Steeled for the Gospel, Part 2

and I am going to completely
skip anything that even looks like a review this morning, just
for the sake of time. If you need a review, go back
to last week’s message. We did a little bit there. In
the previous weeks, we did even a bit more. Last week, we began
looking at characteristics of those who are committed to gospel
ministry. They are steeled, as the title
established, steeled for ministry. And we began looking at what
that looks like. What does that look like for
the Christian? First of all, we looked last
week at just that first characteristic, the first thing that those who
are really prepared, And really ready for gospel ministry is
a battle-ready resolve. A battle-ready resolve. The image
that I wanted to put to you last week was that it’s as if Paul
suddenly realizes, wakes up, that he is on the field of battle.
He says, therefore, we have this ministry as we have received
mercy and we do not lose heart. Paul was not about to live on
his heels. Paul was not about to live a
half-hearted Christian life. Paul realizes that he didn’t
go pursuing the ministry. It’s God that put him there since
we have received this mercy. Since we have it, and we have
received it, and there is no ministry other than what God
gives in the first place. Paul said, we do not lose heart. And I corrected, I hope, the
misunderstanding that our modern mind might bring to those words. Because we lose hope in a lot
of things that then gets pumped back up, as it were, by air or
helium. We lose hope a lot of times that
then gets reinvigorated But this word speaks of a complete and
total collapse, an abandonment, if you will, quitting. And Paul
says, because I have this ministry, here I am on the field of battle
because it’s God who gave me this ministry, I cannot and will
not quit. I’m not going to Give in to fear
and lose courage and play the part of a coward. I will not
quit. We saw that that word is used
in a number of places, key places in Scripture. It occurs again
here in the next couple of paragraphs here in 2nd Corinthians. Look
at verse 16. Therefore, we do not lose heart. Paul repeats himself. But though
our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed
day by day. Many people would say that if
there’s ever a cause to quit, it’s physical infirmity. Well,
Paul says not the case. We do not quit. Paul couldn’t
quit. Paul faced many discouragements.
And in a very real sense, ministry is discouragement. Ministry is
to face those heartaches and difficulties. But quitting, that’s
the issue in this passage. And for Paul, he says quitting
is not an option. If you would not by way of necessarily
review, but in order to put the following verses in context,
go back to verse one. where Paul says, therefore, since
we have received this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not
lose heart. But we have renounced the things
hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating
the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves
to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. The second
thing that those who are committed to the ministry of the gospel
need is not just a battle ready resolve, but a sanctified strategy. And let me tell you, in this
day and age, there are many unsanctified strategies out there, strategies
that set aside the word of God and think that they can do ministry
without it. As I said last week, there is
no ministry except those given from God. And the ministry of
God is a ministry of the word. Take the word of God out of ministry. You have no more ministry, period. Look at the passage, if you would
again, look at verse two, we have renounced the things hidden
because of shame. We began to touch on this last
week. So this isn’t necessarily review. But we want to look at this once
again, just to park what follows in a context. We have renounced
the things hidden because of shame. The things that are of
shame are disgraceful things, unspeakable things. When we think
of shameful things, they are those things that we can’t even
bear to talk about and utter. They’re so utterly shameful.
The word means shame as a feeling or the cause of shame or anything
that’s disgraceful or scandalous to the point of being unspeakable
where we don’t even want to hear people verbally confess these
things in a public setting. Typically, this word describes
disgraceful or dishonorable deeds that produce nothing but embarrassment
and humiliation. In Ephesians chapter five, it’s
used in exactly that fashion. Paul, writing there, says this. It is disgraceful even to speak
of the things which are done by them in secret. And many of
us were saved from those very things, those shameful things
that brought the guilt of sin upon our lives. In fact, it’s
translated shame wherever it occurs in the New Testament. And so, what are we to understand
from this? That Paul here is essentially
renouncing some new level of sin or sinfulness? Is he talking
about his original repentance and his coming to faith? That would be impossible for
me to believe. It is impossible for me to believe
what the apostle renounces here isn’t his previous sins, it isn’t
his current sins, doesn’t have anything to do with that. And
the context shows us explicitly what’s on Paul’s mind, as I hope
we’ll see as we go. What Paul is referring to here
is everything that follows in verse two. The craftiness, the
adulterating of the word of God. Those are the things that were
so shameful to Paul that Paul had already renounced them. He had already set them aside
as being putrid and sinful in themselves. The things that men
were concealing, the things that they do in secret because they
were so ashamed of Christ and his gospel. As I said, it is not only difficult,
it is impossible for me to believe that Paul here is confessing
to some scandal in his life, to some sinful shame that still
held him back from a more full ministry. He’s not talking about
his past. He’s not talking about his present.
As one said, it was the secrecy or the concealment of the opposite
of openness and honest frankness that the apostle had been charged
by his opponents. Paul had just spoken, hadn’t
he? Of the openness that he had in speech and conduct. In the
later part of this verse, he speaks of the manifestation of
the truth going forth from his life and from others. So what
he says he’s renounced was representative of the false
teachers that were dogging Paul’s steps. It was their lack of openness. It was their adopting secret
methods of accomplishing their ends. What Paul is referring
to is the secret things, those trickery and the wiles and the
strategies that others were engaging in. Paul, as we saw last week in
1 Corinthians, had already said it this way. The word of the
cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. And it would
be well suited for the Christian just to acknowledge that, just
to get himself to the point in his life where he can acknowledge
that the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are
perishing. But to us, who are being saved. It is the power of God. Paul
was already of this mindset. Paul didn’t need to be schooled
in order to understand that the gospel is a shameful thing in
some people’s eyes and that to be ashamed of the gospel is to
take oneself completely out of ministry. 1 Corinthians 1.23, Paul went on
and said, we preach Christ crucified to the Jews, a stumbling block
to the Gentiles foolishness. But to those who are called both
Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of
God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
Paul couldn’t be ashamed. of this great and glorious gospel,
the saving gospel of Christ. And that’s exactly what he expresses
in Romans one. I am not ashamed of the gospel. This is the exact same point
that he’s making to the Corinthians. He had renounced the things of
shame. He had renounced those shameful
things which were Thinking that the gospel was so shameful, we
must find another method or we must soften the gospel or add
to the gospel. As we’ll see in a moment. I’m
not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation
to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Paul said, I have renounced the
things hidden because of shame, and it was not his sinful life. not his current sinful life,
because in large measure, in grand measure, God had already
dealt with that. It wasn’t his past sinful life,
because in Paul’s mind, there were worse things than the worst
of our sins. And that is shame for Christ
and His Gospel. We have renounced the things
hidden because of shame. Not walking in craftiness. This
is one of them. This is one of those shameful
things that Paul had already renounced. It’s a powerful word. The word
speaks of the conduct of a man who resorts to all kinds of tricks
and fanciful things in order to attain his end. What he wants to accomplish.
What he wants to do. Someone who practiced craftiness
was unscrupulous. To the greatest extent, he was
willing to do absolutely anything to meet his goals. We spoke of
this in times past. The Luke chapter 20 just encapsulates
it, Luke chapter 20, just a couple of verses don’t go, because by
the time I get there, I get finished, you’ll be just arriving. Luke
chapter 20, verse 20, so they watched him and they sent spies
who pretended to be righteous in order that they might catch
him, that is Christ, in some statement so that they could
deliver him to the rule and authority of the governor. And they questioned
him saying, teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly
and that you are not partial to any. But you teach the way
of God in truth, all this flowery accolades for Christ as if He
needed it. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes
to Caesar or not? And what they were doing was
trying to set a trap. Because if He said, all things
go to God, then they could charge Him with sedition. And in verse
23, Luke there uses the same word that we’re considering now.
where it says of Jesus that He detected their trickery. And
that really is an accurate translation of this little Greek word. Trickery. They were trying to trick the
Lord Jesus. So it’s not that outlandish to
think that there might be some out there in the so-called Christian
kingdom who are practicing trickery. trickery on unsuspecting people. 1 Corinthians 3.19 uses the same
word. The wisdom of the world is foolishness
before God. For it is written, he who catches
the wise in their craftiness. It’s God who catches them. God
is the one who catches these tricksters. They had this uncanny ability for doing everything that they
could, not for good, but for evil, to attain their set and
specific goals. That’s what was the driving force.
One called it a versatile cleverness, ready for anything in order to
gain one’s own ends. Do you want to know where else this
was used? And of whom? It was used of the devil himself.
Paul says it in 2 Corinthians 11, I’m afraid that as the serpent
deceived Eve by his craftiness. In Ephesians 4, Paul uses it
again. Paul loved this word because Paul saw it as so characteristic
of so many who are out there beguiling unstable souls, as
he would put it. And that just speaks of the gullibility
of Christians, not just in the first century, but in our own
day and age as well, who will buy and listen and read and attend
the most ridiculous things. Paul said it this way in Ephesians
4.14, as a result, we are no longer To be children tossed here and
there by waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by
the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming. These
men intend you no good. These people who would manipulate
God’s word to their own end, they intend you no good. They’re
not interested in your soul. They’re interested in their own
particular goals, and that’s it. as Charles Hodge once reminded,
error is evil. And as I said last week, we kind
of wince when we hear that. Whenever someone names a name
of an author of a book that really we would strongly urge you not
to read. Whenever anybody calls someone
on their error and calls it evil, we wince at that in our modern
and refined minds. Thank God that Charles Hodge
didn’t. He calls it what it is. Error is evil. Religious error
springs from moral evil and it produces it. In other words,
it came from the pit and it will drag those down into the pit. It has no ability to produce
any good. The apostle attributes departure
from the truth to this sly deceitfulness, which is characteristic of error
and characteristic of false teachers. And because of that, error is
never harmless. And because of that, false teachers are never
innocent. They know what they’re doing.
They know in their heart what they’re doing. And they will
drag down with them any who will listen to their filth. What Paul speaks of here is just
a pragmatism that just embraces any and all methods in order
to reach one’s ends. One described it this way. False
teachers prefer a more subtle, more veiled approach. One more
appealing, more palatable, less offensive to believers, unbelievers
rather. Whenever I hear somebody say,
we’ve got to tone down the offensiveness of the Gospel. We’ve got to kind
of put some sugar and honey in there with it. We’ve got to take
out the pointy parts of the Gospel. Boy, my antenna goes up and yours
should too. Paul had already resolved that
to a great many people, the Gospel is going to be foolish and there
is no taking out any part of it. False teachers live by way of
not wanting to offend people, wanting to be palatable, wanting
everything that they teach to be palatable. Plain preachers and speakers
like Paul, they were offensive because they preached a straightforward,
unvarnished truth, said one. The false teachers were, in effect,
first century marketing gurus. It’s an interesting way to look
at them, isn’t it? They knew what they needed to sell. They
knew that they had a product, as it were, to sell. And they
knew what they needed to do was to really just remarket, repackage
this great gospel of Christ. And if they were successful in
doing that, then their sales, as it were, would increase. It’s
just a matter of slick marketing. In order, as one said, by tweaking
the message, repackaging it to make it more popular, more trendy,
they hoped to better appeal to those first century consumers.
That’s what Paul’s facing. He’s facing men that were willing
to add to the gospel or take away from the gospel as needed
for their own Particular sick and look at the next paragraph.
We have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not
only the walking in craftiness, but Paul says, or adulterating
the word of God. These are the things that Paul
had renounced. Paul said, I’m not going to add to the gospel,
I’m not going to put any man made additions to it. What could
I say that would gild the lily? What could I say that would add
to the very words of God? That’s the audacity with which
he approaches this passage. It would be absolutely inconceivable
for Paul to think that he would have something to inform God
on and to speak on his behalf about. First, let us consider
this morning, what is the word of God? We throw that about a
great deal nowadays. What is the Word of God? One defined it this way. The
designation of the Word of God appears in three distinct senses
in the New Testament. It refers particular to Jesus
Christ. In general, to the divinely disclosed
message through God’s chosen spokesman, And in principle to the biblical
writings. But these three meanings are
not unrelated, rather, they are three concentric circles. What
an interesting way to look at the word of God. Consider for a minute the New
Testament context in the use of this phrase, Romans nine,
chapter six. says it this way, it is not as
though the Word of God has failed, for they are not all Israel who
are descended from Israel. And so the Word of God there
means anything which God has spoken. The promises of God,
the declared, if you will, purposes of God. That’s God’s Word. The Word of God in the sense
of divine purpose of God, whether it’s a promise or a threat or
a decree, that’s encompassed in that general sense. of God’s
Word. And when you begin to see the
nature of God’s Word, that it comes from God Himself, it’s
His thoughts, it’s His decrees, expressed whether verbal or written,
it’s His. Ephesians 6.17, take the helmet
of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of
God. It’s the only weapon in that
great list of armor that Paul looked to probably adopted from
looking at the Roman soldiers who were guarding him. He saw
the helmet. He saw the breastplate. He saw
the leggings. He saw everything that they had
and he happened to notice the sword. The word of God here is
clear that it is the gospel, it’s the revealed will of God
It is the sword of the Spirit because it’s the Spirit ultimately
who supplies it. God had impressed upon Paul the
great reverence for his spoken word in whatever form it took. As one said, it is God’s utterance. If you wish the Bible, the entire
Word of God, it was first spoken by him and now his servants proclaim
it to others as long as what they proclaim is really in harmony
with God’s special revelation as it is subsequently deposited
in written or printed form. Paul had a great reverence for
the very spoken Word of God. Philippians 1.4 Most of the brethren, trusting
in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak
the word of God without fear. And they’re clearly pointing
to the glorious work of Christ on the cross, the gospel of Christ. Colossians 1.25, not unlike that. of this church, I was made a
minister according to the stewardship from God, bestowed on me for
your benefit, that I might carry out fully the preaching of the
Word of God.” Every time Paul utters this, you get this sense
that ultimately it was God in His revelation and His grace
revealing Christ, bestowing Him upon humanity, and that that
was encapsulated in this little phrase, the Word of God. It’s the word of God. First Thessalonians,
when he wrote to the Thessalonians, this was a mighty word. This
was an effective word. This was God’s word going forth
and accomplishing exactly what he had intended it for. For this
reason, we constantly thank God that when you received the Word
of God, you heard it from us. You accepted it not as the Word
of men, but for what it really is, the Word of God, which accomplishes
its work in you who believe.” It was divine revelation. It was the Gospel message going
forth. Titus speaks of it as the Word
of God, which will not be dishonored. It is the Gospel. And finally, Hebrews 4.12, the
word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged
sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit,
both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions
of the heart. This is no common sword. This
is the very word of God, the revelation of God going forth
and touching man where no one else can touch him. deep in his
heart and soul. As one said, the written Word
of God is no mere fixed letter. It is the means of conversation,
a reasonable service with the living and still speaking God.
It is the revelation of a divine will. And I love the way one
saint put it last week. When you’re speaking to someone,
quote them the Word of God. How simple advice is that? But
is there something better we need? Is there something more
powerful? Is there something more legitimate? Peter said it this way, that
you have been born again, not of a seed which is perishable,
but imperishable. That is through the living and
enduring Word of God. Every one of us, if you are in
Christ, you came to Christ in part and parcel because of the
Word of God. Because someone either read it
to you or spoke it to you or handed it to you and let you
read it for yourself. The Word of God. And you get
the sense every time Paul uses that phrase, what a high and
lofty view of God and His revelation he had. And so it sends a chill down
your back. to read in context. We have renounced
the things hidden because of shame. Not walking in craftiness
or adulterating the Word of God. No wonder Paul said it was shameful. Paul could not bear the thought
of adding to God’s glorious Word. The word just means to tamper
with. In that sense, the ESV is a little
bit weak because it goes beyond just tampering with. You know,
tampering just kind of speaks of just kind of playing with
something. But Paul means this much more severely and the word
has a much more severe sense. To adulterate wine was to ruin
it. To add water to wine was to greatly
change. The beverage itself to adulterate
gold was to ruin its precious value. Paul says to adulterate
the Word of God is absolutely unthinkable. King James says
deceitfully, and that’s not quite accurate either. Handling the
Word of God deceitfully, the New King James. I looked at a
ton of these different translations. Essentially, the illustration
goes back to the practice of cutting wine with water or gold
with other metals. And it was done by adding in
these admixtures, alloys, if you will, in the case of metal.
The word occurs only here in the New Testament and only twice
in the Septuagint. By Paul using this word here,
adulterating, he means using fallacious, wrong, incorrect,
arguments, misinterpretations, falsifying the relation between
the Old Testament and the New. And then you begin to see why
James says, let not there be many teachers, because it is
so easy to distort. It’s so easy to bring in your
own thoughts. It’s so easy to add to Scripture
or to take away and therefore to adulterated in that fashion. And sadly, there are far, far
too many who are all too willing to give the people what the people
want to hear and not what God and His Word say. Paul had already
addressed this in 2 Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 17, which started
this whole study. You might remember, we are not
like many peddling What a despicable word to use with regards to spiritual
things. We are not like many, peddling
the Word of God that as from sincerity, as from God we speak
in the sight of God. Paul said, I am not about to
inject my own message. I’m not about to inject my own
thoughts, my own agenda onto God and His. No way. But as I said, there were sadly
not only in Paul’s direct context here, but in the greater context
of the early church, there were far too many of those so-called
teachers who were far too willing. You know, the admonition in Second
Timothy, I’m sure is familiar to you. I charge you, solemnly
charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who
is the judge of the living and the dead and by his appearing
in his kingdom, I solemnly charge you, Paul says, preach the Word. And what he meant was the same
that he meant everywhere else in Scripture, the Word of God.
That’s all that mattered to Paul. And Paul said, that’s all your
ministry is going to be built on, Timothy. Preach the Word. Be ready in season, out of season.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction.
And then he tells him why. You may remember that when I
preached this passage, I preached it upside down. I preached verses
3 and 4 before I preached to you verses 1 and 2. I told you
of the despicable, swirling nature, the downward spiral that our
spiritual society is caught in. And it’s this. Paul gives the
remedy first and then he tells them why. I reversed it for my
own purposes. And it goes like this. Here’s
why. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. And there are many. And there
are many churches. There are churches full of people
who will not endure sound doctrine. What do you mean I’m not inherently
good? What do you mean the only way
to get to heaven is Christ? What do you mean I’m a sinner? for the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine. But wanting to have their ears
tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers, so-called,
in accordance to their own desires. They will go and they will look
and they will listen until they hear what they want to hear.
And then they will nestle in into their comfortable state. They will turn aside their ears
from the truth and they will turn aside to myths. They will
turn aside to an adulterated gospel. They will turn aside
to an adulterated Word of God that will be of absolutely no
help to them or to their souls or to anyone around them. Jesus addressed this same attitude
towards the Word of God in Matthew 15, 6. passage that’s particularly germane
to our discussion, Jesus was waging a verbal battle with the
scribes and the Pharisees. And He told them in 15.6 that
it is by this, that is by their additions, by all of their little
traditions, it is by this that you invalidate the Word of God
for the sake of your tradition. That’s one way. that even we
will adulterate the word of God, we will say, well, I can’t find
chapter and verse for it, but. Or we will say, like so many
of the so-called spirit filled crowd, the Lord told me. Oh. J.C. Ryle said of this passage,
he strikes boldly at the whole system of adding anything as
needful to salvation to God’s perfect word. You see, if you
don’t start from that orientation point that God’s Word is perfect
and complete, then you will be sorely tempted. If you start
from a standpoint that God’s Word may not be perfect and complete,
then you’re going to be beyond tempted. You’re going to be willing
and eager to fill in the blanks. If you don’t start from a standpoint
that all that is in there is absolutely of God and required
by God and good for us, then you will be beyond tempted to
remove what is inconvenient for you. Or if you’re a teacher,
what’s inconvenient for your hearers. He exposes the mischievous
tendency of the system by example, he shows how the vaunted traditions
of the Pharisees were actually destroying the authority of the
Fifth Commandment. There is an inherent tendency
in all traditions to make the word of God of none effect, to
usurp the authority of God’s word. First Corinthians 14 36 is another
passage. Interesting context for this
one. Paul says, was it from you that
the word of God first went forth? The Corinthians were adding all
these other things, all these other practices, and they were
thinking that in so doing, they were the eclectic church. They
were the you know, they were the happening hip church or whatever
the They were the bomb church. Paul basically says, were you
the starting point of the Gospel? Did you write this little book? People getting drunk at the Lord’s
Supper. People speaking in tongues no one interpreting. Prophets
refusing to give place to one another. Arguing in the church. Women claiming to prophesy. Asking
questions in public worship. Paul basically says, if you’re
in defense of scandalous things such as these, basically the
conclusion I have to draw is that maybe you wrote the Scriptures. You claim to be the Alpha and
Omega of the Gospel, as one writer said. What Paul was challenging was
the falsifying, the corrupting of the Word of God, adulterating
it with the traditions of men, These men, as one said, were
conmen, cheats, charlatans, frauds. And unfortunately, so many today
level the same charge at those who proclaim the sufficiency
of Scripture, that that’s all we need. Apart from psychology,
apart from mysticism, the Lord told me kind of events or some
supposed supernatural examples or experiences, The scripture
contains everything that we need to live a joyous, fulfilled,
God honoring life. And that viewpoint is absolutely
hated and derided by some, even in the so-called evangelical
community. It was fascinating this past
week. You have people adding to Scripture
all the time, twisting Scripture toward their own end, taking
texts out of context. And that’s included in this adulteration,
adding entire books like the Book of Mormon or the Jehovah
Witness book or whatever else you add to Scripture that says
this is your way to heaven. This is your guide. The Judaizers
were doing it in Paul’s day, but many others and then some
just that are absolutely ridiculous. This past week, Jesse Jackson,
no doubt, was there on the balcony with Martin Luther King the day
he was shot. No doubt, enthusiastic and happy that finally a black
man had been elected to public office. And we’re thankful for
that. But he said this is the greatest
thing that has happened in the 232 years of our nation and so
great that another chapter should be added to the book of Revelation.
Utterly stunning. But as I said, silly. The unfortunate thing is that
there are many who do not take Paul’s words to heart when Paul
said, be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a
workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately
the word of God, handling accurately the word of truth So many treated
as just good Sunday school material. I can do what I want with it.
Not Paul. Not Paul. Paul said this is the
very word of God. And I believe Paul would rather
die than be seen as adding to or adulterating the very word
of God. We’ll take it up there next Lord’s
Day. Let’s pray. Our Father God, we humble ourselves. What audacity this is. To think
that we can interject. Our own thoughts and opinions
and agendas. In place of yours and father,
perhaps many in our midst have even done that. By their attitudes. by the agendas that they push,
by the way that they utilize Scripture, by the way that they
obliterate Scripture. Father, search our hearts, each
one of us. Remind us that it is the very Word of God that
we handle and the only weapon for ministry at all. God, grant
us this grace and we pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen. you