Please take your copies of the scripture and turn to Paul's second letter to the church at Corinth, 2 Corinthians chapter six. 2 Corinthians chapter six, I'll begin reading at verse one and I'll read through verse 13. Working together with him then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, in a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry. But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way, By great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger. By purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love. By truthful speech and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. Through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as imposters and yet are true, as unknown and yet well-known, as dying and behold we live, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything. We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians. Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return, I speak as to children, widen your hearts also. Now last Sunday, we spent our time in Paul's letter together, primarily examining the doctrine of justification. Paul has taught us that the redeemed believer is reconciled to God and receives all the glorious benefits of salvation through the imputed righteousness of Christ alone. Paul was a bold and courageous man. And he's called us repeatedly, as we've read through the letter, to the same kind of boldness and courage that he had in this world. This boldness, this courage, which we've also talked about in terms of consolation and hope, it's accessible to us because of the truth we hold so precious that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. He was sent, and He willingly came to bear the sins of His people once for all, and to be the righteousness of His people for eternity. Now that's the foundation of our hope, brethren. This is the precious cornerstone on which our faith is built, the person and the work of Jesus Christ. For our sake, He made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Now last week I closed the sermon by appealing to us to be bold in our evangelism. Since we have been given a glorious and irrepressible faith flowing from new life in Jesus Christ, we naturally, that is according to our new nature, we naturally ought to be fearless ambassadors for Jesus Christ. The gospel hope that we rest in is so vital and it's so certain in its salvific power that we dare not be silent. Instead, we must engage in Christian conversation which shines forth the light of the gospel. Our words and our deeds ought to be seasoned with the gospel of grace that has saved us. The Christian life is necessarily evangelical. It has to be because we have come to know and believe and to love the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is now ours by faith in his vicarious work of justification. This is what we talked about last week. Now Paul has much more to say about how recognizing the reality of the salvation that is ours by grace, how that impacts our lives. Since we believe in the reconciliation that we have received in Jesus Christ, since our faith is invested in the sure hope of eternal glory based on receiving the righteousness of Jesus Christ, then we universally acknowledge with the Apostle Paul that we have become the beneficiaries of an administration of divine grace that's almost beyond human comprehension. We're just beginning to understand the gift we've been given, brethren. It'll take eternity to plumb the depths of that, and it's an infinite depth. This gift of grace that is ours as Paul has told us in 2 Corinthians 5.18, is from God. His exact words. It's from God. That's an exclusive statement. This salvation Paul's telling us flows unilaterally from God. Justification and reconciliation, all of this gracious salvation that we've received is a divine administration of grace. And therefore, this grace has come to us through Jesus Christ as it's come Because it comes from God, it's characterized by a divinely transcendent excellency, a divinely infinite efficacy that makes it powerful. When God says in Isaiah 55, 11, that His Word does not return to him void. I know you're familiar with this verse. But that it accomplishes that which He purposes. Brethren, He is certainly speaking of the grace of salvation which is offered in the Gospel. Which comes through the message of the Gospel. Listen to the words of Isaiah 55. Listen to the declaration of salvation and the power behind this gracious offering. The Lord says, come everyone who thirsts. Come to the waters. He who has no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money, without price. Why do you spend your money for what is not bread? And your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me and eat what is good. Delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear and come to me. Hear that your soul may live, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you because of the Lord your God and of the Holy One of Israel, for He has glorified you. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower, bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I send it. For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing. All the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress. Instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle. And it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Brethren, is this not a powerful declaration of the certainty of the gospel, the word of the Lord proceeding in good news to the salvation of his people? Well, that's a lot of scripture you just read, Tom. Yes, it is. And you may be wondering why I read it all just now. It's not normally my custom to do that. I read it because I want you to note that the Word that God says does not return to him void is the message of salvation. It's the power of the Gospel of reconciliation that's being referenced in Isaiah 55.11. Now, what's my point? My point, and I believe Paul's point here at the beginning of 2 Corinthians 6, is that the grace of God which brings salvation is powerful. That's all. That's all I'm trying to communicate. It's effectual in changing the sinner's nature, the sinner's relationship with God, the sinner's cosmic destiny. And therefore, the present lives, your present life, brethren, the lives of redeemed believers, must also be powerfully impacted by the Gospel of Grace. Now, this is my thesis this morning. The grace of God has not been received by the redeemed in vain. It is practically, or we might say, if you prefer, existentially powerful. And we need to talk about that power this morning. Now to begin to promote my thesis, to promote his thesis, Paul makes an appeal to the Corinthian brethren. He's making an appeal to us in the room this morning. The appeal appears in the last chapter that we just went through, chapter five, verse 20. Paul says the following there, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us, We implore you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. There's the plea. In other words, Paul is saying, I've been appointed as a messenger of Jesus Christ by God, who's speaking to you today, thus saith the Lord, be reconciled to God. Then in chapter six, verse one, Paul picks up this appeal again. He rephrases it and he says it this way. Working together with him then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Then Paul ends this appeal with a strong appeal to the hearts of the Corinthians when in verse 11 he sums up his appeal to accept his argument that the grace of God is existentially powerful in the lives of the redeemed. There he says, we have spoken freely to you, Corinthians. Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us. You are restricted by your own affections. In return, I speak to you, I speak as to children, Widen your hearts also. Now taking all three of these pleas together, we can begin to see what Paul is concerned about. First of all, Paul is pleading with redeemed believers, presently saved Christian, our brethren. He's speaking to those who have been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus Christ. So this is not a call to salvation. When Paul pleads with us to be reconciled to God, or to not receive the grace of God in vain, or to open or widen our hearts, he's not asking the Corinthians to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. That miraculous work of grace has already been accomplished in them, in us. Rather, Paul is pointing out a reality of the saved life we now live. He's pointing out the reality that grace has come into our lives. We have been reconciled to God. We've received a powerful regenerating grace and a divine faith. Our hearts have been broken open. We've had heart transplants, if you consider what Jeremiah 31 says on the subject. We've received open hearts, that is, new hearts of flesh, open to the pleas of Jesus Christ and his apostles, open to their appeals. Now, since that's the case, Paul argues, Paul pleads, live in the power of that reality. That's what Paul is saying. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 5.20, the first part of this appeal. The appeal to us to be reconciled to God, which we read in chapter 5, verse 20, is not an appeal, again, to be reconciled to God in the absolute or transcendent sense. This is not a call to legal reconciliation. That has been accomplished through the righteous work of Jesus Christ, who alone can reconcile God's people to himself. He alone holds the power to justify. Christ alone kept the law. He alone never sinned. He alone bore our sorrows. He alone could receive my stripes. Now don't worry, I'm not gonna re-preach last Sunday's message. This appeal to be reconciled to God, you see, it's not talking about justification anymore. Now Paul's talking about sanctification. Paul is calling on us to live lives that are really, and apparently, and practically, that is existentially reconciled to God. Paul is challenging us to remember what Christ's work of reconciliation required. It required the setting aside of our sin. It required the blotting out of our transgressions. Sin was what had produced enmity between God and man while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. Paul's appeal to us to be reconciled to God is an appeal to the converted to live without that which is offensive to God. It's a plea to set aside sin. Set it aside existentially since it has been blotted out transcendently by Jesus Christ. To say it another way, to be reconciled to God is to live in the fellowship with God that Christ has purchased for us. Now, that requires a sanctified Christian life. Now, let's look at chapter 6, verse 1, Paul's appeal there. When in chapter 6, verse 1, Paul appeals to us to not receive the grace of God in vain, he's, again, not talking about redemption in an absolute sense, our souls graciously bought back from death and hell and judgment. He's not implying that somehow our faith can fail. that the grace of God can be revoked or somehow fail to accomplish our salvation. Notice that in the very next verse, Paul says, in a favorable time, I listened to you, past tense. And in a day of salvation, I have helped you. This is accomplished. Behold, Paul says, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Now that should leave no doubt in our mind as to the salvation of the Corinthians or of our own salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Brethren, if you are sitting here listening to me this morning and your faith is resting in the grace of God to you in the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ, today is the day of salvation. Today. And that day never ends. It's now, not future. You possess that glorious redemption now. You are reconciled to God now, not future. You possess it now. In the day of salvation, God helped you, amen? Paul is not talking about that divine work of grace somehow being revoked or failing when he appeals to us to not receive that grace in vain. Again, Paul is talking about your Christian life, your Christian conversation, the way you turn about in this world. The saving grace of God, as we read in Isaiah 55, it's powerful. It cannot fail. Salvation graciously given is a restorative work. It's a recreative work. Listen again to these words from Isaiah 55, 11 through 13. We read, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. God's gracious salvation we're being told will not return to him void his gospel message will be effectual Christ has done what he cried out on the cross. He has accomplished the work for which the father sent him and that That is the glorious outcome that we experience. What is this glorious outcome? Verses 12 through 13. For you shall go out in joy. You'll be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing. And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress. Instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle. And it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. This, brethren, is what Paul means when he talks about the grace of God not being received in vain by us. Instead of the thorn, shall come up the cypress. Instead of the briar, the myrtle, and it shall make a name for the Lord. That's a picture of the redeemed people of God living holy lives to the glory of God. It's a picture of the curse received from Adam, real briars and thorns and spiritual briars and thorns in terms of sin and sorrow and evil due to sin being cleansed out of us. The myrtle comes up instead, the cypress, valuable trees, trees of shade, trees for wood. You were bought with a price, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6.20. That's a reference to the gracious salvation of God redeeming you and delivering you from death and judgment for sin. And then Paul goes on to immediately say, therefore glorify God in your body. That's the power of that redeeming grace operating in the life of the redeemed believer. To not receive the grace of God in vain is to live in the power of Christ's resurrection, which God has graciously applied to the believer. It means to live in newness of life. And again, you can tell we're talking about sanctification, aren't we? What we're learning is that the power of God's grace that's coming to our lives in salvation, in our salvation, that power of grace extends well beyond the moment of our regeneration. That powerful grace of God which saved us is now with us, operating in us, and working in us to be directed by that power practically. Now, is that such a surprise? Shouldn't be. It's the very purpose for which we were saved. Now, how can I say that? Ephesians 2.10, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. It's pretty clear, isn't it? Now, if I haven't made... Yet made a strong enough Argument that paul's not referring to our justification in his appeal, but rather to our sanctification Please notice how in verse 11 when he picks up the appeal to the hearts of the corinthians Notice there the apostle ties the power of god's grace Operating in the believer, which he's previously spoken of he ties it to the affections of the heart He says you are restricted by your own affections Paul's talking about the heart, the heart of believers out of which flow the issues of life. The heart has desires, affections, motivations. It has a will. And from these things proceed its practical choices, decisions, purchases, investments, ambitions. When Paul references the Corinthians' affections, he's talking about the Christian heart held back Stunted we could say Restricted or repressed by sinful desires sinful motivations and will Again, he's not talking about the need for more justification. We better pour on more of Christ's righteousness on that but rather for growth in sanctification All right Now, up to this point, I've spent about half our time, a little less, clarifying what Paul is referring to in these few verses. That's necessary, brethren, because we need to understand and clearly distinguish the justification that we have received by grace in Jesus Christ, which is the gracious work of God alone, in which we have no part, We need to differentiate that from the sanctifying grace of God which has come to us in our redemption. In sanctification, we work under the authority of God, by His grace, to bring our lives into conformity to His will. Now, as Paul speaks of his personal, his practical Christian life, his conversation as a minister of Jesus Christ, We begin to understand better what he's talking about in verse 4. He says as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way Now Paul when he says this he's not speaking of Justifying himself before God by living a Christian life of sanctified good works now. I'm a good man. I That's not what Paul's talking about. Rather, he's speaking of commending himself before God by obediently living in a manner pleasing to God because God is pleased with Paul. Why? Because of the good works of Jesus Christ, which have been graciously accounted to Paul through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul is speaking about a Christian heart, a Christian conscience that's unassailable, impervious to the darts of satanic shame, because his faith drives him to serve God obediently, out of love for Jesus Christ. Further, Paul knows that success in sanctification is also entirely of grace, so there's no room for boasting there either. If we glory, we glory in the Lord. My good works never buy my reconciliation with God, but they bless that reconciliation which Christ has purchased. They bless it with joy and felicitous service under God. Therefore, we are commanded to engage in the work of sanctification. As we consider Paul's appeal to the Corinthians, Jesus Christ is reminding us and the Corinthians that we have been given a gracious administration of power from God. It comes in our salvation. It comes with an open, widened, regenerated heart that lives in the power of sanctifying grace. God's saving grace powerfully sanctifies, we are being told, so live that way. This is the appeal. Now considering that appeal more deeply, I think we naturally will arrive at the question of how this power of grace and sanctification appears in the Christian life practically. Since this gracious reconciliation we've received has practical power, that's been the argument, and since we have been commanded to live in that practical power, to not deny that power, What will obedient living in that practical power look like? What will it look like? This is our question now. And Paul helps answer it for us in the text. And I'm not gonna get through very far with this today. We have to look at it from two perspectives. Now before we can delve into the practical power of God's sanctifying grace operating in us, we have to know Paul's foundational thought that this power is of grace. Note once more that Paul says in verse six that the believer has not received this grace of God in vain. Now, I've already spent sufficient time arguing that when Paul speaks of being given grace in vain, he's referring to impotency, weakness. We're talking about power. Meaning that the gracious salvation we've been given is not one that is latent or static or weak or ineffectual. It's not powerless. It does not live in a sort of state of hibernation in us. It's not a grace in name only, but in power and in might. This power and might that comes to us in our salvation, Paul recognizes as entirely of grace. In other words, brethren, You must live a sanctified Christian life, a life of powerful conversation, a life of practical godliness. You must live that life in the strength that God supplies. That's what Paul is saying. The Christian living a sanctified life in this world is a Christian who is living under the gracious influence of the power of God in their life. There's no hope of sanctified, listen to me, there's no hope of sanctified Christian living apart from the gracious operation of God's power operating in the Christian. You are utterly dependent on God's mercy and loving kindness to aid you and sustain you and empower you to obedient Christian living. Without me, what did Christ say? You can do nothing. But aren't we also told with God, all things are possible. Now, wouldn't it be nice, thinking about this, wouldn't it be nice if we had a clear and elegantly picturesque analogy of how this power to live the Christian life in terms of practical obedience, wouldn't it be nice to have an analogy, how that works out in the believer's relationship with God? Clear some things up, potentially. That would be nice. Well, as it turns out, Christ himself provided such a clear and elegant analogy. In John chapter 5, he gives us a botanical analogy of a gracious flow of life and power from himself, which empowers the Christian to live the right kind of life before him. In John 5, 1 through 6, we read the following. You can follow along. I'll read aloud for you. Christ says, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I'm the vine, you're the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. There's our analogy. It's beautiful, isn't it? Most of you know that I grow grapes. Most of you have eaten my grapes, for which I'm very grateful. I tell you without any hesitation, I know this to be true, that if I cut off a grape branch early in the fruit growing process, when the tiny little clusters are still growing and just blooming, these little clusters of flowers, if I cut the branch off at that point, no fruit will grow. The branch separated from the vine will wither and die very quickly. In fact, when you cut off branches, grapes are known to bleed, they weep at that spot. Now, I may stick that branch in the ground, I may water it, play Mozart for it, fertilize it, spend a great deal of effort to engage it in all manner of good horticultural practices, but I guarantee you that branch will not produce fruit. The flow of life, the growth power that comes from that vine has been cut away. Similarly, if I prune away other branches and reduce the number of branches attached to the vine so that more life-giving sap flows from the vine to a branch attached to that vine, that branch will produce larger and more fruit. All right, there's our analogy. Similarly, your Christian life is fully dependent on the life of Christ operating in you. The grace you've been given as a redeemed believer flows to you through your connection of faith to the vine of Jesus Christ. And it flows in a mystical way. I can't explain it. Don't ask me to try. Christ's Holy Spirit resides in you. It infuses you with strength, courage, boldness, steadfastness, comfort, and determination, all that is needed to cause you to bear the fruit of the Spirit. What fruit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These fruits will appear in your life, lived out in practical ways by the grace of God, which has become yours in salvation. But note, please, that this is all flowing to you through Jesus Christ. Now here is where the analogy of the vine fails, as all analogies of created things must fail when applied to the creator. At some point, they break down. In my grapes, the leaves photosynthetically produce life-giving nutrients from sunlight, nutrients which flow back into the vine to sustain it. That's where the analogy breaks down, brother, because we give nothing, no life to the sun. It's a gracious, unilateral flow of life from Christ to us. He needs nothing from us. He's self-sustaining, self-glorifying, self-existing, self-consisting. This is our God. In His triune nature, the Son has all that is needful. If I can even use the word needful appropriately. I don't think I can. Brethren, do you see the point I'm making? The Christian life lived in godly obedience, in piety and holiness. That sanctified existence is empowered in you because of the steadfast love of the triune God alone. What does that mean? Well, this means you will never have cause for boasting in your Christian life, even when you're living it out victoriously. Never will your arm appropriately pat your back and honor you for righteous living. God forbid. If you glory in your Christian life, it will be a glory based in recognizing the gracious work of God in you. That you're connected to the vine. You can see the life flowing to you. An obedient Christian life will tend to make the true believer humble. because by faith we recognize the gracious benefit flowing from Christ to us. The legalist, the hypocrite, the Pharisee, these self-deceived and counterfeit believers have something to boast of, or so they think, and so they speak, and so they live. Their conversation is proud and arrogant. They speak of their successes. They're not slow to speak of the failures of others either. They practice their Christian obedience to be seen of others and in order to receive the approval of others. You'll not hear them say, but for the grace of God there go I. Were it not for being bound to the vine by grace, I would live a life of hellish ungodliness. They'll never claim that. It's true though, brethren, isn't it? You'll not hear that kind of elevation of Jesus Christ in them. In the true Christian who recognizes the grace of God flowing from Jesus Christ, empowering sanctified Christian living, in the true Christian, you will find the humble spirit that says, God has been merciful to me, a sinner. There's no room for boasting in our Christian obedience. in the fruit growing in our lives. What do you have that you've not been given? Brethren, we need to learn this lesson. We have got to learn this lesson. We need to learn it well, because it's a vital preventative for the ugly, disfiguring disease of pride, which terminally ends in scorn. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And there in those words from wise King Solomon found in Proverbs 3.34, we find another practical lesson about grace and sanctification. Let me ask you, do you want to live a sanctified Christian life? Do you want to have a conscience free from shame brought by ungodliness? Do you want to live in the power of your redemption practically? Then you need grace. I need grace. And God gives grace to the humble. To live in the power of your God-given salvation, you must hold on to that vision of Christ living in you and helping you and Christ persevering you in life. That'll help you maintain your humility so that you may receive a greater infusion of grace from the Father who gives to us generously. Engage in pride. Engage in pride in self, in pride in accomplishment. Engage in disdain for your brethren, and you court the scorning of God. To help us remain humble, God uses our sin and our moral transgressions, the wicked desires remaining in the believer, this side of heaven. He uses those things to show us our dependence on him, to humble us. we are meant to see that unless he kept us by his grace, our sin would once more devour us. Likewise, when we have good success in the Christian fight against sin, when we make good inroads in conforming to the character of Jesus Christ in our lives, again, we are meant to know that this has only happened by the grace of God and only because of his steadfast love for us. Godly sanctification lived out in our lives should produce as much, no, indeed greater humility than recognized sin and moral failure. How so? I say that because more humility should be produced by our successes because it's through God alone that I experience moral success. And it's through me alone that I experience moral failure. Brethren, live in the power of the faith you have been gifted by being humble, looking always to Christ, the author and finisher of your faith. It's through the grace of Christ alone that you have any measure of sanctification in your life, and it's because of the grace of Christ alone that you must and will live a sanctified life before Him. This is the first perspective that I said there would be two of which there would be two. Here's the second perspective. It's the context. The context of the manifestation and cultivation of the power of sanctification. Now moving forward, as we examine Paul's teaching on the powerful saving grace of God operating in our practical Christian lives, we need to note that Paul has given us a context in which sanctification appears existentially. Note verses 4 through 10 once more. I'll pause for a moment at verse 4. Listen. Where, Paul? In what context did this commending, sanctified living appear? Paul goes on. He says, by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, by truthful speech and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as imposters, that is deceivers. and yet are true, as unknown and yet well-known, as dying, and behold, we live, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, that is destitute, yet possessing everything. That's quite a disturbing list, actually. If we're honest with ourselves, it's a very disturbing list. Afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, dishonor, slander, being treated as deceivers, dying, punished, sorrowful, poor, destitute. Now I'm hard-pressed to think of anything to add to this list. Yet this is the context in which Paul tells us that the practical life of the sanctified Christian manifests. In this darkness that the light of sanctifying grace, this is the darkness that the light of sanctifying grace appears in. It's in this context that Paul says in verse four that great endurance appears. It's in this context that Paul says in verse six that purity and knowledge, patience and kindness, the power of the Holy Spirit and genuine love appear. It's in this dark context that Paul says in v. 7 that truth shines out with the power of God. Here, in this struggle with evil, Paul says that the weapons of righteousness are employed. Here, Paul tells us in v. 10, in the midst of this dreadful corruption, the salt of Christian joy does not lose its savor. In this state of destitution, Paul tells us, the Christian is enriched. Now, if this feels a bit mind-boggling, it's alright. So Paul's building a paradoxical argument for us to consider and scratch our heads over. He wants you to scratch your heads over these statements. Now, I want to take these positive, glorious outcomes and break them down for us next Sunday, Lord willing. We have to set that aside for now. Paul's literally showing us the growth of practical Christian living, the fruit of the Spirit growing in the most unlikely of conditions, at least what we would think are unlikely conditions. We desperately need to learn this lesson, brethren, because historically, Christians cyclically live in such a dark context. To a lesser degree, I would say we are currently living in times of such darkness. And we have brethren who assuredly, in other countries, are literally living in the context of such darkness as Paul describes living himself in 2,000 years ago. Now, I don't have time to build on this part of the lesson now. Instead, I want to finish this morning by focusing on this dark context that Paul has described. If nothing else, brethren, we are meant to understand that the power we have been given in our salvation is a power that manifests in our lives in a context of great trouble, fiery trial. The power of our Christian salvation in terms of practical sanctified living doesn't appear until it's tested. We could say it's untested. It's less awake when we're untroubled. When all is well, when we're fat and happy, when we're unchallenged by society, when the lusts of the flesh are muted, when Satan is restrained by God or busy elsewhere in times of quiet and ease and peace, that's not when our sanctification manifests and grows to the glory of God. Paul is teaching us that in order for our God-given gift of sanctification to manifest and engage with power in our lives, we have to be threatened. How about that? The threat and experience of material loss is a catalyst for our sanctification. Now this, brethren, is a significant Christian teaching. It's one you need to bind about your neck, brethren, and write on the doorposts of your heart. God brings the fiery trial, the material threat, to challenge, to awaken, and to refine your faith through moments and experiences which require costly sanctified choices and attitudes. A material price will have to be paid when the Spirit of God graciously empowers your sanctification to move you and to obediently serve Him. That's what we're learning from Paul. You will pay a material price. Maybe very material. Maybe financially costly at times to choose to serve the Lord. At the very common level, our tithing of our income to give to the Lord and His church is such a sanctified sacrifice. But at times, brethren, Christians have lost entire estates. They've had everything taken away from them and become materially destitute because they chose to live in the practical power of being reconciled to God, of choosing righteousness instead of sin. This choice, recall, it cost men of the Bible, men like Moses, men like Abraham, it choice cost Moses everything. It costs him riches and safety and honor. Speaking of honor, it will cost you friendships, materially advantageous relationships to obediently live for Jesus Christ. Your sanctified choice to serve the Lord will at times mean that you are deliberately misunderstood, misrepresented, slandered, and regarded as the offscouring of the earth. You may experience the malevolence of Satan stirring up men against you when you challenge his rule and reign to live the life of obedience to Jesus Christ. I've been beaten, and I've known other Christians who've been beaten, and I've no doubt it was inspired of Satan in an attempt to bring God's people down into the dust. This is real. But it's in this context that God grows you, that the life of Christ flows from the vine into the branch and the fruit of sanctification is produced. Now brethren, I don't know all that you're facing or all that you will face. But you are being even now and you will be threatened in the future with loss. That's part of the Christian experience. It is the context decreed by God in order for your sanctification to grow, to be manifested and to be cultivated. Now here's the takeaway that I want you to note and meditate on in the face of those present threats and when greater threats arrive. You will not grow in sanctification without trial, without testing, without challenge, without the threat. God has sovereignly overruled every threat of loss. Consider this. Every satanically inspired beating Every self-inflicted moral wound, every disturbing carnal passion, every fearful trial, God has overruled all these things to manifest and cultivate your sanctification. It's in these fiery trials that the fruit of the Spirit appears. The grapes have to suffer for the fruit to ripen and fill with the delicious flavor. There must be scorching sun and dry earth before the joy of the harvest. Dead branches have to be pruned away for greater infusions of life-giving grace and sanctifying power to flow from the vine to the branches. In the context of frightening, dark threats meant to break and wither the branches, the vine dresser works to produce the fruit. That's amazing, brethren. That's our God. Now, I don't know about you, But I assume that, like me, that's a very encouraging thought. And I want to leave you to ponder that thought this morning. If you're saved by grace through faith in the blood of the Son, so unfailingly good, so wise, so powerful is your God that he has appointed and decreed every dark and evil threat that you'll ever face to be the safe and warm nest in which the egg of your sanctification incubates. There's a deep sea snail that lives in a very extreme environment. It thrives in a deadly environment. At certain places in the ocean, scientists have discovered what they call black smokers. Here the ocean is normally deadly cold with superpressures that would normally crush terrestrial organisms. Little to no light penetrates the gloom of these depths. The so-called black smokers discovered at these depths are mineral chimneys of hydrothermic vents that spew out hotter than boiling black steam and water laden with minerals. Some of these minerals are normally poisonous to most life. The water is so hot that it should cook any organism nearby. They send a sub down originally with a thermometer to measure the heat and it melted the thermometer. I remember reading that years ago. A fairly deadly environment. Most would easily acknowledge this. And yet, here, living on the very edge of that water, that superheated water, at the edge of the smoker vents, just where the water spews out, lives chrysalmalon squaliferum. This deadly environment is the life source of this remarkable snail. Rather than being cooked as escargot by these boiling thermal vents, this little snail thrives by living close to the heat to warm itself so that the freezing waters of the deep don't kill it. More remarkable is the fact that the snail has been designed by God to harvest some of the mineral content of the smokers. The snail harvests iron. Iron sulfide from the superheated water found spewing out of these mineral fountains. And then it's designed biology operates to incorporate the iron into its exoskeleton. Its shell becomes iron infused like armor. Additionally, the normally soft part of the snail, which is commonly called the foot, what we typically recognize as the snail's body, that little snail becomes covered with iron scales that look like scale armor. Hence its common name, the scalyfoot snail. This armored little snail lives in an environment that would kill most organisms. Brethren, why am I talking about snails? If the Lord Jesus, through whom nothing was made that was made, has so ordered the little snails living on deep sea black smokers to thrive living next to such constant deadly threats, surely he can and will do as his apostle is teaching us for his people. He will empower and manifest and grow your sanctification even in an environment of deadly threats. Such is the power of the grace you've been given. Are you not of more value than a little snail? So brethren, be reconciled to God. Do not receive the grace of God in vain. Amen. Let's pray.