Alright, brethren, let's turn
to Isaiah chapter 41. I asked Adam to read that whole
chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, because it's the message of
our text here in Isaiah 41. It's almost like Paul was reading
Isaiah 41, and took the Word of our Lord
and wrote 1 Corinthians 1 from the things our Lord teaches us
here in Isaiah 41. Christ is declaring here what
He is to His church and what He will do as He uses His church
to preach the Gospel. He's declaring here what He is
to the church and what He will do as He uses us to preach the
gospel. Let's read it together, beginning
in verse 14. He says, Fear not, thou worm,
Jacob. I titled this, Why Worms? Why Worms? He's going to make
us a threshing instrument, He said. Whoever heard of using
worms, to thresh with. Why worms? Let's find out. Fear not thou worm, Jacob, and
ye men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make
thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth. Thou shalt thresh
the mountains, and beat them small, and shall make the hills
as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the
wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them.
And thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and show glory in the Holy
One of Israel. When the poor and needy seek
water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst,
I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in high places,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the
wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shitta tree, and
the myrtle, and the oil tree, I will set in the desert the
fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together, that they
may see, and know, and consider, and understand together that
the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel
hath created it. Why worms? The Lord declares
here He's going to take us worms. Helpless worms. Powerless worms. And make us a threshing instrument. Making us preach Christ and Him
crucified. Christ and His works. By which
the threshing will be done. Why worms? Well, He declares the reason
He uses worms to do this work. Verse 20. is that they may see
and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the
Lord hath done this and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.
There is going to be no mistaking. It was not of us. It was Him. And here is the other reason,
verse 16, And thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shall glory
in the Holy One of Israel. He is going to get all the glory
and all the praise. Alright, let's see what our Lord
says. First of all, He's going to use His people who are worms,
who He has called. He says here in verse 14, Fear
not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel. I will help thee,
saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Those
Christ calls and those He uses to preach His gospel are worms. Thou worm, Jacob. We looked at
this Thursday night. This is what we are in our flesh.
We're just worms. Helpless, powerless sinners.
Worms. What's more powerless than a
worm? When you think of the king of
the jungle, you don't think of a worm, do you? What's more powerless
than a worm? And yet, the Lord says, Thou
worm, Jacob. I'm going to use you, thou worm,
Jacob. But our strength is Christ. Our
strength is Christ. He says, Fear not, thou worm,
Jacob, and ye men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord.
He promised back up in verse 13. He said, I, the Lord thy
God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I
will help thee. You know the right hand is the
hand of fellowship. And we find several times in
Scripture when our Lord walked this earth that He took sinners
by the hand. And this is how He would heal
them and do various miracles for them. With Peter's mother,
it says He came and He took her by the hand. She was sick. He took her by the hand, lifted
her up, and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered
unto them. That 12-year-old daughter of
that ruler of the synagogue, she died. Remember, he was on
his way there, and she died. And he got there, and he told
them to all go outside. He said, she's not dead. She's
sleeping. And they laughed at him. And he took the damsel by the
hand. He said, I'll take you by the
hand. He took her by the hand. And he said, damsel, I say unto
thee, arise. And straightway she arose and
walked. That blind man, one of the blind men, he took the blind
man by the hand and he led him out of the town. And when he
spit in his eyes, he put his hands upon him and asked him
if he saw. He led him out. Christ said,
I'll take you by the hand. Fear not. When the Lord Jesus
takes His child by the hand, He never lets go. He never lets
go. He says in verse 13, I, the Lord
thy God, will hold thy right hand. He doesn't say, I'm just
going to take it. I'm going to hold it. I'm going
to hold it. He said, I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. I'm going to hold your hand,
he said. We're worms in ourselves, brethren.
We're worms in ourselves. But, he says here, you're men
of Israel. We saw this Thursday night. Israel
is Christ's name. Read Isaiah 49. That's Christ's
name. He gave Jacob His name. He gave
Jacob His name. And He says, you're men of Israel. That means you're men of Christ. You're men of Christ who is the
Prince, who is Israel, who as a Prince has power with God and
men and has prevailed. Men of the Prince of Peace who
brought peace for us between us and God. Our assurance is
this. He says, I am thy Redeemer. I'm thy Redeemer. That's what
He says to His people. I'm your Redeemer. Your personal
Redeemer. Thy Redeemer. And He says, He's
our sanctification. He says, the Holy One of Israel. He's the Holy One of His Israel. The Son of God came down and
He took flesh like unto His brethren, perfectly holy, perfectly sinless,
pure in heart. And He came forth made of a woman,
made under the law, circumcised at eight days old. For a man
circumcised, Paul said, is a debtor to keep the whole law. And our
Lord Jesus Christ walked under the law, representing His people
with a holy heart. Purely holy. And he was righteous
in everything he thought, everything he did. And so then he went and
presented himself to the Father. 30 years of being tested and
proven and put up like that lamb was put up and he was checked
to make sure he had no spots and no blemishes on him and then
they bring the spotless lamb. Christ Jesus for 33 and a half
years is looked over by the law, tested by Satan, by men, not
one sin ever. Perfectly holy in his heart.
And then he goes to the cross. presents Himself the spotless
Lamb of God. And God laid on Him the iniquity
of all His elect people. And made Him justly deserving
of the wrath of God. God's not doing anything that's
not righteous. He's doing nothing in unrighteousness.
He wouldn't even pour out wrath on His Son until He laid on Him
the iniquity of His people. And when He bore the sin of His
people, then the Lord forsook Him on that cross. And that's
what every one of God's elect people deserve. That's what every
one of us deserve. And He bore that for His people,
and He bore it once and for all, for all time. It will never be
done again because He accomplished the work of redeeming His people. He is thy Redeemer, and the Holy
One of His people. He's your righteousness and He
is your sanctification. That's what He is. That's who
our Lord Jesus Christ is. That's our assurance, brethren.
He purchased us with His own blood. Ephesians, Paul said,
when He seals you with the Holy Spirit, He gives you this foretaste
of glory. He makes you certain in your
heart, knowing by the Spirit of God, sealing you, that you're
His purchased possession. And He's coming again for His
purchased possession. He is your Redeemer. He bought
you. And He's your Holy One. He's
your righteousness. He's your sanctification. He's
the Redeemer who did the redeeming and He accomplished the redemption.
He's your Redeemer and your redemption. He's the sanctifier and He's
the one He sanctifies us into. He's the sanctifier, as Scripture
says, and He's our sanctification. That's who He is. This whole
work that He's going to talk about here in this passage is
a separating work. And that's what sanctification
is, is to be separated. And it's a separating work. And
that's what he's declaring he's going to do here through the
preaching of the gospel. But he starts out by declaring,
I'm thy redeemer and I'm the holy one of Israel. I'm the righteousness
and I'm the sanctifier of my people. Don't you fear. I'll hold your hand. You're a
worm, but I'm going to use you worms. That's what he declares.
That's what he declares. Now secondly, the reason we need
Christ to be our righteousness and our sanctification, our righteousness
and our strength, is because of the sanctifying work that
Christ is going to work through the preaching of the gospel.
This is why we need Him to be our strength, because of what
He's going to do through this gospel. He says in verse 15,
Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having
teeth. He's using this as an illustration.
He called us to preach His gospel. To preach Him and His works. What is He showing us right here
in this chapter, in this day? He's showing us who He is and
what works He's going to do. And that's what He's sending
us to preach. Him and His works. And through this message, He's
going to separate His people. and save his people. That's what
he means by making us a new, sharp, threshing instrument.
They would pile up corn or wheat in a big old pile, and they had
a cart, and this cart had these sort of like wooden, kind of
like spikes on it, teeth on it, and it would be a weighted cart,
and they'd pull that cart over the wheat or the corn, and it
would separate the wheat from the chaff. It would bust the
stalks all up and it would separate the chaff from the wheat, from
the kernel. And because the chaff is lighter,
the wind, sometimes they would have a threshing floor where
they would bounce it and as the chaff bounced up, they would
be working a big fan and the wind would blow the chaff away.
And all that will be left with is the fruit, the wheat, the
good stuff. And the Lord says here, He's
going to make His people that threshing instrument. He's going
to make us preach the gospel of Christ, preach His person
and His works, giving Him all the glory, and this is how He's
going to do the work. Now, He says we're the threshing
instrument. And he says here that we're going
to do this. He says we're going to do the
things he says here. But we're not the one that does
it. You know this. And as soon as he says you'll
do this, he turns around and tells us he's the one that did
it. He's just using me and you to preach him. And he's doing
the work. This is why he's using worms.
This is why he's using worms. Through the preaching of the
gospel, Christ is going to separate the wheat from the chaff. He's going to separate them that
are His from them that are not His. Look here in verse 15. He
says, Thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt
make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the
wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them.
And Thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the
Holy One of Israel. The reason Thou shalt rejoice
in the Lord The reason you shout, Glory in the Holy One of Israel,
is because He's the one that does this separating, sanctifying
work. And when He's done it in each
of us individually, He makes you know He did the work. And
so He's the only one you glory in. You glory in Him. There's only one Redeemer. There's
only one Holy One. There's only one righteousness.
There's only one sanctification in Christ's church. It's Christ
Himself. Now here's why I ask Adam to
read 1 Corinthians 1. The Lord will not have any sinner
compete with Him for any office and any work that Christ performs. That's what Paul declared in
1 Corinthians 1. The Lord will not allow any sinful
man to compete with Him for any of the offices He holds
and the works that He performs in that office. For instance,
He's our wisdom. He's our wisdom. And He said
in 1 Corinthians 1.19, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. He's going to
be the wisdom. He's not going to have anybody
in his church try to be the wisdom. He said, where's the wise? Where's
the scribe? Where's the distributor of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? You
see, He had to work this in me and you because we thought we
were the wise and prudent. We thought we understood something. And he's going to have to separate
the new you that he's created from the chaff that you are in
Adam. Just like he's going to do this
with men that are not his and those that are his. But he's
not going to have anybody compete with him for being the wisdom. Christ is the Redeemer. He's
the righteousness of His church. He's not going to have anybody
compete with Him as being the righteousness, as being those
who worked out their own works. So we're to go forth and just
preach, He's thy Redeemer. He's the righteousness of His
people. And through this message, men
that are trying to do the works themselves, they won't hear it.
They won't hear it. And they'll be like chaff. Carried
away by the wind. As he declares here, Christ is
the sanctifier and he is the sanctification of his church.
He won't have competition from men. He won't have me and you
trying to be the ones who did the sanctifying of ourselves.
Or sanctifying of others. He is the sanctifier. He is going
to get the glory. He said in his church, in 1 Corinthians
1, he said, No flesh shall glory in his presence. If you and me
did the sanctifying, we'd glory. He is not going to have that.
He's going to get the glory for being the Holy One of Israel. He's declaring in this passage,
He alone separates His people to Himself, and He alone will
scatter them that are not His. He's the redemption of His church.
He declares here what Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 1. In His church,
He gets all the glory. That's what he's declaring. He
gets all the glory. Any sinner who would take any
of these offices... Now he says here, I'm going to
make you a threshing instrument and you will fan them and they'll
be as chaff. All we're doing is preaching
the Word and we ought to do that by His grace. It's Christ whose
fan is in His hand. He said that. He said in Matthew
3.12 that His fan is in His hand. He will throughly purge His floor
and gather His weed into the garner, but He will burn up the
chaff with unquenchable fire. That's Christ's Word. We don't
know who His people are. In fact, look at Matthew 13. He teaches me and you, don't
ever try to separate the wheat from the tares. We have no idea
who his people are. He said if we try to do that,
we'd make a terrible, terrible mistake. Look here in Matthew
13, 28. Matthew 13, 28. You know when
he said, when he spoke about trees, knowing them by their
fruit, he said, you'll know them by their fruit. He's talking
about false preachers. He was talking to the Pharisees,
saying, how can you, being evil, speak good things? God's people,
he said, my sheep hear my voice. They discern. They have discernment.
And they can tell when a man's preaching a lie. And he gives
you that discernment. But as far as who his people
are, He says here now, he compares the kingdom of God to a field,
Matthew 13. And he says, verse 24, another
parable, put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven
is like unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while
men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and
went his way. But when the blade was sprung
up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the
servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst
not thou sow good seed in thy field from whence thou then hath
it tares. And he said to them, An enemy
hath done this. The servant said to him, Wilt
thou then that we go and gather them up? We and you represent
the servants here. Wilt thou that we go gather up
the tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath
done this. And they said, Shall we go gather
them up? He said, No, lest while you gather
up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them. Let both
grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest I
will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares,
and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into
my barn." You see that? He's chosen me and you, wheatworms,
to simply preach Christ. But he's going to do the separating. He's going to do the fanning.
That's what he's going to do. Paul said he chose the foolish
things to confound the wise. He chose us things who are nothing
to bring to nothing things that are. He chose me and you who
he makes to know we're nothing to bring to nothing people who
think they're something. That's what he's gonna do. But
he's doing that work. We can't do that work. You know,
here's an example of this. When you preach the gospel to
a room full of people, Only the Spirit of God can make a person
hear this Word right here as being for us. Only the Spirit
of God can make you hear this Word and say, ah, that is good
news for us. Only the Spirit of God can make
you hear it that way. Until He does that, a sinner,
a natural sinner will always hear the Word of God as being
against them. And listen, I'll give you a warning.
If you hear the Word of God as being against you, it is against
you. Now that's just so. I've preached the doctrine of
election before and said just clearly as can be, God did not
choose any of His people because one was better than another.
We were all ruined sinners. He chose us freely by His grace. And get through and somebody,
one person say, oh, I'm thankful God chose me. I see what a wretch
I am. And another person say, are you
saying you're better than I am? Who makes the difference to where
you hear the Word as being for you? Only the Lord makes you
hear it as for you. But if He doesn't make you hear
Him speaking to you, that He's doing this work for you, that
fan of this Gospel, it'll blow the chaff right away. It'll blow
them right away. I'm just telling you what the
Word of the Lord said. This is the next Word we come
to, and this is what the Lord says He'll do. Only the Lord
can sanctify. Only He can make us believe on
Christ. Only He can make us hear this
Word as being for us. But when He does, this is what
He promises. He said, Thou shalt rejoice in
the Lord and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel. That's what
He said you'll do. He said in verse 11, Those that
are incensed, that word means enraged against you, shall be
ashamed and confounded and be as nothing. You remember in Acts
19, it said that whole city was filled with confusion. When Demetrius
stirred them up and he had them going against Paul, it says the
whole city was confounded. They were full of confusion.
Some cried one thing, some another thing. He said the whole assembly
was confused and the most part didn't even know why they were
coming together. But He promises you that believe
by His Spirit, by the Spirit of God speaking into your heart.
He says, you shall rejoice in the Lord and shall glory in the
Holy One of Israel. That's what He said. Look over
at Isaiah 45. Look at verse 24. Isaiah 45 and
verse 24. This is what He's going to do right here. When He makes you bow, He says,
Surely, verse 24, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness
and strength. That's, I'm thy Redeemer and
I'm the Holy One of Israel. He's your righteousness and your
sanctification, your righteousness and your strength. Even to Him
shall men come, and all that are enraged against Him shall
be ashamed. They'll be confounded. Look at
James 3. I want you to see this now. This
is so very vital and so very important. Look at James 3. Anytime somebody hears the Word
of God, now the Word is always being preached to you. The question
is, is the Word being preached according to the Scriptures?
And if it is, then why would anybody be angry about that?
Look here, I'll show you why. James chapter 3, look here in
verse 13. James 3.13. Who is a wise man
and endued with knowledge? James 3.13. Who is a wise man
and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good
conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. If you have bitter
envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, lie not against the
truth. This wisdom descendeth not from
above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish. For where envying
and strife is, there is confusion. That's what happened at Athens. They were confused. The whole
city was confused. Why? Because that spirit came
from the devil. The Lord says here, I'll fan
them. That was the Lord doing that,
the Lord Jesus. He hardened their hearts. You
know how He did it? He left them to themselves. He left them to
the devil. And He says here, that spirit
is from the devil. And there's confusion in every
evil work, but the wisdom that's from above. is first pure and
peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and
good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy, and the fruit
of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace." Who
does this work? Christ is telling us, I do it.
I do it. Those in Athens who were against
Paul and were confounded and ended up being as nothing and
being fanned away like chaff, you know who did that? Christ
did that. Christ did that. And you know
why Paul was settled on Christ and his heart was strengthened
in Christ and he rejoiced in the Lord and he kept right on
preaching the gospel of Christ and Him crucified? Christ did
that. Christ did that. Do you see that
in the text? Is that clear? Now thirdly, back in Isaiah 41,
we rejoice because through this gospel Christ is feeding us and
nourishing us who are weak worms. You see, not only is He using
you to preach the Gospel, and us together, assembled together
to preach this Gospel together. Not only is He doing that, He's
feeding us as He does it. Look here what He said, verse
17. When the poor and needy seek
water and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst,
I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake
them, I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst
of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a
pool of water and the dry land springs of water. This is all
a spiritual work. This is all a work done in the
Spirit, done by the Lord. Christ makes us, me and you,
the poor and needy. This is the ones He does this
for, the poor and needy. He said in Isaiah 40, He said,
Him that hath no strength, I'll strengthen." No strength. He's going to make you poor.
He's going to make you needy. The Lord's people are just going
to tell you, there's just nothing good in us. There's nothing about
us but sin. We're the poor and the needy.
But He says, He's going to make us hunger
and He's going to make us thirst for Christ. He's going to make
us hunger and thirst for Christ to be our righteousness and be
our holiness and to lead us and protect us and guide us and teach
us. And that's what He says He'll
do. I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. He promised each of His redeemed,
I'll never leave thee and I'll never forsake thee. He said,
I've engraven you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are ever
before me. I'm going to protect you. I'm
going to hear you. And He Himself is the water of
life. He says through this gospel,
I'll open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of
the valleys. I'll make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land
springs of water. This river in high places, this
is from the throne of God and the Lamb. It's the gospel coming
down from Christ. And you remember, we saw this
not long ago, the wilderness and the dry land is our sinful
flesh. And He said, when He creates
a new man in you, He said, out of your belly shall flow rivers
of living water. He said in Psalm 36.8, they shall
be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house. and thou shalt make them drink
of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain
of life, and in thy light we shall see light." He's going
to make us see Him and what He's done. He's our righteousness
and make us see how complete we are in Him and how accepted
of God we are in Him. And He's going to keep renewing
you inwardly, giving you fresh, Fresh renewings of grace and
light to behold Him. And He's going to keep you strengthened
inwardly and keep you comforted inwardly. That's these rivers
He's talking about. These springs of water He's talking
about. Renewing us in the inward man.
Making us see how the Lord Jesus Christ God the Father loved us
and sent His Son who laid down His life for us and is the propitiation
for us, ever interceding for us with God, so that God says,
who lay anything to the charge of man and the like. He's going
to keep renewing you to see this and keep water's life and He's
going to keep life in His people. And here's another reason we
rejoice. This is the last thing. It's because through this gospel,
He plants us. He plants us. He says in verse
19, I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the shitta tree,
and the myrtle, and the oil tree, and I will set in the desert
the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together. Just like
these are all different kinds of trees, the Lord's people are
all different kinds of people. But these are all evergreen trees. And He makes His people evergreen,
full of life by what He's accomplished. And they're all planted by the
Lord. He's the one that plants His
people. This whole work is Him declaring what He's doing. He
plants us so that we cannot be moved from trusting Him, and
He will not permit it. He will not permit it. Somebody
may not be able to stay in the same assembly, and they may not
be able to stay in the same local congregation, but He will give
them a heart to go where they can hear the gospel and assemble
with God's people. That's what He will do. Because
if the glory of God is that important, He will have His people, He will
keep it that important to His people so that they go and be
under the gospel somewhere. He's not going to let His people
just go out and be alone. He's going to keep you under
the preaching of the gospel. That's what He's going to do.
He's going to plant you so that you never leave Christ. And His
people are not going to leave Christ. I hope you hear that. I'm trying to be gracious and
kind. Don't judge people. I've got friends that are right
now in the wilderness. Well, the Lord's going to move
everything and work everything to where he's going to plant
his people in his house. They're going to end up under
the gospel with his people. You all hear me tell you the
story of In 2003, we had a lot of trouble down at Franklin,
and the church got in a big mess, you know. And so people left. They were upset with Marvin.
And I don't think any of them will remind me telling this,
because I was the sinner involved in that, too. I was at fault. Everybody in that whole situation
was wrong. We all made terrible errors in
judgment. Every one of us did. That's just
all there is to it. But some of those people that
left there and they were angry at my Pastor Marvin, you know
where they're sitting right now? They're sitting under Marvin's
sun at peace and as happy as they can be worshiping God together. Gabe was right there with us
when all that went on and they're all right there together. The
Lord's going to work that. You know how good that did my
heart to see that? To see that, to see the brethren
that I was with in Franklin there. That thrilled my soul because
that's what the Lord's going to work in his people. He's going
to plant his people. He said in Isaiah 27.6, he shall
cause them that come of Jacob to take root. Israel shall blossom
and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit. He said
in Psalm 92.13, those that be planted in the house of the Lord
shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still
bring forth fruit in old age as you'll be fat and flourishing.
He's gonna plant his people. And you know, when he plants
us, why does he use us worms as his new sharp threshing instrument?
Why does he bring us when he does this planting? What does
he bring us to do? Everywhere you find him, speak
about him planting his people in the scriptures. This is what
he says. Verse 20, that they may see and
know and consider and understand together that the hand of the
Lord hath done this and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.
Verse 16, thou shalt rejoice in the Lord in glory and the
Holy One of Israel. Everywhere he talks about planting
his people and making them trees of righteousness, it's so that
they give him all the praise and all the glory. And that's
what his people are going to do. You know how He is going
to let you see that if He had let you go, you would have been
just like the chaff. You would have just been blown
away with the wind. But He keeps you. And He plants you. And He
won't let you go. He is your sanctifier. He is
your sanctifier. Thy people also shall be all
righteous. They shall inherit the land forever.
The branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may
be glorified. This is in Isaiah 61.3. They
shall be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that
he might be glorified. It's always for him to get the
glory. Now go to 1 Corinthians 1. Let's see it right here. I want you to go home and I want
you to read Isaiah 42 and then read 1 Corinthians 1 and just
see how much they're just alike. If you've got spiritual discernment,
I think you'll see what I'm saying. Paul is saying, Christ is the
power and wisdom of God, and this is where he brings us right
here. 1 Corinthians 1.27. He talked about the chaff being
confounded and confused, but you won't be confounded. You're
going to glory in the Lord. Look what he says here. 1 Corinthians
1.27. God has chosen the foolish things
of the world, worms, me and you, as His threshing instruments,
to confound the wise. God has chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things that are mighty. Base
things of the world, things which are despised have God chosen.
He's talking about me and you. He's talking about us worms He's
chosen to preach the gospel. Look around you, He said. You
don't see many mighty called. You don't see many noble. God's
chosen these foolish things, me and you. Things which are
not to bring to naught things that are. Here's why. That no
flesh shall glory in His presence. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." The Lord said,
that's what my people are going to do. They're going to glory
in me. And he's not going to have any
competition for any of those offices. He's going to make us
see no flesh come glory in His presence. He's going to get the
glory. And we're going to gladly give
it to Him. We're going to rejoice in Him and give Him the glory.
Aren't you thankful salvations of the Lord? Amen. All right. Brother Greg. Oh wait, I need,
we're going to observe the table. Our Lord's table. All right.