All right, let's open our Bibles
now to 2 Corinthians. chapter 2, the book of 2 Corinthians
chapter 2. And let's read one verse, 2 Corinthians
2. Let's read verse 14. Paul says, Thanks be unto God,
which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest,
or reveals, or makes clear the savor of his knowledge, the knowledge
of Christ, by us in every place." Now, Paul was writing to the
Church, and he had been talking about the preaching of the apostles,
the apostles of Timothy and others as well. And when he says us,
he's talking about preachers here. That's what he's talking
about. Thanks be unto God, which always causes us, talking about
the preachers of the gospel, causes us to triumph in Christ. And that's what the true preacher
sent by God does. He preaches Christ. So whenever
a man preaches Christ, Paul said, He causes us to triumph, always.
Do you see that? Always. Always causes us to triumph
in Christ making manifest or clear, revealing the savor of
his knowledge, who Christ is and what he did, making it clear. In every place, he said. God
has not left himself without a witness. There are men right
now, standing up right now, all over the world, preaching the
gospel, preaching Christ crucified. Do you remember reading that
back there? Paul said, no, we preach Christ. That's what we
do here. And there are men all over the
world, all over the world, preaching
the gospel. We know quite a few. Others we don't know. There are
many that we don't know. Elijah, one time, thought, I'm
the only one. Didn't he? I'm the only one. God said, I've got 7,000 that
you don't even know about. So there are gospel preachers
all over the world, in various places. In every place, he said. And
you notice that, you know, God used the apostles, the epistles,
and their preaching, the gospels. That's what God used, and that's
what men preach, isn't it? The word of the apostles who
believe. Our Lord said, Blessed are they that shall believe through
your word. All right, now he says, Thanks be unto God. It
always causes us to triumph in Christ. We preach Christ crucified. True preacher. That's what he
does. We preach not ourselves, as Paul said. We preach not ourselves. We're not up to draw attention
to ourselves, to preach our whatever, our programs, our denomination,
our church, our whatever it may be. That woman I spoke to, you
and I spoke about, she said that's all the place she goes. That's
all they want to talk about is their denomination. But you've
got to be a member of that denomination. And I asked her, I said, you
go away and tell me, is it so? Do you go, when you come back
from hearing that man do his preaching, what are you thinking
about? Are you thinking of Christ? Are you thinking about how holy
that man is or how you come short or how you need to be a part
of that denomination and keep those rules and regulations?
I'm sure not thinking about crying. Paul said we preach Christ. We
preach Christ, not ourselves, but Christ. And so that's what
those who are sent by God to do. That's what they do. Preach
Christ. And he says God always causes us to triumph. Now, it's
not a wasted effort. It's never a wasted effort. Though
the preacher thinks it is at times, though he thinks he failed
miserably, It's not a wasted effort. It
never is. He said that. It never is. It's not just a
Sunday service. What we're doing right now. If
two or three are gathered in the name of Christ and a man
standing up with God's word open, endeavoring to declare the truth
as it is in Christ Jesus. This is no Sunday service. This
ain't no sermon. Paul said he always causes us
to triumph, making manifest the savor of his knowledge by us
in Christ. And he goes on to talk about
it being a savor of life unto life. It's a triumph. Now listen to
this. If you want to turn, you can.
Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. Listen to this. Preaching of Christ is a triumph.
The word triumph, you think of an accomplishment, you think
of a warfare, a battle that went on, a fellow triumphed. He won. He defeated the foe. And we're not wrestling with
flesh and blood this morning. A triumph, when the gospel is
preached, something is being accomplished by God Almighty.
I don't know. I look in the faces, and it's
obvious some, it's very obvious that some, nothing's, at least
the savor of life is not being accomplished. It's obvious. It's
very obvious. But then, you know, it's not
infallible to the preacher. You don't know what God's doing.
Some, it seems pretty obvious that, oh, it's a savor of life. There's life there, and they're
full of life. And it's a savor of life to them,
death to death, life to life. But the fact is, God, it never
returns void. Not one word of God. Every comment
I make, it won't accomplish anything.
But not one word of God will return void. It's accomplishing
something. Look out here in Isaiah 55, verse
10 and 11. It says, As the rain cometh down,
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth
the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give
seed to the sower, bread to the eater, so shall my word be that
goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
it shall accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper in
the thing whereto I send it." Snow. Every time it snows, it
was not for naught. Every snowflake accomplished
something. You know that? Every rain, say
it sprinkled, didn't get much rain. Well, it accomplished something.
The rain that falls, you know, it quickly goes away. Oh, no,
it's feeding the ground and feeding the water supplies and going
down in the creeks and the rivers and the streams. And it always
accomplishes something. Every drop. And that's what God
said about his word. Every word. It does not return
bore. Something is happening right
now. Right now. Seed is being sown. This is why
a preacher is just a sower. That's all he is. Sower went
forth to sow. He threw the seed out there. And there's a proverb that says
that if you want to reap a lot, you sow a lot. A good preacher
will fill his messages full of God's word because that's what
God uses. You don't take this old dusty sermon down off the
shelf by old doctor so-and-so and preach it word for word.
Take this right here and you throw it, throw it to the wind.
Throw that seed, sow that seed to the wind, buddy, and the more
you sow, the more it's likely to grow. would not warrant seed
to fall. Come back, boy. Think about that.
Seeds are being sown right now. Seeds are being sown. Maybe the
plow is being plowed. Hearts are being broken. Hearts
are being softened right now. You know, a heart right now—listen
to this—a heart is either right now being broken or hardened. This word does not return void.
This word is either right now softening an old sinner's heart
or it's hardening it. That's what the rain does. You
know that rain comes down? If it's good ground, it makes
it better. If it's hard pan, it makes it harder. Serious sinner. Is this serious?
Sunday morning sermon. Things are happening. God's Word
is great. Growth. There's growth happening. You don't know it, but if you're
a believer, if you're a child, you're growing. There you are. Growing in grace
and the knowledge of Christ. Growth is happening. Our growth is so slow, isn't
it, spiritually? So slow. You know, you can't, you can't, you look in the mirror
and you You can't see much change day by day, can you? Can't see
much change. But don't look in that mirror
for a few years. And then come back and look.
Oh, I'm getting old. Getting old, changing. Look at
your children. You know, you see somebody's
children after several years. You say, I ain't grown a foot. Sheep are being fed. That's what's
happening. Sheep are being fed. Every time
the message is being preached, sheep are being fed. It's fattening
them, boy. That wool is just thickening.
What's wool? It's covering. Christ's righteousness
is just getting covered in it. Wool is growing on sheep. It's
covered. The more Christ is preached,
Jeanette, more you just wrap up, don't you? More you hear
the righteousness of Christ. Oh, I like wool. You know, every suit I've got
now is wool. Wear it summer and winter. Goats are being separated up. Sheep are being fed. Bundled up for cold days, goats
are being culled out of the herd. Chaff is being separated. Judgment and condemnation is
being added. Serious. Is this not serious?
Paul said, thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph
in Christ. This is what he means by, here
in our text, this is what he means by, he says, we're a saver. Go back to 2 Corinthians 2, where
he says in verse 14, verse 15, we are unto God a sweet saver
of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. The salvation of God's people.
by Christ is going to glorify God, His grace, His mercy, glorify
God's Son, and it's a sweet savor of God's mercy, God's grace,
God's love, God's goodness, God's power. We're going to be smelling
grace for eternity. Sovereign grace. We're going
to smell it. A certain one of you ladies,
certainly you ladies, wear the same kind of perfume all And
you leave this air wafting in the air after you, and you smell
it, and that's so and so. That's so and so. My, and me
in the same way, my grandfather used to wear Old Spice. Old Spice,
and everything smelled like Old Spice when the granddaddy was
around. Throughout eternity, we're going
to be smelling, as it were, God's stocking grain. Everything is
going to just smell of grace, the sweet savor of Christ. And then to say, and then to
perish, God's justice is going to be served. God's holiness
is going to be honored and magnified. Do you understand what that's
saying? God's holiness, God's justice, God's goodness. And getting rid of sin is going
to be in the air. Well, look at it here now. Let's
look at this savor of death and life, all right? And I'm going
to hurry. I promise you this today. I'm
going to make it short. May God make it sweet. Verse 16. To the one, we are
the savor of death unto death, and to the other, the savor of
life unto life. It's one with savor of death
unto death. Do you like the smell of flowers
in a funeral parlor? Have you ever thought about the
difference? Why is it that when you go in a funeral home, or even a florist, Why does it
smell so, it's not, it doesn't smell good to me. They're flowers. They look good. They're dead. They may give a good appearance.
They may look alive, but they are dead. They're cut off. But now if you go out in the
field, Nancy, if you go out in the field full of Lily of the
Valley or whatever. Or out on your porch and there's
a pot of hyacinths or, help me ladies, some of these gardenias. You ever thought about that?
Dead flowers smell like dead flowers. But living flowers. May there be some that look good,
sound good, death to death, death to death. Dead people, now, there's a big
difference between death and life. Big difference, death and life.
Dead people can't smell. They can't smell. Nor do they have any of the other
senses, hearing, sight, taste, smell, touch, those things. Now,
he said in verse 15, we are a sweet savor of Christ and them that
are saved, a savor of life unto life. Why? Because Christ is
life. Christ is our life. A person
that's alive in Christ, that's who they want to hear. That's
what enlivens them. That's what quickened them, made
them alive. And that's what gives them life,
and that's what enlivens and quickens their heart from then
on, you see. Christ is life, and this is what
they hear, the message of Christ. And from that day forward, that's
what makes their heart beat. It's like love. Like marriage,
huh? But when you sat down this morning,
Dan, your heart skipped a beat. Then you sit inside. I've longed
that. Just say it did anyway. Bam.
Just nod your head real vigorously. There you go. See? When the gospel
of Christ is preached this morning, my heart was skipping. That gives
me some comfort. This could be a message of assurance
for those who have life. It's the savor of life to you.
If what you're hearing is just hell like that. That's not—dead
men don't like that. Natural man receives lots of
things, but they don't like that. Savor of life, to live a sweet
savor of Christ. If you can keep hearing Christ
preach, Christ preach, Christ preach, and still be sweet, that's
life. Does that make sense? be married 50 years and still
love that same old feller? Must be love. It must be love. That's not the natural man. No
way. Quickly tired, but love should
have broadened the heart. You know, God said that Christ
is a sweet savor to him. That's what he said. He's a sweet
savor to me. God said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. And you know what God says to
the angels? Over in Hebrews, he says to the angel, bow down
and worship my son. Under the angels, he said, worship
him. Under his preachers, the angels
of the churches, the pastor, he said, you preach my son. Don't
you get up and preach your silly little program. I certainly don't
preach yourself. Don't draw attention to anybody
or anything but my altogether lovely son now. I'm giving you
a voice, and I'm giving you forty-five minutes to do it. Now, you lift
him up for all to see, because if he be lifted up, I'll draw
my sheep to him. Don't you dare get up and draw
attention to yourself. I'll knock your legs out from
under you. And he says to all who hear, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. This is God's son, God's one
son. Now, you parents, let me ask
you something. You parent. Is this not true that once you
have children, you make all your plans from then on around them? Don't you? Come on. Yeah, you do. Everything, your whole life,
your whole life revolves around those children. Huh? Yeah, it is. Whole lot. Everything revolves around them.
You do everything concerning them. It's so with God. It is
so with God Almighty. He said, I have one Son, and
He created a universe around Him. He created all things for
His glory. For His glory they are and were
created. He created human beings to behold Him. He created preachers
to preach Him. Pews to sit and hear Him. Bread
to show him, water to show him, sun to show him. Everything shows
forth his glory. That's why God created it. A
book to tell about him. God has one son, Gary, one son,
and he's the apple of his eye, and everybody's interested in
his son, and God's interested in them, and he loves them. Romans
8, 39 says, and nobody's in Christ, and nobody will separate it.
When somebody's not interested in God's son, he says, I'm not
interested in them, and I don't care if they cry, weep, like
Esau, or in Proverbs 1, well, I'm going to laugh at them. They spent a whole lifetime not
interested in my altogether lovely son. You're not, huh? I am not
interested in you. They won't hear it, Lord. Leave them alone! Don't you beg anybody
to listen to my son. My son doesn't go begging for
an audience. This is the reason these preachers
are such a scouring. Listen to this. I've already
quoted this. Our Lord said the kingdom of heaven is like a king
who made a marriage for his son. Now, marriage is a happy time,
except for the preacher performing it. But a marriage is a happy
time, especially for the bride. Bridegroom's a little bit uneasy,
honey. How about Sam? But the bride, oh, it was the
happiest day of her life. It's a joyous time, a wonderful
time. Our Lord talked about this. He
said, The kingdom of heaven is like this. The king made a marriage
for his son. That's why God created everything.
He has one son, and over in Proverbs 8 he says, he was with me from
the beginning, before the earth was, I was daily his delight,
as one that was brought up with him. Christ was the eternal Son
with the Father before there was anything. Anything! It was just the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit enjoying one another. The Son, the altogether
lovely Son. Parents, when you're with your
children, it doesn't matter if you're in Myrtle Beach or sitting
in your living room, does it? Huh? You're enjoying your children. Oh, they want to be at Myrtle
Beach. But you're enjoying your children,
aren't you? Just love to look at them, don't
you, Kelly? Look, that's my boy! Looks like me! Now, you and I
are sad about that, Kelly, but now God looks at his son and
says, He looks like me! I'm holy, I'm lovely, I'm God! And this is my son. I love this
son. He acts like me, walks like me,
talks like me. He does everything I do. He's
altogether lovely. And I'm going to betroth a woman
to him. I'll betroth many wives. You
ever wonder why Solomon had so many wives? The only thing I
can—the only reason I can figure for that. How can one man make
so many women happy? Every man in here, I better watch
it, every married man in here thinks,
I am trying my best to make this one woman happy. Solomon had,
how many, 300, 700 concubines, a thousand women that he absolutely
made happy. Every one of them felt like Solomon
paid personal attention to them. and they were all happy. The
only reason I can think for why that happened is to show us a
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has a trillion wives, and
they're all happy. He makes them all happy, makes
them all feel special, Barbara. Spends one-on-one time with every
one of them. He's a good husband Well, he made this marriage.
Our Lord said the king made this marriage for his son. That's
what life is all about. Christ is a son and he has a
bride. You better be it. You better
be it. There ain't no room for anybody else in the kingdom. All right? Now, the story goes,
our Lord told, that some weren't interested. They weren't interested. Now this is the king who can
just say, kill him. And he did. Kill him. Kill them
all. These peanut preachers today. God didn't have anything to do
with that. Yes, he did. He said, kill them. Kill them all. Huh? That's the God of the Bible. Some weren't interested. Some
made excuses. Well, they made some good excuses. I just bought
a piece of land. I got to go see about it. Is
that good enough? Man, you can't buy a piece of
land and not see about it. Can't it wait a day? I married me a wife. What's that got to do with it?
Well, she doesn't like the king's son. Oh, is that it? She doesn't
want to come see the king. Is that it? So if she don't want
to come, you don't want to come either. Is that good enough? I've got to go bury my father.
My father's dying of old age and I've got to tend to it. Let the dead bury the dead. I've
made a marriage with my son. Are you not interested? Some came, though some did come.
Some did come. You know why they came? To eat
the food. Yeah, man came in. That's what that man was doing.
He wasn't dressed in a wedding garment. Why'd he come? He liked
weddings. That's the only way you think
he came. He came to eat the food. Wherever there's a wedding, there's
a lot of food. Oh, I like the choir. Oh, I like this guy. came
to eat the food, or God, if I come, God will give me a new job, or
God will give me a new car. This is all about my son. This is all about my son. Death to death. In favor of death
to the dead and the dying, the gospel has no appeal. The gospel
of Christ. We're talking about Christ here.
Christ has no sweet savor. Dead people, and listen to this,
all right? This is just plain old cornbread
preaching here. Dead people, it's the savor of
death unto death. Dead people don't have any, don't see any beauty
in a sunset. You could dig up a dead body
and put them in that pew, or wherever, or take them along.
In the morning, and here the sun comes over the Blue Ridge
Mountains, and the sky is just—you've seen it. I'm still not over it. People come visit me, and I say,
I never get tired looking at these mountains. Every mountain,
every old country road I drive over, Henry, I think, wow, look
at that. I live in the most beautiful place on earth. Dead person. Big deal. We're describing the
Son of Glory, the Son of Righteousness, who's risen with healing in His
wings. We're describing the Day Star, Christ, the Day Star, it
says. And those that are alive, isn't
He beautiful? Isn't He wonderful? Those that
are dead, oh, preachers, say something else. How many times have we heard
that? How many times have you played that for the orchestra?
Lots! I'm still not tired of it. Would
you play it next Sunday? Be thou my vision, the words,
O Lord of my heart. Not be all else to me, save that
thou art. These songs that we sing over
and over again, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from
Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose
all their guilt this time. Rock of ages cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. From thy wounded side which flowed, play a melody. He's playing a
melody up here, you know, and it's in middle C. It's always
in the key of C, and it's with Christ. Christ is the song. Dead people, I heard that last
week. Can't you play something different?
Play a little newer, modern tune. Come on, play it with a little
jig, and dance while you're at it. No, we don't dance here. We do that on Saturday night.
We preach here on Sunday morning. We just stand up and preach Christ.
A melody. Embrace. Embrace. Human beings live on hugs. That
old saying, have you hugged your kid today? That's a pretty good
one. Let me give you another one. Have you hugged your wife today? If you don't do that,
you might not see your kids again. Embrace. God's people need to
be embraced by God himself. You know? By God himself. He embraces his people. Yes,
he does. Ask them if they've not felt
his presence when they needed him most. Where two or three
are gathered, I'm there in their midst. And there's some people
in here, real, real affectionate people. If they're close to you,
they're going to touch you. You know, some people aren't
like that. I know that, you know. But there's other people, if
you're close to them, come here. Right, Nancy? Come here. Our Lord, two or three are gay, I'm
in their midst. Hey, honey. My beloved, feel his embrace. Dead, you can embrace a dead
person, and they sure won't embrace you back. A dead person, you can serve
up some of Hudson's Honey. You ever had Hudson's Honey?
Right there's a man, see him, $12.95 a jar. I get cut from
advertising. 12.95 jar right there, Hudson's
Honey. Best you've ever put in your
mouth. Hand raised. Dead person, you can pour it
down his throat. Christ is called honey out of
a rock. Sweet to the taste. David said,
I found your word, and it's sweet, sweeter than honeycomb. I don't
know that verse. Let's see. Well, I just preached
it last week. Oh, I've never tasted that before. Yeah, you did. I just served
it. I like it. I can't get enough of some things
all the time. Homemade bread, apple butter,
Sherry's brownies with cream cheese. Honestly, I can't get
enough. What happened to that pan anyway
last night? You got good. It's home then,
safe, good. I let you people have my brownies.
Sherry makes them for me. Honey, but a dead person. Is it over yet? A rose. My grandmother had lost
her sense of smell when she was in a terrible car wreck. She was a young woman, a beautiful
young woman, back before they had seat belts.
Pontiac ran underneath an 18-wheeler, under the back of it, just sheared
the top off and just totally disfigured her beautiful face
for life. Killed all the sensory nerves
in her brain. No smell, no taste, nothing. Didn't matter what. And, you
know, she put on perfume. I remember her perfume. You know,
it could be Avon or it could be, you know, what's that dude's
name? Oh, well, one of those fancy
feathers from France or Italy. You know them. Anyway, it didn't
matter what it was to her. It could be a hundred dollars
an ounce. It could be a dollar an ounce. Couldn't smell it.
Couldn't smell it. No fragrance. No fragrance. Oh, but you know they say the
sense of smell is your keenest sense in your body. You know
that? It's the keenest sense, even
in human beings. It's certainly that way in beasts, isn't it?
A horse, a dog, cats, all that, they're nearsighted. You know,
they can't, they don't know what's coming when they see it from
a distance. They don't know what it is. They smell you. They can smell you before they
ever see you. Now hear your voice. Oh, there's
a good illustration. I got my illustration. I can
be coming over the hill and I see old Abner. a wedding is sitting,
and he's usually with me, but if he's not, and he can see me
from a distance, but if the wind's not blowing just right, you know. But if it is, boy, he sees me,
before I see him, he comes running. But if he can't see me, I holler
at him. Hey, buddy. Boy, he knows my boy. Come ski-daddle
him. won't smell, or see, or hear,
or feel, or touch, or taste. Do it means savor of life and
the life. It's sad, but true. There are some that are just
dead, and same old, same old. Same old, same old. That's sad. It really is. And you keep preaching,
hoping, let's see, this is what God uses. This is what God uses. This is the power of God of the
salvation. This is the seed. This is the
quickening power. He said, My word won't return
void. It'll create life. Yes, it will. Don't dance, don't
sing. Preach the word. That's the seed. Maybe, just maybe. Here's a good
one. You smell that? You smell that? Oh, yeah. I ain't never smelled
that before. The gospel, boy, smells good.
Grace smells good. Mercy smells good. Savor of life to life. Now, do
you understand what that's talking about? Savor of life to life. Take comfort. Take courage. Get assurance from this. If Christ
is sweet to you, by and large, it may not be today. We go through periods, don't
we, where our smellers aren't too good, where our eyesight's
a little dim, our hearing's kind of bad. Other things, you know,
see, have blocked our smell. Other things have clouded our
view. Other things are stopping up
our ears. But by and large, if you hear
the gospel, does it bring a response? When you see Christ, when you
smell his character, oh, he is something. And you hear this
gospel, you feel like he's just your mind, and your mind too. And you taste his grace. I didn't
say taste, did I, Bob? Taste. Have you tasted his grace? Don't you taste God's grace in
everything in your life? Do you taste a little bit of
God's grace in everything in your life? Huh? I mean everything. Everything. You can, you can
just, there's a taste of grace in it. Some of you women use
certain spices more than others, don't you? Huh? And when you
heat your cooking, that's what distinguishes it from somebody
else. You like it. Mexico, they use cilantro, is
that it? Cilantro. I don't like men, but
everything they make has got this cilantro taste to it. Well, you've got to like cilantro.
Everything in the life of a believer, everything in this book is a
taste of grace, sovereign, saving grace, as it is in Christ. And
you've got to taste for it, or you don't, or you don't. All
right, we're going to sing a closing hymn. Number three forty two. Four fifty two. Four hundred
fifty two. Four fifty two. Let's stand and
sing a couple of verses. Four fifty two. Let's sing the first and the
last. I stand amazed with amazement
at even the misery and wonder how He loves His brethren in
the sea. When with the land of the Lord,
with thanks our hearts shall be, we'll see thy good deeds,
we'll see thy good deeds. ♪ I'm a rebel, I'm a rebel ♪ ♪
And I'm gonna live with you ♪ ♪ I'm a rebel, I'm a rebel ♪ ♪ And
I'm gonna live with you ♪ ♪ I'm a rebel, I'm a rebel ♪