First Corinthians chapter one. I pray the Lord would make this
to be. A relief and a blessing to all
of us. This morning we're going to look
at the last two verses of this chapter. 1st Corinthians one. Speaking of. Our God verse 30
says. But of him. Are you in Christ
Jesus? Of God, are you in Christ Jesus? That is something that men and
women do not naturally know. They think they do, but they
don't. We're not born into this world
knowing that. Not one soul on this earth knows
that until God reveals it to them. That very, very basic truth. Very basic, that fundamental
beginning. No man or woman knows it. No man or woman understands it. They really don't. No man or
woman can believe it. You know, sometimes we get frustrated
saying, why won't you just believe that? Well, they can't, they
can't. No man or woman can believe it
until God reveals it to them. Look with me, if you would, at
Matthew 16. Matthew 16. Verse 13, it says, When Jesus
came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples,
saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they
said, Well, some say thou art John the Baptist, reincarnated.
Some say Elijah. And others, Jeremiah, are one
of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom
say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonah,
that's what bar means, son of Jonah, He said, for flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is
in heaven. When it comes to a true understanding
of God, God's word, God's dealings with sinful man, when it comes
to a true understanding, flesh and blood cannot reveal it. Flesh and blood cannot reveal
it. Flesh and blood can declare it. But God is the only one who
can reveal it. So this fundamental declaration
goes out. We stand up, we preach it, it
goes out. I pray God will reveal it to
us. And here it is. Of God are you in Christ Jesus? Not of you are you in Christ Jesus. Of God are you in Christ Jesus. According to this word, according
to the word of God, of you, and when I say you, I mean me too,
I'm speaking about man, of man, of our doing, of you are you
in sin. Of you, are you in death? Spiritual death, eventually physical
death. Of you, are you in condemnation? But of God, are you in Christ? Of God, are you in Christ? And
in Christ, we're saved from all that. Saved from every bit of
it. If we're in Christ, we're in safety. If we are in Christ,
we are in redemption. Man fell from it. And if we're
in Christ, we're in redemption. We're in the forgiveness of sin.
If we're in Christ, we are in God's favor, which is a wonderful
thing to think about. If we are in Christ, we're in
his choice. I choose Him. Isn't that what
He said about Christ? I choose Him. If we're in Christ,
we're in His choice, we're in His blood, we're in His Spirit. If we're in Christ, we're in
all the fullness of God. All the fullness of God. Colossians
119 says, it pleased the Father that in Him, in Christ, should
all fullness dwell. Colossians 2 verses 9 and 10
say, in Him, in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and you are complete in Him. You are complete in Him. Of God are you in Christ Jesus,
and you are complete in Him. That's what I want us to get
a hold of. That's what I pray the Lord might truly reveal to
us. What that means, of God are you
in Christ Jesus, and you are complete in Him. Now, what does
that mean? Back in our text in 1 Corinthians
1, verse 30, It says, but of him are you in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. If I am going to be accepted
by God to stand in his presence and to live with him forever
in his perfect eternity, if I'm going to be accepted by God,
I need four things. I need a knowledge in my mind. I need a goodness in my deeds. Scripture says that, if you don't
do this, right? I need a goodness in my deeds.
I need a purity in my person. And I need a payment for my sin. And in Christ, I have all of
that. I have every bit of that. Of
God are we in Christ Jesus, and we are complete in Him. Verse 30 says, but of Him are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. Wisdom. If I'm gonna dwell in
the presence of God, I need wisdom. I need to know wisdom. Look with
me if you would at John 17. John 17 verse 3 it says, and
this is life eternal. This is eternal life right here.
that we might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent." If we are going to have eternal life, we
need to know God the Father. We do. We need to know God the
Father, and we need to know Christ, whom He sent. How can we know God the Father? And how can we know Christ? Look with me if you would at
Matthew 11. Matthew 11 verse 27 it says, All things are delivered unto
me of my Father. And no man knoweth the Son, but
the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son. And he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal Him. How are we going to know God? Christ must reveal Him. Christ
must reveal Him. He must say to a sinner's heart,
if you have seen me, you've seen the Father. Christ has to reveal that to
a person. Colossians 2 says, all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge are hid in Him, hid in Christ. Only He knows the
deep things of God. Without Him, we can know nothing. In Him, though, we can know everything.
And the reason is because, this is why, He knows it for us. That's the reason why. Colossians
1 says, He is our head. He is our head. Isaiah 9 says, He is our
counselor. Romans 8, 26, it says, we don't
even know what to pray for as we ought. We don't even know
what to pray for. We don't even have that knowledge,
not as we ought. So his spirit prays for us with groanings that
cannot be uttered. Do you ever get down on yourself
for your prayer? You start into a prayer and you
can't even finish it. You veer off and you say, I'm
sorry. So you start over and then you veer off and you say,
I'm so sorry. So you start over. Well, listen,
Not only can we not pray as we ought, we don't even know what
to pray for as we ought, but Him in us, His Spirit in us,
prays for us. Don't you love that? Dear Heavenly
Father, hallowed be thy name. Holy, and He prays for us with
groanings that cannot be uttered. 2 Corinthians 4 says, God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Wisdom, if we have wisdom, wisdom
will know him. And if we have wisdom, wisdom
will believe on him. Wisdom will say, this is the
wisest thing I can do. Believe on him. Hebrews 11 verse
six says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. Christ
is our faith. It is the faith of Christ. It's
not of ourselves. It's the gift of God. It's a
gift he authors. It's a gift he finishes. All
of it. He does all of it. The only wisdom
we have is of Him. He is that for us, alright? He
is our wisdom. Look with me back at our text
in 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 30 says, But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness. If I'm going to dwell in the
presence of God, I have to possess the record of perfect deeds. That's what I need. I need a
record that says that I lived a perfect, perfect life. There cannot be one spot or one
blemish on it. Not one. It has to be said that
as I walked through the course of this life, I only went about
doing good. That's what it has to say. It has to say all of my deeds
were right, honest, acceptable in the eyes of God,
acceptable in the sight of God. The only way I'm going to be
allowed to enter in The books are gonna be open. The records
are gonna be read. And the only way that I'm gonna
be allowed to enter in is after reading my record, God Almighty
has to say, well done. Well done. That cannot be said
about me. That cannot be said about you. A lot of people, if you ask them,
are you a sinner? They will say, no, that doesn't matter. They're
still sinners. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. That can only be said about one
man, the Lord Jesus Christ. When it comes to my deeds, everything
that I've done in my life, I can just do a quick flashback. And based on that, I can do a
quick flash forward. And based on everything that
I've done, this is what I have to say, all of my righteousnesses,
everything I think is a good deed, is actually a filthy rag
before Him. I've never done anything right
in the eyes of God. People say, well, I try to do
right. I've never done anything right in the eyes of God. The best thing that I have ever
done is so full of pride, It is so full of pride. It may look
good on the outside. You may be able to look at me
sometimes and say, yeah, but on the inside, this is what our
Lord said to the Pharisees, to the religious people. He said,
he said, you're a bunch of whited sepulchers. He said, boy, you
sure look good on the outside. But he said on the inside, you're
so full of dead men's bones. Filthy, rotten. I've never done
anything right in the eyes of God. And in this flesh, I never
will. I never will. Outside of Christ,
in the flesh, God Himself says, there is none righteous. No, not one. Not one. In Christ, though. In Christ,
whatever God says about Him, If we're in Him, God says about
us, in Christ as He is, so are we in this world. Turn with me
to Romans 8. This is also gonna show us how
Christ was made to be our redemption, but through that redemption,
He was made to be our righteousness. Romans 8, verse 3, it says, For what the law could not do
in that it was weak through the flesh. What could the law not
do? It couldn't say, well done. Couldn't say it. After looking
at our deeds, it could not say, these are all righteous deeds.
Verse three, what the law could not do in that it was weak through
the flesh. God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Now watch verse
four. That the righteousness of the
law, all those good deeds that the law said, you better do this.
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. who walk not after the flesh,
that means who are not walking, looking to the deeds of the flesh,
but who are walking after the Spirit by faith, looking to Christ
and His deeds. So he fulfilled all righteousness
in us, for us. In him, his record is our record. He lived a perfect life and then
him in us, that's our hope of glory. We need to stop trying
to erase our record. It can't be erased. We need to stop
trying to undo what cannot be undone. The only thing that needs
to be done and the only thing that can be done with our record,
the life we've lived, is throw it away. Cast it out. It's ruined. Why would I want
to hold on to it anyway? Why would I want to hold on to
it? In Christ we get His We get to go stand before God.
If this is not a restful thought, I don't know what is God's people
get to go stand before God, holding up Christ's record. And we already
know that God, the father has said, well done. We already know
that. Why would I want to go try to
establish my own record when I get to hold up his. Paul told the Philippians, he
said, everything I've ever done in my life, I count it all dung.
He said, I throw it out. I consider it all a waste. I
consider it all loss. He said, there's only one thing
that I desire. I want to win Christ and be found in him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the deeds of the law. but that righteousness which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith, looking to his deeds according to the law. I
will never be able to, never in my flesh, I'll never be able
to do the deeds that God will be satisfied with. Thank God,
in Christ, He's done them for me. Every time you see, yeah,
but the Bible says, if you don't do this, you can't be saved.
Every time you see that say, Christ did it for me. That's
faith in his righteousness. Christ did it for me. All right,
I'm gonna be faster. Go with me back to our text.
1 Corinthians 1 verse 30, it says,
but of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification. Sanctification
is, it means setting apart to purity. Sanctification is purification. If a person is sanctified, it
means the person is holy. That's what it means. It means
the person has been washed. It means the person is clean. No sin can enter God's presence. So if I am going to enter into
God's presence, I must be so pure In my person, in my body,
in my existence, I must be so pure, there is no possibility
of me ever sinning again. None whatsoever. If my sins are
paid for, all of them, start to finish, from the time I was
born into this world till the time I leave this world, all
paid for and I'm allowed in, and then in God's glory, I sin
again, I create a new sin? Well, God's not going to allow
that. He will not have that. He will
not allow anything in or anyone in that has the possibility of
bringing sin into His perfect existence. If there is anything
in a person that could produce sin, that person is not entering
in. My deeds being perfect are not
enough. I must be perfect in all of my
being. I must be holy. I must be pure. I must be as pure as God himself. Now, clearly, I'm never going
to be that in my flesh. Never. Men talk about progressive
sanctification. They say, you need to get holier
now. You need to work hard at this. You need to, you know,
get more pure in our flesh. We're never going to get there.
We're never going to get there. But in Christ, as he is, So are
we, right here in this world. The scripture says, in Him is
no sin. That's what it says. Only absolute
purity. Therefore, in Him, that's all
we can be. In Him, that's all that we are.
We're not going to turn to 1 Corinthians 6, but verses 9 to 11, talk about
how awful we were. This is what you were. This is
what you were. This is what you were. He says,
but you're washed. You're sanctified. You're made
pure by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've told you this
quite a few times, but I'm going to tell it to you again because
this is the verse of scripture it came from, our text here.
Years ago, there was a group of people who had been called
out, the Lord called them out of a very hard bondage religion,
one that was constantly putting pressure on them to progress
in holiness and to progress in purity and do the impossible. Constantly putting pressure on
them to do the impossible. And when a man or a woman tries
to do that, when a man or a woman tries to be holier than he was
yesterday, all it does is bring more attention to his sin. That's
all it does. It causes him to see more of
what a sinner he is. Well, God revealed Christ, our
sanctification to this group of people. And we were talking
about it, talking about how Christ is the holiness. Stop looking
right here. Christ is the holiness of his
people. We were talking about how Christ
is our perfection. It's not something that we earn. It's something that we are in
Him. It's not something that we can
be. He didn't say you can be complete
in Him. He said you are. complete in
Him, perfect, holy in Him. So we were talking about how
when somebody says, well, you know, where is your holiness?
The answer is look to Christ. He's my holiness. If you want
to see how pure I am, just look at Him. He's the only purity
that I have. We were talking about that. A
young man in the group, he was listening and he was just thinking.
I still remember the look on his face. He was just kind of
staring up like this, pondering that. It kind of got quiet for
a minute. And he said, isn't that so relaxing? I said, boy, it sure is. Yeah,
that's good news. That's good news. In Christ,
He is your sanctification. You say, well, I just don't have
it. I don't have it. I'm just not perfect. I'm not
holy. I'm not pure. I know. But He is. I know that. But He is. He's our sanctification. Our text right here says, of
him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He is your payment. He's your payment. I've committed
sin, you've committed sin. If we're gonna enter into the
presence of God, we're gonna have to have a satisfactory payment
for our sin. In Christ we have one. We don't
need to provide one, we have one. Abraham told Isaac, they
were walking up Mount Moriah, to make a sacrifice to God for
sin. And Isaac said, Father, I see
the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb? What he was saying
is, I see the law against sin, and I see the judgment for sin. But where is the payment that'll
satisfy all of that? And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself. Where's the, I see the fire and
I see the wood, but where's the land? Where's the sacrifice?
Where's the payment? Abraham said, my son, God will
provide himself. to be a lamb, that lamb of sacrifice. And he did. That's what he did.
He made Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Christ is our payment. Every time the father looks at
Christ, he sees our payment and he's satisfied. And every time
He looks at Christ and looks at us in Christ, He knows it's
paid in full. Totally paid in full. Everything
God requires for us to stand in His presence, Christ is that
for us. That's the title of this Bible
study. That's what I want us to get a hold of. As we read
through these pages, everything that God requires for us to stand
in His presence, Christ is that for us, everything. Verse 31 says, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Only
in the Lord, and we do. Jesus Christ is made to be all
I need. Christ is all I need. All right,
you're dismissed.