SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W.
SPEAKER_00: Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delant, Florida.
SPEAKER_00: Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's your host, Pastor James W.
SPEAKER_00: Knox.
SPEAKER_01: I'm Brother James, and this is the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder how many times I have said that in four decades plus of broadcasting on the radio and now simulcasting so that some of you are watching a video presentation of a radio program, what a day and time it is in which we find ourselves living.
SPEAKER_01: We started several, several sessions ago a study on the biblical doctrine of the eternal security of the believer.
SPEAKER_01: And by that we mean that God keeps his word.
SPEAKER_01: And by that we mean that when the Lord promised that he would give eternal life to everyone who believed on him, and that they would never perish, we believe he meant just what he said.
SPEAKER_01: We started our study in Romans chapter 8 and verses 38 and 39, which say, For I'm persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us, the believer, from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And after discussing that great promise, and God would only have to state something once, and it would be eternally true, we then set out to look at 25 other places in the New Testament and a couple in the old, which state the very same truth.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe different words, maybe coming at it from a different angle.
SPEAKER_01: But the God who speaks truth, when he speaks the same truth over two dozen times, it's a marvel to me that so many people can't believe it or won't believe it.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's our attempt.
SPEAKER_01: What we're attempting on these series of programs is to persuade you.
SPEAKER_01: The Apostle Paul was persuaded by the Holy Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_01: He wrote the basis of that persuasion in the Bible for us.
SPEAKER_01: And those of us who read and believe the Bible, we are persuaded, and we want you likewise to be persuaded.
SPEAKER_01: Our next reference, and we hasten from Romans over to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, 1 Corinthians 1, and we're going to start reading at verse number 4.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 4 reads as follows.
SPEAKER_01: I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything you're enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.
SPEAKER_01: So that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: God is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Not only is the promise interesting, not only is the promise blessed, but when you consider to whom the promise is made, it really stands to reinforce our belief in the believer's security.
SPEAKER_01: How so, preacher?
SPEAKER_01: Well, first of all, in verse 4, the Bible says that these people are saved by the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: And the conduit, the vessel by which this grace of God became possible, available, and was delivered to them is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He is the foundation upon which God can save the believer by grace.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse number five, the saving grace enriches by the same Jesus Christ all who believe.
SPEAKER_01: These Corinthian believers were richly given utterance.
SPEAKER_01: They proclaimed the gospel they had received, knowledge, they understood the gospel they had received.
SPEAKER_01: And then verse six, even as the testimony, listen, of Christ was confirmed in you.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say emphatically, let me say, as a pastor, as a minister of the gospel, it is absolutely essential that every believer have a good testimony for Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That is not what we're reading about here.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of you that claims the name of Jesus Christ, you should live in such a way as to reinforce by the life you live the testimony that I hope you give with your lips.
SPEAKER_01: Your life and your lips should correspond as should mine.
SPEAKER_01: That is not what we're reading about here.
SPEAKER_01: They are saved by grace.
SPEAKER_01: They are gifted by grace.
SPEAKER_01: The reason they can be saved by grace is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The reason they are gifted by grace is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And the testimony upon which their eternal life rests is not their own, but the testimony of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Christ Jesus came into the world, born of a virgin.
SPEAKER_01: That's his testimony, not yours.
SPEAKER_01: He lived without sin.
SPEAKER_01: That's his testimony, not mine.
SPEAKER_01: He died upon the cross according to the scriptures, that's his testimony, not ours.
SPEAKER_01: He rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: He ascended to the Father's right hand, and from that exalted place of glory, the crucified and risen Savior imparts everlasting life to all who believe on him.
SPEAKER_01: That's his testimony.
SPEAKER_01: And when I receive Jesus Christ as my Savior, when you or any other sinner receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: You are receiving from a believing heart, you are receiving from a consenting mind that his testimony is going to be that upon which you base your hope of everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: Now, God knows who has trusted Jesus Christ as Savior.
SPEAKER_01: And when a man, a woman, a boy, or a girl, like those at Corinth, in the ancient Grecian city of Corinth, two millennia ago, when they put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, God confirmed that.
SPEAKER_01: And if a priest never confirmed them, doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: If a church never confirmed them, doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: If God confirmed that they had trusted the testimony of his son, that is the basis of their salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Not no watch.
SPEAKER_01: So that you come behind a no gift.
SPEAKER_01: They were gifted people.
SPEAKER_01: They were a charismatic church, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now this is this is vital.
SPEAKER_01: People, listen, please, please, listen.
SPEAKER_01: This is vital.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter number two of First Corinthians, there are there's evidently a confusion in this church over placing confidence in the words and the wisdom of men, both chapter one and chapter two, and placing confidence in the word and wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's a problem.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter number three, there is strife and discord among the brethren in the church at Corinth.
SPEAKER_01: That's a problem.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter number four, there is disrespect for authority.
SPEAKER_01: There are people who are puffed up and proud, exalting themselves against the leadership that God has established in their church.
SPEAKER_01: That's a problem.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter five, there is immorality so severe that people are being expelled from fellowship in the gathering of the believers in the city of Corinth.
SPEAKER_01: There is there is leaven, if you will, in the body, in the in the bread, uh, the congregation of the believers.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter number six, saved people are taking one another to courts of law because the church won't approve of their misconduct.
SPEAKER_01: So they're going to the world to get approval to do things that the word of God forbids.
SPEAKER_01: That's a problem.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter number seven, you've got uh family problems, marriage problems.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter eight, you've got arguments uh that arise over people having defiled consciences and people uh exalting themselves and pridefully setting themselves over one another.
SPEAKER_01: That's a problem.
SPEAKER_01: You've got lack of support for the ministry in chapter nine, that's a problem.
SPEAKER_01: You've got some people showing up for church drunk in chapter 10, that's a problem.
SPEAKER_01: You have complaining and murmuring and people yielding to temptation in chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: You've got uh arguments and misunderstandings about a woman's uh head covering, and God says it's it her hair is given of her for a covering, but people are arguing that she needs a covering for her covering, and and it's all uh the things just all uh convoluted.
SPEAKER_01: And in chapter number 12, there's a misunderstanding about spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 13, there's a lack of charity.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 14, uh tongues, the gift of tongues is being abused.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 15, they don't understand the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: This church is a mess.
SPEAKER_01: The people in the church are a mess, and that's why the church is a mess.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, then they must not be saved.
SPEAKER_01: Well, of course they're saved.
SPEAKER_01: They're saved by grace, not by works.
SPEAKER_01: And getting saved by grace didn't fix all their problems, it didn't straighten out all their wrong ideas, it didn't uh resolve all their conflicts, it didn't make crazy people sane, it didn't make carnal people spiritual, it didn't make selfish people loving.
SPEAKER_01: It saved their souls.
SPEAKER_01: That's what salvation does, it saves your soul.
SPEAKER_01: And then God's Holy Spirit and God's word and the preaching of God's word and the fellowship of God's people works over the course of a lifetime, hopefully, to make each of us a little bit more like Jesus day after day after day after day.
SPEAKER_01: Preacher, what's your point?
SPEAKER_01: My point's a simple one.
SPEAKER_01: If any group of people was in danger of losing their salvation, it's this sorry bunch at Corinth.
SPEAKER_01: If any group of people trusted Christ and then didn't live it, it's the people that got this letter of 1 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, the Holy Spirit of God in the word of God, in the introduction to the letter, said, The same Lord that confirmed you when you believed on Jesus Christ, gives you his word, he will confirm you unto the end.
SPEAKER_01: Now, how about that?
SPEAKER_01: You say, Preacher, I just believe if if you do something wrong after you get saved, it doesn't matter what you believe, it matters what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: And the thing for you to do is not argue with the Bible to your own hurt, but to stop hurting yourself and agree with the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Please.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I just think, well, aren't you glad we've got a higher source of intelligence than what you think or what I think?
SPEAKER_01: We have the living words of God Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what he said.
SPEAKER_01: Now, listen, he's about to write about to write a letter.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna have the Apostle Paul write a letter to an assembly of believers in the city of Corinth, and he is going to rebuke them in 14 long chapters.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter one, hello, chapter 16, goodbye.
SPEAKER_01: From chapter two to chapter 15, he is wearing them out because they need it, because they are wrong in so many ways and about so many things.
SPEAKER_01: But before he does, before he does, he says, I just want you to know that all the way up until the day that Jesus Christ comes for you, verse number seven, and all the way up until the time that you are with Jesus Christ, verse number eight, God will be faithful to keep the promise that he made to you.
SPEAKER_01: And on Monday you might be to blame, and on Wednesday you might be to blame, and on Friday afternoon you might be to blame, and on Sunday morning you might be to blame be to blame.
SPEAKER_01: But there is coming a day when you will stand in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ blameless, because as Philippians told us, he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Before he sets to work in correcting his children, who you say, well, they've really gone wrong.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know that they've gone wrong, or if they've just never been taught what is right.
SPEAKER_01: But he's not he's not going to forsake them, he's not going to abandon them, he's not going to throw them away, he's going to raise them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now, now think with me for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: In your nation, it might it might be different, but in in my nation, in my nation, when I was a boy, my parents' generation, the men and the women who were my parents' age, they grew up, my parents born in the 1920s.
SPEAKER_01: How about that?
SPEAKER_01: They grew up grew up in the late 20s, 1930s, Depression era, 30s giving way to Second World War era.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: The lost people, the lost people, almost across the board, had more Christian character than saved people do today.
SPEAKER_01: They had a better understanding of what was right and what was wrong according to the Bible, than most people who go to church and claim to be Christians do today.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just telling you that.
SPEAKER_01: If there was a town drunk, he was in hiding, ashamed of himself, and nobody was laughing about it or glorifying it because God said it was wrong.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to go down through the entire list of things.
SPEAKER_01: They try now to call it morals.
SPEAKER_01: They try to call it values.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's got values.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's got morals.
SPEAKER_01: Those are vague general terms that let people do what they want to do, they're do their own thing.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about biblical righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I say that?
SPEAKER_01: Because a pastor in 1965 in most of the United States, when a man came to his church and trusted Christ as Savior, he was ready to go because he already knew how to live the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: He was, by and large, living the Christian life before he got saved.
SPEAKER_01: He just needed Christ to forgive him of his sins so he could go to heaven when he died.
SPEAKER_01: He was working a job.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't cheating on his wife.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't beating his kids.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't a drug addict.
SPEAKER_01: He was just go down the list.
SPEAKER_01: He's just a good American, probably a vet, putting in his 40 hours a week, mom's home raising the kids.
SPEAKER_01: And then he got saved.
SPEAKER_01: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You can plug him right in to serving God because he knows how to live.
SPEAKER_01: Today, today, when we lead someone to Christ, age 30, 35, age 25, age 20, they don't know how to get up and dress themselves.
SPEAKER_01: They don't know how to show up for work and hold a job.
SPEAKER_01: They don't know how to speak respectfully to a pastor or to an elder.
SPEAKER_01: They argue with you about everything the Bible calls sin and want to tell you it's not a sin and they love the Lord and the Lord loves us.
SPEAKER_01: Look, here's what I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_01: When a man gets saved on a Sunday morning in a church in Europe, in America, I can't speak for the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_01: He's saved, hallelujah, by the marvelous grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: But if you're expecting that man to live according to the Bible, it's going to take a while.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to take preaching, it's going to take prayer, it's going to take fellowship, it's going to take Bible study, it's going to take getting on your knees and repenting and working some things out a second time, a third time, a fourth time.
SPEAKER_01: Now, are you going to say that man's not saved?
SPEAKER_01: Because when he got saved, he didn't become sinless?
SPEAKER_01: Are you going to say that woman's not saved because when she got saved, she still had to learn and still had to grow?
SPEAKER_01: Well, of course you're not.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then you can't say that if you commit sin, you lose your salvation, because everyone who gets saved would lose it within 48 hours if you could lose it.
SPEAKER_01: That's just a fact.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, well, preacher, if you don't know you're doing wrong, if you don't know it's sin, that doesn't count.
SPEAKER_01: Who made that up?
SPEAKER_01: Did you make that up?
SPEAKER_01: Did your pastor make that up?
SPEAKER_01: Did the church you attend make that up?
SPEAKER_01: That's not in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: You go back in the law, there's an entire lengthy chapter on the repentant offerings you have to bring God when you find out you've been committing a Sin in ignorance.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not trying to make you feel bad about the life you're living.
SPEAKER_01: Not not today.
SPEAKER_01: I'll do that on in some other sermons and on some other programs.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm trying to get you to understand is the people in the church at Corinth got saved and didn't know how to live it.
SPEAKER_01: Got saved and didn't live it.
SPEAKER_01: And some of them got saved and lived so badly, they weren't allowed to keep coming to church.
SPEAKER_01: And later, 2 Corinthians, we find out people worked with them, Holy Spirit worked with them, they repented, they got their lives straightened out, and were able to be welcomed back into church.
SPEAKER_01: You know what they didn't have to do?
SPEAKER_01: Get saved again.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they were saved from the moment they trusted Christ as Savior, and saved means confirmed by the Lord and confirmed unto the end, so that those of us, all of us, who are not yet blameless, have the hope and the certainty that one day we shall be blameless.
SPEAKER_01: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I can't teach all of 1 Corinthians today.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we were supposed to look at several verses today and didn't get past this one.
SPEAKER_01: But uh watch this.
SPEAKER_01: In the same introductory passage here, the Bible says in verse number one, uh Paul called to be an apostle Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sososthenes, our brother.
SPEAKER_01: There we go, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of our Lord, uh of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours.
SPEAKER_01: Now look, they are saved, they are sanctified, they are in Christ, they are saints.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they called on the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, there'd be no divisions among you, that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind, in the same judgment.
SPEAKER_01: For it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how about that?
SPEAKER_01: He can't get through the first half of the first chapter without having to start in on their carnality, and they're sanctified.
SPEAKER_01: He's not 13 verses into the chapter, and he's rebuking them, he's rebuking them for living in the flesh and they're saints.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know something?
SPEAKER_01: If you've never been saved, the only way you can be saved is to call on the name of the Lord, trusting his testimony for your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: That's the only way to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: And if you are saved, if you are saved, there is something in your life right now that God needs to correct.
SPEAKER_01: There's something in your life right now that the Holy Spirit would like to improve upon.
SPEAKER_01: There's something in your life right now that doesn't match Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Your life, my life, every life of every person who's saved.
SPEAKER_01: And yet you're saved.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's not by works, it's by grace.
SPEAKER_01: Well then, preacher, what's to keep me from living however I want?
SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
SPEAKER_01: You do live however you want.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to sin, you justify it, you go ahead and do it.
SPEAKER_01: And if things turn out really badly, you'll ask God to forgive you.
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to live a holy life and want to live a victorious life and want to live a godly life, you'll ask the Lord to help you and He will, and you'll live that way.
SPEAKER_01: We're not talking on these broadcasts about how to live and how to accomplish living the way God wants you to.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about what it means to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: And it means to have eternal, everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God gives to all those who trust Jesus Christ as their savior.
SPEAKER_01: All right, so we're winding down here, heading down the home stretch.
SPEAKER_01: And every now and then we take time to do this.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, this radio broadcast and these internet programs and the books that we publish and the church that God has blessed us with, all of them exist because God's people support God's work.
SPEAKER_01: And you do that, and our people here at the Bible Baptist Church in the land do that so faithfully that we do not have to ask for money, plead for money, solicit money.
SPEAKER_01: And so we we every now and then we take the time not to say, please send money or please send more, but to take the time to say thank you for doing so.
SPEAKER_01: And thank you for doing so so abundantly and so faithfully that we have never had to ask.
SPEAKER_01: We truly are appreciative of your support.
SPEAKER_01: When you write to us, if if you write the old-fashioned way, uh put a letter in the mailbox, it's a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: We we like we like getting those letters from all over the world.
SPEAKER_01: The mailing address is 872 Glenwood Road, Deland, Florida 32720.
SPEAKER_01: 872 Glenwood Road, Deland, Florida 32720.
SPEAKER_01: That mailing address is in the United States of America.
SPEAKER_01: If you're watching online, you may contact us via our website, jameswnox.org.
SPEAKER_01: And and when you do, when you write the letter, when you uh send the email via the website, if you'd just let us know where you're listening, where you're watching, and send along that that word of testimony.
SPEAKER_01: We got two today that were amazing.
SPEAKER_01: It's just a thrill to our heart, and thank you for sending those along.
SPEAKER_01: Well, this program is heard at many different times on many different radio stations.
SPEAKER_01: The announcement will be on in just a moment to let you know when you can hear us again on this radio station.
SPEAKER_01: At that time, we hope you'll join us for the preaching of the cross radio broadcast.
SPEAKER_01: Until then, I'm Brother James.
SPEAKER_01: May the Lord richly bless you, and good day.
SPEAKER_00: Join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: For hundreds of hours of in-depth expository Bible teaching, please visit our YouTube channel, James W.
SPEAKER_00: Knox Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptist the Land, or our website, Bible BaptistToland.com.
SPEAKER_00: Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.