in our Bibles to the book of
2 Corinthians, chapter 4. Now, I suppose I'm going to do
more thinking out loud tonight than anything else. I hope to
do some teaching. You know, when Paul wrote in
Ephesians about our Lord ascending back to glory and He gave gifts
to men, And he gave some prophets and some apostles and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers. I've always felt that he who
is a pastor is a teacher. And if a man is not a teacher,
then he's not a very good pastor. And so when we're preaching,
I believe we're teaching. And if we're doing some teaching
and the Spirit of God is revealing the Word, then we're certainly
preaching. And as the pastor of this church,
and as a fellow minister of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
with other men, I'm just one preacher among many. But I spend
a lot of time, a great deal of time, more than you can imagine,
thinking about our ministry. I don't say my ministry. but
our ministry. I spend a lot of time thinking
about our ministry today. I listen to other preachers,
not to criticize them. I do feel like we ought to speak
against error and call false prophets by name. But I listen
to other preachers to see what they're saying. I read their
writing. I examine their criticisms and
I carefully scrutinize their works and their proof. And as
I say, I do not do that just to be critical and I do not set
myself up as a judge of other men's ministries. But I want
to hear what they're saying that I might examine my own. that
I might examine our ministry, our methods, what we're doing
and what we're saying. But when all is said and done,
when everything is said and done, I am determined, I am determined
to follow the Word of God as God reveals it to me and to us. We must not be influenced by
what others are doing. It just seems like this is a
mark of religion today. If one person does it, the rest
of them do it. If one person gets engaged in
some kind of program, everybody gets engaged in that program.
It seems to be like just a herd of sheep following one another.
Well, we must not be influenced by what others are doing or by
what others are saying. And we certainly must not be
influenced by the majority. I hear people say, well, that
many people can't be wrong. You ever heard that? That many
people can't be wrong. Well, that many people were wrong
at Calvary, and that many people were wrong
in Sodom, and that many people were wrong in Noah's day, and
that many people were wrong at the Tower of Babel. And that many people were wrong
at Smithfield when they burned the martyrs. In fact, I find
most of the time the majority, as far as spiritual things are
concerned, is usually in the wrong. You know that? The majority
is usually wrong. Because there's a way that seemeth
right unto men, and the end is death. Our ministry is not ours,
but His. And therefore we must minister
the word of God as God leads us. And we must minister the word
of God according to the patterns which he has set forth in his
word. Now here in 2 Corinthians, we
just recently finished studying 2 Corinthians, our Sunday school
Bible classes a few months ago. And in the book of 2 Corinthians,
Paul defends his ministry. That's what the book of 2 Corinthians
mainly is about. Paul defending his ministry against
false preachers and false apostles and false teachers. And in defending
his ministry, I believe he sets a pattern for our ministry. And
he says here in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 1, Now, Brother Barnard used to
say, when you see a therefore in the Bible, therefore, your
first assignment is to see what it's there for. Because there's been some things
said before and probably some things to be said later in regard
to that therefore. Therefore. So six things now
I'm going to give you about our ministry. These are things that
I've looked into and thought a lot about, and I set them forth
as a defense. Paul defended his ministry, and
I set these things forth before you and before any who happen
to hear this message as a defense of our ministry, the way we do
things and the message which we preach. Now, first of all,
we go back to 2 Corinthians 2, the second chapter, verse 12.
And Paul says this, our ministry, our ministry is to preach the
gospel of Christ. Now, I want our people to be
compassionate to the poor. And let's feed the poor and clothe
the poor and help the poor. Every time I hear of one of you
giving clothes to someone who's naked, or food to someone who
is hungry, or caring for someone who is unfortunate, it makes
me happy. It thrills my heart. I want our
church to be in the business of helping widows and orphans
and hungry people and unfortunate people, and we have been and
we are. We have a ministry in this area. But our ministry is to preach
the gospel. These other things are just They're
just part of our living. They're part of our compassion.
They're part of our affection. They're part of the fruit of
the gospel. God has made us love others,
therefore we act like we love others. But our ministry is to
preach the gospel. He said in 2 Corinthians 2, verse
12, Furthermore, when I came to Troas, I didn't come down there to to
straighten out the town government. I didn't come down there to boat
the city dry. I didn't come down there to close
the abortion clinics. That's not why I came to Troas.
I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel. I love that, Bill. It's
the simple way he said that. When I came to Troas to preach
Christ's gospel. That's why I came back. That's
why God opened that door. He said, and a door was opened
to me of the Lord. Now you know that Paul loved
baptism. The Apostle Paul believed in
baptism. And yet Paul said, Christ didn't
send me to baptize. He sent me to preach the gospel.
I may baptize people. And I believe people will say,
it ought to be baptized. But that's not why I came. I
didn't come to organize or to promote or to entertain. I came
to preach the gospel. And he said to the people at
Corinth, I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus
Christ and him crucified. Let not our minds be corrupted
by the subtlety of Satan from the simplicity of Christ. I wish
I had every minister in the whole world for a congregation tonight. Not that I feel qualified to
speak to every minister of the world, but I believe that if
I had one message to deliver to every preacher in the world,
I would say, preach Christ. Preach Christ. Preach Christ
every time you preach. And preach everything else in
relation to Christ. You see, Christ's gospel is the
gospel of God. Turn with me to Romans chapter
1. Every time I read this scripture, I think of dear brother Ralph
Barnard. Because years and years ago, 35 years ago, when he read
this scripture and expounded it, he helped me to understand
something about the gospel that I'd never fully understood before.
In Romans chapter 1, Paul says this in verse 1. Paul, a servant, a bond-slave
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the
gospel of God. This gospel is the gospel of
God. There's but one gospel, and it's
God's gospel. It's not a Catholic gospel or
a Baptist gospel or a Calvinistic gospel. It's God's gospel. It's
just that simple. It's the gospel of God. And it's
no new gospel, it's no late gospel, it's the gospel, verse 2, which
he promised to forward by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.
It's the gospel Moses wrote. It's the gospel Abraham believed.
It's the gospel Abel pictured at the altar. It's the gospel
Noah preached. It's the gospel Isaiah declared.
It's no new gospel. God never saved anybody but one
way, and that's by Christ. In different dispensations he's
revealed Christ to a greater degree than maybe some other
dispensation, but it's always been Christ. Abraham saw my day
and rejoiced, he said. And this gospel, verse 3, of
God is concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. That's what
the gospel is all about. The gospel is not God will if
you will. The gospel is not a recipe. The
gospel is not a plan. The gospel is not a proposition.
The gospel is not an invitation. The gospel is concerning a person
and his divine work from eternity to eternity. That's what the
gospel is. The gospel is a proclamation
that a holy, righteous, and just God, through the merits and through
the mercy, And through the sacrifice of his beloved Son and the mediatorial
work of his Son can now be just and the justifier of ungodly
people like you and me. That's the gospel. And I'm afraid
a lot of people preach about the gospel and talk about the
gospel who never really preach the gospel. Because in order
to preach the gospel, you've got to preach Christ. This gospel
of God is concerning his Son. His son Jesus, that's his humanity. Christ, that's his office. Our
Lord, that's the King. And he was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh. He came through the right house
and lineage. He's made of the seed of Abraham and of the seed
of woman according to the flesh. But he wasn't made the Son of
God, he was declared to be the Son of God. He's always been
the Son of God. He hasn't always been the son
of David in the flesh, but he's always been the son of God. He
was made in the flesh the seed of David, but he was declared,
manifested to be the son of God with power. Now let me tell you
something. And I've never understood how
anybody ever ran out of anything to preach. I know it's difficult
to decide what text to use. I know sometimes it's difficult
to make up our mind which book we're going to use. I know sometimes
it's difficult to make up our mind which direction we're going
to take in a message, but our subject is no question mark.
It's Jesus Christ. And if it's not, we're not in
the ministry. Christ is our message. I don't
care if we're preaching holiness or if we're preaching heaven.
I don't care if we're preaching repentance or we're preaching
Something else, it's Christ! Everything's in Him. Everything's
in Him. I like to go back to 2 Corinthians
2 again. Now, Paul said, I came to Troas
to preach Christ's gospel. That's why I came. I didn't come
down there to straighten everybody out. I didn't come down there
to make Calvinists out of everybody. I didn't come down there to do
this. I came to preach Christ's gospel. That's why I came to
preach. And I'll tell you this, as your
apostate, going out in meetings and Bible conferences, I preach
just what I preach at home, Christ. I don't know anything else to
preach. There isn't anything else to preach. There's not anything
worth preaching but Christ. Then in verse 14, the second
thing about our ministry is this, is our ministry is a successful
ministry if we preach Christ. In Christ, I guarantee you, it's
always successful. Christ never fails, and His ambassadors
never fail. Christ never fails, His word
never returns void, and those who preach it never fail. Listen
to this, Now thanks be unto God, which always, always, always,
in all ways, causes us to triumph in Christ. I'm telling you this,
if God opened the door, And if we go through that door and preach
Christ's gospel, we cannot fail. His divine purpose will be fulfilled. Now listen to me. His divine
purpose will be fulfilled. It may be in revival, it may
be in rites. It may be in salvation, it may
be in condemnation. It may be to reveal the light
and deliver a people. And it may be to shut men up
to God's wrath, but His Word will not return void." Didn't
he say that in Isaiah 55? You don't need to turn to it,
you know it by memory. He said, My Word shall not return
unto me void. It shall accomplish that whereunto
I have sent it, and that which pleaseth me. But I would have
you turn to Acts 28. Now let me say something here
that I think is so vital. Whether men believe us or whether
men do not believe us, our gospel is not altered. I think this
is one of the weaknesses of preachers. I think preachers have a way,
if they meet with opposition, to adjust to it. I think preachers
have a way, if they meet with a frown, if they meet with resistance
and rejection, they are tempted to whittle the edge off just
a little bit. to take the sharpness and maybe
remove the offense. But Paul didn't. It says in Acts
28, listen to this, verse 23, When they had appointed him a
day, there came many to him and to his lodging, to whom he expounded
and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning
Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets
from morning till evening. And some believed the things
which were spoken, and some didn't believe. But I'm telling you this, we
don't change our message regardless of the response. If some believe,
we rejoice. If some do not believe, we rejoice
in God's judgments. Now Romans 3 verse 3, listen
to this. Romans 3 verse 3. How can the message be changed
or affected in any way by man's response? I like what Brother
Mount said one time. He talked about that school in
Mississippi where they had the sign out front, God said it,
I believe it, and that settles it. And he said that's not what
they should say. It's God said it and that settles
it whether I believe it or not. My response to the message doesn't
alter the message. Paul went places where he was
well-received and he rejoiced, but he went places where he wasn't
well-received and he still rejoiced in the Lord. For he said, Rejoice
in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice. Look
at Romans 3, 3. But what if some did not believe?
Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
What's that got to do with it? What's that got to do with the
faithfulness of God? What's that got to do with the
purpose of God? Our gospel does not depend upon men receiving
it. But men receiving life depends on our gospel. Now you think
about that a minute. Our gospel does not depend upon
men receiving it. But we must not compromise that
gospel, for men receiving life depends on that gospel, and they
can't be saved believing a lie. And I don't think they can be
saved believing a watered-down gospel. Who's sufficient for such a task?
Look here at 2 Corinthians 2 again. That's Paul's response. Oh, he
said in verse 16, who's sufficient for these things? Who's sufficient
for these things? Look at verse 14. Verse 15, he
says we are under God a sweet savor of Christ, sweet fragrance
of Christ. When we preach Christ's gospel
and when God sends us through the door, we never fail because
our gospel is a sweet fragrance of life unto life, but it's also
a fragrance of death unto death. Now let me tell you something
here. Who's sufficient for that? Well, he said in 2 Corinthians
3, 5, we're not. He said, verse 5, not that we
are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as we ought. I'm
not even sufficient to think anything, let alone to say anything. But our sufficiency is of God.
And down here in verse 7 of 2 Corinthians 4, look at this. But we have
this treasure in an earthen vessel, weak, frail vessel. that the
excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. Now I'm
going to make a statement here and I want you to listen to it. Our gospel that we preach carries
with it a deep, sincere desire for the salvation of sinners.
I want to see people saved. And it drives us to faithfully
preach the gospel to pray for sinners and to witness. I know
you witness. You witness privately. You witness
to your friends. You witness to those with whom
you work. You give out tapes. You give out bulletins. You write
letters. I know all of you here witness
because you love Christ. We don't need to organize a soul
winning campaign. We don't need to to take our
people out and police them in witnessing campaigns. Our folks
witness as they are led of the Holy Spirit to witness, and that's
the best witnessing in the world. Why do we do that? Why do we
preach? Why do we stay on television? Why do we send missionaries?
Why do we preach here Sunday after Sunday, week after week?
Because we desire to see people saved. Paul said, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. I want to see people in this congregation come to know
Christ in a living, saving, real, experiential way. But I'm telling
you this, my confidence in God's sovereignty and purpose also
causes me to rest and to rejoice in God, even when men are not
saved. Is that too hard? But that's
the way it is. If we go along here for five
years and God never saves another soul, I'm going to preach this
gospel and rejoice in His mercy. I'm not going to trim it. If
His gospel is right for good times, it's right for bad times.
If it's right in season, it's right out of season. If it's
right when Israel is in the promised land, it was right when they
were in Egypt. And I'll rejoice if God saves men, but I'm not
abandoning ship if he doesn't. Old Noah preached 120 years and
never saw a convert. Judson preached in Burma 7 years
and never saw a convert. What do we do? Change our message? Well, if the gospel won't save
them, what will? If Christ can't save them, who
can? If the good news of grace will
not reach a man's heart, what will? Oh no, we have a successful
ministry because the gospel never fails. Thirdly, turn to 2 Corinthians
2 now, verse 17. Now this is getting down where
it is now. Listen to me carefully. I thought
this out very carefully. 2 Corinthians 2, 17. Our ministry is one of sincerity
and truth. Truth and sincerity. Paul said
we're not as many. Verse 17, 2 Corinthians. We're
not as many. And brother, if there were many
then, think how many now. This is just a few years after
the Lord ascended. This is in the white hot days
of the early evangelism. This is when the apostles were
still raising the dead, speaking in other languages and healing
the sick and giving sight to the blind. This was in the early
first 30 or 40 years of the New Testament church. And he says,
we're not as many who corrupt the Word of God. who deal deceitfully with the
Word of God. And I'll tell you today, there
are many, many more. And I'll just be honest with
you, we're not as those who use carnal methods and trickery and deceit and carnal ways to
gain converts and support. I listen to men and I watch them.
Now to me, the thing to do when you're preaching, read the Word
of God, call upon the Spirit of God to anoint it and bless
it, and then tell men what the Word says. Tell them what the
Word says about God. Tell them what the Word says
about sin. Tell them what the Word says about our inability.
Tell them what the Word says about Christ. Tell them what
the Word says about an effectual atonement. Tell them what the
word of God says about him who died, was buried and rose again,
intercedes at the right hand of God. Tell them what the gospel
says. Tell them what believing the
gospel can bring. And then leave them alone. Leave
them with God. Why all this when we get through
preaching? Have the organist start softly
filling the air with music. And every head bowed. And every
eye closed. No one looking around. Now, someone
here tonight wants this out of the other. Will you raise your
hand? God bless you. I see that hand. Now then, keep
your head bowed and your eyes... This is trickery. This is subtlety. This is deceit. This is trying
to get... We're not auctioneers. We're
not salesmen. We're not trying to get somebody
to do something under persuasion and hypnosis and psychology. Our Lord said, sit down and count
the cost. When you hear the gospel, who
God is, sit down and think about it. When you hear the gospel,
who you are, sit down and think about it. Sit down and count
the cost. If a man saves his life, he's
going to lose it. If he loses it for my sake, he's
going to say, think about that. This is not a persuasive thing.
This is an intelligent, willing decision that's made in a heart. But no, we bow our heads. Now
everyone that raised your hand, if you meant business, and you
want us to want to be saved, raise your other hand. And what
these evangelists will tell you, and I read a book one time, 64
ways to give a gospel invitation, 64 ways to get people down front. 64 different methods of trickery
and subtlety. craftsmanship and deceit to get
somebody to do something. The Holy Spirit doesn't need
our hypnosis and psychology and persuasive ways. If the Holy
Spirit's going to bring a man to Christ, He'll bring him to
Christ if he's in a stable, if he's in a steel mill. If he's
in a bedroom, or an automobile, or church service, or wherever,
it's the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing.
These are methods of trickery. They're deceit. You watch them.
Here they come. And do you know actually what
these evangelists do? When you see the first crowd
start down the aisle with Bibles, do you know who they are? That's
a convoy. That's exactly before the service
ever starts. We had this right over here at
Pollard, didn't we, Ruth? She did it. She was one of them,
I think. An evangelist came over there and he picked five or six
people. He said, when I start the invitation,
you come down to the front. Why do you want to do that? It
gets people started. Monkey see, monkey do. We did
that at Pollard Baptist Church. And Billy Graham does it. And
Jimmy Swigert, you watch them, you watch the first ones down
the aisle. They're people who have already been designated
to start the flow. We are not as those who corrupt
the Word of God. My friends, we laugh about it,
but we ought to cry about it. It's sad. It's tragic. It's horrible. It's a perversion. It's a perversion. We use carnal
ways to get converts and support. Look at that 17th verse again.
He said, we're not doing that. He said, we're not as those who
corrupt the Word of God, but ours is a ministry of sincerity.
You see that? Sincerity. Sincerity as of God. Look at 2 Corinthians 4, 2. We
have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. 2 Corinthians 4, to not walking
in craftiness and handling the word of God deceitfully, but
by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. And I'll tell you, this
thing has such a grip upon churches and preachers today, that if
you go somewhere and preach, and close the service, and tell
people to dismiss, they stand there stoned. You're not going
to invite sinners to come to Jesus. Yes, if we preach the gospel,
all sinners have been commanded to come to Christ. But we've
made coming down here synonymous with coming to Christ. And this
is not coming to Christ. Christ is not in a place. Christ
is not in the front of the church. Our Lord is everywhere, and coming
to Christ is not a physical move anyway. Nicodemus came to Christ,
but he didn't come to Christ. The rich young ruler came to
Christ, but he didn't come to Christ either. Men who come to Christ come in
heart. We're ambassadors of God and
we speak of Christ. Here's the truth. Here's the
gospel. Here's the message of redemption.
Here's God's way of saving sinners. Now what do we do? I'll tell you what we do. We
leave those sinners with God, and we go off alone and pray
that God may be pleased to take that Word and make it effectual.
But now, if you want to give an invitation, let's go back
and give the one Moses gave. Turn to Exodus. Here's one. If we want an altar, Moses gave
an altar call over here in Exodus 32. Let's see what it was. We
want to resort to this one. This is a dandy. I want you to
listen to Exodus 32, verse 26. This is after they'd made that
calf, you know, and danced naked around it. Moses came in the
camp and he gave an altar call. Then Moses stood in the gate
of the camp and he said, Who's on the Lord's side? Let him come
to me. All the sons of Levi gathered
themselves together with him. And he said unto them, Thus saith
the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and
go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay
every man his brother, every man his companion, every man
his neighbor. And the children of Levi did
according to the word of the Lord, and there fell of the people
that day three thousand men." That's a good altar call. Everybody's
on the Lord's side, come down here. Now put your swords on
and kill all the rest of them. We don't want to bring it down
to that now. God may bring it down to that in a man's life,
I don't know. There will come a time when God will deal with
judgment, when their foot will slide, but right now let's just
preach the gospel. In the fourth place, our ministry,
2 Corinthians 3, is to the heart. Look at 2 Corinthians 3, 1. Do
we begin again to commend ourselves? Do we have to sell ourselves?
We have preachers here tonight, men who preach, pastor. I try
to preach, men here who teach the Word. Fellas, do we have
to promote ourselves? Do we have to sell ourselves?
Do we have to send out brochures like an actor? Like an athlete? Like a coach to get hired somewhere?
Do we have to open our own doors? We're in the preaching business,
we're not in the door opening business. We're not in a self-promotion
business. Paul says, do I need credentials?
Look at verse 1 again, 2 Corinthians 3. Do we need to promote ourselves? Do we need, as some others, epistles
of commendation, recommendation from you? Do I have to have recommendation
letters from somebody? Do I need credentials from men
and denominations? I tell you, look at this. You
are our epistles, written in the heart. known and read of
all men. My friends, as long as we have
a sovereign Lord, as long as we have a supernatural gospel,
as long as we have an almighty Spirit, we never need to resort
to methods, ways, and weapons of the flesh to accomplish our
purpose. Never need to do it. Now, when
we no longer have a sovereign God, and no longer have a supernatural
gospel and no longer have an almighty spirit who can blow
down the walls of Jericho, then we better resort to all this
credentials and all of this self-promotion and recommendations and all these
other things. But Paul says our epistles, the
results of our ministry is not written in ink on church rolls.
It's not written in statistics. It's not written in reports and
brag sheets. Our epistles are written on the
heart. That's where they are. And those epistles are known
and recognized by those who have understanding. Our law read on, for as much
as you were our epistles, declared to be the epistle of Christ written
by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living
God. Isn't that powerful there? How many members you got? Get
out a roll book, there they all are recorded, how? In ink. We send in our report to the
denomination, how? In ink. We write a letter and
say, I had a meeting, 25 were saved, written in ink, Bill.
I tell you this, if God's in it, you don't need to write it
in ink. He writes it on the heart. And he said, everywhere those
epistles walk, somebody recognizes them. known and read of all men. You don't even have to keep records
if God's in it. God keeps the records. I think
that's the reason God got so angry with David for numbering
Israel. He said, I know how many people I've got. I don't need
you to number them. And this is not written in tables
of stone. Our law is not written on tables
of stone. Our law is written on the heart.
It's the law of love. Our results are not recorded
by church clerks, but by the Holy Spirit. And our faith is
not in creeds, but in Christ. And our trust is in the living
God. All right, in the fifth place, quickly, our ministry
is a ministry of a gospel not understood by natural means. Now, this is a difficult place
here for a lot of preachers. Look at 2 Corinthians 4. It's
a difficult place. But you know, all of God's prophets
and apostles have mourned the fact. Who hath believed our report? Isaiah said that. To whom is
the arm of the Lord revealed? Elijah one time said, I'm the
only one left. There's not anybody who believes
in that. I am all alone. And God had to tell him, you're
not all alone, there's 7,000 I've reserved that hadn't bowed
their knee to Baal. But it says here in 2 Corinthians 4, verse
3, our gospel's hid. Our gospel is. Now, the carnal
gospel's not hid, it's well understood. The freewill gospel's not hid,
anybody can understand that. Fatalistic gospel's not hid.
But our gospel's hid. But the problem, my friend, is
not with the gospel, it's with the men to whom we preach the
gospel. The problem's not with the gospel,
it's with people. The light's shining, but they're
blind. The gospel's shining forth, but they're dead. Life is there,
but they're dead. He said, I have not seen, e'er
hath not ne'er heard, neither hath it entered the heart of
men, the things God hath prepared for them that love." I know this
is hard to comprehend. You say, preacher, you stand
up there and you say, God is almighty and holy and magnificent
and awesome and infinitely righteous, and he's saying, surely people
can understand that. In their heads they can, but
in their hearts they can't lay hold of it. They can't lay hold of it. Anybody
can. When you stand and preach the
gospel that men are crippled and lame and diseased and dead
and corrupt for the fall, it's affected all mankind, rendering
them helplessly, hopelessly without God and Christ. Surely they can
understand that in their heads, but not in their hearts. It's
not a reality. If it were a reality, they'd
cry out for mercy. When you talk, it's so plain
to me, the simplicity of Christ, that God's righteous law demanded
satisfaction and God's righteous justice demanded to be honored.
And Christ came down here in the flesh, it's so clear to me.
Why is it to them? Why is it not clear to them?
That he walked on this earth as a man and did all that the
holy God required? And he went to the cross and
bore our sins and died and satisfied God's justice? That's clear!
It's nothing but the plainer! Well, they hear the words and
their heads can understand what you're saying. But their hearts
haven't believed it because they don't love it. Satan understands
it in his head, but he doesn't love it. I can't explain that,
I just know it so. The God of this world has blinded
them. I minister it to people who just can't see. And I'll
tell you this, God's able to make them see. God's able. You know, I was thinking the
other day about this eye that God made. Such a magnificent
creation. It got depth perception. It's
able to take in a wide area. It's able to distinguish colors.
It has that fluid over it that keeps it moist and soft. And
all these, it retains what it sees. It sends messages, or the
brain sends messages, or something does with this eye contact. It
can see at a long, far distance. And yet it can see minute articles
up close, particles. God made this physical eye. And
God will have to make a spiritual eye for you and me, so that we
can comprehend a world that is in darkness to us, that's a spiritual
world. God's only one can do it. He
can give me an eye to see that which is close and that which
is far. He can give me an eye to take in a vast amount of the
mysteries of His Word. He can give me an eye with depth
perception to put things in their proper order, past, present,
and future. He can give me an eye to take
in the color, the beauty of Christ's glory. But God is the creator
of that eye. And men do not have it by nature,
Mike. They do not have it. And you can have all of this,
you can have the panorama, I stood there at Gettysburg and watched
that thing, the panorama all the way around of the battle
going on at the same time. And you have all that going on
and a man that's blind is blind. And he may hear words, but he
can't lay hold. Now you may as well, and when
you bring your loved ones and friends to service and when you
witness to them, I know it's frustrating, you say, Don't you
see that? Don't you see that? I don't believe
that. I can't understand that they
don't see it. I just can't. Why do they stay
in that Catholicism or Mormonism or Church of Christ or Church
of God or phony Pentecostalism where these tongues are healing
or that whang-whang emotionalism of those other things. What's wrong with them? They're
blind. They're blind. And they're deaf. And they're
dead. And God will have to kill them
alive. Now, let's just face it and don't
get too upset with them. Because there was a time when
you were blind. Oh, how thankful we all be. Last of all, and I'll
quit. Our ministry is not to promote ourselves. Look at 2
Corinthians 4, verse 5, we preach not ourselves. Brethren, let's
get a hold of this thing here. We preach not ourselves. I walk
in this pulpit tonight, stand up here and open this Bible,
I'm not preaching myself. I'm going to preach Christ. Don't
look to me, don't look to Tom, don't look to John, don't look
to Bob, don't look to Bill, don't look to Charlie, don't look to
Cecil. These men wouldn't have you put any confidence in them
at all. Look to Christ. Lay hold upon
Him. Well, we've got such a fine church.
I know it. Thank God for it. But that's
not the issue. We've got such a great Savior,
a Savior upon whom to build and to rest and to rejoice.