All right, take your Bibles,
turn back with me to Galatians chapter six. Galatians chapter six. Now, I've got a message here,
and when I'm looking through it this afternoon, I'm just gonna
divide it into three messages. I just don't think, I'd much
rather you just be able to focus in and may the Spirit of God
cause us to focus in on this glorious thing that Paul writes.
These beautiful words that the Spirit itself has penned through
the Apostle for us. And the title of this message,
What is it to be in Christ? What does that mean? Look at
verse 15. Paul said, For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth
anything. What does circumcision do? Nothing. Neither uncircumcision. What
does uncircumcision do? Nothing. What is the result then
of one who is in Christ but a new Creature, the word creature means
creation. A new creation, the only thing
that avails a man before God is this, are you in Christ? And the only evidence of us being
in Christ is not circumcision, it's not uncircumcision. What
is it? A new creation. a new creation, I want us this
evening, by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, to take these
two words in Christ, and that He may show us both the power
and the glory of these words. Now every believer in Christ,
everyone who is born of the Spirit of God, come to Christ alone
for all their salvation, listen to me, You are in Christ. Whatever that means, we're going
to get to it, what it means. But this is speaking to you.
He said, for in Christ you believe. Take comfort for you're in Christ. In Christ. So then if we are
in Christ, Paul says, neither circumcision avails anything
or uncircumcision. But in new creation that means
that none of our works avail anything. This matter of being
in Christ has nothing to do with our works, nothing to do with
our obedience to the law, nothing whatsoever. Again, this is what
was being taught, that those who are obeying the law, you
are in Christ, you are This manifests, it's clear, they said. You're
circumcised, you are obviously in Christ. Paul said that's not
true. So what does your works have to do with you being in
Christ? Nothing. Now listen to this. Neither uncircumcision
has, in other words, your guilt of not obeying the law. It doesn't bar you from being
in Christ. Your lack of obedience to the
law does not bar you from being in Christ. That doesn't have
anything to do with it. So your goodness or your evil,
your goodness doesn't put you in Christ and your evil doesn't
keep you out of Christ. It doesn't have anything to do
with it whatsoever. The sovereignty of God is the
only reason we are in Christ. The only reason you are in Christ
is by the sovereign will of God. Our union. And so when it says,
in Christ, I want you to know it is talking about union. Union with Christ. Listen, it
is an act of creation. This is it. You who are experimentally
in union with Christ, it is the only thing that has availed you
is this, a new creation. And who creates? Who alone can
create? I told you that joke about the
scientists saying, we can make a new human, we can clone a human.
And they said, hey, all you got to do is take some dirt. And
God said, well, get your own dirt. It's mine, all this is
mine. And so any creation comes from
God. Therefore, listen, the sovereignty
of God is surely a profound subject. It is a wonderful subject. It
is a vast subject, this doctrine of absolute sovereignty of God. Listen, it's unfathomable to
the human mind, absolute sovereignty. So man by nature is unable and
unwilling to believe what they cannot comprehend. So then men deny the sovereignty
of God. They strive in vain to remove
the scepter of God's hand. Listen, the only reason men deny
the sovereignty of God in either providence or in salvation is
this, they want to be God. That's it. The only reason anybody
denies the sovereignty of God is because they want it. If they could, they would remove
the scepter from his hand. But God said, listen, I declare
the end, Isaiah 46, 10. I declare the end from what? The beginning. was the end declared? When was the end determined?
God said, I determined it from the beginning, from ancient times
saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. So then seeing that man by nature
is depraved, man is ignorant, man is incapable of knowing God. I know many of you grew up in
a generation that believed this, that man was seeking God. And
that all they needed was a pat and a push. You needed to get
them in the right environment, you needed to get them in the
right frame of mind, and they would make some kind of decision
for God, and then God would validate that with His power. But what does the scripture say?
There is none that seeketh after God. That should have wiped that
whole generation of false religion out. There is none that seeketh
after God. There is none righteous, no not
one. There is none that understandeth.
Jesus said no man can, no man can, no man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me. Draw him. And so men by searching cannot
find out the Almighty and His perfections. As high as the heaven
is above the earth, so is God higher than our thoughts and
our mind can comprehend. It's deeper than hell. You can't
know it. The measure thereof is longer
than the earth and broader than the sea. You can't find him out. In vain this religious generation,
countless millions have set themselves against the God the doctrine
of God's sovereignty. Man would reject the doctrine
of God's sovereignty over their favorite doctrine, which is what?
The doctrine of man's free will. This is the doctrine of the generation
in which we live. They hate the sovereignty of
God because it clearly cuts to the root of false religion. Instead of God sovereignly ruling
over all things, instead of God sovereignly determining all things
after the counsel of His own will, they would rather trust
in blind fate, luck, chance, anything but God's sovereignty. But it doesn't matter what men
think. It doesn't matter how much they deny or fight against
it. Thus saith the Lord, as it is
written, Our God is in the heavens. And what is he going to do? He
has done whatsoever he had pleased. So what's taking place? Just
look at Providence. Just do that for a minute. Tell
me what's actually taking place. The will of God. The will of
God. Now, men think they're scheming. Boy, there's a lot of dark rooms
and a lot of people sitting out there with their billions and
they think they're planning things out and they think they're executing
their will. They're only doing what God determined to be done. How foolish! How foolish! Yet that's what man thinks. He
thinks he's sovereign. But how much more is God sovereign
not only in providence, how much more then is He not sovereign
in salvation? God is sovereign in all things,
especially the salvation of man, especially this matter of being
in Christ. I declare to you this, that the
free will of man has no place in the salvation of sinners.
None whatsoever. Neither circumcision available
to anything or uncircumcision. Your works, your will, nothing
has anything to do with you being in Christ. Listen, you that are in Christ,
for many years you did not want to be in Christ. We wanted to
be outside. I didn't want anything to do
with this stuff. How is it that I'm in Christ? See, my will had
nothing to do with it. I wanted to be outside of Christ.
And yet, what'd God do? He overruled my will. I'm in
Christ. Same way with you. And so it
is by the sovereign will of God, and I want us to see this tonight. And to help us see this, go to
1 Corinthians chapter one. Paul's gonna use this phrase
in 1 Corinthians chapter one. The same phrase he's going to
use here. And look at verse 30. Scripture says, but of God, that's
who him is, God, but of God are you, what? In Christ. Jesus, who, Christ Jesus, of
God. Now God did this. God made him
to be for us something. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Put those together and what do
you have? You have salvation. That's what it is. Wisdom, righteousness. Who made Christ to be those things
for us? God. Well, who put you in Christ?
God. God. And that's my, I got three
points, but that's only what I'm gonna be able to get done
with tonight. Listen to this, this is this. Our union with
Christ, listen to these words, is of God. It's what Paul's saying
in our text, isn't it? Circumcision don't have anything
to do with it. Uncircumcision don't have anything to do with
it. Well, who put you there? God did. Of God. Are you in Christ
Jesus? In this verse, though the word
sovereignty is not used, it's stamped all over it. It's stamped
all over it. Believer, behold and see this,
that the foundation and source of all your salvation is rooted
in this, in your union with Christ. What is the source of my salvation? If it doesn't come from me, if
it doesn't stem from my works, or it's not defiled by my disobedience,
then what's the source? Where's it come from? Let's see
the words. Of God. Are you in Christ? If anybody is in Christ, anyone,
it's of God. It's of God. It's rooted in God. So then all who are not in union
with Christ have no spiritual blessings. None whatsoever. If God did not put you in Christ,
you will never be in Christ. I don't know who they are. That's
just so. Everyone God put in Christ will
be saved. Everyone he did not, they won't. They won't. See, this is the rub, isn't it?
It's the rub against the flesh. We want to be sovereign. We want
to have some chance of doing something. Nope, nope. It's of God. Now, so then tonight, I want
us to see and behold, first of all, the necessity of it. I want
you to see the necessity of being in Christ, the vitalness of being
in Christ, that without it, no man can be accepted of God. except
you're in Christ. And so let's tonight trace out
this union and see where it began, how it came to be that we who
are sinners are now made one, that's what union is, we're made
one with Jesus Christ. How can that be? A sinner in
union with Christ? Yeah. Where's the root of this? It's rooted in the sovereignty
of God. And behold, the source of our
union is God. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus.
And if you're in Christ Jesus, who put you there? God did. Now,
you look back in 1 Corinthians 1, look at verse 29 and see why. Why is that so? That no flesh
should glory in His presence. You're in Christ, what do you
have to glory about? What do you have to boast about?
You didn't put yourself in Christ. God did. Now why'd he put you
in Christ and not somebody else? Why? No difference. No difference in us. We'll see
why in just a minute. And so then the first point is
this. We were of God put into union with Jesus Christ. Now
I want you to see on purpose. Lady was talking to Ralph Barnard.
You don't know who that is, some of you, but some of you do. Ralph
Barnard, he got done preaching about the election of God, and
this lady come up and she said, brother, I know there's a difference
between your religion and our religion, and it's just a matter
of election, and I don't understand it. And he's so tired, he's been
preaching for a while, and he said, well, let me just ask you
this, God save you on accident or on purpose? He said, well, on purpose. He
said, you understand election. God didn't save you by chance.
He didn't save you by accident. He saved you on purpose. On purpose. The purpose of God is the root
cause of our being in Christ. Remember that whatsoever God
pleased, what'd He do? That's what He did. And so if
you're in Christ, simply because God pleased to do it. And so
it is from eternity God put us in Christ. Well, where do you
see that? Preacher, go to Ephesians 1, Ephesians chapter 1. Apostle's
gonna lay it out in such plain language, and unless you wanna
do some spiritual gymnastics and try to rest and twist and
bend, and this is plain language. Anybody can understand this.
I don't see that it needs to, I've got books that are massively
thick. and sound like stereo instructions, and there's really
no reason for it. It's plain language that you can simply
understand. If you don't like it, I can understand
that. At least be honest about it. You don't like it. Well,
I can't do anything about that. Look at this. Paul blesses God
the Father. Verse 3, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now why? Why has he received
blessing? For who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessing, in heavenly places. Everything that's a spiritual
blessing, justification, sanctification, wisdom, righteousness, those
are spiritual blessings. Those are the things that really
matter. God gives you a house, it's eventually going to fall
apart. He gives you a car, you know that falls apart. These
things are physical, they're tangible. They're going away. They're of really no value. But spiritual things are eternal
things. And they're the only things that
matter. Once we leave this world, is
there anything that matters but righteousness and sanctification
and redemption? And he says, all of these blessings
belong to you. You believe? These are yours. God the Father gave them to you.
How did he do that? According. This is how he did
it. According as he hath chosen us
in Christ. When in the world did he do that? before the foundation of the
world. And so we know how he did it. How did he get these blessings?
He put us in Christ, in whom is all the blessings. All the
blessings, God says, are in my son. And the only way he's going
to get them is those in my son. And so God did this. He said,
I have chosen a people and I put them in Christ before the world
began for anybody could object. There was nobody to object. You
realize that there was a we call this time. There was a time when
nobody was there to object. God purposed and put them in
Christ before anything was created. Why do you do that? Well, here's
the reason that Why? That, the purpose, the reason.
They should be holy. Why did he put me in Christ?
That you should be holy. And without blame. So those are
in Christ. Listen, God has purposed something.
He's decreed something. He's willed something for these
people. That they be without sin. Wait a second, I wasn't
born that way. Don't matter. Don't have anything
to do with it. God says they're going to be
holy. Now then, I got a question. Is there any chance that they
would not be holy? None whatsoever. Why? He put
them in Christ, that they should be holy before Him. Listen to
His motivation. He didn't do it this clinically.
You go out to a pile of ants and you take some ants and you
separate these over here and you squash these over here. That's maybe a clinical trial. You're trying something out,
maybe. You don't have any love for those ants that are over
here. You don't care about the ants that die. You don't have
any. God didn't do it that way. He chose based on His love. In love, having predetermined
Predestinated. Boy, people hate that word. Why? It's a great word. I remember when Brother Don Fortner
was in seminary school, he told me this story. He said, the seminary
hated election and they hated the doctrine of predestination.
And they were, they talked, they told the students that they weren't
allowed to say the words election or predestination. Well, Don
came to this person, he just yelled out, blank, every time
it came up. And he read everywhere with the
word predestinator, predestination came in, and he'd just say, blank,
because he, and it was, there was too many. It's a beautiful
word. It means God determined beforehand
what should happen. Everything! Everything that would
lead to what He purposed, that they should be holy, and everything
from the beginning unto the end, He determined. You hear by accident? Absolutely not! Everything is predetermined by
God. Everything! I don't know what it is. He's not
given me any privy to what he's determined past this point. I have no clue. That's not my
business. I just know he has. And everything
he has determined is for this purpose, that you should be holy
and without blame before him. Every one of his, every one he
put into union with his son, he determined that they should
be holy and predestinated that they should be holy. Without sin, no sin whatsoever. That's God's determination. And
he predestinated all events to lead up to whenever that is. And he did it because he loved
them. Motivation is love. having predestinated them, us,
unto the adoption of children. Is there anything else more tender
than the thought of adoption? You got an orphan, he has no
body and no means. And in love, a parent comes and
takes him, determines to take that kid, purchases that kid,
and brings him into his household and gives him everything. That's
the idea. You read that later, I think, Ezekiel about that infant that
was cast out to the loathing of himself. What a beautiful
picture. That's us by nature, isn't it? Polluted in our own
blood, yet your time was a time of love. He washed us. Now why'd he do
that? I determined to do it. loved you with an everlasting
love, and I determined that you should be holy, and that's the
reason you're gonna be holy. Is there anything more loving
than that? You think of anything more loving
than God determining to take you and make you holy. There's no greater display of
love in the world. To take somebody who spits, and I'm talking about
adoption. We were kicking and spitting
at the one in adoptives. But this is what he determined,
in love, predestined is only the adoption of children. Listen,
and he didn't leave it to chance as to how this was going to happen.
And he didn't determine that it was going to be by your efforts.
Look at the means, look at how he's going to get from point
A to point B. He put us in Christ, determined
that we should be holy and without blame before him. He did it in
love, predestinated everything so it would happen that we would
be his sons, and he was going to do it by one way, by Jesus
Christ. That's the only way he's going
to do it. Not a combination of those in
Christ, not a combination of their works and Christ's works.
God determined that they should be made holy only by Jesus Christ. That's it. Now listen why, again,
he did it to himself. His purpose was to draw those
elect to himself. To reconcile him. You see, the
idea of to himself means that there was a distance. There was,
this was predetermined that there was going to be a distance, a
distance. They could not span a distance.
They would not spend a distance. They didn't want to spend a distance.
They could not spend. And God says by Jesus Christ,
I'm going to bring them to me, to myself. Now listen, why? according to the good pleasure
of his will." Now, whose will? Who chose who? That's a crux, isn't it? If you
chose God, then you're God. That's what you want. You want
to be God. It's not what the scripture is teaching. Again,
all of this is not plain language. I'm just reading the thing to
you. I'm just reading it to you. According to the good pleasure
of His will, why would He put us in Christ? According to the
good pleasure of His will. Now what's going to end up at
the end of all this? According to the good pleasure
of His will, listen, verse 6, to the praise of the glory of
His grace. This is all done and every elect
soul is made holy and without blame before him. When every
one of his sons have been brought in by Jesus Christ to himself,
reconciled to him, they all give him praise because it was his
will that brought us in. It will be praise to the glory
of His grace. Heaven will be filled with the
praise of His grace. That's how it's going to end,
and it's going to be for eternity. That's what heaven is. Heaven
is constantly praising God. Now, look, I understand the struggle
with that thought, because we're still in the flesh. We struggle. You know what? I'm pushing the
time and I know the flesh is kicking. We're all kicking. I get it. Hip starts hurting
and the back starts hurting. Deal with all that stuff. Then
there won't be any of that. There won't be anything to restrain
the love and mercy and the grace that he put in our hearts. Why? Because He's going to fulfill
exactly what He purposed by putting us in Christ, determining that
you should receive every spiritual blessing. For this reason, you're
in Christ. You're in Christ, and God put
you there. It's an act of God's sovereign love, an act of His
mercy. Our Lord Jesus tells us the depths
of our Father's love in John 17. He says, and the glory which
thou gavest me. Listen to this. I have given
them. The glory you gave me because
they're in me. Listen to me. I gave it to them. I give it to them. that they may be one, even as
we are one, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made
perfect in one. You that are in Christ, how would
you be made perfect? You're made perfect in one, in Christ. In Christ. And that the world
may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. You are in Christ. You are so
loved. You are loved as much as God
loves His Son. Now you measure it. I don't know
how you're going to do it, but just seem to try to measure how
much God loves His Son. That's exactly how much He loves
everyone He put in Christ. Here in His love. You want to
know what real love is? Here in His love. Not that we
love God. Now, don't look at that. You
can't look at that. That's just. Oh, that'd be just that'd be
a short trip, wouldn't it? It's like that's like reading
a one letter book. It's over pretty quick. Here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us, you want to know you that are
in Christ, you want to know him. What's the manifestation that
God loves his elect? God sent His Son to be the propitiation. We just sang that song, the mercy
seat. That's what that means. The mercy seat. The atonement. The atonement. God has sent His
Son to be the atonement for sin. That is the only measurement
of God's love right there. You know why? Okay, God give
you health, he gives a lost man health too. He may give you wealth,
he may give a lost man wealth. There's no way you can measure
that. God may cause his child to be in poverty and cause a
great sinner to be wealthy. You can't determine God's love
based on circumstances. You read that in Ecclesiastes
chapter 9 and verse 1. You cannot determine God's love
based on what you see and what you think and what you feel.
How do I know God loved me? Because he sent his son to be
the propitiation for my sins. That's love. That's love. That's
the measurement of God's love. And God's sovereign union, God
willed it from eternity, God did it in love. And God is going
to manifest it to everyone. Listen to me, everyone who he
put in Christ. Everyone. Everyone he determined
to be holy. Everyone he loved with an everlasting
love. Everyone he predestinated to
be his sons. By Jesus Christ, not according
to their works or merit or will or anything, but by Jesus Christ,
there is no way that they will not receive it. Listen, though we were in union
with Christ and loved by God from eternity, that's not how
we were born. That's not our experience, is
it? Our experience is totally opposite of that. We were born
in sin. God determined that we should
be holy, but that's not how we were born. He determined that
we should be in Christ, but that's not how we were born. We had
no spiritual life. We were dead. Paul says in Ephesians
2 and chapter 2 and verse 12, that in time past you were without
Christ. Is that right? And that you that
are in Christ, is that not your experience in this world? You
were for a time without Christ. Aliens from the Commonwealth
of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having what? No hope.
None whatsoever. And without God in the world. Without Christ in our hearts.
By birth. We were without the presence
of the Holy Spirit in us. We were by nature, he says in
chapter two, dead in trespasses and sins. Now, this is, I thought
of this often this week of dead in trespasses and sins. Christ
is life. If you're in Christ, you must
be alive. But we had no experience of that because we were dead,
dead in trespasses and sins. What can a dead man do? If you put a dead man down here
and you bring the best teacher you can, what can he learn? You put a dead man here and you
bring the most beautiful music instruments in this place and
make this sound of music so beautiful that you'd want to weep, what
could he do? When I preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ to a dead man, what can he do? Yet that's what I'm commanded
to do, isn't it? Impossible thing. Preach to the dead. I preach
to the dead because I know this, God is going to give someone
life. Everyone he put in Christ, he's
gonna give them life. And you hath he quickened. I'm the prime
example right here. I was dead and now he, I was
a hater of God. Children of wrath, even as others. I walked just like everyone else
without God. I had no, God was not in me. Look at chapter two in verse
four of Ephesians there. It's in there. What made the
difference? Two words, but God. Two most amazing words in all
the world. But God. Who made the difference? God did. But God, who is rich
in mercy, sovereign mercy, sovereign love, for his great love, wherewith
he loved us, past his, he loved me. Listen to this. Even, even when we were dead, Now what is your will and your
love or your goodness have anything to do with the love of God? God loved you before you knew
Him. Before you experienced any spiritual
life, yet while you were dead in sins. And what did He do to
show you this? How do we know that? He hath
quickened us together with Christ. See, I was in union with Christ.
That's what He's telling me. Even when I was dead, even when
I was without Christ, listen to this, I was in union with
Christ. So when Christ lived a righteous
life, guess what? Guess what I lived? I lived a
righteous life. When He died on the cross, listen
to me, I died in Him. I was in Him. He bore all of my sins. And God's justice killed him
for my sins. And when he rose again from the
dead, listen to this, together with Christ, by grace you are
saved and have raised us up, what? Together. So when he sat down on the throne
of God, guess what? So die. as in Him, and made us to sit together in
heavenly places, where? In Christ Jesus, for this purpose,
that in the ages to come you might experience what God purposed
for you, that in the ages to come He might show See, all that
stuff was hidden in God before the foundation of the world and
angels couldn't figure it out. Satan didn't figure it out. Nobody
figured it out. God had determined all that.
And then he's going to what? Show it to you. He's going to
show it to you. Everybody he put in Christ, he's
going to do this for you. He's going to show you. That
in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. For
by grace you are saved. What's the evidence I'm in Christ?
I gotta know. I know God has an elect people.
I know He purposed them to be holy. I know this, He loved them. He predestinated all things that
they should be saved. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save them. He actually saved them and now
has risen with them. The question is, am I one of
them? The only ones gonna be saved
are the elect. They're the only ones Christ died for. He didn't
die for everybody. Did not die for everybody. How do you know that? Are there people in hell? Did Christ die for those people
in hell? I'll tell you what, if he died for them, there's
no hope for us. I have no confidence at all that
I would ever be brought to heaven if He died for them. But He didn't
die for them. He only died for the elect. Now
who are they? God says He's going to show you something. His elect,
He's going to show it. The exceeding riches of His grace.
For by grace you are saved through what? Faith. What is the evidence of my election? Faith. Where'd that come from? That not of yourself. It is a gift of God. Why? God purposed you have it. That's
one of those spiritual blessings. That He purposed that you should
have from the foundation of the world and now by grace you have
it. You believe and you know this
that salvation is completely and absolutely 100% by the grace
of Almighty God and not by circumcision or uncircumcision. It has nothing
to do with my will or my abilities my obedience, it has totally,
100% the grace of God. For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works. Why? Lest any man should boast. Isn't that what we just read
in 1 Corinthians? You see how the apostle goes
over the same ground. I'm just, he's just, same ground. So that
no flesh should go in his presence, but of God are you in Christ
Jesus. The evidence is simply this,
faith. Everyone who God put in Christ
from eternity, listen to this, they will have life and faith
in Christ alone. Every one of them. Thus it is of God we are in Christ.
We are now what? We are now experimentally in
Christ. Listen, a man can know all about
the sovereignty of God in his head. He can know all about election
and the elect. He can know all about Jesus Christ
dying for the elect and he can assent to that. But unless he
himself has experimentally known Christ. He is not in Christ. It's not an academic exercise
that God shows us. That's not what we're looking
for. It's not Calvinism. There'll be many Calvinists in
hell. Why? Because they believe their
knowledge of Calvinism saves them. I know several people that
just, well, I know that and they're all doctrinally sound, and they're
all this and that, they don't have any, they don't know Christ
at all. When Christ comes, he gives us
life. He gives us life, and life doesn't
rest in our knowledge of doctrines. It rests in Christ, a person. The doctrines make sense because
I know the person. I know Christ. And so when you
tell me a doctrine and that doctrine doesn't match the person I know,
I say, well, that's not true. How do you know? Well, not because
I know doctrine so much. I know him. I know his word. I know what he says about himself.
I know him. And so it's an experimental union. And notice what he... Go back
to your text again real quickly. I told you I wouldn't make it
past this one. Look back in your text real fast. You see, neither circumcision
availed anything or uncircumcision, but what? A new creation. A new creation. No man can ever claim to be in
Christ if he doesn't have the spirit of Christ. He says in
Romans 8, he said, if any man hath not the spirit of Christ,
he is what? None of his. We have the Spirit of Christ
when we are born again. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. And so then our evidence is what?
That all my trust, all my hope, all my standing before God rests
in one person, Jesus Christ and Him crucified and nothing else. That's it. That's it. It's Christ all. It's Christ
all. Are you still hanging on to something
you're doing, something you've done, something you want to do,
something you think God's going to... God's people can't do that. I
mean, they can for a while. The Galatian church tried, and
you know what? God chastened them. God brought
them back to himself, and he'll do that to all his people. But
all his people know there's one hope and one affection, and that
is Christ. And so then let us praise tonight,
praise the Father who chose us. If you're in Christ, you believe
in Him. Listen, praise God for it. Praise the Father's love for
you. How deep the Father's love for
us. How vast beyond all measure that
He would give His only Son to save to make a wretch his treasure. Praise the Father's love. Praise
the Father's grace. Praise the Father's power. What does it take to make a new
creature? Spirit, there's no way you can
do it. There's no way religion can do
it. There's no way the preacher can do it. A new creation is
the only thing that matters. A new creation. That's the only
thing that matters. That's the only evidence we are
in Christ, is a new creation. I like that hymn. We sang this
quite often. I'll close with this. "'Tis not
that I did choose thee, for Lord, that could not be. This heart
would still refuse thee, hast thou not chosen me?' you from
sin that stained me hath cleansed and set me free. Of old thou
hast ordained me that I should live to thee. To a sovereign
mercy called me and taught my opening mind. The world had else
enthralled me to heavenly glories blind. My heart owns none before
thee. For thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing if I love thee,
thou must have loved me first. You in Christ? Who put you there? And I gotta say this. If God
put you there, who can take you out? You know what Christ said? He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And you know, I will in no wise
cast them out. No way. He said, the father which
gave to me is greater than all. And he said, no man is able to
pluck them out of my hand. I didn't do that. I didn't put
myself in there. You know what? I can't take myself
out either. Isn't that a glorious thing?
Isn't that something you just lay your head on the pillow and
say, that's good enough. My salvation rests on Jesus Christ
alone. That's it. Man, if that don't take the
burden off your shoulders, nothing will. I got, there's more to it. There'll
be more to it. God's word is just an infinite
vast sea of love and grace. There'll be more to it. I hope
Lord gives us grace Go over it again. We'll run over this again.
We'll run over it again. God help us to rejoice in it. I'm so glad he put me in Christ. There's no hope for me if he
didn't put me in there. And what a wonderful place it
is to be in Christ. shielded, protected, sheltered,
loved. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Oh, Father, dismiss us with your
mercy. Open our minds and hearts and
fill us with the grace and love that you proclaim to us by your
word. Cast out the cares and thoughts
of this life and let thy people rest and find comfort for the
weary souls. Refresh our feet. Wash us. keep us, all because You determined to
do so. May it be for Your glory, in
Jesus' name, I ask.