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Grace and my grace bless him.
Well, I don't know that they made it.
Out.
Right, right.
Gracious God, our loving Father, we thank Thee.
But this hymn reminds us of our.
Place before thee. We are thy children.
Purchased by the blood only begotten son.
Thank you, our Father, for bringing us into such a blessed position.
We pray that as my children.
Might recognize our responsibilities unto thee and we.
Our Father, now that we have Thy Word open before us.
Nice curve would instruct us.
In the within, each one of us that desire to hear thy word, but to obey it.
We ask now for liberty, liberty, and eating forests. And we pray again that we might receive that which thou has for us youngest to build, pray. Ask you in thy name, Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.
I would suggest we continue on in our chapter Second Corinthians 4 start with about verse 7.
Two Corinthians 4 starting at verse 7.
But we have this treasure and earthen vessel, 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. 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 pledge.
So then, that work has been us, but life in you, We having the same spirit of faith, according and written, I believe, and therefore have I spoken, we also believe, and therefore speak, knowing that he would raise 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 rebound to the glory of God.
For which 'cause we faint in that 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, while we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
We spoke a little bit about verse 7 yesterday.
Being our.
Bodies in chapter 5, verse one, it confirms that we know that if.
Our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved. We have a building of God, and now house not made with hair and the eternal in the heavens. So we live in this body. That's our house.
It's the earthen vessel and God.
Has redeemed us by the precious blood of Jesus, but that is our spirit and soul. Our bodies do not yet are not redeemed, yet they will be redeemed in the full sense at the coming of the Lord. So we are subject to sickness.
Accidents, problems in our bodies, just like anybody else. And it speaks of the.
Earth and vessel in verse seven, that what we have in verse 8:00 and 9:00 is the way the earth and vessel is broken.
In the case of the apostle, he says 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.
Circumstances he passed through extremely difficult. In Second Corinthians chapter 12 it tells us that he was caught up into the 3rd heaven and when he came back why God saw fit to give him a thorn in the flesh some bodily affliction. It was called the messenger of Satan to buffet him and he asked three times that it be removed.
Lord said no.
My grace is sufficient for thee. Why doesn't God allow remove affliction?
It's not his will always to remove affliction from us, brethren. He leaves it with us so that in the weakness of that affliction we can prove his power. And that's what we have in verse 7. The Excellency of the power is of God and not of us. If it were our own power that carried us forward, we would have somewhat to glory in.
That God sees fit to leave circumstances in our lives.
It's interesting rather than we live a very comfortable life.
Here in the United States, you go to those Latin American countries, and sometimes those people have to sleep and they're cold. At night they get cold and it's not easy to live the way they do. But what impresses me when I come back to the United States, how comfortable it is.
God allows a thorn in our nests.
And I think if we go around the room this afternoon, everyone of us could tell about some thorn in your nest. God allows it there. Why? Why is that necessary? So that we can prove how great our God is. It's not us, brethren. It's him. That's what we are learning in this wilderness. How great, How sufficient.
00:10:08
Our God is so. The Excellency of the power is of God.
And not of us. The vessel has to be broken in one way or another, and we don't enjoy that, do we?
But it's necessary so that we can prove how great our God is.
So he said to Paul There when he asked for that thorn to be removed, he said no. But he did give him a wonderful promise. He said My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. And so we don't go in our own strength, brethren, but we have the strength of the Lord as our resource. And when we learn our own nothingness, then we learn God's all sufficiency. And those are the kind of vessels that God can use in his service and for the blessing.
And out flowing to others, as long as we go in our own strength, there's not going to be victory or blessing in our lives. You see a little illustration of it in the Old Testament. When they went in to possess the land, they went up and they took Jericho and the strength of the Lord. The walls came tumbling down and it was all the power of God displayed because they went up in dependency. But then they said, well, AI is just a little city and we won't send up all our men. We'll go up and we'll take that with no difficulty.
Brethren, they were soundly defeated because they needed to learn that they couldn't take the enemy in their own strength. If there was going to be blessing and they were going to move forward into the land and possess it, it had to be in complete dependency on the Lord. And that's why too, when they had a victory in Israel, they had to go back to Gilgal. They had to go back to the place of self judgment, getting into the presence of God and realizing that yes, they had a victory, but it was nothing of themselves.
And so, brethren, may the Lord help us. There are trials in our lives allowed sometimes are always by the Lord, but sometimes they seem very severe. Get before the Lord as to why he has allowed this circumstance in your life. And when you back up to the 11Th chapter of this same epistle before Paul speaks of the experience in the 12Th chapter of being caught up to the 3rd heaven, and then the thorn in the flesh and praying that it would be removed, and the Lord saying no, and so on.
He's forced by inspiration to give a list of the things that he suffered in a physical way in his path of faith and service for Christ. And just read it slowly sometime. It's a tremendous list of things, things that I've never been called on to suffer in the path of faith and service for Christ. But as he says here, as he went through those things, was he forsaken? Was he cast down? Yes, he was cast down, but he was cast on the Lord.
Sometimes, said the Lord allowed something in your life. It's alright to feel cast down as long as it casts you on the Lord.
And you feel the Lord's arms arm of strength, and you rise up and go in that power.
But that list is a tremendous list of things. And it wasn't just things that happened once in a while. It was day in and day out, year in and year out. But it kept all dependent on the Lord. Was there ever, apart from the Lord Jesus himself, a servant of God, used in blessing like the Apostle Paul, But if it was because of, he practically carried out what we're going to speak of in these verses that follow in our chapter.
And he so fully accepted that thorn in the flesh that he could actually say I glory in tribulation.
A glory.
Just read it here, the 12Th chapter.
Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities. That's not a natural thing.
Glory in your infirmities. You don't find people doing that too much. But Paul says I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me because our fermenties bring us low brethren. Then God can show himself when we are exalted. People don't see the Lord brethren.
00:15:03
But when we're brought low, then people can see the Lord, and that's I I honestly believe, brethren, the Lord has to deal with this so severely is because we get too big in the picture.
Sometimes they're Latin American brethren. How much value is there in a 0?
No value at all. Well, there's about 300 zeros here. Isn't there any value in 300 zeros?
No, no value at all.
But now let's take and put a number one up front.
The Lord Jesus is number one. Is their value now. Yes, there is value now.
Because it's what he is, brethren. It's not what we are, but we forget that we are zeros. We think we're something great.
And there's where we hinder the Lords working in our lives. Lord, help us. It's a constant battle to learn this lesson. It's not pleasant, naturally, but it's a necessary lesson.
John the Baptist said he must increase, but and I must decrease. And it's interesting the order in which he said that if I had been writing that, perhaps I would have said I need to decrease and he needs to increase. But that's not what John the Baptist said. He put the Lord first. He said he must increase and brethren in a measure in which he increases in our soul, in the measure in which Christ is more real and precious to us.
And we walk in the conscious sense of his company. We're going to realize our own nothingness.
Why is it so often we think a lot of myself? Why is it so often the tendency is to put self forward. It's because we're not in the enjoyment of Christ if we really get into His presence. And when John the Baptist saw that Blessed One walking here, and he was occupied with that Blessed One in his pathway, he said he must increase. And brethren I say in the measure in which that is practically true in our souls.
Then we will melt to the background. We will decrease in that way.
And so it's not that we try to again to decrease or to make ourselves low. We ought to humble ourselves, and we're given several exhortations in that regard. But let's get into the presence of this one. Let's look, as we were saying yesterday into his wonderful face, be occupied with the glories of the person of Christ. Are we anything in comparison to that? No brethren, as Colossians says, He is everything.
I'd like to just say this too about trials before we move on, because I think sometimes, particularly with those who are younger, there's a little misunderstanding. And that is that there are various reasons why God allows circumstances and trials in our lives. And I think it's important when we when the Lord allows something in our lives, whether it's something physical or whether it's an adverse circumstance.
It's good to get into the presence of the Lord and to ask the Lord now why has this been allowed in my life?
So often the tendency of our hearts is to look at others and judge why the Lord allowed something in their life.
And certainly when one member suffers, all the members suffer, and all these things ought to exercise us all. But I believe it starts right here. We need to get into the presence of the Lord, Lord, Why has this been allowed in my life? Because he allows things for various reasons.
And it isn't always because of sin. It isn't always because of his chastening. Sometimes it might be, and I need to be exercised about that. But I was thinking of the blind man in John nine. You remember when they brought him to the Lord, They said to the Lord, And this is the tendency of our hearts. Who hath sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? I see a circumstance in my brother or sister's life. I tend to think that well, what sin has been that they allowed in their life, that the Lord has allowed this?
But the Lord gave a very interesting answer to the disciples. He said neither this man nor his parents, but that the works of God might be manifested in him. There was going to be, through the healing of that blind man, a real testimony to the glory of God and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we were to go on in that chapter, we'd find that there was a real testimony because of what took place.
00:20:13
So it wasn't because of sin in his parents lives or in his his life. It was so that glory would be brought to God and to the Lord Jesus. And sometimes that's why the Lord allows things in our lives that the vessel as we've been saying, might be broken, that the light might shine out. Why? To bring attention to ourselves, to bring some glory or credit to us, no brethren, that there might be glory brought to God.
And to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that the Excellency of the power of this blessed one might be manifested in our lives. We were singing not we may live while here below, but Christ our life may be. That's a prayer. We sang it together. Did we mean it? Did we really think about it when we sang it? We sang it as a prayer. Not we may live while here below, but Christ our life may be.
There are other reasons too, not to get away from our chapter, but there are other reasons too why the Lord allows trials and circumstances. Sometimes it's to prepare us for something, sometimes it's so we can be a help to others. He often allows a trial comes in in His comfort and then we can comfort others with the same comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. So I think it's helpful to see that these things are allowed for different reasons and do be exercised. And when something is allowed in your life, don't just brush it off and say.
Well, that's the kind of thing that happens to everybody once every once in a while, and things are bound to get better. That's not being exercised about what the Lord allows. There's not going to be fruit or blessing in your life, but when you get into the presence of the Lord and say why, and you're exercised, then I believe there's fruit and glory brought to him.
Verses 10 and 11 follow on this brethren and I think they are really precious versus back. That last verse of the hymn that you gave out Jim, really is, is what we have in these two verses. But notice they are quite alike these two verses, but there is a marked difference.
And reading them again, 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.
And I would say that this is normal Christian living.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be made manifest in our body.
That's what we should do, brethren, at all times.
But we don't always do that.
And what you have in verse 11 is what God allows in our lives outside of our control.
We which live are always delivered unto death. Now here's something that I'm not in control of it. I'm delivered to this circumstance that is so galling, so terribly hard to take. I'm delivered it into it. Why?
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest. And here it says in our mortal flesh, so that sometimes God does touch us in our bodies, we get sick, we get might have an accident, get impaired.
So it's our mortal flesh here. But isn't it wonderful that the life of Jesus could be manifest in my body?
Remember, brethren, the life that we have as Christians is life In resurrection. That's the life we have. But you can't talk about resurrection until you talked about death. Death comes first.
Before resurrection and so I'd like to put it in this way in verse 10.
In the measure that we carry about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
In that same measure, the life of Jesus is manifest in my.
00:25:05
Body. You're going to see me giving myself to the pleasures of the world.
That's not caring about my body. The dying of the Lord Jesus you're not going to see in my.
Body much of the life of Jesus when I live like that, but it's when.
I carry about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus and I look at that world out there and I say.
That's the world who has their hands stained with the blood of my Savior.
He died to that. And since he died for me.
I died with him.
And my life now is beyond the tomb. My life is in resurrection.
And that's where you will see the life of Jesus in a person. It's in the same measure that he carries the dying of the body of the Lord Jesus in his body that the life of Jesus will be made manifest.
But oftentimes, we do not live that way. Brethren, let's be frank about it.
That's not the American dream that we're talking about in verse 10. American Dream is to live it up, to do everything for yourself.
To get the most pleasure out of life possible.
So what does God do? He steps into our lives.
And he allows things that are extremely difficult.
He delivers us to death. Why? That the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
Some years ago.
Is out in Gresham OR and brother Oscar Frazee there?
Knew a brother in the hospital. His name was Oscar. I don't remember what his last name was. Do you remember him, brother Dave? No, I don't.
Anyhow, he was.
When he was.
A newborn baby.
The doctors did an operation on him and something on his neck and somehow severed his spinal cord so that he was completely paralyzed from his neck down. When I was taken to visit him that time, I think he was 38 or something. I don't remember how old he was when he passed away, but.
He only had control of his face and that was *******. I don't know if you know what ******* is. It means that it goes in all sorts of contortions and.
Oscar Frazee had a way of communicating with him. He could, he could understand him, and then he would translate.
What he was trying to say.
And members sitting beside that.
Kind of on a stretcher and on wheels and.
It made you almost ashamed to look at him, brother. And he was so contorted, his face so twisted and turned, and his body not developed. And yet he started talking about the Lord Jesus brother.
The life of Jesus. You saw it there, and everybody in that hospital knew.
Albert was a shining testimony for the Lord Jesus, even though he couldn't even talk, right?
But it was the light shining out of that poor, broken vessel. Why does God have to allow trials in our lives to break these vessels?
It's because we don't bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus like we ought to. So God comes in and he allows catastrophes.
Why? Because the treasure inside he means it to shine out, brethren. He didn't put it in there to be hidden.
He put it in there to shine out. And so in one way or another, if we're not going to bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus.
Than God in his faithfulness will deliver us to death, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh, it says. Verse 11.
00:30:26
I'd just like to encourage each one of us, brethren.
In whatever way it is that there's a thorn in your nest or in mine.
To recognize, like Jim was saying, his hand in it.
And not only to recognize it.
But to bow under it and to thank him for it.
I like what Paul says in Romans chapter 5, just to go there a minute.
Romans chapter 5 and verse 3.
Not only so, he's been talking about being justified by faith in verse one and verse two, we have access and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. That's fairly easy to do, isn't it?
But then verse three says not only so, but we.
Glory. It's the same word as rejoice in verse two. We glory or rejoice in tribulations.
Also.
You rejoice in tribulations, Jim.
The hard one.
But to learn to do that is a great triumph in the Christian life, brother.
It's God that works in us. The willing and the doing of his good pleasure and how he works. We don't understand but to learn that it is his hand. More and more I'm convinced that nothing happens by chance in the life of a Christian. Absolutely nothing. Everything comes directly from the hand of God. Sometimes here we are blaming this person or.
Blaming that serious circumstances that that accident happened or that.
I got sick or something happened that way. No, brethren, It is his hand, and we need to bow under his hand, Jim was saying. And accept it and thank him for it. It's a real, real lesson for me, brethren, to.
Thank him for tribulations in everything. Give thanks, it says. And in Ephesians it says, giving thanks for all things, not only in all things, but for all things. It's part of his good pleasure in us. He's using it to form us for his purpose.
And in this chapter that we're taking up, it is that the light might shine out. That the life of Jesus might be made manifest. Can the life of Jesus be seen and people down here in this world? Yes, it can. How? Not if we're going to live worldly, not if we're going to go out and live it up in the world. No, because that's not caring about in the body the dying of Jesus.
So the life of Jesus will not be made manifest that way, but it's in the measure that I carry about in my body.
The dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus will be made manifest.
Sometimes the tendency of our hearts too, when a trial comes upon us.
Is to pray and ask the Lord to remove the trial. But brethren, I think we need to be very careful in praying that because again Paul prayed three times that the trial, the thorn would be removed and the Lord said, no, Paul, I'm not going to remove it. And you don't hear of him again praying that that thorn in the flesh would be removed. Paul realized that it was sent by the Lord and that the Lord was not going to remove it, but that it was, that it was so that he would prove the grace and the power and the all sufficiency of his God.
And so when a trial comes in our lives, yes, sometimes the Lord may pass us through something and remove it rather quickly.
If we learn the lesson. But he doesn't always promise to remove the trial.
00:35:04
And it's been a real joy and a cheer to my heart to visit brethren who have had long trials.
I went in just a few days ago to the hospital to see a brother, an elderly brother.
Lying on a bed of pain. He'd been there a long time. There had been a further complication in his condition.
He may never walk again fully. And when I left that room 1/2 hour later, it was just like a taste of heaven, brethren, He spoke about the Lord, He spoke of the glories of Christ. He spoke about the glorious hope. He quoted him after him from the little flock, about the Lord's coming. I tell you, it's been a long time since I've been refreshed and encouraged like that. I went in to encourage that brother.
That was lying on a sick bed of pain and somewhat confused in his mind as well. But though the outward man perished, the inward man is renewed day by day. And that brother, it's pretty hard to feel sorry for a brother like that. He's in heaven. In spirit. He he he's there. And what is the result? If I went in and he was chafing under that trial, I wouldn't have been encouraged, and he wouldn't have been encouraged. But what was the result? He was so in the enjoyment of Christ that the light flowed out.
The body was broken, the vessel was broken down, but the light flowed out. And he was encouraged in his own soul. And certainly myself and the brother that was with me, we went out of there. We said we've just had a little taste of heaven without being physically there. And so, brethren, these things are very real. We speak of them in the meetings. You young people, you hear some of us speak about these things. And yes, we enumerate them as things from the word of God. We give exhortation, but these things are very real.
He what Christianity is a very practical thing. Most of us remember our brother Bob Brimlose with the Lord used to have a little expression where the rubber meets the road and the rubber does meet the road. Wonderful to be here this weekend with 300 of the people of God and enjoy the precious truth from the Scriptures.
But we're going to go back. The Lord leaves us here. The rubber is going to meet the road on Monday or Tuesday. But when we get back to work and school in our homes, in the neighborhood, these things can be real. And let me give you just a little example from the word of God of two who rejoiced where the rubber met the road. And it was a difficult trial. And you know who I'm talking about? It was Paul and Silas. And you know, I've often wondered, brethren, if I'd been giving out the gospel there in Philippi and got thrown in prison because of it.
What would I have been doing? I must hang my head and confess. I probably would have been grumbling and saying, well, Lord, I thought I got a message to come over here and help somebody. And I've tried to give out the gospel, and now this is the result. But no, they were in the enjoyment of Christ. The vessel was broken and the light flowed out and there was joy. They prayed and sang praises at the darkest hour. And what was the result? Well, not only were they encouraged in their own souls, but.
The jailer, the prisoners heard them. The jailkeeper got saved. They were brought out and cared for because our joy in the Lord and our submission in difficult circumstances, Not our wanting to get out of it. But our submission in difficult circumstances, I believe, is a testimony to others because the world can suffer when they've done something wrong. If men suffer for wrongdoing they can take that, they realize.
That they're suffering, paying a penalty because of something they brought on themselves. But they cannot understand, the natural man, cannot understand how the Christian can suffer, sometimes even wrongfully, and rejoice in that. Really only the Christian that can do that, that has a joy that no man can take from them. And when the Christian rejoices in trials, and when he submits to the trial, then I believe God uses that in blessing and testimony to those around him.
I'm glad Jim you mentioned that about all the, I was thinking yesterday as we were speaking about the vessel, the earth and vessel being broken about Paul and Silas as you mentioned they were there in the prison.
Tells us they were praying and saying you praises and the prisoners heard many times. I believe we get the idea that.
00:40:01
Evangelism is something that carried on by those in public service. But all in Silas were not out in the public when they were evangelizing in this way, where they they were in in the dungeon. And how often are we presented with an opportunity where we may be in a public place who deserve to us and in simplicity, we can bow our heads and break. There are those watching the testimony.
And I believe too that.
Perhaps in our work, whatever it might be, something as simple as humming a tune that is, that we enjoy, we go into a public place. Today. You sit down to have a meal with someone and and the music is so loud that you can't even think. But if we're in a public place.
In our work, maybe public transportation, we might be humming a tune. Perhaps the person sitting next to us hears it. That can be a testimony. That's a an act of evangelism.
Well, the prisoners heard this, but I think it's interesting too that the jailer tells us was asleep. The earthquake came and he awakened. What is he doing? First thing he does, he takes his sword out. He's going to kill itself himself because he was afraid his charged had all left. Well, Paul speaks up. He says do thyself no harm. We are all here. What kept those prisoners there, I'm sure.
That was the hearing, the prayers and the praises that Paul and Silas, there was a testimony to them, I'm sure of it. So Paul says.
Says do thyself. No harm, We are all here.
Next, he calls for a light.
Someone mentioned to me once that we might, in our life, go about and think that no one ever takes note of our Christian testimony.
But if they're in trouble, they know who to come to. And so this trailer was in trouble, and he asked for light. So we can in our.
Private life, the earthen vessel that's been broken. We don't have to be in public ministry.
Public service to be a servant for the Lord. But those who about us see that light and they will ask for it when perhaps difficulty or trouble comes their way. Well, we know the rest of the story.
Taylor takes them to his house.
Cleanses our wounds and their.
Bad times? Well, there's opportunity presented by the testimony of these two held in cavities, but that did not restrict the shining 4th of the light that was in the earth investment.
Like to say too that.
It may not have been immediately that Paul and Silas sang praises to God.
They may have had their moments of being cast down because it was midnight.
When they did that, so it probably was a few hours of being felt, feeling quite low. And I'm sure they, as we feel, brought low, oftentimes brethren, but then they rose above it and sang praises, prayed and sang praises, and that's where God moved brethren. He shook the whole city and everybody knew something had happened in that prison that night.
1St Corinthians 1013 says go with the temptation, make the way to the gig that you may be able to share it.
Thinking about shell drag, meshach and the veggie go in the furnace. He didn't they they had told the Lord. Still the case. If the Lord doesn't deliver it and know this, we're going to honor him anyway.
You think if you ask those three men later, would you rather have avoided the furnace? What do you think you'd have said?
That issue, that way of escape that you may be able to bear.
With the Son of God walking with them in the furnace.
And the real purpose to all these verses we've been going through?
And from the 14th verse on to the end of the chapter gives us the real direction that God would point us to.
00:45:03
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. In Ephesians 5 it says Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but it should be holy.
And without blemish. Well, I realize this chapter I'm speaking about the Church, but to present us is when it's going to come to that day.
When we're presented before his father as his bride.
And so all these things that we've looked at, broken vessel to sustaining what God puts us through for his glory, and that's why he does it. He doesn't do it to hurt us. It's all to come to one end. And the last verses of this chapter give it to us all the way to the end of the chapter that we might be to his honor and glory. And that's not just in this world, but that we might be presented most desire not only for himself, but for the Saints of God.
He said in second in first Thessalonians 2 What is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ that is coming, sometimes said that before Paul was saved as Saul of Tarsus, his whole Benton energy was to stamp out the name of Christ and persecute the Christians. He said he thought within himself that he verily ought to do many things.
Contrary to the name of Christ, his whole energy as a young man was to was to carry out that mission.
But after he got saved and became the Apostle Paul, now his whole Benton energy was that the gospel would go forth, that the Saints would be encouraged in the Lord and go on together in the truth. And I believe that's really the thought in verse 12.
So then death worketh in us, but Paul says that's OK if it's life in you.
I'm content with my situation. I'm content with what the Lord has allowed and if it means daily bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord and being delivered unto death, and so on. If it means the blessing of the people of God, then I'm content with that brethren. I covet that for my own soul.
And let's each examine our souls this afternoon. Is our desire really for the blessing of the people of God? Is that really what our motive? Are we content to go through some circumstance or have some trial left upon us indefinitely in our lives so that the light will flow out and there will be blessing in the salvation of the souls, or the encouragement and building up of the Saints of God?
Paul said that.
He was willing to be the off scouring of the earth. He was willing to be a castaway if it meant.
For the blessing of the people of God. What a motive. No wonder the Lord used this man.
In such a mighty way in blessing to the people of God. And I quoted those verses in the end of First Thessalonians. 2 And it's just as if Paul says, when I get to the judgment seat of Christ, which we heard about this afternoon, And he says, I see you Thessalonian believers there, and you're getting a reward.
So that's going to be reward enough for me. That's going to be my crowd, just to see you there and to see you get a reward for some faithfulness. Are you going to have a crown of rejoicing? Am I going to have a crown of rejoicing Because we handed the gas attend to the track, Never knew if he read it. But we're at the judgment seat of Christ, and there that person is, and we rejoice. Some brother or sister was going through a real trial and we put ourselves out. We made some sacrifice to be a help to that brother or sister, and maybe we never knew what the end result was.
But we see that brother, that sister, the judgment seat of Christ. And we find out that because we took their hand and helped them, made some little sacrifice in our lives to help that person over the rough spot there, they're getting a reward for their faithfulness. Oh, what a day it's going to be when we rejoice. But brethren, let's be humble in the presence of God, the presence of the Lord Jesus, and let's be exercised. Could we say this of ourselves? So then death worketh in US, but life in you. Tremendous thought, isn't it?
00:50:08
It's the secret of blessing.
Anybody that's a farmer knows that that has to do has to happen for there to be fruit, you have to put a seed into the ground. And what happens to that seed, it's attacked by the microorganisms in the soil.
It rots, it dies, but in its death it gives life to A.
New plan. And there is much fruit. And that's a principle not only in natural things but in spiritual things.
And I often think of the farmers. How much?
Seed they put into the ground. How many bushels of seed do you put in the ground, Caleb, in your operation?
But it's quite a few bushels, isn't it?
And I say, isn't that a big waste of C? What's going to happen to that seed? It's going to all rot in the ground. What in the world do you put that seed in the ground for? It's going to rot.
But you know that it has to rot, it has to die. In its death there will be much more fruit, and that's what is difficult for us.
I ask here anybody ready to die? Anybody like to die this afternoon? I don't think I'll get too many volunteers.
It's not naturally pleasant to die, and I'm not speaking naturally necessarily of natural death, although God does use that. Think of those five missionaries down in Ecuador who were killed. The tremendous searching and blessing that resulted from their death goes on to this day.
And they say it's the principle here that we have death worketh in us. But life in you, do you want your life to make a difference for eternity?
Here's the recipe.
Death worketh in us, but life in you. Look back at John 12, where we have the same thing in connection with the Lord Jesus.
It's so wonderful to see that this is a principle that runs through scripture.
John 12 and verse 23.
The Greeks had come up to the feast and.
They were not of God's earthly people.
Israel.
For there to be blessing to flow out to them.
Something had to happen.
And even though they told Jesus, Jesus answered verse 23.
Them and saying the hours 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.
There it is, brethren. The Lord Jesus was that corn of wheat. He could have gone back to heaven alone.
Without dying, he had every right to.
But he set his face as a Flint to go to Jerusalem. Why?
Because he was going to accomplish his departure there, he was going to die.
And it's through his death that there is now much fruit.
Oh, the millions of souls that will be in glory because of the death of Jesus. But look at verse 25. He goes right on now. He that loveth his light shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it into life eternal. There's something that really challenges my soul, brother.
He that loveth his light, and I like to think that that is.
In general, the good American Dream. The life, Live it up, love, life.
You're going to live that way. You're going to lose your life. You may have a saved soul, but you'll have a lost life.
That he that hateth his life, that's a pretty strong word, hateth his life.
In this world.
00:55:00
Shall keep it unto life eternal. Then he goes on to say verse 27. If any man serve me.
Let him follow me where I am. There shall also my servant be if any man serve me.
Him will my father honor? We cannot follow the Lord in his atoning, suffering Brethren's. I want to make that clear.
But the principle is that death worketh in US.
Life in you, you and I want to be.
Fruit for God, for eternity in our lives. This is the principle. This is the recipe.
I can use that word.
Death worketh in us, but life in you and as.
Jim was saying the Apostle Paul. I think of him. He said I could wish myself a curse from Christ, that my brethren would be saved. My brethren in the flesh would be saved. Wow, what a desire, intensity of desire that gets across brethren when a person speaks in that way.
That gets across, and there has to be that in our lives. Bread. And if there's going to be blessing. Moses was another one. When God said, let me alone, he said to Moses, Let me alone, let me consume them in a minute for their idolatry. What does Moses say? Blot me out, Lord.
I don't block them out. What beautiful.
Intercession for the people of God and God. Of course it was the Spirit of Christ and Moses that God heard it and God did not wipe his people out.
But this is the principle. Death worketh in us, but life in you. And then what you were saying, brother Dave, it's because even if death does happen, even if physical death should happen to us, Brendan.
And it's not necessarily Speaking of that because what we have in our chapter in verses.
8:00 and 9:00 are really showing what it was they were delivered to, delivered to death.
Very difficult circumstances that was being delivered to death. So it's not necessarily physically necessarily physical death, but it could be, but then.
We have the certainty that even if the worst that could take place did take place, why There's resurrection before us, isn't it?
And God's answer is in resurrection, brethren. I love to think of that.
God's answer is not necessarily anything that we're going to see down here in this world. God's answer is in resurrection.
And it's so beautiful to keep that before us.
We don't live enough in the light of eternity, do we? And I've been struck with that verse in the 29th chapter of Proverbs. In fact, maybe we should just read it just to impress it on our souls.
Proverbs, chapter 29.
And verse 18 just the first expression of the verse.
Where there is no vision, the people perish. I think Mr. Darby translates it cast off restraint.
And I believe that this verse is an all-encompassing verse that applies to every sphere of life and society where there is no vision, the people perish. Some of us have been to countries that we refer to, sometimes as third world countries, and we wonder why they don't prosper or get ahead politically and economically and socially and so on. But you're not there very long until you realize that they're only living for the moment.
There's no long term plan, there's no foresight, there's no vision into the future.
They're only living for the moment and what they can get for the moment, and that's why they don't prosper. But brethren, this is true in our spiritual lives as well. Why is it we become so occupied with the things of this world? It's because we're only living for the moment, and we had lot brought before us already today. And it's interesting that when he lifted up his eyes, he didn't lift them up far enough. He only lifted them up as high as the horizons of this world.
01:00:06
And, brethren, if we only lift our eyes above the earth to the horizons of this world, we too are going to only live for the moment. These things that we've been Speaking of are not going to be carried out in a practical way in our lives. But when we have eternity in view, and that's what He brings before us in the end of this chapter, He speaks of eternity. He looks at it in light of what is ahead. He looks at it at it in light of God's approval.
The manifestation of things in the coming day, the coming glory and so on. And, brethren, if we live more in the light of eternity, it would make a difference on us, on our lives in a in a practical way now. And so let's have the goal before us, let's have the prize, and let's realize that there's a day coming when he's going to put his sense of approval and commend, as we've heard this afternoon.
According to his estimation and Paul had this when he wrote to the Corinthians and he said.
We labor that, whether present or absent, we might be accepted of him, you say. I've tried to help my brethren. I've tried to be involved in some little work for the Lord, and people misunderstand me. Sometimes they judge my motives. Just leave that with the Lord. Good to weigh what our brethren say to us and what others say to us in the light of Scripture. But Paul, who was treated so miserably by the Corinthian Saints why they questioned his authority as an apostle, They questioned his ministry.
His bodily presence was weak and his speech was contemptible. They treated him like the off scouring of the earth.
He said. That's all right. I'm living in view of eternity. I'm committing these things to the Lord.
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. And I believe there's a real danger in the society in which we live, because what we're finding in the Western society now is less and less. I'm talking about impractical things now in the world, less and less of a vision, people just living for the moment what they can get. It's the instantaneous society. You've got a couple of credit cards.
In your wallet, you pull them out. You have a bank card. Everything is instantaneous. You push a button and you have the answer and the remedy.
But it's a danger, brethren, and I'm not saying sometimes some of those things aren't mercies and helpful. And we can certainly use the unrighteous mammon for God's glory and in a way that honors him. But the danger is that that scheme of things then carries over into our spiritual lives, into our Christian lives and following the Lord, and so that we lose sight of the fact that there needs to be that vision. And as we take up these last few verses, you'll see that Paul viewed things now.
In comparison to what was ahead in eternity.
Resurrection life is life in power, brethren, but it is.
I really feel that if we can get a hold of this, it's a tremendous thing. I think of those apostles in the first days of the church, in the book of the Acts, and how much the resurrection of the Lord Jesus figured in their preaching and they were living in the full power of resurrection life. I've often thought of it in this way.
That a person that is living in resurrection life as death is behind him.
And so they were threatened. They were even threatened to be killed. But can you scare a dead man by threatening to kill him? He's already dead. You can't scare him. And they were totally baffled. Those people in those days, those religious authorities, totally baffled, they could not scare them in any way. There was a power that they didn't know how.
To handle. That's the life that you and I have right now, Brett.
But why isn't it more manifest Is because we do not carry about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus. The Lord. Grant us to think these things through and to make them practical in our lives. Brethren, it is so real. It's the life we have now. It's resurrection life.
01:05:18
I believe if we keep in view.
What God has in preparation for us, that's already prepared.
It's already there. It's just a matter of the moment when we hear that shout that calls us into that. If we keep that in view, we find it much easier to do the things we've been going through.
If.
It's always been said, and it's probably very true, that if you want to take something that's dangerous away from a child, you.
Offer him something far better, and that's exactly what we find in First Thessalonians in the first chapter.
It says they turned to God, which was far better than what they had. They turned to God.
From idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven.
Well, what we have, what God has given us, what God has put into.
Our vision is so much better than what this world has to offer. If we can see it, if we can grasp it, if we can take hold of it, all these things that weigh us down in this world.
Would be very simple to cast off, but if we can't see it, if we don't understand, if we don't realize that what God has for us.
Is so much better than what we have. There's a song that we sing. We speak of the realms of the Blessed.
Of that home, so bright and so fair and the last line of that first standard, but what will it be to be there? Well, we don't.
Spend enough time in our own personal days.
Occupied with what God has for us, and I believe that's what we have in the last 6 verses of this chapter what God has for us, the last verse says.
While we look not at the things which are seen, but that the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen.
Are eternal, eternal what the word doesn't even.
Enter our minds correctly, because we can't conceive of that which is eternal, and so we can't really conceive. However we can look to Christ. We can joy in our God and in the love that He's had for us and giving His Son. And if we occupy ourselves with those things, the things of earth are going to pretty much grow strangely. Deal.
And those two things mentioned in verse 13, just like to mention it. They like to get down to the end of the chapter. But it says I believed and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore we speak. And I think like you say, Brother Dave, it's important to think these things to through meditation, let them sink into our souls.
Do you believe? Do you really believe the Lord could come this afternoon yet?
We all nod our heads, brethren. If we really believe it, our lives would show it.
It would be evident to everybody around, but I sometimes have to. When I speak about the Lord's coming, I have to stop and say, come on, do I really believe this? This is so fantastically, tremendously wonderful. Do I really believe it?
There are no other options available. This is it. If I'm going to take that part out of the Bible, I have to get rid of the whole Bible. No, can't do that. This is only thing that's that's the only option really. Believe in it. Oh brethren, Lord help us to believe it. I honestly believe that we are unbelieving believers. We say we're believers, but we really don't believe it. You believe that your neighbor is on the way to hell.
Fire. And you never speak to him. Do you really believe that? I don't really think you really believe that.
If you really believe that, you would speak.
And that's what it says. Here we believe, therefore we speak. Lord, help us brethren, to search our hearts, because.
01:10:04
When we don't speak to our fellow man anything of Christ.
Not even give them a gospel tract. Do we really believe what we profess to believe? I don't think we have the right to say we do. We really believe it.
If we really believe it in the right way, we will speak.
But everything like you say brother Dave is.
Appreciated by faith, and this is what is hard for young people at times to get ahold of. Because we're living in such a materialistic world. We evaluate everything as to the material result, but that's not what we have in the end of the chapter. It's looking at things.
Not the things that are seen, but at the things which are not seen. How do you look at something that is not seen? It almost seems like an oxymoron. How do you do that?
I'm waiting for an answer.
Hebrews 11.
By faith we understand that the world were framed by the word of God, his faith. It takes faith to see this last verse of our chapter. And we don't look with eyes of natural look, we look with the eyes of faith. And that's the only way we can do it. And we see that in the 11Th chapter of Hebrews, because it was mentioned about Abraham this afternoon and he by faith went out from earth, the Chaldees.
And it's true. In leaving his city in his home, he went out not knowing whether he went. But faith, as I've always often said, always has an eye to the future. It always has an object or a goal before it. No such thing as blind faith. Faith is not a leap in the dark. And so when Abraham went out, it's true, he went out not knowing whether he went. But it tells us he looked for a city which hath foundation, whose builder and maker has got. Did he see that with the physical eye? He looked around him in Ur, the cowgies, and he saw a thing, a city with the physical eye. But he went out in faith because by faith he saw something that wasn't physical.
And with Moses too, who had all the glory of Egypt at his disposal as a young man.
What was it that caused him to turn his back on Egypt and lead the people of God for 40 years through the wilderness?
It says he endured as seeing him who is invisible, and the Saints in Peter's day, who were going through fiery trials. They'd been driven from their homes for their testimony, He says, Whom not having seen ye love, though now ye see him not yet believing, you rejoice with joy, unspeakable and full of glory. And so these things are not seen naturally, but I suggest to the eye of faith, they're a very real thing.
We don't. They're not something physical, but they're it's something that's very, very real. And that's why I said earlier that brother and I feel we don't live in the light of eternity enough. And we tend to put value and to hold on to tenaciously to things that are physical things in this life. But what is going to release our grip on things down here? It's to grasp in our souls the things that are eternal.
The things that are ahead, and we mentioned about Paul in the 11Th chapter of this epistle and the things that he suffered year in and year out, relentlessly, it seems, You say, how could he do it? The next chapter tells us the secret. He didn't just have a vision of the coming glory. He'd been there. He'd been caught up temporarily to the 3rd heaven. He'd been in the presence of a glorified Christ. He'd heard unspeakable words that it was not lawful for a man to utter.
And with that, before his soul he could come back and go on in the trials and difficulties of the way serving the Saints being delivered unto death because he knew what was ahead. And brethren, if we only could get one glimpse 1 inkling of what is ahead, what a practical difference it would make in our lives. And let's go just for a verse to 1St John to think helps to bear out Bob. I thought of this when Bob was speaking.
Of the truth of the Lord's coming. Because, brethren, if we were to go up and down these rows, I'm sure we could all enumerate many things in connection with the Lord's coming and in connection with the Father's house and the glory. And we can quote the verses, and we can enumerate them as a doctrine. But, brethren, that's not enough. That is not enough. And when John here in this third chapter develops the truth of the Lord's coming that was given by the Lord himself in John's gospel, I will come again.
01:15:24
Let's just read verse two of chapter 3, beloved. Now are we the sons of God? And it does not yet appear what we shall be.
But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is now, brethren.
Here John develops what was given in his Gospel in the 14th chapter. In the 14th chapter, the Lord Jesus simply said he was coming again to receive them to himself.
Here John goes beyond that. He says you're not only going to be with Christ, you're going to be like him, and you're going to see him not as he was, not the man of sorrows. Here in this world. You're going to see him, the man of joy and glory. There at the right hand of God. You're going to see him as he is. But now notice what he says in the next verse.
And every man that hath this hope, I want you to notice this next word, this.
Hope in I believe we need to put great emphasis, brethren, on this little word in not anyone who can enumerate this hope, but every man that has this hope in him. Is this hope really in US? Has it got down into our souls? Has it gripped us when we get up in the morning? Is it with the realization?
That maybe before another sunset we're going to hear the shout and we're going to be there in the glory. We talk about it, brethren. It's going to happen one of these days, And some of us were speaking earlier. I heard of a young man read of a young man recently. He had on his bathroom mirror in his home 2 words. Perhaps today. I thought that was very good, because that young man wanted to be reminded every morning when he got up and looked in the mirror that this might be the day of the Lord's return. That's having this hope in US. And what is the result?
Every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. Not everybody that knows about this, not everybody that's waiting for the Lord to come, but everyone that has this hope in him and in the measure in which it is in us as a reality. It will have a practical purifying effect on our daily walk down here in this world while we wait.
The things that are seen are temporal. Everything we look around and see that I can see with my physical eyes is temporal, is for a few brief years of life down here, things that are not seen are eternal. They are the real things, brother. It's not what we see and what we see in our culture today is people madly.
Accumulating things that are seen, the Lord deliver us from that brethren.
The real things are things that are not seen. The Lord help us to renew our vision. I I can just see it sometimes. I remember enjoying Ephesians chapter one with the brethren down in the Dominican Republic, where they're so tremendously poor in a certain area, and I remember shortly after that in a wealthy home.
Where they had everything, I thought, well, maybe it would be nice to read Ephesians one again.
It just seemed like I was talking to a blank wall they didn't catch. There was no apprehension of the value.
Of spiritual things.
Oh, brethren, we need to be awakened to open our eyes in a new way.
Not the material things, but the spiritual realities because.
They are eternal. Going back a couple of verses here before we get to the end of our meeting, verse 16, he says For the which cause we faint not for though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. I love this.
The new life we have in Christ again we say brethren, is life, and resurrection is life that will never die.
We can actually say as believers we will never die. Death may touch this body of mine.
01:20:06
But I have a life that will never die. It's life in resurrection. It's life that cannot die. The Lord Jesus was the first fruits and resurrection. Why is he called the first fruits? Because he was the first to rise in the power of a life that death can no longer touch. And that's the life you and I have. And so Paul says, because of this we faint, not, brother, what a thing we have, what a treasure we have.
We don't faint, and I love to see older brethren still. Remember old brother Jackson down in Florida when I was a young person? He was sitting in his armchair so weak he couldn't get up out of it by itself, and he kept talking about the Lord's coming. He gets so excited he start leaning forward and gesturing with his arms and all of a sudden flop back in his chair. His body was too old for his spirit.
His spirit was too young.
It was renewed day by day that really impressed me as a young person. He's got a treasure in there. His body was perishing, but the treasure wasn't. The new was renewed day by day. Then look at verse 17, brethren, where it goes along with it. All. Our light affliction Jim was mentioning in Chapter 11 of Second Corinthians.
The trial they long list of the afflictions that the Apostle Paul.
Went through man, I don't know anybody that can compare anything like it outside of the Lord Jesus. The Apostle Paul really suffered.
Beaten with rods. I don't know what that must have been like.
In the deep.
For the day and the night that must have been awful shipwrecked. But, he says, brethren, in comparison with the coming glory, that's light affliction, the glory.
It's far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Is there any way to compare it?
There's no way to compare it, brother.
The most we could suffer down here is.
It's going to be light, light, affliction and that coming glory. It just seems like he runs out of adjectives when he starts trying to talk about it.
Far more exceeding eternal weight of glory. What a contrast.
And this is before our souls, brethren. Is it real to us?
There's a comparison, it's interesting, between the affliction and the glory, and this is what really makes the difference. Or one of the things, and that is that the affliction. You notice It's for a moment.
30 years, 60 years. Some Saints have gone through trials, talking about physical limitations that some Saints have been born with and so on. But it's for a moment the glory is eternal, and that's what makes the difference. Brethren, if we could just get a hold of that and what are 30 years? What are 60 years? I know sometimes it seems a long time. Sometimes just a few days in a trial or a sickness or a difficulty seems like a long time, but it's only for a moment.
Compared to to eternity. So again, if we can keep this in in perspective, the things here, they're temporal. They're only for time. The affliction is just for a moment. The blessings that are ours in Christ, they're eternal. The glory that's going to follow rather than that's eternal. Can you can imagine having a trial for a little time and then coming out of it? Can you imagine being in glory and never coming down, so to speak?
Glory is going to burst on our souls.
We're going to be there with and like Christ, and that is never going to change. Now, Speaking of that visit in the hospital with that brother, maybe half an hour at the most. There's a little taste of glory, but we had to get on that elevator and go down and go back and get back to some practical things that needed to be taken care of. But think of glory that's eternal, and we're going to be ever with the Lord. Never a trial again, never an affliction, never a sigh, never a tear.
Brethren, we can't imagine, We don't really understand the glory that is ahead. But David said in the 27th Psalm I had fainted, except I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And brethren will faint too if we just look around us. This is the land of the dying. This is the land of trials and their very real trials. And we don't want to underestimate the trials and the circumstances that many of God's dear people are going through.
01:25:28
But will faint if we only look at things in the land of the dying. But David, as it were, says I'm going to the land of the living and brethren, we're going there too.
While we look.
What a marvelous thing to be able to do, to look at that future glory which awaits each Christian.
Each one that has put their trust in the Lord Jesus while we look.
At the things that are eternal.
139.
This world is a wilderness wise We have nothing received or to choose with no thought in the ways to abide. We do not get 139.
Long ways to live by.
The prescribed heart to love.
By grateful.
May as far as ourselves.
Without wishes, crying forever on the rally.