All right, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. We'll begin in chapter 1, I'm
sorry, 1 Corinthians 1. Now Corinth was a very wealthy, rich place. And it was very, very full of
wicked sinners. Very wealthy, wicked sinners. But it was at Corinth that the
Lord Jesus Christ told the Apostle Paul, This is, I've quoted this
Thursday night, but it was at Corinth, when he told Apostle
Paul, be not afraid, but speak, hold not thy peace, for I am
with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have
much people in this city. And he continued there a year
and six months, teaching the word of God among them. And the
Lord Jesus Christ established a local church in Corinth, several. He established in Corinth, But
like every local church that Christ establishes, there were
a lot of problems in the church at Corinth. Now, this is so wherever
the Lord has a church, there's going to be problems in it because
it's made up of sinners saved by grace. They were acting like carnal
men. There was fornication. A man had committed incest with
his father's wife, his stepmother. Brethren were suing one another
before the world in earthly courts rather than just taking the fault
and being defrauded. They were covetous. They were
very miserly in their provision for needy brethren. They turned
the Lord's table into a gaudy feast. Some were even getting
drunk at the Lord's table. They boasted about spiritual
gifts and exalted themselves over one another because they
had, some thought they had more gifts than others. Some pretended
to have gifts they didn't even really have. And there was some
doctrinal issues. They even questioned the resurrection. That's a lot of problems in a
church, a lot of problems. Another problem was over pastors. That was another problem. Their
fault was not that they preferred to hear one pastor rather than
or more than another. That wasn't really the fault.
The Lord knits his heart together with a pastor from a local congregation. But the problem was they started
talking to their brethren, exalting one and putting down others.
And this went on so much to the point that Apollos, he was Greek
and he was eloquent like they were. And he came and he was
more polished and he spoke more eloquently and they liked that.
Apostle Paul came and he was weak bodily. His bodily presence
was weak. They said his speech was contemptible.
And it got to the point they even said, many of them believed
the apostle Paul was a false preacher. He wasn't really an
apostle. Now, these are the ones that
Christ sent Paul to, to preach the gospel to them. This is the
ones through whom Paul, the Lord priest, and begot them again. And they're saying he is a false
preacher. Now Paul knew all those issues.
He knew all of that. He knew they thought he was a
false preacher. What's he gonna do? What's he
gonna do? How's he gonna address these
folks? Chapter one, verse four. He said,
I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which
is given you by Jesus Christ. 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, so that ye 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 unto the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our
Lord. You mean Paul called them brethren
in the face of all that trouble? That's what he did. That's what
he did. Paul knew himself to be only
a sinner saved by the unchanging sovereign love of God. That's
what he knew himself to be. And he knew that this sovereign
free grace of God is unchangeable. And he knew that Christ our head
is sovereign to be able to work in the hearts of his people.
And He does it through the preaching that exalts Him and abases the
sinner. He knew that. He knew that. So Paul beseeched them as brethren. In verse 10 he says, Now I beseech
you, brethren. 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. And right
away, Paul began declaring the word by which Christ turns his
people to himself. He began to declare the gospel
to them, and he gives them The reason why God chose the foolishness
of preaching, and why He chose foolish nobodies to preach, and
He reminded them what the Lord did through His preaching, what
He did for them. He said in 1 Corinthians 1 verse
29, this is why God saved through the foolishness of preaching,
that no flesh should glory in His presence. This was what the
problem was. And he said, this is the whole
reason the Lord saves this way he does, that no flesh should
glory in his presence. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus. It's all of grace. Who of God
is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That according as it's written,
he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Now, he went on,
and if you wanna go, so I preach through both these letters, and
I encourage you to go listen to all those messages, but he
went on talking about some of these issues that they were striving
over, but then he comes down now to where he's gonna make
a point that he's making, and in chapter three, in verse 18,
he says, let no man deceive himself, let no man deceive himself, If
any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him
become a fool that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this
world is foolishness with God. For it's written, he taketh the
wise in their own craftiness. That's out of Job. And he said,
and again, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they're
vain. Therefore let no man glory in
men. He quotes from Job and he quotes
from Psalm, Psalm 95 or six, I believe. We just saw it not
long ago, but in both those passages, right after he says, the Lord
takes the wives in their own craftiness. And right after that,
he also said in both those passages, the Lord was able to chasten
and correct his people. And he said, happy is the man
that the Lord does this for. And I have to believe that was
on Paul's heart as the Spirit of God moved him to preach from
those two passages and write this letter from those two passages.
But he's saying here, let no man deceive himself. If any thinks
he's wise, let him become a fool that he may be wise. And he said
in verse 21, therefore let no man glory in men. Now Proverbs 13.10 tells us,
only by pride cometh contention. That sums it up, doesn't it?
That just, only by pride cometh contention. That means all envying,
all strife, all division is the result of pride. All the result
of pride. And it's glorying in ourselves
or in another. Paul said, let all men glory
in men. This was what was going on at
Corinth. They were glorying in themselves, exalting themselves
for their wisdom, exalting one preacher over another because
of his eloquence and his abilities and all these different things. It was worldly wisdom, that's
what it was. The foolishness of God, glorying
in our wisdom and might rather than in Christ who is our wisdom
and power. Now sometimes when our children
are young, they begin to argue over some possession in the house. They start arguing and they get
puffed up against one another. And so the father sets them down
and reminds them that everything in his house is his. And he reminds them the children
are his. And so he reminds them the father's
providing all for his children. So everything in his house is
theirs. They're not gonna suffer. Everything
in his house is theirs. And that's what settles the children
from fussing and arguing when they learn that it's all theirs. It all belongs to the father.
He's providing everything for his children and it's all theirs.
Well, that's what Paul declares here. In verse 21, he says, let
no man glory in men, and here's why, because all things are yours. Verse 23 says, and you are Christ's,
and Christ is God's. Paul says the same again in different
words. Same thing he's saying here,
he just says it in a little different words down in chapter 4 and verse
7. Here's exactly what he's saying.
for who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou
that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou didst not receive it or hast
not received it? Only by pride cometh contention. But the second part of that proverb,
Proverbs 13, 10, the second part says this, but with the well
advised is wisdom. But with the well-advised is
wisdom. The Spirit of God alone makes us well-advised by blessing
us with his word to our hearts, humbling his child, and creating
in us meekness of wisdom. Humility, meekness of wisdom.
You can just picture Corinth. They're puffed up, and I'm of
Paul, I'm of Apollos, and this and that. They're bickering over
all these problems and here comes Paul and says to them, brethren,
brethren, all things are yours and you're Christ's and Christ
is God's. That's why we don't glory in
men and that's the word the Lord's will bless to the heart of his
child to humble us so that we know we don't have to glory in
men. We don't have to glory in ourselves
and our strength and our wisdom and our might. Everything we
have, our Heavenly Father gave it to us. It's all His. Christ is His, and we're Christ's. All things are yours. That settles
you. You know, a desperate man who
thinks he just got one little crumb of bread left, He'll crawl
all over somebody to hang on to that one loaf of bread. But
if he knows all the bread is his, he don't have to fuss and fight
over that one little loaf of bread. What the Lord Jesus Christ is
to us settles what everything else is to us. What Christ is
to us settles what everything else is to us. Our relation to
Christ determines our relation to all things. If we're Christ,
knowing Christ is God's, then all things are yours. And by
his sovereign hand, all things, by his sovereign hand, all things
are serving you. Everything that's coming to pass
is serving you. And he begins there in verse
22 and he gives some specifics. He said, whether Paul or Apollos
or Cephas, they were fussing over the preacher, which preacher
they preferred and which preacher, and putting down others. And
he said, all of them are yours. They're all yours. The preachers
that Christ sends are given of Christ and ruled by Christ and
they are all each one yours. That's what he's saying. Ephesians
4 declares that. And God's preachers are not divided.
We're one. We're preaching one gospel of
Christ by one spirit. Look back at 1 Corinthians 3
and verse 12. I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians. First Corinthians. Where is he? Chapter 1 and verse 12. He says,
Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and
I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or
were you baptized in the name of Paul? Look at chapter 3. Look
at verse 5. Who then is Paul? And who is
Apollos? but ministers by whom ye believed,
even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that
watereth are one. And every man shall receive his
own reward according to his own labor, for we're laborers together
with God. You're God's husbandry. You're
God's building. And the head of the church who
gave his preachers judges his preachers. He judges his preachers. What does that mean? It means
he instructs them, he chastens them, he edifies them, the same
as he does all his people. He's able to burn up all our
wood, hay, and stubble by fire and trial, and he's able to refine
the gold. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4.4,
he said, I know nothing by myself. I know nothing by myself, yet
am I not hereby justified, that's not how I'm justified, but he
that judges me is the Lord. Christ's preachers are sinners
saved by grace just like the rest of his children. And Christ
justified his preachers by his blood the same as he justified
the rest of his people by his blood. And our Lord Jesus Christ
sent him the gospel and taught him the gospel. He knocked Christ
off his horse, knocked him in the dust and revealed himself
to him and saved him by his word, by his power, the same way he
does all his people. And Christ is able to chasten
and edify his preacher the same as all the rest. You, at your
leisure, you read this out and you see what Paul said about
him and the other apostles, what they were suffering in the world.
He said in 1 Corinthians 4, 9, I think that God has set forth
us the apostles last as it were appointed to death, for we're
made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men. And
he goes on talking about how they're reviled and just all
the stuff they suffered. But Paul said, all things are
for the elect's sake. All things are yours. All His
preachers are yours. And whatever is coming to pass,
it's for you. Christ providing the gospel,
sovereignly providing His preachers, and He's sovereignly keeping
His preachers, and He's doing it for you who are His people.
That's what our Lord's doing. He said there in 1 Corinthians
4 and verse 6, and these things, brethren, I have in a figure,
in a type, transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes,
that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which
is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against
another, for who maketh thee to differ? What hast thou that
thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why, glory, as if thou had not received it. He's saying, the
Lord gave the preacher. We can't glory even in a preacher.
Christ gave the preacher. Christ gave the preacher. Well,
secondly, look back there in our text in 1 Corinthians 3.
He says, all things are yours. The world is. The world is yours. And you're Christ's, and Christ
is God's. God, our father, and his son
created everything. God created everything, and He
owns everything. And you that are born of the
Spirit are joint heirs with Christ. That means all is yours. The world is yours. Now, if you
were standing there, believer, and you're looking at a big estate,
a large estate, somebody owns it, big, large estate, and there's
the owner standing right there by you. And as you're standing
there looking at this estate, and I mean just wealth, just
untold wealth, and you're sitting there staring at it, and the
spirit of God moved you to think, my heavenly father created this. He produced this. And as you
beheld all the vast expanse and all the riches that this man
owned, you thought, of Christ's unsearchable riches, the unsearchable
riches you have in Christ, how he redeemed you, how he purchased
you with his blood, how he's provided you with free justification,
reconciliation with God, peace with God, promised he'll never
leave you, he'll never forsake you, and you're thinking on those
things because you see all these riches and they make you think
about Christ's riches. While the man that's standing
there that owns all this is thinking about how wise he is, and how
crafty he is, and how powerful he is to accumulate all this
wealth. That estate belongs to you far
more than it belongs to him. You got the benefit from it.
He's not getting anything from it, spiritual. You got the benefit
from it. Everything in this world is working
to that end for you who are His. Everything in this world, not
anything's left out. The world is yours who have been
taught of God not to prize the things of the world more highly
than we all. If we've been taught that, it's
because this world is ours. If He's taught us not to cherish
the things of the world more highly than we all. to hold very
loosely to all things of this world. You know, this is what
he teaches his children. You've seen buildings being erected,
and again, all the scaffolding on the outside of the building.
As it goes up, the scaffolding goes up. By the time they start
getting towards the top, they're just scaffolding all around this
building. This world and everything in
it is scaffolding. That's what it is. While the
Lord is using everything he's made to build his church. And
when he's built his church and called all his people in, the
scripture speaks of everything that can be shaken being shaken
and removed. It speaks of everything being
burnt with a fervent heat, everything being burnt up. And He's giving
His people a new heaven and a new earth, a brand new world that's
created by Christ's righteousness. So He's taught us, brethren,
to hold on to everything in this world very loosely. There is
one possession a believer is given that will never be taken
from you. There's just one. Christ Jesus. The one thing needful. The one
thing needful. And if you have him, you have
all. You have all. Well, he says here,
or life or death, both are yours, life or death, both are yours.
And you're Christ and Christ is God's. Why on earth is he
declaring this to them? Why is he, all these problems,
why does Paul start here? We gotta be humbled down to Christ's
feet. We've got to be made to see there's
no point in wrangling and fussing and trying to get, get, get,
because all things are yours. All things are yours, and the
Lord's providing for you. Christ is our life. He said life
is yours. Well, Christ is the life of His
people. John said, in 1 John 5, 11, this is the record. God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. He said, we know that the Son
of God has come and has given us an understanding that we might
know Him that is true, and we're in Him that is true, even in
His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Now if Christ is our eternal
life, If He's our eternal life, we know that our Heavenly Father,
who has provided His only begotten Son, He shall provide all things
for us in this life. He won't let His child go without
anything you need in this life. Not anything. He provided His
only begotten Son for His people. He won't let you go without anything
you need. Christ says to you, take no thought
for your life. Don't be anxious and envious
and full of strife and bitterness for your life over anything.
What shall you eat? Neither for the body, what shall
you put on? The life's more than meat and the body more than raiment. He said your Heavenly Father
knows you have need of all these things. And he said, seek you
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these
things shall be added to you. As we need whatever the need
is that the Father deems that we need, that's what He'll give
us. And we won't ever do without. But seek first Christ and His
righteousness. Remember what Paul said at the
beginning of the letter? In everything you are enriched by Him. been
enriched by Christ the life, been enriched by His righteousness,
been enriched by complete accomplished redemption, been enriched by
Him being your wisdom and Him being your righteousness and
Him being your sanctification. By all things you've been enriched
by Him. And He'll confirm you unto the
end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. There's only one way we're going to be blameless.
Only one way. And it won't be because of anything
we did. It'll be because Christ presents
you blameless by what He did. By what He did. Be found in Him. Blameless. Without spot. He's given you all things in
Christ. and He will confirm you into Him. This is the cure for
pride and self-wisdom that comes with anxious care. Isn't it so? When we become anxious over something
we think we're going to do without and we become proud and we become
self-wise and how are we going to achieve it? But if you know
your Father is providing for you, You don't have to be anxious
about anything. I mean, it can get down to where
it looks like you've got nothing. But you have this assurance,
He shall provide. He shall provide. And because
Christ is your life, therefore death is yours. Death is yours. Death is yours. Death doesn't
lord over God's child. Death serves God's child, just
like everything else he's saying here. It serves you. Ministering
to our good, just like everything else. How can that be? Christ said, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth on me, he that
liveth and believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
There is no death for the believer. Physical death, but that's not
really going to be death. Christ conquered death for His
people by putting away our sin and arising to the right hand
of the Father where we're seated with Him complete in Him. And
Paul said, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead doth
no more, death has no more dominion over Him. And because that's
so, death has no more dominion over you, believer. Not any.
Not any. Christ is risen as our advocate
with the Father, and every one of those He laid down His life
for are complete in Him. So we don't have to fear judgment
after death, and this is how we'll have boldness in the day
of judgment. Herein is our love made perfect
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as He is, so are we in this world. Complete in Him, righteous in
Him, accepted in Him, That's what gives you, folks are scared
of death because of the unknown, but we know what's next. Christ
said, I'm the resurrection and the life. Folks are afraid of
death because of judgment. Christ said, I settled judgment
for my people on the cross. You're complete in me. This is
what gives you boldness for the day of judgment. He's seated
there and there's where your life is with Christ and God.
What about the process of dying? makes us fearful too, the process
of dying. Scripture says, he giveth more
grace. He giveth more grace. Right now,
our great shepherd gives us grace to walk through this valley of
the shadow of death, right now, right now. He gives us more grace
right now. And when that time comes that
he's appointed, he'll give more grace. He'll bring you through
that when His rod and His staff will comfort you. Death is just
the sunset on a life of trouble for God's weary child. But it's
the dawning of a new eternal day when the Son of Righteousness
arises with healing in His rays. That's what death is for the
child of God. When we drop this body of death,
we pray to the Father all the time, Lord, give me strength
to mortify the flesh. Help me put off this body. Put
off this old man and put on the new man. And then time comes
to die, that's what he's doing. He's bringing you to put off
the old man completely. That's what he's doing. And it's
always a death when he does that for us in this life. It's always
a death of some kind when he works that for us in this life. But when you put off this body
of death, that's just gonna be, all that will be, brethren, for
the child of God, it'll be the dross purged from the silver. That's what it'll be. It'll be
dropping his dead sinful flesh and being raised in newness of
spirit with him. For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
I have some brethren right now who are hearing this word right
here, and this is comforting them. This is comforting them. It may not be comforting us sitting
here now, because we don't think we're, we don't, might not think
we're that close to death. Could be this evening, could
be on the way home. This is comforting though to
those that are facing it. comforting to them. Death is
yours, believer. It's yours. And things present and things
to come are yours, and your Christ and Christ is God. Things present
and things to come are yours, and your Christ and Christ is
God. God works everything in this
world. Everything. Everything that comes to pass,
He's working it. He's the first call. And he's
working all things together for the good of his people, for his
glory. That's exactly what he's doing.
Now you think about all things that he's working together. They're
trying to study stars way out in the galaxy. Those stars way
out in the galaxy, he's working those together for your good.
Things you can't even see. Things you don't even know about.
The stars and the moon and the times and the seasons. Everything. It snowed out there this morning
because God's working it together for the good of his people. Everything's
being worked together for the good of his people. Every king
and every kingdom is under the power of the sovereign king and
head of his church, Christ Jesus. Everything. This trouble over
there with Russia and Ukraine, God's working that for the good
of his people. Well, I don't see that, don't matter. Good
thing, probably. But he knows it and he's doing
it. And he's working it. From the tiny snowflake that's
falling out there to the greatest leader in the world and our greatest
enemy of our nation, he's working it all together for the good
of his people. Every bit of it. And if we're Christ, Christ has
reconciled us to God and we have peace with God in Christ Jesus,
then we have this assurance. All things present and all things
to come are ours. They're ours. Surely Paul didn't
say that to these people that were sinning so and were in such
trouble. Well, nothing about this sin
is good and don't sin and part from it. Nothing about it's good.
But here's why he's declaring this. God will use even your
sin to show you what a vile wretch you are and how you need him
and make you see him more clearly and his mercy and his grace and
his love and his long-suffering and his patience and his kindness
and his mercy to you for Christ's sake and he'll make you see your
brethren and love them more for it. I guarantee you there was
some who heard Paul preach this and they loved him. They were
thinking he's a false prophet and when they When the Lord blessed
this to their heart and humbled their heart, they said, I love
Paul more than I ever loved him. Because the Lord's working all
things present and all things to come. He is. I read a quote. It's John Newton, I believe.
And he said, I'm going to misquote this. I'm going to put it in
a bulletin. So if I misquote it, I'll put it in there next
week if I misquote it. But it's something to this effect.
The word, the English word disappointment is just another word for murmuring
against God. Something like that, something
to that effect. Or another word for unbelief,
something to that effect. And that's really what it is.
It's not believing that this right now in the present is the
will of God for me for his glory and for my good. Doesn't excuse
anything about me or anything about any sin or anybody else's. But it's not out of God's control.
He's working it. And He's going to bring good
out of it. He always does. Think about our life, brethren.
Think about we fell in Adam, the whole world's plunged into
sin. Just the wickedness and the foulness we are by nature. When we get to glory, we're going
to see God really did bring good out of it. Out of all of that,
he brought good out of it. It's so in everything you're
going through in this life. Bringing good out of it. What
about his poor children who are opposed and are possessed so
very little presently? What about those that don't have
much? If you were on a ship going across the sea, and you don't
have two pennies to rub together, but you know when you get on
the other side of that sea, You are in store for an inheritance
of all things, the greatest sum of wealth ever heard of. You'd be content riding that
ship across that ocean with two pennies, wouldn't you? That's
God's people. All things are yours. All things
are yours. Things present. and things to
come. The Spirit bears witness with
our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then
heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that
we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For
I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. Why is this so? Because you are
Christ's. You're Christ by God's grace,
by his gift of giving you to his son. That's so of all his
people. You're Christ by the purchase of Christ's blood. Therefore,
you're Christ's inheritance. God's child is his inheritance,
his portion. It says, the Lord's portion is
his people. And you know what that means?
Christ said, I'm not losing one. You are Christ and Christ is
God. Christ said, no man's going to pluck them out of my hand.
No man's going to pluck them out of my father's hand. I'm
my father one. That's what Paul's saying. You're
Christ and Christ is God's. So if things present are sorrowful
is to keep us rejoicing in Christ right now at this present time
and looking for Christ to come. If things present make us weak,
we just don't feel like we're going to be able to make it to
go on, it's to make us know presently Christ is our strength and He'll
be our strength tomorrow. This is so. If things present
make us into fools, it's to make us see Christ is our wisdom right
now and He'll be our wisdom tomorrow. May God bless His word to make
us well advised. What does that mean? It means
he humbles us at his feet. That was the whole problem. That
was the whole problem at Corinth. Paul said, you've not rather
mourned. The heart hadn't been broken, hadn't been humbled,
hadn't been brought down to Christ's feet. And he told them once that
had happened, he said, forget it. Restore one another. Go forward. It's to make us turn
from all vanity and sin and pride and walk after him in meekness
of wisdom. You can't do anything about your
sin of your past. You want Christ to bring it up?
You want God to bring it up? There's quite a bit he could
bring up. There's a lot he could bring
up that we don't even know about. And we don't even realize what
sin that we've done. He promises, I don't behold iniquity
in Israel. He says, I remember your sins
no more. How can that be? Because that's
how fully Christ really put them away. That's how fully He really
put them away. I just wish we could get this
truth. Sooner you're dead. You that believe Him, been born
of Him, you died over 2,000 years ago under the justice of God,
under the fierce fury of God's wrath. You suffered an eternity
of hell and three hours on the cross in Christ. And judgment
settled. Is it that real? Was our fallen
Adam real? Did we really become sinners?
Did we really become guilty? Or was God just treating us like
we were guilty? It was real. It's that real in
Christ. We died, and we arose, and we're
righteous in Him. That's certain. That's certain. You're not your own. You're bought
with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and your spirit, which are God's. Did Paul really say that
to these people who were in the midst of all this trouble and
this sin? Yeah. Yeah, because that's what
we need to be reminded. We belong to Christ. You are
Christ. He purchased you. You belong
to Him. And that's the word He'll bless
to strengthen you to do what He commands you to do. And may
He make us remember all this is true of our brethren. That
one that's overtaken in a fault, that's God's beloved child in
Christ. Remind them of these things and
pray for God to bless it to their heart, just like Paul was doing
for them. But they accused me of something.
They accused Paul of being a false preacher. So what? Learn to live. Listen, we learn
this from Christ. Now, if we do something that's
sinful and wrong, you're gonna get a reaction that's just, and
it's just so. We deserve it. And it's gonna
be God chasing us and teaching us through that. But also learn
this. Don't always try to base yourself and what you're doing
off of other people's reaction to you. What do you mean by that? Christ was perfect and men accused
him of everything they could think of and rejected him and
hated him and all he did was do good works. That's all he
did. It doesn't always mean people's
reaction is a good reaction. And if you live your life trying
to please other people, and that's what you're worried about, you're
going to be miserable. Absolutely miserable. Absolutely miserable. Paul said to them, it's a very
small thing to me that I'm judged of you. I judge not my own self. I'm not justified thereby, but
it's God that judges me. live in that present awareness
that you're His. And if you're roped in His righteousness
and He's working grace in your heart, whatever's in your heart
is only between you and God. Nobody else knows it anyway.
The rest of us are to love each other as brethren and not doubt
each other. Period. Period. Because what if we're
wrong? What if we doubt one that Christ
died for and we're wrong? Let us remember that one that
offended me is Christ and Christ is God. So let me bear their
burden and try to restore them to Christ. And let me remember
this. This is Christ's word to all
his people. He said the king in that last
day shall answer and he'll say unto them. He said that the goats
are going to say, when did we not do these things for your
people? That's the pride of the goats. We have always done what
was best for your people. The sheep are going to say, Lord,
when did we ever do these things you're talking about? That's the difference. Those
that are bringing forth good fruits never see themselves as
bringing forth good fruits. And those that are not never
see themselves doing anything but bringing forth good fruits.
It's the difference in God-given humility and the pride of the
flesh. But remember, the Lord's fan
is in His hand. He's able to separate the wheat
from the chaff, the precious from the vile in His church and
in you and me. Because there is precious and
vile in me and you. And He can keep them separated.
And He can keep the precious reigning over the vile. But let me remember this. Our
Lord said, the king shall answer and he'll say unto them in that
day, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one
of these, the least of these, my brethren, you have done it
unto me. You have done it unto me. Sadly,
you know, we have a tendency to think, when our brothers are
overtaken, we have a tendency to think that they're the least. You know, if they are a child
of God, they just gotta be the least. Don't you like how the
Lord said, verily I say unto you, who gave them a glass of
cool water, or who bore their burden, who restored them to
me, whatever you did for my sake, he says, inasmuch as you've done
it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me.
That's the ones to do it for, the least, the least. Let's go to the Lord. Father,
thank you for this word. Lord, we are so constantly in need of your
grace to us. And we do thank you, Lord, that
for Christ's sake you are gracious and merciful and kind to us. Lord, we have trouble with that.
We ask you to help us, give us meekness of wisdom, Lord,
make us fools in ourselves, wise only in Christ. Make us know
how real this Word is to Your people, how truly all things
are ours. And make us know that Christ
is ruling everything and the same One who laid down His life
for us is going to work what's best for us. Give us grace to
trust Him, believe Him, pray for one another and bear one
another's burdens. as we go through this life. Lord,
we need you and we pray for our brethren who are not with us,
that you would give each of your people a humble heart. Lord, to count you the greatest
and ourselves the least. Unite us and and bring us together, keep us
together. Lord, we ask it, we pray for
your mercy and grace and for all our brethren who are sick
and suffering and those who might be fearful of death or whatever
they're facing, Lord, we ask you just make these words effectual
in their heart. Forgive us, Lord, for not believing
you. How we do thank you, Father.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right, Brother Adam.