Okay, let's turn again to God's word to
2nd Corinthians and chapter 1.
The ministry in the church depends to a
great extent on the work that God can
do in His servant who leads the church.
2nd Corinthians, Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3
reveals that when the leader backslid, the church
backslid.
When the leader was faithful, the church was
faithful.
And in many years of traveling in many
parts of the world, I have learned one
thing about Christianity that 300 people in a
church, their condition depends on the condition of
the one man who leads that church.
Very very true.
And if that man or men, if there
are two people and they are compromisers, the
church is a compromising church.
And if the leader is a godly man,
the church will be godly because the ungodly
people will get offended and leave.
He'll be left with a godly remnant.
If you have a compromising leader, everybody sits
there and the whole church is compromising.
So 1 Corinthians deals with the local church
in a city or a town or village.
And 2nd Corinthians deals with the leader who
plants that church.
The quality of life, the inner life of
the man of God who leads the church.
1 Corinthians speaks about gifts, how to conduct
meetings, breaking of bread, sisters covering their heads,
discipline in the church, so many things like
that.
2nd Corinthians speaks about the man who leads
that church.
And Paul reveals his inner life more to
us in 2nd Corinthians than in any other
letter.
You can read in Acts about how he
was treated on the outside, but in 2nd
Corinthians you see what he went through, a
lot about his inner life.
And anyone who wants to be a true
servant of God should read and meditate on
2nd Corinthians to see how did Paul become
the man he became, the man of God
that he became.
Not his ministry, but his life.
His ministry was a gift God gave him,
but that ministry had value because of the
life.
See for example, you can have an earthen
vessel, not a very impressive vessel, and here
is a golden cup, very impressive.
But this earthen vessel may contain water, and
this golden vessel may be empty, and thirsty
people would rather have this earthen vessel than
this golden cup.
These are two types of gifts, some spectacular
gifts like the golden cup, some very ordinary
gifts like an earthen vessel.
But the important thing is what is inside
the vessel.
This golden cup a man pours out for
people to drink, there is nothing inside.
People come to the meeting, they go away
hungry and thirsty.
This man's gift is not so spectacular, but
when he pours out there is water for
everybody to drink.
So, it is not enough to have a
gift, a gift is necessary, you need some
type of vessel to communicate that water to
other people.
But the life inside is what we communicate
through the gift.
So the life inside is important, not just
the gift.
So if there is an emphasis on gifts
in 1 Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians it is
the life.
And that is what we see particularly in
the first 8 or 9 verses of 2
Corinthians.
You see an emphasis there on how Paul
got his ministry, not just because God anointed
him with the Holy Spirit.
Now I think a lot of people today
who have been anointed with the Holy Spirit
still don't have a ministry where rivers of
living water are flowing through them, because they
have not understood 2 Corinthians.
They have only understood the baptism in the
Holy Spirit and thought that is the answer
for everything.
Multitudes of people are baptized in the Holy
Spirit, but rivers of living water are not
flowing from them.
Why?
Because they have not allowed God to work
in their life to do a work of
breaking.
It's when the rock was broken, hit, that
the waters flowed.
So remember that.
So here Paul says the secret of his
ministry is described in verse 3 and 4,
right at the beginning.
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 1.3. Father
of mercy is God of all comfort.
I think of that word comfort as meaning
more than just patting a person on the
back and saying don't worry, it's okay, we'll
get over this.
That's the type of comfort we understand.
But here it's speaking about strengthening.
You see, part of that word comfort in
English is F-O-R-T.
The last part of comfort is F-O
-R-T, fort.
And a fort speaks of something that's very
strong, that can resist the enemy, a fortress.
And God, when he comforts people, he gives
them a fort, a fortress.
It's not just patting on the back, saying
don't worry, we'll get over this.
It's not more than that.
It's strengthening.
So I believe the comfort spoken of here
is a strengthening.
So I like to read it like that.
The God who strengthens me.
And verse 4, the one who strengthens us
in all our affliction, so that we may
be able to strengthen those who are in
affliction themselves with the same strength with which
we got when God strengthened us.
You understood that?
That means I sit, I stand there in
the midst of so many people who are
needy, who are going through all types of
trials and difficulties and they want to be
overcomers.
So how does God give me a ministry
to them?
He takes me through many, many trials and
testings and afflictions, many afflictions.
And in those afflictions in my hidden life,
which all the people sitting there don't know
about, God gives me strength and encouragement and
victory and faith.
And that which I've received, now I can
give to people.
It's not just sitting in a room and
studying the Bible and listening to a lot
of tapes and reading a lot of books
and having a huge library of books and
studying all that.
It's not just that.
One has to go through afflictions.
Ministry in the new covenant comes through affliction
and trial.
Jesus was tempted in all points as we
are, so he can be a forerunner for
all of us.
He has gone through it all and said,
I've gone through it all, come and follow
me.
We have to be mini forerunners for other
people.
We have to say to others, follow me
as I follow Christ.
That's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11
.1. Be imitators of me as I follow
Christ.
And as Jesus was the great forerunner, Paul
became a mini forerunner and in order to
lead other people, not just by preaching to
them, but by sharing with them the strength
he got in trial.
So if Paul had never gone through any
trials and difficulties and problems in his life,
he would have had no ministry, no matter
how much he was anointed with the Holy
Spirit, no matter how many gifts of the
Spirit he had.
See, a lot of people think today that,
okay, study is not enough.
We need study plus anointing of the Holy
Spirit.
I say even that is not enough.
You need to study God's word, you need
to be anointed with the Holy Spirit, and
then you need to go through hundreds of
trials in your life.
And in those trials, you experience God's strength,
thus you get a ministry.
Do you want a ministry?
That's the way.
You need to spend hours and hours and
hours studying God's word to understand God's mind.
You need to seek God in prayer and
fasting, that God sees your earnestness and fills
you with the Holy Spirit.
And then God has to take you through
an education of trial.
Many many things.
And if you got all this, God will
be able to give you a ministry to
other people.
That's basically what he's saying, because when, verse
5, the sufferings of Christ are ours in
abundance, then the strength we have, our comfort
or strength, is also abundant in Christ.
So he's telling us, this is how I
became strong.
That's why I'm not a weak believer today,
because I went through such a lot of
fellowship with the sufferings of Christ.
Jesus is the one who suffered first, going
through many many trials.
I've gone through it too.
Have you gone through trials?
Have you gone through rejection from your parents,
relatives, being despised by others, maybe trials of
financial difficulty, physical sickness?
Don't think that people who have a lot
of health are necessarily the most effective servants.
Paul had a thorn in the flesh, as
he says in 2 Corinthians.
Timothy had stomach infirmities all his life, and
these were among the two of the most
effective servants of God in the New Testament,
who had physical ailments.
And don't think that those who have a
lot of money only can serve God.
Paul was a man who had very little,
sometimes he didn't have enough money to buy
food.
He says that in 2 Corinthians 11.
He didn't have enough money to buy warm
clothes in winter.
This is God's mightiest servant.
Why does God treat His mightiest servants without
giving them food, without giving them warm clothing
in winter?
Multinational companies will treat their best servants with
so many perquisites and luxuries and give them
everything, but God, God is, because God had
to teach Paul how other people feel in
the world who don't have a warm sweater
and who don't have food, who don't have
money.
How will you know that unless you go
through it yourself?
I remember when I was working in the
military, I had a very high salary, and
then the Lord called me out and I
came down to zero, because I had given
away almost all my money for God's work.
No savings, and I came down to zero,
and then I got married, and we had
a child.
And for three years, we really struggled financially,
and I tell you, those were the best
years of my life.
I really learned to live simply, not to
borrow, not to get into debt, learned we
got closer to each other, husband and wife,
we got closer to God.
And the lessons we learned in simple living
in those days are with us even today,
thirty-two years later, now we have more
than enough of financial, our needs are more
than met.
But I'm thankful for those years.
I feel sorry for people who have never
gone through financial difficulties.
So some of you, if you're going through
financial difficulties, remember that's an education.
You're going through physical trials, that's your education.
From these different trials like this, you'll get
a ministry.
Are you facing rejection, misunderstanding, criticism, false accusations
from other believers?
That's your trial.
God will strengthen you in it.
You can never have a ministry unless you
face these things.
So don't envy that other person who's got
a big job and a lot of comfort
and all that.
That fellow won't have a ministry.
You'll have a ministry because you go through
these things.
So this is what Paul is saying.
For example, he says in verse eight, we
don't want you to be unaware, brethren, of
our affliction which came to us in Asia.
We were burdened excessively beyond our strength so
that we despaired even of life.
There's nothing wrong in Paul sharing a little
bit with us about what he went through.
He didn't give all the details, but he
shared a little bit with us so that
we realize his ministry did not come through
just study and anointing, but through a lot
of suffering.
And there's nothing wrong in your sharing with
other people a little bit of what God
has taken you through, but not everything.
It's not good to talk about everything.
Paul did not, and we should not either.
But so that people don't think that you
never had any problems in your life.
We shouldn't think that Paul never had any
problems in his life.
He had so many trials, so many difficulties,
and he gives us a little glimpse of
it here and in chapter 11 of the
same book where he tells us what all
he went through.
That's how he got a ministry.
So that we don't think that study and
anointing will give us a ministry.
It won't.
And he says, we went through so much
affliction.
We were burdened beyond our strength.
It was so much.
He says, we almost thought we would die.
You know, this is how people serve the
Lord in those days.
And we had the sentence of death in
ourselves so that we should learn not to
trust in ourselves, but in God.
Now we go to chapter 2 and we
see here, he says about restoring the offended
brother.
You know, Paul had written at least three
letters to Corinth before 1 Corinthians.
We read in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 9
that he had written a letter before that,
which God has not preserved.
It's not in scripture.
So what we have is 1 Corinthians is
actually the second letter that Paul wrote to
the Corinthians.
And in that letter, we know that he
told them to put this man out of
the church.
Now here he writes another letter to them
and says, I think you should now take
him back.
Because verse 6, chapter 2, verse 6, it's
enough.
The amount of punishment you have afflicted on
him.
You all listen to me.
You put him out of the church and
the fellow is there now discouraged, depressed, and
he realizes what a terrible thing it is
to be away from the church.
He's repented.
He has set those matters right.
He's given up that sinful way of his.
And now he's so discouraged, sitting all there
alone.
Now don't punish him forever like this.
Restore him.
See, the purpose of all discipline is to
bring the person back into fellowship.
Why does a father discipline his child?
Is it to drive him out of the
house?
No, it's to make him a much better
son.
So if a child is rebellious, the father
may even say, well, if you're rebellious, you
can't stay in my house anymore.
And he may have to put his son
outside the house.
He's a grown up son.
And then like the prodigal son, the father
said, OK, go.
He learned his lesson and came back.
The father welcomed him.
That's what Paul is saying here.
Now this child has learned his lesson.
Welcome him back.
Otherwise, if you don't forgive him, verse 10,
if you forgive anything, I also forgive.
If you don't forgive, here's a word for
all of us.
We should not, in order, verse 11, that
no advantage be taken of us by Satan,
for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
Paul says, do you know how dangerous it
is not to forgive somebody?
Even if the man has committed the terrible
mistake of sleeping with his stepmother for months
on end, and wouldn't listen to anybody, stubborn,
hard, OK, put him out.
But don't let him get discouraged.
Now forgive him.
If you don't forgive him, Satan will take
advantage of you.
And that applies to us as a church
and as individuals.
Supposing somebody has done harm to you, and
you don't forgive him, you know what will
happen?
Satan will destroy your life.
That fellow who harmed you may afterwards repent
and get into God's kingdom.
But you, who never did anything wrong, can
go to hell, because you don't forgive him.
You see, it looks so unrighteous, no, that
fellow who did the wrong goes to heaven,
and you who suffered the wrong goes to
hell.
But that can happen, if you don't forgive
someone.
Because the Bible says, Jesus said, if you
don't forgive others, My Heavenly Father will not
forgive you.
And if My Heavenly Father does not forgive
you, how can you go to heaven?
Is there anybody in heaven whose sins are
not forgiven?
If you die without forgiving somebody, I don't
care how long you've been a believer, I
believe you go to hell.
Because I believe the word of Jesus.
If you do not forgive, Matthew 6.15,
if you do not forgive others, neither will
My Heavenly Father forgive you.
And if you die like that, there is
no hope for you.
So, learn to forgive other people immediately, no
matter what harm they have done.
Otherwise it says, Satan will get an advantage
over you, and Paul says, we are not
ignorant of his schemes.
That's a wonderful verse.
We should not be ignorant of Satan's schemes.
Satan is always trying to trip us up.
Why does Satan always remind you of the
evil things that other people have done to
you?
Tell me.
You think because he's such a great sympathizer
of you, you think that's the reason?
That he reminds you, see what that fellow
did, and see what he's still doing against
you, and all types of things he keeps
on telling you.
Not because he sympathizes with you, he's already
got that fellow in his hands, he wants
to get you also in his hands.
Don't be a fool.
Don't be ignorant of Satan's schemes.
Forgive him.
I remember once a brother came to me
and said, brother, this person did this to
me, and this to me, and this to
me, and this to me.
I said, has he crucified you yet?
No, he said, he hasn't crucified me yet.
I said, well, then you got a long
way to go, I said, because Jesus, even
after being, when he was crucified, he said,
father, forgive them.
You haven't got that far even, and you
can't forgive this man.
How can you say you follow Jesus?
Jesus was being crucified, he said, father, forgive
them, they don't know what they are doing.
You haven't got that far.
Say it.
Father, forgive him.
He doesn't know what he's doing.
You know, the thing that has helped me,
when a lot of people have tried to
do evil to me, as I said, because
of Romans 8, 28 filter, it never harms
me, but still the fact remains they do
evil, and God will judge them for it.
But the thing that's helped me not to
look in anger at such people is this.
I've seen that when a person is evil,
it's like a sickness.
Sin is like a sickness.
If somebody is jealous of me, hates me
without any reason, and wants to harm me
or my ministry, he's sick.
And I must look at him like I
look at a patient in a hospital who's
got both cancer and leprosy.
Supposing you go to a hospital and you
see a person who's got cancer and leprosy,
are you angry with him?
Or you feel sorry for him?
You don't get angry.
You feel sorry, poor man.
And once God opened my eyes to see
that that fellow has got cancer and leprosy,
he delivered me from all anger.
It made me feel sorry for that poor
chap, just like it made me feel sorry,
I'd feel sorry for a person with cancer
and leprosy.
Look at the people who harm you and
hurt you like that.
They are sick.
Try and heal them if possible.
A gentle answer can turn away wrath.
That's the way of Christ.
So, he says, forgive him.
And then he goes on to say, verse
14, Thanks be to God, who always leads
us in his triumph in Christ.
It's a wonderful verse.
To me, many, many years ago, it came
as a great challenge, particularly the word, always.
Is it possible?
Paul experienced it and he gave glory to
God.
He didn't say he was walking in triumph,
no.
He said, God leads me in triumph, always.
That means he was an overcomer 24 hours
a day.
He wasn't perfect.
There were many things he went, towards the
end of his life, we read in Acts
23, he shouted at the high priest, saying,
God will smite you, you whitewashed wall.
But as soon as he was aware of
it, he humbled himself and asked forgiveness.
So, it's not that he was perfect or
that he never made a mistake, but he
was a perpetual overcomer.
If he sinned and he realized it, without
any delay, he would immediately confess it.
And he lived an overcoming life.
I want to tell you, my brothers and
sisters, if you want to build a church
that pleases God, you must be the type
of man or woman who pleases God.
God wants to lead you in triumph in
your daily life, in your personal life.
Not once in a while, always.
Not by your strength, verse 14, God leads
you, always in triumph in Christ.
This is the verse for the servant of
God, thanks be to God who always leads
me in triumph in Christ, in every place,
in every single place, he says, and through
me manifests, Paul says, the sweet aroma of
the knowledge of Christ.
In other words, Paul says, it's not people
are thinking that Paul is a great man,
but that something of Christ comes through Paul
wherever he went.
The fragrance of Christ.
He says, for some people, it's a fragrance
of death, for some people, verse 16, it's
a fragrance of life, which means not everybody
appreciates this.
One would think that everybody would be delighted
with such a message of victory.
But no, a lot of people don't like
this message because it shows up their sin.
Jesus came manifesting the knowledge of God and
a lot of people put him to death.
They didn't want it.
It's the same today.
One would think that this wonderful gospel that
we preach, this wonderful life of victory, everybody
should come running towards it, but it's not
true.
A lot of Christian leaders, their sin gets
exposed through this ministry and message that they
hate you and they will hate you because
you preach victory.
You preach freedom from the love of money
and that exposes the evil.
You're shining the torch on people who are
living in sin.
And imagine if somebody is committing a sin
there, like a robbery or something, and you
go and shine a bright torch on him,
you think he's going to love you?
He's going to hate you.
Somebody else is committing some other sin there
and you go and shine a torch, he's
not going to like that.
That's how it is.
A true servant of God is like that.
He goes around shining torches in the dark
corners and those who love to sin hate
him.
And they'll say he's a false teacher and
it's false doctrine to get rid of him.
Actually they are disturbed because their sin is
being exposed.
But other people who are groping in the
darkness for the way, it's all dark, they're
trying to find the way, somebody shines a
torch, he says, oh thank you brother for
that light.
We're so thankful now I can find the
way.
So you see there are two types of
reactions to the light.
Some people hate it and some people are
so thankful.
That's what Paul says.
Jesus fills us with the Holy Spirit, manifests
his power and his triumph everywhere and some
people are just so thankful for us and
some people hate the sight of us.
But thereby each person is revealed as to
what his true condition is.
Okay, there's one more thing I want to
say here, very important for those who serve
the Lord, verse 17.
He says we're not like many people who
just peddle the word of God.
You know what peddling the word of God
is?
It's selling it for money.
You know that means like a huckster who's
selling vegetables or something, making money out of
it.
He says we're not like that.
We're not people just trying to make money
out of preaching God's word.
What an example.
It's a good verse for all those who
serve the Lord to be able to say
at the end of their life, I did
not spend my life preaching God's word in
order to make money.
I was not like a man in a
shop selling things or a man going around
the street selling vegetables or fruit in order
to make money.
I'm not peddling the word of God.
I give it freely.
There's a dignity about a man who is
a servant of God.
There must be a sincerity because he speaks
in Christ, verse 17, in the sight of
God.
Now in chapter 3, he's speaking about the
new covenant servant.
See in the new covenant, there's a difference
between a new covenant servant and an old
covenant servant.
Big difference.
And this is what we are seeing.
In the old covenant, there were a few
people like Hosea who had to go through
trials in order to be able to give
their ministry, even Isaiah and Ezekiel.
But generally speaking, the Old Testament priests, for
example, they did not have to go through
a lot of trials in order to fulfill
their ministry as priests.
They had to understand the laws, explain the
laws, they had to study and preach.
Now anybody who studies and preaches is an
old covenant servant.
If you only study the Bible and you
preach, you are an old covenant servant.
A new covenant servant is different.
He has to experience and speak out of
his experience.
He has to say, not come in here,
but come and see.
And so he says further, he says about,
not that we are adequate, verse 5, he
says, we are not sufficient for this ministry
as if we can produce all that's required
for this ministry.
But our sufficiency, verse 5, comes from God.
A new covenant servant does not depend on
anything in his ability within himself to serve
God.
It's all from God.
God, you give it to me, I'll give
it out.
You know, I've often thought of it like
the, like I said the other day about
the servants who distributed the wine.
They took the wine to Jesus, Jesus turned
it, took the water to Jesus, Jesus turned
it to wine and they distributed it.
The disciples, they took five loaves to Jesus,
Jesus multiplied it, they distributed it.
In the same way, we take our limited
resources to God and God anoints it, blesses
it, multiplies it, and that's how we are
to serve.
So many people in God's work, after some
years of serving God, they get discouraged.
They are gloomy, they are depressed, they are
exhausted because they are trying to serve out
of their own sufficiency.
I believe that even physical health, we need
God to give us to serve Him.
You know, you may go out to serve
God in some difficult area and you need
physical health to do it.
And think of that promise, those who wait
upon the Lord shall exchange their strength.
Even young men will faint, but we shall
mount up with wings as eagles.
Our sufficiency is from God.
When you are in financial difficulty, think of
that verse, our sufficiency is from God.
Whatever your need may be in the new
covenant, our sufficiency is from God, who has
made us servants of a new covenant.
Now in the new covenant, we are not
servants of the letter, but of the Spirit.
I want to turn you now to verse
9.
There are two ministries mentioned here, a ministry
of condemnation and a ministry of righteousness.
What is a ministry of condemnation?
A ministry of condemnation is where you preach
to people, they feel condemned and they go
away.
And you may think, that is a wonderful
ministry, you got everybody convicted.
That's Old Testament, that's the law.
The law condemns people, you are not good
enough, you are never good enough.
There is a lot of preaching today in
Christian circles, which is so-called revival preaching,
which is just telling people, you are not
good enough, you will never make it, and
you are like this, and you are like
this, and you are like this, and they
all sit there, feel condemned and go away.
That's not Christian preaching.
Christian preaching is something that leads people to
righteousness and glory.
They may feel convicted, but they feel lifted
and healed and delivered by the end of
the meeting and they go with hope.
So there is a lot of legalistic preaching
today, which brings people into bondage.
And if your preaching ever brings people into
bondage, you can be sure that you are
not a new covenant servant.
If as a result of your preaching, people
feel condemned rather than lifted, that's old covenant
preaching.
If you push people down instead of lift
them up, that's old covenant preaching.
New covenant preaching lifts them up and gives
them hope.
Okay, now let's move on to verse 13
to 18.
Here he is comparing this new covenant with
the old covenant in terms of Moses and
Christ.
Now this is so important because I believe
that a lot of preaching today is old
covenant preaching.
And it says here, Moses, he used to
put a veil over his face, you know,
because when he got into God's presence, the
glory shone on his face and he would
come down from the mountain and, you know,
it says he put a veil over his
face.
And in the Old Testament, it says he
put the veil so that people would not
be scared to look at him.
But here it gives us another reason.
And the reason is, you know what was
happening to that glory in Moses' face?
Underneath that veil?
What is happening?
As time went on, it was becoming less
and less and less.
So he says here, he put a veil
over his face so that the children of
Israel don't look at that which is becoming
less, verse 13, and less and less.
The glory was becoming less and less and
less and less and less.
And Moses didn't want people to see that.
And a lot of preachers today, they've got
a hidden life where the glory is less
and less and less and less and less.
When they were twenty years old, some of
today's sixty-year-old preachers, when they were
twenty years old, they were on fire for
God, there was a tremendous glory.
But now, they have to cover it up
because their attitude to money, their attitude to
sin, so many things have become less and
less and less and less and less and
less.
This is a mark of old covenant ministry.
In new covenant ministry, he says it's exactly
the opposite.
We don't have to put a veil over
our face.
We don't have to hide anything in our
hidden life like Moses.
Jesus never came with a veil over his
face because in the new covenant, this veil
is taken away.
Verse 16, when you turn to the Lord,
the veil is taken away.
And now, when we look at the glory
of the Lord's face in God's word, the
Holy Spirit, verse 18, changes us from one
degree of glory to another so that the
glory increases day by day.
That's the contrast here.
In the old covenant, the glory decreased and
decreased and decreased and Moses had to cover
it up.
In the new covenant, verse 18, it gets
brighter and brighter and brighter and brighter.
In other words, the anointing upon your life
is more today than it was ten years
ago and much more than it was thirty
years ago.
And the freshness of the Spirit in your
ministry is more today than it was five
years ago, ten years ago.
Now, for those of you who are young,
you may say, well, it's okay, but if
you're not steadfast in this way as you
grow older, you'll find there's a tendency for
the glory to decrease in your life.
I've seen, for example, very zealous young people
and then they get married and then they
backslide.
Why is that?
I mean, if you're married in the will
of God, your zeal and glory and everything
should be far more than it was when
you were single.
It should be like that.
But something has happened.
I've seen that in so many cases.
Because either the wife becomes more important or
the home becomes more important, the Lord is
not so important and they don't behold the
glory of the Lord day by day like
they did in their single days and they
begin to backslide.
Or some people, when they were unknown, you
know, they were unknown, just ordinary unknown servants
of God just preaching and there was a
tremendous glory in their life and then after
some time, because of their ministry, they became
more and more well-known, more famous and
then the anointing is gone.
Because now they are more concerned about what
people think about them.
So it's very easy for so many things
like that to take away the glory.
Or maybe when you started your ministry, you
had so little money and you were very
careful and you were very faithful with money
and then you mingled with a lot of
other Christian workers who are very careless with
money and you also became like them and
the glory begins to fade away.
Do you know the number of preachers, most
of them whom I have met in my
life, is like Moses.
The glory fades away and they have to
cover it up.
So don't think this applies only to 4
,000 years ago, it's happening even now.
But that is not God's will and you
must make sure it doesn't happen like that
in your life.
In your life it must be the opposite,
that as you steadfastly look at God's word,
verse 18, and see the glory of Jesus.
That is the answer.
I have found 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18
to be the one verse that describes the
entire ministry of the Holy Spirit most fully
in the whole New Testament.
If you were to ask me, show me
one verse which describes the entire ministry of
the Holy Spirit, I'd say 2 Corinthians 3,
verses 17 and 18.
The Holy Spirit, when He becomes Lord in
my life, verse 17, He brings liberty.
He makes me free, that's the first thing.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty.
Liberty from what?
Freedom from sin, freedom from the wretched traditions
of grandfathers and great grandfathers and elders and
all that.
Freedom from the opinions of people, what they
think, whether they praise or whether they criticize.
It's a tremendous liberty.
Freedom to serve God and no longer serve
men.
Freedom from the love of money.
This is what the Holy Spirit brings.
And then, verse 18, the Holy Spirit shows
me the glory of Jesus in the Bible.
The mirror, spoken in verse 18, is the
Bible.
In the mirror I see the glory of
Jesus.
And the Holy Spirit shows me not just
doctrines and teachings and sermons.
Some people read the Bible to get doctrines
and sermons.
The Holy Spirit shows us the glory of
Jesus in the Bible.
Everything in the New Testament is to show
me the glory of Jesus Christ.
And as I see that glory, the Holy
Spirit does another work in my heart of
changing me into that likeness.
This is what the Holy Spirit does.
Then people say, what about ministry?
Well, I see how Jesus ministered and I
begin to minister like that.
I see how Jesus sacrificed and went here
and there preaching.
And I also sacrifice and go here and
there preaching.
That's what will happen to you.
Don't think your ministry will become less.
When you look at how Jesus ministered, you
will minister more and more sacrificially.
Your life and your ministry will change when
you allow the Holy Spirit to do the
work mentioned in verse 17 and 18.
That's how you'll become a new covenant servant.
And you don't have to be a full
-time worker to do that.
Any brother or sister in the church must
be a new covenant servant.
Chapter 4, Paul continues to describe his ministry.
And he says here, verse 2, we have
renounced, first of all, verse 1, because we
have received this ministry, we receive mercy, we
don't lose heart.
I just want to say one thing in
passing here, even lose heart means get discouraged.
Even the Apostle Paul was tempted to be
discouraged.
So if you are tempted to be discouraged,
that's not strange.
In the ministry, we will be tempted.
I've been tempted many, many times to get
discouraged.
But Paul says we don't get discouraged.
We refuse to get discouraged because we keep
our eyes on Jesus and we think of
the tremendous ministry God has given us and
we don't get discouraged.
And chapter 4, verse 2, he says we
have renounced all the things hidden because of
shame.
Not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word
of God.
There are a number of things here that
you need to think of seriously.
That if you want to serve the Lord,
there must be nothing in your life that
you have to hide because of shame.
If there is something, confess it, set it
right before God and cleanse it.
But make sure there is absolutely nothing you
have to hide, that your life can be
transparent.
That's one of the most important requirements to
be the type of man.
Paul is telling you about his own life
in this letter, remember.
Nothing hidden and not walking in craftiness.
What is craftiness?
When you write a prayer letter and your
real aim is to get money from people
and not prayer, that's craftiness.
It's really a letter to get people to
give money, but you give it a holy
title, prayer letter.
That's craftiness.
Be honest.
Write on top, letter asking for money.
Speak the truth and write it.
This is all craftiness.
There is such a lot of dishonesty in
Christian work.
Be straightforward.
If you feel you should ask for money,
go ahead and ask for it.
But don't put a holy title saying prayer
letter, because it isn't.
This is just one example.
Crafty ways in which people try to give
hints of their needs.
Crafty ways in which they give their testimony
to give people a certain impression.
Paul says, we have renounced it.
We don't want any of that in our
life.
We judge ourselves and cleanse it out of
our life.
And we commend ourselves to every man.
Okay?
Then he speaks about this gospel.
This gospel, many, many people cannot understand it.
Because God, the God of this world, has
blinded their eyes.
That they cannot see it.
And he talks here about this treasure of
the glory of God in verse 6.
Just like God commanded the light way back
in Genesis 1 to shine, in the same
way He has shone into our hearts.
This is a wonderful passage in verse 7.
This light is in an earthen vessel.
You know that till the end of your
life, you will be an earthen vessel.
Nothing very attractive about this vessel, except that
there is a glory inside.
So, here is another aspect of new covenant
service.
In the Old Testament, David and Abraham were
rich.
There was a glory about them externally.
But the New Testament apostle is not very
impressive.
Tradition tells us that the apostle Paul was
only 4 feet 11 inches tall.
About this much.
You have to put a stool for him
to stand here, if he was going to
speak.
And he was bald.
He had a hooked nose.
And he had a sickness, which he had
with him till the end of his life.
I don't know what it was.
Not a very impressive person, when standing in
a pulpit.
When you look at such a man, sick,
bald, with a hooked nose, so short.
That's the man whom God used to turn
the world upside down.
Because he was anointed.
See, it was an earthen vessel.
Very weak on the outside.
But inside it was a glory.
Remember this.
It's what's inside you, that's more important.
I mention this, because so many young people
today are looking at all these great, so
-called, so-called great servants of God, standing
on platforms.
More like film stars, standing up there and
living like film stars.
That's not the image you get of a
true servant of God in the apostle Paul.
An earthen vessel, not a golden vessel.
So, don't get discouraged, if there are so
many human limitations and weaknesses in you.
Make sure there's a tremendous glory inside, because
that's the only thing that matters.
That you walk with a clear conscience before
God.
You live under the anointing of the Holy
Spirit all the time.
And this earthen vessel has to be broken.
Can you think of some Old Testament example?
He speaks about a light in verse 5,
verse 6, and an earthen vessel in verse
7.
Do you remember we studied an Old Testament
example of a light in an earthen vessel?
That was in the time of Gideon.
Gideon's 300 soldiers had an earthen vessel each,
and a light inside.
There, Gideon is a picture of Christ, and
the 300, who were selected from 32,000,
are a picture of wholehearted disciples of Christ.
And when they go to battle against Satan
or live for God in this world, they
had a sword, which is the word of
God, but they also had this earthen vessel
with a light inside, and that's what Paul
is speaking about here.
And what did Gideon tell them to do?
They had to break that earthen vessel, then
only the light would shine out.
Otherwise, you put a candle inside a pot,
how much light comes out?
It's there, if you look inside, it's there,
but you carry the pot like that, there's
very little light.
When the pot is broken, the light shines,
and that's what Gideon's soldiers did.
They broke the pot, and the light shone.
And now, in the next verses, the apostle
says how he was broken.
How this earthen vessel was broken.
And if God is to make the light
of God shine from you, outside, He's got
to do this in your life also.
We are afflicted in every way, perplexed, persecuted,
struck down.
This is the breaking of the earthen vessel.
Many people don't understand this, and they don't
seem to be too interested in this, but
this is the way of life.
You know, it's like the grain of wheat.
When you put a grain of wheat into
the ground and sow it, you know what
happens?
That hard outer shell cracks.
Then only the life from within comes out.
In all of us, there is a hard
outer shell of our personality, our life, our
Adamic life, which has to be broken.
Then only that light will shine forth.
It's a principle that comes right through scripture.
When the shell is broken, the life will
come forth.
I believe there's a life in all of
us, but it's not coming forth.
You remember that lady who brought the alabaster
vial of ointment to Jesus?
What a tremendous perfume there was inside that
vial.
But nobody in the house could get a
smell of it until that vessel was broken.
I believe there's a tremendous glory in your
life, but God has to take you through
circumstances where your outer life is broken, where
you're no longer attractive to people.
We want to be attractive to people, and
God says, no, I have to break that.
You want to come across as a very
smart person.
God says, no, let people think you're dumb.
Let people think you're stupid.
Let me break this outer soul life of
yours.
We have a soul life.
Man is body, soul, and spirit.
And in the spirit, there's a tremendous glory.
But the soul life is hindering that light
from shining.
It's hindering us from going up and being
what God wants us to be.
And that is the breaking which God allows
in your life through various circumstances.
And now I want to show you this
passage in verse 10 and 11, which many
people don't understand.
You see, there are many people who are
very eager to hear about a gospel which
answers prayer and does so many miracles.
But if you're really serious about the life
of Jesus being manifested in you, the secret
is here.
Verse 10 and 11.
In our body, we have to carry the
dying of Jesus.
What is this dying of Jesus that we
must carry in our body?
Because he says, if you do that, the
life of Jesus will be manifested in your
mortal flesh.
This dying of Jesus is the taking up
of the cross.
That means reacting to life's situations the way
Jesus reacted when he was on earth.
How did he react when people called him
the devil?
How did he react when Judas Iscariot stole
his money?
How did he react when people spat on
him?
How did he react when people called him
an illegitimate son, son of Mary?
How did he react when people insulted him,
people robbed him, people abused him, and people
told him to stop preaching and threw him
out of the synagogue?
How did he react?
There was something he died to.
He died to all human honor.
He died to all human prestige and reputation
and everything.
And his own will.
For example, in Gethsemane.
He said he died to his own will.
That's called the dying of Jesus.
See, the dying of Jesus on Calvary, you
and I have no part in.
We cannot die for the sins of the
world.
But there was a dying that went all
through his earthly life.
We have to share in that dying.
Why is it called the dying of Jesus?
You know, there are certain diseases which are
called by the name of the man who
discovered the disease.
Another name for leprosy is Hansen's disease.
Because Hansen was the man who first discovered
it.
The dying of Jesus means he was the
first person who walked this way.
That's why it's called the dying of Jesus.
He went this way.
Nobody walked this way before.
It was a way of death to self.
Death to everything that's of this world.
Everything that's human.
He died.
And in that death, he manifested the glory
of the Father.
And you and I are called to do
exactly the same thing.
I believe that many of us were not
able to manifest the glory of the Father.
Because we are not willing to die like
that in daily situations.
Well, let me conclude with verse 17 and
18 in chapter 4.
It says, all this affliction that we go
through is very light.
Because the glory that's going to come into
us through it is so great.
How does this glory come into us?
Because in this affliction, verse 18, we do
not look at the things which are seen.
That means we don't look at it from
a human standpoint.
But we look at the things which are
unseen.
There's a glory that's being worked in my
life through these trials, through everything.
I'm getting into a fellowship with Jesus' heart
through these trials.
And therefore, I'm encouraged.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the way
we get a ministry.
We don't get ministry by just studying.
Paul labors so much to explain to us
the way to a spiritual ministry in the
new covenant.
Let's listen to him.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the way
of the cross.
There is a glory in the way of
the cross that's hidden from so many people
in the world.
Help us to see it clearly that we
may not waste our earthly days but follow
in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus who
walked this way of death that through us
also the glory of God can shine forth.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.