Turn with me, if you would, to
Proverbs chapter 14. Proverbs 14. Verse 12 says, There is a way which seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. There is a way that seems right
to man. Every man has a way. Isn't that right? Every man has
a way. Solomon repeated, God repeated
through Solomon that same verse in Proverbs 16 verse 25. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the waves of death. Men and
women have themselves convinced that their way of salvation is
the right way. That's a pretty easy statement
to make, isn't that right? Men and women have themselves
convinced that their way of salvation is the right way. But if it is
not the way, then their end will be destruction. Now look with
me if you would back a few pages to Psalm 25. Psalm 25 verse 8. It says, good and upright is the Lord. Therefore will he
teach sinners in the way." The way. Not a way. The way. John cried, prepare
ye the way of the Lord. Isn't that what he said? Isn't that what God told him
to say? Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Our Lord said straight
is the gate, not a gate. Straight is the gate and narrow
is the way which leadeth unto life. And every time we come
to this. It just gets a hold of me. He
said, few there be that find it. That's sobering. Sobering. Turn with me, if you
would, to John 14. John 14 verse 4, Our Lord said,
And whither I go, you know, and the way you know. Thomas saith
unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know
the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way. The truth and the life, not a truth and
not a life, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the
Father but by me. There is one way. There is one
truth. that produces life. Any man or woman can have access
to it. Any man or woman can know it. If. I put a big circle around
that word. I like to circle stuff and draw
arrows to it. If. God will reveal it to him
in the word. Any man can know it, any woman
can know it, if God will reveal it to him or her in the Word. Now go with me, if you would,
to the text where our brother read a minute ago. 2 Corinthians
chapter 2. I want to begin with verse 17.
2 Corinthians 2 verse 17. For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God. This word is perfect. It's perfect. Every word in the
scripture is in complete union with all the other words in the
scripture. Complete total union. This is
one unified word, the word of God. No two verses contradict
each other. That's important to know. That is important to know. No
two verses contradict each other. All of the verses support each
other. and point us to the one way of
salvation, all of them. Any deviation from the one message
of the one way is a corruption of the scriptures. Any deviation
is a corruption of the word of God. According to the internet,
and we know, we all know how reliable the internet is. It's
always right, isn't it? According to the internet, it's
estimated that there are 38,000 different Christian denominations
in the world. That just falls under Christianity. If that is true, 37,999 of us are wrong. We're one of
them, aren't we? Aren't we? We're in the 38,000.
37,999 of us are wrong and we will end up in destruction. That's not a prideful thing to
say. That's not an arrogant thing
to say. It's just the truth. It's just the truth. It can't
be any other way. If there's one truth, I don't
care what happens. I don't care what it is. There's
always one truth in the matter. If there is one truth, if there
is one way, If 38,000 of these different
beliefs are different, then it means 37,999 of them have to
be wrong. Isn't that right? If there's one way. And 37,999
of us are going to end up in destruction. Straight is the gate, narrow
is the way, few there be that find it. Now, are we right? Everybody assumes they are right. Do you think this is a good question?
I do. I don't want to go meet God without
asking this question. How can we know? How can we know
that we are holding to THE way? Verse 17 says, We are not as many which corrupt
the Word of God. If you have a margin in your
Bible, it says deal deceitfully. We don't deal deceitfully with
the Word of God. We don't twist it and try to
make it insinuate that we are not sinners. Do we? It says we're sinners. And we say truth. Isn't that right? Truth. Period. Look with me at Romans 3. Back
a few pages to Romans 3. Verse 23, Romans 3.23 says, For all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. What that means
is nobody stacks up. That's what it means. Look at
verse 10. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. None. Well, apparently you haven't
met my grandmother. None. Well, you sure haven't
met my neighbor. None. Verse 11 says, There's none that
understandeth, there's none that seeketh after God. They are all
gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable.
There's none that doeth good. No, not one. What do we say to that? What
do we say to that? Truth. Truth. We do not twist the scripture
to put salvation into our hands, do we? And you think about this. The Word of God says salvation
is of the Lord. That's exactly what it says.
Isn't that right? Salvation is of the Lord. It's his to give to whoever he
wants, whenever he wants. Turn over a few pages to Romans
9. Verse 11. For the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve
the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now, what do we say to that? What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid, for he saith to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy and I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth. Nor of him that runeth. But of
God, that show with mercy. For the scripture said to Pharaoh,
that evil man, Moses kept saying, God says, let my people go. And
if you don't, I'm going to send the next plague on you. And he
wouldn't do it. The Scripture saith unto Pharaoh,
Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might
show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt
say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath
resisted his will? Nay, but O man, who art thou
that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honor and another unto dishonor? What do we say to that? Truth. That's the truth. We do not twist the scripture
to try to make it insinuate that any glory for anything should
go to us. The scripture says, if any man
glory, let him glory in the Lord. Isn't that what it says? Truth. Truth. All right. Now look with me back
at Second Corinthians two. Verse 17 says. For we are not as many which
corrupt the word of God. But as of sincerity in honesty. I mean, honesty. We're honest
with the Word. When you get honest with the
Word, all it does is it tears the flesh down. It just tears
the natural man down. The only way to get honest with
the Word is to honestly say, I must decrease. That's the only
way to get honest with the Word. He must increase, I must decrease. We are honest with this Word.
We declare what it says. We don't have an opinion on what
it says. That's important. God's people
are the only people on earth who do not have an opinion on
what it says. We only declare what He says. Our Lord does not write with
trickery. He does not write with guile. We read everything in
the context of what he's saying. I love John 3.16. You know, people
love to throw that up. Well, what about John 3.16? Amen! Thank God he saved more people
than the little country of Israel. He sent it all over the world.
Or we couldn't be saved. Revelation says, out of every
kindred, tribe, nation, tongue, He's had mercy on the whole world.
Isn't that wonderful? Thank you, Lord. But you've got
to read what's before John 3.16 and after John 3.16 to understand
that. You've got to understand John
3.18 before you can really rejoice in John 3.16. So we take all
of the scripture in the context of what he said, but he wrote
it in such a way that a child can understand it. I thank thee,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you've hid these things
from all those scholars and revealed them unto babes. Thank you for
doing that, because that's what I am, a little baby. That's what
Solomon said he was. I'm a child. We're honest with this word.
We don't have an opinion on this word and we handle it as it's
written in sincerity. We do not hold to one and reject
another verse in the word of God. That's a huge difference. Every denomination goes through
the word of God and hand selects the verses that they believe
support their opinion. And then they gather up all of
their verses on their side. We're going to go to war with
these verses. And then another denomination will gather up the
verses that they think supports their opinion. And now they've
got the word of God fighting with the word of God. The word
of God doesn't do that. It's in perfect agreement with
himself. So as this side says, I hold to these verses, I say,
amen. I'm with you. And as this side
says, I hold to these verses. I say amen. I'm with you. The Apostle Paul said, the way
that they call heresy is the exact way I worship the God of
my fathers. Believing all things which are
written in scripture. All of it. All of it. We deal
with it honestly. We deal with it in sincerity.
Verse 17 goes on to say, We are not as many which corrupt the
word of God, but as of sincerity, as of God, we handle this word
as the word of God. We don't handle it as a good
suggestion. This word is absolute. This word is final. This word
is unchanging. It does not change with the times.
Well, that was then, but this is now. It's unchanging. Verse 17 says we handle it in
the sight of God. We don't add anything to it.
We don't take anything from it. And the reason is because God
is watching us handle it. That's fearful, isn't it? We don't fear man in the declaration
of it. God is watching us handle it. If the fear of God ever sets
in, the fear of man won't be a problem anymore. Verse 17 says we handle it in
sincerity as of God in the sight of God. Speak we in Christ. Now, if you have a center margin
in your Bible, that word in translates of. We speak of Christ. Christ is our message. Christ
is the only message. Christ is the word. Christ is
the way. Christ is the truth, Christ is
the life. Now look with me if you would
at John 5. This is extremely powerful. John 5. John 5, the verse that I want
to show you is verse 39, but let's read verses 40 through
45 so we can understand verse 39. Our Lord right here is talking
to faithful church goers, very faithful church goers, men and
women who don't drink and they don't smoke and they don't cuss
and they never miss a service as long as the doors are open.
Verse 40, he said, and you will not come to me that you might
have life. I receive not honor from men,
but I know you that you have not the love of God in you. He's saying that to the Pharisees.
You think about that. I mean, the Pharisees. Verse 43, I am come in my father's
name and you receive me not. If another shall come in his
own name, him you will receive. How can you believe which receive
honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from
God only? Do not think that I will accuse
you to the father. Now watch this right here. There
is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. Now, look with me at verse 39.
Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life. You look into this word, he's
saying, Well, I'm going to get my Bible out. He's saying you are reading this
word and you are studying this word. And in doing that, you
think you have eternal life. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Got it. Read it. In doing that, you think
you have eternal life. But he just told them, you're
trusting Moses and not me. Isn't that what he just said?
Moses in whom you trust. So he said, go ahead, search
the scriptures. In them you think you have eternal life. What he's
saying is, but you don't. Because you've missed me in them. You've missed the way. You've
missed the message. He went on in verse 39 to say,
They are they which testify of me. In the beginning. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. That's Christ. That's Christ. Christ is heaven. Heaven is not a place. Heaven
is a person. I mean that. If he is not there,
that is not heaven. Eternal life is not an existence. Everybody wants eternal life.
Eternal life is not an existence. Eternal life is a person. The way, this is so important,
the way is not a series of events. The way is a person. If we have him, we have life,
isn't that right? If we have him, we have the way.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The
word of heaven was made flesh and dwelt among us. That's Christ.
All that was done for the foundation of the world in the beginning.
He's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Isn't
that right? God said, let there be light. That's Christ. The light of the world. God told Adam, don't touch the
tree of life. Don't touch it. That is the perfect,
holy, righteous work of Christ. He said, do not try to put your
hand to it. Do not try to add man's works
with God's perfect righteousness. Don't touch it. That's the only
thing I'm telling you is don't mix man's works with Christ's
righteousness. Don't touch it. Adam and Eve
did. And because of it, God said to Satan, the woman's seed is
going to crush your head. That's Christ. The only man who
was ever born, not from man's seed. Alright, that's Christ. This is all Christ. God, because
of that sin, God killed an animal. He took the skin of that animal
and He covered Adam and Eve with it. That's Christ. That's the atonement that covers
the sin of his people. Every account through the scripture,
Noah's Ark, that's Christ. Whoever was inside the Ark was
saved. Whoever was outside of the Ark
was damned. All those inside of the ark were
rained on just like everybody else, but that rain beat that
ark and not them. And in the end, that ark rose,
every person in it all the way to the top. That's Christ. Abraham sacrificing Isaac. That's Christ. We all know the story of Joseph.
He was sold into slavery by his brethren. His own brothers did
that to him. By the end of that story, we
see it was all for the purpose of him being able to provide
for them everything they needed to live. That's Christ. Moses delivered the people out
of bondage. That's Christ. The Passover lamb. That's Christ. The smitten rock. That's Christ. Our substitute. Right? The tabernacle. It's all about
that tabernacle. That's Christ. The altar. That's Christ. The sacrifice
on the altar. That's Christ. The priest who
made the sacrifice. That's Christ. The table of showbread
is Christ. The living bread. That candle
is Christ. That ark of the covenant is Christ. That mercy seat is Christ. Every single bit of it is Christ. All of the laws and the commandments
that Moses wrote, five books, they all reveal the perfect character
and righteousness of Christ. When we meet him, would you like
to know what he is going to be like? Read the Law of Moses. Perfect. Perfect. That's Christ. Just read that
law. David said, oh, I love that law.
That's what I'm going to be like. Joshua conquering all. That's
Christ. Boaz, Ruth's redeemer. That's Christ. King David. That's Christ, God's
anointed king, David wrote with his own heart and pen under the
inspiration and spirit of God, he wrote Psalm 22. How far before
Christ's coming was that? He wrote, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Psalm 22. He wrote, deliver me from this
horrible pit, that's Christ forsaken for his people. all of the wisdom of Solomon.
That's Christ. Isaiah said, Behold my servant,
the rod of Jesse, the root out of dry ground, that's Christ. Jeremiah wrote, I am the man
that had seen affliction. Thank God that's Christ. Stricken, smitten of God and
afflicted. Ezekiel brought good news to
a valley of dry dead bones and they lived. That's Christ. Daniel prophesied of a Messiah
who would come. That's Christ. You remember when
they threw those three men Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the
fiery furnace and Nebuchadnezzar looked in and said, I see four
men. You know who the fourth man was? Hosea took the vilest woman that
could ever be imagined and he married that girl. That's Christ. Who's his bride? Jonah was in the belly of a whale
for three days. That's Christ. Even so must the
Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days. And
then Messiah came, the seed of woman. He fulfilled everything
the Old Testament pointed to. He earned that perfect righteousness. He satisfied that law. He became
the substitute and the sacrifice for his people. On that cross,
he cried, it is finished. We do not twist the scripture
to try and insinuate that salvation is not finished. We don't do
it. Christ said it is finished. After he was in the heart of
the earth for three days, he arose, he ascended back up to
glory, he sat down on the throne, and now Every single time we
see the word God in the scripture, that's Christ. The Father said to Him, Thy throne,
O God, is forever. All judgment has been given to
the Son. That's Christ. These epistles we're going through.
Paul wrote them, the other apostles wrote them. They are written
for the new man that is inside every single one of God's people.
Christ. Christ in us. The only reason good works are
exhorted to us is because Christ is in us. That's the only reason. The scripture says it's all for
Christ's sake. And we don't twist that, do we? As we read His exhortation to
us in good works, we don't take that and put the cart before
the horse again and try to start earning our salvation. Does that
make sense? It's all for Christ's sake. It
is all Christ all the way to the end. The last book in God's
Word, Revelation, that book is not the Revelation of Armageddon. It says it in verse 1. It's the
revelation of Jesus Christ. We preach Christ. That's how we know we're holding
to the way. That's how we know. Now look
with me quickly back in 2 Corinthians 2. I'm done. 2 Corinthians 2 verse
14 says, Now thanks be unto God, which
always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest
the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. Every place
we turn, we're looking for Christ. Verse 15, for we are unto God
a sweet savor of Christ. in them that are saved and in
them that perish. God's people are a sweet savor
of Christ. Christ in them, them in Christ. All they plead before God is
Christ. All they preach and witness to
men is Christ. That's it. Verse 16, to the one
we are a saver of death unto death, and to the other the saver
of life unto life. And that's how we can know if
God has performed a work of grace in us. That's how we can know. Those who will perish when they
hear the message of Christ, I mean Christ alone, His work alone,
His glory alone, when the works of man and the decision of man
and the choice of man is completely taken out of the equation. Those
who will perish will hate that. It'll be a savor of death to
them. But those who are going to live forever, when they hear
the message of Christ alone, His work alone, His glory alone,
and the works of man, and the decision of man, and the choice
of man is completely taken out of the equation. Those who will
live forever will fall in love with that. They will love it,
it will be a savor of life to them. They will give all glory,
all thanks to God. And they'll say with the Apostle
Paul at the end of verse 16, who is sufficient for these things? This has to be by grace, that's
what it means. That's what every child of God
will say. This has to be by grace. It has to be, and it is. And
we hold to it, and we preach it, and we love it, don't we?
We love it. Verse 17, for we are not as many
which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of
God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. We preach Christ. We preach Christ. We'll hold
to that till he returns. Stand together with me.