lord, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Amen? Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these great truths. Again, by the power of your spirit, animate our hearts to be men and women, boys and girls who are bold for the gospel, because of our love for Christ; that our ambition will indeed be to please you in all that we do. And for those that do not know you, Father, again, I would just beg you to bring such overwhelming conviction that today would be the day of their salvation, that they would humble themselves before the cross, seeing the horror of their sin, in the inevitability of judgment, and cry out for that mercy that you will grant so instantly. So Lord, we commit this to you, that in all things Christ might have the preeminence. For it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

Once again, we have a wonderful opportunity to open up the Word of God. So will you take your bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter five. We're going to be in verses one through eight this morning as we continue to make our way through this amazing epistle. Although it was written back in the first century, it has such relevance to each of us today. I'm sure that most all of you will agree with me when I say I am homesick for heaven. I am homesick for heaven. I know what it's like to be overseas, especially in lands where you can't understand anything they're saying. And you have to depend upon somebody else to interpret. And I know what it's like to really be homesick, and I'm sure a lot of you have felt that as well. But my, I have to say that given everything that's going on in the world, right now, I really am feeling more than perhaps ever in my life, what it is to be an alien, in a foreign land. I mean, we are citizens of another kingdom. And people that have never been born again, people that know nothing of what it is to be a new creature in Christ; and suddenly your citizenship is in heaven, and everything's changed. People don't understand that. But those of us that have been transformed by the power of the Spirit, know that feeling. And so it's always wonderful to come together and open up the Word of God and hear truth. I'm so tired of hearing deception. I mean, you don't know who to believe, right? With so much of the stuff that's going on today. But certainly a lot of things we know are absolute deceptions, because we compare them to the Word of God. So what we have before us are some very encouraging words, truths that will speak to each of our hearts; those of us who know and love Christ. We're looking here at the words of the Apostle Paul, who has suffered in ways that, frankly, we couldn't even imagine, as we have examined what happened to his body, you could just see in your mind's eye, a body that was just absolutely disfigured, especially from 195 lashes that he had experienced over the course of his life. And so here we're learning how the Apostle Paul was able to not lose hope, okay? And so this will be an encouragement to all of us as we reflect upon these great truths and apply them to our life. This is a way of understanding how he was able to endure the things that he endured, and therefore helpful for us to be able to endure what we're experiencing now. And as you've heard me say many times, persecution against the true church is mounting rapidly. This will also help us understand how we can have joy, how we can have confidence even in the face of death.

So let's pick it up at verse 16, Second Corinthians five...I'm sorry, Second Corinthians four beginning of verse 16. We're going to look at verse five and following but I want to start in chapter four. Verse 16, he says, "Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." And now the text that we will examine here this morning..."For we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house, we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed, while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord--for we walk by faith, not by sight--we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord."

I've entitled my discourse to you this morning "Groaning for Glory." And I think you can understand why. It's interesting as I age, I find myself making more noises when I get up out of a chair. Maybe some of you can identify with that kind of strange groanings that I catch myself doing. And of course, we all groan with physical aches and pains, and we groan because of heartaches; the great difficulties that we experience in life. In fact, life in general includes a lot of groaning. The more we experience life in this fallen world, the more we long for heaven. Now, when we were young, we didn't think about those things that much, we were all excited about life. And we had all of these dreams. And in fact, a lot of young people, when I asked them about heaven, they really don't want to talk about that, that much because, after all, they want to get married, and have their career and do all of these things. But as we begin to age, we begin to see that things aren't the way we wished they would be all the time. And we begin to long and, in fact, God has set eternity in our hearts. We're told in Ecclesiastes three and verse 11. In fact, as we look at Scripture, we see that God has created within us a void, that only he can fill. He created us to bring glory to him. And we can never find any satisfaction in life, any real fulfillment in life, unless we are living our life for his glory. The problem is, we are limited in our ability to do that, because of our body, because we still remain incarcerated in unredeemed flesh, unredeemed humaneness. So we groan for glory. And by faith, we wait patiently for him to take us home and to clothe us in our glorified bodies.

Now, as we prepare to look at this text, let me ask you, do you find yourself longing for heaven? Do you find yourself groaning for that day when you will be in the presence of Christ? Do you "exult in the hope of the glory of God," as Paul said, in Romans five, verse two? Do you yearn for a resurrected body? If not, you're probably grasping onto this world far too tightly. You know little of your sin and the Savior, and you're living for yourself rather than living in light of eternity. Well, as we look at this text, we see that Paul lived his life in light of eternity. And as we look at this text, we can see that there are basically two lenses, if you will, that he looked through, as he looked at his life, and all that was happening to him. And these will be two very simple points in a little outline that I've given you this morning. He lived in light of eternity, because he was confident of two promises. Number one, a glorified body awaited him. And secondly, he knew that a sovereign God was preparing him. Very simple, very profound. And I pray that these truths will encourage you so that you don't lose hope in the days to come, especially when it's your time to face death, as we all will.

You will recall when Job was suffering, he was abandoned by his brothers, he was abandoned by his friends, his relatives, his wife, his household. In fact, his wife told him to curse God and die. Where did he turn? He set his mind on things above. In fact, we read that he set his hope on fellowship with God that would come one day and on a new earth and a resurrected body. He said this in Job 19, verse 25, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh, I shall see God; whom I shall see for myself and my I shall behold, and not another, my heart faints within me." He was consumed with a longing, or desire, to be with the Lord his God. Someone has well said that diamonds are best displayed on black velvet. And that's what we see here. Beloved, do you believe in the physical resurrection of the body? I hope you do. This is fundamental to the Christian faith. In fact, the prophet Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 26, verse 19, "Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, for your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits." Folks, there is nothing more encouraging, there is nothing more exhilarating, there is nothing more exciting in the Christian life, than to know that we are in the process of being conformed into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, and one day we will be glorified with Him. I hope that hope is yours. One day we will be given a glorified body. In fact, the old theologians used to call it "the beatific vision"--that moment, when we will finally feast our eyes upon the visible presence of Christ and enjoy his infinite beauty and love forever. And that's the goal of the Christian life. Ultimately, that day when we will see God, when we will, as Jude tells us in verse 24, when we will "stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy." That instant, when, for the first time, for the first time, we will experience unhindered perfected, fullness of Triune love. I mean, can there be anything more exhilarating than that? And that's what motivated the Apostle Paul.

Now in light of this, Paul, who, by the way, was a tentmaker on the side, which is very important. He says, this beginning of verse one of chapter five, four, "we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Now the phrase "for we know," emphasizes that they had already been taught these things, and they were confident of these doctrinal truths. And then he goes on to say that "if the earthly tent"--which is a metaphor, describing the temporary dwelling of the mortal body that houses the soul-- "we know that if this earthly tent, which is our house is torn down"-- referring to death--"we have a building from God," and that denotes a permanent dwelling house, "not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

And this brings us to the first lens through which the Apostle Paul viewed life and that is he knew number one, that a glorified body awaited him. Now, why did he say "if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down?" Why didn't he say "since?" Well, I believe it, because he understood along with the people that he was speaking to, that the imminent return of Christ would also include perhaps being snatched away in the rapture of the church. This would mean that there would be a possibility that they wouldn't die, that they would be taken up into glory. Instead of dying, they would according to First Corinthians 15, "be changed, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye." In fact, if we go to that text at First Corinthians 15, verse 51, as we read earlier, "Behold, I tell you will mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed." Speaking to believers here, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." This refers to the same eschatological event that is described in First Thessalonians four, verses 16 through 17. There we read, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord." "Caught up," a term in Greek--"harpazo"--it translates "harpazo" and it means to be suddenly snatched up, suddenly caught up, suddenly removed. So whether raptured or resurrected from the dead, this transformation is going to be instantaneous; an amazing thought in and of itself. It's going to happen in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. I don't know who measured this, but I looked it up the twinkling of an eye is 1/10 of a second. So that's pretty fast. And it will happen at the last trumpet. That is, it's symbolic of the sound that was used historically in Israel to summon the people. And this will be the final sound of the church age when the bridal church will be prepared for her groom, who comes to snatch her away unto himself.

John spoke about this in his Gospel; Jesus speaking here in chapter 14, beginning of verse two, "'...I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.'" He will then according to Scripture, take his raptured bride to celebrate the marriage supper. There we will receive our rewards and then we will return back with Christ when he comes again to establish his earthly kingdom. This is according to Colossians three, four, "When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory." In fact, in Romans 8:19, we read, "For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God." And back to First Corinthians 15 and verse 52, At the last trumpet..."the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality." And as we all know this, this body is subject to death, it is subject to decay, and we must be clothed with something, a body that that is going to be indestructible, something that is going to be eternal. And dear friends, Paul knew this and he waited for this, he longed for this. What about you?

Back to Second Corinthians now, chapter five, verse one. He speaks of, "a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." No wonder would he say in First Corinthians 15:54, :But when those perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, 'DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?'"

Now, people will rightly ask, what is the nature, what will be the nature of the glorified body? Well, the word of God gives us a little bit of instruction here to help us understand what it's going to be like, at least a little bit. First of all, we know that it will be a renovated version of our current body. Romans chapter eight and verse 11, we read that God will also "give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who dwells in you." As we look at Scripture, we see that our bodies are going to be changed. They're not going to be exchanged; as we read, for example, in First Corinthians 15:51. Remember, he says in verse 53, of First Corinthians 15, "This perishable body," in other words, the one that we have right now, "must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality." So there will be continuity, you might say, with our present body, yet, it's going to be radically different in ways that that we can't even begin to comprehend. Remember, Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection, as we read in First Corinthians 15:23. And that figure, the first fruits, is really a powerful figure, a powerful image. And by the way, it harkens back to Leviticus chapter 23, where the Lord spoke to Moses, concerning the first fruits of their barley harvest, which would happen in March and April. Barley similar to what we would call wheat. And that was the initial feast of "first fruits" that symbolized the consecration of the whole harvest to God. And it was a pledge of the whole harvest that was to come. An amazing thought. It pointed to, as we see in other passages, a future resurrection fulfilled in Christ.

Now, in that first fruits, harvest and all that went with that in that sacrifice, in that feast, what we see is that the first sheaf of barley was a representative sample of a harvest that already existed. And this is very important to keep in mind. This is very exciting to me, it already existed. It was the first installment of a fully ripened crop that was waiting in the field to be harvested. That was the point of all of this symbolism. And Paul's point, in that whole passage, was to basically say, How could Christ be the first fruit? If he were the only fruit? You see that would be totally absurd. I mean, do you really think he is the only sheaf of the barley? Well, of course not. That's ridiculous. And his point in all of this, is that the resurrection is certain. The resurrection is certain. The first sheaf cannot be harvested and offered unless the rest of the harvest is also ripe; unless the rest of the harvest is also ready to be harvested. So since Christ has been raised, and since you belong to him, you also are ready to be raised from the dead. Christ is the first fruit of a resurrection harvest that includes each and every person that belongs to Christ through saving faith.

Now back to the nature of our glorified body. Since Christ Himself is the first fruits of the resurrection, and since he himself will "transform the bodies of believers into conformity with the body of his glory"-- Philippians 3:21, it is safe to assume that our, the believers glorified body, is going to somehow be like Christ's body. And we know that he was raised with a renovated version of the body in which he died. Remember, Thomas the doubter, actually saw the scars and nail prints and so forth; placed his hands in his wounds. And he was, Jesus was recognized by those who knew him well. And as I'll talk about, in a moment, we are going to know each other and others in heaven, we will recognize them. But like Christ's resurrection body, our body will be radically different than the way we have now. Hallelujah? First Corinthians 15:42 and 44, again, that we read earlier, provides for contrasts, and I want to dwell on just for a moment, where Paul underscores the vast difference between our current body and our resurrected body. The first one is in verse 42. He says, "it is sown a perishable body, but it is raised an imperishable body." And certainly again, we know that decomposition and decay is the natural, it is the inevitable process of this body, but he says, it is raised an imperishable body. It means a body that is impervious to decay. It is incorruptible, in other words, is not going to break down. No arthritis, no disease, no sickness. And we will probably be forever youthful, perfect specimens of maleness and femaleness. By the way, there's no hint of multiple genders in heaven. There's no hint of gender confusion, none of those LGBTQ whatever perversions.

The second contrast in verse 43, "it is sown in dishonor, but it is raised in glory." Now dishonor speaks of a state of shame, a state of disgrace. We were created in perfection, with the ability to bring glory to God and all that we do. But sin ruined all of that. And more often than not, we dishonor God in our bodies, we fail to present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice that's acceptable under God, but not so in our resurrected body. Moreover, there's nothing honorable about a decaying body. I've been around decaying bodies, you probably have to, and the horrible stench of putrefaction alone speaks of that disgrace. It was considered unclean in the Mosaic law, to be around the body, certainly to touch a corpse. Numbers 19:11, "The one who touches the corpse of any person shall be unclean for seven days." But the resurrected body will not stay as it was in internment. It's going to be raised in glory. And it's safe to assume that our resurrected bodies will have all the marks of youthfulness and marks of strength; a perfect manifestation of the intended beauty of God's creation in maleness and femaleness that will help us be able to render praise to our Creator forever and ever.

A third contrast is in verse 43, "it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power." And we would all agree that our bodies are very limited in physical strength and stamina, we lack vigor. Some are stronger than others, but we're all weak people. Again, I am amazed at how such a microscopic thing called a Coronavirus can absolutely put us down. And for some put us away. We are fragile, we're vulnerable to disease, we're vulnerable to injury. And when the body dies, that lifeless corpse is really a symbol of its weakness. But as we read here, it's going to be raised in power. We're going to be able to function in ways that we cannot imagine. We're going to be able to worship God in the realm of the supernatural. Now, how so? Well, we're not real sure, Scripture doesn't tell us. But we know that we will be like Christ. First John three two says "We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him." And I find it interesting, if you examine the post-resurrection manifestations of Christ's glorified body, you begin to pick up a little bit of what our body is going to be like. It's going to be very similar in appearance. In other words, we will be able to recognize each other, but it's going to be radically different. Again, in ways that we cannot comprehend. When you think about Christ, what could he do? Well, he could suddenly appear, and then he could suddenly disappear. Boy, you want to get away? Remember that commercial? I wish I had that ability, there's times where I wish I could suddenly disappear and appear and then reappear in a distant place. Amazing. He could pass through walls and closed doors, and yet he could eat food, he could drink liquids, he could speak he could interact to others with whom he chose to reveal to himself, he was able to ascend into heaven, and he has promised to return physically. And in the same way, folks, God only knows how he is going to use the power that he is going to give us. I mean, perhaps we are going to rule other galaxies. I don't know, you don't know. Scripture doesn't say. I know he's not going to give me all that power to play a harp because I don't like harps. But I like other things, you get the idea. I mean, we may be ruling in galaxies that are not yet created. We don't know. But it's going to be something beyond our ability to comprehend. It's what he talked about in chapter four and verse 17, "the eternal weight of glory" beyond all, I forget exactly the term there--beyond our ability to comprehend is basically how it can be translated. beyond all comparison, I think is what he says.

Well, a fourth contrast in verse 44, "it is sown a natural body"-- that's what we have now, but "it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." Now, the natural body is one suited for life on this earth. It is not suited for the supernatural realm; it's suited for the natural world. But we're greatly limited in our ability. There's no way that we could live in the new creation that's going to require a spiritual body. Now you must understand spiritual does not mean ethereal. It does not mean immaterial. It does not mean that we're some disembodied spirit that's going to float around throughout eternity like a ghost, that's not what he's referring to here. In fact, saints in heaven right now, have not yet received their glorified body, which is a fascinating thought. Heaven is the dwelling place, according to Hebrews 12:23 of the spirits of righteous men made perfect, but they are able to recognize each other, and God recognizes them, obviously. We could look at passages for example, in the Old Testament where saints that die are described as those "gathered to his people," Genesis 25:8, 35:29, and many other passages. In Second Samuel 12, you remember how David spoke with confidence that one day he would go to his infant son that had died and that he would see him. And he expected to actually recognize him. In Matthew chapter eight and verse 11, Jesus promised, "many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven," which implies that we're going to recognize them. Matthew 17--you will recall on the Mount of Transfiguration--Peter, James and John, were given the ability to recognize Moses and Elijah that appeared with Jesus, although they existed in the form of a spirit with a spiritual body; obviously, they retained their individual identity. So even prior to the resurrection, the resurrected body, all the redeemed, will retain their identity forever. In First Thessalonians four, let me give you another example, Paul comforted the Thessalonian believers who thought their dying loved ones would miss the return of Christ. And he said in verse 17, "we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Well, what comfort would that have been to them if they were going to be caught up, but they couldn't recognize anybody? Obviously, that's foolish. Paul's promise that we will be together, forever, implies that we are going to enjoy sweet fellowship with all whom we have known in this life and other saints down through redemptive history. Won't it be fun to be able to recognize Noah and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and got a Enoch--got of questions for these guys. But the good thing is, they will know us as well.

Now back to our resurrected body, First Corinthians 15:44, "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Again, doesn't mean ethereal, doesn't mean immaterial. But by "spiritual," Paul means that it will be perfectly submitted to the Holy Spirit that now dwells within us. Folks, this will be that time when our sanctification will finally be perfected. When we will be like Christ, when we will be conformed into His image. Our resurrected body will not be subject to temptation, not be subject to sin; no more limitations of the mind or the body. It will be able to instantly respond to every impulse of the new creation without the slightest weakness, or aspiration or ability, that would somehow be hindered by anything at all.

Back to Second Corinthians five now, verse two, Paul says, "For indeed in this house, we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven." Verse three, "Inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked." Now, it's important that you understand this phrase, "that we not be found naked." This was given to the folks in order to counteract the Greek and Roman influence upon the culture with respect to what was called "philosophical dualism." You will recall that they, the pagan Greeks, believed that the spirit was good, but material is bad. And so they believe their souls needed to be freed from the prison of the body. So this idea of we're going to get another body, oh, no, who wants that? And so he's explaining this, by the way, Seneca, who was a Roman stoic philosopher, and even an advisor to Nero said this, quote, "I am a higher being and born for higher things than to be the slave of my body, which I look upon as only a shackle, put upon my freedom." He went on to say, "and so detestable a habitation dwells the free soul." End quote. Well, obviously, this idea of the soul being freed from the body at death, and existing as some kind of disembodied spirit for eternity, was in conflict with what God is teaching through His Apostle. And he says we longed to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven and as much as we haven't put it on, will not be found naked again. We're not going to be some disembodied spirit suspended in space. I love what William Barclay writes, quote, "Paul is not looking for nirvana, with the peace of extinction. He is not looking for absorption in the divine. He is not looking for the freedom of a disembodied spirit. He is waiting for the day when God will give him a new body, a spiritual body, in which he will still be able, even in the heavenly places, to serve and adore God."

And then Paul goes on to say, "For indeed, while we are in this tent, we groan." Boy, again, can't we all identify with this, we groan over relationships that don't work. We groan over bodies that are subject to injury and disease. We groan over kids that break our heart. We groan over apostate Christianity, corrupt politicians, domestic terrorism, terrorists, and corrupt politicians to support them. We groan over rampant sexual immorality, and the vilest forms of sexual deviancy that's just constantly being crammed down our throats. So often, I have to deal with these things in counseling with people. We groan because of mounting persecution, and the list goes on and on. And think of all that Paul dealt with, all that he suffered. And we've gone over this at length on other Sundays, but folks, one of the things I find interesting in studying the life of the apostle Paul--although there were so many things that that tormented him, both physically as well as in terms of the sins of others--his greatest misery was his own sin. Think about that. For example, he said in Romans 7:24, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" Referring to the mortal body in which sin operates, in which sin ultimately brings about decay, and death. And it's interesting, this could possibly be a reference to a horrific practice that was implemented near where the apostle Paul had lived. If you kill someone, they would strip you and take the corpse of the one that you had killed, and strap it to your back, and then banish you into the wilderness. And within days, the corruption of that corpse would eat away until it killed you. That's how he saw it. That's how he saw sin in his own body. You know, folks, it's easy for us to look at the speck in your brother's eye and not see the log in our own. But Paul mourned over his sin. And you know, as you mature in Christ, his holiness becomes even more vivid, all the more clear to us. And in the light of his purity, and in the perfections of his person, we begin to see the corruptions of our own soul in ways that we hadn't seen before. That's what causes us to sing "Amazing Grace" from the very core of our hearts, right? His word is like turning on a light down in the cellar. And when that happens, all of a sudden, all of the little critters begin to run away into the corners. Don't you feel that at times when you read the Word of God?

By the way, this is why sinners hate the Bible. This is why people apart from Christ, hate the laws of God. Some men love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds are evil. We just don't want to see that. But when we look at even the sin in our own lives, we begin to see things that wish we weren't there and by the way, we only see the tip of the iceberg. Aren't you glad the Holy Spirit doesn't convict us of everything all at once? It'd be overwhelming. Jesus said, Matthew five, five, "blessed are those who mourn," referring to mourning over their sin, "for they shall be comforted." And certainly the comfort comes in the forgiveness that is ours when we place our faith in Christ. Not only the forgiveness, but the imputed righteousness of Christ, that is then put into our account; he takes our sin, gives us his righteousness. But our mourning over sin, dear friends, is in direct proportion to our ability to see the holiness of God, the purity of God, the law of God. And as I say, when we see that, we are amazed at his grace. In fact, we can never be truly amazed at his grace until we're amazed at our sin. 17th century English Puritan Thomas Manton said this, “Paul was whipped, imprisoned, stoned, in perils by land and sea, persecuted by enemies, undermined by false brethren. But afflictions did not set so close to them as sins. The body of death was his sorest burden. Therefore did he longed for deliverance. A beast will leave the place where he findeth neither food nor rest. It is not the troubles of the world only which set the saints a groaning, but indwelling corruption, this grieveth them. They are not yet rid of sin, that they serve God with such apparent weakness and manifold defects, that they are so often distracted and oppressed with sensual and worldly affections. They cannot get rid of this cursed inmate, and therefore desire a change of states. By the grace of God they have got rid of the guilt of sin and reigning power of sin, but the being of it is a trouble to them, which will still remain till this tabernacle be dissolved, then sin shall gasp its last and the saints are groaning, and long for the parting day, when by putting off flesh, they shall put off sin and come and dwell with God."

Oh Child of God, I pray that this is the burden of your heart. David's lament you will recall in Psalm 38 goes like this beginning in verse four, "There is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burden they weigh too much for me. My wounds grow foul and fester because of my folly. I am bent over and greatly bowed down; I go mourning all day long. For my loins are filled with burning and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am benumbed and badly crushed; I groan because of the agitation of my heart." Paul said this in Romans eight beginning in verse 23, "And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit,"--in other words, believers--"even we ourselves groan within ourselves," literally, we groan inwardly; "waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." Then I love what he says, "For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance, we wait eagerly for it." Beloved, this is the glorious, life-dominating, soul exhilarating expectation of the redeemed.

I remember on several occasions in Siberia going to visit some of the elderly people, mostly elderly widows, they don't have nursing homes there. In fact, there's no place to take care of the elderly. Usually what happens is the little churches build on little shanties to wherever they meet, and house these people. I remember going into the room of several of these elderly ladies with Natasha, my interpreter, and sitting down with them, and for them, it was the first time they'd ever seen an American, much less another believer. And I remember sitting with them, and they love to hold my hands, you know, and they would hold my hands and they would look at me and rattle off things that I had no idea what they were saying and Natasha would interpret them. And one lady kept doing this, she would get my face and she kept doing this. And finally she calmed down and Natasha told me, she said, she can't wait to go home. She said, "I'm ready to go home." And then she talked about a glorified body. And they all started talking about the glorified body, talking about the resurrection. Folks, these were happy people, and they had nothing. How sad, we have everything. So many people today are unhappy. And the reason why is because they don't have the Lord. They have no hope. They have no help.

We see this as well, this hope, in Second Corinthians five four, Paul says, "For indeed, while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal, will be swallowed up by life." I mean Paul knows that his suffering is not in vain. He knows that he's going to be rewarded. He knows that his sinful, dilapidated, mortal flesh is wasting away. But someday it's going to be totally renovated. Indeed, "what is mortal," he says, "will be swallowed up by life." Again, folks, this is what he was referring to, in chapter four, verse 17, "the eternal weight of glory, far beyond comparison." And may I remind you that Christ is the ultimate glory of heaven. Too often, I come across Christians who would be fine if they went to heaven, and Christ wasn't there. Now, they don't really want to admit that, but that's how they think. They can't wait to see aunt so and so, and mom and dad, and kids and all these things, and that's wonderful. But folks, Christ is the jewel of heaven. You see, the offer of the gospel, if I can put it real practically, the offer of the gospel is not social justice. The offer of the gospel is not health and wealth. The offer of the gospel is Christ. And he is the glory of heaven. You must understand that Christ is not a means to an end, but rather he is the all sufficient and all glorious end himself. Ephesians one three, we read that "God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." Now, there's so much more that could be said about our union with Christ. But folks, I hope you're groaning for Christ. Because if you truly know Him, you will.

Paul spoke of this, as well in First Corinthians 15:54, "But when this perishable will put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, DEATH IS SWALLED UP IN VICTORY." By the way, he was probably alluding to Isaiah 25, beginning in verse eight, where we read, "He will swallow up death for all time." The idea of consuming something, to bring it to a complete end, "He will swallow up death for all time and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; for the LORD has spoken. And it will be said in that day, 'Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited, that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.'"

Well, Paul knew that he had a glorified body that awaited him. And finally, in closing, he also knew a sovereign God was preparing him. Look at verse five. He says, "Now He who prepared us for this purpose." "Katergazotai" in Greek, it means "to equip, to prepare." He's prepared us for this purpose. Literally "this purpose" is referring to "for this very thing." Who is it? Well, it's God, "who gave to us the spirit as a pledge." A pledge is a down payment, it is a first installment, it is a guarantee. In other words, the "clothing" of verse four awaits us, this complete transformation from the perishable to the imperishable. And it's interesting that Paul uses the same verb "katergazotai" in verse 17 of chapter four. He says, "For momentary, light affliction is producing for us,"--same verb, "an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison." You see, folks, what he's saying here, is that he knew that a "swallowing up" power was already at work within him. And nothing could stop it. It was the sanctifying work of the indwelling Spirit of God, the Christians pledge of the future inheritance.

Ephesians one and verse 13, "You were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory." And Philippians one in verse six, you're familiar with it, "I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." John MacArthur said this, "The indwelling Holy Spirit is God's guarantee that believers are His possession, and that He will redeem them to the praise of his glory. For that reason, it is ludicrous to believe that Christians can lose their salvation. Nothing can interrupt the plan God set in motion in eternity past--referring to election--and has pledged himself to carry through until eternity future--referring to glorification. To argue otherwise, is to assume that God is incapable of achieving His purposes, and thus to diminish His glory." How true.

Beloved, dwell on these things, the next time you're tempted to lose heart, the next time you're filled with fear. And in verse six, he says, "Therefore being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord--for we walk by faith, not by sight--"meaning our lives right now are lived in the sphere of faith, we trust in Him. Verse eight, he says, "We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body, and to be home with the Lord." So as we walk in the realm of faith, dealing with these decaying bodies, dealing with all of the sin around us, as well as our own sin, we can be deeply encouraged. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is preparing us, he's doing this. And it's certain, it's guaranteed. And I might even add, it's because of him, we are all groaning for glory; because we want to be at home with the Lord, "to be absent from the body, is to be at home with the Lord." Dear Christian, I pray that this is the passion of your heart. And if so, won't you live in light of his glory. And the more you learn of him, the more you worship him, the more you serve him, the more you commune with him, the more you will see the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, your Lord; everything else becomes rubbish, as the Apostle Paul tells us. And as this happens, the more we experience the power of his presence deep within our soul. The more he blesses us, the more he reveals himself to us, until that day, when he takes us home. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths. They certainly speak to our hearts, they encourage us, especially in these dark days of such deception, the freefall of immorality that we're witnessing in our country, Lord, the apostasy in the Church. But Lord, even our own sin, my goodness, we just long for you to come to take us away. And we're thankful that we know that you will indeed do that either in death, or you will come and snatch us away. We know that that's going to happen. But we thank you that you are preparing us for this time. And in this we rejoice greatly. So encourage us with these truths. And for those who know nothing of what it is to be in Christ, those who have never placed their faith in Christ because they've never seen the horror of their sin, they've never seen the glory of the cross, Oh, Father, I pray that by the power of your Spirit, you will overwhelm them with such conviction that they will run to the cross and be saved. Thank you for this time we could share together. Minister to us as only you can do, I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Once again, we have a wonderful privilege to be able to open up the Word of God here this morning. And I would invite you to do that. Take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians four. We're going to be looking at verses 16, actually, through verse 18, this morning, under the heading, 'The Triumph of Saving Grace." If you haven't been with us, we go through each book, the Bible verse by verse, in an effort to glean all that we can from what the Spirit of God has revealed to us. And what a joy it is to be able to come together and worship, amen? To be able to sing together and fellowship and open up the word that's a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path. And my we need a lamp and a light today, don't we, with everything that's going on? I mean, every time you turn on my pillow, I mean, Fox News. Every time you turn it on, your jaw just drops, it's like what else is gonna happen, you know. And people are afraid, not just because of this pandemic; that's been grossly exaggerated for political purposes; but people are afraid of some of the other groups that are out there, this Antifa and Black Lives Matter and certainly the wicked politicians that support these things. I find it fascinating you really cannot buy ammunition. Ammunition manufacturers are as much as three years behind. It's sad, it's hard to buy a gun. I mean, people are preparing for war. Militias are forming; secret militias are forming within the military and within law enforcement. It's really frightening times. And of course, you know, these, the Antifa and Black Lives Matter protests are nothing but political theater filled with phony propaganda, dedicated to promoting mayhem and lawlessness to somehow promulgate their phony narratives, exercise power, and all of that. And, you know, if they gain power, I mean, we are in for, for some severe threats in our country.

And certainly, as you've heard me say before, as we've studied some of these groups, Biblical Christianity simply cannot coexist with what these groups demand. And that's frightening. I was noticing that there were Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, where they were burning Bibles along with American flags in the bonfires. I mean folks that's where it's headed, because ultimately, Satan is behind all of this. God's judgment is upon this nation, a nation that has mocked him; persecution is mounting. And certainly, we know according to Second Timothy three, beginning of verse 12, Paul said, "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." And that's what we see today. But may I remind you, that persecution purifies as well as grows the church? We've seen this historically. And that's the exciting thing with all that we see happening, the Lord has promised to build his church, right? And I mean, you look at China today, there's an estimated 300 million people that worship the Lord like us today, they have to do it underground. In North Korea, the church is growing, but they have to meet in groups of two or three, sometimes four, hidden in places, and they sing hymns by whispering them, but the church is growing. The same thing in Russia. So you can go on and on. And you can see that the Lord is behind, ultimately, behind all of this, in that he has allowed these things to happen for his purposes.

And, and I know people will say, "But Pastor, I mean, our precious children are going to be exposed to these things and we're just watching our way of life just being destroyed right in front of our eyes. What are we to do?" Well, Bible is very clear, and we're gonna look at some of that this morning. But we're to set our mind on things above not all the things of this earth, right? We're to present the gospel. I was so impressed, maybe you saw this, if you haven't, you ought to see the interview with Orlando Magic forward. Jonathan Isaac, did any of you see the interview with him? It just happened. He became the first NBA player not to kneel during the national anthem, since the league resumed on Thursday. And you can see all of his other brothers, kneeling with Black Lives Matter t shirts; they're all locking arms and he's standing up with his uniform on and his head bowed. It's really moving. And later on, he was asked, you know, don't you believe Black Lives Matter? And he said, Yes. And I wrote down some of what he said. He said, "kneeling or wearing a Black Lives Matter t shirt doesn't go hand in hand in supporting black lives." He said, "My life has been supported through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And everyone is made in the image of God, and we should live for God's glory." He went on to say how "sometimes we point fingers at whose evil is worse. And sometimes it comes down to who's evil is most visible." I thought that was rather profound. He went on to say, "you know, I feel like we all make mistakes, but the gospel of Jesus Christ gives grace." He went on to add, "Jesus came and died for our sins. And if we all come to an understanding of that, and that God wants to have a relationship with us, we can get past all the things in our world that are messed up, that are jacked up." He added "racism isn't the only thing that plagues our society." And boy, isn't that the truth that plagues our nation that plagues our world? "I feel like coming together on that message, we can get past not only the racism, but everything that plagues our society. I feel like the answer is the gospel." It just brought tears to my eyes. I mean, that's what you do in these days.

And as the true church comes under attack, we're all going to experience mounting persecution, but we know that ultimately, God is in control and his plans and his purposes will not be thwarted. But none of us have ever come close to experiencing anything close to what the Apostle Paul experienced in his persecutions and suffering. When Second Corinthians one five, he said, "the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance." In fact, he went on in verse eight to describe the affliction; it was so great that he says, "we were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life." And if you study his life, you see that his life and his ministry was just perpetual conflict. The Jews are trying to kill him, the Gentiles are trying to kill him. In Lystra, the Jews did stone him. In Acts 14, we read the Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. And in Philippi, we read that he was beaten with rods, and after receiving many blows, he, along with Silas, were thrown into prison, Acts 16. Second Corinthians 11, beginning of verse 23, Paul says, "I was beaten times without number often in danger of death. Five times I," catch this, "five times, I received the Jews 39 lashes." Five times, that's 195 lashes by the way. The reason they would say 39 lashes is because normally the 40th lash would kill a man. And so without giving a death sentence, they would say, well, let's just give him 39 lashes. I mean, folks, his back and his ribcage would not have looked human, it would have been so scarred. That's why in Galatians 6:17 he says, "I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus." Second Corinthians 11, he went on to say, "Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I've been on frequent journeys and dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches." Worse yet, beloved, he was abandoned by all of his friends, in his last imprisonment. I mean, think about this, in Second Timothy 1:15. He says, "You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. And then in chapter four and verse 16, he says that "my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me." Then he says, "May it not be counted against them." You imagine that?

Now, here in Second Corinthians remember that he is under enormous stress through the slander the scurrilous markings of these false teachers that had slithered into the church and had seduced many of the naive and immature saints into believing their lives and turning against their spiritual father. That's why in chapter four here in verse eight, he says that he was "afflicted in every way"-- perplexed, persecuted, struck down, "always carrying about in the body, the dying of Jesus; constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus sake. I mean, none of us can say that we've been anywhere close to that. Nevertheless, according to verse 15, are verse 14, he was at peace, "knowing," he says "that He who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you."

Now, that's the background of where we are here this morning, Second Corinthians four beginning in verse 16. "Therefore, we do not lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Dear friends, I ask you this morning, are you tempted to lose heart? Do you find yourself struggling under the weight of all of the difficulties of life, whatever they might be? How do you endure persecution? How do you endure loneliness, and suffering, sorrow? And even beyond that, what is your attitude toward death? Because we're all headed there aren't we? Every single person in this room. Now the unbeliever refuses to think much about death in particular and Satan provides a myriad of ways to distract him from those realities, all of the pleasures of life, drugs, alcohol, whatever they might be, and then false teaching, that would say, Oh you're a pretty good person, so you will make the cut; those types of things. But a mature Christian looks at it, head on, face on and realizes that it's coming. But beyond that, knows that it can face that last enemy of death, actually, with joy, you know, as I often think, to myself, I'm not afraid of death. It's the dying part that I'm not looking forward to, right? I mean, we all we all know what that means. I mean, you never know how you're going to go, but boy, the death part--we're in glory. So this is what we see here. This is why I've entitled this discourse to you "The Triumph of Saving Grace" and here in this passage, we're going to discover three principles that are key to experiencing joy and power. And frankly triumph in the face of severe adversity and suffering, and even death. Three spiritual realities; realities that should really capture our attention; be dominant within our heart. And here they are, we can rejoice knowing number one: our inner man grows stronger as our outer man grows weaker. Or as our outer man weakens, I should say. Number two: our eternal reward grows greater as our suffering for Christ intensifies. And number three: our earthly joy grows fuller, as our mind is set on eternity.

First of all, let's familiarize ourselves with the terminology that Paul uses. First of all, he speaks of the outer man, this is referring to the physical body. In fact, in verse seven, he calls it "the earthen vessel," verse 11, "mortal flesh." In other words, this is all that is visible. Unlike the soul, that is the inner man that is invisible. And at death, we know that the soul vacates the body and goes to heaven or to hell. The souls of believers will receive a glorified body suited for heaven in one of three stages of resurrection. Let me give them to you very briefly. The first stage is for those that are saved from Pentecost to the rapture of the church, when they will be joined by living saints to meet the Lord in the air. And then those second stages those saved during the tribulation and all of the Old Testament saints will be raised up when Jesus returns to Earth to reign with Him during the Millennial Kingdom. And then finally, those who died during the Millennial Kingdom, we believe that they will probably receive their eternal glorified bodies instantly, immediately at death. Now, you might say, Well, what about unbelievers? Do they get a resurrection? Well, they do. Revelation 20 in verse five, "The rest of the dead did not come to life, until the 1000 years were completed." This is a reference to the unbelievers. Then the text says this is the "first resurrection," which is actually referring to the resurrection of believers in the previous verse. But Paul speaks of this as well, in Acts 24, verse 15, "there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just, and the unjust." And Jesus spoke of this in John 5:29, there is a "resurrection of life." And he went on to say, on the "resurrection of judgment," or it can be translated "of condemnation." And this resurrection of condemnation for unbelievers will occur at the end of Christ's millennial reign upon the earth at the Great White Throne Judgment. And that is described in Revelation 20, verse 11, and following. And at that time, all of the places that have held the bodies or the DNA, you might say, of the unrighteous dead will yield up a hideous body suited for eternal torment in hell. We don't know what that body will look like. We may have a preview of that, in some of the things that we see, like the horrifying repulsive bodies of the of the Living Dead that so many people feed on, I don't...I can't understand that. But people like to watch that demonic stuff. But they will be raised to eternal death, which is called the second death biblically, Revelation 21 in verse eight, we read, "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

So folks, this is the dreadful state of all those who reject Christ. You know, whenever I reflect upon the justice that I deserve, and the mercy that I have received, I just become speechless. I mean, that's when the great old hymn Amazing Grace really captures it. And that's frankly, why I resent so many people singing that song as if it's just some, you know, pop tune. So the outer man is the visible, the physical body that houses the soul or the spirit, the inner man. By the way, soul and spirit are not two separate entities, they are one in the same the terms; are used interchangeably throughout Scripture. In fact, Mary said in Luke 1:46, and 47, "my soul" which is in Greek "psuche", "My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit,"--"pneuma"--"rejoices in God my Savior"' many other passages say the same thing. So as we look at who we are as human beings that God has created, we exist as both material and immaterial beings, we have a body and we have a soul. You will recall in Genesis two seven at creation, God formed man out of the ground, there's the material part. And then what did he do? He breathed life into him, there's the immaterial part and so forth. And I might add, that Jesus makes this distinction between body and soul in Matthew 10 and verse 28. Jesus said, "'Do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who was able to destroy both soul and body in hell.'"

So here Paul is facing the reality that he's having to face all the time in his life and ministry, the reality of death and decay of the body. He says, the outer man is decaying, literally, it is in the process of deteriorating. Now, when you're young, you don't notice this. But as you start getting older, it's real obvious. In fact, I always laugh at my kids, when I hear, and grandkids, when I hear them howling in the other room in laughter. I know they've gotten into some of the old pictures, you know, and those of you that are my age will understand that. So there's a natural progression in life, a progression of deterioration, an aging process that we all experience. And hair color, makeup, plastic surgery, exercise all of those things may conceal it at some level for a while, but it cannot do away with it completely, it cannot prevent it. Death by the way, is the consequence of sin. And we are all born sinners. We're sinners by nature. Romans 5:12, "Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned."

Now I want to take you for a moment to Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Want to look at just seven verses in here. King Solomon, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit describes the the inevitable decay of the outer man, and frankly, the importance of reflecting upon the reality of death, and the judgment that is going to follow. Ecclesiastes 12 one, let me give you just a real brief exposition of it; it's quite powerful. "Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come." In other words, before the times of misery and trouble that we're all going to experience at the end of life. "And the years," he says, "Draw near, when you will say, 'I have no delight in them.'" And then he goes on to describe the inevitable decline in life that can be seen very easily in all of us.

Verse two, "Before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain." And here now he's illustrating the evil days. And what he's referring to here is in old age the eyes begin to fail. The vision begins to get cloudy, like the process of glaucoma.

Verse three, and "in the day that the watchman of the house tremble"-- you see that in old age, both physically the hands, for example, begin to tremble, and emotionally we get weak and feeble. In old age, we become increasingly paranoid, increasingly vulnerable. And then he says, "And mighty men stoop"--referring to the major muscle groups that begin to weaken and the back begins to bend. "The grinding ones stand idle, because they are few"--referring to teeth. "And those who look through windows grow dim"-- a reference again to the eyes.

Verse four, "and the doors of the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low, and one will arise at the sound of the birds and all the daughters of song will sing softly." We know that the shutting of doors refers to the ears as people shut doors. Why do they do that? Well, they want to exclude outside noise. But this is a reference to deafness that begins to take over, as indicated by the sounds of grinding and singing that fade out. But he says, rising up at the sound of birds, and this alludes to a very cruel paradox and old age, doesn't it? It's really funny when you think about it, you can't hear hardly anything but you sleep so lightly, that the slightest little sound of a bird wakes you up. That's what he's speaking of here.

Verse five, "Furthermore, men are afraid of high places." And with aging, you have an increased fear of heights-- "and of terrors on the road." Again, an aging man is unable to protect himself; that begins to wane. And then he says, "the almond tree blossoms." This is a reference to the hair that begins to turn white. By the way, the white color of the blossoms of an almond tree come toward the end of winter before the leaves even begin to sprout. Then he says, "the grasshopper drags himself along." Probably, we believe a reference to bad joints, swollen ankles, certainly a halting walk, the elderly shuffle, and they drag themselves along with an awkward gait. And then he says that, "the caperberry is ineffective"--a paraphrase in the Hebrew would be "and desire is no longer stirred." And apparently this speaks of the loss of sexual desire in old age. In fact, the Targum, which was an Aramaic interpretation and paraphrase of the Hebrew Bible, the Targum paraphrases this more directly it says, quote, "you will cease from sexual intercourse." Now the ancient peoples in the Near East, prized the caperberry for stimulating sexual desire, and in the advanced years, however, the caperberry no longer works as an active stimulant. And then a man continues to decline; eventually he dies. We see here, goes on in verse five, "For man goes to his eternal home while mourners go about in the street." So aging is a harbinger of death. The aging tells us that we're on our final journey, he says to our eternal home. By the way, Jewish community still to this day refer to their cemeteries as "beit olam," which means eternal home; the same phrase that is used here. We see a similar description in Second Corinthians five one, "For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house"--referring to the body--"is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." And so aging is that ultimate harbinger of death.

But death is seen as returning to God in verses six and seven, he says, "Remember Him before the silver cord is broken, and the golden bowl is crushed." The silver cord or the silver chain depicts the value of life, perhaps even the spinal cord, we're not real sure, but finally it breaks with age, and the head--the golden lamp--crashes to the stone floor. And likewise, the pitcher that holds the life-giving water drawn from a well or a cistern cannot serve his task if it breaks. He says, "the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel of the system and is crushed." The wheel, of course is the pulley that would lower the pitcher into a well, it can no longer be drawn. So the end has come. So remember him, remember your Creator before this happens.

Verse seven, "then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it." Now, back to Second Corinthians 4:16. Indeed, the "outer man is decaying." I think I have made that point very clear. I don't think there's anyone that would differ with me on that; differ with the word I should say, "yet our inner man is being renewed day by day." Now, folks, this is where it gets really exciting. This is so exciting. The inner man speaks of the heart or the soul, the spirit; terms used again interchangeably; that immaterial, invisible, immortal, spiritual part of man that is reborn at salvation. This is what Paul called in Ephesians 4:24 The "new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." Colossians 3:10 He says that we are to put on the "new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him." What an exciting truth that is. First Corinthians 15:42, where he's speaking concerning the resurrection of the dead where the body is likened to a seed planted in the ground, he said, "It is sown a perishable body, but it is raised an imperishable body." And in verse 44, he said, "It is sown a natural body, it is raised the spiritual body. If there is a natural body, then there also is a spiritual body.: There's the inner man.

Now that we understand the terms, let's look closely at the beleaguered, disfigured, persecuted apostle, and try to understand now why he didn't lose heart in the face of all of the adversity that he experienced. Verse 16, "Therefore we do not lose heart. But though,"-- there's a hint of hope there right, a hint of triumph of victory--"but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day." Oh, dear Christian, this is the secret to joy in the midst of sorrow, especially when we face death. And it brings us to our very first little point here, our inner man grows stronger when our outer man weakens.

I mean, have you ever considered this? What a magnificent truth this is? It's astounding. In Ephesians 3:16, Paul says, we are "strengthened with power through His Spirit in the"--here it is--"inner man." Why? "So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." So that we will experience the soul satisfying soul exhilarating joy of the living Christ deep within our soul. That's what's going on within us. Now the unbeliever cannot say this. As his body weakens his soul stays the same; it's dead, it's alienated from God. It is lifeless, it is at enmity with God. And it will blaspheme God and the solitary confinement of hell forever. But not so the redeem. Our inner man is forever hidden in Christ. An amazing thought, we're forever united to Christ. We have died, Paul says in Colossians, three, three, and our "life is hidden with Christ in God." Verse four says he "is our life." You see folks in the inner man, we enjoy communion with God, we enjoy intimate fellowship with him. In the inner man he speaks to us through his word by the power of his Spirit. And he grows us into the likeness of Christ. Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me." Obviously, it's not my physical body, it's my inner man. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. Dear friends, it is the inner man, not the outer man that deserves our full attention. That should be the priority that should captivate our thoughts. It is our soul, not our body that is most important. And of course, we live in a culture that is obsessed with the body; absolutely obsessed with the body. We've got to show it off, we got to paint graffiti all over it. We've got to do all of this exercise, we've got to take steroids to make us look more muscular, for the guys. And I guess for some of the girls, we've got to go to the beauty salon, which never does that for me for some reason. We've got to do all of these things. But God looks at our heart, not our body. Proverbs 4:23, "Watch over your heart, with all diligence for from it flow the springs of life." So we've got to guard our hearts, our inner man, we've got to cultivate godliness within our soul, we've got to pursue holiness in the inner man.

Again, the body is decaying, that's just gonna happen. And yeah, I know you want to paint it up, you don't want to look as bad as you can I understand that, you know. You've got to do certain things, I get that. But it's the inner man that deserves our full attention. Because it is there by the power of the Holy Spirit, that Christ is revealed to us. And we become likened unto him. That's the process of sanctification. Paul spoke of this, in Second Corinthians three, verse 18, "But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord..." by the way, you will recall, it's a reference to seeing Christ in Scripture, we behold "the glory of the Lord." Well, what happens? We're being "transformed in that same image, from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."

Now we know when we first come to Christ, we are babes in Christ, spiritually speaking, but we gradually grow into maturity. In first, John 1:29 and following, John gives us a description of three stages of spiritual growth he speaks of little children, and then young men and fathers; we're not going to look at that closely, but he speaks of, first of all, there's the little children. That's how we all start. We're immature men of God, we possess just the most rudimentary fundamentals of God and his gospel. And then we begin to mature into young men, where we are now, shall we say, moderately mature, in the Lord; we have a grasp of sound doctrine, he tells us and, and we're able to stand against Satan, and walk by the Spirit, not by the flesh. But then the final stage is the father, the mature man or woman of God, that person who has a profound experience of the living God within their soul and has such a grasp of the knowledge and the fullness of God, that they live for the glory of God. It's not a duty, it is a desire, it is the passion of their soul. This is the one who walks in intimate fellowship and communion with God. But whatever the stage of maturity, we know that it's always the spirit that is at work in the inner man, to make this happen. This is why Paul never lost heart. That's the point. He keeps growing us in the grace and the knowledge of Christ and at death, at death, the renewing process is complete. Suddenly, the soul of a believer vacates the body, leaving all of the sin and all of the sorrow behind and it is instantly transported into the presence of God. Dear Christian, is this your testimony? Is this a testimony of your soul? Or are you hearing this and saying I have no idea what that man is talking about? Well, if that's the case, unless you do business with God and trust in Christ, you will perish in your sins. So we want to ask ourselves does this thrill our heart, does this animate our worship? And if it does, you're not going to lose heart when you face these things. When all of life seems lost, we know that all is about to be gained. We know that the fires of suffering are purifying the silver, if you will, of our life. We know that the Lord is purifying the inner man, we know that he tempers the steel of our faith. And then on the anvil of adversity, he shapes us into men and women that will live for His glory. And in the context of all of that, we enjoy amazing benefits of what it means to be in Christ. And then at death, we can say with Paul, "oh death, where is your victory? O, death, where is your sting?" I've been in the presence of both believers and unbelievers, in the final days, sometimes hours, sometimes minutes or even seconds of their death. I know some of you who are nurses, medical people, you've been there as well. What a difference, what a difference, the difference between terror and triumph, the difference between panic and peace. I've heard people howl in horror as they are about to slip through the veil, and to hell. I've heard them growl at me as I present the gospel to them in the final moments of their life. I've seen and I've heard people at the close of their life suddenly start grasping for things, knocking furniture lamps grasping to hang on to life, as they perish in their sins. And then I've been around believers, who are perfect peace, who typically are ministering to me more than I'm ministering to them and who want to sing praises to the Lord, in whose presence they are about to appear?

Well, how will you face death? How will you face eternity? We never know when God will summon us to pass through the veil. But in the face of death, a true Christian is going to experience that peace that surpasses all understanding. Why? Because that man or that woman knows that his soul is going to be released from his body and he is going to enter into the glorious presence of God, where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Why? Because he knows his inner man has been "renewed, day by day," over the course of his life. And as we weaken in our body, we gain strength in our spirit. What an amazing paradox. That's why Paul said in Second Corinthians 12:10, "Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake;" and here's why, "for when I am weak, then I am..." There it is, there's the inner man. So our inner man grows stronger when our outer man weakened.

Secondly, our eternal reward grows greater when our suffering for Christ intensifies. Notice what he says in verse 17, "For momentary, light affliction is producing..." In the Greek it can be translated "preparing" or "cultivating"--"for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison." My goodness, what an amazing perspective. It almost seems like a non sequitur here. It's like, Whoa, I thought this was Paul, the guy that's being beat up. And yet he's saying this "momentary, light affliction?" Are you kidding me? All the suffering that he's enduring, and he says, "momentary, light affliction?" You see, it's all relative, isn't it? It's relative to what he's going to receive in heaven. Romans 8:17, "if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him." He speaks about, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God." Peter said the same thing in First Peter one beginning in verse six, "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Now, I want you to notice something technical here in the original language. It's really fascinating. It helps us understand what the Spirit is telling us through his inspired apostle with respect to our eternal reward. He says, "For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison." In Greek “kata hyperbole eis hyperbole," we get our English word "hyperbole" from this term. It's a double expression here in Greek and it indicates extra ordinary overabundance. I just have to start stacking superlatives up here to give you an idea here. In other words, this is a beyond all measure weight of glory. That's the point. That's what he's saying. This momentary and light affliction of ours is producing for us an eternal load of glory, that is incomparable. It is inconceivable, it is immeasurable in degree. It's beyond all proportion. It's beyond all comparison, or exaggeration. It exceeds the limits of the imagination. O dear Christian think of this the next time you cower in fear? Think of what awaits you because of what the Spirit of God is doing in the inner man. Too often we could be likened to, I don't know this is probably a corny illustrations--most of mine are-- but sometimes we're like the guy who's in a prisoner of war camp, okay. All of a sudden he finds out he's going to be released. Not only that, he's won $300 million in the lottery. But he can't enjoy it. He just can't enjoy it. Why? He's got a hangnail on his thumb. Got a hangnail, I'm really hurt. The journalist says, are you excited about getting out? Well, not really. I got a boo boo here. All they can focus on is his boo boo, got this hangnail here. Boy, I just don't know, you get the point. I mean, folks what we're going to receive is way beyond a get out of prison ticket and $300 million.

I've been around a lot of believers in countries where they're persecuted, I think of African believers, Russian believers, people that struggle in profound ways. Christians in Israel who are being persecuted by the Hasidic Jews, the Gur Hasidim. But they're filled with joy. They're overflowing with joy. I think of the last time I was in Uganda and every time I would speak, there were, I don't know, 300 pastors or so from all over Africa that were there. And when I would finish speaking, they would come around, and they would start asking questions. And before you know it, I would just have a group of them around me. And you know what, what they wanted to know about? Without fail, what they wanted to know about is tell us about Christ returning to the earth, and the establishment of His kingdom. Tell us about the second coming of Christ. We want to know about the end. That's what they were excited about. And as I would start to open up the scriptures to them, they would clap, and they would weep. And they would laugh, and they would sing and even at times, they would start dancing. I mean, it's real different than the way we do things here, you know, and I know I'm rather stoic myself inside, I'm really dancing and clapping, but I don't do much of that on the outside. I don't want you to think I'm some of those people. You know how that works. John MacArthur put it this way, "Whether suffering comes from believer's, faithful, loyal, committed testimony about Jesus Christ, or the patient enduring of life's normal trials, such as disease, divorce, poverty and loneliness, if endured with a humble, grateful God-honoring attitude, it will add to the eternal weight of glory." Folks, this was this was the apostle's heart. And this is why he was giving this message to the saints at Corinth.

Again, "Therefore we do not lose heart, though the outer man is decaying, yet her inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison." And so why, in light of this, he's not looking at his boo boo. He's looking at the eternal glory that awaits him. That's why he says in verse 18, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen, are eternal." You see, he wasn't concerned about what he could see, what he could experience in his body; all of that transient. All of that, the Lord is in control of that. What he's concerned about is what is presently unseen, that will soon be revealed.

And this is why, thirdly, we see that our earthly joy grows fuller when our mind is set on eternity. Let's stop and think about this. For the unbeliever, the only joy that they can have is experienced in this body, and in what they can see, because their inner man is spiritually dead. They can only experience sensory perceptions of the body. So they can enjoy many things, they can enjoy the pleasures of this world; they can enjoy it, you know, a good football game, a good meal, great literature, great music, all of those things. But when they don't have that. Life is not very happy. Had a doctor friend of mine saying, Dave, if we don't have college football, this fall, I'm gonna go postal. And there's a lot of people, probably some in here, that say the same thing. When the Nazis bombed London in World War Two, Parliament demanded that they have blackouts at night, so that the Nazis couldn't see as well. So they shut down all of the bars and all of the theaters and all of the sports arenas. And as a result, massive protests broke out. Because the people said, we are going to go mad if we have no way of escaping the miseries of life. Not so for the believer. Oh, yes, we enjoy those things. But my life has not lived in what I can see. My life is not lived with my body. My life is lived in the inner man in relationship with the Living God. That's where my inner man, and her inner man--my wife--connect in the oneness of marriage. That's where you enjoy what God has given us. And that's what Paul is saying here.

In Romans five and verse three, Paul says, "we also exult in our tribulations"--interesting, "we exult in our tribulations." By the way, the Greek helps us understand that. He's not saying we exult in spite of them, but rather we exult because of them. Why? "Knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our heart through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." So again, because of what God is doing in our inner man, we know that we are citizens of another kingdom. I mean, we're just passing through here. So therefore we count it all joy when things begin to fall apart. We set our mind on things above. And then we experience that soul satisfying joy of God's presence, the peace of God that that surpasses all understanding, guards our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Peter put it this way again, First Peter 5:10, "After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you." When we come to the end of life, with this perspective, we can say with Paul, Second Timothy four, verse seven, "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing." Beloved, let these great truths be the center of gravity around which your life orbits especially those of you who are perhaps today tempted to lose heart. To know that the spirit is renewing your inner man constantly.

And perhaps I can close with the words of Isaiah the prophet, to encourage those going into the Babylonian captivity, to remind them, as I will remind you now, of this work of God's grace in the inner man. He said in Isaiah 40, "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth never grows weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary and to those lacking might, He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous, young men stumble badly, yet those who wait upon the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run not get tired. They will walk and not become weary." Beloved, these are the promises that are ours; our hope, and our help is in Christ, because he is preparing us for the triumph of saving grace and eternal glory. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths that minister so deeply to our hearts as your people. But may they be more than just some intellectual understanding of great theology, But Lord, may this be the very food that we eat, the very air that we breathe, the theme of every song that we might enjoy--the fullness of your glory and grace, even this side of heaven. And for those that do not know, you know, Father, I plead with you. Bring conviction to their heart, that they might believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved and experience even this day, the miracle of the new birth. For it's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen.

Will you take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter four, we are going to be looking at verses seven through 15. As we continue to make our way through this epistle, I've been titled by discourse to you a "Priceless Treasure in Earthen Vessels." Before we look at the text may I say that in a world drowning in a cesspool of wickedness, it is always a wonderful thing to see the saints come together who long to see the glory and the greatness of God, who long to hear his word, who are willing to humble themselves before the word. May I remind you that God is always looking for hearts in which to dwell, that have a passion for his word. And certainly I've seen that here at Calvary Bible Church. In fact, in Isaiah 66 and verse two, we see how God promises to focus intently and bless those who are humble and contrite of spirit, and who tremble at his word. So I'm deeply humbled to be able to minister the word of God to such a group of believers as that. Those of us who were all debtors to his grace.

Now, before I read this text, and we look at it closely, may I say that this is a very personal passage of scripture for the apostle Paul. It’s one that reveals just some of the very core longings of his soul and some of the things that he's excited about. And I might say that this is a passage that is that is deeply moving, as we look at it--to each of us. It’s also one that is very encouraging. Now remember, Paul is defending himself against the scurrilous slander of the false teachers. He's not doing this out of personal ambition or pride to somehow just defend himself; he's concerned about the gospel. Because if these people are able to discredit his apostolic authority, and therefore discredit his message, then they will be allowed the freedom to proclaim their deceptions and propagate their lies. So in humility of heart, what's really fascinating here, in humility of heart, rather than refuting their claims about the apostle--that he's ugly, that he's unimpressive, he's imperfect, and all of those things--rather than refute those things, he agrees with them. It's really an amazing thing. He gives God all of the glory for whatever virtues are there, and whatever success in ministry. And what is really remarkable is that his humble acknowledgment of personal weaknesses, not only become his greatest asset, but also the most convincing proof of his apostolic authority. And that's what we're going to see play out here. And as we will discover his testimony of God's grace in his life and God's power in his life, even though he is feeble, and he's flawed, becomes just a profound encouragement to all of us who are likewise predisposed.

So let me begin in verse seven, Second Corinthians four verse seven. "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we were afflicted in every way but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body, the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you. But having the same spirit of faith according to what is written, 'I believed, therefore I spoke,' we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God."

As we read ancient history, we discover that included in a Roman general's triumph--included within that procession of a conquering general--would be a number of things, but especially several large carts of clay pots filled with all of the spoils of war, all of the beautiful diamonds and emeralds and rubies and golden bracelets and silver and all of those things; fabulous treasures of a conquered empire. All of them concealed in fragile, ugly, worthless, disposable clay pots. Well, I think you know where we're going here, right. Paul uses this as the perfect illustration of the treasure, of a transformed soul, the soul of the redeemed, concealed in human flesh. The soul of those of us who by God's grace have been transformed, we're transformed image bearers, and we're housed in the earthen vessels of these bodies; the priceless treasure of those whom He has revealed, according to verse six, "the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." That's what's inside these earthen vessels. Those of us who have been united to God by the gospel, whose inner man now reflects the glory of the Triune Godhead, whose soul now is the habitation, the temple of God. And o, dear Christian never lose the wonder of this. Christ in you, the what? "The hope of glory;" in you and your soul, the soul that never dies, that lives eternally because it is united to Christ.

Later in verse 16, Paul speaks of the profound importance, yea, the mystery of the believer's soul, he calls it our "inner man." Notice what he says in verse 16. "Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our inner man our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day." In verse 18, he says, "we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen, are eternal." Folks, take a moment, just look at your hands. Look at your hands, look at your arms, look at your body. Look at those around you. Look at all that you see here in this worship center. You realize all of these things are going to disappear one day, none of these are going to last. It's only the things that we cannot see that are eternal. And who knows what we can't see, I'm sure there are angelic beings all around us, we can't see them. Another thing that you cannot see is my soul or your own soul. But the priceless treasure of a redeemed soul, a soul that has been made partakers of the divine nature, the soul that has been given, as Paul says, the "Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" that is eternal. Oh how we should cherish the new nature that has been wrought within our soul by the power of the Holy Spirit. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul? Think of it dear Christian, your soul, biblically is forever hidden in Christ Jesus. I mean, these things make your head explode, right? I mean, we believe them by faith, and we can experience some of the reality of this, but it's amazing to think that that our soul is housed in a body that is getting weaker and weaker. Now, if you're young, it's going to get stronger and stronger for a while, but trust me, you know, you're going to reach a point where all of a sudden it's going to start doing this and then seems like it gets steeper and steeper, you know as it goes right. But though we're growing weak and frail, and someday we will return, you know, to the soil--ashes to ashes, dust to dust. I mean, though we were fashioned from the dust of the ground, and we were cursed by God, because of sin, because of that, we're going to experience death, we're going to experience decay and, and one day we'll return to the dust. Nevertheless, the soul belongs to God. It's an amazing thing. It has been renewed into the likeness of God and it's gradually being more conformed to express the glory of Christ. It's the very temple in which the Triune God lives forever. And it is the glory, dear friends, of this magnificent arrangement that Paul addresses here in this passage, and thus the title of my exposition, "Priceless Treasure in Earthen Vessels."

And here we learn why God has done this, let me give you four reasons, four little categories, that will kind of help us frame our thoughts as we go through this passage. He has done this, number one, to demonstrate the power of God. Secondly, to manifest the life of Jesus, number three to embolden gospel witness, and finally, to multiply God glorifying worshipers. And I trust God will impress these great truths upon your heart today. Now let's look closely at the text in verse seven. "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels." Now, some would say that this treasure is the gospel. And at some level that is true, but I believe it's much more than that. The "treasure" is the human soul that God has renewed by the power of the gospel; that soul that has been given as he says in verse six, "the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." That soul that now reflects that same glory through a human body. That is, according to Romans 12 one, "a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God." That inner nature that is being renewed every day, that inner man that causes the outer man to redound to the glory of God.

But notice, this priceless treasure is concealed. He says, in "earthen vessels;" literally, clay pots; perishable earthenware, that's what he's referring to. And the analogy here is obvious. The human body is relatively worthless in comparison to the soul, in comparison to the priceless treasure that it contains. Like a clay pot, we are fragile, we are unattractive, some of us more so than others. And we are disposable, right? O the glory that resides within. Now, remember the context here. Paul is agreeing with the accusations of the false apostles. Yes, I am weak, I am ugly, I am unimpressive. I am expendable. I'm of little value whatsoever. But know this, I am the trustee of a glorified soul; a priceless treasure. For within me resides the Triune Godhead. Within me, resides "the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." Therefore I will preach it, come what may. And why? Why is it in there, in this is clay pot? The end of verse seven, "so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves." Now he doesn't say this, but I'm sure in the back of his mind, and consistent with the with the context, he's saying, unlike you pompous, self-righteous emissaries of Satan who receives your power from the father of lies and your own flesh. So the priceless treasure is concealed within the earthen vessel of this body number one to demonstrate the power of God.

Beloved, we have no power in and of ourselves. None whatsoever, even physically, I mean, we grow strong for a season then we begin to wither and we begin to die. I mean, think about it. There's this microscopic, little demon floating around called a Coronavirus. And we can get that and it can cause all kinds of problems, for some people it could be fatal. There's accidents, right? We're frail, it doesn't take much to destroy this body. And, frankly, we're homely, you know? I mean, I don't want to be crude here. But if we look at ourselves without our clothing, without our makeup, without our hair coloring, without all that we realize, ew, you know, we're not exactly the most beautiful creatures on the planet. So a clay pot is a pretty good analogy. But folks, we are equally weak spiritually. I mean even though the Spirit dwells within us, there's this constant battle, right-- Galatians, five. I mean, the flesh and the spirit, it's always in enmity with one another. Jesus said, apart from me, you can't do very much. No, no, he said, You can't do anything. Right?

I recall what was going on with Timothy, you may remember, his spiritual knees were buckling under the weight of persecution, he was afraid all the things going on at the church at Ephesus. And Paul said to him, and Second Timothy two, one, "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." That's where we get our strength. Also, in First Corinthians two, beginning of verse three, Paul said, "I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God." Where does he get that power? It's from within the soul. It's what resides within that clay pot. And remember the extreme weakness that Paul experienced as a result of that thorn in the flesh, that that emissary of Satan, that messenger of Satan, that false teacher that was trying to destroy him; remember, he asked the Lord three times to remove that thorn. And what did the Lord say? No, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."

You know, I love to reflect upon the ways God is. God proves himself powerful on our behalf. I think that over the course of my life, he has always used just ordinary, flawed people just like me to do extraordinary things. And you think about it, he chose 12 ordinary men to be his apostles. Four of them were Galilean fisherman. One of them was a tax collector. The other guys were just ordinary guys. And later, he had chosen the apostle Paul. Even though he was a brilliant rabbi, he was also a persecutor of the church. Prior to his conversion, in fact, in First Corinthians 15, nine, he said, "I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church." First Timothy 1:13. He says, "I was formerly a blasphemer, and a persecutor and a violent aggressor." But God saw him said, I'm going to turn that man around and use him for my glory. Second Corinthians 10:10. His critics said his "personal appearance is unimpressive and his speech contemptible." And he admitted that he was unskilled in speech, Second Corinthians 11 six. And apparently he had some kind of a repulsive eye condition that caused people to kind of want to back away from it. We read about that in Galatians four. Nevertheless, he said in First Timothy 1:12, God "considered me faithful, putting me into service." You know, when I think about that, I rejoice and I can say, Boy, there's hope for all of us, right? There's hope for all of us. His life and ministry was so God honoring that he was even able to exhort others to say, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ," First Corinthians 11:1. And in Second Corinthians 11 six, that :even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not so in knowledge." Again, over the course of my life, and I'm sure you will agree with this, as I look back over the years and see the type of people that had a gospel impact on my life, they've always been simple, ordinary people, unimpressive in the eyes of the world. In fact, I can safely say is that some of the most godly, humble, yet spiritually powerful people, that exist on the planet are a part of Calvary Bible Church, and other churches like ours. That's the way God likes to do it, right? It's an amazing thing. And yet, the world will never know those people. If they did know them, they would scoff at them. And yet one day, these are the very saints that are going to rule with Christ in His kingdom. And yet today they are nobodies. In fact, they're considered fools for Christ's sake. I think about this often--people driving by this church right now, lots of times on the way to church, I'll see, you know, people, you know, they've got their boats and their jet skis and all these things, and they're getting ready to go out and have a great day. And I think my, they're living for the now rather than for eternity, and they could come right down the road. And there's a little church here in rural Tennessee, that could give them the keys to the kingdom of God through the gospel, that they might be saved. And yet they want nothing to do with it. They want nothing to do with these obscure kind of odd people who actually believe that Jesus saves and he's coming again, do you realize how utterly ridiculous that is to the world? And yet how true it is.

First Corinthians one, verse 26, and following, Paul said, "For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world ashamed, the things which are strong, and the base things of the world, and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that just as it is written, 'Let him who boasts," what? "boast in the Lord." Boast in the Lord.

You know, some of you, I'm sure are struggling in some significant ways in your life, it's just part of being in a fallen world, right? Things are difficult for you. But I would encourage you this morning to remember that you have this treasure in this earthen vessel. The treasure of a transformed redeemed soul that will one day be glorified. A priceless treasure. One, a soul that has been renewed by God, an invisible temple of the Triune God, that the world cannot see. An eternal soul that is forever hidden in Christ. A soul that is alive to God, but dead to sin; the opposite of the world. If you were to look into the soul of the unredeemed, you would see a corpse. You would see a person that is dead in their trespasses and sins; alienated from God. But "we have this treasure in earthen vessel, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves." When people see Christ, they don't say, "Wow, isn't that because of this great man or great woman?" No, it has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with the one who dwells within me, and who dwells within you.

Now Paul gives some examples of some of his own struggles. And he does this through a series of paradoxes. In verses eight through nine, actually, you might say that there are four balanced antitheses that summarize his life and ministry. Notice what he says in verse eight. "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed." "Afflicted", carries the idea of being distressed by severe difficulties. But he's not crushed. In other words, he's not hopelessly distressed. Now, why is that? How can that be? How can a person be afflicted and yet not crushed? Well, the answer is clear. It's because of the "surpassing greatness" of the power of God within the soul. I mean God's grace is always sufficient, right? He goes on to say, he says, we're "perplexed, but not despairing." "Perplexed" literally means "filled with confusion." Sometimes you just don't know which way to turn, but you're not despairing. You're not losing your emotional and mental composure. How can that be? Well, it's because of the "surpassing greatness" of the power of God within the inner man. I think of Isaiah 26 three, "The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You." Folks, serenity and hope is always anchored in our faith in God.

He goes on to verse nine and he said, we're "persecuted, but not forsaken." "Persecuted," it's an interesting term. In the original language it is one that refers to just a systematic attack on a person because of their belief. But we're not forsaken. In other words, even though that's happening, we're not abandoned. We don't feel neglected here. Well, how can that be? Because of the "surpassing greatness" of the power of God within the inner man. He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. He goes on to say in verse nine, we're "struck down" a term that literally carries the idea of being knocked to the ground by a severe blow. Sometimes we feel that way, right? We've just feel like somebody just taken a baseball bat and hit us and we're just on the ground looking up. He said we're struck down at times, but we're not destroyed. In other words, we're not irreparably damaged. Well, how can that be? Because of the "surpassing greatness" of the power of God within the soul. I mean, he has promised to never tempt us beyond what we are able, right? First Corinthians 10:13, "but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that we may that we may be able to endure it." Folks, remember, all of the sufferings that we experience in life, are merely ways that the Lord uses to conform us into the likeness of Christ. With every wound, he chisels away at the relics of corruption that continue to cleave to our unredeemed humaneness. He's fitting us to be placed in the temple of God in the New Jerusalem.

I was thinking about this, you may recall in the Old Testament record, it is revealed that that King David was given the plans for the temple. And he gave it to Solomon. And part of those plans included the importance of precutting and prefitting every stone that would go into the temple. To do that in the quarry, and then take it in to the temple so that there would be no sound of chisel when the temple was erected. And this of course, was done to basically underscore the solemnity of their task and the perfections of holiness that that would symbolize. Can you imagine? I've seen these temple stones? I mean, they are just mammoth. Can you imagine cutting them that precisely and when you look at them, the way they're fitted together, it is astounding. First King six, seven, "The house," referring to the temple, "while it was being built, was built of stone prepared at the quarry, and there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any iron tool heard in the house while it was being built." Great Puritan Thomas Manton wrote this, "The present life is an incurable disease, and sometimes attended with that sharp sense that death is desired as a remedy and accepted as a benefit." He went on to say "Here, the living stones are cut and wounded and made fit by sufferings for a temple unto God in the New Jerusalem. But as in the building of Solomon's temple, the noise of a hammer was not heard. For all the parts were framed before with that exact design and correspondence that firmly combined together. They were hewn in another place, and nothing remained but the putting them one upon another in the temple. And then, as sacred, they were inviolable. So God, the architect, having prepared the saints here, by many cutting afflictions, places them in the eternal building, where no voice of sorrow is heard. Beloved, what a joy to know that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus and he's working on us right now.

But not only is this priceless treasure in earthen vessel there to demonstrate the power of God but secondly, to manifest the life of Jesus. Notice verse 10, he says "always," not occasionally, but, "always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body." I mean, this is why he experienced the hardships described in the previous verses. He is saying to them, Look, despite what these phonies are telling you, I'm not experiencing hardship, because there's some secret sin in my life, that God is somehow punishing me. I'm merely submitting to the will of God who has ordained my afflictions, who has ordained by sufferings, so that the power of Christ would be manifested in my life, so that my life and my ministry would be a purposeful sacrifice. This is why he said in First Corinthians 15:31, "I die daily."

Now, as we look at verse 10, there's a key here that's interesting, the word "dying." Normally in Greek, in the New Testament, the term "thanatos" would be used; the word used to describe the actual event of a death, but here, it's "nekrosis." The prolonged process of dying, that includes the events that lead up to death. In English we have the word "necrosis" from that; it describes the death of cells in an organ or tissues or whatever. So Paul's life for Christ here, I'm sorry, Paul's love for Christ in his life manifested by obedience to Christ, was part of what was gradually destroying his outer body, because of all of the persecution. And because the world hates Christ. it hated him and hates all of us. So Paul denied himself, he was willing to take up his cross daily and follow the Lord. And of course, when you do this, Satan and his minions are going to attack you.

Verse 11, "For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh." But why? Why is this happening? So God can prove himself powerful on our behalf. And so others can see the power of God put on display in our life. Think of those that you have known over the years who have taken a stand for Christ in a hostile environment. People watch the response of that. Sinners had been converted because of the response of godly people who have suffered. I think of Stephen. Remember in Acts six. We read how he was full of grace and truth. And in verse 10, we read that "they were unable to cope with his wisdom and the Sirit with which he was speaking. So they secretly induced men to say, 'We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.'" Well, that was just pure baloney. That was just slander. So what did they do? They took him out they and they stoned him. They were going to kill him. And then they did. In fact, we read that the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. Isn't that interesting? We read the Stephen called upon the Lord and said, "'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold a sin against them!' And having said this, he fell asleep." Folks, take a stand for Christ and watch what happens. You are going to experience the hostility of the world. Put biblical truth on facebook, watch the reactions you'll get. You will experience just the venomous, malicious attacks of the ungodly, but also you will see how it will soften the hearts of the redeemed. And when you do this, you will be "carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in your body."

You know, satanic persecution is always certain proof that you're penetrating the kingdom of darkness, right? And one of the best ways to determine a godly man or a godly woman is by identifying their friends as well as their enemies. Jesus said, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way." So again, in verse 12, "So death works in us, but life in you." Folks, evangelism comes with a cost. Have you ever thought about the sacrifice that others have made in your life over the years so that you could hear the truth of the gospel? The great English theologian and seminary professor at the University of Oxford, John Wycliffe, stood against the heresies of Roman Catholicism in the 14th century. And among many things that he stood against one of the things that he stood for was the translation of the Bible, from the Latin Vulgate into the common vernacular so that people could actually read the Word of God. Of course, the Roman Catholics didn't want that at all. So he was hated, and he was hunted. He, by the way, was one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation. He had to flee for his life and eventually, he worked himself to exhaustion, he died of a heart attack. And then it's interesting, 41 years after his death, the Roman Catholic Council of Constance declared Wycliffe, a heretic on May 4, 1415. They hated him so much that they banned his writings and excommunicated him retro actively. The council decreed that Wycliffe's work should be burned, and his bodily remains removed from consecrated ground. and the order was confirmed by Pope Martin the fifth. it was carried out 1428. And so what did they do? They went to Wycliffe' grave, and they exhumed his body, they burned what was left, and they took the ashes and cast it into the River Swift. That's how much Satan hates those that follow Christ. And we could recount 1000s of similar stories of people who were willing to die for Christ so that others could experience life in Christ. But folks, the priceless treasure of Wycliffe's soul was in glory, right? It was beyond the reach of their venomous malice. You want to ask yourself, "To what extent am I willing to sacrifice?" I'm thankful for parents that I had when I was a little boy that would read Bible stories to me. You know, I still remember a lot of those. I remember they brought me a set of books called the Book of Life. And it was kind of age appropriate, up through, you know, maybe high school and I remember looking at those pictures and reading those stories. I'm thankful that my parents took me to the churches where the truth was taught, I'm thankful for especially godly older women that taught me as a young little boy. We used to have flannel graphs. I know that's ageing me, but some of you shake your head, you know what flannel graphs are, I still remember those stories. I'm thankful for godly pastors that taught me. I'm thankful for godly youth leaders that gave themselves, that I might know and live the truth; that took me on campouts and canoe trips up to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota and on and on and on it goes. They sacrificed. Romans eight verse 36, that we read earlier, Paul says, "Just as it is written, 'For your sake, we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' But," and I love the word "but" there, "but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us,." Folks, the trials may be great, but the victory is infinitely greater. You must remember that.

And while languishing in a Roman prison cell, Paul wrote to the saints at Colossae, in Colossians 1:24. He says, "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions." You see, he understood that suffering is a grace-granted privilege; in that in our dying, the church may receive life. As we give of ourselves, the Gospel goes forth, and men and women and boys and girls come to saving faith in Christ. And by enduring persecution intended for Christ, he was, as he says, "filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction." You see, you might put it this way, He was the lightning rod for the world's unending hatred of Christ, a hatred that was not fully meted out at the cross but will continue throughout eternity with the blasphemies of the damned, as we read in Revelation 16. And like Christ, Paul was happy to endure an extra measure of suffering, as a willing substitute on behalf of the church, and perhaps even sparing the church some of the heartaches of that suffering, while at the same time putting the glory of Christ on display, so that they could look at him and say, wow, look what look what God can do in the life of his redeemed. And in Paul, they could see Christ. But again, how could such a frail and humbly man have such an impact on so many? How could a man press on in the midst of all of this persecution with such vitality and such joy? Well, the answer is in the text, it's because a priceless treasure was concealed within an earthen vessel, that treasure of that renewed soul.

So dear ones, God placed this priceless treasure of the gospel redeemed soul in these earthen vessels, to demonstrate the power of God to manifest the life of Christ. And thirdly, to embolden gospel witness. Think about this, despite the inevitable hostility that the gospel produces, Paul would never compromise. Verse 13, "But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, 'I believed, therefore I spoke,' we also believe, therefore we also speak." He is quoting by the way, Psalm 116, verse 10, "I believed, when I said, 'I am greatly afflicted.'" The idea here is, despite the magnitude of his troubles, even as the Psalmist said, he was confident that God would deliver him. You see, folks, faith not only survives, but it transcends suffering. It transcends persecution, sorrows, fear of death, and all of those things. That's why Paul was not ashamed of the gospel. He knew that it was the power of God unto salvation. And that's why he said in First Corinthians 9:16, "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel." Because he knew that's the only message that will save. And that is why dear friends, we must remain steadfast in our commitment to preaching the gospel, and not get off in all of these other tangents--oh, the gospel is all about giving you a purpose driven life, or oh, the gospel is all about making you happy, and healthy and wealthy, or the gospel is all about promoting social justice and racial equality. Folks, none of that is true. None of that is in Scripture. That is not what the gospel about. The gospel is all about reconciling sinful man to a holy God. And once you move away from that, you have nothing more than the foolish rantings of man. Useless in preventing the decay in this world. The salt loses its saltiness in the church. And that's what we've seen today.

By the way, we see this most markedly in the new evangelical obsession with improving the social and economic problems in the world. But folks, if you will excuse just a very brief digression. When the gospel focus becomes humanitarian, rather than redemptive, you have no gospel at all. It's just another form of human wisdom that God calls foolishness. Paul knew the saving, transforming truth of the gospel, so he preached it without compromise, regardless of the costs. You might say, "well, yes, but Pastor, I struggle with fear." Join the club, don't we all? Paul did. Remember Ephesians 6:19. He said, "Pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness, the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." But concealed in that frail, fearful earthen vessel was the infinite power of the Triune Godhead.

Back to verse 14, "knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you." Oh Child of God, will do well to remember this passage of Scripture, when you find yourself trembling in fear, standing before maybe even just a few people in your family, as you present them the gospel, realize that the very power that raised Jesus from the dead dwells within your earthen vessel, in your soul. We must always remember the implications of the resurrection, and glorification of Jesus Christ exceed, indeed, that exceeded the importance and power of all other events in history. I would say only the act of creation rival to this, because within the resurrection body of Jesus Christ, in whom we have been forever united, existed the supernatural power source of eternal life in God's everlasting kingdom. For this reason, Paul prayed for the Ephesians in Ephesians 1:19 that they would know what is the "immeasurable greatness of His power in us who believe, according to the working of his might, which he accomplished in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places." Folks, this is a prayer that we should pray often for each other, for our family.

So indeed, God placed this priceless treasure of a renewed soul in an earthen vessel, to demonstrate the power of God manifest the life of Jesus, and embolden gospel witness. And finally, as we close this morning to multiply, God glorifying worshipers, Well, isn't that what we all want? Don't you wish the whole world would worship Christ? You know, one day we're going to see that happen at the beginning of the millennial kingdom. The glory of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters fill the sea; amazing thought. Notice what Paul says here in verse 15, "For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God." Oh, dear friends, what a testimony we have here of selfless, selfless love. His passion was to see men and women and boys and girls come to saving faith in Christ; not only for their eternal good, but for God's eternal glory. He wanted to see more and more clay pots, if you will, filled up with the glory of God and the souls of his redeemed. Saints that will one day join in the heavenly choir and sing "Worthy is the Lamb." Earthen vessels that will one day burst forth with the effulgence of the glory of God even as we saw in the Transfiguration of Christ on the mountain. In fact, the prophet Daniel says in Daniel 12, in verse three, "those who have insight will shine brightly, like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever." Oh, how I long to see all of you in the company of the redeemed when these earthly vessels will be exchanged for a glorified body; one that is suited to exist in the presence of the glory of God, one that is suited for eternal worship, in the presence of our thrice Holy God. When according to First Corinthians 15, verse 54, "this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written 'Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh Death, where is your victory? Oh, Death, where is your sting?' The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore," Paul says, "My beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord." Well may these truths animate your heart to further praise and motivate your will to obedience and service to the one who deserves our utmost. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths. We are so humbled by them. They are beyond our ability to even fathom, but by the power of Your Spirit that dwells within us, we are we are able to comprehend at least a portion of that which you would have us understand. And in so doing, we find our souls being lifted up into the heavens, as we are able to, perhaps a new way, even this morning to set our mind on things above and not on the things of this earth. Encourage each of us as we reflect upon what you have done in us what you're doing through us, and what one day you will do for us in the presence of your glory. For it's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen.

So here we are, once again, with the wonderful privilege of looking into the Word of God. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter three. This will be the third and final exposition of this section of scripture under the heading "Beholding the Glory of the Lord." We're in Second Corinthians chapter three, beginning in verse 17. And actually, I'm going to be mainly in chapter four, but all of it fits together, as you will see. Now before I read that, let me remind you that here we have the opportunity to understand what the Apostle Paul was communicating with respect to beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ as he is revealed in Scripture; of beholding his majesty and his meekness, of being able to see the glory of his grace to see his power and his authority. For indeed, he is the Savior of sinners, and he is the Lord of the church. And unlike the old covenant believers, the new covenant believers like us are able to see Christ very clearly, as he is revealed in Scripture. We see him with, as Paul says, an unveiled face as Moses did on Mount Sinai. And the more we gaze upon him in Scripture, the more we contemplate the glories of his person and work, the more we become like him. And this was Paul's great concern for the saints in Corinth. Because you will remember the context here, there were false apostles that had come into the church, and they were trying to deceive people into believing that you needed to arbitrarily take some aspects of the old covenant and mix it with the new covenant in order for salvation and sanctification to occur. And as we will see, Satan continues to use that strategy of legalism, along with many other strategies, to deceive people, and he does so with devastating power. And as we've seen thus far, in the little outline that I have given you, seeing Christ in Scripture accomplishes five amazing realities in the life of a believer. Number one, it reveals the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, it transforms believers into the likeness of Christ. Number three, it emboldens believers to stand firm in their faith in Christ. Number four, it motivates believers to renounce sin, pursue holiness and proclaim the truth of Christ. And then the final one that we will deal with this morning is, it dispels the darkness of sin, and ignorance concerning the person and work of Christ.

So let me read this section to you and then we will begin to look at it closely and apply it to our lives. Second Corinthians three I want to begin with verse 17. "Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, justice from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus sake. For God who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness is the one who is shown in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.'"

So indeed, as our fifth point tells us, beholding the glory of the Lord in Scripture, dispels the darkness of sin and ignorance concerning the person and the work of Christ. Now again, a bit of context, in his absence, and behind his back, the false apostles and their sycophants in the church at Corinth were saying all manner of things to somehow discredit the Apostle Paul. And although they were according to verse two of Chapter Four "walking in craftiness and adulterating the Word of God," they accused Paul of that very thing. They even ridiculed his personal presence. They ridiculed his preaching style and his content. Boy, do I know what that feels like? I get that all the time. In Second Corinthians 10 and verse 10. Then he tells us how that they ridiculed his personal presence, saying it it was" unimpressive, his speech is contemptible." In other words, he's just a weak, ineffective person, you don't need to listen to him. They were saying that his preaching was offensive, and that it alienated people. First Corinthians 1:23, "to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness." Now remember, in ancient Corinth, and that whole area of the Greco Roman Empire, they preferred lofty, skillful rhetoric, eloquent oratory, steeped in philosophy, so that these speakers would woo and wow the audience; sway the crowds. They were the original seeker sensitive people, okay. They were culturally relevant ear tickling philosophers. That's what they were used to. But Paul's method and his message, were counterintuitive. He didn't do any of that. In fact, he said in First Corinthians two two, "I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." My goodness. That's it. From verse four, he went on to say, "my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but, “here it is, "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." You see, he understood that it's not the messenger, but the message that God uses to save sinners. It's not cleverness, but it's clarity. He understood that it's not trickery, it is truth. It's not a message of relevance, but a call to repentance based upon the pure gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so again, in verse two, he says, "We have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God." In other words, like the false apostles, "but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." And then he says this, and this is where we're going to focus in a few minutes, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." You see, folks, the reason why people do not respond to a clear, bold proclamation of the gospel is not because it is not packaged properly or presented properly. It's because people are spiritually dead in their trespasses and sins, Ephesians two, one. It's because, according to John 3:19, they "love the darkness more than the Light for their deeds are evil." It's because according to First Corinthians 2:14, The natural man is "spiritually discerned." In other words, he is incapable of discerning the activities of the Spirit of God. He cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God. They're utter foolishness to him, and we've all encountered such people. When you try to give them the gospel, they look at you like you've got two heads. Men and women reject the gospel, dear friends because they are spiritually blind. Jesus says in Matthew six, and verse 22, the lamp of the body is the eye. "If therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light." But here he's making a spiritual comparison, "If your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" You see, unbelievers cannot see the light of truth because the internal corruption of their very nature emanates darkness within them causing them to walk in darkness, which they perceive to be light. Worse yet, as we will see, they are double blinded. Not only are they blinded because of their depraved nature, but Satan does everything he possibly can to deceive them with all manner of strategies of darkness to keep them in unbelief. So what is it that gives man spiritual sight? It is the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit. It's the miracle of regeneration. That instantaneous, supernatural impartation of spiritual life to the spiritually dead, like we would see pictured, even in Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. You see, the miracle of spiritual sight is what we must understand if we're going to have boldness in our evangelism. Because sometimes we think it's up to us to be really clever and come up with really cool ways to somehow help people be soft to the Gospel. And I'm not saying we shouldn't be kind, and we shouldn't present it in a loving manner. But folks, it's not going to be up to you to do that. It's going to be the truth that the Spirit of God uses to open their eyes. You will recall the miracle of spiritual sight that was pictured in John nine. In that narrative, Jesus takes the initiative to show mercy to a man born blind from birth, the text says, you know, those born blind from birth, give no value to sight, because they don't know what they're missing. They don't even know what it is. What a picture of spiritual death, right? And likewise, the spiritually blind have no capacity to see the wretchedness of their very nature of their condition, nor are they able to see the imminent danger that they are in. So they have no capacity to see their desperate need for the Savior. And they have no ability to see the glory of the person and the work of Christ. So God must do something. And folks, none of us would have ever seen the glory of Christ; we would have never seen our sin had the spirit of God not taken the initiative and stooped down to give us sight. Because there is none who seeks after God, Romans 3:11. So God must seek after us, as we read in Luke 19. And he must seek after us and he must save us. In fact, Jesus said, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, as in the case of the blind beggar, we too were utterly destitute, utterly helpless. And were it not for a merciful God to come and to seek us out, we would have never been saved. So, folks, the point is, it is God, it is not man, that opens the eyes of the spiritually blind.

Now back to Second Corinthians four. Later in verse six, Paul is going to describe this very thing when he speaks of the sovereignty of God, granting spiritual eyesight to sinners. Remember there he says, "God who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shown in our hearts, to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." So it is not human persuasion, but the divine Spirit through his word that causes us to be born again. This is why evangelism must begin with the word, with the gospel, not apologetics. In fact, Peter states in First Peter 1:23, "For you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is through the living and enduring word of God." He went on to say in verse 25, "And this is the word which was preached to you." Similarly, in James 1:18, James says, "In the exercise of His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth." The apostle John said, in John 1:13, "We were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God." Let me give you another passage, Paul told Timothy in Second Timothy two, beginning of verse 24, "The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wrong, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition. If perhaps," now catch this, "if perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil having been held captive by him to do his will." And this is why Paul would say that he's not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God unto salvation to all who believed, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So again verse three, he says, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing." In other words, unlike what these false apostles are saying about me, that the reason people aren't believing, the reason the church isn't filling up, so to speak, is because this guy's not saying the right things. That's not at all what the issue is. It is veiled to those, notice, who are perishing, which means those who are spiritually discerned, those who are spiritually blind; they're dead, they are doomed. Only God can open their eyes. It is not veiled because the preacher isn't clever enough. It is not veiled, because they're not hearing a non-offensive, culturally relevant, entertaining, conversational style sermon that'll kind of soften them up in order to somehow help spiritual cadavers be more comfortable, so that they will accept the gospel, so that they will be open minded towards the person and the work of Christ. Folks, that is just foolishness. That's just unbiblical. Nor is it dependent upon a preacher who can manipulate people emotionally, to get them to make a decision for Christ. Very dangerous.

He says again, in verse three, "If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing." "Tois apollymenois" in the original language, it's a phrase used in chapter two and verse 15, where Paul described his ministry as a fragrance of death to those who rejected Christ. By the way, it's also used in Second Thessalonians two in verse 10. It says, he describes those who perish again, same phrase, "tois apollymenois,” those who perish, they do so because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. Now, this brings up a very important theological distinction that I want you to be aware of. Because I fear that this kind of, or misunderstanding, what Paul is saying here, and in many other passages of Scripture, has led to a great deal of false conversions so to speak. You know, we see this especially in what I call altar call evangelism. You've probably seen this before, at the conclusion of many church services, or evangelistic crusades. People are given an invitation to respond to the gospel message, which in many cases is is grossly distorted. And they are asked to raise a hand or walk an aisle, repeat a prayer and some of these types of things. Where upon they will immediately be welcomed into the kingdom of God, without giving any evidence whatsoever that they'd been made a new creature in Christ and the old things have passed away, the new things have come and so forth. And here's why this is dangerous. Friends, when an immediate external act in response to an evangelistic appeal is considered evidence of new birth, instead of a changed life, many people are going to be deceived into believing that they are born again when in fact, they are not. It's almost like, Oh, this is all I need to do to get my ticket punched. Okay, I'll do that. You probably have seen this with Franklin Graham here recently on television, where he gives kind of a gospel invitation and says, repeat this prayer and if you've repeated this prayer, there's people on the other end, and they'll talk to you and they're basically going to say, welcome to the kingdom. Don't let anybody ever tell you that you weren't just now born again. Well, you may have been, but there's a real danger with all of that. And furthermore, when a non-offensive kind of watered down gospel that appeals to carnal minds is the gospel that is preached. And then when masses of people embrace that kind of gospel, the perceived success of that kind of evangelism and the perceived success of that kind of, shall we say, gospel seed guaranteed to grow in any soil--when people see that, they say, Well, you know what? We need to adopt that style because that's bringing in the masses. Unfortunately, this is the tragic legacy of the errant Arminian and I would even say Pallagian theology of the flamboyant revivalist preacher, Charles Finney. He lived from 1792 to 1875. And this has been adopted by many evangelicals over the years, very common even to this day. Finney believed, quote, "human depravity is a voluntary condition." Didn't believe in, you know, the depraved nature of man. It's a voluntary condition. That is to say, it's continuance depends upon the choice of the human will. He went on to say, "Let a man once decide for Christ and he will become a new man." So the evangelist is not simply to preach Christ and tell men of their duty to believe he has to help make that believing reality by appointing some outward action to assist a change of will. Ian Murray, writes this concerning Finney; Finney believed, quote, "That evangelism has to involve telling gospel hearers that they are able to become Christians at once. They have to be presented with an immediate choice, and to show the sincerity and reality of their choosing Christ, let them do something to prove it. Hence, what became known as the altar call. That is the practice of calling those who would be converted to take some visible action, which would clinch the matter. The fact that such novel public actions were calculated to create natural excitement was the opposite in Finney's mind to being a drawback." He said, "God has found it necessary to take advantage of the excitability there is in mankind to produce powerful excitements among them before he can lead them to obey."

Now perhaps you've been in revivals, so called revivals, or crusades or whatever, you know, at the end of the sermon, there is a gospel invitation and all of a sudden the organ comes on, begins to set the mood. Typically, "Just as I am," you know. And then you begin to see people get up from all over. And they've been preprogrammed to do this in order to prime the pump, to get other people to kind of join in because we tend to be sheep. And, obviously, this method of evangelism, and based upon this kind of a gospel, really rules out dependence upon the sovereign grace of God to save people. That's the danger. And then the danger is that many of these people become false converts. And we know that to be true. It's not to say that some aren't saved, but many are not. In 1838, Joseph Ives Foot, a Presbyterian minister who lived in that era, and witnessed Finney's ministry wrote this quote, "During 10 years, hundreds and perhaps 1000s were annually reported to be converted on all hands, but now it is admitted that Finney's real converts are comparatively few. It is declared even by himself," even by Finney that, quote, "the great body of them are a disgrace to religion." Writing in 1835 in the Princeton essays, Albert D. Dodd, made a similar observation, quote, "Appearances were somewhat in favor of the new measures, at least wherever they were carried, converts were multiplied. But it is now generally understood that the numerous converts of the new measures have been in most cases, like the morning cloud and the early dew; in some places, not a half, a fifth, or even a 10th part of them remain." You know, someone has well stated that the one thing we learn from history is that we never learned from history. And this is certainly true in this regard. Countless people have responded to these kinds of emotional invitations without ever really even understanding the true gospel, without really understanding their own heart, their own nature, their own sinfulness and their own need for Christ. Nevertheless, as Michael Horton has aptly stated, quote, "The New York revivalist was the oft quoted," and by the way, he's referring to Charles Finney, "The New York revivalist was the oft quoted and celebrated champion of the Christian singer Keith Green and the Youth with A Mission organization. He is a particularly esteemed or he is particularly esteemed among the leaders of the Christian right. And the Christian left by both Jerry Falwell and Jim Wallace, Sojourners magazine. And his imprint can be seen in movements that appear to be diverse, but in reality are merely heirs to Finney's legacy-- from the Vineyard Movement and the Church Growth Movement to the political and social crusades, televangelism, the Promise Keepers movement, and even as a former Wheaton College President glowingly cheered, 'Finney lives on.' That is because," as Horton goes on to say, "Finney's moralistic impulse envisioned a church that was in large measure an agency of personal and social reform, rather than the institution in which the means of grace, Word and Sacrament are made available to believers who then take the gospel to the world," end quote. See, folks although Finney's theology was errant on many levels, which is beyond the purpose of our discussion here, his denial of the doctrine of original sin, and man's utter inability to somehow contribute to his salvation, because of the bondage of his will, and his nature. All of those things just are really contrary to the true gospel, contrary to the doctrine of regeneration, and justification. After all, who needs the Spirit, if a clever preacher can get someone to make a decision for Christ? Who needs the Spirit, if you can get a man to lift his own veil off of his eyes so that he can see the truth? Who needs the Spirit if you can cause yourself to be born again. And by what standard of measure, can anyone be called a Christian? If all that is necessary for man to do is just to decide on himself, make a decision for Christ, with the help of a compelling evangelist, of course, and then validate that conversion solely on the basis of some external act and a profession of faith. That is the great danger. And over the years, I've seen many people come to faith in Christ. I've seen them break down and weep. And in the middle of a service, I've seen them, go into a back room and just come to Christ, often with great emotion, sometimes not. I know of many others who have gone home, I can just think of story after story, where they've gotten down on their knees and come to Christ. But folks, the other dangers, whenever you have a sanitized, watered down version of the gospel; some seeker sensitive form of the gospel, what you have is just a hybrid of the same kind of system. You know, let's soften up the crowd with some entertainment. Let's get the lights right, get the music right. Make sure everybody's kind of getting into it, and then offer them a feel-good sermon. And invite them to ask Jesus into their hearts so that they can be happy. Because after all, God wants you to be happy; doesn't mean he wants you to be successful and all of those types of things. He even wants you to be prosperous. Boy, watch what happens. And what happens is you fling open the wide gate, and you make it wide as possible so that people enter the wide gate rather than the narrow and they traverse down the broad path that leads to destruction.

You know, it's funny, I bring this up because Satan had been at all this stuff and we could see it all the way back in the first century with the apostle Paul in Corinth. The false apostles were into this type of thing, their own version. And they were criticizing Paul because he wasn't. You know, all Paul did, I mean, he was just dumb enough to just unleash the truth on people. We see this, for example in First Thessalonians two beginning of verse two, Paul says, "after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi as you know, we had the boldness in our God to catch this, to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition. For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity, or a by way of deceit; but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts." I've had a number of evangelical preachers that I've interacted with over the years that have told me, "So Dave, we could never get away preaching some of the things you preach in your church." And one guy telling me, you know, brother, that stuff just turns people off. You know, I remember one preacher called me and he said, he said, If I were to preach, and he was talking about a certain message that I preached, kind of a series, he said, If I would have preached that they would have hauled me off of the stage in the middle of the sermon.

And I reminded him of what Jesus said in Luke 6:26, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way." Folks, as people that know and love Christ, and had been saved by His grace, we're not trying to win some popularity contest. We're trying to give people the truth of the gospel, the truth of what the Word of God has to say. And then let the Spirit do what only He will do. And whenever the truth is preached, it will do one of two things, it will either harden hearts or soften hearts, and that's up to the Spirit. "So even if our gospel is veiled," Paul says, "It is veiled to those who are perishing in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving." The word "world"-- "aion," in the original language, it could be translated "age." Paul described it by the way, in Galatians, one four as this "present evil age." It's a description of this whole world system that God has allowed Satan to oversee, to influence, to control a system that is in opposition to God, that's designed to hinder the work of God, and to hinder his people. We all experience this. And that's what he says, in whose case the god of this world, referring to Satan, is the one doing this. By the way, "god" small g, obviously, Satan is a created being. Nevertheless, he has dominion, albeit temporary and limited; nevertheless, he has subjects--they are called unbelievers. I like the way John MacArthur put it, quote, "Satan is the archetype of all the false gods in all the false religions he has spawned."

So he's the one that has blinded the minds. "Minds" are a term in the original language that speaks about a person's ability to apprehend, to reason, to understand logically. "He has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel," and so forth. Now, how does he do this? He doesn't necessarily do this by indwelling people, even though that has happened, and that can happen. But rather, he does this through temptations, and through deceptions that appeal to a man's innate, depraved nature. Think of it this way. He's the pimp that provides the prostitute to the man who is already enslaved by his immoral loss. He's the cartel that provides the drugs for the people who are already living in a state of unimaginable depravity. He is the record label that promotes the artists who sing the lyrics that appeal to those who are in love with the world. He is the Hollywood that produces the filth that appeals to depraved minds. Here's the educational system that trains the teachers who teach the students who are already alienated from God and walk in darkness. He is the political party that deceives the masses, makes laws to oppose God's law and therefore panders, the wickedness that is already there in the human heart. We see this today with the satanic groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter; Marxist revolutionaries that grossly exaggerate racial inequalities in order to push their agenda of social injustice and create division amongst the people so they can quote, "disrupt the Western prescribed nuclear family structure." Can you imagine that? Yeah, that's what Satan does. Also the Black Lives Matter people say they want to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift black trans folk, especially black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans antagonistic violence. Basically, they want to promote sexual deviancy, things that are an abomination to God. They don't want to promote radical feminism; they want to abolish the police. Basically, they want to abolish capitalism, they want to abolish the Constitution. And folks, please hear this. They want to abolish biblical Christianity. That is at the very core of what Satan is doing here. And if you don't understand that, you've been deceived. Think of the unbelievers that, you know, not only are they dead, spiritually, and blind because of their depravity, because they love darkness rather than light, but virtually everything that they experience in life is Satan’s way of somehow deceiving them and blinding them even further. I mean, think we send kids to, not everybody, but a lot of people will send kids to school. And by the way, I understand some people have to do this, but we have ungodly teachers, you know, they're going to tell the kids that there's no creator, for example. College professors, phony churches, false teachers, media, music, politics, social media. I mean, these are things that are designed by people whose father is the devil, and they want to do the desires of their father as Jesus said in John 8:44. These are people who want to kill unborn babies right up to the point of birth, and some of them to let them die even beyond that. I dare you, go to a high school principal and say, Look, I want to make sure that my child is not put in a class where they teach the LGBTQ agenda and watch the reaction you get. Can you imagine asking permission from the mayor in New York City to go there in front of the Trump Towers next to the Black Lives Matter thing that they've painted on the thing? May we also paint something right next to that, we just want to paint John 3:16. Oh, my we couldn't do that. That would be racist. And you know, on and on and on it goes. Folks, this is how Satan blames the minds of unbelievers. They're already hostile to God. They're already ruled by the lust of their flesh, and he just comes along and provides more opportunities to tempt them and to deceive them. Why do you think millions of people clamor to these prosperity cult charlatans? I mean, they just fill up these massive, ordered auditoriums. Why do you think that's so? It's because Ephesians, according to Ephesians, two beginning of verse two, "they walk according to the course of this world." That's why. "According to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." Paul went on to say that they're "living in the lust of the flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and are by nature, children of wrath." You see, these people simply cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

I love to read a lot of the old dead guys all right, can't wait to meet them someday. I glean so much from them. And under the heading Satan and the Gospel, an 18th century Scottish churchman Horatius Bonar, he lived from 1808 to 1889. He offers some very compelling, powerful insights regarding Satan's diabolical opposition to the purposes of God. And it's as if he could have written this, I know the language is a little bit old English, but he could have written this as if he had written it today, okay? I want you to listen to what he writes, quote, "Let us mark how in these days of ours, Satan works and tempts and rages. He comes as an angel of light to mislead yet pretending to lead to blind yet professing to open the eyes, to obscure and bewilder, yet professing to illuminate and guide. He approaches us with fair words upon his lips, liberality, progress, culture, freedom, expansion, elevation, science, literature, benevolence, nay and religion too. He seeks to make his own out of all these, to give the world as much of these suits his purpose, as much as will make them content without God, and without Christ and without the Holy Ghost." He went on to say, "He sets himself against God and of the things of God in every way. He can deny the gospel, or he can dilute the gospel, or he can obscure the gospel, or he can neutralize the gospel just as suits his purpose, or the persons with whom he has to do. His object in regard to the gospel is to take out of all of it that makes it glad tidings to the sinner. And oftentimes this modified or mutilated gospel, which looks so like the real, serves his end best. For it throws men off their guard, making them suppose that they have received Christ's gospel, even though they have not found in it the good news, which it contains." He goes on to say the "Satan rages against the true God, sometimes openly and coarsely and other times, calmly and politely. Making men believe that he is the friend of the truth, but an enemy to its perversion. Progress, progress, progress is his watchword now, by means of which he hopes to allure men away from the old anchorages, under the pretext of giving them wider, fuller, more genial teachings. He bids them soar above creeds, catechisms, dogmas, as the dregs of an inferior age and a lower mental status. He distinguishes too, between theology and religion, warmly advocating the latter in order to induce men to abandon the former. He rages against the divine accuracy of the Bible, and cunningly subverts its inspiration by elevating every true poet and philosopher to the same inspired position. So successfully has he wrought in disintegrating and undermining the truth, that there is hardly a portion of it left firm. The ground underneath us is hollow, and the crust on which we tread ready to give way and precipitate us into the abyss of unbelief." Folks, that was back in the 19th century. Look where we are now. You say, Well, is there any hope for sinners? Yes, it's the gospel. It's the power of the Spirit unleash it upon people. You don't need clever sermons. You don't need emotional altar calls with 37 verses of "Just as I am," you don't need all of those things. No smooth-talking crowd pleasers, not a non-offensive, self-esteem promoting conversational gospel, you don't need all of that. The only thing that dispels the darkness is, as Paul said, the manifestation of the truth.

So in verse five, we begin to wrap this up. He says, "For we do not preach ourselves." In other words, we're not trying to promote ourselves like the false teachers do. We're not peddling the word, we're not in this to make a buck. So many pulpits today are filled with entrepreneurs, not men that God has called and gifted to shepherd his people. By the way, later on, Paul will expose the false apostles in chapter 10 and verse 12 and following. He talks about how they would compare themselves with each other, which was common in their culture, using vicious smear tactics against their rivals. Can we say politics in America today? Guilty of character assassination, being boastful, territorial. In fact, self-boasting was an act of honor in their culture. Of course, you see Satan using the same types of things today.

Well, Paul denied being this way. He attributed whatever success there was, to one thing it was the ministry of the Lord through His Word. First Corinthians two and verse three. He said that he came to them again in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. He went on to say "on my own behalf, I will not boast except in regard to my weaknesses." Second Corinthians 12 five, and then verse nine, "I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." You see, folks Paul didn't want a personal following. He wasn't trying to get a man to make a ministry empire. He simply preached Christ Jesus as Lord. He wanted Christ alone to be worshipped and praised and served and obeyed. And he didn't want people to serve him. He didn't have his own personal entourage carrying all of his bags and treating him like some prima donna. Instead he was there he says bondservant. "Doulos" in the original language; it could literally be translated "slave." He was their slave, for Jesus sake. By the way, the understanding of that term the slave was a person who was legally owned by someone else, and whose entire livelihood and purpose was determined by their master. That's who Paul was. That's who we need to be.

Well, then he closes the section by underscoring the sovereignty of God in salvation, by comparing it to the sovereign work of God in creation. And this passage always moves me to tears. I think I'll be okay here this morning. But it is so powerful when you think about it, folks, because this is the story of my life and yours. In verse six, he said, "For God who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." By the way, this is a reference to the Spirit's role in creation. When he spoke the world into existence out of nothing, we read about it in Genesis one, three. There, it says, God said, "Let there be light and there was light." One of my professors in seminary, Dr. Dick Mayhue, who writes this, "In regeneration, God unites the external call of gospel preaching with his sovereign, effectual call unto new life, into darkened and dead hearts, He speaks the command, 'Let there be light.' And he instantaneously births in us the light of eternal spiritual life where it had not existed."

Dear friends, I pray this as your testimony. You see, because regeneration is that great bridge of grace that that spans the infinite chasm between man's depravity and all that is needed, the righteous demands of the law, necessary to enter God's kingdom. Because of this, Paul was thrilled, he rejoiced, knowing that God had made him a minister, as he said in Second Corinthians three, six, "of a New Covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." So I would challenge you in closing here this morning to spend more time in the Word and less in the world, okay. As you go into the Word, and as you behold the glory of the Lord in Scripture, you are going to see the five little points that I've given you here in the outline, the Spirit of God will reveal the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, transform you into the likeness of Christ embolden you to stand firm in your faith in Christ, motivate you to renounce sin, pursue holiness, and proclaim the truth of Christ. And then finally, it is going to dispel the darkness of sin and ignorance concerning the person and work of Christ so that you will have discernment. And you can teach your children to have discernment. My great fear for each of you is, it's so easy, especially in these days, to be deceived by the enemy. And then, with all of the things that are bombarding us, not only are we deceived, but we end up being distracted. You know, one of the things that drives me nuts is when I click on something on the internet, I want to read an article all sudden, pop up, pop up, I can't even what is this? And now I'm fighting to get rid of all these things. You know, that's what Satan does. You know, you try to focus on something that is pure and lovely, and holy and godly in your life. And what happened? Boop, boop, there's just stuff everywhere. And we get distracted. We get distracted. I know so many people today, and there's, by the way, there's a place for some of this, but they're more concerned about stockpiling guns and ammunition and an ammo than they are having a secret devotion to God and prayer and worship and evangelism. And again, I know there's a place for all that, we need to be concerned with some of those things. Christians joining militias all over the place. People obsessed with the news and politics, horrified to see what's happening in the country and all of these types of things, getting all depressed and discouraged. Folks, please let me remind you again, our hope is in the in the Lord. It's not in anything else. It's not in politicians. It's not in anything in this world. We're citizens of another kingdom. You know, expect these things to happen and glorify Christ in the midst of them. Use it as an opportunity to present the gospel. Let your light shine before men so that they will see who Christ really is. But as Paul said in Second Corinthians 11 three, "I am afraid lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, that your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." Therefore, I would encourage you, as Paul said, in Colossians, three one, since "you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of the Father. Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you have died and your life is what it is hidden with Christ in God." Then I love that next phrase, he says, "When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory."

Folks, let me close by encouraging you. King Jesus is coming again. Don't forget that. King Jesus is coming again as he has promised, believe the next thing on the prophetic stage is the church is going to be snatched away. Then Daniel's 70th, week of judgment upon Israel and upon the nation's will begin, sometimes known as the tribulation. He's going to judge the nations, he is going to restore a remnant of Israel and then he is going to return in power and great glory as King of kings and Lord of lords; we are going to return with him and he is going to establish his earthly kingdom. He is going to reign upon this earth for 1000 years in fulfillment of the Abrahamic and the Davidic covenants. As well as hundreds of Old Testament and New Testament prophecies, that will be a time when as Habakkuk says, "The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." O how I long for that day, don't you. But folks, it's coming, mark it, it's coming. And we pray that his kingdom will come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Then that magnificent millennial kingdom will be the consummating bridge between human history and the eternal state. And we will dwell with him forever. All because of the glory of his grace. Amen? Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your gospel that has not only saved us, but that is in the process of sanctifying us. May we embrace these things with all of our heart and live them out in such a way that others will see the glory of Christ emanating from us. May our lives redound your glory. And once again, use us as salt and light in this very decaying, corrupt and dark world, that many will come to faith in Christ and finally, Lord, come quickly. I ask, come quickly. We long to see you face to face. For it's in Jesus name that I pray. Amen.

I'm always deeply honored to be able to minister the word of God to you. And we do that once again by looking at Second Corinthians chapter three. We're looking at verses 17 through verse six, actually of chapter four. I don't think I'll get all the way through this. But this is the second part of a little series on beholding the glory of the Lord. So follow along, as I read the text, and if you've not been with us, we go through the Bible verse by verse in whatever book we're in so that we don't miss anything, and we can apply all that the Lord has for us. So, second Corinthians chapter three, beginning in verse six, or 17. "Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness, or adulterating the Word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond servants for Jesus sake. For God who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts, to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."

Here we see the power of gazing upon the Lord Jesus Christ as he is revealed in Scripture. And certainly, this was the passion of the apostle Paul as he endeavored to defend himself against the attacks of the false teachers, and some of the sycophants that he had developed within the church of Corinth. Remember, these were false teachers that were trying to mix elements of the Mosaic Law, the old covenant, with the new covenant, trying to say that you've got to do certain rituals and you've got to be circumcised, and all of these types of things, in order to be saved. And we've talked much about that. But what he is wanting them to do is to look clearly at the glory of Christ in the new covenant. And to be sure, we need to do this often in these dark days of deception that we find ourselves in; days of violence and lawlessness, and mounting persecution against the church. I've had the joy, this last week of speaking with several pastor friends of mine. Some of them are black pastors, and in black communities, others are white pastors in inner cities, that where they're dealing with all of the Antifa and Black Lives Matter and all of this, and it's wonderful to hear their biblical understanding of what's going on that really echoes what I have been telling you, but certainly, the domestic terrorism that we're watching unfold before our very eyes; I agree with all of my brothers this is, this is just one of many evidences of God's judgment upon just a godless nation, a pagan idolatrous nation. We are witnessing frankly, the wrath of divine abandonment. You've heard me talk about this before. Romans one. God has given so many people over to a depraved mind to do things that are just not only irrational but immoral and bizarre. And beloved, mark my word, your faith is going to be tested in ways like you have never had it before. We've had it really good here in the United States for many years. That's drawing to a close. Marxism and Biblical Christianity cannot coexist. Paul told Timothy in Second Timothy 3:12, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

Now we know biblically that most of the persecution is going to come from, (cough) excuse me, the unbelieving world; people that hate Christ. But it's also going to come from the unbelieving church that says it's Christian. By the way, this has been how it has worked down through history. I mean, the greatest opponents of God's people, even in ancient Israel, were the religious leaders. The greatest opponents of Christianity at the birth of the church, were once again, religious leaders, the Pharisees and so forth. And we're going to see the same thing continue in the era in which we live. Don't be naive, the greatest threat to the true church is going to be from other professing Christians. Now, I know many of you are afraid of what you're seeing happening with the kind of the leftist movement, the Marxist movement, we've talked about that before. It's, not just Antifa. It's behind the Black Lives Matter movement. And of course, most of the people that are a part of that don't even realize that they're pawns in a much larger game that's going on here. But we want to remember that there are people, for example, in the Black Lives movement that are just trying to expose what they perceive to be is ethnic. So social inequality, they want unity. And they're clueless about how Satan can use maybe some legitimate things to accomplish his nefarious diabolical purposes and ultimately, prepare the world for the Antichrist. Lot of people were ignorant of that. Some of my brothers that I talked with said that, that most of the people in there, as one brother said, most of the people in my community couldn't spell Marxist, much less know that anything was a part of what they're doing or that that's part of what's fueling much of this. But there are many people in these movements that embrace agendas that are absolutely an abomination to God. Especially the whole LGBT Q. What is it? AI plus movement. These are things that we must not partner with as believers. Second Corinthians six clearly states that; that Christians cannot partner with these kinds of ungodly movements. So righteousness has no fellowship with lawlessness, Paul says and so forth. But whether it's Black Lives Matter, Antifa, LGBTQ IA plus adoption agencies, the leftist political party, or even the godless conservatives, the godless, a lot of the people that are pro life absolutely hate Christ. Regardless of whatever the movement might be, you must understand that these people serve their father, the devil, and most of them don't know it. They serve the father of lies who was a murderer from the beginning. They love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil, and they need the gospel. And I'm convinced that at their core, the agenda of the whole social justice, Black Lives movement is to ultimately silence Christians, to silence those who preach the gospel and who pursue holiness. They have no fear of God. They bow to no authority other than their own. They hate all authority. They love darkness rather than light. They love the world, and they hate Christ and all who belong to him.

I know, I have been accused, and I'm sure you have as well, of being a conspiracy theorist. Well, you know what, I am a conspiracy theorist because I know the Word of God. And there is a conspiracy going on. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but powers and principalities. And we know according to Second Thessalonians two that the mystery of lawlessness is already at work that started even back in the in the first century when that was written. We know that the lawless one is going to be revealed and his coming is in accord with Satan, referring to the Antichrist, and all of these things. So folks, indeed, there is a conspiracy, it's been going on since the fall. And we're a part of it in terms of those that Satan and his people hate. I love what we read in John 16:33. "'In the world, you have tribulation, but take courage I have overcome the world.'" isn't that wonderful promise. Because there's no way we're going to elect enough politicians to overcome the world. Somebody told me the other day Pastor, you need to get woke. And, you know, the idea that you need to feel guilty because you're a racist, that you're, you know, the very fact that your white means you're a racist, and you need to feel guilty for your white privilege and he kind of went through this type of thing. You need to embrace critical race theory--that is utterly unbiblical. You need to embrace social justice and Black Lives Matter and all these types of things. And I tried to be kin-- I think I was--but my mind went to Ephesians five and I reiterated this a bit to this brother. In verse 11, the apostle Paul says, "Do not participate." Let me say it again, "Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason, it says 'Awake sleeper.'" This is how I want to be woke, right? "'Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead. and Christ will shine on you. Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil." And sadly, much of the church today has no clue as to what's going on in our world. The church has really become like the world. In fact, we live in an evangelical era where people really don't know how to define a Christian. I mean, think about this, if you were to take, let's just take 1000 public school teachers, okay, let's just pick them at random. Let me ask you this question, school teachers. Do you believe that all men and women are born in sin that we have a sin nature? That all we do, and all we are is fundamentally offensive to a holy God. And therefore, the wrath of God abides upon all men. And the only hope of our salvation is placing our faith in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And obeying His Word, which tells us that such things as the LGBTQ and so many of these other movements are an abomination to Him. How many of you believe that teachers? I don't know, we might get one hand, maybe two or three. Now, let me ask the next question. How many of you are Christians? Do I make my point clear; many hands would rise up or would raise up? Well, since the inception of the church at Pentecost, dear friends, Satan has been sowing tears amongst the wheat. And this will continue we know, until the Lord returns.

Dave Harrell

And this causes evangelism to take on a whole new image. I mean, you think about how so many evangelicals evangelize today. They have an obsession with church growth at the expense of Bible doctrine. And so rather than the church being the proclaimer, and the protector of divine truth, it has become an amorphous amalgam of social services and pseudo-Christian entertainment and prosperity hustling and political activism and on and on it goes. The church for the most part has become a cross between, I don't know, a circus and a country club. The church has gone out of its way to coddle unbelievers to make sure that they are culturally relevant. So they don't offend anybody. And therefore, no one who hears a pseudo phony gospel is truly going to be born again. But they're going to fill up churches. And therefore you have churches filled with unbelievers.

Now many evangelicals are trying to find some common ground with all of these lawless haters of God that we see in our world; trying to find some nuanced position between what we believe as Christians and what you believe out here with, for example, critical race theory and gender identity, and same sex marriage and all of that. Because after all, we don't want to be called a racist, or a bigot or a homophobe, or transphobic, or whatever else you hear. But pastor, we've got to build bridges. No dear friends, we don't, we have got to preach the gospel. There is no bridge between the sinfulness of man and the holiness of God. There is no bridge between heaven and hell. And there is but one mediator between God and man. And that is the man Christ Jesus. I hear people say why I'm just so confused. I just, I just don't know what to do. I don't, I don't know what to say. Then let me end that today, the Scripture is very clear about this. What we need to do is preach the word, we need to proclaim the gospel.

Folks, you really have to ask yourself, and by the way, I am going to get to the text in a moment because it does fit in. But you really have to ask yourself, do you really trust God? You know, when it's all on the line, do you really trust him? Come what may? Well, yes, but Pastor, I mean, I don't want to lose my job. I don't want to get beat up, right? I mean, these people just get in your face. They just intimidate you and they could burn my house down and all these types of things. Well, yeah, and I certainly hope that none of that happens, but it might. Jesus said, If you're going to come after Me, you gotta be willing to deny yourself, take up a cross. You know, are you willing to do that? Or maybe just up to a point. As long as it doesn't cost me anything, I'll follow Jesus. But when it comes time to stand up, and look the enemy in the face, and love them enough to say, Thus saith the Lord? Are you willing to do that? I've given you tracks to handout. I'm ashamed to say that most of them are still here. Are you linking these things on your internet? We're trying to do everything we can to give people the gospel. Are you serious about that? First Thessalonians, two, beginning of verse two, the apostle Paul says, "After we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you, the gospel of God, amid much opposition. For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit; but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak a," catch this, "not as pleasing men, but God who examines our heart." Beloved, your faith is about to be tested in the days to come, the years to come, like never before. The question is, are you going to cower in fear? Or are you going to stand in the strength of the Lord our God? Did you not give your life to Christ? You said you did. Well, now it's time to, as we say, put your money where your mouth is right? Oh for boldness.

Jesus warned about the days that are coming upon us, Luke 21, beginning in verse 12, "'They will lay their hands on you, and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons'"-- in other words the religious authorities, and the-- "'prisons, bringing you before kings and governors, for My name's sake. It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. So make up your minds, not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves, for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.'" Isn't that a wonderful promise? When they get in your face, and I've had this before, it's amazing to see how the Spirit of God gives you just the right words to say. "'But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all because of my name.'" Folks, churches like ours are targets of the enemy. The voices like mine are going to be drowned out; voices like yours are going to be drowned out by the mob. It's inevitable. That's part of what's going to happen on this earth before our Lord returns. And as persecution mounts, those who resent the truth and love the world are going to leave Calvary Bible Church. It's inevitable. Of course, we've had this for years, every church has this. But others who love the truth and resent the world are going to come from other churches. We're seeing some of this mount even on the internet. Because the saints are starving for truth. And what's going to happen as persecution mounts is you are going to long for the glory of Christ and for his return like you never have before. Your hunger for the Word of God will become absolutely insatiable. Prayer will become the very air that you breathe. Payer meetings, which we want to enact once again here in the fall when things get back, hopefully to a little bit of more like normal, prayer meetings or will be attended like Sunday morning services. Fellowship will take on a whole new meaning. You're going to sing hymns with a renewed passion. I've been around people in other parts of the world. Like my Russian brethren, who know all about Marxism. And when you hear them pray, and you hear them sing, it's like you're in a parallel universe. We're all going to find ourselves invigorated with a zeal for evangelism like never before, and people are going to be saved. That's the amazing thing about persecution. God uses it to bring people to Himself. God's saving purposes are always concealed in calamity. But whatever God sends our way we can know that God is in it and that he is going to accomplish his good purposes in us and through us.

Well, all of that, by way of introduction here, Paul knew exactly what it was like to be persecuted in ways, frankly, that we can't imagine. And in this section of his letter to the Corinthians, he underscores the key to survival during suffering, and that key is the holding the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, as he is revealed in Scripture. In this section, as you will recall, in our previous times together, seeing Christ in Scripture accomplishes at least five amazing realities in our life. I've delineated them as following; seeing Christ in Scripture number one, reveals the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, it transforms believers into the likeness of Christ. Thirdly, it emboldens believers to stand firm in their faith in Christ. Number four, it motivates believers to renounce sin. pursue holiness and proclaim the truth of Christ. And number five, it dispels the darkness of sin and ignorance concerning the person and the work of Christ. Just remember the five verbs seeing Christ in Scripture: reveals, transforms, emboldened, motivates and dispels.

Now remember Paul's line of argument here, he is reminding the folks who are being tempted to go back and arbitrarily mix some aspects of the Old Covenant Mosaic Law with the new. He's reminding them that unlike Old Covenant believers, New Covenant believers are able to see the face of Christ with an unveiled face as Moses did on Mount Sinai. Moreover, he's reminding them that the radiance of the glory of God that emanated from Moses’ face gradually faded, but the glory of the Lord that resides in the believer, through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, is reflected in the life of a believer, and it remains that way forever. In fact, it gradually increases and the more we gaze upon him in Scripture, the more we contemplate his perfections the more we reflect upon His person and work, the more we become like Jesus. That's Paul's whole argument here. The more his glory will emanate from us, the more our lives will redound to his glory. And as you will recall, our sanctification is a process, an ongoing transformation. But that transformation as we studied the last time we were together, that transformation is affected by-- in other words, it is brought about by--our quote, "beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord," referring to the gazing upon Christ as he's revealed in Scripture. And one day that process of sanctification is going to be completed. I cannot wait until that day. I was waiting for my wife to say amen. Won't that be something when one day we will be glorified? My my, my.

First John three, in the verse two, "We know that when He appears, we will be." what? "We will be like Him. Because we will see Him just as He is." By the way, do you remember when God was calling you and when he drew you unto himself, and suddenly you really saw who Christ was? Who He is? You could see it in Scripture. For most of us, that was a gradual process. It certainly was for me. But it was finally a time when the veil just came off. And I just, I just saw it. It was Elementary. I mean, I was only nine years old. But I knew enough that I was a sinner. I knew enough that God's wrath abided upon me, and that I knew that I needed to repent and ask Jesus to save me because I couldn't save myself. And I know that God saved me. You know, the natural man is incapable of seeing any of this, in order to be reconciled. In fact, he wants nothing to do with any of this. First Corinthians 2:14. But with the miracle of the new birth, suddenly, the sinner has given eyes to see his rebellion against the Most High God and he's given the ears to hear the truth of the gospel. You read about this in Matthew 13:16, and 17. By the way, this is often called the "effective" or the "efficacious call of God." An operation of the Holy Spirit through the word of God whereby individuals respond in faith, and they accept the gift of salvation that God has given us. I was thinking about this the other day, we read about this in so many places. I love the passage in Romans eight verse 28, and following, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew,--referring to being for loved,--He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined," here it is, "He also called and these whom He called he also justified'--and certainly that happens at regeneration, when were born again--"and these whom He justified, He also glorified." It's interesting in Scripture, the effective call of God in regeneration seems to happen simultaneously. For example, Peter states in First Peter one, verse 23, "for you have been born again," he goes on to say, "through the living and enduring word of God." And in verse 25, "and this is the word which was preached to you." Similarly, in James one in verse 18, James says, "In the exercise of His will," not our will, but "in the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth." You know, I always marvel at the power of regeneration; God's power to instantaneously and supernaturally impart spiritual life to the spiritually dead. And I remember once reading a poem called The Hound of Heaven, maybe you've read it. It's 182 line poem, very long poem, written by an English poet, Francis Thompson. It was first published way back in 1893. And it describes God's loving pursuit of a sinner, with his grace pursuing them, chasing after us, as we run from him until finally, he captures us with his love and saves us. Every believer knows what that's like. And I wanted to share with you a story as told by Andrea Wolf, she was on staff with CoMission in Raleigh, North Carolina, it was published by R. Kent Hughes under the title, "The Hound of Heaven and a Young Agnostic." And it reminds me of many of my conversations in my times in Siberia, with the pastors in the churches there. Let me read this to you. It's powerful. "In the 1930s, Stalin ordered a purge of all Bibles and all believers." By the way, folks, if things continue on and escalate, this is where we're headed. Okay? Don't be deceived. This is where we're headed. And Stavropol, Russia, this order was carried out with vengeance. 1000s of Bibles were confiscated, and multitudes of believers were sent to the gulags--prison camps--where most died, unjustly condemned as quote 'enemies of the state.' The CoMission was sent a team to Stavropol. The city's history wasn't known at the time. But when the team was having difficulty getting Bibles shipped from Moscow, someone mentioned the existence of a warehouse outside of town, where those confiscated Bibles had been stored since Stalin's day. After the team had prayed extensively, one member finally mustered up the courage to go to the warehouse and asked the officials if the Bibles were still there. Sure enough, they were. Then the CoMissioners--part of the mission organization--asked if the Bibles could be removed and distributed again to the people of Stavropol. The answer was, 'Yes!' The next day the CoMission team returned with a truck and several Russian people to help load the Bibles. One helper was a young man--a skeptical, hostile agnostic collegian who had come only for the day's wages. As they were loading Bibles, one team member noticed that the young man had disappeared. Eventually they found him in a corner of the warehouse, weeping. He had slipped away, hoping to take a Bible for himself. What he did not know was that he was being pursued by the 'Hound of Heaven.' What he found shook him to the core. The inside page of the Bible he picked up had the handwritten signature of his grandmother. It had been her personal Bible. Out of the 1000s of Bibles still left in that warehouse, he stole the very one belonging to his grandmother--a woman, who throughout her entire life, was persecuted for her faith." My what a coincidence. He goes on to write, "No wonder he was weeping--God had powerfully and yet tenderly made himself known to this young man. Such was his divinely appointed meeting with the sovereign Lord of the universe, the 'Hound of Heaven,' who had tracked him down to that very warehouse! Remember, Jeremiah's words, Jeremiah 23:24. 'Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?' declares the Lord. 'Do not I fill both heaven and earth?'" declares the Lord. Then he closes saying "Jesus is truly the ever-present, all-seeing 'Hound of Heaven.' He can track us down wherever we're hiding! And once on the trail, he sets his heart with relentless zeal and undivided focus to the pursuit."

Well, what happened here is by the power of the Spirit of God. The Word of God was revealed to him. And in that word, he saw the glory of Christ. There, God miraculously saved him, and set his sanctification into motion. So indeed, seeing Christ in Scripture, not only reveals the glory of Christ, not only transforms us into the likeness of Christ, but now number three, and we finally come to our outline, it emboldens believers to stand firm in their faith in Christ.

Notice chapter four verse one. "Therefore, since we have this ministry," Paul says, "as we received mercy, we do not lose heart." A term in the original language means we do not become disheartened and act like a coward, very clear. Now, the false apostles and some of their sycophants were absolutely hammering the apostle Paul, as we have studied, and it would have been easy for him to give in, to cower. But no, he knew the truth of the gospel. He knew the truth of who Christ is, that he is the Creator, the Sustainer, the Redeemer and ultimately the consummator of all things. And so he did not cower, nor should we. O child of God, don't miss this. And this is Paul's point because of the New Covenant ministry of the Holy Spirit. He has now caused us to be new creatures in Christ, the old things pass away, the new things have come, He dwells within us. So now we can see Christ for who he is. And on that basis, we are able to speak candidly and forthrightly and boldly about Christ, and the glory of his saving grace.

We have no need to be ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Paul told Timothy in Second Timothy one and verse seven, "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me and suffering for the gospel according to the power of God." Oh dear friends, I grow weary of cowardly Christians, especially pusillanimous pastors that refuse to stand before men and women and open up the Word of God with clarity and conviction. Jesus said in Matthew 10, and verse 32, "everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess Him before My Father who is in heaven." But catch this now, "Whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother and a daughter in law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me, is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it. And he who has lost his life, for My sake, will find it." Oh, dear Christian, I plead with you to look to Christ often, see His mercy for what it is and how he has extended it to you. And on the basis of that mercy, be bold in your gospel witness. So indeed, as we see Christ revealed in his Word, the Holy Spirit emboldens believers to stand firm in their faith in Christ; but number four, it motivates believers to renounce sin, pursue holiness, and proclaim the truth of Christ.

Notice in verse two, "but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame." "But" can be translated, "on the contrary," in other words, as opposed to losing heart, on the contrary of losing heart. That's the exegesis here. On the contrary of that, "we have renounced the things hidden because of shame." You see Paul completely and totally rejected all of the treachery and unscrupulous, underhanded ways that false teachers were dealing with other people. Unlike the false apostles, who were shrewd and treacherous and cunning in their manipulation of the truth; always trying to massage the truth to fit their agenda, to make sure everybody liked them. Paul just spoke the truth. And, of course, the hypocritical, even immoral lifestyles of the false teachers were just shameful practices that were devised and lived out in secret. And of course, all of this is, is energized by Satan and his minions. These things are designed to deceive people and promote the teacher, or the politician or whoever it might be. So he says, "but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame." And then he says, "not walking in craftiness." The term could be translated "cunning"; not walking in deceitfulness that's practiced by wicked people. We're not doing that. nor are we adulterating the Word of God. "Adulterate"-- an interesting term, it can be translated, "to falsify, to distort or manipulate or add something." I mean, this is what we see all the time, for example, with fake news. I mean, they'll take something that happened, and by the time they get through describing the event, it's not even anywhere near what the truth is. By the way, if you want to see what CNN really is, go to Japan, because in Japan, and I learned this the hard way, that's the only English-speaking station that you can get. And as I listened to CNN, I realized they're not even talking about the same country here. It is so deceitful. While many false teachers do this. I mean, for example, I've heard false teachers preach about loving your neighbor. And they use that as the basis for a social justice gospel that Jesus came to liberate the poor and the oppressed, something Jesus never taught, nor did he ever pursue. Social gospel, again, and part of that social gospel is the whole same sex, marriage, homosexual, all of that stuff; the unbiblical, presuppositions of critical race theory and on and on and on. And let me give you another example. Think of those who walk in darkness and adulterate the Word of God who are part of the whole word of faith movement, just an absolute total cult. Preachers who claim God that speaks to them directly, telling people that they need to go out and claim things, material things, in the name of Jesus. Fake healings, bizarre, frenzied, emotionalism nonsensical, babbling, uncontrollable laughter, falling on the floor and claiming that somehow, you've been slain by the Spirit. I mean, folks, only Satan and his minions can cause someone to prostrate themselves upon the grave of a deceased preacher to soak up the quote, "anointing." Something called grave sucking, absolutely wicked. Only a person bereft of the indwelling Spirit of God could possibly believe that the seizures and hypnosis and and hysteria and being slain in the spirit or works of the Holy Spirit. These are false teachers guilty of, as Paul said, peddling the Word of God, entrepreneurs trying to make a buck off of the gospel. Salesmen who seduce Christians, and mostly pseudo-Christians, into believing these lies. People who, as Paul said, in Second Timothy four, "will not endure sound doctrine." No, they don't want to hear that. We will not endure that. The wanting to have their ears tickled, they accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desire. Text goes on to say they "turn away their ears from the truth they turned aside unto myths." But what Paul is saying is here is this, look, New Covenant believers see the glory of Christ. They've been made new creatures, the Holy Spirit dwells within them. And we know biblically that when the Spirit of God dwells within a believer, he becomes, shall we say, their illuminating guardian. The one who guides all believers into all truth, as we read in John 16:13. He is the one that empowers us to know all things pertaining to the revealed word of God, as Jesus said in John 14, as well as in John 16. He is the believers, shall we say, resident lie detector. I mean, if you truly know Christ, and you're a part of those chaotic, wicked things, eventually, the Spirit of God is going to expose it to you and you're going to come out of it. First Corinthians two verse 12. "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom. but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words."

You see, friends, the unregenerate know nothing of this. They are what the Word of God describes as fools. First John two and verse 19, the apostle Paul explains how that those who promote these types of false theologies and all the false teaching and those who embrace them are not believers. But then in first John two and verse 20, he says, "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know." He went on to say, in verse 27, "As for you, the anointing which you receive from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him."

And in First John four verse 13, we read, "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit." Well, folks, this is what Paul goes on to say here, as we begin to wrap this up here this morning in Second Corinthians four and verse two, he says, "but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." John MacArthur said this, "All people, even those who have not heard the gospel, have an innate, though limited, knowledge of God's law. The preaching of the Gospel activates the conscience, which bears witness to the truth of the message, even in those who reject it. That is true because," and then he quotes Hebrews 4:12. "'The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul, and spirit of both joints and marrow, able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart.'"

Now, what those false teachers were doing in Corinth is similar to what they do today. They tell you things that you never thought you could see before. Throw in a little bit of mysticism, a little secret knowledge--I bet you all didn't know that--yeah, well, God told me that. Yeah, let me tell you some of the things that he's revealed to me. Oh, and people say, Oh, my, whoa, I better listen to that guy. I better listen to that woman; God speaks to them. Man, can you believe that? Yeah. And then what they do is they cherry pick passages that support their position and advance their agenda that have nothing to do with the authorial intent of the passage, and people get sucked into their deceptions. This happens all the time. All you have to do is turn on the television or look at the hundreds of videos of of preachers, both men and women, who are constantly telling you about their private conversations with God. Folks, as soon as you hear that, don't walk. run to get away from it. That person is a heretic.

Paul didn't do any of these things. First Corinthians two four, he said "I determined to know nothing among you except here it is. Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Though it was, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, First Corinthians 1:23, he knew that his uncompromising proclamation was the only truth that could save. And so it caused him to say in First Corinthians two, four, again, "my message and my preaching, were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power.

I was thinking about the sanitized gospel that is preached so often today, this non offensive gospel that, frankly cannot save, you know, don't tell anybody about their sin, oh, no, you don't want to talk about that. Don't tell them that the wrath of God abides upon them. I mean, the people don't want to hear that type of thing. I mean, how do you expect people to come to your church if you preach that way? Of course, the point is, I care nothing about people coming to church, I want them to come to Christ. There's a huge difference. No, tell them how much God loves them. And how desperate he is to make them happy and successful in their life. Boy, there's the wide gate that leads to the broad way of destruction.

Let me tell you how their consumers typically respond to this kind of gospel message. And I wrote this based on numerous conversations that I've had with people who've come out of these types of churches. "Yeah, if God is real, I suppose I am guilty of ignoring him. I don't think about God very much, and I love lots of things more than God, so to that extent, I suppose I am living in prideful rebellion. And yeah, I have fallen just like the whole Satan analogy. I mean, just look at all the junk in my life. Relationships are messed up, my marriage is boring. My finances are a wreck. I hate my job. I basically feel as though my life is going nowhere fast. For sure, I need to be saved from all this stuff. Maybe God is the answer to my unhappiness, my lack of success, my negative emotions, my lack of purpose and direction in life. I'm just glad God loves me just the way I am. Because I'm not sure I could ever change. I mean, I am what I am. And I'm not sure why Jesus had to come and die for me, assuming all that's true. But I'm glad he did, I guess. I sure don't get all that stuff about the Father killing his son. And there's so much for a loving God. But I'm told I have to accept it that stuff by faith. So I guess I will. I mean, nothing else seems to be working. I suppose Jesus died on the cross. So he could demonstrate what selfless love is all about. Not sure. But anyway, I want to take advantage of anything God may have to offer to make my life better. So I think I'll accept Jesus as my personal Savior and see what happens." And then somebody says, repeat this prayer, they repeat the prayer, and then they say, welcome to the kingdom brother.

And some day, the Lord's gonna say to them, "depart from me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you." Ah, dear friends, this is what happens when you walk in craftiness, and you adulterate the Word of God. Well, we're going to have to close let me do it by first of all, we're going to look at the last point the next time we were together. Okay, we're together, I want to challenge you to do a few things. My list is very short here. But I want to leave you with something very practical. Based upon this passage, and all that we've examined here today. First thing I would love for you to do dear friends is get serious about your own personal pursuit of holiness. Turn off Fox News. Get rid of your MAGA hats. All of your Trump stickers. You get where I'm going here. If you're on the other side, get rid of your BLM shirts and quit putting hashtag Black Lives Matter. I mean, all of this political stuff, folks, put all of that aside and immerse yourselves in the Word of the living God. And get on your knees and begin to pray for yourself and your family and your church and the leaders of your country as we're going to see. Because when you immerse yourself in the Word of God, what's going to happen, You're going to see Christ in Scripture. And seeing Christ in Scripture reveals the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ; transforms that believer into the likeness of Christ, emboldens believers to stand firm in their faith in Christ, motivates believers to renounce sin, pursue holiness, and proclaim the truth of Christ and it dispels the darkness of sin and ignorance concerning the person and work of Christ. Folks get serious about your own personal pursuit of holiness.

And number two, get serious about evangelism. Beloved, God did not call us to protest he called us to preach. Get serious about that. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. Pass out the tracks, or whatever else you want to use. By the way, they're available up here on the piano with some of my books, and they're out there as well. I mean get serious about evangelism.

Number three, get serious about teaching your children especially if they're in public schools, which is basically a brainwashing machine, run by ungodly people that know nothing of Christ. And along with that, limit their screen time, social media, YouTube, all of that stuff. I mean, all of those things are Satan's way of just providing a conduit of deception. Ephesians six four, "Fathers," could be translated parents, "do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord."

And then finally, pray for the leaders that God has placed over us. Don't hate them, love them enough for the sake of the gospel. Pray for them that God would save them and certainly that God would protect us from them. You say But Pastor, I mean, these some of these people, I mean, they're just, they're just satanic. Yeah. Aren't you glad that we have a saving God? Do you know? Paul told Timothy to pray for Nero and couldn't have been a guy on the planet that's ever worse than that guy. Here's what he said in First Timothy two beginning in one, "First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men." Then he adds this, "for kings and all who are in authority,"--and here's why--"so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity." Well, we've enjoyed that down through the years, haven't we? A tranquil and a quiet life in all godliness and dignity. I fear that that's coming to an end, but we pray that by God's grace, He will protect us. As we make these things a priority in our life, regardless of the level of persecution, we can know that the Lord will reveal Himself to us. And we will experience the soul satisfying joy of his presence deep within our souls. May God have mercy on all of us. And for those who do not know our precious Savior, let's pray.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths that you have given us in your word. Thank you that indeed they are a lamp unto our feet and a light into our paths. I pray that you will take what we've examined here today and by the power of your spirit, cause the seeds of truth to germinate in our hearts and bear much fruit for our good and for your glory. For it's in Jesus name that I pray. Amen.

Well, what a joy it is to be able to minister the word of God to you again this morning. So if you will take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter three, if you have not been with us, we are making our way verse by verse through this epistle. And this morning, we will be looking at Second Corinthians three, beginning in verse 17. Ultimately, we're going to go through verse six of chapter four, but it's going to take a few times to do that. So I am starting, probably it will be a two, maybe a three part, series on beholding the glory of the Lord.

Now before I read the text, and we begin to look at it closely, I know that that many of you are frustrated, you're frightened as we continue to watch what's happening in our country. It's as though America is in a freefall of anarchy and immorality. The diabolical and clearly stated Marxist agenda of the Black Lives Matter movement is even being embraced by many so-called evangelicals. That movement, by the way, is really rooted in a Hegelian Dialectic, a material worldview. It's a philosophical worldview. Hegel was a, a German philosopher, Marx picked up on that. And ultimately, they believe...that philosophical view believes that there's no such thing as absolute truth. That truth is always evolving; that new truths come up and has to replace the old truths. You see that, by the way, in the fight over the Constitution. It's kind of like, well, that's outdated. We've got no truth now. So let's, let's do things differently now. And ultimately, that's at the root of what's going on with the Black Lives Matter movement. Marx took that to an extreme. He believed that you had to have a revolution to get the new truth to come forward. And obviously, these people reject the Bible, the Word of God, as being the authoritative source of truth. And for them, you worship the state, you don't worship God. And of course, Biblical Christianity cannot coexist with that kind of a system. It's frightening communist regimes that have embraced this type of thing historically; have killed over 100 million people. So I don't want you to be naive as to what's really going on here. The Black Lives movement is committed to something way beyond racial justice, social justice, social equality; they’re committed to Marxism. They believe that they must, for example, disrupt the nuclear family.

I was reading some of their website and their positions. They say, "we disrupt the Western prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families,” end quote, "villages that collectively care for one another, especially our children." That translates into government control of your children and their education. They want to end private education, have the community control the curriculum, you know, abolish the police, reparations for black people, redistribution of wealth, and certainly one of their big things as the advancements of their sexual agenda--the LGBTQIA plus movement, they've added IA plus, that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual.

I read an article last night in the Wall Street Journal. It's entitled "The Abolition of Man and Woman." It's written by Crawford and Hanby. I would encourage you to read it. They are condemning the Supreme Court ruling in Bostock versus Clayton County. The ruling holds that sexual orientation and identity are included in the definition of sex under the title seven of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Just very briefly, the underlying assumption in the ruling is that a man who identifies as a woman might really be a woman. That to be a woman is a mental state, not a biological state. Gender has nothing to do with our embodiment at birth as a male or female. It's arbitrarily determined by a subjective sense of quote, "identity." That's at the core of what they're saying here. The author's arguing against that say, quote, "If each of us is defined by a," quote, "gender identity related only arbitrarily to sex, we are all transgender now." Folks, this is Romans 1:28--"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper." Well, certainly the movement that we see out there, especially with the Black Lives movement, and the Antifa movement, this is at the core of all of this. And so now, we have angry mobs of Marxists seeking to take control. They say they want justice; they say they want equality. But what they really want is privilege and power, they want reward without responsibility. You know, if you see yourself as oppressed, then that gives you the right to go take things from other people, and so forth. And what they want is way beyond big government, what they want is a totalitarian regime. If you'll notice, by the way, most of the quote "protesters" are white, educated, millennial women, who are grief stricken over their white guilt and their white privilege. Folks, these people need our love, they need our prayers, they need the gospel, and we need to give it to them. We need to be bold and give it to them. And where's the church and all of this? I've had several people ask me, can you be a Christian and support the Black Lives Matter movement, for example? And I think the answer is well, yes, you probably could, but you would have to be seriously misinformed; seriously lacking in biblical discernment. You would have to be the worldly Christian, that Paul spoke about in First Corinthians three, controlled kind of by your flesh, immature babes in Christ. But folks, most of the church today is not Christian. You must understand that most of the church today consists of pseudo-Christians that are Christian in name only. Jesus warned about this, for example, in Matthew seven, they have no spiritual discernment. They've not been born of the Spirit, they're still spiritually dead.

I remember a number of years ago, when the Purpose Driven Life book first came out, I read that and I thought to myself, and I know I shared it with many of you, I thought, this is one of the most clever satanic deceptions that I have ever read. Because it says so many wonderful things, about how we can be happy, we can have purpose in our life, but it never tells you how because it never gave the gospel. It never explained how we have violated God's holy law, his wrath abides upon us, we are utterly unable to save ourselves. It never explained what sin really is. It never explained repentance. It never explained God's wrath. It never explained hell or any of those things. And so what happens is many people rush through in hordes, they rush through the wide gate, start traveling down the broad way that leads to destruction. People fill up churches that are not born again. And like so many of the seeker sensitive new movement, they see people that come to church as consumers. And the gospel is the product. And the pastor has to be the salesman. And so you have to make the product appealing to the people. And so you've got to do things to it, kind of massage it, so everybody's gonna like it. Of course, that is just blatantly unbiblical. And you see what has happened now. So ultimately, Jesus died on the cross to save us from our unhappiness. So it's no surprise that so many professing evangelicals believe and buy into and support some of the things that we're seeing today.

Again, before we look at the text, I just want to remind you of something. In first Corinthians 2:14, we read a "natural man." In other words, an unregenerate man, a person that has never been truly born again, "does not accept the things of the Spirit of God." Does not accept them, "for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot,"-- not that he will not--"he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." That term "spiritually appraised"--"anakrino," it was a judicial term, it was used to describe a judicial investigation. It meant to examine, to scrutinize, to discern, to evaluate. People apart from Christ cannot do that. They have no capacity to render a decision because they cannot discern the facts. Why? Because they're bereft of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is not dwelling within you, you're not going to be led into truth and holiness. And so they are bereft of illuminating grace, if you will, and are therefore utterly incapable of spiritual discernment; and that's much of the church today. Finley says, quote, "The unspiritual are out of court as religious critics. They are deaf men judging music." Powerful. So you wonder why so many ostensibly evangelicals embrace so many of these crazy things that are out there, things that God forbids? Because they're not saved. They're of the world and the world loves its own. "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him," First John 2:15. They belong to their father, the devil. They're "Christian" in name only, Matthew seven. Jesus said in John 8:47, "'He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason, you do not hear them, because you are not of God.'" Of course, Jesus said in John 10:27, "'My sheep hear my voice,'" and what do they do? "'They follow Me.''"

So whenever I listened to the incoherent and irrational and emotional rants of the progressive leftists and the unbiblical babble of liberal evangelicals that support them, I'm reminded of so many things, but especially this last week, I was just reminded of Proverbs one and verse seven. "The fear of the Lord," is what? It's "the beginning of wisdom." That's where it has to start. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 18:7, "A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul." So I thought about this, I looked up biblically, the concept of a fool and here's what you will find. I won't give you all of the references. But fools biblically, are without the knowledge of God, they deny God, blaspheme God, mock sin, hate knowledge and wisdom, die for a lack of wisdom. They feed on foolishness, display their folly, produce folly, make sport of mischief, walk in darkness, hate to depart from evil, their worship is evil to God. They're described as corrupt and abominable. They're self-sufficient, self-confident, self-deceived, mere professors of religion, full of words given to quarreling, slanderers, liars, slothful, angry, contemptuous, proud, they come to shame, they destroy themselves by their speech, companions of fools, will be destroyed. The lips of a fool is a snare to his soul, they will cling to their folly, worship idols, trust in their own hearts. When they hear the gospel, they will not obey it, their mouths pour out folly, and to honor them is unbecoming. God has no pleasure in them, they shall not stand in the presence of God, and believers should avoid them. The other thing I always think about when I contemplate these things is, were it not for God's grace, I would be in a fool's paradise, just like all the rest of them, and so would you. And therein we celebrate the gospel. And folks, this is why people need the gospel. And I hope you are burdened for these people. I hope you're praying for them. Titus three and verse three, the apostle Paul says, "For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope, of eternal life." And its to this gospel that we now turn, all right? It's to this glorious gospel that we turn, as we examine the words of the Apostle Paul here in Second Corinthians three.

Now, let me remind you that here we are learning from the beleaguered apostle that has been slandered so severely by false apostles that have been come into the church at Corinth, preaching a false gospel, trying to mix old covenant with new. And some of the dear people that he loved had bought some of their lies, and he's trying to defend himself. These are vicious wolves devouring the sheep. And here in this particular section of Scripture, we learn how the apostle Paul, and I might say millions of others, were able to endure seasons of great sorrow, and great danger. And frankly, we're in that today, and I fear it's gonna get much worse. Let me ask you, if somebody came to you and say, Alright, you know, I'm a Christian, you're a Christian, I'm curious. What do I need to do to find joy and sorrow? How can I find strength in weakness? How can I find peace in peril? How can I somehow triumph over trouble? What would you tell them? Well, obviously, it's the gospel. Well, yes, I believe the gospel but what else should I do? Well, the apostle Paul is going to answer that. And ultimately, the answer is in the title of my discourse to you. The answer is, we do this by beholding the glory of the Lord, by looking at the face of Christ as he is revealed in his word in the Bible. This is what Paul did, and this is what we must do. We don't look to our political leaders; we need to look to Christ. And we see him in the Word of God.

So with that background, let me read the text to you, Second Corinthians three beginning in verse 17. "Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the hidden things because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond servants for Jesus sake. For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts, to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."

This is such a precious, it's such a practical passage of scripture that speaks to our hearts. And here we see the power of seeing Christ, learning of Christ, knowing Christ as we look at him in the word of God. And certainly this was Paul's great concern for the believers there in Corinth because they were being led astray by these false teachers that were having them look to the law, rather than looking to the new covenant that reveals Christ. So it's a very, very important passage of Scripture. He wanted them to look to the Lord. In the old covenant, people could only see a tiny portion of God's glory, but the veil is lifted in the new covenant. That's Paul's argument here. And when the blinding light of God's shekinah glory encompassed Saul on the road to Damascus, later became Paul, he suddenly saw the light of the glory of God revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a magnificent scene that would have been. And suddenly he realized that all of his law keeping was for naught. All that mattered was the glory and the grace of Jesus.

The new covenant lifted the veil of God's glory from his eyes, we read about this for example, in Hebrews one beginning in verse one. The writer says, "God after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." Now none of us have had a Damascus Road experience, at least not to my knowledge. I haven't been blinded by the shekinah glory of the living God. But you know, we're all still able to see the glory of Christ, as he is revealed in his word. That's the power of the word. That's where Paul was going in this argument.

And what we see here in Second Corinthians is the importance of seeing Christ in Scripture. And I've broken it down so that there are basically five amazing realities in the life of a believer that occurs when you see Christ in scripture. We're gonna see five things. Number one, seeing Christ in scripture reveals the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, it transforms believers into the likeness of Christ. And those are the two that we're going to deal with today, okay? But let me give you the other three. Seeing Christ in scripture emboldens believers to stand firm in their faith in Christ. It motivates believers to renounce sin, pursue holiness, and proclaim the truth of Christ, and it dispels the darkness of sin and ignorance concerning the person and work of Christ. If you just look at the verbs there, seeing Christ in scripture reveals, transforms, emboldened, motivates and dispels. What a magnificent set of truths these are.

So let's be reminded again of the context here. If we go back to verse 16, Paul was saying that whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away, suddenly a person will be able to see that the Old Covenant law is over, the New Covenant of the Spirit, it has begun. Then in verse 17, he summarizes this, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." And indeed, it is the Spirit's work of regeneration that causes us to be born again, as he said, in verse six of chapter three. He is the one that takes away the veil that obscured the glory of God in the face of Christ. We're going to see this in verse 16. And when this happens, truly, there is liberty; we suddenly see the liberty of saving grace, we see the liberty from the bondage of sin, the liberty from the condemning tyranny of the law that we could never ever keep. We see the liberty from Satan's dominion, liberty from the fear of death, and so forth. And then in verse 18, he says this, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord," I want to stop there. This brings us to the first little point in my outline, number one, seeing Christ in Scripture reveals the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, let me explain the background here. Remember, after Moses had been in the presence of God, he had to wear a veil over his face, in order to prevent himself from just terrifying the Israelites when they saw the glory of God emanating from his face, it was a terrifying glow. But whenever he would return, to talk with the Lord, he would take the veil off. He would remove the veil. And what Paul was saying here is that because of the new covenant, all believers can do the same. We can all take off the veil now, we can all see the glory of God; we can all enter into the presence of God with an unveiled face, so to speak, not only to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, but also to experience some measure of that same transformation. One that will ultimately result in our glorification. What does John say on First John three, verse two? "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be." And he adds this, "We know that when He appears, we will be," here it is, "like Him,"--"like Him, because we will see Him just as He is." Moreover, beholding the Lord Jesus Christ in Scripture is like looking in a mirror, where we have a visible representation, or a reflection of our own image. And when we look in a mirror, we can take our time, we can see all the specific aspects of our reflection and some of those things aren't all that great. Every year I have to go to the skin doctor to have certain things frozen, precancerous things from being in the sun so much over the course of my life. And I'll always ask her "What about this brown spot?," "What about that?" No those are okay, that's just part of it. So in other words, he's just gonna have to live with it right? Or wear makeup. And no, I will not wear makeup. So anyway, the point here is, now we can see Christ in Scripture, but we're not going to be disappointed because we're not going to see any blemishes. But there's an intimate view here. Now think about it. How did you come to know Christ? Well, somebody gave you the gospel. Somebody gave you the Word of God, John 5:39. Jesus said, The scriptures "testify of Me", we would never know really who Christ is apart from his word. Acts 18:28. Paul, it says, vigorously "refuted the Jews publicly showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ." And Paul reminded Timothy, that it was, quote, "The sacred writings that are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus," Second Timothy 3:15. And in First Corinthians 15, three, Paul says, "For I delivered to you as a first importance"-- In other words, here's the priority--"what I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures." So we see Christ in Scripture, it revealed his glory.

But will you notice another astounding truth here at the end of verse 18. Let me just read the whole verse. "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." What an amazing statement. All believers are being changed into the likeness of Christ. It's absolutely astounding. The likeness of Christ as we see him mirrored in Scripture. This means that seeing Christ in Scripture, not only reveals the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, but secondly, it transforms believers, into the likeness of Christ. The word "transformed," in the Greek its "metamorphoo." We get our word "metamorphosis" from that. It means to be changed in an outward appearance. And in this context here, unlike the fading glory of Moses, believers have an ever-increasing glory, because of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us; who is progressively transforming us into the image of Christ. And grammatically, this transformation is in the present tense, meaning it is an ongoing, it is a continuous, it is a a progressive, transformation.

But now, here's where it gets really, really exciting, what is it that facilitates this gradual metamorphosis? What produces this ongoing change? And the answer is "beholding as in a mirror." Really fascinating, "beholding"-- "katoptrizo" in the original language. And here, grammatically, is what we call a present participle, making it the means by which we are continuously, progressively, being transformed into the image of Christ. This is what some define as, quote, "transformation by vision." In other words, the more we behold the image of Christ, as he is revealed in Scripture, the more we become like him. Absolutely astounding. And one day, this transformation will be fully and finally accomplished. Boy, I'm looking forward to that day, I know you are as well. It will no longer be a gradual, progressive change. It will be instantaneous, and it will be complete. First Corinthians 13, verse 12, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then,"-- in other words, when we see Christ, --"I will know fully just as I also have been fully known." And in chapter 15, verse 49, "Just as we have borne the image of the earthly, we will also bear the image of the heavenly." Oh dear friends, the glory of the gospel, the glory of it all. I mean, think about this, at regeneration the process begins when he makes us new creatures in Christ. He changes our desires, the process of sanctification begins, Gradually, sin loses its power over us. Gradually, we begin to manifest the fruits of the Spirit fruits of obedience. But we've got to understand this in light of Paul's argument, he's making a contrast here, he's making a contrast between Jews who only saw a tiny portion of the glory of God, emanating from the face of Moses. Remember, Moses could only see a tiny portion. And then he comes down off the mountain, and he's glowing so much that he has to cover his face. But yet, still, they're only seeing a tiny portion of what Moses saw. And so the contrast here is that Moses had to cover his face, but the glory of God, bear this in mind, now remained outside of them. The glory of God did not take up residence within them. The Spirit of God did not come to live with him permanently. There was no change of nature, they were not made new creatures in Christ, so to speak. But because of the Spirit's internal work of regeneration under the New Covenant, he causes us to be born again. He raises us to walk in newness of life. And now we can behold the glory of God in the face of Christ, by seeing his radiance in Scripture.

Moreover, the radiance of God's glory, on the face of Moses gradually faded, right? Gradually faded. But the glory of God that now resides in the believer, by the power of the indwelling Spirit is reflected in the life of the believer, and it gradually increases in brilliance over time. This is Paul's argument. What a brilliant, Holy Spirit inspired argument it is. It's just overwhelming. And the more you gaze upon Christ in Scripture, the more you become like him. The more you contemplate his glory, his person, his work; the more you become like him, and the more his glory will emanate from you, the more your life will redound to His glory. Folks, that's why it's so important to study the Word of God, to meditate upon the word of God, to know it, to live it, to pray it, to preach it. In regeneration we’re instantly justified forever. Our sanctification is a progressive process. An ongoing transformation that is affected by, quote "beholding, as in a mirror the glory of the Lord." The Greek grammar helps us understand that. This happens until our final and complete glorification at the consummation of all things. I don't get too excited about a lot of things, at least externally, but let me tell you, in my heart, I am really excited. Okay? I hope you can see that. And I hope you share that. Again, I go back to the end of First John three, "We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, that's just overwhelming to me, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is." And then in verse three, he says, "And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." Beloved, don't miss this. At salvation we're raised from spiritual death to spiritual life. And this transformation of the inner man occurs immediately. All right? Just like that. However, over time, we're gradually going to become more like Christ, but only in proportion to our willingness to behold the glory of Christ as he is revealed in his Word, the Bible. The reason so many Christians today don't look much like Christ is because they don't know very much about him. Well, they might have a head knowledge. But even at that it's weak. Colossians 3:10, Paul says "Put on the new self, who was being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him." And this is why Paul even likened his passion for ministry to a woman who was about to give birth to a child. He said in Galatians 4:19 "I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you." And folks, this is why our number one priority in life should be to run "toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus," Philippians three. And what is that prize? What's the ultimate? It's Christ likeness. May I ask you? Is this the goal of your life? Is this the priority of your life to become more like Christ? If not, why not? Can you not see that by beholding Christ in Scripture, not only will you begin to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in ways that you never have before, but also by doing that you're going to be transformed more and more into his likeness.

I want to camp on this a bit more by taking you to Romans chapter 12. And we'll stay here for the next few minutes until I'm finished. In Romans chapter 12. I'm just going to kind of hit the highlights here. In verse one, Paul urges believers, "to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." And then he tells us how to do this. Very, very important. If you wonder, well, how can I do that? How can I present my body living in a holy sacrifice, which is my spiritual service of worship? Well, here's at least one of the major themes to help you understand that. Verse two, and "do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." In other words, this is how we give our mind to him; our way of thinking, our disposition, our manner of thought, our attitudes. He says, "Do not be conformed,"-- "syschematizo" in the original language. It was a term that came to mean a masquerade or a mask, playing a role, putting on an act according to a script, a schema. And "syschematizo" is a term that refers to assuming an outward expression, or a form that does not accurately reflect what is on the inside, that does not come from within. It does not reflect an inward reality. It's the idea of being something on the outside that you're not on the inside. And as we look at the term exegetically, the prefixed preposition "sun," S U N, dds to the meaning of the verb that is the idea of assuming an expression, or assuming a form that is pattern after something, namely the world. And so what he's saying here is, do not allow something on the outside to shape you in such a way that it does not accurately reflect who you are on the inside, your inner nature. In other words, don't be something on the outside, that you're not on the inside.

By the way, who are we on the inside? We're a new creature in Christ, we've been clothed in the righteousness of Christ, we saw a little glimpse of the glory of Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, a glimpse of the glory that we will one day share. Now, what's fascinating in this text, is that the verb is passive, it's not active. So in other words, the shaping, this conforming, this molding, if you will, is not something you will choose to do. But it will be something that you will allow to happen to you, really without even knowing it is going on. And what's that? The world is going to shape you into its image. This is what Satan does all the time. He provides a world system that shapes us into his image. And what is the world this term "age"? Well, it's this world system dominated by Satan, all of the things that he does to thwart the purposes of God. So he's saying here, if you're going to present yourself as a living and a holy sacrifice that's acceptable to God, do not let the world shape you into its image, stop allowing yourself to be shaped by Satan, stop masquerading, therefore, in the garments of this world; adopting its styles, its habits, its attitudes, its mannerisms, its speech and so forth. I like the JB Phillips, famous translation, "Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold." Boy, it's so easy to do, isn't it? Linhart says, quote, "What madness it is to join in this puppet show, which is displayed on a tottering stage. Christians have been introduced into the life of the world to come. What a tragedy then, if they conform to the perishing world they have left." And remember, Satan orchestrates this world system in an effort to destroy you, to destroy your family, to destroy your marriage, to destroy your kids; make monsters out of your children, to destroy your testimony, to destroy your power, to destroy the church. And this has been going on for millennia. Think of the ingenious ways he has of doing that. He provides just a myriad of ways to deceive us. And in fact, our minds, especially through media, through those little cell phones, these little screens, television, music, pornography, false teachers, worldly philosophies on and on, and on it goes. All you have to do is listen to the news today and you will see one satanic deception after another, they just pile up on top of each other.

So Paul is saying in order to present your bodies a living and a holy sacrifice acceptable to God, do not be conformed to this world. Don't allow the world to shape you into its image without you realizing this. Beloved, we must guard our children against this type of stuff. We must guard ourselves, what fellowship has light with darkness, as we read earlier today. But here's the contrast in verse two. "Be transformed." There's that word again. "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Again, transformed from the word "metamorphoo." We get our word "metamorphosis" from that. It connotes, as I said earlier, a change, an outward appearance that reflects an inner nature. I mean, that's what happens when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, that kind of concept.

Matthew used the same word to describe Jesus' transfiguration. He said in Matthew 17, two, "He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun and His garment became white as light." And you will recall how the effulgence of Christ's glorified inner nature suddenly blazed forth from his person in ways that we cannot understand. A manifestation of the glory of his inner nature. You might say, a preview of coming attractions for us, right? But the key here is understanding that this transformation is also in the passive voice. It carries the idea of allowing ourselves to undergo a radical, thorough change, where we become on the outside who we are on the inside. When it says "Don't be conformed," that's referring to, don't be on the outside who you're not on the inside. To be transformed, is saying, become on the outside who you really are on the inside. Where our outward conduct reflects our inner. Our transformed, redeemed nature that will one day shine forth with the same ineffable glory that we could see in our mind's eye that occurred when Christ transfigured himself on the mount.

Folks, how does this happen? Again, it's in the passive voice, not the active, you're not the one that is going to make this happen. It happens by the renewing of your mind. It's the renewing of your mind. Renewing means to cause something to become new and different with the implication of becoming superior. And this is what Paul is saying here, Second Corinthians 3:18, "Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord." It's the word of God once again, that causes this transformation to occur. He is the sanctifying one who works within us. He is the agent of regeneration and transformation. By his word he animates the outward transformation that has already occurred because of an inward transformation of our mind, by our thinking and that continues to develop as we look into the Word of God.

So indeed, back to Second Corinthians three, verse 18, "We all, with unveiled face, beholding us in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." Beloved, please hear me. You will never be able to present yourselves as a living and holy sacrifice to the Lord our God and be a person that is acceptable to him, not in a saving way, but in a sanctifying way, apart from the renewing of your mind. If you allow yourself to be conformed by this world, you're going to rob yourself of blessing. And you're going to diminish your ability to glorify God. It's only when your mind is saturated with the Word of God, will you automatically do the will of God? Paul spoke of this often in the New Testament Colossians 1:28. "We proclaim Him admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ. Chapter three, verse 16, he tells us to, "let the word of Christ richly dwell within us, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in our heart." And we've got to understand that there is both a moral and an intellectual component to this transformation; this continuous process of renewal that occurs through the word. Jesus prayed to the Father, in John 17:17. "Father, sanctify them in the truth, Thy word is truth." So again, is this a priority for you? I pray that it is. You see, we don't just automatically drift towards holiness, do we? We automatically drift in the other direction. There's always this conflict between the Spirit of God and the flesh. That's why we have to treasure the word of God, as David said in Psalm 119:11, "Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against you."

And then finally, here. Notice the result, the end of verse two, Romans 12, "that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." To "prove," it means to put to the test, to approve. The renewed mind can know and live the will of God and thus prove it. It can demonstrate it, and thus, give glory to God. And his will is, isn't it interesting, it is good, it is acceptable, and it is perfect. And folks, when his will becomes our will, at that point, our lives will be a living and a holy sacrifice to him.

Back to Second Corinthians 3:18, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." And Paul is essentially saying to the people there that are being deceived--folks, the days of all of the rituals, and all of the ceremonies and of all the law keeping are over. Christ has satisfied the demands of the law, he paid the penalty that you never could, that we never could. He has paid that penalty. We have been justified by his blood. And the indwelling Spirit is now sanctifying us he is transforming us. And ultimately by that same power, he will glorify us. And we see all of this in the new covenant.

Well, when I was contemplating these things in my study, even this week, as is so often the case, my heart went to a hymn. Don't you find that happening a lot when you're studying the Word of God, all of a sudden you just break out in a hymn. I couldn't remember all of the words; my wife Nancy knows all the words to all to hymns. So I said, "Honey, do you remember it?" She immediately started singing it. It always amazes me. And we're going to sing it just a moment. But in light of all of this, here's what came to my mind, a hymn called "One Day." I used to say it was a little boy. "One day when heaven was filled with His praises. One day when sin was as black as could be. Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin, dwelt among men. My example is he.” and the refrain goes, "living he loved me, dying he saved me, buried he carried my sins far away." "Rising he justified, freely forever. One day he's coming. Oh, glorious day." How many of you know that hymn? (Audio cut off, end of transcription not available)

Before we look at the text, I would like to remind you of why we do what we do right now; why do I stand before you and open up the Word of God and preach it to you? Well, certainly there are many reasons. But first of all, we must remember that sinners cannot be saved, apart from the hearing of the Word. They need to understand it so that they can believe in it. Secondly, saints cannot be sanctified, unless they understand the word and apply it to their lives. And then thirdly, because Satan is so deceptive, it's important for us to understand the truth so that we can spot the counterfeits. Weak preaching will produce weak Christians. And so it's very important that every pastor, fulfill the role of a pastor teacher, as delineated. For example, in Ephesians, four, beginning of verse 12. My role, my responsibility, my calling, my gifting, is to equip the "saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God." The text goes on to speak of how that is to bring you to a place of maturity, so that you will, "no longer be children tossed here and there by waves carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming." And certainly, that is one of Satan's greatest tools to fill pulpits, and Bible colleges and universities, with those who are going to teach things that are false. And shallow preaching that does not deal with the word of God systematically, and exegetically, will ultimately banish believers to an island of spiritual infancy. Most Christians today have very little understanding of Bible theology, and so they have very little spiritual discernment. And they get sucked into all kinds of crazy things that are out there. Perhaps one of the most graphic manifestations of this can be seen in the typical American, quote, "Christian" teenager. I was reading an article on this, Christian Smith and his fellow researchers with the National Study of Youth and Religion at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, conducted interviews with 3000 American adolescents to learn about their religious beliefs. And they discovered what they identified as moralistic therapeutic deism; a concept by the way, which is summarized in his book, Soul Searching the Religious and Spiritual Eyes of American Teenagers by Christian Smith, along with Melinda Lundqvist Denton. But according to the researchers, moralistic therapeutic, deism consists of beliefs like what follows. They discovered that they believe number one, that a god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on Earth. But secondly, God wants people to be good; nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions. Thirdly, the central goal of life is to be happy, and to feel good about oneself. Fourthly, God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life, except when God is needed to resolve a problem. And then finally, good people go to heaven when they die. And frankly, that's how most people think today. This is consistent with deists. "Deist" comes from "Deus" in Latin which is word for God. And deists believed basically those things, they believe in the existence of a supreme being, but even though he's the creator, he's not really involved that much with his created world. And we know a lot of diests today. President Trump is a deist; he is not a Christian. He is a deist. Our founding fathers were deist; they weren't born again Christians, most of them. The researchers went on to say quote, "That in some," referring to those five concepts, "when it came to the most crucial questions of faith and beliefs, that in some, is the Creed to which much adolescent faith can be reduced. When it came to the most crucial questions of faith and beliefs. Many adolescents responded with a shrug and quote, 'whatever'." As a matter of fact, the researchers found that American teenagers are incredibly inarticulate about their religious beliefs, and most are virtually unable to offer any serious theological understanding. As Smith reports, quote, "To the extent that the teens we interviewed did manage to articulate what they understood and believed religiously, it became clear that most religious teenagers either do not really comprehend what their own religious traditions say they are supposed to believe, or they do not understand it, and simply do not care to believe it. Either way, it is apparent that most religiously affiliated US teens are not particularly interested in espousing and upholding the beliefs of their faith traditions, or that their communities of faith are failing in attempts to educate their youth, or both." End quote. And as the researchers explained, quote, 'For most teens, nobody has to do anything in life, including anything to do with religion, 'whatever' is just fine. If that's what a person wants." End quote. Well, beloved, we must do better with all of our people, certainly with our young people, but with everyone, we are not a social club. We are not a social activist organization, preaching a social gospel, trying to promote social justice, we're not a word of faith, prosperity cult, learning how to manipulate God so that we can pry goodies out of his stingy fingers. But rather we are the church of the living God, the pillar and the support of the truth, as Paul said, In First Timothy three, verse 15. And as elders we are, "to preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction; Second, Timothy four, two. So that's why we're here right now. That's what I'm doing. That's why I'm doing what I do every Sunday morning. So just a reminder, I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I just want you to really grab a hold of that, because it is so important.

Now as we come back to the word, and this text in Second Corinthians three, may I remind you of the context here; Paul, has been defending himself against the scurrilous and the satanic attacks of the false apostles that had invaded the church at Corinth. They were for the most part Judaizers that insisted obedience to the Mosaic Law was necessary for salvation. And so they mixed elements of the old covenant with the new and so forth, trying to blend it together. And in this section of his defense, Paul provides a short summary of the new covenant that underscores some of the amazing blessings that are inherent in it. And we have looked at the first two of five that I have described in weeks gone by. We looked at number one: the new covenant is the source of eternal life by the Holy Spirit. In other words, as we studied, it is the Spirit who causes us to be born again, he delivers us from the slavery of sin; the power of Satan. He causes us to be more and more conformed to the likeness of Christ and so forth. But secondly, we celebrate the blessings of the New Covenant because it is the source of the imputed righteousness of Christ. The old covenant could not do that. But you have to have the righteousness of Christ or you cannot be saved. And now, thirdly--that we're going to look at today--is that it is also the source of eternal glory. Number four, it is the source of courageous hope. And number five, it is the source of unveiled gospel clarity. So let me read the text beginning in Second Corinthians three in verse 12.

"Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." And I pray that the Spirit of God will give us real understanding, as we look at this text. As I was thinking about the blessings that we can celebrate from the New Covenant my mind, for some reason, went to the Publishers Clearing House commercials. You've seen those where all of a sudden, this van pulls up, these people get out with this great big check, and somebody gets $5,000 a week for life. I assume that's true. I'm not even really sure. But that's beside the point. But you see these people, they're just overwhelmed with joy. It's like the greatest thing that's ever happened to them. Well, folks, the greatest thing that could ever happen to anybody is not winning $5,000 a week for life. It's coming to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the blessings of the new covenant. My point is simply this, we need to have the same kind of exhilaration at least that the people have when they win Publishers Clearing House.

So we've examined in days gone by, that the new covenant is the source of eternal life by the Holy Spirit. It's also the source of the imputed righteousness of Christ. And now we're going to look at the final three in the series of five, beginning with--it is the source of eternal glory. Now, you will recall that when Moses received the law on Mount Sinai, he came into the presence of our infinite, holy, transcendent God, and the Shekinah glory of God encompassed Moses. And of course, that glory of God--that dazzling light--in the Old Testament, and even in the new, is always a picture of the visible manifestation of the power and the perfections in the presence of God. And according to Exodus 34, beginning in verse 29, we read how that blazing light of God's glory stayed with Moses. And it emanated from his face when he came down off of the mountain. And that light was so blinding, it was so terrifying, that he had to put a veil over his face. Imagine what that would have looked like. And what is even more fascinating is to note that the effulgence of God's glory that encompassed Moses was only a tiny fraction of the total glory of God. He saw only a partial glory, not the full glory. Of course, that would have destroyed him had he seen that. Let me remind you of this. It's written in Exodus 33, beginning in verse 18. "Then Moses said, 'I pray You, show me Your glory!' And God said, 'I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.' But he said, 'You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!' Then the Lord said, 'Behold, there is a place by Me and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while my glory is passing by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away, and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.'" It's amazing, isn't it? Despite Moses veiled exposure to that tiny, little portion of God's glory, his face shone with such devastating brilliance that it terrified the Israelites and he had to wear a veil. By the way, what will it be like when one day we see the Lord face to face. Because you'll have to be in a glorified state before that can happen or we’d just be disintegrated. But the veil, you must understand, served another purpose, not only to prevent them from just kind of passing out in fear, as they were horrified, it's such a sight. But what we're going to see a little bit later in verse 13, it says Moses "put a veil over his face, so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away." A reference to the Mosaic Covenant, the old covenant. You see the concealment prevented them from seeing the fading splendor that accompanied the old covenant. Let me take you back to verse seven of this chapter. There we read, "But if the ministry of death in letters engraved on stones,"--which by the way is reference to the old covenant law, that which God Himself etched on the stone tablets we read about in Exodus 32--"If the ministry of death in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?" A reference to the new covenant. "For if the ministry of condemnation has glory,"-- a reference to the law--"much more it is the ministry of righteousness abound in glory"--a reference to the new covenant.

Now friends remember the old covenant could only damn, it could never justify. It was the basis of condemnation, not the basis of salvation. It could only expose our unrighteousness; it could never impute the righteousness of Christ. And without the righteousness of Christ, no one can be reconciled to a holy God; nobody could be saved; nobody could be redeemed; nobody could enter into the glory of heaven and so forth. And Paul went on to say in verses 10 and 11 of Second Corinthians three, "For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory." You see, dear friends, the old covenant law faded after it served its purpose. And its purpose was to expose man's sin and his utter inability to save himself; his utter lack of righteousness and need for the righteousness of God that only he could give. And so its purpose was to bring conviction and to bring repentance, not salvation. But the new covenant, the Gospel, superseded the old covenant and so therefore, as the text says, it "remains," its permanent; it will never fade away. And that's Paul's argument here. He's saying, essentially, to the saints there in Corinth, who are being deceived by these people who are wanting to take elements of the old covenant and add it to the new he's saying, Folks, why do you want to return to that which was obscure; that which was veiled? Yet it was glorious, yes, the Mosaic Covenant, but all of its symbols and types and mystery-- all of that pointed to the new covenant. In fact, its glory was intended to diminish. Its glory would ultimately be superseded by an infinitely greater glory in the glory of the new covenant, a permanent glory. So why resort again to all of the external rituals and ceremonies and sacrifices and diet restrictions and Sabbath restrictions. The old covenant was intended to curse, not to bless. Hebrews 9:12, we read that we are saved, "not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption." And when we come to saving faith in Christ, that's what we believe. We are saying, Father, I have no merit of my own. I have nothing to contribute to my salvation. I am wholly dependent upon your mercy and your grace and so I cry out to you in faith, asking you to save me. And on the basis of such a profession of faith, we obtain, as we've seen here in the text, eternal redemption, access into the glorious presence of God.

Now remember Old Testament saints were saved the same way New Testament saints were. They were saved by grace, through faith alone--grace alone, faith alone, but on the basis of the new covenant that was promised in Jeremiah 31, for example. You see, the new covenant was ratified at the cross, but its benefits were appropriated by faith that believed that God would fulfill his new covenant promises, that were given in the Old Testament. So you might say that the Old Testament saints were saved on credit. Hebrews nine, verse 15, says, "For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance." So dear friends, because of the new covenant, we are glory bound; it is the source of eternal glory. I was thinking of that great hymn, "Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine, oh, what a foretaste," of what? "Glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood." So we celebrate the new covenant because it is also the source of eternal glory.

But number four, it is the source of courageous hope. Notice verse 12; "Therefore, having such hope, we use great boldness in our speech." You know, all you have to do folks is look around and you see a world that has no hope. It's really sad, isn't it? People hope in their political ideologies, they hope in their politicians, they worship the god and goddesses of government. I think of all of this chaos that we see around the country today. The people that basically say, Look, folks, we can have Utopia on Earth, if everyone will just agree with our presuppositions with our agenda. And if you don't, we are going to silence you. We're going to force you to agree with us. What kind of hope is that? Other people hope in their religion; their personal efforts to impress God with their good works, with their rituals and ceremonies. And of course, that's what was going on in Paul's day with Judaizers. We see this in many branches of Protestant evangelicalism, even today. Jesus came to make salvation possible, but only if you do your part. And folks, that's not the gospel. You have nothing to contribute. All false religions have their list, don't they? Do this, do that; earn your salvation. And of course, all of those are counterfeits. These are people that really have no hope. You've heard me say before that when I encounter Jehovah's Witnesses, or Mormons or Muslims, I will always ask them somewhere in the conversation, “So I'm curious, do you think you're going to make the cut?" And it's always fascinating to watch the reaction. Because down deep, they just don't know for sure. And sometimes they will tell you that. And I always love to be able to say to them, "boy, I know I couldn't. But I trusted Jesus who made the cut for me. He paid a penalty I could never pay. So my confidence, my hope, is in Him; in what he has accomplished." I always like to tell people; the law says here's what you must do. But the Gospel says here's what Christ has done. And therefore, we can sing "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ, the solid rock I stand all other ground," is what? "Is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand."

Back to verse 12. "Therefore, having such hope, we use great boldness in our speech." The term "boldness" here is a reference to the fearless proclamation of the gospel even in the face of great adversity. You know, I've given you a tract here that you can hand out. Or you can link it online to somehow plant the seeds of the gospel. And it's easy for us to be filled with fear--oh I'm not sure what somebody might say. And then suddenly we become more afraid of man, have fear of man more than we do of God. We very subtly become ashamed of the gospel. But folks, when your heart is absolutely consumed with the Gospel; the triad of the gospel, which is faith, hope, and love, then you will have boldness. I mean, think about it, you have to have faith, otherwise, you have no hope. And if you have no hope, you will have no real love for other people to share the good news of the gospel with them; you're too concerned about protecting yourself. So if you're afraid of opposition, you need to think about this. You need to be obedient. First, Thessalonians, five, eight, where Paul says, put on "as a helmet, the hope of salvation." I see a lot of the police out there, they've got these helmets and the masks, they keep the bricks and all the other opposition coming at them. Well, we've got a helmet too. And it is the hope, the helmet of the hope of salvation. So again, the new covenant is the source of courageous hope. Romans 15:13, Paul says, "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Folks, this is the hope according to Colossians, one five that is "laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel." According to Hebrews 6:19, this is the, "hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope which is both sure and steadfast, and one which enters within the veil."

You see, this was the new covenant hope that Paul preached that absolutely infuriated the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. But also, it was the new covenant gospel that saved many of them, as it has us. Aren't you thankful that people were bold enough to share the truth with us? Paul prayed for the Ephesians in Ephesians 1:18, "that the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened, so that they would know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." This is, according to Hebrews seven and verse 19, "the better hope through which we draw near to God." This is, as Peter said, In First Peter, one, three, "the living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." And for this reason, he went on to say in verse 13, and verse 21, he said, "fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ....Your faith and hope are in God." You know, as I was meditating on that passage, I just thought to myself, Lord, when you come to take me home, I want to be found as a bold, indefatigable, wounded, perhaps, soldier who just never gave ground; battle scarred, but refused to give up the post. And folks, I want you to be with me. And I know so many of you are. But what drives that kind of boldness? It's the hope that we have in Christ. It's the new covenant. It's the gospel. We serve the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the victory is ours. I know a lot of times it looks like we're losing the war. You know, it's kind of like playing in a football game, and they just keep moving the goalposts. It's like, you're just never going to win. But ultimately, because of Christ, we win. So we fix our hope completely on the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ, our faith and our hope are in God.

So, the new covenant is the source of eternal glory. It's the source of courageous hope. And number five, it is the source of unveiled gospel clarity. Again, verse 12. Notice, "Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech." Verse 13, "and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away." What's going on there? Why do the veil? Why would God have him do that? Well, verse 14 says, "But their minds were hardened." In other words, what he's saying here is, in contrast with Moses--who wanted them to understand the impermanence of the law; who wanted them to understand that its purpose was to reveal sin and our inability to keep it; to expose our need for a Savior, to expose the fact that it was a covenant that was going to fade away and be superseded by the new covenant--Unlike them, you know these truths. Of course, the Jews had lowered the moral standards of the law. They came up with creative, superficial ways of keeping the requirements externally. When I think about that, boy, that's me, my heart just naturally goes to that. I can always come up with some way that I think God is going to be impressed with me. Kind of the shortcut, you know? We've all got a little bit of hypocrisy in us, right? And that's what they were doing. And like all legalists, they invented ways to be righteous in their own eyes. And it's for this reason that God hardened their minds and their hearts. I mean, after all, think about it, who needs a savior if you can save yourself? That's what he's saying to them. So in verse 14, we read that God judicially hardened their minds. "Mind" in Greek, it comes from the word, "noema." Which refers to our faculty of thought; our ability to apprehend or understand things. And because they were playing this ridiculous game, trying to come up with ways of being obedient to the law, and thinking that they were righteous in God's eyes, because of this, God rendered them unable to recognize the significance of the fading glory symbolized in Moses' veil. They just couldn't see it, they didn't get it. So their ability to apprehend, their ability to perceive the truth of the new covenant was dead. And as I say, two plus two is five. We run across that all the time. You give people the gospel, you explain it to them--two plus two is five. Unless the Spirit of God does something in their heart, it's always going to be five or six, or seven, or whatever, but it will never be four. Unless the Spirit of God changes their heart. It says, verse 14, that their "minds were hardened." "Poroo", in the original language. It comes from a Greek word "poros." It was used to describe a stone, for example. A stone that would be used in, in construction. But it was also used to describe the formation of that kind of bony callus that forms around a fractured bone. That's the idea. And in that sense, and especially because it's a passive verb, there's the indication here that their unbelief caused their minds to become calloused over, or to become hard. Metaphorically, they became insensitive, blind to the truth. We see this concept of hardening in numerous passages in the Old Testament. Let me give you one, Deuteronomy 29. If we go there, we would see that the context describes how the despite all that God had done for the Israelites, and rescuing them, delivering them from the bondage of Egypt, they still did not fear the Lord. They still disregarded His glory and the awesomeness of his character. They still disobeyed him; tried to pursue righteousness on their own. And so in Deuteronomy 29 four, we read, "Yet to this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear." And of course, we saw this in the first century and it continues to this day.

The same spiritual blindness continues among most--not all--Jewish people. Paul spoke of this in Romans 11 and verse eight. He said, "Just as it is written, 'God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day.'" Jesus described this as well, you may recall, John five, Jesus excoriated the Jews for their fastidious rule keeping, where they thought that they could somehow impress God and obey the law even though they were mucking around with it to get it where they could; obey it superficially. And, of course, this prevented them from seeing the truth of the new covenant. And so in John 5:39, Jesus says, "'You search the Scriptures because you think that in them, you have eternal life.’” Then he says this, "'it's these that bear witness of Me.'" The point is, you can't see it.

And by the way, Christ is the main theme of Scripture. In verse 46, of that same chapter--in John five--Jesus said "'For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.'" So in other words, you just wouldn't see it in the Old Testament. And ultimately, we see that God blinded them--judicially hardened their heart because of their unbelief. If you go to Deuteronomy 18, verse 15, we see the Lord clearly there. "'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.'" It's as if Jesus was saying to the Jews, I mean, what do you think when you read that? You couldn't see me in that? You couldn't see me and the new covenant promises in Jeremiah 31? You couldn't see me in the royal messianic psalms and the Psalter? You couldn't see me in Isaiah 52, verse 13, through Isaiah 53? Paul tells us that Israel's blindness is going to continue until the Messiah returns and saves a remnant of his people. Romans 11, verse 25, and following, here's what Paul says, "For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery--so that you will not be wise in your own estimation." In other words, you Gentiles, I don't want you to get cocky here. I want you to understand what God has done with the Jewish people. And he says this, "that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until great word of hope there until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS."

So indeed, back to our text in verse 14, "their minds were hardened." I see this as well in Luke 24. Remember, when Jesus met with a couple of his disciples on the road to Emmaus? You know, I mean, they were they were frustrated. They were talking about, well, you know, Jesus, we thought he was the Messiah, we thought the kingdom was going to be brought in, and then all of a sudden, I mean, He's crucified. And now there's rumors that he's been risen from the dead? What's going on here? They were astonished at all of this. They had no idea they were talking with Jesus, until later. And Jesus said to them in Luke 24, beginning in verse 25, "'O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!'" He went on to say, "'Was it not necessary for the Christ,'" the Messiah, "'to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?' Then beginning with Moses, and with all the prophets, Jesus explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures."

See again, if only the Jews had embraced the purpose of the law, and the passing glory of the Old Covenant, that would be superseded by the new--had they done, so that veil would have been removed. And fortunately, someday, for many it will be. And some are having it removed now. But Paul's point with all of this, with the Corinthians, is to say, look folks, unlike the hard-hearted Israelites in the days of Moses, your hearts have been softened by the Holy Spirit who now dwells within you. Verses two and three speak of that in this chapter.

Back to his Jewish kinsmen, in verse 14, at the end, he says, "for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant," which by the way, they would do in the synagogues, "the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lives over their heart." I've got Jewish friends that have come to faith in Christ and I love to hear them describe how the Spirit of God lifted the veil over their eyes. But how sad, think about it, even in Paul's day. People knew who Christ was, he had healed everybody in Palestine, basically. They knew of his crucifixion, his resurrection from the dead, or at least claims of it. They had all this new covenant clarity from his preaching, and the preaching of the Apostles and others, that explain the purpose, and impermanence of the old covenant. And yet, despite all of that, they still would not believe it. And in their arrogance, they believe that they could somehow accomplish their own righteousness by keeping their version of the law. And of course, this is totally contrary to anything you would read in the Old Testament. I think of Isaiah 66. You may recall the context there is how God is not looking for a temple of stone to dwell in, he's looking for tender humbled broken hearts. And in verse one of Isaiah 66, he says, "Thus says the Lord, 'Heaven is my throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being.' declares the Lord. 'But to this one I will look.'" In other words, this is what gets God's attention. "'To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.'" That's what the Lord's looking for. He dwells in that kind of a heart. And ironically, Israel's unbelief actually fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies that he would have to suffer. Really an interesting thought. Paul described this to his Jewish audience in Antioch. He was speaking in a synagogue; they're telling them all of these things they certainly didn't want to hear. We read about it in Acts 13, verse 27, he says, "For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Christ nor the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him." In other words, fulfilled the fact that Messiah would have to suffer. And I must confess, I fear that some of that same hard-hearted unbelief may exist even among some of the people here at Calvary Bible Church. I mean, you want to ask yourself, am I humble and contrite of heart? Is my heart tender to the reality that I have nothing to offer God to earn salvation? And I'm wholly dependent upon his grace. Do I tremble at his word? Or am I indifferent towards it, like the typical American, quote, unquote, "Christian teenager," and just say, "whatever, no big deal." You hear the gospel, but it really doesn't impact you. You kind of wish the preacher would just hurry up and get through it all. You don't embrace it wholeheartedly. Folks, if that is you, you're spiritually dead, and you will perish in your sin.

Dear friend, examine yourself. Don't be deceived. Hebrews 10, beginning in verse 28, says, "Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses." But then he adds this, "How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God." In other words, rejected the Gospel. "And has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" Then he says, "For we know Him who said, 'VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.' And again, 'THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE." It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Folks, we must remember that God only saves those who are absolutely convinced that they have nothing to offer. Those who are desperate for mercy and grace. His grace is only available to those who know they cannot earn it. He only saves the broken and the humble and the contrite and the desperate; those who mourn over their sin; those who hunger and thirst for righteousness beyond their own.

In verse 16, he says, "But whenever a person turns to the Lord," here it is, "the veil is taken away." I love that. You remember when the light came on in your life? I do, when I was a young boy. Gospel clarity. When suddenly you could see the horror of your sin, the glory of the cross and all of a sudden it made sense. By the way, when that happens, that's called regeneration. Reminds me of an old bluegrass song we used to sing--"I saw the light, no more darkness, no more night. Now I'm so happy, no sorrow inside, praise the Lord. I saw the light." That's what verse 16 is. Whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Paul spoke of this in Second Corinthians four six, he said, "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness.'" A reference to creation. That same God is, "the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." Folks, that's what the new covenant does. That's the power of the gospel.

I'll deal with verse 16, or 17, and the end of 18 the next time we're together, but jump down to verse 18. He says, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord." The analogy here is this-- When Moses was in the presence of God on the mountain, his face was unveiled, even though he was only allowed to see a tiny portion of the glory of God. But now, new covenant believers--those who have placed their faith in Christ--can behold the glory of the Lord with an unveiled face. That's the idea. O child of God don't miss this. We celebrate the blessings of the new covenant because it is the source of unveiled gospel clarity. Think of it this way, regeneration produces illumination. It causes us to be born again, as we see the light of the amazing truth of the gospel. So what was once concealed in all of the types and the mysteries of those symbols, and the pictures; all of that's now clear. The New Covenant explains what was once a shadow of what was to come-- the glory of the gospel. So Paul is saying, you people are being duped by these false apostles. Why go back to the shadow when you have the reality? That's the point.

Well, may I challenge all of you to celebrate the blessings of the new covenant in your family and in your life. Fathers, especially you. Real men, godly men, shepherd their families. Men that don't are wimps. That's all there is to it. So many wives, so many children are frustrated because their husbands and fathers don't shepherd their people. Godly men are going to take these truths and understand them, make them such a part of themselves, that they're gonna share them and teach them to their children.

First Corinthians 16:13, "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." And that's my encouragement to all of the men here on Father's Day, but to all of us. Let's see, let's examine, reexamine and celebrate the blessings that emerge from the new covenant, because it is the source of eternal life by the Holy Spirit. It is the source of the imputed righteousness of Christ. It is the source of eternal glory, the source of courageous hope, and the source of unveiled gospel, clarity. And all God's people can say, Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these truths. May they bear much fruit in each of our hearts as we celebrate them in our lives, as we live them out, so that others can see the hope that is in us. And because of our faith and our hope, and our love, may we be bold in our proclamation of the gospel. We commit all of this to you in the name of Jesus and for his sake. Amen.

Good morning, everyone and welcome to Calvary Bible Church via the internet. Unfortunately, I'm speaking to an empty sanctuary. But I know that you are there via the computers and all of the technology that we have. So I'm glad to be able to minister the word of God to you this way, unfortunately, the pandemic has come into our church with at least one individual that we know of. So as you're probably aware, we are going to shut down for a couple of weeks to quarantine ourselves. And Lord willing, this will pass and just pray for the individual that has this and pray that God will be merciful to the rest of us to keep us healthy.

Well, this morning, we come again to our study of First Corinthians or Second Corinthians, I'm sorry, Second Corinthians chapter three, if you will take your Bibles and turn there, we're going to be looking at the second part of this concept of celebrating the New Covenant. We're gonna be looking at verses six through 11 this morning. And as we begin, may I prepare your hearts and minds by reminding you of a little gland that we have on our body. It's called a pituitary gland. And the pituitary gland is about the size of a pea, it's right behind your nose, it's at the base of your brain, it's right in the very center of your brain. And until the invention of super powerful microscopes and technology that could measure infinitesimal amounts of hormones, scientists didn't really know what that little gland did. But once they discovered what it was really doing, they understood that it was, what they now call, the master gland. It was a gland that secretes hormones that regulate many of the organs in our body, many of the glands in our body. Well, I give you that as a little analogy of this passage of Scripture. We can come to this passage of Scripture, and we can think to ourselves, well, this really isn't all that important of a passage of scripture. And so we tend to just kind of read over these things and, and not really look into them. But as we take our time, and really look at what the Apostle Paul is saying here, we find ourselves just overwhelmed with a myriad of great truths that are both exhilarating to those of us who know and love Christ and very instructive as well. So I invite you to, to look at this portion of Scripture with me once again. Remember, Paul is defending himself against the slanderous attacks of the false apostles that had invaded the church at Corinth, Judaizers that were trying to mix Old Testament law with the new covenant and so forth. And, as I mentioned to you the first time we were together, there are five reasons that emerged from this text. Five Reasons to help us celebrate the New Covenant. We're going to see, as we looked at the first-time last week, that it is number one, the source of eternal life by the Holy Spirit. Secondly, the new covenant is the source of the imputed righteousness of Christ. Number three, it's the source of eternal glory. Number four, it's the source of courageous hope. And finally, it is the source of unveiled gospel, clarity. So we're going to look at least a couple of these this morning as we continue to make our way through this passage very carefully.

So let me read it to you. Second Corinthians chapter three, beginning in verse six. God, "also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit failed to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more than that which remains is in glory."

Now the last time we were together, we looked at the first source of celebration of the new covenant. Number one, it's the source of eternal life by the Holy Spirit. I want to elaborate on that a little bit more, before we move to the second reason that we can rejoice. Now remember, if we come back to verse six, unlike the false apostles that were trying to mix Old Testament law with the new covenant, he against says, "God also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." Remember the letter of the law, in other words, it's legalistic, external requirements that the Jews were trying to keep in order to merit salvation, all of that kills; just what Paul says it kills your joy, it kills your peace, it kills your hope. And to know that if you violate one aspect of God's holy standard, then you have violated it all. And it's punishable by death. And so the old covenant saints were living under that bondage, plus all of the rules of the rabbis. I was reminded by a friend that sent me a video this week of Manhattan, where a lot of Orthodox Jews live, there is what's called an "eruv;" e, r, u, v--a Hebrew word that stands for a boundary. And in this case, in Manhattan, the whole urban area is enclosed by a single wire boundary. And you if you go to Israel, you will see this in many places, you'll see eruv in various parts of the land. But anyway, this wire boundary symbolically extends the private domain of Jewish households into public areas. And this in their mind permits them to have activities in a much larger area that would normally be forbidden in public on the Sabbath. And so it gets crazy, the types of things that people will come up with, to impress God. That particular wire, by the way, that circles around Manhattan, I believe, is 18 miles long. They say it costs $100,000 a year, just to keep it up, to make sure that it's not broken. And there's a rabbi that travels around every day, to make sure that it's not broken. So you see these types of things that rabbis impose on top of what God's law was.

They also have for example, "mezuzahs", as they're called. It's a little decorative box. And inside is a piece of parchment that has some of the Torah some of the law rolled up inside of it. They will have, for example, Deuteronomy six, four and following, "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with, with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might." And they take literally Deuteronomy 11:20, where God said, "You shall write them," referring to the law, "on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." So if you go to Israel, for example, you go to a hotel, you go into your room, right there on the doorpost is a little mezuzah; got some of the law in there. You'll see in a restaurant; they are right on the doorposts. In fact, I've been in restaurants in Israel, where the waiters and waitresses will go in and out of the kitchen, there's a mezuzah right there on the doorpost, every time they go by, they will touch it and kiss it. And you just see this routine going on and on and on.

Well, unfortunately, these are the types of things that people believe when they misunderstand the old covenant, and they do not appreciate the new covenant that it pointed to, that now surpasses it in all of its glory. And remember, the law never had the power to redeem people. That was not its intention. All it could do is condemn us. And obedience to the law was never meant to be a means to salvation Romans 3:20, "by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin." So we come back to verse six here at the end And Paul says, "but the Spirit gives life." And as we discussed the last time we were together, it is the Spirit that produces regeneration; he causes us to be born again. Otherwise we would remain under the power of the evil one; First John 5:19. John three, remember, in verse five, Jesus told Nicodemus, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water, and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The Greek when it says, "he cannot," "ou dynamai," it means you have no power, you have no ability, in and of yourself to enter into the kingdom of God, by any other means whatsoever. I mean, it's very strong language. And he says, "you must be born of water and the Spirit."

By the way, that has nothing to do with water baptism. Water and spirit were frequently used in the Old Testament; they were used together to symbolize renewal and cleansing. And of course, this would have resonated with Nicodemus. He would have understood this very clearly because he was a great teacher of Israel. And he would have known that what Jesus is referring back to is Ezekiel 36, beginning of verse 24. And by the way these rabbis memorize, essentially the entire Old Testament, so he would have known about this, Ezekiel 36:24, God says, "'For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your land.'" By the way, that's part of the promise of the Abrahamic covenant that will ultimately be fulfilled, but that regathering and that restoration of Israel in the Land promises, cannot occur until there is salvation, until there's a new heart and so forth; and we see the beginnings of that now. But then he goes on to say, "'Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.'" My what a day that will be for those people, as it is today for many of us who have been saved by God's grace. And Paul uses the same metaphorical imagery when he describes regeneration as being sprinkled with clean water and being given a new heart. He uses this in Titus three, verse five, where he says, "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit." So regeneration is therefore, shall we say, a cleansing from sin. It's a purifying renovation of our very nature, a creation of a spiritual life. It's something that the old covenant law was never intended to do. And this change is referred to in the New Testament as "a new creation" Galatians 6:15. We're called "a new creature" in Second Corinthians 5:17; "the new self," Ephesians 424. It's called "being born again," First Peter 1:23, and so forth. Oh dear friends, what a miraculous transformation. And we must celebrate this. This is part of the new covenant. There is a a supernatural breaking from what Paul said, "our former manner of life," Ephesians 4:22 and our quote, "former lusts," First Peter 1:14. As new creatures Paul says that, "the old things passed away, behold, the new things have come," and we can all who know Christ, we can see that in our in our lives, in our hearts, in our minds. Colossians 3:10, "We have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge, according to the image of the One who created him." In Romans 12 and verse two, "We are no longer conformed to this world, but we're transformed by the renewing of our mind." John 3:19, Jesus went on to tell Nicodemus that we, "no longer love darkness rather than light." Indeed, dear friends, we come to the light by the power of the Spirit, because he has made us to love the light; we have new affections, we have new desires because of the Spirit; new desires that the natural man cannot understand because the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They "are foolishness to him," Paul says, and they "cannot understand them," First Corinthians 2:14.

Now think about this, have you ever noticed how different our desires are from the unregenerate from those that don't know Christ, all you have to do is look at the hideous display of depravity in the police brutality that we witnessed last week, and also the rioting and the looting of these depraved anarchists, and arsonists that are destroying parts of various cities around the country. And then to look at the the utterly astounding absurdity in the lack of response from these progressive leftist mayors and governors. It's astounding. I shake my head when I listen to some of these politicians and some of the pundits, they're utterly clueless about what's really going on; how to diagnose and therefore treat the problems in our country. And of course, the answers are always political--Oh, it's systemic racism. It's white privilege. It's white supremacy, it's income inequality. If we would just provide better jobs and educational opportunities and on and on and on it goes, then all of our problems will go away, folks, that's foolish. That is utterly foolishness. The problem is human depravity. And the answer is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the Spirit of God changes people's nature; changes their desires; changes their hearts. True Christians do not care about the fads of the world. They don't embrace its values or its wisdom, which God calls foolishness. They don't take up its causes. God has saved us to take us out of the world, not to make us conform to the world. "But whatever is born of God overcomes the world," First, John five and verse four. We know according to Romans 12, two that the believer is constantly seeking that which "is good and acceptable and perfect." And folks, we do this, because of the power of the Spirit of God at work within us. And this is why Paul told the Corinthians in First Corinthians two verse four, "my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God."

Now, the folks in Corinth understood this; most of them were true believers. Some of them were undoubtedly Christian in name only; you always have that in churches. But the important point to remember is this-- what validates genuine saving faith, what validates the fact that a person is regenerated or has been born again, is not some profession of faith. It is not church attendance, or denominational affiliation. It's not even outward morality; not even the conviction of sin. The real evidence is a changed life. And it is the indwelling Spirit of God that energizes that obedience.

If you drop down a little bit lower in our text in verse 17, Paul says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Indeed, there is. There is liberty from the unsuccessful attempts of trying to impress God by keeping the law. It's the spirit that brings liberty from the bondage that people had to the law; Romans seven, one through six. It's liberty from the power of Satan, who terrorizes people with the fear of death and coming judgment. In fact, Paul says in Romans eight two, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." And certainly, it's also liberating in that it liberates us from the enslaving power of sin, so that we might walk in newness of life, as we read in Romans six. And if you also look at verse 18, at the end, he says, We "are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." That's the work of the Spirit. This is why we celebrate the new covenant, just even in this aspect of it. Colossians three, beginning in verse eight, Paul says, "But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him." Folks, this is what the Spirit of God enables new covenant believers to do. And, of course, this is a great concern of mine; for the church today, even here at Calvary Bible Church. A person can make all kinds of affirmations about the gospel, all manner of professions of faith and yet be a total stranger to the saving and sanctifying power of the gospel. I remember the testimony of a good friend of mine who was saved out of a very liberal denomination that he attended faithfully for many years. But a denomination and a church where they never taught the gospel. He had no clue what the true gospel was. He eventually came to Christ. He's been a pastor for a number of years. But let me let me read to you part of his testimony. Here's what he said, "Having lived most of my life in the so called "Bible Belt," I have met and known scores of people who profess to be Christians. Yet in their daily lives have been indistinguishable from those who have never made such a profession. In fact, I myself used to be such a person. I have lived both sides and seen the fallacy of one and the truth of the other. Such people as I, once rarely read their Bibles, much less know them. They take no delight in talking about the things of the Lord, their lifestyles, are as worldly and self-indulgent as their incomes will allow. And oftentimes more than they will allow. Their minds are set on and preoccupied with earthly things. In their dress, they take their cues from the culture, or are driven by personal preference rather than biblical principles, and are just as immodest, provocative, ostentatious and sensual as the world. They allow the culture to dictate the standard of modesty and morality, and what is appropriate and inappropriate. They watch the same ungodly movies, listen to the same music, are influenced by and follow the same fads and trends and reflect the same values, priorities, thinking and reasoning of the culture. Their speech is often course and profane. Their social media platforms are shallow, vain, self-promotional, compliment-seeking and narcissistic. They have no devotion or love for spiritual truths and biblical principles; especially if they contradict some preference or presupposition, or require an alteration in their thinking, values, beliefs and lifestyles, and to forsake some cherished lust and sin." He goes on to say, "They're giving to the work of the Lord is sporadic, self-serving, and minimal at best, with virtually no inconvenience to their overall lifestyle. They are not only utterly incapable of discerning truth from error, the clean from the unclean, the holy from the profane, and the fruit that is from the spirit of the world, from the fruit that is of the Spirit of God, but they are completely indifferent toward them. They can listen to what is good and true and what is bad and heretical without any discrimination. But for all of this, they are quite certain they will go to heaven when they die. If you ask them. 'What is the basis for this confidence?' They will tell you that many years ago, they accepted Jesus as their Savior, and invited him into their heart,” end quote. ''Once saved, always saved,' is their comfort and assurance." But he says, "the sign and evidence that someone is truly regenerate, is not some empty prattling about how secure they are once they made a profession of faith. But," quote, "'that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed'--Romans 6:17," end quote.

And, folks, this is the great danger of cultural Christianity; a Christianity that is in name only; a Christless Christianity and may I humbly encourage all of you to examine your life. Later on in this epistle, Paul encouraged the folks of Corinthians, to do that very thing. He said in Second Corinthians 13, five, "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless, indeed you fail the test?

Now, I want to make a very important digression; a very brief one, but an important one. I want to offer you three very basic tests that you can use to examine your heart, examine your life, and there's many others. There's a number of them in First John, for example. But these are evidences of regeneration. Number one, ask yourself, do others see Christ in me? You know, many professing Christians live respectable Christian lives on the outside, but they know nothing of the reality of the new birth on the inside. Physically speaking, we know that a child will manifest a likeness to his or her parents. When you see a baby, we always can very quickly say, "Oh, my goodness, that child has his father's nose and maybe his mother's eyes" or whatever. They will share many of the same qualities because they share that DNA. Well, the same is true spiritually. Those born of the Spirit will manifest qualities that are consistent with their divine nature. In fact, Second Peter one four we read that we have, quote, "become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust." But when we come a child of God, we began to manifest characteristics consistent with holiness. We're able to escape the power which the rottenness of the world can overcome us with. And we see this in this new life. And think about it all life manifests characteristics consistent with its nature. Jesus said that, "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce good fruit," Matthew 7:18. And Jesus went on, by the way, to tell Nicodemus remember, in John three and verse six, he said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Now, obviously, no believer can attain to perfect holiness; that is not going to happen until glory, but if you're truly born again, you're going to see decreasing patterns of sin, and an increasing hatred of it.

I can thankfully say, I am not what I want to be, but by God's grace, I am not what I was. And that is all the work of the Spirit in my life. And so many of you can say the same thing. First, John three, beginning in verse nine, the apostle says this, "No one who is born of God practices sin," why? "Because His seed abides in him, and he cannot sin." In other words, that will not be the pattern of his life, "because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God." So you want to ask yourself the question, "Do others see Christ in me?"

A second question that gives evidence to regeneration is this, "Do I have a hunger for spiritual food?" First Peter two beginning in verse two, "Like newborn babies, we are to long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow and respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord." Now we know that a little child cannot survive, and he certainly cannot grow, apart from proper nourishment. Well, the same is true of a person born of the Spirit. We cannot survive. We cannot grow apart from the word. And so like a newborn baby, a true believer is going to crave the pure milk of the word. He's going to crave that like a little baby craves mommy's milk. It's like a matter of life and death. The true believer is going to love the Word of God. They are going to love to read their Bibles. They're going to love to hear good solid preaching and teaching and read books that help them understand how to know and how to serve the Lord their God. The excellency and the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ will be their food and drink. And they will constantly gaze upon the cross and all that Christ has done for them. They will have what Jonathan Edwards called, "holy affections." That is the work of the Spirit. They will therefore have a hunger for spiritual food. Those who have no appetite for the pure milk of the word, have no basis to believe that they have been born of the Spirit. It's very simple. I mean, think about it. By nature, carnivores love meat, and herbivores love plants. And by nature, vultures love roadkill. Human beings can't stand to even get near it. Only a change of nature can change those desires. And we know for example, according to Ephesians, two three that the unregenerate quote, "indulge the desires of the flesh and of the mind." Why? Well, by nature they are, quote, "enslaved to various lusts and pleasures." Titus three, three--from same sex attraction to pornography, from alcoholism to materialism, from self-exultation to self-fulfillment, that's where their mind is. They're enslaved by the lusts and pleasures that God abhors. But not so those who have been radically transformed by the Spirit of God, we have no desire for those things; the things of the world--the philosophies, the psychological theories, the values, the false religions, the false doctrines that are out there. Most forms of worldly pleasure and entertainment are like roadkill to the truly regenerate. We've got to change nature, but not so for those who had never been born again. According to Romans eight, five, "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh." So you want to ask yourself, "Do I really have an appetite for the Word of God?"

So number one, do others see Christ in me? Number two, do I have a hunger for spiritual food? And finally, "Am I growing into the likeness of Christ?" Dear friends, this is a basic principle of lif; all living things grow. If they're not growing, they're dying. Those born of the Spirit will according to Second Peter 3:18, "grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." And biblically we know that growth is proportional to one's commitment to know and obey the Word of God. Growing into spiritual maturity requires a deepening knowledge of Scripture. This is why for example, God has given pastor teachers to the church, we read about this in Ephesians, four, beginning in verse 12. God has given pastors and teachers "for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the Body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." He goes on to say as a result, "we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth and love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ." And as we grow up, we began to manifest the fruits of the Spirit, as we see in Galatians five, "love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." This is what will grow on the vine of our life. Those who walk by the Spirit, in other words, those who yield to the Spirit of God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture--on a moment-by-moment basis--they are going to look, and they are going to act, they're going to talk differently than those who don't. They are not going to be ruled by the flesh. The unregenerate are ruled by the flesh. Galatians five goes on to say that in verse 19, there Paul speaks of the deeds of the flesh he gives a little list they are: "immorality, impurity," which is another term for fornication. "Sensuality idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these." So you need to ask yourself, can I see and can others see measurable growth into Christ's likeness in my life? Or do I just kind of play an external game? Am I just part of the churchianity crowd? Am I just a more religious version of the same self- willed, self-serving hypocrite that I've always been?

Well, the new covenant makes all of this possible, because it is the source of eternal life by the Holy Spirit. Now, some have asked, and I want to address this very briefly, an important footnote here; some have asked, did Old Testament saints receive the same type of spiritual blessings as the New Testament saints? In other words, were they born again as well? Were they regenerate? Well, the answer is ultimately, yes. The Holy Spirit regenerated Old Testament believers, and this is evidenced, by the way; there's a number of reasons we could go into, but certainly, Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus gives evidence to this because that occurred before the ratification of the new covenant with Jesus' death; as we read about in Luke 22:20. So regeneration essentially involved a quote, "circumcised heart," as you read in the Old Testament. But the Holy Spirit did not permanently indwell Old Testament saints. He did, however, abide in them, as we see, for example, in Haggai two and verse five. You might say that the spirit dwelt with the Old Testament saints through the community, but he did not permanently dwell in them individually and intimately, as Jesus indicated in John 14:17, where he said to the disciples, quote, "'You know Him, because He abides with you, and will be in you.'" And of course, that happened at Pentecost. This is what Jesus referred to in John seven, beginning of verse 37. There he says, "Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.''" But he goes on to say, this, "He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." So there John helps us see by quoting Jesus. So it's fair to say that that New Covenant believers enjoy a more permanent and more intimate experience of the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit than old covenant saints. But his essential work and salvation was the same.

So back to our examination here of this amazing passage, we can celebrate the new covenant number one, because it is the source of eternal life by the Holy Spirit, but secondly, it is the source of the imputed righteousness of Christ. Notice verse seven. "But if," or could be translated, "since"..."the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones"-- referring to the old covenant law, which God himself etched on tablets of stone, as we read about in Exodus 32--"but since the ministry of death and letters engraved on stones came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. Now, this is fascinating. Remember, his opponents were telling everyone that Paul just doesn't see the glory in the old covenant; he is opposed to God's law. And we read about these charges, for example, in Acts 21. But of course, none of that was true. For example, in Romans seven beginning of verse 12, Paul says this, "So then the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore, did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death, through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful." You see, again, the purpose of God's law was to expose man's depravity in light of God's purity and drive him to the Savior. Romans seven in verse seven at the end, "I would not have come to know sin," Paul says, "except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, 'You shall not covet.'" An interesting example that he uses "covet," "epithumeo" in the original language; it means to lust or to strongly desire; to have what belongs to someone else; to crave that which is forbidden. It carries the idea of an evil desire. We're not to have evil desires. By the way, this refutes the unbiblical and very misguided position that some evangelicals promote regarding same sex attraction. They say, Well, hey, that's just normal for some people, and therefore it's acceptable. But if they act on it, then it's sin. No, no, no, no, no. That is not true. The desire itself is sin. And the power of regeneration changes those desires. What a glorious truth that is. Regeneration just doesn't just merely change behaviors, it changes our very desires to act in ways that are reprehensible to God.

By the way, you shall not covet is taken from the Old Testament law and the 10 commandments that God gave to Moses in Exodus 20. And this is the 10th commandment actually, in Exodus 20, verse 17, we read, "You shall not covet." In other words, you shall not lust for or strongly desire for the following, "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant or his female servant, or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor." Now, it's also fascinating that Paul uses other concepts to describe how he wasn't opposed to the law. We see that the Holy Spirit inspired him to tell us something else that the law would do. And that is that the law would actually incite him to do more sin. And he wants people to understand this as well. We read about it in Romans seven in verse eight, "Sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind, for apart from the Law sin is dead." So on the one hand, he's praising the law because what it exposes, but also, he showing how sin took advantage of him.

By the way, the key to interpreting that text is understanding the little phrase, "taking opportunity through the commandment." "Taking" in the original language means "to seize or to grasp"-- what he's saying here is that it seized me and it's the idea of a cause to give occasion for something that is going to take a hold of you. In fact, the term was used to describe a staging area or a base of military operation to begin an expedition. So we could literally translate what Paul was saying, like this-- sin, making use of the commandment as a base of operations--produced in me coveting of every kind. It's a fascinating concept. And here, sin is personified as an evil power that is antagonistic towards the law, intent on making a mockery of it by producing more sin that will violate it. So what is he saying? He's saying this, when I understand the laws, once I understood the laws, strict prohibition against lust, against coveting, my rebellious flesh was incited to further covetousness, to further rebellion. It used the commandment as a staging area to launch an attack of every kind, on coveting. Its why he says "it produced in me," an interesting term. It was a powerful term in the original language to mean, "to accomplish something with absolute success and thoroughness." And what is it that that the law accomplished in him? Well, it incited further rebellion. Notice the last phrase, in verse eight, "For apart from the Law, sin is dead." So what he's saying is, yes, the law is holy, it's glorious; it exposes sin. But it also causes our sin nature to be provoked, to actually come alive as it were. It's as though we have these malignant cells that lie dormant within our bodies, as if they are dead until something activates them to more corruption.

You see, friends it is characteristic of our sinful nature to rebel against all manner of authority, especially God's authority. Man is by nature a rebel. Man is by nature one who despises rules and regulations. He is a fool that has no fear of God. Now we see this in our little children, right? I mean, do you tell them? No, or Yes, more than the other? Obviously, we tell them no far more than we tell them, yes. Because they're demanding their own way. Moreover, you can tell them, look, children, you can play anywhere in the house, anywhere on the property, but do not go into that red shed back there. Well immediately what's going to happen in the heart of a child? I'm going to get into that red shed one way or the other. I've got to go in there. Well, this began in the garden, didn't it? Remember with Eve? I mean, God told Adam and Eve that you can freely eat of every tree in the garden, except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Of course, that was a test. They already knew good. But if they disobeyed, suddenly they would know evil. And what happened? Well, Eve basically said, as she responded to Satan's temptation, I don't care what God says, I'm going to eat that forbidden fruit.

So back to Paul's defense here in Second Corinthians three and verse seven. Paul was basically saying to them, Look, you know, if you try to rely upon the law for salvation, you're in for an eternity of suffering, because the law is, as he says, "a ministry of death." Now, mind you, this was in stark contrast to the Jewish idea that the law is life-giving, but rather it is life-taking. And then he uses the illustration of the Shekinah glory of God. Remember that dazzling light that was the visible manifestation of the perfections, and the power in the presence of God that encompassed Moses when he went up onto Mount Sinai and he stood in the Lord's presence, and the Lord gave him his law. This is recorded in Exodus 34, verse 29, let me just read this to you. "It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him." As we study that passage, we see that it was so bright it was like they couldn't really look at him. It was just a terrifying thing. And later on, and in that same section of Scripture, we read how that all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them the commandments; all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai, and then what happened? He put a veil on his face. And this concealment prevented the people from seeing the fading splendor that accompanied the old covenant. But Paul's use of this illustration refutes any accusation that Paul did not see the glory of the law; that somehow, he opposed the Law. No, no, not at all. The old covenant manifested the ineffable glory of God, of his perfections and his power, his presence, but also his holy nature, his justice, his wrath. It shows his glory even in his judgment. But it only pointed to that which was far greater, namely the new covenant. The new covenant that reveals the ineffable grandeur of his compassion, of his mercy, of his grace, of his forgiveness.

So in verse nine, back to our text, Paul says, "For if the ministry of condemnation has glory," which obviously he's saying it did, "much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory." You see, the point here is the old covenant had no power to impute the righteousness of Christ to believers. And without his righteousness, there's no salvation; we can never enter into the presence of a holy God. And for this reason Paul declared in Romans three beginning of verse 21, “But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested." Oh, what a wonderful truth. "Apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all those who believe."

So Paul goes on in his defense here in Second Corinthians three, in verse 10. He says, "For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory, because of the glory that surpasses it." Yes, the moon is beautiful. It has glory, until you see the sun. Then he says, verse 11, "For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory." Folks, this helps us better understand Paul's amazing testimony. Remember, in Philippians three, there, he listed all of his impressive credentials. He gave his resume, you might say that would be reason that anyone would think that of all people, this man can have confidence in his religiosity. I mean, he was a super Jew, if you can put it that way. I mean, Superman wore Rabbi Saul pajamas in those days if we can imagine this. Chuck Norris, of that day, had Rabbi Saul's poster in his bedroom. I mean, Saul was just, he was just super Pharisee. And yet, look what he says in Philippians, three, beginning in verse four, all because of the new covenant. He says this, "If anyone else has a mind put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I might know him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on, so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus." My what a profound source of encouragement for every believer who can read that and say, my, I can attest to the same thing. I can look back at my life and realize that there, there's nothing in it that's worthy of showing a holy God and saying, aren't you impressed with what I've done. But rather, we see the horror of our sin and we see the righteousness of Christ that was imputed to us, that changed everything. All because of the new covenant; the power of the Spirit to transform our heart. Dear friends, we have so much to celebrate in the new covenant. Indeed, it is the source of eternal life by the Holy Spirit, and it is the source of the imputed righteousness of Christ.

Dave Harrell

I want to close this morning with a true story of a man who was born of the Spirit in Scotland in 1839. I love testimonies, because it puts the glory of Christ on display, not the glory of man. And this is a testimony that's going to thrill all of us who, by God's grace, have experienced what it means to really be born by the Spirit. But I might also add that this testimony will sober those who have not. This is actually an extract from a letter written by George Moody, Esquire; the son in law of Pastor W. H. Burns, who was the faithful pastor of the church in the little village of Kilsyth Scotland. He served there, by the way from 1821 till 1859 when the Lord took him home, and this letter was one that was written to give evidence of the Great Awakening that occurred there for a small period of time in that region in Scotland. And here's what the testimony reads, quote, "The case of D.S." He doesn't give the name to protect the man's name, "collier," which is another word for coal miner, he was a coal miner. The case of this coal miner "may be mentioned as interesting." He says, "he had for some time been thoughtful and had been given up entirely, taking any intoxicating liquor, and might be characterized as one of the more hopeful description. Since the present awakening, he was deeply convinced of his sin and misery. And for a month was deeply exercised in spending much time in secret prayer and reading the scriptures." By the way, folks, there's evidence of regeneration--being born by the Spirit. "On the evening of the 21st of August, he had a meeting with several of his praying companions, and spent the night in prayer, praise and converse. He appears to have obtained peace during that night and came home to his house in a very happy state of mind. After taking just two hours rest, he worshiped with his family, and proceeded to his work. Being the foreman, it was his lot to descend first into the pit, which he did with unusual alacrity and with prayer," alacrity is another word for enthusiasm. "On the reaching of the bottom, the air instantly exploded, and in a moment, he was ushered into eternity. How soothing and cheering, the thought that he has escaped the everlasting burnings and has passed literally, through the fire, to the regions of glory." O, dear friends, what hope we have in Christ. And if you're within the sound of my voice, and you know nothing of the miracle of the new birth, because you have never come to Christ in repentant faith and pled with him to save you, by his grace, which he will do instantly, then you are living in a very dangerous season of your life because you never know when something might explode, so to speak, and take you into eternity. And so I pray. I pray, especially for our children, for our youth, for anyone that has some phony religion or whatever. If you do not know Christ, you need to do business with God today. You need to cry out to him for his saving grace. And he will save you, even as he saved this dear saint that I just read about. And for those of us who know and love Christ, I just closed by asking you to just rehearse some of these great truths in your mind in your heart. We've got all of this terrible news out there, you turn on the television, and after a while, it just almost makes you sick. You're seeing all of this depravity. You're seeing all of the insanity. Folks come back to the glorious truths of the word of God. And it will bring refreshment to your soul. Celebrate what Christ has done for you, what he is doing, and what he will ultimately do. And because of this, we will worship him with great adoration, and others will see Christ in us. And by his grace and by his power, we can be salt and light in a world that desperately needs cleansing; it desperately needs truth. And hopefully, they can see that in our lives and in our testimony. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths that always emerge from your Word, and penetrate our hearts with such clarity and such conviction. And for those that don't know Christ, I pray that you will bring conviction and bring them to saving faith. Lord please don't let any of our people be self-deceived with a cultural Christianity. And Lord, for those of us who know and love you, even though we fail in so many ways, we celebrate the power of your grace. We celebrate what it means to be born again. And we thank you for the sanctifying power of your spirit. Use us mightily for your sake, in our families, in our workplaces and in our communities. I ask all of this in the precious name of Jesus, and for his sake. Amen.

This morning, I would like to begin a series that will take us through the next several Sundays. I'm not sure how long, we'll just see how the spirit moves within me through his word. But I want to talk with you about celebrating the new covenant. So take your Bibles, turn to Second Corinthians chapter three--we're continuing to make our way through this epistle. This morning, we will begin to look at verses six through 11. Before I read the text, may I remind you of the context, Paul continues his defenCorinth andhe scurrilous attacks of the false apostles that have infiltrated the church at Corinth, and made all kinds of ridiculous accusations against him. They were for the most part Judaizers, those that were trying to mix elements of the old covenant with the new, trying to impose mosaic aspects of the Mosaic Law upon believers. And in this section of Paul's defense, we find a beautiful summary of certain aspects of the new covenant, which really underscores the amazing blessings that are ours in the Gospel. And in this text alone, we have sufficient revelation to fuel our hearts with celebratory praise for eternity. So let me read it to you. Second Corinthians three beginning of verse six. God also "made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit failed to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory."

We live in a culture that has no fear of God. And of course, that is indicative of the heart of fallen man. But sadly, we're also witnessing that same dynamic in the evangelical church. Most professing Christians are biblically and doctrinally illiterate. In many ways, they're too ignorant to know they're ignorant, which is sad. They have no concept of the holiness of God, they have no concept, therefore, of the sinfulness of man; they have no concept of the eternal wrath of God that abides upon sinners and his gracious deliverance that is available to all who repent and come to faith in Christ. So for many people, in churches today, the good news of the gospel just isn't really all that good of news. In fact, because the gospel is so offensive, many have opted for a less offensive version of the gospel, to make it more appealing to the masses. And so the emphasis is on how much God loves you, and how God accepts you just as you are, how he died to make you healthy, and happy and successful in life. And so the gospel is all about self-esteem. In many churches, it's all about eliminating guilt. It's all about promoting tolerance, and social justice. And in an effort to validate the subjective feelings of unbelievers and believers alike, the church has largely abandoned bold, exegetical, preaching and teaching, that exposes very clearly the righteous wrath of God against sinful man and exalts the mercy and grace of God that can deliver them from it. And as a result, the church is constantly being filled up with more and more unbelievers. People who are Christian in name only. Satan continues to sow tears amongst the wheat. So even in churches today, wrong has replaced right, worldliness has replaced godliness, hypocrisy has replaced genuine saving faith and deception has replaced truth. Because to the natural man the things of the spirit of foolishness. And like the proverbial frog in the kettle, religious people sit in their churches with a self-righteous grin as Satan gradually and imperceptibly turns up the heat of deception on them until they are utterly destroyed eternally.

You know, many people today in churches are concerned about how COVID 19 is affecting churches and rightfully so. But dear friends, I would submit to you that the horror that is happening, in evangelical Christianity, makes any fear of COVID-19 pale into utter insignificance. We have women preachers; we have homosexual clergy. We have churches blessing animals. We have drag queens reading Bible stories to children, in so-called worship services. We have people lying on the graves of deceased preachers to soak up the, quote, "anointing from the corpse," a practice known as grave sucking. In many churches, there is nothing more than unfettered emotionalism and ecstatic gibberish that they call worship; that frankly, mirrors the type of satanic pagan worship that existed in ancient Corinth, known as Extasia. A friend of mine sent me a YouTube video of a woman preacher, Paula White, who I understand is a spiritual adviser to President Trump, which is frightening to me. And in this video, she says this, "The queen bee is known for her dance, and she starts dancing, fluttering her arms going up and down and twirling around," and by the way, as she says these things in between everything she says, is a rhythmic gasp, to work people like that. And so that's kind of the dynamic here. "The queen bee is known for her dance. She goes into a frenzy to get all the bees activated. And she leads the way by stirring something up. I dare you, Deborah, come on"-- a reference to Deborah I think is possibly the prophetess Deborah in Judges. "I dare you, Deborah, come on, stir it up right now in the name of Jesus, stir up faith in others, stir it up. Do you think I was ashamed to stand on the lawn of the White House in front of the President, the Vice President, the FLOTUS, the nation, and the press and declare in the name of Jesus? I declare right now an end to this COVID-19. What good if I pray some cute little prayer? What good am I if I have some fancy little poem or just talk about the problem? Everybody knows the problem. But who's going to come forth with the solution? Stir them up, stir them up. Come on, Deborah. Stir them up right now. Stir them up. There's a whole lot of food, there is revelation. Come on. Where's my Deborah, where's my Deborah?" Folks, I ask you, how does that in any way point to the glory of Christ? And how can ostensibly evangelical people tolerate that kind of insanity? That kind of blasphemy. And we're worried about COVID-19's effect on the church. Jesus prayed "Father sanctify them in the truth, Thy word is truth." How is that going to sanctify people? Like so many others, she's making Christianity a laughingstock to the entire world. 1000s of so called Christians follow this woman and many others like her, which is not only a demonstration of a lack of discernment, to say the least, But also, I would submit to you, a lack of genuine saving faith. I know of women, even in this town, in the Nashville area, and in other parts around the country who are into the prosperity gospel cult, who will go to the most expensive clothing stores down in Nashville, knowing full well they can't afford anything in there. But they will go there and lay hands on the clothes that they want and claim them in Jesus name. Now what kind of insanity would promote that? No true believer will be deceived for long with such imbecility because the Spirit of Truth dwells within true believers. Jesus said, "They shall be taught by God," John 6:36. And we're all worried about COVID-19 and what it's doing to the church? Yet we're witnessing an unprecedented freefall of apostasy in the church today.

Recently, I noticed a teaching pastor position on an online church staffing website. They were looking for a teaching pastor, nondenominational church, about 1000 people, let me read you part of the job description, "They will be open minded and non-religious." With the next sentence here, "they will have a solid grasp of the principles and values that Jesus taught. They will have the ability to complete a message in a timely fashion, and the ability to deliver it in the 30 minutes or less time allowance." Rules me out, right? They give the name of the church and say, "we're in agreement with Rob Bell, John Shelby Spong and other more liberal leaders, we are an all-inclusive community that welcomes and affirms all, regardless of history or sexual orientation or preference. Our goal as a community church is not to get people," quote, "saved, as they do not need saving." "We believe in the transformative power of love and grace that Jesus offers, but do not believe in traditional punitive models of hell, requiring salvation."

Dear friends, what I just read, finds its source in the father of lies. What I just read is satanic. By increasing numbers, instead of the church being, as Paul said in First Timothy 3:15, "the household of God," literally the dwelling place of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and the support of the truth, the church has become, in many sectors, the dwelling place of Satan, the pillar and support of deception. While many churches do not embrace some of the charismatic error that's out there, or some of the blatantly apostate forms of liberalism, they do embrace just a dumbed down, watered down superficial gospel. Cotton candy, sermonettes for Christianettes. Shallow as water on a plate. Therefore people don't grow.

Now the consequences of a superficial man-centered church is multifaceted, but certainly at the top of the list is a gross misrepresentation and mitigation of the holiness of God. And when God isn't all that righteous, man isn't all that sinful, right? Who needs a savior if God's just kind of our buddy, and he just kind of winks at sin? Well, God knew that this would be part of the depraved part of mankind. He knew that we would be foolish, and that we wouldn't really understand his holiness and the depths of our sin, and our need for a Savior. So what did he do? He gave us his law which is crucial for our understanding of the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant and understanding the text before us.

So let me take you back and help you understand a little bit about the law of God. This is crucial. The Law of God, sometimes referred to as the "Mosaic Code," was the codification of God's holiness. It was the divine standard for righteousness. And as we look at the law, we can see various elements of it. First of all, there was a twofold summarization of the law. Very simple. We are to love the Lord God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. But then there was a 10 fold summarization of the two fold summarization, which was called the Decalogue, or the Ten Commandments. It was also called the Tablets of Stone; the Mosaic law given to Moses on Mount Sinai in Exodus 19 and 20. It was also called the Old Covenant. Now, under the old covenant, God said, if you will obey what I tell you, I will bless you. If you disobey, if you violate it, I will curse you. As we look at the Decalogue, we see that the first three were basically on how to love God perfectly, then you have the Sabbath, and the rest of them are how to love your neighbor. But then there was also a manifold summarization of the 10-fold summarization that summarized the two-fold summarization, you with me? And the manifold summarization was called the Words of the Covenant Exodus 24:7. In fact, the entire Book of Leviticus is a detailed expansion of the law. And all of this was written down and it was placed in a receptacle next to the Ark of the Covenant. And the Ark of the Covenant, of course, had the tablets of stone inside of them. Deuteronomy 31, verse 26, God said, "Take this book of the law, and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may remain there as a witness against you." You see, the purpose of the law was to expose sin; a witness against you. Any breach of the law, any violation of the law, means that you broke the whole law, and the consequence was always death. So it was very oppressive. It exposed man's need for mercy and for grace, for savior, for a righteousness beyond our own.

Now, the law, which could also be understood as the Old Testament scriptures, had three divisions. First of all, there was the moral law that regulated Israel's...the way they were to love the Lord their God with all their heart and love their neighbor as their self, which was based upon the 10 commandments; that was the moral law. And then secondly, there was the judicial law that regulated Israel as a theocracy. And then there was the ceremonial law, which regulated how Israel was to worship. And ultimately, we know biblically, that Jesus fulfilled each division of the law as we read in Matthew 5:17. His sinless life fulfilled the moral law, and his condemnation and temporary judgment upon Israel, whereby they were temporarily set aside as a nation, fulfilled the judicial law. And then finally his atoning work on the cross fulfilled the ceremonial law.

But I want to add, we don't want to forget that while the judicial and the ceremonial laws were fulfilled in Christ and are now obsolete, the moral law is still being fulfilled through the church, through us, because we are united to Christ through faith. For example, the apostle Paul spoke of this in Romans chapter eight, beginning in verse three. Sobering words here, he says, God sent, "His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law,” catch this, "might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." And if we look, for example, at the first four verses of Romans seven, Paul reveals to us that because of the fact that we have died in Christ, we've been freed from the penalty of the law. We are now hidden in him, the one who has fulfilled the law, the one who is perfectly satisfied. The justice that God demands in the law, we are no longer in a position of somehow trying to keep the law. However, the law was never intended to save us. Because the law never had the power to redeem anyone from their sin. All it could do, was condemn. Constantly. Obedience to the law was never a means of salvation, Romans 3:20, "By the works of the Law no flesh will be," what?.."justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin."

Now, as we go to Corinth with Paul, these false apostles come in, requiring people to obey certain aspects of the old covenant, which would naturally be a direct attack upon the finished work of Christ, an affront to grace. You see works and grace are mutually exclusive. When it comes to salvation, works will always be the fruit of grace. But it will never be the route of grace. And this is Paul's point here in Second Corinthians three, seven through 11. And here in his defense. We discover five reasons to celebrate the blessings of the new covenant. I'm gonna give you all five, but we're just going to do part of number one today, okay? There's just so much here.

We celebrate the new covenant, because number one, it is the source of eternal life by the Holy Spirit. Number two, it is the source of the imputed righteousness of Christ. Number three, it is the source of eternal glory. Number four, it is the source of courageous hope. And finally, it is the source of unveiled gospel clarity. And I pray that the Holy Spirit will use this to illuminate your minds with these astounding realities that Christ may have an even greater preeminence in your heart.

So first of all, under this first heading that we'll begin to examine today, we see that the new covenant is the source of eternal life by the Holy Spirit. Again, notice verse six, God, "made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." The phrase, "the letter of the law," is a reference to the external requirements of the law that the Jews would try to live by; they would try to obey. And Paul was saying, that kills. It does. It insults your self-righteousness; it exposes your sin. Let me take you to Romans chapter seven to better understand this, beginning in verse nine. Here's what Paul, who remember now was a Pharisee; was a rabbi; He was a fastidious keeper of the law. Here's what he said, Romans seven, verse nine, "I was once alive apart from the Law;" in other words, I thought I was really spiritual, before I really understood the law; I thought I was quite alive, I was doing well and my ignorance, as the old saying goes, ignorance is bliss, right? "But," he says, "when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died." My what a striking reversal. Think about it. First sin is dead, and I am alive. And then sin is alive, and I am dead. In other words, what he's saying is when I was alive apart from the law, sin was dead and I was alive, sin had not yet provoked within me a true grasp of God's holiness, of his righteousness. I felt like I was doing pretty good. I mean, I was a Pharisee, I was an expert in the law, I was fulfilling all those externals, but not from the heart. I was a self-righteous hypocrite, thinking that somehow, I could justify myself and sanctify myself. But when I truly understood the law, suddenly sin became alive, and I died. You see, when you understand the holiness of God, suddenly sin goes on a rampage within your heart. I remember this, when I first came to Christ, I began to see sin like I had never seen it before. How it was animated within me, within my...even my imagination, I see it like never before. Suddenly, I can see the horror of my guilt. It's running rampant in my imagination; I can't get away from it. Sin is alive, because corruption is lurking within the caverns of my imagination, within the very depths of my soul, and worse, yet, I am utterly helpless to do anything about it. That's what the Lord does. It's almost as if Paul was saying, I was once like the Pharisee in Jesus' parable, remember Luke 18. He went to the temple to pray and verse 11, he says, "'God, I thank Thee that I'm not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax gatherer. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'" And on and on it goes. But it was the tax gatherer that truly understand the law. He understood it because It exposed the depths of his sin. If we go back to Romans seven, verse 10, Paul said, "and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me." You see, the law can't do anything to bless an unbeliever by keeping it, because we can't keep it. So he says in verse 11, "for sin, taking an opportunity, through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me." The idea here is that the sin tricked me into believing I was good enough on my own to be acceptable to God, therefore, I didn't need a savior. So this Jesus comes along, he's like, What are you talking about? So obviously, folks, it was not the law that was sinful. I want you to understand that. Nor does it inspire sin; the law is perfectly holy, but the commandment became the occasion for sin, the opportunity for sin, and death becomes the tragic consequence of it. So for this reason, Paul goes on to say in verse 12, "So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good." Yes, because it's illuminating us to see our sin and cry out to Christ, and put our trust in him, and therefore glorify God. So he says in verse 13, "Therefore, did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death, through that which is good, so that through the commandment, sin would become utterly sinful."

Now back to second Corinthians three, verse six, God also, "made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter," not of all those external requirements, "but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." Let me show you how the letter kills. I want to take you back into the Old Testament. Let's be the dear Jewish people that are trying to obey the law, let me give you a sample of what that would have been like. And again, remember that God gave the law to reveal his holy standard, so that people would cry out for a savior. And you're going to see this, as I go through some of this Galatians 3:24, "The law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith." Not by works by faith. "But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor."

So let me give you a sample of what it was like to live under the old covenant. And I want to do this by examining the dominant feature of the old covenant of the Mosaic law and that is the Sabbath, the Hebrew Shabbat, which means rest, which means cessation. So let me begin by taking you to Exodus 31, beginning in verse 13. God says to Moses, "'But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'You shall surely observe My Sabbaths,''" plural, with "''this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Therefore, you are to observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among the people. For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death.''" You get the idea, friends, that God is serious about his holiness? By the way, the command for the Sabbath is the fourth of the ten commandments, but it is not repeated anywhere in the New Testament, because it belonged to Israel under the mosaic economy. It does not apply to the new covenant economy of the church age. In fact, it is nullified completely in the New Testament. For example, read Colossians 2:16 and 17.

Let me tell you what it was like. Every single sabbath day the Jewish people were reminded of their obligation to keep the two-fold commandments, summarized by the ten-fold commandments, expanded in great detail by the manifold commandments, right? That's what you were to do every sabbath day. The sabbath was again a constant reminder of your need to obey God's righteous law. It was never to be violated or you would be put to death. For example, you could not work on the Sabbath. You might recall in Number 15, the Jews found a guy, well he was gathering wood on the sabbath, and they hauled him before Moses and said, "Moses what should we do?" And Moses said, "The man shall surely be put to death all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp." That's what they did. You see on the sabbath day, all activities were completely suspended. And you will say, well, what did the people do? Very simple. They basically sat and contemplated the depths of their depravity, and their wretchedness and their need for righteousness that was not their own; so that they would cry out for mercy. You also had to stay at home; you could do absolutely nothing at home, you couldn't even cook. Meals had to be prepared the day before. You couldn't even start a fire. This is why if you go to Israel today, they have what's called Shabbat elevators. On the Sabbath day, when you go into an elevator, every button is pushed, you know, like the kids do that make you mad when they get on and just punch all of them, and it takes you forever because it stops at every floor. That's what happens in the elevators in Israel. And the reason for that is because you can't light a fire. If you touch it, there's a spark; violate the law. See how crazy it gets. In fact, Orthodox Jews have timers on their lights in their home so that they won't turn on a light on the sabbath and kindle a spark. You couldn't carry a load. You couldn't buy or sell anything. So it's not like, well, hey, let's order a pizza; no, can't do that. Couldn't post something, what is it, you post stuff on to sell, you couldn't do that. You couldn't order anything on Amazon. I mean, all that's out. Isaiah 58:13 talks about the sabbath, "you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor it, from your own way." In other words, you couldn't enjoy anything according to your own preference, or he says, "from speaking your own pleasure." So no personal indulgences. Or he says "speaking your own word." So in other words, there was no mindless chit chat. Basically, you did nothing but contemplate the holiness of God and your own sinfulness.

It was a day to be as holy as possible, a day of complete rest, but also a day to celebrate the perpetual covenant that God has made with Israel, Exodus 36:16, which will cause you to "delight in the Lord your God," Isaiah 58:14. So again, folks, what I'm trying to impress upon you is God is serious about his holiness, real serious about his holiness. And God has not changed. Fortunately, he's given us a new covenant, where Christ has satisfied the demands of the law on our behalf, otherwise we would be toast. Right? Now, they're obeying all of these things, in addition to all of the sacrifices and ritual cleansings and celebrations. I want you to understand that the Sabbath, and all of the other feasts and sacrifices and so forth, were the very center of gravity around which the entirety of their lives would orbit. It controlled everything they did. And then you have all of the holy convocations and feasts. Let me give you a little sample of them. These are other forms of sabbath. In Leviticus 23, there's the Passover. That was followed immediately by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Verse eight says, "For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you should not do any laborious work." Then there's the Feast of First Fruits with all of its restrictions, then the Feast of Pentecost; 50 days more of restrictions. Then the holy convocation of the Feast of Trumpets, verse 23, we read in the seventh month on the first of the month, you shall have a sabbath. There's another sabbath, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation, you shall not do any laborious work. And remember, now, during all of this, you're still having to keep the sabbath every single day. Then you have Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 23:27. "On exactly the 10th day of the seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the Lord." So we all line up now and we bring our offerings. "You shall not do any work on this same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord your God. If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he will be cut off from his people. Then verse 33, you have another sabbath, the Feast of Booths, it says in verse 34, "On the 15th day of the seventh month, the Feast of Booths for seven days to the Lord. On the first day is a holy convocation, do no laborious work." By the way, during the Feast of Booths, when you're in Israel, and even in certain parts of the United States with Orthodox Jews, you'll see the people making little huts out in their yard and they will stay there. Verse 36, "For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering to by fire to the Lord; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work. These are the appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to present offerings by fire to the Lord--burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each day's matter on its own day--besides those of the sabbath's of the Lord, and besides your gifts, and besides all your votive and freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord. On exactly the 15th day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days, with the rest on the first day and the rest on the eighth day. Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and bows of leaves, leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it and the seventh month. You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.''" It's a good way to sign off. Right? "So Moses declared to the sons of Israel, the appointed times of Lord." Boy, talk about a complicated onerous system.

Let me give you a little bit more, in case it hasn't sunk in sufficiently. In Numbers 28, verse 11, we have what's called the New Moon convocation, "at the beginning of each of your months you shall present a burnt offering to the Lord: two bulls and one ram, seven male lambs one year old without defect." Peter would have had a fit in those days right? Then in Leviticus 25, he describes the restrictions for Sabbath years, each seventh year they had to leave the ground alone. Then in verse eight, there's another Sabbath called the Jubilee. You, "count off seven sabbaths of years," seven times seven every 49th year, it's the year of Jubilee. And if you violate any of God's covenant law it's punishable by death. It's interesting they punished a lot of things; God had capital punishment on many things. If you look it up, you'll see that if you were a child or a teenager and you cursed and dishonored and disobeyed your parent, you could be put to death. Be put to death for adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, idolatry, incest, and the list goes on. By the way, there were no prisons in ancient Israel; that didn't come along until the monarchy. You were either executed or enslaved, to make restitution for what you did.

Now you add to all of this, the ridiculous rules that the Pharisees came up with; rules that God didn't ask, but stuff they came up with, I won't even go into it. They are they are ludicrous. And you can see why Jesus said to the people, "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden." Don't you know they were? I get weary and heavy laden, just talking about it. Just thinking about it. "Come to Me and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle, and humble of spirit and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." This is why the apostle John would say in First John five, three, "His commandments are not burdensome." No, they're not because of the new covenant. The Psalmist said "Oh, how I love your law." Psalm 119:97. Psalm 40 verse eight, I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law within my heart." Lord, I know I try the best I can, but I know that ultimately, I'm just dependent upon your grace. By the way Old Testament saints were saved just like New Testament saints, they were saved by grace, through faith; and Christ that had not yet come.

By the way, I hope you understand how absurd it is for some people, like, for example, the Seventh Day Adventists to arbitrarily transport certain aspects of the law and grace, the Old Covenant, into the new. You know, I've talked with some of them before, and they say, Yeah, you know, we keep the Sabbath. Oh really? First of all, which one? And secondly, all of it? You know, which parts do you leave out? Really, you keep the Sabbath? Oh, my, you know, the diet restrictions alone would leave me out. Boy, I love a good pork BBQ sandwich, you know?

Now back to Paul's defense that God made us "adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter"-- not of all those external things that you have to do--but of the spirit, "for the letter kills." Yeah, it kills your hope. It kills your joy; it kills your peace. You're always wondering if you're gonna make the cut. And this is the horror of legalism. Always coming up with another hoop you got to jump through; some external religious hoop to impress God, and somehow make you feel better about your own spirituality. Because after all, you're doing all these things that other people aren't. Talk about hypocrisy; the futile works of sacramental ism and ceremonialism. Romans 10, verse three, "not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God." So here in Second Corinthians three, Paul is saying, Look, God did not make me a servant of the old covenant, of all that stuff. I mean, the letter kills, he made me adequate to be a servant of the new covenant, because the Spirit gives life.

And, folks, here's why I would say that number one, we see that the new covenant is the source of eternal life in the Spirit. You must understand that it is the Spirit of God that is the agent of regeneration. Do you realize that by His power, you and I were born again?

Remember, when Nicodemus the Pharisee, this great leader of all of Israel, he was on the governing body of the Sanhedrin; this teacher of Israel at the very pinnacle and prominence of Israel. He comes to Jesus, confessing that he's this great teacher and miracle worker. And, and in essence, what he's saying is, what do I need to do to get into the kingdom? I'm doing all these things, but I need to know what must I do to be saved? And basically, what did Jesus say? Well basically what he said, You must be born again. Got to be born again. Notice what Jesus didn't say, Well, you need to, you need to keep this rule here. And you need to start doing this. And then this and this, quit doing this and start doing this. No. You see, folks under the new covenant, it's all of grace. It's not of works. Jesus said, John three, three, "'Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'" In other words, what Jesus is saying, and this is why the true gospel is so offensive; and I'm going to give you elements of it right now--what Jesus is saying is that sin has so corrupted and polluted the soul of man, that there is absolutely nothing that he can do to save himself. He is utterly dependent upon God to do a total renovation of his nature. He is saying that all that man is, and all that man does, is fundamentally offensive to a holy God. It is only the Spirit that gives life. That's what he's saying. You can't do certain things and somehow cooperate with God's grace and then save yourself. It's the Spirit that gives life. Jesus repeated this in John 6:63, "It is the Spirit who gives life."

You see in regeneration, we are born according to John 1:13, "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." In regeneration, man is entirely passive, wholly dependent upon the miraculous work of the Spirit to give spiritual life to a spiritual corpse, because we're dead in sin. James 1:18, "In the exercise of His will," not ours, but his will, "He brought us forth by the word of truth." And of course, Jesus uses this amazing imagery of birth. I mean, think about it, even as a child makes no contribution to his own conception or birth in the physical realm. He’s totally dependent upon the activity of the parent. So too, a sinner who is dead, spiritually dead, totally depraved, and totally dependent upon the sovereign grace of God, can't do anything to contribute to his spiritual birth. It is the Spirit who causes man to suddenly see the horror of his sin. And it is the Spirit that causes us to acknowledge that sin, to cry out for mercy, to repent and to believe in Christ. Even though that is our responsibility, it is the Spirit that causes us to act consistently with what God has called us to do. Jesus said in John three verse eight, back to Nicodemus, "'The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from, and where it is going.'" Then he says, "'so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.'" I like the way John Murray put it, quote, "The wind is not at our beck and call, neither is the regenerative operation of the Spirit," end quote. By the way, this is the danger of altar calls. This is the danger of revivalism. This is the danger of us trying to say "Spirit of God, I'll take over here, I'll do some things to manipulate people. Let's get the music just right, get the stories just right, get everybody kind of worked up. And let's get them to make a decision for Christ." Folks, we give them the gospel and it is the Spirit of God who gives them life. That is the glory of the new covenant. The effectual call of regeneration is pictured in the future regeneration of Israel. Remember, in Ezekiel 37:1 through 11, there the Spirit of God breathes life into a valley of dry bones, my what a picture of man and his depravity, utterly lifeless, unable to respond. Then in Ezekiel 37:12, we read, "'Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves.'" In verse 14, "'and I will put my Spirit within you and you shall live.'" O, child of God, salvation is a gift of grace from beginning to end.

The effectual call of regeneration is also pictured in the story of Lazarus, remember that in John 11? What an amazing story. Jesus stands before the tomb of his friend that's been dead for four days and Jesus cries out, "Lazarus, come forth!" And the text says, and the man who had died came out. Jesus did that with me when I was nine years old. He called me from death unto life. He's done that with you, I hope all of you.

We also see the Spirit giving life in Paul's comparison of regeneration to God's creation of the world. In Second Corinthians four six we read, "For God, who said, 'Light shall come out of darkness,' is the One who has shown in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.'" There he's referring to the Spirit's role in creation, where he spoke things into existence out of nothing, "ex Nihilo," where he said, "Let there be light and there was light." That's what he does in our soul. So indeed, Paul was made a minister of the new covenant, where the Spirit is the source of eternal life, not your own works.

One of my former professors, Dr. Dick Mae who said quote, "In regeneration, God unites the external call of the gospel preaching with his sovereign and effectual call to unto new life, into darkened and dead hearts, he speaks the command, 'Let there be light,' and instantaneously births in us the light of eternal spiritual life, where it had not existed." Oh, dear friends, the blessings of the New Covenant are beyond our imagination. They exceed the bounds of language. You see, in regeneration we have that great bridge of grace that spans man's depravity and the righteous demands of God's law. That is the requirement to enter into the kingdom. But you ask, well, what must I do to be saved? If it's all a work of the Spirit? How can I be held responsible? Well, it's true, that you are responsible; we are responsible to believe in God's sovereignty and man's responsibility is a matter that's perfectly compatible in the mind of God. He doesn't even try to explain it knows we couldn't understand it. And for us, it's an inscrutable mystery. But let me say this. If you truly see the horror of your sin, and you see the righteousness of Christ and the glory of the cross, and you know that unless God does something, you are going to perish in your sins; if you see that, know full well that is the Spirit of God that has quickened your heart and given you that light. He is speaking light into your life. If a person experiences that and they suddenly are crying out to God in mercy, know that it is the Spirit of God that has caused them to do so. Know that it was the Spirit of God that had written their names in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. Know full well that if that is in your heart, if that is your desire, it's because God elected you to his grace before the foundation of the world; that he chose you in Christ before time began. Never will there be a person who can stand before a holy God and say, Oh, it was just all up to you and you just didn't do what you were supposed to do. And so how can I be held responsible? You say I just don't believe in it that okay? Then you will perish in your sins. But if you want to be saved, Paul says in Romans 10 Nine, "If you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead," what's gonna happen? He says, "you will be saved." "For with a heart a person believes resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

You see, dear friends, man's responsibility is to respond to the gospel. And when man responds to the gospel, it is the Spirit of God that has caused him to do so. It is the Spirit of God that is quickening his heart, speaking light into that corpse and life into that corpse. And it is the Spirit of God who then will cause a person to be born again, because we can't "born again" ourselves.

Well, the next time we're together, we'll look at more works of the Holy Spirit. There's just so many great things that we need to understand, especially as it relates to the new covenant. And I pray that today you have a renewed appreciation of the holiness of God, because it is sorely missing in evangelicalism today. And when you don't understand the holiness of God, you'll never be able to sing, sincerely, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me." Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths that speak so clearly to our hearts. Thank you for the new covenant. Thank you that we are united to Christ, who has fulfilled the law perfectly. And therefore, on our behalf, he has satisfied your demands. This is the glory of the gospel. And we celebrated here today. And Father, if there be one that knows nothing about what it means to truly be reconciled to a holy God through faith in Christ; they know nothing of what it means to have that intimate relationship, that joy, that peace, that comfort, that hope, that faith, I pray that by the power of your Spirit, you will breathe life into that spiritual cadaver, cause them to come alive, cause them to see the horror of their sin and come running to the cross, pleading for a mercy they do not deserve and a righteousness they cannot have on their own, that they might be saved. Lord, I pray this for members in my family, for friends, for people in this church, for our young children, Lord, be merciful and save them. We thank you We give you praise in Jesus name. Amen.

Will you take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter three. We continue to make our way through this epistle; we're going to be looking at the first six verses, under the heading "Five Marks of a True Shepherd." That's where we are in our study of Second Corinthians and I might add that this is going to be encouraging to all of you and instructive to all of you, not just to pastors or to elders. Before I read the text, let me remind you of the context. It's so important.

The Corinthians, as you will recall, we're in love with the wisdom of man, philosophy. They loved that and that was their form of entertainment. And rather than having their favorite football team or their favorite basketball team, or whatever, they attach themselves to their favorite philosopher, kinda like political parties or whatever. And so a skilled orator would move an audience with their soaring rhetoric. And of course, they were doing it to make money. And people naturally we're attracted to their favorite orator or their favorite preacher in Corinth. Remember that as well, I've of Paul, I'm of Apollos, and so forth. Well, naturally, with the growth of Christianity, comes the growth of people that are interested in it and want to know how they can make a buck off of it. And so that's what happened. This caught the attention of these characters who had superficially attached themselves to the church. We believe that the ones that came to Corinth were probably from Jerusalem; I'll maybe hint about that a little bit more later. But certainly everybody was aware of the miracles that Jesus had done. It was well known. So people were fascinated with this. And I might add that every church is a magnet to every weirdo and nut job and con artists and false teacher in the world.

So Satan dispatches these greedy, unscrupulous men, mostly Judaizers, to hound the apostles, and to infiltrate the churches. Now, remember, the Judaizers were ones that they accepted some of the new covenant, but they wanted to mix the Old Covenant in with it. And so, in order to be saved, you had to also be circumcised, you had to do the Jewish rituals and, and all of those types of things. So they would impose all of this Judaism on to these new Gentile converts. And so these false teachers had drifted into the church with their phony letters of commendation that they had received from some other church and they come into the church and they begin to con the people there in Corinth and that's what they would typically do with other churches as well. They would get a letter of commendation whether it was phony, or maybe it was real that some of the people in the church had given them a letter, they would go to the next church and they'd begin to ply their trade in that church. And Paul said that they were guilty of quote "peddling the Word of God" in chapter two verse 17. They were con artists; they were shuck stirs they were they were charlatans. And Jesus warned about them, as well as the apostles, for example in Second, Peter and Jude in particular, you read much about the character of these people. In Second Peter two beginning of verse one, here's how Peter described them, "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them, the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed, they will exploit you with false words." And of course, there's 1000s of these kinds of people today, men and women. They are entrepreneurs. They are not divinely called and gifted shepherds serving Christ. In fact, all women preachers are self-appointed. God has not called them; they are forbidden to be in that position. The New Testament is so clear about that. But these people were all over the place then, they're all over the place today. I've got one guy that follows me on the internet and he's trying to make noise about how that the cross is the mark of the beast, and all kinds of bizarre things. I mean, you just get these crazy people, especially on the internet. Well, this was what was happening in Corinth.

Now mind you, Paul had been there for 18 months, these people knew who he was. And he had led many of them to Christ. But after he departed, the wolves started to come in. The shepherd leaves, now you've got wolves coming in to devour the sheep, and they viciously attack Paul's character in his absence. And of course, there was a main guy, who we believe is Paul's thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan. So they challenged his apostolic authority; they challenged his competency as a pastor. And unfortunately, some of the people bought the lies. And this was heartbreaking to Paul, to know that there were people that he loved, that he had led to Christ and that he had disciples that were suddenly believing these demonic lies. And so in this passage before us, he continues to offer a defense not so much for himself personally, as for the sake of the Gospel, for the glory of God, he doesn't want them to be led astray.

So anticipating that his adversaries would spin everything that he would say, in their favor, in their advantage, and accuse him of being arrogant and self-promoting, here's what he says, and this is our text, Second Corinthians three, verse one, "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

Now, we all know that defending your integrity from scurrilous, slanderous attacks is very difficult. You know how it works, even with a business, you can have 1000 satisfied customers, and have four or five dissatisfied customers, and guess who makes the most noise, right? And in fact, now, there's a whole industry of reputation restoration out there where they can somehow help you retrieve your good name. And I know what it's like, I've been called just about everything, it tends to go in one ear and out the other. But when the people of Calvary Bible Church began to believe a lie, now that's different. That's when I must defend not just my integrity, or the integrity of the elders, or of the church, but actually, for the sake of the gospel, we must defend from the lies. You know, "The first to plead his case seems right," Proverbs 18:17, "until another comes in examines him." And although truth and time walk hand in hand, sometimes you have to accelerate that process. And that's what's going on here with Paul and he does this so brilliantly, obviously, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But from this portion of his defense, we are able to glean some fascinating insights into the marks of a true shepherd.

By the way, this is the type of information that every pastoral search committee and every person looking for a church should know very well. So I've broken it down into five categories for you that I hope will be helpful. The life and ministry of a true shepherd will be marked by five things, number one, a virtuous reputation. Secondly, a fruitful ministry. Number three, a confident calling. Number four, a godly presence. And number five, a new covenant message.

So let's look closely at what the Holy Spirit is revealed to us through his inspired apostle. I want you to notice first in verse one that Paul asks them two questions. And both of them require a negative answer. He wants them to rebuff the allegations of the false apostles on their own. Especially the allegation that somehow, he's arrogant, that he's self-promoting, that he's tooting his own horn. And I'm sure they're capitalizing on some of the things that he said earlier. For example, in First Corinthians, he has to assert his apostolic authority, because they were believing lies, and this this was important, it was necessary for correcting error. But notice what he says in verse one, "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? The word "command" means "to introduce" or "to recommend, " to recommend a person as worthy of high regard of acceptance. I've written many letters of recommendation, he says, do we have to do this again? Really? Is this what's going on? He goes on to say, "Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you?" Now, you might wonder, why is he using the word we when he's talking about himself? Well, that was a customary literary device. It's called the "editorial we" rather than saying "I," it was a way of kind of being humble and self-effacing in the communication. But he's asking them to make an honest evaluation of his character based upon the 18 months that he had been with them. In fact, he's saying really? After all, that you saw when I was with you, you think my character is in question? You're believing what these people are saying about me? Now, they were used to receiving letters of commendation. We know for example, in Acts 18, verse 27, there's a description there of a letter of recommendation that the church received at Corinth, from Ephesus, regarding Apollos to come to them. Verse two, he says, "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again?" The answer, of course, is no. "Or do we need a some letters of commendation to you or from you?"

Now, evidently, the false apostles told them that he lacked the proper official letters of commendation, which were customary in that day. And it's customary in these days when you don't know something about other people, and they need to be properly introduced. So these wolves probably came from Jerusalem originally, we get a hint about this, and Acts 15:24. But they present some kind of phony letters of commendation. And here in the second part of verse two, we see that they wanted the Corinthians to give them letters of commendation so that they could use them to go on to the next church to do the same type of thing. By the way, Paul addresses this in Second Corinthians five, verse 12. He says, "We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart." And in chapter 10 and verse 12, he adds, "For we're not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding." And in verse 18, he went on to say, "For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends." Beloved, from this, we can clearly see that the life and ministry of a true shepherd will first be marked by a virtuous reputation. Everybody that knows that man will know who he really is based upon the pattern of his life. And Paul's life was not marked by self-promotion, not marked by arrogance, or by greed or anything else as he had been scurrilously charged by his opponents. A man's life and a man's ministry must and will speak for itself, as he will go on to say, in fact, he says in First Timothy three two that, "An overseer, then, must be above reproach"--referring to elders, pastors, elders, got to be above reproach--"the husband of one wife," meaning them must be devoted to their wife and not a womanizer, must be "temperate, prudent, respectable...free from the love of money." It goes on to say, verse seven, "He must have a good reputation with those outside the church."

Well, certainly Paul's conscience was clear on all of this, as he stated in chapter one and verse 12. He says, "For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you." You see, Paul's life and his ministry, were beyond reproach. He had a virtuous reputation. He had no desire for wealth, he had no desire for fame. He wasn't trying to build a ministry empire; he wasn't trying to build a mega church. Boy, he could have done that with all of his giftedness, and with his apostolic powers, but that wasn't what he was about. He was gladly willing to suffer for Christ and serve him faithfully and sacrificially in obscurity.

You know, there are many examples of men and women, especially missionaries, who have done the same pastors as well. I'm currently reading a powerful biography, that I would encourage you all to read. It's a biography of a 19th century Scottish Minister, the name of the book is "The Pastor of Kilsyth: The Life and Times of W. H. Burns: Kilsyth, by the way is k i l s y t h and it was written by Islay Burns, who was his son, and his son lived between 1817 and 1872. You say, well, my goodness, I've never heard of W. H. Burns. Well, that's exactly the point. He won't show up on a Google search, except with reference to this book. He served Christ faithfully in obscurity in rural Scotland, from 1800 until the Lord took him home in 1859. Talk about a virtuous reputation. On the jacket of that book, it says this "In a celebrity driven age, (from which the evangelical church is far from exempt), this is exactly the kind of life that ministers, especially young ministers would do well to study. For it is good to be reminded of the beauty, dignity and ultimately, the glory of humble, obscure Christian service (Matthew 10:42). While there is needed times for towering leaders such as John Calvin, and John Knox, it is nevertheless true that the great work of the church is ultimately carried forward by those who receive little earthly reward and recognition (but whose reward in heaven is great). William H. Burns, the pastor of Kilsyth was one of these, and we need many more like him in our day." Folks, this was the heart of the apostle Paul and his life. And his ministry validated the integrity of his heart, and he needed no further commendation apart from a just as virtuous life. You want to ask yourself, can I be characterized in that way?

Well, the life and ministry of a true shepherd will be marked not only by a virtuous reputation, but secondly, a fruitful ministry. Notice again, verse two, "You are our letter, written in our hearts." That's a phrase denoting his great love for them. "Known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the Living God, and not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts."

Now, this, of course, is consistent with God's covenant promises given to the Prophets, especially Jeremiah, for example, a new covenant promise, remember, and Jeremiah 31, verse 33, "'But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,' declares the Lord," here it is, "'I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God and they shall be My people.'" And certainly Paul is harkening back to that great truth; that great promise the Lord spoke to Ezekiel as well. Ezekiel 11, beginning of verse 19, "And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes, and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God."

So Paul is saying to the saints in Corinth, the Spirit of God has written his letter of commendation for me, he has written it on your hearts--the ones that he has saved, that he is transformed by the word of Christ that I preached to you. By the way, this was a letter the false teachers did not have right. They did not have a fruitful ministry. In first Corinthians two chapter four, or chapter two, verse four, Paul said this, "my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God." O, dear Christian, there is no greater evidence of the power of the gospel than men and women whose lives have been transformed by it. Nor is there any greater authentication of a man's ministry than seeing those that he has shepherded; to see lives that have been changed by the power of Christ--saints who are born again; that's the great power of regeneration--when the spirit breathes life into our spiritual corpses and he raises us from spiritual death to spiritual life. It makes us new creatures in Christ. All of the old things that once appealed to our flesh, no longer do; these new things have come. And now we begin to walk by the Spirit. That's so different than the Christless Christianity that we typically see today. This cultural Christianity, this phony churchianity, where people are Christian in name only. They say they're born again but there's nothing in their life that would validate that. You know, it's like being pregnant. You either are or you're not, right? And if you're pregnant, it's going to show there's going to be evidence of that. And if you're not pregnant, there's going to be evidence that you're; it's the same thing with Christianity. You know, you say you belong to Christ, then let's see the fruit of Christ's likeness in your life. The fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. That's the only letter that Paul needed--the fruit of his ministry, and that's what was going on with many of those dear saints, even though some of them had been snookered by these false teachers. The only letter Paul needed was a fruitful ministry of transformed lives that loved Christ. Remember, First Thessalonians chapter one, verse five, Paul said this, "For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in," catch this, "power and in the Holy Spirit." You see, he's the one that causes us to be born again. Verse eight, he goes on to say, "For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. For they themselves, report about us what kind of reception we had with you, and how you turn to God from idols to serve a living and true God." Folks, this is the power of a fruitful ministry that results when a man of God preaches the transforming truths of the gospel; the Spirit of God changes people. First Thessalonians two verse 13, he says, "For this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe." Folks, if you want to measure a minister, look at the fruits of his ministry. It's real simple. Don't look at his popularity, don't look at the size of his church. Don't look at all the numbers of special ministries that are offered. My goodness, if that was the criteria, Jesus and the apostles fell woefully short of all of that; they would have been considered miserable failures in our culture. Look at the people that that man shepherds; men and women who have the mind of Christ, who love Christ and serve Christ. And when you look at their lives, they manifest Christ. It's fascinating. So think about it, in the New Testament, Christ, praised God. For virtues, I should say in the New Testament, well, yes, no, that's it is what I want to say Christ did give praise to God for virtues that in many ways we don't even think about in our culture these days. I mean, most people attend churches based upon what their kids want. You know, this is like asking your kids to develop their own educational curriculum and how they want to study. My goodness, can you imagine what that would be like? I mean, by the time they're 12 years old, they'd weigh 300 pounds, they would be totally illiterate. And all they could do is look at screens and press buttons. I mean, that would be their life. Proverbs 22:15 says that "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child." And we know that a fool has no fear of God. That's where unsaved kids are. And the fear of God is the beginning of what? Beginning of wisdom. So really, you're going to let a child decide where you're going to grow and be fed and worship Christ? Well, a lot of churches understand that's how people think. So they try to create their own version of Disneyland, where children and youth are going to be excited, because that is, if you read any of the church growth movement today, they will tell you that if you want to grow your church, you must focused on children's and youth ministries. That is the key to church growth. And my response is biblically, that is the key to spiritual immaturity. Parents and adults never grow into spiritual maturity in those types of churches. Those types of churches will constantly be attracting unbelievers, the church will fill up with unbelievers. Many times, you hear them say, well, we want to church the unchurched. Well, really the unchurched are those people that are for the most part, unbelievers and what ends up happening? You fill up the church with unbelievers and so the unchurched, un- church the church, if that makes sense, I think I said that the way I intended. Well, the result is no discernment in a church. And its people mirror the world rather than Christ marriages eventually begin to suffer, families begin to suffer. Frankly, many churches today are nothing more than religious country clubs with the spiritual discernment of liberal Democrats. And they have the morality of a frat house on spring break. I mean, I see this all the time. I mean, think about it. There are numerous Christian denominations today that preach social gospel. Many Christian denominations, that see nothing wrong with same sex marriage and promote the LGBTQ agenda. They even ordain sodomites and lesbians to be their pastors, people who will never enter the kingdom of God, we read in First Corinthians 6:10. Folks, this is staggering. And it's satanic. A true shepherd will not allow this type of thing to happen. He will have a fruitful ministry. You can look at the people and you can see that they are people that love Christ, that have been transformed by the gospel.

One of the greatest mission fields today is the so called Christian church. I was thinking about this, this past week. Let me remind you of a few things that Jesus commended churches for in the Bible. I'm not going to give you the reference, but there's references for all of these. And this is therefore what we need to look for at church: moral purity, love of the truth, pursuit of holiness, devotion to the Word of God, good deeds, hard work, endurance, discernment, suffering, love, faith, righteous living, willingness to discipline sin, submission, repentance, loving the brethren, prayer, strong teaching and preaching, spiritual leadership, joyful attitudes, generosity, boldness, submission to God's sovereignty, and true worship. Folks, this will be the fruit of a true shepherd. This will be the fruit of true elders.

Let me give you just a short list of what Jesus condemned: lost love, compromise, tolerating sin, immorality, idolatry, deadness, lukewarmness, hypocrisy, false teaching, false preaching a different gospel, undisciplined living, disunity, sin, arrogant divisions, prolonged spiritual immaturity, abusing Christian liberty profaning the Lord's Supper, misappropriating spiritual gifts, unwillingness to forgive, and poor financial stewardship. This will be the fruit of a false Shepherd. But many of the saints at Corinth were a living testimony to the transforming power of the gospel that Paul preached. And this was the only letter of recommendation that he needed. That was his point. He had a living letter of transformed lives that loved and served and worshipped Christ. And I would encourage you to ask yourself, Is my life bearing spiritual fruit? I hope that it is. And I know for most of you it is.

So the life and ministry of a true shepherd will be marked by a virtuous reputation of fruitful ministry. And thirdly, a confident calling. Notice verse four, "such confidence we have through Christ toward God." You see, Paul was not arrogant. He was confident in his calling. He was confident that God had commissioned him to do and to say, what he was do doing, and what he was saying. In Colossians 125, he says, "Of this church, I was made a minister, according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God." In First Thessalonians two, beginning in verse four, "we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with the pretext for greed--God is witness." You see, Paul was confident of his calling, as every pastor, as every elder should be. And frankly, every believer should be with respect to what God has called them to do within the realm of their spiritual influence. I mean, Paul knew what happened on the road to Damascus, talk about a calling. Paul knew how Christ, himself, had taught him for three years in the desert of Arabia. He knew that he had been given supernatural abilities. He knew that the Spirit of God had inspired him to write what he was writing. And he knew that God had even given him a tour in heaven. But he also knew that it was all of God's grace. It was not because of any merit of his own. In fact, in Ephesians three, verse seven, he said, "I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working of His power." First Corinthians 15:10, he said, "By the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me."

In my book, "Seven Key Principles for Effective Ministry: Nurturing Thriving Churches in a Postmodern Culture," I've devoted a whole chapter to this issue of a pastor being convinced of his calling. And there are essentially five divine tests of divine calling to vocational ministry that emerge from the study of the apostle Paul, in particular. I'll just give them to you. A man must have these five things: number one, a longing to know and serve Christ. Number two, a sense of urgency to preach the gospel. Number three, a pervasive feeling of inadequacy. Number four, a burden to shepherd the flock. And number five, a public confirmation of spiritual gifts, character and abilities. Dear friends, if a man does not have an unshakable conviction, that these realities are true in his life, he will have no certainty that God has called and gifted him to be a shepherd and therefore, he will never survive the inevitable difficulties of ministry.

Well, to be sure, the false apostles knew nothing of any of this. They weren't serving Christ, they were serving themselves. And so ultimately they were serving Satan. So Paul had no doubt whatsoever that God had called him to the ministry. And his confidence was anchored in the Gibraltar of something that is absolutely crucial in our understanding of our salvation. And that is the anchor of our union with Christ. He knew that he was in Christ and Christ was within him.

Notice verse four, "Such confidence we have through Christ toward God." In other words, it was a gift from Christ in relation to God, to be pleasing to God. And with confidence, dear friends comes courage, which can often be mistaken for arrogance. You see, he spoke with confidence and courage, and with authority because he was God's messenger. He knew the truth; he proclaimed the truth. He knew that he was united to Christ; this is what he was to do. He rejoiced in that and of course, that infuriated his adversaries. And every faithful pastor knows what that is like, you know? There's a constant assault on divine authority and anyone who proclaims that divine authority, I mean, people want authority for themselves, right? Strong convictions in our postmodern culture are considered arrogant. You ask the average millennial about, you know, absolute truth and they will reject every expression of certainty. They scoff at the idea that God has spoken in his Bible, and that is the end of the matter. This is what God has said, this is authority. This is absolute, authoritative truth. Well, such an idea these days is considered just the worst form of elitism, of bigotry, of intolerance. That kind of thinking is oppressive. You tell the average person today that God has said something about a particular issue and watch the response. Well, that's just your interpretation. Well, that's your truth. But that's not my truth. Well, who are you to tell me what to believe? Well, the Bible is full of myths and superstitions. So I can't believe any of that silly stuff. So, what happens in order to appeal to the culture, avant garde evangelicals, in other words, the kind of elite forward-thinking evangelicals have decided to conform to the culture rather than confront it. So what they do is soften the truth, so it won't be so offensive--let's lighten up on doctrinal things, let's don't be so cut and dry. After all, doctrine divides, right? So let's focus on style and methodology. Let's embrace the hermeneutics of humility. Because really, none of us can say for certain what the Bible says or what we need to believe.

But folks, truth is inextricably bound to God himself. Because God is truth and he has revealed himself in his Word, and he longs for people to worship him in spirit and in truth. In fact, we know that Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father, but through Me." So Paul came to this exceedingly immoral, idolatrous city of Corinth and he did just the opposite of what modern evangelical pragmatism would tell us to do. He cared nothing about coming in and in looking like them and being cool like them and talking like them and kind of using their methodologies and their style and their techniques to move an audience. None of that type of thing. In fact, what he did, you might say, seems counter intuitive. What he did is just unleash the truth of the gospel. And look what happened. Yeah, he didn't fill up auditoriums, but people were saved. You know, as my friend Dr. Culbertson said years ago, the President of Moody Bible Institute, he said, "What you win them with, you win them to." And he didn't win them with entertainment. He didn't win them with boosting their self-esteem and affirming them in their sin. He won them with the gospel. He said this in First Corinthians two beginning of verse two, he said, "For I determined to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you, in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching, were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God."

You see, he knew that the only truth that can save is the truth of the gospel, that most all men will hate. But he was not ashamed of the gospel. For he knew that it was the power of God, unto those who believed to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Now, beloved, this is not arrogance. This is faithfulness to the God of truth. Paul knew he had no authority on his own, but his authority was from God. And it was because of this, that he was resolute in his devotion to God, who had called him to do what he was doing and called him to do it in the way that he was doing it, not in man's way. So he was bold, he was uncompromising, but he was not arrogant. He was not self-promoting as the false teachers were alleging.

Second Corinthians four verse seven, we read, "But we have this treasure," referring to the gospel, "we have this treasure in earthen vessels"-- A reference to a disposable clay pot that was used for human waste and garbage. That's how we need to see ourselves. That's how I've seen myself. I mean, I'm disposable. I'm nothing. The treasure is in me, the treasure is in you, but we're nothing. He went on to say, Why did God do that? "So that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves." He went on to say, "we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body of the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death, for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh." Folks, only a man who was confident in his calling, would sacrifice himself in such a way. Are you confident in what God has called you to do? And are you faithful ain doing it?

Well, the life and ministry of a true shepherd will be marked by a virtuous reputation, a fruitful ministry, a confident calling and fourthly, a godly presence. Let me explain this to you. And first of all, notice verse five, "Not that we are adequate in ourselves," he says, "to consider anything is coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate." You see, Paul took no credit for any success that he had in ministry, all of it went to God. I mean, he knew his own limitations. He knew that all wisdom and strength and power that made him adequate, all of that came from God. Jesus said, "Apart from me, you can do nothing." He understood that. Second Timothy two two remember he told Timothy, who was who was weak and vacillating. He said, "Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." Paul understood this in First Corinthians 15, nine, here's what he said, "For I am the least of the apostles." Talk about a guy that doesn't toot his horn. "I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." Folks, that's where the power is. He understood that God's power is perfected in weakness, not in human strength.

We see this clearly in the Lord's repeated response to Paul's threefold implorations to have that thorn in the flesh removed when the Lord said in Second Corinthians 12 nine, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." And there we discover a most important truth. And that is this; God's all sufficient grace is the conduit of his inexhaustible power that is perfected in our weakness. And even as the Spirit empowered the Lord Jesus Christ, to endure the horrors of the cross, so too, is he sufficient to empower all of us who are united to him to endure the most grueling labors, the most trying temptations, the most cruel sufferings, that he brings our way. So Paul was a living example of the grace of God, the power of God; a man therefore, that I would call having a godly presence with God, or what Paul called "a man of God," First Timothy 6:11, a man who is quote, "full of the Spirit and wisdom,' Acts six three. Which by the way, are the qualifications that saints were to look for in deacons, and deaconesses; virtues not every man possesses. A man who according to First Timothy 4:12, in "speech, conduct love, faith and purity shows himself," or we could even add herself, "an example of those who believe." Boy aren't we all drawn to people like that? Men and women who just manifest the power of Christ in their lives? I've written on the subject as well, regarding pastors in particular, men like Stephen, like Paul, the apostles, and so forth. I'll share this with you, "By godly presence, I mean a man with a noticeable aura of godliness about him, both in and out of the pulpit. A man like Jesus. A man who possesses a palpable sense of humility and love that draws you into his presence. A man who exudes spiritual strength, confidence, boldness, wisdom, and a noticeable fervency that marks him as a man of God, and a man on a mission. A man so lost in the wonder of the majesty of God, so filled by the divine presence that nothing in this world causes him to despair or tempts him to distraction. This is that rare man whose authority enters a room with him and commands respect without ever asking for it. This is that exceptional man who has such a great likeness to Jesus, that he actually emanates his power in ways that are mysteriously transcendent, and profoundly influential. He manifests what Paul described as 'the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe it in accordance with the working of the strength of His might,' (Ephesians 1:19). A personal power that only comes from Him "who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us (Ephesians 3:20). Well, to be sure, dear friends, this describe the apostle Paul. A man whose adequacy was from God, not from himself; a man who had a godly presence, who needed no further commendation. And may I encourage you to ask yourself, How do I impact other people? What do other people see when they are around me?

Well, finally, not only will the true shepherd be marked by a virtuous reputation of fruitful ministry, a confident calling and a godly presence, but a new covenant message. In verse six, he says that he has made us "adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." You see, unlike the false teachers, he did not arbitrarily transport certain elements of the old covenant of the Mosaic covenant of law into the glorious new covenant of God's grace, like the false apostles, did. You see this in a lot of cults, you see this in seventh day Adventism and that type of thing. You see the gospel of God, the new covenant, does not require anyone to conform to certain external religious rites or rituals of Judaism or any other system of human achievement for that matter. The new covenant is actually a synonym for the gospel of Christ. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as we see in the windows around us. You see, according to Hebrews nine, verses 11 through 15, we read about the new covenant. Unlike the old covenant, the new covenant is not ratified by the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, but by the blood of Christ. That's what Paul preached. It's Christ's accomplishment, not our own, that saves us. This is why Paul was singularly devoted to preaching the gospel, in all of its purity and power. He was a servant of, he says, "a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit." "Letter," by the way, referring to the onerous requirements of the law that could never save. All of those requirements were there to show us the holiness of God, in contrast to the sinfulness of man. And to help us see O, my God, have mercy on us, I need a Savior. I need help. I can't keep all of these laws. So you got to remember that the law was never intended to be a means of salvation, but rather, it was intended to be our tutor, to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith, Galatians 3:34. And we all know that indeed, "the letter kills but the Spirit gives life." Think about it. What Paul's saying is that the letter of the law produces guilt, it produces frustration, that actually produces damnation, unless we repent. No one is good enough to impress God with their own merits. "Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at one point, he has become guilty of all," James two 10. Counts me out, counts you all out. If you've ever been around legalism, you know what this is like. It seems like there's a new law, a new ritual or a new something that you've got to do every day. And all of that just gives you the illusion of spirituality. But it can never save. I feel sorry for the Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Mormons, and other cultic people that are trying to earn their way to heaven. But with the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. How? He causes us to be born again. He indwells us and enables us to fulfill God's law; He imputes to us the righteousness of Christ. And as a result, we rejoice in the eternal life that is ours because Christ has paid the penalty for our sins and given us his righteousness. Folks, are you passionate about the gospel? I hope that you are.

Well, dear friends, I hope and pray that you've asked God to save you by his grace. If you haven't, and you are still under the wrath of God, and one day you will die and you will spend an eternity in hell. But the good news is, Christ is offered forgiveness through faith in him. And for those of us who know and love Christ, I pray that we will all emulate the life and the ministry of the apostle Paul, the ministry of a true shepherd and whatever sphere of influence he has placed us. May your life be marked by a virtuous reputation, a fruitful ministry, a confident calling, a godly presence and a new covenant message and then with Francis Havergal, we can sing, "Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to Thee. Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my heart, it is thine own, it shall be thy royal throne. Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord, to Thee." Let's pray together.

Father, may these indeed be the marks of each of our lives that we might bring glory to you and enjoy the fullness of your grace in our lives this side of glory. Thank you for the power of your word. May it bear much fruit for Jesus’ sake. And it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

It’s always an amazing thought to my heart to know that I have the opportunity to minister the word of God to you. And once again, we have that opportunity. So you take the infallible record of his word and turn to Second Corinthians chapter two. We're going to continue our exposition of this epistle under the heading this morning of "Gaining Victory over Heartache." Certainly a reality for many people who are struggling in serious ways. Let me read the text beginning in Second Corinthians two verse 12. Apostle Paul speaking here, "Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord, I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus, my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia. But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God, among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other, and aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God."

Heartache is the great risk of love. Most of us know that pain, the pain of betrayal. We all know that loving someone deeply opens up the possibility of being hurt deeply when that love is spurned. And certainly, the apostle Paul loved the saints in Corinth very deeply, and many of them hurt him deeply when they drank the Kool Aid that was passed out by those false apostles that infiltrated that church and turned many of them against him. Satan dispatched these men to slander Paul, to seduce the saints, who were already spiritually immature. They were babes in Christ. You will recall that they were worldly, heavily influenced by the pagan culture around them from which they came. They were divisive, they were hateful, they were selfish, they were disorderly, they were suing each other over trivial things. I mean, it was a mess. They flaunted their freedoms in Christ. They abused their spiritual gifts trying to show off making up their own version of tongues. It was so bad that someone cursed Christ in an unknown tongue and they thought it was from the Holy Spirit. So the church was a mess in many ways. And yet, there were some people there that were more mature, and they were all growing in Christ.

And by the way, I might add that churches that are immature, that are poorly taught, that are poorly shepherded are going to be undiscerning. And they're going to be easy prey for false teachers. And that's what was going on in Corinth. These wolves had come into Corinth, to assassinate Paul's character with trumped up allegations to somehow undermine his credibility and his authority as an apostle; to discredit his teaching and replace it with their own. This was heartbreaking to Paul. It was devastating. Now the slander was bad enough, but then to add on top of that, being rejected by people you love.

After writing First Corinthians to confront them on all of this, you will recall he had an intensely painful visit with them as we read in chapter two here in verse one, then he returned back to Ephesus. He wrote a severe letter to them that Titus had to deliver to them. And then he had to wait to hear how the people reacted; to hear whether or not they had repented and embraced him once again. So that's the context of what's going on here. Folks, it's hard to imagine the kind of emotional pain that the apostle Paul suffered. We know that he was beaten, he was stoned, he was imprisoned. I mean, the list goes on and on. In chapter one, beginning in verse eight, he describes some severe trial; we don't know really what was going on there. But he says, "For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction, which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we have the sentence of death within ourselves." And in Second Corinthians chapter four, in verse eight, he said, "We are afflicted in every way."

Worse yet, we know that Paul's ministry in Ephesus wasn't going well. There were a number of people that came to Christ as you will recall, but because of that, they were burning their idols, giving up their idols. And so all of the idol makers; that was a huge business there in Ephesus, those guys were really upset, so they attacked Paul and a riot happened there in Ephesus. Paul says in First Corinthians 16:9, was filled with "many adversaries," and so he has to leave and there's all kinds of problems going on for this. But folks, there's there is no pain like relational pain. That's the worst kind. And that's what's pictured so graphically here. We read about it as well in Second Corinthians 12, verse seven, he says, "Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations," referring to his opportunity to go into heaven and see those glorious things, "for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-- to keep me from exalting myself!" If things weren't bad enough, he had to endure this.

Let me comment on that for just a moment, the term "thorn," "skolops" in the original language; refers to something pointed, something that produces great pain. And in this case, the vexing torment was a quote, "messenger of Satan." In verse seven, the term "messenger"--"aggelos"-- is used 186 times in the New Testament. And in every case, it refers to a person, either a human being or an angel. And given the context of Second Corinthians, where he's defending his apostleship against these false teachers that are trying to destroy him, it's reasonable to believe that this messenger of Satan refers to the leader of that pack of wolves. This should be no surprise Paul says in chapter 11, verse 14, "Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguised themselves as servants of righteousness."

Furthermore, I might add that the verb translated "torment" refers to harsh treatment from another person throughout the New Testament. So this thorn in Paul's flesh was probably a demonically possessed false apostle; a messenger of Satan, who treated Paul with such contempt. The language that is used is likened to being struck in the face. That's how bad it was. But sadly, a number of the people in Corinth believed this guy and others who were with him. He had his sycophants, as all these kinds of divisive people do. They believe the slanderous lies. This was heartbreaking to the Apostle Paul. And I might add for anybody that's in pastoral ministry, in whatever capacity, certainly as a pastor, ministry can be very, very difficult. Satan absolutely despises those in leadership. I can give you many testimonies of men that I have known over the years who had to endure such terrible things that they were afraid it was going to cost them their life and they gave up.

One example cited in A.T Robertson's, "The Glory of the Ministry," reveals why one pastor threw in the towel. Here's what he said. He wrote to a another pastor, missionary friend by the name of Jim. He says, "My dear Jim, I'm through. Yesterday I handed in my resignation to take effect at once. And this morning I began to work at an unnamed certain company. I shall not return to the pastorate. I think I can see into your heart as you read these words, and behold, not a little disappointment, if not disgust. I don't blame you at all. I'm somewhat disgusted with myself. Do you recall the days in the seminary when we talked of the future and painted pictures of what we were to do for the kingdom of God? We saw the boundless need for an unselfish Christian service and longed to be among men doing our part toward the world's redemption. I shall never forget that last talk on the night before our graduation. You were to go to the foreign field and I to the first church," and he names the church. "We had brave dreams of usefulness, and you have realized them. As I look back across 25 years, I can see some lives that I have helped, and some things which I have been permitted to do that are worthwhile. But sitting here tonight, I am more than half convinced that God never intended me to be a minister. If he did, I am not big enough and brave enough to pay the price. Even if it leads you to write me down as a coward. I'm going to tell you why I've quit. In these years I have found not a few earnest, unselfish consecrated Christians. I do not believe that I am specially morbid or unfair in my estimate. So far as I know my heart, I am not bitter. But through all these years, a conviction has been growing within me, that the average church member cares precious little about the Kingdom of God, and its advancement, or the welfare of his fellow men. He is a Christian in order that he may save his soul from hell and for no other reason. He does as little as he can, lives as indifferently as he dares. If he thought he could gain heaven without lifting a finger for others, he would jump at the chance. Never have I known more than a small minority of any church, which I have served to be really interested in and unselfishly devoted to God's work. It took my whole time to pull and push and urge and persuade the reluctant members of my church to undertake a little something for their fellow men. They took a covenant to be faithful in attendance, but upon the services of the church, and not one out of 10 ever thought of attending prayer meeting. A large percentage seldom attended church in the morning, and a pitifully small number in the evening. It didn't seem to mean anything to them that they had dedicated themselves to the service of Christ. So I'm tired. Tired of being the only one in the church from whom real sacrifice is expected. Tired of straining and tugging to get Christian people to live like Christians. Tired of planning work for my people, and then being compelled to do it myself or see it left undone. Tired of dodging my creditors when I would not need to if I had what is due me. Tired of the frightening vision of penniless old age. I'm not leaving Christ. I love him. I shall still try to serve Him. Judge leniently old friend. I cannot bear to lose your friendship. Yours as of old, William.

While all pastors and missionaries, and anybody involved in ministry is going to be a target of Satan, and it's going to experience great difficulties, it's interesting how some quit and others persevere. The early days of Charles Spurgeon's ministry the pain of slander and scorn was so great that his wife Susanna would hide the morning newspaper to protect him from further insults. He described his melancholy this way, quote, "The iron bolt, which so mysteriously fastens the door of hope and holds our spirits in a gloomy prison needs a heavenly hand to push it back." His ministry was very difficult. Spurgeon struggled with depression, but he never quit. Why do some quit and others persevere? I know of no one who has suffered like the apostle Paul. I sure haven't; I haven't even come close. I will admit there have been times, especially early on in my ministry here at Calvary Bible Church, that the pain was so great in dealing with wicked people that I prayed on numerous occasions that God would just take me out of the ministry or take me home. I would rather die than go on the way that it was. I know that pain. I was tempted to quit. But I will tell you that the text that we're looking at this morning was one of the texts that the Lord used to speak to my heart in those early days of ministry.

So how did Paul overcome the debilitating discouragement that he experienced? How did he gain victory over heartache? Well, this text is going to help us answer this question. And I might add that it applies to every Christian, not just those in ministry, as you will see, giving you a very simple outline, we're just going to have two headings. We're going to look at the tragedy and then secondly, the triumph. And under the triumph, we're going to look at five practical insights into gaining victory over heartache.

Well, first of all the tragedy and I've already given you some background, but remember, Paul's preaching in Ephesus eventually caused a riot. So he had to, he had to get out of dodge, as we would say. And so we read here in this text that he goes to Troas, which was a seaport on the Aegean Sea; it would have been in Western Asia Minor, the northwest part of Turkey; look at Greece go across the Aegean Sea, and that's where he would have been; 10 miles from the legendary city of Troy, home of Helen, remember that story in Greek mythology in the Trojan War, and all of those things.

So let's read more of the tragedy here in verse 12. He says, "Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and when a door was opened for me in the Lord, I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother;" when he says "the door was open for me in the Lord," that's a phrase that Paul commonly used to describe a favorable opportunity to preach the gospel; an opportunity where people were literally responding to the gospel. So he had this door open to him, but his heart was in turmoil. It was breaking over all of this that was going on in Corinth; all that was happening to him. And he was anxiously awaiting to hear from Titus, wanting to hear how they responded to First Corinthians; how they responded to the severe letter that he wrote. And he knew Titus would need to pass through Troas to return to Ephesus, but he couldn't find him there. So it says, and he says at the end of verse 13, "but taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia." So he went across the Aegean Sea to northern Greece. Folks, for Paul to have left an open door tells you that he had to have been severely depressed, really struggling. I can't imagine the loneliness, the anxiety, wondering what happened. I mean, there were no cell phones, no email, no way of communicating. I mean, think about that. But Paul didn't give up, even though as he says in chapter four and verse eight, that he was "afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing." Well, I wonder why.

Well, the second part of what he has to say helps us understand that we moved from the tragedy to the triumph. This is how he gained victory over his heart ache. Let me give you a quick answer, and then we're going to expand upon it. How did he gain that victory? He set his mind on things above, not on the things of this earth. He changed his focus by counting his blessings. He literally breaks into a doxology of praise, as he refocuses his thoughts.

Notice verse 14, "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him and every place." My what are the abrupt change between the previous verses? Now, we're not sure why the sudden shift, I mean, there's no indication that suddenly he found Titus and he heard some good news. And we know that he eventually does hear some good news, but he doesn't talk about that until chapter seven. And even if that were so, he still would have known that the false apostles were still in that church, that his sycophants were still there, and some of the skeptics would still be there, and that there would be pockets of resistance that still needed to be dealt with.

By the way, this is the whole purpose of Second Corinthians, to deal with that. Remember, God refused to remove Paul's thorn in the flesh, this messenger sent from Satan; to keep him from exalting himself; that character would have still been there. So folks, the change here is not in circumstance, the change is in perspective; an obvious work of the indwelling Spirit of God. Here's an example of God's all-sufficient grace at work. Remember, in chapter 12, verse nine, The Lord answered him about the removing of the thorn, he said, "'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly," Paul says, "therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." You know, this is reminiscent of Job isn't it? Remember, he finally saw the glory of God and in his sovereignty, and he was so overwhelmed by it that he repented of his pride, of his of his ignorance and of his presumption, even before God changed his circumstances. Causing Job to say, "I have heard Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees Thee."

Now I wish to draw your attention to five perspectives that really gripped Paul's heart that emerged from this text that really contributed to him gaining victory over heartache. Five essential preoccupations, if you will. Preoccupations of his heart that helped him transcend the inevitable sorrows of this life that are passing away and experience the blessings of the unseen spiritual world that will last forever; to get a little taste of heaven, this side of it. To keep him from losing heart when his heart is breaking. Before we look at this, I might remind you of what he says later in Second Corinthians 4:15, he rejoices in quote, "the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to a bound to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen, are eternal." So how did he gain victory over heartache? Well, number one, he was grateful for God's leading in his life. He was grateful for God's leading in his life.

Notice verse 14, "But thanks be to God, who always leads." Folks, what a profound comfort to know that God's hand of Providence is always leading us, according to his perfect plan, according to his purpose. It's astounding to me to think that God governs all things, to pre-ordained ends; that his sovereignty is always at work. He's always at work in our life, as I say often, he's always up to something in our life. God leads us. I think of Psalm 23, where David asserts the sovereign ruler of the universe, and he condescends in such a way as to is to take up the task of shepherding for us in a personal intimate way. He says, "The Lord is my shepherd," my shepherd. "I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake." You see, Paul celebrates this in his life as we all must do. Therefore, he could say with David, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil." Why? "For you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me." Dear friends, are you grateful for God's leading in your life?

We get a glimpse of this in his testimony to Timothy in First Timothy one, beginning in verse 12. He says, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and a violent aggressor." My, talk about God leading in our life. He goes on to say, "Yet I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant. With the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am the foremost of all. Yet for this reason, I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example, for those who would believe in Him for eternal life." Beloved, we can either fret in our misfortunes, or we can rejoice in our fortunes; we really have a choice. And certainly, that would include having a heart that is filled with gratitude. Oh, God, thank you that even in the midst of my pai and my suffering, thank you, that you are sovereignly at work in my life, and that you are leading me toward a preordained end for my good and for your ultimate glory. To know that, you will never abandon me, to know that there will be times that you will let me wander, but you will never let me go.

I was thinking about this, when our now five-year-old little granddaughter, she was probably maybe threeish or so, she had a tendency to want to wander off, as all kids do. We were in the mall, and we're always saying you hold Papa’s hand or hold Nana's hand, and of course, they're always pulling away, and they're wanting to wander off someplace. And I remember one time, we were in a particular store, and she kept doing that, and I thought, okay, let's just see what happens. So her grandfather kept an eye on her, but you know, how they have these round circles of clothes and all that type of stuff; she was wandering off and I just kind of kept my eye on her. And then eventually, she realized that she was alone. And all of a sudden, you hear the scream, and she doesn't know what to do. And she starts running around. And I thought, you know what, I'm just gonna let her panic here for a minute. People are looking and here's this child running desperately looking for Papa and for Nana. And some, I don't know if there was a clerk or who came and tried to comfort her; and about that time, I appeared and she came running toward me. And you know, the only good thing about, well the good thing about it is, I think she learned a lesson. The bad thing is I had to carry her for about the next hour. But that's the point, in such a more glorious way. Our heavenly Father is constantly watching over us. He's constantly caring for us. And we need to be grateful for his leading in our life.

Well, secondly, he was grateful for the privilege of serving Christ and sharing in his triumph. Look at the text again, "But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ." Now, here, Paul uses a familiar metaphor that they would have understood; that of a Roman triumph and his opportunity here to serve under Christ, the conquering king of kings and Lord of lords. I want to read a description of this triumph, written by a theologian, a scholar, William Barclay. I can't improve upon this, this is really helpful. Here's what he says, "In Paul's mind is the picture of a Roman triumph and of Christ as a universal conqueror. The highest honor which could be given to a victorious Roman general was a triumph. To attain it, he must satisfy certain conditions. He must have been the actual commander in chief in the field. The campaign must have been completely finished, the region pacified, and the victorious troops brought home. 5000 of the enemy at least, must have fallen in one engagement. A positive extension of territory must have been gained and not merely a disaster retrieved or an attack repelled. And the victory must have been won over a foreign foe, and not in a civil war. In a triumph, the procession of the victorious general marched through the streets of Rome to the Capitol in the following order. First came the state officials and the Senate. Then came the trumpeters. Then were carried the spoils taken from the conquered land. For instance, when Titus conquered Jerusalem, the seven branched candlestick, the golden table of the showbread and the golden trumpets were carried through the streets of Rome. Then came pictures of the conquered land and models of conquered citadels and ships. There followed the white bowl for the sacrifice which would be made. Then were walked the captive princes, leaders and generals in chains, shortly to be flung into prison, and in all probability almost immediately to be executed. Then came the lictors, bearing their rods, followed by the musicians with their lyres, then the priests swinging their sensers with sweet smelling incense burning in them. After that, came the General himself. He stood in a chariot drawn by four horses, he was clad in a purple tunic, embroidered with golden palm leaves, and over a purple toga marked out with golden stars. In his hand, he held an ivory scepter with the Roman Eagle at its top, and over his head, a slave held the crown of Jupiter. After him, rode his family and finally, came the army wearing all their decorations and shouting, 'lo triumphe," which in Latin means triumph. As the procession moves through the streets, all decorated and garlanded amid the cheering crowds. It made a tremendous day which might happen only once in a lifetime." That is the picture, he says, that is in Paul's mind. He sees Christ marching in triumph throughout the world and himself in that conquering train. It's a triumph which Paul is certain nothing can stop.

You see, friends, Paul understood that victory comes through suffering. But victory does come. Notice again, verse 14, "But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ." Not occasionally, but always, even when the world scoffs at us. Even when the world mocks us. Even when we suffer at the hands of wicked man, even when our hearts are breaking. He's always leading us as victorious soldiers in a triumphal procession. Folks, we are marching to glory. Someday the world will see the Son of Man returning in power and great glory, and we are going to be with him. Dwell upon that the next time you're in pain, right? The next time you are suffering.

Matthew 24, Jesus speaks of this, beginning of verse 29. He says, "But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other." And dear friends, because as Paul says in Colossians, three, verses three and four, because "you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory." Boy, talk about a triumph. The saints are going to accompany our glorious King. We read about this in Revelation 19 verse 14, let me read that in context beginning in verse 11, "And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called The Word of God." And catch this. Here we are, "the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses." Magnificent imagery. "From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."

Dear friends, this is the triumph that awaits us. And it's for this reason that there is nothing more important in life than serving our Lord, our Savior and our King. Lightfoot comments, quote, "The veil which now shrouds your higher life from others, and even partly from yourselves, will then be withdrawn. The world which persecutes, despises, ignores now will then be blinded with the dazzling glory of the revelation." And you're drowning in sorrow and unable to function over what? You see the point? Folks, you just have to change your perspective. Oh Child of God, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Yes, the pain is real. I've been there. It is real and I'm not in any way trying to mitigate that reality. But you simply must not lose perspective. Someday you are going to join in that triumphal procession. Someday every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. And the key to gaining victory over heartache is to stay focused on the glories of Christ, not the sorrows of your life. Remember, we are in Christ, right? We are eternally united to him, we have died with Christ. We've been crucified with Christ. We've been buried with Christ. We've been raised from the dead with Christ. We are now seated with Him in heavenly places. We read all of these amazing truths; we're going to be glorified with Christ. Therefore we can rejoice as Paul did and say, "Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ." Dick Mayhew says, quote, "His life is our life, His punishments are our punishment. His death, our death. His resurrection, our resurrection, His righteousness, our righteousness, His ascension and glorification, our ascension and glorification," in quote. So naturally, we can be thankful as Paul did, knowing that he's always lead us in triumph in Christ, even when we think all is lost. That is what's ultimately happening. Even when our heart is breaking, and we think we can't go on. That is what God is up to. And the victory is certain.

So Paul was grateful for God's leading and grateful for the privileges of serving Christ and sharing in his triumph and thirdly, he was grateful for the privilege of proclaiming Christ. My what a story we have to tell. Verse 14 we read, "He manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him and every place." And once again, Paul applies the metaphorical imagery of a Roman triumph where priests carrying censers would burn incense to carry praise to these made up gods. And this sweet aroma would also be mixed with the somewhat pungent smell, or I should say, that pungent smell of that incense would be mixed with all of the flowers, all of the garlands that would be spread out over everywhere. Moreover, according to D.E. Garland, he says, quote, "Filets and garlands bedeck 125 stall fed oxen with gilded horns being led as sacrifices by young men wearing aprons and handsome borders, and boys attending them carrying gold and silver vessels of libation. My goodness, what a scene that would have been. Well, obviously the sweet aroma that was carried about on the breeze that wafted across the spectators, and all of those in the triumph; that breeze would have would have carried the aroma of the incense and of the flowers. And that aroma would be one of triumph and joy to the victors. But that same aroma would be an aroma of defeat and death for the prisoners.

Well, the analogy is obvious. Again, the end of verse 14, he "manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place." Folks think about this, even as the sweet smell of garlands and the pungent odor of incense are distinct and quickly capture the attention of our olfactory senses, so too the knowledge of Christ, when the secret wind of the Spirit causes it to waft about through the faithful proclamation of the saints. It's going to be offensive to some, and it's going to be precious to others. When Jesus explained to Nicodemus the need to be born again, remember what he said in John three, beginning in verse six, "'That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit of spirit. So do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'" And he makes the statement, "'The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from, and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.'" Aren't you thankful that the wind of the Spirit blew in your direction, and by the power of the Spirit, you saw your sin, you came to saving faith in Christ? And beloved, everywhere we go as believers, by the power of the Spirit, we manifest the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Christ in every place.

And for this, Paul was so grateful. Oh, dear child of God, let this sink in for a moment. What a glorious privilege it is to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ. There is nothing more important in all your life than that. Paul understood this in his life. Remember, in Ephesians, three, beginning in verse seven, he said, "I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working of his power. To me the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ." You see, Paul understood that contemplating the reality of this privilege is the greatest of all antidepressants. Folks, ask yourself, does this privilege of being able to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ, does this bring joy to your heart? Is this a passion of your heart? Are you just caught up in all of the difficulties of life, living for yourself? You know, I learned a number of years ago, and I have to confess that I have to pray that the Spirit will help me when these things come up, but I learned that when I'm experiencing relational pain, especially in the church, when I've been slandered, or you know, something's going on, that's really hard, I've learned that the best thing to do is just double down in your service to Christ. Because what Satan wants you to do is, 'oh, woe is me,' you know, get in the fetal position on the couch, put your thumb in your mouth, and just get all depressed and you just can't function. I am just not going to do that. You just can't do that. What a privilege we have to proclaim Christ. I'm going to double down. So I don't know, I guess I go into some manic mode and I'm writing emails and letters and I'm calling people and saying, 'I'm just going to fight all the harder folks.' That's what we have to do. Satan wants to distract us from being that sweet aroma of the knowledge of Christ in every place.

John MacArthur says, "No preacher should take light lightly his inestimable privilege of proclaiming the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether or not preachers are successful, achieve popularity or fulfill their ambitions, it's immaterial. The satisfaction of having an eternal influence for Jesus Christ should be sufficient. The issue is not results, but privilege. The disheartened preacher is disheartened because he focuses on circumstances. The joyful preacher is joyful because he focuses on the eternal worth of his service to God. The disheartened preacher considers his difficulties, the joyful preacher considers his privilege." Dear friends, if you're struggling right now, with some great heartache, may I encourage you to focus on this privilege, and perhaps get on Facebook and just unleashed the gospel? Boy wouldn't that be nice? I mean, a lot of times, Nancy will show me something on Facebook, and I just start losing brain cells. I mean, it is absolutely absurd, watching people trying to get affirmation, putting pictures of themselves and you know, all of this silly stuff. Unleash the gospel, what a privilege we have. Be that sweet aroma of the knowledge of Christ in every place, go to the barbershop or the hairdresser, if you can get in. I understand that the dynamics right now, but, but what that's always a captive audience, to begin to share your testimony. And you watch people start squirming and getting on their phones. But oh, what a wonderful opportunity. You say, but Pastor, all that does is bring further pain and rejection. People don't want to hear that stuff. Well, of course they don't. They're spiritually dead. But it's the gospel that gives them life. Isn't that what happened with you? Well, of course, therein lies the problem. If that's your attitude, you're ashamed of the gospel. You fear man more than you fear God. It's a very dangerous place to be. Paul said in Galatians, 1:10 "For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

And this leads us to the fourth preoccupation of his heart. Number four, he was grateful for the opportunity to be pleasing to God. What an amazing thought, verse 15, again, "For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing." Do you realize that the sweet-smelling odor of the knowledge of Christ that was diffused in every place by the Ministry of the apostles, and that is diffused in every place by the Ministry of the saints today? Do you realize that odor, a sin is to the nostrils of God, do you realize that that is pleasing to Him? You see, folks, we proclaim Christ ultimately to God, not to men. It's important for you to remember that he is our primary audience, not men. And I must say, and I hope you hear this in the spirit that it's intended, when I preach, I really care nothing about the size of the audience, or even their reaction. In many ways, I don't even see those in front of me. I have an audience of one and that's God himself. And I preach to be pleasing to Him, and let him deal with everything else. Same is true when I write. I write ultimately for him.

This was the grueling passion of Paul's heart. In chapter five and verse nine, he says, "Therefore we also have as our ambition whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him." Is that the passion of your heart? Colossians 1:10, so that we are to "walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all respects." First Thessalonians, two, four, "just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts." Folks, what an astounding blessing. What an amazing opportunity we have to be pleasing to God by sharing the knowledge of Christ to others. Is that a priority in your life?

Verse 15, "For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other, an aroma from life to life." You see, folks, if I can stick with the analogy here, the smell of the gospel will produce joy to repentant sinners who are longing to be reconciled to a holy God and be in fellowship with Him; to have their sins forgiven, and to gain the righteousness of Christ. But the smell of the gospel is going to produce guilt and anger and hatred and fear to those who reject Christ. Remember, they spend their life, according to Romans one, "suppressing the truth in unrighteousness." Constantly trying to keep a lid on what they know to be true about a holy God and their sinfulness. They don't want to hear it, they don't want to think about it. They love darkness rather than light. So you come along with the gospel, and oh my, that's the light. And as I say, it's like flipping on a light down in a cellar and suddenly you see the cockroaches running for cover. Isn't that how you feel? A lot of times when you get around unsaved people and you start sharing Christ, man, they just run for cover. But boy there's going to be some that will hear it and be saved. Men love darkness rather than light. But we are to be the light. Remember, according to Hebrews four, verse 13, for "the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of the soul and the spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart." People don't like that, but that's what the word does. The text goes on to say, 'And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."

Oh, how grateful we should be for the opportunity to please God through our gospel witness, knowing that yes, it's going to be used to harden the hearts of some, but it will be used to soften the hearts of others. And this leads us to the fifth and final preoccupation that we see here that Paul dealt with. He was grateful for God's leading; he was grateful for the privilege of serving Christ and sharing in his triumph. He was grateful for the privilege of proclaiming Christ for the opportunity to be pleasing to Him. And finally, he was grateful for Christ who strengthened him. He says in verse 16, at the end there, "who is adequate for these things?" The answer is, of course, no one. We are only strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And we only tap into the power that is there when we live lives that are consecrated to him. When we are faithfully serving our master. Verse five of chapter three, he makes this clear, he says, "Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God." Jesus said, "'Apart from me, you can do,'" what? "'Nothing.'" But oh, what a joy it is to experience the power of Christ in your life. Lots of times we don't even realize it's happening until maybe it's over. In Colossians, one, verse 29, Paul says, "I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me." And back to our texts in verse 17. It closes this section and he says, "For we are not like many, peddling the word of God. The term "peddling" in Greek "kapeleuo" is an interesting term. It's used to refer to someone who is selling something or offering something that is secondhand through false or deceptive practices. And of course, here he's focusing in on these false apostles that have taken over the church in his absence. He's saying basically, I'm not like them. I'm not using the word of God as a means to promote my Judaistic opinions because that's what was going on largely; mixing law with grace and mixing other manmade philosophies in with Christianity, like so many people do, even to this day; To somehow seduce people into believing things that are not true. And also so they can line their pockets; make a buck off the gospel. I fear that most people in pulpits today are more entrepreneurs than they are true shepherds. But in verse 17, he just says here that, that we're not walking like many peddling something through the word of God, "but as from sincerity." The term "sincerity" in the original language is one used in this context that would speak of a life and message that can withstand the most intense light of divine scrutiny. In other words, he's saying, there's no pretense here, folks, I'm not coming to you in deceit. I am not putting on a charade here unlike the phony predators that have conned you, with a false gospel, filled with all manner of clever deceptions to make a buck off of you. My life and my message is sincere. And that's why he says at the end of verse 17, "but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God." In other words, God is our witness. And for this reason, Christ strengthened him right? He said in Second Corinthians Nine, eight, "God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed." That pretty well covers it.

I would say, oh, dear Christian, if your heart is breaking over some trial, may I encourage you don't give up. Look up. Don't give up. Look up. Remind yourselves of these great truths. Have a heart that is filled with thanksgiving; be grateful for God's leading in your life. Be grateful for the privilege of serving Christ and sharing in a triumph that is inevitable; that is coming. Be grateful for the privilege of proclaiming Christ, and for the opportunity to be pleasing to Christ. And then finally, be grateful for Christ who strengthens you. And when your heart is truly filled with this kind of grateful praise, for these kinds of things, you will see that God will restore your joy, even in the midst of a heart that is breaking. Let's be thankful to these ends. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for these great truths. May they bear much fruit in our lives. Especially Lord, during these times that we all experience when our heart is breaking. Bring these things to remembrance. And may they be so powerful in our mind and in our heart, that we are animated to praise and therefore opened up to the joy that you will bring to us as we get a sense of your soul satisfying presence. I thank you and I'll give you praise for these great truths. Bless us with them. In Jesus name. Amen.

Well, once again, we can come together via the Internet and worship the Lord. The Lord has been so good to us, I'm sure he has to you as well. We're thankful that no one to our knowledge has this virus in the church, but we still remain in our homes. And I'm still speaking to some cameras that are out there. And I miss you all, and we all miss each other. If they allow us to, we might begin meeting once again, even next Sunday, we'll wait and see; you'll be hearing from us. And when we do, we are setting into place some new policies, we'll be having two services, one beginning at 8:30 to 10. And then we'll have an hour in between and have another service. I will give us a chance to disinfect things and give us opportunities for social distancing. We won't have any Sunday school; we won't even use the Family Life Center. But you'll be getting more information on those things. And fortunately, we believe this will be temporary, but we want to do everything we can to protect you, to protect us from each other during this time.

But we come this morning once again to the Word of God. And I would invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter two. We will continue our verse-by-verse exposition of this epistle. And the title of my discourse to you this morning is "Lessons in Forgiveness." And we're going to be looking at verses five through 11. So follow along as I read Second Corinthians two, five through 11. But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree--in order not to say too much--to all of you. Sufficient for such a one is this punishment, which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary, you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes, in the presence of Christ, so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes."

Because we all struggle with an exaggerated sense of self-importance, because we all struggle with pride, because we can tend to be easily offended, many times, it's hard for us to forgive another person who has wronged us. Someone says something bad about us, and rather than ignoring it and trying to treat it with grace, we take it personally, we get defensive and we counter attack, which merely throws gas on the fire. And of course, we see this type of cycle happening all the time with cyber bullies, for example, on social media; and they've turned this into an art form. And since so many people on social media platforms get on there, in order to find affirmation for themselves, we see that there's a direct link between social media and depression. Because often the type of feedback, the type of affirmation they get, isn't what they wanted. And especially younger people tend to get very depressed and so it just fuels this anger. And this sense of wanting to get even with other people. In fact, in one study that I read that was quoting several recent studies, it said that teenage and young adult users who spend the most time on Instagram, Facebook and other platforms, were shown to have a substantially higher rate of reported depression than those who spent the least time and that rate is from 13 to 66% Higher. So what you tend to see in our culture is many people live in the cycle of attack and kill under attack. All you have to do is drive on the interstate and you see that. Certainly what you don't see is the idea of loving your enemy. You don't see people praying for those who mistreat you and forgiving those who seek to be forgiven. That's foreign in our culture. And many times we bring that into the church. We have this attitude of "go ahead and make my day." Just think of perhaps someone who's offended you. How do you think about that? How do you respond to that? What's your attitude? Are you bitter? Are you spiteful? Have they come to you and asked for forgiveness, and you kind of give lip service to it, but down deep, you really resent them? And perhaps you even slander them? If so, you’re going to struggle with what you're going to even hear today as we look into the text. And frankly, this is going to speak to all of us, because we all struggle at some level with these kinds of things. You really want to ask yourself, "am I a forgiving person, when people come and seek forgiveness?" What's your attitude towards people who mistreat you? Do you seek revenge or do you pray for their repentance? Are you forbearing? Are you patient? Are you gentle? Do you try to restore perhaps a sinning brother or sister in the spirit of gentleness? Or do you operate in the flesh and seek retaliation and so forth? Using the example of an abusive master, let me remind you of what Peter said, and First Peter two beginning in verse 18, he says "Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrow when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God."

Well, certainly this is contrary to our flesh. Our flesh fights this kind of attitude. I think of the unimaginable torture that our Lord Christ experienced while hanging on the cross. And yet, he prayed to the Father, "'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.'" Now, obviously, dear friends, to respond in such a way when we have been injured, especially when we've been severely injured--to respond with that kind of Christlike love, requires a special work of the Spirit. Even in our new nature, we find our flesh fighting against that. And we need help from the indwelling Spirit. And we can be thankful knowing that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Well, our text this morning, helps us get a little glimpse of how believers are to deal with these things, especially in light of our selfish proclivities, if you will; our flesh that wants to get even with people, and really not forgive them in our heart. And here we can learn some very important lessons in forgiveness.

Now, let me remind you of the context. The Corinthians really struggled with pride and self-will. They were a very divisive people. They were factious, and some had believed the slanderous attacks against the apostle Paul, that the false teachers had made known and some of their sycophants, other malcontents, kind of drank the Kool Aid, if you will, and believe Paul can't be trusted and so forth. And evidently, one of these guys confronted Paul publicly to try to humiliate him and verbally attacked him in what is called the painful visit, as we read in chapter two and verse one. But providentially, we see that there were enough mature saints in the church that they saw that this was wrong, and that this man needed to be dealt with. And so they were willing to discipline this man. And because he was unrepentant, actually disfellowship him, according to Paul's instructions. And fortunately, the excommunication accomplished what it was intended to accomplish, and that is repentance. But unfortunately, there were still those in the church-- probably those that belong to the "pro-Paul cult," if you will, and they were wanting a little more flesh. They wanted a pound of flesh more, shall we say. And they wanted this guy to pay more for his wickedness. And so Paul is coming in and saying, look, the guy has repented and I'm instructing you now to forgive him, to comfort him, to reaffirm him, to show love for him publicly. And as we examine what Paul said, under the inspiration of the Spirit, in the scriptures, I believe what we're going to see is at least four lessons regarding forgiveness, and we would all do well to learn them.

So, let's look at the text. He says, first of all, in verse five, "But if any has caused sorrow," referring to the offender, but guarding him by not using his name. "But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree--in order not to say too much--to all of you." Beloved, here we see a heart of tender forbearance towards someone that has mistreated him. He speaks in rather vague generalities. He avoids mentioning his name; he says nothing even about the offense of the nature. And no doubt this man would have heard this letter. He may have been in the same room when it was read. Certainly he would have known the contents of it. Imagine the unnecessary grief, had Paul mentioned his name, and even described the offense once again. I mean, he didn't say "Well, yes, you know, Octavius caused me great sorrow when he called me a lying dog that was devouring all of you for personal gain, et cetera, et cetera." No, he didn't say any of that. And obviously, I don't know what all the issue was, but what we see here is Paul guarding him, and basically saying, look, his punishment was enough. He's repented. And what you'll notice here, and all through Second Corinthians, you'll see that Paul did not take this personally. Obviously, the man had caused great sorrow in the church, and sorrow even to Paul, but that's past, it's over. It's needs to be forgotten. It's forgiven. And so he says, "he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree--in order not to say too much--to all of you. When he says, "in order not to say too much," he's saying, you know, rather than exaggerating this thing, and blowing it out of proportion. So once again, he's guarding him. Of course, the man caused disunity and strife within the church. Everyone knows that. But Paul was basically saying, Look, don't single me out as if I need a pound of flesh here; as if my pride has been wounded and it would be an insult for you to somehow forgive him and restore him to fellowship. No, no, don't think of that at all. I seek no vengeance here, and neither should you. That's the point.

So the first lesson that we see here is don't take injuries personally. That's really hard to do. I mean, when somebody offends you, and I've had this happen so many times, I can't even keep track of them. But when somebody does that, you have to say to yourself, look, I don't know what's going on for this person. Now, certainly, if I've done something, and I need to repent of that and go seek their forgiveness, that's a whole different story. But when you hear of something and somebody's mad at you, you don't know what's happened, you have to say, look, I don't know what's going on with this person. I don't know what type of lies they have concocted in their head or heard from other people, some other malcontent who knows what kinds of exaggerations they have invented, and in their mind and to accomplish some personal agenda. I'm not sure what's going on with them. And certainly, I'm not sure what God is up to, in their life, in the agencies of divine providence; I don't know what he's up to, even in the life of the church or their family or whatever it might be. I mean, folks think of the times you've been perhaps falsely accused or demeaned, maybe even publicly, when someone says or does something that is profoundly embarrassing. You know, even when your conscience is clear. You know there's really nothing you can do about it; you're sorrowful, you're hurt, you're disappointed. And I'm sure Paul felt all of those things. I'm sure he was, he was righteously indignant--and rightfully so. But at the end of the day, we all have to say, what we see Paul saying here is, look, God is up to up to something here, in the life of this person, in the life of the church, this person has enormous problems. And, and we're just going to trust the Lord to deal with that, and we're going to deal with it biblically within the church. And many times, I have to say, look, whatever's going on with this person, I'm really not a part of it, I'm kind of the most available dog to kick. All I can do, Lord is trust in your goodness, trust in your Providence. I know you're up to something way beyond me here. Therefore, I just have to let you deal with it. And so then the bigger issue, as you've heard me say before, is what's for lunch? I'm just not going to let that person rob me of joy, rob me of fellowship with other people, and distract me from doing what God has called me to do. And that was certainly Paul's attitude here.

Paul realized, as we all should, that he was only a tiny little fish in the ocean of divine providence. Folks, when these things happen, God is up to things that are way beyond our comprehension. And so don't think of yourself as the center of the universe here, that needs to be treated in a special way or whatever. So I think of this situation, like the story of Joseph. You will remember the unbelievable mistreatment that he suffered at the hands of his brothers, when they sold him into slavery into Egypt. And yet, eventually, what does God do? God makes him, basically the prime minister of Egypt, and God used the treachery of his brothers to accomplish things that Joseph could have never dreamed of. Joseph forgave his brothers, you will recall, he calmed their fears. He comforted them. And in Genesis 50, verse 19, he says, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place?" The answer is obviously, yes. And he goes on to say, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive," and so forth. So know that God is up to something in these things.

But a second lesson that I think we can learn from this, is don't keep stoking the fire. That's in essence, what Paul is saying, drop it, forget it, it's over. Rejoice. The person has repented. That's what we've prayed for. And now he's asking for our forgiveness. Let's forgive him. Don't keep reminding him of his sin. I mean, think of the father of the prodigal son. What did he do? He ran out to meet his son. He loved his son, he embraced the penitent with full forgiveness; he offered him gifts of acceptance, and that's what we need to do. We need to kill the fattened calf; we need to have a banquet of celebration. Beloved, this is how God treats us when we are repentant. He forgives, he comforts, he embraces us. The prophet Micah reminds us of just the forgiving nature of God in Micah seven beginning in verse 18. He said, "Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." And the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 103 and verse 12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." In other words, he's taking them so far away, they no longer have any effect on our relationship with Him. In fact, the words "far" and "removed" in Psalm 103:12 are of the same word in Hebrew, meaning "to become far off" or "distant." And hear the term is used both as a noun and as a verb, and could be translated, as is "the distance from the east to the west." So he distances our sins from us. Yahweh takes our sins. He removes them as far away as possible. Beloved, can there be a more vivid picture of forgiveness?

I'm always deeply moved when I think of Hezekiah's praise to God for his undeserved mercy in delivering him from impending death and for forgiving his sins. We read about this, for example, in Isaiah 38. And in verse 17, Hezekiah says, "It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, for you have cast," literally hurled, "all my sins behind Your back." Beloved, when we are truly repentant, God is truly forgiving. The idea here is that that he consigned our sins to oblivion; our sins are no longer a barrier between God and us. And contrast this to God's attitude towards a person who is unrepentant. In Psalm 90 and verse eight we read, "You have placed our iniquities before You. Our secret sins in the light of Your presence." What a horrible thought. But we also know that "when we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." And my friends, this is the glorious, good news, even of the New Covenant, as the writer of Hebrews describes it in chapter eight, when regenerating grace bring sinners to repentance. And verse seven of that chapter, and following and especially in verse 12, the writer says, "'For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,'" speaking for God here, "'and their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more.'" Think about that--"'I will remember them no more.'" Now folks I ask you, how wicked would it be for us to remember what God has chosen to not remember? To remember no more? He takes our sins--when we're repentant--he takes our sins, he casts them into the depths of the sea, he removes them as far as the east is from the west, he hurls them behind his back, and yet we're gonna keep bringing them up? Well, you get the idea.

Now back to our text in Second Corinthians two. Not only are we learning here not to take injuries personally and don't keep stoking the fire, but number three: be quick to forgive and comfort the truly penitent. Be quick to forgive and comfort the truly penitent. Notice verse six. "Sufficient for such a one," he says, "is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority." Here the original language, the terms that are used, it really helps us see that he's speaking of the disciplinary actions that occurred as the result of a formal gathering of the whole church. The "majority," in other words, agreed to discipline this man; to excommunicate or disfellowship this man. Now think about it; unlike our modern era, with the church on every corner, this guy had no place to go. There was no Second Baptist in Corinth. This was like the only church. And the great sorrow associated with being removed from the fellowship that he once enjoyed with his Christian brothers and sisters brought him to a place of genuine, genuine repentance. You see, we need to understand that the severance of fellowship really heightens the type of breach that has occurred between a person that is unrepentant, and the God they claim to love. And of course, the purpose of discipline--of church discipline--is always reconciliation, never retribution. And that's what happened here.

And I might add that any church that does not practice church discipline is in flagrant violation of Scripture and shows that they really have very little love for sinners. Moreover, they have very little concern for the purity of the church. I know of a number of churches like this, and frankly, they bear little resemblance to a New Testament Church. And the people who attend those churches bear little resemblance to New Testament believers. Because what has happened is the church gets filled up with people living in blatant sin. It even happens amongst the leaders. And then little by little more tears grow within the church than the wheat; they become more goats than sheep, and truly "a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough," as Paul said, in First Corinthians five, six.

Beloved, whenever there is flagrant, hard-hearted, unrepentant sin, it must be dealt with. Jesus made this so clear in Matthew 18, beginning in verse 15, he says this, "'If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.'" In other words, you treat them as if they don't even know Christ.

There's really just four stages in church discipline, first, you go to a person privately; you confront them lovingly, gently. But if there's no repentance, then you move to a second stage where you bring two or three, to witness the fact that they've either repented or not. If they are still unrepentant, then you tell the entire church to enlist them in prayer, as well as in calling this person to repentance--out of love, out of a desire to see them reconciled to God and to the rest of the body. And if they're still no repentance, then they are to be excommunicated. And folks, you must understand, to continue to fellowship with someone living in blatant sin demonstrates a profound lack of care for them, a lack of love for them, and certainly a lack of care for the glory of Christ. Because actually, you become a co-conspirator in their rebellion against God. You're watching them walking towards a cliff of divine judgment, and you're not doing anything. Christ is being dishonored; the transforming power of the gospel is being called into question, and you're acting as if nothing's wrong. Second Thessalonians chapter three and verse six, Paul says, "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition, which you received from us." And then a little later in verse 14, he says, "If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame." Now, the same dynamic had occurred earlier in the life of the church in Corinth. You will recall that they had to discipline another member because of gross immorality. And in First Corinthians five, beginning in verse four, Paul says, "In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." In other words, let me just give him over to the consequences of his iniquity, so that he will be brought hopefully to a place of genuine repentance. Later on, in verse nine, he says, "I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people." Now he adds, "I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, and swindlers or with idolaters. For then you would have to go out of the world. But actually," he said, "I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother." In other words, a person living in flagrant sin who claims to be a Christian, "not to associate with any so-called brother, if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler--not even to eat with such a one."

So the saints at Corinth disciplined this man and by God's grace, he repented. And so in verse six, Paul says "Sufficient for such a one is this punishment, which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary, you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow." Yes, the punishment was deserved, but it had its desired effect. And this is what Paul longed for. So now it's time to forgive. Now it's time to comfort. Now it's time to restore. And all of this is essential to unity within the church. And so a third lesson we can learn here is be quick to forgive and comfort the truly penitent. And folks, this is at the very heart of Christian love. And you want to ask yourself, Does this describe me? Is this the attitude of my heart? In Colossians, chapter three and verse 13, Paul says that, as believers we are to be characterized by quote, "bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone." Whenever I think of the way the Lord forgives my mind will go to Isaiah 55, verses six through nine. There you may recall, he describes how that, that when, when the wicked man forsakes his way, and the unrighteous man, his thoughts, and he returns to the Lord, the text says that "the Lord will have compassion on him"... for He will abundantly pardon." What an amazing thought. In fact, he goes on to essentially say that the extent of God's compassion is beyond our ability to comprehend. Therefore, the Lord goes on to say this, "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' declares the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'" Oh, dear friends, what a great compassion the Lord has toward sinners, what a merciful and forgiving God, we have. And of course, we see this most vividly in the person and the work of Christ and his willingness, not only to forgive our sins, but to actually bear their punishment in his body on the cross. And beloved, this is our supreme example when it comes to forgiveness. Now think about this, how can we, who have been forgiven such heinous sins against the Most High God, not forgive the lesser sins that people have committed against us? How ridiculous is that? And of course, this was the theme of Jesus' parable. In Matthew 18, beginning in verse 21 and following, you will recall that one of the king's servants embezzled an enormous amount of money that he couldn't possibly repay. And what did the king do? He graciously and compassionately forgave the debt. However, that same servant refused to forgive a fellow servant who owed him some tiny debt. And of course, that's a great picture of ingratitude, and selfishness and pride. And when we act that way, we're making a mockery of the gospel of grace, whereby God has forgiven us a debt we could never pay. James two in verse 13, we read that "judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy." Beloved, please hear me, there is a very high price to pay for unforgiveness. You will become a very angry person that seeks revenge and that will consume you. It will consume every relationship that you will have; you will become bitter. You will become sour and sullen. You'll be that person with a chip on their shoulder. You'll be easily offended, always looking for a fight. Like constantly picking at a scab, the wound will never heal. You've been around those types of folks before, unforgiving folks, and suddenly they'll bring up some past offense and past injury that may have happened 30 years ago. And they will describe it as if it happened yesterday. And you know, dear friend, if this is you, please understand that Jesus says you're going to be given over to the most extreme forms of discipline, what Jesus called the torturers of life.

In Matthew 18, he went on to say this, in verse 32, regarding the king, and the servant, "'Then summoning him, his lord said to him, 'You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?' And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.'" You say, Well, what are torturers? Well, the various kinds of discipline that the Lord will bring upon those who are unforgiving, those who are so far out of fellowship with the Lord, that they would refuse to forgive someone that seeks it. It could include things like just the destruction of your flesh. I mean, your health begins to go, your marriage, your family, your testimony, all of it begins to fall into a state of disarray. Your effectiveness in service to Christ goes away. You question, you grieve the spirit, you just walk in the flesh, you ruin your life. Oh, dear Christian, be quick to forgive and comfort the truly penitent.

But there's a fourth lesson here. And that fourth lesson is this, reaffirm your love for the truly penitent through acts of private and public restoration. Let me give that to you again. Reaffirm your love for the truly penitent through acts of private and public restoration. Notice verse eight. He says, "Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him." He's urging them to do this. The term "reaffirm" is interesting. The original language, it means to "rule judicially," "to decide on" or "to make a formal declaration about something." In fact, Paul used the same term in Galatians 3:15 to describe the judicial, formal, ratification of a covenant. And the point here is he's urging them to do this with this repentant brother. They needed to restore him lovingly both privately, as well as publicly.

By the way with respect to church discipline, and stages one and two, when it's private, the restoration and the reaffirmation of love need to just remain private, you don't go tell everybody about all of that. But in stages three and four, the reaffirmation of love and restoration needs to occur not only privately but publicly. I mean, where sin has occurred publicly and where the discipline has occurred publicly, and where a repentance has occurred, then reaffirmation of love and restoration to fellowship must also be public. And that's what he's urging to happen here with this penitent brother. John MacArthur said this quote, "At its core, unforgiveness is a lack of love. Forgiveness, on the other hand, fulfills the royal law of love--for example, James two eight." He went on to say, "Forgiving love is a precious jewel, a rich treasure in the life of the church. Without it churches are torn, split, and fragmented. Churches that faithfully practice church discipline must also forgive penitent sinners. The greatest demonstration of love, both by individual believers and the church collectively is forgiving others."

Now, Paul continues in verse nine, and he says, "For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things." Isn't that interesting? I find it fascinating. God was putting the saints to the test to reveal what was really in their heart. Now you will remember that they were a self-centered bunch, self-promoting, they were jealous. The church was just fraught with strife and divisiveness, factions; cliques had developed. "I am of Apollos. I'm of Paul. Well, I'm of Cephas, well, I'm of Christ." And so these people were promoting their own agendas. In fact, the word "puffed up" referring to self-promoting pride occurs six times in First Corinthians, so they were a puffed-up bunch. And people that are puffed up are not prone to forgiveness. They were accustomed to personal animosity, to all the sectarian rivalries and vengeance rather than forgiveness. So what does God do? He puts them to the test to see whether you are obedient in all things.

Now think about it. First of all, are you obedient in disciplining sin? Well, the answer is yes. But then secondly, and equally as important, are you willing to forgive a person when they are genuinely repentant? And the answer is also, Yes. Isn't that good news? They passed the test. You know, you want to ask yourself, "Is God putting me to the test in my life, in some area, perhaps in the area of forgiveness? Are there areas of unconfessed and unrepentant sin that I need to deal with?" Well, obviously, Paul celebrated their obedience and even commended them for it later on. In chapter seven, beginning of verse 12. Here's what he says, "So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the offender, nor for the sake of the one offended, but that your earnestness on our behalf might be made known to you in the sight of God. For this reason, we have been comforted. And besides our comfort, we rejoiced even much more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. For if in anything I have boasted to him about you. I was not put to shame; but as we spoke all things to you in truth, so also, our boasting before Titus proved to be the truth. His affection abounds all the more toward you, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. I rejoiced that in everything I have confidence in you." I mean, folks, Paul is ecstatic here. He's watching these people grow in Christ. And this is the passion of every pastor's heart. It's the passion of every parent's heart. Don't you long to see your children grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ? And when they say those things, and do those things that are Christ, like, you just kind of go, "Oh, my Thank You, Lord. How exciting is is to see them growing into maturity." And that's what's going on here with the Apostle Paul.

And to grow in Christian maturity, it means that we're going to be a loving people, which includes two things as we look at this text: confronting sin, and then forgiving sinners when they are repented. Both are equally as important. I'm reminded of Galatians six, beginning of verse one, Paul says, "Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted." Then he says, "Bear one another's burdens," literally the idea of getting underneath a burden of sin that a person has and helping them carry that; helping them deal with that. And then he says, "and thereby fulfill the law of Christ." Well, what's the law of Christ? Well, it's the law of love. We are to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. So this is the commandment. And this is what Paul saw happening with the people so we celebrate the restoration of the sinning brother back into the fellowship. In verse 10, he says, "But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed, what I have forgiven, if I forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ." I mean, folks here you see it very clearly. Paul's passion was for unity in the body of Christ. And essential to that unity is not only confronting the sin but forgiving the sinner. And he cared nothing about himself, he knew he wasn't the big issue. As I say, he knew he was just a tiny fish in the ocean of divine providence; he knew that God was up to all kinds of other things. So he wasn't going to take it personally, and get all bent out of shape. He wanted the glory of Christ to be put on display in his life, and in their life. And as Christians, we are most like Christ, when we forgive.

But notice that little phrase, "I did it for your sakes, in the presence of Christ." You see, Paul knew that he was living his life before Christ, that the Lord knows his every thought. And certainly the Lord knows all of our thoughts. You see, Paul lived, "coram Deo", the Latin that means "before the presence of God" or face to face in the presence of God." You want to ask yourself, "Is this how I live? Do I realize that he sees all of my thoughts, all of my deeds?" I like the way RC Sproul put it, quote, "To live in the presence of God is to understand that whatever we are doing, and wherever we are doing it, we are acting under the gaze of God. God is omnipresent. There is no place so remote that we can escape his penetrating gaze. And Paul knew that, and he reminded them of that great truth. This is how he lived. In fact, later in verse 17, he reminded them that he spoke quote, "in Christ in the sight of God." And he knew that both, confronting sin and forgiving sin, are attitudes and actions that never escaped the penetrating gaze of God and he would reward or judge accordingly. And all of this is so, so very important.

In verse 11, "so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes." Folks, to be sure, Satan tempts us to sin, as well as tempts us to ignore our sin and even ignore the sins of others. His goal is to fill the church with tears. And this cannot be accomplished if a church is serious about holiness. If a church is serious about purity, if a church is therefore serious about lovingly, disciplining, sinning saints, and then forgiving them, and restoring them and comforting them, when they repent. And furthermore, a church is going to forfeit divine blessing if it refuses to forgive, because forgiveness is really the fruit of love.

Well, in closing, may I just remind you, may I challenge you, examine your heart, don't take injuries personally. Don't keep stoking the fire when someone has repented and the thing is over; be quick to forgive and comfort the truly penitent and reaffirm your love for the truly penitent through acts of private and even public restoration. Aren't you glad that that's the way the Lord treats us? And I'm so thankful that we have a church that understands these things, I can truthfully say that I know that I'm preaching to the choir this morning. Nevertheless, it's great to hear it once again because it reminds us of God's grace for each of us. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths. I pray that they will bear much fruit in our hearts, that Christ might be exalted in everything that we say and do. That people will see our love, not only for you, but for other people, and therefore be dumbfounded by just the way we treat each other, even when there is sin. And certainly when there is restoration and forgiveness, because we know that through that, you can use that living illustration of the gospel, to bring others to saving faith, help us to be that kind of people. So we commit all of this to you for your glory. In Christ's name. Amen.

Well, once again, we come together to look into the Word of God and see what the Spirit of God has for us. Having spent the last, about three weeks, I believe, dealing with the issue of the pandemic, looking at it from a biblical perspective, trying to bring encouragement and even exhortation to your hearts during this difficult season, I believe that now it's time to return once again to our verse-by-verse exposition of Second Corinthians. So if you will take your Bibles and turn there turn to second Corinthians chapter one. Notwithstanding the seriousness of the days in which we live and in an effort to not in any way minimize what we're experiencing, I believe that if we continue to just focus on all of our problems, that really can be counterproductive. I frankly, think it's unhealthy to deal with this all the time. Yes, people are sick. And yes, people are dying, and that's a tragedy. But people are always going to be sick, and people are always going to be dying. We live in a fallen world, and the wages of sin, obviously his death, but to obsess over this pandemic, 24/7, I believe is unhealthy. And I believe it can be dishonoring to the Lord and certainly distract us from the hope that we have in Christ and the glories that are ours in our inheritance. And it even distracts us from the opportunity to really fulfill the Great Commission. We need to be all about telling other people about the transforming saving truths of the gospel. And I might add that the inconveniences that we are experiencing and the uncertainties about the future, even the loss of income, it's tragic. Frankly, all of those challenges for us are minor, compared to what most people in the world are dealing with. Frankly, most people around the world are struggling just to find enough food to eat. Many of them are afraid of violence. They're afraid that someone will come in and take all that they have, even take their lives. Most people live in fear of starvation and disease and dying on a daily basis. And frankly, most people around the world would give anything to exchange their struggles for our struggles. So we want to keep this in perspective.

And this is certainly true of the first century saints in the nascent Church, the new church that was being birthed during that time. They were undergoing enormous difficulties in those early days of the church. And I might even add, on a lighter side, but if you're like me the media's 24/7 obsession with this Coronavirus, is beginning to to play on my mind. I was telling some friends the other day that I feel like I'm turning into that guy on television "Monk," the OCD germaphobe that was, I think he was the detective. I've never seen the show. I've seen these commercials and he's always wiping his hands and cleaning everything off. And that's how I think I'm getting and maybe you're getting that way too. It's like I've got a germ phobia. I'm afraid to touch anything. I'm afraid to get near anybody. I'm afraid to breathe the air. It's getting insane. And I'm even keeping a close eye on our stock of toilet paper. I mean, it's really insane when you begin to think about what's going on. People are lost and they're dying in this world; they need the gospel, and we're obsessed about toilet paper? I mean, really, it can get silly after a while.

Moreover, I must add one final thing while I'm on a roll here on all of this. I think if I hear one more news conference, where biased liberal reporters interrogate the President and his administration, in an effort to somehow make them look bad I think I will vomit. I believe I heard some amens. So may I humbly ask you to join with me by refocusing on matters that have eternal rather than temporal significance; matters pertaining to the gospel; matters pertaining to the church, and the body of Christ; which is to be the pillar in support of the truth. And may I also remind you before we look at our text of the Apostle Paul's encouraging words, of exhortation to the saints at Philippi, remember, he was writing from a prison cell, a prison cell. And he knew that he was soon going to be executed. And in Philippians, four, he said, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and my crown, in this way, stand firm in the Lord, my beloved." He said, "Rejoice in the Lord always, again, I will say, rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." And then he went on to say this, and this is my encouragement to each of you, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things, the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me," he says, "practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you."

Now, with that brief introduction, let's go back to the context of what's going on. In Second Corinthians, you will recall that some wolves had infiltrated the ranks of the church, some false teachers. And these were predators that were spreading lies, false accusations about the apostle Paul. They were telling the people, you know, this guy is secretly immoral. This is why he's constantly suffering. God is punishing him. And they were telling the people that he was deceitfully manipulating them, that he was just a con man trying to get money from them. And he was also just a self-appointed false teacher who merely fabricated his message and distorted the true Word of God that we're teaching to you. So that was the message. Bottom line, they were telling the people that he was just a phony, and that you shouldn't listen to him. And so they sought to ruin his credibility by undermining his authority and destroying his character; to discredit his teaching so that they could teach their own deceptions. So, this was obviously very convincing to some of the people in the church, because some of them actually bought into the deception, bought into the slander. And of course, that was heartbreaking to the Apostle Paul.

So, Second Corinthians is a letter where he responds to all of this. His concern is not only to express his joy and relief, because most of them repented, but also to defend his apostleship and confront these false teachers. In Second Corinthians one, verses 12 through 14, you will remember he spoke of his proud confidence and how God had manifested himself through the apostle Paul, in his grace, in the power in his life, in his ministry, and his message. And he glories and what God has done in and through him. And he gives testimony as to how his conscience affirmed his moral, his relational, and his doctrinal integrity. But now, in chapter one, beginning in verse 15, through chapter two and verse four, where we will be this morning, he is going to zero in on more a specific bogus accusation attacking his trustworthiness. You will see that they were claiming that he was duplicitous, that he would say one thing but means something else; that he was therefore dishonest that what he said about spiritual things, about doctrinal matters, really couldn't be believed; that he was erratic. He was unpredictable. He was, he was vacillating. He was indecisive, so he can't be trusted. Don't pay any attention to him, he's a deceiver. He's just playing you. He's just using you. And what we're going to see is that the reason they were making such a charge, now catch this, is because...he changed his travel plans. Really? He changed his, yep, he changed his travel plans. Oh my goodness, you can't be serious. Talk about a flimsy feeble, unconvincing, unconvincing piece of evidence. But you know, that's what deceptive control freaks do. In order to advance their agenda, they must discredit their opponent, and they will come up with anything to somehow do that.

By the way, this is how dishonest, divisive, narcissistic politicians function on a daily basis. We see it all the time. And sadly, wicked people in the church can do the same type of thing; bullying tactics to somehow get people to believe that which is false about another person. Now, what we see here in Second Corinthians, especially in this passage, is not only helpful in learning how to spot this type of thing, but also how to defend against it. So I want to give you just a real simple four category outline, we're going to see, first of all, the tactics of deceivers. And then Paul is going to explain the defense of the gospel. And then thirdly, the appeal to God. And then finally, the motive of love. That's what we will be looking at. And it's my prayer and my confident assurance that you will be instructed, that you will be encouraged; you will be exhorted, as we examine this frankly, rather obscure passage of scripture that perhaps you've never studied closely. But I believe the Spirit of God has much to teach us here.

So first of all, I want you to notice the tactics of deceivers. Notice in verse 15, "In this confidence," he says, "I intended at first to come to you." Well, in what confidence? Well, we go back to the end of verse 14, he says that "we are your reason to be proud as you also our hours in the day of our Lord Jesus." In other words, he's saying, "you should be proud of me, as I am proud of you. I am your spiritual father." He mentioned this in First Corinthians four verse five. And he's essentially saying, "Look, folks, it was through my ministry and my gospel message, along with Timothy as well as Silas, that God saved you by his grace. And as a result, together, we anticipate--what he says here, "the day of our Lord Jesus," that day when we can proudly point to you as our spiritual children. In First Thessalonians chapter two, he says the same thing to the saints at Thessalonica. In verse 19, he says, "For who is our hope, or joy, or crown of exultation? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy." So essentially, what he's saying is "folks look, had I been a con man who distorted the Word of God, a false apostle, that merely came to deceive you for my own benefit, then how can you explain your salvation? I was loyal to you, you have been loyal to me. So how do you explain this?"

Now, by the way, not everyone believed the deceptions. But obviously, there were a number that did. So again, verse 15, "In this confidence, I intended it first to come to you, so that you might twice receive a blessing; that is, to pass your way into Macedonia, and again for Macedonia, to come to you and by you, to be helped on my journey to Judea." Let me explain this. This is really interesting. You will recall in First Corinthians 16, verses five and six he revealed his initial plan, what we might call Plan A, that he would leave Ephesus, that he would go directly to Macedonia, and then, after that come to Corinth where he would winter. Because it's difficult to travel during the winter. But after writing First Corinthians, he altered his original plan. He came up with, shall we say, a plan B. And he decided to go from Ephesus, first to Corinth, and then go to Macedonia, and then come back to Corinth again the second time before he would go on to Jerusalem. And this way they would receive as he says, twice the blessing, twice the benefit of his fellowship, of his shepherding. And this, by the way, demonstrated just how much he loved them and how he wanted to be with them and minister to them. However, later in chapter one of Second Corinthians, verses 23, through the first verse of chapter two, he explains why he had to change from Plan B, back to basically Plan A, which, as we will see, was to spare them the rod of discipline, to avoid unnecessary conflict, to give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to work in their hearts and bring conviction and repentance to those who had sided with the false teachers against Paul.

So with that background in verse 17, he says, "Therefore, I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? Paul uses an interesting word here, "vacillating." "Elaphria' in the original language, it means fickleness. It means levity of character or of behavior that is capricious, that is whimsical, that is impulsive. The type of person that starts to do one thing, oh, I think I'll do something else. That's what they were accusing him of. And he's saying, Surely you don't think that I changed my plans, on some whim? On some motive to just benefit myself, like men of the world? He went on to say "Or what I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, so that with me, there will be yes, yes and no, no at the same time? In other words, you think I do this according to the mood of the moment on the basis of self-interest? Obviously, that was what the false teachers were accusing him of. That he was somehow guilty of either prevarication. In other words, being deliberately vague and evasive, or just being a two-faced liar; speaking out of both sides of his mouth, as we would say, in our vernacular, they may have even been using Jesus words against him. Remember, in Matthew 5:37, Jesus said, "'But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes,' or 'No, no,'; anything beyond these is of evil.'" By the way, there, Jesus was condemning false vows. The people were taking oaths, or I should say making oaths in the name of the Lord and appealing to God as the punisher of all falsehood. And therefore, the oath would be binding when they did it in his name. And unfortunately, the people were misusing this. They felt as though they could tell little white lies to people. They didn't have to be truthful, if an oath wasn't attached to what they were saying. Therefore, they didn't have to be truthful because it wasn't binding. But Jesus was saying that look, even in your everyday speech, you should be truthful, you should mean what you say. If you say yes, it should be yes. If you say no, it should be no; you should never be evasive. You should never be duplicitous. But of course, the false teachers aren't interested in an accurate interpretation of what Jesus said. They didn't care about that. They have one thing in mind, and that's to score political points.

So again, Paul says in verse 18, "But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no." I mean, he's simply saying, Look, you know that what God says is always true. And you know that I was sent to you by God to preach the gospel. Now, do you really think that he would send me and that I would speak on his behalf, if I was duplicitous? If I was vacillating? If I was whimsical or capricious, just a deceiver?

By the way, one of the things that I noticed, as I meditated upon this passage is that Paul is dealing with the same kind of tactics that Satan has used ever since the Garden of Eden. Remember what he did with Eve? He would spin what God said, and do something that God didn't say, get her off balance, get her confused, and then create doubt, and suspicion in God's character, in his plan, in his purposes, and then to get you to believe that somehow you're being hoodwinked; that maybe you're being treated unfairly. That maybe even you've been deceived, and then encourage you to reject what was said, and rebel without any consequences. Now, over the years, I've seen and experienced this kind of wickedness, in my life, especially in the church. I've seen this on a regular basis. People outside of this church, and even in our own church. And practically, the tactics of divisive deceivers kind of goes like this; I'll give you six of them very quickly. Number one, they will make mountains out of molehills. Number two, they will seize upon the very worst possible interpretation of the situation. Number three, like a poisonous spider, they spin facts into fiction in order to ensnare their victim. And then number four, they secretly keep a record of wrongs, whether real or perceived. And number five, they are always looking for more wood to fuel a fire, rather than water to extinguish it. And then number six, they're constantly recruiting other malcontents to join their cause. And this was what was going on there.

Let me give you an idea of what they would have would have heard there in that first church in Corinth. "So did you hear that Paul changed his plans? You hear about that? You know, I wonder what that's all about. I mean, really, I mean, it's hard to trust the guy who says one thing, and then all of a sudden, boom, he's going in a different direction." "I don't know. I'm just uncomfortable about this. Or maybe he never even meant what he said. I mean, clearly, he said he was going to come here first, and then nope, going to do something different. I guess he's unaware of what Jesus said, 'But let your statements be Yes, yes or no, no, anything beyond these is evil.' I don't know. Yeah, there just seems to be something going on here. I just don't like the smell of this thing. I'm not sure what it is. And I mean, I don't want to falsely accuse anybody, but there's something not right with this. I got a funny feeling about it. I mean, really, he makes special plans to see us before he goes to visit Macedonia, as if he really wants to spend time with us, as if he really loves us, as if he really wants to shepherd us and then whoops, changed my mind. I mean, really, who wants a pastor like that? How can this guy even call himself an apostle of Jesus Christ, if he vacillates like this? And you know, if you really think about it, if you can't trust the guy on the little things, how can you trust him on the big things?"

Well, you get the picture. Again, politicians do this all the time. False teachers do it all the time and wicked people, divisive people in a church, will do this as well. So these are the tactics of deceivers. Secondly, notice how Paul speaks of the defense of the gospel. In other words, he's going to use the gospel as part of his defense. Now, apparently, these false teachers were attacking the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I find it interesting that Paul uses the full Christological title to describe him in verse 19, "For the Son of God, Christ Jesus," you just got to stop there, folks. Don't miss this. I mean, what an amazing truth and what astounding power there is in this title, and in this name. And here, Paul appeals to the highest of all witnesses. This "Son of God" who is faithful and true, as he said in verse 18. This reminds me by the way of a time when I was in Siberia, on one of my trips there teaching pastors, and I was asked to speak at some of the various churches in the area around Lake Baikal. And I went to one church one evening, church of about a couple of 100 people, in Angara. And I'll never forget it. The pastor was such a dear guy, he was a converted Russian Olympic boxer, a champion boxer, and he had come to saving faith in Christ. And so I remember coming into that church, it was meeting in an old Communist Party building, which was now a library, it was up on, I think, the second floor. And it was a huge room with these kinds of tall tables that you could fit probably six people around at least. And all of the people were leaning over on the tables, and they were praying. It was, it's their custom there to never pray seated, they either pray on their knees, or they're standing and they're leaning on something. It was a precious sight to see. And, and after a little bit, the prayer meeting was over. It was time to start the service, and the interpreter introduced me, and I remember standing before them and I began by saying something like this "on behalf of the saints at Calvary Bible Church and Tennessee, I greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." And as soon as I said, that, to my astonishment, they all jumped up. I had no idea. I thought, Oh, my goodness, I have said something wrong here. As soon as the interpreter said what I said, they jump, they stand up, and they immediately say something back to me. And so I looked at my interpreter, and he said, "and they greet you as well, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." And I thought, Oh, good. And I told the interpreter, I didn't know what just happened. And he kind of expressed that to them. And, and we all had a great laugh, but my what a, what a tremendous response. And what an appropriate response of the people of God when they think about the lover of our souls, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Well, "For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us--by me and Silvanus and Timothy--" "Silvanus is another name for Silas, "was not yes and no, but is yes in Him." In other words, we weren't duplicitous. Three of us have been called and gifted, to come to you to give you the gospel. And you believed and you were saved. Three of us have preached the transforming truths of the Word of God to you, the truth of who the Son of God is. And since two or three witnesses are required to verify the truth of something, here they are. Surely you don't think that my preaching was deceitful. But what they preached, which was the same message, was not. Surely you don't think that we are all duplicitous, vacillating, whimsical deceivers?

By the way, there's a great lesson to be learned here. Whenever you hear some accusation against someone, certainly against a pastor, you want to measure that against the pattern of that man's life and the pattern of his message, to see if that would in any way contradict the allegation. I mean, don't judge a man on the basis of some strange scenario that's really out of character, that is not indicative of who that man is, and what he has preached for many years. Or on the basis of some flimsy evidence tantamount to Paul changing his travel plans--on the basis of something like that; believe the worst about a man.

Verse 20, he goes on, he says, "For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us." My what a powerful statement. Think about it, he knew that the most all of them would agree that the covenant promises of God to believers are all ultimately fulfilled in Christ. In him they are "yes." In other words, I really want to camp on this for a moment; this is so precious to me. I'm a Gentile. Most of you are Gentiles. And may I remind you that all of the promises of God, were also given to the Gentiles; promises that were fulfilled in Christ. In fact, Jesus told his disciples in Luke 24:44, "all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled. And indeed, they were fulfilled in Christ. But we also, even as Gentiles, are the recipients of these blessings. I mean, this is what Paul said, for example, in Ephesians, two, beginning in verse 10, and by the way, this would have been the same truths that he would have given to the saints at Corinth. Remember there he says, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them. Therefore, remember that formerly you the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision, by the so called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands. Remember that you were at that time, separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now," oh, what precious words, dear friends, "But now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

The apostle Paul spoke of this as well in First Corinthians 1:30, where he declared that Christ Jesus "became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." So, Paul is speaking here in verse 20 of the many "promises of God" affirming the fact that "in Him they are Yes." And I was thinking about those promises; there's so many, but fundamentally, they are rooted in the unconditional unilateral, irreversible, covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis 12, and Genesis 15 and again in Genesis 17. An everlasting covenant that contained four elements. It contained the promise of a coming seed, referring to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, that would become the Savior of all who would believe in Him. Also promises concerning a specific land, a specific territory. And the promises of a nation. And promises of divine blessing and protection for Abraham's posterity. And ultimately, we as Gentiles, have had been grafted into the vine that is rooted in the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant. Romans 11 is very clear about this. And indeed, according to Galatians, three and verse nine, Paul said, quote, "those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer." So I think of the promises that God has made, that they are true. The promises that he gave, for example, to Abraham, that was later reaffirmed to Isaac and Jacob. And then the Messianic Kingdom promises that he gave, for example, to David in the Davidic Covenant, in Second Samuel seven. So the promises of God that Paul speaks of would include all of these things, all of the promises about the coming Messiah, all of the promises about the kingdom that were given to the Old Testament patriarchs and to the prophets; all of these are fulfilled in Christ. Indeed, they "are yes in Him." The promise of a coming Messiah who would bring salvation to all who would believe in him, who will rule the earth in an intermediate kingdom, prior to the eternal state. The Messianic Kingdom where Jesus will reign as the last Adam; where he will reign from and over the realm where God first tasked the first Adam to rule and to reign--but where he failed, a visible reign in the realm where the Messiah was rejected, and where his people had been persecuted, a time in history when all aspects of the biblical covenants and promises will be fulfilled. A time of great blessings for the nations of the earth; all those who believe in the Lord.

And by the way, during this pandemic, dear friends I find myself often just longing for the Lord to come and snatch us away in the rapture of the church. To take us unto himself, and then to return with us to establish his promised earthly kingdom. And when I think of the promises of God that are yes, in Christ, my heart is stirred to worship, it is stirred to praise. And it is animated with anticipation. O, how I long for the Lord to return.

So back to verse 20, since all God's saving promises are true in Christ, "therefore," Paul says," also through Him is our Amen." Amen means mean, "surely," it's a transliteration of the Hebrew word. "A-mon," I think is how they pronounce it. A-mon."" And it was a term that was used to solemnly affirm the truthfulness of what has been said. And we say that a lot, we say "amen" after certain things, and that's what he's saying here. "Therefore, also through Him is our Amen, to the glory of God through us." And then he expands upon this firm faith that Christ is wrought within our souls. In verse 21 he says, "Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God." Now, this is interesting. The term "establishes" it means "strengthens" or "solidifies" or "makes us stand firm." And what's amazing, folks, when you think about this, God is currently in the process of establishing us together with each other in Christ. He goes on in verse 22, and says, "who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge." Now, I'm going to get technical for a moment, but I hope that it will become very clear to you. It's interesting here that he uses three aorist participles, or past tense participles, to affirm this amazing reality of this establishment that we have. And each of them are antecedent actions of the main verb, which is "to establish." And the grammar indicates here, therefore, that something has happened in the past, that has ongoing results. Well, what has happened in the past was certainly he has "established us," but also he has "anointed us", "sealed us", and "gave us"; in other words, he has given us the deposit of the Spirit.

Now I want us to look at this closely for just a moment. This is so precious. First notice, he "establishes" us in Christ, referring to our salvation, when we are born again, when we're united to Christ in saving faith. It's that marvel of being in Christ. I've recently written a book and it's just now been released one of my many books, entitled, "The Marvel of Being in Christ: Adoring God's Loving Provision of New Life in the Spirit." And I go into great detail about our union with Christ; an amazing doctrine. Beloved, think about this. Christ is not a a means to an end, but he is the all-sufficient and all glorious end himself. We now share a common spiritual life with Christ. He lives in us and we live in him; Galatians 2:20; Colossians three, three; we have died and our lives, our life is now hidden with Christ in God. So he first of all establishes us, but then notice, secondly, when we were established in Christ, we were also anointed with the Holy Spirit. And this happens at the moment of our new birth. "Anoint" denotes the idea of dedicating something, even commissioning something, consecrating something, someone especially to serve God. First Corinthians 12:13. Paul says, "For by one Spirit, we were all baptized," in other words immersed, "into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit."

So we have been established, we've been anointed. Thirdly, we've been sealed, God has sealed us. A seal, of course, is a token that assures that someone owns something, a piece of property, or whatever. And here, God's stamp of ownership is on all those who belong to Him. And that stamp of ownership that mark, is the indwelling Spirit of God, who instructs us and empowers us and guides us in our life and helps us put the glory of Christ on display. In Romans eight and verse nine, "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." The point is, those that have the Spirit of Christ, belong to him, that is the mark of ownership; we have been sealed in him. And certainly a transformed life that is devoted to the glory of Christ through faith and obedience is always the certain mark that individual belongs to God in Christ. In Second Timothy two, verse 19, Paul said, "The firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, "'The Lord knows who are His' and, 'Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.'" Folks, what a joy it is to know that we belong to him, that nothing can separate us from his love.

And fourthly, we see that God gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. A "pledge” refers to a down payment or a deposit. You might say he is the "earnest of our inheritance," the first installment of all the promises of redemption, that belong to the redeemed; all that awaits us. Romans 8:23, we have the "first fruits of the Spirit." He goes on to say "waiting eagerly, eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." And in Second Corinthians five, verse five, Paul says, "Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the spirit as a pledge." And also in Ephesians, 1:13 and following, he says, "In Him, you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory." Now, Paul's point here, in reminding them of all these magnificent realities that he has preached, and they have embraced in saving and transforming faith; the point of it all is simply this: how, in light of all of this, can you question my integrity simply because I felt it was necessary to change my travel itinerary? Really, folks?

So we've seen the tactics of deceivers, the defense of the gospel that he preached that changed their lives in eternal destiny. And thirdly, we see now that the appeal to God, notice verse 23, "But I call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth." You see, here, he's explaining why he didn't come to them, why he changed his plans. "Not that we lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are standing firm." Then verse one of chapter two, "But I determined this for my own sake, that I would not come to you and sorrow again. For if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad, but the one whom I made sorrowful? This is the very thing I wrote you so that when I came, I would not have sorrow from those who want to make me rejoice; having confidence in you all that my joy would be the joy of you all." He said again, the reason he decided not to go to Corinth on his way to Macedonia, as he changed his plans to do, was to spare them of the rod of discipline, as I mentioned earlier. To avoid unnecessary conflict; to give the Holy Spirit of God an opportunity to do his work in their heart, to bring conviction and repentance; especially those who had sided with these false teachers and had joined in a mutiny against the Apostle Paul. He knew that those who believed those slanderous lies, those lies of the false teachers, and those who joined against him, needed time to really think about and pray about the severe letter that he had written them confronting them. I mean, we all know that you don't want to confront a man or a woman when their bloods up; when they're mad, let them cool down, let them think about it. Let them be encouraged by other godly people. Don't be guilty of provoking them more at a time when they haven't really cooled off and thought about things rationally and biblically; that just causes unnecessary confrontation. So he's basically saying, folks, look, I didn't walk, don't want to walk, into a hornet's nest. I didn't want to have to assert my apostolic authority. I didn't want to have to lord it over you. I didn't want to come in and let's get into big fight. I don't want to bring sorrow upon sorrow. My goal is always to work with you for your joy.

If I can add a little footnote here, folks, when you see me and the elders make a change in the church, maybe a change in ministry, or personnel or whatever. Please don't immediately think that this is some whimsical idea. Please don't think we're being duplicitous; that what we're saying is poorly conceived, that we just kind of up and changed our travel plans. But rather realize that there's a good reason for what we're doing. Reasons that have the glory of Christ, and your best interest at heart, knowing that we love this church and also know that, that we are privy to information that you do not have. And that in most cases we're not able to give to you. And if you knew what we knew, undoubtedly you would agree Oh, yes, that's absolutely the right thing to do. So, despite all of the hysterics, and all of the drama, that sometimes goes along with some change in the church, all of the accusations that start flying, and all of the weeping and wailing and the gnashing of teeth, know this dear friends, we can honestly say, as Paul did that we can call on God as witness to our soul. That what we have done is for his glory, and for your joy, for your good.

So having seen the tactics of deceivers, Paul's defense of the gospel and his appeal to God, finally, in closing, notice the motive of love. Even though his love was under heavy fire, he still loved them, verse four, he says, "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears;" referring to the severe letter that he had written, "not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have, especially for you." Folks, Paul's passion was the truth of the gospel. His passion was for the purity of doctrine, for the purity of the church--for unity within the church for the glory of Christ. Why? Because of his great love for Christ, and because of his great love for the people. And I trust you share these passions. I would just challenge you to learn these lessons.

Well, beware certainly of anyone that stirs up divisions in the church. Beware of false teachers. Guard your heart against being sucked into whatever the drama is of the moment, but also celebrate the fact that we have been established in Christ. Celebrate the fact that he has anointed us he has sealed us and he has given us the deposit of the Spirit of God. Oh, what hope and joy and promise and peace we have in Christ. What a glorious future awaits us in him. Let's think about these things, especially during this difficult season. Will you join me in prayer?

Father, we are always humbled by the power of your word, and we are often moved to a place of deep reflection and joy when we consider the saving, transforming truths of the gospel, the inheritance that is ours in Christ. And we're also moved when we consider the dangers that are all around us, not only outside the church, but even within the church. And I pray that as we reflect upon what we have heard this morning, that by the power of your Spirit, you will bring conviction, you will bring encouragement, you will bring comfort and certainly peace and joy to each of us who know and love you. And if there be one that does not know you, as Savior, and Lord, I pray, as always Father that by the power of your Spirit, you will bring conviction to their heart. Help them to see the wrath of God that abides upon them, but the grace and the mercy that's available to them through faith in Christ, our Redeemer, save them by your grace, Father. Save our children, save our grandchildren, save our friends. We ask all of this in the precious name of Jesus, the Son of God, our Lord and our Savior. Amen.

Well, Greetings, everyone. It's a joy to be with you on this Lord's day morning. This is a very strange Lord's day morning because I'm looking out at only a handful of people. We've asked that people not come today because of the Coronavirus. And so this is going to be a little bit different, knowing that you're scattered all over, looking at the sermon this morning through the electronic media, just a word about the Coronavirus. We want to be cautious. We may do this again next Sunday. We're not real sure. But we will let you know. But I was thinking about the difficult times in which we live and especially in light of this virus that's going around and my mind went to Psalm 56, beginning in verse three, There we read, "When I am afraid I will put my trust in You. In God whose word I praise, in God, I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?" And I hope that is the testimony of your heart. And likewise, in Isaiah 26, beginning in verse three, we read, "The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace." And I hope you have that steadfastness in mind. He went on to say, "because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock." And so with those words of confidence and trust, knowing that God is in control of all things, let's just bow our heads in a word of prayer, as we prepare our hearts for his word this morning.

Father, it is a joy to be in your presence. And to be a part of this service that is being broadcasted to our dear saints scattered around. I pray that by the power of your Spirit, you will speak to each of our hearts I pray that your word will go forth with with clarity, and conviction and bring comfort and encouragement. And I pray above all that Christ will be honored and all that is said and done. So we commit ourselves to you this morning in Jesus name. Amen.

I've entitled my discourse to you this morning "The Testimony of our Conscience." And I would invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter one. And we will be looking at verses 12 through 14. As we continue to make our way through this amazing epistle verse by verse. Let me read the passage to you. "For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you. For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand. And I hope you will understand until the end; just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours in the day of our Lord Jesus."

So here, the apostle Paul speaks of this concept of the conscience. The term "conscience" in the original language describes that faculty within us that distinguishes between right and wrong, between good and evil. And the conscience will either exonerate or accuse a person depending upon what they have done. You might think of the conscience as the little what we call idiot lights in a car. When a little light comes on your dashboard, you know that something's awry, something needs to be examined, something is wrong. That's what our conscience does. And of course, we all know what it is to have a guilty conscience. When we violate some moral or ethical standard in our life, something that we believe to be right, our conscience bothers us. Maybe no one else knows. Maybe we've done something that we know is wrong. We wish we hadn't done it. But we did it and we feel guilty about it. And maybe your conscience is alarmed right now. Perhaps you're involved in something that is sinful, something that you're ashamed of and you would be horribly embarrassed if anybody found out about it. That is your conscience speaking to you. But what's really fascinating is that when we violate our conscience long enough, the guilt tends to go away. It reminds me of a time when I was with a friend, and he asked me to drive his old Chevy pickup truck. And I got in, he got in on the other side and as I turned on the engine and started down the road, I noticed that there was a little light that came on the dashboard, something like, check engine soon or whatever. And I said, "Oh my did you know that your engine light is on?" And his response was, "oh, yeah, I know, that thing's been on for years. I don't pay any attention to it, I just ignore it." So I said, Okay. So sometimes people do that in their conscience. And eventually, they pay no attention to the light whatsoever. You see, your conscience will only hold you to the highest moral and ethical standards that are in your mind; that are in your heart. But if you ignore it long enough, those standards no longer have any authority in your life. And we all know people that can do things, and we would say seemingly, they have no conscience. I'm reminded of a Indian friend of mine, a Canadian, first; First Nations Indian, as they call them, up in Canada, a man that was an ex-con, he came to saving faith in Christ while he was in prison. And I remember talking to him about his background, he said that when he was a little boy, he watched his father and watched his mother shoplift and steal things here and there. And his father said to said to him, "Look, we have suffered at the hand of the white man for so long, it's not wrong to steal from them." And unfortunately, this was bothering the little boy's conscience. But when he heard that, he began to change his mind a little bit. And he said that his father also told him that, that after all, people get money from insurance companies. And so it's not like they're losing out on anything. And so with that example, and with that explanation, his moral, his ethical standards, were gradually lowered sufficiently to silence his accusing conscience. And so he would do the same things. His stealing gradually went from shoplifting to more expensive items, he began stealing things like chainsaws and trucks and cars, from ranchers, even horses and cows. And eventually he got caught and had to go to prison. But I remember one thing that he said, and I'm paraphrasing this, he said, you know, Dave, when I was doing all of those things, it really didn't bother me all that much until I heard the gospel. And once I heard the gospel, once I saw God's law, I was consumed with guilt, which God used to bring me to repentance and to faith in Christ.

So that's the purpose of the law, isn't it? The purpose of God's law is to show us God's holy standard. And it drives us to the gospel that saves us from the curse of the law that we have violated. And then suddenly, when we see how the law of God reveals His character, we see our sinfulness all the more vividly. When we see his law, it teaches us what is pleasing to him, which in turn causes us to literally pant after his law after his word to delight in it. For example, in Psalm 119:131, the Psalmist says, "I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for your commandments." He went on to say in verse 143, "Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, yet your commandments are my delights." And when this happens, we can say with the apostle Paul, in Romans 7:12, "The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good." And in verse 22, he says, "For I delight in the law of God, according to the inward man."

But there's something else that God has revealed to us about our conscience that is really fascinating. And that is, when we are born again when we come to true saving faith in Christ, God cleanses the very conscience that he has revived. It's a fascinating concept. That same conscience that didn't feel anything suddenly screams of our guilt and our bondage to sin. And yet when we come to faith in Christ, he cleanses that conscience. We read about this in Hebrews nine and verse 14, where the writer says, "The blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." It's an amazing thing, isn't it? At the point of original regeneration, the accumulated guilt and shame that we experience deep within our conscience is suddenly cleansed. And according to Hebrews 10:22, our hearts have been "sprinkled clean from an evil conscience." And when this happens, we can say, with David, "I acknowledged my sin to You and my iniquity, I did not hide, I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin."

But there's something else that is fascinating, when we consider the conscience, a well-informed conscience, a conscience that is anchored in God's standard of righteousness. And that is, when we are falsely accused our conscience will exonerate us, even if the evidence appears to say otherwise, even if our friends believe a lie, a fully informed conscience will overturn the false verdicts of a slanderer. And that is at the heart of this passage that we're looking at here this morning. Remember the context, Satan had commissioned and empowered some false apostles to really hunt down the Apostle Paul. They were vicious wolves in sheep's clothing. In other words, they looked like real apostles, real pastors. They looked like that, they talked like that. They acted like that as though they were true messengers of God. But in reality, they were vicious predators. But the people in the church couldn't see it. They were sheep, and they began to follow these men. And we know that they came from within the early church, and this happened a great deal back then, as it continues to happen today. They were phony believers who had superficially attached themselves to the church; they saw how they could make money and gain recognition and power from naive and ignorant Christians. They were, you might say, the original televangelists, the original charismatic prosperity teachers, the original mega church charlatans and so forth. But their most delicious prey happened to be the Apostle Paul, and all who believed his apostolic message. You will recall, Paul described them, probably one man in particular, as "a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me," Second Corinthians 12 seven. And also in Second Corinthians 11 in verse 13. He describes him he says, "Such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds."

And of course, we know that the same kind of predators fill pulpits to this very day. In fact, the greatest enemies of authentic Biblical Christianity has been and will always be, religious people, especially those who claim to be Christian. You will recall in Matthew seven that Jesus warned that hell will be the abode of many who called him Lord, Lord. He described them as those who said, they prophesied in his name and we, in your name, we cast out demons and in your name, we perform many miracles. But we know according to Jesus words that these people will never enter the kingdom. He says only those who have entered in through "the narrow gate" the narrow gate of genuine repentance, brokenness of heart over sin; crying out to God for saving grace. And they will be the ones, who by God's grace and power, will do the will of the Father. But in Matthew seven, Jesus described the leaders of this pack of wolves as, quote "false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." Verse 15.

So back to the context, these ravenous wolves infiltrated the ranks of the Corinthian church and began spreading lies about the Apostle Paul. They accused him that he was secretly immoral, which was the reason why he was constantly suffering and being persecuted. They thought that that was a sign of God's judgment upon him. They said that he was deceitfully manipulative, that he was just using people for his own gain; that he was nothing more than a con man trying to line his own pockets. They also accused him of being a self-appointed false teacher, who merely fabricated the message that he gave and distorted the true word of God. Bottom line, they said that he was a phony that couldn't be trusted. So they sought to ruin his credibility. They sought to undermine his authority. They sought to discredit his teaching so that they could replace it with their own. And they were obviously very convincing in their slanderous attacks, because unfortunately, many people at the church in Corinth believed them. And that's when it's really heartbreaking. To hear slanderous lies about you is bad enough, but when friends believe them, that is especially difficult.

So you may recall Paul left emphasis, and went to Corinth to confront these men. It was called the sorrowful visit, as we read in chapter two and verse one. It didn't go well, evidently, one of these guys publicly insulted the apostle Paul, there was some kind of altercation. And yet shockingly, most of the church did not come to his aid; did not defend him. So Paul is heartbroken. So he goes back to Ephesus, he writes what is called the severe letter, as we read in verse four of chapter two, he had Titus deliver it to them. And later we learn from Titus that, or he learned from Titus that they had repented of their rebellion against Paul. So in Second Corinthians now, his current concern is not only to express his joy and his relief, but also to defend his apostleship and to confront the false teachers. And here in Second Corinthians, one, verses 12 through 14, Paul expresses his proud confidence in how God manifested his grace, and manifested his power in his life and ministry, and glories in what God has done in and through him.

And so verse 12, he says, "For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience." In other words, he knew for certain that he had dealt with the people there in godly sincerity and faithfulness, virtues that he rightly attributes to the grace of God in his life and not to himself. He knew for certain that God had called him and empowered him to be an apostle, despite his weaknesses. And he knew for certain that he had faithfully and accurately proclaimed the Word of God, the Gospel, that's why so many of them had been saved. So in verse two, or I should say in these two verses, he gives testimony to how his well-informed, and you might say his truth saturated conscience, really affirmed three things. His conscience affirmed number one: his moral integrity. Number two: his relational integrity, and finally, his doctrinal integrity.

So again, notice verse 12. "For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly, wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you." So first, we see how his conscience affirmed his moral integrity. Notice what he says. He knew that he had conducted himself first of all, "in holiness." Holiness means to be set apart from sin and set apart unto God; to be morally pure. Now, I don't want you to get the wrong idea about holiness because sometimes, we tend to do this. Yes, to be holy means to be set apart from sin. Actually the term means other, totally other, utterly transcendent set; apart from any kind of corruption, unapproachably and unimaginably pure in morality. And therefore we know that no sinner can ever enter into the presence of a holy God, apart from the imputed righteousness of Christ, the Son of God, who was infinitely holy. He was the Holy One of Israel.

Now, understand this, while Jesus should never be considered some kind of smiley face God that winks at sin, he is also not to be thought of as some kind of a bad tempered school principal with a perpetual scowl on his face. And sometimes people in our circles can mistakenly see Christ as stern and unapproachable, as austere and demanding as if he's always kind of standing there, shaking his head with his arms folded, kind of in disgust, disappointed in us pointing his finger at us and anger and sometimes shouting at us. And others see him as one who is kind of put off by us that he kind of holds his nose when he gets close to us. Because we're so filthy and so on, kind of like the first time a child is asked to bait his own hook. Perhaps you've seen this, I've seen this before, and my children and my grandchildren, they have that grimace on their face, and they kind of turned their head away and they slowly reached to grab a nightcrawler but when they feel that revolting slime, they drop back and disgust. Some people may not admit it, but that's how they see Jesus. That's how they see God. But Jesus said, in Matthew 11:29, "'I am gentle, and lowly," or "humble in heart." If you want to know who Jesus is, that's who he is. Gentle means meek and mild. In other words, he's not harsh, he's not easily angered. His arms are never folded in frustration, but they're always open in affection welcoming us to him, and he's also humble or lowly, which means he is meek and he is accessible and approachable.

Reflecting on this passage, the Old English Puritan, Pastor Thomas Goodwin, made a very astute observation. Here's what he said, "Men are apt to have contrary conceits of Christ. But he tells them His disposition there," in other words, in this text, "By preventing such hard thoughts of him, to allure them unto Him the more. We are apt to think that He, being so holy, is therefore of a severe and sour disposition against sinners, and not able to bear them. But no, says He, I am meek, and gentleness is my nature and temper." Now, some will say, well, yes, but according to Revelation one, in verse 14, we read that that "His eyes are like a flame of fire." We read that "His feet are like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace and His voice was like the sound of many waters." It goes on to say that "Out of His mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword; His face is like the sun shining in its strength." Well, yes, that is true, but that's how he must be perceived by the impenitent, not the penitent. By the unredeemed, not the redeemed. That is how he must appear to those who reject him, not to those who receive him, in humble repented faith, to those who are broken over their sin and weary of their suffering; for those who are desperate for forgiveness and mercy and grace; for those who are humble and contrite of spirit and who tremble at his word. His arms are always outstretched. He is always welcoming us, because he is gentle and humble in heart. Remember that he delights in mercy. He is a high priest; a faithful high priest that sympathizes with our weaknesses. He is the one who ever makes intercession for us. He is the one who was our advocate before the Father's bar of justice. In fact, in Hebrews chapter five and verse two, we read how he "deals gently with the ignorant and the wayward." And that's why we read, again, in Matthew 11:29, Jesus says, "'Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle, and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.'"

Now, my point with all of this is when Paul said that he conducted himself "in holiness," this is what he meant. Yes, he was morally pure, but he was also gentle and humble in heart like Jesus. And frankly, this should be the defining virtues of every Christian, of every believer; all of us who were debtors to his grace. So the great Apostle Paul would have been meek and mild and humble and approachable; an accessible man with his arms always open to those in need of the Savior. So yes, we see here that as he says, he knew that he had conducted himself in holiness, but also, he knew that he had conducted himself in "godly sincerity."

This is an interesting concept. This is the quality of being honest, of being straightforward in attitude, and in speech. This carries the idea of having no pretense, no duplicity. No devious motives, no saying one thing but meaning something else. We might say that he was the real deal. Now, the term "sincerity" in the original language, literally means "tested by the light of the sun," which is a fascinating concept. In fact, it comes from a compound word in Greek, "eili". Which means "the sun's heat," and "krino," which means "I judge." And together they denote the purity of something that has survived the testing, and the searching of the blazing light of the sun. In fact, the term sincerity is well illustrated by a first century testing procedure that people would use to determine the genuineness, you might say the structural integrity of a piece of pottery. You see dishonest potter's would use wax to cover up cracks in a pot that they were trying to sell. And when they would put the wax on it, it would make a crack virtually invisible to an undiscerning eye. So a wise consumer would take the piece of pottery, and they would hold it up to the sun, then oh, I'm beginning to see some cracks there. And if you held it there long enough, guess what would happen to the wax, it would begin to melt. So the sun's rays would expose the pretense. So the point here with the Apostle Paul, with the idea of godly sincerity, is simply this; when examined and tested by the searching in the searing light of divine holiness, Paul's life would certainly reveal cracks. Every sinners got a crack or two or many cracks in their pottery, you might say. But none of those cracks were concealed with the wax of religious hypocrisy. Paul's conscience confirmed this to be true.

Now it's also important to note that grammatically, both his holiness and his godly sincerity are qualified by of God. In other words, both virtues are godlike. God is the object and he is the source of all holiness and sincerity. And remember this folks when you experience a person who is holy, who is gentle and humble in spirit who is set apart, who is morally pure, so to speak, and a person that's filled with godly sincerity. What a joy they are to be around. For in their Christlike example, we get a little glimpse of God. He is the object, he is the source of every righteous virtue. In fact, Paul says in First Corinthians 15, verse 10, "By the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." And to the Ephesians, he described, what is "the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe these are in accordance with the working of the strength of his mind, which he brought about in Christ." And so it's always God who animates and empowers us to be holy and sincere. And to the Colossians. Paul wrote, "For this purpose, also I labor, striving according to His power," not my power, but his power, "which mightily works within me." And what a powerful reality that is. What a powerful testimony, and what a motivating truth to know that we can live a life, a holy life, a life of godly sincerity, by the power of the Spirit of God, come what may.

Now the point is, this was Paul's conscience. He knew all of this to be true, no matter what anybody else said. He knew that these allegations were without merit. And he knew that God knew that he lived his life in such a way. Now, we must understand that Paul also knew that he wasn't without sin. He wasn't in a state of sinless perfection, that won't happen until we get to heaven. If I could put it this way, he knew that there were cracks in his pot. We all have them. Some are quite obvious. Some have been covered over with the wax of our hypotheses, and some are hidden in the inner part of the pot. Paul knew that he wasn't sinless. In fact, in First Corinthians four beginning in verse three, he says, "But to me, it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I don't even examine myself." There, he's speaking of the great danger of being far too influenced by man's opinions, whether they're good or bad; criticism can cause you to either become weak and just kind of wither away, or praise can fuel your pride and make you desire more of it. So Paul was not saying he was close to all criticism, you know, beyond just wise, loving feedback; nor was he saying he was closed to all praise. To be sure, we all need some of that. But what he's saying is, look, I know I've got holes in my pot, but my only concern is the approval of the Lord. You know, not so much what you say or what I even think of myself, I care supremely for the approbation of my master. And when I know in my heart that I am serving him in humility, and in faithfulness to his commands, than the judgments of man, whether they are pro or whether they are con, mean little in comparison. He went on to say in verse four, "I am conscious of nothing against myself. Yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord." Of course, self-examination can sometimes produce the wrong verdict, can it? Whether guilt or innocent. But he didn't worry about that, he didn't seem to care much about the opinion of other people about himself. But certainly he had to care at some level when his apostolic authority and his apostolic message was being threatened in the church, he had to protect them from the wolves.

If we go back to the passage in First Corinthians four that I was mentioning, Paul went on to say, "Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time." In other words, avoid premature, uninformed, definitive verdicts. You Corinthians, be careful with that and all believers, you can't judge the motives of a man's heart, whether they're good or bad, you only see the outside, God sees the inside. Plus, we're all prone to see the speck in our brother's eye and not see the log in our own. It's interesting how self-interest is the secret bribe of judgment in our own heart. Paul went on to say, "But wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the hidden things in the darkness." In other words, those things that are unknown even to us, those things concealed and protected from scrutiny by the darkness of our own judgment. He says that he is going to "disclose the motives of men's hearts." In other words, he is going to make plain, or transparent, those secret thoughts. "And then each man's praise,"" he says will come to him from God." So again, while Paul's conscience was clear, he knew that he was not without sin. In fact, John tells us in First John one eight, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

But I also want to make another point about this, it's very important for us to bear in mind, allow me to make a very important distinction based on what the Apostle Paul has said, as well as many other passages of Scripture, there's a difference between remaining sin and reigning sin. In Romans six beginning of verse 12, Paul said, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness." In other words, how foolish is it to obey the lusts of your mortal body that is temporal and die. Even though the sin principle, that law of sin, remains in our body, remember this dear friends, we are not subject to it. It no longer reigns over us, we do not have to obey its lusts. Romans 8:13, Paul says that we are to "put to death the deeds of the body." We must remember folks that sin cannot be domesticated, it must be eradicated. To say it very practically, you don't sleep with your pet cobra. I must add something else that can be very practical in our own personal pursuit of holiness. And our own personal pursuit of godly sincerity. And that is to remember that this world is not our home. Aren't you glad that it's not our home? Paul knew this. The apostles knew this. I love how Peter puts it in first Peter two nine. He says "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people for God's own possession." In other words, he's reminding them and reminding us, that you are no longer part of this sphere of influence. And he went on to say in verse 11, "I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul." And to be sure we're all strangers. We are all aliens in this world, this god hating system ruled by Satan; this kingdom of darkness filled with sin and sickness and death. This realm filled with tornadoes like we just experienced a week or so ago; these viruses; the people that think it's okay to kill babies; this place filled with lying, greedy politicians and so forth. We're aliens, we are strangers to this, to this world. We are united to Christ in glory. And, you know, folks, the older you get, and I'm seeing this more and more in my life, the older you get and the more you walk with Christ, the more you see the glory of his grace in your life, the more you see him work in the lives of other people and the more you experience the wickedness and the misery of this world, the less you want to be a part of it. All of that loosens your grip upon this world and causes you to want to separate yourself from it more and more. And even as Paul had to modify his flesh, that is to starve it from finding satisfaction, we must all do the same. And when we do that, we can say with Paul, back to verse 12 of our text here this morning, "our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity." And then he says, "not in fleshly wisdom." The idea that we have not conducted ourselves in these ways, that phrase "not in fleshly wisdom." Another way of thinking about this is not in the foolish philosophies of fallen man that will inevitably exalt man and diminish God, not in the idiotic psychological theories and therapies of of spiritual cadavers that can no more bring genuine help and hope to fallen man, or even to believers, than a dung beetle can build a space shuttle. He said, I didn't come to you that way. But I came in, he says, "but in the grace of God." In other words, only through the power of God's grace revealed to us in the person and work of Christ and in his Word; only through that power, can we be reconciled to God, can we live in joyful obedience to him. That's how I came. And he says, "We have conducted ourselves in the world," but in the grace of God, "we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you." And I think that last phrase, he's basically appealing to their conscience. It's like, "people, you know this to be true."

So his conscience, first of all affirmed his moral integrity. And secondly, his conscience affirmed his relational integrity. You will recall how Paul was falsely accused, for example in Second Corinthians 10, beginning in verse 10 we read, "For they say, 'His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.'" In other words, oh, he writes real tough, real mean when he writes, but when he comes in your presence, not that way at all. He's just phony. You know, it's kind of like people that post things on Facebook, you know, they're big talk, or they're mean, they say these horrible things. But all of a sudden, if they see you face to face, they cower in fear, especially when they know that what they said is untrue. That's what they were saying of him.

Verse 11, of that text, Paul says, "Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also in deed when present." So don't accuse me of writing something and then when I get in your presence, I'm something altogether different. So in an effort to deny those false charges, and defend his relational integrity, go back to our text in verse 13. He says, "For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand. And I hope you will understand until the end, just as you also partially did understand us." In other words, there was nothing obscure about my correspondence with you, you know that none of it disguised my motives. There was no hidden meaning in any of this. There's nothing deceptive, nothing manipulative. Everything that I wrote was clear and compelling and consistent, and straightforward. No different than the way I conduct myself when I'm in your presence face to face. And it was obvious from what he wrote it, that there was no merit to this accusation. He was not in any way trying to defraud them. He simply wrote the inspired Word of God, that they could read and understand, as he says in his text, so that they could gain a greater apprehension of divine truth.

Now, what's interesting, by using the words "read" and "understand," Paul employed a very interesting play on words in Greek that emphasize that what he wrote and who he was, we're in complete harmony with one another. You can even hear it in the Greek the word. "Read" is "anaginosko" And the word "understand" is "epiginosko." So they sound alike. The similarity in sound therefore, and in other words, the way they rhyme, illustrate that his message and his character conformed to one another. There is no dissonance. There was no discord. There was no disconnect. Now, to be sure, each of us must make sure that what we say, is always consistent with who we are. We often put it this way, we need to practice what we preach. I fear that is missing in the church today. You remember what Jesus said in Luke 6:46 says, "'Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?'" Why do you merely give lip service to my lordship in your life and then live in disobedience?

You see, the point that he's trying to make is: genuine faith produces obedience. Spurious faith produces disobedience. Jesus says you will know them by their fruit a tree will be known by its fruits. Just prior to that, verse 44, Jesus said, "'For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.'" And if I can put this very practically a husband who says he loves his wife, as Christ loves the church, but fails to manifest a gentle and humble heart, like Christ, is duplicitous. A woman who says she submits to Christ as her loving head but refuses to subject herself to the loving headship and servant leadership of her husband and tries to rule him instead, is duplicitous. Young men and young women who profess Jesus as their Savior, and claim that he is the Lord of their life, and yet they have no desire to present their bodies as a living in a holy sacrifice acceptable to Him; those type of people are duplicitous. And God does not bless a hypocrite. He chastens them. And what a wonderful thing to know in your heart, that who you are on the inside is exactly who you claim to be on the outside. And that was Paul's conscience here before the Lord. You see, Paul was not a hypocrite. Even in what he wrote in First Timothy one, five, he said, "But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." And he went on to describe the importance of keeping faith and a good conscience in verse 19, which he warned, "some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith." And then Peter says in First Peter three and verse 16, "keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame."

I'm constantly dealing with pastors and church leaders from all over. And one of them in particular that I've been dealing with of late had been slandered by, and actually he's continued to be slandered by some very vicious wolves that infiltrated his church, brought destruction to a small startup church, destroyed his health, his family's health, almost caused him to give up. And one of the things that he said, and that not everyone will say, certainly been my testimony as well. One of the things that really keeps you going in those dark and difficult times is not only, not only the fellowship with your friends, and especially your wife, as he said, and certainly the Word of God, but beyond all of that, the great comfort, perhaps the greatest comfort, is a clear conscience. A clear conscience, knowing that whatever is being said, is not true. And knowing that the Lord knows it.

So knowing his conscience was clear, Paul says in verse 13, "For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand, and I hope you will understand until the end, just as you also partially did understand us." And what he's saying here is, I want you to understand this totally, I want you to understand this completely, that what I wrote and who I am, are in perfect harmony with one another. I know you know this to some degree now, but I want you to know, the fullness of this reality. Understand this "until the end." "End" literally means completely, totally, entirely.

And so in closing, not only did his conscience affirm his moral integrity and relational integrity, but also finally, his doctrinal integrity. And we see this at the end of verse 14. He says that, "we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours in the day of our Lord Jesus." And what he's saying here is this: you ought to have proud confidence in me, as I do in you, because it was through my ministry and the gospel message; along with Timothy who was with me, it was through all of this, that God saved you by His grace. And as a result together, we eagerly anticipate the day of our Lord Jesus. That day when we will stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy. He described a similar thing to the saints in Thessalonica. In First Thessalonians two, beginning in verse 19, he said, "For who is our hope, or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy." So where he's going with this is simply to say, look, had I been a con-man trying to use you, trying to distort the Word of God as a false apostle; had I come to you in deception, just to deceive you for my own benefit, then how can you explain your salvation? That we have "reason to be proud in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Beloved, false teachers can distort the Word of God and they do it all the time, and 1000s of people will follow them. They will follow their phony lifestyles, their superficial teachings. The world is filled with religious charlatans; entrepreneurs that can fill buildings, with people with all kinds of activity. They can pack auditoriums; they can fill stadiums, but their message will never save sinners and sanctify saints it will not happen. That's, in essence, what Paul is referring to here. I mean, just look, you people came to saving faith in Christ. And now we're looking forward to the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, let's remember there's a big difference between a crowd and a church. And much of what passes today is nothing more than country club, cultural Christianity. But Paul's message was truly God's message, the gospel message that is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In other words, the proof was in the pudding. And he's reminding them of this. In fact, in chapter two and verse 17, he said, "For we are not like many, peddling the Word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God." And in chapter four, verse two, he went on to say "we have renounced the things hidden, because of shame, not walking in craftiness, or adulterating the Word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." And that's what he is doing here in this passage.

Well, dear friend, may I ask you, do you have a clear or an accusing conscience? If it's an accusing conscience, I would plead with you, as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to come to Jesus. His arms are outstretched. He is gentle, and he is humble in heart, and he will save you and his blood will cleanse your conscience. In fact, the writer of Hebrews tells us, "that for the joy set before him he endured the cross." What joy was that? What's he referring to? Well, it's the joy to see sinners come to him. That's what brings great joy to the heart of our blessed Savior. If I could leave you with an analogy, imagine if your family was sick and dying of some dreadful disease and you secured an antibiotic that would cure them. Then you come to your family that you love so much and you say, "I have the cure here," but they say no, no, we don't want that. We will use our home remedies and we will try to survive on our own. And as they get sicker and sicker and they begin to die, you plead with them. And then finally, you have a son, then a daughter that comes and says, Dad, let me let me try your medicine. What do you think the dad feels when that child comes to them? He feels inexpressible joy. And that's what Jesus feels when we come to him, because this is his heart: come to him and he will forgive your sin. He will cleanse your conscience. He'll not only cleanse it, he will inform it with truth. And when you come to saving faith in Christ, you will find that everything changes. And as we walk in fellowship with him, by the power of his Spirit, we will be more conformed into his likeness, so that our life like Paul's life, can manifest holiness and godly sincerity. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word that speaks so directly to each of our hearts. I pray for that person that may be within the sound of my voice that knows nothing of the gentle and the humble in heart Savior, the Lord Jesus. I pray that the beauty of his holiness and his love for them will draw them unto him that today they might be saved. And Father, for those of us who know and who love you, I pray that we will once again recommit ourselves to living lives for your glory, in loving and joyful obedience to the lover of our souls. That in all things Christ might have the preeminence for it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

It is always a privilege, a joy and honor to be able to minister the word of God to you. And we're able to do that again this morning. And we're going to do it by looking for the final time at the concept of God of all comfort in second Corinthians chapter one. We're going to look at a few verses in verses one through 11. As we prepare our hearts for what the Spirit of God has for us this morning, I might say that I have lingered long upon this topic, because it is so rich. It is so important, especially in these days of mounting persecution, persecution against true Christianity, here in the United States and around the world. And while none of us may suffer the kinds of things that the apostle Paul suffered, we know that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, Second Timothy 3:12. And as we endeavor to live lives that honor Christ in this fallen world that is so hostile to him, we're going to experience more and more of that kind of persecution, some of you have experienced it already, others of you will. I've talked with a friend this last week, who's not a part of this church. He works in the IT department of a rather large company here in Nashville, and his job is being threatened because he refuses to attend the inclusivity workshops that is really nothing more than forced LGBTQ indoctrination, and he refuses to join them when they have the special parades downtown, the gay pride parades and so forth. By the way, imagine them requiring employees to attend a biblical morality workshop. You see the point, imagine having a traditional family parade downtown Nashville. And I know a number of you are experiencing similar forms of Christian discrimination right now. But I want us all to be able to rejoice in the comfort that is ours, because we are united to Christ; the comfort that God gives that he makes available to all who are willing to suffer for his sake. And also, I want you to be reminded of the kind of love that we need to have for those that do not know Christ, that remain blinded to their sin, including those who hate us. And it's this love that must continue to drive us to present the gospel to them and what a joy it is to see people come to Christ, right? We've seen some of that in the last few weeks, even here in our own midst.

So there's three important concepts that we've studied that emerge out of verses one through 11 of Second Corinthians one, we've seen over the last couple of weeks, that God indeed comforts those who are afflicted, and Paul was greatly afflicted, as you will recall. But then secondly, we see that believers are comforted, to comfort others. That's what we're going to look at this morning. And then finally, prayer unleashes the power of God, we're going to see that as well. So let's pick it up at verse three, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction," and here's why, "so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." So this moves us to our second point in this little outline, and that is that believers are comforted to comfort others.

Now we all understand that we have cells in our human body. And each cell has a function. Each cell is to help the rest of the cells and the rest of the organs. And that's the way it's supposed to be as well, in the body of Christ. We are all a cell, shall we say, are all organs; we all need to work together. And what's interesting is that God uses the comfort that he provides us in our affliction, to equip us to comfort others in their affliction. It's an amazing thing, so we are comforted to comfort others. Now how does this work? Well, to be sure, the Spirit of God comforts us in ways that we can't fully understand. John 14, verse 16, Jesus says, "I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever." That is the spirit of truth. And the term "Helper" comes from a Greek term "parakletos," it means advocate or comforter or helper. Now, we know that the Spirit of God sent the comforter and that he dwells within us, right? But what's interesting is that the activities of the Holy Spirit are far more than just comforting. We know that he is the one for example, who convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. He is the one that glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ by transforming sinners, and saving us by his grace and causing us to become more like Christ. We know that he is the supernatural and the sovereign agent of regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ. The word of God tells us that he indwells, he sanctifies. He instructs, he empowers believers for service. He seals us for the day of redemption, so many things. But we also know that he is the comforter. And he does this in mysterious ways. But what you will find is that he always does this in conjunction with the exhortation of his word, through the use of his word. And we've all experienced that kind of comfort, haven't we, in the midst of some great trial, suddenly, some passage of Scripture, as I say, just leaps off the page at you and touches your heart like never before. Maybe it's something you hear in a sermon, something you read in a book, the lyrics of a hymn. In fact, I might put it this way, you will not find any kind of lasting soul satisfying comfort in your life, apart from the ministry of God's word, it's not going to happen. I'm reminded of Psalm 19, beginning in verse seven. There David says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul." And here he is speaking of the Word of God in different ways versus the law of the Lord. It's perfect, restoring the soul. That he says "the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart." Another aspect of comfort, "The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous all together. They are more desirable than gold, yes, then much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them, Your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward." And of course, that great reward includes the astounding benefits of the Word of God that were just mentioned in the previous verses.

Now, when Jesus asked the Father, to send the Helper, certainly he knew that the Helper would be needed in our lives, especially in the realm of comfort. And it's interesting in John 14:26, we read "But the Helper," again the parakletos, "the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I said to you." And in chapter 15, verse, verse 26, he says, "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also." So the divine helper is going to use his word to bring comfort to those that He indwells. The comforter is going to use his Word in a way that brings peace and tranquility and understanding and instruction to our heart. He is going to bring these things to remembrance. He's going to bring his word to bear upon our soul, and he is going to use others in that process, especially those who have the gift of exhortation, the ability to speak comforting truth from the Word of God.

Now practically speaking, if you are in need of comfort, you must go to the God of all comfort by going to his Word and by fellowshipping with those people who have been afflicted and who have been comforted by the word of God so that they too can comfort you. Now, let me explain something to you. This is a fascinating concept in describing spiritual gifts. In Romans chapter 12 and verse eight, we see the Spirit of God speaking through his inspired apostle Paul, using the same term parakletos. He says, "He who exhorts, in his exhortation," and here he's describing the spiritual gift of exhortation. The word exhort comes from "parakaleo" and exhortation is "paraklesis." It's all rooted in that same word. And it's a compound word in the original language. "Para" means alongside and "kaleo" means to call. So this is the person with the gift of exhortation, is one that can come alongside, that can call alongside, they can speak alongside; so joined together they constitute the title "parakletos," or, as you've heard the spirit called the "paraclete" the Helper, the advocate. And this is used not only to describe the Holy Spirit, as I've just noted, but also the Lord Jesus Christ. In First John two and chapter one we read, "If anyone sins, we have a "parakleton," "an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous." Now stick with me, back to Romans 12 and verse eight, "He who exhorts in his exhortation." What's fascinating is that the Holy Spirit has uniquely gifted some people with the gift of exhortation, "paraklesis," one who, on behalf of and empowered by the Spirit of God can come alongside those in need; fellow believers to minister to them the word of God in their time of need to help them understand and apply his word. And of course, this is going to vary according to individual people and their circumstances.

Sometimes, it's admonishing someone who has allowed some kind of life dominating sin to overcome them. Or maybe it's to instruct and correct someone, that's deceived by some kind of error. And many times, these things really come out in the midst of suffering in the midst of anguish, or to comfort someone who is hurting, or to strengthen someone who is collapsing under the weight of some great trial. But in every situation, the agent of comfort is always God. The God of all comfort, and the instrument that he uses is the word of God. And the messengers that he uses is all of us, especially those with the gift of exhortation. When I reflect upon those who have had the greatest impact in my life, especially in times of great suffering, they have always been mature saints. They've always been older saints, with the gray hairs, many of them white hairs. But they've always been people who have suffered greatly for the cause of Christ. And they've also been people who are gifted greatly with biblical exhortation, men of the word. Some of them I've been able to talk with personally. And many of them have been with the Lord for hundreds of years.

If I could give some practical advice to you, young people, when you're in need of comfort, don't go to your friends. Go to somebody older and wiser. Somebody who's hurt, somebody who knows the word; some man or woman, look for somebody with gray hair with worn out Bibles, and calloused knees. Those are the people that God can use to bring you comfort, and to bring you clarity. Also, don't go to some secular counselor or some psychologists. They know nothing of the Word of God or the God of all comfort. They know nothing of the power of the word, the power of the Spirit. And also I might add, be careful even going to a lot of so called pastors. I was meeting with a prominent Christian leader this last week and we were talking about this and I told him that, you know, frankly, I would say most of the pastors in Nashville, Tennessee, I would not allow to teach Sunday school in my church. I hate to say that and I know that sounds hideously arrogant, but I wouldn't. Many are unsaved apostates, and many of them are nothing more than entrepreneurs. I might also add a practical note, I would encourage all of you to read biographies of great men and women of the word people who have suffered. We even see this in Hebrews chapter 12, and verse one, with respect to those who are found in Scripture, it says, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses, surrounding us," which by the way, was a reference to the enduring faith of the examples that were set before them in chapter 11, he goes on to say, "Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin, which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us." Of course, that great cloud of witnesses surrounding us are witnesses of God's faithfulness of his power of his mercy, of his grace and his love, especially in times of great uncertainty and suffering, these are the people we are to imitate. These are the people that we should study, let us run our race like they did with unwavering courage and with confidence in who God is. Because true faith as the writer of Hebrews 11 and verse one says, "is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things unseen." And folks herein we find comfort.

Now, let me give you an example of a great man of God outside of Scripture that has brought comfort to my life, as maybe he has to yours as well. And I would recommend this is a biography of William Carey. He lived, he was born in 1761, died in 1834. He was called the father of modern missions. And there is a biography about him written by his great grandson, S. Pierce Carey, who was a distinguished Baptist minister and missionary statesman, who became famous for his writing as a Christian author. And it the biography by the way that I'm recommending to you was, was published in 1923. But Carey was an uneducated cobbler from England, who taught himself Latin, Hebrew and Greek. But he also was a man with a burden for the lost. And so God ultimately led him to India, around the close of the Revolutionary War, which would have been around 1783 and following. By the way, during that, that time in history, there was really no such thing as a foreign missionary. It was completely foreign to people, especially in Great Britain. And he had a model, the motto of his mission was, quote, "expect great things, attempt great things." Well, as you read his story, you will soon discover that he was faced with enormous hardships, lots of suffering. Once he got to India, he lost one of his young children. His wife went insane and eventually died. His second wife eventually died. Most of his life, he lived in extreme poverty. It got better later on, but still he had nothing. He endured enormous persecution, not only from the pagans there in India, but from the British government. But God was faithful to bless his efforts, as God began to save people and to use the influence of the gospel to impact that culture. A people that did just hideous things they, they would do things like stick hooks in their back and swing from poles as part of a ritual. They had widow burning where if a young widow would lose her husband, she would climb into a pile of wood and all and they would set her on fire and just horrible things.

But God gradually began to build his church, helping Car toey survive and to learn the customs and to learn the languages; a number of languages and to translate them into the Word of God, and to print them; to print the scriptures in various languages and dialects. And then he gradually brought other people to come and co-labor with him. And according to his biographer, quote, "He produced six grammar as being often the first groundbreaker of Bengali, Sanskrit,” which that grammar was 1000 pages, "Marathi, Punjabi, Teluga and Kanarese. Not to mention a Bhotia grammar." Went on to say three dictionaries he compiled, "Bengali, Marathi, and Sanskrit as well as Bhotia vocabulary. That Bengali dictionary," he says, "with its 80,000 words in three volumes, resulted from the toil of 30 years, and was for long, the standard work." Professor H.H Wilson of Oxford said quote, "Local terms are here rendered with the correctness which carries knowledge of the people’s manners and his long domestication amongst them, enabled him to attain in his scientific requirements and familiarity with natural history; qualified him to employ and not infrequently to devise characteristic terms for the animal and vegetable products of the East." End quote: and on and on it goes. But later in his life and ministry in the year of 1812, his mission printing works, and huge warehouse burned to the ground in unimaginable horror. And while some translation manuscripts and some of the printing presses were removed in time, most everything was lost. It was a loss of 10,000 pounds in those days, which today would be $14 million. Talk about affliction. Talk about a man of sorrow. Much of his life's work went up in smoke. One man by the name of Thomason came in the afternoon to console the people and he said this, quote, "The scene was indeed affecting the long printing office reduced to a mere shell, the yard covered with burnt paper, Carrie walked with me over the smoking ruins, the tears stood in his eyes." Now, before I read what's next, I want to remind you what we've been talking about. And that is the power of the God of all comfort. Carrie said this quote, "In one night, the labors of years are consumed. How unsearchable are the divine ways. I had lately brought some things to the utmost perfection I could and contemplated the mission with perhaps too much self-congratulation. That the Lord has laid me low, that I may look more simply to Him." He also wrote to his niece Eustace, back in England, here's what he said, "This is a heavy blow, as it will stop our printing the scriptures for a long time. 12 months hard labour will not reinstate us, not to mention loss of property, manuscripts, etc, which we shall scarcely ever surmount." But a catch this, "I wish to be still and know that the Lord is God and to bow to His will and everything, He will no doubt bring good out of this evil and make it promote his interests. But at present, the Providence is exceeding dark. No lives were lost. We cannot tell him what was the cause of the fire." And then writing to his family back in England, he said, quote, "Much ground must be labored over again, and I have suffered most, but we are not discouraged. We are chastened and not killed. Cast down but not destroyed, perplexed, but not in despair." Oh, dear friends, what a magnificent example of the God of all comfort, who comforted one of his own through His Word. And now who in turn is comforting us through his testimony? Isn't it amazing how that works?

Now, please understand, God doesn't comfort us when we suffer because of our sin. A loving father doesn't comfort his son in his sin. He chastens the ones that he loves, we understand that. But when we come to repentance, then he comforts us as we seek to honor him. I think of David's grievous sin with Bathsheba. Remember in Psalm 32, he said, "When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long." Well, there's no comfort there. He went on to say, "For day and night, Your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer." But then as we read on he talks about how when he acknowledged his sin, God forgave him and he was comforted. And that's why he began that psalm in verse one saying "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, who sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and whose spirit in whose spirit there is no deceit." And in verse seven, he goes on, and he says, "Thou art my hiding place, Thou does preserve me from trouble. Thou does surround me with songs of deliverance." And at the end of verse 10, he says, "He who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shelter around him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones, and shout for joy, all you who are upright and heart." Beloved, only the God of all comfort can animate that kind of sincere, heartfelt joy. What's more, God's comfort, included new, intimate, personal instruction in verse eight. The Lord says, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go, I will counsel you with My eye upon you."

We see a similar situation in Peters trial, and I'd like to take you to some of these concepts with Peter, you will recall in Luke 22:31, Jesus said, "'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.'" Peter learned the hard way, didn't he? That God used his failure to humble him and bring him to a deeper state of dependence and trust in the Lord his God, but also to equip him to strengthen others. And because of this, he could comfort the saints that were later scattered abroad, because of persecution. And he would say this to them in First Peter five, beginning in verse five, "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Again, a lesson that Peter learned the hard way. "Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." And let's admit it, that's very hard to do when we're suffering. When we're enduring some kind of persecution, to somehow cast our cares upon him. It's contrary to our flesh. Our flesh demands an audience with God; God, this isn't fair, you owe me an explanation. I demand my day in court to prove my case. Or maybe we're not that ungodly, but rather we say to ourselves, I'm going to take charge. Thanks, God, I've got this. I'll handle things in my own way.

But as we look at this text, we see Peter using an interesting phrase "mighty hand of God." That was a figure of speech describing God's sovereign rule over our life. Now you must understand that God is always at work in our lives, and sometimes his mighty hand is the mighty hand of testing. And perhaps you're experiencing that right now. Perhaps you're experiencing the grip of his hand in your life. Sometimes it's the mighty hand of testing, you will recall, and the gnawing pain of relentless suffering. Job mistakenly thought that God had abandoned him. And in Job 30, verse 20, we read, "I cry out to Thee for help, but Thou does not answer me. I stand up and Thou does turn Thy attention against me, that has become cruel to me with the might of Thy hand, Thou doest persecute me." Sometimes it might be the hand of divine chastening. We read about this in God's promise to cause Israel to repent, to restore her and one day rule over her in his kingdom. In Ezekiel 20 verse 33, we read, "'As I live,' declares the Lord GOD, 'surely with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you.'" And in verse 37, "'And I shall make you pass under the rod, and I shall bring you into the bond of the covenant.'" So sometimes his mighty hand is the hand of testing sometimes it's the hand of chastening. Sometimes it's the hand of deliverance. Exodus three beginning in verse 19, we read, "'But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion. So,'" now I love this, "'I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles, which I shall do in the midst of it, and after that, he will let you go.'"

Now, having said that, back to what Peter is talking about here, with respect to the mighty hand, in First Peter five, five, this is the mighty hand of testing that he's describing. Regardless of the purpose of his outstretched hand of testing in our lives, he's telling us that we need to humble ourselves under it, we need to willingly submit to it. Remember, Jesus said in Luke 14:11, "'Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.'" This is why I often say, we should never ask why in the midst of our afflictions. But ask what. God does not owe us an explanation, nor could we understand it, were he to give it to us. Instead of saying, God, why is this happening? We should say, God, what should I do to give you glory in the midst of this trial, I know that you're up to great things in my life, I don't understand all of this. And I plead with you to deliver me from the pain of this affliction, whatever it might be. But though you slay me, I will trust in you. And it's for this reason that we can rejoice knowing in First Peter five, notice what he says at the end of verse six, "He will exalt you at the proper time." Beloved, God's timing is always perfect. His purposes are always perfect. His plan is always perfect. And his hand of testing can also be the hand of deliverance in our life, as it often is. And there is the blessed hope of all of the redeemed, the confident hope that he will never leave us, nor will he ever forsake us. And He will exalt us at the proper time, which I've discovered is seldom "my" time, but it's always his perfect time. And because of these eternal truths, we learned to not only be receptive to God's purposes, but also confident in them. And that's why he says in verse seven, "Casting all your care upon Him, because He cares for you." What a precious statement. It is believed by most that here Peter is reflecting back to the words of David, the psalmist, in Psalm 55:22, where we read, "Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you, He will never allow the righteous to be shaken." Well, that's a passage that I've leaned on many times, haven't you? You know, in the furnace of affliction, we have a choice to make. We can either rely on ourselves or we can rely on God, being convinced that he cares for you; that he has ordained our suffering for our good and for His glory, that he's always working in it. And that one day, he will deliver us from it. O, child of God, it is so easy to forget that God is good, you know, that even in suffering, he is intimately acquainted with all our ways. And as we read, in Psalm 56, verse eight, he puts our tears in the bottle of his remembrance. One of the things that you will find in Israel in the archaeological digs is they find a lot of little, little glass bottles that were made somehow, in even dating back to the first and second century, where the Jews would make these little vials that looks like little test tubes, they're different colors. And those were symbolic of that verse, that God captures our tears in his bottle, he remembers them. And it's easy to forget, isn't it, that he is intimately acquainted with all of our suffering? Hebrews four verse 15, "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness." If you're struggling here today, do you remember that? Does this bring comfort to your soul as it should? Goes on to say, "But one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need."

And then back to First Peter five, in verses 10 and 11, he said, "After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ," let me stop there for a moment. Here, Peter is reflecting back to the beginning of his epistle, where he encouraged them to live triumphant lives even in the face of adversity, because they have been according to chapter one, verse two, "chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." So he says, "After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ" is the one who is going to bless you. This is what he's wanting them to think about. The God of all grace has called you to his eternal glory in Christ. It's amazing, isn't it, though we can suffer and we can be confused, sometimes we can be terribly discouraged, we must also be excited because there is a victory celebration that's going to come. God in all of his glory is going to celebrate that time with us.

By the way, as I think about Peter writing this, remember, he knew that he was going to be crucified at the end of his life. Jesus had told him that. Well, Scripture doesn't tell us this, I have to believe that as he was writing this, under the inspiration of the Spirit, tears were streaming down his face, down his cheeks. Can't you see his hands quivering in exhilaration as he writes these great truths as the Spirit of God guides him to write what he knows to be true? And can't you see Peter's wife, perhaps even sobbing with him? As her heart longs for relief, as together their heart races with adrenaline in the anticipation of glory. Tradition tells us that before Peter was crucified, he had to watch his wife being crucified and that he knelt before her and he kept saying, "remember the Lord, remember the Lord, remember the Lord." And perhaps he even quoted to her some of these things that are written here.

But as we come back to what Peter said, in verses 10 and 11, it says again, "and after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ." I want you notice something here, God is not only the God of all comfort, he is the God of all grace. Isn't that interesting? Now, mind you here, grace is far more than unmerited favor, though it is that. But grace is the transforming and sanctifying power of God that is available to all who trust in Christ, to all who have been born again. God's grace, you see, is comforting grace, and it is far stronger than any suffering that we could ever experience. Peter says, It is his grace that has called us to his eternal glory in Christ. Boy, you talk about power, there's power in God's grace. It's not something static. God has initiated and secured our salvation by his grace, right? This is the grace that has called us out of darkness and placed us into his marvelous light. This is the grace that caused us to be born again, to be resurrected from spiritual death to spiritual life. This is the grace that has saved us. And it is the grace of God, that delivers us from the power of sin and empowers us to live triumphant lives for the glory of Christ. Talk about comfort. And where does that comfort come from? From the Spirit of God, who has written the word of God; to exalt Christ to bring comfort to us, so that we can comfort others. It's an amazing chain. And notice what he will continue to do during the seasons of comfort, or seasons of suffering. It says, "the God of all grace...will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you." By the way, these are all terms, almost synonymous terms, that speak of supernatural empowerment. To help us stand firm in the battle and give no ground to the flesh, no ground to the enemy in his forces of darkness.

Let me tell you what these four terms mean. The term "perfect" in the original language means to restore or to repair. It was even used medically to describe the setting of a bone. Well, Peter who didn't Christ is speaking here from experience, isn't he? He knows what it's like to be restored, to be repaired, to have the bone set. The term "confirm" means to make one resolute and determined. You might say it means to fortify a person, to give a person courage, to persevere in trials, to help a person stand firm in the face of temptation, and to be steady in one's faith. And the term "strengthen" means to strengthen a person to be able to bear up under suffering, without ever wavering in their faith. This is what the God of all comfort does. And the term "establish," it literally means to establish you firmly. It speaks of the divine enablement that helps us lay a firm foundation of trust and confidence in him. And it even speaks of God's ability to strengthen; a personal quality or aspect in our Christian character. So we will always be able to endure. Beloved, this is what the God of all comfort and the God of all grace does. And he does it through his Word, especially via his people. One of our young ladies sent me a precious letter last week, thanking me for a sermon that ministered to her directly in some profound way. And I think about how this all works. The Spirit of God spoke to me, comforted me, helped me to understand the word I speak the word of God. She hears the Word of God, she finds comfort in the Word of God. So what does she do? What happens to her? Shall I say, well, as we read out right here, she was "perfected, confirmed, strengthened and established" just a little bit more by the word of God. And this is interesting; she then reciprocates to me, and she brings comfort to me and encouragement to me, so that I, too, may be just a little bit more perfected, confirmed, strengthened and established. Now I have a lot further to go than she does, probably. But isn't it interesting how the Spirit of God works? And now what am I doing? I am comforting you with the same truths. What a precious thing it is to see the hand of God at work in one so young. That's rare. We see that quite often here Calvary Bible Church and I rejoice in that.

Now let's go back to Second Corinthians one as we begin to wrap this up. And with all of this background, verse six and seven will be a little clearer to you. Paul says, "But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings, which we also suffer and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort." Beloved, here, we see that none of us suffer alone, right? This was the case with the the Corinthians. When one member of the family suffers, we all suffer, we know what that's like. But likewise, when one member of the family experiences the comfort of God, we all rejoice with them, and we are all comforted with them. You know, this is one thing that I confess is hard. That's hard as a pastor and I know the elders will agree with this. You know, I'm privy to many private sufferings that goes on in this church. A number of you know that you're on my heart, because we've talked; a number of you even this week. I'm privy to those sufferings, and I hurt with you because I love you, you're part of my church family. And I find that my prayer list tends to grow longer and longer, here of late. And often, even as I did this morning, I just cry out to the Lord, Lord, I can't even keep up with it all. People are struggling in so many ways with so many different issues. All I can do is give it to you. But I also get to share in your divine comfort. And sometimes no one else knows what God has done in your life but it is profoundly encouraging to me to see him comfort you, to bind up your wounds to soothes the aches in your soul.

Well finally, as we've seen, God comforts the afflicted, believers are comforted to comfort others. And then we see that finally, prayer unleashes the power of God at the end of verse 10. Notice he says, "and He will yet deliver us, you also joining and helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many." Now, while Paul praises God for his deliverances, he doesn't forget the secondary cause of the faithful prayers of the righteous. Charles Spurgeon said, "Gratitude to God must never become an excuse for ingratitude to man. It is true that Jehovah shielded the apostle of the Gentiles, but he did it in answer to prayer. The chosen vessel was not broken by the rod of the wicked, for the outstretched hand of the God of heaven was his defense. But that hand was outstretched because the people of Corinth and the saints of God everywhere had prevailed at the throne of grace by their united supplications."

O child of God, never underestimate the power of prayer. We know that the prayer, "the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much," James five verse 16. And I praise God for the earnest prayers of so many intercessors here at Calvary Bible Church, but I wish there were more. And for this reason, Paul implored the believers at Rome, in chapter 15, verse 30, of Romans, he says, "Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me, in your prayers to God for me." People will often ask me, "Pastor, is there anything that we can do for you?" Yes, you can pray for me. You can pray for the elders; we need to pray for one another.

In Ephesians six, verse 18, Paul said, "With all prayer, and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness, the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." Well, I'm not in chains, at least not yet. I may be eventually, we may all be, but I need your prayers. We all need to pray for one another. We need to do this privately. We need to do this corporately. We have opportunities every other Wednesday night here in this area. Every other Thursday night now out in Mount Juliet. We have opportunities with our Wi Fi groups, with the heating plant here early on Sunday morning. We have a group of young men that meet with a couple of our older young men and the high school guys that meet with a couple our, not too much older, but a little bit older young man every Sunday night. I've been with them to see what God is doing there is amazing. To hear some of these young men pray, it just brings joy to my heart. But this is what we all need to be doing. We are not to forsake the assembling together, as is the habit of some as we read in Hebrews 10:25 and sadly, it seems to be the habit of most when it comes time to pray.

Dear saints, your prayers glorify God by demonstrating your dependence upon him, then your confidence in him. It is an act of worship. Our lowliness in prayer is an expression of our weakness and our acknowledgement of his greatness of his power. Can there be any greater expression of adoration for the Lord our God, than to be on our face before him in supplication? Asking him to help us give glory to his name? I think not. Well, may I challenge each of you. Let's learn well the great truths of the God of all comfort. And let's rejoice in the way that he comforts us. And let's be all about comforting others because of the way he is comforted us, using his word as the instrument of that comfort that the Spirit of God can use.

And then finally, I encourage you all get serious about your prayer life. Who you are on your knees before a holy God is who you are, nothing more. Paul said in First Thessalonians five you don't have this on the screen. But in verse 17, he said, "Rejoice, always pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." May we continue to be that kind of people. And may we, as Paul told the Thessalonians, "Excel still more" in all of these areas. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these truths, encourage our hearts with them. May the seeds that have been planted here today bear much fruit, for your glory and for our joy. We ask all of this in the precious name of Jesus, our Savior, and for his sake. Amen.

Will you take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter one. This is the second part of a little series on "God of All Comfort." And we will read verses one through 11 here in a moment. I must say, my heart is increasingly burdened for you, and certainly for our children, as I watch what's happening to our country, as I just witness the vile nature of so many of our presidential candidates and people in government. And as I watch just the tsunami of satanic sewage that is engulfing our nation. I found myself weeping over this this morning, as I prayed for my children, as I prayed for yours. And so it's important that we prepare ourselves for the mounting persecution that is coming. I'm confident that it is mounting, and we're so thankful that God has given us his Word, to comfort us, to teach us, to prepare us and how thankful we can be that our God reigns, amen? And in the end, he reigns victoriously. You know, unless you've been in pastoral ministry, or you've been in some kind of mission work, or you've been in some ministry, where you have really gotten into the lives of people and experienced the hostility that most people have towards the gospel, you would never be able to know the level of trauma that the apostle Paul endured in his ministry, especially in Ephesus, a place where he said it was filled with many adversaries; First Corinthians 6:9. He warned Timothy of an exceedingly wicked man named Alexander the coppersmith. In Second Timothy four, he said that he had severely opposed him and as he says, in verse 14, through 17, he says, "Alexander the Coppersmith, did me much harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching." As he dealt with men and women that were infuriated with him, he said that it was like being torn to pieces, the opposition so violent that he referred to it as, quote, "fighting with wild beasts" in first Corinthians 15:32. He likened his work as an apostle as those condemned to die in a Roman arena; "as men condemned to death," he said, "because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men," First Corinthians four nine. Second Corinthians one where we will be in a minute, he was quite certain that he would ultimately lose his life because of his faith and his message, which he considered frankly a wonderful deliverance from a merciful God. In Romans 16 five he said that Priscilla and Aquila, quote, "risked their own next for his life," which probably occurred either in Ephesus or perhaps in Corinth. And later in Second Corinthians 11, beginning in verse 23, you will recall he, he catalogues the the horrific forms of physical and, and mental torture that he endured. As you think about it, the 39 lashes administered by the unlawful Jewish ecclesiastical court, which was probably in Laodicea would have been a flogging that would have almost killed him, and that's what happened; almost took his life. Add to this, all of his imprisonments, his stonings, his illnesses, false apostles slandering him, the bitter humiliation of the painful visit, as you will recall that he had to the Corinthian believers who had bought into the lies told about him by the false apostles; their disloyalty. Add to that friends and colleagues that abandoned him, all of the pressures from all of the churches that he had planted. And he was trying to shepherd the persecution from the legalist as well as the libertines, it just goes on and on. It's hard to even fathom the sorrow that he experienced and the anguish of soul. Yet he acknowledged that by the grace of God, he was able to find strength in weakness. And he was able to be comforted even in his sorrow.

And that brings us to the passage here, the beginning of Second Corinthians, beginning in verse one, he says, "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, To the church of God, which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are throughout a Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also, you are sharers of our comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction, which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf, for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many."

Last week in our introduction, we were reminded of several things from this passage and from other passages. First of all, we were reminded that God has ordained our afflictions, for our good and for His glory, we were reminded that every trial is an opportunity for us to experience strength and to have our faith strengthened, as well as to experience the power in the presence of Christ. We also were reminded that every trial is an opportunity for us to grow in obedience to the Lord Jesus through His Word, and also that the great distresses of our life are short lived. And when we embrace them with the confident assurance that God is in them, they will bring even joy to our soul. But there are three important concepts that emerged from these 11 verses. We're only going to be able to look at the first one this morning. But let me give all three of them to you. First of all, we're going to see that God comforts the afflicted. Secondly, believers are comforted to comfort others and finally, prayer unleashes the power of God. Now, I trust that this will be both instructive as well as comforting to each one of you, to prepare you for whatever might come in the days of head.

So first of all, look at verse one, "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of Godt." Now mind you, he begins with a very clear refutation of those who denied his apostolic credentials and authority. Right out of the gate, he starts with that. He also says, "and Timothy, our brother. Of course, Timothy was his protege, and personal emissary who was with Paul when the Church was founded. He goes on to say, "To the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are throughout Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." By the way, the syntax is very important here, that single preposition the word "from," which can mean, "that comes from" belongs to both grace and peace, which indicates that God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, together, form the singular source of divine grace that is offered to us, and in this we can rejoice. Obviously, this is also another affirmation of the deity of the Lord Jesus.

He goes on in verse three, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort." It could be translated "the compassionate father" and "the God who always gives comfort." Boy, we can all say amen to that who have experienced it. Right? Absolutely. Verse four, "who comforts us in all our affliction, for just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also, our comfort is abundant through Christ."

And so here we come to this first point in my little outline, that God comforts the afflicted. I want you to notice, dear ones, that Paul begins with something very interesting. He begins this whole epistle, by bursting forth from his heart, with a doxology of praise. Here we see that Paul, like Job was not crushed by his afflictions. He was not tempted "to curse God and die" like Job's wife told him to do. That didn't happen. Instead, with Job he could say "the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." Job even went on to say, "though he slay me, I will hope in Him." So think about it, despite the violent schemes of the adversary, his faith was not shaken. Nor was his spirit vanquished, there is no hint of bitterness, no white flag of surrender, there is no agony of defeat. Instead, he offers testimony to the comforting power of God who sustained him and strengthened him in the battle, and I hope this is your testimony as well. If you're engaged in the battle for the gospel, you experience a real fight, right? You experienced persecution. But those who seek their own comfort will know little of God's comfort. In fact, when the self-centered coward is afflicted his heart will be filled with bitterness and anger, rather than praise and confidence. I remember a woman not too long ago who lost an adult son in an untimely way. She said something like this, I cannot bring myself to forgive God for this. And then she rehearsed all the good things that she had done and all the good things that he had done. And basically was saying, Where is the fairness in this? So sad to see that? By the way, folks, we don't want fair. We want mercy. While we must never deny the real pain, that we suffer when there is a great loss, we must also never deny the goodness and the grace of God in the midst of it, knowing that he's accomplishing his purposes in ways that we can't even understand. In fact, I have learned over the years that those who nurse their grief will give rise to the monster of contempt and will not find comfort that God offers so freely. And haven't we all marveled at how God responds to our deepest praise with deepest blessing, especially when that praise is offered in the midst of our pain, and in our sorrow. Charles Spurgeon said, quote, "When a man blesses God for the bitter, the Lord often sends him the sweet." He went on to say "if he can praise God in the night, the daylight is not far off. There never was a heart that waited and wanted to praise God, but the Lord soon gave it opportunities of lifting up psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to Him. It shall never be said that we were ready to praise God but that God was not ready to bless us."

Now, notice more closely how the apostle begins his doxology verse three, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Folks, this is a magnificent summary description of our glorious Redeemer and King. The term "Lord" denotes his sovereign rule over all of his creation. The term "Jesus" which is actually the Greek version of the Hebrew Yeshua. Yeshua is a term that means God saves. And this is what we see in Jesus, a name of his humanity, that he is the substitute who died on our behalf. And then Christ, of course, means Messiah or the "Anointed One." And he is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the one that is coming, the one that will rule over his redeemed and renovated earth, and eventually over a recreated heavens and earth in the eternal state. And so folks, this is the one that brings comfort to the afflicted. That is Paul's point. In fact, you will recall that there was the symbol of the fish that was given the ichthus; and I've provided a little of that for you here. In Greek, it was an acrostic, that spelled "fish" that became the sacred symbol of Christianity. "Lesous" is for Jesus, "Christos" for Christ, "Theos" is for God, we get our word theology from that, "Huios" is Son, and "Soter is Savior, we get our word soteriology. From that, and the first letter of each of those, the Iota, the Chi, the Theta, the Upsilon, and the Sigma put together in Greek spell fish. What a magnificent summary of our glorious Redeemer and King. And that was the symbol that they used in those days, and we still see it today. And it's a good symbol.

So Paul, praises "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort," literally, the compassionate father and the God who always gives comfort. And what a magnificent reality this is, knowing that is like having a lighthouse on a distant shore when you're in a ship, and the storm is blowing you all over the place and suddenly you see the hope that is there that can guide you to a safe harbor. And it does bring comfort to every sinner who is struggling with guilt, desperate for undeserved mercy. Psalm 103, verse eight. The psalmist says "the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness." Verse 14, "just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him." Then beginning in verse 17, through 18, he really describes three kinds of believers, recipients of God's unfailing love, he says, "but the loving kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him," a reference to believers, "and His righteousness to children's children. To those who keep His covenant," there's a reference to faithful believers. And then finally, "and remember His precepts to do them," there's obedient believers. And the prophet Micah speaks of God's mercy, and his compassion as well. Chapter Seven, beginning of verse 18, he says, "Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."

Well, Paul continues in verse four in his description, he says, "He is the God who comforts us in all our affliction." "Affliction," a Greek term "thlipsis," it means pressing or pressure. It speaks of trouble that inflicts, great distress, and oppression, and tribulation. And some of you might be experiencing that right now. But be comforted knowing that God is the God of all comfort, who meets us in the midst of that pressure. If you fear him, and if you are faithful and obedient to him, the writer of Hebrews reminds us of this promise in Hebrews 13 five, he says, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you." So that we confidently say "the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid what will man do to me?"

Every one of you here today, who has rendered praise to God in the midst of some anguish of soul, can attest to the inexplicable comfort that comes often in unexpected ways. A passage of scripture that suddenly leaps off the page at you that maybe you've read 100 times before, or perhaps a forgotten picture that you stumble across, and it ignites your heart once again, with memories of God's faithfulness in your life. Or maybe it's the lyrics of a familiar hymn that suddenly grips your soul like never before. Or maybe it's something that said in a sermon that transports your heart into the very presence of the lover of your soul. Who knows how it happens? Indeed, we never know from where or when the wind of the Spirit might blow. It might blow in a comforting breeze in the midst of our pain, but he does that. And we never know how long a trial might last. Nor do we know what he's up to and all of it, but we trust in Him. But have you noticed that the very act of heartfelt praise in the midst of a storm lifts your spirit and it causes you to just soar far above it? I was meditating upon this and suddenly it came to my mind, an illustration. I was hunting in the Kluane Lake region in southwest Yukon on the Alaskan border. I was riding one of my favorite little horses, his name was Banjo. I guess it was because he was tightly strong, I'm not sure. Black stout mountain horse. And we'd been riding a high mountain ridge for a couple of hours and, and I was able to look down and those of you from the mountains, you know that sometimes you can look down and see a thunderstorm beneath you, below you. It's an amazing experience. And so I was looking at this thunderstorm and enjoying the sunny skies. And it was exhilarating. But I could see that it was kind of coming up. And lightning is very dangerous in the mountains, especially when you're on a top ridge. So I thought I better take cover. But as I was looking at the foreboding clouds, and I could see lightning, all of a sudden my eye caught a little black speck. And as I watched it, it started coming towards me and then I could make it out. It was a magnificent bald eagle who had set his wings and the updrafts were taking him out of the storm. And suddenly, within about 50 yards, I saw him and I could tell he saw me and he just kept on going up into the clouds. And you know, I believe that the Lord wanted me to witness that. To prepare me for the difficult storms that I would experience someday in ministry. That I didn't know at the time, I had no idea I would ever be in ministry. I thought I would just be a cowboy, I guess. But you know, folks, I've learned that there's always a divine updraft in every storm that will lift us high into the tranquil presence of our God. And when we set our wings in faith, believing, than the updrafts of his promises will lift us up into His very presence.

And of course, the words of the prophet Isaiah, ring true with this illustration, remember in Isaiah 40, beginning of verse 29, actually, he says, "He gives power to the faint, and to them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young man shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and faint not." Beloved, if you're here today, and you're struggling with some dark cloud in your life, if the fierce winds and rain is pelting you, and you don't know which way to turn, I would encourage you to just set your wings in faith and thanksgiving and say, "Father, thank you, that you have saved me by your grace, even though I don't understand all that's going on. And even though I'm pleading with you to give me relief, nevertheless, I will trust you. I will honor you, I will serve you, I will bless you. Because I know that ultimately you are working things in my life, for my good and ultimately for your glory. And therein I will rejoice." And folks, I assure you if that's the attitude of your heart, you will experience comfort in ways that you cannot imagine. Hebrews chapter four, verse 15, the writer says "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Well, the apostle Paul describes such a storm in his life, one in which he experienced divine comfort. And as a result of that, it ignited his heart with this doxology of gratitude and praise. Notice verse eight, he describes the storm. "For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction, which came to us in Asia that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope, and He will yet deliver us." Here he is undoubtedly making a reference to the afflictions that he experienced in Asia. And the incapacitating trauma that he experienced in Troas and Macedonia, especially at Ephesus, as we read in chapter two and chapter seven. You will recall there he waited anxiously for the news as to whether or not the Corinthians had repented and had finally turned back to him in loyalty. Again, folks, remember enduring slander is hard enough, but when those you love, embrace those lies, and turn against you, the pain can be unbearable. Verse eight, he says, "we despaired of life." The term despair is interesting in the original language, "exaporeo." We get our word porous from that, "ex" means without any, it literally means without any pores. It's not porous, something that's not permeable, not penetrable. In other words, there was no passage, there was no way through, there was no way out, no exit. So to be in despair means to be in utter loss, as to a way of escape. This is how he felt. He thought the only escape was going to be death. You will recall later on Second Corinthians four eight he says we "are afflicted in every way but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing." There's the same word. We're not despairing. We're not without the understanding that there is a way through. Though at times, it may not seem like there is. Don't we find comfort in what he said in First Corinthians 10, verse 13, that "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it." And I think of when Jesus promised to pray for his father to send the Holy Spirit to take his place as he ascended into glory. Remember, he told his disciples in John 14:18, very precious statement, he says, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." What a magnificent promise. And every faithful believer who has ever experienced the sole exhilarating joy of God's presence, especially in their pain, will attest to this truth.

Well, we see this in Paul's testimony, for example of how Alexander the coppersmith, who was one of the idol makers in Ephesus; viciously attacked him and had him arrested, remember, and he records this in Second Timothy 4:16, he says "At my first defense no one supported me." Well, that's comforting, right? You're falsely accused, and you come in, nobody's there to support you. You're all alone; "but all deserted me." And then he says, "May it not be counted against them." But notice this "But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was rescued out of the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen." Dear friends, we must all hold to these promises. That's why I'm rehearsing them for you once again, especially as we see the increased hatred mounting against Christians in our country. You know, as persecution comes, many people say, oh my what's going to happen to all of the churches? I'll tell you what will happen, most of them will thrive like they never have before. Because our greatest enemies are not people outside the church, but people inside the church; it will be other churches. And that's what we're seeing today. And especially if any of the Marxist socialists get elected, they seek to impose a government run utopia that creates a classless, homogeneous society, where wealth is distributed equally and everyone gives selflessly to the collective whole.

By the way, I hope you understand, and I'm going to digress just for a moment, I usually don't get too political. But folks, this is absolutely terrifying. What we're seeing happening, wherever this type of governmental model has been implemented, and I've been in these countries, economies have collapsed, societies have turned into war zones, and Christians had been persecuted, because you must understand that socialism and Christianity are mutually exclusive. Marxism is an atheistic philosophy, the s- called democratic socialism of Bernie Sanders and a lot of these other leftists...it's just utterly incompatible with biblical Christianity. Cultural Christianity, oh, it's fine, it'll work great. But it won't work great with people who really know and love Christ.

If I can digress for a moment, in this model, it is the state, not God that becomes the provider, the sustainer, the protector and the law giver. In fact, Karl Marx said, quote, "The first requites of the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion." End quote. You see, for the socialists, there can be no higher authority than the state. The state will tell you what to believe, what to think, what to teach your kids, how to live. It denies the depravity of man, who is in desperate need of reconciliation to a holy God, through faith in Christ. To the socialists, you must understand, man is deprived, he is not depraved. They will tell you to depend upon the state we will take care of you. And yet as Christians we are commanded not to, quote "worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body what you will wear. Is not life more than food,'" Jesus said, "'and the body more than clothes... Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,'" Matthew six.

Socialism is not just wealth redistribution, it is wealth confiscation. That violates the eighth commandment where we are told "Thou shalt not steal." It destroys accountability to the biblical work ethic where we are told in Scripture that if a man doesn't work he doesn't eat. It prohibits our responsibility to serve God with our resources, as Jesus taught in the Matthew, or in Matthew 25, and the parable of the talents, and it foolishly believes that it can bring about a man-made Utopia on Earth; which obviously makes the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom, a ridiculous dream. And yet, this satanic philosophy is gaining strength, gaining strength, and it's soon going to overtake even our country I fear as the world is being prepared for the rule of the Antichrist.

Now, my purpose is not to promote any kind of political agenda, but to simply warn you of what's coming. Folks, this is the city of man as Augustine called it. This is not the City of God and regardless of political party, most all of the people in authority over us are unregenerate men and women--they know know nothing of who Christ is. They have no fear of God, no love for Christ, no longing for his return, no understanding of the word of God. They need our love, and they need the gospel. But by grace, God's grace alone, we are citizens of another kingdom. And so a lot of all of the hubbub that goes on, I just kind of ignore, I'm kind of like, hopefully you're the same way--like the eagle, you just kind of set your wings and rise above it all. Because I know that our God reigns. And our King is the King of kings and Lord of lords and he will one day put all of his enemies under his feet.

But until he returns, things are going to get worse and worse, not better and better. Second Timothy three verse one "that in the last days, difficult times will come literally." Savage, perilous times will come. "For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these." Again, I care little about politics other than to vote my conscience for the unregenerate candidate who is the closest to biblical truth. But other than that, the priority has to be the gospel, not politics. And I refuse to even listen to, especially the leftist politicians and the media pundits who advocate the killing of unwanted babies, and all of the gross immoralities that they applaud, I will love them, I will, I will pray for them. I will proclaim the gospel boldly to them, but I refuse to debate with the spiritually dead. For them, two plus two is always going to be five, they have no capacity to understand divine truth.

My mind goes to Proverbs 14 seven where it says, "Leave the presence of a fool, or you will not discern words of knowledge." Beloved, think of this, as Paul said, in Colossians, three one, since you "have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of the Father. Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth." In other words, be preoccupied with his purposes, be preoccupied with his plan, his provisions, his power. At some level, I don't really care who Satan puts in next as the next president, or the next Congress, man or woman or any of that type of thing. Because once again, I know that my God reigns. And Jesus is coming again. And in this we find great comfort, like Abraham, as we read in Hebrews 11:10, I'm looking "for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God." I desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called My God, for He has prepared a city for me and for you. O, dear Christian, hold on to the great promises that we've been given in His Word.

As we see the forces of Satan being amassed against the kingdom of God. And for too many Christians today, I feel, they have been lulled to sleep in the cradle of American prosperity. And they're dreaming this American dream of material wealth, and prosperity and pleasure. And dear friend, if that is the preoccupation of your heart, you're going to be so sorely disappointed someday. You are on a fool's errand and you are living in a fool's paradise. So I would plead with you as a messenger of the gospel. Wake up. Be on the alert, be vigilant. Don't be people of the night, be people of the day, set your mind on things above, not on the things of this earth, live for Christ. All that really matters is what you do for Christ. Life is short, make the best of it. Because Jesus is coming again.

So Paul lived in a season of enormous persecution against Christians. And he confessed in verse eight, the end he said, "we despaired even of life." Again, he saw no way through. In verse nine, "indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead." The term "sentence" in the original language refers to an official, authoritative sentence or judgment, a legal judgment. And what we see here is that his suffering was so severe that he had a subjective awareness of the sentence of death upon him, that that would be his fate. So all he could do and all he should do was to cast himself upon the mercies of a good and faithful and loving God. And this needs to be our perspective as well. He knew also that, that trial, utterly obliterated every hint of self-reliance he harbored in his heart. And folks, you must remember that the roots of self-sufficiency grow deep, and they are not easily uprooted. Reflecting upon this reality, John Calvin said, quote, "We are not brought to real submission until we have been laid low by the crushing hand of God." Now, I would submit to you if you're a believer, and you have no real walk with Christ, you just kind of play church, the cultural Christianity that's typical of our culture; if you're a believer that can go for days without being in the word to find nourishment for your soul, if you have no appetite for the Word of God, if you have no personal pursuit of holiness, no desire to honor Christ in your life. Let me go even further. If you have no disciplined prayer life, if you have no desire to be in intimate communion with God, the God you claim to love, then you have no real love for Christ, no real desire to know Him. And one day, you're going to be brought low. Because the father disciplines those that he loves. And even as tobacco produces disease, arrogance produces idolatry. And what happens is, when we find greater joy and greater fulfillment and greater satisfaction for our soul in things other than Christ, it's not long that before we will begin to see and taste those forbidden fruits that are all around us in this world, and like Eve they will be pleasant to our eyes. And we will crave them like a junkie craves dope. And like eating a dozen Krispy Kreme Doughnuts before supper, you will ruin your appetite for God and His Word and for his people. And imperceptibly you will forsake your first love, and you will pursue other things you will embrace other lovers that will eventually destroy you.

I think of Eve, remember Eve there in the garden, who in her pride and self-sufficiency, she left her husband's protection. She usurped his leadership, his headship; she was deceived by the cunning serpent, to partake the forbidden fruit that she believed would provide her for something more than what God had already provided. That somehow God was not really being totally fair. And that she needed more. Folks, like her, we too can be deceived into believing that God is not enough and that we must have something more and that we can find it on our own. And then the day will come when you realize that you are out of resources. What a blessing a gift that is when that day comes. But oh, it can be painful. Paul had learned this lesson well, and he was prepared. And I find it interesting that God in His mercy kept reminding Paul of his inadequacies, and boy, can I see myself here. Remember in Second Corinthians three five, he says, Paul says, "Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything is coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from what is from God."

So Paul's crushing affliction served a divine purpose, namely, to remove every vestige of hope in his own resources and help him to realize that he had to depend solely upon the one who could raise the dead. And in this context, and in particularly, especially at this particular time in his life, God came to his rescue. Notice verse 10. He said that he "delivered us from so great a peril, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us." Oh, what confidence we have in the God of all comfort. To know that we have a loving Heavenly Father. And what loving father would not come to the aid of his child? None. No wonder Paul would say, "He will deliver us he on whom we have set our hope." O dear friends, I pray that this is the attitude of your heart this morning. If not, you will forfeit divine comfort when that day comes when you need it most.

Charles Spurgeon once again, said something that struck a real note in my heart, he said, "Do you not think dear friends, that sometimes when you are very heavy of heart, it would be the best possible thing, if you were to say with Martin Luther, 'Come, let us sing a song and startle the devil.'" He went on to say, "If you sit down and groan and complain against God, your groans will be music to Satan's malevolent heart, but you will vex and grieve Him if instead of doing so, you say 'no foul fiend!' You shall never persuade me to rob God of his glory, He shall have his full revenue of praise from me whether I am on my bed, sick or able to be up and actively engaged in the duties of my calling, whether I stand well with my fellow men, or my name has an ill savor to them. God's name has not an ill savor. And therefore I will praise and bless him, even though nobody will praise me."

Friends, again, if you're here today, without Christ, I plead with you, to examine your heart and trust in Him. Ask God to save you and commit yourself to Him. And for those of us who know and love Christ, I want to leave you with the words of Jeremiah in Lamentations three, beginning in verse 21. Remember, he was the weeping prophet, and he said this, "This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope." And here's what he recalled. "The Lord's loving kindness is indeed never cease, for his compassion is never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion says my soul. Therefore I have hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord." Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the comforting truths of your word that brings such solace to our souls, especially in times of difficulty, and even though we experience persecution in various ways, we, we see how it is mounting. And we know it's already there in full force in other parts of the world. But Lord, our confidence is in you. Because you are the God of all comfort, you are the God of all hope. And we trust in you. So meet us, even now, by preparing our hearts for whatever you bring our way that we might remain faithful, steadfast, immovable. We thank you for your word. Thank you for this time. Grow us in the grace in the knowledge of Christ I pray. Amen.