Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.
If the universe is without a designer, if life holds no purpose, if we're only material and all of life's happenings are just random acts of chance, what hope do we have? But the Bible teaches us that we don't have to live in such despair. What delight to know that even in the face of great difficulty, we don't need to lose heart. God's character and purpose reverberate loudly through the pain and frustration of this fallen world. Let's listen as Pastor Rich unpacks 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18 in this message titled Delight Instead of Despair.
The title for today's message is Delight Instead of Despair. Our text is 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 16 through 18. And in the beginning of that text, the Apostle Paul says, Therefore, we do not lose heart.
We do not lose heart. Remember, he said last time he compared himself to a clay pot, an earthen vessel is what he calls it. And this earthen vessel is weak. It's expendable.
It's unattractive, comparatively speaking. It's not the point. The clay pot is for the purpose of demonstrating, manifesting a beautiful life that grows within that clay pot. And that life is the life of Christ. And therefore, Paul made us understand that what is in terms of the physical, what is here and now is not permanent.
Therefore, it is not paramount. He says the outward man is perishing. That means it is wasting away.
It is being destroyed. Paul suffered much adversity. But even though he suffered all of that, in the context of all that hardship, Paul could say we do not lose heart.
He said, I purpose to delight. I will not despair. And indeed, the outward man is perishing. Our physical form is perishing.
Some of us feel that a little more than others. It's a part of the fallen order of creation. The story is told of this tourist who is touring Europe, and he wanted to go see all these great cathedrals that are over there. And as he was approaching one, he heard some organ music coming out of it, but it was distinctly odd sounding. And he approaches the door, and he looks in there, and there's somebody feverishly working at this organ. And he will play something pretty odd sounding, and then he will scribble something up on the music stand. And he walks in, and he says, I really got to find out what this is about. And he walks up farther, and sure enough, he finds that the gentleman is playing feverishly, and it's still odd sounding.
And he's erasing what's on the music stand. And he walks closer, and he says, you know, that looks like Mozart. I believe that is Mozart. And he walks up closer. He says, it is Mozart. And he says, what are you doing? And Mozart says, can't you see?
I'm decomposing. Richard Dawkins, in his book River Out of Eden, recalls a bus crash which took the lives of many children. A London newspaper asked a priest to explain why God would allow such a thing to happen. The priest gave his best response.
It wasn't a bad one. But Dawkins, in his book, presented this rebuttal. On the contrary, if the universe were just electrons and selfish genes, blind physical force and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky. And you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe, we observe, has precisely the properties we should expect. If there is, at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference. Now, that's just encouraging, isn't it? What is the logical outcome of such a worldview? It can only be despair.
That's all it is. That is not what the apostle Paul presents here this morning. Paul said we face a great deal of adversity, and yes, life gets messy, but we do not lose heart. We do not grow weary. We do not become discouraged. We do not have a why bother attitude about life.
We do not approach life with a why me disposition. In other words, what Paul is saying when he says we do not lose heart is that we are not distracted from God's character and purpose. By the frustrating characteristics of a fallen creation, because he recognized his fallenness. And so Paul could say, I delight, I do not despair, even in all the adversity, I delight.
Why? Because there is purpose behind it, and behind that purpose is a person, and he is my objective. And this is why he says, though the inward man, though the outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by day. The inward man, this is the why. So we're going to look at why Paul can say, I delight, and I don't despair.
We're going to look at the why, the what, and what that means, and how that happens this morning. The why is because the inward man is being renewed day by day. Now, when he says the inward man, he says this in verse 16, what does he mean by the inward man? Well, that is the regenerated person. It is the truth, the reality of life within the child of God that the unregenerate person does not have. First John chapter three, Paul says that the seed, if you are God's child, his seed remains in you.
It is the person that is described in the new covenant back here in chapter three of second Corinthians. The new man, the new heart and mind. It is as if the branch that is laying on the ground, severed from the tree, is dying. That branch is picked up and grafted back into the tree, and that branch draws life from the tree. That branch is alive because it's drawing life from the source. That's what he means by the inward man. And he says it's being renewed day by day.
Why? Because it continues to draw that life from the source. And it is being renewed, he says, it's being restored day by day. Now, Christians, I invite you to look at that. Think about that. Being restored, the inward man is being renewed day by day. Is it? If so, how so?
I invite you to consider that. Only the Christian can say this. Only the gospel makes this true.
We will cover that some more a little bit later in the message. He says, though the outward man is perishing and the outward man, he's not referring to two men. All right, he's just simply saying the outward being, the physical being, that clay pot. He says there is a light affliction, verse 17, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment. Look with me. Look at something with me for a moment. Turn in the same book to chapter 11 towards the end of 2 Corinthians.
Look at chapter 11. Look with me at verses 24 and 25. This is what Paul experienced. From the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes minus one. Whipped five times, 39 stripes each whipping. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have been in the deep.
Really? A light affliction, but for a moment? Yes. From the right perspective, relatively speaking, that is all a light affliction, but for a moment. Remember, he's looking at it from God's perspective. And there is coming a day in eternity when you and I will be able to look back at the existence that we have right now in this physical form.
And we will be able to confidently and joyfully say, yes, it was light affliction, but for a moment. What does 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 8 tell us? It says, do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is a thousand years and a thousand years are like one day.
That's an eternal perspective. An economist read that passage of scripture and was quite amazed and decided to talk to God about it. Lord, is it true that a thousand years for us is like just a minute for you? And the Lord says, yes. The economist said, then a million dollars to us must be like one penny to you. The Lord said, yes.
And the economist said, will you give me one of those pennies? And the Lord said, all right, wait a minute. If you take the span, the scope of all eternity and let it represent from that wall to that wall, your life is one negligible speck on that scope.
A light affliction, but for a moment and yes, within that negligible speck, the creation groans and life gets messy. But there is a purpose in it. And Paul understood that there is a purpose in it because as he says here, it is look at verse 17 in the middle of the verse. It is working for us. It is working for us, meaning it is preparing us for something.
It will result in something. There is purpose behind what's going on in life, and not only that, Paul didn't say it's working for me. He said it's working for us. We, the body of Christ, God's people, it's working for us. How many through the centuries have been encouraged and emboldened by the faith and the perseverance of the apostles and the martyrs and the faithful saints of old?
It's working in us. What is it that the Lord says in Philippians 1 6? He who began a good work in you, what?
Will complete it. It's a promise. He's working in you. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him. The one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
