Steeled for the Gospel, Part 3

We embarked a number of weeks
ago, almost several months ago now, on a consideration of a
passage there in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 12. that established
us, in a sense, the bedrock of ministry. But as I’ve suggested
in times past, it whetted my own appetite for this great section
of Scripture that deals with the Christian ministry. And we
have spent a number of weeks in it. We have considered, as
I said, the bedrock of ministry in chapter 2, verse 12 through
17. In chapter 3, Paul opened up into the momentum that we
have in ministry, the fruit that God provides, the optimism that
we have in God, the provision that we have for ministry from
God. Continuing on in that great chapter,
we saw the glorious nature of the gospel ministry, that it
is attended with glory just as was and even more so than the
Old Testament ministry, not with pillars of fire, but with glory
nonetheless. And Paul goes on to say that
it is with exceeding glory and enduring glory. Paul rounded
out that great chapter, chapter three, with the blessings of
the gospel ministry. It isn’t just glorious as if
we can sit and behold it and not benefit from it, but it brings
with it clarification of spiritual truth, liberation from our sinful
condition and transformation ultimately into a glorious state. And with that great foundation
and that great edifice going up, as it were, we consider the
Christian ministry, the ministry of the gospel. And Paul, that
is his purpose, is establishing in the minds of his readers the
glorious nature, the foundational premises and the benefits of
the gospel. Paul wanted the Corinthian readers
to understand and grasp and begin to, as it were, catch the vision
for what the ministry is and is all about. Paul turns in somewhat
a practical vein to talk about what a minister of the gospel,
what are those that are committed to the gospel ministry to be
like. That’s what we begin to see in
chapter four, verses one and two. That’s where we’ve been
for several weeks. That’s where we’ll be again today. And I just
want to take you back to the passage, if you would. Second
Corinthians, chapter four, verses one and two. Where Paul wrote,
therefore, that is with the foundational premises of the gospel ministry,
with its glorious nature, with its attendant blessings to us,
therefore, Since we have this ministry, as we have 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.” There were many factors harassing Paul,
begging him, challenging him, daring him to quit. There were
many things that, as it were, seemed to pull the pins out from
underneath Paul operating in the sphere of the gospel ministry.
But Paul could not and would not quit. He was steeled for
the gospel ministry. Paul was standing steadfast and
would not be moved from the gospel ministry. We began to look at
characteristics of those who are committed to gospel ministry,
and we saw first and foremost that they must have a battle-ready
resolve. I suggested this image, if you
will. Paul suddenly realized that he
was on the field of battle and that God had placed him there.
And it wasn’t because God saw in Paul something so great and
grand. It was mercy. It was mercy that
God, that prompted God to put Paul into ministry and onto the
field of battle. And that is always the case.
There isn’t anyone, not one of us, that deserves to be in the
ministry. There isn’t anything in and of
us that commends us to God for salvation. And so it’s an easy problem to resolve that there
isn’t anything in us that commends us to the gospel ministry. In
other words, if God doesn’t see anything in us for salvation
that warrants our own salvation, what would warrant placing us
of all people into the gospel ministry? Paul said, look, I
only have what I’ve received from God. God put me here since
we have this ministry as we have received mercy. There wasn’t
anything in Paul. Paul wasn’t just expressing some
kind of undefined humility here. Paul is acknowledging that the
only reason he was in God’s service was God’s great and abundant
mercy. And that’s always the case. It’s the case with you
and I. And given that, given the fact that Paul woke up on
the field of battle, that God had put him there and that God
had put him there only by God’s mercy, Paul says, because of
all that, we do not lose heart. And we clarified that word because
in our modern understanding of it, we might think that Paul
might just get discouraged. And that’s kind of how we use
that word. We lose heart. We get discouraged.
We get down and depressed. That’s not at all what the word
means. The word is categorical. It means to absolutely give in
or to cave into fear, to completely lose courage, to behave or play
the part of a coward, to quit. That’s what’s in focus here is
quitting. And Paul says, look, I am steeled
for the gospel. I’m not going anywhere. God put
me here. He put me here by his mercy and
I’m not going away. There are many discouragements,
there will always be discouragements in ministry, there is absolutely
no cause to quit. None. And so we considered what it
is to have a battle ready resolve. But secondly, there was a second
characteristic for those that are committed to gospel ministry.
It’s not enough to have a battle ready resolve, it’s not enough
to just stand there and and to march out, as it were, the red
coats into battle being picked off one after another. It’s not
enough to have a battle ready resolve. You’ve got to have a
sanctified strategy. Secondly, we began to look at
this last week. Paul says there in verse 2, we
have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking
in craftiness or adulterating the Word of God. And he gives
a two part answer to what this strategy is. He first tells us
what it isn’t. And that’s where we’ve been.
That’s where we were at least last week. He tells us what it
isn’t. It isn’t. And before we even
get into those two phrases there, He says, first of all, we have
renounced the things hidden because of shame. We’ve spent the time
to clarify that was not Paul’s previously sinful life. That
is not his un-Christian life and all those shameful things
that we confess on our knees when we fall in repentance initially. That’s not at all what that’s
talking about. It isn’t even all the sins that seem to accumulate
on and glom onto us in our Christian life. It’s not that daily confession. It’s not that confession that
we just had in prayer. That’s not at all what Paul’s
talking about. He’s not talking about the shame
of his sinful life, whether even past or present. What he’s talking
about is disgraceful, underhanded ways, as we saw. those deeds
that were done mostly by false teachers, the secret things,
the trickery, the strategies of those who would add to God’s
Word. As one said, it was the secrecy
or the concealment, the opposite of openness and honest frankness
that the apostle was charging his opponents. In the preceding
context, he had spoken of his own openness in speech and conduct. What Paul therefore renounced
was that which he represents as characteristic of false teachers,
the lack of openness, adopting secret methods of accomplishing
their ends. And that is what is in view.
It isn’t anything in Paul’s life from a sinful standpoint, but
it is this secret strategy, these shameful deeds that the false
teachers had entered into. And Paul points out first what
isn’t to be our strategy. He says, look, we are not to
be those walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God.
And we spent some time taking those apart. this first word, the craftiness
that the false teachers were entering into. We saw that it
wasn’t just for the first century church, that many in our own
day and age feel like they’ve got to be crafty. They’ve got
to be the intelligent ones. They’ve got to be creative and
help God’s Word out or even circumvent God’s Word altogether or overthrow
God’s Word and implement their own ideas and their own plans
and strategies. That word And so, the problem
is, it starts with a parallel goal. A different goal. A goal
other than what God has laid out. Numbers as opposed to faithfulness.
Strategies as opposed to the pure Word of God. Somebody once
said, you know, there’s a saying in the Bible that says, A person who practiced craftiness
was unscrupulous. This was somebody who was willing
to do anything and everything in order to accomplish their
own ends. And the bottom line, what we talked about was this
was pragmatism, just a willingness to do whatever it takes to get
the job done. And that little word characterizes
the great portion of the church with regards to ministry in our
own day and age. Pragmatism, the Word of God,
the preaching of the Word, evangelism, those kinds of things don’t work
anymore. And so we need to employ new
methods, different methods. We need to be pragmatic about
our approach. Because our goal is different.
Not only are we not to be walking in craftiness, but we looked
at the second one as well. We are not to be those adulterating
the Word of God. And we spent no little time looking
at what is the Word of God. You could say simply that it’s
the Bible, but it goes beyond that. It is, as one said, it
is the declared purpose of God. It is God speaking, speaking
forth His plans, His purposes, His decrees. The Word of God, said one, means
anything which God has spoken. the declared purpose of God. And when you begin to consider
it in those terms, you see how audacious it is that one would
add to or think that we could contribute to the very word of
God. But that’s what Paul calls it.
He calls it in a very graphic term, adulteration, adding to
God’s word by means of adulteration. And what he means here, what
he implies is those strange and incorrect arguments and interpretation
and bringing all kinds of fanciful ideas, even myths, as he would
tell Timothy later, into the Word of God. This is what he
told Timothy. He said the time will come when
they, that is those who currently listen to you, will not endure
a sound doctrine. Paul, in the most strident sense,
looked Timothy in the eye, as it were, and he told them, look,
there is going to come a time when people turn a blind eye
and a deaf ear to the very Word of God. 2 Timothy 4, he says, the time
will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting
to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate. It literally
means to heap up They won’t be able to get enough of it. And
when you think of our day and age, where people run from point
to point to place to place, and they’re church hoppers. They’re
not committed to any one place. They’ll listen to a dozen things
on the radio, submitting themselves to none. They will accumulate
for themselves. That’s what it’s all about. It’s
all about them. They will accumulate for themselves
so-called teachers. in accordance to their own desires.
Because if they teach what they don’t want to hear, then they’re
not willing to call them teacher. They’re only a teacher insofar
as they tell them what they really want to hear. We’ll talk about
that more in a moment. And ultimately, Paul says they
will turn aside their ears from the truth and they will turn
aside to myths. fanciful stories added in by
those who adulterate God’s Word because they don’t feel like
it’s good enough, because it doesn’t match up with their view,
their goal. Paul had already addressed these
false teachers. They were dogging his steps.
Not just the Judaizers, but many others who would say that there
were other Gospels and there were other means to God and that
there were other philosophies that should be embraced. Not
unlike our own day and age. Not unlike it. In 2 Corinthians,
when we started this study, Paul said, we are not like many. There
are all kinds of people out there teaching these things. He says,
peddling the Word of God. But as from sincerity, as from
God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. One contemporary
pastor, more contemporary than Paul, said these were conmen,
cheats, charlatans, frauds. And sadly, many today level the
same charges that those who proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture. That’s what Paul was suggesting,
that God’s word was enough. that the gospel of Christ was
enough. But there are many in our day
and age that would say it’s not enough. Psychology, those little
additional insights that we have into God when God tells me something. Those visions that I have, those
signs and wonders. What about those? Paul says God’s Word contains
everything that we need. Everything we need for life and
godliness is there. Everything that we need to tell
us about who God is and what we need to do in order to serve
God properly and minister properly. Paul says we have renounced the
things hidden because of shame. We set them aside. We repudiate
them entirely. But he’s only half done. He’s
only told us what our battle strategy is not to be. It is
not to be walking in craftiness. It is not to be adulterating
the word of God. And sadly, as you step back and
you look across the landscape of Christianity, you see vast
numbers of churches who have done this. Set aside the exposition
of Scripture, the clear unfolding of the word of God. to nourish
the people of God, and to proclaim Christ to those who do not know
God. There aren’t alternative methods.
There aren’t other means. And it isn’t new. My dear friend, who I hope to
meet one day in heaven, Martin Lloyd-Jones said it this way
more than 50 years ago. He said, we are concerned about
certain attitudes in the church herself or certain reasons in the church
herself which account for the decline of the place of preaching. More than 50 years ago, this
was already a growing concern among the godly pastors. He said,
I suggest that here are some of the main and leading factors
under the heading. He’s telling us why the love
of preaching as the means of gospel ministry was already waning. Why? First, the loss of the belief
in the authority of the Scriptures. How frightening. We saw last
week, we spent no little time looking that what Paul talked
about as the word of God was the very disclosure of God himself. And now we don’t believe that
they’re authoritative. The loss of belief in the authority
of Scripture and a diminution of the belief of the truth. We
no longer believe that there is a right and a wrong in our
society. We’ve come to succumb, as it
were, to this secular idea that truth is relative. Not Lloyd-Jones. He said, I put
this first because I am sure it is the main factor. If you
have got no authority, you cannot speak well, you cannot preach.
Great preaching always depends on great themes. He says, if
you don’t have the truth, no wonder you’ve set aside the preaching. And he goes on. He said, while
men believed scriptures to be the authoritative word of God,
they spoke on the basis of that authority and you had great preaching. But once that went and men began
to speculate and theorize and to put up hypotheses and so on,
the eloquence and the greatness of the spoken word inevitably
declined and began to wane. You cannot really deal with speculations
and conjectures in the same way that preaching had formerly dealt
with the great themes of the Scriptures. But as belief in
the great doctrines of the Bible began to go out and sermons were
replaced by ethical addresses and homilies and moral uplift
and socio-political talk, it is not surprising that preaching
declined.” See, Paul didn’t start there
either. Paul didn’t start by saying, look, we’ve got to preach.
Paul started by saying, look, you have the truth. You have
the very Word of God. And we cannot possibly set aside
the truth without utterly gutting the gospel ministry. There is
no ministry without the truth of God’s Word. And that essentially
is the positive point that follows. Look again at verse 2. 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. By the manifestation of truth,
they’re really, in this section, two contrasts. One between the
concealment, the hiding, the craftiness that goes on and the
plain manifestation on the other, where Paul said he spoke clearly
couldn’t possibly hide the truth. But there’s also a second. There’s
the contrast here between the truth that was manifested and
the corruption, the false message that was offered by the others.
Let’s look at these two very… I almost would liken defining
two of these words, truth and manifestation, almost like trying
to stab Jell-O with a fork. But here we go. Truth. One to find it is unconcealed,
manifest, that which is actual, real, ideal, genuine. And as such, it is used of God
and used of Christ and used of God’s words, His ways, His judgments. It’s truth. That’s why I said
our society in general is in such dire straits because they
no longer believe in any absolutes. They no longer believe in truth.
Everything is relative. Right and wrong is relative. One defines truth as a fundamental
or spiritual reality. It’s what’s real. The rest of
this is fading. We can’t even really discern
what is absolutely true and what isn’t. One defined it in these terms.
He said, when used of the body of truth in Christianity, it
refers to the truth as taught therein, respecting God and the
execution of His purposes through Christ and respecting the duties
of man, opposed alike to the superstitions of the Gentiles,
the inventions of the Jews and the corrupt opinions and precepts
of the false teachers. There, I put the jello on the
fork for you. Paul said, look, He said, we believe in truth.
We believe that this is the truth. We believe that the truth is
the gospel, that Christ came, that Christ took on flesh and
Christ came down to reveal God to man. Augustine, in times past,
was far more effective in pinning down what is a definition of
truth. Augustine said truth is the word
of God. Jesus Christ is the truth because
He expressed the Father. That was Jesus’ whole purpose
in coming, was to reveal the Father who is truth itself. The problem in our own day and
age, as I said, is our Culture largely has submitted
to the spirit of the age where the embracing of myths is now
commonplace. They cannot countenance some
of the truths of Scripture, the truth of original sin, that we
were born in sin as Scripture declares us to be, that we are
utterly needful of a Savior as Scripture clearly declares. That
we are to deny self, that we are to repudiate sin and cling
to the cross of Christ. All of that moral bankruptcy
stems from those very things, and what else grows from that?
But the embracing of myths that man is basically good, not sinful. that really nothing truly, because
everything is relative, nothing is truly a sin. Everything is
a sickness, really. Everything is somebody else’s
fault. And so, the whole realm of psychology
has grown and ballooned, mushroomed beyond control, a preoccupation
and dependence upon a man-made study of the God-made soul. There’s no hell. Everybody goes
to heaven. If there is a hell, it’s like
a purgatory where you can pray your way out. All we simply need
to do is embrace these crystals of our culture and have some
kind of cosmic energy as some kind of a way out. I mean, what
kind of ridiculous notions are these? But they’re embraced by
masses and masses of humanity in our day and age. This statement, said one, this
statement that by the manifestation of truth we commend ourselves,
stands opposed to the preceding clauses, not walking in craftiness
or adulterating the Word of God. Instead of availing ourselves
of secret and cunning arts, corrupting the Word of God, we declare it
openly and purely. The truth here is not moral truth
or integrity nor truth in general, but revealed truth, the very
Word of God. It’s truth in its absolute sense. And the problem is, is that this
whole moral relativism has seeped right into the church and we
no longer see right as right and wrong as wrong. We no longer
really embrace the truth. And it’s no wonder that the preaching
has been set aside. You can’t exposit that which
is no truth. One contemporary pastor said
it this way, whether a method is biblical or not, scarcely
seems to matter to the average church leader of today. Does
it work? That’s the new test of legitimacy.
Raw pragmatism has become the driving force in much of the
professing church who believe that they can induce that numerical
growth by following whatever techniques seem to be working
at the moment. We don’t need truth. What we
really need is a new video system. We don’t need truth. What we
need is drums. We don’t need truth. What we
need is all this fancy glitz. We don’t need truth. We need
the latest program, 40 days or 80 days or whatever the case
may be. What we need is the new thing. And so it goes. And as MacArthur said, and shocked
the world by saying it some 15 years ago, pragmatism ultimately
defines truth as that which is useful and meaningful and helpful. Ideas that don’t seem workable
or relevant are rejected as false. But when pragmatism is used to
make judgments about right and wrong, or when it becomes a guiding
philosophy of life, theology and ministry, it inevitably clashes
with Scripture and it must. spiritual and biblical truth
is not determined by testing what works and what doesn’t.
Paul was already facing these things in his own day where those
wanted to set aside the truth and to help God out by applying their own agenda,
by their own pragmatic methods. But it is by the manifestation
of truth, as Paul will go on to say. Nothing else do we commend
ourselves. There are no other letters of
commendation. Nothing that I can hang on the
wall. No trickery. No stunts. No creativity on my
own part. No crying out of peace if there
is no peace. No trying to soothe your soul
where there is no God soothing. truth and nothing but the truth. And what is this other word?
Manifestation. Here’s another forkful of jello. Because this word manifestation,
it is a rich word, but it is it is a word that we have almost
completely misunderstood. And because of
that ministry suffers. But it is what I would call a
God word, because it speaks of the revelation of information
by God. It’s God giving us His mind. It’s God opening us up to the
secrets of God’s mind and letting us in. The meaning of the word
is to make visible or clear or manifest, to make known, to uncover,
to reveal. And that’s why I say it’s a God
word, because if God didn’t let us in, we would look in vain. The adjective means visible or
manifest, public. The verb means to make visible.
And what it speaks of is the disclosure of the hidden meaning
of parables that’s used in that fashion in Scripture. It is used
synonymously with another God word, apocalyptic or apocalypse,
the revelation of God. It’s used almost interchangeably
with that very word, as you’ll see in a moment. It is used in
Scripture to speak of the revelation that takes place in proclamation,
the proclamation of God’s Word. We bring the light of God’s Word
to a dark and dying world. To be manifested, though, is
more than just to appear. The basic meaning of the word
means to appear. But a person can appear, a lot
of people appeared without ever disclosing to others who they
really are. A manifestation, on the other
hand, is a full revelation of one’s true character. A lot of
us came today and appeared. And so I want to take you on
a tour. I want to take you on a tour of how this word is used
in Scripture and how germane that is to our discussion this
morning. How is this word used? Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3. And I’m going to have to pick
up the pace or I’ll be in this passage of fourth week. First Timothy, chapter 3, look
at verse 16. Most consider this little section
a beautiful little song that the early church sang. Verse
16, But by common confession, great is the mystery of godliness.
He who was revealed in the flesh. That’s our word. He who was manifested,
fully revealed in the flesh, and the manifestation in the
flesh here clearly refers to the birth of the Son of God.
And in that, it clearly points to the fact that Jesus Christ
was already in existence. It’s not that Jesus burst onto
the scene by way of creation. He already existed, but He was
revealed before our eyes fully. As one said, it is indeed him
who in his person and work is the disclosing of the mystery
respecting the divine life in man, which to this point had
been hidden in God. And this was the thought in Paul’s
mind that the great revelation of the religious life is Christ. So much so that they sang about
it. This is the first line of their great song. Great is the
mystery of godliness. He who was revealed in the flesh
and we’ve seen him. We’ve seen God because we’ve
seen Christ. Turn over one book. Second Timothy
chapter one. Second Timothy chapter one. And
there in verse 8, Paul began to exhort young Timothy, therefore,
do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, his prisoner,
but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the
power of God. You see, that’s the problem.
There are too many men not willing to suffer for the sake of the
gospel without abandoning it for new methods. suffering for the gospel according
to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His
own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus
from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing
of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who abolished death and brought
to life and immortality to light through the gospel. It’s the
same exact context. It’s Jesus Christ that he’s speaking
of. It’s Jesus Christ being revealed,
manifest before our eyes. That was the greatest manifestation
of the truth, the ultimate revelation of God that has ever been. As one Puritan said, Christ appearing
here must certainly be understood in the larger sense, not merely
of the incarnation, but of the incarnate Son in His entire mission
and work on the earth. In other words, God didn’t leave
us wanting for more information. He showed to us Christ. Turn,
if you would, to Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter 1. Paul, a bondservant of God and
an apostle of Christ Jesus, for the faith of those chosen of
God and the knowledge of the truth, which is according to
godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie,
promised long ages ago. but at the proper time manifested
even His Word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according
to the commandment of God our Savior.” In other words, he says,
look, there is no more information that is hidden from man. God
has made it a full disclosure to us in Christ. He has shown
to us Christ. Again, as another Puritan said,
by the manifestation of this word is meant such a clear revelation
of it as requires a great light. Before the coming of Christ,
there was an appearance of this word, but not a manifestation.
Some light, but dark and obscure. But now the sun of righteousness
has arisen and there is a clear publishing of the gospel. In
other words, we see Christ in full. God has taken away the
blinders and we see it fully revealed before our eyes. I’ll take you to the magnum opus.
Turn to Romans 1. Romans 1. Where we have our Word again
manifest twice in this great passage. where Paul is dealing
with those that might suggest that he set aside the preaching
of the gospel. Maybe there’s another method,
another mode, another way. Verse 15, Thus, for my part,
I am eager to preach the gospel to you who are at Rome, for I
am 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. For in it the righteousness of
God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, but the
righteous man shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” And by saying that, he says,
it’s not that they don’t have enough information. They suppress
the truth in an unrighteousness because that which is known about
God is evident. It is fully manifest within them. Why? For God made it evident,
fully manifest to them. No wonder Paul will go on to
say, you are without excuse. If you don’t have a basic belief
in a God, Whether you can pin a name on him and list ten of
his attributes. If you don’t have a basic belief
in the existence of God, you are without excuse because it
has been fully revealed. All that you need for that understanding
of God is there. It’s been fully given to you.
And he goes on to talk about by what has been made, by what
you see. Witnessing the birth of a child is testimony enough. that there is a God. As one said,
the knowledge of God does not simply mean a knowledge that
there is a God, but a knowledge of His nature and attributes,
the eternal power of a Godhead. It is not a mere external revelation
which the Apostle is speaking, but that evidence of that being
and perfections of God which every man has in the constitution
of his own nature. You don’t have to prove God to
these people. Preach Christ. Preach Christ. They know in their heart there’s
a God. Another said it this way. God
has presented it before their eyes, they all see it, don’t
they? Though they don’t draw the proper
conclusion from it. In the works of creation, God
has manifested Himself to men to be glorified by them. He has
set their eyes in those great and wonderful works in which
He is represented in like manner. He has shown Himself to the world
in His Son, Jesus Christ. God has fully revealed. For the sake of time, I would
point out to you that this is a tremendously popular word with
the Apostle John as well. John chapter two, verse eleven,
John chapter seventeen, verse six. First, John. The word continues, John chapter
one, verse one through four. And so the question remains,
to what is Paul referring here when he speaks of the manifestation
of the truth? What do we stand on? What is
our strategy? What is our great strategy as
those committed to the Gospel ministry? It is the manifestation
of the truth. It is the fact that God has unfolded
and uncovered everything before our eyes, not the least of which is our Lord Jesus Christ. He
has revealed Him in full. And in revealing Christ to us,
He has revealed Himself to us. It’s the manifestation of the
truth. It was the truth that Paul preached. Not all kinds
of fanciful ideas. Not other paths to God. Not other
approaches. It was Christ and Christ alone. Wrapping up that great epistle
to the Romans, Paul said it this way, In Romans chapter 16, now
to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and
the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of
the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but
is now manifest. How can we not? How can we not
hold fast to Christ as the only means of hope, as the truth?
For a dying world, it is Christ and Christ alone. And that was
exactly Paul’s position. Paul’s opponents, these false
teachers, tried and tried to recommend and commend themselves
in order to secure some kind of confidence in those to whom
they were so-called ministering. Through this trickery, through
corrupting the gospel, they sought time and again to secure adherence
to themselves. And that’s what you have in this
day and age in large measure is adherence to various and sundry
men and earthly ministries and nothing more. Paul knew the truth. Paul knew the truth had such
a self convincing power in and of itself that even in those
places where it was rejected and even hated, It commended
itself ultimately to the consciences of those to whom he preached.
And that’s where he ends. When there is a clear presentation
of the truth of Scripture, regardless of what the public outcry is,
regardless of what the reaction is deep down, their heart says,
I know it’s true. I know it’s true. deep down in
their conscience, they know what the truth is. And that’s where
Paul ends. He says, by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves
to every man’s conscience. Here’s how it worked. And in
closing, turn to 1 Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul said,
look, my conscience is clear. And you know how I operated.
You know how I conducted my ministry. And this is what I did. Look
at First Thessalonians, chapter two, verse one, for you yourselves
know your conscience says yes. You yourselves know, brethren,
that our coming to you is not in vain. But after we had already
suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we
had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel amid
much opposition. For our exhortation does not
come from error or impurity by way of deceit, but we have been
approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak,
not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. Stay
with it. For we never came with flattering
speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God is our
witness. Nor did we seek glory from men,
either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ,
we might have asserted our authority. but we proved to be gentle among
you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having
so fond an affection for you, we were well pleased to impart
to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives because
you had become very dear to us. For you recall, brethren, our
labor, our hardship, how working night and day so as not to be
a burden to any of you, we proclaim to you the gospel of God. You
are our witnesses. And so is God. How devoutly and
uprightly and blamelessly behave we behave toward you believers,
just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and
imploring each one of you as a father would his own children
so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you
into his own kingdom and glory. Paul says, We were commending
ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. It was the
Word of God and nothing else. And you know it. And you know
it to be true. My dear friend, who I hope to
meet one day, Lloyd-Jones, summed up the glorious preaching of
the gospel of Christ in such simple terms. He said, any true
definition of preaching must say that a man is there to deliver
the message of God, a message from God to those people. He
has been sent. He is a commissioned person.
He is standing there as the mouthpiece of God and of Christ to address
these people. In other words, he is not there
merely to talk to them. He’s not there to entertain them.
He is there to do something to these people to produce results
of various kinds, to influence people. Preaching should make
such a difference to a man who is listening that he is never
the same again. But ultimately, it isn’t the
preacher. It’s the truth of God’s Word that the preacher unfolds. Let’s pray. Our merciful God, we humble ourselves
before You. We are almost fearful to take
up God’s Word and to open it and to preach it, lest we should
go astray and introduce our own thoughts and ideas into the passage.
But Father, as we stand back and we look, Paul would have
us to take it up. He would have us to take it up
rightly and handle it carefully. and handle it accurately and
preach it boldly. Father, God, grant us the grace.
Grant us the grace, we pray. It’s in Jesus’ name, Amen.