God ordains trials and suffering to reveal His Glory-3

Good morning. You know, these verses we've been going through are pretty exciting verses because when you recognize there are certain truths that you kind of just go by sometimes and don't realize how important they are, that the glory of God is perceivable in the face of Jesus Christ.

And then it says, we have this treasure, that's the treasure. in these earthen vessels, which are these little crummy pots that probably cost less than a penny a piece and break real easily, that that treasure is in those pots, and we're the pots. The treasure's the Lord Jesus. And so the idea, as it goes down, is that the pot becomes nothing so that the real treasure can come forward. So what happens is death works in us so that there might be life in you. And so when we get all the way down to verse 13, having put that in place, and oh, by the way, for those of you who aren't here every week, our church does something that's kind of unique in Christianity today.

We teach line by line from God's word. And, you know, we try to avoid opinions, although that's pretty hard to do sometimes. But whatever God's word says, that's what we're trying to talk about. So when he says, having the same spirit of faith, according to what it is written, I believe, therefore I spoke. We also believe, and therefore we spoke, or we speak.

And the New American Standard translation says in verse 14, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. I was looking through different translations and there's a Weymouth translation which I kind of like sometimes. This translation says, for we know that he who raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead will raise us also to be with Jesus and will cause both of us to stand in his presence.

So, breaking it down a little bit, what do we know and how does that word know work here? It means to know by perception. We become aware of it. And this principle of knowing as active voice, first person, we know right now. We know exactly now. That's what he's saying. And what do we know?

You know, lots of times when you talk to people, you say, well, what do you know? Well, one I know from this verse that he's the father. He's the one who raised up Jesus. having raised him up and demonstrating the greatest power ever displayed. And he is the one who raised up Jesus. So we know that much. What else do we know?

He did it for a purpose. He did it to place us beside him, the Lord Jesus, to stand beside him. Now a little geeky Greek here. This is indicative mood. And when you see the indicative mood, it means this is reality. This is real. It's future tense. It's going to happen in the future. And it's active voice. He's going to do it.

So Paul believed, I think in this context, that physical death was not the end of his existence, obviously, but that the resurrection power of God is right now, this minute, at work in him, and it would continue working in him even after physical death. So God's power would unite Paul with his fellow believers, whom God would also resurrect and present. We talk a lot about the resurrection process, but we don't talk a lot about the presenting process, that God is gonna present to himself the Lord Jesus, who is totally acceptable to him, and us with him because we're totally acceptable to him because we're in Christ.

So if you take a look at Ephesians 5.27, it says that he might present, this is the same word, to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot, or wrinkle or any kind of that thing, any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. It's hard for us to imagine that we're gonna be presented before God in this way. There won't be anything that would detract from our being totally acceptable. The Lord Jesus will present us to himself in all our glory, which is from him, with no stains, no spots, no folds, no wrinkles, nothing of that kind.

When he says holy, it's used in the plural here. So it just isn't the Lord Jesus, it's all of us. It's used of believers, and it designates, we're not all gonna get there, and he's gonna say, well, Mike, you're not as holy as, I wish Courtney was here, as Courtney is. So you have to stand in the back. That's not the way it goes. We all are presented with Christ in a line, maybe put it that way.

In Colossians 1.22, he says, yet, He has now reconciled you in his flesh, fleshly body through death in order, why? To present you before him holy and blameless and without reproach. That's all you.

1 Thessalonians 4.14 says, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, That's your ticket in. If you believe that the Lord Jesus died for your sins, was buried and resurrected, if you just believe that, what's the outcome? Even so, God will bring you with him to heaven. those who have fallen asleep or physically died in Christ. So if Monique happens to have gone to be with the Lord last week and the rapture happens tomorrow, she gets in.

We get in. All believers who have accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior are gonna get presented. The fact that he will present you with us is to stand in His presence. Now, lots of circumstances within the church, with outside the church, are efforts to lower the meaning and to disconnect us from difficulties in our life and in the future. And if we're having difficulties, maybe we won't be presented. Here it is, a presentation of all of us together in glory. whether the servants or those who served in grace, all being raised on a common principle with their master, who is their life, after he died for them. That comes from William Kelly. F.W. Grant quotes, what are present trials in comparison to such a prospect?

How blessed it is that nothing shall be able to separate the saints from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. So God will have together in glory those who on earth were exposed to all kinds of problems, all kinds of devices and destructive influences.

The sovereignty of God is what alone gives rest to the believer. He's sovereign. And I'm sorry, to the Christian's heart and view of the world full of evil, which has gone astray from him. We're now praying for the Ukraine and people in the Ukraine, believers. And well, what's gonna happen? Well, we have a sovereign God.

He's in charge of all of that. No matter what those people think, God is in charge. To know after all that in spite of the rebellion of the creature, Things are absolutely in his hands, as ever they were. I think this alone brings us relief from that kind of stress. God rules over all.

And where evil can't be turned to good, he limits it, or he forbids it. You quote from Psalm 76, says, he makes the wrath of man to praise him. And the remainder of wrath, what would go beyond this, he restrains it. I was thinking the other day when they start invading Ukraine. Well, Lord, I'm waiting for this wrath of man to praise you. And it'll be there. We just don't see it yet.

A constable said, why did Paul continue to serve the Lord faithfully even though it meant severe suffering for him? Why did he do that? He believed that, as the psalmist did, that the inner conviction about the truth must result in an outward confession of that truth, 1 Corinthians 9.16. And second, when Paul could serve the Lord no longer because he died physically, God's power would raise him from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus Christ guarantees the resurrection of believers. And then he goes on and he says in verse 15, all things are for your sake.

Why? So that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. All things is always for God's glory. Everything that is done is for his glory. But as its object, it is for the elect's sake. It's for your sake and mine, the church. This is a truth here that the church said everything was for their sakes. All this, even in Paul, from John Darby.

What I find interesting is that, yeah, everything is for God's glory, but He values us so much that He does everything for our sake, for our benefit. Through time and eternity, the God of circumstances has every situation planned for our good and for His glory.

Romans 8.28 tells us, for we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. Why? So that He would be the firstborn, the first in rank among many brethren.

To think for just two seconds that everything that's going on in your life, everything is to conform you to the image of Christ is an astounding thought. Is that what he's doing? He's not making me a really great Christian. No, he's conforming me to the image of Christ. Why is he doing that? Because Christ is the one he finds all his satisfaction in. So if he conforms you to, you get to get presented as satisfied about you as he is about his son. Why should this matter to us? Because God is sovereign, and the wrath of man praises Him no matter what they think.

William Kelly tells us what an answer by the apostle to the affections of Christ. And certainly it was not in word or feeling only, but in deeds and suffering which proved its reality in death. It was endurance with joyfulness and love, its source for the saints of God. And he looked for fruit accordingly. And if it fell to such as himself to suffer in the service of many, the grace which so worked might be more widespread, cause more thanksgiving to go up from all that reap the blessings to the glory of God.

Everything in this whole context means that we, as we understand what he's done and for our sakes, what do we do? We are the causes of giving thanks to God's glory. Constable says that this concluding statement also reflects the apostles' sincere desire for the Corinthians' welfare. All Paul had been experiencing would result in the Corinthians' good and God's glory. So if you know those two things, that everything that's going on is for the good of the Corinthians or the good of you in Christ and for God's glory, it puts the purpose in play. Paul would gladly endure suffering for the gospel in view of this prospect.

There is in us the consciousness of utter weakness and exposure, no kidding. But also we're aware of the fact that there's a most powerful kind of force, which we call resurrected power, which sustains us in the face of all trials and sufferings. Faith is what God has already formed in Christ risen. The hope of what he will do for us who believe in him and the love which bears all for the blessing of all things. So all things being for our sake so that the grace which is spreading more and more to more and more people. Paul had brought God's grace to the Corinthians. And now the Corinthians were taking that grace to other people and to other places.

Thankfulness is always the proper response for God's grace. You know, when we did the series on what grace is, and it's the Greek word charis, and what's the best way to response to grace is to say thank you. You know what the Greek word for thank you is? Charis, same word.

As God's grace expanded in their hearts and through them reached ever increasing numbers, so too the volume of the thanksgiving to God for the receipt of illumination. Back in 4.6, for God who said, light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

That would increase, and that promise would glorify God. So, so far, Paul gives three reasons for his refusal to become discouraged as he served the Lord. The first, in the past, he had received divine commission to proclaim a new and better eternal covenant between the Father and the Son. From verse one, therefore, since we have this ministry, As we have received mercy, we don't lose heart.

Second, in the future, you look forward to sharing Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead. Verse 14, knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will raise us also up with Jesus and will present us with you. He knew that too. And in the present, right now, He had the opportunity to promote the Corinthian spiritual warfare and to promote the glory of God. Therefore, we don't lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

So how should we think about our trials? How should we look at them? Well, when you start, for all things are for our sakes, that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, rebound to the glory of God? Since He is both my God and my Father, and since all relationships He takes me through and hardships He takes me through are specifically designed to conform me to the image of the Lord Jesus, how can I help but trust Him? And how can I help but rejoice in His faithfulness?

It is well to remember that the deepest, and by the way, some of this stuff now came out of the hungry hearts, because it's such a great source, especially of suffering. It is well to remember that the deepest and truest spiritual qualities are not learned or established in us by our happy and joyful times. but in difficult ones. There's nothing wrong with happy times. Nothing wrong with times of great joy and spiritual blessing.

In fact, we long for more of them. And look back perhaps to some days of much blessing in our lives. or in the work of the Lord, but in the securing of Christ in greater measure in our life, we find that it is by the things that we suffer that we learn the most. I think everybody in this room can attest to that. So let us give thanks for the joyful days, and learn what the Lord intends by those days of waiting and difficulty.

And that's a quote from, you know, a lot of these brethren writers, they just give their initials and you don't know who they are. Well, this is CJBH. I have no idea who he is. Faith doesn't ask for props from men and things around us. Faith finds all its springs in God. And that's why it is that faith never shines so brightly as when all around is dark. It is when nature's horizon is overcast with the blackest clouds that faith baths in the sunshine of divine favor and faithfulness. C.H. Macintosh.

We believe, as the psalmist declares, that every step of his life's pathway has been ordered by the Lord. No trial or affliction can reach us who are abiding in him without his permission. We can therefore be confident in every circumstance of life. However baffling it may be to us, that it has been permitted in our best interest by the wisest and most loving of fathers, who knows our load limit." That's from a man named Sanders.

Everything we go through is designed so that we may get a fresh view of the Lord Jesus. or a deepening of a former one. But often, we are so occupied with ourselves and the circumstances that we fail to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus in it. One purpose which our Father has in view in all of the things he does, as we've said, is to conform us to the image of his Son. It explains a lot about what may happen in the past, what has happened in the past. It governs our behavior in the present and it'll give us guidance for the future. The chief concern of our Lord is not to instruct us about a multitude of details and not to explain to us the reason for the trials which we are called to go pass through, although many times he does explain. He's working out everything to serve the supreme purpose in displaying the character of his son in the redeemed ones. So we can say all things are for our sakes.

Why? So that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound in the Lord of glory. Sometimes at the end of a trial or sometimes in the middle of the trial, you sit down and you realize, I'm thankful for this because I've learned so much. I've grown some, so I'm thankful for the trial.

Psalm 37 tells us, though he fell, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. If the spiritual plannings of men or Satan further God's plans, they succeed. If not, they don't come to anything. So he says, therefore, we don't lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. Why don't we lose heart? Well, Romans 8, 18 tells us, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not to be compared or worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. We've talked about that. The more we understand where we're headed and being presented with the Lord Jesus, it begins to show the sufferings is not that big a deal.

Or 2 Corinthians 2.14 says, and thanks be to God who always causes us to triumph in Christ, always.

Or Romans 8.28 and 29, which everybody, I think, knows. For we know, and we know that God causes all things to work together. For good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose. What's the purpose? For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren.

I have to say that there have been times when someone has called me and has a problem or has a sin issue and we talk and talk and talk and there doesn't seem to be any headway. And the personality I have sort of sometimes allows me to Turn the tables on them. I said to a guy one day on the phone, I said, you know what, in my Bible, I see right here, it says that God works all things together except for your problem. And that sin you committed, he missed that one on the cross. So that's why you're suffering. And it caused him to stop and think. Well, I guess all things means all things, you know.

So there's no personal knowledge of God, but as we count on him, as we believe him, as we are practically conscious of depending on him and of his caring for us. Interesting, one without needs and victories really has no growing acquaintance with the Lord Jesus. And where there is not a growing acquaintance, however great the intelligence and sincerity may be, there is little or no, now listen to this, flavor or aroma.

If you think about that, there's a flavor about the Lord Jesus in you and an aroma people know. The word of life and the Lord of life and the necessities of life all combine to give us a ministry of life. It gives you a flavor and an aroma. It is the trials and difficulties of the way that are the opportunities for our hearts to grow in intimate acquaintance with the Lord Jesus.

And it will be found that while there may be a great enjoyment in ministry, and in the unfolding of the truth that really there is not the strength but in proportion as one has learned how God has been for and with one in the trials, in the sorrows of the way. And as one has known him in them, so one is able to speak of him. So therefore don't lose heart. because our outer man is decaying and our inner man is being renewed day by day. The inner linear, I don't know if very many of you look at the inner linear, here's how it lays it out.

English words under the Greek words. Always the dying of Jesus in my body bearing about, that also the life of Jesus in the body of us might be manifested. I looked up this word decaying. It just means to rot thoroughly. Realize that this rotting process is going on, on your inner man. And oh, by the way, it's indicative mood, which is the mood of reality. It's going on right now, present tense, and it's passive voice, which means the action is being done to you. You're not decaying because of your effort. You're decaying because the Spirit of God is working that decay in you.

Stoney says that, how then is this to be accomplished? It is his and my purpose, my purpose, that it should be done this way. and I look to the Lord not to allow a single thing in me that will hinder my showing out of the glory of Christ. God then comes in and helps me, shows me. While glory lightens up my soul with all its certainty, that I belong to another person and another sphere in a new creation, Certain though I am of all of that, yet I come down, I have down here in me and around me that which hinders me, so God comes in to help. What does he do? We who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. And death means separation. That the life also of Jesus may be manifest in our mortal bodies.

Second Corinthians 4.11.

God will bring in, in various ways, for, now listen to this, for one who has proposed to go on with him, if you don't propose to go on with him, this isn't gonna be your problem. If you go on with him, he's gonna break down the flesh in you. It may be through a sorrow, it may be through bodily sickness, whatever it is, It will be something that will diminish the flesh.

Because God cannot work until you're made small. The smaller we are, the greater the glory of the Lord Jesus comes out. If I could diminish myself to a fraction so that God might work, I'd be happy to do it. Problem is, I can't. The hindrance with souls is that nobody wants to be self-diminished. It's not in the Constitution to be self-diminished or to be established.

So it happens that one often sees a saint going on with apparently no trials in their life, but the moment he sets himself to be for the Lord, the moment he sets himself to go down that road, the hindrance with souls, God brings in a wave and wave and wave and after wave of self-diminishing or diminishment. We were talking this morning about Jacob in Syria.

I don't know if you've spent any time in the book of Exodus. He never had a death trial, although he had a lot of trials. And I do not mean he didn't have trials of his own. You know, his wages were messed with 10 times. He got tricked about his wife and ended up having to marry her sister and all these other things.

But he didn't have bereavement in his life until he decided to go on with the Lord. And death comes in. What's the first thing he experienced? Rachel dies. That was the love of his life. She dies. Then what happens? Joseph is taken from him, and he thinks he's dead. And he's in Egypt. And then, word comes, Benjamin has to go too.

Imagine, from his heart, he's decided to go on with the Lord, stop being a trickster that he was, and the Lord brings death in his life. So it might be death in you, so there might be death in you, so there'd be life. And what the cross of Christ has set aside, I'm learning through that process not to allow anything of the flesh if I can help it. It's not only that I know I have Christ, Not only that he is written on fleshly tables of my heart, but that I want that which is written to be expressed.

I want people to see him. I recognize that we're all treasures. We're all vessels, earthen vessels with this treasure in us. and it's like a light enclosed in an opaque substance. The more the opaque substance is diminished or decreased, the more the light shines out through it.

J.B. Stoney says, I cannot explain it for another, but I know for myself how the Lord keeps me not depressed, but small. I like the choice of the word small. I say I will set myself to reduce myself of everything that hinders Christ coming out in me. And then God says, I will reduce you that it may be so. And he rolls in death upon me. Someone says I'll give up this or that worldly thing, very likely he will lose it the next day. He may think to himself, I'm meant to have given it up myself. But you know what, God took him at his word and took it away from him.

But glory, you know it's interesting, glory does not kill the flesh, only death does, the death of the cross. It's the only thing that can silence it. Lots of us think that what wonderful sights of the glory they've had, but that will never put the flesh out of business. It's gotta be the cross of Christ.

If my outer man is dying or rotting away, I get to be my age, you wonder what the difference is. I'm getting all of the, I guess, I'm getting all the brighter for it outside. Death works in me so that there might be life in you. There's an attitude change here too, and you know what the attitude change is? It isn't about me anymore, it's about you. I want you to see him, and that's why I exist in Christ, so that you can see him. So don't lose heart. Our outer man is decaying. Our inner man is being renewed day by day.

Now, renewed is an interesting word. Oh, I guess it, oh, it helps to push the right button. There we go. Renewed is an interesting word. It's the word kainos. And it doesn't mean, like if we were gonna renew this, we'd paint it and maybe change out the pews and spruce it up a bit. That's a renewal. That's not what this word means. This word means to make brand new in the sense of new in kind and new in quality.

Never been that kind of thing before. When it says that if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation, that word new is kainos. I'm something I wasn't before. I'm a new kind of human being. So it's also indicative mood, which means it's the mood of reality. It's also present tense going on right now, and it's also passive voice. It's being done to me. That's cool. William Kelly says, enjoyment, ease, honor, are out of the question as present thing.

Or rather pain, tribulation, distraction, contempt, opposition, all that can wear away the outer man are sure as the path of Christ's walk. But in all these things is the life of the Holy Spirit. Christ is more unwavering. Say this right. Christ is more unwaveringly the attraction and the standard of my thoughts, my feelings, my conduct. He becomes everything.

While the flesh and the world not only think, but are judged unsparingly. as one passes through all that would otherwise disappoint and torture, now regarded with calm and even thanksgiving. I'm thankful that the Lord's doing what he's doing. So Christian growth is becoming real in ourselves what is already true of us in the Lord Jesus. I was thinking about John 15, the vine and the branches. We talked about this in Sunday school.

It's the vine that furnishes the branches, not only with the principle of life, but with the type of life. No pressure and no molding from outside is needed to shape it into the pattern of the parent's dock. Every minutest particle of form and color and taste and fragrance is determined by the root and developed from that root. Who's the root?

The Lord Jesus Christ. His resurrected life. So a true believer I'll take the word true out of there. A believer, therefore, will ask no better thing of the Lord that the life of the Lord Jesus may be made manifest in his body. For such a manifestation will, by a necessary principle, be the unfolding within him of every needed element of joy and sorrow, of suffering and triumph. All of that that you and I may walk around and manifest the resurrected life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So let's close. Father, how we thank you. We thank you so much for the work that you do in our hearts every minute of every day. working death in us so that there might be life in others, that we have an aroma about your dear son that people can see and feel and ascertain that it's there. So we would say to you today that whatever it takes to conform us to the image of your son, please go ahead and do it. And we pray in your son's precious name, amen.