If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter
4, and this morning we'll be looking at verses 16 and 18.
Galatians chapter 4 and verses 16 and 18. I know that we have
moved past this from 19 and 20 last week. That's because I had
nothing from these two verses before. So now then, I believe
the Lord's given me a message for these two verses as well
this week. And the title of the message
this morning is the preeminence of the gospel, the preeminence
of the gospel. Let's read these passages together.
Galatians four, verse 16. We can begin in verse. Let's
begin in verse 15. Paul says, Where is then the
blessedness you speak of? For I bear you record that if
it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes
and given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy
because I tell you the truth? They zealously affect you, but
not well. Yea, they would exclude you that
you might affect them. but it is good to be zealously
affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present
with you. Now, the Apostle Paul having
set forth before us and to these professing believers a great
plea, a great plea to turn away from false works religion, and
false preachers of a false gospel, and to turn again from the gospel
of grace, he speaks to them as a father would to his children.
We talked about that last week concerning verse 19, my little
children. And how the apostle is being
the pastor of this church, the founder of this church. He has
great affection toward these. And he would not want them to
fall as they have. He would not want them to fall
into heresy and error. And he reminds them of the time
that they said they loved him. He said, remember, when I came
to you, you would even pluck out your own eyes for me. And
give them to me. Some people believe Paul had
a vision problem. And this is what it was meant,
that they would even give their own eyes so that he might have
sight. They loved him so much, they
spake so highly of the gospel. They were excited when he came
in and preached the gospel to them. And he says, have I now
become your enemy because I tell you the truth? Is it not? The case, most times
when we tell even those we love the truth, they turn on us. The truth is not always pleasant. It's not always pleasant, but
it is good. It is necessary. It's necessary. And He pleads with them. And
so the first thing I want us to see is the zeal of every pastor. The zeal, the jealousy, the warmth
of our hearts, the love and affection that we have for you is this,
that the gospel be preeminent in our preaching. The gospel
is the preeminence of our message. Christ being the preeminence
of the gospel, this is what we preach. Let me ask you this. First look at verse 18. He says,
But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing.
Zeal is not wrong. Being zealous is not evil. It's good if it's in a good thing. Let me ask you this. Do you not
like to see zealous believers? I love to see that. I love to
see when people are warm and affectionate to the gospel. They
just love it. They just can't get enough. They
just eat it up. Oh, it's so wonderful to them.
I love that. That is wonderful. To be zealous
for the gospel, to have a heart, to reach the lost, to preach
the gospel, to witness. And you know, a lot of times
when I see those zealous people, I myself am convicted about my
own lack of zeal. for the gospel. My own lack of
love and fervency. I remember when I was first redeemed
and how I was zealous for the gospel. I know that that's not
always leads to good things. We get so overworked sometimes
that we we go overboard with that to an extreme and just like
some of these people did. So to be zealous is good. I like
to see a change in people's lives. I love that. I love to see a
person who was guilty, who was a recluse, who was a sinner,
or maybe even a religious person, and they forsake all that and
come to Christ. That is a wonderful zeal, and
every one of us love that. We love it. There's nothing wrong
with it. It's great. It's great. But zeal that excites
a believer to turn away from the gospel is not well. That's not good. That's not good. There's a zeal that's good, and
then there's a zeal that is not good. And that is a zeal that
says there's more to this than the gospel of Christ. It is a
zeal to go over and above trying to find something else besides
Christ and Him crucified. This thought just occurred to
me. I remember a very close friend of mine. We were very close. And he was a very zealous man,
very influential to me. I thought he was great. He was
a great friend and we loved to talk about the Gospel. We always
did. We would take long drives and we'd go out to the country
and we'd do some hunting out there together. But on the way,
we always just talked about the Gospel. Always. That was the
foundation of our relationship as friends. One day he come to
me and said, Fred, there's got to be more to this than just
the preaching of the gospel. And so he went out and he was
zealous and he went all the way out searching for something else.
And he found something else. He found Pentecostalism. He found that tongues were the
next step and miracles. No, that's not well. That's not
well. That kind of zeal is dangerous.
And there will be some so zealous, so zealous and exciting to us,
but their motive is not to exalt Christ, but rather to affect
themselves. Look at that in verse 18. I'm
sorry, verse 17. They, speaking of these Judaizers,
zealously affect you, but not well. Yea, they would exclude
you. that they might affect, that
you might affect them. You see, they were zealous. These Judaizers were very zealous
and they were exciting. And they drawed away some over
to their gospel, not for the purpose of glorifying God, but
rather so that these people would affect their reputation or their
word or their ministry. in that church. They wanted the
preeminence. They wanted the preeminence.
And I'll tell you what, I've seen some people come up in the
churches and they've been very exciting people, but if you watch,
those that seek the preeminence, we need to get away from them.
Those who want to exalt themselves or find something in the church,
some office, you better put them aside and leave them alone. because
they will, by their excitement, draw you away if you're not careful. This happened to the Apostle
John in his church. In 3 John 1, verse 9, he says,
I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence
among them, receiveth us not. Can you imagine that? He wouldn't
receive the letter from the Apostle. Why? Because he loved, he was
fond of that exaltation. He was fond of having that office
of power. He was hungry and ambitious. To covet a power or position
of a pastor or any other church office is not a good thing. If a man desire the office of
a bishop, he desired the good work, but he better be called
of God. He better be called of God. Remember the Pharisees,
the Lord rebuked them, he said, you desire the chief seats in
the place. Isn't that what most worldly
false religion is, a stepping stone to something else? False religion and its ministers
do not care for the gospel of God's sovereign grace because
it does not give glory to man. It does not give them any glory.
False preachers are in it for the numbers of people. They're
in it for the money and the fame and to exalt their ministry. They mix the Word of God with
free will, works, religion, and obedience to the law. And by
doing this, they try to keep men to themselves. How do you think the Catholic
Church has sustained itself over the years? Most people that are
Catholic don't even go to Catholic churches. How do they do that?
How do they keep them that way? Because they threaten them that
if they're not a part of that Catholic church, they're going
to hell. That's how they do it. They put a strict code of bondage
on them, a laws of the church that they've got to do. How does
the other churches do it? Entertainment. That's how. Those
people won't be put under any bondage of the law. So they don't
have anything and they just have entertainment. Have you not experienced those
people to be zealous? Have you not seen them running
around trying to get people to come to their churches? Man,
they're quick. They're fast. to get you to come
to their church. When you invite people to come
hear the gospel at this place, don't come and invite them just
to hear me. Don't do that. This is not just my ministry,
it's your ministry. And our ministry is the ministry
of Christ. We want people to see Christ.
We want them to know Christ. I don't want them to know me.
I'm nothing. Christ is everything. The gospel
is everything. It is the preeminence of this
place, is it not? Is this not the center of every
worship service? The gospel being preached. Is
that not what's here? Is that not what you come for?
It's what I'm here for. I'm here to preach the gospel.
It's preeminent. It's above everything and everyone.
Paul said to Timothy, be instant in season and out of season.
What does that mean? Is that talking about the weather?
No. That's talking about when it's popular and when it's not.
When you've got one hearer or you've got a million hearers,
you be instant and preach the Word. Preach the Word. We who preach the Word count
ourselves as nothing. Nothing. We don't seek the praise of men
and we don't seek the riches of this world and we don't seek
the love of this world or its religion. What God's men do is of the greatest
importance. The greatest importance. It is the highest calling that
a man could possibly have in this world is to preach the gospel. We are ambassadors for Christ. And we do beseech you. We beg you. Can you imagine any
other high office in the land begging for anything? You see,
this office is an office that beseeches. It begs men. Be ye reconciled unto God. How? By the reconciliation made
by Christ. Christ has reconciled us to God. That's our message. And we don't
dare preach anything else but what the King gives to us as
ambassadors. We don't preach anything else.
An ambassador that preaches his own message or gives his own
message is treasonous. Treasonous. This calling is not of ourselves.
Pastors are not made by schools. They're just not. They may be
in a school, but that doesn't make them a pastor. Just because
you have a degree from any seminary, that does not make a man a preacher. We must never assume the calling
of God to preach is like every other profession in this world. Scott's a nurse, and he had to
go to school to get that degree, to get that piece of paper to
say that he can do nursing. That's a profession. That's a
profession. To preach is a calling. To preach
is a calling. It's a calling that we desire
to do, but unless a man is called to do it, he can't, he should
do something else. He just should do something else.
Go to 2 Corinthians 2. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14. Listen to what Paul says. He
says, Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph
in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by
us in every place. The zeal of everyone that is
called to the office by God will always seek the glory of God
by preaching the gospel of God, And God's people, everyone that
hears the gospel, will be zealous to hear it and witness it. You
see, we're called to preach it, you're called to hear it, and
you're responsible to tell it. Just as zealous as I am for the
gospel to preach it to you, so must you be zealous in your heart
to tell others of Of us, the pastor? No! Of Christ! Of Christ. You should be zealous to witness
of this gospel. And we all then are zealous,
first of all, that all praise and thanksgiving and glory belongs
to God for the success of His gospel. Isn't that right? We
give thanks for the success of the gospel because God makes
it successful. Aren't you glad of that? Aren't
you glad that this gospel is not made successful by your pastor
or by you? Paul says, now thanks be to God,
which causes us to triumph in Christ. Praise be to God. Give thanks to God. This gospel
of the blood and righteousness of Christ is not one born in
time, but in eternity. It was one conceived only in
the mind and heart of God forever before there was a creation of
man. This gospel of love and mercy
toward us who believe on Christ is eternal and we are bound I'm
bound. I can do nothing else but give
thanks unto God for His grace. You can do nothing else that
have heard it, but be bound to give thanks unto God for His
glorious gospel given to us. Given to us. God says, My word
shall go forth out of My mouth, and it shall not return to Me
void. This morning, this message is
going out to your ears. And it will not return void unto
God, but whatever God accomplishes, whatever God purposed this message
for in your heart, He will accomplish that purpose. It won't turn to
Him void. How many times we said something, it turned around and
just didn't happen. Andrew, clean your room. Well, I'm gonna have to go tell
Him again because it just didn't come back to me. It came back
void. It didn't have any meaning. And
so I have to do it again. But when God sends His Word,
it prospers in whatever He sends it to do. This gospel that we preach is
a successful gospel. Every time it is preached. You know, sometimes I get discouraged.
I do. I know that faces that people
make never really enter into what they're thinking. Somebody
maybe just nodding their head and smiling, and their brain
is somewhere off in the outer space. And then there's somebody
that may be just looking up, but they're thinking about the
Lord. I don't know! But those kind of things affect
me. But I must be zealously confident
of this, that no matter what happens, God's Gospel is successful. He makes it to triumph. And number
three, we know that His Gospel that we preach always yields
a fragrance. Always yields a fragrance. Look
at verse 15 and 16 of 2 Corinthians 2. Or look at verse 14, the second
part. He said, "...and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge
by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet smell."
A sweet smell of Christ in them that are saved and in them that
perish. You see that? If you don't believe
or whether you do believe, it doesn't matter. When I preach
the gospel, I am a sweet saver unto God. It always smells good
to Him. Always smells good to Him. Why?
Because it comes from Christ. Christ is righteousness. To one,
we are a savor, a smell of death unto death, and to others, we
are a smell of life unto life. Who is sufficient for such things?
I am not sufficient in myself to do this. Cannot. When I speak to you that are
dead, it is a smell of death, and to you that are alive, I
am a smell of life. Isn't that amazing? Friends, when God's man preaches
the gospel, it always yields a great fragrance in the mind
of sensible sinners in need of salvation. A fragrance. To us who are sinners with no
hope of being accepted by our works and guilt of our sins,
the gospel of acceptance by faith in Christ is a sweet smell. Sweet smell. Song of Solomon says 1 verse
3 says because of the fragrance of thy ointments thy name is an ointment poured forth therefore
do the virgins love thee his name is a smell isn't it
his person is a great fragrance. He said, I am the rose of Sharon,
the lily among thorns. And His ointment of His name
is poured out by His Spirit. We can't have this ointment and
smell of the Gospel, this sweet aroma of the Gospel, unless the
Spirit is poured out to us. Unless God the Holy Spirit resonates
in our hearts and the Gospel that rings true in our souls. Then He smells wonderful. The Gospel just is wonderful
news. Wonderful news. And it is a fragrance of life
unto life. What is that? It's a fragrance
of spiritual life. When we hear the Gospel, it resonates
with us because we have spiritual life, given by the Holy Spirit,
resurrected unto life and faith in Christ. We have that life. And that life resonates unto
eternal life. We who have life, Does that not smell good? Is
that not good? It is. But to some, this is not
a pleasant thing. To some, the gospel is not a
pleasant sound. You come back after a service,
you say, man, that was great! I enjoyed hearing about Christ!
And another person just kind of looks at you like you're crazy.
What did you hear? Weren't we in the same place?
That guy stinks to high heaven. He is just not a good preacher
at all. To those who try to hold on to
anything and add anything to the work of Christ, this message
of God's sovereign grace that we preach is like a rotting corpse. They have no love for it. Why will men not come and hear
this gospel even because it stinks to them? It smells horrible. They have spiritual death, which
is unto eternal death. Jesus told his disciples, they
asked, why do you speak in parables? He said, because it's given to
you and not to them. Isn't that something? Ten people. Ten. Out of how many? And how many of this small group
does the gospel smell wonderful to? Maybe not all. Maybe it's given to you to know
the mysteries and to some it's not given. But whatever God does
with it, it's successful. That takes a lot of pressure
off of me because I don't have to make the gospel successful.
I don't have to. It's already successful. It's
successful right now. We who preach the gospel are
not sufficient for these things. But we do not seek the preeminence
among you, but in sincerity of heart, we preach from God's heart
to your heart. That's what we do. I don't want
this to be a mechanical thing. I don't want this to be something
that is not real, something that is not true to your heart, because
it is true to God's heart. And God made it true to my heart.
My desire is to get to your heart. In great humility, I confess
my insignificance. And my inability to do what I
want to do. Paul said we are not sufficient
of ourselves in anything, but our sufficiency is of God. Friends, I have no influence
or preeminence in this religious community. Ask any one of them.
They don't know anything about me. You can go ask Albert Mohler
if he knows anything about Fred Evans, the pastor of Redeemer
Baptist Church, and he'll say, who? Fred who? I don't know him. Who is he? Ask the bishops and
the deacons of these large churches. Ask them who I am. Any idea who
this man is? That's all right. I'm in good
company. You see, the Sanhedrin had no
idea who Peter and John was. They perceived, the Scripture
says, that these were ignorant and unlearned men, and that they
had been with Jesus. That's all I hope for. If this
religious world calls me ignorant, unlearned, it doesn't matter. As long as they know this, he
has been with Jesus. And when the gospel is preached
to you that believe, they can't deny it. Can't deny it. Just like that
man healed standing by there, Peter and John. You see, they
couldn't say anything. There was a man standing there.
He was healed! You know what? Here you are, standing right
here by me. They can't say a word to this gospel. Why? You've been
healed and you know it. You witness it. You testify. This religious age sees God's
man is unlearned, ignorant man, but they can say nothing of the
gospel when it comes in power of the grace of God. And I tell you, friends, this
is a sacred trust. I believe it's in Titus chapter
1. Flip over there. Titus chapter 1. Yeah, it is. Titus chapter 1
and verse 3. But hath in these due times manifested
His Word How? Through preaching which is committed
unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior. That word
committed means sacred trust. Sacred trust. This gospel has been committed
to me in a sacred trust and I must give it the preeminence. in every service. I must give
Christ the preeminence in every service. I am zealous for this. I'm zealous for this. And friends,
if you are zealous for this, it is a good thing. It's a good
thing. Our hearts should be warmed by
the gospel and comforted. Our hearts should be lifted up
and gladness and thanksgiving for what God has done for us. What has God done for you? The Scripture says, "...He hath
given us His Son. How shall He not with Him freely
give us all things?" Praise God that He has not put
out the light in this place. Be diligent. Be faithful. Or he might. May God add the blessings to
his word. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your
gospel. May Christ have the preeminence in our hearts this morning. Give
you praise and glory and honor for we pray these things in Jesus
name. Amen.