Bibles, if you will please, and
turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I propose now to read the first
chapter of 1 Corinthians. Now, there are two letters in
the New Testament from Paul to the Corinthians. They were a congregation that
had several problems of different
kinds from one letter to the other, and yet Paul constantly
reminded them of His love for them, of Christ's love for His
people. And here in this first chapter
is one of the most amazing statements to be found anywhere in our Bibles. Have you ever heard of a guy
named George Whitefield, preached in the 1700s in England? He was an open air preacher.
He also preached at a tabernacle that bore his name. But when
he preached, you know, in different villages and countrysides and
barns and wherever he could preach in the open air, there were always
people there intending to disrupt the preacher and make him just
go away. And he endured several of those,
and in some instances it resulted And the persons who went there
to do him bodily harm were actually converted under his preaching
at that very meeting. He said about 1 Corinthians 1.30,
he said this is the most comprehensive text in the whole Bible. That's going to be our text this
morning, verse 30. Of God are you in Christ Jesus. who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And then we'll
add verse 31, which tells us that we are to have no confidence,
as we sung it in the little chorus to begin with, in our flesh.
According as it is written, he that glories, let him glory in
the Lord. Alright, 1 Corinthians chapter
1. We would be better served if
we paused and asked the Lord to cause His word to live in our
hearts and minds. He alone can do that. Lord, we come now to the most
sacred part of our meetings, and that is the reading and briefly
explaining and preaching your Word. Lord, as we come here this morning, There's nothing about us that's
different than any other place in America this morning, except that you have disrupted
our lives and caused us to believe the
gospel of the Bible, which almost nobody believes anymore. But
Lord, we know. That you have people that we've
never heard of, never seen, never met, and it may remain that way. We may die under that circumstance. But Lord, we are sure, we're
certain of this. Your word is too plain for us
not to be. That not one single one of Christ's
sheep will be missing in glory for all eternity, not a one. Our Lord's own words were, all
that the Father gives me shall come to me. And that's enough. That's how it's supposed to be.
That's how God says it is, and that's how it must be. Give us ears to hear and eyes
to see, spiritually speaking, what this blessed chapter has
in store. Help us, we pray. We are helpless
without you. We praise and thank you for your
Son, our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus. We beg these things in his name. Verse 1, 1 Corinthians chapter
1, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will
of God and Sosthenes, our brother, unto the church of God which
is at Corinth. This letter is written to them
that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, leaving
out the italicized to be, with all that in every place call
upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God
always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you
by Jesus Christ, that in everything you are enriched by him, in all
utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you. so that you came behind in no
gift, waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
shall also conform you unto the end, that you may be blameless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." Blameless. When our Lord returns, blameless. God is faithful by whom you were
called unto the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same thing. and that there be no divisions
among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment. For it has been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you. Now this I say that every
one of you saith, I am of Paul, and another one says, I am of
Apollos, and another one says, I am of Cephas, or Peter, and
the last one just decides to get above them all and says,
I am of Christ. You know, like nobody else is
but me. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified
for you? Or were you baptized in the name
of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none
of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had
baptized in my own name, and I baptized also the house of
Stephanus. Besides, I know not whether I
baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved it
is the power of God." The gospel is the power of God to those
who are saved by hearing it. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Has not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign and the Greeks or the Gentiles seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. And that's still how it works
out, wherever the gospel is preached. Some people simply do not, will
not, cannot believe. And so they have all kinds of
names for the gospel. But it's generally covered in
these two things. To the Jews, a stumbling block.
To the Gentiles, just utter foolishness. utter foolishness. And if my
view and yours is different from this, we ought to blame God for it.
Give Him all the praise and all the glory. It is His grace, it
is His gospel, it is His blessed Spirit, it is His dear Son who
died on Calvary's tree. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God, and Christ the wisdom of God, because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God
is stronger than men." Have you ever heard anybody say that a
certain person is too mean? Too difficult to save? God can't
even save him? Just cut that one out of your
Bible if that's your position. That's utterly stupidity. This
is a man who has no clue who God is. And we're all in that
boat until God comes for us and changes everything. Let me see, I'm going to start
at 23, I don't think that's where I left off, but anyway, but we
preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and
unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh." Just look around you. I don't think we'd make who's
who in whatever it was. And I'm just content not to make
it if it's all right with you. You see your calling, brethren.
Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble
are called. But I want you to understand,
it does not say not any. It says not many. And one old
queen who reigned in England A long time before any of us
were heard of, way back in the 1700s or 1800s, I don't remember
which, she said, thank God for the letter M. Without it, it
would read, not any, mighty, not many, noble are called. That would leave her out. She
evidently knew something about grace. Well, if that's the group in
verse 26 that God doesn't save many from, look what it says
in verse 27. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and
base things of the world and things which are despised has
God chosen, yes, in things which don't even exist, which are not
to bring to nothing things that are, that no flesh should glory
in his presence." Now, if you look at the punctuation at the
end of verse 28 and the statement in verse then that statement
is to be applied to everything we've just read, most especially
from verses 18 all the way through verse 28. No flesh should glory
in His presence. Now, there's a similar statement
in verse 31, and it has the same relationship, but it's joined
to verse 30 by a colon just as well as the previous one was
joined to the former part of that chapter. So verse 30 reads,
But of Him, that's of God, are you in Christ Jesus? How does a person get to be in Christ? God puts us in Christ. Well,
when did He do this? Way back in old eternity before
this world was ever heard of or made. He gave them to His
Son in eternity. in what is called the covenant
of grace, of which the Bible has a great deal to say. Of him are you in Christ Jesus. Now, preacher, are you telling
me that none of us can get in Christ any other way
except this? That's exactly right. That's
exactly right. It doesn't do much for human
pride. We don't need human pride. We've
got enough of it. I do anyway. At least you didn't say amen.
Of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us for
thanksgiving. This is our outline this morning.
Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And then this
statement, that according as it is written, he that glories,
let him glory in the Lord. All right, let's see if we can
manage to make it through this. The first word that we are coming
to look at is the word wisdom. Wisdom. Wisdom. The Bible speaks of some things that we ought
to dread with all of our heart. When Paul wrote to Timothy, he
used this expression, Let us fear this above all else, to
have a form of godliness without the power thereof. He actually
says denying the power. A form of godliness, that is
a formal religion. But it isn't alive. It doesn't
work. It only exists in our imagination. A form of godliness while denying
the power thereof. Another statement. Ever learning,
but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Well,
if we're learning like that, then we don't have the right
teacher. And I ain't to teach it. It's the Spirit of God, it's
the Holy Ghost, it's the Holy Spirit who is to be our teacher. The worst thing that could happen
to anybody is to learn doctrine and not know Christ. I'm serious, that's what's missing
in today's religion. Where is the Lord Jesus in all
of this? I mean, we've got big money,
we've got big crowds, we've got big preachers, we've got everything.
But you don't have Christ. Don't have Christ. Well, here He is in these four
words in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30. Wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, So we come first now to this
matter of wisdom. Wisdom. The fountain of life is Christ. Of God, we just read this now,
of God are you in Christ Jesus. God puts us in Christ. He chose
us, he elected us, he gave us to Christ, and the Holy Spirit
applies what our Lord did for us in going to the cross, in
his perfect life and in his sufferings and death. So, of God are you
in Christ Jesus? That's the opening phrase in
verse 30. It says, of Him, but if you read
a little bit there, you can find it is, of God are we in Christ
Jesus. So everybody that is in Christ
is in Christ the same way. Of God. It's God's doing. Well, what about God's doing?
Well, one thing about it that's certainly pleasing and comforting
is that if God does it, it's done forever. We can't change
it. A preacher, what if I sin? What
do you mean, what if you sin? You're still sinning. Those very
words are sin. For me to think that I'm not
sinning. My Lord. It's a wonder we ain't in jail.
If we could be arrested for our thoughts, we just might be. In Christ. Am I in Christ? Not in religion, not in law-keeping,
not in the church, but in Christ. Paul put it this way in Philippians
3, verses 8 and 9, O that I may win Christ and be found in him. To win Christ and be found in
him. That was his life's goal in his
new life in Christ. And that third chapter of the
book of Philippians is well worth a read. We have no spiritual
life except where? In Christ. None! Oh, preacher, surely we add a
little bit. Well, if we do, it's polluted,
and it ain't any good anymore. We're chosen in Christ, redeemed
in Christ, and accepted in Christ the Beloved. Of God are you in Christ. The first cause is the eternal
God who gave us to Christ before the world was. The new birth,
now you've got to be careful when we use terms that is thrown
around in all kinds of religious circles, including ours. When
we talk about the new birth, we're talking about being born
again or regenerated. brought from death to life. We're
not talking about the body. We're talking about the soul.
We're talking about the spirit of a person. This is where the
new birth operates. And nothing changes what we are
outwardly until we get a new body in the resurrection. If
we die before Christ comes, We're going straight to glory, but
we do not have a spiritual body until he returns and he brings
his saints with him, and they are clothed with that new body,
and we are instantly changed and meet the Lord in the air.
Now, I don't know how that stacks up with your view of eschatology,
but that's the homemade version, leaving out all the big words
and all the rest of that stuff. If you get a chance, go back
today and read John 1, particularly verses 11-13 concerning being
born again. It is not by our will, but God's
will that we are converted, regenerated, born again. Call it whichever
you will. It doesn't matter. It still comes
out the same. We are called in the gospel to
repentance and faith. And both of those things are
the gifts of God. And the gifts of God, especially
those relating to conversion, the gifts of God are not revoked. They are permanent. is yours, and it's yours forever. You can find proof of that in
Galatians 1.15. And finally, in this regard,
of God are you in Christ Jesus, we're kept by His power through
grace, 1 Peter 1, verses 3-5. So the question then comes to
mind, are we in Christ? If we are in Christ, it is because
God put us in Christ, and the blessing of being in Christ,
who of God, is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. All right, let's take wisdom.
The finger of God points to Christ and says, there in Him, In my
Son is true wisdom. It's not in some man who lived
a thousand years ago or who's living right now or anybody in
between. It's Christ. It is Christ. We have no spiritual life except
in Christ. Now let's look at this wisdom.
that God points to us in regard to His Son and says, there is
true wisdom. All we need to know about God is revealed in Jesus Christ. Not in the Baptist doctrine or
the Presbyterian or any other kind. It is in Christ. is where we are to look. The Lord said concerning His
Son, I mean, our Savior said, He that
sees Me has seen the Father. All we need to know about creation,
all things were made by Christ And without him was not anything
made that was made, and he upholds all things. He sustains it, everything. All we need to know about truth
are found in our Lord's own words, I am the truth. Christ is the
truth. All we need to know about life
and death is found in Christ. I am the resurrection and the
life. Martha couldn't handle that in
John 11, so she went and got her sister Mary, who earlier
she complained about not helping her with the kitchen when they
had so many guests. Mary knew some things that, at
least at that point, Martha did not know. Our Lord was telling
her that Lazarus would rise from the dead. And she says, Oh Lord,
I know that when you come back, you know, at the end of time,
this is going to take place. He said to her, he said, The
person talking to you is the resurrection and the life. Not
going to be. He is. All we need to know about justice
is this fact, that God might be just and justifier in Christ,
in the gospel, and in his grace and mercy to sinners. God's justice
is satisfied because Christ has satisfied that justice. You've
heard this a thousand times and I'm going to say it one more
time. The hymn writer said, payment God cannot twice demand, first
at my bleeding surety's hand and then again at mine. Now if
you tell me that Christ died for somebody and they ain't going
to be in glory, you've just denied that statement. But if you have If God has opened
your eyes spiritually, surely we must be able to see what that
means. I mean, I know you guys are rolling
in money and you don't mind paying your bills, but you don't want
to pay them twice, do you? That gets my dander up. If God has to be paid twice,
then He ain't God. He has to be just. That's his
character. He must be just. All we need to know about eternity
are these precious words from the Lord Jesus in John 14. He said, let me get it in my
mind, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, what does that mean? I will come and receive you unto
myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Believers are
going to be with Christ. It may not look like that now,
but it will then. It will then. And there's another
statement in those verses that I left out, so I can tell you
about it separately. He said, if this wasn't so, I'd
tell you. You know how it is with salesmen,
car salesmen, bank salesmen, all kinds of salesmen. They tell
you what they want you to hear. They don't necessarily tell you
what's best for you. But Jesus is not among that number. He doesn't have to be. He cannot
be. He is perfection. The second
word is righteousness. The finger of God points to Christ
and says, there, in my Son, there is righteousness. I mean the
real kind. The genuine article, as we would
say. And this is our greatest need,
is righteousness, for we by nature are unrighteous. We're so sinful,
so guilty, our righteousnesses are called in Jeremiah, filthy
rags. Filthy rags. So who shall stand
in his presence? The Lord told the disciples,
except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you will likewise, like them, perish. What is the difference in the
Pharisees' righteousness and the believers' righteousness?
The Pharisees' righteousness is human righteousness, self-righteousness. The believers' righteousness
is the righteousness of God in Christ. Can't be added to, can't
be subtracted from. If it's good now, it's good forever. I must have breathed wrong there
or something. Let's take the next word. not only wisdom and
righteousness, but sanctification. Sanctification. The finger of
God points to Christ and says, there's my beloved Son. There's
sanctification. Now, righteousness and sanctification
can't get too far from each other. And in case of the gospel, they're
all in one person. All four of these things are
in one person. So there is sanctification, and
wherever sanctification is, there is holiness. And wherever there
is sanctification and holiness, there is righteousness. It is
imputed by Christ's obedience, and it is imparted by Christ's
Holy Spirit. Imputed and imparted. Both. Both. Both. Now, the next word is an all-encompassing
word. It is redemption. God looks to Christ and says,
there is redemption. The Redeemer himself, the price
for redemption is blood. The Bible speaks of salvation
in three tenses. I'll give you a verse of scripture
for each one right now. It speaks of us as we have been
saved. We have been saved. Ephesians
2, 8 and 9. Then it uses the expression,
we are being saved. We have been saved. We are being
saved. That's in the same passage we're
in, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18. Let me just go back and see if
I can find it. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us, I change the which
to who, who are saved, it is the power of God. It is the power
of God. And this is a continued process
once it is begun in the soul. And then when you read in Romans
8 and verse 23, it says, And we shall be saved. In fact, I
want you to turn to that one because you might not be as familiar
with this as we ought to be. And there are many new versions of this, so let's just
stick to what the scriptures say. Verse 23, and not only they, talking about
the whole creation, but ourselves also, which have received the
first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves groan within
ourselves. Why? Waiting for the adoption. That is, the word to wit means
that is, the redemption of our body. Now, unless we live until
Christ returns, we're going to leave our body in the grave and
the spiritual part of us is going to glory with Christ. You've
got to think straight on that. That's how it has to be. That's
what this book says it is. So we long for the rest of redemption. Redemption doesn't come all in
one dose. We are born again spiritually.
But this body is the same sinner it's always been. And therefore,
there's a constant battle between the spirit and the body. This righteousness is something
else again. So this sanctification includes
the redemption of our body. Now, that involves a lot of things. and a lot of difficulties to
our own mind, I'm sure. But if you will read that carefully
and look it up in Mr. Hawker, if you've got him, I
don't know if he covers that specific verse in his morning
and evening portions, but you can certainly find it. I'm told
you can find anything on the Internet. I can't even find anything.
Of course, I don't know how to turn it on. It has something
to do with that, but these four things, wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, and Christ is all of that. Now, don't forget this, to every
single believer. There's no such thing as a believer
not having these four things if he has Christ. If you don't
have Christ, you're not a believer anyway. So there we go.