Let's read verse 1. The apostle Paul says, Therefore,
seeing we have this ministry. This ministry. Ministry means
service. You minister to someone. You serve them. You do something
for them. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, we, Paul is talking about himself, Timothy, Silas,
other preachers of the gospel, and the church here. He's talking about we, we. Seeing
we have this ministry, this service, all right? What is this ministry
Paul is talking about? What is this service? We're having
a service this morning. What is it all about? What is
this church all about? Why does this church, Central
Baptist Church, exist? What's our purpose? What is our
ministry? You hear that a lot, don't you?
Our ministry is this, to this such and such, to such and such.
What is our ministry? I turn over to Ephesians 3. Ephesians
chapter 3 with me. Turn over there. This is the
ministry. This is the service which the
true preacher performs, which the true church is all about. That's what it's all about. That's
why we're here. This is the purpose for our existence. Look at Ephesians 3, verses 6
and 7. that the Gentiles should be fellow
heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the
gospel whereof I was made a minister." That is, the gospel, he said,
is what I serve up. The gospel. And that's what our
brother prayed. Our gospel. The true gospel.
The gospel. Paul said, is what we serve up. That's all we do here. That's
what this is all about. That's what the true preacher
does. He preaches. Preaches what? The gospel. And that's why the church is
here. To declare and preach the gospel. It's not a social organization.
It's not a poor man's country club. It's not just a fellowship, a
place where you can go and see your friend. It's a gospel house,
a gospel life house. He says we have this ministry.
Look at chapter 4, Ephesians 4, verse 11 and 12. It says that
Christ gave some apostles and prophets and evangelists, pastors
and teachers, for the perfecting, that is, the maturing of the
saints for the work of the ministry. The work of the ministry. That sounds like there's just
one, doesn't it? Sounds like there's just one
ministry, one service to be performed. And how many times we have brought
this up, that folks ask us or ask the church, what are you
doing for your young people? We're preaching the gospel to
them. Barnard one time said that to a man. What are you doing
for the young people?" He said, trying to keep the souls out
of hell. Barnard said, we're not trying
to entertain sinners on the road to hell. We're trying to preach
the gospel which is able to make them wise unto salvation. And
at every time, at every opportunity, though they may not like it,
though the parents might be interested in something else, we're just
going to preach the gospel in hopes, in hope of the Lord someday. bringing it home to the heart.
That's our ministry. That's our ministry. The ministry to the poor? Yes.
The poor have the gospel preached unto them. The ministry to the
blind? Yes. The blind have their eyes
opened. The ministry of the deaf? Yes. Everyone who first hears the
gospel was deaf. So this is our ministry. Preaching
of the gospel of Christ is the ministry of the preacher and
the church. All right? Look at our text now,
verse 1. He says, seeing we have this
ministry as we have received mercy. As we have received mercy. We
have this ministry. We're doing what we're doing.
We believe what we believe. We are what we are by the grace
of God. by the mercy of God. It's the
mercy of God, people, that I'm not standing up here now dressed
in a long robe and trying to impress you with long words or
throwing water in your face or doing some ridiculous thing. Again, that's what our brother
prayed. Thank you for revealing this gospel to us. It's the mercy
of God that we're not carried away with other things right
now. It's the mercy of God that this place is not full of pictures
and statues and choirs and robes and cantatas and musicals and
dramas and processionals and all that. It's the mercy, the
wonderful mercy, saving mercy of God that all you're going
to hear this morning is God's Word. That's mercy. That is mercy. Sometimes I watch
these things and I wish they'd have mercy. Please, just preach to me. That's what
centers, that's what God demands, that's what the center needs.
The ministry of the gospel. So you see that? Paul says, therefore,
seeing we have this ministry, the preaching of the gospel,
as we have received mercy, read on, we faint not. We faint not. That is, not going to quit. Not
going to quit. Now, I have to confess, there
are times when I feel like quitting. It wasn't a few weeks ago that
I was ready to turn in my resignation, but I remember Paul said, in
one place, he said to the Hebrews at Wallace, he said, now, we
are persuaded better things of you, things that accompany salvation. That is Hebrews 6. He said, if
it were possible. But now, no. No. And it wasn't
because of you, it was because of me and many things. But he
said, we are not going to quit. We are not going to quit. We are
not going to faint. tempted to, every one of us are tempted to,
to quit. There are many reasons. I'd like to quit being a preacher
at times because of the corruption that's in religion today. All
the time. Everybody in this community knows
I'm a preacher. I have this stigma attached to
it. And I'd like to quit. because
of this corruption that is religion today. I don't want to be known
as a preacher, one of these fellows. Honestly. There was a time years
ago when a preacher had some respect. People looked up to
him. There were two men, back in the
old days, two or three hundred years or more ago, there were
two men in the community that were the most respected and looked
up to. Everybody went to them. Preacher and a doctor. But Paul says, we're not going
to quit. Paul said that in another place. I think it's, yeah, chapter
6, he says, look over there real quickly. In chapter 6, look at
this. Chapter 6, verse 4. You got it? In all things approving ourselves
as the ministers of God. servants of God. How, Paul? Well, verse 8, by honor and dishonor. Some honor us, but most dishonor.
By evil report, verse 8, evil report and good report. Deceivers,
some say we're deceivers, Paul said. Some call us deceivers,
Jim Joneses and all that, but no, he says others know we're
true. Read on. As unknown, verse 9. Nobody's from nowhere, yet well-known,
and so on and so forth. We say, we're not going to quit.
We're not going to quit because of the corruption that's in religion
today, because of the poor response, because of the lack of turnout. We're not going to quit. We're
not going to faint. Why? Because everybody God-purposed
to hear this gospel is going to hear this gospel. He said,
My sheep will hear my voice. They will. They will. Whether
the Lord says 100 or 1, if He says 1, we'll just keep on plucking.
Keep feeding 1. We're not going to faint. Read
on. Verse 2 in our text. He says we've renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty. We don't shrink. When he says
we faint not, that means shrink back. Shrink back. Coward. Shrink back. We're not
going to faint, we're not going to quit, but we renounce. In
other words, not only do we not shrink back, but we openly and
publicly renounce what's going on. See that? That's what he's saying.
We renounce, we openly, dogmatically, unabashedly declare that this
is the gospel and that other is another gospel. It's not the
gospel at all. We renounce the hidden things of dishonesty. Now, one of these days, I told you,
one of these days I'm going to take one of these services. and
show you some things. I've been collecting junk mail,
religious junk mail. I started collecting it. It took
me about four days to accumulate all a folder would hold. Honestly. And I'm going to share
it with you. You won't believe your ears and
your eyes what's going on today. You won't believe it. I get it.
I get it all the time. I'm swamped with it. There have been times when I
wrote back these places and said, don't send me this junk mail. I'm going to show it to you.
Hidden things. Hidden things of dishonesty. Read on. Hidden
things. Not walking in craftiness. He
said, we renounce these hidden things of dishonesty. Not walking
in craftiness. Deceptions, handling the word
of God deceitfully, contrived things, planned things. You know, religion is run like
a business, people. It really is. I know something
about the training ground for religious. I know something about
it. And they train these fellows just like they would used car
salesmen. I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you the truth,
crafty techniques and so forth, subtle gimmicks and so forth.
Paul says we don't do that. We don't. But by manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. In other words, we do one thing
which commends us as true preachers. There's one thing that we do
which should commend us, Paul said, to all who hear us in the
sight of God. That sound familiar? Do you hear
the radio? One thing commends the true preacher of the gospel.
What's that? He preaches the truth. The truth. But by manifestation
of the truth commending ourselves. That's what commends us. before
you, in your conscience, and before God. That's what commends
the true preacher. He preaches the truth. The whole
truth. The whole truth. And nothing
but the truth. So help me, God. A man called me on the phone
this week. He'd been listening to, darn
it, he'd been listening to my pastor on the TV watching. And he called me because he couldn't,
he's not on TV anymore. And he said, what happened to
the program? He's from Roanoke, this man.
What happened to the program? He said, I watched him every
Sunday since the first time I saw him. And we talked a little while. Anyway, he said, you can't hardly
find the truth. He said, you won't hear anybody
saying things like election and predestination and saying things
that God's Word teaches. You won't hear that anymore.
How true that is. There are few and far between,
these true preachers of the truth. This is what commends them before
men's consciences. Well, there's a man who's actually
standing before everybody and saying, God's God. Why the audacity
of him? Well, he's actually standing
up and saying, God elected a people. That's right. That's what God
said. That's how you know them. By
the truth. The truth. Read on. He says,
commended ourselves to every man's conscience. Now, you remember
when Paul said, well, no, it was when he came into Berea and the Jews
there, it said, The Jews were more noble than the other Jews. That is, they were more thinking people. They were thoughtful,
meditative. They were noble people. They
considered things carefully. And it says that when they heard
Paul and Silas Timothy preach, it says they went home. and got
him a Bible and searched the Scriptures to see if these things
were so. They got him a Bible and it's
like one fellow told, I think it was Brother Fortner one time,
he said, I'm going to get my Bible and I'm going to prove
you wrong. Fortner said, would you please,
please get your Bible out. and search it from start to finish. Please, that's, you insist upon
it. Take it home, study it carefully,
weigh everything I've said, we've said, in light of God's Word,
and see if it's so. And if it's not so, and you find
scripture contrary, bring it to me and I'll stop saying it. That's what he, that's what Paul
says, commending ourselves to every man's conscience. Verse
3, he says, if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are
lost. I've heard preachers say, well,
don't say that. Don't come right out and say
election. That's deep doctrine and they
can't receive that. You need to sneak it up on them,
you know. Get them saved and then sneak this doctrine. Election is undisciplined. What
was it that came to Paul after he received his sign? Ananias
came to Paul. What was the first thing out
of his mouth? The first thing out of that preacher's mouth
to Paul? God hath chosen thee. The first thing out of Peter's
mouth, practically. elect according to the foreknowledge
of God." Our gospel's hid, it's not hid
because we're hiding anything, he said. It's hid to them that
are lost. Read on, "...in whom the God
of this world," he's talking about, you know, who he's talking
about, the God of this world. have blinded the minds of them
which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image, the express image, in him dwelleth the bodily
fullness of God. Satan hath blinded the minds
of those that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ should shine unto them." He said, our gospel is not hid
because we are hiding it. But it's because God has hidden
it. Number one, God has hidden it. You know that? But you said it says the God
of this world. Didn't our Lord say, I thank
thee, O Father, that thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent and revealed it unto me? Even so, Father, it's in
good in your sight. God hides it from us. And this
hiding by the God of this world is to those that believe not
already. Those that believe not already.
It's like John 3.18, which very few know. They know 3.16. But John 3.18 says, He that believeth
on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned
already. He that believeth not is not
under the love of God, but under the condemnation of God. And
God turns certain people over to Satan. They believe not. But God, who is rich in mercy
for some people, shines in their heart. That's what he says down
here. Verse 5. Read on. He says, We
preach not ourselves. This is the truth. The truth
is Christ Jesus the Lord. Isn't that what Christ said? I am the way. Truth. I am the way. Christ said, I
am the way. One way to get to God. There's
one way a human being is going to get to God. Jesus Christ. There's one way a sinner is going
to get to live with a holy God. It's by Jesus Christ giving him
his righteousness. One way. One truth, the truth,
everything else is a lie. Anything that does not point
to the Lord Jesus Christ, any doctrine, any work, anything
that's not done by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is unacceptable
to God. It's positively an evil work.
Isn't that right? Isn't that what the scripture
says, Vicki? Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Christ said, I am the life. Though
a man may be this or that and the other, if he doesn't know
Christ, he's dead while he yet liveth. This is life that they
might know thee. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son, I don't
care how alive they appear, how sincere they appear, hath not
life. That's plain, isn't it? Christ
is the truth. Jesus Christ. We preach not ourselves. Paul says we're not preaching
ourselves. Do you remember when they came to John the Baptist
and asked him who he was? Do you remember that? They came
to John, a true preacher, and they said, Who are you? Where
did you come from? Where did you go to school? Oh, I'd like
to have a nickel for every time I've been asked that. And a nickel for every time they
find out I haven't gone to school. They came to John and said, Where
did you come from? Who are you? Tell us your credentials.
And he had them, didn't he? The Lord acknowledged him as
the greatest man born of woman. What did John say? When they
asked John all about himself, what did he say? He said, What's
your name? Patrick, he wouldn't even tell
him his name. He wouldn't even tell him his
name. What's your name? That's not important. I'm not
preaching me. I'm not out to make a name for
myself. There's one name you need to know, and to know that
name is to have eternal life. George Whitefield one time said,
let the name of George Whitefield perish from the earth. Let the
name of Jesus Christ be forever known, and worship and pray. Huh? Paul says, and I have to
make a name for ourselves. We're not Pauline people. That's a fancy word, isn't it,
Brother Ed? Some of them like to use it.
We're Pauline. We're Paul. That's what the Corinthians said.
We're Paul. We're Apollos. Paul said, I didn't
die for you. Apollos wasn't crucified for
you. Jesus Christ is. He said, who is Paul? Who is
Apollo? Water boys. Water boys. So he says, we're not preaching
ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. What a phrase. What a name. Christ Jesus the
Lord. And ourselves, your servants,
not your lords. Well, I have, you know, I'm your
ruling elder. Paul never said that. One time
he did, and he did say, I could have used authority, but I didn't.
Oh, he could have, couldn't he? One time he killed a man with
a word, die. That's authority. Now, no man
has that man, but the apostles did. that Paul says here, you
see the spirit of the true preacher? I'm not your Lord, I'm not your
ruler, your servant. For Jesus' sake, for Christ's
sake. Verse 6. Poor God. Now he says in verse
4, that God of this world has blinded the minds of them which
believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
whose image of God should shine unto them, but God now, for God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, he hath shined
in our hearts. He hath shined in some hearts.
Yes, he has. He hath shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Christ. Now, here's the mercy of God. Now, get a hold of this, believer. Rejoice in the mercy of God now.
There are many throughout the world sitting in a pew just like
you are, hearing nothing of Christ. There will be men standing forth
this very day on the Lord's day and never mention the Lord's
name. I know it's so. I told you I've
got a whole folder full of stuff, but the Christ's name is not
in it anywhere. Blessed be God. He hath shined
in our hearts, these dark hearts of ours, to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The light. You know, when I look, this is
what I look for, and I long so much to see light come on in
faces where there was darkness before. I've seen it. over the
years. I've seen it. I've seen some
sitting there like, boy, is it time yet? And then all of a sudden
one day, tears running down the face,
sitting on the edge of the seat, where is that? Searching the
scripture. What? Come on. God hath shined
in the hearts of some people to give life. I see, I see. Like that blind, no less than
that blind man one day that, he's born blind, and then all
of a sudden, years later, I see. I see, thank God, I see. I once
was blind, but now I see. Light. What's the light? The
knowledge of the glory of God. All over the world there is some
mamby-pamby little pimp, preacher, standing up with a robe, looking
like a woman, saying words nobody understands. With a contrived voice, oh God,
oh God, oh God, nobody's hearing anything. But God has not left himself
without a witness. All over this land, in little
places, they're hard to find, but you can find them if you
You'll find a man standing up, declaring a God who's God, and
a Christ who's Christ. A salvation that saves. Oh, what mercy. What mercy. We're preaching on ourselves.
We're not hiding things. We're not going through the motions.
We're not just getting our sermon delivered. We're hoping, we're praying,
we're calling on God. It's what you pray. Let your
power be known in this place. Shine in the heart of somebody
as blind as a bat. Some dead young person. who if
they don't hear and see Christ, they're a goner. That's what we pray for. That's
what this is all about. This ain't no Sunday morning
religious meeting. We can go anywhere and get that.
Please, Lord, shine, shine. Paul one day was religious, and
God about him, he was religious, religious, religious. You believe
God? Yeah, I believe God. On his road
to Damascus one day, Christ confronted him. Christ, the living Christ,
shined down on him, knocked him to the dirt. That's what I look
for. I look for, all of a sudden,
the countenance to change. Go from sitting, listening to
a sermon, to see life. of the knowledge of the glory
of God, the fear of God. Where is it found? Where do you
see this? Where is this glory known, this glory of God? Where
is it seen? In the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not just pitiful. I saw it. drawing that poster of old George
Custer the other day. That's where this came from. He's kneeling down on the ground
and playing cards. He's holding aces and eights.
He's got a winning hand. And an arrow pierced him for
it. And old brother Tim said that
picture they have of that Jesus looks just like old George Custer. Holding aces and eights. He said
it looks just like him. Looks just like him. The
face of Jesus Christ doesn't look like that. That's an idol.
That's some man drew that. That's some pitiful, poor Jesus
who right now is doing the same thing. He's doing the same thing. Preachers all over the land are
saying, he's outside your heart's door right now knocking, old
George Custer. Won't you let him in, please?
The face of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you about the face
of Jesus Christ. One time the children of Israel
said to Moses, hide us from the face of Him that sits on the
throne. In Revelation 1 you have a picture,
there is a picture, a description of the Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation
1. You know what it says His face looks like? John said his face was as the
sun that shined in its strength. Have you ever looked at the sun?
Have you ever looked at the sun? Henry, have you ever looked straight
at the sun at high noon? Have you ever in your life done
that? You can't. Why? Blind you. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
description, not some pitiful Jesus. The face of Christ is
a face of power and glory and strength and holiness that would
consume a man. Read on. It says, we have this
treasure, verse 7, and I'm going to quit. Just a few more verses. God hath shined in some hearts
to give that knowledge. God hath shined in some hearts
to give that knowledge, the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God. And it's in the person of Christ,
it's in His person, who He is, and what He's done. The glory
of God seen in Christ crucified, the mercy of God, the glory of
His mercy, the glory of His grace, the glory of His love is seen
in Christ hanging on that cross, Christ sitting on that throne,
ever living to make intercession for four helpless worms. That's
the glory of God. And we're going to see his face.
Someday we're going to see his face. I mean, actually look into
the face of the Son. We'll have eyes to see. Well,
he says, but now, but for now, we have this treasure, this glory. Sunlight in a bottle. Sunlight
in a bottle. Let me show you the Son. Everybody,
I'm going to show you the Son. What have I shown you? I said, let me say something
about the face of Christ. I almost wanted to put my hand
over my mouth. What can you say about the face
of Christ? You've never seen it. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, clay pots. I think Paul is referring to
himself as a preacher. and just a poor fellow. You know, evidently Paul had
a physical deformity. Evidently the apostle Paul had
a disfigurement of one of his eyes. Brother Roy, he talks about
one of his eyes, his eye problem, several times. Some say he was
so terribly nearsighted that he had a Some said, I'll foul
me, where his eye was nearly shut. And he was a small fellow, very
small. History says he was a little
bald-headed fellow. Now, think about this. Here comes this,
and everywhere he went, everywhere he went, you know, it was just
him. Most of the time, just him before fouls. Here comes this
little fellow, a little bald-headed fellow with an eye problem, you
know. Stood up before, you know, many times he was in chains.
The whole world scoffing at him, who is this? And all these learned
doctors, who's this bad blower? And he'd stand up. He'd stand up before a thousand. And God would speak. And the
strongest men are reduced to whimpering babies. That's what Paul's saying. We
have this treasure, it's an earthen vessel. Why? That the excellency
of the power of it might be of God, that you'll know it's not
a man. What's this vain look at him? He's a nothing, he's
a nobody. What's he going to say? Boom! through this nobody. If you want
to hear God, you want to hear a nobody. That way you won't
lift up the nobody. You don't even remember the nobody. You remember that old song I
was telling you about, that old spiritualist said, there's just
a bunch of nobodies trying to tell everybody about somebody
who can save anybody. that the excellency of the power
might be of God and not of us. Not of us. And then he goes on
to say, well, we're troubled on every side. Well, we're not
without trouble. We're not without trouble. Paul
has had nothing but trouble. A true preacher of the gospel,
that's what he'll get. He won't be well-known and well-liked. He'll be the most infamous and
most hated man in the community. I know that. I grew up with a
man who everybody hates. I'm telling you. Everybody but
God's people out here. Trouble on every side, he said. But we're
not in distress. It doesn't distress us. He says,
we're perplexed. Perplexed means confused. Don't have all the answers. Sometimes
we look for answers. He said, we're distressed, but
not perplexed. Distressed, but not perplexed.
I mean, we're perplexed, but not in despair. That is, we don't
despair of knowing the reason at some point. He says we're perplexed, that
is, at times we're confused. Why did you do that? You look
at the prophets. Look at the stories of the prophets
all the way through. And Moses went, Lord, why are you doing
this? I thought, how can you compass
your purpose and take Him? How can you do this and do that
and do what you're doing? We're perplexed. Not in distress. Not in despair. We're going to
see. We just settle down now. The
Lord has told that to Moses. Just settle down, Moses. Just
wait. You'll see. Not in despair. Read on. Persecuted. Oh, my. Persecuted. Everybody gunning
for him. But if God be for us, we're not
forsaken. What does it matter if the whole
world is against him? He's God before. Huh? Not forsaken. Paul one time, Henry, said, everybody's
left me. Everybody but the one that matters. Who said, I will never leave
you, nor forsake you. So what does it matter? Read
on. We're cast down. Oh, David said, I'm cast down. Why? Deborah, he said, why art
thou cast down within me, O my soul? Hope in God. We're not
destroyed. It's of the Lord's mercies we're
not consumed. And so he says, and then he goes
on to talk about his troubles and their troubles and how they
went through all that they did for the glory of God and for
the sake of the church and all that. And verse 16, then he says,
for this cause, he says it again, for this cause. You're not going
to quit. You're not going to quit. You're not going to quit. How
about you? You need to ask yourself this,
because all of God's people go through these same things to
some degree, right? Trouble, persecution, perplexed. Hatred, trials, troubles, all
of God's people tempted to quit? Let me ask you. There's a door. Will you also go away? What's
your answer? Where are we going to go? This
is life. Christ is our life. Right? All because God in mercy has
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless
God. All right. Sherry, if you'll come. I've
lost my paper. The number's on it. What number
is it? Twenty-three? Twenty-three. Twenty-three. May the Lord put
all that in your running bag, and let you chew on it all week. Come, we that love the Lord,
and let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord,
and dance around the throne. Let those refuse to sing, who
never knew our God, but children of the heavenly King, may treat
their joys of love. Last verse. Then let our songs
abound, and every tear we dry. We're marching through Emmanuel's
crown, and the world's on fire.