All right, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We'll begin by reading the first
three verses together. It says that Paul, called to
be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Synotheus,
our brother. unto the church of God which
is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called
saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus
Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours, grace to you, and peace
from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." Now,
Paul is writing to the church of Corinth, that by the grace
of God He's established. You remember in Acts chapter
18, He spent 18 months with this church, but then we know this
after the apostle left that there were many troubles, many difficulties
in this congregation. We know that they were troubled
about preachers. They glorified the preachers
of the gospel rather than Christ. We know that many of their false
doctrine had crept in and some had already told them that the
resurrection had already happened. Some were getting drunk on the
Lord's Supper. There were many troubles in this
church, many divisions. And so Paul was moved to write
this letter concerning those divisions, concerning that strife. And my point in this is When
we preach the gospel, this alone is the remedy that God chose
for all of those things. For strife and division, for
heresies, false doctrines. And so then, if there are any
divisions in the church, if there are any churches prone to be
duped by false teachers, if we are plagued by troubles, what
then is the remedy? It is this. preaching the gospel. That is the remedy for all of
these ills. Now, if we think that we are
above these things, this church had many troubles, many trials
and afflictions. And isn't this true of us in
our day? We still have strife. We still
have division, even among the saints of God. And what is Paul's
remedy for that in this book is the remedy for any church
having trouble. Any church having strife is what?
Preach the gospel. Look at verse 17. For Christ
sent me not to baptize. What? What? To preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words. Not
with worldly wisdom. That's what the world wants when
they come to church. They want worldly wisdom to fix
worldly problems. But we have this heavenly wisdom. He said, I don't preach with
earthly wisdom. lest the cross of Christ be made
of none effect." Look at verse 22, the Jews require sign, the
Greeks seek after wisdom. That's what's happening here
in our generation. People want signs, they want
miracles, they want wonders, they want feelings, they want
emotions, they want something they can touch, taste, or feel. The Greeks seek after wisdom,
learning. There's a lot of churches built
on just learning and learning and learning. All said, are they
ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth?
But what do we do? What is our purpose in the church? To preach Christ crucified, to
the Jews a stumbling block, to the Greeks foolishness, but unto
them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, it is Christ, the
power of God, Christ, the wisdom of God. And so in chapter 2 and
verse 2, Paul reminds them of how he came to them. He said,
I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. And see how the apostle sets
down the whole remedy then for what ails the church is preaching
Christ and Him crucified. Now then, as we go through these
verses, I seek to go through 10 verses. I'm most likely not
going to get there. I don't ever get there in our
church, so I might not get there. with you this morning, but there
are three things about the church that I want you to see for your
comfort, for your help. We're surrounded by troubles
and they're not going to go away. We're surrounded by difficulties.
We have enemies both without and within. And so what we desire
when we come to hear the worship of God is we desire to be comforted. And I'll testify to this verse
later. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord. And how do we do that? We preach
the gospel. Now, there are three things that Paul sets forth about
the church of Corinth that's true of all of us. First thing he sets forth is
this, we are sanctified. We are sanctified. You see that
in verse 2, unto the church of God in Corinth to them that are
sanctified. Sanctified. The second thing
I want you to see is that this is confirmed. This is not just
a doctrine to be had in the mind, it is to be embraced, it is to
be confirmed in us by the Holy Ghost. And you see that in verse 6,
even the testimony of Jesus Christ was confirmed in you. And then the third thing is I
want you to see the preservation of the church, that all who are
sanctified, all who are confirmed in this truth will be preserved. And you see that in verse 8,
who shall also confirm you to what? To the end. So you have
a promise there. So first of all, let's look at
this matter of sanctification. Now Paul, he sets forth his authority
as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and he says unto the church,
which is at Corinth, but you know, he's not just writing to
the church of Corinth, he's writing to all of us. You see that? He says at the end of verse 2,
he says, With all that in every place call upon the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. both theirs and ours. So this
church of Corinth, it had trouble, it had difficulty, and so do
we. So does every church. You're not going to escape that.
This is going to be true of every gospel church. There are going
to be trials and difficulties, but in order to comfort you,
I want you to see this truth that you are sanctified. You are sanctified. That's what
he tells them. He said, The church of Corinth
to them that are sanctified, not going to be sanctified, not
sanctifying themselves, not hoping to be sanctified. You are sanctified. You are sanctified. Again, there's
much confusion about what sanctification is. You believe in Jesus Christ. I want to set this out so you
can take comfort in this. Whatever sanctification is, you
are sanctified. Whatever the scripture declares
it to be, that's what you are. That's what you are. Now, most churches link sanctification
with morality and piety. They see sanctification as a
progressive thing. something that gets holier inside
of the believer. The believer starts out pretty
good, he's saved by grace and then somehow by his obedience
to the law or obedience to whatever moral code that men come up with
that he becomes progressively more sanctified, more holy. That's just not true. That's
just not true. Now, the Scriptures are very
clear concerning this meaning of the word sanctified. Now,
take note of this because this is a, again, this is a very popular
conception, what I just told you, very popular conception. It is a horribly damning doctrine. But this matter of sanctification,
the Word of God in Scripture is very clear. First of all,
there are three meanings for the word sanctified in Scripture. There are three distinct ways
in which this word sanctified is used. First of all, it is
to set apart. That's what the word means, to
set something apart. The second meaning is When someone
says to sanctify something, they are declaring something to be
sanctified. And the third meaning is actually
making something holy. Making something holy. The first
time the word sanctified used in Scripture is in Genesis when
God sanctified the seventh day and made it holy. Now He sanctified
Saturday. Now, I want you to see that he
didn't make that day any different than any other day. It still
had 24 hours in Saturday, just like you have in Monday or Sunday
or any other day. You couldn't tell the difference
between, if you got out in the wilderness, you got lost in time,
you couldn't tell what day it was, because they're all the
same. The sun rises, the sun sets exactly the same in every
day. So what does it mean He set it
apart? He set apart the Sabbath day to picture His Son. He set
it apart because that was the day He said, I'm going to sanctify
this day. It should be a day of rest. We know this, that Jesus
Christ, that the Sabbath, it pictures Christ. He is our Sabbath
of rest. When Jesus Christ finished the
work, He sat down. He rested. That's what the seventh
day was to picture. God set it apart for that specific
thing. And it was sanctified. It was
a day holy. Nobody should alter it because
it had purpose. And so then, whatever is set
apart by God for His service is said to be holy. Believer,
consider this, that you too were set apart by God the Father. You were sanctified. Though you were no different
than any other person. You were no different than any
other human. Yet God sanctified you by His sovereign election
before the foundation of the world. God set us apart for this purpose
that we should be holy. In Ephesians 1, in verse 3, you
know this very well. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now bless the Father, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according... Here's the reason we give the
blessing to the Father, according as He hath chosen us. Yes, He had chosen the seventh
day. He had chosen us that we should be holy and without blame
before Him. He chose us. He set us apart
to be accepted in Christ. So in this, believer, you were
sanctified by the election of the Father. This should comfort
you. You're no different than anyone
else. You didn't set yourself apart
for this. God set you apart for this. It
was God who put you in Christ Jesus. Matter of fact, that's
our text, sanctified in Christ Jesus. Where were you sanctified? You were sanctified by this union
that God puts you in Christ Jesus. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians
1 30, doesn't it? But of God are you
in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
what? Sanctification and redemption.
God made Christ. All of those things for you. You're sanctified. You're set
apart to be what? Holy. You're set apart for His
service and this was from the foundation of the world Secondly,
I told you that there's a second meaning to declare something
holy. Now listen, when God declares something holy, it is. It just
is. But I want to give you an illustration
of this. The scripture says in Isaiah
chapter 8, Isaiah chapter, I believe it's chapter 8, it says sanctify
the Lord. Now let me ask you this, does
it mean you make the Lord holy? Is the Lord progressively sanctified?
No. What we are doing is we are declaring
something to be holy because it is. God is holy. You see, I sanctified the Lord.
I told you, I declared that God is holy. That's what that definition
of sanctification is. It is to declare something to
be holy. Therefore, all who were sanctified
by the election of grace were also sanctified by the work of
the Son. You were sanctified by the work
of the Son, it says, in Christ Jesus. Now God puts you in Christ
Jesus. Therefore, when Christ Jesus
was sent into the world, you were in Christ Jesus. You were
in Christ Jesus. It was Christ Jesus then who
was sanctified of the Father, wasn't He? He was set apart for
the work of our salvation. And so that all He did for the
glory of God and the saving of His people. Lo, I come to do
Thy will, O God. He came into the world to do
the will of God. Go to Hebrews 10. Read that with
me. Read that with me. Hebrews chapter 10 and look at
verse 9. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
9. He said, Lo, I come. do thy will,
O God, he taketh away the first that he may establish the second,"
talking about the covenant, he did away with the law so they
established the covenant of grace. Now, listen, by the which will
we are what? We are what? Sanctified, we were
sanctified again by the will of God, by God setting us apart
to be holy, But how was this holiness actually accomplished?
How can God declare us to be sanctified, to be holy? How is
that possible? Look at what He says. Through. This is the means. This is how
He made us holy. How He can be honest and declare
us to be holy. The offering of the body of Jesus
Christ. How many times? How many times
were you made holy? Once. You were made holy by the
death of Jesus Christ. By the death of Jesus Christ. And he says, Every priest standeth
daily ministering, often the same sacrifices that can never
take away sin, but this man, Christ, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, sat down, again, there you go, that's Sabbath,
pictured him, he sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one
offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Therefore, when Jesus Christ
was made sin for us who knew no sin, Listen, by himself, by
himself, he purged our sins. Purged our sins. See, you can't
be holy and still have sin. Jesus Christ purged our sins. The scripture says, I have blotted
out as a thick cloud all thy transgressions. All thy transgressions. Now when was this sanctification
done? When was this holiness? Now it
was, we were set apart for it in eternity. But when was it
actually accomplished? It was accomplished before we
came into the world, before we were ever born. Sanctification
was accomplished. It was accomplished by Jesus
Christ. Therefore, when God declares that His people are holy, it's
because they are. In Christ, they are holy. Even
before we realize it, God had already made us sanctified. It's
a miracle of grace. But listen, no one can declare
themselves to be sanctified unless they experience it. Now, I know
He did this for all of His elect, whoever they are. He set them
apart to be holy. Jesus Christ actually accomplished
all the sanctification for all of His elect people of all time.
Now then, the question is am I one of them? Am I sanctified? I know the church is sanctified
but am I sanctified? Well, this has to do with that
third way that sanctification is used. It is actually the process
of making someone holy. It is the act of God in making
someone holy. You see, the experience of every
believer is none of us knew our election. None of us knew or
felt the redemption of Christ that He had accomplished. None
of the church were born holy. In fact, we were born dead in
sins. Dead in sins. Get the picture. You lay a corpse out here on
the ground, and suppose you had something that could give this
man life. And you say, well, if you just
drink this, you'll live. The problem is he cannot give
himself life. He's dead. He's dead. This is the experience of every
man. He's dead. And so God, in grace that chose
us in Christ, that actually accomplished our salvation, this is the promise
of God. is that He is going to come to
every one of His elect, every one of them. Not going to miss
one. We don't care where they are, don't care how vile they are, how beyond
human redemption they are. If they are one of God's elect,
He will plumb the depths of hell to reach them, and He will give
them life. He will give them life at the
appointed time of love, that's what happened to us. God purposed
we have this holiness, Christ accomplished this holiness, and
the work of the Spirit of God is actually to sanctify us, to
make us holy. Go to 2 Thessalonians now, 2
Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, look
at verse 13. The apostle says, We are bound to
give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the
Lord. Now what is the cause of our
thanksgiving? Because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation. I remember receiving a call,
and one guy was arguing with me about election. I don't like
to argue, so he said, you just find me one scripture where it
says, elections unto salvation, I'll believe it. I've recorded
this verse. He hung up the phone. He hung
up the phone. He didn't like it. That God hath
from the beginning chosen you, listen, to salvation. Now that
here's the means, oh, this is wonderful, the means, through
sanctification of your hard work and labor. Is that how this is
to be? No, sanctification of the Spirit. So whose work is it to actually
make you holy? I hope you're getting the picture
of this, that our sanctification is wholly the work of God. And
if you preach sanctification, you should constantly harp on
this, because men think that sanctification is something that
they have to do. Now listen, it's easy to sanctify
ourselves among men. Pharisees did it, and they were
very successful at it. Yet they were never made holy. They died in their sins. Jesus
said, On the outside you're like a painted tomb, on the outside
indeed beautiful, but on the inside you're dead. And notice the means, listen,
look at the next verse. Notice the means the Spirit of
God uses to sanctify you. Look at this. We are bound to
give thanks, I'm sorry, verse 14, whereunto He called you,
how? by our Gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He uses the Gospel by
which the Spirit effectually works in us to sanctify us. Believe or remember that we were
called of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel.
We who by nature were haters of God and would not believe
That was my condition. I would not believe. I was unholy. There was nothing about me that
was holy. I loved my sin. I loved this
world. I had no need of Christ. I was
unrighteous, ungodly, totally depraved and dead in my sin,
but God set me apart to be saved, to be holy. Christ accomplished
my holiness and by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the
preaching of the Gospel, He actually made me holy. That sounds very difficult to
believe, doesn't it? You follow me around a minute,
you're going to find out I see it. How can you stand there and
tell me that you're holy? Well, Scripture tells me I am.
You are sanctified. You are holy. I'm going to give you a couple
of verses that prove this to be true. Go to 1 John. You that
believe, I want you to take comfort in this. This is true. You that are sanctified are made
holy. I'm going to tell you how in
just a minute. Look at this in chapter 3 and
verse 6. Whosoever abideth in Him. Now what is it to abide in Jesus
Christ? To abide in Jesus Christ is those
who believe in Jesus Christ. Jesus said abide in Me and I
in you. We do this by faith. We believe on Jesus Christ. And we abide in Him. Now, whoever
abides in Him, listen, Sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. I tell you what, that doesn't
seem to comfort me, it seems to trouble me. Because I know I still sin,
yet the Scriptures tell me those that are in Christ, they sin
not. And look, the apostle doesn't
make excuses for it, he doubles down on it. Go to chapter 5 and
look at verse 18. Verse 18, We know that whosoever
is born of God, now can you claim to be saved and not be born of
God? Who is born of God? Everyone who is born of God is
saved, right? Every one of us who are born of God are sanctified
and listen to what he says, He that is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God
keepeth himself and the wicked one toucheth Him not." This is
true of the whole church, the whole of God's elect. You are
sanctified in the election, you are sanctified by the obedience
of Christ, you are sanctified by the effectual calling of the
Spirit. A false religion testifies that we who are saved by grace
should sanctify ourselves. Whosoever is born of God sinneth
not." And they said, well, I guess I need to try not to sin. No,
it doesn't say whosoever is born of God doesn't try not to sin. Listen, whosoever is born of
God doesn't sin. How do you reconcile that? Because this is the truth. that God by His power has created
in us a new nature. A new nature. What Paul calls
in Ephesians chapter 4, the new man. And why does he say he's
the new man? Because he wasn't there before. Put off the old man and his deeds. That is the nature that we were
born with. That is the nature that we possess
with all of Adam's race. It is a wicked and vile nature. But when we are born again of
the Spirit, God does NOTHING with that old nature. He doesn't
patch it up. He doesn't make it better. give
you crutches and let you walk around till you start to feel
more holy. That's not what he does with
it. No, he sets it aside and gives you a new nature, a righteous
nature. Paul says in Galatians 6, circumcision
availeth nothing nor uncircumcision, but what avails? How do I know
that I'm accepted with God and holy before God? But a new creation. A new creation. He said, put
on the new man. Which is, listen to this, created. You don't have to be a scholar
to understand that. You know when something's created,
it wasn't there before? God made it. And He put it in
you. It is a new nature. And in that
new nature, there is no sin. It is created after God, listen,
in true holiness. Not make-believe holiness. You
know, God doesn't pretend. And so when God declares you
to be holy, what does that mean? You're holy. When God declares
you're sanctified, you're what? What are you? Sanctified. Well, I don't feel sanctified.
What does it matter? It's what is. You that believe on Jesus
Christ. And this is the struggle we face.
Because we have these two natures within us, there is a constant
warfare within us. Why does someone who God declares
to be without sin still sin? Now we don't deny that, do we?
There are religions, and you're going to face these religions
as you go out into the world. There are some religions who
take these verses I read in John and they believe within themselves
they'll never see Him. I'm astounded when they say it
to me. I've had them say it to me, I don't see Him. The Scripture says, If we say
we have no sin, we make him a liar, and the truth is not in us. So
we, who are believers, confess we have sinned. But how can both
be true? Galatians 5, 17, the apostle
explains this. He says the flesh, the flesh. What is he talking about, the
flesh? He's talking about the old nature. This is exactly what
Romans chapter 7 is dealing with. Paul's dealing in Romans 7 with
his own self. He's dealing with the struggle
of the flesh and the spirit and what does he say about his flesh?
What does the apostle say about his nature? He says, In my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. There won't ever be any good
thing dwelling in your nature, in your old nature, nothing.
Jesus said, that which is born of flesh is flesh. That's all
it is, that's all it will be. But here's our hope, that which
is born of the Spirit is what? It's Spirit. That's all it will
ever be. And Paul said, then the flesh
lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh,
and these are contrary one to the other. You got one and another,
how many you got? If you got one and another, how
many you got? Two. I listen to men try to reason
out that there's only one nature, but man, the gymnastics they
have to do. The scriptural gymnastics is
astounding, what they have to do to try to figure out they
only got one nature. You know why they want one nature, and
I want you to run these people too, is that they believe that
there's only one nature because they believe they can make it
better. That's it. They believe that
they can progressively sanctify themselves by their obedience. But these two are contrary one
to another so that you cannot do what you would. What would
the flesh do? The flesh would leave Christ. Can't do that. I can't do that. Why? Because I got a new man that
will not allow that. And yet in the new man, he would
be holy and without sin. Can't do that. Can't do that. So what? We're in a perpetual
state of struggle. And the Lord intends this for
the reason of His glory. Because we are in this struggle,
we are not dependent on ourselves, we're dependent on Him. All our
salvation, all our sanctification. So what then is the evidence
of our sanctification? I told you what it is. God's
setting you apart. It's Christ accomplishing your
sanctification. It's the Spirit applying that sanctification
in you. What then is the evidence that
I am part of this church? It's sanctified and holy. Church. Go back to your text and look
at verse 2 again. He said, Under the church of
Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints,
withal, that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord, both theirs and ours. What's the evidence of my sanctification?
When you wake up in the morning and you look in the mirror and
you say, man, look at that sanctified being. Oh, man. As you walk through the day,
piety just flows out of you and no, no sin whatsoever. And you
say, well, look at this sanctification I've got. That's not how we feel. I feel like Newton so often,
Lord, tis a point. I long to know. Oft it causes
anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His or am I not? Am I sanctified or am I not?
Oh, when I look within, He said, all is vain and wild. How then can I deem myself a
child? Sin is mixed with all we do. How can we ever possibly claim
to be sanctified. Paul tells us the evidence. Everyone in every place who call
on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. What then is the evidence of our sanctification? It is
simply faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ. When we were without God, no
need of Him, God exposed our sins. We found no hope or merit
in ourselves, and by the grace and calling of God, He gave us
both life and faith. Life and faith. Therefore, in
the calling power of God, we were made to cry unto Him for
mercy. And what did we find? When we
came to Christ, we don't come to doctrines, do we? We don't
come to our knowledge of doctrines and confess that's our salvation.
No. We come to Christ. We come to
the person and the work of Christ and we submit our souls, our
cells, our bodies, our lives to Him by faith. We are cleansed
by Him. We are washed by Him. We are
sanctified by Him and we are justified by Him. Look at 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Oh no, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians
chapter 6. Look at verse 9, he says, We know that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God, but be not deceived,
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit
the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But
you changed your ways. You got religion. Does that make a difference?
No, it doesn't have anything to do with that, does it? Such
were some of you, but what is our hope? Not that we changed
anything, but this. We are washed. Are you washed? Are you washed? Are you washed in the blood?
I think of old Naaman in Syria. Man, he was a pompous guy. He was really, really had everything
going for him. He was the top general in the
Syrian army. He had honor and dignity of all
his people. He was a conquering hero. But he was a leper. And you remember,
he heard that there was a prophet in Israel. And he went down to
the man of God and Naaman had this picture of how his salvation,
his deliverance would go. He thought that he'd come down
in his robes and his dignity with all of his army and this
man would see him and say, Oh! I'm so thankful you came down
here. I'm so thankful you came to me so you can be cleansed.
That's how most people come to Christ, isn't it? Well, he ought
to be thankful I'm here. And he said, well, I know what's
going to happen. He's going to perform some religious ceremony,
and it's going to be so beautiful. It's going to be full of pomp
and circumstance, and everything's going to go like this, and he's
going to lay his hands on me, and poof! My leprosy's going
to be gone. It's going to be a miracle. It's
going to be wonderful. And he got there. The prophet didn't
come out. He told him, he said, you go
bathe in the Jordan seven times and you'll be clean. And he was mad. Most people. And they don't have anything
to do with their sanctification, they get mad. They're cleansing,
they're washing, they get mad. But the one who's a leper knows
he needs to be clean. He didn't want to go to that
muddy river, that Jordan, because it was filthy. And you know what happened? He
did. And he dipped seven times, and he was clean. He was washed.
He was washed. It's a picture of Christ. To
this world, he is nothing but a muddy river. Filthy. I don't know what they can do
with him. They want pomp and ceremony and religion to be washed,
but they don't want... They want a big baptismal ceremony,
and they think baptism, you can dip yourself in that pool a hundred
thousand times, you can never wash away sin. They ain't gonna
do it. Paul says that we believe we
are washed. Now, how washed are you? You're
washed. Our Lord Jesus pictured that
by washing his disciples' feet, didn't he? He said, I'm going
to wash your feet. Peter said, no, don't wash me.
He said, look, if I don't wash your feet, you don't have anything
to do with me. He said, well, then wash my whole body. And Jesus
said, no, I just need to wash your feet because you are clean
every whit. Isn't this so? And we walk through
this dirty world and our sins are getting up on us. And what
does he do? He cleanses our conscience. But really, we're clean every
wit. You are washed. Listen, you are sanctified. You
are sanctified. You are made holy. You are set
apart. You are declared of God to be
holy because the Spirit has made you so. What he says, you are
washed, you are sanctified, and you are justified. That's what it is to be sanctified. I don't know what time I started,
but I'm going to give you these other two. Look now and talking
about the confirmation, the confirmation. Look at what Paul says. Go back
to your text again. Look what Paul says in these
next verses here. He says, grace unto you and peace from God,
our father. Now that you know that you're
sanctified, the evidence is your faith in Christ, and your faith
in Christ tells you that you're washed, you're justified, you're
sanctified. Now that you know this, why is it that you are
sanctified? Why has God made you holy? One
word, grace. Grace. It was by the grace of God you
were set apart. It was by the grace of God you
were made holy in Christ. It was by the grace of God the
Spirit came to you. And what did the Spirit, He said,
grace. But what does this bring? Grace
brings what? Peace. Peace. Not in this world. You're not going to find peace
in this world. You're going to find heartache and tears and
trouble and difficulty. What are you going to find from
God? Peace. Why? Because Christ has made peace
by the blood of His cross. Paul said, Being justified by
faith, therefore, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have peace with God. He said, I thank God always on
behalf of you for the grace which was given you in Christ Jesus. that in everything you are enriched
by Him in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony
of Christ was confirmed in you." Confirmed in you. What is this confirmation of
the testimony of God? It is simply this, you believe
the gospel. You believe the gospel. Do you
believe this is the testimony of God concerning His Son Jesus
Christ? That's confirmed. This Gospel
I'm preaching to you is confirmed. And once the Spirit of God confirms
this Gospel in you, nothing can move you from it. Nothing can
move you from it. I always tell people, I am the
one that moved you to believe the doctrines of grace, then
somebody else can come along and move you to believe something
else. This troubles me when people
say that. I was converted to the doctrines
of grace. I worry for people like that.
I worry. Maybe they're just misstating
it. Maybe they're just, you know, I don't know, but it sounds troublesome
to me that they don't understand that they were not converted
to a doctrine, but to a person. The doctrine simply described
the person. You don't convert to a doctrine.
You convert to a person. You come to a person, Jesus Christ.
And when He confirms this in you, it's confirmed. See, I don't
have to debate about election. I know the election of God. It's
confirmed. is confirmed. I know that Jesus
Christ is all the salvation of His people, that His salvation
was absolutely perfect, and everyone He died for, they are completely
justified before God, sanctified before God, righteous before
God. He made all their salvation by
Himself. And I am just as sure of this,
that everyone the Father chose and Christ saved, every one of
them will hear this Gospel and they will embrace it, they will
believe it, and they will trust it, and the Spirit in Himself
will confirm this in you. And what does this confirm? When
the Gospel is confirmed in me, what is this? I confirm that
there's no other Gospel. That there's only one Gospel.
There's not many Gospels. There's one Gospel, friends.
There's not many ways to God. Well, people hate us for that.
They hated our brethren when they first said it. They were
called people of the way. You know why? Because they believe
there's only one way. And so do we. We believe there's
only one way. And people don't like that. It
doesn't matter what people like. It's confirmed. He confirmed
this testimony in us. And so then to be moved from
this gospel that our complete salvation is the work of Christ
is to be moved from the only gospel. Now, the Church of Galatians
had this problem. They believed the gospel and
then somebody came in and said, well, the gospel is good. Salvation
by grace is good. But, in order to really be accepted
with God, you have to obey the law. And this is where Reformed
Theology comes in. Horrendous. Horrendous. They're great, seemingly, on
election and Christ's redemption and the Spirit's effectual calling,
but they go off the rails with the Church of Galatia thinking
they've begun in the Spirit and they're made perfect by the flesh.
Paul said, Are you so foolish that you think you begin in the
Spirit and somehow you're sanctified by your obedience to the law? You know what He says to those
people? He says, Christ shall profit you nothing. Anybody who
is righteous, justified, redeemed by Jesus Christ, but are only
partially sanctified by Him and their sanctification has to be
accomplished by their obedience. That is a damnable heresy, and
Paul said, Christ shall profit you nothing. That's something. It's very dangerous. And so,
this gospel then, that our Christ is my wisdom, Christ is my righteousness,
Christ is my sanctification, Christ is my redemption. So then
this gospel is confirmed in us. What's this confirmation? This
confirmation is this, Christ is all. Is Christ all? Is Christ all? If this gospel
is confirmed in you, you won't move from that. We struggle. Yes, we may fall, just like the
church of Galatians, but I know this, God will restore His people.
If they've made that grave error, if they've made that error in
doctrine, I know this, God will restore them. He will. Why? He'll confirm this to them. And
the last thing is this, the preservation of the church. you that are sanctified,
you to whom this gospel is confirmed, you who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ as all your salvation, look what your hope is. Verse 7, So that you come behind
an old gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What are we doing right now? Waiting. We live by faith, that's
how we live, not the just shall live by faith, waiting on what?
The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. who shall also confirm
you unto the end. Now listen, I have seen men come
into the church. I've seen it. And they profess
faith in Jesus Christ just like everyone else. They profess that
this Word is confirmed in them. They confess that. And by all
outward things, I truly believe that was so. And if you want
to dupe me, it's going to be easy because I want to believe
you believe. I really want to believe that many people will
believe. But these men came in. They were baptized. They confessed
the gospel. They seemed to be superior even
to... To me, they seemed superior than
myself in knowledge and wisdom. They were great men in the church.
And yet, they left. They left. I know this, the greatest fear
of God's people is that we are deceived. I don't want to be deceived. I don't want to be deceived. So how can we preach the doctrine
of perseverance and preservation of the saints if some who came
in went away? How do you rectify? Well, the
Word of God says that everyone that Christ saves, He'll preserve. They're going to make it. This
is comforting, isn't it? Should be. If you are preserved
in Christ, you will make. He said in John 10, He said,
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them. And they do what? They
follow Me. They believe on Me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Isn't that true? That's what
the Word of God says. For God so loved the world, that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not, what? Perish, but have everlasting
life. You remember in John chapter 11, when Lazarus died, his sisters
are weeping and crying over Lazarus. And he said, don't worry about
it. He's all right. He'll be, he's alive. He'll be
raised. And they said, well, we know he's going to be raised
in the last day. He said, no, no, no, you don't understand. Listen to what
Jesus said this. He said, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live. And even more, whoso liveth and
believeth in me shall never die." There he was, Lazarus was dead.
And you know what Jesus said? He ain't dead. He ain't dead. Do you believe this? Do you believe
this? That everyone whose body falls
to the earth in death is not dead? Everyone who believes in
Christ is alive and well. Jesus said they are. So then how do you explain people
leaving? If God promises, this is how? Because they're
deceived. Their profession of faith was
only that, just a profession. It wasn't real. It wasn't really
confirmed by the Spirit of God. And so here is our confidence
if we are born again of the Spirit. that if this doctrine resides
in our heart and we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, though
everything surrounds us seeks to pull us away from Christ,
nothing will succeed. He says this, those that are
confirmed, He will confirm them to the end. Those that are sanctified,
those that are confirmed, He says, Jesus will confirm you
to the end. Our Lord in Matthew said, all
these are the beginning of sorrows. Talking about wars and rumors
of wars. And he says, they shall deliver
you to be afflicted and shall kill you. And you shall be hated
of all nations for my sake. Then shall many be offended and
shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And many
false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many. Doesn't that
sound like today? Because iniquity shall abound
the love of many shall wax cold, but here's the whole But he that
shall endure to the end the same shall be saved He that endures
in faith looking to Christ Shall endure to the end what's
my hope because I often wonder if I'm gonna make it I mean the
troubles are so great. The difficulties are so, the
burdens are so heavy. Enemies, my enemies are stronger
than I am. How can I be sure it's going
to endure? Because He is keeping me. Peter says you, chapter 1 Peter
1 verse 5, you who are kept. You are kept. Not by your will,
or your determination, or your positive thinking. That doesn't
keep you. What keeps me is the power of
God. Unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time.
So what then is my hope? Go back to your text and look
at the hope that you're going to be kept. What is my hope that
I'm going to endure to the end? He says I'm going to endure to
the end. What's my hope that He's going to do this? Look at
verse 9. Notice he didn't say, you're going to endure
to the end because you're faithful. You are going to endure to the
end because he is faithful. Here is the foundation you need
to stand on concerning your faith. God is faithful. It was God who
put you in Christ. It was God who redeemed us by
Jesus Christ. It was God who called us into
the fellowship of His Son and it will be God who keeps us. See, then, our union with Christ
was done by the will of God, accomplished by the work of Christ
and by the power of the Holy Spirit as He conforms us to the
image of His Son. That's what it is to be sanctified.
Are you sanctified? Are you sanctified? What does
it say? You are sanctified. You were
set apart by the God, by the will of the Father, You were
set apart by the accomplishment of that sanctification by Jesus
Christ. He accomplished your sanctification. And now the Spirit
of God takes that sanctification, that holiness, and gives it to
you in a new nature. Yours. You are sanctified. Everyone
who is sanctified believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, trusts
implicitly on Him as our High Priest, implicitly on Him as
our sacrifice, implicitly on Him as our surety and all our
salvation. This is confirmed in our hearts. The Spirit of God beareth witness
with our spirit that we are what? We are sons of God. And if sons
of God, then heirs of God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And
who's going to take this from me? Who's going to take it from
you? If you are sanctified, who is
going to make you unsanctified? That which is born of God, sin
is not. When is it going to sin? Because the day it sins, you're
not sanctified. What is he going to say? It won't. It was made
of God. After true holiness. And when
this old man falls to the dirt, what's going to heaven? The very
nature he created. And it's me! It's amazing, it's me! I'm going
to heaven! And one day he'll raise that
flesh. And he'll make it holy. See he sanctified that too. Isn't
that amazing? Sanctified this, this thing that's
going to die and go to the ground and be eaten by worms and it's
been sanctified so that when it comes time it's all going
to come back together in a perfect, be a perfect body because I'm
sanctified and this is confirmed. I believe this to be true. I
believe in Jesus Christ and I have hope I have confidence that we
are going to make it. Everyone that Christ died for
is going to make it. He said, All the Father giveth me shall
come to me. And it come to me, I will in no wise cast out. Oh,
I would that everyone that hears this gospel come to Christ. When
they do, you're the church of God. You are sanctified, you
are confirmed, and you are preserved. This is what we should be preaching
constantly. Why? Because this comforts God's
people. This comforts us. Who then shall
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? Who? Paul said, neither tribulation,
nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor peril, nor nakedness,
nor sword. In other words, anything outside
of me is not going to separate me. nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor life! Anything that
happens in this life! Nor death! Death is not going
to separate me from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus.
I'm persuaded of this, aren't you? Paul was persuaded because
this Gospel was confirmed in him. It's confirmed in us that
we shall persevere. I do pray God will bless this
to you. Let's go to him in prayer. Gracious
Father, I do beg your mercies and kindnesses upon us, that
you would be gracious to keep these men and this church, Father,
that you have established. I do pray, Father, that you would
give them a faithful pastor, preach the gospel of Jesus Christ
constantly to them, to affirm these things constantly. We pray, Father, that You would
use us for Your own glory, and no glory given to the preacher
or the hearer, but all the glory belongs to You. You sanctify
us. You confirm this in us, and You
keep us. Help us and give us thankful
hearts. Forgive us our sins, and we beg these things in Jesus'
name. Amen.