Back in 1 Corinthians chapter
1, the very fact that Paul addresses
this epistle to the Church of God, which is at Cornuth, is
in itself amazing. Of course, that can be said concerning
the Church of God anywhere in this world. Corinth was a large
seaport city. It was the commercial meeting
place of the East and the West. On each side of Corinth there
was a sea, and that made it a center of economic prosperity and commerce. It was famous for its trade and
its wealth. It was also renowned for its
idolatry and its perverseness. The temple of the false goddess
Venus was there, which involved all kinds of perverse worship. To this city, To this city, as
we just read, God had chosen the foolish things, the base
things, the despised things. To this city, Paul came preaching
the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's all. He didn't have no
front men to go set things up for him. He didn't have those
to help him with the great citywide campaign. He came there with
the sword of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, because even
here, even here in Corinth, there was a people God had purposed
to save. There was a people there in Corinth,
that wicked, adulterous city, that God Almighty had purposed
to save. Paul didn't come there seeing
if he could find somebody willing. No, he knew better than that.
He knew by his own experience when God saved him and an experience
that he had in preaching the gospel. He didn't come there
looking to find somebody willing, but he came there knowing that
according to God's purpose to save, that he would make some
willing in the day of his power. That's our hope. That's our hope,
isn't it? In Acts chapter 18, you have
the account of Paul's being at Corinth. In verse 9 we read these
words, Acts 18 verse 9. Then spake the Lord to Paul in
the night by a vision. And this is what he said to Paul.
Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Now we hardly
ever think of the Apostle Paul as being fearful of anything,
but he was afraid of something. Our Lord said, don't be afraid.
But speak, don't hold your peace, don't be silent, but speak and
hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man
shall set on thee to hurt thee." And here he gives Paul the encouragement
he needed. For I have much people in this
city. My, so what good news. What could
Paul have heard that would have encouraged him more than this.
God appeared to Paul in this vision and encouraged him to
continue faithfully there and to preach the gospel even in
Corinth. And he did so assuring him of
these three things, his presence, God's presence. Paul remembered,
you're not by yourself. You're not alone. I am with thee. That's the exact same thing that
the Lord Jesus Christ, the last time that he appeared to his
disciples on Mount Olivet, when he said to them, go into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That would
have been a useless, fruitless errand, except for this, and
lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world. The
Lord not only assured Paul of his presence, but his protection. No man shall set on thee to hurt
thee. No, you're in my care, Paul. You're in my hand. There's nothing
going to happen to you out of my will, out of my purpose. And
then God also assured him of that purpose. First, the promise
of his presence, his protection, and then his purpose. Paul, I
have much people in this city. How about that? I have much people
in this city. The inspiration God gave Paul
for evangelizing Corinth was the certain salvation, no question
about this, no doubt about this, the salvation of his elect, all
who were chosen in eternity to be conformed to the image of
God's Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren
God would call by His grace. That's exactly what we read in
Romans 8. We almost know these verses by heart, don't we? Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, that is God, then he also. He didn't
stop there. He predestined to save. Then
he also called. He didn't stop there. And whom
he called, then he also justified. And whom he justified, then he
also glorified. And that assurance of God's election
is why Paul did this, again in Acts chapter 18. And Paul continued
there a year and six months. A year and a half, Paul just
pitched tent there, because God told him, Paul, I've got a people
in this city. Preach the gospel. It won't return
until you avoid. Paul labored there for a year
and six months, we read, teaching the word of God among them. I wonder if anybody ever said
to Paul, I've had them say this to me, when they get an inkling
that you believe that taboo in our day doctrine of election. Have you ever had folks say this
to you? If I believe that, If you believe election, then why
preach? Can you imagine someone saying
that to Paul? Paul, you believe election. That's
a discouragement, isn't it? That doesn't give you an incentive
or a reason to preach the gospel. I know how Paul would answer
it to the fullest question, as he did in Romans 11. Even so,
at this present time, there is a remnant. according to the election
of grace. Why preach? God's determined
to save. God is determined to have mercy
on sinners. And you say, why preach? The
means that God has chosen to use is the preaching of the gospel,
because faith cometh by hearing. How shall they hear? Except a
preacher be sent to them with the glorious gospel of God's
free grace, even at this present time. And that is always so. That is always so, no matter
how dark, no matter how dark it is. As long as this world
is standing, the reason is this, it's not determined by what the
Jews are doing or not doing, it's determined by this, God
Almighty is yet saving a people. Jesus Christ is yet calling out
His bride. That's why the world continues,
because there is an election, a remnant rather, according to
the election of grace. as the old hymn writer expressed
it like this, What was there in you that could merit esteem,
or give the Creator delight? It was even so, Father. That's
what the Lord said, wasn't it? It was even so, Father, we ever
must sing, because it seemed good in thy sight. If that's
true, and it is, Then give all the glory to His holy name, to
Him all the glory belongs. Be yours to hide joy, still to
sound forth His fame, and crown Him in each of your songs. Salvation begins with a choice. But it's not man's choice, is
it? That won't amount to very much.
It begins with God's choice. Look again at this chapter. In
verse 27, two times in that one verse. Paul says, God has chosen. He says it twice. Then again
in verse 28, God has chosen, hath God chosen. Remember when
Jesse, in the house of Jesse, Samuel, Samuel rather, the prophet,
had been sent to his house because from the sons of Jesse, God was
going to choose Israel's future king. Israel Futures King wasn't
even present. He was out tending sheep. The
youngest, David. Surely God wouldn't use him. And each of Jesse's sons passed
before Samuel. And every time he does, Samuel
thinks to himself, surely, surely God's anointed is standing before
me. This has got to be him. Man, look at strong, strong,
strapping. This has got to be him. And God
said, wrong. Wrong. That's not Him. That's
not Him. Sam, you're looking at the outward
appearance. God doesn't. God looks on the
heart. And that's exactly what we read
here, isn't it? The wise, Paul said. The mighty,
the noble, the great. The things that are. But the
King says, I've not chosen them. I've not chosen them. God makes
his choice from the rejected, the despised, the nobodies, the
nothings. The very last ones you would
expect God to choose are the very ones that he does. You remember
when our Lord sent out 70 men, two by two, to preach the gospel
in Luke 10, and they came back. Oh, they were rejoicing. They
said, Lord, even the devils, even the devils are subject unto
us through thine. We've cast out devils. The Lord
said, in this rejoice not, but rather rejoice in this, your
names are written in heaven. Your names are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. You might not find your name
in some register of the elite on earth, of the high and mighty
here on earth. You won't be written there, but
your name's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Now you can rejoice
in that. Our Lord did. He told them to
rejoice, and we read there in Luke 10, in that hour the Lord
rejoiced in spirit saying, even so father, you've hid these things
from the wise and the prudent, like these Paul wrote to. Some
of those. But he said, you've revealed
them to babes. Even so father, it seemed good
in your sight. It seemed good in your sight.
We bow to the sovereign will and the purpose of God. We have
here As Paul mentions, records here, the triumphs of the cross
over human wisdom. According to the prophecy of
Isaiah, Isaiah 29 verse 14. Paul quotes this in verses 19
and 20, a portion of it. Therefore, behold, God speaking,
behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among the people,
even a marvelous work and a wonder, a wonder. That's what salvation
is. That's what true salvation is.
That's what the grace of God does. It's a work of God's wonder. It's a marvelous work. It's the
Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes. I will do this work,
even a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise
men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be
hid. Oh, but unto those who are called,
to those God has purposed to call, Christ the power of God,
and the wisdom of God. Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Have God not made foolish the
wisdom of this world? All of the cherished, valued
learning of this world was confounded by the Son of God, baffled and
eclipsed by the glorious triumphs of the cross, the death of Christ. The heathen politicians, the
philosophers, the Jewish rabbis and doctors were all put to naught. The wisdom of God was out of
reach of the Greeks. The wisdom of the Greeks and
the Jews' religious tradition, all the boasted science of the
heathen, and it's the same today, or its religions, did not, could
not, effectually bring home one single sinner to the true knowledge
of the living God. Religion can't do that. It's
been trying for 2,000 years to do it, and it can't do it. It
never has been able to do it. It's never done it, and it still
can't do it. In spite of all wisdom, ignorance
still prevails. Iniquity still abounds. Men are
still puffed up by their imaginary knowledge, and they're rather
further alienated from the true life of God. This was true in
Paul's day. It's still true in our day. The
world by its so-called wisdom knows not God. But, that's not
the end of the story, is it? If anyone does come to confess,
I mean truly to confess. Not just make an empty profession,
but to confess from the heart like Peter did. If anyone can
from their heart truly say concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
the Son of the Living God, I know this. It's not because flesh
and blood taught him that. I know better than that. It's
because God the Father in heaven taught him that. Faith is a gift
of God. You can't muster it up. You can't
find it in old fallen Adam. It's not there. It's not there.
Oh, but when God, by his mighty graces, pleased to drop faith
into a sinner's heart, then and then only will he come to Christ
and embrace him and call him my Lord and my God. Some time
after Paul left Corinth, that we read about in Acts 18, after
a year and a half of preaching there and God saving sinners,
and a church being established, Paul left. And sometime after
his departure, problems began to occur. That was really the
root cause. We could mention these things.
Paul dealt with them. But you know what the root cause
of all these problems were? Pride. That was the root cause. That was the reason for all of
them, pride. Paul tells them in chapter 4, you folks are puffed
up. He uses that expression several
times. You've become puffed up. One says, I'm a Paul. One says,
well, I don't like Paul's preaching. He's too vulgar. I'll go listen
to Apollos, what an orator. And others say, oh, we don't
need either one of them. We'll have Peter or even the
Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul said, you're puffed
up. What you and I would say today, you've got the big head. You've got the big head. And
pride was the cause. Pride is a wicked weed that will
grow anywhere. Oh, we must constantly be on
our guard of pride. We've heard it say, pride of
race. And that's not of one particular race, that's every race, whether
you're a white man or a black man or a red man or a, no matter
what, pride of race. Pride of place. I'm from such
and such a place, That makes me special. Then pride of face. Someone said, I can't wait till
tomorrow. Why? Because I get better looking
every day. Pride of face. But there's nothing
more unreasonable than this. Proud of grace. Pride and grace
will not mix. Brother Scott Richardson, I remember
being somewhere in service with him one time, and he was telling
a story about being on a little plane and talking with the pilot
before they left it all. And Scott was telling this man,
I believe in God's sovereign grace. The fellow said, is that
right? Yeah, I don't believe sinners are saved by their free
will, but by God's free grace. I believe if a man believes this,
it'll take all the starch out of him. And that fellow looked
at Scott and said, not all of it. Not all of it. Proud of grace. God's grace is
never based on what a man deserves. If that's so, then it ceases
to be grace. It always rests upon this foundation,
God's unmerited favor. I believe I would rather stand
there, wouldn't you? I believe I would rather stand
before God Almighty, not based upon my own desert. my own merits,
my own will, my own work, my own worth, but stand before God
Almighty on the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. The law came
through Moses, but grace and truth came by the Lord Jesus
Christ. When God brings a sinner down,
it's not a one-time thing, is it? No, we must continually be
brought down. Come down, Zacchaeus. That's
not the first time Zacchaeus had to do that. We must continually
be reminded where we were and what we were when God called
us by His grace. That's how Paul dealt with this
problem of pride among the believers at Corinth. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 4, verse 7, he said this. Stop and think about this, Paul
seems to say to them. Who made you to differ from another? One says, They have reason to
boast, reason to be proud. Paul said, who made you to differ
from another? Who did that? Paul doesn't, for
a moment, suggest that they've not been made to differ. Paul
just wants them to remember who made the difference. Who did
that? And what has thou that you did not receive? And if you
did receive it, why do you glory as if you have not received it?
It's not just because of salvation. Or rather, it's just because
salvation, all of it, is by God's grace in Jesus Christ and not
by man's will, that no flesh, as Paul said here, should glory
in His presence. Flesh, mine or yours, didn't
choose me to salvation. My flesh didn't call me out of
darkness. No, no. My flesh didn't reveal
Jesus Christ to me. My flesh can never do anything
to keep me from falling and to present me without fault before
the throne of God. For all those things the Lord
Jesus Christ says, the flesh profits nothing. Look at verse
30. This is our text. Paul reminds
them and us, every believer, we're told where believers are
and why they're there. Where we are and why. Where are
we? Paul says, but of Him, that is
of God. This is God's doing. This is
God's work. This is God's operation. Of Him
are you in Christ Jesus? I just like the sound of that.
I just like the, are you in Christ Jesus? Oh my soul. Oh, here's
a bushel that our Lord spoke of as being pressed down and
filled again and again and again and runneth over. In Christ Jesus,
that's where believers are. Oh, what wondrous grace. What
a blessed place. In Christ Jesus. Eternally in
Christ. Chosen in Him before the foundation
of the world. Immutably in Christ. This can
never be changed. I'll never be removed. experimentally
in Christ, called to him by his grace, accepted in the beloved,
in Christ, blessed in Christ, saved in Christ, one with Christ,
in Christ forever. And the hymn writer expressed
it this way, one in the tomb, one when he rose, one when he
triumphed over his foes, one when in heaven he took his seat,
while seraphs sang all hell's defeat. This sacred tie forbids
our fears, for all he is and has is ours. With Christ our
head, we stand or fall, our life, our surety, and our all. I can put myself into the church.
That's not hard to do. That's not hard to do. I can put myself in a church.
I can put myself in water. I can put myself into the doctrine
of Christ. But I can't put myself in Jesus
Christ. God's got to do that. God's got
to do that. This is the Lord's doing, and
it's marvelous in our eyes. Can anything compare to this?
I know I was one time somewhere with Brother Henry Mahan, and
you know where Henry pastored there in Ashland, Kentucky. It
was the tri-state area, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky,
right there, right there. People came to Henry's church
from all those places. And Henry said, when someone
came for the first time, when they would have a visitor, Henry,
he was glad to have them, but he didn't get overwhelmed about
it. He thought, well, we'll just
wait and see. We'll just wait and see if they
come back. He said, because visitors would often come, just like we've
had here, and then you don't see them anymore. But Henry said,
if they keep coming back, And they keep coming back. And they
keep listening. Listening. And they keep coming
back. Henry says, oh, then I think
this may be the Lord's doing. This may be the Lord's doing.
And it's marvelous in our eyes. In Christ Jesus, oh, what a rich,
rich place. In Christ Jesus, I'm accepted
by God. And once I'm accepted, I'll never
be unaccepted. I'll never be unaccepted. I can
be cast down, but I'll never be cast out. I'll never be cast
out, plucked out, kept out, or shut out. Being in Christ Jesus
gives me a right to enter into the presence of God. Larry, did
you mean to say that? Was that a slip of the tongue?
No, no, no. In Christ Jesus, I have a worthiness to be in
heavenly glory. Wow. Look here again at verse
8 of chapter 1 here in 1 Corinthians. God, who shall also confirm you
unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were
called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. In Galatians chapter 1 verse
21, and you that were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body
of his flesh through death," now listen to this, "...to present
you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight." Man! How about that? And then in that
same chapter, verse 12, Galatians 1 and 12, Paul says, "...giving
thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in life. You know how that could
be read? God who had made us fit, made
us worthy. That's what the word meet means. He's made us worthy to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. That's why a child
of God, because of his union with the Son of God, has a right
to enter in through the gates into the city of the living God. I'm with him. Oh, the captain
of my salvation will lead a glorious multitude that no man can number
around the throne of grace and will be accepted as much as he
is accepted. Our worthiness is his worthiness.
Our merit we derive from him. I'm with him. I'm in the beloved. I'm in the beloved. How can God
have fault with me? I'm in to be loved. In to be
loved and accepted am I, risen, ascended, and seated on high,
saved from all sin through His infinite grace, with the redeemed
ones accorded to place. That's scriptural, isn't it?
To the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He had made
us accepted, in to be loved. In to be loved, how safe my retreat. In to be loved, accounted complete.
Who can condemn me? In him I am free. Savior and
keeper forever is he. There is therefore now, oh, I
don't know where now found you. It might be a lonely place. It
might be a hurting place. It might be a weeping place.
It might be a heartbreaking place. It doesn't touch this. There
is now, right now. No condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. In the Beloved, God's marvelous
grace caused me to dwell in this wonderful place. God sees my
Savior and then He sees me. In the Beloved, accepted and
free. And I renounce forth among the
heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect. For it was perfect
through my comeliness which I put upon you, saith the Lord God. In next Sunday's bulletin, there's
an article by our dear friend, faithful servant of God, Brother
Don Fortner. This is just a few sentences
of that article, but from Psalm 23 and verse 6, and I shall dwell
in the house of the Lord forever, Don wrote this. This is my hope.
I shall dwell in that house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens. The whole world is my father's
house. When I leave this world, I will not change company or
even addresses. I will just move upstairs in
the Father's house. Just going to go from the church
below to the church above. I will move upstairs to the Father's
house and hope you all will come and join me there. I was telling Robin the other
day, I really missed old Don lately. Hardly a week went by that we
didn't talk. And I think of others, others
that God's taken home. Brother Dave Common, oh, what
a dear friend he was of mine. But then I think of where they
are and who they're with. And I'm so happy for them. So
happy for them. And I hope by the same grace
that took them there that I'll join them there as well. Here's
the second thing, the last thing. In Christ Jesus, how did we get
there? Our text says, but of Him, that
is of God. All we have from God is the fountain,
and in and through Jesus Christ is the channel by which it flows
from God to you and I. From Him to us. God, Paul wrote
in 2 Timothy 1, God who has saved us and called us with the Holy
College, Not according to our works, I'm glad of that, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus. Isn't it amazing how often we
run across those three words in God's word, in Christ Jesus
before the world began. It was grace that wrote my name
in God's eternal book. It was grace that gave me to
the land who all my sorrows took. In contemplation of that, Paul
wrote all the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past
finding out. Who had known the mind of the
Lord, or who hath been his counselor, who hath first given to him,
and it shall be recompensed to him again. For of him, and through
him, and to him, are all things to whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen." That same grace that wrote
my name in God's eternal book That same grace that gave me
to the land where all my sorrows took. That same grace taught
my soul to pray and made my eyes overflow. It's that grace that
kept me to this day. Will not let me go. Will not
let me go. Our salvation is all a matter
of God's grace according to God's purpose. Christ is made unto
us, our text says, wisdom. God has made Christ to be unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
all we need. All we need. All that we can
desire. And it's by God's providing,
not ours. And He who gives us the covering
also puts it on. God provides the covering and
then He even wraps us up in it. The best robe, the righteousness
of Christ that presents us without a spot or a blemish or any such
thing. Christ is our wisdom. teaching
us how that God can be just and yet justify the ungodly. He's
our righteousness. He brought in an everlasting
righteousness to satisfy God's justice and delivers us from
sin and condemnation. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and
a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth. In his days, Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness, our sanctification,
our redemption, providing our ransom from the curse and condemnation
of sin, that our Lord told his disciples, the Son of Man has
come, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give
his life a ransom for many. And he did. He did, not by the
blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. And because he gave his life
a ransom for many, God says, deliver his soul. Deliver his
soul from going down to the pit, I found a ransom. Christ is all,
and everyone that's in him must be complete. must be complete. God spoke from heaven when Christ
was on earth saying this, this is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased. He's well pleased with all those
that are in his son. I think I've shared this story
with you. I'll give you an abbreviated version of it before I close.
There once was a man, a wealthy man who had one son. They loved
art. They loved fine art. They had
in their home pictures by painters like Picasso and Raphael and
others, and they would sit sometimes and just admire those masterpieces. It was during the Vietnam War
that that young man was called up. And in saving some of his
fellow soldiers, he lost his own life. His father was devastated. One time, one day, there was
a knock at his door and there was a young man there with a
package under his arm and he said, you don't know me, but
I'm one of those that your son saved. He said, as a matter of
fact, he was carrying me to safety when he was shot right through
the heart and died instantly. He shared with me his love and
your love for art. He said, I'm not a great artist
by any means, but he said, painted this picture of your son, he
unwrapped it and handed it to the father and his father saw
it and he was just amazed. He looked into that face of his
son and his eyes just filled with tears. He said, oh my, let
me pay you for this. He said, no, it's a gift, it's
a gift. It wasn't long after that that
the father also died. And there was an estate auction.
And people knew about these paintings and people came from all around
on the day of the auction. because they knew these paintings
would be on display, would be up for bids, and they'd hope
to get one. The auctioneer, when time came
for it to begin, set out one portrait. It was the one of the
sun. People begin to grumble. That's
not what we came here for. We're not interested in that.
We're here to bid on those Picassos, those Rembrandts, and others.
And the man said, well, we're going to do this Portrait of
the Sun first. With a bidding start at $200,
silence. $100, silence. And then finally,
there was a voice in the back of the room who said, I bid $10. It was the gardener, the gardener
that had worked for that man and his son for many years. He
was a poor man. But he said, I'll be at $10.
The auctioneer looked at him and said, hmm, $10? Nobody else
said a word. He said, well, do I hear $20?
Do I hear $20? Not a word. Somebody said, give
it to him. Give it to him. Give it to him
for $10 and let's get on with it. The auctioneer said, going
once, going twice, so for $10. That poor man sitting in the
back came and took the portrait. And the auctioneer raised his
gavel and said, auction's over. He said, what do you mean it's
over? It can't be over. He said, I
just learned today there was a stipulation by the father concerning
this auction that once the portrait of his son was taken, that whoever
bought the son gets everything else. Whoever gets the Son gets everything. Whoever gets the Son gets it
all. Those who have God's Son have
everything that God gives in His Son. Those who are in Christ
Jesus have the righteousness, the wisdom, the sanctification,
the redemption of God Almighty. So it's only reasonable that
according as it is written, He that glorious Let him glory in
the Lord. Thank God for putting us in Christ
Jesus. God bless you.