Why the Gospel Is Hidden
(No. 3288)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1912.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
FEBRUARY, 11, 1866.
"But if our Gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those who aire lost." 2
Corinthians 4:3.
In this verse and the following one we have a very brief yet very full
description of what every minister of the Gospel ought to preach. In
the first place, he is to preach the Gospel–not metaphysics, not
politics, not mere morality, not simply doctrines as such. He is to
preach the Gospel, which signifies good news, something new and
something good–so good that nothing else can equal it–the glad
tidings of mercy for the guilty, the blessed tidings of God coming down
to man that man may go up to God, the welcome tidings of atonement made
for human guilt! It is also new as well as good–it comes as a strange
novelty to the attentive ear. Mythology never dreamed it, human wit
could never have invented it, even angelic intellect could not have
devised a scheme–
"So just to God, so safe for man." The business of the Christian
minister is to preach this Good News, to publish to the sinners the
glad tidings that there is a Savior, to point the guilty to Christ and
to be constantly saying to each individual sinner, "Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." I care not what may be the
learning or eloquence of the minister, though he may speak with the
tongue of men and angles, if he does not preach Christ and bid sinners
trust in Him, he has mistaken his mission and missed the grand
objective for which he was sent!
This Gospel is called in the text "our Gospel"By this expression I
understand that the minister must accept it for himself before he can
hold it out to others. I am myself to look to Jesus as my own personal
Savior–and then I am to cry to others, "Look unto Him, and be you
saved, all the ends of the earth." I must be able to say–
"I came to Jesus, and I drank Of that life-giving stream–
and then, but not till then, I am to cry, "Ho, everyone that thirsts,
come you to the waters." What a miserable wretch must he be who
preaches to others a Gospel in which he has, himself, no share! He
spreads the table and invites others to come to the feast, while he,
himself, is starving! He is like a plague-stricken physician who knows
the remedy for the disease and sees others cured by it, yet dies with
the remedy in his hand. Ah me, of all the portions, that must be most
dreadful in the world to come, as well as most uncomfortable in this
present life! Surely it must be the portion of the man who preaches to
others what he has never experienced in his own soul. Paul might well
call it "our Gospel," for it had saved him, the chief of sinners, and
made him a beloved Apostle of Jesus Christ. He might well call it "our
Gospel" for he had held it fast in time of persecution and amid all the
perils to which he had been exposed–and he was, at last, to give his
life as a sacrifice for it! And it must be "our Gospel," too, "to have
and to hold," or else we cannot preach it with any power!
In the verse following our text, something more is said about the
Gospel–it is there called "the glorious Gospel" There was something in
it that aroused and inflamed the Apostle 's noblest thoughts. Paul was
no boaster. "God forbid that I should glory," he said–but there was
one exception–"save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." He did not
stand up as a mere apologist for the Gospel, or say, "I can defend it
against all comers and maintain that it is reasonable," but he gloried
in it as the best and highest Truth of God–as wiser than all the
Stoic's wisdom and more full ofjoy than all the Epicurean's pleasure!
He gloried in that Gospel which brings full and free forgiveness to the
penitent! That Gospel which takes the meanest and basest of mankind and
makes them princes in the court of the King of kings! That
Gospel which comes to men in poverty, in slavery, in the degradation of
superstition, idolatry and crime–and lifts them up out of the horrible
pit and the miry clay, sets their feet upon the Rock of Ages, cleanses
them, clothes them, puts a new song into their mouth, preserves them
from falling and, at last, brings them where they shall see the face of
God and dwell forever in His Presence! It is, indeed, a glorious Gospel
which can do all this! Yet, alas, the most of men are like the rooster
on the dunghill who, when he found a pearl, said that he would sooner
have found a grain of barley–they think more of their corn and their
wine, their feasts and their mirth, than they do of the inexpressibly
glorious things of the Kingdom of Heaven. Oh, that they were wise
enough to perceive the glories of this glorious Gospel!
Paul further calls it "the glorious Gospel of Christ" And well he
might, for it is all about Christ from beginning to end! Give me a true
preacher of the glorious Gospel of Christ and I will gladly listen to
him. I would like him to be an educated minister if that is possible,
for there is no need for my ears to be tortured by mistakes in grammar,
but I do not care so much about that as about the other matter! I would
sooner hear Christ's Gospel preached ungrammatically than I would hear
the best philosophy set forth in the most orderly sentences, but with
the Gospel of Christ left out. When the table is spread for dinner, it
is well to have a clean tablecloth, china, glass and cutlery of all the
right sort and in their proper places–but if there is no food on the
dishes, all those other things are a mere mockery to the hungry ones
who are waiting to be fed! Sooner, by far, would I go to a bare table
and eat from a wooden bowl something that would appease my appetite,
than I would go to a well-spread table on which there was nothing to
eat! Yes, it is Christ, Christ, Christ whom we have to preach! And if
we leave Him out, we leave out the very soul of the Gospel! Christless
sermons make merriment for Hell. Christless preachers, Christless
Sunday school teachers, Christless class leaders, Christless tract
distributors–what are all these doing? They are simply setting the
mill to grind without putting any grist into the hopper–all their
labor is in vain! If you leave Jesus Christ out, you are simply beating
the air, or going to war without any weapon with which you can smite
the foe!
Dear Friend, if you are unconverted, let me pause here for a few
moments to remind you that this is not a Gospel of self, nor a Gospel
of works, nor a Gospel of baptism, nor a Gospel of priests, nor a
Gospel of ministers, but it is "the glorious Gospel of Christ!" Forget
the men who preach it if you will, but, oh, forget not the bleeding,
dying Savior to whom they bid you look. Your hope must be in Him and in
Him, alone! To Him would we affectionately point you and we pray the
Holy Spirit to shut your eyes to everything but Him whom God has set
forth to be a Propitiation for sin–
"There is life for a look at the Crucified One!
There is life at this moment for thee!
Then look, Sinner–look unto Him and be saved–
Unto Him who was nailed to the tree!
It is not the tears of repentance or prayers,
But the blood that atones for the soul–
On Him, then, who shed it, believing at once
Your weight of iniquities roll!
We are healed by His stripes–would you add to the Word?
And He is our righteousness made–
The best robe of Heaven He bids you put on,
Oh, could you be better arrayed?
Then doubt not your welcome, since God has declared
There remains no more to be done!
That once in the end of the world He appeared
And completed the work He begun." With this rather long introduction, I
now come to the three points upon which I am going to briefly speak,
but very solemnly, for I think they concern many of you who are here,
tonight. So, firstly, I ask, why is this Gospel hidden from some
people? Secondly, what is the state of those from whom it is
hidden?'And, thirdly, what is to be feared concerning them in the
future?
I. First, then, WHY IS THIS GOSPEL HIDDEN FROM SOME PEOPLE?
It is evident that there are some persons in the world who do not
understand the Gospel–and I will venture to say that the Gospel is
never understood until it is received. You might have thought that men
could very readily understand anything as simple as, "Believe, and
live," yet those of us who have been converted must confess that we did
not under-
stand the Gospel until we received it. I am sure that I never fully
comprehended the plan of salvation until I believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And when I did believe, the whole matter seemed so simple that
I wondered why I had not understood it before! You notice that the
Apostle decreed that it was not his fault that the Gospel was hidden
from some people. And although we would not put ourselves on a level
with any Apostle, we are as clear upon this point of plain speaking as
any Apostle who ever lived! If "our Gospel" is hidden from any of our
hearers, it is not because of the fine language that we use! We fear
that there are some who, in preaching the Gospel, indulge in such
eloquent oratory that their Gospel is hidden from their hearers–but
this is not a sin which can be laid at our door. We use what Whitefield
called, "market language." We use a great many more Saxon words than
Latin words. If we had to find out the Gospel through the types and
symbols of the Law, we might have a difficulty in understanding it, but
the Gospel we have to preach is simply this, "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you shall be saved. Trust in Him as suffering as a
Substitute in your place and you shall be saved." Can anything be more
simple than that? We try to use the plainest similitudes so as to bring
the Truth of God within the comprehension of the weakest of our
hearers. We make it a matter of conscience, as in the sight of God, to
speak to men very simply so that each one, after he has heard the
message, is compelled to admit that it has been delivered to him very
plainly. How is it, then, that you do not understand it?
Certainly, it is not because we hide the Gospel in a long roll of
ceremonies. We have never said to you, "You must be christened in your
infancy, you must have sponsors to promise all sorts of things in your
name and then, as you grow up, you must be confirmed and must take the
responsibility upon yourselves." Oh, no! We have never talked like
that! We point you to the Divinely-Inspired Bible and tell you that all
you need to know is plainly recorded there. We point you to the Eternal
Word who became Incarnate and we say, with all the emphasis of which we
are capable–
"None but Jesus Can do helpless sinners good!" We bid you not to trust
in forms and ceremonies, but to look alone to Jesus Christ and Him
Crucified, so that it cannot be for lack of plainness that the Gospel
is not understood!
And again, it cannot be because of any obscurity in the Gospel, itself.
I will venture to say that there is no proposition in the world more
simple than the one which the Gospel sets before us. The formula,
"Twice two are four," is so simple that a child's mind can understand
it. And the degree of intellect which can comprehend is sufficient–so
far a intellect is concerned–to comprehend Paul's declaration, "This
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners." Or John's, "He that believes on
the Son has everlasting life." To trust Jesus Christ, as far as it is
an intellectual act, is a matter that does not require the slightest
education–there is no need to sit down and calculate. Here is Jesus
Christ standing in the sinner's place. God punished the sinner's guilt
upon Christ instead of upon the sinner–all that the sinner is bidden
to do is to trust Christ to save him–and, as soon as he does that, he
is saved! What could be simpler than that? I grant you that as the
Gospel is sometimes preached, there is obscurity in it, but there is no
obscurity in the Gospel, itself! Well then, if it so, and it is, why is
it that the Gospel is hidden from some people? And the answer is that
"the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not."
Let us see how this is.
First of all, the Gospel is hidden from some men because they have
never felt sin to be an evil. "Why," they say, "do you talk to us about
the punishment of sin? Why do you tell us that God punished His own Son
in the place of sinners? We believe in the universal fatherhood of God,
so we have no need of any Doctrine of Substitution." So you think that
it is a small thing to offend the Most High God, but He thinks it is a
very great thing! You consider that sin is a mere trifle, scarcely
worth thinking about, but God regards it as exceedingly sinful–an evil
and an accursed thing which He will, by no means, pardon except in them
who trust His Son, the Divinely appointed Substitute and Savior. If you
realized what sin is, you would soon understand the Gospel! If the Holy
Spirit shall teach you that sin is the most deadly and most damnable
thing of which you can conceive, you will at once understand the Glory
of the Gospel that shows how you can be completely delivered from its
curse, penalty and power through the mercy of God in giving His
only-begotten Son to die in your place! You love sin–that is the fact
of the matter–and you suppose that one is no more offensive to God
than it is to yourself. Fool that you are, you are fascinated by the
serpent that has filled your veins with the venom which shall burn in
you forever and ever unless you shall look by faith to Him who was
lifted up upon the Cross even as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in
the wilderness that all who looked upon it might live! May God give you
Grace to see sin
as it really is in His sight, for then will you realize your need of a
Savior and you will give heed to the Gospel which bids you believe in
Him that you may be saved!
Another reason why men do not understand the Gospel is that they do not
understand themselves. Some of you who are here tonight think that you
can save yourselves. I know what your thoughts are–they are to this
effect–that if you do your best, if you say your prayers, if you
attend church or chapel, if you give some to the poor, then you will go
to Heaven. You have not yet learned that all you do is tainted with the
leprosy of sin and, therefore, cannot be acceptable to God! Your best
works are bad since you do them with the motive that you may be saved
by them–selfishness, therefore, is at the bottom of them all! You are
not serving God by your good works! You are all the while trying to
serve yourselves. If you knew yourselves better, you would know that
all your works are nothing but sin until the Holy Spirit brings you to
know your needof Christ–and then to knowChrist as the very Savior you
need! If I am not in need, I have no need of the gifts of charity. And
if you do not know how needy you are spiritually, you will never apply
to Christ for aid. But once let the real needs of your soul stare you
in the face–that you realize that you are "wretched, and miserable,
and poor, and blind, and naked," then the simple Gospel message,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved," will be so
welcome to your soul that it will almost leap out of your body to lay
hold of it!
Yet another reason why men do not understand the Gospel is because
their will is not subdued. "We want to know," they say, "why the
requirements of the Gospel are so strict." Oh, Sirs, that is not the
language for you to use to your God! The message to you is, "Except you
are converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into
the Kingdom of Heaven." That hectoring spirit which says, "Why is this
the only way of salvation? Why is this precept enjoined? Who is the
Lord that we should serve Him?"–that spirit has been the eternal ruin
of many! There is no likelihood that you will ever understand the
Gospel while you are of this humor. Come down, Man, come down–there is
no blessing for you while you set yourself up high! May the Lord make
you know the corruptions and abominations which dwell in your heart
that, in the Presence of the thrice-holy God, you may demean yourself
after another and a humbler fashion! But while that wicked will of
yours says, "I will not do what God requires," there is no hope
whatever that you will be able to understand the Gospel!
There are some who cannot understand the Gospel because it interferes
with their worldly interests. If you take a sovereign out of your
pocket and cover the word, "God," in your Bible with it, of course you
cannot see the word! There are a great many men who never seem to see
anything beyond pounds, shillings and pence–they never look above
their ledgers–they never rise to anything that is Godlike and Divine.
They have no more spirituality than so many pigs at a trough! They say
they cannot understand the Gospel, but how can they when their
understanding has been eaten through and through with the canker of
their gold? There are many here to whom I am a stranger, but I should
like to put this question to any of you who do not understand the
Gospel–Is there not in your hearts a desire not to understand it? Is
it not a sorrowful fact that many of you do not comprehend Gospel
preachers because you do not want to trouble yourselves by
comprehending them or have an uneasy consciousness that Gospel Truth
and your pleasures will not agree? You are like men who are on the way
to bankruptcy, but who dare not examine their books to see how they
stand! Yet did you ever know a man retrieve his position by refusing to
look his difficulties in the face? Is it not the most sensible plan to
know the worst of your case and to know it at once? I have known some
who did not want to understand the Gospel because they were engaged in
a business which would not bear examination. There are others who are
hindered by their besetting sins. If the Lord Jesus Christ would grant
pardons and yet allow men to keep their sins, what a host of disciples
of that sort He might have! But He says that though sin is as dear to
us as our right arm, it is to be cut off–and though it is as precious
as our right eye, it is to be plucked out! Yet many will not agree to
these conditions and, therefore, the Gospel is hidden from them.
II. Now I must try very briefly to answer the second question, WHAT IS
THE STATE OF THOSE FROM WHOM
THE GOSPEL IS HIDDEN?
Paul says that they are lost–"If our Gospel is hidden, it is hidden to
those who are lost." But, Paul, are you not very uncharitable in saying
that men are lost? Preachers nowadays tell them that they will all get
to Heaven at last. Ah, Beloved, the Apostles knew nothing of this
modern, maudlin "charity!" They said, as their Master said before them,
"He that believes not shall be damned." Our Lord Jesus Christ knew that
there was no alternative between believing and being lost. But in what
sense are they from whom the Gospel is hidden, lost?
Well, first, they are lost to the church. You may be a subscriber to
the funds of the church, you may attend the service of the church, you
may even be an ardent admirer of the preacher and find a certain
measure of interest in listening to his discourses. But if the Gospel
is still hidden from you, if you do not understand it and believe on
the Christ of whom it speaks–you are lost to the church of which many
around you are members–and if you remain as you are, you will be lost
to the one great Church of the first-born and will never form a part of
the general assembly of the redeemed around the Throne of God above!
It is a dreadful thing for anyone to be lost. I do not know if there is
a more dreadful word in the English language than that word, "lost." Do
you remember, my Friend, when you came home from work one night and
your wife met you with the sad news that your little Mary was lost, how
you hurried from one police station to another? And your poor
distracted wife went tearing up and down one street after another
seeking for tidings of your lost child! It was her misfortune to be
lost in thatsense, but I hope you may never have a child lost in a
sense in which it shall be her crime when the mother, night after
night, searches the cold streets for any trace of her poor lost
daughter! Ah, Sinner, you are lost to God in that sense. You have
turned away from Him who made you. You have despised the love that He
has lavished upon you. You have forgotten all the care that He has
taken of you. I am quite sure that you are not happy while you are thus
lost–how can you be happy? You are not at rest. Your soul is like a
ship drifting in a storm with neither a rudder to guide her, nor an
anchor to hold her and unless the Lord shall mercifully interpose to
save you, you will be lost forever!
What a mercy it is, Sinner, that you are not yet "lost" in the full
meaning of that term, as you soon will be if you do not repent of your
sin and turn unto the Lord! But even now it is a terrible thing to be
lost in any sense–and if you are not saved, you are lost–you must be
either the one or the other, you cannot be partly saved and partly
lost! I will ask every one of you again tonight to do what I asked my
congregation once before to do. You are either lost or saved, so will
you definitely decide which word applies to your case and write it down
and sign your name to it? I remember that on the previous occasion when
I made this request, there was one Brother, who, after sincere heart
searching, felt that he was lost, so he wrote down that word and signed
his name below it. When he had done so and looked at the word, "Lost,"
written with his own hand, and with his signature appended to it–and
felt that it might be brought forward as evidence against him at the
Last Great Day, it broke the heart that had never been broken before
and brought him as a true penitent to the Savior's feet, so that before
that night passed away he could write himself down as, "Saved," just as
truthfully as he had before acknowledged that he was lost! I pray that
this Brother's experience may be repeated in many of you here. Do not
hesitate to look thoroughly into your own case. If you are saved, it is
not difficult for you to know that you are. And if you are not saved,
it is well that you should know it at once! If you think you are saved
when you are not, your ruin will be all the more terrible because you
had not the courage to find out the truth! If there is any doubt about
the matter, let it be cleared up at once. Go to Jesus Christ this very
moment! Confess your sin to Him and trust to His precious blood to wash
it all away! And then you will be no longer lost, but shall be saved in
the Lord with an everlasting salvation!
III. Now, in a few closing sentences, let me answer the third question,
WHAT IS TO BE FEARED CONCERNING THOSE FROM WHOM THE GOSPEL IS HIDDEN?
It is to be feared that in addition to their natural blindness, a
second film has been cast over their eyes by "the god of this world."
That is a very remarkable expression, "the god of this world." Does
this world, then, really worship the devil? There are devil-worshippers
in certain far-off lands–and we hold up our hands in horror and say,
"What shockingly bad people!" Yet there are also many devil-worshippers
in this land! The lover of pleasure–what is he better than a
devil-worshipper? It is the devil in his best suit of clothes whom some
people worship, but it is still the devil! Worship the devil with the
golden hoofs, but it is the same devil all the while! If I were to be
lost, it would make little difference to me whether I was lost in a
gold mine, or in a coal mine. If I were to break my neck on a slab of
gold, it would be no better for me than breaking it upon a slab of
stone! So, if you are lost, you will find little comfort in the thought
that you are lost in a more respectable way than others are!
When "the god of this world" comes to a man who is already blind by
nature, he seeks to "make assurance doubly sure" by bandaging his eyes
so securely that the Light of the Gospel shall be still more completely
hidden from him! If such a man attends a place of worship, the devil
persuades him that he is not a sinner, so that he need not take to him
the preacher's warnings and exhortations. Another says, "I don't intend
to trouble about any of these things–my one aim is to get on in the
world." Yes, just so, "the god of this world" has blinded his eyes! So
effectually does Satan blind the man that he cannot see his own
depravity! O Soul, what shall it profit you if you shall gain the whole
world, and yet be lost forever? What if you shall die upon a bed of
down and wake up among the lost in Hell? May God give all of us the
Grace to look upon the two worlds in their proper light! If the next
world is only a trifle, trifle with it! If this world is everything,
make everything of it! As you possess an immortal spirit, think well
where that spirit is to spend eternity. As all have sinned and come
short of the Glory of God, you are a sinner and you need salvation, so
do, I entreat you, trust in Him who alone can save the guilty, "for
there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must
be saved," but the name of Jesus–and He is able to save unto the
uttermost all who come unto God by Him. I said just now that I do
entreat you to trust in Him, and so I do, yet this is not half so much
my business as it is yours. The preacher of the Gospel ought to be in
earnest, but when he has faithfully delivered his message, the
responsibility is transferred to his hearers. As the Lord lives, I will
take no responsibility of yours upon myself–to our own Master you and
I must stand or fall! But, as your fellow man. As one who devoutly
desires that you should not be lost, I do beseech you to seek Divine
Grace from God to get rid of the scales from your eyes so that you may
see sin, salvation and everything else as they are in His sight–and
may look to Jesus and find eternal life in Him!
Some of you young men are perhaps going to Oxford or Cambridge. Well,
study hard, be senior wranglers if you can, but with all the knowledge
that you may acquire, do get a clear understanding of eternal things
and seek the wisdom that comes from above. When you wear the degrees
which earthly knowledge will procure for you, may you also wear the
higher degree which God shall confer upon you as the children of the
Kingdom, children of God by faith in Christ Jesus! Sit at the feet of
divines and philosophers if you will, but also sit at the feet of Jesus
and learn of Him, for so shall you have honor and glory that shall last
forever! Seek after the honor which comes from God–which can only be
found by believing in Jesus and seeking to please Him in all things!
My time has gone and your time for repentance and faith is almost gone.
May the realities of eternity be deeply impressed upon us all–and may
we be prepared–when death shall summon us to stand before God, to
prove that the Gospel was not hidden from us, so that we may not be
among "those who are lost." May God save us, by His Grace, for Jesus'
sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 2 CORINTHIANS 4; 5:1-9.
2 Corinthians 4:1-2. Therefore, seeing we have 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. Paul's description of his
own ministry and also that of Timothy should be true of every servant
of Jesus Christ! There must be no dishonesty, or craftiness, or deceit
about the minister of the Word of God–and it is by the manifestation
of the Truth of God that he must commend himself to every man's
conscience in the sight of God! He may not win every man's approval,
yet even those who differ from him must perceive his loyalty to his
Lord.
3, 4. But if our Gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those who are lost:
in whom the god of this world has 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. [See Sermons #1663, Volume 28–THE TRUE GOSPEL IS NO HIDDEN
GOSPEL and #2304, Volume 39–BLINDED BY SATAN.] The light of the Gospel
is so glorious and bright that it is only hidden from those who have
been blinded by Satan, "the god of this world." The only hope for them
is to believe in Jesus who can give sight to the spiritually blind as
easily as He gave sight to the physically blind when He was here in the
flesh.
5. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and
ourselves your servants for Jesus 'sake. "Christ Jesus the Lord" is to
be the great theme of our preaching! And when it is so, we naturally
take our right position with regard to our hearers, as Paul and Timothy
did–"and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake."
6, 7. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has
shinedin 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.
God might have put the priceless treasure of the Gospel into the golden
vessel
of cherubim and seraphim–and He might have sent angels who would never
suffer, who would never err, who would never sin–to preach the Word.
But instead of doing so, He has chosen to send the Gospel to men by
commonplace beings like themselves. "We have this treasure in earthen
vessels," and this redounds much to God's Glory and, dear Friends, the
great objective of the sending of the Gospel into the world is the
Glory of God! He would manifest His mercy to men that His mercy might
be glorified and, therefore, He has committed the Gospel not to the
trust of perfect men, but to the trust of poor, shallow, earthen
vessels like ourselves!
8, 9. 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. The Apostle is here speaking for himself and all the
members of the Apostolic college and, also, for all the early saints.
They appear to have been very much troubled and sometimes to have been
very much perplexed. I meet with certain brethren, now and then, who
have no troubles–they are so supremely wise that they are never
perplexed and so eminently holy that they do not appear to belong to
the ordinary democracy of Christiani-ty–but are altogether
supernatural beings! Well, I do not belong to their clique and it does
not seem to me that Paul and the Apostles and the early Christians did.
Those great pioneers of the Church of Christ were men who were troubled
on every side–perplexed, persecuted, cast down–in fact, they were men
of like passions with ourselves!
10, 11. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life, also, of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For
we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus'sake, that the
life, also, of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So you
see, Brothers and Sisters, to have an anticipation of death upon one is
no hindrance to one's work, but a great help to it–to bear about in
our body the dying of the Lord Jesus is a great help towards the
manifestation of the life of Christ! When we begin to reckon that we
shall live long, we are very apt to live loosely. But to live as though
tomorrow might be the Judgment Day, or as though today the King might
come in His Glory–that is the style of living which is the best of
all! "A short life and a holy one"–lengthened as God may please, but
reckoned by us as short even at the longest–may that be the
Christian's motto. As the worldling says, "A short life and a merry
one." But we say, "A short life if God so wills it, but a holy one
whether it is long or short."
12. So then death works in us, but life in you. These Apostolic men
lived as if they were on the borders of the grave–lived expecting to
die a cruel death–and in this way spiritual life was brought to the
Corinthians and others who witnessed their holy lives and heroic
deaths.
13-16. 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 who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up,
also, by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for
your sakes, that the abundant Grace might through the thanksgiving
ofmany redound to the Glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but
though our outward man perishes, yet the inward man is renewed day by
day. As the flesh goes down, so, by God's Grace, the spirit goes up!
You know that there are heavy weights that keep men down to the earth,
but he who understands mechanics knows that by the use of wheels and
pulleys those same heavy weights may be made to lift a man–and God
often makes the weights and burdens associated with bodily decay lift
up the inward spirit.
17, 18. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for
us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not
at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for
the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not
seen are eternal
2 Corinthians 5:1, 2. For we know that ifour earthlyhouse ofthe
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan. In this poor
body it is our lot often to groan, but the groan is a hopeful one, for
it is a birth-pang and it will bring joy in due time–"For in this we
groan."
2-6. Earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from
Heaven: if it is that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we
that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we
would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed
up of life. Now He that has worked us for the same thing is God, who
also has given unto us the earnest ofthe Spirit Therefore we are always
confident That is a blessed experience, "always confident." There are
some Christians who are neverconfident and some who are afraid of being
confident. I know some who, if they see this holy confidence in other
Christians, begin to tremble for their eternal safety. Never mind about
them, Brothers and Sisters–if God gives you a holy confidence in Him,
hold fast to it and do not let it go, whatever anyone may say!
6-9. Knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from
the Lord, (for we walk by faith, not by sight). We are confident, I
say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present
with the Lord. Therefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we
may be accepted of Him. [See Sermon #1303, Volume 22–the believer in
the body and
OUT OF THE BODY.] That is our main business–whether we live or
whether we die is of no consequence at all! But to be accepted of
Christ–so to live is to be well-pleasing to God. Be this our heavenly
ambition and may the Holy Spirit graciously enable us to attain to it!