In this sermon, the speaker begins by introducing a chorus that they will be teaching throughout the series on 1 Corinthians. They emphasize the importance of trusting in God's plan for the future and facing tomorrow's problems with faith. The speaker then shares the story of Paul, who was transformed from an arch persecutor to an apostle of Christ. They highlight the power of the gospel to change lives and bring salvation even to the most sinful cities. The sermon concludes with Paul's greetings at the beginning of his letter to the Corinthians.

We have a little chorus that we'd like to sing, not I, but I mean like to teach today, and Kevin and Paul are going to pass them out. We have the music and the words and I'm depending on you. I think it's kind of a nice chorus for the new year. I know who holds the future and he'll guide me with his hand. With God, things don't just happen. Everything by him is planned. So, as I face tomorrow with its problems large and small, I'll trust the God of miracles, give to him my all. How many know it? Well, what does that mean, Tom? Means you better try extra hard, huh? Okay, I'll play it through and then I think you'll be on it. Okay, please try. Cooperate. It'll sound just fine. Ready? I know who holds the future. I know who holds the future. Raise the volume this time. Really belt it out. Okay, once again. How do you feel? You know it. This is the great performance this time. Ready? I hope you'll be singing that all through the week. Let's see if you'll pass your hymn sheets in toward the center aisles and then down to the front. Today we start a little series on 1 Corinthians, Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, and I would like you to turn to that. Chapter 1. 1 Corinthians, chapter 1. Okay, thank you. 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 1. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and sospenese our brother. To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. We'll also confirm you to the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Now, I say this, that each one of you says, I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas, or I am of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect." I think I'll just stop there, because it's doubtful that we'll get any further today. I put up here a map to help us locate Corinth. You know that the Bible world, as far as the New Testament was concerned, was largely limited to the Mediterranean area, and you have Greece here. The lower part of Greece is known as Achaia, and the upper part as Macedonia, and then you have Corinth west of Athens. Corinth was right on the trade route. It was a tremendous commercial center in that day, but it was also a tremendous center of sin. In fact, the word Corinth had a very bad connotation to it, and if it was mentioned, people would raise their eyebrows, you know. It was the sin city of that day, but one of the wonderful things is that the gospel can go into a city like that. The gospel can be preached. People get saved. Pretty soon, there's a church formed in that city. That's exactly what happened. Paul went there in his second missionary journey, and he preached the gospel, and people were transformed. I mean, these people were heathen. They were really pagans. They were idolaters, and they heard the message, and they responded to the message, and their lives were changed. They became trophies of the grace of God. It's really wonderful what the gospel can do in the power of a human life, isn't it? Everyone here who's saved is a testimony to that fact. Paul introduces himself. First of all, you have the greetings at the outset of this letter, and that characteristic of Paul. We end our letters, of course, with the signature. They began their letters by telling. You didn't have to go to the last page of the letter to find out who had written it. Paul introduces himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He never got over the wonder that he who had opposed the Savior, that he who had persecuted the church, should not only have been saved by the grace of God, but should be called to be an apostle, and he really was. In fact, God called Paul, in a very real way, to be exhibit A of what the grace of God can do in the life of a person. He was on his way to Damascus to really persecute the Christians, to drag them into prison, and if necessary, to kill them. And on the way to Damascus, he had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, and he was soundly saved. He turned over his life to the Lord. It wasn't a question of just believing facts about Jesus. It was a whole matter of submission to the Lord Jesus that day. He said, what would you have me to do? And he turned his life over lock, stock, and barrel to the Lord Jesus, and God called him to be an apostle that day. Apostle is a sent one. God called him to go forth and to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to the Gentiles, and he never got over the wonder of it. You know, that's like God, isn't it? Taking an arch persecutor and making him an arch proponent of the faith. Makes me think of my friend George Verwerth. Before he was saved, he had 19 men working for him, peddling pornographic material. Yeah, what could God do with anybody like that? But what he did, he saved them, and all that zeal that he had in peddling pornographic material now goes into getting the gospel literature out. And it has gone out to the ends of the earth, and that's no exaggeration to say that. Never underestimate what God can do with a human life when that life is turned over to him. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I like that. He always introduces himself that way. Paul had a trade, too. You know, like all good Jewish boys, he had a trade. He was a tent maker, but he never says, Paul, a tent maker for Jesus Christ. You say, what's your point? My point is, man is here for bigger business than to make money. That is not our calling in life, to make money. Our calling in life is to represent the Lord Jesus Christ here below. And you say, well, what about, shouldn't we have an occupation? Yeah, that's to pay expenses, as I often say, to put bread and butter on the table. He introduces himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. What does that mean? It means that, first of all, he had nothing to do with it. It wasn't through his choice that he was an apostle of Jesus Christ. This was an honor bestowed upon him by the Lord, and with the honor came the ability. He did it through the will of God. He didn't get it through a Bible school. He didn't get it through a seminary. He got it by direct appointment of the Lord Jesus Christ. He could say, Christ, the Son of God, has sent me to the midnight land. Mine, the mighty ordination of the pierced hand. The difference, that's the only ordination. That's the only ordination. As far as the Bible is concerned, the ordination of the pierced hand. A man may go through a seminary, and he may study all the technicalities of theology, and know how many angels can balance themselves on the head of a pin, and all the rest. But I want to tell you, if he doesn't have that call of God, it's all in vain. And we're going to see, before we get rid of this chapter, that God likes to call nobodies to represent him on earth. He likes to call people so inconspicuous and such ciphers, such nothings, that if anything's accomplished, the glory is all for God and not for the man involved. God loves to do that. A lot of people who spend their lives getting degrees, and then want to be used of the Lord, have to take all those degrees and just lay them at the foot of the cross. Say, here I am, Lord. Less than the least of all saints, if you can use me, use me. Paul spoke of himself as that. Less than the least of all saints. That's pretty low, isn't it? Said unto me, whom less than the least of all saints, this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Then he mentions a man here, Sostenes, our brother. Who was he? We don't know very much about Sostenes. But isn't it interesting that we should be talking about him in 1990? What it really means is that when you follow the Lord Jesus in a life of faith, you never know the wonderful results that will come from it. I'm sure that the day that Sostenes accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, he little realized that people would be reading his name in 1990. But salvation is like that, and the work of the Lord is like that. And I want to tell you, the day you commit your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, you never know the wonderful things that he has in store for you. He's writing this letter to the church of God which is in Corinth. To the church of God which is in Corinth. These people had a home address, and they had a business address, didn't they? Their home address was the church of God. The business address was in Corinth. I used to have two addresses. How many do you have? And I used to have two names. You know, when a man gets saved, he gets a new name. Saul became Paul. Simon became Peter. Bill the sinner becomes Bill the sinner saved by grace. New name. A new name written down in glory. To the church of God which is at Corinth. This was a local church. It was made up of the believers in the city of Corinth. The word church is used in two senses in the New Testament. There's the church universal which is made up of all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then there's the local manifestation of the church. Christians gather together in any particular area. We call that the local church. The local representation of the church universal. That's what we have here. And that's pretty nice when you think here are people that were saved from kind of sordid lives. We won't go into the details. It wasn't very nice. Later in this letter, Paul describes what some of them were before they were saved. It's not a pretty picture, but isn't it wonderful to think of them saved, cleansed, sanctified, and worshiping the Lord. Living lives of purity. Lives for the glory of God. And formed together in a local church there in Corinth. To the church of God which is at Corinth. To those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus. What does that mean? It means that when they were saved, they were set apart by God to do the will of God. That's what it means. The word sanctified means set apart. It means they were set apart from the world unto God to live for his glory and to do his will. Every believer is sanctified. Actually, maybe I should just pause and say that the word sanctified is used in four different ways in the New Testament. First of all is what we might call pre-conversion sanctification. Then there's positional sanctification. And then there's practical or progressive sanctification. And then there's perfect sanctification. Let me explain them. There's such pre-conversion sanctification. Paul in this letter, later in this letter, says that, for instance, an unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife. What does that mean? Well, it means that having a believing wife sets him apart in a position of special privilege. That's what it means. It means it's a wonderful privilege to have a believing wife. Or if an unsaved woman has a believing husband, she's sanctified by the believing husband. It's a wonderful thing to have a mate who bows the knee and prays for you. Not appreciated at the time, but it's there just the same. Sanctified. Does that mean that the person is going to get saved? No, it doesn't mean that. He might. If he's wise, he will. But that kind of sanctification is not a guarantee of salvation. Although all of us who are saved realize that before we were saved, we were sanctified. In other words, we knew the Holy Spirit of God was working in our lives. I was brought up in a Christian home, and I was very conscious of the fact that the Holy Spirit was really convicting me of sin, you know, and pointing me to the Savior. Pre-conversion sanctification. But then there's positional sanctification, and that's what you have here. The moment you're saved, you're placed in Christ, and that puts you in a position of sanctification. It's positional. I am sanctified in Christ. Does that mean you're perfect? No, it doesn't mean you're perfect at all. It means you're set apart in Christ for God. And then there's practical or progressive sanctification. That means day by day I should be being set apart more and more in a practical way in my life. I am sanctified. Okay, now be sanctified. And all of the exhortations to holiness in the New Testament have to do with progressive or practical sanctification. Be holy for I am holy. That's progressive or practical sanctification. And then there's perfect sanctification. When we see the Savior's face, we'll be like him. Our sanctification will be complete in that day. Here he's speaking about positional sanctification. Sanctified in Christ Jesus. The expression in Christ or in Christ Jesus is perhaps the greatest key to understanding the letters of the New Testament. Just tuck that away in your mind and think about it. The expression in Christ or in Christ Jesus is perhaps the greatest key to understanding the teachings of the New Testament because all through the New Testament letters we're being taught what a believer is in Christ. And then correspondingly what he should be in everyday life. Then it says not only to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus called saints. Called saints. This is a shocker, isn't it? Shocker to some people. You know the Roman Catholic Church has a procedure for naming saints. They go back in history and find someone who had lived an unusual life and they take that life and put it under the microscope and if that life passes certain tests then they canonize. Is that the word? Canonize the person and the person becomes a saint. Well you don't find that anywhere in the Bible. We have to test everything by the word. Here it's teaching that these Corinthians were saints. They were living. They hadn't died yet. They hadn't gone down into the pages of history yet. But they were living and they are saints. And of course that's true. All true believers are saints. You say well these Corinthians weren't very saintly. No that's true. They weren't. That's the whole point. Positionally they were saints. Practically they fell short quite a bit, you know. There were all kinds of problems there in the church in Corinth and that's why Paul wrote this letter. He was handling problems in the church in Corinth. They weren't very saintly but they were getting there because they're all perfect saints today because they're home with the Lord. Every one of them. That completed the process. We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Called saints. I'm glad I don't have to die to become a saint. Saint now and I want to live a life that's set apart for the Lord Jesus Christ. A lot of people would have cardiac arrest if they asked you what are you and you said I'm a saint. They'd fall over in a dead faint. But it would be quite true just the same wouldn't it? Be quite true. Maybe we should use the shock treatment more than we do. Then it also says with all who in every place call in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours. Did it ever occur to you that this letter was written to you if you're a believer? Can you find yourself in the latter part of verse two? Well I can without even trying. It says that this letter was written not only to the saints in Corinth but to all believers everywhere and in all time. I think that's wonderful. So why is it wonderful? Because if it didn't say that there are a lot of things in this letter people would say that it's just for Paul's day. You know what I mean? That just had to do with the culture in Paul's day. It doesn't apply to us today. That isn't what he says here in this verse. The teachings in this book are the commandments of God and they apply to people in every age, in every culture, in every clime. Notice believers are described here as those who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. There you have the complete name of the Lord Jesus. Jesus, Savior. Christ, Anointed One. Lord, Master. That's very important because salvation involves submission to a person, to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both theirs and ours. And that expression, both theirs and ours, puts us right into fellowship with Paul and Sostenes and all of the people who gave us the New Testament scriptures and all the believers of all time. It's a worldwide family made up of all of those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then Paul uses his common salutation, he uses this in all his epistles, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace, as you know, was the Greek greeting and peace was the Jewish greeting. Paul brings them together because in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have Gentile and believing Jews and believing Gentiles brought together and made one new man in Christ Jesus. Somebody has said, grace for the worthless and peace for the restless. Well, that's kind of good, but it doesn't exhaust the meaning of it either. Grace for the When we think of grace in connection with the gospel, we mean that God treats unworthy people with favor. Grace is unmerited favor, but it's more than that. It's unmerited favor to those who deserve the very opposite. That's what it is. It's unmerited favor to those who deserve the very opposite. But when Paul uses the word grace here, he's not speaking to sinners who need salvation. He's speaking to saints who need strength for everyday living. That's what he's speaking to. Already said he's speaking to saints. And grace in this sense means the unmerited favor of God living the Christian life down here, including the idea of strength as well. And then peace. Peace means the calmness and the poise which a believer can have in spite of circumstances. One of the persons in this assembly who went through the earthquake, or I guess you all went through it except me, but he told me of the peace that he had at that time. No matter what happened, he was in the Lord's hands. And even if it was to be death, he'd be at home with the Lord. That kind of peace. That's what it's speaking of here. We do live in a tumultuous world, don't we? I mean, if you live under the circumstances, there's really enough to distract you. But it's possible to live in a world like this with a scaffolding falling down all around us and to be absolutely poised. That's what it's speaking about here. That's what Paul is wishing for these Christian believers. That calm, settled peace when everything around you is adverse. When you're in the plane and you're going through clear air turbulence. When you're in a ship at sea and the waves are dashing over the very highest parts of the ship. And the captain has given up hope. It's possible to have peace. Hudson Taylor had that peace when he was on his way to China. And they went through a terrible storm. Those of you who have read the story of his life will know they went through a terrible storm. Everybody really was despairing. Hudson Taylor wasn't despairing. God had told him he was going to have him in China. He was going to be there. And he had calm and peace through it all. It's miraculous. And as the Scotch woman said, it's better felt than telt. In other words, it's one thing to stand here and describe it, but it's quite something else to experience it in your life. Better felt than telt. Well, that's quite a nice salutation, isn't it? Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It says so much more than, hello, whatever that means. I mean, some of our greetings in life are kind of vapid. They're kind of empty, aren't they? I like this better than, have a nice day, which is nice. I like that too, but this is better. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice, Paul honors the son even as he honors the father. He puts the Lord Jesus Christ on the same level as God the Father. He speaks of them in the same breath. Why did he do that? Because they're equal. That's why he does it. That's one of the great fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. You know, I don't think you will ever realize what sin is until you've come to that position where you realize who Jesus is. I had always known that sin was a three-letter word with I in the middle. You know, selfishness, I, the essence of sin. I knew that. I knew that sin was lawlessness. I'm going to have my way. I'm not going to submit to the rule of Christ in my life. I knew that to him who does good and doesn't do it, it's sin. I knew that the thought of foolishness was sin. But you know, until I came to Calvary, I never knew that sin was slapping God in the face. I never knew that sin was crucifying the Son of God, and that's what it is. That when a person sins, it's like a re-crucifixion of the Savior. You know, sin, they treat sin lightly. It isn't something to be treated lightly. It's something that's desperately serious, and it's our sins that nail the Savior to the cross of Calvary. Well, he goes on in verses 4 through 8 to describe the riches, the spiritual riches, that belonged to the Saint in Corinth. So, we'll just go down and look at that. The Corinthian spiritual blessing, and you know, if you'll go over those verses 4 through 9, it was characteristic of Paul to start his letters with thanksgiving. That's a very nice thing, isn't it? If he could find something in their lives to be thankful for, he always mentioned it. It's good for us to be appreciative of one another and of characteristics of one another. Recently, I was in East Germany, and in one of the assemblies I was in, there was a choir, and a young fellow got up, and he led the choir in the thing. It was beautiful, really beautiful. So, when I got up on the platform, I said, you know, I just want to express appreciation for the choir and for, you know, young brother so-and-so who's been leading it. Somebody said thereafter, nobody ever expresses thanks for him. He just does it week after week, month after month, and nobody ever says thanks to him. Just take it for granted. And when I was in Italy, and we were in a hotel there in Masinata, and the waiter would come, you know, and he'd put down the plate in front of us, and we'd say, grazie, grazie. And the Italian said to us, we don't say that here. We don't say thank you when a waiter comes. I mean, that's his job. Really, that's kind of characteristic of the world, isn't it, today? Missionaries came across a tribe in a country once, and they had no words for thank you in their language. If you gave them something, they'd say, I can use that. They had no words for thank you. You know, that's just what Romans 1 says concerning the heathen, pagan world. Neither were thankful. Neither were thankful. Should change when we become Christians. We should not only be thankful, but we shouldn't be ashamed to express thanks. When we meet Christian people, and we see virtues in their lives, and things that we appreciate, tell them so. The world is dying for just that little bit of thanksgiving. But, if you look in these verses, 4th and 9th, it's kind of funny. He's not particularly thanking them for the great advances they had made in the Christian life. He's thanking the Lord for what his grace had done in their lives. I think that's quite significant, because, as I told you, there are a lot of problems here in the church in Corinth, as there are in most churches today. You've heard the expression, church making, heart breaking. Church mending, heart rending. It's true, true. A lot of problems. Why? Because we have a satanic foe who's out to hinder and disrupt the work of God, that's why. There's no conflict going on in a cemetery. Everything's dead there. You get a living church trying to maintain a testimony for Jesus Christ, and especially if souls are being saved, you'll see that there will be opposition to it. So, Paul is really thanking the Lord for what his grace had done in the lives of the Corinthians. Let's look at it. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus. We're saved by grace, and then God's grace gives us all that we need in the Christian life. A lot of people approach Christianity and think, oh, I'd never be able to hold out. No, oh no, I couldn't trust Christ. I'd never be able to hold out. Listen, the same grace that saves you is the grace that keeps you. None of us could hold out in our own strength. It's only by the power of God that any of us can walk at all. Okay, what were some of the things? Well, they were enriched in all utterance. They had gifts in abundance. What does that mean? Well, it means that when a person is saved, God gives him a gift, a spiritual gift, or a gift plural. Say, what do you mean gifts? He might be an evangelist. He might be a pastor. He might be a teacher. He might have the gift of help. That's a very real gift. He might have a gift of administration. There are many, many different gifts that God has given. They're listed in Romans chapter 12, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and Ephesians chapter 4, and other places in the Bible. No one list is complete. You'd have to take them together to get the list. And here, they had gifts of utterance and knowledge. I have no doubt that the gift of utterance had to do with the speaking in tongues, which God gave in those days. Very special gift, and it was very prominent in Corinth. You see, in those days, there was no such a thing as a New Testament. They had the Old Testament scriptures, but they didn't have the New Testament. And so, Paul and Peter and these men went out preaching the word. People say, huh, how do we know that what you are saying is the truth? How do we know that you're not a false teacher, false prophet? God said, okay, I will give these men miraculous powers to authenticate the message that they preach. That's what he did. Turning to Hebrews chapter 2, it says it very, very clearly there. Hebrews chapter 2, and I have to go back to verse 2 because of the continuity. It says, For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, the word spoken through angels, there was the Ten Commandments which God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. If the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, that is, if you broke the law, the penalty was death. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Not now the Ten Commandments, but the gospel. Now notice, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him, the Apostle, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. So, many of these miracle gifts that God gave to the apostles and prophets were given to confirm their message. You say, do we have them today? We don't need them today in the same sense they did because we have their message here in the pages of the New Testament, don't we? We don't need signs and wonders to confirm it. In fact, God isn't pleased by the kind of faith that asks for a sign. It says later in this chapter, the Jews seek a sign and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. God is not pleased by that attitude, show me and I'll believe. God says, you believe and then I will show you. That is his invariable order. Faith comes first, then the evidence comes after faith. So, I think this expression in all utterance has to do probably with the gift of tongues and all knowledge. That doesn't mean they knew everything, but even in those days there was a gift of knowledge where knowledge was supernaturally imparted to people in the absence of the New Testament. For instance, Paul had the gift of knowledge. He could say, behold I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, we shall all be changed. Nobody ever knew that before, but God gave him that. It was a special revelation from the Lord to Paul, gift of knowledge. Well, they had that gift there in Corinth. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, and I think that saying again what we have just said, the confirmation, the possession of gifts in abundance, verses 4-7a, the possession of those gifts confirmed the work of God in their lives, and again I say in the absence of the New Testament scriptures. It says, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. They came behind in no gift. The gifts were given by the Holy Spirit of God, and gifts are important, and they're not to be despised. I want to tell you, there's something greater than gifts, and that is personal grace. In other words, your growth in the Christian life is more important than any gifts you have. A man may have the gift of evangelists. He may be able to go forth and preach the gospel to 5,000 people and give an invitation and see all kinds of people say, and he may go home and be a perfect grouch. That's the difference between gift and grace. I'm using grace in that sense, personal holiness. That's more important than gifts. You see, that was the thing in Corinth. They had all of these gifts of the Spirit. They had the gift in abundance. They lack personal graces. We're in the Thistles. Their lives needed to be straightened out. You say, oh, these Corinthians weren't sinless. Of course they weren't sinless. No believer is sinless. He does sin less. He's not sinless. It won't be till the Savior comes. Then it says, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Right in the early days, God planted within the hope of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here it's called the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation means unveiling. There are two ways in which that expression can be used in the New Testament. It can refer to the rapture, when Christ comes for his people and takes them home to heaven, or it can refer to a later aspect of his coming when he comes back to the earth and reigns over the earth for a thousand years. In the first case, he's revealed to the church. In the second case, he's revealed to the world. When he comes in the rapture, only believers will see him. You say, how come? Because it's going to take place in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. It'll be all over. Just imagine. Twinkle your eyes. Blink your eyes. It's as fast as that. All living believers will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, to be forever with the Lord, and it's just all over before you can think. The world won't see it. They'll know it after it's taken place, but they won't see it. But then the second time he comes, when he comes to reign over the earth, it says every eye shall see him. All kindreds of the earth shall mourn because of him. So, you have the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and this is a very essential part of the Christian message. Jesus is coming again. It's a thread that you'll find all through the New Testament, and even the other aspect of it is coming all through the Bible. Who will also confirm you to the end? Notice it's all what God does. It's not how great the Christians were, but it's all what God... He'll confirm you to the end. What does this mean? Well, to me it speaks of the eternal security of the believer. I'll tell you, once God saves you, you're saved forever. When God saves you, you're born again, and you can never be unborn. You can never undo a birth after it's taken place, can you? These Christians had been born from above. The Lord Jesus will confirm them unto the end, and that's why we can sing, More happy but not more secure are the souls of the blessed in heaven. People in heaven are happier than we are, but they're not more sure of heaven than we are because we have the word of the Lord himself. Who will also confirm you to the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ? This refers again to his coming again, the day of the Lord Jesus Christ and the judgment seat of Christ, when the lives of believers will be reviewed. God is faithful who, and with this we'll just close, God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. What a wonderful blessing. This beats any society on earth. It beats any lodge or any fraternity or sorority club or anything else that there is in the whole world. The fellowship of God's son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The worldwide fellowship made up of all true believers, the saints of all the ages are included in that expression. The fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. So, Paul here is reviewing the wonderful things that God has done in the lives of these Corinthian believers and all the wonderful things that his grace has showered upon them. Blessings. And those spiritual blessings are the blessings that really count. People think today of material blessings. That's all they can think of. Material, material, material. Huh? Soul prosperity is the best prosperity, isn't it? It's the only prosperity that lasts for eternity. I'm taking care of affairs of a woman who's dying right now in a hospital and all her relatives could think about were two rings that were on her finger. Be sure to get those two rings off her finger. Huh. I went to get them off the day before yesterday. They were gone somewhere between the convalescent hospital and Eden. They were gone. Terrible when your heart is set on material things, isn't it? But nobody can be robbed of the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus. Well, next Lord's Day, we'll go on and discuss the problem, one of the problems that they had in Corinth and the masterful way in which Paul deals with it and how it applies to us today to the practical effect that it has in our lives today. Now, John is going to lead us, I believe, in a closing hymn and in prayer.