We open the Word of God together today to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. I'll begin reading in verse 3. 2 Corinthians 4, beginning in verse 3, And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake.
For God who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed but not despairing, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us but life in you.
But having the same spirit of faith according to what is written, I believe therefore I spoke, we also believe therefore also we speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 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.
For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we having put it on shall not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
Now he who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore being always of good courage, and 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 of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. I want to talk today about the theme living for what lasts. Most everyone wants his life to count for something.
God made us to desire and to enjoy meaning in life. And every life is filled with that potential, that is to have significance in this world. We can choose to live out life circumstances in a way that unleashes meaning or which wastes potential. It's up to us to decide. God wants life to have significance, and in His Word He has given us truth which helps us live for what lasts. Live your life for what lasts, my friend. Don't be robbed of life. Have a life with meaning by living for what lasts.
The text that we have read today gives us understanding of four basic facts that will help us do exactly that. If you and I can grasp these four facts, it will help us to live for what is lasting. Fact number one is this. We need to understand that the greatest treasure in life is the gospel. The greatest treasure in life is the gospel. There are other treasures in life to be had. For example, relationships with family, with friends. Those are treasures. They are precious to us.
Likewise, there is the treasure of time. Time being the very basic element out of which life is composed. This treasure can't be possessed. It can only be used a second at a time. And then there is the treasure of material things. Yes, I would include that as a treasure. I don't think that that's wrong. There is nothing inherently evil about material things. It depends upon our motives for having them and how they are used in life.
There are other treasures in life, but the greatest treasure is the gospel. Without question, the most precious treasure is a message, something intangible. It is the truth which can save a person from an eternity in hell separated from God. The greatest treasure there is, is the message of Christ crucified for our sins, buried and then raised again on the third day according to the Scriptures.
It is the hearing of that message and personal trust in the living Christ which saves the soul and which then also unlocks the possibility for a life to have significance, that is eternal meaning in this world. Satan is unalterably opposed to that happening. He does not want a person to hear the gospel and to believe on Jesus Christ for the saving of his soul and for his life to have eternal significance. He is opposed to that. And so he blinds the minds of those who are perishing.
As is said in verse 3, if our gospel is veiled, and the implication is, and it is, it is veiled to those who are perishing. Notice it is not those who will someday perish. But he is saying that these are those who are presently perishing. That is the state in which they live. That is the condition of their souls. Now who are these? Who are perishing, he explains in verse 4. The unbelieving. Satan has blinded the minds of the unbelieving.
Those who are perishing are those who have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan causes a blindness upon the heart so that a person is unable to perceive and to see the glory of God revealed in the person of his Son. And Satan's purpose in causing that supernatural blindness is to keep that individual, that son, that daughter of Adam, from being saved from eternal hell, from having a life in this world that impacts eternity. Satan does not want that.
We can thank God that he sovereignly causes the light to shine to us. In verse 6 it says, for God who said, light shall shine out of darkness, referring there to the original creation, when God said, let there be light, and sovereignly by his own power he brought light into existence. That same God has created spiritual light and has said, let there be light in that heart. And that light then shines into the heart of the one who up to that point has been blinded in his sin.
And the result is that he sees Christ, he understands his sinfulness in need of Christ, and trusts in the Savior. It is because of that sovereign work of God that any of us are saved today. It is that work of God which then gives us the most priceless treasure that exists, the gospel. And it is a privilege, as Paul points out here in this text, to minister that gospel to others. What a privilege we have to do that.
To share the only message that exists in all of the universe by which a man or a woman may find cleansing and forgiveness of sin, and by which he might establish a right relationship with God that saves the soul. This one message is the gospel, and that is the message that you and I are privileged to proclaim to others.
Now, because the unbelieving are in supernatural blindness, not just the deadness, the darkness of their own hearts, but a supernatural blindness, because they're in that condition of perishing, it requires supernatural power in us to share this message. And that's why the apostle says in verse 7, we have this treasure, the gospel, in earth and vessels, that's all we are, talking about our bodies made up of the basic elements, earth and vessels.
He says we have this treasure in plain earth and vessels. Why? That the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves, so that it might be clear that it's God at work in us. That's why. We must have supernatural enabling from God to share the gospel effectively. It is interesting that this treasure is one that we can share with others and yet not experience any loss of its value to ourselves. Isn't that something? How many treasures are there like that?
Which you can give away freely and yet never lose for yourself. That's what the gospel is. The greatest treasure in life is the gospel. If I want to live for that which lasts, it begins right here at this point we're at this morning. I must understand that the gospel is the greatest treasure in life and I must build my life upon it by trusting in the Savior of the gospel. And then I want to invest my life in proclaiming this message to others.
And whatever resources God may give me in this world, I am wise. I am living for what lasts. When I use those resources to share the gospel, whether it be across the street or across the ocean, when I use what God gives to me to share this message, I am living for what lasts and what has eternal impact. Live for what lasts. Then if I want to live for what lasts, I come to a second fact that I must understand. I must understand that the normal experience of life for the believer is suffering.
The apostle says we are afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struck down, always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus. Paul is pointing here not to a hangnail. He's not talking about an ingrown toenail that's giving him problems in life. That's not the kind of suffering he's talking about. He's talking about that suffering that comes to him because he seeks to be a faithful believer in Jesus Christ. Affliction and persecution.
You and I must understand that that is a normal experience of life if we're going to live for what lasts. Peter testifies to this truthfulness. Beloved, do not be surprised, he says, at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange, some foreign thing were happening to you. In other words, the implication is it is not foreign when a fiery ordeal of persecution comes to your life.
And yet today, the day in which we live, there are some Christians who hear a message that says a Christian should never hurt. A Christian should never be sick. A Christian should never experience loss or have a need. It is the prosperity gospel which is a perversion of the true gospel. It is a lie and it's a false teaching. If you believe that message, you do not believe what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches that suffering is the norm for this life, not health and wealth and prosperity, just the opposite of that. Paul affirms later as he writes to Timothy, all, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Maybe not all the time, maybe not every moment of his life, but he will suffer persecution. If we want to live for the lasting, we must not seek to avoid or to escape suffering. That is the normal tendency of a human who is living for the here and now.
Do anything at any cost to avoid suffering. But if we want to live for that which lasts, we have to understand that suffering is just a part of this life. It's a normal experience. We must see suffering as God's plan for us and a way in which He is glorified in our lives as He was glorified in His Son who suffered. Now the apostle gives us a couple of insights into suffering in this text. He says, even if it is prolonged, it is bearable.
Notice that he says in verse 17, for momentary light affliction. That's how he puts it. Even if prolonged, suffering is bearable. Why? Because he says it's momentary. Now that word doesn't mean a second or a minute, obviously, but what it means is that it is a short amount of time when compared to something else. Now what is Paul comparing it to? Well, eternity.
If you and I are persecuted every day that we live in this world, that is a short amount of time that is momentary when compared to the stretch of eternity before us. When after 10,000 years, it's only like we've just begun. It's momentary. And not only that, he says, suffering is light. It is light. It is not crushing to the point of causing us complete collapse. Why is that? Because Christ is there to protect us. He is there to gauge that suffering.
He is there to guard us in the midst of it and to protect us. The apostle says we are afflicted in every way but not crushed. Why? Because that suffering is light in the sense that Christ is there to bear it with us. We are not bearing it alone. We may be perplexed, but we need not despair because Christ is there with us. We may be persecuted, but we are never forsaken by him who said, I will never leave you. We may be struck down, but we will not be destroyed.
We cannot be destroyed because Christ is in us the hope of glory. The first thing that he wants us to understand about this normal experience of life is that even if prolonged, it is bearable because Christ is with us. I read some testimonies this last week in a magazine I get of some of the believers in Russia who have suffered and been persecuted by the government there for their faith.
Inevitably, they speak in the terms that Paul uses here of the years of deprivation, the years of separation from loved ones, that those are all bearable because Christ is with them in it. And they are glad to be counted worthy to suffer for his namesake. There's a second insight that we need to get here though, and that is though it be painful, it is productive. Notice he says this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.
This suffering, he says, is producing something. And that word there implies that it's prolonged, that it's working out something over the length of time. He says even if it be painful, and it is, it is producing in our lives. What is it producing? Well, in verse 10 he suggests that it's producing the life of Jesus being manifested in us. That our bodies as they are being put to death through persecution, that that is the very way in which the life of Jesus is released from us.
So even if it be painful, suffering is productive. The life of Christ is being released as an aroma to the glory of God. Even if we go to the extremity of laying down our lives for Christ, the very act of complete death is a way of releasing perfume as it were in praise to God. A sweet smelling sacrifice of incense to him.
Not only does it produce the life of Christ being manifested in us, but it produces daily renewal for he tells us in verse 16, though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. So though it be painful, it's productive, it's producing in me renewal in the inner man. Though the outer man, the body is decaying, and the seeds of its own decay and destruction are planted from birth, though it is decaying, it's in that process.
The inner man is in another process going in the opposite direction. While the outer man is decaying and going downhill, the inner man is being strengthened and renewed and built up. Suffering is productive. But then there's an ultimate sense in which it produces glory. He says it is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison. That is out of proportion to the suffering we have. That suffering is producing glory that is massive.
Glory that cannot even be rightly compared to that little bit of pain that we go through. So understand that it is a normal experience of life for the Christian to suffer. But that suffering, even if it be painful, is productive. Even if it's prolonged, it's bearable. The near absence of widespread persecution in our culture is the exception in the experience of the church.
Did you know that every year right now in contemporary Christian history, every year in the world, there are 300,000 martyrs? In the last 15 years, there have been more martyrs who have laid down their lives for Jesus Christ than in all of church history up to that point. I believe that this age is near its end and it's ending with suffering that is unparalleled for the church of Jesus Christ. Just because our personal experience happens to be different doesn't change the worldwide picture.
And frankly, I believe that our culture is headed for rapid change. And I believe that there will be suffering for Jesus Christ in your lifetime and in mine in our culture. That's even to the point of laying down our lives. But think of something less than that. What would happen, for example, to this ministry if there were no more tax deduction for giving? Suppose that distinct advantage were taken away from me, from you. What would happen in that test to our giving?
In the context of where we've lived, that would be a form of persecution. I wonder how many would come to church if coming and identifying with biblical Christianity meant the loss of a job or the loss of the possibility of promotion at least or perhaps the inability to get an education. That happens every week in Romania where people's identity is checked as they come into church and their names are put on the computer that the government keeps.
And those people are denied from that point on certain expectations in life. Why? Because they simply identify with a Bible teaching church. What would you do in your classroom or in a paper you might be writing if standing up for what God says is the truth meant the loss of a credit or a grade? You say, well, that's not too significant. Well, no, particularly if you're not in the class or getting the grade.
But if you're in high school or you're in college in a university setting, if you stand up for the truth of God in a classroom and that's going to cost you a course that you need to graduate, you might think twice about standing up for Christ. At least that once. What's that going to hurt? If you and I set avoidance of suffering as a priority, we will not live for that which lasts.
Living for that which lasts means accepting suffering as a normal experience of life as a committed follower of Jesus Christ. I have to understand that if I'm going to live for what lasts. And then thirdly, I must understand that the important realities of life are the invisible and the eternal. Paul says we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. The things seen are temporal, the things not seen are eternal.
There is no idea in the world, I think, which runs so counter to our world's values. And to say that that which is invisible is therefore eternal and most important. And that which is visible is temporal and therefore less important. That does not compute with our world. We naturally focus on the realities that are seen because those are the things that make up our everyday routine of life. It's not necessarily wrong to be that way. It depends on the extent that we're that way.
For example, people. People are seen. Family and friends, we focus on them and we should. It's right that we carry on those relationships. Places are seen. And some of us devote ourselves to places. It may be the home we live in here in the cities or it could be the home at the lake, but we devote ourselves to places. Those are things that are seen. What about possessions? Well there are times we look at our possessions. Anything wrong with that? No. It's the extent to which we do it.
Possessions are a part of life, but they are things which are seen and therefore temporal. None of those things is going to make it out of this world. What about our position? The power that we may have or our prestige? That's intangible, but it relates to the material. Is it wrong to think about that or to focus on that? No. Again, that's a part of life. We have to relate that way, but it's the amount of focus that we put on that, perhaps the counts. What about our own physical bodies?
Our appearance? I would imagine that it would be unanimous that everyone here looked in the mirror before you came to church this morning. Why? Well, you were concerned about the way you look when you get up in the morning, at least I am. I like to get up before my wife so she doesn't even have to look at me until I've been in the shower and gotten my hair washed. We're concerned about our appearance. We're concerned about our well-being. Anything wrong with that? No. We relate to our bodies.
I mean, we're pretty used to them. That's where we've lived all these years, but perhaps it depends upon the emphasis we put there. You see, all of these are realities of life, part of our routine. But if you think about it, every one of them, whether it be people, relationships, or places, or possessions, or position, or your physical body, all of those things are temporal. None of them is going to last.
And so you and I cannot focus the main thrust of our lives on any of these and live for what lasts. But there are, of course, those who live for relationships. I mean, people is the god of their life, and how they impress people, and the applause of people, and what people think about them, that becomes the dominating factor of life. And there are those who live for places, for that little home that's being built, or for that property that we enjoy.
Places become very, or vacations, trips, those become the major focus of life to some people. Places. Possessions. Do we need to talk about that? What about position, prestige, and power? Oh, yes, there are many who live for that. That's the main focus of their life. What about the physical body? Yes. You see these health nuts all the time out here, running up and down the streets. I enjoy reading a little column in the paper. I don't even know when it is.
I catch it occasionally, and it's a little blurb about somebody in St. Paul who is usually very healthy, and he explains what he has for breakfast, and what he has for lunch, and what he has for dinner, and his exercise routine, and all of that stuff. It's easy to see where the main focus of the life is. The physical being. There are those who just live for the pleasures of the body, but none of those things will last. I'm saying we cannot live for any of those things, and live for what lasts.
We have to live for the invisible. What is invisible? God. God is invisible. The invisible, the ultimate invisible reality. When we live for God, we are living for that which is invisible. The life of Jesus Christ which is in us, Paul speaks about that as we said in verse 10, the life of Jesus being manifested in our bodies. Jesus Christ lives in us. That's invisible. We don't see Him. We don't see His life, but it's there.
When you and I allow His life to be manifested in us, we are living for the invisible. Our own immortality is the main thrust of Paul's statement here. He goes on to say in chapter 5 that even if our bodies, this earthly tent is torn down, we have a building from God eternal in the heavens, another house. He's talking about it would seem here the spiritual body that we will inhabit.
It could be the resurrection body we'll ultimately have, but it could be also the intermediate covering for our souls between the time we die and the time we will have our resurrection bodies in the future. He talks here about our own immortality. In fact, Paul goes so far as to say as he does in verse 8, we would prefer to be absent from the body, this physical reality, and to be present with the Lord. He talks about being at home with the Lord in verse 8. That's heaven. That's a reality.
It's invisible. It's not a part of you, but it's a reality. Here's the point. You and I will not live for that which is lasting until we understand what the invisible realities are. Live for the lasting by grasping the important realities that are unseen and eternal. Don't live for the visible and the temporal. If you do, down the road at the end of life you're going to see you've missed it. It will be too late.
And finally, if you and I are going to live for the lasting, we must understand the judgment seat after life is certain. Verse 10 of chapter 5, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Notice in this verse that it says it will be an occasion for examining whether we lived for the lasting. It's an occasion for examination. That's what the judgment seat is all about. It's not to determine heaven or hell because only believers are at this judgment.
In fact, there is never a judgment after life where the saved and the lost are there together and God somehow parts them. When death comes, there's an immediate separation. The lost go to their place, the saved go to their place. But one day, all of the saved, all of the believers will stand before Jesus Christ at His examination seat. And there we will be examined to see how we have lived for the lasting. The deeds in the body or through the body will be looked at.
Both those that are good and those that are good for nothing will be looked at. It will not only be an occasion for examination, but it will be an opportunity to receive reward. As he says, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body. The word recompensed means to receive back one's due. In other words, someday I'm going to stand before Christ and in some manner, unknown to me at this point, He is going to look at my total life. It's just all going to be there, bam.
And immediately manifested, made clear, will be how much I have lived for the lasting. The good and the good for nothing will be obvious. And I will be recompensed and rewarded, that is, for what has pleased Him. And I may also suffer loss. The loss of what? Well, certainly not salvation. But we can suffer the loss of reward. Notice also in this verse that it will involve everyone who belongs to Christ. This is not just for pastors. It is not just for lay people.
It's not just for deacons or elders. It's for every believer. Throughout this age, we must all appear, that each one. So notice that it's both universal, it's all, and it's individual. It's each one. We will all be there, but it's an individual accounting. I will be encouraged to live for the lasting when I understand the certainty of this examination and the opportunity that I have to be rewarded then by my Christ, my Lord.
If I want to live for that which lasts, I have to understand these four basic facts that Paul talks about in our text. Last weekend, I was privileged to perform the marriage for my sister and her husband. It was a great occasion. It also afforded me an opportunity to be at home at a time when I could walk over the farm and see it because the leaves are not all out on the trees. I don't have to keep looking down for rattlesnakes this time of year. I can walk and not have to worry about that.
So I took advantage of that and walked over the farm where so much of my life has been centered. Home to me has meant that 240 acres in Kansas. In some respects, when I hear the word home, that's still the first place that pops into mind. When I say home, that brings to your mind some place as it does to mine. I walked over across the creek and up the hill to the south, perhaps a half a mile from the farmhouse. I stood there on the hill overlooking most of that acreage.
As I did so, I reflected on my life and I was reminded of the fact that loved ones who have lived there were temporary in this world. Some whom I have loved and who I have identified with that piece of ground, that home, that place are not there anymore. They're temporary. I recognized as I looked at other farms in the neighborhood that I could see that some of the friends that I have known in years past are no longer there. Those friendships have proved uncertain.
And in the 25 years or so that have expired since I left there, there have been a lot of changes. There are some new fences. Some of the old landmarks have worn down. Some of the trees I used to climb as a kid have long ago fallen and rotted away. Places change. And I was reminded that what we possess and enjoy and call our own one day can even as quickly as the next day no longer be there. If you think about it, nearly everything in life is temporary.
The only wise thing that I can do or that you can do is determine what lasts, what is really important, and then to live for that. Let's pray. As you examine your heart today, as I examine mine, I wonder if there are some improper priorities that you need to acknowledge to God. Is there a wrong focus somewhere in your life? Maybe it's a relationship or it's some possession or a place. Maybe it's your power, the prestige of your position.
Maybe it's your own physical body you've been living for, but there's been a wrong focus. Maybe you have to acknowledge to God that there's been a waste of the opportunities of life. If that's the case, if you've not been living for that which lasts, would you talk to God about it right now? And then would you determine by the grace of God to live and die, to spend and invest, and if need be, suffer for that which will count forever?
Lord we are created beings and we are physical, material beings as well as spiritual, eternal beings. And even for those of us who have received Jesus Christ and who possess by your grace the treasure of the gospel, it's easy for us to live for the temporal and the visible. Lord, as we relate to that part of the visible world that we must because we are here, I pray that you will keep us from putting too much emphasis and too much focus on those things.
But teach us, rather, to live for the lasting so that when we come to that judgment seat, as certainly we will, we may receive and be recompensed a reward. Lord we give ourselves afresh to you this morning to live under your Lordship that you might show us individually what it means to live for the important and the eternal. With our bowed heads let's sing again that chorus. O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to thee, for thou in thine atonement didst give thyself for me.