I'd like for you to take your
Bibles this morning and turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1. My subject, and I pray it will
be God's message to you this morning, is the confirmation
of God. He said many in that day will
say, we're saved, we're of Christ, I believe Him. So on, call themselves
disciples. Call themselves ambassadors of
Christ. It's not hard for a man to say,
I'm a believer. Not hard for a man to say, I'm
a child of God. But it means very little without
the confirmation of God. That's what Paul said when he
wrote to these Corinthians. And you remember who they were.
He's not talking about of people who were outstanding in their
morality. He writes this letter almost
from the beginning correcting them for immorality and pointing
out things among them. So that wasn't the confirmation
that he's talking about here. But he's talking about the confirmation
of God. Now the word confirmation is
a religious term. You'll find this term used in
churches of different kinds. My wife told me that years ago
in the Trinity Lutheran Church that her grandmother went to,
that they catechized them and then there was a little ceremony
afterward and they called that the confirmation. That's what
that was called, a confirmation. But it's a religious term, and
it's used by some as a ceremonial right of a baptized person to
be accepted into the full membership of the church, confirmed by the
elders or presbytery with the full agreement of the congregation.
The dictionary defines the term to assure or validate. Now listen close to what I'm
saying, because my whole message about this confirmation. It means
to strengthen, to establish, to make firm, to substantiate,
to authenticate, to prove, to ratify, to verify, attesting
to its accuracy and genuineness. It means to substantiate something
beyond all doubt or suspicion. And it means to do so by substantial
and tangible evidence. It means to prove something by
argument, by reasoning, and by demonstration. Confirmation. Now here in 1 Corinthians 1,
verses 6 through 8, Paul uses this term twice to verify their
standing before God. Now let's read the text together. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 4, he
said, 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 in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as
the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. so that you become behind in
no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
shall also confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom
you were called unto the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our
Lord. Faithful to what? To confirm. There are three things that I
want to point out to you this morning, and I hope it will be
a blessing to you and a comfort to you in time of trials and
trouble. Now, let's begin where the text
begins with the testimony of Christ. He said the testimony
of Christ was confirmed in them. This is how he knew their standing
before God. It was confirmed in them. My
friends, the Bible is clear as to the will of God and the means
by which His elect will be called. It clears the bed. Somebody comes
to me and they start talking about this vision they had out
on the river or a dream they had in the middle of the night
or the voice they heard when they were in trouble. Just before
I went into the operating room, I saw a light, and I heard a
voice, and all this kind of stuff. Out on the battlefield, I was
laying there dying, bleeding to death, and heard this voice. God began to speak to me, and
so on. This religious world is filled with speculations and
superstitious ideas about the calling of God. Some believe
that it comes in the form of a vision or a feeling. Something
overwhelms them and suddenly they're filled with an urgency
to seek the Lord. Others believe it's within the
power of men to convince the sinner. That's why they have
these long, drawn-out altar calls. We used to have those in the
Nazarene church I attended as a child. get to the end of a
message that said absolutely nothing, and then they sing,
I don't know how many verses, just as I am, and they go on
and on and on, trying to get your foot in the aisle, trying
to get a hand up, every eye closed, every head bowed, and on and
on. The reason they do that is because they believe that it's
within the power of a man to convince you of these gospel
truths. And then others believe it's
just a matter of education, so they catechize their children
and address their congregations much like a college professor
lectures to their students. And others believe that God's
calling comes in the form of supernatural experiences. Supernatural
experiences. But the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians
2, verse 13, that God hath from the beginning. Here's what Paul
said. If you'll read through that chapter,
he talks about the spirit of Antichrist. He talks about the
deceit of Satan, that man of sin, that son of perdition, that
spirit of religion that comes along and captivates man and
takes men captive at his will. Lies. Lies and deceit. Just as He deceived the woman,
He deceives this world. But He said, I thank God for
you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath chosen
you from the beginning unto salvation. Now listen, through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you
by our gospel. He called you by our gospel. Peter tells us that we're born
again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the Word
of God, and this is the Word of God which by the gospel is
preached unto you. It's a man called of God taking
this book and reading to you from the book the way I had this
morning, and saying, this is what that means. This is what
that's saying. That's the Word preached. declared
to men dogmatically. And then if that's not clear
enough, listen to what Paul tells those that he just confirmed
to be confirmed of God. Listen to this. He tells them
in verse 21 of our text, that after that, in the wisdom of
God, the world by wisdom knew not God, yet pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believed. They had salvation wrapped up
in baptism. And Paul baptized people, but
he said, thank God I didn't baptize none of you except for this one
or two. He said, otherwise you'd be running around telling people
that I saved you. He said, God didn't send me to
baptize. That's not my station. That's
not what God sent me to do. God sent me to preach the gospel. And unto those that are being
saved, It's the wisdom of God. They see that. They see this
is the only way God can save sinners. They're happy about
it. They're happy about that. They
find joy in it. It rings the bell. It turns on
the light. They see it. But unto them that
are perishing, absolute foolishness. Absolute foolishness. My nephew
told me one time, he said, I see what you're saying. And he said,
if I understand the scriptures that you read to me, he said,
I believe what you're saying so. But he said, here's the gray
area. He said, how is a person like
me? who have not schooled in the Scriptures, who have never
studied the Scriptures. How is a person like me? He said,
you tell me this is the truth and read from the book. This
man reads from the book and he tells me this is the truth. This
man reads from the book and tells me this is the truth. How in
the world can I ever know who is telling the truth? And here is what I told him.
You never will. You never will. apart from the
grace of God. You never will. What you'll do
is you'll keep going church to church to church until you find
something that suits your personality, that suits whatever preconceived
notions that you have about the Bible and about God. And you'll
find that, and you'll find peace there and happiness there, and
that's where you'll stay until you wake up in hell. But by the
grace of God, He told those Thessalonians, he said, I know your election
of God because when my gospel came to you, it didn't come in
word only, but it came in power and demonstration of the Spirit
of God. He demonstrated in you and to
you how God saves sinners in Christ Jesus. Turn with me to John chapter
1. In John's Gospel, he begins by
telling us of the eternal Son of God. That's where the Gospel starts,
with the Son of God. Eternal. God over all, blessed
forever. He's the Word. In the beginning,
he tells us in verse 1, was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. Everything that is holds its
being and existence to Him. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. He's the Word. And then God sent
a man, a man called John the Baptist, verse 7. He came for
a witness to bear witness of that light, that eternal light,
that eternal Word. He came to bear witness of Him.
A prophet chosen of God, a man, an ambassador of God sent into
this world to declare the coming of Christ. And he came for a
witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might
believe. Verse 10. I was talking about
the Christ that John bore witness of. He was in the world, and
the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. Think
about that. He created this world and cast
such a light in the creation of it that man can be held accountable
for his unbelief of what is declared in that creation. He tells you
that in Romans chapter 1. They are without excuse because
God has revealed things to them in the creation of the world.
They're clearly seeing His power and His God. He came unto His
own. That's the next place. He was
in the world. The world was made by Him. The
world bears witness to Him. The world bears a light of Christ
in it. But the world didn't know who
He was. He didn't have a clue who he was. And he came unto
his own, his own people, the people that he separated from
the world, the Jews. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
now listen to me, received him how? Just liked the way he looked?
What's he talking about there, though? As many as received him. They're talking about received
him by the testimony of John, the witness of the light. He
came and proclaimed him. And as many as received him as
John proclaimed him. You see what this is teaching?
Received him as John sent him forth. Received him as he was
declared. Both by John and himself, to
them, to them, gave He power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name, who were born. Who were born. How were they born? They weren't
born by the will of man. Isn't that what that says? They weren't born by the will
of the flesh. They were born of God. God confirms His people
to be His people by saving revelation of Christ in the Gospel. And
that which He uses to confirm, He also has confirmed. See, everything
in this thing of salvation is confirmed of God in an undeniable
way. It's confirmed. It's not conjecture. People tell me all the time,
well, that's your opinion. No, it's not my opinion. This is
not conjecture. It's not my opinion. This is
something verified, ratified, confirmed of God. And everything
about it is confirmed. You go through the Scriptures.
Some of you have Strong's Concordances and other types of concordances.
Get you one. Find that word confirmed, confirmation,
so on. Go through the Scriptures and
look at it. And you'll find in detail every possible thing that
has to do with this salvation confirmed of God. All of it. He confirms His people to be
His people by saving revelation of Christ, and that which He
uses to confirm, He also confirms. The Son of God was confirmed
of God by miracles and wonders and signs. God confirmed His
Son by the fulfilling of all the Old Testament prophecies
and promises concerning Him. Go through there, and this happened,
that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. And this, He went
here that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. And they said this,
that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. On and on and on. That's God confirming this to
be His Son. Confirmed Him in His baptism.
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. God confirmed
His Son by resurrection from the dead. A resurrection from
the dead. Now, we're not talking about
hearsay. This is not two or three disciples
coming back and telling the folks what they've seen. Christ hung
around for a long time after His resurrection. I believe it
was 40 days after His resurrection. And He appeared to His disciples
and He appeared to To Mary, He appeared to all kinds of people,
and He tells us over in 1 Corinthians 15 that He appeared to over 500
brethren at one time. We're not talking about hearsay.
We're talking about something confirmed of God. He confirmed Him in His death,
and He confirmed Him in His resurrection, and He confirmed Him as He ascended
up into glory with His holy angels. And then He confirmed His Son
by a great cloud of witnesses. That's what He tells us in Hebrews
chapter 11. And how shall we escape if we
neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken
by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him?
That's a great cloud. All these apostles, prophets
in the early church. The resurrection of Christ was
witnessed by over 500 brethren at one time. And God confirmed
His covenant in Christ. You know, folks don't even know
what a covenant is anymore. You talk about the covenant.
When I first began to read some of these old writers, I'd read
and they'd talk about an everlasting covenant of grace. And I'm like,
what? What's he talking about? I thought this was something
that was in the written law of God or something. I didn't understand
what it was. It's an everlasting covenant
of grace. That's God's purpose of grace,
to save a people for His glory. And He confirmed that covenant
in Christ. Listen to this. Galatians 3,
verse 15. God comes down and He reveals
this covenant, this everlasting covenant to Abraham. He also
revealed it to Noah and many others, but He revealed it to
Abraham. And He said, though it be but
a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, if this covenant given
to this man be confirmed of God, then no man disacknowledgeth,
and no man can add to it. If God confirms this thing, it
is so. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but unto thy seed, which is Christ." He confirmed His
covenant in Christ. And this divine covenant of grace
being confirmed in Christ, not even the holy law of God can
take away. And if that isn't enough, God
confirms it by an oath. Listen to this. Hebrews 6, verse
17. wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs
of promise the immutability of his counsel, the unchangeableness
of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable
things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have
a strong consolation who had fled for refuge to lay hold on
the hope set before us. God confirmed it with an oath,
John. And he said, because I couldn't swear by any greater, he said,
I swore by myself. That ought to be good enough,
shouldn't it? God put His name on the line. I swear by myself. That's good enough. So here's the first thing. The
testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. Christ became your hope,
your master, your desire, your life. of the truth to the very resting of our souls
upon it. That bounces off folks like
water off a duck's back. I'm talking about your eternal
soul. Will you rest that on Christ? Will you rest that on Christ?
Let me ask you this, will you rest that on Christ alone? Huh? No righteousness. Not what you
do. Not what you think. Not how many
times you pray. Not how many times you come through
that door. Will you rest your eternal soul in the hands of
Christ alone? Faith does. Faith does. Faith rests its future. It rests
its presence. It rests in trials. It rests
in Christ. Christ alone. Christ alone. And then secondly, he tells us
that Christ shall also confirm us. He shall establish, prove,
substantiate beyond all doubt that we are the true sons of
God. Let me give you several things here to think about. First
of all, God confirms us by a divine arrangement of providence. This world is a big place. Big
place. And as far as I can tell, there
are not much more than a couple of handfuls of preachers out
there preaching it. And they don't preach to every
man, woman, and child in this world. Who do they preach to? They preach to folks that God
has arranged by His divine providence for them and that preacher to
cross paths. Now that's just the way it is.
That's the way it is. He confirms you by divine arrangement
of providence. Think about that. Saul wasn't
looking for God. He wasn't looking for any of
those things. He was tied up in religion. He was persecuting
Christians. He had no desire to do anything. He wasn't seeking this God. He
wasn't seeking this Christ. God appeared to him and unhorsed
that proud rebel and put his face in the mud. And then he
sent him down to a preacher who told him the truth. God confirms us by divine arrangement
of providence. God sent Christ to Samaria. He sent Christ through Jericho. Philip was sent to the Ethiopian
eunuch, and Paul was sent to Lydia. That's an interesting
story. I don't know if you've ever read
much about it or put these things together, but I heard them in
a sermon years ago. Paul wanted to go to Lydia's
hometown where she lived, and the Holy Ghost prevented him
from going there. He prevented him from going there
because Lydia wasn't there. She was somewhere else. The Lord
opened the door for Paul to preach, and there were just a handful
of women, and they met down on the riverbank, and he found out
where they met and where he had to go to worship. He went down
there, and lo and behold, here's Lydia. And he preached to her. That's God's divine providence. I know we like to have our own
speculations and things and our own hand in everything, but I'm
telling you this, when everything's said and done, it's God's providence
that crosses your path with His preacher. Those Pharisees murmured. They wrote the crowd off as a
bunch of ignorant folks. They'd believe anything. They
believe this man. He's not the Christ. If He was
the Christ, we'd know it. We'd know it. We're the ones
who look for Him. We're the appointed ones. We're
the uppity ups. He wouldn't bypass us. But He
did. Huh? And they murmured. They just
murmured, murmured, murmured, murmured, murmured. He looked
at him and he said, don't murmur. Just quit murmuring. Listen to
what he tells him. No man can come to me except
the Father which sent me draw him. Draw him. And I'll raise him
up at the last day. And then the Holy Ghost Himself
asks you and I this question, how shall you hear without a
preacher, and how shall he preach except he be sent? And then secondly,
God confirms us by the presence and power of His Spirit. He said,
because ye are sons. How did you get to be sons? God
the Father. By divine and eternal purpose
of grace. chose His sons. He made you sons. By an eternal sanctification,
He set you apart from all other men to be sons. That's what the
Scripture says. And He confirms us by the presence
and power of His Spirit. He said, Because you are sons,
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father. Paul preached to the Jews and
they got upset and they left. They said, we've had enough.
No more to do with this. Gentiles said, oh no, don't leave.
Don't leave. Come back and preach to us. If
they don't want to hear it, that's their business. But we want to
hear it. And Paul came back and preached. And you know what it
said in the book of Acts? It said, as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. Not as many as believed, were
then ordained to it? No, that ain't what it says.
It says, as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Every
son of God given to Christ, purchased by Christ, called by the Holy
Spirit of Christ, they're all going to believe. They're all
going to believe. No question about it. And then thirdly, God confirms
us by the gifts of His free and sovereign grace. Paul said, He
has confirmed you. How did He do it? How did He
do it? He said, because you came behind
in no gift. In no gift. What in the world
is he talking about? Gifts of tongues? Is that what he's talking
about? Gifts of healing? What kind of gifts is he talking
about? He's talking about the gift of faith. The gift of life,
the gift of Christ, the gift of repentance. Faith is the gift of God, he
said, not of works, lest any man should boast. Repentance
is the gift of God, which effectually works in the hearts of believers,
turning them from sin and the world to Christ. Love is the
gift of God, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. In fact, if you take inventory,
the believer will discover that everything he has is a gift of
God. What have you gotten that you
have not received? And if you received it, why do
you act like you didn't? It's the free gift of God. Even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you so that you came behind in no gift. And
then fourthly, God confirms us by divine the preservation by
which we persevere in the faith of His elect. We are the household
of Christ, He said, if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing
of the whole firm unto the end. Listen to this in Hebrews 10,
verses 38 and 39. He said, the just shall live
by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul will have no pleasure
But, but, oh, I love that word. But, we're not of them who draw
back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of
the soul. You see that? That's God's confirmation
of you. He preserves you through a perseverance
of faith. We're kept by the power of God
through faith. That's what Peter said. Kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time.
Everything built on this foundation of Christ, Paul tells us, I think
it's in 1 Corinthians 3, will be tried by fire. It's going to be tried by fire.
You say, well, I believe this. Well, you better know this. God's
going to try it. God's going to try it. Preacher, you really think that
fellow's a believer? I don't know. Give him about ten years. Give him about ten years. We'll
see. Whatever it is he's professed,
God's going to try it. He's going to put it through
the fire. He's going to burn off all the grass. The only thing
that's going to be left is pure grace. There is a work done in man by
the sovereign Spirit of God, and that work must pass through
the refiner's fire, and all the dross removed. He said the day
shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. So
God confirms us by His free and sovereign gifts of grace. And
then last of all, the text says, Who shall also confirm you unto
the end, that you might be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, Paul told those heathen philosophers on Mars
Hill over in Acts chapter 17, he said, God hath appointed a
day into which He will judge this world in righteousness by
that man whom He hath ordained. By that man, the Lord Jesus Christ. God will judge it in righteousness.
pure, continual righteousness. And at the same time, he'd given
assurance to all men in that he raised that same man from
the dead, that representative man. This is a day in which every
man's account will be squared. Every believer will be proven
beyond all doubt and beyond all argument to be justified in the
sight of God, or as Paul says in the text, blameless in that
day. All his sins justly charged and
paid in Christ, a righteousness without flaw, without spot or
blemish or any such thing. He'll be confirmed of God to
be blameless. And no doubt left about it. And all of that without compromise
of God. All those who trusted in their
works will be judged by their works. All those who followed
another Jesus and another spirit and another gospel will be judged
as idolaters along with a false prophet who told them the lie.
It will matter little in that day what the multitude thought,
or what your denomination taught, or what your parents believed.
It's not going to matter in that day. In that day, the only thing
that's going to matter is the confirmation of God. Huh? That's it. That's it. And where is that confirmation?
In Christ. In Christ. Whosoever, this is
Revelation 20 verse 15, whosoever was not found written in the
book of life was cast into the lake of fire. To me, one of the
greatest evidences of man's depravity is his unbelief of God and indifference
to the judgment and eternal state of his soul. I never cease to
be amazed by unbelief. And disconcern. Disconcern. Well, I'd have been there. I'd
have been there. I'd have been there. But... And then some of
the most ridiculous things you ever heard in your life. I've
been on both ends. I've been on the hearing end
of that and I've been on the giving end of that. So I know what I'm
talking about. How shall you escape? If you
neglect. Boy, we need to look that word
up and see what that means. If we neglect, so great salvation. Neglect the means. Neglect the
messenger. Neglect the Son of God. If we
neglect, how are we going to escape? For God to call you, regenerate
you, reveal Himself to you and in you. This is what it means
to be confirmed of God. To give you an insatiable appetite
for the Gospel of Christ and a loving fellowship with Christ
and His Church. That's what it means. To confirm
you as His own even in death and judgment. You know, we're not immune to
diseases. We're not immune to death and
sickness. But the difference is the believer finds peace.
He has a peace with His. He has hope with His. His is
not a slam shut door on life. It's an open door into glory. Totally different outlook to
these things. The confirmation of God. He confirms
all and everything that He gives us to believe. He confirms. He
confirms His Son, confirms the Gospel, confirms His Messenger.
He confirms everything about it. All of the prophets that's
contained in this book, all of the apostles were confirmed by
miracles and wonders and signs, the same as Christ was. Everything's
confirmed. His resurrection, everything
that I preached to you this morning, God has confirmed. Now I'll tell
you where I'm going to leave. I'm going to leave it in the
hands of His Holy Spirit to confirm you, to confirm you, and to confirm
His gospel, this testimony of Christ in you. That's what it
means to preach His gospel.