Now, there are a lot of people, a great host of people in religion. There are few people in Christ. There are a great host of men
and women in some kind of ministry. a religious ministry, a denominational
ministry. There are some people whom God
hath called and commissioned and put into his ministry. And one of these people, of whom I am absolutely sure,
was the Apostle Paul. Now I know Paul was a most unusual
person, most unusual. No man can hope to be what Paul
was. No man can hope to see what Paul
saw. No man can hope to do what Paul
did. But all of that considered, Paul
was just a man. That's all. I know he was most
unusual. He was born and reared in the
strictest, most legalistic fashion. He said, I was born of the tribe
of Benjamin. I was born of a Hebrew mother
and a Hebrew father. He said, I was raised a Pharisee. Concerning the law, I was blameless.
I exceeded many of my equals. I was top man in ecclesiastical
circles. He was raised a Jew, a Pharisee,
a self-righteous teacher. And he was marvelously, miraculously
delivered by the grace of God. He saw the Lord. He actually
saw the Lord. He said, as one born out of due
time, I saw God in Christ. He was a man who received his
gospel directly from Christ himself. He said, I wasn't taught it by
man, I didn't learn it from man, I got it straight from Christ.
He was called to be an apostle. There weren't but 12 of those.
And then he was a man of great miraculous powers and gifts,
unusual visions and revelations. He said, whether in the body
or out of the body, I don't know. But he said, I was taken into
the third heaven, and I heard things that I can't even tell
you about, impossible for me to utter. He wrote at least 13
of the New Testament books under divine inspiration. And yet in
spite of all that, and like I say, none of us can hope to do what
he did. or see what he saw, or be what he was. But in all of
this, Paul considered himself only a man, only a man. When Peter went down to preach
to the people in the household of Cornelius, Cornelius knew
that God had given him this direction to send for Peter, and he knew
that God had given Peter a vision and told him to come down and
preach to him. He knew all of that. He knew
Peter was God's man. And when Peter came in the house,
Cornelius and the other people fell down to worship him. And
Peter said, Don't do that. Don't do that. I am but a man. These apostles recognized that
they were but men. And they were nothing. Let me
show you how Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 3. Turn over there
just a moment, and I think you need to see this. This is what
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, and he's talking about some of
the greatest preachers and ministers and leaders of his day. He said
in chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians verse 5, who is Paul? Who then is Paul? Now, if I said
something like that today, somebody would say, what's wrong with
you? If I said, who then is Paul? But he says that himself, who
then is Paul? And not only about himself, but
he said, who is Apollos? These people are saying, I'm
Apollos. He said, well, who's he? Somebody else said, well,
I'm Apollos. He said, well, who's he? Who's
he? Only ministers by whom you believe,
fell as it told you by Christ, even as the Lord gave to every
man. I have planted, Apollos watered, God gave the increase,
so then neither is he that planteth anything." He's not anything. And he that watereth, he's not
anything either. That's what he had to say about
it. He's not anything. They said to John the Baptist,
who are you? He said, nothing but a voice. That's all I am. I'm just a voice. You need to
learn that. 2 Corinthians 12. Let's look
at this a moment. 2 Corinthians 12. Now, Paul never
doubted God's grace toward him. He never doubted God's guilt
bestowed upon him. He never doubted the presence
of God's Spirit. But he said in 2 Corinthians
12, 11, I've become a fool in glory.
But you've compelled me, you've put me under pressure, he said,
I've had to defend myself. I ought to have been defended
by you and commended of you. For in nothing am I behind the
very chiefest apostle, and you know that. That's what he's saying
to his hearers. He said, you know who I am. You
know God sent me. You know God taught you the gospel
through me. That's what he's saying. I'm not one whit behind
the chief apostle, Peter and the rest of them. That makes Peter nothing too,
doesn't it? Makes all the rest of them nothing. We're so prone
to exalt men. We've got the gospel. We couldn't
just call it Matthew's gospel. We had to call it the gospel
according to Saint Matthew. We just have to do that. We have
to put titles on our preachers. We have to call them the reverend
or the most reverend. Or we have to call them doctor.
We have to call them bishop. We have to call them something,
something besides what God called them. But God just called them
men. That's all, just a man. And the greatest man born of
woman, John the Baptist, and our Lord said that, of all born
of women, there's none greater than John the Baptist. And John,
when they asked him who he was, he said, just a voice. Just a
voice. Paul said, I am what I am by
the grace of God. Whatever I am, it's not I, but
it's Christ that liveth in me. I haven't done anything. I talked
about some of the things that God has enabled us to do as a
church during this past year as far as missionaries and television
and radio and books and the tape ministry. I thank God for every
tape you've sent out, and you do too. I thank God for every
program, every television program. Thank God for every missionary.
But brethren, we haven't done anything. We're nothing now.
We're nothing. It's God giveth the increase.
If anything's done, he did it. We're nothing. God could raise
up of these stones children unto Abraham. God could have the donkey
speak or the stones to cry out. Where necessity is laid upon
us, we must preach the gospel. We're like a tea kettle spouting
off. We'd bust if we didn't tell who
he is, and what he did, and why he did it, and where he is now.
But God put Paul in the ministry. He said, God put me in the ministry.
God put him in the ministry, and God declared him to be a
what? A pattern. I want to show you that in 1
Timothy. 1 Timothy 1. You say, this man, this grave.
this great man is my pattern for the ministry, for me, a Sunday
school teacher or preacher or witness or whatever, that he's
my pattern? Oh, yeah. You see, the Holy Spirit
gives gifts separately as he will. He made Paul what he made
him. He made me what he made me. He
made you what he made you. And he didn't make us all alike.
He didn't give us all the same job. But Paul's still the pattern. In 1 Timothy 1, verse 12, look
at this. In 1 Timothy 1, verse 12, I thank
God, I thank Jesus Christ our Lord, who hath enabled me. He counted me faithful, and he
put me in the ministry. He put me in the ministry. I
was before a blasphemer, I was a persecutor, I was injurious,
but I obtained mercy. I didn't earn it, deserve it,
I obtained it. because or though I did it ignorantly
and unduly, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was exceeding
abundant, abundant, with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners like me, of whom
I am cheap. For this cause I obtain mercy,
that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern, for a pattern, to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting." He's a pattern to us who should
believe, to us who should preach. And in fact, to keep him from
spiritual pride. Now, I want you to listen to
me. But to keep this man, this unusual man, this gifted man,
this highly favored man, the Apostle Paul, to keep him from
spiritual pride, to keep him from lofty thoughts of himself,
God actually sent him a thorn in the flesh. Sent him one. God sent it. God sent it through
Satan. God used Satan. A messenger of
Satan, that's what Paul called it. I don't know what it was.
I don't have any idea what it was. And nobody else does. But God sent him a thorn in the
flesh, lest he be exalted, lest he be lifted up with pride. God
kept reminding this great man, Paul, you're still a man. You're
still a man. He tried three times to get God
to take it away, but the Lord refused to take it away. He said,
I'll give you the grace to put up with it, to bear it, but I'm
not removing it, because you've got to remember one thing. You're
still a man with all the frailties, all the potentials, all the infirmities,
all the afflictions of human flesh, and you're going to die
just like everybody else. That's exactly right. You're
still a man. God will use whom he will. And God is pleased to
use the foolish and the despised and the base and the things that
are not in order that he might get the glory. You see, we don't
think like the Lord God of heaven. If we put a man in this pulpit,
we would go out here and pick the most revered, renowned, influential,
powerful, Well-liked, well-known, who, I tell you, who would we
have preached for us this morning if we had our way? You know us. And therefore we'd get the glory,
the man'd get the glory, and God wouldn't get the glory. So
God reaches down and picks up a weak, frail, foolish piece
of flesh and speaks through him his message, and he gets all
the glory. You see, when Gideon set out
to fight that great army, and he said, the Lord told him that
the army was out there, and he looked over his men, he said,
I don't have enough men to meet them. The Lord said, you've got
too many. Too many? Yeah, you've got too many. You've
got to get rid of some of them. So he got rid of several thousand.
And Gideon said, no way. The Lord said, you've still got
too many men. So you've got to get rid of those. And he whittled
that army down to 300, just about what we've got right here this
morning. or a little less. And he said, there's an army
out there, go whip them. And Gideon said, with this little
motley crew? And God said, yeah, if this little
motley crew whips them, you'll know who did it. You didn't do
it, God did it. And I'm telling you that, that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God, we'd better get it there. No confidence in the
flesh, and Paul knew that. But if we would enter the ministry
as an individual or a church, we'd do well to listen to what
Paul had to say about the ministry. So I'm going to start with chapter
4, verse 1. Therefore, he said, seeing we
have this ministry. He had the Lord's ministry. He was in the Lord's ministry.
He said, the Lord put me in the ministry. All right, I'm going
to do my best, and you be patient with me. I'm going to do my best
to give you some things to write down about the ministry, about
the ministry. You can measure yours, mine,
the church's, or whatever. A person in a public position
ought not mind being measured, being put to the test. You put
your ministry, you put your tape ministry to this measurement
right here. You can put your book ministry to this test right
here. You can put your singing ministry
to this test right here. See, so you can put your teaching
ministry to this test right here. Everybody in here puts your giving,
Charlie, your preaching ministry. You're giving anything you do
in the kingdom of God, if you're in the ministry, this will fit
you. These 7 things. I'll give them to you. Number
1 is found in 2 Corinthians. It'll all be in 2 Corinthians
now, so let's take our bow. 2 Corinthians 2. Chapter 2, verse
12. And I'm measuring my ministry,
and I hope it's God's ministry, it better be, by these seven
things. Number one, 2 Corinthians 2,
verse 12. Furthermore, when I came to Troas
to preach Christ's gospel, to preach Christ's gospel, a door
was opened for me. What's the first thing about
our ministry? Our ministry is to preach Christ, the gospel
of Christ. Paul said, I came for this purpose.
I came for this purpose. I didn't come to win friends
and influence people. I didn't come to build a New
Testament Baptist church. I didn't come to baptize. God
sent me not to baptize. I came to Troas to preach Christ. That's why I came. That's why
I came. I came to preach Christ. The
Jews seek after a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But
we do what? But we preach Christ. I'm determined
not to know anything among you say Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I'm not talking about we preach
about Christ, I'm saying we preach Christ. And I'm not saying we
just name the name of Christ. Somebody said to me one time,
I listened to a preacher preach, and he preached 40 minutes, and
he never mentioned Christ once. He could have mentioned Christ
20 times and not preached Christ. Because in preaching Christ,
you've got to identify who Christ is, Bob. The name, just the word,
Jesus Christ, doesn't mean anything to this generation. A fellow
mashes his finger and says, Jesus Christ. Well, there's a name. There's a name, isn't it? I'm
talking about if a man preaches Christ, he preaches who he is.
He preaches what he did. He preaches why he did it. He
preaches where he is now, and he defines those issues so that
people know exactly what he's talking about. He preaches Christ.
Not about Christ, but he preaches Christ. So there's some understanding
of the person of Christ and the work of Christ and the glorious
name of Christ. He preaches Christ. When he gets
through, people know who Christ is. Oh, Satan is so subtle, though. Turn to 2 Corinthians 2, verse
11. Just before that verse I read
there, he said, when I came to Troas to preach Christ, verse
11, he talked about something he knew. He was concerned lest
Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant
of his devices. Paul was a man who was not afraid
of Satan. He was not a man who dwelt, like
most preachers do today, on the power of Satan. But he was a man who was aware
of Satan, and he was aware of his deceitful, crafty, and subtle
ways. And I'm telling you, the first
thing Satan will do, turn to 2 Corinthians 11, let me get
this said right here. One of the first wants to feel
the area in which he operates. In 2 Corinthians 11, 3, I fear,
I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his craftiness and subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. By whom? By Satan. That's
what Paul feared, Bob. That's what he feared. And so
we preach Christ. We preach Christ. I'm determined,
Paul said, I'm determined, whatever Satan's crafty, subtle, deceitful
ways may be, whatever the pulling and desires of men are to hear
with their itching ears, I'm going to preach Christ. And next
Sunday, I'm going to preach Christ. And next Wednesday, I'm going
to preach Christ. That's what he's saying. I came to Troy to
preach Christ. Not just about it. Not just to
see if I can get his name worked in somewhere while I talk about
the philosophy of this day and the political problems of this
day and the terrible sins of this day. They're the same sins
of every day. There's no difference. There's
nothing new under the sun. Just write it down. So I said,
this is the most evil day that's ever been upon us. Oh, no, oh,
no, no. It's all been the same back there.
It's been the same. We need to preach Christ. All
right, secondly, 2 Corinthians 2.14. Now, secondly, our ministry,
if God does send us, boy, this is encouraging, is always victorious. Our ministry is always victorious,
always successful, always. 2 Corinthians 2.14, thanks be
unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ. In Christ,
I've got no reason to expect God's blessings preaching anything
but Christ. But if a man preaches Christ
and God sends him, his ministry will be victorious. He will triumph. I guarantee you, he will be victorious. If God is with him and God sent
him and he preaches Christ, he will be victorious. Our God can't
fail. You can't associate failure with
God. Let me ask you something. How many years did Noah preach?
Well, you said 120. How many people did he convince
that he was right? Not any. Not a one. Well, then consequently he was
a failure. No, he wasn't. I beg your pardon. Noah accomplished
what God sent him to accomplish. Preacher said not long ago, Pharaoh,
God raised him up to dump him in the river. Do you believe
that? Well, God said that. God raised
Pharaoh up to dump him in the Red Sea for his glory. Isn't
that right, Charlie? Well, you might be right, it's
right. He said, even for this same purpose have I raised you
up that I might get glory in thee. God's true preacher, I'm telling
you, if God sends him with a message, nobody may hear it, nobody may
receive his message, nobody may believe it. But he's victorious.
He did what God sent him to do. Read on. We thank God who always causes
us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savor, that's the
fragrance, odor of his knowledge by us in every place. We're going
to tell you about Christ. For we are under God a sweet
savor of Christ, in them that are saved and in them that perish.
To the one, we're the savor of death unto death. To the other,
the savor of life unto life. But we always triumph. Our God
can't fail. He said, My word shall not return
unto me void. If God opens a door and sends
a man through that door to declare his message, it may be a message
of life, it may be a message of death, but it's God's message.
Noah came and said, the heavens are going to open up and God
is going to send judgment. And he did. And that's why God
sent Noah. The angels came down to Sodom
and said, Glock, get out. God is going to destroy this
place. Was that one of God's ministers? Yes, sir. Did he do
what God told him to do? Yes, sir. Did God send him? Yes,
sir. Did he fail? No, sir. He delivered the message,
and God destroyed the city, and Lot was saved. And that's why
God sent him, to call out his sheep. He never failed. We have a word from God for those
who are saved, and we have a word from God for those who perish. If he sends us, we don't fail,
all right? Thirdly, our ministry, and listen to this, the last
line in verse 16, our ministry is beyond human ability, totally,
completely beyond human ability. Like I ask one of you men to
speak here on a certain night when I'm away or something, you
say, well, I just don't feel worthy. That's not why I ask
you. If I thought you did, I wouldn't
ask you. Well, I'm not sufficient. I know that. I'm not either.
Join the crowd. But I can't do it. I know you
can't. But God can. But God can. There was a fellow who came to
the pulpit one time, and boy, he had studied and worked and
prepared for a couple of weeks. Boy, he had one down. He had a wingdinger, and he knew
it. It was a great message. And when
they introduced him, he left that seat down there and bounded
up to the pulpit and flung open his Bible and fell flat on his
face, just struck out. And when he got through, he knew
it, and the deacons knew it, and the people knew it, and everybody
knew he had failed, utterly, totally failed. And he just stood
there and cried and cried, and he just walked out of the pulpit
and went over there and sat down and put his face in his hands
and wept over his failure. And the old man sitting behind
him reached up and tapped him on the shoulder and he said,
Sonny, if you'd have gone up there like you come down, you
might have come down like you went up there. If we could realize that, we
don't have anything to say. Paul said in the last line of
verse 16 of 2 Corinthians 2, Who is sufficient for these things? Who's sufficient? Who wants to
take this work upon himself? A saver of life unto life and
death unto death. A message for the redeemed and
a message for the unbelievers. Who is sufficient in himself
for such an assignment? I'll show you some fellows that
thought they were. Turn to Acts 19. Acts chapter 19. These fellows were called the
sons of Seba. They were sort of professional
religionists. Exorcists, you know, they cast
out demons. They were professional religionists.
But they got a hold of some real demons instead of play-like.
I see these fellows on television playing, you know. They hadn't
got a hold of any real ones yet. In Acts 19, 13, Then certain
of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, that's the way he pronounced
that, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits
the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure thee by Jesus," whom
Paul preached. And there were seven sons of
one, Saba, a Jew, and a chief of the priests which did so.
And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus we know, and
Paul we know, but who are you? Who are you? Barnard preached on this one
time and entitled the message, Paul, the man who was known in
They knew him in hell. They said, we know Paul. The
demons knew him. They knew him. And the man in whom the evil
spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against
them, and they fled out of that house naked and wounded. Well,
brethren, let me tell you something. You say, what application are
you making? I'm making just this. A man who preaches or teaches
or enters the ministry is not wrestling against flesh and blood. His main objective is not to
meet a budget. Most of these preachers think
so. It's not to get along with his deacons. It's not to please
the people. We wrestle not against or with
flesh and blood, but principalities and powers and rulers of the
darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places. A man in the
ministry is settling spiritual issues. That's right. The business of this church is
not business. It's worship. It's the gospel. That's what's wrong with most
churches now, monkey business. They think that deciding what
kind of paper, what kind of material we use in the Sunday School class,
or what kind of this, that, and the other, or whether we have
blue carpet or red carpet, or whether we have, this is business
of the Church. That's not the business of the
Church. The business of the Church is spiritual business. We're
in a conflict. There's a battle going on. There's
a God to be glorified. sinners to be saved, Christ to
be exalted, evil to be resisted, Satan to be conquered, only the
Spirit of God can conquer. Who is sufficient for these things?
I'm telling you we're not sufficient. Look at chapter 3, verse 5. Paul
said we're not sufficient of ourselves even to think anything
of ourselves. And that doesn't mean to think
well of ourselves, that means to even come up with anything
intelligent of ourselves. But our sufficiency is of God.
Oh, I tell you, we're earthen vessels. We don't want your faith
standing in men. Put no confidence in the flesh.
We are not sufficient for these things. Our sufficiency is of
God. Look at verse 6. "...who hath
made us able ministers of the New Testament." God made us,
if we're ministers at all. And then look at the fourth thing.
Our ministry, turn back to chapter 2, 2 Corinthians 2, verse 17. Our ministry is one of sincerity. Three things. Our ministry is
one of sincerity, of God, and conducted in the
sight of God. Now, Bradley, number one, he
said this in verse 17, we're not as many which corrupt the
Word of God, but as of sincerity. Sincerity. Now, there are many
people in religion and in the ministry for various personal
reasons. Their aims and objectives are
selfish and fleshly. Mothers don't ever urge a son
to go in the ministry. Fathers don't ever. put a boy
in the ministry. Preachers don't ever push somebody
in the ministry. Don't even encourage them. God
puts men in the ministry. And how terrible it is if a man
is in the ministry for any other purpose than God put him there.
God put him there. Of sincerity, sincerity. Though we are but men, we walk
and talk and live in human bodies. Yet we're engaged in a sincere
spiritual task, a sincere task. And now watch these three things.
Let me show them to you in verse 17. Our ministry is of sincerity. Our ministry is of God. It is
of God. God put us in the ministry. Our
ministry is conducted in the sight of God, for God's approval,
for God's approval. I know a lot of people I wonder
why we don't have any boards over here with the number we
had this Sunday and last Sunday and the Sunday a year ago and
these things. That's for human eyes to see. We're not here for
human eyes to approve or to see. We're here, I trust, for the
glory of God. Well, why don't you count how many is here and
try to have more next Sunday? Why? Well, to impress people.
You can put in the paper next Sunday that we had 500 and we're
shooting for 550. For whose benefit? We're conducting our ministry
in the sight of God. He says here, we are not as many,
look at verse 17, who corrupt the word of God, who deal deceitfully
with the word of God, but as of sincerity of God, in the sight
of God. If I please men, I'm not the
servant of God, Paul said. In the sight of God. We conduct
our ministry in the sight of God. And look at the fourth thing,
and we speak of Christ. We speak of Christ. Our ministry
is a sincere ministry. Is it? Is it? You say you want
bigger crowds. Why? You want the approval of
men. Why? If we enter the ministry, it's
going to be of a godless sincerity, whether I succeed or fail, whether
I preach to five or five hundred. It's going to be a sincere ministry
of truth, of truth, of God, in the sight of God, and we're going
to speak of Christ. That's just it. If not, let's
get out of the ministry, whatever it's called, whatever religion.
Just get out of religion. If we've got any thought about
what men think or those things of which men approve, forget
it, all right? Fifthly, quickly, look at 2 Corinthians 3, 1 through
3. Our ministry in the fifth place
is from heart to heart. It's a heart ministry. It's a
heart ministry. Now listen, verse 1 of chapter
3. Do we begin again to commend
ourselves? Does the true servant of God
have to sell himself? Are we trying to sell ourselves,
impress people? Do we need, as some others, these
false apostles, do we need credentials? Do we need letters of recommendation
to you? You need to hear this man now.
He has a B.A., an M.A., and a D.Phil., and an L.L.D., and all these
things. Does a true servant of God need
credentials? Does he really? I hear people telling preachers,
go to the seminary and get you some credentials. Whose credentials? Paul says, do I need to sell
myself? Do I need credentials? Do I need
letters of recommendation to you? Do I need a letter of recommendation
from you? Does a servant of God need that,
Cecil? Religious playboys do. They need it. They need it badly. But I don't need it if I'm a
true servant of God. I don't need it. No, sir. Verse 2, you are our epistle,
written in our hearts, known and read of all men. I got a
message and a ministry that I don't need to be written up in the
paper because it's written on people's hearts. It's exactly
right. It's written on my heart and
written on your heart. Look at the next verse. For as much as
you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, God
wrote that book. There's some books out here today
that I didn't write, God wrote. And He didn't write them in ink.
He didn't write them in ink. as a doctrinal creed. Somebody
says, well, we Baptists need to get together and write another
confession of faith. No, we don't either. Let's just
use this one. God never written his epistles
with ink or tables of stone. We need to make some rules. We
need to have a constitution. We need to have some church bylaws
by which people can walk. God wrote it on your heart. That's
where this business is conducted. Paul said, I don't need credentials. I don't need recommendations
from you or to you. If I'm a servant of God, you
are my epistle written on my heart. And you're Christ's epistle.
And you're not written in ink or on tables of stone. It's written in the heart. That's
where God does his work. He said, my son, give me your
heart. If the Lord God has your heart and your affections, he
has you. People often wonder why we don't
make a lot of out-of-church membership writing for letters and sending
letters and getting names on the roll and all these things.
Brethren, you can get folks organized and systematized and programmized
and get their names written down and get them all with these little
booklets in their hands and rules and regulations and not know
Christ. But if the Son of God ever writes
his name on your heart, ever visits you in saving faith, you
don't need any of these things. Just don't need them. Just don't
need them. All right, in the 6th place,
here's a tough one. In the 6th place, our ministry
is one not understood or believed by men. This is what the average
person can't understand, but the minister of Christ in his
glorious eternal charitieship, the minister of Christ in his
election, covenant of grace, the minister of Christ in his
incarnation, the Old Testament types and pictures and shadows
fulfilled by Christ in his birth, in his perfect righteousness,
his obedience, in his sacrificial death, in his burial and resurrection,
his intercession, his glory, his personal work. Men don't
understand that. They don't believe it and they
don't understand it. And let me tell you, I don't think we
ought to go out and say, well, I know you're not going to believe
what I'm going to say, but I'm going to say it. Now, that's not the way to
preach. Like the little boy that knocks on the door, and the lady
comes door, and he says, you don't want to buy any magazines, do you?
She says, well, no, I really don't. But I preach the gospel
believing that everybody ought to believe it. But they don't. They don't. Look at 2 Corinthians
4, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 3. Our gospel is hid. It's hid to them that are lost.
Now let me tell you something. This other gospel, This natural
man's gospel, this salvation by work, is not hid. It comes
natural with natural man. But the mystery of God and the
mystery of redemption and the mystery of godliness is hid.
Where is it hid? It's hid in Christ. And being
hid in Christ and not knowing Christ, they haven't discovered
it. See, that's the problem. It's not hid as if God's trying
to keep them from discovering it. It's in Christ. If I take
this handkerchief and put it in this Bible, and put this Bible
right there, you can look for that handkerchief everywhere
you want to. As far as you're concerned, it's still here. But
if you ever come to this book and open it, well, there it is.
It's been there all the time. And salvation and life and eternal
hope and justification and sanctification is in Christ. It's been there
all the time. It's been there for eternity.
It's there in the Old Testament. Moses wrote of me, Christ said,
Abraham saw my day, Isaiah testified of him, to him give all the prophets
witness. It's there. Salvation's in Christ, redemption's
in Christ, eternal life's in Christ, sanctification's in Christ.
You say, why won't men have it? They're not looking for it in
Christ. They're looking for it in this water. They're looking
for it in their religion. They're looking for it coming
down the aisle, shaking hands with some renowned, a sissified
preacher with ruffles on his shirt, you know, and diamond
rings on his hand with a broken wrist theology, you know. You've
seen those kind, haven't you? That's where they look. It's
in Christ. That's where it is. That's where
it's hid. You see, it's not hid as if God
didn't want you to find it, but it's hid in Christ for his glory. Find Christ and you'll find it
all, Richard. It's right there, isn't it? That's the reason Paul
said to win Christ and be found in him. That's where it is. The
problem is not with the Gospels, it's with me. All the light in the world won't
help a blind man. No matter whether he has a little
bit of light or a whole lot of light, it won't help him. All the words
in the world have no value to a dead man. All the voices and
warnings of the world have no value to a dead man. We shut
up to the power of God. And that brings me to the seventh
thing and the last one. 2 Corinthians 4, 6. Our ministry
is a ministry of miracles. Miracles. We're shut up to a
miracle. I'm not going to try this morning
to argue anybody into conviction of sin, because only the Spirit
of God can convince men of sin. I'm not going to try to argue
anybody through illustrations and logic and theology, and the
Catholics are wrong, the Baptists are right, the Jehovah Witnesses
are wrong, the Methodists are right, this is wrong, that's
right, they're all wrong. Only the Spirit of God can reveal
Christ. That's exactly right. Only the Spirit of God. I have
a ministry of miracles. If a miracle doesn't take place
for you, you'll die and go to hell. If God doesn't perform
a miracle, a miracle of regeneration, a miracle of revelation, a miracle
of edification, if God doesn't do it, these are nothing but
words! But I tell you, the Word of God
accompanied by the Spirit of God is like a live seed in a
dead A man-child will be born. That's right. He says that in 2 Corinthians
4, verse 6, "...for God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness," and I'm talking about back in the creation of
the world, God said, "...the Spirit of God moved on the face
of the waters, and darkness covered the deep." And God said, "...let
there be light!" A man didn't say it, God said it. And the
Scripture said, "...and there was light." And even so, he hath
shined in our hearts." There are dead, cold, black, dull hearts
out there, and they are without light and without life and without
love and without God and without Christ and without hope. But
it's the Spirit of God brooding on that dark, cold, dead water
that says, Let the light of the Word shine in." And a fellow
says, I see it! I see it! I see it! I see myself! I see the holiness
of God! I see the righteousness of God! I see the person and work of
Christ! I see it! Why do you see it? God said, let there be light.
Read the rest of that verse. And he hath shined in our hearts
to give the light and the knowledge of the glory of God." Where?
In the face of Jesus Christ. That's right. That's our ministry.