Verse 12, this is God's word. But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. Read that far in God's word. Paul's goal with his relationship to Corinth was not to leave behind there a monument to himself, but rather to leave behind Christians in a church who are a monument to God by living faithfully to him. This goal is evident in our passage. Again, the fact that Paul remained focused on ministry in Corinth until the believers were well grounded in the Word of God. It brings us to our main point, because Paul was commissioned by God, Paul was guaranteed victory despite experiencing hardships. First, we'll see that Paul's loving burden for the Corinthians was a hardship to him, verses 12 and 13. Then in verse 14, as he changes gears and introduces this victory theme, we'll see that Paul was thankful that God always spreads the gospel like the sweet smell of victory. And then lastly, verses 15 to 17, we'll see how Paul himself and the other preachers became the sweet smell of victory, remaining conscious that God was accomplishing gains. through Paul. So first, verses 12 and 13, let me read those again. When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there, so I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia. So while Paul was the traveling missionary preaching the gospel in new places such as Troas, Paul was always remaining burdened for Corinth. the church in Corinth. He cared and was so caring that he was distracted. Now Troas was going well. In fact, he describes it here, as he only does in a couple places in his letters, as an open door. Troas was a city that was welcoming the gospel. They were giving him many opportunities. He even stayed up most of the night to continue to teach them. It was an open door for the gospel. When he came to Troas, as reported in Acts chapter 20, he taught late into the night. And as always on his missionary journeys, he was more focused on providing gospel teaching than he was about caring for himself. However, as he says in these two verses, he was so preoccupied with his loving burden for the Corinthians and his relationship to them and their concerns over there and the fact that they had false apostles coming in and they were having problems in the church in Corinth, that he had, as he describes here in verse 13, no rest. He had no rest, he had tremendously fruitful ministry happening in Troas, but he had no peace of mind. He was so eager to hear the update about Corinth that would come from Titus that he wrote here in verse 13, my spirit was not at rest. So the arrangement seemed to be that Titus would come to the city of Troas and meet Paul there and Titus would bring him the update about Corinth. Naturally, I mean, this is 2,000 years ago, so they couldn't just check the website. This was the way that he received information about the church in Corinth. However, the arrangement seemed to be that if Titus couldn't get to Troas, For example, if winter came and it closed the seas for ships and he wasn't able to travel, then the arrangement would be instead Paul and Titus would meet up in Macedonia, which is why he mentions Macedonia in verse 13. So the fact though, the main point to understand is that the fact that Paul was willing to leave an open door, a fruitful ministry in Troas, underlines the unrest that Paul was experiencing about Corinth, and it demonstrates to the church in Corinth how much Paul loved them. That's point one, Paul's loving burden for the Corinthians. It was so loving, so burdensome, it actually became a hardship to him. It was Paul's zeal for the gospel that brought him to Troas, but it was his passionate concern for the Corinthians that caused Paul to leave Troas. and go to Macedonia hoping to get the report from Titus about the status in Corinth. Move to our second point here now when Paul breaks out into this theme of victory. We read verse 14 again. Notice the word triumphal. Triumphal is the theme of this next section. Victory is to the false apostles gaining influence in Corinth, Paul looked to them like a defeated person. So he's writing here about triumph, about victory. The false apostles in Corinth were pointing out how, you remember Paul lost integrity? He said he would come, but he didn't come. He changes his travel plans again and again regarding Corinth and Ephesus, and he seems to always focus in his preaching and teaching about this crucified Christ, crucified Christ, the cross of Christ, crucified Christ. It's all showing that Paul's pointing to crucified Savior, and Paul himself is a sorry figure. He's a defeated man. And this was the accusations coming from the false apostles towards Paul in Corinth, and Paul was away from Corinth. We'll see this in the future chapters. In fact, they contended that Paul was the prime example of weakness. He's a poster boy for abject defeat. Meanwhile, the super apostles, the false apostles who are gaining influence over in Corinth, they were the prime examples of power and success. So that's why Paul's writing verse 14, in response to that background, that talk was happening in Corinth. He shows the readers in Corinth, reading verse 14, how Paul viewed Paul's ministry. The way Paul saw it, God was actually leading Paul in triumph. Paul saw this to be true still, regardless of Paul having been rejected in Corinth, Paul being expelled from Ephesus, Paul experiencing that inward turmoil despite outward success in Troas that we just talked about, and that Paul left Troas, a place with successful, fruitful ministry and an open door, in order to go to Macedonia to alleviate his inner turmoil by hearing from Titus about the condition of Corinth. Despite all those things, he still would put the word triumph over his ministry. In Paul's view, if you look at verse 14, even in what appeared to be setbacks and difficulties, he was being led by God always through Christ in a victory parade. Paul's view is like that. Paul admitted that there were afflictions. He admitted that there were sorrows. He wasn't putting blinders over his eyes or refusing to admit there were difficulties, sure. But he still could say God's comfort is greater than the afflictions. He still could say knowing God dwarfs the sorrows. But after Paul wrote about not having rest in verse 13, notice what he says in verse 14 at the very beginning. But thanks be to God. How can he say he has no rest and yet say thanks be to God? It's the same tension he's been writing about in the whole book. I have afflictions but I have comfort. We have troubles and hardships, but we have Christ, the knowledge of Christ. Thanks be to God. He leads us forward in victory, and he uses the word always. Always leads us forward in victory. So in the struggles that Paul was finding in his missionary journey, and in his burden for the church in Corinth, Paul remained thankful. God always wins. God's always providing victory and expansion for his kingdom. The illustration Paul used here for God's victory was a common sight for the ancient people in Corinth, a Roman victory parade is what he references here. In a Roman victory parade, what would happen is a military general who had gone out and achieved a major battle win for Rome, would be allowed to ride in a golden chariot back into his home city in order to celebrate his victory. So winning commanders would ride through the city streets with their prisoners of war to demonstrate how much power they had over their prisoners of war. So Paul evokes this whole scene to the minds of the readers in Corinth, and we can imagine it as well, this many years later. Paul saw himself in that parade in what position? Paul saw himself as one of those prisoners of war, one of those captives, one of those under Christ the victor. Remember, Paul used to be persecuting the church when his name was Saul. He was putting believers to death. He was an opponent of Christ the victor, Christ the captain, Christ the king of his kingdom. But then, Paul, or Saul, met Christ, his captain, on the road to Damascus, you remember? Christ converted Saul to Paul. He became his prisoner of war, so that in Christ's victory parade, Paul was captive to Christ, the victor. Paul looked weak, therefore. Paul looked to false apostles as if he was weak and defeated. He was merely a prisoner of war. But in reality, Paul's reminding them here in verse 14, he's part of a triumphal procession of Christ that always wins. And so he's merely a slave to the great victor, Christ. He's presenting what Christianity is. He's presenting what gospel work is, what the church is all about. Paul is presenting this vision of Christ the victor, who always gets victory, and we as his servants. Notice this is how Paul dealt with the false apostles. We'll see it again in future chapters. But Paul didn't answer by claiming, no, no, no, I have personal strength. Oh, no, no, I have ministry success. Oh, no, no, I'm superior to you, false apostles, as they were saying they were superior to him. No, he didn't take it on like that at all. Instead, Paul owned his own weaknesses. And Paul confessed his restlessness of spirit. He had just done that in verse 13. If he wanted to look good, why would he say, I'm so restless in spirit that I had to leave an open door to go find Titus in Macedonia? He owned his restlessness. And what Paul showed was personal defeat, meanwhile, the victory of Christ. Christ Jesus, the victor. Paul was a servant, servant to Christ, assigned to the Corinthians. a servant to Christ, assigned to do the missionary journeys and go to Troas and Ephesus, Christ is his master. Christ is his captain. Christ is the captain and master of the Corinthians. And Paul says, I'm just a fool. Christ is wise. My ministry, like my Savior's, is characterized by suffering. But Jesus has risen again. And my Lord has comforted me during my suffering. This is the image that Paul is presenting to the church in Corinth. His ministry is not about Paul, rather it's about the unstoppable grace of Christ, like a victory parade. Paul remained always thankful, that's why he begins Verse 14, but thanks be to God, he meant it. He remained thankful that despite Paul's many weaknesses, afflictions, struggles, failings, he saw the truth that God always spreads the gospel. And he uses the imagery that came from these Roman victory parades, the imagery of a smell, a sweet smell of victory that would emanate through the city because of that parade. Part of the ceremony of those Roman parades of triumph was burning incense. A strong smell was combined with what the crowd would be seeing in the parade, the prisoners of war and then the victorious Roman general. And what the crowd would hear as the procession goes by, praises to the Roman general and the soldiers and insults against the prisoners of war. And the splendor of the occasion, the victory for Rome was enhanced with a unique and pungent fragrance for the crowd. For some in the crowd, it meant death, we're gonna die. For some in the crowd, it meant, this is victory for Rome. So too, Paul wrote here in verse 18, borrowing that analogy of the smell that went along with the parade, that God is the one who spreads his fragrance everywhere, and the fragrance is the knowledge of Christ. You see it in verse 14. Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him. Everywhere, it's the knowledge of Christ. Paul's led by God. Any sufferings that he suffered smelled like comfort because they smelled like victory. Any difficulties smelled like gospel triumph. That's point two, Paul was thankful that God always spreads the gospel like the sweet smell of victory. And then the last three verses, 15, 16, and 17, Paul and others became themselves the sweet smell of victory, remaining ever conscious that God was accomplishing gains through Paul. Verses 15 and 16, we are the aroma of Christ to God. Notice he said we are the aroma. Now the apostles, not just the gospel, but the apostles themselves become the aroma of Christ. to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? The point of the illustration of the fragrance is that the smell was invisible, but it had an effect on each person. The fragrance had the effect of dividing people into two groups, for and against. Two groups. To some, it smelled like death. Ooh, yuck, I'm against that. No, I don't want that smell. That's one group, against. And to the other group, oh, that's wonderful. Yes, please, give me more of that. I feel better already. The fragrance represented the word of God that divided people into two groups. To some, Paul's Bible preaching smelled like death. Ooh, yuck, get him to stop. I don't want to hear any more about this Jesus fellow. But to others, Paul's Bible preaching smelled like life. Yes, please tell me and tell me again and tell me more. The one group was the people who rejected and recoiled at the hearing of the gospel of Christ, and the other group was the people who received and warmly welcomed the hearing of the gospel of Christ. To some, the message of Jesus was like the stench of a defeated dead man from whom they backed away. That group was those who were spiritually perishing. They were themselves as dead as they thought Christ was. To the others, the message of Jesus was like the revitalizing smell of the risen Lord, a message which they eagerly received and were drawn towards always. As they would welcome the fragrance of beautiful perfume, they welcomed the good news about the resurrected Jesus. This group was those who were spiritually coming alive. They used to be perishing, but now they were looking forward to living everlastingly. So these two reactions to Paul's preaching are instigated by Christ the victor, Christ the captain. He's describing it wonderfully with this fragrance. Two very different reactions. You could say it this way, Paul's preaching was dividing the crowds. They were either for Christ or against Christ, because Paul was faithfully preaching Christ. So if Christ the Savior smelled like death to them, then Paul the preacher smelled like death to them. But if Christ the Savior smelled like life to them, then Paul the preacher smelled like life to them. That's why Paul could write in verse 15, we are the aroma of Christ. No wonder they reacted to Paul by dishonoring Paul. They were dishonoring Christ. The faithful ministry of the apostle Paul was what caused him to be dishonored. Paul never intended for people to be driven away from Christ. He rather wanted them to be saved. Paul did his best to persuade people to trust in Christ. Some would not embrace the message of grace and the love of Jesus. This is why Paul asks this question in verse 16. He pauses to kind of reflect. Who's sufficient for these things? The weight of preaching the gospel weighed on him. Who's equal to the task of dispensing and being the fragrance of Christ? A task that has eternal consequences in two directions. Jesus himself wept over the souls of people in Jerusalem. And Paul experienced great sorrow and unceasing anguish for spiritual souls of people. So here Paul's admitting he's not sufficient to be a representative of Christ with so much at stake. And yet, God himself called Paul and commissioned him to do exactly this work of an apostle and a missionary. And God furthermore joins the message with the messenger. Think of it, the message of God was Jesus joined to the message of the gospel. Again, the message of God is joined to Paul, the apostolic messenger sent by Christ, and this is significant. Since a doubt could be cast over Paul by false apostles speaking about it there in Corinth, they could cast this doubt over Paul saying, how could he be sent from God? He says he's sent from God. How could that be so when God's own people, the Jews, are rejecting Paul's ministry? With those sort of questions in the air, Paul's realizing the importance of demonstrating his ministry and its authenticity as over against the false apostles, which is what brings us to our last verse this morning, verse 17. He distinguishes himself from others in exact and particular ways. Listen to verse 17. Like so many, peddlers of God's word. But as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. Here Paul contrasted himself with a group whom he called a couple things. Number one, he called them many. It wasn't just a couple of super apostles in Corinth, there were many. And number two, Paul further identified them as peddlers of God's word. What does that mean? It meant that people made money off of the word of God. The word peddlers here was used for people who in Corinth at that time were selling wine. But they were the type of wine sellers who had drastically watered down the wine in order to have more wine and sell it fraudulently. The implication was that the church in Corinth was making excessive payments to these false apostles, and in return, they were receiving a diluted, weakened message from these false apostles, diluting the word of God. The peddlers were departing from the central message of God's word while advertising it as God's word and gaining money by doing so. But the gospel had a definite content. The gospel was not up for grabs and flexible. The gospel had a definite content. Jesus crucified, Jesus risen again. But these false apostles were altering that content to please people and get more money. And this was the objective and verifiable concern that Paul had, Paul describing himself here as a man of sincerity. And for Paul's part, he wanted the Corinthians to know that Paul was not exercising his ministry for financial gain or any other kind of gain. Rather, Paul's ministry originated from God, and if you look at it objectively, Paul's experiencing a lot of losses. But he's experiencing those losses for the calling that God gave him to continue, commissioned by God, in the sight of God, to speak in Christ, as he writes here in verse 17. So what have we seen? Paul was commissioned by God, which means he was guaranteed victory. despite experiencing hardship. So he titled this message, Always Smelling Victory. His loving burden for the Corinthians never went away. It was a hardship for him until the church in Corinth did better. And secondly, Paul was thankful that God always spreads the gospel, like the sweet smell of victory. No matter the suffering or struggles or failures of Paul, God's always advancing his kingdom. And then thirdly, Paul became the sweet smell of victory remaining conscious that it was God who was accomplishing gains through Paul. So the conclusion is this, what does victory smell like? No matter the difficulties that we face in this life, victory smells like the guaranteed love of Jesus and the unchanging grace of Christ. You think about odors, that one of the main things he presents in this passage is odors or fragrances, and they're so strong. They're strong in two directions. We talked about smell of death to some, smell of life to others. We experience smells very significantly. I'll give you two quick examples. You could be driving 65 miles per hour down the highway. And if any time prior to that, in the previous two hours, a skunk has suffered a displeasure, you will know about it in your car, though you're zipping by at 65 miles an hour. That's one illustration of how pungent fragrances and odors are. The second example is a soldier went to a post office on a military base to pick up a letter from his fiancée. They told him the letter wasn't there. He said, yes, it is. They said, no, it's not. He said, yes, it is. They said, no, it's not. How do they resolve this? He wouldn't leave. He says, I know my letter is here. They brought the postmaster out and had a conversation with this soldier. How can you be so sure? I know my fiance's perfume, and it's in here. Give me my letter. And they kept searching until they found the letter and the soldier got his lever. Second example of fragrances are strong but can be in a good way. And the fragrance of victory smells like the gospel of Jesus. It smells like Jesus won. It smells like Jesus loves us. It smells like the good news that our sins are washed away and we belong to him and we're loved by Christ. No matter the difficulties we may face in this life from 2,000 years ago in the church in Corinth down to today, we have victory smells, like the guaranteed love of Jesus and his unchanging grace. That was our main point because Paul was commissioned by God. Paul was guaranteed victory despite experiencing hardships, but it smells like victory. Paul was commissioned by God to speak God's word in Christ and in the sight of God and by God's Holy Spirit and for the souls of the hearers. These are the things he wrote about. But he also writes that he's very serious about it. He used the word sincerity. He viewed it as a weighty matter to represent the Lord Jesus in his missionary teaching and even in his writings. Paul didn't treat these opportunities lightly, even as he wrote about leaving the open door in Troas to meet up with Titus in Macedonia to hear about the status of Corinth. He wasn't taking the opportunities lightly. Whenever he had the opportunity to speak the gospel of Jesus, whenever he had the opportunity to write down the message of God to the church in Corinth, he's sharing the knowledge of Christ. He understood that and took it quite seriously. He shared the knowledge of Christ, the knowledge that what is set In the atmosphere of the writing of this letter, what is set in the atmosphere of him teaching or preaching is the sincerity of what is at stake for human souls. That the knowledge of Christ that Paul was spreading everywhere like a fragrance was the knowledge that Jesus, who had been crucified, had risen again from the dead. One whiff of that and a dead soul could become a true believer. And he wanted to encourage people to want that smell more, to become more and more interested, more and more eager, more and more insistent that they smell the smell of the gospel of Jesus' love. One of our hymns has it this way, I love to tell the story, for those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest. Or Paul writes it this way in Romans 8-11, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. What does victory smell like? It smells like our risen Savior showing us love and grace and promising to take us home. Let's pray.