This message has been on my heart
for all week. I finally got to work it up yesterday. Look what it says here in verse
14. 2 Corinthians 2.14 2 Corinthians 2.14 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, to the saved, we are the savour of death unto death, and
to the other, the savour of life unto life. And 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. Did you notice it
says there that he causes us to always triumph in Christ?
I love that verse of scripture because I know it's so. I know
it's true. I know without a shadow of a
doubt it's true. God always makes us triumph.
Always makes us triumph. That's plain, clear language. And I believe what God says.
And I know you're thinking, now wait a minute, preacher. I'm pretty down right now. I'm
having a struggle. I'm having... You know, we've
had many failures in our experience. Lots of failures. Not very much
success in lots of ways. We have failures with our kids.
Failures in our relationships. Failures in business. We have
failures in our hearts. All of us want our hearts to
be on fire, full of love, full of
zeal, full of interest. But we have failures in our hearts.
Failures in our lives. So how can you talk about always
triumphing? Because it's what God says. No
matter what happens in your life, you always come out on top. Is
that not right? You always come out on top. You
always come out victorious over whatever happens in your life,
whatever's going on in your life. You always come out blessing
the Lord and praising the Lord. Is that not right? Whatever goes
on. You know, and this is because
this is what God says. God said all things, A-L-L, all
things work. Everything that happens in our
lives, everything that happens in your life, my life, all things
work. They're working. They're nothing
static, nothing standing still. working together for the good,
not for everybody, but to them that love God. And who loves
God? Them that's called according to His purpose. Is that not right?
And it says in Romans 8.35 that God says that we are more than
conquerors through Him that loved us. That means, beloved, we not
only win, but we get more, conquer greater, than we ever did every
time we come through something. And you know that's why patience
work is experience and experience hope. Why does it do that? Because
hope makes us not ashamed. Why? Because the love of God
shall be brought in our hearts. And all thanks be unto God, and
let's go through this just a minute, which always causes us to triumph.
And I tell you what, thank God for this. Thank God for this. It always causes us causes us. There's a cause, a first cause
in everything. God's the first cause. And He
causes us to triumph in Christ. Always causes us to triumph in
Christ. And you notice where we triumph at? Not in the flesh. Not in the church. Not in ourselves. Not in somebody else's life.
The triumphs in Christ. God always makes us to triumph
in Him. That's where the victory's at.
That's where the triumph's at. That's where the victory's accomplished
at. It's in Christ. And you know,
and while you turn with me over to 1 Corinthians 15, back to
your left just a little. You know, that's why Paul said,
I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. You look
in 1 Corinthians 15 with me just a minute. And nevertheless, I
live. Yet not I that liveth, but it's
Christ that liveth in me. And so you see, beloved, we have
such a union, such a oneness with our Lord Jesus Christ, that
everything that He has, everything that He did, everything that
He accomplished, God counts us as doing that very thing. Because
we're one with Him. It says we're one in Adam. And
with relationship to our Father, Adam, in Christ we have such
a union with Him. We're members of His body, bone
of His bone, flesh of His flesh. And He says they who are sanctified
and He who sanctifies, they're all of one. For which cause He's not ashamed
to call us brethren. Now look over here in 1 Corinthians
15 verses 57. And where do we get this triumph?
How do we triumph in Christ? Where do we get this victory?
Where do we get this conquering from? It says, and again, Paul
starts out this way, But thanks be to God, which giveth us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And He gives it to us. It's a gift. Where do we get
this triumph at? Where do we get it at? We, it's
a gift given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, look what
he says back in verse 56 just to go through this to show us
what kind of victory we have, what kind of triumph we have.
The sting of death is sin. We're all going to die because
of sin. Not a soul in this building is
not going to die. We're all gonna go by way of
the grave or either the Lord's gonna call us home. I've got
my name on my grave out there. I've got my name already on the
tombstone. And I'm not a bit afraid to face
that. The sting of death is sin. And listen to this now. And the
strength of sin is the law. Now when you try to do anything
by law and keep the law, sin finds its strength by law. You
lay down the law to somebody and they automatically go rebelling. They automatically go fighting
it. That's why our kids, you know, you try your best to make
your kids' minds, what do they do? They fuss and they fight
and they struggle and they can't go to bed. Oh no, I'm not sleeping.
Set out, I don't want to set out. And that's the way that
sin finds its strength in the law. But now listen to this. But thanks be unto God. Why? Because death is conquered
by our Lord Jesus Christ. He went to the tomb. He died. He took the sting out of death.
He took the sting out of death. You know, if any of y'all are
allergic to bees or wasps or anything, if you get stung, you
have to have something to take real quick, epinephrine or something
to keep you from You know, swelling up, you know
you're allergic to it? Well, this is what God's done.
He took the sting out of that that would hurt you. You take
a wasp, take the sting out of him, he can't hurt you. And God took the sting out of
death. He took the stinger off of him.
Why did he do that? Because he fulfilled the law.
He obeyed the law. He kept his precepts and bore
his curse. So he took the sting out of death. Took the strength out of sin. Because he fulfilled the law
in our room instead. And now thanks be unto God which
giveth us the victory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to show you another. Look over here. Look over in
Revelations with me. Chapter 12. Look in Revelations
chapter 12. Oh, talking about triumph in
Christ. Look in Revelations verse 12. And verse 10 with me for just
a minute. Or verse 9. Revelations 12 9
and the great dragon was cast out the old serpent called the
devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world. You know who
he don't deceive? He don't deceive God's elect. Yes, everybody be deceived, but
God said that my elect shall not be deceived. Is that what
he said? But now listen to what he said. And his angels were
cast into the earth and the angels were cast out with him. And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is salvation come. Now strengthen the kingdom of
our God, the power of His Christ, for the accuser of our brethren
is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night."
Now this is what people say, and I know this is true. He's
the accuser of the brethren. He accuses us of being hypocrites,
a hypocrite, a play actor, a pretender. He accuses us of worldliness,
accuses us of sins that we do. He accuses us of not loving.
He accuses us of being cold, slothful, slack, not interested
in Christ. Oh, He accuses us of things and
we all have to say, yes, that's true. Everything He says about
me is so. There's nothing He's ever accused
me of that I've not been guilty of. But now look what else it
says here. He accuses us before God day
and night. But now listen here, and they
overcame him. They overcame that accuser of
the brethren. That old serpent, that old devil. They overcome him. How did they
do it? By the blood of the Lamb. by
the word of their testimony. What's our testimony? That our
Lord Jesus Christ is everything. He put away our sin. He put away
our guilt. He put away our shame. He put
away everything that's against us. And now every accusation
is brought against us. And He has nothing He can say
against us because Christ shut His mouth. And you know we overcame
by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.
And let me show you this. And they love not their lives
unto death. Oh my, we're not afraid of leaving
this world. No, we're not. And I tell you
what, so we're at triumph. Look back over with me now where
we was in 2 Corinthians. Look with me there again. Let's
go back over here and look at this again. Say a few more things
about it. 2 Corinthians 2. Verse 14. So you see, beloved,
this triumph, this victory, this triumph that God causes us. Now,
He causes us. We don't do it naturally. I'm
not one of them preachers. I know people get up and say,
you know, let's claim our victory over the devil. Let's claim this
and let's claim that. I'm not one of them preachers,
let's get up and let's have a cheerleading. I'm a cheerleader and I'm an
entertainer. I'm not going to do that to you. He has to cause
us to triumph because we won't triumph. Our flesh is against
us. Our nature's against us. Sin's against us. All the things
that's against us. So if we triumph, God has to
cause us to do that. And you know what He does? He
always does it. Ain't that what He said? He always
causes us to triumph in Christ. And then, I tell you what, we
triumph not only in Christ, but we triumph by God's wisdom. Look what He says there in the
last part of that verse. Verse 14, which always causes
triumph in Christ, and watch this, and maketh manifest, brings
out clearly the savor of His knowledge, the sweet fragrance
of His knowledge of Christ by us in every way. You know how
God uses triumph? Talking about Christ, thinking
about Christ, looking to Christ. You know, and I tell you something,
you can't make known who you don't know. Can you I tell what
he says who maketh manifest? the saver of his knowledge You
cannot make Christ known if you don't know him and I tell you
beloved look at I keep this I want you to keep this second Corinthians
I want you to keep that in one hand and not so we won't be losing
it and I want you to look with me over in 1st John chapter 5
1st John chapter 5 You know, you can't make known who you
don't know, but He makes manifest the savor of His knowledge by
us. And oh, the sweet fragrance. You know, we open this blessed
book, and this is what you know when you open it up. It's got
the fragrance of Christ in it. Not for everybody, but for us.
And oh, let me show you something. Make us manifest. You can't make
manifest who you don't know. Look what he said here in 1 John
5 and verse 4. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world. And this is the victor that overcometh
the world, even our faith. But now wait a minute. Who is
he that overcometh the world? Qualifies. But he that believeth
that Jesus is the Son of God. That's the knowledge he's talking
about. That's the manifest knowledge he's talking about. That's the
Savior he's talking about. He that believeth that Jesus is
the Son of God. Now you say, well everybody believes
that. No they don't. No they don't. You remember the
Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8? He was riding along and he
was reading out of Isaiah 53. And Philip joined himself to
him, got up in his chariot, was talking to him. And he asked
him if he understood what he read. He said, no I don't except
some man guide me. So he guided him, he taught him,
and he preached Christ from that particular verse of scripture.
And they came to some water. And they stopped that chariot
and there was some water there and he said, what doeth hinder
me from being baptized? Now there's lots of things that
hinder people from being baptized. And the first thing that hinders
people from being baptized is they don't believe. That's the
only reason you haven't been baptized if you haven't, is you're
not a believer. What would hinder you if you don't
believe? You don't believe that Jesus
is the Son of God. Another reason you won't be baptized
is what do it hinder me? Maybe some things do hinder you.
You're waiting for an experience. When I feel sad, when I feel
like the Lord's done, you know, when I feel it, you wait for
a feeling and not right now. I was talking to Bruce this morning,
sometimes you feel like you're slapping somebody, you know,
you just, you know, you get so frustrated, you get so aggravated
with what's going on in your life, you feel like just reaching
out, you know, or finding you a hole to get in so you won't
have slapped somebody. Do you all ever feel that way?
Do you ever get that aggravated with yourself? Aggravated with
life? Well, we're waiting for an experience.
I have a lot of experiences and most of them not very good. Huh? Or you're saying another thing
to keep you from being baptized is I'm not worthy enough. If
you wait to be worthy enough, you'll never be worthy enough.
Is that not right? You wait until I feel better. I feel like I want to wait until
I know. I know I'm just waiting until
I get some assurance. You won't get assurance until
you believe. You won't get assurance until
you confess. You won't get assurance until
you do. And so what does hinder me from...
a lot of things hinder people. But when he said, what does hinder
me from being baptized? Philip says this, If thou believest
with all thine heart that Jesus is the Son of God. Now what did
he mean by that? Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, the eternal Son of God, that He was God before
He became the Son. That He was always God, that
in everything that was made, was made by Him, created by Him,
for Him, and to His glory, and by Him everything consists. Do you believe that Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, that when you look at Him, the fullness of
the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily. That when you look at Him, everything
that God is dwelt in Christ in His body on this earth. And still
does in His body in glory. All the sovereignty, all the
power, all the grace, all the mercy, all the love, all the
authority, Everything that God is dwelt in Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus, the
Son of God, He Himself bore our sins in that body that dwelt
the fullness of the Godhead? And in bearing our sins in His
own body on the tree, He put them away once and for all. That
the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Not just one
or two. Not just the ones we committed
yesterday. Not just the ones we commit today.
But everyone will ever will commit that that blood, the Son of God,
because He is the Son of God, what He did is effectual. That
He accomplished what He came to do. That who He died for,
they will be saved. Who He shed His blood for will
have all their sins put away and have already died. Now that's
what he's talking about when he asked if he's Jesus. You believe
that Jesus is the Son of God. Do you believe that Jesus is
the Son of God? That he is also God? Well, then
he says, Oh, I believe with all my heart. Get out of here then. Oh, there's only one thing you
must believe. That Jesus is the Son of God. If you believe that, huh? That's what we're talking about.
Make it manifest the savor of His knowledge. That's, oh, when
I preach that and talk about that, some of you smell that
and say, ooh, it smells so good. Ooh, my, that does something
for me that nothing else does in this world. Huh? And I tell you what, the wisdom
of this world, the wisdom of religion, The wisdom of this
world, the wisdom of this political world, the wisdom of everything
that's in this world, all the wisdom of this world will come
to zero. And God said in His sight right
now, the wisdom of this world is nothing. But all that God would make manifest,
the savor of His knowledge by us, wherever we go, wherever
we go. Oh, that's why we triumph in
Christ. Because He makes manifest the savor of His knowledge. And
oh, the sweet fragrance of Christ. Let me go back over here now
to our text again. Look what it says there in verse
15. We triumph in Christ because
God made us a sweet savor of Christ. For we are unto God a
sweet savor of Christ. What do you reckon that means?
means what it says when God smells us he smells his son is that
right? huh? look over in Ephesians chapter
2 with me just a minute Ephesians chapter no excuse me Ephesians
chapter 4 you see when God sees us he sees his son when God sees
us he sees his son oh I'm wrong again Ephesians 5 When God sees
us, He sees His Son. We are under God, before God
Himself, a sweet savor of Christ. Now whenever God had a sacrifice
offered to Him, if it satisfied Him, if it honored Him, and it
was His appointment, He said that was a sweet savor. A sweet
savor is a good smell, wonderful smell. And he says that God,
that Christ is a sweet saver to him. And so if he's a sweet
saver, we are, he said before God, we, we, me and you, right
here, right now, are a sweet saver. God made us a sweet saver
unto himself. Look what he said here in Ephesians
5. In verse 1, Be ye therefore followers
of God his dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also
hath loved us, and have given himself for us an offering and
a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. And that's why we are under God,
a sweet savor of Christ. What in the world do you think
that means? When God sees us, He sees His Son. When we come
to Him, we come before Him. He says, oh, I tell you, I smell
Christ. You remember when Jacob, took
his, put all that goat skin on him and everything and cooked
that venison and got before his daddy and his daddy said, are
you Esau? And I said, I am. He felt him. Oh, you feel like
Esau. Smelled him, he smelled him.
Oh, you smell like Esau. That's the way God does that.
You know, really, he wasn't Esau. And beloved, But he was, his daddy thought
that's who he was. And beloved, our father knows
exactly who we are. And so when he smells us, he
said, you smell like my son. Is that my son? That's my son. Is that my child? That's my child.
You know, babies, there's nothing in this world smells like a baby.
Babies, oh, I tell you, they smell so good. Smell so good. I mean, you know, I just like
to get them up close to me and smell them. But then again, I've
been around some folks. There's a few times down here,
and it's been a long time, I'd pick up people in cars or trucks,
I'd be going to town. and they would stink. They hadn't
took a bath and they'd stink so bad. There was a fella come
in here the other night. He stunk so bad I had to, I kept backing
up from him. He kept coming closer. He just thought, please stay
there and I'll move over here. Oh, I couldn't understand him.
But I'd pick people up and I'd tell you they stunk so bad that
if I owned my wind, I'd gag. So I'd roll up my window, and
I'd say, boy, why don't you roll that window down over there?
And all the smell would go out the first time. And after I picked
that person like that up a time or two, I said, I ain't gonna
get it. They're not getting back in my behavior. Had to fumigate it
after he got me. Now, we don't stink like that. When God breathes smells of us,
you go, that's my son. That's my son. It's like when
Mary took that box of ointment, that spot ointment, and opened
it and anointed Christ with it. And all that fragrance filled
that whole room. It was put on Christ. But everybody
there smelled it. Everybody there enjoyed the smell
of it. Everybody there was blessed by the great smell as he was
anointing his body for his burial. And so when, I tell you what,
when Christ is broken over all of his people, that spikenard,
that fragrance, God says, them is my children, like my children,
like my blessed son. And that's why God said, this
is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And you know the
scripture said in Hebrews 10, 14, he has sanctified forever. Sanctified forever, who? Them for whom he made himself
an offering for. He has perfected forever. We're
holy before God. Without spot, without blemish.
No wrinkle, not nothing before the Lord. Old hymn writer said
it like this, near, near to God I cannot be. Then in his dear
son, I'm as near as he. I cannot be. People say, well,
I'd like to get close to God. You cannot be closer to God than
being in Christ. People say, I want to get on
higher ground. You can't get on higher ground than being in
Christ. Old Clarence Poore, I know some of y'all remember him from
up in Bruce Crabtree, great old big man. Feller got through preaching
one time and he left the pulpit and said, there's more to preach
than just Jesus Christ. And Clarence met him before he
got out of the pulpit and he's a big man. He said, you said
something absolutely wrong. Absolutely wrong. I don't believe
a word of it. He said, what's that? That there's more to preach
than Christ. He said, you done said too much.
He said, if you can't preach Christ, don't preach nothing.
I mean, he confronted him before he got out of the pulpit. If God says he's a sweet saver,
And that's what, what does he say? He said, he's a, we are
a sweet saver under God of Christ. Of Christ. Huh? And oh, beloved,
and I'll tell you, let me show you something else here, down
in verse 15 again. We're, God makes us triumph in
Christ by this. Not only are we a sweet saver
of God, of Christ, but we're a sweet saver of God in them
that are saved and in them that perish. Oh my, we are a sweet
saver of Christ in them that have Christ as their life. It
says them that live, them that are saved. And what does that
mean? That means, beloved, that...
I despise the term, I got saved. We got a bunch of people saved
in our services. I despise that term. I hate that
term. When you look in the Scriptures,
I read this 23rd Psalm this morning, and you notice everything it
said, He did, He did, He did, He did, He did, He did. Wherever
you find God working, that's why Paul started out and said,
Thanks be unto God. Not thanks unto the Apostle. Not thanks unto Simon Peter.
Not thanks unto the Pope. Not thanks unto the Church. Not
thanks unto, no, he said, Thanks be unto God. And that's where
everything that's done, God's got to do it. He's the one that
caused us to try. And I tell you, Christ is their
life. When it says they that are saved, God saved them. They
know that. Christ is their life. You know,
people say, well, you need to make Him the most important part
of your life. He is our life. We don't have a life. He said,
when Mary, Martha said, Lord, if you'd have been here, my brother
hadn't have died. And he said, Mary, Martha, he don't rise again.
He don't rise again. I know at the last day, he said,
Martha, Martha, you don't understand. You don't understand. I'm the
resurrection. He's already alive. He's in glory! I'm the resurrection! I'm the
life! He prays over that, but I said,
I'm the resurrection, I'm the life! And you know how he proved
it? That he's the one who has the
power of resurrection, going to resurrect us, and resurrects
us from the death of our sins, but also that he'll resurrect
our bodies from the grave. He walked up that tomb and said,
Lazarus! Come forth! He that was dead
came forth. And that's what He meant. That's
what I mean. Christ is our life. Christ is
our life right now. And I tell you, Christ is our
desire. Is He not whom we desire? Do
you desire anything more than you do Christ? And to know Him,
to be saved by Him? to experience Him, to love Him,
to need Him, and to call on Him, and trust Him? Oh, isn't it sweet
to trust in Jesus, just to trust in His love? Is He not our desire? Is He not the desire of our hearts,
and our wills, and our minds, and our souls? Is He not our desire when we
get up and start our day and say, Lord, I desire that You
today to guide my life, protect my life, and keep my life? Is He not the desire for our
children that they be converted, they be saved? Is He not our all and in all? Are we not complete in Him? Everything
else, that's what he's talking about here. Everything else but
Christ to a believer stinks. Stinks. If I brought to you words,
it would stink in your nostrils. If I brought to you ten steps
to a victorious life, instead of talking about triumph in Christ,
it would have stumped you. Wouldn't it? If I'd have brought
to you what you need to do next week to live a good, holy, dedicated,
devoted life, it'd stink. But you know why it don't stink?
Because Christ is the sweet savor of them that sit here. Them that
are here. Them that have life. But oh my,
but look what else it says, that's why we count everything but done.
Not only we're a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved,
but in them that are perishing. Now you take them that are perishing,
them that are lost, them that are perishing. Perishing day
by day by day. Everyone who doesn't come to
Christ and doesn't cross, they're perishing. Every day that goes
by, they're perishing. Life is perishing. Hope is perishing. And one of these days, there'll
be a final moment in time when everything that they've ever
trusted in, everything they ever hoped in, everything they ever
believed in, everything that they ever, everything, it's gonna
perish and go away. You all have stuff in your refrigerators
that gets rotten, it gets stinks, it perishes. What do you do with
it? Throw it away. And that's what's going to perish.
You know you're perishing and you shall perish. And oh, listen. And it doesn't smell to them
that are perishing when we preach Christ and preach Christ and
our victory in Christ, our triumphing in Christ, sweet savoury in Christ.
It don't smell the same to them that it does to us. It doesn't. Talk to people. Talk to your
own family. Talk to your children. Talk to your neighbor. And see what Christ smells like
to them. Well, I'd like for you to come
hear the gospel. Well, I'll get around to it one of these days.
I sure would. You know, I want to talk to you
about God. I want to talk to you. Just start talking, you
know. In a little while, let's say, boy, It sure is raining
a lot, ain't it? You know? You ready to have your
son never go shot again? Oh, let me tell you about fishing
yesterday. You would not believe how many fish I caught. Let me
show you this picture of this great big bass. You know? Because
it don't smell the same. They don't want to smell it at
all. It stinks to hell. And why does it stink? Because
they're dead. They can't smell. Dead men can't
smell. So Christ has no sweet fragrance
to them. All they smell is death. Why
do they smell death? Because 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 morality.
It's death to all the goodness that they hope in and trust in.
It smells death to them. Do you remember when you first
heard the gospel of the grace of God and you as an Armenian
to the core of free will, works, religion? It didn't smell good
the first time you heard it. Do you know what you said? I
don't know if that's right or not. Look with me, you keep St. Corinthians,
look with me over John chapter 9, just a minute. Oh, it's death, they smell death,
they don't smell life. It's death to their self-righteousness,
death to their goodness. It's like that rich young ruler
that came to the Lord Jesus Christ and said, good master! And this
is where he really missed it. He said, what good thing must I do to have life? And our Lord said, well, I'll
tell you the first thing you need to do. Sell everything you've
got. Give every bit of your money
and give it to the poor. And come follow me. Oh, that poor, that young man,
he just, his head went down. He said, oh, oh, oh. Oh, if he'd asked me anything
but that. If he'd asked me anything but that, I could have done it.
I would have done it. I've already kept the law. He told the Lord
that. I've already kept the law. He said, well, that's not enough.
And he went away, he just went away so sad, and the scripture
said he was so sorrowful. Why? Because he had such great
possessions. Christ told him what life was,
where it was. And he said, I don't want it.
I don't smell it. I don't like it. It'll cost me. It'll cost me, son. It'll cost
me, son. But look what here in John 9,
34. This is where the blind man that was born blind, the Lord
opened his eyes. And the Pharisees, they're having
a discussion with him. They're trying to make him deny
Christ. And he said in verse 33, if this
man, if the Lord Jesus Christ were not of God, he could do
nothing. And this is what they said to him, the Pharisees said
to him, and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins,
and doest thou teach us? You know what they're saying?
You're born in sins, not us. You're born in sins, and you're
going to teach us something? We weren't born in sins. We're Abraham's children. We're
God's elect. We're Israel. Oh, and you're going to teach
us? You're all together born in sins and you're going to teach
us? And because he was born in sins, they cast him out. But
now look what our Lord Jesus said down in verse 39. That man
worshipped the Lord Jesus Christ, believed on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and our Lord said this, in verse 39, For judgment I am come into
this world. I came in here to make the judgment. to say who will and who won't
see, who will believe and who won't believe. For judgment I
am come into this world that they which see not might see. People say, boy, I'm blind. I need sight. I can't see this. And if the
Lord don't teach me, I don't see it. And that they which see,
that say, I do see, might be made blind. If they say, you're
all together born in sins and I'm not. He says, you're blind
to yourself. You're blind to your way. You're
blind to your depravity. You're blind to your inability.
You're blind to your sin. You're blind to your self-righteousness.
You're blind to your morality. You're blind in what you're trusting. And all you say, I see. And our
Lord says you're blind. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said unto him, Are we blind
too? Our Lord said unto him, If you
were blind, If you'd say, yes, I'm blind. If you was like Barnabas,
I'm blind. What do you want? I want my eyes
open so I can see. If you were blind, you should
have no sin. If you say, I need a miracle.
I'm like that man born blind. I'm blind and I need a miracle.
I need somebody to give me eyes to see. So I can see Christ. I can see sin. I can see my wretched
self and my sinful self and my self-righteousness. All the things
that's wrong with me. Oh God opened my eyes. But he
says no. But now you say we see. We see
Moses. We see the law. We see our works. We see all our goodness. You
say you see, therefore your sin is going to stay with you all
the way to hell. That's what he's talking about.
Huh? Oh my, that's what, now that's
what, when we're preaching Christ, we're preaching that sweet savor,
that's what he is to so many people. But oh my, back over
in our text, Oh, the living. It smells good
to the living. Those living by Christ, because
of Christ. We are a savor of life. And he
says there in verse 16, to the one we're a savor of death unto
death. Oh, if you don't smell Christ
and He don't smell good to you, and your own works and self-righteousness
smell good to you, then it's death upon death upon death.
And to the other, savor of life. To those who have life in Christ,
living by Christ, trusting in Christ, loving Christ. The same
sun, here's what it's talking about when we're preaching the
gospel. The same sun that melts wax, hardens clay. The same sun that causes that
corn to grow up and tussle out and go get you a big old yellow
ear of corn and take it and put it in a pot Get it out and put
all that butter over it. Ah, that's good. That same sun
that makes that corn ripe also makes them weeds grow just as
tall as corn. One gives you life, the other's
death. It's got to be cut down, destroyed. And then let me move on here.
Back over here in verse 17. We triumph because of God's blessed
word. We triumph in Christ because
of God's word. Look at verse 17. We are not
as many which corrupt the word of God. What does that mean? That means we don't deal with
the scriptures deceitfully. We don't use half-truths. We don't corrupt it. We don't
preach half-truths. We don't use a half of a verse
of scripture. We deal with all of it. We don't say you know
him that cometh to me I'll know wise cast him out. That's true. But that's not all it says. Is
it? All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And that's the ones I won't cast
out. Our Lord says no man can come unto me except my Father
which sent me draw him. So we're right back where we
started, sweet savor of life unto life, savor of death unto
death to them that don't hear. Oh, listen, we believe the worship
of God, we rejoice in it, we rest in it, we think it's God's
word from cover to cover. Huh? And oh my, we don't preach
half-truths. We don't base our doctrine on
one or two verses. We're not like the Camelites
who base our whole doctrine on Acts 2.38. Our whole life on
Acts 2.38. We don't base our whole life
and our doctrine on Mark chapter 16 where it says, He that believeth
in is baptized. And they go on that baptism as
it shows you're obedient. Baptism will save you. Baptism
of regeneration. We don't base our doctrine on
one verse of Scripture. We don't base our doctrine on
John 3.16. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. And over in John chapter 2 and
verse 19 says the whole world lies in wickedness. Now which
world did he die for? Did he die for the world of wickedness?
That lies in wickedness? What is that world he died for? So you see, you see, you line
up old lines. Paul says we interpret scripture
by scripture. And that's what I, when I first
met these men who preached the gospel of the grace of God, I
never was so amazed in my life. God always made me love His Word
and I enjoyed it and that's how He brought me out of darkness.
He helped bring me out because of His Word. And when I hear
these men preach, they would take a passage of scripture,
and they stayed right there and dealt with it and they'd make
a point and then they'd go and show a scripture to illustrate
the point that they made. Scripture will interpret scripture.
Now you can go get John Gill if you want to see what he has
to say about something. But the Bible is the best commentary
on the Bible you'll ever read. All you've got to do is ask questions. Just ask him questions. Like
for John 3.16. Ask what John 3.16? What world is he talking
about? Well, the Gospel is not John
3.16. The Gospel starts in John 3.14. He says, As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. that whosoever believeth on him
should not perish. Now he was only lifted up for
people bitten by serpents. Anybody who wasn't bitten by
a serpent, they didn't look. So who only looks to Christ?
Those bitten by sin. Those have got bad blood. Oh
my. And I tell you, we mix nothing
with Christ or anything away from His blessed person. We ain't
going to add nothing to Him. We're not going to take anything
away from Him. Paul said in Galatians 2.21, he said, we do not frustrate
the grace of God. How can you frustrate the grace
of God? Add anything to it and you frustrate it. Give anybody
any one thing to do other God doing the work for by grace are
you saved? Through faith and that's not
a yourself grace is not a yourself faith is not it What is it? It's
the gift of God For it's God that works in you both the will
and to do of his goodness So anything you do to make a work
out of grace or any other thing, then you're frustrated. And Paul
says, we do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness
came by law or by doing, then Christ is dead in vain. He'll absolutely means nothing
to you and His work and death will mean nothing to you. Why?
Because you trusted something besides Him and Him alone. And I tell you what, and look
in the last part and I'll be done. For we are not as many
which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, as of purity,
but as of God, as of God, God doing the work in the sight of
God, speak we of Christ. His triumph again, we started
within Christ and we end up with being in Christ. Because you
know why we're always triumphant? Because we're in God's sight.
We speak of Christ in God's sight. God knows. God knows everything
about us. And if we are speaking of Christ,
trusting Christ, believing Christ, then I got news for you. We're
always triumphant in Christ. Let me give you one verse of
scripture in closing, 2 Corinthians 9.15. Always triumphant in Christ.
You may be down now, but you just hold on. God's going to
bring you up. You're going to end up triumphant. Look in verse 15 of 2 Corinthians
9. Thanks be unto God for what? His unspeakable gift. Amen. Amen. Oh, our blessed, blessed Savior. Oh, for the triumph, for the
victory. Lord, when knowing that whatever's
going on in our hearts, in our lives, we're going to always,
always win, always win, always come out triumphant. No matter
what anybody says, no matter how we feel, No matter what the
experience, we're going to always come out victorious, triumphant
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Because God, you cause us to
do it. You causes it to be done. Thank
you for the Gospel. Thank you for our Lord Jesus
Christ. Thank you for your precious,
blessed Word that speaks to us, saves us, comforts us. enlightens
our understanding, saves us from our darkness, keeps us in the
light. Blessed be your holy name. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. And the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Amen. See you tonight, 6 o'clock.
God willing. Okay.