If you would, open your Bibles with me to Psalm 138. If you weren't here on Wednesday night, I'll tell you the same thing I told the folks on Wednesday night. I have never been so glad vacation is over and to be back home. We went to a beach vacation and we spent Made more trips to the ER than we did to the beach. So we're glad to be home. Glad that's behind us. Lord willing, I'll be preaching Tuesday night in Danville, Kentucky. I covet your prayers as we travel there. And also, if you mark your calendars for the dates for a church dinner and a zero birthday celebration, the week's coming up, let us hang around together a little bit after the service, those two Sundays. All right, Psalm 138. Oh, and also, let me add this about, if there's another zero birthday that I've missed, these zero birthdays just kind of built up all year long, because I never got my act together to have individual things. So if you're having a zero birthday, let me know, and we'll add you to the list, and you can just join our little group. All right, Psalm 138. I will praise Thee with my whole heart. Before the gods will I sing praise unto Thee. I will worship toward Thy holy temple and praise Thy name for Thy loving kindness and for Thy truth. For Thou has magnified Thy word above all Thy name. In the day when I cried, Thou answeredest me and strengthenest me with strength in my soul. All the kings of the earth shall praise Thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly. But the proud he knoweth afar off. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the works of thine own hands. All right, let's stand together as Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship. Dear Lord, where e'er thy people meet, Where thy behold thy mercy seek'd, Where'er they seek thee thou art found, And every place is hallowed ground. We thank Thee for Thy precious blood that sanctified us to our God. Here to our waiting hearts proclaim the sweetness of Thy saving name. strength and faith and sweet and care to teach our weak desire to rise and bring thy grace before our eyes ? Nor short thine arm, nor death thine ear ? ? Thy word, thy way, we fain would see ? ? O bless us while we wait on thee ? Okay, if you would, turn in your hymnals to song number 268, How Firm a Foundation. 268. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord. What more can he say than to you he hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, For I am thy God, I will still give thee I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld by my gracious, omnipotent hand. When through the deep waters I The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow, for I will be with thee thy troubles to bless, and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. Fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design Thy drops to consume and thy gold to refine. I will not, I will not deserve to His host. Let's open our Bibles now to Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter six, we'll read the first eight verses. In those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the 12 called the multitude of the disciples under them and said, it's not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we'll give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Procorus, and Nicandor, Nicanor, and Timon, and Paraminas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles. And when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the word of the Lord increased, and the number of the disciples multitude in Jerusalem greatly. And a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. We'll end our reading there. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven, holy and reverent, is your matchless name. Lord, we are in awe and wonder at the name of the Lord that reveals your character that reveals your mercy and grace to your people that's done injustice and truth. Father, how we thank you. How we thank you for choosing and sending a savior to be the savior of the people that you have chosen to save. We thank you for his success, that he is completely and utterly saved his people from all of their sin, that he's ratified your covenant of grace in his own precious blood. And we thank you that father, by the preaching of your word, you're still calling out your sheep, still revealing your son to the hearts of your people, still comforting and edifying and feeding your sheep with the preaching of your word. Father, how we thank you that you have been pleased to Give us a place where we can always be pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray you'd give us both the grace and the wisdom to keep our eye on the ball, to do what it is that you have given us to do here, to preach Christ to our generation in our town, to the people that you would be pleased to call to hear the gospel in this place. Father, I pray you'd bless it. Oh, Father, don't leave us alone. How we beg you that you do not leave us alone. Don't leave us to our own devices and our own ways, but Father, that you would be our leader, that you would lead, that you would guide, that you'd open the doors when you're pleased to open them and give us the grace and the ability to go through them boldly, wherever it is that you might be pleased to open them. And Father, how we pray that this morning you'd bless us with your presence, that you would be pleased to show us your glory, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we pray for ourselves, we pray for your people everywhere we're there meeting together today. Father, we pray you'd bless for your great namesake. We pray that you would cause your gospel to go forth in such power that a great revival would sweep the land. Father, if it could be thy will, how thankful we'd be. And father, we hold up to the those that you brought into the time of trouble and trial. We pray you'd comfort their hearts with your presence that you give them some comfort and understanding that all these things are happening at your will and purpose to accomplish good for your people, heal and comfort and deliver father. According to thy will, we pray that's in Christ's name for his sake and his glory. We pray I've titled the message this morning, Ministering the Word. Ministering the Word. That's what the job of this local congregation and every local congregation is. Our job is to minister the word. Now our text begins in verse 1 of Acts 6. And in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Up until this point, everything has been so wonderful in the early church. The Lord's been multiplying the people, adding 3,000 and 6,000, and all these people being added to the church. Everybody's of one accord, of one mind, of one spirit. They have all things common. They're rejoicing together. They're rejoicing hearing the gospel preached to them all together. It was just such a wonderful time. that lasted for just a little time. Because the more the church grew, the more problems and more discord that there was. Their numbers certainly increased, but their joy didn't. And that tells me God's people are sinners that are saved by grace. Now we're saved by grace. There's not a single question about that. God's people are saved by grace, but we are sinners still. And anytime you've got sinners, there's going to be problems. Years ago, there was a young preacher that told Brother Henry, oh, I'd love to have the crowd to preach to, like you do, instead of the little congregation we have. And Henry pointed at him. He said, no, you don't either. He said, no, it's going to happen one day. And you're going to be sorry, because there's just going to be more and more and more problems. And you're going to yearn for these days. And it was just a small group. Of course, we'd like to see the Lord save everybody, wouldn't we? But this is just also true. Where numbers of people increase, the problems do, too. And you notice this wasn't something that they were trying to split the church wide open about. It was just little murmurings and backbiting, you know, over the most petty things, over money, over something as trite and trivial as money. Now I know full well money comes in real handy down here, Bob, but listen, it's trite compared to what God's called us to do, to minister the word, to minister the word. And these things were going on in the early church where there were people who had heard the Lord Jesus himself preach and teach. These people were listening These weren't just some fly-by-night new preachers. These are the apostles who've been taught the gospel by the Savior himself. It's the apostles who's preaching to the early church at this time, and they're still having these problems. They're still having these problems. Now, as much as we ought to fight against that, and by God's grace, I hope he gives all of us the wisdom to fight against this petty little murmuring, holding grudges and so forth, and gives us the wisdom to fight against it. But let's also not be surprised when it pops up, because it just does. It's all throughout the church and the church history. But the disciples chose a way to handle this. Verse 2, and the 12 called the multitude of the disciples under them and said, it's not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, Look you out among yourselves seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. And we'll give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Now, the apostles said, you, you, we're not even going to do it. You all pick out these seven men to take care of the business matters of the church, to take care of these things. So we don't have to. This is where we get the term and the job of a deacon in the church. And the word means servants. You pick these men out, not to rule and lord it over God's heritage, but they're servants to take care of these matters, these business matters of the church. And you notice they didn't pick out men who've been successful in business. So they put them over the business, the church. And they didn't say, I mean, you know, compared to what we're supposed to be doing, money's such a trite thing, so we can just pick out anybody to do this. None of these men were novices. They're all men who'd been around long enough to have an honest report among the people, for the people to see that they were full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. And they chose these men to take care of this petty stuff, this insignificant stuff, so that the apostles could give themselves, they just give themselves over to the business of the church, which is prayer and ministering the word. Now first prayer, why is the business of the church and particularly of the pastors and elders of the church, why is this the first thing that's mentioned prayer? Because we can't do anything by ourselves. We can't do anything by ourselves. We cannot preach. without prayer. I mean, a man's a fool that tries to stand up and preach the word of God to God's people without prayer, asking God to help him, asking God to bless it, and nobody can hear without prayer either. It'd be a good idea throughout your week to pray that the Lord enable you to hear the message that's gonna be preached on Sunday, you know, Wednesday, because we can't hear. We can't do it on our own. We can't worship. We can't, I mean, we can't do anything. Because this matter of the business of the church, it's supernatural. It's from above. It's spiritual. It's not fleshly. So, you know, somebody comes to preach, they're not just getting up and giving you some true facts, you know, some true doctrinal facts, some true facts from the scripture. You can say a whole string of true things and nobody can ever throw a rock at one of them and still not preach Christ. We can't do it without prayer. And if the Holy Spirit doesn't bless us, there'll be no blessing. There'll be no salvation, there'll be no edification, no feeding, no drinking, no comfort. So this thing always has to begin with prayer, salvations of the Lord. This is the Lord's doing. It's not our church, it's the Lord's church. This is the Lord's doing. We must begin with prayer. and then ministering the word. Now the apostles were giving themselves over so that they didn't have to do anything else other than prayer and ministering the word. Because these seven men, a good report full of the Holy Ghost, took all this trivial stuff off of them. And when the apostles were freed up to have their time given, to do what God had given them to do, I want you to look what happened, verse seven. And the word of the Lord increased. And the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly. And a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Now all of that happened because the apostles could give themselves to prayer and to preaching the word. And the Lord blessed it. I sure would like that blessing for us. Wouldn't you, that the Lord would bless us in this way? And regardless of how he blesses us in numbers, I sure would like to see him bless us spiritually. I mean, of course we'd like to see a growth in numbers, that the Lord bring people in, but I'd also like to see a growth in grace in all of our hearts, wouldn't you? And the way that's gonna happen is the same way it happened in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. It's by somebody giving themselves to prayer. and the ministering of the word, the preaching of the word. Well now, what is it to minister the word? This is what the apostles were giving themselves to, prayer and ministry of the word. Well, I look this word that's used up here, that we may give ourselves to prayer, verse four, and the ministry of the word. I look that word up, and let me give you six or seven things about where this word is used. It'll tell us what it is to minister the word. First, look at John 1. To minister the word is to preach Christ, the word. Not preach about Christ, but to preach Christ, the word. John 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. Now this word, word that's used here, it means the sayings of God. It means the decrees of God. It means the teaching of God. It's God's account. Here is God's account. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's God's account, that's God's teaching, that's the decrees of God, they're all found in Christ. Here the word, word is capitalized, capital W, that's a proper name. This one that John's talking about here is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the word who was with God and was God, same as in the beginning with God. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. So to minister the word, to preach the word, is to preach a person. You have to preach a person, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach Christ the incarnate word from Christ the written word. This written word is all given to us to reveal to us Christ, the incarnate word, to reveal to us the person of Christ. And one of the very first things I see here is we have an eternal Savior. John says, in the beginning was the word. He didn't say from the beginning. He said in the beginning. Christ was before the beginning, before the beginning of creation, before man's time on earth. There was a time when no one existed but God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And before God created anything, He already chose the Savior. to save a people who would be fallen in Adam after God created heavens and the earth. God already saw, the father already saw his people as washed in the blood of Christ, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God saw his people as redeemed and righteous and justified in his son before he ever said, let there be light. Before he ever hung this ball in space, God had a savior ordained for his people. Now that salvation had to be carried out in time, didn't it? And it was, it was. But in the beginning, before God created anything, his people were already justified in Christ. Now if God chose you in Christ before he created anything, knowing how we'd be fallen in Adam, knowing what rebels that we would be, knowing how we would act on that sinful, rebellious nature, and he chose you anyway, and he sent his son to redeem you anyway. And he sent his gospel to you and gave you the faith to believe it in spite of our sin, in spite of our darkness, in spite of our spiritual deadness. If God did all that for you, revealed his son to you and in you, let me tell you what, he's not going to cast you out now. Because eternal means both without a beginning and without an ending. God's not going to withdraw himself from you now. He's always seen you in Christ, and He always will. Now see, that's supernatural, isn't it? You can't understand that and believe that with a natural mind. It only comes by God-given faith. And that faith to believe comes through the ministering of the Word. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ here, John calls Him the Word. That's His name, the Word. Because we use words to communicate, don't we? You've got no idea what I'm thinking. Not unless I use words. You have to use words so that we can communicate with each other and understand one another. Well, when God communicates with his creatures, he uses the word too. He uses his son. The Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely everything that the father has to say to man. Everything. Look over at Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews one, verse one. God who at sundry times and in diverse, different manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express, the exact image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Everything God has to say to sinners now, he's spoken unto us by his son. If you want to hear what God says, all you've got to do is look to Christ. He's God's word. You want to know about righteousness? All you've got to do is look to Christ, the righteous one. Look at his perfect obedience, his obedience to the law, his obedience to his father, even unto death. All you and I have to do to find out how unrighteous we are is see Christ, the righteous one. And we'll know, I'm unrighteous. And just like that naked man that we read about there in the Sunday school lesson, we'll run to Christ. All you got to do is just seek Christ. You want to know about the power of God unto salvation? You want to know the power that it takes to save a sinner from their sin? All you got to do is look to Christ. see the power in his blood, that by one sacrifice he hath perfected forever them that believe. It just took one sacrifice because of the power of his righteousness, because of the power of his perfect blood to put away the sin of his people. Do you want to learn about forgiveness? All you got to do is look to Christ. If we see Christ, you know what we're going to learn? Oh, I know how God can forgive my sin now. because he charged it to Christ and punished him for it so he could forgive me. Now that's forgiveness. That's forgiveness. You wanna know about the wisdom of God? How is it that God can be God and stay God and not violate any of his holy attributes and still show mercy to a guilty, hell-deserving sinner? That's the thing that has to make everybody in false religion uncomfortable. At least by the time they get to their deathbed, How do I know this thing's real? Because no man-made religion ever yet has come up with a way to answer God's justice and God's mercy at the same time. You want to see the wisdom of God? How he can be both just and still justify a sinner like you? Look to Christ. Look to Christ, the sinner substitute, the sin bearer for the sin of his people. The death of Christ enabled God to be just. God's just. He still punished the sin of his people. and at the same time, allow him to be gracious to his people. God taking your sin off of you and putting it on Christ and making his son suffer and die for it so God could give you eternal life, that's grace. Can you think of anything more undeserved than that? And yet, when we look to Christ, we see how God can give me what I do not deserve. It's in Christ. All we gotta do is just preach him and God will give us eyes to see. All right, second, look at John chapter 17. To minister the word is to preach Christ the truth. Christ the truth. John 17, verse 17. The Savior says, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. You know, all of God's truth is seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. How is it that God can sanctify, make holy a sinful people and do it in truth? How is that possible? By the substitutionary death of Christ. All you got to do to see how God can make His people holy is look at Christ and Him crucified. If we preach Christ the truth, the truth about men will be revealed. The truth about our flesh will be revealed. You don't have to beat people up with the law to try to show them how sinful they are. All we got to do is preach Christ. When we preach his perfection, his holiness, his perfect love, his compassion, all of his perfection, we're going to see how sinful and rotten that we really are. The only way I'll ever see how sinful I am, it's not in the light of the law. It's in the light of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Isn't that what our brother Job experienced? He said, oh, I've heard about you with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth you. I see you. And because I see you, I abhor myself and I repent in sackcloth and ashes. Job saw, just like we do, our total depravity. in the light of who Christ is. He's the truth that reveals the truth about men. The truth about God is all revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. All you and I will ever see of God, even in glory, when we see Christ face to face, all we'll ever see of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the manifestation of who God is. If you want to see how how God is holy, how God is just, how God is merciful, how God is gracious, how God is eternal, how God can love sinners. If you wanna see anything at all like that about God, all you've got to do is look to the Lord Jesus Christ. He declares who God is. And if you wanna know how God saves sinners, all you gotta do is look to Christ. God saves sinners in both mercy and truth. God saves his people from their sin. He saves them from punishment for their sin. He saves them from the condemnation of their sin. He forgives them of their sin by punishing Christ in their stead, by making Christ sin for them so that his elect can be made the righteousness of God in him. When sin is truly punished, we can see how it's forgiven and God will never bring it back up again. If God just forgave the sin of his people by sweeping it under the rug, even in eternity, you're always going to wonder, is God going to pick the rug up and reveal my sin again? But if the blood of Christ made the sin of God's people to not exist, the father can never condemn him for it because that would be unjust. That's the truth of God, and the only way you see that truth is by seeing the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now look at Romans chapter nine. Here's the third thing. To minister the word is to preach the promise of God. Romans nine, verse nine. For this is the word of promise. At this time will I come, and Sarah, shall have a son. Now this whole story of Abraham and Sarah and the birth of their son Isaac is all a picture of God's life-giving covenant of grace. Isaac was born by the promise of God. Isaac was born because God always keeps his promise and he promised Abraham and Sarah you'll have a son when it's physically impossible for you to produce one. That's when you're going to have a son. The same thing is true about the salvation of God's people. It's by the promise of God, by the covenant of God. God has saved a people by his promise, his covenant of grace. Salvation is not because we did anything to deserve anything from God. Salvation must be by the promise of grace, by the promise of grace, because you and I can't earn anything but wrath from God. And Christ, the word came, and he ratified God's covenant of grace. Before time began, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit entered into a covenant, a promise with each other. The Father chose the people to save, and he gave them to his Son, and he promised his Son, I'll accept them if you make them righteous. And the Son promised, I'll do everything it takes. to make them righteous. I'll become flesh. I'll obey the law as their representative. I'll take their sin into my own body on the tree and I'll put it away by the sacrifice of myself. I promise I'll do it. And Christ came, the firstborn son of the virgin, and he ratified God's covenant, God's promise of grace, but with his own blood. He kept his promise to his father. He worked out a perfect righteousness by his perfect obedience as a man made under the law. He kept his promise to his father and went to the cross and suffered untold agony because he promised his father he'd do it. He would not go back on his word. And let me tell you this, the Lord Jesus Christ always keeps his promise. He always keeps his promise. You read through this book and find every promise God has made to His people and you hang on to them for all they're worth. If God's promised to save you by the doing and dying of His Son, He's going to do it. He's going to do it. You know, we preach to people. Some people know the Lord, believe Him and love Him. Some people don't. Some people hate Him. Some people Some people don't believe Him and know they don't believe Him. Some people don't believe Him and don't know they don't believe Christ, but we keep preaching Christ. And if there's anyone here that does not know the Lord, but He chose to save you, He sent His Son to die for you, sooner or later the Holy Spirit is going to keep His promise and He's going to give you life too. And He's going to do it by the preaching of Christ. If God has promised to save you, He's going to do it. If God has promised to feed you, in the green pastures of his word. He's promised to give you those drinks out of those cool, still, deep waters of life. He's going to do it. If he's promised to refresh you by the preaching of the gospel, there's going to be days, days you drag yourself in here and you think it's utterly impossible for me to hear anything. And yet you hear and you're comforted because God promised he's going to do it. When he brings you in the time of trouble and trial, our God's going to comfort you. He's going to because He promised. He's gonna give you grace sufficient to meet that trial because He promised to do it. And one day, you're gonna close your eyes in this life and open your eyes in glory looking at the face of Jesus Christ and you're gonna be made just like Him. That promise cannot be made, cannot be believed unless Christ promised it to you. And he did. And he's gonna keep his word. Now you hang on to that through all the ups and downs of this life. It's by promise. Then look at 1 Corinthians 1. To minister the word is to preach Christ the power of God. Verse 18, 1 Corinthians 1. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved, it's the power of God. That word preaching, for the preaching of the cross, it's the same word translated word back in our text. The preaching of the cross, the word, the message, the commandment, the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved, it's the power of God. The preaching of Christ is foolishness to the natural man. It makes no sense to our natural mind. It makes no sense that the Father would choose a people and not choose good people. Not choose, you know, the people who did better than other people, but for Him to choose the worst of the worst. It doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense for you to tell me that I can be righteous without me ever obeying any laws, without me ever keeping any rules, either before conversion or after. That makes no sense. If I'm gonna be righteous, I gotta do something to contribute to it, I gotta do something to keep it. Being made righteous in the obedience of Christ, Christ our representative, that makes no sense to the natural mind. It is so offensive to the natural mind to be told you can't decide to accept Jesus. Salvation is not in your hands. You can't decide to accept it. Salvation is a decision. Absolutely it is. It's the decision of God. And the only thing left for you and me to do is to beg God to give it to us even though we don't deserve it. That's so offensive to the natural mind, it makes no sense. And many of us felt that way one time, didn't we? Many of us did. But you don't now. What happened? The power of God. The word here that Paul used, the power of God, is the Greek word dunamis. It's the word where we get the word dynamite from. It just blows stuff up and it's so powerful, nothing can stop it. When the word of God comes in power, brother, it comes in power. It comes in power. It comes in such power that the spiritually dead are given life, spiritual, eternal life. It comes in such power that God's people who are in darkness, Darkness of ignorance. They don't know anything about God. They don't know anything about themselves. They don't know anything about how God saves sinners. They're in darkness. They're in the darkness of unbelief. And God's Word comes in power and turns the light on and the darkness flees. And there's light. Now I see. Now I believe. The power, the Word of God, that dynamite shook your whole world, didn't it? When the Word of God comes in power, the deaf, who've been hearing the gospel with these ears maybe for a long, long time, but they're deaf. They can't hear it. They don't see what the big deal's about. Now they hear. I mean, they hear crystal clear. They hear God speak in his word. It's not just words on paper anymore. God's word comes in power, in hard hearts that are so hard The law can't break it. The law can't even dent it. You can just beat on it all you want. It's a cold, dead heart. And the word of God comes in power and breaks that heart, just breaks it in pieces and gives a new heart, a new nature. And you want to hear a real display of the power of God. The power of God comes through the gospel that's preached from the lips of a sinful man to your sinful ears and sinful hearts. and God blesses it and gives us life and faith in Christ. Power, power. All we have to do is preach the gospel. We don't need special means and ways to whip people up. When the word comes in power, it's in power. And God's people are gonna be blessed. Fifth, look at 2 Corinthians chapter five. To minister the word is to preach reconciliation. with God. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 18. And all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. And he's given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, namely, this is our ministry that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Not imputing their trespasses unto them, And he hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. So if we're going to minister the word, we must preach this word of reconciliation. The gospel is good news to sinners. I mean, I've got good news for you. You don't have to keep the law in order to become good enough that God will save you. You don't have to do X number of good works and do all these different things in order for God to save you. I tell you why that's good news. Because you and I can't do it. We can't do one good thing. And we don't have to do anything to make reconciliation. We're the ones that declared war on God. We're in this war, this division between us and God, it's all our fault. And we can't do anything to make it up, to make reconciliation for God. The good news of the gospel is God already sent his son to do that for us, to make reconciliation for his people. And because of the death of Christ, the father's reconciled. He is reconciled, not to the whole wide world, he's reconciled to his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's reconciled to everyone for whom Christ died. You see, the father took the sin that made him angry, and he took it away from his people, and he charged it to his son. He made his son to be guilty of that sin, even though he never committed a sin. He made him sin for his people. And the sacrifice of Christ put that sin away, made it to not exist anymore. Then there's no reason that God wouldn't be reconciled. The sin that made him angry is gone. It's been taken out of the way by the blood of Christ. The father is reconciled. And he reconciled his people to himself by the death of his own son. What a glorious message. I mean, what a message of grace and mercy and love and pity. Everything that God requires of you, he's already provided in his son. The father's reconciled. But listen, our message doesn't end there. Look at verse 20. Now then, we're ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead. We're preaching this message to you In Christ's stead, if the Lord Jesus Christ was here, this is the same message he'd be preaching. You be reconciled to God. You be reconciled to God. The Father's reconciled. Now you be reconciled. Now you surrender. Just quit. Just quit trying to earn your way to God. Quit trying to figure out God. Just quit. Just quit. And rest in Christ. Surrender, the war is not gonna go on if you surrender. Just surrender, just quit. And you surrender for the same reason that the father's reconciled. You be reconciled to God for the same reason God's reconciled to you, the sacrifice of Christ. You be reconciled to God for, Paul says, he hath made him sin for us who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. I can't think of a better reason to surrender, to stack my arms and submit myself to the righteousness of Christ and quit fighting him other than this. The father made his son sin for me so that I could be made the very righteousness of God in Christ. What a transaction. What mercy, what grace? I can't think of a better reason to be reconciled to God than that. Then quickly look at Philippians chapter two. The sixth thing. To minister the word is to preach the word of life. Philippians two verse 16. Holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. And James says that the Father, well, hang on a second, He hath begotten us again, caused His people to be born of His own will, begat He us with the word of truth. It's the same word that Paul's talking about preaching here. The only way any sinner is going to have spiritual life is if God the Holy Spirit gives it to them in the new birth. Now the flesh cannot be given light in life. We cannot educate someone. We cannot educate the flesh into believing God. The flesh is dead and that's all it ever will be. Dead, stinking, rotten flesh. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's all it ever will be. so that we must be born again. We must be born again because the old man doesn't have anything to put these spiritual things into. The flesh has no connection with the spirit. But that which is born of the spirit is spirit. It'll always be spirit. It'll always be a new spiritual man that believes God, that loves God, that can see and understand the kingdom of God. And the only way that new man's ever born is by the preaching of the word. This word is the seed that gives life in the hearts of God's people. And if the Holy Spirit ever moves on us, causes us to be born again so that we see Christ, so that we believe on Christ, I'm telling you, we will have life because he is life. He is our life and will never be dead in Adam again. But the only way we're going to be born again is by preaching the word. Keep planting that word in the hearts of people and praying that God cause it to grow to increase. Then last, look at 2 Thessalonians 2. To minister the word is to comfort and establish God's people. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 17. Well, let's go up to verse 16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and a good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. You know, the Lord's commandment to his preachers is comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Well, how are we going to comfort God's people? We're going to tell them, well, You know, this is all going to be all right. You know, God has a plan and everything. This is going to be all right. Well, fleshly speaking, it might not. It might get very painful, very rough. I mean, it just might be the toughest thing you ever go through. It might kill your body. I mean, who knows? So how is it that we're going to comfort God's people? It's by preaching Christ the word. The hearts of God's people are comforted to hear one more time, Christ is sufficient. He's all it takes to save me eternally. He's all it takes. He's all I need. He's all I need to be righteous. He's all I need to be justified. He's all that I need to stand before the Father, complete and spotless. He is sufficient. I can just rest in Him. His blood, will never lose its power to atone for sin. All my sin is just so ashamed of, it's shameful, shameful, shameful, shameful, especially after all God's blessings to me. What comforts our heart when we see our sin? His blood will never lose its power to atone for sin. It's already paid for it. The righteousness that God's given you That righteous nature He's given you in the new birth, you can never mar it. Because it's not up to you. It's all up to Christ's obedience. It's up to Him. You'll always be righteous. And no matter what it is that you go through through this life, you can trust Him to never leave you and never forsake you. I don't care what it is you go through, your Savior's there with you. And His grace will always be sufficient. And sooner or later, we're going to find this out. I need Christ. All the things of this life that I enjoy, thankful for them. Really am. Thankful that I got a recliner at home, and I'm going to use it today. I'm going to kick that thing back, and I mean, I like my recliner. Thankful for it. Thankful for a nice home. But listen, I need Christ. I need Christ. Sooner or later, we're all going to find that out. That I'll give up everything and everyone but Him. Because I have to have Him. And when I find out, He teaches me I must have Him. What a comfort it is for my heart to hear Him say, I'll never leave you, nor forsake you. And believers will be comforted, and they'll be established in this. They'll grow roots down deep, and they'll be established so that they cannot move. You know how it's gonna happen? A steady diet of the word, over and over and over again, hearing that Christ is all. All right, well, I hope that'll be a blessing to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you for this time to open your word and read and study it. Father, I pray that you'd bless it to our hearts. Father, for your glory, and for the good of your people. Father, how we pray that you give us Christ. As a songwriter of old said, give me Christ, or else I die. Father, give us him. Let us see him and rest in him. Let him be our all and in all. Father, it's in Christ's sake, in Christ's name, and for his sake and for his glory, we pray. Amen. All right, son. Okay, if you would, turn in your hymnals to song number 242 and stand as we sing Jesus, I Come. 242. Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come Into Thy freedom, gladness, and light Jesus, I come Out of my sickness into thy health, Out of my want and into thy wealth, Out of my sin and into thyself, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my shameful failure and loss, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come, into the glorious gain of thy cross. Jesus, I come to thee. Out of myself rose into thy palm, Out of life's warmth and into thy calm, Out of distress to jubilant song, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of unrest and arrogant pride. Jesus, I come! Jesus, I come! Into Thy blessed will to abide. Jesus, I come to Thee! Proud of myself to dwell in thy love. Proud of despair into raptures above. Upward for aye, on wings like a dove, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of the fear and dread of the tomb, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come, Into the joy and light of Thy home, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of the depths of ruin untold, Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold, My glorious face to behold, Jesus I adore.