 Welcome back. We'll continue from where we stopped. So we are looking at verse 2 of chapter 4. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And so Paul, he's saying rather than choose hidden motives, choose crafty methods, methods to trap you and snare you to deceive you, we ourselves were living out the truth of what we were talking about. So by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves. So they not only proclaimed the Gospel, but they were, in the way they lived, they manifested or they revealed the truth of what they were saying. And they lived in accordance with the truth and that itself should be something or was something that built trust in the hearts of the church of the people they ministered to. Because the people's conscience itself confirmed to them that Paul could be trusted. And so Paul goes back to the fact that he is just reminding them of how they took the Gospel to them and the purity of their motives and their heart in doing it. And reminds them that this is what was something that you were able to trust and that's why you received. So don't forget that. So it's been years since Paul has been with them and ministered to them in person. And in that time it would have been possible that as other people are coming in and saying different things about Paul or talking about the way someone should lead or the way an apostle should be. It's possible that they had forgotten how Paul truly was in their midst and so Paul is reminding them of that. So we go from then to verses three to six. But even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded. And so he's saying, we were very open with you, very honest. We didn't hide anything from you. But if anything is hidden, it is only hidden from those who would not respond to the Gospel. So those who have been blinded by Satan. So it says whose minds the God of this age has blinded referring to Satan as the one who blinds people. And now just to make it clear that Satan cannot blind a believer. Here Paul is talking about people who do not believe being blinded by Satan. And so he has the power to blind someone who will not believe but not blind a believer. Lest the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God should shine on them. And so by blinding them, they are not able to see the glory of the Gospel. They're not able to see who Jesus is, that Jesus is a true and full revelation of who God is. And because of that, they cannot be saved because they're unable to see that. Here we see Christ, the image of God, just Paul affirming the divinity of Christ in this. That Christ is a true and complete reflection of who God is, a true manifestation of who God is. Verse five, for we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your born servants for Jesus' sake. And here as well, so though Paul is writing this letter to defend himself. He also says that we as leaders, as people who brought the Gospel to you. Our goal was not to preach about ourselves. It was not to glorify ourselves. So this is something that the other leaders are doing. They are posting about themselves and trying to convince you of their greatness. Whereas that is something that we didn't do when we came. We only preached Christ our Lord and our role was only that of a slave to Jesus, slave for Jesus' sake. And so this is also something I think people can get carried away with very charismatic leaders. When a leader is very forceful, very strong, is able to impress people with his, with their words, with maybe their humor. Things are that people can get easily carried away into even into wrong teaching into things like that just based on the personality of the preacher. So that is something for us to steer clear of that we are there to preach Christ. Christ is Lord and that is what we're going to preach. And our role is the role of a servant or slave to Christ that we are very clear about what our position is. We are not there to preach about ourselves, to glorify ourselves, to establish ourselves as leaders. It's always to elevate Christ, to present Christ through the people, to help people put their trust and their faith in Christ, not in us as leaders. And that was Paul's approach, that was how he had taken the gospel to them. Number six, it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So he is just taking us back to creation, the God who created light out of darkness. So when there was nothing at all that existed, God spoke light. God spoke and said, let there be light and light came out of darkness. In the same way, this same God speak to our hearts and that light of knowing God and knowing Jesus, knowing God through Jesus. So when we know that Jesus is God in flesh, then that knowledge is God himself shining that light in our hearts, giving us that knowledge. So in the darkness of our hearts where there is no knowledge of who God is, of who Jesus is, God speaks and that light shines in our hearts and we come to a place of faith in Christ. So just again here, affirming the divinity of Christ. So he is taking us back to creation itself where light was created out of darkness in the same way that light of faith, light of knowledge, light of our spiritual eyes being opened so that we believe in Jesus Christ, that happens through the same God who created everything. And so just a reminder again here, he is reminding them that it is God's work to bring people to salvation. Verses 7 to 15. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. So this treasure is something that is deposited or something that is protected, something that is of great worth, great value. And so he says this gospel, this knowledge of Jesus is like a treasure in earthen vessels. So earthen vessels is earthen made of clay, made of mud, our bodies are just made from the earth. So in our physical bodies, in these bodies that are just made of clay, made from the earth, we carry a glorious gospel, a gospel that has so much value and worth and glory. And our bodies are simply a vessel in which we carry that. So again, he's pointing to the fact that as preachers of the gospel, as believers as well, that we are so unworthy in our physical being. We are weak human instruments that God uses to carry something that is beyond human imagination, to carry the very spirit of God, to carry the truth of redemption in Jesus Christ, to carry that as instruments who proclaim that to other people who are able to draw others to Christ. And so in God entrusting such a glorious covenant, such a glorious truth to people who are so weak and people who are just made of dust, that itself shows the power of God, shows that it's God's power at work in us. It's not anything that we are doing. And so again, he continues to talk about himself and defend himself, but always giving God full glory, giving God that full acknowledgement that it is all God's work in and through Paul and through Timothy and those who ministered with Paul. So versus eight to 10, we are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, stuck down but not destroyed. So again, here talking about what they're experiencing physically, but what is going on inside of them. So on the outside, they're experiencing physical challenges, they're experiencing disappointments, they're experiencing persecution, they're experiencing challenges from even the people within the church. But on the inside, they continue to remain strong. What is happening to them on the outside doesn't bring them to a place of despair or brokenness or to a place of destruction. Rather, what happens inside is that the Holy Spirit keeps giving them life, keeps giving them the life of God itself. So we see in verse 10, always caring about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. So in the physical realm, they are experiencing all of these challenges and so they are displaying in their bodies the death of the Lord Jesus. So Jesus physically died, Jesus bore, he was sacrificed, he went through suffering and he was physically beaten, he was physically nailed to the cross. So all of that suffering is what they are experiencing as their minister, they are experiencing that physical suffering as Jesus suffered. But on the inside, they are experiencing the spiritual renewal and life that comes from God. So the word here for the life of Jesus is the zoe life. So it's a life that comes from God himself. It's not just a physical breathing in and breathing out, not just a physical heartbeat, but it is the very life that is in God. That keeps us going on the inside, that continues to strengthen us internally through the challenges that we are facing on the outside. Verses 11-15. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. Again continuing to talk about the fact that they are experiencing this physical suffering. Some of them even now he's talking even more generally to the fact that people were being martyred for their faith and Paul itself at any time could be martyred. He was always in danger of being put to death and he was always being warned of persecution that he was going to face in different places. But he continued to go into those situations and through that to reveal that the life of Jesus was at work in him. So he was not living for physical comforts. He was not living for just something that was purely fleshly. He was living for something that was so much greater and so much more glorious than what was in the physical realm. So he says, so then death is working in us, but life in you. And so not only is the life of Christ being revealed in Paul himself, but through his dying, through the sacrifice that he's making, the church was experiencing the life of Christ. So that is also a double blessing. Right. So as we minister, even in the suffering, even in the challenges, as we are experiencing the Holy Spirit at work within us, also seeing the Holy Spirit working in the people that we are ministering to. And that to be the encouragement that keeps us going. Even if it means that we continue to sacrifice, we continue to face those challenges that we're facing to be persecuted, to suffer, to be able to recognize that people are coming to life in Christ through that, through our dying, through our physical death. And verse 13, since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed and therefore I spoke, we also believe and therefore speak. So here he's quoting from Psalm 116 verse 10. Maybe someone be willing to just read Psalm 116 for us. It's a little, okay, it's about 19 verses, but it's a really beautiful Psalm if someone can read it. The pains of death surrounded me and the pangs of she all laid hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then I call upon the name of the Lord. Oh Lord, I implore you deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous as our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple I was brought low and he saved me. Return to your rest of my soul for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believe therefore I spoke and greatly afflicted. I said in my face, all men are liars. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my wards to the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Oh Lord truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your maid servant. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my wards to the Lord now in the presence of all his people. In the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem, praise the Lord. Thank you. So here we see the psalmist talking about how God had saved him and how God had brought salvation to him. And because of that salvation, the powerful deliverance that he had experienced when he was being challenged, he could call on the name of the Lord. And he could continue to serve the Lord and do all that the Lord had asked of him. That he would sacrifice for the Lord, that he would serve the Lord. He would fulfill all that he had said he would do for the Lord. And so in the same way Paul is saying, since we have the same spirit of faith that that psalmist had and the psalmist spoke when he was experiencing suffering, he spoke in faith. So Paul is saying we also believed and therefore we spoke. So Paul is talking about proclaiming the gospel to the people. And he is saying that we were able to speak because we ourselves had believed that message. We ourselves had experienced that great salvation. Just like this psalmist had experienced the salvation and had faith in God in the midst of his suffering. We are able to proclaim this to you in the midst of suffering because of the great salvation we've experienced. And so it is our faith that will prompt us to keep speaking. And so to remain so strong in our faith even though suffering may come for us to be in that place of recognizing the great redemption that we have received. What God has done for us, being able to recollect it, being able to speak that is something that will keep us strong in the Lord and will keep us from shying away in the midst of challenges. But instead to speak boldly, to continue to proclaim who God is, who those God is sending us to. So that's something for us to take away from Paul and from this Psalm. And then verse 14, knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you. So again, their confidence, they are able to speak with such confidence because they trust so much in the Lord. They trust in this promise that Jesus who was raised from the dead reveals the power of God to raise them up as well. Even if they should die for the gospel, they will be raised up with Christ and they will be presented along with the rest of this church. With all the believers in the Corinthian church, Paul himself will be presented before Christ. Verses 15, for all things are for your sake that grace having spread through the many may cause thanksgiving to a bound to the glory of God. And so again, he's not only remembering what God has done for them, what they have experienced, but also remembering the people for whose sake they are doing this. They are doing it for the sake of these believers in the Corinthian church. He sacrifices the sufferings. All of those things are worth it so that this church may experience the grace of God. And as that grace is experienced by more and more people, the thanksgiving and the glory going to God also increases. So it's just such a beautiful depiction of Paul's heart, right? There's so little talk about himself in this. There's so much sacrifice, so much that they are experiencing just in terms of physical challenges in the work that they are doing. But in all of it, all that he is concerned about is the glory of God, the salvation of the people. More people knowing Christ or more people coming to Christ or more people growing within the church. There's spiritual maturity within the church. So it is a very, very selfless heart. And that's the kind of heart we should have as ministers, as leaders, as believers as well. To be these people who are fully sold out for Christ and fully invested in the lives of the people we are ministering to, with that heart of being willing to go through whatever it takes, God glorified to see people saved. There we go from there to verse 16. Therefore, we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. Again here, just that reminder of we are physically actually dying. Each day we are sacrificing, we are getting older, we are losing strength, we are experiencing suffering. But on the inside, we are getting younger and younger, stronger, we are growing from glory to glory. We are being strengthened in the spirit. Also very, very important as ministers that we are staying in this place of renewal, that that's what's going to keep us going. If we are not staying renewed on the inside, then the challenges on the outside will overwhelm us. Verse 17, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Here just that contrast between, and it's just something for Paul to call it light affliction, right? We would never describe it that way, the kinds of things that he had suffered. But in the light of that glory, that eternal glory, which is so heavy, so he's using physical weight to compare these two. So that glory that we will experience in eternity is so heavy, so weighty that what we're going through now, however great it may seem, is in comparison like a feather. It's so light. It has no weight compared to that glory that will be ours in eternity. And then also comparing that this is just for a moment. It's just a temporary thing. Not to say that it's just for a moment is to say it's like just a dot, just a second compared to that eternal, that long, forever experience of glory that is going to be ours in Christ. Again, giving us a way of how do we look at our present day lives? How do we view it in the light of eternity? How do we view what we're experiencing in our everyday lives in the light of what is to come? And because when we are able to have that kind of view, then the way we choose to live in the present, the way we choose to live our physical lives, our everyday lives will be so different than the way we would do it if we thought that this is everything. Our everyday lives is what is most important. Our physical comfort, our safety or taking care of our physical needs. All of those things are definitely important. But how important is it and how much are we thinking about eternity when we're looking at our everyday lives, the way we live our everyday lives? Verse 18, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So that we come to the end of chapter four. We can go into chapter five. Would someone be willing, let me just see how long chapter five is. Okay, maybe we can start with the first ten verses and then we'll go from there if someone can read the first ten verses of chapter five, please. Second convenience, chapter five verses one to ten. 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 grown longing to be clothed with our immortal, eternal celestial dwelling. So that by putting it on, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we grown being burdened. Not that we want to be unclothed, but to be clothed so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now he who has made us and prepared us for this very purpose is God who gave us the spirit as a pledge. So then being always filled with good courage and confident hope 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 and confident hope and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore whether we are at home on earth or away from home with him, it is our ambition to be pleasing to him. For we believers will be called to account and must all appear before the judgment state of Christ. So that each one may be repaid for what has been done in the body, whether good or bad. So here Paul is continuing to talk about the physical versus the eternal. And he says, just to give us perspective, if our earthly house is destroyed, we have an eternal home. This is something that is so that is quite a challenge to have your physical house, the house you live in on earth to be broken. But he's saying, even if it's destroyed, you have something eternal, some place in eternity that you can live in. While he's using earthly house tent, he's using it as a physical house that we live in. But what he's referring to is our body as that tent or the house in which we live. So we see in 1 Corinthians 15 where he talked about this as well, verses 43 and 44, if someone can read that please. 1 Corinthians 15, 43 and 44. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 43 and 44. It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, it is raised in strength, it is sown in natural body, it is raised as spiritual body. As surely as there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. Okay, so here Paul is in 1 Corinthians 15 talking about the same thing that he talks about in verse 2. So in verse 2 he says, in this we grown earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven. So talking about that more glorious body that is going to be us. So even if this physical body is destroyed, there is an eternal body that will be given to us in heaven. And then he talks more about it in 1 Corinthians 15 where this body that lacks honour here will be a body that is glorious in heaven. A body that is weak on the earth will be powerful in heaven. A natural physical body there will be a spiritual body. So not that we will be raised with the same kind of physical body but we will have a spiritual body in heaven. Here verses 3, verses 3 and 4 it says, if indeed having been clothed we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent grown being burdened not because we want to be unclothed but further clothed that mortality may be swallowed up by life. So here we are reminded of that image from Genesis, right? When Adam and Eve were created their nakedness that needed to be covered. So he is using a very similar imagery to that. So I will just read a few verses from Genesis. Genesis 2.25 says, Adam and his wife both naked and they felt no shame. Genesis 3.7 this is after they eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It says, then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realised they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Verse chapter 3 verse 11. So God comes looking for Adam and Adam says, we hid from you we were afraid because we were naked. And God says, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? And then verse 21. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. So we see that image of nakedness connected to sin. Connected to the fact that they had come to this place of exposure. Whereas before they were naked they were clothed with the glory of God. And there was no sense of shame that they had. But once they had sinned they had this sense of shame that came upon them. And then God himself while they try to cover themselves up God himself covers them, cloths them. And so in a similar way Paul is talking about this present state that we are in. It is not that full glory that God has created us with. We might be wearing physical clothes but what we are covered with is not anywhere close to that glory that will be us in eternity. And that's when we will be fully clothed with the glory that we were created for. And until that time while we are in these physical bodies, these bodies that lack that full glory that is to be us. We are in a place of groaning and longing for that experience. So what is some of that glory is just the challenges of our physical health. Some of the sickness, all of those things that are things we experience now. The pain that we experience, the limitations of being in a physical body, all of those things will be taken away. And we will experience that no pain, no death, no sorrow, no tears. That full glory will be as all of the mortality that we are experiencing now will be swallowed up and fully engulfed in the life of God in eternity. Verses five onwards. Now he who has prepared us for this very thing is God who also has given us the spirit as a guarantee. So that is our confidence. The fact that right now we have the Holy Spirit in us. We know that we will experience that eternal life as Jesus was raised to life through the spirit. We also will be raised through the spirit. And the Holy Spirit in us is a guarantee or a pledge that God has given us. It's sort of like a down payment to say that what is to come is affirmed in the fact that you have the Holy Spirit in you now in your present physical bodies. Verse six. So we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. So this is our confidence. Our confidence is in the fact that we know the Holy Spirit is in us. We know the Holy Spirit is at work in us. The Holy Spirit is giving us a life even at present. The Holy Spirit is renewing us inwardly at present. And so that is our confidence that when this body is gone, we will be in the presence of the Lord. So as long as we are in this body, we are away from the Lord. We are absent from the Lord. But when this body is gone, we will be in the presence of the Lord. Verse seven. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Verse nine to eleven. Therefore, we make it our aim whether present or absent to be well pleasing to him. So our aim is what we are laboring for, what we are earnestly striving for is to be pleasing to God. Whether we are alive or we are given over to death, in all things our only desire is to please the Lord. Verse 10. Just all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. So here just that image of standing before God in the Old Testament. It would be very familiar to these, to the Jews, especially within the Jewish believers about the Old Testament, talking about the judgment of people, God sitting on the throne and judging people. And so here Paul is talking about Jesus sitting in that seat of judgment and judging us for what we have done. And so we live to please God knowing that we will stand before Christ and be judged for what we have done while we were in our bodies, while we were in the flesh. So Ephesians 1-5-6 also talks about this. It says having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he has made as accepted in the beloved. So even though we are saved with this promise that we will be with Christ, we are also responsible for how we continue to live after that. We can't walk in sin and say I already accept Jesus as my Savior, so all my sins are forgiven and then hope that we will be saved because of that one decision that we made to receive Christ. Rather it is after receiving Christ to live a life in accordance with his will to continue to please him in the things that we do so that we can stand with confidence. We can stand blameless before the Father and know that not only are we covered by the blood of Christ, but we have continued to walk in holiness. We have continued to walk in obedience to God once we received Christ. And then verse 11, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men, but we are well known to God and I also trust are well known in your conscience. So knowing what it means to stand before the God in judgment and now Paul had actually stood before the judgment seat in Corinth and so this was something we see in Acts 1812 where he had stood before a judgment seat. So in the physical earthly realm he had stood and received judgment from a human judge. So now to say we are going to stand before God in that sense, in that same kind of setting where God will be the judge and he will decide where we should go. He will decide what our reward is or what our punishment is based on the things we have done is a fearful thing. And so knowing that having that kind of fear of the Lord and what is to come, they continue to try and save as many people as possible. So the judgment seat in that time it is called a Bema and it means a step which is a raised platform and usually a Roman judge would sit there and the Bema was actually something that was feared by people to stand in that place of judgment. So how much greater should our fear be if we're going to stand before God using that cultural image that they had to talk about God himself being the judge sitting on that seat and judging us. So we will continue. I'll just read for us from verses 12 to 15. But we do not commend ourselves again to you but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God, or if we are out, we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ compels us because we judge us that if one died for all, then all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. And so here again Paul is going back to this thought of we are not here to to convince you about about myself. Rather, I'm giving you an opportunity to boast in me. Because if you are able to boast in me, if you are able to trust in what I have done in the work that we have done, then you yourselves can answer the people who are coming. So these other leaders that are coming who are speaking against Paul, who are boasting in themselves, you yourselves will have an answer for them because you will be so confident about us as people who were honest and who served you faithfully. So the people who were opposing Paul were people who were boasting in outward things. So he says they boast in appearance and not in heart. And so Paul is going back to the heart, the motivation that lies behind the things they're doing as ministers. So if we have to boast in anything, let it be about the things that are truly important, the things that have to do with our own personal motivations, the purity of our hearts, the intent with which we are serving. Let those be the things that we are concerned about rather than the external, temporary, outward things that people may see and people may be running after. But when we stand before God, God will be the one who knows what was in our hearts. And so let those be the things that prove who we are, prove the honesty with which we served you. And then verse 13, for if we are beside ourselves, it is for God, if we are of sound mind, it is for you. So he's saying if in any way they have completely lost themselves, they've given up any concern about their own honor, their own reputation, it is for the sake of Christ. But if they have tried to remain within human expectations of this is how you should behave, this is how you should do things, it has been for the sake of the church that the church would receive them, would accept them. So they have always chosen to operate for the sake of Christ or for the sake of the church, whatever would be beneficial to the church, whatever would glorify Christ. Verse 14, for the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus that if one died for all, then all died. And so he's saying this is what keeps motivating us. It is the love of Christ that propels us forward, that keeps pushing us to keep going, to keep sacrificing, to keep serving you, even if you don't recognize it. Even if there are other leaders that are more attractive, we will keep doing what we're doing because we love Christ. And because Christ loves you and he himself has put that love in our hearts for you, so we will keep serving you from that place of love. And then he says because Christ died, we have all died and we no longer live for ourselves but for Christ himself. So we see here again, continuing from the previous chapter, this continued thought of selflessness. It's for Christ, for the church, for the people, for the Corinthians. Everything that they're doing is with that perspective and with that heart. So we'll close here. We've come to the end of our time, but we will continue from where we stopped next week. Thank you all for being here.