Man, 2 Corinthians chapter number 4, the Bible starts out in verse number 1,
Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.
And this is the key phrase leading into this chapter, we faint not.
Because this chapter is a chapter that's meant to encourage you not to quit, to keep on going.
And he's talking about some of the hard things that they're going through, and why they're
not going to quit, and why they're still encouraged to keep on going, and to keep on
serving God.
And one of the things that comes up in this chapter a lot, is that it's about other people.
Look if you would at verse number 5.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants, for
Jesus' sake.
And he had just finished saying, look if our gospel's hid, it's hid to the lost.
Then if you jump down to verse number 15, it says, for all things are for your sakes,
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory
of God.
Verse 16, for which cause we faint not.
So one of the things to remember, when you get discouraged, and think about quitting,
and you're down, you've got to get the emphasis off yourself, and get it on other people.
He's saying the reason we faint not, is because we're doing it all for your sakes.
The reason that we faint not, is that if our gospel's hid, it's hid to the lost.
And he says in verse 1, therefore seeing we have this ministry, what does ministry mean?
Service.
To be a minister is to be a servant.
To minister is to serve.
And so he says, seeing we have this ministry, meaning this job that we have, where we're
serving other people, where we're getting other people saved, where we're being a blessing
to other people, where we're teaching other people, because we have this ministry, as
we have received mercy, we faint not.
He's saying look, we've received mercy, somebody gave us the gospel, somebody got us saved,
somebody taught us the Bible, our parents raised us, and they taught us, and they brought
us to church, and they did everything for us.
Look, as much as in me is, Paul said in Romans 1.15, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you
that are at Rome also.
Other people have given us the gospel, we don't want it to stop with us.
Other people have taught us the Bible, we don't want that to stop with us.
Other people have shown us mercy and been a blessing to us, we need to get the focus
off ourselves and get it on other people.
Because the most depressed people in the world are people that are self-absorbed and selfish.
That'll depress anybody.
So you've got to think about other people, think about the ministry, think about other
people who have it worse than you, people that aren't even saved, how they need you
to not quit.
So he says, therefore, seeing we've received this ministry, as we have received mercy,
we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending
ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
That if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
Now notice what he says halfway through verse 2 there when he says, by manifestation of
the truth.
What does manifestation mean?
What does it mean to be manifest?
Well if something is manifest, it means that it's out in the open.
Means it's easy to see, it's obvious, it's in broad daylight.
That is something that is manifest.
So he's saying by the manifestation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man's
conscience in the sight of God.
What's he saying?
I commend myself unto other people's conscience, meaning that I do my works out in the open
in broad daylight and I'm willing to be scrutinized.
I'm willing to have people look at me and decide whether what I'm doing is right or
wrong and whether what I'm saying is right or wrong.
We've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, he's saying, and we just make the truth manifest.
Jesus of course said that what you hear in the ear, preach upon the housetops.
The Bible says whatsoever maketh manifest is light, okay?
And one of the things that will point you to a false religion or a cult right away is
that they hide what they believe.
Think about the cults that are out there, how they hide what they believe.
The Mormons, they don't just come to your door and say, greetings from the Starbase
Kolob.
We're here to tell you how you can have your own planet and have celestial whatever for
eternity producing babies where you populate your own planet.
Is that what they say?
No, and even if you ask them about those things, even if you bring that up and say, hey, is
it true that you guys believe that there are other gods out there on other planets?
Oh, no, no, I don't know where you heard that, I don't know where you got that.
They'll lie to your face.
Even though it's documented, that is what they believe.
They sing hymns about Kolob and these other planets, but they'll lie about it, won't they?
Even the Jehovah's Witnesses, when they come to your door, they don't even say, hi, I'm
a Jehovah's Witness.
A lot of times they'll sit there and say, oh, hey, we're just some Bible students and
we wanted to see if you wanted to do a Bible study.
One time I had them come to my door and they just said, hey, we just want to talk about
some of the times that we're living in.
We're just students of the Bible, do you want to study with us?
They don't come and say, hi, I'm a Jehovah's Witness, right?
I had a guy when I was down in Guyana come up to me and pretend to be Baptist.
He told me he goes to a Baptist church and so I'm talking to the guy and he was so goofed
up on doctrine, I said to him, are you sure you're not a Jehovah's Witness?
And he's like, no, no, I'm not a Jehovah's Witness.
And then I talked to him a little more, you know, I thought the guy was sincere so I wasted
like 20 minutes with the guy showing him scriptures from the Bible and he's just not getting it.
It's like talking to a wall.
Finally I'm like, look, are you sure you're not a Jehovah's Witness?
And he's like, no, I'm not a Jehovah's Witness.
I said, well, are you Seventh-day Adventist though?
Well yeah, I'm a Seventh-day Adventist.
But the guy flat out lied to me and said he was a Baptist and all the times when I said,
are you sure you're not a Jehovah's Witness, wouldn't that have been a perfect opportunity
for him to say, no, I'm not a Jehovah's Witness, I'm a Seventh-day Adventist?
But he deceived me.
Oh yeah, I go to a Baptist church and blah, blah, blah, because he doesn't want me to
know that he's in a cult, okay, following Ellen G. White.
That is a cult and you know, it's very similar to the Jehovah's Witnesses.
The Jehovah's Witnesses are basically a spinoff from the same movement that spawned the Seventh-day
Adventist, that whole Millerite movement of the Great Disappointment, 1844, William Miller,
etc.
So whether it's the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, and even the Seventh-day Adventist,
they don't just come right out of the gate and start telling you about that investigative
judgment weird doctrine about 1844.
They don't want to talk about that, okay.
And then we were talking about this this week with the Hebrew Roots movement.
With Matt Powell, we were working on the documentary and he spent some time in that
crowd and they will hide some of the weirder stuff they believe and they'll even talk about
Jesus and they'll use the name of Jesus to try to get you in the door, but then once
they get you inducted, then all of a sudden they start telling you, oh, the name Jesus
is a pagan name and you have to renounce the name of Jesus and you have to only say Yeshua
or whatever.
So they'll use Jesus to get you in the door so they're hiding what they believe.
They don't want to just come out with it.
There's nothing that we believe that we hide.
That's why every single sermon goes on YouTube for the whole world to see and if anybody
asks us a question about what we believe, we just tell them what we believe.
We just answer the question.
There's nothing to hide.
When you are preaching the Word of God, you should stand for all of it and not be ashamed
of any of it.
Jesus said if you're ashamed of me and of my words and this adulterous generation, then
I'll be ashamed of you in front of my fathers and in front of my father and in front of
the angels.
If you're going to be ashamed of me amongst this perverse, crooked generation, yeah, you
can still go to heaven, but I'll be ashamed of you when you get there is basically what
he's saying in the presence of God the Father and the presence of the angels.
I don't want Christ to be ashamed of me.
I'm not going to be ashamed of him and I'm not going to be ashamed of any of his words
because every verse in the Bible, I'm ready to preach and I'm ready to claim it and own
it and admit it, yup, that's what it says and it's right.
We shouldn't be apologizing for the Word of God.
So we've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, secret societies, okay, Freemasonry, Mormons,
whatever.
Look, they're hiding it because it's wicked, okay?
If it were good, they'd just come out with it.
So he says we don't handle the Word of God deceitfully.
We're not walking in craftiness, no, but by the manifestation of the truth, commending
ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
What's he saying?
Go ahead, judge me.
Go ahead, scrutinize me.
Look, I'm putting it all out there.
Here's what I believe.
You be the judge.
I'm commending you or I'm commending myself to your conscience.
He says in verse 3, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom
the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Who is the God of this world?
This is talking about the devil.
Remember what the devil told Jesus when he was tempting him?
He said, all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Now you say, well, did he really have the power to give all that stuff?
Well, it's interesting the way it's worded in Luke chapter 4.
I'm going to turn there.
He says it this way in Luke chapter 4, and the devil said unto him, verse 6, all this
power will I give thee and the glory of them, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever
I will, I give it.
Now the devil's a liar, so we can't necessarily always trust what he's saying, but he claimed,
he said, you know, I have all this power, and to whomsoever I will, I give it, when
he showed him the kingdoms of the world.
You say, well, was the devil telling the truth when he said that?
You know, usually the best lies contain the truth mixed with a lie.
Like think about when he came to them in the Garden of Eden, he said, you know, yea hath
God said, you know, we shall not surely die, okay?
There's a little, because God knows that in the day you eat thereof, you'll be as gods
knowing good and evil.
There is some truth to that, that they are going to receive knowledge of good and evil
from eating that fruit, and there's a, but it's mixed with poison of telling them that
they're going to be like gods, and you're not surely going to die.
Well, they did die.
They didn't die physically, but they died spiritually, and then eventually they died
physically, of course.
But here's the thing, if we look around the world today, who does it look like is picking
the leaders?
God or the devil?
I mean, let's just look at reality, right?
Because if you say, well, I don't know, does the devil really give that power to whomsoever
he will, he gives it?
Well, I don't know.
Look at who's leading the countries of this world, and in most cases, you'd say, that's
the devil's pick.
That's the devil's pick.
All right.
The devil picked that guy.
I think the devil picked that guy.
Now, obviously, God has the power to raise up one and put down another, and God often
puts people in power for his own purposes, but there are many people in power that were
not put there by God.
They were put there by the devil, friend, and that's why even in Hosea, he said they've
made them kings, but not by me.
So God is not responsible for every wicked leader in this world.
God didn't put Stalin and Mao Zedong in power.
Those are the devil's minions, okay?
And so he says here, the God of this world, because remember, we can't really trust the
devil when he says, hey, I have all this power, and I give it to whoever I want, but can we
trust the apostle Paul?
Can we trust the Holy Ghost?
Can we trust 2 Corinthians 4, because 2 Corinthians 4 says he's the God of this world.
That shows that he has power in this world.
He's the God of this world, and what does he use that power to do?
He uses it to blind the minds of them which believe not.
And the Bible talks about when he's cast out of heaven in Revelation, the devil that deceiveth
the whole world, he deceives the whole world.
He blinds the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
who is the image of God should shine unto them.
So look, if we hide our gospel, it's hid to them that are lost.
We've got to let that thing shine.
We've got to shout it from the housetops.
We've got to preach the gospel to every creature.
We've got to put it on a candlestick and let our light so shine before men that they may
see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven, because if our gospel
is hid, it's hid to the lost.
So what's he saying here?
Quit thinking about yourself.
Think about other people.
Seeing we've received this ministry, we faint not.
Why?
For their sakes.
Paul said, I endure all things for the elect's sake that they may also obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
It's about them.
It's not about me.
It's not about you.
It's about reaching them with the gospel.
They're the ones who suffer.
They're the ones who are blinded by the God of this world, and they're the ones that are
going to end up in hell.
If we can't cut through that blindness, shining the glorious light of the gospel.
And listen, getting people saved is an uphill battle because the devil's been deceiving
them their whole lives.
The God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not.
So we've got to shine the light very brightly to cut through all that darkness and cut through
all that deception that they might overcome the world and be saved and believe on Christ.
So it says that he's blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of
the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them.
Now notice the Bible says Christ is the image of God.
That's an important statement there that Christ is the image of God.
It also tells us in Colossians that he is the image of the invisible God.
He's the image of the invisible God.
Now stop and think about this.
If Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, that means he's not the invisible God.
You can't be the image of something and that thing at the same time.
So when the Bible says here that Jesus is the image of God, he's talking about God the
Father.
Often when he says God, he means God the Father.
And sometimes he'll even specifically break it down and say God even the Father.
But when he says that he's the image of God, it's saying that Jesus Christ is the image
of God the Father.
You know what that means?
That means that Jesus is not God the Father.
Jesus is not the invisible God.
How do we know Jesus is not the invisible God?
Because you can see him.
He's not invisible.
I mean he walked on this earth and he was seen of multitudes.
And when he comes back one day, every eye shall see him.
Now Jesus Christ is God, but he's not God the Father.
He is divine, he is deity, but he is the Son of God because the Trinity is the truth.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost is what we're talking about.
And the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that's God.
God eternally exists as these three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
So the Holy Ghost is God, the Father is God, and Jesus is God, but they are not each other.
That's how Jesus can be the image of God, and he is God.
Because he's the image of God the Father, and he is God because he also is God.
You say, well that's three Gods.
Wrong, because the Bible says there's only one God.
So if the Bible says there's one God, there's one God.
And if the Bible says that there's God the Father, and then there's the Son of God, and
then there's the Holy Spirit, we just have to accept that on faith and believe that on faith.
So God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
And as you study the Bible more, your understanding of that will deepen, but on the surface you
just have to accept it by faith, the divinity of Jesus Christ, even though he is the Son of God.
So then as we keep reading it says that Christ is the image of God, and that he should shine
unto them.
Verse 5, for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your
servants for Jesus' sake.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Now I think this is a reference to creation, when it says God commanded the light to shine
out of darkness.
Because remember when the world was created, everything was dark.
And God said, let there be light, and there was light.
So just as God said, let there be light, and there was light, when we get saved, that's
what happens in our heart.
Basically our heart is dark.
Our minds are blinded, right?
And then God basically says let there be light, and the light of the glorious gospel
shines and illuminates our heart.
That's why the Bible calls being saved being enlightened.
Forget Buddha.
Forget the Hindus.
You want enlightenment?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's how you're going to get enlightened.
Because the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 10, after you were enlightened, you endured
a great fight of afflictions.
Look God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, and he has shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of
God and not of us.
So we have this treasure.
We have the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We have the glorious light of the gospel.
Nothing's more valuable.
Nothing's more powerful.
But in order to keep us humble, God doesn't want us to boast or take credit for it.
So that's why we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may
be of God and not of us.
That's why we have problems.
That's why we are weak.
That's why we are not as smart as we could.
God could have made us smarter, right?
He could have made human beings just all geniuses, right?
Where we just know as much as he knows or something like that.
But God allowed us to be weak.
God allowed us to know a lot less than him.
God gives us infirmities.
God gave Paul specifically a thorn in the flesh so that he would not be exalted above
measure, so that he would not become prideful or arrogant for the abundance of the revelations
that were given unto him.
God didn't want that to go to Paul's head, so he gave him a thorn in the flesh, the messenger
of Satan to bump at him.
So what the Bible is saying here is that we have this treasure in earthen vessels that
the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
We don't get the glory.
We are just an earthen vessel.
We're just a clay pot that has this treasure inside of it.
So in light of what's inside the pot, in light of what's inside the earthen vessel, we look
pretty cheap.
I mean, think about it, imagine an earthen vessel, right, like pottery made out of earth,
clay pottery.
Imagine clay pottery and inside it is just filled with gold and precious stones and pearls.
You're not going to be thinking about, this is a really cool pot, you know.
If you found that, you wouldn't say like, man, I know exactly where I'm going to put
this in the house.
I'm going to get, you know, I'm going to get a little plant and put some soil.
Can you believe this pot?
You're not even going to be thinking about the pot because you're going to be so focused
on the treasure that's inside.
And that's what God's saying here is that in comparison with Christ, in comparison with
the Gospel, we're nothing, right, in comparison with that.
And God allows us to be not these golden vessels but earthen vessels so that he gets the glory.
The excellency of the power is of God and not of us.
This kind of reminds me of the Bible story of Gideon.
Because if you remember, Gideon had them take these earthen vessels and put a light inside
of it, right?
And then they would break the pots and then the light would shine, right?
And that's what the Bible is saying here.
You know, we have to be willing to sacrifice ourselves and not make it all about us.
We have to be willing even to give our lives if necessary, to be faithful unto death so
that the light can shine.
And that's the most important thing.
So it says in verse 8, we are troubled on every side yet not distressed.
We are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed.
And another way of saying cast down but not destroyed, you could say we're not down but
we're not knocked out, right?
Cast down but the fight's not over.
The bell has not rung yet, right?
We're down for the count but we're going to get back up and keep going.
We're cast down but we're not destroyed.
He said in verse 8, we're troubled on every side yet not distressed.
Think about what that means.
Trouble on every side.
Every side.
I mean, just we're getting it from all angles.
Have you been there in life before where you're just getting hit from all angles, you know,
socially, relationships, health, church, work, whatever.
You're just getting hit from all sides or you're just being attacked from all sides.
Everybody's persecuting you, attacking you.
You're just troubled on all sides but he says yet in spite of the fact that we're troubled
on every side, we're not distressed.
We're not panicking.
We're troubled on all sides but we're not panicking.
We're not distressed.
He says we're perplexed.
What does it mean to be perplexed?
I mean, when you're perplexed, what did you say?
You're baffled.
Yeah, that's a good word for it.
We're baffled.
We're confounded.
We don't understand why things are going the way they're going.
I mean, we're just perplexed, baffled, confused.
We're just what in the world?
But he said even though we're perplexed, we're not in despair.
We're not ready to throw in the towel.
We're not sad and crying.
It's over.
I just can't go on anymore.
He said even though we're confused, even though we don't understand, even though we're perplexed,
we're still going.
We're not going to stop.
We're still doing it.
Yeah, we're troubled on every side but hey, don't panic.
We're not in distress.
We're still going forward.
He said we're persecuted but not forsaken.
Christ has promised us, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
So when we're persecuted, we're not going to be forsaken, amen?
And then he said, we're cast down but not destroyed.
Look, you're not going to win every round in the Christian life.
You're not going to win every round.
You're going to get knocked down.
You're not always going to be on your feet all the time and just always at the top of
your game.
No, there are going to be times when you get cast down.
When you get hit so hard that you fall to the ground, where you hit the ground but the
question is are you going to get back up before the bell rings?
You can be cast down without being destroyed.
You can be knocked down but knocked out and you can win the fight without winning every
single round.
There are going to be some rounds of the fight where you lose that round but you go back
to your corner and you get that water squirted in your mouth out of that little tube and
you go, cut me, Mick.
You get your eye cut open and you get sprayed with the water and somebody's massaging your
shoulders.
All right, get in there.
Give them the old one, too.
Look, you're cast down but you're not destroyed.
And then he says in verse 10, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus
that the life also of Jesus might manifest in our body.
So he's saying, look, you want to be like Christ?
He died.
Oh, man, I'm a Christian.
Well, guess what it means to be a Christian?
It means you're like Christ.
Well, you know what he said?
Well, you're going to bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
Why?
Because he said if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me.
So in order to follow Christ, you've got to pick up the cross.
Following Christ isn't just, hey, follow him on a white horse into Armageddon and defeat
the anti-Christ.
I mean, that sounds great.
But you know what?
That's not what following Christ means in 2019.
It doesn't mean just, you know, following Christ as he wipes out all of his enemies.
At this point, we are in a battle, we're in spiritual warfare and we've got a cross to
bear and we've got to pick up that cross and follow.
Look, if you're looking for a Christianity that costs you nothing, it doesn't exist.
If you're looking for a Christianity that involves no persecution, what you're looking
for is something fake, something that's not authentic, where you're not even following
Christ.
Because if you follow Christ, he said all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall
suffer persecution.
So a Christianity that costs you nothing doesn't exist.
A Christianity that's all fun and games and sweetness and light, it doesn't exist.
Bear about in your body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be
made manifest in our body.
You can't carry around the life of Jesus without carrying around the death of Jesus, right?
You've got to carry both.
If you want the glory, you've got to have the suffering, right?
Jesus Christ, he suffered, he died, he was buried, he rose again and he's glorified and
exalted at the right hand of God the Father.
So it's a package deal.
You want to be like Christ, you've got to be willing to suffer like Christ.
You've got to be willing to be obedient like Christ and then you're going to be exalted
like Christ.
So the Bible says here in verse 11, for we which live are always delivered unto death
for Jesus' sake.
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
And here's the key verse that brings us back to the topic of the whole chapter, verse 12.
So then death worketh in us but life in you.
Again, it's about other people.
He's getting the emphasis off himself.
He doesn't want to faint, he doesn't want to quit, he's in a situation where he's troubled
on all sides, he's persecuted, things are going bad.
And when you get in that position, you've got to get the emphasis off yourself and get
it on other people.
That's how you get through it.
When things are at their worst, when you're at the low point, think about other people.
Think about serving others because if you focus on yourself, you're going to get distressed.
You're going to be destroyed.
You're going to fail.
And so the Bible is saying here, yeah, death worketh in us but life in you.
He's saying I'm willing to suffer, I'm willing to go through pain, I'm willing to experience
death if I can help someone else and get them the light.
Get them saved.
Get them into heaven.
It's worth it.
It says in verse 13, we having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed
and therefore have I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he which
raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you
for all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving
of many redound to the glory of God.
He's saying we know that we're going to be resurrected.
We know that we're saved.
We know that we will live eternally so why would we be afraid of death?
Oh death, where is thy sting?
Oh grave, where is thy victory?
I mean we have eternal life.
Fear not them which kill the body.
Why would we fear death when we know that we're saved, we're going to heaven and nothing
can ever separate us from the love of God.
There's nothing to fear at that point.
He says in verse 16, for which cause we faint not because we know that we're going to be
raised up one day because we know that all things are for your sakes because we have
the emphasis on other people.
We faint not as a result.
We don't faint.
But though our outward man perish, verse 16, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
So when you go through stressful situations, persecution, hard times like Paul's talking
about here, it can wear you out physically.
I mean I'm sure that Paul going to prison wasn't good for his health.
I'm sure he wasn't getting the most nutritious meals served to him in prison.
He probably wasn't getting a lot of exercise or sunshine.
His vitamin D levels might have dipped a little bit.
He probably wasn't in a prison where they had like a gym and he could eat a lot of food
and get really, you know, shredded in prison or something like that.
You know if you look at the Bible when Jeremiah went to prison, you know, he's just eating
bread and water.
You look at Micaiah, the son of Imlah, when he got arrested, he's eating bread and water.
So and then the bread ran out the Bible says.
So these guys are missing some meals.
They're probably in a damp prison that they could have too much humidity and they're probably
coughing down there.
It's not good for your health.
And you know one of the worst things for your health is stress.
I mean if you have a lot of stress, your body will just start breaking down.
And obviously when you're going through tribulations, persecutions, times of affliction, you're
under a lot of stress by definition.
And so your body is failing.
He says look, though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
So even in the midst of going through a physical turmoil of being in prison, being shipwrecked,
not eating right, being under a lot of stress, he's saying but you know what?
Our inward man is renewed day by day.
Even when the outward man's perishing, even when our body's breaking down, even if we're
to physically die, you know it's the inward man that can stay strong.
The Bible says the spirit of man will bear his infirmity.
But a wounded spirit, who can bear?
Who can bear?
I mean look, if your spirit stays strong, you can handle physical pain.
You can handle physical suffering.
The spirit of a man beareth his infirmity.
You know, illnesses, pain, suffering.
But man, a wounded spirit, that's where you're done, right?
So you've got to keep your spirit strong.
Even though your outward man perishes, renew that inward man day by day.
You say how do I renew the inward man?
Well you've got to spend time with the Lord.
I mean that's the only way you're going to renew the inward man, right?
Because the inward man, who does he talk to?
He talks to God.
So the inward man is renewed when you're reading your Bible.
The inward man is renewed through prayer.
The inward man is renewed through the singing of hymns.
This is how we're going to renew the inward man.
Keep our spirit strong, renewal.
What does renew mean?
It means that this is something that if we don't do it, it's going to tend to deteriorate.
It's going to deteriorate.
Now think about when you live in a house for a long time, everything just deteriorates.
The Bible talks about through idleness of the hands, the house droppeth through.
If you just don't maintain your house and never fix anything, eventually it will literally
start to cave in, right?
It will drop through.
The roof will start caving in.
The ceiling will cave in.
The walls will cave in.
Termites will eat it and consume it until there's nothing left, okay?
Except like cardboard where wood once was.
So if we don't renew our spirit, our spirit's the same way.
It's like a house that's not being maintained.
If we don't read our Bibles and pray and sing hymns and be fed spiritually, then we're not
just going to be maintaining.
We're not just going to stay neutral.
Every day that you don't read your Bible, pray and sing hymns, every single day that
you go without doing those things, you're going backwards.
You're going backwards spiritually.
You're moving away from the Lord.
You're not just staying the same like, well, I still know as much Bible as I did a week
ago.
Look, if you haven't read the Bible in a week, you know less Bible than you did a week ago.
You've got to renew it.
It needs renewal.
It needs constant restoration.
Every day you've got to renew the inward man.
You might have been walking in the spirit when you went to bed last night, but by the
time you wake in the morning, you've got to put on the new man again.
You've got to renew that spirit again.
It needs to happen every single day because the Bible says, though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed.
Week by week, every time we go to church on Sunday, man, the new man's renewed week by
week.
Is that what it says?
Month by month, the inward man is renewed.
Year after year after year, Christmas and Easter, that inward man's renewed.
You go on Christmas and you sing praises to God, you worship God, you hear the Bible preached,
and you marvel at the glorious gift of Jesus Christ, and, man, that will get me through
the whole year.
Amen.
See you on Easter.
That's going to do me for the next four months, and then Easter's so good with the resurrection,
man, that'll do me all the way until Christmas.
No, he says the inward man's renewed day by day.
Once a week's not even enough.
If you're relying on church to keep you right with God, it's not going to happen because
church is only one aspect.
What do you do on Monday to renew the spirit?
How is the inward man going to be renewed on Tuesday?
How is the inward man renewed on Thursday?
How is the inward man renewed on Friday?
You're going to have to take an effort at some point on Thursday to renew the inward
man.
You have to say, you know what?
I need to get the Bible and read it.
I need to sing a hymn.
I need to pray.
I need to renew the inward man some way because it has to happen on a daily basis.
For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is
renewed day by day for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Now notice he talks about weight at the end, and at the beginning he talked about the light
affliction, right?
So he's using the same kind of terminology at the beginning of the verse and the end
of the verse.
He says, look, our light affliction, what does light mean?
It doesn't weigh much.
He says, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
So he's saying that the glory that we're going to receive is much heavier than the light
affliction.
And it's like he said elsewhere, I reckon that the sufferings of this life are not worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Because if you put our affliction with the glory, it would just be like, the scale would
just bottom out.
You can't even compare it.
You can't even weigh it.
They're not even comparable.
So he says here, our light affliction which is but for a moment.
And look, that's not literal, folks.
This is a guy who spent years suffering.
But he says, oh, these years that I'm suffering, it's like a moment.
Why?
Because our life is but a vapor that appeareth for a little time in the advantage of the
way.
In view of eternity, it's like a moment.
It's just a little blip.
You know, you teenagers that say, oh, you know, I just can't wait until I get married
so I'm just going to fornicate because I just don't want to wait until I'm married.
You know what?
That's just a moment that you're waiting.
Even though it seems like a long time, you know, you better wait and not ruin your life
by fornicating and bring down God's judgment and wrath upon you.
You need to have patience.
It's like a moment.
Just wait.
Before you know it, it'll be over, okay?
So it's a moment.
And any other waiting in life, be patient because it's just a moment.
See, I don't know how much longer I can go through the pain and the suffering.
You know, I just can't do it anymore.
Just wait.
It's just a moment.
Whatever it is, it'll be over soon.
Wait.
Well, it might be a year.
A year is like a moment to God, right?
So we just need to hang in there.
Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory.
Now, is Paul exaggerating a little bit when he says it's a light affliction?
Yeah, he's exaggerating because he's actually going through some serious stuff.
He's beaten with rods.
You know, he received 39 stripes like five times.
He's been a night and a day in the deep, shipwrecked.
He's been imprisoned in fastings often.
I mean, look, he's going through a lot of pain.
He's exaggerating when he says it's a light affliction.
And obviously he's exaggerating when he calls it a moment.
But you know what I learned from this is that if I'm going through a bad time, if I'm going
through a hard time, the last thing I want to do is try to make it seem worse than it
is or make it seem big.
Let's minimize it.
Minimize it.
You know, you're going through a hard time.
You're going through a bad time.
Hey, minimize it.
Isn't that what Paul's doing?
He's minimizing it.
Well, actually, this isn't so bad.
You know, you just picture Paul in some dank, dirty, filthy dungeon, lacking good food.
This ain't bad.
You know, I've been worse places than this.
I guarantee you that was the kind of guy he was.
He didn't just go like, oh, man, this is the worst.
Oh, man, I hate it.
You know what he said is like, hey, what song do you want to sing?
Because if you remember in Acts 16 when he's thrown in the prison, they're singing hymns.
Even till midnight.
I mean, they were partying.
They didn't even go to bed.
It's just like, hey, let's party.
I mean, they're just singing praises.
Woo!
They're having a good time.
Why?
Because they minimized the suffering.
They downplayed the hardships, and they maximized the good things.
And you know what?
That's going to help you to have a better attitude.
Whatever your sickness or illness, why don't you just think about something that's worse
and say, well, at least I don't have that.
At least that's not happening.
And you know, when people come and I might not be the best counselor in the world.
I try to delegate counseling to other people sometimes because I don't really have much
of a bedside manner.
So I don't know if my counseling is good or bad.
You be the judge.
I'll tell you the kind of stuff I say when people come to me.
When people come to me and say, oh, man, I have this horrible thing going on in my life,
I always just tell them, oh, man, but you know what, at least it's not like this.
I always just think of something worse.
I'm like, you could be in a North Korean concentration camp.
Have you read about how bad they have it over there?
I always just tell people, hey, you don't understand?
My husband's not saved, and well, but at least your husband goes to work.
You know, at least he's not cheating on you.
Isn't that great?
You know, oh, man, you know, my husband committed adultery.
That's horrific.
See, this is why I'm not a good counselor, because I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding.
Yeah, I mean, what do you say to that?
Well, at least it was only one time, you know, or at least...
No, actually, it was multiple times.
Well, at least it was with a woman and not a man.
At least it's not a reprobate.
I'm just, you know, I'm just always going to try to look on the bright side.
Oh, man, what am I going to do?
You know, I, you know, I'm, I've lost my house.
I'm homeless.
Well, at least you have a car to sleep in.
At least you got a good vehicle.
You can throw a sleeping bag in the back.
Folks, there's always somebody out there who has it worse than you.
I don't care what you're going through.
There's always...
I mean, look, I do this, and again, if you're like, I think I'm going to get help from someone
else.
Okay.
That's cool.
I'm busy anyway.
No, I'm just kidding, but anyway.
But the point is, you know what?
I do the same thing with myself.
When I'm going through stuff, I always just try to think of things that are worse.
And I just think to myself, this isn't that bad.
This is not as bad as it could be.
And you know what?
And by the way, while you, Christian wife, are sitting there and complaining that your
husband squeezes the toothpaste wrong, or he's got the toilet paper all wrong, or he
doesn't help out enough around the house, and he doesn't give you enough you time, and
he's just not as romantic as you want to be.
You know what?
Hey, there are other women whose husband is out committing adultery.
There are other women whose husband's out with a prostitute.
There are other women out there whose husband refuses to go to work.
He won't provide.
He won't go to work.
He's lazy.
And they have to go out and work and pay all the bills and pay for his lazy backside.
It's out there.
There are other women who are married to drug addicts.
How would you like to be married to a drug addict?
How would you like to be married to a guy who gets off work and all he does is play
video games the whole day, and then on Saturday it's video games, Sunday it's video games,
and then he goes to work on Monday morning.
It's out there.
Does anybody know anybody like that?
Yeah, look at all the hands.
It's everywhere.
Oh, my husband.
It's like, hey, is your husband a video game addict?
See, it could be worse.
Is your husband cheating on you?
No?
Well, then be happy that he pays the bills, he's a Christian, he goes to church, he doesn't
cheat on you.
You know, instead of just complaining about your light affliction, why don't you minimize
the problems and maximize thankfulness?
Maximize all the good things that are going for you.
Think about that.
And, you know, we could go the same way with husbands complaining about their wives, okay?
Why not maximize the good things about your wife?
And think about all the things that you like about her.
Think about all the things that she's got.
Look, all of us have wives with pros and cons, husbands with pros and cons.
It's just, what are you going to focus on?
You going to focus on all the negative things or the good things?
You know, what about our church?
What's your attitude toward Faithful Word Baptist Church?
If you want to pick it apart, you'll find fault with it.
If you want to pick me apart, you'll find fault with me.
But what are you going to focus on?
The good things about our church or the bad things about our church?
You know, Paul was the kind of guy, when things are going bad, he says, oh, this is
a light affliction.
And everybody else is like, no, that's not light.
When you're getting beaten with rods, when you're getting whipped with 39 stripes, five
times, that's not a light affliction, Paul.
He's like, oh, yeah, this is nothing.
This is a light affliction.
Man, how about the glory?
How about heaven?
How about the rewards?
See, when bad things happen to him, he's focusing on the positive.
He's minimizing and downplaying the negative.
So look, I'm just trying to help you be a happier person by not just dwelling on everything
that's bad about your life.
And you know, when people come to me and they tell me their woes, I do sympathize with them.
I do show understanding and sympathy with them.
And I weep with them that weep.
And I feel for them.
But I try to encourage them by saying, you know what?
It could be worse.
And I always think of a way to make it worse.
You know what I mean?
I'm like, well, here's how it could be worse.
They're like, oh, man, I'm at rock bottom.
Well, not really, because I can think of a lot worse places that you could be.
I mean, think about even us.
And look, I've been down in the dumps.
I've been depressed.
I've been sad at times.
But then if I stop and think about it, I'm sitting in a climate-controlled house.
I'm sleeping on a soft bed.
I got a pantry full of food.
You know, it's sort of like Brother Corbin Ressel said, you know, when you have a lot
of food, you have a lot of problems.
But when you have no food, you only have one problem, no food.
And look, everybody here has food.
And if you don't have food, there's a whole bunch of bread over there.
You can get your daily bread.
It's free.
It's all on that table.
Go get some bread.
If you're really desperate, I'll go get you an ice cream bar out of the freezer after
church if you're really in a bad mood.
But you know what?
There are people out there that have it worse than you and they have it worse than me.
And the Apostle Paul went through persecutions that none of us will probably ever have to
go through.
You know, I've gone through persecution, but I've never been beaten with rods.
I've never, except when I was growing up.
And that was good for me.
I needed that.
But, you know, I've never been flogged with 39 stripes with a whip.
I've never been a night and a day in the deep just out there treading water out in the ocean
or the Mediterranean Sea for a night and a day.
I've never been shipwrecked.
I've never had to spend time in prison, okay?
Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, watch this, worketh for us.
See, everything's working against me.
It's working for you.
Your illness is working for you.
Your financial problems are working for you.
Persecution is working for you.
Persecution makes faithful word a better church.
The problems that we go through, the affliction that we go through, it works for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
And then he crowns it with the verse 18, while we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Don't just look at the things that you see.
Oh, man, look how messed up my life is.
That's what you see.
Look at the affliction.
Look at the illness.
Look at the physical pain I'm going through.
Look at the persecution.
Look at how my friends have turned on me.
Look at how my family has turned on me.
Look how my job is failing.
My business is failing.
My finances are failing.
Oh, man, look how everything's going so bad.
He's saying, look, get your eyes off of the things that are temporal.
It's all temporary.
All pain is temporary.
It will all eventually go away.
Every illness is temporary.
Every financial problem is temporary.
Every marriage problem is temporary.
You say, no, you don't understand.
I don't think this marriage problem is ever going to go away.
It's temporary because you're going to die.
Or they're going to die.
One of you is going to die, and then it's over.
Free at last.
No, I'm just kidding.
So the point is, look, it's going to end someday.
Every problem will eventually end.
Nothing is permanent except for things that you don't see.
The things that are seen are temporal.
Things that are not seen are eternal.
You say, well, how can I see things that are not seen?
Through the eyes of faith.
Because faith is the evidence of things not seen.
So through faith, we see heaven and the rewards.
We see God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit.
And you know what?
The things that are not seen are eternal.
What is the part of us that's not seen?
The soul, the spirit.
Those are the parts of us that are eternal.
That which is seen is our body.
It's temporal.
This body is not going to make it.
This body is not going to make it into heaven.
It's not going to happen.
Because either this body is going to die, or if we make it to the second coming of Jesus
Christ, this body is going to be totally changed anyway.
So let's say your body is damaged beyond repair.
Well guess what?
You're going to get a new one.
This body is temporary.
And look, I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands.
How many of you have permanent damage to your body?
But almost anybody who is any age has already permanently damaged their body in some way.
Whether they've damaged their brain, or whether they've printed marks on their body, or whether
they've mutilated their body, or whether they've just gotten hurt.
I mean you talk to people, oh this sports injury.
When I was a teenager, a sports injury in my 20s, or remember you had a serious car
accident when you were younger.
And so you know your body's never been the same after that car accident.
So you know, things like that are all temporary.
You're not just going to be through all eternity like oh man, football, you know, or whatever.
It's all, all the aches and pains are temporary.
So look, what's the point of the chapter?
The point of the chapter is don't faint.
Why should we faint not?
Verse 1 said because of this we faint not.
Why do we faint not?
Well number one, we faint not because we have this ministry.
I mean we've got to reach other people.
Look, if our gospel's hid, it's hid to them that are lost.
People are dying and going to hell.
We have to keep going.
Quitting isn't an option.
Failure is not an option.
Because look, no matter what we go through, it's nothing like going to hell.
So we can't stop, we can't quit.
We must keep going because we have this ministry.
That's why we faint not.
Why else do we faint not?
We faint not because we know we're not forsaken.
We know Christ is with us.
We know he loves us.
He's never going to leave us or forsake us.
And we're not going to faint because we know that it's all temporary.
Why would we quit, why would we faint when we're almost to the finish line?
I mean think about a steward, but it would be, you know, you run a marathon and you suffered
mile after mile after mile and you get to the 26-mile mark and you're like, forget
this .2.
You know, 26 miles is enough.
Nuts to that .2 miles.
Do you think anybody quits a marathon after 26 miles because they don't want to do that
final .2?
Because, no, you finish it at that point even if you do it on your hands and knees, okay?
You've come so far.
Don't quit now.
Look, the finish line's right there.
You can see the finish line.
It's right there.
Make it to the end.
You say, you don't understand.
I'm 20 years old.
I'm not that close to the finish line.
But you know what?
In view of eternity, you are close to the finish line.
Plus, your finish line might be tomorrow, buddy.
By the way, see me after the service for some encouraging counsel.
You might be dead tomorrow, sucker.
You're closer to the finish line than you think.
Hey, I don't think I can stay in this marriage any longer.
Well, God might kill you tomorrow.
Think about it.
Wouldn't you hate it if you got divorced and then died the next day?
You could have stayed married.
That's right, folks.
Encouraging thoughts with Pastor Anderson.
Just call 1-800.
It could be worse.
No, I'm just kidding.
The point is, though, we don't faint because the sufferings of this life are not worthy
to be compared to the glory that's going to be revealed in us.
We've got to do it for the sake of other people.
Do it for your children.
Do it for your spouse.
Do it for the people around you.
Do it for the lost.
Get the emphasis off yourself.
Quit looking at the things that are seen.
Start looking at the things that are not seen.
And don't faint.
Don't quit.
And you know what?
There's people in this room right now that are going to quit.
Because people in the church, they come and they go.
Now, some people, they end up leaving because they just go off the deep end or they leave
in some dramatic fashion of just going off the rails and committing some major sin or
just becoming a heretic or they're exposed or whatever.
But you know what?
Most people who quit the church, you know how they do it, they just kind of fade away.
And you know what that's called?
Fainting.
That's how most people end up quitting is just by fainting.
And what does that mean?
You know, first they're coming Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
They're excited.
There's so many.
And then they just start to fade away.
They just get tired.
They just faint.
Or whatever the stress enters their life.
And I mean, I can't even count how many people I've reached out to and said like, hey, man,
you know, missed you in church.
Where have you been?
And they say like, oh, man, I'm just going through a lot right now, you know, my family
and, you know, I'm going through financial problems, having trouble affording the gas
or whatever.
But you know, at the end of the day, it's just that they got their eyes on the wrong
things.
They got their priorities wrong.
And they just kind of fade away.
Don't be that guy that faints.
Don't be that guy who fades off in the sunset.
Be the one who's still here 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now,
going strong.
How are you going to do it?
This chapter teaches you how to do it.
Minimize the struggle.
Minimize the pain.
Focus on the glory.
Focus on the things that are not seen.
Minimize the things that are seen.
And focus on other people.
Put yourself on the back burner.
Deny self.
Take up the cross and follow Jesus.
Let's bow our heads in our word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter.
And Lord, we just pray that you'd help us to put it into practice.
Obviously a sermon like this is easier said than done.
But Lord, help us to let this chapter become our motto.
And let this chapter become our guidance on how to get through hard times, Lord.
And help us not to quit.
Many people wash up and help us not to be those people, Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.