First Corinthians chapter 1,
we'll be looking at the first nine verses this morning. I've entitled this message in
the form of a question. Are we the Church of God? Are we The Church of God. Now Paul says this in 1 Corinthians
1, he writes, Paul, called an apostle of Jesus Christ to the
will of God, synotheses 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 the Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and
ours." Church of God. Paul calls this church the Church
of God. Church of God at Corinth. Now
in our day, the word church is very loosely used. Church. When people ask you,
where do you go to church? What are they asking? They want
to know location, don't they? They want to know the building
in which you worship in. And most people associate church
with a building. A building. We want to build a building,
don't we? We're worshiping in a building,
but that building and this building is not the church. It is just
that. It is a building and nothing
else. There's nothing sacred about
the building. The only thing that makes this
place sacred is that Christ is here among His people. He's here. So it's not a building. Most
people ask, well, what church do you attend? What are they
asking? They're asking, what denomination do you attend? What's your denomination? And
so they associate church with what? A denomination. Baptist,
Catholic, Pentecostal, whatever. They associate that with a denomination. And they call that church. I know this. We just talked about
this recently, but I've known this of other people as well. There was a believer in Christ,
a man that I know very well, and he's under the sound of the
gospel, and he is in a true church. He's part of a true gospel-believing
church. And this man's son is lost. This
man's son was out in the world and all of a sudden he got religious.
And he started going to a church. And the man said, well that's
good. He's going to church. Now, if it is God's church, then
it is good. But this man was not going to
one of God's churches. He was going to a false church.
And I tell you, it was not good. It's not good. If it's not the
church of God, then it is not good to go. It's not good to
go at all. That's not true. You can't say
that's true just because someone is attending a place called church
does not make it good. So no matter where the building
is located or what type of denomination it is, The church may have a
great structure. It may have a large group of
people. It may be a very popular place to go. It may have many
programs. But unless the church is the
church of God, it is of no value. It's useless and a waste of people's
time, money, and effort. You know what God told Jeremiah?
He said, Jeremiah, concerning those that steal my word, those
who pretend to be my church, he said, they shall not profit
this people at all. That's what God said. Now, all
false religion that are not the church of God, God said they're
of no value. I don't care who goes there.
I don't care how many people they have. I don't care what
it sounds like. If they are not the church of
God, run as fast as you can. And so I must ask then, are we
the church of God? If we are not the church of God,
we are useless as they are. We're of no value to ourselves,
to men, and especially to God. None whatsoever. Are we the church
of God? Now, how can we tell? That's
important. I want to know if I'm just here
pretending. If we're just here playing church,
I don't want to be here. There's no sense in being here.
If I'm not God's man, then you shouldn't hear me. You should
run. You should get out. Because that's
not the church of God. If he's not preaching the gospel
of God, it's not the church of God. Get away from it. So are
we the church of God? Now, I want us to see that in
the gospel, there are three words here for church, one is a universal
church. When God speaks of a church,
oftentimes He's talking about the whole body of believers of
all time. He's talking about those like
Moses and Abraham and when Jesus said this, upon this rock I will
build my, what? Church! Now, he wasn't talking
about just one particular church. He was talking about the whole
elect church of God should be founded upon His righteousness
and blood. And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against who? His church that's founded on
Him. That's talking of the universal,
the whole church. There's a second way it's used,
and it's talking about the local assembly of believers. A local
body of believers, those who are believers in Jesus Christ,
where they assemble together to hear the preaching of God's
Word, sing His praises, and in prayer of their hearts, commune
with God. Now that is what he is talking
to here in Corinth. He says, unto the church of God,
where? At Corinth. Local assembly. Listen, I'm thankful it's not
just at Corinth, don't you? Listen to what he says at the
very end of this. Called saints with all that in
every place call upon the name of the Lord. In other words,
he's saying, look, you at Corinth, I'm writing to you, but this
is really to other local assemblies, to others who believe and are
assembled together as the church. And the third is individually. You are the church. Everyone
who is a believer in Jesus Christ, you are part of this church,
the whole church. And then we are a part of a local
assembly, a church. We here at Redeemer's Grace Church
are just such an assembly. We're local and in this age. But how do we know if we are
the church of God? How do we know if this letter
of promises and graces that Paul writes to Corinth, how can we
know that this belongs to us as well as to them? Well, Paul
gives us several evidences in these verses that we're going
to look at. Several evidences. There are five things that I
see here in these verses that are evidences of the true church,
a true church to whom the promises are given. First of all, The
church of God are those who are sanctified by the grace of God
in Jesus. Look at this in verse 2. He said,
"...unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are..."
What? Sanctified. Where? In Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. Secondly, the
church of God is given the testimony within themselves that they are
the church of God. Look at verse 5. It says that
in everything you are enriched by Him, in all utterance and
in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed,
where? In you. The church has a testimony
within themselves that they are the church. Thirdly, the church
is waiting for Jesus Christ to return. Look at that in verse
7, so that you come behind in no gift waiting for the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Fourthly, the church is blameless.
Look at verse 8, who also confirm you unto the end that you may
be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ and lastly
the church has fellowship with Christ see this in verse nine
it says God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship
of his son Jesus Christ our Lord now take a look at these things
and hopefully God will teach us something about this church
to see if we are so first of all the church of God is sanctified
sanctified in Christ Jesus If this is the church of God and
its members must of necessity be sanctified by the grace of
God in Christ Jesus." Now, this letter to this church
of God who have been sanctified. Now, there are three common errors
about sanctification. I'm going to give them quickly
because I don't want to spend much time on them. Pentecostal has
a view of sanctification that means when God... they believe
that God must give you a second blessing. In other words, you've
got to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues and
all this other stuff, and when you do that, you are sanctified
in that you are completely without sin. Any honest? Just an honest overview
of your past conduct within the last few minutes would disprove
that wrong. Would just totally put... But
they believe that they're without sin. John says if you say you
have no sin, you're a liar. Okay? That's simple. There's
another view of sanctification which is self-righteous view
in that they believe if you separate yourselves from things of the
world that you would somehow become sanctified by this denial
of food or the denial of something that the flesh wants. These are
what Paul said, touch not, taste not, handle not. These are the
kind of people who think that they become holier because they
don't smoke, they don't drink, and they don't like people who
do. So they think that they're sanctified because of this. They've
set apart by their setting themselves apart. Another one that hits closer
to home is the Evangelical Reformed Orthodox view of sanctification. These people believe that you're
saved by the grace of God, that God chose you, Christ redeemed
you, the Spirit called you, but you sanctify you in cooperation
with God. God sanctifies you along with
you sanctify you. Now what does this mean? One
wrote this, that sanctification according to them is a progressive
righteousness. Now think about that. If righteousness
is progressive, doesn't that of necessity mean that it's imperfect? That your righteousness is not
yet complete. And yet this is the Reformed view of sanctification. is that you become more holy
and the flesh becomes less sinful as you sanctify yourselves in
obedience to the moral law of God. Another wrote that sanctification
is personal holiness of the believer. Well, what does the Word of God
teach? That's what I want to know. I don't care what they say. What
does God teach about sanctification? In the Word of God, three different
words are used for sanctification. One means that God set something
apart. God set something apart that
was common for His own purpose, for His own use. In Genesis, you read the first
one, God sanctified the seventh day. Now, what's so special about
Saturday? That's what it was, it was Saturday.
Not Sunday. It's not the Sabbath day. That's
Saturday. Is Saturday longer or shorter
than any other day? Does Saturday have more rain,
less rain, more sunshine? No. It's a common day like all
other days. Yet it is a day that God set
apart for His own purpose, which was, of course, to picture Christ.
He set it apart for that one purpose. Even so, according to
the law, God set aside the firstborn. He sanctified the firstborn.
Now what's the difference between the firstborn, secondborn, thirdborn,
fifthborn of any? No difference. They're commonly
all sinners. They commonly all need salvation
by grace. Yet God says, I'm going to sanctify
the first child because, again, that picture's his son, which
was the firstborn. And even so with God's church.
Even so with God's church. He sanctified it by setting it
apart for Himself in sovereign election. He took that which
was common and set it apart for Himself. Isn't that what He said
in Ephesians? He said, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, listen, to Himself. Why? According Just so you're
not confused as to why. I like when Scripture clarifies
things. Because I get awful confused
when I have to guess. It doesn't make you guess. According
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace. That's why He sanctified you. That's why He chose His
church and set them apart for Himself, to save them. This is
the root of all salvation is that God by grace set apart His
church of people to worship Him. He sanctified them according
to for the praise of the glory of His grace. He took us, which
were common, and made us useful for His service. That's what
the church are. Are you the church? Then you
are of necessity sanctified, set apart by the election of
God's grace. They're those who are elected,
those who are chosen. There's no difference between
us. Who maketh thee to differ, you church of God? Who maketh
thee to differ from another? What hast thou thus not received? All that we've received as the
church is due to the sovereign sanctification of God the Father
who set us apart to be saved by Jesus Christ. That's it. God willing to show his mercy
set us apart, his church, in sovereign election by free grace
alone. We were sanctified by grace. Nothing different between Jacob
and Esau. Not one thing different. Born
of the same father and the same mother, dwelling in the same
womb together, yet God willing to show us His purpose and sanctification
and election. He said, as it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. You see, God sanctified Jacob,
and not Esau. He set him apart for his own
glory to save him, made him accepted. Now is God unrighteous to do
that? No. No. God forbid. It's used to
say he's unrighteous or unfair. Both men deserved hell, and yet
in grace he saved what? He set apart one. Now, the second
way sanctification is used is to declare. Declare something or someone
to be holy. When something is said to be
sanctified, God declared it to be. Take a piece of furniture
in there, you carve out that furniture in the temple, You
could have made twelve of them, right? Could have made a hundred
of them. Yet God sanctified that one and
said what? That's holy. Now how can a piece
of furniture be holy? Because God said so. He declared
it to be holy. He declared it. In the model
prayer, let's use that as a better example, the model prayer, our
Lord said, Hallowed be thy name. Holy be thy name. Sanctified
be thy name. Now, by his declaration, did
he add holiness to God? No, he simply declared a fact
that God is holy. And so when we pray, Hallowed
be thy name, we are simply declaring something that is true. Sanctified
be thy name. something is sanctified, God
declares it to be sanctified, therefore it is sanctified. Even so, the sanctification of
the church in Jesus Christ, all those whom the Father chose in
election, He gave to His Son, that they should be what? Holy. Sanctified. God declares by His giving and
putting them in union with Him. He declares from before the foundation
of the world that they are made holy by their union with Jesus
Christ. The church is declared of God
to be sanctified. Why? Because He sanctified them. They are made holy because He
made them holy by union with Jesus Christ, His Son. And therefore,
the blessed Redeemer, He agreed in the eternal covenant of grace
to make us holy by His work. This had to be done according
to a work that only the Son of God could perform. And now Jesus
Christ has come in the world, assuming our nature as our representative
man. And so, Jesus Christ, in Jesus
Christ, all of the elect are declared to be righteous, made
righteous, made perfect by the blood of the Son of God. They're
declared this. This is something declared even
before it happens to us. Go to Hebrews. Look over to Hebrews
chapter 10. See if this was not declared.
Now when was this written? I'm not going to ask who the
oldest is. I'll get in trouble asking who
the oldest is. But some of you that are older, were you around
when this was written? I know you've not been around
until you got a birthday, but it ain't that long. None of us were there when this
was written and none of us were there when this was performed.
But look at Hebrews chapter 10. It says, by the witch will. Now what is he talking about?
When Jesus Christ came into the world he said, I come to do thy
will, O God. Which was what? To perform the
work. which he had declared to be done
from the beginning, making his children holy, come to save his
children, by the witch will, that covenant will of grace wherein
we are sanctified. How? Through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ. Listen, once for all. Once for
all. We are sanctified. Now what is
he saying? When we were born in the world,
did you have any experience of sanctification yet? No. We didn't experience sanctification
at our birth. We experienced spiritual death.
And we didn't experience that until Christ came into our hearts.
The Spirit came into us. But yet God declares before it
was done. When Christ died, we were sanctified
by the will of God. Through. the blood of Jesus Christ. So what is God saying about His
church? He said, look, I set them apart to be holy and listen
to this, I've declared them to be holy as they are in union
with my Son and as His blood was shed for them, they are holy
in my sight. That's what God says about His
church. Sanctified in my sight. Why? God declared it. God said
so. So by the covenant of grace,
the church is sanctified through the offering of Christ who has
now offered himself as sacrifice for our sins and God is well
pleased with his offering and declares us to be holy. And listen
to this, since you are the church of God and you are holy, listen,
it is because God was never willing to impute your sins to you. There was never a time in all
eternity that God was ever willing to impute your sins to you. Why? He set you apart to be holy,
He declared you to be holy, and He made you holy through blood,
the blood of Christ. He sanctified you. Sanctified
you. He imputed our sins to Christ. I love that hymn. Oh, the love that drew salvation's
plan. Oh, the grace that brought it
down to man. The mighty gulp that God did
span at Calvary to sanctify you, to make you holy. Holy. And third way sanctification
is used is that something is actually made holy. Made holy. Now, when the Israelites were
about to cross Jordan, they performed a ritual ceremony, a ceremony
God said, He said, Purify yourselves. Sanctify yourselves. Now we know
this, that they did not make themselves holy. That ceremony
was only like the Lamb at Passover. It was a picture and type of
the work of God. The Passover was a picture of
Christ's work, but this sanctification here of making holy the nation
of Israel is the work of the Holy Spirit in the object that
God has already sanctified. It is the actual application
of the holiness God has already provided, purposed, and provided
for you. And so all that the Father set
apart, all that the Son has died for and redeemed, the Holy Spirit
will come to and make them, listen, holy. Holy. for all the church of god there's
an appointed time of love if i didn't believe that i wouldn't
be preaching If I thought this was up to you,
or to chance, or something else, we might as well close this thing
up and go home. It is not. God who set them apart,
who made them holy by Christ, will also apply that holiness
to their souls by giving them a new holy nature. A new holy nature. grace of God at the appointed
time he comes and he finds his people engulfed in their sin
having no holiness in themselves and yet by the Holy Spirit and
the power of God he creates in us something holy a new nature
listen what he says in second Thessalonians 2 in verse 13 he
said we are bound to give thanks always to God for you brethren
beloved of the Lord because God at from the beginning chosen
you to salvation now here's the main through sanctification of
the spirit and belief of the truth And how is that? What's the means
of the Spirit of God? Paul said, by our Gospel. By our Gospel. There is no other
way to know that we are a member of the Church of God unless the
Spirit of God calls us to life and faith in Christ. Now listen,
you can be a member of Redeemer Baptist Church, Redeemer's Grace
Church, you can be a member of any other. True Church of God,
you can be a member on the roll. That does not mean anything.
I mean your family member is still on this role somewhere.
Have no interest in the things of God. That means nothing. Nothing. What I'm talking about is the
experience of grace and regeneration of the Holy Ghost. Now as God's preacher, I always
declare to you Jesus Christ. I want everyone here to believe
on Christ. I do with all my soul want you
to trust in Christ and cast away all trust in yourself and believe
on Him. And everyone who believes on
Him, this is the Word of God, they shall be saved. You have
a right then to the to be called sons, isn't that right? As many
as received Him, to them gave He the right to be called the
sons of God. So if you receive Him, you are
part of this church. You believe on Him. But I know
this, this is only going to take place if the Holy Spirit sanctifies
you. If the Holy Spirit comes and
sets you apart. And when this happens, Peter
said this, we are made partakers of the divine nature. You got that? You are partakers
of the divine nature. Let me ask you, does divine nature
get holier? Is that possible? For the divine
nature to increase in righteousness? No. It's sanctified. It's holy. Paul says in Ephesians chapter
4 is that we are created after God in true holiness, true sanctification,
true holiness. And you know what? Jesus said
you must be born again. That which is born of flesh is
what? What is it? It's flesh. It'll live flesh,
it'll die flesh, and there's nothing changed about it. But that which is born of spirit
is spirit. And it can't be flesh. It can't
be tainted. John said this, if you are the
true church of God, you sin not. How can that possibly be when
your flesh is still sitting? You know that. I know that. How
can I be declared holy? God declared me holy. God made
me holy. The Spirit put a holy nature in me. I didn't do anything
with the old flesh. And so, can I say, well, I'm
sinless? Well, that'd be a lie because
I still have this holy nature. But that new one that God made
is absolutely perfectly sanctified and can't get any holier. We
can't. So we are sanctified. I'm going
to run through these other ones I know. I've bit off more than
I can chew. The second one, the church of
God has a testimony of themselves. Look back at your text. See this
in verse 6. Even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you, in you. This matter of sanctification
is not just an academic thing, but is a real effectual thing
that happens to every believer. So that we may know it happened. I know many people say, well,
I don't even know if I'm... I don't know if I'm the church
of God. I remember a preacher, he was dealing with this man,
he was just so down, he couldn't... he said, Obviously you mean that
you don't believe that Christ is God He said oh, no preacher. I know that He said well, I guess
you don't believe Christ came in the flesh then you must you
must not believe that he said no No preacher. I do. I truly
believe he came in the flesh Well, then you believe that Christ
doesn't have a perfect righteousness that He made by His own obedience.
He said, Oh, preacher, I believe He's righteous, perfect. I believe
He's perfect in every way. Well, you must believe then that
His blood didn't have any power to atone for sin. You must believe
that His blood's ineffectual. And He said, Oh, preacher, if
there's any hope for my soul, it is His blood. You must believe, then, that
you must believe you're saved by some measure of your own power
or will or something, some self. Oh, no, preacher, I got nothing. He said, well, what's your problem? What's your problem? You believe
on Christ, don't you? Oh, with all my soul. That's a man's spirit's grace.
That's one who knows, and he has the Spirit of God. Who gave
him the answers for those things? They were not academic. It was
the Spirit of God testifying with his spirit that he was a
son of God. That's what God does. He puts
the Spirit of God. And when this gospel is preached,
we know it's so. I have all knowledge. You know
that? You have all knowledge. What it says is you got all knowledge. You got everything you need to
know. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's it. Is that what testifies
in your spirit? Do you cling to Him with all
your soul? You've got a testimony in you
that you are the church of God. You are sanctified by God. Next thing here is that the church
is waiting on Jesus Christ. Look at this in verse 7, "...so
that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ." The redeemed church of God is
a church of God that has set her affection solely on Jesus
Christ and on nothing of the world. The church of God desires
only to be found in Christ, not having mine own righteousness
of the law. I desire nothing in this world but Jesus Christ. I am looking for his coming.
Are you? Are you waiting for it? That's
what we're doing here, isn't it? This is a preamble of what
heaven is like here. We want this all the time. And
that's what heaven is. It's worshiping Christ all the
time. We're waiting for His coming. Why? Because in this world is
nothing but pain and suffering and tribulation and trials and
difficulties and death and sickness. There's nothing here for us.
I know that flesh clings to this world, it does. That's why Paul
exhorted you, set all your affection, one singular, not plural, affections,
set all your affection on things above, and not on the things
of the earth. That's what the church is doing.
We're waiting for Christ. And until He comes, we are preaching
the gospel of Christ, hoping and waiting to see all of His
sanctified ones come in. You know, I don't know when that
last day is, but I know this, when that last one comes in.
When that last sanctified one comes in, then it's over. Then
he comes. Then the eternal day begins.
We're waiting for that day. We're looking for that day. And
the four things the church is blameless. Look at verse 8. So
shall also confirm you unto the end. Blameless. Now, that you may
be blameless is all italics. Confirm you to the end what?
Blameless. Wasn't that what he determined
at the beginning? That he put us in Christ Jesus?
That you should be holy and without blame. Blame, without blame. Do you realize that there is
no one or anyone that can accuse you before God of any sin? Satan, demons, angels, man, yourself. You will never convince God that
you have one sin to account for. Not one. Listen to what he says
of you. In Psalms, Solomon 4, 7, he said,
Thou art all fair, my love. I like this. There is no spot
in thee. He didn't say there was no wound,
there was no leprosy, there was no scar. He said there's not
even a spot in thee. Why? All of your sin, Christ, bore it away. All of it. Can you count the sins that you've
had this morning? Can you even number them? Number them and see. Just faults
that you weren't thinking of God but yourself. How many? And yet, He sees none of them. God is not willfully ignorant
of your sins. No. He willfully paid for them. And God who is holy cannot demand
twice paid for. once at your bleeding surety's
hand and then again at George's. He cannot do it. He will not
do it. You are sanctified, you church
of God. You are holy in his eyes. You
are spotless and beloved. I know that's not how you see
yourself. But who cares how you see yourself? It only matters how God sees
you. Blameless. Blameless. The last thing is
the Church of God, the true Church of God has fellowship with Christ. Look at this in verse 9, God
is faithful, praise God, by whom you're called into the fellowship
of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. We who are the Church of God
have fellowship with Christ. We have fellowship because we're
in union with Him. We're fellowship because we're
one with Him. God made us so. And all of our
salvation comes from Him to us. And all of the fruit of the Spirit
that we bear, faith, love, hope, joy, peace, meekness, comes from
Him to us. So He gets all the glory. And
we have fellowship with this, so everything that belongs to
him belongs to you. My wife and I have fellowship,
and everything I have belongs to her. How much more is that
concerning us in Christ? How often have you prayed and
not felt His presence? How often have you feared that
you have no fellowship with him. Believe God's word. You who are
sanctified, you always have fellowship with him. And we have fellowship
with him not only by faith but in suffering. Paul said that
I may have the fellowship of his sufferings. We suffer but he is always mindful of our
suffering. We have fellowship with him.
So close is our fellowship that the scripture says he is our
head and we are his body. So now then let me ask you, are
you the Church of God? Are you a member of the Church
of God? Well, have you been sanctified by the election of grace? Have
you been sanctified through the blood of Christ? Have you been
sanctified by the Spirit of God in calling you to faith in Christ
alone? Secondly, are you the Church
of God? Do you have the testimony of
the Spirit of God dwelling in you that you are the sons of
God? That you believe on Christ alone
and that your faith is on Him and His blood as all your acceptance? Then you are the Church of God.
Are you waiting for Christ to return? Are you longing for glory? If you are, you're the Church
of God. Are you blameless in the eyes of God? Not by your
own merits, but by the merits of His blood. You're the Church
of God if you believe God's Word concerning that. You trust in
Him. Are you the Church of God in
that you have fellowship with Jesus Christ? Are you called and separated
from this world to worship Him and Him alone? Are you a member of His church
or not? If you're not, I do even pray now that God the Spirit
would sanctify you and testify of these things. That you should
believe on the Son of God. And all who believe, guess what?
Paul said, all those that believe on Christ with us are the church
of God. And so all the promises that
Paul gives to these churches are ours. We're the church of
God. May God comfort you. May God
bless His church, His people, bless His gospel. I pray that
God would do this. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer, please.