Of my only shame I glory all
the world. Thank you, Stan, Jerry, John. Thank the Lord for that prayer. Only those who have seen Christ
crucified can enter into words like this, that upon seeing Christ
crucified, from my smitten heart with tears, two wonders I confess,
the wonders of His glorious love and my own worthlessness." It
says, my only shame, my glory all the
cross. 1 Corinthians 1, what a chapter. I need to deal with some of the
verses that led up to what Paul preached. Throughout these verses you'll
hear Him talk about the calling, says it many times, called, called,
called. God calls people out of darkness
into His light, out of death into life by the preaching of
the gospel of Christ crucified, by the preaching of the cross.
He calls them. that we will examine ourselves,
is this my calling? Paul said, you see your calling,
brethren. Is this my calling? Have I been
called? And am I calling on Him? Verse 1, Paul said, I'm called.
Called to be an apostle. Apostle of Jesus Christ through
the will of God. And Sosthenes also. It's a call
of the ministry. God called every prophet, every
apostle, every evangelist, pastor and teacher. He calls them and
sends them. Moses was called. He was watching
sheep and the Lord called him, didn't He? Moses didn't want
to go. You're going. Jeremiah said,
I'm too young. He said, I made your mouth. Elisha
was plowing with 24 oxen. He was a pretty busy man, wasn't
he? He dropped it all. That's what happens when the
Lord calls a man. He drops everything. Sacrifices
everyone and everything and goes to preach the gospel. And like
Paul said, I'm separated under the gospel of Christ. Called
to preach the gospel. He said, this is under the church
of God at Corinth. And to them that are sanctified
in Christ Jesus, called. Those are called saints. And
with everyone, verse 2, with all and in every place, call
upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. This, like most of the Word of
God, is written to God's people, the church of God. Church means
His people, His congregation, those chosen by Him, those redeemed
by Christ, those regenerated by the Spirit of God. The church.
This is written to the church, not to the world. This is not
to the world. This chapter is to the church.
They are called to be saints. Called to be saints. Sanctified
in Christ. What does that mean? Set apart
by the Spirit of God. Chosen of God. This sounds just
like Ephesians 1. I just said that to you, didn't
I? Brother Stan, this is a glorious
chapter like Ephesians 1. Blessed be God, the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed with all spiritual blessings
and heavenly things in Christ Jesus. According to this, He
has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
called, sanctified, set apart in Christ Jesus. Like Noah and
his family found grace in the eyes of the Lord in the midst
of a world that the Lord was going to destroy, God chose Noah,
his family, and put them in the ark and shut them in and pitched
that door. They're not coming in and no
rains. They're not coming out and no
rains coming in. That's what it means for God
to sanctify you in Christ Jesus. Choose you, separate you, and
that's what You've been called to be a saint. That's what the
word saint meant. Sanctified one. Sanctified one. Still a
sinner, but you're just a sanctified saint. And he says, this is to
everyone that calls on the name of our Lord. You know, the Scripture
says, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
shall be saved. Why aren't more people saved?
They must not be calling. If they're calling, they're not
calling on the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not calling on the prophet,
the priest, the king, the messiah, the mediator, the covenant head,
the great high priest, the tabernacle, the Lamb of God, the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. How blessed are you who are called. You know His name, don't you?
I think it's Psalm 9-10, those that know thy name will put thy
trust in thee. Call on His name. Call on Him. Few people do. Do you? Do you? Do you call on Him all the time,
Lord? Have mercy on Him. Few people
do. Very few people do. Most use
His name to cuss with. Do you call on that name for
mercy? You must be a saint. Smile. Oh my, with all that call
on the name of our Lord. Grace unto you, peace from God
our Father. God is the Father of His saints
and His people, not all mankind. And from our Lord Jesus Christ.
These two words, grace and peace. Thank God. That's what he says
in verse 4, I thank my God always on your behalf. If you're not
thanking Him, Paul says, I'm thanking Him for you. I'm thanking
Him for you. Thank God always on your behalf
for the grace of God given you by Jesus Christ. Isn't this what we thank God
for all the time? His grace. It means gift. It's all a gift. Salvation is
a gift. Repentance is a gift. Faith is
a gift. Salvation is a gift. Knowledge
is a gift. Understanding is a gift. Coming
here is a gift. Hunger and thirst is a gift.
It's all a gift. Thank God. Doesn't this sound
like 2 Thessalonians 2? We're bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you through sanctification of spirit
and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel. to the obtaining of the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's something to be thankful
for. If we don't thank Him now as we should, we will someday.
We're going to realize that the greatest thing, the greatest
gift, the most wonderful thing ever to happen to us is God shedding
His grace on us. We've found grace and peace through
the blood of Christ. He says in everything, verse
5, you're enriched by Him. and all utterance and knowledge.
Utterance means you're able to converse on something, a subject
and knowledge. What do we talk about? What am
I talking about right now? What have we been talking about?
What do you like to talk about? I couldn't tell you much about
nuclear physics. I can't tell you much about quantum
theories. I can't tell you much about these
things. I can tell you a lot about the gospel. What else is
there? Huh? We're going to see in a
minute. That's not wisdom. Quantum theories
are not wisdom. This is wisdom. This is wisdom. With utterance, you've been enriched.
Do you know what it means to be rich? Do you know what it
really means to be rich? It means to be rich in faith. Faith, hope, and love. We have
a neighbor who is a multi-millionaire. She has no faith, she has no
hope, and she has no love for anybody but herself. She's so
poor, all she has is money. Our Lord was poorer than any
man, but He had it all. Oh, blessed are they that are
rich in faith, hope, and love. Because we're going to lose everything. We're going to lose everything.
But not if you have Christ. You have it all. You lose nothing. Then you gain everything. To
live is Christ. To die is what? Loss? No. Gain. If you've heard this
gospel, you've been enriched. You're a rich man, Sanders. A
rich man. Oh my. Thank God. Everything. His testimony, verse 6, is confirmed
in you. Testimony. Things most surely
believed among us. Things we know to be true. Confirmed.
Testimony. The gospel. You come behind in
no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. You
know why we come here? We come here waiting on a word
from our Lord. We come here waiting, hoping that He's going to come
for us. We hope He's going to come for
us. He's going to. Most people hope He doesn't come.
Most people hope it's just a fable. God's people know it's not. And
they're waiting. Waiting. Waiting on His coming.
Like a wife that loves her husband, and he's gone, and she can't
wait for him to get home. She loves him. And he'll confirm
you to the end, he says in verse 8. He will confirm you unto the
end. Who's going to confirm you? That you may be blameless in
the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I never went through
confirmation. Did any of you go through religious
confirmation as a child? One of these denominations. Okay,
Methodism then. They confirm you. What did it
confirm, Robin? It confirmed, the Lord needs
to confirm you. It didn't do anything for you.
Nothing. They can't confirm anything.
But I'll tell you what the Lord Jesus Christ confirms. What He
says to the Father is, that one's mine. They're going to be gathered,
the sheep from the goats. This is mine, this is mine. You
sure? Yeah. I'll die for that one. Blameless. Blameless. Blameless. John, every one of
them. Faultless. Without the spot, without blemish.
Every one of them. Faultless before His throne.
The thief on the cross. Blameless. Mary Magdalene. Blameless. Paul may have. Blameless. How, preacher? The cross. Verse 9, God's faithful. God's
promising. God is true to His Word. God
is true to His promises. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, you'll be saved. You'll be preserved. You'll be
kept by the power of God. You'll be presented faultless
before His throne, blameless in the day of His coming. You'll
be kept by Him. God is true to His Word, true
to His promises, true to His Son, everyone Christ died for,
saved. God is faithful. Don't you love
those words? God is faithful. Great is thy faithfulness. And
you're called unto the fellowship of His Son. What's fellowship?
Well, it's not. It's the fellowship of His suffering.
It's the fellowship of the Gospel. It's the fellowship of the mystery.
This is why we're here, all of us fellows here. All the fellows
that Christ put in that ship were gathered around Him to hear
His voice, to be with Him. To be with Him. That's why Christ
called all His disciples that they might be with Him. Fellowship with Him. And He said
in His high priestly prayer, Father, I will that they be with
Me, where I am. That's fellowship. Fellowship
of His Son, His suffering. Verse 10. Brethren, and it goes
down through here, He said, I beseech you, brethren, And this must
be important because he said this right off. He said, I beseech
you that by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak
the same thing. Not things, thing. One thing needful. and that there
be no divisions among you, schisms, strife, division, that you be
perfectly, maturely joined together with the same mind or understanding,
the same judgment. Somebody told me, he said, of
Chloe's house, that there's contentions among you. And there always are,
because we're so full of self, we're so full of envy and jealousy
and all these things, so full of ourselves. And Chloe has told me that there
are contentions that some say, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos,
I'm of Cephas or Peter, and I'm of Christ. Christ is not divided,
he said. Paul wasn't crucified for you.
Was Paul crucified? Were you baptized in the name
of Paul? Look at chapter 3 real quickly. Chapter 3. He says this,
and this is what every true preacher says. And we need to understand
if there's some kind of petty envy or jealousy or preference
of preachers or preference of people, it's carnal. Read on. Verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 3 said,
you're yet carnal, whereas there's among you envy and strife and
division. If there's envy and strife, Paul
said, there's confusion. It's carnal, it's worldly, it's
thinking like unsaved people and walk like men. One saith,
I'm of Paul. Mother, I'm of Apollos. Are you
not carnal? Who's Paul? Who's Apollos? Ministers
by whom you believe. As the Lord gave, I planted,
Paul watered, God gave the entry. He that planteth is nothing.
He that watereth is nothing. Nine, labors together. That's
what we are. You're God's building. Strife
and envy and jealousy and disunity, choosing up sides as being carnal. And if we're saved, people act
like that. They're babes at best. Babies. Let me tell you this. If we are poor and contrite and
the chief of sinners, If we really feel ourselves to be poor and
contrite and the chief of sinners, we feel unworthy to hear this
gospel, it doesn't matter who tells it. And we'll be grateful
for whoever comes to tell us, like a beggar. And we'll be grateful and we'll
be thankful and we'll esteem whoever it is that comes to bring
us this good news. What's wrong with it? Why won't
we get a blessing every time? We've got a problem right here.
The heart's not right. Because you're hearing the gospel.
What does it matter who tells it? It doesn't. It's not a ball
team. It's a salvation. It's a vital message we need
to hear. Verse 17, Paul said, I thank
God I didn't baptize any of you. Crispus and Gaius. Let somebody
say, well, Paul baptized me. I love this. See, he couldn't
even remember who he baptized. I made a habit years ago of quit
writing down baptism. Quit writing them down. Don't
write yours down either. Don't do it. If you did, destroy
it. Don't look to that. Don't even
think about it. That's not salvation. He said,
are you following Christ now? Are you believing Christ now?
Paul said, He didn't send me, verse 17, to baptize, but to
preach the gospel. Well, wait a minute, preacher.
Didn't the Lord say, go into all the world and preach the
gospel and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit? Didn't He say it? Yes, He did. Paul is saying, that's not the
purpose of the preacher though, to see how many have been baptized.
Now you know it's so of religion, don't you? That's it. That's
all they're about. And if the truth be known, they
get money from the national convention, according to the number of people
that make professions. They get money. And Paul said, I thank God that
I only baptized maybe three people, and I can't even remember who
it was. I'm not sent, he said, but to
do one thing. What, Paul? Preach the gospel,
verse 17. To preach the gospel, not with
wisdom of word, not with high-sounding word, not with intellectual,
in an intellectual term, lest the cross of Christ should be
made of no effect, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
and to us which are saved is the power of God, the cross. God help me preach the cross. What is the cross? And let me tell you this, it's
why Christ came to this earth. He's called the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. It must be important to him.
It's the center of the universe. People use that term all the
time, don't they? The cross is the center of the
universe. When Christ hung on that cross,
he hung there at a third hour of the day, noon. High noon, when Christ was lifted
up on the cross, something happened. Paul said this, he said, God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now first, let me tell you what
it is not. It is not a piece of jewelry
you wear around your neck. That is a graven image. The Lord especially tells us
not to wear anything like that. People that do that are not glorying
in what Christ did, and who Christ is, and what He did on Calvary's
truth. They're glorying in their religion. They want you to know
they're religious. And what they're revealing is,
their idolatrous is what they're revealing. That they don't know
the Christ of the cross. You wouldn't wear the gun that
somebody took to kill your loved one, would you? You wouldn't
wear a likeness of a gun around your neck, would you? If someone you knew was hanged,
would you wear a hangman's noose around your neck? No. The cross
was the most shameful death known to man. It was reserved for the
worst sinners on earth. It was a long, excruciatingly
painful, ignominious, shameful, the most shameful death a person
could go through. Torture, long pain and suffering
for the worst of criminals, hung there for everybody to see, this
is the worst. This person deserves to die.
This person doesn't deserve to live on the earth. He needs to
be taken off of it, and tortured, and killed, and punished for
his rotten, filthy, worthless life. Crucified. Jesus Christ, the holy, spotless
Son of the Most High God. No sin in Him. Nothing but love
and mercy and goodness and kindness, no sin in it. Hang on a second. Why? As a substitute. The gospel is
two words, substitution and satisfaction. Christ came into this world not
to show people how to live, not as an example. Oh, He is an example. That's not His primary purpose.
He came to hang on a cross. He came to be a substitute for
hell-deserving. This is an old-fashioned message. The world says, this is a bunch
of foolishness. That's what they call foolishness.
that God's so holy, that God's so just, and God's so angry with
men and women because they're a bunch of sinners. They don't
believe that. Men and women don't believe that. They don't believe
in Adam all died. They don't believe that. They
don't believe we're born dead in sin. They don't believe we're
rotten. They don't believe we're sinner. They don't believe we're
wicked. They don't believe we're evil. They don't believe that
about themselves. They don't believe that about
man. But it's so of every single human being. This book says so. God says so. God looked down
from heaven to see if there were any, any, before Noah's Ark,
which is a picture of Christ crucified. Before Noah's Ark,
the Lord looked down on the whole world and said, the whole world
is corrupt. Psalm 14 says, stinking. Doesn't
it? Doesn't it? You who know the
Scripture, It's a stench in my nostrils, full of filth and bile.
If you were to open up the roofs of all the houses in the world
today, you'd look on it with disgust. If you'd open your heart. If everyone in here could see
your own heart, it'd fill you with disgust and you'd think,
I don't, ah, what a vile person I am. God sees all that. God knows
every thought. God is angry. God doesn't love
this place. Oh, God is love. God does love. Amazing love. Wonderful love. Indescribable love. Why we are
yet sinners, but hearing His love, not that we love God, but
that He loved and sent His Son to be in propitiation, hanging
on the cross. Here's love. God sent His Son. I wish the thief on the cross
were here right now to preach this. He could tell you. Why Christ died for me, I'd die. This is beyond me. Love so amazing. He could have
sung that couldn't He? Love so amazing, so divine. Did there such love and sorrow
meet? Cross. The Lord hung there as
a substitute for sinners. The Lord hung on the cross because
God is holy. God must punish sin. How can
God be just and just divine? Have anything to do with us sinners?
Christ and Him crucified. The only way. That God made him
sin to us. To be sinned for us who knew
no sin. Hung him on Calvary's tree. Sinful,
rebellious creatures that we are. Dead. And the wrath of God
was poured out on him. And I can't preach this. No man
ever has. You can't enter into it. Everything
is seen at the cross. Everything, all the character
of God is seen at Calvary. The wisdom of God, the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge is all seen at the cross. The wisdom,
how He was made under all these things, the holiness of God is
seen there. What does God think about men
and women and mankind? Look at the cross. The soul that
sins shall surely die. How? He's lived his whole life without
giving God a thought. He deserves to be punished. The holiness of God, the love
of God. Does God love sinners? It's the cross. The mercy of God. Will God be
merciful? Merciful is not getting what
you deserve. Why? Christ did get it. He did get what we deserve. You
see? God will by no means clear the
guilty. Christ was not spared. Here's
the mercy of God. Would you, Steve, would you sacrifice
Joseph for anybody? They wouldn't do it, would you? This is God's only Son. He did
it. The cross. The cross. We're under a curse. People think,
well, I'll keep the law. I'll just keep the law. And they
do. They try to. Zealous. Paul thought he was
zealous. That's antichrist. It's just not ignorance. It's
antichrist. If righteousness comes by the
law, Scripture says, Christ died in vain. Tell me, He said, you
that long to be under the law. Don't you hear it? The law is
a curse. They've read that, John. They've
read that. But they don't believe it. Well, then why did Christ
die? If I can keep the law, He's got
to be pleased with me. If I can keep the Ten Commandments,
Christ didn't need to die. That's a horrible mistake. No, it was a purpose. We can't
keep the law. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. That's why they don't understand the law. If they started reading
it, they'd say, it demands perfection. Our Lord preached this. He magnified
the law. He said, God demands you be holy
in your thoughts, in your motive. Every jot and tittle kept to
perfection, to the glory of God. With a pure heart. No malice,
no hatred, no envy, no jealousy. Pure, perfect love toward God,
His glory, and the good of others, and loving others. People are
liars. But Christ did, John. Christ
came and said, I've come. Why? To keep the law. I know it by His knowledge the
righteous servant will justify many." Christ knew the law perfectly. It's a curse to us. Cursed is
everyone that keepeth not the law in all points. To be guilty
in one point is to be guilty of it all. Christ knew that.
We don't know that. People that think they do are
taking Christ's place. Christ said, I am come. To keep
the law. And he kept it perfectly. And
he delivered us from the curse of the law, because it says,
Curses everyone that hangeth on a tree. A man was found guilty,
they hang him on a tree, they crucify him. Guilty. Well, Christ
wasn't guilty. Oh, God made him guilty. Made him to be sinned, and God
hung him on that tree. God, when He was nailed to the
cross, and when Christ was nailed to that cross, there's something
else nailed there. The handwriting of ordinances
against us. The law is not for us, it's against
us. It's not the fault of the law,
it's our fault. But God made Christ to be saved. That's the gospel. The cross,
He hung there on that cross. Did God accept it? Will God take that as payment
for my sin, the sins of His people? Will He take it? Well, they took
Him down from the cross, and they put Him in the tomb. I knew
I wouldn't get the rest of these verses. But they put Him in the
tomb, and they sealed that stone, put a stone over that grave. That guilty sinner made sin,
Christ crucified, taken and put away for three days. Nobody saw
him. What happened? You ever heard
the story of the scapegoat? You know why it was a goat? You
know why it was a goat? Well, I'll tell you the story
of the scapegoat. The priest would bring a goat. before all
the people. And they'd confess their sins.
The priest would lay his hands on the head of that goat. And
all the guilt and all the sin would confess and lay it on the
head of that goat. And a fit man, a man that's able
to go a long ways, a long distance, out in the desert, I mean as
far as the east is from the west, would take that goat with the
sins of the people on him and take it way out there and leave
it. and come back. If He came back,
the people would let out a cheer like the high priest coming out
of the Holy of Holies. If He came back, well, that scapegoat
is Jesus Christ. That fit man is Jesus Christ.
God laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was a goat because
no sheep will ever perish. He was made a goat. and took our sins on Him and
separated Him from us as far as the east is from the west.
And when He came out of that tomb alive, they're gone. They're gone. Where are they?
Oh, you'll never find them. You know, I'm going to repeat
Brother Jack. Brother Jack Shanks said in that big old Texas hall,
he preached on that scapegoat, and he said, and God ain't going
goat hunting. They're gone. The cross. What all happened at the cross?
I haven't even touched the hem of this garment. I haven't skimmed
the surface, the ocean of His fullness. And we're going to have to continue
this later. The cross. You see why Paul said, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ?
It's not that piece of wood. God forbid we would never wear
something like that. It takes away His glory. But he's saying, God forbid that
I should glory, save in who was hanging on that cross, save in
what He did on that cross. And that's why Paul ended this
by saying that no flesh should glory, and he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. Our substitute. Our shelter. Alright. Brother John, let's
come. If you come, we'll sing a closing
hymn. Number 110. Number 110. This is a good hymn to sing after
that. 110.