You're looking at verse 10 through
verse 17. 17 will be my text, but I want
us to read from verse 10 down to verse 17. I've entitled this,
The Purpose of Pastors, or The Purpose of Preachers. The Purpose
of Preachers, I think that's a better title. The Apostle writes, Now I beseech
you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you
all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among
you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, By them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every
one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I am
of Cephas, and I am of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified
for you? Or were you baptized in the name
of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and
Gaius, lest any should say that I baptized in my own name. I
baptized also of the household of Stephanas. Besides, I know
not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with words of wisdom, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect. Now, in writing
this letter to the Church of God, you remember that Paul exhorted
them first of all. I tell you, we need exhortation.
We need comfort. Before there's any instruction,
I think we need comfort, first of all. We need to be reminded
of what we have and our standing in Christ. He calls them sanctified
in Jesus Christ. Remember, that's sanctified by
the Father in election, sanctified in the work of the redemption
by the Son, and sanctified in the calling of the Holy Spirit. And in verse 4, Paul reminds
them the cause of their sanctification. He says, I thank my God always
on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by
Jesus Christ, that in everything you are enriched by Him, in all
utterance and in all knowledge. Every one of you this night that
are sanctified, you that are called, do you not know it was
by the grace of God? Do you not know that you are
enriched in everything? Paul said, I am rich, I have
need of nothing. That's true. What do you need
in righteousness? You don't need any righteousness.
He has all your righteousness accomplished. We need nothing
in our standing before God. Christ has enriched you in everything
that is necessary. We are enriched, not in ourselves,
not by our works, but by His grace. You are enriched. And
you are not only enriched in righteousness and peace with
God, but you are enriched in knowledge. Don't you realize
how much knowledge you have? Do you not know that salvation
is by grace through faith in Christ alone? Do you realize
that no one else besides the elect understand and know this?
I'm not talking about a head knowledge. I'm talking about
that knowledge that is in your heart, that God has placed there,
that you are a son of the living God. Remember, His Spirit testifies
with our spirit. That's what Paul says about this
confirmation. That Spirit of God testifies
that we are His. And remember, the evidence of
that is what? Faith. Faith in Christ is the
evidence of that. In verse 8 and 9, Paul comforts
the church, those who are sanctified by the grace of God and enriched
by Christ. He says this, In verse 8, he
says, "...who shall also confirm you unto the end?" He that confirmed
that gospel in you will confirm it unto the end. This is not
a passing thing, friend. This is something that is forever. Forever. He comforts you. "...And
you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." And
here is the cause. God is faithful. Our preservation
is totally dependent upon the faithfulness of God. Remember,
it was God who initiated this salvation, planned this salvation,
purposed this salvation. It's Christ that accomplished
this salvation. It's the Spirit of God that applied
this salvation. And it's the Spirit of God that
keeps this salvation. Therefore, it is by the faithfulness
of God you shall be confirmed to the end. Every believer, I know this,
is often plagued with doubt. We are plagued by them daily,
constantly. How often have you been on the
mountaintop as though you would never have another doubt? And
the moment you look within, what happens? Doubt and fear assault
you and overwhelm you. They do. And this is because of the old
man that is still remaining in us, that old man of sin. Do you
realize we can't defeat that man? We can't do anything about
it. We have no strength. He is stronger
than we are. What is our strength to overcome
Him? It is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is the Spirit
of God in you that gives you strength to mortify that old
man. But one thing we know this, He
ain't going nowhere. We sure want him to. But he ain't
going nowhere until he goes to the grave. He's staying right
with you until the end. But this is your hope. God is
faithful. I'm so thankful that he said
you. He said he didn't say anything like you're faithful. I said
God is faithful. I like this. I read this in Deuteronomy
chapter 7. It says, No, therefore, the Lord
thy God, He is God, the faithful God. He keepeth covenant and
mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandment to a
thousand generations. God is faithful. God is faithful. Isn't this encouraging to you?
This is what is intended by the Apostle, first of all, before
he gets to their troubles, before he gets to all their difficulties,
he encourages them in this truth. God is faithful to save you.
God is faithful to make you to endure. Another place in Deuteronomy,
God says, He is the rock. His work is perfect. His work
is perfect. For all His ways are judgment. A God of truth without iniquity,
just and right is He. His work is perfect. You who
are called in the fellowship of Jesus Christ, you should know
this. His work is perfect. It doesn't lack anything. And so then every believer who
is in union with Christ, that is all His church, every believer,
I want you to understand, Paul here is telling us this, that
you are one. You're one with Christ. You're
called into fellowship, into union with Christ. But what is
the effect of being in union with Christ is that we are together
in union with one another. You and I and every believer
that ever was and all the believers that are now and all the believers
that shall be are one complete body. One in union. Now Paul here then establishes
the immutability of these truths look at verse ten he said because
of these truths i think i i like in this to what he did in in
in romans chapter twelve he said now therefore i beseech you because
of all i said before now this is this is what he's leading
to now i beseech you because of all this i beseech you brethren
by the name of our lord jesus christ That you all speak the
same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined together and of the same mind and the
same judgment. Paul said this, he said, I'm
beseeching you by the authority of the one you call Lord. You who believe, do you bow down to Lord Jesus
Christ? Is there any greater authority
than His name? You notice Paul didn't say, I
beseech you by my authority. He said, I beseech you by the
authority of the one you worship, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that there be no division among you. None whatsoever. But sadly, sadly
there were divisions. There were divisions. Sadly,
there were believers in Christ who were not speaking the same
thing, who were not of the same mind. Some of these saints were
dividing themselves. Now, they were dividing themselves
concerning preachers. Concerning preachers. Look what
he says in verse 11. For it hath been declared of
me of you, my brethren, by them of the house of Chloe, that there
is contentions among you. Now I say this, that every one
of you that saith, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I am
of Cephas, and I am of Christ. Some of these saints made distinctions
among the men God sent them. God sent them men to preach the
gospel of Christ to them, and they started to exalt the preacher. They started to elevate the man
speaking rather than the one he was speaking about. One said, I'm of Paul. Paul had
such great gifts. You know, I would have loved
to have heard Paul preach, wouldn't you? It would have been wonderful
to hear that man preach. God's man used mightily more
than any other man in the New Testament age. He had been used
of God greatly. He had great knowledge. And so
you can hear them say this, well, I like Paul. He's my favorite. He's my favorite. I desire to
hear Paul. I was saved under his preaching
and I like to hear him. He's got all this knowledge and
can delve into the deep things of God. I love that. You know
what that is? All that is is tickling your
flesh. Another one said, I'm of Apollos.
Oh, he's so gifted to speak. Oh, he speaks and it sounds like
angels. They said that of, I think it
was someone said that Whitfield spoke so eloquently he would
bring you to tears by saying Mesopotamia. Oh, I love the way he sounds
so beautiful. His preaching is so smooth and
eloquent. Others like Peter. Oh, Peter
was rough. He was a common man's preacher.
He didn't speak in high language. He spoke very, very abrupt. He was a common man. They say, I don't care for so
much high learning. I just like a man who can speak
to the people. While still others had no desire
to hear any of God's preachers, this self-righteous piety, they
said, I'm of Christ. I'm of Christ. I don't need to sit under any
man. I just desire to hear the voice of Christ. I'll sit in
my room and hear Christ. And I tell you that this issue
that plagued this church is still plaguing the church. I'm not
talking about the lost church. I'm not talking about the church
outside of God's church. I'm talking about this plague's
God's church. If you look into your own heart, you'll find that
plague. Every time I look into my own
heart, I find that plague of trying to exalt a man rather
than Christ. This plague, it runs throughout
the church There are men that God have used in our lives that
we love dearly, and we love to hear and preach the gospel of
Christ. But when some other man comes that we don't necessarily
like, we usually find excuse as the reason not to hear him. We usually find fault in these
men. Well, he's too long-winded. He's just too long. I can't sit
under that. The other man, he's just too
plain. He has a monotone voice. I just can't hear him. The other man says, well, his
voice is too smooth. I need somebody loud. I need
somebody to thunder from the pulpit. I don't like somebody
soft-spoken. And then you hear somebody say,
well, man, that guy's too loud. He's got to quiet down a little
bit. He's too loud. I can't listen
to that. Boy, some people, you don't realize
how many people get hung up on grammar and syntax. Boy, I just can't hear somebody
that misuses grammar. and you got other people i've
known this by experience some of them they say well i'm of
christ these are the people i remember being asked uh... become preach
this group of people at out the middle i mean it just almost
in nowhere mail it just I think it was at least 400, 500 miles
from where I was. They asked me to come and preach
for them. And every time I would come and preach. Now these people,
they loved, they listened to Don on CD. They had DVDs and
they'd watch DVDs every week. But they were without a pastor
and every once in a while they'd invite pastors up there to preach
to them. And I noticed this, that every
time I came up there to preach, there were just certain people
who wouldn't come. They wouldn't come. They would rather hear Brother
Don. And to tell you the truth, I
guess I don't blame them. I don't like hearing me either.
I'm just saying that this is something that plagues us. We
always have this tendency to exalt the man rather than the
message, rather than the Christ that the man is sent to preach. We must confess that this is
in all of us. And we are prone to hear preachers
we love, we are prone to exalt men that we prefer, instead of
exalting Christ and hearing that these gospel these men are preaching.
I've even known believers to sit, uh, refuse to sit under
any preacher. They sit out in the wilderness
all alone and make excuses as to why they can't join themselves. But the real reason is they just
can't, they just can't submit and sit under a man. And so they
get a DVD. Now how easy is it to submit
to a DVD? or a CD or an internet message. Well, you really don't have to
submit to anything. You can cut it off if you want to. One thing
about it, you're sitting here, you can't cut me off. You can
get up and leave, but you can't cut me off. And so some men sit alone, and
they say like, I'm of Christ. And Paul answers this error in
verse 13. He says, Is Christ divided? Was
Paul crucified to you? Or were you baptized in the name
of Paul? That's the first thing he says. Is Christ divided? Is
there any imperfections in the body of Christ? Is there any
separation between God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit? Any separation at all? Any division? Is one of them seeking preeminence
over the other? No, they're all worthy of preeminence.
Every one of them. All the sacred persons of the
Trinity are worthy of worship and praise. There's no separation
in His person, in His mind, His heart, or His will. Even so,
believers, we must see this. We are one in Him, and there
should be no division among us. Joanne, I have no greater righteousness
than you do. I have no greater Savior than
you do. I have no greater position than you do. We're one. I have
an office. I'm a different part of the body,
but yet there is no exalting this part over any other part. We're not to exalt each other.
We're to exalt Christ. Now, Paul handles this more greatly
in chapter 3, and so I'm not going to spend so much time.
But let's go over there to chapter 3. Paul deals with this matter
in greater detail. I'm just going to read over this,
because I want you to see that this is necessary for us to learn. Verse 3, Paul says, "...you are
yet carnal. Whereas there is among you envying
and strife and divisions, are you not carnal and walk as men?"
For while one saith, I'm appalled, another appalleth, are you not
carnal? Who then is Paul? And who is appalleth but slaves,
ministers, servants, By whom you believe, even the Lord gave
to every man. I planted, Apollos watered, but
God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, nor he that watereth." So what are we? What are preachers? We are not anything. We deserve no glory. No praise. All the glory and
praise belong to God. If anything is said that blesses
your heart, feeds your soul, all the glory and praise belongs
to God for it. Nothing belongs to us. Not unto
us. Not unto us, O Lord, but unto
thy name be glory. not us who is Fred Evans, who
is Don Fortner, who is Clay Curtis, who is Tim James, who is Donnie
Bell, who is Bruce Crabtree, we're nobodies and nothings a
vessel a pot God pours in and pours out that's it no praise
no glory here we are ministers of the gospel to God belongs
all the glory we're ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ
and we're set to be overseers of the flock of God but not your
Lord's I am not your Lord you have one Lord my Lord Jesus Christ
we care for your soul we feed you with the Word of God But to God be the glory. To God
be the glory. Let us be careful about this
matter, so as we do not exalt one man above another. Let us not be followers of men,
but followers of God and His Son. So then why are there divisions?
Why would we exalt one preacher above another? It is nothing but pride. It is nothing but envy. And it
causes nothing but strife. Now, with this here in mind,
I bring you to the subject, my text. Look at verse 17. Look
at verse 17. Paul says this, He gives us the single object
then of these nobodies and nothings, these preachers sent of God to
you. He gives us the purpose of these
preachers. So as you're not to exalt them,
but yet they have a purpose. They have a mission. And this
is it. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. Now, the
first thing I want to see is that all preachers are sent.
Paul said, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the
gospel. All preachers are sent of God. Pastors are not made,
preachers are not made in seminaries. Nor is the preaching of the gospel
a career choice or a profession. We have so many professional
preachers today. That's a profession, friends.
That's what men do. They go out, and they go to high
school, and they get a guidance counselor, and they can talk
good. They seem to like the Bible a lot, and the counselor says,
well, you need to be a preacher. And so he goes off to school,
and he gets a degree, and he starts to learn, and he thinks
he's a preacher because he's learned something from a college. There are too many professional
preachers. They're great men of learning
and great abilities to communicate. They have great many degrees.
And they're held in high esteem by their communities. But listen,
none of these things qualify a man to preach the gospel. I
don't care what kind of gifts you got. I don't care what kind
of wisdom you have. I don't care what kind of learning you have.
One thing qualifies you for the gospel, if God calls you. If
God sends you, that alone qualifies you to go. God, who sends His
men, equips them with what they need. But there are so many that have
been sent, that have ran, that have not been sent. Go to Jeremiah chapter 23. Look
at Jeremiah chapter 23. Let's see what God says about
men that run without being sent. Jeremiah chapter 23 and verse
21, God says of false prophets, He said, I have not sent these
prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet
they prophesied. Verse 26, How long shall this
be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they
are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, which think
to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams, which
they tell every man his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten
my name for Baal. The prophet that had a dream,
let him tell his dream. He that hath my word, let him
speak it faithfully. God says, look, if I didn't send
you and you ran, this will be your message. It will be a message
of your own heart. False prophets, they preach,
but they always preach a message of their own heart. They preach
a message of their dreams, imaginations, and visions. What's the distinction
here? God says, I am against them that
preach these dreams, and visions, and their imagination, and they
will not profit My people at all. What's the difference? God's men who are sent do one
thing, they preach His Word. Now what He said? He said, look,
He that hath a dream, ye go let him tell that dream. He that
hath my word, let him speak it faithfully." When God sends a
man, he has one purpose. He has one purpose, and that
is to preach the Word of God. To preach the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. These are the ones sent. This
is my second point of this. The purpose, then, of those that
are sent. To preach Christ. Paul said, Christ sent me not
to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now let's handle this
first thing, this negative. Paul said, Christ sent me not
to baptize. What does this mean? He's saying that Christ does
not send preachers to baptize. Do you realize that? I'm not sent to baptize. We do
baptize, gladly. We do so because that is the
command of our Lord. Go you into all the world, what's
the first thing? Preach the gospel to every creature,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit. Yes, we baptize. Now what Paul
is not saying, he's not making light of baptism, nor is he not,
he's not saying that baptism is not necessary. Now some men
will just take that to extreme. Well that's, he's just saying
you don't need to be baptized. That's not what he's saying at
all. Every believer knows the importance of baptism. We know
that this is a command of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that
we, when we believe, we were baptized according to his command. I tell you, according to the
Word of God, baptism is important. You know why? It is the only
means of public confession. That's it. This idea of walking
down the church aisle and shaking the preacher's hand is all made
up. It's not in Scripture. That is not a confession of faith. A confession of faith is through
the ordinance of baptism. That is your public confession.
I must also tell you this, water cannot save. How many of you
seen, how many of your own family have you seen been baptized?
And where are they? Like the dog returns to his vomit,
that's where they went. They come in, they clean up for
a while, they want to get baptized. I baptized some of them. What'd
that do? Nothing. Nothing. Baptism waters they cannot save. They're only a picture. They're
only a type. So what is Paul saying? He's
saying this, that the primary purpose of preachers is not to
seek the conversion of men and baptisms. It is not our aim or
mission to get people to join the church and fill the pews.
It is not our mission to gain followers and build churches. this is the purpose of those
who are not seen what is go to ask you ask a pastor uh... pastor
of a free will baptist church of this generation see what their
purposes they got they had a mission statement you can read their
mission statement is to make disciples for jesus They want
to make converts, just like the Pharisees desired to make converts. Jesus told them, He said, you
compass land and sea to make one proselyte. And when you've
made him, you've made him two-fold more a child of hell. That's
what they're doing. Their idea is to gain followers,
to build churches, to gather numbers, to make converts. That's
not the business of preaching. Not those who are sin of God.
It is the goal of every man's sin of God to do one thing, preach
Christ Jesus and Him crucified. Regardless of the outward results,
upon those that hear it we preach only the gospel of christ because
it is the only means god has chosen to save sinners look at
that go back to your text look at verse twenty one of chapter
uh... one paul tells us this for after that the wisdom of
god the world by wisdom do not god yet pleased god now why it
please god by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe why do we preach two words In three words, it pleased
God. That's the only thing you can
say. It pleased God. I don't need anything else. This
is it. Now to this world and in its
religion, preaching of the cross is foolishness. I can't tell you how many people
I run into when I'm preaching the gospel, they just get bored
of hearing this over and over again. They say, surely you've
got to have something else. Surely you've got to move on
from this. Everybody knows that. Move on. Do something else. Nope. No man's sin of God will ever
move away from this gospel. Paul said he came not to baptize,
not to make converts, not to build churches, but to preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now listen, I desire as a preacher
of the gospel to see many come to Christ. I am not saying we
don't want men to come to Christ. Paul, like Paul, he says, my
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel, Israel, his whole
nation of Israel, is that they be saved. That is our heart's
desire. But the moment I start seeking
converts, I have to change the gospel to get them. i'm not going
to do that we preach the gospel of jesus christ faithfully constantly
we desire men to come and our chief charge is not to make converts
but we recognize that's the work
of god listen i'm not going to save anybody in this room i'm
not going to save anybody on that video i'm not going to say God has to save you. That's not
my business. I'm not in the business of saving
people. I'm in the business of telling you that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, that if you need to be saved, I'm
just a... One preacher said he's a pointing
dog. That's all he is. He said, I'll just point you
to Christ. I ain't got nothing else to do. Point you to Christ. If you need to be saved, I'm
here to point you to Christ. But I can't save you. Go to 1st
2nd Timothy. Look at 2nd Timothy chapter 4.
2nd Timothy chapter 4. Look at verse 1. Paul says, I
charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Speaking of
this young pastor, he says, I charge thee before God and the Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead as it
is appearing in kingdom. Well, what's this charge, Paul?
Preach the Word. What does that mean? Preach the
whole counsel of God, which is the center and sum is the cross
of Jesus Christ. How? Be instant. That's how you
preach it. Instantly. Be always prepared,
always looking for every opportunity to preach this gospel. When?
In season and out of season, when men will hear it and men
won't hear it. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine. Why? For the time will come when
they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust heap
to themselves teachers having itching ears, they shall turn
away their ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables."
Doesn't this sound familiar? Anybody have any... Can't you
see that this is our nation, that this is our time? They have
turned away from the truth, to fables, to lies. and then hearing the gospel our
country's full of preachers that no not the gospel and no not
christ they preach they preach anything and everything but christ
they'll preach marriage family finance politics anything but
christ and on nothing of god's election
they know nothing of man's depravity nothing of christ perfected were
perfect work nothing of the effectual work of the spirit Why? They are not sent. A man sent
of God will always have this. He will always preach the gospel. Now look at this second thing.
Try to hurry at this point. Paul says, Christ sent me not
to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Listen to this, not with wisdom
of words, lest the cross of Christ be made of none effect. There
is a way of preaching the gospel without preaching the gospel.
You know that? There's a way. Men do it all
the time. These professional preachers,
that's what they do. They preach from this book without
preaching the gospel. Why? They use what is called
wisdom of words. Now, what is wisdom of words?
Here's one way a man uses wisdom of words. It's to leave out certain
doctrines. So it's not what they're saying,
it's what they're not saying. That's the problem. I remember
listening to some of these men. You can hear them and you say,
well, that's true. Well, that's true. And that's
true. But man, something's wrong with
this message. I know something. The alarm bells
are ringing off in our head and our heart. We know that this
message is nothing. It has a form of godliness about
it, but there's no substance in it. There's something missing.
It's because they refuse to tell you certain things. Let's go
through a couple of these. Sin. They preach about sin. False preachers preach about
sin, don't they? They call men sinners. They say
sinners need to be saved. But what are they missing? They're
missing this, that man is not just a sinner by what he does,
but a sinner by who he is. Sin is not what we do, and righteousness
is not what we don't do. Sin is a matter of our nature. They're missing. They omit this
part. This is the words of wisdom. The words of the wisdom of this
world is that they omit the depravity of man. What does God say? God
says the whole head is sick. And the whole heart is faint.
From the top of your head to the bottom of your feet is nothing
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. What does God say about
man's righteousness? Your righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. This neglect to preach the total
depravity of man and the nature completely removes the effectiveness
of the cross. If you miss this, what did one
man say? If you miss this first point,
you miss it all. You're wrong on the fall, you're
wrong on it all. That's what they say. You miss
on this point, you're wrong on it all. Don't you see why their gospel
has no effect, no real effect on the heart of men? Because
they don't believe man is depraved. The second thing they omit is
the sovereignty of God. Our men claim they believe in
the sovereignty of God. What do they mean by that? They
say, well, if everything's going good, that's of God. If I've
got health, wealth, and prosperity, that's of God. But if something
bad happens to me, something wrong, if my children get sick,
or God forbid, my children should die, well, that just can't be
of God. Wrong? You see, they're omitting something
here, because God is sovereign over all things. over all things
listen what that men what he did that all he thinking now
he thinking put him in a dust for seven years made me grass
and when i came got up god gave him some game is is mine back
he said this all the inhabitants of the earth reputed as nothing
and he dot according to as well in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his handers
and him what do is that that's god Amos 3 and verse 6 says,
Shall the trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not
be afraid? Shall there be evil in the city, and hath not the
Lord done it? Oh, friends, everything that
happens in time and eternity is according to the will of God,
the sovereign hand of God, but especially salvation. Isn't that
right? This is the one thing they omit
the most, that salvation is of the sovereign mercy of God. that
God the Father purposed our salvation in sovereign election, chose
us in sovereign love and mercy, gave us and put us into union
with Jesus Christ, according to what? Not the merits of our
flesh, but according to His sovereign mercy. They omit this, and what's
the result? Their gospel is none effect.
We preach the sovereignty of God. Next, they omit the perfect
work of Christ. They say that Jesus died on the
cross. We believe that. That you need to be washed in
the blood of Jesus. We believe that. What are they
omitting? They're omitting this fact that
Jesus' work was actually successful. He actually accomplished. This
is what we preach. We preach that this Christ came
and was successful to accomplish salvation for all the elect of
God. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him, and put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hands. Success. Success. Words of wisdom preach,
leave out the effectual work of the Spirit. They think the
Spirit's out there trying to save people. Well, the Spirit's
moving this morning. we gotta get they get they they
they put out what do you think they they make their uh... services
so attractive entertainment music why do they do this because they
need to help the spirit movie i don't know a spirit like that
you i know the spirit of god that
is all powerful wind bloweth where it listeth," you can hear
the sound, but you can't tell where it's coming. So is everyone
that is born of the Spirit of God. We believe in the effectual
working of the Holy Spirit. And this is true, this is comforting
for preachers because we know this, that all those that God
purposed to save, the Spirit will save. Jesus said, those
that the Father had given me, I shall lose nothing, and raise
it up again at the last day. Those who preach salvation by
works, plus free will, they're never content. You ever figure
that out? They're never content. Always got to do something else. Something more. But that's not our message. Our
message is this. It is finished. Our message to sinners is this.
All is ready. You know what you have to bring?
Nothing. When something's all ready, you
bring nothing. And to bring something is an
offense. to bring something is exclaiming
that God is a liar. No, we are not sent to baptize, to
make converts. We are sent for one purpose,
to preach the successful gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ be made of none effect. Therefore, let us be faithful. May God make us
faithful to continue in our one thing, preaching the Word. May God keep us from ever exalting
the one who preaches, and always exalt the one that is preached. Jesus Christ Christ is all Christ is all And if Christ is
all I don't have any desire to preach anything else May God keep us May God make
us to enjoy this gospel and feed on it. I pray you will. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.