If you would, open your Bibles
with me to the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 4. 2 Corinthians, chapter
4. As you're turning, let me make
this announcement, a matter of prayer. D. Parks, he is Moose
and Sandy Parks' son, received a cancer diagnosis this week,
and the prognosis is quite grim. And he's a young man with a young
family. As the Lord brings him to your
mind, please pray for him and his family. This will be an ordeal
for them. All right, 2 Corinthians chapter
four. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received
mercy, we faint not, we don't quit, but have renounced the
hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor
handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are
lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. We're troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We're perplexed. Boy, this week,
have you been perplexed? Things going on in the world,
have you been perplexed? We're perplexed, but not in despair. persecuted but not forsaken,
cast down but not destroyed, 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. 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. 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 have
I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak, 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, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. 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. All right, let's stand together
as Chris leads us in singing our call to worship. Take your bulletin and turn to
the call to worship, and we'll sing it to the tune of Rock of
Ages. ? Hail ye followers of the Lamb
? ? Ye who love the Savior's name ? ? Canaan's land we have
in view ? ? While we on our way pursue ? ? March with joy that
is blessed thro' ? ? Go with us, the way is good ? God be
sinners, sick and sore. Jesus is the only door. Leave the world and seek the
Lord. Read and listen to His word. Christ the sinner, shed His blood. Go with us, the way is good. Come ye aged, come ye young. Every sinner learn this song. Doubting soul, dismiss your fear. Mourning soul, dry up your tear. Christ for sinner, shed His blood. ? Go with us, the way is good
? You can be seated now, and if you would, take your hymnal,
and we'll turn it to page 40. Great is thy faithfulness. Page
40. ? Great is Thy faithfulness, O
God my Father. There is no shadow of burning
with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassion
they found not. ? Forever will be ? ? Great is
thy faithfulness ? ? Great is thy faithfulness ? ? Morning
by morning new mercies I see ? ? All I have need of thy hand
hath provided ? Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Summer and winter and springtime
and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in the courses above, joined
with all nature in banical witness. To Thy great faithfulness, mercy
and love. Great is Thy faithfulness, great
is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercy
I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath
provided Great is Thy gratefulness, Lord, unto me Pardon for sin
and peace that endureth Thine own dear presence to cheer and
to Strength for today and pride,
hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine, with Him
thou shalt be found. Great is thy faithfulness, great
is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercy
I see. All I have needed, Thy hand hath
provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord,
unto me. All right, if you would, let's
open our Bibles to Colossians chapter four. Colossians, the fourth chapter,
begin our reading in verse seven. All my state shall Titicus declare
unto you, who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow
servant in the Lord, whom I've sent unto you for the same purpose,
that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts. With
Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you, they
should make known unto you all things which are done here. Aristocris,
my fellow prisoner, saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son
to Barnabas, touching whom you received commandments, if he
come unto receiving, and Jesus, which is called justice, who
are of the circumcision. These only are my fellow workers
unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me.
Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluted
you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may
stand perfect and complete in the will of God. For I bear him
record that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are at
Laodicea and them in Heropolis. Luke, the beloved physician,
and Demas greet you. Salute the brethren which are
in Laodicea, and Nymphos, and the church which is in his house.
And when this epistle is read among you, cause it to be read
also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that ye likewise read the
epistle from Laodicea. And say unto Archippus, take
heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord. that
thou fulfill it. The salutation by the hand of
me, Paul, remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen. Let's bow together in prayer. Our God, we bow before you this
morning. We bow before your throne of
grace. Oh, how thankful we are that we can come before a throne
of grace. How we thank you for your wisdom, your mercy, your
grace, that you would send your only son to be the savior of
sinners. Enable us not to come before
a throne of justice, but a throne of grace. Crying, Abba, Father. And that you hear the cries of
your people. Father, how thankful we are,
how awestruck we are that the God of heaven and earth would
hear the weak cries of dust like we are. Father, it is our earnest
plea this morning that you would send your spirit upon us and
enable us to worship you. I pray that you would not let
us just go through the motions of religion and leave here not
thinking about what we've heard, seemingly unchanged, but Father,
apply your word to our hearts, we pray, that we might see and
believe the Lord Jesus Christ, that we might rest in him, that
we might worship him, that you enable us to glorify his precious
name. And what we pray for ourselves,
Father, we pray for your people who meet everywhere around the
world this morning with the same heartfelt need and desire that
we have to worship. Father, bless your word where
it's preached. Cause it to run well, to feed and comfort, edify
and save your sheep. And Father, especially cause
it to bring glory to your name. Father, we pray for those who
are away from us traveling, that you give them traveling mercies,
that you give them a good time, a profitable time, and bring
them back home to us. Father, for those that you brought
in at the time of trouble and trial, we pray for them. We pray
a special blessing in our brother Dee Parks, that Father, you'd
work a miracle of healing, that you'd touch his body in healing. And Father, especially, that
you'd give grace for the hour, for Dee and for his whole family.
Comfort their hearts with your presence. And Father, in so many
cases, we see things that are going on in the world that we
do not understand. Cause us to rest in thee. Cause us to know that even though
we don't understand, cause us to know and believe and find
rest and hope and comfort in the fact that our God doeth all
things well. These things have surprised us,
but they have not surprised you. Cause us to rest in the fact
that these things are being done to accomplish your eternal will
and purpose, and it's for good and for your glory. Cause us
to find some hope and peace in that and believing that. All
these things that we ask and we give thanks in that name,
which is above every name, the name of Christ our Savior. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. cast me not away from thy presence
oh lord take not thy holy spirit from me Restore unto me the joy
of Thy salvation, and renew a right spirit within me. Have mercy on me, O God, according
to Thy lovingkindness. according to Thy tender mercies. Wash me now and make me clean,
create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within
me. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence,
O Lord. Take not thy Holy Spirit from
me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and
renew a right spirit within me. Against Thee only have I sinned,
and done this evil in Thy sight. Purge me and I shall be clean. Wash me and I'm white as the
snow. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. Create in me a clean
heart, O God, And renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence,
O Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation, and renew a right spirit within me. ? And renew a right spirit within
me ? All right, if you would open your Bibles now again to
Colossians chapter four. I titled our message this morning,
Fulfill Your Ministry. It is my desire, to show you
how this admonition, fulfill your ministry, applies to all
of us, not just to those of us who preach and teach. So don't
tune me out as I'm talking about this, because you think, well,
this doesn't apply to me because I'm not in the ministry. Because
if you're a believer, I hope to show you that you are in the
ministry. I took my title from verse 17, where Paul says, and
say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry, which thou hast
received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it. Now the word ministry
that Paul uses here, it means the service of those who execute
the commands of others. It's the work of a servant doing
what your master has commanded you. And that's what the ministry
is. It's being a servant. It's being
a servant to others. It's carrying out the commands
of our Lord to preach the gospel, to do whatever it is he's given
us to do. You know, being ministers to
each other doesn't mean somehow we're lords over God's heritage.
We're bossing people around, telling them what to do and how
to do it, when to do it. It means we're servants. Servants to the
Lord and servants to each other. And Paul tells Archbishop here,
fulfill that ministry. And that word fulfill means it's
to cause God's will to be obeyed. And what that means is to preach
Christ so that people believe on it. See, obeying God, obeying
the word, obeying the gospel is to believe on Christ. And
Paul says, cause that will, God's will for his people to believe
him, to be obeyed by preaching Christ. This word fulfill also
means to make full, make full and to carry through to the end.
Make your message full of Christ, full of preaching Christ, full
of believing Christ, full of supporting this message of Christ
alone. Now do that and only that all the way to the end. That's
pretty simple, isn't it? Even somebody like me can kind
of understand that commandment. Just do that. Make it full of
Christ, only Christ, all the way to the end. Preach Christ
alone all the way to the end of your life. And believe Christ
alone all the way to the end of your life. Now every believer
is in the ministry because every believer has a service that we're
to render and the cause of the Lord, the cause of his gospel
to help one another. Well, how can we know what exactly
the ministry is that God's given us? Paul tells Archippus here,
you've received it. God's given it to you. Well,
how can we know what ministry God's given us that we've received
of the Lord? We need to know if we're, each
of us are going to fulfill our ministry. We need to know what
our ministry is, don't we? Well, let me give you three things.
Number one, if you look at 2 Corinthians chapter five, the ministry that
we have received, the ministry that every servant of God has
received is the same message. It's to preach and believe Christ
crucified. 2 Corinthians five, verse 18. Now all things are
of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and
he's given to us the ministry. Here's the ministry. God's given
his people the ministry of reconciliation. Now this is the ministry we've
received. It's the message of reconciliation. The ministry
God's given us is to preach the message of how it is that God
can be reconciled to sinners and the sinners can be reconciled
to God. There's a need for reconciliation
because Adam by his sin has separated us from God. God's holy and we're
sinners. And there's a separation there.
There's a divide there that man cannot cross. Our sin has separated
us from our God. And the gospel that God's given
us to preach tells us how it is God's reconciled himself to
his people. And how he reconciles his people
back to him. Our ministry is to tell people
now we're lost in Adam. We're separated from God. And
Adam, we're in the mess that we're in because of Adam's sin.
When Adam sinned, you and I sinned in him. And we're born, we're
born from the seed of Adam with a nature that can only sin. And then our message is, that's
ruined by the fall in him. And here's the message. How can
we be reconciled back to God? It's by Jesus Christ. That's
what Paul says, by, in, and through Jesus Christ. The salvation of
sinners and the reconciliation of sinners, do you know that's
an act of God? It's not something you and I
do. It's an act of God. It's done by the will and purpose
of God. Now God has given us this message
of reconciliation and I like this. He's given us the exact
message to preach. He's not left it up to us to,
you know, to figure out what we're, what we're to preach and
what we're to say and what we're to believe. God's given us the
exact message that we're to preach and we're to believe. It's verse
19. To wit, that's namely. Namely, here is the message of
reconciliation, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we
are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's dead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him sin for
us, who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Now, namely, specifically, this
is the message that God's given us to preach. How God reconciles
himself to sinners and reconcile sinners to him. He does it by
imputation. Paul says he's not imputing their
trespasses under them. God has a people and he's not
imputing their trespasses under them. Well, how can that be? How can God not impute sin to
a sinner? How can God not charge sin to
a sinner when all we do is sin? I know this, a holy God cannot
overlook sin. If he does, he's not holy. If
he does, he's not just. God must punish sin. If he doesn't
punish sin, he's not just, he's not God. Well, God did not overlook
sin and God did punish sin. And how'd he do that? By imputation. See, instead of charging the
sin of God's elect to the end, God charged that sin to Christ
our substitute. And when he made him sin for
his people, when he put the charge, the sin of God's elect to his
son, God punished him fully for it. He gave him everything that
that sin deserves. See, God has accomplished the
salvation, the reconciliation of his people by Jesus Christ. It's all by what the Lord Jesus
did as a man. God sent his son into the world,
clothed in flesh, made of a woman. God was made flesh. He was made to be a real human
being. He was born under the law to redeem them that are under
the law. See, Christ came as a representative
of his people. He came in the flesh because
we're in the flesh. He came in the flesh to do for us what we
can't do for ourselves. He came to obey God's law. He
came to bear the sin of his people. He came to work out a perfect
righteousness that he could freely give to his people. And the way
Christ made his people without sin is he took their sin, took
it into his own body on the tree, and he put that sin away by the
sacrifice of himself. And he made a great trade, an
awesome trade. He took the sin of his people,
and he traded them his perfect righteousness, his perfect holiness. That's the great exchange, I'm
sure people I've called that down through the ages, the great
exchange. First person I ever heard say it was happy eights
said this is the great exchange. Christ traded the sin of his
people for his righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ, the son
of God, was made what he is not. He made sin so that his people
could be made what they're not, righteous. And that's the only
way God can accept them. They have to be perfectly righteous. Let me say a few things about
this matter of Christ being made sin. The Lord Jesus knew no sin. He did no sin. There was no guile
found in his mouth. He personally never committed
any sin. Yet Isaiah tells us he was numbered
with the transgressors. He made his grave with the wicked
in his death. If he never sinned, he knew no
sin. He did no sin. How could he be numbered with
the transgressors? How can he, how can he make his grave with
the wicked? in his death. It can only be by imputation.
The father imputed the sin of his elect to Christ and that
sin actually became Christ's. He called it mine iniquity. He became guilty of that sin
and he suffered everything about that sin with the exception of
the commission of it. He felt the guilt of it. He felt
the shame of it. He said, I'm not able to look
up. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why have you
turned your back on me? He felt all that because he felt
the consequences of sin. He was just as guilty as if he
had actually committed that sin. I hadn't committed any sin, but
the father made him sin. That sin became his sin. He became guilty of it. And that's
very important because the only way the father would ever kill
his son is if he was guilty. The father's just and holy. He
did not put an innocent man to death. He put a guilty man to
death. He fully punished the sins of
his people. The cross is an act of justice. A guilty man died. Now, please
understand this. We've been accused of this. I
have. I reckon every gospel preacher has. I read about John Gill was
accused of this. I mean, this goes way back a
long time. Please understand, I'm not saying Christ was a sinner.
Not at all. Scripture says the Father made
him sin. I never thought about this before,
but this is what John Gill had to say about that. He said, that's
worse. Being made sin is being made
worse than just a sinner. All of the sin, of all of God's
people from every age was all put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was made this massive sin. The Father made him sin so that
he could be the sin offering. So he could put away that sin.
And in exchange, God's elect are made righteous. If you believe
Christ, you are as truly righteous as Christ was truly made sin. I sure hope he was made sin for
real, actually, don't you? So that I could be made the righteousness
of God in him. And not someday, I don't have
to wait till someday to wake up in glory and then I'm right,
I won't be righteous till then. No, right now, in Christ Jesus,
you who believe are as righteous as God himself. That's a mouthful. I looked at that a long time
before I said it out loud, but that's what the scripture's saying
here. We're made the righteousness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're made that, I mean,
you think about yourself, how is it that I can be righteous?
The same way Christ has made sin, by imputation, by imputation. See, God is holy. He doesn't
set aside the sin of his people. He doesn't ignore the sin of
his people so that he can say that they're saved. No, somebody
has to pay the debt. Now if God's going to be reconciled,
His holiness demands somebody pay the debt. That's what the
Lord Jesus Christ did. He made that debt His and paid
it with His precious blood. And when that sacrifice was finished,
and the Savior cried, it's finished. Father, into Thy hand I commend
my spirit. The Father said, that sacrifice
is enough. I'm pleased. I'm pleased because
the blood of my Son paid the debt. I'm pleased because now
justice is satisfied. There's been death for sin and
I'm reconciled. I'm not angry with my people
anymore. There's nothing to be angry about.
The father said there's no reason for me to be angry with my people
because the sin that made me angry is gone under his blood. So I'm reconciled. I'm not angry
anymore. All my anger was fully extinguished
on Christ's sacrifice. God's reconciled. His justice
is satisfied because of the death of Christ. And our message is,
since God's reconciled, now you be reconciled. See, war's a two-way
street, isn't it? God's reconciled, now you be
reconciled. Paul says, we beseech you in
Christ's stead. Just as much as this is what
the Lord Jesus Christ, if he were still here in the flesh,
standing here this morning, this is what he'd say. I'm saying
this in the stead of Christ Jesus. Just like it was Himself talking
to you. You be reconciled. You be reconciled to God. I beseech
you. I beseech you. Come to Christ
and throw yourself on His mercy. I beseech sinners, you come to
Christ. You know why? Because He came
to save sinners. I beseech dead men, come to Christ. You know why? Because only He
can give life. He is the life of His people.
See, Christ knew no sin. Yet by imputation, the Father
made Him to be this horrible mass of sin. All the sin of God's
elect, all in one place. On the flip side of that coin,
God's elect knew no righteousness. All we know is sin, all we are
is sin. Yet by imputation, God has made His people to be as
righteous as the Son of God. Now that is such an amazing act
of mercy. I just, I can't even comprehend.
I can't even think of how, how to explain what an awesome display
of God's wisdom and his grace and his mercy and his justice.
He put his son to death so that he could give his people life.
His darling son, I mean the son who was with him, Back here in
Proverbs chapter 8, before anything was created, the Savior says
always daily, my Father's delight. Daily is delight. That one who delighted the Father,
He slaughtered Him. He made Him sin. He humiliated
Him. He made Him suffer the guilt and the shame and the wretchedness
of sin so that He could give life and righteousness to a maggot
like me. A maggot like you if you believe
Christ. Consider what an amazing act
of mercy that that was. How can you not be reconciled
to God? How can you stay away from Him? How can you not believe
Him? How can you not love Him? How
can you not surrender to Him? Oh, our message is be reconciled
to God and do it by surrendering. Do it by giving up. And come,
bow to Christ. Quit trying to produce your own
righteousness and surrender. Submit yourself to the righteousness
of God. The righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. When we preach the gospel, I'm
not here to negotiate the terms of peace with anybody. When I
tell you to come to Christ, I'm not begging you to do something.
I'm not begging you to come down here and shake my hand I'm beseeching
you, come to Christ. But now we're not here to negotiate.
You know, if you do this, God will do this. This matter of
negotiating, that's not our ministry. We're here to proclaim the Lord
Jesus Christ has made peace for His people by the blood of His
cross. Peace with God. His blood has
taken away what made God angry. God's at peace with His people.
God's reconciled. We're here to proclaim God's
terms of surrender. And listen, our terms of surrender
are easy. They're easy. Stack your arms
and come to Christ. Just lay down your weapons and
come to Christ. Kiss the son lest he be angry. Be reconciled to God. And this message of reconciliation
is a personal message. I'm speaking to every one of
you here this morning. to each soul, to each heart, to each
mind, you believe God. You surrender. You be reconciled
to God. Somebody else can't do it for
you. Your parents, your family, your friends, your loved ones,
they can't do it for you. You believe Christ. You believe
Christ. Now don't come to the doctrines
of grace. That's just Trading the doctrines of grace for the
doctrine of Armenia is just trading doctrines. Don't come to that.
Come to Christ, who those doctrines declare. Don't come and trust
now just the work of Christ. You come and trust Christ himself,
the one who did the work, the one who is our righteousness.
Are you a sinner? Come to Christ. He said he's
the savior of sinners. He put their sin away by the
sacrifice of himself. Now you be reconciled to him.
You come to him and bow to him. That's the message of reconciliation
God's given us. He satisfied his justice by slaughtering
his son in the stead of his people. Now you be reconciled. All right,
now let's look back a page. Here's in second Corinthians
chapter four. Here's the second thing about this ministry that
God's given us. Don't ever Second Corinthians
4 verse 1. Therefore seeing we have this
ministry, as we've received mercy, we faint not. Now God's given
his people mercy. We haven't earned it, we received
it. We received it as a free gift. And God's given us this
message, the message of reconciliation, the message of mercy in Christ. That's the message we're to preach.
That's the only message we're to preach. Now don't quit. Don't
quit. Don't quit preaching it. Don't
quit believing it. Don't quit praying for it. Don't
quit attending it. Don't quit supporting it. Because
things are going to change in this world. But the truth is
not going to change. Technology changes, which just
lets people spout out their sinfulness and their sinful thoughts and
their sinful passions to more people at one time. But the truth
hasn't changed. Human nature hadn't changed.
There's ways for people to see it, you know, more broadly across
the whole earth at one time now, but the truth hadn't changed.
Man's dead in sin and God's the savior of sinners. That's the
truth. The preacher may change, but
the truth won't change. The message won't change. Don't
quit. Don't quit. The reward is only
given to those who complete it all the way to the end. I know,
I know we only persevere by God's grace. I pray for God's grace
to persevere every day, to not quit. But listen, I'm determined
not to quit too. I know it's only by God's grace,
but I'm determined not to quit, not to quit preaching this message.
And whatever it is God's given you to do, don't quit it. Don't
quit it. All right, here's the third thing. Remember the word fulfill. It
means to carry through to the end. So whatever responsibility
in this ministry, the ministry of the kingdom of God that the
Lord has given you, carry it through to the end. Now if you
look back in our text, I told you that the ministry is not
only those who preach and teach. There's so many things people
do in this ministry to promote the gospel of our God. And in
our text in Colossians chapter four, there's a number of people
that Paul mentions who are with him. And you notice they're doing
many different things in the service of the gospel. And I
hope that we can see ourselves in these things and we can see
how it is we can fulfill the ministry that we've received
of the Lord. First, we fulfill our ministry by being faithful
to the end. Look here at verse seven. All
my state shall Titicus declare unto you, who's a beloved brother
and a faithful minister and a fellow servant in the Lord. whom I've
sent unto you for the same purpose that he might know your state
and comfort your hearts. Now Titchicus was a preacher.
I don't know if he was a pastor or not, but I do know he went
different places preaching the gospel. Paul would send him out
to these different places and any preaching and he would preach
with a purpose. His purpose was to establish
the people, to establish their hearts, to establish their faith
on Christ alone. And then he'd come back and he'd
tell Paul how the church was doing. Paul wanted to know how
these different churches were doing, how they're faring. And
Paul gave Tychicus the best compliment you can give any preacher, any
servant, any believer. They're faithful. They're faithful. It's required of a servant to
be what? Found faithful. Found faithful. That's the primary qualification. And Paul says to Tychicus, is
faithful. And over in verse 17, he encourages
Archippus to do the same thing. Take heed to the ministry, which
thou hast received to the Lord and fulfill it. Be faithful to
do what God's given you to do all the way to the end. Now,
from what I gather about this man, Archippus, he was a, what
Janet calls a filler inner. Epaphras was the pastor at that
place, but he was there with, with Paul. Well, Paul was in
prison. And Archippus was filling in for him, doing the preaching
while the pastor was out of town. And Paul says, now you fulfill
that ministry. You faithfully preach Christ
every service. Faithfully preach him and faithfully
following him. Now I say to each of us, whatever
it is that the Lord's given you to do, you have talents, you
have skills, you have things that you can do. I tell you what,
be faithful to do it. Do it always to the best of your
abilities, whatever it is. Because I promise you, it's going
to be a blessing and a comfort to the hearts of God's people.
And it's something that needs to be done for this ministry.
Next, we fulfill our ministry. This goes along with this. Just
by being faithful to be there. You know a big part of life is
just showing up. Just show up. and a big part
of the ministry, a big part of being a member of this congregation
is being faithful to show up. In verse 10, Paul talks about
aristocrats, my fellow prisoner. He salutes you. Now I know aristocrats
didn't have much choice in being there with Paul. He was his fellow
prisoner, but they were there in prison together and they had
fellowship. Paul and aristocrats, they had fellowship together.
They were faithful to be there. Verse 11, he talks about Jesus,
which is called justice. He says, these only are my fellow
workers under the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort
to me. Paul says, this man's a fellow
worker and he's a comfort to me. Well, I'm telling you, you
gotta be there to be able to comfort somebody else. His mere
presence, the things that they talked about, he was a comfort
to Paul. In verse 14, he says, Luke, the
beloved physician, he's here, the beloved physician. Now I'm
sure Luke, he's described this way, the beloved physician. I
think about Bruce Crabtree. You think about Bruce Crabtree.
Bruce is the beloved Bruce Crabtree. I mean, everybody that graced
me loved Bruce. Maybe Luke had a personality
like that. He's a beloved man. And he was there with Paul. And
I'm going to tell you what. I bet his skills as a physician
came in mighty handy, don't you? Paul had been beaten with rods.
He'd been beaten with a cat of nine tails and scourge and been
shipwrecked and all these things that stoned. They thought he
was dead when They stoned him to death, they thought, and he
recovered. And you know how it is. As time goes on, those things,
boy, they come back to roost and haunt you, don't they? You
know, those aches and pains and things. If Luke was going to
be a help to Paul in that way, he had to be there. He showed
up and was there. He didn't have to be. He showed
up and he was there. And I tell you, just be faithful
to be there. You would be amazed what an encouragement
it is to me when you show up every week, every Sunday, every
Wednesday. It's an encouragement. When somebody needs help, somebody
needs comfort, and you just show up. You may not even know what
to say. Just show up. Sit there and weep
with them. Bring them a tissue. Bring them
a little something to eat. Job's three miserable friends
looked like pretty good friends as long as they kept their mouths
shut, didn't they? Just show up and sit and cry
with them. If you don't know what to say, don't say anything,
but show up. Be faithful to do that. It's
such an encouragement and help to God's people. You can do that.
You think, oh, I don't have many skills. You can show up. You can show up. Next, we fulfill
our ministry by being people of prayer. Don't ever underestimate
the importance and value of prayer. In verse 12, Paul says, Epaphras,
he's one of you. He's your pastor. He's a servant
of Christ. He salutes you. Paul says, he's
always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand
perfect and complete in the will of God. Epaphras was their pastor. He was away from them, but now
Boy, he was there with Paul. Maybe he brought Paul, I'm not
sure why he was there. If he brought Paul a gift or whatever,
he was there. And while he was away, the people
of that congregation were on his heart. You know, you just
don't forget people. You're always thinking about
them. You're always praying for them. And that's what he was
praying for them. He was praying for something
specific, that they'd be complete in Christ. How are you going
to be complete in Christ? It's by trusting Him. It's by
trusting Him. And you just can't overemphasize
the importance of prayer. Some of you might think, well,
I'm not in the ministry. I'm not really any help to this
ministry. I can't do anything. I can't
teach. I can't lead the singing. I can't sing a special. I can't
play an instrument. I would just fall over dead if
Frank asked me to read the Scriptures out loud. I can't do those things. There's nothing I can do. Well,
you can pray, can't you? You can call out to God and beg
for his mercy, can't you? You can ask God to bless the
preaching of his word. You go through your daily life,
and buddy, this world's hard. I mean, you know, there are times
the Lord really blesses and things seem like they're easy and going
good. A lot of times they're not. You could ask God to give
the pastor, the preacher, a message for your heart, couldn't you?
Can you say, Lord, I need help. Could you give the pastor a word
for me? Give me a word. There are people here that don't
know the Lord. Could you pray and ask God to
be merciful to them? Could you pray and ask God to open their
ears and open their heart that they'd hear Christ and believe
Him? You can pray. Here's a prayer God will answer.
Lord, would you save your people? You can pray, can't you? It's a great fear of mine. That we come and we go through
our habit. We've got the same order of service.
We got, you know, all these things. Mess up the order of service
and boy, you got everybody discombobulated, don't you? We're used to all
going a certain way. And we go home as dry as when
we came. Could it be because we didn't
pray? Could we not have a blessing because we didn't ask for one?
The Lord said you have not because you asked not. Let's never be guilty of
not asking God for a blessing from his word. Not asking him,
Lord, show us your glory in the preaching of your word today.
Do that to the end. You'll fulfill your ministry.
Then here's something else that stuck out to me. We fulfill our
ministry by making room for God's grace to change a person. In verse nine, Paul mentions
Onesimus. Everybody here knows the story
of Onesimus. Onesimus used to be a bad slave. Paul called him
an unprofitable servant. And Onesimus, he stole from his
master, Philemon, and he ran away. So when he ran away, if
he hadn't stolen anything or taken anything with him, he ran
away. He stole from Philemon. He's Philemon's property. He
deprived Philemon of his property. He took the silverware and silver
service or something and took it and ran away to Hockett there
in Rome to have some money. And Paul says, Philemon, you're
more profitable when Onesimus ran away. I mean, this guy is
such a drain on everybody's resources. You're more profitable when this
guy ran away. I mean, that's just what an unprofitable servant,
what a sourpuss this guy was. And who did Onesimus run into
in Rome? But old Paul. He recognized Paul. He didn't like what Paul was
preaching, but he probably kind of liked him. He kind of snuck
in and listened to Paul preach. In spite of Onesimus, the Lord
saved him. Lord saved him. And Paul said,
Onesimus, you gotta go back. You go back to Philemon, and
now you be a profitable servant. He told Philemon, now you accept
him. I know, I know the history, but you accept him as a brother,
above a servant, but as a brother beloved. Well, Onesimus must be trusted
now, because there he is visiting Paul in prison. God's grace made a difference,
didn't it? This man's become a trusted part of the ministry.
History tells us Onesimus became a pastor later on. I don't know
if that's true or not, but that's what they say. God's grace made
a big change, didn't it? In verse 10, Paul mentions Marcus.
Marcus is John Mark. At one time, John Mark, the book
of Acts says he departed. Now, that doesn't mean he left
Paul and went somewhere else, you know. The word means he left
the gospel. He apostatized. He went to believe
something else. Something happened that John
Mark came back. He came back. He apologized. He said he believed
the gospel. He came back, and Paul forgave
him. But when it came time to go on a mission trip, Paul was
operating under the truth that lay hands on no man suddenly. This guy apostatized. He's just
come back. We're going to leave him here. I'm going to take him
on this mission trip. you know, established himself, earned our
trust back yet. Paul didn't want to take him with him. Well, Barnabas
was his uncle, John Mark's uncle. He did want to take John Mark
with him. And Paul and Barnabas had such a disagreement over
this thing. They split. They split from each other. They
split and had a fellowship with each other, and split pretty
ugly. Word got around to the different
churches how this had happened. Now, I don't know how everything
happened, but later on, I know this. When Paul wrote to Timothy, He
said, Timothy, when you come visit me, he said, bring John
Mark with you. He's profitable to me in the
ministry. God's grace made a difference,
didn't it? John Mark grew. God's grace established
him. And I tell you what, with each
other, just leave room for God's grace to change a person and
make them grow. The babes in Christ are going
to grow to young men and old men in Christ. Just give room
for God's grace. We believe grace, don't we? Hurricane
Road Grace Church. It's right there in our name.
We believe it. We'll leave room for God's grace to change somebody,
cause them to grow. Maybe He will me. Maybe He will
you. I sure do hope so, don't you? And Paul and Barnabas had
to split, and it sure appears that Paul and Barnabas made up
too. He says here in verse 10, Aristocrats, my fellow prisoners,
salute you, and Marcus, Sister's son to Barnabas, touching whom
you receive commandments. If he come unto you, you receive
him. Paul said, this thing's over. You receive commandments.
If Barnabas comes to you, you remember this split we had? That's
over. And you receive him. You receive
him. He's a gifted, faithful servant
of God, preaching the gospel. I tell you, just make room for
God's grace to heal some old wounds. and bring somebody back. Yeah, they left, but you just
leave room for God's grace. Maybe He'll bring them back.
And here's the last thing. In all things you do in the ministry,
here's one thing we pray we never do. Don't be a demis. Verse 14. Paul says, Luke, the
beloved physician, and Demas greet you. And you know the story
of Demas. He was with Paul for a long time,
But Paul said Demas loves to have the preambles. He loves
to be seen. He loves to be heard. He loves
to be bragged on. He loves the things of this world
more than the gospel. He'll compromise the gospel in
order to get them. And he left the gospel. He left
the ministry. He left Paul. He said, Demas
has forsaken me. But he's there now, isn't he?
He's there now with Paul, but he won't be there for long. He
won't be faithful to the end. That's one of the main things
we're told, be faithful to the end. Demons won't be faithful
to the end because he loves something else more than he loves Christ,
more than he loves the gospel. And it's going to happen. It's
happened before. It's going to happen again. And it breaks our heart
every single time. It breaks our heart. You just
don't know the tears I've cried over where this has happened
in the past. And the best thing I can tell
you about that is this, besides leaving room for grace to heal
some wounds, the best thing we can do is pray. Lord, don't allow
me to be a demon. Don't allow me to depart and
forsake the gospel. Lord, make me faithful to the
end. That's how we fulfill our ministry.
I hope you see how that applies to you and that encourages you
that the gospel of Christ, that God would slaughter his son to
put your sin away. That ought to give us the heartfelt
desire to faithfully serve and follow him, shouldn't it? All
right, let's bow together. Our Father, we thank you for
your word. We thank you that you've given us a ministry, not
of condemnation and laws and rules and threatenings, but you've
given us the message of reconciliation. God's reconciled himself to sinners
and sinners to him. through the sacrifice, through
the blood of your precious son. Oh, Father, how we thank you.
How we thank you for Christ our Savior, Christ our sacrifice,
Christ our substitute. How we thank you. How our hearts
are thrilled at hearing the message of Christ our Savior, how he's
reconciled his people to God. Father, I pray you'd cause each
of us to have this heart that we would be reconciled, that
we would come and bow before Christ our King. Beg for his
mercy and grace and find in him everything we need. It's in his
precious name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, Chris. All right, in closing, if you
would, take your hymnal and turn it to page 309, and we'll be
standing as we sing. Page 309, Beneath the Cross of
Jesus. Beneath the cross of Jesus my
fame would take my stand. The shadow of a mighty rock within
a weary clamp. A home within the wilderness,
the rest upon the way. From the burning of the new day
he ends the burning of the day. Upon the cross of Jesus my eyes
at times can see The very dying form of one who suffered there
for me. And from my smitten heart with
tears to wonders I confess, the wonders of His glorious love,
and mine own worthlessness. I take o'er all my shadow for
my abiding flame. I ask no other sunshine than
the sunshine of His face. Continue to let the world go
by, do no more gain nor loss. my sin fulfilled, my only shame,
my glory on the cross. Oh my gosh.