I invite you to turn with me
to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. There were then, as there are today, throughout the land where these
men ministered, preacher critics Men who ignorantly critique God's
messengers as though they had some apostolic authority and
calling to do that very thing. Without any consideration for
their congregations or for those who may yet hear them, they lambast
these men whose lives have been a testimony for God whose ministry
had been successful by the power of God, and yet they lambashed them as
though they were enemies of the cross. And usually over some
issue that someone else had taken offense to and didn't concern
them at all. They were kind of neutral. They
were outside the loop. but hearing about it. And the
favorite place to do this is the internet. Get on the net
and let her fly. And that's what they do. According to the scriptures,
issues with preachers and elders are to be well established, not
by hearsay, but by one or two witnesses. And then you don't
go to the internet or the newspaper or the radio, you go to them
and you take the witnesses with you and you confront them with
these things. They're to be well established
and dealt with on a personal and a low-key manner and they're
to be done in love and humility, not in pride on the internet
on a soapbox. And here in our text is a man
whose ministry, though blessed of God, it attracted such critics,
and he suffered much at the hands of men who owed him their very
lives. In verse 9 of our text, Paul
says, For I think that God hath set forth us, the apostles, last,
as it were appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle unto
the world and to angels and to men. He begins this chapter with this
statement. Because this is it. You come in here, you gather
together, I stand up here at the pulpit and you look at me. How do you account What is your thoughts toward
me? Do you see me and account me
as a messenger of God? Do you sit and listen to me preach
as though I were a minister of Christ? And this is what Paul is saying. Well, I'll get into that in a
minute, but he begins this chapter with a statement, let a man so
account of us as of the ministers of Christ, servants of Christ,
ambassadors for Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. What
is a steward? Well, the dictionary said he's
one who manages another's property, finances, or other affairs. This term is also a seagoing
term for an officer in charge of provisions and dining arrangements. You go on board a ship, there's
a steward, and that steward's in charge of your dinner on that
ship and the provisions of that ship. You need something you
call the steward. You don't call the captain, you
call the steward. and the steward will see to it. And according to the dictionaries,
also a servant who waits on the passengers of a vessel. Paul said to account of him as
a minister and a steward of the mysteries of God. You want to
know something about the mysteries of God? Go to the steward. Call the steward. Are you hungry? Call the steward,
he's in charge of the provisions. Now let's begin here. What is
it to account of a man to be a minister of Christ? What is
it that we as a people called of God can look for in a man
and have some confidence that he is the minister of God? How
do you know if this man is a minister of God? Well, first of all, and
most importantly, he's a man who preaches salvation in the
person of a crucified Savior. If he's
not doing that, he's no servant of God. He's no preacher. He's
no minister of God. And Paul told these Corinthians,
I read it to you a few moments ago, he said when he came, he
came as a servant. He came as a lowly servant. And
he said, I determined to know nothing among you, said Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Everything he preached was based
on that. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
There's no salvation apart from that. There's no wisdom apart
from that. There's no sanctification apart
from that. By one offering, He has sanctified
us forever. There's no redemption apart from
that. He took His own blood, entered
into heaven itself, and obtained eternal redemption for us. He
said, I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. His ministry is not a ministry
of the law. In Romans 3.21, Paul said, but
now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. It was set forth in the law.
It was pictured in the law. It was described in the law.
The benefits of it were described in the law, but it's not according
to the law. It's without the law. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe. that is, both Jew and Gentile,
for there is no difference. Now Paul prayed for the conversion
of his kinsmen, and they displayed a zeal of God, he said, but not
according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of the righteousness
of God, this righteousness without the law, they were ignorant of
the righteousness of God, and going about to establish their
own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of Christ. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Are you a righteous man? Are
you a righteous woman? You are if you're in Christ.
But there's no righteousness apart from Him. You know, we'll go to church
and then we feel good because we went to church. We knew that's
what we're supposed to do, so we did it. We get in the car
and go home. Now we feel good about ourselves because we went
to church. And people do that with the law. They do it with
different things. They keep the Sabbath. They do this. They do
that. And they just go down and they
get this feeling, a feeling of accomplishment, a feeling that
they have something. Brethren, our righteousness is
in Christ. I wouldn't want a TV screen to
play what's been in my mind just since I come in the door this
morning, would you? We're sinners. All of us, sinners. We have no righteousness but
for His. Of God are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Ours is not a ministry of the
laws. But He has set forth under the
law. Who did God set forth under the law? He set forth His Son.
How did He set Him forth? To be a propitiation through
faith in His blood. Why did He do that? To declare
His righteousness for the remission of sins. And to declare His At this time
also he said his righteousness that he might be just and justifier
of all them that believe in him. This man preaches that the death
of Jesus Christ our substitute is sufficient to put away all
our sins. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe
that when Christ died on that cross, that blood he shed, that
life he gave, put away all the sin of his elect, it's gone. Where's it at? Because there's
no words to explain where it is, he said it's behind God's
back, wherever that is. It's in the depths of the sea,
wherever that is. And then in Hebrews chapter 10,
he said, never to be remembered again. Oh, my soul. I remember it, but he don't. He don't. In Hebrews 9.26, God said, but
once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. Our sins are gone. But you know, the more grounded
you are in faith, and the more mature you are in faith, the
more sin that you see in you. And you become aware that you're
just constant, constant, constant. It just bubbles up out of you,
sin, sin, sin, sin, everywhere, sin. Sin's in my thoughts, it's
in my prayers, it's in my study, it's everywhere. It's sin, sin,
sin. I can't get rid of it. That which
I would do, I don't do. Absolutely would do. Nope, ain't
gonna do that either. The spirit contrary to the flesh and the
flesh contrary to the spirit so that we cannot do the things
that we would. Can't do it. And yet, and yet at the same
time, I'm righteous in Christ. and all my sin has been put away. God himself, he was so sufficient
in his redemption that he said when he presented you before
God, who can see all things. Read the book of Hebrew. God,
he knows the thoughts and intents of your heart. He knows what
you're gonna do before you even think it. And yet, he so reconciled us
to God that when he presented us to God, we were spotless. Not even a potential of sin. Not there. Our sins have been
put away by the death of Christ. They're gone. They're gone. And they'll be gone forever when
this body's laid in the grave. This man that you're to account
as a minister of God preaches that the death of Jesus Christ,
our substitute, is sufficient to put away our sins once for
all. I don't know. I know this. That man you're to account as
a minister of Christ, he preaches the Savior appointed
to that office appointed as our representative, as our federal
head, and he was elected to that office before the world began. God didn't sit down and say,
boy, this thing's going south. Here's what I need to do. The
way our country now and the world is looking at this virus, oh
no, what are we going to do? Well, we'll do this. Well, that
ain't working. Let's do this. That's not how
things go with God. He declares the end from the
beginning. And from ancient times, the things that are not yet done,
saying my counsel shall stand, I'll do all my pleasure. He appointed
Christ as the Savior before he ever created a man. Not only
that, but he elected them, chose them, and put them in Christ,
and predestinated them before ever Adam was created. He did
it before the foundation of the world. Read Ephesians 1. That man preaches a Savior appointed
to those offices by God himself. And those appointments include
his appointment as our Savior. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sin. And as our representative,
he is the head of the body, the church. Jesus Christ didn't come into
this world to try to save as many as would let him. He came
as the shepherd of his sheep. All those sheep entrusted to
his father, and the shepherd knows the father, and the father
knows the shepherd. And when he comes, he says, calls
his sheep by name. and his sheep come out and they
follow him. Scripture said in John 10, the
good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. God's elect are all justified
by God through the person and work of his son. That's another
thing. Does this man preach that? Is
this what he teaches? Is this what he stands for? Is he dogmatic in his declarations
of it that God himself justifies his people? God alone? Don't
matter what the world judges. Don't matter what the world says. God's elect are all justified
by God through the person and work of his dear son. Listen
to this in Romans 8. Who shall lay anything to the
charge, now listen, of God's elect? You might charge somebody else,
but you're not gonna charge them. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God to lay? It's God that justifies. You gonna go to God and start
pointing out faults? He's not just, really. That means his son was a failure. It's Christ that died, but he didn't stay in the tomb.
He's risen. He's seated at the right hand
of God and makes intercession for us. To account as a man, as a minister
of God, I must see him as a steward. of the mysteries of God. God
has committed mysteries into his hands. He's unveiled things
that you just don't see. I can't even recall, and I'm
by no means no mental giant whatsoever. I'm at the bottom, I'm the dreg
at the bottom of the barrel. And I couldn't tell you how many
times I've preached the gospel to men and preachers come up
to me and say, I never saw that before. Where did you get that? Huh? God gave him to me. I'm his steward.
What are you a steward of? The mysteries of God. The mysteries. He unlocks those mysteries. Paul
said, The eye hath not seen, nor ear heard. It never entered
into the heart of man the things of God, but he has revealed them
unto us by his Spirit. by spirit. And these things,
he said, we speak, we tell, we show. I must see this man as a steward
of the mysteries of God. What mysteries? Well, religion
would have you believing a simple gospel, a universal gospel. One, two, three. The old divine is called easy
believism. Just answer a few questions.
You want to go to heaven? Well, who don't? You don't want to go to hell,
do you? No? Well, here's what you do. See
what this says here? I've got this pledge card. I
want you to read it here. I acknowledge that I'm a sinner. I won't go to heaven. I believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, you're all fixed up. No,
there's one more thing. I promise to tithe all my income. Sign it. You're saved. Haw boys. That's not how a man's saved.
He's saved by hearing. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing
by the word of God. Some men have walked down the
aisle. Some men have walked down the Roman road. Or worst of all,
by making a decision and exercising your so-called free will and
you don't even know what you're willing to do. The scripture said, the man who
comes to you and brings not the doctrine of Christ, Don't even
bid him Godspeed. Don't let him in your house.
Don't enter into his conversation. Don't pat him on the back. Don't
even tell him Godspeed. Now, Lord bless you. Don't tell
him that, lest you be partakers of his sin. He's Antichrist.
That's what the scripture says. Oh, the mysteries, the great
mysteries. I'll never forget the first time
I read in the scriptures of Christ's appointments, his appointments,
his eternal appointments. Yet have I set my king on my
holy hill in Zion. Who did? God did. We ain't gonna
bow. We ain't gonna serve him. God'll
laugh at you. He'll put you in stocks and let
people throw rotten tomatoes at you. That's what that word derision
means. He'll make a public spectacle
out of you. He made priests. Listen to this. He was made a priest with an
oath by him who said unto him, the Lord swear and will not repent,
thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Who
was Melchizedek? He was a priest who had no beginning
and no end. That's Christ. He was a priest
before there was anybody to be a priest of. He was a priest. God appointed him that way. And because this man continueth
ever, He has an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he's able
to save unto the uttermost all them that come unto God by him.
These appointments, I'd never heard of an appointment of Christ. And yet everything he did was
based on those appointments. He's the one mediator between
God and me and the man Christ Jesus. He's the surety of the
everlasting covenant of grace. His blood is called the blood
of the everlasting covenant. And what about the mystery of
the Gentiles? Paul said unto me, who am less
than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should
preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery
which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God. who
created all things by Jesus Christ. What a mystery, the Gentiles. If you were to have taken all
the people, put them all together, and you read the Old Testament,
you read in there all these things that was promised to the Jews,
and you go out here and hear these bunch of heathen idol worshippers
and they're sitting over here bowing down to frogs and snakes
and who knows what, dung beetles and creeping things. Worshipping men. Got a horse, the horse's butt
on there and a man's head. Worshipped him as some kind of
a god. I'm sure that's where that term horses butt, and I'm
saying that very easy. I'm sure that's where that comes
from. But you see them, and then over
here you see this religious crowd, and man, they're clean as a pen,
and they got all their eyes dotted and teeth crossed. Who's God
saving? Oh, he's going to save these.
No. No, he passed them by. He's going to save these. Huh? That's a mystery, isn't it? Oh,
I tell you, when the church at Antioch found out that God was
going to save the Gentiles and leave Israel to die in their
unbelief, the scripture said they were
glad. Paul pointed out that scripture to them, showed them the mystery
in the Old Testament. I'll call them a people who were
not my people. Oh, my soul, the mystery of the
Gentile. You and I are Gentile. Ain't
you glad for that mystery? He told the Galatians, we're
all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Salvation through the preaching
of the gospel and the power of the Holy Ghost. To the perishing
religion, it's foolishness. Preaching of the cross is foolishness.
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden
wisdom, which God ordained before the world under our glory. God
has opened the hearts and minds of His ministers and revealed
to them the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ so that
they can preach Him. You can't preach what you don't
know. Brother Barnard said, any more
than you can come back from some place you haven't been. He revealed His Son in us as
well as to us. So we might preach these glorious
mysteries to men. And we have this treasure, Paul
said, in earthen vessels. Don't always come out the way
I want it to. It don't always come out the
way I saw it in my study. But he's not here to glorify
the vessel. He's here to glorify the treasure
in the vessel. We're stewards of the mysteries
of God. But oh, how few take advantage
of it. We'd rather run home to our libraries
and debate with the inner circle, or even worse than that, get
on the internet. I'll find out the mysteries.
I'll get on the internet. All along every week in the pulpit
of God's churches, there's a man called and qualified of God for
just that very reason. All right, here's the next thing,
1 Corinthians 4.3. Paul said, but with me it's a
very small thing that I should be judged of you. I just don't like him. I don't like his manner. I don't
like his plainness. I just don't like it. And Paul
said, that's just a little thing to me. It don't mean nothing
to me. It's a very small thing that
I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. Now listen
to this. He said, I don't even judge myself. Men have and often voice their
opinions of preachers most of the time in the light of what
they think he needs to say or do, or what they would say or
do. Sometimes these opinions come
from misunderstandings or outside criticisms, even made up or exaggerated
facts and stories. But Paul said these didn't mean
much to him. He didn't even judge himself.
And as a believer, he judged all things, and so himself his
conduct and his state before God in spiritual condition. Yet
he refused to let the eternal state of his salvation be according
to his judgment. Have you not yourself often thought,
God never saved me? Huh? You ever had that thought? I wouldn't act like this if he'd
saved me. Paul said, I ain't judging myself.
I've been judged in Christ. And that's where I'm gonna leave
it. That's where I'm gonna leave it. Sink or swim, he's my savior. If he's not, I'm gone. If it
depends on my thoughts, if it depends on my actions and my
words and my anything, I'm a goner. Verse 5 of our text, he said,
judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who will
bring to light both the hidden things of darkness and will make
manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then shall every
man have praise of God. I just cannot imagine a great
sovereign coming into his court with his royal courtiers And this worm of a man, a peasant
who was allowed to come in, this worm of a man, this peasant,
and he comes running right out in front of the sovereign and
running out in front of his courtiers and points to one of them and
said, he's not justified. He's not the king's servant.
Boy, if his head lasted more than 30 seconds, I'd be surprised,
wouldn't you? And yet that's exactly what men
do with God's servants. And they're quick to do it. Thoughtless
about the outcome of it and what they're doing. Our Lord said,
if you offend one of these little ones, it'd be better for you.
Their millstone was tied around your neck and somebody threw
it in the bottom of the sea. You'd be better off. How quick men are to judge God's
preachers. Yet, this is the lot of the preacher. And if these things will move
you, or destroy you, or cause you to lose your confidence,
you shouldn't have taken the task. I preach the gospel of God's
sovereign grace in Christ. I didn't seek to be your pastor.
I don't know if you know that or not, but I didn't. I didn't
seek to be your pastor. I was led here by the providence
of God. And since coming here, God has
confirmed my ministry by feeding His sheep. I hear it every week. I was fed. I was fed, I come
hungry and you fed me. I see it in your maturity, I
see it in your grounding, I see it in your faith, I see it in
your children. He's confirmed my ministry by
feeding his sheep and calling out his elect and by the separation of those. who could
not tolerate the preaching of the gospel. A man who don't know the gospel
can just tolerate it so long. I don't care what he says. I
don't care what you think about him. If he's God's child, he'll
sit and eat. And he'll eat over and over and
over and over, because he's got an appetite. But that man who
don't can just take so... I hated liver when I was growing
up. Oh, I hated liver. My mom would tell me about the
starving children in Africa, and I'd say, send it to them.
I don't want it. I don't like it. I'm not going
to eat it. I'd rather go hungry than eat liver. That's the natural
man's attitude toward the gospel. It's repulsive to him, the smell
of it, the taste of it, the thought of it. He can just tolerate so
much. And he'll just get up and walk
out, and you won't see him again. Since coming here, God confirmed
my ministry through these things, and preaching is... Did you know
that this is the ascension gift of Christ? He that descended,
as he ascended up out of that grave successful, sufficient, ready to be coronated as the
king of glory, ready to take his seat at the right hand of
God and finish this thing out. And he gave certain gifts. He
gave prophets, apostles, and pastor teachers. These were his
ascension gifts. To not take advantage of it,
it'd be like Christmas time when you're sitting there and a fella
comes over and he hands you a package and you look at it and you spit
on it and you throw it back at him. They're gifts. It's the gift of God to his people. I'm not here to get from you.
I'm here to serve you. I'm here as your servant. I'm
here to do what God called me to do and to do it for your benefit. And to do it when I abound and
to do it when I'm abased. It doesn't make any difference.
It's what I'm called to do. And to not take advantage of
it is just to spit on it. Oh, my soul. How do you say that
over there in Hebrews chapter 10? He said, those who died under
two or three witnesses, they were taken out and stoned. He
said, of how much sore punishment, suppose you, shall they be thought
worthy who have trodden underfoot the Son of God, done despite
under the Spirit of grace, spit on His Son, trod His Son
under your feet. Oh, my soul. It's the ascension gift of Christ.
And I saved this for last. He said in verse 2 of our text,
moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.
Faithful in his labors, going where he's called, watching for
the souls of them who were put under his care, faithful in his
study. Paul said to Timothy, study to
show thyself approved unto God, not to the people, unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth. Faithful over the affairs of
the church as a father is over his own house, a man who's not
who's not a good daddy to his family, he can't be a pastor. He's faithful to teach, to treat
every hearer as a pupil, resting that communication in the hands
of God the Holy Ghost. He's faithful to the word of
God. Paul said, preach the word. Preach the word. Be instant,
in season, out of season. Get that word in your head and
in your heart. That way you can be instant,
in season, out of season, don't make any difference. Somebody
catch you by surprise and you stand there, you don't know what
to say. You study that word and get it
in your heart, get it in your mind, get it memorized. And then you won't stand there
in shock. You'll be able to answer. Faithful to teach anybody who's
willing to hear. Do the work of an evangelist.
Make full proof of your ministry. Faithful in your attitude. Be
kind one to another. What if they say things that
cuts me to the bone? Be kind one to another. Man comes, he just can't get
the first base. He's trying to talk to you, trying to reason
with you. You won't reason with him. Tenderhearted, now he said. I can't even tell you what a
rebel I was when my Lord saved me. And I knew beyond a shadow of
a doubt, I had no leg to stand on, I had no basis to plead for
His mercy, none whatsoever. I was nothing but a sinner. And you know what? He heard me. He heard me. Why? Tender-hearted. And now I won't hear you? Oh,
no. God forbid. God forbid. Be kind, tender-hearted, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. I can't find an age limit on
a minister of God or any certain time for him to quit except to
say when he can no longer fulfill his calling, when age strips
him of his ability. But till that day, he's required
of God to be faithful, faithful. And he requires of you to hear
him. Consider his office and calling. Advantage yourselves
by listening and asking God to use him. How much time do you spend this
week asking God to give me a message? Huh? Advantage yourselves by listening
and asking God to use him on your behalf and on behalf of
your children. May the Lord use what I've said
to you from the scriptures today, for Christ's sake.