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153.
Yeah.
Do not change.
Ephesians one says that we are we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Do you think God will change his mind about what he chose way back then?
Of course he won't. We are the objects of the grace of God.
We know everyone of us that belongs to the Lord Jesus know that what we have.
We have from his hand of his choice.
Chosen in Christ. Marvelous, marvelous, That was before the foundation of the world, but.
We came along later on and we were sinners.
And we were deserving of punishment.
But in the grace and love and wisdom of God, through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary.
What we have, we have from his hand.
For all eternity we have blessing. There are some things that don't change. The blood of the the value of the blood of Christ doesn't change.
00:05:08
The Word of God.
Is eternal and it doesn't change. And I don't have one scripture necessarily for us to take up. And I'm trusting some of you brothers that know a whole lot more about the word than I do to come up with something that is really foundational chapter of scripture. The 8th chapter of Romans is one of those places. But but there's many others so.
With that a little.
Heading, I prayed that God will give us a real.
Good portion that will be basic.
I have only one purse.
And the address that they think of it, It's in First Corinthians 1.
Where God says of him are you in Christ? Who of God is made-up to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according it is written He that glorious let him glory in the Lord? That's the one verse. Maybe it's 2 verses.
That would follow perfectly with what we had an hour ago.
From dawn.
Yeah, you can find him all through Scripture, yeah.
I.
We had three readings, right?
Paul talks a lot about wisdom there.
I had that before us in the address.
That be all right?
Select.
First Corinthians chapter One.
Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and sausage our brother 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 call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.
Praise be unto you in 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 ye 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 so that she come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ? God is faithful by whom you recalled unto the fellowship of his Son.
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Can you step up to the mic?
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment, for it have been declared unto me of you my brethren.
By them which are of the House of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that everyone of you saith, I am of Paul, and I have Apollos, and I have Cephas, and I have Christ.
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Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name.
And I baptized also the household of Stefanus. Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other, For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved. It is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise.
And will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God.
Could please God, by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise after the flesh.
Not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world.
To confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty.
And base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen.
Yay, And things which are not to bring to not things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption, That according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Fresh, definitely.
The local church.
And it applies to all churches. There's only one church in God's mind.
The church that.
Courage the Church of God would check court is in which are sanctified in Christ Jesus.
He addresses them as set apart for Christ, as shanked by calling.
And then he says with all that are in every place, that in every place called on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours, it's to all of make a profession of Christ Jesus. It applies to everybody that makes a provision of Christ Jesus.
This epistle start.
In the second verse unto the Church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called Saints. And then it it expands that not only is it addressed to that local assembly there at Corinth, but with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. That applies to the church wherever it is found, wherever believers are found. Verse 9 says God is faithful.
By whom ye were called? Unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. That's not a local truth, that's a universal truth, is it not?
Let me touch upon the other scriptures that are in this epistle.
Umm. In chapter four we show that it's universal. There are things in it that Christians nowadays don't like, in particular the woman's place in in in the man's place and the woman's place and how that stands. The teachings that he gives at Corinth apply everywhere in in the 4th chapter, verse 17.
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For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved Son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church. He did not teach one thing at Corinth, another at Ephesus, and so on. He taught that truth everywhere in every church, he says.
Let's go on to.
Chapter 7.
Verse 17 But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called everyone, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all the churches, in all the churches, not just for Corinth, There are those. I've gone to Christian bookstores, and I pull out the Epistle to the Corinthians, and I'd read these passages where it gives the woman's place and the man's place and.
Some of them are very, very erroneous as I teach everywhere in all the churches and as I ordain in all the churches. Again, as we go on a little bit in this wonderful epistle Chapter 11 verse, I hear he's talking about the woman's place and the man's place and he says in verse 16.
Verse 15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair has given her for recovering or instead of a veil. But if any man seemed to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. The churches of God had the same custom that he's setting before them at Corinth, not one at Corinth, and something different elsewhere.
Again, we go on to the.
14th chapter.
In the 14th chapter.
Verse 32 verse 31. For you may all prophecy one by one, that all may learn and all may be comforted, and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the Saints. He didn't have one order at Corinth, another one at at Ephesus, and so on. That's so important. And then in the 16th chapter.
Verse one now concerning the collection for the Saints. As I have given order to the churches of Galatia, Even so do ye. It wasn't just for those in Akaya. It wasn't just for Corinth, it was for everyone. And that's so important to see that we have an epistle here where he is correcting, correcting, correcting, correcting the things that were wrong there.
And if they were wrong at court, they could have been wrong elsewhere, too. And they were. So it's such a valuable epistle that the instructions and the corrections given in that 1St century apply just as much today in the 21St.
This is important to see.
Just not just was it good for all at that time, but it is good for all today. The truth of God hasn't changed over time. The principles laid down and the truth that we have in this epistle and in the whole word of God for that matter, is good for all times. And so people will come along today and they'll say, well, that was all right for a certain time, or that was all right in a certain culture.
And things that were acceptable at that time and practiced in that culture that I've even heard people say, well, there's certain things today that are applicable in cultures in other parts of the world that we don't apply here in the same way in North America. And so I'm very thankful for the comments that have been made. And I just want to reiterate the fact that the truth of God is good not only for all, it's not only applicable for all, but at all times. That's why Peter, when he wrote the second epistle.
He said, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them, and then notice this expression and be established in the present truth. The truth is the present truth. It was good in the days when the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians.
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It was good in Mr. Darby's day. It applied in my grandfather's Day and my Father's Day.
And it applies right now, in 2005. The truth is the same truth. It is the present truth, many of the books that are written by men and man's Wisdom, They Change, and the things that wise men wrote. Even a generation ago. We might go back and say, well, how foolish those things seem now in the light of present discoveries. And we laugh at the things that our parents learned and studied in school as facts.
We see that again wise men change their opinions, but that which is recorded in the word of God, I say again, is not only good for all, but for all time.
Yesterday, today and forever. And he is the truth and the truth is the same. Yesterday, today and forever. That's so important. It doesn't change when the world changes. It remains the same. There's a brother here from Malawi and.
That applies just as much over there as it does in the United States of America. Might be harder to enforce it, but it's it's true, isn't it?
You referred to the ninth verse. God is faithful. That never changes. He's always the faithful God. And twice we read those words in this epistle, in this ninth verse. It's most excellent. God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, We are called to the fellowship of the.
Most excellent person ever has been God's son, an old brother used to say to us God had one suddenly loved so much, he wanted a whole lot more like him. So he set out to get him. And that's what we're going to end up to be. God is faithful. Now there's another place where it comes in. That's the tenth verse, 10th chapter. Just read this verse to get started and the.
The 10th chapter.
There is no temptation. The 13th verse.
There hath no temptation or trial. You can read it, taken you, that you, you, you. But such as is common to man, we get what's common to man.
But God is faithful.
He's faithful in trying us. And how does it turn out who will not suffer you to be cried? Above that you're able, but will with the trial also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. That is, God knows just how much trial to get us to get corrected or disciplined or or learning.
The faithful God at verse 9 think it's good to stress it. What do we call to the fellowship of his son that applies to every Christian on the face of the earth? I want to read a few verses in the 8th chapter, verse 5.
For though there be that are called gods.
Whether in heaven or in earth, as there be God's many and Lords many. But to us now He's not just writing to those at current. To us, to us who are called into the fellowship of His Son. To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we and him and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him and we're all in dwelt of the same Spirit.
And we are to keep the unity of the Spirit. I'm quoting from Ephesians 4 now. So the whole Trinity applies to every single Christian, no matter where he is and what assembly he belongs to.
In the Old Testament.
The children of Israel in the day of Moses.
Were separated from Egypt.
To be taken to a land, to live there, and I'm going to say in a practical sense, sanctified from the nations about them all the influence and the wisdom and the behaviour of the nations was to be taken out of the land of Israel, and the people of God were to dwell there in fellowship with Jehovah. Now, here in Corinth, there's a similarity in this sense.
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As it says in verse two, them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, that is God was forming an assembly, God's assembly. And the first step of it, if you will, was to separate his people.
To himself.
And they're sanctified. They're set apart for himself so that they might be a people to live in fellowship.
With his son, and they're brought into the fellowship of his Son, Christ Jesus.
But there's something that opposes it because the world wants to have a place. It wants to come in. The wisdom of the world says I'm going to be there too. And in chapter one, and in Chapter 2, and in Chapter 3 to chapter four, we have the wisdom of man seeking to intrude among the people who had been separated from that very thing.
That they might come under the separation that they might be.
According to the wisdom of God. And how does the wisdom of God separate from the world? While in Romans one it says man by wisdom knew not God.
That's where man's wisdom takes him. It separates him from God.
God's wisdom is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And here he's presented in this first chapter at a cross.
A man who dies on a cross and God says that's my wisdom the.
To the world, its foolishness. To the world its weakness. But God says it's my wisdom.
I'm going to accomplish the blessing of my creature through that man.
And where does it bring the Assembly of God?
Sanctified, separated from man's ideas, to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus, to have fellowship with the man that the world. What did the world say a few years before these words were written? We will not have this man.
We don't want this wisdom. We don't want fellowship with this person. Let's the world cast him out.
But we've been brought into fellowship with himself and later on.
In the 5th chapter.
There's a separation or the sanctification from the behavior of the world, the evil.
That the world would bring in to the Assembly of God. It has no place there. It has nothing to say to the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ. And so, as it were, the instruction is put it out, put it out. This is to be a separated holy fellowship for the people of God, the Assembly of God.
Country. Not only this country, but many others.
There's a religious system in it that claims to be the true church. Well, they they have Saints when they talk about Saints, they talk about those that have passed on and and are dead. But Paul wasn't writing to dead people. He was writing to the sanctified. Those who are called Saints right now called Saints Saints by calling.
Just as much as he was an apostle. By calling, we're Saints. By calling, they said of the Lord Jesus. He was the Holy One of God, and that Holy One is exactly the same word as a St. a St. We are holy ones, we're Saints. And that's true of every believer on the face of the earth, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours.
So if we would get a hold of these truths, we would see what a shame it is that Christians are content with.
Being a part of Christendom, being a this or that or whatever they they call themselves. I've talked so many times in the nursing home to others and their first question they always put to me is what church do you go to? What church do you go to?
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When I answer him this way, I said let's go back to the 1St century. How many churches were there?
Just one. Just one, I said. That's the one I belong to. That's the one I belong to. I won't name myself after any of these denominational names, because they divide the Saints of God, and we're called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. And that's not dividing us, That's uniting us. He died that he might gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
We're Saints. We're All Saints.
You're not more of a St. than I am. You might be a more godly person.
But we're All Saints. We're All Saints.
On that basis, an old brother used to say to us in a simple words, be what you are.
A St. be that when that system that speaks of Saints, it's usually those who they feel in their estimation have attained to this position through various means in their lifetime, and they review their life and they decide whether they are worthy of the title of St.
But every believer in this room and every believer alive on the face of the earth today is called a St. not because they attain to it by something that they could do, but by the grace of God. And Paul brings that out in this chapter. He speaks of the grace of God in the fourth verse. When he thought of these Saints, he thought of the grace of God that had brought them into this position. We didn't do anything to obtain our salvation.
We didn't do anything to obtain the fact that we can be called Saints. No, it's all by the grace of God. It's all based on the work of the Lord Jesus at Calvary. Nothing to do with ourselves. And Paul's ministry brings this before us over and over again. By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. So it's not only those that they are dead, but it's that they consider as St. or for sainthood. But it's those who've attained in some way by their works.
Brethren, it's God that works in us both to will and do of His good pleasure. After we are saved, there ought to be those good works that follow. But that isn't. That isn't what gives us the title of Saint. It's God who gives it to us. On the basis of the work of Calvary and the fact that He has called us by His grace, and by grace we've responded to that.
To draw attention to himself was the one that said he was the chief of sinners. That was the Apostle Paul. He was probably the most godly man that ever walked this scene.
To him he said for me to live his Christ, to die as gain. Christ was everything to him, and the thing that he would hate the most is anyone applying something good to him. Because he didn't consider himself that way. He just reveled in the grace of God.
Sanctification is not something we strive for.
As to a position before God, but like you mentioned Jim, it's the result of the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 10 says very clearly.
By the which will. It's the will of God.
We are sanctified through the offering of the body.
Jesus Christ.
Once for all, it's that work he did on the cross of redemption. He set us apart by that word for God once for all. And if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, you are in that number. Set aside for God, Set apart for God. I think there is, like you say, that that idea that sanctification is something that we must.
Seek to attain, but I think, the power of living a sanctified life.
Is first of all to enjoy the place of complete holiness that God has set us in Christ. You cannot improve on that. And when you enjoy that in your soul, you will be careful how you walk in this world sometimes, say if a girl is given a beautiful white dress, and there she goes out.
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Into a dirty world, you can imagine how careful she's going to be to keep that dress white. She's going to be careful not to attain a white dress, but because she has it. And that's the truth of sanctification. You and I have that place before God in Christ. Now walk in the enjoyment of it.
There is practical sanctification too, and justice to give a verse for that practical sanctification is what we sometimes say progressive, because in that sense of the word we need to be exercised first. Thessalonians, chapter 5 and verse 23.
Is practical sanctification the very God of peace?
Sanctify you holy and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So there's positional.
Sanctification, which is absolute. And then there's practical sanctification, which we need to be exercised in view of the fact that we occupy that place before God.
Then we need to walk in it in a practical way. I believe there are two things that will sense in our souls of the exercise to walk as to practical sanctification. One is holiness and the other is grace. And it's interesting in Corinth that in the first epistle they failed in maintaining the holiness of God, in allowing sin at the Lord's table amongst the people of God. In the second epistle, they failed in exercising the grace of God.
When there was repentance and restoration before the Lord with the individual, they were as slow to receive him back as they had been to discipline him in the first Epistle. And the Apostle Paul had to point out that both were wrong. But I believe we need to walk through this world, brethren, with a sense of those two things in our souls The holiness of God and holiness becometh thy house, O Lord, and we are to be holy who bear the vessels of the Lord.
There is to be the maintaining of holiness. God teaches His people always, in every age that sin is a thing that is not fit for His presence, nor is it a thing that is fit for the presence of His people. And so on the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament.
When that matter was taken up, the sacrifice had to be taken outside the camp and consumed again. God teaching His people that sin was not a thing fit for his presence or the presence of His people, and holiness must be maintained in our lives individually and collectively. At the Lord's table is gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But, brethren, we also have to have a sense of grace in our souls, because in Titus it tells us that it's grace that teaches us.
To deny that which is unholy, and then to live. Well, let's read it because I think it's helpful.
As a balance, we get in, we fall into one ditch or the other.
But in in Titus chapter 2.
And verse 11 Titus Two and verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.
Now he's talking about grace here, and it's grace that is the teacher. And this is what grace teaches us, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world or this present age. And when I see a brother or sister who's walking in practical separation, sanctification, a brother or sister who is exhibiting moral piety and godliness.
In their life, I say, there's a brother. There's a sister who has an appreciation in their soul for the grace of God. Grace does not teach us to live for ourselves. Grace does not teach us to live loosely like the world does. Grace teaches us to deny that which is unholy, and then to live soberly, righteously, godly, right at this present time, even in 2005. And so we need to have a sense of these two things, because, brethren.
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We fall into one ditch or the other as creatures of extreme so often, and I will be the first to confess that I've often fallen into one ditch or the other. That is, we want to maintain holiness, and that's good. We need to be exercised, especially in a day when there's a there's lowering standards. David said not take not the spirit of holiness from me, he said, Don't let me get used to sin, but in seeking to maintain holiness.
Sometimes we can fail of the grace of God. And then sometimes in seeking to show grace, perhaps we don't maintain holiness the way we ought to, and both are important. The scriptures are balanced. And so Paul brings these out and these things out in these two epistles, that we're responsible to maintain holiness for the Lord's glory, but we are also to show grace in its proper character and in its proper way.
As it's produced by the grace of God, Paul says to Timothy. Therefore thou, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus that produces holiness. And you just read that in Titus. You can't have it. It's not something that is to our credit, It's all to his credit. He produces the He, He replicates himself in us by the grace of God working in our souls.
And he's the God of all grace. Amen.
Wonderful thing to realize all this, that we have been identified by the grace of God.
With his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And God is now eternally joined us.
God's assembly. There's also the Body of Christ.
And having been sanctified in Christ Jesus, having been the objects of the grace of God to enrich our souls, he then goes on to say.
Verse 7. Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will confirm you unto the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, he's looking on. Paul was looking on with respect to these dear brethren to a coming day.
When the one to whom they were now identified, into whose fellowship they had been brought, was going to be revealed to the whole of creation, the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, he says, waiting for that revelation. And wonderfully too, he says, When that day comes, you're going to be.
Uses a new translation. Unimpeachable, that is, no charge is going to be able to be laid against you because of His work in grace for you. And how can we be sure it's going to happen? God is faithful. That's where it comes in. Here God is faithful. He is going to see that that fellowship into which we have been brought, He is going to maintain us in such a way that when the day in which the Lord Jesus is manifested and revealed.
We're going to be unimpeachable right there with him and identified with him.
And so he goes on to the Saints, and he says brethren, as it were, don't despise the cross.
That's the present portion. It's an identification with a man who has been crucified and cast out of this world. And our present place is to be identified with Him so that when the day of Revelation comes, he may also identify us with himself in His displayed glory.
What is the greatest? What is the greatest of all evils?
Quote Mr. Darby on this Pride is the greatest of all evils it gives to man.
What only God deserves gives to man a place that only God deserves. There can be no holiness. There cannot be any real practical holiness in a person that is filled with pride because he's looking at himself. He's trying to find something that he can boast of in himself. We have nothing to boast of in ourselves. We're nothing but wretched guilty sinners in ourselves. But God has in his infinite grace picked up such an one as Saul of Tarsus.
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And made him the Apostle Paul. How did he get that way? By some effort of his own, No, but by the grace of God alone. And he had no pride left. I know we all have pride. That's the worst evil we have thinking something of ourselves. But he became the closest of getting rid of that as he got closer and closer to the Lord. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, that I may know him. And the more we know Him, the less we think of ourselves.
And being a whole part of the difficulty that the Corinthian Saints were having in that respect, because the wisdom of the world was coming in among them, and the consequence of it was to glory in man. And so one said, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, used themselves as examples.
And he sums it up later in chapter 3.
And verse 20.
He says, And again the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they're vain. Therefore let no man glory in men.
That's what happens when the ways and the thoughts of man come among God's people.
Man gets a place and man glories in man. That's he promotes it.
It's the wisdom of man. It's the pride of man. He promotes himself. He doesn't say there's anything wrong with ego. Sometimes a very successful person, he'll say, well, he's got a big ego, but he deserves it. Look at what he's accomplished and so on. But God says my glory. I give not to another glory in man has no place before God. God has said I will honor my son.
And the Son says, I will honor my Father. And so the Father and the Son coequal are both glorified in the word of God, and one takes the joy in glorifying the other. And our place is to worship.
Nothing in ourselves, all that we are is the fruit of the results of the grace of God in Christ. But God says, but you may participate, you may be worshippers.
Some have been mentioned that right at the middle of the word pride is that big eye. And that's the big problem. And I think it's something that we in our present culture need to be aware of, brethren, not that any of us can sufficiently perhaps detect it in ourselves, but we are living in a humanistic, man centered culture.
And in the measure that we set ourselves forward, in that same measure the Lord Jesus is not glorified. And I think it is beautiful in this first chapter. Something that seems to stand out in these first verses is that the Lord Jesus is giving again and again his title of Lord. Notice verse 2.
All that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. What is it that unites us, brethren? Not stressing our individual characteristics, but it's focusing on the Lordship of Christ, submission to His authority, verse 3.
Be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
And verse.
Seven. Just a minute. I'll get there.
So that he come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse eight, who shall also confirm you into the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you are called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, again and again. Then the verse you mentioned.
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Verse 31 He that glorious let him glory in the Lord. O brethren, we need to individually be exercised about giving the Lord Jesus Christ His proper place in our lives. He is Lord and somebody has said if he's not Lord of all, he's not Lord at all. May the Lord help us, they're so often in our culture.
We like to.
Speak of the Lordship of Christ. But there's little pockets of reserve. We like to please ourselves.
Brethren, let's be exercised that he has that place. That's what's going to bring us together to let him be Lord.
A very sinful.
People.
To Corinthian eyes was to commit fornication.
And evil.
And I'm going to read a few verses in the 4th chapter and see if it doesn't describe the United States of America today.
Verse 8 Now ye are full, Now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us. And I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you. I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ.
We are weak, but ye are strong. Ye are honorable, but we are despised. Even under this present hour. We both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place and labor working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we suffer, it Being defamed we intrigue. We are made as the filth of the world and are the off scouring of all things. Under this day I write not these things to shame you.
But as my beloved sons, I warn you for though ye have 10,000 instructors in Christ.
Yet have he not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers, or I think better rendered imitators of me. What? What a passage. And it describes. It describes Laodicea. That's where we are today in Laodicea.
A person who is hearing these things.
Say on inquiring. Well, you say you're a St. now.
I'm I'm not sure I'm the same and I I'm not sure I'm chosen.
And you're making it very difficult for me. Well, I'll tell you what. Do what the apostle did. Do what the jailer did. Wherever.
Philip Philippi When the There was an earthquake.
And the prisoners were still there, hadn't escaped. What must I do to be saved?
Well, there is a simple answer to being saved, being sanctified, being a St. being destined for heaven, predestined for heaven chosen.
Believe you're a Sinner and that your sins were laid on Christ at Calvary at 12 noon on Friday.
And at 3:00 in the afternoon the Lord Jesus said, it's finished. It's finished, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. My work is over with on the earth. I have done what I was sent for, and now every soul.
Who embraces this truth and this person?
Is a Saint of God.
A Saint of God? How can it be? Yes, a Saint of God, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world and ready to be on display before the judge of all Europe.
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So in other words, it's not a matter of being made that here's actually die, as one religious belief has, but precious the side of the Lord is a deathly St. Saints now.
I like the portion brother you mentioned in the book of Romans, chapter 8.
Perhaps we can turn to that just for a moment is we all know it well. Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 28. I believe we need to know this with confidence for ourselves. We often can tell people about redemption. We tell them about chosen before the foundation of the world. But here if we read it carefully, we see the the apostle would put it in with very strong emphasis by saying this.
He said. For we know, can we say that with confidence here? We have a room here of perhaps 2300 people. Can we all say that with full confidence? If we know it well, we can surely say that. For we know. Do you really know that?
Do you truly believe in this? Believe in what? Let's read on. For we know that all things work together for good. Well, often we stop there, don't we, when we quote this verse that all things work together for good? Well, the verse doesn't stop like that. It says for we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them.
Who were called according to his purpose. Oh, do we have that confidence that we are and we have been called, We know that in our hearts. And then we can go on with those thoughts. As the following verses continue to to build our faith tells us that for whom he did foreknow, well, now we know this, it's been foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.
Oh, what a precious thought that not only have we been chosen, we're going to be conforming to the image of our blessed Lord Jesus. That means we're going to look like him, we're going to act like him, we're going to think like him, We're going to be with him. Oh, to be conforming to the image of his son, that he may be the first born among many brethren. Is that it? Oh, no, It goes on more over.
Whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he had and whom He called them he also justified. And whom He justified he also glorified. Oh, what precious thoughts do know, we have been called, call out to be his, and to know that we have been justified by His precious blood. We have been justified by faith, as this tells us in Romans there. And now we have that confidence to know that.
Though we don't see our present body to be yet glorified, but we soon shall be glorified.
We spoke of churches singular in the New Testament, and when we go back to Matthew 16, the Lord Jesus said on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And when you went to Corinth in the early days, you didn't say where are such and such a group of believers that take such and such a name. No, you would simply say where are the believers in Christ Jesus in Corinth.
Because originally they were all together. They were in fellowship, one with another. And so he writes to the church at Corinth. But you know, if you were to come to my hometown, Smiths Falls today, as you approach Smith's Falls on the main highway, you would see a sign that we often see that says the churches of Smith's Falls, welcome you. Now, why does it say that? Well, it started back here in Corinth. The seeds of it started here.
And so the wisdom of man exalts man. And when man is exalted, it necessarily leads to division and Chisholms. It's always going to be so. We see it today, whether it's in the corporate world, whether it's in government, whether it's in.
Christian circles whatever sphere of life, the wisdom of man, when it comes in, it exalts man, and it leads to division amongst men.
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And this is what we see at Corinth. The wisdom of man had come in. And what was the result? They were exalting one another. I am appalled. I am of Apollos. It was leading to division, even to the point where some said, well, I'm not of either of them, I'm of Christ. But it was leading to a difficulty that I'm afraid, the enemy has developed over the centuries to the point where we see today.
Sad to say.
Christians divided and scattered in various pockets and fellowship's of Christendom. Was that God's mind? No, it was not the mind of God. His mind was that all would be gathered together in fellowship with himself, his Son, and one another. But doesn't it encourage our hearts? And he speaks of this in connection with the coming of Christ. Doesn't it encourage our hearts, brethren, to realize there is a day when all the wisdom of men, all the pride that's in our hearts, will be left behind?
And all the Saints of God will be gathered together in the Father's house, all with the same object, all with the same theme. As a result of all having Christ before us as our object all, and being in happy, uninterrupted fellowship with Himself, we will be in happy, uninterrupted fellowship with one another. Well, in the meantime we are responsible then, as we said earlier, to maintain holiness and grace.
We can never go on in fellowship at the expense of righteousness and truth. We're not called to compromise. We are called to be faithful and to go on in the path that he has. And this was what was before the Corinthians. But in the beginning it wasn't. So they were all together. One church on this rock. I will build my church, but you know the gates of hell are not going to prevail against it, and the the purposes of God are not going to be frustrated.
They're going to be brought to fruition in a coming day. And to see the church in her beauty, you have to look at her in her beginnings in the book of the Acts. Or you have to go to Revelation and look at her in the end. And to realize that there's a day coming when he's going to, as it says in Ephesians, present it to himself. A glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
As you have it, in Galatians, he writes to the churches of Galatia, and then he writes to the churches of Judea. Those were provinces, they were not cities. But whenever he writes to a city, it's the church that's in the city, but whether it's church.
Or churches. The churches are not different one from another. They're all governed by the same truths and they all express the same thing. So I think the both both of these things are true. There are expressions called churches in the Galatia.
Local representation of the Body of Christ at large. That's right. And like you say, I think it is important to realize that even today, in 2005 when we live, there is only one church.
Only one that God recognizes when he looks down into the city of Saint Louis. He doesn't recognize all the outward confusion that there is. He only says the church, which is the body of Christ. If you notice in verse 10 where he begins his corrective ministry in this epistle of Corinth, because there was a lot to correct, notice how he speaks about divisions.
He says, I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions. Notice how he puts it among you, we who are responsible to carry out the testimony publicly.
Divisions come in amongst us, but the body of Christ is never divided, brethren, Never.
It's still one just as much today because we need faith to view things as God views them. Remember visiting a brother in South America And he said to me one time, he said.
Oh, how shameful it is that the body of Christ is all divided up into pieces, I said. Brother, I'm here.
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Because we are still one body. The body of Christ is not divided. It is one as much today as it ever was. What is divided is the outward testimony to that truth.
That's what is divided. That's where failure has come in, and we have to hang our heads in shame. Divisions, it says very carefully, are among you not in the body of Christ. The body of Christ is 1. I'd like to mention something else that I think is very instructive here in this first chapter, Brother, and before he gets into corrective ministry, which was important.
And it's very helpful for us today.
He commands them. Notice how he begins and there was a lot to correct in the.
Print and assembly. They were going to law with each other. They were drunk at the Lord's table. They were into fornication. I mean there was lots that was out of order. But before he begins to correct, he commends what he can. I think this is a very important lesson. Notice verse 4I 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, and gets an important thing, brother, And sometimes we see.
In somebody else, something that needs correction and maybe we go and we directly talk about that. I think there's a lesson here for us to learn. Let's appreciate what we can.
In our dear brethren, let's commend them for it, And then once that has been done.
Correction. A little further on will have much more effect. There's only one epistle where the apostle Paul does not commend them to begin with, and that is the epistle of Galatians, because what was in question was the very foundations of their faith, the gospel. And so he starts indirectly immediately to correct that, but when it was their testimony.
And there was lots of important matters to correct inquiry. He first commends them. I think that is an important lesson to learn 212.
M212.
We're here.
To deposit.
All the water bewitched, you can take it in your life.
By your own time.