It's kind of funny how the Lord
works and brings me to things to speak on. I started in Ezekiel this morning,
somehow found my way into 2 Corinthians. But we decided to hear from him,
not from me, right? 2 Corinthians chapter 1. I'd like to pick up in verse
18, where I'd like to start reading. And I'm going to read down to verse
22. And I'm mainly going to look here at
some of the spiritual implications that we find in these passages. I can get up here and I can give
a history lesson, you know, about what all has taken place, where
Paul's at, where Paul's going, and who's Paul talking to, and
all this and that. You guys surely can read all
that. Of course, you can read anything,
but the Holy Spirit's our teacher, so I'm not here to teach you
anything new. I'm only here to confirm things
to be the truth if the Lord gives me to speak truth. However, I always compelled to
go beyond those things that are just natural and dive into those
things which are spiritual. We're here as the spiritual kingdom
of God to learn about the way that the kingdom is operating,
and most importantly, the king of the kingdom. And that's our
main objective in our gathering is to worship the king. We just
spoke of worthy is the Lamb. And that's basically what our
meetings are here for. These are not evangelistic meetings
where we're trying to get people saved. These are meetings of
people who have been saved, who the Lord has gathered, and the
Lord is teaching by His Spirit. And that any of us men who stand
up and deliver God's word, If we're given to speak truth, we
can never impart knowledge. We can never impart understanding.
We can never make it clear, no matter how clear we might seem.
We are dependent upon the Lord Jesus and His Spirit that is
in us to teach us and to lead us into all truth, to confirm
to us that what is being said by the man speaking, whether
it's true or not, you know, I know a lot of men who are very articulate,
who are very academic, who can come into the Word and break
down all the stuff that's in here and give you all the verb
tenses and give you all the, you know, whatever on these things,
and they can speak to the letter of everything, but they completely
miss the spirit of it all. They have the letter of it, they
may even have somewhat the context of it, but they miss the spirit
of the teaching of all of Scripture. They miss Christ in all of it,
and they forget the fact that we are completely and totally,
in this flesh, unable to do anything that's pleasing to the Lord or
anything that can lift ourselves up into the spiritual realm and
do anything spiritually, that all that is by the King of the
Kingdom. It is He that does everything
as the spirit realm is concerned. So our spiritual fellowship is
all because of Christ. and is all held together and
is working. The only way that we are fellowshipping
together this morning, communing with one another, is by the Spirit
of God who meets among us and who brings the unity of the Spirit
and brings the unity of the faith. We are all here and every one
of us have our understandings of Scripture as the Spirit has
taught us. Every one of us here has a mind
on whatever is to be said because the spirit has brought us to
this point. We are all beholden to God for everything in our
life as it pertains to spiritual matters. We can do nothing because
there is no spiritual work that we can perform. I hear a lot
of people all the time criticize us because we are just resting
on our laurels, waiting on Christ to do something. And when God
has given us everything that we need to do, we just got to
get up and get out and start doing it. Well, brother, If God
doesn't motivate us, if God doesn't give us the will to do, if God
doesn't give us the doing aspect of it, then we are not going
to do it. For me to even want to do it, that's the will, right?
He's got to give me that. But here's the thing, and I meant
to get to this maybe later, but the Spirit seems to be wanting
to get out at the beginning. For me, the will and to do is
of God. So that means every part of it. Me actually coming up with the
thought, coming up with the desire, coming up with the unction for
it, the get up and go to do it, that's by God. So whenever we
talk about waiting upon the Lord, whenever we talk about service
to the Lord and all the admonitions that the Bible gives us to do,
we are beholden to God to give us the unction to do. We are
beholden to God to give us the desire to do, much less any doing
on our part, actual physical activity. It isn't just us mystically
sitting back waiting to be mystically moved, although that's kind of
true to some degree. If I do this or do that, the
this and that was willed and done because it was God in me
doing it. If God says do this and I don't
do that, it's because God didn't give me the will to do. If I
do this, say some admonition in scripture, it's because God
worked in me to will to do that. He gives me the desire to want
to do that. He gives me the desire to carry
that out. And then he gives me the ability to carry those things
out. So, brother, we're not against admonitions. We're not against
doing things and stuff like that. However, we realize that none
of it, for one, is for righteousness. None of it is for acceptance
with God or keeping with God or even proving who we are. Because nothing on the outward
is of any assurity. because anybody can mimic religious
activity. Take every admonition in scripture
and any lost person that's out there, any reprobate that's out
there, I shouldn't use the word lost because that only pertains
to the sheep. Any person that's out there that is a reprobate
can, in religious zealousness, mimic the thing in scripture.
So brethren, we are beholden to God for every Now, I say that,
and I was going to say that over again, but for some reason the
Spirit wanted to do that first. I say that because whenever I
look at these verses in front of us this morning, I see that
there is a promise that God is going to do every bit of salvation,
and that includes my experiential walk in salvation, that God is
going to perform that for me. I trust and look to God who has
given me all the precious promises, who has given me all the things
that I have need of, that has given me everything that is expected
of me, that is everything that has been ordained of me, that
He has not left anything up to me to carry out in my own desire,
in my own unction, in my own get up and go-ness, however you
want to put that. He's not left it to me to accomplish
something so that something else might be done. Nothing is being
thwarted, nothing is being sped up, nothing is being advanced,
nothing is being detracted. Everything is moving according
to God's purpose exactly the way God wants it to be done and
He has promised to accomplish all of His purposes. He has promised to accomplish
all of His purposes in me for the vessel that He's created
for the purpose that He's created it. All of my habitation, the
Bible says, God has formed and created my habitation. And He
and everything in that habitation has ordained for His purposes. And to those ends, I will walk
in those things. I will accomplish everything
that God has created me for. No more, no less. So there isn't
this notion that as we begin to grow in the grace and knowledge
of Jesus Christ, There is none of this notion that these things
of God are not being accomplished because of our laziness or because
of our complacentness, complacency, complacency, complacentness. The Democrats would say complacentness.
The smart people would say complacency. So anyway, I digress. Everything that God has for us
in the experiential part of our salvation is just as sure as
in the legal part of our salvation. Now, not one of us here, I would
ever imagine, would have any doubts on what Christ actually
accomplished, whatever could be called into doubt, right? I mean, Christ kept the law perfectly,
didn't he? The Bible says that he imputed
that righteousness to us, right? None of us in any place, I don't
think, would even doubt the validity of that or would even think that
any of that could fall apart or not take place. Well, brethren,
do we look to our experiential learning of our salvation, believing
upon that salvation, walking in that salvation? Do we any
less believe? That is as sure? I mean, to me,
that's as sure as the legality part. Why? Because God promised
that. God promised that we would walk
and be in every work that He has ordained. He has promised
that He would keep us and that He would preserve us and that
He would work in us and that He would do this and perform
it. See, our hope is not in ourselves.
It's not in the arm of flesh. We never look to the arm of flesh
to get up and go. We never look to the arm of flesh
to make the plan and do it. We don't even look to the flesh
to look at the admonitions of the Bible and say, here's my
list, now I've got to get after it. That's not to say don't look
at your Bible. Don't listen to the admonitions. And don't feel
led to go do those things. I am not saying that, but that's
what people say we're saying whenever we say that. What we
are saying is we know where the source comes from and we know
that the end of it all is going to be exactly as God has determined. I'm going to do more works than
God has ordained for me and I'm not going to do any less works
than God has ordained for me. Why? Because every work God has
ordained and He has promised to make sure that his purpose
shall stand. Now, you don't have to have my
promise. You don't have to have my solidarity, my constitution,
to make sure that God's purpose is going to stand. You don't
have to have the person's ingenuity, grammar, and Greek and Hebrew
capabilities of Scripture to know This is imperative and this
is not imperative and this is passive and this is not passive.
This is something that God does to you. This is something that
you have to do. Listen, brethren, if there is
ever an imperative in scripture, that imperative cannot be accomplished
in us if God doesn't do it. So whether it's an imperative
or not, all the imperatives of scripture does is to show condemnation
of our flesh that we cannot keep up what God wants us to do because
in the flesh, I don't want to do that. So every imperative, just because
it's an imperative, doesn't mean that we can just look at it and
say, oh, that's what I got to do. Well, I better get to doing it.
And then I get out there and I be obedient. I be faithful.
I'll be faithful to the Lord. I'm going to be faithful and...
Now, is that not the desire of our hearts? Absolutely, that's
the desire of our hearts. I desire to be faithful to the
Lord. I desire to do what God's Word tells me to do. I want to
do only what God's Word says and I want to let this be my
only rule of faith. But brethren, the contradiction
comes when the flesh says, I don't want to do that. I can't do that.
The Spirit says, you can't do that. That's where the contradiction
comes. So if the truth of Scripture
says my flesh cannot do it and will not do it and will not ever
be accepted even if it could do it, but yet my inner man is
perfect and righteous and holy and desires that righteousness,
desires that purity, desires that obedience, desires those
things that the Scripture gives to us, then that man there,
it can't sin, it can't do anything against it, but that man is serving
the law of God in the very fact that it is from God. My inward
man is from God and is perfect and righteous and that desire
to do those things is in fact keeping the law of God. Why? Because the flesh profits nothing.
Even if I were to get up and go with my unction and follow
these things of scripture, guess what? The Bible says they're
filthy rags because they are works of iniquity. All of our righteous deeds are
as filthy rags. So brethren, it is all of God. It's all of Christ Jesus. Now,
what does that have to do with what we're seeing here? Well,
look if you would, with me at verse 18. 1 Corinthians, or 2
Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 18. It says, But
as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. Now, what is Paul talking about
here? Now, again, I don't want to get into the history and all
that kind of stuff, but Paul here is talking to the Corinthians
in the fact that, now, he's already mentioned something about him
coming to them, and that he had promised that he would come to
them, but he's going over into Macedonia, and then he's gonna
come back, and he didn't want them thinking that he was wishy-washy,
and not doing what he said, so he mentioned something about
his word not being nay, being yay-yay and nay-nay, meaning
that, don't think that I'm wishy-washy, hey, was our gospel wishy-washy
to you when we came with our gospel? No, well, if our gospel
isn't wishy-washy, with the yay and nay, Whatever I say to you,
I mean whatever I say. However, we know that God controls
all things and controls our steps. So it's not that I'm being disingenuous
in what I'm saying. But in verse 18, we see that
it moves from talking about Him and His word to them about coming
to them, to preaching the gospel, the message that they have delivered
to them. It says, but as God is true,
So he's calling upon the validity of God. He's calling upon God
Himself as the witness to what Paul is saying as God is true. And we know that God is true,
right? God is true. We cannot lie. There is nothing
false about God whatsoever. So Paul is saying, as much as
it is true that God is true, what I'm telling you and what
we've preached to you is not yay and nay. Now a lot of people
get hung up on what does this mean? Our preaching to you, our message
to you, our gospel to you was not yay and nay. It is not a
yes and no. It is not a take it or leave
it. It is not a this or that. It is not a gray area. It is something that is sure.
Something that is not yay and nay, that is something that's
just left up to whoever, you know. If I came to Larry, and
I said, hey, Larry, do you like cucumbers? He said, ah, they're
all right. I can take them or leave them.
That's yay and nay. I'm undecided. It don't matter. There's nothing
solid here. I can eat cucumbers if you put
them in front of me. If not, I could go the rest of
my life not eating cucumbers. I'm all right with that. It's
a nay. It's a nay on the way. Paul was saying here, whenever
we come to you, we were sure. We were firm. We were direct. Everything that we preached to
you was solid. It wasn't just left up to opinion. We preached it. We delivered
it. We stood on it. We were firm on it. We continue
to be firm on it. And this isn't a gospel that
is a take it or leave it gospel. This isn't that you just choose
what you want to think about it, gospel. No, God has delivered
the faith once to the saints. That faith is being perpetuated
in every generation by the Lord's people whenever they gather together
in a congregation, in a gathering like this, or in an assembly
like this. God continues to perpetuate that truth. The Bible says that
the church is the pillar and the ground of truth. Listen,
I know that the Lord speaks to us even whenever we're not gathered
and everything like that. But the Bible says that there
is a special meeting that God does whenever the church comes
together in a gathered place. He promises, He's present there
when two or three are gathered in my name. He promises to be
there with us. That He has called us together
and that in that gathering God has placed the faith once delivered. And He has placed the preaching
of that, and the teaching of that, and the exhortation of
that, and the admonition of that. He's placed the edification that
comes from sitting around like we are today, talking about the
things that Christ has done for us. And we are built up in the
most holy faith. because we are gathered together. And it doesn't have to be some
sophistry. It doesn't have to be some religious
ritual. It doesn't have to be the word
that we've kind of been hearing and saying a lot lately is liturgy. It doesn't have to be a lot of
that kind of stuff. It doesn't have to be any set
pattern. We kind of have a semi-set pattern
here. Maybe it just goes, I'm kind
of a creature of habit more than anything, but I'm not tied to
it. If the Spirit leads in one direction
or another, let's follow where the Spirit leads. But again,
the gospel, though, is not just leave it up to whatever. Paul
said this gospel is a firm and straight and true, and this gospel
doesn't deviate. Listen, brethren, that is why
we do not associate with people that are not like us in the faith.
We don't hold hands with the churches in town that preach
another gospel. And whenever I say preach another
gospel, I'm not talking about Hindu, I'm not talking about
Muslim, I'm not talking about Catholic, I'm not talking about
whatever other world religion that's out there. I'm talking
about even underneath the umbrella of Christianity, we don't hold
hands if they preach a gospel that is contrary to the sovereign
grace gospel of Jesus Christ alone and God's sovereign bestowal
of that salvation on those whom He has chosen. If it's not that,
then we don't hold hands with that. Any other gospel or anybody
who is saying a gospel that can communicate and commune with
people that don't believe that, that's a yay and nay gospel.
I've heard preachers that claim to be believers of sovereign
grace. As a matter of fact, we visited one whenever we were
looking for a church before we came here. We visited a church. in Tulsa, and I found them on
a predestination website, and listened to a couple of the guys
that was in that group, and seemed to be pretty strong on predestination
and election, and they attended this church. So I thought, well,
I'm gonna go. That church I found, and the pastor of that church
identified as Sovereign Grace on this little website and everything,
so I went, and we showed up, And, you know, I'll visit a little
bit the guys that I met from online. And, well, anyway, I
talked to the pastor and I said, so you preach sovereign grace
here, right? I mean, you're preaching it,
right? And he says, well, yeah, I believe in sovereign grace
and I preach it, but I just don't come out right forward with everything
because a lot of these people here don't know what we're talking
about. And so we preached the gospel But all the things about
predestination and election and some of these more stronger doctrinal
things and stuff like that, we begin to teach as time progresses
and as they become more acquainted with the scriptures and things
like that. And I said, all right, well,
that kind of didn't work well with me to begin with. But he
said, but listen, tonight I'm preaching the message tonight
and it's going to be pretty straightforward, a solemn grace message. So we
sit there and we listen, and listen, I couldn't find sovereign
grace in anything that the guy said. I mean, there absolutely
was nothing that had to do with sovereign grace. It was all decisional,
conditional stuff that men has to do, that men must do. And
so whenever it was all over, one of the guys come over and
say, see there, I told you he preached sovereign grace pretty
strong. And I thought to myself, man, there was no sovereign grace
in 10 miles of this place. I mean, there was no sovereign
grace in that. And of course, we didn't go back after that,
because if there's a guy that claims to believe sovereign grace,
but preaches a gospel of yay and nay, or wants to say, well,
this is only for the more mature people. No, listen, the gospel
is the gospel. And listen, if God has given
people ears to hear it, they're going to hear it. If he's given
them a heart to embrace it and love it, they're going to love
it. If he hasn't, then they won't, and it will be a hatred to them. It will be a savor of death to
them. But to those of us who have been
given to know this and to love this, it is a savor of life.
It's a savor of beautifulness. It's a sweet-smelling savor.
And to me, that guy was preaching a gospel of yea and nay. You can take sovereign grace
and leave sovereign grace. I believe it, but you might not,
so I'm just gonna preach to you what you want to hear, and when
the time arises, then we'll get into those other things. That's
not what Paul did. Paul's saying, but as God is
true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. And the reason
I say that is because of what's coming next. For the Son of God,
Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and
Silas, that's Silas, and Timotheus, that's Timothy, was not yea and
nay, but in him was yea." What is he saying? When we came among
you, we preached Christ and crucified. We didn't preach all these other
things. We didn't preach Christ and something, Christ and you,
Christ and the law, Christ and your religion, Christ and your
traditions. No, we preach Christ. Everything
about salvation in the gospel that brings forth the message
of that salvation was embedded in Christ, was carried out by
Christ, was being given glory to Christ. Everything was about
Christ. And he says, in preaching Christ
to you, we didn't say Christ is something to give or take,
to accept or deny. See, the very fact that people
are preaching that we can accept Jesus Christ or we can reject
Jesus Christ, that's a yay and nay gospel. See, salvation actually
has an effect, brethren. When Christ died on the cross,
He saved His people, and every one of those people, the promises
of that salvation are given to them. Every promise is given
to them, not just in the legal aspects, but in the experiential.
Every promise is given to them. Therefore, his death was effectual,
not subjective. It was effectual. It was it was
effectual in the fact that everyone for whom he died receives every
bit of the blessing that comes with it. Every bit of the experience
that comes with it. Every bit of the whole of salvation
comes to that person and is given to that person, not offered to
that person, but is given to that person. That's why it's
not a yay and nay. There is no accepting and rejecting.
The only accepting and rejecting is on God's part. Does He accept
us or reject us? Does God accept us or reject
us? Well, if He does, it's not according to anything that we've
done, good or bad, because the Bible says that it had nothing
to do with whether or not the boys had done anything good or
bad, but that the purpose of God according to election might
stand. So God accepting us or rejecting
us has nothing to do with your good deeds, your good works,
your religiousness, your unworthiness. Your sinfulness doesn't keep
God from accepting you. Just as much as your good deeds
doesn't make God accept you. So it has nothing to do with
you at all. We are accepted in the Beloved. We are accepted on the basis
of Christ Jesus and being in Christ Jesus. That's where the
acceptance comes. So there is no such thing as
a yay and nay gospel. If you have a gospel that is
preaching accept or reject. If you're preaching a gospel
of do this or let God do this or get up off your laurels and
get after this or something that we have to advance. I hear people
talking about we're out here to advance the kingdom of God.
Listen, brother, we can no more advance the kingdom of God as
that flower pot out there. We cannot advance the kingdom
of God. We are not advancing the kingdom
of God. We are part of the plan of God
in the advancement of his own kingdom. If you would, we are pawns on
the chessboard of God. If you would, we are the puppets
of God. But more biblically, if you would,
we are the vessels that God, the potter, has made for his
purpose And each one, even among those of the honored vessels,
not all vessels are made the same. Larry's made different
than I'm made. I'm made different than Brother
Mark's made. We are made different and God's
made us for different purposes. We may be vessels of honor, but
even among the vessels of honor, there are different things. We
have cups. We may be vessels of honor, but
God has made, even amongst the vessels of honor, those that
are different. Paul uses the illustration, different
body parts. Eyes, nose, ears, mouth. We are all different, but members
together. We are all part of God Christ,
who is our head. We are all part of that that
union with Christ Jesus. And because of that, brethren,
every promise of God is not yay and nay. But look, what does
it say? It says, verse 24, all the promises
of God in him are yay and in him, amen. It's always yay and amen in Christ
Jesus. See, that's why we cannot mix
the Gospels. That's why we don't mix with
even other people that claim to be Baptist or that claim to
be sovereign grace that yet still preach conditions. They may preach
predestination and election of eternal salvation, but yet they
say, well, everything though that happens in time, that's
a synergistic work. That's something that has to
take place between me and God. With the help of God, I am doing
this and that is accomplishing something on a conditional level
here in time. That's the ANA gospel. Whenever
we preach, even when we preach the work of God working in us
to work out our salvation, the central point, the central figure,
the main aspect should never be your activity. It should always be Christ. We preach Christ. We don't preach
today our ability, our admonishments, our exhortations. Today we preach
our work, and then next Sunday we preach what Christ has done.
No, brother. In light of everything the Bible
teaches us about admonitions and exhortations, we preach Christ. If Mike works out his salvation
with fear and trembling, which by the way, just a side note,
which has really kind of been bothering me. When the Bible
says work out your salvation with fear and trembling, does
the Bible there define what that work is? Any thoughts about that? and do me some good pleasure.
Well, he works in us to willing to do his own good pleasure.
But the thing that I always think about that, what is that? Philippians
two, right? I'm getting off track. I'm getting
sidelined here. But let me go through that. Chapter two. Verse 12, wherefore, my beloved,
as ye have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now
much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both the
will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings
and disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons
of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse
nation, among whom ye shine as lights of the world. Holy forth
the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of pride.
that I might not run in vain, neither have labored in vain." I don't see anything there that
defines what that work is. The Bible says that God has before
ordained works that we should walk in them, but it never defines
exactly those works. Everything in Ephesians chapter
1 that it says that has been given to us is something that
is a spiritual thing. Therefore, I believe that the
works that are involved there are spiritual works, not physical,
not fleshly works, but spiritual works, that God works in us. So, to will and to do is His
pleasure. If I'm going to do, that involves
action, right? To do involves action. And to do involves the will to
do. Otherwise, I wouldn't be doing
it, right? I mean, if I do anything, it's because
I will to do it. Well, that all comes by God.
That's a work of God in me that God does. For all the promises of God in
Him are yea, not yea and amen. The promise of God that He will
work in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. The
promise of God that all the works that He has ordained for you,
you shall walk in are yea and amen in Christ, not yea and nay. These guys in here that are saying
that we're so against the law that we don't do anything, that
we just mystically wait for God to motivate us to do something. Well, brethren, it says here,
all the promises of God in Him are yea and amen in Him. It's not yea and nay. Doing the
works of God is not a yes or no thing. Doing the works that
God has ordained for us is not a yay or nay event. It is a yay and amen in Christ
Jesus. I'm not going to perform 83%
of the work that God ordained for me. When I get to heaven,
He said, well, you missed out on 17% there, brother. If you
would have just got up and quit waiting on the Spirit and you
had the Bible in front of you, you knew what to do, you should
have got after and doing. We would have caught up with
you afterwards. No, that ain't what happens. God is never catching
up with us who are taking the umption to do something because
we've read it in the scripture. No, everything we read in the
scripture, if we have been given of God to do it, it was because
God caused us to do it. And that was a promise of God
that he would work in us to will and to do. And that is also the
accomplishment of the promise that we would walk in every work
that God has ordained for us to do, because that work is not
a yay and nay promise. It's a yay. And they've been
promised. So does every child of grace
accomplish everything that God has for them to do? Absolutely,
they do. And every downfall and failure
and sin and shortcoming that they have, guess what? That's
also ordained of God that they walk in that as well. Was it
not God's ordaining of Job to walk in his ineptness? He started
off great, didn't he? Hey, the Lord take it, the Lord
give it, the Lord take it. All these things, I've seen that
the Lord has done these things, and the Lord said, hey, he was
right in everything that he said. He didn't sin in accusing God.
You know, he rightly said this because of God's hand, right?
Job had great faith. He said whenever God did all
that stuff, he tore his clothes and he fell down and he worshipped
him. I can't even do that a lot of
times whenever the Lord does something that I don't like. fall down on my face and worship
him? Not most of the time. But Job fell down and worshipped
him. But the more the Lord pressed upon him, the more that the thoughts
began to go through Job's head. He's like, you know what? I really
don't deserve this. I really am unworthy of this. And Job all of a sudden quit
walking in the narrow way and began to walk that broad way.
Job quit letting go of that trust in God and began to trust in
his own self and said, hey, if I could get in front of God right
now, I'd plead my case and he would hear me and he would agree
that I was not deserving of all this stuff. Old Job's pride got
him, didn't it? Well, that's the problem with
a lot of the lawmongers, their pride gets them. They think if
they're sitting too long and not actively doing something,
then God's kingdom is not being advanced. That's pride. They
think that if they're not doing everything that the Bible tells
them that they ought to do, that somehow God's kingdom is not
going to be advanced. Now, there's nothing wrong with
it. God moves you to do something to do it. But, brethren, listen,
nothing's being advanced or retracted because of what's going on in
the overall scheme of things. Are you in sin? Maybe so. Did God ordain that as well?
A lot of people are going to shoot me for saying it, but yes,
that too was ordained. Was Job not ordained to come
to this place where he said, I don't deserve this, and privately
stood up with his fist to God's face and said, give me counsel
before you so I might plead my case? What happened whenever
God did come and give audience to Job? You'll realize quick,
very quick, I repent and dust and ashes. I speak those things
that I don't know anything about. Brethren, there's a lot of people
out here that are preaching a gospel that they don't have anything,
that they know anything about. They're preaching a gospel of
yea and nay. They're preaching a gospel of
law and grace. They're preaching this whole
thing of something of a duty and of something of a condition
or something that we must do. and that we only can do it if
we do the get up and go. But brother, I'm telling you,
the promise is effectual just as much as the death and the
life of Christ was effectual for us. That life in us and that
work of God in us is as much effectual to carry out all the
things that God has ordained for us than it was for that legal
part of it. If God is going to do it, He's
going to do it. He's not going to do it. We're not going to
do it. And that is not being lackadaisical.
That is not being complacent. That is placing the focus where
it should be. If I am to be obedient to God,
if I am to be following after God, if I am to be servant of
God, if I am to do this or that or whatever else, It is beholden
to God to give me the necessary mind to do it, heart to do it,
and action to accomplish the things that He's called for me
to do. Paul says, for all the promises
of God in Him are yea and in Him. Amen. Unto the get-up-and-go
solidarity of the man who did it right. See, if we say that
we just don't wait on God and we just got to get up and follow
the admonitions of Scripture and do what they tell us to do,
then all the glory goes to us. But those who wait upon the Lord,
they shall renew their strength. And it says, and they shall mount
up with wings as eagles. Listen, those who are waiting
on the Lord are the ones who are mounting up with wings as eagles. The ones who are waiting upon
the Lord are the ones who are being renewed. Those who are
waiting upon the Lord are the ones who are looking to Christ. Lord, if it ain't You, I can't
do it. That's what Paul meant when he
said, I will not lean on my own arm of flesh. He said, I know
that if I lean on my own arm of flesh, I'm going to go back
to Saul of Tarsus. I'm going to go back to trying
to get God's kingdom advanced by doing what I think is right.
by doing what I think needs to be done. See, Saul was zealous
for God, wasn't he? He went out there and he pursued
the church, he did all those things, and he really thought
he was advancing God's kingdom by doing all those things. Until
God showed him, that's not advancing my kingdom. Matter of fact, you're
kicking against the pricks. You're persecuting me. And is that not what the Scripture
says, that whenever we try to keep the law and we preach that others should
keep the law, and that we seek for righteousness,
acceptance, or preservation by keeping the law, that Christ
died in vain? We might not be persecuting physically,
but brethren, we can surely persecute Christ verbally whenever we preach
that He said it's finished and now the other side of our mouth
said you got to do. We can verbally persecute Christ by saying He
is sovereign over all things. Over here, you got to get up
and figure it all out and do it. We can verbally persecute
Christ. That's saying it's all of sovereign
grace. And over here it says it's all
by conditions. It's a yea and nay gospel. And
Christ is not yea and nay, and neither is His gospel. It says,
verse 21, Now He who establisheth us with you in Christ, the One
who has placed us with you in Christ, the one who has established
our union, established our relationship, established our inheritance,
our relationship to God as being children of God, the one who
has given us, I can't think of the word that I'm looking for
here, but the one who has established us in this city with you in Christ. to be one of the recipients of
these promises. That it says, for all the promises
of God in him are yea and amen. The one who establishes us with
you in Christ and have anointed us is God. See, the one who establishes
us in the faith, the one who establishes us in the kingdom,
the one who established us from the foundation of the world,
in Christ Jesus. the one who establishes us in
the work, the one who establishes us in the perseverance, fill in the blank. The only one
who establishes us, who stabilizes us, who places us, causes us
to be firm, is God. If I'm to be firm in the faith,
it's God that planted me there. If I'm to be established In the
work that God's called me to do, it's because God has put
me there. That word anointed there has
reference to the oil that they use to anoint the priest and
the things in the tabernacle. That oil in Scripture always
represents that anointing. That oil always represents grace. Always represents grace. God has established or established
us with you and has given us grace, covered us in grace, overwhelmed
us with grace. But here's the thing. How do
we know? I preached a message on this
several years ago, somewhat to this kind of point. How do we
know that the works that we are doing are the works of God or
the works of my flesh? How do you know that? If I'm doing all
these admonitions that are things that I do outwardly, how do I
know that those works that I'm doing are the works of God or
if it's my flesh mimicking, parroting religious activities? I don't
know. That's the thing. I don't know.
I don't know those things. So what do I do? I trust that
God is accomplishing all of his purposes in me. I trust that
He is working in me to will and to do. I trust that He is performing
every good thing that He has ordained that I should walk in. I just trust that. Whether it
looks like it or not, I'm trusting that God is doing His work as
He has ordained, as He has purposed, as He has ordained, predestinated,
and as He has promised to do. And how has He promised to do
it? With a yea and nay? Or with a yea and amen? He promised
to do it with a yea and amen. And so here we see He established
us in Christ. He has given us grace or has
anointed us. And look in verse 22. He has
also sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our
hearts. And what does it mean that He
has sealed us? Well, that word sealed can mean several things
in Scripture. And sometimes they can mean multiple things, have
multiple meanings within the Scripture. itself, the verse
itself. But the word sealed, it can mean
preservation. You know, we have a little doohickey
in the kitchen. If you can take some food, put
it in a plastic bag and stick it on this thing, it'll suck
out all the air and seal it up and it seals it. And it preserves
it, keeps it from going bad, right? That's what the Holy Spirit
has given to preserve us, right? We have the Holy Spirit in us
to preserve us, to keep us from falling. Wasn't that a promise
that God made unto us that I will keep you from falling? He did
say that. Am I ever going to fall? What
about whenever I sin? I fell there. The Holy Spirit
said He's going to keep us from falling. We're going to do all the works
that God has ordained for us to do. No more, no less, right? He's going to keep us from falling.
We're going to accomplish everything that God has called us to do.
Accomplish everything that God intends in His purpose for us.
I don't say that over and over, but I'm hoping that we are understanding
that. Hoping that the Spirit gives
us to experience that, believe that, to cherish that, to see
that it is truly God who works in us. It's truly Christ who
is at the center of everything. It's truly Christ who we're trying
to exalt, not our lackadaisical, giving us the license to just
do nothing. That's not the purpose of this
teaching. It's not the purpose of my stand on that. That's not
the purpose of why I feel this way. I feel this way because
I know, like Larry said, I know that I ain't going to be able
to do it. I'm not going to be able to accomplish it. I am unworthy. I am unable. And listen, I know
myself. I like to procrastinate. I like
to put things off as long as I can. I don't like to do a lot
of stuff. Again, like I said, I love setting
my ways and in my routine. And if it's left to me, I am
not going to do much. I'm going to do as little as
I can. Right? And if we're honest, everybody
to some degree or another is like that. Some people like to
do more things than others. On those things, you know what?
I got a lot of get up and go. If it's something that I want
to do and like to do, guess what? I got a lot of gumption to get
up and do it, but if it's not something I like to do or want
to do, I don't have a lot of gumption to do that. Well, the
thing is, is when it comes to the purposes of God and the conforming
of His people to Christ, it doesn't matter whether I have a lot of
get up and go or not, because it is God who works in me. And
His promises are not yea and nay. It's yea and amen in Christ
Jesus. And He has promised to preserve
me, to keep me. He has promised to keep me in
the faith. He has promised to keep me from
falling. And He has promised to enable
me, to anoint me unto every good work. Look, He says, "...who
have also sealed us." That word sealed, so it can mean preservation. But that word sealed also means
a confirmation. That word sealed is also a confirmation
and it can be looked at in two different ways. To be confirmed
can be two different things. One can be confirmed as a surety.
Okay? We've talked about this before.
If somebody goes in and like I'm going to buy a car And I
go in and I put a down payment on that car. That down payment
is earnest. It's a down payment. It's telling
the guy lending me the money, here's a down payment. That's
the promise that there will be more to come and I will fulfill
and pay off everything that I've said that I would pay. It's a
down payment. OK, so I am confirming that that is going to be given
in full. whenever God gives us the Holy
Spirit, that is a confirmation that there is more to come. It's
not just the inner man that you're going to be receiving, but there's
going to come a time where this outer flesh is going to be put
away and there will be a new body that is not plagued with
sin, that is not plagued with sin, that is not plagued with
death. That body and that inner man are going to be one and that
is going to be complete and total and new and without sin. See,
it's a down payment of the full inheritance. It's a down payment
of that. God has given us His Spirit as
a confirming that I'm going to give you every promise that I've
given to you. And I'm God and I cannot lie.
In fact, remember, but as God is true, and I believe He is,
and He cannot lie, He swore by an oath by Himself. He's given
us these promises. And the promises to work in me
to perform all things for me, to do the work in me, and to
cause me to walk in His statutes, that's a promise of His, just
as much as any other promise. So He's given that Holy Spirit
as a confirmation that that promise is going to be carried out. How's
it going to be carried out? Because He's given us the Spirit,
and the Spirit that's the one in us that's doing that work.
He's the one that's teaching us, leading us into the truth,
understanding the Word of God, understanding the admonishments,
giving us the unction to follow those doing those things. But that word sealed as it pertains
to a confirmation can also be the symbol of in the old times
they used to have these rings, the signet ring. And the king
would write a letter or he would give some sort of decree or he
would do something and he would fold that thing up and they'd
drop some wax on there and he'd put his signet stamp on that
thing and it shows that What has been said in this is true. It came from my own hand, and
this seal verifies or confirms the validity of everything that's
in here. So whenever that messenger took that and showed that, and
those people saying, hey, there's the signet ring or the seal of
the king is on there. So we know that whatever's inside
this thing couldn't have come from anybody else because the
king is the only one that has that ring to seal that thing. The Holy Spirit is given to us,
brethren, as a confirmation that we not only belong to Christ,
but that everything that He has promised in it is true to us. See, the Holy Spirit coming to
us, comes to us as the Bible says, hope I don't misquote this,
but The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are His. The Spirit comes and bears record
that we are His. He confirms to us that these
promises are ours because we're His. See, the inheritance only
is to His children. So we have to be confirmed that
we are His children. And once we're confirmed that
we are His children, then we know by law that everything that
the father promises to the child, the child will receive. So I
have to be confirmed that I'm his child. Well, it's not by
confirmation of the outward things that I do. The Bible doesn't
teach that we're confirmed by outward appearances that we are
his children. Now, the Bible does say that
others will know that we are his by the love for the brethren
and the love for the Lord. But that is not how the child
of grace receives confirmation that we are His. We never find
assurance or confidence in outward things. It only comes by an inward
grace of the Holy Spirit who confirms that we are His. The
Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are His and if
we are His, then we are heirs to all of the inheritance and
the promises of God. And all the promises of God are
yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Therefore, if I am a child of
God, and the Holy Spirit confirms in my heart that I am His, then
I have all confidence that everything that God has promised as it pertains
to me, His child, is yea and amen in Christ Jesus, not yea
and amen in Michael Smith, but yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Therefore, the promises to be
fulfilled, the promises to be carried out, the promises that
are going to come to pass are all because of Christ Jesus,
whether it was His legal work or the experiential work in me. It's all Christ Jesus and every
promise will be Christ gives us rest. The Holy
Spirit comes, and whenever the Holy Spirit comes, He clears
our consciousness of our inability to keep the law. He clears our
consciousness of our duty to the law that only condemns us.
He clears our consciousness that we're not doing enough for God.
He clears our consciousness of that because we know it is God
who works in us to will and to do. So everything that I am doing,
I am doing according to God's will. I'm doing according to
God's purpose. walking in the path and the statutes
that God has ordained for me to walk in. And that rest comes
in knowing that it is truly about Jesus Christ from first to last. And he is my substitute. He is
my surety. He is the one that is in complete
and total, not only control, but he is the one who is in view
of everything of my salvation. Therefore, it doesn't reside
in me to do anything. That's not blasphemousness. That
is not antinomian. That is placing Christ at the
center of even the very experiential walk that we are walking in. That's why it says, for all the
promises of God in Him are yea and amen in Him, unto the glory
of God by us. See, we're not giving God glory
whenever we're preaching that we have to get up and do. Don't
wait on God. He's giving you His Word just
to go out and do it. That's not giving God glory.
Look at verse 23. Moreover, I call God for record
upon my... I'm sorry. Verse 22. Who has
also sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our
hearts. He's given us the earnest, the
down payment, the promise of more to come. Brethren, I tell
you what, I don't know about you, but whenever I read these
things in Scripture, it puts to light a lot of the things
that sometimes cause me to want to get up and get after it for
God in my own strength. But even more so, those many,
many, many, many times where I'm sitting and in my mind and
in my thoughts and in my heart I'm thinking, And I've completely
failed. I've completely shot it. I've
completely... Everything's a shambles because
I just cannot get up and go do something. I can't go do this.
I can't do this. I can't do this. I'm a failure
at this. I'm a failure at that. Listen,
there is so much admonition from Scripture. I mean, for every
Christian, there is admonition. But especially if one is to be
one that pastors are to preach, whenever he's standing up and
saying, hey, this is what the Lord says. I don't know if you
ever thought of that, brother, whenever you started talking
on YouTube or something like that, to start telling people
about, listen, man, there's a lot of fear and trepidation there. The Bible says, man, those guys
that come up here, I'm not putting myself above
anybody, but I'm just saying, listen, there's a lot of times
in our mind we're wondering, are we causing a lot more havoc
than we are help? But brethren, when we see verses
like this, whenever we realize that it is all Christ and it's
all ordained of God and predestinated, I think that's why predestination
is such a beautiful thing. That's why The term irresistible grace,
which I once hated, such a wonderful thing. That's why whenever we
look at God preserving us and by His providence keeping us
and working us, you know, that is such a comfort. It's a comfort
to us. It's a comfort to me at least,
I'll say. Ephesians 1 verses 8 through
14. Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he
had purposed in himself, that under this concession and the
force of time he might get it together in all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him.
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise
of His glory, who first trusted in Christ, in whom we also trusted
after that we heard the word proved the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also, after that we believed, we were sealed which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the precious possession of the praise of His
Lord. Amen. There he just said in a nutshell
everything I tried to say in all this time. All wrapped up
right there in those six verses. And notice, if you would, all
the way down through there, even going back further into verses,
starting in verses three and four, you know, it's overwhelming,
overwhelmingly Christ-centric. It's overwhelmingly God-centric.
Right? Blessed be the God and Father
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all the
spiritual blessings of heaven and places in Christ, according
as He hath chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame, before Him in
love. Having predestinated us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the blood, in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches
of His grace." You see how it's all about Him? It's all about
His doing, His Word, His purpose, His doing. Everything's about
Him. And listen, all of that precedes
chapter 2 that everybody wants to immediately run to, on the
get-up-and-go. All that is preceding. Those
are the works that God is doing and I believe those are the works
that chapter 2 is talking about. I believe that the works that
God is doing is the works in us. The work of conforming us,
the work of growing us in the grace and knowledge of God. the
work of causing us to desire the things of God, the admonitions
of Scripture, if you will. He gives us those desires, that's
Him working in us. And as Larry said, this thing
comes, having made known unto us the mystery of His will according
to His good pleasure which He had purposed in Himself. Everything
that's being carried out is according to that right there. He's purposed
it in Himself. He will do all that He has purposed
according to Scripture. And so, to me, those are the
overarching terms of Scripture and they supersede everything
else underneath it. That's why I say any of the imperatives
that are in Scripture always has to be in view of that very
one thing. That is God who is doing the
work. That is God who is doing the actions. God is the one who
is orchestrating everything that is going on. All right. Anybody else got anything
or anything else you want to add? Questions? Rebukes? Corrections? Well, brother, I pray that that
was a comfort to you like it was to me, just to hear those
things that all things pertaining to the gospel are yea, that is,
affirmative, yes, and amen, sure. That word amen means so be it. We've heard that before, but
that word amen means firm or secure. All the promises are
yes and secure or sure in Christ Jesus. So what a beautiful promise
that we have. Anybody got anything? Brothers?
Alright. Let's bow. Lord, we thank you
once again for this day. We thank you for the time that
we've had together. We thank you for the Word of God that's
before us. And we thank you for the Christ that is found in this
Word. While we truly cherish this Word
that's been given to us, we know that everything that's in this
is about Him, that He is in the embodiment of the Word of God.
And so, Father, we just thank you so much that we have the
opportunity this morning by your grace together and to proclaim
his name, to proclaim his word. Lord, we truly do not desire
in the flesh any accommodations. We don't desire any kind of accolades
or merits. Father, we truly preach these
things because we know that Christ is at the center of all things
and that he is the one to not only receive that glory, but
Lord, the ones who we want to give that glory to. We know that
we merit nothing. We know that we and our flesh
can do nothing. And therefore, we'll let never
merit anything. Therefore, our only hope is Christ
Jesus. The author and the finisher of
our faith. The one who has been given to us to lead us into all
truth. The one who has been given to
us to guide us in all the things of God. give us comfort. He said that he would come back
is our comforter. Give us comfort. Father Lord,
we're so grateful to have Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior
as a surety. Father Lord, I pray that you've
comforted your people today. We pray Lord, this time of worship
has been in spirit and in truth. You've let us And Lord, we just
ask that now that you be with us as we leave this place, that
these very things that you've given to us in this word might
bring comfort to us as we go out into this world and as often
are attacked by Satan, attacked by the world system, and even
attacked by sometimes our own fleshly conscience that desires
to put us back under the law, to bring us into servitude of
a works-based system. Lord, we just pray that you would
continue to give us a clear conscience to be able to walk in the love
and the liberty that's in Christ Jesus. Lord, we trust that you will
do all things in us and through us as you desire, and that not
one thing will be left undone. It's in Christ's name that we
pray.