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It's interesting in this earth.
If we bring a light to a dark room, we shine light into the room. God can command light to come out of darkness.
And in observing souls that I've had the privilege to talk with.
One of the things that I've noticed in early as the Lord is working, there's a consciousness of sin that seems to come in. There's like an enlightenment, like God has put light, where they see things they never saw before. I mean, before there's a confession of salvation, there's this consciousness of sin.
It seems to come in.
And I don't know if that has to do with what John says about lighting every man that cometh into the world.
But there's some kind of light that God causes to come in that brings illumination. It's early in the process that he works in a phone.
And that is true. It's very true that the light that Shawn in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ illuminated more than previously.
If he were willing to admit it.
The awful condition of man.
I would just suggest, and we don't need to dwell on it because we did discuss this verse a bit yesterday, but here what we get.
Perhaps goes even beyond that.
Yes, we need to be reminded that we are sinners and it's the light of God's Word and the Lord Jesus Christ here in this world that brought that out, but here it's the glory of God.
In the face of Jesus Christ.
That is a light in one sense that did not shine in the Old Testament.
It's a light, as we had brought before us, that is the glory of God.
Because of his love and because of redemption, the full character of God revealed not merely in life that was revealed in the Old Testament, but God in his love.
That's why I suggested just to read verse 6, because in verse 7.
He speaks of this treasure.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels. What's the treasure?
I think it's that, isn't it? The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Bill Prost, Do you know the Eternal God?
I do. Isn't that incredible? It is.
That's a treasure, but it's in Earth Investments.
When we read this chapter yesterday, 2 phrases.
Struck me.
And I don't recall. Maybe I was too sleepy yesterday.
But the first verse says this ministry.
And verse 7 says this treasure. What is the link between the two?
I think we mentioned it in yesterday in Chapter 3. It contrasts the administration of.
Condemnation and in the law, administration of death and administration of condemnation, in contrast with the administration of the spirit and administration of righteousness. And I think that's what he refers to in verse one.
We have this ministry. So in Christianity you have a.
Display of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ than you ever had under the Law. The law was glorious in that it made Moses face shine that we have something far superior, far superior.
And so when we get to know the Lord Jesus, that's the treasure. I find that just incredible to think about.
Is puny human beings.
To know the eternal God.
And the person of the Lord Jesus wowing incredibly wonderful.
What strikes me about verse 6?
Is that it's not a general out shining of the glory of God like like if the sun comes up.
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In a in a part of the earth, everything gets lit. That's more what we read in John chapter one. The true light lighteth every man. The true light is coming to the world even though men did not comprehend it or apprehended. But here it's as you say, Bob. It's the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
I'm sorry, previous phrase has shined in our hearts.
So, so this is God working in the heart. So that upon repentance, as Sam was saying, that's really what you're speaking about. Sam's repentance, the Spirit of God works repentance.
When there is faith.
Then we behold, we have the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's something that is shown in the heart of the believer.
Not just so. If the world is going to see it, where are they going to see it shining out from, not from heaven.
Where Christ is but from your wife as an earth investment. Agree with your if your all, the fact that these earthen vessels have such have something so glorious, in lack of a word to use, shown into us, that is, that God will see to it that it shines out to others.
Earthen vessels A container made of turf.
Not very fancy, no.
And they're breakable.
The illustrations often been given of Gideon and his 300 Men with the.
They were to break the vessel, and in breaking the vessel the light shone.
So that's what God does in our lives and in what the verses that follow.
Show how the vessel is to be broken.
Sometimes in ways that are not pleasant to ourselves, but and necessary thing.
In our lives the breaking of the vessels so that the light can shine, wowing.
That's the wonderful thing about this is the glorious side. So we see the treasure, we understand the treasure, but it's hidden in something so fragile. And then we find the following Birthday, in a sense, tells us well how How does this vessel get broken so that the light can be a testimony to this world?
That we see all there are problems now we can see the wisdom of God, why tribulations and distressed and so on are allowed into our lives.
Because not to break us in the sense of breaking us down to nothing, but the vessel may be broken, so the light, as you mentioned, as Gideon's Lantern can shine for the show not about us, but the glory of God.
And at the end of verse 7, is that the power Excellency of the power maybe have gotten out of us? Remember that when Gideon blew his trumpet, there followed him 32,000 men.
Of Israel. God says I can't give you the victory too many. You're going to boast that you got it yourself.
Ready to tell all those go home?
There's 20,000 who went home.
That's reducing your army. Pretty good bet. But he still had 12,000, still too many in the Lord says bring them down to the waters to test them. And then there was 300 left, 300 against the hordes of the Midianites.
Rather than this is a lesson we've got to learn. The Excellency of the power is not of us, it's of God.
And God is as insignificant, despicable things.
And his work?
And that's why I.
Excuse me, that's why I mentioned at the beginning of this, when we were taking up this chapter, that.
I have looked at 2nd Corinthians as if it is bringing all the power of a risen Christ in glory to bear on the problems and difficulties in life down here, and as we've been saying, to use those same earthen vessels for God's glory, but with his power. And so these things are real. We are troubled on every side. Verse 8.
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We are perplexed, we are persecuted.
Verse nine, we are cast down.
We do always bear a boat in the bud in the dying of the Lord Jesus, and these problems are very real.
And sometimes what the Lord allows in our lives seem to be very difficult, very hard to bear. Sometimes we as Christians look on what the Lord is doing in the lives of other believers, and sometimes even in our own lives, and we say, I don't understand.
I don't. I don't know why the Lord is allowing this.
But then we read.
If that is the earthen vessel that we've been talking about.
Then there's the treasure. Not distress, that's the treasure.
Not in despair, the treasure not forsaken, not destroyed.
That the light also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
That treasure is like Gideon's life as we've been bringing out, and sometimes that earthen vessel gets in the way.
It can do a very effective job of keeping the light from shining out, and this was particularly the case in court.
They were a well educated people. They were a proud people. They had a lot of gift in spiritual things and they were taken up with it and they felt that somehow all of this could be used for God's glory.
And Paul has to say to them, no. I was educated too. I had the best education. I had everything going for me.
But it didn't do me anything when I came to know the Lord. Oh, I'm sure, as we said earlier, that Paul's knowing several languages and having his education, he could use it for the Lord. But to rely on it as if somehow it was a necessary thing, and that that made him a better speaker, a better evangelist, a better teacher? No, no, it all had to be by the power of God, and Paul himself knew.
What it was to see the earthen vessel broken.
And we know at the end of this epistle he tells about the thorn it should read for the flesh, not in the flesh, but for the flesh.
And he was so upset with it and so concerned about it The three times he goes to the Lord, the great apostle Paul, he says, Lord, please take this away.
He felt, and we can see why, that he could serve the Lord better, if the Lord would only take that thorn away.
And three times the Lord says all know.
But I'm going to give you the grace that you need. And more than that, what is his eventual reaction?
We glory, he gloried in his infirmities. That's quite a step, isn't it? The glory and something that breaks the earth and vessel. That's not easy.
But he knew that the Lord was allowing it in order that the treasure might be more visible.
It's interesting these chapters.
Two other phrases that stand out.
Build this crew of attention to the one we are.
But there's also.
Verse one we have.
This ministry.
Verse seven we have this treasure just turn up to chapter.
Seven verse, verse, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved.
This world is divided into two classes of people. According to sociologists, they have the haves and the have nots and brother where the haves.
We're eternally the Haves.
Value that we have. We have to understand that then it helps us understand why there are circumstances happen to Christians and to acknowledge that it is from the Lord for our good.
Is to build up our faith, so we had before us praying for ones who are in need, and I believe it's rightly so, to pray for brethren who are in need or or in special circumstances.
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But yet, on the other hand, then we have to also acknowledge that to the Lord His will be done. So we we had in our reading.
Long ago, the book of Acts where Peter was released from prison and someone made a comment. Isn't it nice to see that the prayer was answered and it was they pray that Peter would be released? And then I made a comment. I said, well then what about James who was killed?
Thanks for that. Or do we cast that part and say, oh, the Lord didn't answer that prayer? We can't say that, can't we? That either way we know it is the Lord well and we need to seek what the Lords mind is, whether it be unto death.
All right, I have a question about verse.
The part about the face of Jesus Christ.
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.
Do I understand this correctly? Is that just saying that Jesus put a face on God, He's the He's God in the flesh and so we Or what's? What's the idea of saying that?
To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
I think, Tim, it may be a contrast to the face of Moses in the previous chapter.
Verse 13 Not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, The children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished.
But now we have the glory of God in an unveiled face.
Of Jesus Christ.
Verse 18 Chapter 3.
Yes, following up wonderful verse 18 of chapter 3 as well.
Brothers used to tell us when we were young. If there's a verse that is a key to growing as a Christian, it's Second Corinthians 318, we all, with opener unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord.
Are changed.
That's grown.
To the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord.
So we have an object that is a person glorified in heaven.
That we hold.
The liberty of the Holy Spirit and by faith.
And lo and behold, we're changed. It's.
From glory to glory, it's not.
It happened last Saturday.
It's gradual performance to Christ by being occupied with himself in glory. It's been said that the wonderful grace of God.
Hasn't come to us directly from the cross, but it's come from heaven, from the glorified man. The foundation was on Calvary's cross, but God has raised him up and positioned him in a place where now the full liberty of his love.
It's graceful. It's up to you.
Remember in the Old Testament when Moses was on the Mount?
And God said to Moses, Thou cats not see my face, thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen.
But isn't it wonderful that God? And you mentioned that God has become a man in Christ and now by faith we can see in his face all the glory of God reflected the whole true character of God? Yes, it's by faith we don't see his actual face with our eyes. We will when the Lord comes and takes us home. But.
In that face we are able to see without avail all the glory of God.
Revelation One. His face shone as the sun, and I like to think of that face too. Was more marred than any man's just to think of it, Brandon.
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On that cross in those three hours of darkness was the greatest display there has ever been. That God is light and God is love, never a greater display of those two things.
Wonderful.
Like to connect a few scriptures I don't know how to refer to just one seek to bring a thought out with respect to the treasure.
That's in verse 7.
Go back to Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8 and verse 2.
Is bringing out.
The truth.
Summing up, really the truth of the 1St 7 chapters of Romans.
And I could try to summarize the 1St 7 chapters of Romans, but just get the one verse and connect it with our chapter.
The law verse 2. The law of the spirit of life.
In Christ Jesus.
That's that made me free from the law of sin, of death.
Principle of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Now our chapter.
Verse.
11.
For we which live.
Who's that as those who, if you will, gone through the 1St 7 chapters of Romans and arrived at the 8th chapter. They're the ones that live.
And so he says here we which live are always delivered unto death.
For Jesus sake, that what?
The life also of Jesus.
Might be manifest in our mortal flesh.
How is the life of Jesus manifest in our mortal flesh?
Because as we have brought out in Romans 8.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
In resurrection life.
The Spirit of God, the Lord Jesus is given to us as our life.
It's an eternal life. It's the life that's given to us and it's sealed in US and it's operative in US.
By the Holy Spirit, it's the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
And now to connect it with the glory.
In chapter 3.
We see that the glory of God had not has already been said multiple times, was not fully revealed by the law.
It was not revealed even when the Lord Jesus was here as a man, to our understanding and eyes, he was what he was from eternity.
But the glory of God displayed in Jesus Christ is displayed in resurrection.
And how is it made good in us, the light of the knowledge of God?
In the face of Jesus Christ is made good in US, is made a treasure in US.
By the life of Christ himself being in US.
And then we have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
Individually, personally made known to our souls.
By the person of Christ who is our life being in US.
And Mr. Darby sums it down to say, the treasures Christ.
That is we.
Are brought into this living relationship. We were born with a body.
A natural physical body and we have a life in that body.
But what do we have now?
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That body has a new life in it. It has the life of Christ.
It's called our life.
The Apostle Paul. The life which I now live. I live by the faith of the Son of God.
His life now lived was the out.
And So what is to be seen in you and I as a vessel in this physical body in which I have that was born?
Under the power of sin, what is God expecting to be seen?
He's expecting the treasure he put there to be seen, which is Christ.
And it's the outshining of himself.
That is enjoyed practically in the heart that becomes the testimony of the believer.
To everyone about him and that testimony is carried on, as it says here in a week physical vessel.
But that only displays the greatness.
Of the work of God.
Because we would never imagine.
The cod would put in us, his son, to be our life beyond our imagination, that God would do that.
But it's a treasure to God.
If you have a treasure, where are you going to put it? Typically in a pretty safe place, right?
But where is God put his treasure?
Put it in you.
And now he says, in spite of all the challenge connected with it. I want the glory, my glory and the full out shining of it that was never seen before is to be seen in you and in your life.
And consequently one more verse, verse 18 of chapter 3.
We all with open face, beholding, as in glass, the glory of the Lord. The Apostle Paul again had one object before his soul, and for me to live as Christ. He said, because Christ was the fullness of the object of his soul, and consequently he could by faith enjoy looking at that glory shining out. This has already been explained in the face of Christ. And then we realized the truth of first John.
Where? He says.
He that hath this hope in him, what is that whole?
That I will be like Christ without the limitations of this body.
And I when I don't have the limitation of the body.
I have the life, the eternal life in it. But when I come to see Christ as He is and what it, how will I see Him as He is? I will see him in his resurrected state and life.
And when I see him as he is, I'll be with him. The limitations of this body will be gone, and then I will be like him fully forever.
That's why in verses 10 and 11 That there's both those verses, there's something that is similar.
In that it mentions the dying of the Lord Jesus.
Before it mentions the life of Jesus verse 10.
And verse 11 Also we which liver always delivered unto death.
For Jesus sake, that the life also Jesus, might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
Death comes first and then life. That's resurrection light. That's that life we possess by faith in the Lord Jesus.
And so it's manifested in the measure that we bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. It says in verse 10 always bearing about this is the norm of Christian life.
Why in my life give place to my own desires and my own likes? Will you see the life of Christ in me? No, you will not.
But it is in the measure that I bear about in my body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus will be manifest in our body.
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And it seems that that is presented in verse 10 as the norm always bearing about the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus.
But in verse 11, it's a little different in that it's we which live are always delivered into debt. Now this is something that is outside of our control.
Somebody gets cancer.
And it seems like there's no remedy.
We're delivered to it. We did not seek for this. Why are we delivered to it?
That the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. There, it says.
Because it may involve true physical death, not necessarily.
But it's that principle of death.
We've died with Christ, and in the nature that I carry that carry out that principle in my life, then the life of Jesus is manifest. I think that's beautiful to see it.
I think there's additional aspect to it that's seen in the 10th and 11Th verse as well.
If you think about the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus in one sense was born to die.
He became a man.
That he might take our place. And in becoming a man, his whole life was focused on what it was going to be to die.
And consequently he had He was the one perfect.
Mortal flesh, if you will, that there has ever been.
And when we now have his life.
But we still have that.
Mortal flesh in.
There is an aspect in these verses, I believe in addition to what Bob has said, because you can have more than one thought and they can be consistent.
Correct that we are going to follow a path that as to that old life, the only place for it is the place of death, practically speaking, not only doctrinally speaking, but there is no place for it in us who are to live.
A spirit of life in Christ Jesus that is, the new life that we have is the life we're to live.
And the old life is to be recognized not only doctrinally in baptism as dying with him, but it is to be on a daily basis going down the path that is the same path that he went down in his life here until his death and his resurrection.
So for our sake. For the application, for our sake.
Came to die.
Put aside all the natural things that he was a Nazarite from birth.
In our case, we have the privilege for his sake, for Jesus sake, as we have in verse 11 of Going down the Same Time.
And the result of that was in verse 12.
Death worketh in us, but life in you, that is out of all of that.
That the Apostle could speak about concerning himself and concerning those who worked with him. The result of all that was that life of Christ, that treasure exhibited, and blessing in others.
And what a privilege that is.
Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to make an illustration of that, and I read it some time ago.
Probably some here are familiar with a book written by Alexander Solzhenitsyn entitled The Gulag Archipelago, in which he was Russian and he was one who dared to speak out concerning the atrocities and imprisonment of innocent people and ultimate deaths of innocent people that took place in Russia under Lenin and later under Stalin, and perhaps even later still under other administrations.
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And he points out in his book that there were those who were arrested wrongly and those that were treated badly and who resisted it very strongly. They did everything they could to prove their innocent innocence. They reached out to people that they thought could help them. They were even, of course, in many cases told lies, and they signed papers admitting guilt that they had never.
Been guilty of admitted, Admitted to things, hoping that they would somehow get out of prison.
It never worked. All they did was get into bigger and bigger trouble. But he said the people that did the best.
Under those circumstances were those who, when they were arrested, said, well, this is it.
My life down here in this earth is over.
I'll probably never see my family again. They probably confiscated my property.
But I am not going to sacrifice my moral values and my moral principles. And they said, we don't care what you do. You put us in prison, you do anything you want.
But we are not going to sign something admitting.
Wrongdoing that we are not guilty of. We are not going to go back on the things that we said. We are not going to acknowledge the rightfulness of what is wrong, they said. The interrogators were afraid of those people. They didn't know what to do with them because they couldn't. They couldn't break them. Now some of them were true believers, some of them were simply morally upright, and many of them in some cases were simply allowed to go free, they said.
We no use having these guys in prison. They just don't do no good having them at all.
And so the believer in this world.
That always bears a boat and I like the twofold aspect that was brought out.
If we accept that in this world, then we are not going to get all upset.
About what the Lord is allowing in our lives. We're going to say, Lord, this is your will, and this is for your glory. And we are here for your glory, not for mine, not for ours. We are here for your honor and glory and for your interests. And if what happens to us is going to result in death working in us but life and others, and so be it. Now that's quite a step to take, but once it's taken.
It makes everything much easier, doesn't it?
I remember reading about three people called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego illustrated.
They said to the king, well, more or less than paraphrasing, you're going to do what you're going to do.
The Lord's going to deliver us out of your hand, one way or the other.
But they had to be willing to face death, and then God intervened. And that's resurrection life, isn't it?
It came out on the other side.
The world will never see it.
Unless there's faith.
Men and women who act in hate.
The truth that they have, that's when the world sees it. It's another reality that they only know this 1A lost man, a lost woman. They only know what's the natural world around us. How in the world are they going to see it?
When Private Desmond Doss stood on Hacksaw Ridge.
As a believer.
Being more everyone being ordered to come down and get out.
And all those great battleships off the shore began to lob those shells up there.
He cried out to the Lord. What should I do?
He walks into the Hellfire of it when he hears someone cry for help.
An act of faith?
The reality of that night when he walked in there and saved all of those men up on that mountain, was a kind of bravery.
Men act brave. They're lost. Men who act brave. Their soldiers who act brave but not like this.
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Nobody had ever seen anything like it, and it was a man.
Who trusted in the God that had saved him, acting in faith.
And the world saw another reality.
And were amazed.
How else they gonna see it?
When we realize that we have died.
Then you don't have to fear death anymore, do you know?
And we have risen with him.
That life is a light that death cannot touch.
Absolutely impossible that death can touch.
That's the life that we have. I think it's.
Perhaps that is the force of versus 13 and 14.
That verse 13 of course is quoted from.
From the Psalms but.
I would suggest the force of it here is that.
To speak the way Paul was speaking.
He says we have faith, I have believed, and therefore we are able to speak this way.
And if we really believe.
In the truth of verse 14, as you say, Bob.
Then there is resurrection before US, one way or another.
It may be that the Lord will leave us here, and the precious truth of the power of resurrection will be realized that the Lord's coming when we are changed, but it may be realized when all that are in the graves.
All true believers.
Even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
And that power of resurrection.
Is something the man can't understand.
I remember reading about a missionary who was in a heathen country. This was many years ago, perhaps 150 years ago, and he was preaching the gospel to them. And he talked about resurrection. And they looked at one another in wonder. They said resurrection, really.
Well, all those who have died really be raised, and he was assured they would be.
The chief said. Well, all those who I've killed in battle, will they rise again?
Oh my, what about those that have been killed and in some cases eaten by wild beasts?
He shook his head. He couldn't believe. Will they be brought back again? He was assured that God could do that. Well, I believe some got saved in that particular locality. They believe that the missionary who gave them the truth. How could he speak like that? Because he had faith in that precious truth of resurrection.
So in verse 14 it says knowing. What a beautiful word knowing.
Which raised up the Lord Jesus, That truth Paul had already brought out in great depth in the 15th chapter of First Corinthians.
The precious truth of resurrection, the absolute necessity of the necessity of Christ's resurrection, and the necessity of our resurrection if it's true that he is risen.
And if that truth has a grip on our souls?
What a difference it makes your outlook down here if you were saying.
Sam, the world's horizon is this world, and I have seen those, and you have two who have spent all their time and energy making sure that they had everything under control as they thought in this world. I remember the neighbor across the road from me, his family.
Were heirs to a big chunk of property surrounding his home and so on, and we were chatting once and he said, Bill, we got it all.
All sewed up, legally, everything is the old people pass away and this and that happens. It's all going to belong to us.
No problem at all.
Well, I said to him. What about what about what comes in eternity?
Well, I haven't thought much about that, but he never got that property.
The Lord allowed death to come in and take him, and I have no assurance that he was ever saved. He never, he never saw that property long before it ever came up, As we say, up for grabs. He was gone.
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So it is with this world, but with you and me, everything that is really ours is ours in resurrections.
And it's a resurrection life that we possess right now in the measure that we carry about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus. And I think that's the challenge, brother, and it's to apply that principle of death to the flesh.
And to realize we are dead with him, it's not that we have to put the flesh to death.
It's that we are dead with him.
And risen again with him. So the life that I possess is not that natural life.
That we may still have, but it's the life of resurrection in Christ that we possess even now. That life doesn't have to be regulated. It doesn't have to be ordered to obey rules. It needs to be turned loose.
It is the life of Christ. He knows how to best live it. How about we let him live it through us and in US? That idea that he knows best how to live that life and if we get out of the way.
That's one of the problems we have is we keep getting in the way.
Brother Bernie Brack back home.
I've mentioned him here recently.
Dear lady in his town had to go for chemotherapy in the hospital in Cedar Rapids and he found out that no one was going to be there with her. Family wasn't in town and so he decided to go up.
And he met the doctor, her oncologist, while he was there.
And he spoke with him, and he began to witness to him.
And here is a Hindu or has a Hindu background. And he told Bernie after talking with him. While it says you're one of the real ones, I can tell is what do you mean you're you're a real Christian.
And he told how that one of his nurses is a Christian. Has been talking to it since. I've been watching.
Well, how did they going to see it unless something happens where you can do that and this lady, he said. And he told Bernie that customers.
Of his His patients, customers who were believers, were different and how they face death.
And how when he was dealing with them in their cancer treatments, they were not like others.
Well, that's a life that's different and they see it. So we've been praying for this man in our prayer meeting now that he might get saved because he said he's he can tell that there's something real there and he can see the evidence for it. So maybe he's an inch away from being saved.
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live.
Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
And the life which I now live, I live by the faith.
The Son of God who loved me.
And gave himself for me all of that truth. Bob, you just talked tied up in that bird.
The yet not I.
I remember as a young man reading that one time and saying what?
There's another I.
The practical realization of these truths that you're talking about and understanding this, that there's an eye who died.
It's not I that do it, but it's in the dwelleth in me.
What?
When brother Don was talking about.
All the summation of Romans one through 7 through 8.
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That's all tied up in that verse, Galatians 220.
Well, in the end of the chapter here. Nice to spend a few minutes on the rest here.
We mentioned it earlier. There are two reasons given in this chapter.
For not fainting. And as we mentioned yesterday, that word faint has the thought of losing heart.
For losing courage.
And we had that word faint, not in verse one, referring to the ministry that we have.
And what has been brought before us in the third chapter, we've already talked about that that perhaps is more a personal thing.
We all.
Unveiled or open face, beholding the glory of the Lord.
Are changed into the same image from glory to glory and for that reason we don't faith. But then in verse 15 it says for all things are for your sakes.
That the abundant grace might, through the Thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God.
For which 'cause we faint not.
Paul had on his heart, not only his own, if we could use the term.
Personal well-being as a believer.
But he valued the well-being of his brethren.
And of course, he had done a unique work.
Preaching to people who were in the depths of Paganism and who were saved right out of Paganism.
To acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, and to acknowledge to all the precious truth of the assembly, all the counsel of God that was brought before us yesterday.
How very important.
And Paul cared about all of that.
And for that reason I don't want to say this the wrong way, but.
Paul couldn't afford to faint. He had.
A great deal of responsibility on his shoulders at the end of 2nd Corinthians 11, he could say.
After detailing some of the sufferings he had been through for Christ, he could say, and that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. There was a constant care, and I am sure that there was much that Paul wrote that we do not have available to us in the inspired word seeking to be an encouragement. There was much that he said that we do not have recorded.
Much that he prayed about.
That, of course, is not recorded. He had all that before him and he says for which.
Comes, we faint. Not all things are. For your sakes, Paul, as it were says. I am not concerned with what happens to me, but I am concerned about you. I'm concerned about which way you are headed. And of course, in court he had some good reasons to be concerned that at the end of this epistle he has to speak pretty firmly to them about some that had not.
Repented of past sins, and that if he came there would have to be some serious dealing with that whole situation.
But he cared about the well-being of the Saints and what a privilege that is.
To be able to be of concern and to be able to be a help to others.
A brother back in the 1800s made this remark. I thought it was an excellent one.
He said Christianity is characterized not by what it finds but by what it brings, and Paul, I believe, felt that right to the core. Sometimes today we can get discouraged because, shall I say it, the condition of things in a local assembly may not be what we would like to see.
And I can remember a sister telling me she wasn't gathered, but she said I'd like to be able to.
Find a nice assembly where there was a good gospel outreach and a nice selection of gift and good ministry and a varied number of people from young to old. I I'd like to find an assembly like that where I could fit in.
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I said, well, it's not always going to be that way. In these last days, we can thank God for all of those things. But I said, how about starting with yourself?
How about starting with yourself? You and your husband are both saved, I said. If you make a start, then maybe God will allow all those things. Not always, but he may.
No, she wanted to have the whole pie presented to her on a platter.
And then she could just join in and enjoy the benefits.
But Christianity is characterized by what it brings, and I believe that's.
What we have in these last few verses should be looked upon in that light, although it is personal as well, of course.
Personal, but in verse 15 I think we have a principle that shows how grace working in one individual spreads itself to others, so then it becomes collective. The Apostle Paul was in very conscious that he was a vessel.
The grace of God.
He could look at his own life naturally.
And recognize.
The sinful character of his own life. And then he appreciated the abundance of the grace of God that had worked in him. But that grace that then worked in him, God was using him to share with others, and they were recipients through the grace made to him and the way God used it for their blessing.
And then that resulted in further blessing and Thanksgiving to God. And God is glorified, and so is as it says, through the Thanksgiving of many rebound to the glory of God. And so God is glorified in his excellent way, in which he uses grace to be multiplied first in one soul, and through that soul to others, and from them to others also, And it continues to spread.
Another remark, and I don't want to keep on others have thoughts on this but.
Brother in our written ministry and some will recognize the source of this quotation said.
A humble believer is never discouraged.
When I read that, it sort of took me aback. I read it many years ago. It took me. I was taken aback for a little bit, I thought.
But the more I have thought about it, and the more I go on, the more I see the truth of it. A humble believer is never discouraged.
Because if I am discouraged, I am looking for something and expecting something.
Sometimes from others.
Sadly, sometimes even from the Lord and it doesn't happen.
And when that occurs, I can get discouraged.
But when we read this chapter, we see that whatever God allows.
It is for blessing, even if it is, shall I say it, seeing discouragement in others.
Then there's an opportunity.
There's an opportunity, yes. I can't always go out and turn someone else's life around, but I can seek to be an encouragement, and that is what I believe we are given in this chapter and the last few verses of this chapter. May I suggest bring that out.
Our outward man may perish.
The inward man is renewed. Day by day We may have affliction, Paul says. It's late affliction, It's only temporary.
But it's working for us, not against us.
We're looking not so much of what we see, but with the eye of faith at what we do not see.
And what a what a difference that makes when we see it that way.
Does that fit with your Jim Elliott quote, verse 17?
It does.
I wasn't the one that said that, someone else quoted him.
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Somebody did in here.
Say you, Bob. Yep.
Well then, does that fit verse 17?
I think so. Wonderful thing to experience day by day.
The renewal.
That God works in our hearts.
Physically, I don't think physiologists even understand how it is.
At times, we all know what it's like to be extremely tired or even exhausted.
And sometimes it's like it's almost makes you chuckles like that the body is capable of being so weary. How does it work that you lay down?
And in a few hours.
Be renewed. I don't think physiologists even understand how that works.
It doesn't make physical sense. You just stop something. It doesn't work with a truck or a back or a crane.
And it's renewed and spiritually how much?
What a necessity it is to be renewed day by day.
End of Second Corinthians 3/5 with Christ glorify were changed from glory to glory. Gradual process.
Don't just get up.
Of the spiritual energy. It has to be renewed day by day.
All rights to the Romans.
Exhorts them to be transformed by the renewing of their mind.
It falls upon us to be.
To be, you know, in Psalm 16.
The Psalmist says I have said the Lord always before me.
You say, well, when I'm discouraged, what do I do?
The discouraged person just stops reading and stops praying.
It just showed the the the balloon just just goes out of air.
I notice when I start to feel a little bit that way, when I lack that kind of humility, I think of Psalm 16. I have said the Lord always before me. No matter how I feel, I can do that.
Read and pray and lo and behold, the Spirit of God takes those things and renews me, and I have fresh spiritual energy. It's certainly the Apostle Paul and weariness who who served like him other than the Savior himself.
In this inner man, day by day, the contrast we've read in these in this chapter, outwardly troubled, inwardly not distressed, outwardly persecuted, inwardly not passed down. And he's summarizing it, it seems to me, in verse 16, renewed day by day, And then he takes it to another place in verse 17 and calls it a light and temporary affliction, but for a moment.
When you look at.
The Chapter 11 where you enumerate enumerates.
Trials he's went through that was light affliction.
But brethren, it's because he compared it with the eternal weight of glory, and there is no way to compare that.
So it's beautiful. Verse 16, like you mentioned, the outward man, the inward man.
Still remember visiting the brother Jackson?
Down in.
Tampa, FL years ago when I was young and.
Never forget, he was at the end of his life and he sitting in a easy chair, he couldn't. He needed help to get around it all.
And we went to visit him and he starts talking about the Lord's coming and I mean he got excited and he started waving his arms and he started sitting forward and he's talking and all of a sudden flop, his body goes back and.
In the chair, his spirit was too young for his body. And that's what it means, isn't it? The outward man perishes. The inward man is renewed day by day. Isn't that beautiful?
It's what is eternal. It's a life that doesn't grow old. It's impossible. It's renewed day by day. I think it's it's wonderful, but it's while we look, This is the key to it.
18 Isn't it? Well, we look not at the things which are seen, and it's so much of A tendency, especially in this country, to look at material things rather than their distractions. Yes, we have to attend to the food we eat and the house where we live to a certain extent. But, brethren, I often think of what Brother Clarence Linden used to say. The characteristic of Pilgrim life is simplicity.
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Lord, help us to be simple in our living habits.
Just to digress aside comment, when you mentioned the older one, I I know some of us younger are afraid to visit older ones. Part of the problem is we don't know what we're going to talk to them about. We don't know what to say and sometimes we look at them, they don't even know us anymore. It's discouraging. But what I have learned that I've been encouraged by older ones. That is, you don't need to say much.
Read scriptures.
Or sing hymns with them and I have witnessed that many times that they may look like they're out of it, but when scriptures are being read, our hymns are being sung with them, is interesting to see the reaction that I'd rather mentioned that all those thoughts coming back. So just a word of a courage.
Will be late, so we're not too nasty of a rush if there's one or two last comments to make or.
Perhaps the?
Physical man is hired to.
Make a comment about the perfect example for us.
Was the Lord Jesus ever discouraged?
Was the Lord Jesus ever fearful?
Could the Lord Jesus?
Always experience peace.
I think we all know the answer to those questions.
But God has put a treasure in us, the life of that man.
And now by the power of the same Spirit that animated him, the Holy Spirit.
Is in US to make good in US, those same things.
And it's good for us, that's why we gaze upon him, that we may learn, he says to us, when connection with it come unto me.
We're talking about pride and things like that, or when things are going good, he says. Come unto me, all you that labor are heavy laden.
And I will give you rest. We learn of him.
By occupation with himself and his life.
That we too may more enter in and experience the same.
You wake it up my ear warning by mirror warning to hear is the learn the Lord Jesus is a man had fresh renewal every morning in his life.
And he had fellowship with his father each, I'm going to say with confidence every morning. And there was that renewing.
Out the enjoyment and the lifting up of the spirit for the day that was ahead and when there was no opportunity for that because.
Of.
Circumstances.
He always went off alone.
That he might have that time alone with the Father in prayer. And so it's well for us to see the perfect example. And in that constant is, he says, we believe.
We have in Chapter 11 of Hebrews all these examples of people that live by faith.
But you don't get to the end of it till you get to chapter 12. And then you see the perfect example. Who for the joy that why is it there? Because it's to put the Lord Jesus as the perfect life of faith, to see who for the joy that was set before him, what endured.
It's not atonement there, but it's rather his life of faith. And so it's given again as a model to us to be occupied with himself and learn.
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From him to practice those truths that what we say is too hard for me. God would say no. I gave you His life, so you have what's needed all. I don't have the power.
Is my Holy Spirit dwelling in you not sufficient power for it? Yes, it is. And so we're encouraged to live out in practice, not in theory, but to live in practice, that which is the grace of God.
The glory of God that it's been shining into our face.
The end of.
18th verse of chapter 3.
Has looked at more recently.
Sometimes we use a mirror and we talk about.
The law revealing it's like a mirror that we can look at it, see you're dirty, but it won't clean you up.
But quite in contrast with that.
You get Moses in the presence of the Lord and that glory shown in him, and now in the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.
We get this glory of the Lord, the unveiled face. It's almost like looking at a mirror, but this is a mirror that will transform you while you look at it.
It's a person.
I was thinking 2 of.
Faith is very personal.
And it's a person that has to be personal to us. It's not a group thing.
And yet what Paul's doing here?
We we look at all the difficulties in the assembly at Corinth.
And verse 14 of chapter 4.
We mentioned more on that, but.
The last part says.
The Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. Wasn't that quite a bit to say?
That was a difficult.
Assembly to work with. He's going to present us with you.
That death working in him might be life in them.
Absolutely marvelous.
At transforming power.
Lord Jesus, whoever dwelt in the bosom of the Father, you always see that.
Glorious evenness of character and the light that's shown in him.
Cost people around him some of them to hate him.
Sometimes when we take up the 5th chapter of Second Corinthians, you hear in summary.
Different reasons why we should and do.
For the Lord.
The beginning of chapter 5 it's. It's the shortness of the time and.
And so on looking forward into that change condition, we read then about the judgment seat of Christ which should exercise, and then we read about the love of Christ constrained us, which is that attractive power that leads us along, but at the end of our chapter.
Our light affliction, which is but for a moment working for us, a far more exceeding and eternal.
It seems to make people uncomfortable when it's mentioned that that which we gain or don't gain spiritually here in this life.
Will have an eternal effect. I think it's very exercising.
Sometimes we look at the afflictions among the Saints.
And we.
I think.
Brother Noah falls.
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Children from Florida, 14 years old.
Four children.
What an affliction.
But we.
Forget that God is forming all the souls about.
Person going through the afflictions.
And he's forming them.
For his glory.
And sometimes it's.
Quite hard to observe.
But the Lord so for all you may see, raise up a soul that observes that.
And has a tenderness to it as it works with other souls, because it observed this soul tribe sometimes we see.
Couple children that are raised with an afflicted parent.
And they grow up to be.
Marvelous Shepherds.
You know, just say God is forming souls to look at all this.
I was thinking 2 of years ago. I was in Eureka, CA and we went to the nursing home.
One little instance. That day we went to a home or a room where there were three women.
The one near the door was tied down in her bed. She was.
She had Alzheimer's and was.
Baffling. Incoherent.
We were able to talk to the other two ladies and.
I walked up to her bed and I just.
Said. I'm going to sing you a song.
And I just began to sing. Cheap went quiet.
I think. I think no one ever cared for me like Jesus anyway.
At the end, I said, Do you know the Lord Jesus?
Then she said I took care of that matter many years ago.
With a smile on her face and just like that, she went back to bed.
The treasure was inside.