Alright, turn with me if you would this morning over to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We finished up last week on a couple of messages on the privileges of the believer and we have seen in that couple week study that What Christ has done for us in his death has purchased some things for us and they are things that are effectual. They will be applied to the one for whom he died. That's one of the reasons why we believe what we believe about the death of Christ is because the Bible is very clear in teaching that everything for which Christ purchased will be applied to all those who he believes. It's not an offer. It's not a maybe-so. It's not a condition that he'll give it to you if you'll do something, or if you'll believe, or if you'll receive, or if you'll, you know, it's not that. It is what it is. Christ accomplished a finished salvation And the Father accounted that salvation, that redemption that Christ purchased with His blood, God accounted that for everyone for whom Christ died. There's none accepted. There's not anybody that does not receive everything for which Christ had purchased in that redemption. Reconciliation with God, forgiveness of sins, eternal life, uh... justification you know all the things we talk about having to do with salvation christ all that was part of that eternal covenant between uh... the father and the son of the holy spirit uh... that eternal covenant all the terms was met by christ and all the provisions and all of the uh... inheritance of that becomes ours and we talked about that last week that one of the privileges of being a child of God, a child of grace, is that we receive all the inheritance, we're joint heirs with Jesus. And we were joint heirs with Jesus actually before creation, because the Bible says that we were given to the Son, that we were in Him, that we were one with Him, that we had an eternal, vital union with Christ even before we ever was created, before Adam was created, before Adam fell, anything like that. we were already eternally united to Jesus Christ, chosen in Him, given to Him, and blessed in Him before anything ever took place. And as He stood as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, all of Christ elect was in Him, and He represented them. And so, We've seen last couple weeks that we have these privileges, and these privileges aren't things that we boast on. We don't boast that we have it and nobody else has it. Our boast is in Christ. We boast that it is because of him, because it is only sheerly of grace that any of us have been chosen to be saved and been redeemed by the blood of Christ. We are just as guilty, just as vile, just as sinful, just as deserving and undeserving of God's wrath and undeserving of God's favor than all the reprobate. But because Christ died for us, we have been given these eternal privileges. And what an amazing blessing that that truly is. And again, you know, it's hard for us to grasp those things. The natural mind can't grasp those things, the Bible says. They might be able to know facts about it or even misunderstand these things in some way and twist them, but only the spiritual mind can understand these things. But even at that, it's still hard sometimes to understand how God chose some and not others. But one thing we do learn in scripture is that that choice, that decision, that sovereign grace is solely the work of God alone. And he has that, the Bible teaches that. He says that he is the potter and he has made some vessels for honor and some vessels for dishonor. And so we have to submit to that and we must worship him for the God that he is, not the God that we, want him to be or the God that other belief systems make him out to be. He's the God that is revealed in scripture and that's who we worship. And so this morning I thought we might go back and look at what purchased those privileges that we talked about the last couple of weeks. And that is found, will begin at least here, in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And I'm going to start reading in verse 23, and I'm going to read down to verse 31. It says, But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. And I'll just kind of pause there. What Paul is saying here is whenever you preach the true gospel, what I just mentioned about Christ making a finished work, that there are some that have been chosen for salvation, others that have not been chosen for salvation, and that salvation is effectually given. There's nothing that they can do to not get it. I mean, it will be given to them. Faith will be given to them. They'll be drawn to Christ. They'll believe on Christ. Christ has forgiven them of all their sins. They're not going to be held under the law anymore. All these things, that's the true gospel. And whenever that was preached, the Jews didn't want to hear of it because they were so ingrained with Moses and the law. And they believed that salvation came by something that you did. And then he says to the Greeks, it's foolishness, because the Greeks thought by their knowledge, by their intellect, by their other gods, you know, that they had salvation, and which also was a form of works, just like the Jews believe. And so either way, whether it was of God, or excuse me, of the Jews or of the Greeks, both was of works and neither one of them viewed the true gospel that it is a free gift of grace by Christ. Morning, Mark. And so this is why Paul is saying, you know, we preach Christ crucified and that is a stumbling block. Whenever we preach the doctrine of grace, whenever we preach sovereign grace, it's a stumbling block. We've all experienced that. We've seen how the preaching of this has become a stumbling block for our friends and family and people that we meet on the street and may speak to and minister to. It's a stumbling block to them because what has been learned in the mass majority of churches is a false gospel that preaches that it's up to us to do something before Christ will give us salvation. And salvation isn't conditioned upon anything except God's will. And so it is a stumbling block. So Paul says, but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them. So there's a contradiction. You've got the Jews and you've got the Greeks, which basically covers all mankind. That's how they were broken up. There was the Jews and there was the Greeks or the Gentiles. And that was everybody. of the known world there. Everybody was of those two groups of people. But Paul now brings in a third distinction of people here that preaching Christ crucified is not a stumbling block. He says, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks. What's Paul saying there? He's saying, preaching Christ crucified is a stumbling block to all mankind, but to them who are called of all mankind, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. So preaching Christ crucified to the called, and we're going to touch on that word here in a minute when we get over into Romans, but the called, To them, the preaching of Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Now we learn that the Bible says, or Paul says, that I'm not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation. But everyone wants to stop there. Turn with me, if you would, over to Romans 1. Keep your finger there in 1 Corinthians. We won't come back. This is kind of a little pause or a little side note. Go back to Romans 1. And look with me, if you would, at chapter 1, verse 16 in Romans. And I want you to pay close attention because A lot of times we quote these verses, but we stop short and we don't look at the whole context and we don't apply the rest of the verse. It says, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it, the Gospel of Christ, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. See, the Gospel is the power of God to everyone that believeth. the ones who are already believing. Not the power of God so that you will believe. That's how I used to preach it. I used to preach that this Word of God, whenever it's preached or whenever it's read, it has power to make people believe. and become Christians. But that's not what that says. The reason that Paul wasn't ashamed of the Gospel of Christ is because he knew that the intent or the purpose for the Gospel of Christ was to give those who had already been born again and given the faith of Christ to believe that that was already given to them, and so the Gospel of Christ was there, was the power of God to tell them, to show them, to cause them to believe on their salvation, about their salvation. The power of God unto salvation is to everyone that believe it. That's how they look at the Word of God. They look at the Word of God and the preaching of the Gospel as the power of God because why? Whenever the quickened or the awakened or the born again soul has spiritual life, has its spiritual faculties, That spirit that is in us that teaches us all the things that Christ has said, all the things that are in the scripture that leads us into truth, whenever that begins to teach us, what does it do? It teaches us the truth about Christ and what He did. And it tells us the truth about who we are and what we need. and how we receive that. And we receive that by free grace. We receive that by the finished work of Christ alone, not by anything that we have done, not by works of righteousness, which we have done. But according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, that washing of regeneration that speaks of the work of Christ on the cross. The washing of regeneration isn't whenever we're born again. The washing of regeneration speaks of Christ and His cleansing on the cross. What He did in the baptism of fire that He experienced on the cross whenever He took all of our guilt and the wrath of God on Himself and He purged our sins once with His blood. That is the washing of regeneration. Whenever he died and was resurrected, that is the, if you want to use the word regeneration, that's the correct way to use it. The Bible only talks of regeneration in one place, and that's there. Well, I say one, two places. And both places is referring to the finished work of Christ. And so the preaching of this, the preaching of Christ crucified is foolishness to everyone who has not been given belief, who has not been given faith, who has not been born again. So that's why Paul is saying here in verse 23, that we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block unto the Jews and a foolishness to the Greeks. But to the called, It is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Now, the power of God, we just spoke about, but the wisdom of God. How is the preaching of Christ crucified the wisdom of God? Well, it's the wisdom of God because, listen, man surely would not have thought this up. Matter of fact, look at the religions of man. Even within the quote-unquote evangelical Christian denominations, Look at the wisdom of man. The wisdom of man can't perceive a free grace salvation that doesn't include them doing anything, even though they say the words. We all have the phraseology, okay? We look around and all the modern churches of today, they have the phraseology. They say, oh, we're saved by grace. We're saved by grace through faith. They have that terminology, okay? But the meaning that's poured into that is, yes, we're saved by grace through faith, so unless we exercise faith, then we aren't saved. We can't be saved. That's not true. The Bible says that we are saved by grace through faith, but that faith that it's talking about right there isn't our faith. It isn't even talking about us exercising faith. It says, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that Grace, salvation, faith is not of yourself. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. See, so even faith that we exhibit whenever we've been born again and then we believe on Christ unto salvation, that is not of ourselves. That was a gift of the, matter of fact, is that one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, tenderness, goodness, meekness, gentleness, faith. It's a gift of God. So faith is something that comes after we've been born again, not to get born again. And that is foolishness. Why? Because to the one, we must work to get that. To the other, we must apply what we know to get that, right? See, that's why Paul is making the distinction with the Jews and the Greeks. To the Jews, it was all works. We must work for our salvation. We must keep the law. We must do the duty. Heed the commands. Make the sacrifices. And if we do that, then we'll be saved. But to the Greeks, it all comes by their knowledge, what we know. And see, that's what the Armenian, in essence, believes today. The Armenian believes that it's something that we learn. We have to study God's word, hear God's word, believe God's word, and then it becomes something that we know and believe. And then whenever we do, that belief then translates into being born again. We get born again because we believed. But brethren, that's backwards according to the Scripture. And so the wisdom of God is something that the natural man can't perceive. How can God save me without me even having anything to do with it? How can God save me? Surely at least I ought to make a profession of faith. Surely I should at least believe the Gospel. Well, brethren, if you think about it, salvation took place before anything ever happened. And so that didn't require your conditional work. Turn with me. Keep your finger there at 1 Corinthians again. Turn with me again to one of the verses that we frequent so often. In Timothy, the Bible says, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works. Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works. I'm sorry if you haven't found one Timothy one, verse nine. Well, I've got my numbers all backwards today. I'm a little confused. 2 Timothy 1 verse 9, Who have saved us and called us, so there's a saving and a calling, not according to our works. but according to His own purpose and grace which was given unto us or given us in Christ Jesus whenever we walked down to the altar, whenever we were baptized, whenever we joined the church, whenever we sung ten hymns of Just As I Am. No, before the world began. Brethren, salvation And the calling of God was before the world began. Now, if that's true, how did you have any part of making yourself saved? Of either choosing to be saved? See, that was before I could even choose. God chose me. God chose you if you're a child of grace. He chose you before the foundation of the world, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus. But look at what he says now and how the gospel, remember we was just talking about the gospel was the power of God unto them who believe, right? Look at the distinction that he makes now in verse 10. But now, but is now made manifest. What is now made manifest? The saving and the calling. The saving and the calling is now made manifest. But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Whereunto I am a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles." The preaching of the gospel is to give life and immortality light, to manifest it, to show it. The reason that we have the gospel is to tell us of what was done in Christ Jesus in our saving and calling before the foundation of the world. We were saved and called before the foundation of the world, before we were ever born, before Adam ever sinned and brought sin and death into the world. We were in Christ Jesus saved and called already. but now it's made manifest to us. That's the purpose of the gospel, is to make manifest to those who have been given the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the capacity and spiritual ability to receive these things, to make manifest what has been done for us. so that we might know, does it the Bible say, so that we might know those things that are freely given to us. That's why he gives us the spirit, is so that we might know the things that are freely given to us. When were they freely given to us? They were freely given to us, Ephesians one, before the foundation of the world, when we were blessed with all spiritual blessings. Okay, so there's our context. There's the preaching of the gospel is to bring these things and to manifest these things. Not to make them so, but to make them manifest to us. Now look at verse 25 back in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things that are." See, this world has its system and the way that it thinks, the way that it operates, and what it deems to be worthy. But yet God's wisdom supersedes all that. But not only supersedes all that, it lays it all to waste. Just look in the Scriptures whenever you see how those religious leaders who were skilled in the law The scribes who had written the law over and over and knew the law in and out, in and out, and how yet they missed the law. They didn't have spiritual understanding. They had carnal understanding. And brethren, that's what a lot of people in a lot of these churches today, they have a carnal understanding of facts of scripture, but they don't have a spiritual application of that because the Holy Spirit is not in them. They've not been born again. And they don't have the spiritual capacity to understand the spiritual nature and the spiritual application of these things. And so they have the wisdom of men and they can preach the wisdom of men about the scriptures all day long. They have the the carnal nature of man and the wisdom of man that can formulate sermons that are so to the T, but they don't have the Spirit of God that teaches them what it means and the application of it. And so we see that it becomes foolishness because it just doesn't correlate. It doesn't connect. It doesn't make sense. This goes against all probability of it happening. I mean, surely with my intellect I can figure these things out. Surely with my seminary I can figure these things out. Surely with my upbringing I can figure these things out. Brethren, it doesn't work in that facet at all. He says, for you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise, not many active flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. God hath chosen the foolish things. God hath chosen. See, there's where the difference is made. See, whenever God chooses to do something, when God is in the work, then there's a difference. That's why those fishermen who had no education, that didn't know nothing, confounded all those men who were schooled and learned in the Scripture. That those fishermen that know how, these guys are fishermen. They go out there, dirty, stinky fishermen out throwing nets and dragging in fish, working in the muck and mire. And how do they know this stuff? How can they speak with authority? Because God has chosen the foolish things of this world. Why? Look at verse 29. That no flesh should glory in His presence. See, the reason God has designed everything the way He has designed it, and specifically salvation the way He's designed it, why He has taken salvation out of time and made it in eternity, why He has placed the saving and the calling in eternity and not at an altar or an invitation. Why He's placed salvation in eternity and not in me performing good works is because if it's taken out of time and put into eternity, there is absolutely, positively, without any thought or deed or anything, there's no way that flesh could glory in His presence. There is absolutely no way that we are ever going to glory. We can't even glory in the fact that it says we're elect. We're elect before God. We can't even say that, brethren. We cannot glory in His presence. Nobody can. We can't glory in His presence in the fact that we're chosen and the reprobate is not going to glory in His presence in the fact that they did all these great works. Matter of fact, on that day, the only thing that's going to be said is either, away from me, you doers of iniquity. And that was told to people who were godly people. Quote, unquote, godly people. Doing godly things. Believing godly things. Working godly things. He's going to say, depart from me, you doers of iniquity. But to all the elect, He ain't gonna say, good job, way to go, glad you chose me. If you wouldn't have chosen me, you'd have been with all those over there. No, the only thing that they're gonna be able to say is worthy is the lamb who was slain. Matter of fact, we're gonna be seeing that quite a bit in eternity. Worthy, worthy, worthy is the lamb. Why? No flesh is gonna glory in his presence. Why? Because he is preeminent. Christ is gonna be preeminent in all of it. Christ is gonna be the center of all things. Verse 30, but of him. but of Him." And this is one of those verses whenever I began to start seeing the Gospel and seeing these things, the doctrines of grace several years ago, this was one of those verses that I had read over hundreds of times. But all of a sudden, it just stuck out. And it was amazing that I hadn't picked up on what it said. But of Him, speaking of God, but of God are ye in Christ Jesus. See, I thought that I was in Christ Jesus because I made a decision that I went forth at an altar and that I made a profession of faith and chose Him. That I accepted Jesus into my heart. But that's not what put me in Him. Now, even after I began to believe the true gospel of sovereign grace, I began to read sovereign grace people. And sovereign grace people said that we are in Christ Jesus because we believed. See, that's what they said. We were put into Christ whenever we believed. And I thought, well, that's strange. I come from one belief system that believes that we have to receive or accept or believe on Jesus Christ to be put into Christ. But now I'm over here where The truth is, and now these people are saying, I have to believe to get into Christ. See, that's why Reformed theology is incorrect. They believe that salvation is by faith alone. But brethren, salvation is not by faith alone, salvation is by grace alone. Purely by grace alone. And just as much as on the other side, there's been so much phraseology that's been drilled into our heads. Salvation by grace through faith, that was drilled in my head. I preached it over and over and over. I preached it. And that is true. But it's not our faith again, remember. But then on the other side, there's so much phraseology and historical usage of these things that is drilled into people's heads, that they look at that and they say, what you're saying cannot be true because look, for the last 200, 300, 400 years, everybody's been saying salvation by faith alone. What of Martin Luther? What of John Calvin and Zwingli and all these men? What of John Gill and what of all these men that have talked about all this stuff, salvation, by faith alone? And see what happens is that is drilled so much into our head that the truth seems like it's not true. What's false has been put off as true for us for so long. That's why I say that one of the greatest hindrances to us learning is the things that we already know. Quote, unquote, know. See, we can't learn because we've got so much learning that has been wrong. And so we see here that it isn't because of our choosing or our decisions or our works. It isn't because of our faith that we're in Christ Jesus. It's because of God that we are in Christ Jesus. But of Him, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God, that's us, who of God, is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So Christ is made for us, for us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And so, brethren, our glorying is in the Lord. That's why we preach. what we preach. That's why we preach Christ crucified. As Paul said in verse 23, we preach Christ crucified. Why? Because we don't want glory in the flesh. We want to glory in the Lord. We want the glory to be all His and not ours. But if salvation has to do with a preacher, if salvation has to do with a church or a denomination or a baptism or a seminar or a seminary, If salvation has to do with something that is done through works or through a decision or even through our faith, then it is not the glory that is being given to Christ. It's the glory being given to the Creator or the creation. So that is why grace and mercy is free. It's not based upon anything that we've done. That's why salvation cannot be of works, because if it is of works, then it's a wage. You're owed that. And the Bible says that salvation is by grace, unmerited. You're unworthy and you have not merited this salvation, but it's been freely given to you based upon the purpose and the will of God that you have received these things. That's why. And so it's taken out of our hands so that we can't glory in it. So that we can't say anything to anybody or to God Himself and say that we are the reason that we're here and so that God will be preeminent in all things. I want to look a little bit at that. That was kind of the introduction. I want to look at a few things. I've preached on this before and done this before, but I'd like to show how Christ is the center point of every aspect, every aspect of salvation. every part, whether it's the part that is eternal in its positional or legal aspect, and in time, in its experiential aspect, and how Christ is preeminent, how Christ is the center point, why the Glorion is in Him and not in us, because we're gonna find that in every aspect of that salvation, this, as the Bible calls it, so great salvation, that the reason that we're saved, as we read in Hebrews last week, to the uttermost, is because we have a Savior who saved. And He didn't leave anything untied. He didn't leave anything up to chance. He didn't leave anything up to the will of man to maybe or maybe not. But He made all things. possible for his people. And when I say possible, not as in a chance, but he made that possible. The only reason you can get it is because he did it and gives it and you get it. It will be given. We use the term effectual. So let's take a break. It's right at 11 o'clock. We'll take a break and you guys can freshen up your drinks and use the restroom if you have to. And, uh, we'll, uh, We'll pick back up with this and we'll start seeing how salvation is the work of God. Christ alone.