We Do Not Lose Heart (Part 4 of 4)

Bob Lepine: Do your attempts to share the gospel seem to fall on deaf ears? On Truth for Life weekend, Alistair Begg teaches us how we can avoid becoming discouraged and disillusioned in our efforts. He's concluding the sermon from 2 Corinthians 4 entitled we do not lose heart. Today's program starts with point seven in his answer to the question why was Paul able to endure?
Alistair Begg: Seventhly, and this is all in the text, isn't it? Why is he enduring? Well, he says because there is an eternal weight of glory. This momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. And what we're talking about is in verse eight of chapter one where Paul says we don't want you unaware of what we've been up against. And here it is. We were so utterly burdened, weighed down beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Okay? Now, both in the verbal form and in the noun, both weight and glory, you find them together. You come back now to chapter four and what he does is he makes this again amazingly paradoxical statement. This light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. In other words, we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength. But now we've discovered in thinking about it that the afflictions are actually light and the glory is weighty. When he puts the two things on the scales as it were, he says it is because the coming glory is so weighty that we can view this affliction as being actually light. Now you're saying yourself, Paul, I think you've I think you're stretching it a little bit now. But no. It's momentary in light of eternity. It's light in terms of the immensity of the glory that will be revealed in us. This affliction, he said, felt sometimes like a huge weight around our necks. But when we lifted our eyes to see the triumph of Christ, suddenly we realized that that was where the real weight and the real strength and significantly. You have the same thing, don't you, with Peter? When when Peter in his first letter says in this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. Loved ones, let's be honest. We have marveled at our brothers and sisters whose lives have been marked by particular challenges in relationship to physical affliction or to mental challenges or whatever it might be. And we've feared to ever suggest, you know, it'll be over soon because it doesn't seem like it is ever going to be over. But even an entire lifetime of suffering in the context of eternity will be seen to be what it is, just a little while. Now, it is on account of that that he then explains, and this is eighthly, if you're even taking notes, eighthly, he says this is where we fix our eyes. We're not looking to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. What are the things that are seen? Outward affliction. His body. You know, we're all we're all disintegrating. You know, whether you like it or not, some more obviously than others, I think, perhaps, but we're all we're all approximating one way or another to the to the the picture in Ecclesiastes 12 where eventually we walk along like grasshoppers and and desire is no longer stirred. Outwardly, this thing is collapsing. He says that's not where we're looking. The people who are the counterfeit gospelers, that's exactly where they're looking. That's why they've said to you, you know, Paul is he's a big shot when he writes his letters. But if you see him up close, he's nothing. What does Paul do? He doesn't say oh, they're wrong. I am actually something. When you They just haven't really seen the best of me. No, he says they're right. I am nothing. I don't look like much. I don't sound like much and frankly, I ain't much. But God is everything. And it is because of that that I have my gaze where it needs to be. I fix my eyes on Jesus. He's doing what elsewhere in the scriptures we're encouraged to do, looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. He is concentrating on inward renewal rather than outward affliction, inward glory rather than external decay. And he's going to go on and encapsulate it in chapter five where he follows right through on the line of thinking and he says for we know that if the tent that is our is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God. You see the decay of the godless is a really melancholy and tragic picture, isn't it? Cuz they had nowhere to go. I hope they're not looking for their best life now. I hope it is their best life now cuz what's coming next they're not going to like. In the precious goodness of God, he says we look here. And then he says and I'll tell you why we do. And thus he ends the chapter with he says and the reason that we do this is because what we can see is temporary and what is unseen is eternal. In other words, he says if if if I look at my body and and how much time I've got left and and how well everything is apparently going, this is not looking real solid. This is But when I look at what what's going on in the heart, this working of grace and goodness, then it changes everything. Okay. So I'm suggesting to you that these, not in exclusive terms, but certainly these are key elements in his ability to endure and to provide in himself by the grace of God an example of endurance. In the moments that remain, let me just try and apply these things to us. Let's let's acknowledge that his apostleship is unique. But insofar as these are elements of the grace of God, the adequacy of grace in securing our endeavors as ministers of the gospel, I I I think I think they serve as well. James Stewart And the reason it's so important, to quote James Stewart in Heralds of God, is because he says there are surely few figures as pitiable as the disillusioned minister of the gospel. High hopes once cheered him on his way, but now the indifference and the recalcitrance of the world, the lack of striking visible results, the discovery of the appalling pettiness and spite and touchiness and complacency which can lodge in narrow hearts, the feeling of personal futility, all these have seared his soul. No longer does the zeal of God's house devour him. No longer does he mount the pulpit steps in thrilled expectancy that Jesus Christ will come among his people that day, traveling in the greatness of his strength, mighty to save. Dully and drearily, he speaks now about what once seemed to him the most dramatic tidings in the world. The edge and verve and passion of the message of divine forgiveness, the exultant lyrical assurance of the presence of the risen Lord, the amazement of supernatural grace, the urge to cry woe is me if I preach not the gospel, all have gone. The man has lost heart. He is disillusioned. And that for an ambassador of Christ is a tragedy. How then, says Stewart, do you maintain yourselves against the menace of this mood? For maintain yourself, you must, or else don't try to speak to men in the name of God. Well, and how? I want to suggest to you by the very same pattern of Paul here. You and I will not endure in pastoral ministry over the long haul unless we can clearly identify the fact that God alone put us in this deal. That we may have aspired to the office of an overseer, but it is God that put us in the spot, that the source of our ministry is God. McShane, who is dead, what, at 29 in his trials before the presbytery in 1835, writes in his journal before he goes for his interview the following day, if God see fit to put me into the ministry, who shall keep me back? If I be not fit, why should I thrust forward? To your service, I desire to dedicate my service over and over again. Timothy. Timothy he says, remember, stir up the gift that was in you through the laying on of the hands of those men. Do you remember those big gnarly hands including mine, the tent maker, when they clasped on the back of your neck? Bring that to mind. Bring it to mind. You'll need to. You have to remind yourself why you're in this. Number one, that we are kept because we're put. And along with Paul, we are then aware of the fact that our sufficiency comes from the same place, comes from God, that we are competent in Christ, not in ourselves. In the same way that he says, it is this same spirit of faith that is the same for us. Paul says to Timothy, I want you to continue in the things you've become convinced of, knowing those from whom you have learned them and how in your case, Timothy, since from infancy you've known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation. It is in that spirit of faith that Timothy must now continue and so is so do so must we. We will not endure if we lose confidence in the truth and in the power and in the relevance of the gospel. As soon as we begin to walk by sight and not by faith, we're on shaky ground. We believe, we speak. There's push back in that. But in the same way, it is the story of the glory of the resurrection that keeps us that we've been born again to a living hope. We're not distracted by the nonsense of those who are making a big fuss and a bother. We are resting in the fact that our eyes will finally see beyond a beckoning grave as Townend puts it. Fifthly, in the same way for Paul, it is for us. It's not about us. It's about the sake of those whom we serve. In in on being a pastor, Derek Prime tells the story of Sangster when he went to his charge in Wales. The story is told by Paul Sangster, the the junior to Dr. Sangster. And apparently when he went, they had an opening session on the Saturday night before he preached his first his first sermon. And they they had the people stand up from the various departments of the church and everybody stood up and explained to the minister what he was going to have to do to meet their expectations. And everyone explained that their their their little area of ministry was the key to the success and the influence of the church. And it went on for so long that Sangster Junior says that his father, being totally overwhelmed by the presentation that had been made, stood up and said, I will try my best with God's help. And then he sat down. And as he pursued ministry, he said the thing that sustained him was the constant reminder that he had been put there by God's appointment and it was not for his own personal benefit, but it was for the sake of those who were under his charge. Like another who when he took up his charge, he said to the congregation, I will be your servant, but you must never be my master. You are not my master. We have one master, namely the risen Lord Jesus himself. And so he says it is for your sake so that his grace extends to more and more people, God will be glorified. And this you see is the great corrective as I draw this to a stop, but it is the great This is the corrective to the the the stultifying devilish temptation to constant comparison. Well, what about him? What about this? What about Look, if I My brothers, don't allow yourself to go there. It is a it is a pathway to despondency or to arrogance, to jealousy, to anger. And how things appear now is not how things necessarily are. They're not We don't know how they are. One man's ministry that seems particularly powerful may actually prove on that day not to be gold and precious stones, but to be wood, hay, and stubble. And some apparently small, apparently inconsequential, how could anything in the economy of God be inconsequential? And these things that are apparently inconsequential will on that day of reckoning be revealed for what they are. It is the day that will bring it to light. It's the day that will bring it to light. That's why we don't compare ourselves. He he actually speaks of those, doesn't he, who who are comparing themselves with one another. They're writing their own CVs and and and then and then heralding them around. No, he says we don't we don't we don't view things in that way. We do not I'm looking for it desperately. I'm sure it's in the Bible. We do not Not that we It is verse 12 of chapter 10. Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commanding themselves, but when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they're nuts. He actually says they're without understanding. That's a really bad idea, he says. You're going to set up the standard and compare yourself against one another. That's not a good idea. We're not going to boast beyond limits, but we will only boast regard to the area of influence that God has assigned to us to reach even you. For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. We have to say with Paul, listen, we recognize that it is in this spirit of faith that we function and it is for their sake. And that is why we can experience the daily renewal to which we alluded in quoting from the hymn. And then we can also turn our gaze to a weight of glory that is our prospect. And as we turn our gaze to our prospect, then we gain perspective. And the perspective we gain is in light of how he ends the things that are seen are ephemeral, they're transient, they pass away. But the things that are unseen are eternal. In other words, learning to live now in all of the vicissitudes of life in light of the then. Two quotes and we stop. This from the second volume of Martin Lloyd Jones as Ian Murray describes for us the end of Lloyd Jones's life. I wonder, do you remember this? Ian Murray's writing and he's describing the fact that we're now in the final days of Martin Lloyd Jones's life. One of the men that came to visit him was a consultant what we would call here I don't know what we call him here, but Anyway, it doesn't matter. This guy, Dr. came to see him and he had been in his congregation since 1952. And and the doctor, who wasn't his it wasn't his GP, that's the point. He was he was a friend. So he sees Lloyd Jones. He's known him since '52 and he he he wants to give him antibiotics. Lloyd Jones has lost the power of speech by this point. So he shook his head in disagreement. Well said his doctor, when the Lord's time comes, even though I fill you up to the top of your head with antibiotics, it won't make any difference. His patient, Lloyd Jones, who of course himself was a doctor, shook his head vigorously. I want to make you comfortable, more comfortable, Mr. Williams went on. It grieves me to see you sitting here weary, worn, and sad, quoting from the hymn. That was too much for Martin Lloyd Jones who'd lost the power of speech. He blurted out, not sad, not sad. The truth was that he believed the work of dying was done and he was ready to go. Last night, Grant Williams wrote to MLJ's local doctor on the 25th of February, quotes, he refused to take any any antibiotic, could hardly talk, and I think will die very shortly. I think he is very lucid and knows exactly what he wants to do. His daughter Elizabeth sat beside him and he pointed very definitely to the words of 2 Corinthians 4 16 to 18. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. When I asked him, says Elizabeth, if that was his experience now, he nodded his head with great vigor. Endurance. Endurance. That's quote one and this is quote two. Do you know this, Wesley? Him? I only really know the first verse of it. I sing it to myself quite often in the morning when I'm driving along to Parkside. And the opening line is fourth in thy name, oh Lord, I go. My daily labor to pursue thee, only thee, resolve to know in all I think or speak or do. And it goes on. The task thy wisdom hath assigned, oh let me cheerfully fulfill. In all my works thy presence find and prove thy good and perfect will. Thee may I set at my right hand, whose eyes my inmost substance see and labor on at thy command and offer all my works to thee. Give me to bear thy easy yoke and every moment watch and pray. And still to things eternal look and hasten to thy glorious day. For thee delightfully employ whate'er thy bounteous grace hath given and run my course with even joy and closely walk with thee to heaven. That was the 18th century. This is the 21st century. Paul was in the first century. What is he a testimony to? The adequacy of the saving, keeping grace of God, the exact same saving, keeping grace of God which is yours and mine. Brothers, God has many people in these cities in which we live whom he has marked out, to whom we go proclaiming the gospel and asking God to open blind eyes and to soften hard hearts. And we go in the awareness of the fact that it's a big task, that it is an unfinished task. And it is quite remarkable what we have been included in the program. And having put us there, he will supply the needs that we have there. And he will accomplish all these things for their sake through grace to his glory.
Bob Lepine: You're listening to Truth for Life weekend. That is Alistair Begg reminding us that while believers are called on to proclaim the gospel, it is God alone who saves. Now, are you starting to prepare for Christmas? If so, you want to request the 25-day Advent devotional we are recommending. It's a collection of daily readings that explore how Jesus's coming is foreshadowed throughout the Old Testament. The book is called They're Shown a Holy Light Beholding Christ and Christmas in the Old Testament. It reveals how God keeps every promise he's made, just like his promise to send the Messiah. You'll see how various people, events, and symbols in the Old Testament all point forward to Christ's incarnation and ministry. For more information about the book They're Shown a Holy Light, visit our website at truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lepine. Thanks for taking time out of your weekend to study the Bible with us. Next week we'll begin a series where we look at the events that preceded Christ's incarnation. See how God gives ordinary people extraordinary roles in his plan of redemption. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the learning is for living.