I appreciate all the comments over the message yesterday morning. I'm happy that the Lord made it a blessing to you. I often get my blessing in the study, and I often tell our folks that I do and hope that they'll get theirs. And I pray that the Lord will be pleased set one more gospel meal on the table for you today.

I told you something yesterday about God's blessings and our blessedness in Christ. But I would not want to leave without encouraging you and your dear pastor in the ministry of the gospel. The reason we're here today gathered together. The reason we're here today loving the Lord, offering Him thanks and praise, is owing to the gospel. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are you going to call on Him in whom you have not believed? And how are you going to believe in Him of whom you've not heard? And how are you going to hear without a preacher?

My subject this morning is a gospel demonstration. My text is in 1 Corinthians 2. Actually, it's in verse 5, but I want to read verses 1 through 5. So let's read my text together. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 1.

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God."

Now with me, that would have been an impossibility. I've never been accused of preaching with excellent speech. One man wrote a nasty letter to me and said, your pastor can't even conjugate a verb. Well, thank God. But he said, I didn't come with excellence of speech or wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God.

Now, Paul could have done that. He was an educated man. He was a wise man. Often quoted poets and who knows what. He was an avid reader, learner, observer. He could have done that. He didn't want to. He said, I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you. With you.

So often preachers are not with congregations. They're separate. They're on a higher level. They're up here on a plateau looking down. Paul said, I was with you. on your level, in weakness, understanding that I'm as weak as anybody else, maybe more so. And I was with you in fear. You don't think it's a fearful thing to stand behind this pulpit, come and do it. And in much trembling, You know that the Bible says that a preacher speaks for God. Boy, if that don't make you tremble, I don't know what will. As an ambassador, I beseech you as though God did beseech you. That's what Scripture says.

I was with you in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. And here's my text. But in demonstration of the Spirit and the power. And here's the reason. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

The two most important activities in any church is preaching and hearing. Preaching and hearing. Oh, that God will give me ears to hear and a hunger, an appetite. People look for things, question things. If I've got a visitor that comes and comes back, I'll tell you what I'm looking for, an appetite. An appetite. Where these things are missing, there is no church. There is no faith. And there is no ministry. Faith cometh by hearing. You know what that means? It keeps coming. Keeps coming. Got a man laying there on the bed and he's on life support. What happens if you pull the tube? That's it. He's gone. Flip the switch. He's gone. What happens when there is no preaching? That's it. That's the end. No preaching, no church. And I'm going to get a little opposition here, but I'm going to say it anyway. If faith cometh, that is, it's fed and ministered and maintained by gospel preaching, and there is no preacher, it's not there, how shall the church survive? What are they going to eat? And that's not to mention God's purpose and means.

And if I'm reading James chapter 1 correctly, those gifts He gives, He doesn't change His mind about. If He determined 6,000 years ago to save men through the preaching of the Gospel, you reckon he's changed his mind? Ephesians 4 said the ascended King of glory gave pastors and evangelists to his church. A gift. I'm talking about the one ascending up into glory to sit at his Father's right hand. Our priest, our King, our Savior, our Lord. And he said, here's some pastors, some preachers, and some evangelists. And I'm giving them to you for this reason, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, to establish the unity of the faith.

We're just folks in a wheel. That wheel won't roll, David said. It's to manifest our perfection in Christ. The perfecting of the saints is teaching them their perfection in Christ, if I'm reading that verse correctly. And to grow a congregation into a mature body and make them what our Lord calls the pillar and ground of the truth. We used to have a saying when I was just a kid nuclear cold war was at its height, ground zero. That's the church, ground zero. The body of Christ, Ephesians 2.21, it says, is fitly framed together. Now that's my business. I know something about framing. And buildings don't frame themselves. You have to cut the wood. It has to be measured and fit. It has to be leveled, made plumb. And it entails a whole skilled crew of men. And so does his church.

When I was studying about the building of the Ark, I looked up that word gopher wood. And I don't remember who I read, but they said that wasn't the type of tree. It meant fitted wood. It meant carved under a certain direction. And then it was handed, that gopher wood was handed to his sons, and they were instructed where to put it. But isn't that what preaching is? Oh, my soul. This whole idea and this generation of cyber-worship, I know that streaming messages has its purpose. I understand that. I'm not opposed to that. But this whole idea of staying bound somewhere out in the middle of nowhere and doing what men call cyber-worship, you need to pack that up and take it out and throw it on the dung heap, because that's all it is.

The Internet cannot watch for your soul. Pastors see things creeping in. Things don't just come in and blow up like a big bomb. They creep in. And pastors see those things and they direct their messages to it. They watch for your souls as they that must give account. And he ain't talking about way out yonder somewhere. I'll tell you what, you get careless with God and plifit with God, He'll take you out of the ministry. We've seen it, haven't we? Quick. This divinely inspired epistle is written to a church. If you give a little study to the book of Revelation, where I preached from yesterday, you'll find out that everything the Spirit had to say, He said to the angels of the church. And then they instructed the church. Stars, he calls them, in the first chapter. And he tells us back in Genesis what those stars are all about. They light up the darkness. They're there for light, and they're there for direction. Christ said to John that everything he saw in this book are the things which are, now listen, and the things which shall be hereafter. Not going to change. And nowhere does this book even hint that we are to invent new ways and means that God hasn't already ordained. All His gifts are good and perfect, and they need no need of change. They're good and perfect gifts.

And my advice to any and all who are in that situation out there alone is to find an established church and go there as fast as your feet can go. Get out of there! What are you doing there? We don't live like that, do we? We don't go out in the woods and hope somebody will bring us some food. No, we take thought about that. I do. I'm thinking about it more and more after staying with Irene and John.

And I'll tell you something else. Sometimes God takes rebels and lets them find a satisfaction out there. Find something they're satisfied with and just leave them there. You like this junk? Here it is. Well, that's enough about that. Back to my text.

Paul said his speech and preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power. He said his gospel effectually worketh in all those that believe. Are you aware that faith is a miracle of God? I've talked to so many who just educated themselves right into the Kingdom of God. You can't do it. It's a miracle of God. Oh, thank God.

John's Gospel. Let me read you something over here in John's Gospel. They saw our Lord. He took one little kid there had a sack with some fishes some bread, and it wasn't even good bread if you've ever ate that kind of bread. It's not good, but it's bread. And he fed 5,000 men besides the women and children with those little sacks. He walked on water. He grazed the dead. No telling what all our Lord had done that these men had seen. Cleansed lepers, gave eyes to the blind, and they got excited.

And they said, what can we do to work the works of God? What can I do? And he told them. He said, this is the work of God that you believe on Him whom God has sent. That's the work of God. But God don't believe for you. He was answering their question. What can we do? You can believe. And if you do, it's God working in you.

The gospel is a message demonstrated by the power of God's Spirit in men. How is it demonstrated? That's the question. I've read this and looked at it and asked myself a hundred times, how? How? It's obvious. He stated it clearly. It's demonstrated, but how? Well, let me give you a few things.

The Holy Ghost demonstrates His adoption, sending the Spirit of Christ into the hearts of chosen sinners. Anybody can read a commentary, get an outline, and give a talk. I've done it many times before the Lord saved me. And anybody with a little instruction can get up and deliver a message. But nobody can command the Spirit of God to attend His words and do a work in chosen sinners.

Ephesians 1.5, it says, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. That's His adoption. Adoption comes through the appointment of Christ, and it's to all His elect. That's why it comes second in the line. men that God chose, He put them in union with His Son, and being in union with His Son, they are predestinated unto adoption. They are going to be sons and daughters. They belong to God. And this adoption is in harmony with His divine election, or maybe I ought to say, in addition to it. All these verses are statements of God's eternal counsel and will so that Those He chose in Christ are also predestinated unto the adoption of children in Christ, who is the firstborn of many brethren.

And then in Galatians 4, he says this, But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. Why? that they might receive the adoption of sons.

You mean Christ came to enable us to become sons of God? That's what it says over in John chapter 1. To them He gave power to become sons of God. You know what it says here? And don't miss this. And because your sons, verse 6, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Abba.

Adoption. Demonstrated.

I have a family in the church, many brothers in that family, and one of them had brain cancer. bad brain cancer, had several operations, and the last one that he had before I got there affected his speech. He couldn't talk real clear. And Nathan, that was his name, he had undergone all these operations, and he just couldn't speak very clear.

But shortly after I took the pastor to that assembly, I was preaching one night on this very subject. Real quiet in there, you know, and I was talking to him, and all of a sudden I heard, That's right! That's right! I asked him later on, I said, What was you talking about, Nathan? He said, What you're saying? It's what I've never seen, never understood.

Well, who gives that understanding? How can I know? I'll tell you how. It's Spirit bears witness with your spirit. We preach to anybody that'll listen to us. But when His sheep hears, when they hear their Lord, like old Nathan, they're going to say, that's right.

He demonstrates His adoption by a gracious and effectual revelation of Christ by whom our adoption It's predestinated. This is Him. This is Him.

Look over at Ephesians 1 with me for just a minute. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 9. Most of you know these verses by heart. If you don't, you ought to. known unto us the mystery of His will. We're predestinated according to the good pleasure of His will. Or not. The election, same thing. His will. His will.

Now, He's going to make known the mystery of His will. But in the dispensation of the fullness of time, I'm not an English professor, but I'm going to give you a little lesson in English. That word dispensation means steward. Somebody argued with me one time, said it means economy. Look up economy. You know the definition of economy? Stewardship.

All the times they were going to throw him off the brow of the hill, but his time was not yet. Whose time? His time. Who gave it to him? The Father. Steward of time itself. When is time going to end? When the Lord of Glory says it's time.

But in the dispensation of the fullness of time, times held in our Lord's hand, steward of time itself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, the whole economy of it, if you will, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, which are on earth, even in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of Him."

Now listen to this. who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." What do you do with him? Worketh. Worketh. He worketh. He's not sitting with his hands folded. He worketh. What good would preaching do if God didn't work? Pretty much a waste of time. And what good would it do, say, whosoever believeth, if it was left to you? He worketh. What's he working at? Everything. Everything that is. He works at all things after the counsel of his own will.

Listen how Peter defines his work. 1 Peter 1-2, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood.

Alright, I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's the second thing. Where the Gospels preached in the power of God's Spirit, He will demonstrate the efficacy of His blood. by applying that blood to the consciences of chosen sinners. And boy, you do what you will, you can't get rid of that guilt. That guilt, man. God can. He can. And He's the only one that can.

In 2 Thessalonians 2.13, Paul defines it this way, sanctification of the spirit and belief in the truth. And then listen to this verse over in Romans chapter 3. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins, past and present. What does he do? He applies the sprinkling of that blood. He applies that blood to your conscience.

I think in 2 Corinthians 4, I was reading it this morning, I can't quote it exactly, but Paul said he submitted his message, his office, everything to the consciences of men. Here it is. Do what you will with it. He's a phony. Maybe he is. But you'll know when God anoints your conscience, you'll know

Thirdly, when the gospel comes in power and in the Holy Ghost, He'll demonstrate the sufficiency of His righteousness as He convinces us of our sins. In John 16, our Lord tells us a few things about the Holy Comforter that's coming. He says, I'm not going to leave you alone. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to send you the Comforter. And I tell you what He's going to do. He's going to take the things of mine and show them unto you. And here's what he's going to do. He's going to convince you of sin. And let me tell you something. If he ever convinces you of sin, he'll have to convince you of righteousness. Because you ain't going to see any way that God could ever accept you.

I've said this many times. A man convicted of sin gets on God's side in his own condemnation. Isn't that what David talked about over there in the Psalms? He got on God's side. God's right. That's right. Oh, he'll have to convince you of righteousness. And the one thing that exposes a false convert quicker than anything is his dissatisfaction in the imputed righteousness of Christ.

A man I've known for 30 years. I talked to him. He said, well, I left. He was going to a great church. He said, I left that church again. And I said, well, what's the problem? He said, now, don't get me wrong. He preaches the Gospel, and the Gospel's important. Like it was something in the middle somewhere. But he said, we need a little law. Brethren, there is no little law. You so much as be circumcised, you just committed yourself. You just put yourself under the law, and now you're going to have to keep the whole law. You better get a priest and a lamb, build a tabernacle or a temple. Oh, my. Like the Galatians were being drawn away. look elsewhere for acceptance with God. I just can't look myself in the mirror and even imagine myself taking something in me and saying, here Lord, here. Would you trade me eternal life for this? You can't look yourself in the mirror and say that. No way. And yet that's exactly what people are doing. who look elsewhere other than the righteousness of Christ. Can you imagine, on your own, just looking at your own mind, your own heart, your own work, coming up to heaven's door and the Lord saying, Well done, thy good and faithful servant. There's only one way he can do that. He will do that. But the only way he can do that is that we're in Christ. He's my righteousness.

Let me show you something over here in Colossians 2. What about you? What about me? Do we need something more than the righteousness of Christ? Oh, you've got to do this, you've got to do that. No, I don't. I don't. I want to be more like Christ. But I'm like Christ in Christ. And this whole thing about people seeing Christ in you, they didn't see Christ in Christ. They ain't gonna see Him in you.

Listen to this, Colossians 2 verse 6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. How? Same way you received Him. Walk that way. rooted, built up in Him, established in the faith as you've been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Aren't you thankful for the imputed righteousness of Christ on my soul? I'm thankful I'm not under that law. I don't want a little law or a big law. I don't want any law. God the Spirit convinces us of sin and shows us that cesspool of iniquity.

I've built a man I work for Some 17 years I was building his personal home, and he had a carriage house, he called it. It was about 4,000 feet, but this was a carriage house. And it had its own septic system and everything. And we'd been using that for a stage area while we built the big house. And several men had been using the restroom there, and that old septic tank was full. And he said, he told me that having some trouble with the septic system, so I went out there young man at work for me, he just run out there real quick and pulled that lid off and stuck his head down in that safety tank. And boy, he jumped back and went blowing and throwing up and carrying on. I said, what's the matter? He said, you know what's in there? I said, yeah, I do. Do you know what's in here? I'll tell you what. It'll be a shock to you when he teaches you. But you won't want to look in there for salvation anymore.

Establishing a great need in us. Convincing us of sin. Then He shows up a perfect and effectual righteousness. One already accepted by God. I'm not wondering whether or not I'll be accepted. If I'm accepted on the basis of His righteousness, I'm accepted. And that's what Paul says. As soon as he got done talking about predestination, he said we're accepted in the blood. Oh, my. And then he tells us, well, we need a little love. No, that ain't what he said. He said, the love of Christ constraineth us. Why? Because he demonstrated in us our needs and that perfect righteousness. And now the love of Christ constraineth us, because we understand that if one died for all, then all were dead. And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live after themselves, but unto him that died for them and rose again.

When the gospel comes, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost, it always demonstrates the sufficiency of His righteousness.

Fourthly, where the gospel is attended by the Spirit of the living God, He will demonstrate His justification as He opens men's hearts to the substitutionary work of Christ. What's going to pay the bill? Huh? You got nothing to pay it with. I don't have anything. His death is sufficient to satisfy the justice of God. How do I know? Because I see it on the cross. It's finished. He could never say that until his dying breath. It's finished. What's that mean? It means it's done. It's done.

Somebody said the safest place to be when a firestorm is raging is where the ground's already been burnt. That's where you want to go. You don't want to run into the woods, run out yonder in that field, that black field out there. Go out there. God's holy justice and righteous wrath is a firestorm. Our God, Paul said, is a consuming fire. And if you would flee the wrath to come, go where the fire's gone out. When he said it's finished, that's what he's talking about. The fire's burned out. Now, come to me. Come to me.

God will, by His Spirit, through the preaching of the Gospel, demonstrate the power of His resurrection. Isn't that what He prayed for those Ephesian saints? He'll demonstrate the power of His resurrection by a spiritual resurrection called in the Scriptures a new birth. So what exactly is the new birth? Well, let me read it to you. Galatians 4.9. Here's the people Paul said, I'm afraid I just wasted my preaching on you. But he still loved them. And here's what he said. My little children, Galatians 4.19, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.

The old man's dead. Legally dead. Spiritually dead. Actively dead. And when the Gospel comes in power, a new man is formed in the hearts of chosen sinners. Something that was never there before. Paul said to the Ephesians, he said, when you leave here, don't go out here Walk like those Gentiles. Walk like your relatives. Don't do that. Everybody's got some relatives they admire. If anybody's saved, it's old Uncle Harry, you know, or whoever it is, Grandma. Well, Paul said, don't go walk like Grandma. That's what he's telling them. Why? Because they walk in the vanity of their mind. Their understanding's darkened. They're ignorant of God. They've never heard the gospel. The gospel's never been revealed to them.

But he said, you walk in Christ and listen to this, if so be you've heard Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Him. that you put off concerning that former conversation that is walking in advance of your mind. You just get rid of that. Put off the old man who is corrupt according to deceitful lust. Now listen to this. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Believers have the mind of Christ. Isn't that what Paul said? Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death, this old man? I'm dragging a corpse around with me. I can't get rid of it. And he said, here's the reality of it. What I won't do, that's what I do. But who's going to deliver me? I thank God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, with the mind, I serve the law of God. With the mind of Christ. I can't do anything without that, can you? Christ in you. That's what he's talking about. That's the new birth. I don't know anything about some of this stuff people are talking about. But I'll tell you what that new birth is about according to the Scriptures. It's Christ. Christ being formed in you. That's my hope. That's my joy. That's my understanding. That's my message. I don't have anything else. It's all Christ.

Well, how does all that happen?

1 Corinthians 3. 15. Paul told those saints at Corinth, he said, I have begotten you through the gospel. How is that possible? Because God the Spirit demonstrated it in them. raised them from the dead. And this only comes through the preaching of the gospel and demonstration of the Spirit.

God's elect are carried in the water of His Word, nourished in the womb of the church, and when Zion prevails, sons and daughters are born. Peter says, born again. Not a corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God. And don't ever read verse 23 without reading through verse 25. And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.

One more thing and I'll quit. God demonstrates the depravity and hardness of our hearts in our unbelief in a perfect Savior. Find me another answer. Why do people despise the only way of salvation? It requires nothing of you, everything of Him. But we don't want it.

I'll tell you one more little story. I was about 14 years old. Fell in love with the pastor's daughter. Oh, how I loved her. Come Christmas, I bought her a present. Couldn't wait to give it to her. Gave her that present. She took that present, threw it on the floor. And I said, you didn't like my gift? She said, I don't like you.

Yeah, he's going to prove to you something about your depravity and hardness of heart, He's going to prove to you that your mind is enmity against God because you won't have a perfect Savior. I'll convince them of sin because they believe not on Me. Now we'll see, yeah, they believe not on Me. How does He do that? He demonstrates it by His Spirit. That's how He does it.

We had a dear lady in our church. I don't know if you remember her or not. Georgia Faith was her name. And she got old. She's one of the original members. Her and Winston and Glenn and several others, they were the original members of that church. And she got old and couldn't drive anymore. And we'd go down and pick her up and take her to church and take her home.

And the first time I started back home, if you can Imagine the road system like this piece of paper. We were coming down this road, and she lived way on down here. And you can go straight and then turn and then go to her house. But I come here to this little road that turned and went over to my house, and she said, if you would, please turn left. And I said, what's the matter, baby? She said, my husband was killed in a horrible car accident. This drunk hit him head on, killed him on that road. She said, I just don't want to go down that road anymore.

My Lord was killed by vile men. He had to go down that road. I don't want to go down that road anymore, do you? I'd rather go through crash. I don't want to go down that road. Oh. All right. Thank you.