Giving Off the Aroma of Christ to God

Transcript

GR 1795
1/18/2015
Giving off the Aroma of Christ to God
2 Corinthians 2:12-17
Gil Rugh

I invite you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 2. If you've been here with our study of this letter of Paul’s, his second letter to the church at Corinth that we have preserved for us in our New Testament, he's been defending himself and explaining his actions. There is a faction at the church at Corinth, evidently one that has significant influence that has been attacking the credibility of the Apostle Paul and part of the problem is he had indicated he was going to be visiting Corinth and he didn't follow through with that. Doesn't seem like a major thing as we look back. It wasn't that he wasn't going to visit them at all, but not on the previously planned schedule. Now, as is often the case, there are other things in view here. There are some doctrinal issues that are going to have to be dealt with. Some are unhappy with Paul's doctrine and he will be explaining that. And all this to say in the church at Corinth that Paul had founded and spent some time in ministry to, had written other letters to, visited, there is, if you will, an anti-Paul faction.

So he has been explaining his decisions and he has explained somewhat why he didn't come as he had previously indicated he would. But he has heard some good reports. And one of the things he has heard is the man who had been in sin, and we read about that back in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul said had to be dealt with, he couldn't allow this sin to persist and he was somewhat frustrated with the church at Corinth because of their unwillingness to deal with this sin. Evidently they had dealt with it, dealt with this individual, he had repented and so, as we noted in 2 Corinthians 2: 5-11, Paul said now the responsibility was to forgive the man. And Paul had been personally involved in issues there, both in his letter and perhaps in a visit and had dealt with some of the obstinacy. But now that that has been dealt with and the immorality is stopped, the church now is to welcome this man back.

And we noted in verses 5-11 Paul gave two reasons to forgive the sinful man. First, verse 7, “you should rather forgive and comfort otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.” Sin causes grief, it brings grief and sorrow to the one who has done it. But now that he has repented, you don't want him to continue in grief and believing he is rejected by the church. Rather he is to be welcomed back. So that is the first reason—for the good of the man who sinned. The second reason he gave was for the good of the church, verse 11, “so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.” So demonstrating forgiveness, comfort, love was for the good of the man who had sinned and now repented, stopped the sin, and for the good of the church. And we looked at some of the reasons for that. Satan is always looking for opportunity to influence the church and to turn it away from consistent faithfulness to the Lord. And the first thing we noted the church had to deal with was their unwillingness to deal with the individual who would not stop the sin. But now that the sin had been repented of, stopped, they had to be careful that they didn't follow through by being biblical in showing forgiveness and love.

Now Paul is going to pick up with his travel plans again and tells the Corinthians what he was doing. He picks up in verse 12, “Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ.” So if you've been here through chapter 1 and chapter 2, you get some sense of the explanation that is going on here. We looked at a map, remember, he is at Ephesus and Corinth is across the water, almost directly west. Originally he thought he would come across the water, visit Corinth, then go up north into the northern part of Greece, Macedonia, then come back down and visit Corinth again before he is on his way. Now he has stayed on the Asia Minor of the water, east side, he has gone up from Ephesus to a port city of Troas. And from there he can cross over into northern Greece, Macedonia, which he said his plans now were.

So we pick up here and he tells about his plans and what had happened. “Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ.” That's why he went to Troas, he saw there the possibility of an opportunity to minister the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to bring the Gospel to Troas. That's an important city, it's a port city. Many people came through there. What a great place to establish a testimony for Christ. So I came to Troas for the Gospel of Christ, to share the Gospel, to present the truth of Christ. “And when a door was open for me in the Lord.” The Lord had opened the door, and that figure of speech we are familiar with. There was an opportunity to present the Gospel. There evidently was some receptivity to the Gospel, a great opportunity, those kinds of things that Paul longed for as he ministered. And yet he couldn't take advantage of that opportunity. “I had no rest for my spirit not finding Titus my brother. Taking leave of them I went on to Macedonia.” Strange, yet not so strange as Paul explains is.

This open door. Not every place Paul went was there an open door for the Gospel and receptiveness. And there evidently has been some receptiveness here because he said in verse 13, “taking my leave of them.” Evidently there had been at least a core group that had responded to the Gospel, was excited to have Paul sharing it and perhaps had seen friends come to know Christ.

Just back up to 1 Corinthians 16, and when he wrote his first letter to them he was still in the city of Ephesus. And he told them in verse 8, “I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective service has opened to me and there are many adversaries.” In spite of the adversaries there was an open door, an opportunity for preaching the Gospel and a receptiveness to the Gospel at Corinth. So that encouraged Paul in his ministry there.

Come over to Colossians. And the city of Colossae was, if you will, somewhat a neighboring city to Ephesus. Now when Paul writes the letter to the Colossians, he is in prison in Rome but you see something of the situation in Colossians 4. He is asking them to pray for him, verse 2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us as well,” now note this, “that God will open up to us a door for the Word so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I have also been imprisoned, that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.” And for Paul that open door was when he presented the Gospel. There was the occasion to present that Gospel and a receptiveness, and he wanted to be clear with it. I pray that God will open the door so that I can present the Gospel and people will be open to hear it. Isn't it amazing? And the Apostle Paul asking for them to pray that he would make the Gospel clear as he should.

So when you come back to 2 Corinthians and Paul tells the Corinthians in this letter, I went to Troas to present the Gospel and a door was open for me in the Lord. The very thing he asked people to pray for him. But he says, I couldn't stay—I had no rest in my spirit. He is troubled on the inside. What he is expressing here is the depth of his love and concern for the Corinthian church. At the end of verse 4 he had said, “I want you to know the love which I have especially for you.” And Paul's concern, he has written them a letter, it's a harsh letter. We went through 1 Corinthians and saw all the issues that Paul addressed, sometimes very firmly. And in those days you didn't pick up the phone, you didn't send a text. You sent a letter and the mail went slow. So he doesn't know how they have responded. And he had hoped and anticipated meeting Titus, who he calls my brother, at Troas. But that didn't happen. Titus is one of those evidently young men who joined themselves to Paul's ministry. You think of him like Timothy, and Paul wrote 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy to Timothy; he also wrote a letter to Titus. And in that letter to Titus in Titus 1:4 he refers to Titus as “his son in their common faith,” which would indicate that evidently Titus had become a believer under Paul's ministry. And evidently very early he had joined himself to Paul.

Come over to Galatians 2:1, for the context, “Then after an interval of 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.” Now this is referring to the event in Acts 15, the Jerusalem Conference, to settle and make clear what the content of the Gospel had to be, basically. And Titus was traveling, that's in Acts 15 that it took place after Paul's First Missionary Journey. And Titus was traveling with Paul and Barnabas and went to Jerusalem, was part of that meeting. Then verse 3, “Not even Titus who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.” Sometimes Paul uses that word Greek to refer to the non-Jews, but the good probability is that Titus was an actual Greek. And that's why we find him in 2 Corinthians a part of Paul's ministry to Corinth, because he himself being a Greek would have special connection to this Greek city. Then we know Paul wrote a letter to Titus. Titus will be mentioned a number of times as we move through 2 Corinthians. He was not mentioned by name in 1 Corinthians. But he is, if you will, a close companion.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 8:23, “As for Titus he is my partner and fellow worker among you.” So you see something of the connection Paul has and the confidence he has in Titus. In that sense he is like Timothy and he is a man that Paul can depend upon, even to go into situations where there is a faction that is critical of Paul, trying to undermine his ministry. Titus is a man that can be depended upon to go there, to be firm and not get swayed, not be moved by those opponents. And accurately represent Paul and bring him an accurate account from the Corinthians.

So back in 2 Corinthians 2. “I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother. But taking my leave of them I went on into Macedonia.” I left the open door in Troas because I was so burdened for you at Corinth, I just couldn't settle into a ministry there. And then the next verse say, verse 14, “but thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.” We say, wait a minute, what about what happened? Did you ever meet Titus? Well he did and the response was good, positive. We know that because there is a break here after verse 13, then come over to 2 Corinthians 7:5. Some of you think I wander a little bit in my sermons, I just follow Paul's pattern of saying what comes to your mind. Look at 2 Corinthians 7:5, “For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest.” So you see you could read 2 Corinthians 2:14, “taking my leave of them I went on to Macedonia;” 2 Corinthians 7:5, “for even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest.” Verse 6, “But God comforted us by the coming of Titus.” So everything from 2 Corinthians 2:14 through 2 Corinthians 7:4 is something of a digression because Paul is reminded again of God's grace and faithfulness. He has cause to turn and he goes into some depth to speak of God's work in his life and in the ministry of His truth. And it's a great section. A. T. Robertson, the great Southern Baptist Greek scholar has written a book on that section from 2 Corinthians 2:14-7:4 and he titled it “The Glory of the Ministry.” And that's what Paul talks about. And you can see how his heart is full of how God works at a time when Paul was discouraged. He couldn't even concentrate on the ministry in Troas when he had an open door and an opportunity. That tells you something of how great the burden on Paul was.

We sometimes forget Paul was a normal human being. The ministry weighed on him. He'll tell the Corinthians later, all my physical sufferings in the ministry and on top of that I have the concern of the churches weighing on me. You know, you’re involved in ministry and involved in ministry can be discouraging, it can get you down. Paul was down. In 2 Corinthians 7:5, “When we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, we were afflicted on every side, conflicts without, fears within. But God who comforts the depressed,” those that are down, discouraged, “He comforted us by the coming of Titus. Not only by his comfort, by the comfort with which he was comforted in you as he reported your longing, mourning, zeal for me so that I rejoice.” When Titus did meet Paul in Macedonia he said the Corinthians are brokenhearted that you had to deal with these issues. They were truly repentant of their attitude and their sin. And Paul is just overwhelmed that God brought that comfort to me, that encouragement to my heart. You know how it is when you've been down, discouraged, things have happened and you are worried about things, discouraged, and then God brings perhaps some news or someone into your life and all of a sudden your view of everything is changed. In one sense nothing is changed but in another everything has. When Paul finds out how God has used his word that he wrote to them, Paul is just overwhelmed with gratitude.

So you come back to 2 Corinthians 2, and we will be on a digression now until we get to 2 Corinthians 7:5. That doesn't mean it is less important, it is an extremely important portion of the New Testament on the ministry of God's truth, which we are all to be about as His people. So you see verse 14 picks up, “But thanks be to God.” Always keeps that his focus. And here is gratitude toward God. And the emphasis is on God here. As you know in Greek like in other languages you can rearrange your word order. And he starts out here, “But to God be thanks.” He doesn't take credit that what he did, it was God at work. And he uses the letter in the lives of the Corinthians, he used Titus and the response of the Corinthians in Paul's life. And you see how we are all interwoven together in the ministry, and through the difficult times, the encouraging times.

“But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.” He always, and underline that or circle it, He always leads us in triumph. You see the Apostle Paul. He had no rest,; he is in turmoil within. He is discouraged, he has fears with how his ministry in letter has been received by the Corinthians and what the outcome of that will be. When you really love people it impacts you and you are concerned for them. You care. And Paul really cares for the Corinthians. But we are reminded God always leads us in triumph, in the good times and in the bad times, God is leading us in triumph in Christ.

There is a lot of discussion, if you read the commentaries on the verb translated lead in triumph. The King James translated it causes us to triumph in Christ. I'm not so sure there is as big a difference in the translation as some make it to be. Part of the difficulty we have is this particular verb is only used one other time in the New Testament. So we go to the extra-biblical literature and a word that would be used of Roman triumphs, where a general after a great victory comes marching in, leading the captives and his soldiers in a victory parade. Ticker tape parades of New York City kind of thing that they did after World War II and so on.

The only other use, turn to Colossians 2:15 and you'll see it. And you see the context here. Verse 13, “You were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with Him,” Christ, “having forgiven all our transgressions.” That's the amazing thing, we were people spiritually dead in the guilt and condemnation of our sin, but in Christ it has all been forgiven, the debt has been canceled. That's why our demonstrating forgiveness as we noted in the earlier section of 2 Corinthians 2 is so important. He canceled it out, He nailed it to the cross. Christ died to pay the penalty for that sin. Verse 15, “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities,” referring to Satan and his demonic host, “He made a public display of them, having triumphed,” and there is our verb, threonbuow, “having triumphed over them through Him.” The victory over sin, over Satan was accomplished in Christ. So He made a display, and it's like the general, the victorious one marching and Satan in his host, if you will, marching behind as those who have been conquered and defeated, often being led away to execution. So that picture there of Satan having been defeated and his host in the work of Christ on the cross.

Come back to John 12. And this is at the close of Christ's public ministry, John 13 will begin the record of His last night with the Last Supper with His disciples. And so as He anticipates His death, He says in verse 31, “Now judgment is upon this world, now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” And He refers to His being lifted up which he says would indicate the kind of death He was to die. That was crucifixion because when they crucified you, they lay the cross down on the ground, then they lay you down and nailed you to the cross, then they lifted the cross up and put it in the hole that had been dug. So to be lifted up was a specific reference to crucifixion. You'll note here, though, in verse 31, “Now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” That's Satan, the god of this world. He will be cast out.

Over in John 16, now Jesus is with His disciples on that last night and He is talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Spirit. “And He will convict the world concerning judgment,” verse 11, “because the ruler of this world has been judged.” And as we've noted in previous studies, in the death of Christ the power of Satan is broken. When we place our faith in Him we are transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of light. We are no longer under the authority and power of Satan, the power of sin over us has been broken. So that victory that has been accomplished in Christ involved the defeat of Satan.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 2. But here he is talking about us and that victory that Christ accomplished on the cross not only brought the defeat of Satan, but it brought the victory to those who would believe in Him, who would no longer serve the god of this world. Jesus said of the religious people of His day, you are of your father, the devil, and you always do his will. But I am no longer a child of the devil, I no longer am under his power to do his will, I've been set free in Christ. And so I share in the victory that He has accomplished. We read that in Colossians 2, all my sins were nailed to the cross. He died for those sins, the penalty has been paid. I've been set free.

“So God always,” 2 Corinthians 2:14, “leads us in triumph in Christ.” We always share in the victory that Christ accomplished on the cross. Always. Always leads us. And Paul is reminded of that. When I was discouraged, when I was down, when I had fears, when I was overwrought with concern, God was at work. The victory He accomplished in Christ was being carried out. It's by virtue of being in Christ. When you are in Christ you share in all the benefits of His death on the cross. Foundation to understanding our salvation. When you place your faith in Christ, you are born again. “If any man be in Christ,” we'll get to in 2 Corinthians 5, “he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, new things have come.” We now share in all the benefits of Christ's victory over sin and Satan and death. God always leads us in victory.

Back up into 1 Corinthians 15, look at verse 57. And he talks in chapter 15 about the reality of death, physical death. But we have victory over death. Verse 57, “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And that's in the context, “Oh death, where is your victory?” Death has been conquered, that's the point of 1 Corinthians 15, because even if you experience death as a believer in Jesus Christ, death will be overcome and you will be raised from the dead as Christ was raised from the dead. He gives us the victory. That's the point.

Come back to Romans 8, and he's talking here about difficult times for God's people. There are no charges that can be brought against the child of God. Verse 33 asks, “Who would bring a charge against God's elect? God is the One who justifies.” If God declares me righteous, absolved of all guilt, who has authority over God to pronounce me condemned? That's the point. Who can bring a charge against God's elect? Those who belong to God, God is the One who justifies. Who is the judge of all men? The ultimate, final judge? That's why Paul will tell the Corinthians a little bit later in the letter, it's a small, insignificant, unimportant thing that I should be judged by you. There is only one who judges me. I'm not the ultimate judge of myself, but God is. “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us.” You see we have shared in His victory. As he said in Romans 6, we were identified with Christ in His death, in His burial, in His resurrection to new life. Who could condemn me when the Son of God died for me and now functions as my representative in the very presence of God the Father? “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword?” So you know all these difficulties and trials that could come into the life of a believer, you understand nothing has changed. My physical circumstances have changed, things may have gotten unpleasant, but in the ultimate reality nothing changed because I have the victory in Jesus Christ. None of these things can defeat me. “Even though for your sake we are being put to death.” That happened to so many of the believers, what ultimately happened to Paul. What a great defeat. Forget it. God is always leading us in victory in Christ.

So verse 37, “In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loves us.” He always leads us in victory, we overwhelmingly conquer. “Death, life, angels, principalities, things present, things to come, height, depth, nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So He always leads us in victory in Christ. It may be a down time in your life as a believer, those times come, they are hard times, concerns come, fears come, pressure comes and you wonder what good is happening. This is where Paul was. My ministry at Corinth is coming to nothing, the people that I loved and labored over, I've poured my life into and now I may be closed out. But nothing can change. God was continuing to lead Paul in the victory. That's why he can't even continue the story, so to speak, until he gets this out, how God uses us in our weakness, in our frailty because His power is at work and we are overwhelmingly victorious in every situation.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 2. You have to be in Christ; not be religious, not be a church-goer, but truly be in Christ. This only comes when a person comes to grasp the truth of the Gospel, that Christ's death was to pay in full the penalty for sin. I place my faith in Him, believing that He died for me, He was raised victorious. My total hope for time and eternity is my trust in Him.

So 2 Corinthians 2:14, “God always leads us in triumph in Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” That verb manifests is a present participle. God is always leading us in triumph. That is ongoing; Also, He is always manifesting. That's a present tense participle also, indicating what God is continually doing. He is manifesting through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him. In other words that sweet aroma, that pleasing fragrance ascends to God. What is it? It's the knowledge of Christ. In other words when we are telling people about Christ, that message we are sharing is like a pleasing fragrance that comes up before Christ.

Come back to Leviticus 1, we'll just take this one chapter and it will give you the point. In the sacrifices that were offered, the end of verse 9, when you offered this sacrifice, “it was an offering by fire of a soothing aroma, a pleasing fragrance to the Lord.” This is like they offered those sacrifices to express their relationship with the Lord in one way or another. It was a pleasing fragrance to the Lord. He mentioned that at the end of verse 13, “the offering by fire of a soothing, pleasing fragrance to the Lord;” the end of verse 17, “offering of a soothing, pleasing fragrance to the Lord.”

So now in 2 Corinthians 2 Paul says when you tell people about Jesus Christ it’s like a fragrance, pleasing aroma to God. Just like the Old Testament sacrifices, that pleases God that you are telling, giving out the message of His Son. Think how important this is. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.” “The greatest demonstration of love is this, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” I mean, God gave the gift of His Son to suffer and die on the cross. How pleased God is when we are telling people the beauty of that message. We say, I want to have a life pleasing to God, and there are many things involved in that. But one of the things to do is tell other people about Jesus Christ, because when you do that message ascends to God and He is pleased.

Come back to 2 Corinthians and see how Paul elaborates on this. He is “manifesting through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” You note how encompassing Paul is. He always leads us in triumph, making manifest the knowledge of Christ in every place—always, in every place; at all times, in every place. We are part of that victory in Christ and the sharing of the truth concerning Christ. Verse 15, “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God.” Is there anyone or anything more pleasing to God the Father than His own Son? The unique Son, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father. “We are a fragrance of Christ to God,” now note this, “among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” Two more present participles denotes an ongoing condition, those who are being saved. We are familiar with what we sometimes talk about, the tenses, the past tense—we have been saved from the penalty of sin; the present tense—we are being saved from the power of sin; future tense—we will be saved from the presence of sin. Describes the condition of the child of God, the believer. We are being saved. God has saved us and now is in the process of preparing us for the glory of His presence, the ultimate realization of our salvation.

But there are also those who are perishing. You note there are only two groups—those being saved and those who are perishing. He said if you are not with Me you are against Me. There are no people in the middle. Until you place your faith in Jesus Christ, you are among the perishing, no matter how close you may think you are to placing your faith in Christ. If you drop dead, you are going to hell. That's what it means to be in the perishing. They were so close, they said they were going to think about it, they said they would let me know tomorrow. But they died last night. Where are they? If they didn't trust Christ, they are lost. There are only two groups. The groups don't blend in—these are in the dark area, these are in the light area, and these are in the gray in-between. There is no gray in-between. That's what Jesus said, if you are not with Me you are against Me. If you are not among those being saved, you are among those perishing. Those are the two conditions.

Now what you ought to know here, we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. Sometimes we share the Gospel and a person responds negatively and we are discouraged, but do you know what is pleasing to God? You shared the Gospel. It doesn't matter in that sense whether the person believed or not, God is pleased with the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ that you gave off. Now that doesn't mean we are indifferent to whether people believe and are saved, that's the burden of our heart, but we ought to understand. We go home and say, what happened? Nothing, they weren't interested. But something happened—God was pleased and to the one we are an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. We are giving off this fragrance of the knowledge of Christ. For some it is a life-giving fragrance—they hear it, they believe, they are saved and they continue to hear the truth of God and they grow. For others they hear it and it just confirms them in their lost condition. Serious matter to put off believing. Paul will later tell them, today is the day of salvation. Don't tell God, come back tomorrow. I'll think about it. God gives you opportunity to hear the Word, hear the truth concerning Christ. You ought to fall on your face and tell God, thank you, Lord. I want to place my faith in your Son, I believe He died for me. Tomorrow may be too late. People say, I'm going to trust Christ on my deathbed, that's all right, I'll be all right. You don't know, you don't know what will happen, you don't know when it will happen. You don't know whether God will give you opportunity tomorrow. I've shared with you, people I've shared the Gospel with and they say, I'm going to think about it, I'm just not quite ready. With the passing of time they only became harder until they come to a point where they don't want to hear it anymore. Serious thing to be exposed to God's truth and not respond to it.

But you understand, we are an aroma giving off the fragrance of Christ that pleases God the Father whichever is happening. This is the passage as many of you know, when I was graduating from seminary I had opportunity to speak to the seminary body and the professors. And this was the passage. It was good for me. It was a reminder to myself that when I go out into the ministry, my number one concern is to be pleasing to God. And to do that I must be telling people the truth of His Word and the salvation in His Son. If God is pleased, I'm a success whether I have a church of 20 people or 100 people. That's not the point. If God is pleased I'm “successful” in a biblical sense. What is the burden of our life as God's people? To be pleasing to Him. I want to be pleasing to God. Go tell someone about Christ, share the truth with them. Well, I do but they don't believe. Well, God is pleased that you told them.

Paul realizes this is overwhelmingly important and so he asks the question, “Who is adequate for these things?” You understand, the most important thing going on in the world today is not what is going to be said at the State of the Union, decisions being made at the highest levels of government in other parts of the world or in terrorist organizations. The most important thing going on in all the world is people are telling other people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All eternity hinges on that. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the message of Christ, Romans 10. And how shall they hear without a preacher, a proclaimer, someone to tell them? You understand no one can be saved if they don't hear the Gospel, and we who have the Gospel become the instruments to share it. If we don't tell them, who will? Well, I'm praying that someone will tell them. There may be family and friends in other places and you're praying that the Lord will bring a believer into their lives, a person here in the city. But do you know what? I may be that person. The person who shared the Gospel with me didn't know they would be the person God would use to bring me to salvation in Christ. I didn't personally know them, they shared the Gospel and I believed. How amazing.

I had opportunity to share the Gospel in my former pastorate with a 90-year-old lady who was near death. She prayed, trusted Christ and she says, pastor, be sure to tell people not to wait until they are 90 to trust Christ. God was gracious, gave her 90 years and at the end she trusted. Some people, it is different.

Who is adequate for these things? I'm not adequate, I just can't do it. You ought to practice every day. Go home, close the bedroom door, sit down on the edge of the bed and share the Gospel. And don't wander around talking about God and I hope you know God. Get to the Gospel, and if you can't do that, don't come out of the room until you can. Think of it like here is somebody, you come on an automobile wreck, there they are lying, dying and you have 3 minutes to share the Gospel. Could you tell them, here, I want to tell you how you can have forgiveness, how you can have life. Get to the point and do it. Don't wander around. People think, I talked to them about the Lord. What did you say? Well, I told them God is at work in the world and God . . . That's not the Gospel. Tell them the Gospel, tell them the truth concerning Christ, His death on the cross. Their only hope for salvation is to place their faith in Him. And the Savior not only died, He was raised from the dead. And you go in your bedroom and sit on the bed, talk out loud so you are used to hearing your own voice telling people the truth of the Gospel. Be able to say it in a condensed period.

I remember I used to ride the subways in Philadelphia to go to school. And I'd go and look for an empty seat on the subway, sit down next to the person. They have their paper and you have to fold it up in the four squares as we do on the subways. How are we going to get into conversation with people? I don't know what stop will be theirs, but I have to make it my goal to tell them the Gospel before they get up and get off. It was good for me because I just can't dawdle around and let's talk about the headlines, let's talk about this, let's talk about . . . Oops, they are getting off, I should have gotten to the Gospel. Get to it now. We ought to be a people ready because that pleases God.

Who is adequate for these things? We might say, not me. Just the opposite. Come down to 2 Corinthians 3:5, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, our adequacy is from God who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant.” That's an affront to God to say, I'm not adequate to do that. Well then get saved. I am saved. Then don't deny what God said He said. If you got saved, you know the Gospel; if you know the Gospel, you can tell someone else that Gospel. Think about it, look at this. If the hundreds of us who are here go out and everybody tells one person, hundreds of people will hear the Gospel. And that's just from one group, that we tell one person every day. How many people would that be in a week to hear the Gospel? Multiply that for a year. How long would it take for everybody in the city to hear the Gospel?

He has made us adequate. Now note the negative side. The positive side is we are a pleasing fragrance and God has made us adequate. The negative side, we are not like the many, the hoi poloi, an expression we sometimes use in English. It's the Greek expression here—hoi poloi, the many. Now note this, “peddling the Word of God.” He is not talking about the pagan Romans in their various religions, he is talking about those, and he can say the many. This just isn't a few isolated incidences, many are taking the Word of God and peddling it. That word translated peddling—to be a huckster—was a commercial term. It came to carry a negative flavor where people made changes in their product, either in the way they promoted it or what they did to it so they could get a sale. An example, the wine merchants would dilute their wine and present it as more expensive but you really were getting a changed product, it was diluted. That's one of the things. The negative side is you are not adequate if you are like the many who take the Word of God and make changes. We like to think, we are going to have a better ministry, we're going to make it more appealing. Then we become peddlers of the Word. The goal becomes to have a bigger congregation, to make more money, to do whatever. It's not my Word, I can't add to it, I can't take away from it, it's not mine.

So we are adequate because of what we don't do, “we're not like the many, peddling the Word of God,” what a terrible thing to say, “but as from sincerity.” A word that means transparency, there are no ulterior motives. I don't want to preach so I get glory or I get more money or I get a bigger church or you do whatever. We are sincere. Paul is always being criticized for this or that or the other thing. I preach from sincerity, transparency. What you see is what you get. “As from God,” Literally as out of God. The message I have is from God, tell them what God has said. It is the Gospel which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 1. I speak out of God. In other words I speak as one who has been entrusted with God's Word. And I'm telling we speak in Christ by virtue of our relationship with Christ, of being joined to Him, belonging to Him. We speak out of that relationship in the sight of God. The God who always leads us in triumph as we are making Him known in every place the message of His Son. We speak the Word of God, out of God we speak in the sight of God. Later Paul will tell the Corinthians it doesn't matter what you think of `me, but it does matter God's judgment of me. Do I preach to please men? Or do I preach to please God? I preach in the sight of God and since it's His Word I'm giving, I better not be peddling it.

I've shared with you as I’ve often thought of my ministry. If Christ would bodily walk in and sit down on the front row on Sunday morning, would I look at my message and say, I should have done it differently. God is observing. How did I handle His Word? Was I accurate with it? Was it correct? Was the truth concerning His Son given as He gave it? I don't have to improve it, I better not. I better not change it. So all I have to do is give it out as He gave it to me, and He is the One watching. It's in the sight of God. Better not be peddling it, better not be making alterations. Well, everybody says, the hoi poloi says you are doing a good job. Well, who cares about the hoi poloi? There is only one person that has to be pleased, right? We will give an account to whom? Not to one another. We give account to God.

What a great ministry has been entrusted to us as God's people. What a great message. We want to be bold with it, we want to be clear with it. Not arrogant, not self-focused. This is a message of God's love, that someone graciously told me and I just want to tell you that you can move from the realm of the perishing to the realm of the being saved, not by becoming more religious, not by trying harder. By stopping everything and saying, God, I have nothing to offer, I have nothing I can do. I am a sinner, I deserve to be condemned, I believe Your Son died for me. I'm claiming Him as my Savior, my trust is in Him only. And God miraculously, supernaturally, His power causes us to be born again. He makes us new. All my sins are forgiven, the guilt is gone. Now I live as one who shares in His victory always, and I'm privileged to tell others in every place, wherever God puts me.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your grace as poured out on us in Christ, the wonder of our salvation, the power of the truth concerning Christ to change lives. Lord, I pray that we would be faithful with the message that has been entrusted to us. The grace that brought salvation to our lives when we heard and believed that Gospel is the same grace that can bring salvation to the lives of others as we tell them the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Use us wherever we are to be pleasing to You. We pray in Christ's name, amen.