You want to follow along in your
Bibles with me. I'm going to be preaching from
1st Corinthians chapter 2 I've been preaching through first
First part of this this book. It's been a long time since I
had done a verse-by-verse study 1st and 2nd Corinthians. These
verses just sort of came alive to me, the Lord leading me, I
believe, to preach from this. Tonight, from 1st Corinthians
2, I want to talk to you about God's power to save. God's power to save. and beginning
in verse one let's let's read beginning first Corinthians 2
verse 1 Paul writes here by inspiration of the Spirit he says and I brethren
when I came to you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom
declaring unto you the testimony making sure that they understand
that this message of grace, this message of Christ crucified and
risen from the dead is God's message to his people. And even
though it's given through a man like Paul or like me or like
Brother Norm or Brother Bob or any preacher of the gospel, The
testimony is to be received by us as the testimony of God. So this is God's word. And I
tell people all the time that I understand that if you do not
believe this message, or if you cast this message off, you're
not standing against me, you're standing against the Lord, if
what I'm speaking is the truth. And we know it's the truth if
it's in the word of God. So we continue on. He says in
verse two, for I determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. And so he sits at the forefront. He's already done that in chapter
one. This message of the gospel, this message of salvation is
a message of the glorious person and the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? It's not
about who I am. It's not about who you are. It's
about who Christ is. That's one of the most important
questions that any of us can consider. What think ye of Christ? Well, he's God and man in one
person. God manifests in the flesh. I
always refer to Matthew 1, 21 and 23. His name shall be Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. And his name
shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with
us. And that's the glory of his person.
And the reason that's necessary is because it's this kind of
person that it takes to save sinners like us from our sins.
He has to be both God and man. The gospel is the preaching and
the revelation of the righteousness of God, not the righteousness
of men, for men have no righteousness. God because it's the righteousness
of Christ. It's the merit of his obedience
unto death as the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer
of his people. And that's what Paul says. Now
Paul, in his epistles, he dealt with many subjects. that pertain
to the gospel and the life of the church and salvation. But
all of those subjects, all of those topics were founded upon,
centered around, and redounded to the glory of Jesus Christ
and him crucified. And so we don't preach any subject,
anything in the scriptures, without preaching Jesus Christ and him
crucified and risen from the dead. Even whatever we're talking
about, the message is centered upon and founded on Christ. And
we're talking about the power of God, God's power to say, well,
Paul had already stated clearly that Jesus Christ is both the
wisdom of God and the power of God. He said that over in 1 Corinthians
1.24. He says, but unto them which
are called, that is, he talked about how the Jews seek after
a sign. The Greeks seek after human wisdom.
But we who are called, that's the invincible, irresistible
calling of the Holy Spirit. by which God, in his power, brought
us to a saving knowledge of Christ, brought us to faith in Christ
and repentance of dead works. To us, Christ is both the power
of God and the wisdom of God. Now that word power there is
the same word power that's used in Romans 1, 16. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. It's speaking of the ability
of God. You've probably heard that the
word in the Greek is dunamis or dynamis, however you choose
to pronounce it. We get our English word dynamite
from. So that's what we're talking
about, the power of God. Well, back over in 1 Corinthians
2, Paul says in verse three, and I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. Now Paul, he was no super human. He was a person just like us. He had all the misgivings and
trials and infirmities that we all have. And he preached in
the face of much opposition. But he's saying here, in my weakness
and in my fear and in my trembling, I still have a powerful message
that cannot be thwarted. If God is pleased to bring the
gospel to his people, no one can stop it. It is the power
of God and salvation. He says in verse four that my
speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom. In other words, he didn't think
about using human words that would hide or confuse the message
of Christ or make it more palatable to the natural man. That's what's
going on today in false churches. Men and false preachers are using
human language and human methods to make what they think is truth
more palatable so that they can draw more people in. Preach a
message that men by nature like, men and women by nature like
or enjoy. When God's word tells us the
natural man will not receive the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know. They're an offense to it. But
it's the light that men hate because it exposes their deeds
as being evil. But Paul said, I didn't use enticing
words of man's wisdom, but he preached the gospel in demonstration
of the Spirit, Holy Spirit, and the power of God. Now here's
the verse I wanted to get to, verse five, that your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but stand in the power of God.
That's why just several things here concerning God's power to
save. And I thought about this. I think
there probably are four major things that need to be accomplished
for God to save a sinner by his grace through the power, the
blood, the righteousness of Christ. And let me give you these things.
Number one, and this might be one that might, It won't seem
strange to us, but it would to most people who claim to be Christian
today. Number one, God's power to save
lies in God's power to choose. And what we're talking about
there is God's electing grace. Most people today think that
the power of salvation is not in God's power to choose, but
in their own power to choose. They believe salvation is conditioned
on their decision. You've heard the term decisional
regeneration. And it comes from a whole plethora
of false ideas about God, that God loves everybody. God sent
Christ to save everybody. Now the rest is up to you. Christ
died for you, but his death was not the power to say, you must
make the choice. But see, that's not God's power
to say, that's man's power, and man has no power. The power,
God's power to save is in his power to choose and that's his
electing grace. And that's established, it's
established in the scripture that man by himself, the natural
man will never choose the Lord God and his way of salvation.
The natural man, I quoted that, it's right here in 1 Corinthians
2.14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned, and by nature man
is spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. We fell in Adam. Even
God's chosen people, we fell in Adam, and as a result, we
fell into sin and death, and as a result, we're born into
this world spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. We have no
spiritual capacity to choose God. We have no spiritual desire
to choose God. We wanna think salvation's conditioned
on us because by nature, we wanna have some glory in this thing.
That's what man does. We wanna be able to boast that
we made the difference. But God's power to save is his
power to choose whom he will save. And I've had people tell
me, they said, well, why do you have to say that? Even if that's true, I had a
man tell me one time, he said, even if that were true, he didn't
believe it, he said, even if that's true, why do you have
to say that? Because that's such a turnoff to people. Well, if
you'll look over in the book of Romans, in Romans chapter
nine, for example, we're talking about God's power to say. And
in Romans chapter nine, you know this passage very well, I'm sure,
where he talks about Jacob and Esau. He talked about his choice
of Jacob. God loved Jacob, God hated Esau. That was God's sovereign prerogative. It wasn't based upon anything
in Esau or in Jacob or done by Jacob or done by Esau. It was
totally God's sovereign choice before the foundation of the
world. And he says in Romans 9, 14, now listen to this. He
says, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Because God has done that, can
we accuse God of being unrighteous, unfair, unjust? And of course
the answer is in verse 14, God forbid. It says, now listen to
this, verse 15. Don't let this go by you. It
says, for he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. God has mercy on whom he will
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,
okay? He says, so then it's not of
him that willeth, it's not of man's will, man's choice, nor
of him that runneth. It's not of man's works or activity,
but of God that showeth mercy. Now, when Paul quoted this, When
he wrote this, verse 15, you know it wasn't written in verses,
you know that. But when he wrote this sentence,
he was quoting from Exodus chapter 33, when Moses asked God a question. And do you remember what question
God asked Moses? I mean, where Moses asked God
a question. You remember what question Moses asked? He said,
please, Lord, show me your glory. Remember that? How did God answer? He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. In other words, and go back to
1 Corinthians 2 now. In other words, that's God's
glory. That's why we have to preach
it. And that's what this is all about. Preaching God's power
to save is preaching his glory. And God said it's his glory that
it is His sovereign right to choose whom He will in His election
of grace. And that's what this is all about.
Back up in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul writes that all of this is revealed
in verse 29 of chapter 1, that no flesh should glory in God's
presence. He says, but of him, but of God
are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And those four
words, they give the whole gamut of salvation. From God's electing
grace, the wisdom of God that was with him before the foundation
of the world, where God covenanted with his son and with the spirit,
chose a people, gave us to his son. And he says in verse 31,
that according as it is written, he that gloryeth, let him glory
in the Lord. And part of that glorying in
the Lord, that's boasting in the Lord, is to know that God
is the only source and the only originator of my salvation. I'm not the source of it. I'm
not the originator of it. I'm not the power of it. It's
all of God in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says
that he chose us in Christ before the world began. He wrote our
names in the Lamb's Book of Life. He gave us to His Son, made Him
our surety, sent Him into the world to be our substitute and
Redeemer, and that's His glory, the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's why we have to make sure
that people understand, that we understand, that we're not
the power of God in salvation. He is the power of God. God's
power to save is not in our choice, but in His choice. And because
he chose us, he'll bring us to choose him. Now here's the second
thing about God's power to save. It's God's power to work out
and establish righteousness for us. And that's God's redeeming
grace. His power in redemption. God's
power to work out and establish righteousness for us. That's
what God requires. Righteousness, perfection of
the law. And God provides that for his
people in the person and work of Christ. It's his redeeming
grace. And this involves purging or
the cleansing of our sins as they were imputed to Christ.
Our debt to God's justice, which we acquired in Adam, our fallen
Adam, and by our own sins, our debt to God's law and justice
was put upon the account of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible
says in Hebrews chapter two, I believe it's verse 17 or maybe
verse 16. It says, it behooved him It behooved
Christ to be made like unto his brethren. Now who are his brethren? That's God's elect that were
given to him before the foundation of the world. That word behooved
in Hebrews 2 is the Greek word for debt. Christ was indebted
to come and redeem us to pay our debt because God made him
our surety and he willingly took upon that responsibility to pay
the debt of God's people and satisfy God's justice. And by
his blood, his precious blood, he put away our sins on the cross
of Calvary. He paid that debt in full. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. And by that debt being paid,
he established a righteousness, a perfect righteousness, whereby
God could be just and justify ungodly sinners, so that God's
power to save is in his justice satisfied through Christ, the
redemption of his people, putting away our sins. He paid our debt.
And as our sins were imputed, charged, accounted to Christ,
his righteousness has been imputed, charged, accounted to us. And
so we stand before God in Him. And that's the assurance of our
salvation. And this is revealed in the preaching
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what Paul's talking about.
That's God's power to save. That's the power of God unto
salvation revealed in the gospel, which is the righteousness of
God, the merits of the entire work of Jesus Christ as our surety,
substitute and redeemer. And it's from faith to faith. It's from knowledge, the knowledge
of God that he gives, he teaches us in the gospel revealed to
us, to knowledge received by God-given faith. And that brings
me to the third issue, the third thing about God's power to save.
Number one, God's power to choose, his power. Number two, God's
power to work out and establish righteousness through Christ.
Number three is God's power to give life to the dead. What are
we by nature? We've talked about it. We're
sinners. By nature, our state in this world, before we're regenerated,
converted, before we're born again, we're spiritually dead
in trespasses and sin. We live in ignorance and obstinance
against God. People often will say, are you
telling me that God will turn away people who come to him wanting
to be saved, that he won't save them even though they wanna be
saved? And here's what they don't understand. None of us by nature
want to be saved God's way. We want salvation our own way,
which is a way that gives us room to glory and boast in our
works or in our efforts or in our decision. The man by nature
will not come God's way. In order for a man or a woman
to come God's way, God must give them life from the dead. Just like he stood outside the
tomb of Lazarus and said, Lazarus, come forth. That's what he does
in the preaching of the gospel and the power of the spirit to
his people. He says, come forth. He gives
life from the dead. Ezekiel put it this way in Ezekiel
36. He said, he'll give us a new
heart. He'll put his spirit within.
Only God can do that. Man cannot raise himself from
the dead. This is God's power to say. We
read over in the book of John chapter one, talking about Christ
coming into the world as the light of the world. And verse
11 of John one says, he came into his own and his own received
him not. Now that's all of us by nature.
But it says in verse 12, but as many as received him. Now
there are some who have received him. To them gave he power to
become the sons of God. Now the word power there is not
ability. It's not the same word power
as we see in Romans 1.16 and in 1 Corinthians 2.5, the power
of God. The word power here means the
right, the privilege, All right, in other words, those who have
received Christ, God gave the right to be called sons of God. What right do you or I have to
claim sonship in the kingdom of God? I mean, we're sinners,
we deserve nothing but wrath and death. What right do any
of us have to say that we're children of God now? By nature,
we're enemies of God. You remember what Christ told
the Pharisees in John 8, 44? He says, you're of your father,
the devil. And Ephesians chapter one, Ephesians chapter two tells
us that before we were quickened, what were we? We were followers
of Satan, going after his desires. No different than the children
of wrath. So what right do I have to say that I'm a child of God?
Well, but as many as received him who have received Christ,
believed God, rest in Christ, claim him as their only righteousness
before God. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. God has given us life from the
dead, spiritual life. He's quickened us. And it says
here in John 1, 12, but as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on his name. Now his name is that which identifies
him and distinguishes him from all counterfeits. And look at
verse 13 of John 1. It says, which were born, not
of blood, He's not talking about our first birth, our physical
birth. He's not talking about any inheritance that we get from
our connection with our parents. This is not pedigree. It's not
a blood. He says, nor of the will of the
flesh. Now, I believe what he's talking
about there is the works of the flesh. It's not a blood. It's not of the works of the
flesh, nor of the will of man. It's not of our will, but of
God. You see, this is God's power
to give life, to bring us from spiritual death to spiritual
life. As one old theologian put it, the resurrection life of
Christ. He gives us a new heart, a new spirit, a new mind, gives
us faith. Faith is the gift of God. That
doesn't come out of us naturally. See, it's the power of God. For
by grace are you saved. Through faith, that not of yourselves,
it's the power, it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any
man should boast. And Ephesians 2, 10 goes on to
say, we are his workmanship. We're not our own workmanship.
We're not self-made people. We're the workmanship of God
and we're created in Christ Jesus. There's the ground of it. Unto,
not because of, but unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. This is God's power
to say, His power to give life. Of His own will begat He us with
the word of truth, James 1, 18. So that's the third thing. Now
here's the fourth. First of all, God's power to
choose, His electing grace. That's His glory. Secondly, God's
power to work out and establish righteousness for us, His redeeming
grace through Christ. He chose us in Christ. He redeems
us by the blood of Christ. We're justified by His righteousness.
Number three, God's power to give life to the dead. It's his
regenerating grace. Life-giving grace. And number
four is this, God's power to keep us, preserve us, and bring
us to glory. That's his preserving grace.
You all know, and we realize, we don't have any power to save
ourselves, and we do not have any power to keep ourselves. or to bring ourselves into glory.
It's all of God's power from its inception to its culmination. Isn't that right? Salvation's
of the Lord. It's Christ who keeps us. God who began the good work in
us will perfect it to the end. That word perfect means to perfect
it, means to finish it. What did Christ say on the cross
in John 19, 30? He said, it's finished. all that he accomplished
for us. He is able to save to the uttermost
them that come unto God by him. And what's those verses in the
book of Jude that I like to read quite often, Jude 24 and 25,
now unto him that is able to keep you from falling. and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only
wise God our Savior. Be glory and majesty, dominion
and power both now and ever. That's the power of God. We can't
keep ourselves. If God lifted his power away
from us for one second, what would we do? We'd fall away.
And I wanna show you one more scripture. It's in 1 John chapter
three. And I believe what this scripture
is talking about is the preserving power and grace of God that is
given to every one of his true children. that not only brings
them into the kingdom by his regenerating grace, but preserves
them. And of course, we can think of
a lot of scriptures here. I know you may be thinking of
some that I haven't mentioned. I'll mention one, John chapter
10. He said, my sheep hear my voice.
They know me, I know them. They'll never perish. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able. It's his power, his ability.
He is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. And think about this, what have we committed to Christ?
We've committed to Christ our whole salvation, haven't we?
Everything. Is there one thing in your salvation
that you can look at at yourself and say, I'm gonna commit that
part to myself? You know better than that. If
you do, you're a failure. We're failures. We're sinners. But he's the powerful, sovereign,
merciful, gracious, effectual savior of sinners. But let me
show you this verse. This is in 1 John 3 in Vernon. And a lot of people interpret
this passage differently. But I believe if you would study
it within the context, you'd see that this is talking about
God's preservation of his people by his grace through Christ and
in the power of the Spirit. And it says in verse nine of
1 John 3, it says, whosoever is born of God doth not commit
sin. Now, I know people who talk about,
well, that's a new nature in us that doesn't sin. That's not
what John's talking about. That's not even in the context
here. John's talking about the children of God as opposed to
the children of the devil. And the sin that he's talking
about here is apostasy, totally falling away from Christ. Here's
a person who claimed to believe in Christ and claimed to be a
child of God, but then who totally forsakes that profession, totally
turns away from Christ and calls him a curse. Now, you'll see
that if you look across the page to 1 John 2 and verse 18. Look at 1 John 2 and verse 18.
He says, little children, it is the last time, it is the last
days, as you have heard that Antichrist shall come. Even now
are there many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time,
and look at verse 19. They went out from us. indicating
there that they were with believers at one time, but they went out
from us, but they were not of us. They didn't lose their salvation. They went out from us, but they
never were of us. They had a profession of truth,
but they didn't believe it. They were never born again by
the Spirit. And he says, for if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. If God saves you, you
cannot leave Christ. Now we can act like idiots sometimes,
and we can stray away, but he's not gonna let us go. As Brother
Mahan used to say, we're on God's leash. You ever had a dog and
get out walking and he's on a leash? He tries to get away some, but
you pull him back. And that's the way God does us.
He won't let us go. Even when we struggle in our
fleshly appetite. Even, I just finished a Bible
study on 2 Samuel chapter 12, where after David committed those
awful sins of adultery and murder with Bathsheba and her husband
Uriah, David was still on God's leash. That's what the prophet
Nathan told him. He says, the Lord has put away
your sins. And so, what he's saying, they
went out from us, but if they had been of us, they would no
doubt have continued with us. Look at verse 19 of 1 John 2.
But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were
not all of us. Their apostasy, their total falling
away, rejecting what they formerly professed, just made known that
they were never saved to begin. But look at verse 20. But you have an unction from
the Holy One, and you know all things. Now, what is that unction? That's an anointing. That's the
power of God to give life to the dead from Christ, the Holy
One. We have within us the life of
Christ given by the Holy Spirit, that unction, that's a power.
And it's a power of God to bring us into his kingdom. It's the
power of God to keep us there. Now look over in 1 John 3, read
all the scriptures in between. We don't have time to do that
tonight. But here's what he's saying in 1 John 3, 9. Whosoever
is born of God, whosoever has that unction from the Holy One,
does not commit sin, will not apostatize. That's what he's
talking about. We know that even as born-again
people, we're sinners. We still commit sin. We still
fall short of the perfection of righteousness that we can
find only Christ, but we will not apostatize. And the reason
we will not apostatize is because God preserves us by his grace
and power, and he will not let us go. And that's what he's saying
here. Does not commit sin, for his
seed remaineth in him. What's the seed there? That's
his generation. That's the children of God. That's
Christ's generation. Who shall declare his generation?
That's the people for whom he died. That's the people he redeemed. That's the people who are justified
in him by his righteousness. And that's the people who God
gave life from the dead and they remain in Christ. And he cannot
sin, he cannot leave Christ because he's born of God. He has that
unction from the Holy One. God won't let us go. That's God's
power to save us. It's his power to choose us before
the foundation of the world in Christ. And it's his power to
redeem us. put away our sins and give us
a righteousness through Christ that answers the demands of his
justice so that we're justified. It's his power to regenerate
us and bring us to himself, give us life from the dead, faith
and repentance and all the spiritual graces and gifts. And it's his
power to keep us, preserve us and to bring us to glory so that
we cannot end up outside of his grace and his power. That's God's
power to save, and I hope that's helpful to your understanding
of the scripture. All right, Brother Norm.