Once again, we turn to the book
of Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We began a series of messages
that will be focusing on verse 30. We read along with verse 30,
29 and 31. Last week you spent our time
considering the introduction to these four points given in
verse 30 of 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I brought forth the word wisdom. The wisdom that we have that
is in Christ Jesus. Not a wisdom of our own. Not
some way that we just all of a sudden decided I'm going to
be a smarter person than I was before. It's a wisdom that we
can only find in the Creator. Look with me if you would at
verses 29, 30, and 31. That no flesh should glory in
His presence. Read that again. That no flesh
should glory in His presence. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord." Now I want you to look back at verse
28, because we began this with that no fleshly glory in His
presence, but of Him. Well, who is this His presence?
Who is this but of Him? 28, we read these words, and
base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath
God, hath God chosen, yea, and the things which are not to bring
to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his,
in God's presence, but of him, but of God. We read, no flesh
and glory in His presence, it's speaking about in the presence
of God, right? Isn't that what you read there
too? But of Him, of God the Master,
of the One, of God who is the Creator, we are in Christ Jesus
the Lord, of Him, it says. Did you get that? We're not in
Christ Jesus the Lord because we decided to get into the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're not in Jesus Christ because
we've made a decision to start following Him. We're not in Jesus
Christ because we got into a baptismal and got baptized. We're not in
Jesus Christ because we decided to come to the table. We're not
in Jesus Christ by any other reason than that by Him. By God,
the very one that is spoken of back there in verse 28, hath
God chosen, He's chosen these things that no flesh should glory
in His presence, but of Him are ye in Christ Jesus. We are found in Christ and only
in Him, by Him, by God the Father. So then we read in Romans chapter
9 verse 16, so then it is not of him that willeth. That's what
I was just explaining. It's not of us. It's not of our
free will. It's not something we've decided.
It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. That's
somebody who goes about earning their salvation by, I'm such
a nice person. I've gone out and helped people
three times this week. I didn't raise the number one
finger to that guy who cut me off this week. See how good I
am? It's not of him that run us. I don't care what good you
think you're doing. It is not of him that run us.
That's God's Word. You don't like that? Well, then
you don't like God's Word. That's plain and simple, folks.
But God. But of God. that showeth mercy. We so want, don't we? We so want in our heart to say,
I found Jesus. Don't tell me you don't. You
may not now, but you did at one time. Oh, how many people go through
this world thinking they're going on to heaven because they found
Jesus when they wanted to. Oh, how we say in our hearts,
I found Jesus. Oh, how we say in our hearts,
I got smarter. I stopped doing the things I
did once before, and now I'm doing this. Oh, how we want to
say in our hearts that we've turned to Jesus, that I've accepted
Jesus in my heart. You know, I got to say this. I just got
to say this. We brought out in Friday night's
Bible study, it's not what preachers say all the time, it's what they
don't say. Many of preachers come to the
people and they say, you've got to accept Jesus in your heart.
And you do. But they don't tell the people that you won't accept
Jesus until He moves in. Until He gives you a heart that's
accepting. Until He gives you a heart that's
willing, and He does this to those that He loves. And only
to those that He loves. It's not always what a preacher
says, it's what they don't say. Oh, how we want to say, I accept
you in my heart, and well, maybe not today. Oh, it's Sunday football. How about Wednesday night? Can
I accept you in my heart Wednesday night? Is that good? Is that
good? We want to say these things in
our heart as though salvation is no more than something offered. I'm here to tell you this morning,
folks, As I will tell you on Friday night when you sit in
the Bible study room or Sunday morning when you sit here in
this room to hear the Bible study here, I will tell you this and
tell you this and tell you this. Salvation is of the Lord. And of Him alone. It's not something that is to
be accepted or rejected. Because of our nature, we will
reject it. Not one person here today who
knows the Lord is dwelling in their hearts this very moment.
Not one person. Not one of us were looking for
the true and living God when we first heard the true gospel
preached. Oh, some of us have heard things
preached, that's for sure. But it wasn't until God came
into our hearts and gave us a new heart that willingly we came
to Him and that we received Him in our hearts. We were looking
for something, maybe something to ease our guilty conscience,
something to satisfy our pride, our self-esteem. but we weren't seeking the true
and living God. Does this relate to you? Can you hear these words I'm
about to read and say, yep, that was me? John, in the book of
John chapter 5 verse 40, we read these words, and ye will not
come to me that ye might have life. Every true child of God knows
that they would not come to God. What about these words, Romans
311, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after
God. Our problem at one time was,
and still is in some degrees, self-righteous pride. Self-righteous pride. One who
says, I'll not have that one who rules over me, rule over
me, because I am the ruler of my own destiny, is prideful. That's the essence
of pride in the heart. We come into this world thinking
more of ourselves than we truly are. This is what we read in
1 John 2, verse 16. For all that is in the world,
that lusts of the flesh, and lust of the eyes, and pride of
life. Right there. Pride of life is
not of the Father, but is of the world. Turn over to Genesis chapter
3 if you would for a moment. Genesis chapter 3. Let's take a look at the fall
of mankind, and may God give us an understanding of our state
in this world. Look with me at verses 1 through
5 of Genesis chapter 3. Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he
said unto the woman, yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of
every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,
lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, ye shall not utterly die. For God doth know that in the
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye
shall be as gods." Did you see that little g? He shall be as
gods, knowing good and evil. Now go
back to our text, 1 Corinthians. Folks, the devil had it right. He actually told the truth there.
But like I told you a moment ago, it's not always what that
preacher or that man or that person says. It's what they're
not saying that you've got to be watchful for. The soul never dies. After we
cross the Jordan, after we leave this world, there will be one
of two places man's spirits will remain for all eternity. He'll either, or she'll either
be in hell, separated from the presence of our great creator,
forever damned because of the sin creatures that we are, or
will be in heavenly bliss. Continually singing praises at
the feet of our savior for his mercy and love toward us. Mankind
will not come to God because of our pride, is what he says
in his word. Because we know good from evil. The devil had
it right. We will never die. As far as the soul is concerned.
He had it right. We will know good from evil. Because we know good from evil,
we think that we can tell the difference. Think about that for a minute,
folks. All the confusion and chaos that
we live in in this world around us, isn't it because one person
over here thinks this is good, another one over here thinks
this is good? Oh, no, that's bad. Oh, that's good. This is
bad. This is good. We think we can tell the difference. We all know that there's some
bad. I was mentioning it in some Bible
study earlier. If you think about why there are so many different
religions, it's because so many people realize there's something
bad and they need something to save themselves from it. We think that we can tell the
difference. We think that we know better.
Pride tells us that our way is right. All you got to do is think about
history for a moment. You can see that did not the
Germans think their way was right? Did not the other people over
here, the Huns, think their way was right? Did not the Japanese
think their way was right? Do not Americans think their
way is right? And wars start up over it. We know good from evil, so we
think. We think that we know our way is right, and that's
why we reject the truths of God. God's ways are not man's ways. He's so far above us, we can't
even imagine the perfection, the wonder of His wisdom in creation,
and the fall of man, and the salvation of man, We can't even
imagine his wisdom behind all of that. We reject his truths. Our nature is to say that that
can't be right. What do you mean, total depravity?
That can't be right? How can that be right? I'm not as bad as that guy who
ate people. Does that not what a pride heart
would say? I would never do that. God says we're totally depraved.
And if it wasn't for His gracious hand, all men would walk their
own way in evil and wickedness. We say because we think that
we know what's right, that unconditional election, that can't be right.
How can that be right? How can God choose His people
and we can't make the choice ourselves? Because your nature
is sin. That's what we are. Lead me to
myself and I'll go off and watch football instead of come to church
and praise my Lord for His mercy and grace. Lead me to myself
and I'll ride that Harley somewhere all over the place and not praise
my Lord on the day of worship. Put whatever you want in there.
And you know I'm telling the truth. You know it because you
know it in your heart. God has revealed it to you in
your heart, the very same thing. Because we think we're right,
we say limited atonement, oh, that can't be right. That's not
fair. The blood of God has to be for
everybody. It's your fault you don't choose
God. He died for you. Let's take the blood of God and
stick it under your foot and crush it. Say His blood is worthless. I tell you this morning, there
is power in the blood of God. Power to hold us up. Power to
keep us. That's the Word of God. Because we think we know what's
right, we say, irresistible grace, don't tell me that I have to
take it. No, you're not telling me that
I have to take His grace. I don't want it right now. OK,
you can be left to yourself. When God wants you, He's going
to bring you to Him. It's so irresistible that John
Reeves started coming every Sunday afterwards, and then started
coming Friday nights just to hear more of it, just to hear
more. And then I started preaching
about His grace. And I love to tell you about
His grace. That's how irresistible it is. We're so smart. We think that we're not kept
by His power, that we have to do something, something to keep
us saved. Our Lord says that you're kept
by His power, not by ours. Perseverance of the saints, absolute
truth. Listen to these verses. I'm going
to read several to you. If you have Bibles, I'll try
to give you a little break if you'd like to read along with
me. But there's several verses. If you'd like afterwards, I'll
be happy to give them to you in writing so you can read them
on your own. But I'm going to begin with chapter 36 of Psalms,
verse 11. And to those who have ears, our
Lord puts it this way. He that hath an ear, let him
hear. In Psalms 36 verse 11, we read
these words. Let not the foot of pride come
against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. Now go forward a little bit to
Psalms 59. Psalms 59. Verse 12, for the sin of their mouth and
the words of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride,
and for cursing and lying which they speak. Now let's go forward
again to Psalm 73. Psalm 73. Verse 6, Psalm 73, verse 6. Therefore, pride compasseth them
about as a chain. Violence covereth them as a garment. I began this message talking
to you about pride being one of our worst enemies. God's Word
is telling us this very point right now through His Word. Let's continue on. The next one
I'd like to read is Proverbs 8. We've got four more, so bear
with us, folks. I want to give people a chance
to read along with me on these. Don't ever take the pastor's
word or the man before you preaching. You know, all we are is men.
We can make mistakes bigger than anybody. Proverbs 8, verse 13. The fear
of the Lord is to hate evil, pride, and arrogance, and the
evil way, and the forward mouth do I hate. Let me repeat that. Pride and arrogance and the evil
way and the forward mouth do I hate, saith the Lord. Skip
ahead further to Proverbs 11, verse 2. Proverbs 11, verse 2. When pride cometh, then cometh
shame, but with lowly is wisdom. That word lowly is talking about
a broken and contrite heart. We speak a little bit about this
in Friday night's Bible study. God is the one who must break
the heart. God is the one who must make
it contrite. That means crush it. Did you
know He crushed His Son for our sakes? God must crush the heart. Now, one more. Was that verse
18 of Proverbs 16? No. Okay. Let's go forward two
more verses. Proverbs 16, verse 18. Proverbs 16, verse 18. And then
we'll read one more in Proverbs after that. 16, verse 18. Pride goeth before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall. Now, one more if you would, turn
over to Proverbs 29, verse 23. 29, verse 23. A man's pride shall bring him
low, but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit. A humble spirit
is one that has been humbled by Him. Our text says, Of Him
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God hath made unto us. Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God hath made unto us. In other words, He's made Jesus
Christ unto us, these four points that we're considering. If we have been chosen unto salvation,
we are in Him. To be in Christ Jesus is to have
wisdom in Him. It's to have knowledge of Him.
It is to know that He is our wisdom, as we brought out in
the last weeks. It's not to be wise in our own
understanding. Don't ever fall for that. Oh,
you know who God is now, so just trusting that alone is your salvation.
Folks, trust in Jesus. Because we battle the flesh every
day. And we will until we pass over
that Jordan. We have a peace now, but when
Jeffrey got to heaven, he had real peace. When we cross over into eternity,
we'll have real peace. We're not to be wise in our understanding,
but to see He is our wisdom, and as such, He is our righteousness,
it says. That's today's subject. Lord
willing, in two weeks, because Norm and Nancy will be here next
week, and Norm will be preaching both messages. Two weeks from
now, Lord willing, I'll bring justification. And then the week
after that, redemption. But I want to bring out how we
can see in all of these things, these four points our Lord has
listed here, that it is in Him and Him alone. Turn, if you would, over to Romans
chapter 5. And I'm going to read several
Scriptures this time. If you'll allow me to read through
these Scriptures for you, I'd appreciate it, due to time. Romans
8. We're going to look at Romans
5, so I'm going to read Romans 8. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because
of righteousness. Everything we do in this body
is still full of sin. That includes our minds, That
includes our hands, our feet, whatever it is we do. Whatever
it is we fill is still riddled with sin. But Jesus resides in
the hearts of His people. That's why He has to cut out
that old stony heart. Cut it away. Throw it out. Get
rid of it. And give us a new heart. It's called being born
again. You must be born again. Why? Because God's not going
to live in that old stony heart. And He resides in the hearts
of His people. That's the temple. The temple
built without hands. That's where righteousness lies.
It's righteousness that's in Him. Romans chapter 3 verse 22,
Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ,
unto all and upon all them that believe. In Romans 10 verse 4,
for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Galatians chapter 2 verse 21,
I do not frustrate the grace of God, writes Paul, for if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead and in vain. If we could
do something, if there was anything we could do, then we wouldn't
need Christ's blood, would we? That simply means that if you
could obtain righteousness by doing good, then the blood of
Christ was shed for no reason at all. Philippians 3.9, And
be found in him, found in Christ, not having mine own righteousness,
writes Paul, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Two more. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse
1, Simon Peter declaring who he is, a servant, an apostle
of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith. Not to them who have done good
works, not to them who have done this or done that, but who have
obtained, received, been given the gift of faith. like precious faith with us through
the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now
let's read together from Romans chapter 5, starting at verse
17. Romans chapter 5, For if by one man's offense death reign
by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and
the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one. Jesus Christ. Therefore, in verse 18, as it
says, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free
gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. You know, I've thought about
what it just says there. I've thought about that as, do
we get better as we go along? No. But I can tell you this,
as I go along, the more I see my sin. As I walk this path that
God has before me, I see my sin greater and greater and greater
than I ever have before. But I also see this, the sweet
and sour part of that is, my Lord took my sins upon Himself,
and He took them into the grave, and He left them there. And I see His grace greater than
I ever saw it before. Greater than I saw it last week.
Greater than I saw it when I first got up this morning. Verse 21, that as sin hath reigned
unto death. Now get this, folks. We're talking
about righteousness. We're talking about it being
of God through Him. Even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The Lord willing, two Sundays from
now, We'll look at this text also in regard to the word justification. But for now, let's close with
these thoughts. In our text of 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, verse 30, it says these words. But of him, of God,
of the Father, are ye in the Son, Christ Jesus, who of God
the Father is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. He who wrote our names before
a star ever twinkled in the sky, He who scribed our names in the
palms of His hand." That's a picture of our Lord
hanging on His cross. with every one of His people
in Him. He who scribed the names of all
of His elect in the palms of His darling Son has made His
Son, Jesus Christ the Lord, to be our wisdom. We don't trust in our feelings. We don't trust in our thoughts.
We have no confidence in the flesh. That's everything you
see before me. Everything you see standing before
you is the flesh. If you could see my heart though,
you would see the Lord Jesus Christ dwelling there, as He
does in all of His people. It doesn't matter how low I have
to go in this world, I still know who my Lord is. I'll share
an example with you. My dad had a bad disease. I don't remember the name of
it, but it had the effects of Alzheimer's. It had the effects
of dementia. It had the effects of Parkinson's. All three of them. And he had
it for like 10 years before he finally died. And in the last
three years before he died, he didn't even know who my mother
was. The woman that he had been married to for 35 years, who
are you? Once in a great while, he would
say, oh, yeah, when I would say, Dad, this is John. Oh, yeah,
yeah, like he knew what it was. He was at the lowest point of
his physical life I think any man could be, not knowing who
anybody is. It's going to bless you. Pastor Gene and Judy agreed to
come up to the house, I think it was like three or four months
before Dad died, and have communion. And we didn't know. Dad couldn't
swallow. The only thing he could take
in through the mouth was liquid form. He couldn't take anything
solid. And Gene came up, and Lee and
Shirley were there. And I was sitting next to him. And I can't remember if it was
me or who, but one of us asked Dad. He said, Dad, do you know
what's going on here? And he sat up. I mean, he was
just a frail, skinny, thin man. He sat up. I knew what was going on. He
didn't know anybody that was with him, but he knew what was
going on. God gave him remembrance of who
he was. Not dad, but God. I mean, as soon as it was all
over, He went right back into the stupor and three months later,
I think it was, he died. Our Lord will never let us go. When we are at our lowest point
that we could think we would be, we as God's children will
remember this. And we'll remember it because
God is going to give us the remembrance, He is Lord. And no matter what's
going on to me right now in this world, my Lord rules everything. Oh, that's my place. He has made
His Son, the Lord Jesus, to be our righteousness. Every step
He took, every thought He had was perfect. He has made Him
to be our justification. He has made Him to be our redemption.
We have been brought to see the foolishness of self-righteousness,
the foolishness of self-pride. And by the way, there's no such
thing as self-righteousness in the flesh. There is none. It says in Romans 3, verse 10,
as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Are we
not filled with praise, glorifying His name for this saying, but
God? When you think of those words,
does it bring blessings to your heart? But God. I'm stumbling,
Lord, but God. My mind went the wrong way, but
God. Oh, how these words ring out
in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4 through 5. But God, who is
rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you are saved. and hath raised us up together
and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
Folks, we who are in Christ have a perfect righteousness right
now. God looks down upon you and I
and He sees us perfect. He sees the blood of His Son.
When He looks at the heart of this man standing before you,
when He looks at the heart of you folks who belong to Him,
He doesn't see that sinful flesh that you're walking around in
this world with. He sees the blood of His Son. He sees the
person, His child, washed in the blood of His Son, the Lord
Jesus. We're in Him. When He became flesh and walked
this earth perfectly for the 33 years, every dot was dotted. Every thought was perfect. Every
act He committed pleased the Father, for He was perfect in
every way. And you and I are in Him. When He went to that cruel cross,
His perfect blood was shed that we would be perfect in Him. Second Corinthians 521, we read
these words for he. The very same he that we read
back there in our text. that no flesh should glory in
His presence, but of Him, that very One right there, He hath
made Him, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be sin for us who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. Can you get a grip on that? I
love that. Can you get a grip on that? Can
you wrap your mind around that? We have the righteousness of
God in him. He is my righteousness and that
righteousness I once thought was of me, I willingly throw
out now as dung. All the good things that John
used to think of himself was, was nothing but waste. He was
nothing but filthy, vile dung. Lord, I have nothing. I am nothing
of this world. O Lord, let me be found in Thee. Wash me in Thy Spirit, O Lord,
and I shall be clean. Amen.