I'm so thankful that Mike and
Marilyn will come up and help us with that singing. Have a
piano helps us a lot, doesn't it? It's so good to be with you
today. We're going to be continuing
our lesson from last time we were here, which has been a month
ago now. And that is found in the book
of First Corinthians, chapter one. And I'll read some scripture
there in a minute. But before we do, let's go to the Lord in
prayer. Gracious Father in heaven, We're
so thankful that we can call upon you, that we can address
you as father. Lord, that you can treat your
people as your children. You give us favor among all,
and we're just thankful for that. We're thankful, Lord, for the
privilege to be here with these dear people. Lord, we're thankful
for their service to you or their husband's service to you. We
just ask, Lord, you be with us now and that you would comfort
our hearts and calm us and give us attendance to your precious
word, for it is the power of God unto salvation. We thank
you in Jesus' name, amen. All right, in the book of 1 Corinthians,
we find a passage of scripture that we looked at a little bit
last time, and the church at Corinth had some problems. They had divisions among them.
There was a group of people that liked Paul's preaching the best.
And there were a group of people that like Apollos is preaching
the best. And there were a group of people
that like Cephas is preaching the best. And there was a division
over that. And the Apostle Paul was called
on to write to them and asked the question, who died for you? Who went to the cross for you?
It makes a big difference. And that kind of calmed things
out. Every time there was an issue in the book of First Corinthians,
Christ is the answer. Well, here in the latter part
of this book, of this chapter, chapter one, the Apostle Paul,
as a secretary, he's a secretary, he's not making up these words,
he's given these words. And he said, as a secretary,
for you see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. So in
the run of the course of events, there's not many in the higher
echelon that are called because they're too wise for it. And
God has chosen the simple things. As it goes on, God has chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God has
chosen the weak things of the world to confine the things which
are mighty. The base things of the world, the things which are
despised, have God chosen. Now, three times in three verses,
he mentions a very important characteristic about God, and
that is God does the choosing. It is he that does this. He is
in charge. He's the one that is the master.
He's the one that is the sovereign. He's the one that is the king
of kings and Lord of lords. That's not us. It's him that
is in charge. And I'm thankful for that because
left to ourselves, we would never come to Christ if it is him we
can be drawn. If it's us, we just stop. We're
in rebellion against it. Well, he goes on to tell us that
the reason for all of this is that no flesh should glory in
his presence. That is the culminating statement
that we find here that the Apostle Paul in writing to the saints
at Corinth said, whatever happens, wherever you stand, whatever
you do, whatever you hang on to, It better not be that your
flesh is glory. Because God said that no flesh
should glory in his presence. It is not us, it's him that we
want to glory in. It is in his salvation that we
want to glory in. It's his faith we want to glory
in. It's his redemption that we want to glory in. So as the
apostle Paul writes, and then he says, but of him are ye in
Christ Jesus. Now another translation put that
this way, God has united you with Christ Jesus. Now however
God saves his people, it is he that unites people with Christ.
He is the one that moves in us both to will and to do of his
good pleasure. His activity is the most important
part. It is him that we want to give
the credit for. It is not what we want to do
that we get the credit for. It's what he does for us. that
needs to have the credit. He says, but of him are in Christ
Jesus. He is the central theme. And he is the one that brings
people to God. And it is in this person, Jesus
Christ, as we read there, we're united to Christ because of God. It's not the other way around. We're united to Christ because
of God for our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. So it is for the benefit, for
our benefit, God made him to be wisdom. So for the benefit
of everybody that's ever gonna be saved, Christ is the wisdom
of God. Now that covers a broad spectrum. You know, when we think about
how people could be saved, everybody has their own idea. We have our own idea how we're
going to be saved. Aren't you thankful that the
Bible tells us how God saves his people? It's not up to us. It's up to him. It's not up to
what we think about God. There's so many variations, so
many themes. Everybody has an idea. You know,
I don't care for Bible studies where people are asked, what
do you think about this verse of Scripture? What do you think
about this verse of Scripture? What do you think about this
verse of Scripture? What do you think? Because everybody has different
ideas. We need to have a Bible study, if we're going to have
one, that's in accordance with the Word of God and what it has
to say. It doesn't matter what I think about it. It's what God
thinks about it. So here we have but of him are
you in Christ Jesus. It is because of him. that we
are in the church. It is because of him we're in
the bride. It's because of him that we can
say, I am saved. It is his activity. And as a
result of that, we find that Christ has made our wisdom. Now
it took the wisdom of God, the very wisdom of God, to come up
with a purpose and a plan before the foundation of the world that
whereby he could save people. We have sinners on one hand,
we have perfect God on the other hand. How can they ever in this
world be brought together? Job brought up the question many,
many years ago in the book of Job. It says, how then can man
be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is
born of a woman? How can I be justified with God? What do I have to do? What can
I go through? What work must I do? Well, we
find out that we're not justified by works. In fact, it tells us
in the book of Romans, to declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness,
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. So he is just. when he put our
sin on his son, Jesus Christ on the cross, and he also can
be the justifier, and that is the one that can forgive our
sins. So we have a problem. We're born
into sin. We have a terrible plight among
us. It is, well, the Bible calls it, we're dead in trespasses
and sin, and that's a serious situation that we're in by nature.
But there is one that has promised to take care of the problem.
And that problem is taken care of by Jesus Christ and his death
on the cross. He's the one that is the wisdom
of God. He is the one that tells us that
I will take care of the problem. I will not leave it up to you
because you can't get out of the problem. The Romans, well,
there's a verse here I want. Just a moment. In the book of 1 Corinthians,
again, chapter 15, it says, but by the grace of God, I am what
I am. And the Apostle Paul is writing,
and his grace, which he bestowed upon me, was not in vain. It's
by the grace of God. Now, I think the Apostle Paul
was a great preacher. And I think he was a great missionary.
And I think he was a great person in many respects. But you know
who he gave the credit for, for his position? I am what I am
by the grace of God. It's not my education. It's not
my birth. It's not me being a Pharisee.
It's not me keeping the law. It's none of those things. I
am what I am by the grace of God, by God's unmerited favor. God had united and he does unite. every one of his people with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And as a result of that, he has,
he has our wisdom. And then he says, there's three
most important things that we find in Christ and Christ alone. Now we spend a lot of our time.
I did. I know when I was in religion,
trying to manufacture these three things on my own. But when he
revealed himself to me, I found out those three things cannot
be manufactured on our own. They are gifts of God. They're
gifts of God. We find over here in the book
of 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, it says, but of him are you in
Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom. He is the
wisdom of God. and by him we are made his children. Then he says, he is our righteousness,
he is our sanctification, and he is our redemption. Now, if
we go about trying to manufacture our righteousness, and the Apostle
Paul had this to say, I do not frustrate the grace of God for
if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. If I am made righteous by my
deeds, then Jesus died in vain. Did he die in vain? Absolutely
not. Absolutely not. He did not die
in vain. But we find out as we look at this, that by keeping
the law or doing good things is not righteousness. In fact,
it becomes self-righteousness and that's very unacceptable.
So Christ is our righteousness. And what does that mean? He's
the one that made us right with God. Sinners, holy God, who makes
us right so that we can be in his presence? The Lord Jesus
Christ, our righteousness. Secondly, he says he has made
sanctification. Spent a lot of time in religion
trying to be sanctified. I'm going to get holy someday.
I'll be better. I'll do better tomorrow. You
know, that was a mistake. Tomorrow I'll do better. I can
just hear myself saying that in religion. And yet we find
out that when Jesus Christ becomes our savior, when he calls us
out of darkness to his marvelous light, he becomes our sanctification. He is the one that made us pure
and holy. Only in that holiness can we
stand before God. He is the one that has made us
pure and he's the one that has made us holy. And that holiness
sticks. That holiness holds out to the
end because it is his holiness on our behalf. So he has made
unto us righteousness, right with God. He has made unto us
sanctification, which means to be pure and holy. Unto the church
of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in
Christ Jesus, call to be saints. So we're sanctified in Christ
Jesus. We're called to be saints, called to be holy. And that holiness
belongs to him. You know, the apostle Paul did
all he possibly could to get better and better. And you know
what he called it? Dung. Now we know what that is. You've
been on a farm, you know what that is. He just said, that's
what it was. Because to be sanctified must
be something God does for us. And Christ becomes our sanctification. He is the one that was right
with God, and now he imputes that rightness to us because
of his shed blood. And finally, he said, he has
made redemption. He only can free us from sin.
It's not our works that free us from sin, it's his redemption
that frees us from sin. In Ephesians chapter one and
verse seven, in whom we have redemption through his blood.
Now, what did his blood do? His blood was shed, which means
he gave his life a ransom for many. He paid the price. in God's
wonderful purpose of grace, developed, laid out, and purposed before
the foundation of the world, before he created humanity of
any kind. He had a purpose laid out, and
that was the sun was going to come down and be a lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, that his blood was going to be
shed, his life was going to be given, and as a result of that,
God can grant, what? He can grant You're free from
your sins. They're paid for in full. Every last one of them. Time
and eternity. However we want to count it.
He's taken care of it from eternity. in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace. So it is rich grace that provides
these things in Christ Jesus. He provides his righteousness
and he imputes it to us. He only can make us right with
God. He provides our sanctification.
He only can make us pure and holy He can only be the holiness
of God. You know, the Bible says, be
holy as I am holy. Have you ever tried that? How
long did it last? Have you ever made a New Year's
resolutions? How long did they last? Usually
not very long, one or two days at the best, I think, maybe a
month, but pretty soon we're back to doing the same thing
we were doing. And we say, oh my, How did that happen? Well, there's only one place
that we can have sanctification or holiness, and that is in the
person Christ Jesus. And finally, he has made redemption. He's the only one that can free
us from sin by his shed blood. He went to the cross on purpose.
He died on purpose. He gave up the ghost on purpose.
He said to his church, to his disciples, The good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep. What a blessing that he would
trade him's life for the lives of his sheep. And he did. And
he proved that it was acceptable by coming out of the tomb victorious,
raised from the dead, victorious. I'm telling you, sin is paid
for by what I did coming out of the tomb. So as the apostle
Paul wrote to them, the only thing that was going to correct
them is the gospel. I like, and I'll read this in
closing, I like what we read over. And again, Paul was a secretary
And he wrote this to the church at Thessalonica, it says, for
our gospel came not unto you in word only. Now that's, having
it preached is good, but I'm thankful it's not in word only,
but also in power and in the Holy Ghost. That's what we need. The word come to us in power
and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. That's one of
the things that salvation gives to us is much assurance. And
then he says, and as you know what manner of men we were among
you for your sakes. we were faithful preachers of
the gospel for your sakes we we declared the gospel and we
prayed that it would come out in power and in the holy spirit
and the result was there were some people saved there and we
have a letter written to the church of Thessalonica hallelujah
for his great power well we'll stop there for today and next
time we'll pick