Good morning. Y'all seen the
building? It's coming along. The goal is
still the first Sunday of August, but we'll have to see how that
works out. But things seem to be progressing
toward that. So that's just like, what, how
many more Sundays from now? Three? We have two more Sundays
in July, is that right? Yeah. Brian's shooting for the
last Sunday of July, but I don't know about that. That's probably
not gonna happen. I am. I'm so thankful for you
all and all the work that's gone into this and I think it'll be
something that we'll be able to enjoy together for a long
time. So I'm looking forward to that. Looking forward to this
building becoming a fellowship hall and getting all these all
this out of here and set up tables and we'll be able to have meals
in here. So that would be a good thing. You don't have to turn
with me in your Bibles. Most of you are familiar with
this passage, Ezekiel chapter 16. And when I passed by thee,
I saw thee polluted in thine own blood. And I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, and blood is death. And I said
unto thee, when I pass by thee, live. God says live, you're gonna
live. And that's our hope this morning,
that the Lord will pass by and speak to our hearts and say to
us who are by nature in our own blood, live. If he does, we'll
have life, life eternal. Let's stand together. Tom's gonna
come lead us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. The head that once was crowned
with thorns is crowned with glory now. A royal diadem adorns the
mighty victor's brow. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. The highest place
that heaven affords is His, is His by right. The King of kings and Lord of
lords and heaven's eternal light. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. The joy of all who
dwell above, the joy of all below, to whom He manifests His love
and grants His name to know. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. The cross he bore,
his life and health, though shame and death to him. His people's hope, his people's
wealth, their only hope is him. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. ? Blessed be the
name, blessed be the name ? ? Blessed be the name of the Lord ? Please
be seated. Good morning. For our call to
worship this morning, if you could turn with me to Psalm chapter
118. Psalm chapter 118. Let's look at verse 23. This
is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and
be glad in it. There's only one day. That has
ever been that mattered compared to every other day, and that
was the day that the Lord Jesus Christ became the surety for
his elect people and presented the blood, presented the blood
unto his father and became the successful savior for his elect
bride. This day is the day that the
Lord hath made. Let us rejoice. We will rejoice
and be glad in it. Let us pray. Father, we have come into this
house and gathered in your name to worship you. We can neither
arrive at this place nor worship you without your providence,
without you sending your spirit to this place right now. Father,
we pray that you would do so according to your will. Thank
you for your precious salvation. For your people. Pray that you
would give Greg clarity of mind. Open our ears that we may hear
once again. Send your spirit to this place
that we may worship you in spirit and in truth. In Christ name
we pray, Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 23 from the Spiral Gospel Hymns Hymnbook,
23. Pass me not, O gracious Father,
sinful, wretched though I be. Though you might in truth condemn
me, let your mercy fall on me. Love of God so everlasting, Blood
of Christ so rich and free, Grace of God so strong and saving,
Magnify them all in me. Pass me not, O blessed Savior,
Let me hear your gracious call, I'm a guilty, helpless sinner
Savior, at your feet I fall Love of God so everlasting Blood of
Christ so rich and free Grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in me. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit,
you can cause the dead to live. Speak the word of saving power. Give me faith and make me live. Love of God so everlasting. Blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong. strong and saving magnify them
all in me pass me not a poor lost sinner If you will, you
can save me. Reach down with your hand of
mercy. Saving others, Lord, save me. Love of God so everlasting. Blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and saving. Magnify them all in me. Please be seated. Adam and Caleb
are going to bring special music. There is a fountain filled with
blood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins And sinners plunge beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains ? Lose all their guilty stains
? ? Lose all their guilt and their stains ? ? And sinners
plunged beneath that flood ? ? Lose all their guilty stains ? The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day And there may I though vile as
he Wash all my sins away Wash all my sins away Have all
my sins washed away And there may I though vile as
he Wash all my sins away Dear dying land, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved to sin no more. Be safe to sin no more Be safe
to have the sin no more Till all the ransomed church
of God Be safe to sin no more E'er since, by faith, I saw the
stream Thy flowing wounds supply Redeeming love has been my theme
And shall be till I die And shall be till I die And shall
be my theme till I die Redeeming love has been my theme And shall
be till I die When this poor lisping, stammering
tongue Lies silent in the grave Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing thy power to save I'll sing thy power to save I'll
sing thy power to choose and save Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing thy power to save For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. The power of God. Thank you,
men. If you'd like to turn with me
in your Bibles to Acts chapter five, Acts chapter five. I want to try to bring a very
simple message titled The Name of Jesus. The Name of Jesus. If we listen to the wisdom of
the world, they will tell us that men are divided by race,
they're divided by nationality, they're divided by ethnicity,
they're divided by material possessions, they're divided by education.
God recognizes none of those divisions. For God, all men are
divided into one of two camps. That's it. Those who believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and those who do not believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we find in our
text this morning is that the apostles were commanded not to
preach anymore in that name. And they rejoiced that they were
blessed to suffer shame for having preached in that name. And then
in the next verse they went right out and preached in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look with me in Acts chapter
5 beginning at verse 40. Now that hymn is a reference
to Gamaliel. You remember Gamaliel is the
one who stood up to the Sanhedrin and said, you know, let's see
if this be of God and let's see if it be of man. If it's of man,
it'll come to naught. And if it's of God, you cannot
overthrow it. And they all agreed with him.
They said, okay, let's just wait and see. That's the world's response
to the gospel. Let's just wait and see. You
know, we just talked about the reality of death. And most people
think, well, you know, I got plenty of time. Let's just wait
and see. I'll take care of that later.
Oh, the scripture says today is the day of salvation. Come
right now, just like you are. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Don't presume upon God to give you another breath. But Gamaliel
said, well, let's just wait and see. And they were all in agreement. They thought, that's a good idea.
And when they had called the apostles and beaten them, they
commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus. And they let him go. That was
the offense. The offense of what the apostles
were doing was they were preaching the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the offense of the gospel. In verse 41, and they departed
from the presence of the council and rejoiced that they were counted
worthy to suffer shame for his name. Name. And daily, they went
right out, disobeyed the order. Why? Because they had a higher
order. God had told them to preach the
gospel. You are the pillar and the ground
of the truth. You are to go out and declare the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so they daily in the temple
and in every house ceased not. They were not threatened by the
Sanhedrin. If they crucify us the same way
they crucified the Lord, so be it. We've got to obey God, not
man. And so they went out daily and
they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. Paul said in first Corinthians
chapter two, verse two, I determined. Now the apostle Paul is a very
well-educated man. I'm sure he had a lot of information
about a lot of things. But he said, I determined, and
he's not speaking with exaggerated language here. He's not being
hyperbolic. He said, I determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's all I know. That's all
I know for sure. Everything else is speculation.
But I know who he is and I know what he's done. And I know that
he's the only hope that a sinner has for salvation. And so we're
just going to preach Christ. Talking to somebody recently
and they said, well, they were having a family conference where
they're going to split up the husbands and wives and the children.
It's in a church and they're going to teach each member of
the family how to relate to other members of the family. That's not the place of the church.
The purpose of the church is to preach the gospel. That's
clear. That's what the apostles are
doing. They're preaching the gospel. If you read Peter's sermon
from Acts chapter 2, every verse of that whole passage, he's just
talking about Christ. And did not the Lord Jesus say,
as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the
Son of Man be lifted up? And if I be lifted up? The first
reference he's talking about the cross, where the Son of God,
the Savior of sinners, the substitute, The sovereign surety presented
himself not to us. He presented himself to the father.
And the father was satisfied with the offering that he made
to put away our sins. He's talking about, that's the
serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness. You remember
that brazen serpent that God told Moses that the children
of Israel were being stung by fiery serpents. They were being
bitten by poisonous snakes and they were dying. And Moses went
before the Lord and said, Lord, what do I do? He said, you take
brass and you make a snake like those ones that are on the ground.
And you put it on a pole and you hold it up. And if any man
looks to that serpent, he'll be healed. And that's exactly
what happened. What's the picture there? God
made him Sin. Who knew no sin? Those serpents
are a picture of your sin and my sin. And it's stinging. I mean, their body, it's, they're
deadly snakes. Sin is, the wages of sin is death. And the Lord Jesus Christ bore
all the sins of all of his people, all the shame and all the guilt
in his body as he was lifted up like that serpent was in the
wilderness. He said, hey man, look, look
to me and you'll live. And then he said, and I, if I
be lifted up, and that's what we're trying to do right now.
Every time we come together, we're, we're not wasting our
time on anything else. We're getting right to the heart
of the matter. We're lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what the apostles were doing. They were lifting up Christ.
I will draw all men to me. Christ is lifted up. The Spirit
of God is pleased to bless the message to our hearts and to
give us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to believe. He makes coming to Christ irresistible,
doesn't he? He brings us to himself. We've
got no place else to go. So when Peter finished his sermon
in Acts chapter 2, preaching Christ. The scripture
says the audience, the people he was preaching to were pricked
in their hearts that they had crucified the son of God. And
they said, men and brethren, what must we do? What, what,
what should we do? And Peter said, repent and be
baptized. Every one of you in the name
of Jesus Christ. come to Christ, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, the only hope you have. And what hope he is. And in Acts chapter three, when
Peter and John are going into the, into the temple, And you
know, that's a picture of us going into the presence of God.
That's where God was worshipped, in that temple. And there was
a crippled man at the gate called Beautiful, and that gate's a
picture of Christ. And that crippled man's a picture of every one
of us. He could not go in and worship God because he was defiled. He was crippled. And he was begging
for alms, and what did Peter say? He looked at him. He said,
silver and gold have we none, but such as we have. What did
he have? He had the gospel. He had the
one thing that that man needed. He didn't need silver and gold.
He needed Christ. All the foolishness that's taking
place in religion. That's not what men need. They
need Christ. Such as we have, give I unto
thee, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, stand and walk. That's our only hope, isn't it?
He is life eternal. Look with me at Acts chapter
4, just back a page from where we are in Acts chapter 4, and
look at verse 10. And be it known unto you, unto
you all. Be it known unto you all, and
to all the people of Israel, by the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by him doth this man stand here before you whole." They
were interrogating the apostles and this man went, how did he
get healed? Be it known unto you all, by
the name of Jesus. of Nazareth. This man stands
before you and this is the stone." What? Christ is the stone. This
is the stone which was set at nought of you, the builders,
which has become the head of the corner. You rejected Christ. Why did they reject him? Because
of his name. Stop preaching in this name.
they and they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer
for his name and they went out the next day and they preached
everywhere house to house in the temple shamelessly unapologetically
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ verse 12 neither is their salvation
in any other for there is none of other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved. And the next verse makes it clear
that this didn't require a theological degree. This didn't require a lot of education. Now look at
the next verse. And now when they saw the boldness,
what were they bold to do? They were bold to preach Christ.
We're not making any apologies for who the Lord Jesus Christ
is and for what he did. There's no other name given among
heaven, given under heaven among men. When they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men. These men had not been to their
schools. They had not sat under their
rabbis. They didn't have an education.
Saul of Tarsus did, and he's the one that said, I determined
not to know anything among you to save Jesus and him crucified. But Peter and John were fishermen.
They were unlearned men. They were ignorant men. And yet
they marveled, and they took knowledge of them that they had
been with Jesus. How did they know him? They'd
been with him. He had made himself known to them. He taught them. He revealed himself to them and
he's still doing that. Our God is not trying to convince
the reprobate to believe on him. He's not revealing himself to
the world. He reveals himself to his elect, to his people through
the preaching of the gospel. You remember in Matthew chapter
8 when the Lord crossed the Sea of Galilee over into the Gadarenes
and there was a man over there that was possessed with many
demons and he was chained and cutting himself with rocks and
here's a picture of every one of us and the ravages of sin
and the Lord went over there for one reason and was to deliver
that man and those demons when they saw the Lord Jesus coming
the demons cried out of him and said, Jesus, thou son of God,
what do you have to do with us? Have you come here to torment
us before our appointed time? Those demons knew who he was.
They weren't bowing to him. They didn't believe on him. They
knew who he was. And then in Philippians chapter
three or chapter two, when the scripture says that he was obedient,
The Lord Jesus Christ was obedient to the father. And everything
the father seemed to do, everything he did, everything he thought,
every word he spoke, was all in perfect obedience to the father.
And when God saw his obedience, yay, even his obedience unto
death, even the death of the cross, the scripture says God
highly exalted him and gave him a name that is above every name. that every knee shall bow of
things in heaven and things upon the earth and things under the
earth and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ he's
Lord to the glory of God the Father. Brethren and friends this This
life is all about Christ. It's everything in eternity and
everything in time. Caleb, you got it right. When
you said this is the day the Lord has made, it all points
to that day. That day. Might we be found faithful to preach Christ? Here's the
question, what think ye of Christ? What think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? Well, he's the son of David.
Well, if he'd be the son of David, then why did David say that my
Lord said unto, that the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou here
at my right hand until I make, if he'd be Lord, how come David,
if he'd be the son of David, how could David call him? No,
he was David's Lord. He was David's Lord. He's the
son of God. He's the sovereign, omnipotent Son of God who rules
the heavens and the earth. And He always has His way. And
God's people rejoice in that. They take great comfort in knowing
that He's in sovereign control of everything. Most especially,
most especially, they're glad that He's in sovereign control
of their salvation. Because they know that if they
had anything to do with their salvation, If they had to make
any contribution whatsoever in order for God to accept them,
they'd mess it up. And they're so thankful that
the Lord Jesus Christ secured it all by himself. That's the
offense of the gospel. Men don't want to be stripped
of their righteousness. They don't want to give up their
contribution to their salvation. And God's people say, oh, I just
want to be found in Him. I just want to be found in Christ. I have no righteousness outside
of Christ. He's all my righteousness before
God. He's all my justification. The
only hope that I have to have my sin paid for before God is
that the blood of Jesus Christ wash away my sins. John asked,
The angel in heaven, when he was caught up into heaven, he
said, who are these with the white robes? And the angel said,
you know who they are. These are the saints of God who
have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. It's the only hope we have. But
what glorious hope to have our sins taken away. There's no other
way. No other way. We teach and preach. the Lord
Jesus Christ. Turn with me over to first Corinthians
chapter one. Verse 18 for the preaching of the cross. I determined not to know anything
among you save Christ and him crucified. Not that he was crucified. Everybody who calls themselves
a Christian, who's lying to themselves, who's made their own covenant
with death, would say, oh yeah, I believe in the crucifixion
of Christ. But they don't know why he was
crucified. They don't know that He bore in His body all the sins
of all of God's people and put them away once and for all by
the sacrifice of Himself. The world thinks that Jesus is
making an offer of Himself to us. And if we'll just accept
the offer, then our acceptance of Him will make what He did
effectual for us. No. No. You can't make a work out of
faith. You put your hand to it and you
just defile it. No, he was making an offering
of himself to the Father, wasn't he? So Paul said, we preach Christ. And him, not that he was crucified,
why he was crucified. According to the scriptures,
what he actually accomplished on Calvary's cross. He actually
successfully accomplished the salvation of his people. That's
the gospel, that's good news. The good news is that I didn't
have anything to do with it. The good news is that Jesus is the
lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. And
he accomplished everything the father seemed to do. He came
in the full power of the spirit of God as the Messiah, the Christ,
the anointed one. So Paul says, for the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish, it's foolishness, but
unto us, which are saved. You see, the preaching of the
cross is not the power of God until you're saved. I'll say
that again. You're not gonna see it as the
power of God. If you believe that the preaching
of the gospel is the power of God, it's evidence that you're
saved. It's not like God exercises his
power and then gives us something to do in order for that power,
no. No, to them that are saved, the preaching of the cross is
the power of God. For it is written, verse 19,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? Let
me ask you a question. Has God made foolish to you the
wisdom of this world? All the attempts and all the
opinions and all the ideas that this world has about the purpose
of life and about how to be saved and all those things are foolishness
unto them who are saved. For, verse 21, after that in
the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God. by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign.
Now the Jews here are symbolic of the religious. The religious
are always looking for some outward evidence. They're looking for
a sign. And the religious are still doing that. They're looking
for feeling. They're looking for an experience. They're monitoring
and measure themselves by the law. And they're looking for
signs of change in their life in order to prove that they're
saved. The Jews are always looking for
a sign and the Greeks, the Greeks, the irreligious, what we're doing
here is just foolishness to the world. They've got no interest
in it. This has no bearing on their lives. They're living for
the moment. But look at verse 24, but unto
them which are called. called. That's the effectual
call. That's the irresistible call.
That's when the Spirit of God makes you believe and causes
you to come. Turn me, O Lord, and I shall
be turned. God's not going around calling
people that aren't coming. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. When he calls, you call. It just
He's not giving an invitation. This is not an RSVP proposition. No, when God calls, those He
calls, they come. They come. Now, I pray that every
one of us will be saying right now, Lord, call me. Call me. Keep calling me. Don't leave
me to myself. Keep drawing me to yourself.
Lord, if you don't keep me and you don't call me, there's nothing
in me that's going to come. But to them that are called,
both religious and irreligious. And God brings his people out
of false religion and he brings his people out of no religion.
And so both to the Jew and to the Greek, Christ, the power
of God, and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God
has chosen the foolish things. The foolish things. See, every
child of God sees themselves Apart from the grace of God,
apart from the finished work of Christ, apart from the hope
that they have in his person and in his accomplished work,
they see themselves as fools. I am a fool before God. I am
held deserving before God. I've got to have Christ. And so the Lord says, God has
chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God has chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And
the base things of the world and the things which are despised
hath God chosen. Brethren, God gets his people
off the bottom of the barrel. You don't see yourself there
until he delivers you from there. Pulls you from the pit. from
the miry clay and you're able to say with the apostle Paul,
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save centers of whom I am chief. Every child of God believes themselves
to be in need of grace more than anybody else. You know your sin
best of all, don't you? You know that Lord's got to keep
you. He's got... Yay. Look at the next phrase
in verse 28. Yay, the things which are not. That's me. Lord, I've got not. I don't have anything. I'm a
great big zero. Andrew, many years ago, Donnie
Bell, they just came, you know, from Crossville, and Donnie was
their pastor for many years. And Donnie stood in this bullpen.
He took a piece of paper, and he wrote a bunch of zeros on
it. You all remember that? Wrote a bunch of zeros on it.
He said, well, hold that up. He said, now, what's that worth? What's that
worth? Zero. There's a whole line of
zeros. And then he took that piece of
paper, and he put a one in front of the zeros. He said, now, what's
it worth? Now, what's it worth? You and I are big zeros, but
when the Holy One is put before us, then it's of infinite value. The pearl of great price. God
has chosen those things which are not to confound the things
of this world. What a blessing. Christ Jesus is the one. He's
the one without him, we just got a whole bunch of zeros. But
with him, with him, that's why we must preach Christ. Can't
get the zeros to look like anything other than zeros. And that's
what religion's all about. Let's try to dress up the zeros. No, no, let's just preach Christ
and him crucified. And those zeros will find themselves
in him to be of infinite value. What think ye of Christ? Whom do men say that I am? Now
what the Lord asked the disciples, that's the only thing that's
important. And some say that thou art John the Baptist or
Elijah or one of the prophets. So who do you say that I am?
Who do you say that I am? That's the only question that
matters. Who do you say that I am? What Peter say, thou art
the Christ, the anointed one, the son of the living God. We
know and are sure that thou has the words of eternal life. We've
got no place else to go. And what the Lord say to Peter,
blessed art thou Simon bar Jonah. Oh, Peter, you've been blessed
of God. Flesh and blood didn't reveal the son to you. You didn't
come to this conclusion by yourself. God taught you who I am. And
upon this rock, the rock, the confession that Peter made that
Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. The Lord wasn't
saying to Peter, I'm going to build my church on you. You know,
I came out of Catholicism, some of you did too, and they think,
well, that passage has to do with Peter being the foundation.
We're in trouble if Peter's the foundation of this church. I
mean, of all the men in the Bible that were unstable, and Peter? Upon this rock I'm gonna build,
no, the confession that you just made that I am the Christ, I'm
the rock that the builders rejected, God has made me to be the head
of the corner, and upon this rock, I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not
be able to prevail against it. What a glorious hope. You know,
it's important for us to think maybe now in our history better
than ever before. What are we here for? What is
the purpose of this church? We're in the process of building
a building and things are changing around here. What are we here
for? I used to think that the purpose
of the church was to reach the world for Christ. I don't believe
that anymore. That idea That faulty idea, that lie, caused
us to do all sorts of foolish things to try to get men into
the church so that we could justify our existence by saying, well,
look, we're reaching more people. We're reaching more people. The
scripture's very clear about what the purpose of the church
is. Turn with me to 1 Timothy. We're talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ, the sovereign Savior, the successful Savior, the one
that we preach. You have your Bible's 1 Timothy
chapter 3. Look at verse 15. For if I tarry long, Paul's writing
to Timothy, who's the pastor, saying, Timothy, I'm I may not
be able to get there as soon as I want to get there, but if
I tarry long, that you may know how you ought to behave yourself
in the house of God. The church is the bride of Christ.
The church is the body of Christ. The church is the habitation
of God. The church is the house of God. And the Lord Jesus, when
he cleansed the temple, he did it at the beginning of his public
ministry and three years later at the end of his public ministry,
and it infuriated the religious leaders. And what did he say? You have turned the house of
prayer into a den of thieves. You're just merchandising men's
souls for your own profit and for your own glorification. You're
not preaching Christ. And now, The Lord said, this
is the house of God. This is his house. It belongs
to him. And God's people come here in
a spirit of prayer. Lord, teach me, teach me. How are we to behave ourselves
in the house of God, which is the church, the church, how oftentimes
we find that term in the script, the church. In the original language,
it's the word Ecclesia. The Spanish word for church is
just a transliteration of the original Greek. What are the
Spanish? I don't know if I can pronounce
it right. Eglesia? The church? It's Ecclesia. And
literally translated, it means the called out ones. Those who
are affectionately called by the Spirit of God to be part
of the body of Christ. So he says the church is the
house of God. It's made up of the called out
ones. It's the church of the living
God. Why seek ye the living among the dead? Isn't that what the
angel told Mary? He's not here. He's risen. He's
alive. He's conquered death. It's the
church of the living God. Oh, that the Lord would make
us more aware of when we come together. We're meeting with
one. You're not the audience. I'm
not the audience. God's the audience. We have an
audience of one that we are worshiping and lifting our voices in praise
and our hearts in worship and honor to. It's the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the head of his body. This
is the church of the living God. And notice the next two verses,
or the next two words, the pillar and the ground of the truth. The truth. That's why we're here. We're not here to reach the world
for granted. We're not here to build buildings.
We're not here to make a name for ourselves. We're here to
lift up Christ. That's what a pillar does. Most
important part of that building over there that we just built
is the foundation. They dug those footers down to
what they call, what do they call that rock that they hit? Hardpan. I mean, they had to
bring in some big excavation equipment to dig out that because
it was like rock. And that's where the foundation
on. It's poured concrete on top of that hardpan. And that's the
most important part of any building, isn't it? Without a good foundation,
the building's coming down. And the pillars, that's the walls,
that's the support for the roof. And Christ is our shelter. He's our shelter. The church
is the pillar and the ground of the truth. Lift up Christ. Now look at the next verse. I
want you to see this in closing. And without controversy. without controversy. Heard a false preacher invited
a gospel preacher to come to his church and he said, I don't
want you to preach anything that's controversial. So he went right
to this verse. He said, and without controversy. There's no controversy among
God's people. about the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's no controversy about God's people, about his sovereign
grace, about his successful work of redemption. All the controversies
and all the divisions that we see is man-made in religion. I was telling you all this morning,
I had an opportunity to preach to people I've never met before
in India last night, quarter till 12, I was preaching to them
over the internet. And they were rejoicing. I'd never met them before. They
were rejoicing in what they were hearing. And we were able to
fellowship together in the truth of who Christ is. Without controversy. It doesn't matter where you are,
what your background is. Christ is not divided. We have
the same gospel, the same spirit. There's one God. one father of
us all, one gospel, one baptism, one faith, one church. And without controversy, the
church is in total agreement that God was manifested in the
flesh. You know, if you truly believe
that Jesus is God and you have, you believe Don't redefine God. Don't take God off the throne
and put yourself on it. Don't believe that God has abdicated
his authority in any way and given you anything to do. That's
not God. But if you believe that Jesus
is God, that he reigns omnipotent and sovereign over everything
that he's ever done, over all of creation and all of eternity, you believe on the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. God is manifested in the flesh. The Word became flesh and he
dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as the glory of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.
There's no controversy about that, is there, among God's people?
He was manifested in the flesh. He was justified by the Spirit. It was the Spirit of God that
came down at his baptism and manifested himself as the dove. It was the Spirit of God that
anointed him. That's why he's called the Christ,
the anointed one, the Messiah. There's no question about that.
How could God, who's manifested in the flesh and justified in
the Spirit, in any way, in any way fail? to do what he came
to do. And yet, when you hear people
talk about Jesus, he's some miserable failure who loves everybody and
died for everybody and is trying to get everybody to believe on
him, but bless his heart, he just can't get it done. That's
not God. Without controversy, God was
manifested in the flesh. God was justified in the spirit,
and he's still being justified in the spirit, because it's the
spirit of God that has to open the eyes of our understanding
and give us faith to believe on Christ. He was seen of angels. Oh, it was those angels that
appeared at his birth, isn't it? The angels came down from
heaven. He said, behold, unto you is born this day in the city
of David a Savior, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And they
joined their voices in the heavenly song, and he's still being manifested. The angel came at his resurrection. It was the angel of God that
moved the stone away. Christ came forth. And if we
think of angels as messengers, and that's what they are, they're
just messengers, they're just servants. And when the scripture
describes the church and the pastors of the church, he talks
about the seven stars, which are angels, the messengers of
God, being the preachers of the gospel. God still sending his
angels, isn't he? With the message of the gospel.
A scene of angels preached unto the Gentiles. You see that? Gentiles. Dogs. That's what Gentiles are.
Oh, the Lord said to that Syrophoenician woman, it's not right that I
should give the children's bread to dogs. And most folks would
have huffed and turned away and said, he just called me a dog.
Can you believe that? What did this woman say? Truth,
Lord. Truth, Lord. But the dogs do
eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. Lord, could
you just brush a few crumbs off for me? That's all I need. One
crumb from Christ. will be sufficient. Preach to the Gentiles. Believed
on in the world. These are the things that are
without controversy. This is who the Lord Jesus is
and this is the purpose of this church. People go to church for
a lot of reasons. They go because it's convenient.
You know, that may be a good reason to choose a grocery store,
but it's not a good reason to choose a church. And some of
you didn't come here conveniently. Some of you drove a long way
to get here, hours to get here. Why? Because God has shown you
that convenience is not what it's about. Some people choose
church because, well, that's where I just feel good. You know,
that's where it just feels right. And they're just operating off
the Jews require sign. No. If the Church is preaching
Christ, then it's the Church. And if it's not, it's not the
Church of God. It's not the pillar and ground
of the truth. Without controversy, God was
manifested in the flesh. Without controversy, God was
justified by the Spirit of God. Without controversy, He was seen
of angels and preached to the Gentiles. The Gentiles. You remember when Peter went
to Cornelius' house and he was there in Joppa and the Lord sent
those unclean animals down as a vision for Peter and the Lord
said to Peter, take and eat? And Peter said, no. No, Lord,
he said, nothing unclean has ever passed these lips. I mean,
I'm a kosher Jew. I've never eaten anything unclean. And what'd the Lord say to Peter?
Take and eat and don't call that unclean, which I have made clean. Now you and I are Gentiles and
by nature we're unclean. And God says, don't call that
unclean, which I've made clean. I've washed them in the blood
of the lamb. And they're clean, every whit, every whit. You remember when the Lord said
to Peter, you know, wash me all over. No, Peter, that's not necessary.
I'll just wash your feet. You're clean all over already. And then look at the last, the
last thing that's without controversy. He was received up into glory. The Word of God did not return
unto him void. The living Word of God took his
rightful place. Sit thou here at my right hand
until I make thine enemies thy footstool. I've made you a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. And my brethren, if any man sin,
and we do, We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous one, who's seated at the right hand of the majesty
on high, whoever lives to make intercession for us. It's all
about him. It's all about who he was in
eternity. It's all about who he was in his public ministry.
It's all about what he did. It's all about who he is now,
as he's seated reigning as our king. The apostles were threatened. Don't preach in the name of Jesus
anymore. And they beat them. And they rejoiced that they were
counted worthy. That they were counted worthy
to suffer just a little bit for his name. And they went out immediately
and in house to house every day and in the synagogue they preached
Jesus Christ. Preach Christ. He's who we need. And unless. Unless God. Sends an angel. And opens the
eyes of our understanding. Unless God makes this church
the pillar and ground of the truth. And what we're doing. Is worse than vanity. It's blasphemy. And that's what's happening in
most religious organizations. Men are just blaspheming God.
We worship him when we lift up Christ. For I determined not
to know anything among you. Save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Our merciful Heavenly Father.
We ask that you bless. Your word to our hearts enable
us to rest our hope in Christ. Amen. Laura, you go get ready,
sweetie, OK? Tom, you gonna come? Number 190? 190. Let's stand together. Number
190. We bless the name of Christ the
Lord, we bless him for his holy word, who loved to do his Father's
will, and all his righteousness fulfilled. We follow Him with pure delight
To sanctify His sacred right And thus our faith with water
seal To prove obedience that we feel Baptized in God the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one, with conscience free, we
rest in God, in love and peace through Jesus' blood. By grace we Abba, Father, cry,
By grace the Comforter comes nigh, And for Thy grace our love
shall be Forever only, Lord, for Thee.