Verse 17 of 1 Corinthians 9. For if I do this thing willingly,
I have a reward. But if against my will, a dispensation
of the gospel is committed unto me, now this thing is preaching
the gospel. If I preach the gospel willingly,
I have a reward. Anything that you do willingly
is its own reward. That's true of just, I guess,
everything. What I do that I don't do of necessity, which is the
context here, he said necessity is laid on me in this thing.
But if it weren't, if I do it, Willingly, if I just decided
I want to preach, or anything that I do willingly, I have a
reward. Everything that I do that's not
necessary for me to do it, I just do it because I want to do it.
Without obligation. For me, that's several things. Everybody's got Things that they
just like to do, so they do it. I like to go fishing. I like
to garden. I like to cook. I like to build
things. I like several activities. Jack of all trades, master of
none, I guess. Just lots of hobbies. I enjoy
fiddling with stuff. Everybody has those things that
they do. I don't have any need to do any
of that. We just do. We do what we want.
I can't stop because I love doing it. And notice he says, I have
a reward. He doesn't say if I do this thing
willingly, I'll get a reward. I have it. If I do it willingly,
then it is its own reward. It's rewarding for me to go fishing. It's not about coming
out ahead financially. If it was, nobody would go fishing. You know, we're gonna save on
food, don't go fishing. Gardening really doesn't work
out that way usually either. But we love it, we enjoy it.
He says, I have a reward, not I deserve a reward or I'm gonna
get a reward. Doing what you want is its own
reward. No glory in that for me. You
see these two scenarios in verse 17, willingly or unwillingly,
they both go back to this. I have nothing to glory of. If
I just do this because I want to, I can't glory in that. I'm
doing it because I want to do it. Nothing to glory of. If against
my will, Now he's not saying that the Lord dragged him, and
you could characterize it this way, the Lord kind of did drag
him into it, didn't he? But it doesn't mean that now,
here as he's speaking to these Corinthians, that he is unwilling
in the sense that he hates preaching and wish he didn't have to do
it, but the Lord's beating him with a big stick, making him
do it. That's not what he's talking about. What he's saying is that
it wasn't voluntary. We've talked about that recently,
haven't we? The Lord doesn't take volunteers. Paul was commissioned, and it
was, in a great sense, against his will, was it not? Remember Paul's calling? He didn't
join up. He was drafted. Doesn't mean
that he hated it and was disgruntled as a preacher now, or ever, for
that matter. So it's important we understand
that. Unwilling doesn't mean what we might construe that to
mean. The Lord made Paul willing in
the day of his power. That's what happened. But Paul's
talking about the reason he now was a gospel preacher. It gave
him no room to glory. It goes back to that statement,
no room to glory. If this thing was imposed upon
me, he's saying, and it was. Then this is the scenario now.
Then I'm a laborer doing a job. The word reward means dues paid
for work. That's the primary definition
of the word, dues paid for work. And the word dispensation in
verse 17 means the management of a household or of household
affairs. We have that analogy in the scriptures
in other places. regarding the ministry. The Lord
has put us in charge of household affairs that he might get glory. You might think it would glorify
him more if he sent an angel to do it, but not so. Well, how
do you know, Chris? Because he said he did it this
way for his glory. That's how I know. I don't have
to figure out the details of that. He's got to bless people in spite
of us this way. He's got to save people in spite
of us this way. And by means of the gospel that
we preach. So think of those words, reward,
dues paid for work. If I'm compelled to do this,
then that's the scenario. It's not just something, a hobby
that I enjoy doing. I'm employed, I'm commissioned. I'm put to work. The management
of a household or of household affairs, he's been given a responsibility
by God, a job to do. That's the analogy. Now let's
be careful. It's important to point out that
the preaching of the gospel, and when I say that, I'm including
all of us. We're in the ministry of the gospel preaching. That's
what we're in, all of us, every one of us. We're in this ministry.
The ministry of the preached gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's not a job in the sense that it's something someone does to
make money. Most people do their jobs only
for that reason. And I'm not mad at that. That's
why I went to work, to make money, to support my family. That's
not the gospel ministry. This thing of being given a job,
when he uses the word dispensation here and reward, that's an analogy,
just like the analogy of the farmer, just like the trading
out of the corn. There's no corn involved in this,
but he used that as an analogy. He's using the job thing as an
analogy here. Gospel preacher is not just doing
a job. He's not just making a living.
That's not what this is. And so that's important to understand.
It's an analogy. We're not farmers, but it's like
that. We're not just laborers, but it's like that. Work is done in the gospel ministry
and there is a return on that, but notice that it's not money
according to Paul. It's not money. He's already
dealt with that. He's dealt with how that when
the Lord commissions his servants, when he calls somebody and sends
them into battle, they don't do that of their own charge.
The Lord provides, the Lord arranges the means whereby they'll be
supported in that work. He's already dealt with that.
That's not what he's talking about here. But look at the return,
the reward that Paul is speaking of here in verse 18. What is
my reward then? Verily, that when I preach the
gospel, see if this fits in the context,
look at it, that when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel
of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel. That's what he's been talking
about all along too. I'm not gonna take any money
from the Corinthians because they're saying, some are saying,
among them or to them or the, The nonsense has been spread
among them one way or another, whether it originated with them
or it's those who have some influence on them are saying that Paul's
an imposter, he's just in it for the money. So he says here,
my reward in preaching the gospel to you is that when I preach
it, there's no way in the world you can say that because I'm
not gonna take a penny from you. And the reason I'm able to do
that is a gift from God. It's a reward from God. It's
pay. The commitment to the gospel
that anybody has in their heart, that came from God. That came
from the one who sent us. That came from the one who chose
us to be a soldier. He equips you to fight the battle
if he calls you to be a soldier. And that's what Paul said clearly
here. His ability to preach responsibly
and honestly and uncompromisingly with a pure motive and without
desire for earthly gain is something that God has given him for the
work that God has called him to do. That's how Paul viewed
it. And that's what he gloried in,
he rejoiced in. If God has commissioned you in
his ministry, he's gonna give you what you need to get the
job done, because God don't fail. He don't fail. We do, we would. We may. But not God. You see how that advances the
context? how it enlarges upon the subject
at hand, keep your money if you're gonna begrudge giving it to me,
because God is my rewarder, and my glory is that the gospel's
going forth. Don't besmirch that. I'm not gonna let you, he's basically
saying. I'm not gonna let you make my
glory in vain. God is my rewarder and one of
the things that he has provided me with is the ability to eliminate
any possible charge that could be made against this ministry.
If I take nothing from you, he's saying in effect, you cannot
claim that I'm an imposter doing this for the money. Verse 19,
for though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant
unto all, that I might gain the more. Free from men in the sense
that his gospel was not received from men. He's not accountable
unto men for it. If he preaches something, if
a gospel preacher preaches something you don't like, you've got no
say in that. Go somewhere else. That's what
I would do. I hope. Find somebody that's
preaching the truth. Or if somebody just flat out
just goes off the deep end and is a heretic, then you need you
a new preacher. So free from men in that sense. It's not after man, didn't receive
it from man, and not accountable to man, accountable to God. Do
I yet please men or God? but servant to men, free from
men, and yet servant to men by the nature of the gospel itself,
which makes us servants of sinners, servants of those who want to
hear from God. We're not servants to those that
don't. The Lord said shake the dust off your feet and go find
somebody that wants to hear from God. Paul said we're servants
to you for His sake. The preacher of the gospel is
always a servant, whether he's supported in that or not, in
these specific cases. The preacher of the gospel, as
Paul described in this chapter, it's a warfare. It's a treading
of the corn. It's a tending of the flock.
Feed my sheep, the Lord said. Simon, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Turns out there's
a lot to that. And not in a bad way. In a very
good way. But there's a lot to that. And
then he says that I might gain the more. This is what it's about. This is the end result of the
labor of the gospel ministry. The salvation of souls. Not to be successful. monetarily,
not to build bigger buildings and create some kind of a religious
empire. The salvation of souls. The so-called contemporary ministries
equate money with success. It's mostly what they talk about.
Paul was in a different business. And you and I are in a different
business than that. Look at verse 20. Unto the Jews,
I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews. 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 law
as without law, being not without law to God, but under the law
to Christ, That is, we're not under the law as a righteousness,
our keeping of the law being a righteousness before God. But
it doesn't mean that we're lawless, it's to Christ. We're under the
law to Christ, not to the bondage of the Old Testament law or the
moral law or we're under grace, that I might gain them that are
without law. to the weak became I as weak
that I might gain the weak. I have made all things to all
men that I might by all means save some." You see the point
to all this? You can support me, not support
me, Paul said. In fact, You don't have the privilege
of supporting the gospel ministry in this case because it's forfeit
because of the nonsense that's been spread about Paul and his motives. But either way,
this is about the salvation of souls. Now, this doesn't mean when he
said, I was a Jew as a Jew with the Jews and as a Gentile with
the Gentiles, it doesn't mean he was two faced or a hypocrite
or just said what people wanted him to say, like the Catholic
Church as an example of that, that they would go go into foreign
countries and they would adopt. That's why they have all the
weird religious symbols and clothing that they have. They adopted
it from cultures that they infiltrated over the years. to appease them. A lot of their doctrine is the
same way. You won't find it in the scripture. And that's, I guess, all religion.
They say what people want to hear, don't they? Doesn't everybody
do that in religion? That's not what Paul's saying
here. There were no specifics to this. When he says to the
Jews, I became as a Jew, which he was, born a Jew, but also
a Gentile Roman citizen. When he's saying that, there
are no specifics to that that would have been contrary to the
truth of God or the honor of Christ. and his gospel. He's just expanding on what it
was for him to be servant unto all. That's what he's saying.
He's expanding on that. We could talk a while about what
this meant specifically. In some cases, he deliberately
condoned the circumcision of one and deliberately forbade
it in another case. And I think that weighs into
what he means here, things like that. But we could spend quite
a bit of time talking about what he meant specifically, cases
in which Paul acted or spoke being mindful of those he was
with at the time. But the point here is why he
did it and what it meant. It meant he
was servant to everyone who would hear, everyone who would listen
to the gospel. that he was servant for this reason, that he might
by all means save some of them. Save some of them. You know what
I found? You might think the wording of
that to be unusual. Paul's saying, if
I can just save some people. But you know what I found in
my dealings with self-proclaimed theologians and scriptural apologists? There are a lot more sticklers
about guarding against error and a lot more harsh toward those
that they perceive to have erred than God is. Does that shock
you? Here's what I mean by that. If
I said I preach the gospel so that I might, by whatever means,
save some people, if I just said that, without regard to this
verse or anything, I would be branded a heretic by many that
I know. But that's what Paul said. And I probably, knowing that
it would offend some, probably wouldn't say it that way. But God deliberately said it
this way. How do you think he did that? Do you think maybe anybody ever
read this and said, wow, that means Paul had the power to save
sinners? I'll tell you this, if they did,
if they did, the error was already
in their heart and they just caught at that. You see what I mean? They already,
like again, the Catholic church think they can forgive sins.
That was already the evil of their wicked black hearts. And
then they read that and they're like, okay, here we go. Nobody has read this Bible and
could possibly be confused about who saves and who don't. And there are those that nitpick
scriptures out of context and form doctrines around them. But
let me ask another question altogether. Do you think any believer, one to whom God has revealed
who he is and the truth of Christ and what he accomplished for
sinners, You think one of them was ever confused by this verse? That's actually read the Bible
and believed God. Has it ever happened? I sincerely doubt it. The mincing of words, Paul calls
it strifes about words, never saved a sinner. That's what I
want to be clear about. And I believe it has something
to do with why God deliberately said it this way. You think God
knew it would upset some staunch Calvinists maybe? For Paul to
say, by all means, I want to save some sinners. I guarantee you, I know some
people, I could give you their names that wish that didn't say
it that way. It's the Word of God. Words are important, but strifes
about words is destructive. And to understand the whole of
Scripture, you can't pick out certain phrases or verses and
deal with them separately, if your whole understanding of the
Word of God hinges upon the meaning of one word in Scripture, you've
missed Christ. The Gospel is plain and clear,
and the problem with sinners is not that they're not smart
enough to understand the Gospel. The problem with sinners is that
they hate the Christ of the Bible, that they clearly understand
who He is, and they don't want anything to do with Him. Christ and His gospel clearly
revealed in the Word of God. And listen, I started to title
this message, Paul Saves Sinners. Would that have been true to
the text? Would that have gotten my point across? Is the statement, I've used this
illustration before, if I say rain makes the flowers grow,
nobody would take that as an insult to God, would they? Wait
a minute, now you're not giving God enough glory there. Nobody
would say that. Rain makes the flowers grow.
It does. Well, I use a garden hose, Chris.
Yeah, but that was rain before it was in that garden hose. What about the sunshine? Makes
the flowers grow. Try growing some without either
one of those. Anybody that believes that God
is would never think for a second that saying that rain makes the
flowers grow is dishonoring to God who sends the rain. It's
just common vernacular to say that. Paul is using common vernacular. God uses means. You see the word
means in the text? God uses means to save sinners. I believe that's the deliberate
teaching of this. God didn't have to say it this
way through the apostle. Don't despise, discount, or discredit
the means that God uses to save sinners. God said to his disciples in
Mark 16, go into all the world and preach the gospel. And whoever
believes you and is baptized, I'll save them. Whoever doesn't
believe you, I'll damn them. And here's what I meant a while
ago. God doesn't guard against error from people. He doesn't
guard, he doesn't, like I said, the armchair theologians that
just like every little T has to be crossed in exactly the
right way and every I dotted. And if somebody said this, that's
right from the Bible, they would take offense to it. That's not the way that God guards
against error. You know how He guards against
error? He gives you a new heart. And He gives sinners a new heart
through the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
in just plain everyday vernacular. Just saying things the way we
always would. But just being true to His word
when we say them. He doesn't guard against error
by nitpicking words and forbidding common vernacular. He does so by giving new hearts.
And we know how he does that, by the preaching, the playing. And listen, the gospel, not only
do you have to strive over words, The gospel is clear as a bell,
but not only that, it's clear as a bell over and over and over
and over again, all through from Genesis to Revelation. The truth of Christ and his power
and willingness and grace and mercy to save sinners and how
he did it. is plain and clear. And Paul said, see, we have such,
such a wonderful, such a vital hope. We use great plainness
of speech in telling it. Everybody knows what Paul means
when he says, oh God, give us grace, help us. We wanna see
sinners saved. That's what we're doing this
for. If you don't get the message
by seeing the clear truth in one place, how about somewhere
else? The whole book is just that. It's making clear. It's an H-I-M book. It's revealing
who Christ is and what He does for sinners. How can a sinner
be saved? Look to Him. Come to the one
who actually redeemed sinners on Calvary and say, God, be propitious
to me on your mercy seat. I'm a sinner. Acknowledge that salvation is
an act of his will. Say, Lord, if you will, you can
make me clean. Confess before him that with
men it's impossible. Is that what the woman with the
issue of blood confessed? When she spent everything that
she had and was only worse, she spent everything she had on doctors
trying to get better and grew only worse. And then the Lord
gave her faith to believe, if I can just touch the hem of his
garment. You know what she's saying by reaching out? By the
faith given to her by the Lord himself, the author and the finisher
of our faith, and the object of our faith, because we're looking
unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. That's
what she was doing. And you know what she's saying?
With me, it's impossible. Maybe from that story, you could
see how clear the gospel is. by which God saves sinners. And
if you don't see it there, maybe you could see it in that serpent
of brass that was lifted up on a pole. You think about how plain
and simple this is. Moses make a serpent out of brass. Why a serpent? Because the solution
to the problem is made in the likeness of the
problem. It behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren.
And He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. He took our place. And you look to that serpent
though, lifted up on a pole. Was it some weird straining of
the text when the Lord said, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up? That's pretty clear, isn't it? Maybe you could see that and
believe this clear, plain gospel and bow to Christ. Look and live,
look. Look to the Savior. He said, if I be lifted up, I'll
draw all of them to myself. And if you don't see it there,
maybe the Lord will use the scripture, the passage of scripture that
he used to save the Ethiopian eunuch. Maybe you'll find yourself there.
Maybe somebody will preach from Isaiah 53, and like that eunuch,
you'll think, I wanna know who he's talking about. Maybe somebody will start in
that same passage and preach unto you, Jesus, Jehovah Savior. And by God's grace, through faith
in the Son of God, you'll be saved over and over and over. And we're gonna fight about what
one word, Something not right about that. Here's how he saved that Ethiopian
eunuch. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter. and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened
not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment and who shall declare his generation for he was cut
off out of the land of the living. The prince of life was cut off
out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people
Was he stricken? Don't say that can't happen.
That's what happened. When Paul says in verse 23, this
I do for the gospel's sake. That's the gospel he's talking
about. The woman with the issue of blood
with nowhere else to go. and shut up to the Savior, needing His virtue. The serpent lifted up on a pole,
the Son of Man being lifted up that all who believe on Him should
not perish but have everlasting life. The one Isaiah prophesied of
who was wounded for our transgressions. The one that concerns Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And the one that anybody looking
anywhere else for salvation but to Him will miss. Even those who hope in the letter
of the scriptures but will not come to Christ that
they might have life. The gospel so over, powerfully
overshadows these strifes about words that are so common and
confusing that it's like somebody winning the lottery and then
assaulting the cashier at the store for shorting them 10 cents
in their change. That can't happen. It can't happen.
If you see the point of all scripture and getting hung up on the wording
of things like this, it's just not feasible, is it? You've missed the forest for
the trees. God hasn't hired us as editors
to make sure nobody misunderstands what he wrote. It's like those who insist that
faith doesn't save when the Lord Jesus said, thy faith has saved
thee. Thy faith. God uses means. And whether faith
can save you or not just depends on where you got it. But here's my message to those
who insist on correcting God, to put it a different way. Just
stop. Just stop. And believe what's
plain as the nose on your face. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord, the sovereign Son of God, and you'll be saved. You'll be saved. Lying and not
saying something the way you prefer it be said is two different
things. God said it the right way, not
you. If there's gonna be life, if
there's gonna be faith in Christ, God's gonna have to give that
faith. He's the author and finisher of faith. And you're gonna believe
on him if you're gonna live. And if there's gonna be life
and faith, there's gonna be the hearing of the gospel. You're gonna have to hear. How
can you believe in him of whom you've not heard? And if there's
gonna be life, if you're gonna call on his name, like a baby crying that just
breathes his first breath spiritually, born again, there's gonna be faith, there's
gonna be hearing, and somebody's gonna have to preach. Someone preaching Christ. If you can't believe on Christ,
unless somebody preaches Christ, then whoever preaches is gonna
have to preach Him. If you can't believe on Him of
whom you've not heard, then what you hear, we preach Christ and
Him crucified. And that's why, that by all means, some might
be saved. Do you know who's going to save
them if they are saved? It's not going to be me. It's
not going to be Paul. It's not going to be any of the
prophets or the apostles. It's going to be the Savior.
That's why we call him the Savior, because he saves. And if somebody's gonna preach
Christ, God's gonna have to send them. Don't forget that part. People don't just wake up and
decide, I think I'll preach the gospel now. God sends preachers. Somebody sent by God, and whether
God sends you to your family, or your friends or a stranger,
like in Philip's case, or to a flock of his sheep somewhere.
How beautiful are the feet. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation. that saith to Zion, thy God reigneth. Isn't that a wonderful thing
to hear? Saith to God's church, may we always say in all that
we say to God's church, your God's on the throne. He not only
the one that saves, he saves who he wants to save. Even you aren't too far gone.
Even me. Even me.