There is a home in Gilead To
make a wounded whole There is a balm in Gilead To
heal the sin-sick soul Jesus heals the brokenhearted How sweet
the sound to me! Beneath my sin he snorted, Ground
glad to set me free. By His suffering, death, and
merits, By His Godhead, blood, and pain, Broken hearts or wounded
spirits Are once made whole again. There is a balm in Gilead to
make a wounded whole. Broken by the law's loud thunder
♪ Cross for refuge flee ♪ ♪ For
His pungent sorrows ponder ♪ ♪ Tis His stripes that healeth thee
♪ ♪ Oil and wine to heal and cherish ♪ ♪ Jesus still to Israel
gives ♪ Nor shall e'er a sinner perish When his dear name believes
There is a bone in Gilead To make the wounded whole Down in
Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. In His righteousness confiding,
sheltered safe beneath His wing, Here they find a sure abiding
And a covenant mercy seeing. Seek my soul, no other healing
But in Jesus' precious blood. Here beneath the Spirit's seal
Stands the great High Priest with God. There is a balm in Gilead to
make the wounded whole. In Bilead to heal the sin-sick
soul. To heal the sin-sick soul. Would you turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 4? While you're turning there, Stanley
Borders passed away yesterday morning. It's Mark Borders' father. And he called me to let me know
about that. And they're going to be having the services in
Virginia, his own state, where he was a pastor some years ago. I've entitled this morning's
message, The Minister's Commendation. The Minister's Commendation.
And you'll see why I entitled it that as we read this passage
of scripture. The first two verses of 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. 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. Stewards of the mysteries of
God. What is needed in a steward? Oratorical ability? Faithfulness. To deliver the
message as it is received. That's the requirement. What is it that commends a preacher
to a man's conscience? Charisma? Brilliance? no simply open manifestation
of the truth. That's it. That's all that's
needed to truly commend a man to the conscience. Now, Paul
says in verse 1 of 2 Corinthians chapter 4, Therefore, seeing
we have this ministry, And the ministry is expounded in this
third chapter. In verse six, he said he's made
us able ministers of the New Testament and it's by his mercy
that we have this ministry and it's by his mercy that we don't
faint or falter. But seeing we have this ministry,
he says in verse two, we have renounced the hidden things of
dishonesty. not walking in craftiness nor
handling the word of God deceitfully. Now, I want you to listen to
me real carefully. Most. Ministries. So-called ministries. Are things
of deceit. And deception. Most ministries. Are things of deceit. and dishonesty. There is a hidden agenda. There is a removal of the offense
from the cross. There is an attempt to make the
gospel more palatable and more pleasing to the natural man. There is a packaging of the gospel. Now, when you package something,
you want to make it appealing to the consumer, don't you? You
don't try to package something in an unappealing way. You try
to make something appealing to the consumer. Now, here is how
they operate, these ministries that Paul has renounced. We've
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty or deceit. not walking in craftiness. The
word craftiness means all working. In these ministries, they will
do everything and anything to accomplish their ends. They adopt
secret methods of accomplishing their ends that they would be
ashamed to avow openly. They seek to cover what they're
really doing. I was thinking about this, and
Paul, you'll remember this. Back in 1982, when we started,
we started this church in 1982. And I remember there was an ad
in the paper. There was a Presbyterian church
here in town that was being started at the same time. And in the
paper, they put reformed, reformed doctors and so on. I thought,
well, I was only 23 at the time, and I thought, well, you know,
if there's All I thought of when I thought of reform was I thought
of the five points, and I thought, well, if there's a church like
that, why mess with this? You know, let's go there. And
Paul and I went to that opening meeting. Paul, you remember that,
don't you? And I remember I was shocked. I've always been kind
of a man without a plan. You know, I mean, just whatever,
you know, I always have been that way. I never have had an
And he said, well, here's what we've done. We've hired a demographer
to find out where the population is moving. And we bought a lot
to build the church in this place where the population is moving.
And here's the way we're going to
grow. What you need to do is get these Focus on the Family
films about how to raise kids. And in the neighborhoods you
live in, invite people in, and this is our appeal, this focus
on the family, and everybody's got an interest in raising their
kids better, and this is the way we'll get people in, and
we'll grow the church through this. You know what that is? That's dishonesty. That's using
bait. That's using something other
than the gospel. Well, let's use this bait to
get them in. Let's package our product like
this. And then we can sell our goods. That's exactly what's
going on. And it's deceitful. I knew that
then. I knew something was wrong with
that. I mean, just that's deceit. That's trying to trick people
and manipulate people to here's how we're going to do it. No,
that's the hidden things of dishonesty. That's walking in craftiness.
That's what Paul called also handling the word of God deceitfully. Taking the scripture and pulling
it out of context to prove your corrupt doctrine, not preaching
the word as it is, but pulling the passage out of scripture.
Well, I can prove universal redemption or something like that, you know,
by pulling the passage out of its context and using it to prove
something. Now, that's adulterating the
word of God. That's all it is. Now, whenever
you have methodology like this. Trickery, deceit, this is this
is how we grow a church. You always have a watered down
message. If the method is wrong, count
on it. The message is wrong, too. It
always is. That's the motive behind that
wrong method. Now, Paul says we've renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty. You know, another thought came
to my mind that the pastor of that church one time called me,
and it was when we had a radio program, and he put a big ad
in the paper, and it had Francis Schaeffer and all this kind of
stuff. The name of Jesus Christ wasn't even as much as mentioned.
And I said something about that, maybe I shouldn't, but I did.
And he called me and said, what are you doing that for? I said,
well, you didn't mention his name. I mean, there was not one word regarding
the gospel of Jesus Christ, just about, well, enough of that. We've renounced the hidden things
of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the
word of God deceitfully. But here's what commends a man
to the conscience. manifestation of the truth. Making naked the truth, that's
what the word means, making bare the truth, not packaging it,
not trying to make it more appealing to the flesh. But by open manifestation
of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. Now, if a man does that, That
by itself commends that man to our conscience, doesn't it? I
don't need anything else. If a man tells me the truth of
God, that's all I need. You know, there's such power in the
truth, it needs only to be presented in its nakedness, and it'll do
its own work. The truth recommends itself when
you hear the truth deep down, you know, it's the truth that
you may hate it. You may object, but when you
hear the truth or something we have called a conscience, it's
planted there by God. Everybody's bored with it. You
may not love what you're hearing, but as soon as you hear the truth
deep down, you know, it's the truth that you may object. You may fight, you may argue,
but you can't get away from this. Deep down, you know, it's the
truth. It's the truth that commends
itself to the conscience. Now. The truth. First thing I'd like to say about
the truth is the truth is a person. It's not merely accurate data. It's not abstract theory, it's
not theology. The truth is a person. Our Lord said, I am the way,
the truth and the life. The truth is a person. The Lord said in John 8, 32,
you shall know the truth and the truth. shall make you free. Now, it's
not your knowledge of the truth that makes you free. It's the
truth himself who makes you free, because the Lord went on to say,
if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. I love what Paul said in Galatians
6, 14, when he said, God forbid that I should glory, saved in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom? He didn't say by which. He said, by whom? The world is
crucified unto me. and I unto the world. What we
believe is completely determined by who we believe. What we believe is completely
determined by who we believe. And let me give you an example
of what I'm saying. I've said this before, let me say it again.
If you believe that Jesus Christ is God, If you believe he's the
creator of the universe, if you believe he is God manifest in
the flesh, if you believe he's all-powerful, if you believe
he is all that God is, as the scripture says, in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead in a body, and you're complete
in him, if you believe that, it is impossible for you to believe
that he can die for somebody and they wind up in hell anyway. Impossible. I like what Paul
said, Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. What you believe is determined
by who you believe. If you believe Christ is as this
Word presents Him, you must believe that whatever He does is absolutely
successful. And if you believe something
contrary to that, it's because you believe another Jesus, not
the Jesus Christ of the Bible. The truth is a person. And that's
why we take everything so personal. It's not just what you have your
way of believing. And I have mine. You know, we'll
all end up in this. No, this is about my Lord. This is regarding
my redeemer. This is regarding my husband.
This is regarding my God. And that's why we take everything
so personal. The truth is a person. In John 17, verse 17, the Lord
said, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. The written word of God is the
truth. You know something that I find
very glorious? When I read the Word of God, I know it's the
Word of God, because men couldn't speak this way. I just know it. Somebody says, prove it to me.
I feel no burden to do that. If you can't see it's the Word
of God, it's because you're blind to it, willfully blind to it.
This is God's Word. This is God's truth. That's the truth. sanctify them
through thy truth. Thy word is truth. And how I
view God is seen in how I view his word. Peter said, knowing
this first, that no scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And when I read this word, I
know this is God's Word. What about those times when you
question? Well, I wouldn't say I don't. The flesh sometimes
thinks, what if all this is phony? What if this is just not real?
I'll probably think something like that tomorrow. But yet my
new man knows this is the Word of God. The absolute truth of
God. And regarding this thing of truth,
Remember, it's the open manifestation of the truth that commends us
to every man's conscience in the sight of God. There is no
worship of God without the truth. Turn to John chapter 4. Beginning in verse 15. The woman saith unto him, this
is the woman at the well, Sir, give me this water that I thirst
not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go call
thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said,
I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast
well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands. And he whom thou now hast is
not thy husband, in that says thou truly. The woman saith unto
him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. And then she goes
on with her religious mumbo-jumbo at that time. I've seen this
so much. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. You say that
in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith
unto her, Woman, believe me. The hour cometh when you shall
neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem worship the
Father. Ye worship you, know not what. For we know what we
worship. For salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father
seeketh such to worship Him. You want to be one of these people
the Father is seeking? God is spirit. And they that worship
him must. It's absolutely necessary that
they worship him in spirit and in truth. Now, here are two things
that are absolutely necessary for worship. First, the Holy
Spirit. You know, I don't say to somebody,
come worship with us. You can't worship unless God,
the Holy Spirit enables you. There's no worship of God without
the Holy Spirit. God is Spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in Spirit. We are the circumcision,
Paul said, which worship God in the Spirit. Now, any worship
that is not caused by the Holy Spirit is not worship. What else is necessary for worship?
The truth. They that worship Him must worship
Him in spirit and in truth. The truth of the gospel. Now,
any so-called worship that is not according to the truth of
how God saves sinners by His grace is false worship. It's will worship. It's no different than devil
worship. That's the truth. They that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. In 2 Thessalonians 2, 13, Paul
said we're bound to thank God always for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, there's the Spirit
and belief of the truth. They can't be separated. Wherever
you have the one, you have the other. When you have the sanctifying
work of God, the Holy Spirit, you have the belief of the truth. Turn with me to John chapter
1, verse 14. And the word, the Lord Jesus
Christ, was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. John bear witness of him and
cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake. He that cometh
after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And
of his fullness have we all received, and grace for grace. For the
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now, whatever the truth is, it
has something to do with grace. Now, the law was given by Moses. That's talking about Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Humbers, Deuteronomy, God's law. It was given to us
by Moses. And it's true. It's true. Is there any error in that law?
Is there any falsehood in that law? No, it was written by God. He gave it to Moses. But it's
not the truth. The law. It's true, but it's
not the truth. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. That's what the Bible says. That's
not taking away from the importance of God's holy law, but it's not
the truth. Why would you say something like that? Well, if
all I give you is half of the information and everything I
say is true, Have I told the truth? No. If everything I say is true,
but I hold out on something and keep it concealed, what have
I done? I have lied. For someone to not preach grace
and truth, the truth of grace, you see, They're not telling
how God saves sinners. If all I give is the law, you
never know if God's merciful and gracious. You don't know
the real truth about God. Not really. What I've done, if
I preach law, what I've done is I've told you a lie. Everything
I say may be true. And a false prophet, quite often,
everything he says you agree with. But it's what he doesn't
say. It's what he leaves out. He leaves
out that which is critical. Now, whatever the truth is, it
has something to do with grace. Unmerited favor. Hell is according to works. You're
given what you got coming. Exactly. But heaven is according
to grace. free, unmerited favor. The grace of God. From election,
when God chose who would be saved, you can't believe in grace and
not believe in election. Now, you can just write that down.
Somebody says, I don't believe in election. You don't believe in grace either.
From election to glorification and everything in between, salvation
is all of grace. Thank God for that. Why, even faith is not of yourselves.
Paul said in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, by grace you're saved. Grace isn't this offer that God's
thrown out that you can accept or reject it. No, grace saves.
By grace, you are saved through faith. And that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Now, if I make salvation 99%
grace, I make it 100% works. It's either all of grace or all
of works. Paul said a little leaven leavens
the whole lump. You put one work in salvation
that makes salvation dependent upon you doing something. You
make the whole thing of works. Now, that's the truth. That's
the truth. There is no faith. There is no
trusting him without hearing the truth. Look in Ephesians
chapter one. Remember what our subject is,
I'm going to get into exactly what the truth is in just a moment,
but I want to see the importance of this. There is no trusting
Christ. There is no salvation apart from
hearing the truth, the truth concerning God. The truth concerning
man. The truth concerning how God
saves sinners. No one is saved apart from hearing
the truth. Now, look what Paul says in Ephesians
1, chapter 13. In whom? Chapter 1, verse 13. In whom you also trusted. After that, you heard the word
of truth. The gospel of your salvation. James said in James 1.18, of
his own will, begat he us, birthed he us with the word of truth. Paul said, How shall they call
on him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe
in him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Now, turn to John 8. John 8. You're one of the things I love
about preaching the truth. I love this. I can preach the truth
and it's just totally out of my hands. I'm not trying to talk
you into anything. I'm not trying to convince you.
I'm declaring the truth and I'm trusting God to take care of
the result. He'll get you. Let's look at John chapter 8. He said to the Pharisees in verse
43, Why do you not understand my speech? Because you can't. You're unable. That's the word. You're unable.
Someone says, I can't understand you. I know. I know. You're unable. If you don't understand, because
you're unable. Can't hear the word of God. Natural man can't
understand the gospel. He says, you can't hear my word. You're of your father the devil
and the lust of your father and the devil and the lust of your
father you'll do. He was a murderer from the beginning
and a bold nod in the truth because there's no truth in him. When
he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own for he's a liar and the
father of it. And because I tell you the truth,
you believe me not. Which of you convinces me of
sin? And listen to this question. If I say the truth, why do you
not believe me? That's a good question, isn't
it? If I say the truth, why is it that you don't believe? Verse
47, here's the answer. He that's of God, heareth God's
words. You, therefore, hear them not,
because you're not of God. Now, to believe the truth, you
have to be of God. What's that mean? Well, here's
a simple way to put it. You've got to be one of the elect.
That's what it is to be of God. He that's of God, heareth God's
words. Where you are of is where you're
from. Where you're from. The mind and purpose of God Almighty
in Christ Jesus. Now, that can't be understood
by the natural man, I realize that, but it's the truth. It's
the truth. He that is of God, heareth God's
words. Salvation is described in First
Timothy 2, 4 as coming to the knowledge of the truth. Repentance
is defined as repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Titus
in Titus 1, Paul said to Titus, the faith of God's elect, the
acknowledging of the truth, which is after God's. And Paul talked
about those who were ever learning. and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth. What is it that commends a man
to the conscience? I'm not talking about just why
my preacher is educated. He's gone to the right seminary.
He's a good speaker. He's a charismatic. No, none
of that. That's foolishness. What is it that commends a man?
Manifestation of the truth. Would you turn with me to John chapter 18? Verse 33. Then Pilate entered into the
judgment hall again and called Jesus and said unto him, Are
you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou
this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? Pilate
answered him, I do. Thine own nation of a chief priest
hath delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Jesus answered,
My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered
to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore
said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am king. To
this end was I born. And for this cause came I into
the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice." If you're of the truth, you hear
the voice of God in this, not just a man's opinion. This is
God's truth. And Pilate saith unto him, what
is truth? Is there such a thing? If there
is, can we even know it? Is it worth all this? What is
truth? Well, the Lord said, I came to
bear witness to the truth and he sealed the truth with his
own blood. Now, the last few minutes of this message. I want
to try with God's help. to declare to you the truth. Don't you want to hear the truth?
The very truth of God. You see that one nailed to a
cross. writhing in anguish and pain. His visage marred so that you
can't even recognize his face. Blood pouring down from his face,
his hands, his feet. Nailed to a pole. Forsaken by
God and forsaken by man. Now there's the truth. There's the truth regarding me
and you. A God murderer. And you may think I've done some
very bad things that nobody knows about. Indeed, you have. And God knows,
but nothing you've done is as bad as this. You and I are guilty of the murder
of the Son of God. Now somebody says, I just don't
believe that. I wasn't there when it happened.
And I don't believe I would have done that. I don't think I'm
capable of committing so cruel of a crime. I couldn't hurt somebody
like that. Even if I didn't like him, I
couldn't drive nails in their hands and feet. Now listen to
me. If God took away all the restraints, this is what you and I would
do to him. That is the truth. You know, if we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, John says, and the truth is not in
us. We've lost all credibility. If
we say we've not sinned, talking about what we do, we make him
a liar because he says we have. And here's the truth regarding
me and you. If God took away the restraints and let you do
what you wanted to do, you'd put him out of business. You'd
kill him and you'd take over on the throne. You'd press down
his throne and you'd sit on it and you'd make yourself boss.
Now that's the truth regarding you and regarding me. That's
the truth. All God's got to do is remove
the restraints and you'll be as bad as Satan right now. You believe that? It's so. That's the truth. See the form of that naked body
nailed to a cross? There only do we see the true
character of the living God. Now, I see the character of man.
I've talked about that, but I see the character of God. The first
thing I see when I see Christ crucified is I see the justice
of God. God is just. He is not going
to let sin go unpunished. It's not going to happen. Sin
must be punished. I'm not the judge of the earth.
Do right. The sins of God's elect became Christ's sins. They became
His sin. And God punished Him, even though
it was His Son, because God will not let sin go unpunished. God's holy. Oh, how clearly we
see that in the cross. We see God's wisdom, how He's
made a way to remain just and justify somebody like me or you.
We see His power, the power to put away sin. That's what He
did on the cross. We see His love and His mercy
and His grace. Does God really love sinners? Oh my soul, look to the cross
and you see the full revelation of the character of God Almighty. Every attribute displayed in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's the truth. You cannot
know God apart from what the cross of Christ reveals. That's the truth. You see that one hanging on a
cross who came to bear witness to the truth. Hear his last words,
it is finished. And what's that mean? That means he did what he came
to do. It means mission accomplished. Now, here's the truth regarding
salvation. Salvation was accomplished outside of my experience. Salvation was accomplished when
He said, it is finished. Don't you have to believe? Yeah,
you gotta believe that. That's precisely what you must
believe. That He is salvation. Now that is the truth. The cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the truth concerning our character,
concerning the character of God, and it's the truth regarding
salvation. He is salvation. To this extent, Paul said, God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. by whom the world is crucified
to me, and I unto the world. When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain, I count
but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord,
that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God, all
the vain things that charm me most. I sacrificed them to His
blood. See from His head, His hands,
His feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e'er such love
or sorrow meet or thorns compose so rich a crown? Were the whole realm of nature
mine that were present far too small? Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all. One last scripture, 2 Thessalonians
2. Now, beloved, I've told you the
truth. That's what's happened this morning. I've told you the truth. Look
in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, beginning in verse 8. And then shall that wicked be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his Even him
whose coming is after the working of Satan, talking about Antichrist
with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in then the parish. And look what it says
next. Because they receive not the
love of the truth. Doesn't simply say they didn't
receive the truth. It says they didn't receive the
love of the truth. And because of that, because
they received not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved, for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that
they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who
believe not the truth. but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we're bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Let me give you one reason to
believe. What I say is truth. And that's
all the reason you need to believe. We believe something. We don't
choose to believe something. You choose to believe in error.
I mean, you have to, you have to make it. This is what I'm
going to believe. But you don't choose to believe the truth. You believe
because it is true. Let's pray.