Let's go to 2 Corinthians 12.
We had good meetings in Florida. And I think the Lord gave me
more liberty in studying than I've ever had before when I prepared
a message while I was there. And liberty preaching as well,
but it was just extra liberty. It seemed like preparing that
message. The title of it is The Story of a Sinner Saved, so if
you get an opportunity to listen. 2 Corinthians 12, we're going
to look at just two verses. Paul says in verse 11, I have
become a fool in glorying. You have compelled me, for I
ought to have been commended of you. And here's why. For in nothing am I behind the
very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. Truly the signs
of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs
and wonders, in mighty deeds. Now the desire of God's saints
is to hear Christ and Him crucified preached in every message. And
that's the desire of Christ's preacher. We want to hear how
sinners like us can be just with God. And the only way that can
be is God sending His own Son and satisfying His own justice,
fulfilling His own law Himself for His people. That's how God
can be just and justifier. That's how sinners like us can
be just with God. Now that's the message we want
to hear. That's the message that is our
food. We come here to be fed and to be grown by our Lord and
that's the message whereby we do so. But there are certain
passages we come to as we study the Scriptures that teach us
something that is our responsibility And that it's our responsibility
for a very needful reason. That tonight our text teaches
us our responsibility in commending the commendable. Commending the
commendable. Paul said there, you ought to
have commended me. And he shows there why he was
commendable. And that's a responsibility of
believers, commending the commendable. And the reason that's so important
is so the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ can continue with
us. We're going to see here how this
was one of the problems that allowed the false preachers to
enter into Corinth. It was because the Corinthians,
when Paul had need of them defending him before these false preachers,
they didn't do it. They didn't do it. And so, these
false preachers were able to come in and be received as true
ministers and they began to turn men away with a false gospel.
Something as simple as commending the minister of Christ. A failure
to do something that simple allowed these false preachers to come
in and turn the church. Now, this is what I want to show
you tonight. It's needful for believers to
commend faithful pastors, especially before those who would bring
reproach upon them, so that false preachers or false brethren are
not able to enter and the gospel cease to be preached. That's
why it's important to give them no foothold. And that's why it's
needful to commend Christ's minister. Now this is so of all brethren
in Christ. We ought to commend all our brethren
in Christ. When they need defending, somebody's
slandering them, we ought to step in and commend them and
defend them. But since our text focuses on
the minister, we're going to focus on Christ's preacher. Now
first of all, Christ's true preacher has no desire to glory in himself
or to be gloried in. Paul says there in verse 11,
I've become a fool in glorying. Now, we saw that when Paul gloried,
he gloried only in the total inability of his flesh. He said, look back up there in
2 Corinthians 11 verse 18, He says, ìSeeing that many glory
after the flesh, I will glory also.î But look at verse 30.
Hereís how Paul gloried after the flesh. ìIf I must need glory,
I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.î We
saw that meant his total inability in his flesh. Thatís what heís
talking about. And the reason Paul gloried in
his total inability is because he gloried in Christ his strength. Let's look back up there at chapter
12 verse 9. Christ said unto me, My grace
is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in your
weakness. You are made to see My strength.
in your weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecution,
in distresses for Christ's sake." All those things he listed up
there in chapter 11, that he suffered, all those different
things, that's what he's talking about. That's what I'm on glory
in. Because when I'm weak in my flesh, then am I strong in
the Lord. So that's all Paul gloryed in.
Christ is the power and the wisdom of God for His people. Isaiah
40, 29 says, He giveth power to the faint. Our Lord gives
power to the faint and to them that have no might, He increaseth
strength. When we think about Christ our
strength, Christ is the strength of our righteousness. He is our
only righteousness. He is Jehovah Sidkanu, the Lord
our righteousness. Christ is the strength of our
holiness. Both He that sanctifies and they that are sanctified
are all of one for which cause He is not ashamed to call them
brethren. That would only be said of somebody
who Christ had made holy. That's the only reason He wouldn't
be ashamed to call us brethren. He made us holy. Christ is the
strength of our life. We had no life before Christ
entered in. He said, I am the life. And the
strength of our spiritual life that we now have as believers
is Christ. Christ is the strength of resurrection. He said, I am the resurrection.
From beginning to end, Christ is all. He is all our strength. He is the strength of our faith,
the author and finisher of our faith. Without Him, we can do nothing.
We have all strength in Christ, but only in Him. But even though
Paul only gloried in Christ, his strength, even though that
is the only one he was glorying in, to show this, he had to speak
of himself more than he wanted to speak of himself. To show
that he was totally weak, he had to give that long list of
all the ways that he was mistreated and all the necessities he fell
into and the persecution and the reproach. And he didn't even
want to talk about himself that much. But he did it to show that
he gloried in a way totally opposite those false preachers. They were
gloried in the fact they were Hebrews and Israelites and Jews
and their gift of speaking and all these things. Paul gloried
in the fact that he was weak and that he came and his speech
was pathetic. And he was with them in fear
and trembling and all these persecutions, all these things that showed
his utter weakness because he gloried in Christ his strength.
And so because he had to say those things about himself, he
said, I've become a fool in glory. God's preacher knows he's sent
to glory in the Lord only. The Lord said, I am the Lord,
that is my name, my glory, will I not give to another? Neither
my praise to graven images. The Lord said, everyone that's
called by my name, I have created Him for my glory. That means
everybody that's saved, everybody that's created anew in righteousness
and holiness, God created them for His glory. He's not going
to give that glory to anybody else. He's the only one that
saves. He's the only one that's going to have the glory for saving.
And so the charge He gives to His preacher is this, that no
flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now, when a believer
hears his pastor, and first of all, he faithfully preaches Christ
according to the Scriptures, giving all the glory to Christ
and none to man. And secondly, he lives his life
giving Christ all the glory and himself none. When a man hears
such a man preach and beholds such a man the way he conducts
himself, then he's beholding a faithful minister of Christ.
That's somebody Christ has made faithful. And so the Corinthians
had every reason to commend Paul. Paul wasn't a man looking for
commendation. And he was looking for Christ
to get all the honor and glory. That's why they should have commended
Paul. And it's the responsibility of
the believer to commend such a pastor. Look here now at verse
11. He said, I've become a fool in
glorying, you have compelled me, made it so I had to do this,
for I ought to have been commended of you. Now remember, and this
is so important when we read a passage of Scripture like this,
where does the Scripture come from? It's God breathed. This is Christ, through the Holy
Spirit, telling Paul what to write. So this is Christ saying
to the Corinthians, Paul ought to have been commended of you. This is Christ saying this, and
this is Christ telling you and I we ought to commend His faithful
ministers. Why is that important? Well,
one, it's because God's Word tells us to. 1 Timothy 5.17 says, Let the elders
that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they
who labor in the Word and doctrine. And then Galatians 6.6 says,
Let him that's taught in the Word Communicate unto him that
teacheth in all good things. Now both of those verses apply
primarily to monetary support, is what both those apply to.
But it includes giving all good things, which includes giving
thanks, which includes commending them, it includes all those things. Go to 1 Thessalonians 5 and look
at verse 12. He beseeched you, brethren, to
know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord,
and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for
their work's sake." Esteem them very highly in love for their
work's sake. I truly, and I'm saying this
from the bottom of my heart, I truly love my pastor. And I tell him often. I tell
him, I love you. I tell him that. I talk to Brother
Marvin almost weekly. And I tell him a lot, I love
you. He tells me that, I love you.
I esteem him very highly. for His work's sake. I wish I
knew when I was sitting under Him what I know now. Because now I know how much labor
goes into finding a message and preparing a message and delivering
that message. So I hold Him, I highly esteem
Him in love for His work's sake. You know, when a preacher is
preparing and all those things, he has the same sin and the same
obstacles that he is trying to overcome as you and I have. He has the same responsibilities
with his family as you and I have. And he has the care of the brethren
to whom he preaches. So I esteem Him very highly and
love for His work's sake. And then two, here's another
reason commendation of a faithful pastor is important. It's because
the way we honor our pastor is how we honor Christ and how we
honor God our Father. When Christ sent out His apostles
to preach, He said, He that receiveth you, receiveth me. He said this
to us. He is sending his apostles out
to preach. He said, He that receiveth you, receiveth me. And he that
receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. So, by divine election,
by blood redemption, and by the new birth, we are inseparably
one with God our Father in Christ Jesus. and separably one. Christ said, I in them, thou
in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the
world may know that thou hast sent me, and get this, and thou
hast loved them as thou hast loved me. And so Christ said there, when
you receive one of my ministers, you're receiving me, So that
tells me if I fail to honor, to highly esteem, if I fail to
commend my pastor, I'm failing to do so to Christ and to God
my Father. So that's important. It makes
it important. Three, another reason our commendation
of Christ's minister shows what we think of the gospel of Christ. Because if he's a true minister
of Christ, that's what he's preaching. the gospel of Christ. Paul said in that first letter,
he said, let a man so account of us as of the ministers of
Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. You know, when somebody
thanks me for preaching a message, the conversation always immediately
turns to Christ. You know, we're not sitting there
bragging on the preacher. We're bragging on Christ who
gave the message, who blessed it to their heart, and who was
the whole subject of the message. That's what we're talking about,
you know. And I've told you all this. When I was younger, my pastor
was my grandfather. And I say that because, you know,
that says I ought to have not been afraid of Him or anything.
He's my grandfather, you know. But I didn't thank Him ever when
I was lost. I never thanked Him for the message
because I was afraid He was going to start talking about Christ
and it was going to reveal that I didn't know Christ and I was
lost. So when I see folks, and you
all are good about this, I'm not talking about you, but when
I'm at places and I see folks that can hear the gospel and
just totally ignore the pastor and walk past him and not say
thank you or anything, it truly, not only does it make me think
it's rude, but two, it makes me think, what do they even think
of the gospel? What does the gospel mean to
them? If a physician came bringing
you the medicine you needed and he cured your father of a deadly
disease, even though you know God is the one who did it, wouldn't
you thank the physician? You know? Let me go to this fourth thing.
By not esteeming, by not being thankful, by not commending my
pastor, I can cause my pastor to be cast down. And it's not
just because he doesn't want to be thanked or he wants to
be thanked. It's because he's fearful that the love of God
is not in the heart of those to whom he's ministering. That's
what makes you downcast. Now, there's ultra-pious people
you'll run into. And they'll say, well, you know,
they excuse themselves from ever thanking a pastor or for ever
commending a pastor because they say, we don't want to puff him
up. We're trying to keep him humble. Well, hear this and remember
this. You and I are not sovereign. We can't keep ourselves humble,
much less anybody else. We can't do that. Christ is the
only one who can do that. We saw that in the last passage
we looked at up there where Paul said, lest I be exalted above
measure, Christ gave me a thorn in the flesh. He is the only
one that can keep his people humble. We can't do it. But by
being ungrateful and by not commending, like if somebody is talking about
a pastor and I don't commend him and come to his defense,
that can cause my pastor to be very cast down that I didn't
commend him when I could have. You know, you think about this
and I am saying this to you because if you go to conferences or a
visiting preacher comes here, I want you to thank that preacher.
I want you to say something to let him know you appreciate the
fact he labored to bring that message. You think about it this
way. What if you worked some long
hours and you obtained a gift that you brought to somebody
that you love dearly and they opened up the gift and they got
up and walked right past you and walked out and didn't say
a word to you. That helps us understand what it feels like. But here's the fifth reason.
And this reason right here is why it's so very important. Above
all that we just said, this is why it's so very important. It
was the Corinthians' failure to commend Paul that gave those
false preachers a foothold in that Corinthian church. That
failure to commend Paul. Paul repeated this throughout
the letter. He said, I should have been commended of you. That's
not the first time he said that in this letter. Now, here's a
couple of things that it did. And I'm going to apply this to
us. After hearing the false preachers slander Paul, they heard these
false preachers slander Paul. By the Corinthians not commending
him, by the Corinthians not coming to his defense and commending
Paul as being a faithful minister of Christ, as being an apostle
of Christ, as talking about these signs and wonders that they had
seen him work, by not commending Paul to those that were slandering
him, their silence said to those false preachers that they agreed
with them. If somebody is running down my
pasture and I don't step in and commend my pasture, my silence
is going to say to that person that I agree with them. And so what that did was that
showed these false preachers where it was that they needed
to appeal to those Corinthians. At whatever point they detected
and they thought that the Corinthians had a problem with Paul and they
were critical of Paul in one little area, that's right where
the false preacher would appeal to. And get them all buttered
up, you know. and then they start hearing the
false preacher and they hear this false gospel and they are
turned away. Another thing is this, those
older in the faith, by them not commending Paul, it made those
who were younger in the faith question whether Paul was a true
apostle. It made them question whether
or not these false preachers were right and maybe Paul was
not an apostle. If he was an apostle, surely
this older brother who has been in the Gospels so much longer
than me, surely he would have spoken up for Paul. See what
I'm saying? If an older believer, you always
have younger believers looking at you. And if you don't step
in and commend a brother or a sister or a faithful pastor when somebody's
slandering them, you make that younger believer think, well,
maybe what they're saying is so. Or worse, if you're ever
critical, you make that younger believer be critical too. And
then there's one more thing they did by this. By not commending
Paul, it gave credit to the false preacher. He gave credit to the
false preacher. So, just simply not commending
Paul, they allowed these false preachers to come in and what
it did was it turned them against Paul, turned them against Christ,
turned them against Christ's gospel. That's the three things
that happened. That's why commendation is very
important. That's why it's very important.
And this is why Paul had to commend himself. What Paul is doing here
in these two chapters wasn't just that Paul felt like, I'm
going to defend myself, I'm not going to let them talk about
me this way. No, he had to say these things. He had to. For the sake of true believers
at Corinth, he had to speak up. For the sake of the gospel of
Christ continuing amongst them, he had to commend himself. And
for the sake of the glory of Christ, he had to commend himself.
And also he had to do it so that he wouldn't give credit to those
false preachers and make people think that they were true preachers.
It was necessary that he had to say these things that he said
here. The sad thing is, and you know this broke Paul's heart,
he had to do it himself. He had to commend himself. Because
he didn't have a... This church was totally... The only reason they were there
was because of Paul. Because the Lord sent Paul there
and told him to stay there and preach the gospel. And he stayed
there a year and six months and preached the gospel. And Christ
saved many of them. And yet they wouldn't commend
their pastor. Now lastly, I want you to see
this. Christ makes His messenger commendable
by His sovereign, irresistible grace. Now, we shouldn't just
commend every preacher just because he holds the office of a preacher.
You know that. There's a lot of preachers out
there that don't have reason to be commended. But Paul said
there, I ought to have been commended of you for, because, and he gives
the reasons why they ought to have commended him. And all of
these reasons that he gave here were of Christ. It was Christ
who made this true. He said, In nothing am I behind
the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. Truly the signs
of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs
and wonders, in mighty deeds. Now Christ our Redeemer is our
risen head. When He finished shedding His
blood and accomplished the redemption of all God's elect, He arose
to the right hand of the Father and our risen head is sovereign
as a man. He was sovereign over all as
God, but now as the God-man, He's sovereign over all. There's
a man who is God, seated at God's right hand, who has all power
and all authority in heaven and in earth over all things. That's
Christ. And Christ made Paul commendable,
first of all, we see here, by turning him from false humility. Look there in verse 11. He said,
For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles. Now Paul
here is not boasting. He's just spent two chapters
telling us that He had nothing in which to glory in, that He
was what He was by the grace and power of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He just spent two chapters giving Christ all the glory for making
Him what He is. But He said here, because of
what Christ had done for Him, He could say here, in nothing
am I behind the very chiefest apostles. But now, if he would
have denied that, if he would have acted like, oh well, I'm,
you know, I'm not much of an apostle or whatever, that would
have been false humility. And false humility is nothing
but pride, brethren. If God's given you a talent,
and you're talented at something, and somebody is commending you
for your talent, There's nothing wrong with acknowledging that
you've got a talent. There's nothing wrong with that.
As long as you give God the glory as the one who gave it to you.
Paul is acknowledging he had all the talents of an apostle,
but he's also acknowledging that Christ is the one who gave them
to him. I know he does it right here in this particular verse,
but I don't have to go back and show you through the whole letter.
He constantly is doing that. Constantly. I labor more abundantly
than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which is with
me." Constantly doing that. And that's what he's, in the
context, that's what he's doing here. So, you know, to say you
don't have a talent when you do have a talent, it's obvious
you do have a talent, and to try to act like you don't, and
hem-haw, and blah, blah, blah, that's just false humility. That's
really just self-righteous pride. Some refuse to say that the sinner,
having an inner man within the believer now that's created in
righteousness and holiness after God, some refuse to say that.
Some refuse to say that and instead they say all we are is sin. Well
indeed, Paul did say in Romans 7, in me, that is, in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. But the reason the Spirit of
God made Paul qualify that he's speaking about in his flesh,
in that part of him that was of Adam, there's no good thing,
is because Christ created that new man within him. And everything
God creates is good. Tell me one thing God ever created
that's not good. And the new man within a believer
is created of God. in righteousness and holiness,
true holiness after God, and it's good without sin. We're not glowing in ourselves.
We confess that in our flesh, in that part of us that's born
of Adam's corrupt seed, there is absolutely nothing good. God doesn't use that old man. He doesn't change that old man.
That old man is going back to the dust. And yet that old man
is a part of us. It's the new man in which we
worship God and we must exalt Christ. We must exalt Christ. He shed His blood to fulfill
God's promise of creating in His people a new man, just like
He promised He would. And He creates that new man in
His righteousness and in His holiness after the image of God. And to deny that, brethren, is
to deny Christ's work. And to say that all we are is
flesh, if that was the case, we couldn't have any communion
with God. False humility is self-righteous
pride, brethren. And see how it applies to this
work of grace God has done in our heart as well. But while
acknowledging what Christ had made him, Paul acknowledged too
that in himself he is nothing. And that was of Christ. A man
can't say he is nothing and mean it and it be true in his heart
and God know it's true in his heart unless God gave him that
heart. And he being an apostle of Christ... Now let me ask you
these questions. We think of these apostles. Now
being an apostle of Christ, Paul says I'm nothing. Does that mean
that Paul couldn't stand against temptation better than you and
me? He couldn't stand against temptation any better than you
and me, apart from Christ being his strength. No way. Paul being
an apostle here, he says, I'm nothing. Does that mean that
Paul couldn't pray better than you and me can pray? Unless Christ
gave him the spirit of grace and supplication, he could not
pray at all, just like you and I couldn't. See, he says I'm
nothing. When Paul said in me, that is
in my flesh dwells no good thing, he meant I am nothing. And if you want to attain to
something, if any of us want to attain to something, attain
to learning that we're nothing. The man that God has taught he's
nothing, that man has attained to something that's of infinite
value. The man that can say Christ came into the world to save sinners
of whom I am chief, and mean it. Now that's not false humility. That's true humility given by
God. To know I'm the least of all
the apostles. I'm the least of all the saints.
Christ commands us, Lazarus is and says come forth and with
the command comes the power. Christ commands us to stretch
forth our withered hand and with the command comes the power.
And everything that we've made is by Christ commanding it. That's
how He makes us to be what we are. So don't worry about, you
know, how I'm worried I'm going to puff up the preacher. Christ
is able to keep him humble. Christ is able. And then look,
Christ made Paul patiently endure suffering. Verse 12, Truly the
signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience. Christ
made all His apostles suffer more than any of His ministers
ever suffered in later times. It was by Christ's strength that
Paul patiently bore all those infirmities and reproaches and
necessities of persecution and distresses for Christ's sake.
Had Christ not made him an apostle, and sent him. Had Christ not
been with him and working in him, had Christ not given him
a desire to see God receive all the glory and salvation, had
Christ not given him a heart for God's elect people, then
Paul would have never endured those sufferings and patiently
endured them. He would have never lasted. He
would have turned from them and altered his message so that he
wouldn't suffer any persecution. He knew what he had to do if
he didn't want to suffer persecution. He told the Galatians, he said,
they preach circumcision only lest they should suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ. He knew all he had to do was
just preach, you need to do one thing, and people would quit
persecuting him. But by God's grace, by Christ
making him what he was, he patiently endured all those persecutions
for the glory of Christ. See, that's Christ's work. as
Christ's work. And today Christ's ministers
don't endure nearly what Paul endured. But I'll tell you the
one thing that will keep Christ's ministers faithful to preach
Christ and Him crucified when all the rest of this world is
preaching another Jesus that's not another. The only thing that
will keep Christ's preachers doing that is Christ Himself.
The only way. And then look at this, Christ
confirmed Paul to be an apostle by making Paul work signs and
wonders and mighty deeds. Now Christ gave only His apostles
the ability to work supernatural miracles. Miracles such as raising
the dead, healing the sick, cleansing lepers, casting out devils, speaking
in different tongues, that is, languages they had never learned,
and so on. Only apostles could do that.
Only apostles. If any other man was given the
ability to do any of that, it was by the apostles laying His
hands on them and giving them that ability. But Christ only
did that with them because they're writing the Scriptures, they're
writing the New Testament Scriptures, and they're establishing the
early church. But when that was finished and that was done, when
the last apostle died, those gifts died out with them. No
man today has those gifts, but I'll tell you what we do have
today. We have the miracle of grace that Christ still works
in His people through the preaching of the Gospel, which all those
miracles typify. Let me give you some of them
here. By Christ, by the Holy Spirit,
through the preaching of the gospel, sinners who are spiritually
dead are raised from the dead. I can stand here and say, Christ
has used me to raise some men from the dead. Not physical death,
but even a greater miracle of grace is to raise men from the
spiritual death. Dead in trespass and sin and
give them life. Christ is using His minister
to heal sinners who are sick of the worst sickness you can
have. It's the sickness of pride and self-righteousness of looking
to your will and your works and thinking that's how you're going
to be saved. And Christ the Great Physician comes and He heals
sinners of that sickness by turning us from ourselves to Christ to
rest in Him. Spiritual lepers, totally unable
to cleanse ourselves of our sins and our unrighteousness, are
brought to Christ by God the Father drawing us to Him. And
we are made to come and confess our sins to Him. And He is faithful
and just to cleanse us of our sins and of all unrighteousness
through His blood. And then we're all, when we're
dead in our sins, we're all like that demoniac of Gadara. He lived
among the dead. He lived out in the cemetery,
among the tombs, among the dead. That's all we did when we were
dead in our sins. We lived among the dead. And
he had chains put on him and many tried to tame him with chains
and they couldn't tame him. And some of us had the chains
of men's legal bondage put on us and that couldn't tame us.
But Christ came. And Christ cast the devils out
of that man. And Christ came to you and me
through the preaching of the Word. And He bound the strong
man. And He entered in and spoiled
his goods. And when Christ got through with us, we were just
like that demoniac who could dare. We were seated at Christ's
feet and in our right mind. That's what Christ does. And
He is the only one who can make us speak this new language. the
language of the gospel of His grace, the language that gives
Him all the glory and gives us none, the language of grace and
love. This is the new language, the
language of heavenly Jerusalem, the language of God's Israel
that He teaches His people. These are miracles of grace that
all those physical miracles pictured. Somehow we think those physical
miracles are so great and so much better. But I'm telling
you, brethren, the miracle of a sinner being brought to believe
on Christ and put all his confidence in Christ is a far greater miracle
than any of those things were. So I want you to go home remembering
this. Here's our point now. What we saw here in looking at
Paul and looking at how Christ made him this way is what I want
you to remember. The man who's able to preach
and give Christ all the glory and give man none. The man whose
life, he's taken up in his life with honoring God and honoring
his Father and doing what's good for the brethren. And the man
who after all these miracles of grace are worked can say this,
not that we are sufficient of ourselves to thank anything of
ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. That man has been
made commendable by Christ. He preaches Christ faithfully.
He lives to the honor of Christ. He lives for the good of his
brethren. He sees God work these miracles of grace in the hearts
of his people. And in all of this, he says, I'm not sufficient
of myself to think anything of myself. All my sufficiency is
of Christ. That man has been made worthy
of commendation by the Lord Jesus Christ. And what Paul is teaching
us here, what the Lord is teaching us through Paul here, is it's
needful that we commend the commendable. It's needful that we commend
faithful ministers and faithful brethren. Especially when somebody
is slandering them, It's needful we commend them and it's needful
for the good of the church, for the good of brethren. It's needful
for the gospel's sake so that the gospel of Christ continues
to be preached among us. And it's needful for the glory
of Christ. And it's needful so that whatever false preacher
or false brethren is slandering and trying to work their way
in and divide the brethren so that they're not given a foothold.
Because if they are, the gospel will stop being preached, the
glory of Christ will cease to... It won't be all about His glory
anymore, it will be about the glory of men. So this is needful,
brethren. It's very needful. And if Christ
has made them commendable, if He made a man commendable, then
always be commending the commendable. That's what He's teaching us
here. Paul said this, but Christ is saying, Paul ought to have
been commended by you. So let's hear Christ say that
to us. Our faithful pastors and faithful brethren, they ought
to be commended by us. Amen.