Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to 2 Corinthians. Now the Apostle Paul was setting
the record straight as to why he did not come to Corinth And
he wrote this in verse 23. He said, Moreover, I call God
for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet
unto Corinth. The reason he didn't come was
to spare them the rod, to spare them rebuke and chastening. rebuked them pretty heavily in
that first letter. And so He's given them time now
to correct those things that He spoke about so that He could
come to them in peace and joy and meekness rather than with
a rod. And He says in verse 24, not
for that we have dominion over your faith. but are helpers of
your joy, for by faith ye stand." Now Christ's true preachers,
those that He sends, are given by Christ to be a help to His
people, to help us in the joy of believing on Christ. And the
reason it is, is because you stand by faith. You notice in
verse 24 the word for, it means because. And so he is saying
here, we are helpers of your joy, the joy of believing because
by faith you stand. Faith is very important. So he
said, we are helpers of your joy because by faith you stand. We will just take those three
divisions in verse 24 and that will be our divisions for our
message. First of all, Christ's true preachers
do not have lordship over the believer's faith. His true preachers
do not have lordship over the believer's faith. He said there
in verse 24, not for that we have dominion. The word is lordship. Not that we have dominion over
your faith. Now, wherever you find preachers
not preaching Christ, it is because they don't believe Christ. Now
that's just fact. And where they don't preach Christ,
you'll also find that they're going to be lording over the
people. They always go together. Where
they don't preach Christ, they lord over the people. They don't submit to Christ's
dominion themselves. Because Christ hasn't taken dominion
in their heart. And so what they do is they try
to exercise a dominion over the people to produce a form of obedience,
a form of obedience that's outward. And Christ said when that happens,
He said they've created an outward form. And it appears to be obedience
outwardly. But inwardly, it's just a dead
rebel against God. Now that's what we saw in the
Pharisees. And the Pharisees are a picture
of what goes on in our day. Most aren't preaching Christ. And they preach do's and don'ts. They preach touch not and taste
not. And they are constantly disciplining
people into obedience. And sadly, most people in so-called
Christianity thinks that is what Christianity is. But here is
the truth of the matter. There is only one that has dominion
in the heart of a believer, a true believer, and that is our Lord
Jesus Christ. He does have Lordship over His
people. Turn with me to Revelation chapter
1. Revelation chapter 1. In verse 5, we read, Jesus Christ is the
faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the
prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him, that loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests
unto God and His Father. Unto Him be glory and dominion
for ever and ever. Amen. He has the dominion. He does have the lordship over
the faith of His people. Jesus Christ is God's faithful
witness. On the cross, the Lord Jesus
Christ bore witness of God's holiness. On the cross, He bore
witness that when He took the sin of His people and bore the
fierce fury of God's wrath, He declared God just. He showed
that God will not clear the guilty. He will not save His people at
the expense of His justice. And at the same time, He bore
witness to God's mercy. He showed that it's God who justifies
His people. He's the justifier, justifying
His people there in Christ on the cross. And because He did
that, He satisfied God. Christ satisfied God by His obedience. We could never do that by our
obedience. We were disobedient in Adam. But by His obedience,
He satisfied God. And for that reason, God the
Father exalted the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the first begotten
of the dead. We're talking about the God-man.
The first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of
the earth. That means God exalted Him. God gave Him a place of preeminence. We read about it in Ephesians
1.21. Let's go there and read this
again. Ephesians 2.21. I'm sorry, Ephesians
1.21. God raised Him from the dead
and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places. Verse
21 says, far above all principality and power and might and dominion
and every name that's named, not only in this world but also
in that which is to come. That's dominion, brethren. He
has power and dominion over all power and dominion. And look
at verse 22, ìAnd hath put all things under his feet, and gave
him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body,
the fullness of him that filleth all in all.î That means he does
have the dominion over his church, his people. So in time, He sends
the Holy Spirit to us, the Gospel to us, and the Holy Spirit gives
us life, and Christ takes dominion in the heart. He takes dominion
in the heart. But what He did on the cross,
it says in Romans 6, sin shall not have the dominion over you,
because you are under grace, not under law. And by what Christ
has done in the heart, the sin of our flesh won't have dominion
over you because Christ has the Lordship over His people. Now
that's scriptural. That's true. He's the Lord. Unto
Him be glory. and dominion forever and ever.
And when He takes the dominion in the heart of His child, that's
who we glory in. We say unto Him, be glory and
dominion. And we don't just say it, we
bow to Him. We bow to Him. Because that's
what His dominion makes us willing to do, is to bow to Him. And
so having redeemed His people from the bondage of the law,
and having come to us and taken taking dominion in the heart
of His child, our Lord Jesus Christ is not going to allow
anybody that He redeemed to be brought back into bondage ever
again. He's not going to allow anybody for whom He died to be
brought back under bondage to anyone. That's not going to happen. And it's going to be because
He will see to it that it will not happen. And so He teaches
you and I who believe sweetly effectually in our hearts. And He says, Be not ye called,
Rabbi, for one is your Master, even Christ. We have one Lord,
one Master, and that's Christ. And call no man your Father upon
earth, for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be
ye called masters, for one is your Master, even Christ. But
He that will be great among you, greatest among you, shall be
your servant. That's greatness in God's Kingdom.
Now what He said there, when He said that, means much more
than that He just will not allow us to take to ourselves ecclesiastical
titles. It means a lot more than that.
It means Christ will not allow anyone to bring His child under
bondage anymore. His children will never be brought
calling anybody on this earth Rabbi or Father because Christ
is our Lord and He won't allow it. He's not going to let His
child come back into bondage again. Christ has the dominion
in our hearts. So, rather than sending a preacher
to have dominion over our faith, Christ sends His preacher to
be a helper of our joy, to help our faith. He said there in verse
24, But we are helpers of your joy. We're helpers of your joy. It's God who gives joy. He gives
joy in the heart of His child. And He does it by giving us the
gift of faith in Christ the Lord. Listen to Romans 15, 13. It says,
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. He fills you with all joy and
peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power
of the Holy Ghost. He fills us with hope, He fills
us with joy, He fills us with peace, and it's by the gift of
faith. And all of this is given to us
through the power of the Holy Ghost. God is the giver of it. Now turn to Isaiah 61. Isaiah
61. You remember this? This is why
Christ came. This is what? This is the reason
He said He came. He said in verse 1, The Spirit
of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek. This is Christ speaking. Now, He preached good tidings
unto the meek when He walked this earth, but He didn't stop
preaching good tidings, glad tidings to the meek then. He's
still doing it from Heaven's glory. He's doing it through
those He sends to be helpers of His joy. But watch what He
does through this. He says, He has sent Me to bind
up the brokenhearted. to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of Jubilee, and the
day of vengeance of our God. Both of those happened on the
cross. That was the day of vengeance, when He took vengeance in strict
fury and justice upon Christ in place of His people. And that
was the day of Jubilee. That's when the redemption was
accomplished and we were set free by Christ's doing. Now watch this. He says, to comfort
all that mourn in Zion. That's all God's elect for whom
Christ died, who He redeemed. And He said, I've been sent to
appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty
for ashes, and the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of
praise for the spirit of heaviness." We're going to see Paul talk
about heaviness in a minute. He's going to give the garment
of praise for the spirit of sorrow. That's what it means. that they
may be called the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that
He might be glorified. And so when the Gospel came forth
and He sent that Helper of our joy to preach the Word, Christ
preached those glad tidings into our hearts effectually, just
like He told His disciples. He told His disciples, these
things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you
and that your joy might be full. When He starts speaking into
your heart through the gospel and you hear that redemption
has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ for you, so
that you are no more under the curse of the law. Christ has
redeemed you from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
you. When He makes you to know that in your heart, He gives
you the oil of joy in the place of mourning. When you hear that
He has worked a righteousness for you by His obedience and
given it freely to you, because you could not work a righteousness,
He replaces that mourning with that great joy that you have
in Christ. He makes us to see that everything
we could not do, everything that was required by us to be holy
and righteous as God is holy and righteous, everything necessary,
He has done it and He is it. So that He gives it to you freely.
And when He does, then He gives you this joy. He speaks these
words and He gives you great joy. And He brings you out from
where you were. You know, we were in this thing
with these folks lording over us and preaching, do this and
don't do that, and touch this and don't touch that, and this,
that and the other. And He comes and makes you see,
I've taken every one of God's ordinances out of the way and
nailed them to the cross. I have fulfilled the law so fully
that you are complete in Me. And when He makes you see that,
that's when, for the very first time, the Kingdom of God ceases
to be meat and drink. It ceases to be do and don't,
and oh, am I keeping up appearances, and I don't want to let the preacher
catch me, and I don't want to let my brethren see me. I better
act this way or that way because I don't want to let down my appearance. He lets you know the Kingdom
of God is not meat and drink. The Kingdom of God is righteousness,
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. And for the first time,
you have joy. That's how His people are helpers,
His preachers are helpers of His joy. Because the preacher
He sends to preach, this is going to be the case every time God
sends a gospel preacher. The preacher He sends will have
already experienced this same joy and it will have been given
to him the same way. That is, through this message.
these glad tidings of Christ's victorious redemption accomplished. And so you know how the joy came. The Apostle Paul knew how this
joy came because Christ had arrested him on the road to Damascus and
preached these glad tidings to him personally. And so he knew. Christ had sent him to Corinth
and he said, when I came to Corinth, He said, I came there and I was
determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. I came there determined to do
nothing but preach Christ and Him crucified to you. That's
all. Because Christ's preacher knows
it by experience. He knows by experience this.
Now tell me this. The first hour that God gave
you faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was the message
you were hearing? Was it not the message of the
faithful work accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself?
That's what Paul called the hearing of faith. He said, how was the Spirit of
God given to you? How were you given faith? Was
it by the hearing of faith or by the works of the law? It wasn't
by the works of the law. It was by hearing of Christ's
faith and fidelity to God. That's how He gave it. Well,
if that was how He gave us faith in the first hour, that's how
He's going to continue to increase your joy and grow you in grace
and knowledge of Christ and bring you to obey and follow the Lord
Jesus Christ for the rest of your hours. That's how He does
it. The same way, with the same exact
message. And Christ helpers know this.
Christ helpers know that's the case. And so, We don't come trying
to have dominion over your faith, but to be helpers of your joy. First and foremost, Paul was
a helper of joy by preaching Christ and Him crucified. But
another way he was a helper of their joy was he made certain,
and this is what a faithful helper will do, he'll make certain that
God's people know that it's not by the dominion of men usurping
authority over them by which they have true faith, but it's
by the power of God. He said, My speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. I wasn't trying
to coerce you in some way into believing and at the same time
not preaching the gospel to you. He said, I preach the gospel
to you in demonstration of spirit and of power. And I did it that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the
power of God. in the power of God. See, this
thing about faith. You stand by faith. There's two
ways to look at that. There's the grace of faith. The
grace of faith. In other words, none of Christ's
ministers can give any sinner the gift of faith. That's a grace
of God given to you by God. It's a gift of God. And no preacher
can give that. And God's preachers know they
can't do that. So what do they do? They preach the gospel in
clarity and sincerity according to the Scriptures and wait on
God to give His people faith by His power. Well, another thing
about this grace of faith is no man can grow another believer
in faith. I can't grow any believer in
faith in Christ. I can't cause you to grow in
grace and knowledge of Christ. So what do you do? You preach
Christ who is the head from whom all the body by joints and bands
have nourishment ministered and knit together and increase with
the increase of God. That's what Christ does. As the
Gospel is being preached to those that already know it, why would
you come? Once you already have faith and
you're already resting in Christ, why come and hear of Him again?
Because He's continuing to minister nourishment to you and increase
you in faith in Him. And with faith, with the increase
of faith comes an increase of joy in Him. knowing that no preacher
can affectually rule in the heart of God's child. We can't give
you that. We can't work that dominion over
your faith in the heart. And so what does God's helper
do? What does Christ's helper do? He preaches that God the
Holy Spirit has dominion in the heart of those in whom He dwells
and over that old sinful flesh so that that old sinful flesh
cannot do what you would do. That's what Paul said. Walk in
the Spirit and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. Well,
how come? Because as the flesh lusts against
the Spirit, the Spirit will have dominion over the flesh and will
not allow you to do the things that you would do. It won't allow
you to do what you would do if He left you to yourself. And
sometimes He withdraws enough to let us see what we would do
if He left us to ourselves. To teach us, we need His Spirit.
And so God's preacher declares this. He declares this in truth.
Well, then there's another way to look at this thing of faith,
and that's the object of faith. In other words, the word and
doctrine of Christ which we preach. No preacher that Christ sends
has any, no preacher does for that matter, but Christ's preacher
knows it. He has no authority to preach
any new article of faith or any new word other than what is right
here recorded in this book. And so he does what the Apostle
Peter said. The Apostle Peter said And 1
Peter 4.11, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles
of God. Speak what God spoke. Speak what
God's Word says. And that's what he does. Now
there is another way Christ's pastor is a helper. And it's
not nearly as pleasant to the pastor. Not nearly as pleasant
to the pastor. Paul also helped them by rebuking
them. And correcting them. We saw it
all in that first letter. And he dealt with some pretty
serious things in that first letter and he dealt very bluntly
and boldly in it, in that letter. But turn over to Hebrews 13.
I want to show you something. Now, if a person doesn't have discernment,
they don't have spiritual discernment, they are not taught in the heart
by Christ having dominion. Then when they hear the words
that his faithful pastor has the authority to rebuke and to
correct, they're going to say, well, that sounds a lot like
lording over God's people. That sounds like lording over
God's people to me. Well, there's a difference between
lording over God's people and having the rule over you. To have the rule over over Christ's
sheep means that Christ has given authority to lead His people
to Christ. That's what it means. He hasn't
given authority to lord over and try to affect some kind of
obedience in them. He's given authority to lead
them to Christ. Now let me show you here, we
see the difference right here in Hebrews 13, 7. He says, remember them which
have the rule over you. See there? Remember them that
have the rule over you. Not dominion over your faith. Remember them that have the authority
given by Christ to lead you. Watch this. Who have spoken unto
you the Word of God. There's the difference. There's
the difference. Those that Christ gives, His
true preachers, they are going to preach the Word of God to
you. Not their own word, not their own commandments, not a
church creed and half a dozen things that a church body believes
you ought to obey. They are going to preach God's
Word to you. And then it says this, whose faith follow. There is a difference. There
is a difference. They set an example in that they
themselves obey and submit to Christ and follow Christ. Look
at this, considering the end of their conversation, the end
of their conduct. What is the end? Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday and today and forever. There's a difference.
There's a difference. God's faithful pastor has a constraint
and the end motive being the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the difference in one
who has the rule over and one who is He was unfaithfully a
rebel, lording over God's people. Look here, down at verse 17. Obey them that have the rule
over you, and submit yourselves. Obey them by obeying Christ's
Word which they have spoken to you. And submit yourselves by
submitting yourselves to Christ. You see that? Obey by obeying
the Word of Christ that they spoke to you. They are just a
vessel speaking the Word. How do you obey? Obey the Word
Christ spoke. Obey His Word. How do you submit? Submit to Christ. Submit to Christ. Watch this now. Here is another
difference. For they watch for your souls as they that must
give account. There is a difference. They are
not doing it for personal profit. They are not doing it to fleece
you. They are not doing it for any other motive other than this. They look out for your souls. They know, they stand before
God. How did Paul start this? He said, God is my witness. You don't say something like
that unless it is a very serious accusation, which it was with
Paul. And he was saying, God bears
me record that the reason I did not come was to spare you. It was to spare you. It was to
give you time to correct these things so that when I came, I
wouldn't have to come with a rod. I wouldn't have to come correcting
and chastening. I could come rejoicing, enjoying
in the fact that you indeed are obedient to Christ. It's not
for a people to be obedient just to a man that makes God's preacher
have joy. It's to see them obedient to
Christ that gives you joy. That's what gives you joy. I
don't want to see anybody profess a false profession of faith in
Christ, which is obedience and submission to Christ. He said
follow Him in baptism. But I don't want anybody to do
that falsely simply because of something I preached to them.
I want to see them do it because they are obedient to Christ.
That gives me great joy. Great joy. Look here what he
says now. He says, and you do this that
they may do it with joy and not with grief. that they may watch
for your soul and minister to you with joy and not with grief,
for that's unprofitable for you. Now that's exactly why Paul said
he didn't come. That's why he said he waited
to come to Corinth, was to spare them, give them time for Christ
to work obedience in their hearts, so that they corrected the matters
that needed to be corrected, so that when He came, He would
rejoice with them. Look here, let's go back to 2
Corinthians 2 and we'll read it. 2 Corinthians chapter 2,
look at verse 1. But I determined this with myself,
that I would not come again to you in heaviness. Remember, Christ
gives us the garment of praise for heaviness, for sorrow. And
He said, I'm not coming to you again in heaviness with a rod
and causing you sorrow. He said, for if I make you sorry,
Who is He then that maketh me glad? Who's going to make me
rejoice but the same which is made sorry by me? You know, see
what he's saying? I don't want to see you made
sorry. Who's going to make me rejoice? Where am I going to
find my rejoicing then? Look, and I wrote this same unto
you, lest when I came I should have sorrow from them of whom
I ought to rejoice. And I wrote this having confidence
in you all that my joy is of you all. In other words, I wrote
this with confidence that you would indeed obey every word,
not because it was the word of the Apostle Paul, but because
it was the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why. And he said,
and I was waiting so that when I came, I would find you obedient
to Christ and my joy would be full. We would rejoice together.
Now thirdly, let's go back to our text. Why does Christ make
His ministers faithful helpers? He does it to turn us from error
to Christ alone. That's what He is doing it for.
To turn us from every error, everything that comes between
us and Christ, and to turn us to Christ alone. Why? Why is
that so important? because by faith you stand. There is nothing as important
to a believer as resting in Christ by faith. By faith we stand. Scripture says this, Christ is
the object of our faith. He is the object in whom we stand.
Scripture says we walk by faith, not by sight. So what's going
to happen? What's going to happen if one
of us here starts trying to walk by sight rather than by faith,
rather than trusting the Lord? What's going to happen? The Lord
is going to send His Word through His preacher and make it effectual
in your heart and turn you from walking by sight and turn you
again to walk by faith in Christ. That's exactly what He's going
to do because by faith you stand. You stand by faith. Well, another
scripture says that speaking of the natural sons of Abraham,
they were cut off because of unbelief and you stand by faith. And so He says, be not high minded
but fear. reference God. And remember now,
we depend entirely upon God. So what's going to happen then
if one of his children starts getting puffed up and eye minded
and thinking he's somebody when he's nobody? What's going to
happen? The Lord Jesus Christ is going to send a word through
his helper and he's going to speak that word into your heart
and bring you down. He may use He may do it in the
court of your conscience first, and then if it need be, use providence
to do it as well. But He will bring His child down
so that we walk by faith because you stand by faith. Well, the
Scripture says, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, Paul said, which also you have received and wherein
you stand. Well, what if one of God's people
starts taking for granted the Gospel? What if he starts thinking
that he can stand in some other way by his works or by something
he's done or something of that nature? What's going to happen?
The Lord Jesus Christ is going to send that Gospel to him boldly
and speak boldly into his heart and say, stand fast in the liberty
where Christ has made you free and be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage and He'll make it affect you. Scripture
says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil
is a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour, whom
resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions
are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. What's
going to happen if one of his sheep starts getting drunk with
the cares of this world, and is not vigilant anymore, and
is not paying attention, and is not looking to Christ, and
staying near to the shepherd? What's Christ going to do? He's
going to send forth the Word and He's going to make it effectual
in the heart and He's going to say, stand therefore having your
loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of
righteousness and having your feet shod with the gospel of
peace and having the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation. He's going to clothe you in the
armor of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see? In every case, the reason
Christ, He does not give men to usurp dominion over your faith. And the reason is, is because
you stand by faith. And when a man starts usurping
dominion over another man, that's law. And that man who has dominion
usurped over him starts trying to walk by law. And the law is
not of faith. It's just not. So He doesn't
send folks to have dominion over the faith of His people. Because
by faith you stand. And the reason He sends His preachers
to be helpers of your joy is because using them to speak His
Word, Christ removes whatever comes between you and Him. Whatever comes between us and
Him, He'll remove it. And He'll bring us back to His
feet to rest in Him by faith. And so after Christ's Word, after
he gave his word through Paul. And he rebuked his brethren at
Corinth in that first letter. Paul didn't come to visit them
right away. He didn't come to visit them
right away because he knew his flesh. And he knew if he did
that, he found them not obeying, he knew what he was out to do.
And so he waited, like a faithful man, he waited. Well, most of
preaching is waiting. That's what most of preaching
is about, waiting. You say the same thing over and over and
over. And you think, you know, you
kind of start having that thought, well, I shouldn't say this again.
I've said it this way or, you know, I've said this over and
over and over. Well, you go and say it one more time and that
will be the time that somebody will come up and say, I have
never heard you say that before. The Lord made them hear it. He
made them hear it. And you had to wait on that.
And that's what preaching is. Preaching is declaring the Word
and waiting on God to work. And so Paul did that. He waited.
He waited for the Lord to correct those, to rebuke them in their
hearts that they willingly corrected those errors. And so when Paul
could go, him and his brethren could once again rejoice together
in faith. They could rejoice in Christ
together. Paul is not saying he rejoiced in them rather than
Christ. He is saying he rejoiced in them
because of what Christ did in them, bringing them to obedience
to it. And that is our rejoicing in
one another. Don't you rejoice, you parents,
you rejoice when your child obeys you, don't you? It's the same
thing. You see a dear brother obey the
Lord Jesus Christ, that rejoices your heart just the same way.
And that's why He makes us wait. Be a helper of your joy. Alright,
brethren. Let's... Brother Eric, you come
and lead us in a closing hymn. You close in prayer when you
get finished.