Success In Ministry Means Pleasing God

Transcript

GRM 914
9/12/2004
Success in Ministry Means Pleasing God
2 Corinthians 2:14-17
Gil Rugh

As I reflected on the fact that I’ve been here 35 years, naturally think back on things that have made a difference and helped to shape my life and ministry. I want to take you to a passage that you’ve heard from me before because it has been foundational in my life and the ministry here. It’s in II Corinthians chapter 2. It was one of the passages I preached on when I came to candidate at Indian Hills in September 1969. A few months earlier I had preached on it at a seminary chapel as I prepared to graduate from Grace Seminary. It’s a passage of Scripture that the Lord has used to shape my life and my thinking and my perspective on what my responsibility and role in ministry is.

For all of us as we look back, we see ways that God has worked in our lives and brought us to where we are, and we’re amazed at the grace of God. Salvation came into our home when I was a young person and God in His grace, when I was about 10, saved my mother. I don’t know how many families would be saved if it weren’t for the wives and mothers that God uses. My mother was saved when I was about 10 and shortly thereafter, I was saved, my dad was saved and eventually the rest of our family. I’m the oldest of four, three boys and a girl, and being the oldest I was the least spoiled and so on. Shortly after conversion our family moved from the Pittsburgh area to the Philadelphia area. My parents continued to be part of a church that was in a denomination that would tend towards being liberal. They began to hear, after a few years, of a church where the Word was being taught and we began to go over there on Sunday evenings—an independent Baptist church. The end result of that was my family ended up moving to that church and leaving the church we were part of something I voted against, if I remember correctly. But that was also in the days when parents didn’t know that they should be controlled by the decisions of their teenagers. So, my parents went ahead and did it over my objections, and it was the Lord’s leading because that brought our family into the context of Bible teaching, an opportunity to grow as believers, and mature.

It was there that I met my wife. I knew her from about the time I was 13, we got married when I was in college. I went to Bible college in Philadelphia, got a great foundation in the Word there, adding to what I had been taught in church in the Sunday School classes and the services and so on. I went on from Bible college to Grace Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana. I went there because the opportunity for ministry that I thought the Lord might be leading me to was not as open as I wanted it to be, and I thought perhaps more training would be a help. While I was at Grace Seminary for 3 years in Indiana I pastored a small country church, and many of you are familiar with the story of that. Since I had been in Bible college for five years, I was one of those accelerated students and liked it so well I stayed longer, I had preached in street meetings, in nursing homes and churches and so on. When I got to seminary, I told the professor of homiletics preaching that I would like to pastor a church if the opportunity came up in one of the small towns around. He said all right. A few months went by, and he stopped me in the hall at seminary one day and said, by the way did you ever get a church? I said no. He said, “Are you still interested? I said yes. He said, “All right I have a place for you to go and preach Sunday and he gave me the name of whom I should contact. He said, you tell them you’re the last man I have. If they don’t want you don’t call me because I have no one else. It was a little bit humbling, but I went to church and did what I was told. I looked up the two men that were leading the work and I said, I’ve been sent here by Paul Finke, I’m your preacher. He also told me to also tell you that I’m the last one he has. If you don’t want me to be your pastor don’t call him, because there’s nobody else. They took that as the leading of the Lord if there was no one else. We’ll take you. I spent 2½ years pastoring that church. I appreciated the opportunity, it gave me great experience, a great honor to teach the Word. That’s where I began to develop an interest in staying in the same place and teaching the Word to the same people week after week after week.

At the end of seminary, I ended up coming to Indian Hills through a contact with a seminary student who had family here in the church and recommended me. I got here the same way I got my former church. I believe Don visited their relatives in Winona Lake and said their pastor had resigned and they needed to find a pastor. Did they know any graduates. His brother-in-law told him well I think everybody got a church but one. Guess who! So, through that I came to Indian Hills. You know it just pays to be the last man, there’s nobody else available. It helps people to clarify their thinking. They’re not nearly so critical when they know you’re all there is, they’re not nearly so picky.

At the end of my seminary years, I was given the responsibility along with several other men to preach in the seminary chapel. That was a very intimidating experience because the professors lined up in the front row. We had John Whitcomb here a few weeks ago and he was one of those, and all the seminary student body was there, and you stood up and preached on a passage and then they evaluated you. The passage the Lord led me to was this passage in II Corinthians chapter 2 verses 14-17. I didn’t know then the impact this passage would make on my life and ministry, but the Lord used it in a significant way to help me clarify. I knew that I had to have a ministry of the Word, but the Lord used this passage in a very real way to help me focus on what should be the determining factor of whether my ministry was successful or not. When I came here this passage was shaping my ministry, I’ve used it several times, and I come back to it regularly to help me sort through things. Recently I sat down and watched several of the video tapes of services here and my preaching; and that gives me a greater appreciation of some of the trials you go through regularly. But the reason for my looking at it was to help myself evaluate, am I doing what I said I was committed to do in light of what this passage requires me to do. I just want to walk through this passage with you.

Let me put it into context for you. These are difficult days for the Apostle Paul in ministry. If you read the first chapter of II Corinthians, you find out his ministry is full of trouble these days. Chapter 1 verse 3 he says, “blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction. Paul’s writing out of his experience of affliction and difficulty and trials. He says in verse 5, the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance. He’s not just suffering a little bit in the ministry; he had an abundance of suffering in his ministry. In verse 8 he talks about the afflictions that came to him in Asia, a region we would know more as Asia Minor, where the city of Ephesus was and much of his affliction there in ministry centered in that city. It was so serious there he gave up even the hope of surviving. “We despaired even of life;” he says at the end of verse 8. But we learned out of that, we learned we don't trust ourselves; we trust God.

Then you come down into the last part of chapter 1 it doesn’t get better, because those who should have supported Paul in his ministry and encouraged him added to the burden by attacking him, raising questions about his integrity, his credibility and so on. Paul had indicated to the Corinthians he hoped to visit them on a trip to Macedonia, but other things had intervened, and he wasn’t able to visit Corinth when he planned. So those who were opposed to Paul’s ministry or didn’t like Paul personally began to raise the question, you know you just can’t take Paul at his word, he’s two-faced. He told you he’d be here, didn’t he, and he didn’t come, did he. Now if you can’t trust him on a matter like that how can you trust him in other areas? Paul is explaining that. Verse 17 he says, I was not vacillating when I intended, was I? It wasn’t that I say yes and no and mean one thing and say another and on, sad he had to go into that to defend himself. But you get an idea of the pressure that Paul experiences in his ministry.

On top of that the Corinthians were themselves a problem in a variety of areas. You’re familiar with the letter of I Corinthians, and it’s a church beset by troubles. Paul says you should have grown a lot more than you have. You’re mired down and bickering and you have this kind of problem, that kind of problem, sexual problems, not handling the Lord’s Supper and Communion properly. It just is a church that was a trial to him. This weighs on the Apostle Paul. He sent Titus to Corinth, delivering the letter that he had written. He’s waiting for Titus to come back and give him word. You read in verse 12, now when I came to Troas, he’s left Asia Minor and the city of Ephesus. He’s crossing the water, he’s going to move over to Macedonia, he stops at Troas. I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ. Wherever Paul went he was there for a purpose, the purpose, what? Remember we read Romans 1:15, I can’t wait to come to Rome so I can preach the gospel to you also. I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and there was door open for me in the Lord, a great opportunity to present Christ. But you know what? I had no rest for my spirit. He is so troubled by all that’s going on and his concerns over the Corinthians, he can’t even stay and take the opportunity for the ministry of truth. Sad testimony for the church at Corinth because it’s when they’re in that kind of state that they become a hindrance to the apostle’s ministry of the gospel at Troas, on this occasion. And Titus is late. Paul, you know how your mind goes. The Corinthians probably responded negatively, the Corinthians have probably rejected me and my ministry, perhaps they have mistreated Titus. So, he said, I had no choice, I had to get over to Macedonia and try to get to Corinth and find out what’s going on.

These are heavy times for Paul. Then verse 14 breaks in, “but thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.” We say wait a minute, what about the rest of the story? Well, the story doesn’t pick up for several chapters. You’ll note verse 13 of chapter 2, I have no rest for my spirit. Not finding Titus, my brother, and taking leave I went on to Macedonia. Turn over to chapter 7 verse 5, “for even 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 comforted us.” You really jump in the flow of the account from chapter 2 verse 13 to chapter 7 verse 5. As we do sometimes in our conversation of writing, you get to a point, but of course you know how things unfold and that causes you to go on a digression and then you come back and pick up the story, and that’s what Paul does. From chapter 2 verse 14 through chapter 7 verse 3 he unfolds the wonder of the ministry that God has given him. The great southern Baptist Greek scholar of a past generation, A. T. Robertson, has written a commentary on this section of 2 Corinthians called The Glory of the Ministry. That’s what it’s about, that Paul’s heart is filled to overflowing with joy because of what God does in the ministry of His truth.

I find it encouraging to find Paul struggling. Who expects to read in chapter 7 verse 6 that Paul was among the company of the depressed, the word that means humble, low. We talk about going through a low time, you say to someone how are you, and they say this is a low time for me. They have a difficult time, I’m down, it’s a hard time, I’m discouraged, I’m depressed. Paul said I was at a low. Just everything piled up and God comforted me, and Titus came, and the news was good.

Now we back up and see what Paul was reminded of at the end of chapter 2 of 2 Corinthians, that in Christ we are always part of His victory, that in Christ we are always part of a work that is pleasing to Him. That’s what measures the “success” of our ministry. This is the one thing that was impressed on my mind 35 years ago as I studied this passage. What will determine whether my ministry is a success? This passage marks out clearly what is a successful ministry and what is not. It’s not measured by how big the church is, how many people come to hear me preach, how popular or well-known I am or am not. Paul sets out clearly and he’s reminded that God who is working mightily and powerfully in his life and in his ministry, even in the lowest of times. A great reminder for all of us as God’s people.

But thanks be to God. At this time of unrest, uncertainty, discouragement, at this low point, but thanks be to God. One thing that helps most in these times is to refocus my attention off the problems, off the circumstances, off the trouble in the church at Corinth, off the possibilities of more trouble, and thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. There is a lot of discussion on this word translated leads us in triumph. I didn’t find a lot of it helpful, but I sorted through it again. Interesting but not particularly helpful. It’s a word only used twice in the New Testament, and much of what is discussed in the commentaries goes into the Roman backgrounds. Be that as it may, we’re not going there. I think the context of this passage makes clear—Paul sees the work of God as bringing him along in the victory and triumph of Christ. He is always leading us in triumph in Christ. My times of the lowest times, the God who comforts the depressed is leading me in victory in Christ. Because that is not determined by my circumstances, that is not even determined by my feelings. That is determined by the work of the sovereign God. He is the one leading me, present participle. We usually translate our participles ending in “ing.” We can translate this thanks be to God who always is leading us in triumph. That’s something ongoing, during these low times, during these times of affliction, these times of discouragement, times of depression. He is leading us in triumph because He’s always (you ought to have that word always underlined), always leading us. We tend to think the lows, the God who comforts the low, the depressed, those are times when we’re defeated. Well wait a minute, we’re talking about the God who is always leading us in triumph.

Back up. Paul knew this because in his first letter, back up just a couple of pages to
I Corinthians chapter 15 verse 57. Often in these passages we’re talking about the victory that you have in Christ you begin with the conjunction but, because there is a contrast in the context. That was true in our passage in II Corinthians, it’s true here. “But thanks be to God who gives us the victory.” Different word but same idea. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God who is always leading us in triumph in Christ. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory. Therefore, my beloved brethren be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. Because He always gives us the victory. You have no wasted labors. At times to the Apostle Paul, it seems his ministry had been fruitless. I was talking with a well-known pastor several years ago now, and he’d been going through some difficulties. He said to me, you know, Gil, I’ve had people who sat under my ministry for 15 years and they didn’t learn anything. They’re attending such-and-such a church now. That means they didn’t learn anything in 15 years. Paul had the idea, he pours his life for 18 months in the city of Corinth into the church at Corinth and now they’re talking about you can’t trust him because he didn’t come when he said he would come. I mean, things that don’t matter; and Paul felt it. Here he says you have to be steadfast, immovable, and he sends the letter off. Oh, it’s done.

You know Paul could walk up here all the time. Then you have added pressure, you have other things that come in, you have people oppose you, physical difficulties, rumors, doubts. All of a sudden Paul says you know what? I was discouraged, I was in a low. The man who wrote verses 57-58 of that letter, a little bit later must write a second letter and say God comforted me when I was low, when I was depressed over the situation. So, a reminder. We go through these times, but it doesn’t change the reality. Paul is buoyed up again to the same point because he says that it’s God who always leads us in triumph.

Back up to Romans chapter 8, just before Corinthians, Romans chapter 8. We could spend a whole message just on this subject, but we can’t today. Romans chapter 8, and the context is verse 35, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, death. Verse 37, but in all these things, note the conjunction but, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. Same point. Things can get very bad, very difficult, very hard. You can hit the low points in your life, but in all things we overwhelmingly conquer. We have the victory; He leads us in triumph, and nothing will ever separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus is the way he concludes the chapter. So, we are secure in the victory we have in Him.

Come back to II Corinthians chapter 2. God always leads us in triumph in Christ, by virtue of the fact we are in Christ. Now we have another present participle, so we could translate it, is making manifest through us or/and is manifesting. The word translated manifest is another present participle. It’s something He is continually doing, so if He’s continually leading us in triumph, He is continually working in us to be manifesting through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. Involved in this triumph that we are part of in Christ is the work of God in carrying it out in and through our lives. What He is doing is using us as instruments, as vessels to make manifest, to reveal, to make known through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. God is using us as vessels through whom He is making known. You’ll note it is God who is leading us in triumph, it is God who is manifesting through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place, God working in and through us. He uses a metaphor here of a pleasing fragrance being given off, and that fragrance is identified as the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

In chapter 4 Paul will refer to the fact in verse 7 of II Corinthians 4, that we are like earthen vessels in which a treasure has been placed. That treasure has been placed in these vessels of dust so that God might receive all the glory and all the honor for all that is done with the gospel as it has been placed in these vessels. God is using us as vessels through which the knowledge of His Son is being given out. That is like a fragrance, a sweet aroma. You’ll note verse 15, we are a fragrance of Christ to God. This fragrance is going to have an impact toward heaven and an impact on earth. Its impact in heaven in the presence of God is it is a pleasing fragrance, a sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him. In other words, when I give off the knowledge of Jesus Christ, when I explain Him, when I tell others of Him, that rises up to the very throne of God in heaven and is pleasing to Him. That’s interesting, but how does that impact you? That shaped my thinking of what a ministry is when it is successful. What makes us successful as a child of God? What is the desire of our life when we stand in His presence? Is it not to hear well done, good and faithful servant? Because if I can use the word successful, it may seem a little crass, too many pagan associations, but I am “successful” when God is pleased. When I am giving off the knowledge of Christ, making Him known, God is pleased. That means I have been “successful,” I am accomplishing the purposes for which He has saved me—to honor Him, to please Him, to glorify Him.

The picture of this pleasing fragrance is drawn from the Old Testament, the sacrificial system. Just go to one chapter, Leviticus chapter 1. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, the third book of your Old Testament, and we’ll go to the first chapter. God is giving instructions for the sacrificial system that Israel was to carry out. In chapter 1 He is talking about burnt offerings, and we don’t need to go into the details of the offerings, I just want you to note what will be the result of offering the offering, giving the offering that God has specified. Look at verse 9, the end of the verse, you offer up this burnt offering and it will be an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. When you offer this sacrifice as He has instructed, this will rise as a pleasing fragrance to the Lord. Look at verse 13, the end of the verse again, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. Verse 17, the end of the verse, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. You see this is what God desires. When we do what He desires He is pleased. When we have honored Him, pleased Him, we are “successful.” Remember the sacrifice of Cain and the sacrifice of Abel. The sacrifice of Cain was not acceptable, it was not pleasing to the Lord, it was not as He desired it.

When we talk in II Corinthians that’s what we’re talking about, a clear picture that I am giving off a fragrance which is arising before the throne of God and He is pleased. If God is pleased, then I am “successful.” Need to come up with a different word that doesn’t sound quite so pagan, so crass. But we even as ministers of the gospel, as churches want to be successful today, but we need to be careful we define success biblically. Success is being pleasing to God. Again, this week as I receive, it seems almost every week I receive a brochure. It’s a great big color picture of a pastor and another man and talking about the success of this ministry and the buildings they built and the amount of money they raised. You know telling you how you can be successful. That may be success if you’re IBM, it may be success if you’re McDonald’s, but is that success if you are the church of Jesus Christ? Because we are bigger than some churches, does that mean we are more successful than churches that are smaller than we are? If we are smaller than some churches does that mean we are less successful? That has nothing to do with success, that has nothing to do with whether you are pleasing to God or not.

That’s what reminds us of, come back to II Corinthians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul is going through a low time in his ministry. Humanly speaking he doesn’t look successful. But thanks be to God who is always leading us in triumph and is manifesting through us the savor of the knowledge of His Son. You’ll note at the end of verse 14 of II Corinthians 2, it says in every place. You ought to underline that—always in every place. Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph and is manifesting through us the knowledge of His Son in every place. Always in every place. That’s about as complete as you can get. All the time, everywhere you are. This is what God is doing. Paul says everywhere we go we make Christ known. Why did he come to Troas, as we read in verse 12? I came for the gospel. We read when we studied Romans 1 verse 15, why was he going to Rome? To present the gospel. He writes to the Thessalonians and begins the letter, what did he do when he got to Thessalonica? He preached the gospel in every place, giving off the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ. that is the work of God in the life that brings pleasure to God, is pleasing to God.

He elaborates this which helps clarify it. Verse 15, for we are a fragrance of Christ to God. Now note this, among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. That helps me greatly. When I was a Bible college student, we were required to witness to a certain number of people every week. on Friday you turned in a report of the number of people you shared the gospel with. It wasn’t legalism because they didn’t tell me this would get me to heaven, they just told me it would get me through school. Legalism is when you’re told that this will make you more acceptable to God. So, it wasn’t legalism, it was good for me. There were some Thursdays where I was found beating the streets of Philadelphia, sharing the gospel with people. You say well you shouldn’t do it to meet a quota. Well, it was good for me, and the Lord used it in my life and I trust He used the gospel in the lives of others. But you know it’s easy to begin to think I shared the gospel with 10 people this week. Well, how did it go? Not very well, none of them believed in Christ. So, it wasn’t a good week? No, nothing really accomplished. That’s not true. Note the connection here. We are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. This is a sweet aroma of pleasing fragrance when I give off the knowledge of Christ. What is pleasing to God as far as my ministry is concerned, is that I am giving off the knowledge of His Son. I lose sight of that and begin to count heads. Let’s see, we had more people this week than last week, more people this year than last year, and more people this year than two years ago. We are successful. That’s not the measure, that’s a measure of whether your franchise is selling more hamburgers, so you are more successful. That’s not the measure here. The measure is, are we giving off the fragrance of Christ. Because He is pleased when the knowledge of His Son is given off, whether it is among those who are believing that message or among those who are rejecting that message.

It helped me greatly and has continued to help me greatly to keep my focus, to realize the measure of success if not on what can be measured numerically, it is whether the knowledge of Christ is being given off. That’s the measure. It’s the measure for me as a pastor, it’s the measure for us as His children, it’s the measure for us as a church. Are we being faithful with what God has entrusted to us?

We are giving off this fragrance, it’s pleasing to God whether it is among those, 2 present participles, who are being saved or among those who are perishing. You know all this is going on in the now time. Present participle, He is always leading us in triumph. Present participle, He is manifesting through us. These are things He is doing presently, ongoing. Present participle, there are those being saved. Present participle, there are those perishing. These things are going on. I ultimately have no control over who gets saved and who does not get saved. But I am responsible for giving off clearly and accurately, purely the truth concerning Jesus Christ. That pleases God. Now the desire of my heart is that people hear and be saved. So later Paul will write in chapter 5 of this letter, we beg you in Christ’s stead, be reconciled to God. He pleads with them. But if they do not, that doesn’t mean he’s less successful, because he gave off the fragrance of Christ. That was what was pleasing to God as far as Paul’s ministry is concerned, as far as our responsibility with the gospel is concerned.

He wrote about this in chapter 1 of I Corinthians. Back up to chapter 1 of I Corinthians. Key points that he develops here again. Now we need to be careful. We’re not saying when a person talks about Christ, that is pleasing to God. A lot of people talk about Christ. That is different than presenting the purity of the truth concerning Christ. Look at I Corinthians chapter 1 verse 17, Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. He could preach the gospel in the wisdom of speech. In other words, I have the basic message, but you know it’s just not as effective as it could be. Paul could have used the brilliance that he had, humanly speaking, to make the message of Christ more palatable, more whatever, but he said that would nullify, make void the cross.

In chapter 2 verse 1 he’ll say I didn’t come to you with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming the testimony. Verse 4 of chapter 2, my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom. Why? Verse 5, so that your face would not rest on the wisdom of men but the power of God. Very crucial. The church can make a very subtle but real shift. We still believe all these doctrines, we still preach about Christ, but we’ve made a subtle shift. That’s where you can now go and learn how you present to Christ to our generation. Do you present Christ differently to this generation than you presented it to the last generation? Do you present the gospel of Jesus Christ differently to the people in 2004 than you did in 62 or 63 A.D. or 59 A.D. or whenever when Paul was roaming the New Testament world preaching the gospel? Just what is this? Why do we have conferences held by large churches explaining to you how to reach this generation? I scratch my head and say well you reach this generation the way you’ve reached any generation—with the gospel, right? Don’t tamper with the gospel. Oh, we don’t change the message, we change the methods. Well, the methods, as I’ve belabored with you, is the preaching. The message is the gospel. Now what are we changing? I don’t understand. How does the church get confused? You see it’s the work of the devil to nullify, make void, to cross. And we think we’re still preaching Christ, we still believe the Bible. We have to preach the gospel.

Back to chapter 1 of I Corinthians verse 18, for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. There’s our present participle, the word perishing. Same form, same word as we have in our II Corinthians chapter 2, among those who are perishing. The word of the cross is foolishness. We get the English word moron from this word, in fact that’s the Greek word, moron. It’s stupidity, its foolishness, its silliness, it’s stupidity. That’s what unbelievers, that’s what people who are perishing think of the message of the cross of Jesus Christ. That’s what the world thinks of God’s plan of salvation—it’s moronic, it’s stupid, it’s silly, it’s dumb. But to those of us who are being saved, present participle, it is the power of God. What a contrast. The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, Romans 1. I thought we were saved already. I am, but the work is not done. I’ve not yet been glorified. I have been saved, I’m now a child of God and I am also one who is being saved, because God’s work of sanctification goes on in my life in preparing me for what? Future glorification, which will bring this work of salvation to God’s intended completion. The unbeliever is lost, he’s doomed to hell. He’s also presently in the process of perishing. He’s not perished yet, that will come to culmination, when he is sentenced to eternity in hell. The emphasis on the two kinds of people, and only two kinds of people, only two kinds of people present in this auditorium--there are those who are perishing, there are those who are being saved. That’s all. There are only two kinds of people in this city, only two kinds of people in this country and in this world. So, you know what happens? You take the gospel, and you present it to someone who is perishing and he thinks it is stupidity, it’s foolishness. He has no time for it and no patience with you for wanting to tell him about it. You say oh I make things worse; I don’t have the gift of evangelism. I just can’t do it. When I tell people they get upset. You know what happened when Paul told them? They got upset. You know what happened when Jesus told them? They got upset. You know what happened when Peter told them? They got upset. You know what I must do? I must back up and say wait a minute, I’ve lost my focus again. Have to remind myself—I presented Jesus Christ; God was pleased. Why am I so concerned that some mere human being was upset? God was pleased. Now who am I trying to please? I preach, people don’t like it. Well, I have to evaluate, do they have good reason not to like it? I have to sit down and say was it biblical, was this biblical truth. Well, it may not have been the biblical truth. Pastor of the largest church in the country, I understand, I’ve shared with you before, when he was interviewed, he said yes, we believe all those doctrines. We just don’t think it is necessary to emphasize them all. Now wait a minute, now you’ve got the wisdom of men at work, right? I don’t want to just present what God has said, I want to present the portion of what God has said that men may like. It’s no different than the days of the Old Testament prophets. You know what Jeremiah said as God’s spokesman? The people want to hear a message of peace, peace. They want to hear everything is okay. So, you know what the false prophets were doing? They came and said peace, peace when there was no peace. Jeremiah’s message, these is no peace saith my God to the wicked. You know who was popular? They put Jeremiah in the slime pit. Why? They didn’t want to hear that.

There are those who are perishing, they don’t want to hear the message. I must remind myself because the gate to destruction is broad. It’s a big, wide gate. There are many going in that gate traveling the broad road. There is a narrow gate to life followed by a narrow road. There are few that find it. Since most of the people I share the gospel with think it’s moronic and stupid and silly and foolish, I pretty soon think I’d better not be presenting the gospel to these people, because they don’t like it. It’s probably not my gift. Let Bill do it, let Eddy do it, let somebody else do it. You know there’s a reason whole towns and whole cities were turned into an uproar when Paul came to town. You know why? The vast majority of the people in the city didn’t want to hear that message. So be encouraged. Our success is not dependent upon the response of the people, our success is determined by our faithfulness in handling the message.

Come back to II Corinthians chapter 2. Jump over to chapter 4 of II Corinthians verse 3, if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. It’s the perishing that don’t understand the beauty of the gospel. It’s the perishing who do not see the light of the glory of Christ in this gospel, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord. Verse 7, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. That’s our role, that’s my understanding of my role. Thirty-five years ago, when God called me to this church by His grace, He impressed that on my heart and His grace for His reasons, He has seen fit to bless and multiply us. I would not in any way say that’s been any less than a great blessing. It is an added blessing to a pastor to be able to preach the Word and have people respond. It is an added blessing to have people come and desire the Word. But that does not mean I am more successful than that pastor who is faithfully presenting the truth and he has but a handful. The issue of whether God is pleased with this ministry is not how does it stack up size wise to another ministry, is God pleased with the fragrance he is giving off of the knowledge of His Son and what God does with that fragrance. For some it’s perishing, for some it’s salvation.

Look how he adds to this—to the one an aroma from death to death, the other an aroma from life to life. Now this aroma, we’ve said what it does when it ascends to the throne of God—He is pleased. But now this aroma is going out on the horizontal, among men. For some it is an aroma out of death unto death. For the other is aroma out of life to life. Very simple. When the perishing hear it, they don’t want it, they are further confirmed in their lost condition. They’re further settled in that lost condition. It’s a serious matter to be exposed to the truth and reject it. We think that’s all right, I hear it, I’ll respond. Every time you hear it and reject it you are hardened to it. Greater light brings greater responsibility. So, for some, and I do not control the result, I will not be accountable at the throne of God for the result of my preaching. I will be accountable for the content of my preaching, for the motive in my preaching, for my walk with the Lord as a servant of His. You will not be accountable for the work of the Word of God in the life of another.

I understand I’m going to give off this fragrance. I used to have that problem of sharing the gospel and then telling people well what happened? Nothing. I’d come home from sharing the gospel and Marilyn would say what happened? I’d say well nothing, really. They weren’t interested. I’ve never shared the gospel where something of eternal significance did not happen, and neither have you, because we’re giving off the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ. The most important thing happening is God is pleased. I was out and God was pleased, and I say nothing happened? I pleased the sovereign God who sits on the throne of all creation, and I say nothing happened? I could have done nothing more important than please God, could I? Then on the human level, nothing happened. No, something significant happened. I gave off the knowledge of Jesus Christ. I’m sad to say it was an aroma out of death to death, they reject it. That doesn’t mean they’ll never be saved, but on that occasion for them it was an aroma of death to death. Now God may in His sovereign working be using that to draw them. All of us can look back on our lives and see times when we rejected the truth. I’m not saying everybody who says no to the gospel is lost. How many times do we say no to the gospel, how many times were we disinterested? But nonetheless on the human level there are eternal matters going on. We don’t control that, God does.

Paul realized that and he asked the question, who is adequate for these things? You know you dwell on this, and you say I can’t do this. I mean, heaven, hell, perishing, salvation—Lord, not me. I mean there may be certain individuals, not me. Who is adequate for these things? Verse 17 begins with for, for we are not like the men ………. Wait, answer the question first. Well, the implied answer is we are adequate, and he gives the reason why we are adequate. He will elaborate this when you get down to chapter 3 verse 5, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves. Our adequacy is from God who made us adequate as servants of the new covenant, which is the message of Jesus Christ. So, you say I can’t do that, I can’t share the gospel, I tried it. Maybe you tried it in your own adequacy. Well, I didn’t see results. Well wait a minute, that’s not what we’re talking about, we’re talking about making Christ known in every place. God makes us adequate for that ministry. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in II Corinthians chapter 2 and said we were with you as those who were weak, seemed ineffective, wasn’t a good speaker. That’s all right, he gave off the knowledge of Christ in his stumbling, bumbling way.

Was it effective? God makes us adequate. How sad that some Christians have their mouth sewed shut because I can’t do it, it’s just not me. When we have sufficiency from God. The question is not are you adequate, am I adequate? It is, is He adequate? All right, how does He make us adequate? Look at verse 17 of chapter 2, for we are not like many. The expression there translated many is hoipoloi. Hoi is the Greek article the, poloi is many. We are not like the many, literally. Sometimes that expression is still used in English. We talk about the hoipoloi, the masses. Here Paul is still on the scene in the midst of his ministry and you know what he says? Most of the teachers are corrupting the Word of God. What makes us adequate is we’re not like most of the teachers, most of those who claim to represent Christ. We’re not like the many peddling the Word of God. That is an ugly expression, but that’s an accurate translation. Peddling the Word of God. It means to trade in something, and it came to have the connotation of making adjustments in your product to make it more saleable, altering the product to sell. Is that what we’re doing with the truth? Paul says most of the teachers of our day, you know what they’re doing? They’re peddling the Word of God, they’re making alterations, they’re subtly changing it. How could the Corinthians be confused about this? But already the church was infiltrated with those who thought they were in a marketing mentality. We think we’ve done great things today; we’ve learned marketing techniques so that we understand what people want. We take surveys so we have seeker services because we’ve found out what those who are perishing like and don’t like about church and made adjustments. Now those who are perishing think the pure gospel of Jesus Christ is stupidity. What alterations can I make that they’ll like it when they come here and not nullify the cross of Christ? Is this not clear? We are not like the many, most of the teachers, peddling the Word of God. You read books on church growth and they want to use the comparison that the church is like a business. We have a product to sell. That product is the gospel. We have a customer to reach and to please and to draw in and to get an interest in our product, so he’ll buy. We have to know how to close the sale. I say I understand you get that from marketing and selling, but is that what we’re told here? Paul says I came to Corinth and I knew what the Gentiles wanted and I knew what the Jews wanted. So, we started out with wisdom so we could appeal to the seekers among the Greeks. Then I did some miracles so we could appeal to the seekers among the Jews. We have a plan to work them in until eventually they would get to the purity of the gospel. That’s not God’s plan for the church, that’s the devil’s plan to corrupt the church.

We oughtn’t to be surprised it’s going on because Paul already says we’re not like the many in his day. He was unique. I’m not saying this is the only church that is faithful to the gospel, but my desire is that this be one of those churches that is faithful. People think when we talk like this, we think we’re the only ones. That’s not the point, the point is we need to be among that group of faithful ones, and we can’t be peddling the Word of God. I have nothing to sell, I have nothing but stupidity and foolishness for those who are perishing. It is the message of life and I’m glad if they come because my prayer to God is that they will hear and be saved. We beg them to be reconciled to God, but I cannot alter the product. I become a peddler of the Word of God.

But as from sincerity, that’s something transparent, that’s something pure, something held up to the sunlight, you see it as it is. Paul says what you see is what you get. I don’t have one message for the Corinthians and the Greeks who like wisdom, and another message for the Jews who like miracles, and another message for here. Everywhere he went he had the same foolishness as man saw it. This is God’s wisdom as he developed in I Corinthians. From sincerity as from God and as from God as out of God. God is the source of the message. The audacity that I think I would change what God has given. This is His power for salvation entrusted to me. I speak as from God, it’s not a message from me, it’s not a message from this church. This is a message from God, and we speak it in the sight of God. In the Greek text of this verse, as from God in the sight of God, we speak in Christ is last, and how fitting. We have a message from God, and we speak it in the sight of God.

I’ve shared with you, I spoke in chapel and all the professors were lined up right there in the front two rows, was somewhat intimidating. They were the men who had taught me the Word of God, they had taught me the Greek text of II Corinthians. Now I was going to explain the Greek text of II Corinthians to them. I’d better be right. I shared with you I developed a pattern of thinking in those early days of my ministry that I was getting ready to preach and Christ would walk down the aisle, sit right there in the front, now go ahead preach. You know what? If Jesus Christ walked in here, physical, bodily form, sat on the front row, do you think I would care anything about what you thought about my message? Wouldn’t matter a bit. You know what I would be concerned………I should have studied more, hope I get this right, I’m just talking off the top of my head. Why? Because it’s His Word. We speak in the sight of God. I should be concerned whether men like it or don’t like it? Again, I don’t want to carry this in a wrong way, be misunderstood. But I speak in the sight of God, not in the sight of men. I want this message to be a pleasing fragrance to God because I speak in His sight, and we speak in Christ. It all centers in our being in Him.

So that takes us back to where we were in verse 14, thanks be to God who is always leading us in triumph in Christ; and we speak in Christ. That’s why we’re part of His triumph. It’s all part of what God is doing. That is the measure of our lives, that’s the measure of the ministry of this church, that’s the measure of my ministry. I wish I could be more popular. That doesn’t mean some men who are faithful presenters of the gospel aren’t more capable than I am in many ways. They will give an account for the abilities and gifts God has given them. But there are none of us who have any excuse, how little our abilities, how great our abilities, for not being faithful with the truth that has been entrusted to us. I may not be able to present it as effectively to 10,000 as I might to 1,000. But I better present it clearly. The truth must be purely presented. Peter wrote, as newborn babes we are to long for the pure, unadulterated milk of God’s Word, that we might grow with respect to salvation. These are issues of salvation; these are issues of growth in salvation.

Have you heard the gospel? Jesus Christ the Son of God came to earth, was born into the human race, suffered and died on the cross, was raised from the dead to pay the penalty for sin. There is salvation in no one else. Until you place your faith in Him, you are one of those who are perishing. You can attend this church for 30 years and be one of the perishing, because attending this church does not save you. Attending this church exposes you to the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ. That may have done nothing but dulled you to the truth that you’ve turned off week after week. We need to be careful. Have I believed the truth? Not, have I heard the truth? Not, do I know about the truth? Have I believed the truth and come to know the Savior? Now as one who is being saved, I am feasting and growing on the purity of His Word so that as Paul will write in chapter 3 verse 18 of II Corinthians, we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. What an honor to become more like Jesus Christ and have the beauty of His person and His character produced in us.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of your truth. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you, Lord, that you use your truth as your power to bring about the wonder of salvation in a life. Thank you, Lord, for saving us. Thank you for your blessings on this church over many years. The privilege I have to minister the Word of truth here, for the encouragement I receive, for the blessing. Lord, in it all we give you thanks for your work with your Word in grace in each of our lives. We praise you in Christ’s name. Amen.