If you would like to turn, the
text will be found in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Let me say this by way of introduction. Good preaching is not negative
preaching, but rather positive. The ministry of the gospel does
not consist in breaking down, but building up the faith of
Jesus Christ. However, all of the apostles
in nearly every portion of God's word clearly and constantly warned
men and women and young people of the perilous times to come,
when evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse. And I believe it is quite evident
that we are living in those days. I am convinced by the days that
we are living in that it is my job, the job of the true under-shepherd
to protect the sheep or warn the sheep of approaching wolves. Let me read this to you in a
couple of verses of Scripture. The Apostle Paul, speaking to
the elders at Ephesus, says, Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves
and all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers,
to feed the church of God first and foremost, comfort God's people.
which he hath purchased with his own blood. But I know this,
that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among
you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples
after them." And he says over in another place in 2 Corinthians,
he says this, that you would bear with me a
little. And indeed, you do bear with me. I am jealous over you,
with godly jealousy. I have espoused you to one husband,
that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear,
lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. And I say this, that it's the false prophet who is
continually crying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. I want
you to look at, keep your place there in 2 Corinthians 4, and
look at Jeremiah 23. You've seen this before, but
look at it again. You may see something new. It's
the false prophet who continually cries over and over and over
again, without exception, peace, peace, when there is no peace. But the true and faithful watchman,
and that's what I am, a watchman, he warns the people of dangers
ahead. And look here in Jeremiah 23,
it's speaking of false prophets here. He says in verse 16, thus
saith the Lord of hosts. Hearken not unto the words of
the prophets that prophesy unto you, that make you vain." They
make you vain. They speak a vision of their
own heart. It's quite clear, isn't it, from
listening to these fellows, that they're not using the Word of
God, very little. They'll use it as a prop, but
they'll read one verse of Scripture and then parade all over the
stage flailing the book around as a prop, a religious prop.
But they're speaking a vision out of their own hearts and not
out of the mouth of the Lord. The word of God is not good enough.
They have to come up with something clever themselves. And this is
what they say, verse 17. The Lord God is saying this about
them. He says they say still or keep on continually saying
unto them that despise me, that hate God. They say the Lord has
said you shall have peace. God loves you. Here's a wonderful
plan for your life. They say you shall have peace
and they say unto everyone that walks after the imagination or
that is stubbornness of his own heart. They say no evil shall
come upon you. After all, God loves you and
Christ died for you. Everything's going to be all
right. Now, it's one thing to preach the gospel of peace in
Christ. how that Christ has made peace
through the blood of his cross. It's one thing to preach the
gospel of peace. It's quite another. It's another
gospel that tells men that God loves them, wants to save them
if they'll let him, and that they need to get right with God,
make their peace with God. That's a whole other gospel.
That's not another gospel, but it's a perversion. But I want
you to look here in 2 Corinthians at the true message of the true
gospel preacher. Look back a couple of pages from
the text. Look at 2 Corinthians by way
of leading up to it. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse
12. 2 Corinthians 1. I have to give you all this preface
to the message here. The Apostle Paul, right into
the Corinthians, says in verse 12, 2 Corinthians 1, He says,
our rejoicing is this. And the testimony of our conscience
that in simplicity, that is, we didn't use. Words of wisdom in preaching
the gospel message, the cross of Christ should be made of none
effect, we didn't try to use mighty oratory or. Use our intellect, the wisdom
of words, and so forth. But in simplicity and in godly
sincerity, God knows our hearts, and we're not trying to make
merchandise of you. We're not seeking your money
and so forth, and every true pastor and preacher has to be
able to say the same thing. That he's truly got the glory
of God first and foremost in his mind and the good of the
people, their eternal welfare at heart, not after their money,
their filthy lucre. Besides, and I can say that here
because there's no money here anyway. People that drive old
LTDs and, you know, or Mavericks and things, they don't have any
money anyway. I'm making a lot more money where I came from,
but in godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom either, not trying to convince you how clever we
are, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation
in the world and more abundantly to you. For we write no other
things unto you, we say nothing else than what you read right
here. We're just not going to do it.
We're not going to give you what we think. We're going to tell
you what this book says, and that's it. From what you read
or acknowledge, and I trust you shall acknowledge even to the
end. And look down at verse 18. But he says, As God is true, and knows our hearts, our word
towards you, our preaching towards you was not yay and nay, wishy-washy,
mealy-mouthy, you know, this and that. Well, this may be so,
you know, let's love, you know, you know what I'm saying, wishy-washy.
But the Son of God, for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was
preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus,
was not yay and nay. not all manner of doctrine, being
carried about with every wind of doctrine, blown to this side
or that side, but in him it was sure, one way, one truth, one
way, narrow. For all the promises of God are
in him, in Christ, and they are sure, and they are true, and
in him. Amen. Unto the glory of God by
us. Then look over chapter two. Chapter
2, verse 17. He says confidently here, he
says, we are not as many. And you know how that there are
many, many false preachers out in the world today. God knows
so many, so many more. I believe the ratio is much like
it was in the day of Elijah, which was 850 to 1 with all the
prophets that is. I believe the ratio is greater
than that now. We're not as many which corrupt or deal deceitfully
with the Word of God. Deal deceitfully with it, the
Word of God. But as of sincerity. It's not
enough, though, to be just sincere. You must be sincerely right,
according to this book. But as of sincerity, in all sincerity,
as of God, as though God did beseech you by us, In the sight
of God, it's him that we have to answer to, the true preacher.
This is our message. Look at it. We preach Christ. Speak we in Christ. That's our
message. Nothing else. No one else. Christ.
So look over at 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 1. Therefore, he says, seeing that
we have this ministry. What ministry is he talking about?
It's the gospel. Look over at Acts, chapter 20.
Keep your place there. Acts, chapter 20. Look at it. Acts, chapter 20, verse 24. The Apostle Paul says he was
in bonds and afflictions everywhere he went. In verse 24, he says,
But none of these things moved me, neither count I my life dear
unto myself. so that I might finish my course. The Lord has put me on a particular
course, has a particular purpose for me, and I long to finish
it with joy in the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus,
which is to testify the gospel of the grace of God. That's the
ministry and we have, he said, therefore, seeing we have this
ministry that is the gospel of the grace of God. There is no
other ministry. You hear these men all the time
talking on TV and so forth about the ministry. The Lord's given,
they given them a, uh, a bus ministry and they given them
a, uh, a youth ministry, a sports ministry, this ministry and that
ministry. There is no true ministry except
the ministration of the gospel. the feeding of the gospel to
God's people. And the Apostle Paul, a true preacher, says,
Therefore, see, we have this ministry, and it's the gospel
of the grace of God, not another gospel, but it's the gospel of
the holiness of God, the depravity of man, and their only hope in
the imputed righteousness in the person of Jesus Christ, the
gospel of the grace of God, not works, solely by grace, solely
by grace. How that God made a covenant
with Christ. to represent these people, atone for their sins,
and bring them back home safely. That's the gospel that we have.
And he says, look at it in verse 1, he says, Therefore, seeing
we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we don't
deserve salvation. We don't deserve salvation, much
less to be put in trust, to be allowed of God to be put in trust
with the gospel. You heard my story this morning,
some of your story. We didn't deserve to be saved
at all. It's strictly by the mercy of
God Almighty that we're the people of God now. But I think of myself
and the Apostle Paul says this here too. He says he counted
himself the least of the apostles in one place because he persecuted
the church. And don't you know that? That
plagued him all the days of his ministry, all the days of his
preaching that that hounded him, the thoughts of how he persecuted
God's people in times past. And he says he talked about a
vessel of mercy, a vessel of mercy, not only to save me, but
God put me in trust with this, the ministry of the gospel. And
I have to say the same thing. And he says, therefore, seeing
God has given us this precious gift, and it's all by his mercy
and by his grace, he says, we faint not. Look at it there in
verse 1. As we have received mercy, and you say the same thing
for yourselves, since God has been so kind and gracious and
merciful unto you in revealing his Son to you, we're not about
to quit. We faint not. Even though we
meet with many adversaries and afflictions and difficulties
and the trials and tribulations we go through, we're not going
to quit. We're not going to quit because
we cannot help but speak the things which we've seen and heard. We can't help it. We can't help
it. That's what the true minister, true preacher has to say. In
verse 2, look at this. So we're not about to quit. But
we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty or shame. We've renounced these hidden
things of dishonesty. Not only do we not faint or quit,
and not only do we speak the truth as it is in Christ, the
true gospel of God's grace, but we're going to speak out against
error, too. We're going to be bold to speak out against all
the heresy that's going on. That's what he says, that we're
renouncing, publicly renouncing, the hidden things of dishonesty. Renouncing these things. We unabashedly
renounce all these subtle, hidden forms of trickery that's going
on under the name of Christianity. All these dishonest and false
preachers and prophets. The true preacher is bound and
determined to expose these fellows, to his people especially. And
look at this. Look at verse 2. not walking
in craftiness, that is, doing anything and everything
to get people to join our church and to support our habits, but
rather we denounce these gimmicks and these methods and these craftily
rehearsed soul-winning techniques. Let me give you an illustration. You may have heard this. I'm
sure you may have. He used to hold crusades years
ago, and this fellow that we now know used to be a member
of that crusade. And he said that they trained
them. They trained them to be counselors
and so forth, but the methods that they used when going into
these cities to hold these big revivals and so forth were that
They would go into a town and for every, I think it was every
100 people that were in a church, they'd go to the various churches
in the town and ask them if they wanted to participate in this
crusade that they were having. And for every 100 people in the
church, they would choose one or two counselors. They'd have
the church give them one or two counselors. So in a city of of,
I don't know, 20,000 people or so, there might be 100 churches. That's probably the ratio. There's
that many churches in Rocky Mount, practically. But anyway, there
would be one or two counselors from every church for every 100
people. So you have 100 churches, that's,
let's see, that's 10,000 people, and that's one counselor for
every 100 people. That's how many? or a thousand counselors, something
like that. Well, anyway, you figure it out. But anyway, during
these Crusades, when Billy Graham would give the altar call, now
this fellow was a part of this thing. He said this is the way
it was. This was subtle forms of trickery. That when he'd give
the altar call at the end of the Crusade, he told all the
counselors to sit on the outside of the house. And when he gave
the altar call, all the counselors were to step out of their seats
and come down front. Come down front. Misleading the
people into thinking that all these people were flocking down
the aisles. And you know how people are like sheep. You know,
if he's going, I'm going. You know, following. And you
see him. You see him walking down the front. There's no tears.
There's no repentance. Subtle forms of trickery. Handling the word of God, walking
in craftiness, that's craftily rehearsed, soul winning technique. And when you get them down front,
get this out of them. Get them to admit this, get them
to admit that. Always shake your head like this. You know you're
a sinner, don't you? Yes, always get a positive. You've heard
these things. But we're not walking in craftiness,
the true preacher of God says, nor handling the word of God
deceitfully. Nor handling the word of God
deceitfully by either taking away from it, or adding to it. They're not going to do it. But,
look at this, verse 2, by manifestation of the truth, by manifestation
of the truth, it's the truth that we want people to hear,
the truth as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ, the truth of the
gospel, the truth of salvation, how God saves men and women and
young people, only in and through Christ, His imputed righteousness. By manifestation of that truth,
We long for that truth to be known, for that truth to be proclaimed. By manifestation of that truth,
look at it, verse 2, everybody look, we commend ourselves to
every man's conscience in the sight of God. We've got nothing
to hide. Nothing to hide. Nothing to hide,
but rather we beseech men and women to do as those noble boys,
to go home. and take the things they've heard,
and take out the Scriptures, and search them to see if what
we're saying is so. That's the reason these newspaper
articles that we're putting in the newspaper, I fill them, we
fill them full of Scripture verses. I don't want people to get the
slightest notion that these are merely my thoughts. It's something
I've come up with, or we've come up with, but rather it's the
Word of God. We want men, we beseech men,
to look at the Word of God, take what we're saying, go home and
prove it, whether or not it be so. And look at verse 3 there. But he says, if our gospel is
hid, it's not because we're hiding it. If our gospel be hid, it's not
because we're hiding it. We've got nothing to hide. If
how God saves sinners is not clear after hearing a true gospel
preacher preach, it's not because that man has corrupted the Word
of God or handled it deceitfully. And it's not because he's used
too fine a speech to gloss over terms, you know. I've heard men
say that, that you can preach the gospel without using the
terms, such as election. The man of God has no right to
to use his own discretion as what words he can use from God's
Word, but he's to boldly proclaim every word of God's truth. Election
with boldness, predestination, all these things that men hate,
so vehemently opposed to. The true preacher is to proclaim
them boldly, confidently. And if salvation by God's sovereign
grace is hidden, So that men do not understand, receive, or
believe it, it's because they're willingly ignorant. It's not
because the true preacher is hidden these things. Now, that
can be said of these false prophets, but not a true preacher. If our
gospel be hid, it's hid to them that just lost. That's all there
is to it. They're just lost. Look at verse
4. In whom the God of this world
has blinded the minds. God of this world has blinded
the minds of them which believe not." There is an unholy trinity
at work in the world, much like an anti-type of the Holy Trinity—God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There is
an unholy trinity at work, an evil trinity. It consists of
Satan, who's the father of all lies. He's the father of it all.
He's blinded the minds of unbelievers. Satan. Satan's grand design,
we'll see that here, he says, we'll look at it. Verse 4, the
God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who's the image
of God, should shine unto them. Satan's grand design is to blind
the minds, to plug up the ears, to close the eyes, to close the
heart and the hearts of all the people from hearing the gospel. He knows what the power of God
is under salvation. It's the gospel. And his grand
design is to make sure nobody hears that gospel. And that's
what he's fighting. That's where he's fighting. So
consequently, he's doing most of his work in the church house.
from these false prophets and so forth, feeding them false
doctrine, another gospel, preaching another Jesus and so forth. Blasting
the true gospel, you know. Don't let them go down there.
They believe that sovereign grace stuff, you know. And his grand
design is, and he has his ministers, his prophets, speak anything
and everything. Things people like to hear, too. Abortion, politics, all these
things. Biblical truths, they like to
delve into biblical truths, yes. Anything but the true gospel. Anything. Keep people from hearing
that gospel. That's the father of this unholy
trinity. Then there's the son. Christ
said, you are of your father the devil. That is ourselves.
We keep ourselves. By nature, we keep ourselves
from this salvation. By nature, we're so taken up
with ourselves, We're so taken up with ourselves
that we don't have time for God, and we certainly don't see the
beauty of Christ. We're so taken up with ourselves that we don't
see the beauty of Christ. Simple illustration. You get
ready for church in the morning, and you say, honey, let's go
to church. She says, okay, how do I look?
What difference does it make? Let's go worship God. That's
what we're doing this thing for. But we're nearsighted, you see.
We can't see afar off like Stephen who looked up and saw Christ
sitting at the right hand of God. The beauty of Christ. But
we look inward. We look at ourselves. Look at
what we're doing and so forth. And then there's the sin, this
unholy spirit that's at work in this thing. This unholy spirit
of sin has men and women and boys and girls enslaved to it.
Enslaved to it. Like pigs, hogs, wallowing in
the mud of drugs and sex and all these things. Wallowing in
the mud. Enslaved to it. Oh, they think
they're free. They think they're their own
men. They think they're pretty independent.
They think they know everything. But they're really just wallowing
in the mud. Like foolish hogs. That's all they're doing. I know. I was in there. I had mud in
my eye. and mud in my mouth. I know what I'm talking about. But let it clearly be established
that all who are in superstition and darkness and sin and don't
see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ are there partly
out of ignorance, but mostly out of willful disobedience.
We're responsible. Look at it there in verse 4 again.
He says, The God of this world has placed unholy trinity, has
blinded the minds of them which believe not. They're unbelievers in the first
place. And Satan is just working to keep them from hearing the
gospel. They don't believe it in the first place. See, they're
already condemned. They that believe not are condemned
already, the Scripture says. They believe not. And in Satan,
it's really just pretty easy for him to keep them from hearing
the gospel. There's not that many anyway preaching the gospel.
The power of God overrules that. Well, anyway, the true preachers
of God say, we've got nothing to hide, we've got nothing to
hide, uh-uh. You want to manifest the truth
to all men before their conscience. And he says this, although we
are ashamed of ourselves, true preacher of God, and I say this
concerning myself, I'm ashamed of my life, I'm ashamed of my
lack of diligence, My lack of sincerity, shame of the hypocrisy
I'm full of, sin I'm full of, shame of all these things, shame
of my laziness, unworthiness. Although if we do everything
that's required of us, we still have to say we're unprofitable
servants. But although we're ashamed of ourselves and not
sufficient to think anything of ourselves, yet we're bold
to proclaim the truth because, look at verse 5, because we're
not preaching ourselves anyway. We're trying our best, like you
taught on this morning, Terry. The servant of God is trying
his best to point the people away from himself and to Christ,
like Abraham's servant going to find a bride for Isaac. He
was an old fellow, and he said, Don't look at me. I want you
to see the beauty of Isaac. I want you to fall in love with
Isaac. That's who I want you to see. And the true preacher
of the gospel is trying his best to not There couldn't be a better
illustration or a better example of this than Brother Scott Richardson.
Just a simple country man, an old coal miner, a former coal
miner. He preaches very plainly, very
simply, but you can mark it down that in his message, he's going
to get around to pointing you to Christ. Don't look at me. I've nothing to look at. Look
to him. Look to him. We preach not ourselves,
but the false prophet somehow, subtly, trickily, craftily. He's out for his own glory, isn't
he? You mark it down. They've got their name written
all over the church house, all over their Bibles, all over their
study programs and so forth. It's so clear, isn't it, if you
have eyes to see. But not the true preacher, the
true prophet, the true pastor. He says, we preach not ourselves,
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, God's true preachers. They're not trying to draw attention
to themselves by signs, by miracles, by talents, by charisma, by theatrical
exhibitions. And it'd be very easy. You know,
I want to see things happen here. I'd like to have big crowds here.
And you folks would too. I'd like to see people weeping
and walking down the aisles and so forth, but I'm not going to
use tricks and games and emotional, theatrical clopoterring to bring
people down front. This is it. This is all there
is to it. This is all there is to the preaching
of the gospel. This word right here, it's not
in there. Don't say it. Don't say it. Hollywood
productions, great emotional singing, flowery and eloquent
speeches. But the true preacher of God
is not preaching himself, but Christ Jesus the Lord. Christ
Jesus the Lord. We are determined not to know
anything among you, or for you to know anything among us, save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. To preach the gospel, to exalt
the person of Christ, to exalt Him, to glorify Him, To point
men to Him who is their only hope, not to me, not to themselves. Christ Jesus, you notice there
he said, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. And there's the key. The Lord,
that Jesus Christ is truly Lord, that all things, all people,
all events, all providence, all blessings, all life, all death,
judgment, everything, salvation is of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's in His hands and no other. None other name given among men
under heaven whereby we must be saved. Jesus Christ is our
only hope, your only hope. And that's the true preacher's
message. He points people to Him. And we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord. And look at this verse, or this
part of the verse. And ourselves, your servants,
merely a servant for Jesus Christ's sake. All apostles, all preachers
and teachers and evangelists and pastors are given by God
Almighty to the Church. They're given to the Church.
Not vice versa. It appears to me that some of
these fellows think that God made a church just for them,
you know, and that everybody's just supposed to wait on them
hand and foot. That's not the way it is. That's
not the way it is. God gave some apostles, some
prophets, some teachers, some evangelists for the perfecting
of the saints, for the edifying of the body and so forth, Paul
said, till we all come to the unity of the faith. And a minister
of the gospel is just that. He's a minister. He's a minister. He's to faithfully study and
prepare gospel messages to minister, to feed, to teach, to minister
to the hearts of the people, the hearts of God's people. He's
a servant. He's a servant. The Apostle Paul
said, in all things approving ourselves as ministers of God.
And this is the reason I'm ashamed of myself. I need to post this
on the wall. He talks about. By honor and
dishonor, being willing to go be a dishonorable person in the
community by evil report, slander and good report. As deceivers,
people thinking you're a deceiver, yet true as unknown. Ain't nobody down there who's
he and yet well known by God. as dying, and behold, we live
as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful," and there is sorrow
in this thing, preaching, because of the lack of response more
than anything, "...yet always rejoicing in Christ, as poor,"
there ain't much money to be made, "...yet making many rich
in Christ, as having nothing, yet possessing all things." That's
a true servant of God. And he does it all for the glory
and the exaltation of his Lord and his Master, Jesus Christ. Christ said it. He said, as I've
done unto you, do you also to one another. Serve one another. And look at verse 6 there. We'd
be amiss to not touch on this verse. The true servant of God
preaches not himself, but Jesus Christ the Lord, and ourselves
your servants' sake, for God in mercy and grace. This same
God, the Creator, the Author of all things, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, is the same God as He who has
shined in our hearts to give us the light, the blessed gift,
the glorious gift That unspeakable gift of His grace in revealing
unto us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. And where
is that? It's in the face of Jesus Christ. That's the glory
of God. That's the gospel. And that's
the ministry of every true gospel preacher, person. He says, Therefore,
seeing we have this ministry. This is our ministry. This is
what we're here for. This is why I'm here. The Apostle said
this is why he was there. We've got this ministry. He said
in one verse, we have such hope, and we use great plainness of
speech. And therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as God
has been so merciful in giving it to us, we ain't going to quit. He might fire me, and I don't
think he will, but we ain't quitting. It might feel like it at times,
I mean, but we ain't quitting. We've got a ministry. God's put us in it. And by His
grace, by His mercy, we're going to continue to preach, not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servant, for
His sake. We can be of any help to you
in the gospel. So let us know. Let us know. Well, let's stand and stand with
me and sing a song. Do you know that song Jesus,
Savior, Pilot, Maid? Do you sing that song? Do you? Well, let's try that. It's hymn
number 303. Hymn number 303. If you don't know it, Sherry,
we'll just fake it. Stand with me. Let's sing this
hymn.