Alright brethren, let's turn
to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. In verse 18, Paul says, Now some
are puffed up as though I would not come to you. These were the
false preachers in the city of Corinth and they were full of
themselves, they were puffed up, they've been spreading all
types of false rumors against Paul trying to undermine his
authority and here they were saying that he was not going
to be faithful to come to Corinth and preach again. Verse 19, he
says, but I will come to you shortly if the Lord will. Paul acknowledged that God's
will ruled over his own will. He can only do what God willed
for him to do. And that's what we ought to answer
if it's the Lord's will. We don't know what tomorrow holds.
James said, your life's a vapor. We ought to say if it's the Lord's
will, we'll go and do this or that. Verse 19, he says, But
when I do come, I'll know not the speech of them which are
puffed up, not the speech of them, but the power. See, Paul
wasn't interested in their ability to speak. He wasn't interested
in how they could tell clever stories and give out these clever
analogies and hold the attention of the people and draw great
crowds because of their ability to speak. He said, I desire to
know if the power of God is working in you. If it's the power of
God working. He wanted to know if they were
depending upon the power of God in their preaching. He wanted to know if the power
of the Holy Spirit was giving sinners, dead sinners, life and
converting sinners. He wanted to know if it was the
power of God doing it or the power of men doing it. In verse
20 he says, For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. The kingdom of God here, what
is that when he says the kingdom of God? Well, you think about
a kingdom. All kingdoms we know about by
nature are of this world. But this kingdom he speaks of
here, the kingdom of God, is not of this world. It's a spiritual
kingdom. It's an eternal kingdom. This
kingdom will be here long after the kingdoms of this world are
gone. This kingdom will still be. This
is the kingdom of God. And every kingdom has a king.
And the king of this kingdom is Christ our king, the God-man. the triune God in the Lord Jesus. He's the king of this kingdom,
and the citizens of this kingdom, the subjects of this kingdom,
that are subject to Christ our King, are regenerated believers,
brought to faith in Christ by the King, brought to subject
ourselves to Him, to serve Him, to honor Him. And the purpose
Our purpose in the kingdom of God is to glorify Him, to give
God all the glory, give Christ all the glory. It's to worship
Him, to follow Him, to honor Him. It's to spread the gospel
far and wide, the gospel of Him declaring His righteousness. It's to wait on Him to translate
His lost children out of darkness into this kingdom with us. And
that's our purpose and our watchword or our word, our faith is this. Thine is the kingdom. It's His
kingdom. Thine is the kingdom and the
power. The power is all His. And the glory. The glory is all
His. But the kingdom of God is not
in word. He says here it's not in word.
You know, when you think about what it is to be a believer,
I'll tell you what it's not. It's not in word. You don't come
to faith in Christ by just hearing a man speak. That's not going
to bring you to believe on Christ. It's not in learning an outward
form of doctrine or just learning a form of doctrine, teaching.
It's not just you could learn all the true doctrine. That's
not going to be salvation. That doesn't put you in the kingdom
of God. It's not in memorizing creeds or statements of faith
that churches have, you know. It's not in that. That's a lot
of times what people do before you can enter and be a member
of a church. You've got to learn their creed.
You've got to learn their statement of faith. That's not how you
enter the kingdom of God. It's not in outward forms of
duty, abstaining or eating certain meats and certain drinks. That's
not the kingdom of God. It's not wearing a certain uniform.
It's not being in a certain denomination. Denominations are man-made. We made that up. It's not in
a show of religious devotion. You know, some people go through
the motions because they feel like, well, I need to do this.
Well, best place you could be is under the sound of the gospel,
but that's not going to get you any plus points with God. It's
not in baptism. The Kingdom of God is not in
church attendance just to be seen of men. It's not in praying
prayers just to be seen of men. It's not in vain traditions that
you go through and you perform just to be seen of men. There's
many, Scripture speaks of the last days. The perilous times
will come where there will be many and truthfully most have
a form of godliness. Everybody's got some form of
godliness. But deny the power thereof. How'd you get that form of godliness? Well, I denied the power. Denied the power. The kingdom
of God is in power. Not my power. Not the preacher's
power. And not the sinner's power. When
our Father chose His people, He did it in power. You see,
that's what God God is power. And when you look at these idol
gods throughout the world and all the different kinds of religion,
first thing to study when you look at those things, if you're
so foolish to do so, is to look and see, is this God really God? Because God has all power. He's not dependent on anybody. Nobody has any power above Him. The definition of God is He can
do what He will. He's God. He's got all power.
And Paul said in Romans 9, when He chose whom He would and hardens
whom He would, men will say, well then, why does He find fault
for who's resisted His will? And he said, who are you to reply
against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why have you made me thus? He's God. When
He chose His people, He did it in power. And when He created
this world, He did it in power. He spoke into existence out of
nothing. He spoke this world into existence
out of nothing. And that's what He does in the
new creation, when He makes His people a new creation. He's not
working with anything that's there. He's speaking something
into existence that was not there before. And whenever He worked
everything in providence, ruling all providence and always rules
all providence, He does that in power. When our Redeemer came
and took flesh and dwelt among His people, He took flesh in
power. The Holy Spirit came. He didn't
depend on a man to take flesh. The Holy Spirit came and overshadowed
that womb of a virgin and He was formed in her womb. So that
he's not of Adam, he's not like you and me, he's not a sinner,
he's holy. He came in power, declaring his holiness. Whenever
our Lord fulfilled the law and the prophets, he fulfilled everything
in power. They even came one time to arrest
him and they came back and their superior said, didn't you bring
him? And they said, ain't no man ever spoke like this man.
He spoke in power. He told the wind and the waves
one time to be still, just by a word. speaks in power. When he went to the cross, and
he went to that cross and he took the sin of his particular
people, chosen and loved of God, and he redeemed his people, and
he did that in power. He did it in power. And when
he arose from the dead, he came out of that grave in power, and
he went to the right hand of God and sat down at the right
hand of God as the God-man. And he said, all power in heaven
and earth is given to me. He has all power in heaven and
in earth. And so when he sends his gospel,
guess what he does? He sends it in power. He sends
it in power. When he quickens a dead sinner
to life, he doesn't ask the sinner permission to enter in, he doesn't
come and Just tap on your, pull on your heart string. He knocks
the door down, bolt and bar and all. He knocks it down and He
enters in and He does it in power. He converts you. He draws you
out of your darkness and gives you faith to believe. He does
that in power. He does it in power. And when
He works in His people, Scripture says He works that which is well
pleasing in His sight. When He does that, He works it
in power. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power." Willing to believe on Him, willing to
follow Him, willing to obey Him in the day of His power. And
you know how we're kept? We're kept by the power of God. That's how none of His people
are going to ever fall away and they're never going to leave
Him and cease hearing Him and go off back into darkness again.
If a man does that, he was never called by His power. because
we're kept by the power of God. Now, can we know whether a work
that's being worked, can we know whether a preacher is preaching
by the power of God and the church there that's converted or so-called,
that saying they're converted, can we tell if this is the power
of God? Paul said there, when I come,
I will know. I will know, not the word, but
the power. Well, our Lord said we can know.
Look at Matthew 7. Our Lord said we can know. Matthew
7. And this knowing here has to
do with the power. The power. Look here, verse Matthew
7, 15. He says, Beware of false prophets,
false preachers. Beware of false preachers, which
come to you in sheep's clothing. Outwardly, but inwardly they
are ravening wolves Look verse 16 you shall know them how by
their fruits Listen to this do men gather grapes from a thorn
tree from a gather grapes from thorns No Do they get figs from
thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth
forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt
tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. That's
a false prophet bringing forth evil fruit. The Lord says there,
wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Where does the
fruit come from? We're talking here about false
preachers. Fruits of righteousness, true fruits of righteousness
are only by Christ Jesus the Lord. It's only by the power
of God. You know, He said there, He said
if the tree is good, only Christ can make the tree good. Only
Christ can make His preacher and send His preacher And only
Christ can make the tree bring forth good fruit. Only Christ
can make his preacher preach the truth, do so, bring forth
good fruit, and the converts that are made through that preaching,
only Christ can make them. He's the only one that can produce
that fruit. So he says here, yeah, you can
know them by their fruits. You'll know what kind of fruit
they're bringing forth. So I want you to turn now to
1 Thessalonians. I want to use this to see the
power that Christ worked in a church on one occasion. We're just going
to look at some things here in the 1st and 2nd chapter of 1
Thessalonians. This is where we'll be the rest
of the time. And I want to show you three
things here. First of all, I want you to see that the gospel is
the power of God. The gospel. And then I want you
to see secondly that the power that Christ works in His preacher,
this fruit that He brings forth. And then thirdly, the power He
works in His people, the fruit He brings forth in His people.
I'm just pretty much going to read these things here because
they're self-explanatory, but I want you to keep this one proposition
in mind. Paul said, the kingdom of God
is not in word, but in power. That word power means dynamite.
That's what it means, dynamite. It's just dunamis. It's the word
we get, it's the Greek word from which we get the word dynamite.
You see, you sit here in your natural state and what it is,
is your heart and your defenses, it's like a mighty strong fortress. It's like a safe or somewhere
you've got, you just, it's hard, the heart's hard. And the only
thing that's going to bust that heart is the dynamite. The only
thing that's going to bust the gates down and bust the walls
open and penetrate you is the dynamite. I can't do that. My word, I can sit here and preach
to you forever and it won't do any good. But if God does it,
it'll be like dynamite. Now look here. First of all,
the gospel is the power of God. Now turn to 1 Thessalonians and
look at chapter 1 and verse 4. knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God. For our gospel, our gospel came
not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy
Ghost, and in much assurance." He says there, our gospel came
unto you. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. Listen to Romans 1.16. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. That's key, the gospel
of Christ. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation. And that same word, it's the
dynamite of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. To
the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein, here's why
it's the dynamite. This is why I preach this same
thing. Don't get old because this is
the dynamite. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed." The righteousness of God is revealed from faith
to faith, for it's written, the just shall live by faith. Now,
when we say the gospel of Christ, our gospel came unto you, it's
not that gospel that Paul said is not another gospel. Any gospel that puts any aspect
of righteousness or any other aspect of salvation in your hands
at any point is not the Word of God. It's not the truth of
God. The righteousness we're talking
about here is not that righteousness that men talk about where they
say Christ went to the cross, they say He laid down His life
for everybody. If He did that, God took the
sin of every single person in this world and put it on His
Son and poured out wrath upon His Son. And when Christ said
it is finished, then every single person in the world was justified
from all their sins, if that's so, if Christ died for everybody.
But, they tell you, and here's why they tell you this, it's
only effectual if you believe on Him. You have to make it effectual.
Well, that's not offensive. You mean God's hands are tied
unless I let Him be God? Christ didn't accomplish anything
unless I make it to be effectual? That'd make me Christ. I'd be
the Savior of Christ, if that's so. That doesn't declare the
righteousness of God. Not at all. Then what are you
going to tell me? Then men are going to turn around
and they pass through this world and they don't let God have His
way, so God then is going to pour out justice on them a second
time? That makes God unrighteous. See, there's no righteousness
in that. That's an idle God, a false gospel of man's imagination. That's all that is. But now this
gospel we're talking about is the good news of the all-powerful
Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. He's God and His work's eternal.
He's man and He did for His people what we could never do. He came
to where we are and He accomplished the redemption of every chosen
child of God. When He went to that cross, this
is the good news of He obeyed the Father as the head and representative
of all His people. So that when He went to that
cross, He was made sin for us, He was made a curse for us, He
was made to bear judgment for us, and justice is satisfied
for everybody for whom Christ died. You see, that won't be
good news to you as long as you are righteous in your own mind. Well, I'm not nearly as bad as
others. You don't go to the doctor if you're not sick. You don't
go to the doctor if you're not sick. When are you going to need that
ambulance? When you're laid out there on the highway, bleeding,
about to take your last breath. You won't need this gospel until
that's your case spiritually. That's so. But this is good news
to sinners that know they're sinners. This is good news to
Him, because Christ put away our sins, and He is the righteousness
of God. He declared right there in that
work on the cross, He declared, God is just, He satisfied His
law, and God's the justifier. He justified His people from
all our sins in Christ on the cross. There's the righteousness
of God. The faithfulness of Christ laying
down His life for His people manifests the righteousness of
God. We don't even know what righteousness
is. That word doesn't mean anything to us because we've never even
come close to anything like righteousness in this world. The best government
ever been made is so corrupt there's no righteousness and
justice in it. Not compared to God. One day
we're going to find out about it though. We're going to see
God and we're going to find out what true righteousness is. Paul
said, our gospel came not unto you in word only. You see, some
people are just hearing this in word right now. But, Paul
said, when it came to those at Thessalonica, it didn't come
in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in
much assurance. By the power of God, at the time
appointed by God, He's going to make the gospel come unto
His child. You'd be sitting there in the backyard at night, head
down, eyes closed, ears closed, trying to just get through it
one more time. And all of a sudden the dynamite is going to bust
down that hard heart and come in. And you're going to start
hearing the message. And God will start speaking to
you, not in word only, but He'll start speaking to you in the
irresistible grace of God the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit
will create life in your body of death where there was no life
at all, no spiritual life. And He'll give ears to hear where
there was just a deaf, just a deafness there. And He'll give faith to
where you'll start receiving these things that are said and
hearing me and believing these things that are being told to
you. Whereas before, there ain't nobody that could have convinced
you of it. And the Holy Spirit gives us much assurance. It means
He fully persuades us. It's the same word he used in
Colossians 2 when he said the full assurance of understanding.
He doesn't leave anything out. He makes you to know Christ is
all. I was talking to Don this week.
I was talking about how the comforter, you know, the Holy Spirit is
the comforter. And he says, I'll bring you into
the wilderness. I'll allure her, bring her into
the wilderness and I'll speak comfortably to her. And he pointed
out this, he said, you ever seen what the next word is there where
he says he's going to speak comfort to you? You know what the next
word is that he's going to do, what he's going to convince you
of first? The full assurance he's going to give you is of
your sin. Isn't that a strange way to comfort?
He's going to make you see you are a dirty, rotten, filthy,
stinking maggot in the sight of God in yourself. Well, how
come that's the way to comfort? Because that's, till you're at
that lowest point in your heart by God, you won't hear God, you
won't hear nothing God has to say. Little miss know-it-alls
until God says, you're nothing. You're nothing. And then you
start listening. And He says, and I'll convince
you of righteousness. Why? Christ said, because I'm
going to my Father. Righteousness. I came and I fulfilled
the whole law for you. That's what He'll show you. And
proof of it is, I'm seated at the right hand of my Father.
The work's finished. It's done. It's finished. And
there you are seated with Him. And then He'll convince you of
judgment. He'll convince you that when
He said it's finished, your judgment was settled at Calvary. God's
not going to bring in a judgment again. What about all these sins
that are troubling me and all this is causing me grief? It's
settled. The accuser of the brethren,
his head's been bruised. He's got no more ammunition to
accuse his people with at all. Judgment's settled. He convicts
you of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Only the Spirit
of God can do that. That's why this gospel is the
power of God unto salvation. It declares Christ and Him crucified. It's the means God's chosen to
convey this good news to His people. And it's by the Holy
Spirit coming in and giving the full assurance of understanding.
You don't have anything to do in it, and I don't have anything
to do in it but sinning. That's it. It's on part we played
in it. Now look here at this second
thing. So the power of this thing is the gospel. Christ, this means
of public preaching and by the Holy Spirit applying it to the
heart. Now look at this second thing. Here's the power God works
in His preacher that He uses to preach this gospel. Now look
here, to support the truth that it was the power of God that
did this for them, to show that it was no power in Paul whatsoever.
Catch this little bitty phrase he uses to support that argument.
Look at the end of verse 5 there. He says, as you know what manner
of men we were among you for your sake. He's saying it had
to be the power of God because you know how we were among you.
It couldn't have been of us. Now look at chapter 2 and let's
look at some things God's preachers made to do by the power of God.
Verse 2, he says, "...even after we had suffered before and were
shamefully entreated, as you know at Philippi, we were bold
in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention."
Christ said, you'll know them by their fruits. You'll know
them by their fruits. If a man is holding back the
truth of God, He won't declare divine election. He won't declare
particular redemption. He won't declare the necessity
of regeneration. He will not declare sinners dead,
dog dead in trespass and sin. He won't declare that salvation
ain't a disease of God. He won't take it out of man's
hands and declare it's all of God. He's holding it back because
he's afraid of being offensive. He's afraid that he will suffer. He's afraid that he will be shamefully
treated. You can know, rest assured, based
on what Christ said, you'll know by the fruits. If a man's doing
that and showing you right here what Paul said God and His power
made us to do. He made us to boldly declare
the truth in God. We declare the works of God in
God, by God, by His power. If a man is not declaring the
truth and won't do it because he's afraid of men, he's not
preaching by the power of God. He's not preaching by the power
of God. Not at all. Paul said, even after we suffered,
he said, after we were shamefully entreated, we were bold in our
God. We came and preached the truth
to you anyway. That's right. He said, when I come there to
Corinth, I don't care about the speech of them that are puffed
up. I want to know the power. What about when everybody turns
thumbs down on you and they offended at what you're preaching? You
still going to preach it? He said, that's what I want to know. All
right, look here. Now, by God's power, there's
no deceitful, selfish motive in God's true preacher. There's
one desire. It's to please God rather than
men. Look at verse 3. 1 Thessalonians
2, 3. He said, Our exhortation, our
preaching, was not of deceit. We weren't using deception. Nor
of uncleanness. We didn't have impure motives.
nor in guile. We weren't crafting the word
to suit some malicious game whatsoever. But, as we were allowed of God
to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing
men, but as pleasing God, which trieth our hearts." You see that? God's preacher, he's not trying
to please men. I don't want to offend men. I
don't want to offend you. But if I've got to offend you
and preach the truth, I'm going to do that rather than offending
God by not preaching the truth. See, that's the power of God.
Then look here, by the power of God, God's true preacher doesn't
flatter sinners. Verse 5, For neither at any time
used we flattering words as you know. You mean you get up, preach,
and you compliment people? That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about if at any point the preacher turns
turn salvation over to the sinner's will. That's flattering sinners. That's flattering to think that
I've got the power to make salvation happen. I've got the power to
save myself. That's very flattering. Paul
said, at no point did we ever flatter you. We never ever did
anything but tell you the weakest thing you got is your will. Oh, you're a free agent. You
can jump up right now if you want to jump up and sit down
if you want to sit down. But believe God right now. That
ain't your nature by nature. You have to be given a new nature
to have a will to do that. And until he gives you a new
nature, you can't do it. You can't do it. It's not flattering. Look here, by the power of God,
God's preacher doesn't, he doesn't seek filthy, selfish gain. He
doesn't seek any glory for himself. God's preacher is given power
to glorify God, and he does so depending on God. He's not seeking
anything for himself. Look here at verse 5. At the
end there, he says, nor did we use a cloak of covetousness.
We didn't put on a disguise when really and truly underneath we
were covetous. He said, God is witness. He said,
either I'm telling the truth or I'm lying, but God sees it.
He knows it. One of the two. God's witness
to this. He said, nor of men sought we
glory. neither of you nor yet of others
when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ." You
know what he's talking about here? He's talking about putting
a huge burden on them to have to pay him. That's what he's
talking about. He said, I wasn't after some
filthy selfish gain. I wasn't trying to build my bank
account off of you. And God's preachers aren't doing
that. If I wanted to make money, I
wouldn't be preaching. God's preachers aren't trying
to make money. God's preachers are trying to
enrich you through the unsearchable riches of Christ, trying to teach
you the truth of God so that you can be enriched by God. He
said, I wasn't seeking glory from you or anything. No, no,
no, no. Look here, that's the power of
God doing And then in our text, you remember after he spoke of
God's power, we're going to look at this more next time. But after
he spoke of God's power, he asked him a question. He said, would
you rather me come to you with a rod, a rod of correction, or
would you rather me come to you in the spirit of meekness and
love? And you take a false preacher,
a false preacher. He thinks power is in forcefully
coercing sinners to do something. They call them the circumcision
in the scriptures because they're always telling you to cut out
this and cut out that. That's going to make you clean.
Cut this out, cut that out of your life. Cut that out, cut
this out. And Paul said, when they've got you to cut everything
out, they've done it so they can glory in your flesh. Look
what I made that little monkey do. That's what they're wanting
to do. And Paul said here, he said,
because we're dependent on the power of God and not our power,
He said, look at this, verse 7, We were gentle among you,
even as a nurse cherisheth her children. So, being affectionately
desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not
the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were
dear unto us. For you remember, brethren, our
labor and travail, for laboring night and day, because we would
not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the
gospel of God." We didn't charge you, he said. You're witnesses. And God also, how holily and
justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe.
As you know, how we exhorted and comforted and charged every
one of you as a father doth his children. that you would walk
worthy of God who has called you into His kingdom and to His
glory. You see that? God's preachers
don't have to use the rod of correction and unjustly use the
rod on sinners because we're not... I don't... I don't want
you to even profess faith in Christ because you feel persuaded
or coerced or guilted into it by something I've said or done.
I don't want that. It's the worst thing that could
possibly happen to you. I like it when sinners come out of the
blue and I'm totally surprised by it. And they walk up to me
and they say, Preacher, I want to be baptized. I can't save
myself. Christ is all my hope. God's
given me faith to believe. And it comes out of the clear
blue to me. I like that. Because I didn't have a thing
to do with it. God did it. Just sitting right here, none
of us observed it happen. We didn't even see it happen.
The dynamite went in and God did the work. That's what we're
talking about. And when it's all done, when
that happens, you know what God's preacher does? He gives God the
glory. Look here, look at this. In chapter 2, look there now
at verse 13. For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing. He's saying, we give God all
the glory, and we thank God for doing this. Because when you
received the Word of God, which you heard of us, you received
it not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of
God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. You
see that? Effectually means God got it
done. He brought you to believe. Gave
you life, brought you to believe. And he said, we thank God for
that. We don't glory in ourselves for that, we glory in God. He
did that. Now that's power God works. And
that's nothing like what you see happening in the world today.
You know, amongst religion. Now, why will God's preachers
stop using gimmicks and all these other means that you see in our
day? When a man has experienced the
power of God himself, through this very thing, preaching the
power of God, the power of Christ in Him crucified, and he's experienced
that himself, then he'll depend on the power of God and the gospel
that we preach to do the work. But if he hasn't experienced
that, he believes there's more to it than that. Because if he
added more to it, and that's how he came to faith, then that's
how he's going to expect you to come to faith. You've got
to add something to it. Not God's preacher. God's preacher experienced
it by God, and he's waiting on God to do it. Now, let me show
you this last thing, and I'll try to be brief here. Let's see
the fruit produced by the power of God in the believer. Now,
look here, back in chapter 1. The power of God makes a believer
follow the Lord. and the Lord's people. He's a
preacher and his people. Makes you follow the Lord, makes
you follow the preacher and his people. Look here, verse 6. He
said, You became followers of us and of the Lord, having received
the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost, so
that you were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and
Achaia. Now, believers are still sinners. We're sinners. But in
our lives, the believer, by the power of God, follows the Lord
Jesus Christ. We follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
We follow Him in His teaching, His doctrine, and we follow Him
in the example that He set when He walked this earth. We follow
Him by God-given faith. We follow Him constrained by
love, and we follow Him with one motive, and that's gratitude
for what He's done for us. Love. True love. Not law, not coercion, just love. for what he's done to us. And
by that same power of God, we follow his preacher and his people
that he used to bring that gospel to us. That's why he uses this
means. He makes the feet of that, whoever
that is that he uses to preach the gospel to you, he makes their
feet altogether beautiful. And those people that supported
that gospel so that man could preach that gospel to you, he
makes their feet beautiful. And that makes you want to be
with them and unite with them and go on this pilgrimage with
them as He calls out others. When the Lord called me by His
grace, it wasn't hard for me to follow my pastor because the
Lord gave him that spirit we just read about. He wasn't using
me and abusing me and trying to make me do something. He preached
the Word to me and it was easy to follow Him. You understand? When you don't need to be taught
at all by men, is when you're brought to the point where you
would like nothing better than to be taught by a man. That's right. Men who say, don't
preach to me about following a man now. I'm not following
anybody but the Lord Jesus. Just like them people at the
first chapter of Corinthians. Oh, we're Christ. We just follow
Christ. Super ultra self-righteous nobodies. When God gives you a real heart
to follow Him and to follow Christ and makes Christ all to you so
that you don't have need of being taught the gospel anymore, you
know Christ, you've been brought to Him, you won't have any problem
with a man teaching you the gospel because you see that's God's
way. By the power of God, Christ makes His child committed to
spreading this gospel in all the world. Look at chapter verse
3. Remembering without ceasing your
work of faith, and your labor of love, and your patience of
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.
Verse 8. For from you sounded out the
word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also
in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad. So
we don't even need to speak anything. Preaching and spreading the gospel
is a constant hard work and it takes patience. There's more
to it than just doing what I'm doing now. There's more to it
than just supporting it with our money. We need a building,
we're going to have to do that. We have to take care of those
things. Sometimes there are brethren
that are sick and we need to carry them things, food. Sometimes people are in a burden
financially. We need to help them out of that.
We just saw all these churches last summer that helped us tremendously
get ready for a down payment. That's them spreading the gospel
and helping us to where we can spread the gospel by getting
into a building. The worst thing we can do is sit on that money.
Don't let that stuff rust over. We need to make it our chief
goal this year to find a building and get in it. Because we're
doing it. These are things that have to
be done. It's hard work, it's labor, and it takes patience.
Because God's got to open the door. God's got to make the work
effectual. But when He does this, He teaches
you, He teaches His preacher, you be instant, in season and
out of season. When the Lord opened the door
for me to preach in 1999, and ever since then, any time He's
opened the door for me to preach, I've preached. Every time. And it's only by His grace and
His power, but it's just too much of a, if He opened the door,
Providentially, I look at that and say, well, I'm not to sit
here and be idle. I'm to preach. And he tells all
his people what we saw the other day. Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. So for all of us together, this
is not an option. This is to supersede everything
in our life. Because really, everything else
in our life is it in our life. It's just stuff we're doing to
do this. That's really, that's it. And
that's what He gives you. But He, by His power, makes it
a work of faith and a labor of love, and He gives you the patience,
and it's all in the Lord Jesus Christ and toward God our Father.
I want to be like those that addicted themselves to the ministry.
Alright, look here. Let me give you a couple of more
things. We're almost done. He turns us in repentance and
faith from idols to Christ. Only the power of God can do
that. Look at verse 9. He said, They themselves show
of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, how you turned
to God from idols to serve the living and true God. What's an
idol? Everything that comes between
a sinner and Christ is an idol. It's self and it's all extensions
of self. sons and daughters, mothers and
fathers, all our stuff, our jobs, all that stuff that's so important.
If it comes between us and Christ, it's an idol. And idolatry is
serving self rather than the true and living God. And true
repentance then, when He gives you this in power, it's renouncing
all our former religion, which was all of us, idolatry. It's
renouncing our works and our will, which was all worship and
self, idolatry. It's renouncing all the stuff
and all the junk in the world that we so cherish and adore
and want to spend our time, take up all our time with. It's renouncing
that as our life for Christ. That's true repentance. To leave
all that and say, I'm sold out to Him, I'm following Him, I'm
here to serve Him. That's what He gives you. That's
the power of God. And now, all of this that we're talking about,
in the preacher and the people, this last thing, as you're doing
this, all of this stuff, work by His power alone. We're doing
all of this. There's something that would
trump all of this. Every bit of this. He called
these childish things. Having faith, this is all childish
thing, but when we become a man, we're going to put away childish
thing. There's one thing that can trump every bit of this and
make us lay all this down and say, okay, we're done with all
that. That's Christ coming back. So when we do all this, we're
doing it watching and waiting on Him. Look here now at this
verse 10. And this is, He does this. He
says, to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the
dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. That's
what we're doing. We're waiting on Him. Now, all
of these things is the power of God. Every bit of this in
the preacher, in the people, through the power of the gospel.
This is by the power of God. This is why He said, our weapons
are not carnal, but they're mighty through God. They pull down all
strongholds. They cast down imaginations. That imagination you have. Well,
this is how I think God is. There's an idol. That's an idol. Whatever comes next after. Well,
this is how I think God is. That's whatever comes next is
an idol. Casting those imaginations down. Every high thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God and brings into captivity. every thought to the obedience
of Christ. That's the power of God. Now
that's what Paul meant when he said, when I come to Corinth,
I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and I will know
not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power,
because the kingdom of God is not in word. You know, you could
say, I believe God, I trust God, I'm a dead sinner. Well, what about the rest of
this stuff? Has God worked the rest of this stuff in you? He
don't leave any of this undone. It's not just in profession. Christ is my life. Christ becomes
my life. See what I'm saying? Christ becomes
your life. That's when the power of God's
got you. He said, that's when I will know the power. Alright.