Would you turn back to Second
Corinthians? I've entitled this message. That
the ministry be not blamed. Now, it's important for us to
realize that this isn't just talking about the preacher. This
is not talking about the office of the pastor. We need to make
sure that. It's not blamed, although that certainly included. Let's read verses 3-13 of 2 Corinthians
6, giving no offense in anything
that the ministry be not blamed, but in all things approving ourselves
as the ministers of God. and look at the things that he
mentions that prove someone to be the ministers of God. In much
patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in
stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults or riots, in labors,
in watchings, in fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering,
by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word
of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness
on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor,
by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as
unknown and yet well known, as dying and behold, we live. as chastened and not killed,
as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich,
as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. O ye Corinthians! You know, I feel the Paul's voice
when he says this, you know, if you, the church at Corinth
was a messed up place. It was a messed up place. It
had so many problems. It has more problems than Kellogg's
has cornflakes. It was a messed up place. And
he says, Oh, ye Corinthians, our mouth is open to you. Our
heart is enlarged. You're not straightened in us,
but you're straightened in your own bowels. Now for a recompense,
a fair exchange, and the same, I speak as unto my children,
be ye also enlarged." You be enlarged. Giving no offense in
anything that the ministry be not blamed. What is the ministry
he is speaking of? He's not speaking of the office
held by the pastor, the minister, the pastor, the preacher, although
we don't want that to be blamed. But that's really not what he's
speaking of. In this second epistle to the
Corinthians, Paul uses six words to describe this ministry, which
is the gospel. That's what he's talking about,
the gospel message. We don't want the gospel message
to be blamed because of our conduct. By the way, we are ourselves. In 2 Corinthians, chapter four,
verse six. Or I'm sorry, chapter six, verse
four. It says, and all things are proving
ourselves as the ministers of God. Now, this ministry, first
of all, is of God. He is the author. It's the gospel of God, it's
not the gospel of men. It's not the ministry of men.
This is the ministry of God. And then in 2 Corinthians 3,
6, we read of ministers of the New Testament. This is the ministry
of the New Testament as opposed to the Old Testament. The Old
Testament is works. The New Testament is grace. Now,
here is the most simple way I can think of to define the ministry
of the New Testament. It begins with forgiveness. It starts there. It doesn't begin
with you doing something in order to get forgiveness. It begins
with forgiveness. You've been forgiven for Christ's
sake. Now, that's grace. Old Testament
is law. You need to do something in order
to merit this forgiveness. In 2 Corinthians 3, 9, it's called
the ministration of righteousness. This ministry that he's speaking
of, that he doesn't want to be blamed. It's the way a sinner
can actually be righteous before God. Righteous. So that when God looks at this
sinner talking to you right now, He sees someone who is altogether
righteous, without blame and without guilt. It's the ministry
of righteousness. And then in 2 Corinthians 3,
8, it's called the ministration of the spirit. It's the spirit
giving life as opposed to salvation beginning with man. The message of works says do
and live. If you do this, you'll live.
The ministration of the Spirit says live, life is created, and
do. All the difference in the world.
Do and live, live and do. In 2 Corinthians 8, 4, it's called
the ministering to the saints. Every aspect of the gospel is
ministering to the saints of God. And in the context, look
in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18, here's the ministry he's talking
about. And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation." And here's what it is, to wit,
that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. And here's how He did that. not
imputing their trespasses unto them. And he hath committed unto
us the word of reconciliation." Now then, we're ambassadors for
Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's
name, you be reconciled to God. Quit sitting in judgment of God.
Quit being critical of God and how he saves. You be reconciled
to God. Here's why. For he, God, hath
made him Christ. And notice that two B's in italics.
I think it hurts the meaning. For he hath made him sin. For us, who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now, like I said last week, Somebody
says, well, that means he made him a sin offering. Well, I'll
agree with that, if you can say, for he hath made him a sin offering,
who knew no sin offering. That obviously is not what it
means. He made him sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Now that's the ministry he's
speaking of, the ministry of reconciliation. Now he says,
give no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed. Now, offense is a stumbling block,
something people trip over. They see a certain conduct and
they say, well, I can't believe because of the way that fellow
is acting. Now, what Paul is saying is we're not to give anybody
a reason to speak against the gospel we believe because of
our conduct or our attitude, giving no offense. Now, this
is for everybody. This isn't just for preachers.
This is for every believer who is saved by this ministration
of the Spirit, this ministration of righteousness, this ministration
of reconciliation. We're ministers of this. We're
servants of this. We're representatives of this.
We're not to give anybody a reason to speak against the gospel we
believe because of our conduct or our attitude. When people hear the message
of the New Testament, grace, sovereign grace, electing, redeeming,
regenerating grace, saving grace, an accomplished salvation, when
they hear the message of the New Testament, they're going
to look at the one bringing the message. This is inescapable. The way a man is received, in
many respects, it's seen in the conviction that people have of
his sincerity, integrity, and purity of motives. Now, what
do I mean by that? Well, here's what I mean. There's
three things I need to hear when I hear somebody preach, that
if I don't hear these, I'm not going to listen to them. I don't
care what they say, even if it's true. There are three things
that I need to see when I hear a man preach. First, he's got
to have God's message. He's got to be sent of God with
God's message. And if he's not sent of God with
God's message, I have no interest in hearing what he's got to say.
That comes number one. He's got to have God's message,
not man's message, but God's message. Number two, He's got
to live what he believes. And if he doesn't live what he
believes, I don't care what he says, I'm not interested in it.
He must live what he believes or I don't want to hear it. And thirdly, that man has to
have my best interest at heart. If he's going to preach to me
and if he doesn't have my best interest at heart, I don't really care
to hear him. If I'm just part of his program, if I'm part of
his ministry, if I'm part of what he's doing, I don't want
to hear him. I want to hear someone who truly
has my best interest at heart, who wants me to hear the message. Now, that is absolutely necessary
for me to hear a man. First, he's got to be God's messenger
with God's message. He's got to live what he believes.
And he's got to have my best interest at heart. In other words,
he has to really love me or I don't want to hear what he has to say.
Now, this is a source of power for which no amount of learning
or talent can compensate. Giving no offense in anything
that the ministry be not blamed. He must have the message, he
must be affected by the message, and he must want me to be affected
by the message. So Paul says regarding the ministry
of the New Testament, the preaching of the gospel, this is the way
every believer is to be. This is not just the preachers.
This is every believer giving no offense in anything that the
ministry be not blamed, verse four, but in all things. Approving, proving ourselves. As the ministers of God. Now, this is our commendation. And he names, I don't know, Hammett,
there's a bunch of things he names and he just kind of runs
through them and they all mean something. But this is what proves
me or you as being true ministers of God. And this is what will
cause us to do nothing that the ministry be not blamed. This
will cause us to give no offense in anything that the ministry
be not blamed. And the first thing he mentions
is patience. Patience. Endurance. We don't quit. Somebody quit. God never sent them. Henry Mahan
sent me a letter once and had this little poem. And this has
something to do with endurance. I memorized it. I like this.
It says, whether the weather is cold, whether the weather
is hot, whether the weather be good, whether the weather be
not. We'll weather the weather, whatever
the weather, whether we like it or not. And we will, won't
we? We will. Whatever God sends,
we're going to endure believing He sends it. We endure. We have
patience. We endure all the way to the
end. And then he says in afflictions.
Afflictions. The Lord said in this world,
you shall have tribulation. You'll have afflictions that
come from within, from outside, but you continue in the faith. in all afflictions. And then
the third thing he mentions is necessities. In necessities. Now here's a combination of being
a true minister of God, having necessity, having needs. Needs. God doesn't need me. But I sure
need him. I need him desperately. And what needs we have? He healed
them that had need of healing. I have need of healing. For those
are the people He healed. I need the Christ. I need Him
as my prophet to speak to me. I need Him as my priest to represent
me before God. I need Him as my King to rule
and reign over me. I need reigning grace. I need
Him. I need His grace. You know, we
talk about grace, the doctrine of grace. Total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance
of saints. We talk about the doctrine of grace. Well, if you're
totally depraved, if that really does describe you, in and of
yourself, you need Him to choose you. Election is a divine necessity. You need Christ to actually put
away your sin. It won't do you any good for
Him to make salvation merely available to you. You need Him
to put away your sin. You need irresistible grace that
you can't resist. Because if you can resist it,
you will. You need it to be irresistible and invincible. You need Him
to preserve you and keep you by His grace. You need His grace. I need mercy. I've got to have mercy. I've
got to have the forgiveness of sins. I've got to have Christ. I've got to have faith. I need
it. He needs to give it to me. I need faith. I need repentance.
I can't repent unless he gives it to me. These needs commend
ourselves as the ministers of God. Are you needy? Are you needy? Let us come boldly to the throne
of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. At times right now, I need his
grace in necessities, in distresses, he says next, in distresses,
in times of anguish. Look in chapter seven, verse
five, he speaks from his heart. He says, for when we were coming
to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest. But we were troubled on
every side, without were findings, within were fears." Now, that's
his experience of the distresses that are involved. Look in verse
5. Now, this is part of the commendation
of the ministry. Look what he says next in verse
5. He mentions three things in stripes, in imprisonment, in
tumult or riots. Now this, Paul says, is a commendation
of my ministry. When I preach, I'm beat up, I'm
thrown into prison, and there are riots that take place. Now
I want you to think about what he said. This is a commendation
of his ministry. I'm beaten. Five times he was
beat with a cat of nine tails. Forty stripes saved one. Ripped
his flesh out. He was constantly imprisoned.
When he would preach, there would be riots. People would be so
incited and angry by what he said that there would be riots.
And he says this is a commendation of God. Now, this ought to cause
every one of us to examine whether or not the gospel we believe
is the biblical gospel. Look what happened to Paul when
he preached. He was beaten in prison and there
were riots when he preached. If the gospel I preach is not
offensive to the natural man, it's not the gospel. Let me repeat that. If the gospel
I preach is not offensive to the natural man, it is not God's
gospel. You see, the blessing The sign
of blessing is not so much success, but persecution. That's the sign
of God's blessing on the Word. If it's pleasing to the natural
man, it's not of God. Paul said, if I yet please men,
I wouldn't be the servant of God. The Bible, now you listen, I
want to see how you respond to this. The Bible's got a monopoly
on the truth. And you're shut up to divine
revelation. All God's truth is in this book, and you can't even
know it unless He's pleased to reveal it to you. You're shut
up to divine revelation. According to this book, God is
God. He's absolutely sovereign, and
you're in His hands, and He can do with you whatever He's pleased
to do. Now, He can save you. He can, if He's pleased to save
you. He can save you and make you just like Christ. Or He can
send you to hell as a monument of His justice to the praise
of the glory of His justice. Now that's so. That's the God
of the Bible. According to the Scripture, you and I are sinful. Unable. Unable to do anything
to save ourselves. All God's got to do is leave
us alone, and we'll go straight to hell. But God, in his mercy,
elected, selected, divinely elected a people to be saved before time
began. Christ came and saved those the
Father gave God the Holy Spirit comes and invincibly and irresistibly
calls them by grace and they will persevere all the way to
the end. That's the gospel. Now, are you
offended by it or do you find salvation in that message? Which
one? The natural man will be offended
by that. I realize that. God's people won't. I think it's
interesting. Preachers are scared to death
of offending people. Paul was afraid of not offending them. Let's go on reading. Verse five. He mentioned three other things
that are voluntary. He wasn't volunteering to be
put in prison and to be beat. He didn't come up and say, somebody
put me in prison or beat me. No, they did because of his preaching.
But these are things that are more voluntary. that commends
him in the ministry, in labors, in watchings, in fastings. Labors. Here's a summary of the labors.
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself. That's
a labor, isn't it? Let him deny himself. Let him take up his cross. What
is involved in confessing Christ? Let him take up his cross and
let him follow me. Now, that is a labor that is
a lifelong pursuit. And there's no rest from that
as long as we're here. It's a labor. In watchings, that means sleeplessness. Sleeplessness. In fastings, whether
voluntary or involuntary, not having food. These commend us. as servants of God. He says in
verse 6, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering. He now speaks
of the graces and gifts bestowed upon him that commended him as
the minister of God. First he says by pureness, by
pureness. Now the first thing that I think
of when I hear that pureness, blessed are the what in heart?
The pure in heart. The pure in heart. This is that
new heart that he gives. It's pure. That's the new nature. The holy nature. And from that
pure heart, and every believer has this, a pure heart. Mine doesn't feel very pure.
I know it doesn't. That's only the pure heart really
feels that way. In that sense, you see sin for
what it is. You see the old nature. But with
that pure heart, there's a pure faith. You look to Christ only. You don't look anywhere else.
You believe in pure grace, not heart grace, not 99% grace. You believe in pure grace. There's
purity of motive. You're actually seeking the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His glory is more important to
you than life itself. And if that pureness is not there,
no one's a true minister of the New Testament. And next he says,
by knowledge, by knowledge, listen, there's no salvation. There's
no being a minister of the New Testament apart from knowledge,
knowing God. I know God. I know the living
God as is revealed in his word. I know how He saves sinners by
Christ. I know the gospel. I know myself. I know that in and of myself,
I'm nothing but sin and I'm completely dependent upon His grace. I know
that. There's no salvation apart from
knowledge. I know that Christ is all. I
do know that. I know that He's all of my salvation.
I know I'm nothing and He's everything. I know that. There's no salvation
without this knowledge. He says, by pureness, by knowledge,
by long-suffering, long-tempered, forbearing the fruit of the Holy
Spirit, seeing He's long-suffering toward me, I'm going to be long-suffering
by His grace. And if that long-suffering is
not there, God's grace is not there. Look what he says next
in verse 6. By kindness, by the Holy Ghost,
by love unthanked. This is what commends a man as
truly knowing something of the ministry of reconciliation. Kindness. Graciousness. Not holding people's
feet to the fire. That's what that means. Graciousness. Understand this. An unkind person
is an unsaved person. You can just write that down.
Be kind. Tenderhearted. Forgiving one
another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. This
is my commendation, Paul says, kindness. And then he says, by
the Holy Ghost. Now, this ministry of reconciliation,
being a minister of the New Testament, this doesn't have anything to
do with human strength. This is God the Holy Spirit. It's God the Holy Spirit that
gives me that love, that kindness. It's God the Holy Spirit that
gives us the mission. It's God the Holy Spirit that
regenerates in this thing of preaching. I can preach. What
good will it do unless God the Holy Spirit takes it and blesses
it to your heart according to His purpose? It would be fruitless
and non-effectual. God the Holy Spirit is in this
ministry of the New Testament where He gives grace. I can look
at people right now who don't believe, and I'm not discouraged,
because God will cause you to. God will cause you to. He'll
take His Word and bless it by His Spirit and create life in
your dead heart and give you life. Isn't that encouraging? This is the ministry of the Holy
Spirit. And then he says next, by love
unfeigned. I like that, love unfeigned.
Love unfeigned. A lot of fake love in there. It's even the words I love you.
People use that word all the time. Meaningless without anything
behind it. But love unthanged. Now, when
someone is giving no offense in anything that the ministry
may not blame, there's somebody who loves God. They love Him
for who He is. I don't mean just saying it.
I mean they love Him for who He is. If you love God, you know what that
means? That means you love His sovereignty. If you don't love
His sovereignty, you don't love Him. He's a person. You love Him for who He is. You
love His holiness. You love His absolute justice.
You love His grace. You love everything about Him. You love Him as He's revealed
in His Word. You love the Lord Jesus Christ.
You love His way of salvation. This is unthanked. It's not thanked. It comes from the depths of your
heart. You love His gospel. You love His way of saving. You
know, I love the Lord's way of saving. I really do. I love what
I'm preaching. I love everybody who loves Him. If you love Jesus Christ, I sure
enough love you because I love anybody who loves my Redeemer.
I really do. This is love unfamed. I love
men. I love men. I want them to know
the gospel. I want to preach the gospel to
them. I want everybody to be saved, as far as that goes. I
want everybody in this room to know the Lord and bow their knee
to Him and love Him. Now that is love unfeigned. And then he says next, in verse
7, by the word of truth. There is no ministry without
the truth, is there? I mean, the truth of who God
is, the truth of how God saves. If you want to know the truth
here, here's two words that go together. The word of truth,
the truth of God and the cross. Now, if you want to know the
truth, the truth of who you are and the truth of who God is and
the truth of how he saves, you look at the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, you see that one nailed to a cross and there you
see the truth about you. You and I are so evil that if
God withdrew his hand from you, you'd put him out of business.
If it was up to you, there'd be no God. If it was up to you. And that's the truth. And the
cross proves that. But here we have the truth of
God's character. He won't let sin go unpunished.
You just write that down. He will not let sin go unpunished,
even when it's on his son. We see his justice. We see his
grace that he gave his son. We see his love for sinners.
We see his purpose. All that God is, the truth, is
seen in the cross, the word of truth. Of his own will begat
he us through the word of truth. God does not work apart from
the truth. He just doesn't do it. The only
thing God uses to beget spiritual life is the truth. He never uses
error. Why should he? He's God. He doesn't
use error. He's God. Of his own will, begat
he us through the word of truth. And that's what commends a man
as ministers of God. And then he says in verse 7,
by the power of God, omnipotence is behind the ministry. The ministry
of the gospel, the ministry of the New Testament, the ministry
of reconciliation. Omnipotence is behind it. I want
you to think of the power of God. The power of God creates life.
And we're talking about God's omnipotence. Creates life. The power of God makes something
to not be that was. My sin is very real. It's no longer in existence.
I stand before God without sin. That's the power of God. The
power of God is involved in the gospels. As a matter of fact,
the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, the power
of God. And then he says in verse seven,
the last phrase, the armor of righteousness. on the right hand
and on the left, the armor of righteousness. Now, let me remind
you this. I hope I don't have to, but just
in case I do, there's only one righteousness. There's not two. There's only one righteousness.
That is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. His perfect law
keeping. That's the only righteousness
there is. I never will forget hearing a
fellow preach and he said that Christian life is like walking
a tightrope. And you have the balance beam and you have to
have a proper balance between your own righteousness and Christ's
righteousness to keep you on the... Worst message ever heard, without
a doubt. Worst message ever heard. I mean, if I had something to
throw at the guy, I think I would have done it. I was so upset, you
know. There's one righteousness. That's why David said, I've made
mention of thy righteousness, even thine only, because there's
no other righteousness to mention. That's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that is my armor. That is what protects me. This
is my righteousness and my message, the righteousness of Christ,
my offense and my defense, my sword, my shield on the right
hand, on the left. One armor. The righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. While we're in 2 Corinthians,
turn to chapter 10. Verse 4. For the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, fleshly, but mighty through God. To the
pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and
every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge
of God and bringing into captivity every thought. To the obedience
of Christ. Now that's righteousness. His
obedience. And His righteousness is my only
armor. Back to 2 Corinthians 6. Verse
8. My honor and dishonor. Honored by those who believe,
dishonored by those who don't. Now, if I preach the gospel and
telling this, what I'm saying right now, somebody's honoring
me. You know what? Somebody else
is dishonoring me. Not because of me, but because
of the message. And here's the, some believe and some don't.
By honor and dishonor. Verse 8, by evil report and good
report, some blame us, some praise us. As deceivers, and yet true, some
say, well, they're imposters. Others know we're genuine. Verse
9, as unknown by the world, yet well known. As dying, Paul said, I die daily,
and behold, we live. As chastened, whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth, but not kills. Verse 10, I'm sorrowful. Remember, this is part of the
commendation of the ministry. I'm sorrowful. My sin is ever before me. And it's a continual grief to
me. Sin. Blessed are they that mourn. Mourn over what? They mourn over
their sin. I'm sorrowful. Yet I'm always
rejoicing in Christ. As sorrowful as I am over my
sin, I'm always rejoicing that my salvation's in the Son. It's
not in me. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and I can rejoice. As poor, verse 10, as poor as
having nothing, yet making many rich through the gospel we preach. And I love this last phrase. as having nothing, and yet possessing
all things. Now, this would describe a believer,
I suppose, as well as anything else. I've got nothing. In and
of myself, I've got no good work to recommend me. I've got no
good feeling. I've got no good thought. I have
nothing in and of myself. I have nothing, yet I possess
all things. Christ is all, so I have all
things. I find such comfort in this. I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all. That's me. But Jesus Christ is
my all in all. I find such comfort in being
nothing. Don't have to look to myself for a thing. But I have
all in Christ. Now, living like this is giving
no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed. And what a ministry this is,
the ministry of God. The ministry of the New Testament,
the ministry of righteousness, the ministry of the Spirit, the
ministry to the saints and the ministry of reconciliation. Now, isn't this a glorious ministry? And I don't want to give offense
in anything that the ministry be not blamed. Now, look what
Paul goes on to say. He says, Oh, ye Corinthians.
And what I thought about when you look, when you read these
first the first and the second epistles of the Corinthians.
You want to talk about a bunch of people that were messed up.
I mean, they really were. They had so many problems. They
had so many contradictions. They had so many inconsistencies
where you'd look at them and say, could they even be saved
like that? And whenever we ask a question like that, we ought
to look at ourselves before we ask a question like that. We
really should. I mean, we're being hypocrites
is all I can say. Hypocrites. But they had so many
problems and they were always questioning Paul. Paul went on
to say in his same epistle, the more abundantly I love you, the
less I'd be loved. That's so sad. But here you have
the Corinthians. But look what Paul says to the
Corinthians. He says, O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open to you. We're
telling you the truth. We're speaking to you from our
heart. Our heart is enlarged. We've spoken freely to you, Corinthians,
and opened wide our hearts to you. We're not withholding our
affection from you, but you are from us. You're not straightening
us, but you're straightening your own mouths. Now, for a recompense,
a fair exchange in the same, I speak as unto my children,
be ye also enlarged. Be enlarged in this. Cause this
to be the very breath of your soul. Giving no offense in anything. Giving no offense in anything. That the ministry be not blamed. But in all things, approving
ourselves as the ministers of God. A minister of God, a servant
of God. We don't want to find, we don't
want any fine fault with the ministry because of our conduct.
But I want you to think about this. I said this a few months
ago, got it from somebody else. It's a good statement. You don't have to have great
gifts. You don't have to have great
talents. You don't have to have a lot of education. You don't
have to have a lot of ability to be great. All you have to
be is a servant. A servant of God. A servant of the New Testament. Oh, may God give us grace to
not give offense in anything. that the ministry be not blamed. Let's pray together.