Will you please turn to 2 Corinthians, chapter 4?
We have to read the whole chapter. Well, maybe I will do that. It has only eighteen verses. Second Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 1:
Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not.
But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish:
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, Who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves;
We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair;
Pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed;
Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
Amen.
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, I believed, and therefore did I speak; we also believe, and therefore also we speak;
Knowing that He that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus, and shall present us with you.
For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound unto the glory of God.
Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory;
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.
May we have a further word of prayer?
Dear Lord, with grateful hearts we gather together unto Thee. We thank Thee for Thy longsuffering toward us. We thank Thee for Thy heart that is always toward us.
We know that Thou wantest to speak to us and to bless us. It is Thy will that Thou wilt lead us into the fullness of Thy purpose.
So, Lord, we open ourselves to Thee this afternoon. We pray that light will come from above into our very hearts—something that we can never do ourselves.
Transform us, that we may be conformed to Thy image. Enable us to glorify Thee even in this mortal body. Teach us the lessons that Thou wantest us to learn.
Give us willingness, and enable us to go through whatever Thou hast led us into. We want to glorify Thee, Lord. We pray in Thy precious name. Amen.
Thank God for gathering us again this afternoon.
During the past three times, we focused our attention on just one thing, and that is new covenant life and ministry.
We thank God that our Lord Jesus, by His blood, sealed the new covenant to us. We no longer live under the old covenant of law. We now live under the new covenant of grace.
It is no longer, “Thou shalt,” and, “Thou shalt not.” It is God saying, “I will,” and, “I will.” Everything is of grace. And because it is grace, therefore it has to be lived by faith.
So, dear brothers and sisters, thank God we all live by faith. We do not live by ourselves anymore—by our own effort, by our own wisdom, by our own methods, or for our own glory. But thank God, for us to live is Christ. This is new covenant life.
And we also have mentioned that the kind of life you live will result in the same kind of ministry you give, because ministry is the outflow of life.
The old covenant ministry is the ministry of law. It is written in ink. It is out of our own study and research. It is not by the living Spirit of God, and it is written on stones.
In other words, we minister out of our mind and into the minds of those to whom we minister. It may be correct, and yet it enters into death.
But thank God, He has given us a new covenant life. Therefore, we are going to minister according to the new covenant.
Now, this afternoon, being the last one, we want to share together on this important matter. Since God has called us to new covenant ministry, how can we be brought into that kind of ministry?
So you find in 2 Corinthians 4, the first verse says, “Therefore, having this ministry.” Now, what is this ministry that we have received?
Of course, if you follow chapter 3, you know that it is the new covenant ministry. God does not want us to continue in old covenant ministry. However glorious it may begin, gradually the glory will fade away. Even though it is supposed to give life, it results in condemnation and death.
But thank God, in a general sense, we all have received this ministry—the same ministry that the Apostle Paul had received. It is the ministry of the new covenant.
Now, brothers and sisters, if we realize what new covenant ministry is, what will be our reaction? Having received such a glorious ministry, we are going to impart life to other people—the life of Christ. It is such a glorious ministry.
Do you feel that it is beyond you? Do you feel that you are not able to have such a ministry?
So the Apostle Paul says, “Having this ministry, as we have had mercy shown us, we faint not.”
In other words, having this ministry, without the mercy of God, we certainly will faint, because we just could not do it. But thank God, we know that this new covenant is the covenant of grace.
Not only will life be given to us, but ministry will be created within us. There is the mercy of God there, and having God’s mercy with us, we do not faint.
So, dear brothers and sisters, when you hear about the new covenant ministry and you really know what it is, probably within you there is a feeling of fainting. But be encouraged, because there is the mercy of God. He is going to work it out in our lives. Because of that, we do not need to faint.
Now, what should we do? You find in verse 2:
But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
In other words, after we receive this new covenant ministry and realize that it is all of grace, and therefore of faith, nothing depends upon our own effort. It is all the grace of God.
But when we realize this, is there nothing for us to do then? Do we just sit there and wait—wait until the mercy of God comes upon us, and wait until suddenly a new covenant ministry is given to us?
Now, is that what will happen? No, of course not. If you just sit there and wait, you may wait until eternity. It will never come.
Well, is it not given to you? Yes, it is given to you, but it does not come out of yourself.
There is something that God expects us to be prepared for. Before He is able to give us that new covenant ministry, there is a certain condition, a certain state, that we have to be in.
“We have rejected the hidden things of shame.”
In other words, God expects us to be real. Because we know the whole world is living under a lie, and what God requires is something that is absolutely real.
Is our life as an open book before God?
You can see everyone has something that is hidden within himself or herself—something that we do not want to be revealed. But before God, all things are naked. There is no sense in trying to hide something from God.
God demands that we are real before Him, that we expose ourselves before God. We tell the Lord, “Search our hearts, and know our thoughts.” We are willing to be real before God. We will not try to hide anything.
And then you find that we will not falsify the word of God. We think that we know the word of God, and we try to speak the word of God, but oftentimes it is out of our own thoughts.
You know, brothers and sisters, when you realize that new covenant ministry is not something that comes out of your mind, it does not come from your cleverness.
We think that because we are clever, we are able to know the Bible. We use our clever minds to interpret the word of God. I often feel that every Christian is a natural theologian, because when you are reading the Bible, what do you do? You are interpreting it.
If you cannot explain it, you are exasperated, and immediately you go to a concordance or you go to a commentary. Because we are natural, according to what we have known and researched, we speak.
Now, it does not mean that you speak wrongly. Most likely, you speak correctly. But is there life within it? Does it come out of life, or does it give life to other people?
Old covenant ministry is from mind to mind. New covenant ministry is from heart to heart.
So when you realize this, what do you do? It is very easy for us to go to an extreme. We say, “Lord, unless I speak by inspiration, I will not speak anymore. Unless You give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation upon Your word, there is no sense in studying the word of God.”
So you find some people go to such an extreme. They think that Bible study is a waste of time because out of it is all mental knowledge. It is not revelation, not inspiration.
Right? Brothers and sisters, do you know how revelation comes? Revelation comes from the word of God, because the word of God is when God first speaks. God speaks by His Spirit.
What is revelation? It is God speaking again. And when He speaks the second time, it is based upon what He has spoken the first time.
If you do not know what He has spoken the first time, how do you know that the light you have seen is from revelation or from something somewhere else?
So, brothers and sisters, studying the word of God is very, very important. We need to spend time reading the word of God, and read it and read it. If there are things we do not understand, look to the Holy Spirit to open the word of God to us.
And this is the way revelation will come. So, brothers and sisters, if we are lazy, we will never receive revelation. Revelation is for the diligent.
We need to search the Scriptures, not thinking that we know it all, waiting upon the Spirit of God. Suddenly, He will show us; He will reveal His mind to us.
So, dear brothers and sisters, there is certain preparation we need to have. We need to prepare ourselves to be real and open before God.
In other words, before God and man, we must have a clear conscience. There is nothing hidden. Our hearts are open to the Lord.
And when we minister, we want to put before our brothers and sisters a clear conscience. There is nothing pretended, nothing false.
We do not pretend that all our ministry is purely new covenant ministry, but we are in the process of it. This is a preparation that we must have.
After we have this heart preparation—that is to say, we do not deceive others nor deceive ourselves, and we are humble enough before the Lord—then you find God will begin to work, keep working in us, until the new covenant ministry comes forth.
Now, in order to make us understand, the Bible uses an illustration. It says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from us.”
We preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We do not preach ourselves, and we need to realize that we are but earthen vessels.
We know we are not only made of dust; actually, we are all earthen. Now, what is meant by a vessel? A vessel is something to contain something. A vessel is something to be used. There is a purpose for a vessel, and what is contained in that vessel is the point.
God created us as earthen vessels. But God did a miracle. This is something nobody would do. If you have a treasure, where will you put it? You may put it in a safety box, because it is so precious. Nobody would put a treasure in an earthen vessel.
That is the thing that only God can do. Now God has a treasure. What is His treasure? Of course, we know His treasure is His only begotten Son. But where does He put His Son? He puts His Son in earthen vessels.
And what is the purpose of that? Just to hide it? No. God’s purpose is that the radiance of that treasure may shine forth.
Now, if you were the one, you would not put a treasure in a vessel unless that vessel were transparent, so that it might outshine the radiance of the treasure.
But praise God, He put that treasure in the earth—the most precious in the most mean thing. If He wants the radiance of the treasure to shine forth, the earthen vessel is just the opposite. The earthen vessel will hide that radiance. It is all contradictory.
Now, how can the radiance of the treasure shine out through the earthen vessel? There is only one way: if the vessel is broken, then the radiance of the treasure will shine forth.
This is exactly what God would do with us. This is the way the new covenant ministry is created.
The potential is already there, because He has already put the treasure in you, an earthen vessel. There is no doubt about God’s purpose. He is not to hide His Son; He is going to manifest His Son. He put that treasure in you and me, who are earthen vessels.
You remember that story of Mary, how she was grateful to our Lord Jesus. The Lord raised her brother Lazarus out of death, and she wanted to show her gratitude to the Lord.
But she did not come from a very rich family. Her parents had already died. What did she have? She had an alabaster flask, and in that alabaster flask she had precious ointment.
Some people say this was what she had prepared for her marriage. This was most precious to her.
But in order to show her love to the Lord, when our Lord was at the table, she came in quietly. She could have opened that flask and poured a few drops on the feet of Jesus. That should have been enough.
No. She broke the alabaster flask, so that the whole ointment poured forth upon the Lord, and the fragrance filled the house.
Brothers and sisters, we are created as earthen vessels. We are cheap, common, nothing. But is that the way you look at yourself? Maybe you look at yourself as an alabaster flask. Are you willing to break it?
If you consider yourself as an alabaster flask, will you break it so that the ointment may come forth and the fragrance fill the house? Is the Lord worth such an act?
Unless you consider yourself just an earthen vessel, then you are willing to be broken.
You know, in our spiritual experience, the hardest thing that we go through is to have ourselves broken. We all love ourselves. We all consider ourselves as somebody. We want to keep ourselves. We want to beautify ourselves.
But brothers and sisters, when the love of Christ constrains you, you will consider yourself as nothing. You are willing to be broken at any price if it is for the radiance of the life of Christ.
So this is the process by which the Lord is leading us into new covenant ministry, because ministry is the outflow of life.
It is not your intelligence. It is not your mind. It is not your eloquence. It is the life of Christ. When you are able to allow the life of Christ to flow out from you, then you truly preach nothing but Jesus Christ.
You remember, on one occasion, when our Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time, this was the only time that our Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem with glory. The people welcomed Him. They considered Him a great prophet, and even some Greeks wanted to see Him.
They asked Philip and Andrew to bring them to the Lord Jesus. In John 12, the Lord said, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.”
Do not interpret this in the worldly way, because He was not talking about His success or His popularity. He explained what that glory meant to Him.
Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
You know, the Lord Jesus said, “I am the grain of wheat.” In the whole universe, there was only one grain of wheat. He is the only grain of wheat because His life is God’s life.
If He did not fall into the ground and die, He would remain alone. Then the whole universe would have only one grain of wheat. So He must fall into the ground—that is His incarnation—and He was looking forward to dying on Calvary’s cross.
Because He gave up His own life, therefore it produced much fruit. The Lord Jesus continued, saying that if you love your soul-life, you lose it; but if, for His sake, you are willing to lose your soul-life, you gain it unto eternity.
If anyone wants to serve Him, he must follow Him; where He is, there His servant will be also, and the Father will honor him.
Brothers and sisters, it is the same principle. What is the secret of new covenant ministry? The secret is not in our research, even though we do not despise research. The secret is the cross.
The cross will bring us to death and will release Christ. This is the only way to new covenant ministry.
How will the Lord lead us to new covenant ministry? That ministry is already in you, because Christ is in you, the hope of glory. Ministry is letting out Christ, supplying people with Christ.
Now, how can our soul-life be brought to death? Because we all love ourselves. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
This is why, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, He not only has given us His life, but He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.
The Holy Spirit in us is responsible to bring us into new covenant ministry. His responsibility is to so arrange our circumstances.
As a believer, there is nothing called chance. After we are saved, God loves us so much. He cares for us so much. He is absolutely responsible for us.
So you find that in our daily life nothing happens to us by chance. Everything that happens to us is governed by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit will so arrange our circumstances: whom you meet with today, what things will happen to you, and what kind of circumstances you will be in. Nothing is by chance, because the Holy Spirit Himself has arranged all your circumstances.
And the reason why He does it is that He wants to use these circumstances to break your soul.
The person that you meet with, the environment that you find yourself in—everything is arranged by the Holy Spirit. We call it the discipline of the Holy Spirit.
By that, we mean the child-training of the Holy Spirit. This is the way that God trains us, that we may grow in the spiritual life and grow in spiritual ministry.
You know, when we meet something that is not to our own taste, immediately you find we murmur. We think that God does not love us, and we rebel again and again. We want to live; we do not want to die. We want to have our own way.
So, brothers and sisters, here you find God is working in our life.
The Apostle Paul tells us this way:
We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair;
Pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed.
We may say, “Afflicted in every way, but not frustrated; at our wit’s end, but not at our life’s end; persecuted, but not abandoned; knocked down, but not knocked out.”
You know, in our spiritual experience, how often we have been knocked down. But you have not been knocked out. You find that you come up again.
You come to death, but life begins to raise you up. Now, when you are going through this process, this is the cross.
What is your cross? A cross is something in which your feeling and God’s feeling cross each other; your mind and God’s mind cross each other; your opinion crosses God’s opinion.
And when such things happen, what are you going to do? Are you willing to deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow the Lord? Or do you want to keep your own life?
The cross is never something arbitrary. A cross is something you can take up or bypass.
Now, if you bypass it, you live, but Christ, in a sense, dies. But if you are willing to give yourself up to the Lord, then you die and Christ lives.
The Apostle Paul said that he was always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus.
Now, remember that the word in the original is not “the death of Jesus,” because the death of Jesus is what Christ has done on Calvary’s cross. It is a fact. It is a reality. It has eternal effect, but it is something objective.
The word here is not the death of Christ; it is the dying of Christ. It is a verbal noun. In other words, there is action there.
On the basis of the death of Christ on Calvary’s cross, there is a power that will put to death anything that is not of God. It is all based upon the death of Jesus.
But the Holy Spirit is applying the death of Christ into your life. Sometimes it is such a breaking of the earthen vessel that the radiance of the treasure within may be released.
So first of all, you find death in you, but life begins to rise up within you. Then you find that it is not only within you, but life begins to come to others.
Now this is new covenant ministry. You are giving Christ to other people, and it is through your own brokenness.
You know, when you read 2 Corinthians 4, you find that “we faint not” is used two times. The first time you find it in verse 1: “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not.”
This is because you see the immensity of the new covenant ministry. How can you bear it? But when you think of the mercy of God, you will not faint. You are willing to give yourself to the Lord and let the Holy Spirit lead you to the cross, that there may be life coming out from you and a new covenant ministry may be produced.
But when you come to verse 16:
Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.
Now, we faint not for what reason? It is because, when the Holy Spirit is leading you to the cross, you are going to find yourself being brought into death so that the life of Christ may be released.
When you are going through such a process, how do you feel? So far as you yourself are concerned, it is something very hard.
You tend to think, when our Lord is child-training you, that it is too hard, too absolute. You will faint sometimes.
But as you go through the process and you tend to faint, remember one thing: it is true that your outward man is decaying, but the inward man is renewed.
Now, who is the outward man? The outward man is your soul-life. In your soul, there is your old Adamic, fallen life. That is your outward man.
And the inward man is the life of Christ in your spirit. So as your soul-life is going to death, your spiritual life is being renewed.
Then you find that you are not really looking at what you can see, because what you can see is temporary. What you cannot see is eternal.
This is the way you find the Lord leading us into new covenant ministry.
So may, by the grace of God, we all enter into this. This is the will of God for our life and for our ministry. Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee because we find that all is grace. Out of ourselves, there is nothing but death.
But praise Thee, because Thou hast not only put Thy life in us, but Thou hast a way of releasing it. Thou hast led us through the way of the cross.
Pray that Thou wilt give us strength, that we may take up the cross and follow Thee, that Thy purpose may be fulfilled.
Oh, praise and glory be unto the Lord.