First Timothy 3.8, likewise must the deacons be
grave. It says likewise because, of
course, he's been talking about bishops. Bishop, as we saw, means
someone who is an overseer of others, someone who has the responsibility
of seeing that things done by others are done right. Such an
interesting definition, so instructive. The word deacon just means servant. Servant. Likewise must the deacons be
grave, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy
of filthy lucre. Now seeing God's description
of a deacon, that is a man who in God's church is a fellow laborer
with the bishop, a fellow laborer for the people of God, a servant
of the people of God. Somebody who gets things done
and deals with matters that the pastor cannot take time to do.
And there's a lot of that pretty much in every church, but this
is valuable to everybody. It benefits everybody in the
church that God has ordained this office. And let me say this,
because we don't have deacons at this church right now, but
though nobody in this room may ever be a deacon, let me ask
you this, is it interesting to you to hear from God how he says
in verse 15, we ought to behave in the church of God? How we ought to behave. Paul
said, I'm writing this to you, Timothy, so you know how you
ought to behave. That's applicable to all of us
now. And the scripture has clear instruction
to ladies, to women, and how they ought to behave in the church.
And here, men. But again, think about these
things. He says, not double-toned. It's talking about the deacons
here, but do you think it might be good for the ladies not to
be double-tongued too? I think that might be good. Of
course it would. Is it just especially necessary
if the pastor is depending on your word about something? That
it not be just what the pastor wants to hear, but the truth.
That doesn't matter who. That is, man or woman, whatever
role you have in the church of God, it's especially necessary. Now
it says of the ladies in verse 11, not slanderers. Would that
be good for the men as well? I believe it would. So nobody's
exempt from any of these. These should be well heard by
all and taken to heart And may we by god's grace be doers of
the word and not hearers only Now some of the men though they
don't have the title Nor the 24-7 responsibility And
any responsibility in god's church is 24-7 A very trusted and valuable mentor
to me told me, he said, Chris, when you become a pastor, you're
pastor 24-7. And he was right. But that's true of anyone with
any responsibility in God's church. You don't ever lay that down. And here's the thing, any man in the church may or may not act as deacon,
as servant, though they don't have the title, at any given
time or any different, any situation, any certain situation in the
church. There are those who do not have the title of deacon
in this church, who often have acted as deacons. They've taken
care of things that the pastor doesn't have time to do, either
by himself or at all in some cases. But these things are tailored
to you, if you fit that description. They're necessary. These things
that we're gonna look at, they're necessary. Just like there's
no way There's, and I've said this before, there's no way that
I could be a bishop. I could not be a pastor. I could
not be an undershepherd in God's church if I married a second
wife. You'd throw me out, wouldn't you? You should. Vicki would
definitely throw me out. I would never, I would never
be married to two wives because the first one would be gone if
I married a second one. But, or if I was a drunk, I couldn't
be your pastor. So these are not suggestions.
These are not, well, it'd be nice if, you know, you did these
things, these are guidelines. No, they're necessity. If you have problems in any of
these areas, then exclude yourself. For Christ's sake, exclude yourself. Turn with me to Acts chapter
six. This will help us understand
the office of a deacon. Acts six verse one. And in those days when the number
of the disciples was multiplied, and there were thousands of them,
at this time. And this is why we don't have
deacons right now. We have men who act as deacons often, pretty often. But we don't
have deacons with the specific title of deacon because, you
know, there's what, 50, 60 of us when we're all here at the
same time, not thousands. You see how necessary this would
be for somebody to be full-time, full-time deacons, if there were
that many. But there arose a murmuring of
the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected
in the daily ministration. Whenever you multiply people,
you multiply problems. I think we'd all agree on that.
Then the 12, verse two, called the multitude of the disciples
unto them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the
word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye
out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost
and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. And that
was a judgment they had to make. It was an observable, quality that they were to look
for. Those whom the Holy Ghost had
blessed and was with, and had given wisdom to, whom we may
appoint over this business. But we, the apostles, will give
ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
So you see the point of it. It's a very practical thing.
But let's be reminded of something Also that that pertains to everybody
in the church of course in any type of leadership role especially
But it also applies to everybody in Matthew 2024 listen to this
and when the ten heard it They were moved with indignation against
the two brethren there were two of them That said we want to
sit on your right hand and your left hand when you enter into
your kingdom And the Lord said, you don't
know what you're asking for. That's not something that you
just presume to ask for or aspire to. And so when the other 10
heard that they had asked him that, they were moved with indignation. Of course, the reason they were
mad about it is probably because they thought they deserved that.
Who are they to say that? We're as good as they are, or
we're better than them. But Jesus called them unto him
and said, you know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion
over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon
them, but it shall not be so among you. Not that way in God's church. But whosoever will be great among
you, if you want to aspire to be helpful in the church, let him
be your minister. Whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant. Be chief in this. Actually doing things that are
necessary and not seeking glory like these two were and like
all twelve of them We're thinking Let him be your servant Even as the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many So again the word deacon primary definition
to be a servant So I want us to remember that throughout all
of this. But let's look at the first word there. He must be
grave. And this doesn't mean he walks around like lurch and
has a dour expression on his face and no sense of humor. The word means honorable and
honest. Honorable and honest. And this
is sort of a summary of everything that was said about the bishop.
Think about that. That's why the word likewise
is there. Likewise, the deacons must be
grave. In other words, they've got to
be like the bishop in these things. Honorable, blameless, faithful,
a servant. And so that's the word grave.
It sort of just sums up everything that was said before about the
bishop. And then not double-tongued. This is a detail of being honest. It's part of being grave. To
be honest, you can't be double-tongued. This is what we might call being
two-faced. Somebody says one thing, they
present themselves one way to one person and another way to
another person. or group, or say one thing to one and another
to another about the same matter. It's not only dishonest to do
that, but it comes from a bad motive. If you find that somebody's
two-faced, there's a reason why they said one thing to you and
something else to somebody else. There's a reason for that. It's
done to make the person doing it look good to both sides. or to manipulate them to bring
a desirable outcome for self by manipulating the truth. It
might be done for favoritism. It might be done for personal
gain or praise. It's always selfish and it's
always destructive. If you can't be trusted to just
be honest, you can't be a deacon. Can't do it. Can't ever even
act as one because you're going to bring reproach. And that's
the difference now between things applying to bishops and deacons
and these things applying to all of you. They do apply to
everybody. But you can be two-faced and
be a member of the church. You can't be two-faced and be
a deacon. Don't presume to take any kind of a leadership role
or any kind of a leadership position in anything that's done in God's
church if you can't be trusted. Again, I'll remind you of what
was said to David when he sinned. The Lord said, you've given occasion
to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. And that's what you
do bring reproach upon the ministry
and upon our Savior. And again, now, you can say,
well, Chris, you're just bragging and all that. No, I'm just telling
you, if you couldn't trust me, if I was saying things that were
just, everybody knew I was two-faced and not to be trusted, I couldn't
be your pastor. God's got to do this for me.
If I'm gonna stand up here, It has nothing really to do with
me, except I'm just the recipient of his blessing in that. He's
just given me no desire to do that. I don't want to manipulate
anybody. I don't want to be dishonest.
I don't even like telling what they call white lies, if I can
help it. You know, not to offend somebody
or something. I'm pretty offensive. So that's the difference between
it applying to the deacons and the bishops, and then in a different
way, a little bit different way to everybody else. You're going
to eventually, if you, even as a member now, if people find
that they can't trust you, that you can be saying something to
them and you know good and well that it's not the way they feel,
or that you've heard somehow through the grapevine what they
said to somebody else and it don't add up, You're gonna alienate
yourself if you're like that. You've destroyed your credibility. And like I say, everybody knows
somebody like that. More than one person like that. And somebody like that needs
to hear the gospel. But you can't. You can't be a deacon in any
capacity whatsoever. Not officially a servant. And
then not given too much wine. And of course that would apply
to anything that's like that, drugs. And this is a question of self-control.
It's important to get to the heart of these things. What is
somebody that's just, you know, a drunk or whatever? It's a lack
of self-control. And again, they called the Lord
a wine-bibber because they knew that would discredit him, and
it would, but it was a lie. They didn't know what they were
talking about. And those who knew him knew they were lying.
But if you don't have self-control, then don't involve yourself now
in the affairs of the church. You're gonna reproach yourself
and your Lord. Not greedy of filthy lucre. I
don't really know what filthy lucre is, but the original Greek
there, it says not greedy of money. I don't know why they
call it filthy lucre there. There's nothing filthy about
money. Nothing wrong with money. There's nothing good or bad about
money. It's the human heart that's filthy. And a deacon has got to be able
to be trusted with the financial affairs of the church. I don't involve myself in the
financial affairs of the church because I personally feel, this
is not scriptural, but I personally feel like I don't wanna have
even the appearance of being influenced by how much people
give. I don't want that appearance,
but it's not, It's not anything in the scripture that prohibits
that. But whoever does have something
to do with the finances of the church is a servant of the church,
a deacon. In that, you see what I mean
by not necessarily having a title. If I was gonna appoint a deacon of this church, an official deacon,
and we may do that someday, I may do that as I get older, even
if there's not more of us, because I just need more help, and I
need it all the time. But if I do that, then everybody's
gonna know, this is our deacon in this church, and I want you
to go to them whenever you see some need or something in the
church. I want you to go to them. You have to go to them. People
can't just come up here and do stuff without it going through
somebody, because you may be duplicating something. You may
offend somebody that, that did the same thing before and you're
changing it or whatever, it just doesn't happen that way. It's
got to go through a deacon. It's got to go through me now.
It's got to be somebody that handles the affairs of the church. And so don't just fly off and
do something, just ask me about it. I guarantee you 99.999% of
the time I'm gonna say do it because probably it's something
that comes from a good place. But you see what I'm saying,
it would be official, it would be go talk to them about it. And everybody would know that
that's what needed to happen. And like I say, that may well
happen as I get older. But financial affairs is just
part of that, and not greedy or filthy lucre is more than
just the bare necessity of being able
to be trusted with the money of the church. It speaks to the
motive of why a person does anything they do. Are you doing it for
gain? Personal gain of praise, of position,
of whatever, pride? Or are you doing it because it
needs to be done for the glory of the Lord? And again, everybody knows somebody
that always does what they do for whatever's in it for them.
I could name you names. Even if they're doing it for
free, it's for themselves in one way or another, not a deacon.
Not a deacon, a deacon's not gonna do that. Because the Lord
just sees to it. Think about what money really
is. See, that's how you get to the heart of this thing. What
is money? People don't like money because they like the smell of
it or sit around just like flipping. They may do that, flipping through
their $100 bills or whatever. Maybe they do that. But what
they're delighting in is what that money does for them, what
it can achieve for them. And there's four things. And
there may be more. This is just what I heard somebody
say it, three of these, I think, and I added one to it. But they don't love it because
it's made out of nice material or just like the way it smells. When somebody's greedy of money,
what they're lusting after is pleasure, popularity, praise,
or power. Pleasure. Money means I can go
to Catalina and, you know, drink pina coladas. And I can have
a cowboy ribeye for dinner instead of a sloppy joe. That's pleasure. Popularity. Everybody loves somebody
that's throwing money around. Except it's not love. It's not
love. Praise. They've done so much
for the church that they've done so much for the community. They've
been so helpful in this way or that Yeah, that may well be or
they may be doing it for the praise and not the good Power The ones with the money
think they get to call the shots and often they do get to and
And that's not often good that they do. We see this in politics, of course,
and in world economics, but it's true on every level. And again,
it speaks of motive. Is it love for Christ and his
church? Or love of pleasure, popularity,
praise, and power? Control over people and the indulgence
of the flesh. I'm not a deacon. Not a servant,
not a servant of the Lord in his church. Verse 9, holding
the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. A couple of key words
here will help us with this. The mystery of the faith, it's
an interesting and instructive name for the gospel, that's what
it is. The mystery of the faith is the gospel. There's no question
that the truth of God is unfathomable. It's the deep things of God.
It's rich and deep and past finding out, but that's not the mystery
of the gospel. The gospel is not a mystery in
that you have to figure out difficult things to understand in order
to know the gospel. The gospel is presented to sinners
in clear and plain language concerning clear and plain terms. Christ is all is not hard to
understand. It's just not popular when you
begin to think of what that really means. It's hard to swallow unless you
know him, then it's not. By God's grace, Christ is my
righteousness. That's not hard to understand.
Christ is my sin offering. Christ is the door. Christ is
the way, the truth, and life. Christ redeemed everybody he
died for. That's not hard to understand.
But you talk about a complicated mess when you try to justify
that or reconcile that with your idea of God. Now you got a complicated
mess on your hands. But the simple truth, not complicated.
Everybody Christ died for on Calvary is redeemed by his precious
blood. That's not complicated at all. And no one else. just those he
died to redeem. The gospel call is come to Christ
and come now. That's not hard to understand.
Find in him your very worthiness to come, come. Find in him your
acceptance with God. Salvation is not in the six inch
thick body of divinity or doctrinal treaties, it's a person. come to him for life. That's not complicated, and yet
almost nobody understands that. That's the mystery of the gospel.
It's got to be however plain it is. It's got to be revealed.
No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him. Here's the mystery. You wanna
know what it means, the mystery of the faith? Listen to Matthew
13, 11. He answered and said unto them, it is given unto you
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But to them,
it's not given. That's why it's a mystery, because
it's not given to them to know it. The gospel is a mystery to most
because they're not born of the spirit of God. John 3, 3, Jesus
answered and said unto Nicodemus, verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born again, born from above. He cannot see the
kingdom of God. Mystery doesn't mean hard to
understand. Mystery means impossible to understand. With men it's impossible. First
Corinthians 2.14, the natural man receiveth not the things
of the spirit of God, why not? Because he hates them, yeah,
but there's more to it than that. For they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. The natural man is spiritually
dead. You got to be born of the Spirit
to understand the things of the Spirit. If a person believes
that God loves everybody, every sinner that ever lived, that
person is as blind as a bat. There couldn't be anything more
clear than that he loved sinners in Christ. He loved Jacob and
hated Esau. People love to quote John 3,
God so loved the world. World means world. What about
thou hatest all workers of iniquity, Psalm 5.5. How does that one
strike you? Why don't you go around quoting
that one? God hates all sinners. Are you one of those? Well, if
you don't like that, then quit quoting verses out of context. Quit going around saying God
loves everybody and I won't go around saying God hates everybody.
Instead, we'll find out what God said about his love and how
in the world he can love a sinner like you. Plainest truth of God's love
in Christ is a mystery to people if a man can read John 10 or
the whole Bible for that matter and Believe that Christ died
for every sinner that ever lived there blind as a bat The Gospels an absolute mystery
to Even though it's plain as the
nose on your face and Luke 10, 21, in that hour, Jesus rejoiced
in spirit and said, I thank thee, Father. Oh, Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. Isn't that a wonderful
thing? What seems good in God's sight? Are you going to have a problem
with it? If it seems good to God, it's because it is good.
And it is good because God says so. The only way that you can hold
the mystery of the faith is to have faith. Faith from God, to
simply believe God. Faith is not believing in God.
The devil believes there's a God, but he don't have faith. Faith is to believe God. Abandon what you think or what
seems reasonable to you and believe God concerning himself, concerning
you, concerning his son, concerning how God saves sinners by the
blood of his son. Look at verse 16 in our text.
We won't look at that today particularly, but look at it for a second.
And without controversy, Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory. How that we know the mystery
is part of the mystery. God-given faith we believe From
the Lord Jesus Christ and says you must hold it in a pure conscience
in other words you've got to hold the gospel you've got to
Deem the gospel and lay hold of the gospel trust the gospel
believe the gospel in such a way That your conscience is clear A pure conscience is not a conscience
that is self-deceived into believing that our good outweighs our bad
or any such myth. A pure conscience is not one
that believes I've done my best and that's enough or any such
myth. A pure conscience is one that
sees Christ as our only righteousness. And because of him, I have nothing
to be guilty about. Simply because of him it is Christ
that died And I'm uncondemnable before God and men Because of
him Verse 10 in our text and let these also first be proved
Then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless
The word found is not in the original, but I think that's
a good Good addition there to understand because of the context
first be proved And so it's talking about Considering
looking into it observing Tested the word means tested Don't be
hasty about this be observant about it if someone is to be
officially Just use that word because we know what it means
Officially declared to be a deacon and they agree to that And take
that office in the church There's to be a lot of work done beforehand
a lot of careful consideration a Lot of proving a lot of testing
and They are to be observed to be, being found blameless, observed
to be unreprovable. And again, that's for man, before
God, there's no one unreprovable except in Christ, which is truer
than, there's no truer sense in which you can be unreprovable
than to be unreprovable in Christ. I'm not saying that. But before men, there's no charge
that can be brought against you about anything. And of course,
as we always say, God doesn't find people blameless. He makes
them blameless in this sense, as well as in Christ. But we
must find them to be. We are to find them to be that
way. God makes it so and we find it
to be so. We observe what God has done
in them, for them. We have to give it time to see
over time that they're trustworthy and that God has blessed them.
That's what we're looking for. Not somebody that's better than
others. Not somebody that's exceptional in themselves. Someone whom God
has blessed with these qualities and there ain't many of them. So must their wives verse 11
be grave Not slanderers sober faithful in all things So free
from reproach must the work of the ministry be that even if
your wife is a problem any of these things You are excluded It's that simple This shows how
essential also the role of a wife is in the things of the ministry Bishop or deacon for a Overseer
or a servant of course the overseer is a servant But how essential wives have
a different role, but with regard to the ministry they have a vital
role Absolutely vital There to be
grave also honorable and honest and not slanderers, and how quick
all of us are to criticize others. That's just such an easy thing
to do, to badmouth somebody. If you're critical of the ministry,
you're probably not much of a helper. It seems like those who do the
least complain the most. It's been my experience. And
this has to do, of course, with being a false accuser, to slander
somebody, to say something about them that's not right. And it
doesn't have to always be an outright lie. It can just be
innuendo. It can be implying, planting
a seed in someone's ear about somebody
dishonestly. The Greek word, interestingly,
for this slanderer is diabolos, most often translated devil. That's how serious that is. And
then sober, again, that's self-control. It boils down to self-control. Being an abuser of substances
is a very selfish thing. when you get to the heart of
it. Self-control. Faithful in all things. That
word faithful there is trusty, reliable. And think about this,
this means that they are relied on. You don't need to be trusty
unless somebody's trusting you with something. Wives are trusted
in the ministry. They are relied on. And this is for men and women.
What have you done this past week that is a help and a benefit
to this ministry? This past month, what have you
done? And it can be something as simple
as pulling a weed or cleaning a toilet. That always comes up
somehow, doesn't it? The toilets have got to be clean. Cleaning up your gum wrappers
in your pew, I won't name any names. Or I'll tell you this, if you
come ask me what can be done, what can I do to help out? I'm
not shy about that. I'll tell you, I'll give you
something to do. I'm a big believer in everybody
doing a little bit. And it adds up to a lot. and doing it as unto the Lord. And I don't mean everybody doing
only a little bit, I mean at least a little bit. At least
that, at least something. And doing it as unto the Lord.
I love what David said, he said, a day, Lord, in your courts is
better than a thousand. A day in God's house, in his
ministry, in his work, in his courts. I had rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
Boy, there's a lot to that in there. I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God And it says trustee in all things. She's to be trustee in all things. If I can only trust you in some
things, can I really trust you in anything? It's so easy to
break trust, isn't it? It's so easy. One matter, one
thing, one word, one failure can break trust. But it takes
a lot to build trust. And trust has got to be earned.
It's got to be earned. We're not trusty by nature. That's
a gift of God. And then verse 12, let the deacons
be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children in their
own houses. Well, what interests me about that, we've talked about
this with concern to the bishops. But what's interesting about
this that we didn't say about that is that instead of just saying that deacons
are to be respected leaders, it points out how that can be
proven. Before they're a leader here,
they're a leader in their home. So you can see what kind of leader
they are. They don't need to take a course
on winning friends and influencing people. That's not how you become
a leader. They don't need to go to leadership
seminars. That's not how you become a leader.
They need to be gifted of God to just be a good dad, to just
be a good husband. You'd think that's so simple.
Look at this world. Look at this wretched world.
That's a great gift from God. It takes a lot of effort and
love to be a good dad. And that's what you're looking
for. It doesn't mean bossy. It's not somebody that's bossy.
It's somebody that has to have their way. A lot of people run
their houses like some kind of a tyrant. I've observed and known
people that just scolded, just hatefully scolded their children
for making a mistake, for not doing something as good as they
expected them to do it. That's horrible. That's not what
this is talking about. That's not a leader. That's a
weak person with no self-control. And a person that doesn't do
anything in their home just kind of lets, you know, everything
go wild. That's not leadership either.
That's just laziness. That's not caring enough to make
the effort. It's self-righteousness is what it boils down to. What we got to have is real men
whose wives and children respect them and love them and look up
to them and are able to depend upon them. There's your servant
in the church right there. And that's observable. It's interesting,
isn't it? Instead of just saying they gotta
be a good leader, they gotta be good dads. If they're a good
dad, then they qualify. Because God has blessed them.
You can find somebody to be that way. They must be found to be
that way. Verse 13 for they that have used
the office of a deacon well purchased to themselves a good degree and
great boldness in the faith Which is in Christ Jesus those that
have been this type of servant It says they've purchased to
themselves that is they've obtained for themselves a good degree
it means good standing What it means is they've earned the respect
of God's people God has blessed them to that
degree have you ever We've known people like that that we looked
up to we respected them in the church What a beautiful thing
that is Would you rather have the respect and admiration of
this world? The whole world even Or the respect
and admiration of the people of God Though there may just
be a handful of them What a beautiful, beautiful thing. And remember,
this is not earned. Respect is not earned by being
some kind of big shot or being bossy or being imposing or manipulative
or even popular with people. It's achieved by serving. If somebody shows themselves
to love you so much that they're concerned with your well-being,
they think not on the things of themselves, but on the things
of others, you're gonna highly regard that person. And that's
observable, isn't it? That's God's grace in action. It must be things done for the
for the sake of Christ now He Said if you've done it to the
least of one of these my brethren you've done it to me to serve
his people is to serve him I like what another pastor said about
this about This whole thing of having a
good degree in in the church a good respect well respected
by God's people and He said that you have unbelievers in every
church that act like unbelievers. They don't know the Lord and
it's obvious they don't. Then you have believers that
act like unbelievers. Paul said to the church at Corinth,
are you not carnal? You walk as men. Look, for you are yet carnal,
1 Corinthians 3, 3, for whereas there is among you envying and
strife and divisions, the things that so easily pop up in any
church. Are you not carnal and walk as
men? In other words, you act like you don't know the Lord.
But he called them brethren in that same chapter. Believers
that act like unbelievers. That's shameful. And then you have unbelievers
that act like believers. I know a few of those, don't
you? I'm pretty sure they're unbelievers. I'm not talking
about people that are here that are members of our church. But I know some people that are just
outstanding people. Sincere people. And my heart
breaks for them. I would to God. They knew the Lord Jesus and
then you have believers that act like believers There's your ones who have obtained
to themselves a good degree in the house of God well respected That's your deacons and Great boldness in the faith that word boldness there, great
boldness in the faith, that means freedom and courage in speaking.
They're able to speak of the gospel, the faith of Christ, freely, with courage, with conviction. And that's because the Lord has
blessed them. And that people will listen to
them because they're respected. And that's faith which is in
Christ Jesus. All true faith is in Christ,
not in people. Notwithstanding the respect,
notwithstanding the good degree, our faith's in Christ, not men. My dad told me many, many, many,
many years ago, the Lord, he said, everybody, even your mom
and I will let you down at one time or another, but the Lord
will never let you down. That's the truth. And this is where boldness is
too. We get our boldness through him. Paul said in Ephesians 6.18, praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the spirit and watching therein too with
all perseverance and supplication for all saints and for me that
utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an
ambassador in bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought
to speak. The gospel always should be spoken
Boldly, but it can only be done You know there are those who
People used to think they preach the gospel, but they've they've
utterly rendered themselves excluded from the ministry For whatever
reason You can't speak boldly for the for Christ anymore And that's the sad thing That's
just the way God does things. It makes us realize what grace
it is. Any of us aren't excluded because
of our wretchedness. Every one of us. I have nothing to boast of myself,
but I can speak boldly the mystery of the gospel. Because God has revealed unto
me the mystery. Because by God's grace, by his grace, I've not made it
so. God has not allowed me to make it so that you can't hear
me. That I can't speak the gospel
boldly because my behavior is a reproach to the very Savior
that I claim to preach. Pray for me that I never I'm
allowed to do that. God forbid that I ever mess it
up. I know that without Him we can do nothing. Turn with me
to this last verse, and I promise I'm through. Philippians 2. I
just want to read it. Philippians 2.12. Philippians 2 12 Wherefore my beloved That's what
we've been talking about had we in our Bible class this morning Paul said to these Philippians,
I love you. I love you. You're my beloved
in the Lord As you have always obeyed not as in my presence
only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation
and with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. So what are
you gonna do? Whatever you do, do it without
murmurings and disputings. God's gonna get the glory. And we're gonna be just fine
with that. But by His grace, we're gonna do what we do without
murmurings and disputings. The most common problem in any
church that I wish with all my heart
I could see done with in some churches that I care very much
about right now. Murmurings and disputings. That
you may be blameless, that's unreproachable by men, before
men, and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst
of a crooked and perverse nation. You know, religious people like
to call this a Christian nation. You know what this nation is?
Crooked and perverse. Greatest nation in the world.
So corrupt. God don't save nations. He saves
sinners. There's a lot wrong with this
country, but thank God for it. Where are you gonna go? I'm not
gonna complain about it. I'm real happy to be here, but
we gotta see how it is. This country, the government
of this country is horrible. Absolutely horrible. and not
getting better. Among whom you shine as lights
in the world. Isn't that beautiful? Boy, we're so good and wonderful
that we shine, no, holding forth the word. That's how we shine.
We say what God said. And God calls us to shine. Holding forth the word of life,
that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I've not run
in vain. Neither labored in vain. Everything else is vain. Except him and his precious gospel.