If you would, turn back to your
text in 2 Corinthians 1. Verse 12 opens with four words.
I want you to pay attention to them. Paul says, for our rejoicing
is this. Five words. That word rejoicing
means a couple different things. It means what you boast in. It
means what you glory in. And it means what you feel good
about. Now, here's my question for this
morning. I want to keep it very simple
and very direct. What is it and who is it that in even the darkest
of times, even the deepest pits of despair, that every believer
can rejoice in. As Paul says, our rejoicing is
this, what's the this? Keep your marker here in 2 Corinthians
1, turn over Romans chapter 5. Paul uses several books and several
passages of Scripture to tell us what this rejoicing is, or
what we rejoice in. We're going to look at some of
them this morning, but Romans 5 in just the first five verses
it has a lot to say about it. Look at verse 1 of Romans 5. Paul says, therefore being justified
by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now my question is this, whose faith? He said, therefore, now
being justified by faith. Is that my faith? Is it the believer's
faith? Am I justified through my faith?
No. Write this down. Faith is not
the cause of salvation. Faith is the effect of salvation.
God loves a man. He chooses that man unto salvation.
Christ dies for that man. The Holy Spirit comes and regenerates
that man, and that man responds to the gospel in faith, and he
does it every single time. Faith is not the cause of salvation.
It is the effect of salvation. Everybody Christ justified. He's
going to believe. That's what he's going to do.
Believers do just that, they believe. But here's the hope
here, here's the reason for rejoicing for every believer, for everyone
who simply looks and trusts the Lord Jesus Christ alone, no confidence
in yourself, you have this, we have real peace with God. That means through the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, through what He did on Calvary's tree,
the thing that held, that God held against us, our sin, It
was completely and utterly removed. As far as the East is from the
West, your sin, my sin, every believer's sin, as real as it
is to us, it's gone. It's not there. And what that
means is this, the Father is not angry with us. And the call
now is this, return to God. He's not mad at you. He doesn't
hold anything against you. All the reason for enmity has
been removed. Now be ye reconciled to God. Look down at verse 2, Paul says, By whom also we have
access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. There's two reasons to rejoice
here. Number one is this, rejoice that you have access to grace.
Now God is a God of absolute perfect justice. He cannot sweep
sin under the carpet. When He sees sin on a man, the
only thing He can do is punish that man. But because the sin
is gone, the reason, the enmity is gone because the sin is gone.
Because it is gone, you have access to grace. You know what
that means? It means absolutely nothing prevents the Father from
sharing you with His grace. Nothing prevents Him from freely
bestowing unto you all the spiritual blessings you could possibly
ever want or have in Christ. Nothing can be prevented. It's
all open to you because of what Christ did. But here's the third
reason to rejoice right here. He says, we rejoice in hope of
the glory of God. We rejoice that the Lord Jesus
Christ is gonna get all the glory and our salvation. For two reasons
really, we rejoice in that. Number one, because He deserves
it and that's exactly where we want it to go. wouldn't have
any other way. But here's the second one, our
pastor has said this, he started saying this in the last couple
of years and I love it. We rejoice that the Lord Jesus Christ is
going to get all the glory in our salvation because if He gets
all the glory that means He does all the work. If 99% of my salvation
was up to Christ and He was going to get 99% of the glory but there
was still 1% left for me, there was 1% of glory I could attain
to that would mean I would have to do 1% of the work and that
means nobody would be saved. since it's all by grace and Christ
gets all the glory that means there is absolutely nothing for
me to do. Just take it, it's free. Look at verse 3, Paul makes a strange statement
here. He says, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations
also. That's that same word rejoice.
Knowing the tribulation worketh patience, patience experience,
and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us." Now Paul says, we glory in tribulation. That's the same word rejoice.
What does he mean? Does that mean that we enjoy
trial, and tribulation, and heartache? No, they are called trials for
a reason. They are hard They hurt us very, very much. They're
very dark, all these things, but they're purposeful. They
have a purpose, and the purpose is this, to cause us to cling
to the Lord Jesus Christ even tighter. Now, this is the man's
life cycle right here. Here's the baseline, relative
peace. And I say relative peace because we are sinful men and
women living in a sinful world, and there's always some problem
going on. But the baseline is this, it is relative peace. Then
all of a sudden, the Lord puts us through the trial. A trial
that He sent. And we get down to the bottom
of that trough, waiting for the Lord to deliver us, seeking the
means by which He will do that, but ultimately waiting on the
Lord to comfort and deliver. And you know what that builds?
Patience. Patience. And you know what happens? Every
single time in some way or another, He delivers. He comforts. And
you know where you go back to? Relative peace. After that, back
in the fire. And you know what? You go through
that cycle over and over and over, that cycle of the Lord
making you exercise patience. And you know what it builds?
Experience. You build an experience of the Lord delivering you in
this life and comforting you. I'm in the trial. Patience, the
Lord delivers over and over and over. And after a while, you
know what that builds? Hope. And what's the hope? This is
the hope. If he thinks of me, in my earthly
trials, this insignificant speck of dust in this wide, vast universe
that he has created, if he thinks of me in my earthly trials and
my earthly struggles, and he remembers and recalls to be faithful
to me and to help me in my earthly struggles, and he does that every
single time, how much greater attention and how much more faithful
will he be and has been in my greatest need, doing everything
that is necessary to ensure my salvation. much greater. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 1. Once again Paul is talking about
what we rejoice in. 1 Corinthians 1 and look at verse
26. Paul says, "'For you see your
calling, brethren, how the not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble or cold, but God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty, and base things of the world and things which
are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not
to bring to naught things that are." I love that passage of
scripture because it says over and over and over, God chose.
He chose a people. He chose them before the foundations
of the world were ever built. And those people must be, currently
are, and always will be, and always have been saved. They
can't be anything but. He chose a people. The question
is, who did He choose? It tells us right here, the base
things of the world. I'll look that word up, you know
what that means? It means to be of no noble name, and no noble
reputation. Every sinner answers to that
name right there. I don't have a good name. And
I don't have a good reputation. Not at all. I'm a sinful man. But you know the name that every
believer, every elect child of God can answer to? Jacob. He
can answer to the name Jacob. And you know what that means?
It means heel holder. When Jacob was in the womb with Esau, you
know where he was in the stack? He was at the bottom. And that's
where you're going to find the Lord's people every single time. You're
going to find them at the bottom. You're going to find them down
with the beggars. You're going to find them down with the rest of the wicked sinners
because that's exactly what we are and we know it. Esau came
out first. Jacob didn't even have the strength
to come out. All he could do was cling onto Esau's heel. And
when they brought Esau out, Jacob came out too. This is our hope. This is the hope of every believer.
We're on the bottom. hope is that when the Lord Jesus Christ
goes to His Father, and He gets full acceptance with His Father,
and He has all the love His Father could ever bestow upon anyone,
that we go there too. Not just holding on to His heel,
but actually in Him. And being in Him we are perfect,
and we are justified, and we are accepted of God. That's the
hallmark of a believer. He is a base creature. He says
this, he says, the weak things I've chosen. And Romans 5, 6
is one of my favorite scriptures. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Now this is not an enigma. Who
did Christ die for? We don't know. Yeah, we do. We
exactly know who did. The weak and the ungodly, those
without strength. Without strength to do what?
Without strength to bring anything before God that he'd be pleased
with. without strength to come to Him, without strength to repent,
just completely and utterly unable to meet the demands of God in
any way, shape, or form, and completely and utterly ungodly.
Who is God? He's sovereign. He's in control.
I'm not. He's holy, and the only thing He will accept is perfect
perfection, immutably. I'm not. Not that way at all.
Who is God? He's omnipotent. He's all-powerful.
I have no power. He's omniscient. He knows all things. He's never
learned anything. That's not me. just a sinner. And if that's
you, weak, without strength, and ungodly, you have this promise
right here. Jesus Christ died for you. You're
one of the elect. And it says the foolish things
of this world. And that's how the world will view us. Are you
telling me that you believe that you will be completely and utterly
saved by the actions of someone else, and your works will be
completely excluded? Yes, that's exactly what I believe.
I believe I will be saved based on the actions of the Lord Jesus
Christ and all my works will be excluded. And the world will
say you're a fool. It cannot be that way. We're
going to find out on Judgment Day because that's what this
book says. Go on reading. Look at verse
29. Paul says that no flesh should
glory in His presence, but of Him are you in Christ Jesus who
of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. Now every believer, we glory,
we rejoice in this, we rejoice in being in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because if we are in Him, that means He is in us. And that means
He has made unto us all these things. Wisdom, number one. Now
I want you to consider something for a minute. manner by which
the Lord saves, the way He does it, and what the outcome of that
is, you can't compare that to anything in this world. It's
completely uncomparable. Let me give you an example. In
a courtroom we can march a guilty man into the courtroom and he's
truly guilty. We'll present the evidence. We
know this man committed the crime. He's guilty. He did it. He deserves
to be punished. And we can punish that man and
it doesn't take away his guilt. He still did it. He He's still
guilty. It doesn't erase the crime. We
can take that same man, he's guilty, the evidence points to
it. And we cannot punish him, we can show him mercy. And now
we've just done his injustice. There's absolutely no way for
men to do what God does. He takes a man who is guilty,
he committed the crime. He is guilty, he deserves punishment,
and he makes him to be what he was not before, innocent. To
where he never committed the crime. where He does not deserve
to be punished. What's the wisdom of that? Where
is that wisdom? Jesus Christ, He's the wisdom
of God. Only He could do this. Only He could take a man's sins
out of Him and put them in Himself. Only He can live for a group
of people so much so that everything He did actually is theirs. No
one else could do this. He is our wisdom. Jesus Christ
is the wisdom of God. He's our wisdom. He's our righteousness. And what I like how it says here,
it does not say that His righteousness is imputed to us, although it
is. And it does not say that His righteousness is imparted
to us, although it is. It says that Jesus Christ is
our righteousness. It's Him. That union is so tight
between the Lord's people and Himself that He really is my
righteousness. When the Father looks at Him,
when the Father looks at me, He sees Him, and He sees His
perfect righteousness. He's our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification. Now, Todd's been talking about
this for probably the last year and he has a saying about this
that's been very helpful to me. He said, that word sanctification,
it's about the closest word you can get to the totality of salvation
than any other word. It means to take something common
and ordinary and set it apart and make it holy. And number
one, Christ is this, He is the reason for our sanctification.
He's the reason we were set apart. Why did the Father choose the
elect? Because He chose Christ. He loved Christ. He chose Him.
He says, you're my first elect. And He got all the rest of us
who share an eternal union with Him. It was a package deal. You
get Christ you get the rest of us too. He is the reason for
our sanctification. But truly folks He's our sanctification.
He is our holiness. You think of a baby in a mother's
womb. That umbilical cord connects those two so much that the same
thing that flows through that mother flows through that child.
Same thing with us in Christ. As He is, so are we in this world. Although that is completely and
utterly contrary to our experience. And He's our redemption. The
word redemption is interesting. It means to pay a ransom and
to pay it in full. What held a ransom against us?
The law. justice of God. Here's what Paul said, remember
we are talking about those things we glory and those things we rejoice
in. He said, but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do you say that? He says
this is the one thing I'm going to glory in right here, in the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ because that's where the ransom
got paid. where the debt got paid in full. The law is satisfied.
The justice of God is satisfied. And now we're free. Absolutely
free. Absolutely set at liberty. Believe God. Look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Do what you want. You're free. You lack absolutely
nothing before God. Turn over 2 Corinthians chapter
12. we are talking about what we
rejoice in. 2 Corinthians 12, look at verse 1, Paul said, will come to visions and revelations
of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ about 14 years ago, whether
in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot
tell, God knoweth. Such and one called up to the third heaven,
and I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body
I cannot tell, God knoweth, how that he was called up into paradise,
and heard unspeakable words which is not lawful for a man to utter."
Now the point Paul is getting to here is you would think a
man who has shown this special privilege, would have the tendency
to glory in it. That is the natural way of man.
I've got the special privilege of the Lord, I must be special
in some way, I should glory in this. Look down at verse 5, of
such and one will I glory. What Paul is saying there is
this, he goes the only one I'm going to rejoice in, the only
one I'm going to glory in is the one I was taught of while
I was up in that third heaven and that's Christ. But look what
he says about himself, Yet of myself I will not glory but in
mine infirmities." In my sinful pollutions. Now what's Paul saying
there? Is he saying, well, I'm proud
of my sin? I rejoice in my sin? Is that
what he's saying? Absolutely not. What is he saying
then? He's thankful that the Lord revealed
to him that he's a sinner. And I rejoice in that as well.
How thankful are you that the Lord revealed to you that you
are in fact an empty handed sinner before Him. And here's the reason
we rejoice in that. Here's the reason we're thankful
for that. For this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners of whom
I am chief. What a blessing it is that's
been revealed to us that we're sinners. Because that's exactly
who the Lord came to save. Now go back to your text. Look at verse 12 again 2 Corinthians
1. Paul says, for our rejoicing
is this, everything we just talked about. He says it's also the
testimony of our conscience. Now what does he mean by that?
What Paul is saying is this, is our conscience it bears witness
that that which we rejoice in, that which we were thankful for,
what our hope is, it's good. It agrees with our conscience.
The conscience says, yes, that is a good rejoicing. Now, what
does the believer's conscience look like? Turn over to Hebrews
chapter 9. I know it's a lot of scripture
to turn to, but I want you to see this. I think it's important. Hebrews chapter 9, look at verse
11. says, But Christ being come in
high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood
He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling to the unclean sanctifies
to the purifying the flesh, how much more shall the blood of
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works?" to serve the
living God. Now what's he talking about here?
He's referencing the Old Testament economy of worship. All the sacrifices,
all the feasts, all the rituals. And here's what Paul is saying,
this is a summary of it. All those sacrifices, all those rituals,
they never put away one sin. That's why they had to be repeated
over, and over, and over. But for His people the Lord Jesus
Christ entered in once. place. He stepped into the presence
of the Holy God once, bearing the sins of His people, and He
died once. And He only did it once because
He did it right the first time. And through that one act, He
completely saved His people. And He says now, purge your conscience
from dead works. What does that mean? Well, what's
a dead work? It's any work that can't produce
life. For man, that's every work. It's for every thought, it's
every action, it's every motive, it's every work. When the Lord
makes this to a man, everything. Lord Jesus Christ dying on that
cross bearing His sins when He sees that truly is the totality
of His salvation. It was all accomplished right
there on that cross. You know what happens? His conscience
becomes purged from dead works. Trying to bring something I've
done before the Lord seeking acceptance becomes unconscionable. best thing you've ever done in
your experience in this life, the best thing, the most selfless
thing. Think about just right now trying to bring that before
the Lord and saying, you should save me because I did this. What
does your conscience say about that? It says, perish the thought. It is unconscionable. The only
thing that soothes the conscience is knowing that the Lord Jesus
Christ put away our sin and it's gone. I'll show you another one
here. 1 Peter chapter 3, Peter 3 and look at verse 18,
"'For Christ also hath once," that just keeps popping up, "'suffered
for sins, that just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit,
by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison.'"
Now let's just stop there for a second. Have you ever read
that before and wondered what that meant? Does that mean that
after the Lord Jesus Christ died He went down into Hell and He
started preaching to people down there? No, that's not what that means.
This is talking about what's going on right now. This is our
hope, that right now God's speaking to us. That He's taking this
message and He's preaching it and He's preaching it to the
spirits in prison. That's who we are, people in bondage, in
bondage to sin. That's all that's talking about.
Now, look down at verse 20. This is the message that is always
preached. which sometime were disobedient,
when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of
Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls,
were saved by water." What's the message every single time?
It's the same message Noah had, get in the boat. There's a storm
coming. The wrath of God is coming for
sin. There's one place of safety, Christ, that's it, get in the
boat. That ark was prepared for eight people. people got in that
boat. The Lord shut eight people in.
And that boat carried eight people to safety through all those waves,
through all those winds, through all that rain. Eight people survived
because they were in the boat. There is safety in one place
in Christ. That is always the message. Now,
look down here at verse 21, He says, the like figure whereunto
even baptism does also now save us. Now, he does not mean that
the act of water baptism actually saves. He's going to explain
that. Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the
answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Now, What Peter is giving us
here is an antitype. So the last illustration was
the ark. Christ is the ark. There is safety only in Him.
The water, that was the wrath of God, right? Now, it's the
same thing, but this time the water is Christ. In Believer's
Baptism, what are we confessing? When we stand above the water,
we're saying, our only hope of being righteous before God is
that when Jesus Christ lived, that's when I lived. we go under
the water we are saying, my only hope of being accepted by God
is that when He died I actually was in Him. My sins were in Him,
I was in Him, and that's where I died. And when we come out
of the water we are saying, when He was resurrected from the dead
signifying that the Father was completely satisfied with what
He did, that's my hope. I was resurrected in Him, blameless
and unapprovable in the Father. And Here's what it says, though.
What does that do for the conscience? It soothes the conscience, and
that is the only thing that soothes the conscience, is knowing that
I am complete in Christ and through my union with him. The point
of all this is this, the believer's conscience, it cannot tolerate
approaching God on the grounds of anything but Christ and him
crucified alone. The conscience won't allow it,
not for the believer. Go back to your text. 2 Corinthians
1. Verse 12, for our rejoicing is
this, the testimony of our conscience, our conscience agrees, this is
good, that in simplicity, that singularity and godly sincerity,
not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, We have
had our conversation in the world. Now, this thing of simplicity,
what that means is singularity. Everything in the gospel, everything
concerning Christ is singular. We have one hope of salvation,
Christ died for me. We have one hope of being righteous
before God, Christ's righteousness. We have one person we're looking
to, Christ himself. It's not divided, not looking
to Christ and my best work, Christ and my faith, Christ and my repentance,
none of that. My singular look is to Christ,
that's the singularity that's in Christ. But I want you to
consider this singularity for a moment. There is only one prerequisite
for coming to Christ. It is singular, only one. Do
you wanna know what it is? read it. This is Luke 9, 11,
And the people, when they knew it, followed Him, and received
Him, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them
that had need of healing. There is only one prerequisite
for coming to Christ. Having a need. That's it. You
notice I did not say a strong need. Now that's going to wax
and wane with every single day. How strong I feel my need. Having
a need of Him. A need of Him to do what? To
do everything in my salvation. That is the singular prerequisite. Now, Paul says we rejoice in singularity
but also in godly sincerity and not with fleshly wisdom. I thought
this was interesting. That phrase godly sincerity, what that actually
means is transparency. It's speaking of being translucent.
How do we come to Christ? We come needy and we come not
hiding anything. We are commanded to come, not
trying to cover ourselves up, not trying to clean ourselves
up. We come just as we are, and we'll always be received that
way. Now, if you were at the funeral
yesterday, I talked about this, but you're gonna hear it again.
Turn over to 2 Kings chapter five. We have an illustration of this
in the scripture. It's in this man Naaman. You
might be familiar with Naaman. He's a Syrian general and he's
a big shot. He's got a lot going for him. He's an honorable man.
He's a mighty man. Syrian general. He's got one
problem, he's a leper. From the top of his head to the
sole of his foot, he's covered in leprosy. And he hears about
a prophet that's down in Samaria. His name's Elisha. And he's gonna
go down to Elisha and see what he can do for him. Look up and
down in verse nine. So Naaman came with his horses,
and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go, and wash in
Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and
thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went
away, and said, Behold, I thought, he will surely come out to me.
stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike
his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana
and Farfar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of
Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean?' So he turned and
went away in a rage." Now Naaman's got a couple problems here. He
thinks he's not being shown the proper respect. Doesn't allow
us to know who I am. I'm a Syrian general. I'm a big
shot, man. He just sent this servant down to me. Also, too,
the manner of healing that's being prescribed to him is not
glamorous enough. dip in the Jordan seven times. The Jordan
is a muddy puddle right now, that's all it was. You go dip
in that Jordan seven times you will be healed. He says, I thought
there would be more. I thought He would come out to me. I thought He
was going to strike His hand over the place and recover the leopard.
There is nothing glamorous about this. Where is the music? Where
is the lightning? Where is the thunder? I need
a big to-do just like religion. I want to bring something to
your attention. I was thinking about this. The most awe-inspiring,
miraculous, and fearful thing that happens on this earth is
when the Lord saves a man in His experience. And when He does
it, nobody knows it's happening, not even the man He's currently
saving. Now, you think about that. you find out you're a believer
you just one day find yourself believing and you don't know
exactly when you first believed. You don't know exactly when the
Lord birthed you into His Kingdom and you believed for the first
time and He planted that seed of faith in there. One day it
just happened. Just one day you were sitting in a pew and you
were hearing the Gospel preached and the Lord made it effectual
to you and He actually breathed life into you and no one in that
room knew it and neither did you. It is the most beautiful
and awe inspiring and terrifying thing that happens in our world
and nobody knows about it. Nobody sees it happen. Naaman's
got another problem here though. Look at verse 13. And his servants
came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet
had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?
How much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean. Now what his servants are saying
to him is this. Be like, Naaman, if he would have told you to
go climb that mountain with your hands shackled behind your back,
and then you'd be healed, you'd have tried. Or if he would have
said, there's an army of 500 men down there, here's a sword.
If you kill them all, you'll be healed. You would have tried.
And you would have tried all those things, Naaman, because
if you would have been successful, you could come back to the camp
and say, I'm healed, and I earned it. All glory goes to Naaman. I climbed the mountain. That's
why I'm healed. I slew the army. That's why I'm healed. All glory
goes to Naaman. But you won't dip down in that
little puddle, because it's beneath you, because there's no glory
in it for you. If you will be saved by Christ,
you will be saved by a God who will get all the glory in your
salvation, and you will be attributed with nothing. Your only contribution
that will be attributed to you is the sin that made it necessary.
That's it. Man says, I will do anything
for salvation. Come to Christ. Believe on Him.
It's free. He says, I won't do that. There's absolutely no glory
in it for me. But here's the beautiful part.
That's the way we all are by nature. The Lord loves Naaman.
He has purpose to save Naaman. So you know what? Saved he's
gonna be. Look at this. Look at verse 14. Then went he
down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to
the saying of the man of God, and his flesh came again like
unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Now remember,
the concept we're talking about is being transparent, not hiding
anything, being translucent. I want you to figure this. picture
this in your mind. Naaman's walking away, and all
of a sudden, the Lord brings him to repentance, and he turns,
and he starts walking back. And I don't know what generals
wore in that day, but I'd say it was pretty impressive. You
look at what generals wear in the American military right now,
pressed uniform, big stack of ribbons, nice hat. You see a
general walking around, you know that guy's a big deal, right?
That guy's due some respect. Naaman's walking down, and he's
wearing whatever it is Syrian generals wear, and all of a sudden,
that hat comes off, and he throws it off. all of a sudden he starts
unbuttoning that shirt and takes that shirt off and he throws
it down. All of a sudden those pants come off and he stands
by the edge of the Jordan in front of Elisha, in front of
his servants, and most importantly in front of God Himself. And
you can't see a big bad Syrian general anymore. You can't see
a man who is honorable. You can't see a man who is due
respect. All you saw was a leper. And then he got down to that
Jordan and he was cleansed. That's how the sinner is commanded to
come to Christ. Don't clean yourself up. That's
the wisdom of the flesh. The wisdom of the flesh is this,
clean yourself up. Make yourself better. on your
finest garment. Bring your best works. Clean
yourself up. Wait until you have some sort
of experience. That's the wisdom of the flesh. And Paul says,
not with fleshly wisdom. Don't do that. You come just
as you are. Strip all that stuff off. And
you come as a leper, a sinner. Completely cover the top of your
head to the sole of your foot and you will be cleansed every
single time. Why don't you turn to one more
scripture. Turn over to 1 Peter chapter
1. Paul says in our text, he says,
for our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience that
in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fledgling wisdom, but
by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world. Now that word conversation, what
that means is conduct. Conduct, how you conduct yourself,
that's what that's talking about. So the question is this, when
the Lord saves a man, is it gonna have an effect on his conduct?
Yes, yes it will. That's not the point. What is
the conduct of the believer in this life? What does he do? How can we spot these people
that the Lord has been merciful to? What do they do? Look down
at 1 Peter 1 verse 17. And if you call on the Father,
who without respect of persons, judges according to every man's
work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. That word pass
is the same word as conversation. The people of God, the elect
of God, what do they do? How do they conduct themselves
while they're in this world? How do they pass their time?
They pass it in fear, in the fear of God. Now, that involves
reverence for the Lord's person. It involves worship, just being
awestruck by the magnitude of who He is. But more than anything
else, the fear of the Lord is this, it is being afraid to look
anywhere but Christ alone. Now, Paul says, our rejoicing
is this, how can I know if I'm an hour? One of these people
who this rejoicing, the rejoicing of having peace with God, the
rejoicing of having your tribulations blessed to you. How can I know
if I'm one of these people who can rejoice? He looks to Christ
alone, and he is afraid to look anywhere else. Now, if you have
somewhere else to look, you do not have the fear of God, so
you have no cause to rejoice. If you can look inside yourself
and you can find a reason God would be merciful to you, if
you have something other than Christ alone, you have not the
fear of God. But if you are afraid to look anywhere but Christ alone,
Paul says, our rejoicing is this. All these things we've talked
about, they're all for you. Every one of them. And you have
great cause to rejoice. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this blessed
opportunity to come and, Lord, worship at your feet. We pray,
Lord, that you would bless us together, Lord, that you would
save us, Lord, you would cause us to come just like Naaman did,
Lord, just a sinner, and Lord, that we might be clean. Bless
our services tonight. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen.