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The scripture reading this morning
is John chapter 10, the Good Shepherd chapter verses 1 through
21. John chapter 10. Truly, truly, I say to you, he
who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by
another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters
by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper
opens. The sheep hear his voice, and
he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he's
brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow
him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow. but they will flee from him,
for they do not know the voice of strangers. This figure of
speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what
he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them,
truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who
came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not
listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters
by me, He will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came
that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his
life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not
a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming
and leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf snatches them and
scatters them. He flees because he's a hired
hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know
me. Just as the father knows me and
I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I
have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them
also. They will listen to my voice.
So there will be one flock. one shepherd. For this reason,
the father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may
take it up again. No one takes it from me, but
I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down,
and I have authority to take it up again, this charge I have
received from my father." There was, again, a division among
the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, he has a demon
and is insane. Why listen to him? Others said,
these are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon.
Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? Which, of course,
he had just done. And that is the word of God,
and we are to receive it then as such. Let's ask the Lord's
blessing on the ministry of his word then. Father, thank you
for your Word. Thank you that this book we hold
in our hands is given to us by you, by revelation, that it is
the inspired and inerrant Word of God. And we pray now, Father,
as we come to it, that you would teach us that you would grant
us greater and greater faith in your word, that we would not
doubt you, and that you would enable us to examine ourselves,
to see where we stand before you, that we would be able to
take, by your spirit, through your word, an honest evaluation
of ourselves. that not one of us here today
or listening would ever be lost. And we pray this all in Christ's
name. Amen. Well, we've been in with
a few intermissions here, a study of 1 Corinthians. And I wanted
us to consider a particular verse that we read once already this
morning. It's verse 18, 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, verse 18. It's a remarkable statement. For the word of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are
being saved, it is the power of God. Now, here is an example
of when we read and study our Bibles of how we need to slow
down, and observe, and ask some questions, and make application,
and so forth. That's why I appreciate Martin
Lloyd-Jones so much, because if you listen to his sermons
very long, you're learning those principles of Bible study at
the same time. But one obvious thing here is
that in this verse, the Apostle Paul is making a great distinction
He is taking note of what we might call the great divide.
He says that there are two kinds of people, those who are perishing
and those who are being saved. There's only two. In fact, right
now throughout the world, and it's been this way ever since
the Garden of Eden, starting with Cain and Abel, There are
only two kinds of people. Now, you might think that that
is kind of a broad generalization, but it's true. It's absolutely
true. We see all kinds of different
people as far as their nationality, their skin color, the, you know,
some are European, some are Asian, some are North American, some
are South American. And there's all kinds of religions
in the world. There's people who claim to have
no religion. So if you look at it and you
think, well, wait a minute, there's lots and lots of different kinds
and categories of people. But fundamentally, what we see
in the Bible from God's evaluation of things, from Genesis to Revelation,
we are hit over and over again with this truth that is so almost
so self-evident and so often stated in the Bible that we miss
it. And it's easy that it's easy to miss. And it's simply this.
There are only two kinds of people in the world, two categories. And at this very moment, in this
room and throughout the world, There's two categories of people.
I would hope that there's only one category here, but we never
want to make that assumption, that there are two categories
of human being. Either you are perishing. Apply
it to yourself, I could say. Look, either I am perishing and
headed for hell, or I am being saved by the power of God, and
I'm on that narrow way, to heaven that leads to light. Only two,
two ways. And you'll see this dichotomy
over and over and over again in scripture. There's a broad
way and there's a narrow way. Two ways. There's only two roads.
That's all really in this world. There's only two roads. Broadway,
that's where most people are traveling on. It's easy, it's
popular, ends in hell, but that's where most of the people are.
And then there's the narrow way. That's God's road map, you might
say, spiritual road map. Only two different ways. In the
beginning, there was Cain and there was Abel. Two kinds of
people, one who was unrighteous and hated righteousness, and
the other one that was of faith and was righteous. These two
classes of people, these two categories of people are divided,
and we might say hopelessly divided. They are irreconcilable. By the
mercy of God, the one by faith in Christ can be transferred. from the kingdom of darkness
to the kingdom of Christ. But as long as they remain in
the kingdom of darkness, the great gulf is fixed between the
two camps. And so we ask, then, what is
the cause of this division? These are basic, but they're
vital and important questions. Maybe they're basic to you, perhaps,
because you're familiar with the Bible, and so on. But if
you were to ask that question of most people in the world and
say, you know, what's the cause of division in this world? Why can't people just get along?
Well, they would give you all different kinds of answers. But
there's really only one answer, why these two categories of people
And Paul tells us in this verse very plainly. The reason is the
word of the cross. The word of the cross. To the
one, it's foolishness, stupidity, ridiculous. To the other, it's
the wisdom and power of God to salvation. In other words, Christ
is the root cause of this great separation. Two classes of humanity. And they exist because of Christ. If it weren't for Christ, there'd
only be one category of people. The kingdom of darkness and everyone
would end in hell. But because of Christ, there
is this great separation. And if you're a Christian, you
should be very, very glad that that separation has occurred. Christ said it himself, Matthew
chapter 10, do not think. that I came to bring peace on
the earth." Now, you know, we can even stop right there. There's
like a sub-sermon in a sermon, right? Just what do people think
of Jesus? They don't outright hate him,
although fundamentally the unbeliever would. But what kind of a Jesus
do they want? Well, now wait a minute. I'm
not sure about this Jesus. He says he didn't come to bring
peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace,
but a sword. I came to set a man against his
father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be members
of his household. Why? Because of Christ. because of the word of the cross.
He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of
me. And he who loves son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take
his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has
found his life in this world, he means, will lose it in the
next. And he who has lost his life
for my sake will find it. So think this through now. What
do you think of that? What do you think of that Jesus? This is the Son of God. This
is the one in whom we must believe in order to be saved. He's the
one that went to the cross. But what do you think of him?
In other words, what do you think of a Jesus who came with a sword
to divide, set people against? He didn't come to effect peace. Listen now, Christ came to break
up our families. That's what he's saying here.
He's saying that the typical scenario is going to be, unless
you're so privileged as to come from a family of origin where
everybody knows Christ and everyone is a Christian, but the norm
is going to be that as the word of the cross comes, and somebody
in that family hears it, or let's say everybody in the family hears
it, some of them are going to hate the word of the cross. It's
foolishness to them. And others, maybe one, is going
to hear it and believe it and sees it as the wisdom and the
power of God and is saved. And the moment that that transformation
happens, you have this. The two are set. The two categories
of people, then, in that family, and they will be set against
one another. I will set a man against his
father, and a daughter against her mother, and so on. He doesn't want us to miss this.
He says, a man's enemies will be members of his own household,
of his own family. If you know Christ, if you are
genuinely born again, and you've grown up in a family that is
not born again, increasingly this is what you're going to
experience. There's going to be this distancing. And in fact,
even though maybe the unsaved portion of the family is going
to try to kind of cover it up and so forth, The bottom line
is, if you're born again, if you know Christ, as you're growing
in Christ, increasingly, that other portion of your family
is going to regard you with, and this is a strong word, they're
going to regard you with contempt. Contempt. Because they're going
to regard you as a fool, you see. The thing is inevitable. This is what Christ, This is
what Christ came to do because this is what's necessary if we're
going to be saved out of this evil world. We've got to be separated
from it. We've got to be rescued then
from it. But most people in the world
don't want that kind of Jesus. They want the one who brings
peace. They don't want the one that causes trouble and then
divides. What's one of the most common
idols in this world? Family, right? I mean, you hear
it, you see it in movies, or you read it in literature, and
so forth. Family. That was the message that was
pounded home to Scarlett O'Hara, anyway, in Gone with the Wind.
And her father is telling her, this is what it's all about.
The dirt, the land, that's what it's all about. You've got to
have the land. And wrapped up in that is family, her family. That's what it's all about. And
Jesus came to deliver us from that and to divide us from that,
because that's a false god. The most important thing in this
world is not family. And people will be upset if you
make that kind of a statement. I can tell you that in being
a pastor for 40 years, one of the biggest, if not in
some ways the biggest, stumbling block to people following Christ,
being saved, is family. It is family. They will not separate
from ungodly family when Christ is calling them, come and follow
me. They won't do it. They want to
have one foot in and one foot out and so forth. And then Jesus
said, I won't have you. You can't be my disciple if you
don't take up your cross and deny yourself then and come and
follow me. But there's only just two categories
there when Christ divides, you see. Those who will not take
up their cross and follow Christ, and those who lose their life
for Christ's sake. Two. And the question is, to
just be hammered home to ourselves here, which class am I in? Which category am I in? over the, you know, we've been
together for a lot of years in this church, and as the years
go by, well, duh, we grow older, right? And our earthly lives
are not gonna last forever. And I think it's, there's an
urgency for us to examine ourselves. The Christian church can be a
very dangerous place, because it's easy for us to assume that
we've been born again and that we know Christ. Here's one way
to help examine yourself. Are you in the same relationship
with unsaved people, be it family members, relatives, and so forth,
or whoever it be, the world? Are you in the same relationship
and on the same friendly level status with them as you always
were, and there's never been a change, then be careful. Be careful, because when we follow
Christ, those relationships change. It is Christ who divides. It's
the word of the cross. That great divide happened long
before Christ came into this world, but even then, It was
Christ that was the cause of it. Listen to Genesis 6. The Lord saw that the wickedness
of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was
sorry that he'd made man on the earth, and he was grieved in
his heart. The Lord said, I will blot out man whom I've created
from the face of the land. From man to animals to creeping
things, and to birds of the sky, for I'm sorry that I have made
them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Even then,
there were two classes of humanity. One class was very, very large.
In fact, it consists of everybody except eight people. The other
class was very, very small. and was righteous in God's sight.
And you might identify the two different camps of people this
way, those who got in the ark and those who refused. There
it is, two classes. In Noah's day, there was only
two classes of people, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, All
of these areas of study and man's wisdom and so forth would say,
oh, no, no, no, no. There's many different kinds
of people in the world. But God says, there's only two. The Bible is simple. It's man
that complicates things. The Bible is profound. God is
in many ways incomprehensible, but he sets forth things before
us, his doctrines and so forth, in rather plain and simple terms
that we can understand. You want to beware of a person,
some preacher or somebody, or author who's writing in your
life. You don't want to do this. You
don't want to go, man, I don't really understand what he's saying,
but he must be so far above me. I don't think so. Jesus himself
spoke very plainly, and he's quite high, then, above us. John the Baptist spoke of this
great divide when he was talking about that great harvest day,
which is to come when Christ comes again. His winnowing fork
is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clear his threshing floor. And
he will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up
the chaff with unquenchable fire." Two categories, only two. When Christ comes again, out
of all humanity, there's two groups, wheat and chaff. The chaff is burned, it's cast
into hell, and Christ's remnant is the wheat gathered then into
his presence, over and over again, two categories. The very first
psalm, Psalm 1, speaks of these two categories, right? Here's
the blessed man. He doesn't hang around with who?
The other, the wicked. He doesn't sit, stand, sit, or
whatever. There's three categories there.
They walk, travel with the wicked. He won't have it. His delight
is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates
day and night. The wicked are not so. So you
have the godly man, the wicked man, two categories. And you
and I and every human being in the world is in one category
or the other. And there's nothing more important
right now at this moment in this world for you than to know with
certainty which category you are in. Matthew 22, again, Jesus spoke
to them in parables saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared
to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He sent his
servants to call on those who were invited to the wedding feast,
but they wouldn't come. Again, he sent other servants
saying, tell those who are invited, see, I have prepared my dinner,
my oxen, and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything
is ready. Come to the wedding feast." But
they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another
to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated
them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry. And he sent
his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
And then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready. But
those who invited were not worthy. Go, therefore, to the main roads
and invite to the wedding feast as many as you can find. And
those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom
they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled
with guests. But when the king came in to
look at the guests, he saw there was a man who had no wedding
garment. He said to him, friend, how'd
you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Then the king said to his attendants, bind him hand and foot and cast
him into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few
are chosen. So here you have it again, two
categories of people, the wicked most of whom wouldn't even accept
the invitation. They had no time for the Lord.
They were off busy with the world and so forth. But you had another
kind, I won't say category, in the same category, ungodly person. But this is the counterfeit who
creeps in among the godly. But he can't get away with it.
It's like in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, remember? And I can't
remember, maybe the guy's name was Hippocrates. I can't remember
the name of the Hippocrate. But I remember the guy who almost
got there. But right at the last entranceway
or what to the celestial city, there was the entrance to a cave
over here, a tunnel. And the king said it. He's not,
how'd he get here? He's not one of ours. Throw him
in there. And that tunnel led directly to hell, right? So here you have this guy, and
he's one of the wicked, but he's going to play a game. And he
creeps into the wedding feast, but he's not dressed in what?
The righteousness of Christ. That's what the wedding garment
is. He's not dressed in the righteousness of Christ. So here again, two
categories. Either we're clothed in the righteousness
of Christ by which we will stand before him, or we're still clothed
in unrighteousness in our sin and we will perish. Two kinds
of people and only two. Luke 12, and he told them a parable
saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he
thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store
my crops. And he said, I'll do this. I'll
tear down my barns and build bigger, larger ones, and there
I will store all my grain and my goods. I can think of an idea
of what he could do. He could give some of that to
the poor, right? No, that's not how these guys
operate. And I will say to my soul, soul, You have ample goods
laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, fool, this
night your soul is required of you, and the things you've prepared,
whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure
for himself and is not rich toward God. What are the two kinds of
people? The fool, in this case the rich
fool, whose only treasure is temporal and here on earth, but
he has no treasure in heaven at all, because he doesn't have
the righteousness of Christ. And then you would have a poor
person who lays up treasure in heaven through Christ and is
rich toward God, then, you see. Which class are we? Luke 17. Likewise, just as it was in the
days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and selling,
planting and building. But on the day when Lot went
out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed
them all. So it will be on the day when
the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who's
on the housetop with his goods in the house not come down to
take them away. And likewise, let the one who's
in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.
I tell you, in that night, there will be two in one bed. One will
be taken, the other left. There will be two women grinding
together. One will be taken. and the other left. See, it's
always two, it's always in pairs. Two sleeping, two grinding at
the gristmill. Lot's wife and Lot, two kinds
of people. The one perishes, the other then
is saved. And again, which class do I belong
in? The Lord Jesus warned us soberly
Remember Lot's wife. Why did Jesus give us instruction
even? When I come, don't be like Lot's
wife. Don't, oh, quick, Jesus is coming
and run into the house to try to grab stuff. Because if you
do that, it just demonstrates you're not looking at him. Your
treasure is not in Christ, but it's in this world. Luke 18,
he also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves,
that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the
other a tax collector. So you have the dichotomy right
here, two men, one's tax collector, one's a Pharisee. The Pharisee,
standing by himself, prayed thus, God, I thank you that I'm not
like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like
this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes
of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing
far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat
his breath saying, God, Be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you,
this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself
will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
Two men went into the temple, both belonging at that point
to the same category, the unrighteous But that's where that union ended,
because you have the one trusting in himself that he's righteous,
the Pharisee, and then you have the tax collector not trusting
in himself at all, recognizing he has no righteousness, and
his only hope is to call upon, then, the mercy of God. The point of the parable is what?
I'm either the Pharisee trusting in my own righteousness. That's
what most people in the world are doing. Oh, it'll be fine
when I see God. He's love and he's merciful. Everything will be. And besides,
I've been pretty good. I can say to him, well, Lord,
look what I did. Look what I did. Look what I did. Depart from
me. I never knew you. That's what most people in the
world Are you see? So I am either that humbled tax
collector, not trusting in myself, but calling on the mercy of God
in Christ, or I am the Pharisee. It's then one of the two. Did
you know that you can be the Pharisee, trusting in your own
righteousness, and not even know it? Not even know it. I kind of remember, must have
been when I was a kid, you know, grade school years and so forth,
probably even later years than that, I had to have been trusting
in my own righteousness. Even though I went to church,
I would believe that the Bible's true, but didn't really have
a lot of clues as to what it really meant. But it's natural
for the sinner to trust in their own righteousness. Don't make
that mistake. And there's great encouragement
here for us. This tax collector's prayer was
very simple, is very simple. Look, here's God's promise. This
is his absolute promise. It's made to you, made to everybody. Whoever will call upon the name
of the Lord will be saved. If anybody. ends in hell, it
will be their own fault. All we have to do, believe in
Christ. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's all the guy prayed. And
we're told when he left the temple, he was justified before God.
He was righteous then before him. Don't ever fall into the
trap of thinking Christ couldn't save me. God
doesn't want to have anything to do with me. The only kind
of a person that God doesn't want to have anything to do with
is the religious hypocrite that has, that's unrepentant and has,
you know, he only trusts in his own righteousness completely
and he has no use then for Christ. But this is God's certain promise
and he can't break his promise. Whoever will call on the name
of the Lord will be saved. John 3, clear cut, dichotomy
here. God so loved the world that he
gave his only son that, category number one, whoever believes
in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did
not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in
order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes
in him is not condemned. Category number two, Whoever
does not believe is condemned already, because he's not believed
in the name of the only Son of God. This is the judgment. This is what the mass of humanity
does with Christ, okay? This is the judgment. The light
has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather
than the light. Why? Because their works, their
deeds are evil. For everyone who does wicked
things hates the light. and does not come to the light,
lest his work should be exposed. That's one fundamental reason
if you grow up in a non-Christian family, or most of your associates
are unsaved, and you're not saved, and then you come to Christ,
and you're born again, you become the light. And those walking
in darkness hate it because you expose them. But whoever does
what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen
that his works have been carried out in God. Two categories, those
who believe in Christ, those who refuse to humble themselves
and believe then in him. Christ is the great divider. And it's the word of the cross
that's foolishness to the one and the power of God to salvation
to the other. You know that if you, that you
can have reasonable friendship with people,
maybe an unsaved neighbor and so on, things will go along tolerably
and so forth, until you inject the word of the cross into the
relationship. And then the walls start to go
up and the divisions then Most people who profess religion,
even people who profess to be Christians, they believe that
fundamentally division is evil. That's why you've got this crazy
ungodly ecumenical movement among professing Christians. God's
whole goal for us is to be united. The doctrine and truth like doctrines
and things don't be injecting that, it just divides. So our goal is unity, the great
brotherhood of man, and we as Christians must really push this. Well, that's strange because
Jesus said he didn't come to unite, but he came then to divide. 2 Corinthians 2, but thanks be
to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession,
and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ
to God among those who are being saved, now get this, and among
those who are perishing, to one, a fragrance from death to death,
entirely of death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not like so many,
peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned
by God in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. The word of
the cross makes you, if you're a Christian, you are a fragrance
to those who are in Christ. But you are the stench of death
to the unbeliever, right? You are the stench of death. You smell, oh, that's repulsive. I don't want to have anything
to do with you. And you cannot stop this. If you're a Christian, you smell. You either smell as a fragrant
aroma Or you smell like the stench of rotten flesh, death. It is
one or the other, you see. That's how it is, because the
word of the cross then divides. Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians
1, but we preach Christ crucified. And what happens then when the
Gospels preach Christ crucified? What is that? What is that message?
Well, it's a stumbling block to Jews, and it's a folly. It's foolishness to the Gentiles. But to those who are called,
whether they be Jew or Greek, both Jews and Greek, Christ,
the power of God and wisdom of God. And there it is again. It's always Christ. You know, you can be very Christian,
religious, going to church and doing As long as you steer away
from the word of the cross, Christ crucified, then things will go
along pleasantly and so forth with everybody then around you. Well, that's nice that you have
this religion and so forth. It's not a bother to me. But if you inject Christ into
the equation, there's such a thing as Christless Christianity. liberalism is. It's Christless
Christianity. It is a Christ who was only a
human baby born in Bethlehem. It is a Christ who set fine moral
examples for people. It is a Christ whose death on
the cross was somewhat of a noble tragedy. And it is a Christ who
is still dead in the grave. That's the Christ of liberalism. And as long as you stick with
that, well, you won't smell so bad to the unbeliever. But there's only two categories.
Let's see. A stench or a fragrance to life. Matthew 7, everyone then who
hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise
man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and
the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house,
but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.
And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do
them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, beat
against that house, and it fell. And great was the fall of it."
Two builders. One builds on the rock, which
is Christ. One builds on the faulty foundation, then, of of
sand. You can look around here in this
area and find places that they foolishly built on the sand.
There was that big development over at Oceanside, I think it
was, some years ago, and the condos went sliding out. But
two categories. Your life is either built on
Christ, the rock, or it's built on sand. The storm's coming. Christ's judgment, when he comes
again, One house is going to fall, and the other one will
stand. Matthew 25, when the Son of Man
comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will
sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all
the nations, and he will separate. Now, see this? He will separate
people from one another. Now, they're really already separate,
but he sorts them. They're all mixed together, but
they're really separate in nature. as that shepherd separates the
sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his
right, but the goats on the left. And these, that is the goats,
will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal
life. See, here's what God says about humanity. There are sheep,
and there's goats. Sheep, and a lot more goats,
by far, than there are sheep. We're either on his right hand,
or we're on his left hand. We're either going to enter into
eternal punishment or into eternal life. And you'd better know right now
where you stand. Even if you are a goat, you better
know now that you're a goat so that you can call on the name
of the Lord then and be saved, you see. Any one of us can pass
out of this, let me put it this way. What are the absolute guarantees
and assurances that you will wake up in the morning? Zero. We have no assurance. The Lord
numbers our days. That means that five seconds
from now, you could be in hell or with the Lord. One of the
two. It's going down that way. This
shows how foolish it is, absolutely foolish, for people to play around
day after day after day with eternity. Matthew 25, the kingdom
of heaven will be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went
to meet the bridegroom. And immediately, Jesus splits
them into two groups. Five of them were foolish, and
five were wise. For when the foolish took their
lamps, they took no oil with them. But the wise took flasks
of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed,
they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight, there was a
cry. Here's the bridegroom. Come out to meet him. Then all
those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish
said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are
going out. But the wise answered, saying, since there will not
be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and
buy for yourselves. And while they were going to
buy, the bridegroom came. Those who were ready went in
with him to the marriage feast. And the door was shut. Boom. And it's not going to open again.
Afterward, the other virgins came also and said, oh, Lord,
Lord, open to us. But he answered, truly I say
to you, I do not know you. Watch, therefore, for you know
neither the day nor the hour. Two kinds, foolish and wise. Divide humanity into that. What
makes a wise person wise in God's sight? They're prepared. They believe in Christ. They
are ready to meet him. And what makes a person foolish?
Well, they have no need of Christ. I don't need to be ready. I'll
just party on, and I don't want to think about those kinds of
things, you see. What is this word of the cross
that separates? 1 Corinthians 1, again, for Christ
did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with
words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied
of its power. For the word of the cross is
folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved,
it's the power of God. For it's written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning
I will thwart. Where's the one who is wise?
Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since
in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom,
it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those
who believe. For Jews demand signs, and Greeks
seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified,
a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles. but
to those who are called both jews and greeks christ the power
of god and the wisdom of god that's it what is the word of
the cross it's the announcement it's the good news that we have
a savior that christ the son of god is that savior and that
he went to the cross my sins were put upon him where he paid
the penalty of death received his father's curse, which was
due us upon himself, and then his righteousness, by his perfect
obedience to the law of God, is imputed back to us. Our sin,
our curse to him, his righteousness then back to us. This is the
divider of men. Have you ever heard, maybe you've
thought of this too, and there's some truth in it. Have anybody
ever told you, sometimes they'll respond to you this way if you
want to talk to them about Christ and so on, and they'll say things
like, well, you know, religion has caused all kinds of wars
in this world. Yep, it has. Christ divides,
you see. Why is it that Christianity is
the one religion that you're not supposed to have, that is
hated, that is despised, that is persecuted. You see, that's
the one. You can come into this country,
happens all the time, and be a Muslim, for example, or a Buddhist,
whatever it might be, and begin to throw up some kind of a mosque
or a temple or something there and you're going to start this
and people, I don't really have a problem with that at all. But
down through the history of the world, it has been Cain persecuting
Abel and even murdering Abel. Why? Because Cain's deeds were
unrighteous, and Abel was righteous. It's because of Christ. It's
because the true, real Christian church is the body of Christ. And this world hates it. It hates
the light, because it exposes the wickedness of evil. Well, there it is. You can see
it. We could go on and on and on throughout the Bible. Lots
more examples. Two classes of people, only two. It's one or the other. And as
I was studying this and putting this sermon together, I kept
having this. I remember as a kid in Sunday
school, they taught you that little ditty song, you know,
one door and only one. And yet its sides are two. And
the question is, it's put improperly so. You know, are you on the
inside of the door or are you on the outside of the door? Because
right now, in this age, the door is still open. The master of
the house will still open the door if you call upon his name
in order to be saved. But the day is coming. The day
is coming. when it will be shut forever
to everybody. And that day will come when someone
who dies without Christ, if you depart this world without Christ,
that door is shut. Knock all you want. It is not
going to depart from me. I never knew you. I hope that
no one here is of that category on that day. and that we will
all see one another in the kingdom of Christ when he comes again.
Father, we thank you for these truths from your word. We thank
you for telling us the true condition of the human race, and that you
call upon us to examine ourselves, to see whether we be wheat or
chaff, cane or able, a sheep
Two Great Categories of Men - Just Two
Series 2024 Non-Series Sermons
Consistently from Genesis to Revelation the Lord tells us that there are just two categories of human beings, and that it is the Word of the Cross, Christ Himself, that is the source of this Great Divide.
| Sermon ID | 6824124650118 |
| Duration | 54:20 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Corinthians 1:18 |
| Language | English |
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