Trials and Suffering
Hal Molloy · Apr 25, 2004
Trials & Suffering (2004), No. 17
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826235346429

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, if you'll open your Bibles please to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And what I'd like to do is, just so we get back into the context, we're going to be looking at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 10 through 12 this morning, and we've already covered verses 6 through 9. But since I was gone last week, I would like to just refresh in our minds what we said concerning these verses and put everything in context. So, starting in verse 6, For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shown 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 excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed.

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. for we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then, death works in us, but life in you.

Okay, just a quick review in terms of looking at verses 6 and 7, and in verse 7 it says that we have this treasure in these earthen vessels, right? And the earthen vessels was literally vessels made out of clay. What were the characteristics of an earthen vessel? Fragile, frail, fragile. Molded. Molded, okay. Weak. Okay, mortal. Okay. So, but, but there's this treasure in this earthen vessel and the treasure was what? the glory of the Lord. It's the glory of the Lord in these earthen vessels.

And so that's in us. And coming to us comes the trials and sufferings. And as we looked at in verse 8, you know, trouble, persecuted, perplexed, cast down. But all of this is for a purpose. The treasure is for a purpose. The trials and suffering is for a purpose. Now as we get to verses 10-12, we're going to find that also in us is the dying of the Lord Jesus and death in us. And also, that is for a purpose. So let's look at verse 10. It says, Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.

What I'd like to do is just take a look at some of the words here first. The first word is bearing about. And the word to bear is pharaoh. That's one of the first words that you learn in the vocabulary when you study Greek. So all you who are going to be taking Greek next semester, that's one of the first words you'll learn. Pharaoh means to bear or to carry.

But this is an intensified form. It has a little preposition before it. Periphero. And peri means about. So, to carry about. So, we're carrying about in this body, in the word body, there is soma. And it means the body as a whole. The body as a vessel. Just like we're talking about earth and vessel in verse 7. So, the body is a vessel. So, we're caring about, in this vessel, the dying. And the word dying, necrosis, simply means a putting to death.

So, if we were to summarize this, and summarize it in the context, that Whatever the trial or circumstance in our life, we are caring about, bearing about, wherever we're going, whatever the trial, whatever the circumstances is in our life, we're caring about, in this body, the dying of the Lord Jesus. Now the question is, what does that mean? What possibilities are there when we talk about the dying of the Lord Jesus? What possibilities are there? And we're carrying that around in our body. So, what are the possibilities in terms of His dying?

What did He die for? He died for our sins and to separate us from these sins. Okay, so two things. He died for sins, right? Preposition of substitution for sins. And also, as Nancy said, he died unto sin. And when it says unto sin, what does that mean? What does sin in that context mean? Sins is every act that was every unrighteous act there is, right? He died for every single unrighteous act. He died for the sins, right?

The world. But he died unto sin, singular. So what is that all about? Okay. As we looked at the identification truths, he died unto the sin nature. Any other possibilities in terms of the dying? of the Lord Jesus, the putting to death of the Lord Jesus. I looked in Vines, and it was interesting. So this is what you said, in terms of for the sins of the world and unto sin, the sin nature, and Vines says So here's my question. Does this refer to our physical sufferings endured in fellowship with Christ? Can it mean that? Somebody said this week, what that really means is that the dying of the Lord Jesus just means that we have His Spirit in us. So what does it mean?

Now, what I want you to do is follow through with me on the logic of all this. Here's the first question. Where is our sin nature right now? Where does it reside? In the body, though. Okay. It resides in the body. And what did Christ do with respect to our sin nature? He died unto it as a representative. Because He died unto the sin nature, and we were identified with Him, who else died to the sin nature? We died with him. We died with him. Okay. And death means what? Separation. Okay. So that when he died, we died, we were separated from the sin nature. Right? Okay.

So, and that was via our identification as we looked at Romans chapter 6, our baptism. we were baptized, we were immersed first into the person of Christ, and then we were immersed into not only the person of Christ, but of all his works, his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding.

So where does God see our sin nature? Where does he see it? Paul said, what, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. So, I am crucified, I am put to death on the cross, and the I there is that sin nature. So God sees our sin nature at the cross. So, it says that we are caring about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus.

Well, if the sin nature is in us, and we're caring about in our body the sin nature, guess what else we're caring about that we must be caring about? Because the sin nature is on that cross because of His dying. and the nature is united, if you will, with that cross.

It can never be separated. Is that positional or conditional? It's positional. It's a fact, right? That Christ died unto sin, unto the sin nature. We were identified with Him, and God sees that sin nature on the cross. Positional. Okay. So that if we are bearing about the sin nature, what else are we bearing about? the dying of the Lord Jesus to that sin nature, right? Is that okay? I see some question marks on faces. So that's a key. So here's the logic, how it goes.

Our sin nature resides in our body. The Lord Jesus died unto the sin nature. We were identified with Him, baptized into His death. He died, we died. Positionally, our sin nature is on the cross. And since we're bearing about or caring about our sin nature in our body, then we also must be bearing about or caring about His dying to our sin nature in our body. So what does that look like? It looks just like this.

We're caring about the dying of the Lord Jesus in our body. Jay Vernon McGee said this week, not in this context, but about these things that you've been giving to us that the Lord Jesus died to give us a new life. Okay, that the Lord Jesus died to give us a new life. As new creatures. Okay, and so we've become a new creation, we have a new life. Okay, and we'll be looking at that in just a moment too. So look at the last part then of verse 10. First part, always bearing about in the body of the Lord Jesus. And then, you see that little word, that? It's a little prepositional phrase. Well, excuse me. It's a subordinate conjunction. And it's hinah plus the subjunctive, which is a purpose clause.

Now it tells us what the purpose is of the fact that we are caring about in our body. the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the purpose. Here is the reason why. It's introduced by that little word, that. That the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our body. So we're caring about the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as Art just said with respect to Dr. Vernon McGee, that the life also may be manifested in our body. So, it looks like this. We're caring about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, death unto our sin nature, for a purpose, and the purpose is that Christ's life be manifested through our body.

Now the question is, how does this all happen? How does this come about? Verse 11 gives us an explanation. And verse 11 is introduced by that little word, And the word for, usually when you see the word for at the beginning of a passage of scripture, it usually is an explanation of the previous passage or context. It says, for we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Okay, so here's the question. Look at the first part of verse 11.

For we who live. Who are the we? You. Okay. In the context, Paul is talking to believers. So, we in the context is talking about believers. Now, notice it says, we who live. And it's a participle. It says, we, the ones who are living. Okay? It's a participle, the ones who are living. When it talks about the ones who are living, What does that mean? I mean, we are the ones who are living. What does living mean? Is it talking about our physical life? Living physically?

Think about the wife of Jesus in verse 10. Okay. Okay, his life and us. Any others? If we're opposing it to death, we're the ones who are now joined with Christ or who are in union with God again, or in union with God. Okay. As opposed to being separated by sin. Okay, so we're talking about spiritual life here? Okay.

If we're talking about spiritual life, you know, the ones who are living, question, is this positional or conditional? It's a fact right now. It's a fact that we have spiritual life, but it says for the ones who are living are always delivered or being delivered over to death. So is it talking about our walk or our position?

So here's the question. If we're walking in the flesh, are we always being delivered over to death? You see the point? So I think you're right. I think it's talking about our life in terms of as we walk, as we abide in Christ, our fellowship with Christ and fellowshipping with Him in His life living through us. But conditional, because if we're walking in the flesh, is His life living through us?

No. So the point is, when are we being delivered over to death? And the question is, by the way, that's a passive voice. It says we're being acted upon. We're always, in the present tense, we're always being, or constantly being, as the New American Standard says, being delivered over to death. Death means what? And separation in this case means what?

Lack of fellowship. Okay, wonderful. Lack of fellowship. Being separated from fellowship with the Lord. So we're always being delivered over to death, to separation, from fellowship with the Lord. Okay? Now, it's a passive voice. It means we're being acted upon. Who's doing the acting? The Holy Spirit. Is the Holy Spirit the one who's delivering us over to death? That we might be separated from the fellowship of Christ?

The old man dancing. I'm sorry? The old man dancing. Okay, the old man. It's like a night news segment. So we're being acted upon. And so think about it in terms of how we're being acted upon. And think about it in the context that this passage is in. Because here come the trials, right? Here come the circumstances, and just as we talked before, that all of the trials and the suffering being troubled and being persecuted and perplexed and being cast down, right? That the result of that, remember we talked about two weeks ago what the result of that was?

Is that the sin nature always responds. And here's how the sin nature responds. always, whether we're walking by faith in the sin nature or in Christ, that the response of the sin nature to trouble or affliction or being perplexed or persecuted or being cast down is always the same, 24-7, here's the response of the sin nature, irritability, discouragement, anger, casting blame, etc. When a trial comes to you, There is always that disappointment and sometimes anger and sometimes worry when a trial comes to you. So that's the response of the sin nature.

That's how we're being acted upon, passive voice. we probably know only 10%, if that, of the characteristics of our sin nature, in terms of what it's really like. We have no clue the depth of the sin, of the sin nature, and we're being acted upon by that sin nature. And the only way we know the depth of that sin, and that these are sin, The only way we know it is knowing Christ. The more we know Him, the more we know the depth of the sin nature. So we're being acted upon by the sin nature. What's the goal? What's the goal of the sin nature?

Remember we looked at the passage in James in talking about temptation, because remember now, these are all temptation, right? They're not sin. These are all temptations that come at us when trial comes at us. Remember from James chapter 1, and we looked at verse 13, 14, 15, and it talked about lust, and it talked about temptation, and remember the stair step we drew? that there's this enticement, there's this drawing away, and we start out abiding in Christ, in fellowship with Christ, and then here comes the temptation, and it lures us, right? It lures us away from fellowship with Christ. And then, and by the way, that temptation looks very attractive. Being irritable sometimes looks very attractive. getting angry at Lindy sometimes is very attractive. And until she says, you sound angry. And I say, wow, you know, I am. You're right. Oh, wow.

Sin is so subtle. The sin nature is so subtle in terms of just sucking you in. So the goal, the goal of being acted upon by the sin nature, and the goal of the sin nature, if you remember, is for us to take that bait. And once we take that bait, then it says, the lust or the desires, these lusts or these desires, there's a conception.

Remember? There's a conception. And the conception is we become pregnant. And pregnant, there's no reversal in pregnancy. And we go down the steps, and the baby that's produced out of that pregnancy is sin. And then remember the last step, it says sin results in what? Death. See, the goal of that sin nature is to do just that, is to lead us or deliver us over, as verse 11 says, deliver us over to death. That's the goal of the sin nature. no fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, in your notes I hopefully explained all this, and one thing I want to point out is this. This is a lifetime process. It's a 24-7 process. The Christian life is one of continuous living and continuous dying. That goal of that sin nature is to deliver us over to death. Loss of fellowship.

But if you remember back, when we went through James chapter 1, that God uses those temptations for a wonderful purpose. And He says, rejoice in your temptations. Rejoice. Why? Because He's going to use it. And He uses it as a test. and it's a test, a test of our faith in terms of just how we're going to respond. It's a test with a view to approval. He wants us to succeed. He wants us to consider that old man dead. So he uses it to prove our faith.

When lawyers go up in a courtroom and they go up to the judge, they have what is called a sidebar. Is that right? I got a sidebar here. The sidebar is this, that as we think of the external cross, it's an obvious fact. that Christ died for our sins, right? That's understandable. But what is not so obvious is the internal cross. That is not as obvious. The internal cross that we're bearing about in our body, but it's still a fact that we are constantly being delivered over to death.

Now, there's a purpose. There's a purpose in all of this. And the purpose, look back to verse 11. For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. It's for His sake. And you see the little word, that? It's another purpose clause. for the purpose that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

So there is the purpose. Let me ask a question. How does that operate? How does that happen? So we're being delivered over, constantly being delivered over to death for a purpose, that the life also of Christ may be manifest in our body. How does that play out in your life and in my life? I think as we suffer and we have pain that we eventually realize that we have to depend on the Lord. Okay. His life is manifest within us. Okay. Made visible. Okay, made visible, right.

I had a, this past week, Gail Smith sent me an email. She shared with me an email. This is two years that her son has died. And, you know, a mom always reflects on their children. And she came across the passage of scripture, which Bob Bechdel is going to be covering either next week or the week after. I'm going to be in Hawaii for the next two weeks. Suffering? Suffering. Under tremendous trial. We'll make praying for you.

And Bob is going to be picking up here where we leave off in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. But Gail was reading in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 in verse 17. Just take a look at verse 17. It says, For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And she looked at that passage of scripture and thinking about the death of her son, said, you know, God says that this is a light affliction. It's light. But there's glory involved in this that can be manifested through me.

So she writes me this email. And at the same time, I get another email from a teacher down in Parker who, this is a long story, I'll try to make it short, whose class wrote letters to servicemen over in Iraq. Just wrote letters and they sent it to Iraq. Well, Matthew happened to get these letters. And these letters are from a school in Parker just a mile and a half down the road from us.

So he answered every single letter. And they started a correspondence back and forth and the kids were thrilled. So the teacher wanted us to come down and talk to the class and tell them all about Matt. They had all these questions. When he was a little boy, these are second and third graders. So we developed this relationship with this teacher. Well, soon after that, when Lindy and I went down there, her son just graduated high school and he was driving to Iowa. and he fell asleep and went off the road and got killed.

She sends an email out about once a month as to where she is in dealing with all this. And she is troubled, really troubled, really grieved. And her focus is on the grief and the sorrow as opposed to not seeing any of the joy that is involved, because her son was a believer and absent from the bodies present with the Lord.

And at least, you know, the joy eventually should overcome that sorrow. But it hasn't. So Gail writes this email, and I get this other email, and the thing is this, I've tried to share with this teacher, But when you are not in the shoes, and you're not walking in the same shoes as someone else, they can't understand what you're saying. But when someone else is walking in their shoes, So I sent her this email, and she writes back, wow, this is heavy. And she was thrilled, but it ministered to her. So the death in Gail, in terms of dying to the grief and the sorrow, the death of her son, manifested life, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, which ministered to this teacher.

So, interesting. But that's the way the Lord does it. And it's exciting to see. And the thing is this, you never know it's happening. You don't know that that's happening. But somewhat similarly, what I struggle with is this Christ statement that my yoke is light and my burden is easy. And then you say, well, what is he talking about? He carries the sin of the whole world. I mean, this must be the same light. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's a beautiful passage to go through. I'm tempted to jump there, but I'm not going to do it.

So you see the purpose there, that the life may be manifest in our flesh. Do you notice anything different between verse 10 and verse 11 in terms of the purpose? Look at the two purpose clauses, verse 10 and verse 11. Tell me what the difference is. Okay. Same. I don't think so. The second one is in our mortal flesh. Okay. First one says body. Second one says mortal flesh. Okay.

Our life and his life is different. Pardon me? Our life and his life are the differences in the dance. Okay, but the words following that are identical except for one word. that the life of the Lord Jesus may be manifest, in verse 10 it says, in our body, and verse 11 says, in our flesh, mortal flesh, right? So what's the difference? So why the difference? So what's the difference between body and what's the difference between body and flesh?

I think it's this. The body, as we talked about before, Soma, is just the vessel itself, okay? Where flesh, normally we think of flesh as what? Positive or negative? Negative. So the question is this. In this passage of scripture, is flesh positive or negative? His life is being manifested through this mortal flesh, right? So it's not talking about something that's negative.

So when Paul says in Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And listen to what he says. In the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith. And the Son of God who loved me gave himself for me.

So he's talking about flesh in a very positive sense there. So I think what we can say about flesh is this. that flesh includes more than just the body. The flesh is all-inclusive. It includes the body, but it includes the heart, and the mind, and the soul, and also the body. I think flesh in this instance, that's what flesh means.

So the body is the container, is a vessel, is an earthen vessel for the glory of God. But it gets manifested through our body, but it gets manifested through our flesh also. And our flesh is our mind and our heart. And people understand us by who we are in terms of where we're coming from, our soul and our heart and our mind.

So I think that's the difference. One point I'd like to make, in terms of the life being manifested in our mortal flesh, is this, that in our trials and sufferings, Christ's life is only manifested as the life of the flesh, and this is key, as the life of the flesh is in the place of death. That it's inoperative. that we are reckoning ourselves, dead indeed, unto sin, unto the sin nature, unto all of the temptations that are coming at us. And that's the key.

And then we're walking in the Spirit, and we're walking in the Spirit, and then we'll never fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And it's only then that the life of the Lord Jesus is revealed. So if we're hanging out over here in the old man or in our sin nature, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is never going to be revealed. It can only be revealed as we abide in Him. So here's the Christian life. There's nothing short of the life of the Lord Jesus reproduced in us, so that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our mortal flesh.

To kind of summarize this, in order for me to understand things, and maybe it's just me, But being an engineer, I've got to kind of see it in a picture form. So what I'd like to do is just summarize what we've talked about. In verse 10, I want you to notice this dotted line here, right? This dotted line, everything over on this side, the left side of the dotted line, is that which is internal. Everything over on this side of the dotted line, the right side of the dotted line, is external. So internal, that we're always, in verse 10, we're always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. We said that was our position.

We are caring, we are caring about in our body His death, His death unto the sin nature. For the purpose, over here on the right side, external, that others may see the life of the Lord Jesus, right? That it be made manifest. Then when we get down to verse 11, it says, for we who live, that is, the ones living, the ones who are walking in the Spirit, the ones where the Lord Jesus Christ's life is being manifested, through the believer, are constantly being delivered over to death.

So as the temptations come, as a result of trials, that we're always being delivered over to death. But there's a purpose in that, that his life be manifested in our flesh. So it looks like this, if I reveal the whole picture here. Here come the trials and the sufferings, right?

And as we hold, as we reckon that sin nature dead, okay, and we reckon it on that cross, In our condition, we reckon our position, that the sin nature, that we've been cut loose, we've been separated from the sin nature, and as we do that, God's glory is manifested. And it's manifested, if we go back to verse 6, it says in verse 6, in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, or in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is present in us. And I want you to look at verse 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 12. And Paul concludes. So, here's a wonderful verse.

So then, death works in us, but life in you. Okay? As death is working in us, so it's life in you. And what's he saying? And what he's saying is this, as you die to sin daily, moment by moment, as you die to the sin nature and you reckon yourself dead to the sin nature, that's death in you and no one sees that. That's just in you and just in me. No one sees that.

But what they see is the life being manifested. So, Christ's life that is manifested, that's what they see. So, it's death in you, life in others. So, when the trials and the circumstances in life come at you, and others know that you're under trial, And they don't see the worry and the anxiety and the sorrow and the depression.

They say, wow, what is happening with this person? Because if that were me, guess what? I would be worried. I would be fearful. I would be so disappointed. But this person isn't. What is making What is making her or him tick? That's the question they'll be asking. And what they'll see is the life. Okay.

Why does it say that in you? In whose then you? In it's you plural. So, Paul is talking death in us, those who are ministering to these believers, death in us. but life in you, in all you believers. Why wouldn't you say us again? Because as they reckon themselves dead unto sin, then the life is being manifested, so it's life in you.

So as I reckon myself dead into sin under some trial, which you would say, boy, I could never be calm in that situation. I could never be relaxed in that situation. I'd be a nervous wreck. And if you don't see that happening in me, then it's life in you. You're seeing the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. It isn't me. It's His life. It's His life being lived through me. So it's life in you. I think it's actually how that's explained in verse 6. Okay. Okay. Good.

OK, as I'm under tremendous trial these next couple of weeks, you'll be praying for me. I've got a double honor here. I'll be walking my daughter Lisa down the aisle and giving her away. And then I'll be performing a ceremony. You'll get to see Matt, too, right? Yeah, and I'll get to see Matt and the kids. And I told Matt, Matt, for five minutes you're going to be in charge of the ceremony. He's the one that's going to open in prayer and says, who gives this woman to be married to this whatever?

Family affair. Father, we again are thankful. Thank you. The truth that you've given to us in this in this passage and in father our prayer is that others may See the life of the Lord Jesus Christ manifest in us and we know father that the way that occurs is that there must be death in us and we thank you father for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and unto the same nature and our identification with Him, and that we died also. And Father, we pray that this may be our continual walk, death in us, life in others. And we give you thanks in Christ's name. Amen.