It's been seven years since we
started this program. This is a letter to the church
that met in the city of Corinth, the Gentile church. A letter
to the church in that city which, in the day it was written, Corinth
was a very modern, worldly city. Very modern. And this church
there in Corinth was in the midst of this modern world, or modern
city, with all the trials and temptations and difficulties
that come to a believer living in a modern world. So, the things they went through,
the things that God writes to them, I certainly am comfortable
with us saying that. Now, this is a book not only
full of God's glorious gospel, but this book deals with every
issue that we could possibly face, every subject. You will
be, just go through a million deals of so many things, marriage,
deals of giving, and deals with tongues, and spiritual gifts,
and just on and on, Lord's Table, and on and on, problems and tribulations
in the church, and on and on. So this is very, very deeply
bespoke. Now, it began for every single
person. That was our religion. But, yes, verse one, Paul, Paul
to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. Paul says that there every time,
not just to remind the people, not just to tell his predictions,
but Paul, glory, and rejoiced in his own calling. Paul never
got over the fact that God called him who was, he said before,
a blasphemer, an injurious and a persecutor, a God of pain and
mercy. Paul never got over the fact that God called him who,
he said, who he thought was less than the least of the sum. I'm
fit to be called upon. Called him a villain. he who
persecuted the church, he who went about trying to put people
in jail for believing in Christ, God called him to be a preacher
of the gospel of Christ. So he gloried in his gospel,
as you and I should and do, and I hope will even more so before
this night is over. That's God's call. He said, Called
to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. This
is God's will. Everything is by God's will.
All things. God will work in all things after
the counsel of His own will. All persons through the ages.
Called to be. Now, Paul didn't call God, call
on God to be an apostle. Paul didn't call on God to be
an apostle. But God called him. And it's the same with us. Amen. It's all through the will
of God. And he mentions a man named Sosceles,
our brother. Do you know who Sosceles is? Not many people do. Not many people do. He was a
chief ruler of the synagogues in the city of Corinth. He was
a furnisher. So God saved that man, too. A furnisher. And in that period,
the Lord would call a man similar to the Apostle Paul. They had
things that could relate to one another. There weren't many Pharisees
that were such. Not many stories of Pharisees. Hiccough was Saul, and there's
still one in Thessalonians. But Thessalonians was a man that
was Jesus, for his belief in the gospel, their promise of
salvation, they stand with him. And, uh, here it is 2 Thessalonians,
Saul, Saul, Saul, former Pharisees, former God-makers, now they're
both brethren in Christ, by God's grace. All marvel at that. Paul and
Sosme, Paul and Sosme, my brother, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. Verse two. Unto the Church of God, which
is at Corinth, Church of God. Now, this is a blessed name,
people, and I say, I'm not going to make a concerted effort to
quit calling it a guilty church. Not only are most of these religious
organizations not the church of God, the building church,
but the people that they take, and they're the preachers and
so forth, not God's preachers, they're not God's people, most
of them. I can say that with absolute
certainty. This term church is reserved
for God's bride, God's people, true believers. And I use it
very carefully. So should you. This is the Church.
Now, you know, everyone in here has heard this time and again
from me, but I'm going to say it again. I'm going to ask you. God's Word cannot and must not
be applied to everybody without attention. And this is a gross
error, because it's lying on God, and lying to man. How that
these so-called preachers apply, and they'll go over there to
the First Corinthians, or any other book, and pick out something
they like, and then throw it out there like it's fresh air.
It's not. He wrote, he noticed that it
said, so he said, this is unto the Church of God, it was that
Chorus, and then there's sanctified. And he goes on to say, that all
of them, that everybody's called on them, this is written to believe,
this is written in the Church, these things are reserved for
God's people. I'll give you a very simple illustration
of what he was doing. Thank you. I hope you understand
why. If you wrote a letter to somebody
you knew and loved, and you signed their name to it,
and in that letter you said any personal thing, you expressed
your own personal love to them, and it was prior to particular
things, but also daily things, what if somebody intercepted
that letter? and began to take it everywhere
and said, look here, so-and-so loves us all. Look what he said,
don't do it. It makes you mad, doesn't it? It makes you mad, doesn't it? And it does, God. So again, there's
a pretty good letter pulled out there out of the General Letters
of the God Papers, which is not, this is the God Papers. All right, to the Church, the
Church of God, which is that Torah, and you couldn't put in
there that Rocky Mountain. Yes, you could. Whatever's written
to the Church, anywhere it's written to the Church, everywhere.
Now, to the Church at Rocky Mountain, to them that are sanctified in
Christ Jesus. Sanctified. Don't let the word
scare you. I know that a lot of people would
like to use that term, don't they? The Word of God is set
apart. God is the only one. He sets
apart people, persons. sets apart for His holy use. It says in Ephesians that we're
predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ. That's
what that means, to set apart and be made holy by Christ. We
should be without mind before Him. Set apart by God. God's the one who sets apart
or chooses His people apart from the mass of humanity. We, some old writers, used to
call it discriminating grace. Now, in this modern world, people
don't like that word, discriminate. And all it's meant of is, it's
bad. Don't discriminate against me
for my, whatever. No, this kind of discriminating
grace is good. He discriminates for us, for
his people. Not against, but for. It's discriminating
grace. choosing grace, setting apart
sanctifying grace. God sets apart, or chooses us
out, or that Old Testament verse says, plucked as a branch or
burned. The world is ready to be burned
in this point of it. Yet God, in mercy, love, and
grace, set that love And decided to show mercy, decided, purposed
to show mercy on some of those reckless creatures, like that,
and set us on fire. See? Is that what we're talking about? What
happened? He set them on fire. What sets
them on fire? Now, they're still standing.
We're still standing. We're still unworthy, but it says you're
sanctified in Christ Jesus. We're set in Christ
Jesus. Look at the 30th verse in this
chapter. This is my favorite chapter in
all the Bible. Please deny it. Look at the 30th verse. You can
quote this, but you don't have to. Of God are you in Christ
Jesus. He is but the subject of God. So God made him unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Why does He do
this? For it is written, He is glorious.
He's gonna grow even more. He's all glory belongs to Christ. God the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. All of those things are doing
this work for us, to us, and in us. How about, are you in
Christ? You're set apart. Go back to
the sentence. Now, you're set apart. You're
put in Christ to save people. Not preserved. Being preserved. That's what Peter says. You're
preserved for the day of His coming. Your grandmother goes, You make them hurt, some of them. You throw it in a jar, and you
seal it up, and you spare it, until you break the seal and
use it. That's exactly what God does to His people. Exactly what He does. We're sealed
until the day we're in. You didn't know it was coming.
And then that day, Christ is going to break the seal on a
book, read it today, and we're all going to be there, and we're
going to be a perfect, being a perfect representation. In love. In Christ. Set apart. Look at
it. It says sanctified in Christ.
Now, there's so much more worth to say about sanctification.
But, it says set apart in Christ. Look, read on. It's called sanctified. Those that are sanctified or
set apart in Christ are called saints. The words of Tuesday
were added by the Crown Council. It's better read. It says sanctified
in Christ are called saints. This is the term, this is the
name for someone who has been sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified.
Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified.
Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified.
Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified.
Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified.
Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified.
Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified.
Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified.
Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified Now, you
know, this is the most common name for God's people in all
of Christianity. It's just a term most used for
God's people. I'd like to start using that.
We use it in our belief. But saints is what God calls
His people. Called or canonized by God. That's the word for canonizing,
but that Roman canonized somebody after they had died a hundred
years. Martin Luther, they actually
canonized Martin Luther a hundred years ago. And you can understand
what I'm trying to say, but he single-handedly was against the
whole Roman Catholic organization. And they tried their best to
kill him. But he always slept. He'd been dead a while. But he
canonized him. He was a man of God. You reckon he'd accept it? Well,
that ain't it. He was black. God canonizes. God's the one
who makes people saints. He's sanctified. He's called
a saint. Now, we're everyone in here who's
a believer in Christ. He's a saint. You've got that
title, that's your name, yes you do. You might not use it. You might be destined to say
it like you say it. God doesn't. Like old Jacob. Remember old Jacob? God changed
his name to Israel. To Israel. Jacob, the name of
Jesus. And God changed his name to Israel,
which means Prince. I guarantee that Jacob never
went around and called himself an idiot. Somebody asked him,
what's your name, Mr. Jacob? Yes. No, God called him an idiot. And God calls us saints. We don't
say that, but I said it, I'm a saint. But I can say it about
you, and you can say it about me. There's a St. John, just
as much as the fellow that drove through the country. He suffered. Now, you will not nod your head
back, but God does. Why should he be more of a saint
than you? What's the importance of being
a saint to God? Right? I told you you can use
any three words you want. Christ, grace, and the word.
You're right. The word is what sets us apart.
Sanctify. Sanctify them through thy truth.
That's what it is. There's another sanctity. We've
got some huge sanctity. Sanctify. Sanctify. Have you
ever heard of sanctify? It's not. It's not like that.
It's not a problem. It's not a problem. It's serious.
It's serious. It's one of the God's manifestations. We won't say that about faith.
But you say that about me, you know, I'll say that about you.
You're a solid leader, sanctified, set apart, and it's Christ that
sets us apart. Well, here's a character of old
Peter. Remember old Peter called Simon.
I'm sure he never got used to the name Peter. Here's Simon. Here's a characteristic of all
saints. Verse 2. Still unto the sanctified in
Christ called saints, with all that in every place call upon
the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. But there deny. Here's a characteristic. All
who've been called, call them all. The name. of Jesus Christ,
our Lord. All who have been called, truly
called, by God, call upon, call upon the name of Jesus Christ,
our Lord. Now, you heard, we keep stressing
this more and more, more and more in church. God wants you
to say something about it, okay? He says, all who call upon the
name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, there and now, All of God's called,
call Him the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what sets Him apart from this. Yes, sir. Let me read down
to you here with you. Let me verse 5. He says, So you
come behind, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 8. That's mine. In the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 9. God is faithful, by
whom you were called in the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord. Verse 10, I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. This is how you refer
to the King of glory, if you know Him, if you hear Him. All
who've been called by God, call Jesus the Lord. And I'm going to keep saying that,
because it's tough. If you've ever heard a brother
tell a joke, tell him to remove her fridge. He always says, This is what sets apart, I'm
telling you the truth, from God's Word. This is what sets apart
from God's hearing, Christ-believing, Christ-exalting believers, saints,
from the rest of this miracle-festing world. Yes, sir. The whole world
feels sorry for some fellow named Jesus, but not me, buddy. I know you feel sorry for me. Lord Jesus Christ. We all call
Him Jesus Christ our Lord. And we call upon Him, not for
a new forsaken man, but for mercy. Not forsaken, but mercy. We call
upon Him for what? Grace. We call upon Him for salvation. This is what God's people call
upon Him for. If He gives us another cracker
at ease, what we need from Him? This is what sets them apart
from the rest of this profession. They call upon Him for mercy,
for grace, for help in times of need, for salvation. And they
call upon Him in this sense of worship, usually, usually so, He used
to study this some more. So-and-so called upon the idea
of testing. You know what that means, doesn't
it? It means they're paying visits.
Called upon. That's an old Southern term,
it's called upon. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to call him upon. Currently, what he told us today
is done with God. We're done with God. Kind of
like a certain young man that keeps showing up at my house
all the time. He's there all the time. Because I think perhaps there's
somebody there he loves. Somebody there he wants to marry.
And you just can't keep him away. Keeps calling him all the time.
Well, that's the way it is with God's people. There's somebody
that is in marriage. You can't keep him away. So to
call upon Jesus Christ, our Lord, there is a verse written, Grace
be on thee, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's there in the Gospels and
in the verses. Grace, sovereign, electing grace. Oh, how the elect love that sound. Sovereign affection and grace.
Sovereign saving grace, keeping grace. Oh, how the weak and helpless
love the sound of keeping grace. Sovereign providing grace. Oh,
how those who are in poverty, spiritually poor, love the sound
of providing grace. Gifts, graces, gifts. Not a gift
offering, but a gift of study. Unearned faith. Oh, how those
who had no merit loved the sound of unearned faith. Unsovereign
grace. The Father sovereignly loved
what He had to, because He loved the Father. Sped His love on
His chosen one. Gave us the Christ. Christ came
and sovereignly redeemed his own. Yes, sir. His precious blood
which put away their sin gave us his life. And the Holy Spirit,
sovereignly, gives a new heart, a new mind, life, spiritual life.
This is grace. That's what we're talking about.
All grace. God is all grace. Satan is grace. Grace be on you, who? Not everybody,
but sometimes. said, those who set apart grace
from the end, peace, peace, peace with God. The world's false prophets
are crying, peace, peace with the original peace, God won't
burn this planet. That's not the love of God, that's
the God who's angry with you at everything. And the world
doesn't believe that now any more than they believed Noah. In Noah's days, there was no
rain. There was no rain. But it's a fact. And you know
it's a fact. And you know the only reason
you have peace with God is that God is not angry with you, Mark
Sanderson, because of the blood of the Lord. That he made peace
for us by the blood of the Lord. That God is not angry with us.
Not because we don't have peace and anger, but because of Jesus
Christ. Praise and peace from God. God
beware of the Christ at the table. Peace with God and the peace
of God. Our Lord said, Peace, my peace
I give unto you, my peace I leave with you. We have peace because
we know God. The peace of God through the
pastor's conversation. Well, the whole world's falling
apart, and evil seems to have the upper hand. It's not. It
don't got to be. It's not right. It's not right. Why
not? God doesn't like that. This is the peace I've got. Peace I've got. These are gifts
from the Father and the Son to the Son. Gifts. Now, all those
disaffections, truths, I thank my God always on your behalf. Thank my God always on your behalf. For the grace of God which is
given you by Jesus Christ. Now, Paul shouldn't have to thank
God for it, but like a spiritual father that he is and wants to
do it. Just like you pray for your children.
Job prayed for his sons and daughters in case, remember? He said, in
case they sinned against you, Lord God. Oh, for the sake of
God. Clear? Paul said, I thank my
God always on your behalf. on your behalf. Now thank God
for the grace of God which is given to you by Jesus Christ.
Thank God for His grace. It's heaven-entitled. It's so
enriching. Look at verse 5. In everything
you are enriched by Him. It's in everything. Right now. You are enriched by Him. I've never been able to adequately
declare this. I probably won't be able to tonight. Because I didn't see it, and
if you hadn't heard, you'd have entered into the heart of many
things that God has prepared for you in this life. We have
to tend that. I never tend that. We don't read
about it. We get a little taste of it.
We get a little feeling of these riches that we have. We sing
the song of old men searching for riches of Christ. Now, the best way I can describe
this is, There are times when this right here, what we're doing
right now, is just about the greatest thing to you, not always,
but most of the time. God grants you the ears to hear
and hearts to receive. You feel like, this is the greatest
thing I've ever done. Now, if you ever sat down, I
know you had a fellowship, and you sat down, and you had a little
space or something, and you read, and you stood, and you said,
well, I don't want to just eat. Or whatever, the fellowship we're
having, that doesn't even come close to this right here. God
gives us taste. The use of taste isn't going
to work for us. Nothing in this world can taste.
You know, I know every believer who knows what I'm trying to
say. This is a rich, treacherous, rich food. I know you're eating
food that's so rich, it's just that I can't eat all of it, but
you do. You do. I'm full. I'm ready to have a
big chocolate cake. That's when I can't hold any
more. I can't hold any more of it. Rich. That may not be a very real expression,
but the riches that we have in Christ are not tangible, not
physical. Although we are rich, people,
everybody is rich. That's the lady that I mentioned
to you in Mexico, Pamela. I had the blessing and privilege
of going to visit her about a month before she passed away. You walk
in, I can't describe it. It's all kind of little dirt,
huddle, grass, dust. Dust under the panels where the
whole family's hanging these little panels. Dark, warm, bare
light bulb hanging from the ceiling. There, up in that little bitty
panel, a little strip of real foam about that big. I can't describe to you what
it was like when Walter, Tony, and I sat around her and we played
with her all the time. Oh, we were rich in all those
materials. That's the specialist theory
of it. We're not rich comparatively
to the rest of this world. You know, we live in the richest
society in the history of the world. But we're rich comparatively,
aren't we? So we are rich. We have to do
more in one message than the world's going to hear about.
We take it for granted. Just the way it is. You've got
a good cook in the house, you just take it for granted. Ah, but James
said this, that's not God's chosen affordment for a rich man. I
mean, this is the greatest soul enrichment of all. This is it. The gift of faith. The grandest
gift of God. Now, this gift is telephone. It's not a present. We're going to talk about that.
Verse 5, In everything you are enriched by him in all utterance
and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed
in you. In utterance and knowledge, you're
enriched. You're rich in utterance. Utterance
means, you know, to utter something, to speak. Now everybody in here
feels totally inadequate to utter or speak the truth. You know
what I mean? I like that approach. There's
a few times I preach about that. It's a scary process. But every one of us feels totally
inadequate to try to speak the truth to somebody. And so many things intimidate
us, people intimidate us, our own lack of vocabulary or scriptural
knowledge or whatever intimidates us, bothers us. But here he says
you're rich, you're not rich. Explain that. I want to tell you, you people
in here, believers, are uttering things that the world doesn't
know about. You know Jonah 2, right? Don't
you, Mary? You're supposed to print this. Salvation is solved. Just learn that, okay? Just learn that one phrase. You'll
know more than the whole world does. Just learn to utter that. Salvation is solved. So, hey,
you know, they've got a few who have lived through their first
strength and warmth. They're very proud of God. Are
we here to praise Jesus? We're so proud of God. He invited
them to a Christian, Fresh, sanctified dinner. John McWhirter didn't
even know those words, let alone quote them. Oh, you're Jewish. Yes, you are. You know more than
that I know you do. I've heard that. Yes, you do. You're rich. You can say, salvation
is my grace. Nobody else can say that. You've
uttered a mouthful of good things. You've uttered a whole counsel
of God. Unless you say that, salvation
is my grace. You've uttered the whole counsel
of God, but the world doesn't have to believe it. Hey, I'm saved by the mercy and
grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. You say that, you know
that. You know that right? The world doesn't. The world doesn't. They can't express it.
They don't. They don't know. You don't say
it, but you don't know. Do you know how the abundance
of the heart can master you? You're rich in utterance and
knowledge. What's he saying? In knowledge. Your knowledge exceeds your ability
to utter that knowledge. You know more than you're able
to say. God's Word doesn't return void. You understand what I'm trying
to say, don't you? God's Word, He said He plants it on the hearts
of His people. We know more than we're able
to recall or tell people that. And we know, well, we do. We know more than we're able
to express it. If you know this much, this is
all you need. You can say, recall, I know who
I am. I know who I am. You say that? Well, my God, you say it. You know that, brother? You know
that God is God, you know? You know that. I mean, you know
that, brother. I know that. But they have to let Him in. You know that. And if you try
to express lying to God, you have a hard time doing it. You know it. You know what you
worship. It's not like the woman at the well, our Lord said, you
don't know what you worship. We know. We know what we worship.
We know salvations of the Jews. We know that. Even to this day,
we know salvations of the Jews. God will let you do it. All Israel
is going to be saved. Jews. a certain size of heart. They have a high priest, they
have blood, they have a total of a tabernacle. And all of you,
you know that. I may not be able to express
it like I just did, but you know that. You know you've got to
have those three things. You've still got to have those
three things to worship God. A high priest, a sacrifier, and
a tabernacle. Whatever those three, these three
are one. Just give him a four. Christ,
you know what you believe. The world doesn't know what we
believe, folks. They don't know what we believe. They say salvation is by grace.
They aren't. Now, that's really confusing.
Like that preacher, that so-called fellow right here says, we control
the one who controls us. That's it. Perfect. Now, that's
what I'm confused about. He doesn't know what he believes
directly. I know who my enemy is. I know that he controls me. Here's the point. Here's how
I find it. He says, this testimony, verse
six, of Christ was confirmed in me. The gospel is confirmed
in you. Verse six. It's confirmed in
you. It's confirmed in you that the
gospel is confirmed in you by your love for it. You come to
hear it, you're devoted to it, in support of it, and in your
life. You don't, you won't say it,
but I say it for you. That here in, we know, here among
us, in the sight of Christ's people, by the love that you
share with His people, the gospel is confirmed in you. The truth,
I say, I see it. I see you growing. I'm sure of it. If I get Davis
to look in the mirror, now I'm going to see you change. Every
Saturday. That's right. Every Sunday I
see him. He's 40 something. There he is. Those people grow. They don't see it. They look
in the mirror. They don't catch it. That's other
people. Other people. Testimony of Christ is confirmed
in you. Verse seven. So if you come behind
and don't get it, you come behind and don't get it, He mentioned
this religious world, but we're bombarded by it, aren't we? It's
just everywhere. Everywhere. But everybody is so super religious,
aren't they? Super-past. Everybody's got always
Venus. Everybody's got always... Come
on, everybody's got this mat in the other room. Just make
you feel, when you're around these super Christians, just
make you feel real inferior. You don't have it? I got it.
You ain't got it yet? I got it. Now what? Scripture says, anybody who can
understand Christ comes behind Him. Nobody's inferior enough. Certainly not compared to these
self-styled, styled saints. Yes, but I keep saying it. They
don't know the first fundamentals of the truth, do they? They don't know the fundamentals
of the truth. And you've come behind in none
of these things. And you're waiting, verse seven
says, you're waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
waiting for the revelation of the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Everybody says this, but now
turn quickly to Matthew 7, okay? Matthew 7, and then we're going
to go to Revelation 6. Matthew 7, very quickly. I want
to listen. You're waiting for the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he said this is confirmed
in me. The gospel is confirmed in me. to wait for the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone says they're waiting
for Christ, and they're not waiting for his return, but not everyone
will be confirmed by Christ, because the gospel's not confirmed
in them then. This is what confirms God's people
now, and this is what will confirm them then. Verse 21, you know these verses. Our Lord said this. He said,
Not everyone that stayeth unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied three things in thy name, that
is, in the name of Jesus, and in thy name have cast out evil? Have we not done this? Have we
not, in thy name, done many wonderful works? Aren't our works wonderful?
Have we not? And will I confess unto them,
I never knew ye the pardon of my husband, although they have
seen him so many. I go over to Revelation 2. This
is what confirms, I'll tell you, Revelation 6. The Gospel is confirmed in you
now. You will be confirmed then. Revelation 6, the verse in that
white rose, Revelation 5, verse in that, "'I beheld and heard
the voice of many angels round about the throne, The number
was 10,000 times 10,000, and thousands and thousands. What did they say? What did they say? You will see honor, power, and
richness, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing
in every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and
on the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are
in them. Heard I say, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power,
be unto him that sits on the throne, unto the Lamb, forever.
Quickly, chapter seven, which we read from Martin. Look at chapter seven. Remember
this, verse nine, a number which no man can number? God has a
number. Christ, verse ten, will allow
for us to say, salvation is our God. Verse 12, saying, Amen,
blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor,
and power, and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. That's what they're saying. The
saints are saying it again. The mere professors, the pretenders,
went up there and said, Have we not done this? We did such
a thing. We let them enter our house. We let them be a part of it. Get them out of here. Now he
confirms this thing. Look at verse 8 in our text.
It says, Christ shall also confirm you of the being. He confirms
His name. They're confirmed now. They're
confirmed then by this testimony. Unto you. Unto you. Unto you. It's all unto you. He hath. He hath. He hath. They say, We
hath. God's people say, He hath. There was some Israelites, some
pretenders. There was some enemy of Israel. who, I forget the name of the
tribe, but they were being slaughtered by the Israelites, and some of
them wanted to try to pretend to be Israelites, so that they wouldn't be found
out. You know, all those Middle Eastern people who look resembling,
like white people, you know. But these fellows I
thought they would try to pass themselves off as Israelites.
Well, they're Israelites. Made them pronounce a word. They made them all pronounce
a word because they knew that only Jews could pronounce this
word correctly. The word was Sheba, and these
non-Jews couldn't say Sheba. It's like Mexicans laughing at
us Americans trying to throw me off. They can't do it. And they can't say a certain
thing. Just like Kentuckians, you know,
they only say ice. Right? Right? Huh? Right? We know where he's from, we've
said that. Or a Virginian says, how's it?
Right? Johnny. We know right away where
he's from. Well, these pretenders couldn't
say kill him. And when they make every one
of them pronounce his name, they couldn't say it. Boy, the same thing is happening
to me. Do you ever pass this through
there? No. He's going to pronounce it one more
time. It might be going to the bottom of their heart. Salvation is
by grace. Salvation is by Christ. Salvation
is by grace. That's how you know Him. That's
how you know Him now. That's how you know Him in the
future. Blameless. Verse 8 says blameless.
And the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my, he's the one that
brought everything out. That's why we're praying. Verse
9, God is faithful. I have so much more I want to
say here. Verse 9, God is faithful. As
you were called unto this fellowship, fellowship of his Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord. God is faithful to his word.
All that's come unto the Father by Christ is the Old Testament.
And He that cometh hath no life's destiny. That's faith. Aren't you glad of that, Joseph?
Aren't you glad that Gibson called him and found out he was a hypocrite?
Huh? Aren't you glad of that? Or how
do you recall? Sent back. Yes, sir. Aren't you glad that God is faithful
in His words, in His truth, in His promise, in His covenant?
Oh, now God's a covenant-keeper. He'd be mercy and covenant for
thousands, sometimes ten thousands. Aren't you glad God is faithful
in His Son, in His people? God who was called to you by
the gospel, and you've been called by God, then give us the calling
of God. Amen. I'm going to say this, and I'm
going to quickly kind of explain it so that it goes, that once
in a race, all of a sudden, you just don't, and now I'll have
somebody bring it up, John says, if you win once in a race, all
of a sudden you say, yes, I did it, and then don't do it. It depends on who the Christ
is, it doesn't matter. God's great. Yes. That's my hope. That's all mine. It's God's plan. Okay. But seeing that last... Self-righteous souls on earth rely and boast their moral dignity. A year, my dear, a song of praise. Jesus shall let no grace regrain. What grace that quickened me
when dead. What grace my soul to Jesus fled. Great brings the sins of heart
and sin, and great the news my love's within. Great reconciles to every loss,
and sweetens every painful cross. Defends my soul when danger's
near, By grace alone thy earth appears. When from this world
my soul removes, Through passion's love, delight, and love, How
can my crown before him grow? And shall regret, regret allow?