2nd Corinthians – Godly Social Order

We Have Received Mercy

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Godly Social Order

Lesson: 6-25

Genre: Talk

Track: 6

Dictation Name: RR4164A

Location/Venue:

Year: 1998-2000

[Mark Rushdoony] That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world; against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Let us pray. Oh most good and gracious heavenly Father, we come before Thee now to thank you for your goodness towards us each day. We thank you for the rain that makes our land productive, we thank you for the refreshment that it provides us. We pray that you would bless now this assembly this morning, we pray that you would help us to direct our hearts and our thoughts toward the teaching of your word. We thank you for the fact that your word is preached throughout the world, this Lords day. We pray that you would encourage your saints everywhere that gather together in your name. We ask that you would be with our time together, may it be a time where we dedicate ourselves to service of you in the coming week. We thank you that you have the opportunity this day to rest from our labors, because we are secure in your care. In Christ our saviors name, amen.

[R.J. Rushdoony] Our scripture lesson this morning is 2 Corinthians 4:1-7. 2 Corinthians 4:1-7. And our subject is: We Have Received Mercy.

“4 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;

2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:

4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”

As we saw when we dealt with 2nd Corinthians 3, a custom that developed in the early church was that when one Christian went to another community he took with him a church letter, a letter usually, hopefully of commendation; saying that John Doe is a member of good standing, and these are his capabilities, and this is what he has done in our church.

Now, even then as I pointed out in our study of chapter 3, it was not uncommon for church leaders to be rather hesitant about being critical, and a letter commending a family or a person to a church in another community could be dishonest; a man could be a stinker, a trouble maker in the church whom they were glad to see go. They got a good letter, one way of getting rid of him. We know that sometimes that led to very serious scandals and troubles, the most notorious example being as I pointed out previously, of the instance of (Paraguinas?) or (Paragreen?). (Paragreen?) was a cynical philosopher, he had no use for Christianity, but he thought he would make suckers out of them, and so he entered the church, and as a very eloquent and powerful speaker, a brilliant mind, in no time at all he had a number of people convinced that he was marvelous. He had no trouble getting letters of commendation to travel far and wide, and milk the churches of all the money that he could. It was only with the help of the Roman authorities who finally arrested him on various frauds, that the church was able in part to get rid of (Paragreen?). And that arrest helped those members who were fighting him call attention to the fact that he was a scoundrel.

Well, when Paul had gone to Corinth he had taken no letter of commendation. Why should he? He was that well known, he was after all an apostle, he was not an ordinary church member or a pastor, or some minor disciple or follower of Jesus who was now serving Him. He was well known.

But they complained, as we saw in Chapter 3, that he refused to come with a letter. What did he have to hide? What kind of scoundrel was he? It was easy to make innuendos, insinuations about Paul, because he had no letter. And Paul’s answer was: “Well, my ministry, my apostolic status, all that I have done everywhere you know about. And that is all the commendation that I need.” He also goes on to infer in chapter 3, which he develops in chapter 4, that all of us are in a sense living letters, either recommending the faith, or not recommending it. Calling attention to the fact that the faith we profess is not the true faith.

But Paul says, in the first verse of the 4th chapter, we have this ministry. And you know what it is, we have it because we received mercy. Therefore we faint not. Now this is an important note, in all the letters of Paul, one way or another. What is he talking about? Well, Predestination. Paul does not feel that he needs to boast, because he knows what he was before he was converted. So what is he going to say about himself? That he has received mercy. That he is by the grace of God, what the Corinthians if they were honest would say they saw him to be.

So Paul is emphatic on this point of Predestination. This is why he can call attention to what he has done where it is needed in argument. That he has preached faithfully, he has been under arrest, he has been beaten, he’s even been thrown to wild animals but was not killed. He can say these things, because he says: “This is not my doing, you know what I was before. I received mercy by the predestination of God, and therefore we faint not. Anyone else would have given up, would have collapsed from the weight, the burden of all that Paul experienced. The persecution, the hatred, the resentment and so on.

But, having renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, not handling the word of god deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. Paul says: “I have not walked as once we who were ungodly walked. And I have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty” or more literally, of shame. Outside of Christ our life leaves a great deal to be desired.

Not walking in craftiness, cleverness, to present ourselves to the world as we would like them to think of us, nor deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth. Commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. “What I have stood on therefore is not myself, not what I have done, but what God has done, and what He has enabled me to do. So that I stand continually as His servant, as what He has made of me.”

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. “If you don’t see the gospel of Christ in me, it is because you are lost.” Now Paul is notable for his plain speaking. It is easy to see why then as now there are many, many who claim to be Christians who dislike Paul. Who want the pure gospel without Paul. Well, it is because they cannot take Paul, they cannot take his emphasis on the sole Lordship of Christ, the sovereignty of God, and predestination. That is too much for them. They want a Jesus whom they located, they chose, and whom they commend. Not so Paul.

That is why he says: “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. If you don’t understand what I am saying, you have a problem, you need to repent. You need to be born again.” In whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto them. You are what you are, because you are that in yourself, and you are not in Christ.

Now Paul speaks of the god of this world, meaning Satan. And the premise of Satan is stated very clearly in Genesis 3:5 “Ye shall be as God, knowing, that is determining for yourself, good and evil.”

But if you were to go and ask of members in most churches that profess to be Bible believing, and those who do not: “What is original sin?” They can’t answer you. They cannot say: “The desire to be as God, and to be our own law maker.” They can’t do it. So, in what sense is Jesus their savior? “Well, he saved me from drinking.” Well, Alcohol Anonymous has done that to a great many people, a great many Psychiatrists have saved people from alcoholism. That is not salvation.

You see, it isn’t salvation to say that Jesus Christ saved me from this or that, or that particular sin, no. He is the one who saved us from living according to the God of this world, as though we are our own God. Our own source of law, our own determiner. You can live as though you are your own god, in terms of Satan, and still be very grateful to Jesus. “He helped me see this and that, and I like the fact that he can heal.” And so on. But did He save you, not from a particular sin, but from the principle of sin? You will to be your own God.

There are too many in the church who have never been saved from that. “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.” The glorious gospel of Christ, Paul says, ‘I have known. I have known Jesus the image of God, and therefore renounce Satan and myself, and the premise that every many should be his own God. That is the Christ I preach, and it is in terms of that Jesus Christ that I am ready to be your servant for Jesus sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I now know Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior, because He has saved me from myself, my will to be my own God; and so it is with all those who are with me in your midst, and elsewhere.’

“God hath shined in our hearts, given us 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 ourselves.” We have it, not because we are now Gods ourselves. That is a fearful heresy that many, many have adopted. If original sin is to be as God, how can we be saved from that, if we profess: “Now we are Gods” as many do. In fact, Theosis, salvation by deification, is a prominent doctrine in the Eastern Orthodox Churches. The same doctrine has been creeping into many, many churches in the west.

And so Paul says: “We have this treasure, we have this changed status, in earthen vessels. As long as we are here on earth we are frail people. We become sick when we least expect to. From the things we never expect will affect us. I wondered often enough in my earlier maturity about the fact of growing older: “Well, I am going to come down sometime with something, what will it be? Will it be heart trouble, or will it be this or that?” Never, never did I dream it would be type two Diabetes, the diabetes of old age. It hadn’t existed in the family. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. We know early on we are not here perpetually. We are going to be sick, we are going to fail, in surprising ways sometimes. But we have the resurrection of the body and eternal life in view. We have it in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

“I have shown power” Paul says. “You have seen the power of God in and through me. You have seen it in healings, you have seen it as I preached. I have it of God; not of myself.” And so it is Paul stresses the sovereignty of God and of Christ. He stresses predestination. He does not hesitate to speak with authority, because he knows the authority he is claiming is not his own. It is that of the word of God. And so Paul has a remarkable boldness from beginning to end in all his letters, as he confronts unbelief and false belief. And so Paul to has been resented by many in the church and out of the church. It has been said that Paul has equaled Jesus Christ, if not surpassed Him, in the hatred he has aroused in people. They have been a little more ready to express it against Paul than against Jesus.

After all, it is pretty hard to say this and that that Jesus did is wrong. So their hatred of Him is a little more veiled. But it is open with regard to Paul. And Paul, as with the Corinthians, meets it head on. He is not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He knows that it is through that gospel that he has received salvation. That his strength now is not his own, but Gods, Christ’s in and through him.

And so, in this passage and in others, Paul speaks of what he is in Christ. In a sense he boasts, because he tells them: “It is not my doing, it is Gods doing and God’s grace in me. And it is this grace you need. If you are going to boast of anything, boast of God’s grace. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee for this Thy word. We thank Thee for Paul and his faith, for his clear and outspoken expression of that faith; and we thank thee that by thy grace we have been blessed. By Thee, by Jesus Christ, by Thy Spirit, and by the ministry of Paul to us. Make us joyful in him, in Thee, and in Thy word. In Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes.

[Audience Member] Rush, in reading verse 2 I am reminded of one of the chief things of Paul’s ministry is an attempt to avoid secrecy; again and again he says “You know my life, my manner of life.” Apparently he was contrasting that with other supposed ministers who were secretive and esoteric about their ministry.

[Rushdoony] Yes, we don’t know the names of such persons. We know they existed in the early church, we know that various heresies and false doctrines came in very early; attempts to Judaize the faith, Gnosticism, Hellenism in its various forms, so that very, very early, the attitude of many people who came into the church was: “I will take Jesus, plus. Jesus with this, that and the other thing that I think are very necessary.” And so the church had a battle on its hands, and it was in all quarters, wherever they went the people had their peculiar ideas and faiths, they wanted to drag in and merge with the Christian faith.

Are there any other questions? Or comments?

Well, as you can see, this is not easy going for Paul. It is a sad letter. But it will be joyful before we are through with it, and Paul never allowed the evils that men do to outweigh in his thinking the glory of God as revealed to him in Christ. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, we give thanks unto Thee for this Thy word. We thank Thee for Paul. And we thank Thee that in and through him, Thou hast spoken to untold generations, correcting them in their waywardness and sin, and their self will, and their promotion of false gospels. Use Paul mightily in and through us, to bring Thy truth to people, that they may know the Christ of God. Bless us this day and every day, in our service and our day by day duties, and in our interaction one with another.

And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.