Good morning again. If you'll turn in your hymnal to
222. 222, don't worry, I'm not gonna lead
you in this music. Things are progressing next door.
The air, we cannot get our final inspection on the electrical.
You know, that entire building has been built off of an extension
cord running from this building. We still don't have power over
there. But the power company did do the transformer out on
the road. So that's done. And now we're
just waiting for them to set the air conditioning units so
that we can get our final power inspection and then get that
turned on. So hopefully that's happening
Wednesday maybe. And Yeah, I haven't had a chance
to see things over there. I encourage you to walk through.
Uh, that's a lot of changes from last week. Um, all right, you have your, you
have your handles open to number 2 22. There is a fountain filled
with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. and sinners plunged. Beneath that flood. Lose. All their guilty stains. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. All our sins past, present, future
sins washed away by the blood of Christ. Let's stand together. Bert, you come please and lead
us in that him number 222. Yeah. There is a fountain filled with
blood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins And sinners plunged beneath that
blood Lose all their guilty stains Lose all their guilty stains
Lose all their guilty stains And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Dear dying land, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power. Still of the ransomed Church
of God, be ye safe to sin no more. Be ye safe to sin no more. Be ye safe to sin no more. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be safe to sin no more. E'er since, by faith, I saw the
stream, Thy flowing wounds sublime. Redeeming love has been my thing,
and shall be till I die, and shall be till I die, and shall
be till I die. Redeeming love has been my theme
and shall be till I die. When this poor, lisping, stammering
tongue lies sullen in the grave, Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I'll sing thy part to say. And thousands upon thousands
and tens of thousands will be joining their perfect voices
together in worship. Oh, what a sweeter song that's
going to be. Nothing thrills my heart more
in this world than to hear God's people singing together of His
grace and of His mercy. But what we hear here cannot
be compared to what we're going to experience there. What a glorious
day. Thank you, Bert. It's a blessing
to have Eric and Michelle Lutter here with us this morning. Eric
pastors the church in Missouri that I've had the privilege to
preach for a time or two and before Eric went there. And this
is the same church that Callie's brother, Levi, attends. And some of you all know some
of the other folks there. So I've asked Eric if he would
lead us in our call to worship this morning. Eric, if you'll
come, please. Thank you. Morning. Turn to Isaiah 40. And just look
at verse. We're just going to look at verses
6 through 11. Isaiah 40, and this voice here in the text
is the voice of Christ teaching, giving instruction to his church
in the wilderness of what she is to preach, not to exalt man,
but to exalt her God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Verse 6, the voice
said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass. and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The
grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall
stand forever. O Zion, that bringest good tidings,
get thee up into the high mountain, O Jerusalem, that bringest good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not
afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
behold, your God. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his
reward is with him and his work before him. shall feed his flock
like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. Let's pray. Our gracious Holy
Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for your great mercy and
compassion Lord, that you do not leave us to ourselves, but
that you teach us and instruct us and make us to know you, to
serve you, to follow you, to believe you. And Lord, we thank
you that you have shown us whom we are to preach and to exalt
before the people that you've gathered together, your son,
Jesus Christ. Lord, we're so thankful that
that Christ is preached here, that you've done that for us
this morning, and that, again, we have the promise that your
son shall be lifted up again before your people. Father, please
bless us. Please be with us. Open our hearts. Open our understanding to understand
the scriptures, to behold that they speak of Christ. And Lord,
if there be any here that is trembling and afraid, sorrowful
or fearful, Lord, that you would minister your word and give them
your spirit and let them see Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Help
us, Lord, each to hear him and to see him. Help our pastor here,
Lord, bless him with your word. Give him liberty and boldness
to preach Christ and help us, Lord, to hear the word and to
believe it. And, Lord, bless our fellowship
with one another. Protect this people here, even
in the midst of the sickness. Bless them and, indeed, establish
your church here in Florida, that the people have your word
preached, for we need that word, our Savior, every day. It's in
the name of Christ we pray. Amen. You may remain seated. We're
going to sing to him in the back of the bulletin. Christ is coming, let creation
from her groans and travails cease. Let the glorious proclamation,
hope, restore, and faith increase. Christ is coming! Christ is coming! Come, Thou blessed Prince of
Peace! Come, Thou blessed Prince of
Peace! Earth can now but tell the story
of Thy birth. She shall yet behold thy glory
when thou comest back to reign. Christ is coming, Christ is coming. Let each heart repeat the strength Let each heart repeat the strain. Though once cradled in a manger,
Off no pillow but the sod, Here an alien and a stranger, Mocked
up men, disowned of God. Christ is coming! Christ is coming! Come, Thou blessed Prince of
Peace! Come, Thou blessed Prince of
Peace! Long dynasties have been pining,
Far from rest and hope pending, But in heav'n with their shining,
They their loving lordship sing. Christ is coming! Christ is coming! Haste the joyous jubilee! Haste the joyous jubilee! With that blessed hope before
us, let no part remain unstrung. Let the mighty Advent chorus
onward roll from tongue to tongue. Christ is coming! Christ is coming! Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come! Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come! Thank you, Bert. He always does
that and I forget. The last line of the last hymn
we slow. Thank you brother, that's a blessing.
Beloved, now we are the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear
what we shall be. But we know. That when he shall
appear. We should be like him. But we
shall see him as he is. Christ is coming. This book ends. With come Lord Jesus, even now
come. Will you turn with me in your
Bibles to 1st Corinthians, please? 1st Corinthians. I mentioned
at the beginning of the first hour that. I wanted to be. as clear and simple. And I didn't
realize how simple the messages were
until I had already prepared both of them. Salvation is of
the Lord. It's all of God, every bit of
it. And Christ is all. Colossians chapter 3 verse 11
says, Christ is all and in all. Christ is all in us being made
sin. Until we see the Lord Jesus Christ
in the fullness of his glory, we'll not believe ourselves to
be sinners. But when God's pleased to make
him known to us, Isaiah chapter 40, comfort ye, comfort ye my
people. Speak ye comfortably unto Jerusalem,
tell them their warfare is accomplished. What did Isaiah say in Isaiah
six? I saw the Lord high and lifted
up. And then the next words out of
his mouth were, woe is me for I am undone. If the Lord's pleased
to show us at least in part our total inability to save ourselves
or to do any righteousness whatsoever, it'll only be by revealing to
us the glory of Christ. He is everything in total depravity. He's everything in election.
The Lord Jesus Christ entered into a covenant promise with
his father in eternity past as the surety of his bride. God chose his people because
Christ stood as their surety. And so in election, Christ is
all. In redemption, the Lord Jesus
Christ is everything in our redemption. He satisfied the demands of God's
justice when he shed his precious blood in order to pay for the
sins of his people. And God looks to Christ for everything
in our salvation. He's everything in regeneration.
He sends his spirit to make us willing in the day of his power.
And when the spirit of God opens up our eyes, what does he do?
He shows us Christ. Christ is all in regeneration. and he's all in perseverance.
He's the one who keeps us from falling and presents us faultless. Christ is all. Salvation is of
the Lord and Christ is all. Now I want us to look at 1 Corinthians
1, verse 23. But we preach Christ. That's it. He's the sum and substance
of the message of the gospel. The gospel be in the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believes, and it's all about
the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach Christ crucified. Successfully saving his people
by the sacrifice of himself on Calvary's Cross. We preach Christ. Sometimes we gospel preachers
get accused of of having one note that we just keep playing
over and over again. And the unbeliever will accuse
us of that, Eric, thinking that they're finding fault with us,
and they don't understand that that's our badge of honor. If
a man says, you know, all he does is talk about Christ all
the time. You know, we have a meeting and our religious friends say,
well, what's the subject of the meeting? Well, Christ. And, well,
I know that, but what else? Aren't you going to talk about
family affairs and, you know, things that, you know, raising
children and all that kind of stuff? No, no, we're just going
to preach Christ. We're just going to, Paul said, we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the
Greeks foolishness. It's a stumbling block to the
religious because Christ robs them of their righteousness.
He's the stone that the builders rejected that God made to be
the head of the corner. And he has become a stumbling
block to those who are resting the hope of their salvation in
something other than Christ. So to the Jews or to the religious,
he's a stumbling block. To the Gentiles and the Greeks,
the irreligious, it's just foolishness. What are y'all, you know, let's
just get busy and living our lives in this world. What are
you worried about all of that kind of stuff for? It's just
foolishness what we're doing. But unto them which are called,
and this is the effectual call. This is the call of the spirit
of God. To them that are called, Christ, the power of God, the
wisdom of God. Christ is everything in the power
of God. If we're going to be saved by
the power of God, it'll be by Christ. If we're gonna know anything
about the wisdom of God, it'll be by Christ. Christ himself,
the power of God, the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness
of God is wiser than man. Now it's just, the Lord is just
saying that my lowest thought I've ever had far exceeds and
excels any high thought that man might have. The foolishness
of God is wiser than man and the weakness of God is stronger
than man. You call this gospel foolishness,
you call it weakness, it's of God, it's wiser than anything
you've got, it's stronger than anything you've got. Verse 26, for you see your calling
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. Why? Because the wise don't see
their need for Christ. They've got their own wisdom.
The powerful don't see their need for Christ because they've
got their strength. The noble, don't see their need
for Christ, they've got their recognition among men. And men
by nature love the praise of men more than the praise of God.
They're not interested or concerned about God's praise, they've got
man's praise. But God, here's our hope brethren,
but God, but God hath chosen God does the choosing. I've said
this a couple of times recently, everybody believes in election. To elect is to choose. And everybody
believes that somebody's making a choice. Most of the world,
most of the religious world believes that man is the one who does
the electing. We're fixing to have elections
in our country to elect political leaders, and man thinks that
God is like that. We choose him. We believe that
God does the electing. He does all the choosing. 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 that are mighty, the
base things of the world, the things which are despised hath
God chosen, yea, the things which are not." Do you, let me ask
you a simple question, do you meet the qualification of one
whom God has chosen? Do you believe yourself to be
foolish? Do you believe yourself to be
not? Do you believe yourself to be
weak? See, that's what centers believe
about themselves, isn't it? The world doesn't believe that. To bring to naught the things
that are, look at verse 29, that no flesh should glory in his
presence. No man's going to stand in the
presence of God and glory in anything he's done. No, Christ
is going to get all the glory. Look at the next verse. And this
is our text for this morning, but of him who's, who's the first
hymn spoken up here in this, in this verse, it's of the father.
So you can just put God, the father. but of God the Father
are you in Christ Jesus. God's the one who puts us in
Christ. Who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Christ is all
in wisdom. Christ is all in righteousness. Christ is all in sanctification. Christ is all in redemption. That according as it is written,
he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. You see, if Christ
is all, then he gets all the glory. He gets all the credit. He gets all the praise. That's
why God chooses those things which are not. That they would
bow and acknowledge that Christ is the power of God. Christ is
the wisdom of God. Christ is my righteousness. Christ
is my sanctification. Christ is my redemption. Christ Jesus the Lord the Son
of God is all in my salvation. Christ is only all when he is
all you have. I'll say that again. Christ is
only all when he is all you have. In other words, in election,
in redemption, In wisdom, in righteousness,
in sanctification, in perseverance, if you add anything to the Lord
Jesus Christ, then Christ is not all. Christ is only all when
he is all you have. Christ is all in my wisdom. He's
all. We have no wisdom outside of
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
wisdom of God. He's not just talking about truth
and understanding, although that's part of it. He's talking about
the things that we don't understand. How much does that imply? Truth
is, we don't understand anything. completely. But we have the Lord
Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of God, made a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. The father said, sit down here
at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
We have the perfect wisdom of God. We have one who understands
everything, who controls everything, seated as our substitute and
as our advocate before God. He's all my wisdom. I don't have
any wisdom outside of Him. I'm foolish apart from Christ.
I've got to have the wisdom of God. And the Lord says, if any
man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God, who gives it to all
men liberally, and upbraideth it not. Lord, give me Christ.
Lord, if I don't have Christ, I don't have any understanding
of my sinfulness. I don't have any understanding
of your electing grace in salvation. I don't have any understanding
of the effectual atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, unless
I've got Christ. We live in a world where everybody
has their own truth. You hear that, don't you, among
your friends? Well, you know, that's your truth. Well, it's
true. The problem is there's only one
truth with God. With man, there may be lots of
truths, but with God, there's one truth. The Lord Jesus Christ
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. God Almighty is
looking to Christ. When we have Christ as all, we
are looking to him as all of our wisdom and all of our truth. Before I know nothing apart from
Christ, I have to understand everything in light of who he
is and what he's done. What did Pilate say to the Lord
when he asked him? Are you the king of the Jews?
And the Lord said, for this cause was I born, and for this reason
came I into the world to bear witness unto the truth. The truth. What Pilate said,
truth. Truth, come on. Is that what
this is all about? All this confusion, all this
trouble, don't you know there's nothing as such as absolute truth,
that everybody's got their own? You see, relativism is not something
new. It's not something new to our
generation. It's been from the very beginning. I probably thought,
you know, you sure are causing a lot of trouble over something
that can't be settled for sure. Oh no, I've settled it. I am the truth. And they that
are of the truth hear my voice and they follow me. Is Christ
all you have? in wisdom and understanding and
truth? Can you discern anything apart
from Him? The world's got their philosophers.
When Paul went to Athens and preached the gospel to the Epicurean
and Stoic philosophers on Mars Hill, you remember that? And
they said, let's hear what this dabbler has to say. Now a babbler
in the first century, they didn't have entertainment like we have.
They couldn't go home and turn TV on, of course, or radio, anything
like that. And most of the people would
never travel outside their own little community. And so if someone
came from a far country, that person came with stories of what
was happening in another place of the world that no one there
would have any idea of. And they were storytellers. They
were storytellers, that's what they were, and they were called
babblers. And they would find a public forum and they would
stand and tell their stories. And of course they would elaborate
on their stories and exaggerate their stories for entertainment's
sake. And so Paul gets into Athens
and he tells the story about the death, burial, and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who he is, and they're listening
with interest until he gets to the resurrection. And then they
said, I knew he was a babbler. I knew
he was going to exaggerate that story at some point. Resurrection
from the dead? That doesn't That can't be true. And they just discounted him
as some sort of exaggerated storyteller from another land. Oh no, he
was telling the truth. Christ is everything. You know,
all the philosophies of this world, there's really only two. The founding fathers of this
nation that we live in, I'm thankful for the freedoms that we have
in this nation. But the founding fathers of this nation were self-professed
Epicureans. The statement in our, what is
it, the independence? No, not the Constitution. No,
Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson said, life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That's the American dream. That's
Epicureanism. If you're living your life for
the pursuit of happiness, there's no wisdom in that. There's
no truth in that. Christ is our wisdom. You see,
Epicureanism is finding purpose and happiness in life outside
of yourself. Accumulating things. The American
dream. And Stoicism, now these are biblical
terms. This is the Epicureans and the
Stoics that Paul was preaching to in Athens. And what is Stoicism? It's just the opposite of Epicureanism.
It's I'm going to jettison all the things in my life, all the
material things, and I'm going to simplify, and I'm going to
focus on finding happiness within. And most people just vacillate
between those two philosophies, and they go back and forth. They
go out in the world, accumulate things, trying to find happiness.
There's no satisfaction. So then they say, well, I'm going
to go inside, and they just go back and forth between Epicureanism
and Stoicism, trying to find something that can only be found
in Christ. Only be found in Christ. God has made him To be for us
all our wisdom. God has made foolish the wisdom
of this world. Let men pursue their happiness.
They're not gonna find it. Not gonna find it. Oh, but what
hope and happiness there is when Christ is all your wisdom. God has made him to be all our
wisdom. Look at this verse, verse 30,
I said this was our text. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, God puts us in Christ, who of God is made unto us all
our wisdom. We have no wisdom outside of
Christ. We have no truth outside of Christ. We have no happiness
outside of Christ. The world has nothing to offer
us, and if I go down in my own heart looking for something,
it's like going down in a well. The deeper I get, the darker
it gets. There's no hope there. Men lie
to themselves in believing that there's some spark of light. No, if you're honest, you know. The deeper you go down into your
own psyche trying to figure out the truth, the darker things
get. You know what profession has
the highest rate of suicide in America? The highest rate. Psychiatry. That's right. God has made him to be our wisdom. If you have wisdom outside of
Christ, then Christ is not all. Christ is only all when he's
all you've got. And the same thing is true of
the next point. Look at the next word in verse 30. Righteousness. If you have any righteousness
outside of Christ, then Christ is not all. Christ is only all
your righteousness when he's all you've got. You don't have
any righteousness outside of Christ. You say with David, I
will speak of thy righteousness even of thine only for all my
righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God. What is it to
be righteous? It's to have a right standing
with the law of God. That's what righteousness is. Men will look at the law of God,
and they'll say, well, I've never murdered anybody. And they've never heard what
the Lord Jesus said when he said, if you have ought in your heart
towards a brother without a cause, you've murdered them already.
You see, man's looking at the outward appearance. God's looking
at the heart. We've never been able to keep God's law. We don't
have a right standing with God's law. We've lusted and lied and we've
never been able to satisfy the law of God. Christ Jesus the
Lord is the end of the law for righteousness. Romans chapter
10, they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. They've deceived themselves.
For being ignorant, they don't know, of the righteousness of
God, they go about trying to establish their own righteousness,
not knowing that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Christ Jesus is the only one
that kept the law of God with all of his heart, all of his
mind, and all of his soul, all the time. That's what God requires. I can't tell you how many people
I've had tell me, well, I'm doing my best. Well, God's not satisfied
with your best. God requires perfection, period. Absolute, total perfection. And he's looking at the heart.
How do you measure up? There's a plumb line. Christ
Jesus the Lord is all in the righteousness of God. He's the
plumb line. And unless we're found in Him,
not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
righteousness, which is by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the only one that obeyed
God. He's the only one that pleased God. You say, well, I've got
to have Jesus to save me of my sins, but then I'm going to do
something else. No. If Christ is not all your
righteousness, then Christ is not all. Cannot add to what He
has done. Well, aren't we all sinners?
You know, nobody's perfect. No, there is one who's perfect. Yeah, we're all sinners. Most
people don't acknowledge their own sin, their sinfulness. They
think sin is just, you know, what they're ashamed of, things
that they, sin is what we are before God. Everything about
us is sinful in the sight of God. Nothing measures up to his
glory. Christ Jesus must be all in our
righteousness. Yes, God demands perfection. Turn with me to Romans chapter
three. Romans chapter three. Look at verse 19. Now we know. Do you know this? We know. We know and are sure
when God says we know. The child of God said Yep, I
know that's true. I know that's true. For we know
that whatsoever the things of the law sayeth that sayeth to
them that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and
all the world may become guilty before God. When the law of God
speaks, the child of God's mouth is shut. Lord, I'm guilty. Guilty. Paul said, I was alive once without
the law, but when the law came, sin revived and I died. In other
words, I came to realize when When the law said thou shalt
not covet, then I realized that it wasn't my outward appearance
that God was measuring me by. Just because I had impressed
men and no one could find fault in my outward behavior, God was
looking at my heart. And I died. Therefore, by the
deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for
by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now, Oh, listen to this,
but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested
or made known being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. That's the right. Christ is the
righteousness of God. He's the one who's made known
or manifested by the Law and the Prophets. All the Word of
God speaks of Him. Unto all and upon all them that
believe. Christ is all our righteousness,
brethren. If we believe that, we really
believe that. I have no righteousness whatsoever
outside of Christ. I don't want God holding me account
for the best thing I've ever done in my life. If he does,
I'll go to hell for it. That's just true. If God judges
me and you for what we're doing right now, if he judges me for
standing up here and preaching the gospel, apart from Christ,
I'm going to go to hell for what I'm doing right now. For there is no difference for
all of sin and come short of the glory of God. Now that's
the definition that God gives of sin. Pretty simple, isn't
it? What in your life do you want
to measure up to the glory of God? Because everything that falls
short of His glory, He calls sin. That's why I say we're nothing
but sin. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus whom God has made to be all our righteousness. for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then?
It is excluded by what? By what law? Of works? Nay, but
by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only?
The religious? Is he not also the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also. Seen is one God which shall justify
the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith.
Do we then make void the law of God by faith, through faith?
Oh no, God forbid, for we establish the law. You see, it's acknowledging
and believing that the Lord Jesus Christ is all of your righteousness
that establishes the holy holiness of God's law. It upholds the
law of God where it ought to be. He is all in our wisdom. He's
all in our righteousness. He is all in our sanctification. Now here's the catch with a lot
of people who say they believe in grace. They have a view of
sanctification where they make a contribution to what the Lord
has done in making them holy. and they call it progressive
sanctification and they believe themselves to be getting better
and better and holier and holier. Do the people of God grow in
grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, certainly
by his grace, they do. And as they grow in grace, they
see more and more of their need for grace. They see more and
more of the sin that lurks in the dark recesses of their hearts. And they acknowledge more and
more of their dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul in addressing the, well,
we're there in 1 Corinthians. Look at the beginning of 1 Corinthians
1, at verse 1, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ
through the will of God and Sosthenes, our brother, unto the church
of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified. In Christ Jesus called, and notice
the verb to be is in italics, it doesn't belong there. He's
not calling us to be saints. He's calling us saints, which
is what the word sanctified means. It means holy. It means to be
set apart. It means to be without sin. And God is saying that all those
who are in Christ Jesus, let the religious world identify
certain individuals as saints. God identifies every believer
as a saint. Why? Because they are sanctified. God has made him to be unto us
our wisdom, our righteousness, and all our sanctification so
that he that sanctifyeth and they which are sanctified are
all as one whereby he's not afraid or shamed to call them his brethren. We're sanctified in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. We don't. We don't identify certain individuals
as saints. God's saying, all my people are
sanctified. Christ is all in our holiness. Hebrews chapter 10, look at verse
10. By the witch will, we are sanctified,
past tense, how? By our outward behavior? Is that
what sanctifies us? No, we are sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Once for
all. And every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But this man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down on the right hand of God. from henceforth expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." Is Christ
Jesus the Lord all in your sanctification? Is he? God has made him to be our sanctification. Now I've had people tell me from
1 Thessalonians chapter 4, turn with me there if you will, 1
Thessalonians chapter 4, that well isn't there a place for
our participation in our sanctification? No. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4
is admonishing us and encouraging us because we are sanctified
to remember who we are. Remember who we are. Look at
1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Look with me at verse 3. For this is the will of God,
even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication,
that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel
in sanctification and honor. What the Lord is saying there,
and we live in a world that hasn't changed. We live in a world that,
this is a problem, fornication and sinful sexual behavior, and
the Lord is saying, you're sanctified. Your body's been set apart. It
belongs to the Lord. Remember who you are. Remember. Young people, this is the will
of God in Christ Jesus. The Lord's not saying you're
gonna add to your sanctification by being chaste. He's saying,
remember who you are. Don't go there. Christ is everything in my sanctification. And if I'm restrained in my sin,
it'll be because He did it. It'll be because He gets all
the glory, doesn't He? Christ Jesus the Lord is all. And He's only all if He's all
you've got. If He's all you've got, In wisdom,
He's all you've got. In righteousness, He's all you've
got. In sanctification, and He's all
you've got. In redemption. Redemption. To have your sins
paid for by the precious blood of Christ. Now the whole world
knows that there is a God with whom they must do one day. And everybody knows that that
God is holy and he requires sins to be paid for. And so the whole
world is going about trying to redeem themselves, trying to
atone for their own sins. And they're going about doing
good deeds. in hopes that God's going to
weigh those in their judgment and that will be their redemption.
To redeem means to buy back. I'm showing my age at this point,
but some of you older brethren can remember the green stamp
redemption stores. And we would collect green stamps
and go to the redemption store. And the irons and the pots and
pans would all be on shelves in the redemption store. And
you'd turn in your green stamps for something, you know, some
sort of household item that you wanted. And it was called a green
stamp redemption store. You remember those? Well, they're
still doing the same thing today. They just do it electronically.
You know, you spend so much money at Chick-fil-A and they give
you a free sandwich, you know, down the road. You're redeeming
your points for something in exchange. Okay? And that's what
men think they're going to do. They think they're going to redeem
their salvation by something that they do. If I can earn enough
points that God will favor me with salvation when I die and
he'll receive me into heaven. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
4. Verse 4, but when the fullness
of time was come, God had purposed, you know, The Latin word for
cross is the word crux, and we often say that something is the
crux of the matter. It's the crossroad. It's the
real heart of the issue. Well, think of that next time
you think of the cross, because the cross is the crux of the
matter. Everything in eternity past was purposed for the cross. Everything in the present is
purposed for the cross. And everything in eternity future
is purposed for the cross. Christ is all. He's all in eternity
and He's all in time. He is the purpose of God in everything. God is glorified and His people
are saved. Nothing else matters. Everything
else is just secondary. Everything else is when the fullness
of time was come. 2,000 years ago, the fullness
of time came. God sent forth his son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that are under
the law that he might receive the adoption of sons. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to shed his precious blood for the redemption of his
people. The world doesn't know that.
My question to you is, God, is Christ Jesus the Lord all in
your redemption? Are you trying to add to what
he's done? If you'll forgive me, it's been a couple of years
since I gave this illustration, but I'm going to give it again
because it fits my point. A man worked all his life and
sent deposits into the bank for his retirement. One day he
got to the fullness of his time and he went to the bank and went
up to the teller and announced that he was withdrawing his money
from the bank because it was time for him to retire. And the
teller asked for his ID and he showed it to her. And the teller
said, sir, could you stand there for just a moment? And she called
the president of the bank. And the president of the bank
came over, looked at the ID, said, sir, is this you? And the
man proudly said, yes, that's me. And the president of the
bank looked over to the security guard and said, lock the door. handcuff this man and call the
FBI. This is the guy that's been sending
us counterfeit money for the last 30 years. That's gonna happen to a lot
of folks. But Lord, but Lord, we've done wonderful works in
your name. And the Lord's gonna say, depart
from me, for I never knew you. Christ was not all in your redemption. You've been banking counterfeit
money thinking that it's gonna somehow earn you favor with God. But what it's gonna do, it's
gonna earn you the judgment of God. God has made him. the Lord Jesus
Christ to be all in our wisdom, in our righteousness, in our
sanctification, and in our redemption. And Christ is only all when he's
all you've got. All you've got. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
add your blessings to your word and make us to believe Christ
as all. For it's in his name we ask it.
Amen. 272 let's stand together 272.
Let's sing this acapella. My hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ a solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. When darkness veils His lovely
face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every hot and stormy
gale, my anchor holds within the veil. On Christ a solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. His oath is covenantous blood,
Support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives
way, He then is all my hope and say. On Christ's solid rock I
stand, All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking
sand. When He shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in Him be found, Dressed in His righteousness
alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. you