It is good to see everyone here
this evening. I do long that God would be gracious to visit
us. I pray that you would take the
message and truly apply it to your hearts and mind. One thing to study for a message
and You long for that presence to be with you and feel his presence
when you study and then sometimes that doesn't take place. Regardless,
he's here. Regardless of how we feel or
what we think or what season or circumstance we're in, God
is faithful. God is faithful. And he's faithful
by one word, grace. It is by His grace He is faithful
to be with us and strengthen us, keep us, because that's what
our God promised. To all who are in Christ, all
is well. We sing that often, it is well
with my soul. It is, but I don't feel well. I'm sorry, I know we don't often
feel well. That doesn't mean it isn't well. It is. All is well. Sometimes I long for the Lord
to open back the curtain just a little bit. But then it wouldn't
be faith, would it? It wouldn't be faith. If everything
seems opposed to God's promises, what does it take? It takes faith. It takes faith to believe that
God is always near, never apart from us, always keeping us, sustaining
us, even as He promised, forgiving us our sins. We don't feel like
He forgave us our sins. When you can't figure out why
in the world He ever would forgive you of your sins. You can know He can because it's
all by grace. be the title of the message tonight,
The Mere Grace of God. The Mere Grace of God. Take your Bibles, turn back with
me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Text we
found in verse 29 through 31 we read this together That no
flesh should glory in his presence now all that has been said before
This church of Corinth had a lot of problems a lot of troubles
You had divisions in the church regarding preachers And some
would say, I'm of this guy. And others say, well, I'm of
this guy. And you'd have one that was so super spiritual that
he didn't even go. He didn't even attend church. He said,
I don't even need a pastor. The apostle here declares the
necessity of preaching. In this, in verse 17, he said,
Christ sent me not to baptize. Baptism is vitally important.
Our Lord, in His command, sent us going into all the world preaching
the gospel, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. Baptism is important, but He said that's
not my sole and main purpose. What is it? To preach the gospel. That is the message. And then
He says this, not with wisdom of words. Lest the cross of Christ
be what? Of none effect. If I come preaching
my own wisdom, or the wisdom of this world, It is of none
effect. Why? Because God never calls
sinners to himself by man's wisdom. Man's wisdom. The church of Corinth,
where it was situated in the world, it was the economic power
of the day. It was very close to Athens and
it was the mecca of knowledge. It was the center of knowledge
in this place. People like Plato and Aristotle
and Socrates, all of these worldly wise men. Their philosophy is
still studied today. Yet what do we know about this
earthly wisdom? Paul declares in this passage
that no man can know God by earthly wisdom. No man can know God by
earthly wisdom. He said in verse 21, for after
that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God, then by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Therefore, God has made
the wisdom of the world foolish, the wisdom of the world is empty,
the wisdom of the world is vain, it's futile. In this, it cannot
know God by man's wisdom. Can't do it. Now men know there is a God.
Men know that God requires a sacrifice. Do you realize that there is
no civilization that has ever lived without a temple, a priest,
and an offering? They dig them up all the time
over in these foreign countries. Never had the gospel over there
at all. And they'll dig up an altar. They'll dig up sacrifices. Why? Because men know there's
a God naturally. They know that He requires a
sacrifice. They just don't know who He is
and they don't know what He requires. That's why they're all different.
Some ancient civilizations required human sacrifices. Others required
sacrifices of animals. Others required sacrifices of
money or gold or silver. They don't know what He wanted.
Why? Because man by wisdom can't ascertain
that. They don't know God. They can't
know God. And God has declared the only
way that men would know Him is through the foolishness of preaching.
Why? It pleased God. Why preaching?
It pleased God. I don't need another reason why.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And why was this? What's the
culmination of all this? And he's going to talk about
this, and I may come back to this later. You realize that
God uses nobodies and nothings to preach His Gospel? That's
what we are. He said, I have chosen the nothings, the nobodies, to preach My Gospel,
to declare My Word. Why? Verse 29. No flesh should glory in His
presence. In other words, none of our salvation,
none of our salvation comes by us. I preach, but it's not me. If anyone hears, it's not me.
This is the means God has chosen to use to call His people. Therefore,
if any man will know God, if any man will be saved, if any
man will be pardoned, justified and accepted of God, listen,
it must be by the mere grace of God alone. Now what do I mean
by mere grace? The word means nothing better.
There is nothing more or nothing better than the grace of God
by which we are saved. That's it. This is the only reason
anyone is saved. The grace of God. The unmerited
favor of God. That's it. Nothing else. Why? That no flesh should glory in
His presence. If any man claims to know God
by his own works, any man claims to know God by
his own ability to study and research, that man's a liar. And the standard is God's Word,
God said, not by the wisdom of man. Why? Because if it's by
the wisdom of man, man has something glory in. If it's by the will
of man, then man has what? Something to glory in. If it's
by the works of man, then man has something to glory in. And
God said this, No flesh shall glory in my presence. No flesh shall glory in my presence.
Why? Because salvation is by the mere grace of God. Now it's
either or. Listen. It's either by the grace
of God. Or, it is by the works of man.
It is never a combination of both. And any religion that mixes
those two is all the way on the works side. That's what Paul
said about grace and works, didn't he? He said, it is of grace.
And if it is of grace, it is no more what? Works. Otherwise, grace don't mean grace. If it's of works, then it is
no more of grace. Otherwise, what? Works no more
work. But all who are saved by grace,
this is what we confess. We confess that I am saved by
nothing else but by the grace of God. Nothing else but by the grace
of God. We confess that God, to God belongs
all the glory for my salvation. And I mean this. Every part,
every part belongs to God. The planning and purposing of
this salvation belongs to God. The accomplishment of this salvation
belongs to Christ. The application of this salvation
belongs to the Holy Spirit. And the keeping, the daily, constantly,
minute by minute, keeping of my salvation belongs to the Holy
Spirit. It's all the work of God and
it is all by grace. It is all by grace. If you are
still believing now, it is by the mere grace of God alone that
you believe. And if you believe until you
part this world and enter into glory, it will all be by the
mere grace of God. Why? There's nothing better.
There's nothing better than salvation by grace. Paul told Titus, he said in Titus
3 and verse 5, not by works of righteousness which we have done.
Doesn't that exclude every one of them? All works? If it's not
by works of righteousness, then surely it's not works by unrighteousness.
It means everything. This whole thing has nothing
to do with my works. But according to His mercy. It is a contradiction to say
I'm saved by mercy and works. Mercy means that you actually,
it's not just an absence of deserving something, you deserve punishment. You deserve death. And mercy
gives you what? The opposite of what you deserve.
but according to His mercy He saved us. Here's the experience
by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
That's the experimental part of this. When God comes in the
power of the Spirit, He gives us life and we are exposed. We see our sin and then what
does He do? He washes us. I often think of
those times that the Lord healed someone immediately. You know,
it's always said, he was laying there paralyzed, and the Lord
said, get up! And immediately, when the Lord
Jesus Christ comes to a sinner, and he reveals himself, immediately
he's washed. He's washed. He's cleansed. I'll tell you, at that moment,
when we're cleansed, we feel the worst. I feel like I'm not
cleansed. But I am! He cleansed us by the
washing and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly.
Here's the merit. Here's the reason why. Here's
how He could do it. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. That being justified by His grace,
we are made heirs. In other words, somebody else
made me an heir. I didn't make myself an heir.
being justified by His what? Grace. He made me an heir according
to the hope of eternal life. Therefore, let us see this tonight.
If you don't get anything else, get this. Salvation is by the
mere grace of God. All of it. Every single part
of it. Why? That no flesh should glory in
His presence. You know what? No flesh will
glory in His presence. You think there'll be one glorying
in His presence? No. Let's know that salvation
is not by the wisdom of man, but by what? The grace of God.
Now then, I want you to see that all salvation is of God. Look
at verse 30. I like this because it's concise.
This is a text that's very concise. In this is a trove of treasure
concerning the grace of God. Listen to this. But of him are you in Christ Jesus. Who of God is made unto us wisdom,
and notice these words and in between each one because each
one is distinct. We're going to see each one separately,
though all of them are necessary for salvation. You can't have
salvation without wisdom. You can't have salvation without
righteousness. You can't have salvation without sanctification.
You can't have salvation without redemption. All of these are
necessary. And listen, by the grace of God,
God made Christ all of those things for us. Of God are you in Christ. Therefore,
God made Christ to be what? Your wisdom. And righteousness. And sanctification. Redemption. Salvation is all of the Lord. Now we know this to be true that
all men are totally dependent upon God for all things. Even
Adam was. When Adam lived without sin for
a time, whatever that was, a day, a minute, years, I have no idea. But he lived a certain time without
sin. He was dependent upon God's honor
to give him life. God said, as long as you don't
eat of this, you'll live. You'll enjoy all of this that
I've given you. Here's my promise to you, in the day you eat, you
shall surely die. all the days he lived, however
much that was, in obedience, like I said, could have been
the same day. I think some men think it's the very same day.
Plausible. I think that might be right.
But whether he lived a day or whether he lived, I don't know,
thousands, whatever it was, I know this, he was dependent on God
that whole time. How much more now are we dependent
upon God after the fall? You see, we're not dependent
upon just the honor of God, we're dependent upon the long-suffering
of God. When Adam fell, we were all ruined. We were all ruined. We deserved
nothing but death. And I want you to understand
that. That is vitally important to understanding the Gospel.
If you miss this, if you're wrong on this, you've missed the whole
thing. We have no right to demand anything of God but everlasting
damnation. That's the only thing you can
demand of God. You think you don't like the
way things are going? So, what can you do? You think
you can manipulate God? You think He owes us anything? I tell you, this is a common plague
among man that we deserve. In all our commercials, you deserve
a break today. You deserve it. And I'll tell
you, there are some things that we do. I mean, you go to work
and you earn your money and whatever that person you agreed to, that
is right that they give you what you've earned. And that's right between us.
What does God owe you? Name one thing that God owes
you. One thing scripture tells me
that God owes me is death. That's all that God has, that
old justice owes me. But here's the hope for such
creatures. It is a message of grace. Because
that's what I need. I don't need what I deserve.
I need what I don't deserve. I need God to be gracious. I
need God to be merciful. And He doesn't owe me grace.
Isn't that the antithesis, the opposite of grace? You think
God owes you something. It's not grace. Grace is something
given freely. And that's what I need. I need
something given freely. And this is what God swears to
all His people. In Ephesians chapter 2, He said,
And you hath he quickened who were what? Dead. That's what
you were. But what did God give you? He
gave you life. You were walking just like everyone
else. You were not different than any
other vile creature that walks on the face of this earth. And
out of nowhere, God gave you life. You weren't looking for
it. You weren't asking for it. God
gave it. And it says, but God. There's
a difference, isn't it? But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love, wherewith He loved us." Listen, even when
we were dead, I didn't know that. When I was dead, I didn't know
that. I had no promise of that. I had
no life in me. It was only after He gave me
life that I even knew anything at all about grace. But He loved
me even when we were dead in sins. And listen, "...and hath
quickened us together with Christ." By grace you are saved. I want you to hear the word of
the living God that salvation is alone by the mere sovereign
grace of God. He saves men only according to
the good pleasure of His will and nothing in them. I know this is hated. I know
this is despised because this abases man to nothing. gives us no power. Really, you've
never had any power, you just have the illusion of it. I'm just telling you the truth.
That if God saves anybody, it is according to the good pleasure
of His will, not based on anything in the person. We could have
never moved God to give us life. We could have never moved God
to put us in Christ. Never. So then what? Salvation of sinners
is of God. Isn't that what the text says?
But of Him. Are you in Christ? Listen, this
is a vital thing. This is the most important thing. If you are not in union with
Christ, you're without hope. Jesus said, I am the vine and
you are the branches. He said, without me, you can
do nothing. What could a branch do outside
of the vine? Cut it off, what does it do?
It dies. Can it bear any fruit? Can it
give itself life? No. You cut it off, you throw
it over there, and it dies. Only those in union with Him
live. Only those in union with Him
produce fruit such as faith, love, hope, joy, peace. Only those that are in Christ. Why? Because He is the source
of all of those things. So we who believe in Christ,
we are in union with Christ. Well, how did you get there? How did you get there? Religion
tells you, you put yourself there. God says, I did. I. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God has made into us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. Now, salvation of sinners is
of God. It is God the Father who put
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. That's when He
put us in Christ. Multitudes of scriptures prove
this. Listen to me. Election is not
a debatable thing. It is not a debatable issue. I don't do this. I don't debate
people about the election of God's grace. I just don't. If
they want to argue about it, go argue at the wall over there.
Both of you are just as stupid as the other. I don't care to
argue with you about it. If you have questions about it,
now I have people that have really concerns about it. They really
are genuinely concerned and don't understand. Fine, I love to answer
questions about that. But once I've showed you, I'm
not going to sit around and debate it anymore. The Scripture declares to us
that God hath from the beginning chosen us, what? To salvation. Look at this in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And I'll go on from this. Look at verse 13. I had a man
call me one time, and he was very upset. And he said, if you
could just show me one scripture that election is unto salvation,
I'll believe it. Let's go to this one. Just as good as any. We are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you, what?
To salvation. You were chosen to what? You
were chosen to be saved. When? From the beginning. When
did God put you in Christ, believer? This is vitally encouraging and
important to us, isn't it? I didn't put myself in Christ. God did. When did he do it? Before the foundation of the
world. God chose me. To what? Salvation. Then he even said
the means through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. Friends, election is rooted solely in the grace of God. He
is the source and first cause of all things. He chose us. Not all of Adam's race. He chose
some of Adam's race that he would save by his grace. And he purposed
that they should be holy and without blame before him. And the Father chose them not
based on anything in them. Otherwise, it's not what? It's
not grace. If God looked down the portals
of time as, okay, I just need to refrain from being upset at
them because they're just blind. We were blind at that time, too,
in time in our life. But they believe this, that God
somehow looked down and saw what you would do. Well, that ceases
to be grace, isn't it? It's no longer grace. In Romans 9, he clearly states
this, by the birth of Isaac and Jacob and Esau. You realize why
Jacob and Esau was such a big deal in Scripture, why he did
that? Now, God had, throughout, ever since Adam, God saved his
elect. Abel was one of his elect. Cain wasn't. Abel was. But why did he focus on this?
He said to children not yet being born, either having done good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand. He said to her, The elder shall
serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. So everyone that God has chosen and put into Christ is all by
the grace of God. By the grace of God are we put
in Christ. Now what does it mean to be in
Christ? You can use analogies and illustrations. I like Noah
in the ark. That's one of the most vivid
descriptions of what it is to be in Christ. It was the ark that endured the
wrath of God, and Noah being in the ark, he went through the
judgment, but was safe. That's what it is to be in Christ.
He's our refuge. To be in Christ is to be one with Christ, to
be in union with Christ. In other words, Christ, by God,
was made responsible for our salvation. Of God are you in Christ. And
when God puts you in Christ, God made Him to be responsible
for your salvation. We got a word for that. Surety. It's a beautiful word, isn't
it? Surety. That comes from that
in Genesis when Joseph demanded Benjamin to come out there and
he said, I'm not going to give you any food until you bring
Benjamin. And Jacob said, I ain't letting him go. And they're sitting
there starving to death. And Judah came to his dad and
said, I'll be surety for the land. If I bring him not again
to thee, what? Let me bear the blame. That's
a surety. So Christ became what? Surety.
He became the guarantor of all of our salvation. Thus, by the
grace of God, He put us in Christ, thus making Christ to be all
our salvation. So then the mere grace of the
Father from the beginning made Christ all our salvation. First
of all, look at this. Now he breaks it down into these
four sections. Salvation's a large topic. It
is a large topic. It encompasses eternity. From
eternity to eternity, everything that's in between. Even providence
is all moving toward the salvation of God's people. But these are
major things concerning the salvation of God by Christ. He has made
unto us, first of all, wisdom. Wisdom. I just said earlier,
man by his own wisdom cannot know God. Cannot learn of God. How then
may a man know God? Only by Jesus Christ. only by Jesus Christ. Man cannot know by his wisdom,
but Jesus Christ is the light of the world, he said. In his
face is the knowledge of the glory of God revealed. Jesus
said this himself. This is not something speculative.
Jesus said this. He said, All things are delivered
to me. Now what does that mean? All
things are delivered to him. Now surely that has to do with
all of the world. And providence, he says this
later, as thou hast given him power over all flesh. That's
what it could mean and surely does mean. All things are delivered
to me. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about all the responsibility of the salvation
of his people was delivered to him. He said, all of this is
in my hands. All of it. All of this is delivered
to me of my Father. And no man knoweth the Son but
the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son.
And listen, to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. Do you know
God at all? How do you know God except that
you see Him in the face of Jesus Christ? Except you see Him by
the revelation of the Son. Therefore, what? The Son of God
is the wisdom of God. The Son of God is the wisdom
of God. To the lost, Christ is not wisdom
but foolishness. Have you ever considered what
we're actually saying? That a man who lived over 2,000
years ago that you've never met, never seen him, you've never
talked to him, He's never audibly spoken to you. And he died on
a tree. He was buried. And you believe
that that man, by his death, saves you. What do men say? That's just
the dumbest thing I've ever heard. That's what wisdom of man says.
They believe it to be foolishness. But what do we know? We know by the power of God that
Christ is the wisdom of God. That thing I just told you is
not foolish. It's wisdom. That man 2,000 years ago is the
son of the living God who came in human flesh to obtain all
my salvation by his death. Why? So that God might be just
and justify the ungodly. You realize that can't happen
anywhere in human wisdom? You understand, a man's guilty.
Okay, let's just use an illustration. A man's guilty. He committed
a murder. He's guilty. Everybody saw it. He's guilty. If the judge goes
strictly by the law, the man deserves to die. But in our judicial system, which
is probably the best in the world, we see things in gray areas.
Well, here's his upbreak. He enters into it. He's abandoned
when he was a kid, and he had some psychological issues, and
then our hearts begin to tear up, and we begin We feel sorry
for this guy who murdered somebody else. We feel sorry for him.
And then what does the judge say? Well, I'm going to show
leniency. Wait a second. You have to violate
the law in order to show leniency. The law said he should die, but
you, because you feel for him, want to show mercy. You see the
conundrum? The judge cannot be just and
Justify the ungodly. Justify the guilty. Nobody could
ever do that. God found a way. God is the only
one that has ever found a way to do that. By Jesus Christ. Here's the wisdom. That God took
our sins and made Him to be sin for us. I don't know how that
happened. That's how it happened, but I
don't know how. And when God did that, He punished my sins.
He really punished my sins. I didn't skirt by. I didn't escape
punishment. He died in my stead and God was
satisfied. The justice of God, who cannot
overlook sin, was completely satisfied with His offering.
And took His righteousness and made it my own. That's the wisdom of God in Christ.
God made him to be that wisdom. And listen, I never would have
known it had God in grace not revealed it to me. I couldn't
have figured it out. I couldn't have figured it out.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit. God purposed that Christ
should be my wisdom. Christ came and He displayed
wisdom in His obedience and in His death. In His resurrection,
He displayed the wisdom of God. And then the Spirit of God came
to this moron and showed me. By grace, He opened my eyes and
I could see His wisdom. He's my wisdom. Secondly, God
made him to be my righteousness, our righteousness. God alone
is the source of all righteousness, and he is perfectly righteous. Now listen, I could know Christ
to be all of those things. I could know a lot about Christ. I can see him in wisdom, but
if he's not my righteousness, I've got no hope. Because God
is righteous and demands us to be righteous. How righteous? As righteous as He is. As righteous
as He is. Friends, God does not desire
you to simply do your best. This is what our grandparents
did. You know, if you did your best,
even though you didn't do it, didn't even do part of it, they
still gave you something. God's not like that. God doesn't
want your best. He demands you to be righteous. With God's purpose to save His
elect people, they must be made righteous, not by themselves. Why? Because there's no righteousness
in them. You that understand wisdom understand
this, you have no righteousness. But God in wisdom made Christ
to be my righteousness. Not part of my righteousness,
all of my righteousness. All of it. He purposed Him to
be made my righteousness. And so when the Son of God came
into this world, every moment He lived, He was living for my
righteousness. He said, in prophecy, He said,
from the womb I have worshipped you. Our Lord worshipped Him from
the womb. The scripture says He is well pleased for His righteousness. He shall magnify the law and
make it honorable. Men always try to look for loopholes
in the law. Christ said, I'm not looking
for loopholes, I'm magnifying it. I'm amplifying it to show
you what righteousness really is. And he obeyed God in perfect
righteousness every breath he took. What was he doing that
for? He was doing that for me because
he was made my righteousness. And he swore to be my righteousness. God purposed to be my righteousness.
Jesus actually accomplished my righteousness. And listen to
this, the work of the Holy Spirit is to make application of that
righteousness. When He came to you and immediately by the grace
of God you knew Christ to be the wisdom of God and you believed
on Him, listen to this, you were made righteous. You were made righteous. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit to impute that righteousness and impart that righteousness
to us. It's ours. God has made Christ
to be all our sanctification. By the mere grace of God, He
is our wisdom, He is our righteousness, and now we see He is all our
sanctification. Everyone who was chosen of God,
He was made Christ to be alone, our wisdom, now we see He's our...
What this word sanctification means, holiness. Now, righteousness
is the outpouring of holiness. Holiness is a state of being.
You are either holy or you're not. And one who is holy will
do what? Righteous. He'll be righteous. Christ did righteously because
he was what? He was holy. He was holy. So Christ is not only our righteousness,
but he is also our holiness. Sanctification. This word sanctification, people
in this generation especially, they might confess Christ to
be their wisdom. They might confess Christ to be their righteousness.
They might believe that He's all their redemption. But somehow
in this generation, people have pulled out this word sanctification
and made this one a cooperative effort. Our text begs to differ. Just
as much as he's my righteousness, just as much as he's my redemption,
just as much as he's my wisdom, he is also my sanctification.
Which is what? All of it. All of it. This reformed doctrine of sanctification
makes sanctification a progressive attainment of personal holiness. This is their own doctrine. That
sanctification is something furthered by our outward obedience. Now, I want you to, and we'll
take this right off the bat, I do not have any argument against
spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is real. Matter
of fact, if you don't grow, it's because you're not alive. Everything
lives, grows. And this is true of the believer.
We grow in faith. We grow in love. We grow in temperance
and meekness and all of these graces, we grow in them. One thing we do not grow is holiness. Holiness. We do not become progressively
more holy. Now listen, when a person believes
in Jesus Christ, his life changes, doesn't it? I mean, we were once
some really vile people, and now by the grace of God, we don't
long for those things anymore, we don't do those things anymore.
But does my separation from those things increase my holiness? No. Now the Baptist confession is
even more clear about this. They said it's a personal work
of sanctification is carried on. Sin's mastery is completely
broken. Evil desires increasingly weakened,
moving towards fullness of holiness. Is that your experience that
everything is getting better? That's not the experience of
the Apostle Paul, nor is the experience of David, nor is the
experience of Abraham. Seems like the older they got,
the worse they got. Is that not true? At the end of Paul's life, he said
he was the chief of sinners. He didn't say nothing about him
getting better and better. No, friends, all of our sanctifications
of God, we were sanctified by the election of grace. We were sanctified by the blood
of Christ. Look at this. Look at Hebrews.
Hebrews chapter 10. Look at this. This encompasses both election
and the blood of Christ sanctifying us. Look at this. Hebrews 9,
10, In verse 9 he says, Lo, I come
to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, he
may establish the second. Listen, by the which will? What? The will of God. By the which
will we are sanctified. You were sanctified by the will
of God. But of God are you in Christ Jesus. Is that not sanctification?
Did He not set you apart and make you holy by putting you
into union with His Son? He did. He sanctified you by
His will. And, listen, by the blood of
Christ. Through the offering of the body of Christ. Now how
many times were you sanctified? Once for all. You were sanctified
as many times as Christ died. How many times did He die? Then you were sanctified what?
Once. Look in verse 14, for by his
one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Perfected forever them that are
sanctified. And I'll tell you this, I knew
nothing of this sanctification experimentally until when the
Spirit of God sanctified me. This is the work of the Spirit
of God. This is the application of that sanctification. The application
was the Holy Spirit. Listen to this. Peter said to
the elect, 1 Peter 1, 2, it says, the elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience. I tell you what, again, I've
had people take that text, sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience.
Well, that means sanctification unto obedience of the law. No. Where are you reading that
in there? The obedience is faith. The sanctification
of the Spirit always leads to what? Faith. Does it lead you
back to the law? The sanctification of the Spirit
leads to obedience of faith. The sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Peter says in 2 Peter 1 verse
4 that we are made partakers of the divine nature. John said
that which is born of God sinneth not. Why? It's sanctified. It's
holy. It's holy. Now you're going to take your
measly, peddly little works that are mixed with sin and going
to try to make that more holy? That's blasphemy, friends. That's
saying that sanctification is a cooperative effort. It is not.
It is a work of God. Why? That no flesh should glory
in His presence. If you have something to do with
your sanctification, do you not have something to glory in? What
does the scripture tell you you've got to glory in? Nothing. Our
sanctification is by the mere grace of God. We are sanctified
by the Father in election, sanctified by the Son by His death, sanctified
by the Spirit of God, made holy by the Spirit of God. And you
know what's going to change that? As you live through this life, I
know that you still have that old man of sin weighing you down
constantly, causing you doubts and fears and grief and sorrow
and pain. It's all around you. Enemies
are constantly getting at you. Can that in any way contaminate
that holy nature? No. Why? Because God, by His
mere grace, sanctified me. Lastly, Christ is made our redemption. Now this is vital. Redemption. Redemption. I'll give you a couple
places. Let's look at Leviticus. Leviticus
25. See if you can identify with
this. Leviticus 25 and look at verse
25 Well if I get in the right book
that would help I got scared there for a second I was in Deuteronomy
didn't have 25 verses in there Leviticus 25 Look at verse 25 If thy brother waxen poor and
has sold away some of his possessions, and if any of his kin come to
redeem it, then shall he redeem it, what his brother has sold. And if the man have none to redeem
it, he can redeem it himself, able to redeem it. Now look at
verse 48. Verse 48. It says, After that he has sold,
he may redeem again, One of his brethren may redeem him. Either
his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or any of his
nigh of kin unto him, of his family, may redeem him. Or if
he be able, he may redeem himself. This is the law of redemption. The word redeemed has to do with
kinsman redemption. one of the first mentions of
the word redeem. But in every part of the Old
Testament that has the word redeem, it has to do with a kinsman redeeming
one of his kin that had been sold, that had sold himself into
slavery. He had lost everything. The point
is, the man had lost everything. He had sold himself as a slave. Does that not sound familiar? Is that what we've done? Have
we not sold ourselves? And God, through His law, describes
for us hope. God's justice not only demanded
righteousness and holiness and wisdom, it also demanded blood. It also demanded death. It also
demanded a redemption price. And they said, look, if you can
redeem yourself, go ahead and do it. Now how can, you've lost
everything, right? You're an indentured servant,
you're a slave, you can't earn any money at all, now go redeem
yourself. How is that possible? Can't. Can't redeem ourselves. We have
been completely sold. And yet God in mere grace says
this, I have found a ransom. What did this cost, our Lord? How much grace did it take to
redeem us? Well, that depends on the price. What price did God offer to redeem
us? Our Lord Jesus Christ, His Son. Jonathan Edwards said, the grace
is great in proportion to the excellence of what is given.
You can measure how great the grace is by what's been given. God gave His only Son. Peter
said that we have been redeemed, not with silver and gold of your
vain conversations, but with the precious blood. of the Lord Jesus Christ. You've
been redeemed, you've been bought by a near kinsman. So every time
the word redeemed should come up, you should think of a near
kinsman. You should think of Ruth and Boaz. How Boaz, Ruth
was, Elimelech's ancestry was wasted. His sons were dead. Only those
two women remained and there was no hope of ever inheriting
his inheritance again unless someone of their kin come and
redeem them. Well, it just so happened. What a stroke of luck. It just
so happened that Boaz fell in love with her. It just so happened
that the other guy who was closer in kin didn't want to redeem
him. No. It was the mere grace of God
showing us we had a near kinsman. It's the law. The law was the
nearer kinsman. And yet the law could not redeem
us, lest it defile itself. And our Boaz came in and says,
I will redeem them. Now Boaz redeemed with money,
but our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed with His own life. Who in the world did He redeem? He redeemed the most unworthy
people. His grace extends to the lowest,
to those who did not deserve it. And our Lord Jesus Christ
willingly bore our sins. in his own body. I love that
message that David preached on Gethsemane. Our Lord, when he
said, take me. Let these go free, he wasn't
asking. He was commanding you. Take me. I'll pay the price. These are
going to go free. When God put us in Christ, He
made Christ to be all our redemption. I'll close with this. Go to Hosea.
I want you to see this put together in Hosea. Hosea chapter 13. Look at verse 9. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help. I will be thy king. Where is any other that may save
thee in all thy cities. And thy judges of whom thou saidest,
Give me a king and princes. I gave you a king in mine anger
and took him away in my wrath." The iniquity of Ephraim is bound
up. His sin is hid. It's in a bag. It's all bound up, ready for
judgment, ready to be unspoiled before everybody. He's hid within
his own heart in rebellion. The sorrows of a travailing woman
shall come upon him. He is an unwise son. For he should not stay long in
the place of the breaking forth of children. Yet here's God's hope for such
a vile son. I will ransom them from the power
of the grave. I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall not be hid from
my eyes. God says, I will redeem and I'm
not going to repent from it. I won't repent from it. And all of this. All of this is that no flesh
should glory in his presence. We were saved by the mere grace
of God. Why? There's nothing better.
There's nothing better than the grace of God. We were saved by
the grace of God. Of God are you in Christ? Are
you in Christ? Are you in Christ? But of God are you in Christ?
Who God, Christ, is made. He's done. He's made your wisdom. He's made your righteousness.
He's made your sanctification. He is made to be all your redemption. That according as it is written,
I like that because that settles everything. It is written. He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. You that are saved by grace,
is there anything else you want to glory in? You do good today. You want to
see what good things you've done today and take those up there
and show God what you did. I don't have anything. I don't have anything. If it
was up to me, I sold myself. I was the unwise son. God made Christ to be all my
salvation. And I have no desire to glory
in anyone else but God. Especially not myself. Especially not myself. You got
that that grace never exalts you? You figure that one out? It never exalts you. but it does
exalt God. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Holy Father, please dismiss us
with your own blessings. Please manifest the grace that
you've given us in Christ. Surely we would stop murmuring
and complaining if we would see the grace and mercy that you've
given us in Christ. I know we can't see it unless
you open our eyes to it. The lost can never see it except
you give them wisdom, except you draw them to Christ. I know this, I can't keep myself,
except you keep me. And let us who have been kept
have been saved by grace. Let us not cease to praise your
grace, the glory of your grace, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. In his name I ask, amen. Uh huh.