Get my text here today out of
2nd Corinthians 2 and verse 14 Now thanks be unto God which
always causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the
Savior of his knowledge by us in every place and For we are
unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved, and in
them that perish. To the one we are the saver of
death unto death, to the other the saver of life unto life.
And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many
which corrupt or deal deceitfully with the word of God. But as
of sincerity, but as of God in the sight of God, speak we in
Christ. When I read this chapter you
see that Paul was talking about heaviness with tears Sorry sorrow
and Grief and forgiveness and love and Talk about Satan not
getting advantage of us and then he said there in the verse 13.
I had no rest in my spirit Because I didn't find Titus my brother
I And then he turns around, after
talking about heaviness, and tears, and sorrow, and grief,
Satan having the advantage, not being able to find his brother
Titus. Then he turns around, with all that going on, and says,
Thanks be unto God. Now, thanks be unto God. Which
always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus. God always, always makes us to
try. There's not a trial that goes
our way that we don't get over. There's not anything that happens. And that's plain, clear language
that God says. But you say, well we have so
many failures. Yep. We have such little success. Yep. We have failures with our
kids. Failures in relationships that
we have with people. Failures in business. Failures in our hearts. Oh, how
many times we've made promises to ourselves that we have not
kept. Failures in our lives. So how can you talk of always
triumphing? Because it's what God said. It's
what the Word of God says. For we know that all things work
together. We know this. Paul says, we're
not thinking about it. We don't hope that this is this
way. For we know that all things, all things work together for
good to them that love God and to them that are called according
to his purpose. And then Paul said, who shall
separate us from the love of God in Christ? Nothing. And he says, we're more than
conquerors through Him. And that's why the first thing
he says now, thanks be unto God. Which always causes us to triumph. Now look where it says. Triumph
in Christ. Not in ourselves. What have we ever overcome? You
know, He says, we triumph in Christ. And that's never in ourselves.
We can't triumph. What could we triumph? Could
we triumph over sin in ourselves? Can we make the grace of God
more effectual by something we do? By some work that we perform? by some prayer that we pray. So if we ever look to ourselves
for anything, we know that we're going to fail. This flesh is
going to fail. It already failed. And that's
why he says he makes us also to triumph in Christ. All is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. If I should triumph, Any overcoming,
any victory is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that we have,
we come from Him. Everything that we are, He made
us to be. Everything we know, He taught
us. Everything that we have worth having, He gave to us. Is that
not right? And I tell you what, look back
over here at 1 Corinthians 15. Just turn to your left a little
bit. One page in my Bible. You just have to turn one page
back to your left. And look what it says here. In verse 56 and 57. 1 Corinthians
15, 16, 16. Oh, and our union with Christ.
We have a union with Him. We're joined to Him. We're bone
of His bone and flesh of His flesh. He says the sting of death
is sin. Sin. The sting of death is sin. When
we die, sin is over and done with. For us, as far as our flesh
is concerned. And the strength of sin is the
law. Sin gets its strength from the
law. Let me illustrate that to you. Everybody who ever tried
to be justified by their works, by their law, by anything that
they do, the sin gets stronger in them. Don't it? Sin gets stronger
in them. And I've told you this time and
time again, you want to get a fight on your hands, you tell your
wife, first thing when you get up tomorrow morning, say I'm
laying the law down to you and this is what I want done and
this is the way I want it done and don't you dare try to do
anything else. You got a fight on your hands
the minute you lay the law down. And that's why he says the law
is the strength of sin. The minute you say, I'm not just
like if somebody used to, you know, you made your resolution,
I'm going to lose weight. The minute you said, I'm going
on a diet. The first thing you wanted was
something to eat. That's the strength of sin. Well,
now listen, sin don't have no strength over a believer. Why
not? Christ died unto sin once, put it away by the sacrifice
of himself. God remembers their sin against
them no more. But now look down here, what
he says in the next verse. But thanks be unto God, which
giveth us the victory, where at? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Over death, over hell, over law,
And all beloved and revelations 12 says this that there's an
accuser of the brethren And you know what god does with accuser
of the brethren that's with satan. God said he cast him in the bottomless
pit And he shall no more ever accuse the brethren. We sung
that song. We have an advocate You know,
there's somebody standing before god all the time accusing us
accusing us And our Lord Jesus Christ stands up for us as our
advocate. And so our trials in the Lord
Jesus Christ. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. Now listen to it. Yet not I. Yet not I. I'm not living. The
life I now live in this flesh, in this body, I live by the faith
of the Son of God. Now do you know what that says
right there? By His faith, by His faithfulness, by His obedience,
by His sacrifice, we live by the faith of the Son of God.
And here's how we know it's His faith, because He loved us and
gave Himself for us. Listen, I know we've got faith.
I know God gave us faith. But you gonna trust His faith
or your faith or His faithfulness? I'm gonna trust His faithfulness.
That's what I'm gonna do. Now here's another thing that
happens. Now, verse 14 again over here in 2 Corinthians 2.
Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in
Christ. That's where the victory's at.
That's where the triumph's at. That's where the overcoming's
at in Christ. And then it's a triumph by wisdom.
Look what he says. He makes manifest the savor of
his knowledge by us in every place. This is how he makes us
to triumph in Christ. Because He makes Christ known
and manifests the name of Christ, the knowledge of Christ, the
saving knowledge of Christ in every place we go. Now let me
tell you something, you can't make known what you don't know.
You can't talk about Christ if you don't know Christ. You can't
make anybody known, Christ known to anybody if you don't know
Him yourself. And I tell you what, he says we make known the
knowledge of Christ. And here's the thing about it,
you've got to know Christ before you can talk about Christ. You've
got to know Him before, you've got to know something about His
person before you can describe Him. They sung that song, you
know I'd rather have Jesus, He's the sweetest lily, He's sweeter
than the honey that comes out of the comb. And that's what
He becomes to us. And I tell you what, He makes,
and we triumph because when we come and preach Christ, you rejoice
in Christ. Christ is made known to you.
And He's made known by preachers wherever they go that know the
gospel. We triumph. I mean, God saves sinners. Did
God not triumph over you in the knowledge of Christ? When He
brought you the knowledge of Christ and made the knowledge
of Christ known unto you, how but you triumphed? What did you
triumph over? Sin! Self! Oh my! Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? I'll give you a couple of illustrations
about making this manifest, the knowledge of God. Like that Ethiopian
eunuch. He is sitting reading the book
of Isaiah. Isaiah 53 on his way back from
Jerusalem. Been going to religious services
for days. Left and he is reading the book
of Isaiah. And he is going down through there. And Philip went
down by Gaza. You see it all the time on the
news. He went down there and he says, Do you understand what
you read? He said, How can I? Except some
man guide me. I'm reading about Christ. I'm
reading about a man. I'm reading about a lamb slain.
I'm reading about a man who's wounded for our transgression,
who is bruised for our iniquities. I'm reading about us being, that
his soul was made an offering for sin. But then he got up there
in that chair and he says, who is this man speaking about, himself
or some other man? And right then and there he started
making Christ known to that Ethiopian eunuch. And you know what he
said? That knowledge was made known to him. It became a sweet
savor to him. And you know what he said? What
does hinder me from getting out of this? Here's some water right
here. What does hinder me from getting out of this chariot and
being baptized right here, right now? You know what he said? If thou believest that Jesus
is the Son of God. I believe with all my heart that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Get out there in that water then. Then I tell you what, you, what
hinders you? Let me ask some of you, what
hinders you? What hinders you? from coming to Christ. What hinders
you from getting in the water? What hinders you from identifying
with Christ in the baptismal pool? What hinders you? You don't
believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Are you waiting for an experience?
Are you waiting to experience something? All Philip told that fellow was
believe that Jesus is the Son of God. He said, I believe that. You say, I'm not worthy enough.
You ain't. That's one thing. If you feel
that way, you're right. You're not. But he is. He is. And I tell you another
time that he made this knowledge of Christ Christ. You remember
when Paul and Silas was put in jail in Philippi? They were put in jail in Philippi
and they were put in stocks. And they was all tied up, their
hands and feet in stocks. And around midnight they began
to sing praises unto God. And while they began to sing
praises unto God and to pray, God shook that building. And
I tell you what, a little earthquake come through there and their
chains fell off and they come out of them stocks. And that Philippian jailer ran
in there with a light, thought everybody left and going to get
out of jail, going to get out of prison. And he was going to
hit each other's swords and said, oh, if they get out of here,
I just will kill myself because the Romans are going to kill
me. And Paul said, do thyself no harm. Oh, listen, he was in chains,
he was in jail, he was in prison. And God made manifest the knowledge
of Christ to that Philippian jailer and his whole family.
He said, don't do yourself no harm. And boy, that old Philippian
jailer said, sirs, see how respectful he got. Before they were just
prisoners. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? You know what he
told me? Oh, listen, I'll tell you what
you need to do. You need to get on your knees and start crying
out to God. You need to shed a bunch of tears. You need to crawl. You need to
get up and do this work, that work and the other work. No,
you know what he told me? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Wow. Oh my goodness. Is that
what you have to do? Believe? Believe old Jesus Christ
and you'll be saved? That's what he said. That's the same thing he has
to flip you, that Ethiopian eunuch. Do thou believe that Jesus is
the Son of God? I do. I do. And I tell you what, the only
one thing you must believe is that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. I want you to look on, keep first
Saint Corinthians, look with me over in Colossians. I want
you to see this. I want us to see this together.
I could quote these things to you, but in Colossians chapter
one, look at verse 15. Colossians chapter one and verse
15, look what it says here. Now we're talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ. Make it manifest the savor of
His knowledge. And that word savor means fragrance. Make it manifest the fragrance
of Christ. Look what he says in verse 15.
That the Lord Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. He said, God's invisible. No
man's ever seen Him. But God became visible. Where
at? In His Son. When you looked at the Lord Jesus
Christ, you've seen God. Who is the image of the invisible
God. The firstborn of every creature.
Now listen to this. For by Him. Let's talk about
the Son of God now. For by Him were all things that
created. Things that are in heaven, things
that are in earth, whether you can see them or whether you can't
see them, whether they're thrones, whether they're dominions, whether
they're principalities, whether they're powers, presidents, kings,
nations, it makes no difference. All things were created by Him
and for Him, and He's before all things, and by Him all things
consist. And I want you to notice this,
by Him, by Him, by Him, by Him. Look over here in chapter 2 and
look at verse 10 Verse 9 and 10 look at him. Look
at what it says verse 9 and 10 for in Christ in him Dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead in his body all the fullness
of God himself was in the Lord Jesus Christ and Now watch what
else he says, and you are complete, perfect in him, which is the
head of principalities and powers. Now boy, that's something to
know, ain't it? That's what he says, that's what
God does. That's how we triumph. We're
triumphing right now as we hear this blessed gospel. The wisdom
of this world comes today. But we triumph in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then look what else it said
here in chapter 2 verse 14. In verse 15. For we are unto God
a sweet savor in Christ. We triumph for God made us a
sweet savor of Christ. Now what in the world does that
mean? That means when God sees us, He sees His Son. When he
looks at us, he don't look at us, he sees his son. That's what
that means. When God smells us, When God
smells us and that's like when they went behind the veil and
they took the, they had the altar of incense and they put all that
stuff together and then all those spices and oils and things that
they put in that altar of incense and they lit it and that fragrance
went up. That's like the fragrance of
Christ going up. That's like His prayers going up. And it's
a sweet smell. It's a wonderful smell. And that's
why God says that we are to Him. We are a sweet smell. A sweet
savor. of Christ. This is an amazing
thing to me. And I'll tell you what, when
God sees us, He does not see us, He sees His Son. Yes. It's like when Jacob, Jacob,
his mother said, listen, You put some goat hair on you. Because you know Esau was a very
hairy man. He made this. And he was going
to get the blessing from his father. And so his mother fixed
him all up. And even made him smell like
Esau. And his daddy was getting blind. And he walked up to Esau. And Esau felt his hands and felt
all that hair on there. And he said, boys, it feels like
Esau. And he brought him the savory
meat that Esau would cook for him. And he says, the food tastes
like Esau's food. Oh my. And he got the blessing. But he wasn't Esau. And I tell
you, beloved, God Our Lord Jesus Christ became our Jacob. Became our Jacob before God.
And He gave God everything that He required of us. And when God
now smells us, He says, that smells like the sun. This is my beloved Son whom I
am well pleased. And not only that, but we're
sanctified forever, perfected forever, holy before the Lord
God Himself. The old hymn writer said it like
this, nearer, nearer to God I cannot be than in His Son. I'm as near as He. Over in Ephesians
5. Keep 2 Corinthians 2. Look in
Ephesians 5. Look what it says over here about
Christ. Oh my. But to ourselves, to ourselves
we stand. Oh, sometimes our sin gets so
loathsome to us. We get so, oh, we just feel so,
oh, we just can't understand ourselves. We can't stand ourselves.
But if we always remember this, that God don't smell the sin
anymore. God don't smell the rebellion
anymore. God don't smell the hatred and the enmity anymore. God don't see any of those things
in us. When he sees us, he sees his
blessed son. I've been warning you that our
believers this morning, when God looks down at you, he's not looking
at you. He's looking at his son. That's
what the scriptures tells us. That's what it tells us. But
look what he said here in Ephesians 5, 1 and 2. Be ye therefore followers
of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath
loved us, and listen to this, and hath given himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. Oh, let's go back over here to
our text. Let me give you another one. Oh, we triumph because we're
in Christ. We triumph because of a sweet
Savior of Christ. God sees us, smells us, looks
at us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're triumphant towards
those that are saved. Oh my, the knowledge of God makes,
for we are to God in verse 15, a sweet saver of Christ. And
in verse 15 says, and them that are saved. A sweet saver of Christ and them
that are saved. What does this mean? Whenever
we open the book and we start preaching the gospel, start preaching
the grace of God, start preaching our Lord Jesus Christ, in His
glory, in His power, in His majesty, in His grace, in His righteousness,
in His justification, in His forgiveness. Is that not a sweet
savor to you? Does that smell good to you?
Not only does it smell good, but it tastes good. We've tasted
grace. And what I'm saying is that when
you hear the gospel, and the sweet savor of Christ is them
that are saved, Christ is our life. He's our life. He's all that we desire. He's
their all. I tell you, that's what we're
talking about. They're incomplete in Him. And I want to show you
something. I was going through some outlines
with Shirley yesterday afternoon that I run across a whole bunch
that I hadn't looked at in years. And I'm going to preach some
of them. But look over here. In Philippians chapter 3, I want
to show you this. Philippians 3. Oh my, everything
else, everything. A man's righteousness is as filthy
rags. Is that not what it says? But the righteousness we have
in Christ is the righteousness of God. And Paul says that everything
that I ever had before I knew Christ and warned Christ was
nothing but dung. It's stuck. And when you've got
a righteousness of your own, the works of your own, and the
trusting of yourself, it stinks! To come before God in Christ,
without Christ, is like you coming up out of a cesspool, coming
up out of a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,
a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,
a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,
a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a Septic
tanks, yeah. It's like getting up out of a
septic tank and taking yourself before the Lord. I'll be alright. But everything else stinks. Is
that not right? It stinks. Now listen to what
he said here in verse 3. This is what Christ is to us.
We are the circumcision of God. We're the cleaned of God. God
circumcised our hearts. We're circumcised. We're clean,
pure, and holy before God. Here's the second thing about
us. We worship God in the Spirit. We don't want nothing to do with
this flesh. We worship God by the Spirit, in the Spirit, because
of the Spirit. And here's the second, third
thing. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
listen this and have no confidence That's what it means to make
Christ a sweet Savior and then look what else it says here in
that same verse and in them that perish Now what in the world
does that mean the people that are perishing? People that don't
know Christ. People that don't confess Christ.
People that are perishing in their sins. And that's perishing
don't mean you perish all at once. You start perishing. You're
perishing. You're fading away. You're going
to rot away. You're going to perish. And that's
what He says in them that perish. And so when we preach Christ
and preach the Gospel the way we're doing, when they smell
Christ, it don't smell to them like it does to us. Huh? They don't smell the same. Why? Because it says they're
dead. To the one in verse 16 is the savor of death unto death.
That's what if you don't know God, you don't know Christ, that's
the savor of death unto you. Now you can preach works, you
can preach law, you can preach marriage, you can preach a person's
worth, you can preach how good they are. You can get them up
and recognize them. I want to know who's the oldest
woman in the building today? Who's the youngest woman in the
building today? Who's got a birthday today? Who's got a testimony
for Jesus? You can do all that and that's
a good smell to them. But that stinks to us. But when
we preach Christ and preach that God, everything's in Christ. Salvation's in Christ. There's
no other name under heaven whereby we can be saved. No man comes
unto the Father but by me. And when they hear that, I don't
know why them folks make such a big deal about that. That's what they say. Well, they're
dead. So Christ is no sweet fragrance to them. All they smell is death. It's death to their way of life.
It's death to their self-worth. It's death to their goodness.
It's death to their merits. It's death to their good works.
Look what our Lord said over in John, chapter 9. Mr. Spurgeon was preaching one
time. Somebody told him, Mr. Spurgeon said, people are going
to despair through your preaching. He said, I hope they do. Despair
of themselves. Despair of any hope of salvation
other than in Christ. Look what he said here in verse
34. Now this is a man that's been, his eyes have been open,
he's been blind from his birth and Christ gave him sight. And
the Pharisees kept asking him things and asking him things.
And this is what they told this man that God opened his eyes.
They said unto him, thou wast altogether born in sins. And
do you teach us? What they're saying is, you was
born in sins, we wasn't. You're a sinner and we're not.
You're wrong and we're right. Was thou altogether born in sins
and you're going to teach us? And they cast him out. Now look
what our master said down here in verse 39. And our Lord said,
for judgment I have come into this world. Now what does that
mean that he makes the judgment? It's in His hands to make a judgment
about everybody that's on this world, everybody that's in this
building, everybody where they're preaching the Word of God today.
That they will see. This is what I come into the
world to make a judgment about. That they will see, not might
see. That people that are blind, like
this man that was born blind. He couldn't see. Our Lord said,
I come that those who can't see might see. Now watch what He
says. And that they would see. He said, how are you all together
born in sins? And you going to teach us? He
said, they see. They see their own righteousness.
They see their own goodness. They see all the things that
they've done for the Lord. Their long prayers standing on
the street corner. They're giving of their money.
They're giving of their alms. And oh my, all their tithes paid. They saw all that. But they didn't
see Christ. You know why? He said, I'm going
to blind them. And some of these Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said unto him, Are we blind
too? Our Lord said, If you were blind,
if you really were blind, you'd have no sin. I was blind, but now I see. Where
did you get sight at? Just the same place that fellow
is sitting there, born blind, same place he got his from the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now you say, we see, we see,
we see ourselves, we see our morality, we see our self-righteousness,
we see our law keeping, we see, therefore, you're going to live
in your sins, you're going to remain in them, and you're going
to die in them. And that's what he's talking about in them that
are perishing. And I tell you what, those that
live by Christ, because of Christ, we are the saver of life. And
that's why Paul said, who is sufficient for these things?
And here's the thing, the same sun that melts wax hardens clay. The same sun that causes you
to go out and plant a garden and you get all them beans and
all that good corn and all that okra and all those peas and onions
and all them things that you have, Oh my, oh you just love
to raise that big garden and have all that wonderful stuff.
But the same son that raises that garden also causes them
weeds to come and you have to get out there and fight them
weeds if you're going to have any beans. Ain't that right? And that's the way it is. The
same son causes weeds to grow too. And I tell you what, that's
the way the gospel is. It gives life to those who have
it. and death to those who don't know it and then look what he
says, oh we triumph because of the word of God look what he
says down here in verse 17 to the one we're saver of death
unto death and the other saver of life unto life a smell, a
smell, a smell, a sweet fragrance of smell let me stop right here
and say this do you all remember when Mary had that box of spike
mint, of ointment, 300 pence, extremely expensive, seven expensive. And she had it to anoint the
body of Christ for his burial. And when she opened that box,
everybody there smelled, smelled it. And when we opened the box, I
mean Judas smelled it. Peter smelled it. Christ smelled
it. Everybody in that room smelled it. They didn't have a good smelling
to Judas. But all I'm saying is when we
opened the box, All right, and we try up in verse
17, but we are not as many which corrupt the Word of God We try
up because of the Word of God Why don't we try it because we
believe it? We believe this Bible is God's Word It's God's Word. It's not my words. Not your word
is God's Word and I don't know all of it. I I don't know all
of it. There's a lot about it I don't
know, a lot I don't remember about it, and lots of things
that I don't understand. Sometimes I don't understand
it. And I have to say, Lord, teach me. Somebody asked me the
other day, one of the service men, said, I preach things I
didn't even know I believed. What I mean by that is that God
gives you such liberty, you're saying things that you didn't
even know that you was going to say, and you was opening scriptures
you didn't even know you understood until you're preaching. It's
what Peter did on the day of Pentecost. He began to preach
and he preached all the way from the Old Testament. And everyone
he said said, this is what Joel meant when he said that. This
is what the man over there saw when he's talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's the way it is. And
you know, when the Lord blesses you, the word comes out and oh,
what a sweet smelling savor it is. It smells good to me. I know Bruce, he was preaching
last year, said, Boy, that's good preaching. But I'm not going
to say that. But I do know that the gospel's
good. It's really good. And I tell
you, we triumph in Christ and because of the Word of God. We
believe it. I was reading about this gap theory the other day.
If you have a gap theory, and I used to believe that, but I
come to this conclusion, that if you believe that God made
the world right and Satan come in and destroyed it, then you've
got evolution in there somewhere. But if you believe that when
God said that the earth was out forming void, that's exactly
the way things was, and it took him seven days to create a world.
There's no time between the earth without form and voice and God
said let there be light. We're not going to let evolution
come in here. You know why? Because the Bible says God created. I just read where it says that
Christ created everything. And we believe that God created
everything. You know who He created? He created
us. It's not we that made ourselves. And not only we believe it, we
rejoice in it. Oh, how we rejoice in it. And
not only that, but we rest in it. I fall back on God's blessed
word. Me and Bruce and I was talking
the other day, and when it comes time for me to leave this world,
you know where I'm going to lay my head down? I'm going to lay
it down on the pillar of Christ's satisfaction. Where did I find
out that God satisfied in Christ? From His Word. I'm not going to lay it down
on anything that I've ever accomplished, said or done. I'm going to lay
it on Christ and what He did. Who He is and what He did. And
I tell you what, and then He says, we don't corrupt it. What
does that mean? We don't deal deceitfully with
it. We don't preach half-truths. What's half-truths? If any man
come to Me, I'll in no wise cast him out. That's half of it. You know what the first part
says? All that the Father gives Me. That's the first thing He says,
all that the Father gives me. What are they going to do? They're going to come to me.
And when they come to me, I won't cast them out. You're not coming to the church,
not coming to the front, coming to Christ. We don't preach half-truths. We don't embrace our doctrine
on one verse or two verses. We don't embrace our doctrine
on Acts 2.38. Where you know being baptized, you know being
put in water is going to wash your sins away. We don't base
it on that there's two sacraments. That you get grace through the
blood and get grace through the wine. There's no sacraments in
them. We don't get grace except through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's what I'm saying. We
don't mix nothing with Christ. We don't say it's grace but.
It's just grace. We don't put no buts on Christ.
We don't put no buts on grace. We don't put no buts on righteousness.
We don't put no buts on justification. We don't put no buts on redemption.
We don't put no buts on man being depraved and lost and held as
earned. We don't put no buts in it. We
mix nothing with Christ, nor take anything away from His blessed
person and work. Paul said, I do not frustrate
the grace of God. If righteousness come by the
law, Christ dead in vain. No reason for Him even to die.
If you can be saved without Christ, why in the world was He crucified?
If you can be saved by anything you do, why was Christ put on
a cross? And that's why we ain't going
to miss nothing with him. And then I'm going to finish up with
this right here. But oh, listen, verse 17 still,
we always trumps in triumph in Christ because, but as this as
of sincerity, but as of God, listen to this and the side of
God, we're in God's sight and we speak of Christ in God's sight.
We speak of Christ to one another. But boy, when we come before
God, who do we mention? Who do we talk about? Who do
we talk about? Who do we talk about to God?
Who do we talk about to the Father? When we go to the Father, we
come in His name. We mention His name. We mention
His word. Oh my. We speak in Christ. And God knows if we're speaking
of Christ and believe Christ, always, always triumphant in
Christ. Let me close with one verse.
2 Corinthians 9.15. Look at here. I'm going to close
with this. Ruby used to say this to me.
Oh, I tell you what, I could not begin to tell you all the
times over all the years that she'd quote this verse to me
on her way out of the building. She'd stand back there at the
door and she'd quote this verse to me after I'd get through preaching.
Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. And I tell you what, next time
you're real down and you don't know what's up or what you're
going through, remember this. Our triumphs in Christ We're
not going to try to make this flash accomplish anything. We
know everything's already been accomplished for us. And that's
why when we go to Him and call on Him and speak to God in His
name, come to Him in His name, that's why we get up thanking
God for Him. Our Father, in the precious,
blessed, glorious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you
for this day. Thank you for this morning. Thank
you for our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that you see us in
Him. That we're perfect in Him. Complete in Him. Accepted in
Him. All of our eggs are in His basket. All of them. And Lord, we look
nowhere else but to Him. Thank you, Lord, for this gospel.
Thank you for these precious, precious truths. In Christ's
name, open hearts bring people to a knowledge, a saving knowledge
of Christ. If they have a saving knowledge
of Christ, enable them to confess it. And we ask in His holy name. Amen. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Amen. See you tonight, six o'clock,
God will.