The sermon, based on 1 Corinthians 1:4-9, highlights the Apostle Paul's gratitude for the grace of God at work in the Corinthian church despite its numerous flaws and sins. The speaker emphasizes that the church belongs to Jesus Christ and is not defined by its failures but by the grace of God through Jesus. The sermon underscores the richness of believers in Christ, noting that they have everything they need for life and godliness. It also discusses the promise of blamelessness on the last day, which is not based on believers' merits but on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The sermon encourages believers to focus on Jesus Christ, to recognize their spiritual wealth in Him, and to live in unity and fellowship with one another, reflecting the fellowship they have been called into with Christ.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Paul's letter to the Corinthians. 1st Corinthians, If you have a pew Bible you can find our passage this morning on page 1140 page 1140 1st Corinthians chapter 1 beginning in verse 4 and I'll ask the congregation to now stand as God now speaks. Beginning in verse 4, Paul writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus. That in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you so that you are not lacking in any gift awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ who will also confirm you to the end blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ God is faithful Through whom you were called at the fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. May God bless the reading and now this, the preaching of his word.

Amen. You may be seated. I thank my God always concerning you. Have you ever paused at verse 4 and just thought about what Paul just said? I thank my God always concerning you.

I read that this week and the first question I wrote down was, how? What? I mean you know what's coming right in this letter? In the church there was a man sleeping with his mother or stepmother. In the church there are Christians suing each other and asking pagans to be the judge.

In the church there are people getting drunk during communion. In the church congregants are regularly hooking up with prostitutes. In the church their worship is akin to a nut house. And Paul says, I thank my God always concerning you. How?

Why? For the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus. Despite all the sin in Corinth, despite all the iniquity that the church has allowed to go on in its midst, Paul says, I thank my God concerning you. Why? For the grace of God at work in you.

I thank my God for you because of the work of God in you. I thank my God for you because of the grace of God through Jesus Christ. How can Paul give thanks? How can he thank God for the Corinthians and for Crossroad Church despite all the sin and all the inconsistencies and all the failures, all the shortcomings, how can He give thanks when the church of Jesus Christ is a mess? What's the answer?

Because the church is Jesus Christ's. Because the church belongs to Jesus Christ. Because the church was bought by the blood of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the grave. Because the Church of God at Corinth and the Church of God at Erlem is not the Church of God because of something she has done. No, it is the Church of God because of something that Jesus Christ has done.

It's not through your merits, it's not through your efforts, church, but His, His grace, Paul says. Paul says in verse 4, church, you've got issues. You've got sin. It's coming. He's going to address it in just a few verses.

But there is a grace that is greater than all your sin. And it's found in the person and the work of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Have you noticed how many times in the first nine verses the phrase Jesus or Jesus Christ or Christ is used? If you've been reading through this book every week, you will have noticed how often in the first chapter alone, particularly in the first nine verses alone, Jesus Christ is saturated. It's saturated with that phrase.

You can double check my count when you get home, but I counted nine times in nine verses. Nine times in nine verses. Paul is making it incredibly easy for you to understand that Jesus Christ is the reason for Paul's thanksgiving. Jesus Christ is the reason for his hope that even a church in such a mess like Corinth Will receive this letter. He's about to do some heavy-hitting stuff Jesus Christ is the hope that this church will receive this letter and because they belong to Jesus respond in repentance.

Jesus Christ is the reason that even a church in Erlem will receive this letter and repent because they belong to Jesus Christ by the grace of God. So you need to hear me church, you need to hear me brothers and sisters, just like Paul is doing at the outset of this letter, so too you need to do look to Jesus Christ. Look to Jesus Christ. Many of you are prone to discouragement aren't you? Anyone in here prone to discouragement Some of you are now prone to lying You are I've sat with you in my office, I've talked to you on the phone, I've texted you text messages.

We, so many of us, are prone to discouragement. And watching the news doesn't help, reading the headlines doesn't help. I mean, how many church leaders just in 2026 have we lost either to death or to disqualification due to sin? It's so easy to be discouraged, maybe even despair. But beloved, when you look at this church, And you look at the church of Jesus Christ at large.

And when you start to become discouraged, if you look at your brothers and sisters in this body, and you're tempted to despair, you start to struggle in your prayers for one another, because you see all the mess, and all the sin, and all the failures, and all the ways in which we just don't appear blameless. Church when that happens, for every one look at this church and all of its mess, take a hundred looks at the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfection. He gave His body and His blood to make this His church, His bride. So when Satan tempts you to despair, contemplate, meditate upon the grace of God and be amazed at how kind He has been. Be amazed at how faithful He has been to this church despite our fickleness.

He's not done with this bride yet. He's not done with his bride. God sent his son to save the bride and that son will save his bride all the way to glory. The promise is, it's right here in our passage this morning, is he's going to make his church, he's going to make his bride blameless on the last day. And she will be shown to be exactly who God says she is, and it will be made plain exactly who she belongs to on that last day, not because of her, not because of what the church has done, but because of the grace of God, because of what Jesus Christ has done for her.

Because of the grace of God given to her in Christ Jesus. Verses one through nine, I want you to understand this passage, verses one through nine in 1st Corinthians are all about what God has done for you. Okay? Verses one through nine are all about what God has done for you. All that He's done for the church, the bride of Christ.

So in verses one through three, who God has made you. Who God has made you, Crossroad Church. He has declared you to be a sure and sanctified people. Which means that you're a united people. A sure, sanctified, solid, united people.

And then our passage this morning, it goes on. Here's more of what God has done. He's not only declared you to be a sure and sanctified and united people, but He has given to you all that you need to be a sure and sanctified and united people. He not only declares these things to be true, but He has given you all that you need to be what He's called you to be. And that's verses 4 through 9.

What God has given to you as His church. So what has God given to you? What's the answer? Everything. You have everything you need, church, for life and godliness in Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Peter says that in 2 Peter 1, 2 Peter 1.3, you have everything that you need for life and godliness in Jesus Christ and His Word. And the Apostle Paul looks at Peter and says, yes. He says the same thing that the Apostle Peter says the Apostle Paul says here in 1 Corinthians chapter 9. You are rich in Jesus Christ. In Christ You have all that you need and abundantly so.

So get this, verses 1 through 3, God has made you a sure, a sanctified people, and a united people. And verses 4 through 9, He's given to you all that you need to be that sure, sanctified and united people. You don't need to go outside of the Lord Jesus. You don't need to reach into some kind of self-help or additional manual. You have all that you need.

Abundantly so. Okay? So, verses 4 through 9, what God has given to you first. Number one. Number one, of course, this ought to be obvious, God has given to you His Son.

His Son. God has given to you his son Paul says I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God Which was given to you in who in Jesus Christ and who is Jesus Christ? He's the very son of God God's grace is given to you church in and through Jesus Christ his son. And that's exactly the same thing that Paul says to Titus in Titus chapter two. Titus chapter two verse 11, for the grace of God has appeared, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.

What was that? Who was that? It's Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possessions zealous for good deeds. The grace of God is all over your life through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. I think you understand that.

But you really need to get it. Christian, God the Father took you who were His enemy, deserving hell, fire, and damnation, because of your sins, on account of your sins. He took all of your law breaking, and instead of giving you what you deserve as His enemy and law breaker, God the Father instead took that damnation, took that wrath, and he poured that thrice holy wrath not upon you, but upon his son 2, 000 years ago who bore that wrath, who bore the iniquity for your sin, Who bore the penalty for your sin, he bore that in his body on the tree 2, 000 years ago. That's what God did to make you who are his enemy, his friend, and even more, his child. And then that same Savior rose up from the grave so that by faith you are made righteous in God's sight forever.

How so? Because the righteousness of Jesus Christ is given to you in exchange for your sin. By grace through faith. He takes your sin upon His body on the tree. And then as He's resurrected, He imputes to you His very own righteousness.

He has forever dealt with every one of your iniquities. He has forever made you right with God the Father because when God the Father now sees you, he doesn't see your sin. He sees the righteousness of his son. You're no longer an enemy. You're no longer a pagan.

You're an adopted child of God, bought and paid for. You're made a part of the covenant household of faith, his church. Now that's amazing. So when Paul says, I thank God for the grace given to you in Jesus Christ, you should be giving thanks with him. You should be amazed with Paul.

God has taken you who were spiritually bankrupt and He's made you rich. He has credited to you, to your spiritual account, righteousness. And it's a righteousness that can never fade away. It can never be corrupted. Why?

Because it's not your righteousness. It's the righteousness of Jesus Christ, his Son, who is unchanging. And so every day you wake up, you can believe the promise that there's new mercies for you. Why? Because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and His righteousness hasn't changed.

It's yours forever. So that you stand before God the Father And God the Father says, right, you are right with me. I see my Son. So you're given the righteousness of Jesus, your sin is taken away, taken by Jesus, and then Jesus who was crucified and risen, He ascended and he's standing at the right hand of God, and what's he doing? He's interceding for you.

He's interceding on your behalf. You are, to put it lightly, rich. You are rich. Do you think of yourselves as rich? You ought to.

That's exactly what Paul says in verse 5, you are rich. In everything you were enriched in Him, Paul says, verse five, in all speech and all knowledge. In everything you were enriched, in Him, in Jesus. Okay, so you need to understand that. Apart from Jesus, you were poor.

You were spiritually destitute. Romans three tells you that in plain terms. Ephesians two tells you that. There are none good, no not one. In fact, from head to heart to toes, your throat is an empty grave, the venom of asps is under your lips your feet are swift to shed innocent Are swift to shed blood you're spiritually dead you're spiritually depraved.

You're the opposite of rich outside of Jesus. You had no hope, you're at enmity with God, you did not know peace. You did not know what it really meant to live. You were a slave to your sin, a spiritually dead man walking. But God, but God took you who were poor and made you rich.

But God being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace you've been saved. And He raised us up with Him and He seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come, He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. In the ages to come. So it's, you're rich now, imagine in the ages to come. That's Ephesians 2.

He did that for you church. He saved you by giving you his son. He saved you. Not on the basis of any good deed that you've done. But according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit whom He poured out upon you richly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

And that's Titus 3. I hope you get the picture in everything you have been enriched in Him in Jesus Christ. In everything. Anything. Okay, get this.

That word everything means everything. Anything and everything good in you. Past, present, and future. Anything and everything good in you is from Him. Anything good that you have in your life materially, past, present, future, is because of His grace to you.

Any blessing, any good thing, any gift that you've been given, where does it all come from? From the one who made you and saved you, Jesus Christ. James 1.17, every good and perfect gift comes from above, coming down from the Father of lights. How so? Through Jesus Christ.

First Corinthians 1.5, who enriches you in everything through his son Jesus Christ. What were those gifts? What are the gifts? In what ways were these Corinthians enriched? Well I think in a lot of ways because it says in everything.

So I don't have enough time to go through the couple of gajillion things. But he makes it specific. He says, in all speech and in all knowledge. Okay, so who taught them? In all speech and in all knowledge.

On some level, this is talking about Them being taught it might be talking about their speech as well So what they are taught they can say Who taught them though who taught them? Well, who's writing the letter? The Apostle Paul. The inspired one himself taught the Corinthians. I mean I'd call that rich.

No offense to Pastor Isaac or Pastor Matthew or myself but if the Apostle Paul knocked on the door I'd say man Come on up. I'd call that rich. And who came after Paul? Well Acts 18 tells us, and the letter to the Corinthians tells us too at the end of it, Apollos. Apollos.

Apollos has come. And if you know anything about Apollos, he was no pushover of a preacher. He was no pushover of a teacher. I mean, God had blessed them so richly with good and faithful Bible teachers that in the next verses, Paul has to get onto them for getting into fights about which one's better, Paul or Apollos. These are not pushover preachers.

These are not pushover pastors. They are given an apostle to teach them, And they're given a faithful preacher. They are enriched in all speech. So church, how do you know that you're rich in Christ? Well, here's a really easy way to know if you've been just lavished with the riches that God provides.

Has Jesus Christ given to you the prophets and the Apostles Yes, you are rich Has God given to you Faithful fallible but faithful pastors and preachers in His body. If that's true, you are rich. In all speech and all knowledge, do you have God's Word? Rich! Is God's word open up to you every Lord's day and declared, thus saith the Lord?

And are you exhorted to believe it and to push it in the corners and to obey it all? If so, you are rich, Paul says. So church, how do you know if you're rich or poor? Do you belong to a church that preaches the Bible that preaches all of Christ for all of life? There are none richer than them You have all that you need for life and godliness When Christ is what is preached in all speech and all wisdom children children Do you have a father?

Who opens up God's word to you around the dinner table and calls you to obey it? Children do you have a father that way? Do you have a father who leads you in worship, who teaches you how to sing and pray? He's teaching you how to make war against your sin and against Satan. If that's going on in your home children, you are more rich than you could possibly ever know.

Children do you have a mother who holds fast to the promises and lives a life of joyful obedience to her husband? Do you have a mother who nurtures you and cares for you and instructs you in the fear and Admonition of Almighty God. Do you have a mother like that? You are more rich children than you could possibly imagine Children are you here at Crossroad Church this morning? Are you children I?

Heard one yeah, this one person is here one child children. Are you here at Crossroad Church this morning? Are you children? I heard one yeah. Just one person is here.

One child. Children, are you here at Crossroad Church this morning? Yes you are. You're singing and you're praying and you're listening to this sermon right now. And you're here.

Children, you go home this morning and you thank God for the grace that he has given to you and his son that you have parents that love you so much that you worship the triune God with them every single week. Children there are none richer than you So many children are growing up in homes that do not prize the worship of Jesus Christ, and they are poor. They are poor. They're spiritually bankrupt, and for eternity, their bankruptcy will be borne out. But not for you, for you know the promises.

Your father and your mother have taught you the promises. You are hearing the promises and you are coming to engage in the same promises, receiving the waters of baptism and receiving the covenant signs here at this table. The promises are for you. There are none richer. You are rich, children.

And so I really want you children, this is what you need to do today. You need to go home And you need to thank God for the riches that He's given to you through Jesus Christ, His Son. For a church that loves Jesus and for a father and a mother that love Him too. And want you to love Him all the more. Want you to trust Him all the more.

You go home and thank God and thank your folks. You are enriched in all speech and all knowledge. All knowledge. What does that mean? All knowledge.

Well, you have heard the Gospel and you know the truth that sets sinners free. You know the truth that sets sinners free. In Christ, you have the bedrock for everything else. You have the truth from which all blessings and understanding and wisdom flows. Praise God from whom all blessings flow through Jesus Christ his Son.

So literally when you have Jesus Christ you have all knowledge you have all that you need. Colossians 2 and 3. In Jesus Christ is hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So Adam and Eve, they ate fruit so that they would what? Have knowledge.

And they sent the whole world into death. But now Jesus Christ, the first fruit from the grave, has risen so that you may eat of Him and when you eat of Him here at this table you are declaring I have all the knowledge that I need. Think about the difference. Alright children listen to me again children this will hit this will definitely hit This will hit. We have an academy here at this church and right now all of our students are working on some level of phonics.

Some level of phonics. Phonics, you know what I'm talking about? Phonics. A says what? A.

You got it. You might be tempted to think, man, I cannot wait till I get past phonics. I mean, I am tired of thinking about how T and H makes ffff. It's hard to say ffff. I want to say ffff.

No. It's how we do working on that with our girls. It's hard. Blends are hard. Putting sounds that make words together.

That's hard work and you might think, I just can't wait till I get past that. You will never ever outgrow your need for phonics. You will never ever ever outgrow your need to put sounds together that make words when you read. Children, you'll never outgrow your need for phonics. Sorry if that's a downer.

But this is not a downer. And exactly, probably even more so, in the same way, that's what knowing Jesus Christ is like. Some people think that Jesus Christ can simply kind of get you into the kingdom and then you can just kind of leave Jesus. You got your foot in the door, you leave Jesus, and you move on to bigger and better things. No!

You don't leave Phonics, you don't leave Jesus. You never ever outgrow your need for the Lord Jesus Christ. Ever! Jesus is who gets you into the kingdom. Jesus is who keeps you in the kingdom.

And Jesus is the one who brings you all the way to glory. His death, resurrection, and ascension, His finished work on the cross, in your place as your Savior and Lord, all of that is not something you simply understand once, and then you can leave behind. No, it is that knowledge, it is that gospel, that informs everything you do forever. Forever. Paul says to you, you have all the knowledge that you need.

The foundation for everything that you do, Jesus Christ the Son of God, given to you by God's grace, you have all knowledge for all of life and godliness in Jesus Christ. You're rich. You are rich. These Corinthians were rich. Why?

Because they had God the Son. And Paul says to them in verse 6, the work of Jesus Christ has been confirmed in you. The testimony of Jesus Christ was confirmed in you. What God has worked in to you, you have worked out. Paul says you've done exactly what I've told the Philippians to do.

Remember what Paul says in Philippians chapter 2? Work out what God has worked in. Work out your salvation in fear and trembling. God doesn't work in you. Now work it out.

What he has worked in, you work out. And Paul says in verse 6, that's what you've done Corinthians. That's what you've done. I've seen it. I've seen the gospel take root.

You've been taught well. You have all speech, all knowledge. You have all that you need and I'm seeing it come out. I've heard it, I've seen it. That's the exhortation for us this morning.

Work out your salvation in fear and trembling. Work out what God has worked in. What God has declared you to be, Corinthians and Erlemites, in verses 1 through 3, what God has declared you to be, what He has given to you within, You are now to take what God has worked in and work it out. Have it come out your fingertips. You are a sure.

You are a sanctified. You are a united people. That is what God says you are. And so now let it come out your fingertips. Let it come out your mouth.

Work out what God has worked in. Doctrine does not merely save within. It actually comes out of the one it saves as well. And so Paul says the testimony of Jesus Christ was at work in the Corinthian lives, and it must also be in us. So Paul reminds him in verse seven, so that you're not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Again, what God has worked in them, in all speech and knowledge, it was being worked out, their church was full of spiritual gifts and material gifts. Now you're gonna see later on in the letter that it was so full of gifts that what were the Corinthians starting to do? Starting to get a little high and mighty. Starting to think, look at us. Starting to boast in the gifts rather than the giver of the gifts.

Starting to abuse the very things that God has given to them. Paul says, hey, ain't nothing wrong with the gifts. But there is something wrong with you. There is something wrong with you. Paul's gonna say, stop being corrupt with those gifts because the same gifts that once confirmed the work of God in you, get this, get this, really important, the same gifts that confirmed the work of God in you, if you don't repent, if you don't stop being corrupt, Those same gifts will be a confirmation of God's judgment upon you.

Stop, Paul's going to say later. Stop doing what you're doing. But here, Paul simply is laying the groundwork. You have been richly blessed with all that you need and then some, and it's overflowing. Your church is full of the Spirit.

It is full of gifts. He's given you His Son, how then will he not give you all things? And he has. Open your eyes and look and recognize that you are rich. We just had a baptism last Lord's Day.

You are rich. You've been richly blessed with all that you need and then some through Jesus Christ our Lord. So as you wait, Paul says, for the revelation of our Lord Jesus. And that brings us to number two. Number two, God has given to you His promise.

God has given to you His promise. He's given to you His Son, and in His Son the promise of His revelation and return. The promise of His revelation and return. Now theologians differ here. Theologians can get a little spicy, but I don't think that it is all outlandish to suggest that there are two different revelations in view here at the end of verse 7 and verse 8.

You might disagree. That's all right. But I don't think it's outlandish to suggest that there are two different revelations in view here, both in verse seven and in verse eight. Let me see if I can flesh this out really briefly. Paul says, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus.

And then in verse eight, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. So I think both those things are the same thing, but I think they refer to two different things. The same thing, but they refer to two different events. So just think about this. Jesus had promised in the Gospels that He would destroy Jerusalem.

He did. Jesus had promised that a day of the Lord would come. Coming of judgment is going to come upon Jerusalem. And it did. A revelation of judgment came.

The day of the Lord happened in 70 AD exactly as Jesus said it would. Okay? It shouldn't be super divisive. It shouldn't be hard. Jesus said, judgments coming upon Jerusalem, not one stone will be left upon another.

It was the day of the Lord, the coming of judgment. 70 AD it happened exactly as Jesus said it would happen. Jesus also promised in those same gospels, as did Paul, of another revelation, another day of the Lord, a final revelation, a final day of the Lord, a final judgment where the dead would rise, as Pastor Isaac talked about this morning, and Christ would judge the living and the dead. There's no need to just say, well it has to only be one. It's definitely at least the final judgment and I think it's not a problem to say it's also 70 AD so both revelations the destruction of Jerusalem and the final judgment both are days of the Lord both deal with judgment but one in 70 AD was localized and the others to come at the end of history over all the earth.

So one's just over Jerusalem, one's over all the earth. You get the difference? So when Paul says waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, you don't have to pit the two positions against each other. Was it the day of the Lord in 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed or is it the final resurrection at the end of history that we're still waiting for? Which one is it?

What's the answer? I'm going to say yes. Yes is it one or the other? Yes. The way that the text lands on you doesn't change the meaning.

In fact, it only makes it more certain when it comes to God's promises. I want you to think about this. The way this text lands on us doesn't change regardless of your position there but it does make us even more certain of God's promises if you take my view. Jesus had promised, please listen if you checked out you're like I don't know what he's talking about check back in. Jesus had promised a coming judgment upon Jerusalem and that judgment came exactly as Jesus said it would come in 70 AD.

Jesus made a promise, Jesus kept his promise, Jesus is very serious about his promise. If He's done that in Jerusalem at 70 AD, and it was serious, and it was certain, and it happened exactly as He said it would. When Jesus has a promise now about the final judgment over all the earth, that judgment, that resurrection will come about exactly as he says it will because he keeps his promises. Jesus is serious so don't put the two things together don't pit them don't pit them away from each other put them together and say you know this is making this promise more certain. So when I read the end of verse seven and all of verse eight, I think that we should realize that God keeps his promises.

God keeps his promises and he's given to us the promise of the coming day of judgment that on the last day by his grace alone how will you stand? How will you stand? What does the text say? There's one word that starts with a B and ends with a less. Blameless.

Blameless. Blameless. That's the end of verse 8. Blameless. Just as God had confirmed His work in the Corinthians then, He would confirm them blameless all the way into the judgment.

And so too will God do with you so too will God do with you he's given to you his promise you will be blameless blameless saints to be blameless I mean I know my sin I know my fickleness I know the lousiness of my heart at times. And God knows it far better than I. And He knows it far better than you. And yet he says to you, and he says to me, blameless. What a promise!

Theologian Charles Hodge says that to be a blameless person is to be someone against whom no accusation can be brought. To be a blameless person is to be someone against whom no accusation can be brought. To be a blameless person is to be someone against whom no accusation can be brought. No accusation from the one who knows all things? I know all of the accusations of my sin.

I actually don't know them all. But I know a lot of them. How can this be, Paul? How can you say that God will make me Blameless, will keep me blameless even in the judgment. Romans chapter 8 is his answer.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all. How will he not also with him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge, an accusation against God's elect?

God is the one who justifies, so who is the one who can condemn? Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword. Will there be any accusation that will separate me from him?

Just as it is written, for our sake we are being put to death all day long, we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You have to separate God the Son from God the Father if you are to separate the one for whom Christ died and the triune God. You get that? You have to separate God the Son from God the Father in order to take away the one for whom Christ died away from God the Father.

You cannot separate God the Son and God the Father. You cannot do it. And therefore, you cannot take away the one for whom Christ died. You will be blameless. Blameless.

Church, you will be blameless. For Paul says in Ephesians 5, he declares that Jesus Christ will present to himself you the church and all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing on that last day, that she would be holy and blameless because of his work, because of his work. And so Paul's going to say to you in the rest of this letter, because of the promise that you will be blameless. Live blameless lives. Be holy, for He's declared you to be holy.

He's declared you to be blameless, so live blamelessly. This is his promise. He never breaks his promises. So what this really means beloved is that the God who saved you will keep you to the end. The God who saves you will keep you to the end.

You will persevere. Your salvation is eternally secured if you are in Christ Jesus. Now that sometimes makes people a wonky, you know. So does that mean pastor that I can just go out and live how I want? You're not in Christ if you even think that.

If you're thinking, ooh, I can go sin now, you're not in the vine. Because if you're in the vine, you'll bear much fruit because you have a new nature. You've been given a new identity in Jesus Christ. You've been given a new heart, beats for the Lord Jesus. So for the Christian, for the Christian, you are not wondering how much sin you can get away with.

You are wondering at how much sin that God has dealt with. How could this be? How could this be that thou my God shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how could it be? So I totally went off.

I know it's there. Okay, your salvation is totally secure. Your salvation is totally secure. So I wondered if you noticed it. Did you notice it there?

As you read through this passage maybe the past few weeks, have you noticed how, this marvelous thing that Paul does in like verb tenses? Maybe you didn't notice. So look in verse six. Look in verse six. The testimony concerning Christ was what?

Confirmed in you, that's past tense. It was confirmed in you. Then verse seven, so that you're not lacking in any gift awaiting eagerly the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are not currently lacking in any gift awaiting eagerly the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are not currently lacking in any gift awaiting eagerly the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ." That's written in the present tense.

And then verse eight, who will also what? Confirm you, that's future tense, to the end. Blame us. Past, present, future, yesterday, today, and tomorrow, from beginning to end, God does not change. And the God who saved you is the God who is saving you right now, and he is the God who will bring you all the way to glory.

Okay? Salvation, past, present, and future is secured for you, church. Go and live in light of that. You know, if you get that, that your salvation, past, present, and future is secured, you know what you do when you sin because of that? You are now freed up to confess it.

You are now freed up to say, I don't need to hide that. Past, present, future, the Lord's got me, and He says, confess that I might walk in freedom. Go live as free people this week. And when you sin against your wife, confess it to your wife. When you sin against your husband, confess it to your husband.

When you sin against your neighbor, confess it to your neighbor. Children, when you sin against your parents, confess it to your parents, confess it to God, and then go live free. Go live free. Because your salvation is secure, past, present, future. You are rich.

Why? Because God the Son is yours. And All that is in him is yours. That doesn't blow your mind. Well, you might be dead.

God has given you his son. God has given you his promise. And now finally Paul describes how God has given to you His fellowship. This is our final point, His fellowship. God has given to you His fellowship.

Verse nine, God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. First John chapter one states that fellowship with the Son is fellowship with the Father. If you fellowship with the Son, you fellowship with the Father. If you want fellowship with the Father but you don't fellowship with the Son, you don't have fellowship with the Father. There is one way to the Father, Jesus Christ.

To him, you're united to the Father. So get this, you who were once an alien, you were an alien to the promise. You were a pagan. You were an enemy of God. Now in Jesus Christ you are a member of His covenant people.

That's a huge shift from being lost and without hope and without God in the world to being a member of God's own household. A child at His table, You have fellowship with God. So think about the baptism of Jesus Christ. We talk a lot about this, I want to say it again. Think about the baptism of Jesus Christ.

At His baptism, what did God the Father declare over Christ His Son? What did He say? Behold, this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Church, hear this. In Jesus Christ, that is what God the Father declared over you at your baptism. This is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter, and whom I'm well pleased, for they belong to my son. They are in my son by faith, and I am well pleased with them, for I am well pleased with Him." Well, that's massive. What a gift, what grace that you are in Jesus Christ.

So that at your baptism, and that every time you come to this table to remember your baptism, that you hear every Lord's day, God the Father declaring over you through this sacrament your mine your my beloved child I am well pleased with you for the sake of my son." Christian, you have the smile of God. You realize that this morning. In Jesus Christ, you have the smile of God because you have Jesus, the Son of God. Through repentance and faith, He's borne your penalty away for your sin, and He's severed sin's power over you in His resurrection, and He's declared in power in His ascension, you are mine forever. You're mine forever.

And then He puts His mark on you at your baptism and at this table so that every single week you never forget it. Every single week you never forget it. You're mine. You're mine. I paid for you at the cost of the perfect's life, of the Son, my Son's life.

Every week God is declaring over you, you belong to me. Now Christian, if you believe that, you would go out of your feeling like you are the richest person in all the world, because you are. He has given to you His Son, His promises are all yes and amen in His Son, and He has brought you into His table fellowship through His Son. How then can you, a sure and sanctified and full of riches people, being in fellowship with God, how can then you turn to one another in this fellowship and say I'm going to insist in not being in fellowship with you how can you do that how can you be in fellowship with Almighty God being assured and sanctified and united people because you've been brought into his fellowship. How can you then, taking the bread and taking the cup, turn to your neighbor and say, but not you?

Well, may it never be. May it never be. That's sin if you do that. It's entirely inconsistent with everything that God has declared to be true in His Son. It's entirely inconsistent with all that He's given to you in His Son.

Because He has asked us to dwell together in the bonds of unity. So church, when you think of your sin, when you think of the sin of this church, when you get discouraged about one another's sin, what must you do? You must do what Paul did. And what did Paul do? He looked to Christ.

For every one look at sin, take a hundred looks at Christ, and then give thanks, just as Paul does here, that in the midst of corruption and in the midst of sin, be thankful that you have eyes to see the corruption in the sin. Be thankful that you have eyes to see the corruption in the sin. Be thankful that you have eyes to see that that's not right. Be thankful that you have a heart that wants to turn to Jesus. Be thankful for the people here that are confessing people, that want to repent, that want to belong to Jesus, that want to trust Him, that want to follow Him.

Be thankful for all that God has declared you to be together. And be thankful for all that he's given you so that you could be those things. What Paul does here, I want you to get this, there's one thing that you leave away with is this. What Paul does here in the first nine verses of First Corinthians chapter one, is the same thing he does in 11 chapters in the book of Romans. So if you're writing something down, write that down.

What Paul does in the first nine verses of 1 Corinthians is the same thing he does in the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans. What does he do in the first 11 chapters of Romans? He gives you indicative after indicative after indicative. Truth after truth after truth about who God is and who you are and who Christ is and what Christ has done for you. Just truth after truth after truth about your sin and the Savior who is greater than your sin.

Just look to Him. Look at Him. Look at Him. Look at Him. Look at Him.

Look at Him. I keep saying it, but it's a lot of look at Hims. For 11 chapters in Romans look at Jesus, see your sin, look to Jesus, be amazed by God, for 11 chapters he talks about that and then at chapter 12 he says In light of all those truths about who God is, what God has called you to be, and what He's done to you through His Son, therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God. Therefore go and obey. In light of all those truths, go and obey.

And he spends the next chapters on obedience. In light of the first 11 chapters of Romans, here's who God is, here's what he declared you to be, here is what he's given you. Now go work out what God has worked in Paul does that in 11 chapters in Romans He does it in nine verses in verse Corinthians you talk about a succinct man Here's what God has done for you in His Son. So go and live in light of Him. Here is who He's declared you to be.

Here's what He's given you so that you could be who He's declared you to be. This is the fuel. This is the necessary essential fuel for you church for your obedience for all the rest of the letter if you divorce verses 1 through 9 you say it's just an introduction doesn't really matter you're dead wrong you can't obey you can't repent you can't confess unless verses 1 through 9 are true This is fuel for obedience to all the rest of the letter. So verse nine, God is faithful. Oh church, as we go through this letter, remember God is faithful.

Through whom you were called into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And so the admonition that Paul is saying is this, because God the Father has called you into his fellowship with his son, go and live in fellowship with one another. Let's pray. Our Father we thank you for this your word and for the gift of your son Jesus. Lord we ask that you would make us a people that dwell together in unity because we know who it is that you have called us to be.

We know what it is that you have given to us so that we might be who you have called us to be. We thank you that all your promises are yes and amen because Christ rose up from the dead and that same Christ says it is finished. We thank you in His name, Amen.