Winning Is Everything - [1 Corinthians 9:19-27]

It was a while ago I met with the ushers, and I wanted to help them learn how to ush. And I wanted them to know their duties, that it's an important ministry.

And I said to the ushers something that got me kind of a funny look. I said to the ushers, here's how you usher.

Here's how you treat people. Here's how you act around other people. I want you to act just like me around other people.

That's how you do it. They looked at me almost like, this is blasphemous. You didn't say, act like Jesus.

You didn't even maybe stoop a little bit and say, act like Paul. But the way we're supposed to deal with people as ushers, is we're supposed to act like Mike does, the pastor.

They just looked at me like you're looking at me right now. Sometimes in New England we're gruff, and we're grumpy, and we're not personable.

And so when I meet people, I want to show them, you know, I'm glad you're here. Welcome. Because I know what

I'm going to do later. I'm going to get up in the pulpit and I'm going to smack you. But I'm just trying to be nice. And I want to be open.

I want to convey, even with my face and with my personality, that I love you. So I said, ushers, that's what

I want you to do. I want you to think of the way I do it, instead of being stoic and staid and New England -y.

I wonder if you could look at another Christian and say, when it comes to prayer, I want you to pray like I do.

When it comes to evangelism, could you look at another Christian and say, here's how you evangelize. Watch the way

I do it, and therefore that's the way you do it. When it comes to hospitality or fellowship, could you look at another

Christian and say, if you want to really learn what to do, you watch me. Listen to what

D .A. Carson said. Do you ever say to a young Christian, do you want to know what Christianity is like?

Watch me. And then Carson said, if you never do that, you are unbiblical.

Come I'll show you how to do family devotions. Come I'll show you how to study the Bible. Come let me take you through some of the fundamentals of the faith.

Let me show you how to be a Christian husband and father, wife or mother. And then maybe when you're older, let me show you how to die.

Watch me. Is this what we're supposed to do? Are we ever to look at another person and say, we should imitate their faith, imitate their conduct, act like them?

Aren't we supposed to really look to Christ Jesus? Follow a man?

I mean, even Paul was sinful. Yet if we turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 9, let's open up our

Bibles there. We're going to see that Paul says, follow me. Watch what I do. Act like I do when it comes to the

Christian faith. He's already said in chapter 4, imitate my faith. Paul regularly tells people to watch him and to learn from him.

Become imitators of me is Paul's regular chorus. Not pointing to himself, of course, but ultimately to Christ Jesus.

That is the Christian faith. You see someone who knows more than you do and you watch them, you follow them.

You see how they do things in light of how God has saved them. You see their example and then you walk in their footsteps.

That's just like the Old Testament days of here's the rabbi and the rabbi was to be followed. Literally, walking behind the rabbi, watching and doing.

And so in this passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul is saying this. Here's what I do, Corinth.

Do what I do. Watch me. Of course, he's not saying when I sin, you sin. When I act unrighteously, you act unrighteously.

But no, when I follow what God has told me to do in light of the gospel, you watch me.

You follow me. And as we were singing, by the way, Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. I just kept thinking to myself, what a scoundrel

I was. What a sinner I was. What a reprobate I was.

But Jesus paid it all. Can you imagine God cleansing us from every sin? I used to tuck my kids into bed every night when they were little.

I would sing that song to them. Jesus paid it all. All to them I owe. They thought I was a great singer, by the way.

They loved my voice in those days. Jesus paid it all. And now it's like, Dad, do you have your microphone on? Jesus paid it all.

And I watch even in the news, man standing before the judge. Jury, do you have your verdict?

Yes, we do. All rise. And you can just watch the person's face as they hear from the judge the sentence,

Guilty. Can you imagine before God, our holy creator, we stand guilty, condemned.

We have earned hell and punishment. Yet based on Jesus Christ, we don't get what we deserve.

We get adoption. We get sonship. We get forgiveness. We get redemption. We get reconciliation.

We have it all in Christ Jesus. And because of that, God says through Paul, I want you to line yourself up and act appropriately.

Conduct befitting an officer. Or you might say to one of your kids, I want you to act like an

Ebendroth. This is who you are. This is what the family name means. So act in light of who you are.

Do you call yourself a Christian? How do you act? And here in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, we're in verses 19 through 23.

We just go chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and on occasion, word by word.

There was a Puritan preacher up in New England. I think he was in Maine.

And I think he preached for 43 years. He started with Isaiah 1 .1. And when he died, he was in chapter 8 of the same book,

Isaiah. So if you think I go slowly, this is speed of light compared to that.

Paul is writing to the church of Corinthians. He wrote them four letters. The first one wasn't inspired.

The second one was. And we call it 1 Corinthians. And he's dealing with issues in the church.

And here's the issue. With Jews in the church and Gentiles in the church, they're different.

Different social backgrounds, different ethnic backgrounds, different religious backgrounds. And when you put a bunch of Christians together, how do they all get along?

How do they act? Do they say, the strong ones, measure up to the weak, stop doing that, do that.

What do they do? If you're a weak Christian, you're a brand new Christian, who do you look to to follow?

How do you get everybody to get along? And here's Paul's point. Paul's point is, we have the liberty in Christ Jesus to do a lot of things.

But we never have the liberty to treat people without love. And to somehow think that the gospel isn't the priority.

Gospel driven priority? Loving other people. Then we'll get to your liberties. And so that's what

Paul is saying in chapter 8, 9, and 10. The liberty of a Christian. And he says, by the way, I have liberty to have you pay for me to be an apostle and teach you the

Bible. But I said no to it. I've self -sacrificed for you. And he's trying to get the

Corinthians to say, hmm, maybe we should be self -sacrificial as well.

Let's look at verses 15 to 18 first. Because in this whole section from 15 to 27,

Paul is talking about Christian liberty and the gospel and love. And he says first in verses 15 through 18, that the top priority of a

Christian isn't his liberty, but it's the gospel. Let me read these verses so you can catch up what we did last week.

Your top priority isn't flexing the muscles of your liberty. It's the gospel.

Verses 15 to 18. But I have made no use of any of these rights to get money for the gospel's sake.

Nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. This is not a support letter for short -term's missions.

Asking for prayer, but really wanting money. 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 don't preach the gospel. In other words, I've been charged to preach the gospel. How can

I be boasting for something that I'm told to do? So Paul says, I'm going to boast in something else. I'm going to boast that I could get money, but I don't.

Verse 17. 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 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.

So for you, I said last week, congregation, that everything that should drive you is the gospel. First importance, the priority of the gospel.

And remember, the gospel isn't be good. The gospel's not stop that. The gospel's not be nice.

The gospel's not no elbows on the table. The gospel is clearly encapsulated in 1

Corinthians 15. That the Messiah, who did not sin, died for our sins, according to the

Scriptures. And that He was raised on which day? The third day, according to the

Scriptures. That in time, 2 ,000 years ago, the Messiah died as a representative substitutionary sacrifice.

And that's what we're about too, the gospel. You can be a

Democrat or Republican, pro -choice, pro -life, male, female, behind bars free.

And if you're not a Christian, and Christ has not paid for your sins, you're going to hell.

And so we're about the gospel. We're not about social change. We're about the gospel. But Paul goes further, and in verses 19 through 23, he says, my top priority is winning people.

He says, I'm a soul winner. If the gospel's important, then it should flesh itself out in my life, and I want to be about winning souls.

Now, I have to make a public confession right here. It's my confession. I only do it once a year, so here it is. I used to despise it when people said,

I'm a soul winner. Meet some kind of Armenian, some kind of fundamentalist somebody.

I was glad they wanted to tell people about, you can have all your sins forgiven in Christ Jesus. God can count your sins against Christ Jesus if you'll look to the risen

Savior by faith alone. I was happy for that, but I didn't like their terminology. I win souls.

Like, I have the power to win a soul? No, no, you don't have the power to win a soul. God wins souls.

Yet, you know what? Paul says here, lots of times, that he wins souls.

That he desires to win souls. And it's just shorthand to say that God has the gospel preached through sinful people.

Opens their eyes, and Paul calls that here soul winning. So, I repent in dust and ashes.

If you tell me you're a soul winner, and you mean by that you save people, I'll still look at you like I used to look at other people.

With disdain. With a long brow. But if you mean you want to preach the gospel to other people so God wins the people through you, and therefore you call yourself a soul winner, he that wins souls is what?

Wise. Then I'll be happy. And this is the... Michael, where are you going? Okay, sorry.

Alright. It's the last time you'll do that. Soul winning is not an unbiblical term as long as you think about it the way

Paul does. And that is, Lord, I haven't earned anything.

I can't save anybody. I can't regenerate anybody. I can't forgive people's sins. I have my own sins to pay for.

Yet God has paid for my sins, and I want other people to be redeemed. I want other people to be free from their sin.

I just was talking to Luke, and can you imagine on the great white throne judgment, standing before God, and only guilty people go there.

Forgiving people don't enter that throne room of God. Just imagine that.

We want liberty. We want freedom. We want people not to be enslaved to their sins. We want forgiveness for them.

And when we preach the gospel to them, and God saves them, Paul calls that winning them for the gospel.

So let's read through these verses to talk a little bit about soul winning. And you'll see that Paul uses this, even though in Galatians 2,

Paul had already said, it's all by the grace of God. It's all by Christ's work alone at Calvary that people save as the

Spirit of God applies it. Yet he talks this way in this theological shorthand, if you will. Chapter 9, verse 19 through 23, see how many times you hear the word, win our save.

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them to the

Jews. I became as a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law,

I became as one under the law, though not myself being under the law, that I might win those under the law.

To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ.

I might win those outside the law. To the weak, I became weak, that I might win the weak.

I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

I do it all for the sake of the Gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

Now you really have two options. Option one is to say Paul was sinning by saying he could win people when salvation is from the

Lord. Or you could say in this context, the majority of these words, win, is just a way of saying things from the human perspective.

As Paul preached the Gospel and God converted them, you might say Paul was the instrument of conversion.

Who said these quotes? The same man said all these. If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?

Winning isn't everything, but the will to win is everything. Winning isn't everything.

It's the only thing. Winning is habit, unfortunately. So is losing.

Winning is not everything, but wanting to win is. Who said those things? Vince Lombardi.

But you know what? Paul would say, I'm all about winning people for the

Gospel. So what do we do for an outline today? I guess

I could call today's sermon, Just Win Baby. If you're a Raiders fan, I don't know.

I don't think we have too many Raider fans here, but you never know. We're going to look at six purpose clauses.

You go, great. Another lesson in grammar. Here's what Paul does. Lots of times.

In order that I might win. In order that I might win. In order that I might win. In order that I might win. In order that I might win. In order that I might win.

In order that I might save. In order that I might share in the blessings. Six times. It's all around this purpose. I've got a purpose, and that is to win people over to the

Gospel. With one exception, he says, to win the weak over to the strong point. I'm just going to give you these six.

If you want to take notes, six times Paul has a purpose to win other people over. To have something accomplished.

It's purpose driven. I've got a purpose in life. Here's my purpose. Since you know the Gospel, Bethlehem Bible Church, part of the purpose of your life is to extol the glory of God in the way you live.

And at the very top, or close to the very top, of the reason why you live is that you might preach the

Gospel so God converts them. And if you want to call it theological shorthand, I won them over.

Don't do it here at the church. Just kidding. But see, I feel like I want to say that because it's win, win, win.

And we know God saves. God alone. I have no tick marks in the front of this

Bible how many people I led to the Lord. But maybe I should start. Win, win, win.

Don't you love the Scriptures? This is one of these sermons for Bethlehem Bible Church that everybody's going like this.

Especially all those, you know, the Reformed types are going like this. This is a sermon that makes you want to crack your own neck.

There it goes right there. Alright, I feel better. By the way, for 14 years I've desired that a chiropractor would get saved and come to this church.

When I first became a pastor, I wanted chiropractors and policemen. We've got policemen here.

Would somebody evangelize and win over one of your chiropractors so I could get adjusted before I preach?

I had a Roman Catholic chiropractor for about 14 years and I couldn't win him, so I just switched over to another atheistic one.

Maybe I can win him. Okay, so, if you're thinking about outlines,

I'm just letting the outline of the text be the outline. And here's the outline. If you don't want to know what a purpose clause is, just think,

Paul has a goal. And for him, that goal is to win people over. So let me give you six illustrations of how

Paul wins people over with a purpose. Single -minded devotion. If you don't aim for anything, you'll be sure to hit it.

Paul was about the Gospel. He wasn't about feeding the poor primarily. He was glad to do it.

And even in Galatians, he was reminded by some of the other leaders, don't forget about the poor. But in the priority of first importance, the

Gospel, and then it's applied to people's lives by the Spirit of God through Gospel preaching.

Let me just try to bend your mind a little bit more before we start. You are saved by more than the

Gospel. But you're never saved by anything less than the Gospel. What do

I mean by that? The Gospel plus? Saved by more than the Gospel?

Yes. If there's an unbeliever here in this room today, and I tell you, and I've already told you what the Gospel is, are you guaranteed to become saved?

No, because the Holy Spirit has to apply the Gospel to your life. You don't just get saved by hearing the

Gospel, you get saved by the Spirit of God sovereignly, freely, applying the

Gospel to your life, correct? So you're never saved by less than the Gospel, but you're saved by more than the

Gospel, and that is the Spirit of God applying the Gospel to your life. So here's what

Paul says in v. 15 -18. The Gospel is everything. And now

Paul says in v. 19 -23 that I know by Scripture that the way

God applies the Gospel through the Holy Spirit is through a preacher, is through an evangelist.

So if everything's about the Gospel, I know that I have to do my responsibility and preach the

Gospel, and when God's pleased to open minds, He does. Let me just give you six illustrations of Paul's purpose for life, and it's mainly evangelistic.

The first one is found in v. 19 that I might win more of them. In order to win them.

By the way, if you ever hear somebody say it's a henna clause, what's a henna clause? It's not

Santa Claus. It's a henna clause. H -I -N -N -A. And it's just a Greek word that means purpose.

In order that. Here's what I'm shooting for. Sometimes you'll hear preachers on TV say that.

Not TV, sorry, radio. Maybe satellite TV. V. 19 For though I am free from all, remember

Paul was born free, Roman citizen. Some people had to pay for it. Paul was born a free citizen.

Though I am free from all, and who does this? We don't have a lot of people in America doing this today.

I made myself a slave or a servant to all that I might win more of them. And Paul now is just making a general statement.

He's going to go deeper, but he's making a general statement. I live for other people. I'm free.

I don't have to bow to any particular person, but I'm going to make myself a slave because of the

Gospel and because I want to win people over. If you've made yourself a slave to someone, no wonder

Paul didn't mind working with his hands. Remember the Corinthians teachers? You know what? We don't want to work with our hands at all because if you work with your hands, your blue collar, you're low life.

This happens even in India today. Low on the caste system. Paul says, by the way, I made myself a slave, so I don't have any problem working.

No qualms about that. Listen to these words of Jesus and you'll think about Paul's verse right here.

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.

And whoever wants to be first must be your slave. Matthew 20. And Paul says,

I do it to win people. Same word used for wives who are saved winning over husbands who are lost.

1 Peter 3. Just let me read you the verse. Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives.

Paul's not bragging that he saves people. It's just a humble word that says, through my desire to serve other people,

I have a goal and I want people to be saved. And you can ask yourself quickly that question. When you see people at work, at home, neighbors, friends,

I don't care when you see a sports star, do you think this way? Do you know what? I just wish

God would save them. God have mercy on them. You're a God who saves. I want mercy for them.

That's what Paul would do. Win here is a technical missionary term. I want them to be saved.

Paul's got an intentional approach to ministry. Salvation. I want people saved.

Remember Paul in Romans 9? I wish I could be damned if some of my

Israelites and the Israelites could be saved. So Paul says,

I've got flexibility. I'm trying to be flexible. And you're going to see this fleshed out. Whatever culture you're in, you want to be flexible because the gospel's at stake.

I'll just give you a quick illustration that I thought was apropos for this.

I'm in India and I preach at a conference and a lady came up to me and she said, would you please come and preach at our church on Sunday?

I said, I'd be glad to, but I'm here under the authority of Chris Williams, Sammy's father, and as long as he's fine with it,

I'll be fine with it. So I talked to Chris and he said, go and preach the gospel because it's a liberal,

Methodist, dead, mainline church. Who knows if even the leadership there is saved.

And so I said, what do I wear? Do I wear a suit or whatever? Yes, wear a suit. I remember that morning too because I got up in the morning and it was in the days

I still had hair and the shower was broken, the electricity's out, hooked up to the shower and I remember pouring

Bisleri water on my head like Evian water on my head to get my hair slicked back and trying to shave in the dark.

Looked at myself at the church and I thought, whoa. So when

I got there, some ladies in leadership, can we please go to the back and pray? Yes. She said, you know,

I have a request for all our speakers. Underneath that pulpit area, it's holy ground.

Right there where you preach, that's holy ground. So you're not allowed to wear your shoes. So what would

I do? I thought, I wasn't saying, is it right for a woman to be a pastor? Does she have authority over me?

All these questions. Is it okay? What's so sanctified about that carpet area? But I thought,

I've got a goal and my goal is I want to win these people. If in fact Chris is right that most of them don't even know what the gospel is and they're not saved,

I have a goal. What would I do? Sorry, you know, where are your credentials for being a pastor in light of 1 Timothy chapter 2 and following?

By the way, there's no such thing as sacred space. I am the sacred space. We are the sacred spaces.

There's no such difference as secular and sacred and all that. I didn't do any of that. You know what I did? I got loafers.

No, just kidding. I took my shoes off. And when it's time for me to preach, I took my shoes off and I'll never forget it to this day because as I walked up to the holy ground,

I'd never been on holy ground before. I didn't know I was going to float or something. Whoa, whoa.

I stood there and they have all kinds of flowers. It's a poor part of the world, but there's flowers everywhere and they look beautiful.

And somebody had dumped over the vase, the vase, the vase and dumped over on the holy ground.

So now it's holy wet ground and my socks are oozing with the water between my toes and I just think, oh,

I am super sanctified. Man, this is like, you know, good tidings and feet and you know, whoo.

Unless it's a sin, Paul was willing to accommodate himself to Jew or Gentile or anybody else because he had a goal.

He had a goal and we are Westerners, most of us here, Anglos and we're around other people.

We have to remember, it's not about who we are, what we look like, the color of our skin. This is the way this culture does it.

I was privileged to be part of the funeral service for Orlando's mother. And it was wonderful to do a service for a

Christian lady and to think here's a lady that loved Christ and the gospel but I also loved to be around a bunch of people who didn't look like me at all.

Actually, they were a bunch of crazy Puerto Ricans is what they were, truth be told. And you know,

I didn't have to act like a Puerto Rican. I just tried to love them and preach the gospel and by the end of the day, they treated me like a crazy

Puerto Rican. It worked out perfectly. And so it wasn't, well, you know what, we

Anglos, you know, don't let them see you cry and don't say anything out loud.

Keep away from my personal space. Big boys don't cry. There's a different culture and different cultures and even in the

Middle East during the time of Jesus, crying and wailing and for Paul, none of that mattered.

He wasn't trying to change the culture. He was trying to get into the culture and preach the gospel so that people might hear and we would say, be one for the

Lord. Charles Spurgeon said, every

Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. All the books about social, cultural, all these issues, it's irrelevant.

We want to be gospel preachers. Spurgeon went on to say, have you no wish for others to be saved?

Then you're not saved yourself. Be sure of that. Well, there's another purpose that Paul has that's really the same purpose.

It's just to a more specified group. Purpose clause 1 was, I might win more of them.

Found in verse 20, we have another one of these things. It's just Paul's purpose for living and ministry and we can follow

Paul. That's why he was writing to the church at Corinth. That's why we can learn from this as well. Verse 20, he wants to win those under the law.

Who's under the law? Jews are under the law. And now he's going to go for Jews and in a minute, he's going to go after Gentiles.

There's two groups of people in this world, Jews and Gentiles. And he's going to have a different approach for both.

Here's his approach for Jews. Verse 20, To the Jews I became as a

Jew in order to win the Jews. To those under the law, same kind of people, they're Jewish, I became as one under the law.

Though not myself being under the law, that I might win those under the law.

Paul is not saying I've got a different gospel and I'm going to be flexible with the gospel. These people don't like sin so I'll cut out sin.

These people don't like the exclusivity of Christ Jesus, I'll cut that out. These people over here don't like supernatural resurrection,

I'll cut that out. Paul didn't have a flexible gospel but he was flexible. So how can Paul...

Was Paul a Jew or a Gentile, by the way? How can Paul a Jew say I'm not going to act like a Jew? He is a

Jew. How could Paul become a Jew? 2

Corinthians says, Are they Hebrew? So am I, Paul said. Are they Israelites? So am I.

Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. How can a Jew become as a

Jew? Well, here's how it happens. Paul says,

Now that I'm a Christian, I'm no longer under Mosaic Law. Mosaic Law, moral, civil, ceremonial, all of Mosaic Law together.

I'm not under it. Because I'm under the law of Christ now. But if I have to go back into a

Jewish culture and do some Jewish things on the Sabbath, go to a Jewish festival, have a

Jewish celebration, I'll even, in Acts 16, circumcise

Timothy. I'll do it. What's the difference, by the way, between circumcising Timothy in Acts 16 and circumcising

Titus in Galatians 2 that Scott read? Well, in Galatians 2, they wanted

Titus circumcised or he couldn't be saved. And Paul says, I've got something for you. It's called a stiff arm to your chin.

I will not do that. That's what Galatians is, a stiff arm to the chin. I won't do it even if Peter does it.

I'm not circumcising Titus because you get saved by grace alone. But over here,

Timothy half -Jewish, if there's a better entree into ministry, has nothing to do with salvation, it just has to do with accessibility,

I will gladly have Timothy circumcised. And what Paul is saying here is

I'm no longer under the Mosaic Law. I'm no longer under Moses.

Paul in Acts 18 made a Nazarite vow which was Mosaic for ministry's sake.

He joined four Nazarites in purification rites in Acts 21. He didn't have to do that, but when you're around Jewish people and you say, you know what?

I'm going to act like them not because of my status, but because I'm free.

I'm not under Moses, but under a certain circumstance, I'll put myself under Moses for ministry's sake.

Paul said, no problem. Notice the text again. To those under Moses, I became as one under the law.

Under Moses. But Paul says, though not being myself under the law.

Christians aren't under Moses any longer. They're under what?

We'll learn in a minute. They're under Christ. The New Testament commands. The New Covenant. But what's the purpose? That I might win those under the law.

The Bible says Christ is the end of the law. Romans 10. Romans 6 says, the believer is not under law, but under grace.

Paul says, though occasionally, even though I'm not under Moses, I'll put myself under Moses for a special celebration, a feast, our circumcision rite.

When it's not salvific, I'll be happy to do that. I'm delivered from Moses. In a couple of Sunday nights, we'll do a whole sermon on what does it mean to be delivered from Moses and not under Mosaic law.

But for now, it's good to realize that Paul was being flexible as a person, but the flexibility wasn't in the gospel.

The gospel never changes. So I can ask you the question again.

When it comes to different people groups and different situations, just how flexible are you? And let me help you with your flexibility.

When you remember eternal hell, for all those who are not born again,

I think it should help your flexibility. Aren't you willing to bend a little bit? I don't mean bend the gospel.

If you do, you need the stiff arm of Galatians 2. But if you're saying, you know, with this culture, with this issue, it's not that big a deal.

Not everything is code red. I can just tuck myself underneath this system right now for a while because it's not over me, but I'll work within the system because hell is real.

I looked up some words that described hell this week. Punishment. Torment. Eternal fire.

Unquenchable fire. Lake of fire. Destruction. Second death.

Outer darkness. Weeping and gnashing of teeth. The pit. The worm.

If the gospel is of first importance, don't we want people to believe the gospel and hear the gospel through us?

So they might be one to Christ and literally one away from eternal damnation.

Friends, every sin that's ever committed in this life will be paid for one way or the other because God's just.

And either Jesus pays for it on Calvary, in your place, on your behalf, or you pay for it yourself forever.

And so Paul looked at people that way. Paul looked at the world like Jew and Gentile, but Paul would also have this kind of view.

Saved or not saved. Believer or unbeliever. One old preacher said, it is labor in the eternal fire of hell.

No ease, no peace, no sleep, no calm, no quiet. Everlasting storm. Eternal hurricane.

Unceasing tempest. In the worst diseases, there are some respites. There is no peace in hell's torment.

You cannot compare the pains of this life with the agonies to be endured hereafter. Could all the misery that ever startled the keepers of our hospitals be conceived?

It could not convey the least idea of the pains of the spirits that are doomed to dwell in eternal fire and everlasting burning.

The memory aghast. Hope and fear. Thoughts and imaginations.

Conscience and judgment. All will be wracked. Every one be stretched on a bed of fire.

Every nerve strained to its utmost. Every vein made a road for the hot feet of pain to travel on.

If you knew how bad hell was, you wouldn't want Adolf Hitler to go. Let alone your neighbor or your daughter or your mom or your spouse.

It's all about the gospel for Paul. And as our example, it should be about the gospel for us too.

Let me give you another purpose clause. This is for the Gentiles. It's found in verse 21. That I might win more as a general statement, verse 19, than the

Jews in verse 20. I want to win them. Now I want to win those outside the law, verse 21. I want to win

Gentiles, people that didn't have the oracles of God, that weren't Israel, that didn't receive the Ten Commandments and the rest of Mosaic Law at Sinai.

To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law. Paul, you're not under law.

You're some antinomian. No, parenthetically he says not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, the

New Testament law that's given for New Covenant believers. I'm not outside of that.

Rejoice always, again I say rejoice. I'm not outside of that, but I'm not under Moses anymore. That I might win those outside the law.

He's talking about Gentiles. And so when Paul's around Gentiles, here's what happened.

He didn't say on Friday night Shabbat, I've got to celebrate Shabbat. It's dark. What did he do?

On certain feast days, he didn't say I've got to keep that feast day or else. Why not? One, because he didn't have to.

He's no longer under Moses. Two, even though he did that around Jews, he didn't do it to gain access to God.

He did it to gain access to them. And three, these Gentiles wouldn't know what

Paul was talking about. He didn't have to do new moons and Sabbath celebrations and food laws.

I've got to eat kosher around you guys. And of course, the

Jewish people, especially the weak Jewish people, the weak Jewish Christians are thinking, what is

Paul doing? And Paul's like, I've got a goal and my goal is to win people. I want to gain those who are under the law.

That's another word for win, to gain. I'm not becoming a pagan to be winning pagans. But I'm not underneath that anymore.

I want to be flexible. Now Paul changes his tune. Let me give you another purpose clause in verse 22a.

This is the fourth one and it's all about winning people. But now he wants to win weak Christians. Everything else, he wants to win people.

For Christianity, now he wants to win people who are weak. And this is almost stemming from the entire argument of chapter 8 and chapter 9.

There are weak Christians who think they're still under Moses and when meat is sacrificed to an idol, they're thinking

Mosaic law and they're thinking it's sacrificed to a real idol. I can't eat it. And Paul's saying, weak

Christian under Moses, you can have me serve you by becoming down to your level but I'm going to try to teach you and win you to a better view.

A strong view. You're no longer under Moses. So what does he say in verse 22?

To the weak, I became weak that I might win the weak.

See, that's what he's after. I want to win them over to a better view. This isn't evangelism. These are weak

Christians thinking they're under Moses. These are weak Jewish Christians thinking they're under Moses and he just says, you know what?

I'm going to just try to win you over to the strong view. There's no such thing as an idol. It's just food.

You can go ahead and eat the meat if you want. I'm going to sacrifice my convictions as I try to love you and win you over.

Galatians 5, it says, for brethren, ye have been called to liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh but love and by love serve one another.

Paul says, with the fifth purpose clause found in verse 22, the rest of verse 22 goes on to say, in a summary fashion,

I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. Within the bounds of God's Word, I am trying to save people as the

Gospel is preached through me. I'm not watering down the Gospel. I'm not soft -pedaling the

Gospel. See, by the way, that's what liberals do with this passage. See, you know what? To people that think self -esteem is really good and it's virtuous, we don't really want to say self -esteem according to 2

Timothy 3 is sinful and we just will water those things down. That is not what Paul is saying.

He never modified the Gospel. Remember chapter 1? This is a scandal to Jews and Gentiles.

Stumbling block. And by the way, a person who accommodates himself without giving up convictions but just ministers to certain people through different mores, through different customs sounds a lot like me to reflect exactly what

Jesus did. Didn't Jesus do that? Didn't Jesus go to the woman at the well in John chapter 4?

Don't talk to women was the culture. Now if it was under Mosaic law, Jesus wouldn't have but there's no

Mosaic law that says that. And so Jesus accommodates himself to culture to win the woman at the well.

He hangs out with sinners and prostitutes which people weren't supposed to do. It sounds exactly like Jesus in Philippians chapter 2.

And then Paul says, we've got to hurry up, in verse 23, the sixth purpose, that I might share with them in its blessings.

I do it all for the sake of the Gospel. That I might share with them in its blessings.

That I might have fellowship. I want to gain other people for the Lord but then

I kind of want to be in on it first fellowship, camaraderie. Paul's not the loser in all this, in evangelism.

He gets to share in the Gospel ministry. People say, well you know what, we're autonomous, independent people.

That's not how Paul thought. That's not how the Middle Eastern people thought. I'm a co -sharer, communion with others.

Jump ahead to chapter 11, verse 1. 11, verse 1. This should make you feel better.

All this imitate me, follow me stuff of Paul. Paul makes it explicit here what he really means.

Be imitators of me as I am of Christ. Jesus surrendered his prerogative and independent exercise of divine rights as he cloaked himself with humanity.

Paul learned that lesson very well. Alright, turn to Mark chapter 10 and then we're going to finish. I'm going to give you an example of this very thing.

Mark chapter 10. This could be a whole sermon. It might just turn out to be. But you're all here.

By the way, I was informed that the place is packed. There's hardly any room over in the overflow. There's just a few seats left up here for the elect people.

Right there. And so I'm going to have to preach a little harder to kind of run some of you guys out.

Church just keeps filling up. What are we going to do? We're going to look at Mark chapter 10 and I just want you to see

Jesus through the eyes of Scripture and say to yourself, you know what? Paul learned from Jesus well.

Paul learned that it's about the Gospel. It's about salvation. It's not about all kinds of other stuff.

It's about self -sacrificial service for others. Paul learned from Jesus. He's the one.

Dick Lucas said, God had only one Son and He made Him an evangelist. And you're going to see a comparison between give me glory and Jesus stooping to serve.

This is just, it gets no better. Mark chapter 10 verse 35.

Let me read some of the first verses. And there's going to be a question in verse 36. I do not want you to forget this question.

What do you want me to do for you? Do not forget that question. You will not know this passage unless you get that question.

Can I tell you one more time? Remember that question. Verse 35.

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to Him and said, Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You.

Kind of a Peter moment, right? And He said to them, What do you want

Me to do for you? They said to Him, Grant us to sit one at Your right hand and one at Your left in Your glory.

Jesus said to them, You do not know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which

I am baptized? And they said to Him, We are able. Jesus said to them,

The cup that I drink, you will drink. And with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.

But to sit at My right hand or at My left is not Mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.

And when the ten heard it, they wish they would have asked the question first, they became indignant with James and John.

And Jesus called them and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the

Gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you must be your slave.

And then the most important verse in the Gospel according to Mark, verse 45, For even the

Son of Man, the exalted Messiah, came not to be served, but to serve and to give

His life as a ransom for many. One commentator said of that verse, every part of it is important.

The supreme example of service, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords giving

Himself voluntarily, sacrificially laying down His own life for a substitutionary ransom for many.

It reminds me of John 13. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

The guilt offering of Jesus Christ. Now if you're not careful, you stop right there.

Let me just help you expand your biblical knowledge and that is keep reading. Don't go for the typical break.

Move on to verse 46 and following and you'll see Jesus do exactly what

He said He was just talking about. Serving other people, loving other people.

No one's too low for Jesus to stoop down and serve. No one's too insignificant.

Here's the only person named by name in Matthew, Mark, or Luke.

To put a little personal touch on it as Jesus the God -man, the eternal

Son of God, stoops low to serve. You boys over here, you want to be exalted?

I'll show you what exalted looks like. I'm going to serve this One that no one else has time for.

And I'll show you that I'm Messiah as I do it. Verse 46, And, see, tied in, they came to Jericho.

And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside.

They're over in Jericho, 15, 18 miles away. Nice climate, warm oasis.

Two times ago, I was there. The only thing I remembered in Jericho was Arafat's Casino. But that wasn't there at this time.

Mark Anthony had given the city to Cleopatra. Fig trees, water, palms.

People said, You know what? If you want to get your blindness cured, go to Jericho because there's all kinds of balsam and water and it's warm.

And maybe some scholars say up to 20 % of the people had eye problems.

Different things that happen at birth. You know, I remember that with my kids. One of the first things they did was put some stuff in their eyes and hear all kinds of people blinded and eye problems.

And they go there to beg. And there's son of Timaeus there begging. And someone's going to stumble upon him who is the epitome of a person making himself a slave for all.

Actually, Matthew says there's two blind people. I don't know. Maybe this one shouted the loudest. And when he heard that it was

Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out. This is a loud cry out, by the way. This is screaming.

This is yelling. This is used of insane people. Have you ever met an insane person screaming? I remember going to places where there's insane people screaming.

This is what women do in childbirth. You're laughing.

Who laughed? This is what Jesus did on the cross.

Screaming. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. That was the best begging He ever did in His life.

Confident of what Jesus could do. And usually, Jesus silences people.

But here the crowd tries to silence this person. Causing a scene, man.

Can't you see He's off to Passover? Son of David's got bigger and better things to do than you. And then in verse 49, as one commentator says, the sun stood still.

S -O -N. And Jesus stopped. And the next few words are going to determine the eternal fate of this blind beggar.

And Jesus stopped. He's stopping to talk to a poor person, a powerless person.

He stops and said,

Call him. And they called the blind man, saying to him... Changed their tune pretty fast.

Take heart. Get up. He's calling you. Here Jesus standing to serve.

Just like when Jesus stands to serve Stephen. Cheer up.

Every other time in the Bible when cheer up is used, it's used by Jesus saying that to other people. Here they say it to this man.

And throwing off his cloak for a fifty, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Eagerly responding.

Had his cloak for a bedroll, threw it away. Don't think he's going to need that anymore. And Jesus said to him,

What was that important question I asked you in verse 36? What was that really important question?

Who knows it? A few do. What do you want me to do for you? See, they're tied together.

You can't read earlier section without this section, because the two tie in. What do you want me to do for you?

I want power. And now, what do you want me to do for you?

And the blind man said, He just wants his ordinary health back.

Rabbi, let me recover my sight. Let me regain my sight.

I think Jesus asked the question to stimulate a good response. And Jesus got exactly what he wanted.

And Jesus gave him a double healing. If you like double anointings, here you go. Here's your double healing.

It's a dopio healing. Kampana. Go your way. Your faith has made you well.

How well? Physical healing and spiritual healing. And immediately he recovered his sight, physical healing, and followed him on the way.

Literally, your faith has saved you. That's the Greek word. Sozo.

It saved you physically, spiritually. The cure was immediate. You didn't need to go to the DCU center and have some false teacher talk to him after he gave him about $55.

The cure was instantaneous, organic, immediate. Jesus didn't have to touch him. He said the word.

And just like in creation of Genesis 1 -1, let there be light, and there was light in his eyes, and then light in his heart.

How great is that? Luke goes on to say, in another account of the same passage, he began following Him and glorifying

God, and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God. It reminds me of the one guy healed.

He went walking and leaping and praising God. I want to just start singing that kid's song right now. He went walking and leaping and praising

God. Maybe I should do special music next week. Maybe not. He's on his way to the cross.

He's on his way to Jerusalem. Who has time for these kind of people? The low people. The hoi polloi.

The blind. You look at David, and David was a great man, but he had great faults, and sometimes he would say of the blind,

I don't want them. Yes, on occasion he might say to Mephibosheth, I do want you close, but here's

Jesus. If anybody could say, I'm too busy to stoop down and to serve you in your culture, in your area, and all that, this is the time.

Except Paul learned well from Jesus that it's the gospel, and winning people takes priority over everything.

Let's pray. Father, we can't strive to do this on our own.

We can't attempt to have this feeling of seeing people as lost and in need of the gospel alone.

Would You so superintend Your Word that Your Spirit might drive us to have a heart that has a small flicker of the bright light that Christ had burning in Himself, as it were, for other people, and the glorious gospel?

Father, during this time, especially of Christmas, I pray that You'd work through the members of Bethlehem Bible Church, that when it comes to Christmas dinners, when it comes to the evangelistic outreach concert that we have, whatever it might be, that we would be gospel proclaimers, and that You would help us win other people to the gospel, because it would give