1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:04,360 Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to 1st 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:08,600 Corinthians, First Corinthians chapter 1. 3 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:15,400 It's a sermon text for this morning, First Corinthians 11 to 4 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:18,440 9. And I want to express how 5 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:22,600 thankful I am to the Lord for the privilege of worshipping 6 00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:26,000 with you all this morning and opening of God's Word. 7 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:34,560 So First Corinthians 1, 1:00 to 9:00 Hear the word of the Lord 8 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:41,360 Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus 9 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:45,920 and our brother. Sustain us to the Church of God 10 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:50,400 that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus 11 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:55,240 called to be St. together with all those who in every place 12 00:00:55,520 --> 00:01:00,920 call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both dear Lord and 13 00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:04,560 ours. Grace to you and peace from God 14 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:06,880 our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 15 00:01:07,960 --> 00:01:11,800 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of 16 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:17,160 God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you are 17 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:22,120 enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the 18 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:27,520 testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you 19 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:32,440 are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of 20 00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:37,040 our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, 21 00:01:37,280 --> 00:01:41,080 guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 22 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:46,040 God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of 23 00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:51,640 His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Let me pray one more time, 24 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:58,400 Father, I pray that You would grant us now as Your people, to 25 00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:02,320 receive with meekness the implanted Word that is able to 26 00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:05,640 save us. And to that end, I ask that You 27 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:09,240 would grant that the preaching of Your Word here and now and 28 00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:14,880 anywhere else and preached would be done as a demonstration of 29 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:18,680 the Spirit and of power, so that our faith as your people might 30 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:22,120 rest not in man's wisdom, but in the power of God. 31 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:27,920 I pray God that you would give me clarity, give me boldness, 32 00:02:27,920 --> 00:02:32,080 give U.S. Open minds and hearts, Grant for 33 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:35,000 the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts 34 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:37,960 together to be acceptable in your sight. 35 00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:42,520 O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer, I ask in Jesus name, 36 00:02:42,960 --> 00:02:48,280 Amen. In the book of Proverbs we read 37 00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:52,520 some interesting things about good news from a distant 38 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:57,040 country. So Proverbs 2525 says this like 39 00:02:57,040 --> 00:03:02,800 cold water to a thirsty soul. So it's good news from a far 40 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:06,200 country. Another proverb speaks like 41 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:07,840 this. Proverbs 1530. 42 00:03:08,920 --> 00:03:14,600 The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news 43 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:20,520 refreshes the bones. So good news from a distant land 44 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:26,120 is refreshing and energizing. The Bible says it revives a 45 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:32,440 person's psyche in much the same way as a drink of cold water 46 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:38,600 revives a thirsty person. It may even be life giving in 47 00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:40,520 some way to your physical person. 48 00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:45,240 The second proverb I just read, 15 verse 30 says it refreshes 49 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:48,680 the bones literally that that verse means it makes the bones 50 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:53,560 fat and healthy. You can almost think about 51 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:58,520 Jacob, the story that is told us in the book of Genesis after 52 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:02,600 Joseph had disclosed himself to his brothers in Egypt and they 53 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:06,040 came back home to Canaan and told their father Jacob that his 54 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:09,840 son that he presumed dead is very alive in Egypt and is a 55 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:14,800 mighty ruler there. The Bible tells us that after 56 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:19,000 the initial shock that came on Jacob from hearing that news had 57 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:24,360 warned off, he felt like someone who had drunk a very refreshing 58 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:27,600 drink because his decrypted body, in spite of his decrypted 59 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:29,960 body, he stood up and said it is enough. 60 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:33,960 Joseph, my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I 61 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:36,320 die. So good news from a distant 62 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:42,040 country can impact a person in a uniquely powerful way. 63 00:04:43,520 --> 00:04:47,400 Well, none of that was true of the Apostle Paul related to the 64 00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:51,920 church in Corinth. He did receive news from a far 65 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:53,680 country. I mean the Apostle Paul. 66 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:59,320 He was in the city of Ephesus, a famous 1st century city in what 67 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:03,200 is today the West Coast of modern day Turkey. 68 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:06,920 And we know. That for for a fact, because at 69 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:09,000 the end of the letter to the correct the first letter to the 70 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:12,800 Corinthians, he says I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost for a 71 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:16,520 wide door for effective work has opened to me and there are many 72 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:19,640 adversaries so we. Know even from Paul's words that 73 00:05:19,640 --> 00:05:23,600 he's writing First Corinthians from the city of Ephesus. 74 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:28,400 And while he is there in Ephesus, people come over from 75 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:31,040 Corinth. He tells us in chapter 1, verse 76 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:35,320 11 that people of Chloe's house had come and given him some 77 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:38,920 updates as to how things were going at the church that he 78 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:41,200 planted in Corinth. In other words, people travelled 79 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:45,360 across the Aegean Sea from the southern part of Greece and came 80 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:49,080 over to what is the West Coast of modern day Turkey and gave 81 00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:52,200 Paul updates about the church at Corinth. 82 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:57,080 But the news Paul received about the church was everything but 83 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:00,680 refreshing. He received news that the church 84 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:02,600 he planted was not doing well at all. 85 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:05,640 He was told that there are factions in the church. 86 00:06:05,840 --> 00:06:08,360 He was told that there are members in the church filing 87 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:11,440 lawsuits against one another before unbelievers. 88 00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:16,280 He heard that there were people at the church in Corinth going 89 00:06:16,280 --> 00:06:19,000 to prostitutes. He even heard there was a man in 90 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:22,920 the church living in incest and the church had a carefree 91 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:26,120 attitude towards that egregious sin. 92 00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:30,520 He heard there was controversy over eating food sacrificed to 93 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:34,240 idols and that they were desecrating the Lord's Table and 94 00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:37,160 that they were misusing spiritual gifts and some of them 95 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:42,360 were even denying the future bodily resurrection of 96 00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:46,960 believers. So this church had multifaceted 97 00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:52,320 problems with the news Paul heard was not only not 98 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:57,400 refreshing, was deeply distressful, was alarming news 99 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:01,640 for somebody who cares for the glory of God in the church to 100 00:07:01,640 --> 00:07:06,120 hear. I think if you and I lived in 101 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:09,640 Corinth in the 1st century and had options. 102 00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:12,520 The church at Corinth when I was First Baptist Church or Second 103 00:07:12,520 --> 00:07:15,640 Presbyterian. Would not make the least for us 104 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:20,000 to consider as a church to join because it had multifaceted 105 00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:23,160 problems. Now, how would you pray for a 106 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:26,600 church like that? If you were Paul, if you were in 107 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:30,200 Paul's place and received this kind of devastating update about 108 00:07:30,200 --> 00:07:33,600 the church that you labored over the course of 18 months to see 109 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:37,280 come into existence, how would you pray for that kind of 110 00:07:37,280 --> 00:07:40,560 church? How would you speak about that 111 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:43,760 kind of church? How would you speak to that kind 112 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:46,560 of church or, or to bring it home to us here? 113 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:49,080 How are you to pray for your church? 114 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:55,480 How does God desire for you to pray for Trinity Baptist Church? 115 00:07:56,120 --> 00:07:59,600 What's God's will for you in terms of how you speak to your 116 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:02,880 fellow brothers and sisters about this church? 117 00:08:04,880 --> 00:08:07,120 And I would submit to you, it's very simple. 118 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:10,520 God calls you to be very thankful for this church. 119 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:15,480 God calls you to speak about this church to one another with 120 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:20,040 profound gratitude to God for this church. 121 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:23,640 And Paul shows that to us in this letter in the verses we 122 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:28,840 read in living colors. He shows that to us in gripping 123 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:33,400 and convicting ways. So first, I'm just arguing with 124 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:38,320 you this morning that God calls you as a member of this church 125 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:41,520 to be profoundly thankful for this church. 126 00:08:41,679 --> 00:08:44,000 Notice verse four of our passage. 127 00:08:44,159 --> 00:08:47,200 Look at verse 4. Paul says I give thanks to my 128 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:51,680 God always for you because of the grace of God that was given 129 00:08:51,680 --> 00:08:56,600 to you in Christ Jesus. So giving thanks to God for the 130 00:08:56,600 --> 00:09:01,120 believers at Corinth was a regular practice of the apostle. 131 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:06,000 He's telling them, and notice he says he does that always. 132 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:11,360 He's regularly giving thanks. He's not bankrupt when it comes 133 00:09:11,360 --> 00:09:13,480 to giving thanks for this church. 134 00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:19,240 Paul's attitude of thankfulness for believers for the church at 135 00:09:19,240 --> 00:09:21,760 Corinth was not unique to that church. 136 00:09:22,160 --> 00:09:26,080 It marked his life and ministry. Just listen to what he says to 137 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:28,240 the Romans. Romans 18. 138 00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:32,160 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, 139 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:35,280 because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 140 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:37,720 Hear what he says to the Philippians. 141 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:41,400 I thank my God in all my remembrance of. 142 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:44,040 You. Always in every prayer of mine 143 00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:48,320 for you, for you all, making my prayer with joy. 144 00:09:49,160 --> 00:09:52,880 He already says to the Colossians, We always thank God 145 00:09:52,880 --> 00:09:55,880 the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you, 146 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:00,400 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love 147 00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:03,160 that you have for all the Saints. 148 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:06,880 He actually counted it as a debt that he owed here, the way he 149 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:10,200 speaks to the Thessalonians, Second Thessalonians, 1/3, we 150 00:10:10,240 --> 00:10:12,480 ought always. In other words, we owe it as a 151 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:17,960 debt always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is 152 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:21,520 right, because your faith is growing abundantly and the love 153 00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:25,440 of everyone of you for one another is increasing. 154 00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:30,840 How could it be more? Clear from Paul's letters that 155 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:34,080 God's will for. You and for me is that we be 156 00:10:34,080 --> 00:10:37,640 thankful for the churches in which he has placed us and for 157 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:40,200 any other true church that we know. 158 00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:45,560 Paul recognized that no matter what joys or problems, what 159 00:10:45,560 --> 00:10:49,360 encouragement or discouragement may be present in any given 160 00:10:49,360 --> 00:10:54,240 church at any given time, the very existence of a church at 161 00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:58,840 all is a miracle of sovereign grace for which God should 162 00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:01,600 receive. Ceaseless thanks helps Paul's 163 00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:04,480 conviction. That's what he operate operated 164 00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:07,280 with. And so he could not close his 165 00:11:07,320 --> 00:11:12,280 eyes to pray for any given church, even a church wracked by 166 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:17,760 problems as Corinth, without being overwhelmed with gratitude 167 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:21,120 to God for that church. He was. 168 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:24,160 He couldn't get over the fact that there is actually a church 169 00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:26,320 at Corinth and there's a church at Rome. 170 00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:28,400 There's a church at Thessalonica, and there is a 171 00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:31,080 church here called Trinity Baptist Church. 172 00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:33,840 That's something for which to thank God. 173 00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:37,360 Beloved, do you realize that this church called Trinity 174 00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:40,000 Baptist Church is a miracle of sovereign grace? 175 00:11:41,720 --> 00:11:45,200 Do you know that the most fitting attitude of heart that 176 00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:50,240 you should have before God for this church in this season and 177 00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:54,200 at any other season of this church's life is that you be 178 00:11:54,360 --> 00:11:58,240 profoundly thankful that this church is here? 179 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:03,440 I read a book recently and the authors point out something 180 00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:08,040 interesting. They say that one of the slogans 181 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:10,880 that the Marine Corps of the United States. 182 00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:14,240 Say it's often if you've been if if you are an ex marine maybe 183 00:12:14,240 --> 00:12:18,000 you have heard this. They often say that every marine 184 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:23,680 is a Rifleman. So according to that, it means 185 00:12:23,680 --> 00:12:27,880 that from 1 angle, if you are a Marine, whether you are trained 186 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:33,560 to drive trucks or to collect and analyze intelligence or to 187 00:12:33,560 --> 00:12:37,280 do cyber warfare or whatever specialty you have been given in 188 00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:43,920 the Marine, you must XLS a rifle man, as a marksman who operates 189 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:49,080 a rifle with extraordinary competence and ability. 190 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:55,240 So you you could not really be a Marine and not be a rifle 191 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:00,400 competent individual. What is one thing you would say 192 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:03,880 God wants every Christian to excel at? 193 00:13:04,680 --> 00:13:08,920 What's one thing every believer cannot but be good at? 194 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:13,240 I think Paul will say giving thanks to God for the church, 195 00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:16,800 for the triumph of the gospel. That the gospel of the cross of 196 00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:22,320 Christ is invading the heart of sin, darkened human beings, and 197 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:25,920 turning them from goat supernaturally into sheep that 198 00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:29,200 hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and gather week in 199 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:33,280 after week in and week out to worship Jesus is something for 200 00:13:33,280 --> 00:13:38,040 which we should ever be bereft of Thanksgiving to God. 201 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:42,040 So you and I should be excelling and giving thanks to God. 202 00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:47,200 Let our prayers for our churches be saturated with Thanksgiving 203 00:13:47,520 --> 00:13:51,480 to God again. The case of Corinth is 204 00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:56,080 particularly striking. That Paul would give thanks to 205 00:13:56,080 --> 00:14:01,040 God for a church being so conscious, so painfully aware of 206 00:14:01,040 --> 00:14:05,200 how profoundly flawed the church was, and didn't even seem to be 207 00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:08,080 doing something about it. They didn't even seem bothered 208 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:13,120 by the fact that they had these many problems in their midst. 209 00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:19,440 And not only was Paul privately thanking God for the church in 210 00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:22,760 Corinth, he starts writing to them. 211 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:25,480 And one of the first things he wants them to know is how 212 00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:28,400 thankful he is for them. So so get. 213 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:31,640 Get get what's going on here. He's not only giving thanks to 214 00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:36,400 God vertically, he's telling the Corinthians he is very thankful 215 00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:39,200 for them. I mean, if if if you were 216 00:14:39,200 --> 00:14:42,400 thinking about a church with all these kinds of problems and you 217 00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:46,040 had to write a letter to them, put pen to paper that they will 218 00:14:46,040 --> 00:14:48,480 get what's one of the first things you will want to tell 219 00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:52,120 them? I don't think I'll be eager to 220 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:53,760 tell them. I'm so thankful for you. 221 00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:56,040 I'm so thankful for you as a church. 222 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:59,200 That would not be the first thing that comes to mind for me. 223 00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:05,880 Now don't misunderstand. Paul does not mean he was 224 00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:09,920 lighthearted and carefree about the problems in this church. 225 00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:12,960 You don't need to look any further than the rest of the 226 00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:15,360 letter. He's going to use strong 227 00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:18,080 language of correction for the church. 228 00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:22,120 He's going to rebuke them with strong language for their 229 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:25,800 cliquishness, for their carefree attitude towards incest in their 230 00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:28,920 MID, for their carefree attitude towards lawsuits in their midst, 231 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:31,720 for the fact that people are going to prostitute from their 232 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:34,920 midst, for the fact that they are misusing spiritual gifts and 233 00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:38,600 desecrating the Lord's table and denying the future bodily 234 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:41,440 resurrection of believers. He's even going to use biting 235 00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:46,680 sarcasm to shock them up out of the stupor into which they were 236 00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:48,720 descending. He's going to say things to them 237 00:15:48,720 --> 00:15:51,520 like I say this to your shame. Is it the case that there's no 238 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:55,040 one among you wise enough to settle trivial matters of life? 239 00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:57,680 He's going to speak in strong language to them. 240 00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:02,600 Nonetheless, he never cease to give thanks for them. 241 00:16:03,840 --> 00:16:08,160 So having a constancy in Thanksgiving for your church, 242 00:16:09,880 --> 00:16:12,040 it's not the same thing as sweeping, difficult 243 00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:15,360 conversations under the rock, because that's not the example 244 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:17,760 Paul shows us. He shows us you can be 245 00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:22,680 simultaneously very thankful for a church, very thankful for your 246 00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:25,960 church, and yet have hard conversations about things that 247 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:30,240 need to be talked through. So those two are not 248 00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:32,920 incompatible. Those two are not mutually 249 00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:35,680 exclusive. Actually, an attitude of 250 00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:40,360 Thanksgiving to God for your church prepares you to apply the 251 00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:44,520 gospel in the most edifying ways to the lives of your brothers 252 00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:47,160 and sisters. As you learn to thank God for 253 00:16:47,160 --> 00:16:50,840 the triumph of grace in each of their lives, you will learn to 254 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:55,480 speak the gospel to one another in ways that build up and exalt 255 00:16:55,480 --> 00:16:59,240 Christ and speed people along the path of the pilgrimage to to 256 00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:02,720 heaven. You see how it worked out in the 257 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:06,720 lives of Paul. I mean, he is going to go on to 258 00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:10,400 rebuke them about what they need to be rebuked about and commend 259 00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:13,040 them about what they need to be commended for. 260 00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:15,800 Just read Chapter 11. He would say to them, I commend 261 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:17,680 you for remembering all the traditions. 262 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:22,280 That I gave to you. So, so he's so attuned to how to 263 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:26,560 speak the gospel to these people because he's thanking God for 264 00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:29,600 them and seeing them through the lenses of the triumph of God's 265 00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:32,240 grace in their midst. So he's not painting anything 266 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:35,960 with a broad brush. He's seeing them through the 267 00:17:35,960 --> 00:17:38,720 eyes of God. So cultivating a habit of 268 00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:44,080 Thanksgiving protects you and me from cynicism, from becoming 269 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:50,160 embittered and totally disillusioned with the church. 270 00:17:50,360 --> 00:17:55,440 It helps you keep a gospel perspective on church relational 271 00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:58,960 realities, on how things are working out in church, and 272 00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:03,040 prepares you so that your participation as a church member 273 00:18:03,360 --> 00:18:08,040 actually strengthens and builds up and encourages and stirs up 274 00:18:08,040 --> 00:18:12,520 your brothers and sisters onto great love and good works for 275 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:16,120 the glory of Christ. That's exactly how it played out 276 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:20,760 in the life of the Apostle Paul. A life of Thanksgiving to God 277 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:26,520 for your church makes you into a catalysts of encouragement and 278 00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:29,720 strengthening in the midst of your church. 279 00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:32,760 So I would argue Thanksgiving to God for your church is a 280 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:37,120 prerequisite by which problems and hard conversations are 281 00:18:37,120 --> 00:18:41,400 handled and talked about in a Christ's honoring way. 282 00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:45,760 So being serious minded as a Christian and being thankful to 283 00:18:45,760 --> 00:18:49,960 God, a perfectly compatible realities. 284 00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:54,680 Now every serious minded local church has a church covenant 285 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,760 that says a number of things, among which will be something 286 00:18:57,760 --> 00:19:00,360 like this. Having been brought by God's 287 00:19:00,360 --> 00:19:03,520 grace to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and 288 00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:06,800 having been baptized upon our professional faith in the name 289 00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:09,720 of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we now 290 00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:13,640 solemnly and joyfully renew our covenant with each other that 291 00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:16,680 God enabling. Us, we will walk together in 292 00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:21,200 love as brothers and sisters, a family whom God has saved by 293 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:23,920 grace. And I would argue, you cannot 294 00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:27,480 effectively love on your brothers and minister to them as 295 00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:33,520 God would have you if your heart is bereft of Thanksgiving to God 296 00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:39,520 for them. You and I are members of our 297 00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:42,640 respective churches. But at the end of the day. 298 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:48,200 Those churches are God's churches and He deserves endless 299 00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:54,600 Thanksgiving for those. Now, if you have been a 300 00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:57,760 Christian for any length of time, you know that this kind of 301 00:19:57,760 --> 00:20:04,440 Thanksgiving to God for your church cannot primarily draw its 302 00:20:04,440 --> 00:20:08,880 strengths from your day-to-day and week to week experience of 303 00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:11,760 church life. Because that experience. 304 00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:16,280 Steps and flows. It shifts and changes. 305 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:20,720 If you're going to draw only on how church life is going, how 306 00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:24,160 connected you are, how blessed you feel at your at your church, 307 00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:27,800 how peaceful things are, you're going to quickly run out of fuel 308 00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:32,240 for Thanksgiving to God. So Paul is not drawing the 309 00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:35,440 strength for thanking God for the believers at Corinth 310 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:39,240 primarily from the experience of the people there or from what he 311 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,880 is hearing about them. He's thinking more about what 312 00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:46,840 God has done in the midst of that church. 313 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:52,840 So how do you sustain a life of consistent Thanksgiving to God 314 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:55,920 for your church? I would argue, remember what God 315 00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:58,240 has done. So be thankful, and how you are 316 00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:00,520 thankful is remember what God has done. 317 00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:05,480 Remember the work God has done in the midst of His people, in 318 00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:09,840 every redeemed person in every true Church of Jesus Christ at 319 00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:13,520 the church in Corinth, here at Trinity Baptist Church, there 320 00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:18,360 are marks of God's grace that if you are fixated on, if you look 321 00:21:18,360 --> 00:21:21,760 intently enough at those marks of grace, you will never run out 322 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:23,600 of reasons for Thanksgiving to God. 323 00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:29,200 God has done and is doing things here which if you have eyes to 324 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:32,840 see, they will always feed your Thanksgiving to God. 325 00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:36,920 They will become streams that run into the raging river of 326 00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:41,040 Thanksgiving in your heart to God for what He has done and is 327 00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:43,320 doing. And I want to point out three to 328 00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:48,040 you here from Paul's opening verses in First Corinthians. 329 00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:50,840 So here's the first, where do you draw the strength to give 330 00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:53,000 thanks to God? The 1st is you recognize that 331 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:56,640 the church is set apart. It's not accidental, it's set 332 00:21:56,640 --> 00:21:59,120 apart. God's gotten in here. 333 00:21:59,280 --> 00:22:00,840 Look at verse two of our passage. 334 00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:02,600 Paul describes the church like this. 335 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:08,480 The church is those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be 336 00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:12,560 sent together with all those who in every place call upon the 337 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:16,880 Lord, of call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both 338 00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:22,960 their Lord and ours. Again, remember, Paul has heard 339 00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:26,320 alarming things about the state of things at the church in 340 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:30,600 Corinth, and yet strikingly enough, he describes these 341 00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:37,160 believers as those sanctified in Christ Jesus, as those called to 342 00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:40,520 be God's holy people, called to be Saints. 343 00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:42,920 You read that and you want to think, Paul, did you just hear 344 00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:45,200 there is incest of that church? Did you just hear there are 345 00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:47,520 factions there? Did you just hear people are 346 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:50,720 going to prostitutes there and fighting on each other's and at 347 00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:53,240 each other's throat and going to court before unbelievers? 348 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:56,240 Did you hear that? How could you possibly know that 349 00:22:56,600 --> 00:23:00,280 and refer to them as those sanctified and called to be 350 00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:03,040 sent, called to be God's holy people? 351 00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:09,960 Paul knows that the experience of the life of a given church in 352 00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:13,960 any given season is never the ultimate reality about that 353 00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:16,600 church. The ultimate reality about the 354 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:20,520 life of any and every believer and the life of any and any and 355 00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:24,440 any and every church, true church, is what God has done in 356 00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:26,800 the church. So the experience in any given 357 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:31,280 season, the relational tensions that may be or joys that may be, 358 00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:34,080 do not tell the whole story. There is something more 359 00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:39,120 profound, more eternal, more enduring, more undiminished by 360 00:23:39,120 --> 00:23:41,880 the experiences of this life. True about that church. 361 00:23:42,120 --> 00:23:45,720 And it is that God has set them apart and call them to be his 362 00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:49,640 people. You know when Paul says to those 363 00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:58,240 sanctified in Christ Jesus, he uses a word whose tense conveys 364 00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:03,520 the idea that God has done and completed a work in the past 365 00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:05,960 whose results will continue forever. 366 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:11,760 God has inducted every believer into the realm of the holy in an 367 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:14,600 irrevocable way. It's never going to be reversed. 368 00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:18,600 What God has done in calling each one of his blood, bought 369 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:23,000 people from darkness into light and introduced them into the 370 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:25,680 realm of the holy is irreversible. 371 00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:29,400 And that's true regardless of what season of life the church 372 00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:32,760 is going through. And so Paul is fixated on that 373 00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:35,200 and therefore thanking God for that. 374 00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:39,360 Paul is speaking about eternal things here. 375 00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:42,520 He is speaking about what we call positional or definitive 376 00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:46,800 sanctification. Every believer knows that, not 377 00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:52,560 because of any inherent holiness of the earth, but because of the 378 00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:56,240 grace of God that has descended upon them and set them apart for 379 00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:59,280 God. And then he calls them those who 380 00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:03,160 are called, those who have been summoned by God. 381 00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:06,640 Paul is not suggesting that God sent an invitation to Corinth 382 00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:10,960 for the Corinthians to RSVP and any one of them could turn it 383 00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:14,720 down or accept to come. Now he's saying God summoned 384 00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:18,200 them with a car that produced a response. 385 00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:22,120 He summoned them to himself with a calling that sounded like 386 00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:25,800 Jesus calling Lazarus out of the tomb so that Lazarus did not 387 00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:28,480 need to think to come out. He just came out because the 388 00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:32,000 invitation created the response. And that's how God worked at 389 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:33,520 Corinth to bring about that church. 390 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:36,560 And Paul is saying, regardless of what's happening there right 391 00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:41,280 now, we cannot but thank God for what he has done there. 392 00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:46,800 You know, Paul describes this calling of the Corinthian 393 00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:49,760 believers in verse nine. Look at verse nine of our 394 00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:53,840 passage. God is faithful by whom you were 395 00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:57,840 called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ. 396 00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:03,240 So he ties their calling to the sovereign, indomitable work of 397 00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:06,880 God to bring them to himself. In chapter 1, verse 26, he 398 00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:10,560 describes that calling in terms of election, God's sovereign 399 00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:14,360 choice of who believes. Look at chapter one, verse 26, 400 00:26:14,360 --> 00:26:19,040 Paul says, for consider your calling brothers. 401 00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:22,600 Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. 402 00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:26,080 Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 403 00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:29,760 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. 404 00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,000 God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. 405 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:36,680 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even 406 00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:41,160 things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that 407 00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:44,880 no human being might boast in the presence of God. 408 00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:50,240 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us 409 00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:53,640 wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, 410 00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:58,400 so that as it is written that no one who let one who boasts let 411 00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:00,760 the one who boasts boasts in the. 412 00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:04,200 Lord. Just look around here. 413 00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:06,440 Just look around this room. Just turn your eyes and look 414 00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:09,880 around this room. Do you know what you are looking 415 00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:13,440 at? You are looking at a gathering 416 00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:18,520 of God's holy people in Christ. What I'm preaching to this 417 00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:22,440 morning, it's not a social gathering. 418 00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:27,040 It's a gathering that has taken the sovereign operation of the 419 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:31,480 grace of the living God to bring into existence. 420 00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:37,720 And I don't intellectually I know how I can know that to be 421 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:43,720 true and not be thankful to God. But maybe like you, I don't tend 422 00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:48,000 to think of our church in these kinds of fundamental and 423 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:51,520 consequential categories. I tend to remember more that 424 00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:55,160 heartbreak, that affliction, that trouble, that difficult 425 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:58,360 conversation that I have to have that trial, that brother or 426 00:27:58,360 --> 00:28:01,640 sister who is straying into sin. I tend to think more in those 427 00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:04,160 categories. Do you know what that does to my 428 00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,160 Thanksgiving? It diminishes my Thanksgiving. 429 00:28:07,360 --> 00:28:10,160 It drains the fuel for my Thanksgiving. 430 00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:13,200 It makes the flame of my Thanksgiving not to burn as 431 00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:18,240 brightly as it should. The truest things about any 432 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:22,280 given church lie beyond the perception of the five senses. 433 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:26,800 The truest things about this church lie beyond the perception 434 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:31,120 of the five senses, The the fact that God sanctified and called 435 00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:34,680 and brought to himself are not things we see every day. 436 00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:38,360 They're not things we gather and see all the time, but we know to 437 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:41,480 be true, indisputably true, by faith. 438 00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:46,760 And so giving thanks to God includes very fundamentally 439 00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:51,280 walking by faith, knowing that what God has done in your heart, 440 00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:53,760 he has done in not brother's heart and not sister's heart and 441 00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:57,200 not family. And therefore we are here by 442 00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:01,640 God's work for which he deserves endless things. 443 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,400 Now, if you're here this morning and you've never called on the 444 00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:07,560 name of the Lord, you've never repented of your sins, you've 445 00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:11,080 never trusted in Jesus Christ, it's striking to me in relation 446 00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:15,400 to your station in life spiritually, that Paul describes 447 00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:17,880 this people also as those who call. 448 00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:21,280 Upon the name of the Lord Jesus. Christ quite an interesting 449 00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:26,120 description because he says they have been called and he 450 00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:29,960 describes them as those who call on the name of the Lord. 451 00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:35,560 So they are called to be St. and they call upon the name of the 452 00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:37,720 Lord. That's, that's, that's a very 453 00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:42,000 serious matter. That's, that's no trifle at all, 454 00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:46,440 because only those who call on the name of the Lord will be 455 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:49,560 saved. Anyone who is not living their 456 00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:52,440 life by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will 457 00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:56,880 perish forever, will be cut off from the life giving presence of 458 00:29:56,880 --> 00:29:59,240 the one true and living God for all eternity. 459 00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:02,880 Nothing could be more serious. So Paul describes these people 460 00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:04,760 as the people who call on the name of the Lord. 461 00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:09,440 And that means you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. 462 00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:12,200 And that means you believe in your heart that God raised him 463 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:14,640 up from the dead. And if that's true of you, 464 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:19,840 heaven's pledge to you is that you will be saved again. 465 00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:22,120 If you have not never been born again, you've never turned from 466 00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:25,360 your sin and trusted Christ. Let me just remind you of a 467 00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:29,800 sobering truth. There is no name under heaven 468 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:35,040 given amongst men whereby we must be saved except the name of 469 00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:39,080 Jesus Christ. If you have never repented, you 470 00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:42,880 can call on him today. You can ask Him for forgiveness. 471 00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:46,520 You can ask him that He walks in you this kind of union with 472 00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:50,320 himself that made the Corinthians to become a people 473 00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:54,960 sanctified, set apart and called to be God's holy people. 474 00:30:56,480 --> 00:30:59,240 The Bible's promise is everyone who calls on the name of the 475 00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:01,960 Lord will be saved. And that's because it is Jesus 476 00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:07,720 and Jesus alone who suffered once for sins, the righteous for 477 00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:10,760 the unrighteous, that he might bring anyone and everyone who 478 00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:16,240 believes to God through himself. And so you have a wide you live 479 00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,800 in the day of salvation. So I invite you think profoundly 480 00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:20,760 about this. Think about this. 481 00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:24,760 Just ask yourself questions about where do I stand in 482 00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:27,960 relation to the God of the universe, the God who made me, 483 00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:32,280 who had a distinct purpose for making me, namely that I should 484 00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:35,880 be for His glory, and which purpose I have defied and kicked 485 00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:39,320 against all my life? How could I ever possibly make 486 00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:43,560 up for that kind of rebellion? The answer is He has made it up 487 00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:47,200 for you in His Son, if you will but repent. 488 00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:53,440 Those who are called are those who call on the name of the 489 00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:57,280 Lord. So Paul draws strength to be a 490 00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:00,120 consistent giver of thanks to God for the Corinthians. 491 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:03,400 First, from the fact that they are set apart, and that's true 492 00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:07,280 of every believer here. But here's the second thing that 493 00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:10,440 feeds and feels Paul's Thanksgiving. 494 00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:13,000 It is that the church is equipped to be the church, 495 00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:16,280 equipped to be the church. Look at verse 4 again. 496 00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:19,920 I give thanks to my God always for you. 497 00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:24,520 And here comes the reason. Because of the grace of God that 498 00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:29,680 was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were 499 00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:34,360 enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge, even as the 500 00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:38,680 testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you 501 00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:44,240 are not lacking in any gift. You know, God's grace, we often 502 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:47,640 say quickly, is his unmerited favor. 503 00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:53,720 But it's also God's transforming power through the gospel and not 504 00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:57,640 power that grace took hold among the Corinthians. 505 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:01,880 By grace, they were comprehensively enriched 506 00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:05,960 spiritually. God lavished them with spiritual 507 00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:09,480 gifts that they could not possibly imagine. 508 00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:13,480 Paul says you have been enriched in every way and you are not 509 00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:17,840 lacking in any gift. But you know, Paul's perspective 510 00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:21,240 is very gospel centered. He's not just saying like you 511 00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:24,880 are such impressive people, you have all the gifts there could 512 00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:26,720 be. You know, he recognizes the 513 00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,760 gifts came to them because of God's grace. 514 00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:32,560 They couldn't have earned what God did. 515 00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:35,880 See what he says. The gift came as the testimony 516 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:38,960 about Christ was confirmed among them. 517 00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:42,480 So this equipment came entirely by grace. 518 00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:45,280 This wasn't because they were distinctive and impressive. 519 00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:50,880 A recognition that the Corinthians were absolutely 520 00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:56,040 lavished with gifts by God's grace was one of the streams 521 00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:59,720 that flowed into the river of Paul's Thanksgiving. 522 00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:03,560 And just think about the hundreds of spiritual gifts that 523 00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:05,160 are represented in this room right now. 524 00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:09,400 How many believers are here? By the teaching of the New 525 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:13,719 Testament, everyone of you has a spiritual gift from God. 526 00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:16,440 Some have a couple. Some have more than a couple. 527 00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:21,280 That means that it is possible that the number of spiritual 528 00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:25,360 gifts present in this room this morning, maybe even double S the 529 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:26,960 number of believers present here. 530 00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:30,760 Why is that the case? Because the grace of God by the 531 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:34,400 Gospel has been confirmed in each of your lives as a 532 00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:38,040 believer. And for Paul, that's something 533 00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:40,600 for which to thank God ceaselessly. 534 00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:43,440 That's something for which to give praise to God. 535 00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:47,280 The Corinthians also knew that God gave them gifts, but they 536 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:50,840 tended to think of themselves as distinct and as better than 537 00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:53,120 everyone else. And so they were arrogant and 538 00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,800 prideful. And that's why, as you read 539 00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,960 through First Corinthians, Paul uses the word do not be puffed 540 00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:02,400 up at least six different times to instruct them and correct 541 00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:07,400 them because they divorced their spiritual wealth from the grace 542 00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:10,080 of God. They forgot the the wealth came 543 00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:13,080 to them. The gift came to them from God's 544 00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:15,400 grace. They tended to be marked by 545 00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:19,240 pride because they thought they were just wonderful people. 546 00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:22,840 So it's a wonderful thing to be enriched by God's grace. 547 00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:26,640 It's just as important to recognize that grace is indeed 548 00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:28,920 grace. You didn't work for it, you 549 00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:30,760 didn't earn it. You don't teach God's Word 550 00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:33,160 because you could. You are not as kind and 551 00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:37,320 hospitable and able to serve others because you could. 552 00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:40,520 God work that in you by the power of his gospel, and 553 00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:44,280 therefore he gets the glory. As people who believe the 554 00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:51,160 doctrines of grace, we usually say sola gracia must always lead 555 00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:55,840 to solid deal Gloria. The fact that we are saved by 556 00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:59,240 grace and grace alone, equipped to be God's people and be the 557 00:35:59,240 --> 00:36:02,880 church and serve Christ and one another by grace and grace 558 00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:07,600 alone, should make us eager to return all the glory to the 559 00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:10,880 giver of the grace that has come to us. 560 00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:15,720 When we do that, that's going to train our hearts and lead us 561 00:36:15,720 --> 00:36:19,680 away from pride and self exaltation, both as individuals 562 00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:23,360 and as a church. So Paul calls us to give thanks. 563 00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:27,720 He models for us Thanksgiving and shows us the strength for 564 00:36:27,720 --> 00:36:30,680 giving thanks always comes from the fact that, you know, the 565 00:36:30,680 --> 00:36:32,040 church has been set apart by God. 566 00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:35,280 It comes from the fact that the church has been equipped by God. 567 00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,680 But finally, it also comes from the fact that, you know, the 568 00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:44,280 church is kept by God. Believers are kept by Jesus 569 00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:47,440 Christ. One of my favorite truths in the 570 00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:52,160 New Testament and in all of the Bible is that Christian people 571 00:36:52,720 --> 00:36:55,320 are a people who are kept. They are people who are 572 00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:57,920 preserved by the mighty hand of God. 573 00:36:57,920 --> 00:36:59,840 Look at look at verse six of our passage. 574 00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:06,640 Paul says this even as the testimony concerning Christ was 575 00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:10,720 confirmed in you. The testimony confirming 576 00:37:10,720 --> 00:37:15,160 concerning Christ is the gospel, and Paul uses that passive verb 577 00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:18,840 again to show it is God doing the work and therefore God gets 578 00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:22,040 all the glory. And his point is that the gospel 579 00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:26,880 was validated, was ratified, was proven to be the gospel power of 580 00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:28,560 God unto salvation for all who believe. 581 00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:32,960 It was proven to be that by the gift that had come to the 582 00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:35,040 Corinthians. So that's past. 583 00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:38,320 What about the future? Did God do that work in the 584 00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:40,800 past? Confirm his work, establish them 585 00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:42,920 and then leave them? Like OK, you could figure things 586 00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:46,480 out from here. No, look at verse verse 8. 587 00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:51,040 Who will also confirm you? That's the same word. 588 00:37:51,320 --> 00:37:56,320 Who will also confirm you to the end, Blameless in the day of our 589 00:37:56,320 --> 00:37:59,400 Lord Jesus Christ. That's, that's, that's amazing. 590 00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:01,760 God did a confirmation in the past. 591 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:04,240 God's going to do a confirmation in the future. 592 00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:07,240 He worked in the past to establish you. 593 00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:10,840 He will work in the future to complete what he started. 594 00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:15,120 That's amazing. I mean, notice that by Paul's 595 00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:20,200 writing right here, you will have to be blameless on the day 596 00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:23,920 of Christ to be saved. You will have to stand before 597 00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:28,240 Christ's throne, blameless in order to be saved. 598 00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:32,120 Do you realize that, that on the day of judgment, you can't stand 599 00:38:32,240 --> 00:38:35,720 before the judgment seat of God with filth on you. 600 00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:40,960 There has to be a guiltlessness, A blamelessness mocking you as 601 00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:44,800 you stand before Christ. That means you have to persevere 602 00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:47,560 to the end. If you turn away from Christ and 603 00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:50,680 abandoned a pursuit of godliness, you will not be 604 00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:52,800 saved. That's what Paul is talking 605 00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:57,480 about. And if we are honest and know 606 00:38:57,480 --> 00:39:01,440 our own sins and know the stumblings and know the 607 00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:05,640 remaining corruption that still mark our lives, we can be scared 608 00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:08,640 by this and start to ask, will I make it to the end? 609 00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:13,680 Will I truly stand blameless before the throne of Christ is? 610 00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:18,360 Isn't there a real, genuine possibility that I could make a 611 00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:21,240 shipwreck of the faith before the end? 612 00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:25,640 And the answer is yes, if it all depended on you. 613 00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:32,800 If it all depended on you, you not only can but will make a 614 00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:37,280 shipwreck of the faith. But it doesn't all depend on 615 00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:40,400 you. See, it says who will confirm 616 00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:44,560 you, so God will confirm you. In other words, God will 617 00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:51,040 preserve this flawed and sin tented Corinthians all the way 618 00:39:51,040 --> 00:39:52,680 to the end. He will keep them. 619 00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:56,200 In other words, God's preservation is the guarantee 620 00:39:56,240 --> 00:39:59,120 for their perseverance. They will not make it to the end 621 00:39:59,120 --> 00:40:02,120 if you remove the foundation of God's keeping work. 622 00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:04,240 This is like what Paul says to the Philippians. 623 00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:07,560 He who began a good work in your lives will bring it to 624 00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:11,440 completion of the day of Christ. So he did not only confirm the 625 00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:14,840 gospel in the beginning and let you figure things out for 626 00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:18,200 yourself and let you press on on your own, He will confirm it in 627 00:40:18,200 --> 00:40:20,520 the end. You will stand blameless before. 628 00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:25,800 For the throne, I hope this grips your heart as it's 629 00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:28,080 gripping mind. This is this is written to a 630 00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:32,360 church that is wracked by sin. Like I said, their problems are 631 00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:36,160 multifaceted. If you put me as a pastor at 632 00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:39,600 this church and say start trying to revitalize this church, I 633 00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:41,960 wouldn't even know which problem to start with because there were 634 00:40:41,960 --> 00:40:44,560 so many of them. And yet Paul is saying that God, 635 00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:48,480 who confirmed the gospel in you while I was with you 18 months 636 00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:53,520 ago, however long that was, will confirm you blameless until the 637 00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:57,720 end. Is that a reason for 638 00:40:57,720 --> 00:41:02,360 Thanksgiving or what? How can you know that and not be 639 00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:07,320 abundantly, overflowingly thankful to God for that church? 640 00:41:07,840 --> 00:41:11,960 It doesn't depend on them. It's not their strength or power 641 00:41:12,200 --> 00:41:14,160 that will bring them all the way to the end. 642 00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:17,240 So if you look at the brothers and sisters that God's given you 643 00:41:17,480 --> 00:41:22,040 here at Trinity Baptist, there are unbreakable bonds that God 644 00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:23,560 has established between you and them. 645 00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:30,520 So strong and so indomitable in strength that the allurements of 646 00:41:30,520 --> 00:41:34,120 sin will not break, that Satan himself will not break, that the 647 00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:36,480 allurements of the world will not break. 648 00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:40,920 For those who are truly the sheep of Christ, He will keep 649 00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:46,200 them and keep you bonded to them until we together are all God at 650 00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:49,800 home and stand blameless, and the race is complete. 651 00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:54,040 And we say, not by not, not my strength, but by His grace 652 00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:58,720 alone, we have made it safely to the shore of eternity. 653 00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:03,360 He, He who called you into the fellowship of His Son, will 654 00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:08,360 confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of Christ. 655 00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:16,960 So there is a day marked on God's calendar on which you 656 00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:20,960 would have committed your last sin ever, on which you will 657 00:42:20,960 --> 00:42:24,840 never need to repent of sin again, on which you will never 658 00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:28,680 wish you spoke differently or listen more intently, like all 659 00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:32,280 of that will be forever a thing of the past. 660 00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:37,440 And Paul refers to that day as the day of the Lord Jesus 661 00:42:37,440 --> 00:42:40,920 Christ, which is quite remarkable because the prophets 662 00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:44,080 of the Old Testament, when they spoke of the day of the Lord, 663 00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:47,480 they were Speaking of the day of Yahweh, the covenant God of 664 00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:52,160 Israel, the One about whom they say He has marked a day. 665 00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:55,680 That day is coming. And on that day, He will forgive 666 00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:58,880 the sins of their people, He will transform their hearts, He 667 00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:02,360 will defeat their enemies, and He will establish His Kingdom 668 00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:05,360 and reign over them forever in righteousness. 669 00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:09,760 As the New Testament opens, John the Baptist announces that those 670 00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:12,600 days have opened. Those days have dawned on us. 671 00:43:12,800 --> 00:43:17,000 And then Jesus is born, and the days indeed are inaugurated. 672 00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:21,200 We are living in the day of the Lord, so to speak, and because 673 00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:27,240 Jesus came and begun those days by His incarnation, His payment 674 00:43:27,240 --> 00:43:30,920 for sin on the cross, His victorious resurrection from the 675 00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:33,840 dead, His exaltation to the right hand of the Father, we 676 00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:37,960 have an unshakable hope that He will finish what he came and 677 00:43:37,960 --> 00:43:41,120 started. That day of the Lord is indeed 678 00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:45,680 coming when Jesus will complete what He started at His first 679 00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:50,160 coming and establish us. Complete all the way so that we 680 00:43:50,160 --> 00:43:55,280 are like him. On that day, your physical 681 00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:58,560 appearance will match the fact that you have been sanctified. 682 00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:00,280 Right now it doesn't quite look like that. 683 00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:03,160 I don't know if somebody met you last year at the grocery store 684 00:44:03,160 --> 00:44:04,760 and say you look very sanctified. 685 00:44:05,160 --> 00:44:08,200 It doesn't happen very often in this life, but it's coming a day 686 00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:12,720 when our outward appearance will match with the fact that God in 687 00:44:12,720 --> 00:44:17,840 Christ has inducted us into the realm of the holy that will be 688 00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:19,280 fulfilled so we can be confident. 689 00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:21,640 It doesn't matter what you're experiencing now as a believer. 690 00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:23,520 What's happening to your marriage, What's happening to 691 00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:25,000 your health? What's happening to your work? 692 00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:28,120 What's happening with you regarding parenting and finances 693 00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:29,840 and your health and everything else? 694 00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:32,320 What's happening right now in the life of this church, what's 695 00:44:32,320 --> 00:44:35,520 going on in this, in the season that this church is in now, 696 00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:39,840 Those do not have any bearing whatsoever on whether this day 697 00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:44,520 is going to come or not. The day is going to come and you 698 00:44:44,520 --> 00:44:47,600 will be established blameless before the Lord. 699 00:44:47,800 --> 00:44:51,240 So could you know that and not be thankful for this church and 700 00:44:51,240 --> 00:44:53,960 not be thankful for these brothers and sisters that God 701 00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:57,600 will confirm with you? When Christ splits the heavens 702 00:44:57,600 --> 00:45:01,560 with blinding glory and all who have rejected Him are calling 703 00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:04,880 for rocks to fall on them, and you stand in a spotless 704 00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:08,000 righteousness that you did not earn and could not earn, but 705 00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:12,160 it's yours forever. How could you know that and not 706 00:45:12,160 --> 00:45:17,000 be more thankful for this church that God's given you and called 707 00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:20,840 you to do life with and to persevere until the end? 708 00:45:22,720 --> 00:45:27,160 I saw a bumper speaker sticker lately that said something like 709 00:45:27,840 --> 00:45:33,600 live long and prosper and I've never met a human being who has 710 00:45:33,600 --> 00:45:37,520 a problem with that. Most of us want to live long and 711 00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:42,280 prosper, but then we have to ask the question after that. 712 00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:45,160 Just let's just assume that all of us actually live long and 713 00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:47,800 prosper. We have to ask after that, then 714 00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:50,480 what? You live long and prosper then 715 00:45:50,680 --> 00:45:54,600 then what you know for you and for me. 716 00:45:54,880 --> 00:45:59,360 Believe us in Jesus Christ after this life, regardless of how it 717 00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:07,120 looked like after this life. We await A revelation, a people 718 00:46:07,120 --> 00:46:11,720 who are being kept a people awaiting A revelation. 0 and 719 00:46:11,720 --> 00:46:17,320 verse 7 says as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus 720 00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:21,520 Christ, our blessed hope. That's what we look forward to. 721 00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:26,040 So, so let me close by just reminding you, God's will for 722 00:46:26,040 --> 00:46:29,880 you is that you be overflowing with Thanksgiving for this 723 00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:33,680 church, for your brothers and sisters, for God's grace at work 724 00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:35,960 here. For the fact that he set each 725 00:46:35,960 --> 00:46:39,440 one of you believers aside and inducted you into the realm of 726 00:46:39,440 --> 00:46:41,400 the holy. For the fact that he's equipped 727 00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:45,520 you with grace to be the church, with gifts, to be the church. 728 00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:47,480 And for the fact that he is keeping you. 729 00:46:47,600 --> 00:46:51,040 He's confirmed the gospel in your life and will establish you 730 00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:54,000 will confirm you blameless on the day of Christ. 731 00:46:54,240 --> 00:46:57,360 God wants you giving thanks to him for that. 732 00:46:57,360 --> 00:47:00,840 And my argument is the more thanks you give, the better a 733 00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:03,840 church member you will be, the more effective you will be in 734 00:47:03,840 --> 00:47:09,440 your ministry to one another. And if you focus on what God has 735 00:47:09,440 --> 00:47:13,840 done and is doing and will do, you will never run out of 736 00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:16,440 reasons for Thanksgiving for this church. 737 00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:20,560 They are always there. So May God make us a thankful 738 00:47:20,560 --> 00:47:26,480 people, a people who so see what God has done through the eyes of 739 00:47:26,480 --> 00:47:29,520 faith that we are always saying. I can't wait to meet with 740 00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:33,960 brother X or sister Y again to worship the God who has set us 741 00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:37,480 together apart, sanctified us, and called us to be his people 742 00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:40,560 in Christ. Let's pray. 743 00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:46,600 Father, thank you for your mercy to us. 744 00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:52,120 Thank you that these things are not made-up, that we who were 745 00:47:52,120 --> 00:47:56,800 darkened by sin have indeed been inducted into the realm of the 746 00:47:56,800 --> 00:48:01,400 Holy, been strengthened by grace to be called your people, and 747 00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:07,440 given gifts that make our passing lives count for your 748 00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:09,880 Kingdom. I praise you for that, and I 749 00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:15,600 pray that you make us abundantly thankful for that work of yours 750 00:48:15,720 --> 00:48:18,840 in our lives and in the lives of our brothers and sisters and in 751 00:48:18,840 --> 00:48:22,480 this church and in every true church that preaches your gospel 752 00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:24,720 in Jesus name, Amen.