Ministry in the Sight of God

Transcript

GRM 1227
09/29/1019
Ministry in the Sight of God
2 Corinthians 2:14-17
Gil Rugh

Well, we have 50 years together, some of you were here when I came and you have more than 50 years in the ministry with this church and to this church. But I want to take us to a passage that was reflected in one of the accounts in our recent newsletters that was a key passage for me and in my coming here to minister, and that’s in 2 Corinthians chapter 2. It’s a passage we’ve looked at, you had a very fine sermon and exegesis from this passage recently, and we’re not going to go into all the details because there are some things as we go through this. But I thought it would be fitting to talk about this passage since it has been foundational for my ministry here, and a little bit of how this passage has impacted me and how I came to be impacted by the passage myself. And when I came to the church (Aaron mentioned the average pastor) I told them you’d better be sure in selecting a pastor because I might stay for 20 years and it can be dirty work to get rid of a pastor. And I did ask for one thing, I said you would have to agree that we will go wherever the Word takes us and they were agreed and have been faithful to that and each of you have been as we have journeyed on and I appreciate that.

When I was completing my seminary work, the Lord blessed me with preparation from the time I was an early teenager. My family began attending a Bible teaching church, not just a Bible believing church, a Bible teaching church. In fact, some of the commentaries that are published by the pastor of that church are in Sound Words, so it helped to give a firm foundation on the importance of serious Bible study, which was not quite as rare, I don’t think, in those days as perhaps it is today, but for our family it was unique. We were coming from a mainline denominational church, my parents were recent believers and they were looking for teaching, more than just superficial and so they heard about this Bible teaching church and our family started attending. The Lord used that in my life, that’s where I met Marilyn, where we were eventually married, and so on.

Now I was also privileged to attend a Bible college in Philadelphia that was taught by very sound, solid men who were firmly committed to the word of God, and would accept nothing less from us as students but a firm commitment and a goal to a clear understanding of the Word. From there I went to Grace Seminary, again godly men that had a great impact, were part of the foundation the Lord was laying for my life and ministry. Toward the end of that, there were some students I think that they thought needed more stress in their life, maybe more practice, but they would select four students, the faculty. We had seminary four days a week, you didn’t have class on Monday, so these four students as we were at the end of the school year, it was in April, each one would preach on one of those days. And you had all the faculty there, and all the student body, and it was a little bit of pressure because those faculty members sat down there in the first couple rows. And they were the ones who taught you Greek and Hebrew and hermeneutics and how to exegete the scripture and now you come to open up the scripture and they’re sitting there. And you’re thinking here’s all the student body, all my friends, and I think of Jeremiah (20:10), all my friends waiting for my fall. But it was a great opportunity for me because the Lord directed me to 2 Corinthians chapter 2, and it was a culmination of the kind of background the Lord had given me to prepare me.

This just wasn’t new to me, but it just solidified and clarified for me as I was launching out to go into the pastorate in a full time way what my ministry needed be about, and that it’s continued to be a passage I’ve returned to often. And it reminds me of what my ministry must be and must not change, it should be the same as it was when I came. But it came with the goal we will go where the Word takes us and we’ll have to know what the Word says so we can go there and we can be faithful. And some people would view me as stubborn, and I am and I am not flexible and that just doesn’t have to do with being old, I was no more flexible when I was young, so get used to it. We don’t want to be flexible when it comes to the word of God, we want to learn, we want to grow, but the Word we have is unchanging and so we must be unchanging.

Just a little bit of the context, 2 Corinthians, if you back up to chapter 1 you’re reminded that Paul has a difficult ministry to carry out. And in chapter 1 verse 3 in 2 Corinthians, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,” and then the next verse, verse 4, “who comforts us in all our afflictions,” and that becomes two key words in these opening verses, ‘comfort’ and ‘afflictions.’ Sometimes he uses the word ‘suffering,’ he’s talking about the same thing as afflictions, but comfort and afflictions, comfort in suffering. And they remind them, I want you to know about our afflictions when we were in Asia but then I tell you about our comfort. So that’s the kind of context that is there, God’s sufficiency in all the trials and circumstances. God hasn’t called us to an easy ministry, a comfortable ministry, He’s called us to a ministry of truth, and we are reminded Jesus said if they hate Me they’ll hate you. And we are in trouble if they hate Christ and love us, we are not clearly identified with Him. And a sad thing when the church is not clearly identified as the body of Christ in whatever place the Lord puts them.

When you come down to verse 12 of chapter 1, “For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you.” Through it all, and he’s still in the midst of it, we have found God sufficient and our ministry remains firm and clear. You know the problem that has remained down to today, most of the difficulty the church faces comes from within, not from without. Now sometimes it’s from within by unbelievers who have been disguised as believers. Paul gets to that with the Corinthians in chapter 11 where even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light so don’t be surprised when his servants do that, and they’ve given every appearance of being true believers but they’re really not. They have been planted there by the devil to do harm and then sometimes believers get caught up, and confused, become part of the conflict. You’re well familiar with the issues of the church at Corinth and I’ve shared with you one of my professors in Bible college encouraged us as men going into the pastorate, very early in your ministry preach the letters of Paul to the Corinthians because you will cover all the kinds of situations you will end up involved in, in your local church, because things don’t change. The devil doesn’t change, God doesn’t change, and the battle we talked about with spiritual warfare goes on.

Look down in verse 23 of chapter 1, sad Paul has to say, “But I call God as witness,” now this is a solemn oath, “to my soul, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth.” You know why Paul didn’t go to Corinth? Things were in such bad condition there he knew he would have to come in, and with a firm hand, get things in order, and you know he loved the Corinthians, he knew it would be especially hard if he had to come in that way. He led them to Christ, he was their father in the faith, and their father in the ministry of truth. He had written them 1 Corinthians so rather than going he wanted to give them a chance to get things in order and he sent Titus on his behalf. Titus acted like Timothy did, as Paul’s representative in certain places, the letter to Titus when he was in Crete to represent Paul and set things in order in the churches there. So Titus is sent to Corinth to see how they have responded. Paul had written 1 Corinthians and how are they going to accept the things he said, which were pretty blunt. You’re just acting like fleshly people who don’t have the Spirit, there’s no excuse for such conduct, and those kind of really firm things that needed to be said. So Paul’s waiting for Titus to bring word and he leaves Ephesus and goes to Troas and he’s sure he’ll meet Titus, and it’s weighing on him, Paul’s human, he needed the comfort of God. Well, we sometimes think when we’re going through our afflictions and our sufferings, well, this is normal, the normal Christian life, but God’s comfort is normal and we’ll see that again. He’s in Troas, he has an effective ministry, down in verse 12 of chapter 2, “Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord,” an opportunity, people were responding to truth. “I had no rest in my spirit,” Paul is so troubled, so concerned over the Corinthian situation. He said: and Titus didn’t show up, Titus my brother, I’m waiting. I couldn’t stay any longer in Troas. So he crosses over into Greece, northern Greece where Philippi for example would be, Corinth being in the southern part of Greece as many of you know. I couldn’t wait and then it’s like he changes to a different subject, look at how verse 14 begins, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ.”

What about Corinth, what about Titus? Well, he goes on a digression because Titus did come and the news was good and Paul is so thrilled he launches right in to talk about the wonder of what God has done and God is doing, and the power of the ministry entrusted to Paul and others with the message of Christ. And it’s not until you come over to chapter 7 and verse 5 that he gets back to Titus and Corinth. Look in chapter 7 verse 5… remember we left off in chapter 2 verse 13, “taking my leave of them (in Troas), I went on to Macedonia.” Chapter 7 verse 5, “For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within.” Paul was normal, he was a human, the conflicts, the fears. You know how it is when you’re waiting for something and maybe you’ve had to do something unpleasant and you’re wondering how the people responded. You had to correct something and you don’t hear, you don’t hear, you begin to think the worst. I’m sure they didn’t take it well, I’m sure that we’ll never be able to have a relationship again. I’m sure… all this, “but God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus” and what the news Titus brought was the Corinthians responded to your message, they recognized their sin and guilt, their unbiblical behavior. And Paul, that’s why he had that digression. When you come back to chapter 2 verse 14, “thanks be to God,” and then he can come back and tell you what happened.

And all the way over through chapter 7 verse 4 is a section that the great Southern Baptist Greek scholar A.T. Robertson wrote a little book on this section called The Glory of the Ministry where he talks about the ministry of truth and the glory associated with that. And we’re just going to look at these closing verses in chapter 2 which I mentioned impacted me and solidified in my mind how my ministry would have to be tested, evaluated. How I would have to be careful that I would measure the success of my ministry and I use that word ‘success’ in the proper sense, that God is pleased, it honors Him, He finds pleasure in it, that I have been faithful. Paul wrote to Timothy and said how honored he was that God counted Him faithful, putting Him into the ministry. Key: faithful, and tell the Corinthians it is required of a steward of God’s truth that a man be found faithful. Paul didn’t earn that, but God put him in the ministry to be faithful with the truth.

And so that’s what this section is about so it helped me to understand, will my ministry be evaluated and will it be determined by quote “how the world sees success,” fame, you get a big reputation, large numbers. Paul deals with that clearly. Verse 14, “but thanks be to God,” this is where the focus is, it’s on God, who He is, what He has done, it’s all about Him, what He does in a life. “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ.” My Bible, a long time ago I underlined ‘always,’ then down at the end of the verse, “manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” Those two words, ‘always,’ ‘in every place,’ so we don’t have to wonder, is this just something for certain situations, in a certain time, in a certain place. No, always, in every place, “thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ.” King James translated this, “who always causes us to triumph.” We’re not going into any of the detail on that, you can listen to some of the other studies that have been done on this passage. The point I just want to pick up is in Christ there is always victory.

There is always triumph and God is always the source of it. It’s God who always leads in triumph in Christ because Christ is the Victor, He has conquered sin, and the devil, and the world, and we are in Christ. Note that He leads us in triumph in Christ by virtue of our being in relationship with Him, in His body we are victors as well. We sing about it and the ultimate realization and manifestation of that victory when He comes in glory and we come with Him as we’ve seen at the end of the chapters in Revelation. But right now He always leads us in triumph so Paul’s going through the trials, through the suffering, through the afflictions. God is comforting Him and Paul is reminded God always wins, His truth always wins because it always accomplishes the purpose He intended. Like He told through the prophet, My word will not return to me empty, it will always successfully accomplish My purpose, and that basically is summarizing what Paul will say here.

So in that sense God always leads us in triumph in Christ, and that ‘and’ can also be translated ‘even,’ the Greek conjunction ‘kai.’ And when I did this we weren’t allowed to prepare any sermons when I was in seminary. The homiletics professor Paul Fink who preached here many years ago, every sermon from the Old Testament had to be diagramed in Hebrew, every sermon in the New Testament had to be diagramed in Greek. And it all had to be evaluated, so the Greek conjunction ‘kai’ here, and I had to be sure my professors knew that I knew that. It can be translated ‘even’ and it’s a present participle, ‘is making manifest,’ what we sometimes called a linear present. It means something that is ongoing, it is what it is. He’s leading us in triumph in Christ, what? “Even making manifest through us,” what He is doing in and through us, is making manifest, displaying, “through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. Basically the picture here is we are making Christ known. We are giving forth the truth of God and the finished work of Christ, and these next chapters will be about the new covenant ministry of Christ. That is like a sweet aroma.

I take it that goes back to the sacrifices of the Old Testament. You start in Leviticus 1 and you can go through the chapters, we won’t go back there for time. But as they offered the sacrifice that God appointed in the way that God instructed, and then the aroma from that sacrifice being offered ascended up. It said it was a soothing aroma in the presence of God, it was something that pleased Him, that honored Him, gave Him satisfaction, if you will. Pleasure because you were doing what He had instructed, in the way He had instructed, and that was pleasing. So here, we’re giving off the “fragrance of Christ,” it’s like an aroma being given off, a perfume, if you will, it’s like a savor as we let Christ be known in our conduct and in the words we are giving forth, the truth we are telling. And you know what? As we’re doing that it ascends up to God.
Now important here, what is pleasing to God? It is the giving off of the knowledge of Christ, the clear, faithful presenting of the truth that God has revealed concerning Him. He is manifesting us, this has gone through us, the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him, and that’s what the word of God is about, centering in the work of Christ and His sacrifice and the provision for sin. And as that is given off God is pleased so that’s what our life and ministry is all about. This came clear to me as I anticipated stepping out into the ministry. When I am pleasing to God, I am successful, if I can use that word and you understand in the context, when God is pleased with what I am doing, when it honors Him, when it is in accord with what He desires. So I think, well, this is foundational, this doesn’t change. You’ll note, “in every place.” In our day we think you have to adjust the message, we talk about culturalizing the message and you have to be sensitive to the culture, and then the age of the people in the culture. If you go to another country you’ve got to be sensitive to the culture, there are certain things you want to know. You don’t go there to offend them by something you wear or something that you do that would be inappropriate, but you know, some things don’t change.

Paul came from the context of a rather isolated context in the sense of being a Jew and a Pharisee and the context of that whole environment. But you know, he crosses over, Corinth is in Greece. Well, Paul you’ve got a lot of things to learn, you’ve got to learn about Greek culture, you’ve got to learn about their religious system. Remember what Paul told the Corinthians in his first letter chapter 1 and into chapter 2, I know the Jews would like miracles, I know the Greeks, they want a display of intellect and wisdom, your intelligence. I came with only one thing to do, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That’s what we’re saying. Why? That’s what God wants done, that’s the concern, that’s why I say that concerned me as I started my ministry, it concerned me that I would finish that way. It concerns me when churches and pastors somehow, well, we’ve altered, you know, we’re in a different culture and things have changed in our world. We’re not back in the fifties and the sixties and you’ve got to learn how to communicate to this generation. I was reading a man who’s on the east coast in a big city this past week and talking about that, you have to learn the culture if you’re going to minister here.

You have to come and do what is pleasing to God, present Jesus Christ in His clarity and His fullness, the truth of God as He has given it. My homiletics professor, if I can use personal illustrations today, but he always told us teach the text, teach the text, thats why he made us diagram the text so he was sure that we had worked through every word in that text. And then when you made an outline to preach your sermon if you had something that wasn’t in the text in that, you’d get a big red circle. Where is that in this text? Good discipline and then he also reminded us of a second thing, men remember you are not the Holy Spirit, a good reminder. What is my responsibility? To present the truth, I can’t change a heart. It is easy for a pastor to begin to think I have to be more practical. In the early years Bible teaching was just new to some, even believers. It would be helpful if you were more personable, it would be helpful if you gave more practical application, it would be helpful if you talked more about your family. You know, if the word of God is not helpful, I cannot help you, I’m not the Holy Spirit.

Only the Holy Spirit can get into the inside and do His work. That’s why when we hear the Word I’m not against giving out examples and illustrations, of course we do, but the goal is to find out what has God said here. And as I present His truth, the truth concerning His Son, the truth as He has given the truth, accurately, then the ministry is a success. That doesn’t matter, Paul is having all kind of trouble in Corinth. You know what He reminds them? I taught you the truth and really there’s no excuse for your conduct and he will say there’s two possibilities. One, you have unbelievers among you, servants of the devil disguised as believers, who are creating disruption because they are not responsive to truth or obedient to truth. Or you have believers who have remained in their infancy as he said in 1 Corinthians 3 and are functioning like unbelievers and that needs to be dealt with. But the truth is the truth.

What a treasure we have. Paul will tell Timothy, guard the treasure which has been entrusted to you and then you pass it on to faithful men who will teach it also. The plan of God has not changed in 2,000 years, they’re going back to the Old Testament prophets, it hasn’t changed, God’s truth, God’s truth. So He’s making manifest through us, it’s God at work making clear the truth that He has revealed concerning His Son and His work in the world. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God, that’s what it is and we sing about this in some of the songs and so on, but that’s what we are. Our life is to be a fragrance and this is constantly arising to God. He is always leading us in triumph in every place for we are a fragrance to God. What’s my life about? It’s about Christ, it’s about the truth of God. For the church is the pillar and support of the truth, this is to be a place where the fragrance of Christ is given off, the truth concerning Him. God’s work is given off, it’s a fragrance, and that arises to God. How tragic is it when the truth… the church gets diverted from that which is pleasing to God. We are a fragrance of Christ to God. What’s more important than that?

What a tragedy that the church should get diverted to mundane irrelevant. I don’t care how important the world says it is, I only care what is important to God. When He is pleased then I am successful, if I can use that word, it’s so tinged, but that’s the goal of my life, your life, our life together as a church to have His approval. It delights me I am approved. How sad it was that Christ had to walk through the churches in the seven churches in Revelations 2 and 3, I’m not pleased, it’s not good. We don’t want that to be the evaluation. This is what impressed me and does down to today, we are a fragrance of Christ to God.

Now note this because it helped me beginning my ministry to have stability among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. Two present participles, present tense, this is something that’s ongoing. People are being saved, they come to the knowledge of the truth and they place their faith in Christ and are saved, and the process of God working to develop their salvation is ongoing, brought to it’s full completion and maturity when we are glorified in His presence. So we speak about those who are being saved, and then there are those who are perishing, a terrible statement. We could look at some other passages but we won’t for time, we’ve done it on other occasions. It’s a present tense participle they are in the process of perishing. What a thought, they are in the process of perishing, they are children of the devil on the way to the hell prepared for the devil and his angels. But you’ll note here, what does not change? No matter who and where you are, we are a fragrance of Christ to God, that’s what’s pleasing to God, the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. We are a fragrance of Christ to God, that fragrance of Christ is what is pleasing to God. If we lower our sight, we begin to look on the horizontal. What do people want? What is going on today that we should adjust our ministry to fit? The only adjustments I want to make along the way is those to bring us more into conformity to what God has said, His truth, His revelation.

Well, you know we go and we share the gospel. Well, if people aren’t coming, if people aren’t being saved, people aren’t coming to hear, we need to adjust our message. There are endless books written right down to today instructing on this, how we’re going to impact the world, this is how we’ll get the world to listen, this is how the church can have a ministry that will be attractive and draw people. In the early days of the ministry here I used to say Indian Hills will not be a church for everyone. That did not mean that everyone would not be welcome, but it did mean people who are not interested in seriously studying the word of God and seeing what God has said and applying themselves to correctly and accurately understand it will not be comfortable here. I understand that, I know that. I know if I preach 35-minute sermons it would find more appeal to more people.

I understand that some people are maybe better in compressing the truth and getting it all in. I’m slow. I was reading an evaluation years ago in a magazine, I don’t know how they came across my tapes, but they say, well, it’s like the Puritans, his sermons are long, and if you can put up with his monotone voice, you will learn something. Well, I thought that wasn’t nice, you should have just skipped, jumped, his sermons are long and you’ll learn the scripture, but no, they had to tell the truth. But that’s what we’re about that’s what the church is, isn’t it, when people come here what do we have for them? Truth, truth, truth, the church is the pillar and support of the truth. Oh, I go there because I like the music, I go there if they have a lot of young people, I go there if they have a lot of activities for senior citizens, I go there if… What is the church? It’s the truth, a truth center and that’s what pleases God. But well, if people aren’t coming, aren’t being saved, then I do want to look: Lord, are we being clear with the truth? Are we presenting it in love? It is the passion of my heart that people would be saved, that your people would grow and mature. You’re looking for a church without conflict you’re looking for a church that compromises the truth.
You think the devil… oh, they, they preach the truth, they teach truth, we don’t want to go there… no, the devil wants to disrupt. Why did Paul have all the kinds of conflict in the churches and out of the church? Because he presented truth, he says that’s my victory, even when people are perishing, they turn against it, they reject me, they persecute me, they imprison me, they beat me, my victory is the truth, God is pleased. That’s what he is talking about, he elaborates it here because he realizes the shock of this, “to the one we are an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life,” this is the reality of it. He picks it up from the second participle he had there, those who are perishing, to those we are giving off the fragrance of Christ, and you know what it does? It confirms them in their lostness, it can harden them in their lostness, it’s an aroma from death to death. And for those who believe the truth and receive the truth and are growing in the truth it’s an aroma from life to life. But don’t lose your focus, this is what God so fixed in my mind, I have to stay with the truth, that’s what’s pleasing to God.
I’m normal, I’m a pastor, I’d rather see every seat filled, I liked it better when they put chairs in the aisles and people had to get here early to get a seat. What could I do to bring those days back? I’m aware, there must be something different that people are interested in today. That’s not new, Paul had to battle that even then, that God does a work of grace that only He can do with His truth. That’s why He reminds me keep your eyes focused, what you do that pleases Me is you give off the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ. I do what only I can do with that truth. I’m reminded I have not become God, I have not become the Holy Spirit, only He can take that truth and carry it to a heart. And I can pray that He’ll do that work, I can pray for the people who will come and hear it, I can pray for receptiveness on the part of believers. I can agonize over the truth, as Paul did and concern for the people who sit under the ministry, I can pray for God to guard my mouth and the things I say and the way I say it. But the first thing I’m consumed with am I preaching the truth, have I departed from the truth?
To the one we are an aroma from death to death, it’s a fearful thing to sit under the truth and not respond in faith to it. It’s a danger of young people that grow up under the truth and they conform somewhat externally but in their heart and mind they have no love for the truth. Now that doesn’t mean they won’t get saved, Timothy didn’t get saved until he came into contact with the Apostle Paul’s ministry, but his mother and grandmother had brought him into contact with the truth, and Paul says it was in your mother and your grandmother, so he had that as a foundation to prepare him. But he’d better be careful, continually rejecting the truth can have a hardening effect and make it more difficult, and Paul will tell the Corinthians the danger in chapter 4 verse 3. If our gospel is veiled, it‘s veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ who’s the image of God. This is a spiritual battle going on, we are in it, you’re in it, it’s just a matter of where are you in it, in those who are being saved or those who are perishing. And if we’re not those who have believed, you need to get that settled, today’s the day of salvation, it may not be tomorrow. And for us who are being saved it is crucial that we stay faithful. Paul is aware of the seriousness of these things. You know, people don’t take the ministry of God’s truth seriously enough today. It dismays me, and greatly concerns me and saddens me to see where churches go. Now I’m not saying we’re the only church. There’s a movement, and then I’m reminded it’s not just local it was back in Paul’s day, but he says, “Who is adequate for these things?” You realize what we’re saying, eternal destinies are at stake and we are there as God’s representative. Faith comes by hearing, if you don’t hear the gospel you’ll never be saved. And if you don’t believe the gospel you’ll hear, but if you never hear you can’t believe it, and you’ll never hear it if somebody doesn’t tell you or bring it to you. And that’s, “Who is adequate for these things?” Lord I’m just a weak, often unreliable human vessel, You know how unreliable I am, you know how afraid I get, You know how easy it is for me to stumble and say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Who’s adequate for these things? Lord, I’m not a Paul; I’m not a Jeremiah or Isaiah or Ezekiel, I’m not a Peter, the only way I model Peter is I fall on my face too often.
Well, he says here’s what makes you adequate, “We are not like the many,” and this is a sad commentary. There’s a definite article ‘the’ in front of ‘many,’ the definite article in Greek is ‘hoi,’ the word here ‘many’ is ‘poli.’ Sometimes you’ll hear the expression ‘the hoi polloi,’ it’s picked up in English sometimes as we pick up expressions from a foreign language, the masses, the run of the mill people. Now here, “we are not like the many” and this is what Paul said already and then we’re surprised when it happens today. Two thousand years ago the church was established by the Apostle Paul with new revelation from God and already he can talk about “we are not like the many, peddling the word of God.”

What a terrible word to be used in the context of the word of God, “peddling the word of God,” that’s a good translation of it. It is a word from the realm of a merchant and merchandising and it got to be used in a context, often those people and it’s not any different than today with our advertising. They will cover often the flaws to sell it as a good product. I was watching a car program, you know, where they bring a car in and a man had bought a car unseen on the internet and it was museum quality. When they brought it in and started to evaluate it because he said, I’m having some trouble. They get underneath and it’s a rust bucket and somebody just covered the things you would see and sold it, and the man didn’t even want to tell them what he paid because he said I’m embarrassed. You know, what that’s what people do with the word of God, they’ll make adjustments in it.

This is the culture of our day, young people are different today, we live in a world that is looking for different things, we have to get up to speed if we’re going to reach the world. And they guise it like it’s something good, and if they get results and we seem not to get the results then that validates. No, all they’ve done is begun to peddle the word of God, and that’s why we’ve constantly gone from this idea of how to grow your church, how to make your church effective, what you should do today, what you have to know to be effective today. I mean, you could fill a library with those kinds of books over the years. We don’t make those adjustments, we don’t peddle the word, we don’t compromise the message, change the message, to make it more acceptable to what people want. We’re presenting a message to please God, not to please the people. It shouldn’t be that complicated but it was.

Look over in chapter 4, “Therefore, since we have this ministry,” the ministry of God’s truth, the ministry of Jesus Christ, that can’t be separated. I am the way, the truth, and the life Jesus said. I mean, He is truth, God’s word is truth, it’s saving truth, it’s sanctifying truth. ‘Since we have this ministry,” which is the ministry of truth he’s been talking about, ‘as we received mercy,” how God has shown mercy to give us such a ministry of truth, “we do not lose heart.” You have that underlined in your Bible, you know what it means, it means they get tired of it, lose interest. One of the ways it was translated by a Greek commentator, ‘to lose interest.’ We don’t give up. Now all these things you find in these alternate translations, but you’re getting the idea of what is here. When we realize the ministry God’s given us and it’s importance, and when we carry it out as God has given, we are always victorious no matter what it looks like on the horizontal.
We thank God for the privilege of giving off the fragrance that pleases Him. We don’t lose heart, we don’t quit, we don’t get bored. A couple of verses I’ve read with you I keep tucked in my Bible, I don’t want to become like Israel. Isaiah chapter 43 verse 22 God says to Israel, the people that He chose for Himself, that claimed to belong to Him, “But you have become weary of Me, O Israel.” God saying, He’s observing it all, you have become weary of Me. Malachi chapter 1 verse 13 God says, “You also say, ‘My, how tiresome it is!’ ” Or a literal translation, “behold, it is weariness.’ What’s going on here? We don’t become weary. The problem with the Corinthians they… I don’t know, I just would like something a little different, not so intense, I’d like something a little more practical, somebody who tells me about all these things and pulls in a verse or two. I listened to a sermon, I, I don’t know, I didn’t learn anything about the Bible, but I learned a lot of things about a lot of things, and he didn’t deny anything the Bible said, it just was a nice… we might call it a biblical talk because you put in some Bible verses. Is that what our churches are reduced to? Come back, “We are not like many, peddling the word of God.”

The test for me is: have I gotten weaker, softer with the truth, am I less passionate about it. That’s where I have to start my own heart. You know, I don’t know what’s wrong. Well, maybe it’s my heart, I have to get right. Have I lost some interest in the wonder of God’s word? If the word of God doesn’t thrill me, it doesn’t grip my heart, and I don’t realize what a precious treasure it is, how am I going to convey that to you? Pastors can lose interest in the Word, churches lose interest in it. I mean, I’m being honored for a long time being here but where would my ministry be without people who did not respond to truth. I’d be standing here talking to myself, that’s the wonder of it and it’s what it ought to be. We ought to stay with the truth, love the truth. I love it. I love the lady who told Pastor Eddie and I mentioned this, I mention it again. I don’t like Gil Rugh, I just come here because I’m taught the truth, and I keep reminding myself you don’t have to like Gil Rugh. We went to a restaurant the other night, we had some food, we talked about how good it was. I don’t know that I like the cook, he may not be a person I want to hang out with, but he puts out a good meal.

That’s what I’m concerned about, you don’t have to have me over for dinner, you don’t have to socialize with me, that’s your loss. No, but really, when we begin to lose focus it’s like in the marriage. You know, I keep telling people, keep a list, update the list. What do you love about your spouse? What do you appreciate about them, because we begin to think these things are beginning to irritate me, it’s starting to get on my nerves. Stop, what do you like about them? Look back at the list, keep it up to date. Not what you don’t like, what you do like, what you appreciate. What’s this church about? Look at all the people that are involved, there are people in the nursery, there’s people doing children’s church. Why, wouldn’t they enjoy being in here? Yeah, but there’s something they’re doing that’s important so the word of God can be ministered to all ages and so you can be here without the distraction. What a blessing! How in the world would I go teach the word for an hour with squawking kids everywhere, and parents and grandparents trying to manipulate the kids and so on? We appreciate, boy, I’m thankful for that, I’m thankful the Lord will give me a part in this.

Don’t lose focus of what we are, “we are not like many, peddling the word of God.” Note, here’s the positive, the negative is we don’t peddle it, we don’t change it, we don’t adulterate it. We keep it pure, that’s what Peter said, like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word, the pure milk. Chapter 4 verse 2, we are not “adulterating the word of God,” we are “not walking in craftiness,” chapter 4 verse 2, ‘but by the manifestation of truth.” That’s the measure the church is the pillar and support of the truth, my ministry personally, that I evaluate myself be. I understand there’s validity, and criticism comes. Lord I have to come back first and foremost, am I being faithful to the truth? That’s the thing that weighs on me, that’s what keeps me up at night, am I being faithful with truth? I have to go back to my study and look, am I really dealing with this passage as it is? Is it being faithful with the truth? I can’t ask the Spirit to bless the error that I teach. I realize we’re all imperfect, I am imperfect, but it’s the truth of God. Sincerity, genuineness, my own heart, we are sincere, we’re transparent. In other words, I’m not trying to fool you, I’m not trying to trick you. This is truth, look at it, evaluate it as from God, that’s all I have to teach you, from God.

I’m not going to dress it up, I’d like to be a better communicator and we can work on those things obviously, but basically, I have to speak as from God. My authority is not mine. If I’m being arrogant personally, that needs to be judged, but I speak as from God, it has to be authoritative, it’s truth. If it’s not truth, come, and we’ll talk about it, we have to correct it. As from God, we speak in Christ by virtue of the fact we are in Christ. That’s key, we’re part of the body, we’re speaking in that context, in the sight of God, that’s the challenge. Remember I said when I gave my senior sermon and the professors are sitting there and their job was to evaluate and critique what I did and give me helpful pointers and instruction. But I think there’s something more important, I am speaking in the sight of God, is He pleased with what I am teaching today? Well, Lord, I thought what I said and did helped. Well, wait a minute, the number one thing is did I accurately teach the truth, did I teach the text, did I unfold the word of God?

There’s a variety of situations… there are people here, what we’re all doing tomorrow, we’ll all face different situations, everything maybe from surgery to major health issues, to a job situation the financial pressure, to family troubles and… Well, the word of God is relevant, if I’m grounded in the Word, I take that and allow that to mold my life and I have a foundation to go out. I can’t just come to the pastor so he can tell me what to do. Sometimes you look to a mature believer who can help you see your life and situation in light of the Word, but I want to build a foundation for ourselves. My first response is what did the Word say? We speak “in the sight of God.” I think often, I‘ve shared it often, if Christ was in bodily form, as He walked this earth, if He walked in and sat down on the front seat, would I say I wish I had worked harder? Um, I not sure I got this right. Why didn’t I get it right? God’s watching, I’m speaking in the sight of God. What you think is not most important, I value godly people, mature people. But number one, God, did I do this correctly, was it accurate, did it really reflect Your character, what you revealed?

One more thing and we have to close, its 2 Timothy chapter 4, if you don’t get there I’ll read it to you quickly. The church is always in danger so what’s happening in our day happened in Paul’s day. Paul told Timothy in chapter 1 of 2 Timothy that he was, verse 13, to “retain the standard of sound words, which you heard from me,” (verse 14) “guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.” I have no flexibility, I can do no other, this is where I have to stand, where we have to stand as a church. He tells them in chapter 2 verse 1, “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,” and these truths, in the middle of verse 2, “entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me.” Come over to chapter 4, “I solemnly charge you,” this is an oath, “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge of the living and the dead.” In other words, keep your ministry Timothy in proper perspective.

That vertical dimension, this is the charge, preach the word. How can I fail that? Preach the word. I’m not creative and I’m not called, I don’t have to be. I understand some can preach the Word, be faithful, and do it a more accomplished way, but I have to do it with the ability and measure that I have. But I have to preach the Word in season and out of season, when it’s popular and when it’s not. Too many pastors, too many churches, are looking for something that adjusts to where they are today in their thinking. Note this, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth.” You’re talking about what happens among believers and in the churches. The unbelievers never have been interested and never pretended to be interested in the truth.

What happens? I’ve been blessed to minister here for all these years and what has made the ministry a blessing, not only the privilege of serving God in this way, but doing it among a people who respond to the truth. I mean, here you are honoring me, how many men would… pastors would have loved to be in this situation. I got here first, I wouldn’t want to be any other place. People who listen to the truth, who encourage me with the truth, you honor me for teaching the truth. I couldn’t do anything else, but you respond to the truth. Now, you overlook the weaknesses, that’s love, we are to overlook one another’s weakness because love covers a multitude of sins. We fail, we fail each other, we disappoint, that’s all right, we pick each other up and go on. And you’ve responded to the truth so we can have a church that is a pillar and support of the truth and that’s a blessing to me and a blessing to us together.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of Your word and for the way You use Your word and only You can use Your word in powerful and effective ways in lives. And we can join together in thanking You for the work of Your Spirit in using Your word in our lives, in bringing us to salvation in Christ, in privileging us to grow and mature, be molded more into the image of Christ, the beauty of Your character. To stand in a more open and public way for the truth. And our desire is to be faithful day after day until Christ comes, and to give You honor and praise for Your grace that has worked graciously in our lives. We pray in His name. Amen.


2