Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Colossians. Colossians, the book of Colossians, chapter 1.
The name of the message is Christ whom we preach. Christ whom we
preach. I was thinking about something.
I was talking to a couple guys today and one fellow said, you
know, the problem with America today is the schools. They got
the schools. But you know what? I think I
know what's the real problem in America, if there's a problem.
It's sin, yeah. It's sin, but it's the pulpits.
Christ not being preached. Christ not being preached in
the pulpits, beloved. People think that they can do
whatever they want to do because these fellas are preaching a
weak God who can't do nothing and won't do nothing. But we
preach God who's sovereign. God who's in full control over
all, over the whole world. The whole world. And the amazing
thing is this, God Himself, God the Father, in order to deal
with our sin, had to send His only begotten Son, the Son of
God. The Word of God had to become
flesh. The second person of the Trinity had to become flesh in
order for our sin to be dealt with. That's how serious our
sin is. That's how serious, and we've
sinned against God, haven't we? Think about this, the very God
we have sinned against sent Christ into this world. Because he knew
there's no other way for us to be saved. And God didn't go to
plan B when Adam fell. I used to believe that. He didn't
go to plan B. When the Jews rejected Christ,
that wasn't part of plan B either. I remember saying that stuff
when I was in religion. It's just a lie. God has always
purposed and planned that the Gentiles would be part of the
elect of God. And the elect of God comprise
both Jews and Gentiles who are born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. In every sent gospel preacher,
we preach Christ. We preach Jesus Christ. There's
no other salvation. Outside of Christ, there's no
salvation. But in Christ, oh, what a mighty
salvation we have. All our sins are washed clean
by the precious blood of the Lamb, God's Lamb. God's Lamb,
the Lamb of God. John the Baptist said, behold,
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. The
Lamb of God, the sent one, Brother Dave, the sent one. Sent to save
us from our sins. It's wonderful. My. Look at verse, let's read verses
21 to 29. Our verse will be in verse 28. But look at this. And you, that were sometimes
alienated and enemies in your mind, that was us. In our minds,
we were alienated from God because of our sin, because of our fallen
Adam. We were alienated from God, and we were enemies in our
minds. People say, I had one lady profess
to be a believer. And she said, I was never an
enemy. I was never an enemy with God. You're not arguing with
me. You're arguing with the scriptures.
The scripture says right there, doesn't it say right there? That
in our minds, we were sometimes alienated, enemies in your mind
by wicked works. Yet now, look at this, this is
wonderful. That was the past, beloved. Yet
now, brothers and, hath he reconciled. Brother David reconciled. Sister
T, we're reconciled to God through Christ. We fell in Adam, and
now we're reconciled. It's wonderful. Look at this. In the body of
his flesh, he became a man. And then what did he do to redeem
us? Well, he died. Look at this. In the body of
his flesh through death to present you. Now look at this. Look at
the picture it paints in verse 21. We were alienated. We were
enemies in our mind by wicked works. We're sinners to the core,
right? But look at this next verse. This is absolutely incredible. Look at this. And you are in
the body of his flesh through death to present you wholly. That's why we're called saints.
We're holy in Christ. We're set apart in Christ. We're
set apart in him to present you holy. Unblameable. There can be no charge brought
against us, Dave, in Christ. No charge. This is what the scripture
says about God's people. And notice, he's not saying,
well, when you get to heaven, this is what you're going to
be. It's right now. It's right now. Look at this.
Unblameable and unapprovable in his sight. God sees us all
the time, doesn't he? My, if you continue in the faith,
well, he's going to keep us, isn't he? Grounded and settled
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. Who's the
hope of the gospel? Someone tell me. Who's the hope of the gospel?
Christ. Amen, brother Zane. Christ is
the hope of the gospel. He's our only hope. We have no
hope outside of Christ. Mm, this is wonderful. Which
ye have heard, Christ had been preached to them. See, when Paul
and Silas and Timothy went places, they didn't tell the Christians
what they had to do. They told them about what's already
done. They didn't lay down a bunch
of rules and regulations. They preached Christ. the only
hope for sinners, and if the Son will make you free, I'll
tell you what, you're free indeed, aren't you? Oh, it's wonderful,
beloved. Absolutely wonderful. So we've
heard, and we've been giving them hearing ears, haven't we?
In which was preached to every creature which is under heaven,
where I, Paul, am made a minister. now rejoice, who now rejoice
in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind
of the afflictions of Christ in my body, in my flesh for his
body's sake, which is the church. The church is the body of Christ.
Where have I made a minister? He didn't choose it. No preacher
chooses to become a pastor. I was doing the work of an evangelist
before God called me the pastor. I thought that's what I was gonna
be doing. Going out in the streets and
talking to people, I loved it. Going down the mission and preaching
down there, I loved it. And then God called me to preach.
Well, it's amazing. He puts you in the ministry.
You don't put yourself in the ministry. It's absolutely amazing. According to the dispensation
of God, which is given to me, for you to fulfill the word of
God. Now, look at this. Look at this. Now some people
say, some people say this, they say, well it's not fair that
God saves a certain people and passes by everybody else. Do
you know that before Christ came, the gospel was hid? It was hid to the Egyptians,
it was hid to the Amorites, it was hid to the Canaanites, it
was hid to all the other folks. Israel had the oracles of God,
didn't they? They were the chosen nation. Now look what it says
here. Look at this. Verse 26, even the mystery which
had been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made
manifest to his saints. God has manifested Christ to
us. He was hid for ages and generations. My, now all the Old Testament
elect, they looked to the Messiah, didn't they? But we know that
all that came out of Egypt weren't all Israel, were they? They were
a mixed multitude, beloved, believers and unbelievers. Oh my. Look at that, but now it's made
manifest to his saints. So to be manifest means to be
revealed. It had to be revealed. See, the
gospel comes to us by divine revelation, beloved. God reveals
the gospel to us through the Holy Spirit of God, through the
preaching of his word. Or else we'll never know him.
Or else it'll be hid, like it's here, hid from ages and from
generations. But it's now made manifest. It's
been manifested to us, brother. Now we see. We didn't see before
the Lord saved us. No. Sister Dee, we've talked
about that before. We were just blinded and dead
in sin. Didn't see Christ, so now he's
glorious. He's wonderful. He's amazing. My, look at this. What has he
made known to us? To whom God would make known.
What is the riches of this mystery among the Gentiles? Which is
what? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in us, the hope
of glory. We have a hope, beloved. We have
a hope that the Old Testament saints were looking to the Messiah.
We have a hope looking back to Christ on the cross and looking
to him now in glory, right? And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then we see Paul, look what Paul brings up in verse 20, whom
we preach. I have nothing else to preach. I'll be honest with
you, I have nothing else to preach but Christ. Now I'm gonna come
at different things from the scriptures, but it's always gonna
be through Christ. It has to be, it has to be beloved. He's the hub with all the spokes
go out from him. And as I said, when Christ isn't
being preached from the pulpit, then works is being preached
from the pulpit. Then a God of people's imagination
is being preached from the pulpit. And I think that's the problem
all around the world. There's a famine in the land
of the word of God. And if you find a grace church,
if you find a grace church to attend, stay there and rejoice
and support the work because there are not very many of them
anymore. Where Christ and him crucified is being preached.
My oh my. Look at this, whom we preach
warning every man, heaven or hell, right? There's only two
destinations, and it's real. Spurgeon had a sermon called
Turn or Burn. You don't hear much about that
anymore, eh? Turn or burn, it's true. Turn to Christ or burn. Oh my. warning every man and
teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man
perfect in Christ Jesus. Now look at that. How can we
be presented perfect in Christ Jesus? Well, let's go back up
here. Let's go back up to verse 22.
Look at this. It's only in Christ. In the body
of his flesh through death to present you holy, unblameable,
and unapprovable in his sight. Isn't that wonderful? Here we
are still sinners. Still sinners. But yet in Christ, we're holy,
we're unblameable, we're unapprovable in God's sight. We've already
been qualified for heaven in Christ. We're already seated in heavenly
places. As far as God's concerned, it's
all over. He knows the beginning from the end, right? Oh my, it's
wonderful, I'll tell you what. This is just wonderful. Look
at what Paul says here. Whereunto I also labor, striving
according to his working, which worketh in me mighty. I love
this last verse here. Because all of God's people,
we labor for the Lord, don't we? Every saint of God, we labor
for the Lord, whether it be in prayer, whether it be supporting
a work, whether it be teaching, whether it be just being together
in church, everything, we're laboring for the Lord together.
I covet your prayers more than anything. I'll tell you that. But look at this, where unto
I also labor, that's for Christ, and that's not for any gain or
to gain merit and favor with God. No, not at all. None of us come, even attend,
to gain merit and favor with God. We come because we want
to hear the word. We want to hear the gospel preached, don't
we? Look at this, striving according to who's working. See, religion
will say, oh, it's your working. It's your working. Look what
it says in the text. Now this could silence, if people
only believe what the Bible says, this could silence so much stuff
out there. Look at this. Whereunto I also
labor striving according to his working, which worketh in me
mightily. People trying to get, oh, I need
more fruit of the spirit. I'm going to try to gain it.
I need to be more happy. I've even met people this week.
Oh, I've got to be more happy. There ain't no way you're going
to be happier unless the Holy Spirit works it in you. And you
know how you rejoice? We rejoice, brother, when we
hear the gospel. Oh, my. It lifts our soul, doesn't it?
Point me to Christ. Let me just hear about Christ.
Let me hear about my Savior. Let me hear about He who redeemed
my eternal soul with His precious, precious blood. Just tell me
more about Him. Look at that. Paul says, whom we preach. They
don't preach nothing else. If you go through Paul's epistles,
he is continuously pointing the hearers to Christ. Now, he gives
instruction, of course, and the Bible has instruction for righteousness,
right? It tells us how to live, it tells
us what to avoid, right? There's lots of things we should
avoid. Even in the first part here,
it says, and you that were sometimes alienated in your minds by wicked
works, even though we know we're sinners, we try to stay away
from wicked works, don't we? Do you sin more than you want
to? Yeah, we're all smiling, yeah. We do, don't we? My oh
my. So there's only one whom we preach,
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 27 again. Whom
we preach, warning every man. Now Paul's made it very clear
here with these words to the Colossian believers, the Colossian
church. And he's under house arrest here. But he's making
it so clear whom he preaches. Who is the center of his preaching?
Whom we preach. Christ, eh? He's making it so
clear, isn't he, brother? You can't mess that up. Whom
we preach. Now, I'll tell you what. You
can tell a false preacher from a true preacher. Because a false
preacher will preach himself. A true preacher will point you
to Christ. Now, he may use examples that
happened in his life to point you to Christ, too. But this guy over here, the false
preacher, he wants all the glory. This preacher over here sent
by God, he wants Christ to get all the glory. My oh my. And always remember this, it's
not the man, it's the message. We've talked about that. It's
not the man, it's the message. People get so tied up on the
man. It's not the man. I'm just a messenger. I'm a messenger,
I deliver the report to you who I love. And God does whatever
he wills with it. Isn't it wonderful? And we all
rejoice together. But I only got one message. Christ
the only savior for sinners. Christ was crucified for the
sins of his people. Some says, well, how do I know
if I'm one of his people? Flee to Christ. You'll find out real
fast. Oh, because the only ones who
flee to Christ are those who are the elect to God. I'll tell
you that. Because they're made willing in the day of God's power.
And God works mightily in them, as Paul said at the latter part
of that verse. But we still proclaim, right?
Flee to Christ. He's the sinner's only hope.
All sinner friend, we're just a bunch of sinners here saved
by grace, aren't we, beloved? That's all we are. We're not
holy with them now. As a matter of fact, we think
we're the least of all saints. We think we're the chief of sinners.
And I'll tell you what, that's one thing you find in the congregations,
a whole bunch of chiefs, chiefs of sinners, right? And I marvel, do you marvel,
beloved, that Christ saved our souls? that God sent him, the
Father sent him into this world. And because of his perfect sinless
work, because he was the perfect sinless substitute, let's marvel
at this again. We are one day going to be presented
to him holy and unblameable, unapprovable in his sight. And
we are that way right now, beloved. Because God says, I don't remember
your sin no more. Now that's not in the future. That's right
now. Isn't that wonderful? Woo, my. This is good news for sinners,
isn't it? My, oh my. Acts 28, 30 says,
and Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house. Now,
this is where he's writing the letter from. He's in Rome. He's
in a hired house. He spent two years there and
received all that came unto him. Now, Paul, well, he's in prison,
but he's still receiving everyone who come to him. Anyone he can
preach the gospel to, he's going to preach the gospel to. And
he didn't sit there and tell them 50 ways how to clean up
your life. He preached Christ. He preached Christ the Lord.
That's it. Whom we preach. Warning every
man, right? He's warning them. He's warning
them. And this is what he did, Acts
28, 31, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things
which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. Right? With all confidence, no man forbidden
him. Here he's under house arrest.
He's got these guards there too. All them guards. They're hearing
the gospel every day. You imagine, you imagine the
Lord saved one of them and all of a sudden he's like listening
even more, big ol' smile on his face and he's listening. Oh,
tell me more, Paul. I get to stand here for eight
hours and listen to Paul preach and talk about Christ. Oh my
goodness. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Oh
my, well that's how it feels even when we get together, isn't
it? And we can sit and talk and rejoice after service or before
service. It's wonderful. Oh, it's wonderful. And no man forbade him from preaching.
God opened the door. He opened the door, my oh my. And he's telling the Colossian
believers here that the same gospel which he preaches is the
same gospel that Epaphras, who is a faithful preacher to them,
same gospel he preaches. Same gospel. God's sent gospel
preachers preach the same gospel. Salvation in Christ alone, by
the perfect sinatonic work of Christ alone, redeemed by his
precious, precious blood, and he was raised again for our justification. My, and God gives us faith as
a gift. We don't earn it, we don't merit
it, it's a gift. Hmm. Lest any man should boast. Right? Oh, it's wonderful. So
who gets all the glory? Amen. Christ gets all the glory.
That's right. Oh my. So Paul, what Paul's showing
us here in this, this little section here, when he says whom
we preach one in every man, he's, he's actually bringing to attention
to the Colossian believers, the, the, the heart of what he preaches. the subject and the person who
he preaches, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't mess
around with other things. I'll tell you what, when Christ
is set before us, what a hope we have, because there's nothing
we have to do for our salvation. That's wonderful, isn't it? It's
done. I preach a finished work, already
accomplished. Now we by faith run to Christ
and trust and rest in him by God-given faith. Yes, we do that,
but that's by God-given faith. Could we muster that up? No. No. That even has to be given
to us. And then God's got to work in
us too, right? As Paul said mightily. Oh my. But it's wonderful. And the more
we learn about Christ, the more we fall in love with him. the
more wonderful he is, the more beautiful he is, the more incredible
he is. He saved my soul? Willingly? When I was an enemy in my mind,
as it says there, look at that, as it says, it says in verse
21, I was alienated from God by my wicked works, and I was
an enemy to God, and so were you, beloved, right, all of us,
by wicked works, but yet now hath he reconciled us. Do you
know the preaching of the gospel is a ministry of reconciliation?
Reconciliation through who? Amen, brother, the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's no other way to be reconciled
to God, is there? No other way. Again, he's bringing
home the main subject of his preaching. And this is the main
subject of every gospel preacher, is the Lord Jesus Christ. We have one message, and we preach
and proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ, and the riches of his glory,
and the mystery of the gospel, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. And again, the Lord Jesus Christ is not just any mere man,
he's God incarnate in the flesh. I was listening to a Jew on YouTube
this week, and he said, we don't even recognize Christ even as
a prophet. And I thought to myself, they're
blind. They're totally blind. They're
totally blind. And they said, we don't acknowledge
that he was the Messiah, and here I am, a Gentile dog, Right? Know my past. Know who I was.
Know what I did. And the Lord saved my soul. And
revealed to me who he is. And same with you, brother. Same
with you, sister. Isn't that wonderful? And here's
this educated man. Reads the Hebrew Torah. Reads
all that stuff. And has no idea who Christ is.
Hid. Remember? In the passage we read?
Hid. from generations, but is now
made manifest to what? His saints. He's manifested himself
to us. Oh my soul, that's incredible. He's revealed himself to us.
There's nothing special in us, is there? No, as a matter of
fact, if anything, our sin should keep us away from Him. But He's
such a loving, wonderful, merciful Savior that He saves all those
whom the Father gave Him, and He loves them with an everlasting
love, an eternal love that will never, ever change. It doesn't
change based upon what we do. It doesn't change based upon
our circumstances. Doesn't change if we forget even
who we are when we get older. Does not affect it at all. Isn't
that wonderful? Because Christ has us. We're his. And I was thinking
about this. I'm going to put it in, you'll
probably hear it again in Philippians study. In the first part of Philippians,
he says, Paul and Timotheus, a servant of Jesus Christ, right?
Servant there, in the Greek, is doulos, which is a slave. I was listening to a fellow this
week. He brought this out. I thought
it was tremendous. We can be a servant to many. Right? I can be a servant to you, Zane,
and to Sister Dee, and Dave, and Vicki, and Sister Diane,
and the people in the church. I can be a servant. I can be
a servant to all of you. And you can be servants to all
of us, too, right? But as a duos, as a slave, we only
have one owner. We're bought with a price. We're
not our own. And we've willingly, Brother
Zane said, bore my ear, Lord. I'm yours. Isn't that beautiful? And then scripture says we're
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. That seal is a mark
in the Greek. We've been marked by God. And
it's a mark of ownership. You're bought with a price. And
what's the price? The precious, precious, precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that wonderful? My, it
doesn't get any better than that, does it? That's incredible that
Christ would do that for us. Make my face leak here, my goodness.
It's incredible. It's absolutely amazing, but
it's true. We're bought with a price, and
that's the precious blood of Christ. So Paul's showing here the main
subject of his preaching, the main subject of every gospel
preacher who's sent by God. One message, that's preaching
Christ and Him crucified. God incarnated in the flesh,
the express image of the Father, the head of the church, the only
mediator between God and man. No man on this earth can be a
mediator. There's only one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for
all. Who did he give himself a ransom for all? All the elect,
every single one of the elect. He ransomed our eternal souls
with the shedding of his precious, precious blood. And let us remember too that
now Colossus, in Colossus they were dealing with something a
little bit different. They were dealing with the, what were they
called? The Gnostics. the Gnostics in
Colossus. And we saw in Galatians they
were dealing with the Judaizers, and now we've seen in Philippians
they're dealing with the Judaizers too. But in Colossus they're
dealing with the Gnostics, which believed that there was a hierarchy
of angels in order to get to God. So you start with one angel,
you prayed to him, and you start with another, another, all the
way up until the top angel. And Christ was just one of them
angels, they said. But they also said the only way
you could know how to have this knowledge of what's right is
to go through the teachers. They had the secret knowledge.
Yeah, exactly, brother. Secret knowledge. Only they could
give. Well, I'll tell you this. The whole, if you read the book
of Colossians, what you're gonna find out is that this book is
all about the preeminence of Christ. So what Paul's doing
is he's setting forth Christ as the preeminent one, as opposed
to all those false angels and stuff that people say. See, this
is why we don't pray to saints, we don't pray to, there's only
one mediator. See, the Gnostics taught that
there was all these mediators. Sounds very similar to a church
that we know, doesn't it, Brother Dan? The Catholic Church, they
have all these saints people pray to. And then, of course,
they have the biggest idol, which is Mary. Basically, the church's
Mary worship is basically what it is. I was in it, I know. Praise God, he delivered me from
it. And I pray that if anyone's listening tonight who's in it,
that God would deliver you from it. Because Christ is the only
way, the only truth, the only mediator between God and man.
There's no other one. No other one. And as a matter
of fact, if you start to mix grace with works and grace, Christ
has become no effect to you, Paul wrote to the Galatians,
whosoever you are justified by the law, you've fallen from grace.
My oh my. So we preach Christ to lost sinners. The only hope. The only hope
for sinners. And me being a saved sinner,
I'm just telling one beggar, I'm a beggar, tell another beggar
where to find bread. It's in Christ. He's the bread
of life, isn't he? You know, if you eat Christ the
bread of life by faith, if you rest in him, I'll tell you, you
won't need nothing else. Oh, rich as I eat, not right.
No man's empty praise. We don't need that. No, we are
rich in Christ, beloved. My, and only in Christ Jesus
can our sins be forgiven. The only way for a sinner to
have their sins forgiven is in Christ and by Christ. That's
the only way. only by the pardoning blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, only his sacrifice, only the sacrifice
of Christ can satisfy God's holy, perfect law. You know why? Because
he's the perfect one, offering himself up, perfectly fulfilling
the law of God as a substitute of his people. When he hung there,
he hung there as our substitute. The law is complete, he's fulfilled
it. He's sinless. So who's he fulfilling it for
then? All them sinners he came to save, right? Called the elect
of God. The Lord Jesus Christ said of
him, he shall save his people from their sins. Praise God he
done it, didn't he? He done it. It's finished. So
if it's finished, is there anything for us to do? Oh, we just look
and live, don't we? Rest! Now, that's the hardest
thing for us to do, right there, is rest. Just rest in the finished
work of Christ. But by God's grace, he gives
us that, eh? Oh my, we still struggle, though. Peter, even
Peter, Lord, help my unbelief. I'll tell you, I don't know how
much I cry that all the time, too. Are you just like Peter,
like me? Oh, help me, Lord, help my unbelief.
My, oh my. I was talking to some folks this
week and they were saying, well, unbelief's the only sin that
can never be forgiven. And I said, well, we're all in
trouble then. And they kind of looked at me, I said, do you
ever doubt God? You ever have unbelief? You profess
to be a Christian, but you still have unbelief? Praise God, it's
all washed under the blood. Isn't that wonderful? Now if
a person dies in their sins, not looking to Christ, they will
perish. They will perish in their sins. But if a believer, anyone
who tells you that believers don't doubt, they're lying. Our assurance comes from Christ,
right? So when we look to Christ, then we have assurance. But what happens when we start
to Look away a little bit. Well, our assurance gets a little
shaky, doesn't it sometimes? Or we start to get unbelief and
doubt. But is that all forgiven? Amen. Washed under the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. My, oh my. You see how a man
just puts all these legal obligations on people? I keep telling them
across the world, I'm free. I'm free in Christ. One guy says,
you better be ready. You better, yesterday, you better
be ready to face Christ. I said, I'm ready. I'm in Christ. Now, if I wasn't in Christ, I'd
be worried. But if you're in Christ, No one can bring a charge
against God's elect. You know why? Because it's God
that justifies. We're justified by God, sister. People can say whatever they
want about us. It doesn't change the fact that we're justified
by God. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. I'm just so thankful. That I'm saved by the work of
Christ, are you? That it doesn't depend upon what we do? I'll
tell you, we are so free. So we preach Christ and Him crucified. There's only salvation in Christ.
Turn, if you would, to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians. And then, in our
text there, it says, warn in every man. So Paul had a twofold
message. whom we preach, that being Christ,
and warning every man. Warning every man. Instructing
every man. Someone said the blessings of
God are hedged in about side by side by the warnings of God,
lest any presume, and on the other side, the promises of God,
lest any despair. We're hedged in, in Christ. In
Christ. And it's the duty of the minister
to warn to worry about the carelessness
people have about the wrath of God, too. It's real. It's real. The only reason we will not face
the wrath of God as believers is because it fell on Christ.
But I'll tell you what, outside of Christ, it's going to fall
upon the sinner. My, oh, my. Flee to Christ. He's the only hope. He's the
only hope, and the context of this letter is Paul's warning
the Colossians about the false teachers, as well as unregenerate
people who heard the message of mixing law and grace. It's
wrong, flee from it. It's a false gospel. Salvation's
only in Christ. So He's one in every man. He's
teaching and proclaiming Christ in Him crucified. Look at this
in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses, we're gonna go all the way to
6-2. 2 Corinthians 6-2. Start in verse 17, therefore
if any man be in Christ, there's the key right there, he's a new
creature. Old things are passed away, behold
all things have become new. Now you love the gospel, now
you love Christ, now you love the Bible. This is amazing. And
all things are of God, who hath, look, who's doing the work here
as we read this? Who's doing the work? Who's reconciling
who? Who hath reconciled us to himself? He did it! The Lord Jesus Christ
reconciled us to God, the Father, by Jesus Christ, and has given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. That's the ministry. Be ye reconciled
to God. Right? Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did besiege you
by us, we pray you in Christ's name, be ye reconciled to God. Flee to Christ. flee to Christ
and be reconciled to God through Christ Jesus. For he hath made
him to be sin for us. All the sins of God's elect were
imputed to Christ, laid upon him. Oh my, who knew no sin? He never did a sin, a thought,
word, or deed. Why? Why did God lay upon Christ
our sins? Why did he impute them to Christ?
Well, look at this, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Hallelujah. That's wonderful. Look at this. We then, as workers
together with him, remember he's working in us mightily, we're
servants for him now, besiege you, also that ye receive not
the grace of God in vain. For he hath, I have heard thee
in time accepted, and in the day of salvation I have secured
thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day
of salvation. Tomorrow might not come. There's people who died today
in this world, thinking they're gonna, tomorrow, tomorrow, and
they're gone. Six workers on the bridge, just
working away there on the bridge, not even thinking of anything.
Boom, that ship hits that, and they're gone, gone. I know they kept looking for
them. They were gone within an hour, not even that probably.
My, oh, my. But now they thought they'd gone
home after their shift. Didn't know. Didn't know. Oh, my. And this applies to today, too.
We warn every man of the judgment to come. It's appointed on the
man once to die, and after this, the judgment. It doesn't say,
after this, the party. No, it says, after this, the
judgment. You remember when we were foolish before the Lord
saved us, we thought we were gonna party in hell with our
friends? No, after this, the judgment. Praise God, he saved
us from that, Dave. Hallelujah, that he saved us
and took us out of that, man. My, oh my, what a merciful God
we have. Oh, he's so good to us. So we
all, we weren't all men. You cannot justify yourself before
God. You cannot save yourself. The only one who we can be saved
in, the only one who we can appear in God's presence in, is the
Lord Jesus Christ and him alone. My. because all the world are guilty
before God. If we all got what we deserve,
we'd all perish in hell. But praise God, he planned and
purposed to have mercy upon a people. We don't know who they are. You
don't know who they are who are listening. No one knows who they
are but God. And that's why we say flee to
Christ, the only hope for sinners. My oh my. And if God doesn't
save you, you'll be left in your sins, and you're gonna perish. And men willingly go to hell.
I'll tell you why. Don't they? Oh yeah, they do. Oh, I was listening to that fellow,
I was telling you that Jewish fellow, and it became very clear
that he hated God. Because the minute somebody started
pressing him on the resurrection, he got lit up, Didn't want to
hear nothing about it. I don't believe that stuff. Oh,
well. Yeah, you're dead in sins. Of
course you don't. My, oh, my. Turn, if you would, to Luke.
Luke chapter 3. Luke chapter 3. My, oh, my. I got to close this
up soon. Look at this. Luke chapter 3, starting in verse
3 and going to verse 8. And he came into all the country
about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission
of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah
the prophet, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
prepare you the way of the Lord. Make his path straight. Every
valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be bought
low. And look at this. That's us. The crooked shall
be made straight. We were crooked. We'd be made
straight, beloved. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, and
the rough ways shall be made smooth. While we were stones,
we were hard as a rock. Oh, my. We got new hearts now,
don't we, Brother Zane? Oh, heart that hungers and thirsts
after righteousness now. Oh, my. Isn't that wonderful?
Oh, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. My. Then said he to the multitude
that came forth to be baptized of them, O generation of vipers,
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? It's coming. Bring forth, therefore, fruits
worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves,
we have Abraham to our father. Oh, we're good. We got Abraham.
We got Moses. We got the law. Don't say that.
He can't save you. Abraham needed a savior just
like we did, didn't he? He's in idol worship. We saw
a couple weeks ago. He's in the land of Ur worshiping
idols just like we were before. The only reason he came out of
Ur is because God called him out of Ur. He found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. Why are we saved and all people
around us aren't? Because we found grace in the eyes of the
Lord. Oh my. My. We have Abraham to our father,
for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise
up children unto Abraham. And he has with the Gentiles,
hasn't he? A multitude that no man can number. Oh my. Our text continues, teaching
every man in all wisdom. The apostle Paul taught every
man in wisdom. He proclaimed the unsearchable
riches of Christ. He said we're not saved by our
own strength, we're saved by Christ and Christ alone. My,
and that's not the wisdom of the world, is it? No, the world
calls the preaching of the gospel foolishness, but we say it's
the power of God unto salvation. Right? My, my oh my. And what does the wisdom of God
do? It makes the wisdom of the world absolutely meaningless.
We see right through the wisdom of the world now, don't we? We
didn't before, but now we do. It's nothing, it's just folly.
Just folly. My, it becomes meaningless to
us when it comes to the salvation of God's people. God has chosen
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So
what are we going to do? We're going to preach Christ,
right? We're going to preach the only
Savior. And think of this, college professors
stumble over the truths of the gospel. while the Lord Jesus
Christ will pour on uneducated people in the eyes of the world,
of all the ages are made wise unto salvation. Turn, if you would, to Acts.
This is marvelous. Acts chapter four. We're getting
close to the end here. Acts chapter four. This is marvelous right
here. I'll tell you why. Whenever I
read this passage, I just chuckle, because this is me. Oh my. And I marvel God made me a preacher,
I'll tell you why. This is amazing. Acts chapter
4 verses 5 to 14. And it came to pass on the morrow
that the rulers and elders and scribes and Ananias the high
priest... Somebody help me out here. Caiaphas
and John and Alexander and as many as were of the kindred of
the high priests were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when
they had set them in the midst, they asked, by what power or
by what name have you done this? Now, the man at the gate called
Beautiful being healed. And he's leaping and walking
and praising God. And he's actually with them in
this. We're going to find out. He's with them at the end. If we this day, oh no, let's
go back here. Then Peter, filled with the Holy
Ghost, verse eight, said unto them, you rulers of the people
and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed
done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole,
be it known to you and all the people of Israel, that by the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God
raised from the dead, Even by him doth this man stand before
you whole." They're saying, this is not our work. Christ did this. See, they're giving all the glory
to the Lord, aren't they? This is the stone which was set at
naught of you builders, the Israelite leaders, which has become the
head of the corner. Look at this. What a statement.
Neither is there salvation in any other. Not in Abraham, not
in Moses, not in being a Jew, not being a Gentile, not by any
works. Only, look at this, neither is
there salvation in any other. There's only salvation in Christ.
For there is none other name under heaven given among men
whereby we, what? Must be saved. If we are to be
saved, we must be saved in Christ. There's no other place. And this
is God's word. Look at this. I like this. This
next verse makes me chuckle. And when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men, let's put our hands up, right? Unlearned and ignorant men, they
marveled. And they took knowledge of them
that they had been with Jesus. And beholden the man which was
healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
He was right there with them. I'm like, who are these fishermen?
Now, I've met Vicky's dad. He's a fisherman. He's a burly
fellow. You wouldn't want to mess with him. I'll tell you
why. But he knows more about fixing stuff than I'll ever learn
in my lifetime. See, these folks, these are these
religious folks who think they're more pious than everybody else.
They're more better than everybody else. You see them often running
around with collars on their neck. You ever see those fellas?
Right? Yeah, backwards. Oh my, just wanted to tell you
how holy they are. But you know, you can't pick
a grace preacher when he's out in a restaurant or out in, you
can't even tell he's a preacher. Oh my. Unlearned and ignorant
men, they marveled. They marveled. Yeah, you do too.
And they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.
See, we're new creatures now in Christ, aren't we? Like we
looked at earlier. We're not the same. We're not the same
as we were. Oh my. And Paul, Paul didn't
come to them Paul didn't come to the Corinthians with wisdom
of words, did he? He didn't come to Colossus with
wisdom of words. He didn't go to Galatia with
wisdom of words. He preached Christ. And that
man could have come with wisdom of words. He was well educated
under one of the best teachers at that time. He says, I just
counted all but done. It's nothing. It's nothing. Listen
to what Paul says to the Corinthians. For I am determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, whom
we preach, warning every man. My, oh, my. And look at this,
he says, and I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling,
and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom. He didn't pull out his repertoire
of words that he learned under Gamaliel. No, no, he says, but
in demonstration of the spirit and of power. It must, preaching
must be accompanied by the Holy Spirit of God or it is just words. My. And he is the one who has
all the power. Our great God. God the Holy Spirit
makes the preaching of his word factual to his people. It's wonderful. And listen to why he says that.
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man. If it stands
in the wisdom of man, it's going to fall. If a man can talk you
into a profession, he can talk you out of a profession. Paul
writes this, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of man, but in the power of God. We've been delivered, beloved.
You ever think of this? We have been delivered by the power of God from our
sins in and through the Lord Jesus Christ and his precious,
precious redeeming blood. It's he who saved us and not
ourselves. It's he who has reconciled us
to God. And you know why? All according to the will and
purpose of God. We're safe, sister, because it
pleased God to do so. That's wonderful. Brother Dave,
can you close us out?