1 Corinthians chapter 1. Beginning there at verse 25,
we'll read through verse 31. But because the foolishness of
God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than
men, for you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. And the base things of the world, and the things
which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which
are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should
glory in his presence. 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." Now, according to the scriptures,
anyone, and I think this is to be taken in an absolute sense
too, the anyone. according to the scriptures,
not only these verses that I have read to you, but many other passages
which are certainly too numerous to mention this evening. According
to these scriptures found here in the Bible, anyone who tries
to be justified by the law or the works of the flesh, when
I say by the works of the flesh, I mean by any so-called good
deed. I mean by trusting in character,
trusting in intentions, trusting in anything that pertains to
the flesh. According to the scriptures,
anyone who tries to be justified by the law or the works of the
flesh has altogether fallen from and given up salvation by the
grace of God. Salvation is altogether and alone
by the grace of God. Now, in light of that, we must
trust for righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ alone and look
entirely to the free grace of God Almighty. If I ever get to heaven, and
if you ever get to heaven, It will be in no measure because
I deserve to be there or I deserve to go there, but because God
willed it. You get that now? If I go to
heaven, if you go to heaven, it will not be because you deserved
it or I deserved it. It will be because God willed
it. That is what I read to you here.
It will be because God willed it. that I should enter into
glory by His abounding, marvelous, matchless grace. No man under
the sun has any claim upon God whatsoever. If God gives us what
we claim in justice, He will award us eternal separation and
perdition, hell's fire, in other words. That's all we have the
right to. If God gives us what is due us,
what we have a right to receive, if we get what we have coming,
if we get what we have a right to, what we are judged worthy
of, it will be eternal separation. So if any man desires justice
rather than mercy, he is He's a fool 10,000 times over because
he'll get exactly what he's got coming. All he's got coming is
separation and destruction. That's all we have a right to.
We are undeserving, ill-deserving, and hell-deserving sinners, every
one of us, from the first to the last. And if any good comes
to us, it must be entirely on the ground of his grace freely
given us because of the merits of Jesus Christ, because of the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, not because of our merits. We have not won anything by merit,
by good works. No flesh shall glory in his presence. We haven't got anything to glory
in. We haven't got any righteousness. Men would and do attempt to glory
now, here in time, in their good works, in their belief, in their
faith. But God said, in my presence
you'll not glory. So if we're ever saved, it will
be by the grace of Almighty God. It will be by and through the
merit, the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It won't be because of
what we've done. It won't be because we believe.
We're not saved because we believe. That's not what saves us. Christ
saves us. He pays the debt. He sets us
free. It's not because we believe. We dare not hope to be accepted
with God because of anything good that is in us by nature,
or even anything good that is infused to us by the grace of
God. We are accepted in the Beloved,
and apart from Him, we can look for judgment. Now, it leads me to say this.
If you or I have any kind of hope, I'm talking about religious
hope now, I'm talking about hope of a right relationship with
God in the eternities to come. Every man has a hope of some
sort. Some men hope they don't die. Some men hope that God somehow
will overlook and excuse their disobedience and their ungodliness. Some men have that hope. Some
men hope in their morality. Some men hope in their character. Some men hope in what men say
about them, their reputation. Some men hope in their religious
ordinances that they have obeyed, they have been baptized, they
have partaken of the sacraments of the Lord's Supper and so forth. Some men hope in that. That's
what I'm talking about. Hope, hope. If we have any kind
of hope, religious hope, which disturbs diminishes or destroys
the glory of the grace of God and the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the sooner we get rid of it, the better. Because you can go to hell trusting
in yourself. And that's where most people
are going to wind up, in hell, trusting in themselves. Trusting
in what they do and what they wish they had of done, or what
they can do, or what they hope they will do. And all of that
disturbs and diminishes the grace and the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And if we're holding on to anything
like that, let's let loose of it right now. Let's get rid of
it. We cannot, we must not, detract
in any degree from the complete glory of Christ in the redemption
of his people in salvation as in all things. Jesus Christ is
all and in all. Till to Jesus Christ I cling,
by a simple faith, doing is a deadly thing, doing ends in death. We sang, trust and obey. Let's quit doing and start trusting. That's what salvation is all
about, Bob. It's trusting. It's receiving. That which God
hath done in Christ. Paid the debt. He paid the debt. Christ hath paid the debt for
His people. You want to know whether you're
one of His people or not? Trust Him. That's how simple it is. You want to know whether you
are one for whom Christ died? Trust Him. Come to Him. Believe in Him. Accept this free
gift of salvation which is in Christ. If you want to know whether
you are one of God's elect or not, come to Christ. That's the
only way you'll ever find out, is to come to Him. You'll have
to look back. You're not going to look up. There's nobody who
has ever broken through the throne of God and unchained the book.
and search the record to find out who the elect are. The only
way you find out who the elect are is you come to Christ. Then
you make your calling and election sure, see? Now, let me say this
and I'll quit. We do not find hope and rest
or comfort in our faith. But we find hope and rest and
comfort in Christ. Don't find it in our faith. Your
faith may be weak. Your faith may just flicker.
You can't find no way. If that would be the case, some
days you'd be saved, some days you'd be lost. See? You can't
have no comfort or hope or rest in faith. It's in Christ! I wish people could see that.
I wish everyone who professes the name of Christ could understand,
could see with undiminished eyes that it is all in Christ. We
look to Him. We look outside of self. We look
to Him. Now, if you will give careful
thought to that statement, it will be of great help to you,
if you will consider it in every angle. Faith is not a foundation. Faith is not a refuge or a source
of help. Faith is a means. Faith is a
look. Faith is an empty hand. Christ is our refuge, who protects
from every storm. Our rock on which we build, our
source of every mercy. He and He alone is our only plea. My faith may be weak or weaker,
but he cannot fail. Can he? He can't fail. Thank
God he can't fail. Great is thy faithfulness, O
Lord. He can't fail. He can't fail. You can. You will. And I will. I failed ten thousand times. In these past twenty some odd
years, I've failed. I fail every day. I fail practically
every hour of every day. My faith may be weak or weaker,
but he cannot fail. If all my debts have been paid
by my surety, and he is my surety, I don't have to be ashamed to
come before God then if he paid the debt. He paid the debt. He knew my sins before I committed
them. He knew it. As John Mitchell
told us, he knew everything about us. We don't know everything
about one another, as our brother said. He said, and this impressed
me, and I know it's true. He said, if we just knew what
was in one another's minds right now, if we knew what was in our
minds now, what had been in our minds, we couldn't get along
for an hour. That's how bad we are. That's
how depraved we are. Listen, if all my debts have
been paid for by my surety, my debts, my sins which demands
death and separation and eternal destruction. If my debts, my
debts unto God's righteousness and God's holiness has been paid
for by my substitute and my surety, then I Don't have to be ashamed
to come before the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, the praise and
the credit does not go to my boldness and my faith, but to
my gracious Redeemer, my benefactor, who stood in my place, my surety
who paid my debt. The praise and the credit and
the glory belongs to Him, and that's what I read to you here.
That's what I read to you, that according as it is written, he
the glorious, let him glory in the Lord. See? I'm not debt free. Listen to
me now. I'm not debt free because I believe,
though I do. And that belief or that faith
united me to the Lord Jesus Christ. But I'm not free. I'm not free
because I believe. I'm free because He hath set
me free and paid the debt. That's the reason I'm free. He
paid the debt. He set me free. Christ is my
confidence. He's my assurance. He's my rock. He's my hope. He's my everlasting
salvation. The moment I seek a reason for
hope in anything that I do, even in the blessed grace of faith,
I forfeit any possibility of peace whatsoever. Blessed be
God forever this evening. Salvation is in Christ. It's not in faith. It's not in
your doing. It's not in your dying. It's
not in your intents. It's not in your good purposes.
It's in Christ. It's in Christ. All glory and
all praise be unto the Lamb who was slain. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. He's risen. He's risen. Coming back again for His own.