Alright, I guess y'all figured
out Rupert's not here yet. And he's not going to be. I believe
he's ended up at Mike's today. Is that right, Ed? That was his
plan. I guess he stuck to it. Let's just start with a prayer
and then I'll get into This thing I'm calling a message this morning. Dear Lord, we most especially
beg for your graciousness this morning. Oh, how we need your
help. And all we do. We don't even eat if it doesn't
come by the hand. We definitely have no understanding
and no grasp of these scriptures. unless you open our blind eyes
to see the words that are written so plainly on these pages. They're
so deep in wisdom. Folks like us, just no ability
at all whatsoever to have any understanding except it be through
thy grace and mercy and love. Show us that today if it be thy
will. Amen. I told Bill last week, he said
he didn't care if he had the 10 o'clock hour or the 11 o'clock
hour. I said, well, I'll take the 11 o'clock hour because I
won't be finished. Judy will testify. I've been
changing the whole time y'all were singing. So it's not done,
and I don't have a finish, so y'all hope I find one before
we get there. We might not ever get out of there. Bill's done walked all over me
today, and I apologize to the Sunday school class. I'll give
you a minute if you want to get up and leave. Save one. I do believe every reference
I use this morning, he's already quoted and talked about this
morning. Save one. He done walked all over me. Good
time. So here goes. We're going to go a little different
path, but I'm going to say the same thing. Hope so. Anyway.
Now, I won't do it as well, but I'm going to say it anyway. Go
ahead and be making your way to where Bill finished a while
ago, 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. And for those of you that were
here last Sunday, you'll recognize this verse. It's where we were
last Sunday. I was walking around Monday Thinking
about what in the world was I going to do this week, and I just couldn't
get Rupert's sermon from last Sunday. I just couldn't get it
out of my mind. I was contemplating that thing,
walking back between my office and my warehouse, and it hit
me. Just start there. As I was thinking about it, a
few scriptures come to my mind, and that's all I want to do this
morning. I'm going to start where Rupert was at, where Bill left
off a while ago. Just a few of the passages. I
don't have time to hit many, but a couple of passages come
to my mind. It sort of followed along with
what I thought was written here. So that's all I want to do this
morning. Just look at a few very familiar
scriptures to us and, and hopefully it'll do us some good, but I'm
going to start reading first Corinthians verse 26, just a
few verses. And like I say, they should be
familiar to most of you because not all of you were here last
week, I believe. Paul writes, For you see your
calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God
hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty. And base things of the world
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not, to bring to naught things that are. Why, that no
flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now, last Sunday's
message, Rupert had us turn our attention to verse 30. This verse
30, a beautiful verse. Paul just has such wonderful
things to say about Jesus. But of Him, but of God are you
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. Christ made unto us wisdom, both
in opening our eyes to our own sinful self and in the wisdom
of how God saves a sinner. We see that in Christ. Christ
made unto us righteousness. Of whom else but Jesus Christ
has it ever been said He knew no sin? No one else, only Him. And this righteousness, His righteousness,
is imputed to those who are in Him. They now wear it. In Jesus' keeping of the law
perfectly, His bride is now righteous before God. Jeremiah 33, 16,
a beautiful verse. In those days shall Judah be
saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name
wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness."
That's Christ's righteousness that she wears. In those days,
those days are now accomplished. Christ made unto us sanctification. This bride This bride, she was
once defiled, polluted in sin. She's now cleansed. She's now
purified. She now wears the holiness of
her savior. Christ made unto us redemption. Those. Those who've sold themselves
into slavery, slavery to sin. Slavery to Satan. They've been
redeemed by the great Redeemer. And they've returned to the former
status that was enjoyed by Adam before the fall, before he fell
in the garden. What status was that? He was
at peace with God. He found favor in God's sight.
The bride is now returned to that state, being redeemed. by Jesus Christ. I guess if I had to summarize
Paul's report he made here in verse 30, I could put it in three
words. And those three words are this,
Christ is everything. I'm getting there later today.
Christ is everything, especially in salvation. But as I was walking back and
forth through the offices, and I remember exactly when the thought
hit me, Paul had these great things to say in this verse.
Where did he go from there? Where did he go? There's 15 more
chapters in the book of 1 Corinthians. Where did he take, what else
did he have to say? Sometimes when you say something
short, you've said it all. Where did he go? Let's look at
the next couple of verses. We don't have to go far to find
Paul's message throughout the whole book of Scripture, all
of 1 Corinthians. He writes in verse 1 of chapter
2, And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you, saved Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Paul's message continued in chapter
2 and it follows the same way that he just got through closing
chapter 1. His message was Christ. No fancy
message. No big words. No pleading. No tricking. No cajoling. No promises made. Bringing it to modern-day religion.
Remember when gas got up to about $4 a gallon? There was no gas
cards left in the seat just to get people to come into the church.
No pews on anybody. No names on the pews. None of
that in Paul's day. Didn't need that mess. I may
have mentioned to Rhonda and Rupert the other day something
I read in the paper. A local church, several local churches,
A couple Sundays ago, right before school started, they had Bless
the Backpack Day. Little Johnny and Little Susie
walk up to the front with their school backpack on, and I guess
they think the preacher's going to do something for them. A man,
sinner, just like them. All that's doing is making Mom
and Daddy smile and say, look at my young'un walk up there
in them fine clothes I put on their back. Playing with people's
pride. That's what religion is. every
trick in the book just to get them to put money in the offering
plate. Not Paul. Not Paul. He didn't play those games. He
had a simple message. Just Christ. Salvation, salvation
of a sinner is a serious business. Paul treated it as such. You see, Paul, he just didn't
think too highly of himself. I'm sure he did at one time when
he was climbing that religious ladder, got almost to the top
in the Jewish religion of his day. He's no longer riding that high
horse. He was brought down to the dust. So much so that he
lamented in Romans 7, old wretched man that I am. long ways from the height of
arrogance to a man making that statement. But with just the
finger of God, a man can get there. I don't know how one goes about
ranking the severity of words, but when a man refers to himself
as wretched, I just don't know that he can get to much more
lower depths. I think he's pretty much reached
bottom. This man who at one time stood on the mountain, looked
around, surveyed, king of all in some respects, now he looks at himself and he's
in the valley. But not only is he in the valley,
he's in the pit that's been dug in the valley. And how did he
get there? Who dug that pit? He did it himself
with his own sins, with his own trespasses. Yet he still had
some hope. He still had some hope. I won't
ask you to turn, but you know these words, Romans 7, where
this come from? Oh, wretched man that I am. What does he say from there?
Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself
served the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Paul's
message was to speak on his only hope and likewise the only hope
any sinner can have, Jesus Christ and him crucified. Start making
your way to Hebrews chapter 12. Like I said, as I was contemplating
1 Corinthians 30, and then looked at where Paul went with his next
few words, and here's one of the passages that just happened
to pop into my mind, so I decided to just take a few minutes and
look at it this morning. I don't even know that these
things are really joined together, but at least they made sense
to me, and I guess that's going to have to suffice this morning. It's very likely, and I believe
it, and a lot of folks do, Paul probably also wrote Hebrews. The more I read it and the more
I've studied it, there's just too many things to say that,
yes, he also wrote it. So we're going to go under that
assumption this morning, and I'm going to say, let's read
what he writes right here in Hebrews 12. He writes, wherefore seeing we
also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God." Now, from right here
in verse 1, this cloud of witnesses, it refers back to the previous
chapter. It refers back to Hebrews 11. And if you go there, there's
a lot of folks listed there, a lot of people mentioned. One
is Noah. If you've got it, you can look
at these few verses. I'm going to quote Noah, the
builder of the ark, the man who is said of him back in Genesis,
the first time the words ever mentioned in the Bible, he is
the man who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It said of him here in Hebrews
11, 7, by faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen
as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house
by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the
righteousness which is by faith." Now this becoming the heir of
the righteousness which is by faith, that's starting to sound
a little familiar, isn't it? Especially in light of 1 Corinthians
1.30. Another person mentioned there
is Abraham's wife Sarah. It said of her in verse 11, Through
faith, also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and
was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she
judged him faithful who had promised." Another one of these past believers
that are mentioned is Moses. This begins to speak of him,
I believe in verse 23, but I've only got 24 typed up here. It
says, by faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to
be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to
suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater
riches than the treasures in Egypt. For he had respect unto
the recompense of the reward. By faith, he forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him
who is invisible." Now take note here so I don't forget to come
back to it, but look who Moses is looking to. Pay attention
to who Moses is looking to. It's the same one that Paul's
urging us to look to back here in verse 2 of chapter 12. Look
unto Jesus. It's the same message that Paul
had back in 1 Corinthians. Christ. That's it. Period. Christ. But I mention these three people
in particular. I could have picked out any of
them. You'll notice I didn't use David this time. I always
use David, so I decided to leave him out. But I mention them for
this particular reason. I've always found Hebrews 11
an extremely interesting chapter of Scripture. It says of this catalog of believers
and the deeds that they perform, that they were done in faith.
And it also says that they died in faith. They died in faith. Well, what
does that mean? They're spending eternity in
heaven. As simple as that. has wonderful things to say about
these people. But you know what's not mentioned
in Hebrews 11 when you're talking about those folks? Their sin. Not a single sin is
cataloged amongst all those people. It's as if their sin never existed. But we know it did. You go back
and you read the scriptures concerning those folks. And any of them
that even more than just a few verses are talked about, you
know, Abraham's got chapters, Sarah's got chapters, Moses got
books. You go back and study them and
read them. What do you see about those people?
Sin. Sin. Just the three I mentioned. Noah. What did Noah do after
the flood? When he left the Ark, he offered
sacrifice and praise. That's all well and good. What's
mentioned of Noah next? And this took a little time.
Planting a vineyard. Waiting for them grapes to grow.
That's a year, that takes a while. He made him some alcohol. He
proceeded to take part of that alcohol. Too much of that alcohol. He proceeded to take some clothes
off, and it got worse from there. Sin. What about faithful Sarah,
mother of Isaac, the promised child? Paul just told us in verse
1, run the race with patience. What kind of patience did she
show? She showed a lot of faith and patience in God when she
tried to help God out. and brought her handmaiden into
Abraham, didn't she? Didn't work out too well, did
it? And then there's Moses. Moses did a lot of great things
in faith. Years and years, just catalog,
great thing after great thing as he was leading the people,
both out of captivity and then through the wilderness. Moses never entered the promised
land. All that work he did never got the reward. Not the
physical reward. We're not talking spiritual here,
but not the physical reward of stepping foot on that land. Why? Sin. Sin. When Dunas commanded by God to
take his rod and smite a rock so that water would pour forth
and the people would have water, the murmuring people, they were
always murmuring, what did Moses say? He said, must we, and this
we was in reference to both him and his brother, must we fetch
you water out of this rock? For robbing God of his glory,
and take it upon himself, he was only allowed to look at the
promised land. He went up to the top of a mountain
and surveyed the land. He was never allowed to enter.
Why? Sin. These folks are no different
than the ones who's writing about them. Paul, you go back and you
read, and I urge you strongly to do this. You read Romans 7. And you contemplate and you think
about this internal battle that Paul's having with himself. He's
not referencing days gone by when he speaks of the wretch
of a man that he is. He's talking about today, right
then. He'd been a believer for years,
but he still was battling sin. And you get the idea that he
thinks it's going to continue. But better yet, think about yourself. You view those people and those
lives, those great patriarchs of the past, it's like you're looking in a
mirror. Just like Paul, you're a wretch also. Paul had the understanding that
he could do nothing for himself. Nothing when it came to his own
salvation. He understood that he must have
a savior. Just as Moses did. Just, you know, like when I read
the verses while ago, he forsook Egypt for he endured as seeing
him who was invisible. He was looking for his savior.
Years before he came, Moses was looking for Christ. We must have the one of whom
Paul's message is always and was always concerning. We must
have the Savior. This Savior who's mentioned here
in verse 2 of Hebrews 12, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God." We must have Jesus, this author
of faith and this finisher of faith. Now, in preparation for
today, I didn't get much time, but I did get a little time to
do some reading. One of the things I ran across
is that The word translated here, author, it does not really have
an English equivalent. It's translated author here,
but if you go back and read in Hebrews chapter two, this very
same word is translated captain of their salvation there. So I looked up the word and I
have this Greek English translation. When I looked it up there, they
used the word founder. I looked over a sermon that Don
Fortner did on this same passage, and he used the word commensur.
So either way, they give us the same feeling. When someone is
said to be a founder or a commensur of something, they're the originator. They're the one who started it.
It would have never come to pass if they hadn't have done it.
The only idea I can think of and try and relate it to our
faith in just a small matter is this country's founding with
our founding fathers. Seems to me that a lot of the
freedoms and ideals that this country was originally started
on, they're beginning to erode away a little bit, but we today
are still enjoying these freedoms. We're able, there's so many places
in this world we could not gather and worship. We can because of
what those men did some 240, 50 years ago now. We had absolutely nothing to
do with the founding of this country, but we enjoy the labors
of our founding fathers. Such it is with faith. Now, man
is born with no faith. He's born with no desire to have
it. Faith's not something you can
go to the store and purchase, pick it up off the shelf. It's nothing we can create from
within ourselves. I've made reference to these
other people. A few verses from Romans 7, and I suggest you read
it all. There's nothing within us but
sin. How can something as precious
and wonderful as true faith How can it come from something so
filthy and vile? Vile as we are, it can't. It must be given. It must be
provided. It must be a gift, and it is. And it begins with Christ. He
is its author. Here's a rule you can write down.
Anything, anything that God requires of a sinner, He provides. He provides. And just as necessary as it is
that our faith must be started by the Savior, the Savior we're
talking about this morning, why we just can't create it within
ourselves, it must also be finished by Him. It's finished in a couple of
ways. Part one of that, and probably the most important, well, it
is the most important, is the end of verse two here. He finished it, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus
finished the work he came to do, the work of securing salvation
for his elect by his death on the cross. God's justice is now
satisfied. The penalty of death has been
paid by the sinless one, this one who knew no sin, this one
who died in sinners' stead. Time's not permitting me to stop
here and spend spend any time, but I do urge
you to listen to get a tape of Bill's message and hopefully
recorded enough where you will be able to hear it and listen
to it because that's what he spoke on in the previous hour.
Remembering Christ and Him crucified. But for our purposes this morning,
I'm just going to move on to my second point. Christ being the finisher of
faith, is necessary. Why? It's because of who we are. Just looking back at those people,
back from Hebrews 11. Take a notice of where their
sin started. Every one of them had the same
root cause. They took their gaze off of Christ,
and they turned it on themselves. Noah turned to himself in satisfying
his own sinful flesh. Sarah turned to herself when
she attempted to do God's work instead of waiting on God. Moses turned to himself when
he sought the praise of man instead of giving praise and glory to
God. If these believers of old, these
ones who are so highly written about in Hebrews 11, if they
couldn't continue in faith without some help, just how do you think
we'd be able to do it? If you go back and read their
histories, you'll see that in each and every case, though they
committed great sin, though they showed a great lack of faith,
in each instance, they ended their race in faith. How? Well, it was by the same one
who started it in them in the first place. This finisher of
faith. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Christ. The work to
save sinners from their sin, it began a long time ago. It
began in old eternity. It ended with the death of Christ
on the cross. With all of that, all of that
planning, that preparation, the covenant that was made between
the triune God, do you really think that God's going to let
some puny, putrid man thwart His plans? Just how self-important
and self-indulgent we are. to think that we can manipulate
God and have Him bow to our will, to let God do something for us. Paul, in some ways, and I said
you couldn't rank words, but in some ways he was mistaken
about himself and us. When you look at the sinful creatures
we are, How highly we esteem ourselves and how low we really
think about God. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Ghost. Wretch is practically a compliment. Now from 1 Corinthians 1 chapter
1 verse 30. We see that those who have faith,
they're made wise, they're made righteous, they're made holy,
they're redeemed. Believers who are born possessing
nothing but sin, they're now made acceptable to
God. How? By being in Jesus Christ. And this faith which we now possess,
his people now possess, it was begun and it will be completed
by this same Jesus. Faith is the gift of God. And faith does come to the people
of God through the work of the spirit, through the opening of
their hearts to see who they are and their understanding. and their need of a Savior, this
Savior. But with that we must also confess
that faith's founder and completer is none other than this precious
Jesus. So this brings me to the last
passage I'd like to read. If you would turn to Colossians
chapter 2. I can say several passages come
to my mind and here was another one. I'm going to read a few
verses for us. Some of them will sound a little
bit familiar, but I want to get to this last verse I'm going
to read in chapter 10. That's where we'll wind up. I'm
going to begin in verse 4. Once again, we have Paul writing
these words. Verse 4, Colossians chapter 2,
and this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing
words. So once again, Paul gives us
a warning to beware of slick-talking religionists. And maybe I just
made up that word, but they're all around, folks. Beware. It was that way in Paul's day,
it was that way before Paul came along, and it's that way now. Verse five, for though I be absent
in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, enjoying and beholding
your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in
him. Now, for those of you who have
received Christ, How did you receive him? Answer that question
for yourself. I've already mentioned it several
times. We have one great example, I
think, in the Bible to study and think about, of how God saves
a sinner. And that's Paul. And how did
Paul receive Christ? He was brought down off that
high horse. He was brought down to the dust, brought down by
his sins and his trespasses. And he begged for mercy. A sinner never graduates from
this state. He never gets any better than
that condition. That's why Paul cried out those
words years, years later in Romans 7. Oh, wretched man that I am. They never graduate. They always
feel their need for Him. Verse 7, rooted and built up
in Christ, established in the faith as ye have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of man, after
the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. These things listed here, to
me, they're nothing more than just exercises in self-righteousness. People who are after these things
and in these traditions and doing these things of the world and
doing these religious exercises, they're in it for their own glory.
They're like Moses trying to rob God of His glory. They're
not after Christ, as Paul here writes. And Paul continues in
verse 9, for in Him, for in Christ, dwells all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him,
which is the head of all principality and power. These few verses right here that
start verse 10 is why I came here. And you are complete in
Him. I debated with myself how to handle
this. And I decided to try and use
an illustration, and you know when you use illustrations, they're
not perfect. But it's almost as if every one of us, it's almost like we're water
pots, completely full to the top with water. Our sin, our self-righteousness,
our hatred of God, our natural-born state. It's that water. Now, some of us are little pots.
Some of us are big pots. Some live a short while. Some
live to be 100 years old. Some might have little pots.
They don't send that much. My pot is ginormous, if that's
even a word. My sin pours out of me, folks.
Oh, y'all should. I'm glad none of y'all seen me
in the last few weeks. It pours out of me like the spigot's on.
I got a big hole in my bucket. That sin, whether it's a drip,
drip, drip, or a pour, like in my case, just brings that water
down, down, down, down. And when that last drop of water
is gone, that's your last sin. That's when you die. That's when
you quit sinning the day you die, the moment you die. Now on the other hand, God looks
down from heaven. He sees all these water pots.
So many, too many, are empty. They're just empty vessels. Discarded. No longer needed. Ah, but there are some water
pots that are still full to the brim. Full. Full of Christ. It's as if for
those water pots, when that sin run out, more of Christ was poured
in, made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So when God looks down, he sees
those full water pots, he sees his son. That's God's water pots. That's salvation. It is all of
Christ. Christ is everything. Author, finisher, starter, completer. Christ is all. Christ is in all. For those He saves, and there
are so many He does, He is a wonderful and able, a magnificent Savior. He fills those water pots to
the brim. But not only that, those water pots no longer have
a hole. That hole's been filled. filled with the blood he shed.
The outside, he's not only full on the inside, but it's robed
on the outside with his righteousness. That's what God sees when he
sees his people. He sees the Savior, the Savior,
the only hope for a sinner. Completely necessary. Think about this statement. I
came up with it. It's not too insightful. It's as plain and simple as it
can be. Take a few minutes. Reflect on
it. Be honest with yourself. When you think about spiritual
matters, is Christ your everything? Honestly? Everything? Because you see, if He's not
your everything, He's nothing. There's no middle ground to this
respect. It's not a little bit Christ
and a whole lot of you. It's not a whole lot of Christ
in a little bit of you. It's either all Christ or no
Christ. Honestly, where do you stand
on that statement? Is he your all or is he your
nothing? Thank you.