Start reading here at verse 9. God is faithful by whom you were
called under the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment. for it hath been declared unto
me of you my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contingents among you. Now this I say, that every
one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas,
and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified
for you? Or were you baptized in the name
of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none
of you but Crispus and Gaius. lest any should say that I had
baptized in mine own name. And I baptized also the household
of Stephanas. Besides, I know not whether I
baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved it is the power of God. Now the apostle had been telling
these saints in his opening remarks here, this opening epistle, of
all the blessings that they had in Christ because of their union
with him, because they were joined to him. He told them, you know,
that the grace of God was given them by Jesus Christ. Grace is
given through and by and because of Christ. And he says, you know,
that you're made wealthy by Him, enriched by Him, made wealthy
by Him. And he says, not only that, but
God confirmed the gospel in you. The testimony of Christ was confirmed
in you. You believed the gospel. When
you heard it, you believed it, you rejoiced in it, you found
it to be the gospel of your salvation. And then he says, you were blessed
with gifts. You were behind no other church in gifts. Oh, no,
no. And then he says this, that God
will confirm you blameless. Blameless when Christ comes.
When you face Christ in the judgment, when you let that Christ come,
God himself will confirm you blameless in the day of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then he said, God is faithful.
He'll keep his promises to you. He called you in the fellowship
of His Son, and He'll keep His promises, He'll preserve you,
He'll establish you, and there's no danger of you ever being lost
or being fallen away. No danger of it. Now, Paul comes
to the problems, the sins, the evil that's in Corinth. And this
is why he wrote this epistle to address all of these sins,
all of this confusion, all of the problems that's in Corinth. And today, I tell you this little
story. I was flipping through the channels today and I come
across the program Corinth Baptist Church. And I had to turn over
there and see what it was about. Corinth Baptist Church program. I said, what's that? And there
was all these folks in these great big beautiful robes. They
were singing. They had a good beat going and all that. I said,
what is it? I said, it's the Corinth Baptist
Church. I just had to look and see what was going on. I just
had to look. But oh my, I wouldn't name a
church, of course, if you lived in Corinth, more Corinth, Mississippi
or someplace, maybe you would, I don't know. But here, Paul
changes his language now. Look what he says. He says, oh,
God is faithful. God confirmed you. God gave the
testimony of Christ to you. And then he says, but now, now,
verse 10, he changes tenor of his speech. He changes now. There's
going to be a change in his conversation. Change in His words. Now we're
going to face you, Corinthians, as you are. And look what it
says down here in verse 11. It hath been declared unto me
of you, my brethren, that there are contentions among you. So
that's why it starts out here talking, I beseech you. I beseech
you. I beseech you, brethren, by the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know why contentions come?
The scriptures tell us very plainly, over in Proverbs 13, 10, it says,
Pride cometh, contentious cometh by pride. And I'll tell you this
before we get started. When we find these divisions,
and this is the local assembly here that he's talking about,
that does not speak evil of our religion, of our profession,
of our Lord and his gospel. It just shows us man's corruption
and man's depravity, and how wicked man is, that he would
cause the troubles, that there would be divisions, that there
would be contingents. It has nothing to do with the
gospel. It has nothing to do with our Savior. It's man's depravity
and man's corruption that causes these divisions. But then Paul
comes and says, now, now, I beseech you, Branton. I beseech you,
and he calls him Branton here. And he says, when he declared
unto me, he called him Branton. And I beseech you. What did he
say? When this beseeches, I beg you.
I implore you. I just earnestly want you to
do this. And what was the motive that
he's using here? The name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the motive. That's the reason. He says, I
beseech you by the name. by the authority. Dirk, when
he read the night, and Dirk, when he prayed, he says, this
is the name by whom we have access to the Father. This is the name
that we go to the Father in. This is the name that's got all
authority in heaven and earth. And he said, I beseech you by
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I beseech you by your love for
Him. I beseech you by your reverence
for Him. I beseech you by your salvation
by Him. And he used this again over here
in Romans 12. He used this again. He's done
this again. He said, Romans 12, 1, look what he says here. That there be no divisions among
you. I beseech you by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
here, look at the motives that he uses here. I beseech you,
therefore, Romans 12, 1, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, He don't use any other motive
to get people to do anything other than Christ and the mercies
of God and the love of God and the name of God, the name of
Christ, the glory of Christ, the love of Christ, the reverence
we have for Christ. That's the motive to get anybody
to do anything. If you use any other motive than
that, just save your breath to cool your coffee because it won't
work. It just won't work. And he goes back over here to
our text and he says, I beseech you now. by that name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing. You see,
this name, he says, you were called by this name. Ain't that
what he says? You were called under the fellowship of His Son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Salvation is in His name. There's
no other name that God's going to save you by. There's no other
name that God's going to let you speak to Him by. There's
no other name that God's going to let you get close to Him by. And you're justified in His name.
You know, when I was talking back in the study and I mentioned
it this morning, I believe that some of you here tonight could
stand before God in your prayers or in a conversation with God
and say, Lord, I can give you a good reason of the hope that
I have in you. And the first thing you start telling him is
that I believe I've got a good hope by Jesus Christ who justified
me. I stand only before you because
He justified me freely by His grace. He justified me by His
blood. He justified me by His righteousness. I stand before you in one name,
in one person, in one righteousness, in one word, in one obedience,
in what one man did and who he is. And that's Jesus Christ,
your blessed Son. And you reckon God would reject
a man that comes that way? If there's a gospel in this world,
God could, He would not do it. And that's what He said. They
were accepted in the Beloved, accepted in His blessed name.
And unto you who believe, guess what it says? He's precious. And that's why Paul said it's
His honor. His glory that's at stake here when there's divisions,
when there's errors. That's the first thing we ought
to be concerned about whenever there's an argument, whenever
there's a division, whenever there's an error, whenever there's
trouble in a family, in a home, or in a church. The first thing
we think about, what about the glory of Christ? How will this
affect the gospel? How will this affect the name
of our Lord Jesus? How will this affect His honor,
His name, His glory. That's the first thing that we
ought to think about. It's the very first thing we ought to
think about. Whenever people have trouble, they start thinking
about themselves and start thinking about the glory of Christ. You've
got to let them alone. Believers, that's our first interest. And oh, here the apostle, you
know, he says, you know, and I'll tell you this, the apostle
wasn't acting in his own name here. He wasn't trying to preserve
his reputation. The glory of Christ, the testimony
of Christ was what he was concerned about. Let me show you over here
in 1 Timothy 6. You know, he's not coming here in his own name.
He says, I beseech you by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm not talking about my name. I'm not talking about my reputation.
I'm not talking about me being an apostle. When I want you to
change, and I want you to stop these errors, and I want you
to see these troubles, he don't say, I'm coming in my name. I'm
coming in my authority. I'm coming to preserve my reputation. No, no, he's got one interest
in doing that, and that's the glory of Christ. Look what he
says here in 1 Timothy 6.1. Let as many servants as are under
the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, and let
wisdom his the reason be, that the name of God and his doctrine
be not blasphemous." He told them over in Titus, he says,
adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. Adorn it. Dress it up. Make it look beautiful. Make
it look gracious. Make people want to be dressed
in the righteousness of Christ. Want the religion you've got.
Want the gospel you have. Want the master you have. Want
the truth that you embrace. Dress it up. And that's why he
says, you know, he said, I told you before weeping. And I tell
you now with tears in my eyes that there are those who are
enemies of the cross of Christ. Oh, he's interesting. He said,
I beseech you in the name of Christ, not my name. My reputation
is not at stake here. It's the glory and honor of Christ.
Now, back over here in First Corinthians, look what he does. He exhorts these people by the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the first thing he says,
that you all speak the same things. Speak the same things. There's
divisions among you. There'd be no divisions. Speak the same
things. What he's saying here, profess the same truths. Believe
the same message. Preach the same message. Believe
the same person. Believe and speak the same thing
about grace. Speak the same thing about Christ.
Speak the same thing about words. Speak the same things about yourselves. I was thinking this yesterday. You know, the Scriptures tell
us, seek another man's wealth and never our own. esteem others
higher than yourselves. And that's the thing. You promote
others. You promote others. I told a
young man here, and I'll just give you an illustration of that.
And, you know, we promote our preacher brethren, Bruce Crabtree
and Don and these men. You know, hear these men. But
here's the thing. A young fellow one time, he wanted
to go to school, wanted to learn. And I said, oh, if you want to
learn, If you want to learn the gospel, if you want to learn
what it is to preach the gospel, if you want to know what it is
to preach expository preaching, and you want a good Bible education,
I said, I'll tell you what you do. You get Henry Mahan, and
you start with Romans or Galatians or Corinthians or Hebrews, and
you start listening to him. Verse one to the end of that
book, every day, and you'll get you a Bible education. You'll
learn what it is to preach Christ. And you'll learn what it is to
expound the Scriptures and stay true to Christ the God. And that's
what Paul was saying here. He says, speak the same thing.
Let's all speak the same thing. Let's all talk of Christ. Let's
all talk of grace. Let's all talk of Him. Let's don't talk about ourselves.
Let's seek somebody else's. Let's seek the glory of Christ
above everything else. And then he said, have no division.
Don't you all be divided. No quarreling. No one saying
something contrary to the other. Is there anything more inconsistent
than the believers to be at odds with one another? That's always puzzled me. And
how that believers, both of them, can profess to be married and
then end up being divorced. I just don't break through my
brain. And I'll tell you why it don't
rest in my brain. Because believers, they love one another. They care
for one another. And if you, as married believers,
can't live together, that means that one of you is not a believer.
Because I'll tell you, somebody that wants to start contention
and division and quarreling all the time, I'm telling you, beloved,
that's not of Christ. We want to get along, we don't
want no quarrel, we don't want no vision. Look over here with
me, keep 1 Corinthians, look in Philippians with me, just
a moment. This is what we're talking about, speaking the same
things. And I'll tell you, whenever you
do have words, or do have something, a misunderstanding, it always
makes you feel ill. And you can't wait to get it
straightened out. You just can't. You know, and this is the way,
let me tell you something about, you know, our Lord said, except
you become as little children, you cannot enter the kingdom
of God. Now you take a little baby, little
boy, little girl, you buy the best clothes for them, pretty
dresses, pretty britches, pretty shirts, dress them all up. They
don't care what clothes they got on. Care only how pretty they are.
Do they care? No. Get mad at them and just say,
no, no, no, no. And they just throw a fit and
you stay with them and say, no, no, no. Next thing you know,
they'll run to you and hug you. And that's the way it is with
believers in Christ. We're like children. We don't
care what you look like. We don't care what you dress
like. We're interested in being loved and being cared for and
being watched out for. And that's all that the believers
in. If we get mad at one another
and even have words with one another, I don't think they grow
just that quick. They really are. Now look over here in Philippians
chapter 1, verse 27. Here he's talking about this,
only let your conversation, let your manner of life be as it
becometh the gospel of Christ. What? Let your life be as it
becomes the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you
or else be absent. Whether I'm there with you or
whether I'm not. I want to know this, I want to
hear your affairs. Now listen, that you stand fast in one spirit,
One mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. Look at that. No divisions. Fulfill you my
joy. You want to fill my joy up? You
want to cause me to be joyous? He says, you be like-minded.
You have the same love. You be of one accord. You be
of one mind. And you'll fill my heart with
joy. That's what he says here. Now, back over in our text here
again. Oh, speak the same things. Don't let no divisions be among
you. And be perfectly joined together
in the same mind and same judgment. Now, we have to make judgments.
And we have the same mind in these judgments. All of us saved
the same way. God save any of us any different?
than by grace? Was any of us anything else other
than a sinner? Is there any other gospel than
one? So we all have the same judgment
in these things. Is that not right? We all know
the false when we hear it. And that's what he says down
here then in verse 11, It hath been declared unto you of of
you, my brethren, by them of the house of Chloe." Evidently,
Chloe had a congregation or a church in her home, and evidently she
was a widow because she doesn't mention her husband. She'd had
a husband and mentioned him. But here it says, Chloe, and
evidently she is somebody of some reputation, and her church,
the church that was in her home, She says, Paul, there's some
trouble. It's been declared. They didn't send a letter. Somebody
went there and told him. He says, Paul, there's some trouble
over there in Corinth. There's some division over there
in Corinth. There's some folks over there.
And he says, now listen, here's the contentions that you have.
And here's the contention. And this is what he said again.
He says, now this I say, that every one of you said, I'm a
Paul. There was a fashion. They had
these cleats. And he says, one says, I'm of
Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Here's
the reason these folks are having this trouble. Well, Paul's my
preacher. I think Paul's the best preacher
I know. When he comes, that's who I want
to hear. I don't care about anybody else
coming around here to preach. I want to hear Paul. I'm a Gentile,
and Paul, come and preach the gospel to me. And I was an old
Gentile dog. But I, listen, you fellas have
Paul with you, won't you? I like the one that follows.
That boy can preach. Oh my goodness, you got such
oratory. Ain't nobody can preach. He can just, oh my, see, block
the door. God comes down when he does his
preaching. And oh, there's old Simon Peter.
You know, he walked with the Lord. He was with the Lord on
the mountain. Hear God speak. You talking about
a preacher. He walked on the water. That's who we like. We like Peter. We was there on the day of Pentecost.
Oh, what a preacher he was. And then there was these people
that was super spiritual. Super spiritual. They wasn't
like all these other carnal people. Said, we're of Christ. The rest
of these folks ain't got no sense at all. We don't want to let
him know anything about Christ. And we're trusting him. These
other folks don't know nothing. We don't need no preachers. We
don't need no apostles. We don't need nothing by telling
us. We know Christ ourselves. We don't need nobody to tell
us nothing. But now watch what Paul says.
Is Christ divided? Oh, is Christ divided? Oh, and what a question. What
a question. People say, you know, the church
is divided. The church is in a mess in this day and age. God's
church is just exactly where it is and supposed to be and
being used of God exactly the way it's supposed to be. I don't
mean that, you know, as long as you've got flesh involved
in it and human beings, there's going to be imperfections in
congregations like ourselves. But the church, the church, there's
one head, one head, one body, You know, you can have all the
denominations you want, denominationalism, materialism, and all these things.
They don't split the church. The church has never, ever been
split. God's only had one church on
the face of the earth. He's added to it every day, daily,
such as should be said. And He has one body with many
members in it. And I'm telling you something,
beloved, Christ is not divine. He's not got a group over here
that knows Him one way, got a group over here that trusts Him another
way, got a group over yonder that believes Him another way,
and got a group behind Him over here that's trusting Him some
other way and coming to Him some other way. One Christ, one head,
one body. Many members. Huh? Oh, listen. Look over here at
1 Corinthians 12, 13. I'll show you what I'm talking
about. 1 Corinthians 12, 13. And you know, people, I looked
at a lot of things about this here. Yesterday I was reading
some things. Before I got my message together, usually I do
it on Saturday morning, and I was looking at some things. on the
internet about it, and everybody's talking about what an awful shape
and how divided the church is. No, no, no, no. No. Their church may be. Their denomination
may be in a turmoil. They may have a synagogue gathered
around to address and put people in and put people out and call
preachers and call presidents and call secretaries and call
clerks. Wonder what we are, secretaries
and clerks. I'll tell you what we are. We
are a bunch of sinners saved by grace. But look here in 1
Corinthians 12, 13. I've got to get there myself. He says this, For by one Spirit
are we all baptized into how many bodies? Is Christ divided? One body. Are you a Jew? Baptized into one body. Are you
a Gentile? Baptized into one body. Are you
a bondman? A slave working for somebody
else? You're baptized into Christ.
Are you a free man? You're baptized into Christ.
And what spirit do you drink of? What spirit did God give
you this refreshment from? Spirit of Christ. Look over in
Galatians 3 with me just a moment. Galatians 3, 27. Is Christ divided? No. One Lord, one faith, one
baptism. One God and Father of all. And oh, look what he said here
in Galatians 3.27. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ, Have what? Put on Christ. It's just one body. Is Christ
divided? Paul asked. Oh, I'm of Paul. Is Christ divided? I'm of Cephas. Is Christ divided? I'm of Apollos. Is Christ divided? I'm this kind
of Baptist. I'm that kind of Baptist. I'm
this kind of Presbyterian. I'm that kind of Presbyterian.
I don't believe in a songbook, and I believe in this songbook.
And they go on and on and on. And listen, that's what he...
He said, is Christ divided? And then he goes on to ask this
question, and oh, back over here he says, was Paul crucified for
you? Well, did I bear sins for you? Did I bear your guilt? Did I
bear your shame? Did I bear the wrath of God for
you? Did I do you any good at all? Was it me that was crucified?
Show them how ridiculous it is to try to put your hope or trust
and look to anybody other than Christ. Paul, he says, you think
for a moment that I was crucified for you? I never bore my own
sin, much less yours. Oh, he said, it's Christ that's
crucified for you. And watch this, were you baptized
in the name of Paul when you went down and were baptized?
When you went into the baptistry, when you went into the pool,
when you went into the lake, when you went into the river,
do you say, well, it's baptized you in the name of the apostle
Paul? No. You were baptized in the name
of the Lord Jesus. Every one of you be baptized
in the name, repent and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's what Paul's saying here. And oh, beloved,
and I'll tell you, this just goes to show you how ridiculous,
utterly foolish it is. You know, and here, all these
fellows are gone. Paul's gone. Apollos is gone. Simon Peter's gone. Christ is the only one living.
And then he says, and I thank God that I baptized none of you.
He didn't say that he didn't believe in baptism, that he didn't
baptize any. He's not ridiculing baptism.
He said, thank God that I baptized none of you, but Christmas and
death. And I baptized also the household of Stephanus, besides
I know not whether I baptized any others. And this is the reason,
he says, you know why I do this? Because just as sure Just as
short, you'd say, well, I'm baptizing people in my own name, trying
to get myself a following, trying to get people to recognize me,
trying to get people to see what a great work I'm doing, trying
to get folks to know how many souls I have baptized. And that's
what that Corinthian Baptist preacher was preaching today.
He was talking about, he had three things that he had seen
in the survey of how churches, why churches are blessed, and
I blessed them. And he started talking about
how that they had more baptisms by doing this particular method. So, that's why Paul said, you
know, I'm, you're just as sure as how to baptize. Well, he's
baptized in his own name. How many baptisms did you have
last year, preacher? That's what they want to know. How many moons
you have today? You know, I was baptized by Paul,
you know. He was an apostle. He baptized me. I wasn't baptized
by just anybody. I was baptized by Paul. Oh, listen, our baptism, what
is it? It's a confession of our faith
in Christ. Water don't wash away sins. Water
don't make you, does anything for your conscience. Christ is
the only one who can do that. It's just a confession. And oh,
my ministry, and then he goes down here and says this in verse
17. My ministry isn't baptism, though
I baptize. And I thank God that I baptize
some. I'm not against baptism. That's not what he's saying.
He says, but Christ sent me not to baptize, that's not my ministry. Not just going around trying
to see how many souls I can get in the water. It's to preach
the gospel. Preach the gospel. Ain't that
what he says here in verse 2 of chapter 2? For I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. He says, Christ sent me to preach
the gospel. They'll preach this good news.
And look what he says here, but I didn't do it. He says not,
preach the gospel not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ
should be made not of faith. I didn't use human reasoning.
I didn't use human logic. I didn't use eloquence. I didn't
use false piety. I didn't use false humility.
Because the minute you do that, the cross of Christ loses its
power. I was reading something Spurgeon said the other day.
He says, preachers buy books and buy books and read books
and get up and quote from books and when they got through quoting
all their books, ain't nobody knows nothing but about the books
they're quoting. They don't know nothing about Christ. He said
they like to use big words. Want me to give you some big
words? Wouldn't do us any good. That's
what he says, you know. I didn't use false humility.
I didn't use false piety. I didn't use human reasoning.
I didn't try to deal with you on an emotional level. I didn't
try to put a guilt trip on you. No, no. He said, I preached in
plain, simple language. I preached in a humble way, using
the Word of God. His method of preaching was the
opposite of show. The opposite of ambition. It
was simple. It was to the point. And oh, he wasn't an entertainer.
He wasn't an entertainer. You know, I think I've told you
this before. There was a fellow that went
around on how many churches he went to. And he went to all these
different churches to see how long preachers preached. You see how long their message
was. And he said, and he went on for a year or two, and he
says, the average message was Sunday morning was seventeen
minutes long. Seventeen minutes long. Preachers preaching sermonettes
to Christianettes. And I tell you, that's what,
you know, and that's the heaviest little sermon is. My son went
to a service one day and he come back and says, I said, how long
did the preacher preach this morning? He said, oh, he had about 10
minutes. They gave him about 10 minutes. They gave him about
10 minutes. Yeah. But they'll be in services for
hour after hour after hour. Let's recognize granny. Who's
the oldest grandmother here today? Who's got the most children? Who's got birthdays? How many
anniversaries? Oh, bless your heart, sister.
I see that hand back there. And that's what Paul didn't do.
He wasn't in the business of entertainment and appeasing the
flesh and making the flesh feel good. No, no. His motive was
the glory of God. His motive was what his hearers
heard. If a man uses man's wisdom and
man's eloquence, You gotta lay the gospel side to do that. The
issues become crowded. And what is the issue? Do you
know what the issue is between man and God? Jesus Christ. It's not whether you drank, what's
your relationship between you and Jesus Christ. It's not the
language you use, what's your relationship between you and
Christ. God, Christ is the issue between
you and God. It's not what you think about
yourself, it's what you think about Christ. It's not what you
think about what you can do to get on God's good side, it's
what you think of Christ. That's the issue. And when God
confronts you with that issue, everything else goes out the
window. And oh, beloved, the issue is
the simplicity of Christ is lost, and we don't want to lose the
simplicity, the singularity of Christ. Let me show you, look
over here in 2 Corinthians 11, just a moment. Doug was talking
about this. We were talking about this in
the men's office in the study here a little while ago. There's people out there that,
I mean, they're very subtle, very, very manipulative, And
they can get you in a bondage pretty quick. But he says here
in verse 3, 2 Corinthians 11, But I fear, lest by any means,
and that means means by hook or crook, by net or anything
else that he may use, as the serpent beguiled, mesmerized,
bewitched, Eve, through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted
from the simplicity that's in Christ. Don't let nobody, nobody,
no time, take your mind and eye off of the Lord Jesus, huh? And
oh beloved, then he goes back over here in verse 18 of 1 Corinthians. He says this, he says, for the
preaching of the cross, is to them that are perishing,
that's what it says, that's what it means, to them that are perishing
foolishness, but unto us which are being saved, it is the power
of God. The preaching, now listen, the
preaching of salvation by the grace of God in Christ alone.
Grace alone. Plus minus nothing. Grace alone. In my hands no price
I bring. Salvation by the crucified Savior
that Christ Himself bore our sins in His own body. That Christ
bore the wrath of God. That Christ was the only sacrifice. That Christ was the only atonement.
That Christ Himself was only accepted to God. That justification
is only by the Lord Jesus Christ. That righteousness, the only
righteousness we have now and forever, is His righteousness. The only peace we have with God
is what Christ established for us between us and God. And it
was done by His bloody sacrifice on the cross. And beloved, preaching
that to the person who thinks that their works and said, oh,
I've had people tell me that. I just can't believe that. I can't believe that. I don't
have a part in it. I know it's by grace, but What about my chance? What about
my choice? God will not press himself on
me. One preacher told me, he said,
God's a gentleman. He won't force himself on you. I'll tell you one thing, if he
don't, you're a gone Jesse. Yes, sir. Oh, my. And I tell you, he only offered
himself up in the room instead of his people. His elect, His
Jacobs, His vessels of mercy, His vessels of honor. And, boy,
folks will come and they'll say, Oh, preacher, do you mean to
tell me that God don't love everybody? That's foolishness to most people.
Do you mean that God elected some and passed by others? That's
foolishness to most people. That salvation's by grace and
I can't buy the Spirit, it don't count for anything? That's foolishness
to most people. You mean to tell me that by praying
through and going to the altar and my experience is not acceptable
to God? That's foolishness to them. That
really is, ain't it? But now look what he says, so
and so. But amongst us which are being saved, that's the part,
come on, tell me, tell me about grace. Tell me about that cross. Tell me about Christ bearing
my sin. Tell me that He's my justification.
Tell me that He's my only righteousness. Tell me that I can rest in Him
and bow to Him and embrace Him and know Him and enjoy Him and
rest and face God only in Him. Oh, tell me that it's been done,
that it don't have to be done. Please don't give me anything
to do. I've tried it before and I've failed. Oh, that's the power of God to
me. And that's the wisdom of God. I see by this, by Christ
alone, I can see how God can be just, holy, and righteous. How can He do that and save us?
By taking our sins. That's what Christ preached about.
Taking our sin, taking our guilt, taking our shame, taking our
rebellion, He was afflicted in our afflictions by iniquities
going over our head, our Lord said. And when He bore our sins
and God punished Him in our stead, the justice of God says, let
them go free. That's why. That's why. There
is therefore now no condemnation now to them that who? Good Southern
Baptist? To them that are in Christ Jesus,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies them. Who is He that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather, He's risen again.
And guess what He's doing for you now? He's making intercession
for you. Oh my, no wonder Paul says, that
is foolishness to an average person. That's foolishness. I got a letter from a preacher
that I knew years and years ago, and went to preach the meeting
for him up in Corbin, Kentucky. And I got a letter from him the
other day, and we conversed a little bit, and he was asking where
there was a good, great church he could go to. And he says,
you know, when years and years ago, when you started preaching
that, he says, you was right years and years ago. He said,
you know, and I've lost lots and lots of friends, gotten ridiculed
and lots and lots of preachers, but God would not let me preach
anything else. And he says, and he told me in
his letter, he says, you know, he said, you were right years
and years ago. It just took me a while to get there.