Lord's gracious morning that
allowed me to do that. But church, it's good to be with you. As
Mr. Quiller mentioned, we'll continue
to pray for Pastor James and he'll heal quick and he'll be
back with us. If you would, turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. First Corinthians chapter 15,
we'll pick up with verse one. And it's what Paul writes to
his beloved brethren in Corinth. He says, now I would remind you,
brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, which
you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast
to it. to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of
first importance what I also received, that Christ died for
our sins in accordance with Scripture, and that he was buried, and that
he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scripture.
And then he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12, then he appeared
to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still
alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James,
and then to all the apostles, and last of all, as one of the
time we were born, he appeared also to me. For I am least of
the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I
persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am
what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain. On the contrary,
I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the
grace of God that is with me, whether then it was I or they,
so we preached, so you believed. Let's pray. Father God, I come to you humbly,
praying, Lord, that you take me, a weak man, and give me understanding
of your word, and I might teach you accurately, too. Your people,
Lord, and as they hear your word, Lord, they would be encouraged,
that they would grow in their faith, that they would be equipped
to go and minister to others as they hear your word. I pray,
God, as we go through your word, that you would even give our
children ears to hear, that they might grow in their wisdom and
knowledge of who you are and what you have done on the cross
for your people. I pray, God, that you'd be with us this hour.
which we know you are, for you never leave us or forsake us,
and that you're always with us, that you have sealed us with
your Holy Spirit. And I pray you'd be glorified,
and we ask this in no other name, but the King of kings and the
Lord of lords, Jesus Christ, amen. come to know just a while ago
that I would be doing this today, so I pray that you would bear
with me. And if I end up saying incorrect,
I know by the Lord's grace I will be corrected, then we will correct
it with all you guys. But Lord willing, I will teach
correctly today, and y'all will be blessed by what you hear. Here we see Paul, this is one
of the letters he writes to the Corinth church, and we know,
if you look back in the book of Acts and all that, that Paul
spent most of his time, of any church, with Corinth, which is
kind of wild when you read through the letters of Corinth, because
that was a church who had a lot of sin they struggled with, they
were a church who divided everyone, one was following Peter and one
was following Paul, And they had, Paul had to teach them all
about marriage and what marriage looked like. We know even they
had to publicly, through the letter of Paul, dismal a man
out who was sleeping with his stepmom or his mom, however you
want to look at that. And they were, you know, holding
one gift over another gift and doing things unorderly when it
came to speaking in tongues in that day. But Paul here, when
he gets to chapter 15, and I just covered a little bit of both
of the letters that we have in the scripture, but here when
he gets to chapter 15, as he does in all the letters
that Paul writes, throughout the whole letter, he's gonna
get back to what's most important. What's most important. And read
with me over here. He says in verse one, now we will not cover
everything I read, but here in verse one he says, now I will
remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which
you received, which you stand." Now, beloved, I would submit
to you, hear what is Paul doing. He's getting ready to remind
his brethren the gospel. And I would submit to you that
we as believers throughout our day must always be reminding
ourselves the gospel and also our brothers in the gospel. Some
people learn the gospel And for some reason, they think there's
something more important than that to learn, but there's not.
Yes, there's other things in the Scripture that is very important
to learn, but sometimes people focus so much on other things
in the Scripture, and most times it's because they don't have
a reality of what the Gospel teaches, and they're just more
in love with certain things they think God teaches in His Word,
other than the Gospel. But we know that a lot of people,
when they have troubles in life, they don't come to want to know
about what Christ did on the cross for his people, but it's
more how can God get me out of this situation? And they look
through texts to try to figure out how in the world can I get
out of this situation that I'm in. Or other times people, as
we've had in the past here at Grace Truth, that, you know,
we'll be walking through a certain letter of, like, John, because
Jane's been a lot of times with John, and certain individuals
would be like, you know, well, Are we ever gonna get out of
John? Is there something else we can go to besides this gospel
of John? One more time, we will, but when
they were asking them, they're no longer with us, but when they
were asking them things, they wanted to get to, in a legalist
type of way, of ways to be instructed of how we live. But if we hear
the gospel and through time, we will talk about how we're
instructed to live, but we know without knowing the gospel, First,
and reminding ourselves the gospel, if we instruct people how to
live without them fully understanding the gospel, what happens? We
create a legalist. We create someone who's looking
to the instruction given to the church, not given to the lost
men, and they follow these instructions, and because they're following
these instructions to the T in their mind, somehow or another
they're saved. And they make all their assurance
on their obedience to the instructions given to the church for their
salvation rather than the gospel. So they're always looking for
instructions. Instructions. They want to know,
be told what to do. When you think about that, isn't that
what all religious men who base their salvation on works do?
They read through the Bible and they want to know what must they
be doing. What must they be doing? Isn't that the same thing they
ask Jesus? What must we be doing to do the works of God? And what
does Jesus say? Believe upon me. They also ask
him in another part of the scripture, what must we be doing to do the
will of God? And what does he tell them? Believe upon me. That's
doing the work of God. That's doing the will of God.
Believe upon me. And he says, I will remind you, brothers,
of the gospel that I preached to you. What I, that I preached
to you, he said. He was reminding him, not only
am I going to remind you this gospel, but it is this gospel
that I preached to you. We know the gospel is the good
news of God and what he has done on behalf of his people. On behalf of his elect people
whom he chose before the foundation of the world. that we know God
and His great love and His great mercy sent His beloved Son into
the world that He might take on the sins of His people and
take the wrath of God on their behalf on the cross, die, be
buried in three-day days, rise again from the grave, and all
whom he gives the grace to trust in that will be saved. For Paul tells this in church
in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, he said, when I come amongst you,
all I knew is what? Christ crucified. He says, that is the wisdom of
God, he would go on to teach them. Christ crucified is the
wisdom of God, for that is the only way that man can be saved
from their sins. The only way. It is through God's
word that man can be saved. It's through the gospel that
man is saved. There's no other means, beloved.
There's no other means. There's no other mean by which
we can find assurance of our salvation itself through what? The gospel. See how we must remind
ourselves of this gospel? See why Paul's taking the time
to remind his Corinthians the gospel? Because think about it,
people, you know, when Paul walks through the whole speaking in
tongues thing, well, we know we have certain denominations in our
day that the only way you know that you're saved, if you can
speak in tongues, or you can jibber something out your mouth,
whether you understand it or not, that's how you know you
have received the Holy Spirit. In fact, I ran into a woman in
Walmart the other day, and we was talking the next day. I know
she's trying to pray with me. And from the little things she
was praying, and after talking with her, you could tell that
she believed the only way you know you have the Holy Spirit
and that you're saved is because you're speaking what? Tongues.
By which I replied and encouraged this woman, no, how we know that
people are saved is when they can give an accurately testimony
of what Christ did on the cross for his people. And we know what Christ did.
He says, this gospel I preach to you is what we must remind
ourselves of because it's so easy, even as believers, to look
to what we are doing for salvation rather than look to Christ. And
some of the things we're doing, we should be doing. We should
be reading our Bibles every day. We should gather with the saints
every time we get an opportunity. We should call each other on
the phone and witness each other. We should get together and study
God's word together. You see what I'm saying? These
things are instructions that God has given to us in his word. Clearly given us to his word.
But we must be careful not to put our hope in these things.
But it's very easy to do. It's very easy to go, wow, wow. I sin, but I must be of God because
I'm preaching. I mean, how many times have you
witnessed somebody, and you try to get in a gospel conversation
with them, and the only thing they want to talk about is what
they're doing? I'm doing this, I'm doing this.
It's like, I like to say the list, the list. Which I always
reply, well, how good are you doing at that? How good are you doing at that?
I mean, because really, truly, if we were honest with ourselves,
even those who are super religious, honest with themselves, would
say what? I can always what? Do what? Better. I can always do better. Even
as your pastor, I can always be in the Word more. I can always
be in prayer more. I can always be what? In fellowship with you
guys more, right? Not just here, but on the phone,
in person. We can always be doing more.
Which shows us what? That if we gotta be saved by
our hard doing, we can't do enough to be saved because even in our
own wisdom and our own knowledge, we must be doing more. Beloved, Paul's reminding these
Christians because he not only does he know they are looking
themselves at men or what, creeping in, and every letter written
to the church, there's certain men creeping in, creeping in,
creeping in, and they come in doing what? They don't come in,
you know, teaching right off the rip a false gospel. Why?
Because you would see that. I mean, it's obvious Joel Osteen's
a false teacher, right? Joyce Myers, right? Then when
we go out, there's not even a need to what, even perk our ears that
way. Right? No need. But what about other
men? What about men who are dominant
in our reformed circles? The popular men. Who we focus on and we might
listen to them. Why? Because they're using the
word elect. Or they're using the word predestination. or they're
using a word chosen before the foundation of the world. And
when we come to understand these things and we see the true gospel
word, I know how easy it is to go listen to them, because that's
all we know who to listen to. And that's all we know who's been
teaching these things. But if we continue to listen,
we understand that sometimes these men who we hold up as high
as on a pedestal are really teaching a false gospel. How do we know? Because we listen.
If we get past hearing the word elect, and we get past hearing
chosen for the foundation of the world, we get to what are
they teaching? Are they teaching a gospel by words, or are they
teaching a gospel by faith in Christ alone for salvation? I
remind you, brothers, from the gospel I preach to you, which
you received. How do we receive this gospel?
What? By grace. By grace, through faith, we know
what Ephesians 2, 8 says. It says what? For by grace you
have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing. It is a gift from God, not a
result of words that no one may boast. So we understand the gospel
is preached. Paul says, I preached it to you,
and you received this gospel that I preached to you. You received
it. How did Paul know they received it? Because they could verbally
profess it. They could tell you what the
gospel was according to scripture in 1 Corinthians. What Paul's
telling them in 1 Corinthians is nothing new that they've heard.
Remember, he's reminding them, so he's getting ready to remind
them of this gospel. And we receive this gospel by
God's word. Grace. It isn't that we received
this gospel by our own doing. We know from, like, for instance,
Ephesians 2, that we're, what, dead in our trespasses and sins,
following the prince and power of the world. The elect of God
were not good people until we received the gospel. We didn't come into this world
as being the elect of God, as shining lights. Now we come in
this world full of darkness, dead in our trespasses and sins.
Coming in this world with a heart ready to what? Rage, war, against
whom? Christ. We come in this world with what,
what would Paul say? We have venom of ants upon our
lips, full of curse and bitterness. We come in this world ready to
what? Steal, kill, and murder. Who else does that? Satan. So
we are what? Following Satan from the get-go.
Well, if Satan wanted to be like God, who else wants to be like
God prior to God changing our minds and saving us? We do. We
do. So it isn't like when we receive
this gospel, we're doing it and we're doing it because no one
seeks after God, no not one. No one seeks after God. God the
Father must draw us and open up our blind eyes to see the
glory of Christ and what he's done on the cross for his people
and therefore give us the gift of faith that we might receive
it. Because if God does not grant
faith or grant the gift to believe upon the gospel, will we receive
it? No. No. It isn't that, as I stated
a few weeks ago when I preached, Something like this, that we
are not smart in our own doing to understand the things of God.
I mean, if we were smart in our own doing to understand the things
of God, would we not have understood the things of God the first time
we read the scripture? For many of us, we're stuck in
what religion, a false gospel. We were stuck in a universal
gospel. We were stuck in a gospel that teaches we're saved by our
own free will until God, what, shows us the truth. We were looking,
what, to ourselves for salvation. Up to what? God showed us the
truth of the scripture. But even in the midst of denying God of the scripture
and trusting ourselves, God came to us. He came to us how? by the gospel. By the gospel. The same gospel that we might
have read, as some of us who might have read the Bible a lot
up until God saved us, the same gospel that we read over and
over and over again that has some different type of idea about
it, other than what it truly meant. But in God's timing, he
takes bad, bad people and he saves them through his gospel.
Notice how I said that. Bad, bad people. God doesn't
save good people. And we know we're not good. Why?
Because he shows us through the gospel our what? Simpleness.
He shows us how we are what? Lawbreakers. And we realize there's
what? Nothing good in us. We understand
there's nothing we have to offer to God that would cause him to
react and save us. that God gives us grace in what
we do, we believe. And this grace is not given to
all men, for if grace was given to all men, then everyone on
the planet would be my brothers and sisters in Christ. If everyone
would receive grace, Afghanistan and what's going on there right
now would not be taking place. There would not be Buddhism.
There wouldn't be Muslims. There wouldn't be different denominations
proclaiming certain things about the gospel. There'd be one. We'd
all be one in Christ. The whole world would be one
in Christ if everybody received the grace of God. God's grace
is given to His elect people on His timing. On His timing,
beloved. God has a time in His own planning
that He will save us. Sometimes He saves His people
like John the Baptist in his mother's womb. And other times
He saves a man like on a thief on the cross at the end of his
life. We do not know the time or place
that God will save His people, but we do know one thing, what?
That He saved them on the cross. On His timing, He will regenerate
them and give them the grace to see that. He will give them the grace to
see. Why do we go out and preach and teach the Word? Because we
know that God will save His people. He's already promised it. We
see it at the end when God gives John a picture, a picture and
revelations of what it will be like in the end, whether you
say there are people from every nation, every tribe and every language
worshiping the lamb that was slain. Why do foreign missionaries
go into countries where people do not understand the gospel
because they know God will save His people? And His people have
all what? Different types of languages. We receive this word by God's
grace. We know all do not receive it.
For we know Jesus even came to his own people and they didn't
receive it, but all who did receive it by his grace, what? He welcomed
them, adopted them as what? His children. They were not born
of the flesh, but they were what? Born by the will of God. He says, I remind you brothers
of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and which
you stand. So we, receive this gospel by
God's grace as soon as we hear it or we read it by faith or
by his grace through faith and then by his grace through faith
we continue standing in that gospel. Standing in it. And as we stand in that gospel,
beloved, all different type of ways which man teaches to be
saved will flood our minds. will come into our ears. But by God's grace, as we stay
in the word, we stay in fellowship, we will remain standing. We are
standing on the solid rock, which is Christ. When the storms come against
us in life, we will remain standing. We will not be swept away by
the errors of man. We will not. And even if we, for
a moment in time, we know God is faithful to finish the good
work He started in us. So even when at times I might
fall for a short season or a short period of a thought and thinking
it's something I'm doing, God floods us with His word, that
we might remain standing on the truth of the gospel. But understanding on this truth
of this gospel is our assurance in the gospel. I know I mentioned
that earlier, but it is our assurance in the gospel. Because as believers,
This is what I have seen in the believers, when we're doing really
good, we think, and we're not as sinning as much, and we might
have witnessed the 10 people that day, and we might have read
the Bible for two hours and prayed for five hours, we go, I'm saved. I mean, I had a great day. I
had a great day. But then when old Hank breaks
loose in our lives and we get mad at our wife and we chew her
out, and we get mad at our youngins and we're a little bit more aggressive
with them than what we should have, or we get mad at the boss
and we might let a few words fly his way because we couldn't
stand him that day, or our co-worker. And we go home and we beat ourselves
up. There's no way I can be saved over the things I've just done. See that one minute we're looking
at the good that we do, determine our salvation, and then when
we do bad, we're looking at the bad we do, determine that we're
not saved. All that is is us. We're looking
at us. There's no assurance in you,
beloved. You will never find true biblical
assurance in you. So if you're standing on you,
you will perish. But if you're standing on Christ,
the solid rock, you will not perish. He is our assurance. He is our assurance. In the same
way with the brethren. When my brother sins and I go
to him to correct him in gentleness, I shouldn't judge him whether
he's saved or not by the sin that he committed. Whether he cheats on his wife
or he gets fired for cussing his bosses out or something like
that, I don't judge him. Well, he must be lost because
he did this. But so often we do that, like
we're not doing anything wrong. It's like we got still at times
got a log in our eye. And we've yet to move the log
or not what take the splinters out of our brother's eye. Where
really is, we should be locked arms taking the splinters out
of each other's eyes. That we might what, continue standing
on the gospel. That we might not give no lead
way to the flesh to look to anything else for assurance of our salvation
except Christ alone. So beloved, I ask you, when you think about your salvation,
By whom are you looking to? Pray it is Christ and Christ
alone. He says, if you hold fast, in
1 Corinthians 15 to it, he says, if you hold fast to the word
I preached to you, unless, unless you believe in vain. So we were being, we were being,
so he says, I might jump ahead. Yeah, I jumped ahead, I apologize
for that. He said, what you received, what you stand, by which you're
being saved if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believe in vain. So we see that this gospel we
heard, we're being saved. And because we're being saved,
we are holding fast to this word Paul preached to us. So we know by the means of which
God saves His people is through the hearing of the gospel, which
is where He covered. And it's in time that He saves His people.
When did God choose? God chose to save us before the
foundation of the world, but it's in time that He regenerates
us, that He calls us to be born again, that we might believe
in the truth of the gospel. And we know that faith comes
through hearing and hearing the words of Christ. that we're saved
through hearing that gospel, which we cover. And we are holding fast to this
word by trusting in what Christ did on the cross, which what
Paul preached to them, which we don't only have the preaching
and teaching of Paul, but we have the teaching of all the
Bible, which points to who? Christ, that we can look anywhere
in scripture and be encouraged to what? Look to Christ. That's
the importance of being in the word, that through the word and
reading the word, our minds stay renewed, that we're always holding
fast to Christ, holding tight to him as the only source that
we have hope that we have before God. There's no other source by which
we can have hope. None. If you hold fast to the word
I preached to you, unless you believe in vain. Imagine that. Unless you believe in vain. So
Paul is bringing us the instance that there might be some among
them who heard the gospel, who could say the gospel out of their
lips, but may have what? Believed in vain. One thing we
must already clear up, this is not teaching that man can lose
his salvation. But we know those whom Christ
saved and purchased on the cross will be saved. And we know all
whom the Father draws will come to Him, Christ, and He will,
what, lose none of them. And we know all who come to Him,
He has gone to, what, prepare a place for them that He might
return and gather them in. So what do we do when it says
you must believe in vain? That must be that there are some
who can come into the Corinth church, just like they come into
Galatians, say the right, maybe mimic the right gospel out of
their lips, not a false gospel. But once again, we take a man
by the true gospel, whether he's in Christ or not. But at their
time, what happens? They fall away. They do what
John said they did. They left us because they were
never of us. I mentioned that in the Seeds
of the Sower. In the last sermon I preached
a week or two ago, you know, we look at the Seeds of the Sower
that Jesus talks about how we go out and we preach the word
of God and it falls on different hearts and two of the hearts
or two of the grounds that it fell on, what happened? They
rejoiced. They rejoiced, not over a false gospel they heard,
but over a true gospel that they heard. Jesus isn't saying that
people's going in that parable saying that people's going out
preaching a false gospel and people's rejoicing over a false
gospel. No. He's talking about His gospel going forth and men
rejoicing over it. But what happens? Because the
persecution of the Word or the love of the world, what happens?
The life is sucked out of them showing what? They were never
of Christ to begin with. that they came to trust in Christ,
but through other ways, whether someone come out talking to them
or being persecuted for the truth that they hold to, they what?
Fall away. We know that even happened in
Jesus. What many believe in His name, but being in fear of being
kicked out of the synagogue, what do they do? They deny Him. They could clearly see who he
was, but the persecution of maybe not being able to buy and sell
anymore, and their family going poor, or their mom and daddy
wanting nothing to do with them, they cannot handle that. And
what do they do? They fall away from this truth
after seeing it. They're blown away by seeing
this truth. They cannot believe this truth
they are seeing. They've been stuck in this religious, do this
and don't do this for so long. I mean, think about Jesus' people.
They had to do all type of religious things. They had to do in His
day to affirm their salvation. And then they finally see the
Messiah and what He is doing and going to do for His people.
And they hear His teaching. They know He must be from God.
He's got to be God in the flesh. He is the one who's going to
die. He is the one who's going to save us. He is the Messiah. He is the Christ. And then they get swept away
and they cannot handle the pressure of believing the truth and everything
that comes along with it. What's going to happen with
those who you love the most dearly, want nothing to do with you because
you believe the truth? It's hard. But Jesus says, I
didn't come to bring peace, but I came to bring a sword that
he might divide truth from error. That one person, a father might
turn against his son, and a son against his father, or a mother
against a daughter-in-law, or a daughter-in-law against a mother,
and cause what? Strike. The gospel causes hardships at
times. and men fall away. Or men can
be so in love with the things of the world that they hear the
gospel and God shows them how they're in love with the world
and not in love with Him and His truth and they trust in Him
and next thing you know they get swept away by the pursuit
of money or pursuit of power and they what? Fall away from
the truth. them things become not important
to them anymore. Or they catch this young lady
that looks good to their eyes and that sweeps them away from
the truth. Or a woman catches this young man or this man of
her own age that may be doing the things that her husband is
doing and what she swept away from the truth. And we know through Scripture People will fall away. Only those
who endure to the end will be saved. But if we endure to the
end, if we endure to the end, how are we enduring? By God's
grace. Once again, I can't give a pat
on my back and say, well, they fell away because they weren't
wise enough to stay. No, beloved, if we stay believing
in the truth while others fall away, we only stay by God's grace. Remember what Jesus looked at
Peter and the 11 disciples? We know one of them was the devil.
And after all the people walked away from him in John 6, he looked
at these 12 and he says, will you lead me to them? Peter goes,
where else we have to go, Lord? You give the words eternal life.
And what does Jesus do with Peter right now? Did I not choose you
at 12? The same way when I talk, you
know, when I say, who do the people say that I am? And he
says, you're the Christ. He said, blessed are you, son
of our Lord. Blessed blood is not revealed
to you, but my Father in heaven. What is he reminding Peter in
those two instances? It's me, Peter. It's me and my
grace towards you that calls you to stay and to believe these
things. It's God's grace that rescued
Peter even after what? He denied him three times. I mean, Jesus could have left
John the Baptist doubting why he was in a prison cell. But
he didn't do it. Why? Because he loved John. Just
like he loves his people who would trust in him today, which
is us, beloved. We trust in what Christ sent
on the cross. He loves us. He is faithful to us that he
will not lose us. We have not believed in vain
unless we're looking to something else for the reason of the hope
that we have. If ye hold fast to the word,
I preach to you, unless ye believe and blame. For I deliver to you
as first importance what I also receive, that Christ died for
our sins with accordance to Scripture. Notice here, he says, for I deliver
you as first importance. First importance. Take this from
the view of evangelism. Sometimes in evangelism, Especially
when you look at bright minds that go out of evangelism. It's
all about, they want to argue over science and show men that
science is, you can't trust in atheists and the things that
atheists believe in and revolution and all that. They want to get
all of them and catch them in a trap and they're working and everything.
But beloved, even if I win that argument showing them that we
don't come from monkeys or fish out of the water or little cells
in the brink, would that save them? No. So really, I just spent an hour
dialoguing with people with stuff that will not save them. But
sometimes we want to know how to make them arguments, don't
we? Why, that we might be wise in our own minds. And go tell
her, but I had an argument with this guy, you know, and man,
I really slammed on him. And a lot of times I see these
men, they'll give these arguments online, you know, out in public,
they'll give these arguments online. At the very end of it,
I reckon to make themselves feel like they gave the gospel, go
repent and trust in Jesus. Well, man, that can be taken all kind
of different ways in our day. Give nothing about the death
of Christ or what He did, nothing about who He was in the flesh,
meaning God, nothing about His death, nothing about His resurrection,
nothing about Him being right next to the Father, nothing about
Him reigning before He even came to earth, nothing about them
things, it's just repenting, trusting Christ. As of them are
the means by which God's gonna save His people. When in our
day, that can mean all kinds of different things. A lot of
people in our day, when they preach repentance, what do they
teach? You must quit sinning. Until you quit sinning, you haven't
repented. But repentance is a change of mind. I go from looking to
Jesse and what Jesse's doing for salvation to looking at what
Christ has done for salvation. That's biblical. Repentance,
beloved. For if stopped sinning is the way to be saved, then
none of us in here are saved. But none of us have stopped sinning.
Should we sin? No, we shouldn't sin. We should
walk in the truth of God's word. We have given tons of instruction
in the New Testament of how we should walk by faith, a ton. And we should obey them instructions
by faith in what Christ did on the cross for us. But none of
us are ever going to be perfect in them. I know you husbands,
you ain't perfect in loving your wife like Christ loved church
yet. And you wives, you ain't perfect in submitting to your
husband as you should be submitting to the Lord. So I know we all
still sin. See? I might be doing good this
week. Yeah, give it a little more.
Give it a little more. Old devil will creep right in
there. What am I getting at here, brother?
Paul says, first of all, remember what he said when I quoted earlier
1 Corinthians 2. When I came to you, all I knew
was what? Christ crucified. In evangelism, the only thing
that matters in evangelism is that you get the gospel. That's what matters. I can talk
about all, I can talk about, a lot of people, you know, they
love to talk about end times. They might wanna talk about Genesis
and some of the things there. Or they want to talk about, you
know, a lot of unbelievers want to talk about what you can and
can't do. Or they want to know, well, what can I do that's not
sin against God? But what's most important? What
is going to save them? How does God save His people? Faith comes
through hearing and hearing the words of God. How can they hear
unless someone preaches them, teaches them, preaches to them?
They can't. And we don't know who the elect
of God are that are yet to be born again. So what do we do? We preach the gospel to all people,
knowing that God will save. And sometimes it can be the less
suspected one God's gonna save. Leave you like, wow, I didn't
see that one coming, but shows what? Do or not you believe in
God saving sinners? I mean, a lot of people will
not give the gospel to pedophiles because they don't think God
should save them. That's a tough one, right? Or
murderers. But has God not come to save
sinners? He has. And beloved, if we could
take our minds and put them on a picture up here that all the
things we thought about in the last four months, we'd all probably
be exiting out the building right now, because we don't want nobody
to know who we are, just the things we thought about. And that's as the children of
God, much less not being, that we,
when we go out and witness the people, If we're going to take
the time, we must give and focus on the gospel. And yes, they
got questions about other things, but we must always steer it back
to the gospel. I remember one time, by the Lord's
grace, I was at Georgia Southern Campus witnessing this man, and
the only thing he wouldn't tell me. Well, let's talk about this.
He wanted to get it all to do with science and all that, and
I don't know nothing about science. So, what'd I do? I just kept
giving him the gospel over and over and over again. I know you
already told me that, yeah, but that's the only thing that's going to
save you. So I just kept giving him the gospel. Why? Because that's the only thing
that's going to save him. Eventually, he got sick of them and he walked
away. But he lived, what? Hearing the gospel over and over
and over again. And who knows? Someone else can
come up. I might have planted the seed
or been watering the seed, and someone else might come up and
water it again. But it doesn't matter who plants
the water. Why? Because God gives the increase. And another thing we must realize
is that people do not come to understand the gospel when we
give it to them. We have not failed. Because I
know a lot of times when I first, God saved me, Of course, we should
be broken over those not believing, but if we give the gospel, we
shouldn't be broken over thinking that we didn't do something right.
Because a lot of times through blood, I mean through sweat and
tears, you pour your heart out to people. And when I mean pour
them out, I mean pour out the gospel upon them and show them
the gospel. And you're thinking, what else
did I not do? How could they have not seen
that? I've had this conversation, or you might say, I've had this
conversation with my mom, or my dad, or my brother, or a best
friend many, many times. And you said, brother, what else
can I do? Beloved, there's nothing else to do but continue giving
the gospel to them. Praying, trusting that God is going to
save them on His timing. But don't we need the gospel
first importance that we must be giving to The unbeliever,
even as a believer, the gospel still must remain first importance
in every area of our life. Every area. As I said earlier, I mentioned
that we should always be reminding ourselves what? The gospel. If
I'm always reminding myself the gospel, when my wife irritates
me, I might be quiet. And not what? Lash back at her. And her vice versa. If I'm always
reminding myself of the gospel and putting the gospel forward
in front of my life, I might be more patient maybe with my
co-workers. Because we might all have that one co-worker
who gets on our nerves. But man, think about how patient God is
with us. that we must continue putting
the gospel first. That I might strive to love my
wife as Christ loved the church if I'm what? Putting the gospel
first. I might focus on teaching my
kids the gospel if I put the gospel first. I might be a witness at work
if I'm always, what, putting the gospel first. If I'm putting
the gospel first, my assurance will always remain on Christ
and what he done on the cross. Always. We put the gospel first when
we sin. There's no doubt who we look
to. Or when we're fearful, there's
no doubt who we look to. Or when we lose things or lose
people in this life, there's no doubt who we look to. For
you've got to think, as believers, we will struggle and we will
go through many things in this life. But if we're putting the
gospel first, we can find peace in the midst of what? Misery.
That we know from Jeremiah that God's mercies are new every day.
But how are they new every day, beloved? Because by his grace,
we are what? Putting the word of God and the
gospel first. And what most people realize
when they quote that, there was chaos and death and misery all
around Jeremiah when he quoted that. That Israel was being destroyed
for their sin against God. And he was being persecuted not
only by the people coming to destroy, but he's even being
persecuted by his own people. Which has been a very easy way,
what, to tie my hands together and say, I want nothing to do
with this anymore. I mean, think about Jeremiah.
He could have just walked away from it or joined the side of
the false prophets and started proclaiming to everyone there
that he might be, what, loved by his people. But he didn't
by God's grace. Why? Because he kept God as first
importance. He kept the gospel and the word
of God as first importance. Paul says, I deliver you as first
importance, reminding them, when I came to you, I gave you what
was most important, that Christ died for our sins in accordance
with the scripture. Notice there, our sins. Now, a long time, when people
read the Bible and they see our here, what do they do? They say,
our means everybody in the whole world, right? It's very easy
to do. You know, in the places of Scripture,
when you see our, you know, all through Scripture talking about
Jesus dying, but in partial letters like this, you see words, our
sins. The our here, beloved, isn't
talking about the whole world because this letter isn't written
to the whole world, it's written to the Corinth Church. It's written
to the people of God. Right? That is the context here. So when I see our here, I can't
even quote this to a lost person without explaining the context
behind it. Our sins, meaning who? Those
who are believing. And how do those who believe? By God's grace that they were
elect of God. We must go through and teach
them what? That Jesus died for his people. And that will be
an offense to most people in our day. When you talk about
Jesus on laying down his life for sheep and not goats, it will
offend them. Because most people grow up in
our circles believing what? That Jesus died for everybody,
that Jesus purchased everybody's loss. And when you tell them
otherwise, you're calling their pastor a liar, and no one wants
to know that their pastor's lying to them. Or you might call grandma
a liar. or grandpa, or my brother, or
my sister, or my dad and mom. And when I say you're a liar,
you're not saying you're a liar. What I'm saying, when you teach
them whom Jesus really died, and they're teaching that he
died for someone else other than his sheep, what are you doing?
You're teaching them that what they believe and have always
believed is false. And beloved, we must understand
this thing, as the elders of grace truth, we hold fast to
that Jesus only died for his people and those who deny that
truth, we do not consider them in the faith with us. We will
continue witnessing them, we'll continue menacing them, we will
love them, but we will not call them our brothers and sisters
in Christ. Why? Because the scripture is clear.
Jesus laid down his life for his people. Remember what Joseph
was told by the angel while Mary was pregnant with Christ? He says what? He will come and
he will call him Immanuel, God with us. He will save his people. And that's hard. Because it doesn't
even call us to look at our past religious life. And beloved,
I tell you, I grew up believing them things, and I was lost during
that time, because I didn't believe the truth according to God. And
when people don't believe it, it isn't that they're calling
us liars, but they are calling God a liar. Matter of fact, I
think it's in 1 Timothy, when Paul talks about taking the Lord's
name in vain, he's not talking about taking it in a cursing
way, but promoting a false god, or to call God who God is and
to teach God something different than what he is, you're taking
him in vain. So when we see our sins here,
meaning those whom he's writing to, he's talking about whom? The church. But then you might
say, well, what about 1 John? Where it says what? That he is in propitiation for
our sins, meaning those he's writing to, and the whole world. Well, how do we answer that?
It says the whole world. Yes. God has saved those whom
he's writing to, and God has elect throughout the whole world.
Who what? He is purchased. If Jesus purchased a people,
then them people will be saved and no one else. At times we
might not like that, but beloved it isn't about us always
liking things that we hear come out of the Bible. It's about
what believing in and standing on it. That we stand That God chose
His people of the foundation world, and them alone did Christ
purchase on the cross. Because if Christ purchased everybody
on the cross, then most will go to hell, and He failed miserably
in His work. miserably. Now there will be,
as promise given to Abraham, there will be sand of the seashore
in heaven. There will be stars, I mean stars
of the heavens, of the count of people that will be in heaven.
We know John says multitudes upon multitudes of people worship
the Lamb that was slain. But we know out of that, there's
still more than that that will suffer the judgment of God. That
God has what? Much patience has prepared them
for what? A vessel of destruction. But of you, beloved, He's given
you grace. He's given you mercy. He has
brought you to an understanding of whom Christ truly, truly purchased
on the cross. And beloved, in our day, that
will probably be one of the biggest defenses that we will have to
fight. Not by swords or fist. but by
proclaiming the truth of God. We will fight that by proclaiming
the truth of God and being patient as we proclaim the truth of God,
being loving as we proclaim the truth of God, being kind as we
proclaim this truth. Why? And perhaps God might leave
or grant repentance to those who do not believe such. Notice
this. Who grants it? God. would grant
them repentance that leads to a knowledge of truth. The same
way while we were stuck in there, God granted us repentance that
leads to a knowledge of truth. So we know God can do it. Paul,
when he was Saul, He was zealous. He was zealous
and thought, he was very zealous. He looked like, man, in his peers'
eyes, he was a man of God. He was named after the first
king of Israel. He was the Hebrews of Hebrews.
He was zealous in doing the work of God. And he thought he was
doing the work of God by going to lock up Christians, not so
that he might feed them, but so he could kill them. We know
that the coattails were laid at Paul's feet when Stephen died.
He was about to rise up in his peers' eyes and be the man, if
he could just get more put to death. That they were defaming
God, he thought. And what happened? He had his
mind set, I'm going to get these guys. And Jesus saves them on
the road to Damascus. Saves them. showing him the truth. And there's more violent people
in our day, beloved, who are mostly religious people like
Paul, who will persecute you, who will hate you, will spread
rumors about you, maybe text people in the church about you. But if we believe such truth
as the real gospel, Jesus purchased his people along on the cross.
Jesus loved his people along on the cross when he purchased
them. And we know what? That's a true testimony about
who Christ died for. He purchased his sheep. Jesus said we should pray for
our enemies. Who were mostly what? Religious people. I mean, who was Jesus' biggest
religious people? I mean, his enemies, my bad,
the religious people. It was the Judaizers, but the
Pharisees and Assassins who had the knowledge about God and was
able to teach the word of God. They were the ones that wanted
him to die. I think about Paul and Paul's ministry. He'd get
off the boat or walk, and what'd he do? The first place he would
go was to the synagogues. I'm like, why would you go there,
Paul? You know they're gonna hate you the most. Why? for his brethren according to
the flesh. And that he desired what? That
God would even what? Take his own salvation and give
it to him. That's love. But what he'd do, he'd go preach
to them, and as God gave ears to hear, they would hear. And
they would believe that Christ not only came to save Jews, but
he came to save Gentiles. But in doing that, they knew
he came to save his sheep, which are what? Of all different types
of people. So, beloved, when it says our sins, it's talking
about those who will believe. But not only did he die, we know
Christ died, but Christ was buried. He was buried. We know a rich
man and even Nicodemus. A lot of people don't catch this,
but even Nicodemus, the teacher of all of Israel, who did not
understand what born again was, he even took part in the, what,
burrow of Jesus. What would, what, make him unclean
and he wouldn't be able to take part in the, I already lost my
train of thought. His duties, I forget what you
call it, sorry. But he would be considered unclean, wouldn't
be able to take part in that. Which in my mind shows that, what,
he had, what, been born again, finally. Willing to suffer his
statue before his people or his relationship with his people,
knowing they would probably persecute him and kill him too. He was
willing to do that because he had truly come to see that Christ
was the Messiah by the grace of God. But we know he was buried. And when he was buried, we know
Pontius Pilate gave the order that what? That he would put
guards? Why? Because even they remembered.
Listen, in Matthew 27, they remembered Christ saying that he would rise
again in three days. The lost men remembered Christ
saying that. But they didn't believe it. They didn't believe him. And
even Jesus would tell him what? When he asked for a sign, he
said, well, I'll give you the sign of Jonah. As Jonah was three
days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish, so the
Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth. So he was buried, according to Scripture, all through
Scripture. In the Old Testament and New Testament, we see pictures
and signs, like Jonah and the fish, of Jesus, what? The Son
of Man being buried. And what? Coming out of the grave.
And when he come out of the grave, we know what? That he appeared. He was raised on the third day
in accordance with Scripture and that he appeared. He appeared to Cephas, then to
the twelve, then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers
at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have
fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
and last of all, as Paul would say, he appeared as one of them,
telling the Lord to me." So after Jesus died and was buried for
three days, what happened? He rose again from the grave. That is part of the gospel. Jesus
rising again is part of the gospel. If He does not rise again, then
we have no hope. Isn't what Paul after this teaches,
goes in and talks about Jesus' resurrection? Well, because that's
where hope lies. If Christ rose again from the
grave, we too will rise again from the grave. And He must have
rose from the grave and appeared to them in a physical body to
show that He had risen physically. That was the purpose. I mean,
go think about it. Was there any need for Christ to eat fish? to sustain
his life after he died and rose again? No. The purpose of him
eating fish was to show his disciples that he wasn't, what, a ghost
or a spirit. That it was really him in the
body. St. Thomas, put your fingers
right here, Thomas. It's me. I'm not a ghost. I'm
not a spirit. I'm not one of the dead prophets. It's me, the
Christ. When he appeared to Mary on the
road to Mass, he appeared to Peter and the other man. And
then Peter went and reported back to the eleven apostles that
Christ had risen from the grave. We know Jesus appeared to the
12, as I mentioned with Thomas. He appeared to all of them, not
just Thomas. He appeared to them then. There were multiple times
that Christ would appear. We know for 40 days He appeared
to all His apostles. He appeared to some of the women
that followed Him. He appeared to over, what, 500
believers giving testimony that He is the Christ, that He is
God. Because without Him rising again,
He's just another prophet. I mean, think about other religions.
Muhammad didn't rise again. Buddha didn't rise again. The Mormon guy, he didn't rise
again. Who rose again? The God of heaven. The God who created all things.
The God who came as man and laid down his life for his people
and was buried according to scripture. And was what? Raised on the third
day according to scripture. Who appeared to all different
types of his people, apostles, disciples. Appeared to all of
them showing what, that he is who he said he is. Remember Jesus
said, I have the power to lay down my life and I have the power
to raise my life. Who has that power unless they
be God? You can't kill yourself and bring
yourself back alive. If you can, I want to see it. Can't do it. There's no one in history ever
been able to take their own life and resurrect themselves back
alive. No one. None of even the prophets
that God used of old could do it. We know Elijah was what took
it up, I believe, in a whirlwind. There's some way that God took
Enoch. But everyone else is what? Died. And Christ died, but He rose
again. And as Christ rose again, beloved,
we too will rise again. As Paul would say, at the last
morn, in the twinkling of an eye, that we what? Our bodies
will turn into what? New bodies. It'll be a new heaven,
a new earth, and that we will worship God in person, face to
face, for what? All of eternity. That He has
went and prepared a room, enough room, for all of His people.
and that he will not return until he has, what, saved all of his
people, caused all of his people to be born again. Then not only
did they see him beloved, but one day we will see him too.
And we don't have to fear seeing Christ. Why, because perfect
love casts out all fear. And while yet we did not love
him, he loved us first and gave up Christ. Christ gave up himself
for us. So we don't have to fear death.
As Paul would say, to live is Christ and to die is what? Gain. Gain. Think about that. A lot of us
think we have a lot of gain left to be done on this earth or we
have a lot of gain now. No. All that's perishable material.
Perishable things. But when we remain with Christ
forever, that will last forever. That is gain to be with Christ. And we should look forward to
being with Christ. And we know that is gain for
us who have what? Trusted in the gospel. For those
who have not trusted in the gospel, they too will be resurrected.
But not unto life, but unto death. that they will be, what, tossed
into outer darkness, into what, a fiery hell for all eternity
with all the fallen angels. Not in spirit, but what? In body. But for those in Christ's person,
for those whom God gives eyes to see, truly what Christ did
on the cross for His people will be saved for all of eternity. That is God pouring out His love
for His beloved people. That God would show his love
for us in sending Christ to purchase us and give us eyes to see and
show more of his love as what he takes us home one day. As
Romans 8 would say, those he foreknew he predestined. And
those he predestined he called. And those he called he, what,
justified. And those he justified he would,
what, glorify. that as Christ is in glory now
at his resurrection and sitting at right hand of the Father,
one day we too will be in glory. We will not fall away, beloved,
if we are of the Lord and he has given us the grace to truly
see who Christ is. Let's pray. Father God, we're thankful that
we're able to walk through your word, Lord. I pray your word
was beneficial towards your people. I pray that your people would
be drawn closer to you and your word, Father, that they would
have a hunger to read your word, have a hunger to pray. I pray
even for our children, Lord. I pray our children would have
a hunger to be in your word. That even our, you would use
the mouths of our children to remind us the gospel. Lord, that
you would use the mouths of our children to remind us fathers
to be reading the gospel to them. that you would use the mouths
of our wives, oh Lord, to remind us husbands to be shepherding
our family by your word. And Lord, give us the strength
to do that as men, even after a long, hard day of work when
our bodies are tired and weary and we just want to close our
eyes, Lord, to help us to turn the TVs off and shepherd our
children and shepherd our wives and pour the word out upon them,
Lord, that they might grow and understanding and inner faith
about who you are and what you have done on the cross for us,
Father. I pray, Lord, as we go out through our week and we come
in contact by your sovereign will with people who might deny
the truth of the gospel or do not fully understand the gospel,
Lord, that you would give us the grace and the power and the
humbleness and the willingness and the love to share the truth
with them, Father. And through hearing that truth,
Lord, they would be saved. Lord, I pray to be glorified,
which we know you are. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.