I was so very encouraged. I think
it's the best meeting we've ever had. I was encouraged by the
messages. I was encouraged by the fellowship
of the brethren from other churches. And I was very encouraged with
your hospitality. And I just want to thank you
from the bottom of my heart for how well you took care of our
guests and loved on them and what a blessing that was to me
and I know it was to you to be able to do that. So thank you.
I want to welcome Nora Imes. Nora just went to work for the
Mouse, starts her first day tomorrow and she'll be here with us for
a while, hopefully a long while. Welcome, Nora. I think most of
you know Don and Mary Williams, but Don and Mary are here for
their snowbirds. So they're here for a few months
or a few weeks anyway. So welcome, Don and Mary. We have two Dons and Mary. Two
Don and Marys, so don't confuse the two. Tom, we're going to sing the
hymn on the back of your bulletin. Let's stand together. where your people gather, Lord,
around the mercy seat. Be pleased to grant your grace
and power, where your may meet. Some gather in a stately place,
some in a modest home. But all who know your love and
grace to worship Christ have come. A special favor we would
seek who worship in this place. Pour out your spirit, flood our
souls with visions of your grace. Your servant filled with power
to preach a word from God for us. Send forth a mighty gospel,
Lord, to every one of us. Yet we would not neglect to pray
for friends around the world, even for the flocks of saints
who worship Christ our Lord. For those who have no messengers,
of grace and truth from God. Give them, good pastors, from
your heart, provide their souls with food. all saints are one around the
world and those in heaven too the universal church of god a
glorious multitude as one great chosen We gather round God's
throne, redeemed and called by grace divine to make His glories
known. Please be seated. I can't ever sing that hymn without
being reminded of our brethren over in Sarasota and their need
for a pastor. Let's go to the Lord in prayer
and pray specifically for them and also Carl Bourne, most of
you know, has had multiple TIAs, many strokes. He's in the hospital
right now, and he's struggling. So let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we're very
thankful for your mercy toward us. We thank you for the blessing
of being able to come here and join our hearts and voices together
in worship. We thank you for the promise
of thy presence. And oh Lord, how we pray that
you would make our hearts tender to thy voice, that you would
speak to us, that you would save us, Lord, that you would assure
us of the forgiveness of our sin through the shed blood of
thy dear son. Father, we pray for the church
in Sarasota. We thank you for them. Thank
you for their encouragement. Thank you for their faithfulness
to the gospel. And Lord, we pray that you would
provide for them a pastor that could faithfully preach Christ,
build thy work in that place. And Father, we thank you for
Carl and Ivalu and for the encouragement they've been to this fellowship.
And we pray for those that are ministering physically to him
now and ask Lord that you would give them wisdom to be instruments
of healing in thy hand. And we pray, Lord, for your Holy
Spirit to minister spiritually to his heart and give them comfort
and encouragement in Christ. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. All right, we're going to continue
our study in 1 Corinthians. If you would turn with me, please,
in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. And we'll back up one verse, if you
remember two Sundays ago. We concluded with verse 16, for
though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity
is laid upon me. Yea, woe unto me if I preach
not the gospel. Paul says, if I change the gospel,
it'll be the damnation of my soul. I've got no choice about
the matter. The gospel is God's gospel. It's
revealed by God's Spirit. And it's not our place to change
it. It is our place to be faithful
in declaring it as the Lord has revealed it. Now, I know that
the world will hear such speech and they'll say, well, you all
are just too narrow. You're being intolerant. You're
being unloving. I cannot tell you how many times
I've been accused of that. And if you've stood for the gospel,
you've received that accusation as well. I know you have. The
most loving thing that we can do is remain truthful to the
gospel. and to tell them it tell centers
the truth about who christ is and about what he has accomplished
in the salvation of god's people that having been said i'm thankful
that we live in a religiously pluralistic society i listen
to all those uh... I don't even know what to call
some of them. At the inaugural prayer breakfast the other day,
and I mean they had a representative from every conceivable religion
in the world stand up and pray for our country. I'm grateful
that we live in a country where men acknowledge the existence
of a God. Versus living in a nation where
men would be atheistic. We could be in an atheistic society. The acknowledgement of a God,
though that God may be a false God, He is a false God. And though
the God that they acknowledge will benefit them nothing as
far as the salvation of their soul. the acknowledgement of
a god will restrain their behavior and uh... and uh... and that's good for us so uh... you know where we're not that
that's This is the gospel. This is the only message of salvation
that honors Christ and saves sinners. And we know that. And
we're not intolerant. We're not unloving. Narrow? Yeah. For God's glory and for
the hope of our salvation and the salvation of sinners, we
must remain faithful to the truth. And in doing so, we expose the
error of all false gospels. paul goes on to say in verse
seventeen four though uh... i mean i'm sorry for if i'd do
this thing willingly preach the gospel i have a reward now he's
gonna tell us what that reward is in the next verse but uh... let's let's think about willingly
uh... he says but if against my will
a dispensation that were to stewardship uh... the responsibility that
the owner of the household gives to a servant to take care of
his property. That's the word, dispensation.
Now, I know it's used in lots of ways in religion today. Dispensationalism
is a very popular theological view that likes to categorize
things. But this word just means stewardship. And Paul says, if I preach willingly,
uh... if i have a desire to preach
and uh... a uh... a a liberty to preach
then uh... then i have a real i have a reward
and like i said you tell us what that reward is but if against
my will now let me I hope you have a job that you enjoy doing.
I do. I hope you get up in the morning
and are able to enjoy the work that you do. Some of you do. Maybe not. But on the days when
you get up and you don't enjoy going to work, you go anyway,
don't you? Why? Because you have a responsibility.
You have a stewardship. That's what Paul's saying. I
have a job I enjoy. I do. And most of the time, I
have a feeling of liberty and freedom and anointing when the
Lord enables me. But when that's not there, When
that's not there, I can't say, well, you know, I don't have
the unction, so I can't, you know, there's no need. No, a
dispensation, a stewardship, a responsibility is laid upon
me and upon each one of us. There are times when we have
great liberty in sharing the gospel with our family members
and our friends, and there are times when we don't We don't
feel the need, but we still have the responsibility, the stewardship. And that's all Paul's saying
in this verse. And the stewardship, that responsibility
never goes away. Verse 18, what is my reward then?
What is my reward? Are we going to get extra crowns? Are we going to get a higher
place in heaven? Some people believe that. Some
people believe that the more faithful they are to God in this
life, the bigger their mansion is going to be, the closer they're
going to get to God in heaven, the more glory they're going
to experience. That's a denial of grace. We
don't believe that. The Lord told Abraham, I am thine
exceeding great reward. And everyone for whom Christ
died, everyone that the spirit of God gives faith to is going
to have fellowship with him. He is our reward. But what Paul's talking about
here is his conscience. Look what he says. Verily then,
when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without
charge. Without charge. My conscience
is free. In Acts chapter 23, Paul said,
when he was addressing the Jews in Jerusalem, he said, men and
brethren, I have lived in good conscience before God until this
day. I'm not, I'm not denied the gospel. I've been faithful to the stewardship
that's been given me. My conscience is clear. I've
not changed it. I've not tried to adapt to the
environment that I'm in. A lot of preachers do that. I've known preachers that'll
say, well, I believe what you believe, but I can't preach it
in my church because they'll fire me for it. That's what Paul's
saying I haven't done. I've been faithful in season
and out of season, when it's convenient, when it's inconvenient.
Why? Because most of the time I have
a willing spirit, but when that willing spirit's not there, I
have a dispensation, I have a stewardship, I have a responsibility, and
it is required of a steward that he be found faithful. faithful
and paul's just saying that's my reward my reward is that i've
been faithful to the gospel i'm not shunned to tell me and not
the whole council of god i've told them about a sovereign god
who has elected a particular people according to his own will
and purpose before the world began i know that i know that
aggravates men i know men hate that I can't help but to think about
what the Lord did when he began his public ministry. You remember
in Nazareth and he went into the synagogue as was his custom
and he took the scriptures and he began to read from Psalm 61. And you could have heard pin
drop because everybody in that synagogue knew that that was
a prophetic psalm relating to the coming of the Messiah. And
then when our Lord said, and this day, this day, this scripture
has been fulfilled in thy sight. And they wondered at the gracious
words that proceeded out of his mouth. They could not believe
what he was saying. Is it possible that this, the
son of Joseph, everybody knew him? Nazareth wasn't a big city. Could it be possible? They must
have seen the uniqueness of his life. Could it be that this is
the Messiah? And then what did he do? He interpreted
that passage of Scripture, didn't he? He said in the days of Elijah
there were many lepers in Israel. And there were a lot of lepers
in Israel. But God sent the prophet to none except Naaman. a Syrian,
a Gentile. And in the days of the prophet,
there were many widows in Israel. But God sent grace and mercy
to none except for the woman, the Gentile woman of Sarepta. And their wonderment Their wondering
of the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth when He claimed
to be the Messiah now turned to hatred. They drug Him out
of the synagogue and were going to kill Him. They were going
to kill Him right there on the spot. Why? What was the Lord doing? He was
declaring this matter of salvation, it's of the Lord. God saves who
He wants to save. He'll have mercy upon whom he
will have mercy, and whom he will, he'll harden. It is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. It is of God that
showeth mercy. Christ died for a particular
people. Who? Those whom God chose. Now that's
the gospel. And God's people love that message
of hope because it puts all the responsibility for their salvation
on God. takes away all the uncertainty
of their own will and their own works and their own wisdom, and
it puts it all on God. And it says, I can trust in Him. I can trust Him. He is able. He's able to keep that which
I've committed unto Him against that day. What a glorious gospel. But the natural man hates it.
he hates it it robs him of his home it robs him of his righteousness
and uh... and that's what paul say and
i i'd uh... i did not shown i have a clear
conscience uh... he goes on to say i a told the
aphesian elders and uh... tax chapter seventeen he said
i i've not coveted your silver or your gold uh... I haven't. When he wrote to Timothy,
he said that an elder, a pastor, must not be greedy for filthy
lucre. He can't do this for gain, for
personal gain. And Paul's conscience was clear.
And gospel preachers who God has called and have been faithful
to the gospel, they can say the same thing. And you can say,
as a believer, I'm willing to be shunned by
men in order to tell you the truth. And that's a great reward. It is a great reward to have
a clear conscience. He said, I've not shunned to
preach to you the whole counsel of God. I have a conscience that
is void of offense towards God. I've been a faithful steward
of the gospel. That's all Paul's saying. And
remember, the context of what he's talking about is that he
was being accused of not being faithful not be an apostle not
telling the whole council of god you know he's he's preaching
the messiah but he's not he's not preaching the whole the whole
council of god because you gotta go back to the law that was you
know that was the accusation that they were making and they
would make the same accusation of us if if you've not been accused
to be an anti-nomian you've not preach the gospel uh... You know, the people here, the
religious self-righteous hear us and hear what we say and what
is their first accusation? Yeah, but. Yeah, but. All that's true, but. What about
the law? Where's the law come in? That's
exactly what they were saying to the Apostle Paul. Paul is
leaving out the Mosaic Law, the do's and don'ts, the rules and
regulations of religion and of godly living. We want to live
our lives in a way that's going to honor Christ, but the law
is not the way to do that. The scripture says that the power
of sin is the law. You ever noticed that the law
is full of thou shalt not's, isn't it? There's a lot of things
I don't want to do. But being told not to do them
is not the means that gives me the motivation not to do them. It's just not. As soon as you
tell a person not to do something, that's the very thing they want
to do. We don't fight flesh with flesh. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal. They're not carnal. They're mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds and bringing every
thought into the captivity of the obedience of Christ, looking
to Christ. Looking to Christ is the only
restraining grace. Paul said, the love of Christ
constraineth me. And that's what he's saying.
He said, I've not charged you. I've made the gospel free. And
it is free. And we can't preach the gospel
free enough. We don't want to mix law and
grace. Well, Todd brought a good message on that Sunday, didn't
he? uh... stand fast therefore in the liberty
were with christ has made you free and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage don't go back to you don't go back
to the law don't try to use the law to to to curb your behavior
that will work on unbelievers and that's what i was trying
to say earlier as far as our nation is concerned the laws all they've
got and the legalism of religion will restrain their outward behavior
to do nothing for the salvation of their souls to do nothing
to improve their righteousness before god but it will restrain
their behavior and for that we can live in a peaceable land
uh... but the law is not the law is
for the scripture makes that clear doesn't it the scripture
says the law is for the lawless it's for the lawless sometimes
you parents have to put down the law for your children don't
you this is the way it's going to be this is this is my decision
and that's you know you you try to reason with them as best you
can and then you come to the point where you just say you
know we've got that we're gonna have to resort to the law Nothing
else is going to work, so we'll use the law. Paul said, I've not done that,
not gone back to the law. In Romans chapter 9, verse 1,
he said, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also
bearing me witness with the Holy Ghost. This is his reward. His reward
is that his conscience is clear because he's been faithful, sometimes
willingly, sometimes just responsibility, but been faithful to the gospel
regardless of what men may think. Turn with me to 1 Timothy 1.
1 Timothy 1. Verse 18, this charge I commit
unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went
before on thee, that thou by them might war a good warfare,
holding faith and a good conscience, which some, having put away concerning
faith, have made shipwreck. And now he's going to mention
two of them. of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander whom I have delivered
unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme." These two
men obviously had preached at one time and now they were preaching
against the gospel. And Paul's exposing them and
he's saying to Timothy, don't be like them. Be faithful. Be faithful to the gospel. Men
will hate you for it. There won't be any reward in
this world for it. But you'll have a clear conscience
before God. Turn with me to 1 Peter 3. Verse
15. But sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts." Now that word sanctified means to set apart. In other
words, say unto Judah, behold your God. Or behold the Lamb
of God which takes away. Look to Christ. That's what sanctifying
the Lord God in your heart is. Look to Christ. Set your affections
on things above where Christ is sitting at the right hand
of God. Sanctify the Lord God in your heart and be ready always
to give an answer to every man that asketh you the reason of
the hope that is within thee. Make sure that you do it with
meekness and fear. We're not, we're not here to
intimidate men. We stand firm on what we believe
and we cannot compromise the gospel. Um, but we hopefully
do it in a spirit of grace, having a good conscience. That is, whereas
they speak evil of you as of evil doers, they may be ashamed
that falsely accused your good conversation in Christ. I'll
give them don't get many any ammunition to work with I'm David
because if his public sin I gave the the the the enemies of God
reasons the blaspheme and I'm and that's a Paul saying be be
very careful Alright, let's go back to our
text very quickly. Verse 19, For though I be free
from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that
I might gain the more. You've been called into liberty.
You're free. You're not under the law. You're
under grace. Only use not your liberty as
an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Be a servant. That's what Paul's
saying. I've not done this for my own
personal gain. I've not tried to win over the
enemies of God by compromise. I've declared the truth of the
gospel. Verse 20, And unto the Jews I
became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. And to them that
are under the law as under the law, that I might gain them that
are under the law. To them that are without the
law as without law, being not without law to God but under
the law of Christ, that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak
that I might gain the weak." And notice these next three words,
I am made. Now don't misunderstand these
verses. Paul's not saying, you know,
I just, I was a chameleon. I changed the color, I changed
my color depending on what room I was in. That's exactly what
he's not saying. He's already made that clear. He's not saying,
well, I just adjusted my... He's not even talking about fitting
into culture. God made the Apostle Paul very
unique in that he had an ability given to him by God to preach
the gospel in many different settings, many different cultures. That's a rare thing. To be able
to say, I didn't change the gospel. god usually calls a man to one
church for life and uh... and he's he has a eight a time
and a congregation uh... to speak to in a generation that
uh... would not have fit into the previous
generation or into the next generation uh... there were men that were
that were used of God greatly in previous generations that
wouldn't have a hearing today. I was thinking about Cody Groover. Some of our members here have
listened to Cody a lot who speaks Spanish. Listen to him online.
And one of the comments that I've heard about Cody's preaching
in Mexico and in Spanish is that he uses a lot of illustrations
relating to Catholicism. Well, that's because that's the
culture he's leading. He's preaching the gospel to people that are
steeped in Catholicism. Michael Etheridge, I was thinking
about Michael, he's in the back right now teaching the children.
Is he changing the gospel? No. Is he delivering the message
of the gospel in a little different fashion than he would if he was
speaking to you from behind the pulpit? Yes. That's all Paul's
saying, is that I'm conscious of my audience. And God has given me an ability
to appeal to that audience with the same gospel, the same truth.
But perhaps in a little different way. Why? Because my concern is that they'd
be saved. I'm not going to preach at people. I'm not going to preach over
them. I'm not going to preach to them. And it's important for me to
have an understanding of the hearers in order to be able to,
in order to be able to identify and relate with them. And that's
all Paul say. Verse 22, I am made by God all
things to all men that by all means I may say some. That's my concern, the salvation
of sinners. And this I do for the gospel's
sake, that I might be partakers thereof with you. Know ye not
that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the
prize? So run, that ye may obtain. Now, Paul's writing to the church
at Corinth, and the Corinthians were Athenian wannabes. Corinth is very close to Athens,
and the Olympic Games were very big in Athens. Sports was a huge
thing, and so Paul's addressing these. And here's an example
of how he wouldn't write to a Jewish congregation. When he's writing
to the Jewish congregations, he's talking to them about Jewish
history and Jewish law. When he wrote to the church at...
when he spoke to the church in Athens, in acts chapter seventeen
he quotes one of the greek poets and uh... talks to them about
the uh... the statues of the unknown god
and and uh... you see what that's what he's
saying way depending on where i am and what audience on the
out all speak to them the same gospel but i'll use uh... language and illustrations and
points that they can understand Because that's my most important
desire is for them to have an understanding of the gospel. Alright, let's take a break. Thank you.