We Have This Ministry

Q: What does the Bible say about the ministry of preaching?

The Bible emphasizes that ministry is the preaching of the gospel, representing Christ and His teachings. In 2 Corinthians 4:1, Paul states, 'therefore, seeing we have this ministry,' emphasizing the call and responsibility to preach Christ's gospel. The ministry is characterized by preaching what God has revealed rather than personal thoughts or adjustments to please men. A true minister proclaims not himself but Christ Jesus the Lord, acknowledging the seriousness of the role and the need for clarity in delivering the gospel message, which ultimately brings glory to God and not to man.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to understand the concept of sovereignty in salvation?

Understanding sovereignty in salvation highlights God's control and purpose in saving His chosen people. Sovereignty is a fundamental aspect of Christian theology that reveals God's ultimate authority over all things, including the electing of individuals to salvation. As seen throughout Scripture, particularly in passages like Ephesians 1:4-5, God's choice to save is rooted in His divine will and purpose, underscoring His grace. A robust understanding of divine sovereignty encourages believers to trust fully in God's plan rather than human efforts or decisions, affirming that salvation is a gift from God and not a result of works.

Q: How do we know that the Apostle Paul's ministry was legitimate?

Paul's ministry is validated through his defense of the gospel and the fruits of his labor, as seen in his letters. Throughout 2 Corinthians, Paul repeatedly defends his apostleship against false teachers who questioned his authority. In 2 Corinthians 11, he declares, 'I am not one whit behind the very chiefest apostles,' indicating his confidence in his God-given role. Moreover, the authentic results of his ministry, changing lives and establishing churches, serve as evidence of God's hand upon his work. His humility in asserting his credentials while ultimately attributing his success to God's grace further corroborates the genuine nature of his ministry.

Q: What does it mean to preach not ourselves but Christ?

Preaching not ourselves means focusing on Christ's glory rather than seeking personal fame. In 2 Corinthians 4:5, Paul emphasizes, 'For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.' This underscores the centrality of Christ in preaching, urging ministers to avoid self-promotion or alteration of the gospel message for personal gain. Instead, they are to serve as instruments through which the clarity and power of the gospel are communicated. This focus on Christ ensures that the message is genuine and faithful to God's intention, allowing the Holy Spirit to work effectively in the hearts of the listeners.

Well, that was a good song service,
Brother Mike. I hope all of you will let our
musicians know that you appreciate them. I certainly do. I love music. I think it's a
vital part of worship, and I'm grateful for these who serve
in this fashion. 2 Corinthians 4. In 2 Corinthians 4, it begins this way, verse 1,
"...therefore seeing we have this ministry." Now,
Matthew Henry once wrote these words. Listen to this carefully. It goes against the nature of
a proud man to acknowledge his infirmities. It goes against the grain of
a proud man to confess his infirmities. Just so. It is against the nature of a humble man who knows God
and knows that he is what he is by the grace of God to defend
himself or to speak in his own praise. It's against the grain. He's
very careful and hesitant to defend himself or to speak in
his own praise. The Second Corinthians is an
unusual book, and several times the Apostle Paul, in this second
epistle to the Corinthians, several times, I'll show you in a moment,
was forced to defend himself. He was forced to speak in his
own praise and defend himself against the false preachers. You see, there were many of them.
There were many false preachers, more than true preachers. And
they constantly charged that Paul was not a true apostle,
and that Paul should not be heard, and over and over again. In this
epistle, he defends himself. He says, I'll give you a few
of them. In 2 Corinthians 11, you need
not turn, I'll just read it. 2 Corinthians 11.5. He said, I'm not one whit behind
the very cheapest apostle. In 2 Corinthians 11.22, he says,
Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham?
So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I'm more. Isn't that what he
said? I'm more. In 2 Corinthians 12.11, he said,
I've become a fool in boasting. but you compare me to do so." He says to the church, you ought
to have spoken in my defense, for in nothing am I behind the
chief apostle, though in myself I'm nothing. Doesn't this sound strange to
you, coming from the lips of the apostle Paul? I'm not one whip behind the chief
apostle. Are they ministers of Christ?
I am more. Isn't that strange language for
a man of his humility? A man who constantly said, I
am what I am by the grace of God. I obtain mercy. I am nothing. Who is Paul? Who is Cephas? Who is Apollos? Of course it does. It sounds
very strange. And he knew that it would. He
knew that it might be misinterpreted. And so four times, I'll let you
look at these verses, four times here in the epistle of 2 Corinthians,
he condemns this kind of talk as being foolish talk. That's
right. Four times he calls it foolishness. This defense of
his ministry, this reminding people, reminding people, reminding
people that he's set for the defense of the gospel. Speaking
in praise of himself, turn with me to 2 Corinthians 11. Now,
I want to show you where he, the Apostle Paul four times,
talks about this being foolish to have to do this. Foolish. In 2 Corinthians 11, 16, listen,
I say again, I say again, let no man think me a fool, but if
you do think me a fool, if otherwise, if you do think me a fool, Yet
as a fool, receive me, put up with me, suffer me, that I may
boost myself a little." See what he's saying? Don't think you're
a fool, but if you do, then just put up with me as a fool and
hear what I've got to say. I've got something to say. In
chapter 11, verse 21, go down there, I speak as concerning
reproach, as though we had been weak. How be it? For insoever any is bold. And
I speak foolishly. I'm bold, too. Is Peter bold? He said, I know this is foolish
to have to say this, but I'm bold, too. Is John bold? Is Jane
bold? I'm bold, too. I speak foolishly. Verse 23. Are they ministers
of Christ? Again, I speak as a fool. Man
ought not have to do this, man ought not have to say that. But
I am more. Are there ministers of Christ?
I am more, in labors more abundant than any of them, in stripes
above measure, in prison more frequent, in deaths often. I'll write one more, 2 Corinthians
12. As I said, four times, he contends,
he said, I have this ministry. God gave me this ministry, and
he was surrounded by men who denied the ministry, who preached
the opposite. They said, he's not an apostle,
he's not speaking the truth, he's not telling you the truth,
don't listen to him. Divisive men who creep in and
lead disciples after themselves, don't listen to him. Don't pay
attention to him. And he had to defend himself.
In 2nd Corinthians 12 verse 11, listen to it. I am become a fool
in glory, yet you've compelled me. You've compelled me. I ought to have been commended
of you. I ought to have been defended by you.' He said, You
ought to go forth speaking in my behalf and defending me on
my part, for in nothing am I behind the very cheapest apostle, though
I be This man, turn back to our text now, 2 Corinthians 4, this
man who writes here, who speaks here, was a true servant of Christ,
a true minister of God Almighty, a man sent to speak to the people
the message of God. And he had to defend himself.
But I say in every age and in every generation, The Lord God
has his true prophets. He never left himself without
a witness. And I know religion, religion
is on every hand. There are preachers everywhere,
churches are everywhere, voices are being heard. But in every
age and generation, God has his true prophets, his true preachers. He is true pastor and evangelist. And I say this. Now listen carefully
to me. There are things. God knows who they are. God Almighty
knows who speaks for Him. God knows who seeks His glory.
God knows who pushes His word. God knows them because He calls
them and He says them. The master said to the apostles,
as my father sent me, so send I you. God knows who they are. God knows who they are. Secondly, though they are humble men, and
though they claim to be nothing in themselves, they know who they are. I believe
that, Tom. I believe they know who they
are. That's what Paul said here, I'm
nothing, but I'm not one whip behind the chief apostle. I know
who I am. I know I am what I am by the
grace of God, but I know who I am. His gospel burns in their
souls. It's like David said, I determined
to keep silence, but I couldn't. And these men whom God knows,
and these men who know who they are, can say with Paul, I'm separated
to the gospel, I'm obsessed with the gospel. One of the men in this congregation
who has been attending here for a few months came right here
this morning. I was kneeling down here talking
to him. He loved the gospel, loved the
word of God. And he looked at me and he said,
sometime back when I heard the gospel, I heard the word of God
and joined another church, he said, I said to the pastor of
that church, I love the word of God. I love the word of God. And he said, the pastor replied,
you'll get over it. In other words, he says, what
you're feeling is the excitement of a new convert, but you'll
settle down. God, I hope not. I hope I never get over it. Isn't
that amazing? Can you imagine a man saying
something? You'll get over it. Paul said this, if I preach the
gospel I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon
me. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. They know who they are. And thirdly,
God's sheep know who they are. Several people said to me this
morning how much they appreciated the message I preached this morning. And as they said that to me,
my heart leaped, because I know only sheep can hear that kind
of message. When you talk about salvation
being a continuing process in the purpose of God, being a life
relationship with Christ, a living union, not an isolated decision
or coming to a doctrinal position. Only sheep will hear that. Only
sheep will hear that. So God's sheep know who they
are. It's by these true preachers that God's sheep hear and believe
the gospel. They know who they are. A sheep
can recognize clover. A sheep knows the difference
in briars and grass. It's like, did you hear Milton
Howard's illustration he gave a few days ago when he was preaching
here? He said it's a story, not in the scripture, but a story
told and handed down through the ages, that the Queen of Sheba,
who tested Solomon's wisdom said to him that she had some flowers. She had some flowers made by
a brilliant artist that looked real, and she had some real flowers. And she was going to hold them
out there and test Solomon to see if he knew the real flowers
from the fake flowers. She said, Which is which? He
said, Put them in the window. Put The fake flowers and the
real flowers in the window. Why? The bees will come to the
real flowers. And I'm saying this, a true preacher
preaching the gospel, the bees will come to the nectar. They will. Only goats eat paper. God's sheep recognize food when
they hear it. Another shepherd they will not
follow, another voice they will not hear. But they know, God
knows who they are, they know who they are, God's sheep know
who they are, and the demons know who they are. Let me show
you that. If you'll hold 2 Corinthians
4 and turn to Acts 19, the devil knows God's real pictures, The
devil knows God's true prophets. Barnard used to preach a sermon
on the man who was known in hell, the Apostle Paul. They knew about
him. In Acts 19, verse 14, And there were seven sons of
one Seba, a Jew, chief of the priests, which did so. They tried
to imitate the apostles. They tried to imitate God's ministers. They tried to imitate Paul and
these other men. They tried to do some things
that Paul was doing. And the evil spirit answered
and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know. Who are you fellows? You have God's true servants,
and not alone in heaven, they are known in hell. Isn't that
what he said? The evil spirit was trying to
make like a preacher, and the evil spirit said, I know Jesus
and I know Paul, but I don't know you, and littered on them
and whipped them and sent them out naked. Oh, what a responsibility! Turn
back to 2 Corinthians, chapter 2. Doesn't that have a tendency
to lift a man up in pride? Oh, quite the contrary. It will
a false preacher, because he thrives on popularity, but not
God's preacher. Because in 2 Corinthians, chapter
2, the Apostle Paul says this, verse 16, to the one where fragrance
or aroma of death unto death, and to the other the aroma, savor,
the fragrance of life unto life. Who's sufficient for these things? Who in the world, in human flesh,
is sufficient for this responsibility? Certainly not I, and Paul didn't
feel that he was. But he says down here in verse
5 of chapter 3, we're still in 2 Corinthians, he's dealing with
this ministry business. In verse 5 of chapter 3, he said,
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God. Oh, that's a different story.
Almighty God can use a man. any man that he chooses. So go
to chapter 4, and he says, we have this ministry. Well, is
our ministry his ministry? The apostle Paul has defended
himself, he said, God knows me, I know who I am, the sheep know
who I am, people in hell know who I am, What is this ministry
that we have? What is this ministry? Some of
you men were talking in the study a while ago, we have a ministry
here. Well, what is this ministry?
Well, let's see what it is. Verse 1, chapter 4, let's go
through this for a few moments. Therefore, see, we have this
ministry, this office, this service. I looked up that word ministry,
it's service. They who minister serve. They
have a service, they have an office of responsibility. They
say, what is this ministry? Well, let's turn back a few pages. First of all, in 2 Corinthians
2, it is to preach Christ. That's our ministry. We have
this ministry. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 12, Paul
says this, Furthermore, when I came to Troas, to do what? To preach Christ's gospel. That's
our ministry, to preach Christ's gospel. In Romans 1, you needn't turn
there, but he defined his ministry. He said, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, separated to the gospel of God, concerning
himself, Jesus Christ our Lord. That's my ministry, the gospel
of Christ, to preach the gospel. Then in 2 Corinthians 2.14, he
says something else about this ministry. It's a successful ministry
in 2 Corinthians 2.14. Now, thanks be unto God, which
always causes us to triumph in Christ, always. And he maketh manifest the aroma
of his knowledge by us in every place. In other words, God's
true preacher. If he's preaching Christ and
preaching the gospel, and if he's God's true preacher, he
will, it never returns void. God said it will accomplish that
where and through our sin. He says, thanks be unto God,
we always triumph. Now, he says in verse 15, we
are unto God a sweet Savior of Christ in them that are saved,
but we've got to minister to them who perish. Because the
one who is the savior of death and the death to the other life
and the life, but it's a successful ministry. I barely believe, and that's
what makes the responsibility so great. When a man is sent
of God to deliver a message, his message, he doesn't fail. There may not be a person that
believes it, but he's done what God sent him to do, added to
their condemnation. There may be some who do hear
it, but he's accomplished what God sent him to do, bring them
to Christ. If he's God's minister, that
just has to be. And then the same chapter, chapter
2, 2 Corinthians, he says it's a sincere minister, verse 17.
We're not as many, verse 17, 2 Corinthians 2, we're not as
many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity. But as a God, in the sight of
God speak we of Christ, we are sincere. He said, my ministry
is to preach the gospel. And he said, I never fail when
I preach the gospel. And he said it's sincere. Now
in chapter 3 he says, it's a ministry to the heart. Verse 1, do we
begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, as some others, letters
of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Do
I need brochures? Do I need somebody to write a
letter for me? Do I need a recommendation from
men? No! You are our epistle written
in our hearts. It's a heart ministry, known
and read of all men. forasmuch as ye are manifestly
declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written
not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables
of stone, but in first the tables of the heart." This is a heart
ministry. From the heart of God, who loved
and gave his Son to the heart of his people. It's a heart ministry. We're not preaching the man's
mind. We don't bypass the mind. A man can't believe what he doesn't
understand, that's for sure. But it's not a callous, systematic,
theological, intellectual learning of some truth. It's the application
of a person who is the truth to the heart. It's a heart ministry.
The man's not regenerated in his heart and believes with his
heart. dead and plucked up by the roots.
And then in verse 6 of 2 Corinthians 3, he says it's the minister
of the gospel, not the law, not rules and regulations. Verse
6, he says, God hath made us able ministers of a new covenant,
of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. The letter killeth. Intellectualism
and rules and regulations and laws, they kill, they destroy,
they dry us up. But the Spirit of God preaching
the new covenant in Christ giveth life to the heart. That's our
ministry. Isn't that a good summary of
the ministry? We have this ministry. It's to
preach Christ. It's successful. We do not fail. It doesn't accomplish always
what we want it to, but it will accomplish what he wants it to.
And it's sincere, it's not his. And it's to the heart, and it's
a ministry not of the law, but of the new covenant of grace.
Now, back to 2 Corinthians 4. We have this ministry, and oh,
may it be so of this congregation and this pastor. Verse 2, we
have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. How did the Lord describe the
false prophets? How did he describe them? In
Matthew he says they are wolves in sheep's clothing. That's the
false minister, wolves in sheep's clothing. In other words, he's
saying they appear to be what they're not. They appear to be what they're
not, but God's preacher is what he is. He's open and a bad boy. And it says in the next line,
not walking in craftiness. He doesn't try to be clever.
Solomon says there's nothing original left. There's nothing
new under the sun. Preach what you read. Preach
what God's taught you. Push what you've heard other
preachers preach. Don't try to be original. The
only thing original about us is original sin. That's us. That's ours. That comes from
us. We don't have to imitate anybody. But just preach. Don't
try to be clever. He said we're not walking in
craftiness and cleverness and subtlety. Verse 2, read on. And we don't handle the word
of God deceitfully by adjusting our message to fit certain people. I really be honest with you,
when I prepare a message, I don't have any single one of you in
mind. None of you. I'm sorry, but that's
just so. Somebody said, well, he sure
hit me tonight. I didn't mean to. I wouldn't dare prepare a
message with someone in mind. Never, never, never, never, never.
That wouldn't be God's message. Oh, I have someone in mind. Me.
Me. I tell you this, if it'll fit
me and feed me and suit me, you'll come in somewhere. That's right. I don't prepare a message with
anybody in mind. God's not in that. We don't adjust
our message or fashion our message to fit anybody. I found that
a long time ago. You can pick out somebody and
preach to them, God say, somebody over here. He won't do a thing
for that guy. You argue with him, and preach
to him, and work with him, and visit him, and do all these things,
go win him to the Lord, God will pass him by, and you'll call
somebody sitting right here that you never even thought about.
So you can just forget that. Don't handle the word of God
deceitfully. And he said, but by manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. We preach the gospel of Christ
boldly and plainly to all men. And the gospel is left to the
Holy Spirit to apply it to whom he will. Paul, he said in the
next verse, our gospel is heard to some. Some are not going to
hear it. They're not going to hear it
because they don't have ears. They're not going to see it because they
don't have eyes. They're not going to receive it because they
don't have a heart to receive it. Why? They're lost. You stand
and call, and hey, turn to the Lord! They don't hear you. Oh, look at Christ lifted up
for sins on the cross. They don't see. Mike's singing, Oh, what love.
That means something to us, doesn't it? But not to them. They're
lost. They're lost. Verse 3 says, The
God of this world Satan hath blinded their minds. How does
he blind men? Well, they're blind by nature.
They're blind by birth. But they're two-fold blinded
because he blinds them with the things of this world. John, he
blinds them with materialism. He blinds them with false religion.
He blinds them with a false refuge. He blinds them with a false faith.
He uses all these methods. He's a subtle, crafty demon,
and he blinds men. Lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, whose image of God should shine unto them,
he blinds them. Now watch this. Here's the third
thing about our ministry. Oh, we need to look at this hard. We preach not ourselves. We preach not ourselves. I need to read this all the time. Every preacher needs to read
it. I need to speak to every preacher, even God's preachers. We preach not ourselves. When
can it be said that a man is preaching himself? This applies to me and you fellows
who preach. When can it be said a man preaches
himself? Well, I jotted down five things. A man is preaching himself when
he preaches what he thinks instead of what God says. Isn't that
correct? If he preaches what he thinks
rather than what God says, he is preaching himself. Secondly,
a man preaches himself when he takes away the offense of the
gospel. out of fear or to please me. Yeah, he is. If he thinks in his mind or heart,
now, this is not going to set well. They're not going to receive
this. This is going to cause trouble.
I sat down with a young preacher in Madisonville, Kentucky back
several years ago, a pastor in Indiana. And he had a fairly
good-sized church. He came down to hear me. I was
holding, preaching a meeting in Madisonville with Maurice
Montgomery. And he came to hear me. And that
night, he said, I'm spending the night. I'd like to talk to
you in the morning about coming up and preaching for us. I said,
all right. So the next morning at breakfast, we had breakfast,
and then we talked. He said, now, would you come
up to our church and preach? I said, yes, sir. I'd be glad
to. But I said, let me ask you a
question. How many men do you have in that congregation? Oh,
he said about 45 or 50. 45 or 50 men. That's a pretty good crowd of
men. I said, how many of those men believe the gospel of God's
grace? That God's sovereign, that man's
lost, that God elected a people, Christ died for them. The gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace. I remember it like yesterday,
he looked at me and said, I said, not any. I said, now,
I'm going to tell you, son, I'll come, but I'm going to tell you
this, we're going to have a fight. And I said, I'm not trimming
the message, I'm going to preach it, and I'm going to tell you
this right now, that church is going to split. If you don't
have one single man in that church that believes the gospel of God's
grace, when I get up to preach after I've been there a few days,
they're going to split. And I say, I want you to know,
are you prepared to go out and get a job? Are you prepared to
go and try to start a work with four or five families? Are you
prepared for your wife to go to work? Are you prepared to
face this battle? Because I know it's happened
too many times. He never did invite me. But this is just the way it is. God's preacher. We preach not
ourselves. We don't take the offense away
from the cross to please anybody. That's preaching myself. Thirdly,
when does a man preach himself? When he becomes interested in
a success in his success rather than the glory of God. I have a friend that has a large
building, very large, exceedingly large. He wants to fill it. And a very faithful pastor told
me he wants to fill it so badly that he's trimmed his message. Well, that's preaching yourself.
You see, honestly, and I say this to every preacher who is
here, my business is to fill this pulpit. It's your business
to fill these seats. Any time we adjust our message in order to fill seats, then
we're preaching ourselves. All right. Fourthly, when does
a man preach himself? When he preaches salvation by
any means other than the righteousness and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. My righteousness is his. My redemption
is through his blood. Literally, actually, totally,
in our hands, no price we bring. We are redeemed by the blood
of Christ, plus nothing, minus nothing. Spurgeon said one time,
I don't mind being called an antinomian, but I certainly don't
want to be one. And I tell you this, if you preach
the gospel of God's grace plainly enough and clearly enough, somebody's
going to call you an antinomian. What is an antinomian without
law? And they called all that, they
said, shall we sin that grace may abound in the junk? They
say, well, if my unrighteousness commends the grace of God, then
let us do good, let us do evil that good may come. That's what
they do from Paul's message. It's true whether men abuse it
or not, that salvation is by pure grace, by the death of Christ. Nothing I do brings me to God,
and nothing I do will take me away from God. Does that do?
Huh? It's so. It's so, nothing I ever
did brought me to God, Christ brought me to God, and nothing,
I can do nothing if I belong to him that'll take me away from
God. That's the reason David murdered
a man, but he still was a man after God's own heart. That's
the reason the apostle Peter sat by the fire and cursed and
swore out of fear that he didn't know God. But God never left
him. I tried, and somebody said, I
couldn't buy that. No, you can. It's a gift. That's just something folks don't
understand unless they understand. Isn't that right? Nothing will
take me from God. Fifthly, when we preach ourselves,
when we seek to build a following, now this is a subtle You know
how they said over there in first Corinthians, they said, well,
I am of Paul. He's my favorite preacher. That's
diabolical. Well, I am of Cephas. I am of
so-and-so. And a lot of times that's the
preacher's fault. That's the preacher's fault.
I told our preachers in the school again, I said, if you are a pastor
of a church and people start coming to hear you, Don't go
have coffee with them and camp on their doorstep and court them
and try to win their favor and show your personality and do
all these things. They'll fall in love with you
and not Christ. You ignore them and preach the
gospel to them. And if they fall in love with
Christ, they'll love you. That's exactly right. But you
go to the average church and sit down and try to listen to
a preacher, a deacon will hand you a card, another will hand
you a bulletin, another will hand you something to fill out,
and the next morning the preacher will be at the house visiting
you, wanting you to join up. And depending on his personality
and the one in competition against him, you'll join whichever one
appeals to you the most. And that's preaching ourselves.
We seek a following for ourselves rather than having people fall
in love with Christ. I guarantee you this, if a man
or woman loves this Word, he'll love the one that preaches it.
If he loves Christ, he'll love Christ certainly. He may be bald-headed
like Apostle Paul, he may be of a Not a very pretty countenance. Paul said something about that,
didn't he? I'm small as a statue, I'm this, that and the other,
but you would give your life for me, he said. You'd pluck
out your eyes for me. Why? Because you heard the gospel
from my mouth. And I don't know how to handle
this, I just don't know how to go about it, but I do know this
is not a social gospel and when we court people and woo people
and win people and and try to socialize and try to get people
interested in us and our little organization. I want fellowship. I love fellowship. I want you
to have fellowship. But I want the people who come
here to fall in love with Jesus Christ. And when they do, you
couldn't run them away. Isn't that right? Love Him. Now that's preaching
ourselves. We don't preach ourselves. But
what do we preach? Whom do we preach? But we preach,
listen, we don't preach ourselves, verse 5, we preach Christ Jesus
the Lord. Boy, there's four powerful words
in it. Christ, anointed, redeemer, mediator, Christ Jesus, thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sin. One old writer said, till God in human flesh I see,
my thoughts no comfort find. Jesus. Oh, how sweet the name. Jesus. Every day the same. Jesus. Christ Jesus, the Lord. I think you'll note something
about the preachers here, and the preachers who've gone out
from here, and preachers who are God's preachers.
They call him Lord. Arthur Pink wrote a whole track
on this one time. He is Jesus Christ, your Lord. The disciples never called him
Jesus. When they spoke to him or of him, they called him the
Lord. Isn't that right? You hear preachers
everywhere, and you listen to the message, and all they say
is, Jesus said this, and Jesus said that, and Jesus went here,
and Jesus went there. In the four Gospels they write
about Jesus, but they're identifying one in the flesh. And when the
Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus saw the light and heard the voice,
he said, who are you? What did he answer? The Lord
Jesus Christ answered what he had to answer for Saul of Tarsus
to know who he is. If he'd have said, I'm God, well,
he'd have said, I know Jesus wasn't God. If he had said, I
am the Lord, he said, well, he always believed in the Lord,
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But that boy said, I'm
Jesus, whom you persecuted. Oh, I know who he is. From then
on, he called him Lord. Did he not? No man can call him
Lord but by the Holy Ghost. And I tell you, out of a man's
mouth, you learn a whole lot about the condition of his heart.
And when people speak disrespectfully of my Lord, I figure that's the
way they regard him. Disrespectfully. But we preach
whom? Christ Jesus, the Lord. The sovereign, almighty, omnipotent,
eternal, victorious Lord. God hath made this same Jesus
whom you crucified to be what? Lord. that every knee shall bow
and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord. Brother Man,
are you splitting hairs? Don't think so. I don't think
so. You call me Lord, he said, and
you say, well, so I am. All right, I'll close with this.
And we preach, we don't preach ourselves, we preach Christ Jesus
the Lord and ourselves, your servants, for Christ's sake. I serve your servants. Whose
servants? Everybody who wants to get married?
No, sir. Everybody who wants to get married?
No, sir. Everybody who wants to play church?
No, sir. Everybody who wants to speak
at their club? No, sir. Your servants. If you love Christ, I'm your
servant, for his sake. You see, we're the servants of
God, and being the servants of God, we're the servants of his
body, not of this world. We're not the servants. We're
not men-pleasers. We don't have a social gospel.
There are plenty of reasons why we preach not ourselves, but
here's the main reason, verse 6. For God, who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light and the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Christ Jesus. But never forget this. We have
this treasure, these riches. Oh, my. I like the way Tom put
it in his prayer, when he's reading, a clay pot. Don't ever forget it. You who
preach, and you who teach, and you who witness, and you who
support this preacher, we have this treasure, these riches,
this gospel in a clay pot. And you know why? That the excellency
of the power may be of God. Let no man take any credit or
glory for anything that's there. If God takes this message, God
takes your prayer and your reading, This message, your song, your
song, anything that says, if God is pleased to use it for
his glory, it'll be in spite of us, not because of us. That's
just that fact. It'll be in spite of us, because
he's chosen to do it that way that he might get all the glory.
We have this ministry. All right, Mike, come lead us
in a hymn, if you would. Oh.

We Have This Ministry

What does the Bible say about the ministry of preaching?

Why is it important for Christians to understand the concept of sovereignty in salvation?

How do we know that the Apostle Paul's ministry was legitimate?

What does it mean to preach not ourselves but Christ?

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We Have This Ministry

What does the Bible say about the ministry of preaching?

Why is it important for Christians to understand the concept of sovereignty in salvation?

How do we know that the Apostle Paul's ministry was legitimate?

What does it mean to preach not ourselves but Christ?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

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