Let's turn to Genesis chapter
9. Genesis chapter 9. Let's go to the Lord before we
begin. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we ask, Lord, that you
would hear us. Lord, we know we can or dust, that you hear us only
for the sake of your son. And we ask, Lord, that you'd
hear us for his sake. We pray, Lord, that you would
make the word enter into our hearts today. The entrance of
your words giveth light. And we pray, Lord, you would
indeed make the word enter our heart and give us light today.
Lord, if you do, oh, there'll be light, there'll be glory,
there'll be rejoicing. Lord, we ask you this for Christ's
sake, for your honor and glory, in his name, amen. The first weekend in July, I
was headed out to California and I was in the airport at about
4.30 in the morning. Sorry. I was in the airport about
4.30 in the morning, and there was a long line of people, and
I looked out the window to my right at the control tower. And from the top of the control
tower, down about 150 feet, was a giant rainbow flag. And when I saw that, I thought
of the rainbow and the scriptural meaning of that. And as I got
to thinking on that, I thought how that most in the world today,
when they see that, they think of the significance the world
has given to that rainbow flag. And it got me thinking about
various words in scripture, covenants. being born again, righteousness. And I was thinking about how
when you're taught by the Spirit of God, when God's child hears
those words, you think of what the Spirit of God has taught
you. But when the world hears those words, in religion and
out, they think totally contrary and opposite to what the Spirit
of God has taught His people. And then last weekend, somebody
had called me and they were telling me about a couple of different,
some different folks who were going, attending a church where
the gospels preached. And this was the first time they
really ever attended a church at all. And they had made a statement
that they really didn't understand any of the words that were being
used. And it really got me to thinking about how that you've
been taught by the Spirit and you know what these words mean.
And we can easily take for granted that we know what they mean and
forget that folks that are just coming to hear or even folks
that have been listening for a while that don't have spiritual
discernment really don't understand. And so these two things together
got me to thinking about how I want to be very simple in preaching. Whenever the Lord gave Habakkuk
a revelation of the gospel, he told him, write the vision and
make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. Make
it plain. Whenever the Corinthians were
showing off their gifts of being able to speak in languages they
had never learned, they would start talking in foreign languages
while people would be sitting in the congregation. They didn't
speak that language. They were just showing off that
they could do this. And Paul said, in the church
I had rather speak five words with my understanding that by
my voice I might teach others also than 10,000 words in an
unknown tongue. In other words, we want to be
plain. I want people to at least intellectually understand what
we're saying. People won't believe and bow
to Christ merely because you've made it plain, but I want it
to be plain when I preach it. That's what God's preachers spend
more time on than anything is trying to be as plain as he can
how to say things in a plain way. Paul said, see, and then
we have such hope. We use great plainness of speech. And the word there means boldness.
And really and truly being bold is speaking the gospel clearly
and plainly without trying to hide it and without taking the
edge off of it, preaching it boldly, plainly, clearly. So I want to deal with a few
words this morning and show what scripture means by those words. And I just want to take, we'll
take the rainbow, but really the word I want to look at is
covenant. And then we'll take being born again, and we'll take
the word righteousness. I want to just look at these
three words. Rainbow. These days when natural man sees
a rainbow, They immediately think about freedom to commit sodomy. That's what natural man thinks
when they see the rainbow now, or whatever the alphabet is they
use. But God's child is taught the
rainbow is a sign of God's covenant. It's a token. to make you remember
God's covenant. Let's look here in Genesis 9.
God created this rainbow, the rainbow, and he did it as a token. It's something to put you in
remembrance of God's covenant. Genesis 9, after the flood, after
the water subsided, God said to Noah and his sons, verse 11,
he said, Genesis 9, 11, I will establish my covenant with you
Neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of
a flood. Neither shall there any more
be a flood to destroy the earth." And God said, this is the token
of the covenant. This is the sign, the reminder
of this covenant which I make between me and you and every
living creature that's with you for perpetual generations. I
do set my bow in the cloud, that's the rainbow, and it shall be
for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall
come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth, and that's who
does it, God said when I bring a cloud over the earth, that
the bow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my
covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature
of all flesh. And the water shall no more become
a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud,
and I will look upon it." God is looking upon it, and he said,
and I'll remember my covenant. Just like he said his people
will look on it, and we'll remember his covenant. God's looking on
that bow and remembering his covenant. We're gonna see it
all pictures Christ and God's looking to his son and remembering
his covenant. And his people are looking to
his son and remembering his covenant. And he said here, And I'll remember
my covenant, covenant. He said, I'll look upon it, verse
16, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every
living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God
said to Noah, this is the token of the covenant which I've established
between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. Don't you
love how God repeats himself? He just repeated that over and
over and over. He said it the same thing about three or four
different ways and just kept repeating it. We need it repeated,
don't we? We need it repeated. So God gave
this rainbow as a token. He gave it as a sign, a reminder
of God's covenant that he would no longer destroy the earth with
water. Now, God's covenant It's God's
promise. That's what a covenant is. It's
God's promise. It's his word of promise. Now
I wanted to begin with the rainbow because salvation is by God's
covenant. It's by God's covenant. God here
dealing with Noah The spiritual significance is of salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the spiritual significance.
And that's why he uses the word covenant. This is the first place
in God's dealing with Noah. It's the first place in scripture
God uses the word covenant. And what a good place to use
it because it's such a picture of salvation in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus bore the curse
of the law with his people in him, like as Noah and his family
was in the ark and bore the flood from above and beneath. So let's
talk about the covenant of God, the everlasting covenant of God.
Before God made anything, before he created anything, God chose
his son, and his son and the Father entered into covenant.
The Spirit entered into covenant too. All three persons in the
Godhead entered covenant. And God the Father chose His
Son to be the Christ. He did this to glorify God's
name, to glorify His perfections, to manifest God's righteousness. That's why he did it, and he
did it to glorify his son, to glorify his name in his son.
God the Father elected a people. He chose a people to save in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He chose a people in Christ and
made Christ the mediator between God and his people. Now to manifest
his glory in Christ and to teach his people this, God purposed
his people would fall and become guilty in Adam. God purposed
it. The fall didn't surprise God. And it's obvious because all
of this happened before the world was made. God set up a savior
before as yet there was a sinner because God in his purpose knew
sin would enter in. And he entered into this covenant. He did everything from the beginning,
so it's obvious that to fall was all a part of God's purpose
to glorify His Son. Do you know what good news and
what peace it is to God's people when you know that even the fall
was according to God's purpose? As far as Adam was concerned,
it was sin and rebellion against God. That's all it was. But it
was fulfilling God's purpose. And the same is true of our own
sin personally. The same is true of any sin or
anything happening in this world. As far as man's concerned, it's
just rebellion. but it is all being worked together
by God to fulfill His eternal purpose, to glorify His Son. And He's always going to bring
good out of it, and He's always going to show His people more
of the Lord Jesus. Now God is holy, so the righteousness
of God demanded that when we fell in Adam, Every sinner will
have to die under the wages of sin, or have to be paid the wages
of sin. We'll all have to suffer the
justice of God. But in eternity, the Son of God
entered covenant to take the place of all those elect children
as the last Adam, and to perfectly obey God under the law as the
one man God looked to. then go to the cross in a perfect
obedience to God and bear our sin and be made a curse for us. so that he bore the justice,
just like the ark bore the flood, he bore the wrath of God. And
all his people were in him, just like Noah and his family was
in that ark. And then God the Father promised
his son, this is all in the covenant, he promised his son that when
he had fulfilled the will of God, he would see the travail
of his soul and be satisfied. That means he would see that
Through all this pain and the suffering that He endured on
Calvary's cross for His people, He would see His seed saved,
His children, those He redeemed, He'd see them saved. He would
see them called to Him. He would see them glorified.
He would see them all with Him in glory, and His soul would
be satisfied. Just like a woman travails in
childbirth, but then she's satisfied when she holds that child in
her arms. That's what God the Father promised
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, now that our Lord Jesus
has come, when he cried, it is finished, that's exactly what
he was referring to as this covenant. He was declaring he finished
the covenant promises that he made with the Father as far as
making his people the righteousness of God. And now he's risen. God promised he would arise and
he would be glorified as the God-man. And he's risen now. and He lives now to make intercession
for us, and He's making that intercession on this ground that
He fulfilled His side of the covenant, that He came and justified
His people. And he's interceding with God
for his people to be saved, come what may. And so God, not looking
to his people at all, looking only to the Lord Jesus Christ
and his perfect obedience to God on their behalf, is hearing
that intercession and being merciful to his people for the sake of
the Lord Jesus. Isn't that good news? Isn't that
good news? And God the Father even gave
Christ the glory. This is all in the covenant.
Now He gave Him the glory of being the head over all things
to the church that He might fulfill all in all in His church. He gave him the promise of the
Holy Spirit, Peter said, on the day of Pentecost. And so Christ
sent forth the Holy Spirit, and He's the one who has everything
at His disposal as the sovereign King of heaven and earth so that
He can send His gospel to His people and send the Spirit and
quicken His children to life. And Christ, our covenant, sits
at God's right hand right now. And do you remember how John
saw the Lord Jesus Christ? Listen to this from Revelation
4 and verse 2. There was a rainbow round about
the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And in Revelation
10.1 it says, and a rainbow was upon his head. Christ himself
is the covenant. This is what God's teaching us,
that these things we're studying, Christ is, He is the covenant. He is the covenant. He fulfilled
all the terms of it, but He is the promise. Christ Jesus is. And that rainbow was upon His
head. Now, in our experience of it,
This is all between God right here. He worked this all out.
But in our experience of God's grace, it begins when he comes
and makes you hear the gospel, and he gives you life, and he
gives you faith. And that's when we enter into
Christ through faith, just like Noah entered that ark, just like
he entered into that ark, and just like they were delivered
to a new earth, brand new earth. after the flood, all God's children
shall be delivered to a new heaven and a new earth in Christ our
Lord. Everyone. Now let's read all
this in Isaiah 54. If you want to see the what the arc and the flood and
all the rains beating down on the arc and the flood coming
up from under the arc, if you want to see what that was picturing,
read ICF-53. Isaiah 53 declares how Christ
was made sin for His people and bore that fierce wrath of God.
So Isaiah 53 is what you have with the floods coming down and
the floods coming up beneath and that ark being submerged
in the judgment of God with Noah inside that ark. Now if you want
to hear what the result of it is, you know when Noah came out
of the ark, we just read God made that covenant with him.
and said, it's all done, Noah. I'm not going to flood the earth
again with rain. That was his covenant. Well,
he makes a covenant with you and with me when he calls you
by faith. And here's what he says to you now in verse 7. In verse 7, he said, for a small
moment have I forsaken thee. You know when that happened?
That was in Christ on the cross. When you read of our Lord Jesus
Christ being forsaken on that cross and totally bearing by
Himself that judgment, that second death of being separated from
God, that's when He forsook you who believe. That's when you
bore that judgment. And God said, for a moment I
have forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. This is the ark
speaking to us. I said he's got the glory of
giving you this good news and calling you. This saith the Lord
thy Redeemer. He's the one. He will gather
you in everlasting kindness, because it's an everlasting covenant.
Look at verse 9. For this is as the waters of
Noah unto me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should
no more go over the earth, "'So have I sworn that I would not
be wroth with thee "'nor rebuke thee. "'For the mountains shall
depart "'and the hills shall be removed, "'but my kindness
shall not depart from thee, "'neither shall the covenant of my peace
be removed. "'Sayeth the Lord that hath mercy
on thee.'" That's God's everlasting covenant, ordered and sure in
all things by Christ Jesus, our Lord, and made to his people
when he calls you by his grace. That's his promise. Now, he'll
rebuke you as far as correcting you and keeping you looking only
to Christ, and it may seem like he's gonna destroy you or that
he's cast you off, but it's all good for you, child of God. Anything
that keeps you trusting Christ only is only for your good. Now, isn't it remarkable, brethren,
that And it's God who permitted the devil to put it in the hearts
and minds of natural man to use the rainbow as a symbol of freedom
to commit sodomy. That's remarkable. And here's
why it's remarkable. Because in the scripture, sodomy
is an indication of God turning a people over to reprobation
forever. And here's why it's remarkable.
The rainbow is a picture of that everlasting covenant which declares
God has saved his people and will not let you go and it's
certain and for eternity. Isn't that remarkable? The very
thing that says to you that God has everlastingly loved you and
will everlastingly save you and will not let you go and will
save you. is the thing men are using, which
in scripture is a picture of God everlastingly damning men. I find that remarkable. Now let's
go talk about being born again. Let's talk about being born again. John 3. Now, just like with everything
else, when man hears the word born again, natural man hears
that term And what comes to his mind is his works. That's what
comes to his mind, his works. He thinks about his decision
to let God save him. That's what he thinks about.
That's what most think being born again is. But for those
that are born again, you think about God's work. Just like with
the rainbow, with the covenant. You see that, you think of God's
work. When you hear being born again,
you think of God's work, because this is what the Spirit's taught
you. We had absolutely no work in our first conception, and
we have no work in the new birth. We don't have any. Being born
again is the work of the Holy Spirit of God alone. Nicodemus
was an unregenerate religious man, and he did what unregenerate
religious men do. He came to the Lord Jesus telling
Christ what he thought he knew. That's what he came to, telling
him what he thought he knew. And the Lord just interrupted
him telling what all he thought he knew. In verse 3, Jesus answered
and said to him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He can't
see Christ the King, and he can't enter into the kingdom. We're
born into this kingdom. We saw that Thursday. Was it
Thursday? We saw we were born into this kingdom. Nicodemus
said to him, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter
the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered,
verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water
and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh. and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone that's born of
the Spirit. Our Lord said we must be born
again of the Spirit of God, and the reason is because we're born
the first time dead in sins. David said in Psalm 51, 5, behold,
I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive
me. That's a born again, believing
child of God, made holy by God, who's confessing his nothingness
and his sinfulness before God. And he's saying, I was this way
by conception. I was this way from my mother's
womb. We must be born again, not only because we're spiritually
dead as we come into this world, we must be born again because
God elected his people to salvation. We must be born again because
it's God's will from eternity, and God works all things after
the counsel of his own will. God's people must be born again
because God promised that all His elect would be born again
by the Spirit of God. They shall all be taught of God.
That's part of His covenant. They must be born because God
predestinated us to it. God's people must be born again
because Christ justified his people and therefore justice
demands we must be born again. It would be unjust for God to
let one perish or pour out his justice on one that Christ already
satisfied justice for. We must be born again because
the Holy Spirit was sent to perform it. It's His glory to perform
it. He is God. He is God, and He
cannot be turned away from performing this work in His people. Now,
Christ said here, another reason we must be born again is because
that which is born of flesh is flesh. Now, He's talking about
your sinful nature, my sinful nature. It was born of flesh, it was
born of a man, it's fleshly. That's all it is, that's all
it will ever be. That's all it will ever be. It
will go back to the dust one day. It will not be, what we
are right now in our sin nature, will not be in glory with God.
God's not teaching you in your old man of flesh. He's not blessing
the old man of flesh. He uses it to show you that you're
saved by the Lord. When you read Hebrews 12, and
it talks about coming to the church of God, the church of
God is the church of God's elect. That's the church of God we've
come to. It's not everybody in a, it's not every local assembly,
and it's not everybody in any local assembly. It's the church
of God's elect. And this word there says you
have come to the spirits of just men made perfect. That's what
God says you are who have been born again of his spirit. You
are spirit. Because that which is spirit
is spirit. You are spirit. You've been justified by Christ,
made perfect by Christ, and that new man born of incorruptible
seed is holy and without sin. When you, the church of God select,
if you could just, if you could, if you took away our flesh, you
wouldn't be able to see us, because you can't see spirit. but we've
come to the spirits of just men made perfect. That includes God's
elect that are already in glory, but that's exactly who God's
people are right now on this earth. You worship God in spirit,
your spirit, and you're a just man by Christ, made perfect by
Christ. We can't claim that ourselves
right now because our flesh is part of us too, and it's sinful. So sin's mixed with everything
we do. But that's how God regards it. You've come to the Christ
Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. You've come to God.
You've come to the spirits of just men made perfect. And so
that which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of
spirit is spirit. A new spiritual man is created
within us when we're born of the spirit of God. A new spirit
that was not there is there now. And people think that's impossible
with God or whatever. It's not impossible with God.
It's how God saves. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. This new creation is just like
that first creation. God didn't make the first creation
out of anything that was made. And He didn't make this new creation
within His people out of anything that was made. It's the Spirit
of God creating a new spirit within you. And this birth is
not of man. Christ said the Holy Spirit must
perform the new birth and He works like the wind, He said.
Look here in verse eight, the wind bloweth where it listeth.
That means it blows where it will. And thou hearest the sound
thereof, but canst tell whence it cometh and where it goeth.
So is everyone that's born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is
God. He is a person. It's not an it,
it's a person. I don't know why Romans eight
put it when speaking about the Spirit of God. The Spirit of
God's a person. He does as he will in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? He's as much a person
in the Godhead as God the Father and God the Son. And just like
the wind, as you don't know when it's coming, you don't know when
the Spirit of God's coming. But when he comes, just like
the wind, you cannot stop the wind. And when the Spirit of
God comes, you can't stop the Spirit of God. He enters in.
Before, you could not hear. Then you start hearing. Before, you couldn't see. When
you would look into the script, you couldn't see the Lord. Now
you see him. Before, you couldn't believe
the things that were spoken. They were foolishness to you.
Then you find yourself believing every word that's spoken. before
it just irritated and aggravated you and made you angry. Now you
start rejoicing in what you hear and you start delighting in the
message of the gospel. You want to confess Christ. You
want to do His will. You want to obey Him. You want
to confess Him in believer's baptism. You want to walk after
the Lord Jesus Christ in union with His people. You want to
be there when the gospel is preached. You want to obey the Lord in
every way possible. If anybody finds themselves believing
on Christ and rejoicing that he is salvation, and it's brand
new to you, you've never done this before, you find yourself
rejoicing that Christ indeed is all salvation apart from our
works. Listen to this word. This is
what the Lord Jesus said has happened. Blessed art thou for
flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. That's who did it. That's why
we must be born again. Now let me briefly say a word
about righteousness. I said a good bit about this
in the beginning, so I won't speak a lot, but Romans 10. Romans chapter 10. When a natural man hears the
word righteousness, he thinks about his works. He thinks about
his works. When God's child hears the word
righteousness, we think about the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord
our righteousness, Jehovah Sidkenu. Natural man thinks he obtains
a righteousness by obedience to God's law or through a combination
of faith in Christ and obedience to God's law. But God says there's
none righteous, no not one. He says all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. To be righteous, to be righteous
is to have fulfilled God's law or be perfectly just like God,
just like his law with no sin. Whatsoever is to be the righteousness
of God is to be righteous as God is righteous That's what
it is to be righteous That's who Christ Jesus alone is that's
who he is. He's the only man who is Look
here in Romans 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, for I bear
them record, they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. They being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted to the righteousness of God. And then he tells you
in the very next verse, the righteousness of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the righteousness of
God. Christ is the righteousness of God. He is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. That's who he
is. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
only man Since Adam, in the garden, before the fall, our Lord Jesus
is the only man who came into this world without sin. Without
sin. He came sinless from the womb,
but his obedience, he was made sin for us. He was made to bear
the curse for his people and all God's elect died in him.
Justice was satisfied fully on the Lord Jesus Christ. And when
he arose, all his elect arose in him. And just like Noah and
his family came out of that ark into that new earth, God's people,
or being delivered by Christ to a new heaven and a new earth.
And when it gives you this faith, you have an entirely new standing
with God, perfectly righteous. And God gives you faith to behold
it and know it that you are righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. But
the Spirit not only teaches His child that Christ made His people
the righteousness of God in Him, He makes you know Christ Himself
is your righteousness. He makes Christ's righteousness
unto you. A person is made to be wisdom
to us. A person, the Lord Jesus is made
to be sanctification to us. The Lord Jesus Christ is made
to be redemption to us. The Lord Jesus Christ is made
to be the resurrection to those born of God. The Lord Jesus Himself
is salvation. Simeon held Him up and he said,
Now, Lord, Thy servant can depart in peace, for I have seen Thy
salvation. All of these things we're talking
about is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And when a sinner has
Christ made all unto him, When Christ is made all unto you,
you've been born again, you've been made holy in heart, so that
now, for the first time, you can do what you never could do
before. What you never could do before.
Now, in your new man, you know yourself to be the sinner. You couldn't do this before.
Now, you hate your sinful flesh. A man is born of God, hates his
sinful flesh. He hates it. He hates his sin. He hates it. He hates that he
cannot obey God like he wants to obey God. The only thing he
sees in himself is what Paul said, what I would, that do I
not, but what I hate, that do I. That's what he sees in himself. That's the only thing he can
say about himself. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. I don't want that. I do not want
that. He hates everything about self
because he sees his sin nature is vile. That's what he sees
about himself. He couldn't do that before. He
could not do that before. But in his new holy heart now,
he believes he's complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what faith believes. Why do you believe it? Because
the Lord has spoken into your heart, and he has said to you,
you are complete in him, which is the head of all principality
and power. He's spoken that word, Colossians
2.10, into your heart, and you believe him now. He's come to
you and He's made you know you're accepted in the Beloved and given
your faith to believe it. Why do you believe it? Because
Ephesians 1, 6 says, to the praise of the glory of His grace, we
are accepted in the Beloved. He believes Christ is with him
and will never forsake him. You know why? Because Christ
commands in his heart and says, fear thou not, for I am with
thee. He says, be not dismayed, I am
thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. This man's shield and his reward
is not something Christ gives him, it is Christ. Just like
he said to Abraham, Abraham, fear thou not, I am thy shield
and thy exceeding great reward. Christ is the salvation he gives
us. He is the blessing he gives us.
Now the man counts all his former confidence and everything that
he put any trust in as nothing but dung. It's not lost to him
at all. He wishes he could lose it all.
He wishes he could be done with all of it. He has one desire
above everything else, to be found in Christ, not having my
own righteousness, but that which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. I don't want to be found in my
own righteousness. I don't want to be found Anything,
anything that's of me. I don't want to be found of anything
that's of me. I want to be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ only because everything that's of me is sinful. Everything
that's of me is sinful. The only place I have righteousness,
the only place I have the holiness that God demands is in my Lord
Jesus Christ. And the only way I know it is
because he's given me a heart to look out of me to him. And
this man that has this work done in him now, beholding Christ
is his right. He longs for the day, he longs
for the day that he will be able to see Christ face to face and
be perfectly conformed to the Lord Jesus Christ so that he
can worship the Lord Jesus Christ just like he wants to do right
now. so that he won't have any sin, any of this flesh distracting
him, and nobody around him will be sin distracting. He will be
perfectly righteous, and all his brethren will be righteous,
and they'll all be worshiping only one, and that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what he desires above
everything. Isn't that what you desire? How
different than what the world thinks, what natural man thinks,
what natural religious man thinks when he hears these words and
what God's Spirit taught children here. What they think. What's
happened to this sinner? Go to 1 Corinthians 1. God save us. God save us from
regarding any scripture as familiar. As familiar. God keep it new
in our heart. This is what God does through
the spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 1.29, here's what happened to
him. This is what God did for him through the foolishness of
preaching. God saves this way that no flesh should glory in
his presence. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. That means Christ
of God is made unto us wisdom. and Christ of God is made unto
us righteousness, and Christ of God is made unto us sanctification,
and Christ of God is made unto us redemption. There ain't a
thing in that that you and me have one thing to do with. That's
all the work of God and his covenant giving it to you and making you
know it by the Spirit of God, making you a new creation by
the being born again and by making you know Christ Jesus is all
of this unto you. And what do you do? He that glories,
let him glory in the Lord. That's what you do. Our gracious
Father, we thank you for this word. Lord, help us to look to
Christ alone. Help us to hear this word in
power. Make Your Spirit quicken us, Lord. We beg You to quicken
us. Lord, let us live. Let us hear.
Let us rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank You, Lord, for
saving Your people. Father, we pray for those that
are just coming to hear the gospel for the first time and that You
would work this work in their heart, that You would be the
teacher. make the word plain in their
heart by the Spirit of God. And Lord, we pray for your elect
who are yet lost in this world, that you would call them and
bring them to you to see you and know you. Lord, help us whenever
you open that door, make it known to us so we can speak a word
in season. Encourage them to come and hear
the gospel preached. Lord, forgive us our sins. Forgive
us, Lord, our unbelief. Forgive us and, Lord, see us,
behold us in Christ our all alone. We ask you to receive us in him,
hear us in him, do all for us for his sake. It's in his precious
name we ask it. Amen.