Now, the title of my message
this evening is A Faithful Ministry. A Faithful Ministry. And I know
that you must think when I announce a title like that, well, what
does that have to do with me? It has very, very much to do
with each of you. I realize that in this assembly,
by God's appointment, only by God's appointment. I am the man
who stands to speak. I am the man who goes forth to
proclaim the gospel, and the man that you send around the
country and in other parts of the world to preach the gospel
of God's grace. But by no means is the ministry
of Grace Baptist Church my ministry or my work. It's our ministry,
it's our work, our labor together for the cause of Christ and the
glory of our God. I want you to know that, I want
you to realize that, and I want you and I together to realize
the responsibility that is ours in the ministry of the gospel.
Now, before I read my text, I want to read two verses from 1 Corinthians
chapter 4. You can look at them later. 1
Corinthians chapter 4. Now, faith in Christ can be described
and defined in many ways, but one sure aspect of faith in Christ
is this. We believe in Christ, submit
to his dominion, as our Lord to serve him. We become bond
slaves, bond servants, willingly, to Jesus Christ our Lord. And as his servants, wherever
he puts us, whatever he puts in our hands to do, as his servants,
God requires one thing from us. As his servants, wherever he
puts whatever he puts in our hands to do for his glory, for
the interest of his kingdom, for the honor of his name, as
his servant, God will honor one thing in us. One thing. Listen to this. Let a man so
account of us as the ministers, and the word ministers simply
is this, servants, as the servants of Christ. Let men esteem us
as this. We desire no other recognition. We desire to be known for no
other thing. We desire no applause. We desire
no honor to ourselves. Let men who know us know us as
the servants of Jesus Christ and stewards of the mysteries
of God. You know what a steward is? We
don't use the term much. A steward is one into whose hands
the affairs of the king's house have been committed. A steward
is one into whose hands the king has trusted his good and the
welfare of his kingdom. Let men then account of us as
the servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God, the
gospel of his grace. It is required in stewards that
a man be found faithful. Now, read with me our text, 2
Corinthians 4, verse 1. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, Paul has been describing the ministry of the gospel of
God's grace, the ministry of the Spirit and of life. Therefore,
seeing we have this ministry, As we have received mercy, we
faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully,
but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost, 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," perhaps a better
reading would be, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we
preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure. in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us." Now, I want, if God will enable me, to talk real
plainly to you about some things that are of great concern to
my heart. The desperate need of our hour,
of our day, of our generation, is faithful in the pulpits of
our churches. We do not need more preachers. We have an overabundance of preachers. We do not need any more slick,
polished, well-educated professionals in the ministry. We have plenty. Sometimes I think the greatest
curse of the age are those preacher factories called Bible colleges
and seminaries. We do not need more preachers.
But we do most desperately need some faithful men to serve the
Church of God and the cause of Christ in this day, pastors after
God's own heart, men who will feed God's people with knowledge
and with understanding. Now, don't misunderstand me.
Thank God there are a few. God has not left himself without
a witness. God has graciously here and there
placed men in our age, and he raises up more all the time,
who preach the gospel of his grace and faithfully serve his
cause. And I am quick to say that any
church to whom God has given a faithful pastor, any church,
is blessed, honored, and greatly privileged of God. Few people
in this world have the privilege of sitting regularly under a
faithful gospel ministry, few people in this world have the
privilege of knowing that as they get ready and prepare to
go to the church house, they're going to go to hear a man proclaim
in their hearing the gospel of God's free grace and the redeeming
work of Jesus Christ the Lord. To have that privilege is to
be greatly blessed and honored of God. Now, those who have such
a privilege to set under the ministry of a man who's faithful
to Christ, who seeks the glory of God, and seeks the welfare
of their souls, a man who preaches the gospel of Christ to them,
ought to highly honor that man. Those who are blessed of God
in this way ought to demonstrate their gratitude and their love
to him by giving that man whom he's placed over them their love,
their loyalty, and their honor. Let me show you in the scriptures.
Turn over to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter
5. Now, I do not speak these things
for your sake, but for the sake of those who will hear this message
by means of tape and for your sake as you endeavor to continue
in the path God has set before you and in the way God has taught
you. I recognize that no man has ever
been privileged to pastor a people who demonstrate more love, honor,
and respect to him than you have these eight years shown to me.
I commend you for it. I encourage you to continue it,
but I want you to see that these things are clearly established
and set forth in the Word of God. And I want you to continue,
as you have been, to be an example to others as to how to care for
those who preach the gospel. Here in 1 Thessalonians 5 and
verse 12, Paul says, We beseech you, brethren, to know them which
labor among you. And do not ever be mistaken and
think that the work of the gospel ministry is anything short of
labor. It is a labor of love, but it
is labor. It is not a toilsome labor with
the hands. It is a toilsome labor of the
heart, of the mind, and of the soul. Any man who does not labor
in the work of the gospel is not faithful to the work of the
gospel. Know them which labor among you
and are over you in the Lord." God puts them there. those who
admonish you. They labor for your souls. They
are over you as spiritual rulers in the house of God. They admonish
you in the way of faith, and to esteem them very highly in
love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. Look in chapter 5 of 1 Timothy,
1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 17. Let the elders that rule well
be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in
the word and in doctrine." I recall several years ago, ten or twelve
years ago, a very dear friend of mine went home one day, laid
down on his lawn chair, and went to glory. After pastoring a church
in Ann State, West Virginia for 30 years, faithfully laboring
in that vineyard with no recognition except by a handful of people
who were blessed of God to hear him, the man was carried up into
glory. At his funeral, at his memorial
service really, one of his deacons prayed, and as he prayed he made
this statement. I beg your pardon, it was not
at his memorial service. It was standing over the grave
as his coffin was lowered down in the ground. The deacon laid
us in prayer, and he made this statement. He said, Father, we
followed our pastor as far as we can follow him. Be now our
shepherd and give us another. That's the attitude that Paul
is commending here, that Paul is admonishing us to here. God's
people ought to cherish his servants, take care of them, pray for them,
and follow them. Follow them not blindly, follow
them not heedlessly, follow them not as though they were God,
not as though they were perfect men, but follow them as they
follow Christ and lead you in the way of faith. Those men are
to be highly honored. Now, I do not suggest that a
man deserves such high honor and such great respect from a
congregation simply because he holds the title and office of
pastor. Ordination papers do not confer
upon men respectability. Preachers need to learn that.
I do say, however, that faithful men are worthy of the highest
honor you can possibly bestow upon them. This matter of faithfulness
basically involves three or four things. We need men who are faithful
to the glory of God. Now, this is my prayer. I've
been wrestling with this all day long. God, make me faithful
to your glory. If I can't be faithful to his
glory, I have no business endeavoring to lead men in faithfulness to
his glory. We need men whose primary life-governing
concern is the glory of God. God deliver us in this age from
self-seeking, self-serving, self-promoting preachers. Preachers who serve
their own interest are always willing to compromise the truth
in order to get a following. They'll do whatever they have
to do to get a name for themselves and build up their ministry.
They'll flatter men, court men, entertain men, and deceive men
to get them to come to church and join up. The richer the man
is, the more he's courted, and the more he's flattered, and
the more he's entertained. God deliver us from these modern
followers of theosophies who love to have the preeminence.
God deliver us from such men and give us men who are sold
out to Christ sold out to the gospel of His grace and sold
out to the cause of His glory. But this matter of faithfulness
also involves a matter of faithfulness to the gospel. What I'm saying
is that we need men in our day to preach the gospel who are
faithful to the gospel. And this faithfulness to the
gospel is something more than holding a sound creed. That man
is faithful to the gospel who gives his life to the gospel. You will find a faithful pastor
in his study. You'll find him there seeking
a message from God. You'll find him there seeking
an understanding in divine truth, praying for God's elect, calling
upon God to give him a word that will meet the needs of those
people whom God will gather to hear his voice. This is a struggle. It's not an easy thing. I seek
a message from God, not a sermon. Anybody can prepare a sermon.
Anybody can stand up and give a lecture on religion or a lecture
on doctrine. But a message from God is a word
that comes from God and will meet the needs of your heart
where you set this hour. I received a call the other day
from Bill and Anita Honey here, all of them. They had been somewhere
up in northern Louisiana. listening to a fellow preach,
and they were visiting some friends and relatives there. So they
went to church and heard this fellow preach, and they said
they came out so dry and empty, so disappointed, so disheartened,
and got out a tape, plugged it in, and said, oh, there's a message,
just what we needed right there, just what we needed right there.
That's what I want, a message to meet your need this hour.
A message that will confront you, admonish you, encourage
you, strengthen you, reprove you, uplift you, and edify you. A message from God for every
one of you. Now, that's something a man can't
do. I can't possibly seek a word from myself that will meet the
needs of all of you who are gathered here this evening, this hour.
But if God will speak by me and give me a word from his throne,
Merle, it'll meet your needs and it'll meet your daughter's
needs and it'll meet Oscar's needs and his boy's needs if
men will hear what God has to say. If men will hear what he
has to say. A faithful pastor is a man who
gives himself ardently to the work of the ministry. He does
not serve up leftovers to God's children warmed up and rehashed
and given out a second time. I was talking to someone recently
folks in the church. And it grieves me. I'm not talking
about Arminians and free willers. I'm talking about men who ought
to do better. Folks in the congregation have sat around and discussed
how they could figure a way to get all their pastor's old outline
and burn them so that he'd quit preaching them and preach something
fresh. Oh, that ought never happen. That ought never happen. God's
servants Seek a fresh word from God for his people. God's servants
come with manna. They come and declare manna that's
always fresh. Brother Watson Dufour, the same
man I mentioned earlier, I hadn't known him very long. I was just
young. I was 21 years old, I think,
when we met. He was nearly 60. And he said
to me, he said, Son, I learned a long time ago that you can't
keep manna, it breeds worms. No need in trying to store up
sermons to preach some time, you can't do it. You've got to
seek a word from God today for today, a message from God today
for today. God's servants will do that.
They take the work seriously. They come to the house of God,
fresh from the throne of God, with a message from the heart
of God for the people of God, for the glory of God. I think
that's perhaps one of the things I like best about our midweek
services. I often get done studying on
Saturday evening and close up my books, fold up my papers,
and I say to Shelby, I sure would like to call folks up and go
preach right now, right now. In our midweek service, come
right out of the study, finish the day's work, and come here
with a fresh word from God. I haven't had time to listen
to any news. I don't know what's going on outside. Everything
else is out of my mind. I come here with a word from
you. That's what must be done if God's servants are to minister
to his people. A faithful man faithfully delivers
God's message, the gospel of his free grace. He delivers it
with life and vigor. the life and vigor of a personal
conviction, the life and vigor of some importance to his soul.
It's not a matter of cold, dry, dead, calculated doctrine. It's
a word from God that burns in his soul and must be delivered. We need men who are faithful
to the souls of men. I talked to some friends, a man
and his wife, in Florida. last week. I'll tell you some of the things
I go through. I talked to them, had a pastor come in after having
one difficulty, another pastor came and put the property up for sale,
put the building up for sale. Had a quick business meeting,
got things done. decided to sell the building,
sell the property, the house, parsonage, everything to a bunch
of Southern Baptists, and he moved out of town. He took off. And this fellow said to me, he
said, you'll never guess who arranged to get the proceeds
from the sale. Oh, what a pathetic, pathetic
story. What a pathetic thing. And it
happens. It happens. Men come in the name
of God, claiming to serve the cause of Christ, calling for
men to follow them, and they do nothing but use men. Use them. I'm telling you, you
listen to me, God's servants don't use people, they serve
people. God's servants don't fleece the
sheep, they feed the sheep. Faithful men seek not the possessions
of their hearers, but the souls of their hearers. And the only
man, the only man in all the world who will deal honestly
with your soul, the only man in all the world who will deal
honestly with your soul is a man who wants absolutely nothing
from you. He's the only one who does. As
long as a man's seeking something from you, he'll say to you what
he thinks you want him to say, whether it's Calvinistic doctrine,
Arminian doctrine, free will doctrine, legal doctrine, or
libertine doctrine. As long as he seeks something
from you, he'll tell you what he thinks you want to hear. The
man who seeks nothing from you might just possibly tell you
the truth. And we need men who are faithful in their lives. Our newspapers recently have
been full of scandalous reports concerning religious leaders,
and I don't hope to have any effect on those religious leaders.
Men who lie on God lie about anything. Men who deceive the
souls of men, pervert the gospel of Christ, can't be trusted in
any way. But I do hope somehow to have
some effect upon this assembly. and to have some effect as God
gives us opportunity to his servants around this world. God's servants
must be men of faithfulness in their lives. Those who stand
before men to speak in the name of God must be blameless men,
men of good report in their homes and in their communities. And
we cannot, by any means, cause men to love the truth we preach.
We can't do it. We cannot cause men to love our
Savior. We cannot cause men to believe
the gospel. But I want to tell you this.
Any man who stands to speak in the name of God before men must,
he must, he must be a man of blameless good report among those
who know him best. If a man does not have the respect
of his family and the respect of his neighbors, he does not
deserve the respect of God's family and God's people. He must
not be put in a position of leadership in the house of God. Pastors
must be men of principle, men of honesty and integrity. The
most obnoxious thing in this world. Yeah, the most obnoxious
thing in this world is a self-seeking wealthy preacher, the most obnoxious
thing in this world. Men who seek after the things
of this world will never seek the welfare in the interest of
a man's soul. Men who do not and will not pay
their bills are thieves and robbers, and only a fool will trust the
thief. Men who live scandalously must
not be allowed to scandalize the gospel of God's grace and
the name of our God by being placed in the work of the ministry.
All such men are nothing but hirings. They're motivated and
governed only by their own interest. They do business only where the
pastures are very green, and by green I mean green with green
back, only with sheep who are very fat and have the finest
of wool. I want us this evening to look
at how Paul describes a faithful ministry in these seven verses. I'm just going to go through
the verses and show you what Paul says concerning the ministry
by his own example. And by these things I challenge
my own heart, by these things I reprove my own heart, by these
things I hope to edify my own heart and yours. First, the apostle
tells us in verse one, that every faithful pastor looks upon his
ministry as a gift of God's mercy and grace entrusted to him. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry as we have received mercy." Do you see that? Paul
does not look upon the ministry as something forced upon him.
He does not look upon it as something he desired to be free of. I hear
men talk about wanting to quit. Men talk about wanting to be
free of this burden, wanting to be free of this responsibility.
I can't grasp that. I don't see anywhere in the Word
of God any man who is called of God and given a word from
God who desires to be free of that burden. I don't see that
anywhere in the Scriptures. The man who is called of God
is a steward, a steward who has been highly honored of God, into
whose hands God has trusted the affairs of his kingdom. What
an honor, what a privilege, what a mercy, what a grace. The ministry,
this ministry, Paul says, which we have received is the ministry
of the spirit of life and of liberty. Look in chapter 3 in
verse 8. He's been comparing the gospel
ministry with the ministry of Moses under the law. He says,
how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, that is, if the giving of the law was glorious and profound,
much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. Verse 17, Now where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with open face beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord are chained. Beholding that glory, we're changed
into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit
of the Lord. It is not a ministry of law,
but a ministry of liberty. It is not a dead letter written
upon tables of stone, but a spirit of light beating in the heart.
It is not the ministry or the service of of the works of the
law, but rather it is the ministry and the service of the redemptive
glory of God in the person and work of Christ which has been
committed to us. This is what God has put in our
hands, in our hands collectively. Yes, in my hands as the spokesman
for this assembly, but in our hands collectively. We are fellow
laborers together with God in the work of His redemptive glory. God's given us the privilege
of being instruments in his hands for the furtherance of the gospel,
the salvation, and the everlasting redemption of his people. Can
you grasp that? You remember the story of Lazarus'
resurrection. Our Lord is standing by the tomb
of Lazarus. And he says to those who are standing by, take away
the stone. Take away the stone. Well, obviously,
if he could call Lazarus out of the tomb, he could remove
the stone. But he gave them the privilege
of rolling the stone away. So that's not much. Oh, that's
something. I'd be glad to roll that stone away. I'll be happy
to just take the stone away. That's what preaching is. We're
taking away the stones of prejudice and the stones of tradition and
the stones of custom and calling for men to live. That's the sphere
of our responsibility and instrumentality. It pleased God by using such
things as we are by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And this ministry is the gift
of God's mercy. It's God who puts a man in the
ministry, who calls him, qualifies him, places him, and sustains
him. And those who are called of God
to the work of the gospel ministry look upon their work as the highest
privilege imaginable. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
3. Ephesians 3. I hear men mourn and lament and
complain and grumble. about the ministry of the gospel,
and I think to myself and sometimes say to them, why don't you just
get out? Just get out. Just flat get out. If you don't love it, don't do
it. If you don't delight in it, don't do it. Listen to Paul. He says in verse 8, Ephesians
3, 8, unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this
grace given that I of all men should preach among the Gentiles
the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ, the riches of his love,
the riches of his grace, the riches of his redemption, the
riches of his intercession, and should make known to all, or
should make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery
which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ. My soul, what a wonder! that
God should be pleased to let me declare to men the hidden
mystery of God in his everlasting covenant. They might have fellowship
with God in Jesus Christ. To a faithful man this is the
most demanding, the most taxing, the most trying work in all the
world. but it's the most blessed. It's
a sweet and blessed work to preach the gospel of God's grace. One
of the old writers, I believe it was Philip Henry, made this
statement. He said, I would beg six days to be allowed to preach
the seventh. Oh, it's the best work in the
world to stand and proclaim to men the gospel of God's grace.
But this ministry, which we have received, is a ministry for which
we are responsible. We're stewards, stewards of the
mysteries of God, stewards who must give account to our master. The one issue about which we
must give account is this, faithfulness. Faithfulness. That includes Judy
and Hubert and Don. That includes all of us. Faithfulness. Each of us had been given a certain
sphere of responsibility in the kingdom of God, and God requires
of us faithfulness. Faithfulness. We do not have
to bear the burden of being responsible for the success or failure of
our labor. That's not our business. Our
Lord encouraged his disciples. He said, when you go into a town,
Find a house where the folks are worthy and go in and declare
to them the good news of grace and redemption by Christ. And
if they won't receive you, don't hang your head in despair and
don't go away feeling like you're defeated and cast down and don't
go away in despondency and mourning and lament how little your usefulness
is and how little the Lord uses you. He said, dust off your feet.
Now, by saying that, he does not say, shake off your feet
in contempt and say, well, go on to hell then. That's not what
he's saying at all. He says, don't let those folks,
by their unbelief, cause you to be cast down. Your responsibility
is not their belief. Your responsibility is to declare
faithfully to them what I have sent you to declare. And Joey,
that's our responsibility here. That's our responsibility. And
we are responsible to be faithful. Turn over to Matthew chapter
25. I'm not even going to attempt
to expand these verses, but I want to read them to you. Matthew
chapter 25 and verse 24, the parable of the talents. There
was one fella who was not faithful, one fella. Now God's given me
a talent. He's given me a gift. He's given
me the gift to preach the gospel. He's given me a gift to understand
it and to declare it to you. I recognize that that is my responsibility. God's also given David Coleman
and Merle Hart, Joey Browning, and all the rest of you who believe
a gift, a gift of service, of responsibility in his kingdom,
in this assembly, in the work of this assembly. Here in Matthew
25 and verse 24. Then he which had received one
talent came and said, Lord, I knew that thou art a hard man, reaping
where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not
straw. And I was afraid, and I went and hid thy talent in
the earth, and lo, there thou hast that is thine. Look here,
Lord, I've kept it very well. Here it is. I didn't lose it.
I didn't lose it. His Lord answered and said unto
him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I
reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not straw. Thou
oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and
then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury
or with interest. Take therefore the talent from
him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every
one that hath shall be given, and he that he shall have abundance,
but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which
he hath." Well, you're talking about a fellow losing his reward. Oh, no, you're talking about
a fellow losing his soul. Look at verse 30. And cast the unprofitable
servant into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. For some reason, God in his wise
providence has given this assembly and your pastor a very large,
wide-ranging, constantly increasing sphere of ministry. By the things
that take place here, the lives of men and women around the world
are touched. That's our responsibility. That's
our responsibility. Mine and yours. Now it's our responsibility to
faithfully conduct ourselves in every place where God opens
a door for the furtherance of the gospel. It's our responsibility. illustrate a couple of things
for you if I can. The bulletins we mail out, some
of you will be getting together this week with us, putting those
things together, the tracts, those things. I think I read
a letter to you I got from a fellow in Kenya, Africa. I don't have
any idea to this day how he got hold of a tract. He was in the
hospital. Somebody gave him that tract I put out on comfort and
sickness. And he wrote me a letter, been
corresponding with him since then. The track was used of God
to minister to him and to give him instruction, and that man's
a preacher. That's just one of many illustrations. These things go here and there. I don't know how God's pleased
to make use of them, but make use of them he does. The books,
the tapes, whatever goes out of here, More than that, we have
men who come here, men that God puts us in contact with, like
Brother Ken Wymer, Milton, Walter, others. But Ken is a man, he's
the latest one, that God taught him the gospel, raised him up,
caused our paths to cross. And this man's going to Africa.
He's going back to Africa, whether or no, he's going. He's going. He's lost every bit of outward
visible support he could possibly have had in this world. Every
bit of it gone. He going to Africa. Well, here's
an opportunity for us to put bread on a man's table and gas
in a man's car so he can carry the gospel to men and women we
won't see till we get to glory. Now you got two choices. You
can say there's something else more important. Or you can say
this is what I've given myself to. One of the two. There's something more important
than helping him. Well, I can't do much. Five dollars
will buy him a gallon of gas. That'll get him at one preaching
point. Somebody else gives another five, that'll get him to another
preaching point. What I'm saying is this. We have set before us
a door of opportunity. We dare not neglect the opportunity. We dare not do it. We dare not
do it. Try if you can, anybody here,
try if you can to find a reason not to support the man. Try if
you can to find a reason not to use whatever God puts in our
hands and put it to his support that he may preach the gospel
of God. Oh, well, preacher, we've got to trade cars, got to buy
a new suit, got to get a purse with a little sticker on it.
It says this is expensive and nobody else got one like it.
Look at me. God forgive me and you and make
us faithful. Make us faithful. That's our responsibility. Secondly, faithful servants never
quit. Paul says, therefore, seeing
this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not. That is, we don't quit. We don't
give up. The trials, the heartaches, the
pressures, the disappointments, the frustrations of the gospel
ministry are so great that no man could consistently bear the
burden of the work unless he was sustained and upheld by God's
almighty grace. and infinite mercy. But those
whom God calls, God sustains. God's servants don't quit. Paul, on one occasion, was given
an affliction, an infirmity in the flesh, a messenger of Satan
to beat him in the face. And three times he cried for
God to take away this thorn of the flesh. And the Lord responded,
my grace is sufficient for you. And I'm telling you, I'm telling
Grace Baptist Church, I'm telling Don Fortner, I'm telling this
whole group of men who will hear this message by whatever means,
I'm saying if God calls us, God will see us through. God will
sustain us to whatever work he puts in our way. Whatever he
gives us in our hands to do for the glory of Christ and the interest
of his kingdom and the furtherance of the gospel, God will see it
through. He'll do it. Sometimes God's
servants are moved from one field of service to another by the
will of God, but they never quit their master service. At one time, I did the same thing
some of you men do. I sat under a man's ministry
and gave what I could give of my money and gave what I could
give of my time and gave what I could give of my talents to
do whatever I could for the cause of Christ in that place. Well,
my field of service has changed. That's all. My master hasn't
changed. My service hasn't changed. Only
my field of service. Only the particular service that
I render. You see, I'm still serving the
same cause. I'm still serving the same master. I'm still serving the same kingdom. I'm serving the kingdom of Christ. And a man's field of service
may, by the will of God, change. But faithful servants never quit
the master service. The trials we face continually
are difficult to bear. Look in verse 8. We're troubled
on every side. yet not distressed. We're 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, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest
in our body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh
in us. That's all right. It works life
in you. works life in you. What kind of trials are you talking
about, Pastor? Well, the reproach and opposition
of the world is no easy thing to bear, is it? Can you imagine what it is to stand here before you and
preach the gospel of God's free grace, knowing full well, knowing full well that that gospel
will be to some who hear it a savor of death unto death. Now that's an awesome, awesome
task. That's an awesome task. Some
who hear will believe. Thank God for that. But if a man hears, I mean if
I am enabled to speak for God, by God, and you hear God speak
by my voice, and you do not believe, you'd be better off in eternity
never to have heard my voice." When Paul wrote that, he said,
who is sufficient for these things? Who is sufficient to bear such
a weight? But our sufficiency is not of ourselves, our sufficiency
is of God. A faithful servant leads the
congregation and the army of Christ into battle, and the man
who leads the battle must take the brunt and the heat of the
battle. And so he has to bear with slander from men within
and without. That's what Paul was dealing
with in this passage. He has to deal with the betrayal
of men whom he trusted as his friends. And you'll never find
a faithful man who doesn't have that to deal with. I suppose
I've been accused of just about everything under the sun by men
who were thought to be my friends. That's not easy to bear. Something
harder than that. Hardest thing I've ever had to
bear in my life is to see men and women whom I dearly love, with whom
I walked in harmony, I thought, in the worship of God, and in
the cause of Christ, to see them depart from the gospel to the everlasting ruin of their
immortal souls. It's the hardest thing I've ever
had to bear. And right next to that, maybe
right up with that, are the personal trials, manifold temptations,
and inward corruptions of my own soul. Can you imagine how hard it is
to stand up here and preach to you about faithfulness when you realize
how little faithfulness there is in yourself. Or to preach to you about loving
Christ when you realize how little you love Christ yourself. Or
to preach to you about zeal when you realize how little zeal there
is in you. are to preach to men and women
about commitment when you realize how little commitment there is
in you. If that's all it was, Merle,
I'd rather sit where you are and let you go ahead and preach. Yet faithful men think not. Why? Well, I've lifted my hand to
God. I can't go back. I can't go back. No matter how
hard it gets, no matter how rough the road gets, no matter how
steep the hill gets, no matter how weak my feet get, I can't
go back. I've lifted my hand to God. What is it that keeps a man going
in the face of constant trial? Well, the grace of God upon us,
that's it. My grace is sufficient. Faithful
is he that called you who also will do it. God has given us
His grace. He sustains us with His grace.
He keeps us with His grace. When others quit, faithful men
go on, not because of anything in them, but because of God's
grace upon them and the souls of men before us. Some of you are lost." Oh, what a word. And we'll be lost forever. And somehow, under God, I want
to preach one more time the riches of his grace, the freeness of
his mercy. the efficacy of his blood and
the way of life by faith in him and pray that maybe God by his
grace might grant you life lest you perish forever. What keeps
us going? The glory of God that awaits
us. Look at what Paul says in verse
14, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise
up us also by Jesus and present us with you. He says in verse
16, for which cause we think not. Verse 17, for our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at
the things which are seen, but at things which are not seen.
For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things
which are not seen are eternal. Faithful preachers, thirdly,
are candid, unpretentious, honest men. Paul says we've renounced the
hidden things of dishonesty. That is, we don't hide our motives. We're the same in public as we
are in private. We don't hide our methods from
men. We don't say one thing in the
study and another thing in the pulpit. We've renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty. Not walking in craftiness. God's
servants don't use God's people disguising their true goals,
practicing trickery and deceit and cunning to further their
own name, their own game, their own fame. We do not handle the
word of God deceitfully. We don't twist it to suit our
own ends. But by manifestation of the truth,
commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
This is the only recommendation we have. This is the only commendation
we have, the truthfulness of our lives, so that men who see
us, so that those who know us best, look upon us and are willing
to hear simply because of the truth they see in us, and because
of the truthfulness of our message. We commend ourselves to you in
the sight of God, in the sight of God. Fourthly, faithful preachers
recognize that salvation is entirely the work of God's free grace.
In verse 3, Paul says, if our gospel be hid, it's not hid because
of any lack of preaching, and it's not hid because of any secret
decrees of God. But it's head to them that believe
not, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not." The natural man's lost, and he's
blind, and he's ignorant, and he's dumb with regard to spiritual
things. And because he will not believe,
he cannot see divine truth. And Satan confounds his blindness
by his delusions that he gives as a substitute for the gospel.
He confounds man's blindness to grace by declaring works. He confounds man's blindness
to free grace by declaring free will. He confounds man's blindness
to effectual atonement by declaring something that he does by which
he can win God's favor. Then the apostle says, Satan
has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the gospel of the glory of Christ That is, the light of
the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ, by which God is
both just and justifier of sinners, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. Now, that's how salvation comes. God, who in the beginning said,
Let there be light, and there was light. Oh, God of mercy,
be pleased now to speak to the hearts of darkened sinners and
say, Let there be light. and cause the light of the glory
of Jesus Christ to shine in their hearts. You see, salvation comes
not by decision, not by a prayer, but by the revelation of the
glory of God in a man's heart. And that revelation of God's
glory is the gospel of his grace. Fifthly, every faithful gospel
preacher has the same message. I wanted to spend a lot of time
here, but I'll just be very brief. Paul says in verse 5, for we
preach not ourselves, that is, we don't preach our own opinions,
we don't preach our own theories, and we don't preach for our own
purposes, but rather we preach Jesus Christ, the Lord. We preach
Christ, the anointed one of God, Jesus, the Savior who put away
the sins of his people, the Lord, the sovereign King. and we preach
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." Now, Oscar, that's what
I am if I'm God. I'm your servant. I'm your servant. What does that mean? Does that
mean that I am under the rule and dominion of Oscar Bailey?
Well, of course not. Of course not. It does mean that
I give myself to serve your soul. That's what it means. Those who
are God's servants serve the interest of God's people. Now they do, they just do. Sixthly,
faithful preachers are men who preach from personal experience.
For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness had
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Christ. Verse 13, we have
the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe,
therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore
speak. And one last thing. Every faithful
gospel preacher knows his own personal insufficiency for the
work of the ministry. For we have this treasure. The gospel is a treasure, the
treasure of the riches of the knowledge of God, the treasure
of blood redemption, the treasure of covenant mercy, the treasure
of God in Jesus Christ. We have this treasure, and we
have it in our earthen vessels, clay pots, just clay pots. You see, God is pleased to use
meaningless instruments. insignificant instruments, worthless
instruments, in order that God get all the praise, that the
excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. You see, if God does anything with what I've prepared and what
I've said tonight, For anybody, for the glory of Christ, it's
God's doing. It's God's doing, not this man. I'm just a clay pot, just a clay
pot in which God has put the treasure of his grace. And he's
put it in this clay pot so you wouldn't look at the pot, but
look at the treasure. He put it in this clay pot so you wouldn't
honor the pot, but honor the treasure. He put it in this clay
pot so that he might get the praise. Now I'm saying to you
and to me, let's ask God to make us faithful. Let's give ourselves faithfully,
faithfully to the ministry of the gospel. And you won't do it for nothing.
You won't do it for nothing. Our labor shall not be in vain.
Everything else is vanity. Everything else is meaningless.
Everything else is empty. This is meaningful. For God will
cause His Word to bring forth fruit to His glory to the praise
and honor of His Son.