Second Corinthians 2:12-17 Triumph
2 Corinthians 2:12-17 · Mike Doyle · Dec 12, 2021
Letters to the Corinthians, No. 87
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261925217577

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

As I read today, these verses will finish up chapter two. The interesting about this epistle is the way in which the historical details as to Paul's movements around and experience form a kind of framework, in the middle of which is set the unfolding of really important truth. which is introduced rather in the form of detours or lookbacks, and they're pretty lengthy sometimes. If you remember, this epistle opened up with sufferings and trouble in Asia, and the consequent change in his plans, and this led to an important detour in chapter one, verses 19 through 22. Then he picks up the thread as to his subsequent movements only to deviate further in chapter two as to the forgiveness of a repentant sinner.

So in slide one, now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened to me in the Lord I didn't have any rest, or I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother. But taking my leave from them, I went on to Macedonia." So, again, he's talking about his movements. He makes a brief visit to Troas, and we've got to distinguish it from what you read in Acts 20, verse 6. And apparently he came there between the departure from Ephesus and his arrival in Macedonia only on his way through, which is Acts 20, verse 1.

Now, he had returned to Ephesus from his first visit to Corinth, and that was a really painful visit because there were a lot of problems with the church. And then when he leaves, he sends Titus back to Corinth with the letter, which we know is 1 Corinthians. And Paul may have left Troas because of the riot that Demetrius caused that was provoked in Ephesus. And that, I'm sorry, that may be why he went to Troas. originally, but he had planned to leave Ephesus anyway since he had set up this meeting with Titus in Troas or Macedonia, either one of those places.

I find it interesting that Paul, as we talked about last week, didn't want to go back to Corinth under the present circumstances. So it would be like me going to Roger and saying, hey Roger, would you go back and check out these guys and then let me know how it's going? So, but Paul had a great reason for not going and that is he loved them. We talked about that last week.

So, and this is also in Ephesus is where Paul got the vision that said, go to Macedonia, go there, there's a lot going on there. So, he left Troas and he moved to the west in the province of Macedonia. And because he felt he was distressed due to the opposition in Ephesus, and plus he was really stressed about Corinth. And he had a concern for Titus.

So he's gonna start to teach us a little bit about how does a servant make decisions about things? If a servant is not at rest in his spirit, I don't think he can effectively serve the Lord. You gotta be at rest about what he's called you to do. There are two things here that Paul was concerned about.

One was his deep-seated desire to spread the gospel. That's what he means when he said that he got to Troas and a door was opened, opportunity. Paul, if he's anything, he's an evangelist. Yet he didn't find Titus there and that bothers him because he wants to find out about what's going on. With the Corinthians, though, he still has a deep-seated need for the saints who were in danger of compromising Christ. That's from Corinth.

So he's conflicted. Kosobel says the reason Paul included the information of these transitional verses appears to have been to help his readers appreciate his anxious concern for their welfare, which Titus was to report to him. It was further to explain the reason for his movements. You remember back a few weeks ago, one of the criticisms he had about him is that he can't make up his mind about anything. He's going over here and going over here and going over here.

And Paul didn't leave Troas because he was acting on emotions, just the emotions of the moment because he had a deep concern for the Corinthians. So this is the last of Paul's explanation of his recent conduct. So when he said, I had no rest in my spirit, not finding Titus my brother, but taking leave of them, I went to Macedonia. So what do we see here? We see the exercise of a man's heart who loves the Corinthians and he goes to Troas and he's hoping to find Titus, so Titus could give him a report. And he really cares about these people to the point that he leaves one ministry to keep going with another. The open door was set before him by the Lord. Those doors don't just happen to open.

But he was unable to benefit from it due to his great anxiety about the Corinthians. In this case, his pastoral devotion, his devotion as a pastor to the Church of Corinth, prevailed against his evangelistic fervor. He really wanted, you know, everywhere he went, that's what his job was. The purpose of him coming into a new region in the face of a district opening up for the work resulting in saving souls, he couldn't rest without hearing about the Corinthians. He had hoped to have heard the news from Titus, but he didn't find Titus, so he turns, turning back on the eastern side where he was, he headed back to Macedonia. Notice where his heart is, his heart is on the saints at Macedonia, or in Corinth. Lots of anxiety going on.

So, it turns out that the church in Corinth has a greater claim on him, and he acts on it. It's not only that the letter had been written, bore witness of his love for them, in grief over the grave circumstances of the Corinthian assembly, but he also, his relinquishment of the work that really what he was sent out to do. And he valued that work tremendously. He started churches wherever he went. And this in spite of a door that was clearly open to him. His heart was tried.

He thought of the saints and of his own letter. Would they accept his judgment? Would they accept what God had told him to write to them in the light of what was going on there? Would they resent him? Would they resent the plan that he gave them, however affectionate were his appeals? So it's kind of a critical situation for him. But he does leave Troas, and he goes to where he hoped to hear more from Titus about what was going on.

It's interesting how he writes this, and he's looking back, and he is equally conscious that God had overruled it to the glory of Christ. He just didn't make the decision based on emotion. It led him to an outburst of thanksgiving, which we will see in the next few verses. It's also led him once more to deviate from his account of his experience, which he does now. He starts to deviate in verse 14, and it goes all the way to chapter seven, verse five. Paul had been in Troas before, going down to Ephesus. Originally, he had a dream there, as I mentioned, and calling him over to Macedonia.

But it isn't simply evangelistic work. He's an apostle, and he's a teacher, and he's a pastor. As an evangelist, it's interesting, if you're an evangelist, you have this mindset. You would say, those poor souls are all perishing. He must not blame another laborer or undertake another's work. He will take up the work before him in love to the souls that are lost.

If you've ever read Hudson Taylor, Hudson Taylor, as a young man, had a burden for the Chinese. In his day and age, the only way to get to China was on a sailing boat. and there were no communications, but he said there's so many people there that a million of them are dying every day without the gospel. As a young man, that's what was on his heart.

So Paul had been to Troas before and went down to Ephesus. Originally, he had a dream there, as we talked about. So that led me to think about this. How does one decide which way to go? And John Darby had the best answer I've seen. He says the only way to obtain guidance in work is by living close to the Lord. That's how you know. He shall not have Like when he first went out on a missionary journey that the Lord said, separate unto me Barnabas and Saul now, do it now. But the Lord will send by laying on one's heart.

And then that may be, might be by circumstance, might be by something else. Roger and I may be led to preach or teach And we might find the way open to us by some circumstance, which it was, of some kind, and led to an outward thing. Who knows what the circumstances are, but whatever is presented, there's an opportunity there, and what do you do about it? How do you make the decision? Sometimes we think it's providence. Sometimes we think it's just circumstantial. So to what degree then we have guidance definitely is another question. But there is such a thing as Paul says here, there's an opportunity opened up to me. Like when he had the dream to go to Macedonia.

There was nothing in the word of God. Darby says this is kind of interesting. He said there was nothing in the word of God telling me to go to Belfast. Is there anything in the word of God to tell you to go to Arkansas? No. There was nothing there. So how do you decide?

In the absence of guidance, don't do anything but a testimony where you are. Preach the gospel to every creature is the general truth. Only we get guidance in doing it and open doors guidance in itself in a certain sense. Darby says if your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light. And if I do find my whole body full of light, will I say to myself, oh maybe your eye is or isn't single. It's no use to say it is or it's not.

I may find that out as one effect of my doubt. The point is, we all find ourselves in positions where we think we should approach someone and talk to them about the Lord, or we should approach someone and reconcile them back to the Lord. We talked about that in 1 Corinthians. There could be direct guidance sometimes. I can't call it into question when it is given, but it's not fantasism. You just know.

We get impressions by living with Christ. He gives a good example here. He said, John did not go and get a place near Christ in order to know his secrets. But he had a place near Christ, and then the secrets were given to him. We have a place near Christ in his heart, near the Father. We already have that place, and that's where the secrets are heard and known from his word.

Only you cannot go properly to Christ as John to ask unless you are living near him. Intimacy with Christ is critical for us. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Darby says you must live near the Lord or you cannot reckon rightly on being guided.

God's mercy may come in at a time, at any time, and the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him or are amazed by him. I should have filled I should be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual understanding." I think he's absolutely right about that. I think that the nearness we are to the Lord Jesus, the closer we are. to him on a moment by moment basis, the clear directions are to us. He tells us, and we understand, I should go this way and not that way.

When you think about it, Paul has two spiritual opportunities in front of him, Corinth and Troas. He picks Corinth. Why? Both of them were important and both of them were ministries that he was supposed to do and had been called to do, but the Lord made Corinth more important to him.

He got that information. William Kelly says, but Paul turns his joy over there being brought to repentance, the Corinthians, and a recognition of his apostolic authority as well as his loving services. into a thanksgiving to God, who instead of letting him feel his abandonment of the evangelistic work, He always loads us in triumph in Christ and makes manifest the odor of his knowledge through us in every place.

So what happens? By the way, these slides, these next four or five slides, if you look at the bottom, you'll see that they were done in July 2004 by Hal Malloy. Roger sent him to me and I looked at him and I said, boy, I can't do better than these. These are great.

So notice this verse, but thanks be to God who always leads us in his triumph in Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place. Hal said, note the word is not thankful to God, even though God has given them the knowledge of himself. I'm sorry, the world is not thankful to God, even though God has given them the knowledge of himself. And he references Romans 1, 19 and 21. And those verses are, because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. So if you ever hear somebody say, well, gee, I don't know anything about God. Yeah, you do.

For since the creation of the world, that's a good place to start, his inevitable attributes, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, statement of fact, they did not honor him as God or give thanks because they became futile in their speculations and their foolish hearts were darkened. The world is not thankful to God, even though God has given them the knowledge of himself.

Look at what we believers can be thankful for. We can be thankful for his teaching. We can be thankful for his word through which we learn. Romans 6.17 says, but thanks be to God, even though we were slaves to sin, You became obedient from the heart, that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, you became the slaves of righteousness. We talked about that in Sunday school this morning. We are free from sin. We are the slaves of righteousness.

We have the victory we have in Christ, 1 Corinthians 15, 17. We have his indescribable gifts of righteousness through Christ, 2 Corinthians 9, 5. So, question. What two things in this passage does this passage say that we can be thankful for? We can be thankful for the fact that He is always leading us in triumph in Christ, and He is always making known the knowledge the word gnosis, which means objective truth of Christ through us, revealing his glory through us. We are the vehicles that God uses for the making known of the knowledge of him.

So, right here in 2 Corinthians is the beginning of the main teaching of this whole epistle. It's regards to his service, the one thing he knew that he really and truly trusted in, he set forth is Christ himself. We're gonna find out in the last verses, there were many who manipulated the word of God to serve their own ends, and boy, do we see that today. Paul, on the other hand, spoke with all sincerity of God and as in the sight of God and as representing Christ. Christ was and is the great theme. Therefore God led him in triumph.

So let's talk for a second. Oops, did I go too far? Yeah, I did. What does it take to be triumphant? Molloy says leading in triumph means a focus on the display of the glory of the conquerors after victory. I can expand on that, I'll expand on it in a minute, how this metaphor that he uses is something that the Corinthians and all those who lived in the Roman Empire would really understand. We are in Christ, our leader, who is triumphant over all of his enemies.

What a triumph is, we would call it a parade. Whenever a Roman general with his army went out and conquered somebody. He always came back to town with slaves and conquered people and merchandise and all kinds of stuff. And the Senate would give him a parade. And they called it a triumph. So when you factor that in, we are in Christ our leader who has triumphed over all of his enemies. Yes, we are.

Colossians 2.15 says, when he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him. We are super conquerors in Christ.

Romans 8.37, but in all things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. Interesting how. the word of God tells us what we are.

And then we say, well, I don't know if I really believe that or not. So we had, again, Sunday school, we had this great discussion through Romans 8 about all this wonderful, these wonderful pronouncements that God tells us as believers. And we are left with If we wanna be free, practically, conditionally, we walk by faith. If you don't walk by faith, you're back under the slave tyranny of sin.

Christ is displaying his glory through us to the world. He's revealing his glory, and Roger will start next week in chapter three. That's what the whole chapter is about, the revealing of God's glory. So Malloy asked the question, do believers still have enemies? And who is enemy number one in your life? And don't tell me it's the Detroit Lions. We can thank God that Christ has conquered all of our enemies. He has conquered all of our enemies. He's conquered all principalities and all powers. He's already done it. He has conquered enemy number one.

Eloy says it's your sin nature. And I think he's right about that. You think about who we are. We're recreated in Christ. Positionally, we've been separated from all that's not of him. Yet he has left us in a sinful dying body with a sin nature that's still active. Our death with Christ separated us from the sin nature. It never says the sin nature died. It's still active and it's still trying to control us.

And if anything, like all law, as soon as you say don't, it's gonna prove that the don't isn't really valid. You know, the two-year-old with the glass or the cookie on the table, don't touch it, what's the first thing they're gonna do? Go for the cookie, right?

William Kelly says, the illusion to a Roman triumph where aromatics were burnt profusely. And on this too, he ceases to illustrate the going forth everywhere around of his testimony to Christ in the gospel. But the sweet perfumes in a triumphal procession were accompanied by life to some of the captives and by death to others. And this is naturally as powerfully turned to a point of twofold issue of the gospel. Harry Ironside said, when a Roman general had been out into some distant land to put down an uprising or to win the lands for the Roman Empire, to defeat great armies, the Senate frequently voted him a triumph, a parade. When he and his army returned to Rome, a public holiday was declared, and all the people thronged to the main thoroughfare to see the general enter in his triumph.

Here is a long line of captives, representative of the people he had just conquered. They're in chains. but they're all holding censers in their hands and with incense and there's aroma coming off. They were all required to do that. Then comes the general and behind him another long line of captives with their censers.

So the whole parade route has an aroma. The problem was is that in the front you might be set at liberty at the end of the parade. and the fragrance of incense and that odor is life to them. But those coming behind the general, they're gonna go to the arena and die straight away. So their aroma is a fragrance of death to them. The general marches on in triumph. There is some with the savor of life and some with the savor of death.

John Darby says another thing he's able to thank God for, which always, always, always leads us about in triumph in Christ. He might have said, if I had but a little more faith, I might have stayed at Troas and preached the gospel there. but he comforts himself that he is led about in triumph everywhere he goes. It's really interesting. In a real sense, Paul can't make a wrong decision because he's led about in triumph wherever he goes. It is the thought of the captives led in a triumphal procession and he knew that he was Christ's prisoner. He was feeling about the saints having left Troas when an open door was there. God leads me about in triumph wherever I go.

We see a heart that has been broken about and is over full here. It is deeply instructive and it's beautiful too to watch Paul's heart. If a person teaches or he preaches and he doesn't get any results, It may be the Lord exercising his faith, his patience, especially if he thinks he has a right to convert people.

Sometimes a person may have a gift, but he does not go to the right place. He goes where the door is shut. When Darby quotes from, this is a quote from Darby, he said, when the Moravians, first went out to Greenland, which it must have been green in those days. They were there 13 years without a single soul.

They were arranging to go away, to leave, but thought that they would try one more year. And then as they were reading the account of Christ's sufferings, someone came and listened and said, read those words again. And it resulted in his conversion. And the truth burst out and numbers were brought in. You do have to look for guidance in the work. You may be forbidden to preach in Asia. Or you may be sent to Macedonia instead. And if you follow the leading and go to Macedonia, you will get the working of God directly. Paul says, God makes manifest the savior of his knowledge by us, for we are unto God and unto Christ a sweet saver. So he didn't distinguish between saints and others, but he said, God led me about in triumph because I do not know what best to do.

Verse 15 says, we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. Malloy asked the question, how does God fulfill his eternal purpose of revealing his glory to mankind? He does it through believers. He does it through us. We are the sweet savor or fragrance of the knowledge and the glory of Christ. Molloy says to three parties, the first one to God himself, to God himself. The glory of Christ is manifested through us and it's very pleasant to God and not necessarily to men.

The second group is among those who are being saved. What are these believers being saved or delivered from? It is not God, passive voice, delivering us, present tense, moment by moment, from all the difficult circumstances that he's mentioned previously. Tribulation, affliction, being afflicted, suffering, sin. But he's delivering us from sin itself. The thing sin.

And three, where is this revealing of his glory to mankind is among those who are perishing. Like it or not, the revealing of the Lord Jesus, this aroma that goes out, also goes to those who are perishing. So what does God do? He divides all of mankind into two groups. those who are being saved, and those who are perishing. Not extinction, but loss of well-being for all eternity. So there really are only two groups of people on the earth today, those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

Darby says that a sweet savor in them that perishes is an allusion to an old practice after victories. of burning incense to the gods, the Roman gods, and then sometimes they killed some of the people. The gospel was a sweet savor anyway, but it was for death if you rejected the gospel.

So the language that Paul uses seems to be based on a custom according to the triumph of victorious generals. These sweet odors were burned and some of the captives who helped to augment the triumph were appointed to die and some were appointed to live. The triumph was Christ's triumph. But Paul had a share in it as a spreading abroad of the sweet odor.

We do too, everywhere he went, everywhere we go. The odor is infinitely fragrant to God. Your life is fragrant to God. So he says in verse 16, to the one an aroma from death to death. and to another an aroma from life to life. And who's adequate for these things? What a great question.

So Paul preached Christ as the one who died and rose again. That was his message. Whether men believed and were saved or whether they believe not and perish. If they believe not and were perishing, then the tidings of the death of Christ simply meant death to them. If he died for sins and they refused him, they certainly must die in their sins. If some believe the good news, of his life and resurrection. It brought the odor of life for them, because they lived, because he lived, they should live also. So you see, the same aroma affects people, whether saved or not, differently.

I've had a lot of people call me up and say, boy, I'm in this environment. Why are all my old friends that I used to hang around with before I was saved, they don't really like hanging around with me anymore. And you know what? I'm not so hot about hanging around with them either.

I tell them it's because they smell. Smell what? You have the aroma of death to them. You being in the same room smells like death to them. Well, how come after I become a Christian I just sort of like hanging around with these Christian guys? It's because they have the aroma of life and so do you. You wouldn't think that something like an aroma would have an effect on people like it does.

But here, Paul clearly lays it out that it does. The last slide from Molloy, verse 16, to the one aroma from death to death, the other an aroma from life. Who is adequate or sufficient for these things? So Molloy asks the question, what's meant by the expression death unto death and life unto life? He says those perishing and those being saved fall under God's operating principle.

It's an important part here. If you look at Romans 8-2, Romans 8 says the new principle of life in Christ Jesus. That's one principle. The new principle of life in Christ Jesus or the old principle of sin and death. God's two principles. The principle of sin and death for those who are perishing. You live under the principle of sin and death. For those who have life, you live under the principle of those who have the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Life. So death, the principle of death, separation from Adam, unto death, separation from God now and for all eternity, or life, the principle of life in Christ Jesus, Christ's life now and for all eternity. It won't change.

And a good example of this was Joseph was a saver of death to the baker and a saver of life to the butler in Genesis 40. Remember, he's in prison. and his fellow prisoners discover that he can interpret dreams. So the baker and the butler come to him and say, hey, can you interpret our dreams? And he does, and he says to the baker, you know, I haven't got good news for you. Your dream means that you're gonna die. to the steward, who was the steward, he said, I've got great news for you. Your dream means that you're gonna live and that you're gonna get out of jail. So that's a good example in the Old Testament.

Joseph had a savor about him. To one person, it smelled like death. The other person, it smelled like life. Do you and I have the sufficiency to be this aroma of Christ? Roger gets to answer that question in two weeks in chapter three, verse five. We might answer it today, though. To the one aroma of death, and to the other aroma of life to life, who's adequate? So the question has been raised by Paul, who's sufficient for these things? It is raised but not answered immediately. Like I said, it's gonna be in verse five of the next chapter.

Because the whole point of being of God, there is no sufficiency but of God. Would that every servant of God always bore this in mind. What deep tone earnestness it would produce in us. What dependence upon the power of God. how carefully we should be not to adulterate the message, make the message clear, and not to carry out the work just as we think it's best, or as we think it should be, but we are servants according to God's word.

Harry Ironside said it this way. Let me put it this way, he said, I stand up and try to preach. I attempt to give the gospel of the grace of God, knowing my message is to have a double effect. Some people are gonna believe it, and it will be added to their joy for all eternity. Some people are gonna refuse it, and it will make it worse for them if they had never heard it at all. I may say, my God, I would rather not preach than make it worse for man in eternity. But God says, go on and preach.

Preach my word. It is your business to give out the word. Whether they receive it or reject it, the responsibility is theirs. So the question is, who is sufficient for these things? The answer in verse five of the next chapter is our sufficiency is of God.

So note that there's a different Greek word, words, translations for the word savor. In verse 14, it's the word smell, odor, or fragrance of any kind. In verse 15, it's a good smell. It's a good odor. And back in this verse 16, it's back to a smell or an odor of any kind. So, Malloy emphasizes it like this. I thought this was really good. It would take me a month to put one of these together.

What God is to us. God, leading us in triumph in Christ. You and I abiding in Christ. That aroma goes out from us. It's made known, the savor, the aroma, the knowledge and glory of Christ to your family, to friends, to neighbors, everywhere. What if you, with the people that don't know Christ, That aroma, it goes out to the ones being saved or to the ones lost. To the ones perishing is death unto death.

You're still doing what you do. You're abiding in Christ, walking in the Spirit as best you know. And that is really, really important to us. The issue is their response is their responsibility. So to end up this section, Paul says, for we're not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. So how solemn then is the effect of true preaching of Christ? Huge eternal issues hang in the balance of your preaching. This is so whether the lips that preach it are Paul's in the first century or ours in the 21st century.

Again, John Darby says, Paul turns back to himself. We are not like many which corrupt the word of God or adulterate it or make trade of it. It is but to suit yourself to your customers. I've been a salesman all my life and that's one of the principles. Suit yourself to your customers so you might win them over. I've thought a long time about the way the gospel message is presented to the lost and how it's gotten compromised over the years to try to enter in and identify with the lost so that you might win some.

But that isn't the gospel message. The gospel message is, We stand in Christ and we are aroma to the lost and what are we asking them to do? Leave where you are and come over to Christ. We're not going there, you come to Christ. You're in death, life is over here.

That's what the real message is. So when, read this verse, we're not like the many. Paul didn't, like many, traffic in the word of God. But as of the transparency, not this only, but as of God, and to this, too, with the present sense of having to do with him. Now think about this. We speak in Christ before God, which is far more intimate and forcible than merely speaking of him. Yet even such solemn words did not hinder men and even saints too soon and down to our day to make the ministry of the gospel a stepping stone for earthly gain.

I can't help but mention the $400,000 found in the wall of a church that everybody read about in the last couple of weeks. There were 400 envelopes in there, all this money. And you know when you can, I mean you can tell with contemporary preachers within three minutes when they start to talk whether they are a true purveyor of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ or they're in it for themselves. You can smell it. It is again. So the word corrupt here is a Greek word used of small trading and suggests the thought of grafting.

Paul says, we're not one of those. We're not one of those hucksters of the word of God. In other words, we're not of those who are giving out the word of God for the money we can get out of it. We're not willing, we're not selling the word of God. We're seeking to minister God's truth for a blessing of his people and the salvation of souls.

What a wonderful thing it is to be led in Christ's triumph. We went down into death, he went down into death, he came up in triumph. Having spoiled principalities and powers, and he made an open show of them, he triumphed over them, and we're linked to him in this. Revelation 118 says, I am he that lives and was dead, and behold, I'm alive forevermore. So in closing, I have a quote from J.B. Stoney.

You must receive before you confer. You must be out of the nest and have learned to fly before you can build a nest and serve others. But as the lily of the valley, you may fill a circle with fragrance before the tender grape gives a good smell. You may not have the ripe fruit, but you may always be a lily.

The more simply devoted you are, we are, to him who is worthy of all devotion, the more fragrance there will be in all of your ways. For it will be manifested that you are not seeking yourself, not wincing because your rights are invaded, or that you are not so much cared for as you are entitled to be, but that there is only one governing thought in your life about everything, and that is how you may distinguish him who fills every blank in your heart and lights it up with unfading joy.

Let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. What a triumphant he is. Father, that we may learn to be in that parade, which is really to be in the one who that parade is all about. that we may be able to rest and manifest his life to the world. We thank you. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.