Corinthians here. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, is going to deal with their problems. That church was a large church.
Paul preached there for a year and a half. God told Paul, you
go to Corinth, I have much people in that city." He did not say,
there is much people, there are much people in that city, and
that's a good opportunity, a good opportunity to go and preach.
No, he said, I have much people in that city, in Corinth. He knew, God knew everyone of
his sheep that were in that city. That's what he told Paul. He
said, I had much people there. Now you go, Paul went there and
preached for a year, a year and a half. Can you imagine sitting
under the ministry of Paul, the apostle, for a year and a half? He said, man, that would be,
that would have been something. Well, I would have liked to sat
under his ministry. Actually, we do. Every time we
read one of his epistles, we are sitting under the ministry
that the Lord gave to Paul. But there were some in Corinth
who got sidetracked. They got sidetracked. They got
obsessed with the man more than they did the message. They begin
to think, well, I'm more saved because I got baptized by Paul,
or I was saved under Paul's ministry. You know, the man that God uses,
the messenger that God uses to preach the gospel under which
you believe and were saved does not make you more or less saved
at all. It's not the messenger that saves,
it's the Lord. It's the Lord. If the Lord saved
many of them, I'd say many of you here have saved you under
Henry's ministry. And if the Lord brings more in
and he saves them under my ministry here in preaching, that doesn't
make you more saved than the ones that come in and hear me.
Because it's the Lord who saves. And I tell you what, when He
saves, He saves completely. He saves completely. You cannot
be more saved than you are in Christ. That is a complete salvation. In Him you are complete. Now
he says here, Paul called, called of God to be an apostle. He gives
his usual salutation here. And he's called to be an apostle
through the will of God. We never take and offers to ourselves
that it is not evident we've been called to it. Paul said
in one place that God put him in the ministry. You know, the
ministry is not something that you just one day decide, well,
I think I would like to be a minister, and I'm going to go to seminary
school, and I'm going to graduate. That's not how God calls His
men. That's not how ministers of the gospel are made. God calls
his men. He equips his men. He gives them
gifts. He gives them abilities to preach.
And I tell you what, the greatest sign that God has called a man
to preach, and I believe it's this, he gives that man a hearing. If God does not give a man a
hearing, it's evident he's not God's man. And he gave Paul here
a great hearing in Corinth. Paul says here that he was called
to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. And
Sosthenes, our brother, I bet they had some good conversations.
Because Sosthenes was the ruler of the Jewish synagogue at Corinth. I bet they had some good conversations,
Paul being a Pharisee of the Pharisees, you know, and his
background and Sosthenes' background. And Sosthenes, he calls him a
brother, so it's evident the Lord saved him. And he says,
to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are
sanctified, to them that are what? Set apart. Salvation is not, you know, salvation
is not, let's see if somebody will accept Jesus as their personal
Savior. Let's throw it out there and
see if somebody will take it. God doesn't do that. That word
sanctified means set apart. To them whom God Almighty set
apart. And he set them apart back in
eternity. With God, he said present. It's present. But with us, we're
preachers of time, so we speak of backwards, present, and forward.
Future. And he says here, to them that
are sanctified, they've been set apart by God. Listen, they
were set apart by God in Christ before the world was. God did
not leave this up to chance. Salvation is not left up to chance.
It's not left up to the will. Listen, it's not left up to the
free, what we call the free will of man, because man's will is
tied to his nature. And our Lord said this. Ye will
not come to me that ye might have life. Your problem, the
Lord says it, your problem is your will. You will not come. You're not going to do it. We are darkness by nature. God
is light. We are sin. God is holy. The
scriptures teach us what we are by nature. We are sinful. We are lost. And God is holy. God is light. God is perfection. We are the
total opposite of what God is until we're born again. And when
we're born again, there's a new creation. There's a new nature. And that new nature, that new
creation is a partaker of the divine nature. And we are being
made and conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
someday we will be just like Him. Without sin. Without sin. To them that are
sanctified, set apart, and that word also means made holy. Who
made you holy? Who made you righteous? God did. God did. That are sanctified in Christ
Jesus, that's how we're sanctified, and called to be saints. Someone
said to me, it's been years ago, said, we are not saints until we die and we go to heaven. And then we become saints. If you are not a saint here,
you will not be one there. Saint is a short version of sanctified. It's just a short version of
sanctified. That's what it is. And with all that in every place,
that's us too. Not just the Corinthians, but
us too. With all that in every place, call upon the name of
Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Boy, there's nothing more that
I could pray for, ask God for, for you than this, grace and
peace. Grace and peace. This matter of salvation starts
with grace. The race is run by grace and
it ends in grace. It's grace from alpha to omega. And if he does not have grace,
You and I will never know peace. We'll never know it. Grace be
unto you and peace. And this is not just something
he said. He means this. Grace and peace be to you from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always
on your behalf for the grace of God which is given to you.
You didn't earn it. We don't merit grace. is given. It's given to you,
and it's given to you by Jesus Christ. It comes to you through
Christ, in Christ, by Christ. We can never be a partaker of
grace apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Every gift, every blessing,
everything that God has for His children comes to them through
His Son. He's the conduit. He's the channel. Everything, everything comes
to us through Him. All heavenly blessings. Look
over in Ephesians chapter 1. We've read this so many times
and I hope we read it many more times. He said here in Ephesians chapter
1 and verse 2. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings." All the blessings that we need have
been given to us in Christ, in heavenly places, he says here,
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." Oh, he said, I thank my God always
on your behalf. Every time I remember you, I
thank God for you. I don't thank you for God. I don't thank you for coming.
I don't thank you for believing, but I sure thank God for you.
That He gave you faith. He gave you repentance. Those
are the gifts of God. Faith, repentance. That's a gift
of God. It's a given of God. No man,
no woman will believe God until God does a work of grace in the
heart and He grants faith and repentance. They are the gift of God. He
says, I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is
given you by Jesus Christ that in everything you are enriched
by Him. And I read that to you in Ephesians.
You've been blessed in him. You have, as a believer now,
a believer, you have everything you need to go right into the
Holy of Holies, into Almighty God's holy presence, be accepted,
be heard, have fellowship. You have everything you need
in Jesus Christ. God provided it. God provided
everything. That in everything you are enriched
in him in all utterance and in all knowledge. Even as a testimony
of Christ was confirmed in you, it's evident. Paul's saying it's
evident that you believe the gospel. It's evident God's done
a work of grace in you. It's evident. Christ was confirmed
in you. And listen, so that you come
behind in no gift. That was a very gifted church. They could speak in tongues,
healing. But I tell you this, you find
a congregation where the Lord is really blessed, where the
Lord has given much gifts, you're going to find Satan hard at work. In Corinth, you would not find
a church that was any more gifted than this church. He says, you
come behind in no gift. You know what he's saying here?
You are inferior to no church, to no other local assembly. You
are not inferior. You have been so blessed, God.
You've been so gifted in the spiritual gifts. But they had
a lot of problems too, didn't they? There's not another. written of in the Word of God
that had more problems than the church at Corinth. Satan's always hard at work where
Christ is most glorified. You can be sure of it. So that you come behind Him,
no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, waiting for His coming, looking for His coming. That's
what we're waiting for, aren't we? We've gathered here today
to read His Word, to sing His praises, to preach
His gospel while we wait for His appearing. Do you really
believe He's going to appear? Do you really believe He's coming?
Do you really believe that God is going to put an end to all
of these earthly things, this world, this earth, God is going
to put an end to it. And His Son is coming to get
His own, to get His children. Do you believe that? It says
over here in verse 18, well, the preaching of the cross
That's everything that has to do with Christ, is to them that
perish, or to them that are perishing, it is absolute nonsense. The very thing that is our hope, the very one we are looking to
and looking for, looking for him to come. And we looked to
Him for salvation. We looked to Him for everything.
This intellectual world calls it absolute foolishness. When we preach of a substitute
dying in the place of a guilty sinner, and that sinner being
justified, and that sinner being made righteous, And that sinner
has been able to go into the presence of God totally, completely
upon the merits of that substitute. And not anything, I mean absolutely
not anything that I do, can do, will do, ought to do, totally,
totally based upon him. The world calls it foolishness.
They say that's absolute nonsense. You mean that salvation is to
be had just by believing God? And that the so-called good things
that I do do not merit God's favor? That's exactly what the
Word of God teaches. That's not what I'm teaching.
I'm teaching what the Word of God teaches. That's why I'm more
in favor, the more I preach, do more reading than I do commenting. You can be sure of this. The
only time we tell the absolute truth, I mean the absolute truth,
is when we just read the Word of God. When we just read it. And don't even make a comment
on it. He said that to the world this
preaching of the gospel is foolishness to them that are, listen, perishing,
perishing. But to us which are saved, what
is it? It's the power of God. It's the
power of God to justify us. The preaching of Christ crucified
is the power of God, is the right of God to justify us, to cleanse
us, to take us into his presence. It's the power of God. That's
how God saves sinners. God does not save sinners by
cooperation. He does His part. I do my part.
We cooperate. God saves sinners completely in the person, the blood, the
righteousness of His Son. And the world says, that's nonsense.
That's nonsense. He says here, now let me go back
here now, I forgot where I left off at. In verse eight, I'll wind this
down. Who shall also confirm you unto
the end? That means this, he which hath
begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. He will not let you go. At no time, at no time between
the time I believe to the time I die, at no time will salvation be accomplished
in the energy of this flesh. He will do it. He will keep us. He will keep us. to the end, that you may be blameless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you may be spotless."
Are you spotless? You and I know that we still
have sin in us. We still sin. But when we lay
this body down and our Lord comes and He gets us, we are spotless. Spotless without sin in His presence. And then he backs it up with
this. He backs it up with this. God is faithful. God is faithful. By whom you
were called. He called you, he'll keep you.
He called you, he will save you. He will not renege. He will not
go back. If God has called you by his
grace, and he has revealed his Son in you, He will confirm you. He will keep you. He will keep
you. He will perform that work in
you until the day of Jesus Christ. And God is faithful by whom you
were called unto the fellowship of His Son. Do you have fellowship
with Christ? I mean, do you have fellowship
with the Lord Jesus Christ? That's what you're called to.
That's what I'm called to. We are not called by God to miss
going to hell so we can go to heaven. That's not it. We are
called to the fellowship of a person. We are called to know a person.
We are called to be united to a person. You know, before I
heard the gospel, I sat down at an Armenian preaching, and
the whole crux of that preaching had to do with the place. It
had to do with missing, going to hell and trying to inherit
heaven, trying to make sure you ended up there. Well, anybody's
got enough sense coming out of the rain. Would accept Jesus
as their personal Savior. If that's all it was about, anybody
would do that. But when God calls a man, when He calls him to salvation,
He calls him to fellowship with His Son. It's to fellowship with
God. It's a fellowship with God. Now, he says here, and I'll close
here. Now, I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that you all speak the same thing. You be of the same
mind. You be of the same heart. Same message. We believe the
same gospel. You know, Paul said over in Galatians,
there is only one gospel by which God saves sinners. Now there
are many so-called gospels being preached, but Paul said to those
Galatians, there's only one. And if anyone comes and preaches
any other gospel than what I preached to you, let him be accursed. Let him
be damned. Even if an angel from heaven
came and preached to you, you let him be damned. You let him
be accursed. There's only one. He said, be of the same mind
and speak the same things, that there be no divisions among you,
but that ye be perfectly joined together. It's hard to be joined
together if you're going two separate directions, isn't it?
It's hard to be joined together when one's going this way and
another's going that way. You cannot have unity if you're
not going the same direction. It can't happen. And whether it's not unity, it's
evident, it's evident something's wrong. Something's wrong. It says here, and I'll close,
but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and
in the same judgment over the gospel, your conduct, to be one, that you be one in
Christ. Paul had left there, so Paul's
teachers came in and they started causing division. If you go on
down through there, Paul said, he said in verse 13, is Christ
divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were
you baptized in the name of Paul? He said, I thank God I baptized
none of you except a couple. They were being divided up, and
this is how foolish we can get. They were being divided up and
having divisions over who baptized them. Some said, well, my baptism
is better than yours. Paul did it. And others said,
no, no, Paul did it. Then you had the super-duper ones who
said, well. They said here in, let me find this verse. I thank God
that I baptized none of you. Now this I say, that every one
of you says, I'm a Paul, I'm a Paulist, and I have Christ,
and I have Cephas, and then the last ones, they just stumped
them all. They said, I'm a Christ. I have Christ. And that's why Paul, that's why
Paul prayed grace. Grace be to you. Because if we're filled with
the grace of God, it'll cut down this division. It'll cut it down. If the love of God is shed abroad
in your heart, you can't help but love. If grace is shed abroad
in your heart, you cannot help but forgive. You have to do it. It's like breathing. You have
to do it. You have to do it. All right.