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Okay, we are ready to begin another
evening of the Grace Institute of Biblical Studies. We're going
to begin with a pondering the page message that was actually
a message that I preached during my Essentials of True Christianity
series. And I'm doing so because it's
right in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 is where we really are picking
up anyhow and are pondering the page. Before we get started,
let's have a word of prayer together. Father, thank you again for the
Word of God. It is the source of comfort. It is the source of hope. It
is the source of encouragement. It is the source of divine viewpoint
and perspective of reality of life and death. And we just thank
you for the word of God tonight. And I pray that your word would
truly speak to all of our hearts and give us a perspective as
we consider the things before us. Thank you for your incredible
faithfulness now. In Jesus' name, amen. You know, I've been hit with
the reality of death recently. One of the believers from the
Virginia Bible Study, a guy who got saved in the last three years,
his dad died here a couple weeks ago. And then there was a situation
again. Some of you know the Denver family
from Grand Rapids. Robbie Denver is married to Max
Schrader, who is a police officer down in Little Rock, Arkansas
area. And there was an accidental death. of their five-year-old child
the other day and horrific, very, very hard. And then today I went
to a funeral up at Heritage Trail Bible Church of Lois Pelto. Some
of you might remember Lois, she was a cook for many years at
Bible camps and so forth. And in all of those situations,
I'm just reminded once again of reality. Reality is people
are living and people are dying, people are going to heaven, people
are going to hell. and only one life will soon be passed, only
what's done for Christ, and in many ways by Christ, through
Christ, will really last. I can't help but think again
that you are given on the eternal timeline, which is a little oxymoron,
the eternal timeline, your life is but an intersection. That's
it. It's a vapor. It's like a tail
that is told. And that's why it's so imperative
to redeem the time. It's so imperative to walk with
the Lord. It's so imperative to capture
the moment. It's so imperative that we invest
in light of eternity. And frankly, you've invested
several years now in the Grace Institute of studying, of preparing,
of learning, and so forth. And certainly, it would be a
shame if that would all be in vain. It would certainly be a
shame if it wasn't utilized and directed by the Lord in all of
this. And so, what we want to do tonight
is go to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and in doing so, we want to
get a divine perspective on life, the right perspective of your
life. And I want to address some things
relative to you, not only regarding your life, but this summer, as
well as even future preparation, ministry, and so forth. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. I believe a friend of mine, a
retired pastor and a conference speaker, sent me an email a while
back that consisted of a bunch of Christian one-liners. Some are thought-provoking, some
are funny, some are convicting, some are cute. One is, don't
let worries get the best of you. Remember, Moses started out as
a basket case. Or some people are kind, polite,
and sweet-spirited until you try to sit in their pews. Many
folks want to serve God, but only as advisors. The good Lord
didn't create anything without a purpose, but mosquitoes come
close. When you get to your wit's end,
you'll find God lives there. People are funny. They want the
front of the bus, middle of the road, and back of the church.
Quit griping about your church. If it was perfect, you couldn't
belong. If a church wants a better pastor,
it only needs to pray for the one it has. Some minds are like
concrete, thoroughly mixed up and permanently set. Now that
is a good quote. I don't know why some people
change churches. What difference does it make which one you stay
home from? That's cute too. Be fishers of men. You'll catch
them. You'll clean them. Stop, drop, and roll won't work
in hell. Don't put a question mark where
God has put a period. Here's a few more. Don't wait
for six strong men to take you to church. Forbidden fruits create many
jams. God doesn't call the qualified,
he qualifies the called. God promises a safe landing,
not a calm passage. If God is your co-pilot, swap
seats. The task ahead of us is never
as great as the power behind us. The will of God never takes
you to where the grace of God will not protect you. Here's
a few more. We don't change the message,
the message changes us. The best mathematical equation
I ever read, one cross plus three nails equals forgiven. Now that's
an equation to remember. But these Christian one-liners
pale in comparison to specific memorable verses in the inspired
and inerrant Word of God. In fact, you know, as I think
of those verses, I can't help but think of Philippians, chapter
1, where Paul says, for to me to live is Christ, and to die
is gain. And notice that this verse begins
with the word for, which means it's giving us a reason or an
explanation connected with the verse right before it. And so
what does Paul in chapter 1 verse 20 say? What he really says in
verse 20 is that his desire is that Christ would be magnified
in my body, whether by life or by death. And he's writing that
from a jail cell. And this is our ultimate purpose
as believers, to glorify God, to honor the Lord Jesus Christ,
to please Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. It's the
bottom line purpose of God's plan of the ages in creation,
of redemption, and it's the bottom line purpose of your life as
well. And you need to grasp that. You need to grasp that the goal
of your life isn't to finish Gibbs. The goal of your life
is to glorify God. And that Christ would be magnified
whether by life or by death. And what helped motivate Paul
to that end was his driving passion for, to me, to live is Christ
and to die is gain. You see, Paul had a heart for
Jesus Christ, to live for Christ. He was motivated by Christ, to
live empowered by Christ, to live because of Jesus Christ. And this passion was lived out
with the reality that death is gay. For it means to then be
with Christ, which is far better. And that is to be the driving
passion of our lives. And what is the alternative to
that? Well, one chapter later, he says
in Philippians 2, 21, for all seek their own, not the things
which are of Christ Jesus. So which one is it, believer?
Is it for me to live as Christ and to die as Gain, or is it
all seek their own? Not the things that are of Christ
Jesus. You see, everybody wants to go to heaven. The problem
is they want to go to heaven on their terms. And some believers
want to live the Christian life, but they want to live it under
their terms. And some believers don't want
to live the Christian life. They just seek their own. They
seek the things of the world. They seek a comfortable, convenient
Christianity. And the fact of the matter is,
there is no middle ground. You either serve God and man,
and you either walk in the Spirit, or you fulfill the lusts of the
flesh. You either love the world, or you love the Lord. You either
live for Christ, or you live for yourself. There's no middle
ground. For all seek their own, not the
things which are of Christ Jesus. Are you like Abraham who walked
by faith and pleased God, or like Lot, Abraham's nephew, who
lived for the world only to end up in Sodom, losing most of his
family to the world, losing his testimony for the Lord, losing
his moral compass as he vexed his righteous soul from day to
day with exposure to Sodom's unlawful and sinful deeds? When you live for yourself as
a believer, this is what can be engraved on your tombstone,
life wasted, reward loss. You live like a fool. Waste the
opportunities the Lord gave you to redeem the time in serving
him. But to stay the course and not
hang up the spikes in your Christian walk, you will need to embrace
also a biblical perspective for your Christian life. And to see
some principles related to that, I invite you to look with me
at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 1. Therefore, since we
have this ministry as we receive mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden
things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the
word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those
who are perishing. whose minds the God of this age
has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel
of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine
on them. For we do not preach ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your bondservants
for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who commanded
light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. We are hard-pressed on every
side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed but not in despair,
persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed,
always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. But
we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that
the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So then death is working in us, but life in you. But since we
have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written,
I believed and therefore I spoke, we also believe and therefore
speak. Knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise
us up with Jesus and will present us with you, for all things are
for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may
cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore,
we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is
perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day,
for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. But
we do not look at the things which are seen, the things which
are not seen. The things which are seen, they're
temporary. The things which are not seen,
no, those are eternal. You see, the Christian life is
not a hundred yard dash, it's a 26.2 mile marathon. And God
is the one who sovereignly determines the length of your life. But
you actually have a lot to do with the quality of your life,
whether you are a spiritual believer or a carnal believer, whether
your life counts for Jesus Christ or not, whether it glorifies
your Savior or yourself, whether you persevere in the faith amidst
the battle and trials you face, or whether you fail to finish
the race because you quit and you hung up the spikes somewhere
along the way. And obviously, God wants you
to finish your race with joy and to fulfill His will for you,
while Satan does not." So how do you keep on keeping on? You
know, I was reflecting again last week on completing my 30th
year of pastoral ministry here at Duluth Bible Church. And frankly,
30 years of pastoral ministry is almost unheard of today. In
fact, you saw the stats if you read the Grace for the Race e-letter
that You know, there's many people leaving the ministry every month
not to return. Furthermore, it's even more rare
for one pastor to stay in the same church for this many years.
Very, very uncommon. And you know, I can truly attribute
it to the grace of God and the faithfulness of God and even
the support, again, of my wife and children and the prayers
of the saints and the encouragement of the elders and so forth and
so forth. But like I told Tom Stegall last
week, you know, if I had to do it all again, I'd do it again.
I mean, I love Duluth Bible Church, and I love what God has called
me to do. But it's not been without peaks and valleys and heartaches
and hurts and trials and difficulties and temptations. And there's
things, obviously, we would do differently if we had to do it
again. But you know what God has honored through the years
is He's honored a clear presentation of the Gospel. He's honored the
verse-by-verse teaching of sound doctrine. He's honored a spirit
of pointing people to the Lord. He's honored a vision for the
lost. He's honored those who honor
him. And he's been very good and very
gracious and only eternity will show what's really been done.
by the Lord, but you know, there's literally been thousands upon
thousands of people impacted through this ministry over the
years, not only in Duluth, but I'm thinking even internationally,
the planting of other churches and so forth and so forth. But
frankly, there have been times when I have wanted to quit. There
are times when you have wanted to quit Gibbs. There are times
when maybe you have wanted to quit living the Christian life.
There are times when you may have wondered, is it worth it?
And Paul comes along and says, in essence, hey, I've been there.
God knows that. God knows what it's like. And
He wants to encourage you, chapter 4, verse 1. Therefore, since
we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not
lose heart. Question, what ministry? Chapter
3, verses 5 and 6. Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves. Our
sufficiency is of God, who also made us sufficient as ministers. of the new covenant, not of the
letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit
gives life. He will also, in chapter 5, talk
about this ministry, verse 18, Now all things are of God, who
has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and has
given us the ministry of reconciliation, along with that, verse 19, the
word or the message of reconciliation. And so we need to remember God
is giving you a ministry and the sufficient mercy to fulfill
it. And again, those are the two
M&Ms in this verse. You've got ministry and you have
mercy. ministry and mercy. And I've
said before when people sometimes buy me M&M's to encourage me,
it's peanut. Get the peanuts. It's the kind
I like. I eat the other kind, though,
but it gives me more reflux. Okay, yes, Philip. Sanders, can we have the mic
on down here? Okay, whenever I've read that
verse, I've always had a question about the mercy, because our
definition that we usually use here is that grace is God's unearned
favor and mercy is Him not giving us what we do deserve. So how
does that definition fit there? Well, I think mercy encompasses
more than God not just giving us what we don't deserve. Mercy,
in fact, mercy is oftentimes in the plural. And mercies, again,
speak of His compassions, His blessings in compassion, as it
were. And mercies was brought up earlier
in chapter one, that he's the father of mercies and the God
of all comfort. And so mercy, especially even
in the Old Testament, sometimes the word hasad, which is what
Kurt pointed out in his message yesterday in Psalm 130, it speaks
of loyal love, God's loyal love. But mercy and grace are very
closely connected. Sometimes we say simplistically
that grace is God's undeserved favor, He gives us what we don't
deserve, and mercy is He doesn't give us what we do deserve. We
say that, but you know what? It's more than that. It's clearly
a lot more than that. And so we have received mercy,
and we do not lose heart. You know, you think of the power
of God's grace, it empowers our salvation, it empowers Christ-like
living, it empowers us to abound and be generous in giving, it
empowers us to serve God, it empowers our Christian ministry
and labor, it empowers those who are weak, it empowers our
relationship with God, it empowers us in times of need. And though
we are the human instruments who need to yield to the Lord
and walk by faith, it's all by God's grace for us and to us
and in us and through us that His will is done in our life. In fact, can you say this? Thank
you, God, for giving me the strength to keep going when all I really
wanted to do is to give up. And we've been there. Do you
ever want to give up because of the overwhelming trials you're
facing? His grace is sufficient. Do you
ever want to give up because of the personal failures you've
experienced? His grace is sufficient. Because
of the spiritual battle you are at. In fact, you know, I thought
to myself of some Gibbs students here, and I thought, you know,
as you want to serve the Lord and you want to teach the Word,
don't expect the battle to go down. Expect it to ratchet up.
It's gonna ratchet up. Do you think Satan really wants
you teaching the Word of God? No way! So expect it to ratchet
up. Furthermore, God allows certain
things in our life. On his side, it's a trial. On
Satan's side, it's a temptation. And he's going to allow trials
because, frankly, you're going to preach out of the context
of who you are before the Lord, your own walk, your own thinking,
your own maturity, your own insights. And that's why even as I read
your expository preaching papers, you know what? Many of them are
good or accurate, but some of them are shallow. You know why
they're shallow? Because you're shallow. You know
why you're shallow? Because you haven't grown enough
yet. And so you can see certain things, but ho ho, there's a
lot of things, a lot more that could be said, but you can only
preach from where you're at. And you know, I don't blame you.
That's where I was. I just preached from where I
was at. And you know what God does? He keeps making you deeper. How do you think he does that?
He does it through his word. What else does he use? Trials,
trial. You know, you don't grow through,
you know, I had to chuckle, one of the papers were saying, now,
you know, some people think trials are like, you know, I just went
through six green lights in a row. You know, that's how some trials
are for people. That's not a trial, is it? Do
you really grow much in the comforts of life? No, it's in the trials
of life. When you're tried and you're
stretched and you're refined, you have to go to the Lord. You
have to say, out of the depths I cried unto God. That's when
you grow in ways you've never grown before. and venturing out
by faith at times in ministries that you've never done, or public
preaching you've never done, and say, man, and you know what?
You're gonna start out, you're not gonna be your home run hitter.
You're gonna have a wiffle bat at home plate trying to hit a
340 yard home run, and you won't even get out of the infield,
but you know what? You gotta start somewhere, and
just let God keep bringing you along. I mean, where I'm at now
in my Christian life and in my teaching, I wasn't there 30 years
ago. I was a lot shallower. I was
preaching right doctrine, but now I understand things. I remember
once Pastor Radke making this comment to me. He went and heard
a Bible teacher teaching. This was a good Bible teacher.
I mean, he was an accurate Bible teacher. I said, so what did
you think? He goes, well, it was good, but... I could have
gone miles with what he said. And I know exactly what he meant.
He saw, take that principle and apply it right here and here
and there and there and there and there and there. And the
preacher didn't, but he would have, Leonard would have done
that because he was a pastor in the trenches. And so God,
if he's going to expand you and he's going to give you greater
insights in your teaching, he has to give you greater insights
in your life. How does he do that? Interaction with people,
interaction with the Word, having trials, troubles, difficulties. And that's why there's times
when I come to the text, and I've seen these texts many times,
but in light of the trials I'm going through, maybe as a pastor,
I have sometimes insights into that, applications of those truths
that I had never had ten years ago, because I've gone through
it. You know, it's like the lady
who says to me after a message once, Pastor, would you quit
preaching on trials? That's all I'm getting. And I
said, well, cheer up. Our next section's on temptations. When it comes to personal failures
in forgiving us, God makes no attempt to minimize, excuse,
or overlook our sins. It's not leniency, but forgiveness
that we've received. because of the cross work of
Christ. In where sin abounded, grace does much more abound.
A thousand times I failed, still your mercy remains. And this is not to say that God's
grace is a license to sin, for God's grace is not an excuse
to sin, but rather a reason to love and serve him more fully.
So let's keep on keeping on. Let's not lose heart. Let's not
quit. Let's not hang up the spikes.
Let's not take the summer off from the Lord. Summer coming. In fact, this is your opportunity
to gain more ministry experience in certain ways. Some of you
will be preaching the messages you have been working on. Some
of you have opportunities to be involved in fair evangelism. You want to get sharpened in
ways? Do some fairs. You know, in fact, thinking affairs
of being at the funeral today, I'm talking to Eileen Johnson
and Sean Parks from Heritage Trail, who go down every year
to Harlingen. I mean, both of them. All I have
to say is the word Harlingen, and boom, the stories come out. They're so thrilled with people
that were led to the Lord, that they led to the Lord through
doing the spiritual surveys in conjunction with DBC and Harlingen
Bible Church. down there. And it is incredible.
In fact, Sean said the stats, I don't know if this is true,
but he said of the 1,500 surveys, there was around 1,400 that were
extremely positive and maybe claimed to get saved. And I don't
know if it was that high, but obviously it was very, very significant. Do you think Satan wants that
to continue? No. Let's keep on keeping on. For God has given us a mission,
He's given us a ministry, He's given us the mercy to fulfill
it by His grace. And since we have been given
by God a ministry and a message and the needed mercy, what should
we not do? Verse 2. But we have renounced
the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, that's
speaking of our method, nor handling the word of God deceitfully,
that means to catch with bait. But by manifestation of the truth,
by just preaching the truth, we are commending ourselves to
every man's conscience in the sight of God. You see, when we
live with a constant realization of God's presence and evaluation,
you see, if I give you feedback on your expository preaching
messages and you think I'm tough, just imagine what the Lord's
like. And the fact is, I'm merciful, and He's even more merciful.
But you know, I'm reminded of the fact that when I preach His
Word, my ultimate audience is the Lord. I'm ultimately going
to give an account. Be not many teachers, for they
shall receive the greater judgment." Right? Boy, I want to make sure
I've got it right. I want to say it accurately.
I want to say it well. I want to say it with enthusiasm.
There's nothing I really dislike more than hearing an accurate
message that's taught dispassionately. I mean, it's like You want to
preach this as if your lives depend on it, because they do.
Lives depend upon it. And you never know how God's
going to use it. You know, last night when I was
teaching at the Virginia study, we concluded our series on Joseph.
And in doing so, I did a review of the different principles we've
seen, and there were many. And then I finished up with chapter
50 of Genesis where Jacob dies and then, you know, Joseph has
to say to his brothers, you meant it for evil, God meant it for
good, relax, I'm not planning to do anything to you. And then
Joseph dies and his bones are carried over. And it was a great
opportunity to go over walking by faith, the promises of God.
You know what was incredible was they carried his bones basically
for 450 years. 450 years basically till they
were planted one day in the promised land. And it's great to track
it in Exodus and in Joshua and then in Hebrews 11, that very
reality. But you know, after it was over,
we were downstairs, and I'll tell you, the spirit and the
fellowship can be really great at this study. And a lot of people
stayed that were there, and we were downstairs, and we were
all fellowshipping around the Lord, and this guy who I only
met three months ago, he came at the beginning of the Joseph
series, and he had gotten saved in the mid-1990s, working out
at Hibbingtackonite with a couple of believers that I happen to
know. who had given him the gospel. He had gotten saved. And so we
were talking to Ron. His name was Ron. And a friend
of mine was next to him. And he says, well, Ron, do you
go to church anywhere? And he goes, well, actually, I go to
the Lutheran Church here in Virginia. He says, but you know, I don't
know what to think. He turns to me and says, do you
think that's wrong? What do you think? And I said,
well, that's something you're going to have to resolve between
you and the Lord. But I want to ask you a question. could that church lead you to
Christ? He says, well, it didn't. I says, well, if it didn't lead
you to Christ, do you think it's really going to help you grow
in Christ? He goes, like, no-brainer, you know, kind of a thing. And
we begin to talk, and I say, you know, Ron, I would guess
you've probably learned more Bible in the last three months
than you have all your years in the Litheran Church. And he
says, oh yeah, and then he gets tears in his eyes and he says,
he says, I can't thank you enough for coming and teaching us the
word of God. He says, I have never experienced anything like
this in my life. Hearing the word and the fellowship
after and all that's going on. This guy is growing in the Lord. And it just reminded me how worthwhile
it is, again, to teach the word of God. But what we see in this
verse is we must utilize godly methods and motives to accomplish
godly results to the glory of God. We must not try to win the
world by becoming more worldly in our motives, in our methods,
or our message, and I could even say in our music. We're not trying to bait and
switch them. We're not trying to attract the unsaved into the
building. Remember, whatever you have to
do to get bodies into the building, you have to do at least that
much or more next week to have them come back. And so cut it
all out! Remember, true worship is only
done by believers. And our primary emphasis in coming
together is not evangelism. It's exaltation of Christ. It's
worshiping. And it's equipping the saints.
And then we scatter to go. And when we lead them to Christ,
we can start to disciple them. And then we can bring them into
the assembly. And we can help them through
at times things they hear they're not prepared to hear that's over
their head, or that doesn't make sense, or is contrary. Because
we have this relationship going with them. That's how churches
get built. You see, Paul didn't practice
the unjustified means in evangelism or in ministry. He didn't change,
he didn't corrupt his message to accommodate his audience,
nor did he adjust it to accommodate his culture. Because that's what
we're hearing today, is we've got to accommodate our culture.
And the fact is, while we don't have to go out of the way to
offend our culture, on the other hand, we don't get our dictates
from the culture. Where do we get our dictates from? Right
here, the Word of God. The Word of God. And that's why
I'm convinced that regardless of the culture that we live in,
we're to stand in the ways and see and walk therein, and ask
for the old paths, and you shall find where is the good way and
you shall find, excuse me, rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6.16,
the old paths. I really like that. What are
the old paths? Well, it's word, a clear gospel
in our case, intercessory prayer, an authentic Christian life,
a loving, caring spirit, a genuine Christian home. I'm convinced
in our day, in fact, that if you have a genuine Christian
home and you're connecting with the unsaved, they come and they're
going to see some things that in some cases they've never seen
in their home. And if there's a genuine love
among the saints here, that's what's going to be attractive
too to them. Isn't that what was significant with Maggie from
China? Was it the message at first? No, it was her watching
these believers that seemed to actually listen to each other,
that actually seemed to care about each other. She sensed
a genuineness and a love that she had never seen in China.
And it opened her up to the gospel. And so God has given you a ministry
and the sufficient mercy to fulfill it. Secondly, we see in this
passage, that God has entrusted you with the gospel of Christ
to preach Jesus Christ our Lord amidst satanic blindness. Satanic blindness, verse 3. But even if our gospel is veiled,
it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God
of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light
of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine on them. Can you find four descriptions
of the lost here? You see where they are? First
of all, if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled
to those who are perishing, whose mind the God of this age has
blinded, who do not believe. The gospel's veiled, they're
perishing, they're blinded, they don't believe. We are in a spiritual
battle and blind people don't see well. And as a result, God
wants to use us in this spiritual battle to preach a message. A message totally contrary to
any of the messages of the world. The greatest news anyone could
ever hear if they understand the reality of it. You know,
Satan, as the god of this age, blinds the unsaved, but he corrupts
the saved from the simplicity that is in Christ. And he also
distracts the saved, as he uses the world to appeal to our flesh,
to do our own thing and not the things that are Christ. In fact,
I'm convinced, just like the birds that picked up the seed
in Soil 1, was the bird as Satan, remember that? I'm convinced
Soil 2 and 3 is satanic as well. The persecution comes from Satan
and the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and lust
of other things come from him as well. They're all tied together. We're in a spiritual battle and we need to understand that.
The Lord warned of this problem. The Lord warned us even about wolves in sheep's clothing. Satan
has a counterfeit religious system. And remember Colossians 2.8,
beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit
after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and
not after Christ. You know, one of the concerns
I have for our young people is, you know, in yesteryear, there
were young people that flaked off, but they usually didn't
flake off doctrinally. They usually flaked off just
by getting involved with carnality in the world. But we've seen
in the last few years a shift doctrinally on the part of some.
An apostatizing has gone on. A departure from the faith, which
was not normally the case in the past. Normally they just
got carnal, and sometimes they'd get right with the Lord and start
walking with Him again, and they weren't like their whole frame
of reference had changed. They just needed to get back
to the truth. Or in some cases, some have departed
from the truth, which means the very means that could bring them
back to right understanding in some cases is gone. It makes
it all that much harder. Yes, Philip? you're probably
going to get to this, but what do you attribute that to, that
change? Yeah, I think that change is
partly related to the fact that Believers in the past, a lot
of them pursued jobs in universities, I mean, educations in universities. But when you go down the routes
of the humanities, and by virtue of the strong anti-Christian,
post-modern thinking of today, that in some cases, you sit and
listen to that day after day after day after day. You cave. You cave. I mean, one plus one
always equals two in the math classes. I've never seen people
cave in in engineering classes, usually. They don't usually cave
in the math classes. Where do they cave? Sciences
and humanities, usually. That's where they cave over time
as they listen to this over and over again. And so the world is inundating
the church, and the church is loaded, weighed down with false
teachings, psychobabble, another gospel, like the waves of the
sea pounding the shore relentlessly. And that is why we need to, verse
5, verse 5, we need to not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the
Lord. That's the solution. Solution
isn't trying to, you know, manipulate. It's not trying to entertain.
It's to keep preaching the gospel. Keep preaching Jesus Christ.
And by the way, the word preach is in the present tense there.
It could mean current action, probably means continual action.
The idea is we just keep on preaching the gospel. We just keep on preaching
Jesus Christ. And we don't preach ourselves,
our experience, our church, our commitment. We preach Christ
Jesus the Lord. And who are we? We're just your
bondservants, for Jesus' sake. What a posture of humility. We're
not your entertainers, for Jesus' sake. We're not your, hey, take
a look at me, for Jesus' sake. You know, bond servants usually
don't get up front and put the spotlight on them, do they? They
put the spotlight on their master. And regardless of Satan's blindness
and the darkness of men's hearts, we can expect, when the gospel
is preached clearly, that it's God who commanded light to shine
out of darkness in creation. who has shown in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. We can expect that God is going
to use that message to break through satanic blindness. Let's
just preach it clearly. Let's preach it compassionately.
Let's preach it with prayer. Let's preach it out of genuine
concern. But let's just keep preaching
it. Because you know, the gospel is the power of God onto salvation
to everyone that believes. And you know, it's amazing, isn't
it, how the church is always looking for new methods? Just go back to the right message.
Speak the truth in love. Preach the gospel. Teach the
Bible verse by verse by verse. Give people an understanding
of the true and living God, and of His Son, Jesus Christ, who
He is, that He's God who became a man. What He did, He died for
our sins, the proof is He was buried, and He rose again victorious
the third day. This is the message that changed
the first century. This is the message in which
in Acts 17, they said, these men have turned the world upside
down. And the fact is, they had really
turned it right side up. And you know what, it didn't
matter if they went into vile Corinth, or if they went into
philosophical Athens, or wherever they went, what did they preach?
Same message. They didn't change their message.
They preached Christ Jesus the Lord. And that is what we are
to preach. By the way, one of the things
that I have noted in your messages, expository messages, is that
sometimes you will emphasize the death of Christ and you will
leave out his resurrection. And I would encourage you to
make sure you include that resurrection, because that is an integral part
of the gospel. And it's not as though it has to be said every
time, because you might be preaching, in some cases, to an audience
that already believes in the resurrection. But keep in mind,
the gospel is that Christ died for our sins and he rose again. And so include that, especially
when you're trying to make a final appeal for them to be saved.
You want to make sure you include that in it. But why did God design
it all this way? Well, verse 7 is our answer.
But we have this treasure, the treasure of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ through the gospel.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of
the power may be of God and not of us. Earthen vessels. clay pots. Now that is again
a posture of humility. We have this message in tremendous
vases. By the way, you know the difference
between a vase and a vase? It's about 200 bucks. That's
the difference. You know, no, this is just earthen
vessels. And again, these vessels, these
pots were used for very mundane things. I mean, carried garbages. It was used at times as a chamber
pot. People weren't impressed with
the pot. In fact, when we were down in Nicaragua, I took this
pot, and I went up there, and I used this, and I said, now
what is this? And I was waiting for a chamber
pot. And they were like, oh, that's way too nice in Nicaragua
for a chamber pot. I had to laugh, you know. Way too nice. We have this treasure. By the
way, do you value that treasure? You know, just how hard it is
to hear a clear gospel. That's why when we were in Nicaragua,
we ran into this guy named Johnny, who had gotten saved back in
the 70s. And he sat down and he shared. And I tell you, he
had this thing down. He had his presentation down.
I mean, he just spoke for an hour, probably nonstop almost.
And he shared what was true in his life before and how he heard
the gospel, how he got saved, how he knew he was saved, da
da da da da. And frankly, we just were thrilled.
Because it is so hard to hear someone so clear. I mean, we
felt right at home. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. Why? That Henoklaus, the excellence
of the power, may be of God and not of us. God would get the
glory to his name by doing it this way. And by the way, if
you feel inadequate, you are. Pity the day in which you ever
think you're competent enough. You know, as many times as I
have preached the Word of God, I'm reminded over and over again,
Joaquin, I'm not sufficient. And you know, sometimes God lets
you fall on your face, you get tongue-tied and this and that,
and you know, the Lord's just humbling you to remind you, you're
just an earthen vessel. Remember, the power's in the
message. It's not in the messenger, it's in the message. Though the
messenger needs to be a clean pot, as it were, sanctified in
meat for the master's use, prepared for every good work, the power
is in the Holy Spirit using the gospel message in earthen vessels. You know, thinking of earthen
vessels, I think of D.L. Moody. Have you ever read much on Moody?
You know, Moody's an interesting guy. First of all, he looked
like a human cannonball. And when I think of Moody, I
just think of this bowling ball with a head sticking out. That's
kind of how Moody looked. I mean, he was a big guy, plump
guy. They said his language, he said
words that were not words. I mean, he did not have a great
vocabulary. In fact, one time he was invited,
if I remember right, to Oxford to preach. And they was invited
there, and Oxford, all these hoity-toities up there, you know,
and they were gonna have fun with him. They were gonna kinda
ridicule him, whatever. And he got up and he said something
right off the bat, got the verb tense wrong and everything. But
he began to preach, and he preached the word of God, and he preached
it sincerely. And they said by the time the
message was over, the audience was just absolutely humbled.
They were responding to Jesus Christ and there was a revival
at Oxford as a result of an earthen vessel who couldn't even hardly
get the right words put together, but preached the gospel sincerely. And God used it to speak to their
hearts. You see, God allows, number three,
persecution and even uses suffering in our lives, that the life of
Jesus may be manifested in our bodies so that death is working
in us, but life in others. You see, God has given you a
ministry and the sufficient mercy to fulfill it. God has entrusted
you with the gospel of Christ to preach Jesus Christ our Lord
amidst satanic blindness. But you know what? He still allows
persecution. And he even uses suffering in
our lives, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our lives. Do you think Satan's going to
defend his territory? Do you think Satan is going to
just lie down and concede victory? Do you think Satan is not going
to push back? Remember, he walks about as a
roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And if he can't hinder
a lost soul from getting saved, then he wants to hinder a believer
from growing. And yet, in that suffering, in
those persecution, in those trials, God's working it together for
good. Boy, did that come through in the story of Joseph when I
taught it. Wow. And Joseph did not know. how
it was all going to work out. He knew his dreams and God would
fulfill it. But he went through years, years
of unjust suffering and learning to just take it from the Lord
and seek to turn to the Lord and make the most of the situation
that God was preparing him. turn on a live webcast of Byron
Center Bible Church yesterday morning. You know, they're in
Michigan in Eastern time, so they're an hour ahead of us,
and they start at 9.30 their time, 8.30 our time. And I wanted
to hear what Rich McCarroll was preaching on, and I watched the
beginning of the service yesterday. And there were six ladies that
got up, and they sang a special. And I don't know the name of
the song. But it basically said, all things are working together
for good. And it had a line in it that said this, we cannot
always trace his hand, but we can still know his heart. That's
a really good thought. You know, tracing his hand means
we don't always understand what's going on and why it's going on.
But don't we know God's heart? Don't we know that he loves us?
Doesn't even we know that no one and nothing? And of those
six ladies, one of them was Nancy's cousin. And she is the lady whose daughter
had that brain tumor. Gina is, I think, 13. Last year,
she found out she had this major brain tumor. And they took it
out, and as a result, she basically had to start life again. She
survived it, but she's had to learn to walk, to talk, to eat,
and it's been really slow. I thought, bless you, Kelly,
that you could sing that song. We can't always trace his hand,
but we know his heart. And that's true in your trials
tonight. You may not trace his hand and
know why did you lose your job, or why did this happen, or why
is this going on, but you know his heart. You know he loves
you. You know He's working all things
together for good. You know He's wanting to refine
your faith. You know He's wanting to draw
you closer to Him. And that's why Paul could say
in verse 8, we are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. We're persecuted, but not forsaken,
struck down, but not destroyed. You notice the contrast here? See the word but,
but, but, but? But, but, but, but. We're hard
pressed on every side. We feel like things are coming
at us in every direction, yet we're not crushed. Why aren't
we crushed? Why aren't we crushed? Because
the Lord's with us. Why are we not crushed? You know
what I really like is the next phrase, we are perplexed. Do you ever feel perplexed? I
get perplexed sometimes. I'm just like, I'm really baffled.
I don't know how to think about this. I don't even know how to
think. Lord, help me to know even how
to think about this. I can't even hardly trust you
in it, Lord, because I don't even know how to think about
it. So just even get my thinking squared away. I'm perplexed,
but I'm not in despair. You know why? Because if any
of you lack wisdom, ask of God. I am persecuted. The Greek word
means I'm hunted down like a dog. I'm hunted down like an animal.
But I'm not abandoned. You know why? Because he said,
I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I am struck down. I'm knocked down, but guess what?
I'm not knocked out. Boy, I find great encouragement
there. But why? Why is all this happening? Always carrying about in the
body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life, the resurrected
life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. That resurrected
life is resurrected power. That's the power of a new life.
That's the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the power that
raised Christ from the dead. God wants to manifest it through
my body. Verse 11, for we who live are
always delivered to death for Jesus' sake. To death doesn't
merely mean death-like situations, where we wonder if we're going
to live. It's more than that. It's death that carries the idea
of getting to points where you realize, I can't do this. I can't
go on. I am not sufficient. I've died to sin. I'm alive to
God. And he is making this practical
in my life by showing me that I cannot trust in myself but
in him who raises the dead. And that is so important, students
in ministry, Because if you think Gibbs can fully prepare you,
it can't. It's going to give you skills,
it's going to teach you things, but you've got to walk with the
Lord. You've got to be delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. You've
got to be put in situations where you say, I can do it. So that
you rely on the Lord and you watch Him do it for you. Watch Him do it in you. Watch
Him do it through you. So that the life of Jesus may
be manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us,
but life in you. Now when you think your life
is all about you instead of Jesus Christ, that it's about fulfilling
your plan instead of God's will. That it's about your seeking
your own things instead of the things of Christ. The thought
of persecution and personal trials does not exactly sound appealing. In fact, you might be thinking,
I hate this sermon. I got that from Pete Tranvig,
by the way. Why? Because you have not embraced
your purpose to glorify Christ. You have not embraced your passion
for, to me, to live as Christ and to die as gain. You have
not embraced the right perspective that God has entrusted to you
a ministry And a message that has given sufficient grace to
fulfill it, but it's in the devil's world that it's fulfilled. And
every weakness you have is an opportunity for God to show his
strength in your life. And to use those very trials
to mature you as a believer. And to teach you to walk by faith. and see the Lord in your circumstances. Death in us, life in you. I can't, but God can. Turn from your own strength to
rely on God's strength. It's the not-I-but-Christ life.
It's the I'm-not-sufficient-but-He-is. That I'm at wit's end is where
I find His grace to be sufficient. The Lord is wanting to teach
you through that, and that is so very needed. Which leads me
to principle number four in this passage. God wants you to have
the same spirit of faith in the gospel message and ministry so
that you also believe and speak. See, if you're going to be effective
in ministry, You're going to need to preach the gospel. You're
going to need to understand there's opposition. You're going to need
to understand the death works in me, but life in you principle.
You're going to need to remember you have a ministry and you have
the mercy needed, but also the spirit of faith in the power
of the gospel and the power of the word of God, so that you
speak with conviction. Again, this goes back to that
dispassionate preaching. This goes back to that, you know,
you can take it or leave it. This goes back to, you know,
again, the sense of a lack of authority in the Word of God.
You know, if this is really what God says, why don't we believe
it? If this is really what God says,
why don't we preach it like God says it? And he does it with
clarity, and he does it with compassion. But we have to be
convinced it's what God has said to preach it that way. Robert?
So this is undoubtedly an immature reaction, but when I find when
I do see something I'm convicted of it, first I'm real passionate,
but then I immediately get discouraged that other people don't see it,
and I get mad. Like, well, if prayer's real,
why aren't you interested? And I know that it's an easy
thing to do, but how do I even move past that to be, you know?
Yeah, the way you go past that, Robert, is realize how long did
it take for you to see it? And now that you see it, everyone
else has to see it right now, right? Well, by the time I got there,
everybody else should have gotten it. Yeah, you're right. And that's why,
what does 2 Timothy 4.2 say? Preach the word, be instant in
season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with awe, longsuffering,
longsuffering, longsuffering, and doctrine. You know, I don't
know how many times I've said some things and then sometimes
say, I think I got it. You know what, or you got it
then, but you didn't get it real well then, but you thought you
got it more than you got it, so now you're getting it, kind
of a thing. And that's why he says, verse
13, and since we have the same spirit of faith, notice we have
the same spirit of faith, like they had in the Old Testament,
quote, quote Psalm 116, verse 10, I believed and therefore
I spoke, We also believe, present active
indicative, and therefore, present active indicative, we speak.
What is it we speak? Well, we know we preach Christ
Jesus the Lord. We know we speak the Word of
God. In fact, I think I've shared this with you before, but sometimes
in my study, before I walk down to preach, I ask the Lord, or
I ask myself, do I really believe this? I'm going to preach. Can I get up there with conviction?
Now, you're not going to be able to do that if you didn't do your
homework. That's why you have to study to show yourself approved.
Because otherwise you're winging it. You're hoping that's what
the Bible says. But that's why you've got to
be convinced what it says. And until you're convinced, don't
preach that. Gloss over it or say there's
a couple views and I'm still weighing that out or I'm prone.
You know what? Don't preach what you're not sure of. But I'll
tell you, there's a ton to be sure of. So preach what you're
sure of and preach it with conviction. And frankly, when you preach
it with conviction, and I'm not talking about minor points, I'm
not talking about going through the names and chronicles and
each every other one you yell, you know, that kind of a thing.
I'm talking about things that really matter here. Someone said a belief becomes
a conviction when it's tested and you embrace it. And frankly,
this next generation needs convictions. And they need to hear preaching
that has strong conviction. Kind of interesting, I read an
article the other day in which they talked about how hip churches
are really dying. Conservative churches actually
are growing. Thought that was kind of interesting.
You know why, they said? Because people want to go back
to God and his word. There are certain people that
want that. Then I read another article someone sent me last
week about the fact that this guy is a blogger and he walks
into this church he doesn't usually go to. And he sits down, and
he says, there was this praise band up front, and they were
jamming, and they were doing all this, and da-da-da-da-da.
And he kind of looked around, and some of the younger people
were really into it and everything. But he says it was very irreverent. It was like God was really secondary. It was like this person was having
their own worshipful experience. And that was one of the things
I failed to mention last week when I talked about music and
the church. Worship isn't about you and your experience. It's
about God. And a lot of this is... And it's all about their worshipful
experience, instead of about God. Worshiping God. And here's this guy making these
comments, I don't know if he's even a believer. And then what
was interesting, he said, and then the preacher got up. And
the preacher got up and he said really nothing with any kind
of conviction at all. And he said, as I looked around,
everyone was just enraptured with what was said, right? Wrong.
He said they were looking at their watches, they were yawning,
they were whatever. And I thought, the order of the day. Now why
would I come back to that next week? Well, I can come back if
I like the music. It's free. I didn't have to pay
the cover charge to get in, you know. So needed in our day. Men and women of biblical conviction
and backbone who speak with clarity and compassion the Word of God
in an expository way. So needed in our day. I believe,
therefore, I speak. Can you say that? And by the
way, as I've said before, you can either be faithful or popular. Take your pick. And frankly,
I've never wanted to be popular. But I have wanted to be powerful.
And by that I mean this, not as an authority, but in the sense
of impactful. Who wants to preach and have,
you know, you shoot the gun, boom, and the flag comes up.
I mean, no. You want to be able to preach
in a way that is used by the Spirit of God and people's hearts
and minds. But it's got to start with yours,
so that, therefore, I believe, therefore I speak. And by the
way, God will lead you to open hearts. He will direct you to
those who want to know the truth. He will lead you to hearts. He
has been preparing to hear the gospel in sound doctrine. He
will do that. And so God wants you to have
the same spirit of faith in the gospel message and ministry so
that you also believe and speak. But what's the purpose in all
this? The purpose in all this? Number five, God's purpose in
all this is to spiritually bless others by His grace, which results
in thanksgiving to abound in many lives to the glory Verse
15, for all things. By the way, when you see all
things, remember many times it's demonstrative. All these things. And I say that because Ephesians
1, 11 says that all things God works according to the counsel
of his own will. And Calvinists take that verse and they run
with it and make it all exclusive, when in reality it's all these
things. All these things, is the idea,
are for your sakes that grace, having spread through the many,
may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. All these
things are for your sakes, not His comfort, not His reputation,
not His popularity, not even ultimately the salvation of others.
It's for the glory of God. It's the glory of God. the glory
of God. And just think, as the Word of
God goes out, people get saved, believers grow, they express
this in thanksgiving to God, and He is glorified. And frankly,
that is so refreshing. It is so refreshing when people
get saved here and start to come out and hear the Word of God.
Or even when believers come out and they're growing in the Lord,
or even like that Ron I talked about. I mean, that was so encouraging
to my own heart last night. He didn't know how as I was ministering
to him, he was ministering to me. Just say, I have never experienced
anything like this in my life before. And what he meant by
that was teaching the Word of God and the fellowship he's enjoying.
And I thought, wow, it's worth it. It's worth it. Hope he leaves
his Lutheran church, too. And so I really want to encourage
you tonight. In your own walk, don't hang up the spikes. In
your own ministry, don't hang up the spikes. Let the Lord continue
to prepare you, mature you, develop you. Walk with Him and be faithful
right where you're at. And even when it comes to this
summer, don't look at it as, well, that's just the time I'm
going to use for myself to do whatever, whatever, whatever.
Don't think that way. No, instead, think in terms of,
while indeed I'm not spending as much time in doing studies
and so forth, this is the opportunity to utilize some of the things
you're learning. You're learning. And frankly,
it's been a joy, and I'll say this to all the students, it's
been a joy for me to read your messages. Now, it's taken hours. as you know. Every message I
read, it takes me at least an hour, I think. And I like to
use the red pen, as you know, and write a lot of feedback,
positive, negative, in between, clarification, whatever. But
as I said before, I'm your friend, not your foe. I'm here to help
you, not hurt you. I'm here to enhance your message,
not rain on your parade. And you're not as far along as
you think you might be. And this is why I can help you
in this kind of a way. And I'm really looking forward
to hearing you preach this summer. And those of you who are in our
outlying sister churches in Gibbs, I'm looking forward to hearing
some of your messages as well. I'm going to request the CD.
I'd love to see the DVD of it, because I'd really like to see
how you're developing. Because you know, it's one thing
to even put together a message on paper, but when you get up
live and deliver, That's a whole nother learning process, isn't
it? That's a learning process. And there's some people who are
better at delivery than they are at putting stuff on paper.
And some people are better at putting it on paper than delivery.
But you want both. You want both. And then even
you utilize the PowerPoint and feel comfortable. Again, I'm
not expecting you to hit home runs. What I'm looking for is
for you to have a teachable attitude, learning to look to the Lord,
going through the process, and progressing. Progressing as a
teacher of the Word of God. Because remember, the ultimate
purpose of Gibbs is to glorify God through the faithful exposition
of His Word, which is really based on sound exegesis and all
that's involved related to that. And so these are just some thoughts
on a passage that I love. I've come to this passage time
and time again, and we'll pick it up more next time as we have
one more Gibbs session here at the beginning of June. So let's,
is it the, or maybe it's the last day of May, one of the two.
Beginning of June, June 1st, is it? Okay, so let's pray. Father, thank you again for these
men and women and this time to study your Word and to become
skilled in a greater way in understanding the Scriptures and communicating
them accurately. And we know that there's this
aspect of exegesis, there's this aspect of expository preaching. But there's also this personal
side of our own walk, our own growth, our own understanding,
in which, again, we cast ourselves upon your mercies. And we are
so thankful that you can bring us along. And Father, even as
I think of my 30 years of ministry, obviously I did not preach with
the same insights and understanding as I have now back then, but
you used your word nevertheless. And you will use your word in
the mouths of these believers as well. And so, Father, I just
commit them to you and pray that they could find their joy in
you tonight, that they could be enjoying the Lord Jesus Christ. They would realize it is worth
it all. and that the great investment
they've made, Father, would, as a result, truly pan out in
effective communication of your word in whatever ministry, whatever
context you have for them. So, Father, I just bring that
before you as well. And thank you now, commit the
remainder of our evening to you in Jesus' name, and amen.
GIBS 3 05/18/15 - Pondering The Page
Series GIBS Pondering The Page 2014+
| Sermon ID | 51815193262 |
| Duration | 1:12:10 |
| Date | |
| Category | Teaching |
| Language | English |
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