2 Corinthians 3-5 - Outline

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

January 14, 2013

 *AUG 15 - 2 CORINTHIANS 3-5 - PAUL’S MOTIVE*


 *1. 3:2-3 (3:1-3, NNT) MOTIVE: PRODUCES LIVING LETTERS. “YOU are our
:epistle, written in our :hearts, known and read of all men: 3 being made
manifest that you are Christ’s Epistle, ministered by us, and written not
with ink, but with the living God’s Spirit; not in tables of stone, but on
tables of hearts of flesh.” *Now Father, we see Your Kingdom manifested!
Paul’s converts in his heart, and Your Kingdom written in their hearts by
Your Spirit! O may Your glory cover the earth as the waters cover the
sea. * Hallowed
by your :name!*


 *2. 3:17 (3:4-18) MOTIVE: MINISTRY OF VEIL-REMOVAL. “Now the Lord is the
Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, is liberty.” *Father, we bless
You that Your Spirit rends the veil between You and us! We can now enter
the holiest of all. What grace! What condescension! How can we say
thanks? *Your
:kingdom come!*


 *3. 4:3-4 (4:1-6) MOTIVE: OVERCOME DARKNESS BY LIGHT. “And if our :gospel
is veiled, it is veiled in the perishing: 4 in whom the god of this :age,
has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, that the enlightenment of the
gospel of the glory of the Christ, who is God’s image, should not dawn upon
them.” *Father, You also enlighten our darkened hearts! You enlighten our
minds. You undo the works of the prince of darkness. * Your :will be done,
As in heaven, so on earth.*


 *4. 4:7, 11 (4:7-5:10) MOTIVE: PREPARE FOR JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST. **“For
we have this :treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of
the power be of :God, and not from us; **11 **For we who live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus, that the life also of :Jesus be manifested
in our mortal :flesh.” *Father, You in Christ have condescended to come and
live in us Your house, a people of low degree. You have exalted us above
the heavens. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!*


 *5. 5:13-14a (5:11-15) MOTIVE: MINISTRY OF CONSTRAINING LOVE. “For whether
we were beside ourselves, it is to God; whether we are of sober mind,
it isto you. 14a
For the love of the Christ constrains us.” *Thank You Father, for this
opening of a heart burning for You! We see the goal and ideal to which You
are leading us. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our
:debtors.*


 *6. 5:17 (5:16-19) MOTIVE: MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION. “So that if
any isin Christ, he
is a new creature: the old are passed away; lo, they are become new.” *Legally
Father, we see what You have accomplished for us through Christ at Calvary.
Now vitally, we apprehend this by working out our own salvation with fear
and trembling! *And bring us not into temptation!*


 *7. 5:21 (5:20-21) MOTIVE: MINISTRY AS AN AMBASSADOR. “Him who knew no sin
he made sin on our behalf; that WE might become righteousness of God in
him.” *What a encapsulation of the Gospel in a nutshell! Father, what a
work You have performed in Christ on our behalf! *But deliver us from the
evil one.*


 *NOTE**: 3:18 (3:4-18) MOTIVE: PROGRESSIVE GLORY! **“But we all, with
unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are
transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord
the Spirit.” *Let this take place unceasingly, Father. We submit to You as
the Potter. O take us as the clay, and work this truth fully into us!


 *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: DAILY PRAYER - *The habit of daily prayer must be
maintained. It is well to have regular hours of devotion and to resort to
the same place for prayer, as far as possible. Still, the spirit of prayer
is better than the habit of prayer. It is better to be able to pray at all
times that to make it a rule to pray at certain times and seasons.


 *Our Psalm for the day: 45:6-7 (45, ESV) YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER. “Your
throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a
scepter of uprightness; 7 you have loved righteousness and hated
wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of
gladness beyond your companions.” *Father, in our Lord Jesus we see Your
highest pleasure. We give You our utmost for His highest! * **We
hallowYour :name!
*


 Special singers are appointed for so divine a hymn. King Jesus deserves to
be praised not with random, ranting ravings, but with the sweetest and most
skillful music of the best trained choristers.

 Subject: Some here see Solomon and Pharaoh’s daughter only - they are
short-sighted; others see both Solomon and Christ - they are cross-eyed;
well-focused spiritual eyes see here Jesus only, or if Solomon be present
at all, it must be like those hazy shadows of passers-by which cross the
face of the camera and therefore are dimly traceable upon a photographic
landscape. “The King,” the God Whose throne is forever and ever, is no mere
mortal, and His everlasting dominion is not bounded by Lebanon and Egypt’s
river. This is no wedding song of earthly nuptials, but an epithalamium for
the heavenly Bridegroom and His elect spouse.


 45:1. *My heart is inditing a good matter.* It is a sad thing when the
heart is cold with a good matter, and worse when it is warm with a bad
matter, but incomparably well when a warm heart and a good matter meet
together.


 45:2. *You. *As though the King Himself had suddenly appeared before him,
the Psalmist lost in admiration of His Person, turns from his preface to
address his Lord. A loving heart has the power to realize its object. The
eyes of a true heart see more than the eyes of the head. Moreover, Jesus
reveals Himself when we are pouring forth our affections towards Him. It is
usually the case that when we are ready, Christ appears. If our heart is
warm, it is an index that the sun is shining, and when we enjoy his heat,
we shall soon behold his light. *You are fairer than the children of men. *In
Person, but especially in mind and character, the King of saints is
peerless in beauty. The Hebrew word is doubled, “Beautiful, beautiful, are
You.” Jesus is so emphatically lovely that words must be doubled, strained,
yes, exhausted before He can be described. *Grace is poured into Your lips.
*One word from Himself dissolved the heart of Saul of Tarsus and turned him
into an Apostle; another word raised up John the Divine when fainting in
the Isle of Patmos. Oftentimes a sentence from His lips has turned our own
midnight into morning, our winter into spring.


 45:3. *With Your glory and Your majesty. *Our precious Christ can never be
made too much of. Heaven itself is but just good enough for Him. All the
pomp that angels and archangels, and thrones, and dominions, and
principalities, and powers can pour at His feet is too little for Him. Only
His own essential glory is such as fully answers to the desire of His
people, who can never enough extol Him.


 45:5. *In the heart of the King’s enemies.* Our Captain aims at men’s
hearts rather than their heads, and He hits them, too; point-blank are His
shots, and they enter deep into the vital part of man’s nature. Whether for
love or vengeance, Christ never misses sin, and when His arrows stick, they
cause a smart not soon forgotten, and wound which only He can hear. Jesus’
arrows of conviction are sharp in the quiver of His Word and sharp when on
the bow of His ministers. *Whereby the people fall under You.* There is no
standing against the Son of God when His bow of might is in His hands.

Terrible will be that hour when His bow shall be made quite naked and bolts
of devouring fire shall be hurled upon His adversaries; then shall princes
fall and nations perish.


 45:6. *Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. *To whom can this be
spoken but our Lord? The Psalmist cannot restrain his adoration. His
enlightened eyes see in the royal Husband of the church, God,God to be
adored, God reigning, God reigning everlastingly. Blessed sight! Blind are
the eyes that cannot see God in Christ Jesus! *The scepter of Your kingdom
is a right scepter*. He is the lawful monarch of all things that be. His
rule is founded in right, its law is right, its result is right. Our King
is no usurper and no oppressor. Even when He shall break His enemies with a
rod of iron, He will do no man wrong; His vengeance and His grace are both
in conformity with justice. Hence we trust Him without suspicion; He cannot
err; no affliction is too severe, for He sends it; no judgment too harsh,
for He ordains it. O blessed hands of Jesus! The reigning power is safe
with you. All the just rejoice in the government of the King Who reigns in
righteousness.


 45:11. *So shall the King greatly desire Your beauty. *No great and
lasting revival of religion can be granted us till the professed lovers of
Jesus prove their affection by coming out from an ungodly world, being
separated, and touching not the unclean thing.


 45:12. *And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift. *The power of
missions abroad lies at home: a holy church will be a powerful church. Nor
shall there be lack of treasure in her coffers when grace is in her heart;
the free gifts of a willing people shall enable the workers for God to
carry on their sacred enterprises without stint. *(From “The Treasury of
David” by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)*


 *P.S. The “notes” of Spurgeon on Psalm 45 reach a climax that excels his
notes on the preceding 44 Psalms! Spurgeon’s relationship with the Lord
Jesus from the beginning of his conversion - was exceedingly close. O that *
*all of us** had such a close relationship with our Lord! J.*



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