2nd Corinthians 4:1-7 | Seeing We Have This Ministry
We are going verse by verse through 2nd Corinthians. Tonight we will look at the first 7 verses in chapter 4 and then we’ll deal with the rest of the chapter next week. The Apostle Paul has been dealing with this theme of ministry. He’s been talking about the ministry, talking about himself in the ministry, and he continues that in verse number one.
2nd Corinthians 4:1 “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;”. The idea there of “fainting not” is that we don’t quit, we don’t give up. Now in ministry there are definitely high times and low times. There are definitely difficult times. There are definitely times that any Pastor, any Pastor’s wife if they were honest would want to quit.
Paul says that God has given him this ministry. He talks about fainting not because sometimes we get weary in the work. He talks about this concept and he deals with this idea and he deals with two concepts in ministry. He actually deals with four concepts in ministry but we’re going to get to two of them tonight. He deals with these two categories. And I’ve tried to teach this to our Church family when it comes to ministry. They’re two sections that we often want to deal with. We want to reach people and we want to teach people. Everything we do should fall under those two categories. Everything we do should be aimed at either we’re reaching people such as soulwinning, social media presence, sending out mailers and other ministries. Then once we reach them and get them here, we want to teach them. You’ll notice that’s the same areas that the Apostle Paul deals with. You could call them the parts of ministry that deal with our sermons and with our soul winning.
He begins by talking about our teaching capacity or the sermons of a minister in regards to how we teach people. We’re going to spend a bit of time in verse 2 because there is a lot of information in verse 2. He says “2 But have renounced…”. The word renounce means to reject or refuse. Because remember in verse one that we have this ministry. He says we faint not. Then he talks about the ministry and says “2 But have renounced…”. There are some things that you have to reject if you are going to be a true man of God. He gives a list of 3 things that a good ministry doesn’t do. Then he gives us three things that a minister does do. I want you to notice those tonight. We’re going to take a little bit of time to dig into those and this has to do with teaching people; the sermons, the preaching, how is it that we disciple, how is it that we minister the word of God?
The first thing he gives us in verse 2 is that he says “2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,…”. One thing that it says they do is reject the hidden things of dishonesty. What the Apostle Paul is saying is that in ministry, we as Pastors and as Deacons and as Evangelists and as men of God, we should renounce the hidden things of dishonesty. This means that we should be transparent. As Pastors, we should be transparent. As men of God, we should be transparent. We should reject or renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. Men of God are transparent. Sometimes people may not be impressed with it but it’s reality.
2nd Timothy 3:10 “10 But thou hast fully known my doctrine,…”. He says look, in ministry they have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. Here’s what it means. Paul said this to Timothy and I believe we can say this at Verity Baptist Church that “thou hast full known our doctrine.”. We’re not stringing you along. I know of conservative type Churches where they try to pretend and try to act like they’re not fundamentalists and not conservative and don’t believe conservative doctrine. They try to feel like a liberal Church. They hide who they are and what their agenda is. They try to feel like a fun center Church. They do that so people will stay at the Church for weeks and months and years and you never really know what the Church believes. They hope that in the long run, they will adjust to the doctrine and slowly learn it.
However, that is not how the Apostle Paul ran his ministry. That’s not how we should run our ministry. Jesus said that the things that you’ve heard in secret, preach those from the housetops. We’re not hiding who we are. In fact, at Verity Baptist Church, we have a whole new member’s class that has been developed just to make sure somebody doesn’t come to our Church for that long before we just sit down and tell them who we are and what we believe. We tell them what we believe about the sodomites, reprobates, Church discipline, etc….Why? Because we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. We want it to be known what we believe. We’re not embarrassed about what we believe. We understand that Christians need time to grow and especially new believers and we get all that. But we want to be able to say like the Apostle Paul, “thou has fully known my doctrine”. People know what we believe and what are doctrine is. We aren’t hiding anything or ashamed of anything.
Paul states that they don’t just know what he believes but he also says this. “10 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life,…”. The example would be that they see them in public, with family, in real life settings. He also says ‘10 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,”. The idea is that a true minister has renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. We want to make fully known who we are and what we believe. I would say that one of our goals, and I believe we’ve achieved it here, is that at Verity Baptist Church we have rejected the hidden things of dishonesty. You know what we believe. We don’t hide it. We’re not ashamed of it. We’re not embarrassed by it. We believe the word of God and that’s not something for us to hide from people.
We see the first thing that good ministers don’t do. Good ministers renounce the hidden things of dishonesty. What you see is what you get. We’re not hiding anything. We want you to know what we believe. You can go on our website and read our statement of faith. You can go on our YouTube channel and watch whatever sermons you want. We want you to know what we believe. We’re not ashamed of it. We want you to know our doctrine and our manner of life.
Secondly the Apostle Paul says “2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness,…”. He says not walking in craftiness. Now what does that mean to not walk in craftiness? Go to Ephesians 4. While you go there, let me define for you the word crafty or craftiness. To be crafty or the word craftiness means an underhanded and subtle way of achieving something. It’s when you’re trying to accomplish something or achieve something but you’re using a deceitful, underhanded, subtle way of accomplishing it.
Ephesians 4:14 “14 That we henceforth be no more children,…” That speaks to the idea of Christian maturity. The idea of growing or maturing in your walk with God. He says “14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine,…”. How do we know if we are mature in our faith? Well, if you are tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine then that shows according to the Apostle Paul your immaturity. If you are King James only today but then listen to some guy on the radio and now you aren’t then you are a child tossed to & fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.
How does that happen? Notice what the Bible says “14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;”. The word “sleight” there means subtle deceiving. You’ve heard of somebody doing a magic trick and they call it a sleight of hand. What does that mean? It means that they’re deceiving you. They’re tricking you. Those that do that with the Word of God, the Bible says they are deceiving you. They cause you to go to and fro carried about with every wind of doctrine.
He also said “cunning craftiness”. Cunning means the ability to be sly. This is scheming, tricking, being underhanded. He’s saying there are some people out there who will try to achieve something through craftiness. They’ll try to achieve something through this underhanded, subtle, deceiving, scheming, sleight of hand. They’re cunning. They’re using craftiness. They’re trying to deceive you. What the Apostle Paul is saying is that they have not only rejected the hidden things of dishonest but also rejected craftiness.
What does that mean exactly? It means that as true ministers of the Word of God, as true preachers of the Word of God, when we stand up to preach the Bible, we’re not using manipulation or tactics. I can tell you this, at Verity Baptist Church there’s no manipulation tactics being used around here. We don’t get to the end of the service and have the pianist play some soft songs with emotional music to try to get you to come down the aisle and make a choice for God. We’re not manipulating. We’re not showing some heart-wrenching video to try to get your money. Do you understand those are manipulation tactics? Paul said that they have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. He said they weren’t walking in craftiness or using manipulation tactics or heart wrenching videos for money.
At Verity Baptist Church, there is almost no attempt to get your money. You can come to our Church for weeks and months and never hear anything about money. We just emphasize what the Bible emphasizes. Once or twice a year I preach a sermon on giving because it is found in the Bible and we’re not ashamed of it. We do want to make fully known our doctrine. The point is that true ministers of God have rejected the hidden things of dishonesty. They have rejected craftiness. There are no manipulation tactics. They aren’t trying to trick you into doing something.
2nd Corinthians 4:2 “2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully;…”. True ministers of God reject the idea of handling the word of God deceitfully. What does that mean? It means we preach the truth. There are Churches all over the city, all over the state, all over this country and all over this world that use the word of God deceitfully. They get up and say “God loves everybody. Bring in the LGBTQ community. If Jesus was here he’d reach out to them and he love them.”. Let me tell you something, that is using the word of God deceitfully. That is literally lying about what the Bible says and skipping portions of scripture that the Bible’s clear about in regards to what the Bible says. But today you have preachers who’ll get up and they’ll pretend like the word of God says something that it doesn’t say. They’re handling the word of God deceitfully.
2nd Timothy 4:1 “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; 2 Preach the word;…”. That’s our goal at Verity Baptist Church. Our goal is to preach the word. We aren’t looking to put on a nice show. We just get together, sing traditional hymns and then open the Word of God and preach. How do we preach the word? “2 Preach the word; be instant in season,…”. You preach the word whether it is popular or not, whether it’s accepted or not. The word of God is never out of season. It may be out of season with the world but we are to preach the word of God whether it is popular or not.
2nd Timothy 4:2 “ 2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine;”. Timothy is being told that there is coming a time when people will not want to hear. In fact, they will not endure sound doctrine “…but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”. They will tell stories and say things that God never said. What are they doing? Handing the word of God deceitfully.
Today you’ve got all these ministers and they’re just bending over backwards trying their best to make sure that they skip and never have to publicly acknowledge certain passages of scripture. If they are forced to, they’ll go out of their way to make sure to say “That’s not what God meant. I know it says that they should be put to death and I know it says that they’re without excuse and that they’ve lost their opportunity but that’s not what it means. You’ve got to understand the context of the culture. If you knew Greek and Hebrew…”. Let me tell you something. That is handling the word of God deceitfully. What should a minister of God do? We shouldn’t try to explain away the word of God. We should just say “Thus saith the Lord God. That’s what the Bible says. If you have a problem with it then take it up with God,”. So ministers have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, they’re renounced craftiness, they’ve renounced manipulation tactics, they’re rejected handling the word of God deceitfully.
After that, the Apostle Paul gives us 3 things that good ministers do. Verse 2 “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…”. We’re rejected handling the word of God deceitfully and embraced manifesting the truth. What this means is that we should speak the truth in love. Why? Ephesians 4:15 “15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:”. In order for you to grow, you need to know what the Bible actually says. My job is to speak the truth. However, my job is to speak the truth in love. That means that you actually love people. You’re not going to lie to them but you won’t be rude either. The Bible says that we should be bold and that we should preach with authority. The Bible tells us that we have to speak the truth in love. What does a good minister do? They make manifest the truth. It means that they show what the Bible says and teach it and break it down but they do it in love.
2nd Corinthians 4:2 “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.”. The 2nd thing good ministers do is commending themselves to every man’s conscience. What does that mean? It means to present as suitable. A lot of churches use manipulation tactics and always preach on money. But we don’t do that. So how do we get 100+ sermons to come out each week and people to volunteer and serve in difference capacities? We do that by commending ourselves to every man’s conscience. What does that mean? It means we don’t manipulate you. We preach the truth and your conscience knows that you are guilty of these things and the Holy Spirit works on your conscience to help you choose to right. We are trying to convince you that you should do what God wants you to do. By the way, if you do it that’s between you and God. If you don’t, that’s between you and God.
1st Timothy 1:5 “5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:”. Why should people choose to volunteer? In order to have a good and pure conscience. 1st Timothy 1:19 “19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:”. Why should we be faithful to Church? Why should we be soulwinners? Why should we read the Bible? Why should we pray? Why should we be good husbands or good wives or good parents? Here’s why. So you can have a good conscience. So you can have a pure conscience with God and with men. What we do is we appeal to your conscience. We teach you the word of God. There are no tricks under the sleeve but just the Word of God.
Paul stated that there are 3 things that good ministers of God don’t do. Then he says there are 3 things that good ministers do. They manifest the truth. They speak the truth in love. They appeal to your conscience, not your emotions. Sometimes emotions play a part but we don’t get up here and try to make you feel bad or good or a certain way in order to do anything. We just tell you what the Bible says God expects of us or wants us to do.
Then he says this at the end of verse 2 “…in the sight of God.”. What do good ministers do? They walk and minister before God. Remember that if you ever get the opportunity to preach here before 200 people, you should walk into that pulpit with the idea that you are preaching to an audience of 1. We are preaching for God and trying to impress him. I’m not up here trying to impress you. I’m trying to appeal to your conscience. I’m trying to tell you what the Bible says. I’m trying to tell you the things that are wrong and the things that are right. But at the end of day, whether you think it’s a great sermon or not, my job is to please God. I’m preaching in the sight of God. We do what we do for God. By the way, that’s the only way to stick in ministry. If you do ministry to get thanked by people then good luck. If you go into ministry to be appreciated by people then you won’t last very long.
2nd Corinthians 2:17 “17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.”. A true minister and man of God does not care what people think about his message. He does not care if people are impressed with this message. He does not care if people are offended or if they like it. Our goal is to please God. We speak in the sight of God. We speak for the glory of God. We preach for the audience of one.
Galatians 1:10. Notice what Paul says “10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”. Let me tell you something. Joel Osteen is not pleasing God. He is not a servant of Christ. He pleases a lot of men. Billy Graham pleased a lot of men. Rick Warren pleases a lot of men. They’re not pleasing God. They’re not servants of Christ. True preachers of the word of God, they preach in the sight of God to please God, an audience of one.
Go back to 2nd Corinthians 4. So the Apostle Paul is talking about this idea of ministry. Paul talks about what a good minister doesn’t do and what they do. It’s all in reference to the sermons, the preaching and teaching aspect. They reject the hidden things of dishonesty. You see what you get. We’ve made fully known our doctrine unto you in our manner of life. They reject craftiness. There are no manipulation tactics here. We reject the handling of the word of God deceitfully. We preach the truth, the whole counsel of God. We don’t try to explain away what God said or what God meant. We just tell you “This is what the Bible says.”. If people don’t like it then that’s their problem.
Then he tells us what a good minister does. They make manifest the truth. They speak the truth in love. They appeal to the conscience. They don’t try to get you all riled up emotionally. There is nothing wrong with emotion but that isn’t their main focus. At the end of the day, you better not be doing something just because you are emotional. You better know what you believe and why you’re doing it. And then they do it for God, not to be seen of men. He says “but in the sight of God”.
Then the Apostle Paul he transitions a little bit in verse 3. Because if you remember, in ministry there are two categories. There is reach and teach. There are the sermons and then there is soulwinning. He begins to talk about the soulwinning aspect or the reaching aspect in verse 3. He begins by talking about our mission. 2nd Corinthians 4:3 “3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:”. This is a powerful verse. I want to emphasize that when we don’t go soulwinning, when we refuse to preach the gospel to unbelievers, it’s really a selfish thing. When you are saved and refuse to preach the gospel, you’re literally hurting the people who need it the most. When you have the truth but hide it because you are tired or don’t feel like it, the Bible says the gospel is hid to them that are lost. People that are lost or unsaved are not going to come to us. We have to go to them. If someone goes out hiking and gets lots, they aren’t coming back unless someone finds them.
Verse 4 “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.”. Notice in this verse, “god” has a lower-case g. This is not God almighty, God in heaven. This is the Devil. Calvinists will tell you that this is God Almighty but it is actually the Devil because he is the one blinding people. God wants people saved but the Devil doesn’t. Calvinists think that God doesn’t want people saved and they will use this verse. They think God chooses who goes to heaven and who goes to hell apart from our free will.
There are two major problems with that statement. Number one, that lowercase g. This is not God Almighty. But also notice in this verse that it says god blinded the minds of them which believe not. It doesn’t say god blinded their minds so they would not believe. Do you understand the difference? He didn’t blind them so they wouldn’t believe. He blinded the ones that did not believe. The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. What does that mean? That means that the world is full of unsaved people out there that are lost. What is the Devil doing? He’s keeping them lost. He’s keeping them blind. He’s keeping them distracted. He doesn’t care if they go to Church as long as they don’t go to Church and preach the gospel. He doesn’t care if they get involved in all sorts of nice conservative things or charities or cleaning the park. As long as they don’t believe the gospel then he is happy. If he has to get them distracted in to sports or hunting or hiking or business then that is fine with him as long as you don’t believe the gospel. He doesn’t care what they are into as long as it’s not into Jesus. “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.”. The word “lest” is unless or with the intention of preventing. These people don’t have to stay blind because it says the light of the glorious gospel of Christ can shine unto them.
Go to Acts 26. Remember when the Apostle Paul was going down the road to Damascus and the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him. The Bible says that he was blind and he spent three days blind. He did not get saved on Damascus road. He went into the town there and Ananias, a soul winner, came and preached the gospel to him. When he got saved spiritually, God returned his physical eyesight back. That’s why we sing amazing grace. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”. Before you were saved, you were blinded by the god of this world.
Acts 26:18 “18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.”. I once was lost but now am found was blind but now I see. Our mission is to go to those that believe not. They are blinded. They are distracted. They are deceived by the Devil. Our job is to bring the light to them, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God.
Let me just say this. We looked at earlier “the god of this world” which is referring to the Devil. You see, “the god of this world” is referring to the person who is controlling the system of this world. Let me tell you something, the world is being run by the Devil today. Ephesians 2:2 “2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”. You see, the Devil wants to get everybody on his path. Remember, Jesus said “strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and there be few that find it”. He says “wide is the gate and broad is the way and many there be which go in thereat.”. See, the prince of the power of the air is a reference to Satan. He is the one that is setting the course of this world. It is his spirit that is working in the children of disobedience (referring to unsaved or unbelieving people). Unsaved people are blinded by the Devil. That doesn’t mean reprobates necessarily. It means that they’re distracted by the Devil. He has them on this path and he’s trying to keep them on that path. Our job is to go and shine the light of the gospel and persuade them to leave the wrong path. Our goal is to get them to trust on Jesus rather than their works for salvation.
John 12:31 “31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”. Notice how he says the prince of this world or the prince of the power of the air. That’s why Paul told us in Ephesians that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places. That’s why you should be careful about getting so excited over politicians. The person running this world is the Devil. He is the prince of this world.
John 14:30 “30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh,…”. This is Jesus talking about the Devil. Look at John 16:8 “8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:”. Look at verse 11 “11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.”. The god of this world is the Devil. He’s going to be judged one day but right now he’s the one setting the course, deceiving the people. It is our job to go and turn them from darkness to light. It is our job to open their eyes. See, when it says that the god of this world has blinded them, I kind of picture being blindfolded. This is spiritually blind obviously. But it’s like they are just sitting there asleep with a blindfold on.
The Devil has a way to shape the beliefs of the culture. They Devil decided everyone is going to just like a bunch of wicked, disgusting homos and everybody is like “Ok.”. If you are a normal human being then you know it is disgusting. I am not even saying spiritually. Just your own mind knows it’s disgusting. But the Devil puts it on every show, every commercial, every talk show, all the media. People are just following the Devil. Then people just follow the pattern of what they see in social media. The blind following the blind into a ditch. Our job is to go and open their eyes, remove the blindfold say, show them what the Bible says.
2nd Corinthians 4:5 “5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord;…”. Sometimes I want to tell young preachers that they get up and preach a sermon and they talk way too much about themselves. I understand that there are times for illustrations and stories. I’m not against that. However, our message is that we preach Christ, not ourselves. “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.”.
We’re going to finish in verse 7 but I’ll also show you a few other verses as we conclude. This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. 2nd Corinthians 4:7 “7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”. What’s the verse talking about? Well the context, the treasure is the glorious gospel of the Lord. Jesus Christ is the light that we have received. Remember in verse 6 is says “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.”. God has given this message that is in us. He’s given this message as a ministry to us. In other passages he says “the ministry of reconciliation” has been given to us. The responsibility has been given to us to go out and preach the gospel.
He says “7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”. The vessels is referring to our body or tabernacle or flesh on this earth. We were made out of nothing, the dust of the ground. But in God is this treasure. This is a very eloquent verse. Our King James Bible has this beautiful way of saying these things. But I want you to understand that there’s a very real application to this verse. When it says “but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency the power may be of God, and not of us.”. It’s not just an eloquent verse that we like to say and quote. There’s a very real application.
Go to 1st Peter 1:12. “12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.”. This is a wordy verse but I want you to follow what he’s talking about. When he says “not unto themselves”, it’s saying that the gospel was not something that was revealed to you by yourself. But there was someone who ministered it to you or gave you the gospel. Romans 1 tells us that the gospel goes from faith to faith. This goes back to the fact that someone took the time to make sure you didn’t die and go to hell. It is selfish if you are too busy to ever pass that message on to others.
At the end of this verse it says “which things the angels desire to look into”. I think it’s an amazing phrase. What does that mean? Here’s what it means and here is what Peter is saying. Somebody gave you the gospel and now you have the gospel and the Holy Spirit and you have the ability to go and give that to somebody else. The angels are up in heaven wanting to come down and preach the gospel. They wish they had the ability. However people are too busy on Saturdays with their hobbies and other distractions to take the time to preach the gospel.
See, the angels are not allowed to preach the gospel. Why is that? Here’s why. 2nd Corinthians 4:7 he says “7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,”. He’s given us the ministry of reconciliation. This is why Jesus appears to Paul on the Damascus road but doesn’t give Paul the gospel. Why did Paul go blind for 3 days to Ananias and Ananias preached the gospel to him? Jesus was in his glorified body and he needed a human soul winner living on earth to give the gospel to him. Why? Because we have this treasure in earthen vessels. So why didn’t the angel just show up when Cornelius was praying there in Acts 10 and preach to him instead of telling him that he needed to get Simon Peter? Here’s why. Because we have this treasure in earthen vessels. The ministry of reconciliation has been given unto us and the angels they desire to look into it but they’re not allowed to. By the way, you won’t be allowed to either when you’re in heaven. However, you can now. It is a miracle of God that he would give us the ministry of reconciliation.
Paul says but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. It goes back and he circles back to the idea that he began with. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.”. Let me tell you something. If people are going to get saved, they’re going to get saved because a believer on earth in an earthen vessel takes the time to go preach the gospel to them. So who are you failing in preaching the gospel to? Aren’t you thankful that somebody took the time to give you the gospel? We should return the favor. It is a miracle that sinners saved by grace could go and preach the gospel, and open the eyes of unbelievers, and turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God. The angels desire to look into it. God has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
Let’s pray.