 I'm privileged to open the Word of God with you. Again, there should be notes in your bulletin. And we're going to cover 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 12 to 17. I'm one of those people who's looking forward to the Gospel of John next week with Pastor Mark. Preaching that, it's going to be a wonderful thing to go through that book and see our Lord Jesus Christ revealed in all his glory. So in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, I hope to give you an encouraging sermon today. It's very rarely that you get the opportunity to preach one of your favorite passages, and this is one of my favorites. And I hope that it's as encouraging to you as it is to me. So in the book of 2 Corinthians, there is a great message of encouragement and weakness. And that in this epistle, we see when you're weak, then you're strong. I was going to a garage sale once, and I went up to the garage sale, and I realized I had come up to Satan's house. And Satan had outlined or had laid out all of the weapons of his warfare. And there were various demons that had come up, and they were looking through Satan's things, and they were going to buy some of those weapons of his warfare. And I began to look around the corner and eavesdrop under this conversation with these demons. And there was this demon who he looked around Satan and he saw a package that said, not for sale. And demons are very covetous, so he didn't want anything that was on the table. He wanted what wasn't for sale. And he said to Satan, what is that one? I want that one. And he said, no, you can't have this one. This one's too important to me. And he said, but I'll show it to you. And Satan got it and brought it out. And he opened it up and inside was discouragement. And he said, you see this? I have destroyed many churches with this weapon. I have destroyed many ministers with this weapon. It works with pride. You see, when you stick it in some pride, then, and you mix in with some discouragement, it can destroy, you can put in any other sin. We'll then begin to creep in. And he said with an evil glimmer in his eye, I almost destroyed the apostle Paul with this weapon. Now look in 2 Corinthians chapter two. And you'll see at this point of discouragement is where we're at in our text. In verses 12 to 13, we see a setting of sorrow. Paul is very discouraged here. In verses 14 to 16, we're gonna see how Paul answers that discouragement with giving thanks for our triumphant Savior. In verse 17, we'll see the way we are to serve our Savior to be open and honest with our service. So now let's think about 2 Corinthians in the context as a whole, okay? So this letter has in it in chapters one to seven. It has a explanation of the ministry, the ministry of what it means to serve the Lord. And in verses eight to nine, I'm sorry, in chapters eight to nine, the apostle Paul goes through what it means to give and is one of the clearest explanations of giving in the Bible. And then in chapters 10 to 13, Paul addresses those who are attacking him in Corinth and he defends the ministry. And in this, we see him being soft with some in Corinth who are soft and he's hard with those in Corinth who are hard-hearted. But we have a great understanding of what it means to be a minister and how to face discouragement and how to face attack in the ministry. If you remember the apostle Paul in around AD 51, AD 52, around that time, he goes into Corinth and he goes there to preach the gospel. He's on the run from persecution. He has just come from Athens and he goes into this city, Corinth, and this is a city that is a San Francisco of the ancient world. It is a wicked city. It is a sinful city. It's the sin in that city can rival any sin that any city we have today. And when he goes there, that's a great place to preach the gospel, right? And the Lord graciously said, he had many people in that city and he converted many. And he was able for 18 months to start a church and to help the people and pastor the people there. In a few years, he went on and in his missionary journeys, he ends up in Ephesus around AD 56, about four years later. And in AD 56, while he's serving in Ephesus, he received reports about how things have gone badly in Corinth. And if you remember 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians most Christians know better than 2 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians, he receives a report of many different problems. The people in the church were allowing sexual immorality. We see that in chapter five of 1 Corinthians. Chapter six, we see how they're taking one another to court and suing one another. In chapter seven, we see that they're confused about singleness and marriage. In chapter eight, we see how they're arrogant and they abuse their freedoms. In chapter 11, we see how they abuse the Lord's supper and they're selfish. In chapters 12 to 14, we see about how they've twisted spiritual gifts to be used for their own sake, their own pride. They were a church that caused much grief to the apostle Paul. They were a church that needed to hear the word of God. And so the apostle Paul writes to them to help them, to correct them, to teach them, to pastor them with this letter and he writes it from Ephesus. How did the church respond? We often read in 1 Corinthians about all these different issues, but how did they respond? Paul decided to go with a visit and it's called the grieving visit, the sad visit, where he visits the church of Corinth. It did not go well. He was, his letter had risen opposition from within. And when he was there, there were even some who opposed him to his face and he was not defended by the people. And he goes back to Ephesus and he decides to write another letter. This letter is not 2 Corinthians, but it's called a severe letter. It's a very harsh letter where he calls them to repent and his heart in being harsh is this is a last-ditch effort to cause them to turn, to cause them to be, not to be tricked and fooled by the false apostles that were there that had risen up. And he sends the severe letter with his son in the faith Titus. And Titus takes this and he plans at a certain time to rendezvous with Titus in the city of Troas. To hear how they responded, whether they repented. He is very grief for them. The time for the rendezvous is coming up and he's in Ephesus and there is a riot. You remember this riot from Acts chapter 19 where the people begin to call for those who are the Christians and the apostle Paul has to run. And it's around the time before he's gonna rendezvous anyway with Titus in Troas. And so now here comes our text. Paul's explained the story, chapter two, verse 12, as he comes to Troas. Let's look in verse 12. Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel and a door was opened to me by the Lord. So we see here that when he comes to the city of Troas, this influential city is about 200 miles more or less north of Ephesus. And he comes for the purpose of preaching the gospel. If you know the apostle Paul and you know how he writes the scripture, this is a common thing, right? In Colossians chapter four, verse three, he asked for this prayer request that the Lord would open a door. In 1 Corinthians 16, nine, he speaks in his first letter to Corinth about how a door has been opened to him and he's very excited about it. In the end of the book of two Ephesians, he is asking that a door will be opened to the gospel. And now here his prayer requests are answered. Here he comes to Troas to meet Titus and to bring the gospel and a door was opened to him, not by him but by the Lord. Imagine what it's like to have a door open by the Lord. Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing? Think about your family and going to them for Thanksgiving and they want to know the gospel. They've been crying while you've been gone and they've been broken and grieved. Would you leave that open door? Think about going to an open-air event and you go there and all the people that pass by gather into a crowd. Not a one passes by without a track. Everyone reads it and you see the tears flow and you see that there's more people who want to know about the gospel and have questions about the gospel than are able to give them answers. Isn't that what you pray for and you long for and you look for? That's what Paul looked for and here it is. Here it is here in Troas. But why does he not stay? What happens in verse 13? He says, I had no rest in my spirit because I did not find Titus my brother but taking my leave of them, I departed for Macedonia. The apostle Paul can't rest. He can't rest because he knows about how the church hangs in the balance. He knows that the false apostles there will sway the people and his concern for them and he can't find Titus. There are many false accusations that Paul is facing at this time. He's facing accusations of how he's in the ministry for money. Some are implying that he's in the ministry for immorality. Some have say that he lies about how many converts he has or from his relationships with those in Jerusalem. His relationship with Peter is being, they're using that as a disadvantage and how he opposed Peter and Galatians. They're implying that he's a deceiver and a liar. He's hiding things. They spoke against his preaching. They said that his preaching, they described it as it was contemptible. One preacher described it this way. He said, you know, if you are good looking, at least people can look at you or if you're ugly and you can speak well, at least people can listen to you. But if you're ugly and you can't speak, then what good are you? And that's what they would say about the apostle Paul. They would put contempt on his preaching and Paul's concern is not so much for himself. He hates to defend himself. His concern is for those he loves. And throughout the book of 2 Corinthians, his defense is his pure conscience. But the people are swayed. The people are swayed. And he's grieved. So he goes on, he says, I can't stay in Troyas. I must go to Macedonia. I must go to where Tytus is at and find him. Have you come to the point in your life where you've been very discouraged, so discouraged that you didn't feel like talking to anybody about the Lord? Not, has that happened to you, but when has that happened to you? When has that happened to you? That is a very, a dangerous time in the Christian's life of discouragement. That's the time when Satan can use that weapon to destroy their Christian life, to make a decision they will regret for years to come. Well, the apostle Paul here is in that time. And look at verses 13 and 14. He says he departs from Macedonia. You see the setting of sorrow in verses 12 to 13. Now look at this, how Paul gives thanks for our triumphant savior. He changes his tone in verse 14. Now, thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. He goes from explaining his story to saying, now thanks be to God who causes us to triumph. What has changed with the apostle Paul? Did he hear from Titus? No? He won't hear from Titus until chapter seven, verse five. Well, he explains when he hears from Titus. So Paul has changed from being one of the saddest points in his life to being now thrilled and happy with the Lord Jesus Christ. What has changed? In verse 13, you know what he's thinking? He's thinking this thought of discouragement. I deserve better. I deserve better than this. Look at how I faithfully served and loved these people. And now look what they've done. I deserve better than this. Lord, I've been faithful to you. I've preached your word. I've lived a pure life. I worked hard as a tent maker so the people wouldn't have to provide for me. I deserve better than this. And I'm grieved. What will happen with them? Has that thought ever come into your mind? Or when has that thought come into your mind? I deserve better than this. Think about all of the things in your life, okay? What could you lose? Could you lose your wife? Could you lose your children? Could you lose your money? Could you lose your job? Could you lose your health? Could you lose your eyesight? Take stock of what you have. What could you lose? What if you lost them all? Would you say to God, God, I deserve better than this? In verse 14, Paul says, Lord, thank you. You've been much better to me than I deserve. And he thinks of the gospel in a particular analogy. An analogy that is called a Roman triumph. Some of your Bibles will have the word triumph as triumphal procession. It can and should be translated with a capital T. It is an actual event. It is a historical event that Paul is referring to. He's saying thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. And he's referring to an ancient Roman ticker tape parade. Okay, we don't know about a ticker tape parade like this. We have parades for sports teams. This is about a general. When a general comes into Rome, this Roman triumph, you can Google this, you can search this, you can look it up. Or if you listen to any sermon worth it's salt, in 2 Corinthians chapter two verses 12 to 17, it's gonna explain this historical picture, okay? So think about this ticker tape parade. In order to receive this ticker tape parade as a general in ancient Rome, you have to fulfill some requirements. It's granted by the Roman Senate. And in order to receive this, you must be the commander in chief in the field. You can't send people, you gotta be there for the battle. Your campaign must be completely finished. Victoria's troops brought home, new troops in. You must have 5,000 of the enemy to die in one day. In other words, you slaughtered them. You've won by a great margin. You must have in a positive extension of Roman territory. In other words, it's not just that you defended Rome and it's not just attack repelled, you have to take new territory. And five, you must have it, this land and this victory, won over a foreign foe and not a civil war. If you've completed this and you're a general, then you can receive a triumph. And when you would come to Rome, there would be a parade like no other. There would be a once in a lifetime event called the Roman Triumph. If you look in your study Bible and you see a map of the Rome, you can look and see a road that goes right down the middle of the city called the Way of the Triumph. And that's the road that they would go down. Kind of like going down Broadway in New York City, a famous street. And in this event, there is a particular procession in order for the parade. And the order has a design in it. First come the state officials, the politicians, the senators. They come waving at the front. They didn't, we're in the battle. Just like today, nothing's changed. The politicians are there to take credit for what they didn't do. And they're thankful for the opportunity to be in front of all the people and kiss the babies. After the politicians come the trumpeters. That's what politicians like to have behind them, big trumpets. And the trumpets let out with a sound, a very majestic sound. Then come the spoils of all the land. They bring the greatest treasures and they bring them and carry them in their own display for all those who were in Rome to see. There's actually an arch called the Arch of Titus in Rome. If you were to visit, this is one thing I would want to see. This ancient arch is from the first century and carved in it pictures of the general Titus. And Titus was the general who destroyed Jerusalem in 8070. And in his destruction and conquering, he received a triumph. And in that arch you can see the menorah and the treasures of Jerusalem being carried in the triumphal procession. So they bring these treasures and next in the parade, you are familiar with the Macy's Day Parade. This is better. They have the models and the floats that come in and they are carried on in carriages and they drew pictures of the conquered lands so the people could begin to see what it was like. Or sometimes they had pieces of the ships if it was a battle at sea. Then comes the white bull. And sometimes as many as 120 white bulls to be sacrificed to the God Jupiter. This was a religious event. Next come the captives, the prisoners, the kings of the foreign land, the greatest of their warriors who survived. And they come in chains and they come with people whipping them behind. And they, in most cases, they were executed at the end of the parade. Behind them come the more musicians, flutes. And then behind them come the priests. The priests are burning incense and they have sensors where they have this incense waving into the crowd. And then comes the moment that people have been waiting for, the general comes. In this time people would be, they'd be building scaffolding so that they could see the parade and they'd be climbing up on the scaffolding, making multiple stories. They had people bring flowers to these triumphs and they throw the flowers in the streets and they fill the streets with petals. And as the general comes around the corner, they yell out, hail, triumph in one, hail the triumph, hail the triumph. And this general is pulled by four white horses and he's riding a chariot and he has a slave behind him hold the crown of Jupiter over his head. If any of you have seen like Ben Hur, there's something of this. And Ben Hur is the one who's the slave in the chariot. And they ride up and they ride the way of the triumph and they're headed for Caesars Palace. They're headed for to see the emperor. And this Roman general, he wears a purple toga, the color of royalty. And behind him comes his family. And last in all the triumph comes the soldiers, the men of the general. And they come following their leader. Great, now that you understand this what Paul communicates in one word with triumph, look now back at the text and it should help illuminate your understanding of it. Verse 14, now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. For we are the fragrance to God, the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. What Paul, the apostle Paul says, he is Christ is the general of generals. Christ is the king of kings. He is the one who leads us in triumph, not one day in the future, not in the past, but currently right now, he always leads us in triumph. And I am just happy to be in the parade. I'm just happy to be a foot soldier. I'm just happy to be able to serve my king. Things are much better for me than I deserve. He turns from great sorrow to great thanksgiving because he doesn't deserve to be in the service of his king. You see the perspective here is a gospel driven perspective. Only a Christian can get this and understand this. When you're a false Christian, what you think is whenever hardship comes, I deserve better than this. I deserve better than this. I deserve better than this. But when you are genuinely converted, you see this is so much better than I deserve. The Lord has been so much more gracious to me. Do you remember 1st Timothy chapter one verses 12 to 16? When Paul, he says, turn there, this is the heart of the triumph and why he listed that. Look in 1st Timothy chapter one, verse 12. The thanks that he has in verse 14 is the same thanks he has here in verse 12. And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me because he counted me faithful, putting me in the ministry. Although I was formerly a blasphemer and persecutor and an insolent man, or it means a violently arrogant man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief and the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came in the world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. Do you know this and acknowledge this about yourself? Can you look at this passage and say this about yourself that you are the chief of sinners, that the grace of God has been exceedingly abundant to you? If you can, then that is the answer, the gospel answer for any time of discouragement. It is what the Lord has done in his work on the cross. It is what the Lord has done to save a wretch like you. And when you believe that, then whatever you lose in life, you can be like Job. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. That is a gospel driven point that is in only those who understand the gospel and believe themselves to be that bad and to believe God to be that good can say with Paul, thanks be to God who leads us in his triumph. Thanks be to the general of generals. Thanks be to that God who saves a wretch like me and allows me to serve him in any way. You see, back in 2 Corinthians, back in 2 Corinthians chapter two, verse 14, the apostle Paul hasn't heard at this point whether the Corinthians will repent, whether they repent or not, he is gonna be thankful to God. And he's thankful about how God allows him to diffuse the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. He's thankful to God that he gets to smell like Christ. If you talk about the Lord, then you'll smell like Jesus to other people. When you go to work and you like to talk to people at your workplace about Christ and they come into the break room and they see you read your Bible and you say, hi. And they see you in your Bible and they look down at your smile and then they turn around and go, okay, they get their lunch and walk out. And you can tell they're walking away because of how I'm reading my Bible. They can smell the fragrance of Christ. We are privileged to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in such a way so that we get to spread the knowledge of him. When we get to talk about the cross, we get to help people understand who God is in his holiness, in his righteousness, in his justice, in his mercy, in his salvation. And in this way, the knowledge of God is made known to people. In verse 15, the apostle Paul says, we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. You see the present tense here where we are to God. We are to be pleasing to God. We are the fragrance of Christ to God. And we are among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. What a privilege. What a privilege. Smells can be very powerful, right? They bring back a memory. Think back to the triumph. In the triumph, there are many smells going on. The smells of the flowers, the smells of the incense burning from the priests. And those who are in the triumph, who are captives, smell those smells. And what do they think? Is it a pleasing aroma to them? What does it smell like? But death, death is coming. You see, that's why the person who when they see you, they turn and go the other way. That's why when you knock on their door, they tell the kids, drop the TV. But they're like, we're not home. And you hear them whispering and you heard the TV go off good? That's why they don't come to the door. It's like you smell like death. But for the soldiers, when they smell that, for the general, when he smells it, when all those who are at the triumph, when they smell that, what do they say? Life, life, victory, triumph. When you come across a Christian and you explain the gospel to them, they say, this is great. This is life, life to life. You see the analogy worked out in the text? You see how powerful this is? That you are pictured here. In verse 16, to one where the aroma of death leading to death and the other where the aroma of life leading to life and who, who is sufficient for these things? Who is sufficient for these things? Who deserves to be in this parade? Who deserves to be able to serve the Lord? Who has the ability and the swab and who has the ability to be here? Look around us. What do you see? See bankers? See pest control men? See mechanics? We see people work in IT or with seniors? I see no presidents among us. I see no doctors of theology among us. I see no, if I was gonna send somebody with the salvation of the world, let's be honest, we wouldn't send each other, right? We'd find somebody who could carry this message. You'll be worthy of it. Who would have the credentials? Who would have the ability? But God, when he's gonna save the world, send somebody from pest control? Yes, he does. He sends the foolish and he sends the weak. And here's the heart of 2 Corinthians. When you're weak, then you're strong. When you're weak, then you're strong. Do you see this point in chapter two verse 13? Paul was at his weakest. Perhaps even weaker here than he was at the end of 2 Timothy. This is the only book where he describes himself as depressed. He doesn't even describe himself as depressed when he's in jail almost ready to die in 2 Timothy. But here he does because his concern for the churches is greater than all his other trials. And he describes that in this very book. And the apostle Paul is thrilled at the idea that he gets to serve this general of generals, that he gets to be in this triumph of triumphs. That this is what the world is about. All the other generals, all the other triumphs, all the other parades are just a shadow. They're just a shadow of what this is. They mean nothing compared to this. Popular now in the past 10 years especially is the idea of movies about superheroes. And the idea is about superheroes. And it's very popular in our culture. And people like to think about them. All of the heroes are, and they are nothing. They are shadows. They are figments of your imagination. Here is the real hero. Jesus Christ our Lord. And he's real. He's real. And you're really in the army if you are genuinely converted. You have the blessing of serving him. And you should be so grateful about this because of how he saved your wretched soul that it should encourage you in any time of discouragement. You should say, I am happy to be serving the king no matter what happens. You've seen the setting of sorrow in verses 12 to 13. We've seen in verses 14 to 16 how Paul gives thanks to his triumphant savior. Let's close with verse 17. This encouragement turns out to, for sincerity. He says, for we are not as so many peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as from God we speak in the sight of God in Christ. So he begins to now mention some of those who are here, who are in Corinth, who are peddlers, who use the word of God for their own gain. This word for peddler means a street huckster, a snake oil salesman. He's a guy who's the middle man. He gets some product from the wholesaler and then he marks up the price and then he gives it to you because you don't know what the price is supposed to be and he makes a lot of money off of it. Something that's worthless. And the apostle Paul applies that to people who use the word of God for their own gain. Think about how tempting it is to use the word of God for your own gain where you say, oh I wanna accomplish something with somebody else, I wanna convince them of something. So I'll just show a verse out of context because it proves my point. This happens all the time. We have a country filled with peddlers who use the word of God for their own gain. What a wicked idea. Could you imagine answering to God for that when he says, I've given my word? Could you imagine studying the word of God and then twisting it for that end? Saying I don't care really what it says. I know better what people need to hear and this will happen and turn out for my good if I say it in such a way. What a wicked idea. Paul is not that way. Paul's not that way. He doesn't use the word of God for his own gain but he decides he's gonna use it as if God was right in the room. He contrasts that with the peddling with sincerity. You see that? Verse 17, not like so many peddling the word of God but as of sincerity, but as from God. He used two different contrasts. One with sincerity. There's a story told about Benjamin Franklin and how he goes to hear George Whitfield preach. And somebody asked Ben Franklin, you know, you don't believe in Christianity. Why do you even go to hear him preach? And he says, yeah, I don't believe in it but Whitfield does and he believes it so much I like to hear him speak. It was his sincerity that attracted him. It was he really believed, Whitfield really believed the gospel and it came out and how he spoke. And this is the way the apostle Paul is. He is blood earnest sincere. He's open and honest and his sincerity is described as from God and this description in the sight of God. He says we speak in the sight of God and this can be used to describe as if God was opposite aside to him. As if God was on the other side of the table and he says, look, as if God was on the other side of the table I'm that sincere, I'm that honest. I speak to please my God. My dear beloved, I have been constantly throughout my life for many years I have turned to this text. I have turned to this text and it is one of the bedrocks of my life. And I know I'll have to turn there many years in the future to say, God, I know things are hard but they're much better than I deserve and I'm just happy to be in the army. I want it to be that way for you that whenever hard times were come you would be able to look at this text and you would be able to say, yes, Lord, I believe that I don't deserve to be here. I just give you thanks and in this is great encouragement. You know how I visited Satan's garage sale? Well, after that, I went to the celestial city and in the celestial city the general of generals was there. He was having, they were having a triumph for him and I was there throwing the flowers in the street and when he went by I yelled, triumph, triumph as loud as I could. Afterwards, he was gracious to take me into his armory and show me some of the weapons of his warfare and I saw a large blade and I went up to it and I said, what is this weapon? And I picked it up, this was an amazing sword and he put his hand on my shoulder and he said, look, you see what's inscribed in the handle? Weakness, it's weakness. This is what Paul used in his defense against Satan's discouragement. He admitted his weakness and that made him strong because he depended in the Lord. He says, you see this weapon? When you admit you're weak and you're really strong in me. That's the message of Second Corinthians. That's the message of this text. Will you admit you're weak and you don't deserve any better and you will be strong in the Lord. Let's pray. Thanks be to you, Lord God. I worship you, we worship you, Lord. We don't deserve to be saved. We don't deserve to serve you. We don't deserve to be your fragrance to the world. We don't deserve these things. Thank you, Lord, that you save wicked people. We give you all the glory and all the honor. Help us, Lord, in all of our times of weakness to depend on you. We give you the praise, amen.