Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us, and
I hope and pray that what you are looking for is the Word of
God to study from the Bible. This program is dedicated to
study of the Scriptures, God's Word. And when I say looking
for God's word, I'm not saying that just because I'm the one
preaching it, giving you the message. I'm saying that because
this Bible, this book here is what I'm concerned with, what
I think you need to be concerned with, studying the scriptures. This is the word of God. And
so if you'd like to turn in your Bibles to follow along in the
message today, I'll be in 1 Corinthians in the New Testament, Paul, the
Apostle Paul's letter to the church at Corinth, his first
letter, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Now in the past few messages,
I've been going through this chapter. And I'm going to finish
that out. I've got this message and one
other that I'm going to deal with. Today's message is entitled,
Salvation Full and Free. Salvation Full and Free. Now, I quote a verse out of this. There are several verses I quote
out of this scripture, out of this passage. For example, the
Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 2, a summation. of the gospel message, the good
news of salvation by the grace of God through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he wrote in 1 Corinthians
2 and verse 2, for I determined not to know anything among you
save or except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now that's a bold
statement. It's an all comprehensive statement. And what the Apostle is saying
is that his message and his ministry is all about preaching Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who Christ is, the glorious person of Christ,
and what Christ accomplished when he died on the cross. That's
the finished work of Christ. And what Christ, who is Jesus
Christ? Well, I say it all the time.
He is God manifest in the flesh. That's who Jesus Christ is. You
know, people debate sometimes. Even people who call themselves
Christians, they'll debate, is Jesus Christ God? A friend of
mine asked a co-worker of his one time who claimed to be a
Christian, he said, do you believe that Jesus is God? And the man
stumbled in confusion and he answered, he said, well, he's
the son of God. Well, he is the son of God, but
he's also equal with God. And I, listen, I don't hesitate
to say that one iota because if salvation, he is the savior,
Matthew 121 says, His name shall be called Jesus. That name Jesus,
in the Greek text, means salvation. Back over in the Old Testament,
the name Joshua or Yeshua, the equivalent, salvation. Christ
is salvation. And the Bible's clear. Salvation
is of the Lord and from the Lord. No mere man, I don't care how
good he tries to be, No mere man can bring salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. We use the name Jehovah today. And really, when you go back,
and I won't go into all this, but it's okay for us in our English
language to use that name, but that's not the equivalent of
the name that's really in the Old Testament, because there
were no vowel points in the Hebrew language there, and it was an
unpronounceable name. But here's what it means. It
means God is salvation. And so when Jesus of Nazareth
proclaimed himself to be Messiah, when he proclaimed himself to
be the Savior, When he proclaimed himself to be the I Am, remember
the I Am from the book of Exodus when Moses asked the Lord, whom
shall I say has sent me unto you? To the Hebrew, he said,
say, I am that I am. The self-existent, eternal, immutable
God. When Jesus Christ said, I am,
that's what he was doing. He was proclaiming himself to
be God in human flesh. He's the Word, John 1. The Word
was made flesh. Now, when we speak of flesh,
what we're talking about as it pertains to Christ, what we're
talking about is just a physical human body, the humanity of Christ,
without sin. Because sometimes, and I'm going
to show you that, especially next week in the next message
on this, that the word flesh, a lot of times in scripture,
is a metaphor or an equivalent for sin. Those who are fleshly. In fact, I'll show you some of
that even now in this message. But Christ had a human body and
soul. Hebrews chapter 10 quotes him. A body hast thou prepared me. Talking about the Father sending
the Son into the world. He was conceived in the womb
of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. And he was born, he was
an infant. He grew in wisdom and stature.
That all pertains to His humanity. But He is God in human flesh.
And I'll tell you, that's a mind-boggling truth, isn't it? I mean, there's
no way that I can really explain that to myself or to you, in
order that we can wrap our minds around that. Our minds just are
not equipped to handle that kind of thing. Other than, we know
by revelation from God, it's true. So, if you deny the deity
of Christ, Or, if you deny the sinless humanity of Christ, you
do not believe in, you deny the Christ of the Bible. That's who
Paul preached. Now his crucifixion is his death
to satisfy the justice of God for the sins of the people whom
God had given him before the foundation of the world. What
did Jesus Christ accomplish on the cross? He established righteousness
because He went to the cross to die having the sins, the guilt,
the debt of God's people, God's chosen people, imputed, charged,
accounted to Him. And so He went there as the surety
responsible for my sin debt. to pay that debt with the price
of His blood. And in doing that, He established
righteousness that is imputed to His people, charged, accounted
to His people, and that is known when God brings them to faith
in Christ. And that's what this passage
here is about in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. He's talking about
how God has revealed these things to His people by His Spirit. In verse 10 of 1 Corinthians
2, look at this. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. Now, who is the us there? That's believers. Those who have
been born again by the Spirit. Christ said it in John 3. Except
you be born again, you cannot see or enter the kingdom of God,
the kingdom of heaven. So he says in verse 10, but God
hath revealed them. You see, salvation is a revelation
from God. And he reveals it through his
gospel. Romans 1.16, the gospel is the
power of God unto salvation. And so God brings his people
under the sound of the gospel. And that's his voice. Remember
Christ said in John 10, my sheep, hear my voice. Okay? Now, go jump down here,
and I'm gonna deal with this more next week, but jump down
here to verse 14 of 1 Corinthians chapter two, and I wanna show
you something. He says in verse 14, and I'll come back to this
next week, but he says, but the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God. Now you see back up in verse
10, he said, God has revealed them to us by His Spirit. Who's
the us? Well, look at it, verse 14, the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. That word discern
means understood. A person who has spiritual discernment,
spiritual judgment, you might say, knows the value of the things
of the Spirit of God. But the natural man doesn't.
And he says in verse 15 of 1 Corinthians 2, but he that is spiritual judgeth
or discerneth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
Now again, I'll come back to that next week, but here's what
I want you to understand. Who is the us back up in verse
10? Well, that's the people of God.
How do you know if you're part of this us here? Well, have you
received the things of the Spirit of God? Do you believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ? And let me emphasize this now,
don't miss this. Do you believe in, I'm not asking,
do you just claim to believe in Jesus, or you claim to have
accepted him as your personal savior, or you claim to have
walked in awe when you were 12 and got baptized in joy? I'm
not asking that. I'm asking this, and this is
what you need to know. This is what I need to know.
Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as he is identified and
distinguished in the Bible? Because my friend, I want you
to know something, and I bring it out on this program all the
time. There are counterfeit Christ. Not everyone who stands behind
a pulpit, not every group that gathers on Sunday morning or
Sunday night or Wednesday night, is preaching and hearing the
true Christ of the Bible. And let me tell you the main
sign of the end times. Now people say, oh, I believe
we're, you know, I've heard preachers say, I believe Christ is coming
back in my lifetime or in the next generation. We're getting
closer and closer. And we are. As time moves on,
we're getting closer. I don't know when Christ is coming
again, but you look around and you say, well, I think he's coming
back soon. Well, do you know that the main
sign of the nearness of His second coming is the preaching of false
Christianity? You can read about it in Matthew
24, Mark 13, in the book of Revelation. The deception of false Christianity,
of false Christ, is one of the main signs of the nearness of
His coming. They'll be deceivers, you see.
And they're deceived. They're like the Pharisees, the
blind leading the blind. And that's why I tell people,
we need to get back to the scriptures. That's why we offer our books
on self-examination. You claim to be a Christian?
What is a Christian? Get into the Bible and find out. Don't just listen to what people
tell you. They may be telling you correctly.
They may not. But I'll tell you what, God tells
his people the right way. You claim to be saved? What is
salvation? You gonna study the scriptures?
Learn how to study the scriptures, rightly dividing the word, all
of that. So understand that. Now, who
is the natural man here? The natural man refers to all
of us as we are naturally born. That's what it means. In other
words, we're born, as the book of Ephesians tells us, we're
born naturally, as natural people, dead in trespasses and sins.
Over in the book of Ephesians, chapter two, he's talking to
believers here. And he says in verse one, listen
to this. Ephesians two and verse one, and you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now, the hath he quickened
there, if you've got a King James Version, is in italics, meaning
that that phrase was not in the original manuscript, but it was
added by the translator. And that's okay. It doesn't change
the meaning of the original because he's talking to people who have
been quickened. Now, to be quickened means to
be given life from God. Life from God, the new birth,
you must be born again. Well, if you're a believer, that
means you've been born again. Now, don't get the cart before
the horse. A lot of people today, they believe
what they think. Well, you believe of your own
will, and then as a result, you're born again, but the Bible doesn't
teach that, and I'll show you that in a minute. You're not
going to believe until you're born again. God must give life.
to the dead. And it is a literal resurrection
from the dead, spiritually. So back over in 1 Corinthians
2, he talks about the natural man. Well, look here. He says
in verse 1 of chapter 2 of Ephesians, you hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. Now that's the natural man. The
natural man is dead in trespasses and sins. That's spiritual death.
Okay? He's got physical life. He's
got a mind, he's got affections, he's got a will, he's got a conscience,
but not a spiritual living mind, affections, will, and conscience.
And he says, how do you know that? Verse two of Ephesians
two, wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world. Now understand walking according
to the course of the world not only refers to the immoral part
or the immoral segment, the unethical segment of the world. It also
means the religion of the world. And if you want to understand
the religion of the world, the false religion of the world,
go all the way back to Genesis 4 to Cain. Cain trying to be
saved, trying to be righteous, trying to be justified before
God based on his works. Now that's the religion of Cain.
That's the course of this world too. And he says in verse two,
according to the prince of the power of the air, that's Satan,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
A child of disobedience is an unbeliever in the Bible. You
could right now be trying to be the best person you could
be in society. But if you're an unbeliever,
you're still in God's sight a child of disobedience. Verse three,
among whom also we all had our conversation, our conduct, in
times past, in the lust of our flesh, when Cain desired salvation
by his works, that was a lust, which is an unlawful desire,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
by nature the children of wrath, even as others. In other words,
those who were marked out for wrath from the beginning, those
who have been quickened by the Holy Spirit to be born again,
by nature we were no different than them, the natural man. And then he goes on in verse
five, he says, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, by grace you're saved. Now, go back to
1 Corinthians 2. The natural man, as we are naturally
born, no matter who we are, no matter what our state standing,
no matter what color we are, what country we're in, no matter
what our economic status is, the natural man will not receive
the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them. Now,
what is it exactly that the natural man will not receive? Well, let
me tell you something. I'm gonna make a statement here,
and I want you to think about it. Study the Bible on it. The one thing, now we can talk
about the many things that the natural man can do. He can be
religious. He can be moral in the eyes of
men. He can do a lot of things. He
can achieve a lot of things on this plane here on this earth
that men admire and esteem and honor and cherish. He can be
charitable. I've often told people, said
an atheist can give a million dollars to his favorite charity
just as a Christian can. But what is the one thing that
the natural man cannot do of his own? All right? And here's what it is. He cannot
and will not believe the true gospel of God's grace of salvation,
full and free. Now go back up to 1 Corinthians
2 and verse 10 and listen to what I'm saying. He says, listen
to what God says rather here. He says in verse 10, now he already
said these things, the gospel, wherein Christ is revealed as
the Lord our righteousness, righteousness by His death on the cross, without
any works of mine. He says, verse 10, God has revealed
them unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things,
yea, the deep things of God. I made this point last week,
the deep things of God. Here's the gospel. And the reason
it's called deep is because it's a mystery to the natural man.
It's not even entered into his mind how God saves sinners. Man
didn't come up with this. This is the gospel of God. And
then he says in verse 11, for what man knoweth the things of
a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so the
things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. In other
words, if you do know and believe the gospel, it's because the
spirit of God has revealed him and convinced you, that's the
conviction of sin and righteousness and judgment. Now verse 12, here's
the key. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world.
like the spirit of Cain, the natural man. But we received
the spirit, which is of God, that we might know the things
that are, now look at this word, freely, unconditionally, without
a cause, given to us of God. Salvation, full and free. And
he says in verse 13, which things also we speak not in the words
which man's wisdom teaches, man's knowledge and wisdom doesn't
teach this, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual
things with spiritual. Now, I want you to look at John
chapter one. The natural man will not receive
salvation full and free. That is a salvation that I have
nothing to do with earning or deserving. It's given salvation. You know, most people today believe
that salvation is conditioned on themselves. They believe that
Christ died for everybody to make salvation possible if you'll
do your part. My friend, that's not salvation
full and free. That's salvation based on you.
Even your believing. They say, well, you just have
to believe. You don't have to work. Well, you make belief a
work. The moment you say that anyone perishes for whom Christ
died, you've just destroyed the justice of God in your mind.
But salvation is all conditioned on Christ and he fulfilled the
conditions and all for whom he died will believe because his
righteousness imputed to them demands that they live forever
spiritually. They're gonna be the spiritual
man. But look at John chapter one and verse 11. It says that
Christ came unto his own, and his own received him not. Now
that's the natural man. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. But as many as received him,
verse 12, but as many as received him, now there are some who receive
him. He says, to them gave he power
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
That word power there is not ability. The word power there
is right. In other words, what right do
I have to claim to be saved? What right do I have to claim
to be a child of God? Well, my right is this. I believe
on His name, on Christ as He's identified and distinguished
in the Bible. The Christ of God. The Christ
of the Bible. Now, what's the difference between
those who would not receive him, the natural man, and those who
do receive him, the spiritual man? Look at verse 13, which
were born, not of blood. That means that this receiving
Christ, the life that God gives that enables me to receive Christ
and believe on his name and to repent of my dead works and idolatry
did not come from my natural birth. It's not of blood. My natural birth, I was born
dead in trespasses and sins. All right, which were born not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. Now that's the works
of the flesh. I didn't work my way into it,
but look on. He says, which were born not
of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. It wasn't by my so-called free
will or my decision. How did this life come that enabled
me to receive Him and believe in Him? It says, which were born
not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man,
but born of God. That's it, to be born of God. Well, somebody argues, they say,
well, then it doesn't matter what I do. Doesn't matter if
I read the Bible, study the Bible, seek, oh yes, it does. Because
you see, if you're born again by the Spirit, if you have spiritual
life, you're going to seek the Lord and you're going to find
Him. And you're going to receive the things that are freely given
of God. Freely given. And what is that?
What are those things? Everything in salvation from
beginning to final glory is a free gift from God. based on the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible talks about the gift
of righteousness. My righteousness before God is
not my own except in the sense that it's been imputed to me,
charged to me. It's Christ who worked it out.
He gave it to me freely. I didn't deserve it and I haven't
earned it. Spiritual life is a gift from
God. Faith is a gift from God. Repentance
is a gift from God. The endurance, the patience,
the continuation, the persevering, it's all the gift from God. At
no time, at no stage, to no degree do I earn or deserve any blessing
of salvation. Ephesians 1.3, blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It's all Him. It's all grace. I cannot boast or brag or glory
in anything I am or anything I do or try to do. I can only
boast and brag and glory in Christ. Paul wrote in Galatians 6 14,
God forbid that I should glory, boast, have confidence, save
in the cross of Jesus Christ, freely given of God. Hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.