Of course, we always have to
consider the context of the apostle saying these things, giving this
glory to God in these last verses. Having just strongly affirmed
his own credibility under these believers and defended his own
trustworthiness to them, and already has attributed that
to the grace of God in verse 12. He says, I've been consistent
with you. I've not been back and forth. I've
been direct and bold and reliable in all that I've said. But he
attributes that in verse 12, of course, by the grace of God,
we've had our conduct in the world and more abundantly to
you. So all of this is by God's grace. But here in these last
four verses, he more fully gives glory to God in all of this. Now, again, in verses 19 and
20, we have the reason for Paul defending himself. It's for the
sake of the gospel, for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was
preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus,
was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. There was nothing unsteady
about it, nothing compromising about it. It was direct and according
to the word of God as it's written, and according to the character
of the Lord himself, we preach him with confidence and affirmation
and a definite purpose. And verse 20, for all the promises
of God in him are yea and in him, amen. There's no conditions
on them. His promises are yes in Christ,
not yes in Christ and if you cooperate with. God made promises
to sinners and he makes good on them in Christ, not depending
on them to do something. Unto the glory of God. He's gonna
get all the glory out of it, isn't he? The salvation we preach,
we're not getting any glory out of it. That's why not that many
people wanna hear it. But God's people wanna hear it.
Because the heart of God's sheep is not unto us. Not unto us,
O Lord, but unto thy name. Give glory. So he's defending
himself. It was not for selfish reasons.
It was so that the gospel preached by him would be received well
and as it is, firm and settled and sure in Christ. But notice
the four things that God had done in verses 21 and 22 here. We'll spend most of our time
tonight in this hour to consider these things. So verse 21, now
he which establishes us with you in Christ, that's the first
thing God did. and hath anointed us is God. Thirdly, who hath also sealed
us. And fourthly, given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. Now notice that just as Christ
himself affirmed who he is when he was called an imposter,
when he was doubted by the religious establishment of his day, when
he was maligned and condemned as an imposter, what he did in
affirming who he was was he invoked his father. So Paul here shows
what God did as evidence of his own authenticity. That's our
Lord. Now look at John 5.31, our Lord
did that same thing. Look, turn with me to John 5.31. And so I wanted to see what Paul is doing here now.
He's not calling attention to himself. This is not some petty
defense of his own character. It's a strong and powerful defense
of his ministry, of the ministry of Christ that he was called
to. John 5.31. "'If I bear witness
of myself,' the Lord said, "'my witness is not true, "'there
is another that beareth witness of me. "'And I know that the
witness "'which he witnesseth of me is true. "'You sent unto
John, and he bear witness unto the truth.' "'He referred to
the Lord Jesus. "'He said, there cometh one after
me "'that's preferred before me. "'The buckle of his shoes
I'm not worthy to unlatch. But he said, I receive not testimony
from man. That's not the confirmation of
who I am. He was a burning and a shining
light, verse 35, and you were willing for a season to rejoice
in his light, but I have greater witness than that of John. For
the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same
works that I do bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent
me. Remember Paul talking about that?
unto you was, you know, it was inconsistency and instability
and sureness because of the ministry the Lord gave me. The work that
the Lord gave Paul to do was what he was doing. And he said
that bears witness. Verse 37, the father himself
which hath sent me hath borne witness of me. That's when God
almighty spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved son.
Hear ye him, I'm pleased in him, with him. But you have neither heard his
voice at any time, nor seen his shape, and you have not his word
abiding in you. For whom he hath sent him, you
believe not. Now also turn over to John chapter
eight, verse 12. John 8, 12, then spake Jesus
again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life. Christ being that light, if we
are followers of him, we'll not be in darkness. Verse 13, the
Pharisees therefore said unto him, thou barest record of thyself.
Thy record is not true. So they accused him of being
an imposter. Jesus answered and said unto
them, though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true,
for I know whence I came and whither I go, but you cannot
tell whence I come and whither I go. You judge after the flesh. I judge no man. Not that way,
anyway. And yet if I judge in the way
that he does judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone,
but I and the Father that sent me. It is also written in your
law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear
witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness
of me." So the Lord Jesus Christ referred to the works the Father
gave him to do that bore witness of him, and also the Father himself.
And Paul, in like manner, not in defense of his person, but
the ministry that the Lord There were those that called Paul an
imposter, that he wasn't a true apostle, that he wasn't even
alive until, that the Lord wasn't even alive when Paul claimed
that he met the Lord. And people doubted that and questioned
that and accused him just like they did the Lord. And what did
Paul call upon? The work that he gave me to do, that's what
you see me doing. What I've written to you, you've
read it and affirmed it. You know what I am, what I do.
And also he's given glory to God, just like the Lord Jesus
did. It's the Father that gave me
this to do. It's the Father that did all these things. And that's
why I stand before you tonight. Paul makes reference to his conduct
among them, his preaching of Christ, and now God himself and
what God had done for him among them. And the first thing is
he said he established me with you in Christ. The Lord hath wrought, when that
lame man was healed, Simon said, the Lord hath wrought this here
among you today. That's true of the ministry that
the Lord gives. The Lord's done this. How many
times over the last 20 plus years have we had to say, look what
God did, look what God did, look what God did. God established us with you in
Christ. Established is to make firm,
to make sure in Christ. We have a bond in him, a firm
and sure bond of trust and fellowship. Remember the things he talked
about, the necessary trust among them and be in each other's joy,
the fellowship, the brotherhood that they have. That bond is
Christ. It's a person, it's not our personalities. It's not that we just like each
other, although God makes it that way too, doesn't he? I like
y'all. I love you and I like you. But
our bond is Christ, that's why we're here. That's why we're
together. He's the one that brought us
together here. And he's the commonality of our purpose here. Our firm
foundation is the rock of ages, and God did that. God did that. Of God are we in Christ Jesus,
who has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. All of us being established in
Christ together, one body, one family, one Lord, one faith,
one building, fitly framed. I want us to read that. If you
would, turn with me to Ephesians chapter two. There's a lot in
the context of that. that he established us with you
in Christ. Do you see that here? I believe
we can say that here. Look at Ephesians 2.14 and think
what the Lord has done. This describes his ministry wherever
it's found. Ephesians 2.14, for he is our
peace. who hath made both one. He made
us one. He is our peace. He didn't offer
peace. He didn't provide peace. He didn't
teach us peace. He is our peace. He hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished
in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man. So making peace and that he might
reconcile both unto God, he made us one and he made all of us
one with God by that same blood. Look at it. Unto God in one body
by the cross, having slain that enmity too. The enmity that we
are by nature before God and against God. And came and preached
peace to you. which were far off. He preached
it himself, and he sent his ambassadors, ambassadors of Jesus Christ,
with that same message, peace to you which were far off and
to them that were not. For through him, we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now, therefore, you are
no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints. and of the household of God. You see Paul's language
in all of this. He established us with you in
Christ, made firm, settled us. And are built, verse 20, upon
the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. What's that
foundation? Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. And this is more than just going
to church. It's more than just, well, yeah,
we go down there. It's more than just a social, it's not a social
gathering. In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth
unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together
for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. That's what Paul's
talking about. God did that. And it's evident
that he did. We know that. If you're in on
this, you know that's true. Look at the second thing that
he did. He anointed, he anointed us. Now, you know how religion
uses that word. If you have the anointing, you
know, the anointing of the spirit, that means you can, speak a bunch
of gibberish and jump over pews and stuff. This word anointed, it has to
do with God furnishing Paul with the necessary power and ability
to do what God sent him to do. Look up the word in the Greek
and you'll see where I got that from. God furnished Paul with
the ability, the necessary power and ability to do what God sent
him to do. God doesn't find, he doesn't
call the qualified, he qualifies those that he calls. And that's
just what he's saying here. Who was more unqualified than
Saul of Tarsus to be God's apostle? We're gonna reach that in a minute,
it's shocking. God trusted and entrusted the
gospel to somebody that was a blasphemer. Everybody was more qualified
than Paul was to be a gospel preacher, but God called him
and he anointed him He gave him the power and the ability to
do what God sent him to do in preaching the gospel. What did
Paul have the power to do? Yes, all the apostles at that
time could perform miracles up to a point. And to confirm the
word, we see in the scriptures exactly why God gave that ability. He was able to, Simon was able
to heal that lame man so that a crowd would gather around and
he could preach the gospel to them. And we know that to confirm the
message of Christ and what he does for sinners. That's why
he gave that. But that's not what Paul is talking about here. What was Paul's, he said, the
Lord didn't send me to baptize. He didn't send me to convert
people. He didn't send me to rack up numbers. He sent me to
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what God, enabled Paul,
gave him the power, the necessary power and ability to perform.
He said, you're going to be my witness to the Gentiles. That's
the job God gave him to do. He was uniquely unfit for that,
being the sworn and desperate enemy of the Son of God. But
God qualified him anyway and anointed him to be a preacher
of Christ. So that's what we see here. The
preaching of the gospel, Paul acknowledged that no man is sufficient
for these things, 2 Corinthians 2.16. Who is sufficient for that? And he confessed in 2 Corinthians
3.5, the same letter, by the way, in both cases, that his
sufficiency was of God. That's that word anointed right
there. My sufficiency is of God. God hath made me able to do what he sent me to do. I'm sure that's as evident to
you as it is to me that God does that. Look at Paul's testimony
in Galatians chapter one. Let's look at this together.
This is Paul's testimony, and we rejoice to see the ministry
of the Lord everywhere. In Paul's example, what God did
for Paul, he does for his people all over. He said, I will send you pastors.
And Paul was one of those. Galatians 1.15, but when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb. This wasn't a
random thing that, You know, God, you know, saw something
in Paul. He saw a spark in Paul, you know.
No. He separated him from his mother's
womb and called me by his grace. This generation needs to be taught
the meaning of the word grace. Grace. And this is a pretty good
example of it right here. Look at what he said. He called
me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. Boy, you talk about salvation
is of the Lord. He revealed His Son in me. The Lord Jesus Christ is revealed
in this book. This book says even the heavens
declare the glory of God. But if you're gonna have the
Son revealed in you, that's as creative a work of God Almighty
as the heavens are. He revealed his son in me that
I might preach him. That's what we're talking about.
That's the anointing. He said before he was ever born,
when he was in it, he's gonna preach my son. And when the time
came, when it came to pass, it was time for Paul to start doing
that. He revealed his son in me. When it pleased him, he did
that. He fit me for the work that he had purposed for me to
do, and he let me in on it. Paul, by the way, here's what
you're gonna do for the rest of your life. And he did. By the power, you see the power
of God, he took the most unlikely prospect and used him like nobody else. And when he did that, he revealed
his son that I might preach him among the heathen. Immediately,
I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem
to them which were apostles before me." He didn't say, oh, I'm an
apostle now. I guess I better go get with the apostles. No,
God had to teach him some things, didn't he? I went to Arabia and
returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years, I went
up to Jerusalem to see Peter. and abode with him 15 days. But
other of the apostles saw none save James, the Lord's brother.
Now the things which I write unto you behold before God, I
lie not. Afterwards, I came into the regions
of Syria and Cilicia and was unknown by face unto the churches
of Judea which were in Christ, but they had heard only that
he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith
which he once destroyed. And what did Paul say in Artaic?
To the glory of God. And they glorified God in me.
What God had sent Paul to do was simply to preach his son. And so God revealed Christ in
Paul that he might do that. That's the anointing. He anointed
me. And that's evident too. That's evident when that happens. Listen to 1 Timothy 1.12, I'll
read this one to you. 1 Timothy 1.12, I thank Christ
Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful. He enabled me and counted me
faithful. He didn't find Saul faithful. And he says that plainly, putting
me into the ministry who was before a blasphemer He counted
a blasphemer faithful to preach Christ? And a persecutor and injurious,
but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith
and love which is in Christ Jesus." This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. The gospel is so
simple, isn't it? The power of the Lord. He came
into this world to save sinners. Shame on anybody that says he
came to do all he could do. He came to save sinners. And
that's what he did. And then Paul said, God sealed me.
He sealed me. This is something special. It
means to set your mark upon, to confirm, to approve, to attest
to, to authenticate. Isn't that what Paul's talking
about in this whole chapter? To authenticate. It's God that
does that. And that's what he's saying all
along. Look at the work that he gave me to do. You know that
that's what I did. You know that that's what I did.
I haven't sought any of the things that the Pharisees seek, the
fame and notoriety and the money and all the things that they're
in it for, for the approval of men. I'm sealed. Listen to, this is
directly from Strong's Concordance, which is, supposedly a well thought
of translation of the Greek and Hebrew words. To prove one's testimony to a
person that he is what he professes to be. That's what our Lord Jesus Christ
did when he was doubted and questioned and maligned and accused. And that's what happened here.
And it was God. that showed what Paul was and
what he was doing and why. Paul is appealing to them here
and reminding them of some things, but saying here, it's God only
who can authenticate who I am, that I am who I profess to be,
because he's the one that made me what I am. He's the one that
called me. He said in 1 Corinthians 15,
I am the least of the apostles and I'm not meet to be called
an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the
grace of God, I am what I am. Sealed. I have the mark of God
upon me and it's by his grace. And his grace, which was bestowed
upon me was not in vain. It never is. When we preach the
grace of God, we're not talking about grace that kind of makes
things possible. You know, God, you know, grace
always, it's never in vain. Grace is, God saves by his grace. He calls by his grace. And when he does that, it's not
in vain. But he said, there was a result. It had an effect on
me. His word doesn't fall and then
return into him void. But he said, I labored more abundantly
than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with
me. That grace that he bestowed on me was effectual. It had results. What is God's mark upon his preachers? How can you tell? the genuine from the false. We preach Christ and Him crucified,
that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in
the power of God. The earnest of the Spirit. He's
given us the earnest of the Spirit. That word earnest literally means
earnest money. We understand what that is, don't
we? It means, and this is a direct quote from Strong's again, money
which in purchases is given as a pledge or down payment that
the full amount will subsequently be paid. When God puts a down
payment, that means he's bought somebody
and he's gonna have them. He's gonna have them now. This
is not saying that the presence of the Spirit in us, that we
detect, oh, I feel the Spirit in me, so that's proof that I'm
God's. That's not what this is saying.
The testimony of the Spirit in us. What the Spirit does in us is
our assurance. And you know what the Spirit
does in us? He takes the things of Christ and reveals them to
us. And when Christ is preached,
we say, truth, Lord, truth, Lord. That's our assurance. It's not,
oh, I feel the spirit moving in me. I must be, I'm definitely
a believer. No, it's I look to Christ, the one whom the spirit
reveals to his people. You remember what he said, John
16, 13? How be it when he, the spirit
of truth, is come, this is the Lord Jesus speaking, he will
guide you into all truth. He'll guide you into all truth.
For He shall not speak of Himself. The Holy Spirit doesn't cause
people to run around talking about the Holy Spirit. We've
got the Spirit. Look at the gifts of the Spirit.
Anoint us with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes the things
of mine. He shall glorify me. He shall
speak and He will show you things to come. He will not speak of
Himself, He shall glorify me. He glorifies the Son. When there's
a preacher that's filled with the Holy Spirit or has some measure
of the Holy Spirit, will preach Christ and what He did for sinners.
He'll preach Him exalted. He'll glorify Him in salvation
and not the sinner. for he shall receive of mine
and shall show it unto you. Do you know who Christ is? Then
you have the earnest of the spirit. God has bought you. He put a
down payment on you. Purchased now by the precious
blood of Christ, Not that that's just part of what he bought us
with. None of the types and pictures
and parables in the scripture hold up in every detail. A parable,
a picture like that is always given to teach one thing. And
that one thing is that what God, if he gives you the earnest of
his spirit, then you're his. That's what that's teaching.
You can't take it too far and say, well, the blood of Christ
was just part of it. No, he bought us with his precious
blood. That's clearly taught in the
scriptures, but not purchased, but not possessed yet in one
sense only. I love to think about this. There's
just one thing that's between me and my Savior now, time. And that's why it's such a glorious
thing to read in the book of Revelation, time shall be no
more, no more. Purchased by the precious blood
of Christ, but not possessed yet in the sense of being taken
home to be with the one who bought us, but the pledge of God's spirit
in us now is enough. And Paul said, God has given
us that. He's given us that. He's revealed Christ in us. And
that's what the Spirit's business in this world. Let's just read the next four
verses in closing. Verse 23 in chapter one. Moreover,
I call God for a record upon my soul that to spare you, I
came not as yet unto Corinth. And that's defined in, in a couple
of verses here from now, to spare you. What does he mean by that?
Verse 24, not for that we have dominion over your faith. It's
not that we're the judges of you or that we have some dominion.
But you stand by faith in Christ. And we have no say in that. That's
not what he meant by sparing or not sparing or him having
any strange authority like the so-called Catholic church claims. But look at verse one of chapter
two, but I determined this with myself that I would not come
again to you in heaviness. I don't want to come to you.
And we just talk about problems and disasters and bad things. And you know, from his first
letter to the Corinthians that they had a lot of, there was
a lot to be heavy about in that church, wasn't there? He said,
I don't want to come to you like that. I don't wanna come to you in
heaviness for if I make you sorry, if I come and it's all negative,
if it's all sorry, if it's all rebuke and reproof, the scriptures
are profitable for that, and that's good. But when we're rebuked,
we're corrected too, aren't we? It's profitable for correction.
It's not just constant rebuke, rebuke, rebuke. We're rebuked
by the scriptures and corrected so that we're able to worship
and peace and fellowship and love. So if I make you sorry, who is
then that maketh me glad but the same which is made sorry
by me? I'm a little bit selfish in this thing too. I want to
rejoice with you, not be heavy. And all I really want to say
about that is this, I'm thankful. He said, what I want is gladness. I want you to make me glad, and
I want to make you glad. We're helpers of, look in verse
24, we're helpers of your joy. It's joy and gladness that Paul,
he wanted to come to them in that spirit, Beautiful fellowship
from the Lord, and I'm thankful for that in this church, for
gladness, for joy. Heaviness comes. Heaviness is
inevitable. As we know from Paul's first letter to them,
there was a lot of that in this church. There was a lot to be
addressed, but those things were addressed in that first letter,
and he prays that the Lord would correct him in those things so
that when he came, That it would be joy and gladness. He longed for that and we We
should long for that when it's disrupted and and thank God for
it when we have it Thank God for it and not not take that
for granted What a blessing and wonder how discouraging it is
to hear heavy things from From anywhere in the Lord's Church
and I'm so thankful that there's joy and gladness
in the preaching of the gospel and in the worship of our Lord. I wanted to read a couple of
Psalms to you. Let me read this one, Psalm 133,
one. Behold, how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard,
and went down to the skirts of his garments. What does he mean
by that, like that ointment? Well, there's a couple of things
about that. That ointment was perfectly unique. And unique
doesn't mean what people seem to think it means. Unique doesn't
mean there's not many like it. Unique means there's nothing
like it. It was absolutely forbidden to
copy it. It was formulated, prescribed
by God for that one purpose, for anointing his priest. So this fellowship, this unity,
this joy, this gladness, there's nothing in this world like that. Can you attest to that? There is nothing else like it. If there is, then you'll just
kind of come and go and you'll be, you know, you'll go to church
every once in a while because you think it's the right thing
to do. But if there's nothing else like it, then you're in
on it, aren't you? You're in on it. And there's something else about
it. It was it was a wonderful smell. It was a sweet fragrance,
unlike any other. It was beautiful, and it was
glorifying to God. It's a picture of the sweet-smelling
savor of Christ unto God. That precious ointment, you see
why he says it's precious? Can you picture it flowing down
Aaron the high priest's beard and onto his garments and the
skirts of his garments? Nothing like it. What's that
smell? Beautiful, wonderful, unique. And as the dew of Hermon, refreshing, the dew that descended upon the
mountains of Zion, the dew, the rain that falls down from heaven,
all life is sustained by that, by God sending down the droplets from heaven of his precious word. And it's in Zion. Zion's always
a picture of the church. And it's there in his church
that the Lord commanded the blessing. Commanded the blessing. Even life forevermore. A command is quite different
from an offer, isn't it? He doesn't offer the blessing,
he commands it. He speaks it, and it's done.
He came to Abraham, an idolater, from a family of idolaters, from
a country of idolaters, and said, I'm in the business of blessing
sinners, and I'm gonna bless you. There was no contingencies,
there was no offer made. In blessing, I'm gonna bless
you. That's our Savior. Let's pray.