Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Nsnoise.
2nd Corinthians chapter 3 in the last verse, verse 18.
What we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even by even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Chapter 4. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry.
As we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God in uh, deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
00:05:07
Bless the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should shine unto them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your service for Jesus sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light.
Of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
That the Excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us, We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken.
Cast down, but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies.
For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in US, but life in you, we having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written. I believe, and therefore have I spoken. We believe, we also believe, and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord.
Shall raise up, raise up us also by Jesus.
And shall present us with you, for all things are for your sake, that the abundant grace might, through the Thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God.
For which 'cause we faint none, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
Our line affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 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.
Mr. Darby S translation of this last verse is that we always unveiled face. The holding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image. It's really the whole secret of Christian growth that he's brought before us there, isn't it? There's no avail between now the Lord Jesus we can look up. There's no veil as it was in the Old Testament.
But we can with unveiled face, look at him, and as we look through him and see him there, there's a change takes place in US. It's really the way Christian growth takes place. As we're occupied with him, looking at him, then the Spirit of God produces in us the desire and the power to be like him. If there's someone we admire very much and we watch them, first thing you know, unconsciously we begin to be like them.
Because we admire them very much. And so if we really are occupied with the Lord Jesus and see what a wonderful portion we have in him, the gloriousness of His person, the place that He has brought us into unconsciously, if I can speak in that way, there's a change takes place in us. And we often look at someone and say, well, I know it's a change in that person. Well, it's because he has Christ as his object. And we begin to see the likeness of Christ produced in him.
I still notice that nowhere in Scripture does that describe what the Lord Jesus Christ is linked, whether he was tall or short or.
Being fat and there you have black beard or black hair or.
If he did, it was in there. Wouldn't there be a lot of people trying to imitate his appearance down here?
I can't find.
They like the walk that he is, trying to give enough here to follow his footsteps.
Because every single one of us is different physically.
God giving us this wonderful problem, His brother little son.
The second we're saved, it's like touching the altar we're holding. We're absolutely fit for the presence of God. We don't feel it. We don't feel holy. We still have the old man, and God has given this wonderful privilege of laying hold on this by faith. Angels are watching us and we have this privilege of manifesting Jesus through this frail.
00:10:25
Barry it's which bar is the Barry of sun, but now it's that the sin and alive unto God. We have this wonderful presence. Every one of us is different for this one respect the whole Bible gives us the character of the Lord Jesus and cover to cover is the character of Jesus and that's what he wants to say in US not not anything physical. It's the character of Jesus by Christ.
It's a contrast, isn't it, in the chapter between law and grace, that is, under the law. The law was thundered out at Mount Sinai. The people stood trembling. Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. There was no desire or power in the hearts of those who heard those 10 commandments to fulfill the desires of God in connection with his requirements. But how different now. God has given to every believer a new life, the very life of Christ.
We have the Holy Spirit of God, and so when God makes known his desires for us, the new man and the believer responds. The Spirit is the power, and so it comes about as it says here.
We are changed into the same image from glory to glory. The life of Christ begins to be produced in us. I remember one time I was in a Barber shop and.
Had a little opportunity to speak to the Barber and he said, well, you preachers have a hard time trying to change human nature, don't you? And I said, we don't try to change human nature. We tell people they need to be born again. When they're born again, then they have a new life. They have a new power, a new desire, and that's the whole thing. This is what is being brought out here. Much of Christianity Today is an attempt to change human nature.
Get people to make promises and commitments and pledges, but occupation with Christ in the light of His Word and allowing the Spirit of God His place in our lives, the change will take place naturally.
Without effort, if we might put it in that way, because we have such a wonderful object before our souls, the one who's going to fill our souls for all eternity and make us perfectly happy. We can make us happy down here.
In the measure in which we allow the Spirit His way in our lives and we become changed into the same image from glory to glory. That is, it doesn't all take place at once. It's a gradual thing.
And little Samuel was brought up, his mother made him a new coat every year, didn't expect him to wear a full size coat just because he was up there in the temple the first year. But every year she made a little larger coat, there was growth. And so I think that's what this suggests in this verse, from glory to glory. It brings in Christian growth. And it's lovely to see this in the children of God.
As we see them growing, as Peter said, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It's a lot lighting the outward character of a man, and yet it didn't change his heart really, did it. So they might have had a border of blue on their garment, but it didn't make them heavenly men in their heart. Or the scripture says that they weren't around the corners of their beard that that is that they may have. It didn't really change the character of what they said and what was in their heart. It just changed the way they appeared. And so these were all things that umm.
That you saw in the Old Testament that spoke of inward things were shadows of inward things, but it didn't produce those. So a man could go on perfectly in an outward way as Saul did, and yet not have as have heart and enmity with God.
That's what it means in Galatians when it says the law was our schoolmaster until Christ came. The conduct of the children will probably be quite a bit better in the classroom when the teacher is there. Not because the children want to do what's right, but they're controlled because the teacher is there and the law is in that way a schoolmaster. It put a restraint on man, but it didn't change his heart at all. His heart was still a Stony heart, but what God does, he begins from the inside.
00:15:08
He gives us a new life, new power by the Spirit, and then the change takes place in occupation with Him. And as we read His word, we learn His mind and will. That's why Paul goes on in the next chapter. Therefore, as seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not as though he were saying I were trying to change human nature. I'd get discouraged, but when I'm ministering this wonderful truth.
Occupying with souls, with Christ, praying before them, their portion in Him and their standing in Him. I don't get discouraged because it's a wonderful ministry and it produces wonderful results when it's received.
In the previous chapter in verse 6, Paul referred to himself, and I suppose his fellow workers, as able ministers of the New Testament or New Covenant.
Now we as believers are not under a covenant with the Lord that seems to have been specifically for the House of Judah and the House of Israel. How do how do we understand that that expression an able minister, the ministry of the new covenant New Testament verse 6.
Well in Israel are brought into the blessing of the new covenant. If you notice in the 8th chapter I think it is of Hebrews, I'll read the eight verse.
Her finding fault with that first covenant, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel, and with the House of Judah, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I.
Took him by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not. But this is the covenant that I will make with them after those with the House of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people, and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brothers. Say no, the Lord.
For all shall know me from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
So that while we were never under the covenants and promises that were made to Israel, we receive a new life. And that's why I think we were mentioning before at the Lord's Supper, it was the blood of the covenant, of the new covenant because.
When Israel are finally brought into blessing, he says, their sins and equities will I remember no more.
He'll put his laws into their hearts and in their minds. Will he write them?
That is, they'll possess a new life, they'll have the power then to please God. And in that sense, we are partakers of the blessings of the new covenant, although we are not under the covenant or have part in it in that way. And he was contrasting law and grace in Second Corinthians chapter 4, and he's showing what the old covenant did. It asked man to do something. He had neither desire or power.
But in the new covenant.
He is going to have the desire and he's going to have the power. And so he just applies it in that way, I believe and in that way we are ministers of the new covenant that we're not trying to improve human nature or change human nature. We're preaching that what man needs is to be born again, get the new life has the Holy Spirit of God.
It is true that the covenants have to do with Israel, but we come into the blessing of the covenant. Perhaps there's one other verse in Hebrews I think that helps to understand this too in the.
10th chapter in the 15th verse.
Where of the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us? For after that he had said before. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord.
I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. We remember that the Epistle to the Hebrews is a letter to the Hebrew believers. But he says the Holy Ghost is a witness to us, and so he's bringing in the thought that they're brought into the blessing of the new covenant, even though the covenant has to do with Israel.
00:20:16
We are the partakers of the blessings of that as a result of the work of Christ.
What is the thought in the 20th verse of Hebrews 13? Forget the expression there. Verse 20. Hebrews 13. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep.
Through the blood of the everlasting Covenant.
Just wondered what the thought was on that.
Well, perhaps it could be that, uh, before the law ever came in at all, God said, in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And we know that even Adam and Eve were clothed through the death of a substitute. So God had shown long before the giving of the law, the blessing to man was not going to be on the ground of his works. It was going to be through another. And so in that sense it was.
The everlasting covenant, that is, God had that in his eternal purposes to reveal as soon as sin entered, promised to Abraham when he was promised blessing.
Then people asked for the law, the nation asked for the law. They entered into a covenant to keep things. They failed in that. But God, shall I say, reverts to His original desire and purpose and plan, and that was to bless man altogether apart from anything that he could do.
But founded upon the glorious work, the Lord Jesus was accomplished through the blood.
So Adam went out from the garden, clothed with the animals, through the blood of another, through the skin of the animal.
Because this occurs in the book of Hebrews and as you cited those other verses too, These Hebrew believers, now they had their their, what their blessing is as a result of that which is everlasting in the heart of God. I think it's beautiful to think of that in that way.
The same as you mentioned.
He mentions the everlasting gospel in all that God always had good news for man, didn't he always?
And I suppose we can say that is A1 sided cabinet. Normally a cabinet it's an agreement. If you do this then I will do that. But God says you cannot keep your bargain. So it's all on my part.
There's a little story in the Life of the Family VP Cecil that I think is helps him not perfectly. To illustrate what you were saying, that a person can be the beneficiary of a covenant without being the subject of it. Umm, what? I think most know that he came from one of the wealthiest families in England and one of his ancestors, umm.
Was rejected and so he went away to live in a little town and he took a bride of the Millers of a local Miller's daughter and and they always sensed that he was different that he came from a more noble background. But one day word came to him that he had inherited his vast estate, I think one of the most fastest states in England. So he took his wife in the carriage and he took her by this great estate and she said I, I wonder who this belongs to and she said he said, turn to her and he said to you.
Now, she wasn't the subject of the will or the covenant at all. He was, but she was the beneficiary of it. She shared in all of that. And so while we're not the the subjects of the New Covenant of blood, we're the beneficiaries of it. Could you say that that put it in that way?
Just go back to Galatians. It's interesting that this is taken up.
Perhaps you could go to the 15th verse rather than I speak out the third chapter of Galatians in the 15th verse, rather than I speak after the manner of man. Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed no man is an alleth or addeth thereto.
Now to Abraham and his seed, where the promises made saith, not unto seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was.
430 years after cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of law, then it is no more a promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore them serveth the law. It was added because of transgressions, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. This was the verse particularly Now a mediator is not a mediator of one.
00:25:14
But God is one.
So God made the promises, but He made them in Christ. When there is a disagreement, why there is a mediator and he has to deal with two different parties. But the Co, the promise that God made, it was made between God and Christ and saw God and Christ are one. How could it fail? That's what he is saying. So that there while there are two parties, if one could speak reverently, it saw the Father and God the Son. The Father purposed all this. The Son is the one who carries it all out.
So it's got to be sure because God is one. I think it's good to be clear about some of these things because there's a lot of so-called covenant theology today and people are going back really to the law, not understanding what the new covenant really is and the blessing that is coming in. So they're making pledges and promises, promise keepers and so on. It's all this idea that two people, there's God and man, and there's a covenant made between them. But isn't this beautiful?
It says.
A mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. The promise was between God and Christ, and they're 1. So it's sure to be fulfilled. And all of God had purposed to assure to come to pass. Because it doesn't depend on one ourselves one bit. It depends all about whether God is true and whether Christ, his beloved Son, accomplished his will in that glorious work that he finished at Calvary.
Well, we don't have to twist the truth of God at all when we give it out according to the way God has revealed it in His Word. That's why he says in the second verse.
But everything else, the hidden things of dishonesty, are not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
You don't have to do any twisting or anything like that in connection with the Word of God. We just present presented as God has given it to us in His Word. It commends itself to man's conscience, brings him into the presence of God, and reveals how God can bless him apart from anything in himself at all.
But Satan is busy not only leading man into sin, that is moral sin, but he also is busy trying to keep him from knowing what's in the heart of God and.
So if our gospel be hid is hid to them that are lost in whom? The God of this world and that Satan. Satan is the God of this world religiously, the Prince of this world politically. So he blinds people's minds as to the truth of God and he also leads them on in the service of sin and Satan in their evil ways. And so Satan is busy a lot of people he dilutes through religion, some he deludes by leading them into the wicked things of this world.
But he's busy.
He's a crafty foe, isn't he? I'm just looking at a few verses over in Jeremiah, the 23rd chapter of Jeremiah in connection with that. Uh, how uh.
The the Lord has frowned upon this kind of thing.
Umm, there's a number of verses here, but I just read a couple of verses to get the point.
Verse 20 The anger of the Lord shall not return till he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart. In the latter days you shall consider it perfectly.
I have not sent these profits yet they ran. I have not spoken to them yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my com counsel and had caused my people to bear hear my words, then they should have turned.
Them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. I have God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off. And then he hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him. So there's much of this craftiness going on today, isn't there? And God isn't, is not ignorant of all this. He's well aware of it all. And so we have to be very careful too, thinking of that in John's epistle. Try the spirits, whether they be a God.
00:30:03
So how do we try them by the word of God? We test them by the word of God. And so Paul here is just mentioned that not handling the word of God. Are there there are those in in the in the world today in Christmas. They're handling the word of God deceitfully. You know it and I know it as well. They're handling the word of God deceitfully. They're deceiving people with their with these with these words. Where do they get it out of getting it out of the Bible.
That's possessed to the Ephesians.
He speaks that are fulfilling the desires of the flesh and oftentimes we think of immorality in those things, but it doesn't stop there. It says there fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Unless directed by the clear written word of God, our minds become nothing but the placing of Satan.
You notice that Satan always works through the mind, the Spirit of God works through the conscience and the heart, and this is brought out here, the end of the second verse, commanding ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Six verse. The God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts. I've often said you'll never find one of these who carry the false religion coming to you.
And speaking first to your conscience and saying, do you know you're a Sinner and you need to be cleansed in the blood of Christ and that Christ is willing to save you? You don't find that approach, but they'll come to you and they'll appeal to your mind. You think God would cast anybody into hell and all kinds of things. They'll appeal to your mind. But the truth of God always speaks to the conscience and to the heart.
And we need to, shall I say, in telling out the gospel, that's what we need to bear in mind.
Man's conscience must be reached, but also his heart too. He needs to see that he's a Sinner, but he also needs to learn two things, that God is a Sinner, that God is a Savior, and that he is a Sinner. That is, his conscience has to be reached that he's a Sinner, and his heart has to be reached that God has done something about it.
Has taken up the question of sin and settled it for his own glory. And and that's really very important in the telling forth of the gospel. Actually, the word repentance in itself, the word means a change of mind. That's the meaning of the word repentance. And I often say man has wrong thoughts about two things. He has wrong thoughts about himself and he has wrong thoughts about God.
He doesn't really see his own true condition, and the gospel brings what his real condition out into the light shows him, as Job learned in the presence of God that he was vile, said I repent and abhor myself in dust and ashes.
But he must also learn that God is a God of love, that he has provided a full and free salvation, not by any works of his own or merit of his own. And so repentance really is a change of mind.
He gets those thoughts corrected by the word of God. He says what God says about me is true. I am nothing but a lost Sinner.
But when God says about His Son, and what He has done is true also, and He has provided a way, guilty as I am, to bring me into fullest blessing, suited to His own presence, where I can be in the glory and be perfectly fit for it.
So the thought on this third verse is.
If our Gospel be veiled, it is veiled to them that are lost.
Me, that the apostle Paul still walked before the Lord, and he imparted the truth just as purely as he had received it, so that if any were lost, it wasn't any fault of the apostles. He he conveyed the truth as it was committed to him.
Because they were blinded by the God of this world. But.
Idolatry really is man making a God according to his own imagination and so even in these pictures that our brother referred to, if you've ever had the unfortunate.
Opportunity of seeing them even of the Lord they follow the religious fads of man of what they think it's a creation of what they think the Lord should be like and umm, it's really idolatry at the root of it. And so instead of finding from the word the character of the Lord that men create a picture of the Lord depending on what their particular habits or thoughts are. And in heathen countries, if they feel as you were saying that God was not a loving God, then their gods are fierce and in this land if there's.
00:35:12
There is a thought that God is loving, but that he is not light. Then they create a picture like that and and go on with that.
But its idolatry at the root of it.
I believe there's the meaning of that expression. The glorious gospel or the gospel of the glory. That's really what Paul preached, wasn't it? The gospel of the glory. There's a glorified man at the right hand of God who has accomplished redemption.
In our place of association with Him, we belong to that glory too. We're going to be there.
When he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see Him as he is, so He has found a way that we can be in that glory also.
And and so it's the gospel of the glory telling of a glorified Christ that God's rehem.
Somebody has said that we got the the heavenly side of the gospel in that verse, don't we? That's the heavenly side of it because directs our thoughts to the man that God's right hand, the glorified through Christ who is glorified at God's right hand, directs us up there. So it's the heavenly sign of the gospel that we can present.
It's not just an adjective describing the Gospel in a positive way.
I think sometimes where the translation is glorious gospel, it's like a glorious sunset or a glorious day, and that misses the point. As as you both have described, it's the good news that Christ has been glorified in response to glorifying God down here and glorified God on the earth. So God rewarded him with glory, glorified him on high. One of the writers expressed it that the gospel of the.
Glo Of the glory of the How was it put? Now the the glory of the Christ?
It's the glory of the Christ that is. That is really the point of the gospel, isn't it? So beautiful?
And Paul stood true to that which was committed to him, didn't he? Isn't that a good word for us or a good exhortation for us? It's been, you know, we're pipes, aren't we? As somebody has said, the the truth of God flows in. And one of the writers, one of the old writers, spoke about it as that which flows in is absolutely perfect.
It comes from God.
But as it flows out.
It's checkered weather doesn't come out the same way that it flew it in, flowed in. And so it's beautiful to think how Paul sought to do to be that very way where he says not to not walking and crafting it the word deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. So it was brings God in and the conscience in the sight of God all that he did. So it's good to see.
The quality of that gospel preaching of Paul's, it was a quality to it that we don't see today. And I have to confess I don't have that quality myself. But however, it's a beautiful thing to see that the gospel is of the glory of the Christ.
One brother said before he was saved, he wanted to be a great man in the world. After he was saved, he wanted to be a great man in the Church of God. And he had to learn that both were wrong. That's what has brought out so much in this.
5th and 6th verse. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Lovely. This is everything exalting the Lord Jesus Christ and giving no glory to man and seeks honors for himself, but God delights to honor his beloved Son.
Spoken of as being children of the light and, uh, we've been brought into the light.
But here it goes much deeper than that. Just thinking of that verse again. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined upon us. No, no, no, shined in our hearts. The basis, the truth.
00:40:11
The seat of affection, the gospel, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So the light is more and just shining upon us. It is shining in our hearts.
Well, I think he refers in what's followed to something like Gideon's men when they went out against the Gideon Gideon. Gideon Gideonites tells us that they were to put a lamp in a pitcher and then the pitcher was to be broken at the appointed time so the light could shine. I think he's referring to this. The vessel wasn't important at all. The important part was the light would shine out when the vessel was broken.
And so he says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Perhaps one of Gideon's men might have had a very nice vessel, and he'd say, I hate to see this vessel broken, but Gideon says that it's got to be broken so the light can shine out. And so, you know, that's what God passes us through. Paul was given a thorn in the flesh, and he often gives us reminders that we are nothing in ourselves.
So that Christ might be seen. And where is Christ so often and brightly seen? As in a soul that's going through deep affliction and is honoring and glorifying Christ, Speaking of Him and exalting him, His face shining. It's not because of the earthen vessel, but it's because of the treasure that's in that vessel. And as the vessel is being broken, the light is shining. That's what he is bringing out here, I believe in a practical way.
Well, Paul's bodily presence was weak and his speech contemptible. Men wouldn't choose that kind of a person to deliver an important message. They say, well, we want to have people that really show something of the importance by their personality. But here God chose a man whose bodily presence was weak and the speech contemptible to give out the most wonderful and glorious truth that's contained in all the whole Bible, the truth of the church and.
The honor and glory of Christ, His exaltation as the center of new creation, Head of the body, the Church who is chosen man that was just a a weak vessel.
Martin's not why we must have been broken in contrite spirit, be useful to the Lord.
That the daughter.
I was weak. I didn't really appear when he was going on in Judaism, didn't it? But in Christianity, it all sort of came out. And we often think that, uh, it's when we're on top of things as the world would say that that's when the Lord is going to use us. But it seems that it's the opposite way around. And Paul warned Timothy of that, who preached the gain is godliness from such turn away that there's a thought that, you know, that there's a great almost doctrine of winning, you know, so to speak. And yet it's often in the trials and circumstances of life, as you say that, whether at work or at home or whatever that Christ is really seeing.
In in that sense, as it says there in verse 7, verse seven. But we have this treasure in urban vessels.
Life, the vessels is going to break down, That's true, but we have a treasure in it and uh, if, umm, if we didn't realize that it was of God, we might do a little boasting. We might be a little bit proud because we're pretty good gospel preacher or.
That we have a nice way of presenting the truth, but God guards that truth. He guards it here in this verse. That is the apostle. We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. No, we, we may visit someone as I've done, and find them turn to the Lord in the very last moments. Was it my visit? No, it was the work of God in their souls that really turned them from darkness to light and from the power of faith to God.
We may present the truth, we have a treasure and we can give them or seek to present that treasure to them, but we can't boast and say, well, because we knew it more, knew more about it. But the, the, the vessel, as it says here, it's that the Excellency of the power may be of God, not of us. I think it's good to remember that.
Is that my brother, though sometimes the Lord keeps us from knowing about the results of the work we're doing. I think if Hudson Taylor as I said that he did not realize the effect of what he had done at the end of his life and after he he passed away to the home of the Lord. There are 1,000,000 that come to the Lord in China and said part of that is true to the work and how to tailor it done in his life.
00:45:16
I'll have to quote Gordon's father again. You know, we spend some time with him and I still remember the things he brought before us. And one thing was he said never count your converts this side of heaven. Leave that to God.
Good point. Leave it to him. He he will do the work. He will bring them to the to himself.
But we don't need to take any credit for it.
He's 10th and 11Th versus they end about the same, but there is a difference in the first part of the verse. Perhaps I could read them. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That the life also of Jesus might be manif, made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake. That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. I believe it's when it's done in communion with the Lord.
When we recognize that the old man came to its end in the death of Christ.
Self is not set forward, because here it's not the thought of bearing our sins so much as the thought that our old man was crucified with him in his death. We as children of Adam, so to speak, we cease, and now we're new creatures in Christ Jesus. And if I always bear that in mind, then I will acknowledge that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I will put the flesh flesh in the place of death. And what is the result? The life of Jesus will be seen.
If not, God may allow circumstances in my life, as He often has to do, to humble us and bring us down so we're delivered unto death for Jesus sake. But it's always the same result, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. What does God want to see in every one of us, brethren? He wants to see the life of Jesus manifested, and if we're trying to set ourselves forward, then he may allow something to humble us.
So that we realized that the flash profit of nothing, that is his purpose to bring us down, but not self would be seen, but that the life of Jesus would be seen. If I could illustrate it something like this. When Gideon's man went out and there's one of his men that has a very, very lovely vessel that he has put the light in. And when the moment comes when Gideon says the vessel has to be broken so the light will shine and 300 torches were going to shine in the midnight.
One man, he holds back a little bit. He doesn't like to destroy his vessel, and Gideon test slashes it down so the light would be seen. He should have done it himself, that's what he was told to do. But he might. Gideon might have to do it so the light would shine.
And isn't that true, brethren, that very often the Lord has to deliver us to death and it has to bring us down so that we realize what poor, failing things we are. And it hurts our pride maybe a little, but it's necessary because God doesn't want self to be seen. He wants the life of Jesus to be manifested in our bodies. So there's the time when we do it in communion with the Lord, when there's a there is a time when he has to do it.
In his governmental ways with us.
In our ways, we pro, uh, with our, in the way of practice, we fail. But then God come here. And I was just thinking again of those two verses, Gordon always bearing about in the body, the dying of Jesus. Uh, I think, I don't think it's Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body, but not always true. We, we don't we it, it, it doesn't fall through, follow through, does it? We fail in this because we're not always in that state, but then.
Notice the verse 11 Says For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake. Who does that? God? God does that for us. If we don't do it ourselves, He's going to bring us into that state of thing there in that condition.
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh, and that's his desire for us and his garden has already said. But we see the the the efforts of man there and also.
We see God's work in completing that.
Following the measure in which that's true, then as it says so, then death worketh in US, but life in you. A man is exalting himself. If Paul had come along, exalting himself, they might have been attracted to Paul. Some other man would come along with a nicer personality. It would be attracted to them. But if death worked in him, and all he was doing was not trying to set himself forward, but Christ forward.
00:50:23
Then the result would be blessing. And that's a very searching thing for us, because in Christmas we often find the exaltation of man. You seldom pick up a book, even perhaps a book that has somewhat good ministry in it. But the first part of it's all telling you what a wonderful man this was that wrote this book, that agrees that he has what he's done and so on. Before he even starts the book, you get occupied with the man.
It's rather relieving to take a book and and hardly know who wrote it. You maybe look over the end and you see a couple of initials, but that's about all because the man is not trying to set himself forward. Death is working in him.
But he wants life to work in the hearers as he tells about his glorious Savior and what he has done and how God has exalted his beloved Son. And he wants us to be like Him, so that death worketh in us, but life in you.
More, it's all in Colossians 3 and verse 5. Mortify therefore your members, which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, and so on, and numbers them here, Keep them in the place of death.
And Paul actually practiced that himself because he said we're we're always delivered unto death for Jesus sake.
I appreciated that Claude in connection with umm, with Gideon, because if we.
Remember the story of Gideon?
They weren't occupied with the breaking of the vessel. They weren't occupied with the trumpets. They weren't occupied with the light. They didn't know what they were going to do. They were just told to look on Gideon and they're told to keep their eyes fixed on Gideon. And I see what to do. They were to do.
God makes the truth good in our own souls too. Does be the 13th verse we having the same spirit of faith according as it is written. I believed and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore speak.
And I think all of us, we know that.
What first makes the truth good in our own souls, and when we have it's been made good in our own soul, then we can speak with power. Paul could tell what the grace of God had done for him, says he was a blasphemer. He was everything that was wrong before. And when he came to the end of himself and realized this, then he spoke out. Is that what she had experienced in his own life? I believed and therefore have I spoken.
And it's so important God makes the truth that we talk about good in our own souls. I think every one of us have perhaps experienced, we have maybe said something in the meeting. Maybe it was a little bit beyond our own faith.
But we made a remark, we saw it in the passage, but it was really beyond us. And the next day the Lord says, I'm going to put you to a test about that. Do you really believe that? Do you really believe that all things work together for good? And you get into a bad situation the next day and you begin to murmur and complain, but you told the people the night before that all things work together for good. So God makes the truth good in our own souls, so that it's ministered as that which we have believed, which we have proved.
And then we can minister does that which has been made good in a practical way.
In our own lives. I think that's why in Romans 12, uh, it's to me been an interesting point in verse six of Romans 12 where it says having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.
And then it lists some, and the first one listed as prophecy. It says whether prophecy let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith.
You would think because the subject is gifts, that it might say whether prophecy let us prophecy according to the gift.
But it doesn't refer to the gift, it refers to what has really been formed morally in my life.
It says to the proportion of faith, and that's to be the limit of my, uh, speaking forth, whether an exhortation or really comfort in general is what I've made good in my own life. That's my limitation, prophesying according to the proportion of faith what I've had.
00:55:04
What I've been able to lay, hold on practically and enjoy in my own soul.
Interesting where that's quoted from in the 116th Psalm, but it just really illustrates what you are saying. 116th Psalm, the ninth verse I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
I believe therefore I have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted.
Then it comes to, there was a test there. He said, I hadn't said my hate, all men were liars. Seems to be a contradiction to what he said in the ninth verse. But then faith seems to take over. Then in the uh, UH-12 First he says, what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation. I will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows into the Lord now in the presence of all his people.
There were two great lessons in the wilderness, weren't there?
And to prove thee, and to show thee what was in thine heart. And then to show too that God was sufficient for every circumstance. If they needed bread, He could supply that. If they needed water, He could supply that. Their clothes didn't wear out, their shoes didn't wear out. He undertook for them in all their needs, but they had to be humbled. And so that's the two things we learn or should learn in our pathway, our own nothingness and God's all sufficiency.
To humbly and to prove Thee we learn our own nothingness, that the all sufficiency of God that he was able to meet every need that they had in that whole 40 years of travel. He was sufficient for the need.
I rather enjoyed the thought too in this 14th verse, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up also by Jesus.
And shall present us with you, who had had to write very faithfully this Corinthian assembly ring before them, things that exercised him even in connection with discipline that needed to be taken, uh, to take place among them. And they might have felt and perhaps did, that he was against them and being so severe upon them. But I think it's lovely too, what he says here shall raise us up also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
His whole desire was for their good and blessing. He identifies himself with them. He doesn't say I'm here and you're there.
He shall present us with you. I think this is a lovely thing. And when we ever try to correct any person, we should always think of this, that, uh, in seeking to maybe speak to them in a way that's for their good and blessing. We should think of the time when together we're going to be there around the Lord.
Could it be in this 15th verse that he refers to the gift that the brethren sent up for the needs of the Saints in Jerusalem? That is, there was a famine in Jerusalem. There might have been, and there probably was some feeling between Jews and Gentiles. There was a natural barrier that existed between them, and God allowed a famine to come among these Jews.
They might have said, well, we're the top ones. We're the ones that have sent the help down to you and we sent the messengers down to you and everything. But God allowed a family to come in, uh, Jerusalem among the Jews in Judea. And so the health cold flow the other way. Now the help was coming from the Gentiles and going back to them. And God was in this way knitting their hearts together in love. The Jews could never say, well, we don't need these Gentiles. We sent the gospel to them, but.
We're the ones that are on top, but now He puts them in a position. They must be the receivers. And it's good for us to remember that sometimes the Lord loves situations where we might think we're on top, but we have to be the receivers, don't we?
All things are for your sakes. All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the cold according to his purpose.
I was just looking into that in First Corinthians 3 garden you're mentioning after verse 21. Therefore let no man glory in man, for all things are yours.
Whether Paul or Polis or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all are yours and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God. So here we found that little expression for all things are for your sakes. So it's good to remember that, isn't it? God's not a cheap giver, you know He's not. When he gives, he gives abundantly.
01:00:23
OK.
And even though this present in which we live is only for a moment, it's only temporal. It does have eternal results. That's good for us to remember.
Our short lives here, brethren, are going to have eternal results. The grace that has saved us, anything that has been done to please the Lord in accordance with His Word, everything is going to be manifested and rewarded, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, it's only that way in comparison with eternity. What is this little period of time compared to eternity? But the results of what we did today is still a short day of time.
Is going to have eternal results. If it was done for the glory of God, it will be rewarded. If not, it'll be lost. It's how we behave here now and our life is going to determine the size of our company eternity. We should we should consider that everything that we say and do is going to be assessed at the judgment seat of Christ.
Sometimes you hear it said that rewards are only for the millennial period, for the thousand year reign, but this verse seems to say otherwise, that they go well, it says eternal weight of glory.
Very precious too, to see here he speaks of our light affliction and.
And then he begins he adds to that by saying which is which is but for a moment, our light affliction, which is but for a moment as com as in contrast to the eternal ages that are before us. So I always think of that. I just refer to a verse. You don't need to turn to it over in the 41St Psalm where he says that the Lord will preserve him in two and keep him alive and he shall be blessed upon the earth. Of course we know the sound again speak of the earthly blessing.
Of the people in the coming day, that thou wilt uh, Thou wilt uh, but thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. The Lord shall strengthen him upon the bed of languishing. Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.
Beautiful little verse to think that in your whatever your trial is, whatever the difficulty is the light affliction, but God is going to make your bed in the affliction in your fingers. It's beautiful to think of that God will never overlook one of his own. He will always be there to comfort and to sustain.
And then you have the person on the call write that verse. You might wonder how serious it takes him, but we all know how Paul went through a great deal of flexion, physically, emotionally, uh, for a member of yours right from the time he is saved.
OK, let me press this last verse as well, and for us to bear in mind, as we call, we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. Or the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
This life and how we live it is very important. This is all brought out in this chapter. But every act should be looked at in light of eternity. Shouldn't that have how it's going to appear when all is manifested in the coming day?
The center may just live for time, say I'm having a good time, but what about eternity? The way he lives in time, if he goes on rejecting Christ is going to have eternal consequences. And so the way we live as believers, we may say, well, it's just time. It's just today. Well, are we living in view of eternity while we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen or the things which are seen are temporal. The things which are not seen are eternal. May the Lord grant that we live our lives in view.
Of the manifestation, because every act in our lives is going to have eternal consequences as well as present ones.
It was showing #36 in the back of the.
01:05:38
Nsnoise.
Umm, from the fall.
I'm saying.
Village on South Carolina.
Grey.
Nsnoise.
Uh-huh.
No, no, no.
I'm not sure if you can do anything to buy all the products, but I don't know.
Things well.