Chapter 9 of I Corinthians. I begin reading in verse 14.
It says, Even so hath the Lord ordained
that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. But
I have used none of these things, neither have I written these
things, that it should be so done unto me. for it were better
for me to die than that any man should make my glorying void.
For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for
necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach
not the gospel. For if I do this thing willingly,
I have a reward. But if against my will, a dispensation
of the gospel is committed unto me, What is my reward then? Verily, that when I preach the
gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that
I abuse not my power in the gospel. For though I be free from all
men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the
more. And unto the Jews I became as
a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. To them that are under
the law is under the law, that I might gain them that are under
the law. To them that are without law
is without law, being not without law to God, but under the law
to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law. To
the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I made
all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's
sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you. Know ye not
that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the
prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And
every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible
crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly,
so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my
body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when
I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway." Now, of
course, Paul was speaking to the Corinthians concerning the
matter of his being an apostle. and pointing out to them that
as evidently there was some talk among them to criticize him in
his apostleship and as to whether or not he had the full credentials
of an apostle. And he was saying, you know,
in no thing did I come behind any of the apostles in declaring
to you the Word of God. He said, in fact, He said, you
as a people, as a church here in Corinth, owe your existence
to the work that the Lord did through me. He says, I'm your
father in the gospel in that way. You earned it first from
me. And so he says, let there be
no doubt about the fact that we have the right to come to
you if we so desired and say, You need to pay us some money
to help us go along our way here." He said, we do have that right.
But he said, we don't use it. He says, I wouldn't use it. He
says, I would never do that. Because he said, my glory, the
place of my glory is that I might come to you without such a mindset. that I might come to you preaching
the gospel of Christ freely, so that you don't feel any sort
of obligation in that way unto me, even though He says that
you ought to. He says, as far as you're concerned,
you ought to have an obligation. But He says, as far as I'm concerned,
you don't have one. He says, I don't have any concern
for it. He says, I don't want anybody to make my glorying void,
because my glorying is this, that I might glory in preaching
the gospel without charge. And he said, this is my reward.
He said, if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. He said, if
I preach the gospel without charge, then, he said, that is my reward. He says, if I come to you giving
you a charge and say, well, you've got to pay me a certain amount
of money, then my glory would be taken away. He said, I wouldn't
have anything to rejoice in because I would feel like a hired servant
and I would not have a right mind about this thing. So he
says, what is my reward then? Verily, that when I preach the
gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that
I abuse not my power in the gospel. For though I be free from all
men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the
more. I don't want anything to hinder.
the ministry that the Lord has given me. Now, let me back up
there to 17 and go over that again, because this is kind of
the way that this is written. It has caused some to question
what it is that he is saying. He says, for if I do this thing
willingly, I have a reward. but if against my will a dispensation
of the gospel is committed unto me." Now a dispensation of the
gospel is not talking about, as some would say, a time period,
but it is talking about a dispensing. He said, the Lord laid the gospel
upon my heart. And he said the dispensing of
the gospel is laid upon me whether I do it willingly or whether
I do it without being willing. It doesn't make any difference.
He says, I want to do it willingly, but he said, woe is unto me if
I preach not the gospel. I can't help it. I have to do
it. You see, it wouldn't make a difference
what happens. That's what the Lord has called
me to do, and I would do it. So whether I do it willingly
or whether I do it unwillingly, it's still the same thing. The
dispensing of the gospel is given unto me. But he says, I will
not abuse my power that I might be all things to all men. Now,
what did he mean by that when he says this, that I might make
myself servant unto all, that he would be just wishy-washy
and whatever a man liked to hear, he would tell him. No, that is
not what he is saying at all. Paul had one message and it was
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But he would not offend people
knowingly in order to tell them that. Now he knows good and well
that that telling of a man preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
he would know that that would be offensive in itself. You can't
avoid offense in the preaching of the Gospel. But what you can
avoid offense in, is what he's saying here, is in how you come
to people. Now, for instance, if you came
into the midst of a people that they all believe that you should
wear a certain kind of clothes. Now, say for instance that you
were coming among some people that they believed you ought
to dress up in fine clothes when you come together. And you decided,
well, I'll show them, I'll just show up in a pair of cut-off
shorts and some flip-flops. That wouldn't be a very good
way to get off on a good foot with them, would it? I mean,
the first thing they would do is they wouldn't reject you for
the message you preached, would they? They'd reject you just
because of the way you acted and the disregard that you had
unto them. So Paul says, I am not caught
up, he said, in this custom or that custom. It doesn't matter
to me. how people are, and he says,
I will not offend them in their custom in order that I might
preach to them the truth of Jesus Christ. So he says here, to the
Jews I became as a Jew. When he was among the Jews, he
didn't spit upon their customs. He didn't berate them for assembling
on the Sabbath day, for instance. What did he do? He assembled
on the Sabbath day with them. And He was mindful of their customs. But that didn't change what He
preached to them. In other words, the message that
He preached was the same, but He was mindful of their customs. To them that are without law,
He says, to them that are under the law is under the law. Thou
might gain them that are under the law. I mean, he didn't ride
into town. Remember whenever he was going
up to Jerusalem and he took a vow. And he was fitting right in with
the concept that the Jews, he took the vow of the Nazarite.
And he came among them. Now if Paul had come among them,
You know, just with these people not knowing anything about the
Gospel, and He came among them trying to offend them in their
customs, how could He have ever come among them? They wouldn't
have allowed Him to. So He was wise, as the Lord said,
as wise as serpents, harmless as doves. He meant them no harm.
He meant them good. And so he came among them in
that way, to them that are without law, as without law being not
without law to God, but under the law of Christ, that I might
gain them that are without law. He said to the Gentiles, I didn't
come with a copy of the Ten Commandments in my hand and try beating them
over the head with that. He says, I came to them as though
without law, not without law to God, In other words, not that
he said he came to them and preached to them that they should be adulterers
or thieves or anything of that sort. But rather, he didn't come
with the customs of the laws that the Jews had to the Gentiles. He didn't lay upon them those
burdens. But he says, I came to them that
I might gain them that are without law. To the weak I became. that I might gain the weak. I
made all things to all men that I might by all means save some."
Now does he mean by that that he thinks that he can save men? Now there are some who think
that men have the power to save other men. We don't have the
power to do it. And Paul's not talking about
salvation here in that respect, but rather he's speaking about
deliverance. He says that I might deliver
them. Now what's he going to deliver them from? He's going
to deliver the Jews from the law and he's going to deliver
the Gentiles from not having the law. I mean, that's what
he's saying. He says, I want to deliver them
from whatever custom they might have to Christ. He said, that's
my goal is to preach Christ among men. whatever perspective somebody's
coming from. He says, I'm not trying to promote
the Jewish custom. I'm not trying to promote the
Gentile custom. He says, I'm coming preaching
the gospel of Jesus Christ. And if whatever means I have
to come to men in in order to preach that gospel, he said,
I'll do it. I won't let anything be a hindrance.
And most certainly not coming making a charge for the gospel
sake. He says, I'm going to do this.
I've got one goal in mind. Remember what he said at the
beginning of the book? He says, I'm determined to know
nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. See,
Christianity is without customs. What are the customs of Christianity? Now, men make up customs, don't
they? I mean, you know, different denominations
and things like that, they come up with different churches, they'll
come up with customs. Well, this is our custom. Well,
the custom in itself is not bad, but brethren, we need to understand
this, that the true gospel of Jesus Christ is without customs. It doesn't stand on customs.
There are no customary things, or there are no things that are
acceptable. There's only one thing that's
acceptable. It's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And it doesn't
make any difference what other custom a man may have that's
not to be bound on men. It's not to become a requirement. If somebody comes and they have
a custom, it's not a hindrance. You see, the gospel of Christ
is not hindered by the things of men. because the gospel of
Christ is pure. Now you take a man like John
Newton, writer of the hymn Amazing Grace. Now John Newton lived
from the beginning to the end of his life as an ordained Anglican
minister. Now that's about as close to
being a Roman Catholic as you can get without being a Roman
Catholic. And yet you'll find very few
people in their writings and their things they have left behind
for us that had any clearer understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified than John Newton. Now some have criticized Newton
and said, well, if he was really a follower of Christ, he would
have thrown off all that and come out of it. Well, for whatever
reason, he never did. Now I'll tell you this about
John Newton. He never let that bit get in his way of preaching
the gospel of Christ. He preached the truth, and he
was what he was. So there are no customs that
are acceptable, although men will try to make them so. You
know, they'll tell you, well, there's a certain right way that
you can sing. There's a certain way that you
can't sing, and all of those type things. Those are customs
of men. They're just things that are
preferences that men have. They're not in themselves wrong.
But what is wrong is anything that would compromise or turn
us away from the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And
so there is nothing that it makes something right or wrong in and
of itself as far as customary things are concerned, except
that our goal is to follow those things that the Lord has simply
and clearly laid out for us in His Word. And if we find example
of it in His Word, then we ought to follow that, I believe. You
know, we need to follow as closely to the Word of God as we possibly
can. But at the same time, we need
to know and understand for sure that Christianity has but one
custom, and it is the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. No requirements. You're not required
to do any other one thing other than worship Christ as the Lord
of glory. And he said, this I do for the
gospel's sake that I might be partaker thereof with you. He says, I'm not. I want to partake
of this with you. I want you to partake of the
same things I'm partaking of." He says, I want us all to eat
from the same trough, as it were, that we all would enjoy this
together. Now, you know, dogs very seldom
can eat from the same dish. I mean, I've seen a few that
do, but usually You know, one dog, he wants to be sure that
the other dog doesn't get in there, because he's thinking,
well, he's going to get more of it than me. But cats, they
kind of, a lot of times, they'll eat right out of the same dish
together. Now, I don't know what the significance of that is,
but God's people ought to be eating out of the same dish,
don't you think? I mean, you know, we're, and there's only
one dish that we're going to eat out of, and it's Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That's what we want to eat out
of. and not all these other things. Know ye not, he said, that they
which run a race run all, but one receiveth the prize. So run
that ye may obtain. Now here's what he's saying.
He's saying we're going to liken the Christian life to a race
and there's not but one person that can win this race. Now what
did he just say there? He said that I might be partaker
thereof with you. He said, I want to share in this. So there is an aspect in which
we run the Christian race encouraging one another to come along. And
if somebody stumbles, we pick them up and help them because
we won't all get to the finish line. But he says, having said
that, There's only one that can win the prize, and he said that's
the mindset that we need to have when we have consideration of
what it is that we desire insofar as Christ is concerned. He says,
run that you might win. We're not running so that we
might all get a trophy. We run with this in mind, I've
got to win. That's the mindset that we have. That's what Paul said. That's
how he said, I preached the Gospel. He said, I didn't preach the
Gospel for this or for that. He said, I preached the Gospel
for one thing, one reason, the glory of God, the calling of
God, the high calling of God. That's the thing that I'm striving
unto. I'm pressing to the mark. I'm
running. And he said, only one receives
the prize, so run that you may obtain. This is an important
thing. Don't sit around waiting for
somebody else. You know, sometimes you can't
get somebody to go with you. You've just got to do what you've
got to do. I mean, you've got to run for the prize that's set
before you, regardless of who goes with you or who stays behind. So run that you may obtain. And
every man, he said, that striveth for the mastery or the championship,
that's what the mastery is, every man that striveth for the mastery
is temperate in all things. I mean, if a man is... One of
the things I've read about Tom Brady, now he has his own, a
lot of critics of his, you know, some people like him and some
people don't, but he is a phenomenal football player. quarterback,
athlete, and one of the things, it's very seldom that a man of
his age is still able to perform at the level that he does and
has been as injury free, although he's had a few injuries throughout
his career. But one of the things that I
think probably attributes to that, because we know it's all
the gift of God, but insofar as men are concerned, And in
this illustration that we're having here is that he is a temperate
man. He eats proper kinds of food. He doesn't overindulge in alcohol
and other things that people sometimes do. You know, a lot
of these athletes, they burn themselves out because they're
intemperate. in the things. You know, they
have the money to buy whatever they want and a lot of times
they do. But he says, Paul says, if a man's going to really be
a champion, then he's got to be temperate in all things. And so what he is, this comes
right on the heel now. Remember what he said. He said,
all things are lawful to me. But he says, I will not be brought
under the power of any. You see, we're not condemned
in the Christian life. All things that there are in
the world, there's nothing under condemnation to us, but all the
things that we see in this world are not beneficial to us. They're
not helpful to us. They don't bring glory to God.
And so he says, if a man would be a champion, He can't just
be thinking, well, I can just do anything I want. That's not
the mindset that he's going to have. Now, if he just wants to
show up, then that's the mindset he'd have. But see, he says,
let us run that we might win this prize. And he said, if we're
going to run and win the prize, if we're going to be the champion
that we're called to be, then we have to be temperate in all
things. We have to be mindful. of what
it is that we've been called to be. Now they do it to obtain
a corruptible crown, he said. They do it just for a trophy.
They do it so they can get in the Hall of Fame or whatever,
but he said we're not interested in that. We don't care if men
ever recognize one thing that we've ever done. We're not doing
this so men can see us. We're not doing this in that
way for the benefit of mankind, but we're doing it for the glory
of God because we want to obtain an incorruptible crown. He says,
therefore, I therefore so run. Now he's speaking about himself.
And he's speaking about what goes on in his mind as he is
making this run. Because you see, we can tell
one another what we ought to do, but I can't really tell you
what you ought to do. I can tell you what the Scripture
says, but I can't always tell you what you ought to do. But
I can tell you what I'm going to do. See, it's just like with
your kids. Now, you would like to be able
to tell them what to do at every stage of their life, but you
can't. You can't, because there comes a point in time when they
are going to do whatever they're going to do. And so you can't
tell them. I mean, you can tell them what
they ought to do, but they're not going to listen to you. They're
going to think you're just some nutcase. But what you can do
is you can show them what you're going to do. See, you can't do
a thing about what they're going to do. But by the grace of God,
you can do what you're going to do. And that's what Paul is
saying here. He said, I'm telling you. He says we need to run the
race to gain the prize. And he says, I therefore." He
said, this is me. He said, I'm not boasting. He
said, I'm just telling you the way that it is. He said, I therefore,
so run. Well, he's talking about running.
He says, I'm running just like I'm telling you to win the prize. He says, I don't care what's
going on over here, what's going on over there. I don't care what
people are saying. I don't care whatever. He says,
I'm going to run to win the prize by the grace of God. Therefore,
so run, not as uncertainty. I'm not wondering where the finish
line is. He says, I know where the finish
line is. And he says, I'm running to that
point. Now you know a man would never
win a race if he started off and he ran, and part of the time
he was looking over there, and part of the time he was looking
there, and sometimes he'd turn around and look behind and see
who was coming. Would he ever win? No, he wouldn't ever win.
So he says, I'm running the race with my eyes on the prize. He
says, I'm running therefore not as uncertainty, so fight I, not
as one that beat at the end. He says, I'm not just fighting
an imaginary foe. Now, you know, when boxers are
training, they shadow box. I mean, they have in their mind
who it is they're fighting. Paul says, I'm not shadow boxing. He says, I'm not wondering who
my opponent is. See, no man ever went around,
won a championship shadow boxing. He had to actually get in the
ring and fight somebody that could hit back. And that's what he said. So fight
I not as one that beateth the air. He says, I'm not fighting
an imaginary opponent. Now listen to who it is he says
he's fighting. He says, I'm not fighting the
guy next door. He said, I fight not as one that
beateth the air. I'm not fighting an imaginary
opponent. Now he's fixing to tell you who his opponent is.
He said, but I keep under my body. and bringing in subjection. Because you see, I'm my own worst
enemy. And I can tell you what to do.
You know, it's sort of like losing weight. Now you can write a book
and tell people how to lose weight. I can tell you a way to lose
weight. Just don't eat. Just don't eat and you'll lose
weight. But what good is that? It's no good at all. Especially,
what good is it for me to tell you what to do if I don't do
the same thing or if I don't do what is necessary? And that's
what Paul is saying here. He says, I'm not just telling
you what you ought to do in some theoretical fashion. You know,
that's a fashionable thing to come up with a diet book. I mean,
there's new ones come out every day and everybody says, oh, we're
going to do this one. And you know, there's never a
diet that's come forth that won't work. What's the problem with
diets? People don't stick to it. I mean,
that's what the problem with the diet is. I mean, of course,
I can't say it blanketly because some people do. But whenever
we get, speaking about this thing about a diet, whenever we get
on the scales and we weigh more than we did yesterday, who is,
when we look in the mirror to see who it is that caused that
problem, who was it? I mean, didn't nobody hold us
down and pour the food in, did they? No, we did it, okay? So what he's saying here is,
I keep under my body and bring it in subjection. Now he's not
specifically talking about every fleshly problem that he has here
specifically, but he is talking about it in a very pointed way. He says,
I keep under my body, I recognize who my opponent is. Because if
you don't have regard to your opponent, You're going to be
beaten every time. So you need to know that as you
run this race for an incorruptible crown, there is one that fights
against you every day of the year. And if you don't recognize
who he is and quit worrying about shadow boxing and deal with the
problem that you've got, which is you, then that crown will
not be yours. Now we know that the Lord is
going to deliver His people. He is going to do that, but the
means through which He is going to deliver them in great measure
is by the work that He performs in them as the Spirit of God
works in us most willing to do of His good pleasure. And so
it is not that we think we have the power to do these things
because we do not, but we do know the One who does have the
power. Knowing the one that has the
power, we know the place, or we know who the enemy is. So
first off, we must identify the enemy. And then listen to what
he says. Lest that by any means, when
I have preached others, I myself should be a castaway. That is,
I should become disqualified. I should not be one that is disqualified in the eyes of men,
you know, set up as... And this is what he said to start
with about preaching without charge. He said, I don't want
to be considered a castaway. So someone would say, well, he's
just preaching for the money. No, he says, I don't want that.
And he says, I don't want to wind up as one who is overcome
in my flesh so that someone would say, well, he's just a castaway. He's not worth even listening
to because of the fact that he told others what to do, that
he didn't do that himself. May the Lord help us. and cause
us to be mindful of our enemy and the place wherein our struggle
is directed, to be directed. I can't straighten you out. I'd
like to. You know, every one of you in
here, I know exactly what's wrong with you. And I can tell everybody in here
what to do. But you know, all that doesn't
make a difference at all, does it? Because every one of us has
to deal with us. And by the grace of God, we shall,
according to His working in us, by the power that He is pleased
to give us.