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2nd Corinthians chapter 4, starting in verse 7. But 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 body, where we which live are always delivered unto death. For Jesus saved, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but light in you. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe.
And therefore have I spoken, We also believe and therefore speak.
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
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, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Well, we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. But the things which are seen are temporal. But the things which are not seen are eternal.
I guess we talked somewhat about verse 7 already, but I was thinking at the end of that, verse 7 is something that I think is very important.
That the Excellency of the power might be of God and not of us.
It's the work of God, brethren, that's important. And sometimes it does seem that we get in the way of God in His Word. We have become too big, and so the vessel has to be broken so that God can use it to let the light shine.
And Gideon was referred to this morning to remember Gideon.
Started out with the army of.
Was it 32,000 men?
And the Lord told them, he said that's too many, lest Israel should glory, that we have gotten the victory. And that's the natural tendency of our hearts is to glory. And we see God perhaps using us is the glory in ourselves, not realizing it's not the vessel, brethren, it's the treasure inside the vessel that's important.
And so the Lord told them to tell all those that were afraid to go home.
22,000 went home. That's reducing your army pretty drastically.
10,000 were left. Surely that would be all right. The Lord said no, I can't use that many. And so often we hinder because we think we are something we change in the work of God. And so he did a further test on and brought him down to the water, and according as they drank the water he chose. And when the test was over.
Only 300 remains. It seemed foolish to go against those myriads of the Midianites wiggles only 300 men.
But this is the lesson we all have to learn sooner or later. Brethren, the Excellency of the power is of God and not of us. And there's 300 men that was night stood around that camp and at the signal as we read this morning, they broke the lamps, the the vessels, I should say, and the light shined out of those vessels and they blew the trumpets.
And the Lord gave the victory. There is no way.
That 300 men could take the glory for winning the battle against the Midianites.
It was the Lord that did it. And oh brethren, if we could just get out of the way and let our God work, what great things He can do. But because of the natural confidence we have in ourselves, so often God has to do some pretty heavy breaking. And as was mentioned this morning, that's what we have in verses 8:00 and 9:00. We are troubled on every side.
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Yet not distressed, we are perplexed, but not despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed. This is the way the breaking was done, and the apostles vessel. But the point is, rather than I think it's so important for us to seek to learn in the Lord's presence the Excellency of the power.
Is God's not ours?
Seems that the 891011 and 12, the first part of the expressions, always the breaking down of the vessel. The last part of the expression is the power that's within. And so you read, we are troubled on every side.
Yet not distressed, troubled on every side, the breaking the vessel not to stress the power of God. And likewise and everyone even on all the way down to the 12Th verse. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. So the power of God comes in, in the destruction of that which is of the flesh. The power of God comes in and delivers. And it's true if we depend on Him.
I think we have a first beautiful illustration of the radiancy of the glory it's spoken of. I'm looking at Acts Chapter 7.
Case of Stephen.
It says in verse 54 he goes over the history of Israel.
Read from verse 51. He stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. He do always resist the Holy Ghost.
As your Father's did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your father's persecuted? And they have slain them, which showed before of the coming of the just one of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart.
And they gnashed on him with their teeth, but he being full of the Holy Ghost.
Looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God. Here's the about to be the first martyr, the Christian dispensation, he looks up to heaven.
He looked up steadfastly into heaven.
And saw the glory of God.
There was another object there that he saw, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, He saw the glory of God, and he saw a man in that glory standing.
And they cried. And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened.
And the Son of man, standing on the right hand of God.
And this was the final testimony of the Holy Spirit. But Stephen here exemplifies true Christianity. He looked up steadfastly into heaven #1 he wasn't looking here below, he wasn't looking at earthly things. He was looking up to heaven. And he saw the glory of God, the glory of God.
And he saw a man in that glory, Jesus.
The Son of Man standing, we know from other scriptures that as soon as he ascended, he sat down in token that the work was finished. But here now he rises and he's standing to see what the last answer would be of those at Jerusalem. And their answer was, we will not have this man to reign over us. And they stoned Steven. But it's Steven's position which really exemplifies what we have here in 2nd Corinthians 4. I'm going to read it in the.
Translation in 2nd Corinthians 4, verse 6. But because it is the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine, who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, there you have it, you have the glory of God.
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The knowledge of that glory. And now He shined into our hearts.
But that might shine forth to others.
And it's the glory of God in the face of a man.
Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Yes, these bodies are earthen vessels, but we have a treasure. The Spirit of God dwells in our bodies, and He directs our gaze to the man in the glory and to separate us from this world, to attach us to another world where Christ is. This world has cast him out. We should never.
Forget that, never forget. This world does not want him, would not have him, and has cast him on his people, the Jews, Israel. They're still in unbelief. They don't want him. They haven't gone back in belief at all. They're in unbelief. They have to be brought to repentance and judgment of self. Their present state is terrible.
It's it's, it's a state that that puts the approval on the rejection of their own Messiah.
They're totally opposite to Stephen looking up to heaven. He sees the glory of God and Jesus standing there, and then he says he witnesses. There's a testimony that he gives.
We have this.
The verse I want.
You have this treasure on earth and vessels that they're surpassing. This of the power may be of God and not of us.
It's not the worst I wanted. Oh, I'm looking at the wrong chapter.
I should be looking at Acts 7. Well, he sees the glory of God. I don't have to turn to it. And Jesus standing there, the Son of man, I see the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.
That envelops Christianity. It's all together a new order of things. Totally. And the sad commentary we have to make in connection with this chapter is how far removed from the truth of it in this first Christian martyr is. It has Christendom. We're part of it.
Become how far we moved. We have our gaze, and I think it's probably true about all of us.
I'm not saying any of these things is so it's not true of me, true of all of us. We've we've looked, we look too much at earthly things.
And haven't been occupied with him where he is. And that's where we are. That's our portion, but not of this world. And there's a there's a testimony that he would have us to render as Steven rendered it. I see the glory of God in Jesus standing on the right hand of God. See the Son of man and he's about to come back to set up his Kingdom and reign here in the meantime.
We're associated with Him in that glory seen above.
It's been mentioned in the previous reading, the treasure is the knowledge of these things. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, tremendous treasure. That was never true. The Old Testament Saints. It won't be true of the millennial Saints. Spirit of God only indwells us in this present day of grace. And what a treasure that is. And what does He do? He directs our gaze heavenward. He directs our gaze to the glory and to the one who's in that glory.
To be a a people that witness to this poor world, laden in sin of that man in the glory now who once they had on the cross.
Treasure in the heart, not in the head.
We can have truth and we should have truth, we have to understand it in our minds, but the true dwelling place of truth as God desires it for us, as in the heart, the persons that are referred to here, and the light does not shine in an unsafe person.
You have to be born again, because by new birth we receive a new light, and it's in that soul of that new light.
That the treasure dwells and so Israel in a coming day is going to have God's message engraving on their hearts. Not a Stony heart of unbelief, but hearts that are tender and in which God has worked. We it was read this morning and or referred to I guess.
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In John 17 this is life eternal, that they might know the the only true God in Jesus Christ, who now is sin.
To know God as God intends us to know him. He has given us a life and nature with the capacity to know his heart and to know his will and to have the holy as he is holy, not in the not in Adam, but in Christ. And so this treasure that's referred to here, I think it's important to recognize the old that we had this morning. The law was unto death.
But what we have is unto light, and it's a life given to us by the Spirit, and it's in that new man, and in that heart of the new man, if you will, that God writes upon it his Son. And it is Christ in the new man that shines out to this world. And so again it's we give it out with words.
But the true outshining is an outshining that comes from a heart on which Christ has been written.
I'd love to add what you just said done in John 20 when you might ask the question, when did the new man begin in US in John 20?
After his resurrection.
Read from verse 19. And the same day, at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. Now this was their first public acquaintance or meeting with the risen Christ.
And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, Even so send are you.
He has shined into our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So now he says, peace again. Now you proclaim that. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, And that's the beginning of their association with him.
In resurrection he breathes the risen man, the second man, the last Adam. In his resurrection life he he imparts that to them.
So they can have a part with Him in resurrection and that's really the beginning of the new order. And this this is to individuals in Acts 2. It's the collective side. This puts them individually in Christ and in Acts 2, collectively in Christ, the coming of the Holy Spirit to unite together by His baptism. 11 body. But here we have the communication.
From the risen Christ of his own resurrection life by the Spirit.
Breathed into them by the risen Christ, the head of the new creation, this new resurrection life. And they had life before, but this is a new quality of life. This is something the Old Testament Saints did not have. They didn't know God as their Father.
They were not in a place of.
Of nearness, such as we are.
They didn't know Christ as a.
Man down here, he hadn't come yet, dead on a cross, hadn't died yet, risen, glorified. They didn't have the Spirit sent down to indwell them, nor did they have the Spirit in connection with this resurrection life of Christ. He wasn't resurrected yet in the Old Testament, so they were not in Christ yet. We are. We're in Christ individually by the Spirit.
In association with the risen man who's now in the glory.
And then in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit is sent down as a person, not, not characterizing the new life that we have in Christ, that's John 20, but as a person in dwelling us and uniting us into one body, that's union with the head in heaven. Wonderful truths. None of this was true before Christ came and died and rose and ascended to heaven and sent down the Holy Spirit. None of that was true. This is Christian truth we're talking.
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About and only Christian truth. It won't be true. The millennial Saints there won't be in Christ like we are. We have absolutely the highest privilege. How much have we entered into these things and enjoyed them in our own souls?
When Stephen was being persecuted there, he was responding in that new resurrection life and communion with his Savior and glory, even though it was, we believe, a real miracle that that occurred there. But another sense, it is the principle upon which God deals with us in this whole age and every one of us.
By faith and look up and see that same man there in glory and as we go through life, give witness to him there in communion with him. And it seems to me like that is versus 8-9 and 10 in our chapter where we're feeling the persecution, distress and all these things and communion with him.
But if we don't learn it in communion, then we learn it in the next verse, and it's kind of the hard way.
But we can learn the same lesson. Is that not right?
It's interesting that contrast verses 10 and 11 like you say, Doug, there is a difference there, although it does say largely the same thing. Verse 10 is always bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the light bulbs of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. In other words, this is what should be characteristic of the Christian life, is to bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus would be made.
Manifest in our bodies, the life that we have in Christ is life and resurrection. That you cannot see life and resurrection unless you know what death is. And so it's in the measure that we put into practice in our lives, bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus would be made manifest. But then like Doug was mentioning verse 11.
Is not so much that we live that way, but we are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake.
And there it says that the life of Jesus might be made manifest. Doesn't say in our body, but in our mortal flesh, because sometimes he touches these bodies of ours.
It may be in sickness, it may be in death, like in the case of Stephen, that those stones when they were flying in hitting him with the glory that shined out of that.
Man his face shown it says like an angel's face because he was bearing about the body the dying of the Lord Jesus he was he was delivered really to death for Jesus sake. But then the life of Jesus shown out no brother and what a treasure we have. May the Lord help us that we.
Put into practice this of bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. What do we mean by that simply means that when Jesus died, he died to sin and to all that this world was. And if I go out and enjoy to the hilt this world and what it has to offer.
Is that bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus?
When he went to the cross and died for me and his position is completely outside of this world system.
That is not bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, and therefore you're not going to see in me if I give myself to that kind of living.
You're not going to see the life of Jesus in me, but it is in the measure that we bear about in our bodies, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus has made manifest in our mortal, in our bodies. And then like Doug says, sometimes we are delivered to death. And it's been such a interesting thing to me to see that sometimes people when they get into some real physical difficulties.
The light shines out.
Beautifully shines out some of those broken bodies and hospitals.
The light of testimony that shines out of those broken lives. God can use broken vessels, and that's what He does use. The Lord help us, brethren, to understand this principle. It's this principle of life and resurrection. You cannot know what life and resurrection is until you know what death is.
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Resurrection is after death.
You mentioned life and resurrection and someone might say in verse 10 always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our resurrected body. That's not what it says. But notice verse 11. For we which live are all we delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus.
Be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
That's not the resurrection body. That absolutely eliminates that argument. And it's this body that is mortal, subject to death. And he's talking about we have resurrection life, but we don't have a resurrected body yet. And it's important to see how he guards that. I've often wondered why does it say in the one verse body and the other verse mortal flesh? Because I think to meet that argument.
And to show that's wrong.
It's this very body he's talking about.
Well, when we get our resurrected body, there will be no opportunity.
Then to demonstrate the life of Christ here on earth.
So as you say, Chuck certainly is here now today.
Where we Live Today is where this was demonstrated, not afterward. Risen with Christ. Weren't there some that taught?
That the resurrection has taken place already.
That refutes that.
Some of these expressions are given of the Spirit to refute error.
That existed even in that 1St century.
I believe it's very interesting that in these 4 verses they are not all exactly alike, but I believe they all demonstrate the same thought. The treasure, the fact that the vessel must be broken, and when the vessel is broken, then the treasure, the substance of that treasure can shine out and it's already has been mentioned. What is the treasure? Well, it's Jesus Christ isn't it?
The one who came and died and rose again.
And is now seated at the right hand of that glory on high. And when we demonstrate that, that's demonstrating the treasure that is in this body, the treasure that we, we won't have the opportunity after we're dead. We won't have the opportunity after the Lord comes. It's right here and now.
When the apostle Paul in Acts.
Was on the way from Jerusalem to Damascus.
And it was, it says it was at noonday and there was a light that's shown above the brightness of the noonday sun. And he heard a voice. And later in the Acts, Barnabas brings him to the Saints and says he has seen the Lord. Well, it doesn't tell us that in Acts 9 where he was smitten down.
But evidently, according to Barnabas comment, he not only saw a light, but he saw the person of Christ.
And he never, he never varied from that path, from that time on. He, he had an object that was real and sure. And he went from that woman on in that path, the Christ the object. And he never forgot what the Lord said. Why persecute or sell me? He saw there then that those on earth were part of that body. That body on earth was part of that head in heaven. And he never forgot it. And he presented that in his, in his.
Throughout his ministry, what a marvelous thing he saw the Lord at that time. He probably saw him again when he was caught up into the 3rd heaven, but Barnabas says he has seen the Lord.
In connection with what we had before us this morning and see if I can find the verse.
In First Corinthians 4.
He says, I read from the first verse, that a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.
And with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or a man's judgment. Yeah, I judge, not mine own self.
Notice for I know nothing by or against myself.
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Yet am I not hereby justified, but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God. Paul says here, I'm not conscious. He says in verse four, I know nothing by myself or against myself. He's not conscious of anything in his life.
At this time as a Christian.
That was wrong, but he says, yet I'm not hereby justified. The fact that I'm not conscious of it does not mean there isn't something there.
So he says he that judges me as the Lord. Before he was converted, he says of himself, I verily fought with myself to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
The Lord says in John 16, The time cometh that he that killeth you will think that he do with God's service.
They he thought Saul of Tarsus thought Jesus was an impostor.
And he persecuted Christians. He was dead wrong, he says in another place. I have served God with a good conscience all my life.
He, he didn't think he was doing wrong until he met the Lord. And so even though as a Christian he could say, I'm not conscious of anything in my life that's a stray that doesn't justify me. The Lord does he recognize the fact that he's not his own judge. He's not confident he he could.
Be conscious of no evil, but that doesn't prove there wasn't something.
And the final judges the Lord doesn't connection with.
With I mean, when he says he wasn't conscious of anything, you know, we he could have been very proud. You know, I'm living a perfect Christian life now. He right away says, no, he the Lord is my judge. So this this is in connection with how we go on. He probably went on the closest to the Lord of anyone and yet he calls himself the chief of sinners, doesn't he?
As he looks back at his former life.
So.
Let's judge in ourselves what needs to be judged and then go on and do not be occupied with it, be done with it and go on with Him. Not occupied with the evil that's in US, but with the glory that's in Christ.
Verse 12 Then we have a verse that our principle that is quite well known in.
Scripture as well. Death worketh in us, but life in you. This is a principle that is important if we're going to know what it means to bring blessing to others. In other words, Paul says that there be life in you, there's got to be death in US. And so it is. A farmer knows that to get a crop, he has to take a certain quantity of.
Seed out into the field and put it down in the earth. What happens to that seed?
Is attacked by the microorganisms in the soil. It swells, it rots, it dies. You might say that's an awful waste of seed to be put it into the ground like that, but that's the only way you get a new life.
And much more fruit. And this is a principle that each one of us has to face. As long as we're going to preserve our own lives, we don't want to put ourselves at risk in any way. There's not going to be fruit in our lives, but it's in the measure that we give ourselves as we have in these verses.
There about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that there's going to be fruit in our lives.
The life of Jesus will be made manifest. Look at John chapter 12 which really has the same principle.
John, Chapter 12.
It's in this chapter where the Greeks seek Jesus.
Verse 20. There were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. Same came therefore to Philip, which was of the Seda of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew, and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus.
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Jesus answered and said, entered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit, as long as that corn of wheat.
Was alone. Well preserved. Don't let any microorganisms get to it. Don't let it die. As long as that was the case, it was alone.
Back when that corn of wheat was put down into the ground and dies, only then does it give life to a new plant or by there can be much fruit. So the question is for you and me, do we want fruit in our lives for God and for that eternal day or are you interested in just preserving your life? And sometimes I think.
That we in this country have been overly engrossed.
Preserving ourselves.
Our health, not that we don't want health, and I'm not speaking anything against that, brother, but we preserve ourselves. We don't want to put ourselves at risk. Do everything you can to preserve yourself.
What's it going to do? It's going to rob you of having fruit in your life for God.
When you put yourself at risk.
Fall into the ground and die. There is where much fruit comes. And of course this verse 24, the Lord is speaking about Himself, and in atoning sufferings only. He is the one whose death brings life. But there's a principle here. Notice in verse 25 He goes on, and he says, he that loveth his life shall lose it.
He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
I challenge you young people. I challenge each one of our hearts. I challenge my own heart. Do you love life? You want to live it up to the hilt all that this world has to offer. You want to love life. You're going to lose it. You're going to get down to the end of your life and you'll say I missed the whole point of life.
That is so tragic to me is to go to an old folks home and to see people who have prospered.
Tremendously in this life, maybe a great position of honor and authority or wealth.
And there they sit in a wheelchair.
Lost their reason? Have absolutely nothing in front of them.
Loved life, they lost it.
But here's the alternative, and to me it's pretty strong. Comes home to my own soul. He that hates his life in this world shall keep it until life eternal.
That's pretty strong language and it's something that we need to really think about. You love your life. Are you living it up in this world? Remember, you will lose it.
But the alternative is that if you hate your life in this world, say no to number one. This me, myself and I and live for Christ.
You're going to have to cross yourself out your desires.
Your belonging desires. Cross it out and live for him. Then you will save your life. You'll keep your life until life eternal. Jim Elliott. That said, he is no fool that gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. It's worth thinking about young people.
And older runners too. We need to challenge our hearts. They tell you. I really believe that God has given us a shake in this country. We have been materially given.
More than any other time in the history of the world, this culture that we live in. But this is not life to have abundance of things, is not it? It's not the answer, young people. The answer is something else. It's crossing out number one to put Christ forward.
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That's the answer and that's what we have in this verse. So this is what it means. I really believe in verse 12 of our chapter.
Death worketh in us, but life in you.
Well, brother Doug run off of disappointed person. First ten of our chapter brings in possibly the thought of self judgment. This is always bearing about in the body of dying of the Lord Jesus. So that's the work that goes.
Goes on in my soul as I walk daily, seeking to the old nature in the place of death. And then verse 11.
We believe brother Doug touched on him a little bit and then brother Bob touched on it too. Brother Bob brought brought out the the work of God as as the Lord may lay aside some sick 1 and and bring about through that experience.
That which brings forth fruit to God. I believe there's another thought in this verse too, and I'm wrong. I I bear correction, but there's sometimes when we don't bear in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus and we there's something of the flesh that's still living. And So what does God do? He allows circumstances in our lives that brings about.
The judgment, the self judgment that we missed.
And they may be uncomfortable circumstances, but he sees it necessary that the light may shine that this matter that hasn't been judged personally is judged. And so verse 11 brings out.
For we which live are always delivered unto death. I believe. I believe another dog touched on this, that this is the faithfulness of God in our lives.
That would bring about death when necessary. The flesh is active, but unseen or unrealized. We don't, we don't deliver ourselves under that. It's the work of God. I can't, can't help but relate a circumstance that happened recently that during a time in which there was a lot of happy fellowship one weekend.
Came home and was very, very encouraged in the Lord.
Work the next day and I got hit with a ton of bricks from my boss and I didn't, I didn't realize, I didn't know there was a need for something, but the Lord did. And so he brought me through a circumstance which helped to possibly deal with something that the Lord had seen and thus there could be more fruit.
To shine forth while God is faithful.
And he knows what needs to be done, even sometimes when when we don't. And so the process is brother Bob has been bringing forth so deaf worketh in US. Well, death worketh in US one way or another. It's either through self judgment or it's through the faithful work of God, our soul, that if that means correction, please feel free.
Connect with our 12Th 1St day, the fact in the 1St chapter of Second Corinthians what Paul speaks about himself and you might read the three verses there and 2nd Corinthians 1 verses 8-9 and 10.
Or we would not. Brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure above strength, and so much that we despaired even of life? But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and thus deliver in whom we trust that He will yet.
Deliver us. So Paul went through a lot in his ministry for the Lord and he felt those things. He was delivered and pressed out of measure. And so that was, as he says, death working in him. He had to have the, he had the sentence of death in himself to go through those circumstances.
Without complaining, but accepting it as a part of identifying with the rejected Christ.
Who is in heaven? Because he saw him there. And so it wasn't hard for him to do that as long as he had that sentence of death in himself. But if Paul had chosen to have an easy life in this world, then he would not have had the sentence of death in himself, and it would have been hard, and he probably would have complained like we do a lot of times when we were put in the bad circumstances.
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So all of this worked for the good of the Corinthians.
They benefited by it, and it was life for them. And so, brethren, if we pass through difficulties, we do have the sentence of death then, and go through it and honor our Lord and give. Let the light shine, don't be light for others.
Very real thing.
None of us will, probably.
Be faced with the life that Paul lived, but.
It's a very real thing. You some crate for the young families. You want life in your children.
It's going to be accomplished through death in yourselves. That is, the Christian life is a sacrificial life.
It's a fruitful life. It's a denying of ourselves. And so you'll have to stretch yourself on your children or in the marriage relationships that we want something productive or fruitful in our marriage relationships. The answer to it is death to ourselves, all of our troubles in life.
I mean bad troubles that we cause are caused because we allow ourselves.
We try to save our lives, we make ourselves the object of our life, and that always works havoc in the relationships of life that we find ourselves in. And so the apostle had been given this ministry of an able minister of New covenant, a New covenant ministry, but in order for it to be fulfilled, it was going to require death to him.
And he was willing to go into that for the sake of others. Here it's.
Enough for reward. But it's that those to whom he preached the gospel might see that gospel shining out of his life. And so it was death to him, but life to the Corinthians. But the principle applies to the people you work with at work, your family, your wife, your children, or your husband.
You want truthfulness for Christ. You want Christ in them.
It can only be through death to yourself.
The giving of yourself. That's Christianity.
That's where the power of God comes into play, doesn't it? I think it's so important to see that it's only after death has taken place, then the power of God manifests itself in resurrection life. And I love to read the first part of the book of the Acts there where the apostles were so tremendous, their testimony, the power of their testimony.
When they stood before the council, Think of those 70 elders of Israel, the Sanhedrin, the.
Learned of the day and the understanding men that were sitting there and here's this poor supposedly ignorant fisherman standing there and in boldness, they had threatened to kill him. And you know that's the worst thing you can threaten a person with. We're going to kill you if you keep on.
Talking about Jesus, it had absolutely no effect. Why?
Because they had the sentence of death in themselves. Can you threaten a dead man? I'm going to kill you. It has no effect on a dead man. And in effect, that's where they were. They were carrying about in the body. The dying of the Lord Jesus and the life of Jesus manifested itself. It's not our own energy, our own strength. It's the power of God that works in that way.
Something that we really need to meditate on more, brethren, but tremendous to think of that that the power of God can be made manifest.
In these poor broken earthen vessels.
That, I suppose, is in the three men before Nebuchadnezzar.
00:50:04
They had no hope other than God, did they?
Do we have any hope other than God?
None.
God always comes in a different way than we think. They said God, our God, is able to deliver us out of thy hand, but he didn't deliver them from the furnace. They were delivered through the furnace. And through that experience God was glorified. The name of God and Nebuchadnezzar made a decree that that God should be honored.
And whoever would speak about it, that against that God their house would be made a dunghill.
By what glory was brought to the name of the Lord through their testimony weren't delivered from the fiery furnace, they were delivered through it.
Disobeyed God.
He tried to cover up his sin with fig leaves.
And it didn't work. Death had to come in to cover him, following him, his sons Cain and Abel, when they went to offer something to God. Cain offered to God something that he had worked with and use of the ground and produced. And by his own efforts he presents it to God and it's rejected. Consequently, Abel, who can only bring something to God, he brings that which brings in death and God.
It's a tremendous thing for us to recognize that man in his fallen condition can absolutely produce no fruit for God. It's impossible for a human being. You and I are born into this world as children of a fallen Adam, and by our natural lives we produce nothing.
Nothing.
That is fruitful for God.
And so God looks at it and he comes into the picture and he says that's it, that's the end. We're not going to have anything for me, for my glory from man in the flesh. And so man in the flesh, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. God says man is dead in trespasses and sins, and as a consequence, God isn't looking for anything in that.
The Lord Jesus comes into the picture and in his death he honors God and does a tremendous work for us as well. Because now in his death, God looks at us and he says you're dead too.
Colossians 33YE are dead.
And your life? What about my life? Your life is hid with Christ and God. And so we have life. Yes we do.
But we have a new life. We have a life which is capable of fruit for God, but it is life and resurrection, identified with Christ in his resurrection. And in that life there can be fruit for God.
But where is that life now? It's in an earthen vessel. It is still in a vessel associated with this earth, an earth in which we originally had a vessel that could produce no fruit for God. But now having the life of Christ, a life and resurrection in this earthen vessel, still we can produce a fruit for God, but there's nothing for God if we go back and live the old life.
It is so God says positionally you're dead.
And your life is hid with Christ and God. In Romans 6 he says to us, Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead, indeed under sin, but alive under God. And here in this chapter I think we see the practical every day, as Phil was Speaking of it, carrying out of it. When I say, oh, I'm tempted to want to live that old life.
What do we just say?
I see Christ die there. That's the end of the attempt to produce anything for God in the flesh. It's useless. It's a waste. And so if I go back and seek to live that life.
And that's the only life the world knows.
People all around us who don't have that life and live in this world, everything is lived for the old life, the life that knows not God, the life that can only recognize gain, can only recognize fruit by its own effort. And so man, he doesn't know anything else. He only lives for this life.
00:55:17
Well, what do we live for?
Do we live a life that identifies us with the Lord Jesus, which is for eternal fruit, for the glory of God? And where do where do I say about my my natural life and the body? I say, well, if, if I lose it, it's all right.
Because I have the hope of the resurrection, my Lord, the one that is the object of my present life. He's in the glory, and I gaze upon Him in the glory. And if the reflection of that shining in my heart goes out to those about me, then I associate them with that life, you might say, which is eternal and which is to come, but to go on and live in the in the present, if I don't care about in my body, the dying.
Jesus, if I don't put the stamp of death in a daily sense, when I get up in the morning and live my present activity, am I living it in the energy of the Newman, but in an earthen vessel, taking care of the necessary things that have to do with this world? But the fruit that comes for God is that shining out of that which is in my heart, which is of Christ, which attracts.
Souls to heaven, where's your life now? What's this association? It's not. It's the glory. It's where Christ sits at the right hand of God, and it's the demonstration of his life in this world that God uses by the Spirit to draw souls to the Savior and then to the glory.
When the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he rose in the power of a life that death can no longer touch.
And that's the life that you and I possess in Christ when we've accepted Him as Savior. But it is manifest, as you say, Don, in the measure that we bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus. So what a tremendous thing it is to know what it really means to live. And even if death, physical death, should touch these bodies of ours.
It doesn't really necessarily mean this when it says.
About in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, but supposing it does, he goes on in verse 14 to touch that point he says, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. So even if death should touch these mortal bodies, why there is sure the resurrection that is ahead.
Physical resurrection.
Bodily resurrection.