2 Corinthians 13. Now many at Corinth were examining
Paul and they were seeking a proof of Christ speaking in Paul. You know, these false apostles
had given them reason to doubt. And so now they began to examine
Paul and they were trying to find a proof that Christ was
speaking in Paul. He said there in verse 3, you
seek a proof of Christ speaking in me which towards you is not
weak but is mighty. And Paul says, if you want proof
that Christ is speaking in me, you want proof He is speaking
mightily through me, through my preaching. He says in verse
5, examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Prove your
own selves. The real test that Christ is
working mightily in His preacher is by examining ourselves to
see whether or not through that preaching Christ has called us
into the faith and continues to feed us and teach us and correct
us in our hearts through the gospel. He calls you and He gives
you a real living union with Christ. It's not the fake thing
that you get in religion. It's a true living union that
you have with Christ. Now, all through the first and
second epistles of Corinthians, Paul's been declaring that God
saves through preaching. Because this was one of the key
mistakes they were making at Corinth. They were turning from
Christ's true preachers, preaching the gospel. and putting trust
in men, and some of them were even saying they were saved of
Christ. They were saved without ever
hearing the gospel. And Paul declares throughout
these two epistles, that's wrong. That's wrong. You're not saved
by men. You're not saved without hearing the gospel. Through the
preaching of the gospel, Christ is formed in His people and God
calls us into faith. This is God's Word. This is God's
Word. Now first, I want you to note
in verse 5, He says, examine yourselves, prove your own selves. No man can examine and prove
you but you. And no man can examine me and
prove me but me. Scripture says, what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him?
I only know what's in me, you only know what's in you. And
then as I examine myself, I'm to be honest with myself. Be
honest. I'm not in the faith. If I'm
not in the faith, now's the time to repent and cast my care on
Christ. I don't want to wait till I face
death and judgment. Now's the time. So be honest. And then also, if I examine myself
and find that I've got control over my sin, and I'm getting
more and more holy by my works, and I'm just a whole lot better
than I used to be. You've missed it. You're not
in the faith. Because that's not what we're
looking for. We examine ourselves by God's Word, and we see how
God saves, where He brings us. And we're not looking for those
kinds of things. We're looking for Christ, how
God saved. Now if I'm troubled when I examine
myself and begin to think, to see I'm not, maybe I'm not in
the faith. If I'm troubled and I become
truly, truly troubled in my heart, I need to consider this may just
be God chastening me. Listen to this, Paul said in
1 Corinthians 11 31, if we would judge ourselves, we should not
be judged. But, when we are judged, we are
chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with
the world. That's a great blessing. It's
a great blessing that God is not going to allow His children
to perish. So if I get troubled, and that
goes for any message I hear, if I'm troubled by that message,
you know, rather than shoot the messenger, I need to consider
this may be a reason to rejoice. This may be God chastening me
to turn me and save me so that I don't perish with the world. That's a great blessing, brethren.
So as painful as the chastening may be, It's for my good. And then one last thing on this
first point. Some insist that a believer cannot
know with assurance that he's in the faith until he meets God.
Some think that you can't know for certain until you meet God.
The Spirit of God would not tell us to examine ourselves whether
we'd be in the faith if it was not possible to know. He wouldn't
tell us that. In fact, John 14, 20, Christ
said, At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and ye
in me, and I in you. You shall know. 1 John 2, 3,
Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. And this is His commandment,
that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another. That's the commandment. Believe
on His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave His
commandment. And he that keepeth His commandments
dwelleth in Him, and He in Him. And hereby we know that He abideth
in us by the Spirit which He hath given us. See, being in
the faith and having Christ in you is to believe only on Christ,
apart from any work you've ever done or will do. It's to believe
on Christ. And it's to have a true, genuine,
hearty love in your heart for your brethren. That's what it
is to be in the faith. So yes, believers are made to
know if they are in the faith. God makes us to know it. Let's talk about what it is to
be in the faith. Now we know we're in the faith
by God's Word. That's how we know. Here is the
touchstone is God's Word. And when He declares here how
He makes His child to be in the faith, who He brings His child
to, how He does it, this is how we know we're in the faith. Now
hold your place here in 2 Corinthians 13 and go back with me to 1 Corinthians
and let's look at chapter 1. Now what I'm going to say this
morning, for some this is going to be review if you heard the
midweek services over the past couple of weeks. But I want to
repeat this because it's very important. And so some of this
will be review for you, but those at Corinth, now you know they
were saying, you know, I'm of this man, some were saying I'm
of this other man, and some were saying I'm of Christ, meaning
they didn't hear the gospel through a man at all. And so Paul is
declaring right here and through these epistles that that's not
so. That's not so. And he tells here
how God saves. He gives us three things. by
which He calls us into faith. There are three things listed
here. All right, number one, God uses preaching. He uses preaching. Now to the
man that perishes, that's foolishness. The man that's perishing, that
is foolishness. He thinks it's unnecessary. Now
look at verse 18. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness. But out of us which are saved,
it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. And he says, where? That is,
where in Christ's church is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the... in Christ...
among Christ's people, where is the independent searcher of
Scripture? that searched out and found out
Christ on His own. Where is He among God's people?
Where is the disputer? Where is the debater of this
world? In Christ's church, had not God made foolish the wisdom
of this world? Hadn't He made you to see how
foolish this world's wisdom is? Yes, He has. In our hearts, this
is what He's done. He's brought our wisdom and our
prudence to nothing. Verse 21, for after that in the
wisdom of God, how did He do this? After that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Now that's
the context of our passage in 2 Corinthians 13. The reason
Paul is saying examine yourselves is because God saves through
preaching. Christ speaks mightily through
His preacher and He saves through preaching. Hold your place now
here in 1 Corinthians 1 and go back to 2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians 3. Let me show you. This is what
Paul is saying in our text. This is what he is saying in
that verse we just read in 1 Corinthians 1. 2 Corinthians 3, 1. Do we
begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, as some others, epistles
of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye
are our epistle. written in your hearts, in our
hearts, known and read of all men. For as much as you are manifestly
declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, that
is through preaching, written not with ink, but with the Spirit
of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables
of the heart. And such trust have we through
Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves,
to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. Paul says God's pleased to save
through preaching. And he says here, that's why
I don't need a letter of commendation. If God has saved you through
my preaching and made you the epistle of Christ and the Spirit
of God has written the gospel on your heart, you know, you
know that Christ has sent me. You know it. So let me examine
myself. And here is the first thing.
Did Christ call me into the faith through the preaching of the
gospel? God's very purpose in saving through the preaching
of the gospel is to, in His child, destroy our understanding and
our prudence. It is to take us and make us
cease being self-scribes. That's the purpose. I was scribed
as a searcher of Scripture. It's to make us cease that. And
if God has destroyed that in me, and Christ has become my
wisdom, you know what I'll do? I'll bow to this Word of God.
I won't bow to my experience. If I won't bow to God's Word,
I'm holding on to an experience. I'll bow to God's Word. And I'll
say, you have brought me unto this Gospel, and this is how
you saved me. That's how He saved me. And I
want you to understand this now. To be in the faith is not a mere
feeling of the heart. It's not an assent of the intellect. It's not something, just a mere
feeling you have, and it's not just giving mental assent to
a system of doctrine. That is not faith. The flesh
can do that. The flesh can do that. To be
in the faith is to be called God's way. And it's for God to
form Christ in you and give you a true living union with Christ. And to give you a true heart
love for your brethren constrained by the love of Christ. I can't really explain to you
what that is. You just know it when you got
it. But it's not just a feeling and it's not just mental assent
to doctrine. It's to know Christ is all you
hope. and to rely entirely upon Him. Now, let's go back to 1 Corinthians
1. And this is so, brethren. When you're
born of God through preaching, you have the unction of the Holy
Spirit so that you know all things are in Christ. Salvation is all
in Christ. So when you're born there, you
can't stand hearing lies anymore because that blasphemes God.
And Scripture says those born of the Spirit of God can't call
Jesus accursed. You can't do it. And you can't
sit under messages that's calling Him accursed. And this goes along
with our second point here. Number two, God calls His child
into the faith using only the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. He uses preaching, but it's not
just any preaching. It's the preaching only of Christ
and Him crucified in spirit and in truth. Go back there now,
1 Corinthians 1.22. For the Jews require a sign and
the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block,
unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called,
called into the faith. both Greeks and Jews. No matter
who you are, when you are called by God into the faith, Christ
becomes the power of God and the wisdom of God. We cease looking
to our power, we cease looking to our wisdom and our searching. Now we know Christ is the power
who called me. Christ is the wisdom who gave
me the mind of Christ. Christ is. Christ destroys our
wisdom. He gives us the mind of Christ.
He becomes our wisdom. And it's not through preaching
that blasphemes His name. It's not through preaching that
tells you God's done all He can do, now it's up to you to do
the rest. It's not preaching that says justification is through
faith in Christ alone, but now sanctification is by co-effort
between you and Christ. No. That's blasphemy in God's
name. That's taking glory that belongs
to Christ. He does this work through the preaching of the
truth in spirit and in truth. Turn with me to Isaiah 52. This
is the word of the Lord Himself. And I want you to see what He
said. Isaiah 52. Listen to this. Verse 5. Isaiah 52, 5. Now therefore, what have I here,
saith the Lord, that my people is taken away for naught? They
that rule over them make them to howl, saith the Lord, and
my name continually every day is blasphemed." Some of you were
in that. Some of you were in preaching
just like that. But look what Christ says He's
going to do. Therefore My people shall know My name. Therefore
they shall know in that day that I am He that doth speak. Behold,
it is I. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publishes salvation,
that preaches the gospel of Christ in truth and says, Thy God reigneth. Thy watchman shall lift up the
voice. He's talking about Christ's watchman.
They shall lift up the voice with the voice together. That
means together with Christ's voice. That's how you're going
to hear as the gospel is going forward. You're hearing the words
of a man, but it comes then together with Christ's voice and He makes
it effectual in the heart. Not an audible voice. It's a
voice of the Spirit that teaches you this is true. This is true. And you have it, you know, your
conscience is saying, this is so. Because Christ is speaking
in your conscience. And that's together with His
preacher. And that means also all His preachers
are going to be in agreement. We only have one gospel, we are
born of one Spirit, so we are going to preach one message.
Look here. They shall sing, they shall see
eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. When did the
Lord bring again Zion? That's when Christ arose and
God gave Him all power in heaven and earth as the God-man to be
the head of the church, to walk amongst the candlesticks. and
to teach us. Christ is saying, He said, here
you got these people that are my people scattered about and
they're in these churches where they're whipping them and making
them to howl and they're in these churches where they're blaspheming
my name. And He says, I'm going to send my preacher with my gospel
and they're going to know it's me that's speaking. And I'm going
to bring them out. And they're going to hear this
gospel and delight in it. And I'm going to free them from
that. That's what Christ declares. Christ said, I will give you
pastors according to mine heart which shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding. Christ is giving them. Do you
think Christ gives a preacher who is a false preacher? Christ
is giving them. Do you think Christ gives a preacher
who is not after his heart? Christ is giving them. Do you
think He's going to give a preacher which shall feed you with lies?
No. He's giving the preacher that
feeds you with knowledge and understanding. Hereby, this is
why John said you can test a preacher. You can test a preacher as well
as examining yourself. Here's why John said it. He said,
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth,
that is, every preacher that publicly preaches everything
there is to preach concerning Christ. That he's the one who
God elected and elected a people in him. That he came and redeemed
a particular people, his elect, limited atonement he made by
his blood. That he's the head who's working
to send his preacher and call out his people. That he's coming
again to judge this world in righteousness. He, he, he, he
preached in truth. Every preacher that confesses
publicly, not ashamed, that Christ has come, the Son of God, that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that preacher is of God. And every spirit that confesseth
not. That preacher who will tell you
in private these things, but when he gets up to preach, he
won't preach them. He'll put a work in the hand of the people.
He'll take out the offense of the gospel. He says, that preacher
is the spirit of antichrist. whereof you've heard that it
should come, and even now already is it in the world. So let me
examine myself. If a preacher's message is so
anti-Christ that I departed from it because I can't sit under
it any longer, I need to make a true examination. Did Christ send that preaching?
Christ says He doesn't save through lies. He says He saves through
the truth. Christ saved me by sending me
the truth. That's what made me hate that message. That's what
made me come out of that message. He sent me a preacher preaching
the truth. And He saved me. Now, let me
say this because I was presented with this question when I was
in California. A preacher can later be found out to be a reprobate
and preach lies. But when Christ is using him,
he will preach the truth. He will be preaching the truth.
So you understand, a man may fall away later, but when Christ
is using him, he's going to preach the truth. That's the man Christ
sends. Now three, here's the third way
to prove if I'm in the faith. God calls His child into the
faith using a man who has no sufficiency in himself. Look
at verse 26, 1 Corinthians 1.26, For you see your calling, brethren,
look around you, he's saying, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. There's
a few. Paul was one, but even them,
in them, they're made to know they don't have any sufficiency
in themselves. They have no sufficiency to make
anybody believe this gospel in themselves. None at all. Look
at this. Why did God choose men like he
did? God has chosen the foolish things
of the world. to confound the wise. God has chosen men who are nothing
to confound the wise. God hath chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty, base
things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen,
yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things that
are. Paul said the preacher Christ
Jesus knows that he has no sufficiency in himself, but that all his
sufficiency is of God. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13
verse 4, ìThough Christ was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth
by the power of God.î And he said, ìWe also shall live with
Christ by the power of God.î We are weak also in Christ, but
we are going to live by the power of Christ towards you. And what
he is saying there is, just like Christ was crucified through
weakness, And God was his power and his strength. He's saying,
so we're weak and have no sufficiency. The preacher has no sufficiency
in himself. But all his sufficiency is Christ
his strength. That's his only sufficiency.
He gives him the strength. And you know what that does when
Christ gives you this strength? Hold your place here in 1 Corinthians.
Go to 2 Corinthians 4. I'll show you what it does for
God's preacher. It does the same thing in the preacher as it does
in the people. Look at this, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 1. Paul says, therefore seeing we
have this ministry, as we have received mercy, he's saying in
the way we received mercy, that is by the power of Christ, sending
this Gospel to us and preaching the Gospel in our heart. You
remember, Christ called Paul on the road to Damascus and arrested
him and put him in the dust. But then Christ sent Ananias,
a man, to Paul. And Paul was laying flat on his
back and he sent a man to Paul. And Christ spoke to that man
and said, Arise and be baptized. And he told him all the things
Christ was going to do with him. He told him how he was the elect
of Christ and showed him the salvation that's in Christ. And
he taught him the gospel. And that's why Paul said, I was
called not of a man, I was called by Christ. And that's true of
every one of you, brethren. Though it was a man preaching,
this is the way we receive mercy. Christ in power called us through
this Gospel. We know the sufficiencies of
Christ. What does that make a man do? Look at verse 2. We've renounced the hidden things
of dishonesty. not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth. The truth. Commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God. We are preaching
and saying, you examine yourself. Is Christ speaking in you? We
commend ourselves to every man's conscience. Is Christ speaking
in your inner man? But if our gospel be hid, if
there's anybody that this is hid from, they don't believe
this, it's hid to them that are lost. That's just plain and simple. Because this is what the power
of God, power of Christ accomplishes. Them that this is hid from, they're
those that are described over in Timothy when Paul said they
have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. Christ is the power. It works. He's the sufficiency that calls
His people. So that's why we preach only
Christ and Him crucified. Because He's the power that comes
and calls out His people. The reason God uses this means,
brethren, is so that we're brought to no longer glory in our flesh
in what we did. And we glory only in the Lord.
Now look at this, 1 Corinthians 1.29. He's in God uses these three
means that we've seen. He uses preaching, preaching
of Christ crucified, and he uses a man who has no sufficiency
in himself, knows his sufficiency is Christ. Watch this, and here's
why he does it. Verse 29, that no flesh should
glory in his presence. Now here's what it is to be in
the faith. Verse 30, but of God, 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. You see, this means it's pleasing
to God because it gives Christ all the glory. All the glory. As our prophet, priest, and king.
Think about what's done through preaching. Every one of those
offices is glorified in Christ. As the prophet, Christ is the
one who teaches us affectionately in our heart. That's what the
prophet is, a teacher. And he teaches us in our heart
affectionately. And that glorifies Christ the prophet. Christ is
our High Priest and He is glorified in preaching that is Christ in
Him crucified. We preach Christ in Him crucified.
We preach our great High Priest. He is the subject of our message.
So He is our righteousness who has made God and His people one
through His blood. So that glorifies Him as our
High Priest. And then Christ is our King.
You know what a king is? A king is sovereign. A king has
all power over his kingdom. And Christ the King is glorified
through this manner of preaching because He is not failing to
bring His gospel to everybody He is going to save. And to call
them out of darkness and call them into the faith. He is not
going to fail. He is all powerful to do it.
He's all powerful to do it. I've told you this before. I
have relatives that don't believe a man has to hear the gospel
to be saved. And they always throw up this argument, what
if a man's on a deserted island? Well, God tells us clearly. He
landed Paul on a deserted island. He sent a hurricane, landed him
on a deserted island. That's what He'll do. What if
a man's in the middle of the desert? He'll send a Philip down
there to him and ask him, do you know what you're reading?
And he'll preach the gospel to him. Even the first believer,
Abraham, you know what Galatians says? God preached the gospel
to him. I don't know how, I don't know
who he sent, he don't tell us, but he did preach the gospel
to him. God saves through preaching.
He saves through the preaching of the Word, for else it glorifies
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that means the man who's
glorying and the man who claims to be saved another way, he's
glorying in himself at whatever point that other way is. Whatever the point is that he
disagrees with God on and says, I was saved another way, that's
the point of his rebellion. Let me show you an example. If
a man says, If a man says, I wasn't saved through the preaching of
Christ and Him crucified, I wasn't saved through the message you
preach. I was saved through the message that declares Christ
died for everybody. And that Christ will give you
faith if you... Christ's blood is effectual if
you believe on Him by your will. You know what that man's glory
in? His works. His will and his works. His point
of rebellion is he wasn't saved through Christ and Him crucified.
The man who tells you he was saved by walking an aisle and
praying through and all that. He's been made holy by the man
who preached law to him and mortified his flesh by the law. You know
what he's glorying in? The man who had outward credentials
and used high pressure tactics and all these things. You know
what that man's glorying in? He's glorying in outward appearance.
He's glorying in his own power. rather than the sufficiency of
Christ. And the man who says he was saved
apart from hearing Christ preached at all, apart from preaching
at all, that man is glorying in his own wisdom, in his own
searching. And he is just as guilty as the
man who is glorying in his works and saying, I believe Christ
died for everybody. Just as guilty. Only the man who confesses he
was saved by God's way, by God's power in Christ, through a man
with no sufficiency, a man who was trusting Christ to call him,
that man glories only in the Lord. That's a man who is in
the faith. So lastly now, let's sum up what
it is to be in the faith. First of all, to be in the faith
is to have nothing about myself to glory in. Absolutely nothing. He said that no flesh shall glory
in His presence. That's why He saves this way.
To be in the faith is to be in Christ by God. By His electing power and grace
is to be in Christ, by God choosing me. He said, of God are you in
Christ. To be in the faith is for God
through the preaching of the gospel to make Christ my all. He makes Christ wisdom rather
than my own experience and my own understanding and my own
prudence being my wisdom. He makes Christ my wisdom. Christ
is my justification given freely through faith rather than any
works I've done. He makes Christ my holiness.
And that holiness was given me through the hearing of faith.
Not through the hearing of Christ's faith. Not through the hearing
of works that I must do. Christ was formed in me through
the hearing of faith and He became my holiness, my sanctifier and
my sanctification. So that I'm holy now. I'm fit
to enter into glory. I have the holiness without which
no man shall see God. I have Christ formed in me. The
hope of glory. He's my all in holiness. And
then we have Christ as my full redemption from the curse of
the law. I'm not trying to get free of the law anymore. I've
been set free from it. The law can't say a word to me
anymore. The law says I'm as holy and
righteous as God is holy and righteous. To be in the faith
is truly to believe and rest from all my works, glorying only
in the Lord for all salvation. And to be in the faith is to
genuinely lay down my life in love for my brethren from the
heart constrained by Christ's love for me. To be in the faith is to confess
I was saved in God's way through the preaching, through the preaching
of Christ and Him crucified, through a man who had no sufficiency.
Christ was the power who called me. not high pressure tactics,
not making deals with me, not taking offense out of the gospel.
Christ in power came through an insufficient weak vessel and
saved me. Paul didn't tell the Corinthians
to examine themselves because he was fearful that they were
going to find out they were all unbelievers. He didn't do it
because of that. They had to be made to confess
they were not of certain men. They had to be made to repent
from that. They had to be made to repent that they weren't saved
of Christ without the preaching of the gospel. Paul is the one
God sent to them. They had to be made to confess
that this division they had created and all these things they were
doing from a wicked heart was not of God and they had to be
made to repent from that, turn from that. But he was not telling
them to examine themselves because he thought they were not in the
faith. He thought they were. He said, you're going to find,
I trust you're going to find, we're not reprobates. And you're
not reprobates. The only way you'd know that,
he wouldn't have told them to examine themselves if he thought
they were all lost, because a lost man, he can't examine himself. And know the truth, know Christ
is in him, he can't do it. Only the believer can. He wasn't
saying that he didn't think they had doubts and misgivings. When you're in the faith, that's
when you start to doubt yourself and have misgivings and wonder,
am I really a child of God? The unbeliever doesn't do that.
The unbeliever looks at what he's done and says, oh yes, I've
got to be a child of God. Look how good I am. Not the believer. The believer says, look at what
a wretch I am. How could I possibly be Christ's
child? That's faith. That's having faith
to hate yourself. And the more you see of yourself,
the more you abhor yourself, the more you depend on Christ
for all. It's not a feeling. It's not
an intellectual ascent. It's having Christ for your all. Even when I don't feel like I'm
believing on Christ, even when I am going through darkness and
depression and all the different things we go through, In my heart
of hearts, I still know Christ is all. I have nothing else but
Christ. That's being in the faith. That's
being in the faith. So as Lamentations 3.40 says,
let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. Colossians 1.19. Go there with
me. And we'll end with this. Colossians 1.19. Everywhere you read Paul, you
are not going to go very far without hearing Paul say something
about this preaching of the gospel. Colossians 1.19, and he always
includes all this work that I just talked about. Colossians 1.19.
Let me show you this first. Look at verse 9, verse 8. He says, Epaphus declared unto
us your love in the Spirit. And he says, for this cause we
also since the day we heard do not cease to pray for you and
desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will
and His all wisdom and spiritual understanding. And that's not
what I was looking for. Oh right, verse 3. We give thanks to God, the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard
of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have
to all the saints. See that? That's Paul Johnson. That's how we know. We believe
on Christ. Trust Him alone. And we love
one another. Look down now at verse 19. For
it pleased the Father that in Christ should all fullness dwell.
having made peace through the blood of His cross by Him to
reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven. And then this is how
Christ has all fullness. You that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable, unreprovable in His sight if you continue in
the faith. See that? He called them into
the faith. and made them in their heart
be reconciled to God. He reconciled them on the cross,
but then He calls you and makes you be reconciled in the heart.
And how does He do that? If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel, which you've heard, which was preached to every creature
which is under heaven. You know what that means? Which
was preached to every one of God's elect, Jew and Gentile,
all over the world. This is how God saves. Whereof
I, Paul, am made a minister. That's how you know, brethren,
if you're in the faith. So examine yourselves, whether
you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know you
not that Christ is in you, except you be counterfeit. If this is
how I was saved, by whom I was saved, in whom I was saved, I'm
in the faith. It boils down to this. Is Christ
all your hope? Is He all your hope? If so, you're in the faith. Amen. Let's stand together. Father, we thank You for Your
Word. We thank You for giving us a new heart through Your Gospel
and calling us to the feet of Christ. We're thankful that in
all of this that you've done for us, Christ gets all the glory.
And we don't have room to boast in our flesh anymore. Lord, that's
how we want it now. We didn't when we were lost,
but now we do. We want Christ to have all the
glory. Lord, make every believer truly repent from anything that's
false. Let go of all experiences and
just count everything in the past to be done. And make us
really and truly trust You and how You save and in Christ whom
You save. Make us truly believe on You.
And Lord, don't let us wait until that day when we are really and
truly going to stand before God. And then we'll take this serious.
Then we'll find out that we were holding on to a lie if that were
the case. Lord, make us now to let go of
it. Make us truly cling only to Christ. We pray for our brethren
who are sick and we pray for them everywhere. We pray for
those who are out of work. We pray for those who are going
through various kinds of trials. Lord, we know you're going to
do right by them. And we know you're going to glorify
your name and edify them. We pray, Lord, all these things.
Thank you for this place. Thank you for this gospel. Thank
you for this people, every house represented here. Thank you for
those that are not present with us today, that couldn't be here
because of the snow. Lord, we pray you keep them and
bless all of them. In Christ's precious name we
pray. Amen. Alright, Brother Art.