Therefore he says seeing we have
this ministry as We have received mercy we faint not now the ministry
that he's talking about of course is what we've seen in chapter
3 the ministry of the new covenant not the not the old not the Covenant
of works, but the new covenant of grace in Christ As Distinguished from the old
in chapter 3 now this ministry is described in chapter three
as the ministry of the glory that's in Christ, the glory that
exceleth, the glory that's seen in his face, the glory whereby
the veil is taken away from the hearts of sinners so that they
might see God's glory in the face of Christ, the ministry
that tells how that God can be just and yet justify a sinner. See, the old covenant revealed
the justice of God, the holiness of God, the righteous standard
of God. And as it relates to us, it revealed
our inability to measure up to it. So how can God be just and
yet consider us just and yet see us acceptable in his sight? That's the new covenant. That's
what we're talking, that's the ministry that he says, seeing
we have this ministry, seeing that we don't, preach to people
that they need to do something to be saved. We preach what Christ
has done to save sinners. The ministry of acceptance with
God and salvation that depends on the sinner in no way whatsoever,
but is accomplished and given by Christ the Savior. And notice,
he says, we have this ministry because God chose to give it
to us. We haven't taken up the ministry. We haven't joined the
ministry. We haven't volunteered for the ministry. We have it
from God. He's given it to us. As described
in 1 Timothy 6.20, listen to 1 Timothy 6.20, O Timothy, keep
that which is committed to thy trust. We have this ministry
because God committed it to our trust. And of course that doesn't
mean that the perfect almighty omnipotent Completely self-reliant God Needs
us or or even would trust us with anything as far as the flesh
is concerned He's simply saying that he included us in this he
fits us for the ministry That we have and not just preachers
with his people To be able to be a witness for him and to declare
this new covenant of God's glory in Christ, of salvation by grace
and not works. We have it because God committed
it to our trust. Oh, Timothy, keep that which
is committed to that trust. Avoid profane and vain babblings. That's one of the ways we keep
the ministry that God entrusted to us is to avoid all the nonsense
that has nothing to do with the ministry. You watch a church,
a worship, so-called worship service from beginning to end
on television or whatever. And 90% of it is just fiddling
around, just acting and joking and singing,
which nothing wrong with singing good songs, but if you're just
singing, we praise you, oh God, we praise you, hallelujah, lift
us up. Praise your name. There's no
substance to that. It's all fluff. It's all foolishness
and no substance. How does God save a sinner? That's
what we need to know. How much of that is there in
that hour and a half? Avoid profane and vain babblings. you know, feel-good stories or
heart-wrenching stories about this drug addict or that horrible sinner that was rehabilitated
but still don't know God because nobody in the house can tell
him who God is. And oppositions of science or
knowledge, falsely so-called because there is not knowledge.
That's the constant, like, well, what does that word is mean?
You know, and all that kind of, avoid that. That's how you, that's
one of the ways, the significant ways in which you keep that which
is committed to our trust is by keeping to it. In 1 Timothy 1 11, you will remember
this verse, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed
God, which was committed to our trust, the glorious good news. that unto us is born a Savior,
which is Christ the Lord. And seeing this ministry is what
it is, he says, we faint not because of the necessity of it,
because of, you know, how are you gonna fail
and rest if you have a cure for a disease that everybody in the
world has? And it's life or death, people are dying without it. How are you gonna find time to
just say, well, let's just give it a break, we won't pass out
any today. We faint not, we don't quit, we don't stop. Every time there's an ear somewhere,
we're gonna tell them about Christ. And we don't give up, we don't
faint because it's not useless, like the so-called gospel of
this religious world. I've told you many times, if
it was my job to talk sinners into loving God, I would have
given up a long time ago. But we don't faint because this
ministry is the one where God saves sinners by this ministry. Seeing we have this ministry,
we don't quit, we don't give up, we don't faint, that is we're
not exhausted. And there's one reason for that
given in the verse, mercy. We've obtained mercy. We faint not because of the mercy
of God, mercy received. The language, every word is important,
isn't it? It's mercy received. Mercy merited
is not mercy. Mercy earned is not mercy. Listen
to 1 Timothy 1 16, how be it for this cause, Paul said, I
obtained mercy that in me first, Jesus Christ might show forth
all long suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting." What would you suppose Paul is
saying there? Think about this. Here's a man
who hated the Lord Jesus Christ so much that he was gathering
up everybody that preached him, everybody that expressed faith
in Christ and putting them in prison or killing, stoning them. And he says, for this cause,
I obtained mercy that in me first, Jesus Christ might show forth
all longsuffering. He might save even a wicked,
vile, murderous wretch like me for a pattern to them, to show
that there's nobody too far gone. You reckon that's what he's talking
about? To show those that should hereafter believe on him And
it doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter what you are.
There's hope in Christ. There's nobody too far gone.
Is Paul a pattern of that? Is he an example of that? The greatest enemy of God's son
on the earth at that time, who would that be today? You'd have
a lot to choose from, wouldn't you? God's greatest enemy on
this earth at the time, God saved him. And Paul said he did it
to show everybody that there's nobody too far gone. That his
mercy, he showed all long suffering toward me. He let me defile myself
so badly. I was to be hopeless in every
other way, in every other sense. And then he shined his light
right on me. "'That's why we don't faint,'
he said. "'That's why we don't faint. "'That's why we yet preach
Christ and Him crucified.'" Nobody cares, nobody's interested in
that. It's all right, I'm thankful
for the ones, I wouldn't trade one of you for a throng of 10,000
that sing, oh, how I love Jesus, and raise up their hands and
draw attention to themselves. and brag on what they've done
for God. We're not complaining when we
say that so few, nobody's interested in this. Well, that's fine. That's
the way God's doing it. That's fine. He's saving who
he came to save, I'll tell you that. We know that. I'm not discouraged
by that. But at the same time, wouldn't
it be wonderful if we could fill this place up with true worshipers
of the Son of God. I wouldn't have a problem with
that either, but that's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. That's why we don't faint. That's
why we're steadfast in the things which we've learned and have
been assured of because we've received mercy from the Lord. And that's what it takes. That's what it takes now. Mercy. Nobody is gonna tell the truth
as it is in the Lord Jesus apart from God's mercy. It's not gonna
happen. That's evident in this world.
That's why just about nobody does. Because it only happens by God's mercy. But look at verse
two. 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. Renounce the hidden things of
dishonesty. Man's religion is all about hiding
things. You can listen to them for five
minutes and you can hear what they didn't say if you know the
Lord. You'll hear what they didn't say. It's louder than what they
say. Hidden, the hidden things of
dishonesty, hiding things and being dishonest with sinners.
That's exactly why Paul makes this distinction here between
those and those who speak for God, all of his people. who know
him and speak for him in whatever capacity. Because we received
the mercy of the Lord, we don't hide the truth that people despise. So that we'll be successful in
the ministry. Mercy. And so we just don't do
that. We renounce the hidden things
of dishonesty. Renounce means to speak out and
to give up, to renounce or to give it up, stop it, stop doing
it. But also to speak out, which
is interesting because you do it openly. You openly renounce
the hidden things of dishonesty. That's what Paul's doing in that
verse right there. He's saying openly. The tactics of religion,
that don't fly here. We're not trying to get people
to make decisions. We're trying to honor the Lord and see him
save some folks. And so I think we'll do it his
way, if that's all right with y'all. To openly and clearly expose
and reject the hellish tactics of embellishing and editing and
perverting the whole counsel of God. leaving the parts out
that people don't like. You know, when the Lord Jesus
spoke, it says they were scandalized. That word is not used in the
scripture, but if you look up the, they said, who can hear
that? Who can hear that saying? It's
a hard saying. That means it's scandalous. They don't do that from pulpits
these days. They don't speak like that. It's
everybody's wonderful and everybody's, God's got a wonderful plan for
everybody's life and he just wants you to be successful and
happy. Now I tell you what he wants you to do, he wants you
to burn in hell forever if you're not gonna bow to his son, that's
what he wants. If you're his now, he's gonna
save you one way or another but he's gonna do it by this gospel
where you don't tell God what he wants, you don't tell sinners
what God wants, you tell them what God said. and what he does,
what he has done. And you don't turn him into some
old grandpa upstairs that just wants the best for everybody.
No, he's the one that puts people in hell. He does it personally,
he does that. But by his grace, he sent his
son into this world and some folks to tell people about him.
And how a sinner by this new covenant The old was deliberately
given to show that we can't do anything right, that we can't
do anything good. We cannot be good, and yet religion's
telling us if you just be good, the Lord will be happy with you,
no? No, he's not gonna be happy with you except in his son. So Paul openly renounces the
hidden things of dishonesty. You know, they hide that about
God. And God told His prophets, if you don't warn people about
the wrath to come, the judgment, then it's on you. God said, I'll
hold you responsible for that. Because of God's mercy, we refuse
to hide anything. Paul said, I haven't neglected
to preach unto you the whole counsel of God. I haven't shunned to declare
all of it to you. God's gospel is salvation, not
man's picking and choosing and telling sweet little lies.
We're not gonna hide it, be it ever so distasteful to the flesh.
And it is by nature, that's why they said, we're not going anywhere
with you, we're not gonna follow you anymore. And they went away
and walked no more with him, except those that he chose. And
he asked them, are you going with him? And they said, where
are we gonna go? You have the words of eternal life. This world hates what you say
and don't wanna hear it. It's a scandalous thing to them,
but it's life to us. So whatever the earthly consequences,
Paul was, Went through a lot for the gospel. He called it
the offense of the gospel because it's offensive to the flesh It's
gonna lay bare the fact that all of your works your best works
your religious works your decisions for Jesus are all filthy Disgusting
vile rags in the sight of God Your decision for Jesus will
send you to hell If that's what you trust before
God Your repeating of the sinner's
prayer will put you in hell. God's mercy is in his son, not
your religion. You know, there's a sense, I
think I see it in other preachers too, and in God's people in a
lot of way. There's a sense of the brevity
of time and to not mince words anymore. There's no time for
it. And the stakes are too high.
The stakes are too high. Look at this next passage with
me. See what you think about this
in Colossians 2, if you turn over there, you look at this
passage of scripture with me and see in this, see if we can
see in this what it means not to be enticed by words of man's
wisdom. What's the opposite of that?
To be, what he talks about here, the hidden things of dishonesty,
they walk in craftiness, they handle the word of God deceitfully,
and we're warned not to be enticed by their lovely religious rhetoric. Colossians 2, 1 through 10. Let's
see what the opposite of that is. Let's see what the remedy
to that is. Let's see what we do instead
of that, instead of walking deceitfully, instead of hiding things and
being dishonest with sinners. What are we gonna do? Colossians
2, 1. For I would that you knew what great conflict I have for
you. and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen
my face in the flesh, that their hearts might be comforted, being
knit together in love and under all riches of the full assurance
of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of
the Father, and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. You see where he's going now,
Christ, Christ, This is the conflict that I have for you. This is
what makes my heart yearn and be concerned. This is the weight,
the burden that I have for you, that you'd know and discover
the treasures of all wisdom and knowledge in Christ, in whom,
in a person, in somebody. And this I say, lest any man
should beguile you with enticing words. You know what he's not
gonna do? Lest any man should beguile you
with enticing words. He's not gonna go through the
litany of all the different false religions and let's learn about
them. Let's talk about, you know, the whoever's this week, the
Methodists or the Catholics or whatever. And let's learn all
the false religions so we can avoid them. No, what he's gonna
do, lest they be beguiled, is remind them over and over and
over that all wisdom and knowledge is in Christ Jesus. That's all you need to know.
If it's not Christ and what he did for sinners, the simple,
clear, singular truth of God's son and what he accomplished
on Calvary, then it's deception. And you know what he's talking
about by enticing word? Oh, come make a decision. you
know, give your heart to Jesus, which means, of course, live
right and give, you know, what you owe to the church. It's a big scam. Religion is
a scam. And we're gonna have to call
them on it, aren't we? We're gonna have to call them on it. We've lost young people already
to the scam of this world's religion. You see why he's talking about
this burden, this conflict I have for you? I don't wanna see it. I don't
wanna see it. I don't want it to happen. Don't let him beguile
you with enticing words. Oh, we're on this mission to
do this. And it's so, everybody wants a cause. Let's join up
with a cause. For though I be absent in the
flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit. enjoying and beholding
your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. He's
not saying that they're wishy-washy. He's careful here. I rejoice
in your steadfastness in the faith, but at the same time,
I fear lest you be beguiled. And so he keeps bringing them
back. Look what he's doing. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in him. What's the answer? What's the
remedy? to being beguiled and being deceived
and being misled? Christ, walk in Him, you've received
Him, rooted and built up in Him, verse seven, established in the
faith of Him, as you've been taught, abounding therein, thanking
Him for His mercy and what He did for us, all that He did for
us, beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain
deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the
world." And what does that mean? Not after Christ. If it's not after Christ, it's
the world, it's deceit, it's beguiling. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body. and you are complete in Him. All you need is Him, to believe
on Him, to walk in Him, to be rooted and grounded in Him, to
reject any message that's not Him, and find all of your completeness
in Him. That's the remedy. That's the
opposite of deception and craftiness. which is the head of all principality
and power. The next phrase in verse two,
not walking in craftiness. Now, craftiness, this word is
used subtlety, false wisdom, that's Satan. Let me say something else about
this world's freewill Antichrist religion. Not only is it a scam,
it's satanic. Oh, I thought satanic was where
you like cut chicken's heads off and, you know, drew the pentangle
and stuff. No. It's perverting the gospel of
Christ. That's what it is. What did Satan do in the garden?
What did he do in the garden? Some weird stuff that made everybody
go, ooh, what's he doing? No, look at this beautiful fruit. Did God say you shouldn't have
that? Shouldn't you decide that for yourself? Don't you have
a free will? It's old, y'all. They didn't
come up with it in the 70s. It's old. This is Satan. He had some wisdom for Adam and
Eve, didn't he? But it was a lie. This is the
religion that we renounce. Saying things that sound beneficial
and sound so godly and make sense to the depraved mentality of
man. It just makes sense that we should
do good things in this life. The good things that you do in
this life are what are gonna put you in hell. God calls them
sins. Men trust the good things that
they do. Well, my good outweighs my bad.
If anybody's going to go to heaven, my mama, because she was so good
to her children. Did she have Christ? Did she
believe on Christ? Was Christ her representative?
Was Christ her righteousness? Is he yours? Is he your sin offering
before God? If not, you've been duped. You've
been duped into thinking that your goodness is righteousness, when in reality,
it's evil. And then he said this, "...nor
handling the word of God deceitfully." That's it. And not only is it 90% fluff, but when they do get in
the scriptures, they murder them. They just rip them to shreds
and put them back together in some Frankenstein monster to
try to avoid telling people what God said. The word handling, nor handling
the word of God deceitfully, it means to ensnare or corrupt. When you corrupt something, you
add something to it, don't you? You've corrupted it. The best
gumbo anybody ever made in the world, but you put a little arsenic
in it, it's corrupted, just a little bit. Well, we could preach a long
message just on that, couldn't we? The handling of the word
of God deceitfully. They'll actually sign God's name
to things that they came up with. Can you imagine that? We'd be doing that if it wasn't
for God's grace, wouldn't we? They'll make up some stupid,
asinine, religious, sentimental, just stupid, and put God. No, God didn't say that. God
didn't say that. Well, we could say a lot about
handling the word of God deceitfully, but let's consider a few obvious
signs that make it evident when this is what's happening. And it seems like I wanna speak
to our young people more than ever lately in these scriptures
that we find ourselves in. Just give me a little bit more
of your attention and I'm gonna tell you how you're gonna know.
The first one is this, who get the glory out of it? who's getting
the glory out of what they're saying. If they're handling the
word of God deceitfully, man's gonna get some glory. When everything
is up to you, who gets the glory? Who's responsible for salvation? If you're getting any glory out
of it, you're being deceived now. You're being duped. Turn
with me to 1 Corinthians 1.26. Give me about seven more minutes
here. I want us to see this, and I say things like that so
you won't just get lost in it. Your eyes are getting heavy and
you're thinking, oh man, we're in this for the long haul, so
I'm just gonna, no, snap out of it just for a little
bit here, because this is so vital. So much deception in this
world. Everybody's speaking for God.
1 Corinthians 1.26, for you see your calling, brethren, how that
not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble
are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of
the world to confound the things which are mighty. and base things
of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen
and things which are not to bring to naught the things that are."
And you look at what's happening here. God chose, God chose, God
chose. You've not chosen me, I've chosen
you. He said to his disciples. God is sovereign in salvation.
God does the choosing. He picks out who he wants to
now. You can just throw this Bible away if you don't want
to believe that because it's from beginning to end. If you're gonna say, I believe
the Bible, you're gonna have to bow to God as God. God chose, God
chose the fool. He chose the worst of the worst,
the most wretched. Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners,
but I obtained mercy from God. And he chose the worst of the
worst, why? You might be thinking, well, boy, man, look how many,
they've got like, they've got 10,000 in that church, or they've
got 5,000 people. Look at this great big complex
they've built. Surely God is there and not over
here in this little huddled up group in the corner of nowhere. No, God deliberately chose the
nobodies. You know why? That no flesh should
glory in his presence. Who's getting the glory over
there? Who's getting the glory? When God has left You think about
that. The most important thing, the
way that God has seen fit to reveal his glory like in no other
way is the salvation of wretched sinners, and he's left that up
to you. Really? Man's gonna get some glory one
way or the other, aren't they? Even if it destroys the very
person of God. That no flesh should glory in
his presence, but of him are you in Christ Jesus. If you're
in Christ, it's not because you made a decision, it's because
God put you in Christ. Who of God, who of God, salvation
is of God. Christ has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth. Let him glory in the one who
did it. Let him glory in what he did. Let him quit bragging
about I made a decision for Jesus when I was 12 years old. Let
him glory in God. Let him say like Saul, I was
running from God as fast as I could and he arrested me on my road
to hell and saved me anyway. Ephesians 2.8, for by grace are
you saved through faith. And that's not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works. Why did God do it that
way? Lest any man should boast. You
see what I'm saying? You know how you'll know the
difference? Who's getting the glory out of it? For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. You can't even boast in what
you do. What you do is what God did for you, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. He before ordained that
we would bow to His Son, that we would believe on Him, that
we'd trust Him, that we'd find in Him life and salvation. Another sign that you're being
deceived, at least an attempt is being made to deceive you,
is if God has said to ever try or to want to, or He needs to
be let to do anything, or if He has failed in any way, if
He wanted to do this and something else happened, and anything that
he sets out to accomplish, you're being duped. God don't try. He don't depend. He don't leave
things for somebody else. None can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
And none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou?
The next sign is this. There's a deceptive corruption
of the word of God If the message is anything but Christ. You see where we read that a
while ago in Colossians? Anything. The crucified son of
God as he's revealed in scripture. The scandalous one, the one that
everybody hates. The one that sinners nailed to
a cross and spit on and mocked him and tortured him. and killed
him in the most humiliating and in the way that they could invent
that would most reveal our hatred of him, that one. He's God's son, he's the king.
And he said, nobody takes my life from me, I laid it down.
That doesn't excuse our evil. But he laid it down, he's the
son of God and he is the gospel. There's Christ and there's everything
else, that's what we read. There's an all inclusiveness,
a simplicity that is in Christ that believers ears are tuned
to. That's why I say, if you know the Lord, you're gonna hear
what they don't say. God's sheep are not gonna follow
another stranger's voice, they will not obey. But if you haven't believed on
Christ and your ears aren't tuned to that now, let me give you
this warning. If anyone preaches any other
gospel than that which you've heard us preach, which is what
Christ did for sinners, His glory, His sovereignty, Christ's successful,
the victorious Savior that accomplished exactly what He came to do. Christ,
the only righteousness that a sinner can have before God. Christ,
the only sin offering. Christ exclusively. If anybody
preaches any other gospel than that, let him be accursed and
do not listen to Him. The Word of God does not teach
what the sinner needs to do. The word of God concerns Christ
and what he did for sinners. The word of God, when handled
rightly, does not call for sinners to do anything for God. It announces
what God did for sinners and is preached because it is expressly revealed
to be the means whereby he saves sinners by the preaching of this
gospel. I don't want to lie to you, but
give me two more minutes. Seven plus two is what I meant
to say. Manifestation of the truth, he said in our verse.
but a manifestation of the truth to put on exhibit, to bestow,
to manifestly declare. This truth does not need to be
explained. It doesn't need to be interpreted, defended, or
embellished in any way. Paul's manner was, he went into
them in three Sabbath days, reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
opening and alleging. Opening means to thoroughly open
what had been closed. Until you see Christ, this is
a closed book for you. You're not gonna understand a
single word of it. even though you think you do. Alleging, opening
and alleging that Christ must need, what does alleging mean?
To place beside or near or before food placed on a table. That's
right there in Strong's Concord, food placed on a table. Here it is. Are you hungry? Here's bread. Here's wine. The word conscience is maybe
not what you think, but it's simple. It means consciousness,
to provide things, manifest things to every man's conscious or consciousness,
to make aware, commending this gospel to every man's consideration. Here it is for your consideration.
What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? By experience
and more importantly, by the authority of scripture, I know
what you think of Christ by nature. but it's the same thing I did.
God don't got much use for it. And when it comes right down
to it and you're confronted with him, you hate his guts. And by
God's grace, by experience and from the scripture, I know what
you think of Christ if God has bestowed his grace upon you and
saved you and revealed Christ to you in faith. He's the pearl of great price.
But without complication or compromise, here he is. That's what Paul
is saying. That's what we do. Here he is. This is the ministry
we've received with the Lord. We preach Christ and what he
did for sinners. There's food on the table. Is
anybody hungry? Are you thirsty? And he says,
in the sight of God, in the presence of God, I preach tonight before
God. Before God. What a sobering thing
for all of us. And you're hearing before God. God has said to me, comfort my
people, feed my sheep, preach all things he said that I've
preached to you and I've taught you, all of it, the whole counsel
of God. We are warned not to add or to
take away or the plagues of this book will be added to us. What
does God say to you who hear about what's happening right
now? Take heed therefore how you hear. For whosoever hath
to him shall be given and whosoever hath not from him shall be taken
even that which he seemeth to have. If you have Christ, what
did you come here tonight for? More Christ. More Christ. I want to know him more than
I might know him. If you have him, you'll be given more. If
you don't have him, if you're trusting yourself, even what
you think you have is going to be taken away from you one of
these days. Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel, and
woe is unto you and me if we don't believe it. May we receive
mercy of the Lord that the message will be Christ, all Christ, only
Christ, and that we all might be given grace to believe on
him. Let's pray.