Marks of a True Ministry, Part 2

Recap: God's Sovereignty and the Minister's Role

0:03 Let's turn again this morning to Paul's first letter to the church at Thessalonica, 1 Thessalonians, as we continue our studies now in chapter 2. I sought to get to you last week in introducing the main theme of chapter 2, verses 2 through 12, some understanding of the relationship between the main thrust of chapter 1 and the main substance of this first part of chapter 2, and I believe it is this.

0:47 In chapter 1, as Paul thanks God for what transpired at Thessalonica in the calling out of a people to the Lord and into the fellowship of the church, he does so in terms of the mighty activity of God, as he remembers the work of faith and the labor of love and the patience of hope of the Thessalonians,

1:11 this to nothing less than the mighty sovereign working of God. In verse 4, he roots it in God's eternal purposes of election, knowing, brethren, beloved of God, your election, and then in the mighty efficacious call of God by the Spirit, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost, and everything that follows, Paul acknowledges to be the result of, the first, the first, the first, the first, the first, the first, the first, the first, the first, the first, the mighty working of God. Now that principle must be understood, must be held to tenaciously, that no individual is saved, no church is born,

1:52 no work of God goes forward except God by his sovereign and eternal purposes and by the power of the Spirit is pleased to do it. Now as he comes to chapter 2, he brings another set of truths into focus, namely, that, that though God works sovereignly and by the power of the Spirit, he works through human instruments, and that from the human standpoint, the instrument is vital in the accomplishment of God's purpose. So therefore, Paul is going to vindicate the kind of ministry that he and his companions had,

2:35 and is going to show that the kind of ministers they were, was directly to, related to the effectiveness of the ministry which they had. And we must cling to that aspect of truth with as much tenacity as we cling to the former aspect of truth. And so as we study verses 2 through 12 of chapter 2, we are doing so under the general theme of the marks of a true minister and a true ministry. Referring the minister and ministry not only to one who stands in the pulpit, or goes out as a missionary, or an apostle, as did Paul, but whether that ministry is found in the home as a parent,

Review: Opposition and Boldness as Marks of True Ministry

3:20 a neighbor to your neighbors, one in a place of employment to your work associates, a student to your fellow students, wherever the Christian is, he is not only there as a Christian, but as a minister, as an ambassador of Jesus Christ. Therefore, what was true of Paul as a minister, should be true of others, thus, what was true of his ministry by the grace of God should be true of ours. Now last week in studying verse 2, we discovered that the first two marks of a true minister and a true ministry are opposition leading to suffering, and boldness leading to a full disclosure of the truth of God.

4:03 But even after that we had suffered before and were shamefully treated, as you know at Philippi, we were bold in our Godliness, to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. Opposition is the mark of a true ministry. Take heart, parents, if you're getting a little opposition, that's the mark of being a true parent. Take heart if you're getting some pressure from your neighbors, opposition leading to suffering and to abuse is the mark of a true ministry, but in the midst of that, boldness, fully disclosing the mind of God, a boldness rooted not in personality, or in experience, but in our relationship to God.

Introduction to Negatives and Positives (1 Thessalonians 2:3-4)

4:46 We were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel. That's the mark of a true ministry. Now beginning with verse 3, the apostle lays out some more of these marks of the true ministry in a series of negatives and positives. He'll say our message and ministry was not this, but it was this.

5:04 It was not that, but it was this. And this morning, as time permits, we shall study verses 3 and 4 as the first series, of negatives and a positive. Notice verse 3, for our exhortation was not of deceit, better translated, not of error, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, that's the negative, now the positive, verse 4, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who trieth our hearts. Now let's go through in detail seeking to understand what the apostle is saying.

Mark 3: Not of Error, but Truth

5:48 The first series of negatives begins in verse 3 with these words, our exhortation was not this, this, or that. Paul summarizes his whole ministry as an apostle under the descriptive word, our exhortation. And this is a very broad word. Sometimes it means instruction.

6:10 Sometimes it means rebuke. Sometimes, it means comfort. Sometimes, it means entreaty. Sometimes, it takes in all of these things.

6:20 So Paul describes the whole discharge of his ministry under the heading, exhortation, because it's a very flexible term. Now he says, our exhortation, that is, the whole substance of our ministry was not of error. That's a better translation than the word deceit. It's a word, which in its root, means to wander away from the proper path.

6:50 In Matthew 18 verses 12 and 13, it's used of the sheep that goes astray. Now when a sheep goes astray, what does he do? Well, he moves out of the path marked out for him by his shepherd. Now the root of the word then has that concept of leaving the beaten track, leaving the proper path.

7:14 And then when it's transferred into the realm that Paul is using it, it's used as the exact opposite of truth. First John 4 and verse 6, John says, Hereby know ye the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. That's the same word used. So what's the opposite of truth?

7:33 Error. Now, Paul says, our exhortation then was not of error. Now, why does he bring this in at this point? Well, for the simple reason that suffering and boldness are not of themselves sufficient marks of a true minister of a true ministry.

7:57 Joseph Smith suffered great opposition. That's the leader of Mormonism. He was martyred and he certainly was very bold. Passed the first two marks of a true minister.

8:12 He was bold. He suffered opposition. Judge Rutherford and Brigham Young. I mean, I'm sorry.

8:18 What did I say? Judge Rutherford. I don't mean to bring him young. He's the Mormon.

8:23 Judge Rutherford and Charles Taze Russell, the founders of the Jehovah's Witness. They certainly were bold. And the Jehovah's Witness movement to this day bears the shadow and the imprint of the brazen boldness of its founders. Why, they were just common agitators.

8:43 They made some of our political agitators look like cream puffs. These men were bold and they suffered opposition. So if the only two marks of a true minister in a true ministry are opposition and boldness, these men would qualify. But now we move into verse 3 and we immediately confront this third mark of a true minister in a true ministry, namely that his ministry is rooted not in error but in objective truth.

9:15 So the Apostle declares, of himself, our exhortation was not in, rooted in, drawn out from a source that was wrong. It was not a ministry framed by leaving the beaten path of revealed truth. But everything we preached, every appeal we made, everything we delivered, was found to be right smack dead center in the path of the truth that God revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and consistent with the mind of the Holy Spirit. So then we're confronted with this third mark of a true ministry,

9:56 namely its content is one characterized by truth. Now we live in a day that likes to downplay any concept of objective, revealed, definable truth. We live in a day where the whole thrust is we've got to love one another. We've got to be kind.

10:18 We've got to be concerned about life and practice and activity. But with the mess the world's in, we've got no time to sit around and debate whether a certain statement is right or wrong, true or false. Let's put all of that behind us. The Apostle Paul would say no.

10:34 For the simple reason that what you believe may damn your soul, if you believe error. This is why in 2 Thessalonians 2.11 Paul says, For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who receive not the love of the truth. So then the mark of a true minister is that he is committed to that pathway of truth, which is the Holy Scriptures.

11:08 Thy word is true. The mark of a true parent discharging his ministry as a parent is that he discharges it within the framework of the truth of God. The mark of a true witness, as he stands in his neighborhood seeking to be a witness and a minister to his neighbors, is that he does so within the framework of revealed truth. Now, if that's to be true of you and me, then a tremendous responsibility lies upon us that we know what the beaten path is.

11:45 How are you going to tell if somebody's ministering to you outside the beaten path, if you don't know what the beaten path is? The only sure way, to preserve the truth of God in the church, is by the grace of God to make theologians out of everybody sitting in the pew. Not theologians in the sense that they could move into Westminster Seminary next week, or into some other seminary and take over the chair of theology. I don't mean theologians in the sense that they understand all of the technical terms and all the refined aspects of theology, but when they hear a statement like justification, they know what it means.

12:27 And if someone stands up and says, well, justification has to do with a just life, they'll immediately say, no, no, that's heresy. Justification has nothing to do with how you live. Justification has to do with something God declares to be true of men in the courts of heaven, when they believe in His Son. And they'd be able to know the difference between justification and sanctification.

12:50 Yet, knowing the difference, if someone should say, well, it's perfectly possible for a person to be justified, and have a right standing in heaven, but not be sanctified and be living like the devil, they'd be able to say, no, that's out of the beaten path. For though justification has to do with the court of heaven, sanctification has to do with the heart of a man, the two are never divorced. They're always joined. That's what I mean by making theologians out of people in the pew.

13:17 So that if someone comes and says, well, you know, really, maybe you people have been told that we need to be faithful to the very words of Scripture, but certainly, you realize it's not the words that's important. It's the thought behind them. You'd be able to see right through that and say, wait a minute. No, no, that's impossible because thoughts are framed by words.

13:39 And if you change the words, you change the thought. Do you know that whole denominations have gone down the drain of liberalism and this very morning are putting lies in the hands of people in the name of truth and people are taking it, assimilating it into their very bloodstream, and are being damned and poisoned with lies. Why? Because people who sat in the pew figured, well, only the preacher needs to know theological distinctions.

14:06 It's not important for me. Beloved, it is important. For if you're to know the difference between a true ministry and a false ministry, you've got to know what the beaten path is before you can discern when someone's gone out of that path. This is why I am committed in the ministry that God has called me to in the midst of this assembly, to seeking under God to have a people who understand that this is so, this is not so, and if this is not so, this cannot be so.

Mark 4: Not of Uncleanness, but Purity

14:36 Why? That you might know the marks of a true ministry, in order that you might never receive anything other than a true ministry, in order that you might encourage nothing else other than a true ministry. So the Apostle declares our ministry, our exhortation was not of error, but by contrast, it was one of truth. Then he says in the second place, the second negative, it was not of uncleanness.

15:06 Now this word for uncleanness, in almost every instance in the New Testament, is used in the connotation of sexual impurity. In Romans chapter 1, in that terrible list of perversions, it's mentioned in verse 24. In Ephesians 5, 3, it speaks of the unclean person, along with the whoremonger, who shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Now why would Paul ever use such a word as this?

15:33 Our exhortation, our preaching, our message, was not of error, nor of uncleanness. What meaning would this have to the Thessalonians? Well, it would have a very real meaning to them, for remember, many of them had been idol worshipers. Chapter 1 in verse 9, Paul spoke of their turning to God from idols.

15:55 They were idol worshipers. And one of the marks of many of the heathen idols, in the day in which Paul lived in the Roman government, under Roman rule, in these heathen temples, the deities, the gods who were worshiped, were notorious for their sexual exescapades. In fact, many of the gods had little gods by illicit relationship with other goddesses. And it was not uncommon for heathen temples to be filled with prostitutes, and to have immoral acts as a very part of the worship of the heathen deities.

16:32 For it's only logical that if your god's like that, the ultimate is to be like your god. Therefore, unclean gods produce unclean worshipers. So Paul, by contrast, says, our exhortation was not of error, nor of uncleanness. This would have real meaning to these people.

16:55 The opposite, of course, of uncleanness, is purity or holiness. And the two things are used as opposites in chapter 4, where the apostle Paul says in verse 7, God hath not called us to, here's the word, to uncleanness, but unto holiness. Our message, rooted in truth. Our motive, under God to see purity and holiness produced in the hearts and lives of men.

17:30 The apostle Paul recognized, as we must recognize, that the fourth mark of a true ministry is this. It will not only be a proclamation of truth, but a proclamation of truth which leads to purity and godliness of life. In one place he uses the term, the truth, which is according to godliness. Truth and holiness are always joined and conversely, error and uncleanness are generally joined together.

18:07 Listen as I read several passages that show the relationship between error and uncleanness. In the second chapter of the book of the Revelation, chapter 2 and in verse 20, the Lord Jesus says to the church at Thyatira, Nevertheless, or notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess. See, she claimed to be speaking truth in the name of God. She claimed to be speaking inspired truth.

18:45 A prophet was one who spoke as the mouthpiece of God. And God says to this church, You've allowed that woman who calls herself a prophetess to make deliverances, so-called truth, in the name of God. But what was the reason? What was the result?

19:00 What was the practical outworking? Here it is. She calls herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. You see, the error proclaimed was inseparably joined to uncleanness of life, which followed an embrace of the error.

19:26 In the book of Jude, the last book before the Revelation, you have the same thought. The theme of this chapter, of course, is dealing with false teachers and their influence. Notice what he says about them in verses 10 to 13. But these speak evil of the things that they know not, but what they know naturally as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

19:52 Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, and have perished in the games, saying of Corrie, These are spots in your feast of charity. These people actually joined in the love feast of the Christians. When they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear, clouds that are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Drop down to verse 16.

20:22 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts. Down to verse 19. These they be who separate themselves sensual, giving themselves over to the passions and appetites of the flesh, having not the Spirit. So you see that there is connected with false teaching, false, unclean, immoral living.

20:49 And so the Apostle Paul vindicates his ministry by saying that his message was not only rooted in truth, but the whole motivation in the proclamation of that message was that it might produce purity and holiness of heart and of life. Now notice how history bears out this principle. Joseph Smith claimed to be a prophet, didn't he? And he claimed to have special gifts to interpret and to read these golden plates that were buried up there near Palmyra.

21:21 But wonder of wonders, when he reads these plates, he finds that it's all right for a man to have a bunch of wives. Oh, of course you've got to do this in the name of God. What was he doing? Finding justification for giving himself over to the flesh.

21:39 See? The uncleanness of the flesh was inseparably joined to the error that he proclaimed. Now more recently, in the name of truth and in the name of Christianity, some smart young so-called theologians, I wouldn't give them the privilege of calling them that, I call them philosophers, if they even deserve that term, have come up and said, well, you know, the church has been laboring for too long under this rigid set of rules expressed in the Ten Commandments and other moral codes, and we have come in the name of truth and godliness to liberate this generation from all the mores and standards and restrictions of past generations.

22:22 And so they've come up with what's called the new morality. This has not been spawned on this society by what we would call unreligious people. This has been spawned by religious leaders. But what's it lead to?

22:35 It leads to young men and women taking liberties in premarital and extramarital sexual experience, all kinds of deviation from the clear teaching of Scripture with regard to respect for and subjection to human government. All of these things are the fruit of what? They're the fruit of error. Error leads to uncleanness, always.

Mark 5: Not in Guile, but Honesty

23:02 And so the Apostle Paul, in vindicating his own ministry and in giving the marks of a true minister, says that our exhortation was not in its content of error or in its motive of uncleanness, nor, in the third place, was it in guile. Now, the word guile is a difficult word to define. It means crafty or deceitful talk or conduct. Maybe I can best illustrate it with a little story.

23:31 There was a little fox, and foxes are known for their wily, guile-y ways. And he sneaked into Mrs. Jones' chicken coop one night by a little hole that he just about barely could squeeze himself through in the corner of the chicken coop. Well, he got in, he just had him the best feast on chicken, nice, plump chicken, and when he was all done, he was so stuffed and his sides so swollen that he couldn't get out the hole.

24:01 So he said to himself, my, my, I'm in the fix. Mrs. Jones comes out to the coop in the morning to check for the eggs, and she finds me in here, I'm going to have it. And so this has really been my last meal before my...

24:15 and that's it. So the fox figured, well, what will I do? And he had a plan. So that morning, while he was looking out the chicken coop, he could see through the little hole, though he couldn't squeeze through it, he saw Mrs. Jones coming.

24:28 So amidst all the feathers that had been flying around, and the chickens there and now inside his tummy, and the others huddled over in the corner scared, as she drew near the chicken coop, he laid down right in the middle of it and played dead. And so when Mrs. Jones came in and saw that fox lying there looking dead, and saw the evidence of what he had done, in her anger, she picked it up by the tail and threw what she thought was a dead carcass out the front door of the chicken coop, and no sooner had she done that than little wily fox, he just ran away with his full tummy. Well, you see, he caught Mrs. Jones with guile.

25:07 He deceived her. He was sly, we say, as a fox. He was being true to his fox nature. Now that's the thought of guile.

25:16 That which is deliberate, plan, deceit, craftiness. Now the Apostle Paul says, my ministry, my preaching, was not in its content, of error. My message was truth. Nor was my motive to produce uncleanness, but conversely holiness.

25:40 Now he seems to touch, not so much on the message, not so much on the motive, but on his methods. He says it was not in guile. And he uses a different preposition here. He had said it was not of, or out of literally, out of a source of error, or out of motives of utterance, or out of uncleanness, but in the context of honesty and openness.

26:04 There was no guile. There was no craftiness in my ministry. And as I mentioned, it seems that Paul is here referring to his method. Now notice the relationship.

26:16 When he came with a message that was rooted in objective revealed truth, with a motive that God would so work as to produce holiness, he didn't have to use tricks. He didn't have to be underhanded. He didn't have to be sneaky. He could come right into the synagogue and open up the scriptures and proclaim that Jesus was the Christ.

26:40 And if people say, what are you doing here? What do you want? He could say, as we'll study later on, I don't want anything from you. I've come to do nothing but give the message of life to you.

26:51 No tricks. No gimmicks. None of the arts and crafts of the false teacher. When you read in 2 Corinthians 11, about false teachers, and this very word is used about the false teachers, that they are marked by their cunning craftiness and by their guile and their deceit.

27:10 This is the mark of the Jehovah's Witness who comes to your door spouting scripture verses like a machine gun spitting out bullets. But what's behind it? His whole method is one of craftiness and deceit and guile. He doesn't come with any real longing.

27:29 To declare to you the truth of scripture. He comes to give the impression that he's declaring the truth of scripture when underneath all he wants to do is get you to believe his pernicious lies. This is true of the so-called religious teachers who stand in the name of Christ and truth will give things that are not in the beaten path of the revealed will of God. Now, frankly, dear ones, this is what greatly concerns me.

28:01 With so much of the methods of modern evangelism. For they are marked by the craftiness and wiliness of the false teacher. The modern gospel invitation, much of it is psychological craftiness. I have been in meetings, as no doubt you have been, where the evangelist would say, now we don't want to embarrass anyone, we don't want to put anyone to shame, while every head is bowed and every eye closed in the absolute privacy of this meeting.

28:32 I want you to raise your hand if you want to accept Christ. So the person says, well, that's pretty good. Nobody said raise their hand. And a little later on they'd say, now, it's obvious that we can't know who you are and we've got to have an opportunity to talk to you.

28:44 So we're going to ask you while we sing a few numbers to come out. We're not going to keep you now. We just want to be able to shake your hand, give you a piece of literature. And then after they get them down the front, then it's sneak them off.

28:55 You see this whole idea of using psychological pressure and gimmicks and the tricks of the sales world to somehow get a response out of people. This is entirely foreign to the ministry of the Apostle Paul. He said that my ministry, my exhortation was not of guile. I stood among you and my motives and my message and method were all above board and were disciplined by the word of God.

29:24 Now, God grant that if you and I can say that as parents, as witnesses to our neighbors, what a tremendous thing to lay upon your bed in the hour of death and say, well, in spite of all my failures, in spite of all my shortcomings, by the grace of God, what I sought to tell my neighbors and tell my children and tell the people to whom I ministered was rooted in the truth of Scripture, had as its motive deucing of purity and was carried out in the realm of absolute honesty and openness. There was no guile. That's the negative. Now he turns in verse 4 to the positive.

The Foundation of True Ministry: Accountability to God

30:05 And the reason why verse 3 is true is because of verse 4. What keeps a man sticking to the beaten path of the word of God? What keeps a man in his motive longing to see the truth produce purity? What keeps a man from tricks and gimmicks and guile in his witness and in his ministry?

30:27 Verse 4 is the answer. But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who trieth our hearts. There are several key words here. But as we were allowed of God, better translated, as we were approved of God, to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who trieth our hearts.

31:02 Here's the first positive statement. Paul says, I speak as a man who's been approved and appointed of God. Why don't I swerve from the truth? Why I dare not, because the God of truth has appointed me to proclaim His truth.

31:24 Swerve in the discharge of my duty and responsibility in the ministry of parenthood, in the ministry as a witness. Why? Because I have been appointed, approved. Notice a larger statement of this in 1 Timothy chapter 1, allowing scripture to interpret scripture.

31:44 1 Timothy chapter 1, verses 11 through 14. According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. We'll take up that thought in a moment, this whole idea of a trust. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who enabled me for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelieved.

32:14 And the grace of our Lord Jesus, a grace of our Lord, was exceeding abundantly with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. God has counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Now the question arises, is Paul saying that God looked down as it were and watched his conduct for a period of time and says, well you know, by the way you're living and acting you qualify, therefore I'll put you into the ministry? No.

32:42 That appointment came by an act of divine sovereignty in the context of mercy and of grace. Notice this so clearly stated in Acts chapter 9 and verse 15. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me. To bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

33:06 A literal translation would be he is a vessel of election unto me. He is a vessel of election unto me. I have chosen to lay hold of him and to make him a minister to the Gentiles. Paul understood this for he says in 1 Corinthians 7.25

33:27 1 Corinthians 7.25 Now concerning this, now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. His mercy is what makes me faithful. And then 2 Corinthians 3.5

33:47 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God who hath made us able ministers of the new covenant. So Paul then recognized I have been set upon by God. God has laid hold of me. He has appointed me to this responsibility as a minister.

34:10 Therefore, I dare not do anything other than speak the right message from a right motive and use a right method. God has laid hold of me. God has appointed and approved me. Secondly he says, I have been given a trust.

34:30 We were approved of God to be put in trust with the gospel. Now when you are made a trustee of something, you have two basic responsibilities. You are first of all to preserve that which is put into your trust, and then you are to rightly administer that trust. Now Paul had a tremendous sense of this concept.

34:56 I have been entrusted with the gospel. We read about it in 1 Timothy chapter 1. I have been allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel. Something has been committed to me that I might first of all preserve it in its entirety and that I might administer it the way God wants it to be administered.

35:17 Dear ones, if God could burn this into our hearts, then a sense of responsibility to stick by the direction of the word of God would grip our hearts in every area of our ministry. As you are a parent, and you think of your responsibility, how are you going to discharge? If you are worthy of the name of parent, you are going to discharge your parental responsibility conscious of these two things. I have been appointed of God.

35:52 He has given me the privilege of parenthood. He has put in my trust this responsibility. I am not to determine how it should be administered. I am not to determine how I should discharge the trust.

36:08 I am to come to the scriptures. I am to glean from the word of God all of the principles involved in the administration of the trust and then I am to preserve it and I am to discharge it in its entirety without any reference to the smiles or frowns of my children or society or the church or the world about me in this neighborhood. By the appointment of God as his child and as his witness, how am I to discharge my trust? I am to discover from the scripture what that trust is, how to discharge it and then discharge it without any reference to the smiles or the frowns of those about me.

36:51 Who could speak as a man conscious that he was chosen by God, given a trust from God, and then notice this third principle that comes into the text, even so we speak not as pleasing men but God who trieth our hearts. I've been appointed by God. I've been given a trust from God. I am a servant accountable to God.

37:21 And when you get those three things together in the heart of a man or woman, he's immovable. She's immovable. You can't budge them. They become filled with a sanctified stubbornness and immovability.

Serving God, Not Men: The Implications of Divine Accountability

37:35 God has laid down and laid his hand upon me. God has given something to me and I shall stand before that God. Now Paul recognizes, you see, that much of what he has been given as a trust in the gospel is not pleasing to men. That's why he says, even so we speak not as pleasing men.

37:59 He has charged me to proclaim to men what the Bible says about them, that they're dead, blind, rebel sinners who deserve the wrath and curse of God. I've been charged to proclaim to them the gospel that says the only hope of sinners is in the cruel, bloody Roman cross upon which the Son of God died and shed his blood. I'm to declare to men that unless they are holy, they have no grounds to claim they are Christians. I'm to proclaim all of these truths, every one of which is disgusting and distasteful to the natural heart, the natural man received at that time.

38:37 If not the things of the Spirit of God. So Paul says, if as I take this trust, the gospel committed to me and as I begin to administer it, I check my Harris ratings, he said something's going to happen. I'm going to find that I'm going to begin to alter the message. I'm going to begin to somehow change not only the message, but ultimately my methods in order to suit the desires of people.

39:02 But he says, I dare not do that because I've been appointed of God, given a trust from God, and I will stand before God, accountable to him. Therefore, only his smile, only his frown is what matters. For any one of you contemplating the Christian ministry, there is nothing that will keep you faithful to your trust, except these things being burnt into your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. When you stand before men, as I stand before you men and women this morning, conscious that I stand here, not because my folks had ambitions that I'd be a preacher,

39:47 or one day sitting around somewhere, I thought, well, that'd be a nice thing to do, and you've got the gift of gab, so why don't you preach? No. When you stand conscious, I have been appointed of God, and you realize that what you've been appointed to do is to discharge and preserve a trust. He has committed to you his holy word, the whole counsel of his truth, to be proclaimed, the bitter and the sweet, the promises as well as the threatenings, the commands, the exhortations, the truth of human responsibility, the truth of absolute and divine sovereignty, the truth of man's ruin in the fall

40:31 and redemption by Christ. This is the awesome trust committed, and it must be preserved, and it must be discharged. And then the recognition that in the discharge of that trust, I stand before God, who tries my heart. As I preach to you, your eyes don't matter, it's his eye that counts.

40:52 It's in the present tense, we speak not as pleasing men, but God, who proveth, who tries, who discerns our hearts. His eye is upon me. And so if there's the look of anger in the eyes of those to whom you minister, that doesn't matter, if you know that the look of delight is in the eye of your God. And if there's the look of smile and delight in the eyes of your hearers, that doesn't satisfy, if you're not sure, there's the glint of delight in the eye of God.

Application: God-Consciousness in All Ministries

41:19 That's the thing that shapes and molds and disciplines a preacher to be bold in the spirit. That's what will make you a true Sunday school teacher. Beloved, that's what will make you a true parent. I guess I'm sort of on a crusade against sentimentality.

41:36 If there's anything I hate with a holy hatred, and what they say is a purple passion, it's sentiment. It's sentiment. Do you know what sentiment is? It's bushy, unprincipled, selfish affection.

41:49 Love is a deep, principled affection. Sentiment. Blown about every wind, every smile, every frown, every whine, every whimper, every fuss of a child. Sentimental parents, the bane of the Christian church.

42:10 The generation of kids who can't make their way through life, at the first difficulty they turn, at the first obstacle they face, at the first obstacle they falter, and they flop. Why? Because they were never brought up in a context where they learn that you move on the basis of principle and right and truth, and you move in that direction, sink or swim, live or die, I'm committed to the truth and to the will and the law of God. Oh, for parents of that kind of principle.

42:40 My son came home recently telling one of the kids in the neighborhood wanted something, and his parents said no. And he says, if they whine loud enough and long enough, I'll get it. It's a matter of me just battering down their resistance with my whimpers. Did your children say that of you, you parents who are here?

42:56 If they whimper loud enough and long enough, they'll get it. God have mercy on you. God have mercy on you, if that's true. For you see, you're not discharging your trust under the sense, God prove it in my heart, but you're discharging it, looking at the eye of your son or daughter.

43:17 Miserable, miserable state to be in. In the discharge of your responsibility to neighbors, to friends, as a witness, as a testimony. Oh, this sense of being accountable to God is what will keep you. From ever tampering with his truth, your message will be pure.

43:39 From ever moving aside from the right motive, it will be a motive of holiness. And from moving aside from a right method, it will not be in guile, but in honesty and in openness. So we have in these verses, the next, what we call three or four marks of a true minister. We found in verse two, that he will be marked as one who suffers opposition.

44:07 Marked by boldness. Verse three, the negative. His message will not be of error, but of truth. Not of uncleanness, but of purity.

44:23 Not in guile, but in honesty and openness. And he will discharge that ministry, conscious that he's been chosen by God, been given a trust from God, and stands accountable to God. Now, will that make a man harsh? Will that make a woman harsh?

Conclusion: Holy Gentleness and Self-Examination

44:45 Will that make a parent unfeeling and unbending? No, for you find a wonderful contrast as he goes on to develop this thought in verse seven. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children. No, this doesn't lead to harshness.

45:03 There is then a love and a gentleness that is a holy love and a holy gentleness because it is framed and shaped and molded by principle. And the gentleness of verse seven follows the concepts of verses three and four. And the Lord willing, we shall develop those next week. But in closing this morning, may I ask you a couple of very personal and I hope searching questions.

45:33 The ministry God's given to you, and he's given a ministry to every one of us who are his children. Of that ministry, can you say my exhortation was not in error or out of error? Do you know that what you're saying to your neighbors is truth because you've searched it out? Do you know that what you're saying to that Sunday school class is truth because you've searched it out?

45:59 Do you know that what you're doing as a parent is in the context of truth because you've searched it out? Is it of uncleanness? Does it have as its motive that it shall produce holiness of life? And is it being done in guile or in honesty?

46:19 Do you have a consciousness in the discharge of your ministry this morning? You stand ministering as one chosen by God, given a trust from God, and that you're discharging it, under the eye of God. Oh, for such a God consciousness to grip our hearts, and then we shall be true ministers in all of these areas that we've touched on this morning. Let us unite in prayer.