Turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. To frame up my thoughts before I read this text, this is the title, this is the heading I've given this section of Scripture. The Convictions of a Sovereign Grace Ministry. You could say it this way to make it more personal. The convictions of a sovereign grace minister. The Holy Spirit, through the pen of the Apostle, writes these words, starting in verse 1. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God, that's little g, the God of this world, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. and ourselves, your servants, your slaves, for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded that light shine out of the darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I was not born into a doctrine-graced, saturated church. I spent the first 33 years of my life in the most milquetoast Southern Baptist culture that many of you spent the first majority of your life in. The Lord saved me about eight and a half years ago. At that point in my life, I was a used car dealer, yes, used car dealer, that hustled to make an extra buck through rental properties. One of the saving graces early on was that I married a woman who was truly born again. At that period of time in my life, I had been ordained as a deacon in a church. I gave my 10%. I showed up. I crossed the religious T's. I dotted every I. But I was steeped in pride, carnal pride. And at the end of 33 years, the Lord and His providence allowed our church to split. When the majority of the church went to the other Southern Baptist churches in town, one couple was led by the sovereign grace of God to Shelbyville Mills Baptist Church in Shelbyville, Tennessee. You didn't just walk into Shelbyville Mills Baptist Church. We heard they were a cult from a distance. But this couple did. And this couple, this man happened to be my mailman. And on a Tuesday morning as I was sleeping off another drunk, I headed through the back of my neighborhood and my mailman, this man who was now in a Doctrines of Grace church, pulled over in front of me, and I'll never forget he said these words, Brock, you're the double-minded man from the book of James. I know you think you're a Christian, but you need to go to the Word of God. And in a sense I knew it, in a sense I didn't know it, but here's what I said, what do you want me to do about it? And this is what he simply said, I want you to come to church with us. Tracy and myself have been born again, which confused me because he walked in aisle 11 just like I did. He said, we've been born again, I want you to come listen to this man preach expositorily. I went home and my wife, unbeknownst to me, was about two inches away from pulling the plug on me and her. If she hadn't been a spirit and dwelt believer, she would have a long time ago. And she simply said, I'll go, I'll do anything. I told her I couldn't even pronounce expository. I'm pretty sure I said suppository preaching. I said, I don't know what it is, but it sounds like it hurts. And I was right. We went, and immediately I was convinced that my wife had been emailing that pastor, and he wrote his sermons from Proverbs and 2 Samuel straight for me. After nine months of battling, of struggling, here's what I can say today. Whoever says you cannot evangelize with the doctrines of grace knows nothing about the doctrines of grace. At the end of nine months, at the end of six months, I remember going to my wife and here's what I said, here's what I know, Brother John O. Sims preaches the Word of God. I believe that the God he preaches of is holy, holy, holy, and I believe I'm everything but what he is. And the chasm was so, so large in between who I now knew I was, a totally debraved sinner, and who he was, a perfect, sovereign, holy God, that here's what I said, I'm not one of his elect. That's the first time in my life my wife had ever heard me say, I'm lost. Before a man can be saved, he's got to know he's lost, amen? But three months later, through the effectual call of the Holy Spirit and the gospel of Jesus Christ, he had his way. He changed my life. From that point forward, the first two and a half years of my walk with the Lord, I would say this way, I walked with my head in the clouds. Everything was great. The sun was shining. You know, if you've heard of cage stage, I needed six cages, right, in those early years. For two and a half years, I thought, this is the way it's going to be the rest of my life. Sharing the gospel, people responding to the gospel, people respecting and enamored by my zeal for the Lord. Everything's going to be great. But at the end of that two and a half years, something started to happen. I knew of the doctrines of grace, but I didn't know how to practically flesh out and apply the doctrines of grace. I worked part-time driving an off-road dump truck for $15 an hour. My pastor counseled me to get out of the used car business. I got out of the used car business. And so I was exposed to an excavating company with 88 of the most pharisaical hyper-pagan men you can imagine. But here's what I did every single day for those two and a half years. I shared Jesus Christ. I told them about Christ. I ministered for Christ. But a bitterness started to develop within me, a pessimistic attitude. And after two and a half years, I found myself on a job site in Nashville in my work truck. And I looked out across the job site and I saw a new employee on a new piece of equipment. And this is where my pride and pessimism had brought me. I saw him as another sinful man who was going to reject my message and ultimately reject me. What was it? I was in a ditch. It was pride. What's pride? It's an over-elevation of self above God, His grace, and others. I was prideful. And that very morning, 30 minutes after I had had these thoughts, these pessimistic, unloving thoughts towards this man, through the persevering grace of God, imparted to me through my wife. Amen, brothers? My wife sent me a text, and to paraphrase, I'll just tell you kind of what it said. She said, Brock, I was doing my yearly read through the Bible this morning, and I came across 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 1 through 6, and I thought of you. And I opened my Bible in that work truck, and I read 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 1 through 6, and I broke down. the Lord used that passage of Scripture, His Holy Word, as an immediate antidote, as an immediate solution to me. To me. Now, after a few days, you know some of us pastors, preachers, early on in the ministry were what you would consider nerds. So I went past the passage of Scripture and I think the first time I listened to a sermon on that passage was probably Brother John MacArthur. And what I found out is that passage of Scripture has to deal with Paul and his volatile relationship with who? The Corinthians. So just go back to the beginning, brothers. How did his relationship with the Corinthians? The church planning phase for some of you church planners. Acts chapter 17, Acts chapter 18, Paul goes into the city of Corinth, goes to the synagogue, what happens? He gets kicked out on his tail. Few steps later, he gets beat up. What does the Lord say? Stay in this city. You stay in this city, and you do what? You teach the Word of God. Why? Because I have many people here. It started with difficulty. Then you go to the middle phase of Paul's relationship with the Corinthians. The first letter to the Corinthians. Two and a half years after this church was birthed, they're already, excuse me, It must be the water, brother, here in Pulaski. They already, two and a half years after the planting of this church need what? Need reform. They already need revitalization. You survey 1 Corinthians and what do you find out about this church? They're pharisaical. They're pagan, they're immoral, they're drunkards, they misuse the spiritual gifts, they misuse and prostitute the Lord's Supper. And then by the time you come to 2nd Corinthians, what we find out is there's been genuine repentance, restoration, and reform within the church, but Paul has a new bag he has to deal with in these super apostles. Everything he says, everything he does, they hound him just like the Pharisees in Jesus' day hounded him. I think it's important to establish that in that context, listen to me, in that context, the most optimistic man we see in the Bible is the Apostle Paul. Why? What did he believe? What do I believe? What am I encouraged this morning that every single one of you believe? We believe in a sovereign God. What does that mean? As R.C. Sproul said, every molecule in this universe is under His sovereign control. Every molecule. The grace, what does it mean? That our life is prompted by what? By the unmerited favor of God. And here's the key, both His sovereignty and His grace is rooted where? In Jesus Christ our Lord. Every single bit. And so, what I see in this passage of Scripture is quite simply seven convictions rooted in the sovereign grace of God that acted not only as the Apostle Paul's anchor for his soul, but brother's acts, no doubt in my mind, for the anchor of each one of our souls this morning. Now, I'm well aware both of, I appreciate you, brother. I appreciate you, brother. Y'all did a great job, both of you. Local church. Amen? Local church. My pastor told me early, Brock, all theology is local church theology. What does that mean? You want to see robust theology? It needs to be in and through the local church. History, brother. You gave the history of this conference. You just gave an epic of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what you gave. Thank you. Number one, first conviction. It's conviction over the ministry. It's a conviction over the ministry. Look to verse 4. Let your eyes fall down to your Bibles and look to verse 4. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, as Brother Fred says, we, say it with me, faint not. First question that a Bible student must ask is, what ministry? Praise God for the therefore. As Spurgeon says, what's the therefore? Therefore. As some of your favorite TV show from 40 years ago says, conjunction, junction, what's your function? I think Martin Luther said, brothers and sisters, conjunctions and grammar is the sheath in which we put the sharp sword of God's Word. The therefore points us back to chapter three so that we can properly understand the content of what? Chapter four. So when he says we have this ministry, what ministry is he talking about? Here's what ministry he's talking about, the new covenant ministry of the Spirit. With emphasis that this is not the old covenant ministry of the law. What is this new covenant ministry? It's not written with ink, brothers, but it's written with what? The Spirit of God. It's not written on tablets of stone, but on fleshly hearts. It does not lead to unrighteousness and despair, but righteousness and peace, Romans chapter 5, verse 1. This new ministry doesn't end in death, praise God, but it starts and it ends in eternal life. This new covenant ministry is not a fading glory that fallen men have to veil on their face, but at the center of this new covenant ministry is a perfect glory revealed in the face of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Look to verse 10. What does he say about this new covenant ministry? A glory that exceleth. A glory that exceleth. Exceleth for what? Through this new covenant ministry, God's glory seen in the face of Jesus Christ brings about two things. Divine freedom for the captives and transformation for those who are totally depraved. That's what it brings about. This new covenant ministry. To say it simply, you know what this is, brothers and sisters? This is a gospel of grace. Amen? And not only does the message that we preach and teach point back to the work that has been finished through the Son, but as we preach this message, the ongoing work of the Spirit is imparted to those the Son died for 2,000 years before today. It's the gospel of grace. And who's the chief minister in the gospel of grace? Go to Ezekiel chapter 36 or Jeremiah chapter 31. What does God say? I will. I will. I will. Why? For my name's sake. You can paraphrase it this way. I will for my glory. That's the ministry, brothers and sisters, that we possess. Now notice what he says. We have this ministry. It irritates the fire out of me when commentators say the reason that Paul put we is because he doesn't want to speak of his authority and he deliberately wants to be humble. Hogwash and suey. You know why Paul said we? Because by the Spirit of God, he no longer saw himself as an individual. You know, when I was lost, I was an individual, but when I was born again, I became a plural pronoun. We. They. Ours. It's the outworking of the Holy Spirit that produces humility, not the deliberate toning down of His authority to kind of jockey for position or some false sense of humility among the Corinthians. We. Brothers, this ministry goes past the apostle Paul, it goes past the other apostles, and it comes down to ministers today who minister faithfully where? Within the local church. You want to talk about apostolic succession? The apostolic message of the gospel succeeded, but not the line. Not the line. It's closed. Amen? So what do we say? We say number one, first conviction, a sovereign grace conviction over the ministry. Number two, the mercy. The mercy. Why and how does Paul, also known as who? Saul of Tarsus, a blasphemer, just like each one of us was a blasphemer, injurious, a persecutor. How does a man like that end up possessing this ministry? Clearly in the text. As we've received mercy. Now in the Greek, this is one word. It takes five English words to translate this one word. It's an aorist passive. Okay, let me give you, let me step into the weeds for a minute. But there's a reason. It's an aorist passive. What does that mean? That an outside agent has completed, once and for all, a past completed act. So what does that mean? Paul possesses this ministry because an outside agent, Almighty God, in his past, once and for all and completed, mercied him with that ministry. That's what he's saying. And what does Romans chapter 11 say? The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable or without repentance. Without repentance. Now, this is a condensed statement of what we've already read in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. So, what does it mean that we have this ministry according to the mercy of God? 2 Corinthians chapter 3, 5 through 6. Paul said, not that we are sufficient of ourselves. Is any man in this room sufficient of himself? To think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, verse 6, listen to this, who also hath literally made us able ministries of the New Testament. The New Testament. So what do we have at this point? According to God's merciful plan and performance, and if He plans it, He's going to perform it. according to God's sovereign grace, we have this ministry, we possess this ministry by which the Spirit of the Living God gives life to those accomplished by the Son of God, what? For the chosen people of God. And what's the result? It's not our glory, it's God's glory. We faint. What's the result? We have this ministry as we've received mercy. What's the result? We faint not. We faint not. In the Greek it means this, to be utterly without spirit. In the Greek it means this, to be wearied of soul. It means to be exhausted to a point that you what? You want to and you have to give up. And now let me just say this, let me step back and let's get a perspective really quickly for 2025. If there was any minister in the last 2,000 years of church history who we would deem having a reason to faint or give up, who would be exhibit A or case in point? It'd be the Apostle Paul, especially in his dealings with this volatile church at Corinth. Amen? Amen. Listen to Paul's testimony in verse eight of this same chapter. He says, We're afflicted in every way, but not crushed. We're perplexed, but not driven to despair. We're persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. Why do you see all this temporal pressure on the Apostle Paul, but he confidently says, I faint not, or literally, I don't give up. Here it is, the mercy of God. You see, Paul knew what the weeping prophet Jeremiah knew. Lamentations chapter 3, 22 through 23 regarding mercy. Through the Lord's mercies, listen to this, we are not consumed. Because His compassions, they fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness. Brothers and sisters, listen to me this morning, or this evening. There it is. Listen to me. The morning of your glorious conversion. The morning that God caused you to be born again. Amen. You know what it was? The mercy of God. The morning that He called you to the ministry. The morning He caused you to do a 180 in life and career and called you to the ministry. You know what it comes down to? The mercy of God. Every single morning since and morning after, every day you wake up and you think, I can't do this. And you what? By some miraculous, no, Spurgeon said a million miraculous events in one day. You go to bed at night and somehow or another, you pieced it all together. You know what it was? It was the mercy of God. And let me tell you this. When you wake up in the morning and you go to that mirror in that lowliest state and you see, all you see in that mirror looking back at you is a dysfunctional, wretched sinner. You know what it is? It's the mercy of God. Everything in this world, brothers, including your wife, are going to look at you and they're going to tell you you're crooked. You're broken, but don't you ever forget, what is it? The mercy of God. Derek Prime said this, he said, there is more mercy in Jesus than there is sin in you, dear minister. Closed quote. In other words, Paul didn't give up. Why? Because he couldn't give up. Why can we not give up? If you're genuinely called, the sovereign grace of God is rooted within you, and you can't give up. Paul persevered, whether it was Damascus Road, whether it was Demetrius the silversmith, or it was the drop of Nero's sword, he persevered. Why? Because through sovereign grace, God preserved him. That's it. In regards to the merciful ministry of the new covenant, Paul, listen to this, and this is what I found in my studies this week. I'm familiar with this text, but I went back. Like a brother said, you go back to a text, you go back to a text. Here's what my pastor said. My pastor told me one time, Brock, you could spend 150 hours in one verse, and it's like trying to exhaust the Atlantic Ocean with a thimble. It's not going to happen. And one of the connections I see here with the ministry and mercy is Paul treated the fact that he possessed the ministry and was a partaker of ministry in his own conversion, he treated them like two sides of one precious coin. You see, he never separated his ministry from God's ministry to him concerning his own salvation. You want to get bitter in the ministry? Get tied down with only that one side of the coin, your ministry, forgetting that God graciously saved you through that ministry. And here's what's going to happen. Here's what I've learned as a young little fella that knows little. You're going to get bitter. Listen to how he encourages young Timothy, how he keeps these two together. God's new covenant ministry in his own salvation and the fact that he is now used to bring salvation to other people. First Timothy chapter 1, 12 through 15. Listen to how he keeps these two close. He says, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord. who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry." There's the ministry. Verse 13, who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, an injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did, I did it ignorantly in unbelief. Fourteen, and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. And then what does he say? This is a faithful saying and worthy of all exception that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners and what does Paul do? He raises his hand and he says, whom I'm chief. He doesn't say past tense, I used to be chief, but as he grew in sanctification and he learned more about the Lord and more about who he truly was, what does he say? Present tense, I'm chief. I'm chief. What was it? The ministry of the new covenant. Paul with this conviction, not only over his ministry, but also over his what? His salvation. I could give you 2 Timothy 1, 8 through 9, but I'm going to be pushing for time anyway, so I'm not going to give you that passage of Scripture. Now, it is hard. I will be transparent as I can possibly be this morning. I respect you. In a sanctified way, I consider you distinguished gentlemen. Amen? It's hard. One area of preaching to you that's hard is this, giving you application that you don't already understand. Right? Because here's what I know. Here's what I'm learning. The more a man experiences, the clearer the application will be. Many of you men have walked 30, 40, 50 years. You have the experience that I don't. So most of the application that you get, praise God, the Holy Spirit did the work and I don't have to worry about it. So let me say this this morning. In regards to Jonathan Edwards' resolutions, I'll make a resolution over these first two points. Resolve, brothers. resolve to never let a day go by in this life that you don't glory over the New Covenant ministry of the Spirit in two areas. The fact that God called you to minister to others to bring about salvation, but don't ever forget He first used that ministry to bring about your salvation. And He's still using that ministry today to sanctify that salvation. What do we see? Number one, the ministry. Number two, the mercy. Conviction number three, the manifestation. The manifestation, we see this in verse two. Paul says, have renounced. We've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight Now, I'll be honest with you. There are many times I read the Apostle Paul, knowing what he's going through, knowing how bratty I am when I go through the minor afflictions I go through compared to him, and automatically I think this, I'm a skeptic. I'm like, look, I know Paul said it. I know he just, he's going through what he's going through. I know he said that we have this ministry. Que sera, sera. But I don't know if I believe him. You know, I believe Paul might have been saying this to save apostolic face, or I believe that Paul's saying this as not to discourage those that follow him. He might be some delusional romantic, you know what I mean? But here's the facts. What Paul spoke is what he did. With Paul, just like Jesus, you will know a tree by what? By the fruit it bears, brothers and sisters. And so what he gives here is he goes, look, this is not just lip service. You want to know whether or not this is me? Look to my life. Look to the manifestations of my life. Specifically, look to three things that I don't do, that I speak out against, and look to the one thing that I do do, okay? Some of you grammaticians, sorry for the do-do, okay? It just happens, all right? Now, to give you a little context before I go any farther, here's the irony. The manifestations that Paul says, look, this is not my life. Why does he have to say that? Because these super apostles were saying, this is Paul. He's an immoral man. He's misleading. He says he's about Christ, but behind the scenes he's not about Christ. And then, what would they say? They would say that Paul mishandled the Word of God, right? The irony is, Who was guilty of that? The super-apostles that were pointing one finger but refused to turn that hand over and see three fingers pointing back at them. This is the irony. So what Paul does here, while he explicitly exonerates himself, he implicitly pins the super-apostles who had accused him against the wall. Okay? So, here's what he says. He says, we've renounced What's renounced? It speaks of a commitment against something. And what it also carries, not only is it a commitment against something, but it manifests in you being willing to stand up against others and say, I'm committed against that something, even in your life. He's renounced. He said no to. Now, there are three things he says no to. Follow along with me. The first thing that Paul renounces is a masked immorality, a masked immorality. Look at the text. He says, we've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. You could paraphrase it this way, hidden things of shame, okay? What Paul's renouncing are mindsets and movements that other men hide. Why? Because they're shameful. I think that King James nails it on the spiritual head by saying dishonesty. Okay? Dishonesty. Basically to paraphrase Paul, here's what he's saying. I'm not dishonest about my sin. I don't hide the shameful things that other men hide. Brothers and sisters, Paul operated according to a sanctified principle known as what? Integrity. Integrity. Whether it was good or bad, what you saw of Paul in public is the exact same thing that you didn't see of him in private. They were consistent. They were consistent. Now, I want to clear this up. This is not Paul giving warrant for antinomianism. He's not saying I'm a sinner in private and public. We know better, right? The same 17 qualifications he gives in Titus and 1 Timothy chapter 3 for pastors, there's no doubt in my mind Paul's life matched up with those qualifications. What do we call that? Holiness. set-apart man, okay? Alright? It's not antinomianism, and it's not perfection, right? We don't obtain perfection here. Philippians chapter 3, I haven't already obtained perfection yet, okay? So it's neither of those two things. Here's what it was. Paul says, what you see behind closed doors is what you get out in public. I'm not dishonest about my sin. Right? One of the greatest evidences of sanctification in my own life or any Christian's life is this. The person they are behind closed doors and the person they are on Sunday mornings in front of their pastor, from the point of conversion, that gap between those two entities continues to get smaller. You know what we call that? A reducing in hypocrisy. That's what Paul's saying. Who I am behind closed doors is who I am out in the open. What is it, brothers and sisters, especially you brothers? He was honest about his struggle. He was honest, especially with his people, about his sin. Romans chapter 7, we see it clearer than anything, and I believe that it's Paul 25 years into his walk with the Lord. I don't believe that speaks of his conversion experience. What does he say? I don't do the things I want to do. I do the things I don't want to do. Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? And then the Spirit kicks in. Praise be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And he gets pushed back to the foot of the cross over his wretchedness. I have never been more impacted by a pastor's statement than I was. I don't know if many of you are familiar with a man named Bob Utley. Freebiblecommentary.com online. Now Bob Utley plays the middle. He's neither Calvinistic nor Armenian, according to his testimony, but he's a useful student and teacher of the Word. And Bob Utley was saved at a young age, and he's ministered for 60 years. Early on, I had great respect for Bob Utley, and I listened to many of his sermons that were available online. And I'll never forget, as he preached a sermon to his congregation, here's what this seasoned man said to his congregation. He said, I want you all to know that I've never had one pure motive in my life or in my ministry." It blew me away as a young minister. And you know what it did? It opened up the door and it freed me to be who I truly was. I hear pastors all the time, and if you're one of these pastors, beware. Examine yourself. They have to constantly tell their people, don't put me on a pedestal. Don't put me on a pedestal. You know what I think the issue is? Your people are just too tired to take you off the pedestal that you've dishonestly placed yourself. That's what I think it is. Brothers, be transparent with your people about your sin and your struggle. Now, I know we can't air everything. We have those special brothers. We have to be responsible. But act like a human being, is what I'm saying. Notice the next thing, he renounces. Got hung up on that one, sorry. Nor handling the word of God deceitfully. Deceitfully is a word used in extra-biblical Greek, and it spoke of gold, precious materials, and quality wine. And so to handle those things deceitfully would be to add inferior elements that takes away from the value of the original material, okay? The false teachers in Corinth of the Judaizing flavor, by the way, would pin Paul against the wall and say that he was a reductionist regarding the Word of God. Here's what they accused him of. Paul removes what? The law. He's removed the law. They would say that Paul was the one who took away the key ingredient of the gospel in the law. But here's what Paul simply says, for time's sake. Paul says, when I handle the Word of God, whether it's preaching, teaching, or writing, I don't take away natural ingredients that are there, and I don't add partial ingredients that don't need to be there. That's what he says. Fourthly, Let me go back. I skipped misleading. Excuse me. Notice that middle line, not walking in craftiness. Not walking in craftiness. According to the Scripture, somebody who acted crafty was somebody who came to you cloaked in a banner of doing God's work, but really, on the inside, and according to reality, whose work were they doing? Their own work. That's what crafty is. This word is used six times in the Bible. It speaks of Satan, and it speaks of Satan's children, the Pharisees, okay, in Jesus' day. They were crafty. They came waving that banner, but on the inside, the banner said me, okay? Basically, Paul says this, look, my ministry's not sly. My ministry's not tricky. My ministry is not sly-to-the-hand tactics to get people to move in my way, thinking they're moving in Christ's way. Paul basically says, look, whether you're talking about my motives, my mouth, or my movement, what is it? What you see is what you get. This is more than likely the accusation that the super-apostles had made towards the Apostle Paul regarding what? Money. Money. They were opportunistic. Every time Paul gave them something, they would take it and run a mile with it. They would watch Paul go into the church at Corinth, okay? And face-to-face with the church of Corinth, what would Paul never do? He'd never take money face-to-face. But he would go out on some apostolic venture, and when he was 60, 100, 150 miles down the road, and he would see another need in the church where the Corinthians could help, he would send one of his messengers back to what? To receive an offering. The offering in Jerusalem is a great example of that. So what did they do? They said, you see those two things? You see, Paul acts like he's not about money, but when he's away from you, he sends somebody else to do his dirty work. He's all about money, and in this area, he's misleading you. I'll ask you this question. What was the motivation of the Apostle Paul? It was the glory of Jesus Christ. When Paul opened his mouth, what came out? The glory of Jesus Christ. When Paul moved in the ministry to edify others, what was it? The glory of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, 31 through 2, listen to what Paul says in regards to his motives and his mouth being the glory of Jesus Christ. He says, And I, brethren, When I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, for I determined to know nothing among you except what? Jesus Christ and Him crucified." What motivated Paul? The glory of God, the glory of Christ. What came out of his mouth? The same thing. The same thing. So there's the three things Paul says, look, that's not me. Or you would say it in the South, that ain't me, right? What was Paul about? One manifestation. He gives one manifestation and says, this is what I'm about. This was his method. You want a method? Here's his method. But, by the manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But by the manifestation of the truth, you could say it this way, an open statement of the truth. How would we see this fleshed out today? With an open Bible. with an open Bible. What's my method? Here's Paul's method. Here's our method, brothers. An open Bible. And what do we do from this open Bible? We preach the Word. What do we do from this open Bible? We preach the Gospel. What do we do from this open Bible? We didaskakos. We teach. We inform and instruct from the God-breathed Scripture. He says, this is simply my method. They're peddlers of the Word, and here it is, by God's mercy, I'm a preacher of the Word. 2 Corinthians 2, 17, Paul articulates what that preaching ministry consists of. He says, for we are not as many who corrupt the Word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, and here it is, speak we in Christ. What are we to do, brothers? We're to open the Bible, and here it is, we're to speak we in Christ. And in so doing, what do we do? Look at the text. We commend ourselves to everyone's conscience. In other words, listen, The false apostles who deceitfully handle the Word of God, what do they do? They have to mislead you. They have to mask their immorality. They have to mishandle the Word of God to commend themselves. Matter of fact, that's why they do all those things, to recommend. They had to write up their own handwritten letters to recommend themselves. I mean, that's not much of a recommendation. You go in for a job and you need a reference, the guy that's going to hire you opens it up, and your reference number one is who? Yourself. It's not gonna work out too well, but that's what they did. Paul says, I don't have to recommend anything. I have to simply do what? I have to commend myself. How am I gonna commend myself? Here's how we commend ourselves, brothers. May this be the habitual spirit-wrought activity till you take your last breath on this earth. We read the text, we explain the text, and by the Spirit of God, we help our people apply the text. And that will be sufficient. I think what he's saying to keep you out of the weeds. I think what Paul's saying here. I think, okay? Take this with discretion. You want evidence that I love you, Corinthians? You want evidence that this is not about me, but your best interests are in my heart? Here it is. You wanna know how I love you? I preach you the truth. That's how I love you. Robert Murray McShane says this, the one that loves you the most will tell you the most truth about yourself. Close quote. C.H. Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon says this, certain teachers tell us that they must adapt truth to advance of the age, which means, listen, that they must murder the truth and fling its dead body to the dogs, which simply means that a popular lie should take the place of offensive truth. Closed. Quote. How do we do this today, brothers? Number one, you have to have conversion. Spirit of the living God has to reside within you. That's number one. Number two, I'll just say this, and there's many more, this is not an exhaustive list. You need to be trained up by other faithful men. Here it is, not on the internet, within the local church. Okay? And there's two things that you have to be able to do to properly teach and feed your people. And we're at all different levels, so there's a lot of grace in this area. But the first thing that you need to do is learn how to handle the Word of God in your study. To give you the $5 words, you know the words, hermeneutics, a sound hermeneutic, and exegesis. Amen? 2 Timothy chapter 215, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Where does it start? In your study. One hour, go back for four more. And then come out, get you a fresco like John MacArthur, and go back for six more. Amen? I've met a lot of men in the ministry who spend a lot of time in the Bible, but they bypass this first step. You've got to be around faithful men who don't know how to exegete and hermeneutically approach a text, right? You've got to have those things intact. And then when that's intact, what's the next thing? Expository presentation from the pulpit. Expository presentation from the pulpit. 2 Timothy chapter 4-2, what does Paul say? Last dying testament to a young Timothy at Ephesus. Preach the word. Be in season and out of season when it's popular and when it's not popular, even among your people. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long-suffering, and let's say it together, and doctrine. Doctrine. J. Gresham Machen said this. Listen to these words. Men, solid theologians from the last 2,000 years are valuable brothers and sisters. It is with the open Bible that the real Christian preacher comes before his congregation. He does not come to present his own opinions. He does not come to present the results of his own research in the phenomenon of religion. He comes to set forward what is contained in the Word of God." Closed quote. And then Paul adds a safety to this third or fourth point. What does he say? I do it in the sight of God. The false teachers, what was their safety, success, and security? The fallen perspective of men. If they bought it, they were doing their job. What was Paul's security? The character and the attributes of God. Specifically what? His omniscience. Specifically what? The fact that he knows and sees all things, even down to the crevice of your heart. An all-knowing God was there in his study. An all-knowing God was there in his hotel room with his smartphone. An all-knowing God was there on that Saturday night before he approached the pulpit on Sunday morning. God sees everything. He sees everything. That was his safety. And brothers and sisters, that's our safety. In the sight of God. Number four, are you still with me? Amen, brother, that's what happens when you eat bread, okay? Number four. The majority. The majority. Look at verse 3 and 4. But if our gospel is hid, or be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. When a minister decides that he is going to stand on truth, here's what he has to let go of. Numbers. You cannot be faithful to the Bible and be pragmatic in regards to your success. It doesn't work. You can't loosely hang on to both. You've got to cling to one or the other. Paul's opponents would say, you know how we know that Paul's not who you think he is? Because the majority of the people who hear his message, his oversimplified message, don't. respond. And you know what Paul says to that? You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. But then Paul says, he clears it up. He says, it's not what you think it is. You see, it has nothing to do with my oratory skills. It has nothing to do whether I knock a sermon out of the park or most of my cases, you know, you fall below par. It has nothing to do with any of those things. Here's what it has to do with. Blind, dead sinners hate the light. That's what it is. Notice what He says in verse 3. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. What's the gospel? It's the good news. Amen? And when the Lord saved me, it wasn't just good news, it's gotten better news every single day. The good news of Jesus Christ. What does He say? It's hid. It's hid. You could say it this way, it paints a picture in the Greek of an envelope. Why can you not read other people's mail as it goes through the postal service? Why? Because there's an envelope around it. That's what he's saying. There is a dark, thick envelope around the gospel to who? Those that are lost. The tense in the Greek, you could translate it this way, perishing. Those who are in a state of perishing. What is that? That's the total depravity of man. That's the fact that, and this all originates, where does this originate? The garden. Original sin. Amen? All have died in our first father Adam. It's the fact that every single human being, baby, girl, boy, born into this world, rich or poor, they're born into this world. They come forth out of the womb, what? Telling lies. It's the fact that David, what did David say? I was conceived, in my mother's womb was I conceived in sin. He wasn't saying that his mother was sinful. He was saying that which was conceived in her womb was sinful. And it never gets better apart from the sovereign grace of God. We are corrupt in desire, in will. We're corrupt to the core in nature. It's not a sickness, but it's a what? Ephesians chapter two, it's a deadness. We walk, but it's according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. We walk according to our own carnal will. Listen. According to Satan's limited deceit. Notice that next statement, "...the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not." Now I say Satan's limited deceit, and I know all you know all this, but don't ever forget what Martin Luther said, the devil's God's devil. Satan doesn't do anything apart from what? The sovereign allowance or the causative nature of God bringing that about through Satan. Proof, text, go to Job. You know it. Satan's not the initiating factor. Who's the initiating factor? A good, glorious, sovereign God. Job came to see that, amen? And so Satan blinds because God allows him. And sometimes in a causative way, we really can't piece together some of these pieces. He makes him do this. What is it? Satan blinds their deception. You know, the gospel is not, when a man or woman is saved, it's not that they just develop the facts about the gospel. We're in middle Tennessee. Some of you are in Georgia and Alabama, any states I'm leaving out. Mississippi, right? You look around every single day at the ballpark and at the restaurants, and you know what you see every single week? You see people who believe facts about the gospel. But here's the problem. You see people in light of the facts of the gospel who don't want Jesus. They don't cherish Jesus. Why? Because men love the darkness rather than the light. And there's a compounding element, the God of this age, the God of this age, that what? He compounds the situation with giving them lives wrapped up in a little Christianity that keeps them happy, fat and full until they go meet their maker. That's the issue. The majority, brothers and sisters, here's what Paul says, the majority is dead, depraved, deceived, to what? To the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, and I'll say more about that glorious gospel as we close. Not in the next two minutes, but on down the road. I'm getting there, brother. You know what John Calvin says? Here's what John Calvin says, the sun is no less bright because blind men cannot perceive its light. Amen? Close quote. Now, here's where I got in my studies. I think about that statement, especially as a young minister and a young Christian. How in the world is that encouraging? I mean, Paul just said, People are totally depraved. The majority of people are totally depraved. Satan's in cooperation, blinding the mind of those who are totally depraved. How encouraging, right? So here's what you have to do. You have to exercise a little bit of critical thinking. Amen? Here's what Paul knows. At the end of the day, it's not up to me, right, to fix the problem of their blindness. As a man who preaches the ministry, who has this ministry, It's not on my shoulders of whether or not they're going to be saved. Now this hits me two areas. This not only hits me as a pastor, I'll start where it hit me hard about two weeks ago, my children. As a parent, if you think that your child's salvation is determined by your perfect conduct for 18 years, your perfect conversation for 18 years, your perfect discipleship skills for 18 years, if it was all up to me, you know what, I'd end up in my bedroom corner in the fetal position in utter despair. You understand? It's not up to you. Here's what God calls you to do in light of His sovereignty. You be a faithful parent who disciples His children. And as a pastor, especially today, if it was up to me to get up here among you distinguished gentlemen and preach a passage of Scripture three and a half years in the ministry that edifies you, if it was up to me to have to do any of those things, then here's what I'd be out of the ministry yesterday. yesterday. But what he's saying is, look, you and I don't have the ability. The deficiency is not in the preacher or his weak or strong message. The deficiency is in blind people who hate the light. There's where the deficiency lies. Number five, we're getting there. The message. He had a sovereign grace conviction over the message. Verse 5, For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. He's specifically speaking of the content of our message, the gospel, right? And he starts with a negative. Notice what he says. We don't preach ourselves. Amen? And brothers, here's what I found out. It is impossible to preach the Bible and preach yourself. Amen? Why? Here's what I found out. You're not the number one character. From Genesis to Revelation, every jot and every tittle, especially if you have a Reformed view of the Old Testament and New, in every line, who do you see first? Christ. Christ. We don't preach ourselves. Now what did the super apostles do? They preached themselves. How did they do this? Subjectivity. I had a vision. I had a dream. I had, here it is, you want to make me stick my two biggest fingers down my throat and vomit? Let a charismatic brother come up to me and say, I had a special word from the Lord. There it goes. And why do they do that? Because it's subjective. It's the only way that they can escape the clarity, the simplicity of the objective truth and the framework of the Holy Word of God. It's the only way they can do it. And you know this, we preaching ourselves, we live in a culture where it's all about me. Right? The personal testimony has replaced the gospel. Now let me just say this. Is there a time and place for personal testimony? I shared with a brother right before. I was in a situation and I needed to share the personal testimony. But the main ingredient of my personal testimony, even if salvation is not me, the main ingredient is Jesus. And here it is, as encouraging as a personal testimony may be, it is not the power of God unto salvation, that alone is the gospel. So here's what I would say to the preacher 40 years or his wife or his seven-year-old son, you get an opportunity to speak life into somebody, here's what you tell them, everything you know about Jesus. Everything you know about Jesus. That's what Paul says, that's what I do. But Christ Jesus the Lord. Basically he says the sum and substance of our message has nothing to do with us but it has everything to do with who? Christ Jesus the Lord. Now Paul would have had access to a Hebrew Old Testament and you know this very well because of the quotations in the New Testament, he would have had access also to a Greek Old Testament. And in his Greek Old Testament, here's what he would have read. The word Yahweh, the Tetragrammaton, and Jehovah were translated what word in the Greek? Kyrios, Lord. What does Paul say here? Don't miss this. These are the most important words in the Scripture, Christ Jesus the Lord. Christ, who is that? That's the Messiah that the prophet spoke of. Jesus, what does it mean? Jehovah is salvation. is Kyrgios. Literally, here's the gospel. Christ Jesus is the eternally existing sovereign God of this universe. That's the gospel. And the Lord himself The sovereign God of this universe has come into this world in human flesh, and through His life, through His death, and His resurrection, and His imminent return, He is going to set His people free, completely free. Christ Jesus, here it is, Christ Jesus is Lord. Like I said, we live in a casual, generic, religious culture, brothers and sisters. Most of us are from the South. We've grown up in this generic religion. You listen to politicians, you listen to prayers at ballgames. You know, everybody thinks Loretta's great because they get different pastors and people to pray before and after ballgames. Here's what you don't hear in the prayer. You don't even hear, in Christ's name. Most of them, in order, they sign a waiver and they get up there and they dumb it down. Just listen and survey the landscape. Listen to the next prayer at a ballgame. Here's what they'll say. Maybe. In His name. No, it's in Christ Jesus' Lord name. Right? A generic religion that removes Christ is no religion at all, brothers and sisters. That's the culture we live in. So what does our world need to hear more than anything else? Christ Jesus is Lord. Christ Jesus is Lord. John Calvin says, The man who wishes to preach only Christ must forget himself. Robert Murray McShane says this, I see that a man cannot be a faithful minister until he preaches Christ for Christ's sake, until he gives up attracting men to himself and seeks only to attract them to Jesus Christ our Lord. That's our message. Amen? Amen. Number six, the mannerism. He says, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. Slaves. He tells the Corinthians that have run him through the mill for years, he says what? I'm your slave. I'm your slave. Brother, are you a slave to your people? Brother, are you a slave? Right? We welcome everybody through the door. Amen? Now, a slave does not mean we roll over with unrepentant sinners and become a dog-and-pony show. But are you a slave? Why not? Here's why not. Pride. An over-elevation of self above God, His grace, and others. One of the most impactful books of the Bible that I've preached through expository was Luke chapter 9. I won't flip over there because I've already went over time and I'm finishing it up. But as I went through Luke chapter 9 with my congregation, what I found out is the first thing that Jesus addressed with the twelve apostles was what? Pride. Peter makes his confession, and he says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and then what does he do? It's a great confession, he's right, but what does he do with it? I have the authority and the power to keep you off the cross. Pride. Go on down the list. The Mount of Transfiguration. What does Peter try to do? They have this exceptional experience of glory. Moses and Elijah speaking to Jesus about His exodus. And what does Peter try to do? Instead of share the wealth with the others down in the valley, he says, let's make tents and stay here forever. Pride. go down to the valley, the other nine apostles. What were they doing? There was this epileptic boy. And instead of helping him by simply starting to pray for him, they're arguing with Pharisees. What is it? Pride. Jesus says for the second time, the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of men. And as they go on the road to Capernaum, what are the disciples discussing? Which one of us is the greatest? It's pride. It's pride. Brothers, fix your eyes on Jesus. Fix your eyes, be an imitator of the Apostle Paul as he is of Christ. Here's what we are. We are doulos. We are slaves. Slaves. For Jesus' sake. We don't do it primarily for the people. If you do it for the people and that relationship hits a rough patch, guess what? You're going to hit the road. We do it for Jesus' sake. That's where the staying power in the ministry is. Jesus' sake. Lastly, the minister. Verse 7. And this is it. This is probably my favorite point. The minister. Who's the minister? First two words, for God. There's the minister. You're not the minister. You've been given a ministry. The primary minister, who is it, brothers? God. For God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Paul points to the minister. Paul had a conviction that he was not primarily the minister. Who was the minister? The God from Genesis chapter 1. Go back to Genesis chapter 1. That's what it's speaking of. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void. The darkness was over the face of the deep. The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And day one, what does He say? Let there be light and there was light. God saw that the light was good and what did He do? He separated the light from the darkness. The creation of the world, the creation of the universe, the creation of all things is the minister of this new covenant gospel. And so what Paul is saying is, here's what I know. Yeah, many people reject my gospel. Yes, I'm a measly, weak preacher who has no oratory skills. But when God says, let there be light, there's light, not only with creation, but new creation of sinners. That's what he says. Think about it. Think about your own salvation. Here's what happened. Same thing as Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning of that salvation, God created everything that is your spiritual soul. You were without form and void. The darkness was over the face of the deep. Amen? The darkness was over the face of the deep, but here's what happened. The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And here it is. What do you attribute your salvation to? Maybe the guy that preached the gospel to you? No. Unbeknownst to him and you, there was another minister. And this is not the general call of the gospel that we're responsible for. Listen to this. This is the effectual call of God. Some say irresistible grace. You can say whatever. But here's basically what happened in regards to your darkened, hard, dead soul. God said, let there be light. And brothers, what happened? There was light. There was light. He separated the light from the darkness. He set you apart that day for Him. That's why we call the body saints, a set apart people. Amen? I'm out of time, and that's okay. This is what kept Paul going, this passage of Scripture. I can't do it justice, but this last point particularly, In season and out, how many long seasons, and I don't have much room to speak to this group of people. I've been in the ministry basically for five years. How many long seasons has there been where you would consider it dark? You preach, you labor, you go to the pulpit on the way home, your wife has to pick you up out of the floorboard and tell you to preach, just go back to the pulpit next Sunday and you preach again. I'm not married to a quitter. And you go preach, and you go preach, and nothing happens. But then one Sunday, what happens? You preach. And as Brother Fred said, of that woman, after years, something happens. What happened? God said, let there be light. And there was light. I'm thinking of one gentleman in my congregation, I'm not gonna give you my own testimony, but it's miraculous light, it's what it is. When I first started at our church, there was a gentleman in our congregation, and he was gone, gone. And long story short, he put us in a position where we actually had to call the law and initiate contact with the law, and he ultimately ended up arrested. And after about eight hours in a jail cell, you know the last person I expected he would call was me. Do you know who he called? me. This man basically just said, I'm lost. I give up. I need help. We helped that man when he wrote out his testimony. I won't read the whole testimony. I just read this one. What I can think of. This was his testimony. I lived as a vile, wretched center for a long time. But I know today God died for me. And I will spend every day from this point forward because of my love for Him, following Him, and serving Him. What is it? It's the light. It's the light of the gospel. And here it is. What happens when that light goes off? It's not that you need facts. We all have facts. We heard the facts for years. But this man come to cherish the facts. And all those divine facts, all those attributes of God were seen in one place. The face of Jesus Christ. The glory of God, the radiance of God, the Godness of God, the majesty of God, the wrath, the grace, the love, the mercy of God seen in one place. The face of Jesus Christ. What do we say to these things? We just say what Paul said. He said, in verse seven, he said, we have this treasure in earthen vessels to show the excellency of the power of God and not of us. Amen? Thank you for being gracious and allowing me to finish that sermon. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we are so thankful for your goodness. and your grace. Lord, you are the triune God, the Father who wills, the Son who works, and the Spirit who witnesses. Lord, we are thankful that today in this age in which we live that the power of God and salvation is still the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray that you would continue to use this fellowship in these men's life to encourage them to fill them with spiritual resource, to provide brothers that can hold them accountable and love on them when they need love. Lord, I'm thankful for your grace and mercy bringing me here today and allowing me to meet Daryl. Lord, we're thankful. We have nothing to complain of today. Lord, I pray that our perspective as sovereign grace ministers would continue to grow specifically in the area of you. and your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we love you and we ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.