Dealt in at some length with
the God's way Of propagating the gospel in
his world the reason he has a World is because he has a people and
the gospel Is God's means of every blessing
to those people salvation Comfort joy peace our very food our very
necessary Spiritual food and so Paul established in the first
part of this chapter that those who preach The gospel should
live of the gospel You know, there's a reason why
he does that it's It's very clear. There are those who rebel against
that there are those who are place no value on a local church
body. They do so to their great spiritual
detriment at the very least, maybe at the cost of their own
soul. Paul reminds this Corinthian church that he has not taken
any support from them and will not. He said, I'm not trying
to, I'm not writing this to try to convince you to start supporting
me. Though according to scripture,
that's God's way of feeding his sheep and calling out his lost
sheep by means of a preacher that's dedicated to the preaching
of the gospel. And you can understand this,
the apostles, he mentions the other apostles and how that they
were supported. And everybody, of course, knew
who they were. They were probably kind of big shots in the eyes
of everybody. It's Simon Peter, he walked with
the Lord in this. And with Paul, as we mentioned
before, the Lord met him on the road to Damascus, and he had
folks with him. And they saw the light that Paul
saw, brighter than the noonday sun, as Paul described it. But they didn't hear the voice
of God. Spoke to Paul and there's a very simple reason for that
because God wasn't talking to them But there were very few witnesses
to Paul's experience of being met by the Lord Jesus Christ
on that road and his life changed forever and So Paul was accused
of being an imposter by many the Lord had already ascended
at that point How can you have met the Lord and gotten your? Gospel that you preach directly
from him as part and parcel of being an apostle And so he was
questioned and so at least from the Corinthian Church and I suppose
others who might have this same difficulty, Paul refused support
because in his example, it was different. It was something that
he could do to shut up those who criticized him. And he said, I'm not writing
this to put you to shame and to try to get you to start supporting
me. The gospel, though, is a ministry,
and Paul laid that out very clearly. It's the worship of God has always
been a regular, appointed gathering of God's people in a house of
worship, in a place of worship. And Paul made crystal clear that
those who preach the gospel are to live of the gospel. And that's important,
because even though Paul was an exception to that, at least
in some cases, The Gospels not to be a part-time
affair. It's not just to be something
that we add on to our lives Everything in our lives must Revolve around
the gospel it must revolve around Christ and What he's doing in
this world We're just servants of him And it doesn't take a
believer long to think about that and realize how true that
is. That fact gets lost to us as
we get caught up in the things of this world. But you think
about the vanity of this world. You think about the rat race
that you're in. And I'm no stranger to that. And you think about what counts.
You think about what matters, what endures. You think about
who God is and the glory and honor that he demands. And that we don't give him because
he demands it, because we love him. Because he's had mercy on us
by his grace. But the gospel has always, even
when the holy convocation was ordained after the Passover,
that means a gathering of people, a convocation. The Lord's people
have always gathered at an appointed place at an appointed time and
publicly worshiped him. And that's what we're doing.
And Paul gives the reason why he did not take support from
them, and that teaches us something important too. We'd be very wrong
to just limit our thinking to the specifics of Paul's situation. Think about the principle of
that, of the gospel ministry, though Paul said that he had
accepted himself from support from these people, he talked
in the whole first half of this chapter about why it's important
that the gospel not be just an afterthought in this world. And here, when
he gives this reason, he said he would rather die than for
them to make his glory void. Now what does he mean by that?
Put yourself in Paul's situation. He's being accused of not being
a real apostle, and so therefore not being a true preacher. And
so why would Paul be going around preaching the gospel if he's
not really an apostle, if the Lord didn't really call him to
preach, if he's making up this stuff about the Lord arresting
him? and calling him. If he's making
all that up, why would he do that? He must be doing it for
the money. Must be doing it for the money. Well, what's the quickest
way to shut that up? Don't take any money. I'd say that was probably pretty
effective. I don't want to dime from you. That's what he said.
So what's Paul's glorying, though? Well, that's just as crystal
clear here. He said he would rather die than
for any man to make his glorying void. What was Paul's glorying? Well, that's pretty simple. What
are we talking about? Well, we're talking about preaching,
preaching of the gospel. What did Paul preach? He determined
to know nothing among them save what? That was his glorying. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. What did He glory in? God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So what are we doing? Exactly
that. That has never changed. Preaching
Christ? glorying in him alone, meeting
together in his name, greatly privileged to do that, rejoicing
in him together in fellowship of the saints. It's not a complicated
script that we follow. What else would we do if you
just start thinking about it? What else would we do? Of course,
we're gonna publicly worship God as his family. Of course, we're gonna do. Can
you imagine not doing that? Church means assembly. Forsake
it not. Of course we're going to preach
Christ and what he did for sinners. What else have we got to say? Let others gather and talk about
how to deal with Satan and how to live one day at a time and
nonsense like that. Once you know Christ, what else
are you going to talk about? Can you, your eyes are glazing
over just thinking about me talking about the devil and how to deal
with him or some nonsense like that? Or how to live the Christian
life? We wanna do a series on that?
Really? How about look to Christ? You
don't have to sit there and think about how to live, do you, when
you know him? That's how God saves sinners.
Of course we're gonna do that. We're gonna preach him. That's
how God saves sinners. That's how he saved me. How about
you? Of course we're gonna sing psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs just like they did. Because music
is a beautiful gift from God and he gave it for the reason
he gave everything, for his own glory. and for the good, comfort,
and enjoyment of His people. Of course we're gonna do this
in remembrance of Him. Of course we're gonna do that.
What else would we do? We haven't come up with some
kind of a formula here. We do show the Lord's death till
He come. Of course we're gonna do that.
Has he come yet? Then I reckon we'll keep doing
it, you think? Of course, we're gonna confess
him in baptism as he's pleased to add to the church such as
should be saved. Now, Paul is saying here, lest
any man make void my glory, if he insisted on their support,
if he said, look, Notwithstanding all the rumors and the innuendo
and the accusations against me, this is what the word of God
says, and if you're gonna hear from me, it's gonna be this way.
Well, then there would continue to be these slanderous accusations,
even more so, that he wasn't really an apostle, that he was
just in it for the money. Of course, as we said, the easiest
way to shut all that up was to not take any money from them,
and then they could not make void in that sense, that which
was Paul's glory. You can't mess it up if the objection
is taken away, can you? Of course, we're good at figuring
out ways to mess up stuff, but at least they couldn't do it
in that way. Verse 16. For though I preach the gospel,
I have nothing to glory of. Paul didn't glory in the flesh.
He talked about glorying, but he's not talking about glorying
in his preaching of the gospel. That was not his glorying. A gospel preacher is called of
the Lord He's gifted of the Lord and used for the glory of the
Lord and for the feeding of his sheep. But Paul has made clear
in this very letter that he that planteth and he that watereth
are nothing. They're nothing. Chapter three,
verse seven specifically, but much of that chapter, God who
giveth the increase is worthy of all the glory. And that doesn't
leave much for us. We're just not gonna get any.
And the Lord so graciously makes it so that that's just how we
want it, isn't it? That's just how we want it. Not unto us,
oh Lord, not unto us. Unto thy glorious name. And if you'll notice, if you
read that in chapter three there, it doesn't say that God gets
the big share of the glory. or that we should put God first.
I don't like that saying, do you? Put God first, who's second
then? You? Are you a close second or
a distant second? I don't like that, I've never
liked, put God first. I'm not sure that's the way you
talk about the one that saved you from certain hell. and gives you every breath you
have. I'm not sure that's the way you
think about the one from whom every blessing you have has flowed.
The Paul didn't glory in the flesh when it came to the gospel
here. I have nothing to glory of, nothing. He doesn't say that those who
preach are necessary. The word necessity is used in
this verse, but he's not talking about himself when he says that.
We'll look at that in a minute, Lord willing. It's not the gospel preaching that he himself preached
that was necessary. It's the gospel itself. That's
necessary. I'm not necessary. Paul wasn't
necessary. That necessity, he said, is laid
upon me. The necessity is apart from me,
but it's laid on me by God right now. And so by his grace, we, that's why we constantly look
into him, holding our hands up to him. It's what a place to
be. You think about what it is. Paul said that he committed the
glorious gospel to my trust. I can't even talk about that.
You know, there's nothing I could say that would even come close. Paul wasn't chosen because he
had a desire to preach. Heard that one a lot. Paul never
had to say, I think about this, Paul never had to once say, I
think the Lord's calling me to preach. When would he have said
that? If you think the Lord's calling
you to preach, then he hasn't called you to preach. He still
might, but he hadn't yet. If you're thinking maybe, but Chris, if I do think the
Lord is calling me to preach, what should I do? Go to work
like you did before he, you thought he, before you started thinking
he was calling you to preach and please shut up about it until
he actually calls you to preach. God doesn't put impressions in
people's minds. You ever see that in the scripture
where anybody said, I think God's trying to tell me something.
Why would you say that now then? Now let's think about this word
necessity. What is actually necessary? Well,
if you look at the wording of the verse, it ain't Paul. That's
pretty clear, and he makes that clear. What is actually necessary? Well, I'll tell you what's gonna
happen. What has to happen, because of what God said. And what he's done. He's gonna
save sinners, isn't he? He's gonna save sinners. How's he gonna do that? Has he
told us that? Has he told us how he will save
sinners? Of course he has. How shall they
hear without a preacher? So there is a necessity here.
Is it necessary for Paul to preach the gospel? That's not what he
said. He said this necessity is laid
upon me. It's laid upon me, that was clear. God wasn't ambiguous about that,
and he never is. I'm not necessary, but the gospel
is necessary. And the Lord has right now laid
that upon me for a little while, just for a little while. It's called the burden of the
word of the Lord. That's why it's pictured this
way by Paul. It's laid upon me. It's Zechariah
12.1, the burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, for his
people. This book's for his people. Do
you know that? These are written that you might believe, that you might believe. That's to his sheep now. Malachi
1.1, the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel, to his people,
to his chosen ones, his elect, by Malachi. By Malachi. The gospel's not a grievous burden.
It's a glorious burden, but it is a burden. A weight. Listen to how Paul describes
his own inclusion in in the the ministry When it comes to the
gospel in 1st Timothy 111 listen to this and I mentioned it according
to the glorious gospel of the Blessed God Which was committed
to my trust I don't think we can even really
understand what it is to have God Almighty commit something
to your trust. It literally means he entrusted
it to me. Now we know that God doesn't
do this without him being in perfect control. Aren't you glad? He doesn't just do his best and
then leave it up to us. Salvation of sinners is not up
to me. He doesn't leave anything ever
up to us. But he has committed to us that
which is most, to use the word in our text, necessary, most
vital, most precious. Why would he do that? Well, here's
the wonderful wisdom of God. He entrusted the gospel to us,
to the likes of us, so that he would get all the glory. You think, well, it seems like
he would get more glory just, you know, not using us. We're not smarter than him, are
we? He knows how to get glory to himself. And that's how he
said he would do it, that no flesh should glory in his presence. He's chosen the weak and the
base and the foolish. In fact, Paul pronounces woe
upon himself here if he preaches not the gospel. And that's an interesting, way of wording it. He doesn't
say, if I don't preach the gospel. He said, if I preach not. I think
there's something there. Because I'll tell you this, I
don't know everybody's experience. I'd love to talk to Moose about
it and see what the Lord did in his life. But the Lord arranges
it in such a way Where a man would deliberately have to preach
not the gospel You're gonna come to the place
if the Lord's called you to preach the gospel You're gonna come
to the place where you deliberately have to say I'm not gonna do
that Or you're gonna bow to his will
and preach the gospel And that's where Paul was If
I preach not the gospel, woe is unto me. Now we need to understand also
here that it is the gospel that's necessary. Preaching is not necessary. Preaching the gospel is necessary. Oh, and how important that is. Sinners don't need religion. Don't need religion We need It
is a necessity The gospel of God's Son the Lord Jesus Christ
Who he is and what he did for sinners, and why he did it? What
he accomplished? On Calvary I've told you this
before the Pat answer I guess it was almost like it's kind
of a catechism in a in some kind of Baptist church when I was
growing up is that the, what's the gospel? It's the death, burial,
resurrection of Jesus Christ. You haven't told me who he is
and you haven't told me what he did. He died. Everybody dies. Tell me what
he accomplished by his death. Tell me who it is. that gave
up the ghost on that cross. That's the gospel. And people
like to say, well, this is the gospel in a nutshell. I'm not
sure you can put the gospel in a nutshell. God, here's where he put it. I wouldn't
describe that as a nutshell, and I wouldn't change it. I wouldn't
add anything to it. I wouldn't take anything away
from it. And I understand that we can't preach everything in
this book every time we get together, except we can, because the Bible
doesn't say a lot of things. It says the same thing a lot
of times, and in a lot of ways. We've seen that, haven't we,
over the years? We've seen that. Sinners don't need it's not a
necessity to live the Christian life. That was another one We've
got to live the Christian life. I Don't know about that I Know what is a necessity? I
need a perfect righteousness That's necessary. I've got to
be perfect Inside of God and that don't happen by living the
Christian life. I Every believer wants to live for Christ. Paul
said, I reckon that if he died for us, we ought to live for
him. That just makes sense, doesn't it? It just kind of makes sense. But that's not, that's not what's
necessary. I wouldn't say it's unnecessary
since the Lord clearly, we're commanded in the scripture
to honor him. But when it comes to my salvation,
what I do is not what's necessary. I need to be holy in the sight
of God. Without blemish, without spot. I've got some good news about
that. And that good news is Christ.
Christ is my righteousness. He doesn't point the way to righteousness.
He doesn't show us the way of righteousness. He is Himself
my righteousness. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. Him standing perfect, holy, perfectly
obedient in His life and in His death, standing in my stead,
standing for me before God is me coming to the Father. Can't
come to the father but by him Sinners don't need a chance to
be saved They need to be saved you see how simple They need to be the good news
with regard to that is Christ and He's a mighty savior. He don't woo people. He waylays
them like he did Saul of Tarsus. He doesn't whisper softly, you
know, please. He gives life. that little dead baby in its
own corruption and nobody cared about it. It didn't need a chance. Simon, when he was sinking beneath
the waves, he didn't say, Lord, give me a fighting chance. Here,
you know, throw me a life line. He said, Lord, save me. Is that
what you said? Is that what you said? Is that
what you say? Lord, save me. Sinners don't need to come to
an old-fashioned altar. They need for Christ to come
where they are and do everything for them. I've got good news
about that, too. There's a good severity. that
came, I love that phrase, he came where he was. Broken and dying and hopeless. Helpless. And the Lord poured in oil and
wine and lifted him up and carried him to the end. He didn't say
there's a good end down here, if you just take the first step,
No, he carried him all the way there and paid his way and told
the man, if he owes you anything else, put it on my tab. That's what we need. Sinners
don't need God's best effort, which puts their own destiny
back upon their own heads. Sinners need their sins washed
away. Put behind God's back. Remove
from them as far as the east is from the west. The good news
with regard to that is Christ and His precious, effectual,
it gets the job done. Whatever He shed His blood to
accomplish, it's done. He said it was done. His sin-cleansing blood. The necessity for sinners is
an obtained redemption, not a potential one. I got good news about that. And
it's Christ. Neither by the blood of bulls,
of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once
into the holy place. Sounds like something that's
already happened, doesn't it? Having obtained Eternal redemption for
us You see the necessity of the
gospel you see what Paul is talking about Necessity is laid upon
me Somebody's gonna preach God's gonna save sinners He's promised
that. It's necessary. The gospel we
preach is necessary. He's laid it on me right now
for a while. But I'm not necessary. Christ
is the one thing needful. And how is it that we experience
the salvation that's in Christ, that is Christ? Gospel It's an urgent necessity Christ
is the urgent need of every sinner And the way that Christ is known
and believed on is by the preaching of the necessary gospel Of his
free and sovereign and almighty grace This necessity is laid on us
right now Not just me. It's laid on us, isn't it? Why
do we preach and support the ministry of the gospel? Why do we do that? Good to examine
that every once in a while, you reckon? Because God told us to? Is that a good enough reason?
Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,
whoever will listen. That doesn't mean that each church
travels all over the world. We go into our part of the world
as others go into theirs, and we preach the gospel. He said,
whoever believes you, I'll save them, and whoever don't believe
you, I'll damn them. Necessity. Why do we preach the gospel? I'll tell you one wonderful reason
that I do. It's because success is guaranteed. I just, that doesn't discourage
me from preaching, does it? That doesn't discourage me a
bit. How wonderful would that be for
the Lord to say to David, for example, go up, I will surely
deliver them into your hand. David didn't say, well, I mean,
it sounds like it's already over. I just go home. No, go up, go
up. Now, thanks be unto God, which
always calls us to triumph in Christ. If you look at the context
of that second Corinthians chapter two, he's talking about preaching
the gospel. He always, it's always a win
when Christ is preached. He's a sweet smelling savor unto
God. And he maketh manifest the savor
of his knowledge, the knowledge of Christ by us, there's the
part, it's laid on me, by us in every place, everywhere the
gospel's preached. What a wonderful command. Go up, it's a win. I have that down here as a separate
reason why we do this. How are you gonna stay home when
God says, go up, I've given it to you. It's a win, it's a victory. Christ is gonna be glorified.
My people are gonna be saved. My sheep are gonna be comforted
and calls to rest. Rejoice, even in great sorrow. Is Christ more precious when
your heart's breaking or less? Is he more of a comfort to you in the valley of the shadow of
death or less? Why do we preach the gospel?
Because it's the glorious gospel of the blessed God, that's why.
Oh my, which is committed to our trust. God is glorified and
will be glorified in the preaching of the gospel of his dear son. Thank God we're in on it. Thank
God.