Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayer for attention to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, the last two verses, verses 30 and 31. But of him that is of God are ye 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. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 30 and 31, Being in Christ Jesus.

In the beginning of this chapter, the apostle describes those that he is writing to in verse 2. He says, 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 Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. And we have a picture of people that are set apart, sanctified for the Lord. They called to the saints, that is, holy believers, those that are marked out of this world as being holy people, and those that are calling upon Jesus Christ.

This is one mark with the Apostle Paul, behold he prayeth, and it was the one mark of those that he was persecuting, those that called upon the name of the Lord. But these are what the Holy Ghost has inspired here to mark out the Church of God here. It brings the question, doesn't it? Does this description fit you? Has the Lord separated you? As he called you to walk in a godly path, a holy path, and as he brought you to pray, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

These Corinthians, Paul is very clear, they were not a perfect people. Right through scripture, the faults of God's people are shown. The faults of his servants are shown. And Paul, when he writes to Timothy and directing him as to how he should be, is very mindful that his vessel, his person, needs to be a sanctified vessel to carry precious tidings, the things of God which are very precious.

God has not used angels to bring the gospel message. He's brought sinners, and so they need to be prepared and brought so that they can bring that precious message without defiling it with themselves or with their own thoughts, The vessel is not to hurt that which is put within. If we had a need to bring clean water into our home and we had a vessel outside, an earthen vessel perhaps, we thought we'll go and get that and we'll bring some water. But we looked at the vessel and the vessel was unclean. It had got dirt and soil in it. And we thought we can't use that. But you could if it was cleansed, if it was washed out, then you could use it for that good use. But if you wanted to just get water to water some plants in the garden, it wouldn't matter if it was dirty or not. But if you want it for a precious use, then you want it clean.

And God, when he brings his servants, when you use them, also will sanctify them. The acknowledgement is that they begin as sinners, they need his work, they need his cleansing, and God's children need it even after they are formed into a church, after they are called. This is all these epistles are written to believers. He's not saying you make out you're a church, but look at this. You've got divisions, and one is saying, I'm a Paul, and one of Apollos, and one of Cephas, one of Christ. How can you be a church? You can't be a really church. Your calling can't have been real calling. He doesn't deal with them as that. He views them that they are in Christ Jesus. The call was real, but they are sinners. And they need the word. They need washing. They need cleansing. They've been given a hearing ear, now he's giving them something to hear, and something to obey, and something to walk in.

We need to remember this. It's very real when we read these epistles, take a note first of how the apostle thanks God for them. The very points that he marks out, that marks out that they are a church, they are God's people. and then see how he faithfully rebukes them, points out the things that are wrong, and seeks to correct them. That's how God deals with his children. Don't expect perfection here below, or look for marks of grace or being in Christ that are not put forth in the scriptures of truth. Our Lord spoke of those that They added to the scriptures and they, by their traditions, made the Word of God of none effect. And we need to be careful that we don't do that.

The apostle here then seeks to find out this people. He pictures them truly. He sets forth the truth before them. And he preaches to them, and makes this difference as well, even in the preaching, that he says, those that perish, that preaching is foolishness, the preaching of the cross. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. And we know that that is so right through the Christian pathway. If one is called early in life, might have 60 years sitting under the preaching of the gospel, and that preaching is not to call them, it's not to bring them out of nature's darkness, but it's to feed them, and to teach them, and to warn them, and to correct them, and to be to them all that they need, all that is set forth in our text.

I want to look then at what the Apostle says of the people here in Corinth in these last two verses. I want to notice first that God has put us, he's put them in Christ Jesus. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus. And then secondly, God has made Christ to us all that we need, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And then lastly, God has done all to the glory of his Son, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

But firstly, God has put us in Christ Jesus. This is a very, very precious truth. When the Holy Spirit applies it, drops it into the heart, is nothing so precious to the soul. We need the Holy Spirit to shine upon it and to really show us the beauty of this. The scriptures tell us that we, the people of God, are chosen in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, put in a covenant relationship between God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and that the subject of that covenant is our souls. That's why David could say, Although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure.

Like how Mephibosheth was the subject of the covenant between David and Jonathan, that Jonathan asked David to keep his seed alive, remember him. And so later on, when Jonathan and Saul was dead, it was David that sought out Mephibosheth, not Mephibosheth seeking out David. Mephibosheth had nothing to do with putting his name in that agreement at all, may not even have been born. and yet he was the beneficiary of it. And this is the idea, this is what is said here. But of God are ye in Christ Jesus. God has put us, put a believer, put one that has been called in Christ Jesus.

Perhaps to backtrack just a little, the apostle takes this similar line to the Ephesians. He finds them out as believers, as a church, and then he brings them to understand what they have been put into, why they are a believer, and the benefits and blessings. With the Ephesians, he tells them that it is the same power that brought Christ from the dead that was working in them to bring them from spiritual darkness to spiritual light.

Often a believer, an early believer, does not realise the blessings and what is the background to them being brought to believe. We think of our Lord saying of his people in John 10, Thine they were, that is, they were the fathers. Thine they were and thou gavest them me. but of him are ye in Christ Jesus.

The picture of our persons, our names, being with the Father and him given, giving us to the Son as his purchased possession, a possession that he was given, a possession then that he is to purchase with his precious blood at Calvary. We were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. God put our names written there.

At first we were as accounted in Adam. In Adam, the first Adam, and under the fall, lost and ruined in the fall. But then we were put under the second Adam, put in Christ. and all the benefits and all the blessings that flow forth from that.

Paul deals with that later on in this very same epistle in the 15th chapter when he's dealing with the resurrection. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Then we have Paul's writing to Timothy. There's a beautiful word in his second epistle to Timothy, chapter one, verse nine. He says, who has saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.

But all the time he's pointing to that which is before time, a position in Christ. Going back to Ephesians, again he sets forth to them that they have been chosen in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love and is pointing to that everlasting love as in Jeremiah, yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.

And it is this realisation of a position, a place, an everlasting place, that the eternal everlasting God has seen fit for no foreseen goodness in us, for anything good in us at all, He has put us in a covenant relationship with Christ so that we are actually in Christ Jesus, put in Him.

I pray that the Spirit would make that truth that's in this first clause very precious. You know, when this word was first upon my spirit, the Lord so blessed it to me yesterday. Very, very precious word. I can't see it now. I can't convey to you what I saw in it then. I can't. But I know the Spirit can do it again for me, and He can do it to you.

Take passages. Like we said, we read this last Lord's Day evening. Didn't touch me then. But then when this word dropped in, came back to it, then it was so precious. Because it goes back to a standing in Christ that cannot be changed in time, but only outworked in time, only shown, and the benefits and blessings of it that cannot be changed in time, cannot be taken away. Satan cannot. Take our names out of the Lamb's Book of Life.

This is why our Lord says in John 10, he says, no man is able to pluck them out of mine hand. My Father is greater than I, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. He's showing the security of the people of God.

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus. It is God that has put his people in Christ, not them put themselves in. It's God that has done it, the authority of God. It's a beautiful picture, really, to be in Christ.

We think of the pictures in scripture, how that In John 15, the Lord says that I am the vine, ye are the branches, joined as part of Christ. We think of how Paul says that Christ is the head and the church is the fullness of his body. You cannot see Christ, we cannot see God who is invisible, but we can see the church, we can see his body. And we can see all the blessings that have flowed down to the church from its head, which is Christ.

We have the picture of our Lord being a building, the tabernacle, the temple. And he is a foundation stone. Other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, that is Christ Jesus the Lord. Upon this rock I'll build my church, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But here's also the topstone, bring forth the topstone, crying grace, grace unto it.

But the middle stone, the buildings, as lively stones, says Peter, built up a spiritual house. Like in Solomon's temple, the stones were all carved out in the quarry. And then they are brought to the temple, and with no noise, they are put in exact position. All their dimensions, all the shaping, all is done in the quarry. It's like the Lord's people, all being fitted, formed, shaped, here below. And then they're brought to heaven and put in that building.

God's people, lively, or living stones, built up a spiritual house in Him, built upon Christ. built in that temple in Christ. The term comes again and again throughout the scriptures, throughout the New Testament, throughout Paul's writings. All the time he goes back to it, the standing, the position of a saved, called sinner in Christ Jesus, united to him, bound up with him, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus.

God has put us in Christ Jesus. May it be your prayer that the Lord show that that is where you are. May you see from the description of the Corinthians that that is like a mirror showing what you are. Because where there is first those marks, then it is already coming through the Lord Jesus. Already those things are flowing forth from Him, which is what we look at at our second point.

Those things that are all that we need, they all come through Christ. God has made Christ Jesus to us all that we need. So our text reads, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

If we were to go back to Ephesians and Ephesians chapter 2 this time. We have in verse 6, And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In verse 10, For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Again, the picture is a foreordained, a putting in Christ and flowing from that good works that we are ordained that we should walk in them. Thou only hast wrought all our works in us.

Verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. They are made nigh by the blood of Christ because they were in Christ Jesus. And so in our text it gives four things, four headings if you like, and what God makes us in Christ or makes Christ to be to us. And the first is wisdom. You know, by nature, none of us, we are so dead, we do not know our need of salvation. We do not know our sinnership. We do not want to hear the Word, or perhaps we hear the Word, but think it's for others. We have no concern for our soul. We can come and go, we can hear the Word, and it doesn't touch us. The world at large says depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

When we had the lit up tractors going through this town some weeks back over Christmas, we had crowds and crowds that when those tractors had gone through, they'd all been in the town watching it, and they all went up past this chapel, all to the estates beyond, that they go past the house of God, they come out for those things, they have no desire whatsoever, even any curiosity to come in and see what goes on here, or to hear the Word. Man by nature has no room for the Lord, he has no wisdom.

The passage here speaks of the natural wisdom, the natural man, But read in verse 21, for after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. The world has great wisdom. God has given the ability to make wonderful inventions in electronics, in mechanics, in all sorts of things. What men are given wisdom to do in the medical fields, But when it comes to something spiritual, you can see a barrier that man cannot get through. God says a natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. And God has put that. In his wisdom, he's put that barrier. And he's in effect said that my people will be known When I give them wisdom that the world does not have, when I open their eyes to see what they didn't see before and others cannot see, then that is a clear token where that wisdom comes from.

Because it does not come from the world, it does not come from nature, is not learned from one another, even though we might Hear the word preached, we think of the hymn, we must not learn God's truth as schoolboys learn their task. We cannot learn spiritual things in that way. We need new life, we need a new heart, we need the gift of life, I give unto them eternal life. We need those things that flow forth from Christ. And so when the Lord gives, Wisdom, this is the first thing that's said, made unto us wisdom. So for the first time, eyes are opened, sin is perceived and felt, the guilt is realized, the need of salvation is felt, and there's an openness to that which is set before us in the gospel.

The wisdom of this world cannot find out. the things of God. Bless God if the Lord has given you wisdom and understanding that this world does not have. And especially where you notice a time in your life when that was changed, when you were given that wisdom. Many of us can know times in our life when we first learnt something. or something has first been known for us, even in a natural sense. But it's a blessed thing to realise that in a spiritual sense, when the Lord first opened our eyes,

I will lead the blind by a way that they know not. I will lead them in paths that they have not known. That is the wisdom of God, leading them, directing them, giving them that wisdom. that the world doesn't have. And this flows right through life, points to salvation in every aspect of the pathway. He gives that wisdom and understanding. Yes, all comes through the Lord Jesus Christ.

The scriptures are not silent. Our text is not silent. It's where this channel is. So you must put it the other way as well. It is exclusive, it's unique, it cannot, it does not come from another source. Try the spirits whether they are of God. That wisdom that comes from God, first pure, and then it's holy, it's perfect, it's spotless, it's from above. It's from Christ.

But then when that wisdom is given to see our sinnership, opens our eyes to see our unrighteousness, our filthy ranks, our sins, our uncleanness, our unfitness to stand before God, then we read the second thing, that what

God has made the Lord Jesus Christ to us, and righteousness, This is the name wherewith he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. This is the name wherewith she, the church, shall be called the Lord our righteousness. So there's a union, a surname if you like, put in the same family. Their righteousness is of me. The righteousness of this saint is Christ's righteousness. So their sins are put to his account. and His righteousness, His goodness is put to their account.

It is as if they have lived the holy and pure life that He lived, and as if He had taken their sins, made them His own, and then endured the wrath of God for those sins, and put those sins away. The righteousness of Christ It does not pay our debt, but it does make us fit to stand before God, giving us that to clothe us and so that we are faultless before the throne. When this truth is made known, this again is that outside of us, is not dependent upon our works is not the fruit of our doings. It is all in the Lord Jesus Christ, his perfectness.

But when the sinner feels that, when he may know that truth, then he looks at himself and he sees his own evil works. But there's another provision in Christ, which is sanctification. Sanctification is never perfect. It will not make a person perfect here below. But those that have the wisdom of God and those that have been given the righteousness of Christ will desire to walk holy, godly, upright lives and flee from sin and evil and to be brought to do that which God approves and God loves, and to hate that which He hates. And that also is through the Lord Jesus Christ. God has made the Lord Jesus Christ to be sanctification to us. Unholy are we all when trying, the hymn writer says. that Christ has holiness enough to sanctify us all. It is the work of the Lord to wash and cleanse and renew. When Paul writes to the Ephesians, he pictures our Lord preparing his bride, the church, for himself. And he says, husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. And that is what is done in Christ Jesus. That is the provision by God.

God doesn't choose his people. He doesn't bring them to a knowledge of themselves and then of the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness imputed to them and then say, now, you've got to do your part. You cleanse your life. You make it right. or you won't be my people. There is that that is given that willingness to purge out, to seek out. Paul says, I keep under my body, lest when I preach to others, I become a castaway. It's that we do make conscious prayer and effort and diligence and watchfulness. But it is the Lord alone that really sanctifies through the word of God, the washing of water by the word, through chastening, correction, that is, he makes his people what he'd have them to be.

You think of a parent with a child, in discipline, in teaching, in instructing, makes the child to be what they desire them to be. They don't just leave them to their own devices. And the child, of course, They love their parents, they seek to obey. But sometimes they don't. Sometimes they fall. Sometimes they like to do something wrong. Then the parent will correct them and chasten them, give them fresh instruction.

But this is, we have a heavenly father. And that which he does for his children is in Christ Jesus. All the provision is made in him. And then the last one, which sometimes we might think, well, Wouldn't that be the first? Redemption. To be redeemed, to be set free. Remember the redemption, they've already tasted that in being called. But to have that knowledge of that redemption, to know more and more what Christ accomplished at Calvary. There is the putting away of sin. There is the payment of the debt. There is setting it free.

But you think of Paul writing to the Romans. He says, the whole creation groaneth in pain until now, travail, waiting for the redemption, waiting for the renewing of all things. And the people of God, we're not just redeemed our souls, but our bodies are redeemed as well. The full, complete redemption Being brought, when the Lord comes to take to himself his redeemed people, is in heaven. The purchase price has been paid. Don't have it over here, but in over Australia, you could have a lay-by system. You could see something in a shop and you want to buy it. You don't have enough money, so you put it on lay-by, And you pay it off gradually, and when you've paid the price, then you can redeem it. And you go and say, I've paid the price now, and take that home. And you take it home. It's always been set apart for you. It's yours, but the full price must be paid. And I haven't thought of that in the way of redeeming, but Christ has already. paid the price for his people. So he can do what he will with his own.

We think of the picture with the Passover, when the price was paid, the blood was shed, then the people came out of Egypt. They were redeemed, they were set free. And the people are to know, we are to know this constantly, not to forget, because the Lord has given us the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, and constantly, as Paul says, are determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified, that the people of God are redeemed. Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your spirit and in your body, which are his.

And these things are all bound up in the Lord Jesus Christ. Really, there is no way of getting out of any trouble without being redeemed out of it. I think you'll find it in the last verse of Psalm 25. And we have in that Psalm, redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. And I've often thought of that verse. The only way we get out of trouble is to be redeemed out of it. It just doesn't happen. God doesn't just say, well, I'm going to deliver this one and save this one, but not that one. Each one is purchased, is paid their price. I know that we could see every blessing, every deliverance, every help that we've had, that there's blood upon it, that Christ has redeemed us. So the picture here, God has put us in Christ Jesus and being in Christ Jesus, he's made him to be to us all that we need under these four hands, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. I want to look briefly at the last point that God has done all to the glory of his son. Right the way through this chapter, Paul would have them not glorying in a man, not in Paul or Apollos or party lines, but he'd have them to glory in the Lord alone. The Lord says, this people have I formed for myself they shall show forth my praise. And so we have in verse 31, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. It's a blessed thing to realize that what the Lord has wrought in us, thou only has wrought all our works in us. And that the reason why the Lord has done these things is that he does get all of the honour and all of the glory. It's one real mark between true saving religion and that which is of man, that which is of flesh and that which is of God. It is God that gets the glory and not the means, not the man, not the preacher. I was thinking of the arrangement with the children of Israel through the wilderness. In the beginning, When God called Moses and charged him, Moses had all sorts of excuses, and one of them was that he couldn't speak. So the Lord said, I know Aaron, thy brother, he can speak well. So he says that you will be to Aaron a God, and Aaron will be thy spokesperson. God was going to speak to Moses, and Moses was then going to tell Aaron, and Aaron would speak to the people. That was the arrangement right at the beginning. When you read right through the account, the children of Israel going through the wilderness, you do not read of Aaron. You read of Moses. Moses saying that a prophet shall the Lord thy God Raise up unto you like unto me, him shall ye hear. But all the time you think, well, actually, for the people, it was Aaron that was speaking to them. But Aaron gets lost in it, and it's just Moses. And that's a good thing. If the minister gets lost and his voice doesn't get heard, but Christ is heard, he must increase. I must decrease, and that glory is all then to the Lord, and all the praise is to Him. They saw no man but Jesus only. You think of the Mount of Transfiguration. First there was Elijah and Moses and the Lord, but then they saw Jesus only. And we have that picture here, that the glory and the praise is all to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. May that be the feeling, the desire of our souls. Satan sometimes is very crafty in this. He says to those who have been blessed and favoured, well, you don't say anything about it. That's just pride. Don't put yourself forward. Don't tell people of what the Lord has done. That's just pride. But it's not you're telling what the Lord has done. Those two on the way to Emmaus, they set forth what was done in the way, what Christ had done. They would have had to tell things to It would be humbling that how they mistook the way, how they could not see what had happened, what had been done at Calvary. They would have then told how the Lord had spoken, how they had received the word, and how their hearts had burned with them by the way, and how the Lord had been shown to them. And it all was to the honour and glory of God. but of him are ye 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. The Lord add his blessing. Amen.