I wonder if I will ever learn
God's ways are not my ways, and God's thoughts are not my thoughts. God's ways are not your ways.
God's thoughts are not your thoughts. None of us would ever choose
the path God chooses for us. None of us would ever do the
things that God in his wise, good, adorable providence has
ordained for us. But God's ways and God's thoughts
are not only right, they are the very best way and the very
best thought that could possibly be. John Newton summarized it
well in a hymn I often quote to you. I asked the Lord that
I might grow in faith and love and every grace. Might more of
his salvation know and seek more earnestly his face. T'was he
who taught me thus to pray and he I trust has answered prayer.
But it has been in such a way as almost drove me to despair. I hoped that in some favored
hour, at once he'd answer my request and by his love's constraining
power, subdue my sins and give me rest. Instead of this, he
made me feel the hidden evils of my heart and let the angry
powers of hell assault my soul in every part. Yea, more, with
his own hand he seemed intent to aggravate my woe, crossed
every fair design I schemed, and blasted my gourds and laid
me low. Lord, why is this? I trembling
cried. Will thou pursue thy worm to
death? Tis in this way, the Lord replied.
I answer prayer for grace and faith. These inward trials I
employ from self and pride to set thee free and make thy schemes
of earthly joy or break thy schemes of earthly joy that thou may
seek thy all in me. Turn with me, if you will, to
1 Corinthians 15. I tried my best to prepare the
message from Ephesians six, but the Lord just wouldn't let me
get away from this. And I'm sure there's a reason. First Corinthians
15, we'll begin at verse one. I'll be working my way down to
verse 10. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which also you have
received. and wherein you stand. When Paul uses that definite
article to identify the gospel, he's telling us that there is
but one. It is the gospel which I preach
to you. The good news of heaven, the
good news proclaimed by God in his word, the good news of God
to sinners upon the earth, The gospel is good news of redemption,
salvation, and grace accomplished. And that is what God has sent
his servants to declare. Every time I stand before you
or stand before any congregation, be it small or great, it is my
responsibility and my great privilege to preach the gospel. And if
I do not preach the gospel to you, I would be better off and
you would be better off if I didn't preach. I'm not here to convince
you of Baptist doctrine or Calvinistic doctrine or any system or any
creed. I'm here to proclaim to you the
good news of redemption and grace in Christ Jesus. I have nothing
else to preach. It is the gospel, the gospel,
that every saved sinner, all who know God, we who are brethren
and all who are our brethren in Christ, it is the gospel that
we have received. The Lord God revealed it to us
and we gladly bow to it, acknowledging all that's revealed in it. It
is the gospel wherein we stand. What a blessed place to stand.
Standing in the grace of God, we have access to, acceptance
with, we are redeemed, justified, sanctified, accepted, and kept
standing in Christ Jesus the Lord. By which also ye are saved. Now watch the next word, if.
If you're saved, you will. If you're not, you won't. By
which also ye are saved if you keep in memory, if you hold fast
that which I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. It is the gospel by which God
saves sinners. Salvation does not come to men
by any other means than by the preaching of the gospel. God
ordained by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That's the reason we give ourselves
to this labor. That's the reason we send missionaries
around the world. That's the reason you send your
pastor or wherever God opens the door to preach the gospel.
This is the means, the only means by which God saves sinners. We're
saved by the gospel if, and only if, we continue in the gospel. If we be not moved away from
the hope of the gospel by anything. By anything. moved away from
it by ambition, moved away from it by our own pride, moved away
from it by some temptation to evil, be moved away from it by
some false doctrine. If you moved away from it, you
believed in vain. And your profession of faith
is nothing but that, just an empty profession of faith, and
the time will come, you'll prove it, for you'll abandon the gospel. Verse three. For I delivered
unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. The gospel
is all about a person. The gospel is a person. called me earlier in the week
and asked if I'd preach in his conference in December for him. And of course I'm honored to
do so. He said, I'm going to ask all the preachers, every one
of them, to bring a message on what is the Gospel. I guess that
may be what got me started thinking in this direction. The Gospel
is a person, not a creed. Now just a doctrine, a person,
that person is Jesus Christ the Lord. The preaching of the gospel
is the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It is preaching
who He is, what He did, and what He accomplished by doing it.
It is the preaching of Christ and his cross, Christ and him
crucified, Christ and his salvation. Now, what's that little word
Hal? I've stressed this before you many, many times, but I don't
want you to miss it. I'm fully aware of the fact that
there is no word actually corollary to this word Hal in the Greek
text. It was added by our translators.
But it was added for a reason, a very, very good reason. Sometimes in translating from
one language to another, it's necessary to add a word in order
to give sense to what you're saying, to give the proper sense
of the original text. In this case, this word how is
not only needful, it's absolutely necessary. In fact, 1 Corinthians
15, 3, as it reads in our English translation, without this added
word in the text does not give the sense of the text. You see,
the preaching of the gospel is not just declaring the historic
fact that Christ died for our sins as the scripture said he
would die, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third
day as the scripture said that he would. If that's accepted
as the gospel, just those historic facts, then you would have to
conclude that every papist, and every Mormon, and every Russellite,
And every Campbellite, all are saved because they all acknowledge
that. And while denying the very Godhead
of Christ, many folks say that he was died and buried and rose
again the third day according to the scriptures. The facts
of history are not the gospel, but rather it is how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. How is it that
the Son of God died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the
third day according to the Scriptures. He died for our sins according
to the prophecy, the picture, and the types given in the Old
Testament Scriptures. That's all Paul is talking about
here. The New Testament had not yet been combined. Paul was writing
part of it when he wrote this epistle. He's referring then
to the Old Testament scriptures. He's saying from Genesis to Malachi,
God told us how his son would die, what his son would do, what
he would accomplish in his death. How did he die according to the
scriptures? He died just like those sacrifices
in all the Old Testament portrayed, a sin atoning sacrifice. He died by divine appointment. in precisely the place, at precisely
the time, in precisely the manner that God, before he came into
this world, said he would die. Our Lord Jesus died to satisfy
the justice of God so that God might show himself a just God
and a Savior. He died so that God might be
just and the justifier of all who believe. That means he died
in the room and place of a specific people, a substitutionary sacrifice. If you read the Old Testament
scriptures, when Abraham and the high priest in Israel offered
sacrifices, they offered those sacrifices only for Israel. No one else was involved. No
one else was included. No one else was invited. No one
else was asked to come and attend. Israel and Israel alone was represented
by Aaron. And Israel and Israel alone blessed
by Aaron as the result of the sacrifice. The Lord Jesus died
as a substitute for the Israel of God. He died in the room instead
of chosen sinners. Those sinners God loved with
an everlasting love, and those sinners who believe on Christ
in time, and those sinners for whom Christ died are exactly
the same people. He didn't die for anyone else.
The Lord Jesus, dying in our stead, died as a scapegoat sacrifice. He's portrayed in that scapegoat. It took two goats on the Day
of Atonement. Picture what was done. The sacrifice for the Lord
that was slain, whose blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat,
and the scapegoat, who's carried by the hands of a fit man into
the place of an uninhabited land, where the sins of the people
were carried away. And so the Lord Jesus carried
away our sins. He purged our sins. He put our
sins away. He removed them from us as far
as the east is from the west. Our Lord Jesus died as an effectual
sacrifice, giving acceptance with and access to the thrice
holy God. When he died, the veil, the separated
God in man, place from the holy of holies. That veil, that thick,
thick veil that hung between the holy place and the holy of
holies, all those 2,000 years, that veil was rent from top to
bottom. And God says, come in, you're
welcome and accepted. Through the blood of Christ the
Lord, this sacrifice, the sacrifice of our Redeemer, accomplished
everything the prophets in the Old Testament said God's sacrifice
would accomplish. We believe that Jesus is the
Christ. He is that Messiah who actually
did what God said the Messiah would do. He's the Christ of
God. Verse 4, and that he was buried
and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Our Lord Jesus Christ was buried. just like the prophets said he
would be buried, and he rose again the third day, exactly
like the prophets said he would rise from the scriptures, as
Jonah was in the heart of the earth for three days and three
nights. So the Son of God, he who is
greater than Jonah, was buried in the heart of the earth, and
on the third day raised up from the dead and we were raised up
with him exactly as the scriptures declare. Listen to this. You
don't have to turn there. In Isaiah 26, 19. Our Savior
says, thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall
they arise. What a statement. He says, he
said, when my dead body comes out of the grave, you, my spiritually
dead people will come out of the grave with me. And we were
raised up together with Christ and made to sit together with
him in heavenly places. After three days will he revive
us. In the third day he will raise
us up and we shall live in his sight. That's the promise of
the gospel. That's the declaration of the
gospel. that everlasting glory is crowned
our Savior and our God, Christ the Lord. Tis he who brought
salvation down, proclaimed throughout the world his word. Should all
the things that men devise assault my faith with treacherous art,
I'd call them vanity and lies and bind this gospel to my heart. Then in verses 5-9, Paul tells
us that the resurrection of Christ is an indisputable fact of history. An indisputable fact of history. I went back again today and looked
at the 12 times the Lord Jesus, after He arose from the dead,
was seen of men. Paul describes it in verses 5-9. He was seen sometimes by just
one. Then by two or three. And then
by the 12, he was often seen. At last, Paul says, he was seen
by 500 brethren at one time. They weren't deluded. They weren't
all mistaken. They all attested, we've seen
the Christ, the very one we saw three days ago hanging on the
tree. We've seen him in his flesh. And last of all, he was seen
by the apostle Paul by special revelation. Now, look at verse
10. Here's my text and my subject.
I hope never to tire of declaring it and never to tire of confessing
it and never to tire of meditating on it. But by the grace of God,
I am what I am. What Paul here declares of himself,
Every sinner saved by the grace of God gladly and constantly
acknowledges, by the grace of God, I am what I am. Paul knew nothing of human merit.
He did not deserve that God should even consider him and he acknowledged
it. He had been a blasphemer, a persecutor,
injurious to the church. But he said, I obtained mercy.
And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was exceeding abundant. For this saved sinner, there
was no creed, no confession of faith more suitable to his own
experience than this. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. And that's my doctrine. That's
my confession. First, I want you to understand
this. All my doctrine, all that I believe, all that I preach,
and I pray God give me grace to preach it until I leave this
world, is this. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. The source of God's goodness
lies altogether in His sovereign mercy. Everything in salvation was accomplished
for us by Jesus Christ alone. And everything experienced is
accomplished in us by Jesus Christ alone by the power and grace
of His Holy Spirit. He chose us, He redeemed us,
He justified us, and He called us. And it is Christ alone who
preserves us. Christ alone who keeps us. Christ alone who holds us. If any sinner is lost and goes
to hell, it'll be his own fault. You'll have no one to blame but
yourself. And if you're saved, enter into God's glory. It's
all God's doing. And every sinner who knows God
knows that. He or she may not be able to
articulate it as well as another. Every sinner who knows God knows
and confesses that salvation, the salvation of his soul is
altogether the doing of God. Let me tell you what I am. what
I am by nature, and what I am in Christ. I'm a sinner by birth,
a sinner by nature, a sinner by habit, and a sinner by practice
all the time. All the time. In God's good grace,
he has so ordained that I live in this world. and you too. Constantly made aware of our
sin. Constantly confronted with our
sin. By the grace of God, Paul says,
I am what I am. What a blessed name Peter gives
to our God, the God of all grace. I am, by God's grace, a sinner
who believes on Christ. I rest my soul on the Son of
God. Nothing else. Nothing else. I don't pretend to have confident
knowledge about many things. There was a time when I did,
when I was a young man, I started pastoring when I was 21 years
old, far too young for any man I think to start pastoring, but
God arranged it in his providence and I did. And I'll tell you
something, there wasn't anything I didn't know. There wasn't anything
I wasn't sure about. I mean, everything. I had dotted
and every T crossed, and I had the world by the tail on a downhill
pull, and nobody was gonna tell me any difference. And I found
out I didn't know much. And I'm still learning it. But
this I know. Christ alone is my righteousness,
my redemption, my salvation. I have no confidence in anything
I've ever experienced, anything I've ever felt, anything I've
ever done, anything I've ever said, not even in anything I've
ever learned. I have confidence in Christ alone.
That's all. That's all. I trust him as my mediator. my righteousness, my holiness,
my sanctification, my salvation. I do so because God has graciously
taught me to do so. He's given me the grace to do
so. And trusting him, this is a wonder that's beyond,
Bill, anything I can get my mind around, but trusting him, I'm
perfectly holy, perfectly righteous, without sin, before God. With His spotless garments on,
as holy as God's own Son. The Lord God has made me His
own, made me righteous, just, and holy in and with Jesus Christ
His Son by His own sovereign decree before the world began.
Before the world was, He said, Don Fortner is righteous. He's
justified, he's sanctified, he's glorified. That's what God said
before the world was. Now I remind you, this is deep,
deep, deep theology. It took me years to learn it. It's deep, but I'm telling you,
it's the most wondrous thing in the world. However it is that
God sees things, that's how they really are. God says, before the world was,
I'm righteous and holy and just and sanctified and glorified
in Christ. That means that's how things
really were. No matter how you perceive it,
no matter how I perceive it, that's the way it was. And then
in the fullness of time, God sent his son to redeem our souls
at Calvary. And by his grace, he made us
before law, righteous, holy, and just, sanctified and justified
by the doing and dying of his son. And then he comes by the
gift of his grace and put Christ in us. making us new creatures,
giving us a new nature, making us partakers of the divine nature,
giving us that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord,
giving us faith in Jesus Christ with which we receive all this
bounteous grace. 2 Corinthians chapter 7. The apostle says, having therefore
these promises dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from
all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in
the fear of God. I have been challenged a few
times to preach on this perfecting of holiness. So I try to oblige
those who challenge me in such a regard. And I declared everywhere
I possibly can, the perfecting of holiness is not God starts
you off on a good track and he plants a little seed of holiness
in you. And then if you are disciplined and you read your Bible enough
and pray enough pull your bootstraps high enough and you get so holy
nobody can stand you and you're right for heaven. Then you've
perfected holiness. No, that's called works. The
perfecting of holiness is trusting Christ. It's forsaking all free
will, works, religion, forsaking Babylon and resting in Christ
alone. This holiness that we have is
that which we receive by faith in the Son of God. The Lord Jesus
came to put away sin, and in Him is no sin. And now being born of God, we
who are in Him have been given a nature that can not sin. But what about all our sin? Yeah,
that too. That's what we are. That's what
we got from Adam. And we live with Adam until we
die. but all the while there's in
us this new man created in righteousness and in true holiness. The believer
then before God in Christ is a perfect and upright man and
God will not cast away a perfect man. That's what I am. That's what I am by God's free
grace. I hope you know something about
that. Second, this is my constant experience. You see, I know what I am by
nature. What I was and where I was when
God stopped me in my mad rush to hell. And I'm made to constantly
acknowledge and gladly confess, by the grace of God, I am what
I am. Like you, I struggle with my
sin. I can't tell you how I struggle
with my sin, the evil that's in me. I lay on my bed at night
and try to pray, and every vile thing in the world runs through
my mind. I beg God, oh God, just till I go to sleep, take this
from me. I struggle with it all the time. All the time. Every
day, all the time. My sin. My sin is ever before
me. Compelling me to confess. By
the grace of God, I am what I am. I haven't grown one whit above
sin since the day God saved me. You say, well, you just see things
more. I don't think that's the case. Mark, I'm fully convinced
as the longer we live in this world, the more vile, obnoxious,
and rotten that old man becomes. Just corruption, just corruption. So when I'm preserved from any
outward temptation, kept from any temptation by which I would
give occasion for God's enemies to blaspheme, by which I would
dishonor the name of God, kept from any temptation by which
I might bring reproach on you, or the name of my Redeemer. I
acknowledge that it's God alone who kept me. By the grace of
God, I am what I am. When I'm kept in the midst of
trials, trials that at times you think
are going to destroy you, Trials that at the time you think are
his mercies clean, gone forever. Trials that at the time make
you think that God has shut heaven against you and God's turned
his back upon you and God will never speak to you again when
we're kept in the midst of those trials, when we can't pray. and can't communicate with God. Can't draw an eye to Him. When we can't see His face, He
keeps us. And the reason is this. By the
grace of God, I am what I am. When I'm kept in those trials,
though I see others fall, whom I have esteemed highly, fall
from the faith, depart from the gospel. I don't know about you, but I
tremble. I tremble. I tremble. You see, I've watched men and
women whom I considered and esteemed to be indescribably greater,
stronger, more noble than I ever dreamed of being, utterly abandoned
the gospel. I've seen it happen more than
once, enough that I never want to see it again. But every time
I see it, I'm made to confess by the grace of God, I am what
I am. And when I've been privileged
to experience a little reviving, oh, that's so good. We love the mountaintop experiences. We love that time of reviving
after some time of horrid declation, but God never lets it last too
long. He never lets it last too long.
Most of the time, we spend down in the valley. That's where stuff
grows. Up on the mountaintop, the air
is thin and you feel good, but nothing grows up there. He keeps
us in the valley. Then he brings us to the mountaintop
with a little refreshing, and we're glad to confess, by the
grace of God, I am what I am. And then sometimes, He will for a moment, a day,
a year, a while. I don't have any idea how long.
With Peter, it was a matter of just a few days. With David,
it was a year. He leaves you to yourself and lets you have what you think
you wanted. and then graciously restores
your soul. And you learn and give thanks,
oh, oh yes. I've learned now as I never learned
before and could not have otherwise learned. By the grace of God,
I am what I am. And if God allows us to be made
a blessing to someone else. I pray like this all the time.
God, make me today a blessing to your people, not a hurt, not
an injury, not a harm. Because Mark Daniel, we are most
inclined to hurt, injure, and harm. That's our nature. That's our
nature. And when God graciously allows
us to be a blessing to somebody.
I mean, help them. I mean, help them. Help them
in their hearts. Help them in their souls. Help
them in body. When God allows us and enables
us to profit somebody else's soul, oh God, I recognize and
confess by the grace of God, I am what I am. And when at last
I stand with Christ in glory, I will confess with unspeakable
joy, by the grace of God, I am what I am. This is my grateful
acknowledgement. I realize that the only distinction
between me and any other human being is the distinction that
grace has made. God in his grace snatched me
as a brand from the burning. I was running mad to hell with
both fists shoved in God's face, and I cared nothing for grace
and nothing for God until the Lord stepped in and said, hitherto
shalt thou go, and no further, and snatched me from destruction. I've told you a few times back
when I was selling shoes, I was 19 years old on Trade Street
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, And most of our customers were
black, it was a section of town where probably 75% of our customers
were black. And back in the days when folks
used to lay stuff away, I don't guess anybody does that anymore,
but somebody come in and buy a $20 pair of shoes, they'd put
$2 down and come in and pay $2 every month until they got them.
And I was working on this lady one day, she's an older lady,
skinny as a rail, just skinny as a rail. And I started taking
down her name and address and stuff, telephone number on the
receipt, give her a receipt for her $2 and ask her for her name.
She said, Grace Grabs. I said, what? She said, Grace
Grabs. I said, ma'am, I don't know whether
you know it or not, but that's just what Grace does. She said,
sure do, honey. Oh, may God grab you by his grace
and set you on the rock, Christ Jesus. This grace bestowed upon
me was not in vain. Because here I am, preaching
it to you. It was not in vain. Because here
you are, worshiping the God of all grace with me. It was not
in vain, because soon, soon, I'll find my place seated with
Christ on his throne in everlasting glory, and in the last day, have
the great joy of presenting you, who are his, as a chaste virgin
to Jesus Christ, by the grace of God. Amen.