First Corinthians chapter one
for our thoughts for a few minutes this morning. I absolutely didn't know for just
a little while ago what we were gonna do here, but guess what?
The Lord did. He did. And so here we are, First Corinthians
chapter one. Very wonderful portion of God's
Word. I'm going to read the first 10 verses. 1 Corinthians 1, Paul called to
be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. And
Sosthen is our brother. Now, notice he said it's through
the will of God that I'm called to be an apostle. he didn't say it was mama's idea
or daddy's idea or he didn't say as one preacher said I thought
it would be a good career good occupation but he said I'm an apostle through
the will of God all true ones are under the church of God which
is at Corinth. I like the way it says that.
This church don't belong to Corinth, but it's at Corinth. It belongs
to God. It's the Church of God at Corinth. And of course you're not talking
about the denomination they call the Church of God. No. You're
talking about the true Church of Jesus Christ. The Church of
God, which is at Corinth. It won't be like the fellow one
time traveling through and he'd stop and ask somebody, he said,
where's the Church of God in this town? The fellow said, well,
said, on down here down the street on the left is the big old white
church, it's a Methodist church. Said, you go on down a little
on the right, it's a brick church, that's a Baptist church. He said,
hmm, Church of God. He said, come to think of it,
I don't know that God's got one in this town. The Apostle Paul is talking about
the church of God at Corinth. Now look who he's writing to,
to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. Called, there's that word again,
to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name
of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto
you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 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 come behind in no
gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Notice
he didn't say one of the comings, but the coming. Who shall also confirm you unto
the end. Is that going to be the end, His
coming? that you may be blameless in
the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were
called under the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be
no divisions among you. but that you be perfectly joined
together in the same mind and in the same judgment. That's
reading down through verse 10, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Do we
need a little air? Is everybody too hot or too cold
or what do you think? Anybody wants me to turn the
air on, raise your hand. Why did I do that? Why did I
do that? Just a little bit, not much. The rest of you can jump up and pretend you're liking
it if you need to get warm. All right, now even though later
in this epistle the Apostle Paul deals with some very serious
problems in this Corinthian church, and boy they had some, We find
in these ten verses of introduction, he is very kind in addressing
them, and in verse two he calls them the Church of God. He says
they're sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be saints, but it's not their persons and
it's not their strength and their goodness that Paul is writing
to magnify. He knows very well that this
business of the Christian life is bigger than any of us can
handle. So he goes on to make a beautiful statement in verse
9, and this is our text verse, verse 9, God is faithful by whom
you were called of the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord. God is faithful. Now if that's not true, then
all else that we have anything to do with or know anything about
is vanity. But I'm glad it is true. God
is faithful. It's a little hard for us to
get a hold of sometimes, We don't spend a lot of time thinking
about it. No, we're too busy trying to bail him and us both
out. But you see, the truth stands that God is faithful. And I'm glad to report to you
this morning, it is not my faithfulness that I hope in. I do think sometimes we trust
in ourselves. That's why we feel so beat down,
knowing that we fail so miserably every day that we live. But you
see, our hope and our help is in this one blessed fact. God is faithful. First, God is faithful in his
character or in his person. as to who he is. You see, when
the scripture says God is faithful, it is one of his attributes.
And by that word attribute, I mean it's a very part of his being,
his person. Being faithful is something more
than just what God does. It is part of who he is. Because he is God, he can never
be unfaithful. He could not be anything but
faithful. Having accomplished his eternal
purpose in Christ, John sees him in Revelation 19, riding
victoriously on a white horse, and his name is called Faithful,
with a capital F. and true with a capital T, meaning
that all the rest of us are unfaithful and liars. But he, and he alone,
is called faithful and true. Faithful in his character. He's
faithful to himself. He's not obligated to be faithful
to anybody else, nor can he be obligated. He does as he pleases. Yet he never contradicts himself.
He never violates a single principle of his holiness. He never contradicts
his word. He never fails in a single promise. Not just because he struggles
all the time to be careful not to mess up. No, no. God is faithful
because God is faithful. Can't be anything else. Paul wrote to Timothy and said,
if we believe not, yet he about is faithful. He cannot deny himself. Then what is it he's faithful
to? And that brings me to the second thought. Not only is God
faithful in His character, His very person, but He is faithful
in His commitment, what God has committed Himself to. As I said
already, and don't lose sight of this, He cannot be obligated
by us. You can't do anything to back
God in a corner. A lot of folks act like they
can. There's a lot of these television preachers will tell you if you'll
do this and this, you'll have God by the horns. No, He cannot
be obligated by us, but yet He obligates Himself. He made some
commitment. He's committed Himself to some
things. In these things, He would be
altogether unpredictable. Things I don't know about, things
you don't know about. But he's committed himself in
things regarding salvation. And he is faithful to his commitment. He cannot deny himself. The prophet
Isaiah said it like this, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will
perform this. What is zeal? It's that It's
working in you. It's that determination, that
desire, that got to, gonna, gotta have it, gotta do it. Got enough of that in him that
he's going to do everything he's committed himself to do. What
did he commit to? Well, before this world was created,
It's amazing how many people are not one bit interested. Matter
of fact, they're scared to death to talk about God being God before
we got here. But I'm telling you, the Bible
teaches before this world was ever created, the great triune
God, the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost held a conference. Peter called it in Acts 2, the
Determinant Council. What'd that mean? It meant God
determined some things without asking us. The determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God. That's why it's referred to as
the foreknowledge of God. God knew beforehand because He
determined it to be so. He ordained it to be so. You
say, well, what if it don't happen? then he ceases to be God if he
determined it and ordained it. And it don't happen. He ceases
to be God, but it always does. It always does. And it was determined
that from Adam's race, which would surely fall, disobey God,
rebel, determined to be their own God.
make themselves some little fig leaf aprons. That's about all
90% of the religious world's about today is Adam's religion,
fig leaf aprons. We've got something that's good
enough for us, it ought to be good enough for God. We like
it, he ought to like it. But it was determined from eternity
that when Adam's race failed, Christ himself would come into
the world and would give his wife a ransom and would pay the
sin debt for all those whom the Father had given to the Son in
eternity past. These that the Father gave to
the Son, Christ said it that way several times in John 17.
These chosen, the Lord's people, those whom the Father gave to
the Son, referred to 27 times in the New Testament as the elect
or elected or the election of grace. Those whom the Father
gave to the Son from eternity. And they're given eternal life
for time and eternity future. You say, where's the scripture
for that? 2 Timothy 1.9, He hath saved us and called us within
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His
own purpose and grace, which was given unto us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. You say, well, I thought God
took an interest in me when I took an interest in Him. Uh-uh. If he had no interest in you,
you'd never have an interest in him. And if you have an interest
in him this morning, it's because he has an interest in you. And so God in Christ was faithful
to his commitment. He did come into this world and
die. And he did secure once and forever the eternal redemption
and salvation of his people. God was faithful in that, faithful
in that. I want to say something now,
and a lot of people hate me for this, but it don't change it.
Don't change it. There's a lot of things up for
grabs in this world, but the souls of men is not one
of them. God has already dealt with that. Christ with the Calvary and accomplished
victoriously the certain salvation of all those that He purposed
to save. Now here's the propositions that
we have in this day and hour is that Christ died for the potential
salvation of all humanity but not positively for any. So in other words, his success
depends on whether or not anybody responds. No. That's what most folks believe.
Most folks I know believe, most folks you know believe. Here's
what the Bible teaches. That Christ died positively for
the certain salvation. of all those for whom he died.
It is impossible for even one for whom he shed his blood to
perish. That's how big he is. That's
how successful he was. To be honest about it, we got
a group in town here called the Unitarians. And we've got a whole lot of
others called Baptists. that pretty much leans toward
the universalism. But I want to tell you something. I'd rather lean toward a universal
redemption than to believe what most people
believe. See, I want to give the Lord
Jesus Christ credit for accomplishing what he died to accomplish. And
if he died to pay the sin debt for all humanity and to bring
all humanity to God, then not a single one of Adam's race could
possibly perish in their sins and go to hell. Is this getting rough for y'all?
I mean, you see what I'm saying? I'd rather believe that that
everybody is going to be saved if that's what Christ came to
do. I'd rather believe that than
to believe that he came with the intention and he actually made the effort
to try and save everybody, but he's only able to get just
a few here and there. So you see, universal redemption
is not the worst doctrine around. That we're all God's children
and He loves everybody and He wouldn't possibly send anybody
to hell. We think that's the worst teaching around. No. No,
that's not the worst teaching. That does not belittle our Lord
like 99% of preachers today that says, oh, He's come to save everybody,
but He's not getting much done. He's not getting much done. No,
I promise you. He's saving everybody that's
savable and damning the rest. That's the story. They believe he died to make
men savable. The scripture teaches he died to save. Big difference. They teach that he died to make
salvation possible. No, the Scripture teaches he
died and made it certain. Big difference. They believe it's still an open
case. Men's souls are still up for grabs. But this Bible teaches
that the case was closed at Calvary. Most people believe that Calvary
was an investment on God's part. that he was hoping would pay
off if men would believe. But the Bible don't teach any
such as that. The Bible teaches that Calvary's cross was a purchase
price. Not a gamble. Not that God didn't know what
he was gonna get out of it. No. It was a definite atonement. a definite atonement and he definitely
secured positively the certain redemption of all who will spend
eternity with him. So I will tell you something
right now, you can forget about trying to do enough right to
make it happen. You're either in when he died
on that cross or you're out forever. The question is, do you have
an interest in what Christ did on that cross? That's the question. Is that your hope? Well, it's not the hope of the
religious world today. No, it's not. They're just like
the Jews in Jesus' day. They are sent on doing enough
good to make God smile on them. And they'll tell you about what
all they've got going on and what all they're planning to
do, just like the Jews did. And they're making God sick,
just like the Jews did, because God smiles on His Son. He committed Himself to redeem
His people through the death of His Son. Oh, that men would keep their
dirty paws off of it and kiss the son, embrace the son. He's the one. He's the one. Well, boy, you're clamming up
on me here. Let's move on. God is faithful
in his calling. Look at this verse. Boy, I like
this. Verse nine. God is faithful. by whom you
were called under the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our
Lord. In other words, by whom you were called. It's God's doing. He didn't say nothing about how
many the spaghetti supper brought in. God, by whom you were called
under the fellowship of Jesus Christ, His Son. God is faithful
in His calling. 1 Thessalonians 5, 24, Faithful
is he that calleth you, who also will do it. Can I say the Good Shepherd's
call is an effectual call? Not to all the world, but in
all the world. Of every kindred, nation, and
tongue. Here's his word, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me. This faithful call of the shepherd
is a continual call, a continual call. That's where the church
world's missing it today. Anybody that knows anything about
sheep knows that a shepherd don't call his sheep one time, and
say, well, I got that over with. They'll follow me from now on.
I won't ever have to call them again. No, it's a continual call. It is a continual call. He must call every day or I'll
forsake him. And I try to anyway, and so do
you. But God is faithful. God is faithful. I'll tell you this, some folks
need to get a hold of this. Nowhere did he promise that your life
would run smoothly and you could avoid all storms. He didn't promise that, but he
did promise that he's faithful. He never said church life would
be smooth sailing. He sure never said the pastor's
job would be easy. My experience through the years
has always been some up and some down. Some in, some out. Some shouting, some pouting.
Some trying to get in, some trying to get out. Some trying to get up reason
enough to come, others trying to find reason enough to quit. Some loving everything, some
complaining about everything. Some coming, some going. I'm
telling you this preacher would have gone crazy years ago if
I kept playing these games that church people want to play. Have to burp this one. Change
a diaper over here. Entertain over here. Be sure
and call this one every week if you don't. If you don't, you
know how they are. Yeah, I know how they are, that's
the trouble. No, I just believe God is faithful. I believe God
is faithful. And if you're supposed to be
here, God will get you here. And I don't mean by that I don't
invite people, I do. I try to encourage people to
come and I think we all do that. Like the old farmer said one
time, he said if it's 150 steps to the barn and I can't get the
mule to take but one step a year, I'll never live long enough to
get him to the barn. And the preacher will never live
long enough. to do anything for stubborn, rebellious church people
who don't know anything about God and don't want to. It's not my business, but God
is faithful. God is faithful, and I'm glad
He is. I hope you all ain't mad at me.
I was just really a little bit wild this morning. But I love
you. I do love you, and I'm thankful
that you're here, and I hope God will let you come back. I
do. Matter of fact, I hope He'll
bring you back, and if He don't, you probably won't come. He can and does move His people
in the direction He wants them to go. And I'll say to you, you will
never in this lifetime enjoy the hope we have in Christ Jesus
until you get a hold of this truth. God is faithful. I'm not. You're not. But he is. Say, well, how faithful would
I have to be to suit God as faithful as he is? I mean, that is his
standard perfection. Perfection. He's never settled
for less. But I'm thankful this morning,
and this is where my hope lies, in that God found the perfection
he demanded in his only begotten son. He's my hope this morning. He
surely is. Your fluctuating feelings and
emotions are a poor judge of things. A lot of people need
to learn that. Just because you feel like sometimes
God's about out of business, He's not about out of business. He cannot deny Himself. He didn't say He cannot deny
us. He ought to deny us. But He cannot deny Himself. He's
faithful. He's faithful. Now, verse 2.
Our time is getting close, but we'll be okay. In verse 2, here
Paul refers to God's people as them that are sanctified. What
does that mean? mean they don't wear, women don't
wear pants and lipstick. Men ain't got no much, what does
all that mean? Sanctified simply means set apart. Set apart from the rest. Picked
out. Elected if you please. in Christ Jesus. The words elect,
elected, election, we already said 27 times in the New Testament.
But a strange thing to me, these fellows that tell you they're
so committed, they say, to preach the whole counsel of God, they'd
rather handle a rattlesnake than to mention that word election
in the pulpit. They'll tell you right quick
it was my choice, not God's. That's not what the Bible says.
Sanctified, set apart in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1-4 said the
same thing in these words. Chosen in Him before the foundation
of the world. One fellow asked, well don't
we get to vote? Yeah, after the election. We didn't vote on election day.
Election was in eternity. But I'll tell you this, if you're
elected, you'll agree with God in the matter and vote yes. And if you're not, you'll buck
God on the whole matter and resent his authority and despise his
sovereignty and perish in your sins. You better agree with God
that He'd be right to put you in hell. You better agree with Him on
that. You know it's so. Sanctified in Christ Jesus. Call
to be saints. Verse 2, see that statement?
Call to be saints. If you look closely at that little
phrase, you'll notice the two little words, to be to be called
to be saints. Those two little words are in
italics, meaning that the English translators
added those words so as to read correct English. You'll find
that many places, and it's for our benefit to be able to read
it, but sometimes it causes us to miss what's actually being
said. What's actually being said is those sanctified in Christ
Jesus are not just called to be saints, but omitting those
two little words, they're called saints. Called saints. Not by this silly world, but
by God. By God. So verse two says it's
God's doing. Verse nine says it's God's doing.
Verse 30, what does it say? But of Him, that is, of God,
are you in Christ Jesus? You say, I thought it was because
I made that decision. No, if God hadn't done something
a long time ago, in eternity past, in His election, and at
Calvary, in His Son, and in your heart, through conviction, you'd
have never wanted to make any kind of decision. But of Him,
are you in Christ Jesus? who of God is made unto us, wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Why did he do
it like that? That according as it is written,
he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. It's his doing. It's his doing. God is faithful. A final thought, our time is
gone. God is faithful in his compassion, in his compassion. He came to save sinners. You say, well, I know that. No,
you don't. Really believing that is our problem. We think He prefers good people. Read your Bible. When Christ
walked this earth, He spent all His time seeking out the low, the rejected, the worst
sinners, and let the good people go to hell. Sure did. And you say, oh, but
I'm just too bad. I guess the reason I don't have
any victory, I guess the reason I can't really believe, I just
messed up too much. God, God has every right to hate
me. He sure does. You've seen to
that. But if you could get a hold of
this, he is compassionate toward sinners. If you could find yourself
in that class, if you could get unreligious enough to convince yourself that you're
a sinner, there'd be hope for you. But Lord, no, you've been
so good for so long. Ain't no hope for the likes of
you. Sinners. A fella named Nicodemus,
he was a religious sinner. Very high in the religious, the
Jews religion. A ruler of the Jews, a Pharisee. He came to Jesus by night. Something caused that. Something
worked in his heart to do that. The hierarchy certainly wouldn't
have approved of that. He wouldn't even have had them
know that he came. Boy, he'd have been blackballed for that.
But he came to Jesus by night. Something was troubling him. And he said, we know that thou
art a teacher come from God. But I don't understand, I don't
know. It wasn't anything that he came
up with himself and said, hey, boy, I think it'd be more exciting
to be with that little bunch out yonder following him that
sleeps in the woods and everybody hates. and they're hungry half
the time and they don't eat every day. I believe it'd be more fun
to be with them than it would to be this high official here
in the Jewish religion. No, it wasn't that. So it wasn't
of him, it wasn't him. It was something working in him.
It was God working in him. He's a child of God, not because
he decided to be, because God had chosen him to be. And so
he went at night and Jesus said, mister, You must be born again. He was highly educated. He understood
a lot of things, but he couldn't get by this. He said, what? How
can a man enter the second time into his mother's womb and be
born? The Lord wasn't talking about that,
of course. He went on to say to him, and see, this is the matter of
election again. Here's what the Lord said to him. The wind bloweth
where it listeth. And he's saying to him, that's
why you're here. The wind blows where it wants to. And what that
means is the spirit breatheth where he willeth. You're here tonight, Nick, because
I brought you here. Not because you decided to come. Spirit has breathed and you're
here. Rest of them didn't come, just
him. And a mighty work was done in
his heart. What about old Zacchaeus? Now
he was a tax collector. IRS man, everybody thinks he
ought to went to hell. But now here he is. He don't
make it a habit of climbing Sycamore trees. That's not his hobby. But somethings are working in
him. And he says, I've got to see that fella. I want to know
more about this. And so here he does, climbs up
a tree. Grown man now. High position. Chief tax collector. Here comes all these people along.
He thinks nobody will see me. This is my little secret mission.
And when the Lord gets there, he stops. Looked up. Well, you reckon anybody
else looked up? They all did. What's that fool
doing up there? That's the tax collector. That's
Zacchaeus. You know, the first word that
Christ spoke. He never said, Hey, you know what Christ's first word was. Zacchaeus. The good shepherd calleth his
own sheep by name. He didn't know the Lord knew
his name, but he knew it. He knew it. He said, come on
down here, boy. I'm going home with you. And
he did. What about the poor Samaritan
woman, John chapter 4? Oh, she was such a mess. Been married five times, living
with one now she wasn't married to. I mean, she really had it
going on. She's rejected. Nobody wants
anything to do with her. She wasn't part of the religion.
She wasn't part of the synagogue. She wasn't even on the visitation
list. She's not a good contact, not
a good prospect. We don't need her in the church. But she's on the Lord's list.
He said, I must needs go through Samaria. Got business. And she was on her way to the
well to get a drink of water. And he was on his way to the
well to give her a drink of living water. I'm telling you, Christ
died for sinners. And God is faithful, faithful,
faithful, faithful. I could go on and on, but you're
wanting to go on and on. So we'll stand and go on and
on. God is faithful. All right, we need to receive
the offering. Who's got the plates? Got them, Brother Harold?