“The treasure is the truth” by John MacArthur
“Preachers are men- that’s all. And men are not perfect, so there is no hope of perfection in the ministry.
If God could not use poor instruments and feeble voices, He couldn’t make music.
Abraham was guilty of duplicity, yet he became the man of faith and the friend of God.
Moses was a man of stuttering speech and a quick temper, yet he was the one chosen to lead a nation, to represent them before God, and to receive His law and deliver it to them.
David was guilty of adultery, conspiracy, murder, and unfaithfulness as a husband and father, but he repented and was regarded as a man after God’s own heart. He was also the greatest songwriter of all history. We still sing the songs of this “sweet singer of Israel.”
Elijah ran from Jezebel, pleading for euthanasia, but this same Elijah defied Ahab and all the prophets of Baal, and heard the still small voice of God at Horeb.
In the midst of the heavenly vision, Isaiah said, “I am a man with a dirty mouth; I live among people with dirty mouths. I’m certainly useless to you, O God.” But when he had been cleansed, he said, “Here am I; send me,” and God said, “Go.”
Peter was another clay pot, the leader and spokesman of the twelve apostles, but he denied his Lord with oaths and curses, and even had the audacity to correct the Lord. However, he was restored by the compassion of Jesus in the midst of his disobedience, and was enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit to speak with such force on the day of Pentecost as to be the agent by which God orchestrated the great introduction of the church.
John the apostle expected to be praised by Jesus for refusing to allow a man not of their company to cast out demons in the name of the Lord. Likewise, he and his brother James wanted to call down fire from heaven and burn up a Samaritan village, and they sent their mother to ask that they might be given the chief places in the kingdom. Yet John became the beloved disciple, the apostle of love, the eagle who soared to great heights. He became, it seems, the apostle who pierced the deepest into the mystery of the incarnation.
Are you seeing a pattern?
So it was with Paul. He was under assault unjustly; he was falsely accused; he was battered and hammered. The attacks against him were often physical.
In 2 Corinthians 11, he lists all of the physical attacks he endured: five times beaten by the Jews with thirty-nine stripes; three times beaten with rods by the Gentiles; and once stoned.
Then there were the criticisms of the false teachers. The Judaizers relentlessly dogged his steps, plotting at every turn to get rid of him. He suffered so greatly that he literally says, “I die daily” (1 Cor. 15:31).
That wasn’t some mystical, spiritual experience; what he meant was, “I get up every morning prepared for the reality that this could be the day I die.”
So much of his suffering was at the hands of the very people he loved the most. He even said to the Corinthians, “How is it that the more I love you, the less you love me? I don’t get it.”
And yet, he knew that this treatment was commensurate with what he deserved. He even realized that the ill treatment he received kept him dependent on God. He says, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).
His defense all the way through is, “You’re right; you’re right; you’re right. I’m weak, I know.” He does not argue against the false teachers’ accusations of weakness; rather he affirms them.
Yet his weaknesses are not defects; they are credentials of his authentic apostleship. This little section in 2 Corinthians 4 unfolds for us a magnificent tribute to a humble man.
He defends himself not on the basis of natural talent, human skill, or achievement. He just agrees, and he makes a comparison that is magnificent.
Paul writes, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, [so] that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves” (v. 7).
God puts the priceless treasure in clay pots for this very reason: no one ever has to ask where the power comes from!
In comparison to the glory of the eternal God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, in comparison to the magnificence of the New Covenant expressed all through chapter 3, in comparison to Christ’s shining glory, the preacher is nothing!
In chapter 10, Paul says, “I don’t get into comparing myself with other preachers. I just start here: `We have this treasure, this ministry.“‘
The ministry is “the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (4:4).
The gospel is the treasure. It is the story of God incarnate in Christ redeeming sinners, that great shining gospel.
That is what Paul describes in the wondrous third chapter, where he unfolds the New Covenant.
He says the treasure is the truth.
It is the truth that God is in Christ, bringing good news of salvation. And He put that treasure in clay pots.”
-John MacArthur, “A Reminder to Shepherds“, in Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2002), 276-280.
