Man, I was singing that last
verse right there. And when before the throne I
stand, in hymn complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips
shall still repeat. You know, there's a time coming
when we're going to stand before God. We're going to stand before God.
And the books are going to be opened. And every man outside of Christ
is going to have the books of His works opened. And He's going to be judged out
of that book. He's going to be judged according
to His works. And if those works, which they
want, are not absolutely holy, perfect, as perfect as God, Almighty God is going to say
to him, depart from Me, you worker of iniquity. I never knew you. But another book is going to
be opened. It's the book of life. And everyone found written in
that book, from before the foundation of the world, Almighty God is
going to say, well done. The righteousness of Christ,
His work, His obedience, is going to be that which Almighty God
beholds. His blood. Well done. Well done. Oh, may God have mercy
on us. May God Almighty bless the Word
to our heart. Now listen. In just a few minutes,
I desire to preach the Gospel. And this message is the only
message that the Spirit of God is going to bless to the salvation
of a sinner. This is it. Nothing else matters. May the
Lord bless the Word tonight to our understanding. Let's pray
together. Our Father, as we come before You, help us. Lord, thank You for this flock
that You've raised up. Thank you for the assemblies
where you've raised up a faithful pastor to preach. Thank you for
raising up Brother Scott. Thank you for keeping him and
teaching him and teaching these folks. Lord, thank you that you've
allowed us to still be here again. And that, Lord, you've not moved
the candlestick. Have mercy upon us for Christ's
sake, we pray. Amen. Let's take our Bibles and
turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I'd like to look at verses 4
to 9. Brother Gary led us in a song
talking about the faithfulness of God. And I thought, that's
what I'm going to preach on. God is faithful. You know, the
Apostle Paul penned these words under the inspiration of God's
Spirit in 1 Thessalonians 5.18. In everything, give thanks for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. In everything,
give thanks. Whatever it is. Whatever it is. If you're going through an infirmity
tonight, be thankful. Be thankful. You say, but it's
grievous. But if you know Him, your name
is written in heaven. Ephesians 5.20, giving thanks
always for all things unto God in the Father in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. So the apostle Paul In 1 Corinthians
1, starting in verse 4, he says this, I thank my God always on
your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Christ
that in everything you're enriched by Him in all utterance and in
all knowledge even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,
so that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the
end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. God is faithful, by whom you
were called under the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our
Lord." Paul says, I thank my God. You know, no doubt he thanked
God. But there was something personal
in Paul's address here, something special. He said, I'm thanking
my God. My God. That right there was
a fulfillment of Ezekiel 36, 28, when the Lord said, ye shall
be my people and I will be your God. Almighty God is the God of his
people. My God. And that for which he
thanked, always thanked his God on behalf of the church of the
Lord Corinth was this, for the grace of God, for the favor,
for the benefit, for the loving kindness which is given you by
Christ Jesus. Now, you know, just stop for
just a second and realize how much do we have thankful for?
for the grace of God that has been given us in Christ Jesus.
We don't even know where to start. I wouldn't know what to say. Where do I begin? Paul says,
I thank my God for His grace that was given you. We're here tonight. We're here
on a Wednesday night You say, well, but we always come here
on a Wednesday night. But we're still here on a Wednesday
night. That we would want to be here
is by the grace of God. I'm not going to tell you anything
tonight. I don't believe that you've never
heard before. But you know the comfort to a
believer? is that they hear the same, same, same gospel of Christ. Tell me about Him one more time.
Tell me about the Lord one more time. You stop and think for
just a minute, you that know Him, you that love Him, that
Almighty God, by His Holy Spirit, set you apart for His good pleasure,
that He would set you apart out of the lump of humanity and say,
you're mine. And what was the difference between
you and anybody else? Nothing. Nothing. We're all just
as rotten as the next one. We're totally depraved. But that God Almighty would say,
I'm going to adopt you in Christ. to be my son. I choose you. I choose you. Why? Because it pleased Him to do
so. According to His everlasting covenant of grace that He would
show mercy and compassion and then having chosen you The Lord
Jesus Christ was made flesh. He assumed a body. A body was prepared Him by the
Spirit of God. And He was conceived in the womb
of a virgin. And He came forth after nine
months just like you and I did. He was born just like we were.
flesh, made flesh, yet without sin. And he grew up before God
in absolute obedience. And not one time did he ever
disobey God. God the Father said, this is
my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. He never said, except
for that time when he, uh-uh, uh-uh. He knew no sin. He knew no sin. And when He went to the cross
by the grace of God for His people, He was made sin. He who knew no sin made sin for
us in all of the heinousness of sin, which I don't even know
what it is. I can't even tell you what it
is. Sin. I can tell you something about
the evidence of it. I can see the evidence of it,
but I cannot tell you. But whatever it is, that's what
he was made. And he hung on that cross, forsaken
of God. forsaken of his father. Why? Because God Almighty was pleased
to be gracious unto you, his people. And purpose that peace
was going to be established by Christ for his people and God
forsook him that he would never forsake his people. Because he
loved them. And Christ died for them. Bore their guilt and God Almighty
now pardons. I'm a sinner right now. But my
debt been paid. And now I sin right now. I'm sinning against God right
now. Because I'm not thinking, preaching, expressing perfectly. I can't do it. And all of my
righteousness, filthy rags, but for the sake of Christ, God pardons,
pardons, pardons. Why? He paid the debt. Paid the
debt. Grace. I thank my God always
on your behalf for the grace of God, which is given you by
Christ Jesus. Given you. Didn't earn it. Never obtained anything by our
will or merit or power. But all came through the good
providence of God. The hands of the Lord Jesus Christ
has wrought out the work, the mediator. And through His blood,
we've been set free. That's grace. Never deserved
it. And then the scripture says,
verse 5, that in everything He thanked God always on their behalf
for the grace of God given them by Christ Jesus, that in everything,
You're enriched by Him in all utterance and in all knowledge
that is according to the grace of God that has been given you
in Christ. God Almighty has provided for
you in everything needful, furnished you richly with spiritual riches. He has endowed you with divine
truth. And here's the evidence of it. You understand. You understand
it. And you believe it. You're talking
about the grace of God. That you would be sitting here
tonight and believe what God has to say. that you would believe
the Holy Scriptures. He said, in everything you're
enriched by Him, in all utterance and in all knowledge. There were
many of them there that were able, had been gifted to preach. Many of them there that were
believing what was being preached. And they had special gifts that
had been given. I'm going to read them in just
a few minutes. But God had just so richly blessed that church
at Corinth, that one we talked about, that came from such horrible
beginnings. And there was so much in that
church that they needed to be straightened out about. Paul
did. He did straighten them out. Told
them what God had to say, but all the blessing. Paul said that
God has wrought upon you. Look at verse 6. Even as the
testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, insomuch or because the
testimony of Christ, the gospel, the gospel of God's grace was
confirmed in you. He said, I'm thanking God that
that message, the message of the gospel that declares the
Lord's deity, His incarnation, His obedience, His life, His
death, His ascension into heaven, that continual intercession where
He ever liveth to make intercession was confirmed in you. That is,
it was established and shown to have been made firm and sure
in you. How? Well, by your belief. by your confession of faith,
what the Spirit of God had taught you, but you're still here. You're still here. You're still
here believing. You're still listening and hearing
the Gospel. It made this quite evident. That's what Paul was saying.
By these signs and miracles, verse 7, so that you came behind
in no gift. waiting for the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Church at Corinth had possessed
many of the gifts of the Spirit. Now, and we'll get to this, but
I'm going to just read to you. I'll just read this. I've got
them listed right here in 1 Corinthians 12, 7 to 11. The Holy Spirit in that chapter
revealed these gifts that had been given to this church. Paul
said, you don't come behind in any church. No church, you know,
you come behind in. When it comes to God's blessing,
he said, what a blessing the Lord has wrote. Listen to this,
1 Corinthians 12, 7-11. But the manifestation of the
Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. For the one
is given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom. That is, the mysteries
of the gospel have been made known to some and they're able
to explain them. That's a miracle of God's grace,
that God would give a man the ability to read something and
then teach him what it means and gift him to explain it, to
set forth what it is. He said to another, the word
of knowledge, the word of knowledge, and Brother Henry made some comments
on this, and I'll tell you this, I'm using them. The word of knowledge,
being able to set forth and understand in the types, in the prophecies,
to see that. And he said to another, faith
by the same spirit, gifts of healing, the same spirit to another,
working of miracles, to just work miracles. Not all of them
had all of these gifts, but he said this one had this one, this
one had this, and it was to the profit of all. He said to another prophecy,
to another, the discerning of spirits. To be able to discern,
when he says discerning of spirits, true preachers and false preachers.
He said, you know, I remember somebody telling me something
about Something that Brother Scott said one time concerning
this, and it was something that he saw and perceived that some
others had not picked up on. He said, no, we're just going
to wait a little bit. And it proved to be the way he
saw it was. That's by the grace of God. God would give a man the ability
to have a gift and discern. And He says to another diverse
kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues,
that is to preach in different languages that they'd never learned
before. Now these gifts, you know, after
a while, they were no more when the Scriptures were finally written,
but for a while, these gifts were here. And Paul said, you
don't come behind anybody in them. So verse 7, you come behind
in no gift, and this is what you're doing. You're waiting
for the coming of the revelation of our Lord. I know that that's what we're
doing. What are we doing here tonight?
Weren't you here last Sunday? Weren't you here for two Sundays?
Last Wednesday and then two services on Sunday. What are you doing
here? Well, we're coming here, listening
to the preaching of the gospel, waiting for the Lord to come
back. That's what we're waiting on.
That's the only thing we're waiting on. I mean, we're getting older. It may be that the Lord may come
back before another one of us dies. It may not be. But no matter
what, one way or the other, for a believer, the Lord's going
to come to him. Either in death and receive him
to himself like he did Stephen, or he's going to come, the trumpet
of God's going to sound, the dead in Christ's going to rise,
and we which were remaining on the earth are going to meet them
in the air, and so we'll ever be with the Lord. That's what
we're waiting on. That's all we're waiting on right now. What are you waiting on?
To retire? Do you ever really quit everything?
No. What are you going to do? We're
waiting on the Lord. Waiting for the coming of our
Lord. Longing to see Him. Longing. If we die, or if He
returns, just for a second, we're going to see Him. We're going
to see Him. We're going to be like Him. We're
going to see Him as He is and be like Him. Sit down with Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, all the saints, and go know them. They knew Moses and
Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, didn't they? Had they ever met
them? They knew who they were. Why? That's part of their body. Part of the body. I know that
that's my hand. I know that's mine. Waiting on
the coming of our Lord. And so great is that glorious
arrival connected with His return. The Apostle Paul says this, I've
fought a good fight. You know, I desire to be able
to say that. I want to. I'm so embarrassed. I see myself, and I see my attitude,
and I see my failings. But to say, I believe God. I believe Him. That the Lord's
kept me. That the Lord has allowed me
to be maintained. Paul said, I have fought a good
fight. I finished my course. I kept
the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for
me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but
unto all them also that love His appearing." Does that not
just rejoice your heart when you think, Lord, keep me? Keep me in the faith. Keep me
to the day of salvation. Lord, that's what you said concerning
your people, those who are kept by the power of God through faith. I want to wake up. I want to
go to bed tonight believing God. I want to wake up in the morning
believing God. I desire to see His coming. All who live in expectation
of the coming of Christ, who expect it, and who anticipate
it with joyfulness, that is the characteristic of a believer.
They're looking for the coming of the Lord. And while the Lord's
people are found waiting for the return of their precious
Savior, the Holy Spirit declares in verse 8, That is, the Lord
Jesus Christ shall also confirm you unto the end that you may
be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with
me to 1 Thessalonians. Hold your place. 1 Thessalonians
3. 1 Thessalonians 3, 11. 1 Thessalonians 3, 11-13, now God
Himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our
way unto you. And the Lord make you to increase
and abound in love one toward another and toward all men even
as we do toward you, to the end. He may establish your hearts,
unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father at the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints." Paul says, I
pray, God keep you, establish you, that you might be found
faithful. Here the apostle declares, that
the Lord's never going to forsake His own. He said He's going to
confirm you. He's going to establish you. Being confident of this
very thing that He which hath begun a good work in you will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. This is a believer's
continual prayer. Lord, I know that I didn't begin
a walk of faith by my ability. I know I didn't. Lord, I know
that you had to call me out of darkness when I was pleased to
be on my road to Damascus. Lord, you stopped me. Lord, would
you keep me? Lord, if you stop me the first
time, you will keep me. Lord, may it be so with me. May
I be found faithful. Lord, if you've begun a good
work in me, you'll continue it. Lord, continue it. Isn't that
the heart of a believer? Lord, I know you're going to
keep your people. Would you keep me? Lord, I know you don't pass
by your people. Would you not pass by me, O gentle
Savior? Would you hear my cry? Lord,
would you save me? The Father who placed His people
in the Lord Jesus Christ, He's going to keep them there. God's
people are going to be confirmed in the faith. They're going to
be found blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
their blamelessness, they'll admit, it wasn't of me. But you're going to be confirmed
to be in Christ alone. You're going to be found and
proven that all your guilt was put away by Him, and He robed
you in His righteousness. In this last verse for tonight,
the Apostle says, God is faithful. By whom you were called unto
the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. God is faithful. Here's what Paul was saying.
You can trust him. You can trust him. You can trust
him. Years ago, this just came to
my mind, I'm gonna share it with you. I wanted to go, I don't remember,
I was probably 10, 11 years old. My dad drove a bread truck, and
we lived in a little old town. Well, it wasn't even a town.
It was outside of a town, just out in the country. We lived
in a little place called Row Gully. Row Gully. If I spelled
it, it don't even look like that. But that's all right. Row Gully.
I wanted to go to town. I wanted to go to Merritt's Grocery
Store. I had saved my money, and I had
some stuff. I had some candy I wanted. I
remember what I wanted. Told my dad, my dad got up and
he went to work. Got up at two o'clock every morning,
went to work. And I told him the night before,
I said, Dad, I'm gonna go over to Merritt's store tomorrow. I'm gonna walk. Man, I don't
know, Mama, how far was it? Five miles? Goodness gracious,
it was 100 to a kid. And my dad told me, he said,
I'll be getting off. about this time, and he said,
I'll come, I'll take you over there. I said, OK. Well, according
to my recollection of what time he normally should have been
there, he may have been a few minutes later than I thought.
And I started walking. And I'm telling you, buddy, in
central Louisiana, in the middle of summer, on an asphalt road,
with that sun beating down, it is hot. It's hot. And I didn't get very far. And
I can remember, Rogully Road has got, and I remember seeing
that bread truck coming over here, and it'd come over another
one. And it came over this one right here, and it came over
this last one. And when he got up to me, he
stopped. And man, I was sweating. I was
so hot. And this is what he told me.
I told you I would come get you. I said, yes, sir. I got in a
truck and he turned around, took me to the store. God is faithful. He is trustworthy. The Apostle Paul says, the Lord
will confirm you. The Lord will prove to his people
that they have been established in Him. That which He has eternally
purposed and promised, He's going to fulfill it. We're going to
be in His presence. He said, I will never leave you. I'm not going to forsake you.
And my old man tells me, You best start walking. What if He
don't come? What if it's not so? God is faithful
by whom you were called, effectually called, called out
of spiritual darkness by the Holy Spirit of God. Has He not
called you? Do you now believe what you once
did not believe? Was there not a time in your
life when you heard the glorious gospel of God's free grace and
it just went off you like water off a duck's back? It just didn't
matter. But now you believe Him. And you still believe in Him. He said, I told you I'd keep
you. And this ain't all of it. He's coming back. "...He shall confirm us by whom
you were called unto the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord." God's people have been called into a state of agreement
with God. Fellowship with Him. Friendship
and union in Christ, Almighty God. is going to manifest their
life in Christ totally. John 15, 4 and 5, in closing,
says, Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except
ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches.
He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. For without me, You can do nothing. John said, that which we've seen
and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship
with us. And truly, our fellowship is
with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. God is faithful. God is faithful. He gonna keep
us. He gonna confirm us. He gonna
bring us to Himself. Lord, bless the Word to our hearts,
for Christ's sake. Amen.