The Testimony of a Pioneer

[00:00:00] Speaker A: God works in mysterious ways. Like the theme of the message this morning. We can't all tell how or what God is going to do in our lives and through our lives. Peter had no plans to go preach the Gospel to the Gentiles that day, but that's what he ended up doing. William Cooper lived from 1731 to 1800. He was a young man who had constant problems with depression. He lost his mom when he was 6, and at 10, his dad sent him away to boarding school. He said at this time in one of his diaries, day and night I was upon the rack, lying down in horror and rising up in despair. His father wanted him to become a lawyer, but he had no drive or ambition or desire to do that. Then a friend got him a job as a clerk in the House of Lords. But when he found out that he would have to stand before them for a public examination, he became so fearful that he attempted suicide. After three failed attempts, he was committed to an insane asylum, where, by the grace of God, it was run by a Christian who pointed him toward Christ. For a while, he believed that he was beyond salvation because of trying to commit suicide. But after reading the Bible one day and coming across Romans 3, 24, 25, the light of the Gospel opened his eyes in his own words. Immediately I received strength to believe, he said, and the full beings of the sun of righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement that Christ had made my pardon in his blood, the fullness and completeness of my justification. In a moment I believed and received the Gospel. Afterwards he was able to leave this insane asylum and live with some Christian friends near Olmley. It was here that he met the pastor, John Newton. Newton was a great help and encouragement to Cooper, and together they wrote or compiled a volume of hymns known as the Only Hymns. Though he still battled depression for the rest of his entire life, he was used by God to write many songs. One of them is in our hymn book. There is a fountain filled with blood. The song God Moves in Mysterious Ways is also another one he wrote in Isaiah 55, 7, 11. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it. Like brother Nathan means mentioned in his testimony yesterday of how he had come to where he is now. Things that happen in our life are not happenstances or accidents. God has put them there for a reason. We may not at this point in life see the reason, but we can trust God that they are there for his glory. And our good John Newton said, when I cannot understand my father's leading, and it seems to be but hard and cruel fate. Still I hear that gentle whisper of her pleading. God is working, God is faithful only wait. Isaiah 40:27 31 why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel? My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. This is the song William Cooper wrote. God moves in mysterious ways God moves. [00:04:10] Speaker B: In a mysterious way his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the stone deep in unfathomable minds of never failing skill he treasures up his bright designs and works his sovereign will. God of mercy, God of grace, give us eyes to see, Eyes to see your smiling face within the mystery, within the mystery, Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take the clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not our Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence he hides a smiling face. God of mercy, God of grace, Give me eyes to see, eyes to see the way you've planned along my path. [00:06:53] Speaker A: Of life. [00:06:56] Speaker B: Along my path of life his purposes will ripe and fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the fruit. Blind unbelief is sure to wear and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain. God of mercy, God of grace, let me your work do work that will withstand the fire and bring you glory. And bring you glory. [00:08:38] Speaker C: Amen. Well, thank God for his providence. If it wasn't for his hand, none of us would be here today. He's used all sorts of things to get us to where we are now. Some easy, some hard. But I thank the Lord that in all things he's shown himself to be good and to be kind. Take your Bibles tonight, please, and turn to Second Corinthians in chapter 10. This is a familiar passage and it's especially familiar because we've already been here this week. But I want us to just take another look at this passage and a message for us tonight. I call the testimony of a pioneer the testimony of a pioneer. For those of us here who are Americans in one way or another, all of us are descendants of pioneers. Unless you're here and you're a full blooded Cherokee, your ancestors left wherever they were from and they came to this country. We're all descended from pioneers. I think that's something that's important to us and kind of runs in our blood, so to speak. Today I want to look at the testimony of a pioneer in scripture. I think we're familiar with the Apostle Paul and who he was and what he did. And he was used of God to blaze many new frontiers. We talked this morning about how Peter was used of God to kind of break that wall and begin to take the gospel to the Gentiles initially. But as we've seen earlier this week, Paul was at the forefront of that effort in taking the gospel to new provinces of Asia and taking the gospel to the continent of Europe, and in providing us in many ways a paradigm and an example for taking the gospel to the world. He was a pioneer. And in this book of second Corinthians, he's in many ways under attack from a lot of people. And so he takes some time to just go back and talk about what he's done and why he's done it, to help people understand his motive and what's been behind all of it. And here in this passage, he opens up his heart to these people in Corinth about his heart, about the testimony of a pioneer. So let's read starting from verse 13, 2 Corinthians 10, 13, 18. 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. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you. For we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ, not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men's labors, but having hope that when your faith is increased that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule, abundantly to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand. But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord, for not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. Let's pray together and then we'll get into the text. Our Heavenly Father, we thank youk for your word. We thank youk for this opportunity youy've given to us to gather together. We thank youk for the songs, Lord. We thank you for this truth that we've just heard, Lord, about your grace and your providence in each one of our lives. And I thank you that we're all here tonight and that you've brought us to this place. And I pray now you'd work in our hearts that your Holy Spirit would be at work. And you teach us, and Lord, help us to be obedient to you. We commit this to you and pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. What do you notice in this passage? There's some words that keep getting repeated over and over again that help us understand about the mentality that Paul had and really what made him tick and what was behind his pioneering work. And I believe there's something here for each one of us to learn. I'd like you to notice first of all, these many times that we see in his passage where he talks about a measure and he talks about a rule. In verse 13, we read it just a moment ago. We will not boast of things without our measure. And then in the next phrase, according to the measure of the rule, and at the end of the verse, a measure to reach unto you. Verse 14, we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure. Verse 15, not boasting of things without our measure. And at the end of verse 15, we shall be enlarged according to our rule. And there's this idea here that I'd like to call your attention to of the pioneer's portion. The pioneer's portion. And Paul keeps coming back to this word, and he keeps coming back to this idea, this idea that there was something that had been laid out for him, that had been measured out for him, a certain rule that had been put to him, a portion that God had for him. He said, God gave me a task to do. And if we were to go back into the book of Acts. And we looked at some of these verses earlier in the week about how Paul was in Asia, and he had this vision of the Macedonian call, how he was serving God over there. And then he had this vision, come over into Macedonia and help us. And he'd gone to Thessalonica, and he'd gone to Philippi, and then he had traveled down, and he'd been in Athens, and he'd gotten to Corinth. And then even when he was in Corinth, he had had another vision. In Acts 18, the Lord had come to him and said, fear not. I have many people in this city. And Paul had stayed in the city of Corinth for a good year. And he's reminding him, he said, look, God had laid out a work for me. God got me to Corinth. And he had stayed there, and he had preached the gospel. And he was the one who had started this church that was in Corinth. And these people were believers because of his work. And he's reminding them, he said, look, verse 14. We stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reach not unto you, for we are come as far as you also in preaching the gospel of Christ. He's saying, look, God gave me this job. God laid out a portion for me. God had a measure and a rule for me, and I did it. I fulfilled it. God set this out for me. And you yourselves, the people in Corinth, are witnesses that I did it. I did what God had for me to do. I fulfilled my part, that measure and that rule that God had for me in his great work. And there's still a great work today. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ gave the church the great commission that we need to go and teach all nations, that we need to preach the gospel to every creature. And there's a great world, and there's a great mission. And I believe that the Lord has a portion for each one of us in his work as well. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed what was called the homestead act. And it was an act that gave 160 acres out west to anybody who. Who would go and live on the property and improve that property. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. How many of you would like 160 acres just free for the taking? I would like to qualify that this was for people who had never taken up arms against the United States of America. So 1862, take what you want from that. But he was saying, this is an important moment in the pioneering of America. He's saying, look, there's a place for you, there's a plot for you. You just have to go out, you have to get there, and you have to work that land and it can be yours. And I believe that the Lord has a portion for each one of us. In Luke 19, Jesus Christ told the parable of the talents. And he talked about a Lord who went into a far country and he left his servants there. And he said, occupy till I come. A lot of people look at that verse and. And we have this idea of occupying as being just taken up space. We're going to occupy this place till Jesus comes. I'm here at Choice Baptist Church, and I'm not moving. I'm here, I'm going to stay here. I'm occupying. But the fact is that that's not what Jesus was saying there. And I'm not big for going into the Greek, but this is a great Greek word here, okay? The word for occupy is pragmatumai. Pragmatumai, pragmatic. It means do something, busy yourselves. Make the most of what I've given to you. And that's what the Lord has given us to do. He says, occupy. Find your plot, find your portion, and work it and do it and fulfill it until I come. Occupy till I come. And so I wonder, you're here tonight. You say, brother Matt, I know the Lord. I'm a Christian. Well, let me ask you, where is your portion? Where is your portion? Maybe God has given you your neighborhood and that's your portion. You say, well, this is the place where God has given me to serve. And I'm gonna make sure that everyone in this neighborhood knows the gospel and has been invited to church and is seeing the love of Christ. Maybe the Lord has given you a portion right here in this church. And you say, brother Matt, I teach a Sunday school class. I go out on door to door evangelism. I help in the nursery. I help with this ministry. I help with this ministry, and this is my portion. And I want to just encourage you, occupy it, own it, work it, fulfill it. So that you too could say, like Paul said, look, this is my portion. And you know, you saw, I showed up, I did it, I got there. Where's your portion? In Greenville, you can say, this is our part of town. This is our Duty. This is our responsibility. This is our portion. We're going to occupy this place for the Lord. You know, when the Allies came into Germany at the end of World War II and they occupied Germany, they were going into hostile territory. And they were going out there and they were retaking it. And that's what the Lord wants us to do. And so we have our portion. And may God help us to understand where our place is and help us to really fulfill and really do what God has given us to do. Paul said, I have a portion, the pioneer's portion. But not only did he have this portion that he had completed and he'd come up to as far as to them in preaching the gospel of Christ. But I'd like you to secondly see the pioneer's passion. The pioneer's passion, verse 15. He said, not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men's labors, but having hope when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready in our hand. We know what the pioneer's passion is. The pioneer wants to go further. The pioneer wants to see what's on the other side of those mountains. The pioneer wants to go into the new territory. And Paul was saying, my hope and my prayer is that God is going to help me go further. That God is going to help me go to the next place. That God is going to help me go to the regions Beyond. In Romans 15, he talked about. He said, I've strived not to preach the gospel where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation. He said, I want to go to the place where he's not known yet. I want to go to a place, the new place. I want to blaze the new frontier. I want to go to the regions beyond, and I want to go further. And he had this holy discontentment. Not like I hate my life and I'm discontent with my life. But say, lord, could you give me more? He had this ambition, Not a selfless ambition, but ambition for the Lord. Maybe God will give me a bigger portion. Maybe God will give me a rule that will stretch even further than then it's already come. And this is a passion that has been in God's servants for all of history. The story is told of David Livingston. When he arrived in Africa. There was a veteran missionary who was already there by the name of Robert Moffatt. And he spoke To David Livingston, he said, there's been times on a clear day, I can look from my house and I can see the smoke of a thousand villages where Christ has not yet been preached. He had a passion to go beyond, to go that next step, to find those people that hadn't been reached yet, to find the people that didn't know the Lord yet, to find the people who weren't saved yet. I am where I am in Cambodia right now because of someone who had a pioneering spirit, who took a map of Cambodia and put some red dots in different places that we knew didn't have the Gospel. In case you don't know, it's your pastor. And we went out to these places because he had a passion for the regions beyond and said, look, we're here in this city and we're trying to reach the city, but what if we could reach even further? And I'm in the town I am right now because of that, that pioneering spirit, man. Could the Lord give us a pioneering passion? I hope that we never come to the point where we say, you know what? I've done enough for the Lord. I've got my place here. Praise God. And if you're here today and you can say, I know my portion. If I asked you right now, you could tell Brother Matt, this is where my place is. This is where I serve. Praise the Lord for that. But I hope that none of us ever come to the point we say, you know what? I'm very content with where I'm at right now in my service. I'm very happy. I don't really want to do anymore. I don't really want to go further. I'm done. There's no finality to what God has given us to do. When Jesus Christ told his disciples in Acts 1, he said, you're going to be witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and in all Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And as someone who lives in the uttermost part of the earth, let me tell you, you get there and you find out there's places that's even more uttermost. There's no place to stop. There's no place to stop in serving the Lord. And so the Apostle Paul said, I'm hoping that your faith will be increased. You know, if we're going to press on, if we're going to go further, God's going to have to increase our faith. Because if we're going to go to the regions beyond, if we're going to be pioneers, it's going to be hard. If we're going to press forward, we're going to have to go places where there hasn't been a road before, places that haven't been plowed before, places where the rocks haven't been pulled up yet. Story is told of Daniel Boone when he was trying to get from Virginia over into Kentucky. He found a gap, but there was no way to get over there. And so he took a team of 35 axemen and they just chopped down trees. And still they had built a road that went from Virginia to Kentucky. And they called it the Wilderness Road. And it wasn't easy. It was hard, hard work. But the Apostle Paul said, I'm hoping, I'm praying that we would have the faith to go further, to take the next step for the Lord. You know, this has been touched on, but we don't have a church just to have a church. Read a quote from a man who's very influential in missions in the last century. And he said, the church is an ends and a mean. What does that mean? We're trying to build the church for Jesus Christ. We're trying to serve God in the church for Jesus Christ. And that's our goal, is to build up New Testament churches to go to the mission field and plant New Testament churches. But each one of those churches is not an end. It's just a means to get to the next place and plant the next church and get the gospel just a little bit further. May God give us this passion, the pioneer's passion. I hope that the Lord will give you that passion in your missions ministry here. You know, the Apostle Paul was a missionary, and he said, I'm praying that your faith will be increased so I can go further. There's a lot of ways that's true. Today you've done your missions commitments, and I hope you've asked the Lord where what he would have you to do. I give to the mission ministry of my home church, and I ask the Lord what he would have me to do. And the truth is that as God increases our faith and as we give sacrificially to the Lord, it increases the ability of our missionaries to go further, to go to those new places. And as we exercise faith, to spend time and labor for prayer for the ministry of this church and for the ministry of our missionaries around the world, they're able to go further and do more because our faith has increased. And this is so important that we would get that passion and that our faith would be increased. Maybe God needs to increase our personal faith. So that we could have this vision for our own life. You say, well, Brother Matt, I'm doing this. This is my place. Well, what if you ask the Lord to give you a little bit more? What if you ask the Lord, hey, Lord, would you help me go a little bit further? Would you give me the faith to take that next step? Maybe you already know what that next step is and you've just been hesitant. May God increase our faith that we would never get to the point, say, well, I'm happy with where I've come to. I don't really want to go any further for the Lord. The Apostle Paul never got that way. He was in jail, he said, hoping to take another missions trip sometime. I'm hoping to go a little further. Pioneers portion the Pioneer's passion. One final thing I'd like for us to notice in this passage tonight, and this is the pioneer's pride. Pioneer's pride. You know, in these verses, we see a lot of references to this word, boasting. Verse 13 says, we will not boast of things without our measure. Verse 15, not boasting of things without our measure. And then in verse 17, he comes down and he says, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And these are really taken from the same idea of boasting and glorying. And so the Apostle Paul, as he's talking to these people, he said, look, I'm not interested in boasting about things that other people have done. And there's a few things I think he meant to say here. First of all, he's saying, I'm not taking credit for what anyone else did, but I believe that he's also saying, I'm not going to. I'm not going to boast in what other people have done. You know, there's a lot of joy that we can have in other people's testimonies, isn't there? And I believe that's biblical. We rejoice with them that rejoice. We weep with them that weep. And as I've been able to sit here and hear the other missionaries and Brother mcilreath give testimonies, my heart has been encouraged and stirred and rejoiced. I hope that's been the same for all of you. I know people love to hear missionary stories, and we get to hear these exciting stories of how God has worked, and that's wonderful, and that's fine and that's good. But the Apostle Paul said, I'm not going to boast in anybody else's labors. I want to talk about what God did in my life. I want to tell you how I've seen God come through. I want to tell you about victories that the Lord gave to me. And maybe you're here today. You say, wow, I love hearing all these missionary stories. I love hearing what God's doing with our pastor. I love hearing what God's doing here and there. Let me ask you, do you have any testimonies in your own life? Are you serving God in faith in a way that you could say, hey, I want to. I remember God did this for me. And I remember I was speaking to this person about the Lord and God help me in this way and where we could have our own stories to say. I want to boast a little bit in what God did through my life. Not in myself, but in the labors that God has given to me. It's a great old hymn written by Isaac Watts. Am I a soldier of the Cross? Here's the second and third verses. He said, must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas? Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend to grace, to help me on to God? What's he saying? He's saying, isn't there a place in God's great field for me? Aren't there some challenges for me to take on? Aren't there some testimonies that I could have my own testimony of God's working and not just in another person's working? Apostle Paul said, I want to boast about what God has done in my life, not of anyone else's. But of course, ultimately, he wasn't boasting in himself at all. In verse 17, he said, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord, for not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. And we know that the Apostle Paul was not interested in glory or renown or fame for himself. He said, God forbid that I should glory save and Jesus Christ and him crucified. He's saying, look, all of these things I did. He said, I've plowed my row, I've worked my field, I've occupied my portion for God's glory. I've pressed to the regions beyond. I've done everything I could, gone as far as I possibly could for God's glory. And not only for God's glory. He said, I did it for God's approval. He said, not he that commendeth himself is approved, but but whom the Lord commended. He said, I'm not here for pats on the back. I'm not even here to tell myself, wow, Paul, you did good. You did good. Great job. He said, I want God to say, well done. And ultimately that's what we're doing, folks. We're working for the Lord's approval. We're working for the Lord's glory. And this is the pioneer's pride to say, I've got this testimony and God did it. God worked through me. So I ask you this evening, where's your portion? I hope each one of you will take just a moment right now and think, where's my portion? Where's my place that I'm serving in God's great field? And then let's resolve to say, I'm going to occupy it, I'm going to own it. I'm going to work it for all it's worth for God's glory till he comes back. I wonder today if there's somebody who's God stirring in your heart for the regions beyond. Maybe it's a literal region beyond. Maybe it's another part of the world that God has burdened your heart for. Maybe it's another house in your neighborhood that you need to witness to somebody there. Maybe it's another co worker you need to witness. Maybe it's another. It's a ministry here in the church that you know God wants you to get involved with. But why don't you take this time tonight to ask God to give you the faith to step out into the regions that are beyond. May God help us each to live in a way that we, like Paul, could lift up our testimonies and say, God did it. Glory to his name. Let's pray together.