Ron Dunn Podcast - The Right Stuff

Episode Date: February 20, 2019

From the sermon series "In Praise Of Weakness"

After that, I don't need an introduction. I need an explanation. You got a little sheet of paper there with all those neat little things on it. I'm going to steal those from you and throw them in the fire. Well, thank you, Martha Brennan, for that beautiful, beautiful song. And thank you, Martha Brennan, for a beautiful, beautiful song.

And thank you, Brother Finney, for a challenging message. Well, I want you to open your Bibles this morning to, again, Paul's letter to 2 Corinthians. Paul's letter to 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, Paul's letter to the Corinthians number 2, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and we're actually going to have to read this entire verse. Entire passage. Let me get a drink of water here. Entire chapter. I'll get there. Therefore, since we have this kind of ministry, as we receive mercy, we do not lose heart.

But we have renounced the hidden things because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled for those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they may not see the light of the gospel in the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. While we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, light shall shine out of darkness is the one who has shone in our hearts

to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure, the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ, this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. We're afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed,

always caring about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you. But having the same spirit of faith according to what was written, I believe, therefore I spoke, we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you for all things for your sakes,

so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to God to abound to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory. Far beyond all comparison. While we look 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 he says twice in verse 1 and in verse somewhere else, 16.

Thank you. I've got an underline there. I can see it. We do not lose heart. We do not faint. We do not give up in the light of difficulty. We are not discouraged. We are not caused to say that enough is enough. We do not lose heart. And losing heart is one of the great occupational hazards of those who try to serve Christ. One of the most effective weapons that the devil has ever forged against believers is the weapon of discouragement.

You work and work and work and labor and labor and labor for the Lord, as Paul did, and yet you meet opposition, you meet misunderstanding, you're criticized unjustly and unfairly. Others try to minimize your work, and others, as happened in Corinthians, try to come over and take your place and say, oh, that Paul is weak, and Paul doesn't have what it takes to be an apostle, it's easy to get discouraged. And when the old people, your own people, as Paul had to experience with the Corinthians, that you have won to Christ, and you have founded into a church, and you have betrothed them to Christ, when your own people whom you love,

and for whom you suffer when they themselves turn against you. It's discouraging. And it's easy to understand why men and women lose heart and faint and grow weary and say, what is the use of it all? And yet Paul, in the light of all his afflictions and all the light of his mistreatment, says emphatically, we do not lose heart. I was with a pastor a few weeks ago, and as he picked me up at the motel, I knew he had had a hard time and was having a hard time at the church he was in. And so he began to catalog all the miseries that he was going through, and he was wanting me to give him some advice you know and what to do about it and I just said oh listen brother just ask the apostle Paul you need to talk

to Paul you don't need to talk to Ron I can't help you but you need to talk to Paul and I gave him this chapter he said I said no matter what you're going through or will go through it doesn't come anywhere in comparison with what the Apostle Paul went through. And yet he says, in spite of this, I do not lose heart. I don't give up. You don't need to talk to me. You need to talk to the Apostle Paul. Don't do your complaining to me.

Complain to the Apostle Paul. See if you get any sympathy. But he don't think he would. But Paul says, in spite of all that's gone on, in spite of every opposition that we have faced, we do not lose heart. We don't give up in the face of difficulties. We faint not. Now, there are two reasons in verse 1 that he tells us that he does not faint. Number one, because of the ministry

that he is exercising. Notice he says, Therefore, since we have this, and I added two little words there because that word this includes those two little words and it's emphatic there. Therefore, since we have received this kind

of ministry, well, what kind of ministry? Well, it reads, it throws us back to chapter three, where he talks about how in the Old Testament days, the Israelites had a veil over their face and the glory of God could not be seen. But now in this New Testament covenant, in the face of Jesus Christ. He said, I can't quit. I can't quit. I've got too great a ministry. And then he says, I can't quit because of the mercy that I have received, that I have experienced. God's mercy in, first of all, saving me.

God's mercy in redeeming me and cleansing me from my sin. And then God's mercy in giving me such a great position in the ministry. God's mercy in giving me the holy privilege of opening the eyes to the Holy Spirit of those who have been blind so that they, like I, can see the face of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, listen, I couldn't give up. Why? I can't quit. I've got too great a ministry. I've received so great mercy.

I can't even begin to quit. And so then in the rest of the passage, and this is what I want to talk to you about, he tells us what he does instead of quitting, how he keeps from quitting. I borrowed a title from a book and a movie called The Right Stuff. You've got to have the right stuff to stick with it, friend. A ministry in the Christian life is not for the faint-hearted. It's not for the easily discouraged. Those who are at ease in Zion will never mount the walls of Jerusalem and be watchful and sound the trumpet when danger appears.

You've got to have the right stuff. Now, Paul had the right stuff. You and I have got to have the right stuff. What is it? What do we have to have in order to not lose heart, not grow faint and give up? First of all, there must be a cleansing of the spiritual life. A cleansing of the spiritual life. A cleansing of the spiritual life.

You'll notice what the apostle says in verse 2. But we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Paul says the first thing we've done is we have renounced, literally the word means to speak away. We've spoken those things away. Get away from me. Get away from me. We have renounced, and he renounces two things. First of all, we have renounced the secret things

of shame, the things that are kept secret because, well, you're ashamed of them. The acts and the activities and the deeds that you do, some better not, you know, made public. In order to advance our ministry, in order to advance our name, in order to gain the reputation that we want, there are some deeds that we have done that are just a little shameful, and so we keep those secrets. And Paul says, I choose openness.

I choose transparency. And I have renounced those secret things of shame. And then he mentions two of them, what they are. And you have to remember, as we talked about yesterday, he's fighting these super false apostles. And he's giving us insight again into the way they behave. He said, first of all, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the Word of God. First of all, he says, I have renounced the secret things of shame,

which include, number one, I have renounced deception. I do not deal in deception in my ministry. I do not lead my people astray. I do not deceive them. Interesting that word craftiness there or deception means willingness to do anything to gain your position, to gain your advantage. He said there are some ministering among us. They're willing to do anything to gain their advantage. They have no scruples whatsoever. They have no inner standard whatsoever. But he said, I have renounced that deception. He said, there are some things that I won't do in order to preach the gospel, in order to secure my position.

But there are other things, there are some people that they'll do anything, whatever it takes, to deceive us. And then he says, I have renounced not only deception, but I have renounced distortion of the Word of God. He says, we do not walk in craftiness or adulterating the Word of God. Now, that's an interesting phrase, adulterating the Word of God. It means tampering with the Word of God, arranging the Word of God, or shading the Word of God, tampering with the Word of God, arranging the Word of God, or shading the Word of God, tampering with the Word of God. And in its usage in the New Testament,

it usually applies to two things. You tamper with the Word of God in order to make the message more palatable so that it will be more pleasing to people. And it's a shame that in our pulpit today we have more men pleasers than we have God pleasers. And I had rather offend man, and I don't go out of my way to offend people,

but friend, I have news for you. I'd rather offend man than to offend God, you see. They say, oh, if you preach some of this stuff, you're going to offend those lost people that are coming. Well, wonderful. That's the purpose of the gospel is to offend them. But I'm not going to offend God so that I may please this fickle lost person. And so there were those who were tampering with the message to make it more palatable.

But the other way this word is used in the New Testament is to make the message more lucrative. You see, these false apostles were out to build a financial empire. And so they would preach and they would tamper with the word of God to make sure their message did two things number one it was more pleasing to people and it was more profitable to the preacher because if you please the people and tell them what they want

and give them what they want they're going to lie in your pocket Paul said I've renounced that I've renounced that he said everything I do I do openly and transparently but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God and I say to you that every person who has served the Lord and serves the Lord and is worth serving the Lord must be totally open and honest and transparent. And his deeds in the ministry of trying to promote the ministry

must never be things that you're ashamed to be brought to light. Now, first of all, there must be the cleansing of the spiritual life. Secondly, there must be a commitment to the servant life. A commitment to the servant life. Now, it's interesting, he says in the fifth verse,

for we do not preach ourselves, and by the way, the word ourselves is in the emphatic position in that verse. For ourselves we do not preach is the way it reads in the that verse. For ourselves we do not preach, is the way it reads in the Greek text. For ourselves we do not preach,

emphasizing this, we do not preach ourselves. Oh, I have to, I'm going to, I quake every time I read that phrase. We do not preach ourselves. Friends, it's easy for us to preach ourselves. I'm going to be candid with you. I have to rein in my humor.

I think if I had been a preacher, I'd been a stand-up comedian. Nothing I love better than getting laughs. And I think there is a valid place for humor and preaching of the word won't go into wine but it can be overdone

to where you're drawing attention to yourself you see James Denny said no man can preach that Jesus Christ is Savior and show himself to be clever at the same time. And sometimes you have a mannerism that you know will draw attention to you

and certain things that people want you to do and you indulge them, you know, to please them. That's preaching yourself. That's preaching yourself. And he says, we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus' sake. Now, that's not the way I would have written that. I would have written it like this.

We preach Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves his servants for your sake. Paul doesn't word it like that. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus Christ. Well, here again, he's contradicting these false apostles because they're not servants, they're wanting to be lords and masters as we saw last night in chapter 11 or whenever it was in chapter 11 they they want to lord it over people they want to subjugate people they want to be in positions of authority and they want to tell people what to do and have people to say without question who will do it but Paul said in contrast to that,

I do not preach myself as a lord or master. I preach myself as a servant to the people. And that's the only way that God honors, is that we preach Christ Jesus the Lord, but we preach ourselves as your servants, your servants. We've not come to be waited upon. We've come to wait upon. We have not come to be served.

We have come to serve. We have not come to be ministered unto, but we have come to minister to. That is the high and lowly task of the minister of the gospel of Christ. Now, I know what some of you may be thinking. You're saying, well, preacher, preacher, what time are you supposed to be through? And preacher doesn't know. What? 11.25. Okay. Oh, yes. Somebody said, oh, if I present myself as a servant to the people, they'll just, I mean, you know, they'll run over me. They'll take advantage of me. They'll use me like a welcome mat.

No, no. He said, we are your servants for Jesus' sake. Now, in Irving, the police cars have on them this legend, to protect and to serve. But that doesn't mean that I can go to a cop and say, my yard needs mowing, would you come over and do that? Well, of course, don't worry, it says you're a servant. He would say, yes, I'm a servant for the law's sake.

You see, we're servants for Jesus' sake, to do the things that Jesus wants us to do in ministering to you. But I tell you, unless you commit yourself to be a servant as was Jesus, you're not going to make it. There must be a commitment of the servant life. And I've got to rush on.

And the third place is this number three. There must be a crucifixion of the self-life. Notice he says, we have this treasure. What treasure? Well, this is what he said in verse 6. Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have this knowledge

and we have this treasure in clay pots and earthen vessels. Now, the wealthy people, the wealthy people wouldn't necessarily have clay pots. That was for poor people. They would have pots made of stone or made of marble or made of wood or some substance like this, but only the poorest people would use these little clay pots. And you notice how God eschews all of those high and fancy things, and he says, I'm going to get the poorest thing there is.

I'm going to get the weakest thing there is, a clay pot. And in that, I'm going to deposit this surpassing, this unspeakable, indescribable treasure to show the great and immense difference between the vessel and the treasure. Why? To show that the power of God that is expressed through Paul and the servants, that's not really their power. They're just clay pots. But that what happens through their lives and their ministry, it has to be, oh, it has to be the surpassing greatness of God. Now, in order for this vessel to leak out the treasure, you have to crack it.

I like to think of Christians as cracked pots. Not crackpots, but as cracked pots. Not crack pots, but as cracked pots so the treasure can leak out. And he goes on and tells about some of these cracks in this earthen vessel. He said, We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed,

but not despairing, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed. Boy, always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. Now, that's a tremendous statement. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

Already, rich, you have become kings without us, and indeed I wish you had become kings so that we might also reign with you, for I think God has exhibited us apostles last of all as men condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are prudent in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are distinguished, but we are without honor, you see. He's saying all this life is working in you and you're being enriched in all this way.

But the only reason that's happening is because we're allowing death to work in us. We're dying to our convenience, dying to our wants, dying to our preferences, dying to our easy life so that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in my mortal flesh and therefore that life be communicated to you so that you will have life and then he enunciates the principle in verse 12 so death works enough but life in you and I've said it in this place before that every time somebody is saved and brought to life in Jesus Christ it's because somebody has died and we hear about all of the thousands of people that are being saved in certain portions of our world,

but I want to tell you something. That didn't come from just some easy, slick preacher meeting in a Hyatt room, Hyatt Regency ballroom, holding a lecture. That came from fellows who were out there in the bush and suffering and suffering and suffering hardships and inconvenience so that life can be brought to those people to whom they're preaching. The right stuff includes this crucifixion of the self-life.

Number four, this results in the communication of the Savior's life. I don't need to say anything about that, except that isn't that what all of us are after? Isn't that what all of us want? I want somehow in my moral flesh for Christ to shine through. Now, I can read all the books, how to be spiritual, and, you know, I've read them.

I've even written a couple. But that's not the way it works. I take death to myself, death to my convenience, death to my will, death to what I want. And you know what happens when you get me out of the way? Then the life of Jesus who dwells in me is able to shine through my human personality. And really, folks, that's what blesses others. There's not anything in you that can bless

anybody. There's not anything in me that can bless anybody. The only thing I have that could bless or minister to anybody is the life of Jesus who dwells in me. And if somehow, if somehow the life of Jesus which dwells in me can express itself through my human personality and touch your life, you will be blessed. But if you're touched only by my sermon and by my preaching and by my humor and by my cleverness, which there may not be any, but anyway, but if that's all you're touched by, friends, your life is not changed.

If somehow the life of Jesus that dwells in me, the saving, transforming life of Jesus that dwells in me, the saving, transforming life of Jesus that dwells in me can somehow make its way through the tangle and brush and shrubbery of my own selfish life, then it can reach out and it can touch your life. And that's what will minister to you. That's what will bless you. Which brings us to the last thing. The right stuff includes a concentration on the secret life. Verses 16 to 18, Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. I've got so many notes on that verse I could preach a sermon out of it.

The outer man is decaying day by day. Now, some of us, it's decaying faster than others. We're born to die. The minute we're born, we start dying. This outer man is getting weaker and weaker and weaker. But there is a simultaneous and contemporaneous work going on that even as the outer man is decaying, the inner man, by the Holy Spirit, is being renewed day by day by day by day so that when finally the outer man collapses and draws its last breath, the inner man will be fully grown

and be transported into the presence of the Lord. Verse 17, for momentary light of fiction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. And I said that yesterday, that our suffering will not one day just give way to glory. It is our suffering that actually produces the glory. But there is a condition of that. It is, he says in verse 18, 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. Oh, how do you survive? Oh, he said, I don't focus on these temporal things, the things that are seen. Man, if I gave all my attention to the things that are seen, I'd get discouraged immediately. I'd given up a long time ago if I had focused on the things that were seen and considered them to be the final word in the matter. But he's read. Rather than that, I understand that what I see, these material things,

that's not the last word on the subject. You remember who was it? Walter Concrite used to end his radio broadcast, news broadcast every day with, and that's the way things are I always want to say no that's the way things seem to be that's not the way things are you're going to find out the way things are by looking at what is seen no sir you've got to look beyond the visible to the invisible for those are the things that are real and those are the things that are eternal and in Hebrews 11 3 it says that that which is seen was made out of that which is not seen.

And I want to tell you, folks, that which is not seen is more real than what is seen. And if all I concentrate on are the things that are seen, the daily problems, the daily sufferings, the hardship. Oh, I'm going to lose heart. I've got to constantly remind myself, oh, this is not the last word. This is not eternal. This is just temple.

This will pass away. I'm going to fasten on those things that are not seen. Even though I can't see them, I'm going to fasten on those things that are not seen. Even though I can't see them, I'm going to see them, things that are not seen. Those are the things that are eternal. I can't see God's hand working in this. I cannot see God's plan unfolding in this, but I know it is. I know God's hand is there.

I know God's hand is unfolding. I'm going to concentrate on that. I'm going to concentrate on that. I'm going to concentrate on that. That's what's really real. And therefore, as I concentrate on that, I don't lose heart. I don't know how it is with you, but I have my moments of discouragement, disheartenment.

I had one the other night. I'd been to the bookstore, and I saw all the thousands of books that they had in there. I couldn't find a one of mine. I mean, the average life of a book today is very short. There are so many. And I picked up Southwestern News from Southwestern Seminary. They had listed there all of the distinguished alumni.

And I wasn't among them. You weren't either, Larry. But there was a couple of guys that my age were younger than I. That were there. I got to looking at it. And I got to feeling so old. I got to feeling just so old. My back hurts.

I've got arthritis. My memory is a surprising thing. I lay in bed the other night with Kay she said how you doing I said I'm not doing well it had been a droopy day and I told her about visiting the bookstore where none of my books were and I told her about reading about the 2,000 alumni,

of which I were not one. And I told her about feeling old. I was disheartened. And I said to Kay, I'm kind of like Jeremiah. I think I'd like just to be a little innkeeper on the side of the road. Isn't that maudlin? You talk about self-pity. And Apostle Paul would say to me, get your eyes off of what you see. That's not the reality of the situation.

You are getting old, son. There's no doubt about it. You are getting old. But I want to tell you something. At the same time, your inner man is being renewed. And your greatest strength is before you. And your greatest service is before you because your inner man is being renewed day by day by day.

And once I got my eyes off the things that are seen and put them on things that are unseen, I got undiscouraged. And my wife got undiscouraged. Thank you. Amen. Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.