In the face of this impoverished,
we resist the cold and fear. In a miracle of mercy, Jesus
reaches out to you. ? The place I stand and wonder
? ? As I go on this joyous journey ? ? Kids and brothers good or
bad some ? ? Are supposed to know me ? ? God of grace, who art there to heal
me ? ? Send thy Savior down from heaven
? ? And make all a perfect man ? ? O praise the Jesus, O Jesus
? ? And send to us His own ? ? Every day His grace sustains me ? ?
As I lead a new life for the world to see ? ? God makes us
understand him ? All my fears are now confounded,
and my hope is in His truth. Oh, praise the Lord and glory! Oh, what fear I see now face! O'er the land of the free and
the home of the brave? God of grace. I think sometimes we don't even
come close to knowing what that means. The greatness of God himself
and the greatness of grace centers like we are. Turn with me this morning to
the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. I'm just going to read a few verses. Now concerning spiritual gifts,
brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles
carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore, I give you to understand
That no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed. And that no man can say that
Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. These Gentiles at Corinth like all of us by nature, had a history of idolatry. They supposedly received many
words and revelations by men speaking for them and
saying that they said this. They had many gods, but Paul calls them all dumb
idols. Dumb idols. Turn back over, if you would,
to Psalm 115. Because here the psalmist describes
these dumb idols, whether they be carved in stone, hewn out
of wood, or simply the imaginations of fallen men. The God we think
is God, but who is not God. The psalmist says, not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. For thy
mercy and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens,
he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. The psalmist and every
prophet and every true gospel preacher and every true believer
makes distinction between our God and their God. Because he says, verse four,
their idols are silver and gold the work of men's hands. They
have mouths, but they speak not. They have eyes, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear
not. Noses, but they smell not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet, but they walk not. Neither speak they through their
throats. And they that make them are like
unto them, and so is every one that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust thou in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. O Israel, trust in the Lord. And they had been further deceived. They had been further what the
apostles calls led away by virtue of what the Jews thought
of Christ. About the way the Jews had treated
Christ. They had hung him on the cross. and crucified him. In other words,
they had called him accursed. That's what the scripture says.
Deuteronomy says, and if a man have committed a sin worthy of
death, and he be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree,
His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou
shalt in any wise bury him that day, for he that is hanged is
accursed of God. They had not only been given
to many idols and all that, but when they heard about Jesus Christ,
they heard that he was a curse of God. He'd done something that
made him a curse from God. But then he says, it's given
to you to understand. I give to you to understand. Understanding, true understanding,
is a gift from God. And it is a gift from God that
He gives through His Word. He gives understanding through
His Word. And He gives us to understand
that no man speaking by the Spirit, or being led to speak by the
Spirit, or speaking what the Spirit teaches, or what the Spirit
says, no man speaking by the Spirit calls Jesus accursed. Mark it down. No man who claims
to be speaking about Jesus calls Jesus or makes Jesus accursed. That is, worthy in himself of
crucifixion worthy of such treatment himself as a sinner, worthy of
being called of God, anathema, which is what this means, anathema,
let him be accursed of God. But rather the Bible says that
while without sin himself, sin was or charged to Christ, he
was, as the Bible says, made sin, he was made a curse, while
all the time in himself still being harmless, holy, undefiled,
separate from sinners, none by the Spirit of God can ever say
that he was a sinner. Simply what the Bible says, that
he was made sin for us. But all through the preaching
that has gone on in this world for hundreds and thousands of
years, many do, in many ways, make him a failure, speak of
him in disparaging ways, speak of Him as being weak, speaking
of Him relying on us, speaking on what He did not being effectual
until we do something. Nobody, by the Spirit of God,
speaks of Christ in that way. And then He gives us the other
side of the coin. He says, and no man, you can
understand that no man speaking led by the Spirit of God can
in any way speak of Christ as being a curse. But he says also,
and no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost. Now, in great ignorance, I've
heard this myself done. Some try to make a distinction,
if you will, between the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit, saying
that one is greater than the other in some way or different
than others in some way. It's the same word. It's the word pneuma, translated
ghost, translated spirit. They are the same, and he says
in verse 13, for by one spirit are we all baptized into the
one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond
or free, for all have been made to drink into one One Spirit. And he says here, and no one,
no person can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. What does Paul mean? Well, obviously, he is not talking
about simply speaking or confessing with the mouth alone. There are lots of people who
speak of the Lord, who say that Jesus is Lord. But hold your place and look
back at Matthew's gospel, chapter 7, And look at Christ's words
here in this respect. In verse 21 of Matthew 7, here's
what he says. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord. They say, Lord, Lord. They say, my Lord. They say,
Jesus is Lord. They speak of him in so many
different ways. But not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he
that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven, many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? that is preached in your name? We've been all about the Lord
all our days, all our preaching. Lord, we've preached in your
name, and in thy name cast out devils in the name of the Lord? And in thy name done many wonderful
works, have we not? And Christ does not even say
that they haven't done these things, that they haven't used
his name, that they haven't done what they thought were these
things. But he says, and then I will
profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that
work iniquity. You depart from me. I never knew
you. Surely he knew about him, he's
the all-knowing God, but I never knew you in that loving covenant
relationship. And all that you've ever done
in the name of the Lord, though you've spoken it with your mouth
many times, all that you've ever done in the name of the Lord,
he says, it was iniquity. It was unequal. to what I required. It was not of me the Lord at
all. It didn't come from me. It didn't
glorify me. It did not rightly set forth
me. Though you spoke it with your
lips, you did not by the Spirit know me and call me Lord. So it's not a natural speaking,
it's not a talking, even devils confess that. Even devils confess
some true things, but they don't know and love the truth. Mark records these words, he
says, and there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean
spirit, And he cried out, saying, let us alone. What have we to
do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Thou art come to destroy us. We know, I know who thee, who
thou art, the Holy One of Israel. I know. But that's not the Lord. That's
not confessing the Lord. No, this is a supernaturally. I always hesitate to use that
word because it conjures up all kinds of images in people's name,
but it's beyond nature, beyond our natural ability. It's a supernaturally
caused speaking, but more so a supernaturally caused believing
and confessing that is caused by the Holy Spirit, by spirit
royal faith. Turn over in 1 Corinthians to
chapter 2. And listen to what Paul says
here in these verses. talking about his preaching. He says in chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians,
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. Wherever you find the Holy Spirit,
you're gonna find the testimony of God. You're gonna hear about
God's word. You're gonna hear about the Lord
Jesus Christ. He says, for I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Is that all you got to preach,
Paul? Absolutely. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling." Boy, I know that. I feel that
this day. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit
and of power. The Spirit attended to the gospel
that he preached, bore witness to the Spirit, bore witness to
this gospel, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among
them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor
of the princes of this world, which come to naught. But we
speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of
this world knew. For had they known it, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. And then he begins to tell us
something. But as it is written, I hath
not seen nor e'er heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him,
but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For any man to know the Lord
Jesus Christ, for any man to truly confess him as his Lord,
he has to have it revealed to him by the Spirit. Many can say it. Many can claim
it. Many can use that name, Lord,
Lord. But before anybody can truly
know Him, He has to have a revelation by
the Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him?
Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. I don't know what's in your heart.
I don't know what's on your mind. You don't know what's on my mind.
And it's the same with God. You cannot know him, his mind,
his thoughts, his word, unless the spirit of God reveal it.
Now we have received, Paul speaking here of believers who have been
born of the Spirit. Now we have received not the
Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that
we might know. Here is how, I mean, here is
why that God reveals Him. That's why He says, unto our
glory, unto the manifestation. Glory has to do with manifestation. of what one is, and the glory
that we have manifested is that we're the children of God. How
do we know that? By the Spirit of God. By the
Spirit of God. And in order that we might know
the things that are freely given to us of God. Not that we might
do for God. Not that we might cease from
doing and all these other things that men may, but this gospel
and this spirit reveal to us the things that are freely given
to us. God's grace given unto God. Which things
also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but
which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual things. Where are they at in the Word
of God? But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. And neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. That's the only way
we ever understand them, and know them, and know who is the
Lord, spiritually. By revelation of God's Spirit. Over in Matthew 16, you don't
have to turn there, but it's when Peter and all these apostles
were being asked by Christ who he was. He saith unto them, but
whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter said, thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. Ain't no question about
it. You are the Messiah. You are the Lord. This one, you
standing here in human flesh right before me, you're the Christ. Can you imagine what that Jewish
man, having been raised all his life, told all that would be
done by the Messiah, told all about the greatness and when
he comes and how he'll make things better for him and all that.
Can you imagine what it was for that man standing there looking
at another man to confess you're the Christ? You're the Son of God. You're
the Lord. And then the Lord said to him,
blessed art thou. That's what it is to be blessed.
Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." That's
the only reason you know it. That's the only reason you rightly
call me what I am. Over in Matthew 13, he says,
and he answered and said unto them, these men that were around
him, he said, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it's not given. You know, because they're meant
for you. They're to be revealed to you.
You'll be made to believe them. You'll be made to rejoice in
them. You'll be made to find them good news to you, but to
them it's not given. By the Spirit, God's people,
His elect, His sheep, His redeemed ones, His born again ones, whatever
the scriptures call them, they're led by the Spirit to call Him
and to know Him as Lord. The word for Lord here, is curious. And this is what it means. Supreme. Controller. Master. Sovereign. You can't know Him in that sense
and speak his name frivolously. You can't know him as that and
not believe what he says. He is the controller, the master,
the supreme sovereign. In the Old Testament, the Lord
was Jehovah, Yahweh. And here we have in the New Testament,
Jehovah, Yahweh, the Lord in human flesh. Jesus Christ, the man Christ
Jesus is God. One old preacher said something
like, Only a fool or a Christian would believe that. In Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The Word that was God
was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
full of grace and truth. Great is the mystery of godliness,
that God was manifest in the flesh. He's not simply a good
man. He's not simply a teaching man
or a dying man or any... Not simply that. He is God in
human flesh. And everything he did, thought
about this his way, everything he did, he not only did it as
a man, but he did it as God. He did it as God, God Almighty,
holy, immutable, sinless, successfully. He did it single-handedly. He never tried. He's the Lord. Paul wrote to Timothy and he
said, be thou therefore not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. What did the Lord do? Well, what
he did when he came into this world, he did it as a man because
it was necessary for him to die, but he did everything as God. The God man. Don't be ashamed of
the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou
partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power
of God who hath saved us. That's the difference between
their Lord and my Lord. All I've done is the sinning.
He did the saving. When he came into this world,
when he was made sin, when he died the death of the cross,
that was his most successful work because he did it as God
in flesh. And by that one sacrifice, he,
in dying as God in the flesh, had such infinite value and accomplishment. that he could hang on the cross
and say to the Father, the work you gave me to do, I finished
it. And that he could say to all
his people, I'm the Lord. And I've come into this world
to die in your place, that substitutionary death. And in doing so, I've
saved you. The work is mine to do. The covenant
pledge was mine. I'm standing before God as your
surety and your substitute to be a savior. It in no wise includes
your work. I've done it all. I'm the Lord who has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace. which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death
and hath brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. He's the Lord. And he's the Lord who is absolutely
sovereign in the showing of mercy and the giving of his grace. That's what it means by him to
be Lord. Life and salvation is his to give or withhold. Most men make God, make the Lord
Jesus Christ a beggar. That's all he is. He wants to
do this, but he can't. He wants to save you, but I'm sure of this. The Lord and
free will, so-called, the free will of man, they will not be
together. Because if you're the supreme,
the sovereign, the master, the controller, that means there's
only one free will in this universe. And that's His. In Romans chapter nine, he says,
Paul writes and he says, as it is written, as it was written
long ago, I'm just here to restate it because God never changes.
His immutable decree and word, as it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. People say, my God don't hate.
The Lord does. He hates all workers of iniquity. He hates those that sow discord
among brethren. He hated Esau. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. This is the Lord. And no man will confess that
apart from the Spirit of God. He'll call his name. He'll attach
to him things he never said and things he never did and things
he never desired, but not the Lord. We know exactly what he wants,
because he said so. I lay down my life for the sheep. I had power to let no man takes
my life. I laid it down voluntarily as
a sacrifice for the sins of my people. And that's why it's so
satisfying. I have the power to take it up
again. The Lord said, I give unto them
eternal life and they shall never perish. The preacher said, well, you
better do this or you can lose your salvation. Not the Lord's. Not the Lord's. And being made a curse, he redeemed
his people. He died in our room instead. He satisfied the claims of all
God's holy justice for us. He did it. He's the Lord. You remember what Jonah confessed
when he was at the bottom of the sea? He'd been a disobedient fella. But he didn't depend on what
he had done or hadn't done. He knew he hadn't done right.
But he said this, salvation is of the Lord. I've always said, when God reveals
the truth to one of his children, if there's one thing that they're
absolutely sure of, it is that salvation It's of the Lord. It's of His work. It's of His
grace. It's of His love. It's of His
mercy. It's of the Lord. And if Christ
is our Savior, then He's our Lord. We don't make Him Lord
later. If Christ is our Savior, He's
our Lord. And if He's our Lord, He's our
Savior. And doing cannot add to it, and
failing to do cannot deduct from it, because it's of the Lord. Paul writes in Galatians, and
he says this. He says, Christ hath redeemed
us. The Lord hath Redeemed us, that's
past tense. It's not like these preachers
say, you know, if you'll do this, or if you'll accept Jesus, or
if you'll do something like this, or you'll submit yourselves,
or you'll walk down the aisle, or pray a sinner's prayer, he'll
redeem you. Redemption, except for the body,
is an accomplished Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. So you cannot say Christ is accursed,
and you cannot say that anybody in Christ is accursed. Paul himself was a religious,
moral, intelligent, probably brilliant man. But even as all that, he was
lost. However, he was God's child. God had loved him with an everlasting
love. He was one of God's elect. Christ had died for him, died in his place, redeemed him. So because of all these things, he was on the Damascus Road. He wasn't going seeking the Lord. He was doing despite the Lord. He was denying the Lord's Word. He was not sin of the Lord. He was going to persecute the
church of the Lord. He was endeavoring to put out
of the places the people of the Lord. and he'd have done it were it
not for one thing, the Spirit of the Lord. If you look over in Acts chapter
9, we read the account by his own words
of his conversion here in Acts 9, verse 3, it says, and as he
journeyed, he came near Damascus, And suddenly there shined about
him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth and
heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? There was no mistaking it. Whoever had put him in the dust,
whoever had unhorsed him, so to speak, whoever had brought
him love, blinded him with his brilliance, he was the Lord. No questions. And the Lord said,
I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. Notice this, it is hard for thee
to kick against the preps. You know what that means? Well, they made ox goads, sharp
sticks. They definitely had a sharp stick
on them. And when the ox wouldn't do right
or wouldn't go, they'd shove that Sharp, stick into them,
make them go. Let them know who was the boss,
so to speak. And that's what Christ described
Paul's doings prior to that day, him kicking against the bricks. You know, when you kick against
a sharp object, it only hurts one person. But especially when you kick
against the pricking of God's spirit. We rebel against the spirit of
God. But nobody ever rebels against
the spirit of God successfully. It causes God no pain. It doesn't
hinder his purpose one bit. Because although Saul of Tarsus,
as he was, had kicked against the pricks, the truth, the spirit,
the things of God, the people of God, he wasn't successful. He was ultimately brought to
see and confess Christ. Why? Because Christ is the Lord. And when we go through this life
and we always are religious and talking about the Lord this and
the Lord that and the Lord this, when you meet the Lord, you'll know he's the Lord. Isaiah says, in the year the
king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. And his train
filled the temple, and those creatures were crying, holy,
holy, holy. And then said I, woe is me. Job saw the Lord. He said I, I'm
a man unclean. I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm a filthy, rotten... Because I've seen the Lord. I've
seen the Lord in His perfections. I've seen the Lord as God. I've
seen the Lord as sovereign. But I've seen the Lord in grace.
the Savior of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. One day everybody's gonna know
he's Lord. Paul tells us in Philippians, he became obedient, humbled himself,
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And for that cause, For that
reason, God has highly exalted him, lifted him up. He'll be known as the Lord. Everyone's gonna confess him
as Lord. Most, to their shame, to their judgment. and to remember for all eternity the Lord. They said, Lord, Lord. He said, depart from me. It isn't
your works. It was my work that saved my
people. All day, one day, everyone will
confess that he's Lord. Most, it'll be too late. But
they'll do it to the glory of God. But his people confess him
to be the Lord in mercy and grace, submitting to him as the Lord,
our righteousness. And I thought about it. Isn't
that a comfort? Not only that we've been saved
by the Lord, kept by the Lord, but we'll be watched over by
the Lord. What shall we fear if the Lord
is our Lord and he's the Lord of lords? What shall we fear
that comes over us and comes to us when he's working all things?
as the sovereign, as the controller. That's one word I found defining
that name always. Controller. Sovereign. Mighty God. Working all things together for our good and His glory. The psalmist, all through the Psalms, is talking about what the Lord
has done and what the Lord will do. Psalm 27, the Lord is my life
and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength
of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even
mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though
a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against
me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the
Lord, that I will seek after her, that
I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. to behold the beauty of the Lord,
and to inquire in his temple. That's my desire when we come
together to worship, to behold the beauty of the Lord. For in the time of trouble he
shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me, He shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted
up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in
his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will
sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, oh hear, when I cry with
my voice. Have mercy. also upon me, and
answer me. When thou saidest, seek my face,
my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I see. Always about the Lord. May the Spirit of God cause you to confess this, Lord. He's the way he says he is in
scripture. Our father this morning we pray
in the name of our Lord. We bless and praise our Lord. And pray in his name. That you would help us. That you would keep us. that
you would evermore reveal your beauty to us. We thank you. Pray in his name. Amen.