And if the Lord is pleased, we'll
see the gospel teaching here. You know that what Paul's been speaking about
in this chapter, how that the gospel came to this
church Verse one, it came effectually,
not in vain. Verse two, came in spite of suffering
and affliction. Verse three, it came honest.
You remember those things we've looked at. And here Paul says
in verse 10, you are witnesses, you know this, and God. How wholly and justly and unblameably
We behaved ourselves among you that believe. Now, this is another
way, another manner in which the gospel comes. And Paul is saying, in effect
here, in these three verses together, he's saying we acted right so
that we might teach you to act right. It's that simple. Look at verse 12 again. that
you would walk worthy of God. We behaved a certain way. In
verse 11, we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you
so that you would walk that way, so that you would walk in honesty
before God and in love. God who has called you unto the
kingdom is kingdom and glory. Now there's a little more to
this than, you know, we acted right so that we might teach
you to act right. But that's the gist of it. Remember
how, that we've been seeing in this chapter, the way, the manner
in which Paul brought the gospel, and in seeing that, we see the
gospel itself. It's effectual. It's honest. It's Christ. It's the word of
God, not men, not the opinions of men. It's brought by the weak
and foolish that the excellency might be of God. The gospel glorifies
him and not man. Neither the one who preaches
it nor the one who hears it is getting any glory when the gospel's
preached. But God gets all of the glory. And this is part of that. This
verse is part of that. The gospel teaches us to live
for him who died for us. Listen to 2 Corinthians 5.15.
You've heard this verse many, many times, but listen to it
again. This is what Paul's talking about here in this text. 2 Corinthians
5.15, and that he, Christ, died for all, that they which live
should not henceforth live unto themselves. We just don't behave
that way. Not bringing the gospel with
any guile or deceit. That if we were living for ourselves
in this, that's how we would come, because that's what gets
the praise and support of men, is to twist the gospel, to compromise
the gospel. to make null and void the cross,
to remove the offense of the cross, as Paul called it. That's
how you gain favor with men and get supported by men. But we
just, by God's grace, that's not how we come. We should not henceforth live
unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose
again. Since he died for me, by his
grace, I live for him. That's very simple. And that's
what this is. If you're gonna preach the gospel,
you have to live that. It's just the way God does it.
God doesn't find people that way, he makes people that way. Otherwise, nobody's gonna hear
a word you say, and rightly so. You shouldn't listen to anybody
that's hypocritical, that's telling you one thing and doing another.
In fact, here are the qualifications of a preacher in Titus 1.6, listen. Titus 1.6, if any be blameless,
and that's not before God. We know that we're sinful before
God. Even the best thing we do is
full of sin before God. You can't fool God. Our motives
are, evil, we're selfish, we're lackadaisical about our worship
to the Lord. Everything that we do is false,
but blameless before men. In other words, you can't have
a reputation for being a scoundrel and get up in the pulpit. It
just can't be that way. If any be blameless, the husband
of one wife Having faithful children, not accused of right or unruly. We'll see the reason for that
in a minute, how important the children are. For a bishop must
be blameless as the steward of God. Not as knowing everything
and being a perfect person. As the steward of God, blameless.
In other words, faithfully. preaching the gospel of Christ
as the steward of God, blameless, not self-willed, not soon angry,
not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, but
a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy."
That's the word Paul uses. It doesn't mean we're holy in
and of ourselves, that our flesh is holy. We know that. But holy, temperate,
holding fast the faithful word. as he hath been taught, that
he may be able by sound doctrine. You see, this part, verse nine,
I should have had you turn there so you could kind of look at
it together, but listen. Verse nine, holding fast the faithful
word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound
doctrine, both to exhort and convince the gainsayers. All
of that before that is that. he might be able by sound doctrine
to exhort and convince. If you are all about the money,
if you don't like people, which, you know, that's a fine line.
I like God's people. Let's put it this way. We love
people, don't we? We don't like them. But we love each other. We love
the people of God. If you're always being accused of things and all of these things before that
don't measure up, then you're not gonna be able to exhort anybody.
Your sound doctrine, though it be sound, nobody's gonna hear
it from you. Now, a few of you might well
question you know, whether this describes me or not. But fortunately,
those who would cause a problem in that, I have things on them
too. So they don't dare rat me out. But you see what Paul is
simply saying though, in order to exhort them to walk worthy
of the Lord, he of course would need to be an example in that. Or verse nine in this passage
would be impossible. He's not gonna be able to preach effectively otherwise. He's not gonna be able to exhort
them to walk worthy if his walk does not bear the
fruit of the Spirit. And you see the emphasis, you
see why it's important that we behave, that's the word from
our text, It's because of verse nine in this passage. It's because of verse nine in
the passage that we just read, that he may be able by sound
doctrine to exhort and convince. It's because of verses 11 and
12 in our text. Look at verses 11 and 12 of chapter
two. As you know how we exhorted,
and comforted and charged every one of you as a father death
his children that you would walk worthy. We exhorted you, we comforted,
we charged you. How are you gonna charge somebody
to walk worthy of God when the way you act says you don't even
care about who God is or what he said? So you see the emphasis
is on the word, it's on the preaching, it's on the gospel. That's what
all of this is about, how the gospel comes, the manner of the
gospel. And this is not the flesh being
better than other people. Paul said, I'm less than the
least of all of the saints. So when he says, we acted holily
and justly, When we came, he's not saying he's better than other
people in his flesh. It's not some personal triumph
or victory over sin. It is God declaring his gospel
in a way that he uses, that he manipulates, that he qualifies
for. God doesn't call the qualified,
he qualifies the called. And he said this, your witnesses
and God also. God also, if God gives us all
the grace that we need to preach, and by his grace, we seek to
please him, we seek to be faithful, we seek to tell the truth, we
seek to be stewards, faithful stewards of his grace, by his
grace and his people, will benefit and be happy with the result. I've said this to you before.
There are a few of you still, at the best I can tell, you've
never done anything wrong. You know what I'm saying? Can
you think of people like that? I can name about three or four
at least. I'm pretty sure you've never
done anything bad. But that's just my perception. But I'll tell you this, be like
that. Be like that. I wanna be like that. Don't you? Before me, and I want to be that
way before you. For the gospel's sake, that's
what Paul's saying, for the gospel's sake. Here's a passage of scripture
Shows us who the opponent is in this and why we fight him
turn with me to first Corinthians 922 This has direct bearing on what
we're talking about how the gospel comes who who preaches the gospel
and what God is doing with regard to that first Corinthians 922 The apostle Paul, writing to
the church in Corinth, he said, to the weak became I as weak
that I might gain the weak. I put myself in their shoes.
I made all things to all men that I might by all means save
some. And this I do for the gospel's
sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you. Know you not
that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the
prize. So run that you may obtain."
And you think about what he's saying and think about what he's
fixing to say, wait a minute. Every man that striveth for the
mastery is temperate in all things. He prepares himself. He behaves
a certain way in order to win. That's our test. We have something very important
to do. We needed to deliver the gospel
to you. The means by which God makes
sinners wise unto salvation. And so we prepare. God prepared
us, God qualified us. We came a certain way in order
to achieve that. That's what this is. That you
may obtain, that you might win. Only one's gonna receive, run
that way. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible
crown, but we an incorruptible. We're talking about spiritual
victory here, spiritual success. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly,
so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my
body. and bring it into subjection,
lest it by any means, you see what he's talking about? What
I have preached. All that talk about running a
race and fighting the fight, he's talking about preaching
the gospel. He's talking about our text and
the preparation, the necessary behavior that results in victory. God's the one that wins the victory.
Christ is the victory. but he sends us a certain way
in order that we may obtain, lest by any means, when I have
preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." Now, who
was Paul running against? And who was he whooping up on?
He said, I'm not just shadow boxing. It's a real fight. But who was he fighting against?
Verse 27, himself. Himself. I keep, it's myself
that must be in subjection here. It's myself that has to be subdued. It's myself that's gotta be beaten.
That's gotta be outrun. And why? Verse 23, the gospel. The gospel. Verse 11 in our text, as you
know, how we exhorted and comforted and charged, that's what we do.
Now in other places, the gospel preaching is described in different
ways. But here we have these three words. We charge and comfort
and exhort as a father does. His children. You see how the
gospel comes? It comes as an exhortation first. We exhort. That's that word that
means to call to one side. It's not a dressing down. I'm not here to dress you down. You
don't call somebody to your side in order to do that. And it's
not just a casual tossing out words either. No, it's more than
that. I'm calling you to my side. It's
like a father calling his child to his side to admonish, to instruct,
to teach them something important. Come away from what you're doing. Forget about all the distractions
and come here to me. We've got something to talk about. That's how the gospel comes.
We call people away from business as usual. We call them away from
the concerns and the diversions of this world. We call them away
from their own thoughts and feelings and reasoning. We call them away
from the error that others would speak to them. We call them to our side because
we care. We call them to our side because
we love them. We call them to our side because
this is vitally important. We call them to our side because
we're responsible as a father for his children. Commissioned
by God. Charged by God we charge We call them to our side regarding
Christ Why Christ must needs have suffered and all that he
accomplished when he did You can learn a lot of things
in this world and And there's a lot of things to be involved
in in this world, but come away from that and hear what's real. Hear what's necessary. One thing
is needful. You're cumbered about with a
whole lot of stuff. You young people got lots of
ambition and all that. That's great. One thing is needful. That's the Lord Jesus now. He is the perfect spotless Lamb
of God, the mighty and unfailing Son of God. Don't you ever listen
to anybody that tells you that God or the Lord Jesus ever tried
to do anything and didn't do it. He's God's son who came to redeem
and save his people by dying in their place under the wrath
of God for their sin. And he died in their place under
the wrath of God for their sin and saved them. The gospel is not trying to get
you to do something. Not here this morning to try
to get you to do something. We're here this morning to pray
and seek and yearn and beseech God to do something for us. That's how the gospel comes.
Come over here, let's talk about that. That's what happened on Calvary. He came to redeem his people
and he redeemed his people. He said it's finished because
it is. why he came is what he did. Being God himself, by virtue
of his own holy sinlessness, he suffered for sins, the just
for the unjust that he might bring us to God. We preach him so that those for
whom he died will come to know him by grace through faith in
him. And that faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. That same gospel message is also
our comfort. He said, we comforted you. That's
not two different things. That's doing the same thing that
accomplishes two, three different things. We preach the gospel, that's
what he said. He didn't say we preach the gospel and then we
told sentimental stories that made you warm and fuzzy. He said,
we preach the gospel. And in doing so, we exhorted
you and we comforted you. Christ is our comfort. Think about this with me. We
experience our sinfulness, we who know the Lord, we experience
our sinfulness and wretchedness all the time. Are you weary? It's never not in our minds and
hearts. We have reason to believe constantly
that we're God's enemy. Look at us, look how we act.
Look what we do. Look at what we think about.
Look at what our priorities are. We have reason to believe all
the time that we're gonna suffer for our sins. Those who have
been taught what sin is, what we are, we must say with David, I acknowledge
my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. That word acknowledge, I acknowledge
my transgression. You know what that means? To
know. Do you know? David said, I know my sin and
I'm constantly aware of it. You see why we need comfort?
You see why we need a father? And there's something about this word his in our text. As
a father doth his children. Something about that now. You
see, we preach the word that comforts, but it's God the father
comforting his children. You know, I can only go so far
comforting somebody else's child. I might do that. into my arms
and hug them and make them feel better. But there's only so far
I can go in that because I'm not responsible for them. I can't
promise them that I'm always gonna be there for them. They're
not mine. I can't tell them I'll provide
for them because that's not my business. But my children, with
all of my being, I'm there for them. This is the Lord for us, and
he gives us pastors according to his own heart. We're also charged by the gospel. This is an interesting word.
It's very, very helpful. Keep in mind that Paul is exhorting,
comforting, and charging, but it's all one gospel. In verse
nine, he says, I preach the gospel to you. That's it. Preach the word. But to charge,
here means to be a witness to. Isn't that interesting? We call you, we call upon you
to be a witness to the truth. You may not like it. You may
not ever like it, but you can't deny it. You've got to confess. That's what it said. That's how
the gospel comes. Does that remind you of anything
or anybody? You're not gonna like it now,
but you must acknowledge the truth when the gospel's preached
because it's one plus one equals two. It's not complicated, it's
just true. Charging is what Paul did to
Agrippa. Listen to what Paul said. He
said, I'm not mad, most noble Festus. Festus, I guess Agrippus,
one of his sidekicks. He said, you're out of your mind,
you're insane. And Paul said, no, I'm the one speaking the
words of truth and soberness. For the king knoweth of these
things. I call upon you to bear witness
to them. The king knoweth of these things
before whom also I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none
of these things are hidden from him. You see how he's charging
him with this. He's calling upon him to be witness
to it. For this thing was not done in
a corner, King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know you
do. I know you believe the prophets. That's charging. You can't deny
it. It does say he chose his people
before the foundation of the world. Now you acknowledge it.
That's how the gospel comes. You be a witness to it. In Acts chapter four, when by
God's power and grace and his providence at that time, they
were able to raise that lame man and make him able to walk. It says they could say nothing
against it. They could not deny that what
they preached was the word of God because God was with them.
They saw the power of God with their own eye. That's the gospel.
That's how the gospel comes. You may not like it. You may
gnash your teeth. The veins on your neck may stand
out, but you've got to acknowledge the truth because it's plain
as day. That's how we preach. I know that thou believest Agrippa. Then Agrippa said unto Paul,
almost. He couldn't deny it, could he?
But he said, almost. Almost, thou persuadest me to
be a Christian. King Agrippa would not submit
to the truth. He did not receive the love of
the truth, as the scripture says. But as Paul said, he could not
deny it. I've experienced that. I've seen
people enraged over the truth. You can't get mad at something
you don't understand. People's problem is not that
they don't understand the truth, not here anyway. They don't believe
it in their heart, but it's not that they don't get it up here.
You can't get mad about something you don't understand. The problem
is they hate the truth. They hate the Christ of the truth.
And only God can shed abroad his love in the sinner's heart. But this is why people get fighting
mad when they hear the gospel. Because it's the truth, because
they have to acknowledge it. You think about that for a second. They get mad, people get mad
when they hear the gospel of Christ. You know, if somebody
told you that the earth is flat, I've heard that before. I've
had people tell me that before. Not for one second did I believe
that, but I didn't get mad at them. I might have laughed at
them a little bit, I might have mocked them, but I didn't get
angry about that. It's when you have to acknowledge
the truth of something that you hate, that's when you get mad.
That's the gospel now. Until the Lord subdues your heart
and reveals his son in you, it's gonna make you mad. They are compelled to acknowledge,
to be witness, to that which they despise. But in those that
believe, it's amen, amen. Amen, so be it, I acknowledge
it. You know what that word, it's
interesting, I read something about, there's the definition
of amen, it means so be it, it's an acknowledgement of what's
being said, but something was in the description of how that
word was used and what it meant, I read this. It's to acknowledge something
to be true, but also this, it's to make it
yours. To make it yours. Isn't that
a good definition of that? Amen. I don't just acknowledge
that that's true, but I say that too. When you said it, it's as
though I said it. I make it mine. I claim that. That's what it is, isn't it?
when a believer hears the truth of Christ. Amen. Amen. That's the truth. That's the truth. That's what we do when God gives
us grace to believe on Christ, to acknowledge something, to
make it ours. It's a gift of God's grace. Now,
one final thought this morning, verse 12, that you would walk
worthy of God who has called you unto his kingdom and glory. Now look at this. The end goal
here. The end goal here is not that
you would agree with me. I'm not arguing you into believing
something, some facts. That's not the goal here is for
you to agree with me. I hope you will. But amen now is more than that. It's more than just I agree with
you. To make it yours is something more than that. He said, here's why I'm doing
this, saying this, telling you this, that you would walk. That you would not only acknowledge
the truth, but you'd live it. That you'd not only be hearers
of the word, but doers of the word. To make the gospel yours is to
walk. to live it, to conduct oneself.
To walk worthy is literally this, to conduct oneself, that's what
walk means. Worthy means suitably. To walk suitably of God. In other words, you believe God's
sovereign? You believe he's on the throne?
You believe he not only made everything, but he runs everything? Walk like it Do you conduct yourself in a
way that is suitable to that Do you act like he's God That's
one thing to say, oh, yeah, he's God he does as he pleases it's
another thing to act like that Have you submitted to it have
you submitted to his righteousness which is in Christ religion It's
all about being saved by Jesus. You know, we want Jesus to save
us. But do they act and they talk like he's God? Or do they act and talk like
they're God? You believe that Christ is God's
son, but do you conduct yourself that way? Does your life Revolve
appropriately around him and his will Or does he just sort
of fit in somewhere in your life? If you believe he's God's son
and everything revolves around him You will act a certain way
You see walking worthy doesn't have so much to do with measuring
up As it does walking in a way that is suitable to the fact
that he's God You see the last part of the
verse there walk like somebody would Look at that last part. Let's just close with that thought
the last part of that verse Walk like somebody would walk
who God sovereignly chose and called and loved and saved freely. He saved you in spite of your
hell-bent determination to destroy yourself. Walk like that because that's
exactly what happened. Walk before him as though he
snatched you out of the fire just because he loved you. Walk before him as though he
gave himself that you might be with him forever. God help us
to walk like that. Amen, let's pray.