Do You Know What You Are?

[0:00] And so our sermon text is in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We'll be reading 2 Corinthians chapter 4 starting at verse 5. 2 Corinthians is maybe the most personal letter that Paul wrote to the church.

[0:15] He had been going through so much suffering and his opponents were saying that the church shouldn't listen to Paul because look how weak he is. So they were pointing to his suffering as a sign of weakness.

[0:26] And then Paul, by the inspiration of the Spirit, takes out the pen and here comes this letter to the church. It's like Paul's life has been wrung like you would take a wet towel and just wring out all the water of it.

[0:42] And that's what spills onto the page. It's what's on the inside of Paul through all that he had been going through. The essence of his faith comes out in the verses we're going to read. As I read this, remember that this is God's inspired, inerrant, infallible, clear, and sufficient word.

[0:59] It's God's very own word for you, his people. When I'm done reading, I'll say this is the word of the Lord and will respond. Thanks be to God. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 from 5 to 18.

[1:13] We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake.

[1:26] 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.

[1:38] But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

[1:49] We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed.

[2:01] Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

[2:13] For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

[2:25] So then death worketh in us, but life in you. We, having the same spirit of faith according as it is written, I believed, and therefore I have spoken.

[2:38] We also believe, and therefore speak. Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

[2:50] For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

[3:09] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

[3:21] 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.

[3:33] This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God indeed. You may be seated. The Bible says that the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

[3:51] Let's pray. Father, we trust the promise that as rain brings grain for food, your word goes forth and does not return unto you void.

[4:05] Your word does accomplish that which you please. We trust that your word shall prosper in the purpose for which you send it. I ask, Lord, that you will speak, speak through the sermon that you have helped me to prepare by the power of your Holy Spirit.

[4:26] Lord, I am weak, but you are strong. I pray that the words that come from me as a vessel will just fall and turn to dust and blow away. But the words that reveal Jesus Christ, the treasure of heaven, that those will impact your people, Lord.

[4:43] Encourage them. Reorient us to what matters most in life for your glory in our lives, we pray. Amen. Amen. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, I want to talk to you today about what you are.

[5:07] Not who you are, but what you are. I feel like this is a dangerous sermon, not because it's complicated, but to openly live out our faith, it is dangerous in this world.

[5:26] It's God who preserves us. I'm encouraged that we're not alone in that battle of doing our best to live out and march out our faith in a world that hates the gospel.

[5:39] I'm encouraged by all kinds of different heroes. I've had the opportunity this past year to study one Puritan in the 1600s. His name was John Flavel.

[5:50] So I want to talk to you about the body and the soul from this text today, but I'm also going to be drawing a lot from John Flavel. He's become my favorite of all the Puritans. You might say, why the Puritans?

[6:02] Well, they got to build on the great doctrines of the Reformation that had been buried for centuries, and they lived in a time of extreme persecution. You'll get some insights into that today.

[6:14] John Flavel's parents were devout Christians. They were what was called nonconformists in England. Their conviction said that they will continue to worship God despite the restrictions that the government kept imposing.

[6:32] Well, one evening, his parents gathered with a group of Christians to pray. That's all they were doing. They were meeting in a home to pray. But that was breaking the laws of England. So they got arrested, and they got put into prison.

[6:46] And the prisons in the 1600s in England is not where you want to be. There would be diseases being carried by mice everywhere. There was no provision of food or even blankets or the basic necessities to live.

[6:58] So you were depending on your relatives and others, bringing you everything to survive every day, and also to pay for your own rent for taking up this space in a public building.

[7:10] So many prisoners had to pay a beggar to beg for money on their behalf and then keep a commission. And under those conditions, these Puritan, nonconformist Christians, who were simply trying to be obedient, they wasted away and died in prison.

[7:30] Those were John Flavel's parents. The world viewed the Christians as the problem. Things haven't changed for us.

[7:45] It's different, and we're in a time of peace. But the world still attacks the truth of God's Word. One specific way that this is happening more and more is that the world tries to detach your personal identity from what you are.

[8:14] There are two quotes I came across this week. I won't even tell you who said them, because it doesn't really matter. It's really a symptom of a much deeper issue. Here's the first quote.

[8:26] This is wrong, but this is what the world says. Nature made a mistake which I have corrected. Well, nature doesn't create anything.

[8:41] The Bible teaches that God is the creator and that God is wise and all of God's ways are perfect. Here's another quote.

[8:53] All of us are put in boxes by our society, our moment in history, and even our bodies. And some people have courage to break free.

[9:03] This view denies Christ as holy, as the king, and as the coming judge. So I think it's very important that you, Christian, you know what you are.

[9:23] We can buy into these lies from Satan, from our own sin inside of us, and from the world as well. We can start to think that what I really am is whatever I feel. And if what you feel is who you are, then your feelings will bulldoze over every aspect of your life.

[9:43] On the other hand, if you are only a body, then there's no world to come. There's no spiritual realm. Why would you live this life anyway, but besides what pleases the body?

[9:56] So my goal is that if you are a Christian, you will know more clearly what you are according to God's word.

[10:07] I'm going to do my best to persuade you of this proposition. What God made you in this life prepares you perfectly for the next.

[10:19] I'm going to try to show you five truths from God's word about what you and I are. Here's the proposition one more time.

[10:30] What God made you in this life prepares you perfectly for the next. Number one, what are you? You and I are vessels.

[10:43] Notice Paul's words in verses five, six, and seven. Remember, they're criticizing Paul. They're saying, Paul, you're so weak. Who are you?

[10:54] Why should we listen to you? There's these super apostles. There's these very eloquent speakers. Why would we listen to you? And Paul's answer is in verse five. It's because we don't preach ourselves, but we preach Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

[11:12] Yes, we're low. We're so low. We're your slaves. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[11:27] But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Why? That the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Do you know what you are, Christian?

[11:40] You are an earthen vessel. There's dust that gets mixed with water, put on a potter's wheel, and shaped to a form that's useful.

[11:52] That's what you are, and that's what I am. This is the time of year where, according to the internet, 48% of people make a goal related to their fitness.

[12:05] And also, according to the same source, 91% fail to keep that. Why do you think that is? Well, I think the true answer is because there's bad theology, obviously.

[12:20] But then you could say, well, does that mean someone with great theology is the most fit? Well, unfortunately, that's not true either. You're thinking, when's the last time you looked in the mirror there, preacher? No Greek statue yourself.

[12:34] But we are vessels. But the Bible says we're also more than vessels. It says we created by God in two parts.

[12:46] Notice in verse 6, he says that the gospel shined in your heart. That's your inner being. That's one of the parts. It's inside of you, who you are in the inside.

[12:57] Then he says in verse 7, you're made as an earthen vessel. And that's your outer being. And this is an ancient truth that's been echoed through all of the Scripture very clearly.

[13:10] We're told in Genesis 2-7 that the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. There's the earthen vessel. That's the outer man, the body, the flesh, or the strength.

[13:25] Then, God also breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. and man became a living soul. That's what Genesis 2 says.

[13:37] So God is the one who breathed a spiritual, inner being into man. That's the inner man, the heart, the mind, the soul. John Flavel said, a human being is not a soul nor a body, but both together as a composite.

[13:55] Notice that when they asked Jesus, how should we live? What does it mean to obey your law? Jesus gave a wonderful answer and he's really just telling them back what Moses told the second generation before they entered the promised land.

[14:09] You know, the Ten Commandments went to the first generation at Mount Sinai, Exodus 20, but then to the second generation that are about to enter the land in Deuteronomy 5. Moses summarizes it all up with what Jesus quotes in Mark 12, 30.

[14:23] You shall love the Lord thy God, listen to this, with all thy heart, soul, mind. Is that inner or outer? Heart, soul, mind.

[14:35] It's all your inner man and with all thy strength. That's the outer man. Psalm 8 describes the creation of Adam and all of Adam's seeds, so all humankind, as being made a little lower than the angels.

[14:53] angels, so you're put on earth in a physical body, but also given dominion over all the animals. So man is in this position. You're not an angel, but you're not a beast. You have a body of a beast.

[15:05] You have a body that's an earthen vessel, but you are a spiritual being. You're made for eternity. You're made for that spiritual realm like the angels. And then that's interpreted by the author of Hebrews in Hebrews 2 as Christ's incarnation.

[15:21] Christ was made a little lower than the angels. Being truly God, he also became truly man. And he was given dominion over all the created realm. John Flavel wrote that you are alive physically now because soul, your soul, is the life of your body.

[15:44] The absence of the soul is death to the body. Death is one of the hardest things for metaphysicists to define. What is death? What is death?

[15:56] And we would say simply when the soul leaves the body, that's death. So you're alive physically when your soul is still in your body. And created under Adam, cursed under the sin, he wrote that Christless men are not dead in the physical sense.

[16:14] They are naturally alive, though they are spiritually dead, because they are separated from God. Eternal death is the separation of both body and soul from God.

[16:26] What is eternal death? It's when both your body and your soul are detached from your creator. That's death. You see how what God made you in this life, it prepares you perfectly for the life to come.

[16:43] God put your soul in a weak vessel. Why did he do that? Well, Paul says here, it's so that your body and your weakness will expose to you your need for God, your dependence on Christ.

[16:58] He says in verse 5, that's why we preach Christ Jesus our Lord and not ourselves. So it's tempting, isn't it, to look around or just maybe to look at yourself if you're like me and wish God had given you a better body or maybe even a better mind, less broken.

[17:19] That's probably the root of all of our envy and covetousness. We are weak vessels, but we have to trust that God made us weak vessels to point us to Him, to show us you need God.

[17:34] You are weak. You're too weak on your own. You need to be right with your creator. God did design you, body and soul, perfectly for His purposes in this life in preparation for the next.

[17:54] Verse 7, it's that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Amen? So that's number one. You are a vessel.

[18:06] Do you know what you are? Number two, you are a treasure holding vessel. You're not only a vessel, you are a treasure holding vessel.

[18:22] Paul wrote in verse 6 that God shined in our hearts into our soul the inner man and He gave to your inner being a treasure in verse 7.

[18:34] What is the treasure He's talking about? Well, He answers that in verse 6. Look at that. The treasure is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[18:47] That is the treasure. If you've seen Jesus with the eyes of faith, you know God and that's the treasure. He says in verse 8, We are troubled on every side yet not distressed.

[19:02] We are perplexed but not in despair. Persecuted, not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed. Always bearing about, listen, in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[19:16] That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. See His perfect design? I love how Blaise Pascal described this.

[19:31] So, I'm trying to argue here that you are a vessel that was designed by God to hold this great treasure. That's what you were designed for. And to not have this great treasure, listen to how this mathematician described it.

[19:46] He says, There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing. That's a lot of things.

[19:59] It cannot be satisfied by anything created but only by God the Creator made known through Christ Jesus.

[20:11] Amen. There's a creator-creature distinction. Nothing that the Creator has made can satisfy what you as a vessel were made to hold.

[20:26] The inner treasure makes all of your outer suffering worth it. And I'm looking around the room, there has been a lot of suffering in the outer being.

[20:38] Some of you are currently suffering in the body right now. Or even harder than that is your dear loved one is suffering deeply in the body of flesh. Paul says that the same God who spoke light into darkness and created the whole world, that's the power of His Word.

[21:00] He's regenerated you. He has brought life to your inner being. Your eternal destiny now hinges entirely upon whether or not your soul, your inner person is united to Christ through faith while your body still lives.

[21:20] When your soul leaves your body it's too late. John Flavel wrote, you are alive spiritually now if Christ is the life of your soul.

[21:33] The absence of Christ is death to the soul. But your soul, in verse 7 we're told, receives this treasure, the light of the knowledge of God.

[21:47] And it makes everything you go through on the outside, everything that that weak vessel has to bear, as it wears thinner and thinner with the suffering in life, doable. Not only doable, if you trust that you were made in this life exactly how God wanted you to be made, preparation for the life to come, it makes your suffering now worth it.

[22:08] It made it worth it for Paul. He told this same church later in the same letter, not to brag, in fact it was to brag about his suffering and his weakness as a vessel.

[22:20] He was whipped with 39 lashes, 40 would kill you, it was one short of killing you, five different times. He was beaten with rods for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, three different times.

[22:37] He was pummeled with stones, which was also meant to kill you. He was shipwrecked three times, traveling to take the good news to those who had never heard it.

[22:48] On one of those trips, he was adrift at sea one night and one day. He was frequently having to travel. He experienced dangers from rivers, wild beasts, robbers, in the wilderness.

[23:02] He experienced danger at sea, danger from false brothers, toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, often hungry and thirsty, cold and exposed, and he felt daily anxiety for the bride of Christ.

[23:17] But it was all worth it. That wasting away of his outer man was worth it because of the deep treasure that God had shined in Paul's heart.

[23:32] It's good for us to think about our body, our soul, and even death. God gave us to wear in the soul.

[23:43] God clothes and covers it. It hath worn this garment of flesh from the beginning and is to wear it still till sickness has brought it to rags and death stripped it from its soul.

[23:59] It's good for us to think of our bodies as rags or garments. It's what God gave us to wear in this life. It's going to be decaying off of our soul.

[24:12] It's going to be turned to dust. In the resurrection, we will wear this body again, but glorified. What Paul is confessing to the church here, this inner strength of being united to Christ, is the same thing that John wrote in 1 John 4.

[24:32] He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. We need faith to hold that truth and believe it.

[24:44] The inner treasure makes all the suffering of the outer vessel worth it, because what God made you in this life prepares you perfectly for the next.

[24:58] Do you know what you are? you are a treasure-holding vessel. What's more, as your vessel wears thin, what you are on the inside gets manifested.

[25:16] As your vessel wears thin, what you and I are on the inside gets manifested. Notice what Paul writes in verse 11. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest, where?

[25:38] In our mortal flesh. Verse 12. So then, death worketh in us, but life in you. We, having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore I have spoken, we also believe, and therefore speak.

[26:01] Paul's just bearing witness. He's testifying. He's saying that all of that suffering, it wears me thin, and my body is dying.

[26:13] Paul's garments are worn as thin as rags, and these false teachers are mocking him for being so weak. He says, praise God, God, in verse 11.

[26:24] All that does, as I wear thin in my body, all that does is it makes manifest Jesus Christ, who's on the inside, through my mortal body.

[26:38] Praise God. Well, we all feel the wearing away. Children that are growing, you have growing pains, you feel your body growing and adapting and changing.

[26:50] The rest of us get hurt doing all kinds of very simple, basic tasks. Someone said, life is like a roll of toilet paper.

[27:02] The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes. Think about how many gifts were in your family this year that had to do with managing pain or providing a little bit more comfort somehow.

[27:16] So either way, your body and mine are dying. we are wasting away. But the difference is that when Christ is the treasure, that's not a bad thing.

[27:31] We're going to have a day of fasting. We're going to be showing how weak our vessels are and whatever's on the inside will get manifested. Doesn't that happen? The Lord makes you limp around for a while or puts you in a hospital bed.

[27:45] Whatever's on the inside gets manifested. The world can be the opposite. We sympathize. This is what our flesh wants too. We want the outside to be perfect or make everyone think it's perfect.

[28:00] But you ask that person, they say they feel dead inside. Well, we believe that we were all dead inside. Ephesians 2. Unbelievers stay dead.

[28:15] we have the promise that God while you were dead in sin he saved you. He loved you. He regenerated you. So our body is dying but we have eternal life.

[28:33] The world might try to preserve the body but if there's spiritual death where is your hope? Eternal death, Flavel wrote, is the separation of the body and the soul from God.

[28:47] So a spiritually dead person ignores the life to come. But the Bible says that at the resurrection both your body and your soul will have a horrid reunion one with the other.

[29:02] Think of that. When Christ returns and those who are not united to Christ in their soul they will be raised on the great day of judgment. John Flavel imagines that day where their body and their soul are brought back together one blaming the other.

[29:21] To paraphrase him he said the soul might say body you made us live for all of your wants. It's your fault now. We have no hope.

[29:33] The body says back soul your pride blocked God's call. But you into whose heart God has shined Jesus Christ we read in verse 10 you always bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[29:54] You bear the dying of Jesus in your body. Paul calls this mortifying sin putting to death the remaining sin in the flesh. You want to know what you are.

[30:09] then think of that. Think of being united to Christ in his dying. We read in Luke 23 verse 43 as Jesus hangs dying on the cross and he regenerates the criminal next to him.

[30:31] Jesus promises that criminal this day you will be with me in paradise. From that Flavel said the soul is the life of the body so the soul of that criminal will be with Christ because they're united spiritually and though the body of Christ will be put into the grave and buried and something will happen to the body of that criminal the soul is so united to Christ that that day the criminal will enjoy eternal life.

[31:03] We read in John 19 30 Jesus says it is finished and then he bowed his head and gave up his ghost or his spirit.

[31:17] So Jesus died he gave up his soul or his spirit his inner being was separated from his body. It fulfills what we're told in Ecclesiastes 12 7 then the dust shall return to the earth as it was in the spirit to God who gave it.

[31:42] Paul's body was delivered over to die just as Christ was. The sacrifice that Paul endured as a missionary was identifying with Jesus Christ on the cross and just as the Lord Jesus gave hope to that criminal and to you and me that we are united to him it was the persecution and the suffering that Paul endured that was a spiritual gift it was giving life it was ministering Christ to the church all who believe share in the same spirit of faith he writes and it's because it flows from union to Christ the true vine all souls that are engrafted into Christ share in that same union with Christ so God might use the ailments the illness the troubles that you experience in your body in this life to drive your soul to that union and once you're united to Christ he uses that union to Christ to encourage you as your body wears thin as that vessel gets weaker and weaker and weaker what's on the inside will be manifest he will manifest that precious union to

[32:59] Jesus Christ and God will be glorified in your life it'll be a blessing it'll be a testimony to those he brings into your life so you are a treasure holding vessel and as the vessel wears thin what's on the inside gets manifested do you want to know what you are you are a body and a soul made made for God's glory you are a body and a soul made for God's glory verses 14 through 17 knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you for all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God for which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction is but for a moment and it works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory verse 15 what is all this for why does

[34:27] God allow weak vessels to go through all that we go through in a life it's that it may redound it may multiply it may reverberate as thanksgiving for the glory of God and he says he's working the glory of God inside of you he calls it the eternal weight of glory that's even more exceeding than what you know now we have the promise that our Lord Jesus will present you to God body and soul faultless how can he do this how can God who created you as a body and soul present you broken as you and I are faultless in this way Hebrews 2 answers this question Hebrews 2 14 because you and I are flesh and blood Christ himself also likewise became flesh and blood that through his death he might destroy the devil who has the power of death

[35:36] Jesus Christ became a man we read in the Chalcedonian Creed he became a full man body and soul according to his human nature in order to deliver you as the only mediator between God and man in order to present you faultless before God John Flavel wrote that at death the soul feels the house in which it dwelt dropping into ruins what will your soul do on that day either Christ takes your soul that day when your body drops like a collapsing house and Christ presents you faultless or you're left homeless away from God your sin cannot be in his holy presence he says your soul will be looking for a new habitation but if you're united to Christ in your soul you don't fear death

[36:40] Flavel wrote on that day you can happily let go of your body trusting that Christ will receive you forever and one day he will call your body to be reunited to your soul the glorified state of the resurrection so we behold the glory of God in Jesus by faith now it's the invisible realm one day that faith will be made sight Job said it's with my eyes that I will see my redeemer one day what a great and exceeding weight of glory that expression the weight of glory the weight of your gold or your treasure represented who you were and how much you were literally how much you are worth so you could go to one man's household and he would have his little treasury you would have to stockpile all of that up and weigh it and you go to another man's house and you take all that he owns and put it on a balance and weigh it all up and add up how much treasure you've been able to amass for yourself and however much it weighs the more glorious or powerful or wealthy you are

[37:52] Paul's lost everything he's like Job in the New Testament he's lost everything but he's trusting by faith there is a greater weight of glory in the life to come we trust in the words of Romans 14 that whether we live or die we are the Lord's for to this end Christ died rose and revived that he might be both Lord of the dead and of the living we sang now which was our catechism the first one in an orthodox catechism what is your only comfort in life and in death the answer is that I am not my own but I belong body and soul to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ he has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood what God made you in this life prepares you perfectly for the next

[38:52] Flavel wrote that when the light of this world is gone and all the joy ceases on earth as you mourn around a deathbed it's faith that can give us sights of things invisible in the other world those sights will breathe life into your souls amidst the very pangs of death praise God for this gift of faith if your outer self is wasting away it's for God's glory there's a bright shining treasure in your soul the knowledge of God and the more cracks start to spread throughout the vessel of the body the more of the light of Christ can shine through the more your body is wasting away the more you put to death the desires of your flesh all the more does Jesus shine through because you are body and soul made for God's glory well here's the last thing you need to know about what you are you are made body and soul for the everlasting world to come you are made body and soul not for this world but for the everlasting world to come that's what Paul writes 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 how do you know that what Paul is saying is true how can you know that this is what's really going to happen when this life is over when your body the house collapses and your soul enters the spiritual realm without a body there's no way for me to prove this to you scientifically you need to ask the Lord to give you a gift of faith but one day for everyone death will prove whether the testimony of God's word is true death will put this to the test so we have to ask the question for John Flavel was this testimony something he could hold on to by faith until the very end

[41:24] I told you about his parents at the beginning and England at this time was ravished by plagues some of the worst most deadly plagues of the history of that country in the year 1666 there was a great great fire that destroyed London on top of that the nation was tossed and turned back and forth with civil war when the side that was fighting against the Puritans when they were trying to restrain and institute a formal religion over the whole country then those who were like John Flavel and his parents who had convictions to worship according to the scripture in their conscience when they disobeyed the government willfully they received much opposition from the government as well as from the people a mob formed outside of John Flavel's home they formed an effigy like they made basically a straw man with a picture of John Flavel you're supposed to know that's who this is mocking him and they set it on fire for 25 years of ministry the government banished the Puritans from their country many were in prison like John Bunyan where he wrote

[42:41] Pilgrim's Progress During this time John Flavel had to sneak back into the village the congregation had to go out into open fields to meet him to hear the word of God preached he was imprisoned he had to have their meetings disrupted several times and he had to get on a horse and run away and be chased down one time he got in some rough waters he had to leave the horse behind and just swim through the rocks and the river darted into the ocean to get away during this time with the plagues he had a dear loss within his own household it was his wife Jane and she died giving birth to his only child who also died in the year 1656 listen to how Flavel reflected on this tragic double loss he wrote quote the almighty visited my tent with his rod that's like the prayer of Job that James read for us and in one year the Lord cut off from my tent both the root and the branch the tender mother and the only son but John Flavel wasn't hopeless he wrote there is still though an everlasting tie between the Christ and the believer a tie stronger than all other unions of the world death he said dissolves the dear union between husband and wife friend and friend even soul and body but not between

[44:22] Christ and your soul we have the promise in this text that the same God who raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead he shall raise us up also by the power of Jesus and just as Christ pulls your soul to heaven the encouragement for us now is your soul being united to Christ in heaven let your soul also pull your body heavenward the grief of Christians in this life Flavel wrote is only temporary amen it will be replaced by joy at the resurrection when your souls meet your bodies and bless God one for the other forevermore on that day both body and soul of the believer will enjoy the infinite satisfaction of being together once again in Christ do you see how God made you body and soul perfectly for his purpose in this life to prepare us for the next all glory be to God you know what you are in the words of 1 Corinthians 6 19 and 20

[45:49] Christian you are the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you which you have of God you are not your own you are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit because you are the Lord's amen let's pray oh Lord we confess the same words as ancient Job we know that our Redeemer lives and at the last day he will stand upon this earth and with our eyes we shall see him help us to live in this life in preparation for the life to come so that you will be glorified in our body and in our spirit we ask this for Christ's sake alone amen