WWUTT 1548 All for the Gospel of Christ (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

There are some people out there who do evangelism in such a way as if the ends justify the means.

00:07

So as long as a person is one to Christ, it doesn't matter how we got them there so long as we got them there. But we must be devoted to the truth when we understand the text.

00:25

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

00:30

Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program. Here once again is

00:36

Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in 1 Corinthians chapter 9.

00:41

Looking to finish up the chapter today. As with yesterday, I'll begin reading in verse 19 to the end of the chapter.

00:47

This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. For though I am free from all,

00:55

I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more.

01:01

And to the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law, as under the law, though not being myself under the law, so that I might win those who are under the law.

01:15

To those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law.

01:28

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.

01:39

So I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

01:46

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?

01:53

Run in such a way that you may win. Now everyone who competes in the games exercises self -control in all things.

02:02

They then do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.

02:09

Therefore I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others,

02:23

I myself will not be disqualified. Yesterday I spent most of our time focusing on the statement that Paul makes in verse 22,

02:34

I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.

02:41

And we understand that that passage does not mean that we can do anything that we need to at our disposal in order to win people to Christ, nor does this give us permission to use any method out there to attract the most number of people.

02:56

That way we may give that crowd of people the gospel. For then the aim becomes the number, then it becomes more people.

03:04

Hey, look at how many people I can draw unto myself. And we think that the number of people that we have is therefore whatever method we use to attract that number of people is justified.

03:15

The term for this is pragmatism. So a pragmatic approach to doing ministry means that the method is justified if it brings in the most number of people.

03:27

If it works, then it's true. If it doesn't work, so if you use some kind of method that drives people away instead of attracting a large crowd, well, according to this pragmatic approach, then that method would be no good.

03:43

You must discard it. You must get rid of it because it isn't attracting the most number of people. This is not some kind of standalone statement

03:50

Paul makes here when he says, I've become all things to all people so that I may by all means save some.

03:57

He says in the very next verse in verse 23, so I do all things for the sake of the gospel.

04:05

The intention here is to share the gospel. It's not to attract a large crowd. It's to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, which we know will actually drive people away.

04:16

You must keep this in context with everything else that Paul has said over the course of this letter. First Corinthians 1 18 for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

04:30

Verse 23 for indeed, we preach Christ crucified to Jews, a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.

04:41

Paul goes on in verse 25 to say, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men for consider your calling brothers that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world and the despised

05:10

God has chosen the things that are not so that he may abolish the things that are so that no flesh may boast before God.

05:20

It is not about the crowd that you can attract or the things that you can do with your ability and your skills.

05:30

It is using all means at your disposal that God has given to you for his glory to proclaim the gospel, which is not going to be attractive to most of the world.

05:40

Most of the world is going to reject it. Jew or Gentile. Paul goes on in first Corinthians 1 30 to say it is by his doing you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that just as it is written, let him who boasts boast in the

05:59

Lord. Those who are one unto Christ are one by Christ. It is not by our method or our ability.

06:07

It is by the Holy Spirit working through their hearts to believe the message of the gospel that is proclaimed.

06:12

But Paul's motivation here first and foremost is to proclaim the gospel, not attract the most number of people.

06:20

I become all things to all men so that I may by all means save some.

06:26

So I do all things for the sake of the gospel that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

06:32

Now with regards to the portion of the statement where he says, I become all things to all men so that I may by all means save some.

06:41

There are some that even interpret this phrase to mean that the ends justify the means.

06:46

So you can use any method at your disposal as long as it leads someone to Christ.

06:53

If a person comes to faith in Jesus saved from hell and now a fellow heir of Christ of eternal life in glory, if you've transferred a person from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, well, whatever you did to get them there was therefore good because that's the ultimate good to win a person to eternal life.

07:14

They're not going to perish in hell. They'll live forever with God in glory. So it must have been a good thing that you did in order to get them there, including lie.

07:23

There are some that will go that far. Like you can even lie to a person as long as it results in them coming to faith in Jesus Christ.

07:32

I remember years ago when I was speaking against the methods of Todd White, Todd White of Lifestyle Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

07:41

He's that guy that, you know, he'll go out on the street, claims he's preaching the gospel, but there's no gospel in what he's saying whatsoever.

07:48

And he'll say, hey, the Holy Spirit has spoken to me and he says that you're having back issues. Do you feel like you're having back problems or you have he might say you have pain somewhere in your body?

07:58

Yeah, I've been feeling pain in my back because most people have back issues. It's like backs and knees.

08:04

Those are the two places that you're most likely to have pain. So we'll say to a person, you know, let me let me help you.

08:10

I can I can you know, the Holy Spirit working through me, I can heal you of your back problems. So he does that little gag with the legs.

08:16

Have you seen Todd White do this before? I've I've put this in what videos it was in the American Gospel documentary.

08:23

He has a person sit down and he has their legs extended out in front of him and he's holding both heels in both hands.

08:31

And and he'll roll the heel to make it look like he's growing one leg out longer than the other.

08:38

He'll hold the legs out and he intentionally holds them unevenly like they're almost like three quarters of an inch difference between the two of them or something like that.

08:47

And he will say, see, you're one legs longer than the other. And because of that, it's causing you knee issues or back issues or something like that.

08:54

So I'm going to grow one leg out and it's going to it's going to be the power of the

09:00

Holy Spirit that is growing your leg, evening it out with the other one. So it will solve it will heal your back issues.

09:07

All he's doing is rolling one heel backward to make it look like they're becoming even.

09:15

But he's he's literally pulling their leg. You know, it is a it's a con and he knows he's doing that.

09:23

He knows because this is all part of the gag. He knows that he's not actually growing a person's leg out, though he will claim some miracle is taking place.

09:34

This is a lie. He is lying. He is he is a manipulator.

09:40

He is a charlatan. He knows that he's lying to these people because he knows exactly this gag that he is doing.

09:47

He knows what what he's manipulating to make it look like another person's leg is being grown out.

09:52

That some miracle of the Holy Spirit is being done. And as I've called this out in the past,

09:58

I've said this man is lying. He is a false teacher and a heretic. There's plenty of other heresy in his teaching as well.

10:06

As I've called that out in the past, there are people who have said to me, but he's winning people to Christ and they will even they'll even argue defending

10:15

Todd White saying that he is preaching the gospel. Now, I'll go to certain sermons and I'll point out this is not the gospel.

10:23

What you think is the gospel here is not the gospel or it will even have additional elements to it.

10:28

Maybe you will maybe you'll be able to claim that he's preaching some sort of basic form of the gospel here.

10:34

But there's other elements to his teaching that are coming into this that disqualifies this as being orthodox in any way at all.

10:41

So anyway, there are people that will push back on me and say, hey, he is preaching the gospel and he is winning people to Christ.

10:46

So you should just take it easy on the guy. Sure, he may be lying with this, but but he's winning people to Christ.

10:52

So isn't that ultimately good? No, it's not. You cannot lie people into the kingdom of God.

11:00

If God ever works in a person's heart through a liar to bring them to Christ, then he's doing it in spite of that person, not because of what it is that they've done is some ultimate good.

11:12

If Todd White is is lying to people, the result of this more often than not, like far more often is going to be that a person distrusts

11:22

Christianity and thinks it's all a gag. The whole thing is a big con because that's the way I was introduced to Christianity, a guy that was doing some con artist trick on me.

11:32

And so therefore, this is all some kind of a ploy. This is all some kind of a trick. God's not even real.

11:39

The Bible is is written by men. It's full of myths and fables and stories and lies and all this kind of thing.

11:44

So that's going to be the way that they look at the Christian faith. They were introduced by a lie.

11:50

So the whole thing is a lie. As I said yesterday, as I've been saying all this week, as we've been going through this section, what you win them with is what you win them to.

11:58

If you win them with lies, you win them to a lie. So that does not justify what

12:05

Todd White is doing. He's not winning people into the kingdom of heaven. They're not gaining eternal life.

12:11

The lies that he is doing are the lies that he wins them to. And therefore, what that person goes on believing is probably not the truth.

12:22

Now, like I said, there may be some there may be some that come to a saving faith of the gospel, but it was in spite of what

12:28

Todd White says. And as the fruit of the spirit is shown in their life, as they go on, as they grow in these truth, they'll become further and further away from Todd White, not closer and closer to his teaching.

12:40

So it is not OK that we can use all means at our disposal to bring a person to Christ.

12:47

And that's not what Paul is saying here, either. There's a context to what it is that he's saying. He does all of this for the sake of the gospel.

12:54

He doesn't ever lie to anyone. He says to Timothy, God is my witness. I am not lying.

12:59

So what Paul spoke was the truth. He does not ever speak a lie or or perform some kind of a manipulative trick in order to get a person into the kingdom of heaven.

13:10

You also have Bethel Church that that does these gags with dumping feathers on the crowd and claiming that they're actual angel feathers or dumping gold dust, actual gold glitter.

13:21

Substantially, this stuff has been tested and shown to see that it is no different than gold glitter.

13:27

You can buy in the craft section at Walmart, but Bethel Church will dump gold glitter on the audience and claim that it's the

13:33

Holy Spirit, that the spirit of God manifested himself in our midst and is dumping gold on us.

13:39

It's not real gold. It's it's craft gold. It's the same glittery stuff that you can get in a little jar.

13:45

They just dump it in their air vent and claim it's the Holy Spirit. All of this stuff is manipulative and they know they're manipulating people.

13:53

Everybody in that church that is involved in this con knows that they're conning people, that this is not actually the

14:00

Holy Spirit. But there are those who will defend it and say that it's good if it brings a person into eternal life.

14:08

I would I would love to see evidence that any such person has ever been brought into eternal life with Christ through some sort of manipulative gag.

14:18

I don't think it's ever even happened, but if it does happen, it's in spite of the lie, not through the lie or because of the lie.

14:27

We are not one to a lie in Christ Jesus. We're one to the truth. Jesus said in John 14, six,

14:33

I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but by me.

14:40

So far be it from anyone to use lies to bring someone to the truth.

14:45

It doesn't work that way. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God rebuked the prophets who were speaking lies to Israel and saying they are saying things

14:55

I did not tell them to say, nor did I command them to say some of the things that they have said.

15:01

So therefore, you've got these these false prophets, whether it's Todd White or anybody else at Bethel or anyone that aligns with these particular organizations, the new apostolic reformation.

15:11

You have people that come out of that particular movement speaking lies and they will claim that they are from God when they say these things and they're not.

15:20

God has not spoken to them. He has not put this word in their mouths. They are liars.

15:26

They are speaking the teachings of demons, not the gospel of God. So it does not win a person to Christ to speak lies to them.

15:35

Paula White Cain, Joyce Meyer, Stephen Furtick, T .D. Jakes, Craig Rochelle.

15:43

I mean, there is a whole plethora of these false teachers that use lies. To try to win people to Christ and and it is not how you bring somebody to the saving knowledge of Christ, you speak the truth to them, you tell them that they are sinners who are destined for hell and eternity and hell burning forever, separated from the hope of being delivered from that, separated from fellowship with God eternally, you don't ever come out of that once you are consigned to judgment, you will be there for the rest of eternity.

16:19

That is the destiny of every single one of us. If we continue in the dead sins and rebellion that we commit against God and you show a person that they're in rebellion against God when you show them the law and the law reveals to them that they are not righteous, that they have sinned, that they are in rebellion against the creator of the universe who has established what is right and what is wrong.

16:45

And through his word, we come to the knowledge of the wrong ways that we have gone. So by showing them the truth of God's word, they come to a knowledge of their sin and their need for a savior.

16:57

And once a person is broken over the fact that they've rebelled against God, then you give them the gospel.

17:03

That God so loved the world, he sent his son. In the likeness of sinful man wearing human flesh, but he himself was not a sinner, he was very man and very

17:19

God. And yet, though he was in human form, he never sinned.

17:27

He was perfect. He was holy without blemish so that he might be that perfect spotless lamb for us on our behalf who would die on the cross for our sins as a propitiation, satisfying the wrath of God.

17:41

And Jesus is our meeting place with God. We have fellowship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

17:50

If you trust his sacrifice and his alone, his resurrection from the grave, that is also your resurrection from the grave, if you put your faith and trust in him in these things, then you will not perish under the judgment of God, but you'll be delivered from that fate of hell.

18:10

And instead, your destiny is eternal life with Jesus Christ, our Lord. We do all these things for the sake of the gospel, speaking truth in love so that we may become fellow partakers of the gospel.

18:26

As Paul has said also here in verse 23, we are partakers of the truth, so we must speak truth, not resorting to manipulative lies.

18:38

Lies damn, the truth saves. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?

18:49

So run in such a way that you may win. How do you run a race and win the race?

18:54

You run it according to the rules. If you break the rules, you're disqualified. So we don't go against what

19:01

God has said in his word to try to win people to the faith. We must run as though to receive the prize.

19:08

Jesus said to his disciples, it is the one who endures to the end who will be saved.

19:14

It's not enough that you were in the race at one point. You have to make it to the end. So Paul says, run in such a way that you may win.

19:22

Hebrews 12 begins in this way. Let us put off every sin and everything that entangles that we may run in such a way that we may run the race with endurance that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

19:44

We endure the sufferings that we go through in this time, fixing our eyes on Christ, that we may receive the prize in the end.

19:53

The prize is Christ because that's what we're fixing our eyes upon. Now, everyone who competes in the games,

19:58

Paul says, exercises self -control in all things. They then do it to receive a corruptible crown, the wreath that the winner of the of the race would receive at the end of the race.

20:12

But we an incorruptible crown. The leaves on that wreath will they'll wither away and die.

20:18

But the crown that we are running for that we receive in Christ is incorruptible. It is enduring forever when we live with God forever in his forever kingdom.

20:31

Therefore, I run in such a way, Paul says, as not without aim, like he's got a goal.

20:36

He's running for the goal. I box in such a way as not beating the air. This is a fight that he's in.

20:43

He knows there's a real opponent against him. The spiritual forces of darkness, as Paul says in Ephesians chapter six, our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of darkness.

20:56

So he knows there's an enemy that he is competing against. He's not just boxing against the air, but he has to train himself to fight against this enemy.

21:05

That enemy may even be himself, the temptations in his own flesh. But he says in verse twenty seven,

21:10

I discipline my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others,

21:17

I myself will not be disqualified. So he not only speaks the truth in love, he lives in that truth, he practices and exercises that truth.

21:27

Now, there are some that take this passage, verse twenty seven, to mean that Paul disciplines himself, that he would not be turned over to sexual immorality.

21:35

But that's not that's not all of it. Yeah, we must certainly be disciplined in our bodies that we would not be sexually tempted, but we must also not be tempted to speak words that would be displeasing to God or like, you know, we could be enslaved to our flesh in such a way that we're given over to anger.

21:53

Right. So you must discipline yourself that you would not be easily given over to losing your temper. You must control your tongue, that whatever you speak is honoring to God and not dishonoring.

22:05

Just like those false teachers who speak lies, we must not be like those. We must speak the truth as Christ has spoken the truth to us.

22:14

So we speak the truth to the world. We discipline ourselves that even in our bodies, we are a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

22:24

And this is our spiritual form of worship. Romans twelve one, we must be this way in our bodies that we not even be led astray by the temptations of our flesh.

22:34

We would not be led astray by the schemes of Satan. We would not be led astray by the temptations of this world.

22:40

But we are fixed on Christ who qualifies us, who makes us worthy to run this race on his team, wearing his name, and it is by the power of Christ we will endure to the end.

22:57

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you that these words are here for us, that we would be convicted by these things and so discipline ourselves, that we may run with endurance the race that is before us, that we would have our eyes fixed upon Christ, that we would not be devoted to lies or worldly schemes or wrong philosophies, but we would be devoted to Christ.

23:21

It is Christ whom we proclaim to this lost and dying world because it is only in Christ that anyone in this world can be saved.

23:29

May we do so with boldness, with courage, never shrinking back in the face of adversity, but we are trained for this, that we may endure to the end and hear from our

23:41

Father in glory. Well done, good and faithful servant. How great is your reward. Lead us in your truth today, we pray in Jesus' name.

23:50

Amen. For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .utt .com.