Good morning In case you weren't aware brother OB Lord willing to be bringing the message to us tonight. So remember him in prayer if you will Turn with me for our message to 1st Corinthians chapter 2 1st Corinthians chapter 2 Our text will be verse nine. I feel like it's a fairly familiar verse of scripture, and I believe one of our pastor's many favorite verses. And over the past few weeks, there's been a lot of trouble. Our Lord said, let not your heart be troubled. Mine has. Mine has been troubled. And this verse is very comforting to me. Let's read it together. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9. What a glorious verse of Holy Scripture. Does that not comfort you? I never get tired of reading that. Never. By God's grace. I think of this verse often when I'm troubled. I especially think of this verse when news comes to me that a dear brother or sister is about to depart this life and forever be with our Lord. I just got news this morning of a dear brother who is with our Lord from another congregation. And I remember this was I believe 10 years ago, you've heard Gabe mention his name, I believe, Brother Bob Ponser. I grew up looking up to him. He was a dear brother in the church in Danville where I was raised. And I remember he was laid up in the hospital, Ephraim McDowell, for those of you that know Danville. And I went over to see him one day. And if this was 10 years ago, I would have been 21. And you wouldn't find a more jolly fellow, even when he was laid up in a pitiful state, just as happy as could be. And I remember, I'd never done this before. I think to this day, it's the only time I've ever done this. I asked if I could read some scripture to him. I read one verse. I just read it. And I'll never forget the smile on his face. And all I could think is, we're about to lose you. I believe, by God's grace, I have the same hope you have. And I hope one day, when the time comes, that I am in the place where he was, preparing to meet my God, preparing to behold my Savior face to face. I hope somebody reads this verse to me. If the Lord puts it on your heart to come see me, read this verse to me. And I pray that God will enable me to rejoice like our brother Bob did. Now, I believe he would confess, and I do too, that our hope is not so much in the great things that our God hath prepared for us as our hope is in our God who hath prepared great things for us. We're not hoping in the things. We're hoping in our God. But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. So here's the first question we need to ask. For whom did God prepare these great things? It's a very important question because I need assurance that he prepared them for me. And I believe you have the same curiosity I do. Well, based on the Word of God, it's not everybody. It's not a blanket invitation, a blanket preparation for those who will have it, for those who will decide to partake of it. No. Psalm 145 verse 20 says, The Lord preserveth all them that love him, but all the wicked will he destroy. Our text said, them that love him. The Lord's gonna preserve all those that love Him. But there's another group of people He called the wicked. Now, we could separate all mankind into two groups. Those that love Him, God, and those who do not love Him. Those who love God are the righteous. There's none righteous, no, not one, not of ourselves. And the wicked, the righteous and the wicked. Those that love God, those who don't love God. Here's the sad reality, okay? That's the way I see this. Now, this is the way God ordained it, but to me and you, it's a sad reality. There are many who claim to love God who do not. I don't say that proudly. I'll quote some scripture here for us, but it's just a fact. If you're a professing Christian, well, you claim to know God, you claim to believe God, you claim to hope in God, you claim to love God. Listen to what our Lord said to some Jews. These were religious leaders, all right? John 5, 42. He said, I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. Can you imagine God looking you in the face and telling you that? And that's exactly what he did to some people who claimed to know God, claimed to love God. They took him to be a blasphemer because he said, I'm one with God. I'm one with the Father. He told them. They claimed to believe Moses' writing. He said, Moses wrote of me. Had you believed him, you'd believe me. All the scriptures declare him. People love the eye. And when I say people, I mean all of us by nature. all of us apart from the grace of God, okay? Naturally, we love the idea of God. We love the idea of a God who is altogether like us. But he's not. God is holy. We are simple. God is higher than us. His ways aren't our ways. His thoughts aren't our thoughts. We think it should be this way. God said it's this way. And His way is the right way. His way is the only way. People don't love a God who's seated on His throne, who has His way, who does what He will, who saves whom He will according to His will. That's who God is. That's what God does. He's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. Turn with me to 1 John chapter 4. We're gonna do a little bit of turning today. 1 John chapter 4. Our Lord prayed in John 17, in His prayer He said, this is life eternal that they might know Thee. The only true God. It's so important that we know the only true God. And we'll know Him if we know the Lord Jesus Christ. The one scent of God. God the Son. Look here, 1 John 4 verse 20. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Many people claim to love God, and yet they hate their brother. From what I know about 1 John, especially chapters 3 and 4, it's all about loving each other. If God has revealed His love to us, one, we're going to love Him, and we're going to strive to love each other, too. We hate our brother, and we say, well, I love God. Well, God says we're lying. I didn't say it. God did. May the Lord help us. Like the children of Israel, the Lord had been so good to them, and yet it said about them that they despised the Lord God which was among them. By nature that is all of us. God, the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Did the sun shine for you yesterday? And yet by nature we all despise the Lord our God. What a sad testimony of man. Who exactly is it that loves God? Look right here in 1 John 4, look up a verse, verse 19. We love Him because He first loved us. It's not that we decided to love God. Well, I decided to give my heart to Jesus and follow Him. I hear that all the time. I'll get online and I'll see that and it breaks my heart every time because I know they do not know God. I pray that is not our confession. I want to read you the words of a song. This song is so good and so true. I pray God will enable us to believe this. It says, "'Tis not that I did choose thee, for, Lord, that could not be this heart would still refuse thee, hadst thou not chosen me. My heart owns none before thee, for thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing, if I have loved thee, thou must have loved me first. Is that your confession? I can't tell you how happy I am to tell you that's my confession. God put his love in me. There was no love in me until he did. Until the Holy Spirit shed abroad the holy love of God in my heart. and cause me to love him. It's not, oh, God is love, now won't you accept his love? If God loves you, you're gonna accept his love. He's not hoping that you'll accept it. He will reveal his love to you and you will fall helplessly in love with him. Absolutely, absolutely. Look up a few verses, 1 John 4, verse 10. Hearing his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. It's not about our love for God. It's not, oh, well, I love God. That God would love a soul like me. Can you, have you gotten to the point where you can understand how God should love a soul like you? I've not gotten there. By God's grace, I'm never going to get there. I know it's only in Christ. He could only love me in Christ. For Christ's sake. Turn back to page 1 John chapter 3. Look at the first verse. 1 John 3 verse 1. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. God set his love on a people that he chose in his Son, according as he hath chosen us in him. before the foundation of the world. Chosen unto what? That verse just told us, chosen to be His sons. God chose to have sons of God in the Son of God. He brought many sons unto glory. He was made like unto His brethren. He's the firstborn among many brethren. Who is it? Who does God love? We know. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. God chose sinners. Christ came to save sinners. Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Is there a sinner in the house? Is there a needy sinner here today? I love this verse. The Lord hath chosen, he hath chosen Jacob unto himself. Isn't that amazing? And Israel, that's Jacob, he's given a new name. for his peculiar treasure. He said that we're in Jacob, if we can identify with Jacob, conniving trickster, sinful brother, thief, if we can identify with him, that's God's peculiar treasure. That Israel, that's God's holy nation, peculiar people that he was pleased to choose unto himself for his glory. My soul, And that is who loves God. That's who loves Him. Remember, the great things God hath prepared are for those that love Him. That's who loves Him. I'll show you one more. Turn to Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 28. Again, a very comforting, a very well-known verse, but I don't want us to just, I don't want to just look at these verses as verses of comfort. I'm telling you, here's my comfort in these verses, how they gloriously and plainly declare the gospel. These are verses of comfort, but they are verses of declaration, they're declarative. Look here, Romans 8, 28, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. to them who are the called according to His purpose." Now, again, who is it that loves God? Who are these that love Him? At the end of the verse, the called according to His purpose. That is a particular people, the called. And God has called us, if Christ has been revealed to us, if we were chosen in Christ, God has called us to love Him. That's what we've been called to do. Isn't that amazing? Called to love God. Called to love the Lord, our maker. And I love this too. Who loves God? 2 Timothy 1.9 tells us, Those whom God hath saved, he hath saved us, and he hath called us with a holy calling, not according to our words, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in the Lord Jesus Christ before this world ever began. Who loves him? Those whom he set his love upon from the foundation of the world. You remember what the Lord told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31 verse 3? The Lord hath the period of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, because I loved you with loving kindness, I have drawn thee to myself. Listen, if God loves us, brethren, we are going to love Him. We're going to. That's who loves Him. Those whom God first loved. Those whom God chose in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who this is for. You can turn back to our text. Now let's pray for God to enable us to enter into this. 1 Corinthians 2, 9, but as it is written, I hath not seen. Now here's something we must acknowledge. Unless God is pleased to give us eyes of faith, we cannot know Him, we cannot see Him, we can't enter into the things concerning God. who is altogether not like us. Our brother just read to us, without faith, it's impossible to please him. We're not gonna please him. We're not gonna stand before him. Accepted. And here's why, we're all born spiritually blind and spiritually dead. We can't see, we can't know, we can't understand, we can't perceive the things of God. Look right here in our text, look at verse 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. And we're not, we're not. But look right here at verse 10. But God hath revealed them unto us, by His Spirit. Spiritual things, these great things that the Lord hath done for us, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. I don't know if there's a song we sing that I enjoy more every time we sing it than Open My Eyes That I May See. That's my prayer for myself every time I find myself here. Open my eyes, Lord, that I may see. Whatever glimpses of truth thou hast for me, reveal yourself to me. Well, I thought he already has. Reveal yourself again, Lord. Reveal yourself again and again and again. When we start to think we really know something, may we remember we know nothing as we ought to know. We've seen so little. We've just... Honestly, glimpse, that's a great word for it. That's all we've caught. You who've heard the gospel and believed it for decades and decades, 50 years maybe, some of you. It's just a glimpse compared to what will be revealed to us in that day. Now, if God has given us faith, if God has opened our blind eyes to see, here's what we see. We see the Lord Jesus only. We see Him exalted and lifted up. We see that all the scriptures declare Jesus Christ and Him crucified. What do I need to do? Oh, just behold the Lamb of God which took your sin away. Look and live. Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. There's no other God but Him. None other but Him. Have you seen that all glory belongs to Him? Again, I need to be reminded of that every time I come here, because like you, I believe, I'm prone to start to glory in myself, and I need to be reminded all glory belongs to Him. All glory goes to the Son. It all goes to Him, all of it. I love this, Hebrews 2.9. It says, we see Jesus. His name as God in human flesh, Jesus. Oh, how sweet the name. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear. We see Jesus made a little lower than the angels. He made the angels. He made himself to be lower than the angels. For the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. Do you see Him? Oh, may God give us faith to see Him, to truly see Him, to truly believe on Him. Turn with me to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you. Now again, in verse two, he tells us, he's writing to the elect, okay? This is who this is for. Reserved in heaven for you, verse five, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season. If need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth. though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, verse eight, whom having not seen, ye love. In whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. You know, that's amazing. That goes against human logic. To love someone we have not seen. You know, at least the way it works for me all my life, when I saw a beautiful girl, that was enough for me to be convinced I loved her. Our love's not like his love. We haven't seen him with our eyes. But we love him. If God has revealed himself to us, we see him by faith. And that's enough for us to be absolutely head over heels. We love him because he first loved us. Now, though we have not seen him with our eyes yet, God tells us we shall. I love what Job said. He said, though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. What a great thing to look forward to. And he, you know, you say, well, my flesh is gonna rot in the cake. I know, Job told us that. He said these skin worms are gonna destroy my body, yet in my flesh I'm gonna see him. Isn't that amazing? That's what God told us. Inspired Job to say that. It's true. We can believe that. We can look forward to it. I pray we are. Now, let me acknowledge this concerning the sight we have, the sight by faith, okay? We see through a glass darkly. Sin is mixed in everything we do, everything we think. We start to think about the glorious things that He's prepared for us, and then we start having doubts and fears and, well, will there be this? Or, well, what about this? Do you not? I do all the time. We see through glass darkly right now, but then we shall see face to face. Time's coming for God's people, for those that love him, for those whom he loves. It's coming. I hath not seen nor ear heard. It's crucial that we hear. It's absolutely crucial that we hear. Hear and your soul shall live. That's what God said. Now, apart from God giving ears to hear, we will never have faith that looks to Christ and looks to Christ alone. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. We need faith. We need God to enable us to hear, not merely with the ear, but with the heart. If we hope to see him one day. If we hope to see him by faith now, Lord, open my ears that I may hear. That's what our song goes on to say that. And open my heart. Have you heard him? Have we heard his voice? I know you're hearing me right now. I'm so sorry. That must be hard. But I pray that we hear him. Pray that we hear him, hear his voice. Do we love him? Has he revealed his love to us, in us? Are we following him? I love so much when our Lord would heal somebody and they just could not help but follow him wherever he went. I love that. If we're his sheep, if we are those for whom he died, if we are those whom he loved and came to save, we hear his voice. We love him, we follow him. We're so privileged week after week to get to come hear God speak through his word, through his messenger, his servant that he's given us. We're so fortunate to have that. God speaks through his word, through his preacher. But can you imagine sitting at, I mean literally, sitting at our Lord's feet, at His throne in glory, hearing His voice directly from His mouth for all eternity? Ear hath not heard. I cannot help but think of the Queen of Sheba. I love it so much. That is such a precious story. She heard all these wonderful things about Solomon, King Solomon, and she went to see him, and she just couldn't believe it. She was awe-stricken. She said, the half was not told me. She was told a lot. By the time our Lord calls us home, we will have heard so much about Him, and yet I know it's gonna be the same way for us who stand before Him and who sit at His feet forever. That'll be our confession, won't it? Oh, the half wasn't even told me. Everything about you far exceeds all I ever heard about you. You're so glorious, so wonderful, so perfect. So what's it gonna be for us, brethren? I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man. Our heart, I pray God's revealed this to us, the condition of our natural heart, evil continually, desperately wicked, deceitful above all things. You know, our heart is so deceitful, it convinces us that God sees something good in us. It convinces us that God is like us. It convinces us that we can earn, we can merit, We can deserve God's goodness and God's love in His favor. That's what a deceitful heart will convince a person of. But God said concerning His people, God said concerning those whom He loves, He said, I'm going to give you a new heart, a new heart, a new spirit, a new heart that knows Him, believes on Him, believes the truth concerning God, concerning self, concerning our wicked heart. My confession is that of the psalmist. My flesh and my heart faileth. It does. But God and God alone is the strength of my heart, and He alone is my portion forever. I'm not trusting in my heart. I'm not trusting in my faith. I'm not trusting in anything about me. Trusting in Him alone. Again, not in the heart, but in God who gave it. It's trusting God who has given these great things, prepared them for His people. Now, let me mention this. Again, like some of you, or perhaps all of you, I'm often troubled, I often doubt, I often fear. You know, do you ever have that thought, well, how can I know, how can I really know that I'm one of His? Look to Him. Oh, may God help us to look to Him alone. I love this verse. 1 John 3.20 says, If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart. He knoweth all things. You remember when Peter, when the Lord, you remember what all happened, right? And Peter's out here, gone fishing, and then the Lord comes. He asked Peter three times, do you love me? Simon, lovest thou me? More than these, Peter, do you love me? Oh, it grieved Peter. And then Peter said, when the Lord asked him that the third time, Lord, thou knowest all things. I'm telling you, that's where my hope lies, in him who knows all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Did the Lord respond and say, why did you forsake me? No. He knows all things. Why are you going back fishing? No. But he did tell him, feed my sheep. Is that not our desire? Feed the sheep. Say, well, I'm not a pastor. Are we not all, we're in this ministry together, brothers and sisters. Gabe Stoniker is not the one who feeds us. The Lord our shepherd is the one who feeds us and he does it through our pastor, Gabe Stoniker. Through his word. That's what our pastor preaches to us, it's God's word. Oh may God use us to feed one another. Christ, feed on him, feed on him. The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, he knows, brethren. We doubt, like John, we may find ourselves just doubting like we never imagined, but the Lord knows, and we can rest in that, we can rest in him. All right, back in our text again, one more time. First Corinthians 2.9. But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. I wanna mention some things briefly that God hath prepared for us, okay? Turn to Zephaniah chapter one. Your Bible's like mine, page 1164, 1164. Zephaniah 1 verse 7. If you're not there, just listen. It says, The Lord hath prepared a sacrifice. We need a sacrifice. Because we have sinned against our God. Our sin has separated us from God. We need a sacrifice. Priests stand daily offering sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice that can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, He sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool for by one offering. It's not that many sacrifices need to be made, just one. Now, what's our sacrifice? Here's a better question. Who is our sacrifice? God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. He's the sacrifice, okay? By one offering, by one sacrifice, the sacrifice of himself, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, those who were chosen, set apart, made holy in Him. He hath sanctified. He hath perfected forever. He hath prepared the sacrifice. He is the sacrifice. Turn to Hebrews 11, where a brother just read to us. Again, if you're not there, just listen. For time's sake, I need to go ahead and read it. Talking about our brethren who have gone before us, these who all died in faith. Verse 16, but now they desire a better, a better city or a better country. That is in heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. You know, I used to put a lot of stock in where I lived. I thought I'd never leave little old Danville, Kentucky. I love Danville. But I love Danville. I love Danville for two reasons. Because the gospel's there and my family's there. Other than that, I couldn't care less about it. That's exactly how I feel about Kingsport, Tennessee. The gospel's here. If that wasn't here, I'm hightailing it somewhere where it is. And we all should. The gospel's here and my family's here. But this world is not our home. Strangers and pilgrims. That was what our brethren before confessed, that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. And that's my confession too. Had they desired to stay here, maybe they'd have had opportunity to return, come back. No, we're marching to Zion. We're pressing toward the mark. We're marching towards Zion, the beautiful city of God, the home eternal in the heavens, not made with hands. New Jerusalem. Wherein dwelleth righteousness, no sin. There's no sun there because the lamb is the light thereof. No sadness, no sorrow. That's the city God hath prepared for us. Christ said, I go to prepare a place for you. Praise God, he did. Praise God, he did. You know, men have built cities. Or they may be proud of their country that they're, you know, ruling and rant. There's one city that matters. That's the city God prepared for his people. That's the city I want to dwell in because that's where Christ is. I want to be with him. How did he go and prepare for us a city? He came here. He came here to this sinful world and traded places with his people. He joined himself unto us. He became us. He died as us, and we live in Him. He made us to be one with Him. Christ is our life. In Him, we live, move, and have our being. And I love this too, in John 14, he said, If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also with him. Oh, and I want to point this out. In verse 16, it said they desire a better, a better country, a better city. I love that word better. Brother Don would often tell a story about This family, this mother would cook for her children. She would tell them sometimes, keep your fork. They knew something better's coming. Pastor Don Fortner, my pastor all my life till I moved here, passed away just over four years ago. The Lord called him home. He was buried with a fork in his hand. He loved that story so much. I love that story so much. I love to know he was buried with a fork in his hand. I know it sounds kind of silly, don't it? I don't think it's silly at all because he knew by God's grace something better is coming. Do you know? Are you hoping in God who hath prepared something better for you? That's a glorious verse too. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. I wanna close, close with this. Back in our text, I want you to notice three words, okay? The end of the verse, it tells us, God hath prepared. Who hath prepared great things for them that love God? God. We're not hoping in the works of our hands. We're not hoping in something that we have done or could ever do. We're simply hoping in what our God has done for us. Another glorious verse says, come and hear all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my soul. That's what I am honored to stand and tell you right now. What he hath done for my soul. Great things he hath done. To him be the glory. All we've done is sin against our God. That's all we've done. Christ came into the world and we received him not, we knew him not, hung him on a cross. Crucify the Lord of glory. That's me. But God, now there's my hope. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, he quickened us together with Christ, by grace we're saved. You who were dead in sins, have he quickened you? Christ came and died as our substitute to give us life. Is that our hope? as our hope in him who loved us and gave himself for us. He hath dealt bountifully with me. He hath not dealt with us after our sins. No, he hath dealt bountifully. He hath put a new song in my mouth, a song that sings his praise, shouts his glory. He hath done excellent things, and that my soul knoweth right well. He hath delivered my soul in peace. I could never do any of these things, but he hath done all this for me. And if all your hope's in Him, He's done it for you, too. I'll leave you with this verse. Turn to Isaiah 64. This is the verse that our text is quoting, referencing. Isaiah 64, verse 4. Isaiah 64, 4. For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Have we seen God, who hath prepared these great, glorious things, who hath prepared so great salvation for sinners? If we have, brethren, let's wait for him. Keep living the life we're living, seeking Him, calling upon Him, praying for Him to enable us to worship Him and look to Him and trust in Him alone. And let's wait on Him until He come and call us home. Amen. May the Lord bless His word.