Now the situation is that he's
talking to these people about from 1 Corinthians 1 chapter
5 where a man had committed adultery and Paul had dealt with him and
it made him very grievous and very sorry and it hurt him because
they had to deal with him. So that's the situation now.
So here he is writing a second letter and he said, but I determined
this with myself. that I would not come to you
again in heaviness. I'll not come with my heart heavy
anymore, having to deal with open, profane sin. For if I make
you sorry, make you feel sorry and sorry for what's happened,
who is he that's going to make me glad? If you're sorry and
I made you sorry, who's going to make me glad? Then that, the
same which is made sorry by me, And I wrote this same unto you,
lest when I came I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought
to rejoice." I don't want to come there with a great sorrow
in my heart over people whom I ought to rejoice in. And having
confidence in you all that my joy, that the joy that I express
is the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and
anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears. not that
you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which
I have more abundantly to you. I didn't cry these tears right
unto you to grieve you, but to let you know how much I loved
you. But if any have caused me grief, he hath not grieved me,
but in part that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a
man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many, So that
contrary wise you ought rather now, since you've dealt with
him, so contrary to what you ought to do now is forgive him,
comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swaddled up with
too much sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that
you would confirm your love toward him. And this is the purpose
to this end also did I write. that I might know the proof of
you, whether you be obedient in all these things. To whom
you forgive any, I forgive also. For if I forgave anything, to
whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person or
in the sight of Christ. Lest Satan should get advantage
of us. If we don't love, we don't forgive, We don't get over these
things that people's done. He said, Satan will have an advantage
over us. We're not ignorant of his devices.
Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and
a door was opened unto me, I had no rest in my spirit, because
I found not Titus my brother. But taking my leave of them,
I went from thence into Macedonia. Now, this is going to be my text.
Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in
Christ. and maketh manifest the savour
of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a
sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that
perish. To the one we are savour or fragrance
of death unto death, and to the other the savour or fragrance
of life unto life. Who is sufficient for these things?
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." Corinthians. And there it says, now thanks be
unto God, verse 14. Now thanks be unto God which
always causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the
savor, the fragrance of his knowledge by us in every place. When I read this whole chapter
you see how troubled Paul was. He was grieved, he was sorrow, he had no rest in his spirit, He was in heaviness. He had grief. And then he comes down here and
says, verse 13, I found no rest in my spirit. Then he comes back
and says in verse 14. Now thanks be unto God which
always caused us to triumph in Christ. So we had all these problems. All these worries, all this sorrow,
all this grief, all this heaviness, dealing with the things that
was going on in Corinth, and what was going on in the churches. So he's saying is that no matter
what goes on, what happens in this world, what happens in our
lives, what happens what we're going through, makes no difference
what it is. That's why he turned around and
said, everything else is going on. He said, I do know this.
Thanks be unto God. I may be down, but when I start
realizing what I have in Christ, knowing what I have in Christ,
he turned around and said, thanks be unto God, which always causes
me to triumph. Where at? In Christ. That's the
only place where there's any triumph. There's the only place
where there's any victory. There's the only place where
there's any comfort and assurance in this world. And that's clear
language here. He had all these troubles. And
me and you, we've had many troubles and we're going to have many
more. Some of you may be having some right now. We've had failures
in our lives. Seemed like we have such little
success. Seemed like we failed with our
kids. Failured in relationships that
we have. Failures in our hearts. Oh, our
hearts fail us sometimes. And in our lives. I was talking
to Shirley this morning, you know, says that men's hearts
would fail them for the fear of the things that was coming
on the earth. And what he didn't mean is that men was going to
have heart attacks. What he means is that men's hearts
would just not have any heart no more to deal with what they
have to deal with. They'd see so much stuff going
on in the world that their hearts would just finally just say,
I can't take anymore. I'm just not going to deal with
it anymore. I don't have the heart to deal with it anymore.
And you know what it's like to lose heart over things. And that's
what he's talking about. This world gets in such a sad
state. And they get afraid of everything
that's going on. And their hearts start failing.
My heart, I can't get my heart in it anymore. And so how can
we, when we have things like this, how can we talk of always
triumphing? Because that's what God says.
That's what Christ said here. Keep this and look over here
in Romans chapter 8. Go back over to your left and
look in Romans chapter 8. You know, I think with what's
going on, and I haven't had the news on now in several days,
I'm not going to watch it anymore. I'm not going to pay attention
to it anymore. You know, I check on the weather,
but I'm not going to pay attention to the news anymore. There's
nothing out there that all it can do is hurt you, depress you,
stress you out. And I got enough stress in my
life without putting myself in it. Does that make sense to you? All we can do is say, God have
mercy on us. Lord save us. That's all we can
do. We ain't gonna change a thing. You know Herman, bless his heart,
he used to stand in front of the television and talk to it. And I bet some of you have done
it. Called people on it idiots and
everything else. Now is it worth it? No. That's why we come to hear the
gospel. To get away from that a little while. But look what
he said here in Romans 8.28. We know this. And we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God. To them who are the called according
to His purpose. Now that's always causing us
to triumph. All things working together for
our good. Now go down here in verse 35. Now here's some things. Look what all happens here now.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation
do it? Everybody's had tribulation.
Did it separate you from Christ? Being distressed. Oh, we get
in such distress. Getting persecuted, or famine,
or nakedness, or a peril, or even a sword. It says in verse
37, no, no, no, no, in all these things, in all these troubles,
in all these things that goes on in our life, we're more than
conquerors. Conquerors through Him. How?
Through Him that loved us. That's the only way we're conquerors,
through Him. And we conquer because He loved us. And He said, I'm
persuaded of this. I have this persuasion. That
death, life, angels, principalities, that's all the things that's
going on in this world. Principalities and powers are
there. Demons, angels, devils, politicians, principalities,
governments, magistrates, judges, nothing can... Powers their face
present a thousand things to come Heights depths nor any other
creature. That's a lot of that covers a
lot of ground Shall be able to separate us from the love of
God which is in Christ Everything you talked about here is what
we have in Christ and how we're overcomers by Christ. I And all
my thanks be unto God, more than conquerors, thanks be unto God
which always causes us to triumph in Christ. Now back over here
in our text, this is the first point that I want to deal with
this morning. Causes us to triumph, causes us, causes us. There has to be a cause and effect.
The cause is Christ. Causes us to triumph. And this
is where the triumph, where the victory is. It's in Christ himself. Never in ourselves. We never
triumph in ourselves. Never in ourselves. All, all
is in Christ. When we say Christ is all and
in all, that's not the religious cliche to us. That's not a religious
jargon. That's truth for us. That's reality
for us. That's what our faith, that's
what our heart, that's what we believe with all our souls that
Christ is all. And see, we become cause to triumph
in Him because of our union with Him. You know, when we ever have
a marriage, we talk about what we have in Christ. He said, I
show you a mystery. He said, we're bone of His bone,
flesh of His flesh, and two shall be made one. God takes Christ
and makes us one with Christ. He's Christ. He's the head. We're
the body and we're one with Christ. He said, I show you a mystery.
We're one with Christ. And we have such a union with
Christ. And I mean we're joined to Him.
We belong to Him. Paul said, I'm crucified with
Christ. So that's what kind of union
we had. And when he died, we died. I'm crucified, but no,
listen, but I'm yet living. Well, how are you living? I'm
living by the faith. Of who? The Son of God. Why? Because He loved me. How
do we know He loved us? Because He gave Himself for us. Huh? Oh my! That's why it isn't
in everything we have as a gift. Look back over here in 1 Corinthians
15. Just turn back a page or two.
Oh listen. Satan is accuser of the brethren.
And I tell you what. He'll accuse us of all kinds
of things. But look what he talks about
here in 1 Corinthians 15.56. Talking about, you know, all
triumph that we have in Christ, a victory we have in Christ.
He said here in verse 56, the sting of death is sin. Well,
this sin has been put away by Christ. We don't have any sin.
God said, I put all, I put all their sins behind my back, cast
them into the depth of the sea, brought them out as with a thick
cloud. And he said, he put them all away by the sacrifice of
himself. And God said, I will not remember
their sins and iniquities against them no more. So that's why death
does not have a sting for us. And the strength of sin is the
law. We're under grace. We're not under law. But this
is what he said here again. But thanks be unto God, which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what are we going to do since
that's that way? My beloved brethren, be you steadfast. Be unmovable,
abounding, abounding in the work of Christ. Oh my, so you see,
beloved, our triumph, victory, everything is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I'll tell you something else,
how God causes us to triumph in Christ. Now I said, you know,
He causes us to do this. We're by nature, most of us, You know, we'll talk ourselves
down. You know, we'll talk ourselves right out of a good time if we're
not careful. But we triumph. We have the victory
by God's wisdom. Look what he said here in verse
14, 2 Corinthians 2 again. Now thanks be unto God which
always causes us to triumph, causes us to. I had no triumph
except what God calls me in Christ. And listen to what he says. It
makes manifest, brings out, clearly seen, the savor, the fragrance
of his knowledge, the knowledge of Christ by us in every place
we go to preach. And I tell you we triumph by
God's wisdom because He makes manifest the fragrance of the
knowledge of Christ by us. Now I tell you something, you
can't make known what you don't know. You can't make Christ known
if you don't know Him. You can't triumph in Christ if
you don't know Christ. God won't cause you to triumph
in Christ if you don't know Christ. And I tell you what, in 1 John
5, he says, Who is he that overcometh? Who is he that overcometh the
world? Who is he that overcometh? He that believes that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. Do you remember what our Lord
Jesus Christ asked his disciples? He said, one day he was with
them, he said, Who do men say that I the Son of Man am? They
said you're John the Baptist, you're Jeremiah, you're one of
the other prophets. He said, but now I want to know who you
say that I am. Simon Peter says, thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. He said, you're blessed
Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't make you
know that, but my Father which is in heaven. If you believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and if He's the Son of
God, that means He's God the Son. that he is God and man and
to believe that Jesus Christ was God Almighty come down to
earth as the Son of God you know the only way in the world you
can believe that is God to make you believe that? And He makes
us manifest that sweet fragrance of Christ when we talk about
Christ and make manifest Christ? Listen, right now, do you smell
the fragrance of Christ? When I said triumph in Christ,
causes us in Christ, has a victory in Christ, don't you smell that?
You know when Mary took that alabaster box of ointment, she
opened that box, and she began to put it on Christ, and put
it on his head, and put it on his shoulders, and put it all
over Christ. There was a whole bunch of people in that room
when she did that. She put all the fragrance on
Christ. But everybody in that room, oh
that smells good, oh that's the most wonderful smell, oh that's
the most blessed smell, and that's the way it is for Christ. It's like that, oh listen, it's
like that Ethiopian eunuch. After he had Christ preached
to him, they come to some water and he says, what does hinder
me? There's lots of things that hinder people. Lots of things
that hinder people. We're talking about making manifest
this fragrance of Christ. A lot of things hinder people.
First thing that hinders people is they don't believe. They don't
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. They don't believe
that they're sinners. They don't believe that they're
without hope and without God in this world. Huh? You're waiting, some people are
waiting till I experience something. I believe I know I'm saved when
this happens and that happens, some other thing happens. You
wait for an experience and you'll wait till Christ comes back again. Bruce Crabtree, do you know up
at Almont where some of these folks used to go? There's a preacher
up there, a priest experienced and experienced and experienced.
L.R. Shelton, a priest experienced
and experienced and experienced. And there's one fellow I brought,
Bruce was talking to him, he said, I've been seeking the Lord
for 20-something years. He said, you've been seeking
Him way too long. If you ain't found Him in 20-something years,
you ain't never gonna find Him. In fact, if you'll quit looking,
Trusting that's the people's problems. They keep looking for
an experience and to feel something and Have some kind of feeling
down deep in their heart or soul and you keep waiting for that
and you'll miss Christ People talk about being happy
happy happy happy listen, there's lots of days and I'm not happy
There's lots of days that I don't even have joy I Does that mean that I don't know
Christ? No, that means that I look to Him and trust Him and believe
Him. What else am I going to do in
this world? I'm being honest now with us. That's why He says
He always causes us to triumph in trust. He's got to cause us
to do it. And I tell you what, and I've
said this time and time again, if you're making happiness your
goal in this world, you're going to be nothing but miserable.
If you know Christ, and look to Christ, and you rejoice in
Christ, there'll be days that you'll have joy, there'll be
days that you'll have peace, and there'll be days that you'll
be happy. But you know what makes us the happiest thing in this
world? It's to know one another, and be with one another, and
talk to one another about the things of God and the things
of Christ. That does something for us that nothing else in this
world does. Ain't you glad we got this place? You know, it's
like standing out in this great big storm. This great big storm's
going on. The clouds are all over us. Big
old storm clouds. It looks like it's fixing to
have the awfulest storm. And oh my, it's fixing to come
down. And what do we do? We get to
come in here. Get out of the storm. Get out
from under them old clouds. Get out from under them old heavy
dark clouds. Get out of them. Oh, listen. And when we go back out, the
clouds will be gone. For a while anyway. Oh, I'll tell you what. What does
hinder me? Only one thing hinders you. That you must believe that
Jesus is the Son of God. God the Son. The fullness of
the Godhead dwells in him bodily. It says he is the image of the
invisible God. And so I tell you what, this
wisdom of this world, we're talking about God's wisdom causing us
to triumph in Christ. You know, the wisdom of this
world comes to that. Zero. All you've got to do is
look around you and see what's going on in this world. When
you see the world's wisdom and the decisions it makes and the
way it's going and the things that are said and the way people
act, you've got to say the wisdom of this world is nothing. Who's
ever been saved by the wisdom of this world? Who's ever been
saved by philosophy? Who's ever been saved by a politician? Who's ever been saved by economics? Who's ever been saved by the
stock market? Who's ever been saved by anything
in this world? Even been blessed by it and encouraged
by it? So this world, I tell you, listen,
this world, thank God, that's why they said they're strangers
and pilgrims, and they're just looking for a city whose builder
and maker is God. And I'm looking for that place
where God laid the foundation, and I know where He laid the
foundation. He laid the foundation in Christ, and He's that rock
upon which we build, and beloved, stand on Christ! He's our foundation. God laid Him, and there ain't
no other to be laid. You can jump up and down on Him. And He ain't going to fail you. You can get out in the deep waters
and He ain't going to fail you. This world has failed us and
it has already failed us. This flesh has failed us. But Christ ain't never failed
us. You can stand on that rock if the water gets up to your
neck. You stay right there on that rock. Cause that rock will
never move. Huh? Oh, it'll never move. Oh my. But God calls us to triumph
in the middle of this miserable, miserable world in Christ. Huh? Oh my. And we triumph because
God made us a sweet savor. Look what he says there. Made
us a sweet savor. You know what a savory is? It's
a smell. It's a fragrance. Wonderful fragrance. And oh,
he talked about the fragrance of Christ. And here's what I
tell you. And last time I talked to Larry
Matthews, we talked about this right here. That's what we talked
about. He talked about when God sees
me, He sees His Son. He said, to know that I have
the righteousness of God, that when God looks at me, He don't
see me, He sees His Son. And that's exactly when God sees
us, you know what He sees? He sees His Son. When God smells, if God took
a smell this morning, You know what he smelled? His smelly side. That sweet savor. That sweet
smell of his side. You know, it's like when Jacob,
his mother said, go and put some goat skin on your hands and I'll
fix the food and you take it in there. And he got in there,
you know, and he Jacob felt Isaac felt him said oh boy you feel
like Isaac I mean Esau you smell like Esau and the food you brought
is like Esau's and Isaac said boy that's my son Esau but it
was Jacob and Jacob got the blessing And you know why Jacob got the
blessing? Because God loved Jacob. He loved Jacob. And he said,
Jacob, you're going to get the blessing. It was told before
they was born that the elder was going to serve the baby.
And I tell you what, that's exactly what happened. And God when He
smells us, He don't smell our sin. He don't smell that old
rotten body that we're carrying around on our backs. He don't
smell that old wretched man that we carry around with us. He don't
smell that old wretched man that's a burden to us. He smells His
Son. Oh this and you know what only
one person on the face of God's earth From the day that he made
Adam until the last person takes their last breath on this earth
God has only said one person one man in this world that he
looked at and said that man pleases me That man satisfies me that
man honors me that man glorifies me that man does my will that
man obeys me That man loves me with all of his heart. That man
loves me with all of his soul. That man believes me perfectly. And now when God looks at us
and smells us, he says, well, they're doing the same thing. How can that be? That's why it's
called the gospel. You ever going to hear any better
news than that? You're no better news than that.
And I tell you what, we're sanctified. Go over here to Hebrews chapter
2. Keep where we're at. Look at
Hebrews chapter 2. God says He sanctified us forever. Sanctified forever. Perfected
forever. Holy before the Lord. You know, When we're talking about being
sanctified, sanctified has two meanings. First it means being
made holy. He told children of Israel, sanctify
yourselves, I'm coming among you. Separate yourselves and
make yourselves clean. And the second one is, God said,
I sanctified that and I declared it to be holy. And that's what
God does in the Gospel. He sets us apart. Sets us apart
from the world. Sets us apart in the Gospel.
Sets us apart to the truth. Sets us apart by the Spirit.
And then when He sets us apart, that's sanctification. We're
set apart. They're mine. And then He also says, Be ye
holy as I am holy. Now how in the world are we going
to be holy? I'm going to tell you something about holiness.
Holiness is a state of being. God cannot be more holy than
He is. Can He? Christ can't be no more
holy than He is. So how in the world are we going
to be as holy as God is holy? By being in Christ who is holy. Oh boy, that makes me just want
to holler. A fellow wrote me one time, he
said, I understand why you laugh all the time while you're preaching.
He said, because it causes such joy. It does, don't it, when
you're preaching. It causes such joy. And I tell
you what, look what he said here in Hebrews 2, down in verse 11. Talking about Christ here now.
For both he that sanctifies, that's Christ. and they who are
sanctified, now here's our union, are all of one. Now listen to
this, for which cause, because they're both, Christ sanctified
us, and he's the one that did it, so we're both one. For which
cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren, saying again,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren, declare whose name?
God's name, Christ's name, righteous name, sanctification, in the
midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And this is
what he's going to do in glory now. I will put my trust in him
and again when we get there he said behold I and the children
that you have given me. He will say when this thing
is over behold the children that you gave me. Oh my! How many are there going
to be? Can't be numbered. Nearer and
nearer to God I cannot be than in His Son I'm as near as He. Can't be any closer. And then
we triumph towards those that are saved back over in our text
now. Verse 15 For we are unto God, now this
is what it says, Christ causes us to triumph Christ makes manifest
the savor of his knowledge by wherever we are and he makes
that to do in us and before God we are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ in them that are saved oh my, a sweet savor of Christ
in them that are saved Now, I don't know how many of you are saved
here today. Most of you are. I really believe you are. But
Henry Mahan had done this one time. He said, now say this is
a box of fragrance. And I open it up and you smell
that. He said, that's what we do when we open the gospel. You women, you know, and I do
too. I've got I don't know how many
fragrances. I've got certain ones she likes and I've got,
you know, and you try to make it smell, make it smell good. I tell you what, God says, you
know, God said everyone that's saved, Everyone that's saved,
Christ is a sweet, sweet saver to them. When he was offered as a sacrifice,
oh, what a sweet saver. That blood that was shed to wash
away our sins, oh, how sweet it is. Christ dying on the cross
with our sins on Him. Oh, what a wonderful smell. Christ in His tomb because we
know He's going to rise again. Christ in His resurrection. Oh,
what a wonderful fragrance. Christ in His ascension, sitting
down at the right hand of God, there right now, talking about
us, interceding for us. And he says, oh listen, that
Bible's open, and Christ has made manifest to you as a fragrance. They had that altar of incense,
and that was as a fragrance of Christ going up before God. And
that's what Paul said, unto God right now, we are a sweet savor
of them that are saved. You know why it's a sweet fragrance?
Christ is their life. People say you ought to make
Christ the most important thing in your life. If He ain't your
life, He's nothing. He's their desire. You desire
anything more than Christ? He's their all. They're complete
in Him. And everything else that they
ever done, everything else they ever accomplished, any profession
they ever had before that, is nothing but done. Everything I ever done before,
I know Christ done. Every work I ever done, done.
In fact, He took us off of Dunghill. What did He do after He got us
off of Dunghill? Sent us over here among a bunch of princes. Listen and then not only to them
that are saved, but he said also in them that perish Why didn't
the world assist me? You know people that don't know
Christ they don't smell to them like it smells to us Don't smell
the same thing to him and God made it this way God made it
this way. I You know why? Because they're death. It says
in verse 16, to the one we're a saver of death unto death,
and the other a saver of life unto life. The gospel comes and
quickens us and livens us and gives us that life and makes
us understand what we have in Christ. But those that don't
know Christ, those that don't have a relationship with Christ, they don't smell the same smell
we do. They don't do it. They don't do it. You know, all
they smell, when they smell this, they say, Boy, it smells like
death to me. Don't you fellas rejoice in the
end. Don't do a thing for me. Don't do anything for me. It's death to their way of life. Christ's death to their way of
life. Their self and their worth and their goodness. So I tell
you what, when they look at Our Lord Jesus, let me show you something
over in John 9. This is what I'm trying to say.
I think I can say it over here. You know, there's two things
that happen every time the gospel is preached. People are being
given life or else they're having death pronounced on them. That's
what it means when judgment begins at the house of God. That's what
it's talking about, judgment becoming at the house of God.
And to them that are perishing, to them that don't know Christ,
to them that are perishing, perishing, right now, perishing. Look what
he said here in John 9, 34. This is where Christ opened the
eyes of that man that was born blind. And then these Pharisees, these
religious nuts, This man had opened their eyes
and said, if this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
Listen to how they said to him. They answered and said unto him,
Thou wast altogether born in sin, and you going to teach us?
Do you see that? You was born in sin. You was altogether born. We wasn't.
We don't know nothing about sin. You're the one that's a sinner.
You're the one that's sorry. And you're going to try to teach
us? And they said, well, get out
of here. We don't want nothing to do with you. The Christ you're
talking about don't smell good to us. He opened your eyes since
you was born blind. He opened your eyes and now you
see. And that don't mean that doesn't stink to us. You tell
us that Christ did this for you. He doesn't. He stinks to us.
And you stink to us, so get away from us. Get away from us. And that's the way people are.
You start talking about Christ and people start talking about
what they've done. But the living, the living because of Christ,
because of Christ, we're the saver of life. And no wonder
Paul said, who's sufficient? Who's sufficient for these things? As we go back over into our text
again. Who's sufficient for these things?
I'm not sufficient for it. Who is? Christ is, God is, the
same sun that melts the wax, hardens the clay, the same sun
and rain that causes the green beans and the corn and the potatoes,
taters to grow, also causes them weeds to grow and you got to
fight them. You go out there in that tater patch, you got
to get rid of some weeds if you go out there. And I tell you,
we triumph because, now look back over here again. Verse 17. He causes us to triumph because
of the Word of God. For we are not as many which
corrupt the Word of God. We triumph because of the Word
of God. Oh my, we don't corrupt the Word of God, we don't deal
deceitfully with the Word of God, we believe it, rejoice in
it, we rest in it, we're begotten by it, and he says we don't deal
deceitfully with it, that's what it means. Huh? We don't preach
half-truths. We don't preach half-truths.
You know people, let me give you an illustration. There are
people that make their whole life, their whole religion based
on one or two verses of scripture in the Bible. Pentecostals take
1 Corinthians 15 about speaking in tongues and Acts chapter 2
about speaking in tongues. They use those two places. And
then you've got the Camelites, water baptism people. They use Acts 2.38. Repent and
be baptized therefore for remission of your sins. They put it in
Acts 2.38. And then, you know, I mentioned
to the church this morning, I said, what in the world would a Mormon
have to preach in a Mormon church? In a church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, what would he have to say? Huh? What would a Jehovah's Witness
have to preach when they think all 144,000 are going to heaven
and the rest of them have the mark of the beast? They tell
those two things and they're done! We don't do that. We go through
the whole Bible. I tell you, we find Genesis,
we find the Gospel in the first five verses of Genesis. Find
it in the last two verses of Revelation. Find the Gospel. We don't preach half-truths.
We don't say, you know, that God will never cast us out. We
use the whole verse. All which a father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I shall in no wise
cast out. We base our doctrine not on one
or two verses. We don't mix nothing with Christ.
And we're certainly not going to take nothing away from Him.
Now here's a blessed person in work. Turn over to your right
to Galatians chapter 2 and verse 21. Look at verse 21. I'm going
to wind this thing up. Oh my, you can't mix nothing
with Christ. We don't even mix our faith with
Christ. Look what he said here now. Verse
21. He said, I do not frustrate the
grace of God. I'm not going to frustrate God's
grace. How do you frustrate God's grace? By making something go
with Christ. By making something you do, something
you say, some act you've committed. He said, I'm not going to frustrate
the grace of God. For if righteousness Come by
any deed you've done, by any law you've done. Then Christ
died in vain. Christ died in vain. And we're
not going to frustrate God's grace. We know He died for His
elect. We know He died for those that
were given to Him. We know He died for His sheep. And then last of all, We always
triumph in Christ. You know why we do? Because we're
in God's sight. We're in God's sight. God sees
us. We speak of Christ. And God knows
it. And if we're speaking of Christ,
declaring Christ, believe Christ, we're always causing to be triumphed
in Christ. Now look in 2 Corinthians 9.15
and watch this. This is one of... Ruby's favorite verse. I don't
know how many times she quoted this to me on her way out. 2 Corinthians 9.15. Thanks. See we start out giving
thanks unto God. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. Amen. Amen.