Corinthians. Chapter 9. First Corinthians 9, we're going to begin our reading this morning in verse 15. And we'll read verse 15 all the way down to the end of the end of the chapter. Paul says, but I have made no use of any of these rights. Nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision, for I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them To the Jews, I became as a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control. List after preaching to others. I myself should be disqualified. Let's pray. Father, bless this, the word of God to our hearts. and as daily we receive physical nourishment from the food that you provide for us, we ask, Father, that you would grant to us spiritual nourishment as we delve deeply into this passage. We ask, Father, as we have all along, that you would continue to conform our hearts and then our actions to the image of your Son that we might be more like Christ. We pray father that the barriers that we erect around our hearts. The pride, the arrogance. The self willedness. The selfishness. Would all be cast aside that your spirit would penetrate even to the deepest parts of our heart that we guard and we. And we protect. May he work through the word as you have promised. May the word of God then by your spirit transform us. From grace to grace, from glory to glory. That we might grow incrementally. I pray father that no person would leave this place the same as when they came. that each one of us would face the mirror of God's word and would come before you in a renewal of relationship as those who need Christ always. And we pray, Father, that your word Would give us and continue to give us life. Help me to accurately represent what the Word of God is teaching. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Really, the passage that we are looking at today continues on the heels of what we looked at last week. Last week, the beginning of 1 Corinthians 9, Paul asked the question, am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus, our Lord? Are you not my workmanship in the Lord? And establishes his authority over the Corinthian congregation that they are supposed to have a kind of patron relationship with him. He asked the question in verse four, he says, don't I have the right to eat and drink whatever I want to eat and drink? Verse five, he says, don't I have the right to take a believing wife? Verse six, don't I have the right to refrain from physical labor knowing that I preach the gospel? Then he concludes in that verse 14 and says, in the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. The question is, how did we get here? You know, when we are talking about, and when we discover different things in the scripture about different topics, there's a couple different ways we come by them. Sometimes the apostle just simply says, I want to tell you about love. And then he tells us about love. It's very straightforward. But other times, like the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul is ultimately going to tell us about love, and we have that wonderful outline and description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 that we will get to. I don't wanna make promises when we, we'll get to it when we get to it. But that comes at the end of a long process of Paul demonstrating, first of all, what love looks like. That love doesn't look like the squabbling that was going on in the Corinthian church. That love doesn't look like the selfishness that was going on in the Corinthian church. Love doesn't look like the self-assertion that was going on in the Corinthian church. Rather, Paul says that you ought to really love one another by serving one another. Paul says that you should give deference to one another. that it's not about being right, it's about being loving. It's not about being intelligent, it's about being loving. That there's a reason you shouldn't bring lawsuits against brothers in Christ, particularly concerning the matter that they were bringing lawsuits having to do with marriage. He says, how do you expect the world to judge this Christian sexual ethic. And he says, rather, what you're supposed to be doing is loving each other. And so we have this wonderful exposition of what love is throughout the chapters that we've already looked at. And yet he's not specifically expositing love, at least not yet. And then in chapter 8 and then into chapter 9, we have this question that comes up, because that's what 1 Corinthians does, is the Corinthian church poses a bunch of questions to Paul and he starts to answer them. And the question is, Paul, what do we do about meat offered to idols? And just like the answer was to divisiveness, just like the answer was to marriage, just like the answer was to everything else, Paul essentially says you need to demonstrate love to one another. It really is not about the meat. It's about the love. And we said that in chapter eight, he poses that hypothetical where he says, you know what, if this causes my brother to offend, notice the if, it's a hypothetical, if hypothetically this causes my brother to stumble, then I will never eat meat. And then last week, he says, by the way, if that hypothetical is too hypothetical for you, here's an example of how I have demonstrated love for you. And he starts in what we looked at last week, he starts by outlining all of these different rights that he has among them. He says, I have this right. I am your apostle. I am your evangelist. I am the one who brought the gospel to you, and therefore I have the right to take a patronage from you. I have the right to be among you. I have the right to demand of you. And then the verse that we come to today says, verse 15, but I have made no use of any of these rights. What Paul is saying is this isn't hypothetical. This isn't theoretical to me. I have literally given up what is rightfully mine for your sake. What I want to do at the end, we're going to make three applications directly from this passage. Well, it'll turn out to be four because there's another application that is kind of underlying everything else, though it's not explicit. But in order to do that, I want us to make sure we understand what Paul is saying here. So Paul says, I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any provision," or literally when he says that I'm not writing these things to secure any provision, it can literally be rendered, nor am I writing these things in order that I might be advantageous or that it might be advantageous to me. In other words, I'm not writing this to you for my benefit. And that was a very important thing. Paul was not there simply to assert that you are one of my churches. I founded you and I own you. He's not merely asserting ownership of them. Because he said, what I am writing to you brings me no benefit. So this is not my motivation. He goes on to say, for I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. Then he asked the question, then I would ask the question, what is the ground for boasting? He says, I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. Well, all the way back in chapter one, he gives us the ground for boasting. In verse 31, he says, therefore, as it is written, let the one who boasts Boast in the Lord. The ground of Paul's boasting is the work of the Lord. And Paul says, I don't want anyone to rob me of my ground for boasting. What is his ground for boasting? His ground for boasting is all that the Lord has done. Well, and how does he flesh out boasting in the Lord? Listen to what he says in verse 16. He says, for if I preach the Gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. Let me read that again. I've got that wrong twice now. For if I preach the Gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. He's saying the fact of me preaching the Gospel doesn't mean that I should boast. In fact, he gives me no ground for boasting. And then he gives the reason why. He says, for necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. Do you see what's happening here? Paul says, my job is to preach the gospel. And I cannot not preach the gospel. So, and this is his reasoning, so if it is impossible for me to not preach the gospel, how can preaching the gospel be a reason for me to boast? It's just something that I do. It's something that I can't stop. It's like saying you are so brave for beating your heart like that. Paul is saying I couldn't stop it if I wanted to. This is no reason to boast, it just happens automatically. I can't not preach the gospel. Now Paul has said some very arresting things in this epistle. He talks about his rights. And that was pretty arresting. He actually talks about the fact that he is not gonna get married for the cause of the gospel, even though he has that right. And that's a pretty bold statement. He talks about his right to eat meat, and at one point says, if needs be, I will become a vegetarian. Just won't eat meat. And those things are there to grab the attention of his audience. But I don't think if you understand the cultural background here, and I think you do, I don't think there is anything as arresting as what he says next. Because he says at the end of verse 16, woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. Now why do I say that's arresting? And probably most of you know why it's arresting already, but let me just restate it. Throughout the Bible, there are two primary prophetic oracles that are pronounced. They're called oracles of weal and oracles of woe. Oracles of weal are always signified and set off by the word blessed. And so the Beatitudes, as we've said many times, are an oracle of weal. And if you look at the Beatitudes, you notice that attached to each one of the Beatitudes is an eschatological blessing. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And that's what an Oracle of Weal does. It expresses a blessing that is going to happen in the last days, in the eschaton, in the time to come, as the Jews would have put it. The Oracle of Woe is just the opposite of that. An Oracle of Woe pronounces judgment, but not merely temporal judgment, It announces, in most cases, eschatological judgment. Do you remember when Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up and the train of his robe fills the temple? Do you remember that from Isaiah 6? And do you remember when he hears the seraphim crying out over the throne of God, declaring his holiness? And do you remember what his statement is? He says, woe is me, for I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. What is he saying there? What Isaiah is saying is that I have just been faced personally with the holiness of God. And in light of the holiness of God, I confess that I ought to be condemned. Not merely dead, I ought to be condemned. And he says, in fact, not only is there not anything good in me, he says, I come from a heritage of uncleanness. When I see the holiness of God and I understand who I am before God, it puts me in the place where I understand that I ought to be and everyone ought to be condemned. Damned to hell. So what is Paul saying here? Paul says, if I do not preach the gospel, it is so integral into who I am as the apostle, as the evangelist. If I do not preach the gospel, let me be condemned to hell. Wow. Verse 17. He says, for if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but not of my own will. I am still entrusted with a stewardship What he means when he says that he's still entrusted with a stewardship means that he has been obligated to do this. His master has left this for him to do, and there is a sacred obligation that he has, and therefore he says, it's not my reward, it's my obligation. He says, what then is my reward? This is his answer. That in my preaching, I may present the gospel free of charge so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. So what is the result of Paul not exercising his rights? The result is this reward. And that reward is that he can preach the gospel, and in preaching the gospel, he is not asking for compensation. And just in case the reader has lost track of what Paul's goal is, verse 19 reminds the reader For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, here's the purpose, so that I might win more of them. He says, I don't exercise the rights that I have because it will result in me leading more of them to Christ. Now, I want you to think about what Paul is saying once again, because Paul is not expressing himself in the comfortably vetted evangelical terminology of the 21st century, right? Because our contention is always that God doesn't care about numbers. Have you ever heard that said? Well, God's not concerned about numbers. He's not concerned about quantity. He's concerned about quality. And we don't have as many people, I haven't brought as many people to the Lord as someone else has, but it's the quality of the people I brought to the Lord. And you know what? I say that facetiously, but there is a certain extent to where that's actually true, that God is concerned about growing us, and we should be concerned, excuse me, about growing us deep. But at some level, we have to understand that every time the number ticks higher, that is one more soul for whom Christ died. And Paul says, I receive the reward of preaching the gospel for free, and it ultimately leads to my ultimate goal. And my ultimate goal is that the result might be that I might win more and more and more. And this was his methodology. Look at verse 20. He says to the Jews, I became as a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law. Now, when he talks about the law there, he makes it very clear that he's speaking of the law of Moses, okay? He says, not being under the law, and then he says, that he's not under the law of, he's not under that law, but he still is under the law of God. So, do we actually see that working out in Paul's life? Yeah, we see it even in the discourse in the book of Acts surrounding Corinth. In the book of Acts, Where do we usually find Paul when he goes into a new city? Where is the very first place that he goes? He always goes directly to the synagogue. What is he doing? Well, he's an adult Jewish male. And so as was customary, when he went into a new town, and I think you had to have in any town in order to establish a synagogue, you had to have 100 Jewish males there. And so he would go into a town, into a city that had a synagogue, and he would go in and he would present himself at the synagogue as a Jew. to the Jews, and what would he do in the synagogue? He would reason with them from the scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. And so we see that Paul did exactly what he says he did. Luke, in the book of Acts, has already told us that this is what Paul does. To the Jews, he becomes as a Jew. Verse 21 says, to those outside the law, I became as one outside the law. And this is where he says, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ. So he says, I'm not under the law of Moses, but he says, I'm still under the law of God as being under the law of Christ. And just suffice it to say that, you know, when we talk about, you know, do the 10 commandments still apply today? Yes and no. Yes, in principle they apply because the Ten Commandments are one expression of the Law of God. The Law of God is written in the heart of God. It's not necessarily something that He gave to people in covenant. The Ten Commandments were stipulations of the Mosaic Covenant. And that's why when we come to the New Testament, every single one of the things that is said in the Ten Commandments is reiterated in the New Testament, except for the Sabbatarian Commandment. Every single one of them is restated because he's not simply restating the Law of Moses and that you have to be under the Law of Moses. He is restating these principles from within the Law of God that were also written in the Law of Moses. Okay? If you don't understand that, come and ask me afterwards because I didn't intend to go into that can of worms. 21, so he says, he says to those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law. So he's talking about Gentiles here. They're Gentiles, not under the law of Moses. Verse 22, to the weak, I became weak that I might win the weak. I've become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. Now notice there, and I even kind of did it on accident there, when he comes to the end of that passage, he says that by all means I might save some. Be careful when you're reading those idioms that, because of the development of the English language, have come to mean something else. When someone says, you know, are you going to the beach today? And you said, oh, by all means. It just means I'm excited to go to the beach today. Yeah, I'm going to the beach today, which I'm not. But that's what it means. By all means. It's just an expression. When he says, by all means here, he means that he is going to use every means possible to bring these people to Christ. And he says, by all means, every means that I can use, I'm going to use that to bring people to Christ. And chapter 10 is actually going to flesh this out and how this works when he talks about meat sold in the temple. Are they supposed to eat meat that is sold in a pagan temple? The solution is going to be if someone under the law, whose conscience is guided by the law or by the Torah, and guided by the Torah regulations, if it's someone like that and they say, don't you know that this meat is unkosher? Then he says, then you don't don't eat it. Then he says, but when you are served this meat by a Gentile, he says, don't interrogate the Gentile and say, OK, how was this killed? Where did you get it from? What market? Was it this market or that market? Because this market has direct lines right to the temple. That market doesn't just don't interrogate them about the meat. Just eat it. And why the guidelines? He returns then, he returns to evangelism. Why these guidelines? So that I may save those under the law, so that I may save those not under the law, so that I may save some by whatever means I need to. Verse 23 says, I do it all for the sake of the gospel. that I may share with them in its blessings. Now thus far, we can gather the impression that Paul's relationship to the gospel, at least we can gather this, Paul's relationship to the gospel is not casual, right? Paul's relationship, he doesn't have a casual relationship with the gospel. In the West, I can only say for the places I've been, but in America, it seems we have a lot of people who have a very casual relationship with the gospel. You know what I mean by that? Like, are you a Christian? And they say, yes, when I was a kid, I prayed a prayer and walked an aisle, I signed a card, and the minister told me that I was a Christian now. Or even people say, when I was a kid, I was baptized into the faith, and so now I'm a Christian. And the gospel doesn't change the way they think. It doesn't change the way they relate to God, really. God is kind of a mystical force out there somewhere. They claim to be Christians and yet they don't have an ongoing intimacy with the Lord. The fact of Christ's death never moves them. And the relationship to the gospel then is very casual. What we gather from what Paul is saying is that his relationship to the gospel, any way you slice it, is not casual. I mean, he can't stop preaching it. He is inwardly compelled. In order to maintain the level of intensity, Paul has to have a unique, a very unique kind of focus, a unique mentality. To describe his own mindset, then, Paul uses an illustration. And he uses the illustration from the the Ithmian games. Remember we talked about the Ithmian games that Corinth was a town that was on the Isthmus there and every year they would have a an athletic competition that roughly was similar to the Olympics. The Olympics in that era was the most famous competition. But then the second most famous competition was the Isthmian Games. And it happened annually. and people trained for it with intense, intense focus, intense discipline. It wasn't, folks, like at the end of the NBA season, at the end of every NBA season, If you want to go down to the park the day after the last final is complete, maybe not this year, but in years past, the basketball court will be filled with weekend warriors, people who play basketball once every six months. This is not the kind of athlete that he's talking about. He's not talking about the casual athlete. He is talking about athletes who engage in extended epics of extreme self-discipline so that they might win the competition. That's the kind of athlete he's talking about. And you can see that the competition in front of them is what drives them. You can see that they get up every morning at three o'clock in the morning and they're on the road running every morning. You probably remember the scenes from Rocky Balboa or one of the Rocky things where he's up drinking raw eggs at three o'clock in the morning and running down the streets of Philadelphia. And this is the kind of thing that the apostle has in mind. He says this in verse 24. Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Now, he's not saying that only one of us Christians is actually going to win in the end. He doesn't say that at all. What he's saying is you need to train like somebody who has that in mind. One of my favorite basketball players when I was, I know this is horrible, I probably shouldn't even say this, but was Charles Barkley. And Barkley always had a way with words, and I like people who have a way with words. Barkley's words were not always the right words, but he always had a way with words, and he always had a way of saying, I'm gonna back up whatever I say, and he did it, usually. And Charles Barkley never won a championship. And it was harsh to see him second place. when he was such a dominant person. And I always look back at the fact that John Sally sat on the bench for three, I think of, I think he sat on the bench for three of the Chicago Bulls championship runs. You know, Chicago Bulls had six. And then he sat on the bench with Kobe Bryant and Shaq for another two championship runs with the Lakers. And then he had two when he actually played in Detroit. And so here's John Sally, who is not nearly the player that Charles Barkley is. And what has he got, like seven championship rings? Why? Because only one team wins. And so how are you supposed to train? You're supposed to train like only one person is going to win. That's exactly what he's saying here. 25 says, every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable, so I do not run aimlessly. I don't just go around denying myself stuff just to deny myself stuff. He says, I don't box as one beating the air. In other words, I'm not boxing like a shadow boxer who's punching at the air just to just to get himself warmed up. He says, No, I'm boxing like there is an enemy across from me and I am fighting for my life. By the way, in these days, in the first century, when they wore their gloves for their combat sports, their pugilism, were thick leather gloves, not the padded ones like we have today. So a guy would get hit, and he would get hit with very solid leather. He says, I don't box like someone who's boxing against nothing, like just punching aimlessly in the air. He says, I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. What does he mean by that? We can take that word disqualification one of two ways. First, is that the person who is disqualified, they were training regiments that the Isthmian competitors had to go through. According to some resources, they were required by the rules of the game to go through these specific boot camp kind of things. If you didn't go to these things, then you couldn't, if you didn't train in these things you couldn't compete. Because they didn't want just any schlub off the street to walk into the games. They wanted athletes. And so the first is that maybe he didn't fulfill the requirements because he says, I don't want to be the one, and this is one way of looking at it, I don't want to be the one who doesn't fulfill the requirements of training. And some suggest that there might even be a theoretical possibility in Paul's writing, not an actual one, but a theoretical one, of losing salvation in this. Though, practically, they would say it couldn't happen. So that's one way of looking at it, that if you don't do this, then you'll be disqualified and you don't have salvation. The second way is to understand that the word that's translated as disqualify, actually it means a test of authenticity. It's a test of authenticity. And so when he says I'm disqualified, he is moved on from the analogy of the fighter, of the athlete, and he says, whatever test it is that I'm going to go through, test the authenticity of my faith. whether or not I am truly a Christian. Now this, and I would take the second way in that, by the way, the second way that this is a test of his authenticity. It's not a matter of him actually losing his salvation or theoretically losing his salvation, whatever they mean by that. Now this brings us to those points of application that I wanted to talk to you about. Paul says, essentially, or in looking at what Paul says, we understand that the proof, that the authenticating proof of what I am is what I do, right? You can say all you want that I am a certain thing, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian, but what is it that demonstrates your authenticity? The proof of anything, of anything, not just in this context, but the proof of the genuineness of anything has to be found in its intrinsic characteristics, right? Those intrinsic characteristics of a substance or of something that cannot be mimicked well. And it's the same with us. The proof of who we are in Christ is seen not in what we put on, but it's actually seen in our intrinsic characteristics. Why? Because when we become Christians, if anyone is in Christ, he's a what? Yeah, he's a new creation, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away, everything is made new. And there are certain intrinsic characteristics that God forms in believers. If it doesn't feel like gold, if it doesn't conduct electricity like gold, then it probably isn't gold. If it's not hard like a diamond and composed of the diamond stuff, then it's probably not a diamond. I think we could have an example of this in the Old Testament that we had, we have the contrast of two kings, right? You have the first king of Israel, and then you have the intended king of Israel. You have the first king of Israel being Saul when the people of Israel said, give us a king like the other nations. And instead of giving them a king, like the other nations had a king, God gives them a king that has the same criteria as the kings of the other nations. What are Saul's criteria? Well, he's tall, he's good looking, and he's a good manager. Those are his criteria. And those criteria then are the kings, just like all other nations have kings, and what kind of king was Saul? He was a horrible king. Why? Because there were intrinsic qualities in him that disqualified him, his arrogance, his selfishness. And you compare him to David. David, this man who doesn't look like much to the world, and yet he's composed of kingly material. Now notice, when you contrast both of those, you have Solomon, right? Solomon, who himself is tormented by demons. You remember that? That David would go in and an evil spirit would come in and trouble him, and David would go in to Saul and play the harp? Solomon is tormented by evil spirits and Solomon in the end goes and consults a medium and speaks to the spirit of the dead. That's what comes out of his heart. What comes out of David's heart? Well, what does the scripture tell us? That David is a man after God's heart. And so their intrinsic qualities are brought out and one of them is kingly material and the other one is deposed. Now, if we do not have the intrinsic characteristic of Christ, my question to you is, can we really call ourselves his? If we do not have the intrinsic characteristic of Christ, can we? really call ourselves His? What is the intrinsic characteristic of Christ? Well, there are several things that would come to mind, but there's one, I think, that is overarching over everything else. When Jesus talks about being a follower of Him, He says, if you love me, keep my commandments, right? So what does he require of them? Love. Again, Jesus says to his disciples, if you want everybody to know that you're a follower of me, then you need to what? Love one another. In fact, when Paul lists the fruits of the Spirit, and the fruits are all of these intrinsic qualities, these intrinsic qualities that... Everything okay out there? Okay, okay, just like that someone got hurt or something. These intrinsic qualities are the fruit of the Spirit. These are qualities that are put into people who are walking in the Spirit, who are followers of Christ, and there's a whole list of them, right, in Galatians? What does Paul start with? But the fruit of the spirit is love. Now, folks, in the scripture, very often the place of priority is given at the beginning and the most important things are said at the beginning. And Paul saying in this list, having this long list of characteristics that love is the first characteristic means that he holds it in very high esteem. So here we see that love is intrinsic, and really that's what Paul has been getting at through all of 1 Corinthians, that we need to exhibit love. But I think in this passage, we have three different applications that we can make, because Paul talks about our love for these different things. And he says it in different ways, but I wanna see, and I wanna point out these three things that we ought to love. And I'll go really quickly through them, so we're not gonna be here for much longer. But I wanna point out these three things that we love, And then there's gonna be a fourth one that kind of undergirds all the other loves. And it doesn't specifically talk about this love in the passage, but it can't, these other three things can't exist without that other love. And the first one that I wanna talk about is Paul's love for the gospel. Paul's love for the gospel. Look at verse 12. It says, if others share this right claim on you, do not we even more. Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Look at verse 14. In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. Look at verse 16. I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision, for I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of the ground for boasting, for I preach the gospel. Verse 16 says. Verse 18, what then is my reward that in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge? And 23, he says, I do it all for the sake of the gospel. Paul loves the gospel. In fact, he pronounces, as I already said, he pronounces that oracle of woe over himself if he doesn't preach the gospel. And it's reminiscent of Jeremiah. You remember in Jeremiah 20, Jeremiah says, I will not mention him or speak any more of his name. There is in my heart, as it were, a burning fire shut up in my bones and I am weary with holding it in. And I cannot hold it in. And this is kind of the attitude that Paul has when he talks about the gospel, that he loves the gospel, he proclaims the gospel. And my question to you is, when we are called to love, do you actually love the gospel? Do you love the gospel? Does it mean something to you? I mentioned at Fred's memorial service about God being an obsession to us. We need to be obsessed with the gospel. Do you love the gospel? The second love that Paul has here is his love for the lost, his love for the lost. When we ask the question, Paul, why do you do this? Sure, a number of reasons could come. Of course, he loves the gospel, so he's going to preach the gospel. But twice in this relatively small portion of the entire epistle, we hear this. Look at verse 19, the end of verse 19. He says, I have made myself a servant to all that I might win some of them. And then at the end of verse 23, he says, that I may share, sorry, verse 23 says, I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its blessing. That wasn't what I was looking for. Oh, sorry, verse 22. I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. What does he want here? And then you look at him talking about the Jews. He wants to save the Jews. He wants to save the Gentiles. What is he saying here? He's saying, I do all of this so that these people can come to know Christ. He has a profound love for the lost. Even in Paul's concluding words to Timothy, his son in the faith in 2 Timothy, Paul tells Timothy, Timothy, one of the things that you need to be about is doing the work of an evangelist. What's an evangelist? But someone who proclaims the gospel to those who do not know the gospel. You need to evangelize. Third love is that Paul has love for his brothers and sisters in Christ. Right at the very beginning, verse 15 of our text, he says, I have made no use of any of these rights. Paul says, I could ride your backs. You owe me everything. If it were not for me, you would not know the gospel and you would be condemned in sin and trespasses. And he says, I don't I don't take anything from you. These things are things that could be demanded. And isn't this really the whole point of Paul's letter? To correct people because Paul genuinely loves his brothers and sisters. Here's something else. Several commentators picked up on an anomaly in the Greek text. There's something strange that goes on. It's inverse. Let's see here. Sorry for this. When he says I would rather die, is that in verse 16? No, that's verse... Sorry, I didn't write the number down and all of a sudden I have all of my words all over the place here. Why can't I see it all of a sudden? Somebody tell me where it is. Yeah, it's right there, it's right in 15. I see it. Oh, there it is. Been a long week. Many commentators pick up the fact that at the end of verse 15 in the Greek text, it says, for I would rather die than to have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. But it doesn't say it like that in the Greek text. It literally says, for I would rather die than, and so you would expect a phrase at the end of that, I would rather die than for this to happen. but it stops, there's an abrupt stop, and then he doesn't finish the thought, he goes on to a new phrase, and the new phrase says, no one will render void my cause of rejoicing. So he says, I would rather die than, and then he stops and says, no one would render void my cause of rejoicing. And, of course, it's translated a number of different ways, that they just take that second part to go with the first part, even though it doesn't quite fit. And somewhere along the way, someone noticed that they do this in other Greek texts, and it's always a way of expressing extreme emotion. to get to the beginning of the condition and then not finish it. I would rather do this then and then stop as if you have just lost your words. What brings Paul to this place where it's as if he cannot even finish the sentence, he says, I would rather die. I would rather die. Well, look back at verse 14, because there's a contrast being painted. He says, in the same way the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. So what's the contrast? The contrast is between living and death. I have the right to live by you, but I would rather die than make a living off of you. Paul had this profound love for the brethren that he was willing to even die for them. And I said there's a fourth love that underpins all the other loves. And underpinning all of this is a profound, deep, and ultimate love for the Lord himself. He doesn't come right out and say it here, but you see it in everything. If you love the gospel, why would you love the gospel? It's the good news of who? Of the Lord. If you love the lost, you love the lost, why? You'd have to go all the way back to Genesis to find out that the lost even are made in the image of God. And by creation belong to Him. You love your brothers and sisters in Christ. These are those for whom Christ died. And so, Underlying all of this. Is a profound love. An ultimate love for the Lord himself. And folks, that is why when Jesus himself says don't tell me. That you love me. While you hate your brothers. James reiterates the same thing. Your protestations of love are hollow and empty if you don't love because directly connected to these other kinds of love is our love for the Lord. And folks, I want us to understand this in this context, in our current context, because to love other people is to worship the Lord. We want to sing beautiful songs. We want to feel something when we sing. But the ultimate and most profound form of worship is going to be when you look into the eyes of someone for whom Christ died and you love them. And that is why Paul can say, I'm never going to eat meat again. I'm never going to take a dime for preaching the gospel. I'm never going to do all of these things. Because I love you. Because I love him. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, that you have given us the assurance that we serve the great God, as Aaron said. We thank you that you have given us that assurance because we know that you cannot lie. You cannot deceive. You're not capricious in any way, but have revealed to us clearly and accurately who your son is, that in him we might find the forgiveness of our sins. We pray, Father, that as those who have been redeemed, you would continue to work in us that we might love as we are loved. And we pray, Lord, that as we go from this place, that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forever. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You're dismissed.