Not Yours, But You

Q: What does the Bible say about the true nature of gospel preaching?

The Bible teaches that true gospel preaching is not about the preacher's personality or commendations but about glorifying God through Christ. The nature of true gospel preaching, as illustrated in 2 Corinthians and 1 Corinthians, emphasizes that it is the message of Christ and not the personality of the preacher that holds value. Paul defends his apostolic authority and the integrity of his ministry against false apostles by stating that he seeks not personal glory, but rather to glorify God through his preaching. As indicated in Romans 3:27, boasting is excluded, and the focus of the ministry of the gospel is fundamentally about what God has done through Christ, not what men have accomplished. The true preacher operates under God's commission and accountability, aiming to deliver His message faithfully.

Q: How do we know Paul was a true apostle?

Paul's true apostolic authority is validated through his direct commission from Christ and the signs and wonders performed through his ministry. The Apostle Paul's authority as a true apostle is established on several fronts, one of which is his direct encounter with the risen Christ. This is significant because only those who met the Lord and were commissioned directly by Him could hold the apostolic office. In addition, Paul cites the signs, wonders, and mighty deeds accomplished through his ministry as evidence of his calling and validation (2 Corinthians 12:12). In 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, Paul also points out that God has chosen what is foolish to confound the wise, highlighting that his unassuming beginnings and the potency of his ministry are divine affirmations of his apostolic role.

Q: Why is grace important in a Christian's life?

Grace is essential as it is the unmerited favor through which believers are saved, empowered, and sanctified in their walk with Christ. Grace is a cornerstone of the Christian faith because it signifies God's unearned favor toward His people, as articulated by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:10, where he asserts, 'By the grace of God, I am what I am.' This grace not only encompasses initial salvation but continues to sustain and transform believers throughout their Christian life. It underlines that all achievements, sanctification, and good works are ultimately the result of God working in and through His people. As believers grow, they come to understand that their righteousness and holiness stem from their relationship with Christ, who is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). Hence, it is grace that ensures believers remain dependent on God and fully recognize their identity in Christ.

Q: How does the gospel motivate Christians to serve?

The gospel motivates Christians to serve out of gratitude for God's grace and love rather than out of obligation or fear. The teachings of the New Testament indicate that true service arises from an understanding of the overwhelming grace and love demonstrated through Christ's work. As the message unfolds, it becomes clear that Christians are not to serve out of obligation or the law's demands but from a heart transformed by the gospel. This idea is encapsulated in the notion that if one truly grasps the essence of Christ's sacrifice—His love and grace—this will naturally produce a desire to share that same love and grace with others (2 Corinthians 5:14). Witnessing the beauty of the gospel enables believers to serve joyfully, understanding that their identity and value rest in Christ and not in their works or performance.

I've become a fool in glory. Throughout this entire letter, as he said, Paul is compelled to glory. And may this be so with us also, that while he has been compelled to glory, he's also clearly being compelled to constantly remind us that he himself is nothing. How many times has he said, this is vain, this is foolish of me to glory, but I feel compelled to do so.

And he's only defending himself as a true apostle of Jesus Christ because of the false apostles and false preachers that had infiltrated this church And to contend, Paul is contending that in the comparison of himself, which was made by them, the comparison of himself with the false apostles, that they are the false and he is the true.

It's important that he establish that and that he prove that, that he show that, that he remind them of that. They knew it. And he talks about the clear evidences of it. The heart of man wants what it wants. It wants that which is not godly, which is not the true gospel of Christ. It wants feelings and emotions and encouragement in the flesh, boasting in the flesh, glorying in the flesh. But he's defending himself in that sense, and again, as we've seen so many times, He calls himself a fool.

No preacher of the gospel ever wants to say, I ought to have been commended of you. Because no preacher preaches Christ for the purpose of receiving the commendations of men. There are those that do preach for that reason, but not God's preachers. Preaching of the gospel is at the behest and pleasure of God and not of men.

And study, Paul said to Timothy, to show thyself approved unto God. That's why we study, that's why we preach. Because we have a message from the King to deliver. And men are gonna be mad and men are gonna be glad. It's gonna be the savor of death and the savor of life, but always the savor of Christ unto God. That's what's important, what it is unto God. What it is to men will vary, but what it is to God has to be consistent. That's what Paul is contending for here.

He says this because there were a group of people in this church to whom the gospel had been preached, and for them to hear the truth of God and to criticize and belittle the preacher, as some of them had, it's a repudiation of the Lord Himself. If there's a consistency, and this is not excusing preachers, the Lord chose fools, and that's going to be evident, but not It's not going to show up in the preaching. It's just going to show up in who God chose. It's the foolishness of preaching that God has chosen by which to save sinners, not the preaching of foolishness. But it's foolishness in the sense that we're fools who preach it.

But you see the situation here when the gospel, the true gospel is preached by, of all things, an apostle of Jesus Christ, who had met the Lord himself, who had been commissioned directly by the Son of God, to hear him and be murmuring and belittling and complaining.

It's unsustainable. It's not something that can continue to happen. And so Paul's dealing with it. And it's not a repudiation of the servant, it's a repudiation of the master and his word. And we'll get into that a little bit deeper even. Some of the members of this church had compelled Paul to do what he calls glorying here. He wasn't glorying in his flesh in the sense that he was building himself up, but he was glorying in the sense that he was defending his ministry, the ministry of Christ that was given to him and the gospel that he preached. But he, The way they compelled him to do that was by buying into the deception of the false preachers, including their defamation of Paul himself. Some of these in the Corinthian church had bought into it, they had fallen for it, they had heard what they wanted to hear. what their ears itched for, and they delighted in that and not the true gospel that Paul preached. And so they belittled, and of course they saw an opportunity for personal gain, as all false preachers do, and they delighted in that.

That's the burdensome that he's talking about. If Paul is nothing, self about nothing, and yet not behind the chiefest apostles. Is that a contradiction? No, that just tells you that someone other than Paul made him who he was. And that's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. If you'd turn there with me, let's look at chapter 15, 1 Corinthians 15. So Paul says, I'm not the least wit behind the cheapest of the apostles, but I'm nothing. So what does that tell us? Well, that was Paul's testimony in 1 Corinthians 15, 10.

But by the grace of God, I am what I am. That's how a nothing becomes among the cheapest apostles. By the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all. That was his grace. You see that? He didn't bestow it in vain. He didn't bestow his grace upon me and then it didn't result in anything.

It resulted in Paul, instead of being zealous to persecute Christ, he was zealous and laborious in the preaching of Christ. That's the change that grace makes. Listen, I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me. I'm nothing, but God has made a change. God has done something.

God has used me, and God only uses nothings. If you're somebody, you know, you've probably seen sometime in your life the church where everybody's somebody on the sign. It's just the church where everybody's somebody. Well, you're no use for God, and God has no use for you then. Because He uses nothings. He always uses nothings. And if they're not a nothing when the Lord begins to use them, He'll make them a nothing before He uses them. He'll bring you to the dust.

1 Corinthians 1.26, turn back to chapter one of 1 Corinthians if you would please.

1 Corinthians 1.26.

Where you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen, and things which are not. That's the beginning of the word nothing. not a thing, no thing. He chooses no things, nothings, to bring to naught the things that are.

And Paul was a mighty man in education and wisdom. He said, not many are called, but he chose Paul, but then he brought Paul to the place where he said, I'm determined to know nothing. He meant that. He lived that. Saved Jesus Christ and him crucified.

So the one wise man that he did call, highly educated man, he brought him down in his heart to the place where he said, there's nothing worth knowing but Christ. Verse 29, that no flesh should glory in his presence. So you see this glorying that Paul's doing in our text is different. It's not glorying in the flesh.

And his testimony is clear about that. Verse 30, but of him are you in Christ Jesus? Of him, of God, are you in his son? That's who it's of. That's who did it. That's who caused it. That's who brought it to pass. You're in Christ Jesus by his hand and grace, who of God has made into us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. All the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God. The only thing wise is Christ. The only wisdom there is, is to know him and to submit to his wisdom.

And you think about the practicality of that, the daily living of that. Are you going to work things out on your own? Or are you going to listen to what God said and trust Him? Are you smart enough to figure this thing out? I've lived 62 years, just about. I haven't figured it out yet. Maybe you're smarter than I am.

By His grace, we just follow Him. Follow Him. You can figure things out and stress yourself out to where you can't sleep and you can't function as a human being anymore, or you can just trust the Lord. That's the rest that He gives, you see. It's resting in Him when it comes to salvation, because the more we work, the more we sin. We can't do anything to save ourselves or to contribute to our salvation in any way. But that's a salvation that continues also. We're being saved. And so that same trust has to, if it's in our hearts for the Savior, it will affect And it will cause and it will inform everything we do.

I trusted him with my soul, but when it comes to my daily issues, I'm just gonna lean on the arm of the flesh. No, it don't work that way. He's made into us wisdom and righteousness. Quit trying to please God with what you do. I want to please Him in Christ. I want to obey Him. I want to serve Him. I want to love Him in deed and not just word only. But I don't want to do that as my righteousness before God.

I have a perfect righteousness in Christ. And all of the good works that we do, which are good works only by the scriptural definition of it, are full of sin. Christ is my righteousness even in the good works that He's ordained that we do. He's our example in the doing of them, but He's also the fulfillment of them being done in my place. I not only need him to teach me what to do, I need him to do it as my representative. Because my doing of it, no matter how well taught I am, is going to be full of sin.

Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification. Religion thinks we're, you know, they're getting more and more holy. If you're in Christ, how are you going to be more and more holy? were sanctified with His precious blood, fully, completely, and eternally. Or not. But His blood is the difference. His blood is sanctification.

And redemption were bought with a price, that according as it is written, let he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. The only time that Paul ever spoke of his own pedigree and credentials was to denounce them as dung in Philippians chapter 3, and in defense of Christ, the gospel, and the ministry in our text.

That's it. And when he did so, in the latter sense of that, He continually, every time he took a breath, speaking in illustration, every time he dipped his pen, I'm nothing. It's not good for me to glory like this, over and over and over. Where is boasting?

Christ is all in salvation, in the salvation of a sinner. He's all, not most of it, not meeting people halfway. He finished it on Calvary and he gave it to us. He gave us an understanding in time so that we'd know about it and rejoice in it and boast in what he did on Calvary and not our own works.

Where is boasting in the saving of sinners by grace through faith? Romans 3 27 it is excluded It's excluded Where is boasting in the ministry of Christ in his gospel? First Corinthians 3 7 so then neither is he that planteth anything Neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. That's where it is there verse 12 in our text Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience. I guess that probably is steadfastness. I didn't look up the Greek there. In all patience and signs and wonders and mighty deeds. You know.

When the Lord did the mighty deeds that he did, they said nobody can do this but God. But when Paul did them, some of these People in Corinth said, well, he's mighty in word, but when he comes, he's just so weak. He's not a good speaker. He's not personable. You know what people are saying when they say a preacher doesn't have a good personality? You know what constitutes a good personality to people? You're bragging on them. You make them feel good about themselves. So he has a great personality. Yeah. Not interested. God gave clear testimony of the fact that his apostles were called and gifted by him. It wasn't done in a corner.

Only they had seen the Lord Himself. Only they were commissioned directly by the Son of God and chosen as His apostles. Only they had the gift of healing and doing miracles in these mighty deeds that Paul mentions here. Besides those upon whom they conveyed gifts, and I believe they had gifts to a lesser degree than the apostles did, but they could convey those gifts on others, but when the apostles died and those to whom they had conveyed those gifts died, People that the apostles conveyed the gifts to could not convey them to anybody else. That's made clear in the New Testament. So obviously, anybody that claims to be able to do the gifts of an apostle today is a fraudster. Now this verse of scripture is a testament to how willfully ignorant and self-destructive sinners are.

God made it crystal clear with stunning testimony that Paul was an apostle of God. Everybody knew it up here. They could see it with their own eyes, they could hear it with their own ears, just like the Son of God. They knew he was the Son of God. No man, no regular man ever spoke like this man. It's Romans chapter 1.

When they knew God, they refused to glorify him as God. And his apostle, they knew he was an apostle, but they're not going to glorify him because he doesn't have a good personality. He doesn't brag on me. He doesn't leave it all up to me. He doesn't say the things I want to hear. They had itching ears, and they were impressed by the tactics used by Antichrist religious roadshow actors. You know the word hypocrite in the scriptures, and that the Lord Jesus always was calling the religious Jews, you hypocrites?

That word, the Greek word, is the word for actor, playing a part. You're not what you seem to be. That's what, they were impressed by that. Preachers acting holy, wearing a collar a certain way is what it is in our day, or you know, holding your hands right and having that Mona Lisa smile or whatever it is, and just going around, you know, acting holy. I'm not repulsed by a whole lot.

Or offended by a whole lot. But that's the most offensive thing on this earth, is somebody putting themselves in the place of God's Son, presuming to forgive sins and to be infallible. You see that this is a testament to the stubborn rebellion of the heart of sinners. because of their feelings and emotions that were stirred up by these religious roadshow actors, and couple that with a lack of love for the Savior, and no matter what the facts were, no matter what the evidence was, no matter what the truth is, it's ignored. People are going to follow their wicked, evil, wretched arts. just as they did in the case of the Lord himself as he walked this earth. They're going to abandon the very truth of God and the God who wrote it.

That which impresses the flesh is found in showmanship, bombastic motivational theater, and in appealing to the pride of the flesh. bragging on the sinner, making everything up to the sinner, and it hadn't changed. It hadn't changed one bit. That which feeds and encourages and comforts and rejoices the spirit of his people is Christ and him alone.

You didn't come here tonight to get me to tell you how to live. You didn't come here tonight to find out how to deal with Satan. You didn't come here tonight because I'm impressive in any way whatsoever. You came here to hear me say good things about the Savior. That's what my old preacher used to say. You came here to hear me say good things about the Savior. And there's a lot to choose from. Whereas we rejoice in Christ. We're the circumcision. born of the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. We rejoice in Him. That's all of our rejoicing now.

Where's my confidence that I'm saved? In Christ that finished it. If I look at myself, I'll have no confidence of my salvation. But when I look to Christ, And by His grace, I have an understanding of who He is and what He did. I put my soul in His hand, and He caused that. And I have all hope, a sure hope.

Where is my comfort and peace in Christ that so loved me that He gave Himself for me? What makes all my fears fall away that Christ is on the throne. Fear not, I have overcome the world. Oh boy, I'll lay myself down in peace and sleep, because the Lord only makes me to dwell in safety. Psalm 4, verse 13 in our text. For what is it wherein you were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? People love to be under the law, don't they? Give me something to do. Give me something to do to be saved. Walk an hour, repeat a prayer, make some kind of confession. I'll do it. What did Naaman's servants say? If the prophet had given you some great thing to do, you would have done it.

But you're offended by the simple, raw truth of the gospel. that the Lord Jesus Christ is salvation. He doesn't offer it. He doesn't woo people to it. He saves sinners. But if it was up to him to do so, if he could brag about it, if he could say, boy, I did this and boy, look at me now. No, it's not going to happen like that. I myself was not burdensome to you, not in the preaching and not in a financial way. He said, forgive me this wrong. That's clearly facetious. It wasn't a wrong. The one that are doing the wrong are the ones that were burdensome to him.

What made you dissatisfied with the way things were? In what way was your church inferior that you had to make up something or do something different? What was lacking? What was lacking? I went to preach once at a church I'd never been to before, and I hadn't gotten in the door good before a man came up and started talking to me. And in the course of that conversation with others standing around, he complained that their church, and of course, when he said that, he was murmuring against the pastor of the church.

He said, our church doesn't do anything. We don't do enough. There was no outreach. We don't do anything. And I asked him a simple question. I said, is the gospel being preached there, here? He said, well, yeah, but that's all. And I don't remember answering that. I think I just walked away after that. It was a long time ago. But I thought to myself, what's this man waiting for? What's he waiting for?

If the gospel of Christ doesn't motivate him to do something, then what will? A program? We'll have a program. If he's not motivated to be a witness for the Savior by the preaching of the gospel, by the fact that Christ is the only hope for a wretched sinner, a world full of sinners, the sinners that you work with, the sinners in your family that don't know him, if that's not going to motivate you, Is having visitation on Tuesday nights going to do it? Do we want an outreach program or will the gospel be enough to motivate us to be witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ? Should we reach out on Tuesday nights or will you all the time, wherever and whenever God gives you opportunity, glorify Him with your life and your witness? God's people always do something. We're ordained to it.

It's not in programs, it's in the heart. You don't have to organize that. You don't have to force people, you don't have to, you know, it's because people are motivated by shame or reward, by guilt or reward. If you have a visitation program, then when people don't show up, you can say, oh, I'm sorry you couldn't be here on visitation night. Because that's how people are motivated.

You're coercing people to do something that should just come naturally to the child of God. How many here in this church are here a member of this church now because somebody spoke to them about the Son of God? That's what believers do. We don't keep track of statistics.

We love the Lord Jesus Christ by His grace, because He first loved us, and it's evident that we do, in all of our conversation, all of our actions, in our very manner of life. And when God gives opportunity, we'll give a reason for the hope that lies within us. And there ain't but one reason. It ought to be easy to remember, but just one reason.

The Lord Jesus Christ. And I give this illustration because in Paul's predicament here, Christ was not enough for these people. What was inferior about this? The gospel wasn't enough. It's that simple. What made you want to change something? What made you want to ditch me for somebody else? Because the gospel of Jesus Christ was not enough. That's why.

They wanted excellency of speech. They wanted enticing words of man's wisdom. They wanted the very things that Paul had deliberately and expressly refused to give them, so that the excellency would be of God and not of men. Of course, he's being facetious when he says, forgive me. He had purposely not been burdensome to them. And moreover, he said, I'm not going to be. That's not going to be. I'm coming to you a third time and I'm not going to be burdensome to you then either.

Because that's not the ministry that Christ gave us. That's religion though. That's religion. That's Antichrist religion all over. Burdensome with the beating people with the law, whipping the whip of the law. and burdensome and do this and do that and do the other thing and rules and regulations and give or you're going to hell. The true wrong was being committed by those who were burdensome to them financially and even more insidiously, they were burdening them with the yoke of the law.

You know what? Religious sinners who are incapable of doing anything for God, you know what their favorite thing to do is? Do stuff for God. And you know what the Lord says about that? All your fastings, all of your new moons, all of your religious gatherings, all of your religious motions and emotions, even your solemn meetings are an abomination unto me. Now what are you going to do? Now what are you going to do? If the very best you can do is dull and refuse and filthy rags in the sight of God, what's your next move? They build religious empires because that gives them reason to boast. They find value in themselves by what they are able to do for God, and it makes God sick at his stomach.

The Lord's sheep, by His grace, understand that what makes us valuable, what makes us precious, is that God so loved us. It's His love, period. Did God love you because you were worth it? Were you precious in his sight because of something in you or because of something in him? Verse 14, behold, the third time I'm ready to come to you and I will not be burdensome to you, still not gonna be, for I seek not yours, but you. What a beautiful phrase that is.

To religion, you're a number. Paul said not to me. To religion, you're a statistic. To religion, you're what have you done lately? Have you gone on visitation? Have you joined the choir? Have you witnessed for people? Have you read your Bible? Have you done this? Have you done that? Have you done the other thing? Have you quit doing this and that and the other thing? This is the difference between a true shepherd and a harling. Not yours, but you. A harling is there to make money, and as the Lord so clearly said in that parable, he careth not for the sheep. Just a number, just a statistic.

They glory in you being circumcised, Paul said, so that they can glory in your flesh. They glory in decisions. In other words, circumcision was that you could replace that with anything. They glory in you being baptized. They glory in your decisions, in your showing up, your attendance. They glory in all that so they can glory in your flesh. They make merchandise of you. And that's when Paul said, but God forbid that I should glory, save in Christ and what he did, Calvary.

All the shepherd cares about is the sheep. God made it that way. He said, I'll give you pastors after my own heart. He said, if you love me, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. It's not complicated, is it? May God give us the glory that it may ever be so in the depths of our soul that Christ is enough, that his gospel is enough. May he who loved us first cause us to love him so that to hear anything else or be involved in anything else would be repulsive to us. He's the difference.

Not Yours, But You

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the true nature of gospel preaching?

How do we know Paul was a true apostle?

Why is grace important in a Christian's life?

How does the gospel motivate Christians to serve?

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Not Yours, But You

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the true nature of gospel preaching?

How do we know Paul was a true apostle?

Why is grace important in a Christian's life?

How does the gospel motivate Christians to serve?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

Comments

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