Good morning. Remind you that we're about to make a shift in our worship service. Up to this point, we've been largely speaking to God, offering to him our praise and our worship, and in this part of the worship service, we're going to turn now and listen to him. You hear what God says in his word and then Lord willing to respond to it in just a bit. You'll notice, and as we make that transition, the title of the sermon today is The Gospel earthen vessels and the power of God. We've been looking in the passage in Second Corinthians, chapter four. The first six verses have largely been talking about the beauty of the gospel of grace that we have in Christ, the ministry that Paul had been given and that we each believer has been given in Christ. And he is thankful for that. And then we begin today by him saying, but we have this treasure, this treasure of the gospel, this treasure of the ministry in jars of clay. And so we have this title, the gospel earthen vessels and the power of God. I wonder if you've ever questioned God's wisdom in choosing you as an ambassador of the gospel. Have you ever wondered if maybe he made a mistake in choosing you to be among the evangelists who would communicate his truth to the world? You know yourself, you know that you are sometimes timid, you're not always consistent in your faith, you get tired easily, fatigued at your work. Sometimes you're even hypocritical. Have you asked the Lord why, Lord, have you chosen me to be the instrument of taking this beautiful, precious message of hope for people to pass that on to others? Maybe you thought that surely there had to be more effective means, more powerful means of doing that, more reliable means, more skilled means, maybe even in people who are able to do this or some other means other than humanity. Well, when men and women tend to put their most valuable things in those most secure and durable receptacles, this unimaginable heavenly treasure of the gospel, however, is stored not in containers of parallel dignity or beauty, but rather they have been stored or this has been stored and entrusted to us to be carried about by people like you and me, people who are weak individuals. prone to infirmities, prone to limitations in all sorts of ways, prone to get tired and sick and emotionally upset and so on. Failures that we face and instabilities that we face. Why would the Lord God choose to do it that way? And it's unmistakable that that is exactly what God has done. The word of God cannot be bypassed to get around some other way that maybe God could do his work of the gospel spreading in this earth apart from us. The great Chrysostom, who was a great preacher, wrote, This very fact is one of the most marvelous proofs of God's power that an earthen vessel could bear such splendor and keep such a treasure. Well, today's message is a reflection on the earthiness of man and the power of God through his Holy Spirit. With the intent that we might go about this entrusted task with confidence, focusing our eyes not on our own selves and our own weaknesses, but indeed on one, the one worthy of all the glory. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ and his power through his Holy Spirit. So let's turn his attention, our attention now to hear from him. We truly now want to listen to what God says. This is not something that happens, you know, just every day, every minute of your day. So now hear what God says to you. And then prepare yourselves to respond to it. Here's what we read in God's word. Second Corinthians, chapter four, beginning at verse seven. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus's sake so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. It is written, I believed, therefore, I have spoken. With that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with him in his presence. All of this is for your benefit so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause Thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Amen. We begin today by Paul's declaration that the gospel has been entrusted to jars of clay. I've been called a lot of names in my time, but that's pretty low. A low blow, they're calling me a jar of clay. In Paul's day, the clay jar was just a useless thing, really. I mean, it had its purpose, but it didn't last very long. It wasn't worth much. It was just made of earth. clay right out of the ground, and then when you put it in an oven, it would become hard and you could use it for a while. But it was prone to chip and it was prone to crack. And eventually you would just have to get another one. Paul's trying to get at something here and using this analogy and referring to us, that we are these earthen clay vessels. Namely, that we're just earthy folks, we're frail, we're prone to weakness, we're prone to chip, as you were. So I want us to look at the earthiness of man this morning a little bit. The Greek word used for the jars of clay that he uses here is an interesting one. It literally could be translated a vessel of oyster. That's a strange term, but really what it means is the idea reflects a vessel made of that which is extremely brittle, like an oyster shell. Very quick to shatter and break. It was used of pots made of terracotta or earthenware that was very frail. Man may think himself rather strong ever hear the boastings of man, how strong they are. Some some of them think that they're really indestructible, that they are. They are not. They're invincible, as it were. And yet the scripture, when the scripture talks about us, it doesn't glorify us in that way at all. It talks about us as frail, as weak as clay, very glorified terms. But so Paul calls us this. I know that there are some very, very strong athletes who get themselves to a point physically where they are remarkably powerful. Their muscles are sort of tuned to the highest peak of what they could be, and yet it doesn't take more than a bacteria, a tiny, tiny microscopic bacteria to take that strong individual and put him in a hospital bed. So even the strongest of men find themselves at the mercies of the smallest things. Paul calls us jars of clay. When he writes in his letter to the churches, he doesn't give us a whole lot better picture, does he? He says in chapter four, verse 14, what is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then it vanishes. Well, thanks, OK, jars of clay, and now I'm a mist, I just vanish, I'm like the withering grass, would say another place. Well, as much as we may recoil from those kinds of descriptions, the other thing is that we know that they're true. We do realize that we are not as strong as we would like to be. We certainly don't last as long as we would like to last. Sure, there are times when we are strong and we feel like we're ready for just about anything. But there are other times when we realize how weak we are. In fact, there are times when we are shamed by just how poorly we hold up. We're afraid to show our faces for how weak we've been. As one writer put it, we are mortal and soon broken in pieces. Well, the problem is that when God entrusted us with the gospel, when he gave us this phenomenal task of sharing the good news with people, it meant for us that we would have to go to war against all kinds of rulers and powers in the heavenly realms, including the God of this age that we just talked about earlier on in verse four of this chapter. And there are no timeouts. You'll notice there are no halftime breaks where you can take a break and you can get back together and pause and Rest a little bit before you go out again. There are there's nothing like that where you can lay aside the responsibilities of the gospel and rest up before you go out again. It's a heavy task we carry. Have you ever thought of God's commission to you in those terms that really you do not have any time outs in your life? You really are carrying this gospel and on duty all the time. Your life calling is not simply to design, make, organize and manage widgets of various kinds in your life. Your life calling is to serve Jesus Christ as ambassador in whatever you do, whether it's your work or anything else, your play. And as that's the case, you're on duty all the time. There is never a break here. And for a frail person, for one who is prone to chip and break and fail and get fatigued and so on, that lofty expectation is a big one. For not only are we as humans frail and easily broken, but as verse eight goes on to say, we are then also hard pressed on every side. We're afflicted by many things in this earth, not just our nature and how weak we are by nature. But indeed, there are many things that afflict us. We are afflicted by the enemy. And if, in fact, we are soldiers in a battle that God has called us to, that shouldn't surprise us. That would be our enemy would attack us and would try to break us down. So we have attacks both inward and outward from verse eight, you understand that these hardships faced on behalf of Christ are both physical and they're emotional. They're outward and inward. Verse eight speaks of both kinds, affliction of the body and perplexity of the heart and the mind. Paul's body, we know, was afflicted over and over again in his trying to carry forth the gospel. But it says here that he was not crushed to the point of incapacity. He could carry on. His heart was perplexed at many, many times as he had great anxieties over the church and the concerns of the people that he was thinking about. And yet he never was driven to the point of despair. In the very next chapter, Paul's going to tell us in chapter seven, actually, it's two chapters later, chapter seven, verse five, of how these two trials come together, both the outward ones and the inward ones. Let me quote from verse five. He says, for even when we came into Macedonia, Macedonia, our bodies had no rest. But we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within. There's the sale, the attacks of the enemy on both the outside and the inside, and I'm convinced. This is my own read on things and you can you can weigh it with your own heart. I'm convinced that the outward attacks of the enemy are easier to handle than the inner ones. You may wrestle with that. I'm certain that some of those in other ages, other Christians in different ages may have Maybe said that the outward ones were pretty hard on their bodies, their physical attacks and so on. I suppose in parts of the United States, once life could be in danger for standing up to proclaiming what is true concerning Jesus Christ, really in danger, you're physically might be attacked. But I certainly have not faced that in my lifetime. But for the most part, our bodies don't take the brunt of affliction from the enemy. Again, some have faced fatigue because of carrying the gospel, some really have worn out in illness. My guess is that, though, what you find more difficult as you seek to be used of God and his kingdom is the affliction of the heart and of your own soul. We're tempted to despair by huge disappointments or maybe in yourself, you see disappointment in yourself or disappointment in others by criticisms of your labor. Maybe conflict within the church that's going on, it just weighs you down by depression, personally loneliness, a sense of inadequacy that we don't see enough fruit to what we believe God would have us do and so on. Well, at times like these, it's not hard to own up to the analogy that we are earthen vessels, that we are weak and frail. And we realize, Lord, what why would you give this precious treasure to me when I'm that weak and that that prone to failure? And yet, whether assailed outwardly or inwardly, we are called of God to press on in this work. Not losing heart, you notice he says that again and again, do not lose heart. Paul spoke in verse 10 of always carrying around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. Now, what does that refer to? I carry around the death of Jesus in my body so that his life might be seen in my body. What does he mean by that? Well, it's a theme that really permeates not just the letter to the Corinthians here, the second letter Corinthians, it permeates the entire New Testament, this very message right there. It's a theme of the New Testament, and it is part and parcel of the gospel message. When a person turns to Christ for the forgiveness of sins and finds God's mercy, he is said to enter into union with Christ in his death. And in his resurrection, and as we anticipate the new resurrected life that that like Christ, he was resurrected into a new life. So we anticipate having also to die to self. Even as Christ died, Romans six, four says we were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we, too, might walk in newness of life. Ironically, death to self lies at the heart of our new life. Imagine that Paul goes on over six. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Now we're going to be freed by death. That's an ironic connection there. On the next chapter, Paul goes on, Romans seven, verse four, and he says, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead. In order that we may bear fruit for God. So somehow what Paul is doing there and what the Holy Spirit is teaching us is that in our own death and our own union with Christ there in death, it's as we die to self that we then are fruit bearing. We are coming alive in that sense to serve Christ. So we're united with Christ in death. The more we put to death our old self, the more we're useful and successful in our task of showing forth the glory of Christ. Now, the idea of light is often been talked about here in chapter four, this beautiful, glorious light. In fact, if you go back just one verse, verse six, he says, for God, he said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. There's that light in the gospel message connected to that idea of light. Well, the idea of light being stored in an earthen clay pot. Where do we get that picture from in the scripture? Well, it brings our attention back to the times of Gideon and that picture in Gideon where judges chapter seven, verse 16, speaks of him taking these torches that were the three hundred men were about to go and face the Midianites. And they carried around their pitchers and they put their torch lit in there inside the pot to hide the light for a bit of time until such time as they went to fight. Well, when the moment was right, you'll remember the story when the moment was right, they were to carefully Take their. Take their torch out of their pot, set the pot very carefully on the ground so that it didn't break. Right. And then they were to shine their light. No, that's not what the story says, does it? Let me quote for you what it says. It says they were told to blow the trumpets and smash the jars. Smash the jars so that the light might suddenly and intensely shine out upon the enemy into the darkness, rendering the enemy dumbstruck and at their mercy. You see, it's in the very breaking of the vessel. That the light is revealed, it's in the cracks, it's in the brokenness of the vessel that the light shines forth, and as the death of Christ was the most powerful blow that rendered victory over our enemy certain, so it's our death. It's our death to self and our own union with Christ in his death that shines forth his glory so powerfully. Matthew Henry wrote, God has so ordered it that the weaker the vessels are, The stronger his power may appear to be that the treasure itself should be valued all the more. Well, what you hold when you carry forth the gospel on duty all the time as you shine forth the light of Christ, not hiding it under a bushel, but shining it forth. What you hold is that glorious light of the gospel that is hidden, in a sense, within you and your body, like Gideon's torches in the clay pots. But the point is that unless the vessel is broken, and seem to be cracked and seem to be weak. That light can't be seen if you show yourself to be the strong and you can do it all yourself and you're able to do all things, then, of course, there will be no light that's seen it's in our weakness, it's in our frailties, our inability that God's strength, his faithfulness and his ability are seen. Now, we don't have to manufacture the fact that we're weak. You don't have to come up with ways to show that you're cracked in your pot. OK. There's just a matter of acknowledging these things before people and letting God's strength be seen. Now, we always carry in the body the death of Jesus, it says, so that the life of Jesus may be seen in us. You may realize, of course, that God keeps us continually dependent upon him, we are by nature dependent upon him, he's our maker. We have nothing but what we have received and we receive every necessary supply just when it's necessary. And not a moment before in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray, Father, give us our daily bread. The idea is exactly that. Don't give us more than what we need today so that we are relying upon you at all times. Why did God do it that way? Because God will not share his glory with you. God does not share his glory with anyone. There's only one God and we are to have no other gods before him. We may not even try to share the glory with him. He is worthy of it all. And here is where we clearly see then the second part of this and that is the power of the Holy Spirit within us. Whereas our physical bodies are weak and frail and our emotional makeup and so on is often the same way. It's a bit like a mist that soon vanishes. We're not here all that long. God's spirit who has chosen to dwell within us is all powerful. omnipotent. Now, let that sink in for a minute, you who are weak and frail and missed, has the Holy Spirit, the all powerful God who takes dwelling within you. And when we're assailed by your enemies, then let's think about what we're talking about, then what's taking place? Those enemies that would attack both without and as the enemy attacks us within as well, he is always that Holy Spirit is always with us. to strengthen us. Jesus said when he was talking to his disciples before he ascended into heaven, he said, I will send my helper to you. And then he adds the phrase that the helper will give you power. He will give you power. And in verse seven, this power is called the all surpassing power. And that means this excellent power is sufficient to handle all the afflictions you will ever face by any enemy. Whether they're inward or outward. The Holy Spirit, the third person in the Godhead. That's what we're talking about here. The third person of the Godhead who dwells within us is keenly interested in our being made equipped to carry out the task that Jesus, who is the second person of the Godhead, has given to us. He exerts his all surpassing power to strengthen us, to carry out the task that he has given to us. Now, you realize that when God gave us this glorious gospel to take forth and he gave it to such weak vessels, He didn't do that without the plan in mind to make sure that the message would go forth successfully to those he was calling. He's going to do it not by our strength, not by the strength of the vessel, but by his own strength. And so Paul gives us a list of his experience of this. When we were afflicted outwardly, the power of God is exerted so that we are not crushed utterly. When we are perplexed inwardly, Paul says, the power of God is exerted so that we are not driven to despair when we are persecuted. He does not leave us forsaken when we are struck down. And you remember that Paul could tell you again and again how he was struck down. It's not that the Christian avoids all these difficulties or afflictions. They face them all again and again. But it's for the purpose of that affliction showing forth the power of Christ. And so when he was struck down, Paul says the spirit did not let him be destroyed. The Holy Spirit is carrying out the work. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of who? It's the spirit of Jesus. And remember that we're carrying the light of the gospel of the glory of Jesus, his Christ, in our week, in our chipped vessels, in order that the excellency of the treasure that we contain and of the power which that treasure has may be seen to be not ours, but to be his. The book of Acts begins with a promise that Jesus gave, which still rests upon us as we carry this glorious message of light, and I remember The promise is given. It's recorded again in Acts, chapter one, verse eight, in preparation for this great outpouring of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, when the word would go forth in power. But you see that we're still living in that age. We're still in the time when the Holy Spirit has been poured out in power. And so we read this and we can take this verse as a promise for us because it says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses. You will, you see, God's power is certain and his plan is certain to take forth the gospel. Now, you say to yourself, I'm timid, I'm weak, I'm tired, I get so inconsistent in my life. But Jesus said, you will be my witnesses and I will show forth my strength as you are faithful to do that. Now, I remember I remember that this is, in fact, something we got to rely upon every minute of our lives, every minute as we're on duty. And I mentioned that we're united with Christ in his death, and that's something that we need to learn to die to ourself more and more. But when we're told that in Romans six, that we're united to Christ in his death, it doesn't stop there. He goes on to say that we are also united with Christ in his life. United with him in his life. In verse 14 of the passage that we read, it says, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. There are many afflictions inward and outward in this life, but they are made to be much easier to carry when they're placed in the proper context. They are easier to carry when one sees them in light of what's coming, what's going to be gained and what is indeed gained now. When you read the stories in history about people who have stood in the flames tied to a pole and the flames begin to lick their legs and begin to to burn their flesh, And they don't scream out in agony and they don't give up and say, I renounce everything I've ever said about my faith in Christ. You know, I don't know if you've ever been burned, but burning is an agony thing. It's an agony and for it, you know, to touch it for a moment with your finger, you pull it immediately away and you say that really continues to hurt. But can you imagine remaining in the flame? And yet there have been people, saints who have been put to the flame because of their faith in Jesus Christ and they have not yielded in any way or shape or form. They have not even shown on their face a desire to yield. They have shown that they are looking to Christ and his power in that moment to show forth that they trust him and they want that testimony to be clear that they can be that witness for him, even in the midst of the most agony. That's a remarkable thing. They do not flinch. They are brave and they're courageous. And that's possible. How? How can that be possible? When you read that in the Fox's Book of Martyrs or any other book that's talking about historic tortures and those kinds of things, you think, how could that even be possible? Well, really, it is an act of God to make that possible in that moment. There's no way it could be anything else, because only when God's spirit opens the person's eyes in that moment to see the value of their sacrifice and what it accomplishes on behalf of Christ and his kingdom, the weight of glory that is one for eternity in that moment. Now, God, I doubt will ever cause you to have to come to that point. We can praise him for that. But there are many other times when you will be tested in very, very small, subtle ways. And I question whether we're ready for even the small ones, because we need to be ready in God's grace and his power to testify to Christ in the same kind of way that does not flinch, but says, I want to represent Christ well, because there is a sacrifice in the moment that is gaining for me a weight of glory far beyond this. I mentioned that we're talking about a particular word that's used in the Greek when we use the word clay vessel or a clay pot there, there are two possible words that could have been used for that that refer to the earthen vessels of the pots of Paul's day. One of those words refers to the vessel before it has passed through the kiln and the other refers to it after it's been passed through the kiln. So you can have a clay pot that is still present before it's gone through the kiln or you can have one after. The question is, which one did Paul use? Well, vessels that have gone through the fire already. or a potter's kiln, if they are broken afterwards or if they're chipped afterwards, they're really incapable of ever being restored to anything again because of their hardness. But the other word speaks about the clay which has not yet been fired, that pot that has been made. And you won't be surprised for me to tell you then that if these are ruined for some reason, if that pot is ruined afterwards, for some reason, before it goes into the kiln, you can refashion it. The potter can rework it. He can use his skill to restore it to some other form. Well, when Paul calls Christians jars of clay, he uses the term that refers to the clay vessel before it has been fired in the kiln. Our bodies are in a recoverable form, you are in a recoverable form, isn't that good news? It's good to know that we are recoverable. Our cracks are our chip places. In fact, our whole crumbled jars at times are recoverable. They're frail. They're easily marred, but by the skill of the craftsmen who made us, they may be easily built up anew and made like God's like Christ's glorious body. And that's the promise that we have when we're united to Christ. That's our anticipation because we're united to him in his life. Our outer tent that we live in may be wasting away, and indeed there are believers around this earth. who are wasting away, there are some within our congregation, there are some connected to us closely, people we know who are wasting away on the outside. But here, Paul speaks of the inner self being renewed day by day because of their union with Christ. Well, God calls us to give up ourselves. For the immeasurably greater prize of eternal life for those who would hear the gospel, the former may produce momentary afflictions for you. You may have some great hardship as you take that gospel forward, but there is a prize, a greater prize. It gains this ladder, which is an eternal weight of glory. Well, our final thing, then, is our task. How do we go about living with this knowledge? How do I live in that kind of knowledge and that kind of understanding? This immense treasure that we've been given in Christ is stored in jars of clay in order that The all surpassing power might be, and I'm quoting, might be acknowledged to be belong to God and not to come from us, to be acknowledged. Our task is to live in such a way that people might acknowledge that the power that strengthens us is not human fortitude. It's not courage on your part. It's not your strength that strengthens you. But it's indeed supernatural power. It's God's power. and none other. So we need to live in such a way that that can be acknowledged, never claiming that our strength is our own first 13 through 15. Give us then our task. We must live with a confidence of the resurrection. This is how we do it. This is how we live in the knowledge we've been talking about. We live in a confidence of the resurrection, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. How many of your afflictions, whether they be outward or inward, would be relieved to some extent by fixing your eyes on what is to come, the glorious weight of eternity and the glory that is found for Christ in Him. Secondly, we must live to extend God's grace to more and more people. And I want to urge you people to understand that this is your calling. It is your calling. This is your vocation of God. To take forth the gospel. It is the blanket vocation, if I can call it that, that covers all your other callings that you may have, you may be called to be a mom, you may be called to be a worker, you may be called to be a student or a boss or a government official or whatever it may be, but you have a blanket covering a calling over top of that calling, which is to be a witness, an ambassador for Jesus Christ, to take forth the gospel. If the church isn't doing that. We have no business being here. If we're not taking forth the gospel, and I say that in great conviction of my own heart, because it's too easy, it's way too easy to circle myself with Christian people and be involved only in Christian things so that I'd have no contact with unbelievers. We have to check that and say, God, help me get outside that circle of myself so that I can indeed be about the calling that you've given me to do. So, Lord, help us in that. We can pray that together as a congregation that God would enable us To be heralds of the gospel, because we can't get past that message in the scripture. It's there over and over again. We have to live for the gospel and the glory of Christ. And finally, we must live to cause Thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. It is forever your chief end. To bring glory to Jesus Christ. So I encourage you and I encourage myself this morning, take our eyes off of yourself. I'll take it off myself. And we need to fix our eyes on our goal, the glory that is to be given to Jesus Christ. Any light momentary afflictions that you may face on this earth will only keep you humble. Not very pleasant to think about, but that's what they're for, to keep you humble and more prepare you for that eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look to the things that are unseen by faith. May God strengthen you by his spirit. And I really mean that. May God, who dwells within you by his spirit, strengthen you to carry this out to his glory. Let's pray.