How to Measure a Man

Adrian Rogers was a motivator, an encourager, and a leader of the faith. He was also passionate about presenting scriptural application to everyday life circumstances, and you'll hear that in today's message.

Now, let's join Adrian Rogers. How would you take your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 20? We're continuing our series in the book of Acts entitled, That Old Time Religion. And so, we're trying not necessarily to modernize our church. Actually, we're trying to get our church back to the first century, because that old time religion is also the new time religion. And that new time religion, therefore, is the all time religion. And that all time religion ought to be the any time religion, and the any time religion ought to be the every time religion.

We want to find out, really, how we're to live and operate in these last days. Now, we're going to read here in Acts chapter 20 beginning in verse 36. And the scene is a very poignant scene. The Apostle Paul is revisiting the mission field, and he comes to Miletus, and there he gathers with him the Ephesian elders. And he has a time walking with them down memory lane. They talk about the good times that they had together, how God had blessed and poured out His blessings. Paul rehearsed it all, and then here's what happened in verse 36. And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more, and they accompanied him to the ship.

Now, use your imagination. I mean, dear friend, they were one in the bonds of love. They had been through so many prayer meetings, evangelistic crusades together. They'd seen so many victories in Jesus. Their hearts were so melted together. And now they're having a prayer meeting.

They're all on their knees. And God moves into that prayer meeting, and they're such a sweet spirit. And then as they get to praying, they realize this is the last prayer meeting on earth they'll ever have with Paul the Apostle. And they began to weep. And they're not just a few tears, they're convulsing. The Bible says they wept sore, and then they began to hug old Paul's neck. The Bible says they just fell on his neck and they're weeping and squeezing him and just hugging him because they know never again on this earth will they see Paul.

And then they walk down to the wharf where the ship is there, and Paul gets on that ship, and as it begins to sail, they're just standing there just boo-hooing and just weeping because Paul is leaving their dear, dear friend, and he's going to be sorely missed. Now, a question for you. When you're gone, are you going to be missed?

I mean other than by your family. Are you going to be missed? Will it make any difference? By the way, you are going. You are going. I mean you may move out of this city, but you're going either by rapture or you're going by death, but we're all going. We're all going. And the question is when you go, what difference will it make?

Is your life going to have any kind of an impact? I heard of a man who had surgery and he woke up in the recovery room and all of the windows were covered with curtains. The blinds were drawn. He called the nurse, he said, nurse, open the window, I want to see outside. Who closed the blinds anyway? She said, just calm down.

She said, I closed them. I said, there's a big fire across the street and I didn't want you to wake up and think the operation was not a success. Some of us are going to wake up and find out that our entire life was not a success. We wasted our life. We're going to go out into eternity with a wasted life. And by the way, when you go, you're going to leave behind you all that you have and you're going to take with you all that you are.

And I wonder really what you will take with you. You know the world, when the world measures a man, the world measures a man by brains or by brawn or by bucks. How do you measure a man? I mean what really counts?

I was on an airplane. I was reading an article about the Guinness World Book of Records, what people do to make an impact on society. And I read about one man over in France, his name is Michael Letito, and you know what his claim to fame is? Eating glass and eating metal. He grinds it up and eats it, mixes it in with his sweeties or whatever he eats. And that's what he eats. And since 1966 he's eaten ten bicycles.

It's true. He ate a supermarket cart in four and a half days. He ate six chandeliers. He ate a Cessna light aircraft, a whole airplane. Now can you imagine this fellow reporting into Jesus, my son what did you do when you were down there on earth?

Lord I ate an airplane. What a claim to fame. I mean what really counts? What really matters? How do you measure a life? How do you measure a man? Well if you will look back in this 20th chapter of the book of Acts, you're going to find three things about the apostle Paul that I think are the measure of the man. How do you measure a man?

Well first of all you measure him by the manner of his life. Begin with me in verse 17. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. And when they were come to him he said unto them, Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you in all seasons. Serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews. Now what was the manner of his life? Well first of all his life was a life of humility.

Look in verse 19. Serving the Lord with all humility. I thought about this as I prepared this message and I'm prepared to say and I believe it with all of my heart that nobody has a life worth living.

Nobody has a life that can be called a great life. There is no true greatness without true humility. Serving the Lord he says with all humility. And what is humility? Humility is not putting yourself down.

Humility is not saying that you are no good because that is not true about you friend. As Chris is saying, Jesus paid too great a price for you to say that you are no good. I'll tell you who you are. Friend you are a child of God if you are saved.

I'll tell you who you are. You are a prince and a king. He hath made us a kingdom of priests. You are a holy priest. I'll tell you who you are if you are saved. Jesus is not ashamed to call you his brother.

So you are next of kin to the Holy Trinity. Don't get the idea that humility is not loving yourself for the Bible says we are to love others as we love ourselves and if you don't love you I'm afraid of you because you don't know how to love me. We are to love others as we love ourselves. What is humility? It's not degrading yourself.

It's not putting yourself down. Let me tell you what humility is. Humility is that honest estimation of yourself that says about you what God says about you and it results primarily in serving. Notice in that verse he says serving the Lord with all humility. Look at the word serving.

The word serving is the verb form of the noun doulos which means bond slave. Do you know what the mark of humility is? Your service. Serving others. A humble person is a person who serves other people. Serving the Lord with all humility. When God measures a man's life He does not measure the man's life by how many servants the man has but by how many men the man serves. Serving the Lord with all humility.

Now folks there are a lot of you whose life is going to amount to a little more than a zero with the edges trimmed off and I'll tell you why. You've never learned to serve. You come to church on Sunday morning you sit sour and soaked but you don't serve.

You need to find a place of service in this church and in this community and in your home and you need to say Lord God make me a servant because unless you're a servant you're not going to be truly missed when you're gone. Now listen not only was there a life of humility but there was also a life of heartache because He says in verse 19, serving the Lord with all humility and tears. The Apostle Paul had a broken heart. The Apostle Paul was a compassionate man. The Apostle Paul knew how to weep. He knew how to enter into the sorrows and the hurts of other people.

That's the way to be missed. You live for self and self alone and you try to insulate yourself from the cares and the toils and the problems of this world you're not going to be missed. But you show me a person who knows how to sympathize. A person who knows how to empathize.

A person who has the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ in his heart and in his life. I want to ask you a question. Do the things that break the heart of Jesus break your heart? Do you know how to weep? When's the last time you shed a tear over some soul that was mortgaged to the devil? Now when you read about the ministry of Paul you don't read about him weeping.

The only way you know about it is he told you here. I believe most of the time he wept in private. I can say from my own life I shed far more tears in my study than I do in my pulpit. But I'm telling you dear friend that Jesus was a man of tears and Paul was a man of tears and Jeremiah was a man of tears and we ought to be people of tears. The Apostle Paul said, I serve the Lord with humility. I serve the Lord with heartache. And then he said, I serve the Lord with hardships. He speaks there in verse 19, of the many trials that befell me. King James uses the word temptations but it literally means trials. It literally means that there were people who disliked him. There were people who opposed him. There were people who literally bodily physically harmed him because of the stand that he took for the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no way, no way that you can have a life that will count and make an impression on this world without making some enemies.

No way. And dear friend unless you are willing for those three things to be in your life, humility, heartache and hardship you're not going to have the kind of life that Paul had and it's not going to be the kind of life that counts. Well you say I don't want that kind of life. Well maybe you don't. Maybe you just want to be all wrapped up in your little self.

But I'm going to tell you dear friend when you're gone it's not going to make much difference. Nobody in this world would say that's the way to have a great life. I don't believe that the Hollywood moguls would say that's the way to have a great life, humility, heartache and hardship.

Nobody wants that do they? No they think the great life is something else. But dear friend I want to tell you that is a great life. That is the manner of his life. Paul said you know the manner of my life. That was the measure of his life. Now let me say not only was his life measured by the manner of it but also his life was measured by the message of it.

Because you see not only do we live a certain way but we say a certain thing. That is we are to leave behind us a message. Every one of us will be known for something when we're gone. They will think about us.

Do you know what I want them to think about when they think about me? The Gospel of Christ. I want them to say that man's life was centered in the only message that really matters. Now notice the Apostle Paul. Paul says in verse 20 he says, "'In how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you but have showed you and taught you publicly and from house to house that is in every place testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks every person repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.'" That was the content of his message. That encapsulates his life. Repentance and faith, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul was known primarily as a Gospel preacher. It was a narrow message. He didn't stutter. He didn't stammer. He didn't equivocate. He kept on preaching that message.

That was the content of it. I want you to notice the conviction of it. Notice in verse 22, "'And now behold I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem not knowing the things that shall befall me there except that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.'" Paul says, I'm going back to Jerusalem. The Spirit of God wants me to go. I'm bound in the Spirit that is I know it's God's will for me to go. And I know when I get there I'm going to heartache and trouble. Bonds and afflictions abide me. But now watch verse 24. Look, but none of these things move me.

That is I don't get stampeded by any of these things. Neither count I my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus Christ to testify the Gospel of the grace of God. You want a life that counts?

Dear friend you're going to have to have a message that has the right content and the right conviction. Paul said, I'm bound in the Spirit. He said, none of these things move me. You're not going to stop me. Paul had a bulldog grip on certain things.

Are you that way? Do you know what's wrong with the average Baptist? He has opinions and not convictions. Paul had convictions. He said, I'm bound in the Spirit. I'm going to finish my course with joy.

I will do it. Now he said, I know what I'm going to. It eventually led to his death. But Paul would rather die with a conviction than live with a compromise.

How about you? Most of us had far rather live with a compromise than to die with a conviction. But you can understand why Paul was the man that he was and how this shames me as I think of the content of his message, as I think of the conviction of his message. But then I think of the confidence of his message.

Paul died confidently. Notice, notice what he says here in verse 25, and now behold I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

Praise God. Paul was confident. Paul said, you're not going to see me anymore. I'm going on to Heaven. He said, I'm going to tell you one thing, I am pure from the blood of all men.

What did he mean by that? I am pure from the blood of all men. Well, you know Ezekiel said that we are like watchmen upon a wall. And if we see the enemy coming and we do not warn the people inside the city about the enemy they are going to die but their blood will be required at our hands. You see he's talking here about soul winning. If we don't tell our friends, our neighbors, our brothers, our sisters about the Lord Jesus Christ they die and go to Hell their blood is on our hands.

Let me illustrate. Suppose your child got sick with a nameless disease. That disease was gnawing away at his life and you knew that your child was going to die. And then suppose you met a doctor and that doctor prescribed a particular medicine for your child and your child radically, dramatically got well. And then suppose an epidemic of that same disease broke out in your city. And you knew the name of that doctor. And you knew that that doctor could prescribe the medicine that would save the lives of those children.

And you did nothing to tell anyone and those children died. Would not their blood be on your hands? Now, friend listen, if we know the only message that this world needs and we don't tell it, to me we are guilty of high treason against Heaven's King and we are going to meet the Lord with bloody hands.

The Apostle Paul knew that before long he was going to have to report to the Lord. And he said, I am pure, I am free from the blood of all men. I am not going to face my Lord with bloody hands. Now listen, folks, listen, some of you, some of us are going to face the Lord with blood on our hands. Souls that we should have witnessed to that have died and gone to Hell. And it's our fault.

It's our fault. Paul had a confidence about his message. He said, I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole kingdom of heaven. The whole counsel of God. I am free from the blood of all men.

I wonder how many can say that. I see the Apostle Paul, he's in his cell. The time for his execution has come.

A burly guard comes to the cell door. Paul, come! Where are we going? We are going to the chopping block, Paul. We are going to execute you, Paul. He comes with a chain to bind Paul. Paul says, you don't need to put that chain. You don't need to put that chain on me. I can walk. It's alright.

Don't worry. Let's go. And so the guard takes Paul and they begin to walk down toward the Tiber River. There to the execution place, that river that will soon drink the blood of the great Apostle.

There he goes, the greatest Christian who ever lived. Can you see him? A little humpback Jew hobbling along his body, bent, broken, scarred from the whippings, the stonings.

The imprisonments being pickled in the Mediterranean Sea. A little gray head, squinty eyes. He's walking along. The guard says, do I hear music? Are you humming? He says, oh yeah, I didn't know you were listening to me. It's just a little song that we love to sing.

It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. The guard says, you're a strange one. And they bring him down there and the executioner says, well, tie him to the chopping block. He says, you don't need to tie me.

It's alright. And he kneels down and puts his neck on the chopping block. They say, aren't you afraid, Paul? Oh, he said, I've done this before.

You can't. Oh, well, he says, I die daily. And so they put his head on the chopping block. Any last words, Paul?

Oh, yes, I'm glad you asked. Here are my last words. Jesus Christ is Lord. The axe falls and his head rolls over into the basket. The next scene is heaven.

He's looking into the face of Jesus. And he says, Lord Jesus, you know I wasn't strong. I was ugly. I didn't have a good voice. But Lord, I kept the faith.

I finished my course. Lord, I fought a good fight. Lord, these hands are pure from the blood of all men. How'd you like to meet the Lord that way? Many of us are going to meet the Lord with bloody hands.

And I believe the Lord Jesus would say to him, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Thank you, Paul, for being true to me. My friend, that's the measure of a life. Listen, not only the manner of the life, but the message of the life.

I want to mention a third thing I believe that made the midst of the Apostle Paul so much. Here's the way you measure a man by the manner of his life. You measure a man by the message of his life. And then you measure a man by the motto of his life. Every man has a motto for his life.

Maybe he's put it into words, maybe he hasn't. But there's something that impels him. There's something that motivates him. There's something that drives him.

There's something that constrains him. Here was Paul's constraint, look if you will beginning in verse 33, I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me. And I have showed you all things how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Now folks, if that's not yet underlined in your Bible, please underline it. Remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than receive. This was the motto of Paul's life. Remembering the words of Jesus, it is more blessed to give than to receive. The apostle Paul was a great man because he spent life not primarily as a receiver but as a giver.

Therefore, his life was blessed. Life is divided, the people in life are divided into two categories. They are the takers and the givers.

The takers eat better, the givers sleep better. Listen dear friend, it is more blessed, more blessed to give than to receive. When you die, all you're going to take with you is what you've given away. Now friend, what you spent is gone forever. What you did not spend will be left for others.

But what you gave away is yours forever. It is more blessed to give than to receive. And I want you to see what that motto did for him.

I want you to see what that philosophy did to him. Number one, it freed him from covetousness. Look if you will in verse 33, I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. One of the Ten Commandments is thou shalt not covet.

The Bible says that covetousness is idolatry. What is wrong with pari-mutual gambling? You were given a brochure when you came in talking about wagering, gambling, horse racing.

We're going to be this month in a horrendous battle here in our city. What is wrong with gambling? Gambling is built primarily upon the principle of covetousness. Which is wanting what somebody else has, getting that into your possession. Let me tell you why gambling is wrong. I want to put it in a simple sentence.

I want you to get it, get it big, get it plain, get it straight. Why is gambling wrong? Gambling is wrong because it is built on this principle. Gambling is profit and pleasure at the cost of someone else's loss and pain. Did you understand that? Gambling is profit and pleasure at the cost of somebody else's loss and pain. Remember this if you don't remember anything else, no one can win at gambling without someone else losing. Did you understand that?

It's so simple. People say, what's wrong with it? You are trying to get what belongs to somebody else without a fair exchange.

That's what's wrong. It is based on covetousness. When you win in gambling, you lower yourself and you victimize your neighbor. Paul said, I remember the words of the Lord Jesus, it's more blessed to give than to receive. Therefore I've coveted nothing that belongs to someone else. It freed him from covetousness.

But not only did it free him from covetousness, it freed him from idleness. Look if you will in verse 34, yea, ye yourselves know that these hands, he held up his hands, have ministered unto my necessities. That is I work for my needs.

And to them that were with me. And I have showed you all things how that's so laboring you ought to support the weak. Now what does Paul say? Paul said there are people who are weak. There are people who can't work. There are people who have needs. And Paul said, I worked so that I might help the needy. Now the Bible says that if a man won't work, neither should he eat. But there are some people who can't work.

And those of us who can work need to work to help those who are weak. Let me tell you something else about parimutual gambling, what's so wrong with it? It victimizes those who can least afford to be victimized. They say well it's a form of voluntary tax, it's a regressive tax. It is the poor, it is the needy who consistently spend the greater part of their income on gambling. It produces no wealth. It is only a transfer of wealth primarily from the hands of the poor and the needy into the hands of the more wealthy.

There are some people who will make money on parimutual gambling, but not many, and not the poor, and not the needy. And the spirit of Jesus is it's more blessed to give than to receive. If you want to help needy people don't build a racetrack, give them something in the name of Jesus, give.

And help, but don't hurt. Don't build a system based on greed. What was the motto of Paul's life? More blessed to give than receive. It saved him from covetousness, it saved him from idleness, and friend it saved him from selfishness. Nobody, nobody has a great life that lives a selfish life.

Nobody. The Apostle Paul lived a life of giving, not taking, of helping, not hurting, of loving, and lifting, and caring. In World War II in a Polish village the Nazis came into that village, accused all of the Jews in that village of crimes against the state, brought them out of their houses, brought them out to a particular field, and made them dig a ditch that would later become their grave. Then they stripped them of all of their clothing.

They lined those Polish Jews up against a wall. They got their machine guns and began to mow them down. Just bullet after bullet flying into that quivering flesh. And the people fell like cordwood head over heels into the grave.

A little 10 year old boy naked was standing there with his mother and his daddy. The bullets just ripped their bodies open and the blood splattered everywhere. And as they fell this little boy fell also but he was not touched by one bullet. He fell in the grave and lay still. They assumed he was dead because he was splattered with blood. And they began to push the dirt over these people and buried that little 10 year old boy alive.

His face was in such a position that he caught a pocket of air and the ground was not packed that hard. And he could actually breathe under the ground lying on the mutilated bodies of his loved ones. After several hours it was now dark he began to dig out of his own grave and clawed and dug his way to the surface.

Actually dug his way out of his grave. He was naked, clotted with blood, clotted with dirt. He went to the house of a neighbor and knocked on the door. And when the woman came she saw that little boy there covered with blood and dirt caked with the remains of his grave.

She recognized him as one of the Jewish boys and knew that he had been marked for death. She screamed at him, go away, and slammed the door in his face. The little boy dragged himself to another door and knocked on the door and begged for help.

And the same thing happened. The woman in terror said, no, I cannot help you, go away. He went to one third door, knocked on the door. And when the woman opened the door she looked at him and her face froze. But before she could say anything he said to her, don't you recognize me? I am the Jesus that you say you love. She broke and wept and said, come in, come in.

At the risk of her own life she sheltered that 10 year old child. Jesus said, in as much as you have done it unto the least of one of these my brethren, you've done it unto me. There's no easy way to have a great life. I'm telling you, dear friend, it is more blessed to give than it is to receive. And there's some of us when we're gone we're not going to be missed. But the others when we're gone they're going to weep sorely, those who know the things that count.

And primarily you measure man's life, you measure the man by the manner of his life, the message of his life, the motto of his life is more blessed to give than to receive. And I want to remind you one more time, my friend, when you die, you're going to leave behind all that you have and you're going to take with you all that you are. Let's pray. Father, as I look at the life of the Apostle Paul, and I realize, Lord, truly it was a life that has impacted eternity. I pray God that you'd help me in some measure to live the same kind of a life. Help us Lord. I pray now for those who are not saved that today they'll come to know Jesus. In His name. Amen. Amen.