When we think about greeting somebody or even
greeting a group of people, we tend to think
of greetings as obligatory. We tend to think
of them as not all that important. In fact, when
we come together, we often say, well, how are
you, right? And we say it very quickly, not without
a lot of thought, because the greeting is something
that we all think, well, we just rush past it.
in order to get to the meat of the conversation,
right? We want to get to the things that really
matter, but we enter into it with this quick
greeting, how you doing? Well, scripture doesn't
do that. Scripture does not rush through a greeting.
In fact, in most cases, the authors in the New
Testament letters preach entire sermons, just
in the greetings, just in the salutations. So
what we tend to skim over or just read right
past and I think we've all done this before.
We decide we're gonna read a book in the New
Testament, we open it up, and we just zip through
the greeting, right, so that we can get to the
meat. The things that we read past are often
absolutely loaded with important theology, absolutely
loaded with pastoral care. Sometimes you'll find
entire summaries of the gospel just in the opening
verses of a letter. And our passage for this
morning is a perfect example of this. It is packed
full of essential, Christian doctrine, things
that define the historic faith of Christianity,
packed into just nine verses in the greeting
of our letter for this morning. And it's sort
of ironic, when we think of 1 Corinthians, you
think, well, this is a really practical letter
for the church, and that's true. But what we're
going to find out, that it starts with the theology.
Here's the thing, and I hope this truth comes
through loud and clear throughout this preaching
series. How we live life together practically
in the local church has to be built on theology.
It has to be built on essential theology and
biblical convictions. We don't just wander in
and say, well, let's start with the practical
stuff. They have to be built on eternal truths.
So as we dive into our passage for today, we're
going to linger here in the greeting, spend our
entire message on it. And we're going to see
how Paul's choice of words here, inspired by
the Holy Spirit, how they set the course for
the rest of his letter. So grab your Bibles.
We're going to 1 Corinthians 1. If you missed
last Sunday's introduction, I want to encourage
you to go back because it really does set the
context for everything that we're going to read
over, I don't know, the next couple of years.
So go back and listen to it. And let me also
say this. I referenced a lot of pictures and
maps and timelines in that sermon. And some of
you reached out this last week and said, can
you send me those pictures? And I can do that.
I can send you a PDF with all those pictures
and all of those timelines and maps. All you
have to do is text me or email me and say, send
it my way. Happy to do that. But that message
from last Sunday really is important for context.
Now, we know that Paul is writing here to a troubled
church. That's what we saw last week. We looked
at the city of Corinth. We looked at Paul's connection
to this unique body of believers. This is a church
that exists in a very wealthy, very materialistic,
very idolatrous city and culture. But in spite
of that truth, Paul begins his letter here to
the members of this church with great confidence.
which you might not expect. He doesn't begin
by questioning the reality of their conversion.
Instead, he starts to affirm what God has done
for them in Christ. There's going to be plenty
of time in this letter for Paul to rebuke them
and correct them and instruct them, but not yet.
First, they have to be reminded of the certainty
of their salvation. They've got to be reminded
about the hope that they have in Christ and to
make sure that they understand that the certainty
that they have doesn't rest in themselves. Because
none of us can keep ourselves in the kingdom,
right? It rests in the power of God, in the one
who has the gift of salvation in his sovereign
hands. And so every one of the nine verses that
we're going to look at this morning is intended
to help the Corinthians and you and I by extension
to know who we are in relation to God. Let me
say this again. All nine of the verses we're
going to look at today. given to us so that we'll
understand who we are in relation to God. So
this is what Paul's going to tell them in this
section. This is who you are in Christ. And we
should listen for ourselves as well, because
what's true of the Corinthians back then is true
of believers today. Who are we in Christ? And
the way that Paul goes about laying this out
is actually very brilliant. He's going to start
by looking back into the past. to define how
these men and women became believers in the first
place. So he starts in the past. Then he's going
to look at the present situation to see what
their experience is right now as a local church
living life together, just like we are. And finally,
he's going to look to the future. He's going
to look down the road eschatologically to their
end and how they can be assured of where they're
going to end up. So, past, present, and future.
You're gonna see it throughout. So let's back
up to verse one. We're just actually gonna, let's
just read this whole greeting, verses one through
nine. Here's what it says. Paul, called as an
apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and
Sosthenes, our brother, to the church of God,
which is at Corinth, to those who've been sanctified
in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all
who in every place call on the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. their Lord and ours. Grace to you
and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, before we read the rest of it here,
I want you to notice the absence of something
that's very important. Normally in Paul's letters,
at this point, he would say something positive
about the church there. He would say something
praiseworthy. That's usually how we start. So,
for example, I'll put some of these on the screen.
To the church of Rome, he writes, I thank my
God through Jesus Christ for you all because
your faith is being proclaimed throughout the
whole world. That's a real praiseworthy thing.
To the Ephesian church, he says, I've heard of
the faith in the Lord Jesus, which exists among
you and your love for all the saints. To the
Philippian church, he speaks of their participation
in the gospel from the first day until now. To
the church in Colossae, he says, we heard of
your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which
you have for all the saints. And to the church
of Thessalonica, what scholars think is probably
the most healthy church of all the New Testament
churches, he says, we make mention of you in
our prayers, constantly bearing in mind your
work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness
of hope. in our Lord Jesus Christ. Man, if you
wanted to be just really thrilled with what God
says about your local church, that's a really
good example, right? Did you see it? Your work
of faith, your labor of love, your steadfastness
of hope. But guess what? You don't see anything
like that in the 1 Corinthians, do you? It's
not there. Nothing really praiseworthy. But here's
what Paul's going to do. Instead, he's going
to focus like a laser beam, not on the believers,
but on what God has done among them. And this
is so important, right? What he has done, what
he is doing, what he will do among the believers
there in Corinth. So let's look at verses four
through nine now. I thank my God always concerning
you for the grace of God which was given you
in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were
enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge,
even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed
in you. So let me point that again. What you
see in these six verses are references to the
past, to the present, and to the future. And
the verb tenses... Really tell the story in this,
and we'll see that as we go along. So we want
to look at all three of those areas, one at a
time. We'll spend the most time on the first
one, on the past, because that's where Paul spends
the most time in both verses two and verses four
through six. So let's look at verse two again.
To those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus,
saints by calling, with all who in every place
call on the name of Jesus, of our Lord Jesus
Christ. So this is true of the believers in first
century Corinth, and it's true of believers today.
We should be able to ask the question and answer
the question, what happened in the past that
brought us into the kingdom of God? What happened
that brought us into union with Christ? And what
we see here are three things. Number one, we
were sanctified in him. Number two, he called
us to be saints. And number three, we responded
to being sanctified and called. By calling on
the name of Jesus as Lord. Do you see it? Let
me say it again. We were sanctified in him. He
called us to be saints. And then we responded
to that by calling on the name of Jesus as Lord.
And that order is important, right? First, God
sanctified us. In what sense? In the sense that
he set us apart to be holy in his sight. Now,
I know we talk about sanctification as an ongoing
life process of maturing in the Lord. The way
it's being used here in this verse is, no, set
apart, set apart as holy in God's sight. That
is positionally true of anybody that is found
in Christ. And that action was completed before
time began. You heard Paul say the same thing
in our call to worship passage that Dave read
from Ephesians 1. He chose us in him. This is
what Dave read. He chose us in him, meaning he
set us apart in Christ before the foundation
of the world that we would be holy and blameless
before him. Do you believe that? I hope so. And
the way Paul writes that here in 1 Corinthians
is important. He says, This is the Greek verb
hagiadzo written in what we call the perfect
tense. And the perfect tense is very important
in the Greek language. It refers to an action
that was completed in the past, but the results
of that action continue on. Okay, completed in
the past, but the results continue on. Here's
what that means. The believers in Corinth were
chosen by God in eternity past. They were sanctified
or set apart to be in union with Christ, and
that set apartness continues. It continues on.
In fact, this is such an important truth. As
believers, we are forever set apart in Christ.
We were set apart in eternity past, and we'll
be set apart into eternity future. We belong
to him. We're in union with Christ. So we are
called by God to be what Paul refers to as saints.
Hagios in the Greek, which, get this, translates
to what? What is a saint? A holy one. A holy
one. Now, he's not talking about saints as the
Roman Catholic Church canonized saints. Their
definition of saints as men and women who are
uniquely virtuous is not at all biblical. That
is simply a tradition. Paul uses the word. to
refer to just ordinary Christians like you and
I, even the Corinthians. They're saints. In fact,
this is one of Paul's favorite words to describe
believers. He uses it some 40 times in the New
Testament. Now, did you realize that you are
a holy one? Do you realize that God sees you
as a holy one? And you can see how this relates
to being sanctified. Look at the screen and you
can see how both of these words share the same
root in the Greek language. Hagios, Hagiazo.
We are sanctified saints chosen and set apart
by God to be holy in his sight. That is our positional
truth. It is true about us as we sit here this
morning. And that positional truth is secured
by God's sovereign grace and his sovereign will.
I know it's hard to believe, right? Because we
all wrestle with sin. But positionally, Christ
has declared this about us. We are his holy ones.
So the calling described here isn't just an external
offer that God makes to us as we tend to think
about calling. It's not just that we hear the
gospel. What Paul's talking about here in verse
two is an effectual action on God's part that
results in us being holy ones. It's an effectual
act. God declares it to be so. We are his holy
ones. And this type of calling, what God does
is he, in time and space, he marks us out in
eternity past. In time and space, he opens up
our eyes spiritually. He breaks through our resistance.
He awakens us out of spiritual death and he massages
our heart to life. He brings us to life. And
then he grants us the ability to turn to him,
to see the beauty of Christ, and to embrace the
truth of the gospel. Is that your testimony?
Do you remember when God did this in your life?
I remember it clearly in my college days, when
God did this work in me. And I didn't really
know what was going on. I couldn't really answer,
why am I suddenly paying attention to the things
of God? Last week, I could have cared less, and
God's drawing me, and he's doing this work in
my heart. He's massaging my heart to life. It's
amazing, right? And so God changes our affections.
From our perspective, it's a free and glad submission
to Christ. As he changes our affections, he causes
us to truly want to worship Jesus. So these two
things work together, God's divine sovereignty,
and yet we really do desire and want to submit
to Christ because God creates that. He causes
that in us, in our hearts. He brings us to life.
It's a beautiful thing, isn't it? We don't have
to pick one or the other, sovereignty or human
responsibility. They fit together biblically.
And as Paul describes here in verse two, when
that happens, when God changes our hearts, we
can incline ourselves towards him and we call
upon the name of the Lord. We call upon Jesus
as Lord, just as he predestined we would. Hmm.
Hmm. Interesting, right? Here's the amazing thing
about this. He chose to call and sanctify and
save first century Corinthians. And he chose
to call, sanctify, and save a knucklehead like
me. And like you. That's what's so amazing about
amazing grace. But that's not all he does. He
doesn't just leave us there positionally. Then
he summons us to work out our salvation practically.
To progressively, over time, turn that positional
holiness into practical holiness. He invites
us to abide in Christ. He commands us to walk
by the Spirit even as he does the work in us
to transform us into the image of Christ. And
again, those things work together, right? We
work out our salvation as God does that work
in us. And that positional holiness that we've
been given slowly becomes practical holiness.
Sometimes not as fast as we wished. Amen? But
God is gonna complete that work in each one of
us. Therefore, we walk in a way that's consistent
with the truth of our identity, what God has
said we are, what he has made us positionally.
We walk in the truth of that identity. We keep
putting off the old nature and we keep striving
to put on the new nature, being conformed to
the image of the one who saved us. Wow, the theology
in this, right? Just in a greeting, in a letter
is amazing. Now, that's not all that Paul has
to say about our past. There's more in verses
four to six. Look again at verse four. Paul says,
I thank my God always concerning you. By the
way, did you think that Paul would be thankful
as he writes to the Corinthians with all of their
problems? But he is. We might open this letter
and think, you know what, man, Paul's gonna give
these guys a spanking and they deserve it, right?
But he starts. Where we should all start, with
his theology in place. His understanding of our
relationship with God first. What he knows to
be true. And he knows that these Christians in
Corinth, though they're immature in their faith,
though that they need time and they need correction,
they are truly saints. And so therefore he can
be thankful. Thankful that God has begun the
good work there. Thankful that when God begins
a good work, he's going to complete it. And he
always does that, first of all, for his glory,
but second, for our good, right? Verse four goes
on. I thank my God always concerning you for
the grace of God, which was given to you in Christ
Jesus. So there it is. Paul is thankful that
God has lavished his grace upon these chosen
saints. In that city, these sanctified holy ones,
this grace that we speak of is nothing less than
unmerited, unearned favor and blessing from God.
That's what grace is. I'll say it again. Unmerited,
unearned favor and blessing from the creator
of which nobody on this earth deserves. Not one
of us. We have to get that straight, right? Certainly
not the Corinthians. They didn't deserve this
grace. So make sure you understand the basics
here. God's grace is a free gift. It cannot be
earned because as soon as you say, I earned that,
you actually nullify grace, don't you? You nullify
it. When you earn something, it's called a wage.
And the only thing that scripture says we've
earned as sinful human beings is what? Is death.
Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death. Death
is actually what we've all earned. It is what
we deserve. And yet Paul says here in verse four
that these men and women in Corinth were instead
given grace. They weren't given what they deserved.
They were given a gift. This is why we talk about
grace all the time here, right? It's amazing.
Now here's what I think Paul is aiming at as
he starts with this topic. We can now look back
at this letter. It's been 2 ,000 years, right?
And we can see some of the problems that are
happening in Corinth. At the top of the list
is, and this is maybe hard to believe, but these
immature believers are struggling with spiritual
pride. This is gonna come out throughout the
letter. They were lining up, first of all, behind
certain gifted leaders. And they were prideful
in that. Well, I follow this guy. Oh, I follow
this guy. And they were creating rivalries in
the church and dividing it. These guys were obsessed
with seeking after certain spiritual gifts that
would shine the spotlight on them. Look how godly
I am. They were boasting in their tolerance of
sin. They knew about sin in the body. They were
masking it by calling it the so -called freedom
in Christ. They were prideful in that. They're
proud of their intellectual background as Greeks,
thinking themselves to be wise when in reality
they were just being puffed up by it. So what
Paul seems to be doing here right out of the
gate in the greeting is trying to counter that
sense of pride in the Corinthians and to try
to let them know, look, if you have anything
at all, you Corinthians, it's all by grace. In
fact, he's going to say in chapter four, what
do you have that you did not receive? And if
you did receive it, why do you boast as if you
hadn't received it? So he's already, he's laying
it out right out of the gate. Everything you
have is by God's grace. Friends, this is true
of us. Everything that we have. I know, look,
we're Americans, right? Right? I pull myself
up by the bootstraps. Everything I have, I worked
hard for. Practical sense, that may be true.
You put out the effort, but everything that we
have is only because God has had a gracious hand
in your life. Even this day, the fact that you
woke up with breath in your lungs comes from
God. This worship service, we wouldn't be here
had God not done these things in our life from
eternity past, marked us out, sanctified us,
called us, saved us. None of us would be here
this morning. And we'd be in our sins, heading
towards spiritual death. But think about so many
more things that we so easily take for granted.
Our families, our spouses, our children, our
jobs, our homes, the clothing on our backs, all
the amenities that we enjoy as 21st century Americans.
Too many things to count, but we should count
them as grace. They're all gifts of grace from
the hand of our God. Amen? If you look now at
verse 5. Paul puts it this way, and I think this
is the word that jumped off the page to me when
I was praying through this passage. That in everything
you were enriched in him. Underline that word
enriched. Highlight that. You find here the Greek
word pas, which means in all things. Enriched,
not in some things, but in everything. you've
been made rich. That's what the verb means there.
If you're found in Christ, you've been made rich.
Do you feel rich? Who feels rich? Okay, this
is not according to how the world defines that
term. In fact, it's spiritual, so the world can
never understand it. If you said to them, you
walk out there and go, I am rich, they'll go,
you're crazy. Because they can't understand it.
It's spiritually discerned. But we are rich.
You've been lavished with grace by the creator.
Every sin of yours is washed away. You have a
guaranteed future in heaven. Are we not rich?
Can you put a price on that? Have you ever done
this thought experiment? Could you put a price
on what you have in Christ? Would you trade it
for a billion dollars on this earth? And if so,
that's the height of foolishness. You don't really
understand what you have if you would make that
trade. You and I are rich. Because we lack nothing
in Christ. The Lord has held back nothing from
his children. The scriptures say that we have
all things that pertain to life and godliness,
that in Christ we've been made complete. Again,
back to our call to worship passage, Ephesians
1, we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly realms. So I ask again, are we
not rich? We are. Then in verse five, it's interesting
now. This is where it gets really contextual.
Paul mentions two things in particular that the
Corinthians had great richness in. He says, in
all speech and knowledge. Again, this is Paul
anticipating where he's going to go in this letter,
the issues he's going to address. Because speech
and knowledge were two things that the Corinthians
were very proud about. Speech and knowledge were
two things that were huge in Greek culture. Incredibly
important. And they think they have plenty of
it. So Paul's reminding them, all that refined
speech that you love, remember we talked about
last week how they love great orders, they love
theater, they love all this stuff. All that refined
speech that you love, now that you're saved,
now that you're called and sanctified, that speech
has to be used for God's glory and for accomplishing
his will. It's been granted to you by grace to
now speak truth into the culture that you live
in as a witness to his goodness and to your salvation.
So you might be puffed up in your speech. You
need to transform that now to speak into your
culture. And the power of the mind that you love
so much, knowledge, it also has to be used for
God's purposes. The renewing of your mind. The
changing of the way you see the world. The changing
of the way you think. The accumulation of knowledge
about things that actually matter. Things about
life and death and sin and righteousness. Apply
your knowledge to that. is where Paul is gonna
go. The human knowledge out there in the culture
is only gonna puff you up, but spiritual knowledge
found in God's word will build you up. And those
are two completely different things, right? Puffed
up or built up in Christ. Then Paul adds, verse
six, he says, in everything you were enriched
in him, even as the testimony concerning Christ
was confirmed or made certain in you. made certain
in you. God had chosen them to be saved before
the foundation of the world. Then he drew them
to himself within time and space. And at the
moment of their conversion, when his grace was
extended and they were justified in his sight,
in that moment, the truth of the gospel was made
certain in their hearts. And that should be said
of us as well. The message of salvation, how
they were saved. by God's grace alone through
faith, was made steadfast in them. It was shown
to be real and true in their lives. Paul knows
this about the Corinthians, in spite of all the
problems. You see what Paul's doing here? He's
preparing the soil for what's to come later in
this letter. He's gonna address this wide variety
of subjects, and he is preparing that soil. For
rebuke and correction and conviction and encouragement
and all the things that God wants to do in this
local church. How these truths ought to be manifested
in their lives as they live together as a local
body. So that's the past. And there's a lot to
be said. You see the list on the screen. Our
past as believers. True of the Corinthians in
the first century. True of us in the 21st century.
Now, the present. Let's look at verse 7. And
let's talk about the present. Verse seven says,
so that, and what he means by that is, right
now, at the time that you receive this letter,
you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly
the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. So in
the past, you were set apart, you were called
to saints, you were lavished with grace, you
were enriched in every way, and the result of
that is, presently, you are not lacking any gift
whatsoever. You have every gift that you need
from the hand of God. Now the word for gift here
is charisma. It's where we get our word charismatic
from. It also comes from the same root as the
Greek word for grace, charis. And that means
that even the divine spiritual gifts that are
given to believers comes to us by what? By grace.
It's the same root word. Grace, grace, and these
gifts, same root in the Greek. So we don't earn
spiritual gifts. We don't go, man, you thump
our chest and go, I ought to have X, Y, or Z
gift. They're divinely given to us by grace alone.
Again, this is Paul foreshadowing where he's
going in the letter. When we get to chapters
12, 13, and 14, it's gonna be wild. You know
what's coming, right? He's gonna talk about this
variety of charismata in detail and try to explain
to the Corinthians how they've messed this up.
But understand this, and this is a bit of a preview
to where Paul's gonna go in his argument. These
spiritual gifts are given to members of the church
for one purpose, for one purpose, for the common
good, to build up and encourage the body of Christ.
They're not given to draw attention to yourself.
They're not given so that you can be spectacular
in the church. They're not given so that you
can disrupt things or cause confusion. They're
not given to you so you can have a whole new
source of pride in yourself. They are gracious
gifts to be used not for self, not for self,
but for building up other believers and the church
as a whole. So Paul's laying the foundation for
this right out of the gate. You are not lacking
in any gift, Paul writes. That means you have
everything that you need right now to build up
that local church in Corinth. God's given you
everything. So you can now minister to each other.
You can serve each other. You can love each other.
You can encourage each other. You can bear with
one another's burdens. You can show hospitality.
You can teach and admonish one another. You can
comfort one another. So on and so on. And here
at Oak Hill, we talk about these one another's
all the time, don't we? Because it really does
define what New Testament living looks like.
Look, you can be part of some big church and
slide in and out whenever you feel like it, show
up whenever you feel like it, don't meet anybody,
get some good teaching, get a good cup of coffee
and go home and think you're a part of a church.
And I'm here to tell you that if you're not living
out the one another's with real actual people
and all the rock tumbler that goes with that,
you're not living a New Testament life. You're
living an American church life. And don't be
deceived by that. So we stress this over and
over again. Paul is gonna say, look, you Corinthians,
I know you all wanna speak in tongues. I know
you all wanna do healings. You all wanna see
miracles, fine, but how about we start with the
greater gifts? Start loving each other. Start
serving each other in practical ways. Before
you get to those things, and we'll talk about
those things, do the basics. Live out the one
in others. So the Corinthian church is a mess.
But it wasn't because they lacked spiritual resources.
God had given them everything that they needed.
And Paul's reminding of that. You have everything
you need to live a healthy New Testament life.
And as we live that life together, Paul says,
look, we should be eagerly awaiting the revealing
of the Son of God in power. How many of you guys
are starting to think more about this in these
days that we live in? In the days where all the
news is about what? War, artificial intelligence,
and UFOs. How many of you are starting to think
about it? It's hard to ignore some of the things
going on in our world right now. Now, we don't
want to be deceived. We've got to be careful.
But it's hard to ignore what's happening in our
world right now. There are ominous predictions
made by very... smart and sometimes spiritual
people about what's coming down the pike in the
next couple of years. We should pay attention
to that. I know there's been a push in recent
years for Christians to stop thinking about Christ's
return. I've heard this for, I don't know, 20
years now. Well, we gotta be careful that we
don't, we focus so much on that that we're not
focusing on practical life in the church. But
we should be careful not to ignore it. God's
given us all the warning signs in scripture.
And he's told us, look, in this letter, we should
be eagerly awaiting the return of our Savior.
We should be looking to the skies. We should
be praying for Christ to return. We shouldn't
be so obsessed with it that we lose sight of
practical Christian life, the one in others,
and things of that nature. But friends, Christ's
return is our hope, right? Our hope is to be
home, to be in the presence of our Savior. So
why would we stop watching? Find the balance
in that. Why would we stop anticipating that
Christ could come back today? The rapture could
happen today. Would any of us be surprised? Finally,
from the past to the present, let's look at the
future. Look at verses eight and nine. Verse
seven finishes, awaiting eagerly the revelation
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse eight. who will
also confirm you, and some translations say sustain
you or strengthen you, to the end, blameless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. So as messed
up as the Corinthian church was, Paul wants them
to know, if you've been called, if you've been
sanctified, if you've been lavished with grace,
if you've been enriched in every way, this is
also true. You ready? The security of your salvation
is unquestioned. What God has started, he will
strengthen and he will sustain and he will ultimately
finish. So if they're truly found in Christ,
then their eternal hope is certain. Having the
penalty for their sins paid for at the cross,
they would be, without question, found blameless
at the judgment seat because Christ had paid
the penalty, a sufficient penalty for every sin.
Blameless at the day of his return. So listen,
when we talk about this concept, we're talking
about an essential Christian doctrine, the doctrine
of perseverance. In a practical sense, we're
talking about the assurance of our salvation.
This is the biblical truth that God will hold
us in his grasp right until the day of judgment.
He will cause you and I to persevere. to the
end in our faith and our trust. And this is an
important issue. This goes to how we read the
Bible in a consistent fashion. Think about this.
If God is the sole reason that we've come into
the kingdom in the first place, he's not gonna
fail to keep us, right? If he alone saved us
and brought us into the kingdom, he's gonna keep
us. But on the other hand, if you believe that
you're responsible, for your salvation, that
your decision was the determining factor that
brought you into the kingdom, well, then it stands
to reason that you can choose to remove yourself
from the kingdom too. So choose this day. Who's
responsible for your salvation? Is it God or
is it you? The idea that we can walk into the
kingdom on our own, from our own goodness, our
own merit, our own choice, our own decision,
Goes against what scripture tells us. The fact
that we can walk away from it once we've been
in it also goes against so many affirmations
in scripture. John chapter 10, for example. Jesus
says, my sheep. Who are his sheep? Those who
belong to him. Those who have been marked out,
sanctified, called, enriched. My sheep listen
to my voice. He says, I know them. Jesus isn't
surprised by the fact that you're in the kingdom.
He's not going to go, oh, I didn't expect Glenn
to be here. This is amazing. Good job, Glenn.
Sorry, Glenn. Right? He says, no, I know my sheep.
It's not a mystery to me. He says, they follow
me. Doesn't say they make a decision, do I follow
or not? He says, no, they follow me. He says,
I give them eternal life and they shall never
perish. no one will snatch them out of my hand.
No one. Or the entire second half of Romans 8,
which you should read someday. Nothing can separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Not even you. If God has brought you
in, first of all, you're not going to want to
go out, but even your will cannot override the
will of the sovereign creator. You have the golden
chain of salvation at the end of Romans 8. Those
whom he predestined, he also called. Not a question
there. Those that he called, he also justified.
And those who he justified, he also glorified.
There's no room given in that chain for failure
on God's part. And what's at stake in all of
this is God's sovereignty and his purposes in
election, which are unfailing. So he will see
to it that every man or woman marked out for
salvation will be saved and will persevere to
the end. The testimony of scripture is very clear
on this. And what is the basis and guarantee
of that? It's a great promise. Isn't it a great
promise that God's going to keep you believing?
There's going to be ups and downs. In your faith,
in your walk, right? There's gonna be ups and
downs. God will keep you believing to the end.
Man, I'm so glad for that. If it was up to me,
I'd have fallen away a long time ago. But God
will keep us. What's the basis? The guarantee
that we have? Well, Paul says it in verse nine.
God is faithful. It's God's faithfulness that
is the basis for this promise. The scriptures
always focus on this. Not our fluctuating faith.
but on God's absolute faithfulness. It's true
that faith on our part is required, is part of
the equation, but even the faith that is produced
in us and comes out of us is a gift from God's
hand. It's very real. My faith is in Christ.
I know it's very real, but I also know where
it came from. It came from him, and praise God
he's given me that gift. Now I can exercise it.
Our being saved is never said to be contingent
upon a certain amount of faith that we need to
have. Like there's no number, like if you're,
you see the bars that go up and down, like if
your faith goes above this line, then you're
saved. It's just never described in scripture.
It's rooted solely in the trustworthiness of
the object of our faith, who is Christ, and he's
marked us out. And he's called us and he's sanctified
us and he's justified us and he's enriched us.
And his purposes always come to pass. Aren't
you glad that it all depends on the object of
our faith, not our faith? Man, listen to these
very simple and clear words from Dr. MacArthur.
It's one of my favorite quotes of his. Because
sometimes John just speaks really plainly, which
I love. He says, listen, you got saved because
he wanted you saved. And that's how you're gonna
stay because that's how he wants you to stay.
If he called you into fellowship with the son,
then he'll keep you. If you came in by grace,
you'll be kept by grace. And if he called me
into that fellowship, he wanted me in there.
And if he wanted me in there, he's gonna keep
me in there. I mean, I can't say it any more
plainly than that. This is the good news of the
gospel, isn't it? One last thing, Paul uses an
interesting phrase here at the end of verse eight,
the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why is that
interesting? Understand that throughout the Old
Testament, the term for that moment in time is
called the day of the Lord or the day of Yahweh.
And now Paul is taking that term from the Old
Testament and giving it, applying it to Jesus
at his second coming. So this is a very subtle
but important statement of Christ's identity
as fully God. The day of the Lord in the Old
Testament, the day of the Lord Jesus Christ in
the New. That's who he is. And it makes sense.
We're told that Jesus is the exact representation
of the being of God. And he is the exact representation
in all the areas of life and death that matter
most. In creation, in redemption, and yes, in
judgment. That's our Lord and Savior. Okay, so.
There's the greeting. Don't read past this in
the future, right? Slow down. See the theology.
But now let's tie a bow on all of this stuff.
Let's just sort of wrap up with some extra thoughts.
First of all, this struck me last night as I
was working on the message. I can tell you that
Paul's words in this greeting ring a certain
bell for me personally. I'll just share this
personally. I know what it's like to shepherd
a church. that has a lot of growing up to do.
Not talking about you guys. But can I just tell
you in the early years of Oak Hill, some of you
guys know, I wasn't sure we were going to make
it. The amount of immaturity we had in the body
in those first months, the first year. And I
wasn't sure I was up to the task to pastor either.
So it's not like I was all that. The congregation
wasn't. I wasn't sure I could do this. It was
all so overwhelming. But I remember the one thing
I could bank on in those days was that God was
in control. He was sovereign over that little
church that we planted. And that he would somehow,
I didn't know how, he would equip me to shepherd
these folks, even though I still didn't know
how to do it very well. But I knew he would do
that. And when things got discouraging, I knew
that God alone would determine the future of
this church. And look at us today. We're still
here by God's grace and by his sovereign hand.
Not by me, not by any of our elders, but by God's
grace. And so here in these verses, in a very
limited way, man, I sympathize with Paul. The
idea in the ancient world of shepherding this
church in Corinth, from afar, where it would
take three months to get on a ship and go there
to visit anybody. We can just drive and meet
for coffee and text each other. It's so much
more difficult back in that day than I ever had
it at Oak Hill. How overwhelming he must have
felt. So many problems. He's got so many fires
to put out, so many corrections to be made, and
facing so much resistance from these believers.
It shows up, especially in 2 Corinthians, so
much resistance. And yet, look again. at how
he begins. I always thank my God for you, Corinthians.
What a great lesson that is. Especially for those
of us in ministry, those of us who are elders,
we always keep thanking God for every one of
you because God has started a great work and
he will finish that work. And you know what?
We just have to be faithful to do our best to
shepherd, but it's all up to God. Man, that's
encouraging. Obviously, Paul wasn't being naive
about what he was faced with. He knew the sin,
but he saw something more clearly. He saw something
more clearly than the sin in those people. He
saw that God had lavished his grace upon them,
and he knew that God would finish that work.
So he could be thankful. In spite of the messiness,
right? There were real saints there in Corinth,
and that... That truth must have given Paul the
energy to keep going forward, right? He had to
know that his ministry wouldn't be in vain. His
work was ultimately God's work and God was gonna
decide. That's a good feeling when you're in
ministry. So as we close, I want you to hear
these verses. Don't hear them just, you know,
words written to an ancient church in the first
century. Hear them as God's word spoken over
you in Christ. That's what we have to do. Remember,
we talked about it last week. We first of all
figure out what the author was saying to the
audience in that day, but then we bridge that
gap to ourselves, to our lives. And we say, what
principles can we apply in our church today?
So I want to ask you, have you ever felt like
one of these Corinthians? Have you ever felt
like, man, my life is a mess. I don't even, I'm
not sure I should even go to church. My life
is so messy. I've got so many challenges. Maybe
I'm beyond hope. If that's you, reread verses
one through nine. Put yourself there in Corinth
and remember who's writing. Paul was a persecutor
of the church, a murderer. He calls himself the
chief of sinners. Sosthenes, we saw last week,
was the leader of the Jewish synagogue in Corinth,
the leader of everybody there who was hostile
to the gospel of Christ. So if there's hope for
Paul and hope for Sosthenes, Why is there no
hope for you? Of course there is. Because God's
sovereign. He can do as he pleases. And he can
transform your life beyond anything you could
even imagine. Some of you can testify to this.
I can testify. Knowing who I was in my 20s, I
can testify to this. God can do amazing transforming
things. There is never a reason to lose hope
if you're found in Christ. Reread verses one
through nine. Understand who you are in relation
to God. If you truly belong to him, go back and
say, if I truly belong to him, I know God chose
me. In eternity past, he marked me out. He's
called me to be a holy one. He's given me that
positional truth. He actually looks through the
lens of his son and sees me as a holy one, a
saint. Know that you've been given everything
you need now to grow, every gift to grow and
to see your life transformed and know that ultimately
God is going to keep you secure in his grasp
and nothing can snatch you out of his hand. So
if you're struggling, but you know you're in
Christ, you know that you love Jesus, you've
given your life to him, you've submitted to him,
know these truths. Verses one through nine. Know
that you've been enriched in every way, that
you have fellowship with God the Son. And know
that your story is not anchored in your performance,
but in his faithfulness. That means two things
for us as we go. And this is a big one. This
is a hard one. First of all, the truths we just
read tells us that we can be honest about our
sin. We can face our sin honestly. We can face
our weaknesses, our shortcomings, our failures.
We don't have to try to mask them. We don't have
to pretend, put on that face, the church face,
and pretend that they don't exist because God's
faithful. Our hope is not in ourselves. Our hope
is in the grace that we've already received.
So we can be honest with each other, trusted
friends, trusted brothers and sisters. We don't
have to play church. You're loved by God if you're
found in Christ. You're accepted by God. Oh,
he wants you to be transformed. Don't get me
wrong. But he loves you. Second, we can step
into the calling that God has on our life. And
we can do it with confidence. To use those gifts
that he's given you to build up the church. And
to know that he will complete whatever work he
wants to do in us. So if you feel discouraged
this week, if you are tempted to give up on what
God has called you to, again, come back to the
promises in verses one through nine. Your past,
your present, and your future. And let hope and
gratitude for all that he's done for you, let
it translate into action. Even this week, live
for his glory. He's worthy of your all. God stands
ready to do a great work in you. Let us strive
to please him in everything, amen? All right,
let's seal this with prayer. Father, how good
it is to come together and Lord, to seek your
face, to come to your throne of grace and to
deal honestly with our weaknesses and our sin.
Knowing, God, that we fall short of your glory
and yet, Lord, to trust in what we've read this
morning in these important verses that in spite
of the mess of our lives at times, Lord, that
you have done these things in our lives, in our
past, that you chose us and you sanctified us
and you called us positionally holy and you saved
us and you enriched us in every way. And in the
present, Lord, you're giving us these divine
gifts so that we can live out the one in others.
And then you say, just the icing on the cake,
you say, I will hold you in spite of the mess
of things down here. I will hold you to the end
and you will be found blameless by the blood
of my son. Father, never let us forget these
things. I know this is just essential gospel
doctrine, Lord, but sometimes we take them for
granted. God, by your spirit, continue to remind
us of these things so that we might glory in
you more, so that we might devote more of our
lives in practical ways to serve you and to worship
you and to love you. And continue, God, to do
a work in this local church, just as you were
doing a work in the Corinthian church, Lord.
Do a work in this church. Grow us, transform
us, bring us together in unity so that we might
be a force to be reckoned with in this community,
even as we await for you to return, Lord. Do
a great work in this church, God. Thank you for
our time together in your word. We pray in the
name of Christ.