If you'll remember, this chapter
speaks of the manner of the gospel, the way that the gospel comes,
which defines the gospel itself. In verse eight, so being affectionately
desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not
the gospel of God only, but also our own souls. because you were
dear unto us. So let's consider very briefly
how that the manner of the gospel is described in this chapter.
It comes verse one, effectually. You see that there? It wasn't
in vain. It never is. It's never in vain. If nobody believes, it's not
in vain. Whether for life or death, Paul said, it's a sweet-smelling
savor of Christ unto God, and it's a triumph. He always causes
us to triumph whenever the gospel's preached. Verse two, the gospel
comes in spite of, with great difficulty. It says here that
they suffered affliction, And we understand what that is, but
though we don't suffer that same way in this day necessarily, it's not that the world despises
the gospel any less, it's just that there are consequences for displaying that hatred and acting
upon it in this time. But the gospel coming in spite
of is something that still happens. It comes in spite of our sin. It comes in spite of pettiness
and pride. We have a little different fight
in some ways than they had then, but it's still the flesh. They
had the same struggles we do, plus outward affliction. So it makes you wonder, what's
our excuse? We have our struggles, though. It comes in spite of,
doesn't it, the gospel. Verse three, it comes honest.
It comes honest. There's no concealed motive. There's no desire to deceive
and to profit from those that are deceived, which is in stark
contrast to the false gospel of free will and works. Everybody
knows they're dishonest. There's nothing worse than a
preacher. I say that without reservation. I would trust a
used car salesman before I would trust a preacher in this world.
And that's a shame, that's a grief to me. I don't go around talking about
how I'm a preacher. I don't want anybody to associate
me with what this world considers to be a preacher. The only thing
worse than a politician is a preacher. And that's shame, that's a real
shame. But Paul said, no ulterior motive,
no compromise, no lies so that people will like us and support
us. Because I guarantee you, if you tell them the truth, this
world's not gonna like you nor support you. They support the
false gospel of man's free will But Paul said, we don't come
that way. We didn't come like that. And the gospel comes as
a sacred trust from the Lord. Verse three also, not a scheme
of man. It's not a business profile. It's a commission from God. If we preach to please God and
not men, then we may not get a lot of decisions out of people,
but God may decide to save somebody. That's how he does it, I know
that, by the preaching of the gospel. We need for God to make
the difference, because there's no difference in us. Nobody was
ever saved by making a decision anyway, we're commissioned by
God. He said if we go and preach what
he taught us, Mark 16, 15 through 16, then he'll save or he'll
die. Verse five, it comes offensively
to the flesh. Offensive, it's offensive. No
flattery, no flattering words, no cloak, no punches pulled. It's not the flu, it's terminal.
We tell it to you like it is, by God's grace. You don't just
do bad things, you are the bad thing. There's nothing you can
do about it. You need a miracle, you need
grace, free grace, you need mercy, you need Christ. The one that
you hate the most and nailed to a cross and spit on as he
bled, that's who you need. You need his grace, you need
his power. Your only hope is if he loves
you even more than you have hated him. Not very flattering is it? It
comes from someone chosen by God and is distinctly Unworthy Verse 6 there As the Apostle as an Apostle
of Christ that word means chosen the word Apostle means chosen,
of course and The word apostle was associated with powers that
the Lord gave the 12 apostles that were a particular gift for
them and for the confirmation of the gospel at that time. But
that's the way the gospel, it comes by somebody chosen. And
notice Paul said, we didn't seek any glory. You know why? Because
he didn't deserve any. It comes from men that are foolish
and weak and base and wretched. God particularly chose that kind
of man that the excellency may be of him and not of us. That's
how it comes. And then it comes as from a nursing mother. And I saw something I didn't
see the first time I looked at this. The word cherisheth there
in verse seven. It means to keep warm. How could that be any more beautiful? To keep warm. You know what the
warmest place in the world is? Right there. For a mama to hold you close
to her heart. It don't get any warmer than
that. If there is more than one way to be warm, they all meet
together right there. That's the picture here. That's
how the gospel comes. You hear somebody get up and
scold and rant and preach on sin. Oh, it's good that our preacher
preaches on sin. Really? You don't know? Right from wrong? What you need
is a savior. We need to understand our condition
now, don't get me wrong. We do need to know our helplessness
and our hopelessness, then they won't preach that part of it
though. They'll say, oh, you're so bad, you're so evil. You need
to come down and make a decision and give some money. They're not gonna tell you that
you're an incurable leper and you're a goner and your soul
is dead. And you're not gonna find out
what death even is until God throws you in hell. They're not
gonna tell you that part. They're just gonna tell you how
you need to shape up and support the church. But if somebody get
up and beat you over the head with the law, that's not the
gospel. You know, remember that word
exhort? I think we're gonna see that in a minute. The word exhort
means to call to one side. Isn't that beautiful? That's
how the gospel comes. Not like in Egypt, when they
were beaten and they would complain about not being able to meet
the quotas without enough straw, and they took away the straw
they had and doubled the quota. That's the law. You're not ever
gonna please God's law. You're not ever gonna be able
to cut it. You can't do enough. You can't quit enough. You can't
start enough. You can't turn over a new leaf
enough. It comes as a nursing mother to keep warm. What a beautiful
picture. Y'all know how Vicki is. I don't need to. I was gonna say, if you know,
you know, but I hate that. I don't quit saying that. Everybody
quit saying that. But if you know, you know. She'll see somebody on TV, we'll
be watching a TV show, and there'll be snow on the ground, and she'll
say, that child don't even have a coat on. She wants everybody
to be warm. But when our babies, boy, she'd
wrap them up tight, hold them to her breast, and keep them
right there all night if that's what it took. That's the gospel now. That's the Lord Jesus to his
people. That's how he comes. A mother's heart. What a beautiful, beautiful picture.
To be held in the arms of a mother, warmed inside and out. That's the aspiration of God's
preachers now to God's preachers. We don't we
don't want summer homes in the helicopters honest to God we
don't Paul Paul said pray for me that
I might be bold to speak the gospel as I hope to As I hope
to He counted not his life dear
unto himself that he might preach Christ. I want to be loved exactly like
that, and I want to love like that. I want to love that way. That's how Christ's gospel comes.
And look at verse eight. So being affectionately desirous
of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel
of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear
to us. How could I even talk about that?
The things expressed by words here are indefinable. That word
desirous means the longing of love. The longing of love, how do you
define that? The longing of love. Vicki and
I loved each other a long time before we were together. It cost me a lot of money. We
didn't have cell phones and free long distance back then. Who cares? I had to hear her
voice. That's the longing of love. If
you had to describe somebody, to somebody, how it feels if, You're apart from somebody that
you love, or maybe they're gone and you miss them. You can't
be with them. And the thing is, they're truly
a part of you. They are a part of you. And you
have to describe how that feels. Where are you gonna start? How
are you gonna do that? I can't describe that. You can't either. But God can show us what that
is. The longing, of love. We were willing to have imparted
unto you not only the greatest thing that you can impart to
another sinner, but our souls with it. In other words, our
own souls is not like adding anything to the gospel, but we
impart the gospel in such a way that we're all in on it. That's
the way the gospel comes. God didn't say I'll give you
pastors that have bachelor's degrees or doctorates in divinity,
but I'll give you pastors after my own heart. That's how the
gospel comes. But that's my problem here, trying
to describe what can't be described. belonging of love Souls we would
have given you our own souls If that word is translated soul
58 times in life 40 times The word literally means breath we
would have given you the breath from our lungs That's how God
brings the gospel And that's his doing That's his
doing. That's not a character that defines
those whom he uses. That's his heart. Master after
his heart. Did he not say, in Jeremiah 3.14, turn, O backsliding children,
saith the Lord, for I am married unto you. You remember how he describes
marriage in this book, it's for they twain shall be one flesh.
That's how our Lord described the spiritual truth of our union
with him and it's how I preached the prayer in John chapter 17,
that they may be one with us, even as we are one. I am married,
come back, turn, come to me, I'm married to you. Is that not how he speaks to
his sheep? Not if only you'll come back, I'll marry you. Come
back, I'm married to you. And I will take you one of a
city. Was there another there where the Gadarene Demoniac was? The Lord crossed the sea to get
to that man. I don't know, one of a city? Two of a family, maybe a whole
family. I will take you. Is that your testimony? The Lord
took me. He took hold of me. He saved
me. He caught me. I will take you and I will give
you pastors. I missed a little part there.
You should have your turn there. Jeremiah three, if you want to
turn there. Jeremiah 3 and then I can't miss anything. You'll
you'll tell me if I miss something What a beautiful passage of scripture.
This is I Want us to see some things
here in the context of what we quoted that I don't know that
I've ever seen before Jeremiah 3 14 "'Turn, O backsliding children,
"'you're my children, saith the Lord, "'for I am married unto
you.'" It's like a father and a mother, isn't it? Like our
text says. It's like a marriage, it's a
oneness, it's a unity with Christ. I will take you one of a city
and two of a family and I will bring you to the church. I'll bring you into the fold. I'll bring you into myself. No
man can come into me except the father which has sent me, bring
them. I'm gonna bring you into the church
and I'm gonna give you a pastor according to my heart. What in the world do we know
about the heart of God? I know he loves his sheep. I know that.
I know that. I know he loves his people. Do
you love me? Feed my sheep. And they'll feed you with knowledge
and understanding. That's what he's saying to Simon.
Knowledge and understanding. We saw what that was this morning.
And it shall come to pass when you be multiplied and increased
in the land." When God saves his people, he adds to the church
daily, such as should be saved. And you're gonna be multiplied
and increased. And in those days, saith the
Lord, may not look like much to this world. Boy, this is God's
harvest. This is God's family. This is
his body. They shall say no more. You're
not gonna say anymore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.
You're not gonna look to shadows and pictures and types anymore.
Neither shall it come to mind, neither shall they remember it,
neither shall they visit it, neither shall that be done anymore. We don't need the shadow anymore,
we've got the substance. We don't need the picture, we
have the person. You see how beautiful that is?
In verse 16 there, he speaks of a time when even that most
sacred ark of the covenant will be obsolete because Christ is
our mercy seed. Even that which God ordained
from the very ancient beginning, when he delivered his people
from Egypt, he said, there's gonna be a holy convocation.
And when your children ask, what in the world are we doing? You're
gonna say it's the Lord's Passover. But in these days, when the Lord
is revealed in the preaching of the gospel, you're not gonna
look to that passive. You're not gonna keep a day or
a feast. You're gonna say Christ is our passive. When God gives pastors that love
something like he does, then his people are not gonna look
to the law, but to the one who was pictured by the ark, the
one who is our mercy seed himself, They're gonna look to the blood,
not of bulls and goats, but of the lamb of God that taketh away
sin. God's preachers in love and gentleness
and with the utmost desire for the good and comfort of the sheep
will preach Christ, the presence of God, not the ark. That ark
symbolized when God said, don't, you know, I'm not going with
you. I'm not going with you. They said, well, don't let us
go then. And that ark was the presence, the symbolic of God's
presence. They'll preach Christ's communion
with God. He said of the mercy seat, I'll
meet with you there and I will commune with you. That's Christ. That blood that was splashed
on the mercy seat is forgiveness, it's atonement, atonement with
God that can be achieved no other way than by the blood of the
Lamb. burnt offering, all that that ark represented will be
seen to be fulfilled in Christ. And when we see, when we believe
on, when we rejoice in only the Lord himself and find in him
our righteousness, find in him communion and favor and acceptance
with God, find in his precious blood forgiveness of sin and
sanctification. The ark is just a shadow then.
It's just a picture to teach us of the true communion and
favor that's in Christ. Now, that's how the gospel comes. Showing, declaring, revealing
that Christ is all. To tell somebody who Christ is,
what he accomplished and why, is the greatest act of love.
It will always come from somebody that loves you. God promised
you that. That's what we see so beautifully
here, like a mother and like a father. Verse nine, for you
remember brethren our labor and travail for laboring night and
day because we would not be chargeable unto any of you. We preached
unto you the gospel of God. Here's how the gospel comes,
whatever it takes. Whatever it takes, night and
day. You gonna kill me? Remember when
Paul said, I don't know what's gonna happen. The Holy Spirit
hasn't revealed to me what's gonna happen except that they're
gonna try to kill me. I know that much. Paul wasn't bragging on himself
here. He wasn't saying, look at me. This is the man who said
I'm less than the least of all the saints. But he's also the
man who was tasked here and blessed of God here to express to the
church of God what this is. This is whatever it takes. This
takes priority over everything else. It supersedes in priority everything
Else, you see how the gospel comes? Does that not define what
the gospel is? It's life. The word, to whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Look at the language, Paul worked
night and day. Not so they would think highly
of him and look at him. Labor and travail are not the
same thing here either. Labor means a beating. That's
the literal word there, a beating. I took a beating. Have you ever
done that? Travail is not just work either.
It means a hard and toilsome labor, hardship, distress. But the emphasis here is not
only what Paul went through, but why. What does it mean that Paul went
through all that? It means whatever he had to say
was real important. That's what it means. If you give up everything, if
you sell everything you have and give it to the poor and follow
Christ, that doesn't say how virtuous you are, that says how
priceless he is. Why does a mother say goodbye
to sleep? And that's a hard goodbye, isn't
it? That's a hard goodbye for me. to say goodbye to sleep and
sit up all night and then daytime too. Night and day, like Paul
said, why is she tireless and so utterly committed that her
own health even comes last? Because all that matters to her
is her baby, that's why. That's what our text teaches
this morning. Whatever it takes. What does all that matters look
like in spiritual terms the last part of the verse here's here's
Paul's baby We preach the gospel unto you Whatever Needs to happen for
that to happen It's just gonna have to happen. That's what he
said. It's just what I thought I And for the same reason, as the mother does it, the preacher does that to keep
God's children warm in every way. Comforted, fed,
satisfied, resting in Him. Come ye all ye that labor, and
her heavy laden, he'll give you rest. You'll find rest under your very
soul. For a final thought this morning,
I just want to look forward a little bit to verse 11. I want to look ahead to verse
11. because we talked about a mother.
And as you know, verse 11, how we exhorted and comforted and
charged every one of you as a father doth his children. Now, Paul compares the gospel
and the way it's delivered to a mother and a father. A child needs both. It may not
end up happening that way, but that's what a child needs. That's
the way God intended it, made it, ordained it. And you can't change that. As a mother, tender and gentle
and comforting. And what is it that comforts
God's sheep? The truth of Christ, who he is
and what he did. That's how I lay down my head
at night. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep well,
for thou, Lord only, makest me to dwell in safety. My soul is
safe because I'm under his precious blood, and my body is safe because
he owns me, and I'm precious to him. What is a father known for? Well,
he's speaking here, he's teaching, You look at the language used
here, as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every
one of you. The father is the authority in
the home. Again, the world don't like that, but it doesn't matter
what the world likes. If the world likes something,
it's probably horrible. Just mark that down. The father
is the authority in the home. He exhorts, he still comforts
because discipline is comforting. That's something this world doesn't
understand. Discipline limits accountability is greatly comforting for the world. The Lord deals
with us as dear children when he chastises us. And that's what a father's known
for and both are necessary. And these words mean to speak
to and encourage to bear witness to, and as I said, call to one
side and admonish. The mother holds you to her side
and the father calls you to his side. Subtle difference, but in both
cases, you end up right here. And it's not that the mother
doesn't teach or that the father doesn't nurture. Just because
your father is the authority in the home doesn't mean he's
not a softy. If he loves you, he's a softy. Not in a way of neglect of discipline,
but to discipline with love. Did you know the scripture says
if you don't discipline your children, you don't love them?
You just, what you're calling love is you just made that up.
It's not real love. Child needs both. And Christ
is both. Christ is all spiritually. He
teaches, he exhorts, he admonishes, he calls us to his side. And
he tenderly loves and comforts and feeds
and nourishes and keeps us warm. God has ordained that what a
child needs is a godly mother and a godly father. And the same Lord has ordained
that what his spiritual children need is the gospel brought by
someone with his heart. because their true need is Christ. And this is how we have him.
This is how he comforts us in this world. By his spirit, he
said, my spirit will take the things of mine and show them
to you. And he's gracious to do that. Simon warmed himself by the fire
of this world and he later wept bitterly and repented. May our hearts ever and only
be warmed by the flame of the Savior's love. Let's pray together.