Now, turn back with me to 1 Corinthians. I want to make some comments
out of this first chapter and maybe a few from the second chapter. Brother Fortner asked me to read
the scriptures and lead the congregation in prayer down in New Caney the
other night before the ordination service. And as I looked through
the scriptures looking for something, appropriate to that occasion,
I came on these scriptures here in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2. And in thinking about those scriptures,
I made this comment to the congregation. I believe that I personally have
learned more about preaching and preachers from these two
chapters than anywhere else in the Bible. I was listening to a message
by Brother Mahan on verses 30 and 31, and he said verse 30,
according to the old writers, which he was in agreement with,
was the most comprehensive verse in the Bible. Just look at what
this verse takes in. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. That's pretty inclusive, isn't
it? And among those old writers was Charles Spurgeon and John
Yields, the most comprehensive of all the verses in the Bible.
Well, five things came to my mind as I thought about this
ordination and that gospel witness that God given and preserved
both there and here. And I won't get right into these
things, and I won't give you these five or six things, and
you'll be thinking about these things and praying about these
things, and I want you to see them as they are declared. Now,
if you paid attention when I read through chapter 1, Paul words
his introduction to this church a little differently than he
does in his other epistles. He says in verse 2, Under the
church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in
Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place
called upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. And he said
that in everything, verse 5, You are enriched by him in all
utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you." Now, this church had some difficulties,
and they had some enemies of Christ that had crept in unawares
and had begun to not so much with with doctrinal things as
it was with spirit and attitude, had begun to lead them in the
wrong direction. And they began to glory among
themselves about whose ministry they were converted under and
that And in that, that this man had certain powers that this
man didn't have. Or this man had more gifts than
this one did. And so my conversion was a little
better than yours. Or I'm a little more fit to approach
Christ than you are, because I was converted under Paul. I
was converted under Peter. I was converted under Apollos. And you see what I'm saying?
And men do that. Do that. Where was you converted? Oh, I came out of Henry Mahan's
term. But you mention somebody that
is little known, and they just write you off like you don't
even know the gospel. That's what was going on in the
church at Corinth. It's still going on today. But what Paul
talked about here in this 6th verse is the testimony of Christ
that was confirmed in you. And that's what this whole thing
is all about. This testimony of Christ. It
wasn't the testimony of Paul. It was the testimony of Christ. He said, I'm glad I didn't baptize
none of you. You've been running around saying
that I had some special power that I conferred on you through
baptism. I'm glad he just mentioned two
or three that he baptized. Now, here's the first thing.
It is the acknowledging and the understanding of what this ministry
is. And the only way that you can
understand what it is, is for God to confirm that testimony
in you. In you. And I'm going to show
you that here in just a second. But here in 1 Corinthians 1,
verse 17, he said, For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to
preach the gospel. preach the gospel. And I'm not
here. I'm not here this morning to
officiate over or as an administrator. I'm not here as an official,
as a referee to keep peace. I'm not here as an official to
officiate over things. I'm not here as an administrator
to administrate over certain ordinances and ceremonies and
events. Baptism is an ordinance. The
Lord's table is an ordinance. Marriage is a ceremony. I conducted
a funeral since I've been here. That's a ceremony. And pastors
do those type of things. We do marry people. We do conduct
funerals. We do administer to you the ordinances,
the Lord's table and baptism, both of which I've done since
I've been here. But that's not why God sent me
here. Winston, he can give you the
Lord's table. I don't have to give you the
Lord's table. He didn't send me here to do that. An elder among you, a deacon
among you can baptize. I don't have to baptize. My office
doesn't confer any special power on you because I'm the one who
let you down in the water. It's just a testimony. This is
a testimony of faith. It's the answer of a good conscience
toward God. And we do it in obedience to
his divine command. But God didn't send me here just
to do that. He sent me here to preach the
gospel. He gathered you together and
sent me to you for this one purpose. It's the only reason. Find me
another reason why we're preserved yet on this earth. You can't
find me. I'm as holy as I'm going to get
in Christ. I'm not getting any worse as
time goes on. I'm not getting better. I'm getting
worse. The more light God shines in me, the more filth and ungodliness
and uncleanliness I see. The more unbelief I experience,
the more light, the more dirt. I see myself worse now than I
did years ago. I'm not getting any better. But
I have a holiness and a righteousness in Christ. That's my righteousness.
And I'm as righteous as I'm going to get in Him. I'm not here for that reason.
That's not why I'm here. And I'm justified before God. Just. Think about it. Blameless. Unreprovable. Just. The God of the living God
who just, He can't look on sin. He can't look on sin. He says, I'm just. I'm just. Who is He that condemns? It's
God that justifies. Huh? I'm just. Well, then why am I here? Here
it is, right here. That's why you're here. You're
here to preach the gospel. The gospel. The gospel. That's how Paul said he knew
the election of Thessalonians. He said, from you sounded out
the gospel into all the world. That's how he said, I know your
election of God. You understood it. This testimony
of Christ was confirmed in you. In you. He said, I'm sent to preach the
gospel. And he did other things. He mentioned to her three people
there he baptized. He mentions in other places that
he administered the ordinance to them. He mentions there in
some places receiving some offering from them and appointing somebody
to take that offering as a gift and give it to somebody else
who needed it and all those things. He appreciated all those things. I know by experience, and I know
by history, and I know by the things that I've studied over
a period of years that he officiated over weddings, and also that
there were funerals conducted. I know that. But primarily, his
mission was to preach the gospel. In Galatians 1, verse 15, look
over there at this. He tells this church in Galatia. Now, he said, you know my past
experience. You know what it is. He said,
you know how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure.
You know those things. Oh, I didn't write the scripture
verse down. I'm going to have to turn over. In Galatians chapter 1, look
here. In verse 15. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace
to reveal his Son in me, why did he do that? That I might
preach him among the heathen. You see that? That's what it
means to have this testimony of Christ confirmed in you. Confirmed in you. When that testimony
is confirmed in you, You couldn't take a gag and keep you from
preaching this gospel. Now, everybody's not a pastor.
Everybody's not a missionary. But the efforts and things that
we do here as a church, as a congregation, is to this end. That's where
it's at. To that end. To that end. We're going to do whatever it
is that we can do that's going to promote that. Going to promote
that. Listen to this, over in Romans
chapter 1, he opens his letter to the Roman church. And this
is how he gives his credentials. He said in verse 1 of Romans
chapter 1, he said, Paul, a servant, that word is bondslave, of Jesus
Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of
God. Unto the gospel of God. And he
said, this same gospel that I preached everywhere else, he said, I'm
now as much as in me is, he said, I'm ready to preach it to you.
For this gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Take away
gospel preaching, and you take away the testimony of God and
the seed of regeneration. You take it away. You take it
away. Take it away. I'll show you here,
Paul said, without a preacher. And this world has turned the
ministry of the local church into a joke. Preachers and these
pastors and congregations, I hate to even use the word pastor and
preachers, but they're entertainers, they're administrators, they're
officials, they're referees. They do all this type of stuff,
don't they? They try to keep the peace. You don't have to
keep the peace in the house of God. We're at peace. That's how we know we've passed
from death unto life because we love the brethren. I stand
on grace. I don't stand with you and at
fellowship with you because we've just got such equal personalities. Our personalities are the opposite
of night and day. But we get along because we stand
in grace. We've got access, Paul said,
into this grace wherein we stand. Believers stand on grace. They
believe grace. They experience grace, and they're
gracious. And I just tell you, if you're
not gracious, you don't know God. If you don't love, you don't
know God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. Now, I don't care how many churches
you've been a member of. I don't care what you experienced
when you were twelve years old. If you love not, if you are not
gracious, if that character has not been imparted in you, if
you don't have a bit of will to be like Christ, you don't
know God. You don't know God. This testimony
of the gospel has not been confirmed in you. In you. Not to you, in you. in you. How shall you hear it without
a preacher? And I tell you, they've turned it into a joke. A joke. The local church has become the
laughing stock. It's the butt of all the jokes
at the place where I work. Offers nothing to lost sinners
that can do them any good. Local churches are social clubs.
They've got football teams and baseball teams and softball teams
and all these things. They've got weight rooms. They've
got travel groups. You can go down there just like,
I can't even think of one of the worldly clubs that you could
join. But you go down to that church
and they've got a little thing in there. And if you'd like to
travel, you can go in there and join up. And for a small fee,
they all travel. They go out to the Grand Canyon,
and they go to Niagara Falls, and they go here, and they go
there. And you go with them and all these things. It's just a
social club. It's a place businessmen go down there because it's a
social gathering, kind of a little clique they get together. And
all the men inside that church, being kind of clannish and so
on, they all give each other work back and forth. I used to
notice out there that anybody had that little ring on. Anybody had that little ring
on? They got to work. We didn't get to work. And you know who I'm talking
about. They're social clubs. Local churches
have become schools. Schools. Christian schools, they
call them. Christian schools. It's a place
to be entertained with all their music directors and special music
and famous people coming in. Local churches have become urban
refuges. People in big cities, they go
down there to be safe from gangs and go down there to get fed
and go down there to find a bed for a night. They become refuges
in the big cities. Everything under the sun except
what can do the sinner some good, and that is gospel preaching. Preaching has taken a back seat
in the local churches. Even the fast preaching has taken
such a back seat to everything else, they'll get up and sing
for an hour and preach for ten minutes, and then have a twenty-minute
altar call. Go figure. Go figure. everything under the sun except
something that can do the sinner some good. Local churches are
raised up to be witnesses of the gospel to this world any
way they can, by whatever means they can afford. Their energy
and their offerings are to be used to this end, preaching the
gospel to this world. And I see something dangerous
in our day, and that is that we want to get together with
people of like faith, and we just want to exclude the world.
Paul was a missionary. He went out to a people that
he despised his whole life long. Left his family, left his nation,
left his kinsmen, left everybody. Went out here and preached to
these Gentiles because out here in this world, God has a people. He's got a people. Somehow or
another, we forget that, don't we? This is a faithful saying, he
said, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, he said, of whom I am chief. Go ye into all the world, all
the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall
be damned." Our messages, by the grace of God, go up on the
Internet. And I suppose, for the most part,
the Internet is of no value, no lasting value, except that
God has been pleased to use it to promote His gospel. And it
costs us a dollar. And for a dollar, these messages
go up on the Internet and literally encompass the globe. And I'm
telling you, the response from the Internet is more than I get
in here. I'm telling you the truth. I
get calls from folks in Australia. I got a call from a guy out in
California the other day. He wrote me a note. He came out
of a Reformed Baptist movement, just sitting in there, dead-letter
doctrine, sitting in there. And I preached that message of
the invasion of the land where Israel went in and took the rest
that God promised them, but took it in such a way that they knew
that the work was of God. And even though the work was
of God, they still had to strap on the sword. And they still
had to go in there and swing the sword, even though it was
given to them of God. But when the kingdom was established
and David ascended and sat on the throne, they looked back
over the whole thing, and they realized we could have never
done this apart from God. This was a gift. This was a gift. I got a letter from a fellow
in Australia. I've gotten responses from right
here in Arkansas. Larry called me the other day.
He said, such a message I preached in here, the spirit in the wine.
He said, did you know that thing is number 15 in all? He said, I'm not talking about
over here on Free Grace Radio. He said, I'm talking about on
Sermon Audio. He said, it's number 15. He said, people are listening
to this stuff. We are sent here to preach to
the world. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to all the world. Local churches are raised up
to be witnesses of the gospel to the world any way they can
by whatever means they can afford. We never want to lose sight of
the purpose of this group that God has graciously called together. God sent me to you and gathered
you together with me that this glorious gospel of Christ should
be preached. And I tell you this, advantage
yourself of it. Don't neglect it as often as
you can. Plan your life around it. Make
your schedule out around it. Because that's why we're here.
And this is how faith is committed. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. All right, here's the second
thing. Let me understand that this gospel is designed of God
to be preached to this world, a fallen world, a religious world,
a pagan world. That's who I'm preaching this
gospel to. Paul was a missionary apostle, and he preached to Gentile
pagans. And coming out of religion and
out of self-righteousness and out of self-centeredness, He
understood the scope of this election of God. That's what
Jonah didn't understand. And God revealed it to him. In
his mind, this whole thing was just for Israel. But he didn't
realize God had an Israel that was throughout the world. He
had a spiritual Israel. And by eternal design, he's purposed
to call out his elect by certain means which he's ordained. Turn
with me to 2 Thessalonians 2. And I know that I probably wore
this scripture out with you, but I have a good reason for
it. In the first portion of this
chapter of 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul describes
the perilous condition of this world. And I know that today
when men use this scripture, I listened to one the other day
talking about it, And he had it applied to some future time when God had raptured his church
out of the world, and there was just a few people left down here,
and now they're going to have to go through this thousand-year
reign and all this kind of stuff. And he's trying to apply this. Well, Old Brother Barnard said
years ago, he said there's two ways you can get out of the Scriptures,
out of the responsibility and the declarations of the gospel.
He said one is by attributing those things to the Jews, and
the other one by saying it's for the Millennials. You can
get out of anything. And that's exactly what they're
trying to do with this chapter. But this chapter has nothing
to do with those things. It has to do with the condition
of the world in which we live. And he goes through there. You
can read it in your own time. I'm just going to kind of describe
it to you a little bit. But it's in this world and in
our day where this mystery of iniquity, he said this mystery
of iniquity does already work. It's already at work. But when
those days come, when those latter days come, when this thing gets
a little closer, he said it's going to be something else. Because then that man of sin,
who is that? That's Satan. That old man of sin in you, that's
who he's talking about. It's going to be brought out
into light. It's going to be exposed for
what it is. And it was by the death of Christ. And it is by the Holy Spirit
of God. And it is through the preaching
of the gospel. Brought out into the light and
exposed. It's exposed. But it's in this world and in
our day where this mystery of iniquity works, it's working
in men. by men and around men to deceive
men. It is working in men and reigning
in men unto death. It is the strong man who keeps
his goods and his palace at peace. And he sits in the temple of
God and he shows himself to be God, and he opposes all the things
of God and exalts himself above all that is called God or worshipped.
And only the sovereign Spirit of God, according to the purpose
of God, is able to restrain these things. You see that there in
that chapter? Only he that now letteth will let until he be
taken out of the way. Why would he let? Why would he
restrain? He restrains that the purpose
of God be completed, that the purpose of God be carried out.
And he keeps men from being as evil as they could be. He restrains
men. Hold your place there in 2 Thessalonians.
Let me quote you something. I read part of this to you over
here in 2 Timothy, chapter 2. But in chapter 1, Paul was talking
about their attitude. You can read about it a little
later on. He was talking about their attitude
and their conduct, that they should be humble, that they should
consider who it is they are trying to minister to. Consider these
forces and powers at work in this world. Consider the obstacles
before you. It's not something that you can
do. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're spiritual.
They're mighty through God to the tearing down of strongholds
and tearing down of imaginations, destroying those imaginations
and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
I can't do that. It takes a power greater than
mine. And he tells these folks, be careful, be careful. Think
about these forces and powers at work. Think about the opposition.
And in thinking about those things, then you'll know who to attribute
the power to. We don't talk like other men.
We don't say, well, I'm going down here and I'm going to spend
a week, and then after that I'm going over here for a week, and
then next year I'm going over here. No, you say, if God will,
I'm going to go down here for a week. We know where the power is. We
know where the power is. But Paul talks to Timothy concerning
their attitude and conduct, and remember who it was that they
were trying to reach, those who had fallen into the snare of
the devil, and listen to this, who are taken captive at his
will. Satan can take you captive just
like that. Peter said, I don't care if they
all forsake you. I ain't going anywhere. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, you know, chicken ain't going to get a crow. A few times
you'll be gone. Just like that. Taking captive
at His will. You can't resist Him. I don't
care how much determination you have. I don't care how much scripture
you memorize. If He wants you, just like that. Our Lord said, Have you considered
My servant Job? There is not a righteous man
in the earth like him. The Abbey said, You've got him
hedged about. Take down the hedge. Take down
the hedge. I mean, he destroyed that man,
didn't he? Just like that. Just like that. But he couldn't
do any more than God allowed him to do. And that's what Timothy
is telling these people. You consider who it is you're
ministering to. Don't you get up here on your
soapbox and start preaching down to those men. You understand
where God took you from and what it took to bring you to Himself,
and then you minister that way to others. Be gracious. Be long-suffering. Be kind. Oh, He said, this world with
all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that are perishing,
because they received not the love of the truth that they might
be saved. And for this cause God sent them strong delusion. He gave them over to that angel
of light and that minister of righteousness. He gave them over
to believe a lie and then be damned for believing it. But, he said, 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 13, we are bound by our own experience of grace We
are bound, bound by the plain instruction of God, bound by
a sense of death and love. Paul said we are bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto
he called you by our gospel. to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, go back with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. This gospel is designed for sinners. It is designed to be preached
to the ungodly. It is designed to be preached
to a fallen world, a depraved world, a world filled with And
I must understand and acknowledge this gospel to be the means whereby
guilty sinners are reconciled to God, and that this gospel
must be preached without prejudice to every creature. And by every
open door of opportunity, the Lord will send our way." You know, those Israelites, they
told Christ, they said, if thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
He said, I told you. He didn't mince words. He told
them who he was. Over and over and over he told
them who he was. I came down from heaven, he said, not to
do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And then
told them what that will was, that of all which he hath given
me I should lose nothing but raise it up again at the last
day. He told them who he was. I'm the good shepherd. I'm the bird that come down from
heaven. Not as your fathers did eat and
are dead. If you had asked a man, he would
have told the woman, I give you living water. You would never
thirst again. It would be like a well of water
springing up in you. He said, I told you. But he said,
you believe not because you are not my sheep. This gospel goes out into the
darkness. And he said, my sheep, hear my
voice. Because it's designed for them.
And it's taken to them. And it sends His Spirit to them.
And it quickens them. And they hear. They hear. They hear. You just want to throw
your hands up, don't you? Huh? You talk to folks and they
make fun of you. And you talk to folks and...
Why? Who believes such a thing like that? Well, I'll tell you
this. If my God was like that, I wouldn't
worship Him. Huh? You get comments like that
when you talk to folks? Huh? Makes you want to throw
your hands up. I'll tell you what makes you want to put your
hands back down. He said, I have from the beginning
chosen you unto salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. Huh? It's an effectual gospel. I'll tell you why I get them
effects, because they're not of his sheep. See, he told them
who he was, and they still didn't know. The boy them sheep knew,
didn't they? Told Matthew, he said, follow
me. He just got up and followed him. That's an effectual call. Listen to this, 1 Corinthians
1. And listen to this. This is the
third thing I want you to see. I hope I can get through these
things. The power and presence of God is demonstrated not in
the strength of the preacher, not in the strength of the hearers,
but in their inabilities and in their weaknesses and in their
frailties. That's how God has designed these
things. He said, For you see your calling.
See it there? 1 Corinthians 1.26. For you see
your calling, brethren, as that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen
on purpose designed See that? God has chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. And God has chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and the base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught
things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. And I know very little about
most of you except that you come here and you seem to enjoy the
gospel and rejoice in it, and I can rejoice in that. I can,
I can rejoice in that. But I tell you this, if there
is something in your past, something in your conversion, something
in your faith that you think you did, or that you think brought
God's favor to you, or some little part that you think you played
in this faith and in your conversion, you just disqualified yourself
from the grace of God. Because He chose things that
are not to bring to naught things that are. He chose from nothing,
from the weakness, from the frailties, from the sin, from the pit, from
the very bottom, to demonstrate His grace. And you get above
that, you disqualified yourself from the grace of God. Oh, Paul,
all we want to do, we don't want to cross any of your points of
doctrine. We don't want to do that. We
don't care how you administer your services. We'll go along.
We believe what you're saying, but we just want to be circumcised.
Paul said you so much as be circumcised, he said Christ will profit you
nothing. Nothing! And you've made void, he said,
void the death of Christ. You've made it vanity. If you
so much as be circumcised, huh? I don't care what it is. I don't
care what it is. Whatever it is, there ain't no
flesh going to glory in His presence. Now, I'm telling you, I'm trying
to tell you the truth. And the truth is, you come to
Him as a sinner, because this is His design. He chose it that
way. He chose for it to be that way. Fourthly, I must declare the
whole of the work to be of God. Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." The faith of God's
elect is a faith that rests everything on Christ. Everything on Christ. If you have a Jesus that can't
carry the whole load, you've got another Jesus. Think about
it. Think about it. In Colossians chapter 1, does
he use that word all? All. All. Over and over and over. All. If you have a Jesus that
can't carry the whole load, you've got another Jesus. If you've
got a Jesus that justifies, but can't sanctify, you've got another
Jesus. If you have a Jesus that requires
human reasoning and logic to make you accept these things
and confirm these things in you, if you have to have that, you've
got another Jesus. Because God has made this Christ,
He's made His Christ, to be unto us wisdom. Wisdom. Who had no wisdom? I don't have
any wisdom, I'm ignorant. But I've got wisdom in Him. No
wisdom in him. He's my wisdom. Take away Christ,
this is a sealed book. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
1. I'll try to wind this thing up. While you're turning over there,
I want to tell you a little bit of something about Israel. Israel,
out in that wilderness, God designed a tabernacle. and declared his
way of reconciliation in that tabernacle. He set forth, as
I read to you a while ago in Romans chapter 3, his son to
be the propitiation for our sins. Set him forth. Set him forth. Declared in him how he could
be just and justify those who believed in this coming Redeemer,
those who trusted in his blood. And they all saw the same sacrifices. They all visited the same tabernacle.
They all come up there, and they all had lambs, and they all addressed
the priests, and they saw everything that was going on. They heard
the law. All of them experienced the same thing. They came right
up to the edge of Canaan where the promised rest was, but they
wouldn't go in. They looked at this sacrifice. They looked at this Redeemer. They looked at God's propitiation. They looked at God's glory. And here's the rest. They wouldn't
go in. Ain't that what he says in Hebrews
chapter 4? They wouldn't go in. They wouldn't go in. They wouldn't
go in. Hebrews 4, verse 2, For unto
us the gospel was preached as well as unto them. But the word
preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith and
them that heard it. For we which have believed do
enter into rest." We rest. That's the difference between
faith and religion. Faith rests. It rests. It rests. Now look here in Ephesians
chapter 1. Paul just declared the eternal
gathering together in God's appointed time, all things which He has
purposed in Christ to bring to pass. He goes all through this
first part of Ephesians chapter 1, telling you how you were chosen
in Him and accepted in Him and beloved in Him and adopted in
Him, and all the spiritual blessings from God were in Him. And he
said, now there is coming a day, in this dispensation, in this
time appointed of God, in which all things which are in heaven
and which are on earth are going to be gathered together in Christ,
gathered together in that day. Look there, verse 11. All are
going to be gathered together in Christ, verse 11, in whom
also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory,
that is, God's glory, who first trusted in Christ." What in the
world is he talking about? He's talking about God trusting
in Christ. That's what he's talking about. who gave these gifts and designed
these things, entrusted the whole thing, John, into his hands. Put it into his trust. Put it into his hands for safekeeping. Put it in his hands to manifest. Trusted him with an everlasting
covenant. Trusted him with the glory of
his name. Trusted him with the revelation
of his character. Trusted Him with the salvation
of our souls. Trusted Him with His sons that
He eternally beloved. Trusted Him with the work of
reconciliation. Trusted Him with the work of
righteousness. Trusted Him with His eternal
purpose of redemption. God trusted Him first. Now you
say, can you trust Him? Can you trust him? Can you hang
on him your everlasting soul? God hung on him his everlasting
name and his purpose and his will. And all that God determined
to do, he trusted in this man. He said, in whom also you trusted. And you will trust. In whom also
you trusted. after that you heard the Word,
the Word of your salvation. After you heard it, you trusted. And when you trusted, do you
know what he did? He sealed you with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of your inheritance. That's exactly right. We trusted Him whom God trusted. And I'll tell you this, here's
the last point I'm just going to state it for you and give
it to you. Everything I say, and those to whom I say it, I
must submit into the hands of the sovereign Spirit of God to
do with what He will. And He will. He will. That word
is not going to go out there. His gospel is not going to go
out there like men's words and fall on the ground. His gospel
is going to accomplish what He sends it to accomplish. And it
will stand as an everlasting witness against your unbelief
and against your soul in judgment. Or it will be a sweet savor of
life unto life when it calls you out of darkness. But one
of the others is going to happen every time it is preached. Paul
said he didn't have a yea and nay gospel. He said all things
in his gospel were yea and amen. God give us the heart and the
spirit in this place to see this gospel and rejoice in it and
promote it and preach it with everything we do.