Just want to take a moment to thank the Lord for this weekend we’ve had together. In the times of worship, in times of prayer, and in times of ministry, I truly believe we’ve been in the new creation, on resurrection ground. It’s wonderful to share this time together with brothers and sisters.
We come to the last message time, and I just want to share a few simple things that sum up things that, in a way, have been said by different brothers and myself throughout the weekend. We want to talk once again about this new creation, this fresh creation, this new life that we found when we came into Christ.
Our new resting place is in Christ. Everybody who has been saved by His grace has come into this place of new life. As I said last night, we come in little realizing how different this world in Christ is from the former world that we used to know. But gradually, as the Holy Spirit opens our eyes, we begin to see brand-new things.
It’s somewhat akin to the usual way that we take the Old Testament and apply it to where we are in our Christian life. You know, Ian Thomas was a famous preacher, and he wrote a book called The Saving Life of Christ. He took the story of the children of Israel coming out of Egypt and coming into the promised land, and used it to illustrate the different places we are at in our Christian life.
So, as an example, when they came out of Egypt through the Red Sea, that was their baptism and their coming into salvation. But they spent forty years in the wilderness because they lived in the natural man. They lived according to the flesh. They refused by faith to go into the promised land that was their inheritance, and so they wandered for a long time.
This was kind of the picture of 1 Corinthians, where they’re saved, but they’re not going anywhere because they’re living in the natural man. They’ve got to ford the Jordan River, because the Jordan River represents that being crucified with Christ that enables us to enter into the land of promise—this new creation—to truly live in the newness of that land.
In 1 Corinthians, last night, we kind of got in between. We looked, sort of standing on the border between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, looking back at the desert, saying, “No, no, no, we don’t want to be there anymore,” and looking forward to this life in Christ.
It goes from glory to glory—a land, in this promised land, where we discover our inheritance. We discover what we were born for. We discover everything about our lives that has been hidden in Christ and is now manifest to us by the Holy Spirit.
But now that we’re in this promised land in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit has to work Christ into us. This is a process that continues on. Once we’ve come to the point where the cross says no to our natural man and we enter into the promised land, there is still more discipline. There is still the necessity of learning more in order to gain our full inheritance.
You know the story. When the children of Israel got into the promised land, they still had giants to kill. They still had challenges to overcome. They still had cities to defeat, and they found themselves more than conquerors through Joshua, who led them.
Of course, that’s Jesus’ name. You know, Yeshua in the Old Testament—Joshua—is Yeshua in the New Testament. Jesus wants to lead us through the promised land so everybody gets their piece of inheritance.
What tribe are you from? Now, I know, being my name Dana, I must be from the tribe of Dan. And I’m looking for my territory, you see? I’ll find my territory hid in Christ. Whatever tribe you come from, you’ve got an inheritance too.
We’re to pursue from glory to glory. Christ becomes fuller and fuller and fuller in our lives until Christ is all and in all. And then, at that point, what happens?
When the saints are so full of Christ that our Lord can look down from heaven and say, “Look, bone of My bone, that’s My bride,” then He comes. And He won’t delay a moment.
So our privilege is to become full of Christ, so He wants to be joined with us—those whom He saved and destined for His bride. He’ll come, and we’ll find this glorious wedding together.
With these things in mind in our background, let’s read some verses in 2 Corinthians. New covenant reality, new creation living—glory to glory.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;
Who comforteth us in all our affliction,
that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction,
through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
For as the sufferings of Christ abound unto us,
even so our comfort also aboundeth through Christ.—2 Corinthians 1:3-5
For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea:
wherefore also through Him is the amen,
unto the glory of God through us.—2 Corinthians 1:20
But thanks be unto God,
Who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ,
and maketh manifest through us the savor of His knowledge in every place.—2 Corinthians 2:14
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as from the Lord the Spirit.—2 Corinthians 3:18
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.—2 Corinthians 4:6-7
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.—2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature:
the old things are passed away;
behold, they are become new.—2 Corinthians 5:17
Our Father, we come to You tonight thanking You for sustaining us through this weekend. We thank You for Your grace and for Your light, which shines more brightly upon Christ through this weekend than it has before.
As we come to this last time of ministry, we pray once again that You’ll quicken our mortal bodies, cause our hearts to be attentive, listening to Your voice. Help us to see, unveiled, the Lord of glory before us. We pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
So, last time we stood there on the borderline between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, and we saw the need for the cross in the life of the Corinthians. The fact of the matter is, brothers and sisters, every person who is in Christ—and that includes the Corinthians—is a new creation.
Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. They are Christians. They had the testimony of Christ in them. They were pursuing spiritual gifts, and they were preaching and prophesying and going on in the Lord. They were a new creation.
But the problem is, our natural man, as we spoke last night, boxes us in and limits us in freshness. As you can see from the very beginning of 1 Corinthians, they had already boxed themselves into those who follow Paul, those who follow Apollos, and those who follow no man, only Christ.
But, of course, that was also an exclusionary denominating and boxing in. “Now I’m a Pauline, and you’re a Pauline.” Paul, as he ministers regarding this matter at the very end, says this: “Don’t you realize how small you’re making things?”
Why, yours is to have Paul and Apollos and Cephas and Christ, and even that, to have God Himself. Why limit yourself by boxing yourself in? Take the fullness of God’s provision for you.
So he begins to speak to them about this, bringing them the word of the cross, that they may cross the Jordan River and leave that stuff behind. Be renewed in the spirit of their mind. Do not let that mind be squeezed into the world’s mold.
As we cross over the Jordan River, we come up on the other side as we consecrate ourselves. We present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy unto God. This is our reasonable service. Now the Lord can begin to work in us more fully by His Spirit.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul shares his heart as one who is living in this new creation, in this new land that lives here on earth but has a touch of heaven; that is living in the now but looking to a future glory.
Out of his own life, you see Christ manifest in many different ways. We’re going to look at three, very simple things tonight—three important aspects of living in this new creation. As we look at this, we’ll especially be humbled by realizing that understanding our earthen vessels is a key to living in the new creation.
The first is this: life in the new creation, life in the new covenant, is completely dependent upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
This is the realm in which the Holy Spirit works, as He has been commissioned by God to bring unto fullness the glory of Christ among the disciples; to bring them into all truth; to reveal to them all the things of Christ; to work it into their lives; and to produce Christlikeness among the disciples.
This is the Holy Spirit’s work in this generation. He is the communioner. You know, the end of 2 Corinthians, the famous benediction is:
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit,
be with you all.—2 Corinthians 13:14
The Holy Spirit is the connector. He connects us to Christ. He connects us to the Father. He’s the connector. In this generation, He’s connecting us to one another as a new creation, and connecting us to Christ from glory to glory to glory. It’s all the Holy Spirit’s work, and it’s according to the new covenant.
How did the new covenant start? When Jesus offered His blood in the heavenly sanctuary, the new covenant was inaugurated. Then He sat down in glory, the Lord of glory, at the right hand of God. That inaugurated this new covenant.
When He sat down at the right hand of God, the Holy Spirit was poured down upon us, and the Holy Spirit began this work of bringing us from glory to glory until we shine with the likeness of Christ.
When we hear of such a thing—this new life lived in glory to glory—do you live in glory land? Do you live in glory-to-glory land? This should be our experience. But we realize that we can’t possibly do this ourselves.
We cannot metamorphose ourselves. The little worm cannot metamorphose himself into a butterfly by his own activities. Only the Holy Spirit can transition us as we behold the Lord of glory. We are transformed, we are metamorphosed, into that same image from glory to glory. This is something only the Holy Spirit can do.
We can’t do it. But that’s why Paul always inserts, “But it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do according to His good pleasure.” This is the Holy Spirit’s work.
Our brother Stephen shared this morning, just touching on Romans 8, this beautiful passage on our predestined destiny. We’re destined to be conformed to the image of Christ, and it’s the work of the Holy Spirit to bring us there.
You’ll remember how our brother just shared. You know the passage well. We who are in this new creation groan within us, waiting for glory. We groan in order to grow—grow into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
We groan, but even though we groan, it doesn’t help us too much. Then he says, “The Holy Spirit helps us in our weaknesses.” We don’t even know how to do it. “I want to be glorious, but I don’t even know how to do it.”
The Holy Spirit comes along and teaches us to pray, teaches us to obey, and does the things that bring us into this glorious sonship that we have been predestined for. Only the Holy Spirit can do that.
In that passage is that wonderful verse which has now been terribly secularized by the world, when everybody says, “It’s all good. It’s all good.” What they’re quoting is Romans 8:28.
And we know that to them that love God
all things work together for good,
even to them that are called according to His purpose.—Romans 8:28
What is the good? Here’s the good: we’re conformed to the image of Christ. The Holy Spirit takes everything. If you’re in Christ, it’s too late to turn back now. The Holy Spirit started His work.
Like I said last night, when I got saved, I didn’t realize. But the fact of the matter is, as I always say to the young people when we talk about sanctification, when you got saved, the Holy Spirit hooked you onto the car wash, and you’re going through.
You can’t stop it. That car wash is a big machine. Now, you can try to frustrate it, but all you’ll do is put your brakes on. Well, all you do is wear out your tires a little bit—maybe wear out your brakes—but you’re going through the car wash.
The Holy Spirit started the work, and He’s going to take you through. This is your predestined purpose. You can put it in reverse and try to get back. All you do is burn a little rubber, because you’re going forward through the car wash.
You can roll down the window and say, “Stop, stop!” You’ll just get wet. But you’re going through unto glory. You can try to get out and run away, but you can’t, because those sprayers and those things turning are turning on your doors, and you can’t open them up.
We’re going through. Now, the way we resist is in the flesh. We can be natural, outward Christians, but we’re still going through.
We may not be ready because we’ve resisted the car wash so long. If the Lord came back tonight, there are some people who wouldn’t be ready. But eventually they’re going to be ready.
There’s a special extra part of a car wash where they work on the underneath, getting all the salt and stuff off, you know? You pay extra for that. If you don’t make it now, you’re going to make it one day. You’ll miss it by a thousand years.
It’s better to put it in neutral and let the Holy Spirit take it through.
I often say to young people that there’s a most beautiful promise and the scariest verse right next to each other, right at the end of 1 Thessalonians 5.
And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly;
and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire,
without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.—1 Thessalonians 5:23
What a wonderful promise. But here’s the scariest promise:
Faithful is He that calleth you,
Who will also do it.—1 Thessalonians 5:24
There you go. The car wash is on. Do you hear the engine? Yeah—faithful. Well, you see, there you go. Now we’re talking real life.
Last night, I tried to present a very brief wander through the chapters of 2 Corinthians, showing the life of Christ that was coming through Paul. You remember that?
In chapter 1, we have a comforter. His Christlike life comforted those who needed comforting, you see. In chapter 2, he was the aroma of Christ. Oh, wonderful. We all want to be that.
In chapter 3, he was the pen writing Christ by the ink of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts. In chapter 4, he was a broken vessel out of whom the treasure was coming forth. In chapter 5, he was an ambassador for Christ.
What a wonderful thing—to be an ambassador of reconciliation. Wonderful, wonderful. In chapter 6, he was a servant willing to die daily to bring life to others. In chapter 7, he was a sorrowing father, crying because he gave heavy discipline to his children.
We go on and on. You see the point. My simple point was this: you see, that’s Christ in Paul, and that’s a definition of new covenant ministry. It isn’t just being an apostle, a prophet, or pastor, or teacher, or an evangelist. It’s being Christ as a supply in the new creation.
If there was comfort needed, there was Paul. If there is comfort needed, are you there? What equips us to become a comforter? Is it a gift? “I receive the gift of a comforter. I comfort everybody. I want to comfort. I got the Holy Ghost comfort. It just falls upon me, and I comfort people.”
No, no, no, no. That’s not the way we become a comforter. We need to tell the rest of the story.
Behind all of those manifestations of Christ, there is the shadow of death. There is a cross that is necessary. There is a discipline that is necessary to bring us into that kind of living reality.
Paul had already experienced being crucified with Christ. He had also experienced seeing that the cross had to deal with all of that old man and stuff, and had dealt with it. But now, in the promised land, Paul still needed to be dealt with.
Does that bother you? I mean, you know, because we think Paul is just about perfect. But the Lord had to deal with Paul in order to bring this life—Christ’s life—out of Paul, just like He has to deal with us.
Even if we’ve got beyond the Jordan River and we understand the cross in our life, there are still things that need to be done within us. Paul still needed to learn how to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow the Lord.
Sometimes we use that verse to talk about a sinner getting saved. Actually, it’s talking about a person who has a new-creation self. That new-creation self—what do you do with it? Do you keep it and coddle it? No, you deny it, and you take up a cross in order to follow the Lord.
Even though Paul was already saved, and even though he was walking by the Spirit, he still had to decrease in order that the Lord might increase. There are many lessons to be learned in the land of glory to glory.
Every time the Holy Spirit takes us through a process, there’s more glory that comes out on the other side. The Holy Spirit engineers, through blessings and through trials, through suffering.
You remember how it says in Hebrews that Jesus had to learn obedience through suffering. If Jesus had to learn obedience through suffering, do you think perhaps we will have to suffer in this lifetime?
It’s part of that provision that we find in the Lord. We see Paul’s prayer in Philippians 3, where he says, “Oh, I want to know more about Christ, and I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection.”
How many of you want to know Him and the power of His resurrection? Hmm? You need more energy. We need a new battery. You got one of those six-volt batteries? Forget it. Yeah, twelve. I want the power of His resurrection, but now I want to know Christ in the fellowship of His sufferings.
Even as we read tonight, even as we share in the sufferings of Christ, so we also share in the comfort of Christ. You see, that’s where life comes out on the other side.
Let’s look at a couple of these things we mentioned that Paul expressed Christ about, as we read in these first few chapters. The first one is chapter 1. The beginning of the chapter, the first twelve or thirteen verses, is all about comfort and being a comforter.
We read the verses: He comforts those who need comfort because He has the comfort of God in Him. Now, how did he get the comfort of God in him? How many of you want to be a comforter in the body of Christ?
Oh, yeah, we need comforters. We’ve got a lot of people who are nervous Nellies and anxious and worried and having trouble. We need comforters that come alongside.
What does comforter mean, by the way? Paraclete is the word used twenty-two times in 2 Corinthians. What is a paraclete? It’s one called alongside. Para, alongside. A paraclete comes alongside somebody and helps them. That’s what a comforter is.
But Paul says, “I became a comforter because the Comforter came alongside of me.” Now, when did the Comforter come alongside him? One day he had a dream and the Comforter came alongside: “I’m comforting you so you can comfort others.” Is that how it worked out?
Well, we wish it could, in theory, but that’s not what really happened. Let’s read the verses. In 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, Paul says this is the basis of his being a comforter.
For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning our affliction which befell us in Asia,
that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power,
insomuch that we despaired even of life:
yea, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves,
that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God Who raiseth the dead.—2 Corinthians 1:8-9
We came to the place where we were sure we were done for. We had to give up even trusting ourselves and rely wholly on God, even if it meant trusting Him for resurrection from the dead.
How did Paul come into being a comforter? Through those extreme pressures.
What’s that, rain? All right. The Lord’s reigning, huh? All right, well, if you want to be a comforter, the Lord will lead you very sovereignly through very, very difficult circumstances where you even may despair of life in the midst of your extremity.
In the midst of that deepest extremity, the Holy Spirit—the Paraclete, our Comforter—came alongside and comforted Paul. “Paul, you’re going to make it through. I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I am right here with you, Paul.”
Through that terrible time, he’s speaking about Ephesus, you know. Paul never had greater spiritual warfare than when he spent those three years in Ephesus, in that spiritually oppressive city. He faced demons. He faced all kinds of things. He felt like he had come to the end of his life.
But then God came and comforted him. Now he says, “I have met in a fresh way the God of comfort, the God of mercies, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.” Have you met Him lately?
If you’ve met Him, that’s when you were passing through the valley of the shadow of death. When you meet Him there, you realize His comfort, and you’re able to comfort other people with the same comfort that you received from your Lord.
One of the last places we come to is a place where we learn not to trust in ourselves. Everybody here has a button you push and the parachute falls out, and you take your retirement money and go to Tahiti. You have a backup plan, and we trust in ourselves.
“I can get out of this somehow. I know I can get out.” Paul came to the place—and you know Paul’s a pretty clever guy—where he couldn’t get out of the thing himself. He learned, “I’ve got to trust the Lord even with my life. I may be in a place where I’m going to die. Lord, I trust You. Lord, I trust You.”
Then the Lord came through with mercies. Do you want to know the mercies of God? It comes through difficult situations. You see how merciful the Lord is to you.
Paul says, “In my deepest extremity, the Lord came and comforted me.” Then He said, “Now, Paul, get out there and come alongside others, and give them the comfort that I gave you.”
There’s an anointing of people who have been comforted, because they know how to comfort people. If you know somebody who has been through a tough time and they’ve gotten through it with the help of the Lord, if you need help, go talk to them. They can bring you comfort.
I think many of you probably know that my wife and I lost our oldest son in a car accident a number of years ago, when he was nineteen years old. The Lord had to take me through a difficult time, a deep time.
By His comfort, I find that we were able to go on and live our lives even with the loss of our son. As I travel here and there throughout the rest of my life since that event happened years ago, there are certain people, a small group of people, who come up to me, and the first thing they say is, “You know, I lost a child.”
They know that I know what they’re going through. It’s a comfort. I never would have wanted the job, but I can bring them immediate comfort. I don’t have answers for them. I don’t tell them shallow things like, “Oh, you know…” No, no.
But they know, “This guy’s been through it, and he’s still alive. So I believe the Lord can get me through it.” You go through difficulties, but the life of the Lord in you enables you to be a comforter to others. Do you see that? That’s what makes Paul’s comforting so precious.
Let’s take chapter 2. He says, “The Lord always leads us in the triumph of Christ, and we are the aroma of Christ unto God.” Oh, to be the aroma of God. So wonderful when saints just exude that fresh aroma of Christ. How does that take place?
Let’s read the record. Here’s the backstory. Who is that guy who used to say, “And now, the rest of the story”? All the old people know. Paul Harvey. He had a radio show, a five-minute spot, I think, and every day Paul Harvey would get on and say, “No, this doesn’t happen, but let me tell you the rest of the story.”
Well, now here we are. We’re the aroma of Christ. Let me tell you the rest of the story.
Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ,
and when a door was opened unto me in the Lord,
I had no relief for my spirit,
because I found not Titus my brother;
but taking my leave of them, I went forth into Macedonia.—2 Corinthians 2:12-13
There is a long story behind this, but basically Paul sent Titus along with that strong letter of discipline that he was sorrowing over. He sent Titus to Corinth to straighten things out and come back with a report.
Paul was struggling because Titus wasn’t getting back. He didn’t know where he was. You couldn’t email. He had to wait and wait and wait. In the process of time, he came to the edge of Asia Minor, into the city of old Troy—ancient Troy, but now Troas.
The Lord opened a gospel opportunity for him. The Lord opened it for him. He was so upset about not finding Titus, he shut it down.
How many servants of the Lord do you think have a record of, “I have never failed to do the Lord’s will”? Paul would love to be able to say that. “Why, I was in trouble. I was worried about Titus, but I went on and preached the gospel for three weeks in Troas.”
“I said, ‘Never mind, Lord. I’m going to preach the gospel and see people get saved.’” No, he was so distressed in his spirit. He said, “Lord, I can’t do it. I can’t do it. Timothy, you preach for me. I’ve got to find Titus.”
He took off—took the first plane out of there—went to Philippi, and started tracing the steps to find Titus. What kind of victorious servant is that?
But in the end, we find, as the story ends up in chapter 7, that only the Lord can take a servant and take his failures and make them a victory.
For him to be in the train of the victory, with the aroma and fragrance of Christ, what does he mean by this? Basically, he means this: “I faltered and failed the Lord when He opened the door of opportunity.” You read it closely.
Yet, you know what? In chapter 7, the Lord took my concern and my love for the Corinthians as a testimony that God not only loves to evangelize; He loves His children even more.
Even though I had to stop my gospel venture, the fact of the matter is, my disturbance waiting for Titus is a testimony: “Corinthians, I love you with the love of God. God loves you so much that, even though I failed in this ministry, God was still triumphant because He could share His love for you.”
Sometimes we can’t do the things we ordinarily want to do because we love our brothers and sisters so much. Have you ever been compelled to go and visit an old friend who’s fallen far away from the Lord? You took a couple of days off, got into trouble, who knows what, but you had to do it.
There’s a testimony of the fragrance and aroma of Christ there. Paul was willing to accept the fact: “Well, I no longer get the badge for being the perfect servant of God, but at least I can say I love the Corinthians with the love of God.”
But his failure is what’s behind this being in the victory train. Only Jesus can turn failure into victory.
Let’s take a couple more. Chapter 4: this earthen vessel in whom is the treasure. When we read again in the Scriptures, in 2 Corinthians 4:10, it says:
Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.—2 Corinthians 4:10
We are a new creation. We are a new-creation self, a new being in Christ. This new being, this new self, has to be willing to deny itself, even be broken, in order that the treasure can come out.
How many of you have a new self? You’re a new man in Christ, and yet you still want to preserve your life. Let me put it another way: how many of you just can’t wait to be broken? See, now that’s my answer in reverse.
Thank God, I live in the Lord. I’ve felt His presence. I’m so glad I’m saved. Yet He wants me to be broken. Well, He doesn’t want me to be broken—what He does is, He breaks us. He doesn’t really ask permission.
The Holy Spirit’s in control of things. What does He mean by a vessel broken so that the treasure can come out? He lists it in those next verses. “I was knocked down, but not knocked out. I was discouraged. I was at the end of myself. The persecutions were knocking me about left and right.”
Every time that vessel got broken, more of the treasure of Christ came out. Do you want to be an earthen vessel out of whom the treasure of Christ comes out on display in glory? Then the Lord has to break you.
Like I say, you don’t have to go to Him and say, “Okay, Lord, would You break me tonight?” No, because the Holy Spirit has a sovereign way, if you’re consecrated, of bringing you into situations where you will be broken, and that precious treasure will come out.
We’ll take just one more: chapter 5 and the ambassador of reconciliation. I love even the title: “I’m an ambassador of reconciliation.” I almost feel like you’re carrying a little portfolio. You’re working at the embassy, you know—ambassador of reconciliation.
How do you get to be one? He says, “I am an ambassador of reconciliation, as though Christ were speaking through me: ‘Be reconciled to God.’” That was his anointing as an ambassador of Christ.
Let’s read the record in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15.
For the love of Christ constraineth us;
because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died;
and He died for all,
that they that live should no longer live unto themselves,
but unto Him Who for their sakes died and rose again.—2 Corinthians 5:14-15
Do you want to be an ambassador of reconciliation? Then you need to be controlled by the love of Christ. Number two, you need to realize that He died for you; therefore, you died. Now your life is no longer for yourself.
You can’t be an ambassador of Christ if your life is all about yourself. You’re carrying Christ’s portfolio. You’re to represent Him. It doesn’t matter how you feel, what you think, or how much money you have. You’re representing Christ. It’s about Him now.
“I don’t live for myself. Christ died. We all died. Now the life we live is for Him.” That is somebody who can be an ambassador for Christ—a person who is eccentric, a life that is centered out from himself as he serves Christ rather than himself.
With every great manifestation of the wonderful life of Christ, the unlimited, fresh, creative life of Christ, we find somebody in the valley of the shadow of death. We find somebody going through a difficult experience.
If we’re talking about metamorphosis, even back in those days they knew about this old story of the cocoon and then becoming a butterfly. You see, our destiny is to become a butterfly.
But you don’t just say, “Hey, I’m a worm, but tomorrow I’ll be a butterfly.” First you go into the cocoon, and you do have a cocoon death. Are those worms really dead in there? I don’t know. But they’re in a cocoon, and eventually they break out. Then they’re the butterfly.
When we want to live in this new creation, there is a cocoon death for us in this metamorphosis process. We’ll be shut in by something, by circumstances, where we will be decreasing and He will be increasing.
The Lord will take us through tribulations in order to bring us comfort. He’ll strip from us our reliance upon ourselves in order to give us a confidence in the adequacy of Christ. Whatever He reduces from us, He supplies Christ on the other side.
We go through this process, from tribulation to comfort, and so on and so forth. This is how the life works out in our lives. There is a death behind every life-giving, Christlike experience that we have.
The Holy Spirit, by the way, takes each one individually through their own cocoon and through their own process. It is very sovereign. We don’t go the way Paul went. He was an extreme example of somebody who experienced so much.
But the Holy Spirit has a sovereign, tailored engineering of your circumstances to bring you into a greater and greater measure of the life of Christ.
There’s a song I’m sure all of you probably know, which was written by Watchman Nee, called “Olives That Have Known No Pressure.” Here’s just the refrain. To me, it speaks volumes exactly about what we’re talking about in this new-creation transformation:
Each blow I suffer is true gain to me;
in the place of what Thou takest,
Thou dost give Thyself to me.
Isn’t that a strange thing to say? The natural man would never agree to that. “Each blow I suffer is true gain to me.” Why? Because I’m a masochist? Because I want to hurt myself? No, no, no, no.
With each blow, there’s an extraction of something of self, and there’s an addition of Himself. The Holy Spirit gives us Christ as He takes away those things we have to go through.
This is a process that we see. As we were saying, only the Holy Spirit can take us from glory to glory. You can’t do it yourself. But thank God—are you happy you’re in the car wash?
Well, you may have some extra treatments in store, but you’ll get through sanctified—spirit, soul, and body—on the other side, according to His predestined design.
The second thing we want to take up is something that’s already been touched on, but just to clarify: this transformation process results from having seen the Lord of glory.
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as from the Lord the Spirit.—2 Corinthians 3:18
It necessitates us seeing the Lord of glory with unveiled face. Our brother, again, Brother Kong—Brother Kong is at the point now where he shares little gems, and if you didn’t write them down, you may have lost them.
Yesterday morning he shared a little gem. I don’t know if you picked it up. What he said is, it’s not that the Lord wants us to see His eternal glory as the Son of God, but His victorious glory as the Son of Man.
I don’t know if you understand what that means. Eternally, He’s been the Son of God, full of glory. But He gained His glory at the right hand of the Father as the Son of Man, by dying and rising again and being seated there.
We get transformed when we see this Son of Man now glorified. That’s what transforms us.
Let me explain. What Paul saw on the road to Damascus—there’s something we’ve missed over the years, and it would be good to recapture. When Paul saw Jesus on the road to Damascus, this was the shocking thing: the Shekinah glory that felled Paul to the ground was a man.
That’s what transformed Paul. If the Shekinah glory had been God, an unseen God, without body or anything, then he would have been struck by the glory of God. But he was struck by the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Listen to what he says in 2 Corinthians 4:6:
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.—2 Corinthians 4:6
The significance is twofold. First, he saw the humanity of Jesus—Jesus the human, the man, the earthen vessel. Then he beheld the glory of God in that human vessel. That’s a transforming experience.
When we see Christ as a transformed, glorious man, we can be changed into His likeness. As John says, the whole metamorphosis depends upon us seeing that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, full of grace and truth.
Let me put it this way: the problem for us is, it would be a shocker if you saw just how human Jesus is.
We’ve blown Jesus up, probably through Hollywood, to where now Jesus is a six-foot-two Norwegian with blue eyes. He’s larger than life, almost like a superhero. I think people are even writing superhero comic books now about Jesus, about twelve feet high.
You’d be shocked to see that Jesus is five-foot-something. The scandal of the Gospels was this: this man was walking around. Okay, granted, He gave interesting sermons, and He touched people and had a healing ministry. But when He claimed to be God, they looked at this short man, this uneducated man, and said, “What?”
They were scandalized. The Jews were scandalized. “How could You call this man God? Just look at Him. He’s just a man, an earthen vessel like you and me.”
Even our brother David shared a wonderful insight this afternoon. James, His brother, lived his whole thirty-three years—thirty years, anyway—with Jesus and only saw Him as a man. He’s much more a man than you think. You’d have a hard time with just what He looks like. You may not be ready for it.
But when you see that God can transform a man into glory, now that is something. It does something inside you. You see, because you’re just an earthen vessel.
As long as you continue to think that Jesus is something kind of semi-human, but not like me, you’re going to miss the point. We’re talking about Jesus walking around in the flesh, veiled in His normality. Could I put it that way? He was veiled in His normality, but unveiled to those who beheld Him and saw the glory behind Him.
What a revelation it must have been for John that day he first saw that. “I beheld His glory.” This was a man. “No, look, I see the face of God in this man.”
When we see this Son of Man glorified, that’s what enables us to be transformed. Until we see that, we think humanity—humanness—is a weakness.
But when we see Jesus, a perfect earthen vessel, now filled with the glory of God, it will cause us to be transformed into that same image from glory to glory. I’m not saying we’re going to become little Jesuses.
But there’s something in seeing who He is—the Lord of glory as a man in glory—that will make that change. That brings us to the third matter I just want to touch on.
The third dimension of the metamorphosis is to see that a man in Christ is just an earthen vessel—a human who has consecrated himself and placed himself in the hands of the Holy Spirit for His use.
I bring this up because one of the most difficult things about 2 Corinthians is trying to get a hold of just who Paul is. As Paul shares his heart and life, it almost seems schizophrenic.
On the one hand, there’s Paul the master builder, the ambassador of Christ, the fragrance of Christ, the comforter, one caught up in the third heaven, one divinely powerful, one full of authority. There is that man in Christ. Well, now, that’s what we expect to see of Paul.
But Paul also shares very openly in 2 Corinthians how human he is. The whole reason for his writing 2 Corinthians is because people were looking at him from the outside view and not seeing his humanity.
Paul represents himself as one full of weaknesses. He confesses to human struggles. Let me give you a short list. I’ll just read some little phrases. These are Paul’s own statements about either himself or what he’s been accused to be in his humanness—not in his powerful, almighty, anointed man of God, but Paul the human guy.
We were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power;
we despaired even of life.—2 Corinthians 1:8
Am I fickle?
Or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh,
that with me there should be the yea yea and the nay nay?—2 Corinthians 1:17
Out of much affliction and anguish of heart
I wrote unto you with many tears.—2 Corinthians 2:4
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.—2 Corinthians 4:8-10
Our flesh had no relief,
but we were afflicted on every side;
without were fightings, within were fears.—2 Corinthians 7:5
That which I speak, I speak not after the Lord,
but as in foolishness, in this confidence of glorying.—2 Corinthians 11:17
I am become foolish: ye compelled me;
for I ought to have been commended of you:
for in nothing was I behind the very chiefest apostles,
though I am nothing.—2 Corinthians 12:11
Now, do you like that Paul, or is he too human for you? Have you ever been near a servant of God long enough to realize you’re near a human being?
Sometimes you see a man of God up on the stage or something, and you could be fooled into thinking, “Oh, a powerful man of God.” Hey, then you meet him. A whole other story.
But when you see this full picture in 2 Corinthians of Paul, it almost seems paradoxical. Indeed, it isn’t that sometimes he’s in the flesh and sometimes he’s in the Spirit. No, this is the apostle Paul, the earthen vessel out of which the treasure is coming.
He puts this paradox by putting things side by side:
As unknown, and yet well known;
as dying, and behold, we live;
as chastened, and not killed;
as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;
as poor, yet making many rich;
as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.—2 Corinthians 6:9-10
What a paradox. Who is Paul? Mighty man of God, or just a weak earthen vessel? He speaks about his weaknesses, his struggles, his boastings, his foolishness, his candid displeasure at things going on.
This is a sure sign that Paul is a defeated Christian. He must not be a powerful man of God. Why, he’s showing all these things. Meanwhile, Paul’s detractors are adding a whole bunch of stuff on about him: being fickle, changing his plans, commending and boasting about himself, being meek when present but bold when absent, being weak and contemptible in presence, and unskilled in speech.
Wow. Paul, great man of God—or Paul, who is this guy?
By Christian standards today, Paul would be a failure: unstable, crying, sorrowful, despairing, perplexed. If this was your testimony, would you post it on Facebook and say, “I’m a man of God”?
God forbid that a Christian confesses to despairing of life, being full of sorrows and tears, or canceling a ministry because you had no rest in spirit, or being afflicted, almost crushed, perplexed, with fightings without and fears within. God forbid a Christian should say that, right?
What am I trying to say? That was ironic, by the way.
Paul’s testimony puts to death the false caricature of what a good Christian should look like.
Most Christians despise themselves just because they’re an earthen vessel. “Oh, I wish I were a gold vessel—maybe a silver, even a brazen—but not an earthen vessel.” People despise themselves because they’re an earthen vessel.
Jesus was an earthen vessel. Paul was an earthen vessel. That’s humanity. We’re not talking about sinners now. You didn’t start out a gold vessel, then you sinned and became an earthen vessel. No, you were created an earthen vessel.
But most of us think, “Oh, to see myself as an earthen vessel. Oh, I’m a leper. I’m poor. I’m worthless. I’m detestable.” Meanwhile, preachers are hammering away at you, confirming your sins and your need to reconsecrate and make something out of yourself.
You try to improve the earthen vessel. You paint it on the outside and do all kinds of things. Maybe the treasure will want to come out if you paint it up and fix it up all kind of nice.
But you know, it’s your earthen vessel that’s standing in the way. “Oh, if I could just be rid of my earthen vessel, well, I could really serve God.”
But Paul found liberation when he came to understand that for him to be an earthen vessel was the way he was created by God.
What a liberation, dear brother, sister, when you quit fighting being an earthen vessel and you accept who you are. Then the treasure can come out. You’re just an earthen vessel. The only difference is: are you consecrated for His use, or are you stubbornly trying to do something to fix up your own vessel somehow?
Let’s listen to one passage where Paul shows us how he discovered the secret. In 2 Corinthians 12, we know this wonderful passage about him seeing visions. Turn to 2 Corinthians 12, because we want to look at just some verses and see that Paul knew in his lifetime he would always and only just be an earthen vessel, and yet the glorious treasure would shine through him.
We know that he had visions and was caught up into the third heaven, but we come to verse 7 where he talks about the consequences of that experience.
And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations,
that I should not be exalted overmuch,
there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,
a messenger of Satan to buffet me,
that I should not be exalted overmuch.
Concerning this thing I besought the Lord thrice,
that it might depart from me.—2 Corinthians 12:7-8
Wow. He received this thorn in the flesh. He was affected. It weakened him. It hindered him. So probably he began fasting, and he began praying. He asked three times, “Lord, remove this from me. I could serve You so much better if I didn’t have this thorn in my side.”
“Oh, Lord, I don’t want to be weak. I want to be strong and powerful. I want to be able to serve You. Please, Lord, remove it from me.”
He was surprised. Of course, that’s a very human reaction, right? Everybody who has a problem prays, “Lord, take away the problem.” So he was surprised in verse 9 when this was the Lord’s answer to him:
My grace is sufficient for thee:
for My power is made perfect in weakness.—2 Corinthians 12:9
That answer was shocking. Here’s basically what He said: “My treasure is perfected in the weakness of your vessel. So I don’t want to change your vessel. I’m leaving it weak.”
My treasure is perfected in the weakness of your vessel—not despite the weakness of your vessel, but because of the weakness of your vessel. My strength is perfected. In other words, Paul, there’s a divine design behind your earthen vessel.
The Lord wants to use him, and He knows his weaknesses, and will use even his weaknesses according to His purpose. Now we see in verse 9 Paul’s response as he understood his role as an earthen vessel:
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses,
that the power of Christ may rest upon me.—2 Corinthians 12:9
I’m going to tell you what it actually says in Greek. It’s a little more wonderful. Basically, the Lord says this to Paul: “Paul, go ahead and pray and pray and pray. I’m not changing a thing. My grace is sufficient for you.”
“I’m not taking away the thorn in your side. I’m not going to strengthen and remove the weakness of the earthen vessel. But here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to make the power of Christ tabernacle over your earthen vessel.”
There is your weak earthen vessel, but it gives Me a position from which to tabernacle the power of Christ over you. No matter how weak you are, it doesn’t make any difference. The power of Christ tabernacled over you is seen.
He shares the reason for it: “I need your earthen vessel so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from yourself.”
“Paul, if I made you a strong, Herculean man with a full head of hair and wonderful brown eyes and a powerful voice and all of that, it might somehow obscure My power.”
So here you are, an earthen vessel, and I will send you places. It was even hard for Paul to travel from place to place. Sometimes he was so affected by his many problems.
But all the Lord had to do was set him down in a certain place in all of his weakness. Perhaps he even stood up in weakness, perhaps even shaking. Some say he had malaria—there are all kinds of things. But the point is, as soon as Paul stood up in his weakness, the power of Christ fell on the place.
People would look and say, “Paul is such a weak vessel, but when he opens his mouth, there’s such power.” Have you ever seen that? This is God’s way.
I remember one time going to Halford House in England, where Brother Lance Lambert used to be. They had a prayer and Bible week, and we went in early January. They took one week off and prayed about God’s will for their assembly for that coming year.
They had one particular speaker there named Alec Buchanan. This man had a teaching ministry, sometimes a prophetic ministry, but most importantly, a healing ministry. During that week there were people with several different maladies.
When he got through teaching and everything, they didn’t make a big show of it, but he went over and prayed for people, and several people were healed.
Now, the interesting thing is, he had a stroke, and his mouth was drooped down on the right-hand side. He couldn’t use his right hand, and he walked like this.
In that weak earthen vessel, the power of Christ tabernacled over him and healed people, so that people would say, “It’s by the glory of God,” and not by a great healing man with cufflinks and a Cadillac.
So the Lord seems to choose the way of a man in Christ to be an earthen vessel.
Paul ends this statement by saying:
Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses,
in injuries, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake:
for when I am weak, then am I strong.—2 Corinthians 12:10
Why is Paul content? Because he understands that his earthen vessel will always be an earthen vessel, but he can put it in the Lord’s hands. He knows the treasure will come out.
Do you have that confidence? “Lord, put me anywhere. I’m just an earthen vessel. I’ve got no power in myself,” Paul says. “But just put me somewhere and tabernacle over me. I’m sufficient. That’s good for me. When I’m weak, then I’m strong.”
“I’m just an earthen vessel consecrated to the Lord, and nothing more.” This is freedom. This is the liberty of the Holy Spirit.
Oh, how the Lord wants the availability of consecrated earthen vessels for Christ’s sake. Paul was completely at home in his humanity—with his despair, with his perplexities, with his foolishness, sharing his heart, opening with tears. He didn’t hold back.
He was just a released earthen vessel, because he knew through that earthen vessel the treasure would come out.
Now, in this traversing from glory to glory, the day is going to come—and it will be, I’m sad to say, a very disheartening day for you when you first step into this particular place in the land—where one day you realize that you’re an earthen vessel.
For the rest of your life in this life, you will remain an earthen vessel. That could be quite discouraging. You may know weaknesses. You may be contemptible in some way. You may find yourself needy.
Will you become disillusioned when you discover you’re actually an earthen vessel? I think some of us actually think we’re made out of porcelain. Well, that will be proved wrong soon enough.
What if you’re an earthen vessel who wants to serve the Lord, but you have some hereditary weaknesses, some temperamental problems, some physical weaknesses, some emotional weaknesses, some circumstantial things, some personality eccentricities?
“Oh, I can’t serve the Lord. I’ve got too much junk in my earthen vessel.” But the Lord says, “Let Me tabernacle over your earthen vessel, and I will share the treasure of Christ.”
Listen. I’ve known men of God, powerful men of God, who were crazy hypochondriacs. Hypochondriacs. I’ve known men of God, servants of God, but their earthen vessel was obsessive-compulsive.
I’ve known men of God who tended toward depression, and men of God who feared they had lost their reward even as they were serving Jesus with all their life. Somehow, something got lodged in their insecurity.
I’ve known men with healing ministries who had great bouts with doubt and lack of faith. What do you think about that? You think, “Well, it’d be better if a man didn’t have any eccentricities.” Well, find me one.
But somehow these brothers, these sisters, who serve the Lord despite their earthen vessels, quirks, and weaknesses—the treasure comes through.
You and I probably have a special love for some of these great hymns that we sing. I want to tell you, if you read those biographies, those are people with depression, all kinds of problems, great loss and suffering in their lives, physical problems—some of them laying in bed for twenty-five years and writing songs of victory.
Listen, don’t tell me you’ve got to be a special earthen vessel for the Lord to use you. You just need to be an earthen vessel consecrated to the Lord, that He can fill and cover and declare His power.
When you minister the life of the Lord, nobody will mistake it and think it’s you. No, they’ll say, “It’s the glory of the Lord.”
How are you going to react when you find out you’re just an earthen vessel? That’s life in the land of the new creation—just an earthen vessel. Are you going to try to polish it up?
Can you fix up that earthen vessel? I know there are different kinds of earth. Would you rather have red clay than brown clay? You think that’s going to help you? Are you going to make it shinier, better?
“Lord, if You just remove the thorn, then I’m going to be happy. If I just get married, then I’m going to be happy.” Oh, I’ve got all the if, if, if, if. The Lord says, “You’re an earthen vessel. Come unto Me. Consecrate yourself to Me as a living sacrifice, and see what I can do.”
That is the liberation of a spiritual man, because he doesn’t trust in his greatness. He doesn’t trust in the strength of his body. He trusts in the Spirit of God.
He says, “Therefore, I’m content with whatever happens, because then, when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Now, just a final clarification. We’re not talking about walking in the natural man. You know, there are Christians who are very carnal, and they walk in a false freedom where they do whatever they want.
You know Christians who say, “I live by my gut.” They’re headed for trouble. They live by the natural man. They think they’re smart. “Their instincts. I live by my instincts.” Your instincts will take you right off the cliff.
We’re not talking about the liberty of a fool who’s living in the natural man and thinks that he’s free to do whatever he wants. No, they’re headed for bondage.
I’m talking about the liberty of a spiritual man whose earthen vessel has been broken and made available to the Lord, so that Christ can come out. This is the liberty that we find in the new creation.
Oh, to discover that Jesus was a man—it makes His glorious Sonship so much greater. Oh, to see that Paul was just a man—it makes me wonder and praise God for the ministry that came through such a broken earthen vessel.
For you and for me, our liberation comes when we discover that God is not at all limited by us just being earthen vessels. That’s who we were created to be.
But He wants us to come in this new creation and behold the human-divine Lord of glory in such a way that we are transformed in image from glory to glory, until we become full of Christ.
This is life in the new covenant. This is life—beholding His glory. This is life of liberty and freedom. May the Lord help us to live that way, not in those manufactured caricatures of what a human Christian should be like.
Who you are is what a Christian should be like. Now consecrate yourself to the Lord. Seek the Lord, and let Him begin to tabernacle over you with His incredible creative power.
Lord, we just come to You. We’re so thankful that we don’t have to live a lie, that we can bear our humanity and share with one another, that we can confess our faults and pray for one another.
We don’t have to act like, “Oh no, I’m good. I praise God. I’m fine. No, no, no, no problems here.” No, Lord, we come as earthen vessels.
Lord, we’re just so thankful for the merciful touch of Your grace in our life that has enabled us to bear the treasure—to bear the treasure in an earthen vessel. What a privilege.
We want to carry that treasure, and ask You to lead us to places where that treasure can shine. Lord, we take this life, this new life, and we lay it down before You for Your breaking, for Your leading.
Take us into the cocoon and take us out into liberty. Take us through the tribulations and take us into the comfort, Lord, according to Your will and according to Your way.
We say that all things work together for good because the Holy Spirit has a design at the end of this process. Oh, bring us into these things in fullness, in joy, and in liberty. We pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.