Tonight I want to look with you
at what the Apostles, the Apostle John, and also taking in a number
of things that Paul wrote and Peter, concerning the will and
purpose of God for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Specifically, that by him we
should be holy and righteous. By Christ, we should be holy
and righteous. And I want to begin in Ephesians
chapter 1. I'll begin with Paul. Ephesians chapter 1, and we're
going to begin first with verse 4. It's according. as he hath chosen
us. Our blessings in Christ are according
as God the Father hath chosen us in Christ the Son, before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame, that is righteous, before him in love. So right here, this
is God's will and purpose for His people in Christ, that we
should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Now, we're gonna be going over,
stay here in Ephesians 1, but we're gonna be going over to
1 John, and this is key for us here. This is a help to us because
there's a key number of similarities in what Paul is expounding on
here concerning our righteousness, concerning the will and purpose
of our God for us to what John writes. In fewer words, Paul
really expounds on it concerning God's will for us that believe
Christ, that have a hope given to us of righteousness, of being
justified with holy God in Christ. Now, the one thing that jumps
out here is God's will and purpose for us, that we be holy and righteous
without blame. That's what he means, without
blame, no fault. justified, accepted of holy God
here. That's the one thing that jumps
out, God's will and purpose. And then second is something
that's a little more subtle, often overlooked by lawmongers,
right? Lawmongers being those whose
whole purpose they deal in, their business is, their trade is the
law. And they often miss this, is
how God accomplishes this righteousness in us, in love. In love. Now, again, we're going
to be in Ephesians 1 here first, but in Ephesians 2, verse 10,
we're told that we are God's workmanship. We are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before
ordained, purposed, lined up that we should walk in them. And so this thing is confirmed
for us in Ephesians chapter 1. Paul goes on to describe, we're
gonna see, he goes on to describe the wonderful works of God wrought
in us by by his darling son, his precious son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, whom he trusted, whom he entrusted this whole glorious
work of salvation, the whole of salvation, the whole of the
redemption of ruined sinners by the fall, by reconciling us
to God, who were chosen of God before the fall. And so he entrusted
this whole work, this beautiful, glorious, wonderful work into
the hand of Jesus Christ. Now let's continue. We're gonna
pick up in verse five, Ephesians 1.5, and I want you to notice
the sovereign power of God to accomplish His will and purpose
in His chosen people through Christ. God is not looking to
man to fix it. He's not looking to us to fix
what we have broken and ruined. Rather, it's God's work, it's
God's will, it's God's purpose to reconcile his people, to do
it in grace, in love. So verse five, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will." There's that will and purpose.
"...to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath
made us accepted in the Beloved." We can be certain this is His
work, this is His will. He's the one that makes us accepted. It's His righteous holy work
that he does in us in whom we have redemption through his blood
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence right
God knows exactly what he's doing and he's accomplishing his will
and purpose, having made known unto us the mystery of his will,
according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself. Man doesn't like it, because
God receives all the glory, but this is God's will and purpose.
This is what he has chosen to do, purposed to do, in himself,
according to his own good pleasure. in the dispensation of the fullness
of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to our works? No. no, according to the purpose
of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will. his own will and purpose, brethren,
that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted
in Christ, which is the Father. He's the first one to trust Christ.
He entrusted this whole work of salvation into the hands of
Christ, putting us and our welfare and our salvation, all our hope
resting on Christ, on his son as the servant of God, the Christ,
the God-man mediator the kinsman, redeemer, the surety, the savior
of his people. Now, with that understanding
outlined by Paul, let's go over to 1 John chapter 2. And we're
going to begin at the very end in verse 29. That's where we'll
pick up. And then we'll go into a few
verses into chapter 3. John says, if ye know that he
is righteous, God is righteous. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty. If you know that he is righteous,
ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him. That which is born of God is
righteous. It is holy. It is acceptable
to him. What is born of God? The new
man of grace in us. by the seed of Jesus Christ,
by the giving of His Holy Spirit, taking the things of Christ and
showing them unto us, revealing them in us, taking that seed
of Christ, not of Adam's seed, but of Christ's seed, and bringing
forth a new birth, a new man of His creation that is holy,
righteous, without sin, incorruptible, undefiled, not ruined and and just modified and just brought
to nothingness and darkness by us, it is perfect. It cannot
sin. It cannot sin. And it is God's
will and purpose for us that we do righteousness. that we
walk in that righteousness, that we walk in paths of righteousness,
being led of the Lord in righteousness. Just as Paul was telling us that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love. That's how he's gonna accomplish
it, this work in us, in love, in love, in love. Not in the whipping and beating,
but in love. in love, in Christ, and God is
telling us his purpose for saving us in Christ Jesus our Lord. And Paul tells us this, to wrap
it up, just to put some confines on it, in Philippians 1.6, we
are confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good
work in you, he shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. That which he started, he's finishing. He's going to do it. You can
trust him for it. You can believe him, that we
are accepted of him. So we're talking about new creatures,
the new creation in Christ Jesus. Not, we're not talking about
a circumcision made with hands where we mutilate the flesh and
we cut and we divide and we do all these things by our works,
but a circumcision made in our hearts by God where only he can
touch because we can't reach there. He's able to circumcise
the heart. He's able to remove the veil
of flesh which is over the heart that keeps us in darkness and
in blindness to the will and purpose of God for us in Christ
Jesus. He does that circumcision. If
any man be in Christ, He is a new creature. Old things are passed
away. Behold, all things are become
new. For if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of His. If you're Christ's, He will reveal
it. He will manifest it in the new
birth, in the giving of His Holy Spirit. He will turn your heart
to Christ. He will. You will believe Christ. You will confess Christ. You
will know that God has sent him to lay down his life for your
sins and all the sins of his people and that God raised him
from the dead for our justification. We know it. We know it. So we're
not talking about what man can do for God, but what God does
for man. What he does. God isn't looking
for man's righteousness, he's looking for Christ's righteousness
in you. That's what he's revealing and
manifesting. Where we receive Christ, we continue
in Christ, we abide in Christ and his work and word. Romans
10, 3 and 4, they, speaking of man being ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness, doesn't
that sound good? Man's trying to be righteous.
He's trying to do good. Doesn't that sound good? Well,
no, it isn't good because he's establishing his own righteousness
and he's not receiving what God has declared and revealed in
Christ. They've not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." There's your
righteousness. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. The Jews crucified Christ because
he is the righteousness of his people. And they were trusting
the righteousness of the law. And they hated Paul and those
who preached the cross of Christ because it declares God's righteousness. It declares the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we look to Christ. If it's God's will that we be
righteous in Christ, we're believing him and trusting him and following
him. We're not just swapping out Moses' name for Jesus' name
and then doing our best under the law to try and work a righteousness
so that we can feel good about ourselves and our fleshly religion.
God is making known what he has accomplished for his people in
Christ and what he is accomplishing for them, all by his sovereign
power, according to his will, and we look to him to do it.
We trust him to do it. We confess him and ask him, Lord,
do this work of salvation, of your righteousness in me. Reveal
that in me, Lord, to confess Christ, to believe Christ, to
abide in him. So this is the context in which
we understand these scriptures of John, beginning in chapter
229. If ye know that he is righteous,
ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. It's already done in them. He
reveals it to us because he's predestinated us to that. according to His will. So I want
to give you three reasons from Scripture that explain how God
accomplished and is accomplishing His will in you, His chosen people,
that believe Him and confess Him. Three reasons that Scriptures
give us. First of all, Christ died for
sin. Christ was crucified for the
sins of His people, not for any sins that He committed. He is
the perfect, spotless Lamb of God, without spot, without blemish,
without wrinkle. He's perfect, holy, righteous. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins, according to the Scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15.3. Again, this is Peter saying it.
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins. That's suffering on
the cross, where he bore the sins of his people and bore the
stripes of God's wrath against our sins in his own body on the
tree. Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened, made alive by
the Spirit. This is his work of redemption.
Behold, John Baptist said, the Lamb of God which taketh away
the sin of the world. The world of God's chosen people. He came and removed the sins
of his people by burying them in himself on the tree. So that's
what Christ came to do for his people. Where'd your sin go,
believer? it's gone. Christ has put it
away. Christ has put away the sin of
His people. You that believe Him, your sin
is removed. Paul wrote this in Romans 3,
25 and 26, God hath set forth His Son Jesus Christ to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. Through the faith of Christ,
you that trust His blood was shed and put away my sins. Christ is the propitiation that
turned the wrath of God that was justly against us away from
us and turned it against himself to put it away, to satisfy the
justice of God, to deliver us from the hand of God's justice,
justly, justly, because the price has been paid, the debt is settled
by the blood of Jesus Christ. It's done through a propitiation,
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness, his
righteousness for the remission or forgiveness 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. There's our righteousness. his righteousness, and his righteousness
is our righteousness. This is the will and purpose
of God in saving us and entrusting us to Christ as our surety, as
our savior, as our husband, as our mediator. As our kinsmen
redeemer, as our all, Christ has done all that was necessary
to deliver us. That's why he was manifest. A
just sacrifice must be made. And he did it. He propitiated
the wrath of God. And God is satisfied and well
pleased with all who come to him through Christ. Through Christ. we could not be saved apart from
the shedding of Christ's blood. We can't save ourselves. We come
up short. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, every one of us. And we cannot, if we come
to God in our own righteousness and in our works and in our workmanship,
trying to please, trying to impress, trying to improve on what Christ
has done, all we do is stir up the wrath of God against us because
we're not believing God's word testified to us in Christ. that says, look to him, look
to him, believe my son, hear him, be rooted in him, abide
in him, trust him, I've provided him for your very life, eternal
life. Believe him, trust him, look
to him for this. And our Lord, having faithfully
laid down his life died and was buried and after three days God
raised him from the dead and his disciples saw him and they
bear witness to us of what he accomplished that the works are
finished just as he said on the cross it is finished it is finished
it is finished my people are clean they are clean they're
safe so Our debt is settled. Our sins are put away. That's
the first thing. Our sins have been put away by Christ. Second,
he brings this salvation to bear upon us, that is to be known
and understood by us. He makes his salvation, what
he's done, known through the publication, through the declaration,
through the preaching of the gospel. He's making it known
to you. He's declaring to you what He
has done. And He gives His Holy Spirit.
We preach this word and pray, Lord, please visit your people. Let this be the day of your visitation
that you come near to your people and take this word and make it
effectual in your heart, in my heart, in our hearts that we
hear Christ, that we believe Him and rejoice in Him and abide
in Him, feeding upon Him. so that the gospel of our God
goes forth, being declared of men, but blessed by the Spirit
of God in the hearts of men, in the hearts of his called out
ones, chosen of God in Christ before the foundation of the
world. So, we're given an understanding
of His grace. That's the second thing He does.
He gives us an understanding of His grace. He communicates
it to us. He reveals it to us in our heart
so that that heart, which we see in 2 Corinthians 3, that
heart is turned to the Lord and the veil is removed and we see
Christ and receive Christ and believe Him. We believe Him.
Ephesians 1, 13 and 14 says, in whom ye also trusted, after
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation."
Right? So that we heard. How do we hear?
By the Spirit opening our ears. by God, opening our deaf, fat-stuffed
ear with this flesh, opening it and making us to hear that
word. And preparing this soil, like
the good sower, he prepares this soil, prepares the heart to receive
that word and to take root in good ground, healthy ground,
with ground prepared of him to root in Christ and to grow up
in Christ and to bear fruit by the seed of Christ, all by Him. In whom also after that ye believed,
ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. In other words,
what God has done, He testifies. He bears witness too. We believe
and we continue in that word. My people hear my voice and follow
me. We hear the word of God and obey
the word of God. That is, we believe him. And
we walk by faith in that word, entrusting him, which is the
earnest, right, the down payment of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. And so Paul's speaking there
of our bodies being transformed when Christ returns. being raised
in heavenly body. It's an earthly body now, it'll
be raised in heavenly, incorruptible body. And that brings us to the
third thing. So Christ died to put away sins,
and it pleases God to make this known to us, to reveal it to
us, to take us out of the darkness, and to bring us into his kingdom
of light. That's the second, and then the third thing In this
great and glorious salvation of our Lord, which he works in
our hearts, there is a growth in grace. There is a growth in
grace. All right, just like we come
forth like newborn babes desiring the sincere milk of the word.
And just like a child who first nurses at its mother or with
a bottle, you nurse and you eat those simple things. But that
child who's a man or a woman, they grow up. But they're a little
baby at first, but they grow up. But they're always a man.
They're a human. They are a person, and they grow
up to be what they are, fully grown. Well, we're as fit to
stand in the presence of God when Christ died for us. But
it pleases him to make these things known to us, and he does
it, and then he grows us in his grace. We're rooted in Christ,
abiding in him, we grow in his grace. So God makes his perfect
will and purpose known to us. that we should be holy and righteous
before him in love. In the faith of Christ, God's
will is made known to us through the preaching of the gospel by
His Spirit, by Him leading us through various trials, where
He reveals, where He proves that faith which He has given and
makes it known to us, revealing it in us, manifesting His power,
His work in us, what He's done. We were sinners when we came
to Christ, according to the light of the gospel, but we are also
made to see how great a salvation God has wrought for us. Not only
at the first, but that he continues to bear with us, instruct us,
keep us, not run us off, not turn us away, but is very kind
and very gracious to turn us back to him. When we go astray,
like sheep go astray, He turns us back to Him. He'll chasten
us. He'll instruct us. He corrects us. He keeps us. He preserves us. He does this
work according to His will and power. And so He continues it
through grace and love. If Christ be in you, Paul said,
the body is dead because of sin. And you spend any time in Christ,
you're going to know this body is dead because of sin. You're
going to see its weaknesses. You're going to see its folly.
It's going to be made evident and clear to you that I didn't
do this salvation. Christ did it. My God sovereignly
did it. for reasons unknown to me that
I can't even justify of myself, yet God is merciful and gracious
to a sinner like me. And so we see that disparity
in us grow. God's love increases more and
more. His grace increases more and
more as we see what a vile wretch I am. That God should choose
me? That God should bear so long,
so patiently with me, and keep me, and turn me, and correct
me, and chasten me, and keep me, and bless me? That God should
do that for me? I don't deserve this grace. He chose that to us. That's why
we see our weaknesses from time to time. That's why we see our
folly, why he shows it to us to remind us, this is of me. Your salvation is of me, our
God says. I'm doing this. According to
that sovereign will and purpose that we read in Ephesians 1,
we see how God did this. Sovereignly, according to his
good pleasure. which just boggles the mind that
it's God's good pleasure to bear so long and be so kind and so
merciful and so gracious to me to save me in Christ and to keep
me in Christ. And when I go astray, to bring
me back, to give me repentance, and to turn me away from the
way of death and put me back in the way of life with a single
eye upon Christ, looking and beholding Him, and hearing Him,
and able to testify of His grace, again, of what He's done to save
me. So the body is dead because of
sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. And the righteousness
is Christ. We see it more and more. It's
Christ's righteousness. It's only for his sake that God
deals with me and bears with me and suffers me. for Christ's
sake. And this understanding comes
through the suffering of trials and afflictions and fiery trials
where his faith is proved, revealed to us that he's in this. This
is his workmanship and he's keeping us and sustaining us in Christ. And that work, those trials,
it brings forth patience in us, and patience brings forth experience
in us, and experience brings forth hope that God really does
love me. A sinner, a sinner saved by his
grace and he bears so long with me and I had that hope that when
he comes again this body of death will be laid aside forever and
no more will this sin cloud and darken and block and be just
such a pain and a filthy stench about me because it'll all be
gone when we see Christ and we're transformed after his image for
we shall see him as he is. And so he's showing us through
that, though, that it really is his work. It really is his
work. We really need his grace. And
no, we can't save ourselves. And no, we never outmature Christ
and get to a point where we don't need Christ. We always need Christ. Christ is all and in all. He's doing the work. And so we're
made to hear the exhortation of the apostles, such as Peter,
who said, dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims
in this world, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the
soul. And they do. They do trouble
us. We do see how sin, sin from without, sin from within, wars
against the soul. Wars against that soul. There's
a battle between the old man of flesh and that new man born
of the seed of Christ. listen to these words by Paul
in Romans 8 because this speaks to this Romans 8 verses 12 through
16 therefore brethren We are debtors, not to the flesh, to
live after the flesh. Paul had to explain this to the
readers there in Rome. He had to explain this. For if
you live after the flesh, if you just go on just pursuing
the death of this world, the love of this world, and all the
pursuits of this world, and the course of this world, which is
under the prince of the power of the air, it's death. For if
ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. We have the Spirit. We have the Spirit. If any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Do you that have a spirit? For
ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. He's
saying, I'm not putting you under the law. I'm not yoking you with
the law to terrify you with the law. But ye have received the
spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Lord, turn my heart. Lord, give
me a desire for Christ. Give me a single eye for Christ. Take away this evil eye so full
of darkness and cares and concerns of this world and the pursuits
of this world. Turn me from that and keep my
heart, Lord, as you promised. that it's your will and purpose
that I be righteous in Christ, that I abide in Christ, that
I continue in him. And it's very different from
the threats of the law. We cry, Abba, Father, save me,
Lord, help me. I'm struggling here, Lord. Turn
me. Strengthen me. Keep me, Lord.
Don't let me fall. Lord, I think I'm ready to die.
Lord, I think I'm going to be ruined and shipwrecked in death. Save me, Lord. We cry, Abba,
Father. He gives us His Spirit, that
even when we can't put it into words, the Spirit groans and
sighs and breathes those things that we can't even utter or understand
rightly, or know how to pray rightly. The Spirit does it.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. And so this is where the abiding
in Christ comes in, right here. To abide in Christ is to have
Him in view, to have that single eye, and to cry out to God for
that single eye. Lord, give me a heart like Mary,
because I'm a lot like Martha, cumbered about, caring about,
with all kinds of things. Give me a heart like Mary to
sit at the feet of Christ and to hear Him. To abide in Christ
is to hear His word, to keep it and follow Christ, to feed
upon Him at the end of His grace. What's the end of his grace?
That's where he brings those that are half-dead, found beaten
on the side of the road. Half-dead meaning alive physically,
dead spiritually. He brings them to the end of
his grace, the church where he gathers his sheep together and
ministers this word to our hearts. To the new man, to hear that
word, to believe and receive that word, to abide in Christ
is to cry to him, Abba, Father. Save me from the lusts of my
flesh. Keep me, Lord. Turn me. Have
mercy upon me, Lord. Save me. I'm drowning, Lord. The waves are whipping up and
the wind's blowing. I'm sinking, Lord. Save me. And
he reaches forth his hand and pulls us up. Abba Father, to
abide in him. So this is where John is at when
he writes, seeing this, beholding this love of God, This provision
of God, so rich and abundant for us and precious, His precious
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, He declares this love of God for
us, whose will is that we be holy and just. 1 John 3, 1. Behold, what manner of love,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, upon us. that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not because it knew him not." We are a peculiar people, brethren. We profess to believe Christ,
we have the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, and yet we confess,
we yet feel the effects of sin in our members. We see it, we
see. I'm still a sinner. I'm a sinner
saved. Sinner saved by His grace. But
it's not my righteousness, it's His righteousness in me. And yet we feel, though we feel
these effects of sin, yet we cannot be turned from Christ
because of the creation of our Lord in us, his seed in us, whereby
we are kept. Because the new man cannot not
believe. All that we can do in the Spirit
is believe. That's all we can do. And Paul
said this, ourselves also, which had the firstfruits of the Spirit,
the earnest of the Spirit of God, even we ourselves groan
within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption
of our body. Because the members, we see the
lust in the flesh, we see the weakness of this flesh, we see
that this flesh is dead because of sin, but we are alive because
of the Spirit. of the Spirit. Therefore, he
sends his angels to minister these words to us, to take these
things and to declare these things, that these by his Spirit be sowed
in your heart and bear fruit, bring forth fruit, to show us
that we are the sons and daughters of God. that we've been washed
by the blood of Christ. We've been adopted into the family
of God, and he's given us this hope, whereby we wait for his
return, that we long for him. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. And it says
in Romans 8, verse 24 and 25, for we are saved by hope, but
hope that is seen is not hope, For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it." Paul's confessing
there that we're not in our heavenly bodies now. This body is still
dead because of sin. But we hope, we believe the word
of God. We've heard the word of God and
we've received that word. And so we're waiting for these
heavenly bodies. We're waiting for Christ's return.
We're waiting to be caught up together with him forevermore
when he returns. And so John's word aligns with
Paul when he says in 1 John 3, 2 and 3, beloved, now are we
the sons of God. and it doth not yet appear what
we shall be. But we know that when he shall
appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure." Right? John's not giving us any license
to sin. On the contrary, we're made honest
before God to confess our sin. to confess our sin, to confess
our need of Him, that we are cast upon Christ. According to
the will and purpose of God, He's cast us upon Christ. Thankfully, mercifully, graciously,
He's given us to Christ, and revealed this in us, and makes
us to abide in Him. And so we see the wrath of God
against sin. We see how this world is to be
destroyed. It's under now the wrath of God.
We see it. We see the course of this world.
We see the wickedness all about us raging on. But we don't turn
to dead letter religion to try and fix ourselves. Christ has
done it all. And God promises that by him
we are righteous. And he turns us, he gives us
a hunger and a thirst for his righteousness, makes us desirous
of his grace, and so we don't take up the doctrines of man.
What did Paul say in Colossians? The doctrine of the flesh is
touch, not taste, not handle. Paul said it sounds good, but
it's will worship. It's will worship. Those things,
they have a profit only to the flesh, but nothing to the spirit,
nothing lasting. And so what we're seeing here
is that antichrists will drive you to the flesh. They drive
you away from Christ, to the flesh, to the law, wanting to
be teachers in things they don't understand, constraining us,
constraining your flesh. with man's doctrine, lest they
should suffer persecution for hoping in Christ, and hoping
that what Christ accomplished and did and promises to do in
us, just as he came and did it, and that he'll finish the work,
that they suffer persecution for that hope in Christ. But we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower, Then the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste
death for every man. For it became him for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things in bringing many sons
unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he's
not ashamed to call them brethren. Is it any wonder, then, why we
suffer? If our Lord suffered for sin,
so we suffer, brethren, looking, hoping, waiting for him. We bear
in these bodies of flesh that are dead and stinking and wretched
and rotten, hoping and waiting for Him, trusting Him, suffering
as we long for His righteousness and His salvation. And so we
see in our suffering this vileness of this flesh. We see that disparity
and the need for Christ more and more, right? The scripture
hath concluded, all under sin, that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. The scripture
says that we're all sinners, and we'll see it. From time to
time, we'll see it. And when we get cocky and proud
and arrogant, we'll see it again. And we'll be reminded again of
our need of Christ and the washing of His blood and the forgiveness
of Him and that restoration of His grace in and by the Spirit. we're brought to see that we
are born under sin. God has made us to see our need
of his son, whereby he obtained our righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And so it's traced out for us
in Christ. And it's plastered throughout the scriptures. And
I've gone a little long, so I'm going to stop there. But it's
all of Christ. It's all of him. I was going
to read the second half of Philippians 3, you could read that tonight
from verse 13 to the end. I'll just read the end, which
says, For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we
look for the Savior. We're still waiting for this
vile body to be transformed. We look for the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body. This body is dead
because of sin, and he shall change our vile body. That's
the confession of sin. I'm a sinner in need of the righteousness
of Christ. A body full of lusts that war
against the soul, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue
all things unto himself. Keep abiding in Christ. Look
to him with a single eye, crying, Abba, Father, give me a single
eye. Keep my eyes single upon Christ. Keep me rejoicing and
feeding upon Christ. Because that's what he reveals
in his people. If we're his, that's what he gives us and shows
us, is Christ and the hunger for Christ and his righteousness.
Amen.