And the introduction that I brought
to message last week about Paul's salutation in the church. But
I want you to look, where I'm going to get my subject from
tonight is down there in verse 8, where the title of my message
is, who also shall confirm you unto the end that you may be
blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blameless in that
day. Blameless in that day. Now Paul
was, when he talked about preaching Christ, he's dead serious about
it. It's not religious rhetoric. Not just a religious cliché.
Because in his first ten verses, he mentions the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ ten times. Just in every verse. And here,
you remember his salutation, he remembered how thankful he
was for the grace that's given them by Christ. He says down
there in verse 4, I thank my God always on your behalf. And
that's what we do when we start thinking about the Lord's people
and where they're at and what they go through. He said, I thank
my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is
given you by Jesus Christ. Now this grace, This grace here
includes everything that grace brings and grace gives. This
grace started in eternity, in election. Grace was given us
in Christ before the world ever began. It's the grace of God
in election. It's the grace of God in redemption.
It's the grace of God in our calling. It's the grace of God
in our justification. It's the grace of God, he's talking
about, in our sanctification. The grace of God in our glorification. And all of these came by Jesus
Christ. That's why Paul says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
And this is what folks really, really need to understand, and
when we get a chance to witness to them, that everything God
has for anybody is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has nothing
for anybody but judgment outside of Jesus Christ. He that hath
the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
He that believeth on the Son of God, he hath life, but he
that believeth not the wrath of God abides on him. Grace,
mercy, peace, joy, life, righteousness, justification, forgiveness, everything
that we need, God only gives it to us in Christ. One mediator
between God and man, that's Jesus Christ. You don't have to come
to me. You don't have to go to a priest sitting in a booth.
You don't have to go to the Pope. You don't have to kiss a ring.
You don't have to go to somebody else. If you want to go to God,
God has somebody that you can go to Him through and will always
be received by Him, always be accepted of Him, always be heard
of Him, and that's through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Ain't
that right? And I'm certainly thankful for
that. Ain't you? And oh, beloved, then he says
in verse 5 here, he says that in everything you are enriched
by Him. That word enriched means we're made wealthy. How wealthy
is the Lord Jesus Christ, you reckon? He's there of all things. You remember when Abraham sent
his servant Eliezer down to get a bride for Isaac? He began to
talk to him about his master's son. And he says, well, what's
he like? And he described to him and all
that. And then he started taking silver
and gold and some garments and this and the other. Start showing
him the wealth. Say, he's the heir. My, my, my,
my master's wealthy, wealthy. And the son's the heir of everything.
Start showing him what all this is. Where you go, I'm gonna go. You see, that's what we have
in Christ. We're wealthy in Christ. Wealthy where it counts. Wealthy
in everything. Wealthy in the riches of grace,
the riches of Christ, the riches of His glory. We're made wealthy
in Christ. And then look what he says here,
also in verse 6, and this is where I left off last week. Even
as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, the testimony
of Christ is the gospel. We know that's what it is. You
know, Paul, I read it to you this morning, how that Paul says,
you know, I'm suffering, and you know, be not ashamed of me
and the testimony of Christ and the sufferings that I have."
He was suffering for the testimony of Christ, for the gospel. And
the gospel, he says, this testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.
The gospel was confirmed in you. That means it's firmly established
in you. The gospel firmly held by faith. Now, when we talk about the gospel,
we're not talking about just facts. You know, people say the
gospel's the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus. That's facts about it. But when you start talking about
the death of Christ, the death, burial, and resurrection, it's
just according to the Scriptures. And then you've got to go to
the Scriptures and find out who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Why
did He die? What did it mean for Him to be
buried? What was involved in His resurrection? And so you're
dealing with a person, not facts. You're dealing with a person
that died. It was a person that was put in a tomb. It was a person
that raised again from the dead. And there was a reason he died.
Well, if we ever find out the reason he died, and the reason
God put him on the cross, and the reason that he suffered on
that cross, this sinless man, then we'll know something about
what sin is, and we'll know something about the justice and righteousness
of God. And when he's raised from the
dead, then we understand, my beloved, that God was satisfied
with what he did, and raised him from the dead, because if
you don't have sin, God's going to set you free from prison.
And that when He was raised, we can read out our reading. And it's according to the Scriptures,
you see. Now that's, you know, when we talk about the gospel,
we're not just talking about facts, we're talking about a
person. And oh, beloved, that's what's firmly established in
you, this gospel. This gospel of redeeming grace,
this gospel of redeeming love, this gospel of power. I'll never
forget, and I've told you all this before, I remember when
I first met Brother Henry years and years and years ago. Might
have been 79, 80. I was in a meeting up in West
Virginia. Drove down to see him, and Tommy Robbins was with me.
We went in there and sat and talked with him. And I said,
you know, I said, Brother Mahan, I said, I know it's the gospel
soaked in our tears. And Brother Henry leaned across
that desk and said, that's not true. I said, what? He said, it's just the gospel
whether you shed a tear or anybody else sheds a tear. It's just
the gospel. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. He didn't say the gospel plus our tears. The
gospel plus our prayers. He said, it's just the gospel.
He said, get your words straight. Get your conversation straight.
Quit talking out of both sides of your mouth. Now, how does that go on? You're
talking about whipping a fellow pretty hard. But I loved it. That was true. I didn't have
any idea. Sounded religious. Passing on
what I'd heard. And somebody, by the grace of
God, had nerve enough and grace enough and strength enough and
wisdom enough to say, you know, don't talk out of both sides
of your mouth. It's just the gospel. And you preach that, that's enough.
God'll save His people with that. And oh, I'm thankful he did.
And that's what the gospel has confirmed in us. That's the gospel. And alright, now look down here
in verse 7. And he goes on to say, "...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." And
beloved, when this gospel came, it also came with gifts. When
the gospel comes, the salvation comes, it said, here you come
behind in no gift. You're not inferior to other
churches. And you know when he says that you come behind in
no gift, that means gifts. Of all the different gifts, you
come behind in none of them. And these churches, this Corinthian
church was gifted. Now what's some of the gifts
that he's talking about here? I think first and foremost is
the gifts that grace gives to us. The gift of repentance. The gift of faith. Those are
things that Christ gave. exalted to grant repentance unto
Israel, and that he grants repentance unto the Gentiles. And then faith,
we know, is the gift of God. And then not only is repentance
and faith these gifts that he's talking about. And those are
gifts. I mean, beloved, if you ever
repent, and repentance is a change of mind, and it's a radical change
of mind. It's a radical change of mind
about you. It's a radical change of mind
about God. It's a radical change of mind
about sin. It's a radical change of mind
about what salvation is. Everything that you once believed
is the complete opposite to that. Now, is that not right? I mean,
everything we ever believed and thought by nature, God changes
that radically. I mean, beloved, He turns us
upside down. And I'll tell you, when that
once-repentance starts, it continually repents. And then He gives us
faith. This grace gives us faith. For
by grace are you saved through faith, and not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. God gave faith, He said to the
Gentiles. And then knowledge. Oh, I think
one of the gifts He gives us is knowledge. Knowledge of what?
Of God. Knowledge of God, he told the
Thessalonians, he says, you know, you turn from idols to serve
the true and live in God. Now they worshiped idols and
then they got a knowledge of the true and live in God. And
oh, to have a knowledge of God? How do you get a knowledge of
God? You're going to sit down and read a theology book and
get it? You're going to go to a seminar somewhere and get it?
You're going to go to one of these workshops and get it? If
you're going to be with a bunch of people and discuss it, you
don't find God. The knowledge of God comes from
God Himself. He said, equate now thyself with
Him. How do you equate yourself with
Him? He first has to equate Himself with you. He comes and makes you know Him.
Him. And I'll tell you what, this
idea that people can worship God and He can be different to
everybody, there's nothing to that. There's only one God. Is
that not true? He's a living God. He's a sovereign
God. He's an infinite God. He's an
eternal God. He's a holy God. He's a righteous
God. He inhabits eternity. He's the Creator, Sustainer,
and the only life that there is comes through Him, given to
us in Christ. And when He makes us know Him,
we understand right then and there that we wouldn't know anything,
have anything, be able to do anything, had He not given us
the knowledge of Himself. Oh, and this is the gift He gives
us. And not only do they have this gift, but it also says,
We'll get into this later when we get on in the book. They had
these extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. Paul said they had
the gift of miracles. The gift of healing. Speaking
in tongues, that was a gift. Speaking in tongues. Prophecy,
really preaching. Preaching was a gift that was
given to them. And so he says, you are not inferior
to other churches in gifts. And here said, look what he says
here now, that you get these gifts forgiven to you. So you're
not in fear to other churches waiting for the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Waiting for the coming, and if
you've got a margin, it says in the margin, waiting for the
revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is talking
about his second coming. This is talking about him coming
again and waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, patiently
expecting him. waiting patiently and expecting
him. You know, our Lord said he'd
come again. He said, I'm going away, but I'll come again. The
next time, you know, they said to him, he said, are you the
son of God? He said, the next time you see me, you'll see me
coming in power and glory. He said, ever I'll see me, even
those that pierce me shall see me. And so he promised that he'd
come again. The apostle said he'd come again.
They said, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall the
heavens melt with the fervent heat. He promised that He's coming
again. And, beloved, He promised, and
so we patiently wait. And this, we're talking about
the resurrection. We patiently wait for the time
for Christ to come again, and that blessed resurrection that
we'll have in our part with Him. And when we hear about His coming
again, and we hear about His returning to get His people,
Whether He comes after us one or time, He's going to come after
us all at one time. It fills our heart with joy.
It fills it with hope. It fills it with great expectation.
I expect for the Lord to come. I look forward to the Lord coming. I rejoice in Christ coming. That's
what... Look over in Revelation 22, just
a moment. Let me show you what I'm talking
about. And He says, you're waiting patiently, expecting. Revelation
22. We're waiting patiently, expecting
the Lord Jesus to come. And oh, when we've repented,
we have faith and we have the knowledge of God and the knowledge
of Christ, we're waiting for Him to come. That's why when
the Lord comes and gives people we love, and they're believers,
it's hard on the flesh. But yet at the same time, our
hearts so rejoice when that happens. I mean, we rejoice at it. We
give thanks that God has taken them from their suffering and
their sorrow and their grief and their heartache and their
sickness. But look what he said here in Revelation 22, 20. And remember, this is the revelation
of Jesus Christ that he gave to John on the Isle of Patonage.
This is Christ speaking now. He which testifieth these things
saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen? John says, Even so, come,
Lord Jesus. Behold, I come quickly. Even
so, come on. Come on. Ain't that what He means? And we look for not only that,
but we love His appearance. Paul says this, you know, he
says, you know, when the Lord shall appear, he said, he's going
to give me a crown of righteousness, not only to me, but also that
love his appearing. Love it. Love it. Titus 2.13 says, looking for
the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. When he shall appear, He's going
to change this old vile body. Our conversations in heaven,
in other words, we look for the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. I look for Him. I look for Him
to come. And then you know this idea,
and let me tell you something, there's people out there that
preach this. And maybe some of you have heard it, that the Lord's
going to sneak in here, and He's going to rapture His church out
and leave everybody else here. They're going to come in here
like a thief in the night and sneak all of these people out. They're
going to leave the rest of them here. And the folks that wasn't as
good or bad as they ought to be, and didn't live as good as
they ought to, they've got to stay here and go through seven years'
tribulation. And through that seven years' tribulation, they're
going to have to endure. The Holy Spirit's going to go
when the rapture takes place. So he that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved. So they're going to have to endure
seven years of tribulation. And if they endure those seven
years of tribulation, then they get to go on to heaven too. And
everybody don't make it through that seven years of tribulation.
They got to go to heaven. And then when that's over and
done, then the Lord comes down here and sets up a thousand year
reign and he sets him enthroned over in Jerusalem. Go on and
on and on with that business. A fellow stopped me one day while
I was running. And my wife brought that up. He stopped me. I was
out running one day and he stopped and talked to me. He said, Brother
Donnie, what do you think about the great tribulation? I said,
well, I said, I know the scripture said Acts 14.22 is through much
tribulation that we must enter into the kingdom of God. He said,
that's not the one I'm talking about. He said, do you believe
it? And I said, no, that's just nothing but a Baptist purgatory.
That's a badness purgatory. Everybody that lives good and
holy lives, they get to go to glory. The rest of you folks
that don't live good, they give you seven years purgatory to
get your life back together, then you get to go to heaven. That's a badness purgatory. You've
heard that stuff, haven't you? They said even you know in the
winter you get to wear rattlesnakes for neckties. I don't want a
rattlesnake anytime. I don't want no rattlesnakes
around me. I don't care in the millennium
or non-millennium, anything other time. That's what we're talking
about here, about the coming of Christ. We're waiting, looking
for it with joy and anticipation, expecting it to come. Why do
believers have this longing in their hearts for Christ to come
again? I mean, believers really, truly have this longing in their
hearts for the Lord to come again. Because Paul says we have the
firstfruits of the Spirit. Romans 8.23 says that we have
the firstfruits of the Spirit. And you know the firstfruits
is like whenever you go get the first thing out of the garden,
or the first thing out of the field, and you get the firstfruits.
He says the Holy Spirit is the firstfruits given to us. We have
those firstfruits. And that's a foretaste, a pledge
of the blessings that we're going to receive in fullness when our
Lord comes again. Whatever He has when He comes
again, we're going to have it all! The flesh will be done. Look with me over at 1 Thessalonians.
I'll show you what I'm talking about. Oh, that's the first fruits
of the Spirit, the pledge of the blessings that we're going
to receive. Look in chapter 4 and verse 13. You're talking about wonderful
words here. We're talking about waiting for
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, 1 Thessalonians 5.13,
he says this, But I do not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep, that you saw not, even others
which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with Him. When Christ comes again, those
are going to bring with Him, He's going to bring them back
with Him. For this we say unto you by the word, listen to this,
by the word of the Lord, we talked this morning about the word being
our rule. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord,
that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord
shall not prevent them or hinder them that are asleep, those that
are already in the grave, resting. For the Lord himself, oh listen
to it, shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of an archangel and the trump of God, listen now, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first. Oh, you know what it's like when
graves are going to be opening up all over the world? People
are going to be coming up out of the sea. People are going
to be coming out of graves that they don't even know that the
graveyards exist anymore. And oh, listen to this. All those
people that they burned at the stake, Christ is going to bring
them. That's a mystery, but I know
it's true. And then we which are alive.
That's me and you if Christ come tonight. Then we which are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds.
Now listen, to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever
be with the Lord. Now watch what the next word
says. We're for comfort one another with these words. Comforting words. Oh my, that's
what that pledge is. We look forward to it. We look
forward to His coming. Now back over here in 1 Corinthians. So we're waiting, patiently expecting,
rejoicing, hoping in the Lord Jesus coming again. We're waiting
patiently for it. And this, watch this, is talking
about who shall also confirm you unto the end that you may
be blameless in the day of Jesus Christ. Well, you've got to know
who he's talking about here. It's God. He said, I thank my
God. And so it's God who shall also confirm you blameless unto
the day of Jesus Christ. Until the day of Christ, that
means when that day comes, when Christ comes again, at the coming
of Christ, at the judgment, When Christ comes to get His people,
when Christ comes to separate the sheep, put them on the right
and the goats on the left, that day when God Himself, beloved,
and Christ Himself shall come to be the judge and judge men. And here it says here that God
shall confirm you. What's He going to confirm you
to be? Blameless? Blameless? And what does that confirm mean?
It shall make you steadfast? It means to preserve you, to
keep you from falling. That's what God's going to do.
Preserve you and keep you from falling. And then this blameless
means, beloved, unblameable. One in whom no accusation can
be brought. Now, you know, everybody here
can bring some kind of accusation against me about a lot of things.
You know, you're not blameless in this, you're not blameless
in that, you're not blameless in this other thing. But oh,
when we come, at that day, when Christ comes, in that day, when
we wait patiently for the coming of Christ, in that day, When
we stand at the judgment, when we stand before the infinite
holiness of God, when we stand before God who is eternally righteous,
when we stand before Christ Himself, God Himself will say, there is
no accusation, no blame can be placed against any one of these
people for whom my son died. Not one. I blame myself for lots
of things. I've backed my life up twenty-five
years, and I take another shot at it, and I know, I know I do
things different, a lot of things different. But I can't hook my
wagon up and go back 25 years, but still yet, no matter all
the trail of tears I've left behind me and heartaches and
mistakes, still yet, when that day comes, God said He'll make
you steadfast, keep you from falling, and He'll do that so
that when Christ comes on that great day, you will be blameless. God said, I'm going to look to
you from top to bottom. I'm going to look to you inside
and out. Blameless. I'm going to look over your whole
life from the day you was born to the day you left this world. Blameless. But, wait a minute,
wait a minute. Blameless. Don't you dare bring
an accusation. They're blameless. God's going
to do that. And in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, the day
of judgment. Look with me quickly over 2 Timothy
1. Just look at this a minute. 2
Timothy 1. You know, Paul here talking about
that day. And God's going to preserve you,
make you fed fast. He said here in verse 16, 2 Timothy
1, The Lord give mercy. The Lord give mercy unto the
house of Onesiphorus. For he offereth fresh meat, and
was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was in Rome, he sought
me out very diligently and found me. Now listen, the Lord grant
unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. In that
day. In that day. And when that day
comes, because of the mercy of God in Christ and because God
conferred to us, we'll be blameless. What would you think right now,
right this moment, If God took you out into eternity, or Christ
came right now, and He could. Christ could. I mean, He could
split that eastern sky and be here in the blink of an eye.
Just that quick's how things would change. And when He come,
and you stood before God Almighty, what would be the verdict? If you're not in Christ and don't
know Christ and ain't trusting Christ, it couldn't possibly
be blameless. Could it? Your whole life is
full of blame, full of guilt, full of condemnation. Nothing
but judgment and fearful wrath and indignation. But boy, oh boy, If you knew
in your heart of hearts, and that gospel was confirmed in
you, and say, God, Christ can come get me anytime He wants
to, because I'm blameless. He can come get me anytime. I'm not afraid of the judgment.
I'm not afraid of the coming of Christ. I'm not afraid of
dying in my sleep, or getting up and getting killed in a car
wreck, or whatever happens. I can face God, and God said
Himself I was blameless. Christ gave Himself for the church
to present as spotless, without blame, before Him in love. Oh
my, what a day that'll be. And then back over here again,
it said He'll confirm you, and then He said, goes on to show
us here, He said, and God is faithful. by whom you were called
unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." Christ
our Lord. God is faithful. And what he's saying here, beloved,
and one in whom he will confide and who will fulfill his promises.
He said that he'd confirm us, keep us from falling, make us
steadfast. He promised us that. He said
he'd confirm us. Now he says he's faithful. You
reckon he'll do it? He said He'd keep us from falling.
You reckon He'll keep us from falling? He said that He would
present us blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Will
He do it? He says He's faithful. He's faithful. Let me tell you something, beloved.
It's not our strength. It's not our purpose. It's not
our resolve that will ever cause us to persevere. That's what
causes us to persevere. And persevere is what it means.
When it says that God will confirm us and establish us, that also
means we're waiting patiently for the Christ to come. And that
means, beloved, that though God's going to keep us, yet, beloved,
He keeps us in this world. When our Lord prayed in John
17, He says, Father, I pray not that you take them out of the
world, but that you keep them from the evil one that's in the
world. And so, beloved, I'm telling you, we can resolve, I'm going
to keep on keeping on. We can have enough purpose, I'm
never going to doubt Christ, I'm going to keep on keeping
on. But oh, it's not our strength, it's not our purpose, it's not
our resolve that'll cause us to persevere. You know what'll
cause us to persevere? Faithfulness of God. God being
faithful to us. Even when we're not faithful
to Him. He's faithful to us. You go through
the Scriptures and you look at how... With Simon Peter, when
our Lord says, Simon says, Satan hath sought to sift you as sifting
wheat, and I pray for you that your faith fail not. Christ was
faithful to Him. God was faithful to Him. Even
after all the things He done. And ain't you thankful? And bless
His holy name that He is faithful. When we're not faithful, when we're weak, when we forget,
when we stumble around, and yet he's faithful. And you
know he's going to be faithful right to the day of judgment
and says, you know, here they are, they're blameless. That's
one thing that I look so forward to when God vindicates all His
people. to the whole world, all of these
people that say, well, I wouldn't believe them, folks, and said,
I cannot possibly believe in the election. That's not fair.
I don't believe in God's sovereignty. I believe that God turned this
world loose and we got a responsibility to do the best we can while we're
in it. And as much as I like old Glenn Beck, you know, he
said the other day, God helps him who helps himself. If you
can help yourself, you don't need God's help. I ain't never been able to. And
I'll tell you, you know how many people you know that when they
get old, they can't help themselves. You know, somebody has to help
them get up. Somebody has to help them walk. Somebody has
to put the clothes on. Somebody, you know, all these
things happen. Now, what's going to happen when
a person can't even help themselves? God going to leave them alone? No, no. We may get like that.
And wouldn't it be awful if God only helped us if we helped ourselves
first? We'd be in a mess, wouldn't we?
But, oh, he is faithful. Oh, blessed Greg is thy faithfulness. We're going to sing that, Bradley,
in a little minute. So you, you're going to have
to start it. I ain't going to try that no
more. But look what it says here. God is faithful. Now watch this. Well, who's he faithful to? Here's
something else we've got to understand. God is faithful by whom you were
called under the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ. Whom is
God faithful to? Who is He faithful to? He's faithful
to the called. To the called. And this calling
means the calling of the Spirit, the effectually called. You know,
he said, for whom he did foreknow, them he also called. And you
know, when he says this, you know, when we're affectionately
called, he says in Ephesians 2, verse 1, you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. It's a call from death
to life. Lazarus, come forth. And he that
was dead, the Scripture says, came forth. And it's a salvation
from darkness to light. God who hath delivered us from
the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom
of his dear Son. Now, these are who God is faithful
to. They're the called. And what is He called to? Under
the fellowship of His Son. Now, we love to enjoy one another.
We call our fellowship dinners and our fellowship here together.
A lot of people call their churches fellowship this and fellowship
that. But when you call to the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ,
and you know we're going to be conformed to His image, going
to be conformed to it. And this word fellowship, it
means union. It means communion. That's what
fellowship means. And a union with, a communion
with, a participation of, a partakers with. And when it says in fellowship,
In union with Him, in communion with Him, partakers with Him,
participating in Him. And participating in what? We
look at our fellowship, we participate. We participate in the gospel.
Participate in one another's lives, in one another's homes.
You have something in your brain, give it to me. You know, you
all give me stuff and I, you know, we do things for one. And
that's just, that's just, we participate with one another.
We partake of one another's blessings. Well, this here, he says, we
are participating in partakers with Christ. God told us to this. And oh, beloved, partakers of
His life? Oh, partakers of His life. Do
you know how much of His life we're partakers of? All of it. All of it. All of it. He was born, and He lived, And
all the days of his life was not for himself, it was for somebody
else. And everything his life and every
obedient act he did, every thought he did, every law he obeyed,
we are partakers of it too. We are partakers of his whole
life. When the Father says, this is my beloved Son, whom I am
well pleased, we were in Him, and God said, I'm pleased with
Him too. That's what it means. And then we are partakers of
His life as members of His body. As members of His body. And all
of us, you know, we're all members of His body. And a body has many
members, but it only has one head, and Christ is the head.
I'll tell you something Doug told me last Sunday night, talking
about marriage. I never thought about it, but
it's right. He's exactly right. You know, he said, me, I say
all the time, well, I'm the head. But they'll say, the wife will
turn around and say, you know, but I'm the neck turns the head. That's not true. I'll tell you
why it ain't true. In fact, he told me this. He
says, the neck don't turn the head, the head turns the neck. Think about it. That's just the way of getting
around women running things. That's just an excuse, you know,
for men not being in authority and women not taking their place.
But, you know, now you think about it. The head turns the
neck. The neck don't turn the head. It's the head that moves
the head. Not the head don't move the head.
The head moves the body. The head causes the body to function.
And Christ is the head, and He calls the body to function. And
that's what it means we're protectors of Him. We wouldn't have no function.
We wouldn't have no life. We wouldn't have no part in Christ
if He wasn't members of His body. And that's why we look to Him.
Wouldn't it be a pretty thing, us telling us, you know, He's
the head, but we're the neck, and we turn to Him. That's the rankest
Arminianism that you can imagine. That sounds blasphemous, don't
it? So next time I hear one of you
women say, you know, He may be the head, but I'm the neck. You
know what I'm going to say? No, no. No, the head turns in
the head. You know, I may just go ahead
and say, you know, I'm just weak. My wife runs all out. She's the
hand, she's everything. If that's the way it's going
to be. But oh, we're partakers of Christ. And we're partakers
of His character. Of His character. We're partakers
of His suffering and partakers of His glory hereafter. Look
in Romans 8 with me just a moment. Verse 17. You know, we're partakers
of His sufferings here, of His glory hereafter. He says here in verse 17, He
said, If we're children, then heirs of God. You know, the Spirit bears witness
that we're the children of God, and if children, then heirs of
God, and join heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with
Him. When did we suffer with Him? In His life? In His death? Everything that
He went through, as far as God was concerned, we went through
with Him. And our suffering here that God calls us to suffer like
Paul in prison, he was fulfilling the sufferings of the body of
Christ. Now watch this. If so be that we suffer with
him, watch this, that we may also be glorified together. Amen. So if we are partakers of him
in this life, partaking of him in his sufferings, partaking
of his cross, partakers of him so when he is glorified, We're
going to be glorified with Him, too. When Christ, who is our
life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. And then look back over here
quickly, and I'll hurry up here and be done just in a minute. And it's because if we are partakers
with Christ that we'll never perish. You know, He'll present
us faultless and blameless. We'll be confirmed blameless
because we're partakers with Christ. And then it says, called
unto the fellowship of His Son. His Son, God's Son. It's the
Son of God we're called into fellowship with. It's the Son
of God we're partakers with. The same nature of God. And then
it's Jesus, the man, the born, born of a virgin. And Jesus Christ,
the Savior, the One whom the Old Testament said and promised
so much about, and said that He was come and the Son given,
the Child born, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,
the Wonderful One, the Counselor. And oh, beloved, and not only
that, but it says, Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Lord, He is our
Sovereign. He's our Lord. He's our Master.
We belong to Him. And I want to belong to Him.
Do you want to belong to Christ? He's my Lord. He's my Master.
Paul says, no man calleth Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost. And,
beloved, He's our Possessor. He owns us. He's our Sovereign. And He's our Protector. And bless
His name. I tell you, when Christ comes,
painless, God's going to see to it, He's going to establish
it. And how's He going to do it?
Because He called you to be a partaker with His Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord. Oh, what a blessed God we have,
and what a wondrous salvation. Our Father, oh, blessed, blessed,
blessed, blessed Father, You're in heaven, we're on earth, and
Lord, we certainly don't want to offer the sacrifice of fools. And I pray, Lord, that You would
forgive of everything that was so unlike You, and cause the
gospel, cause the Word of God tonight that was taught and preached,
and it would be fruitful, it would be effectual. Lord, we
thank You for it. Thank you for the Word. Thank
you for the truth as it is in Christ, the testimony of Christ,
the Word of God. And, O Lord, we do. We long and
look for the day when Christ shall return, whether He comes
and gets us personally or He comes and gets us collectively.
We do long for that day. God bless these dear saints,
the sick, the tried, the burdened, God bless them, strength them,
encourage them who ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.