told us in that portion what
this ministry of God is. Verse 5, look back at verse 5. Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything. Back in chapter 2 he said who
is sufficient for these things, this ministry of God. Well not
that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, but our
sufficiency is of God. And this ministry, verse 6, he
hath made us able ministers of the new covenant, not the old
covenant, covenant of love, Levitical covenant, the new covenant, the
everlasting covenant. Not of the letter, not of the
letter, for the letter killeth, but of the spirit, the spirit
quickeneth, the spirit giveth life. We are not ministers of
the letters of the law. with ministers of the Spirit
of God, quicken it from gift-light. He talks about that old covenant
a little bit in verse 7, calls it the ministration of death,
written and engraved in stones, was glorious. That mountain was
glorious. The giving of God's law was glorious. That tabernacle was glorious.
The appearance of the Shekinah glory over the mercy seat was
glorious. That high priest was glorious. so that the children
of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for
the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away.
How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather more
glorious? Our message is more glorious. And it's not the ministration
of condemnation, that was glorious. But it is the ministration of
righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, and it exceedeth all
things in glory." That's our ministry. Not of the old covenant
but the new, not of the letter but the spirit, not of death
but of life, not of condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ, but of righteousness. Then he says
in verse 1 chapter 4, as we have received mercy, we have received
grace and mercy and we faint not. We are not going to quit.
Now David is our example. You know over there in verse
13, Brother Chuck read 2 Corinthians 4 verse 13. He quotes David here,
Paul does. He said we have the same spirit
of faith that David had. According as he wrote in Psalm
116.10, I believe, therefore have I spoken. We also believe,
therefore we speak. Now over here in verse 1, Paul
says that we have received mercy, we faint not. Let me quote David
here. You turn to Psalm 27. As we have
received mercy and grace, we're not going to quit. We're not
going to faint. We're not going to give up. We would without faith. David
said in Psalm 27 verse 13, I have fainted unless I had believed
to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait
on the Lord. No matter how dark it gets, how
lonely it gets, how difficult it gets, you just wait. Just
wait on the Lord and be of good courage. You'll strengthen your
heart. Wait, I say, wait. Having done
all, wait on the Lord. You see, our call is by grace.
Our knowledge and gifts is by grace. What we have here, this
ministry, is by grace. Our open doors and privileges
and opportunities to minister to others is by grace. So we're
not going to compromise the message, and we're not going to quit. We'll move when the cloud moves.
And when the cloud's still, we'll sit still and wait. Imagine Israel
got a little bit antsy, as we say, because the cloud just sat
there sometime. Just sat there. Sat there. But he said, don't you move till
the cloud moves. Don't you speak till he speaks,
and don't you move till he moves. That's what we're going to do.
We're not going to quit. But here in verse 2, a true ministry,
having to do with the pulpit, and the pew, and the classroom,
as we have here, a ministry. A true ministry has these four
marks. Number one, the message, our
message. We have renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty. What you hear in public is what
we believe in private. What you hear from the Christ
firm and from the pulpit is what we believe in private. That's
what Paul said when he summed up his ministry back in Acts
chapter 20. Listen to it. When Paul addressed
the elders for the last time, he said, you'll see my face no
more, but I'm going to leave you with these words. Acts 20
verse 19, I served the Lord with all humility of mind, with many
tears and many trials, which befell me with the lying and
weight of the Jews. But I kept back nothing that
was profitable unto you, but I showed you and taught you publicly. What I believe privately, what
God teaches me privately, I've taught you publicly from house
to house. Testifying both to the Jews and
also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ. Then verse 26. Wherefore I take
you to record this day, Acts 20, 26, that I am pure from the
blood of all men, for I have not shone, I have not shone. to declare unto you all the counsel
of God. We do not deal dishonestly with
men. We preach the word, not dishonestly. I like what Paul says over here
and back in my text, 2 Corinthians 4, but look back at chapter 3
again. He says in verse 12 of chapter
3, seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness
boldness of speech, brightness. If you have a good hope in Christ,
you're not ashamed of it. You're ashamed not to preach
it. You preach it with boldness and clarity and clearness, plainness
of speech. We renounce the hidden things
of dishonesty, withholding from people that which would cause
a problem. All right, look at that verse
2 again. Here's the second mark of a true ministry, not walking
in craftiness. We have two goals. A true minister
has two goals. God's glory and the people's
good. That's the two-fold goal. Not
walking in craftiness, not serving our own ends and goals, but our
goal is His glory and your good. Paul sums this up in 1 Corinthians
2. In 1 Corinthians 2 he said this,
verse 2, 1 Corinthians 2 verse, I determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ, to him crucified. And I was with
you in weakness, in fear, and much trembling. And my speech
and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom,
dishonesty and craftiness. but in demonstration of the Spirit
of God, and the power of God, and the Word of God, that your
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, and the cleverness
of men, and the craftiness of men, and the savagery of men,
and the trickery of men, but in the power of God. That's where
our faith has got to rest, in the power of God. So our message,
honesty, the Word of God, truthfully preached, Our motive, the glory
of God and the good of the people, and our methods. Listen to the
next thing. Not handling the word of God
deceitfully. We don't handle the word of God
deceitfully. Look back at 2 Corinthians 2
verse 17. We are not as many, 2 Corinthians
2 verse 17, who corrupt. That word is the same word over
here, deceitfulness, not handling the word of God deceitfully,
which deceitfully, deal deceitfully with the word of God. But as
of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, in the presence
of God. Paul said this often, God's my
witness. When he was preaching truth,
he said, God's my witness, God's my witness, God's my witness,
he says that over and over again. We're preaching in the sight
of God, in Christ. And the true preacher, he doesn't
deal deceitfully. False preachers use God for their
purpose. False preachers use scripture,
use God, use the people to promote themselves, to promote their
programs, to promote their purposes, to promote their schools. to
promote their politics. What a terrible thing we're seeing
right now when churches and believers are getting in the political
arena and using God for their own purposes. Our method
is to preach the word of God for His glory and honesty and
sincerity and plainness of speech for the good of the people and
then wait on God to make it effectual. That's the true ministry. Sometimes
when I'm writing people who communicate with us, with Ronnie and the
Tate ministry and with me, I write a letter and then I'll put a
scripture reference down at the bottom of the letter. Sometimes
I use these two together. First Corinthians, you can remember
this easily, First Corinthians 2.13 and Second Corinthians 2.13.
But listen to what these scriptures say. This is our ministry. 1
Corinthians 2.13, For this cause also thank we God without ceasing,
because when you receive the word of God which you heard of
us, whether on tape or television or books, you received it not
as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. which works effectually in you
as the ministry, preaching the word of God, and you receive
it. Not my doctrine. That's what,
you don't turn to this, let me just read you a scripture that
Dale read a few moments ago in the study before we came in here.
Listen to this. Our Lord Jesus was speaking,
and he said here in John 7, 18, He that speaks of himself seeks
his own glory. He that seeks his glory that
sent him is true. No unrighteousness in him. And you receive our word, you
receive the word that we preach, the truth we preach, not as the
word of men, but as the word of God, which works effectually
in you. Now turn to 2 Corinthians 2 verse
13. But we're bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And you're right for somebody
to just leave that with them. That's our ministry, that's our goal,
that's our glory, is to teach the word of God and have men
and women receive it, not as the word of a man, the word of
God, which works affectionately, brings people to love. Here's
back to 2 Corinthians 4. Our message, honesty, sincerity,
plainness, our motive, the glory of God, now our method, Not handling
the word of God deceitfully. Now, our recommendation. How
do you recommend your ministry to other people? Here it is,
right here. By manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God. The Amplified
says this, now listen to this. We state the word of God, the
truth of God openly, clearly, candidly. So we commend ourselves
in the sight of God, in the presence of God, to you. What's our recommendation? What we preach. There it is. Let it all be settled right there.
What we preach. Not our program, not our activities,
not our energy, not our excitement, our message. That's our recommendation. That's all the recommendation
a preacher needs. He preaches the truth. That's
all you need to know. He tells the truth. Preaches
the word of God. But verse 3, notwithstanding
a true ministry, which we have here by his grace, a true and
blessing gospel. We have the gospel. There's only
one gospel. This is it. And a glorious Savior. Everybody will not hear this
gospel. Everybody will not believe this
gospel. Our Lord said all men do not
have faith. And that's what Paul says here
in verse 3. If our gospel be hid, it's hid
to them that are lost. The fault is not in the gospel.
It's a saving gospel. It's the power of God unto salvation.
The fault is not in the presentation of it. Somebody says, well, preacher,
maybe if you do something different. Maybe if you do something clever.
Maybe if you try this or try that. No use trying anything
but preaching the Word. Don't try anything. Because our
gospel is here to them that are lost. What's their problem? The
fault, you see, is not with the gospel or the presentation of
the message. The fault is with the hearer. He's lost! If our gospel be here, it is
here to them that are lost. What is it to be lost in this
sense of the word? It's to be dead. By one man sin entered this world,
and death by sin. So death passed upon all men,
all sin, and Adam the dead. Spiritually dead. Dead men do
not hear. Dead men do not see. Dead men
do not believe. It's to be deaf and blind. Having
eyes, Christ said, they do not see. Having ears, they do not
hear. All men do not hear. They do
not believe. They do not see. To be lost is
not to know the way. That's what it means when you're
lost. You don't know the way. If you
knew the way, you'd walk it. I don't know whether you remember
when Brother Gruber was here two or three years ago, he told
us about being lost in the jungles of the Yucatan. Do you remember
that? Lost. He said, I've never been
lost before. I was lost. I didn't have any
idea what road to take back, what
way, what path. I was lost. They found him, thankfully. before he perished in that heat.
But somebody's got to come and find the lost man. Got to come
and find him. That somebody is the Spirit of
God. I think solidoptosis is a good
example of a brilliant, brilliant natural man. Brilliant. who were spiritually blind and
deaf and dead. Listen to him over here in Acts.
Acts chapter 22. This is before the Lord met him
on the road to Damascus and opened his eyes and revealed Christ
to him. He said in verse 3 of Acts 22,
I am very a man which am a Jew. Born a Jew now. with all the
scriptures, with all the tradition, with all the law. I was born
in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at
the feet of Gamaliel. Gamaliel was the best teacher
in the Jewish nation at that time. There were two teachers.
I forget the name of the other one. I used to know it. But Gamaliel
was the chief teacher. He's mentioned in scripture. I sat at the feet of Gamaliel
and was taught according to the perfect manner of the law of
my fathers. The law of Moses and David and
Isaiah and Jeremiah. He read every one of those scriptures
daily at the feet of the best, most renowned, respected teacher
of his day. And I was zealous toward God,
as you are all this day. And what was my attitude toward
Jesus Christ and the believers? I persecuted this way to the
death. Binding and delivering into prison
both men and women who believed in the Messiah, who believed
in the Christ, who believed in salvation by grace, who believed
in the cross. I put men and women, it didn't
matter to me. This was a brilliant scholar,
a law-abiding, blameless, clean of immoral fallacy, but dead
as a hammer, and blind as a bat, and deaf as a post, spiritually. And verse 5 is also the high
priest of Bambi record, witness, and all the state of elders from
whom I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus
to bring them which were there, bound to Jerusalem to be punished. Look back at Acts 17. Let me
show you another thing about this man. Acts 7, Acts chapter
7. This man solitizes. You read
how that Stephen, the first martyr, the first martyr of the church,
Stephen, the deacon, preaching the gospel of Christ, was stoned
to death. Now listen, what those that stoned
him did. Verse 58, Acts 7, they cast Stephen
out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid their
clues at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. How young
was he, preacher? Thirty years old. He was no kid,
was he? He knew exactly what he was doing.
And here, hated Christ, and held the While these people were stoning
this godly man, he took care of their clothes and coats. He
wanted to stain his hands with this man's blood. Big shot, graduate
of the School of Gamaliel, Ph.D., scholar, Sanhedrin, consenting
to the death of this godly man. That's how blind a man can be by nature. It's here to them
that are lost. Now look at verse 4. In whom
the God of this world, who's that? That's Satan. Christ called
him the Prince of this world. The God and Prince of this world.
He's blinded the minds of them that believe not. He's blinded
the mind, the understanding. What's his objective? His objective,
he'll use anything and everything to keep these people like solitarsis
in darkness. He'll use everything he can.
He'll use pride. He'll use materialism. He'll use promotions. He'll use
covetousness. He'll use family. He'll use false
religion. He'll use traditions. He'll use
anything to keep us from paying attention to where we're going
and what we're doing and what we're believing. Keep you snowed
under, you know. Keep you going the way you're
going. Keep you going that way. And here's his objective, lest
the light of that glorious gospel of Christ, what I'm preaching
right now, the gospel of the glory of God, the gospel of the
glory of Christ, who's the image of God, who's the exact image
of God, who's the likeness of God, who's the express image
of God, should shine unto them. Tell you this about Satan though,
he cannot prevent the gospel from being preached. He can't
prevent it from being preached. Like Paul said, I'm in prison
but the word of God is not bound. He can't stop that. I'll tell
you another thing he can't do. He can't keep God's elect from
hearing the truth. That's exactly right. held captive by him and walking
the way. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love for us, he loved us even when we were dead
in sin, he quickened us together with Christ. When God determines
to save a sinner, all the demons and forces and principalities
and powers and rulers of darkness and high places can't stop that
gospel from entering the heart of one of his children. Here's
the sum and substance of our ministry here. Listen. We preach
not ourselves. What is it to preach ourselves?
I'll tell you what it is. You hear it every day out yonder.
It's to preach our opinion. Our opinions. Our thoughts. Instead of the Word of God. There
is so little preaching today like I'm trying to do right now.
The Word of God. preaching the Word of God. When
we preach our opinions and our thoughts, we're not preaching,
we're preaching ourselves. And secondly, it's to promote
ourselves. It's to promote the local church
of which we are part. It's to promote our denomination.
We're not promoting ourselves. You're trying to get members?
No sir. Happy for anyone to come and hear the gospel, happy for
anyone to come and identify with us here, but not sending out
any feelers for anybody. God adds to the church those
that are saved. That's right. We preach not ourselves. To preach ourselves is to preach
our opinions, to promote ourselves, to promote a local church, a
denomination, or preach to supply ourselves. I said on the television two
weeks ago, any preacher that asked anybody for anything to
promote his ministry, God didn't send him. Ask anybody. God used the ravens to feed Elijah
and the brook. He said to Elijah, he said, you
drink out of the brook and the ravens will fly in here. The
first air mail delivery bringing what they have over there. After
World War II over there in Germany when the Russians built the wall
and we flew in surprise. What was that called? I forget,
but General Marshall flew it in. Well, God flew in surprise
to that lodge over on that side of that hill, you know. Had a
brew, surprise, and you know how long it lasted? Until the
Lord was ready to find a move, he'd write up the book. He'd
write it up. If I didn't have anything to
drink, drink. The flights quit coming in, so
he had to go somewhere else. That's why God wanted him to
go somewhere else. He doesn't supply our needs.
We don't preach our opinions and promote ourselves or to supply
ourselves. What do we preach? Here it is.
Look at it. Let me show you this. We preach Christ. Well, think
of Christ. Whose son is he? Son of David. Son of David. Lord to the flesh.
made of the seed of the flesh, Son of David, that declared to
be the Son of God, the Christ. Jesus, the name Jesus, the man,
what did he do? Save his people from their sins.
Jesus is our Savior. Our perfect righteousness, our
perfect sacrifice. Where is he now? King of kings,
Lord of lords. God has given him a name above
every name, that the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow,
and every tongue shall confess, he's the Lord. That's our message. Christ, Jesus, the Lord. And ourselves, what are we? All
of us. We're his servants. But we're
your servants for his sake. I've got a good illustration
of that. You know, a lot of preachers have become and made themselves
captives of worldly people. But God's true ministers and
ministry and people do not cater to, nor try to please, nor care
to impress the people of this world. They're not promoting
things for the benefit and for the blessings and for the people
of this world. but they're servants of God's
people. I went down to Mexico one time,
Dice and I, and we visited a pretty nice place, pretty nice house,
some people that were pretty well off. They were believers,
had a church there on their ranch. And this lady, while we were
there, she had five female servants and two male servants. Now they
weren't my servants, they were hers, in her employ, they were
her servants. But while I was in her home,
they were my servants. They wouldn't even let me get
up and go get a cup of coffee, they'd bring it to me. They'd pull your
chair back for you to sit down, make sure you had food on your
plate. Oh, you remember that? They couldn't do enough for us.
But they weren't my servants, they were hers. That I was in
her house. And that's what we are. We're
servants of His people. His people. We love His people.
We serve His people. We cater to His people. We exalt
His people. We seek the love of His people. We're God's servants. But we're
just servants for Jesus' sake. And this lady, she hired these
people to take care of us while we were there. Make our stay
comfortable. And they really did. Verse 6,
God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. What's
the first thing in creation? The world was without form and
void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God said,
let there be light. And the whole earth was bathed
in light. That's the first thing in creation.
And this God who commanded by his word the light to shine out of darkness, when he raises
a dead sinner, opens their eyes, wouldn't do any good to open
my eyes if there wasn't any light, would they? Wouldn't do any good. Wouldn't do any good to open
my ears, there's no voice. But everywhere God Almighty sends
light, God by his word sends that light. That's where. Where
he gives you ears to hear, he gives you a gospel to hear, that's
right. You can't hear nothing. They argue about if you're out
in the woods and a tree fell and nobody's there to hear it,
it wouldn't make any noise, you know. Like a fella said to me
one time, he said, if I was out in the woods all by myself and
said something, if my wife wasn't there, would I still be wrong? That's free. But when God gives ears to hear,
it's the gospel. And you can carry that as far
as you want to, but there's a gospel where God gives ears to hear.
And they're going to hear. And where there's a blind man
that receives sight from God Almighty, he'll see some light. That light will be Christ. It'll
be the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. That's what I'm looking for every
time I preach. That's what I'm hoping for, looking
for. praying for him. This is life. Word. That word is a lamp under
my feet and a light under my path. I'll hide it in my heart. I won't set it against it. But
now dead sinners are going to sit there and they're not going to hear and
they're not going to see and they're not going to rejoice
unless he says, let there be light. And when he says that,
They're going to see the glory of God. To give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God. Let me ask you a question. A free folk, what is the glory
of God? What is the glory of God? Who really knows anything about
the glory of God? I mean the greater glory of God. He said, Lord, show me your glory. And God said, Moses, I'll cause
all my goodness to pass before you, and I'll reveal to you my
glory. I'll be merciful to whom I will
be merciful, I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. God's
greater glory is his redemptive glory in Christ. in the face of Jesus Christ,
our substitute, our sin offering, our righteousness, our redeemer,
the greater glory of God. He said, Father, I've glorified
you on this earth. Now glorify me with the glory
which I had believed before this world was. And the glory that
you've given me, I've given them. That is, it's the gospel. of his covenant mercy, it's the
gospel of his redeeming grace, it's the gospel of the man Christ
Jesus, and God has given it to us. Look at that. He shined in
our hearts to give us, to give us, to give us the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God, the glory of God. the infinite
glory of God the special glory of God and in the next verse
he calls it a treasure few there be that find it few
there be that know it but if you know the rest if you know
that covenant that sure mercies covenant mercies sure mercies
of David in Christ you know the greater glory of God if you know
the story of the cross the resurrection the ascension and enthronement
of Jesus Christ, you see the greater glory of God. If you
know Christ, the full runner, the mediator, the intercessor,
you know the greater glory of God, and God gave you that, and
this is a treasure. What a treasure. It contains
rich truth, rich blessings, rich promises, the riches of his grace,
And we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Both minister
and those minister unto. We're weak, we're frail, we're
creatures subject to like passions, infirmities of other men. But
God makes the most unlikely the estimates of his grace that he might have all the glory,
that his glory might be manifested. When you're witnessing about
this greater glory of Christ in God, don't try to appeal to
anybody's power. We sure couldn't use a man like
you. God never asked to use a man like you. He never asked. Don't appeal to the power of
a man. Don't appeal to the talents and
the education of a man to accept the benefits of Christ, they're
gifts. And God gives it to the most
unlikely. He said, the base things of the
world, the things that are not, the things that despise it, no
flesh should glory in his presence. But look what happens. He said,
we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellences
of power might be of God and not of us. But look here, four
words and I'm going to quit. With trouble on every side. Listen
to me a moment. If you have this message in here,
and it'll come out here, if it's in here, it'll come out here.
This gospel, which men do not believe. This world does not
believe this gospel. Which men do not understand.
This gospel which condemns their works and their self-righteousness
and their traditions. This gospel which they despise
and is totally contrary to their thoughts and contrary to their
ways. And you insist, which you must,
that they hear this gospel and believe it and receive it and
love it or perish. He that believeth not on the
Son shall never see light, but is subject to the judgment
of God." Now, if you do that and believe that, this is true
of you, you're going to find trouble, he said, on every side, in every place, and everyone
except someone who has seen this gospel. He'll love you. He won't give you any trouble,
but everybody else will. But we're not distressed. That's
what Paul said. We have trouble on every side,
but we're not distressed. We're confident that the Lord's
message will be victorious. All right? Let me hear it. We're perplexed. Preacher, are
you ever perplexed? Oh my goodness. Oh my. We're perplexed. God gives no
account of his matters to his creatures. God doesn't show us
his purposes beforehand. God doesn't submit his plans
to us for approval. We will often think, Lord, why? We are often not knowing what
to do or where to go, which way to go. Why are you doing that? We're perplexed, but we're not
in despair, because we know all things work together for good
to them that love God. And we rebuke ourselves for being
impatient. And we say, now just sit down
and shut up and wait on God. That's right. But we're perplexed. We don't have the answers. I
hear people call me and say, I've got a question for you,
and it scares me to death. What on earth are they going
to ask me? Do they think I'm a walking theological response
to everything they want to ask. I got a question for you, I bet
you have. I got one for you too when you get through. I got lots
of them in fact. I can't get answers to them.
We're persecuted. The world is not the friend of
God, it's not the friend of grace, especially the religious world. Their treatment of the love of
Jesus Christ will fill you in on that. The people who crucified
Christ were religious people. We're persecuted, but we're not
forsaken. And then he said we're cast down.
And why not? We're an earthen vessel. Sometimes we're neglected, but
nobody pays a whole lot of attention to an earthen vessel. We don't
even shine. We're just clay, clay pots. Brother
Scott called it clay pots. Well, who wants to be upset over
a clay pot? What happens to it? We're neglected,
we're forgotten, we're just cast down, we're cast aside. Just an earthen vessel. It happens. I've seen some mighty important
influential The people in the kingdom of God, when they get
real old and they get deserted, it's just like a clay pot. They
just don't need it anymore. They don't need it anymore. So it's
cast aside. John the Baptist, sitting down
in prison, sent word to Christ. He said, you know, are you the
one I've been looking for? Why am I here? But we're not destroyed, that's
right, we're not destroyed, we're his, and he'll receive us unto
himself. All right, we'll work on the
next nine verses next week, next Wednesday night. Let's sing 256,
well with my soul, 256.