If you would, turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter one. And okay, that little line's
moving. And I wanna read from verse four
through verse nine. 1 Corinthians chapter one and verse
four. I thank my God always on your
behalf. for the grace of God which is
given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything ye are enriched
by him in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony
of Christ was confirmed in you, so that ye come behind in no
gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you are
called under the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And I'm going to stop right there.
What I want to try and preach today is faithful is God. Faithful is God. Now, this is
Paul's letter to the church, which is at Corinth. And more
specifically, the church of God, which is at Corinth. That's the
only church there is, the church of God. Again, this is a letter
written to believers. Now what I wanna speak to you
today about is this subject of the first half of the first chapter
of 1 Corinthians. Faithful is God. Because we speak
a lot about the faith of God's elect. And we will continue to
do so. Because it's important. And it's
true. There is a faith of God's elect. but I wanna talk about the fact
that faithful is God. The fact of it and hopefully
the results of it, I was thinking about this, Walter,
as I was studying and thinking on this passage, I thought back
to what Walter was saying a couple of weeks ago in Deuteronomy 12. The part about tearing down idols
and removing abominations when you're in the land, when you're
in the land, okay? That's one thing we're to do
here. But the other thing I thought about is, and I don't know why
exactly, but it hit me, when he brings you in, you've got
abominations and idols in you that need to come down. And I
thought that about myself, because I still remember to this day,
clear as a bell, now I can't tell you what day it was, I know
what year it was, I think, but I can still tell you to this
day, my first reading of John chapter six, when he said that
no man can come unto me unless the Father which has sent me
draw him, and I backed up. I backed up. I still had idle
free will in me, still do. Nowhere near as bad, thank God,
but it's there, it's there. My so-called free will will raise
its ugly head. What it is is my own pride, my
lust. But we've got to tear down our
idols in ourselves, but we've got to do this. We've got to
preach the gospel, and I've still got to guard myself, and you
have to guard yourselves. but faithful is God. He starts in verse four, I'm
just gonna do these first four verses and try and get to verse
eight and nine, but I can't really just jump over verse four. I
thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is
given you by Jesus Christ. Paul claimed God, he said my
God. I'm not talking to you about
the world's God. I'm talking to you about my God, which is
the God of the scripture, which is the God of his gospel that
Christ delivered to him to preach. But where does he start? Grace. That's why I can't pass by this. You got to start with grace.
You always start with grace. Why? Because God always starts
with grace toward his people. There's an intent, a purpose,
and a will before the actions that God commits to and God does. And it starts with his grace.
The grace of God which is given you, he said. And I thought about
this and I wrote it down. How can Paul say that? How does
Paul know who has been given grace? Well, he doesn't. And he does. Now, Paul preached
in Corinth, so he knows some of these people personally, and
I'm sure he had a good hope about some of them. Because why? They received the gospel in Corinth. And, not only that, they were
continuing on with that gospel in Corinth. Now, they had some
problems, but that's why Paul was writing to them, because There's no help for any unbelievers. The only help from unbelievers
is not from Paul's letter, it's from God. That's all there is. Paul had
a hope of these people. He didn't know every one of them
individually. You're not supposed to. We don't know who's saved
and who's lost, but Paul did address this letter to those,
what? That are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. Now, if you are sanctified in
Christ Jesus, you've been given grace. That's the preface. If you've
been sanctified in Christ Jesus, which is who this letter is addressed
to, Paul's talking to you, you've been given the grace of God almighty. So what graces was Paul writing
of here? Very quickly, verse five, that
in everything ye are enriched by him. What? Everything. Everything. And he does the enriching why
he's got all the riches Now this ain't talking about
money it's not talking about well, although God will give
you the money you got He gives what we need he has promised
that and he does that But that's not what Paul's talking of here.
He specifically states what? In all utterance and in all knowledge. Paul wants you to be enriched
in what you say and in what you know. Well, actually, who you
know. Why? That's important. That's
part of our fellowship together. That was part of the fellowship
of these Corinthians together. It hasn't changed. Your speaking
being enriched is tied to your knowledge being enriched. I thank God I ain't as dumb as
I was. I'm not as ignorant as I was
30 years ago. Now, the God I knew 30 years
ago is the same God that I know now. But hopefully I have been enriched
in utterance and in all knowledge. Because the only knowledge worth
having is His knowledge. And any knowledge there is, is
what? His knowledge. It's not worldly wealth, it's
not success in this world. It is growing in the grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and Paul's praying. That's a grace you're enriched
by. What even as the testimony of
Christ was confirmed in you, verse six, the testimony of Christ, the
witness of Christ was concerned, confirmed in you, in you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. I used to love it when Earl would
say that. Christ in you. Because yes, Christ
is all, but yes, Christ is in each and every one of his people,
all that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and what else? He's confirmed
it. With his spirit bearing witness
with our spirit. and His Spirit indwelling us. Guess what? Your speaking and
all knowledge is completely tied, attached to, dependent upon the
witness of Christ in you. All these things are related.
What? Why? that ye come behind in no
gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that
you know you have been given everything in Christ. All utterance,
all knowledge, and all grace. Because you are being prepared
for the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he is coming. and we are to wait and to watch. Sometimes it's a hard thing to
wait upon God. We have a tendency to want to
take things in our own hands. No, we're to wait for his coming. Now, when he puts it in your
heart to do something, do it. And do it as unto the Lord. But
while you're doing, wait. He's coming, He's coming. And He is enriching you today
and every day. Now, here's where I wanted to
get to, verse eight to start with. Who shall also confirm
you unto the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our
Lord Jesus Christ? And I meant to do something and
I did not do it. Okay. First of all, who shall
confirm you? This means, who shall, what?
Establish you. To make firm. Now, it's no coincidence that
he already has said, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed
in you, okay? It's the same exact word. This confirming unto the end
is the same as being what? As the testimony of Christ was
confirmed in you. Both of them are the work of
God and not the work of man. Now, in verse I keep looking
at it and I keep missing it. Verse six, that word where it
says it was confirmed in you, that's passive. But now when
you look here and it says who also shall also confirm you unto
the end, guess what? That's active. And the difference
is God is the subject of the second one and you are the subject
of the first. That's the only difference. You
will notice, this is one of the wonderful things about the Greek
language, if you do look at any of this stuff any of this time,
is whenever you see something usually having to do with salvation,
having to do with the Lord Jesus Christ this way, if you're the
subject, the verb is passive. But if God's the subject, it's
always active. Why is that? because God always
acts upon his people. His people never act upon God
and never act for salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. Now I do believe in this verse
it is still referring to the Father God because at the end
it says in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ and it doesn't say
anything about my day or his day but anyhow, He is establishing
you. He is making you firm until the
day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what does that mean? Well, the first thing it means
is that we need to be confirmed. Why? Because we are not firm. I'm not firm. You're not firm. No man is firm. We need to be
made firm, to be confirmed. Now this is shall confirm, and
this is future, active, indicative, it's a fact, it's gonna happen,
and he's gonna do it. Christ, God, is actively going
to confirm you, what does it say? Unto the end. And who's he talking to? Still
all those that are sanctified in Jesus Christ. Because if you're not born of
God, you got no claim on these promises. You might be elected,
you might not. I don't know. But the thing is,
unless you have been called out, unless you have been brought
in, this promise is of no value to you right yet. But if you
have, if you are the sanctified in Jesus Christ, This is a promise
for you to lay a hold of. This is the work of God in everyone
that believes Jesus Christ. Because I can't confirm you. You can't confirm me. You can't
confirm yourself. Now, going back to my heritage, When I was 11 or 12, I was confirmed
by the Catholic Church. And I can categorically state
to you at this moment, due to personal experience, that was
of absolutely no value. None whatsoever. You understand? In the Catholic Church, they
have a little thing, they call it confirmation. And what it is,
it's confirming you in the army of the Lord. At 12 years old,
at 12 years old, I had the attention span of a mayfly. I didn't know what they were
talking about. All I know is that supposedly this guy's supposed
to come by hitting you in the face, and I was not supposed to hit
him back. That ain't what Paul's writing
about. If God don't confirm you, you
ain't confirmed. And guess what, that's in verse
six and in verse eight. He does them both. And I like this statement, it
says unto the end. Because Walter and I, this is
one of the first things we talked about over 30 years ago. Because there's a, well here,
let me just read it, Matthew 10 and 22. And ye shall be hated
of all men for my name's sake, but he that endureth to the end
shall be saved. Now that is what we call scripture. But Walter and I couldn't help
but notice from the people we were surrounded by, now this
is not in the church we were in, but they were all around
us there, that there were people who believed that you could be
lost and saved and lost and saved and lost and saved. And we concluded
with the logic of that statement. If that part is true, then this
should have read that you need to be enduring at the end. But
that ain't what Christ said. That ain't what Paul said. He's
going to confirm you unto the end. The same that endureth to
the end shall be saved. Because the salvation of God
is not a matter of timing. And that's what some people preach.
You better be in God at that last moment. Well, that's true.
But it's better for you if you've been in God all along, in Christ
all along. And all that matters is who put
you in there. Because if God's confirming you, he's confirming
you to the end. Now, if you're confirming yourself, which is
what they're doing, no different than what the Catholic Church
did to me when I was 12. You can confirm yourself, but
I'm gonna tell you something, that ain't worth nothing. That
ain't worth a hill of beans. And I don't like beans. So that's
not worth anything to me. But very carefully notice the
word here, and I looked at it just to make sure, the word is
unto the end. Now that word means unto. Or
until. or up to. So you understand, this is a continuation. He shall confirm you. That is
future. But all he's saying is that he
already has said the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.
God did that and he's going to continue to confirm you because
right now you are confirmed to his witness. You are confirmed
in Christ by God. And he's gonna continue it on
unto the end. That's the point. You can't leave
that out. See, because there's people who
look, well, I'll look forward to being confirmed at the end.
That's not what it says. No, I'll look forward to being
confirmed at the end, yes. But I'm gonna be confirmed to
the end, unto the end. Now what are we confirmed about?
Well, you see that italics there. There is it. In verse eight, who shall also
confirm you unto the end? And it says that ye may be, well
that ye may be is in italics because it's not really there,
it's interpolation. But who shall also confirm you unto the end?
Blameless. Blameless. Now, I will tell you this, since
it's in there in English, that ye may be blameless, that's not
a maybe or a maybe not. No, he's doing it so that you
will be. And that's what that means in Old English. In our
English, we can say maybe, maybe not, maybe, maybe not. God never
says maybe, maybe not. Paul never wrote maybe, maybe
not. Paul never wrote might or might not. If it's a promise
of God, it's a promise of God, and it's gonna happen, why? Because
God's gonna do it. But unto the end, who shall confirm
you unto the end? What? Blameless. And you definitely
want to be blameless in the day of the Lord. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
his brethren, those that the Father gave to him, those that
the Father gives to him, Those that are brought in now and are
in him now are right now blameless in him and shall be blameless
in him unto the end. Because he's gonna confirm it
so. It's because of his work that
we are blameless. And that word blameless not only
means irreproachable, it means unaccused. You can't be accused of it. It's one of them scary verses
about he that believes God does not sin, but ain't you, his seed
remains in you. And he cannot sin, that seed
cannot sin. In God's sight, we are totally
and completely blameless. Because all the blame was put
in him. It was laid on him, he was made
to be sin, but for us. I don't have any blame, Mason.
You don't have any blame, Paul. If we're in Him, if we're in
Him, we are blameless now and we shall be until the end. And by golly, that's a cause
for rejoicing. Until the end, you are, if you
are in Christ, unaccused and irreproachable. Now. and future. Because I have been, you have
been confirmed blameless by God in his son. I can't think of
a better blessing than that. Not on this earth. Now maybe
in the world to come there's going to be something even better.
I'm sure there is. Because there's a lot of things
going on that I don't know. But being blameless started with
God's work, and it continues with God's work, and it shall
be confirmed by God's work. Unto that day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Why? How? If God does it, it's forever. That's something this world has
no idea about. You know, he wrote it, he spoke it to one of the
prophets, said, you thought I was altogether such a one as yourself.
He's not, he's not. God does not change, therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. And what God has done, it's forever,
nothing can be taken from it, nothing can be put to it, added
in. God does it, that men should
fear him. Now, I will be very clear about
this for the last part of that. Blameless does not mean sinless. Okay? We still sin. But before God's eyes, there's
no blame. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not, and
that will not's just as strong there as it is everywhere else,
will not impute sin. Guess what? That's blameless. I sin, you sin. But Christ has
paid for those sins with his precious blood and there is no
blame on us in the eyes of God. Oh, you give people a license
to sin. They really don't need one. I still like that statement. I sin more than I want to anyway.
That's what you answer if somebody says, I believe that I'd sin
all I want to. I sin more than I want to. And
if you don't know that, you don't know God. God is faithful. By whom you
were called under the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our
Lord. Verse nine. Now the Greek actually has this
in a different order and that's why I entitled this sermon the
way I did. Now usually, English grammar
and Greek grammar are different. So they have word order in a
different manner than the way we're used to thinking of it
in English. The literal translation of the
first three Greek words is faithful this God. Or faithful is God. And I like that expression. I
like that expression. Now I want to be faithful. I'm
not, in myself, I am not faithful. But I wanna be. But that's not
what Paul's writing about here. There are plenty of places, you'll
read them in the scripture, in the Psalms and other places and
in Hebrews, of course, where it talks about people being faithful. Here, Paul's gonna tell us the
reason we're faithful and the reason we are faithful, that
we have faith, is because faithful is God. Faithful is God. I worry about
myself. And I worry about you. But thank goodness, I don't have
to worry about God. Some people do, but they're crazy. They think God needs our help. No, no, faithful is God. Faithful is God. The great I am is his name and
faithful is he. And I like that, faithful this
God. You understand? It's the God
of this book. Okay? Now, I do not think this
book is holy, but I believe this book is the message of the holy
God. We talk about sola scriptura,
but the reason we talk about the sola scriptura is because
this is the witness that we have that he has given us, but this
witness is about him. We bow to the authority of the
scriptures. We don't bow to the scriptures.
We bow to the God who gave us these scriptures. and I need a faithful God. Jesus Christ is the author and
the finisher of our faith. And faithful is God. What sayeth the scriptures? Deuteronomy
7 and verse 9 says, know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is
God. the faithful God. What's the
faithful God do? Which keepeth covenant and mercy
with them that love him. That sort of sounds like Romans
8, 28. And keepeth commandments, what?
To a thousand generations. It don't matter where you are,
it don't matter when you are. If you love God, He's faithful. He's faithful. Now we also know we love God, but he loved us
first. He's the one that confirmed us.
He's the one that brought us in. He's the one that loved us
first. And we love him because of that.
1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 24, Paul said this, faithful is he
that calleth you, who also will do it. 2 Thessalonians 3 and
verse 3 says, but the Lord is faithful, who shall establish
you and keep you from evil. And if you want to, I'll put
it right there, unto the end. Because the scriptures do speak
of faithful men and women. However, men and women are faithful
only because of faithful is God. He gives faith and he sustains
faith unto the end. We are kept by the power of God
through faith. When? Under the end. Under that
day. God is faithful, then it says,
by whom you were called. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also will do it. Amazing. Now this, by whom you
were called, is passive, but that's because the subject is
you. You were called. Guess what? You're passive during
God's call. Now you can look at Galatians
1 and 6, and it says, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from
him that what? Called you into the grace of
Christ unto another gospel. Guess what? God's the subject
there. That call's active. But it's
the same call. When it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace. That's
also active. Because also when this word called
is used, referring to God, it's active. When this word called
is used, referring to man, man is inactive, it's passive. Because
the call comes from God. This call. Because it says by
whom you were called, what? Unto the fellowship. the partnership,
the participation of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. We are never alone. He that confirms you blameless
unto the end has called you into His fellowship, the fellowship
of His Son. Because we do have each other. Oh, it's because we have Him. We have been given to Him. We
are in Him and He has been given to us that we are never alone. Our fellowship, our participation
with each other is because all believers have been brought into
Him. and he is the head of his body.
Because there is a body and it's his. There is a fellowship, and guess
what? That's his too. His fellowship, his body, he's
the head and we're the members. And without Christ, there is no fellowship. Now you
can belong to any church you want to, you can show up every
week, but unless you're in him, you're not in the fellowship. That's just the facts. That's
all there is. This letter's written to those
who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, what does it say? Called
saints. If you don't fit the description,
the promise ain't for you right now. That's just the way it works.
We don't have a fellowship unless we're in him. Paul wrote it and
I just read it because a fellowship is his son. The fellowship is
the Lord's. The confirmation is the Lord's. Being blameless is the Lord's. We are called unto him and into
fellowship with him. How? Why? God is faithful. And faithful is God. He's promised
this. He gave us to the Son before
the foundation of the world. And faithful is God who is bringing
in what many sons to glory. Every single one that he gave
to the Son in eternity past he is giving to the Son in time
and bringing them into the fellowship of his Son You know when you think about
things like this in there's some days I think I got it made But
I didn't make it I don't understand how a good
Catholic boy could be brought out of that and brought into
Christ. Nothing that I did had anything
to do with it. Now that's good, that's bad,
that's indifferent. That's omission, that's commission,
and I had them both. It's all the work of God. I want you to know that faithful
is this God that we preach. And we preach, to the best of
our ability, the sovereign God of the scriptures. And He is
faithful. He is the author and the finisher. in italics there in that little
scripture, of our faith. Well, that's true, but it just,
you leave that hour out. He's the author and the finisher
of faith. He's the source of it. He's the
giver of it. And we are the recipients of
this grace because faithful is God. True believers in Christ Jesus
have everything right now in Him. And we have everything in
Him unto the end. Why? Because faithful is God. He's not dependent upon us for
anything. And He never will be. This is
what the world thinks. The world thinks that God is
dependent upon them to be enduring at the end. I think to God of the scripture.
That's not the one Paul's writing about. Why does God not change? Well, it's not only that he's
perfect, and perfection is, Perfect? That's true. God has no need
to change. But Paul wants all believers
to know that God will never change his attitude, his purpose, or
his will toward his people because faithful is God. I know. Some have feelings. I have feelings, too. And sometimes
your feelings and your circumstance overwhelm you. And you think,
how can God keep me as wretched as I am? Ah, you were worse before. You didn't even know you were
wretched before. Oh, yeah. That's how dead I was. I didn't even know I was dead. Faithful is God. He that confirmed
you to the witness of his son shall confirm you blameless unto
the end. Believe him. He's faithful. He's faithful. That's the message. Our heavenly father, we're thankful
again for this time and this place. Help us, Lord, to believe
you, to believe your word. Believe the words of your son.
Believe the words of your prophets, your apostles. Take them into
our hearts and lay hold on them and not let go that you are faithful. And praise your name because
you are faithful. In Christ's name, we ask. Amen.