Corinthians chapter 1. When you get home, if you'll go back
and read the 18th chapter of the book of Acts, I think the
first 8 to 10 verses, you'll read the recording of when Paul
came to this church, this place of Corinth. This wicked, vile,
corrupt place. And God spoke to him in a vision
and he said, Be of good cheer, Paul. I have much people in this
place. And God, in his amazing grace,
established this church. It is his church. He establishes
it. He confirms it because it's his. Verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 1, beginning
at the first verse. Paul. He didn't say the apostle Paul.
He just Paul. Paul called to be an apostle
of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes, our brother. and to the church of God which
is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ before the
world was made, set apart, sanctified in Christ Jesus. And because they were sanctified
in Christ Jesus, they are called with that effectual call that
only God can call the dead to life, called to be saints. with all that in every place
call on the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours."
Verse 3, grace be to you. And peace, grace always precedes
peace. Peace, the peace with God, the
peace of God, is only the result of God's grace to a sinner. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God
always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you
by Jesus Christ. Verse 5, if you mark in your
Bible, I would mark the first part of verse 5. That in everything,
you are enriched by him. That in everything, you are enriched
by him. In all utterance and in all knowledge,
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, or even
as the gospel of Christ was established in you, he uses that word confirmed
again over in verse 8. Even as the testimony, the gospel
of Christ was confirmed, was established in you. God established
that church. He built it on Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And all hell couldn't stop it.
All hell couldn't stop it. People look around today and
they say, what's God doing? He's doing what he's always done.
He's ruling everything. He's in control of everything
that happens, whether it's in Japan, What happens in Sanford
or anywhere else in this world? He's sovereign. You know what
he's doing? He's confirming his church. He's confirming his church. Confirming it. So that you become
behind in no gift. Waiting. Is that what his church
is doing? Waiting for the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. As it was in the days of Noah,
so shall it be in the days before the Lord comes back. As it was
in the days of Lot, so shall it be. He's coming. He's coming. When's he coming?
I know exactly when he's coming. I've got everybody's attention
in. You know when he's coming? When he's gathered in the last
of his little sheep. When he brought Lot out of Sodom,
that day it rang judgment on that wicked place. Verse 8, who shall also confirm you unto
the end. He that hath begun a good work
in you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Many times we might start a work
and we get discouraged and we might leave it for a long time.
But if God ever begins a work just like he did in this little
place called Corinth, He finishes his work. Whom he did foreknow,
he did predestinate, be conformed to the image of his Son, and
thou shalt be. Thou shalt be. Who shall also
confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless, that you
may be blameless without sin in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He said he shall present you
faultless. Hold this. Verse 9. God is faithful. We could just pause right there,
you know, you read the Psalms and it says Selah, we could just
put Selah at the end of faithful. And you say God is faithful. God is what? Faithful. By whom
you were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our
Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment. Now verse 11, For it hath been
declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house
of Chloe. that there are contentions among you. What I read on that,
that word Chloe, that her husband must have died, why it said that
which are the house of Chloe. Most time I know when, I know
women take it pretty hard sometimes for being tattlers and busybodies
and other men's matters, but this lady here, one of God's
sheep, it records this lady. This lady was a member of this
church at Corinth. And she was concerned for that
church. And she wrote a letter to Paul.
And Paul must have got some stock in what this woman said in the
letter that he received from her. Verse 12, Now this I say,
that every one of you saith, I am a Paul. They were saying, oh, I like
Paul. That's what she was really saying. Oh, I like Paul. The
other one said, oh, I like Apollos. The other one said, I like Cephas,
or I like Peter. The other one said, I don't like
any of them. I just like Christ. See the convention? What I want you to see is, Paul
was here for 18 months, preached the gospel, established, God
established his work. And after he left, something
happened. Somebody crept in, got their
attention off Christ, off on something else. Begin to look
at something else. Let me remind you once again,
I am nothing more than a mere man. That man, that man, any
other creature is nothing more than a mere man. That's all we
are. All we are. Is Christ divided,
verse 13, was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized
in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none
of you but Christos and Gaius, lest any should say that I have
baptized in mine own name. And I baptized also the household
of Stephanas. Besides, I know not whether I
baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. How can they preach except they
be what? Sent. God sends His preachers. He sends them. If God sends you
a preacher, boy, you'll be awful glad. He sent me not to baptize,
but to preach. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be none effect. Let me go over to,
I'm going to come back to verse 18 in just a minute, Verse 1
of chapter 2, Paul said, And I, brethren, when I came to you,
came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto
you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And
I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. Not that he was afraid of men,
he knew the awesomeness of the task. Verse four, in my speech
and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom,
but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith
should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest it
should take away from the cross of Christ and it should be made
of none effect. Verse 18, for the preaching of
the cross, for the preaching of Christ sitting upon a throne,
for the preaching of a sovereign Christ is to them that perish
foolishness. It's like the old pastor said. Everybody else would look around
the religious world and say, oh, what you're doing is just
foolishness. We need something else. We need
to be entertained. We need some gimmick. We need
some gadget. We need some music that appeals
to the flesh. They don't call that foolish. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
but unto us which are being saved, it is the power of God without
a man, woman, boy or girl hearing the gospel preached, and I stress
the gospel of God's glory and majesty, they cannot be saved. Cannot. You say, Bob, what about
all this other stuff that's going on? Never save the flea. has no power in it. But to us
which are saved, it is what? It is the power of Almighty God."
What a mystery. What a mystery. We see. Verse 19, for it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God, knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching, not the preaching of foolishness, but the foolishness
of preaching to save them which believe. For the Jews require
a sign. Show us some miracle. Show us
some sign. And the Greeks, oh, they seek
after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified,
and to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness.
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, 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. For
you see your calling. Brethren, how that not many wise
men, he didn't say not any, he said not many. Not many wise
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world. to confound the wise. And God
hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty. And the base things of the world,
does that not describe us? And things which are what despised
hath God chosen? Yea, the things which are not,
to bring to naught things that are. And why did God do it all
this way? Why did God pass by some, pass
by a lot, leave them to their own understanding, their own
wisdom, their own righteousness, and all these things? But they
figured out that's their own wisdom. They say, we need to
do it this way. This is how I think it needs
to be done. And God left them to their own wisdom. Left them
alone. That no flesh should glory in
His presence. Why? Did God call you? Why did God call you? That no flesh, no flesh should
glory in his presence, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who
of God is made into us wisdom, wisdom, Oh, when God reveals
himself to you. Let me tell you this. This does
not come by education. It comes by revelation. You can
read every book you can get your hands on and you should. You
can read good writers, good writers, good Puritan writers, Gill, Spurgeon,
and many others that we could name. But it takes God Almighty
giving you wisdom to understand the things of God. The world
by nature knew not God. Knew not God. He has made unto
us wisdom. Righteousness. Righteousness. I tried to preach last Sunday
on the picture of a righteous man. And I used Lot. He said, Lot. He said, it looked
like you'd have picked out Abraham or David or somebody else. Three
times in 2 Peter 2, God said he's a just man. He's a righteous
man and He's a godly man. You said we don't see anything
ever that He done was good that we could see. You don't have
to see it. God sees it. That's His righteousness. You mean Lot was righteous? God
said he was righteousness. He has made unto us wisdom. Righteousness. You know what I need? I need
righteousness. I need a holy standing before God in His sight. Righteousness. Sanctification. I'm glad it wasn't left up to
me. I was in religion a long time,
and I heard that stuff. They said, oh, it's progressive
sanctification. Now, if you'll live right, go
to church and read your Bible and do all these things, oh,
you can become holy. You can become sanctified. Oh,
you can become something. The more I try, the worse I get. He is made into wisdom, righteousness. What sanctification. Sanctified. What does that mean? Made holy.
When God set something apart, He said it's holy. God set that
temple apart. He set the instruments apart.
He said it's holy. And when God Almighty in the
covenant of grace before the world was made, set us apart,
He declared us holy. Wisdom. Righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. That means bought, paid for,
redeemed. He never tried to redeem anybody.
He redeemed them. He is made of God and to his
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. That according,
verse 31, that according as it is written, He that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you that you are made
into us everything that we could ever need or ever want. We thank you for calling us by
your grace, for giving us ears to hear the gospel of your amazing
grace. And Lord, we ask for your presence
upon these services. Deliver us from our own understanding. Deliver us from ourselves. And
Lord, help us to never lose sight of the wonder that you would
call us, that you spoke our name, that you called us from death
unto life and gave us faith to believe and trust and rest in
your darling son. Thank you for your love and your
mercy and your kindness toward us. Bless this church. Bless this pastor. And Lord,
let us always glory. in you, never in ourself. And we ask these things in your
name. Amen. May we start out in Psalm 119,
just one verse of Scripture. I believe there's 176 or something
like that verses in Psalm 119. If I can remember which verse it is,
we'll find it here. There it is. There's a statement here, among
a great many others of course, that is of vital interest to
us and to the health and welfare of our souls. If you do not know by now that
you live in a religious world that hates true grace, you must
have been in a cave since you were born not to know that. So
I have a statement. a plain one out of the Scriptures
that speaks directly to this subject. The first time I stepped foot
in the pulpit at Bethel Baptist Church at home, this was my opening
statement. If you would, look at verse 128.
Let's take it in two parts, please. Verse 128, Psalm 119, Therefore
I esteem, or value, or cherish all your precepts concerning
all things to be right. That's the first thing. Every
statement in this book is right. No questions asked. What it says
is true. But here's another side to that
truth. If that's really true of me and
you, then this other statement must also be true. Therefore,
I hate every false way. My grandmother, my grandfather
might be in that religion. But I hate every false way. My children, my brothers, my
sisters, my friends, but I hate every false way. It is damning
the souls of men and women. And whether you know it or not,
you cannot be neutral. If we esteem all God's precepts
to be right, We despise that which is wrong. And many of us
had a big-time religion with no Jesus, and we're sick of it. But we thought we were dead right.
We were so sure we already had our ticket stamped for heaven,
and now we find out that's a little bit too certain. All right, if
you'd turn with me to Matthew chapter 25, beginning at verse 31, I'd like to try to speak to you
from this passage of Scripture, my title is blessed or cursed. We all are one or the other. You cannot be both. We are one
or the other. Blessed or cursed. Verse 31, When the Son of Man
shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels within Then
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory." Our Lord Jesus, when these words
were uttered, was on the slopes of the Mount of Olives with twelve
men, one of whom would betray Him, one of whom would deny Him,
and all of whom would forsake Him. He's three days from the cross,
and he looks distantly ahead to a time even now well into
the future. We know not when, but he is looking
to that day when this world shall come to an end and Christ shall
sit on the throne of judgment, that great white throne. Can you imagine what He knows
about what He's about to endure? And He looks to the end. I mean
the end of all things. When the Son of Man shall come
in His glory. That's not His first coming.
And all the holy angels with Him. Then shall He sit upon the throne
of His glory. And before Him shall be gathered
all nations, and He shall separate them one from another." Not one
nation from another, now one person from another. As a shepherd
divides his sheep from the goats, and He shall set the sheep on
His right hand and the goats on His left hand. And there's
no other grouping with a big question mark over what they
are. Our Lord knows what every man is. He knows His own sheep
by name. No confusion in His mind, maybe
in ours. He shall set the sheep on His
right hand, but the goats on His left. Then shall the King
say unto them on His right hand, This is the hand of favor, the
hand of blessing, the hand of salvation. Come, you blessed
of my Father. Blessed. I don't know if you
people do this up in West Virginia, but at home, everybody wants
you to have a blessed day like they can give it to you. Here's blessed. Blessed is not something you
can dispense to people. We have no such capacity. Come, you blessed of my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. And here's the ground upon which
it is stated. For I was hungry. If you don't
mind, I'll change the verbs It's just easier for me. I don't know
why. For I was hungry and you gave
me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger
and you took me in. Naked and you clothed me. I was
sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came
unto me. And guess what they said? Now
this is our Lord prophetically telling us what His sheep will
say on that last day. Then shall the righteous," we
learn something else, the righteous they are. Yes, because Christ
is their righteousness. Then shall the righteous answer
Him saying, we don't remember doing any of these things for
you. We don't remember it. We don't have any knowledge of
it. They said, Lord, when did we
see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and gave you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and took you in, or naked and
clothed you? Or when did we see you sick or
in prison and come unto you? And the king shall answer and
say unto them, Amen, I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done
it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, You have done it
unto Me. Then shall He say unto them on
His left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting
fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And watch this. For I was hungry, you gave Me
no food. I was thirsty, you gave me no
drink. I was a stranger and you took
me not in. Naked and you clothed me not.
Sick and in prison and you visited me not. Now look at their reply. You talk about a world of difference. It's the difference between heaven
and hell. Verse 44, Then shall they also
answer him saying, Our Lord is putting words on these people's
tongues. But surely it is impossible for
him to be mistaken. Here's what men will say in that
day. Lord, when did we see you hungry
or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did
not minister unto you? Then shall he answer them, saying,
Amen, I say unto you, inasmuch as you did it not to one of the
least of these you did it not to me, and these shall go away
into everlasting punishment." The goats to everlasting punishment,
but the sheep, the righteous, unto life eternally. Now, let's think about these
statements in this passage, and I'm going to have a problem getting
to some scriptures that I really do want to get to. But my first
point was going to be this. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ
in His glory, not in His humiliation. in His glory with all the heavenly angels
returning with Him on that last eventful day, the day of all
days, the King and His glory. Now, the easiest reference, I'm
going to try to just ask you to turn when I'm turning right
close by. I'm going to Matthew 16. And the verse is verse 27,
just a few pages back to your left. Here's another statement
in our Bibles that explicitly declares the truth that we have
just read. Matthew 16, 27, For the Son of
Man shall come in the glory of His Father, with his angels,
and he shall reward every man according to his work." Our Lord gives men exactly what
He owes us. But the question is, what does
He owe me? God gives every man what he owes
him. To his sheep, he gives us what
Christ merits for us and has, in grace and mercy, given us. But for the rest of mankind,
all the goats of every generation that will ever live on the face
of this earth, God gives them exactly what he owes them. There
are no degrees of reward in heaven, but there are degrees of punishment
in hell. Now, the Bible plainly declares
that in too many places for me to even think that you don't
know it's here. So if you'll turn to one other text, or if
you don't want to turn, I'll read it to you. It's in one of
the final chapters of the Revelation, chapter 20, beginning at verse 11. I'm simply trying to show you
that our Bible plainly speaks of such a time, such a place,
and such an event as we have just read about in Matthew chapter
25. Verse 11, Revelation 20, And
I saw a great white throne, sometimes referred to as the great white
throne of judgment. And Christ is the only judge
in that last day. I saw a great white throne and
Him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven
fled away." This world ceases to be. And there was found no
place for heaven or earth. And I saw the dead. I've got
that word dead with quotation marks on each side of it because
It's a special kind of dead. I saw the dead, small and great,
stand before God. Now, the word dead in our Bibles
has two meanings. It is either talking about physical
death or spiritual death. Our Lord told the man in Luke
chapter 9 wanted to be his follower, but wanted to go home until his
father died so he could bury him. And the Lord said to that
man, let the dead bury the dead. Let the spiritually dead bury
the physically dead, but you come and be my disciple. It's
either today or it's never. It's the time that he calls.
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. Now watch how this plays out
now. We have it in different language in Matthew 25. And the
books, plural, were opened. Books. And another book without an S
was opened. And that book is said, which
is the Book of Life. Called in other places, the Lamb's
Book of Life. This is a special book. The names
in this book are special. Special people. Belong to the
Lord Jesus. They're His sheep. They're those
righteous ones that we read about in Matthew 25. And the dead, the spiritually dead, were judged
out of those things which were written in the books. A book of remembrance, a record
of a person's life, I presume, from the beginning to the end
in this world. People outside of Christ lost. unsaved and now to be damned. The dead were judged out of those
things which were written in the books. Now watch this phrase. According to their what? Works. Their works. God must give His children their
work so they wouldn't have any. But the lost man's got plenty.
But the problem is they're damning. They're not true. What did they
say back in chapter 25 of Matthew? They said, we don't ever remember
seeing you hungry or thirsty or all these other things. We
don't ever remember not ministering to you. Oh, but He said you did. You did all these things. You
did not minister to me. Verse 14, Revelation 20. Death and hell were cast into
the lake of fire. This is the second death, as
it's called in other places in our Bibles. And whosoever was
not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake
of fire." Now that's the king and his glory. Secondly, we have the king and
his sheep. I should have asked you to hang
on to Revelation, but I'm going to go get it anyway, and you
don't have to turn if you don't want to. Chapter 21 and verse
7. He that overcomes. King James
says, overcome it. He that overcomes. shall inherit all things. I will be his God, and he shall
be my son." Now listen carefully. If memory serves me correctly,
and Mr. Stallnicker, Brother Stallnicker,
can right off the top of his head tell you if what I'm telling
you is so or not, There are seven letters to the seven churches
in the second and third chapter of the book called The Revelation.
And in every single one of those seven letters, there is a message
to the overcomers. Who is an overcomer? There ain't
but one. His name is the Lord Jesus. And everyone who is in Christ
is an overcomer. You remember several years ago
there was a big deal going on across this country in a group
called the Promise Keepers. I got news for them and I got
news for you. There ain't no such people in
this world. The Promise Keeper is Christ Himself. And those
who are in Him are blessed because of His perfection in keeping
those promises. You've got to be careful when
you weigh these eternal matters. that you don't wind up turning
around and putting it right back on ourselves. If I do this, God
will do that. No sir, no ma'am. If God does
this, we'll do that. If God gives us our works, they
will truly be spiritual works. But we're not capable of giving
it to ourselves. Not in the least. Not in the
least. There are just too many scriptures
to go to to try to deal with that particular subject. But
if you look back to Matthew 25, let's take our third subject.
Our previous one had to do with the king and his sheep. His sheep were all safe. They're
all secure because they're all in Him. What He did, they did. They are blessed for who He is
and what He's done. Now we come to the other group
that were called the goats. The king and his goats. We begin
at verse 41. in Matthew 25. Then shall he
say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed. Now if the Lord declares them
cursed, you and I have no choice except to say that every man
outside of Jesus Christ is cursed of God. Cursed. I know that's a tough word. But
that's where it is. We don't change this. This is
God's doing. And all that He does must be
right. Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared
for the devil and his angels. We just read that in Revelation
20. And the reasons are given in verse 42. Our Lord spoke of
being hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, in prison, sick, and you
visited me." And they don't remember a time not ever ministering to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe they think of Him at Easter,
maybe at Christmas, not much else. And even that's false. I couldn't believe what I saw
this morning on the road. Now, in North Carolina, we're
dumber than dumb when it comes to religious matters. We are
plum idiots. And I had you folks on such a
pedestal, I couldn't believe what I saw. We're coming on 19,
just about to Somersville along there somewhere, I don't remember.
And these characters on the, we're in the right-hand lane
coming this way, and they're across the highway on the shoulder
on the other lane, but going the same direction we were. And
there were five or six or more or less, I don't remember, but
they all had them across on their shoulders and they're going down
that road. Somebody, Sandy or Judy or somebody
said the guy in front was chest out, man, look at me, look at
me. You recognize what most people
think about the cross? That it's something that we carry?
Believers do have a cross, but it ain't visible. It's in here. There ain't but one man that
bore that cross that accomplished anything, and that's our Savior. He bought and purchased His people,
paid the full price of redemption, and God has given Him a host
that no man can number. And we're going to pretend to
be like Jesus. That's sick. It's sick. One fellow called that mocking
the reality with the shadow. Now let that weigh on your mind
a little bit. Mocking the reality with the
shadow. We're playing with the shadows.
There's no substance in the shadow. You can't even have a shadow
without a substance. Christ is that substance. All right, let's see. Let's look
at a scripture, at least one here. I can't let you off that
easy. Let me ask you about this one. Maybe you can remember this
one. At the end of Matthew 7, which is the end of the Sermon
on the Mount, the Lord Jesus gives us just a little window
to look at Judgment Day and these people march up to Him And they
began to tell him what all they've done for him in his name. And
he said to those people, they called him Lord, Lord. They cast
out devils in his name. They preached in his name. They
did many wonderful works in his name. And he actually said, depart
from me, you workers of iniquity. Their religious works were sin. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity. I never knew you. You said you
knew me, but you were mistaken. You don't suppose that could
be true of anybody in here, do you? Oh, I think it could. It could
start right here in this pulpit. Paul said to the Corinthians,
who makes you to differ from another? And what do you have
that you didn't receive? Do you have salvation? How did
you get it? You received it. You didn't earn it. You didn't
merit it. You don't keep it because of
what you do. You keep it because of who Christ
is and what He's done. You can't lose salvation, dear
friend. Not the real kind. Who makes you to differ from
another? And what do you have that you did not receive? And
if we received it, why do we boast as if we had not received?
To God be the glory. Great things He has done. All right, this is a simple reference. John chapter 3. beginning in chapter 3 of the
Gospel of John at verse 19. And this, these are the words
of our Savior Himself, this is the condemnation that light has
come into the world. The light of the world has come
into the world. The light of God, the light of
truth, Christ is that light. Light has come into this world,
and men, you and me and everybody else, love darkness rather than
light. How come? Because our deeds were
just like those goats in Matthew 25. We knew they were rotten,
but we polished them up anyway. We wore those pins about perfect
attendance in Sunday school and did this and that and the other.
It's all just pure rotten, stinking faults. Not any good. Not any good. Because their deeds
were evil. Verse 20. For everyone, not some,
not most, not all, not a few, Everyone that does evil hates
the light. Neither comes to the light. Now,
what does that mean? It means we hate Christ and we
ain't coming to Christ until we absolutely have to and can't
do anything else. Neither comes to the light. Why? Lest his deeds be proved to be
false. Lest his deeds be reproved. But here's the other side of
that. Here's the believer. Here's the sheep that was the
goat. Verse 21, He that does, or if you want to King James,
doeth truth. Now, buddy, that's an expression
that you don't hear every day. He that doeth truth comes to the light that his deeds
may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. All right, back to Matthew 25.
One more time. I was going to say that Marvin
told me to take all the time I needed, but he didn't actually
say that. I think he's got a trap door
under this big piece of carpet. If you'd go straight to the last
verse in Matthew 25, let's work on this statement just a little
bit. Speaking of the goats. And these
shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous
unto life eternal." Now, there are two words in that verse that
are actually the same word in the Greek. I don't read Greek.
Mr. Spurgeon told me this, so if he's wrong, you take it up
with him. The word everlasting and the word eternal are identical
in the Greek New Testament. Now, why the translators call
one everlasting and the other one eternal, I don't know. I don't have a clue, and I don't
think it matters because both of them are everlasting and both
of them are eternal. Divine punishment. medded out
by the King of kings and Lord of lords is everlasting punishment. And grace cannot be grace, and
Christ cannot be Christ, except He be life, everlasting life,
eternal. So I need you to look at one
other scripture, please, and I'm taking a lot of them off
the board here. I'm just going to give you the
barest of outlines, and it's John chapter 5. John chapter 5. And this point is called the
king's curse and the king's blessing. Verses 28 and 29 of John chapter
5. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming, described
in detail in Matthew 25. That hour, our Lord says here,
is coming, in the which, on that day, at
that time, whenever it is, in the which all that are in the
graves shall hear His voice, whether it's in the cemetery
or in the bottom of the ocean. Every soul shall be ushered into
the divine presence of the Lord Jesus on that last final day. And they shall come forth, verse
29. Now here's the explanation of
what is to be meted out and on what basis. And shall come forth, verse 29,
they that have done good. This book says there's none good,
no, not one. You're not good and I'm not good.
God alone is good. And those people who are in Him
through His Son, through the gospel and by His grace may be
declared to be good. They that have done good will
be raised to what is called the resurrection of life. And the
others? Which are who? This was the sheep,
the others are the goats. They that have done evil. How
much evil? One sin unatoned by the blood
of Christ is sufficient to damn our souls forever. But we breathe
sin. We speak sin. We are sin. They that have done evil. No
qualification as to how much or how little. shall be raised unto the resurrection
of damnation." Now, what's the difference between the one and
the other? There's only one legitimate answer.
Christ, our precious, blessed Redeemer. If you are in Him, you are like
Him. You are righteous in God's sight.
God has poured out His mercies upon you. But if I'm not in Christ,
I can participate in none of these things, not at all. Thank you.