Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
All right, First Corinthians chapter 4, let's do it tonight
in the Word of God. First Corinthians chapter #4 As
we start a new chapter and go through the 1st 5 verses this
evening, you know we're going to get to 1st Corinthians chapter
12 eventually. I don't know when that'll be,
but eventually we'll get to 1st Corinthians chapter 12.
But when we do, we'll find that it says that we as a church are
a body, that we here who are gathered here tonight, we are
like a body in so many ways that God has put us all here together
and that God has given us each individual tasks of which to do.
It says that some are the hands and some are the feet and some
are the, you know, different body parts.
We could name any of them and that we as a church, we all
symbolize, we're all those different parts of the body,
that we all need each other, that there's not one part that's
more important than the other. You start to realize in life, if
you have one part of your body that's not working right, it
might even seem small, but you come to realize, hey, I need
that part of my body. I wouldn't have known what a
fibula was a few years ago. I had no idea.
But when they took it out of my leg and didn't replace it to be
able to rebuild my jaw from my cancer surgery on my cancers are
my tumor. Surgery did not have cancer, but
when they took that out and my fibula is gone, I realize, you
know, there's a reason God put the fibula there.
I kind of need that bone there. And it's been, you know,
problematic here and there. It's a part of my body I was
relying on. I didn't even realize it, but I
need it. And that's true for us as a
body, as a church, that God has put us all here together and
he's placed us here on purpose. By the way, none of us are here
on accident, that none of us came here just at random, that
God placed each and every one of us here within His body members
within the church. But if we are all here and we
all have a job to do, then it's required of us that we're
faithful at that job. I mean, if it's one thing, if
we're all here, it's one thing of all the body parts are here,
but all the body parts have to kind of be working together.
And boy, Corinth has a lot of problems.
And we keep talking about that and we'll keep talking about
that throughout the entire book. But one of the problems that
Corinth has is this, that people that are supposed to be doing
the work aren't doing the work. People who are supposed to be
faithful aren't being faithful. And so tonight we're going to
look at this issue of being found faithful here in first
Corinthians chapter #4 but also why it's so important for us,
not just for the Church of Corinth, but for us as believers
to be found faithful as well. So let's read the first 5 verses
together and let's get right to it.
And it says this. Let a man show account of us, as
of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of
God. Moreover, it is required and
stewards that a man be found faithful.
But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of
you, or of man's judgment. Yeah, I judge not my own self,
for I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified.
But he that judgeth me is the Lord.
Therefore, judge nothing before the time until the Lord come,
who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and
will make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall
every man have praise of God. So there's several questions
that are answered here in the text that we just read.
And so I want us to look at the first one here tonight.
And again, as always, if you're following along in your prayer
bulletin, you can write these down #1 is this the question?
What are we? What are we now?
Remember, they had just been talking about the dissension
that was found in the church. And now Paul is starting to
remind these people in court that haven't been living the way
they're supposed to live. They're fighting one another.
They're living very loose moral lives.
And so he wants to remind these people in Corinth who they are
and, and really not just who the people in Corinth are, but who
Paul and his accomplices are and really who we are.
The issue that we're about to look at who we are isn't just an
issue for Corinth. It's not just an issue for the
people of Bible times, but it's an issue for us today.
Who are we in the church? What are we supposed to be?
What's our function here at Liberty Baptist Church just as
much as we see what's the function of these people at the
Church of Corinth? And really, there's 2 answers to
that. They're found there in verse #1
it says, let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ.
So first of all, what are we to be?
What are people to account of us?
Or really, we could maybe put it this way, how should people see
us? People should see us as
ministers of Christ first of all.
Now, the minister is a name that people would normally give me,
right? You're the pastor, you are the
minister. That's what people would
normally say. But I want to remind you that
throughout the Word of God, we see that the minister is not the
only one who's supposed to minister, that all of us are to
be ministers. That if you are part of a Bible
believing church, that it's not your job to just come in,
receive and go home. And we'll look at that more in
just a moment, but the idea is that you are to be a minister
just as much I am to be a minister.
And Paul was going to hammer this home to the people.
Corinth, not just in this book but also in Second Corinthians
were 10 different times. He calls the ministers or some
form of the word ministers, your ministers, your ministers, your
ministers, your ministers. That word minister means this, a
chief servant, hence an agent appointed to transact or manage
business under the authority of another.
In which sense it is a word of very extensive application.
Meaning this, that the idea of being a minister, a chief
servant, is something that should affect every of your
life. Now God has laid a calling upon
me to be a pastor. God has laid a calling upon me
to be the leader, if you will, of this church.
Although we know the Lord is the leader of this church, He's the
chief shepherd. I'm just the under shepherd, if
you will. But listen, even though I am the
leader of Liberty Baptist Church, that means this.
I should be the chief servant. That's the calling that God has
laid upon me, that it's not just for me to stand up and Thunder
from the pulpit down at you and tell you thus say at the Lord
and put my finger in your face and tell you the way it needs to
be. Even though there are times that
preaching in the Word of God requires to confront you with
different things, but still the idea is this.
I am called to be a minister. That means this serving people,
helping people, seeing where their needs are, and being able
to try to help them according to the Word of God.
And what I'm talking about ministering to people, I'm not
just talking about giving people money or giving people time.
Most of all, we want to give people the gospel message, and
we'll see that in just a moment as well.
But God has called me to be a minister, to be a servant, to
look for the needs of others really before my own needs.
But that's not a calling that's unique to me.
And that's what we need to see tonight, that that calling of
being a minister is not just something for the one who stands
behind this desk, that it's one that God has placed upon every
single one of us. And he actually expounds on that
when he says not just that we are the ministers of Christ, but
also the stewards of the mystery of God.
And steward is another word that's very similar to minister.
It's not a word that we use very much anymore, but it is one that
we should understand. Often times we would use the
word manager today, but even that really doesn't convey
exactly what the idea of a steward is.
A steward, it's definition sounds very much like a
minister, a man employed in great families to manage the
domestic concerns, superintend the other servants, collect the
renter income and keep the accounts.
So a steward is someone who manages the affairs and
resources of someone else. Abraham had a man who was called
a steward back in Genesis. His name was Eliezer.
He managed the affairs of the family.
Joseph would end up getting sold into slavery, and when he was,
he went into Potiphar's house. And when he went to Potiphar's
house, he was the steward of Potiphar's house.
What does that mean? Well, the Bible tells us that
Potiphar trusted Joseph so much as steward.
He didn't even know what he owned.
He didn't even know what he had. The only thing he knew was this.
If I'm eating it, if I'm wearing it, then I know I have it.
But otherwise Joseph has control of it.
It all belongs to me. But Joseph has to reckon it
properly. That's his job.
So what do we see? Well, we are to be stewards as
well of our family affairs. You say, Well, what family?
The Rivero family, your family, you know, we are to be stewards
of the family business, if you will, the family of God.
God being our father, he is the one who's provided us
everything. Listen, we have nothing of
ourselves. We own nothing of ourselves.
There's nothing that we have. There's nothing that we are that
we've acquired on our own. It all belongs to God.
And he's called us to do what? To be stewards of the manifold
grace of God, to be stewards of the mysteries of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. A steward is someone that is to
be a distributor, not a depository.
And this is what I mean by that. We know what a distributor is,
right? Distributor is someone who gets
something, but they're just there to make sure it goes out
to the places it needs to go. That's pretty easy for us to
understand a depository. You've probably seen at the
bank, haven't you? Especially the night depository.
What? What does that mean if someone,
a business, usually wants to deposit their funds after the
end of the day? I used to do this when I worked
at the jewelry store, and it was nothing for me to have several
$1000 that I'd have to take to the night depository, which
always was a little bit unnerving, to be honest with
you, to be able to go and do that by myself.
I was 2122 years old. They're in Oklahoma City and
just taking the money, thousands of dollars to this night
depository. What are you doing?
You're dropping it in so that it locks in.
I mean, that's kind of the point, isn't it?
You don't want someone else to go that doesn't belong in there,
going through the money and trying to figure out what's
going on. Once the money goes in, it stays
there till the bank takes it out.
But the steward is not to be a depository, meaning this, that
we are not just taking in what God has given us and holding on
to it. Has God blessed you tonight?
All right. I want to make sure you're all
still awake. I want to make sure some of you
are still alive. All right.
Very good. All right.
So, yeah. Listen, God has blessed us so
much. His blessings are innumerable.
The help and guidance that he gives us, there's no way to even
number how great God has been to us.
But here's the problem, if we're not careful that we can end up
as someone who has received blessings become a depositor
depository, meaning this we just take those blessings and take
them and take them and take them and take them and take them and
take them. And walk them away.
But what does God calls to do? As stewards, we take the
blessings of God and we distribute them to others.
We take how God has blessed us and we distribute it to others.
Has God got you out of some trouble in your life?
I think a lot of us should be able to say Amen to that, hasn't
he? Hey, do you think God did that
just for you? He didn't.
Did God do it for you because he loves you?
Yes. But as a steward, as a minister,
you take how God helped you. And you know what you do.
You help others in the same way God's helped me through some
very difficult times. And what do you do?
You take those difficult times and you use it to help someone
else. For us, when we found out our
son had special needs, well, well, there were so many issues
that we were going through. There's so many hurts and
heartaches and confusions. And all of those different
things. But there's so much of it, as
I've told you before, when AJ had autism, I didn't even know
what autism was. I never really heard of it 12
years ago or so. I, I was so clueless.
And I don't say that because I'm proud of it.
I was ignorant, totally ignorant.
You know, I'm thankful that not only did God help us to be able
to help him. But I'm also thankful that God
helped us to be able to help some other families along the
way so that now that in our junior church we have children
that are have all kinds of different special needs that
we're able to help in very unique ways.
Why? To be able to give them the
gospel so that they can know that Jesus Christ loves them and
that Jesus Christ died for them. It's it's incredible.
We can't just hold on to. That we had to help.
Now, a lot of times we don't, we don't do that one because we
think if we do try to help other people, it makes us seem proud
or we think about, well, there's other people that can do it
better than I can or we may. Just think that it's
embarrassing to be able to share a little bit about ourselves to
someone else. Listen, put all of that off to
the side and understand this, that you can be someone that can
be a distributor, a minister, a steward of the grace of God to
someone else and not just the grace of God specifically.
What does it say here of the mysteries of God?
And if we're to be really specific tonight about what it
talks about when it talks about the mysteries of God that really
is talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we're not
just to be a steward to someone else and to be able to help them
through a difficult time. But if you're going to help that
difficult time, you better help them by understand helping them
understand the gospel message meaning this it would be OK for
us to be able to help someone with some tangible needs.
Maybe they need food or maybe they need some clothing or
something like that. But I would tell you this, if
someone comes here needing food or clothing, we're not just
going to give them food or clothing.
We're going to make sure they know the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You know, to be able to help someone that has substance abuse
issues, to be able to help them get clean.
That's a blessing. But what blessing is it if you
don't tell them the fact that they need Jesus Christ as their
Savior? That's their real need.
That's what we're trying to get across is that we are to be the
stewards in that way. We're to be the ministers in
that way. Not just of being nice people,
not just being the kind of people that make society better,
but really beyond that. If we're to look way beyond that
and not just look in the here and now, but look eternally,
what do we see? No, we need to be the stewards
to give the very mysteries of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And this isn't a mystery kind of like the way we use the term
mystery. Now I wonder, you know what's
going on. Let me figure this out.
Let me unravel the mystery. You know, even in Mark chapter 4
verse 11, it says and he said unto them unto you, It is given
to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God.
Jesus Christ has revealed the mystery of salvation to us
through himself. The mystery has been revealed.
So what do we need to do? The people who are still
confused about it when you go and tell them who Jesus Christ
is and to not just hold on to the gospel, to not just hold on
to grace for ourselves, but give it out to as many people as we
can. Aren't you glad someone told you
about the gospel? Aren't you glad someone didn't?
Hold it in to you. Aren't you glad that someone
cared enough about your soul to be able to put themselves out
there a little bit and tell you about Jesus Christ?
Listen, don't get over that and go tell someone else.
Help someone else, even if it's a very small way we talked about
this Sunday morning, Even if it's in a small way, just go do
it and be a blessing and be a steward and a minister.
This is what God has called us to do.
So that's the question, what are we?
We are stewards and ministers. Next number 2, here's the
qualification. What's the requirement?
OK, pastor, I'm supposed to be a
steward. I'm supposed to be a minister.
What's the qualification? Now you know what I mean by
qualification. If you, if you were to look at a
help wanted ad, you'll remember what help wanted ads were as
before indeed.com and monster.com and stuff like that.
You go into the paper if you needed a job and you look at the
help wanted ads and you would read that and try to find you.
If you see some qualifications for a job, they say something
like this. You have to have a college
education or you have to have done an apprenticeship, but you
have to have a certain amount of words per minute that you have
to be able to type. Those are the.
Qualifications. And if you don't fit the
qualifications well, you can't do the job.
So here's the question tonight. If we're to be the stewards and
the ministers God's called us to be, what's the qualification?
Do you have to be the most educated?
Now you say, pastor, this sounds a lot like some of the things
you were saying on Sunday morning.
I know there's going to be a lot of overlap to what we talked
about on Sunday morning, but this is where the Lord has us.
And so this is what we're going to preach this evening.
But it's about being the most educated, No?
Is it about being someone who knows more than everyone else or
knows enough of the Bible that that that you can say all 66
books and all of those things? There's nothing wrong with those
things in of themselves. We should be learning more about
the Bible. But the qualification is right
here in verse #2 this is the qualification.
Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found
faithful. You know what the qualification
is. Be faithful to your calling.
Listen, God can take people who
don't have much if they're just faithful and use them far beyond
anything they could imagine. Moses was there at the burning
Bush and he says, but I'm slow speech.
He says I'll give you Aaron to be your minister.
And what did end up happening once Moses got to Egypt, Aaron
never talked anymore. Moses somehow found a way to be
able to use his. Voice and Aaron didn't have to
say much of anything but God said, listen, I created your
tongue, I created your mouth. You just follow me and I'll help
you. David was just a boy.
Matthew was just a tax collector.
Elijah was a guy who felt alone. I was just reading in my Bible
reading this morning about the Hebrew midwives, the the in in
Exodus chapter #1 just common folk, common women.
Pharaoh said, I want those baby boys dead.
And what did they do? They found a way.
To honor the Lord and make sure they would stay alive, including
Moses staying alive. Were they?
What was their qualification? They were faithful.
I'm just going to do what's right.
And sometimes I think we get the idea when we come to church that
we have to be the most educated, we have to be the most
qualified, that we have to be the one that's been in the
church the longest, that we have to be this or this or this or
this. Listen, be faithful.
Just do what God has called you to do.
Be where you need to be when you need to be there.
Just be faithful. Not the most talented.
The most, the richest, the most. Intellectual.
This is what the world desires. And by the way, we saw this
earlier that those type of people, the glory ends up going
to themselves. But what does it say in first
Corinthians 127? I won't make you go back there,
but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound
the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to
confound the things which are mighty.
I always look at myself and I, I've know I've said this before,
but when I was in high school, junior high school, that the
thought of public speaking was something that was absolutely.
Terrifying. And if I had known when I was in
8th grade that God would have called me a pastor, I would have
just hid under my desk in school and cried.
There's no way now. Now, again, you can judge the
results now for yourself. I don't know.
But I do know this. I'm not afraid of standing in
front of you tonight. I feel the holy, the obligation
to be able to preach the word of God rightly.
I, I feel that every time I get in the pulpit, not, not fear,
but I do feel a great deep sense of making sure I rightly divide
the word of truth. There's no doubt about that.
And I would say any preacher that gets behind a pulpit and
doesn't feel like that shouldn't be behind the pulpit preaching
the word of God, because these aren't my words.
These are the Lord's words. And I want to say it right and I
want to say it true, and I want to be faithful to him.
But I do know this is that. God gets glory when people do
things that they wouldn't normally do just because they
trust Him and they're faithful. Well, Pastor, I can't talk.
Well, we trust him, and maybe he can make those words come out in
a way that's honoring to him. Well, Pastor, I just don't, I
don't think I can help. Well, will you just trust the
Lord and, and do that? And again, I know everyone has
different God-given gifts and abilities.
I know that the Bible talks about that, that there are
different gifts, but at the same time, just be faithful.
I'll be honest with you. There are people that have come
through these doors over the years and some of them had very
spectacular resumes, quote UN quote.
I know we don't have resumes, but I'm just talking about the
idea of people that came in, you know, the people that I love to
work with the most, the people that the people that I think are
the biggest blessing more often than not are the ones that just
kind of keep their head down. They don't make a lot of noise,
but they're always here, always helping.
It's always just doing stuff over and over.
Those are the people that I've seen that God really uses,
because what God doesn't need is someone with a great
personality, but God needs someone that.
Will be faithful to be able to do what he has called you to do
that and what's exciting about that is anyone could be faithful
not everyone could be wise not everyone could be rich not
everyone could be intellectual not everyone can have a
sparkling. Personality.
I didn't say like I did, but I'm just saying.
But everyone could be faithful. Everybody so just be faithful
and that's encouraging that yes, you can be faithful I can be
faithful and if we're all faithful within this body, what
happens God can use this body in a way that we don't even think
is possible. We can't even conceive just like
when a body doesn't do what it's supposed to do it things get
difficult. But if we all together work in a
way that's harmonious and and doing what God has called us to
do, we. Can have great success and not
just the world success, but a Joshua chapter 1 type success.
So there's this idea that there's the question, but then
the qualifications. But then verse #3 through 5
bring up something different. And that's number three.
The quandary. I like that word quandary.
I need another word with AQ, but it does fit there.
A quandary is is a problem, right?
It's it's a problem. But there's a problem here.
Who judges us? You say pastor, What does that
have to do with the 1st 2 verses?
And it may not seem like there's much that it has to do at first,
but verses 3 through 5 pose a different question.
This idea is this well, how do we know if we're being a
faithful steward? Because here's the idea.
OK, pastor, I'm supposed to be a steward.
I'm supposed to be a minister. I'm supposed to be faithful at
that. How do I know if I'm being
faithful or not? If you're at work, you know if
you're being faithful because someone will tell you.
Here are the qualifications and requirements.
You've either filled them or you haven't.
That's the way at least work is supposed to work.
I know it doesn't always happen that way, but that's the way it
should be. But in this idea of being a
minister, how do we know if we're actually?
Being faithful or not? Is it just about making sure you
come to three services a week? If you come to three services a
week, you're being faithful. Well, you know, I think it's
good that you come to three services a week, but I think
that's a little bit of a shallow answer.
I think there's probably something deeper that we can
help help us understand if we're being faithful in this job or
not. So this question, who judges us?
Well, there's three different courtrooms, if you will.
There's three different judgments, if you will, that
Paul brings up to us in these verses.
And so letter A is the courtroom of community.
Look at verse #3 it says, but with me, it's a very small thing
that I should be judged of you or of man's judgement.
And I'm just going to stop right there.
But with me, it's a very small thing that I should be judged of
you or of a man's judgement. Now, that might sound a little
bit harsh for Paul to say this, like, oh, it's no big deal if
you all judge me or I don't even care if you all judge me.
And in fact, there's some commentaries that you look at
that that's really what they believe Paul is saying that he's
saying, I don't even care what other people think.
And. That's not what I believe he's
saying because he's not saying that it's no thing that other
people are judged, but he says rather it's a small thing, but
with me it's a very small thing that I should be judged of you
or of Mads judgment. Listen, Paul is not saying here
that we shouldn't judge certain matters.
In fact, if you go to chapter 5, look at verse #3.
It says this. For I verily is absent in body,
but present in spirit, have judged already as though I were
present concealing concerning him that has done this deed.
Look at verse #12 But what have I to do to judge them also that
are without? Do not you judge them that are
within? In chapter 5, there's going to
be some gross immorality that's taking place in the church, and
Paul is going to have to talk about it.
And he's saying that there are some judgments that need to be
made. And when we do judge these types
of things, we are to judge according to God's law.
Judge John 724, judge not according to the appearance, but
judge righteous judgment. There are people who always say
this idea, don't judge me, don't judge me, nobody can judge me,
don't judge me. The Bible says don't judge me.
And that's not really what the Bible says.
The idea of people not having judgment.
Listen, you made all kinds of judgments on the way here
tonight. You made judgment if you were to
have time to get from work to church.
You made a judgement about whether you were going to eat at
the place that you were going to go into.
You made a judgement when you went to Wendy's and you went
there and you said you looked inside said.
I don't think this looks like a place I want to eat, now that I
think about it. And maybe you left, I don't
know. There are all kinds of
situations and things that we have to judge.
Now here's the idea. We don't need to have a judge
mental spirit. And when we judge, we need to
judge rightly. Listen.
If you don't judge the things of the world, whether they should
be in your home or not, you're missing out.
You've got to make a judgment call.
If you don't judge whether this is something you should watch or
not or listen or not, or this person's counsel is someone that
you should listen to or not, if you're not making judgments in
those areas, you are totally missing out.
But this is not what Paul's talking about.
He's saying this when it comes to this issue of being a, a, a
minister of a steward. If I am deciding if I'm.
Faithful or not, by what other people think that I missed the
mark. Listen, your stewardship, your
ministry, if you will, should not be determined by what I
think of you or not. What I'm saying is this don't
serve to try to please me. No, I, I, if you serve, I want
to say thank you. If you serve, I want to have a
grateful spirit. I, I want to show humility even
in the way that I say thank you to you for serving.
But listen, if you are serving because of me, listen.
That's not being the minister that you're supposed to be.
Or if you're serving someone else, because maybe they will
give you an attaboy, or you're serving someone else because
maybe someday they'll serve you and they have something that
will be really helpful for you and so you want to help them
because someday they'll be able to help you.
Even more than you were able to help them.
Listen. That's the wrong attitude.
Listen, we don't serve for that reason.
We don't serve for the approval of others, by the way.
The approvals of others come and the approvals go.
I can tell you people that years ago who thought I was the
greatest thing since sliced bread.
And now if I was on fire, they wouldn't put me out in the
street. And I'm not saying anything like
about me. I mean, that's all of us, isn't
it? I mean, that's kind of the way
life can go sometimes, isn't? I'm not, I'm not saying like I'm
exceptional in that way. We all have that.
What I'm saying is if you serve to please people in those areas,
what happens? You're going to find out that is
a moving target. You try to please everybody.
You will please nobody. So he says this.
There's this courtroom of the community.
He says that's a small thing for me to be judged of others.
He doesn't say that, that it's unimportant.
You know, we always want to have a good testimony.
We want to be thought of. Well, there's nothing wrong with
that. But he says this, it is a small
thing. It's not my motivation, it's not
the way that I'm going to figure out if I'm being the faithful
minister that I am or not. So there's this courtroom of the
community. It's not a good way to be able
to tell if we're being faithful or not.
But then he also says there's the court room of conscience,
and that was right where I stopped us there in verse #3
because you see where we'll pick up where I left off.
He says yay, I judge not mine own self, for I know nothing by
myself yet. Am I not hereby justified?
And we'll stop right there. Yeah.
I judge not mine own self, for I know nothing of by myself yet.
Am I not hereby justified? This next courtroom is not one
that others make for us, but it's one that we make of
ourselves. Now Paul says that he judges not
himself. Now again, we want to be careful
in understanding the context of what Paul is saying here.
Is it important for us to be able to have self reflection of
our own lives, to be able to tell if we are in the faith or
not in the sense that we want to make sure that that we're not
sinning, yes. In fact, again, we'll get to 1st
Corinthians Chapter 11 verse #28 makes very clear that before
someone takes the Lord's Supper, Supper, rather, there should be
a time of self reflection. Like you need to know that
you're not harboring sin within your own life.
You go to Psalm 51 with David, the idea of making sure Lord
reveal the wicked way within me, show me the places where I've
sinned. This is real, that yes, we
should be able to have some self reflection.
It's important for us. I would say even when you're
praying before you pray, just to have that thought process.
I know I need to confess my sin. I need to make sure that I know
what sin to confess. And I'll tell you if you ever
want to pray a prayer that God will answer, Lord, show me the
wicked way within me. In fact, once you pray that
prayer, you'll have to ask God to close the spigot because once
you open that door, the floodgates will.
He'll show you. He'll reveal to you.
Oh, yeah. So I feel I've done pretty well
today. Lord, I know I need to confess
my sins. So will you show me like OK
enough Lord, I got enough to keep me.
Busy for a while, but again, this.
Is not what it's talking about here.
It's talking about the ideas that we can sometimes fool
ourselves in thinking we're being a faithful minister.
So we cannot be our own judge of whether we're being faithful as
ministers or not. Listen, other people, that can
be a moving target. You can be a moving target as
well because oftentimes if we're not careful, we think we're
doing better than we are spiritually.
Listen, I'm not going to ask anybody to raise their hand, but
I'll just raise my own for you this evening.
There have been plenty of times where I have thought I was doing
pretty well spiritually and I heard a sermon or I read my
Bible and it was like a spiritual 2 by 4 hit me right
between the eyes. Think I'm doing, I'm doing
pretty good. I'm not even talking about in
pride. I'm not even talking about an
arrogance thinking, wow, I'm doing well.
Just thinking, you know, things are going pretty well right now.
I feel like I'm but the Lord reveals something to me.
He says no, but this is an area that you need to grow.
This is an area you need to do better.
And when I say he hits US with a spiritual 2 by 4, one, that's
not literal, all right. And two, I'm not saying he does
it in malice. He does it because he loves us
and he cares for us and he wants us to do right and to be right.
And he reveals these things to us.
He said you think you're being faithful, but you're not as
faithful as you think. This is an area you need to
grow. It's that whole idea of, you
know, I had this happen a couple days ago.
I was eating something and Peyton says dad and Peyton wake
up. I'm talking about you all right?
She says dad and she goes like this.
And I realized whatever I was eating was like all over my face
because I still eat like a 12 year old so and it was all over
me. And I said, oh, Oh yeah, I
couldn't see it. I would never saw it.
But what happened, someone else saw it in me.
And so that's where there is a help in the courtroom of
community, but not what you always think it is.
And that's where you should be able to self examine.
But you can't always self examine to the extent that you
see everything. How do I know I'm being a
faithful steward? Can other people tell me?
Not completely. Can I tell myself?
Not really. Do you know The real only true
way to know this is number letter C, the courtroom of the
Creator. He that judgeth me.
Verse 4 is the Lord. Therefore, judge nothing before
the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the
hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsel
of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God.
The final courtroom is the one we must step into tonight as we
consider ourselves in relation to being found faithful Again,
Paul's not saying that the other courtrooms are unnecessary, but
they pale in comparison to the final one.
What's this? The only truly way to know if
we're being faithful or not is to be judged of the Lord, that
He is the one. Now, will there be a final
judgment? Yes.
We looked at that a couple weeks ago, didn't we?
A few weeks ago that we looked at the judgment seat of Christ
and how there will be that time. But I would say this the best
way to know. That you are being faithful is
to live every day in the light of the judgment seat of Christ
to the best way to know that you are being faithful is to be able
to live your life in the light that someday you will see Jesus
Christ and give an account for the things that you did in this
life. If you are a believer, that
shouldn't be something that should terrify us.
We're not talking about the great White Throne judgment, but
there will be a time that I will have to look Jesus Christ face
to face and he'll say this is what I did for you.
This is what I gave you. I put you into a loving family.
I put you into the United States, States of America, where
you had more opportunities than you would have almost anywhere
else in the world. I put you in a good church.
I gave you a good family. I gave you all of these
opportunities. What did you do with?
Them. And I'll tell you, when you
think about being a faithful steward like that, it motivates
you a whole lot more than thinking about other people or
even in yourself. How will God see me on that day?
I wanted to know this. I wasn't the brightest pastor on
earth. I didn't pastor the biggest
church that. I, I I.
I didn't have everything together, but I wanted to know
this. I want to be faithful.
And the wonderful thing about
that, again, is that every single one of us are able to be
faithful, and we'll have to give an account for that.
That courtroom, that's a big one.
Why? It's the farthest one off, but
it's the one where we'll meet our Savior face to face.
Psalm 7, verse 11. God judges the righteous.
Isaiah 3322. For the Lord is our judge, our
lawgiver. The Lord is king.
He will save us. This is a courtroom that you
can't avoid. There's a courtroom that you
can't manipulate, that every single one of us will stand
before him at the judgement seat of Christ if you were saved to
give an account of whether we were faithful or not as
ministers or stewards. So live in light of that, live
with that thought process today so that we'll be faithful now if
this is discouraging. They will How?
How can somebody be faithful under these conditions?
How can be somebody faithful under this type of pressure?
How is this even? Possible, Pastor, I have one
text I wanted you to look at that I hope will be
encouragement, and we're done. That's Revelation chapter #19
turn there very quickly. Revelation chapter #19 because
it does sound like a lot, doesn't it?
It does to be able to be faithful.
While it's simple, it's not always easy.
It's simple, but it's not always easy to do.
Look at Revelation. Chapter 919 I love the sound of
those pages turning. That's always a beautiful sound.
Revelation chapter 19 look at verse #6 it says this and I
heard. As it was the voice of the great
multitude, as the voice of many waters, as the voice of mighty
thundering, saying Hallelujah for the Lord God Omnipotent
reigneth, let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him.
For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife hath made
herself ready, and to her was granted that she should be
arrayed, and fine linen clean and white, for the fine linen is
the righteousness of the Saints. And he saith unto me, Right
blessed are they which are called into the marriage supper
of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are
the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to
worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do
it not. I am thy fellow servant, and of
thy brethren that have testimony of Jesus worship God.
For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
And here in this, the marriage supper of the Lamb unfolds in
front of us, where believers will be gathered together at
this incredible feast that takes place at some point during the
tribulation period. And here during the battle of
Armageddon, this very last point of the tribulation period, that
seven-year period, look at what it says.
It says. And I saw heaven open and
behold, a White Horse. And he that sat upon him was
called. What's that next word?
Faithful and true. And in righteousness he does
judge and make war. God calls us to be faithful.
It's very simple, but it's not always easy.
Here's the blessing of it tonight, as that our Savior is
the faithful. 1 He is faithful. We can be faithful.
Because he is faithful. I didn't say he was faithful, by
the way. He is faithful.
He will always be faithful. He can be nothing but faithful,
and the faithful One will help you be faithful to the things of
God. Is it always easy to be able to
come to church? It's not, but be faithful.
Is it always easy to do right, knowing that temptation is real?
It's not always easy. Be faithful.
Is it always easy to serve? No Be faithful.
It's always easy to give no, but be faithful.
Is it always easy to share the gospel?
No, but be faithful. Is it always easy to be able to
encourage someone and disciple someone who's new in the faith?
No, but just be faithful. Is it always easy to be a new
Christian and try to figure out all the stuff when it seems like
everybody else knows more than you?
No, but be faithful. Why?
Because he is. Faithful, and if He is faithful,
He can help you to be faithful. What do we need to do?
We've seen the last few weeks need to grow.
Be faithful in your growth a little bit every day.
God will help you get where you need to be.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.