It very well may be the last
day that I ever preach the gospel to you from this pulpit. And I've tried from the first
day till now for that to be my heart when I stand here. Because
that could be the case every time I've ever stood here. I want that to be my heart when
I stand and preach. This might be the last time you
get to declare the gospel to them. I want to be like the old preacher
that said, I'll preach as a dying man to dying men. I hear folks
complain about how little they had in attendance, and I think
every one of those or a soul bound for eternity. Whether it's
a small number or a great number. The weight of knowing you're
responsible to preach the gospel in truth to eternity bound sinners. That's a weight. But I have confidence, not in
myself, but in our subject today. In Romans 16 verse 25, Paul says, Now to Him that is
of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching
of Jesus Christ. That's my confidence. God is
of power to establish you. He says there, according to the
revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world
began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the
prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made
known to all nations for the obedience of faith. To God only
wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. God only wise
is of power to establish sinners so that he gets all the glory. He gets all the glory. He is of power. He is of power. That's our subject, the power
to establish As sinners, we need to be established by God, don't
we? Because by nature, we're like Reuben. We're unstable as
water. We need to have our hearts established
because we're vain in our imagination. And the Scripture says, Paul
prayed to the Thessalonians and said, I pray to this sin that
he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before
God, even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with
all His saints. He's the only one that can establish
our hearts unblameable before Him. We need His Word to be established
in us. We can't establish His Word and
we believe the lies of men, we believe our own deceitful hearts,
We need His Word to be established in us. We need to be established
upon better promises than an old covenant of works. And He
alone can establish us. Psalm 119.38, the psalmist prayed,
Establish thy word unto thy servant who is devoted to thy fear. Turn
away my reproach which I fear. Don't you fear reproach? Doesn't
that weaken you? For thy judgments are good. Establish
your word in my heart. When it comes to good works,
who's going to get the glory for that? Paul said, Our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself and God, even our Father, who hath loved
us and given us an everlasting consolation and good hope through
grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every word and
work. There's only one way you're going
to do any good work, it's by the power of God. Establishing
you in the work he would have you to do. When it comes to evil,
who's going to establish us and keep us from evil? Paul said,
the Lord is faithful who shall establish you and keep you from
evil. What about the trials? What about
the trials? The God of all grace who has
called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you've
suffered a while, will make you perfect, establish you, strengthen
you, and settle you. You'll have to suffer. Maybe
like Joseph, you may have to be thrown in the pit. But Scripture
says when he was in the pit, the Lord was with him. You may
have to be sold into Egypt. Joseph probably didn't look at
that at the time and think, well, I'm being kept in this trial,
but Scripture said the Lord was with him. May have to be falsely
accused and be thrown in prison. The very next verse says, but
the Lord was with him. May have to suffer many, many
things, but in the end you're going to find out the enemy meant
it for good. The enemy meant it for evil,
but God meant it for good. He's going to keep His people
and establish you in every trial. God only wise is of power to
establish His children. Now to Him that is of power to
establish you. And then this is our gospel.
This is our message. He says there, now to him that
is of power to establish you according to my gospel. This
is my gospel. This is my gospel. The subject
matter of Paul's gospel was God only wise is of power to establish
sinners. Look to your right there and
go to 2 Corinthians 4 verse 7. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. We have this treasure God has
given us of His gospel in earthen vessels. This is the preacher
speaking. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. Why? Why is it in a helpless, worthless,
powerless clay pot? Why? That the power may be of
God and not of us. Look back at 1 Corinthians and
look at chapter 2. And listen to what Paul says. Verse 1, I, brethren, when I
came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom,
declaring to you the testimony of God. 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.
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Why? That your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. If you have
faith, if you're established by this gospel, God did it. Man didn't do it, God did it.
He's the only one that can do it. God works this work through
the gospel. He establishes us through the
gospel. Look there at at the first chapter
of 1 Corinthians. It's not a message of the sinner's
ability, it's a message about God's ability. It's not a message
about the sinner's work, it's about God's work. That's the
gospel we preach. God chose His people in power
before the world began. By His grace, that's His power
to do so. This is what men hate, God's
power to do with His own what He will. God came in human flesh
and in power He redeemed us from the curse of the law to Himself.
That's His power. It's His power to regenerate
us to life and irresistibly draw us to Christ and make us cast
our care on Him. That's His power to do. That's
our gospel. It's His power to keep you and
establish you. And who's doing this? The prophet,
priest, and king who's ascended on high to whom all power belongs
as the God-man. He's filling all in all. Whatever's
happening is happening right according to His purpose. He
ordained it from eternity by power and what's happening in
my life right now and in your life right now is exactly according
to His will. And it's right, because He did
it. The gospel turns us away from
us, from earthly things. It turns our minds away from
earthly things. And it turns us to Christ at
God's right hand. He shows you who it is that's
holding the reins. Who it is that's working the
works. Who it is that's reigning! And when He does that, you'll
stop trying to put your hand to the ark and steady it. He'll
put you in the dust and let you know He's got it. He's got it. He's got it. Let us therefore
as many as be perfect be thus minded and if anything you be
otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. He's the
only one. He's the only one who can do
it. I tell you, we'll go to Galatians
6. As many as desire, look at this. There's a lot of folks
trying to work works by their hand and conniving. But listen
to this. Verse 12, 6, 6, 12. As many as
desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you
to be circumcised or whatever it is they think you ought to
be doing. Why on earth would they do that? Lest they should
suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves
who are circumcised keep the law." They're not doing what
they're trying to constrain you to do. Paul was clear on that
in Romans 2. Whatever we're judging and condemning,
we condemn it ourselves. We do the same thing. They are doing it that they may
glory in your flesh. But look at this, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is saying God forbid that I should look to any power but
the preaching of the cross of Christ and Him crucified. God
forbid I resort to any other means but the preaching of Christ
and Him crucified. By whom the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision. It's not what you're doing or
not doing that saves you. It's not what we're doing or
not doing that's going to make us accepted of God. It's not
what we're doing or not doing by which we're going to be kept.
How are we going to be kept? He's got to make us a new creation.
It's from the inside out. It's from the inside out. And as many as walk according
to this rule. Peace be on them and mercy upon
the Israel of God. The gospel is Jesus Christ. The gospel is Jesus Christ. Our
text says, Now to him that is power to establish you according
to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. Now go to 1
Corinthians 1. Look here in verse 18. It's the
power to establish you. This is the gospel. It's the
preaching of Jesus Christ. The preaching of the cross, verse
18, the preaching of the cross, the preaching of Christ is to
them that perish foolishness. You can preach Christ but not
all the time and not only Christ. I better preach Christ only and
all the time or I'm a false prophet. People that say that, the message
is foolishness to them. But unto us which are saved is
the power of God. You know that, don't you? You experience that in your heart.
This is the power of God. Look down at verse 22. The Jews
require a sign, an outward sign. Bring forth some fruits, meet
for repentance. Do you think those scribes and
those Pharisees had outward immorality? You reckon? You reckon they had
outward fruits that most men are talking about? What didn't
they have? They hated Christ. They didn't
bow to Christ. They didn't have faith to submit
it all to Christ and follow Him with a love for Him constrained
by His love for them. That's what they didn't have. The religious world wants a sign.
Give us a sign. Give us a sign. Tell you what's
going to happen. The man that wants a sign, he's
going to make sure that sign, the bar for that sign is lower
than where he thinks he's at. He'll make sure he reaches that
bar and other people don't. What's the bar? Jesus Christ. The gate's as narrow as Jesus
Christ. You've got to have the righteousness
of Christ and the holiness of Christ and be trusting Christ
alone or you can't enter in. The Greeks seek after wisdom.
The Gnostics, they want superior knowledge. This is based on how
much knowledge you got. You're going to be saved by knowledge,
there's no doubt about it, but don't ever put knowledge between
a sinner and Christ. We know whom we have believed. He said, if you believe me, you'll
understand the doctrine. We've got to be brought to bow
to God first. We've got to be brought to bow
to Christ first. We've got to be brought to deny
ourselves first. Then you'll understand all the
doctrine. Verse 23, But we preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block. And it's on purpose. God
said, I'm going to make Him a stumbling block to them. I'm going to trip
them up with Him. That's what God said through Isaiah. And
unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Christ Jesus, the Son of God,
is the power of God. He's the wisdom of God. He's
the power that established the law and the prophets. He's the
power that gave the law and the prophets. And He's the power
that established the law and the prophets in perfection. You and I couldn't do that. He's
the power to establish His people in perfection. That was Clint Curtis walking
that earth. That was Cyril Reynolds walking
that earth when he walked this earth. He was representing His
people. God saw Him in the place of His
people. And He established His people
in perfection. He's a power to keep us and preserve
us unto the day of glory. He keeps the glory of God in
your heart. He keeps the glory of God in
your heart. You can't mortify one sin until He comes and in
power He makes you behold the glory of God. That's when you'll
hate your flesh. He never stops doing it. Power to change our vile bodies
like unto His glorious body. power to present each and every
one of His church to the Father spotless and without blame. He's
the power. He's the power. So that according
as it's written, He did glory, let Him glory in the Lord. And
He establishes us through the power of divine revelation. Divine revelation. That's the
power. He only has power to reveal Himself
in us. Look, our text says, To him that
is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the
preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery,
the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the
world began, but is now made manifest. The gospel is a mystery. Romans 1.16 says this, Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the Gospel. I preach the Gospel, and if you've
experienced this revelation, you won't be ashamed of it. Listen,
verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. How are we made to believe?
Because therein, in this Gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed. It has to be revealed. Christ has to reveal Himself
in our hearts to make us see He's the righteousness of God. I listened to a man preach for
40 minutes of the night on what righteousness is. And to that
man it was a doctrine. It was not Christ. He makes you,
He reveals to you He's righteousness. He's your righteousness. It's
from faith, from the faithful one to the faith He gives in
the heart. And He alone can reveal it. And from then on, the justified
sinner, justified by Christ in His blood, lives by faith in
Him. Trust in Him. The righteousness of God is a
mystery. We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. And it's
hidden. The hidden wisdom. It's hidden.
God hid it. God ordained it before the world
unto our glory. If you know the mystery, it's
because God ordained for it to be revealed to you. Because it's
hidden from the rest of the world. Do you realize that you... I'll
give you a hundred dollars for every message you can bring me
from this world's religion that preaches on the righteousness
of Christ. And how that God is just and
the justifier of his people. I'll keep my money. They don't
preach it. Because it's got to be revealed.
It's got to be revealed. God hath revealed it to us by
His Spirit. He's made known to us the mystery
of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed
in Himself. God purposed that in the dispensation
of the fullness of time, when the time is no more, He's going
to gather all His people that are already in heaven and all
His people that are in earth in one in Christ and He's going
to get all the glory. And that's the mystery. Not unto
us, not unto us, but unto Christ be the glory. That's the mystery.
This is the mystery that's been hidden from ages, Paul said,
from generations, but now is made manifest to the saints. This is how you're made a saint,
by this revelation. to whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. Do you know what it is? Do you
know what this mystery is? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ is the mystery. Our Lord, look at Matthew 11.
Our Lord thanked God for this. Matthew 11, verse 25, He was surrounded by
people It didn't matter what he preached, how he preached,
they weren't going to hear him. But listen to what he said. Matthew
11.25, At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent. Somebody read it the other night,
seeing they shall see and they'll just be blinded. Men that think
they can see, and don't think they need God to give them sight,
remain in their blindness. Men that think they can hear,
and don't need God to make them hear, remain in their deafness. Because God has ordained to hide
it from the wise and prudent. Who does He reveal it to? And
you have revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight." He makes you a baby, don't He? He makes
you like a little child to just listen to God and say, God said
it, it's so. He makes every elect, redeemed
child know this Gospel in our hearts, no matter what nation
they're in. No matter where they are in this world, He's going
to make them know it. He's going to send them this Gospel and make them know
it. Our text says, according to the commandment of the everlasting
God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. It
is made known to His elect alone in all nations. To His elect
alone in all nations. To those Christ bought with His
blood in all nations. You know the prophets when they
spoke, they spoke by the commandment of God. He says in our text,
The prophets spoke according to the commandment of the everlasting
God. They spoke what God commanded.
When God commands, a man will write and speak what God commands.
And that's what they did. And the scripture says, I want
you to see this, 1 Peter 1, I want you to get this. They were speaking
what God gave, And so were the apostles, and they gave us these
scriptures. And now, by the same power that made them write these
scriptures, the Gospels preach to us, and that's how we're made
to believe. Look here, 1 Peter 1.11, he's
speaking here of the prophets, and he says, They searched what
or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify, when it tested beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. They wrote and they spoke and
they searched out what God gave them, what He revealed to them,
what He made them write. Now drop down and look at verse
12. I want you to see the second
part there. It says, These things are now
reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto
you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. You see that?
The same Holy Spirit that made the Old Testament prophets and
the apostles write what they wrote and write these scriptures
for us, it takes the same power of the Holy Spirit of God to
enter into a man and make him preach this truth to you right
where you see it. And the same power to make you
believe it. Who gets the glory? Who gets
the glory for the scriptures? God does. Who gets the glory
for the gospel going forth? God does. Who gets the glory
for the believer that hears it and bows and worships Christ?
God does. Well, knowing that, do you think
he's of power to send this gospel to one of his children in some
foreign land? Of course he is. Wherever they
are, He's going to send them in all the nations and they're
going to hear this gospel. And He's going to speak in power
and He's going to bring them to bow and He's going to bring
them to His feet. And He's going to bring them to the obedience
of faith. What is that? John chapter 6. Men were clamoring, trying to
find something they could do, and what can we do, and what
should we do? Verse 28, Then said they unto
him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God,
that you believe on Him whom He has sent. The obedience of
faith is obedience to Christ. is to come to Christ and bow
to Christ and trust Christ for everything. And so we preach
this gospel. We preach it. Through the gospel,
Paul said, we walk in the flesh but we don't go after the flesh.
We're not using our flesh and our fleshly ingenuity and different
means and methods to try to get men to be obedient. We don't
use that. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're
mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. You know
what strongholds are? All men's vain refuges. We all have plenty. Even today, as believers, we
have refuges. And God has to, He keeps on through
this gospel, stripping them away, stripping them away, stripping
them away. It's how we're called out of darkness in the first
hour. It's how we're called to Christ out of the trial. It's
how we're made to repent the first hour. It's how we continue
to be made to repent. He's bringing down all your strongholds. And what happens? He said He
cast down imaginations. and every high thing that exalts
itself against God. That's me and you he's talking
about. He brings us down. Because when we're not trusting
Christ alone, and walking in Christ alone, and resting in
Christ alone, and being obedient to Christ alone, and trying to
honor and glorify Christ alone, we're the high thing that has
to be brought down. And He says He brings you down
and we are exalting ourselves against the knowledge of God
and He brings you into captivity. He brings every thought to the
obedience of Christ. He brings you to see Christ's
obedience as being the only obedience that is going to make you righteous
before God. And when He makes you see Him
in every hour from first to last, you are going to bow to Him. You'll bow to Him. And you know
what He does when He does that? He says, and you'll have inner
radiance. You'll be ready then. to revenge
all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. You'll take revenge
on your own self. You'll take revenge on your own
flesh, on your own sin, and abhor it, and mortify it, and kill
it, and look to Christ, and follow Christ. But Abel, one way you
can do that And any man that says he has power to mortify
his flesh is a liar against God. That's a high thing, exalting
himself against God, that has to be brought down and brought
to the obedience of Christ to take revenge on himself for that. If you could mortify your flesh
by yourself, why don't you just never sin again? Why don't you
just stop all your sin right now? If you stopped any sin, you didn't
do it. He made you do it. You believe that? If we don't
believe that, we don't believe God. We believe Christ is the wisdom
of God. When He's worked this, you believe
Christ is the wisdom of God and you stop leaning to your own
wisdom. When He brought you to this place,
you believe Christ is your holiness and you stop looking to some
pretended holiness in self. You believe He's your holiness
at God's right hand and He's the holiness working in you that
made you abhor and see that you had a lie in your right hand. When He's worked this and brought
you to the obedience of Christ, He makes you believe Christ is
your only righteousness and you cease looking to yourself and
others and decisions and whatever else, and you look to Christ
only. When He's brought you to this
place, you believe Christ has fully redeemed you from the curse
of the law and He set you free to worship and serve Him. And I don't mean just He did
that on the cross. I mean when He works this in
our heart and establishes us, in that hour He brings you to
see your sin and brings you to see the trial was sent to you
to make you see your nothing and see Christ and turn you back
to Christ from whom you had turned. When He brings you to that place, He makes you to realize in truth
like you've never realized it before, If you're led of the
Spirit, you're not under the law anymore. You know how you
know that? Because the law didn't bring
me to this place. The law didn't make me hate myself.
The law didn't make me abhor what I am. The law wouldn't turn
me from this sin right now. You know who did it? Christ came
and He worked it in my heart. He's leading me. Moses is not
leading me. Christ is leading me. He'll break your bones if He
has to, to show you you can't run out ahead of Him and you
can't run away from Him, you're going to have to follow Him.
There's an old story about the shepherd that when they would
have a sheep that would run off, I guess a little lamb, I don't
reckon it was too big, because they say they would take the
little lamb and they would pop his shoulder out of joint, painful,
and they would carry that lamb for a while, the shepherd would. and pop him back in joint, and
set the little lamb down, and the little lamb just followed
the shepherd. Quit running off. That's what He does to us. He'll
break your bones, and when He's done in the midst of your crowd
like David's, and Lord, heal the bones that you've broken.
And when He's finished, you'll say, it was good for me that
I was afflicted, that I might learn to follow my Lord. And
you learn from that. You learn right then, I'm the
lead of the Spirit. He's leading me. He's the one
doing it. It's not law. It's not flesh. That's how Paul was trying to
save the brethren at Galatians from accusing and excusing one
another until they bit and devoured one another and just split the
church wide open. He said, if you're lead of the
Spirit, you're not under the law. And I'll tell you who, there
was some in Galatia that learned that. You know who did? The ones
led of the Spirit. The other ones, Paul's word fell
on deaf ears. And they did what was in the
lust of their heart to do until God removed them. That's how
it works. Just how it always works. And
He shows us by that, you're led of the Spirit. And you know what?
When He brought you to this good work of trusting Christ and looking
to Christ only and hating yourself and seeing what you are and just
mourning the fact you ever looked to yourself, He brings you to
do what we're going to do in glory for all eternity. Our text
says, verse 27, He brings you to cry out, to God only wise,
be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. And that's amen,
brethren. He gets the glory. Father, we
thank You for this Word. We pray now You would bless it. Make good on all these promises
of the gospel that you've shown us. Lord, we need you. We need you to lead us. Make
us see Christ and see He is the power of salvation. Lord, you
do this. We'll stop accusing. We'll stop
pointing the finger. We'll stop listening to those
who do. We'll look to Christ. There'll be peace in our hearts,
there'll be unity, there'll be rejoicing. And Lord, we have
the confidence of knowing that's what you're going to do. That
is exactly what you're going to do in your people. Lord, lead with us, be with your
church everywhere. You're chasing hands upon your
church today. You're purging your church, you're
humbling your people. And Lord, establish us in power. Make us look to Christ. Seek
those things which are above and quit looking at earthly things.
Bring us to Yourself. Lord, come quickly. We need You. We need You. Forgive us our sins. Forgive
us for being arrogant, little, mighty,
self-exhausted maggots, trying to stand up to a mountain that's
God. Save us, Lord, in Christ's name
and by His power. Amen.