Paul called to be an apostle
of Jesus Christ through the will of God. If a man has any office
or anything in the church of God, it's by
the will of God. By the will of God. And Sosthenes,
our brother, unto the Church of God, which is at Corinth,
to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,
which all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be to you, and peace from
God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my
God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given
you by Jesus Christ that in everything you are enriched by him in all
utterance and in all knowledge even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you so that you come behind in no gift waiting
for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who all shall also confirm
you unto the end blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ
God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of
his Son Jesus Christ our Lord there in verse 5 it says here
that in everything you are enriched by him and I've told you many
times over the years that word enriched means wealthy that in
everything you're wealthy, made wealthy by the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to talk about made wealthy
in Christ. The apostle often talked about
being rich in Christ. He talked about the riches of
his grace, the depth of his love, the riches of his glory, though
he himself was a poor man. He had to occasionally work because
people wouldn't care for him as they should or would. Or hold
it against him if they didn't meet his needs. Let me show you
what I'm talking about. Look over at 2 Corinthians. He worked himself because he
wouldn't be chargeable to anybody. Look at 2 Corinthians 11 verses
8 and 9. Talking about what he did. He
was a poor man, but he talked about the wealth that he had
in Christ. felt he was the wealthiest man in the world and that's the
way I feel and I know you do. He said in verse 8 here, I robbed
other churches taking wages of them to do you service. to labor
for you. And when I was present with you
and wanted, and I had won, needing things, I was chargeable to no
man. For that which was lacking to
me, the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied. And in all
I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will
I keep myself." I have to live with my own hands because you
didn't care enough about the gospel. And look in Acts chapter
20. Let me show you what he says
about it over here. Here's a poor man, but he's talking
about made wealthy in Christ. Look in Acts 20 and verse 33.
Acts 20, 33. Look what the apostle says here. I have coveted no man's silver
or gold or apparel. Not a thing that you got. Ye
yourselves, yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered
unto my necessities and to them that were with me. I labored
for what I needed and even for those that were with me. I didn't
want anything anybody had. He didn't say that at all. Now
back over here in 1 Corinthians 1. True riches are not found
in how much land we own, how many houses we possess, or how
nice our houses may be. True riches are not found in
the size of our bank accounts, because it's certain that we
came into this world without anything and we're going to leave
without anything. But I do know this, that true
poverty nor true poverty is measured by what a man doesn't possess.
A man may be very, very poor in this world, and yet he may
have the greatest riches of all. But I know this, that a man is
truly, truly rich who has the Lord Jesus Christ and is united
to Him by faith. I know that's where true wealth
is possessed. A man, and I tell you this, a
man is truly, truly poor who doesn't have a true relationship
with God in Christ. Oh, how poor a man is that don't
have a true relationship with God in Christ. For in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead. Everything God has dwells in
His blessed Son. And to be without Christ is to
be without hope. To be without Christ is to be
without forgiveness. To be without Christ is to be
without justification. To be without Christ is to be
without hope in this world. But oh my, to have the Lord Jesus
Christ, to have Him, to know Him, Possess Him. You're the richest person in
this universe. And one of these days we're going
to enter into that place where nothing but glory, glory dwells. We're Emmanuel's land. We're
glory dwelling. But now look here. I want to
talk about made wealthy in Christ. Now he says, and I read to you
verses 1 through 3, and how about, oh he called to them that are
sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. Sanctified in Christ,
called to be saints. That's why you're saints, because
Christ sanctified you. But I tell you what, he says
here in verse 4, that in verse five, that in everything you're
enriched by Him. I want to talk about being made
wealthy. And the first thing Paul says here in which we're
made wealthy is in grace. He said in verse four, I thank
my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is
given you by Jesus Christ. We're made wealthy in grace,
made wealthy by grace. And grace is given to men and
women in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
God has for us in this world, He gives it to us in Christ and
for Christ's sake. And everything that we have,
everything that we have, everything that we know Everything we possess
in this world is everything we have is by the grace of God.
And that's why Paul says, we always give thanks on your behalf.
And that's why we're always thankful. It's because of the grace of
God. I'm still as amazed over the
grace of God saving me as I was years and years and years ago
when I first learned of it. That I'm saved by the grace of
God. that I'm wealthy in the grace
of God. And I'll tell you, God does not
run out of grace. And as long as Christ lives,
and as long as Christ sits at the right hand of God, and as
long as Christ exists, He's going to give us grace. And He gives
it to us by Jesus Christ. And oh, beloved, I'll tell you
what, let me talk about some objective grace. And this grace
is through and by and because of our Lord Jesus Christ electing
grace. electing grace. God has chosen
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. It's God who saved
us and called us with a holy calling. Not with our works,
but through the grace of God given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. That's outside of us. That's
grace given to us from eternity. Electing grace. Chose us in Christ. And then there's regenerating
grace. For when you were dead in trespasses and sins, God hath
quickened us together. With whom? With the Lord Jesus
Christ. Gave us grace and regenerated
us and saved us. And he said he quickened us together
with Christ. For by grace are you saved. Are you saved. And then there's
justifying grace. being justified freely, Romans
3.24, being justified freely by His grace. Now I'm telling
you, everything we have, now all those things are outside
ourselves. All those things took place outside of us. We did not,
we don't know anything about this, this electing grace, we
didn't know God chose us. until He regenerated us, quickened
us with Christ through the preaching of the gospel. We didn't know
anything about justification until He came and justified us
by His grace. And then we're sanctified by
His grace. Look what He said up here in
verse 2. 1 Corinthians 1, Under the church of God which is at
Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. I feel sorry for people who are
always worried about being sanctified, progressive sanctification, and
wanting to get more holy as time goes by. I feel sorry for them. Because everything we possess,
our sanctification is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our holiness
is in Christ. Our justification is in Christ.
Our regeneration is by Christ. Our election is by Christ and
by grace. And grace, grace is the favor
or the gift of God. We sometimes forget the definition. Grace is the favor or the gift
of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith. That's not of yourselves. What
is it? It's the gift of God. Why is it a gift of God? Not
of works, because if it was works, man would boast. And then He
goes on to say that He hath created us unto good works. And He ordained. You know when He ordained it?
Before the world began. And there is not a person in here
that would stand up and say, Boy, you wouldn't believe the
good works I've done last week. Because you know why? The believer
is the only person in the world who does not lay claim to having
good works. They would not dare claim to
having a good work. But I tell you what, God himself
ordained them to happen. And we don't know when they happened,
how they happened, or who they happened with, but they happened. And I'll tell you something,
if it's not a gift, it's not grace. The very first minute
it's earned or deserved, it ceases to be grace. The very minute
that anything that a human being adds to it, it ceases to be grace.
That quick. That quick. And all we have from God our
Father is the gift of grace. Oh, listen. His Son, God so loved
the world that He gave. That's a gift of God that He
gave His only begotten Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ, we have
eternal life given to us by Jesus Christ. Eternal life given us. We're just talking about it coming
over the road. God's people, when they die,
that's not when they enter into life. They entered into eternal
life in Jesus Christ. And this flesh passes away, this
flesh dies, but they don't enter into life when they die, when
they pass away from this world to the next. They've already
entered into life in Christ, because Christ is in Christ.
And they live by the same life in the new world as they lived
in this world by Christ. And that's all. We leave this
world and we enjoy Christ. And that's what we enjoy here.
We enjoy Christ here. It's eternal life. It's not something
you're going to get. It's something you have right
now. He that hath the Son hath life. As old Henry used to say,
that means he's got it. And then He gives us repentance. He grants us repentance. He granted
us repentance unto life. And faith. Now I'm talking about,
these are subjective. And faith. Listen, as many as
were ordained to eternal life, what happened to them? They believed. Hope, love, all these are subjective
graces through the Spirit. These are things when the grace
of God comes to us outwardly, objectively, and then this grace
works in us, and all these gifts that God gives us, hope, love,
faith, gentleness, goodness, meekness, gentleness, kindness,
long-suffering, faith. There ain't no law against that. Oh my. And I tell you what, we
know this, if we differ at all, If we differ, the only reason
I'm not a Catholic, or a Pentecostal, or in prison, or in dead, or
a drug addict, or a drunk, or a Southern Baptist, or some other
far-out religion, or a Church of Camelot preacher, or a Jehovah's
Witness or something, the only reason I'm not is God made us
to differ. Ain't that right? God made us to differ. And thank
God, listen, I know that the only reason I'm not somebody
else doing something else and living like the devil himself,
I know it's because God made us to differ. If I differ at
all, grace did it. Grace did it. And it's given
to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Back up here in verse
2, look what it says. Oh, listen, whose name do we
call? We call upon His name. It says, with all that in every
place called upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the name we call on. That's the name we plead before
God, and not who else does it. It's their Lord, their Lord.
There's other people, you know, that's calling on the name of
the Lord. Down in Mexico, they're on the same time we are down
there. They're meeting in Mérida, they're meeting in different
places all over Mérida, in Tantun, and those places they're meeting
tonight. And they're calling on the name
of the Lord. Our Lord, their Lord, and why
we call upon His name. And what we mean by that is,
Father, oh, our Father, oh, our blessed God, consider us and
hear us for His merit, for His worth, for His work. Oh, consider us because of His
sufferings and His obedience, His righteousness, not ours. And we call upon Him as Lord.
We call on Him as Lord and call Him my Lord because He's got
all the power. He's got all the authority. He's
got everything we need. And that's why we call on His
name. Oh, they call upon Him. All that in every place call
upon the name of the Lord. Do you know how many people call
on the name of the Lord tonight? All over this world calling on
the name of the Lord. And that's why that's the name
we call on, ain't it? Who else's name you gonna call
on? And oh, not only made wealthy
in grace, but look what else it says now down here in verse
5. Made wealthy and rich in Him,
made wealthy in everything, in utterance and knowledge. Made
wealthy in everything. What does it mean, made wealthy
in everything? That means in every situation, every situation,
every circumstance, what do we need? I don't care
what situation or circumstance a person is in, they do not lose
what they have in Christ. The wealth that we have in Christ,
the enrichment we have in Christ. I don't care what the situation
is, and that's why we can say no matter what it is and what's
going on, Blessed be the name, you know when Job and Paul and
Simon, you look at all the people in the scriptures. Job lost everything
he had, I mean lost his children, lost his cattle, lost his camel,
lost his asses, lost everything he had. You'd think, boy, I'd fill her
back up and say, oh Lord, this is more than I can bear. I can't
deal with this situation. Oh, it's killing me. No, no. He fell down before the Lord
and said, the Lord gave! The Lord gave! And the Lord took away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Paul said, I'm poor and you may
be rich, but I'd rather have my poverty than your riches.
That's what he said. And you go through the scriptures
and you find people. You find people. Oh my, there's
Lazarus laying at the rich man's gate. Would you rather have been Lazarus
laying at the rich man's gate or be at the rich man's? Fair
and sumptuously every day. Rich man went to hell, Lazarus
got to go to glory. Now who had the wealth? Who was
the richest one when it was all said and done? Oh my, in every
situation, in every circumstance, we can reach out and kiss the
hand of God and say it's the Lord. I've seen too many people
do it over the years. I've seen too many. And if there's
any time that we show our grief and show our hurt and that, we
try our best to do it privately if we can. And all blessed, listen
here. Now I tell you what, in everything,
in the spiritual things of Christ, we're made wealthy. Oh my, we're
more than conquerors through Him and all the spiritual things
of Christ we're enriched by Him. I heard somebody, and we were
watching this the other night, I love to watch this gold rush.
I like to watch them fellas go after all that gold. And I get
a big kick out of it. These fellas got a big, huge
bowl of gold. They counted it up, you know
what they got that week. And I mean, it's a huge bowl,
about that deep. And then after they all got real
happy about it, and everybody said, well, let's pray. Lord,
we thank you for putting this coal in the ground so we can
get it back out. They're thanking God for gold.
And we thank God for the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace of
God. One person I heard say one time,
Lord, Lord, let me prove to you that I can handle winning the
lottery. Let me prove to you I can handle
winning the lottery. Oh, I couldn't handle it at all.
Could you? I couldn't handle it at all.
No, you know, but listen. Let everybody have the lottery.
Let them have the gold. Give me Christ. I want Christ. I want Christ. We got more in
this world than we ever thought most of us ever dreamed we would.
And yet we find our pleasure. Find our comfort. Find our strength. Find our greatest enjoyment.
is hearing the gospel and being with the Lord's people. That's
our greatest comfort and greatest enjoyment in this world. That's
our greatest pleasure. And you that have your children
here, worshipping with you, calling on the Lord with you, oh my,
what wealth! What wealth! And also, He made
us wealthy in utterance. What does He mean, made us wealthy
in all utterance? And that utterance means whether
you're gifted to preach or teach or to witness, you utter the
thing. When we utter, when we talk in utterance, we're not
up just beating the air. We've got something to say. And
if we witness, we've got someone to witness about. And when we
pray, we pray to the Lord Jesus. And when we have something to
utter, we want to utter about the Lord Jesus Christ. If we get a chance to talk to
anybody, that's who we want to talk to them about. We want to
talk about Him in His Word. And that's why Paul said to the
Colossians, the Word of Christ dwells in you richly in all wisdom. If we get a chance to utter anything,
we want to utter the things of Christ. When we pray, we want
to pray about the things of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he
says, met wealthy in all knowledge. Knowledge. This word knowledge
also means insights. In all knowledge. I tell you
one thing we know, look over here in Romans 10. Look in Romans
10. Here's a thing where some people
didn't know some things. But we're made wealthy in knowledge,
enriched in knowledge. And in Christ dwells all the
riches of wisdom, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And
this is eternal life, to know God. To know, to have this knowledge
of God. Look what brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God,
but now listen to it, not according to knowledge. They don't know God. They zealous.
They zealous. They say it's for the scriptures.
They're zealous to pray. They're zealous to tithe. They
say it's to wear long clothes and to dress right and do all
those kind of things for they being ignorant. And this is the
worst kind of ignorance you can have, being ignorant of God's
righteousness. Now we know something about God's
righteousness. He said we're in Christian all
know, we know something about the knowledge of Christ, of righteousness. And out of their ignorance, that's
one of the awfulest ignorance to be ignorant of God's righteousness.
So they're going about to establish their own righteousness. And
they don't submit themselves to the righteousness of God.
Well listen, we know something about the righteousness of God.
We know the gospel. We have a knowledge of the gospel
experimentally, experientially. We've experienced the gospel.
We've experienced Christ. We've experienced grace. We've
experienced righteousness. And that's what he goes on to
say for Christ. And I tell you, that's where
we go. We go where the law ends and righteousness begins in our
Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, beloved, we in all knowledge,
all knowledge and wisdom dwells in Him. And when we're made to
know Him, we're made wealthy. The knowledge of the gospel,
the knowledge of God, to know God, I mean to know God, not
know some things about God. I mean knowing. Abraham was a friend of God. Moses came and God said he talked
to Moses face to face as a man talks to his friend. And we know
God. We can tell you a lot of things
about Him. And a lot of people tell you a lot of things about
Him. But we can say we know Him. We know Him. And oh, we have
a knowledge of the love of God. Oh, God. We love Him. Why? Because we know He first
loved us. We know we've passed from death
unto life. Why? Because we love the brethren.
And oh, we have, and I'll tell you this, listen to this. We
have a knowledge to desire knowledge of Christ. We know enough to
know that we want to know more. Paul said, I know Christ, but
I want to know Him. I found Christ and I want to
win Christ, but I want to win Him. We have enough knowledge
to desire more knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have
knowledge, this is the knowledge that we have, in all knowledge,
made wealthy in knowledge that Christ is all and in all. And that Christ is made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He's made unto
us that. Oh my. And then look here, down
in verse 6, Ephesians 1. Not enriched in grace, enriched
in everything, utterance and knowledge. And then look what
he says, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.
We're enriched or made wealthy in the testimony of Christ. Oh, and even as the testimony
of Christ was confirmed in you. Now the testimony of Christ What
does he mean by this? And then the gospel is confirmed
in you. Well, it means this, that we heard the testimony of
Christ. What did Paul say in 1 Corinthians
5.1? Or, excuse me, 3.1? No, no, no,
no, no, no. I preached it just the other night. Chapter 2, chapter 2. Oh listen,
I said, our brethren came to you, came not with extra speech
or wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God. And even
as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, the gospel,
the testimony of Christ is the gospel. They believed. Here these people believed and
many of them were converted. The gospel was the power of God
under the salvation to these saints. And that's what he says
here is the testimony is the gospel of Christ. And you know
why Lord Jesus Christ came and he read it tonight. John bore
testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ. And who was it confirmed in?
It was confirmed in Andrew. It was confirmed in Simon Peter. It was confirmed in Philip. And
eventually it was confirmed in Nathanael. that testimony that
John gave, and they came and saw for themselves. And I tell
you that's what happens to us in our Lord Jesus Christ came
and bore testimony to His Father. He says, No man has seen the
Father at any time, save the only begotten Son. It's in the
bosom of the Father. He hath declared Him. He hath
testified of His Father. And all He tells here, the testimony
we're talking about is the testimony we bear concerning our Lord Jesus
Christ. And all this testimony is confirmed
in you. Is the gospel confirmed in you?
Have you received the testimony of the Word of God? The testimony
of Christ Himself? The testimony of the Holy Ghost? The Holy Spirit? And when we
believe the testimony of Christ, that testimony is confirmed in
us. We hear of Christ and it's confirmed.
We believe it and say, yes, it's so. It's true. That's it. And oh, the gospel is the wondrous
news of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. The eternal Word came
into this world and made known. How was He made known? By Himself. By the prophets they
bore testimony to Christ. The apostles bore testimony of
Christ. The scriptures bore testimony
of Christ. And we bear testimony to Christ. And then it says it was confirmed
in them. Confirmed in them. And it's confirmed
in you. You keep 1 Corinthians here and
look over in 1 Thessalonians 1. 1 Thessalonians 1. Oh, confirmed. I like that word
confirmed. You know, they'll, you know,
people, you know, if I go to the VA, they'll always call me
to confirm my appointment. They always call and say, Are
you going to be at your appointment? If you are, press 1 and your
appointment is confirmed. Ain't that right? And if you
have a reservation somewhere, you want confirmation. They give
you a confirmation number to know that you're going to be
there. And when you get there, it's confirmed this room is for
you. Well, God says the testimony of Christ is confirmed in you.
Look what He said here in verse 5.
Well, look in verse 4. First Thessalonians 1.4 Knowing,
brother, beloved, your election of God. How do we know you're
elected? For our gospel came not unto
you just in words, though they do come in words, but they also
came in power. Power in them words. Power. How did the power come in the
word? By the Holy Ghost. And in much assurance, you know
what that means? That you believed the gospel
and were assured that what you heard was so, and it brought
assurance with you. Not only was you assured that
the gospel you heard was real and true, but it also brought
assurance with you that what you're believing is so. And this
word back over in 1 Corinthians, confirmed means this, to make
firm. It means to establish. It means
to make secure. To be stable, fast, and firm. And he said, that's what the
testimony of Christ has been to you. I mean, made firm, established,
and made secure in it. And then look what he said here
in verse 7, 1 Corinthians 1. Oh, listen, we're made wealthy
in gifts and patience. Look what he said. So that you
come behind in no gift. No gift. Now, you know, there's
lots and lots of people, all they're interested in is the
gift of tongues, laying hands on people and healing them, working
miracles, and those kind of things. But boy, when he's talking about
gifts here, he's talking about the spiritual gifts that we have
in Christ. Love, faith, grace, holiness,
generosity, Kindness, tenderness, ability to forgive, ability to
love one another, those are spiritual gifts. And He says, you come
behind in no gift. Let people speak in tongues all
they want to. It ain't going to have no effect
on the gifts I have in Christ. Oh, let them go ahead. Oh, listen,
that's why He says, you come behind in no gift. No gift. And I tell you what, a lot of
people, they wonder what gift they have. I tell you what, the
fact that you continually come hear the gospel, the gift of
faithfulness, what a gift that is. A gift to be faithful. To come hear the gospel week
after week after week after week after week. And hear the same
preacher week after week after week after week, year after year
after year. Some of you are very generous. We went up to pay for our dinner
today. Somebody already paid for it for us. I said, Doug,
we asked the lady for the ticket. She said, somebody's already
paid for it. Isn't that wonderful? Did it without saying anything.
Listen, they didn't have done it without saying, I'm going
to buy you dinner today. Just paid for it and went on about
their business. Ain't that a blessing? Huh? Oh, listen. And then look what he says, those
that come and bind no gift, waiting, waiting for the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Waiting for His coming. We're
wealthy in gifts and wealthy in patience. And that you're
waiting, waiting. And this word, the coming of
Christ is the revelation of Christ. waiting for the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, patiently expecting. And not only patiently
expecting, but expecting with desire, longing for it. Do you sometimes expect the Lord
Jesus Christ to come with desire? Do you long for His coming sometimes? Yes. And we patiently wait for
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ comes in
His glory, when Christ comes in His power, then will all glory
be full. That's why Paul said, I reckon,
I reckon the sufferings of this present time are not even worthy
to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us at the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, look over here in Colossians
3. Look in Colossians 3. You know, patiently expecting. I told Bruce
Crabtree the other day, him and I was talking about this. And
I said, you know, I believe believers get homesick sometimes. Especially when they get weak
and weary. And be honest when we kind of
feel sorry for ourselves, situation we're in, the world. Just one
bad news after the other. And say, Lord Jesus, oh would
you come, would you come. And you want Him to come, you
long for Him, you expect Him with great desire. But in Colossians
3, 4, look what it says. Listen to this. When Christ,
who is our life, shall appear, and He's going to appear, that's
been what it says, then shall ye also appear with Him. You know what Paul said? He said,
all who love his appearing, he says, you know there's a righteousness,
crown of righteousness laid up for me, and also all them that
love his appearing. Love his appearing. Oh my, Lord
Jesus come. And George said the other night,
I'd love for him to come in my lifetime. Love for him to come
in my lifetime. And years and years ago, you
know, and this, this is his flesh. He said, Oh, you know, there
was a song, wait a little longer, please, Jesus, wait a little
longer, you know, till my children are saved. And this person saved
and that person saved and all this. Lord Jesus Christ can come any
time. And that's why the gospel is
so precious and so important that people hear it. It's because
he'll come in an hour when you think not. He'll come as a thief
in the night. He'll come as lightning from
the east to the west. And it'll happen so fast that
the apostle said it's like a moment, the twinkling of an eye. That's
how quick it's going to be. His coming and then look back
over here with me and then first Corinthians So we're in gifts
and in patience waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
And this this made wealthy by promise in verse 80 says this
who also shall confirm you confirm you Unto the end that you may
be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a promise
and who are the Lord Jesus Christ, whose testimony is confirmed
in us. And because of that, Christ himself
is also going to confirm you, establish you, settle you, make
you firm and constant and secure, who confirm you unto the end,
that you may be blameless in the day of Jesus Christ. Now
that's a promise. What a promise. Huh? People say,
I'm not sure I'm going to, you know, I'm not sure I'll be able
to endure. I'll tell you what, if grace
has been given to you, you will. God shall confirm you unto the
end. If He's enriched us in Christ,
shall He not confirm us? Make us steadfast, preserve us
from falling? Paul, he said, we have an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast, entered within the veil for us.
And then look what it said, he's gonna confirm us unto the end.
It could be two ends here. It's either the end of our life,
he'll confirm us to the end of our life when we draw our last
breath. And I'll tell you something, God's got my last breath marked
out for me. He got my last breath marked
out for me. Boy, that's something to think
about, ain't it? Does it scare you to know that
you're going to take your last breath one of these days? It
don't be, because God's got the time marked for me. And guess
what He says? He said He's going to confirm
me until the end of my life. I'm not going to back up. I'm
not going to be lost. I'm not going to fall. I'm not going to fail. How's
God? Because God said He's going to
confirm you. Can he lie? That's a promise of God. And
no, listen. It's either the end of our life
or the end of this age when Christ comes, either calls us home or
He comes to take us all home. Huh? No wonder, beloved, Paul
said in Philippians 1.6, He which hath begun a good work in you,
he shall confirm it. Finish it unto the day of Christ.
And oh, thank God there is an end. Thank God there is an end. It's like a black woman, you
know, they asked her one time, said, what's the most precious
thing in the Word of God to you? She said, and it came to pass. What do you mean? I'm glad he
didn't say he came to stay. I'm glad he said he came to pass. Whatever happens, it'll come
to pass. And it always will. It'll always
come to pass, won't it? It'll all be like that. And then
look what else it says here. The promise of blamelessness.
That you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Blameless. Not a rain, not a cure. God will
confirm His people until the day of judgment comes and the
day of the Lord. They'll stand before Him blameless,
not chargeable with anything whatsoever. Blameless! God said
He's going to confirm us that until the end, until the day
of Jesus Christ. And how do we know this is real?
How do we know that all this is true and it's so? Well, look
what it says in verse 9. I'll hurry up and quit. This
is how we know all this wealth we have in Christ. God is faithful. God is faithful. Great is thy
faithfulness. That's why we know it's true,
it's real, and it's so. God is faithful. I am the Lord, I change not.
Therefore you sons of Jacob, you're not consumed. He cannot
lie, he cannot fail, he cannot change. Our confidence is not
based on our strength, or our purpose to persevere, or that
our religion is indestructible. Our confidence in God is faithful. God is faithful. And how can
we know we're enriched by Him and shall be conformed? Well,
look what he says. God is faithful by whom you were
called. God called us. He affectionately
called us. Called us to His blessed Son.
And look what He said. Called us into the fellowship
of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh my. Faithful. Called us into this
union, this communion, this participation, this being a partaker of what
we have in Christ. Oh, fellowship means participation,
partakers of. We're called to be partakers
of our Lord Jesus Christ, partakers of His life. We're members of
His body, partakers of His character, partakers of His nature, partakers
of His sufferings, and partakers of His life hereafter. And let
me close with this comment on this. I've preached too long,
I know I have, and you know it too. Now he said in verse 10,
Now I beseech you, brethren, I beg you, I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. All of you say the same
thing. All of you talk about the testimony
of Christ, enriched in Christ, and the grace of Christ, the
gifts of Christ, waiting on Christ. that you all speak the same thing.
Don't let there be no schisms among you, but that you be perfectly
joined together in the same mind, in the same judgment. You know
what that means? Everybody get on the same page.
And we're all on the same page when it comes to the gospel,
when it comes to our Lord Jesus Christ, ain't we? We're all on
the same page. Our Father, the blessed name
of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for the gospel. Thank you for the grace of God
given us in Christ. Thank you for all the wealth,
all the riches, untold. Oh Lord, it'll take us eternity. Take us eternity and we'll still
not understand the depth of the grace of God. Not understand
the depth of the love of Christ. Not understand the joy of God
being our joy. Oh God, what we have to look
forward to and what we enjoy in this world already. Oh blessed
be your name. Blessed be your name. God bless
these dear saints. Bless Larry and Kathy Bale. Give them great strength. Give
them comfort in their hearts and in their souls with what
they're going through right now. God help them, please. For Christ's
sake, bless Joyce to be with us again. And Kathleen, continue
to strengthen and bless her so she can come worship with us
again. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Let's sing a couple of verses
of Great is Thy Faithfulness. What is it? Number one. Number two.