Turn with me, if you would, to
2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Verse 1 says, Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry. What is the ministry? What is the ministry? The middle
of verse 2, he expounds on that throughout the next few verses.
The middle of verse 2 says, the Word of God. But have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor
handling the Word of God. The Word of God is the ministry. And then he goes on to expound
in verse 3, he said, our gospel. But if our gospel be hid, it's
hid to them that are lost. Our gospel is the ministry, the
gospel in this word. The middle of verse 4 says, the
glorious gospel of Christ. He explains it even further. He said, in whom the God of this
world has 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." The middle of verse 5 says, Christ
Jesus the Lord. He goes into extreme detail. Who is this Christ? Christ Jesus
the Lord. Let's let it sink in for just
a minute. that we have this ministry. We have this ministry. We have not been given a ministry. All right? We have not been given.
This hit me like a ton of bricks. Are you ready to be hit by a
ton of bricks? We don't have a ministry. And then Brother
Tom Harding has a ministry, and Brother Donny Bell has a ministry,
and we have the ministry. We have not been given a ministry. We have been given this ministry. God has one ministry, this ministry. We have been given the same ministry
that Abraham was given. The exact same ministry. We have
been given the exact same ministry that Moses was given. We have
been handed the exact same ministry that Aaron, David, Solomon, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, all of the apostles, all of those martyrs. We have been handed the exact
same ministry throughout time. All right, Adam. And then here
we go. Throughout time, God has selected
a few certain ones to place the ministry, the charge of sending
out, ministering out the gospel of his word. Throughout time,
he has selected a few certain ones to place into their hands
this ministry. chosen particular people throughout
time to take his ministry, the ministry, the glorious gospel
of Christ, this glorious news of Christ, who he is and what
he has done. That is the ministering of the
word of God. And he chose certain people to
put that into their hands and use that ministry to actually
open blind eyes and save people with it. As opposed to all of
this religion which does nothing for anybody. People go in dead,
they stay dead, they leave dead. God has chosen few, just a few,
I mean a few throughout the ages to take this gospel, which is
able to give life, able to open eyes, able to actually save people
from hell to heaven. And he chose us. He chose us. We have been given this ministry. Think about this. How seriously
do you believe Isaiah should have taken the ministry that
God put into his hands. How serious do you think Isaiah
should have taken that ministry? He was a man just like me and
you. I mean, he was not on another
level. He was a man just like me and
you. How fervent do you believe Elijah should have been with
the ministry that God put into his hands? Don't turn. Let me read James 5 verse 17
to you. This is what it says. James 5
verse 17. Elias, and that means Elijah,
was a man subject to like passions as we are. He went through the
same thing we did. He was just a man, just like
us. How committed do you believe
the Apostle Paul should have been to the ministry that God
handed him? He said, Paul, you're a chosen
vessel. Isn't that what he said? Can
we see the Apostle Paul being part-time committed? Can we see
him being that? Can we see him saying, oh yeah,
yeah, spreading the gospel, spreading that truth, that's a huge part
of my life. I do put a lot of emphasis, one of the things that
I do put a lot of emphasis on in my life. Paul, you've been
selected by God to have the ministration of his glorious gospel placed
into your hands. Paul, give your life to it. Doesn't that make total sense?
Apostle Paul, give your life to it. God has placed something
more valuable than any other substance on earth into your
hands, Paul. Isn't that right? Paul, you have
not been given the lowly task of distributing all the gold
in the earth. You have not been handed that
menial, lowly, unimportant, unlasting, temporary task of being the one
who distributes all the gold in the earth. You have not been handed things
that rust and canker and in the end will have no value at all.
You've been given the ministration of all things. You've been given
the ministration of eternal things. These are eternally lasting things. You've been handed the ministration
of eternal life. That's amazing, isn't it? It
has been placed, selected by God, into your hands. It's a calling worthy of giving
your life to, Paul. It's a calling worthy of giving
yourself to, giving your all to. Verse 1 says, therefore,
seeing we have this ministry. Now, here's what I want to point
out. It does not say me. It says we, isn't that right?
Not me, we. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. That's the title of the message.
We faint not. We faint not. This ministry that
God has honored us with, placing it into our hands. As soon as
I studied this, and I'm going to give you a little insight
to my week, I recorded the radio broadcast, TV broadcast, trying
to get the TV broadcast done. And we've had some trouble with
it. And when I get done, I have to record it again. And it's
not right, so I have to record it again. And it starts to wear
on you. It starts to weigh on you. And
you think, what have I gotten myself into? And that's exactly what I was
feeling when I said, okay, it's time to do the Bible study, let's
go. And I opened it up and it said, therefore, seeing we have
this ministry, because we have received mercy, we faint not. Because we have received mercy. God put this into our hands.
for the purpose of ministering it to every soul in the Kingsport
area that he chose before the foundation of the world to save. That's what he put into our hands.
This ministry of the gospel of Christ, it may consume our thoughts,
it may consume our time, it may consume our money, It may consume
our strength. It may consume our bodies. But
because we have received the mercy that is revealed through
this ministry, the ministry came to us, the ministration came
to us. And because we received mercy
by his grace. will faint not. By His grace,
we'll press forward, ministering out this glorious gospel to every
person who will hear it. Every single person who will
hear it. That's all the motivation we need, isn't it? Honestly,
that is all the motivation we need to keep going, impress,
just desiring that he would show mercy to others. I believe we
could all say, I do believe if the Lord would let us cut to
the bottom of our hearts, we would all say, none of us want
a big church. That's not the goal. All of us
beg God to have mercy on souls. Lord, save people. Bring all
of your sheep into the fold. There will be harmony. There
will be love. There will be happiness. There
will be forgiveness. There will be compassion, support,
encouragement. Everybody look to Christ. It'll
be wonderful. Bring all your sheep in. We're
not just looking for people. Bring your sheep But if he does, if he's willing
to do that, Lord, please show mercy. Just spread mercy, Lord. Throw mercy all over this town. We beg. That's our motivation. That's our motivation. Lord,
show it tomorrow. Go with me to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, verse 14, but Peter standing up with the
eleven lifted up his voice and said unto them, Peter stood up
and he started preaching, okay? He started preaching. Now look
with me at verse 22. He said, Ye men of Israel, hear
these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which
God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know.
Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, You have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,
whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because
it was not possible that he should be holden of it." He preached
Christ. He stood up and preached. He
preached Christ. He ministered to them who Christ
was, what He had done. Verse 36, Therefore let all the
house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when
they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto
Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what
shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, and
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost for the promise is unto you and to your children
And to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our
God shall call. The promise is to you, the promise
is to your children, and to them that are far off, as many as
the Lord our God shall call. God is gonna call every person
that he chose to save. Every single one. But he is going
to use the means of the preaching of the gospel. He's going to
use the means of the gospel to do it. Look with me at Romans
10. Romans 10 verse 1 says, My heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. And that's my prayer too. And
I know that's your prayer too. That's why we faint not. Our
heart's desire and prayer to God is that they might be saved.
Verse 13 says, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. For that reason right there,
we faint not. We faint not. Look with me at
Mark chapter 6. Mark chapter 6 verse 53. I love this. And when they had passed over,
they came into the land of Gennesaret and drew to the shore. And when
they were come out of the ship, straightway they knew him and
ran through that whole region roundabout and began to carry
about in beds those that were sick where they heard he was. And whithersoever he entered
into villages or cities or country, they laid the sick in the streets
and besought him that they might touch, if it were but the border
of his garment. And as many as touched him were
made whole." Don't you love that? They went out and they started
gathering them up. These people are sick. They put them on beds
and they brought them to Christ. That is the ministry of the gospel. We're a bunch of nurses. That's
what we are. We're a bunch of nurses in this
glorious hospital. We are ministering the healing
balm to men and women who are sick with sin, whether they know
they are or not. We're ministering it out whether
they realize it or not. We're running as far as we can,
pointing men and women to Jesus Christ. Over in, we're not going
to go to it, but in Matthew 22, that's the story of the Lord
He gave a parable of this man who arranged a wedding for his
son, and he bid all the guests to come, and the guests wouldn't
come. And they sent servants out, and they beat the servants
and killed the servants, and they went about their business,
and they wouldn't. He said, it's all ready, and
none of them would come. He said, you go out into the
highways, and you start gathering, whether good or bad, you go put
a robe on them. And you bring them, you bid them
come to the marriage. And the whole marriage was full. It was wholly furnished with
guests. And that is the ministry of the
gospel. We send this gospel out crying
to sinners whether good or bad, whether they think they're good
or bad. This is the good news. No self-righteous sinner is too
self-righteous. There are some people who we
are convinced in our minds, God will not save that person. He's
too self-righteous. He's too church-going. That's
not so. No self-righteous sinner is too
self-righteous. No sinful sinner is too sinful. God won't save that. Oh, man.
God's not going to save that person. Whether good or bad. We run with this gospel. We bid
as many as we can find come to the marriage. Come to the marriage. Now, do we take credit for any
of this? Do we take credit for any of
it? I'm almost finished here. Look
with me at Acts 13. Acts 13 verse 44, the next Sabbath
day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of
God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled
with envy and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul,
contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed
bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you. But seeing you put it from you
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord." And watch this right here. And as many
as were ordained to eternal life believed. Every soul that comes
to Christ has been ordained to come to Christ. People talk about
being soul winners. There are only three soul winners
in the universe. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit. The Father chooses souls, the
Son redeems souls, and the Spirit calls souls. Our efforts, should
we put effort into this? Should we give our time, our
money, our bodies, our all? Absolutely. Our efforts have
no bearing on whether or not a soul is going to be saved.
If I, in my sin and wickedness, shut this ministry down, I can't
shut God's ministry down, but if I quit, there's not a soul
in this town that God chose to save that won't be saved. None
of them shall be lost. None of them. Our efforts have
no bearing on whether or not a person is going to be saved.
If that person was not ordained to life, that person is not going
to be saved. And if the person was ordained
to life, he is going to be saved. And with that being said, knowing
that, we will not deny the means God has chosen to use, the preaching
of the gospel. And we'll press it. Seeing we
have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. We press, we run, we try every
way we can to minister this gospel to every soul who will hear it.
Every single soul. All right, you're dismissed.