Turn with me in your Bibles to
1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. How the believer loves, desires
with all our heart, for our Lord to receive all the
glory. All the glory in our salvation.
I'm going to try, if the Lord will
enable me this morning, to preach again from this text. It's my
favorite. I guess I should say one of them.
One of my favorite texts in the Bible. One of the first places where
the Lord opened the scriptures to me and made me truly delight in my Lord. The scripture says, At the end
of this thought, in verse 29, the Spirit of God, moving the Apostle Paul, says, No flesh shall glory in God's
presence. Do you know what flesh means? What do the scriptures mean?
What does God mean when he says flesh? Look at John chapter 3. I want
you to look at these scriptures with me. John chapter 3. John chapter 3. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. And he said this, John chapter
3 verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's what flesh is. Flesh is
what every man is by our first birth. That's what we are. We're flesh. It's from Adam to his son, to
his son, all the way down the line to your great-grandparents
and mine, to your mothers and fathers and mine, all the way
right to us. Flesh. Now let me ask you this
second question. What does glory mean? No flesh
shall glory in his presence. What does it mean to glory? It
means to boast in. It means to joy in. It means to give all the praise
and all the honor. Amen. born the first time, have a will. We all are born into this world
with a will. No man is a robot. Man is a thinking,
reasoning, intellectual creature. He's born that way. And every
single man that's born into this world has one desire of his will. And that is that self get the
boasting, it get the glory, it get the praise. How much, how
often do we speak of I and me and mine and ours How much does
that personal pronoun, how much do those take up our communication? It seems that no matter how the
doctor says that the disease is incurable, it seems no matter
how far out to sea we are, how bad the hurricane is, how bad
the sharks are around us, how bad we're dead in the water,
how bad somebody has, how completely thoroughly somebody else has
completely plucked us out while we were unconscious. Somehow,
we always managed to say, oh, I was just so strong. I was
just so wise. I had such a will to survive. That's the result of what happened
in the garden. Because of Adam's one transgression
in the garden, we're born spiritually dead, cut off from an understanding
and a knowledge of the true and living God of heaven and earth. And the result is, the sure and
certain effect of man is, of me and you. I've passed this
on to my son. And every man here has passed
it on to his. And this is the sure and certain result. We come
into this world wanting ourselves to be praised and to be glorified
and to get the glory. Now we're talking about glory
in salvation. I'm talking about salvation. We're talking about being saved. We're talking about being brought
into the presence of a triune God who is holy and who is righteous
and who is just. We're talking about the true
and living God. He said this, I am the Lord. That is my name and my glory. I will not give
to another. Neither my prayers to graven
images. to any work of man's hand." The
Spirit of God is testifying here. The Spirit of God is speaking
here in 1 Corinthians 1 29. And the Spirit of God said, no
flesh shall glory in God's presence. Well, I got another question. How,
how is a sinner, how is a sinner gonna be brought to be made willing
to cease desiring the glory and give all the glory to God? How is that going to come about? Let's read our text. 1 Corinthians
1 verse 30. But of God. That's how this is going
to come about. But of Him. Are ye in Christ Jesus? Who of
God is made unto us... This is a who we're talking about.
Who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that according as it is written,
according as God has written it. By the hand of His messengers
of hope, He that glorieth, He that boasts, He that praises,
He that makes His boast, let Him make His boast in the Lord. Turn over to Jeremiah chapter
9. That's where Apostle Paul is
preaching. He's preaching from the Old Testament
Scripture. He says here in Jeremiah chapter
9, Jeremiah 9.23, Thus saith the Lord, Now, we might want to pay attention
to this because this is the God we're going to meet. We're going
to meet him. This is inevitable. Can't stop
this. We're going to meet him. Here's
what he says. Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom. Neither let the mighty man glory
in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches. Don't let him boast. Don't let
him put any confidence. Don't let him rejoice in any
of these things. But, here comes something absolutely,
totally opposite to us. But, let him that glorieth. Glory in this. I'm hanging on every word here
because I want to know what God says glory in. I want to know where in God says
boast. Put your confidence. Put all
your trust. Put all your hope. This is where he said, let him
put all his trust, all his boasting in this, that he understandeth and knoweth. Is that it? That he understands
and that he knows? Is that what he's supposed to
put his trust in? Some knowledge? He just said
don't let the wise man glory in his might. What's this knowledge? What's this understanding? Look
at that next word. Me. Me. The Lord's talking. God said,
let him glory in this, that he understands and knows me. Me. Now, let's look at this word. That I, what do we know and understand
about him? He qualifies this. What's this
knowledge and this understanding about the Lord? That I am the Lord which exercise. You know what that word exercise
means? It means absolutely, as fully as you can spread it out
and imagine it to be that God accomplishes, that God fulfills,
that God gives, that God bestows, that God is the sole accomplisher
of loving kindness, judgment, and
righteousness in the earth. He said he's going to accomplish
this in the earth. He's going to come and do this
in the earth. This is the Lord speaking. This
is God speaking. This is Jehovah speaking. This
is the great I am speaking. And he says, I am the one who
exercise. I accomplished this. all the
mercy and all the truth that He requires, He says, I exercise
it. I accomplish it in the earth.
And He says this, for in these I delight. He delights in mercy. He delights in loving kindness.
He delights in judgment. He delights in righteousness.
And these that He delights in, are those who boast and delight
in Him alone accomplishing, exercising this in the earth. He delights
in them. You know why? Because He's the
wisdom whereby we delight. He's the very wisdom in whom
we delight. by whom we delight. Who is this
wisdom? Who is this wisdom? Who is this
wisdom? Our text says it's Christ, Jesus. That man. That one that came
forth in the earth. He's wisdom. He is the one in
whom All the truth of God, all the mercy of God, all the judgment
of God, all the justice of God, all the character of God, all
the glory of God is revealed and manifest and made known in
man, in men. And those who have been given
this wisdom, we understand and we know by wisdom himself, by wisdom
himself, that it's God alone who has saved
us. Now God's saying to us here,
I'm not sharing the glory that belongs to my name, to the Lord. He says, I'm not sharing this
glory with anybody. No flesh. That's me and you brethren. Listen now, no flesh is going
to glory in his presence. We're not going to be able to
glory in his presence. Not in our flesh. Not in our
will. Not in our wisdom. Not in our
power. Not in our might. not anything
in us. The Lord came to Abraham and
made a promise to Abraham. He promised Abraham that he's
going to save Abraham through this Son who's coming. This miracle of God's grace who's
coming. Who's going to be, as it were,
life coming from the dead. Just like Sarah's womb was completely
dead. Just like she was unable to conceive
in her womb. This race that Christ came through
is just that dead. So that He is life coming. through the dead, coming through
the flesh, into the flesh. And when he made this promise
to Abraham, Romans 4.21 gives us a wonderful, wonderful definition
of what faith is. This is what faith is. Romans
4.21. being fully persuaded that what God had promised, God
also was able to perform. You understand what he said there?
God told him, Abraham, I not only make this promise, I'm the
one that's going to perform it. I'm not only making this promise
of salvation. He says, I'm the one that's going
to come forth and perform it. Now that's what Jeremiah, the
Lord is saying through Jeremiah. He said, I am the Lord who exercised. I'm the one who's going to come
forth and perform all my goodness, all my righteousness. Now, when
we started out here, we said, The believer wants God. We want
our Lord Jesus Christ to get all the glory. Is everybody here still thinking
that? I know those who have been made to know this wisdom. You're
saying in your heart, oh yes. I am so glad. I am so delightful. I'm just thankful. He's made
me to know Him, to rejoice in Him. But you see what I'm talking
about here? What we're talking about here
is what the Lord says through Paul in Galatians, this is the
offense of the cross. Most people in this world are
never offended at the God that's declared by the majority in this
world. Because there's nothing about
that God to be offended about. He doesn't do anything contrary
to a man. Man picks him up. Man carries
him. Man sets him down. Man tells
him when he can jump, how high he can jump, what he can do,
when he can do it, how much he can do it. Because God's... Because man's formed him and
made him in his own imagination. And that's the wisdom we have
by nature. And that God's not offensive to anybody. But this
God we're talking about, he's going to cut this flesh and make
it worthless. He's gonna make us see it's worthless. Because there's no, absolutely
no way for God to get all the glory from such a worm as I,
which we just sang loud, for such a worm as I. That little
squiggly white thing that just makes your stomach crawl when
you open up the garbage can and see it writhing around in the
garbage. such a worm as I. Every religion, every religion
in this world, it doesn't matter what name it goes by, it doesn't
matter what the name of the God is, every religion in this world
that is not of the God of heaven That's not the truth of the God
of heaven. Somewhere, either in the beginning,
in the middle, throughout, or in the end, somewhere requires
something of a man. Requires him to add something
to it. And that is works. And a man, he'll receive that,
he'll rejoice in that, because if you and I have done anything
in this thing of salvation, we have wherein to make our boast. By grace are you saved. And that, through faith, and
that The faith is not of yourself. It's the gift of God. Lest any man should boast. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Grace. There's either works or
it's grace. Either a man's trusting in works
or he's trusting in the grace of God. And the grace of God
is the gospel. It is the truth. It is the truth
of God. That's who He is. That's His
name. That's who the Lord is. That's
how He saves. And these two things, look at
Romans 11. This thing of grace and works. These two things are
never never able to be mixed. They just not. Watch this, Romans
11 verse 6. If by grace, then it is no more
of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. You see, they're absolutely contrary. They're absolutely opposite to
each other. Man's work is opposite of God's
grace. Man and his doing and what he
puts his trust in and his boast in, the flesh, is absolutely
opposite to the grace of God. Totally, and it can't be, these
two won't be mixed. They can't be mixed. You can't
have grace and work. You can't have a mixture of them.
Cain and Abel. First murder committed in this
world. And here it is. Cain came with
those vegetables he had grown, he had worked that soil, he had
grown those vegetables, he brought those to God, expecting God to
look upon the work of his hand and say, oh yes, I'll receive
you. And Abel came with blood. He came with the blood of a lamb
who was slain in his place and he came offering this to God
as the only the only way God would receive him and God received Abel and he
rejected Cain because Cain came by his works And Abel came saying,
there is absolutely nothing good in me. I come solely in the merits
and the deeds and the holiness of another. And that lamb is
a picture of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. That one God chose, that one
God delighted in, that one the Father took a people and put
in and said, this is my Son. This is my elect. This is the
one who'll come forth and exercise my lovingkindness, my mercy. He'll exercise judgment. He'll
exercise righteousness. This one will come forth and
He will glorify my name. And because this one who came
forth, Christ Jesus, is God, the Son of God in human flesh,
God Himself is the one who wrought the whole work of saving his
people. He's this wisdom. He's this wisdom. Look at Ephesians 1.3. Moses
asked God, he said, Lord, show me your glory. And this is the
first thing God said to him. God said, this is my glory. I
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will be merciful
to whom I will be merciful. Look at Ephesians 1.3. Now listen,
until we know, until we've met wisdom and he's entered in, We
don't have any idea what a glorious, good and delightful and wonderful
declaration this is. That this is all of God. It's
all of His Son. Look at Ephesians 1 through 3.
Blessed. Blessed. Glory. Praise Him. Be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. according as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise, to the boasting
of, to the glorying of His grace. wherein he hath made us accepted
in the Beloved." Look at Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9.
This is what Paul said about that. Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. He says in verse 11, he's speaking about
Jacob and Esau, these twins. by the same fleshly father, by
the same fleshly mother, he said the children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written in the Old Testament
scripture, Jacob have I loved, but he shall have I hated. What
shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is that not right for God? God forbid. He said to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth, it's not of him that runneth, but it's God that shows
mercy. You see that? It's God that shows
mercy. 1 John 5.20 says, and we know
Him. We know that the Son of God is
come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true. And we're in Him that is true. And this, is life eternal. This son is Christ Jesus and
this is life eternal. This is the true God. Now, when
are we going to know this? When are we going to understand
this? When are we going to stop boasting
in ourselves and boast only in God and only in His wisdom? Our text says, of God are ye
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. That's when, when Christ, in
whom God put whoever He chose according to His will and His
good pleasure and His grace, when He has come by the Spirit
of Christ and He's entered into these dead bodies, We're going
to know wisdom. We're going to know Christ. We're
going to know who God is then. So that's the first thing Christ
is. He's wisdom to us. That's where in we're going to
glory when we met wisdom. Christ is wisdom. I don't have
any as I come in this flesh. I tell you how backwards this
man right here how undone and how ignorant and how totally
opposite of God I was. I thought God would save me because
of something I contributed. And it's only by God not allowing
me to contribute one thing but by Christ entering in, that I
met the wisdom of God. And I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful
because now I realize what a dead, lifeless, helpless, worthless
thing I was boasting in. My flesh. My flesh. Here's the second thing. Christ
is made unto us righteousness. Righteousness, it says here,
1 Corinthians 1.30, of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom and righteousness. Righteousness means deeds. It's always, it means deeds. It means that which The law says, doing. It means that which is
right according to what the law legally says, what God himself
says is right. That's what righteousness is.
Look at Romans 5-7. Romans 5-7. I want you to see
by the deeds Romans 5, I'm sorry, Romans 5, 17. It says, by one man's offense,
that means his deeds, means what he did, by one man's, death reigned
by one. Adam sinned and it was passed
on, just like we said in the beginning. Much more, they which
receive having given to them the abundance of grace and of
the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one. That's Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Look down
at verse 19. As by one man's disobedience,
by one man's disobedient deed, by one deed many were made sinners,
everybody he represented. So by the obedience of one, by
his deeds, shall many be made righteous. Now look back at Romans chapter
3 verse 20. Romans chapter 3 verse 20. Therefore, now watch this, by
the deeds, see this? This is by the doing of the law. By our doing of the law, there
shall no, there's that word again, flesh. What did Christ tell us
flesh mean? That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. And not by any deeds of a man. According to the law, there is
no man gonna be justified in God's sight. For by the law is
the knowledge of sin. That's why God gave it. That's
why God gave it. But disobedience, the righteousness
of God, without the law, without our deeds, is manifested. Being witnessed by the law and
prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ, it's by His deeds. It's by His deeds. That's what
we just read in Romans 5. By one man's deeds shall many
be made righteous. By His deeds. For this is why
it can't be by our deeds. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. We're talking about glory here.
We've come short of God praising, being able to put any trust in
us. We've come short of it by Adam's
one, his deeds. By Christ's deeds, by His deeds,
by His doing, everything in the law of God is completely fulfilled
by His deeds. And he did that as the representative
of all those that God sent. God said he chose us in Christ
and he blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Everyone that he represented,
he's the last Adam. The first Adam was just a figure
and type of him. He's the last Adam. The first
man was of the earth. He was earthy. He's flesh. And
those born of Him is flesh. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. He's God come in human flesh.
He's the Son of God come down to exercise, to accomplish, to
fulfill, to do everything by His deeds that God requires and
says in His law is right. And He's come down and He's done
those deeds. He did them all. And everybody
that He represented did them. They did those deeds, not ourselves,
when He did them, when He did them. And the righteousness of
the law, that which God's law declares, that which if you could
get right down, the fulfillment of the law is love. It's love toward God and it's
love toward brethren. And Christ Jesus fulfilled the
very right deed of the law in absolute perfect obedience. When He gave Himself and was
willingly, this One who knew no sin, who was right, who was
a fit sacrifice, who was a spotless Lamb, this One who could truly
say, that he had never in his flesh done anything evil. This
one was willingly made to be the awful, awful thing that his
people, those God gave him, are. So that God poured out the wrath,
fulfilled justice by just a wrath, just wrath, just eternal
wrath. If you go to, if you perish from
this earth and you go and you meet God in judgment and you
are outside of Christ, you'll never satisfy the wrath of God. We can't even satisfy the wrath
of God when we die and perish. But Christ satisfied that righteousness. And this is what Paul said. Let's
look at this. Philippians chapter 3. This is what Paul said. Before, he was trusting in all
these things too. He was looking at himself. He
was looking at his deeds. He was looking at his pedigree.
He was looking at who he came from, who his mama and his daddy
was. church affiliation he belonged
to, and what sect of men's things he belonged to. But now he said
this, verse 9, he said, I count that dumb, verse 8, garbage,
rubbish, that I might win Christ and be found in Him not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law. I don't want God
to look at any of my deeds. Philippians 3, 9. I want to be
found in Christ. Of God, are you in Christ? He
said. By His grace, who of God has
made unto us wisdom, and He's made unto us to be the right
deeds. All the deeds that God requires,
He's made to be. I want to be found in Him, not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law, which is
of my doing, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith. What did He say? In Jeremiah, He said, Rejoice
in this, that you understand and know Me. And Paul said this,
verse 10, that I might know Him. This is, I just want to know
Him. I want to know Him. Now where
this is, let me go back to Romans 3 here for you. Where this is
accomplished by Him and this faith is given, look at the end
of Romans 3. End of Romans 3 verse 28. I'm sorry, verse 27. Where is boasting
then? Where are we going to boast then?
Where are we going to glory then? It's excluded. That means it's
taken out of the way. There is nowhere to boast in.
By what law? By what principle is this taken
away? Is it by your doing? Is it by your words? No. It's by the law of faith. Therefore,
we conclude that a man is justified, he's right, God counts him to
have done all the deeds necessary by faith without the deeds of
the law. You see that? Without the deeds
of the law. And it doesn't matter, he says
there, if you're a Jew or if you're a Gentile. This is what
God's been declaring from the foundation of the world. This
is what he... He sold Israel when he chose
Israel and he made them into a nation. He said, I didn't choose
you because you were more mighty or anything about you any greater
than any nation. You're the least of all nations.
They were slaves in Egypt. He said, That he shows us in
that he hadn't chose anybody. That he chose Jews. His people
are Jew and Gentile. From Adam, Abraham's natural
descendants, which are Gentiles. Because Abraham was a Gentile.
He was the uncircumcised. That's when he was called. And
not from Isaac or Jacob. Israel. Jacob. Israel. He was
called a Jew after the flesh. And not of them. Christ is made
unto us righteousness. So he justified all for whom
he lived and all for whom he died. We're going to go out here
and we got a pool of water. And just like when you die, when
you physically die, Listen, it might not matter to
you, because you'll be dead. But everybody else is gonna want
you to be buried. We're gonna want your body to
be buried. And we're gonna dig a hole and
put you in it, or find a tomb and put you in it, your body. Do something with it, bury it.
Christ Jesus, when he died, When he answered the justice of God
and he laid down his life, no man took it from him, he laid
it down willingly. And when he laid down his life
and he gave up the ghost, willingly, satisfying the justice of God,
he paid the wages of sin that every one of his people owed. Every one of those chosen of
God and put in Him. Every one of those to whom He
shall be made wisdom. Every one of those for whom all
His deeds are their righteousness. He satisfied all the demands
of the law. And He was buried. And when He
was buried, that which is called flesh, that which you are born
of your first birth, everyone He was representing, their body
of sin, their body of flesh, everything they are by their
first birth, that whole opposition of God and hatred against God,
was buried in Christ, under the earth, under the wrath of God,
immersed in the wrath of God, under the wrath of God. Just
as Israelites went under the cloud, and under the sea, and
through the sea, and was baptized unto Moses. We're going to go
out here and we're going to put somebody completely under the
water, just like a grave. But when Christ came out of that
grave, everybody who was in Him, of God, was in Him. No flesh should glory in His
presence. God said, I'll be merciful to them, I'll be merciful, I'll
be gracious to them, I'll be gracious. Of God are they in
Him. And they came out of that grave
in Him. And they came to the throne of
God in Him. And they sat down at the right
hand of God in Him. And God said, every one of I'm
calling them all. I'm going to make them behold
all my goodness. I'm going to make all my goodness
pass before them. I'm going to declare all my glory
into them. And I'm going to do it by making
them see I've put them in the cliff of the rock. I've put them
in Christ my Son by my grace. And when I do it, they're not
going to glory in their right deeds. They're going to glory
in His right deeds. His right deeds. Boasting is
excluded. Not by anything in us, but by
His right, His righteousness, His deeds, what Christ did. Now look at this third thing.
Of Him, 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 1.30. Of Him, Are you in Christ Jesus, who
of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness? Are you glorying in Him so far?
Are you thankful that all this is by God's grace so far? Oh, here comes a tremendous weight
and a tremendous burden off the child of God's mercy. A tremendous
weight rolled off of it. Of God is Christ made unto us
sanctification. You know what the word means?
It means holiness. It means holiness. Without holiness,
no man's gonna see God. You see, righteousness has to
do with right deeds. Holiness has to do with a whole
new inward creation and character and nature. You see our defilements in our
heart. This is where the defilement
comes from. It's not what goes into the mouth of a man that
defiles him. You can abstain from this and eat certain that
and do whatever you want to and all those things. I'll jump up
and down, bounce around, do whatever you want to do. It's out of your
heart. It's out of my heart. In my flesh dwells no good thing. And I got to be holy. And you
got to be holy to come into God's presence. Just like Christ is
our wisdom, So that we can't glory that we came up with any
of this on our own or thought any of this or would have ever
imagined this is how God saved. Just like Christ is all our right
deeds so that we don't look at our legal, anything we've done
by the law. So Christ is all. our holiness, our purity, our
complete and total fountain of cleansing, opened by God's grace
wherein we're cleansed from all pollution. He is the holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord. Let me show you something
in Romans 8, 8. Romans 8, 8. You see, God's not going. God is not going to make this
sinful flesh of ours what we are by our first birth. He's
not going to use that. If He did, we could still say,
ah yes, I did something. We could glory in ourselves.
He's not going to give us any room to glory. But He creates
a new man within that body of flesh. And He is that new man. Christ enters in. The Spirit
of Christ enters in. And He is that sanctification. Now watch this, Romans 8. Romans
8a. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. Remember Christ said that which
is of flesh is of flesh. He said Nicodemus you have to
be born again. That which is of spirit, the
Holy Spirit of God is spirit. He that's united to the Lord
is one spirit. That's what the scripture says.
Watch it. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, ye are
not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit
of God dwell in you, if Christ is entered in. Now if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, He is none of his. But if Christ be in you, if Christ
be in you, the body, that which is born of the flesh, is dead
because of sin. It's still flesh. But the spirit
is life because of righteousness. It's life because of righteousness. Never, listen to me, never This
is what this glorious good news is. Never look to your flesh. Never. Listen, believer, you
who have been born of the Spirit of Christ, in whom Christ has
entered, never look to your flesh. Don't look to it to try to make
you something that it will never make you. Christ Jesus the Lord is that
new man. He is that one in whom we are
perfected forever. He is that one in whom his people
are made the righteousness and holiness of God, created anew
in righteousness and true holiness, following after the Spirit, following
after holiness, following after that holiness that we must have
to enter the kingdom of God, is not looking back to this flesh,
it's It's being put in Christ and it's continuing in this fountain,
in this cleansing, sanctifying, holy fountain. It's Him. It's
Him. It's Him. I've told you this
before brethren, follow after holiness without which no man
shall enter into the kingdom of God. That thief on the cross that
the Lord entered in by His Spirit. And that sinner said, Lord, have
mercy on me. Would you remember me when you
come into your kingdom? And the Lord said, today. As
soon as you close your eyes in this body of death, today you're
going to be with me in glory. Your spirit's going to be with
me in glory right now. And that man with his hands nailed
to a cross and his feet nailed to a cross without doing anything
by the Spirit of Christ, by the Holy Spirit of God, by the sanctifying,
cleansing fountain of holiness. He had the holiness without which
no man shall see the kingdom of God. And he entered in with
Christ that day. Christ is that holiness. That's, when I found that out, you talk
about, you talk about a burden lifted off, you talk about a
tremendous load taken off, and you talk about a rejoicing, and
you talk about a strengthening of these wobbly, weak, feeble
knees. Can we boast in Him too much?
Can we put too much confidence in Him? We need wisdom. God said He's the wisdom. We
need all our deeds to be right legally before God. He says He
is our righteousness. And we need to be holy. We need
to be purified by the purifier and made the purification that
he is to enter in. God said he is the sanctification. Now here's the last thing he
is. In all of these things, he said, of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and here's this fourth thing, redemption. You know what redemption
means? It means complete deliverance. It means complete deliverance
by a ransom that has been paid. Paid in full. Bought. Purchased. Done. Never to be
reversed. Never... Sometimes we get up
to the checkout line and we fumble around and realize, I don't have
enough money to buy what I was wanting to buy. This, everything's
been paid in full. And Christ is that redemption.
He is that price God demands. He is that price that God will
accept and none other but him. And he said he has delivered
us because he by himself, he has obtained for every chosen
elect child of God, Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female,
those of God's choosing, of God, are they in Christ Jesus. Of
God are they made wisdom, Christ made unto them wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and complete and total redemption. He hath
obtained for us eternal redemption. It's done. and he's coming back,
I'll tell you what's gonna happen. We're gonna, because we are still
in this flesh, and because this body is still flesh, this body
is gonna, we're gonna go to the grave. We're gonna close our
eyes in death, we're gonna draw our last breath, because this
flesh must be returned to the dust, because that's all it is. But as soon as we close our eyes
in death, Because of Christ the wisdom, Christ the righteousness,
Christ the holiness, Christ the redemption, we're going to open
our eyes. Like that. Faster than that. I can't blink. Just blink. And it's going to be, we're waiting
on Christ to come back right now. And when He comes back,
there's going to be a redemption of all the bodies that He's purchased
by His blood. And He's going to bring our body,
resurrect a new body, created anew by Him, just like He's created
the spirit anew by Him. And it's going to be resurrected
and we're going to be redeemed in body, soul, and spirit. But you know what? The fact is,
When we close our eyes in death and open our eyes, it's going
to be done. I'm going to be there, and all
those he died for is going to be there, and Christ is going
to be there, and it's going to be done. God's eternal. You just have to think on that. It's going to be done. Can you glory with me brethren?
Now, let's be honest. Nothing we have said here today
gives this man, this flesh that you and I are, any reason to
boast. Absolutely nothing. Do we really
want God to have all the glory? Believers say this, this is what
Psalm 44, 8, listen to this. You don't have to turn there,
let me just read this to you. We're gonna read the same thing
again here in verse 31. Look here, this is what Psalm
44, 8 says. In God we boast all the day long
and praise thy name forever. Now that's what Paul says, why
all this is accomplished by the grace of God in 1 Corinthians
1.31, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, he
that wants to boast, he that wants to put his confidence,
his rejoicing, his joy, all his praise, he that glorieth, let
him glory in the Lord. Hey.