Hear the word of God from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, the 4th chapter and beginning at verse 16.
Therefore we do not lose heart.
Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, but the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly house this tent is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven. If indeed having been clothed we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now he who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. The word of our Lord, thanks be to God. Let us pray. Father in heaven, again we thank you for your word, and again we beseech you that you would give us your Spirit, that we might be open to receive what it is you have for us here. May we see the truth and would you buy your Spirit seal it to our hearts? Would you cause it to be eleven in our souls which causes change in our lives? Thank you Lord Jesus for your inestimable love and for this great and precious gift and for this text in particular. We pray in your name. Amen. You may be seated. Vacations are great and wonderful things and as I told the Sunday school class there's a sense in which you're kidding if you think I'm glad to be back. I mean you know who doesn't want to enjoy the mountains and ride horses and although the horseback riding part of the thing has left me aware of my decaying flesh. But we did have a wonderful time but it is great to be back being at worship earlier this morning at the early service really did feel like coming home. It's comfortable to be back in the environment you love and where you live and where you move and where things are familiar and it was just a great thing to be at worship this morning with that part of our congregation and it's great to be here and great to be able to gather about the Lord's table and it's great to be able to look back on a few days in North Carolina and think about the things that you thought about while you were there. One of the great things about vacation is time to reflect and we had plenty of occasion to sit on the porch and to look at the mountains and drink deeply the fresh mountain air and the cooler temperatures and the lack of humidity and all of those things that you get away from when you leave Florida in the summertime. And one of the things that I did was read over not this whole letter but portions of this letter the second letter to the Corinthians several times and particularly these early chapters
and I want to encourage you in fact strongly admonish you if I may to take these first three or four chapters five chapters of this letter and do that this week find some time to read over what it is that Paul writes to these folks at Corinth and I want to encourage you in particular to read over this passage which we have looked at and read already this morning. One of the things that I was struck by in having some time to reflect is how differently the scriptures see things how differently the scriptures view things how differently someone like the Apostle Paul who to be sure under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit but who also as a product of many long long years of walking with the Lord Jesus sees things and there's kind of an irony in this passage because the Apostle talks repeatedly about things which are seen and things which are not seen and his argument at this particular point and really throughout this letter and there's a sense in which you could say it is at the core of the scriptures and at the heart of what we affirm as Christians but what is so evident right here is that the things which are not seen are of greater value than the things which are seen. The irony is or the paradox is or the play on words is that that is how Paul sees things. He sees the unseen things as being a far greater value than the seen things. Now keep in mind the context and keep in mind his audience these Corinthian believers are being drawn away from their simplicity and the gospel from their faithfulness to the pure gospel by some super apostles. Paul's not there. He's probably an Ephesus. They're difficult he's in this church we've talked about them. He's written one letter already to try to correct them he knows it was painful he said he's not going to come back to them again until he knows he can come to them with joy in his heart that's the implication. He's not going to make a painful visit and so he writes this letter to explain to them why it is that he hasn't come back and in his absence these super apostles have put themselves forward and are seeking to draw people away from the gospel which the apostle has preached to them and they're infuning Paul's integrity they're calling into question his very person and Paul is responding to all of that and what these super apostles were doing is commending themselves to these Corinthian believers by pointing to their credentials by pointing to seen things by pointing to visual things by pointing to evident things things which are visible in some sense they were pointing to their rhetorical skills they were pointing to their visions they were pointing to supposed miracles they were pointing to all kinds of letters of commendation which had been given to them and which they presented to these Corinthian believers like resumes trust me other people have believe me other people have and it's against that backdrop that the apostle writes this particular portion of this letter but the whole of the letter
the apostle wants to say to these people before anything else that those outward invisible things are not the things that are to be trusted in fact if you read these first five or six chapters closely and even through the whole of the letter when the apostle sets himself before these Corinthian believers he doesn't set himself before them in his strengths in his competencies in his aptitudes he sets himself before them in his weakness and he boasts in his weakness not in his strengths and he stands in stark contrast to these super apostles who would commend themselves to people because they dress the part and they speak the part and they look the part in fact the apostle says very specifically very pointedly in the 16th verse that the outward man is perishing the outward man is perishing now the apostle doesn't have in view here the old man which he talks about for example in Colossians and Ephesians that is a moral and ethical sort of a conception and category and he tells us by virtue of our profession of faith in Christ and all that is assumed in that that we're to put off the old man we're to put away the way things used to be done we're to unrobe ourselves and disclose ourselves and we're to put on the new man which has to do with righteousness and peace and contentment and joy and forgiveness of one another and compassion toward one another but all of these worldly ways were to be done with that's during much at the heart of the Christian message that's not what the apostles talking about here not the old man but the outer man or the visible man the scene man that complex of things which has to do with our physical and material makeup but which has to do with our intellects as well which has to do as well with our accomplishments and our abilities and our giftedness the whole package of what it is that we are the things that we tend to find commendable or not commendable as we look upon them as we gaze at them the apostle says all of that stuff is rotting all of that that you are so enamored of is falling apart is perishing is rotting not we like the Corinthians aren't we convinced by the same kinds of things that they're convinced by aren't we inclined to be impressed by what is seen so why we have resumes isn't it so why we put references on our resumes that's why we call people who like us who are our friends to be our references when we fill out our resumes and send them on to a personnel person or the owner of a company a corporation because there are all these outward visible things which can be used to commend us in someone's sight and the apostle says it is rot it is falling apart it's decaying how many of you when you've applied for a job when you've gone into an interview with a president of a company or a personnel person of some kind have said look let me tell you something before we go any farther in this in this interview let me let me tell you something I am weak I am frail I am falling apart and I don't have anything to commend me in your sight that's how the apostle presents himself as weak and frail whose competence is outside himself and not in himself how many of you when you've gone into a job interview have said don't pay any attention to the resume don't listen to the people who are my references let me tell you what I am really like apart from Jesus Christ apart from him both as my creator and as my redeemer I do not exist I have nothing to commend myself to you all that I am all that I will ever be has everything to do with who he is and nothing to do with who I am folks that tends to level things doesn't it the outer man that whole complex of the material and the intellectual and the accomplishments and aspirations and all of it the apostle says is decaying it is rotting it is seen it is visible and this is a strong admonition to us to look differently at things as it was a strong admonition to those Corinthian believers but we struggle with that don't we we struggle with it in the same way that the Israelites of old did the Israelites of old looked at the outward man and they got stuck with salt didn't they it was tall strapping good looking guy there's a church planner for you there's a pastor for you there's a small group leader for you there's somebody to go after and Jesse the father of eight sons fell into the same trap when Samuel came to find the next king at the Lord's direction came to Jesse's house one by one the sons were eliminated and not contenders and in first Samuel 16 the seventh verse God says to Samuel and Samuel communicates then to Jesse don't look upon the outward man don't look at the appearance don't look at the external stuff or either Lord do not look upon appearance but upon the heart and they took instead and anointed the eighth son the least privileged the one who was taking care of stupid sheep out in fields and didn't the people of Jesus stay make the same mistake Jesus of Nazareth can anything good come from Nazareth born in Bethlehem the least of the cities among the least of the tribes his parents are poor he has no pedigree and they passed over the savior of the world because they looked at externals and not as God looks amazing isn't it how much confidence we have in youth and virility and supposed strength this isn't a political comment it's just a comment about the political scene I think the only reason Bill Clinton is going to be reelected is because he's young he were 20 years older he wouldn't have a chance you've often thought to myself we would do well to elect old people to these offices because they don't have anything to gain by it the apostle saying all that external stuff it's decaying it's falling apart it is not what we look at
rather there is this inner thing this unseen thing that is to occupy our attention our outward man is perishing but the inner man is being renewed day by day by day by day another one of those universal positives there aren't any asterisks in the margins no footnotes the apostle is saying to these Corinthian believers without exception you who name the name of Christ you who are a Christian there is something going on in the depths of your being in the life which is within you which will not be frustrated it will continue day after day after day after day until it is completed and they'll pay attention to the external stuff don't pay attention to what happens to a person in his or her old age as they become crotchety and senile and the rassible and hard to deal with that's the old man that's decaying anybody who has gone to a hospital and had a conversation with a 96 year old man or a 76 year old man who is being ravaged and raped and destroyed by the effects of the fall knows that there is something going on in that wonderful Christian person which appears to be overwhelmed by his decay but this text says it is not no matter what appears to the naked eye no matter the fact that he can't put two thoughts together no matter that he rambles in coherently no matter that he's singing some stupid diddy one moment and is cursing you in the next there is something on the inside which is going on and it will continue to go on and the Lord will see to it and it will not be frustrated until it is perfected and until the whole thing body and soul is perfectly and completely restored in Jesus what Jesus did at Lazarus tomb he took a dead decaying corpse and he spoke the word of life and in those moments what had been unraveling what was evident to the naked eye as decay what was evident to the naked nose as decay
began to be put back together and muscle and tendon and bone were reconnected and blood began to course through the veins and neurological impulses began to occur again and Lazarus began to have thoughts and life was restored and as Jesus was the author of that life and the importer of that life and the sustainer of that life so he is by the agency of his Holy Spirit in each and every one of you and his purpose will not be frustrated though the outer man all of that foolishness that we tend to pay attention to is decaying and seems to overwhelm the inner man it doesn't so how is this renewal accomplished this decay of the old this renewal of the new this ongoing incessant restoration wouldn't it be great if it occurred as a result of stirring up some instant spirituality and drinking it down like a warm cordial on a cool afternoon it doesn't occur that way it occurs through affliction
how is the old reduced and the new restored the inner made more and more conformable to the image of Christ it is through affliction which is but by comparison for a moment it is working for us a far more exceeding and the eternal weight of glory this letter is filled with the apostles afflictions and difficulties they were physical they were relational they were internal they were of all kinds
and all of them the apostle says every single one of them all of them taken together work for us
folks I hate him I hate him the apostle in one aspect one corner of his mind one part of his being hated them as well and in chapter 12 he recounts for his readers that he prayed that God would take this one affliction away that he take this thorn out of the flesh that he finds some mouse some place who could pull it out of his paw and God said no and the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed and before his death prayed the same thing let it pass oh God let it pass he didn't for Jesus and he didn't for Paul Paul says that these afflictions are light and momentary he doesn't mean they're in consequential you can read his list of afflictions in the eleventh chapter of second Corinthians and draw your own conclusions but by comparison by comparison with the glory that awaits by comparison with this perfected and completed life which the Lord has imparted and is sustaining and will not allow to be frustrated until it is completed by comparison with that it is trifling and all of these difficulties and afflictions are working to that end just said to somebody a couple of weeks ago maybe it was a month six weeks ago reflecting upon this passage I said to one of our members you know what God's doing in your life he's wearing you out he's wearing you down
and he's doing it so that this inner man this thing of life and righteousness and delight in Jesus which is more and more being made conformable to the image of Christ he's wearing you down so that that might emerge he's chipping away he's hacking he's cutting he's chiseling he's creating this arduous it is painful but it is preparing for us and preparing us for the presence of Jesus
what is it that Christ is doing in our lives he's wearing us down he's overcoming us and he is breaking us apart so that he can eliminate from us what is not suitable for heaven and then he is gradually day by day transforming us and perfecting us and preparing us for the environment where we will be forever that's why it seems to me there is the universal testimony of the scriptures that we rejoice in our tribulations we glory in our struggles because they are working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory and blessedness that is prayed of the Lord oh Lord give us grace in our general thinking to see things differently give us grace to see your work in our life differently give us grace to deal with our wives and our husbands and our children differently give us grace to deal with one another differently throughout this congregation may we look beyond the things that are seen and rejoice about the things which are not seen father give us grace that we might not focus upon what and who we are but upon who and what we are becoming by your grace and thank you that you will perfect what you have begun and bring to completion what you've started in each of your children Lord hear us as together we pray hear us as together we confess our sins look with favor upon us and be merciful toward us most merciful God we confess that we have sinned against you in thought word indeed by what we have done and by what we have left undone we have not loved you with our whole heart we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves we are truly sorry and we humbly repent for the sake of your son Jesus Christ have mercy upon us and forgive us that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways amen