Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
And I'm excited about what we're learning in here today and
thankful for that song there reminder that even our good works,
as the book of Isaiah says, are like filthy rags.
We try to earn our way, the best that we can do is filthy rags.
But the goodness of God is that his sacrifice for us covers
our sin.
Not only covers our sin, but it washes us clean.
And I'm thankful for the fact that God can do that for us.
And I pray that that's your testimony.
I pray that you can say, you know what?
I can't save myself, but I know that God can and I trust in
him to do so.
I mean, we're gonna look at that here today, how we can be messengers
of that.
The name of the sermon this morning is the Marks of a Messenger
as we Go.
We are called to be ambassadors for Christ.
We've been studying that principle now for quite a bit of
time.
And here in 2025, our goal as a church is to go to proclaim.
And, and so being a proclaimer of the gospel means that we're representing
somebody else.
We're not representing ourselves.
We're not representing our own agendas, our own opinions.
We're representing a higher power.
We're representing God.
We're representing his message to the world.
And so to be an ambassador means to represent him.
And we don't have a PowerPoint this week, but what I would have
you do is if you'd like to follow along with our bulletin here,
you can track along with the outline with me.
And that way you can stay connected to what we are talking
about here in Second Corinthians.
2 Corinthians, chapter 10.
We're going to start in verse number seven here this morning, the
marks of a messenger to represent the Lord.
This is our first blank here.
To represent the Lord, we must be messengers of the truth.
We're carrying something with us as ambassadors.
Sometimes ambassadors, when they go to another land, they bring
gifts to the other leaders, or they bring a culture, or they bring
a way of thinking.
We, as ambassadors for Christ are bringing the message of the truth.
And so we are messengers.
And so what that means for us is that as we represent God, we're
not just representing what we think about when it comes to our
own preferences.
We went back to last week, thinking biblically.
And so where we get this message from is Scripture.
And so to think biblically means to think in accordance to God's
plan for our life.
To think biblically means to think in accordance to the gospel
and to represent ourselves properly.
There is a responsibility for all believers, ambassadors, messengers,
to represent the word of God properly by what we say, by what
we do, by what we proclaim to the world.
And so we have a responsibility to recognize biblical
messengers.
So just as much as we have a responsibility to be a biblical messenger,
we have a responsibility to recognize biblical messengers that
are coming to us with what they claim to be the truth.
And so me this morning, my responsibility is to proclaim the
truth of God as clearly as I can, as accurately as I can, guided
by the Spirit.
But just as much as it's my responsibility to be a messenger
of the truth here today, because that's my role, it is your
role as a believer to recognize the truth coming from the
preacher, from the messenger.
And so it's a two way responsibility.
One, yes, we are called to be messengers, but two, we are called
to recognize biblical messengers around us.
We're going to see that in this passage in Second Corinthians,
chapter 10.
So, so we think about it this way.
We must strive to perceive the truth.
So someone, you're hearing a teacher teaching something from scripture,
or you hear a preacher proclaiming the truth from a pulpit
or from, you know, a website, YouTube, a podcast, wherever it's
coming from, we have a responsibility to perceive the truth.
And so when someone's preaching something that's not in
accordance to the truth, that should throw up red flags.
That, that should make us feel like, you know what, that's not right.
That's not the truth.
And so we have a responsibility to perceive the truth
and proclaim the truth.
Want you to think about that here this morning.
You have a responsibility to perceive the truth that's been given
to you.
Is this truth?
Is this scripture?
Is this right?
Is this God's way?
That's what we talked about last week, thinking biblically.
And so we take every thought into captivity and we bring that
to the foot of the cross and we allow that thought to obey Christ
in accordance to his word.
So if someone's up here teaching something and you say, you
know what, that doesn't sound right, you take that teaching, you
take that thought and you bring that to Scripture.
And you say, does that match up?
That's how we perceive the truth.
That's how we discern the truth.
And so believers should go beyond the superficial things of
this world.
As we discern and distribute the truth, we have a responsibility
to discern the truth in our lives.
We have a responsibility to distribute the truth to the world.
So how do we do that?
Well, let's go to 2 Corinthians, chapter 10, and look
at verse number seven.
We're gonna see that there's this temptation for us to discern
the truth with fleshly or carnal methods.
We know that in Second Corinthians, chapter 10, just back
a few verses, verse four, Paul says, for the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, not fleshly, not of this world, but mighty through
God.
So it's the spiritual weapons through God to the pulling down of
strongholds.
And we talked about strongholds being thoughts that contradict
the truth of God.
And so we combat false teaching with the truth.
We don't combat it with the ways of this world.
So we are to go beyond the superficial, beyond the surface.
Verse number seven of Second Corinthians, chapter ten.
Paul is asking a question.
Now, remember, you gotta understand the context of second
Corinthians.
They are questioning Paul.
They are actually the.
The church at Corinth.
They're denying that Paul is preaching the truth.
Why?
Because false teachers have come in and they have begun to teach
false teachings.
And therefore they are claiming that Paul is a false teacher
and that they're the true teachers.
And Paul is basically, in second Corinthians, defending his
ministry and defending the truth of God.
And so Paul's saying, hey, look, we need to think about what
we are listening to.
And he says, do ye look on things after the outward appearance?
Now, this could be taken two different ways.
In the original Greek, this could be taken as, hey, are you looking
only at the surface?
Are you only looking at the superficial?
Which I believe would be applied to this scenario.
It also could be looked at as this way.
Look at what's clear in front of you.
Look at the evidence.
But either way, he's making his point here.
Be aware if any man trusts to himself that he is Christ.
Meaning if anyone claims to be Christ, if anyone claims to be of
Christ, we should say, let him think of himself, or let himself
think this again, that as he is Christ, even so are we Christ.
Meaning, hey, if they are of Christ, they should recognize that
we are of Christ because of what we are preaching.
Paul says, hey, check our preaching.
Check our Teaching, ours is of the Word, ours is of Christ.
And so if they claim to be of Christ, which they are claiming,
they should match up and agree with us.
And I think that's clear to see here in this passage, is that
Paul is defending what it means to be a true messenger of the
gospel, a true messenger of Scripture.
Now, this is a difficult passage.
This is not a passage that most pastors would just pull out
and say, hey, we're going to preach on this as a topic.
This is really only seen through expository preaching.
Okay?
We go verse by verse and we get to this passage, and this is
difficult.
So what is Paul doing?
Paul's essentially defending his ministry.
Paul's essentially defending his message.
And he says, this is a mark of a true messenger of the Gospel.
And so as we as Christians grow in our understanding and hear
teaching, we must discern the truth as we distribute the truth.
We are all called to distribute the truth.
That's.
That's the goal.
That's the commission.
That's the job.
But before we can distribute the truth, we have to understand
if we are hearing and discerning the truth from other people
around us.
And so Paul's first question is, is, are you looking at the superficial
things of this world as your guide to seeing who is a good preacher,
a good messenger?
Now, what the world usually says is a good messenger is someone
who speaks clearly or speaks powerfully or is compelling or maybe
has good looks or maybe has a big following.
Well, let's see how Paul came to the church at Corinth.
If you go back to First Corinthians, chapter 2, Paul describes
how he came to the church at Corinth.
And we're going to look at Paul and we're going to say, hey,
from world standards, from the standards of the superficial, Paul
was not a good messenger.
You're like, what?
I thought he was a good messenger.
We're going to see how Paul was when he came to the church at
Corinth.
First Corinthians, chapter two.
And we're going to see that God's estimation of a true minister
is not necessarily what the true estimation is from this world.
So First Corinthians, chapter two, verse number one.
Paul's describing how he came to the church at Corinth.
And he says, and I brethren, when I came to you, came not with
excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony
of God.
So he says, I came declaring the testimony of God, but I didn't
come to you with excellency of speech, I didn't come to you with
all this worldly wisdom going on.
Verse two, he says, for I determined not to know anything among
you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
He says, I wasn't worried about impressing you.
I wasn't worried about coming in and having all the tools of the
day and making sure you guys thought that I was important.
He says, I came to you and preached to you the truth.
Jesus Christ and him crucified the gospel.
And when I was with you in weakness.
We don't know exactly what Paul's weakness was, but we know
that Paul had some maladies, he had some issues physically.
And so Paul says, I came to you in weakness and in fear and in
much trembling.
And so we see a guy, he comes up, he says, I was literally trembling
before you.
This would not be a mark of someone who we would call as a powerful
messenger of the gospel, but yet we see that Paul is a powerful
messenger of the Gospel.
And so the judgment is not on his appearance, not the superficial.
The judgment was on his message.
The judgment is on the deeper elements of the spiritual nature
of his message.
Verse 4.
He says in my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words
of man's wisdom, but what but in demonstration of the spirit and
of power, that your face should not stand in the wisdom of
men, but in the power of God.
Paul says, I came to you humbly.
I came to you trembling.
I came to you in weakness.
I came to you in simplicity of the gospel.
I didn't come to entice you with my words.
I didn't come to tell you funny stories and captivate you with
my speech.
He says, I came to you preaching the gospel.
And so what we can tell through this message this morning,
through both of these passages of scripture, is that maybe, just
maybe, our world today is judging a good messenger on the superficial,
on the outside, on the entertainment, on, on.
On whether or not they can captivate the hearts of the audience.
And folks, I want you to see here this morning that that's not
biblically the mark of a messenger.
A mark of a messenger is what we're going to look at here today.
The these eight points that I think through this passage, Paul
explains is it's the deeper, it's not the superficial.
It's not the basic, it's not the fleshly matters.
It's not how attractive you are, it's not how well you can speak.
It's about the message that you portray to the world.
And so here in 2 Corinthians chapter 10.
I want us to look at the marks of a messenger.
Let's go ahead and open up with a word of prayer, and then we'll
get right into these eight points of what we have here today.
Lord, I pray that you be with us.
Pray that you strengthen us, pray that you encourage our hearts
through the testimony of Paul.
Lord, I pray that we can be solidified in the truth of the gospel.
Lord, help us to discern the truth around us, receive and perceive
the truth around us, Lord, and help us to proclaim and distribute
the truth to others that we come across in our daily walk.
Lord, I pray that all of us can understand where we fall in the
idea of preaching and teaching and demonstrating the truth of the
gospel in our world today.
So, Lord, we ask all these things in Jesus precious name.
Amen.
Verse number seven.
Paul says, do you look on the things after the outward appearance?
If any man trust to himself that he is Christ, let him of himself
think this again, that as he is Christ, even so we are Christ.
The first mark of a messenger, a genuine messenger of the gospel.
Is this a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ?
There has to be a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ for
a person to be a messenger of the truth.
You can't know what to preach unless you know the person you're
preaching about.
You, you, you can't understand the heart of God unless you are in
one with him and your identity in Christ.
There must be a real relationship.
There's a lot of people that have tried to fake this.
There's a lot of great speakers in the world that have tried
to fake what it means to be a follower of Christ.
Folks, this is not something that we can fake a true relationship
with, with Christ is an authentic relationship with Christ,
meaning this.
You know what?
There could be someone that comes up to me and says, you know
what?
I don't think you're really married to your wife.
What?
I don't believe it.
And I don't say, well, you know what?
Maybe I'm not married to my wife.
Maybe no, I don't do that.
I say, you know what?
I was there when we got married.
I was there when I made the commitment.
I'm there daily with her.
I understand that I know her and that she knows me.
And I can proclaim, you know what?
Ask me anything, right?
I know what my wife likes to eat.
I know what she doesn't like to eat.
I know the things that I do that make her, you know, frustrated.
I, I, I know the things that I need to do, right.
I.
I know her and I know what she wants in life because I have a relationship
with her.
It's the same thing as a messenger of the gospel.
Someone cannot proclaim the truth of God unless they're walking
with him on an individual way, in a personal way, in their lives.
And that's what Paul's talking about here.
He says, if they're truly of Christ, they're going to recognize
other people of Christ.
Now, now, again, we can't know everybody's heart, but what we can
know is the manifestation of what's in our hearts.
And truthfully, there are some things that we can fake, and there's
other things that we can't fake.
And I'm just going to tell you, an authentic relationship with
Christ is something that should exude in our lives.
If I come around you, and you know what?
Some of you might have hobbies, and someone else goes, oh,
yeah, I do that too.
All you got to do is talk to them for about five to 10 minutes
to see if they're really into that hobby, right?
Oh, I like this.
You know, like let's say, for example, someone came up to me and
they said, I really like fishing.
I fish all the time.
I go, okay, great.
Like, so what kind of rod do you use?
What kind of baits do you use?
I'm going to find out within 5 to 10 minutes whether or not they
truly are fishermen or not.
Right?
And that goes for when it comes to Christ, you know, we should
be able to converse about the truths of God, about what his Word
says.
And so the first mark of a messenger of Christ is a genuine
relationship with him.
But then I want you to see number two.
Look at verse number eight.
It says this.
For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, meaning
Paul says, I have the right to boast in my authority.
I'm an apostle.
I've been selected by God to proclaim the Word to the world.
Now, Paul had a distinction.
He was an apostle.
He says, for though I should boast somewhat more of our authority,
which the Lord hath given us for edification and not for your
destruction, I should not be ashamed.
Meaning this.
God has given me this position not to tear other people down, but
to build people up.
That's what that word edification means.
Verse 8.
He says, I have been given this opportunity.
I have been given this authority.
I've been given this responsibility to preach the Word
so that I can build up his church, so that I can build up his
kingdom.
And so I want you to see number two, the mark of a messenger
of the Gospel is someone who is a fruitful person that has a positive
impact for the kingdom, meaning they're building others up.
A person who is tearing other Christians down is not a messenger
of the truth.
Paul says, I've been given this authority, and I can boast in
this authority.
Paul says, God has given me this opportunity.
And when he means boast, he means glorian.
He, Paul, could get up in front of everyone, says, hey, I'm
an apostle and I can preach this to you.
But Paul says, I do this not to tear you down.
He says there in verse eight, very clearly says, not for your destruction,
but for your edification.
There's no shame in that.
There's.
There's no shame in building other people up.
And so what I saw there in point number two was that to be a
true messenger of the Gospel, there must be a fruitful, positive
impact in the kingdom of God.
I'm not talking about numbers.
I'm not talking about a claim or money.
I'm talking about building other people up spiritually in Christ.
If the whole goal is to divide people, tear people down, make people
feel under the thumb of your control, to have the power over people,
that's not a mark of a messenger.
A mark of a messenger is building other people up so that
they can serve God.
Ephesians chapter 4 says that the role of leaders within the church
and teachers in the church would be to equip the saints for
the work of the ministry.
The goal is to build other people up.
And so Paul says, hey, you have to have a fruitful positive
impact for the kingdom to be called a messenger of the gospel.
Paul has a view of his authority as an apostle, and he could
have exercised that, but he exercises it in meekness.
Meekness is strength under control.
And what Paul does here is he says, hey, God has given me power
to proclaim the truth, but it's there so that I can build you
up.
Paul recognizes that Jesus gives us authority to preach the
word of God for one reason, and that is to build up the church
and not tear it down.
So if there's a person tearing down the church, tearing down other
Christians, they're not messengers of the gospel.
They're messengers of their own purpose, their own will, their
own way.
And so we see that number two, there's that positive impact for
the kingdom.
Let's go to verse number nine.
He says this, that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by
letters.
Now, if you don't Understand what he's saying here is that they,
they were in fear of Paul because Paul was calling them out
for their sin in the, in, in his letters to them.
And when he was there, he was very meek, he was very humble.
And so they said there's kind of like a, a disagreement, Paul,
on who you are.
They were calling them basically two faced.
When you were here, you were gracious.
When you, when you were here, you were patient.
But now you're calling us out for things.
What's going on?
Paul says there's a time and a place for that, but my goal is number
three, to have a compassionate heart towards God's people.
So a mark of a minister would be someone who has a compassionate
heart towards God's people.
That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.
Again, that's tied together with the edification when we do need
to step up and tell someone about the truth on their life.
Maybe it's a truth that they need to have corrected.
We do it through a way of compassion and not through a way
of terrifying and anger.
Essentially it's this, it's leading people to the truth.
Not in fear, but in compassion.
Folks, I can, I could, right, preach only fear.
Now fear is something that we should all have in the Lord, right?
There is a healthy respect for who God is.
The Bible says to fear God, but if all we do within the church
is predicated upon fear, it's not a complete view of what God wants
us to do.
So I could have everybody, the list is at the door when you come
in.
And if you don't follow that list, okay, you're going to be not
seen well in the eyes of me and in the eyes of God.
And we have this, this cloud of fear over our lives.
Paul says, I'm not writing you these letters to terrify you.
I'm writing these letters so that you can come to Christ and to
walk in obedience.
There's a heart of compassion with a messenger of the truth.
Now, lest you think I'm only talking about pastors, the Bible
calls all of us to be messengers of the truth.
And so what I would call us to do this morning is do I have compassion
for those around me?
If I have compassion, I extend grace.
There's gonna be time in a place where I need to just hold back
and just say, you know what, that's not my time or place to do
that.
But there's also time in the life of a Christian that we explain
compassion through speaking the truth.
We do it in love, but we speak the truth.
So, so Paul didn't mince his words.
Paul didn't hold back from telling them where they were at in
their lives.
They needed to get right.
But Paul did it with a heart of compassion.
And I think that for us to be messengers of the gospel, to reach
our community, we have to understand what it means to have
compassion in our community.
We could sit out on the corner of Middletown here, if you're not
from Middletown, whatever town you're from, and you can yell at
every car that goes by how terrible of a sinner they are, and
most of us would probably be right, all right, but how could we
reach people in a better way than we could reach them through
our compassion to lead them to the truth, Right?
There is a time and a place to explain to someone where they're
wrong and where they need help and where God can intervene in their
life.
But folks, it's done through that message of compassion.
And so Paul builds a rapport with the church at Corinth.
He says, you know me and I know you and I love you and I care
for you.
And that's how we can become messengers of the truth in an effective
way.
So verse number nine tells us that he had compassion for them,
not just wanting to terrify them.
Verse 10.
For his letters say they meaning the, the false teachers.
The false teachers are saying things about Paul.
They're like, oh, Paul's letters.
What do they say about.
Paul's letters are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence
is weak and his speech is contemptible.
So what are they saying?
His naysayers were saying Paul writes really well and he has a lot
of boldness to you and in his letters, but when you see him, come
on, look at him.
Now, we don't know exactly what Paul looked like, but history
tells us that he wasn't an imposing figure.
I, I, I, I could read you some descriptions of what he looked like,
but I don't want to put into your mind an imagination about him
that, that, that isn't true.
But let's just say no one said Paul was this big burly guy that
was good looking.
They said that he wasn't a lot to look at.
And so what we can see here in this case is that what are they trying
to do?
These other messengers were trying to discredit Paul by the way
that he looked and why and how he came about in his ministry.
You see that there?
He says for, for, for.
They say that, you know, his words are weighty and powerful, but
his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible.
Let such a one thing this, that such as we are in word by letters,
when we are absent, such will we be also indeed when we are present.
Meaning this.
Paul says, I've been strong to you in the letters, but I'm not afraid
to be strong with you in person.
The reason why I have been patient with you in person is because
of my compassion.
But there isn't a time and place where my patience runs out.
And I'm going to come to you as a strong proclaimer of the Gospel.
But then we get to verse 12.
It says, for we dare not make ourselves of number or compare ourselves.
Paul.
This is Paul speaking.
Or compare ourselves with some that condemn themselves, but they
measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves
among themselves are not wise.
You may not have caught that, but what is he saying?
He says they have the wrong measurables.
The people that are the false teachers are comparing themselves
to the things of this world.
And then actually, if you go further there in verse 12, he says
they measure themselves by themselves.
Basically saying they're comparing themselves to each other.
Well, I'm not as bad as that person.
Well, I'm better than that person.
I'm better.
And that's a whole path that we can take in our life.
Well, at least we're not like that church across town.
At least I'm not as bad as that person over there.
And Paul says, that's the wrong measurables to have.
That's the wrong comparison to have.
He says.
He says that's not wise.
They're comparing themselves among themselves.
They're comparing themselves by themselves.
That's foolish.
That's the worldly wisdom.
That's the wisdom that is carnal.
That is the wisdom that leads us to the place of strongholds.
So.
So let's look at point number four.
A mark of a messenger would be a messenger who has a rejection of
worldly comparisons or measurables.
I don't care what the world says.
I don't care if it.
You know what the world might say.
You know what a pastor, if he doesn't pass a church of 500, he
has no credibility.
We don't care about that.
Right.
The world can say what the world can say.
Well, did you see the way he looks?
Did you see the way that he dressed?
Did you see what he did here?
Folks, it doesn't matter.
That's the externals.
Well, what Paul is saying here is that they're measuring themselves
by themselves.
They're.
They're Saying, well, do you know that pastor over there?
He.
You know, he.
He says one thing and does this, and.
And they're judging.
They're judging not in the truth of God, but in their own opinions.
Folks, we can get ourselves in big trouble if we take worldly thoughts
and compare ourselves to those and compare our message to those
measurables in our life.
That's the wrong metric to have.
A true messenger doesn't care what the world says.
A true messenger of the gospel has concern about what God says in
accordance to his word.
And what I would tell you here this morning is that we can get into
a big trap within churches today and even in our own Christian
lives if we take the world as our guide, as our standard.
Well, you know, Pastor, we need.
We need more money, we need more buildings, we need more things.
Those would all be nice.
But folks, that's not immeasurable of the truth.
You know what?
I was struggling this morning.
I was coming here transparently.
See the roadblock.
Drive through the roadblock.
Come here.
There's no power.
I immediately said, oh, I'm gonna have to cancel church.
I thought about it for a second, and Pastor Carlos and I were
talking.
Pastor Carlos is like, you know, there's people around the world
that don't have power, and they meet and they have church, right?
And I said, you know what, Pastor?
That's right.
And the truth is, is that so many times we link success to having
things, buildings and.
And empires and books and.
And followings and.
Folks, that's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says that a true test of a steward is if you guys
don't know what it says.
It says to be found, faithful obedience, obedient to what?
Obedient to God and his word.
You.
You want to see what true success is?
The Bible says all about true success.
Go back with me to Joshua, chapter one.
Joshua, chapter one.
I.
I'm going to tell you here today that sometimes in our world,
we define success by all the worldly standards.
But the Bible clearly, almost at the very beginning here in the
book of Joshua, tells us specifically, what is prosperity?
There's a prosperity gospel out there.
Prosperity gospel is, if you believe it enough, God will give
it to you.
If you want a big church, just want a big church and believe that
you'll have a big church.
If you want a big following, just believe that you will.
But in Joshua, chapter one, we start in verse number seven and we
see what God says to Joshua and the people of Israel.
What is prosperity?
Because I do believe by the way that there is a prosperity gospel,
but not the prosperity of the world.
Verse number seven.
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe
to do according to all the law or the word which Moses my servant
commanded thee.
Turn not to turn not from it, to the right hand or to the left,
that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
The prosperity is in obeying God.
Verse 8.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou
shalt meditate there in day and night, that thou mayest observe
to do according to all that is written therein.
We meditate, we think upon a thinking.
Biblically, it's tied together.
We think biblically, we meditate upon the word, we obey the
Word.
For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt
have good success.
Bible says success is obedience to God, obedience to his
Word, living in accordance to him.
And so that's prosperity.
Now, I'm not preaching against a success in your business or success
in your life or success athletically.
Those are all great things.
But the true measure of a messenger is not worldly success.
The true message of a minister, true message of a messenger,
a true message of a Christian is whether or not they are faithful
to God's word and his path in their life.
And so, number four, it's a rejection of worldly comparisons
or measurables.
If any person comes up and says, hey guys, we really have to
catch up with this church across town, hey guys, let's look.
This is the new stream of doing things.
We got to catch up.
Seeker sensitive, right?
We got to find out what everyone wants and we got to do it.
That's not a messenger of the truth, that's a messenger of a motivation
in the heart to be successful in the world standard.
So we see number four, rejection of worldly comparisons
or measurables.
Number five, let's go to verse number 11.
We already kind of alluded to this.
Paul says this.
Let me get to the right passage here.
I was jumping all over verse number 11.
He says, Let such a one think this, that such as we are in word
by letters, then we are absent.
Such will we be also indeed when we are present.
Now what's he saying here?
He's saying this.
We're consistent with what we say and what we do.
And so another mark of a biblical messenger would be a consistency
of word and action, not saying one thing and doing another.
We can see that happening a lot, right?
I've been guilty of this.
I've Been guilty of this.
Guys, we need to have a passion for souls.
And then I don't follow through with that because I'm busy.
Guys, we, we, we must have family worship time in our families.
And then you know what life happens.
The true mark of a messenger is consistency between what they
preach and what they do.
How many times does someone lose their credibility because they
come up and say something, but then yet their life does not align
with that?
What Paul's saying is, is, hey, you guys are saying that we're
writing strongly to you.
We'll act strongly to you too, in person.
What he's saying is, is that he stands for the truth on paper
and in life.
And that's what we have to do as well as messengers, as we go out
into Middletown, as we go out into Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey,
around the world, what we say, we believe, we have to connect with
what we do.
You want to love the Lord?
What does the Bible say?
What does the Bible say that, that a Christian looks like when
he or she loves the Lord, says, jesus says this, if you love
me, you will keep my commandments.
You obey.
Obedience is not what saves us.
Keeping God's commandments is not what gets us to heaven.
It's what shows that we love him enough to reciprocate the love
that he has for us.
And so what it means.
I'm not preaching legalism this morning.
Hey, guys, start obeying, start doing.
I'm saying this.
You're saved by God's grace.
You're saved when you don't deserve it.
But yet we should be stirred in our hearts to obey him, to show
our love for him.
And what Paul is saying here is that there's a consistency of
word in action with a messenger of the Gospel.
If you want to be a messenger, preach it.
Yes.
Can't.
You can't preach it without saying it.
But then what we have to do is we have to follow it by what we do.
So, a consistency of word in action.
Let's go to verse number 13.
But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according
to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us,
a measure to reach even unto you.
You.
You might again not catch what he's saying there because it's, it's
a difficult way that he words it.
But essentially what he's saying is this.
We cannot boast in what we're doing in our own strength.
Right?
We can only boast in the Lord.
So it's, it's point number six.
You're A humbled spirit that relies on the power of God.
A humbled spirit that relies in the power of.
Of God.
Paul's authority in the church was, Was not unlimited, right?
It wasn't like he could just do whatever he wanted to do.
God granted him an area of authority.
God grants us all an area of authority within the church.
You say, what does that mean?
Well, as a pastor, I have a role, okay?
As deacons, they have a role.
As a church member, you have a role.
And as a church member, you have roles within that.
Hey, okay, so I'm a.
I'm a husband, I'm a father, okay?
I have the authority over my home.
And so there's all these different areas that we can find
in our life.
And what we can say is this.
I got this because of my hard work.
I got this because of my intellect.
I got this because of my looks.
No, what Paul says is this.
He says the only way that we have what we have is by the power
of God, the grace of God.
And so the idea here would be that there's limitations, yes?
But God has given us everything in our lives to use for
his glory.
And so as our understanding of this grows, we say.
We say, Lord, everything that I have, every opportunity that I
have, every gift that I have, every ministry that I have is not
relying on the power of myself or my skills, but the power of God
in my life.
I can't boast in anything only by the measure of the rule which
God hath distributed to us.
I can only boast in the sphere that God has given me.
So what does that mean?
That means I can't do your Christian life.
I.
You know what?
God has called me to do what I'm doing here, but God has not called
me to take the first and second Sunday school class, okay?
So, so I can't come and say, well, you know what?
There's this and there's that, and, and I would do it this way and
I would do it that way.
You know what?
I.
I have to answer for how I lead as a pastor.
I.
I have to answer for how I lead as a teacher.
But you have to answer before God for the things that God has given
you and never boast in that.
Never say, well, you know what?
I'm.
I'm so great.
I'm so good.
The messenger says it's only because of God that we have this
opportunity.
So we go on a little bit further here.
This is verse 13.
Let's look at verse 14.
This.
This is 14, 15, 16, for we stretch not ourselves beyond our
measure, as though we reach not unto you, for we are come as
far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ.
And so what he's saying is this.
He says, hey, we came to you for a reason.
We stretch not ourselves beyond our measure.
We can't go further than what God has called us to do.
As though we reach not unto you, for we are coming as far to
you means he's like, we came all the way to you to preach the
gospel.
Verse 15, not boasting of things without our measure, that
is of other men's labors.
So, so we can't boast in what other people have done.
I can't sit here and go, wow, you know what?
So and so led you to Christ, so and so discipled you.
And I can't look at you and go, well, look at all my hard work
in your life.
I can't do that.
That, that's not my, that, that wasn't my opportunity.
But, but, but having hope when your faith is increased, grown that
we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly
to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you.
So we preach to you and we want to preach farther and not to
boast in other man's line of things made ready to our hand.
So he's saying a lot there.
But one of the things that we could do is just kind of summarize
it this way.
Verse point number seven here.
For a messenger of the gospel, there should be a love for sharing
the gospel.
There should be a desire.
There should be a desire to reach people not just because their
numbers, but to reach them so that they can be saved and in verse
15, so that they can be enlarged and so that we can go further
and preach the gospel in other areas.
Folks, I'm going to tell you that if a person does not love the
gospel, they cannot properly represent Christ because we know
that that's the heart of God.
We know that through Matthew chapter 28.
That's our theme for the year.
Jesus says he's ascending to heaven right before he goes, he says,
go preach, teach.
The whole point is to bring people to the place of understanding
who God is and what he has done for us.
If there's any other agenda, if we love anything else like, and
so how does this look?
This looks like when a person has a hobby horse within the realm
of theology and emphasizes something more than the gospel.
Okay, and, and, and so I just want to explain this to you and understand
what I'm saying.
There's other elements of theology outside of the gospel.
We understand that there's.
There's other things in the Bible that we have to talk about.
Spiritual growth, prayer, communion service, you know, all
baptism.
There's all of these things that we could talk about in theology.
The problem sometimes happens is that a person can love the nuances
of certain elements and under emphasize the gospel, folks, the
first thing is the gospel because.
Because we cannot understand anything else outside of the gospel.
And so we have to have a love for the gospel.
If I got up here and preached moralistic, therapeutic deism, it
would be this trust in God now, obey God and now everything
in your life's going to be okay.
The problem with that is that if we under emphasize the gospel,
what's going to happen is someone's going to try to obey God
to the best of their ability, even though they can't obey God completely.
And then something bad's going to happen in their life and they're
going to say, well, I thought you said that if I obey God, everything's
going to be okay.
That's not what I said.
I said this.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is so great that it doesn't matter what
happens to us on this earth.
We can have a joy that passes all understanding.
We can have a peace that passes all understanding.
So the truth is, is that the gospel gives us a bigger picture
of everything else.
And so that the Christian life is not just, hey, I got to be a good
person.
The Christian life is I can't be a good person.
And all I can do is trust in Jesus Christ to give me the hope
to have everlasting life so that I can live in his righteousness
and show people his love and to show people his compassion so
that I can be changed.
But the change doesn't come through my hard work.
The change comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And so there must be a love for the gospel.
There must be a desire to preach the gospel.
You know, we should have entrepreneurial spirits, but the
entrepreneurial spirit should not be only based in what we can
get materially.
We should think of all these creative ways how we can get the
gospel out to a lost and dying world.
Some of you are super creative in your business, some of you are
super creative in your hobby.
And you find all the different ways that you can make money and
all the different ways that you can do this and that.
Let's.
It's okay to bring that creativity to the gospel, because
I might not be thinking about a way to get the gospel out to somebody
else, but you might be able to do that.
And so we bring every possible way that we can love sharing the
gospel.
You know what?
If Middletown Baptist Church begins to love to share the gospel,
you know what?
We're going to see amazing things happen within our church.
We're going to see people coming and seeing a distinction,
a difference in the way that we do things here.
This isn't just a place of religion.
This is a place of change.
This is a place of life.
This is a place of light.
And so there must be a love for sharing the gospel.
And then we're gonna see lastly here verses 17 and 18.
But he.
That Glorieth.
Glorieth essentially just means this to.
To.
To be excited about, to.
To praise.
To be so excited.
Like, so for tonight, let's just be honest.
Some of.
Some of you in this room, if one certain team wins, is gonna glory
in the fact that they won, okay?
You're gonna get excited.
You're gonna be.
You're gonna be happy.
You're gonna say, that's my team.
You know, my.
My kids played.
They play basketball.
And, you know, it's.
It's like Nora's in first and second grade basketball.
And if you want to see something that's not very organized
and you want to see something that's not very entertaining, watch
first and second grade basketball, okay?
But you know what?
When Nora got that ball, she didn't.
She shot.
She tried her best.
She went like this, and she went to shoot yesterday, and I was
like, she's gonna make it.
And the ball goes.
It only went about 2ft off the ground.
I was like, oh, but you know what?
I was so excited for my daughter being out there, being involved.
I don't care if it goes in.
I was glorying in my relationship with her.
Any other kid that went out there and did that, I'd be like,
oh, man, they can't shoot.
But it's my daughter.
She did it, and I'm excited, right?
And so the truth is this.
We glory in what we love.
We glory in what we know.
We glory in what we put first in our life.
And so he says here, verse 17.
But he.
That Glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
It's okay to get excited, but what are we getting excited for?
It's.
It's okay to long for something, to look towards something.
You know what?
We all are wired.
Wired.
You know what I mean?
We're designed to glory after something.
We're designed to long for Things.
But what does Paul say?
We do it in the Lord.
There's nothing wrong with glorying.
But if we glory in ourselves, if we glory in our economy, if we
glory in a sports team, only if we glory in something else, that
means nothing in the grand scheme of eternity, we're glorying
in the wrong thing.
Verse 18.
For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the
Lord commendeth.
What do you.
What do you see here?
You see this?
We can commend ourselves, but that doesn't mean anything.
It's who the Lord approves.
It's who the Lord is pleased with.
And so therefore, number eight, a true messenger has a desire
to please God, a desire to please God.
In the process of pleasing God, we can glory in his work, in
our life.
You know what?
This morning.
Well, I'm rewind you back to last night.
I didn't know what the weather was gonna be.
I'm like, lord, what.
What are you doing?
I want to have church.
I want to worship with my church family.
We're moving forward.
And so I was worried about the weather.
God worked that out.
So I was driving.
I was actually giving God the glory.
On the way here, I was like, I'm going to drive to the parking
lot, 7am but I know there's no ice.
There's no ice on the roads.
We're going to have church today.
And I turned that corner, I saw that road closed sign.
And immediately I went, lord, what are you.
Are you trying to tell me something today?
I don't know.
Why are they closing the road?
And.
And the truth is, is that when that power went on, it was me, Pastor
Carlos and Pastor John here.
We glory.
We're like, yes, we get to have church.
Right?
And the truth is, is that that's a small thing, but when God
does amazing things in our life, we have to praise him.
We.
We have to give him the glory.
When.
When things happen, when someone gets saved, when we understand
a truth in scripture and we're growing and, and give him the glory.
Don't.
Don't commend yourself.
Hey, look at what I did this week.
Look how much I've grown in the Lord.
The Lord will take care of that.
He who exalts himself will be torn down.
As the Bible says, he who is humble God will lift up in his due
time.
And so there's a desire to please God and please God alone.
It's not about pleasing others.
Are we going to please others by pleasing God?
Maybe.
But the truth is, is that he is the audience of one.
He is the one that we are trying to please.
He is the one that we're trying to lift up.
He is the one that we glory in.
So what are some takeaways here?
Well, well, Paul, essentially He quotes Jeremiah 9:24 to the Corinthian
Church there in this last verse.
And, and he does that to explain that they shouldn't find
their glory in Paul against Paul.
Some of them were actually finding their glory against Paul
like they were fighting against him.
First Corinthians, chapter three tells us all about that.
Don't, don't find your glory in.
I'm a follower of Paul or Apollos or Peter or Pastor Josh or,
or myself.
Right.
It's our glory cannot be found in anything outside of Christ.
They should only find glory.
They should only find hope.
They should only find excitement.
They should only find satisfaction in the Lord.
And there's a few passages of Scripture that I've listed here to
kind of solidify this obviously over and over again in
the Bible.
The.
It tells us to have this perspective, but I think that these
verses explain it very well.
Psalm 34.
2.
Psalm 34.
2.
The Psalmist here says, my soul shall make her boast in the
Lord.
The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
What does the psalmist say here?
He says, anything that happens, my soul is going to boast
in the lord.
Galatians, chapter 6, verse 14.
I don't know about you, but when I read this verse, I.
I'm convicted.
Galatians 6:14.
I hope that at some point that this can be all of our testimonies.
But what Paul says here through the inspiration of Scripture.
But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I
unto the world.
God forbid that I should glory in anything outside of the cross.
Going further, First Corinthians, chapter one, verse 31.
Again, we, we.
We see a, a repetition of these principles explained to us
here.
1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 31.
That according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord.
And so what Paul is saying here is this same thing that Jesus
says.
It's the same thing that the prophet said.
It's the same thing that we see throughout all of Scripture.
The only hope that we have in being messengers for the truth is
to be messengers of his glory, messengers of his will, messengers
of his way, messengers of his word.
And so true messengers are not about promoting self that's one of
the big tests, okay, one of the big tests in discerning the truth
from someone preaching is, is the message about them or is the
message about Christ?
Is the message about their agenda or is the message about God's
will and His Word?
That's the first test.
What is what, what does that individual preach about Jesus?
Does that individual preach about His Word?
If it's about, look at me, attention towards us, that's the
wrong methodology.
And so true messengers proclaim the truth of God correctly
in accordance to His Word and exalt his name.
And so going back to the very beginning, we understand that the
Bible tells us very clearly that we have an opportunity in our
lives to discern the truth, to understand the truth, to think biblically
about it, and then to proclaim that.
Paul says in First Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 4,
but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel,
even so we speak not as pleasing men, right?
So Paul says, we have a job, and that is to preach the Gospel,
not to please men, but God which trieth our hearts.
We preach the gospel even when it's not popular.
We preach the gospel even when people aren't pleased.
Because our goal is not to.
If, if I wanted to please men, if I wanted to please the audience,
if I wanted to please the world, I could preach different sermons.
I could skip over passages of Scripture.
If I wanted to please myself, I wouldn't preach through passages
of scripture.
I would say, you know what, that's one of those ones I want to
leave out.
Because that's, that's hard thing to swallow.
But the Bible says that we don't preach pleasing men, but God,
we please God.
And so the thought that I had as, as we conclude here this morning,
is this it.
It's very similar to the thought that I had when I read through
Romans chapter 10 recently.
It's, it's the idea of, are we willing, are we willing to say, I'm
going to be a messenger of the Gospel, a messenger of the truth,
or a messenger of myself?
Everyone's a messenger in some way.
Everyone is presenting a message about their life.
It's just a matter of, is our message going to exalt Christ or
exalt self?
Is our message going to exalt the word or the world?
Romans chapter 10.
Very simple passage there.
When it comes to verse number nine, we, we tell this to people,
even part of the Romans road, that if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead.
Thou shalt be saved.
That's what we're preaching, right?
Just believe in Jesus, trust in him, proclaim his name.
Verse 10.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and
with the mouth confesseth, Confession is made unto salvation.
For the Scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed.
For there is no difference between the Jew or Greek.
For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
So he says, that's the gospel.
That's what we're doing.
Then he says, verse 14.
This is what cut me to the core.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
How do we expect the world to come to Christ?
They don't believe in him, right?
How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
So how can we expect the world to believe in Jesus if they haven't
heard about Him?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except they be sent?
Truth is, is that yes, I have an opportunity to preach on Sunday
mornings and Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, but all of us have
an opportunity to preach to the world.
I can't go everywhere.
You can't go everywhere.
But if we all come together, we can go somewhere.
And the truth is, is that we have a opportunity and a responsibility.
How can they act in Jesus Christ if they don't believe?
How can they believe if they don't hear?
How can they hear unless we go?
And so to be a messenger, number one, we have to identify the
truth coming to us, not allowing false teachers to fill our
minds with terrible unbiblical thoughts and getting strongholds
in our life.
So think biblically, discern the truth.
But as we discern the truth, we distribute the truth to the world.
And that is how we can be true messengers.
And so the the two call to actions for believers here this morning
would be this.
Number one, are you receiving the truth of God through a messenger,
A true messenger of the Gospel.
Be.
Be a berean, inspect the preaching.
But then number two, am I being the true messenger of the gospel
to those around me?
You can't be a messenger of the gospel unless you've believed.
Romans chapter 10 says very clearly that if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Hey whosoever, you know what?
Maybe for you this morning, you need to call out to the Lord.
You need to call out to him in belief.
I don't know what, you've been trying to trust him.
Maybe you've been trying to trust the worldly measurables for
your salvation.
Maybe you've been taught this, that my good outweighs my bad.
So I'm going to go to heaven.
The Bible says, where do we start today?
Our good works are like filthy rags.
You cannot earn your way to heaven.
Okay, Another thing people might say, well, hey Pastor, I'm
a member of a church.
I, I grew up in the church.
I take all the, the sacraments.
I, I've done all of the rituals.
The Bible says that traditions and rituals don't get us to heaven.
The Bible says it is through faith and faith alone.
That's the world's measurables.
The world understands it this way.
Do and receive.
God says believe and receive and that's the whole process that
we have to go through.
So maybe there's someone today that says, you know what I haven't
trusted.
I've been in church, I'm a good person, so to speak, but I've
never come to him in faith.
I encourage you to come forward this morning.
We're gonna have a few folks up here that can show you in the
word of God what it means.
But for all of us others that have believed today, number one,
are we receiving and perceiving and discerning the truth
from the messengers around us?
And number two, if we have done that, are we those ones that
are looking to be a messenger and having those marks of the genuine
relationship and impact for the kingdom, compassion in our hearts,
rejection of worldly measurables, consistency in word
and action, and humbled spirit, loving the gospel and desire
to please him.
If that's your desire this morning, come dedicate yourself to
him today to be that messenger of the gospel.
I'm going to ask everyone to stand with me, every head bowed,
every eye closed.
As the music plays this morning, let me give you an opportunity
to respond to the message this morning.
The marks of a messenger.
Lord, I pray that you'd be in this time of invitation, working
hearts and lives.
I pray that you can guide us to a place of obedience to you so
that we can be that true messenger of the gospel.
We love you and we thank you.
Pray that you work in this time.
In Jesus name.
Amen.
As the music plays, if you need to come here at the steps and
commit yourselves to Him.
You can.
You need Jesus Christ as your Savior.
We'd love to show you in the Word of God what it means to know
him and have everlasting life.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
Podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch
dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow
along for future podcast and updates.
Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.