The Apostle Paul's ministry in Corinth, highlighting his challenges with legalism, secularism, and the presence of "semi-Christians" like Apollos. It emphasizes that true Christianity is not merely outward adherence but an inward transformation by the Holy Spirit, contrasting eloquent but incomplete teachings with the power of God's word. The message concludes by urging listeners to examine their faith, ensuring they are genuinely born-again Christians with Christ dwelling within, rather than merely nominal or national adherents.
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Verse one. You hear, Lord willing, next Lord today and the one following, and we'll continue in the Acts. We're not going to conclude, as I can understand that, and see that quite clearly. Lord willing, when we return, beginning of September, we'll continue the studies in the Acts and possibly conclude them before Brother Van Ryn come for a week of meeting in the first week in October. who trusted with us next Lord, they and also the one following. Verse one of Acts eight. After these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome.
and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent-makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. When Silas and Pimodius were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the Spirit. and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. When they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads, I am clean.
From henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed thence and entered into a certain man's house, name justice, one that worshiped God and whose house joined hard to the synagogue. Now, we may not mention this point, but we're going to the chapter later on. I want to draw your attention to this man whose house joined hard to the synagogue. In other words, he was right up against. He was built as part of the synagogue. And I thought of a text in the Psalms. It's Psalm sixty-three, and it says, And David is the speaker, My soul followeth hard after thee.
And that's exactly the same word with the same meaning. Now this man's house was so hard to the synagogue that you couldn't get a razor blade in between. Now, says David, my soul followeth hard after the Lord. I'm so close to the Lord that nothing is going to get in between us. I wonder if that can be said that those here this morning who are Christians, or are we like Peter, who followeth up far off, vulnerable to be following hard after the Lord, so close, so intimate, with him that nothing is between my soul and the Savior.
His house was joined hard to the synagogue, and David says, my soul, followeth hard after thee. Now, verse eight. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed, and where baptized. And there you have a summation of the Christian in this world, in this dispensation, hearing, believing, and being baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision.
Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. A few months back I read that verse, and I thought, well, how can that be true? God is telling Paul here, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee. Well, if you were to turn over to chapter twenty-one and thirty-two, you'll find the apostle Paul, and he's getting hurt, and that very badly, being stoned and beaten. Well, could Paul say, Lord, you told me that nothing could hurt me, and no man would fall upon me to hurt me.
The thought that struck me as I read that was this. It has a local and temporary application. As you notice, God says, I want you to stay here in Corinth. I have much people in this place, and he stayed there for eighteen months. And this promise that no one would fall upon them or hurt them was applicable only to his stay here at Corinth for eighteen months. So God makes promises sometimes that do not blanket our entire life, but they blanket present circumstances. For instance, in thinking on that, I thought of my own father, who was operated on when he was seventy-two.
He had a grove taken out from his throat, and the juggernaut went right through the middle of that grove. And the doctor told me he said it was quite a tickless operation for all the time I was operating, trying to get that grove out like getting dirt from the roots of a tree. That juggernaut and the beak of your father's heart were just staring me in the face, he said, one little slip, and that would have been it. But when I went up that morning to the hospital to see my father, hoping to talk to him before he went to the operating room, he was already gone. And of course I was a little disturbed. I wanted to see him before he went up, but just then a man walked over to me that I knew he worked in the railway shops where both my father and I worked.
He said, Lester, he said, your father told me to give you this tape. He said he awoke early this morning, quite happy, and he took his Bible and dispersed, came to him. And it was this. Thou shalt not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord. So he said, your father went to the operating room with that in mind, and he was very happy. Thou shalt not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord. When he came through that operation, wonderfully, and had three happy years of good health.
Then he died. Well, what about that text? Thou shalt not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord. It applies to that operation. Now, sometimes people grasp a passage of Scripture or a promise. They think it's their whole life. No. God will give you a promise for some particular purpose. As God told Paul here, that no one would hurt him, no one would fall upon him, for God said, I want you to stay here, I have much people here, and he stayed there eighteen years, eighteen months.
And so when the eighteen months were up and Paul went on, the promise ended there, because he was badly hurt, and several times later on. And so I hope that this will be of some help for Verse eleven, and he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. And when Galileo was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat, saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship God, contrary to the law. When Paul was now about to open his mouth, Galileo said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked loonness, O ye choose, reason would that I should bear with you.
But if it be a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge of such matters. And he trained them from the judgment-seat. Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment-seat, and Galileo cared for none of those things. and all after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Sandria, for he had a vow. And he came to Ephesus, and left them there, but he himself entered into synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.
When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not, but bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem, but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus, and when he had landed at Centria, or Caesarea, and gone up and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch. And after he had spent some time there, he departed and went over all the country of Galatia, Pergia, in order, strengthening all the disciples. And a certain Jew named Apollos, born of Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus.
This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being a fervent, being fervent in the Spirit, speak and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of God. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. When he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him. when he was come, helped them much, which had believed through grace.
For he mightily convinced the truth of that publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ. Now we want to conclude this chapter this morning, so we might get into chapter nineteen tonight, and we trust you'll be out for that big bonfire of bad books that we'll be speaking on tonight. You notice previously Paul going to Thessalonica and then to Berea, and then last week we were speaking on Paul at Athens, that intellectual center of the then known world, and now we find them at Corinth. You find Paul here, and you have his discipleship in verses one to four, the disciples.
That's Paul, his life, a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you have his apostleship in verses five to eight. Here is Paul and his work. Then you have in verses nine to eleven, his fellowship with God. Here is Paul and his God. Then you have his hardships. In the next few verses twelve to seventeen, here you have Paul and his enemies. Then you have his companionship in verses eighteen to twenty eight. Here is Paul and his friends. And so you have Paul and his life, Paul and his work, Paul and his God, Paul and his enemies, Paul and his friends.
But there's something I want to say about Paul more intimately and in detail. That is, when Paul went to Corinth on this occasion, he evidently was depressed, cast out. And this ought to be a helpful law of Christian. Think that the great Apostle Paul would pass through periods of depression. Here when he arrived at Corinth, he was very encouraged to begin with. His beginning at Corinth was very impressive. For he met up with Priscilla and Crilla, a man and his wife, who evidently were remarkable characters and strong personality, he met them.
And Paul was looking for work. Now imagine the Apostle Paul looking for work. He had already been ordained of the Lord and set forth, and he had remarkable missionary experiences. And he goes to this town, and he begins looking for the job, showing he was in need. And he met up with Priscilla and Aquila. They were tent makers, and so was he. And he had a home, and he had employment right away. That was quite impressive when he landed here at Corinth. But you'll notice in, if you were to turn over to Second Corinthians, Levin, nine, which if you want more light on this passage with Paul going, you can't read the first and second epistles of Paul to the Corinthians.
But over in Second Corinthians, Levin, nine, he says, and when I was present with you and wanted, he was in need. I was chargeable to no man. For that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied, and in all things I have kept myself from being burdened from financial obligation unto you. And so will I keep myself. And so you find the Apostle Paul, and he's actually in need. And on the weekends he preaches. You notice in verse four, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he preached unto them, working all week long and preaching on the Lord's day.
Now there's nothing at all wrong with a man who can preach and teach if he's not getting enough salary to get up his tools and go and get a job and do something, and help to support himself until such times God is able to meet his need through his beloved people. That definitely taught him the scripture. And the apostle on this occasion was very much depressed and full of fear. And I'm going to read again from First Corinthians two. And this is what he says. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
But I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling of my speech, and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And so you see the Apostle Paul, going to court, meeting Priscilla and Aquila, getting a job with them, working all week long and preaching on the Sabbath day in the synagogue.
And he tells them, I was with you in gear, much trembling and in weakness. It's hard to understand that this ought to be helpful to us today. If this could be true of the apostles, whose work and labors far exceeded any man today, don't you think that we should face up to some of the circumstance to which he passes, even if the apostle did, we shall do the same. When Paul went to Corinth, he bumped right into legalism, as you'll notice in verses twelve and thirteen, and here are some of them that are trying to...
force and persuade others. They're accusing the Apostle of trying to force and persuade others to worship God. No, that one thing you can't do, you can't force or persuade others to worship God. It's only when a person accepts the Lord Jesus Christ and there's an inner compunction, an inner desire to worship God. Worship is something you love to engage in if you're a Christian. Worship is the most intimate part of a Christian's life. Worship. And so here you find those trying to force people, persuade people to worship.
You can't do that. You can exhort them to come to a worship meeting, but you can't persuade them you can't force them. The only way you can be in a frame of mind and state of soul to worship God is that you're a Christian. You've been reading the word. You've been storing it up in your heart. And you can test any known sin. You're in fellowship with him. And you've come now to enter your best. But the one thing you can't rush into a meeting out of breath. And sit down and start right away. No.
I'll tell you, you have to change the ears and change speed. When you worship God, you need to put on the brakes from all the rush of the past. We can slow down and come into His presence and quietly meditate upon the person of our Lord Jesus Christ and his passion at the cross, his power at God's right hand, and the prospect of his soon coming again. And so here you find them seeking to pressure people into worship. That you cannot do, it must be voluntary. Then he runs into secularism in reference to Galileo, the deputy of the country, and he didn't care about any of these things.
Galileo cared for none of these things. He wasn't interested in these things. There you have secularism. Then you have evenism in verse seventeen. Think how brutal these people were. They didn't think anything of beating those who were associated with the synagogue and with the Apostle Paul. You know, when you think of Delio on this occasion, it says he cared for none of these things. You might say this is righteous carelessness. He was right. Here was the deputy of the company. definity of that area.
And he was a Roman. His duty was to carry out, to keep the people quiet, keep the populace satisfied, to carry out the mind of the Roman Empire. And that certainly didn't include the religion of the Jews. This was a field that he did not belong in. And so when these Jews would bring others before him to settle some of their petty disputes. It says, Dario cared for none of these things, and he was exactly right. That was not his business to settle their petty differences relative to their religion.
In other words, there are more important things in life than settlement of frivolous and petty disputes. you find Gallio and he dies of trouble. I'm not going to settle your little differences, your little petty misunderstanding. Why question and judge things I don't understand? I don't know what you choose. Believe in what your doctrine is. I'm not here in my office to settle these matters. Although Gallio was right, the nettle did, he cared for none of those things. In other words, he wasn't informed on those things.
I want to say that there are things today that many of God's people are careless about. It is a deliberate carelessness. His was a righteous carelessness. He did not know anything in that field. Therefore, he wouldn't pass judgment on these days. But Christians today are willfully careless. carrots. It seems they care for none of these things, and it comes with full devotedness that Jesus Christ, to study the Scriptures, to get out to the meetings, to worship the Lord, to obey His word.
They care, it seems, for none of these things. Strange, isn't it, that that should do the things? Deliberate, willful, careless, not interested. Of course, there are unsafe people today who are careless about salvation. They're not thinking about getting saved or thinking about settling down, having a good time, making a good living, and so on. But when it comes to the salvation of the soul and studying the scriptures, getting out to the meetings and becoming involved in the Lord's work, they care for none of these days. I picked up a man or spoke to him on the street one time, and he was a big businessman.
And after I got through, I thought I was making headway in my conversation with him. And when I got through, he said I could care less. Was I deflated? I could care less. And there are a lot of people out there. I could care less. Talk to me about business. talk to me about material things. I'm interested in talking about spiritual things. I would care about them. Galileo cared for none of these things. Now we come to a very interesting incident in this chapter, and that is the eloquent apostle.
He read about him in verses twenty-four to twenty-eight. He called this Semi-Christians. Semi-Christians. What may are the semi-Christians or can a person be a semi-Christian? An Apollos was one and the twelve followers of John the Baptist in the first opening verses of the next chapter were also semi-Christian. Well, your dictionary will tell you that semi means half or half way or partly. or incomplete, or something lacking, something lacking.
Apollos of these twelve followers of John the Book of Ephesus, there was something lacking, something they didn't have. You start to think of what this man did have. Apollos. He was an eloquent man. It tells you that in the scripture. He was fluent. He had natural power and persuasion. Yes, he was an orator. Very eloquent. Not only so, he had a vast knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures. Why, he was mighty in the scriptures.
And I would say, like Nicodemus in chapter three of John, who were the chief among the rulers, or the chief among the The teachers and scholars of that day. Yet Christ said to him, he must be born again. And here you find Apollos. And there's something lacking all the way. He's got a grasp of the Old Testament scriptures. Mighty in the scriptures, it says. Something more. He was fervent. Fervent. In other words, there was some compassion about his ministry. compassion, and he was more or less a man with affection.
That's what a character was, and he was diligent, it says, or he was accurate. Very careful when he handled the fight. And for the more he had plenty of courage, as you see in verse twenty-six, boldly. Now can you conceive a man like this man police, eloquent, a great knowledge of the Old Testament Scripture, fervent in spirit, and also accurate in whatever he did, and a man with plenty of courage and boldness. And yet he wasn't a born-again Christian.
He was a follower of John the Baptist, and preached repentance. And that was for Jews only. He preached the baptism of repentance to the Jews only. He had gone as far as John the Baptist, and he hadn't gone beyond that. And that's a very serious thing. What did John the Baptist preach? John taught that Jesus was the Son of God. He says that in the third chapter of John. He also taught that Jesus was the Lamb of God. He also taught that the Lord Jesus was going to baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit.
And John also announced in his message that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. And that's what this man did. Apollos knew that and nothing more, as namely as the twelve elders in the opening verses of chapter nine, Jesus. And by the way, this is the last time you'll find John the Baptist mentioned. or see or meet any of his followers in chapter nineteen and the opening verses. What about this? John's ministry was preparatory. It was preparing a people for the Lord. It was anticipatory. An anticipation of the coming Messiah.
John's baptism was a baptism unto repentance and for Jews of. It's not Christian baptism. Christian baptism is a baptism into Jesus Christ, the figure of Christians being baptized into Jesus Christ by the Spirit. By one Spirit, are you all baptized into one body, it says in verse Corinthians, eleven and thirteen, twelve and thirteen. And so you have the difference between John's baptism. and the Christian baptism. The Christian baptism is into Christ and putting on Christ.
John's baptism was a baptism unto repentance, and it was for Jews only, where this baptism, Christian baptism, is for all nations, and it's a baptism figurative of into Christ and putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. And isn't it amazing? Of all the preachers, for this eloquent applause, was without the Holy Ghost, set down from heaven as you have them. First Peter was without the Holy Ghost, set down. And therefore it meant nothing, for he didn't even have the Spirit of God.
And if any man have not the Spirit of God, he's none of him. And here's this eloquent man. disarticle of man, this careful man, disaffection of man, this passionate man, this brilliant-minded man, with all his oratory and excellence, he didn't have the spirit of God, neither did Cornelius in chapter ten, nor Nicodemus in chapter three. That's quite an eye-opener, isn't it? I'm going to read you some verses in chapter ten and verse thirty six.
The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. That word I say ye know, which was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached. But after that faith, The gospel of grace has come. We are no longer under the law. No longer under, schoolmaster. We're no longer under the area of John the Baptist. For ye are all the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Now this is to all the nations. For as many and of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither one nor three. There is neither male nor really male. For you're all one in Jesus Christ. Now, Paulus didn't know all this. And yet he was a brilliant man. He knew only the baptism of John the Baptist. And it tells you exactly what happened. Priscilla Anakula. He's broadly Christian. They listen to this man. And you can see, I don't know who both birthed, but the wife said to the husband or the husband said wife, or they beg each other with their arms. He's off the track.
He's a serenive man, but he's off the track. All he's preaching is preaching John Baptist. He doesn't really know about Christian baptism. He's still under law. The law of the prophet were until John. why he's still back under the old dispensation, the legal dispensation, in anticipation of the coming Messiah. And you know what they did? They took Apollos into their home, and they straightened him up. They took him into their home, and they explained to him the way of God more perfectly.
And he was such a willing student, you can imagine a man of his brilliance sitting down and listening to this man and his wife who were just tent makers a common trade but he listened and that's one thing about a man who is sincere of heart regardless of what he knows he's willing to listen he's willing to learn that the sinner and the killer they open his eyes to what Christianity really was, that the dispensation of law had passed, the new dispensation of grace had come in.
And the preaching of John remains to be resumed in the future. The death of the age of grace and the gospel to all nations. This is not a baptism unto the dead. It's a baptism into Jesus Christ and putting on Christ. That was quite an eye-opener. And when he heard them teach, he noticed what happened. He obeyed the Lord in baptism. He was baptized. And what did they do then? Why, they gave him a letter. The brethren gave him a letter. And sent him on his way that he might be a blessing now and help to others.
He had been straightened out in his theology. Well, if that's true of a man like Apollos, what about people today? There are lots of Apollos in focus today. With their eloquence, and some of these modernists have gotten, they're never wanting for words. They're fluent. They're shrewd. They're very eloquent. I listened to them. And I thought they're coming right up with the gospel now. They're getting close to the cross. But where the brilliance of these men come out is how they can dodge around and detour the cross.
And no one seems to notice it. These are the modern apologists. They need to be taught what the real gospel is. I hired a friend, and they had mentioned one before, the name of Ressie Edwards. He's in Fayetteville, North Carolina now. He married a little Scotch girl. When I came south, forty-one years ago, I don't know where the word he got heard. But she's a little Scotch girl, and he was a real southern. So he got saved, reading the little book, God's Way of Salvation. And so his family were deeply upset because he had been quite a number of the local church.
And finally they persuaded him. to come and hear a preacher they had who was to be quite a preacher and quite an evangelist. So Reddy said, I went to hear them, and he said, I got to listen. He was pretty good. But he said, when he got through, my folks come up and said, well, Reggie, what do you think of that? Well, he said, he dug a hole. He said, boy, I got a chance to look in and we filled it up. Well, that's just about you. telling people they're sinners, and instead of presenting Christ to them, they fill it up. They say, well, after all, there's a bunch of good folks. They give the best, you can't.
They dig a hole, and before they get a chance to look in, they fill it all up. How shrewd and how eloquent these modern apologists are. And for any man or woman to sit down, especially a woman who's straight in these characters, of all things I'm Dr. Sones. I've got degrees. The idea of you trying to straighten me out. But this Apostle, this Apostle, not that kind of man, he was willing to learn. And he got straightened out and afterwards he was mightily used of God. Even the Apostle Paul refers to Apollos and went, right here in Corinth when there was a division.
Four sects sprang up. Paul says, some of you say, I'm of Apollos. I'm of Paul. I'm of Cephas. I'm of Crank. Showing that Apollos, when he got straightened out, he was such a strong character that people began to gather around Apollos. And Paul rebuked that. Later on Paul says, I have planted, Apollos has watered, God has given me increase. Showing what a mighty man Apollos turned out to be, the Apostle Paul said, I planted the assembly.
And now he says, and I preached the word, and Apollos can come along and water it. Yes. This is the Apollos, the brilliant orator. Apollos, who was willing to sit at the feet of two humble Christians, with heavenly words, save it a few months, and he learned the truth of salvation by grace, through faith, and of none of yourselves. It is the gift of God. And I want to say this. A Christian is one in whom is the Spirit of God. This is the outstanding and distinguishing mark And I asked you this morning, has there been a time in your life when the Holy Spirit entered into your heart?
No, I'm not talking about any second blessing, Spirit. People ask me what I think about the second blessing. I said, the second one I got the second one. I think the day after I got saved, I've been getting them ever since. I mean about the second million blessings. Not the second blessing. Not a separate work of grace. Don't say, well, you've got to be saved, and then you've got to be sanctified, and then you've got to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I don't believe a word. When I got Christ, I got a full salvation. And you men who got married, you didn't get your wife in three installments, I was really. But when I got Christ, I got a savior, a full personality.
Now, there's such a thing as a Christian being revived. Lord. But when you accepted the Savior, you had a full Savior, a full salvation. There are no stages in God's salvation. If you backsliding it out of fellowship, then God will resort. But the big secret is the truth of the Holy Spirit. If you know the truth of the Lord Jesus, the truth shall make you free. And what is the but by me.
So we see the salvation of this eloquence of Paulus. You know there's a big difference between eloquence and utterance. Paulus had eloquence. Paul disclaims and disdains eloquence. He says, though I speak to the tongues of men and of angels and have not loved I not. Paul disdains eloquence, just human eloquence. But he prays the Christians that he might have utterance, that I might declare the gospel as I ought. Christians pray that I might have utterance.
The one is a natural gift, eloquence. The other is a spiritual gift, utterance. The one brings glory to man, eloquence. The other brings glory to God, utterance. The utterance of the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And so the question is, have you been born of the Spirit? Not have you joined the church? I'm not interested. I've been here for seventeen years and I've never asked one person to join the chapel. I've never asked anyone to come up here with their letters.
I'm going to the chapel. There's one thing I'm concerned about, and that is that you've been born again. Do you know Christ as your Savior? If you do, then you can proceed from that voice, if you want to. From his appellation and the chapel. The works that you prove your salvation by are the works of the Holy Spirit. Not any other works. The works of the Holy Spirit. All other works are of the flesh. Are you having Galatians chapter five? If one percent of my salvation depends upon me or my works, I am only ninety-nine percent secure.
But friend, all my salvation, one hundred percent of it, is dependent wholly and solely upon the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did for me upon the cross. When I got saved in the age of nineteen, I was just as much saved one minute after my father pointed me to Christ in the kitchen of our home in Stratfordville. I was just as much saved that night, one minute after I took the Savior as I am today. My life of service and works hasn't added well to my salvation.
And Jesus Christ saves one hundred percent. He doesn't save at all. It's Christ and Christ alone. So my salvation depends upon Jesus Christ. And I'm going to take that further. It depends upon the will of God. and the will of Jesus Christ, or Christ fulfilling the Father's will. Now here it is, in John six, thirty-eight, for I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he had given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. And he says, I will raise him up at the last age. In other words, this is the will of God. I get God's willing coming into this world and laying down my life for sinners and to vindicate God's character. Everyone who accepts Jesus Christ, the Father says he's given them to me, says the Lord Jesus. And I will raise everyone. He doesn't say some. I'll raise up everyone.
That's the last day. This is the will of him that said. And I ask you one simple question. Did Jesus Christ do the Father's will? Is he doing it today? If I could be lost, Jesus Christ has failed to do the Father's will. My salvation is hooked up with, linked to, cemented with, Jesus Christ, doing the Father's work. And if I can be lost now that I trusted the Savior, then Christ has got the tail in his loyalty to his Father, and perish for thought that's impossible.
My salvation depends on veracity. of our Lord Jesus Christ, his will and his work. I asked you one question this morning. Are you a semi-Christian? Is something lacking? And is that lack the Holy Spirit? Except the man who bore the water and of the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. And when you accept Christ, God sends forth the Spirit of his Son into your heart, whereby you cry and the Father. When you trust the Savior, you're born anew.
There are three kinds of Christian, national Christian. The United States is called a Christian country, and it's enemy, what? National Christian. Nominal Christian. You have joined the church, and you're nominally a Christian. nature, the new nature, which is in Christ even. What kind of a Christian are you? You say, I'm a Christian because the United States is different from an even country. This is ending what a Christian is? You say, I'm a nominal Christian.
I'm a member of the church. That doesn't mean anything either. Or you say, I'm a Christian by nature, the nature of God. I'm a good partaker of the divine nature. I'm a Christian because I have Christ, and Christ has me, and we are one forever. For he said, I give unto my sheep eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand, my father which gave them me, the spirit of an awe, and no man shall pluck them out of my father's hand. Are you a genuine, born-again, hundred percent Christian because you have Christ, or are you a semi-discite?
With some characteristics, you do some things as good as a real Christian. You live a caring, moral, respectable life. But you lack something. You lack the new birth. And as Christ said to the rich, young ruler, one thing doubt lacks. Friend, do you have this lack? Are you a semi-Christian? Or are you a real, a genuine, born again, Christian? You know that. And God knows that. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we come into thy presence. We ask thy blessing upon thy word.
We thank thee for it. How stabilizing it is. We trust that what's been said this morning will be of help to thy people. Like the Apostle we suffer for Christ in this word. For those that are unsaved, they miss the Savior. They'll suffer for eternity. For thy long-suffering to the human race ends, man's long-suffering will then begin. Those who do not know the Lord Jesus, bless thy word. We all our hearts and receive our thanks for it. We ask it in our Lord Jesus' precious name. Amen. Shall we sing him?
Two hundred and forty-three. Two hundred and forty-three. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me, and see on the portal he is waiting and watching, watching for you and for me. Sing the one verse that no one comes to Christ or confesses. you come if you're a Christian, haven't confessed them, or you want to.