We are going to look at the first
six verses of chapter four. Paul, in this chapter, has to
deal with this subject of these false teachers trying to discredit
his ministry, his preaching, and he's got to defend that. Nobody likes to do that. I don't
believe any man who preaches the gospel likes to stand and
defend his ministry. But this is what Paul is doing
in this chapter. Back in chapter 3, he spoke of
the glory of the gospel and how it excelled that of the Old Testament,
the letter, the law. And then here in this chapter,
He's got to defend His ministry. Our Lord, when He would go about
preaching so often, had to deal with those scribes and those
Pharisees. They were constantly, constantly in His face wanting to know where did you
get this authority? Where did you get this authority?
Who gave you the right to do these things and to say these
things. That's what it says over here in Matthew. Look over in
Matthew. See where we were at last week.
In Matthew chapter 21, verse 23. Notice this in verse 23. When
he was coming to the temple, the chief priest and the elders
of the people came unto him as he was teaching, interrupted
him. That's what they did. They interrupted
him. You see, he had cast out those who had sold and exchanged
money and were in it for the money. He ran the money changers
off. And so they came in, because
this is the next day, and he came in and was teaching, and
they came in and interrupted him. And they said, by what authority
And who gave you this authority? Who gave you this right? So he
had to deal with that. And Paul had to deal with that
all through his ministry. And we'll have to deal with that
all through our times, in our preaching, in our ministry. We'll
have to deal with people trying to discredit the gospel that
we preach, our ministry, that it's of God. And Paul says here
in verse 1, See, we have this ministry. As
we have received mercy, we faint not. This ministry of grace. This ministry that far excels
that ministry that Moses had. That ministry of the law, the
ceremonies. I tell you, we have a ministry
that far excels that ministry. As much as light excels darkness. We have that ministry given to
us. And it's a ministry of the Spirit
and not of the letter. It's not just standing up here
reading to you just a law written on stone. We have one of the
Spirit. And it's a ministry of the redemptive
work of Christ, of His glory, of His redemptive glory. That's
the ministry we have. Not just me standing here, but
this whole church. That's the ministry we have been
given. It's a ministry of grace, it's a ministry of the Spirit,
and it's a ministry of the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a ministry of how God can be a just God and save sinners. That's the ministry we have been
given. How sinners are made the righteousness of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the ministry we have been
given. And it's a glorious ministry. Glorious ministry. For it has
to do with the gospel of God's glory. We can't even begin to... And I tell you, the longer I
preach, the harder I find words to use on this gospel, this glorious
gospel, as Paul calls it, of the blessing of God. It's a glorious
ministry. It's a glorious gospel. And Paul
says, we have this ministry. We've been called to it. equipped
for it and put into it. So we have it. God has given
it to us. He hasn't given this to everyone.
It's precious. It's precious. It's a precious
ministry. It's a ministry of responsibility, but it's precious. Precious. And Paul says we have
it. We have this ministry. He was
responsible to preach it. He said, woe is me if I preach
not the gospel. He wrote to Timothy over in 1
Timothy verse 11, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed
God, which was committed to my trust. It was committed to my
trust. That's a responsibility, isn't
it? That's a great privilege, but it's a heavy responsibility
to have the glorious gospel of God's glory committed to my trust. He says over in Titus chapter
1 verse 3, but hath in due time manifested his word through preaching
which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our
Savior. And we have this same responsibility today, same responsibility
that Paul had. But he says as we have received
mercy, as we have received mercy, we have received the saving mercy
of God. He has revealed the gospel to
us. He has not left us alone. He
has revealed the gospel to us. Paul never got over, he never
got over God saving his soul. He never got over that time when
the Lord struck him down on the road to Damascus and he saw this
bright light that shined about him. He never got over that.
He never got over that time. I don't believe anybody who has
experienced God's saving mercy gets over it. They never get
over it. As we have received mercy, His
saving mercy and His sustaining mercy, His mercy keeps us going. And Paul is letting them know,
I'm not doing this in the energy of the flesh. I'm not doing this
of my own. on my own strength. No, he said,
I'm doing this because God's merciful to me and He strengthens
me. He strengthens me. And because
of this, because of this ministry we've been given, this glorious
ministry, and we have received mercy, the mercy of God, saving
mercy, we faint not. We faint not. Now listen, he
says we faint not. Look down in verse 8. We are
troubled on every side, yet not distressed. Perplexed, but not
in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus. But we think not. I've never
suffered those things. I've never come close to suffering
any of these things that Paul has suffered. And he's writing
here to them. He said, but we think not. You
see, one of the accusations. One of the accusations that the
false. Teachers. The preachers of that
day were making against Paul was that his his ministry was
was not of God or he wouldn't suffer so much. That's one of
the reasons that's one of the things they were saying. They're
saying Paul's ministry cannot be of God. Look what he's suffering. Would a servant of God suffer
these things? What happened when Job suffered what he suffered? What did his friends say? Boy,
Job, you must have done something. You must have done something
wrong. Now, you know, I thought about this last night. It is
just a natural tendency when somebody goes through a bad situation,
or disaster hits, the first thing we think of, what in the world
did they do? What in the world did they do?
And these false teachers were pointing to Paul's sufferings.
They were pointing to his sufferings and saying, look, if he was a
true apostle, if he was a true servant of God, if he really
believed God, these things wouldn't be happening because they're
not happening to us. Those things didn't happen to
them. They didn't have any trouble. trouble. They were not having
trouble. And they were actually pointing
to his sufferings and using it as a reason to discredit his
ministry. So that's what Paul does here
in this chapter. He defends it and he says here,
we have this treasure in verse 7, we have this treasure in earthen
vessels. That the excellency of the power
may be of God, not of us. That's the reason he said we
have this treasure in earthen vessels in this weak, frail man. Man, you see here, we have this
treasure that the power and the glory would be evident that it's
of God and not of ourselves, not of ourselves. But we in verse
two, he said, we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
we've disowned We have forsaken. We are honest with you. Honest
with you. Not everyone standing in a pulpit
is honest with you. We know that. This group right
here has been taught well over the years. Been taught well. And you know that not everyone
standing in a pulpit is honest. Not everyone standing in a pulpit
handles the Word of God honestly. honestly, with the right motive,
that is, for His glory. Paul says, we have renounced
these things. We have renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty. What we are in private, we are
in public. What we discuss in private over
the gospel, we preach publicly. There's no difference in our
private message and our public message. That's what he's saying.
There's no difference in it. No difference. Nor have we handled
the Word of God deceitfully. Using trickery. You see, first
he says we've renounced the hidden things. And the hidden things
are things of what? Of the heart. Things of the heart. It's the motive. I can't see
your motive. You can't see my motive. You cannot see it. And Paul said we've renounced
those things. And we're not handling the Word of God deceitfully or
using trickery. We're not trying to trick you
into making a profession and get you to start coming here
and start giving and supporting. No, Paul said we haven't done
that. We haven't done that. I've been honest with you. Honest. But by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. Paul is saying that they preach the Word of God With all
plainness. With all plainness of speech. In simplicity. Simplicity. Setting forth the truth as Christ
revealed it to them. The apostles received the gospel
directly from the Lord. You know, Paul spent, what, three
years over in Arabia? And those three years, the Lord
personally, face to face, Revealed the gospel to him. He revealed
the gospel. He received it directly from
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, well, we are honest
with you. We are using great plainness
of speech. And you know. You know, because he said we
commend ourselves to every man's conscience, you know, in your
heart, our conduct. Our message. Our preaching, you
know that we're not after you. what you have, we're after your
heart, but we're not after your pocketbook. We're not after your
pocketbook because he was accused of that. We're after you. And you know our hearts and God
knows our hearts. God knows our hearts. He was
not ashamed. Paul was not ashamed nor afraid
to be examined by God or men. Not ashamed and not afraid. I went to David and said one
time in the Psalms, search me, O Lord, and see if there be any
wicked way in me. Search me. That's what Paul says.
Search me. Search me. And you know in your
heart that we've been honest with you. And you know our methods
and our message. You know it's on the up and up.
You know it. But if our gospel is hid, If
it's hid, over in chapter 3, the word is veiled. If our gospel
be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. This is what he's saying about
those men who are discrediting his ministry, who's causing trouble
among them. If our gospel is hid, it's hid
to them that are lost. Our gospel, it is our gospel,
isn't it? This is our gospel. It's God's
gospel, but it's our gospel, and that He gave it to us. He
saved us by it. And Paul says it's our gospel
being opposed to all the other false gospels that were being
preached. You know, over in Galatians, Paul says they come preaching
another gospel. He said, let them be accursed.
But if it be hid, and if it's veiled, Like the
veil spoken of there in chapter 3. It's veiled to them that are
lost. They're lost. It's not that the gospel is so
complicated. You know, the scripture says
that a wayfaring man would not even err therein if God reveals
it to him. If God takes the simplest man
that's ever walked on this earth, and reveals the gospel to him,
he'll not err therein. He can understand the mysteries
of God. But if it's hid, if it's hid, if you can't see it, you
can't understand it. And you have. You've talked to
people. I've talked to people about the
gospel. And they're just like, I don't see that. No, God didn't choose a people.
No, God did not elect a people. No, He died for everybody. No,
He didn't just die for those whom the Father gave Him. But
He died to make salvation possible for everybody. It's hid. They
can't see it. And the reason why is this. They're
lost. He said they're lost. And that's
what Paul's saying to these false teachers. who's coming in and
discrediting his ministry. He's saying those men are lost. Those men are lost. The problem
is not with the gospel, it's with the condition of the hearer.
The hearer is lost. A person who has no interest
in the gospel, really, has no interest in it, has no interest
in Christ. Christ is not in any of his thoughts.
It's because he's lost. Lost. Lost means to be spiritually
dead. It's to be spiritually blind.
It is to be in darkness. It is to not have the life of
God in the soul. That's what it is to be lost.
Lost. I was telling him the problem
here with those who oppose the gospel is this. That's the problem. They're lost. They haven't seen.
The gospel hasn't been revealed to them. They don't have the
life of God in the soul. That's why they're causing so
much trouble. The Pharisees, when they came to our Lord and
they would have said, by what authority do you do these things?
If they were not lost, they'd know. If they were not lost,
they wouldn't cause them all that trouble. Before God saved
Paul, look what trouble He caused the church. He was lost. He was lost. And here's the second
problem. The first problem is this, they're
lost. Here's the second problem. In whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ Who is the image of God should
shine unto them. The God of this age, little g,
little g, the God of this age is Satan. And listen, he's a
very real person. Listen, he's not a fictitious
person. This is a very, very real person who goes about seeking
whom he may devour. And he does his greatest work
on men and women's minds. He says, blinds their minds,
lest the light of the gospel should shine unto them. He blinds
it. He blinds the mind with human reasoning. One of the greatest
opponents to the gospel is our own reasoning, human reasoning,
human logic. He blinds the mind by confusion. I had this happen one time. I
was telling the gospel to a person. And as I was telling the gospel,
here comes another religious man along. As I was talking,
and I knew this was going to be a problem, as I was talking,
he's butted in. And he started going a different
direction with it. Confusion. Confusion. He blinds the mind with human
reasoning, human logic. He blinds the mind with confusion.
All men and women are born in darkness, and Satan does all
that he's allowed to do, all that he's allowed to do, to keep
them that way. One writer said, he cannot keep
it out of the world. Because it's in the world that
gospel goes forth being preached. But he does all he can do to
keep it out of the heart. All that he's allowed to do. In whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, who
is the expressed image of God, as it says over in Hebrews, should
shine unto them. to shine unto them. Now, we preach
not ourselves. That's what Paul's saying. We're
not promoting ourselves. And he's commanding himself to
their conscience. He's saying, you know our ministry. You know our conduct. You know
our message. We preach not ourselves. We are
not promoting ourselves. You know that. Christ is our
message. When a man stands in a pulpit
and you have listened to him preach, who gets the glory? Who is getting the glory? The
man or Christ? Who is he pointing you to? Himself or Christ? Paul says, he's saying here,
we're not promoting ourselves. We're not the subject of our
message. Christ is our message. His person, His glorious person
is our message. His work is our message. We're
just His servants. Paul said, that's all I am. I'm
just His servant. Just His servant. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Now, Paul reaches back to creation.
And God began to create. The first thing God commanded
before He created and before He started bringing forth, the
first thing He said was, Let there be light. And He wasn't
talking about the sun, S-U-N, that we have. That wasn't created
until the fourth day. That light was a different light.
And it's this light here, the light of the gospel, the light
of Christ. And when God commands that into the soul, that's when a man has life. That's
when a man has life. That's when a man has true light. But here's what Paul's saying.
Here's what he was saying. He said, this is what happened.
The gospel that we preach, The Gospel that we are preaching,
God revealed it to us. It came from God. You notice
He says here, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
shined in our hearts. God revealed this Gospel to us.
This Gospel we are preaching. This Gospel of His glory. This
Gospel that concerns His Son. God revealed that to us. God
commanded that light. He illuminated us. He illuminated. God illuminated us. He gave us
an understanding of the Gospel. Do you understand? And I'm not
talking about turning to a certain page and say, well, this is what
it says, but this is a light from within. I'm going to touch
on this a little bit more in the message after this. God illuminates. You understand. You see. That understanding is
the eye of faith. You see. You see how God can
be a just God and a Savior. Not just because someone stood
behind a pulpit and opened the Word of God and said that, but
you see it. You see it. I'll tell you this,
you can't tell if anybody can't see it. You can say, don't you see? That's
like saying to a blind man, don't you see the sun? Can't you see
the rays of the sun? Can't you see all the creation? Can't you see that? A blind man
can't. But I tell you what, a man who
has eyes can see. And when you preach the gospel, I know you know what I'm talking
about, you who see. You say, I see. I see that. I
understand. I understand how God can be just
and save me and take me to glory and have fellowship with Him. I see. God commanded the light. He illuminated you from within.
That light's within. This happens in regeneration. This is what happens when God
saves a sinner. We see His redemptive glory in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He becomes the center
of everything. The center of everything. But
Paul is saying to them, what is he saying to them? God, the
same God, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
the same God, the God of creation, same God, revealed the gospel
to us. This gospel that we are preaching
to you, the gospel of His glory, the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the gospel of redemption. He's saying God revealed that
to us and we've given it to you and we've given it to you honestly,
not deceptive, not using trickery, not handling the Word of God
deceitfully. We've given it to you. What God gave to us, we
have honestly given to you. Say it when you have to defend
your ministry, isn't it? But he does. He does. But if this
gospel's hid, if it's hid, it's not the problem with the gospel.
It's not a problem with the gospel or the messenger. It's this.
He said, you're lost. You're lost.