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February 19, 1989
Throughout his ministry, the apostle Paul was surrounded by false teachers and spiritually blind listeners—men and women who professed outward faith but were secretly fickle, faithless, or outright false. In contrast, Paul himself was dedicated to “setting forth the truth plainly.” In this sermon, Alistair Begg takes us through Paul’s defense of his God-centered approach to ministry in 2 Corinthians 4, which points us to the importance of focusing not on ourselves but on the transformative power of Christ’s death and resurrection.
1Therefore, having xthis ministry yby the mercy of God,1 we do not lose heart. 2But we have renounced zdisgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice2 cunning or ato tamper with God's word, but bby the open statement of the truth cwe would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. 3And even dif our gospel is veiled, eit is veiled to fthose who are perishing. 4In their case gthe god of this world dhas blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing hthe light of ithe gospel of the glory of Christ, jwho is the image of God. 5For what kwe proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with lourselves as your servants3 for Jesus' sake. 6For God, who said, m“Let light shine out of darkness,” nhas shone in our hearts to give othe light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7But we have this treasure in pjars of clay, qto show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8We are rafflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but snot forsaken; tstruck down, but not destroyed; 10ualways carrying in the body the death of Jesus, vso that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12So wdeath is at work in us, but life in you.
Copyright © 2024, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
