"This I Do For the Gospel's Sake" (I Corinthians 9:19-27)

"This I Do For the Gospel's Sake" from I Corinthians 9:19-27 was preached by Dr. Mark McElreath at the City Baptist Church of Atlanta on March 8, 2026.

Find out more about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta at www.mycitybaptist.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the City Pulpit. Bible messages from the pulpit ministry of the City Baptist Church in Atlanta. Please take your Bible with me. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. We're making our way through this book of 1 Corinthians, passage by passage. This book that Paul wrote to this church he loves in the city of Corinth. And we'll go to the second portion of this book, 1 Corinthians chapter 9, we'll be the Bible says, For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. And to them that are under the law as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that are without law, as without law, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize, so run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others I myself should be a castaway. But you mark this phrase in verse number twenty-three, and we'll take this for the theme of the Bible message this evening. Verse 23, this I do for the gospel's sake. This I do for the gospel's sake. And I ask you this evening, what will you and I do for the sake of the gospel? Paul is saying here, there's something worth living for, something worth fighting for, and there's a way in which I am going to live so that I may advance the gospel. In fact, he uses a word in this passage, you probably noticed it mentioned over and over again in just these few short verses. He mentions the word gain five times. If you look at verse number 19, he says, I've made myself a servant unto all that I might gain the more. He says in verse number 20, I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews. He says in verse 21, To them that are without law as without law. And he says at the end that I might gain them that are without law. Look at verse number 22, he says, To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. Now we realize he's not gaining these people to himself, but he says, There is gain to be had, there is profit to be had for the gospel's sake, and there are things to give up, and there are things to embrace, that the gospel may go forth in power. This I do for the gospel's sake. We think about this gain that is to be had here. We think of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking in Mark chapter 8 and verse 36. He said, For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? He's speaking of gain there, isn't he? Well, why don't we ask this to ourselves? What does it profit us if we gain money, notoriety, accolades, and lose the souls of our city, or what shall we give in exchange for the souls of our city? What are we willing to sacrifice? What are we willing to do? How far are we willing to go for the sake of the gospel in Atlanta? For the sake of the gospel in home park, for the sake of the gospel in you fill in the street, you fill in the place where you live, for the sake of the gospel. Because Paul says, here's how far I'm willing to go. Would you make note of something this evening? If you're writing things down, would you take a few notes? Number one, for the gospel's sake, number one, I serve. For the gospel's sake, I serve. If you'll look with me in verse number 19, Paul says, For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all. Paul made himself subservient to some things that he might gain the more and win people to Christ. Now, consider Paul's pedigree. In fact, if you hold your place here, come with me to the book of Philippians, chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3, Paul gives us a little glimpse into really who he is. Paul was really a somebody, you could say. He says in Philippians chapter 3, if you look at verse 5, he says, circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel. That means he was a good Jew. He says, of the tribe of Benjamin. Do you know what other great Jew, what great Hebrew came from the tribe of Benjamin? Saul came from Benjamin. He says, in Hebrew of the Hebrews. That means like you would say, well, this is a man's man. Well, you'd say, boy, he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He stood out even among the greats. He says in verse number five, as touching the law, a Pharisee. He was very, very scrupulous in how he kept the law. He says in verse 6, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching righteousness, which is in the law, blameless. He says, You couldn't hold anything against me as far as the law came. In fact, if you if you looked at Paul's history, you find he was educated, he moved in high society, he was possibly on the Sanhedrin court. He possessed Roman citizenship by birth, which was no small feat in and of itself, and he could converse with intellectuals and artisans alike. This is Paul. And if anyone could have fully embraced who they were, it would have been Paul. And yet what does he say? Yet I have made myself a servant. Now I could have gone in as Hebrew of the Hebrews, Paul, but I choose to go in as servant, Paul. I could have gone in as circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin, all of these things, but he says, I'll lay that aside and I'll be a servant unto all. And in fact, he shows us here that Paul met people where they were, and he found common ground with them. He's not saying literally here in verse number 19 that he's going to go to prison. Now we know that will happen. But he's saying, I can restrain some of my own liberty and who I am, so that I may find more common ground with people that I come across in all my church planting travels. And boy, he met quite a few interesting people, didn't he? And he didn't come in bombastically saying, I am Paul, follow me. He just came in, I think, quite under the radar as much as he could, a servant unto all, finding people where they're at, finding common ground, and trying to bring them the gospel. Look what he says in verse 20. In verse 20, he makes the point that though I'm free from the law, I will put myself under the law. Now look at verse 20. He says, Unto the Jews I became as a Jew. What does that mean? If he sat down in a Jew with a Jew and he thought, boy, I'd really like to have pork chops for supper. And everything in him would allow him to have pork chops for supper. In fact, in his liberty, he had liberty to eat pork chops for supper. And yet what does he say? You know what? I don't want to be an offense to this Jew because I want to get the gospel to this Jew. So I'm just going to eat whatever they'll I'll eat little lentils and pita, whatever they eat, I'm going to eat it. I'll be a servant unto that. Look what he says in verse 20. Unto the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews. To them that are under the law as under the law that I might gain them that are under the law. Now, Paul, you're not under the law. He says, I know I'm not under the law. I'm not following the law in order to be saved, but I can put myself under that, I can be a servant to that, that I might get them the gospel. What what might might might we withhold ourselves from full liberty to do it, that we may get someone else the gospel for the gospel, because he makes the point here that though he is a Jew, he'll act like a Gentile. Look at verse 21. He says to them that are without law. Now that doesn't necessarily mean an outlaw, but it means they're not under the Old Testament law. Someone not under the Old Testament law. He's speaking of a Gentile here. Those that are without law, that's without law. Now you say, I don't know. That sounds like now, Paul, how far are you going to go? How far are you willing to go? If they go down to the down to the bar, are you going to go down to the bar? No, look what he says. He draws a line. He says, Being not without law to God. Okay, so how far are we going to go? We're going to go as far as God allows us to go. He says, but under the law to Christ, so we understand he draws a line. But he says, I'll become a servant to them. Why? Verse 21, that I might gain them that are without law. This is especially helpful when one goes to the mission field. We served in a foreign land, we served in another place. And there were things that we had every right to do. We were not under compulsion to do certain things, but we said, you know what? We do not want in any way be an offense. And we do not in any way want to keep the gospel back from being heard. And so, yeah, we'll we'll withhold ourselves. We'll hold some things back. We'll become a servant unto certain cultural expectation or certain cultural sensitivity, not without law to God, but with law to Christ. We could have, everywhere we went in Ethiopia, we could have said, Well, we speak English. We're going to speak English everywhere we go. But you know what we did? We started learning the language. And you know what they did? People only speak Amharic. That's the main language that's spoken there. There's there's 90 some indigenous languages in Ethiopia. We speak Amharic, and we would just utter a few words, and they'd say, Oh, go buzz, so strong. Oh, you did so good. And boy, it endeared us. Why? Did we have to do that? We didn't have to do that. And there are some there are some liberties we can lay aside and become a servant. So that we may do it for the gospel's sake. Look at verse 22, because here's what he says. He says, To the weak, became I as weak. Look, Paul is about the strongest Christian you could find. And yet he says, But though I am strong, I become weak. He says, that I might gain the weak. I have made all things to all men that I might by all means save some. Now go back with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 8, because we've looked at this before. But he makes this point in 1 Corinthians 8 in verse number 11. He's dealing here specifically with Christian liberty, weak Christians and strong Christians. And there are those in the church that do not feel like a Christian can morally eat food that's been sacrificed to the idols and then sold in the marketplace. They're just not going to do it. Here's what he says in 1 Corinthians 8 verse 11. He says, And through my knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died. He says, I know these idols are nothing. I know we can eat the meat that's sold in the marketplace, that's been sacrificed to idols. It's not a thing. But because there are some that think that's an issue, because of my knowledge, am I going to make my weak brother perish? Look what he says in verse 12. For when ye sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. He says, I can pull back on my liberty a little bit, so as not to hurt this weak brother. Verse 13, wherefore if meat make my brother to offend? He says, Look, if they got an issue with meat, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. What is he saying there? I'll become a servant unto all. How far are we willing to go? Really, maybe we could ask, how low are we willing to go as a servant for the gospel's sake? That's the real question. There are a number of historical examples. You can consider Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor arrived in China in 1854. He wore very Western style suits. He mainly stayed on the missionary compounds, very much separated from the Chinese people. And he realized very quickly this isn't getting the job done. Now, in his liberty, did he have every right to wear the clothes he wanted to wear, live where he wanted to live? Absolutely. But you know what he said? We got to gain some. So I'm going to become a servant. What did he do? He started wearing Chinese dress. He even started wearing Chinese hairstyle. He started eating Chinese food. He started learning the Chinese language. Because when he was dressing and living the way he was, he was connected with what they called the foreign devils. But when he said, I'll lay all that aside and I'll start dressing like you, speaking like you, talking like you, eating the food you eat, living the places you live, he started getting invited into homes. They started saying, Now, why is a person like you coming to China? He says, Well, let me tell you, I have a message to give you. Why? That I might gain the Chinese, Hudson Taylor would say. Amy Carmichael grew up as a young girl in Northern Ireland. Or Amy Carmichael grew up as a young girl in Ireland, and she had brown eyes. She prayed as a little girl, Lord, give me blue eyes. God never answered her prayer. You know why? Because he was going to send her to India. And when she went to India, she'd take tea and coffee and stain her skin a darker color and dress the way the Indians dress, and they could, they'd never know it was her, because she had brown eyes. And she would come in and out of the cities and in and out of the towns over fifty years in India? No, but she said, I'll become a servant unto all that I might gain some. There's a story of Don Richardson. He went in the 1960s to the Sawi people of Papua New Guinea. And when he arrived there, he realized their culture was so turned around that when he told the gospel message, that in the story of the life of Christ, Judas was the hero and Jesus was the victim. Because they had a saying among the Sawi, the highest honor that a warrior could achieve was fattening a friend for the slaughter. You actually would feign a friendship with someone, and then you would quite literally stab them in the back and kill them. And they thought Judas was the hero. He said, There's got to be a way into their understanding. He began to study their language and their history and their culture, and he found the story of what was called the peace child. When there were two warring tribes or two warring villages, if they wanted peace, they would take the child of one of the chieftains and send them to the other tribe, and that child would live and be raised among the other tribe. And as long as the peace child lived, there would be peace among those two villages. And he said, God sent a peace child. We were at war with God, and God sent his peace child to our village. And as long as he lived and as long as he was there, we could be at peace with God. And the Sawi said, we understand that. Now, could Don Richardson have said, I'm done with these people? What a corrupt understanding of the world. Numbers of them were saved. Why? Because he said, I'll be servant unto all that I might gain some. Would you go with me to the book of Philippians, chapter 2? Philippians chapter 2, verse number 7. It says, speaking of Christ, but made himself of no reputation. Boy, what a reputation he had, Son of God. Angels worship him, seated at the right hand of the Father. But he said, No, I'll make myself of no reputation. You know what that means? Lay aside the titles. And took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. What did it take for Jesus Christ to come to us for the gospel's sake? It took his humiliation. You know how humiliating it was for the very Son of God to come to earth? John 1.14 says the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Take on the form of a servant, a human, become a baby again, learn to walk and learn to talk and be fed, and all the things that go along with being a child and growing up, be a teenager, and grow up to be a young man. That's the humiliation of Christ. Why? That he might gain some. Can we become a servant unto all for the gospel's sake? Jesus did. But not only serving, would you make note of a second thing? Go back to our passage, 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Paul says, For the gospel's sake, I'll serve. Well, you write down a second thing, he says, For the gospel's sake, I will strive. For the gospel's sake, I will strive. In fact, he says, if you look with me, in verse number 25, and every man that striveth for the mastery, he's he really goes from a servant picture in many ways to a sports picture. This would have been very, very familiar to the Corinthians. They had a set of triennial games that was near Corinth. There was an Ithsmas that connected them with the rest of the mainland. It was called the Ithsmian Games. Every three years they would have these games, mainly races. And for a long time they rivaled even the Olympic Games that we connect with Athens. And so they understood the sport's metaphor. And he says in verse 23, This I do for the gospel's sake that I might be partaker thereof with you. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize, so run that you may obtain. Now he's saying here, they all run in a race. You know what I think he's doing? I think he's connecting gospel work with hard work. I mean, if we're going to reach people with the gospel, it's not going to be done, or the old preacher say, it's not going to be done on spare time and pocket change. If we're really going to reach the world with the gospel, it's going to take great effort. Much more effort than it takes for those to labor in these games, in these Itzmian games, and the training that they have. He says, they run in a race and they run all, but one receiveth the prize. Now you say, what is he saying here? One receiveth the prize. Does that mean we're all in competition with other Christians? Does that mean we're all running and just one of us is going to win the prize? No. I think this is what he's saying here. He's saying they run all, and one receiveth the prize, and so run that you may obtain. Here's what he's saying. When a runner runs in a race, there's only two outcomes winning and losing. And you know what the outcome is in our gospel work? There's only winning and losing. What is that? Either a soul goes to heaven, or a soul is lost forever to hell. That's all there is. There is no first, second, third place in the gospel work. It's we either gain them or we lose them for eternity. He says here, so run that ye may obtain. Let me ask you, how are we running? Let me ask you, are we running? Are we even running for the gospel's sake? Would you look at our lives and say, yes, yes, we are in the race? Many times we like watching the race. We like hearing about the race. We just had the Winter Olympics. And boy, I tell you, for you know, two weeks or 16 days, however long it was, you know what? We get in at night, sit down. I need to get the whole recap. I want to watch all the videos on all the gold medals. I want to know all the all the little stories that are going on, right? But I never went cross-country. I I didn't even get cold. But I wanted to hear all about it. And sometimes, sometimes we as Christians, we like to hear about the race. We like to watch the race. We like to find out how it's going in the race. But we got to get in the race. And here he says, so run that you may obtain. Oh, it's going to take a lot of work. Yes, so run for the gospel's sake. Strive for the gospel's sake. Look what he says in verse 25. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. There's a diligence, there's a work. I was looking up about some Olympic training routines. Some Olympic swimmers swim 40 to 50 miles a week in training. Imagine running 40 or 50 miles a week. Not running, swimming in a pool 40 or 50 miles a week. Many rowing. Routines begin at 5 a.m. on the water, and they begin. The warm-up is a 10-mile row. That sounds like agony to me. But what is it? You know what it is? It's verse 25. Striving for the mastery. It's being temperate in all things. There's a U.S. snowboarder, Justin Reeder, who lived out of his truck in 2013 in order to qualify and train for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. He sacrificed housing in order to pursue his dream of winning Olympic gold. Now I wonder, would any of us be willing to live out of a truck for the gospel's sake? To forego sure housing and wasn't working a job. He just trying to get by, live out of his car. It was worth the sacrifice to him to be an Olympian. I had to look up. Boy, I want to hear the rest of this story. He competed in the men's parallel slalom, and he came in 24th place and was never an Olympian again. But he felt this is worth it. This is gain to me. This is for the Olympics' sake. And I ask you, what will we give for the gain of souls for the gospel's sake? This city will not be reached with the gospel. This church will not be edified and built by a mere chance. Now we realize the Lord has to touch it and He has to bless, but it's not going to happen by all of us sitting back on our heels and just watching it all pass by. It will take striving for the mastery. It says here, we do it to obtain, or they do it. Look at verse 25. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown. You know what that was? That was the laurel wreath of the games. Well, it wouldn't take long, and that laurel wreath was going to fade. That laurel wreath lost its green tint, and that laurel wreath was gone. The gold medals fade and tarnish. But he says here, they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. You know, we have, according to the Lord Jesus Christ, we have a place where we can lay up treasure where moth and rust do not corrupt, thieves do not break through and steal. That gold doesn't tarnish, nobody's going to take it. That's what I want to be a part of. That's what I want to sacrifice for. That's what I want to give my life to. He says in verse 25 or verse 26, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I not as one that beateth the air. What is he saying here? He's saying, I'm not just running some earthly race, this beating the air. I'm not running a race and I'm not getting in the ring, is what he's saying. This is something far more important than that. That we may not lose them to eternity. He says, I so run. He said the same thing in verse 24. So run that you may obtain. He says in verse 26, I therefore so run. He says in verse 26, so fight I. It reminds me of John 3.16, for God so loved the world. There's an intensity to it. He says in verse 27, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. Paul says, I'm working harder than any athlete does in God's work. By the way, we should be the hardest working, furthest going, most disciplined people. He says, I keep under my body, I bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I had preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. You know what that castaway is? Some will interpret that and say that Paul may lose his salvation. That's not what he's speaking of. Being a castaway speaks of being rejected or unapproved by God. And for the sports analogy, it's coming to the end of all that training and missing the cut. It's coming to the end of all that training, and they say, No, you're not on the Olympic team. But what greater loss there is if we come to the end of our life and the Lord says, I gave you every opportunity, and you didn't make the cut. Yeah, you're in heaven. You're going to get in. But I had so much more for you to do. I wanted to see you striving for mastery. I wanted to see you bringing it into subjection. Paul puts it this way in Philippians chapter 3. When you turn over, we were in Philippians a moment ago, but look at Philippians chapter 3 and verse 13. Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. And by the way, forgetting those things which are behind, I think he's talking about leaving behind blessings and burdens. There are things he could be proud of, but there are also things he was ashamed of in his past. And he says, I'll leave them all behind. And then look at verse 14. He says, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God, Christ Jesus. I press, I push, I'm giving myself to it. It is worth the cost because I have gain in mind. What are we willing to give our lives to? What are we willing to do for the gospel's sake? What are we willing to give? How far are we willing to go? People may think, those people at City Baptist Church, they're just, I don't know, they're they're so sold out. I mean, are there worse things people could say about you? They just keep going. They're just after people, they're seeking people. Good. Because we'd be known for a lot of things, but let us be known as a church that understands the gain and that what we're doing is for the gospel's sake. For the gospel's sake, I serve. I will limit some of the liberty I have. I'll become a servant unto all. And for the gospel's sake, I will strive. I will push. I will go further. I will go farther because eternity is in view. Thank you for listening to the City Pulpit. For more information about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta, please visit www.mycitybaptist.com.