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It was probably 150 years ago, Wells Fargo stagecoach came up with a bunch of rules for writing their stagecoach. One, abstinence from liquor is requested, but if you must drink, share the bottle. To do otherwise makes you appear selfish and unneighborly.
Two, buffalo robes are provided for your comfort for cold weather. Hogging robes will not be tolerated and the offender will be made to ride with the driver. Three, don't snore loudly while sleeping or use your fellow passenger's shoulder for a pillow.
He or she might not understand. This is a very insightful one. Four, forbidden topics of discussion are stagecoach robberies and Indian uprisings. If ladies are present, gentlemen are urged to forgo smoking cigars as the odor of same is repugnant to the gentle sex.
And lastly, chewing tobacco is permitted, but spit with the wind, not against it. And speaking of spitting into the wind, our evangelical culture does that very thing when it comes to exercising Christian liberties.
All too often, love is forgotten and the gospel is forgotten, and what's highlighted is I'm in Christ, I'm just as justified as I'll ever be, I'm free to do whatever I'd like. So let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 to look again through the eyes of Holy Scripture.
How do we act in a culture? How do we act in the church so that we don't make our other brothers, our sisters stumble and that God is glorified? So here's what Paul is doing as he writes to the Corinthians.
He's trying to tell them you're free in Christ, but your freedom stops at the door of love for others and the gospel. You're free to love others, in other words, and you're free to have the gospel as a high priority, the top priority.
You might ask yourself the question, what are my top priorities? In my life, what do I live for? Grades, money, power, friendship, accumulation, material blessings, why do I live the way I live? Everybody has priorities.
What are your priorities? And for Paul, he's a great example, and this is what he's trying to show the Corinthians. He's trying to say, look at my example as an apostle, that my number one priority isn't money, isn't ministry, it isn't fame, wealth, power, success, accumulation, good grades, scholarships.
My number one priority is the gospel. And his gospel priority affects the way he has his Christian liberties and how he uses them. This is almost, chapter 9, like basic training for a military person, boot camp, back down boiled to the essence of, why do we do what we do?
It's almost irrelevant that it's in the context of Christian liberty because this idea could be transplanted to any other spot. Why do we do what we do? The gospel has priorities. Why do you live the way you live?
The gospel should have priority. And so when we look at this section, it's really good to just kind of go back to the basics. It feels almost like a New Year's Day sermon. Why do I do what I do? What do I live for?
And as Christians, we are so blessed in Christ Jesus, united to Christ Jesus, justified by the work of Christ Jesus, his life, his death, his burial, his resurrection. We are blessed people. We are now people of God adopted into his family and so everything we do should be through that lens.
Listen to what G .C. Burkauer said, grace is the essence of theology and gratitude is the essence of ethics. So since we've been graced, therefore, then we want to live a life of gratitude. Sinclair Ferguson said, the determining factor of my existence is no longer my past.
It is Christ's past. Isn't that good? You look back in the skeletons in the closet of your life and you think, what determines my life? It's not my past. It's Christ's past. And so in light of that, because of that, Paul tells these Christians how to live.
And they were kind of a gnarly bunch, weren't they? Can you imagine the Corinthians? They just needed help. And what they needed help with was the priority of the gospel has to reign supreme. So Paul in this book brings up issues and he answers questions.
And so we're coming actually to the second question. If you look at chapter 8, verse 1, this is the second question. After questions about being married and sexual issues and widow issues and all that, he comes to the second question in chapter 8, verse 1.
Now concerning. And those are two words that should flag in your mind. Paul's going to a new section. He's answering another question. Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge.
This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Paul is going to answer this question in the context of the Corinthians. Can they eat food offered to idols? We are free in Christ. Then Paul in chapter 9 says, and I'll show you just how free I am in Christ by not doing what I can do.
Chapter 9 almost seems placed in the book out of context. Why would Paul have a chapter here about surrendering his rights? Answer. Paul says you surrender your rights when it comes to eating food offered to idols.
You can do it, but you don't have to. And I'll show you an example of surrendering my rights for the love of other people and for the gospel. And so that's kind of what chapter 9 is about. The first 14 verses, I have rights.
Chapter 9, verse 15 to 27, but I won't use any of them. Paul's top priority is the gospel of Christ Jesus. And by inference, your number one priority for your family is the gospel. Why do you live? What do you do?
The focus of your family is the gospel. That's why you are together. And everything you do in light of your family should be so that the gospel reigns supreme. I'm going to probably forget this, so I should just put it in now.
As I think about my life in general, the gospel has a priority. It affects lots of things. Like, here's one. I don't put signs up in my front yard, vote Republican, vote Democrat, go green, vote libertarian.
Why? Because I'm an unregistered voter. No, just kidding. Because that isn't my priority. I'm not going to put something, especially if I am a Republican, a Republican sign up and make 90 of my neighbors bugged at me for something that is irrelevant because, well, compared to the gospel, it's irrelevant.
It doesn't matter if you're a Republican. You can still go to hell when you die. The gospel is a priority. When we bought the house that we're at now on Beach Point Road eight years ago, I said to myself, we picked the house.
We put the money down. We did this and that. But God yet chose it because our neighborhood needs to hear what? Lower taxes. Our neighborhood needs the gospel. Handpicked by God. Can you imagine? Plucked up and put over here for the gospel.
Now, that's Paul's kind of thinking. Everything has to do with the gospel. You say, you know what? I got fired from a job. Well, maybe because you were a bad worker, but maybe because God didn't want you there and he wanted you to go someplace else because there are unregenerate elect people at the new job.
And the list goes on and on. So today in chapter nine, verses 15 through 18, we're just going to dive into this section and you're going to see Paul is all about the gospel. I live for the gospel. My priority is the gospel.
Everything is the gospel. And by the way, if you live like this by the grace of God, you'll live well and you'll die well. If you live for things, I've watched a lot of people die in my life, and you can clutch hold of things on your deathbed, including loved ones, and you can't take anything with you.
But if your life is for the gospel, your life is for the proclamation of the free grace of Christ Jesus, you live well and you die well. Let me read verses 15 through 18 of 1 Corinthians 9, and I want you to watch for the word gospel.
I want you to see how many times you see the word gospel there, because that is the priority. Gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel. 1 Corinthians 9 .15, as Paul is going to tell them, I have rights, but now I'm not going to use my rights.
For what reason? He answers it here. But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.
For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting, for necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. You have liberties in Christ to make sure you show love towards other people and have the gospel as the top priority.
Well, what is the gospel? What are we talking about the gospel? Let me tell you some things that the gospel isn't, then what the gospel is, and then we'll get back to the passage. I think it's fair to ask in our day and age, what is the gospel?
Let me tell you some things that the gospel isn't. If you want to email me, I'll send you these. You are not going to have time to write them down, and they're not Bible verses anyway, because it's what the gospel isn't, so don't waste your time.
You can have purpose in your life. It's not the gospel. You can have meaning to your life. That's not the gospel. You can have a personal relationship with Jesus. That's not the gospel. Eighty-two percent of Americans believe this is the gospel.
Benjamin Franklin said, God helps those who help themselves. That's not the gospel. Become a better person. That's not the gospel. Be more moral. That's not the gospel. Jesus came to be your best friend.
That's not the gospel. Get baptized. Get confirmed. That's not the gospel. Jesus is an example of how to live in order to be right with God. That's not the gospel. Okay, maybe a little toe-stepping here.
When I dance, I step on my wife's toes, and so here we go. God has a wonderful plan for your life. That's not the gospel. God loves a sinner but hates the sin. Say a sinner's prayer, and if you really mean it, you'll be saved.
You must be baptized in the Holy Spirit. You must speak in tongues. You can perform miracles. Those aren't the gospels. Let Jesus into your heart. Not the gospel. And certainly this one's not the gospel.
Expect a miracle. Put Jesus on the throne of your life. Let go and let God. Draw nigh unto God. Decide for Jesus. Make Jesus Lord of your life. Have personal fulfillment. Have a better marriage. Advice for better living.
The gospel is not any of those things. Joyful, joyful, we adore thee. All who live in love are thine. It's not the gospel. The gospel is not it's good to be good and it's nice to be nice. How about this?
Let's push a little bit more for those of you who are looking at me inquisitively. The gospel is not love your neighbor as yourself. The gospel is not love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
Do you want me to push it a little bit? I know you do. The gospel is not repent of your sins and believe the Lord Jesus Christ. That's not the gospel. Now before you kick me out, that might be, the last one might be, translation, pastoral translation, is a response to the gospel but it isn't the gospel.
Nothing that you do or should be or can do or must do is good news. That's not the gospel. Those may be responses to the gospel but they're not the gospel. The gospel makes certain that it's Jesus' time on stage and not ours.
It's talking about what Jesus has done, not what we must do or what we must become. Let's turn our Bibles over to 1 Corinthians 15 to remind ourselves what the gospel is. I've told you what it isn't. But what does Paul say the gospel is?
Now for us when we read 1 Corinthians, this is like sermon 79 and we're up in chapter 9. I'm going faster. I've proven that I've gone faster, Chris Cloyd, and I will continue to go faster. But we're not to 15 yet.
It's going to be a while. When the Corinthians first got this letter, they read through the whole thing and they could realize in chapter 1 verses 1 to 8 who they are in Christ called by God. But they also would realize what the gospel is later in chapter 15 because they would read the whole thing.
Here the longest book in the New Testament for epistles does tell us what the gospel is and it's amazing that it has nothing to do with us. It's outside of us. The gospel is the gospel whether you're alive or dead.
The gospel is the gospel whether you respond to it or not. The gospel is the gospel, Christian or no Christian. So what is the gospel? When Paul says, I live for the gospel, I think it's fair to say, what are we supposed to live for?
And Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 talks about the gospel and as one writer said, chapter 15 should strike you like the shock of an electric eel. That's what it does because it tells you what the gospel is and you'll easily see what the gospel is not.
By the way, if you got a test today, I should have done this, I should have given everybody a piece of paper and said, please write down what the gospel is. I wonder what you have said. Maybe some of you, and I've done this with younger people before, they've said Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The gospel according to Matthew. Some might say good news, but really theologically we should know out of any church, we've had systematic teaching in Sunday school and VBS and Awana, what is the gospel, but it's almost so close to us, I think some of us might fail the test.
Here's the good news. Paul didn't fail the test and we can easily see from 1 Corinthians 15 what the gospel is and then we'll jump back into 9. One, the gospel is good news. Let me give you a few descriptions of the gospel.
Description one, it's good news. Great news. 1 Corinthians 15. Now, Paul said, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you which you received in which you stand. Paul says, I've talked to you for a long time about worship.
Remember chapter 12, 13, 14, spiritual gifts. We've discussed worship for a long time. Now we're coming to a new subject. Remember I was there for 18 months teaching you the gospel. I gave you the gospel.
He's using language like a baton, handing a baton from one runner to the next runner, a formal, officially designated handing off. I was there. I discharged my duty. I handed you the gospel baton. That's the kind of language he's using here.
And then he says in verse 2, and by which the gospel, that's what he means by which, and by which, and by the gospel, you are being saved. If you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
Paul qualifies it. Here is the good news, and you are Christians, yet many times in Hebrews and other books, there's the exhortation to hold fast. And then he says in verse 3, For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.
What Paul received from Jesus directly, not taught by anyone else, I'm going to tell you, and with more language of official baton handing, this is the gospel. And it's of what importance? First importance.
True or false? Everything in the Bible is important, including Leviticus. True. Everyone who laughed is convicted. You stand convicted. No, everything in the Bible is important. It's all God breathed.
It's all profitable. True or false? But some things in the Bible are more important than other things. And this is that thing of first importance. A lot of important things in my life, but this is at the top.
Paul knew that. Everything is important in the Bible. All truths about God are important. But standing in first importance is the gospel. Now the gospel in English is from a word, Godspell, meaning good news, glad tidings.
The Greek word euangelion, means you, good. Angelion sounds like angel, and that's right because angel means messenger. It's a messenger of good news. It's a good news message. Good news Bible clubs, you guys remember those?
Do we ever have one here? That's the problem. Latinized evangelium, are evangelical in English. And it has military overtones. It is an announcement. So there's a battle over here, there's a battle over here in Bull Run, Manassas, and a courier comes running back, a person, a runner, comes running back from the battlefield and tells a commanding officer something.
And here's what he tells them. We won. Good news. We won. It's the language of victory. It's the language of announcement. Good news in content, good news in delivery form. We won, and he proclaims, he heralds, he shouts, we won.
It's a victory report. Lorraine Bettner, who happens to be a man, who was a man, says the Gospel is the good news about the great salvation purchased by Jesus Christ, by which He reconciled sinful men to a holy God.
There are in reality only two types of religious thought, the religion of faith and the religion of works. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology defines the Gospel this way, the Gospel is the joyous proclamation of God's redemptive activity in Christ Jesus on behalf of man enslaved to sin.
One, the Gospel is good news. Two, the Gospel is about God and God alone. Look at verse 3, 4, 5 and following. Who's the subject of all those verbs? Short of two relative clauses, the subject of all the verbs here is Christ.
The Gospel is about God. It's good news about God. It's good news about Jesus Christ. So much so that when we get to verse 4 about buried, Paul makes sure that the text isn't, they buried Him, but it's put in such a way that He was buried, so Jesus is the subject of all the verbs.
Jesus died. Jesus was buried. Jesus was raised from the dead. And Jesus appeared. It didn't say they saw Him, because then you would have people as the subject of the verbs. Here we have Christ appeared.
Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, verse 3, that He was buried and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scripture, and that He appeared. God is the Savior.
God is the focus of the Gospel. That's why it's of first importance. Friends, let me say this nicely, and we're all in the same boat together. We are not the Gospel. We're not the Gospel. We can't live the Gospel.
We can't be the Gospel. We can't do the Gospel, because that's a category error. The Gospel is proclaimed news about God. It has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with us. Now, do we believe the Gospel?
Do we receive the Gospel? Do we repent of our sins and turn to Christ? Respond to the Gospel? The answer is absolutely yes, but that's not the Gospel. That's the response to the Gospel. The victorious courier comes running in.
We won. Now, you can do one of two things. I take you at your word, or I don't. Jesus atoned for sins on Calvary. He was raised from the dead. He's the Son of God. I either believe it or I don't, but my believing or my repenting or my lack thereof isn't the Gospel.
We are not the Gospel. We are not the good news. And by the way, aren't you glad for that? Can you imagine, with this lot, you're the good news. We have a message to change the world. Us. And of course, I say that as your fearless leader.
You say, well, we need to have the Gospel so we have to look inside of ourselves to get it. No. It's outside of us. The Gospel is the Gospel, whether you live, whether you died, whether you never were born, whether you believed it, whether you accepted it.
The Gospel is still the Gospel. It's good news about God. Michael Horton said, Your inner life is not the news. Although such a day is not unimaginable at our present pace, it would still be unlikely that major news organizations could survive if they reported their inner longings and hunches about the news.
The Gospel is about God. It's not about us. And therefore, the Gospel is about God. It's not about what you do. Be better parents. Be better spouses. Be better friends. Be better evangelists. As Horton goes on to say, The heart of most religions is good advice, good techniques, good programs, good ideas, good support systems.
Other religions, it's do, make, achieve. Do better. Work harder. Be nicer. None of that has to do with the Gospel. Some of those things are in response to the Gospel, but the Gospel is good news about God.
The good news that God justifies the wicked. Thirdly, the third description about the Gospel, so we can figure out 1 Corinthians 9 with liberty, the Gospel is good news. The Gospel is number two, good news about God.
The Gospel is historical. It's objective reality. It has nothing to do with in your heart or how you've received it and how you've translated it. If the Gospel of Christ Jesus, let's not say if, the Gospel of Christ Jesus hinges itself on historical reality.
What other religion caves in if we find out their religious leader was a fake, didn't live at all? Could Buddhism still go on merrily along its way if we find no leader for Buddhism? Joseph Smith with Mormonism.
Could that system continue on? And the answer is yes, but we need a historical verity that Jesus Christ died on the cross. It was in history. He really did die on the cross. And then He appeared. He died, He was buried, He was raised.
Verse 15 says He appeared. Verse 6, He appeared. Verse 7, He appeared. Last of all, verse 8, He appeared to Paul. The Gospel is historical. It's not subjective mysticism. I felt God. I experienced God.
You may have experienced God in terms of repentance and the joy that comes along with it, but that's not the Gospel. That's not news. That's not good news about what happened at Calvary. Number four, the Gospel is, the fourth description, theological.
It's historical, yes, but it's theological. 30 ,000 other Jews die. Why don't we look to one of them for our salvation? Well, there's theology involved. Look at verse 3 again. I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for His own sins.
I would expect more people to look up for that one, but you're probably seeing it if it's in your footnote. Implying Jesus didn't die for His own sins. Wages of sin is death, and if you sin, you surely die.
He's not dying for His sins. He's dying for our sins. This is substitutionary atonement. Paul loves to talk about it. Romans 5, Romans 8, Galatians 1, which I read this morning. Ephesians 5, Titus 2. On behalf of.
Huper. Substitute. On behalf of. On account of. In our place. In our stead. Meaning we were sinful and Christ was sinless, and Jesus as our representative substitute met the demands of the divine law and appeased God's wrath completely.
Pretty amazing to think God didn't have to save anybody. That's part of the good news, that even though He didn't have to save anyone, He did, and He did only through Him. Why the burial here? Why the burial connected to death and resurrection?
The finality of Christ's death. Dark for three hours, the darkness for three hours at Calvary. God punishing Jesus in our place. By the way, if you look at the tense there, for He was raised in verse 4.
There's different tenses in the Greek language. The death and burial use a past tense. Dead. Buried. Seems right. Seems good. But the word for raised, He could say was raised, past tense. Dead, yes, in time, past tense.
Buried, yes, in time, past tense. Raised, yes, He was raised on the third day, past tense. But He doesn't use a past tense. He uses a tense that means He's raised from the dead, and He stands now as raised.
It's a perfect tense. He's always the raised one, so much so you can go to Revelation chapter 5, and you see a lamb that's slaughtered, but He's doing what? Raised from the dead. By the way, if Jesus wasn't raised from the dead, your marriage and your best life now and all that other stuff is irrelevant.
You know one of the neat things about this theology? It's passed down. There's continuity. Why does He say, appeared in verse 5 to Cephas, then to the 12, then more to the 500 at one time? Most of whom remain until now.
Twenty-some years earlier, there's the resurrection, and Paul establishes a continuity, meaning that there are some people who are alive now when Jesus was raised from the dead, and maybe some saw the resurrected Jesus.
As we're going through this, where are we in the middle of it? We're only the people that receive the gospel. We aren't the gospel. By the way, you should already start yourself thinking. If you're going down to the common, and you're telling everybody to repent and believe and to trust and to follow and to stop it and to start it, that's good.
If you're preaching the gospel first, the gospel isn't stop, start, do, begin, quit it, how could you repent, believe? I think I can make some money off a track like that. The gospel is what Jesus did.
Ad Calvary is a theological issue, is a historical issue. It's all about God. And this news demands a response. But the response isn't the gospel. The good news is what Jesus has done. No wonder Spurgeon said, the gospel's done, done, done, not do, do, do.
Of course we respond. I'm just going to give you one more and we'll get back into 1 Corinthians chapter 9. And here's the good news, by the way. It'll probably be five years before we get to chapter 15 anyway.
You'll have already forgotten today's sermon on 1 Corinthians 15. When we get there, you'll think it's all fresh and new. Wow, I've never heard that truth before. There is one person here that has their eyes closed and I think they're sleeping, but I won't tell you who.
The gospel number five is scriptural. It's biblical. What I mean here is it's nothing new. Look at how many times does it say in this section, according to the scriptures, according to the scriptures.
At the end of verse 3, in accordance with the scriptures, Old Testament is what he was talking about. And then in verse 4 of chapter 15, in accordance with the scriptures. In accordance with the scripture is just theological shorthand for the death of Christ, his life, death, burial, resurrection.
It's theological shorthand for God's determined purpose for Christ. Acts 2, Acts 4. When Paul uses scriptures, do you see that in accordance with the scriptures? He's talking generally. The scriptures in general talk about that.
If he would say according to the scripture, Isaiah 53, 4, it's something specific. So when Paul uses a singular, he's honing in. It is written, this verse. But when he says according to the scriptures, when he talks about Moses, the law, the writings, prophets, the Psalms, however you want to parse up the Old Testament, from Genesis to 2 Chronicles in the Jewish canon.
Our canon, from Genesis to Malachi. It all talks about the death, burial, and resurrection. It leads up to it. No wonder Jesus in Luke 24 can say what? This Old Testament speaks of me. Now tradition said that Psalm 16 and Psalm 110 were combined to talk about Messianic resurrection.
But I think it's easier than that. I think it's easier than that. The general tenor of the Old Testament scriptures taught the death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah. It taught categories like sacrifice, atonement, suffering, victory over death.
So let's turn our Bibles back to 1 Corinthians 9. Now we know what the gospel is. It's going to help us as we try to be motivated like Paul to have the priority of the gospel. The gospel has nothing to do with us.
It is the gospel of good news, what Jesus did and what he did alone, planned by the triune God, effectuated by the triune God, and it demands a response. But the response isn't the gospel. The gospel is...
I could say it this way. How about this? When I was in theological seminary... I feel so old when I say that. When I was in theological seminary, I started theological training in 1991. I am old. By the way, there's a myth that goes around the church, and that's that I'm middle-aged.
Middle-aged, according to the Bible, 70 is how long you're to live unless you have strength. And 70 divided by 2, I don't have a little HP calculator, but it's 35 years old. I am not middle-aged. I am way past it.
Middle-aged. Don't we do things like that just to make ourselves not feel as old? I'm just middle-aged, 50s, 60s. But when I was in theological seminary, there was a fight going on, and we wanted to tell people, repent and believe, because some people were non-lordship, and they were saying, you know what?
Repentance isn't part of the gospel. And I would say, yes, it is. You've got to tell people to repent. Peter said, repent. Paul said, repent. Jesus said, repent. John the Baptist said, repent. You've got to tell people to repent.
But I was wrong in saying repentance is part of the gospel, because the gospel is good news about what God alone has done. And I would have been right if I would have said, and it demands a response. And the response demanded by God is, recognition of sin, admission of sin, confession of sin, repentance of sin, forsaking sin, belief, assent, volitional thinking about God that confirms what He's done.
So when people say, well, you know what the gospel is in 1 Corinthians 15? That is the gospel. It's true. But the response of the gospel is, repent and believe. So now back here in chapter 9 of 1 Corinthians, Paul was motivated by this gospel that was outside of him, that was good news by God, happened historically, was a theological verity.
Could there be anything less important for Paul? No. And this is what got him up in the morning, and this is why he served the way he did. So let me give you some charges from 1 Corinthians chapter 9.
I'll give you three and then we'll finish. Three charges from the scripture, seeing Paul's motivation was the gospel. Charge number one, since Paul's motivation was the gospel, never let money, things, or possessions get in the way of your gospel ministry.
If it's all about God's gospel, then don't get caught up in recognition, fame, applause, for you pastors out there, money, success. If you're in Oana Ministries, you're VBS, you teach Sunday school to the five-year-old kids, you have one priority.
And the priority is not, well, I'd like to get recognized, and I want applause, I want people to say, attaboy. Hopefully we'll try to encourage you. But Paul's motivation was the gospel, and specifically Paul's motivation was not money.
Let's take a look at the passage in verse 15. With great humility and service like his master in Philippians 2, Paul said, But I have made no use of any of these rights, which was the right to be paid for his work, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision.
By the way, I'm not trying to secretly, securitously try to get that now. I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. So the Greek language is this, I, emphatic I. He could say I, but in the Greek it's like I myself.
Compared to all these other charlatans who are in it for the money, I'm not in it for the money. Look back at verse 12. If others share this rightful claim on you, do we not even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
Big picture, liberty to do all kinds of things in Christ, but limited by love and limited by the gospel. And Paul says, I could charge you, but I don't. Paul would occasionally receive gifts from churches.
Philippi would later send him things. But while he was there at Corinth, the culture with the fake apostles wanting money, money, money. You know what, if they had a TV station back in those days, it would be set to TBN.
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. Send Jesus your money, and here's my address. You want to know what a false teacher does? I'll tell you what a false teacher is motivated by. Power, sex, and money. Every single time it's one of those three things, are all of them.
Paul says, I don't want you to reimburse me. That's not why I'm writing now. I'd rather die. And the way he says it, he starts saying something in Greek, but he doesn't finish the sentence, and then he kind of just changes it.
It would be better for me to die then. No one will make my boast of mine an empty. He doesn't even finish his sentence because he's convicted. It's emotional for Paul. It's a grammatical break. Better to die.
Let's read in 2 Peter, don't turn there, but false prophets he's talking about. It says in verse 3 of chapter 2,. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. They're in it for the money.
Paul says, I've got the gospel for free. I proclaim it for free. Because I want to boast. This is good boasting. This is Christian boasting. I've received great grace from God and I want to tell people about it.
Tell people about Him. So this is good for us to ask the question, what's our motivation? Fame, fortune, success, prestige, people noticing? Well, what about this? If I were you, here's what I'd be thinking.
Then Mike, why do you take a paycheck? Well, here's my answer. Let's pray. Jesus has already said, A labor is worthy of his wages. Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter 5, Elders who teach the word are worthy of what?
Double financial honor. He's not contradicting himself. But for Paul the apostle at Corinth, he had the freedom to say, you should pay my bills so I can be about the word of God. But he says in this particular case, I can say no to my freedom because of the gospel.
Because the way you'll hear me is wrong because of what these false teachers have done. Paul received material support from, in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 it talks about it, Philippians chapter 2, Philippians chapter 4.
But he usually received it from a different geographical location. So if he was over at Philippi, he usually didn't get money from the Philippians at the time. It's when he went on his journey, then they sent him money.
It wasn't wrong to take money. And by the way, if you want to be in gospel ministry because you can't work now, and you can't keep a job now, and every end now is dead in terms of your vocation, you think I'm going to get into gospel ministry for the money, I have news for you.
A, that's the wrong motivation. And most congregations aren't like this one, paying their pastors well. When I first got saved, I was so glad to be saved. I didn't care. I didn't do it for the money. I'm telling you, the first time you get done preaching at a church and some guy comes up to you and he goes like this.
Now I train the guys. You go to church and you preach, some guy hands you the money, you just say, oh, thank you very much. You walk away. People gave me money to preach the gospel. I tell you this with all honesty because it's the glory to God.
If I get fired from here, or I move on, or whatever happens to me, we go belly up and bankrupt, I'm not going to stop preaching. I didn't start it for the money. I'm glad you pay my bill so I don't have to work like I did back at school 60 hours a week and still figure out how to get a good sermon to the people.
But I'm not in it for the money. If a pastor is in it for the money, they need to be fired pronto. I never looked for it. I never sought for it. You should know how much Kim and I decreased our salary by coming here.
That was an interesting day. But God provides. It's not wrong for pastors to take money. It was wrong for Paul. Let me give you the second charge, learning from Paul's example, of top priority is the gospel.
Since the gospel is top priority, nothing else should get in the way, including money. Secondly, like Paul, all Christians are responsible to proclaim the gospel of grace. I think we can learn that from Paul.
Paul said, look at me, imitate me. Of course, as he imitates Christ, but we can look at Paul too. Paul says it's all about the gospel. I think that's fair for us because I could easily go to Matthew 28.
But look what Paul said, verse 16. If I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. It's a good screensaver verse for up-and-coming preachers.
By divine conscription, I have to preach. Remember Christ's words to Paul on the Damascus Road. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to these things which you have seen me, and to those in which I will appear to you.
He says, I've got a necessity. I've got a constraint. And if I don't do it, I'm going to get chastened. Woe! This reminds me of the language in Jeremiah. You read the prophets of the Old Testament, and read what they say, and then also try to read what they feel.
Conscription, heavy hand, I've got to do this or else. Listen, Jeremiah 20. If I say I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name, there is in my heart, as it were, a burning fire shut up in my bones.
And I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. You tell me not to talk about Jesus, I can't stop it. He's free, but he's not free not to preach. Not just boasting, it's woe if I don't. And every person who's called into gospel ministry must proclaim the gospel.
Every Christian must proclaim the gospel. You aren't the gospel, you proclaim the gospel. And the good news is when people like it or they don't like it, duty discharged. Paul said, I don't have a choice in the matter whether I preach the gospel or not.
Because he's going to lead up to, the only choice I had was, do I get paid or don't I get paid? My choice isn't do I preach or not, my choice is do I get paid or don't I? Paul was called to the ministry.
He didn't choose it himself, it was chosen for him. Jonah, forced to preach to the Ninevites. Moses, forced to preach to Pharaoh. A debt. And you, Christian, have the privilege to preach the gospel. By the way, just pastorally, when's the last time you preached the gospel to someone?
Evangelistically. Maybe at home, maybe someplace else. Do you see people walking around like I do? I've seen zombie movies before when I was a kid, not any lately. I never watch TV now. But I see people walking around.
And they are aimless. They are purposeless. They are just stuck in the world. And I begin to think, you know what, Lord? Give me opportunities to preach the gospel to people today. And when the Lord gives me opportunity, and I get done preaching, do you know how I feel?
I'll tell you how I feel for you young people, so you can identify. I'm jacked up, is how I feel. I've got to preach the gospel. I don't care, well, I do care if they repent and believe. But that's not my main focus.
My focus is, God is glorified when you tell people about the gospel. God is glorified. Never go out and say, well, you know, we went down to downtown Worcester today. We preached the gospel. And then don't be the one who says, how many people got down on their knee in the cement and asked Jesus into their heart, how many did it?
No. Did you get to preach the gospel today? Yes. So begin to pray this prayer. Lord, would you give me a weak and needy sinner who's not very articulate, not very gifted, I don't have seminary training, but would you help me figure out a way, give me opportunities to preach the gospel today?
And then once you give me the opportunity, would you help me to do it and not just flounder? That would be a good prayer. I think God would bless that. And number three and finally, lessons from Paul's example of self-sacrifice for the priority of the gospel.
One, never let anything else get in the way, including money. Two, proclaim the gospel. Three, like Paul, ministry to the Lord should not be done grudgingly or against your will. In other words, whatever you eat, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Don't do things grudgingly. What does Paul say in verse 17? For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I'm still entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my reward?
That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge so as to make full use of my rights in the gospel. Now Paul switches to the language of slavery. Paul says, you know what, if I could determine whether I preach or not, then I could get a reward for that.
But I can't determine that. That's already been determined for me. I'm a steward. I'm a slave. It's God's call, God's sovereign choice, not my own. I have a commission as Christ's slave. It's not my own choice.
My only choice is, happily and ungrudgingly, I preach for free. I'm just an unprofitable servant, using the language of Luke 17. Slaves have a task imposed on them. Slaves don't get rewards for what they're supposed to do.
Paul says it's not voluntary. I'm not entitled to a reward for preaching the gospel. I just want to preach it. If you owned a slave back in the Bible day, you would not see that slave trying to fish for a compliment or expecting to be thanked.
Paul says it's obligatory. I'm commanded to preach the gospel with my whole heart. But I don't have a command that says, I have to take your money. So I have to preach, but I don't have to take your money.
That's where I'll get the reward. And for us, when it comes to gospel ministry, listen to what John Calvin said, whenever God has demanded something from us, we are deceiving ourselves if we imagine that we are fulfilling it properly when we do so grudgingly.
For the Lord expects His servants to be eager so as to take pleasure in obeying Him and demonstrate their cheerfulness by acting without hesitation. In short, Paul means that the only way in which he would do justice to his calling would be by doing his duty with willingness and unbounded eagerness.
For those of you that serve in the nursery, set up chairs, working on the new property, behind the scenes administratively, or whatever else you do, do you do it with unbounded eagerness? And if you don't, A, we have a great substitute who always did his Father's will with unbounded eagerness.
And B, it's not too late to start. Today's the day. God, in light of who you are and what you've done, and I've had the gospel preached to me, and you've granted me faith and repentance, and now I want to be an eager server.
Think about kids. Delayed obedience is what? Disobedience. Ungrudging disobedience, well, ungrudging disobedience is doubly bad, but ungrudging obedience, I still can make my kids obey, because I'm bigger.
But I like it when they say, Daddy, I want to obey. They don't even like what I've asked them to do, but they want to do it. And if a kid could do that for parents, we're called to preach the gospel. We're called to serve.
Friends, if you're a Christian, you need to be a member of this church and have a ministry. You need to say to yourself, in light of that, I have to love other people. That's not the gospel, love your neighbor.
But if you've been affected by and infected by the gospel, you'll love other people. I constantly am amazed by the 20 of the people in the church who do all the work, and I'm thankful for you. Very, very encouraged.
I came here late last night, and there were guys setting up the chairs, picking stuff up. They weren't even being mean. They were being happy. Playing games around the Iwana circle while they're doing stuff.
Well, not quite. But then I also wonder, there's the 20 that does the work, but the 80 that don't do the work. I'm surprised they're not knocking on my door saying, I need to serve. I need to do something.
I can't control myself. I've lived for myself my entire life, and now God has had the gospel preached to me. I've been granted eternal life, forgiveness of sins, union with Christ, justification of my faith alone.
I'm adopted into God's kingdom, and I can't stand it. I'm going to serve the Lord. But that hardly ever happens until this week. For those of you that are serving, thank you for having the gospel shine in your life.
Am I allowed to say that, if the gospel is only good news? Paul knew he was going to get a reward eventually, but here his focus is on preaching like a servant, like a slave. Thank you, Father, for the time we've had in Your Word.
Thank you for the gospel of Christ Jesus. Free grace. Sovereign grace. Distinguishing grace. Grace greater than all our sins. Father, I pray that You would use Your grace in the gospel to motivate people, that they would reflect upon what Your Son has done in Christ Jesus 2 ,000 years ago, and they'd have an eager heart, a thankful heart, a forgiving heart.
This would be a time where, at Bethlehem Bible Church, it wouldn't be when people would see us and they'd see the gospel, but they'd see how the gospel can change people. Would You do that for Bethlehem Bible Church?
No building, building, selling this building, not selling this building. None of that matters. Father, would You help us see the gospel again clearly, the love of God demonstrated and continuing to be demonstrated before our very eyes in Scripture, and we would be different.
We need Your help to do that. In Jesus' name, Amen.