Address—C. Hendricks
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Please turn with me this afternoon to 2nd Corinthians chapter 3. I'm going to read 2 Chapters.
We start with chapter 3, verse one. Do we begin again to commend ourselves?
Or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men.
As much as you are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
And such trust have we through Christ to God. Word not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.
But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth administration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect.
By reason of the glory that excellent for a fact which is done away with glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech. And that is Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished.
But their minds were blinded, for until this day remain at the same veil, untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.
Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory.
Even as by the Spirit of the Lord, therefore, seeing we have this ministry.
As we have received mercy, we think not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty.
Not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
Bless the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord in ourselves. Your servants for Jesus sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, had shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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. For we which live are all we delivered unto death for Jesus sake. That the.
Of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you, we having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written. I believe, and therefore have I spoken. We 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.
Down to the glory of God, for which 'cause we think 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, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.
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For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen.
Are eternal.
Chapter 4 begins with Therefore, seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we think not.
This ministry.
And all. What a ministry it is.
This ministry that he's referring to, in order to understand what he's referring to, we have to look at the previous chapter. And that's why I read chapter 3.
Like to quickly go through that.
He begins by saying in chapter 3, do we begin again to commend ourselves, or need we as some others, epistles of commendation or letters of commendation from you?
To you or from you, They were his epistle. He says, Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. They had received the gospel through Paul. Some were discrediting him, questioning his apostleship, speaking against him, and so on.
You say you are.
You are our epistle.
And then he says something even more precious and deep. He says in verse 3, For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ.
Ministered by us. How did you become the Epistle of Christ? Known and read of all men? The assembly there at Corinth was the Epistle of Christ.
And.
The way a local assembly goes on.
Is read by those around.
It's good to remember that we are each local assembly is an epistle of Christ.
Paul says ministered by us. It's not just that we individually are such. He doesn't say ye are the epistles of Christ, as though it applies to each one individually, but it's the, I think the collective thought.
The Epistle of Christ.
Christ has been written upon our hearts. He goes on to say that.
He says that this truth that you have received, the light that has been brought to you, which you have received and accepted, was ministered by us.
Written not with ink.
Not an epistle such as this, written with ink that I can pick up and read in a book.
But with the Spirit of the living God.
An epistle, the Epistle of Christ, written by the Spirit.
Of the living God, not on tables of stone. Referring to the Law 10 commandments.
But on fleshy tables of the heart.
The Spirit of God writing Christ on the heart of each one.
Who is his? And so that collectively we can be described as the epistle of Christ, not only Paul's epistle.
Because he's the one that brought the truth to them. But the epistle of Christ, and who has written Christ on the hearts of the Saints, the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of the living God.
And not on tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.
And such trust have we through Christ to God. Word.
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.
He says, yes, we did minister those truths to you. The truth of the gospel and the Spirit of God has written Christ upon your heart, and you are the epistle of Christ to live for him. You're his now. You belong to him. And every Christian, whether viewed individually or the assembly collectively, ought to be a manifestation of Christ.
Christ, the Spirit of God, is here for one purpose, to glorify Christ.
To write Him upon our hearts and to magnify Him before everyone. That's why we're here. That life of Christ that was lived in its blessed perfection in the person of the Son, become a man, has now been given to you and to me. We had that before us.
The other night. Friday night.
Communicates to us His own resurrection life in the power of the Holy Spirit.
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And here the Spirit of God writes.
Christ upon a fleshly tables of our heart.
And Paul says we're not sufficient for these things.
But he says in verse 6, Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament?
The new translation gives it.
In the margin, literally, who also have made us new covenant ministers. That's really what it is. New covenant ministers in contrast with the law, not of the letter.
But of the Spirit.
For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
The letter killeth the letter of the law.
Legalism is deadly.
And.
The Spirit of God is the Spirit of liberty.
And he has written Christ upon our hearts.
The New Covenant is all grace. It's not, as it reads here exactly, ministers of the New Testament or the New Covenant. The New Covenant is to be established with the House of Judah and the House of Israel.
We Gentiles who believe are not in covenant relationship to him. We're not under the new covenant. But the principle of the new covenant is grace. Paul was a new covenant minister. He was the minister of grace.
And so that's what he's talking about here, in contrast with law, the grace of God, which has brought us into such immense blessing.
Now he describes the old covenant he describes.
Effect that it had upon the Israelites. The law. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And Paul was a new covenant minister. He was a minister of grace.
Grace of God blessing men, the blessings of the new Covenant.
Are not conditioned upon man's obedience.
Given by God's grace, they are absolutely secure to our, to the to the nation of Israel when it is established. And it'll all be grace just as we're brought in by grace.
Now verse 7. But if the ministration of death, you see, the law was administration of death.
Written and engraven in stones was glorious.
The law is the requirement of God upon man in responsibility. Man put himself under the law, and God gave him his righteous requirements. 10 Commandments.
No man has kept them outside of Christ.
And so though it held out the promise of blessing and life to the obedient.
It was death and a curse and condemnation to the disobedient.
So here he calls it administration of death.
If the ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious, or if it began with glory, there was a glory associated with the giving of the law. A little bit later he tells us the first time Moses came down from the mount he he had the law. He heard the music and the dancing and they had broken the first 3 commandments. They made another gob. First commandment is thou shalt have no other gods. Second commandment thou shalt not make any graven image or bow down to it.
Graven image. Golden calf. Third commandment is Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain was a feast of Jehovah. They took the Lord's name in given and attached it to that idolatrous feast which they had invented of their own minds.
So those people that said all that the Lord has spoken we will do and obey had broken the first 3 commandments. So Moses dashes those two tables of stone at the foot of the mount. If he had brought the pure law into their camp, it would have meant certain death for all of them.
It was administration of death.
The second time he received the law, it was mingled with grace. There were provisions made for failure, sacrifices, and so on.
Well, later in this chapter, and we'll come to it in a moment, when Moses talked to the children of Israel, there was a there was a glory that radiated from his face. It was the glory of God's righteous requirements on man, the glory of the law. There was a glory associated with the law, but the glory that we look at.
Is in the face of the Lord Jesus.
And it's the glory of the grace of God, the glory of his marvelous grace we look at. We can look right into that blessed face and not have any fear because the grace of God has set us in an established relationship with God and brought us into blessing because God is the greatest pleasure in the universe.
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It's not law. They were afraid when the law was given, there was terror that struck into their hearts.
There were thunderings and lightnings in the voice and they said don't let God speak to us.
They were afraid, and well might they be. The thunderings of God's righteous requirement on a Sinner is that he is dead and condemned. And so it was administration of death that was the law.
Written and engraven in stones was glorious. There was glory connected with it, glory of God's majesty, His Majesty in His righteous requirements which man could not meet.
So that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance. That glory that shone from Moses face was the glory of God's righteousness.
Demanding obedience.
They couldn't stand it.
Says which glory was to be done away?
The law was never given to be a permanent thing.
It was only given as a test for man to prove that man cannot gain acceptance with God on that principle.
How shall not now the contrast verse 8? How shall not the administration of the Spirit?
Rather glorious administration of the Spirit. It's not death.
It's life and peace, and he ministers Christ.
And Christ is our life, and Christ is our peace.
Christ is our righteousness as we were singing.
He goes on to say for if the ministration of condemnation be glory, that's the law.
Commandments much more doth the ministration of righteousness.
Exceed in glory.
It's like comparing the moon and the stars at night with the sun and the sun comes up. The glory of the stars is so diminished you can't see them anymore, and the glory of the moon fades.
And so there was glory connected with the giving of the law, but it was to be done away. And so Moses face was veiled. They could not look on that glory.
And in contrast with that, we can look right into the face of Jesus Christ our blessed Lord, and see the glory of God's grace radiating from it that which has set us into a place of acceptance. It's called administration of righteousness, not condemnation. The law was condemnation.
Grace gives us righteousness, not a righteousness that we workout by our own efforts.
But the righteousness which is of God by faith.
Turn to Philippians Chapter 3 for a moment.
Verse 9 Paul says and to be found in him.
Not having my own righteousness.
Which is of the law, on the principle of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.
The righteousness which is of God by faith.
He says in verse 6, touching the righteousness which is in the law, he was blameless outwardly.
As far as the eye of man could see, blameless.
Was of strict Pharisee of the Pharisees.
Now he says, I want to be found. I'm looking forward to that day when I will be found in here in the glory, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law.
All he used to boast himself in that, he used to take pride in that, that human righteousness.
And now he counts it but dung.
Is willing to lay that all aside. Says it's worthless. It's nothing. I have Christ as my righteousness.
God has provided A righteousness for me. I'm glad in a robe of righteousness which is Christ himself. Christ we can point to that man in the glory and say he is my righteousness before God, to be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God.
By faith.
He had found something infinitely better than the law could give.
And actually the law was administration of death and condemnation, because none kept it.
It only held out blessing to those that could keep it. Now going back to chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians.
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Verse 9 again if the ministration of condemnation.
Be glory has glory in connection with it much more.
One of Paul's much mores doth administration of righteousness exceeding glory.
Administration of an accomplished, subsisting righteousness before God. We stand in the risen Christ we were noticing on Friday night. We stand in the life of the risen Christ. Resurrection life that is a life in righteousness before God.
We have an acceptance before him the very same as he himself has.
For any Christian to be rejected by God, he'd have to reject Christ, because we are in Christ.
And we have him as our righteousness. That is how secure we are. And so Paul says in verse.
Let me read verse 11 first, for if that which is done away was glorious or began with glory, done away is is a formula describing the Old covenant, the Old Covenant, the law.
That which remaineth is glorious. Mr. Darby has It subsists in glory. It will never be done away. It will never fade. It's the righteousness in which we stand before God, which is Christ.
Verse 12 seeing then that we have such hope, if I have his life and I have his righteousness and each one of us has what hope that gives us, we're going to be there in His presence as soon as He takes us and calls us home. When a home, it's absolute certainty, no questions about it, because it doesn't depend on us in any wise. It's all His work. It's all the grace of God that is conferred that righteousness upon.
Given us that righteous standing before God, Jesus, the Lord, our righteousness.
Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech, and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. That glory connected with the giving of the Law was to fade, and so his base was his face was veiled, and they couldn't look upon that glory as it faded.
But we can look upon another glory, the glory of the grace of God, all the glory of his grace, shining in the Saviour space, telling sinners from above. God is light, God is love.
That's the glory of the grace that shines from our blessed Saviors face. But their minds were blinded.
Verse 2014 For until this day remaineth the same veil, and taken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ.
Their minds were blinded. The minds of the Jews are blinded. They do not understand the Old Testament. It's veiled to them because the secret, the secret is Christ. Christ is written in every page all to them. Take the offerings, the bird offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering. These are just rituals that the Jews went through. They don't see Christ in these offerings. They don't see.
Each one is a different aspect of the work of Christ or of the person of Christ.
The 22nd Psalm is atoning death.
Sufferings He endured from the hand of God. The 69th Psalm. His death. The sufferings He endured from the hands of men. The 102nd Psalm again His sufferings from man's hand. A different aspect of it. It all speaks of Christ.
The 22nd of Genesis. Christ, Abraham offering Isaac a picture of the Father.
Giving his beloved son Christ the 14th chapter. 24th chapter of Genesis.
Abraham, sending a servant, ordered miles to the east to get a bride for his son Isaac. Question put to Rebecca, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go. And for 400 miles across the desert sand, that spirit was that servant, a type of the Holy Spirit was ministering Isaac to her, telling her about Isaac, the one that she would meet, the one who was to be her bride.
Bridegroom drawing out her heart to Isaac as the Spirit of God is given to us to draw our hearts.
To Christ, to the blessed Lord, to all that he has done, and to all his glories and all his beauties. It's the ministry of the Spirit. When He has come, he will testify of me.
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Tell you the words that I have spoken, and words yet that you cannot bear. He will tell you and lead you into all the truth, the Spirit of God. What a beautiful picture we have of that. And when they got near, she said, Rebecca said to the servant, Who is this that cometh to meet us in the field? It is my master. And she veiled herself. She was only for him.
Not to be for anyone else to see. And Isaac took her into his mother Sarah's tent.
And she became his wife, and he loved her.
And he was comforted after the death of his mother. So the Lord Jesus, having lost Israel, is comfort. Comforted because he's now gained A heavenly bride.
Rebecca picture of the church. Their minds are blinded, reminded of a Jewish.
A Jewish young woman and she went to.
Her rabbi and she said, Rabbi, would you please tell me I've been reading my Bible?
Of whom does the prophet Isaiah speak?
In the 53rd chapter.
And the rabbi said woman, he turned various colors.
He was embarrassed he could not answer the question, he said. That's a theological question which only US men are to engage in. You go home and take care of your family duties.
And so he turned her away.
She got home. She got on her knees. She had heard of Jesus.
She said Lord.
If it's Jesus that is spoken of.
In this chapter he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with His stripes we are healed.
He was taken as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before shears. His dumb so he opened it, not his mouth. Is this Jesus?
And just as loudly as I'm speaking to you this afternoon, the voice came. This is Jesus.
And she got saved.
Veil was taken away.
And she saw that the key, she had the key now. She could read the Scriptures now for the first time and understand them because she had Jesus.
The Lord Jesus.
Well, it says in verse 15 even unto this day, that when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it the heart, the Jewish heart shall turn to the Lord, the veil should be taken away.
And so the Lord said, Ye shall not see me henceforth, until you say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
I'm reminded of a.
Brother, they visited at you at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and he got to talking to him and he said, what is your hope? So I'm waiting for the Messiah to come.
He said when he comes, I'm going to ask him one question. What is that?
I'm going to ask him, is this the first time or the second time you've been here?
Well, he won't have to ask that question because when he sees him, he'll know, won't he?
You know he's the Messiah.
I believe that it's that kind of Jew that will be that will form the remnant after we're gone.
And I believe that when the Lord takes us home, the rapture, which will be at any moment.
That will trigger faith in the Remnant. Some of them anyway.
Some have wondered.
After we're gone, there won't be anyone that has any faith.
But God can produce that in a moment, and He may produce it through our exiting this scene.
Now verse 17, the Lord is that spirit. I think that should be a small *** there.
It's hard to tell. You see, that's the determination of the translators. The original manuscripts don't have capitals in small letters, so it's up to the judgment of the translator. The Lord is the spirit. He's the spirit of the Old Testament. He, it, it's all about Him. He's the secret.
And then it goes on to say, where the Spirit of the Lord is, the capital S is right there. There's liberty, not *******.
The law brought in ******* fear and dread, terror because man couldn't keep the righteous requirements of the law. But we don't stand before God in a legal righteousness. We stand before God in Christ as our righteousness risen from the dead. He is our life, He is our righteousness, He is our everything. God hath made Him to be sin for us. We might become the righteousness of God in Him.
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Trying to think of how to start that verse.
One Corinthians 130.
But of him of God.
Are ye in Christ Jesus?
Who of God is made unto us, Wisdom.
God, Christ has been made to us from God, wisdom and righteousness.
And sanctification. And redemption.
That according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. He is our righteousness.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Verse 18 Now I'm going to read it as Mr. Darby renders it, but we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, not as in a glass, there's nothing between. We behold the glory of the Lord. We're looking right into the glory, and there's a man there. And from his blessed face radiates the glory of God.
We are changed, we are transformed.
Into or according to the same image, from glory to glory, from 1° of glory to another, even as by the Spirit of the Lord, or even as by the sovereign Spirit, the Lord the Spirit. It's really a verse that testifies to the deity of the Spirit of God.
And the Spirit of God, God himself, the Holy Spirit, transforms us.
According to the same image, from 1° of glory to another as were occupied with Christ in glory.
Christ come down, Philippians 2.
Feeds our souls.
As we feed on him as he was down here in his loneliness, his path of subjection, his path of obedience. But what animates the soul and energizes the soul to run after him and separates from us from this world is is gazing at Christ in glory. He's not here. It's not an earthly object. It's an object altogether outside of this world and how this happens.
How this sanctification, this practical sanctification takes place in the soul, I can't explain it. No one can.
The Spirit of God does it. No one can explain how the little insect in the cocoon gets out and becomes this beautiful butterfly. But it's that very word that's used here to describe the very process of metamorphosis which transforms this little insect into a wonderful, beautiful butterfly. It's the work of the Spirit of God that does that.
And it never fails when we're occupied with Christ in glory.
Problem is, what are we occupied with?
The object before our souls is it Christ. If we're LED of the Spirit of God, it's Christ, because Christ occupies us only with that object.
With, I mean the Spirit of God occupies us only with that object, Christ.
Now chapter 4. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, the ministry of the Spirit.
Not the Ministry of Death.
And the ministry of righteousness and accomplished subsisting righteousness before God. We stand before God in Christ as our righteousness. It's not the ministry of condemnation.
Having this ministry.
We faint not.
As we have received mercy, we think not. Why should Saints who have this kind of ministry given?
Faint, become discouraged, throw up their hands and say it's no use. We've been brought into the highest blessing that God has ever brought any humans into.
Where one with Christ He's given us of His Holy Spirit, we have His own resurrection life.
The spirit of life which is in Christ.
And he's taken up his dwelling in our bodies, and he ministers Christ to us. Oh, we ought to be the most joyous and victorious of all people.
And this grace that it comes from it all, it's all grace. It's the new covenant ministry, which is a ministry of grace, enables us to renounce, as he says in verse 2, we've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness or handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God, the legalist, the one who is under law.
Will always handle the word of God deceitfully. It won't be upright in it, because He'll apply it so as to condemn you, but not him.
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You, but not me if I'm the legalist.
You get an example of that in John 8. They brought this woman to the Lord Jesus. The Pharisees, the legalists did a woman taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses and the law commanded that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou?
They were trying to make a spectacle of her at the expense of the Lord and trap him. They thought that they had him in a in a position where no matter how he answered the question, they could condemn him. If he said stone her, they'd say, you don't have any compassion and mercy. If they said, if he said, let her go free, they would have said, you're breaking the law of Moses. Well, he didn't say either. He said he that is without sin among you, let him first cast the stone at her.
And they, being convicted in their consciences from the oldest to the youngest, went out.
He was left alone with that woman.
When he lifted himself up, having written on the ground the very finger that wrote the 10 commandments, the very finger that wrote Thou shalt not commit adultery, they have quoted the law. Had they quoted it right? No.
They said Moses commanded that she should be stoned. What about the man? Moses commanded both should be stoned, the man and the woman. And since she was caught in the very act, where was the man?
Well, that's the that's just an example of the way people use the law. They use it to their own advantage.
These religious Pharisees were simply making a spectacle of this woman to her shame, putting her to shame. They wouldn't bring the man. Well, this is what Paul is referring to in this chapter. Grace enables us to be honest. Grace enables us to be transparent. We have nothing to hide. We stand before God in His grace. It doesn't depend on our works, doesn't depend on our walk, although our walk should flow from that, but our standing before God.
To us it's the ministry of righteousness and we have the Spirit and He can never be taken from us. We can't breathe him away, We can't seen Him away. We may grieve him, but we won't send him away.
It's been given to us based upon not our, not our being good, not our walking properly, but upon the work of Christ. You remember when the leper was cleansed?
The priest took.
He dipped his finger in the blood, and he put it on the tip of the right ear, the tip of the right thumb, tip of the right toe, where to hear, where to act, where to walk, for God under the value of the blood. And then he took the oil and he placed it on the blood that was on the ear and the thumb and the toe.
The oil is the type of the Holy Spirit sealing us. He was placed upon that oil was placed upon the blood.
So we're sealed by virtue of the perfection of the work of Christ has nothing to do with us or our worthiness. We're not worthy enough one bit.
Were just the trophies.
Of his matchless grace.
And he said to the woman.
Hath no man condemned thee? And she said, No man Lord.
And then he who could have thrown the stone, he who was the only one that was without sin, he said, Neither do I condemn thee.
Go and sin no more. He imparts by grace the power to live without sin.
He's given us all things that pertain to life and to godliness. A righteous standing before God, a new life, the risen life of Christ. The Spirit of God has taken up his abode in us. Now we can walk as he walked.
To say I can't walk as he walked is a denial of Christianity.
To say that we do.
Is a denial of our true condition.
Is a denial? Is saying that God hasn't given me enough to enable me?
To obey him, and he has.
He has.
Verse three of our gospel be hid. It is hid to them that are lost.
In whom the God of this world?
He's spoken of Satan is spoken of as the Prince of this world in connection with the political arena.
We were reading in Daniel 10.
It brother Phil's house and.
The Prince of the Kingdom of Persia, which was an angelic being, he was, he was in a battle. It took three weeks to, to get to answer Daniel's prayer. The, the battles that take place in the unseen world, we know a little about them, but they're there. And so Satan is called the Prince of this world and he he has to do with governments and, and decisions that are made down here and so on.
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He influences the minds of men.
But he's also the God of this world.
And how does he hide the gospel of the grace of God? How does he blind men from seeing the blessedness of it? By false religion as the God of this world?
It says if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom? The God of this world He is the one that is the head of all the false religions in this world, and they have one basic mistake they all make, and that is they place.
Getting blessing on man's responsibility.
They make 2 mistakes. They say that man is not altogether bad.
Is good basically, and he has the power to do good. Both are false. Both of the lives of the devil Man is encouragingly evil and he has no power to choose the good.
That's the truth of God. But God's false religion this, this false God, Satan that, his religion.
Sets up men. He appeals to man's pride and he uses religions, all kinds of religions, but they're all of the same kind. They they assume that man is not altogether ruined and fallen and that he can do good.
And so he blinds their minds.
To them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ not quite accurate enough, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.
We were mentioning last night.
Paul preached 2 aspects of the gospel. The gospel of the grace of God is God coming down to become a man?
God was manifest in the flesh. The gospel of the glory of Christ as man has gone up to the highest place in heaven. He wears, as our hymn writer puts it, He wears our nature on the throne. There's a man in the glory. And that that position of Christ defines our position before God. His place is our place. In him we stand.
A heavenly bent.
The light of the Gospel, of the glory of Christ, is the image of God should shine unto them. He presents false religions as the God of this world to man, so that they do not see.
As long as man thinks that he can make it on his own, as long as he has not accepted that he's encouragingly bad now there's no good in him. From the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. That's the picture God gives us of man He's lost.
He's a stench before God.
Natural man.
No ability to please God. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
So he's given us of his Holy Spirit to put us into a new state and to put us in Christ, our new standing before God.
Well, it's the light of the gospel, of the glory of Christ. Christ has gone on high. He's in that glory. And as we gaze into his face, we see the glory of God radiating from him, the glory of his grace.
Not of His righteous requirements, which we cannot meet.
But the glory of His grace.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.
Ourselves your servants, for Jesus sake.
Whenever Paul had to speak of himself.
In any way. And he did have to do that because it was important that they realized that his ministry was from God, that he was an apostle by the will of God, that he was sent of God to them, and the message that he brought to them was of God. It was absolutely important that they realized this. And the way the enemies sought to discredit the message that he brought was to attack the person that brought it.
He uses the same tactics today.
Same tactics.
There's the attack on people.
In order to discredit the truth that they hold and bring. And so it was then.
We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord.
Paul didn't preach himself anytime he had to speak of himself, he says in the 12TH chapter of this epistle he tells he says I knew a man in Christ about 14 years ago, Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell. God knoweth such in one caught up to the 3rd heaven. He kept that.
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He kept that for over 14 years before he told them. Why did he finally tell them at Corinth? Because their state required it.
And then after he does it, he says, I am become a fool in glory. Ye have compelled me, for I ought to have been commended of you instead.
They had those there that were disparaging Paul.
And whenever he had to speak of himself in that way, it was so that the the truth that he brought to them was established before their souls. It wasn't to promote himself. And whenever he had to do such a thing, he calls himself a fool. And having done it.
He didn't preach himself like so many are doing today. He preached Christ.
We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord in ourselves, Your servants for Jesus sake. Oh he loved to be in that place of a servant.
Proper place for men.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
Why He's going back to Genesis 1 verses one and two. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void, waste and empty darkness was on the face of the deep. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. That was a physical darkness that enveloped this globe. And then God spoke. He said let there be light. There was light. That same God has shined into our sin, darkened hearts, and he said let there be light.
That was light, the light of the gospel.
Beloved, these are such precious things.
We ought to just be in the enjoyment of them every day, every moment we think I am, I'm His, I'm secure, I can never be lost. I stand before God in the very righteousness of Christ Himself.
He's given me his Holy Spirit.
I have such a hope I'm going to be conformed to his image as he goes on in the 5th chapter. We won't have time for that tonight, this afternoon.
But.
To complete the story.
That's where we're headed, that's the end result, that's what he's forming us for.
Oh, what a wonderful portion is ours. We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness and shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face. Where is it? Where do we see the glory of God radiating from the face not of Moses. Now that had to be veiled. That was the glory of the law. That was the legal thing. That's that's.
But the glory of his grace shining in the Savior's face, that's where we see it. The glory of God, the glory of His grace in the face of Jesus Christ.
Then he says, this treasure, this wonderful treasure, these precious things, this truth, this life that we have.
We have it in earthen vessels. These are just vessels of clay, frail, fragile. They can become sick and laid low and die. Oh, what, what fragile vessels we're in. We're just in a in a vessel of clay.
And earthen vessels we have this treasure, but in this vessel the Spirit of God dwells. What a treasure it is, the life of Christ is. And the spirit of life in Christ resides in this treasure. In this vessel what a treasure it is. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
In Christendom, it's quite common to get a very healthy, robust, muscular, dynamic athlete that is a Christian and to display him before the people. That's supposed to be very impressive. They never pick up someone that's weak and frail and and and and sickly and and display him.
That would be that would be more according to what we have here, the truth of God has been deposited in earthen vessels so weak.
And feeble we are, but there's a treasure inside.
And what has to happen in order for that treasure, that light, that life to shine out, to shine out?
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Well, it's a it's an allusion to Gideon's 300. It was a lamp and in a vessel, and at the signal they broke the vessel and the the light shone out, and there was a great victory against the Philistines.
That life, that light shining out, is the life of Christ that resides in the vessel.
1St We have the breaking of the vessel in verses 8:00 and 9:00. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.
We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted but not forsaken. Only he was forsaken. Will never be, will never be.
Cast down but not destroyed will never be destroyed. We have the life of Christ.
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. That's the treasure. The life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. He says the way this is done is I'm always a bearing about in this body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, the putting to death of the Lord Jesus. If you saw a man back in those days when the Lord lived carrying a cross going down the road, you'd say that man's appointed to death.
He is appointed to die.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. What can you do to a man like that? You can't threaten him with death. You'll say, go ahead, kill me. You'll just send me into the presence of my Lord.
He had accepted death as his portion.
He accepted it as his portion and verse 11 is what he received from the world.
For we which live are all we delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. I'm just going to read to you the list that he gives us in this very epistle, Chapter 11 of what he went through.
As always delivered unto death for Jesus sake. I just quickly read it. He speaks of his enemies in verse 22 at Corinth. He says are they Hebrews or am I? Are they Israelites? So am I.
Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. He received the greatest opposition from his Jewish brethren, those he loves. So you know that's the hardest thing to bear when those you love the most hate you.
Hardest thing you?
He says, are they ministers of Christ as speak as a fool? Why that that exalted title, a minister of Christ, that was such an exalted thing to be a minister of Christ. He says no, they're not that I speak as a fool, they profess to be.
I am more, he says.
In stripes in laborers more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths OFT always delivered unto death. For Jesus sake of the Jews. Five times received thy 40 stripes save 140 Stripes times 5 is 200.
-1 for each is 195 stripes they laid on that man.
Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck a night. In the day I have been in the deep, in journeyings, often in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my known countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea and perils among false brethren. In weariness and painfulness. In watchings, often in hunger and thirst, in fastings, often in cold and nakedness.
Always delivered unto death for Jesus sake.
Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Well, that list goes far beyond what you and I have experienced.
But we do have that last burden, don't we?
The.
Of all the churches.
Not in the same way that Paul had, for he was an apostle.
But as John says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth.
And all when we see those that are being turned aside, misled, not going on in the truth.
How grievous that is to us.
And when we realize that those that leave the place of God's appointment where the Lord has said His name, where He is in the midst of his people, and it's all grace.
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And nothing to boast of if we had it before us in Sunday school this morning.
The reason for God's chastening hand can always be traced to our familiar, not someone else's, but to my failure.
Till we come to see that.
But then we realized that those that are being LED astray.
Where they're going to end up? What's going to happen to them?
It's a sad thing to even consider.
The care of all the churches and how the Saints go on.
May God give us an increased burden for these things.
Going back to 2nd Corinthians 4, so then death worketh in US.
That life in you. Notice the end result of verse 10 is that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. Verse 11 That the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Death worketh in us, He says, but life in you. He was willing to accept death as His portion.
Every day.
In order that the life of Christ might operate in the Saints and they might have the blessing.
That God in grace has brought to us.
We having the same spirit of faith according as it is written. I believed and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore speak.
Beloved, we believe. Let's speak, let's tell others of Christ. Let's tell others of the wonderful blessings that He's brought us into.
That he which raised, knowing that this is Christian knowledge of absolute certainty, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus. I believe it ought to read and shall present us with you. The resurrection of Christ is the proof that we're going to be raised absolute certainty. Having such hope, we use great plainness of speech. Let us not faint having this ministry, we faint not.
For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might, through the Thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God.
Paul was delivered.
He was delivered in the 1St chapter. He had the sentence of death in himself. He did not know if he was going to die or not. Facing death always and God delivered him. He says That was for your sakes.
And they gave thank God for it because he was left here so that they could still profit from his ministry. That was a blessing to the Saints as well as his own deliverance. It was blessing to them. So it redounded to the glory of God, Thanksgiving to God. For which 'cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, there's another expression for which 'cause we think not, He says it over and over again. We don't faint. We keep on, we press on, no matter what the opposition.
Is no matter how much discouragement there is to turn us out of the way, we continue. We press on.
We think not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
And now we've just read the list of what he went through. Notice what he says here. Our light affliction. Light affliction, Paul.
Light affliction.
Our light affliction, which is but for a moment.
He's looking at eternity, he's looking at the blessings, he's looking at our portion. He's lifted above this scene into that heavenly atmosphere where all is light and peace and joy and love. Our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Light affliction in contrast with weight of glory.
For a moment, in contrast with eternity.
While we look not at the things which are seen the end of chapter 3, as we look at the glory of the Lord by the Spirit, now here again we're looking at the things which are not seen.
But at the things which are not seen, we don't look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen or the things which are seen are temporal, therefore a time.
But the things which are not seen are eternal. What does it matter?
Really. In the light of eternity.
Whether we have it good here or bad here, if we're going to spend eternity.
With Christ and glory.
What does it really matter?