whenever we feel like our focus
is becoming the earth, and we feel like we are being turned
to the earth. I say to you, turn your eyes
upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things
of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory. and His grace. Now let's turn
in our Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. 2 Corinthians 7. If you did not hear the message
Thursday night, I encourage you to go listen to that message
so you can have the context for this message. But I'll give you
some context here. is talking to erring Corinthians. And the more I look at this,
the more I am convinced that predominantly he is dealing with
preachers. That is who he was talking to.
You know, at Corinth or these churches, when it talks about
multiple elders, it doesn't mean they had multiple elders in one
assembly. Corinth was a huge place. It
was like New York City. You don't have one church in
New York City. And they were spread out. There
were pastors in each one. But these pastors, these preachers
and these brethren that were airing, they were being influenced
by unbelievers. And so Paul told them that, you
know, our heart is open to you. He said if there is anybody that
is straightened and has become narrow, it's in your heart because
you won't receive us. So he rebuked them. He told them
to come out, don't be yoked with unbelievers. And then He says
this, this will be our text today. Verse 2, 2 Corinthians 7 verse
2. He says, Receive us, we have
wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no
man. I speak not this to condemn you,
for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die and
live with you. Christ sends His preacher to
be received by His people. He says there, receive us. When
Paul exhorted the Corinthians to receive us, he's speaking
to everyone who heard this. You know, he wrote this letter,
he sent it to the church. This was the Word of God. It
was being compiled, it was being put together. So God would have
him write his Word, and he would write to these churches, and
they would send this letter, and then the preacher would read
this to the people. It's God's Word. Just like everybody
here today is hearing this being read. This is God's Word. And
He is saying to everybody that heard it, receive us. Receive
us. He is talking to those that were
erring, the believers that were erring by the influence of unbelievers. He was talking to believers who
had already received them. He was talking to ministers who
had received them and to ministers who were erring and were not
receiving them. He is saying, ìReceive us, everybody,
receive us.î And the ìusî He is talking about here are Himself
and all Christís true preachers. All those in His day, all those
today. ìReceive us.î He is saying, ìReceive our gospel.î Receive
our gospel. Receive our Redeemer that we
preach. Receive our exhortation and our
rebuke and our instruction because it's to turn you to Christ. It's
to point you to Christ. Receive us. Why does he say receive
Christ's messenger? Well, think about this. God the
Father sent Christ. And Christ sends His preacher. And so, when you're hearing Christ's
preacher, you're not only hearing the earthen vessel, you're hearing
from God and His Christ. Look back at 2 Corinthians 5.20. And as we saw Thursday, this
right here, He's not speaking here to unbelievers. No, sir. He's talking to... He's calling
on those who have professed faith in Christ. and we're erring. He's calling on them together
with the faithful brethren. He says, now then we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us. This is God beseeching you by
us. We pray you in Christ's name. Be ye reconciled to God. When men are in error, when men
are looking to their own way and they've turned from the true
doctrine of God, from the doctrine of Christ, they have need of
being reconciled again. They have need of being reconciled
to God, of turning to God, turning to Christ, being at peace with
God, being at peace with their brethren, because they've turned
away. Jesus cried and He said this,
so you see brethren, when He says receive us because we're
not just here speaking on our own, it's God speaking, it's
Christ speaking. Remember these words of our Lord
Jesus, He said, He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but
on him that sent Me. Now if Christ could say that,
I certainly can say that. He that believeth what I'm preaching.
He that receives what I'm preaching. He's not believing me. He's believing
Christ who sent me. Believing Christ who sent me.
That's what He means by receive us. Receive our gospel by believing
on Christ. That's who we preach. Receive
our gospel repenting from error to Christ. Christ said this. Listen. Verily, verily. Now what
does that mean? That means this is of utmost
importance. He said, ''Verily, verily, I
say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth Me,
and he that receiveth Me receiveth him that sent Me.'' So not only
this, but once we believe. So this is receiving what it
is to receive Christ's messenger. You are receiving Christ who
sent him and you are receiving God who sent Christ. I believe
it on His gospel. Now not only this, once we believe,
we are to receive Christ's preacher by sending them forth to preach
the gospel. Go to 3 John, John 3, the third
letter of John. And look at verse 5. Beloved, speaking to believers,
thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and
to strangers. He's saying not only to brethren
in their midst, and not only preachers in their midst, but
to strangers, preachers who are passing through with the gospel. And he says, which have borne
witness of thy charity before the church. They've gone before
the church and spoken of the charity of these folks that John
pastored. And he said, whom if thou bring
forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well. because that for his name's sake
they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. Those who preach
the gospel aren't in it for money. They're not taking profit from
unbelievers in this world. And so he says there, verse 8,
we therefore ought to receive such. See there, we ought to
receive such, receive their gospel into our hearts and also send
them forward on their journey. that we might be fellow helpers
to the truth. See, that's what we're here for.
That's what we're here for. We're here to be called out by
the gospel, believe on Christ ourself, rest in Christ ourself,
and then once He's called us out, He uses us then to be fellow
helpers to promote the gospel, to send forth We not only receive
the preacher in that we receive the gospel of these priests,
now we give of ourselves to send them forward to preach the gospel
in other places. That's the whole purpose. So
that's what it is to receive Christ's preacher and there to
be received. But now let me ask you this question.
How do we determine the preacher we are to receive? How do we
determine the preacher we are to receive? My subject is Christ's
gospel and love. Christ's gospel and love. And I've titled it that because
we know the preacher that we're to receive by the gospel they
preach and by their love for the brethren. Because it will
be Christ's gospel and Christ's love. Now that's just so. A Christ preacher does not wrong
or corrupt or defraud men with lies. They preach Christ and
Him crucified. They don't corrupt or defraud
men, they preach Christ and Him crucified. The servant that sinned
of God, that servant that sinned of God preaches the message of
Him who sent Him. A faithful servant preaches the
message of Him who sent Him. Go with me to John 7. When Christ
took the form of a servant, when He came in the form of a servant,
what did He say? Look here, John 7, 16. They were complaining that he
had not been to their seminaries, and he didn't have degrees behind
his name, he didn't have letters behind his name, he has never
learned. Listen to what Christ said. John 7, 16. He answered
and he said, My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. Now, of course, he believed the
doctrine. Of course, it was his doctrine. But he said, As a servant
of God, I am preaching what I have been sent to preach. And look
at this, if any man would do his will, if any man would do
God's will, that is believe on Christ, that's God's will. If
any man would do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether
it be of God or whether I speak of myself, whether I'm really
sin of God or I'm just an imposter pretending to be the Christ,
that's what he's saying. You believe on God and you're going
to know the doctrine. You can't know this doctrine
without believing God. It comes through faith. He has
to give the faith, and a life, and the faith, and the repentance.
But you can't know this doctrine until you believe God. When you
believe God, faith is the evidence. Faith is the substance. You quit
saying, I got to have more evidence, and you quit doing that. You
believe God. Now watch this. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory. But he that seeketh his glory
that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in
him. Now Christ just told us how we
determine who true preachers are and who false preachers are.
Christ is true. There is no unrighteousness in
Him and we know that because Christ came preaching the gospel
of God who sent Him. Go to Luke 4. What did Christ
preach? Luke 4. Now He is the only messenger
of God who could preach what He preached. He's the only one
who can... Well, let me explain that. I'll
explain that as a... I can't preach myself, but He
was sent to preach Himself, because He is the Gospel. Look here,
Luke 4, 16. Luke 4, 16. He came to Nazareth
where He had been brought up, and as His custom was, He went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up for to read,
and there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. They brought him the book of
Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found the place
where it was written. This was Isaiah 61, and what
we know is Isaiah 61, and he reads this. The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel
to the poor. Christ is the prophet of God.
He's the prophet sent of God. He's that prophet Moses spoke
about. He's the preacher, the messenger of God. That's what
shepherd means. He's the pastor, sin of God.
And He's the gospel that God the Father sent Him to preach.
He said He anointed me to preach and He anointed me to preach
the gospel. He is the prophet and He's the message God sent
Him to preach. And He sent to the poor, He sent
to the contrite, the broken hearted, those that God's opened their
heart to receive it. Look here. He sent me to heal
the broken hearted. The message Christ preached is
Christ is the great physician. He's the only one that can heal
those whose hearts He's broken. And He heals us by giving us
a new heart. That's who He is. He sent me to preach deliverance
to the captives. Christ is the captain of our
warfare. And we were taken bondage by our enemy. And Christ came
and He delivers His people out of bondage. Out of the bondage
of Satan, sin, death and hell. He does it by His own righteousness.
That's what He came to preach. Deliverance to the captives.
In recovering of sight to the blind. Christ is the light. Didn't He preach that? He said,
I'm the light. And He's the only one that can give the light to
His people that have been blinded in sin. That's the message he
came preaching. He sent me to set at liberty
them that are bruised. Here he is preaching. He's in
the synagogue preaching this. And he says, I'm the one. I'm
sent to set at liberty. I'm sent to set free them that
have been bruised by sin. And he said, and if the Son of
God has set you free, you'll be free indeed. He said, I've
come now to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. You know what
he's saying there? The acceptable year of the Lord
was the year of Jubilee. That's when the kinsman redeemer
bought everything, paid all our debts and bought the people out
from under debt and more was restored to them than what they
lost. And Christ comes and He's the
one that justified His people in the time accepted and God
heard Him in the time accepted and God raised Him saving all
His people. And so, He comes now and as He's
preaching this gospel through His messenger, He blows that
Jubilee trumpet. The Scripture says in that acceptable
year, in that year of Jubilee, there will be a trumpet blow.
And you know it was never done. It never happened. God gave it
in the Old Testament, but they never had a year of Jubilee.
They never observed God's flood. Man never did it, so they never
had a year of Jubilee. But Christ comes. And He did
it. He fulfilled it. Everything that
was written. So, this Gospel is the trumpet. And He blows the trumpet in the
hearts of His people. And when He does, it's the acceptable
year of the Lord. It's the year of Jubilee. It's when all that
we lost in Adam plus more is restored to us in Christ, by
Christ. And so he said this, verse 20,
he closed the book and everybody's eyes was fastened on him. And
look at verse 21, and he said, this day, this scripture is fulfilled
in your ears. He said, I'm the one that I'm
preaching. I'm the one I've been sent to
preach. I'm the one, the only one that can do everything that
I've just preached to you. That's what he's saying. He's
the only one. He's Christ who alone is God's
prophet, priest, and king. As the prophet, He's the one
that makes the word effectual in the heart. As the priest,
He's the message that shows us He's the one that came and made
reconciliation. He's the one that presented the
Lamb and He is the Lamb. He presented His blood in the
holy place and He made atonement, He made propitiation with God.
And now He's entered into that holy place. He's broken the middle
wall of partition and the veil that separated us from God and
He's entered in and we enter in through faith in Him. He's
the high priest. He's the high priest that comes
to you in mercy then and pronounces you clean. Not just for a year,
forever. And He's the King who has all
power in heaven and earth to make certain He can get that
gospel to you and get that message in your heart and make you believe
it. He's the prophet, priest, and King of His people. Remember when... I can show you
that's what He meant. Look at Luke 7. Luke 7 and verse
20. Verse 20, it says here, When
the men were come unto him, they said, John the Baptist has sent
us to thee, saying, Art thou he that should come, or look
we for another? And look at verse 22, Then Jesus
answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what
things you have seen and heard, how that the blind see, the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
to the poor the gospel is preached. That shows you He's the one who
fulfilled everything He just preached to us in Luke 4. And
that's what He told John. So Christ is God the Father's
messenger. He's the messenger of God. He's
God's salvation. He's God's gospel. And Christ
preached the message the Father sent Him to preach. That's what
He preached. In John 14, verse 6, Jesus said,
I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, and no man comes
to the Father but by Me. That was his gospel. That's what
God the Father sent him to preach. He preached in John 6, 28. They
said, ìWhat shall we do that we might work the works of God?î
He said, ìThis is the work of God. This is the message God
sent me to preach. This is the work of God that
you believe on Him whom He hath sent as Christ the Lord.î He
said, ìI am the bread of life. He that comes to Me shall never
hunger, and he that believes on Me shall never thirst. He
said, All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and him
that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down
not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.
And this is the Father's will which is sent Me, that of all
which He has given Me I should lose nothing. but raise it up
again in the last day. See, we know Christ is the true
Christ. We know He is... there's no unrighteousness
in what He taught. Why? Listen carefully now, listen. He only preached Christ and Him
crucified. That's how we know. That's how
we know. So how am I going to know if
the preacher I'm hearing is the preacher that Christ has sent?
He is only going to preach Christ and Him crucified. He is not
going to get off on something else. He is going to preach Christ
and Him crucified. Just as Christ preached the message
of God the Father who sent Him, Christ's preachers preach Christ
and Him crucified, which is the message of Christ who sends them.
Matthew 28.18. Go there with me. Matthew 28.18. This is where Christ sent forth
His preachers and He gave the charge, right here. Matthew 28,
18. Jesus came and spake unto them,
saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go
ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. That's where we get our message
right there. Whatever I've commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always,
even to the end of the world. Amen. Go to Ephesians 4. There it says Christ gives His
preachers, His pastors, His teachers. Look at Ephesians 4 now. Listen
to this. What are we sent to preach? Ephesians
4.13. We're sent till we all come in
the unity of faith, and here's the knowledge we're trying to
preach. The knowledge of the Son of God. See that? The Son of God. Look down at
verse 15. Speaking the truth in love, that
we may grow up into Him in all things which is the head, even
Christ. So you know what Peter did on
the day of Pentecost? He didn't stand up. There you
have needy sinners. A host of needy sinners. A host of sinners that if they
died that day, they would have met God in judgment without Christ
and been cast into hell. And Peter knew the urgency of
preaching to sinners on the mad dash to hell. And he didn't come
there and talk to them about some vain doctrine. He came and
he preached Christ and Him crucified to them. He preached Christ who
accomplished the redemption of His people, who is raised to
the right hand of the Father, and who He said is working this
right now, which you now see and hear. That's what He preached. And Christ blessed it. Christ
pricked some of those in the heart, and they fell down and
said, men and brethren, what shall we do? They received Christ's
messenger when they received Christ. They said to Him, Be
ye baptized because your sins have been remitted, declaring
that it's so, publicly. And they did. They did. And you
know what they did? They continued in the apostles'
doctrine. What they heard that day, they
continued in it, and they didn't turn from it. That's what they
continued in. Christ's preachers went forth,
the Scripture says after that, testifying both to the Jews and
also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ. You can't preach faith towards
the Lord Jesus Christ if you don't preach who He is, what
He did, why He did it, where He is now, what He's doing now,
and what He's going to do. You can't preach and urge men
to turn to Christ if you don't preach Christ. That's why in our letter back
in 2 Corinthians, Paul said this. Go back there with me. Paul said
this, 2 Corinthians 4-5. Look here. 2 Corinthians 4-5, we preach not
ourselves. Remember what Christ said? The
man that preaches himself is seeking his own glory. Paul said
we preach not ourselves. But Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus Christ the Lord. That's
who we preach. Look at 2 Corinthians 5-18. Here's
our message right here. 2 Corinthians 5.18. All things
are of God who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ
and given to us this ministry of reconciliation. So that's
our message, brethren. The ministry of reconciliation.
What is it? Verse 19. To wit, that God was
in Christ. reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing the trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto
us this word of reconciliation." That is our gospel. Just as Christ
preached the message God the Father sent Him, Christ and Him
crucified, Christ's preachers go forth and they preach the
message Christ sent us to preach, Christ and Him crucified. We
preach Christ as our wisdom. He is the one in whom God can
be just and justify His people and that would have never been
come up with in our mind. We wouldn't have had the wisdom
to come up with it. He is our wisdom. He's the wisdom who can
approach God for us. He's the wisdom who can come
and give you wisdom in your heart. We preach Christ as our righteousness,
our only righteousness, the righteousness God's provided, and the righteousness
of God. And that righteousness is what
we've been made in Christ, so that when God imputes His righteousness
to us, it's because that's what Christ has made us. And we preach Christ our sanctification. He is our sanctifier. who was
made one with us, He that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified
are all of one. He made Himself one with us that
He might make us one with Him. We were separated from God. We
were out here in darkness. And that's the opposite of being
sanctified. That's not being separated out
of this world and consecrated unto God. So Christ came to where
we are and He made Himself one with us. not sinful flesh, but
He made Himself one in perfect flesh so that He could go to
the cross and bear our sin in His body and bear justice for
us so that righteousness was settled, so that now then He
can come to us in this gospel and enter into our heart and
give us a new man that's created in holiness. His holiness and
His righteousness so that now He can bring us out of the darkness
into His light. He can separate us out from unbelievers
and bring us into communion and fellowship with Him. And that's
what it is to be made holy. It's to be brought out by Christ
and to be brought into Christ where we'll never be separated
again. And we preach this. We preach Christ our redemption.
He's the one who is the redemption price. He's the one whose blood
is that precious blood that paid the redemption. And He's the
Redeemer and He's the one that redeemed us out. He's redeemed
us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us.
And one day brethren, He's coming again and Romans 8 says He's
going to redeem us out of this world. He's going to take that
which is His purchased possession and take us to glory. This is
what we preach. Beware though, brethren, because
the Scripture says we are not to receive every preacher. Not
every preacher. The way we determine a preacher
is sin of Christ is only if he preaches Christ crucified according
to this Word. That's how we know. Go to 2 John
1. When men take up foolish, foolish
doctrines, strange doctrines, And you know it's strange if
you hear it and you think, I've never heard anybody that I know
preach that. And they take up some strange
doctrine and they just focus all their energy and all their
attention on this doctrine and they try their best to get you
to believe this doctrine. And they act like if you don't
believe this doctrine, you're going to hell. That's Gnosticism. If a man tells you because you
don't believe a certain doctrine, you're going to hell, We're not
saved by our knowledge. We're saved by Christ. We're
pointing you to Christ. It's not what I know that saved
me. It's who I know that saved me. And it's not my knowledge
that saved me. It's Him that saved me. It's
coming and believing on Him and trusting Him. And any man that
tells you that if you don't believe this certain doctrine, you're
going to hell, or believe it as fully as they believe it,
or whatever, that's just plain out Gnosticism. That's putting
confidence in knowledge. And that's not our confidence.
Our confidence is Christ. Now watch this. 2 John, look
at verse 9. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ... What have I preached to you this
morning? What I've been preaching is the doctrine of Christ. If
a man doesn't abide in the doctrine of Christ, he hath not God. You see that? He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. It's not because he abideth in the doctrine in the sense
that he knows so much of the doctrine and all this. What he's
talking about is the man who is a true disciple of Christ
will hear Christ and follow Christ and look to Christ and not look
to anybody else. not depend on anything else or
anyone else for his salvation. In all aspects of it, he'll look
only to Christ. That's what he's talking about.
And the man that doesn't abide in that doctrine returns from
it and starts preaching a necessity, a doctrine that's necessary for
you to believe or you can't be saved. That man is trying to
exalt himself. And God says, look out. Look
out. Watch this. Verse 10. If they
are coming in to you and bring not this doctrine, the doctrine
of Christ, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. You don't receive him into your
house and you don't send him forward on his way preaching
the gospel either. Because he that biddeth him Godspeed
is partaker of his evil deeds. Preachers who count the ministry
of reconciliation a vain thing. You know what they'll do? Eventually
they'll prove it. If they count the ministry of
reconciliation vain, they eventually will prove it by turning to something
else. Oh, they'll say they're doing
this for the glory of God, they're doing this for the fervor of
Christ. Believers know. Believers know. They're not going
to fool believers. Christ said if it was possible they would
deceive the very elect. They won't do it though because
it's not possible. God's going to make sure, the
Spirit of God in you is going to make sure you hear it and
you know that string is out of tune. That's not my Lord talking. A man may claim to be preaching
Christ, but if his objective is to merely support some strange
doctrine to prove his point, rather than giving God all the
glory and salvation, rather than preaching Christ and Him crucified,
that's not of God. It's not of God. Not of God. Just what Brother Art read. This
is what Christ's preacher is sent to preach. Comfort ye, comfort
ye, my people saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
cry unto her, and here's our message, that her warfare is
accomplished. That her iniquity is pardoned. God's not treating you as if
it's pardoned. He's pardoned it, brethren. Preach to her that
she has received the Lord's hand double for all her sins. He restored
you more than what you lost. The voice said, cry. He said,
what shall I cry? What's my doctrine to preach?
Here it is. It's so simple. Here it is. It's
two parts. Number one, all flesh is grass. Preach man down. Preach man down. Preach the sinner down. You can't
preach the sinner down low enough. Preach him down until he's nothing
but a maggot. and include yourself in it. And
here's the second aspect of the doctrine. In Isaiah 49, he said,
Behold your God. Behold your God. He'll lead His
sheep like a shepherd. He'll carry the lambs in His
bosom. Preach Christ and Him crucified. Behold your God. John pointed to Christ and he
said, Behold the Lamb of God. That was his message. That's
His message. That was the very first message
I ever preached. Behold the Lamb of God. Behold
Him in eternity, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the
world. Behold Him in all the Old Testament ceremonies and
titles. Behold Him as He walked this
earth, nailed to a cursed tree, redeeming His people. Behold
Him now ruling and reigning on the cross. That was my point.
I hold the Lamb of God and God help me, God keep me. And if
He don't keep me, I won't do it. But if God keeps me, that's
going to be my message to the last breath I take. If any man teach otherwise, Paul
said, and consent not to wholesome words, the words of the Lord
Jesus, he's proud. He doesn't know anything. He's
going about from envy and strife That's all it is. Perverse disputings
of men of corrupt minds. But look here, 2 Corinthians
6, look what he tells us. And this is the heart of every
one of Christ's true preachers right here. 2 Corinthians 6,
verse 3. Give no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed,
but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God. Whenever
brother Cody Groover died, I was talking to Winna, and she
said, we always pray that above everything else, we pray God
would not allow us to do anything that would reproach, bring reproach
on the Gospel. And she said, by God's grace,
I can say that Cody never did anything to bring reproach on
the Gospel of Christ. Secondly, we know Christ's preacher by
His love for the brethren. Go back now to 2 Corinthians
7 verse 2. The ministers of Christ wrong
no man, they corrupt no man, and they defraud no man. Now
our Lord said clearly, you'll know them by their fruit. Titus
talked about men who in word they claim to preach Christ,
but in deed, in their works, they deny Him. Now brethren,
listen to me carefully. You can know a man's message
by hearing him on the internet. But you can't know this about
him by listening to him on the internet. You can't know the man. And this
is just as important. This is just as important. Well,
how so? Well, if he's fleecing everybody,
don't you think that's important? Well, sure it is. Christ defrauded
no man. He didn't corrupt anybody. And
neither do His ministers. Because they're led of God. His
preachers don't seek to have preeminence. They don't seek
to have vainglory. And they don't seek filthy lucre. They don't seek to fleece the
brethren. Christ won't allow that. Christ came to save. He came to enrich. He didn't
come to fleece and He won't let His preachers do it. 1 Thessalonians 2,3 Paul said,
Our exhortation was not of deceit. What we preach to you wasn't
of deceit. He said, Nor of uncleanness, nor in guile. But as we were
allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak. and not as pleasing men, but
God which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used
we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak, a disguise of covetousness."
God is witness. We never did. He said in 2 Corinthians
12, 14, I seek not yours. I don't seek your silver, your
gold, your apparel. I'm not seeking yours. I seek
you. I seek the salvation of your
souls is what I'm looking for. He said, did I make a gain of
you by any of them who I sent to you? Christ's preacher doesn't leave
one church, go to another church, and then another church, and
then another church, and then another church, and every step
of the way get himself more money and more glory. Christ's preachers
don't do that. God might move him from one church
to another, but He doesn't move him from one to the other, to
the other, to the other. And every single time, just so
happens, he got a raise and his life was better and he got more
glory and applause. Be careful. That's not of God. You can't know that about a man
listening to him on the internet. 3 John 1 verse 9. And I'm telling you this, brethren,
because Christ said if it was possible
they would deceive the very elect. Look at 3 John and look at verse
9. This is the loving apostle. I
wrote unto the church, he said, but diatrophies, who loveth to
have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore,
if I come, I remember his deeds which he doeth, pratting against
us with malicious words, not content therewith, neither doth
he himself receive the brethren. He forbids them that would. He
cast them out of the church. Beloved, follow not that which
is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God,
but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. You see that? God's preachers aren't going
to fleece His people. They just not do it. They love
His people. Christ didn't condemn men, neither
do His ministers. Look at our text. Paul said in
2 Corinthians 7.3, I speak not this to condemn you. I speak
not this to condemn you. You know, if you go through,
go home and read 2 Corinthians. Read 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians
and see how often when Paul would say something that was a sharp
rebuke, he always made certain they understood that he wasn't
trying to shame them, he wasn't trying to condemn them, he wasn't
saying they were lost, he wasn't standing in doubt of them. He
was saying, I love you. I'm trying to teach you something
here. God's preachers. Christ dwelt in Paul. And so
the Spirit of Christ was in Paul, and He didn't condemn men when
He preached. Why? Christ said, God sent not
His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through Him might be saved. God sent Christ to a people He
chose to save them. He didn't send Christ to condemn
them. Why? Because we are already condemned,
brethren. We are already condemned in our father Adam. We are already
fallen and condemned and sinners. We don't need for somebody to
come and condemn us. We need somebody to come and
preach Christ to us by which Christ saves us. That's what
we need. You know, it's a sad thing that...
I fell into this early on in the ministry. You know, you prepare,
you work, you want to labor, and you have sweat on your heart,
and you come to preach the gospel thinking this would be great
for them to hear, and they're not there. And it hurts you really
bad. And then when they do show up,
You find yourself wanting to rebuke them for not being there.
Well, that ain't the time to do that. They're there now. Preach
what you want to preach to them. Preach the gospel to them. Don't
whip them. That's just immaturity. Christ's
preachers aren't trying to condemn His people. I speak not this
to condemn you. Our goal as ministers is not
to try to draw a line in the sand. We're not trying to build
up a wall. Say, unless you're on this side
with me, now you're not saved. We're not doing that, brethren.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4.14, here was his heart, I write not
these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you. I'll tell you what you're not
going to hear God's preacher do. Now, if he's immature, young,
you might hear him do this, or occasionally you might hear him
use the wrong pronoun. But God's preacher, the tenor
of his message is not going to be to stand up and say, shame
on you! No. If there's shame on somebody
for something, you know what he's going to say? Shame on us.
Shame on us. He's going to put himself in
the number with you. He's not going to say, you're a worm,
you're a worm, you're a worm. He's going to say, we're the
worms. You get what I'm saying? He's
not going to exalt Himself over you and preach down to you, condemning
you. He's going to preach and say,
I'm just right there with you. I'm the chief of sinners. I'm
telling you this because I know it's fact. I'm telling you what
we are because I'm there with you. I know what we are. And if He could sit there in
the pew with you and everybody be looked up at Christ, He'd
do that. That's how He preached to you.
But He has to stand and preach and declare the Gospel to you,
but He wants us all to be looking at Christ, not at any one of
us. Certainly not at Himself. Go
to 1 Peter 5. I've got to close this up. 1
Peter 5. Look here. Because this is what we got from
the Lord. This is the Spirit of the Lord.
1 Peter 5 verse 2, Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking
the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly. Not for filthy lucre, not for
your own profit, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords
over God's heritage. But being examples to the flock,
look at verse 5, likewise ye younger, and I'll tell you who
that includes, the younger preachers as well as the younger brethren,
submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another and be clothed with humility. For God resisted the
proud, He gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore
unto the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time.
If I'm not humbled unto God, if I'm proud, you know what I'm
doing? I'm trying to exalt myself in my time. He says humble yourself
unto God's mighty hand that He might exalt you in His due time. Cast all your care on Christ.
But false preachers are arrogant and exalting themselves and rebuking
elders that got so much more experience than they have. But
you know what God's people and preachers do when that happens?
We sit there thinking this is so very sad. These folks are
glorying in their shame. Making fools of themselves. Glorying
in their shame. And yet we know, that's exactly
what I'll do. That's exactly what I will do
if God don't keep me. And you pray. You pray for, Lord,
keep them. Lord, break them. Lord, humble
them. Bring us all down to God's feet
to see Him and don't let any one of us exalt ourselves over
another. Ever, ever, ever. Now look at this last thing in
our text and I'll quit. I love this, verse 3. He said,
Because I've said before that you are in our hearts to die
and live with you. Doesn't that... doesn't that
say you are in our hearts to live and die with you? They said,
you are in our hearts to die and to live with you. God's preacher
and God's people are filled with the love of God so that our desire
is to serve God together in the unity of the Holy Spirit till
we die and then to live together forever. Can you imagine leaving
somebody in your family and just walking away from them? I can more so imagine doing that
to an earthly family member that didn't know God. But I can't
dare imagine doing that to one of my brethren in Christ. Our
desire is to live in unity together all our lives to the day we die
and live forever in eternity together. I want to end by reading
1 Corinthians 13. Go there with me. The Lord said knowledge puffs
up, but charity edifies. You see a man that's lifted up
in pride, he's whipping folks and calling you a fool and shaming
you because you don't believe this obscure doctrine that he
supposedly found now. That's knowledge without love. Knowledge is puffing him up. But look at this. 1 Corinthians
13, verse 4. Charity suffereth long. This
is Christ right here. This is Christ. And because this
is Christ, this is the heart of His child. Charity suffereth
long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity
vaunteth not itself and is not puffed up. does not behave itself
unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks
no evil of brethren, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoices
in the truth, bears all things, believeth all things, hopeth
all things, endureth all things, charity never faileth. Preaching,
that's going to fail. Tongues, they're going to cease.
Knowledge, it's going to vanish away. Verse 9, we know in part,
we prophesy in part. We don't have any business calling
somebody an unbeliever simply because. They believe or don't
believe exactly how we believe particular redemption or unlimited
atonement. And I'm not talking about somebody
that believes we're saved by free will work so that we believe
Christ died for everybody and he's a failure. I'm not talking
about that. I'm talking about somebody that believes the gospel
but they don't, you know, you have a certain thing you believe
and they believe and you don't quite agree together. We know
in part, Brethren, we got no business judging our brethren
and condemning our brethren. Especially using the Gospel to
do it. Using Christ to do that. Look
at this. When that is perfect, this come,
then that which is in part should be done away. When I was a child,
I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child,
but when I became a man, I put away childish things. What is
he talking about? Right now we are all just children.
When Christ comes and we are perfect, that is when we are
going to put away these childish things. Look, for now we see
through a glass darkly, but then, face to face, now I know in part,
but then shall I know even as also I am known. Now abideth
faith, hope, charity. All three. But the greatest,
this is the one that won't ever end, charity. When I see Christ,
I won't need faith. When I'm in glory with Him, I
won't need hope. But I'm going to still love.
I'm going to love Him. I'm going to love my brethren.
You're in our hearts to be in union together to the day we
die and then live forever. That's the heart of God's preacher.
That's the heart of God's preacher. Alright brethren, let's be dismissed. Brother Eric, you come lead us
in closing hymn.