Introduction:
Know Your Salvation (1 Corinthians 1:1-9)
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GRACE. (1 Cor 1:4)
Ephesians 2:8 – For by grace you have been saved through faith.
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GIFTED. (1 Cor 1:5-7a)
Ephesians 6:19 – <praying> also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel...
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GUILTLESS. (1 Cor 1:7b-9)
2 Corinthians 5:21 – For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
If the Bible is so clear that we are saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8), why do so many people insist on earning your salvation or hold the idea that good people go to heaven?
Explain 1 Cor 1:5 in your own words. How does this apply to your personal walk with Christ?
What does 1 Cor 1:8 say about the doctrine of eternal security (once saved, always saved)?
Why do you think Paul starts this letter by calling them sanctified (1 Cor 1:2) and reminding them of their salvation (1 Cor 1:4-6)?
Breakout
Pray for one another.
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Today is our ministry year kickoff and that also means that today is our anniversary.
So today we are celebrating 14 years of Harvest Bible Chapel and we're like a
lot of 14 year olds. We've come a long way but we have a long way to go.
Right? What kind of church is this? We sit on four pillars we have from the
beginning. We've proclaimed the authority of God's Word without apology. That's
what kind of church this is. We lift high the name of Jesus in worship. That's
what kind of church this is. We believe firmly in the power of prayer. That's what
kind of church this is. And we share the good news of Jesus with boldness. Those
are the four pillars this church was resting on when it was planted by God's
grace. Those are the four pillars today. It may it always be. So I want you to open
up your Bibles to 1 Corinthians and we're just going to pause. I want you to just
please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word and I will pray
for you to have a heart open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us
today. Alright? Let's just take a moment.
Father in heaven as we get into your Word now I pray that your Spirit
would work with your Word in the hearts of every person here. In the hearts of
every person that is streaming or going to be listening to this podcast later.
Father thanks to the technologies we have in our day. This goes out to so
many people all over the planet and we thank you that you've given us
opportunity and we want to use that opportunity to exalt your Word, to exalt
your Son. Father has to start right here.
Father incline our hearts towards nothing but your glory. We pray in Jesus' name.
All of God's people said amen. Amen. A couple of decades ago Aaron and I were
doing foster care and for about a year and a half we had a brother and sister.
They were five and seven and it was at the time it was the worst case of child
abuse in Butler County. I don't know if that's still the case but it was at the
time. But the five-year-old boy was pretty broken when he came to us. He
couldn't even talk really and we tried our hardest to give them some
semblance of a normal childhood. You know? Well one of the things that we did to
that end was we signed our five-year-old, his name is Walter. We signed him up for
soccer and I played soccer in high school and in college so I was asked to
help coach the team. Now anybody ever coach five-year-olds in soccer? It's a
real hoot because coaches have to be on the field with the kids. Okay, not on the
side shouting instructions. "Will, you're standing on the field with the kids and
you have to run." And did you ever see five-year-olds play soccer? Okay, it's not
like World Cup where they're all like spread out and passing. It's just this
wave of kids chasing the ball. Well we were really trying to get really trying
to get Walter to embrace this, right? It was a big part of my childhood. Just
wasn't clicking. The kids would run by with the ball. We're like, "Walter, get the
ball! Get the ball!" And Walter would run a couple of steps and he'd go, "They're too
fast." Like, "Walter, no, come on, come on, get the ball! They're too fast." And then he
would get increasingly frustrated. Walter's big insult for people was to
call them naked. So the kids would run by, I'm like, "Walter, get the ball!" He goes,
"They're naked! They're naked! They're naked!" And I'm like, "Actually, they're
clothed, but we need you to hustle, right?" And I don't know if this is great
parenting or not. Probably not. But at one point, Aaron and I offered Walter 25
cents for every time he even touched the ball. We paid up zero. Well the other
coach, she was the mom of the goalie. Before the first game, she pulled me
aside. She goes, "I just want to warn you. I can't remember her son's name. We'll call
him Joey." She goes, "I just want to warn you." She goes, "Joey doesn't like getting
scored on." I'm like, "Well, that makes sense." She goes, "No, he really, really
overreacts." Like, well, good to know. Well, sure enough, we got scored on. To say
that the kid lost his mind as an understatement, he started ripping his
clothes like trying to rip his jersey off. And it was this scene. It was like
he was turning into the Hulk. And I'm watching this. I'm like, "Oh, man, what is
going on here?" And then all of a sudden, I realized, "Wait a minute. Where did
Walter go?" All of a sudden, I lost the foster kid. You don't want to tell the
agency that. I'm like, "Where did he go? Where is he? Where?" Then I looked down.
Walter is celebrating with the other team. Hugs and high fives and...
This unity on the soccer team, it was funny. But you know, when there's this
unity in the church, it's not so funny. Let's be honest, we're a lot like those
kids in the soccer team sometimes, aren't we? Irrationally losing our minds over
stupid things, calling people names, not wanting to participate. That's the theme
of this first stretch in 1 Corinthians. You're gonna be hearing this a lot,
because it's important to the heart of God, so it's important to the heart of
the leaders in this church. Get unified. Church, we need to get unified.
1 Corinthians was written to the church in Corinth, and you have to
understand a little bit about their background. The city of Corinth was
corrupt. Like, how corrupt were they? They were so corrupt that the city's very
name became synonymous with immorality.
They were known for their temple to the false goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of
love, and they had about a thousand priestesses who served as prostitutes.
So you can imagine what passed for worship in Corinth.
Well, it's in that backdrop that the Apostle Paul planted a church. You can read
about this, little homework assignment for you. Acts chapter 18. Go home and read it.
Not right now, but go home and read it, and you'll see how the church was planted.
So you have this church planted in this horrible city, and the church, the church
itself, was absolutely perfect. They just had two problems. Bad doctrine and bad
behavior. Other than that, they were perfect. What the Corinthian church needed
was unity and purity. Look at chapter 1 verse 1. Paul called by the will of God
to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother Sostenes to the church of God
that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints
together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. Grace to you in peace from God, our
Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. This church had a lot of problems, and we're
going to be getting into that. And if you're familiar with God's word at all,
you know. And it's so interesting to me that Paul starts this letter saying, hey,
you Christians, those of you in Christ Jesus, you are sanctified. That word means
holy, I mean set apart. And then he goes, he calls them saints. Again, the word
means holy. Saint is a name for all true Christians, by the way. And when you look
at this little introduction, you're like, wow, Paul, that's quite a thing to say
when you consider the rest of the book. And we're going to see as we go through
this, but these Christians were worldly, and they were divisive, and there was
sexual sin, and the list goes on and on and on. They were just, they were so
messed up in so many ways. And why in the world would Paul kick this letter up by
saying you sanctified saints you? Like, why would he start that way?
What, was it to butter them up? Like, I'm about to lay the hammer down, so I'm just
going to make you feel good on the front. That wasn't it. Was Paul just
ignoring all their problems? Like, maybe if I don't mention it, they'll go away.
No, that's certainly not it. So why did he start by calling them sanctified
saints? Why? Because it was true. Wait, wait, wait. How can they be holy and still
struggle with being holy? Well, biblically, when we talk about holiness,
holiness is two things. There's positional holiness, and there is practical
holiness. Positional holiness is when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and
Savior, when you believe in Him, when you are born again, God pronounces you holy.
In God's eyes, He's looking at you through the lens of Jesus Christ, and from God's
perspective, He says you are perfectly holy. We're going to talk more about that
in just a couple of minutes. So while we are positionally holy, practical
holiness, that is the growing, living like Christ, growing in Christ's
likeness, doing the things that honor the Lord, growing in maturity as a Christian.
Put it this way, the Christian life is growing to be what God already pronounced
you to be. That's what the Christian life is. It's growing to be what God
already pronounced you to be. It's like joining the army. When you enlist in the
army, as soon as you enlist, you are a soldier. So why go to boot camp? Why do
you go to boot camp? So they make you a soldier. You're like, "Wait, I thought I
already was." You are. That's what the army does. They're making you what they've
called you to be. That's what God does in holiness. He's pronounced you holy and
Jesus, and your sanctification, your growth, your maturity. He is making you what
He's already pronounced you to be. So now do you understand why Paul started the
letter this way? Paul says, "Granthians, this is who you are. This is your identity.
You are holy people." So we're going to get to this down the road. Paul's saying,
"If you're holy, why are you acting unholy? Sin is inconsistent with who you
are." So if we, Corinthian church, if we harvest Bible chapel, if we are going to
be unified and purified, it has to start here. You have to know your salvation.
That's where Paul starts. So on your outline, I want you to draw three words
down. Know your salvation. Now this passage we're looking at today says so
much in just a few short verses. It says so much about salvation. The Bible
itself says so much about salvation, but you're going to see here in this passage
knowing salvation is really knowing three G's. Your cell phone might need
five G's, God only needs three. Know your salvation. Three G's, it's all
straight from the text. Here's what you have to know about your salvation.
If you're going to grow in unity and purity, here's what you have to know
about your salvation. Number one, write this word down. Grace.
Look at verse 4. "I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of
God that was given you in Christ Jesus." And I get to tell you as a pastor, I love
that. He says, "I give thanks for you." Again, the church had so many issues that
Paul needed to deal with, but notice he didn't see them for where they are. He
saw them for who they are. It's like, "I give thanks for you." Why? They were given.
Actually, that word in the Greek refers to being given something at a moment of
time in the past. You know, I'm thankful for you because at one point in your past,
you were given one of the most beautiful words in the whole Bible. The word is
grace. You were given grace. You know, that's a word that we throw around a lot
in church. Sometimes we don't wrestle down what exactly it means.
You look up a theology textbook, grace is unmerited favor. It is undeserved
kindness. But you know, the best definition of grace I've ever heard is
this, grace is God giving to you what He requires from you. That's grace. God
giving to you what He requires from you. What does God require from you?
Holiness, righteousness, perfection. God requires that. We don't have it. Grace is
God giving that to us in Jesus Christ. Sometimes we mix up grace with other
concepts in the Bible like long suffering and mercy and things like that. My
favorite illustration, some of you have heard this before. You're going to hear it
again. It helps me to really understand what grace is, is this. Imagine that you
have a teenage son. Some of you do and some of you did. Some of you will and
some of you can use your imaginations. But imagine you have a teenage son and
your teenage son goes to a party. And at this party there's another boy, same age
as your son, who hates your son. Something stupid probably, a girl and
murders your son. Cold-blooded murder, unprovoked murder. This other kid
murders your son. Now, if you track that kid down that murders your son, if you
track him down and you kill him, that is called vengeance. But if you track him
down and you help the law, you help the police get him arrested, that's called
justice. But if you track him down, help the police get him arrested and you show
up at his court date and somehow, somehow, you're able to convince the judge to
just let him go. Like just let him go. That's called mercy. But you help the
police track him down, arrest him and you show up at his court date and somehow,
somehow, you convince the judge to allow you to adopt that kid as your own and
raise him as your own son. That's called grace. And understand that's what God has
done for us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have sinned against him and we
killed his son. And what's God's response to that? God's response is, "I want to
adopt you." That is grace. The Bible tells us, Ephesians chapter 2, "For by grace you
have been saved through faith." By grace we have been saved, we've been adopted, we've
been regenerated, we've been sanctified. It's all grace. Grace isn't withheld
because of our sin. God is able to be gracious to us because Jesus Christ took
away our sin. Our part is faith. That's our part. Faith is believing in Jesus.
It's believing Jesus is who he said he is. He is God in the flesh. It's believing
that Jesus accomplished what he said he would accomplish. That his death on the
cross was to pay the penalty for my sin and for your sin. He rose from the dead to
give us eternal life. It's believing that. It's receiving that. Our part is faith.
God has done all the work in Christ. That's His grace.
Now, this is so fundamental.
But at the same time, it's so hard to believe. It's so hard to believe because
every single area of our lives are performance-based. Every single one. Right?
My boss is happy with me when I perform. My teacher at school is happy with me when
I perform. My family is happy with me when I perform. Every area of life it's just
I gotta do stuff to make somebody happy and we bring that thinking into the
church. Like what do I have to do to make God happy? This is salvation is not
based on your performance. It's based on Jesus Christ's performance.
So as we start this stretch, as Paul starts this stretch in 1 Corinthians
telling the Corinthian church, telling Harvest Bible Chapel today, get unified.
You have to know your salvation and you have to understand grace because it's
only when you understand this that you take the first step to unity. What does
this have to do with unity? Grace puts us all on the same level.
We don't have time to do this but I'd sure like to. I'd like to get every
Christian to line up here like we do for communion. We will be doing that. I'd
like to get every Christian line up here. Just have testimony time. How were you
saved? By grace? Not because you were special or you worked for it? Oh that's
awesome, me too. Next. How were you saved? Oh by grace? Not because you were special
or did anything to earn it? Oh me too. Next. Do you see what that does?
None of us deserve to be saved. None of us. None of us are any better than
another.
We're not going to get unified until we come to grips with that. We're all on
the same level. We all, in Christ, are recipients of grace.
It's the first thing you need to know about salvation. The second one, number two,
write this word down. Gifted. Gifted.
Look at verse 5 through the first part of verse 7.
Paul says that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all
knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that
you are not lacking in any spiritual gift.
You are not lacking in any spiritual gift. You see grace speaks to the past.
That's what was received. Gifted speaks to the present. You are saved to serve.
Notice Paul says you are enriched. You are not lacking any gift. Jesus,
Paul is telling us here, Jesus has gifted you everything that you need to serve him.
You're like, well, can you be more specific? He was more specific actually.
Do you notice that? What is that? Verse 5, all speech and all knowledge.
These are two of the gifts that he highlights here. First of all, you were
gifted with all speech. You were gifted with the ability to speak the truth.
All knowledge. You were gifted with all knowledge. That doesn't mean you know
everything. That means you know everything that you need to know pertaining to the gospel.
So here's what Paul is saying. Listen, church, you have been gifted to speak and you have been
gifted with knowing what to say. So the question is, how are you using that?
You have the gift if you're a Christian. How are you using that?
Here at this church, it can be used in teaching and preaching.
All speech, all knowledge. It can be used in Harvest Academy,
teaching the kids back there while we're teaching in here. It can be used in small group.
It can be used in youth group, in conferences, in prayer services, in workshops, in precepts,
in our witnessing.
You've been given a gift. How are you using it?
Because the reality is the biggest problem with most Christians is not that we don't know what to say.
Our problem is just opening our mouths and saying.
I hear that all the time when it comes to witnessing. Well, I don't really witness because
I don't know what to say. If you don't know enough to share, then you probably don't know enough to be saved.
Look what Paul says in Ephesians 619.
He's talking about prayer. He says, "Praying also for me that words may be given to me in opening
my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel." You see that? Paul didn't say,
"Pray that I can't speak or pray that I would know what to say." He says, "I need boldness."
Our fourth pillar, sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness. That's what we need to be praying for.
Boldness isn't jerkiness. It's not obnoxiousness. It's just confidence in God's calling and God's
gifting. It's just confidence to say, "Look, God gave me a message and he gave me the knowledge
of what I'm supposed to say, so I'm just going to open my mouth and I'm going to say it."
And again, if you know enough to be saved, then you know enough to share.
Share what you know. Look at verse 6 again. I love as he says, "Even as the testimony
about Christ was confirmed among you." What's he saying? He's saying the people of Jesus using
the gifts of Jesus is confirmation that Jesus is at work in the church.
When I was little, my dad, for Christmas one year, he wanted magnifying goggles.
Because he was going to undertake this hobby of putting boats and bottles. Have you ever seen
these things where you have like a bottle and there's like a boat inside? You know what I'm
talking about? Okay, my dad was going, "I'm going to make those and I need magnifying goggles."
Like I said, I was just a little kid. I'm like, "I'm going to get those for dad."
Now listen, I can tell already you're not impressed. So I'm going to remind you of something.
This was pre-Internet. I know right now you can get on your phone and get on Amazon's or
Etsy or whatever. I don't know. But you can eBay, you can get on there and you can probably right
now find me 500 pairs of magnifying goggles. This was pre-Internet. This was pre-smartphone.
This was pre-cell phone.
All right? So I'm like, "I'm going to find those for him." And you know, it took me forever
making phone calls and going to different stores and talking to people and tracking.
And do you know, I found a pair of them. I went to a jewelry repair store
and I found them and I saved my money. Those weren't cheap. I saved my money,
especially for a little kid. I saved my money and I bought those magnifying goggles.
I bought them for dad for Christmas. I got to tell you, I can't think of a gift that I was more
excited to give in my life. See, one of them, I couldn't get them, but I tracked them down.
And I was so, I was so proud to give dad those magnifying goggles for Christmas.
Well, my father died in 2003. And you know, when somebody passes away and you start to
kind of go through their stuff and figure out what to do with all that,
found those magnifying goggles, still in the box, never used.
And I wonder, church,
when Jesus returns, how many boxes of magnifying goggles is he going to find?
I wonder when Jesus returns, how many of his gifts that he gave to his people,
is he going to return and find? Oh, we had them. We didn't use them.
We didn't use them. You have been gifted so much. And we're going to talk about this later,
the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We're going to talk about this later in 1 Corinthians.
But have you been using the gifts that God gave you?
Listen, if your mindset is this, you know what, Pastor Jeff, I just attend church.
My spiritual gift is attendance. My spiritual gift is warming a seat. And you know, I just leave
the ministry to the professionals. I don't really have a gift. That's bad news. Because not having
a gift means you're not saved, because he tells us right here that Jesus' people are enriched in him.
Paul is saying, church, you have everything you need. Everything has been gifted to you,
to minister to each other, and to reach the world.
So look, there's no bench warmers on this team.
On this team, listen, if you're saved, you're starting.
All right? Don't call the other players naked. All right? If you're saved, you're starting.
Get unified. Get unified. You know, the biggest unity killer in the church is selfishness.
My wants, my desires, my preferences, especially in this culture where we are right now,
right here geographically where we are, this is a horrible place. Because the mindset of most
churchgoers in this area is church is the place that I go to get. And I'm going to this church
because they have better coffee, and I'm going to this church because, you know, they have a zip
line for their youth group, and I'm going to this church because they have fog machines and laser
lights. And we have this idea that church is the place that I go to get. And that is completely
foreign to the Bible. Church is not the place you go to get. Church is the place you go to get.
And anything you receive here is bonus. The mindset has to be church is the place I go to get.
You're expected to. It's why you're saved, and it's why you have been gifted.
Know your salvation. Three Gs, grace, gifted, one more.
Guiltless.
Guiltless. Pick up second part of verse seven,
where he says, "As you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ."
That Greek word for wait means to wait eagerly. Right? I don't have to tell you on that.
There's a big difference between the way a kid is waiting to open his birthday presents
versus the way that kid's dad is waiting at the DMV. Right? This is wait eagerly. It's this idea of
anticipation like, "Oh, he's coming. He's coming. I can't wait. I cannot wait. Jesus is coming, and I
cannot wait." Do you see that? What are we waiting for? He tells us the revealing of our Lord Jesus
Christ. I don't know if you noticed, but Jesus Christ is mocked now. He's about to show up.
And he's going to make everything right. And he's going to make everything new.
Are you excited for that? I sure am.
In the verse eight, he says, "Who will sustain you to the end? Who will sustain you to the end?
If you believe that you can lose your salvation, I want you to explain that verse to me.
Will sustain you to the end?" Did you ever wonder if you're going to make it?
Did you ever wonder,
am I going to make it to the end? Loving Jesus, following Jesus, serving Jesus, am I going to make it?
Listen, if you are legitimately born again in Christ, you will make it.
On the authority of the Word of God, you are going to make it.
Because you didn't work to earn your salvation, and you can't work to keep your salvation.
And here very plainly, God's Word tells us that Jesus will sustain you to the end.
How? That's His responsibility. He's going to get you there.
You're like, okay, well maybe He's going to get me there, Pastor Jeff, but I got a lot to answer for.
When I stand before God, He's going to tell me how disappointed He is in me.
God's going to tell me how upset He is with me. And I've had people tell me, Pastor Jeff,
you know what, when we're like in line to get to heaven, don't be standing behind me.
Because God is, He's got a lot of stuff that He's going to, He's really going to let me have it.
You don't want to stand behind me in line to get to heaven.
Well, let's keep reading, shall we? Who will sustain you to the end? Look at this.
Guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Guiltless.
In that day, when you stand before Christ, it is not going to be for Him
to tell you how badly you messed up. In Christ, what does your Bible say? You have no guilt.
2 Corinthians 5.21 says, "For our sake, God He made Him Jesus."
God made Jesus to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness
of God. There's a trade that's going on here. Jesus took our sin on Himself, on the cross,
to the point that somehow He is personified sin here.
He took our sin. What did He give us in exchange? So that in Him we might become the righteousness
of God. Do you see that this grace, it didn't just take away your sin. God's grace
made you as righteous as God Himself is. And look, you can talk to me about the trinity
and creation and predestination, and I've never lost a moment's sleep over any of those things.
To me, this is the most baffling doctrine in the entire Bible, the fact that God would take
a piece of dirt, sinner like me, and because of Jesus Christ, He would pronounce me as righteous
as He is. I don't even have the ability to explain how awesome that is.
Guiltless. He's going to sustain you until the day that you stand before Him when He
pronounces you guiltless. You're like, "You sure about that?"
Well, look at verse 9, "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship
of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord." Yeah, I am sure about that, because it's not based
on my ability, and it's not based on my integrity. It's based on God's ability,
and it's based on God's integrity. He called you to this, the fellowship of His Son.
You've got to know your salvation.
And you see, it's past, present, and future, right? It's justification, sanctification,
glorification. It's just in this particular passage, it's grace, gifts, and guiltless.
And for them then, and for us now, this isn't new information.
But these are foundational truths that we seem to forget about over time.
Because church harvest Bible chapel like the Corinthians over time, we tend to forget about
our identity in Jesus Christ. We forget that we were lost, hellbound sinners saved by His grace.
We forget that we are here to serve, not to be served. We forget that Jesus Christ is coming
soon, and we forget that this is Jesus' church, not our church.
And when we forget these things, unity goes out the window, because we start to think
that church is about us. Know your salvation. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. It's His grace. It's His gifts.
It's His fellowship. So our worship team makes their way forward in our communion servers.
You know, Jesus gave us a way to remind us of all these truths that unite us in Him.
That's what I love about the Lord's table. Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of Me."
This keeps bringing us back when we are tempted to think this is about us, when we are tempted to
think that we are contributing to our salvation. When we are tempted to think
that God doesn't love us and we need to figure stuff out, this brings us back to the foundational
truths of the way God purchased your salvation and what it means for us today.