II Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
God does not need man. Man needs God. God, in His wisdom, has chosen to use saints, individuals who are born again, to be the mouth piece for Him. He has given us His Word. He has inspired His Word and He has preserved His Word for each generation. God’s Word has not changed since He gave It.
Yes, there are many corruptions of God’s Word today. They are obviously not God’s Word. There are many arguments on that point. The fact is that God spoke the Word and He gave His Word to holy men whom He chose to write down His Word. God does not contradict Himself. His Word is Truth from beginning to end.
When a person looks at the perversions, it does not take long to recognize that they speak different than the KJV does.
Proverbs 30:5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
That is what God says. Thus it makes complete sense to reject books that contradict God’s Word. True saints don’t shrug off the Truth.
God uses earthen vessels — our bodies, that become a treasure when God is in them. We see here that when we are saved we are to show forth the excellency of God’s power. No Christian has any bragging rights.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
In verse 8 we see that true saints are troubled on every side. There are attacks from without, from those who want to shut down the truth. There are also attacks from within, the flesh does not want to yield to the will of God. None of this would distress Paul. He was not focused on himself. He was focused on Christ. The Christian does not live an imaginary life. He acknowledges the challenges of life. He does not allow those challenges to dominate. The apostle Paul wrote of what true faith looks like. It is not living in a cloud. It is living in the light of God’s Truth.
In verse 9 Paul continued to explain the facts of true Christianity. Persecution is a reality for the Christian life. The New Evangelical philosophy is to avoid persecution. Thus the music resembles barroom music. The dress standard is also similar to the barroom. The ‘motivational speaker’ has learned how to speak the language of the lost. The illustrations are secular and the goal is to make the people feel good where they are. There might be some hints of things that might work better, but no sharp rebuke as we read in the Bible.
In verse 10 we see that the true child of God identifies with the sufferings of Christ. We do not go out and cut ourselves up but we will be ridiculed and mocked for believing the Word of God.
As we grow in the Lord, we exemplify His attitude more and more. We have come through quite a long period of time where we have not known much persecution. The reason being that most of Christianity is so compromised. Most professing Christians do not even know what Christianity is.
When we read the Bible, we get a much different picture of Christianity than what the New Evangelical crowd follows. Most people are not interested in what the Bible says. Most people take the Bible as a book of suggestions. They peruse it and pick and choose what they like and dismiss the rest.
If you want to know God’s peace and blessing, you need to know God. You can only know God through His Word. A true local church will teach the whole counsel of God. True saints will grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fellowship of the saints is a blessing that is reserved only for those who know the true God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pastor Bartel