Men of Godly Ambition

Christ the King, the Local Church, and a Call to Holy Ambition

To the Ruled Church Podcast. This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas?

You see that one in Pechote, Mexico? Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

The church is not a democracy, it's a monarchy.

Christ is king. You can't be Christian without a local church.

You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible-believing church, and spend your life serving Jesus in a local, visible congregation.

Welcome to the Ruled Church Podcast. My name is Allen Nelson. I am the host, one of the pastors, at Providence Baptist Church in Perryville, Arkansas. ProvidenceBaptistAR .com. And you're listening to our Summer Sermon Series, where we are featuring various sermons.

And each week, I'll just kind of give a little lead-in to what the sermon is. This sermon is from the 2021 Preachers of Grace Conference that used to be held at Lee Creek Baptist Church in Van Buren, with my friend Harold Smith, when he was still doing those conferences.

And so this sermon's a bit more topical, but it's from 2 Corinthians 5, and talking about men of ambition, and in the changing world that we live in, some of the convictions and resolutions and goals that we must have.

Pleasing Christ as the One Great Ambition

It is our aim to please Christ above all else. So here we go. Or we make it our aim, again, one word. It has the connotation of goal or ambition. So Warren Wiersbe said, there is an ambition that is selfish and worldly, but there is also a holy ambition that honors the Lord.

Paul's great ambition was to be well-pleasing to Jesus Christ. Again, Paul's great ambition was to be well-pleasing to Jesus Christ. So Paul is not just saying, boy, I hope that we please Christ. He's actually saying, it is our determination.

It is our effort. It is our focus to please the Lord. It is our aspiration, our longing, our desire, our hope, and our zeal to please our King. So I wonder tonight, preacher, understand I'm saying it to myself as well.

If you'll be so honest as to assess for a moment your ambitions, what is it that you're trying to accomplish? Are you okay pastoring on the outskirts of the metropolis of Toadstuck, Arkansas? Or is there something more that you're after?

What I mean is, are you gonna be one of those, the world is watching, preachers? Or is your ambition Christ? Is your ambition merely notoriety and cultural accolades? Because if it is, if it is, I pray God never gives that to you.

Because if he does, that just might be your reward. No, my brothers, it is my prayer for you and for myself tonight, that your ambition is just like Paul's. Come what may, you are resolved to please Christ.

Wives, let me, of course, mention to you as well, because I understand how this works a little bit. Your identity sometimes can get so wrapped up in your husband that you can forget your aim in life as well.

Your ultimate aim is to please him. That is, to please Christ the King. So to all of us here is your great ambition to be well-pleasing to Jesus Christ. Now, what does Paul mean when he says, please him?

We make it our aim to please him. Bob Utley notes that this word was a slogan of loyalty and fidelity in the Hellenistic first century. Or, if you like pirate analogies, another commentator notes that the word was a late adjective that shows Paul's loyalty to Christ, his captain.

Now, where Christ is captain, that's the ship I want to be on. Paul is saying that his great aim, his life ambition, his goal, is to be well-pleasing to Christ in this way, by simply being a loyal, faithful servant to his captain.

What I'm saying tonight is may our ambition simply be this, brothers. Let me be counted as a loyal, faithful servant of Christ, my captain. Do you remember a few years ago, maybe it's been 20 years ago now, but there was a big push when they were saying that what your church needs is a mission statement, right?

So if you want to be hip and relevant and engaging, you need a pithy little mission statement. What I'm saying is I kind of like this one right here in our text. We make it our aim to please him, right?

Put that in your foyer. Put it on your website. Put it in your bulletin. We make it our aim to please, what is your church about? We make it our aim to please Christ. Most importantly, embrace it in your heart and mean it and see what kind of reformation might happen in your own life, in your own church and in our country today.

We make it our aim to please him. Put us on whatever blacklist you got to. And I'm not, this isn't a joke. I'm on a few blacklists, right? Hey, put us on whatever blacklist you need. Fine us, laugh at us.

We're not here to appease you, but to please him. Now I should warn you for a moment. You want to please Christ. There's some erroneous labels you'll receive. Misogynist, racist, bigot. I don't have to do this here, but I'm going to anyway.

Let me just pause and just go ahead and clarify. If anyone is actually those things, you must repent. It's not okay to be those things. You need to repent and you need to come to Christ. None of those things have a place in Christ's church.

But in reality, the world likes to lob these bombs of misogyny and racism and bigotry and homophobia because they've seen that it will make good men timid and strong men weak. Hey, preach an effeminate Jesus.

That's fine. But don't try to please the Christ of the Bible because when you try to please him, your life and your church and your message is an indictment to this godless world. And this culture cannot stand such fidelity to our king.

Hey, honestly, would to God that we just had more metal in our churches than Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, right? I won't back down. No, I'll stand my ground. Hey, baby, there ain't no easy way out.

That's right, I read the Bible. There ain't. It's Christ. Following Christ isn't easy. So with all that in mind, that was kind of a long introduction. But with all that in mind, I have four exhortations.

And that's better than 11. Someone reminded me last time I preached. I had 11. Only got four. Four things I want you and I to be. Four things that we must be if we want to please Christ in our pulpits, in our homes, in our lives, in our churches.

Now, I think I should probably mention that I've intentionally included some trigger words in these points. It wasn't by an accident. So if you've snuck in here from the New York Times or something, I just, I want to warn you.

The trigger word, I don't want to melt any snowflakes with some of these words. Four things to be in order to be a man of godly ambition. The first is, be a glory zealot. Be a glory zealot. Paul says, so whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

Do you tonight want to make it your aim to please Christ? Then you must be a glory zealot. You must be zealous for glory. And I'm not talking about your glory. And I'm not talking about my glory. And I'm for sure not talking about Harold Smith's glory.

I'm talking about the glory of God above all else. Now, this is contextual, I believe, because in 2 Corinthians 4 .4, just the previous chapter, Paul calls the gospel the glory of Christ. In chapter four, verse six, he says, through the Holy Spirit's work in the gospel, we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 4 .15, he says that as the grace of God extends, it does so to increase thanksgiving to what? The glory of God. So what point am I making in all of this? What I'm saying is, if you want to have a Christ-pleasing home or church or ministry, brothers, it starts with being a glory zealot, one who is zealous for the glory of God.

We need to be reminded tonight of the greatness of, we sang some of these songs already, we need to be reminded tonight of the great God that we serve. First John says that God is light, and it also says that God is love.

God is beautifully holy. God's fountain of love, as it were, flows eternally between the three persons of the Trinity. God is the only being worthy of worship. God works and acts and moves and predestines for the sake of his name.

He will not give his glory to another. He is the high and holy one. I read Isaiah 57 .15, whose name is holy. He inhabits eternity. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Worship him.

Even salvation we know in Ephesians 1. You love Ephesians 1 if you're at a Preachers of Grace conference, right? In Ephesians 1 says that salvation is unto the praise of God's glory. Even salvation is ultimately due to the love that God has for his glory.

And in the Bible we are commanded, behold our God. Put no other gods before him. Tonight, by the spirit of God, put to death the idols and worldly ambitions of your heart. Mortify ungodly ambitions. Make it your aim to please him.

Let us recover this great phrase, soli deo gloria, as something better than just what we slap on a t-shirt or a coffee mug, right? Let us live our lives for this great in, the glory of God in all things.

Let it stamp, let it be stamped over our days off and our days on, over the conversations we have when we're frustrated, tempted to take it out on our wife, over every message we preach, over our prayer closets, over our ministries, soli deo gloria.

Let me pause here and also say this, pastors, that sometimes we need to hear it more than we admit. God loves you. We sang that song just a minute ago. God loves you. God's love for you is deeper and wider and more fulfilling than you can completely imagine.

Your performance is not why God loves you. And praise God, your performance is not gonna lessen God's love for you. And you need to be reminded of this and you need to be reminded that actually God's love for you flows out of his love for himself, for his glory.

And you're caught up in that. Praise God, soli deo gloria. You wanna please Christ, you need to be a glory zealot. Secondly, you wanna make it your aim to please him, you need to be a Bible fanatic. So whether we're at home or away, Paul says we make it our aim to please him.

The him in our text is Christ the Lord. It is our aim to please him, not another church, not the SBC, not another denominational group, not a coalition within the church, and not the gospel coalition either.

Not the world, not the culture, not the government. It's our aim to please Christ the King. It's our hope that others will be pleased along the way, but honestly, it doesn't matter who is displeased so long as Christ is pleased.

And that is our ambition. And so this means we must be unwaveringly committed to his word. Why? Because he's Lord and King. And because he's Lord and King, he has all authority over his church, he has all authority over his pastors, he has all authority over this globe.

And he has communicated this authority to us in this book. If you are making it your ambition to please Christ, you must be a Bible fanatic. What am I saying here? Very simple, because I like simple. Believe what the book says.

J .C. Ryle said, "'Let us read our Bibles reverently and diligently "'with an honest determination to believe "'and practice all we find in them. "'It is no light matter how we use this book.'". What I'm saying to us tonight, brother pastors, is believe and do what the good book says, right?

So if the Bible calls it a sin, it's a sin. Abortion is the taking of a human life. It's murder. To kill a child means all involved are murderers. Don't go soft on sin. It's not a sin to be tempted with sin, but it's certainly a sin to desire sin.

That's just simple, right? If it's a sin to do it, it's a sin to desire it. It's a sin to be sexually attracted to the same gender. Don't try to nuance the Bible into oblivion. Open the Bible and let it speak.

It'd be so fanatical that you take this book for what it says and how it says it. What I'm encouraging us with tonight is be a Bible man. Hey, it's okay to be a weird young earther. It's okay. Paul was.

Moses was. Jesus is. Hey, I'm content siding with them. You can trust the science if you want to. I'll make my home with the rednecks over the white coats any day, right? Now, obviously, I'm not pitting science against the Bible because we know when all is said and done, the Bible and science ultimately agree.

But my point is this. We need to recover, in one sense, the perspicuity of Scripture, the clarity of Scripture. God's given us a clear book. By the way, that means you don't need Plato or the Pope or a critical race theory in order to understand it.

Hey, if it's the simple-minded who are willing to believe what the Bible says and do it, count me among the simple-minded, right? I'll make my home with the pig farmers over the professors. Count me among the cultural exiles rather than the capitulating elites.

Give me the degree from the strip ball seminary over one that says I need to read the Bible with a certain amount of melanin or a different gender in order to really understand it. Just open the book and believe it.

This is my plain and humble exhortation tonight. Take it up and read it. Believe it. Obey it. Preach it. I mean, there's something glorious about the simple, isn't there? And just pick it up and trust it and teach it to your people.

Whether we're at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him. You don't gotta go in the corner and light a candle and smoke something in order to learn what God once has for you, right? Just open the Bible and read it and trust it.

This is the inerrant, infallible, authoritative, sufficient word of the living God. It was good enough for Paul. It was good enough for Moses. It was good enough for Christ the King. It's good enough for us.

It has a word fit for every season, every trial, every sin. As a culture seeks to silence the church today, this book is strong enough to turn their persecution into repentance. Preach this book without equivocation and see hard hearts break as God saves.

Or, if the Lord wills, this book has the power to put a song in our heart even as they burn us at the stake. So whether they're converted or kill us, preach the Bible and let the Lord be pleased. To Him be the glory.

Be a Bible fanatic. Be one of the Christians who wants to understand the whole book and every verse in the book. Be like Martin Luther. Come what may, here we stand. We can do no other. God help us. Maybe it's time that we recover that old VBS song in our hearts.

You remember how it went? The B-I-B-L-E. Yeah, that's the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God. The B-I-B-L-E. What I'm saying, brother pastors and pastors' wives, is let me exhort you to get in this book frequently and get this book into you.

I don't know if you'll be able to smuggle the Bible into the gulags or not. So hide as much of this precious book in your heart that you can right now. And brother pastors, when you preach, preach the book.

We make it our aim to please him. How are you gonna please Christ? You're gonna preach his book, right? Preach his word. My friend Jared Moore writes, the Bible is the inerrant infallible word of God.

Therefore, a good sermon expounds upon it. It must not seek to improve it, nor apologize for it. A good pastor hides behind the text as he preaches before the congregation. Otherwise, he's a sorry preacher, regardless of the crowd.

Hey, don't apologize for what the book says, right? Don't miss words. Don't nuance it into oblivion. Just preach the book. And I'm exhorting us tonight to be men and women of the Bible, be a Bible fanatic.

Who cares what men may say? Our aim is to please him. So are you a man of godly ambition? We must be a glory zealot, and we must be a Bible fanatic. Thirdly, we must be a gospel radical. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

Now, Paul was committed to the gospel. He's willing to suffer for it. In fact, actually, we cannot separate Paul's aim to please Christ from his desire to preach the gospel to the nations. In fact, in this very chapter, we do need to scoot down and read these two verses, verse 20 and 21.

Paul says, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Listen, friends, to be a gospel radical is simply to believe this. What the homosexual needs, what the transgender person needs, what the glutton needs, what the drunkard needs, what the liar needs, what the thief needs, what the idolater needs, and what I need is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I have no hope for reconciliation with God based on my marriage, based on my ministry. Oh, but what a blessed and enduring hope there is in Christ. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Now, listen very carefully, preacher. Christ did not merely carry sin to the cross. He did not merely pay a debt for sin on the cross. What does the text say? Those things are gloriously true, but it goes beyond that.

You understand what the text says? For our sake, he made him to be sin. That is, our sin was imputed to Christ. On the cross, Jesus was treated as us. Some of you, I look around this crowd tonight and some of you, it's just a joy to my heart because I know you so well and we're good friends.

Some of you, I don't know and I've met some and we'll meet more, but I already know all I need to know about every person in here. And that is, in and of yourself, you were so vile and filthy and depraved and wicked that your only hope of reconciliation with a holy God was for this God to slay his son on the cross as your substitute.

And because Jesus rose from the dead, I also know that any who have faith in him are clothed with his righteousness. This is what has been called the great exchange. On the cross, Jesus received your sin and by faith, you are imputed, you are credited with his righteousness.

Now, here's the deal. I know that we could pass a seminary exam on that, but what I'm saying to you tonight is do you stake your whole life and your home and your message and your ministry upon the gospel of Jesus Christ?

I'm not against creativity, but it has its limits. You understand? I know the next great church planning book is going to tell you how to reach your town or how to reach millennials or how to reach generation Z or how to reach this or that demographic, but I'm telling you tonight, right now, how you're gonna win those people.

The red blood of Jesus Christ, the gospel of propitiation. Preach the gospel. Tell men and women and boys and girls to repent of their sins and to trust Jesus Christ alone as their only suitable and all-sufficient Savior.

Our only hope is Christ. And listen, I don't care what the elites say. Quit worrying about this or that ethnic percentage. Rather, preach the gospel to 100 of the people in your community and see God save whom he will for his glory.

The foulest sinner in your town or in your home or, God forbid, on your deacon board is no match for the power of God in the gospel, so cock the hammer and let her rip. Christ is king. Preach his gospel.

Preach the gospel to the self-righteous. Preach the gospel to the down-and-out. Preach the gospel to the poor. Preach the gospel to the rich. Preach the gospel to the affluent. Preach the gospel to the illiterate and trust that it is the power of God for salvation through every single person who believes.

Preach Christ. As Jobikias said, we must preach Christ. No breathing sinner is beyond the reach of God. So be a gospel radical. This is, friends, this is non-negotiable. All the things I've talked about are non-negotiable, but let me just mention, if we're not preaching Christ, if we're not preaching propitiation, if we're not preaching His vicarious substitution, if we're not preaching the wrath of God, well, I don't like to think of God as angry.

What's the cross about, right? The wrath of God is satisfied. You know, you heard about the Presbyterian church years ago that wanted to change in Christ alone from that on the cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.

They wanted to change it to on the cross as Jesus died, the love of God was magnified. Now, the love of God was magnified on the cross, I don't disagree with that, but you know how the love of God was magnified on the cross?

The wrath of God was satisfied. Don't lose the gospel. It's your aim to please Christ. Be a glory zealot, a Bible fanatic, a gospel radical. Finally and fourthly, be a local church extremist. I knew Harold would like that.

Maybe I borrowed it from Harold with his permission. So Paul says, so whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him. Now you say, now preacher, that's a pretty sweet Baptist juke, you're somehow gonna get the local church out of this text.

Well, I am gonna get the local church out of this text. Because we can't read Paul's letter here without seeing his heart for the local church. Why? This was written to the local church, right? Like some people are like, well, I just don't see the local church in the Bible.

I'm like, what books are you reading, right? Like what books in the Bible or in the New Testament are you reading? They're written to local churches, right? But Paul's a local church extremist. And I'm not trying to offend anyone here with this, but I'm a Baptist.

And so I believe that the Bible teaches Baptist ecclesiology. And I believe we need to read the Bible, put our hands to the plow, and in our churches make Baptist great again. Hey, Baptist, Baptist love and prize the local church.

I read a quote last week that it was on fire. Commit yourself to your church the same way suburban parents commit to travel ball. Good night. I hope that guy's still pastoring. I felt good to share it because, hey, I didn't say it.

He said it. You think about all the time and the money and the resources that are spent on travel ball. Listen, this has hit very close. I've had a close friend. I won't say his name. I had a really close friend.

He decided to give us his ministry for travel ball. You don't think this is infecting our churches. It is. It's idolatry, but that's not the point. The point is, you know, people say, well, I just can't be committed.

Yeah, they can. They can be committed to whatever they wanna be committed to, right? I understand that we're in a non-committal society, but really, you think about the things and the principles that people are committed to.

Commitment, the principle of commitment's not the issue. It's what are we gonna be committed to? And what I'm saying to you, brother pastor, and of course, I'm preaching to pastors, so I know that you're gonna be excited about this, but I'm just saying, be so committed to the local church that the world questions your sanity, right?

Wait a minute, I'm going to Van Buren, Arkansas this weekend to be with a bunch of preachers and encourage each other and sharpen each other so we can take that home and love our local church better, right?

Think about how many hours we're giving up just to be together for this. That's because we love the local church. Be so committed to the church that the world questions your sanity. Be so committed they wonder, they whisper.

Is that a cult? Be committed to regenerate church. Hey, listen, I'll be honest, because I feel the point. The reason that we don't do that sometimes is because we don't want to be weird. We've accepted this level of Christianity in our day, and we want to remain with the status quo, because we want, you tell your child that peer pressure is something that they deal with in school, baloney.

It's not just something they deal with in school, it's something you deal with your whole life, being a social being made in the image of God. You're concerned about what other people think, and I'm saying, be a local church extremist no matter what they think, because your aim is to please Christ.

Be committed to regenerate church membership. That is, only those born again are eligible for membership in the church upon their profession of faith and believer's baptism. I shouldn't have to say that, that's an oxymoron, right?

I knew the Baptist, you gotta like that one. Be committed to restorative church discipline. Take sin seriously and membership seriously. Be committed to life together with your church. Look, pastor, don't just show up on Sundays and expect everyone to listen.

Don't ever make time in the week to shepherd them and to be with them and to love them. Hey, I'll say, I love and benefit so much from the ministry of John MacArthur. He's one of my spiritual heroes, no doubt.

I disagree with some things about his theology, but I'm so grateful for MacArthur. I'm just gonna tell you, his model of locking himself in his office and studying the whole week and never coming out, that just doesn't work for the overwhelming majority of pastors.

You've got to be with your people. They've got to see you. You've got to love them. You've got to show up sometimes at their ballgames, their kids' ballgames. Not on Sunday, right? You gotta be at the hospital with them.

You gotta pray with them. You just gotta check. Love your people. Be committed to life together in the church. Listen, the local church, I understand, has fallen on hard times. I don't even understand what we're doing.

Multi-site and I'm just a simple brain. I can't even register that. So I understand the local church has fallen on hard times, but I assure you this. When the Lord returns, you do not want to be on the side of those who have disparaged the local church, who have mocked her, who have neglected her, who have treated her shamefully.

Christ is king. Christ is head of the church. We must listen to Christ in his word on how we're to order the church, on how we're to worship in the church, how we're to live together in the church. You want to please Christ?

You want to make it your aim to please him? Be a churchman. Love the local church. Train your men to love the church. Train them to lead in the church. I'm telling you that right now, July 2021, right now is the time to do your part to get the church that you are part of in order.

Because one day soon, you might have to meet in a barn. You might have to meet in a basement. You might have to meet, I'm not trying to be doomsday. I'm just saying, look, I got a pulse and I can see what's going on in our country today.

And I'm just saying, I don't know what's down the road, but you better be prepared and you better have your people prepared. And if you wait until that day to get serious about the church, it'll be too late.

Now it may not be too late for you per se, but the blood of some of your flock will be on your hands because you neglected to do now what needs to be done out of the fear of men. But men are not who we are to be afraid of.

And men are not who we're aiming to please. Whether we're at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him. Brothers and sisters, is this your ambition? I'm asking myself, is this our ambition to please Christ, to be a local church extremist, to believe in and commit to and teach your people the glorious necessity of the local church?

The local church is essential. Listen, will you embrace these trigger labels with me? We'd be a glory zealot, a Bible fanatic, a gospel radical, a local church extremist. Before we close, let's remind ourselves of verse 10.

In verse 10, Paul says, "'For we must all appear before the judgment seat of the President of the United States.'". Well, that's not what my Bible says. Mine says, "'We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.'".

So I'm reminding you tonight, you're not gonna stand before Joe Biden or Beth Moore or the NCAA or your women's ministry leader or your local mayor. No, you will stand before the King of Kings himself, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Will we be found faithful? Will we be found loyal? Now, look, I know I've used these punchy words, but you know what I'm really saying to you tonight? I'm really saying to you is this. Hey, man, be an ordinary Christian.

When they toss you in the gulags, make it be for the reasons we've examined tonight. And you better know something. Other professing Christians are gonna be lined up applauding your arrest. You're just trying to be an ordinary Christian, living to please your great King.

But they're gonna say you're too zealous, you're too fanatical, too radical, you're too extreme. That's because those who stand steadfastly on the historical principles of the Christian faith will eventually be called extremists by the ones blown about by every wind of doctrine.

Stand your ground. They're going to say that you should have toned it down while they were doing all sorts of idolatrous and sensual things in the name of evangelicalism. You should have just been quiet about it.

And you'll be tempted to believe them. You'll be tempted to compromise. You will be tempted to conform to their squishy, middle-of-the-road, fence-riding, world-pleasing, Bible-neutering, vacillating ways.

You'll be tempted to get in the car with them and to drive on the road to destination nowhere. On the road named indecision. But you must remember this and hear me very clearly tonight. Your aim is not to please them.

I'll admit to you, I know of my younger days, I really wanted maybe this or that person to really think a lot of me. That's not our aim. Our aim's not to please them. Your aim's not to please the world.

Your aim is not to please yourself. You don't need endorsements from Black Lives Matter or the evangelical elites. You don't need the approval of the crazy Karen or the dismal deacon. Your aim is to please Christ.

Whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him. Your goal, your desire, your ambition is to please the King for the glory of His name. Take that to the guillotine.

Hey, it's all right to lose your head. Just don't lose your head. If you really believe the church is the building, the church is the house, the church is what God's doing. This is His work. If we really believe what Ephesians says, we are the poemos, the masterpiece of God.

How are you gonna respond?