My brother-in-law, Hap Gates,
was preaching for Charles Pennington. Those of you who know him know
that Charles was a very tall man, but he spoke real soft and
you couldn't hardly hear him. And Hap, he had a deep voice,
but he was only about that tall. And so that tall pulpit of Brother
Pennington's, that he was standing here and you could just barely
see his chin. And he said, well, he said, you
can see Brother Pennington, but you can't hear him. He said,
you can hear me, but you can't see me. That's kind of the way
I feel behind this pulpit. I invite you this morning to
turn with me to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter four. I count it a great privilege
to be here today and to have in my hand the Word
of God and to have in my head and heart
some understanding of what that Bible says. What a privilege. What a privilege. Thousands in this world who hear
this message preached, read the words of this book and don't
have a clue what this book says. Don't know God, don't know Christ,
have no idea what the gospel is. And those of you who do,
what a privilege. What a privilege. And to have a willingness to
tell what I know, And to have God's providence
to make that happen. I think about these things. I
think about them all the time. It's a great, great privilege. A great privilege. And I hope when I'm finished
this morning, you will have found it more than just another meeting. More than just, well, it's Sunday. I guess we'll go to church. I
hope when I'm finished this morning that you'll look at it a little
past that, a little above that, if you don't now. It's an act of God's sovereign
mercy is what it is that we're gathered here today. It's an
act of His sovereign mercy. If it wasn't for that, we wouldn't
be here. We'd be watching a game on TV,
We'd be going out to a restaurant for breakfast this morning. We'd
have no interest in these things whatsoever, but for his sovereign
grace and his mercy. And then we hope when we come
here, or I hope that's what you hope, it's what I hope for, to
hear a word from God. I have words. I have words written
down. I have messages that I've spoken
before, doctrines that I've taught before. I have those things,
but more than anything, I want to hear from God. I want to hear
from Him. I want to worship Him. I want
my heart to be raised up, not just my head, but my heart. And to see these things as they
need to be seen. Did you ever think about this
Bible as the testimony of God? When it begins, you know how
it begins? And God said. That's how it begins. God said. Nothing was happening. Who knows how deep eternity is? It just goes forever. Nothing
happened. Nothing evolved. Nothing appeared
until God said. God said. He said, let there
be light. And there was. God said, let there be a firmament
in the midst of the waters. And there was. God said, let the earth bring
forth grass and herb-bearing sand. And he did. God said, nothing's
going to happen unless God speaks. That's my point. Nothing's going
to happen. Nothing of any value. Nothing's
going to happen. Everything that is manifested,
including ourselves, has its beginning with this, God said. God said. I'm no different than
any other sinner in this world. Not one iota different, but for
the grace of God. And one day God said, that's
far enough. That's far enough. You've gone
as far as you're going to go. And God spoke. God spoke. You know what it's going to take
for your children? You know what it's going to take
for your your loved ones, your family members that you love,
the people that you work with, we talk to all the time. Sometimes
we find ourselves pinning them up in a corner and just button-holing
them and just trying to intellectually get this thing through. You know
what it's going to take? God to say. God said. God said. And isn't that what
it all comes down to? We come in here this morning
hoping to worship God. And we might. if God will speak, my daughter's little girl, they
came to visit me down in Arkansas. And she was too young to sit
out in the meetings, and she was on her way back to the nursery
that we had in the back, kind of a makeshift nursery at the
old church. And she stopped, and she was
just looking at me. And I looked over, and I said,
what is it, honey? And she always had the biggest
eyes. She said, are you going to say
the words? I'm telling you, it went right
through my heart. I said, I hope so. I hope so. And that's the way I feel this
morning. I hope so. I hope so. Otherwise, what benefit
will it be for us to sing a few songs and go back to our lives
if God doesn't speak? You know, he quit speaking for
400 years and nobody knew it. They kept right on going to church.
They kept right on doing the things. God didn't say a word
from Malachi until the birth of Christ. He didn't say a word. And nobody knew it. Nobody knew
it. And that's my message this morning.
It's about God speaking to us. Says he spake in time past to
our fathers through the prophets. He raised up some men, gave them
that office as a prophet, and he spoke to the people. He had
nothing to say apart from his prophets. Everything God had
to say, he said through his prophets. And he says, but in these last
days he's spoken unto us, and the literal, is this, in Son. That's how he speaks. He speaks
in Christ. Speaks in Christ. And everything
God has to say, He has said and will say by His Son. To Him give all the prophets
witness. Everything they had to say was
about the Son. Everything we have to say is
in the Son who was manifested. We had nothing else to say. So how does God speak to us in
son? How does he do that? How does
that work? I'm one of you guys that ask
a lot of questions, because I don't understand. Been asking them
for years. And some of these things, God's
given me some answers to in his word. And it's done me some good. How does God speak to us about
his son? We come in here this morning,
and it's my prayer that your hope was that he will speak to
us. If God does speak to us, how's he gonna do it? How's he
gonna do it? Well, he sent out the 70, and
he said, I'm gonna send you out to those places whither I will
come. I'm gonna show up there. but
I'm gonna send you out. I'm gonna send you out. And here's
what he told him. He that heareth you, heareth
me. You believe that? Huh? Do you believe if God's gonna
speak to you, he's gonna send a man and that man is gonna speak
and you're gonna receive him just as though Christ was speaking
to you? Because that's what preachers
do. That's what they do. And we wrestle. Don't think we
don't wrestle over this. You say, well, you just get the
big head. Oh, it hadn't had that effect on me. It scares me to
death. I get in my study, and I start
to write things down. And I'll pause, and I'll say,
is this really so? Is what I'm writing really so?
Is this the Word of God? Is this the Gospel of God? Is
this the message of God? Is God giving this to me to give
to someone? He said, He that heareth you,
heareth me. Do you think about preaching
and preachers that way? Did you come here today hoping
and praying for God to speak to you? Did you come here expecting to
hear? Praying for me to be enabled of God to say something to you,
something that'll touch your heart and lodge in your mind
and stay there from now on? Well, here's my text, 1 Corinthians
4, verse 1. May seem like a strong text,
a strange text, but I assure you it's not. Paul said, let
a man so account of us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the
mysteries of God. We went out and ate some Mexican
food down in Harrodsburg the other night, and this guy came
and handed us a menu, and we looked over the menu, and we
could pick anything we wanted on the menu, order it, and that
guy go get it, he bring it out, and he'd say, here it is, here
it is. Is this what you ordered? Yes,
sir, that's exactly what I ordered. Looks good. Ministers of Christ, but there's
just one thing on the menu. Christ. Christ. We don't minister anything else.
I'm not a counselor. Not a counselor. If you're having
trouble with your marriage, I'd probably just make it worse. If you've got problems with wayward
children, I'd probably just make it worse. I'm not a counselor.
I'm a preacher. And I just have one message,
and that's Christ. I'm a minister of Christ. Paul
said, let a man so account of us. Here's what I want you to
understand. I want you to understand it if
you invite me. I want you to understand it when
I'm standing here. And I want you to understand
it when I go home. That's all I have. I've got nothing else. Nothing else. And frankly, I
don't need anything else. Do it. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. We're complete in Him. What else
do I need? Do I need some letters after my name? Do I have to go
to seminary to prove to people that God's called me to pray?
No. No, He'll take care of that.
He'll verify that in the hearts of the hearers. I don't have
to promote myself. I don't have to confirm my calling. I don't have to do any of those
things. All I have to do is preach Christ. And I tell you, it's
the most difficult thing you ever tried to do because the
tendency is to do this and do that and go this way and that
way. But here's where it winds up being. It's all about Christ. I'm going to minister Christ. And if I can minister Him, I've
had everybody in the place. Listen to what Paul said, and
I want to say this. No man, no matter how talented
he is, no matter how much training he's had, no matter whose recommendation
he has, is qualified to be a minister of Christ. Paul said not that
we're sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. But our sufficiency is of God. It's of God. If God's not called
me, he won't send me. Is that so? How shall they preach
except they be sent? If God is not called me, he will
not send me. Ministers hold a place in the
kingdom of God that's a mystery to most men. They don't understand
what it is. That's why you see them putting
on the gowns and going through all the charade and taking on
titles. It's just ridiculous titles.
That's why, that's why. They hold a place in the kingdom
of God that's a mystery to most and sometimes it's a mystery
to the minister himself. But there are some things that
I do know about them, things that I've struggled with for
years and found answers to. So let me give you just a few
of these things. And you may be thinking, well,
why did he pick this text? I didn't pick it. I couldn't
get it out of my head, and I couldn't get it out of my heart. I brought
five messages with me, and I just Keep writing one out and I'll
go right back to this. Right back to this. And I think
I understand why you don't have a pastor. And sometimes we just need to
go back to the very basics of things and think about them.
And let those things sink deep into your heart. I know you've
had a faithful pastor and you've had him for years and years and
years. And I know that you know these
things. But we need to be reminded. I do. And you do about these
things. So let me give you just a few
things about the preacher. Let a man so account of us as
ministers of Christ. And the first thing I know is
that it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. I want my children to be saved.
I do. I want my grandchildren to know
God. Well, I don't know if God's going
to speak to him or not. I don't know. But I do know this. If he does, it'll be from this
pulpit. Huh? Or another one. Why? Because that's what it pleased
God to do. It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And I don't care who
he is. I don't care how well liked he is. I don't care. how
well loved he is by the congregation. Any man that talks about being
saved by any other means is a liar. That's just so. He's a liar. Well, I was just in my closet
one day playing and the Lord spoke to me. He may not know he's a liar,
but he is. He is. He may well be convinced
that he knows God through some experience he had, but it's just
not so. The Holy Ghost said, not me,
the Holy Ghost said, how shall you hear without a preacher? Huh? I can say that about my children
and yours. I can say that about my friends and yours. I can say
that about my family and yours. How shall they hear without a
preacher? And the most important thing
that you can ever do for your children and for your friends
and for your family is invite them to come. Invite them to
come. There's no guarantee that God
will speak to them, but he won't speak to them unless they're
there. That much I can tell you. Listen to this. And I'm sure
that what I'm saying is so, the revelation of Christ comes through
the gospel as he sends it to his elect through a preacher. Now that's how it comes. In 1
Corinthians chapter three, verse five, Paul said, and they were
bragging on, well, I was converted under Paul. And I hear that a
lot. I've said that a lot. I was converted
under Henry Manning. So what? What's the difference
if God converted you? And here's what Paul said, who
then is Paul? Who is Apollos? But ministers,
now listen, by whom you believed, even as God hath given to every
man. That don't sound like there's
an option out there anywhere, does it? even as God has given
to every man. A preacher is saying that God's
going to, He singles out a man and He singles out an individual
in His election and then when the time is right, He arranges
His properties for that man to come and He arranges for that
preacher to come. That's exactly what this book
says. That's exactly what it says. What did the Lord give to every
believing man? A minister by whom they believed. And I don't know why folks who
believe in a sovereign, eternal, all-wise God have trouble believing
that the same God who chose a people would ordain the means to call
them. Why does that sound so ridiculous?
But I don't know of anything in our day that's more of an
issue than this, than what I'm telling you. Paul said, we're bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto
he calls you by our gospel. Our gospel. Preaching of the gospel is the
seed of regeneration according to 1 Peter 1. It's the seed of
regeneration. Well, you say he says in verse
23 that the word of God is the seed of regeneration. Well, don't
quit reading there. Go on down to verse 25. What
does that say? This is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you. You're not gonna be born again
just reading some random verse of scripture out of the Bible.
You're gonna be born again hearing the gospel, which is the message
of the book, the message of the word of God. And beware of any man who promotes
his own experience, because he's also promoting one for you. Ministers of Christ are chosen
and equipped to preach the gospel, which is the means God has ordained
to save His elect. And then secondly, they're ministers
of Christ. They're not lords over God's
heritage. They're ministers. They're ministers. They're servants of God. They're
ambassadors for Christ. They're sent to reconcile you
to God and to reconcile you to that reconciliation. We pray you in Christ's stead,
Paul said, be ye reconciled to God. And preachers are sent with just
one purpose, and that's to minister Christ to sinners. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
four. I hear things all the time from
people I shouldn't be hearing it from. And they talk about
after a man's born of God, after he's converted to Christ and
he comes, and now he's ready for something else. Really? I thought Paul said, as you have
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.
Isn't that what he said? We don't need something more,
we just need more of the same. That's what we need. And our
Lord ascended back into glory, having accomplished all He came
to do, having accomplished the redemptive will of God, having
accomplished our redemption itself, and having brought out for us
a perfect righteousness. Before He ascended into glory,
He gave gifts to the church. He talks about these gifts. They
were apostles and prophets. Those are the authors of the
word of God. They were the beginning of the
New Testament churches. Those responsible for the whole
canon of scripture and offices needful for that time. There'd never been anything like
this. That's why the Jews rebelled against it so much. Rebelled
against baptism. They didn't practice baptism
ever. They rebelled against it, and
that's why God appointed these apostles, prophets. And these
first two offices have been fulfilled. They no longer exist, but evangelist
and pastor teachers still exist. So why did he give these offices
to the church? Ephesians 4, verse 12. For the
perfecting of the saints, when we minister Christ to the church,
We tell them that by one offering, he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Rex read that to us a few minutes
ago. You're talking about perfecting of the saints, you're not talking
about that man evolving into a perfect being. You're talking
about teaching that man that he's perfect in Christ. If you're
in Christ, you're as perfect as you're ever gonna be. You're
perfect. He said, you're unreprovable
in God's sight. God can't find anything wrong
with you. Paul said in Hebrews that we
come into the presence when we worship God, we're coming into
the presence of spirits, spirits of just men. Now listen, made
perfect, made perfect. And those reconciled by Christ
are presented to God holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. And so we minister Christ to
His elect till we all come in the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God, now listen, unto a perfect man. Not this perfect man, but that
perfect man, Christ. Christ. unto the knowledge of the Son
of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of
the fullness of Christ. And if I understand that word
stature right, it means status, level achieved, standing before God in Christ. So we minister to Christ, we
minister to men and women, And we do it, verse 14, Ephesians
4, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and
carried about by every wind of doctrine. And that's what happens. Men
come in. I hate to use that word good, because there's none good
but God, but good in men's sight. They come in and they're likable
people. They're just easy to get along
with, and they come in, and they settle in, and then all of a
sudden, it's just this little thing. Everything's great, but
there's just one thing. And it's no time before that
church is upside down. That's exactly what happened
in the church at Galatia. Things similar to that in the
church at Corinth. You can just go through the New
Testament and see it over, and Peter warns about it. This is the calling of the minister,
and this calling demands the presence of the Holy Spirit of
God. I can't do anything. I can't
convince you of anything, and if I could, somebody else could
convince you otherwise. But if the Holy Spirit convinces
you, nobody will ever take it from you. It'll be there forever. And I know this is so. You quote
the Bible front to back, and you can give the best parables
and illustrations, and you can find But nothing effectual is
going to take place unless God the Holy Spirit works in conjunction
with what's being said. And if this minister is called
of God, God the Holy Ghost will attend his words. He will. Also, he always causes us to
triumph in Christ. Always. Always. In them that
don't believe, in them that do believe. And he said he made us able ministers
of the New Testament. Not of the letter, but of the
spirit. The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. And as
he ministers Christ to chosen sinners, they begin to see his
value. That's what I'm up here to do,
is to set Christ before you so you can see something of his
value. That family had gone to worship,
It was a beautiful spring day, and they went down to worship,
and they were coming home, and when they come home, the little
boy was just lagging behind, and you could tell he had a problem.
Finally, his father kind of drifted back where he was, and he said,
son, what's the problem? Well, he said, I just don't understand
how one man could die and atone for so many sins. And he thought, how in the world
am I going to tell this boy? And he spied a grasshopper on
the sidewalk. And he said, son, he said, how
many grasshoppers would it take to be worth the life of one little
boy? Oh, he said, all the grasshoppers
in the world wouldn't be worth the life of one little boy. And
he said, Isaiah the prophet said, he sitteth upon the circle of
the earth. and all the inhabitants thereof
are as grasshoppers. It's who he is. That's the value
of who he is. This is Christ. This is the Son
of God. This is the Son of God. And I
fear in our day, he'd been set forth. Brother Mahan used to
hit the nail on the peg. Poor little Jesus boy. And if
you listen to him, that's exactly what it sounds like. He's weeping,
he did his best, he's done all he can do, now it's all up to
you. Can you worship a Christ like
that? He's God. God come into the flesh. We minister Christ, and if we
do, and if that Holy Spirit works in your heart, here's what he's
gonna tell you. He's gonna show you the value
of his son. This is my beloved son, hear
ye him. We'll just build three tabernacles
here. He said, you're not building any tabernacles here. This is
my son. This is my son. That's what happens
in conversion. God opened your heart to see
His Son. He's heir of all things. This
is the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of His
person. When He said, let a man so account
of us as ministers of Christ, that's what He's talking about.
Exalting His Son. As ministers of Christ, We minister
these things to chosen sinners and they see them as the gift
of God's grace. And they look on that preacher
differently from then on. They look at him differently.
Listen to what Paul says to the Galatians. He said, my temptation,
which was in my flesh, Nobody really knows what that is, but
we all think it had something to do with the scales on his
eyes, and he just almost had a look of deformity about him.
And he said, and my temptation, which was in my flesh, this infirmity
and trial, he said, you despised none, nor rejected, but you received
me, now listen, as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. And he said, where is then that
blessedness you speak of? For I bear you record you would
have plucked out your eyes and given them to me if I'd have
asked you. Where did that go? Where did
that go? Well, I tell you, all that goes
out the window when Christ goes out the window. Christ is all. There's no other
reason for a ministry. No other reason whatsoever. There is in the ministry of Christ
a melting of hearts into one. He talks about the unity of the
faith. The unity of the spirit working
among the congregation, there's a melting of hearts into one. When you see that man and God
speaks to you and you know that's God's man. I tell you, the first
time I listened to Henry Mahan and the Lord gave me faith, I
looked at that man like he was 10 feet tall. He only come up
to here on me. It was like he was 10 feet tall.
I knew that was God's man. I didn't know everything he was
saying, but I knew enough to know that was God's man. I can
say the same thing about Don. I can say the same thing about
Maurice. I can say the same thing about all these ministers of
Christ. I don't know how to describe
it. There's just a melting of hearts into one, a realization
of God working in you and in that minister, which truly he
does. He does. The minister speaking the truth
in love, they cause his people to grow up in him. They go out
of the service talking about Christ. Talking about Christ. Ministers are chosen and equipped
to preach the gospel to men and women and they're ministers of
Christ. Well, how do they minister Christ?
How does a true minister of God minister Christ to you? as he's revealed in this book. As he's revealed in this book.
Scott Richardson used to say, the word of God is a hymn book,
H-I-M, H-I-M. That's the testimony of God,
to him give all the prophets witness. Through this man, is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, by him all that believe
are justified from all things. Word of God is a book of redemption,
and that redemption's in Christ. Book of reconciliation, we're
reconciled in Christ. This is the record, John said,
that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his
Son. We preach Him as He's revealed
in the Holy Scripture. Well, how is He revealed in the
Word of God? As God. Do you know God? You never will apart from His
Son. No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and He to whom
the Son will reveal Him. Everything we know about God
is manifested in His Son. Has God purposed to save sinners?
He saved a many sons. How do I know God will save sinners?
Because Christ saved sinners. He's God. John said, we know that the Son
of God has come and given us an understanding that we may
know Him that's true. How did we get this understanding?
In Christ. In Christ. would minister Christ to chosen
sinners as God come into the flesh. And then secondly, as
absolute sovereign Lord over everything that is, he worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. What's going on in the world
today? The will of God. Is there? The will of God. Nothing going on apart from His
will. He's Lord of the dead and the
living. He's Lord to the glory of God the Father. His reign
has never wrinkled the integrity of God, never compromised the
character of God, and never misrepresented the name of God. Everything we
know about God, we know in Him. And his sovereign lordship is
given to the God-man to save sinners. That's the thing. It's not this, well, here's a sovereign and
he sits up there and he's sovereign. And people just talk about that
and talk about it and talk about it. And it's so. He is sovereign.
But that's not what delights the sinner. It delights the sinner
to know that that sovereignty is engaged to save his soul. That's where the glory of God
comes in. Everything that God is has been
manifested in Christ, and everything that God is is engaged to save
sinners. John 17 too, he said, as thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life. to as many as thou hast given
him. He was Lord before we ever become
a man, but this is talking about our representative. This is talking
about our Savior. This is talking about salvation
by grace through a man. And it gave him power over all
flesh to arrange his providence to do what he will with whom
he will, when he will. Why? To save all those that the
Father gave to him. All things be ordered to that
end. And I'll tell you, that'll thrill
the heart of a sinner to know there's nothing out there that
can defy him or change him in any way. This is what he's purposed
to do, and his lordship's going to accomplish it. It's going
to accomplish it. His union with our flesh and
bones is a manifestation of our spiritual union and our covenant
union with Him before the world was. He took not on Him the nature
of angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. And when
we minister Christ to men and women, we minister Him as salvation. He is salvation. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. He has no salvation.
He's the way. The apostles were confused. We don't know where you're going
and how do we know the way? He said, I am the way. I'm the
truth. You want to know the truth? He's
the truth. He's the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. He's the end of the law for righteousness.
He's the only acceptable sacrifice for sin. God's love and mercy
and grace are manifested in him. God's purpose and will is revealed
in him, and in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and you're complete in him. He's the head of all principality
and power. In 2012, my wife was diagnosed
with terminal brain cancer. We thought she'd had a mini stroke,
and I took her down to the emergency room. My two daughters were just
wearing me out. You need to get her down to the
emergency room. And I said, well, I think she just had a mini stroke. And that had been
common in my family. Symptoms seemed to be that, so
I said, well, OK, I'll take her down. So we went down there,
and they ran some tests, and they came out. They said, you
have a massive tumor on your brain, and you've got to get
it out now. Well, we hadn't made arrangements
for that. My little dog was still back at the house. The house
was unlocked. And they said, it'll be a little
while before the ambulance gets here, and we're going to take
her over to LSU Hospital, and they'll operate early in the
morning. I ran home and made arrangements for the dog and
locked the house up and all that, and then I went back to Shreveport
not knowing where the hospital was. And where I thought it was,
it wasn't there. It was another building, and
I could see it from the freeway, and I thought that's what it
was, but it wasn't. And the more I drove, the more
panicked I got. And the later it got. And she's
going to be operated on at 5 o'clock in the morning, and it's 3.30,
and I can't even find the hospital, let alone the room that she's
in. And I'm panicked. And I'm driving around. Finally,
I spot a policeman over in a vacant lot. And I pulled in, and I told
him the situation. And he said, just follow me. I said, OK. And so he went down
this road and over to this road. We came right out in the parking
lot of the hospital. And I was so relieved, I went
over to thank him for what he did. He said, oh, he said, I
think I can do better than that. And he led me up to the very
room where she was at. And the attending nurse came
out. And he said, this is my wife. And she'll take you in
from here. That's what ministers of Christ
do. I can take you all the way up
to the place where he's at, but I can't take you in. I can't
take you in. Only he can do that. But if you
find a man that can do that, they can take you by the hand
and take you to Christ. You've found a minister. Love
him. Cherish him. Support him. Do everything you can do. May
the Lord cause that to come to pass here. Thank you.