Brethren, let's turn in our Bibles
to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians 4. Let's begin reading. Let's just
look at this one verse here, verse 5. It says, We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. Now, since the verse begins with
the word for, that tells us that this is the answer why the previous statements are true.
This is why some of those previous statements he made are so. He said back in verse 2, By manifestation
of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. Verse 5, For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. Then he said in verse 3, But
if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom
the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your servants, for
Jesus' sake. He said the reason we commend
ourselves by the truth to the conscience of every man is because
we're not preaching ourselves. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord
and ourselves, your servants, for His sake. And if our Gospels
be hid, it's not because we've hidden it, it's not because we're
concealing it or not been above board on everything, for we preach. Christ the Lord. We don't preach
ourselves, we preach Christ, we preach ourselves, your servants
for Jesus' sake. Now, seeing that is the point,
that's the context, the way that we know that a person is God's
preacher and God's people is because we preach not ourselves. but Christ Jesus our Lord and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. It matters what we don't
preach, it matters what we do preach, and it matters how we
conduct ourselves, what we do, what are we. Now, I just want
to look at that verse and we'll just take each section for our
divisions tonight. First of all, we preach not ourselves. We preach not ourselves. Now, there's three things that
that means. First of all, we preach not of
ourselves. Secondly, we preach not about
ourselves. And thirdly, we preach not for
ourselves. We preach not of ourselves. No man can preach Christ in spirit
and in truth of himself. No man can do that of himself.
Now, he can preach the truth of himself. He can preach true
doctrine of himself. But he can't get a message from
Christ to his heart and be the vessel that Christ
uses to deliver that message and through whom Christ delivers
that message into the heart of His people. That's what it is
to preach in spirit and in truth and to hear and worship in spirit
and in truth. It's to not do it of ourselves,
but to do it of Christ. For Him to be the one that's
causing it to be preached and to be heard. in spirit and in
truth. Our message is of God, and it's
from God, and it's made effectual in the hearts of our hearers
by God. That's what he says in the next
two verses. He says, for God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
He's saying that's how we preach. Not of ourselves, it's of God. God shined the light. God gave
the knowledge of His glory in Christ, in the person of Christ.
And look, how then is it going to be made effectual in your
heart? But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. See, it didn't come
to Christ's preacher of himself. And it's not going to come into
the hearts of its hearers of himself. We don't preach ourselves. Christ is the one who preaches
us. And Christ is the one who makes
us hear the preaching. It's of Christ. You think about
this. God's true preacher was predestinated
by God, ordained by God to be his preacher. He told Jeremiah,
before I formed you in the belly, Before your mother found out
she was with child, before I formed you in the belly, I knew you
and I ordained you a prophet, God said. That's true of all
His preachers. Before I formed you, I knew you
and I ordained you a preacher. And then God called His preacher
and called His people, made us His witnesses of Him. And then
God commissioned His preacher, gave him the charge. Then God
gives him the message to preach. And then God entrusts the gospel
to him to preach it. And then God goes with him and
makes it effectual. Everything is of God. It's not
of us. Now, since that's the case, brethren, it's by the power
of God, It's of God that we preach only what Christ would have us
to preach. You and I go forth in the world,
when you bear witness in your workplace, whatever, you're going
to declare what Christ would have you declare. I'm going to
stand here and preach what Christ would have me to preach. And
I can't preach otherwise. I can't preach otherwise. I can't
take the offense out of the gospel. If I pleased men, I wouldn't
be the servant of God. I can't take the offense out
of the Gospel. I can't take away from the Word or add to the Word. I can't compromise it simply
because it's offensive and it may cause divisions. I can't
do that. We have to preach what Christ
gives us to preach. When I was growing up, I remember
hearing some of the members of the will-working churches around
us. I can remember hearing them ask
my grandfather, why do you preach the doctrine of election? It's
offensive to men, they would say. It causes division, they
would say. And it's not necessary that a
man have to know the doctrine of election to be saved. So why
preach it? Well, brethren, if we took that
approach, Who would be dictating what we preach? Men would. Man would. We would be preaching
based on what is not going to be offensive and what is going
to keep peace. And we can't do that. We have
to preach what God gives us to preach. We preach not of ourselves. So we are not permitted to just
preach and try to take it into our hands make it non-offensive. And Christ teaches us this, too.
He teaches us that He will cause division through the gospel.
Now, we're not to try to cause division through it, but He tells
us He will cause division through the gospel. I want you to go
to Matthew 10. I've read this to you quite a
few times recently, but I want to show you something else in
this passage. Matthew 10, verse 34. He says, think not that I am
come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. And get who is saying that. Christ
said, I am not come to send peace on earth, but a sword. For I
am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter
against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and
a man's foes shall be they of his own household. Now watch
this. But now, if we saw that happening,
you and I saw that happening, and me as God's preacher, I decided,
well, I'm going to try to keep the peace, so I'm not going to
preach this doctrine anymore, because this is what's causing
offense. I'm not going to preach it anymore. What would I be doing?
Here's what I'd be doing. He that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross
and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth
his life shall lose it. That's what I'd be doing. I'd
be finding my life and losing it. But he that loseth his life
for my sake shall find it. Now listen to this. He that receiveth
you receiveth me. And he that receiveth me, receiveth
him that sent me. Now I want you to hear this.
This is true of his preacher, this is true of every member
of his church, because we are all witnesses of Christ. He that
receiveth you, receiveth me, Christ said. Now listen to this.
Watch this, verse 41. He that receiveth a prophet,
that is a preacher of Christ, a preacher of the gospel, He
that receives a preacher of the gospel in the name of a prophet,
that is, because he is a preacher of my gospel, Christ is saying. He that receives a preacher because
he is a preacher of my gospel shall receive a prophet's reward. He will be taught the gospel
in spirit and in truth, Christ is saying. You receive my preacher
because he is my preacher, And you'll be taught the gospel and
truth. That'll be the reward. Now that doesn't just apply to
the preacher though. Watch this. And he that receives a righteous
man in the name of a righteous man, he that receives one of
my believing people that I've made righteous, because he's
one of my believing people that I've made righteous, he that
receives him, receives the word he's bearing witness of, he shall
receive a righteous man's reward. He'll be taught the righteousness
of God. You'll be taught the truth of
God. The man that receives you in your witness of Christ, you
being the righteous ones that Christ has made righteous, that
man will receive the reward given to him by Christ through one
of his righteous witnesses. And look at this. And whosoever
shall give to drink one of these little ones a cup of cold water
only in the name of a disciple, only because he is my disciple,
bearing witness of me, Christ said, verily I say unto you,
that means this is of utmost importance, he shall in no wise
lose his reward. That's what Christ's people do.
They receive his witnesses, they receive his preachers because
they are Christ's witnesses and Christ's preachers. Preaching
the truth of Christ. And we receive a reward from
that. We receive the truth, we receive the gospel. And Christ
says, we care for one another, we provide for one another, we
take care of one another, a cup of cold water for one another,
and He says, and they will no wise lose My reward. But, that's
an answer to those ones who He said, but now if you love father
and mother more than Me, so you don't receive My prophet, and
you don't receive My righteous man, and you don't receive My
disciple, you are not worthy of Me. and
you will lose your life. Do you see that? Do you see the
opposite there? There are two contrasts there.
So Christ said that. But now listen, I want you to
go to Matthew 13 too. I want to show you this as well.
But let me make this statement. The Spirit of God tells us that
there will be, Christ said there, there are going to be divisions
because of my gospel. Because my people are not going
to preach themselves, they are going to preach my Word. But
he also told us it's needful that heresies come about and
divisions come about. Listen, for there must be also
heresies among you that they which are proved may be made
manifest among you. It's needful, he said. Now watch
this. And he said here the persecution
that we're going to bear, his preachers are going to bear,
his people are going to bear because we don't preach ourselves, we
preach Christ. But He said, that persecution,
that division that's going to come, though it's needful, though
it's going to manifest who are His and who's not His. He said,
it's going to make some be offended and depart who wants to profess
Christ. Look, Matthew 13, 20. He that
receiveth the seed in the stony places, the same as he that heareth
the word, and anon with joy receiveth it, yet he hath not root in himself
or of himself. See, a man can't make himself
believe of himself any more than we can preach or bear witness
of Christ of ourselves. Now, he can do it in the flesh
for a little while, like a preacher can preach in the flesh for a
little while. But, he says, but when tribulation or persecution
arises because of the Word, because this Word is going to cause division,
he says by and by he is offended. You see, God's true people and
people, we're not divided. We receive God's preaching. We
receive God's witnesses. Because we hear God Christ speaking
the Word into our hearts through it. And that's the reward. We have the truth given to us. We're not divided. We may not
agree on doctrine that's not essential.
But God's people are not divided. They're just not. But what this
division does help us to see is see those who are truly preaching
Christ's Word and standing for Christ and not compromising and
not taking their fence out of the cross. It helps us to judge
who are really His preachers and His people. And it helps
us to discern those who just want to cause division and just
want to use the Word of God deceitfully. and who are compromising it and
preaching a false gospel and enjoying hearing a false gospel.
You see, we're given discernment through this Word to understand
when this Word causes that kind of division, we have discernment
to understand it. You see, so it's needful that
we stand with Christ and preach of Christ, not of ourselves.
And this is what his preachers would do. We don't preach of
ourselves. We preach and believe the gospel
according to the Lord. And we don't listen. So we're
not letting people that are offended, or people that want to persecute,
or people that want to divide, we're not letting those people
interfere with what we preach at all. Christ's preacher is
not because he's preaching of Christ. And Christ's people are
not because they believe and bear witness of Christ, not of
themselves. This is what God said to His
preacher and His people. Listen to this. I encourage you
to go read Jeremiah 23 on what he talks about, about the false
prophets and true prophets. Listen to this one verse here.
He says, The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream.
That's the false prophet. And he that hath my word, let
him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat,
saith the Lord? In other words, I don't care
what other men are saying. I don't care what they say. I
don't care what they... And I'm not going to not preach what
Christ has given me to preach just because it's offensive to
some. And that's being faithful to God rather than men. And then
the next thing this word means, we preach not ourselves, it means
we don't preach about ourselves. You know, when sinners are so
worried about offending sinners, and so they dumb down the message,
you know, that's what most religions are doing. Let's just preach
what we think is just the necessity concerning Christ and nothing
else, because anything else would get offensive. They dumb it down to just what
we think might be necessary. And then if they do that, then
they refuse to preach the Scriptures in truth, And they take their
fence out of the cross. You know what they are left to
preach? About themselves. They are left to preach about
sinners. What you ought to be doing and what you ought not
to be doing. And they can't preach the truth
about themselves because then they have to say you are just
a guilty, condemned sinner in Adam who has got to be saved
by Christ alone. You can't say that. You just
preach themselves. But God's preacher, Christ's
preachers don't preach about ourselves. Only thing we say
about ourselves is, we fell in Adam. We became unrighteous and
guilty by Adam's disobedience. We became sinful in our nature,
in our heart, by being born of the first birth. And so it's
absolutely necessary. that our triune God do all the
saving in Christ Jesus. When we preach about ourselves,
that's what we're preaching. We cannot make ourselves righteous
and make ourselves holy. We can't redeem ourselves. We
can't do anything that would please God. We don't even have
wisdom to do anything. Christ has to do it all. That's what we preach about ourselves.
And also, when he says we preach not ourselves, it means we preach
not for ourselves. We're not preaching for personal
gain. That's not it. We're not trying
to build a big, impressive church and get a lot of impressive works
so people will really think we're something. and we can get a lot
of money in the pot and all that stuff. And I'm not preaching
for my personal gain. That's called in Scripture filthy
lucre. This is what God's preacher does.
He feeds the flock of God which is among you. He takes the oversight
thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre,
but of a ready mind. That's what Christ makes His
preachers do. So, we preach not ourselves. That means we preach
not of ourselves, we preach of God, of His power, of His giving,
what He gives. And we preach not about ourselves,
except to shut us all up as guilty and in need of Christ. And we
preach not for ourselves, for personal profit. We preach not
ourselves. What do we preach then? Secondly,
that we preach Christ Jesus the Lord. We preach Christ Jesus
the Lord. That doesn't mean we preach Christ
Jesus the Lord plus something else. That means we preach Christ
Jesus the Lord. Why do we do that? Go to Colossians
1. We preach Christ because we want
what pleases God. What pleases God, pleases us.
By God's grace, what pleases God, pleases us. We want what
pleases God. Well, what pleases God? Colossians
1, in verse 18, it says, Christ is the head of the body, the
church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all He might have the preeminence. that in all He might
have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. Look at chapter 2 verse 9. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are all fullness in Him. That's what that word complete
means. So Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and those
that He saves have all fullness in Christ. You're complete in
Him. And so all fullness of God and all fullness of His people
is in Christ. And that's what pleases God.
And that's why we preach Christ. Because all fullness is in Him.
Remember when He spoke from heaven? And this is what God the Father
said when He spoke from heaven. He said, this is my beloved son. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. I am well satisfied. My justice is satisfied. My law
is honored. My glory is declared and all
my people are fully provided for. In him I am well pleased. And what was the next word? Hear
ye Him. Hear Him. Hear Him. We preach Christ because Christ
is the Gospel. That's why we preach Him. We
preach Christ because Christ is the Word. He is the Gospel. He is salvation. Go to... Let me see if I have time. Yeah,
go to John chapter 1. And then I want you to go to
1 John chapter 1. Look here at John chapter 1. John 1 verse 1, In the beginning
was the Word. Capital W, Word. In the beginning
was the Word. And the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him.
Without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shined
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Look down
at verse 14. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. That
Word is Christ. Now go to 1 John chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1. Listen to this. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the Word of
life. For the life was manifested and
we've seen and we bear witness. And we show unto you that eternal
life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That's
what we're preaching, he said. Look, that which we've seen and
heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship
with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son Jesus Christ. He's saying we preach Christ
Jesus because Christ is the Word of life. He is salvation. That's why we preach Him. You
know, we preach Christ because people need righteousness. We're
guilty. We need righteousness. And Christ
is the righteousness of God. Kristen, imagine somebody coming
into the emergency room and they're fixing to die. And the physician
is there. You've got the physician that
can cure them. He's got the medicine that can cure them. You've got
all the equipment you need. Everything is right there ready
to be used. And instead of leaving them in
there to where that doctor is, You take them and wheel them
off down to the cafeteria and say, I'm going to give you some
peas and cornbread. That's what you need. You see, if Christ is the Word
and He's the Gospel, He's the Life, He's the Righteousness
we need, why on earth would men preach anything else to perishing
sinners? Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. So why would I
go and start preaching the law and telling sinners to go to
the law when Christ is the end of the law for righteousness? That's what we need. That's what
we need. We preach Him because we're not
ashamed of this Gospel. We're not ashamed of Christ.
And we know sinners are perishing, and sinners need to hear the
truth, and they need to hear about this righteousness. And
the only way they're going to hear this righteousness is through
the Gospel of Christ, because that's the only place God's going
to reveal Him. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of
Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth. It doesn't matter who he is,
Jew, Gentile. Because therein, in this gospel
of Christ, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, which makes the just live by faith. You see, if I preach about the history
of the Reformation, God didn't say He was going to reveal anything
about righteousness through that message. If I preach how it's
good for a sinner to to do this work or that work, but I don't
preach Christ? I don't shut him up to Christ?
I don't show him he's guilty and he's Christ? God didn't say
He's going to reveal the righteousness of God through preaching what
a believer ought to do and not ought to do. He's going to reveal
Him through preaching Christ. It's okay to preach what a believer
ought to do and not to do, but I've got to preach Christ every
single time. What if the person sitting in
that pulpit has never heard of Christ? And all I preach is what
a believer ought to do or not to do. He'll walk out of here
thinking, well, if I do that and don't do that, I'll be saved.
I need to preach to him what Christ declared or what God declared. His Son and the glory of His
Son. We preach Him because we're His
ambassadors speaking Christ's words. Paul said, we're ambassadors
for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. Well, what
did Christ preach? What did God preach when He walked
this earth? What was His message when He walked this earth? If
I'm His ambassador preaching His words, I ought to preach
the same message He preached when He walked this earth. What
did He preach? When He was with those two fellows
on the road to Emmaus, it says, Beginning at Moses and all the
prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things
concerning Himself. That's what He preached. So if
I'm His ambassador, I better preach Him. That's what He preached. Here's Christ's charge to me.
He said, you go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature. And he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be
damned. That part's not up to me. That part's not up to me. My charge is you go into the
world and preach the gospel. That's our charge. Go into the
world, preach the gospel to every creature, to everybody. No matter
who they are, preach the truth. The reason Paul was determined
to preach Christ and Him crucified only, and the reason that I am,
is because Christ is all the guilty sinner needs. That's all. That's all. Christ is all we
need. And it's not just all we need
until we, quote, unquote, as religion says, get saved. We're
not saved yet, brethren. We're saved and are being saved
and shall be saved. But it please God through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And that's
why Paul said, I'm determined to know nothing among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The message that turned you from
you to Him in the first hour, the message that made you repent
from your sins and from your self-righteousness and cast all
your care on Christ the first hour, the message that troubled,
that said be still to the waves and made the waves calm and made
your heart calm and made you cast all your care on Christ
in the first hour was the preaching of Christ and Him crucified.
And that's the same gospel that's going to do it every other time
you hear the gospel preached. Same message. Same message. This is the record. Now listen
to this. I pray God, whoever is sitting
here and has never believed on Christ, never confessed Christ,
listen to me. It's not going to be my words
that's going to make you hear. It's not going to be how simply
I can put it. or what good illustrations I
can give. It's going to be God making you hear it. It's the
only way you're going to hear it and believe. But listen to
this. This is the record. This is the gospel right here.
That God hath given, freely given, by His grace, having mercy on
whom He'll have mercy, God hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. Now listen, He that hath the
Son hath life. Do you have the Son? That's all
that matters. When you stand before God in
the Day of Judgment, it's not going to be a whole list of questions
that are going to be asked of you. One thing is going to be
asked. Do you have the Son? That's all that's going to matter.
Do you have the Son? If you have the Son, you have eternal life.
But he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. You see, when I'm talking about
sinners, I'm talking about perishing sinners. Condemned sinners. Sinners
condemned already. He that believeth not is condemned
already. I'm talking about those already who are condemned. Those
already who are fallen. Those who are already in need
of Christ. Perishing sinners. That's all I have set before
me right now. That's all you see standing before
you. I need to declare to you Christ. I need to hear Christ
declared. Because He is the salvation of
perishing sinners. Paul said, though I preach the
gospel, I have nothing to glory of for necessity is laid upon
me. Yea, woe is me unto me if I preach
not the gospel. Why? Because of all these reasons
I just laid out to you. This is what God is pleased with.
His Son being honored. His Son being glorified. Hear
ye Him. This is what guilty, perishing
sinners need. Necessity is laid upon me to
preach one message. Christ is crucified and woe unto
me if I don't. And notice it says there, we
preach Christ Jesus the Lord. Christ Jesus is Lord. We don't
make Him Lord. Men tried to take Him and make
Him Lord one time. You know what He did? He left
Him. He left Him. Men aren't going to make Him
Lord. He is Lord. He came into this world, King. That's who
He is. And notice, He is the Lord. There's only one. There are not
multiple gods in this world and multiple deities. There is one
God, Christ Jesus, the Lord. He is the one. And the reason
I am preaching Christ and determined to preach nothing but Christ
is He is my Lord. Is He your Lord? I tell you if
He is your Lord, I tell you what you will do. You will obey Him. And you know what He says to
do? Believe on Me. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's His command. Believe on Him and thou shalt
be saved. And if He's your Lord, that's
what you'll do. You'll believe on Him. Can't do otherwise. Can't
do otherwise. Now let me go to this last thing. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord, and here's the last thing, and ourselves,
your servants, for Jesus' sake. You know, since the first day
that I moved here, well, before the first day I
moved here, because moving here was just as much a part of serving
you as when I got here. You don't, you know, pick up
your family and move 24 hours from where you grew up and 14,
15 hours from where you were living unless you have a heart
to serve those you are moving there for. You know, people who... This is in the early go, we had
a lot of folks who the Lord was separating things out, you know,
through the gospel. And so you had people that were
saying, well, He don't serve. He ought to serve us. He is not
serving. And that is so painful. That is so hurtful. Those people
saying that sometimes won't drive 30 minutes to come here to the
gospel priest. I moved 24 hours. I moved 16 hours from where I
was living to come here. Well, I'm not serving you. And since I've been here, all
I've wanted to do was serve you. That's it. I didn't want to put
a burden on you. You all have always been good to me. You were...
One time... And I'm saying this because Paul
said these things. But there was a time when y'all
had taken care of me really well. But I knew we wasn't going to
ever get out of that firehouse if we stayed that way. And I
asked you, I said, cut that in over half for me. Because that's
the only way we're going to have the money to get a down payment
on a building. So I've tried not to put a burden
on you. I want to serve you. That's nothing. That's nothing at all. Think of what Christ did to serve
us. Think of what Christ has done, came down from glory to
this cesspool to walk among us and then go to the cross, be
rejected, despised, a man of sorrows, constantly, every day,
every hour, rejected and despised of men. There He is bearing our
sorrows, bearing our griefs, and we're calling Him smitten
and afflicted of God, getting what He deserved. So, when one
of God's preachers feels like, you know, he's trying to serve
and people don't take it like that, it ought not to offend
him because that's what they did to Christ the whole time
He walked this earth. But God's preachers are not trying,
they're not being served, They're serving. That's what they want
to do, is serve. They want what's good for Christ's
church. And that comes first even before
my own house. Because I know this is the number
one way God's going to provide for that woman right there and
my children. It's through the preaching of the Word. So that's what Christ's preacher
does. And He serves the Lord's people
not by running from house to house and helping them in temporal
things. That's what most men mean when
they say God's preacher is not serving. They mean He's not making
house calls. But you know what? If we took
the Word of God and didn't get our practice from vain traditions
of vain churches, we'd never find that in the Word of God. That's not how you serve the
Lord's people. Christ's preacher serves His
church by giving Himself to the Word and to prayer. He serves
the Lord's people by endeavoring, searching, laboring to get a
word from the Lord Jesus Christ and then delivers that word to
the Lord's people. That's how you serve. You minister
the ordinances, the Lord's table and the baptism. In other words, you serve in
spiritual things. That's the kind of servant Christ
makes His preachers, serve in spiritual things, not temporal
things, spiritual things. There may be some times when
you can help in temporal ways, but that's not your charge. That's
not your vocation. Your vocation is to be a servant
in spiritual things. Paul gave himself to serve the
church at Corinth. Now listen to this, how his heart
was pained when he saw some doubting him. Listen to this, 2 Corinthians
12, look there with me. 2 Corinthians 12, 13. I just
have a few more minutes here. 2 Corinthians 12, 13. Look at
this. He said, For what is it wherein
you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not
burdensome to you? That means he took no money from
them. And he says, Forgive me this
wrong. And he's being sarcastic. Because they were accusing him
of all kinds of wrong. And he said, I guess I was wrong
not to burden you. And He says, But behold, the
third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be burdensome
to you. Why? For I seek not yours. I am not
seeking yours, but you. That is the reason. For the children
ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
He gives the illustration we can all understand. You know,
what kind of parents would we be if we wanted our children
to be out working and saving money so we could just sit back
and do nothing. No, we work and save up and provide
for them. And he said that's what a preacher
is supposed to be doing. He's not supposed to be depending
on the people to provide for him. He's supposed to be providing
for the people, serving the people. That's what he said. And I'll
very gladly spend and be spent for you, even though In the face of this,
while this was going on, Paul said, though the more abundantly
I love you, the less I'll be loved. There were folks doubting him.
After everything he had done, there were folks turning their
back and receiving those vain preachers and casting doubt on
Paul after all that. How do you endure that kind of
pain? How do you endure that not fainting? He told Timothy,
remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised
from the dead according to my gospel. Christ is alive. He said, wherein I suffer trouble
as an evildoer, even under bonds, because I preached this, but
the word of God is not bound. I endure all things for the elect's
sake that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ
Jesus with eternal glory. Isn't that something? The word
we preach causes you to be persecuted. But the word we're preaching
is about Christ the Word who's risen and reigning and it's by
Him that we cannot faint and keep preaching that word. And be sure to catch the reason
why now. He said in verse 5, for Jesus' sake. It's why we
do it. He said there we do it for the
elect's sake, but here's the preeminent reason, for Christ's
sake. We're doing this for Christ's sake. I want you to go back to
2 Corinthians 1. I'll show you this. 2 Corinthians
1.24. Look at this. Not for that we have dominion
over your faith, but are helpers of your joy. I'll tell you what
that can also mean. That could be a capital J right
there. Not only are we helpers of your
personal joy, but we're helpers of Christ your joy. Helpers for
Christ's sake who Himself is your joy. You get that? We're doing this. We don't have
dominion over your faith. We're just helpers of Christ
for Christ's sake. Who is your joy? We are helpers
of your joy, Christ. Helpers of Christ. What makes
Christ's preachers and people live like this? Why do we live
like this? Why do we want to serve one another?
Why do we want to see Christ honored and glorified and do
this for Christ's sake? Look at 2 Corinthians 5 verse
14. Here is why. For the love of
Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died
for all, then we are all dead. And that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them and rose again. If I get mad and I leave
and I run down Christ's preachers and Christ's people or whatever,
I am living to myself. That is what I am doing. But the love of Christ constrains
His people to make us deny ourselves. If I believe God is sovereign,
you know what I can do? I can wait on God. I can trust God
if I think something is wrong or somebody is wrong or anything.
You know what I can do? I can trust God. Everything Paul
has been saying right here, that is what he has been saying. I
just trust God. I'm doing this, I'm preaching
His Word, because I get it from Him. I'm serving His people because
they're His people. I'm doing it for His sake. And
I'm trusting Him to do everything. So I can just wait. And that's
the reason we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and
our servants for Jesus' sake. It's for Jesus' sake. For Christ's
glory. That's why. Amen.