The title of this message is
A God-Given Ministry. God has given us a ministry here
at Bethel. He's given us a ministry of grace,
it's a ministry of His mercy, it's a ministry of the redemptive
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's given to us, as Paul
says here. He says that, therefore, see,
we have this ministry. God's given it to us. Now, wherever
there is a ministry that's given of God, Satan is always at work. You can just mark it down. He
will always be at work. He's always working out, he's
always working in the darkness, in the shadows. I remember I
was a plant manager of a company one time years ago and there
was some trouble out in the shop and I just couldn't figure out
what's going on. The men were upset and finally,
finally after just watching and paying attention, there was one
man that was stirring the pot. He was constantly stirring the
pot. And then when the men would be upset, he'd kind of go off
into the corner. He let them do the dirty work.
He let them do the fussing and the arguing and all that. But
he was always stirring the pot. But it took me a while to see
that. That's what Satan is always doing. He's always stirring the
pot. Always. And what Paul is having to do
here, what he's having to do in this chapter right here, he's
having to defend his ministry. He's having to defend himself
against false accusations that false preachers and false others
who called themselves apostles, brought in against Paul. The
way you discredit a man is to discredit his work or his message. We see this with politicians
on TV every day. The way they discredit one another
is they take their message or whatever it is they're doing,
and they use it against them, and that way they can discredit
them. And that's what Paul is dealing with here. He's having
to defend his ministry, and there's nothing There's nothing more
depressing, so to speak, than having to defend yourself. Always
having to defend yourself. Well, Paul was having to do that.
Our Lord had to do that. The Pharisees and the scribes,
every time he preached, everywhere he went, there they were. There they were. They're discrediting
what he had to say, always challenging him. And we will always have
our enemies. The church will always have her
enemies seeking to discredit the message because the message
has to do with God's chief glory. God's chief glory is not creation. Now that is His glory. There's
a glory in that. But God's chief glory is His
redemptive glory. It's the saving of a sinner.
It's saving of sinners. That's his chief glory, and wherever
his chief glory is being preached, you can be sure. You can just
mark it down. Satan's going to be at work.
It's not going to be quiet for very long. That's what someone
told me one time when I was preaching. He asked me how it was going,
and I told him it was going great. He said, well, it won't be quiet
very long. He said it won't be great very long. Satan will always
raise his ugly head. It's just expected. Now Paul
says here in verse 1, Therefore seeing we have this ministry,
as we have received mercy, we faint not. What ministry is he
talking about? Seeing we've received this ministry.
We'll look over in verse 6 of chapter 3. Paul says in verse 6, that God
also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament." The New
Covenant. Not of the letter. We're not
ministers of the old law that was written on stone. Not of
the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. It's a ministry of grace. It's
a ministry of God's mercy and it's a ministry of the Spirit. Our Lord said, The Spirit giveth
life. The letter killeth. The law kills. The law doesn't
give life. And He said that God's given
us a ministry of grace and of mercy and of the redemptive work
of His Son, Jesus Christ. It's a ministry of how God can
be just and justify the ungodly. And it's not do's and don'ts.
It's not do's and don'ts. It's by the doing and dying and
rising again of His Son Jesus Christ in my stead, in your stead. That's how God can be a just
God and a Savior. It's a ministry of how sinners
are made the righteousness of God in Christ. We are really
made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ by His work,
by His dying in our place, by the work of the Holy Spirit in
regeneration. We are made righteous. We are made the righteousness
of God in Christ. And it's a glorious ministry.
What it has to do with the gospel of God's glory. Paul called the
gospel, the gospel of God's glory. It's a glorious ministry. And
we have this ministry. God has given it to us. As Paul
is saying here, he said, God gave that ministry to him, he
gave it to him and the apostles, he equipped them for it, he gave
them the gifts for it, and he put him in it. Henry told the
story once that a church was looking for a pastor and they
called him. We had that preacher school for
two years and so they called Henry and asked him if he had
someone that could be a pastor. And then the man commenced to
tell Henry what they were looking for. He had to have a seminary
degree and he went on with this list of things. Henry said, do
you want a teacher or a preacher? Which do you want? And that's
what he's saying here. God has equipped us. God has
put us in the ministry, the teaching. Now, I value education. I don't want to butcher the English
language when I'm speaking. But the power that comes in preaching
and the salvation of sinners has everything to do with God.
That's His business. My business is to tell you. My
business is to instruct. My business is to preach. God's
business is to save. And if I'm truly preaching, He's
the one doing it. If I'm truly preaching, He's
the one speaking, not me. It's not just me speaking. It's
God speaking. We have this ministry. God equipped
us for it. He put us in it. And it's God
who is our sufficiency. Look over in chapter 3 and verse
5. Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. Our sufficiency
is of God. You know, Paul asked in one place,
he said, Who is sufficient for these things? If I take this
ministry seriously, who is sufficient to handle matters of life and
death? I'm talking about eternal matters.
Who's sufficient to handle the glory of God? Who's sufficient
for these things? I'm not, and no one else is,
of ourselves. That's why Paul said, God's our
sufficiency. God is the one who enables us
to preach, and it's God who saved you through preaching, through
the preaching of the gospel. No one can make a preacher but
God. No one. And then, since God has
given us this ministry, we are responsible to preach it, to
declare it, to tell it out. We're not responsible to have
programs, to have this program or that program. I am responsible
to stand up and preach the unsearchable riches of Christ every time I
preach. It has to do with the Lord Jesus
Christ. We cannot exhaust, as the scripture says, the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Now, if they're unsearchable,
they're inexhaustible. And it's my duty to sit in that
study and to search them out, and then to bring them out here
and give them to you. You know how many times I can't even tell
you how many times people leave here and they say to me, I've
never seen that before. That's the first time I've ever
seen that. Well, it's usually the first time I've ever seen
it. I learned it there in the study.
In the study, I listened to preaching, I read the Word of God every
day, and I pray about it, and then I see something. I see something. And I bring it out here, and
I preach it, and somebody will almost invariably say, I never
saw that before. I never saw that. But I'm responsible, as Paul
says he was here, to preach the gospel. You know, Paul said in
one place, woe is me if I preach not the gospel. He said to Timothy,
he said that the gospel, listen here, he says in 1 Timothy 1.11,
according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was
committed to my trust. That's a heavy responsibility.
Yes, it's a privilege. I was saying to Vicki the other
day, we were getting ready to have our first meeting here again,
And we were sitting there in the front room and I said, and
it just struck me so strongly, what a privilege, what a privilege
it is that I get to come over here and brag on the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a privilege it is that I
get to sit and read God's word and come over here and feed God's
sheep. That's a privilege, but it's
a heavy responsibility also. Heavy responsibility. I've said
this before, there's only two people that'll stand in a pulpit.
Only two men will stand in that pulpit. A man called of God or
a fool. That's just one of the two. He's
either called of God or he's an absolute fool for standing
in that pulpit. That's the last place you want
to stand is that place right there. That is a heavy responsibility
there. Paul said to Titus, you know,
he wrote to Timothy and then he wrote to Titus and he wrote
this to Titus. He said that God hath in due times manifested
His Word through preaching which is committed unto me according
to the commandment of God our Savior. It's committed unto me. And when I read that, I read
into it not only the privilege of it, and it is a privilege
to be able to stand and brag and set forth the Lord Jesus
Christ, but it's a heavy responsibility. But he says here, he says that
as we have received mercy, he says, we have this ministry and
as we have received mercy, we faint not. We faint not. Why? Because we received mercy. Paul never got over the mercy
of God to him. all that he did against the church,
all that he did against the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord saved
him. The Lord saved him by His grace
and made an apostle out of him, made a flaming witness out of
him, and Paul never got over it. He never got over that. Henry
said one time, he said, when grace ceases to be amazing, it
ceases to be grace. Well, it's not amazing grace
no more to you. And Paul never got over God saving him by His
mercy, And it's God's mercy that sustains us and keeps us going. We never ever go by and in our
own strength. It's always by the sustaining
mercy of God. He carries us through it. He
keeps us going. No matter what comes our way,
He keeps us going. We faint not. We don't grow discouraged
to the point of quitting. We grow discouraged, it can get
discouraging. It can. But not to the point
of quitting. Not to the point of quitting.
Opposition is to be expected. You know, if we are called to
be soldiers, we ought to expect hardship, shouldn't we? You know,
if you're going to sign up for the military, if you're going
to go down here and sign up for the military, I hope you expect
hardships. I hope you expect that you may
be in a war, that you may be shipped out, and you may have
to fight. Or you're living in a dream world. And listen to
what Paul says to Timothy again. This is to Timothy. Thou therefore
endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. I'm not only
a child of God, I literally am a soldier. That's the reason
when the Lord took Brother Don, when the Lord took him, I put
it in the bulletin, the Lord has taken him off the battlefield.
That is literally what happens when the Lord takes His children
out of this world. Not only does He take His children
out, He's taken them off the battlefield. There's no more
battle in heaven. There's no war going on there.
The battle's here. And while we are here, I want
to fight, as Paul said, the good fight of faith while I'm here. And I expect to endure some hardness.
I expect to endure some opposition or something wrong if we don't. Christ said, in this world, you'll
have tribulation. In another place, he said, know this, they
hated me before they hated you. They'll hate you, but they hated
me first, and they'll hate you too. Paul said also to Timothy, he
said, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,
no man that wareth, no man that goes to war, entangles himself
with the affairs of this life. That's why I'm here in the study.
That's why I'm a full-time pastor. is because I am not to give my
attention to work in some place and then doing this on the side,
because that's exactly what happens. This becomes secondary. This
will be a sideline thing, and then if I'm working out there
40 hours a week or whatever at another place, that'll become
first, I guarantee you. Christ said, no man can serve
two masters. He said, you'll love the one or hate the other.
But no man, he said, woreth, entangles himself with the affairs
of this life, that he may please him who has chosen him." He chose me to be a soldier.
God not only chose me as his child, he chose me as a soldier
and he chose to put me right here in this place at this time.
to fight, as Paul said, the good fight of faith. And that's exactly
what you're doing as members of this body of believers. And we know this, we know this,
we know that opposition is to be expected, but we know that
His grace is sufficient. I've lived long enough now. I've
lived long enough, and me and Vicki's gone through some things,
and I can say his grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. The
last time I spoke to my pastor, I told him, I said, one of the
things that makes me so happy and thrilled is after 40 years,
I'm still here. I said, Henry, we're still here
together. We're still friends. We're still preaching the gospel.
We still believe the same gospel. I said, you don't know how that
thrills my soul. We're still here. Why? Why are we still here? Because
His grace is sufficient. It's kept us. It's kept us. No matter what has come our way,
His grace has kept us. But Paul wants them to know,
and every true minister of the gospel wants everyone to know
that he's preaching to, he says here that we have renounced or
disowned the hidden things of dishonesty. We are honest with
you. You know, if somebody's preaching
to me, I want them to be honest with me. Tell me the truth. Take
the Word of God and tell me the truth. Your opinion. Don't give me your
opinion. You don't need my opinion. I
don't need your opinion. At this hour, here's what we
need. The Word of God. We need God's Word. That's what
we need. And we've disowned the hidden
things of dishonesty, and the hidden things here are the things
that you can't see. And what can you not see? My
heart. My motives. You can't see that.
You can't see it. But Paul says, I assure you,
that these things, we've denounced them, and we're not walking in
craftiness. You know, a man's walk is a manifestation
of his character. That's what it is. A man's walk
is a manifestation of his character. It's not what I believe, because
people can believe the doctrines of grace. You can believe them.
You can believe every one of them. And that's not salvation.
Salvation is when you believe God. when you believe God concerning
His Son Jesus Christ, and I assure you, you'll believe the doctrines
of grace. You'll learn Christ first, and that's when you'll
really learn the doctrines of grace. He says, Nor do we handle
the Word of God deceitfully. You know what it is to handle
the Word of God deceitfully? It's to use the Word of God to
manipulate the people. Be careful. Be careful when you
hear someone preaching. You know, politics is dangerous
enough. I mean, it can be dangerous enough,
but they're nothing, nothing more dangerous than when a person
takes, a man takes the Word of God and he starts to manipulate
you with it. He starts to manipulate you.
And I know examples of this when I was growing up. Tithing was
one of them. There's a hammer on tithing. Tithing is an Old Testament,
under the Old Testament law, and it was used to get the people
to pay tax. It was basically a tax on the
people to take care of the priesthood. The scripture says, give as you
have purposed in your heart. Give as God has given to you.
But I'm not going to say, if you don't tithe, God's going
to take it out in another way. No. God's going to take it out
the door one way if you don't give another. No. You give as
God has given to you. But I've heard it. I've heard
it. Preaching strong on tithing. That's under the law. That's
an Old Testament law, is what that is. You give us God's purpose
for you, but what that's doing is taking the Word of God, and
it's manipulating the people. It's manipulating the people.
It's messing with your conscience. Happy is the man who condemns
not himself in the things which he allows. It's what the Scripture
says. What I'm doing right now is one
time you've got to be on guard. You got to be on guard because
this has to do with life and death. You know, the politicians may
mess up. We just vote him out the next time. But you can't
vote out death. You can't vote out eternity.
You can't vote out judgment. This is life and death right
here. That's why we're told in the Scriptures in 1 John 4, examine,
try the spirits. That's why he's saying examine.
Try the spirits whether they be of God. Not everyone picks
up a Bible is of God. You know, Satan is said to turn
his ministers into ministers of light, ministers of righteousness.
That's self-righteousness. That's not God's righteousness.
He'll never preach God's righteousness. But he transforms himself into
an angel of light. How deceptive! How deceptive! But he says here, "...but by
a manifestational revelation of the truth, commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God." Paul was bold
to preach the gospel, setting forth the truth of Christ as
it's revealed in the Scriptures. And he was not afraid, and no
man, no man that's called of God to preach is afraid to be
examined by men or by God. God knows my heart. God knows
my heart. God knows your heart. And we're
not afraid to be examined. Our motive, if it's right, is
for the glory of God and for the good of the sheep. That's
what it's for. But now, here's the problem.
Paul's going to point out the problem here. But if our gospel
be hid, it is hid to them that are lost or them that are perishing. It's hid to them that are perishing.
Now Paul says, if our gospel, our gospel, why is that our gospel? Because God saved us by it. and because God gave it to us
to preach. It's of God, but He's given it to us. It's our gospel.
It's the gospel by which we are saved. And if it's hid, that
means veiled. Look over in chapter 3 and verse
13. Look at verse 12. Seeing then
that we have such hope, such hope in Christ, such hope and
salvation in him. We use great plainness or boldness
of speech, not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that
the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end
of that which is abolished." You remember when Moses talked
to God, and he came down off the mount, his face, it says,
shone? When they looked at him, his face shone, and they couldn't
look at him. And Moses had to put a veil over his face. Now
listen, "...but their minds were blinded, Their minds were blinded. For until this day remaineth
the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament."
They still don't see Christ. They still don't see that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God, that He's the Messiah. They're still
looking for the Messiah. Vicki and I was watching a true
story of this Jewish lady. I'm not going to get into the
story, but anyway. They were what they call the
Orthodox Jews, and they're still reading whatever it is they read,
and they're going through their motions, and doing all this stuff
that they do. They're still looking for the
Messiah. And I said to Victor last night, I said, it's so sad,
they're still looking for Him to come, and He's already came.
He came. He's already been here, done
His work, and gone back to glory, and they missed Him. He came
unto His own, and His own received Him not. They turn hands down
on him, thumbs down on him. Even today, it says in the reading
of the Old Testament, they still are blind, which veil is done
away in Christ. If God is pleased to save one
of them, if He's pleased to save one of those Jews over there
that's still hanging on to that law, still looking for that Messiah
to come, and God opens one of them's eyes, and they see that
Jesus Christ is the Messiah, then they understand the Old
Testament. They understand He's the Passover
Lamb. They understand He's the High
Priest. They understand He's the Tabernacle. They understand
He's the Sacrifice. They finally understand all those
things that they've been doing all those years is now fulfilled,
has been fulfilled by Jesus Christ. When they turn, it says, "...which
veil is done away in Christ." In Christ. But even to this day,
when Moses is read, when the Law was read, The veil is upon
their heart. They can't see. They're blind. Nevertheless, when it shall turn
to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. In whom the God of this world
hath hid? If it's hid, he says, if this
gospel's hid, it's hid to them that are lost, that are perishing,
that are walking in darkness. walking in darkness. And the
problem is not with the gospel. It's with the condition of the
hearer. They're blind, they're lost,
they're in darkness. That's what they are. Lost means
to be spiritually dead, spiritually blind. It's to be without the
light and life of God in the soul. That's what it is to be
lost. It's to be without God, without Christ, and without hope.
That's lost. And the problem is not with the
gospel, it's with the hearer. Because he says here in verse
4 now, In whom the God of this world, the little G, 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. How evil is that? Well, we see it in the Pharisees.
When the Lord would heal someone on the Sabbath, He'd heal someone
on the Sabbath. They what? They would be so mad
they wanted to kill him. They wanted to kill him for healing
someone on the Sabbath day. That's the spirit of Satan. Instead
of rejoicing that a sinner was saved or that a sinner has been
healed, someone who's been blind all their life has received their
sight, instead of rejoicing, they're ready to kill the one
who gave them sight. Satan is pure evil. I mean pure
evil. He rejoices in our pain. He rejoices in our darkness.
He rejoices in our blindness. And he hates. He absolutely hates. His one mission, his one mission
is to destroy the glory of Jesus Christ. If he could just get
one person, if he could just take one person for whom Christ
died, if he can just take that one person and drag him down
and drag him off into hell and he wind up lost, he would fulfill
his mission. He'd say, that's all I want.
That's all I want. Peter, Satan has desired to sift
you as wheat. He went before the Lord concerning
Job, let me have him. Let me have him. I'll turn him
on you. He'll curse you to your face.
That's all he wants. When he came to the Lord Jesus
Christ in the wilderness, he said, bow down and worship me. And I'll give you the kingdom
to this world. All you gotta do is just give me the worship
that's due to God Almighty. That's how evil he is. It's how
evil. And men have that same spirit.
They have that same attitude. He goes about, the scripture
says, seeking whom he may devour. And he does his greatest work
on men and women's understanding. He confuses their understanding.
He blinds the mind of human reasoning. And he does his greatest work.
You know where he does his greatest evil work? It's not in the drug
world. That's just them being who they
are, really. That's just them being who they are. It's not
out there on the street corner. It's right there in that pulpit. That's where the most evil and
danger is done, is right there in that pulpit. Taking the Word
of God and twisting it, and giving a person a false hope. Giving
a person a false hope. Our Lord said to those Pharisees,
you compass see in land, to make one proselyte. And when you have
made one proselyte, you have made him twofold a child of hell. Twofold a child of hell. How
dangerous is that? Dangerous. I know that all men
and women are born in darkness and Satan does all that he's
allowed to to keep them that way. He knows human weakness
and he knows where the chink in the armor is. He knows where
the chink in the armor is. He knows our weakness. He knows
human weakness. And he knows how to go at it.
Listen to this parable of the sower. In Mark 4, "...the sower
soweth the Word, and these are they which by the wayside where
the Word is sown. But when they have heard, Satan
cometh immediately and taketh away the Word that was sown in
the heart." Satan comes and immediately takes away the Word. How does
he do that? He gets them interested in other things. He does it by
confusion. And here's another way he does
it. This is a part of that parable
also. And these are they which are
sown among thorns, such as hear the word, and the cares of this
world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other
things, entering in, choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful."
Whatever he's allowed to use, he uses. If it's making you rich,
he'll do it. If God let him, he'll do it.
He'll make you rich. If that's what'll take you away. If that'll
keep you away from Christ. Whatever he can do, he's going
to do, if God allows it. If God allows it. But our message now, Paul here
in verse 5, I'll wind this down. Our message is Christ. We preach not ourselves. We're
not the subject of the message. We're not promoting ourselves.
Here's how you know if a man is a sin of God, if he is a true
messenger. is when he finished preaching,
who are you left thinking of? Who are you left thinking of?
Who got the glory in the message? Who got the glory? Did the Lord
get the glory? Do you leave here thinking upon
the Lord Jesus Christ? That's how you can determine.
is who's getting the glory out of the message that was just
preached. Paul said to the Corinthians, I determine not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He said, that's
my message. That's my ministry. That's the
only reason I exist, is to preach Christ and Him crucified. He's
the subject of the message. We preach His crown rights. We
don't preach this. We don't preach, and Paul never
preached, we don't preach a Jesus who wants to do something if
you'll let Him. We don't preach Him. That's another
Jesus. The Jesus Christ of this Bible
is seated on the throne of glory, doing as He will, when He will,
with whom He will. And I cannot think of any better
hands for everything to be in than His hands. Is He not called
the wisdom of God? Where is there any wiser person
to do it than Him? Henry said one time, he said,
he will save all that he can wisely save for his glory. There's one thing I've learned
over the years. This is way over my head. This is way over my
head. God said, my thoughts, not your
thoughts and my ways, not your ways. My ways are so high above
yours. He knows the end from the beginning.
I don't even know the next minute. I don't know what the next minute
is going to bring. He knows the end from the beginning. And then last of all, he says
in verse 6, 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." A face reveals a person in the
person of Jesus Christ. Paul reaches back to creation
when God commanded the light to shine out of darkness. Remember
that? Darkness was upon the face of
the deep. And the first thing God commanded was light. Let
there be light. And he wasn't talking about the
sun. That wasn't created until a few days later. This is a different
light. A different light. And this is how God saves a sinner. When He saves a sinner, He finds
that sinner in spiritual darkness, and the first thing He commands
is light and life. Light and life. Paul said, God illuminated us. There was a day you didn't see.
It was a day you were blind. It was a day I didn't see. I
was blind. And then one day I heard the
gospel and I said, I see. I understand. I understand. I understand the gospel. I understand
for the first time how God Almighty can save me and still be God. There was a time I didn't care.
I didn't care. I didn't care. Just as long as
I didn't go to hell, I didn't care. People don't care. They
don't care whether God's a just God or not, how He could be a
just God or not. They don't care, as long as they don't go to hell.
But you do. I do. I want God to be just, don't
you? I want God to be just. I don't want anything coming
down the road behind me that's unexpected. I don't want anything
to rise up in judgment and say, Oh, hold on here a minute. Satan's
called the accuser of the brethren. Now they don't hold on to any
minute because there's nothing there. Nothing there. Because God has
justly put away all my sins. They're gone. And he's done that
for everyone whom he's died for. And we're talking about a multitude
of sinners that no man can number. None of them wanted him. Not
one sinner has ever wanted God to save him until God saved him.
You know that? Until God saves a sinner, he
don't want to be saved. Not from his sins. Anybody that's
got enough sense to come in out of the rain, don't want to go
to hell. I mean, if you've got enough sense to get in out of
the rain, you don't want to go to that place. But that's not salvation. Salvation
is being saved from my sins and being made one with God, thereby
have fellowship with God Almighty. That's salvation. Christ prayed
that in John 17. Father, I pray that we may be
one. They may be one with us as we are one. That's what salvation
is. And when God is pleased to save
any sinner, He's going to command the light of the gospel. He's
going to command it. He's not going to offer it. He's
not going to offer you light. He's not going to offer me light.
He's going to command the light to shine out of darkness, and
He's going to shine in your heart and my heart, and you and I are
going to say, I see. I understand. And from that time throughout
eternity, we are going to praise Him for making us trophies of
His grace. Thank God if He shined in your
heart.