I'll be turning with me to 2
Corinthians chapter 2. Last Thursday I had a message
prepared to preach. And I didn't know why, but I
just really, really felt strongly that I should preach that message
out of Luke 9. And I didn't know why exactly,
but I think now I do know why. Kimberly Thacker called and expressed
to me that she would like to confess Christ in baptism. She
told me she had never believed when she had been baptized the
first time. I told her, if you didn't believe
Christ when you were baptized, you really hadn't been baptized.
And so, she said to me, he was all her hope and she did wish
to confess him in baptism. So, soon as I know, I'll give
you a date on that and we'll plan to do that. 2 Corinthians
chapter 2 and verse 12. 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 12, Paul
says, Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel,
and a door was opened unto me of the Lord. I had no rest in
my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother. But taking
my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia." Now this
is another reason Paul is giving why he did not come to Corinth
as he originally planned. He was so careful to make sure
they understood why he did not come. And we will deal more with
this when we come to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. So I just want to
move on now. But what I want to point out
to you here is when Paul mentioned Troas, he was led to give thanks
to God for what took place there. You know, Troas is where he stayed
there for seven days. And there was a lot of other
preachers that were there with him. That's where he preached
almost to midnight and Eutychus fell asleep, fell out the window.
You remember? And that was at Troas. Notice what he says here, why
he went there. He says, I went there to preach
Christ's gospel. Isn't that a good title for the
gospel? I went there to preach Christ's
gospel. It's Christ's gospel because
he is the author and the finisher of our gospel, and He is the
subject of our gospel. A man has not preached the gospel
unless he's preached Christ and only Christ. He is who all His
preachers preach, Christ and Him crucified. It's Christ's
gospel. And then He says there, when
He went to Troas, He said, The door was opened unto Me of the
Lord. That same Jesus that Paul preached
is head over all things to the church. And it's His responsibility
as our head to open the door for His people. Paul said in
another place that, he said, a great door and a fectual was
opened. A great door and a fectual was
opened. And then he said, all that God
had done with them and how He had opened the door of faith
unto the Gentiles. God opened the door, the Lord
opened the door. And then He asked the Corinthians one time,
He said, pray for us that God would open unto us a door of
utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also
in bonds that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. So when
we talk about this door being opened, The Lord opens the door
of service and labor and opportunity so that we can have a place to
preach the gospel to whom He'd have it preached. And then the
Lord also opens the door of success, of blessing and of power whereby
He makes His preacher preach as He ought to preach and He
makes His people able to hear. This door is opened by Christ. And when He opens the door, no
man can shut it. He said that in Revelation. I'm
the one who has the key of David, Christ said. I open and no man
can shut, and I shut and no man can open. That's the work of
our Lord. And so as Paul thought about
these things, and he thought about what happened in Troas,
he leaves his subject of telling the Corinthians why he had not
come to them, and he goes for a good ways talking about his
thankfulness to God. He says in verse 14, this will
be our text, he says, Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth
us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of
His knowledge by us in every place. Now here's our message. God always causes His witnesses
to triumph in Christ. God always causes His witnesses
to triumph in Christ. I'm talking about you and me
who are His witnesses. He always causes us to triumph,
to have victory and success in Christ. and by Christ. We're
going to just look at this 14th verse and try to get all the
good out of it we can. We won't get all the good out
of it, but we'll try to get as much as we can out of it. First
of all, our thanks to God and God alone. We thank God and God
alone. He said, now thanks be unto God.
Why do we thank God? Because we're a believer is one
who has been triumphed over. We're one who has been triumphed
over by our triune God in Christ. So we don't have any reason to
glory in ourselves. We only have reason to thank
God and glory in God. We didn't love God. We didn't
love God. In fact, Scripture says that
Cartel minds enmity against God. We hated God. We not only didn't
love Him, we weren't in a neutral state of just not loving Him,
being lukewarm about Him. We vehemently hated God by nature. We love Him because He first
loved us. Some of us were in religion,
and there we were trying to live as morally and as righteously
as we possibly could, using the law as our rule and as our measuring
stick. And yet, the Scripture says when
we did that, Christ did not work it. He didn't work that in us. It was not of Him, it was of
us and all it was, was sin. That's all it was. You mean outward
morality? You mean men doing these good
deeds for folks and casting the devils out of the church, casting
out disobedient members out of the church and disciplining people
and all that doesn't count for something? Christ is not in it. I can prove that to you. Paul,
remember when Peter came to When Peter was there and they were
eating, and he was eating with the Gentiles, and in walks these
men, these Jews, and all they had to do was look at Peter.
And Peter got up, left the table with the Gentiles, and went over
and sat at the table with the Jews. And Paul made this statement. He said, if while we seek to
be justified by Christ... Isn't that what we were all saying
when we were in our religion? Oh, we're not doing this to be
justified. We're doing this because we're justified by Christ. He
said, but if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves
also are found sinners. What's he talking about? What's
the context talking about? He's talking about Peter getting
up from that table and walking over and sitting at that table
with the Jews. He's talking about Peter going back to the law and
not siding with Christ. If we're found the sinners of
looking to the law and looking to our works rather than to Christ,
he said, is therefore Christ the minister of that sin? Did
Christ minister that? Did Christ create that? Was that
the work of Christ? God forbid. I'm not being overly dogmatic
when I say in all this junk in Reformed religion and Presbyterian
religion and all this, just like Armenian religion, that it's
all works of the flesh when they're yoking and binding folks with
the law and bringing sinners back under the law. I'm not being
dogmatic when I say God's not in that. That's exactly what
Paul said. Christ didn't minister that. God brings His people to
look to Christ only. only. He said, no, Christ wasn't
in it. He said, if I build again the
things which I destroyed when I confessed Christ, when I claimed
I believed Christ, I destroyed my works and my wisdom and my
way and all those things. But if I build that all back
up again, He said, I'll make myself a transgressor. We see
Christ not in that. So we see that now. We see the
Lord didn't love us due to anything in us. We see now that it was
by His free grace that He loved us. His elect or His true spiritual
Israel. And this is what He says to us.
Go to Deuteronomy 7. I want you to see this. This
is what He says to us. It's pictured here in Deuteronomy
7, verse 7. He's speaking here to the natural
sons of Abraham, but what He's saying to them It's meant for
his spiritual Israel. Look what he says here in Deuteronomy
7, 7. He says, This is to you and me who believe
him. The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you,
because you were more in number than any people. And you can
put any other reason you want to in there. He didn't love you
or choose you for any other reason. For you were the fewest of all
people, just a remnant. But because the Lord loved you,
That's the reason, because He loved you. And because He had
kept the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord
brought you out with a mighty hand. Why did He bring you out
of false religion and didn't bring others out? Because He
had kept the oath He had sworn to His fathers, our fathers,
and because He loved us, simply because He loved us. And He said
He brought you out with a mighty hand and He redeemed you out
of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, from Satan's
hand. the king of this world, the king
of Egypt. So we see that now, and due to this grace that He
worked for us, His everlasting love for us, even when we were
enemies, He sent Christ to die for us, to redeem us out of that
bondage. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sin. God commendeth His love toward
us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And then
still though, we were dead in our sins and trespasses and thinking
we were serving God, worshipping the true God and claiming we
were doing everything for God. We had to be regenerated. We
had to be given life and faith to behold Christ. God who is
rich in mercy. But God who is rich in mercy,
even while we were dead in our sin, with His great love wherewith
He loved us, even while we were dead in our sin, has quickened
us together with Christ, by grace are you saved. And then when
He quickened us, He taught us and He keeps teaching us in His
gospel. He says, you've not chosen Me, I've chosen you. And I've
ordained you, foreordained you. That's what foreknowing means,
to be foreordained. I have foreordained you that
you should go forth and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit
should remain. And whatsoever you shall ask
of the Father in My name, that He may give it to you. I've worked
this for you. I've worked it so you have communion
with God, and now you have fruit from God, and now you have access
and ability to approach God and ask God. Christ said, I worked
all this. It wasn't by your decision. I chose you. You didn't choose
me. And now God's made us to know. Me as His preacher, together
with you as His local assembly of saints, He's made us to know
that we're His ambassadors. We're His witnesses. Paul said,
now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech
you by us. Everybody sitting here right
now that does not believe on Christ, me and this whole assembly
of believers right here, we are ambassadors for Christ as though
God is beseeching you right now by us. God is speaking to you
right now by us. And he is saying, be you reconciled
to God. because He's made Christ sin,
who knew no sin, that we might be made to righteousness of God
in Him. And He said, now you be reconciled to God. God's already
reconciled His people. The only ones that are going
to be reconciled to Him are those He reconciled. But He tells us
now to declare it, be you reconciled to God. And so we take no credit. We
don't glory in ourselves. None of these things we're talking
about here came with us. We were triumphed over by Christ,
by our great triune God. We didn't do it. So we give thanks
always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Where did we get understanding?
Christ. Where did we get righteousness?
Christ. Where did we get holiness? Christ.
Where did we get redemption? Christ. Where did we get regeneration? Holy Spirit. Where do we get
this love in our heart for Christ and our brethren? God is love
and everyone is begotten of Him and loves Him and is begotten
of Him. Everything we have, brethren, is of God. What thanks can we
render to God again for you? For all the joy where we would
be joy for your sakes before our God. What thanks? We have
to thank God. And when we give God thanks for
our personal salvation, and the salvation of those God has saved
through our ministry, we're saying this. This is what we're saying
when we give God thanks. Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God
forever and ever. Amen. That's what we're saying. All glory, all praise to God
alone. To God alone. Now that's not
what the religious world is saying, brethren. The religious world
is They might voice those words, but that's not what they're saying.
They're claiming, especially by that claim of getting a better
reward than another, that I deserve something for what I've done. Not so God's people. We have
one to thank. We thank God. Now secondly, we
thank God because it's God alone who makes us trust. Him alone. Look at verse 14. Now thanks
be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ. He doesn't
say there that God sometimes causes us to triumph. He says
there He always causes us to triumph. God doesn't try to do
anything. Now if that's in our vocabulary,
let's just get it out. Let's root it out because God
doesn't try to do anything. God does. He does. I know that the Lord is great,
and our Lord is above all gods whatsoever the Lord please, that
did He in heaven and in earth and in the seas and all deep
places. He causes, listen to this, He causes the vapors to
ascend from the ends of the earth. You know what He's talking about?
Evaporation. We got a lot of rain here. This
creek was almost flooded out here the other day. Now there's
not as much water in it. All these fields were full of
puddles of water. Now there's not water in them.
Where'd they go? He causes evaporation to ascend from the earth. And
then it says that He maketh lightnings for the rain. How does all that
rain come back down again? He makes lightnings for the rain.
That's telling us the lightning has something to do with causing
the rain. I don't think we've ever figured that out by science
yet. There's a lot of science in God's Word that's true. You
know, He said in Isaiah, the Lord sits on the circle of the
earth. You know how long it took us to find out the world was
round? There it was the whole time. He creates the lightnings for
the rain and He brings the wind out of His treasures. Now what
part do we have in making the weather? What part do we play
in making the weather? Not any. Can you imagine a man
stopping God from causing evaporation or for causing lightning to come
forth and the rain to come forth? Can you imagine a man claiming
to do that? Let me tell you something. Satan's lie that man has the
ability to change the weather and destroy the earth, it's the
same lie of hell which says that man has a free will capable of
frustrating God's grace. I hope we hear that. That same
lie that says man has the ability to change God's weather and destroy
the world comes from the same lie that says we have the ability
to frustrate God's free grace and sovereign grace. When it
comes to believing erroneous science or politicians or believing
God's Word, believe God's Word. Just believe God's Word. Look
at Psalm 135.7. What's such a big deal about
that? What does that have to do with us triumphing in Christ?
Look at Psalm 135.7. Why don't you go to the weather
and start talking about the weather and God's ability to create the
weather? Psalm 135.7. the vapors to ascend from the
ends of the earth. He maketh lightnings for the
rain. He bringeth the wind out of His treasures." Now look what
he connects this to. who smote the firstborn of Egypt,
both of man and beast, who sent tokens and wonders into the midst
of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants, who
smote great nations, and slew mighty kings, Sion king of the
Amorites, and Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan,
and gave their land for an inheritance unto Israel his people." That same God who controls the
weather did that for His people, saved His people. Why is that
important to understand? Go to Isaiah 55, verse 10. Isaiah 55, 10. We're talking
about God causing us to triumph just like He triumphs over the
weather. Why is that important to know? Why is it important
to know that He makes the elements accomplish His purpose? It's
because God triumphs making His Word to accomplish His will. And God
gave the weather to be an illustration of His Word. Look here, verse
10. As the rain cometh down, and
the snow from heaven, and returns not thither, but watereth the
earth, and maketh it bring forth in bud, that it may give seed
to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that
goes forth out of my mouth. And God just look at the weather
and say, that's a good illustration of my Word accomplishing my will.
No, God made the weather to accomplish His will to illustrate how He
always accomplishes His will by His Word. Everything God created,
He did it to glorify Himself. And He says, it shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall
prosper the thing where to I send it. Go to Jeremiah 31.35 now.
Look at this. Does He always cause us to triumph?
Look at Jeremiah 31.35. Why is this lie of this weather
thing that has now become a political volleyball, why is it so important
to reject? Jeremiah 31.35, Thus saith the
Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances
of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth
the sea when the waves thereof roar." In other words, thus says
the Lord that controls everything that goes on in our climate.
The Lord of hosts is His name. If those ordinances depart from
before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall
cease from being a nation before me forever. He said if those
things can end, then my covenant will be broken with my elect
people. Go to Jeremiah 33, 20. Look here. Thus saith the Lord, if you can
break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night,
that there should not be day and night in their season, then
may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he
should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the
Levites the priests my ministers." That's saying, if anything, if
you, me and you, by our works can stop the weather, Then we
also have the power to stop Christ from sitting upon the throne
of David in glory, and we have the power to stop God from justifying
and saving His elect people. We don't have that power, do
we? We can't stop the weather, and we can't stop God from working
His purpose. That's why He's always triumphant, and we're
always triumphant in Him. Now, back in our text, look at
what it says. Our success is sure because God
always causes us to triumph in and by Christ. He says there,
He causes us to triumph in Christ. And that's in or by Christ. Both in and by Christ. Christ
is the Word who came down from heaven. That's who it applied
when God said, My Word always accomplishes My will. Christ,
first and foremost, He is the Word that came down. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was made
flesh. He came down. Did He accomplish
God's will? You better believe He did. Just
like the snow and the rain does. Just like the snow and the rain.
God's only ever made one water. Sometimes He makes it in the
snow, sometimes He makes it in the and the rain, sometimes He
makes it to be a drought, sometimes He makes it to be a flood, but
He's only ever created one water, the same water that destroyed
Noah's and all the people in Noah's day, that same water is
in that glass right there. Only one water ever created.
How do we still have that water? How come we haven't polluted
it seeing how we corrupt everything we touch? God's preserved it. That's why. Well, there's only
one word, that's Christ. That's Christ. And He's always
accomplished God's will for His people just like God's weather
does, Christ does. He satisfied the law, made His
people holy and just and good, just like the holy and just and
good law. Now that law is dead to us and
we're dead to that law. That means we have nothing to
do with the law God gave to Moses. When it says He took it out of
the way, nailing it to His cross, it means He satisfied the law
and honored the law because it's holy, just, and good. And He
did that for His people, taking it from between us and God so
that now we can actually worship God and serve God in newness
of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. And Christ our
Husband will be the one to create fruit in us and make us give
birth to that fruit. is like a husband and a wife.
And it's legal for us to be married to that husband now because our
first husband, the law, has died because of what Christ did. And
now we can be married to Christ legally, justly. And we dare
not bring that law back in between Christ and His people, or God
and His people. We must not do that. I'm telling
you, true obedience is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, because
in Him we fulfill the whole law. True obedience is loving one
another, doing whatever needs to be done for one another, because
you're constrained by the love of Christ. That's what He creates
in His people. He's always accomplished His
will. And in all these things, Paul
said, we're more than conquerors through Him that loved us. He
conquered all our enemies. He removed us from the curse
of the law. He's conquered Satan. He's conquered our flesh. And
the last enemy that will be destroyed is death. In all these things,
we're more than conquerors through Him. He made us to always triumph
over our sin and death and hell and everything kept us from God.
He made us more than conquerors in Him. And Christ always makes
His witness triumph as we preach His Word. He made us triumph
over our sin and death and hell. And He makes us triumph just
like that as we go forth and preach the Word. This is why
we have confidence to preach the Word. Because we saw how
He triumphed over us by the Word. You know, if a man looks at his experience
rather than the Word of God, your experience of His grace
is fine so long as you bring it to the Word of God and it
lines up with the Word of God. But if your experience doesn't
line up with how God says He saved people, you better throw
that experience away because it's not true. Because God also
said, I send men strong delusions that they should believe a lie.
So I don't dare want to make my experience to be the rule
of faith at all. I want God's Word to be the rule
of faith. And I forgot what I was going
to say. But whenever God's Word is our
rule of faith, We bring everything to that Word and we bow to His
Word, to what His Word says. Here's what I meant to say. If
a man has never experienced that power and that grace of God through
the preaching of the Gospel, he won't see how valuable Christ
is and His people are. Because it's through that church,
that brethren being together that Christ makes that gospel
go forth and quickens His people. That's wisdom of God to do that.
And so the man who says he was saved and he won't look at God's
Word and bring his experience in line with God's Word, he says,
I was saved apart from all that. I'm a man freak. I was saved
differently than God said He saves everybody else in His Word.
I'm different than the way God shows us He saved everybody in
His Word. Well, that man has no idea of the value of the Gospel. He has no idea of the value of
brethren because he didn't need them. He says he was saved without
them. And I've never seen a man that
made that claim that would ever stay under the sound of the Gospel
and unite with brethren and support that Gospel. I've never seen
it. Never seen it. Why would he? He don't need it. He don't need it. But you that
have, you know He caused us to triumph by His Word in our hearts
so that we have confidence now to unite together and stay together
and preach this Word together because we know He's going to
make us triumph in all ways as we preach this Word. We've experienced
this. And it lines up with His Word
and we know, we know it's true. And so we preach it. He said,
This is the Word. This is the Word of the truth
of the Gospel which has come unto you as it is in all the
world and brings forth fruit as it does also in you. Since
the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth. That's
what I preach to you all the time, brethren, that when God
sends it, He sends it in truth and when God sends it, He brings
forth fruit and it never fails to bring forth fruit. That's
why I say to you that It's only where the truth is being spoken
is where God's working. And the fruit He brings forth
is creating His people anew and bringing us to always triumph
in Him. And it's a good thing to be conquered
by Christ, to be triumphed over by Christ, because submission
and surrender to Christ is liberty. Is it not? You that have experienced
this know that's true. You know, we thought we had liberty
when, oh, I'm a free, I'm a rolling stone gathering no moss and I'll
never be shackled down by anybody. You know what we were then? The
servants of sin. That's all. We were in bondage
constantly. trying to do whatever the world
did, and trying to wear the latest fashion, and trying to do the
latest trend, and always trying to, just constantly in bondage,
trying to satisfy the world, and your flesh, and all that.
And then constantly in bondage, trying to do more works to soothe
your conscience. It wasn't liberty, it was bondage.
But then Christ came. And He purged your conscience
from those dead works. And He made you to see everything
is about Christ in this world. And everything's been accomplished
by Christ for His people. And now we have rest in Him.
And that's such sweet liberty. God's people are the freest people
there are. You know, we are able now to
do what we really want to do. I want to be here, don't you?
I want to serve Him. I want to... We're free to do
what we would. Worship Christ. and do it in
spirit and in truth. That servant of sin is not able
to do that. Not able to do that. Whatsoever
is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory
that overcomes the world, even our faith. What does he mean
by that? Exactly what Paul said. We triumph
always. God makes us triumph always in
and by Christ our Lord. It's not our faith. It's the
object of our faith. Christ. who makes us victorious,
Christ. And when He triumphs over us,
making us surrender to Him, He gives us all the spoils of victory. You've not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear. You've received the spirit of
adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. And the Spirit itself
bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
The Holy Spirit of God, God the Holy Spirit, bears witness in
that new spirit that God's put in you and declares to you, you're
a child of God, and He says this to you, and if you're children,
then you're an heir of God. You're an heir of God and a joint
heir with Christ Jesus, if so be that you suffer with Him to
the end. That is, if you continue in faith to the end. See, everything
Christ conquered and everything He did to spoil Satan of all the things that belong to him,
me and you and his people, He spoiled him. And everything that
Christ obtained for us by His purchase is ours now, together
with Him. That's why we haven't received
the spirit of bondage. You can interfere. We've received the
spirit where we can cry, God our Father, Christ our elder
brother. We're heirs of the Father and
join heirs with our elder brother. We've got everything. That's
not bondage. That's liberty. As Christ conquered your heart,
is there somebody here who's saying, Are you still a rebel
against God? Has He conquered your heart?
Christ conquers the hearts of His people and He always does
so. Have I preached for an hour? They always tell me, don't look
at your clock. I just look down and it says an hour and six minutes.
No? Well, let's look at this third
thing. God makes His ambassadors always trumped by Christ by making
manifest the savor of His gospel by us. The savor of His gospel
by us. Look at verse 14. God maketh
manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. That word
knowledge means the savor of His gospel. that which His gospel
creates. Song of Solomon says this, The
cause of the savor of thy good ointments, thy name is as an
ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee. You
see, this gospel of God our Father and His Son Christ Jesus is His
knowledge. What we're hearing when we hear
the gospel is the wisdom of God. and the savor of His good ointments. This is the good ointments by
which He makes sin sick sinners whole in Christ. This is the
balm of Gilead, Christ the Lord who makes us whole again. We
were nothing but bruises and wounds and sores from the bottom
of our foot to the top of our head, but He's bound them up
and He's mollified them with this ointment and He's made us
whole again. And that's why you and I who
are made virgins by God rejoice in God, in His Son, in His name. Now you imagine if I had a box
of savory ointment here in my hand. And I open that box up. And when I open that box up,
that fragrance is going to fill this entire room. And it will
be impossible for you not to smell it. It's something you
can't do. When a box of ointment is opened
up in a room, you can't make yourself not smell it. You're
going to smell it. You're going to smell it. And
the army goes forth by preaching Christ and Him crucified, and
wherever God sends us to preach His gospel, God Himself fills
that place with the savor of His ointment, just like a box
of ointment opens up and fills the room. And the army goes forth
because Christ in you makes your savor. salt of the earth. You and I who have been saved
by Him, not only is the preaching of our word the saver, but you
and I are a saver, an evidence of the working of His conquering
grace. To show you. You know, somebody
is sitting here, and I guarantee you, this is what unbelievers
always say. How should I know? What makes me believe this is
the Word of God? Why should I believe Christ really
did what you say He did and all that? Well, if you are in a court
of law, you know what would be the convincing thing to you as
a juror? It would be the witnesses that
they bring forth. Well, every person sitting right
here saved by God, who is a new creature by Christ Jesus, are
all multiple witnesses to you and everything we're telling
you is true. And not only that, all these
people you read about in the Scripture who God saved, they're
savers. They're witnesses of this ointment
that's healed them. We have a great cloud of witnesses,
God said. And here's all this saver, all
these witnesses to tell you that it's so. So if a man won't believe,
who's to blame? The ignoramus himself. That's
it. That's it. The alma goes forth
because Christ in you makes you a savor of salt. What does it
mean to be saved? It's to be a messenger, a channel,
an instrument of God's redemptive purpose. A messenger. It means to be the salt of the
earth, the savor. The priesthood believers means
that there's no spectators in the church of God. When we read
of the church being a priesthood, there's no spectators in the
church of God. The priesthood of the believers means every
believer saved by Christ has a ministry and a gift so that
you can perform that ministry for Christ's glory. That's so. And when God's opened this ointment
through His holy child preaching Christ's gospel, none in their
presence can stop Himself from smelling the savor regardless
of whether He loves it or hates it. He's going to smell it. He's
going to smell it. And we're going to look more
at that next time. But let me ask you this, do you love the
savor or do you hate the savor? I know you smell it. Do you love
it or do you hate it? This is the balm of Gilead and
Christ's people, they love the savor. They love it. Their ointment,
this is the cure for our sin, the only ointment that makes
us holy and new. This is the only ointment. If you reject
this ointment, there remains no more sacrifice for sin, but
a certain expectation of judgment which shall come to pass. Can
you imagine going to a physician and everybody's told you, you've
heard it from multiple witnesses, you've heard, this is the very
best physician when it comes to curing the sickness you have.
This is the very best physician you'll ever find the world over.
So you go to him. And he says, here is the ointment
right here you need. This is going to cure you of
that deathly disease you have. You imagine the man walking out
of there after hearing all those witnesses, after hearing from
that physician himself, and after finding out what the one cure
is for his disease. Can you imagine that man saying,
now that ointment smells like death to me. I am not going to
have part of that. Well, then just die and go to
hell. Just die and go to hell and be
a monument of God's holy justice because that's what you'll be.
And you'll glorify God one way or the other, either by mercy
or by judgment. We'll look more at that next
time. I pray God will make us smell that smell and rejoice
in Him. He always makes His people triumph. Amen.