1st Corinthians. I'd like to read the first three
verses of 1st Corinthians. Paul called to be an apostle
of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes our brother
unto 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 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. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name and we ask that you give us the spirit of prayer.
Enable us to pray. I ask that you would make our
hearts one in this prayer. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that your mercy might be upon us. Lord, we. We pray for your mercy
upon this assembly. Lord, we pray that You would
forgive us of our sins that are so many. We pray that You would
cleanse us and give us grace to honor Thy dear Son. Lord, we pray that You would
quicken us, keep us, preserve us. Lord, we pray for every man,
woman, boy and girl that walks into these doors, that you would
be pleased to reveal Christ to them. Those that are going back, we ask that you quicken
them. Give us a renewed zeal for your
glory for Christ's sake. And Lord, we pray for all your
people. Lord, we don't only pray for
this local place, but we pray for all your people wherever
they meet together. And Lord, be pleased to meet with us for
Christ's sake. In His name we pray. Amen. Look at verse three. Grace be unto you and peace From
God, our Father. And from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, if I say to you. Grace be to you. Does that mean any grace from
God is actually inferred to you? Well, the answer is no. I am
powerless to confer grace upon anybody. If I say grace to you,
I'm wishing it. It's a well-wish. I mean it.
I want you to have grace. But I don't have the power to
confer grace upon anybody. But if God says, grace be unto
you, that means something, doesn't it? It means a whole lot if God
says to you, grace be unto you and peace from God the Father
and from the Lord Jesus Christ. If God actually says this to
you, oh, how much that means. Now, it's my goal that by the
end of this message, you'll leave this place knowing whether God
is speaking to you personally when he says, Grace be unto you. Does he mean me? Am I one that
he's speaking to? Now, this word grace, grace unto
you is such an important word. The first time it's mentioned
is in Genesis chapter six, verse eight. Would you turn with me
there? Verse eight. But Noah. Found grace. In the eyes of the Lord. I look
at verse 5. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the Earth. And that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil. Continuing. Now that's God's testimony of
man was no way included in that description. Absolutely. Noah is included in that description
as somebody who is, the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,
but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah found favor
in the eyes of the Lord. Now, I want to be like Noah.
I want to find favor in the eyes of the Lord. You know, if he's
for you, who can be against you? I love that verse of scripture.
If God be for us, who can be against us? Now I want God being
for me. Think of the impact of having
his grace toward you. If he's the one who says to you
individually, grace be unto you. Think of the impact of that.
That would mean you're the object of God's electing grace. That
means he purposed your salvation before time began. And it's going
to be carried through if he purposed it, isn't it? If God says grace
to you, you're an object of electing grace. That means you've been
justified by grace. If God says grace to you, that
means you're just in God's sight. You don't have any sin. You're
not guilty. If he says grace to you, that means you're an
object of redeeming grace. That means all of your sins have
already been paid for. You don't have anything to worry
about in that respect. They're taken care of. If God
says grace to you, that means you've been called by his grace
and given spiritual life. The life of God in your soul,
if he says grace to you. If he says grace be unto you,
that means you're being kept by his grace. If he says grace
be unto you, that means You are going to be made exactly like
the Lord Jesus Christ. If he says grace to you, you're
going to spend eternity in heaven. And if he says grace to you,
that means everything that's happening to you. And I I look
at some people who I know have some very difficult trials you're
dealing with. Difficult. And I can say with
complete assurance. That I know That it's best and
that everything that's happening to you is working together for
your good and His glory. Everything. If His grace is toward
you. So you see the impact of this
thing of having His grace toward you. How true are those words,
by grace are you saved? What a blessing to have God say
to you, grace to you. Now here's my big question. How
can I know if He's speaking to me personally? I mean, I read
in this verse where he's speaking to the Church of Corinth, grace
be unto you and peace from God, our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. But how can I know if he's speaking to me personally,
if he says to Todd Nyberg, grace be unto you and peace from God,
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ? Now, I'm interested in
him speaking to you, but I'm mostly interested in him speaking
to me. And you feel the same way. And
you'll be thankful if he speaks grace to everybody in this room.
But the one you're most concerned about is you. Am I in this group
that he says grace to you and peace? Now. He's saying it's
somebody. For me, and I said this in the
last week, I don't remember what sermon it was, but it's always
holds true for me to be able to take a promise in the scripture
to myself. I'm going to have to fit the
character of the one the promise is made to. It would be wrong
for me to take a promise to myself if I don't fit the character
of the one the promise is made to. But if I fit the character
of the one the promise is made to, then this promise is to me. So we're going to see if we can
fit the character of the one that this promise is made to.
Grace be unto you. Now, let's start in verse one.
Paul And this is the beginning of
the study of First Corinthians, so we're going to look at every
verse. Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will
of God and Sosthenes, our brother. Paul called to be an apostle,
an apostle was a sent one. That's what the word means, sent
of God. Remember, there were 12 apostles.
Only twelve apostles of the Lamb. We read that in the book of Revelation. When somebody makes a claim to
be an apostle in our day, they are liars. There are only twelve
apostles. Paul took the place of Judas.
And the reason Paul makes an issue of him being an apostle
is this is where he speaks with authority. If he's not actually
sent of God, why listen to him? And as a matter of fact, this
church of Corinth was always questioning his authority. You look at 1st
and 2nd Corinthians, it happens over and over and over again.
But he is proving to them that he is called of God, called an
apostle, and that's where his authority comes from. That's
why we're studying this book right now. Here, 2,000 years later,
we're studying the writings of this one epistle to this church,
and we say this man was sent of God, and everything he said
was inspired by God. And that's why it's important
for us to realize this is not just man's opinion, this is the
Word of God. God inspired this book. And Paul is called to be
an apostle by God, by the will of God. That's where the authority
comes from. And he tells us who he's writing
to in verse two. Unto the church of God, which
is at Corinth. Now, the word church means a
called out assembly. I'm called out of the world.
Called by God, a called out assembly, assembled together for worship.
And the word in the scriptures is used in two senses, this word
church. It's used in the universal sense
and it's used in the local sense. Now, the universal sense, this
is the church that I want to to be a member of. You know, in this church, right
or wrong, we don't have a role, you know, with memberships, if
you're here, if you believe the gospel, you're a member. That's
what do you all need to do to be members, believe? That's it. I don't see anything else in
the scriptures about this. We don't have a membership as such,
but I'll tell you one church that does have a membership that's
very important. That's the General Assembly and
Church of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.
Now, that's the church I must be a member of. And the church
is quite often the scriptures used in the universal sins where
Christ loved the church. and gave himself for it. He's
talking about the church, all of God's elect, all of God's
people. That's the universal sense in which this word is meant.
I'm going to rearrange this so I don't keep banging on it. But it's also used in the local
sense. The church at Corinth was a local
assembly like the Tod's Road Grace Church is. It's a local
assembly of believers who believe the gospel. The church of Corinth
was a called out assembly of sinners saved by grace. Now you
read this epistle. Of Paul to the Corinthians. And
there was one problem after another in this church. I mean. Big problems. And one of the
things that this reminds me of. Is the church. Is a bunch of
sinners. Saved by grace. It's a hospital. It's for sick people. And you
see that from this church of Corinth. There were a lot of
sick people in this assembly. Some people are looking for the
perfect church. My soul, if you find it, don't join it, you'd
ruin it. You would. You look at, read this epistle,
and this was a true church. Paul addressed it as such, that
there were contentions. Look in verse 11 of chapter one.
For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them
which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among
you. There were divisions. There were
people arguing. People that were not getting along. One saying
I'm a Paul and another saying I'm Look in chapter 3 how Paul
addresses these people. He says in verse 1, And I, brethren,
could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal,
even as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with
meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, and even now
are you able. For you are yet carnal. He's saying you're acting
like unbelievers. For whereas there is among you envying and
strife and divisions, are you not carnal and walk as men? You look in this fourth chapter,
these people are sitting in judgment of Paul. And he says to them,
it's a small thing of me to be judged of you. I like the way
you handled that. But these people had taken it upon themselves
to sit in judgment of Paul. In the fifth chapter, you read
of some very unclean sexual immorality that was going on with somebody
in this church. In chapter six, you find out
that members of this church were actually entering litigation
with each other and actually bringing each other to court
and suing each other. You read chapter eight, you find
out where they weren't loving each other. You read chapter
11, you find out that some of them were actually becoming intoxicated
during the Lord's table. You read in chapters 12 through
14 and you'll find out where there was a horrible abuse of
the gifts of the Spirit. You look in chapter 15 and you
find out there were some in this group that were denying the resurrection.
Now, I could name other things that were going on in this church,
but there was a mess going on and Paul was addressing the problems
that had arisen in this church, in this first epistle to First
Corinthians. And you see that it was a bunch
of sinners saved by grace, wasn't it? We're not excusing that conduct,
but I tell you what, whenever you get flesh together, you know
what you got? Flesh. Problems. Sinners saved by grace. That's why I want to remind you. I guarantee you. You can find
things about this local assembly. But you don't like. I guarantee
that I'm the pastor, it's. It's got to be that way. But
remember what this is. It's a group of sinners saved
by the grace of God. That's why we meet together.
And Paul is addressing these people. As believers, yes, did
they have problems? You better bet they did. But
look how he addresses them in verse two. Under the church of God, which
is at Corinth. To them that are sanctified in
Christ Jesus. This reads literally. To those
who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. To those who have been
sanctified in Christ Jesus. Now, this word sanctification,
there's not a more important word in the word of God than
the word sanctification. Now, generally, when religious
people use the term sanctification, they think of it in terms of
Getting being good or being holy or growing in sanctification,
they think of it in terms of our conduct. Justification has
to do with our legal standing before God and sanctification
has to do with how we act and what we do and so on. That's
the way most people look at the term sanctification. But in the
Bible, this word means to take something common and ordinary
and set it apart for holy purposes. There were vessels in the temple
that were called sanctified. They were common, ordinary vessels,
but they were set apart for the purpose of the temple. Therefore,
they were declared by God to be holy. To be sanctified means
you take something common and ordinary, set it apart for holy
purposes, you declare it to be holy, or you make it holy. Now, this is the description
of a believer in the Word of God. That's why I love this word,
because I think it's the most comprehensive word In the Bible
that describes salvation, believers are sanctified. What are believers
called mostly in the scripture? You know how many times they're
called believers? I think three, either two or three. Do you know
how many times they're called saints? Sanctified ones? Literally
hundreds of times. That is the word that the Bible
uses to describe God's people. Sanctified ones. Saints. Sanctified
in Christ Jesus. Now, I was sanctified. I'm common
and ordinary. But I was set apart by God in
eternal election to be holy. I was sanctified by the Father.
I was sanctified by the Son when Christ Jesus died on Calvary's
tree. We read by one offering he hath
perfected forever, then they're sanctified. By the witch will,
we're sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. I was sanctified. God declared
me to be holy when Christ died. And I'm sanctified. I'm made
holy by the Spirit of God and regeneration. I'm given a holy
nature, a new nature. I'm given the life of God in
my soul. The scripture actually refers
to this as being partakers of the divine nature. So every believer
is sanctified, sanctified by the Father in election, sanctified
by the Son in redemption, sanctified by the Spirit of God in regeneration. Now, in this passage of Scripture,
when he says you've been sanctified. He. Gives this verb sanctified,
and I'm I don't know how to say it, but it's in the perfect passive
tense. I'm not trying to get technical,
but I think this is important. It's in the perfect passive tense.
The word perfect tense, that means perfectly completed, never
to be repeated. You can't grow in sanctification.
You can't become more sanctified. You either are or you're not.
He sanctified you in Christ Jesus. It's not something that can be
added to or become improved. You're sanctified in Christ Jesus.
And it's in the passive tense. There's active and there's passive.
If I'm passive in something, that means I'm acted upon. If
I'm active, that means I'm doing the work. But if I'm passive,
I'm acted upon. How passive was I in election?
I wasn't even around. It was the work of God and the
work of God alone. The same thing in redemption. How passive was
I in redemption? Christ died for me. I mean, I
didn't have anything to do with it. I didn't ask him to do it.
I didn't add anything to it. He simply did it. And how passive
am I in regeneration? God gives me life. Now, after
I'm given life, I become active. I start calling upon the name
of the Lord. I start begging for mercy. I start walking with
Christ. I start walking by faith. But in regeneration, I'm passive. This is the work of God alone. Now, here's the question I want
to ask you. Remember, I said in order for me to take a promise
to myself and say, this is for me, I'm going to have to fit
the character of the one the promise was made to. Now, is
your salvation were you passive in it? And you can answer that
question. Is this something God did for
you? And you know it. If you've got life, you know
the reason you have life is because God gave it to you. You know
that, don't you? You're sure of it. God did this for you.
Now, here's this is this is easy. I can I can understand. Yeah,
that's me. That's me. I know that the Lord
saved me. He saved us and not we ourselves. He saved us. Now in this, in
salvation, in every aspect of salvation, I know it's, in my
salvation, it's the work of God and the work of God alone. I
can't take any of the credit. Don't want any of the credit.
And I really believe what I'm saying. So, so far, so good.
So far, so good. If that's the case, that's me.
That's me. Because I know that it was the
Lord that saved me and I didn't save myself. So when he's describing
these people, the Church of God that's in Corinth, he said you're
sanctified in Christ Jesus. And then he says you're called.
To be saints. Those who have been sanctified
have also been called to be saints or sanctified ones. Every believer
is a saint. I'm looking at some saints. I. The world doesn't understand
that because they think if you're a saint, that means you've attained
to some degree of spirituality and holiness that very few ever
attain to. But that's not what the... All
of God's people are saints. Saint Todd. That's me. Saint Todd. I like the way it
sounds. I've got no problem saying it. Saint Todd. Saint Gawain.
Saint Gawain. All of God's people are saints
of God. Called to be saints. Called to
be Holy ones called by the call of God. Look down in First Corinthians
one verse twenty three. Paul says, but we preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block and into the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called. Called by God, you're called
to be saved, this call of God. It's a sovereign call. He calls
who he will. He doesn't call everybody. He
only calls the elect. That's who he calls, isn't it?
When we're talking about the call of God, I'm not talking
about that general call. I don't even know if I understand
that. I know that God does call upon all men sincerely to come
to Christ. I believe that. He does. It's a command. But
I know also that he only calls the elect, if actually. And I
can't explain all that. I don't need to. It's just what
the Bible teaches. He calls effectually the elect. It's an effectual
call. Like when he said to Lazarus, come forth. Could Lazarus have
said no? I don't believe I'm going to. No, Lazarus. He was
dead and came forth. When he calls you, you'll come.
You'll respond to his call. It's a personal call. When it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb. and called me by His grace to
reveal His Son in me. It's a personal call. Now, how
can I know if I've been called? How can I know if He's called
me? Well, let's go on reading in our text, 1 Corinthians 1,
verse 2. Unto 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 call upon the name
of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. Now, how can
I determine if I've been called? The called call. It really is that simple. The
called call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, all who
are called by God Now, how often do we read this in the Scripture?
Abraham called upon the name of the Lord. Jacob called upon
the name of the Lord. We read in Romans 10, 13, Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We read
this in the Scripture over and over and over again. The called
call. They call upon the name of the
Lord. This is the evidence of being called by God. If you're
called by God, you know what you do? You start calling. You start calling upon the name
of the Lord. Now, what a what a wonderful. Thought this is, there's not
a scripture that is more precious to me than Romans chapter 10,
verse 13, that says whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. And let me tell you why that
scripture is so precious to me. Here's why. Do you know you're
one of the elect? Well, sometimes I have such assurance,
sometimes I wonder. But I tell you this. I'm always
a whosoever. And it says whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, and this is the only
place I can hang my hat. I'm one of these people. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I love the
word whosoever. I love the word shall call. It
means to cry for help. And what I've thought about when
I've seen this thing of calling. I've not lifted weights ever
since my surgery, but I lifted weights for quite a while. I
plan on getting started again whenever the doctor releases
me to do it. But I enjoy lifting weights and
sometimes I get overly ambitious. And it's on the bench press.
I get on that bench press. And I'm thinking, I'm going to
do this. And I'm always, for some reason, anybody that has
any sins, when they lift weights, they'll ask somebody to spot
them. And I've always, I just never ask anybody to spot me.
That's, I just don't like asking them. You know, I want them to
leave me alone. But sometimes I'll take more than I can handle.
And I'll put it down on my chest. And I can't get it back up. That
is so embarrassing. It's humiliating. It's not like
I want to call. But you know what I do? I wait. Help! Help! Somebody comes running after
me. Listen up. I call because I can't do it. I can't get it up. Help. You know what you do when you
call on the name of the Lord? It's a call for help. It's a
call for mercy. It's a call for grace. You can
call help. Yeah, I'm glad that's an easy
that whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord. There's
the important word. It's not just a general call
help anybody. No, I'm calling upon the name
of the Lord. He said whosoever should call upon the name of
Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. His name is
Jesus. You know what that means? Savior. That's what calls name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Lord, save me.
Christ at His offices, the Prophet, the Priest, and the King. When
I'm calling on His name, I'm saying, Lord, give me a word
from You. Give me a word from on high. Speak to me. I'm asking
for Him as my Priest to represent me before the Father. I'm asking
Him as my King. Give commandment to save me,
the Prophet, the Priest, and the King. I'm calling upon the
name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. The reason I'm calling on Him
is because He's the Lord. He's the Lord. That means he's
the dictator. He's the absolute controller.
He's the only one who can do anything for me anyway. I'm calling upon his name. Now, you remember how I was talking
about verb tenses. I don't want to get overly technical,
but this is very important. I've been talking about how sanctified
is in the perfect Passive tense well here when he talks about
calling on the name of the Lord. It's in the active tense the
present tense right now Now here's how I can tell if the Lord is
calling my name I'm calling on him right now Did you call on him yesterday
I Think I did But just in case I didn't I'm calling on Him right
now. Lord, save me now. Have mercy
on me now. I'm calling upon His name right
now to save me. You know, yesterday's faith doesn't
do me a bit of good today. Yesterday's experience doesn't
do me any good today. It's got to be in the present.
Faith is always in the present. Who are you looking to right
now? I don't care who you look to yesterday. Who are you looking
to right now? Are you resting in Christ right
now? Are you looking to Him right
now? That's what he's talking about. Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord right now, they shall be saved. Faith is always in the present. Right now while I'm talking to
you, I'm looking to Christ. The very
same way I did when I first looked to Him. When I first looked to Him, I
didn't have any experience to look to. The only way I could look to
Him when I first looked to Him was as an empty-handed sinner,
trusting His all-sufficiency. Now, when I first looked to Him,
that's the way I looked to Him, and I haven't grown a bit past
that. That's the way I'm looking to
him right now. Calling upon the name of the
Lord. So he says in verse 3. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's the
big question. When he says grace be unto you,
is he speaking to me? Well, you can determine whether
or not he's speaking to you. And here's the way you determine,
first, is your sanctification wholly
the work of God? Do you really believe that? I
do. I really believe salvation is
all of grace. I really believe that. I really
believe that if I'm saved, it's because He saved me. My election
is the work of God, my redemption is the work of God, and my regeneration,
my new birth is the work of God, it's the work of God. I really
believe that. So, so far, so good. I fit the
description. And here's the second thing.
Are you calling upon the name of the Lord right now to save
you? I mean, can you say from your
heart, Lord, if I've never called upon you before, I'm calling
upon you now, Lord, save me. Have mercy on me. I'm calling
upon your name to save me, Lord. Do something for me. The called call. And he says to these people who
call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, he says, grace be unto
you. Now, if God says grace be unto
you, grace is unto you, isn't it? Grace, God's grace, God's
saving grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ if salvation really is all of grace. If it really is, you and I have That gives me such peace. I don't
have to look to myself for a thing. Everything God requires of me,
He looks to my Redeemer for. Salvation really is all of unmerited
favor. Every bit of it. And you know
what comes as a result of that? Peace. Having been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, does God say grace to you? Don't think it's presumption
to believe that he does. I don't care how sinful you are.
If you really believe your salvation is the work of God and the work
of God alone, and if you're calling upon the name of the Lord right
now. God says to you. Grace be unto you. and peace from God our Father
and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray together.