Let's turn back in our Bibles
to 2 Samuel chapter 21. 2 Samuel 21. We're going to look
at the last part of this chapter, beginning at verse 15. And the
title of the message is, The High and Mighty Brought Low. The High and Mighty Brought Low. Now that sounds like what it
is to a sinner saved by grace. It sounds like our salvation.
Because in our minds, before God saves us, before we're born
again by the Spirit and brought to see our sins and the truth
of God's holiness and the reality of Christ, we all think of ourselves
as high and mighty in various ways. But God brings us low. Thank God He doesn't leave us
low. He lifts us up. by his grace to see the glory
of Christ. Now here in this example and
this illustration, this reality, this is an event in history where
David had to fight with the Philistines again. This is an event that
took place sometime during his reign. It probably was towards
the end of his reign because it marks a turning point in his
reign. It says in verse 15, Moreover,
the Philistines had yet war again with Israel. And David went down,
and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines.
And David waxed faint." He grew faint. He grew tired. And it says in verse 16, "...and
Ishbi-Benob, which was of the sons of the giant." Now, we don't
know exactly what giant he was talking about there. This word
giant refers to a group of men who were mighty warriors, and
probably they were physically big in stature, but he says,
the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed 300 shekels of
brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to
have slain David. This giant. And, of course, you
know the story of David and Goliath, so this was a family or race
of men like Goliath. We're going to see one of them
was the brother of Goliath. It says in verse 17, but Abishai,
the son of Zeuriah, suckered him. He comforted David. He protected
David. And he smote the Philistine and
killed him. Then the men of David swear unto
him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that
thou quench not the light, or the candle, or the lamp of Israel."
Now, as you know, it was the king's duty to lead his men in
battle, and David was to do that as a type of Christ, Christ the
great victor, the captain of our salvation. But David, personally,
it seems that he had grown tired and faint, maybe because of his
age, so this could have been at the end of his reign. But
notice the men of David. They swore unto him, they swore
an oath, that he should go no more out with them to battle,
because they were concerned for one thing here, that thou quench
not, that David not be killed, thou quench not the light of
Israel. And that's a great, great lesson
for us to see the glory of Christ. Abishai, this man who was David's
nephew, he knew that David, as king, was the key to the nation's
success, Israel's success, Israel's well-being and blessing. David
was the key. David was God's anointed. David was the sweet psalmist
of Israel. But David was the man after God's
own heart. David was the one whom God set
in place as king. And it was through David, as
he was of the tribe of Judah, that the scepter would not depart
and the Lion of the tribe of Judah would come, the Messiah.
So there are three things that I want you to see here about
David as he is described as the light of Israel. First of all,
look at David as a type of Christ who is in himself our light,
the light of spiritual Israel. Turn over to John chapter 1 with
me. The book of John chapter 1. David
as a type of Christ. Now David, as you know, personally
didn't always act responsibly as a light of Israel. But as
a type of Christ, he was the light, the lamp, the candle of
Israel. And without him, there was no
light. And that's what we see in David as a type of Christ.
Our Savior, our great light, the light of his people, always
fulfills perfectly his responsibilities as our light. Where David personally
failed, our light never fails. He never fails. Sometimes we,
because of our failures, may lose sight of the light. And
sometimes we, because of our failures, may not walk in the
light as we should. But he never fails. And you know what? Take comfort,
sinners say by grace, Because that is our salvation. Right
there. That's our salvation. The fact
that He never fails. Because if it were conditioned
on us, just like David personally, we would all fail. We have failed.
Haven't we failed miserably? And if the Lord lets us live
another day, won't we fail again miserably? Won't we? Won't you? But He never fails. But look at John 1 and verse
1, in beginning was the Word. We know that's the second person
of the Trinity. That Word was with God. And the
Word was God. He is God. Christ, God and man. Verse 14 says, the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. The God-man is our light. He's the light of spiritual Israel,
the light of the church. And verse 2 of John 1 says, the
same was in beginning with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life, and the life was the light of men." Whatever light that
every man and woman by nature has, and they do have light now,
some light. They have the light of conscience
the scripture teaches in Romans chapter 1, and true, reflect
our own A sinful, ruined human nature, fallen human nature will
do our best to extinguish even that light, won't we? But whatever
light any person has in this world, physical light and whatever
light of knowledge and conscience they have, it was given to them
by the Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ. But it says in verse
5, the light shineth in darkness. We're born in sin, in darkness. And it says, the darkness comprehended
it not. That's not just, that's us by
nature. We're the darkness by nature.
We live in darkness by nature. We're born in darkness. That's
the result of our ruination in Adam. And by nature we will not
comprehend, understand savingly, the light. You know what John
is saying here is the same thing that Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them, and
we'll see why in just a moment. He says in verse 6, there was
a man sent from God whose name was John. That's John the Baptist. And he says John the Baptist,
verse 7, came for a witness, to bear witness of the light,
to bear witness of Christ. Now that's what's happening in
2 Samuel 21 there when Abishai and the men of David swear unto
him, thou shalt go no more out with us to battle that thou not
the light of Israel." They wanted the light of Israel to be preserved. And that's what John the Baptist
did over here. He said, I'm not the light. And
he said he was a witness to the light that all through him might
believe. He was not the light, verse 8
there in John 1. John said that. I'm not the light. but was sent to bear witness
of that light that was the true light, which lighteth every man
that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him, and the world knew him not. But look
here, verse 11, he came unto his own, and his own received
him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power. Now that word power there is
not ability. That word power there means right.
And privilege is a different word than the word power used
in Romans 116 as the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
That's dynamos. We get our word dynamite. This
word power here means a privilege, a right. In other words, what
right do I have to call myself and claim to be a son of God?
Well, there's only one right. I have Christ. The Eternal Son. If I didn't have Him, I have
no right to call myself a son of God or to claim to be a son
of God. But it says, But as many as received Him, to them gave
He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on His name. And notice this in verse 13. That didn't come by natural ability. It didn't come by natural will
of man. You didn't will yourself into
this. Somebody says, Well, I made a choice. You made the choice
because you had no choice. Am I right? There is no choice. He says, which were born, the
new birth, not of blood. It wasn't by physical pedigree.
You know, the Jews claim to be of Abraham. It wasn't by blood,
nor the will of the flesh, not by the free will of man, supposedly,
nor the will of man, not by the wills of other men, but of God. In other words, if you saw the
light, if you see the light, it's because God gave you eyes
to see. And ears to hear. Look over at John chapter 8.
David was a type of the light, the eternal light of Israel,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that capacity, he was
to act as the sovereign king of that nation. In that capacity. Now, as I said, we know David
didn't always live up to that personally. But that's of no
matter. as far as the issues of Christ
and salvation by God's grace in him. We're going to see later
on how David even claimed he knows himself. He knew. He didn't
claim, well, I've done everything right and everybody else has
done everything wrong, therefore God ought to say, no, sir. He
said, I'm a sinner and my only hope is Christ. My only salvation
is Christ. But look at John chapter 8. Look
at verse 12 of John 8. Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." My friend,
if you're looking to Christ and following Him, you have the light
of life, for that's what He is. So that's the first application,
David as a type of Christ. But here's another application
to David. as the light of Israel, the lamp
of Israel. It's as he is the king of Israel who is guided
himself by the light of Christ and God's word. You see, David
himself, he knew, he spoke prophetically as he was inspired by the Holy
Spirit of the coming king and he was to guide Israel in the
ways of God, in the ways of the covenant. And that's why he wrote
in Psalm 132, verse 17, he says, there will I make the horn of
David to bud. I have ordained a lamp for mine
anointed. In other words, David's going
to be guided by not his own light, but by Christ, the light to come
in the word of God, which was prophesied in David's time and
which was promised in David's time in Psalm 18. He speaks of this in Psalm 1828,
for thou wilt light my candle, the Lord my God will enlighten
my darkness. We're going to study that next
in 2 Samuel 22 because it's a replica of Psalm 18. It's a psalm of
praise of the greatness of God, which is the greatness of our
life. And then in Psalm 119, it's written in verse 105, thy
word is a lamp unto my feet. In other words, it tells me how
to walk. tells me which way to go. It motivates me to walk by
the grace and mercy and love of God, not by the legal threats
of the law, not by mercenary promises of earned reward, which
I'm trying to work for my, my keep in the kingdom of heaven,
but by love. He says, thy word is a lamp unto
my feet and a light unto my path. Now again, David himself did
not always walk by the light of God's word. There are times
he walked in the flesh, but so do we. But as a general rule
of his life, as a sinner saved by grace, he walked in the ways
of God. He walked in the grace of God.
And then thirdly, David is a lamp unto Israel, light unto Israel,
as he himself was a witness of Christ in the world. Now, as
I said, as king, he was to be a witness to the people in leadership
and truth, in justice and mercy, but also in the gospel. And I
want you to look at Romans chapter 4. And we could turn to several
scriptures here. If you remember, David, this
is a quotation as the Apostle Paul was talking about the justification
of Abraham. How God justified Abraham, how
Abraham was justified before God. We talked a little bit about
that this morning from Romans 4. But Abraham was not justified
by works. Abraham knew, as every sinner
saved by grace knows, that if God were to judge us at any time,
in any way, at any stage, to any degree, by our works, we
would be condemned. That's why he wrote in Psalm
130, and David wrote in Psalm 130, verse 3, Lord, if thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? At his best. And I'll tell you something.
I know David would say that. You could say it this way. You
could say, well, now, when David was committing adultery with
Bathsheba, he certainly knew that, didn't he? That if God
were to judge him at that moment in time, based upon his sin.
But I'll tell you what, I believe David knew that just as well
when he was sitting at his desk penning one of the most beautiful
Psalms. He knew even then that his righteousness
before God was Christ, and is Christ, and not even his best
efforts to pen the greatest Psalm. Of course, we know those were
written by inspiration of the Spirit. God breathed. Now, he wrote in
Psalm 32, he said, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity. The man whom God does not charge
with sin is a blessed person, you see, whose sins are covered. Look at Romans 4 and verse 7.
He says, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin. And he says back up in verse
6, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works. David knew, even
back then, that his works, his best works, would not save him.
would not get him into heaven, would not justify him before
God, would not make him righteous. And Peter, when he preached at
Pentecost, he quoted from the Psalms where David was speaking
prophetically of the coming of Christ. And he said, he told
him, he said, David wasn't speaking of himself. He was speaking of
one to come, the hope of his salvation, the one in whom all
his salvation and glory rests, the Lord Jesus Christ. So David
was a witness of the gospel. Now go back to 2 Samuel 21. Now here's what happened. Now
the Philistines were attacking Israel. David and his men went
out. One of these giants, this race
of giants, wanted to kill David, but Abishai stepped in and killed
this giant. His men came to him and said,
now we don't want you to go out to battle again. We don't want
the light of Israel to be quenched. And he says, and look at verse
18, he says, and it came to pass after this, that there was again
a battle with the Philistines at Gob, and then Sibachi, the
Hushethite, slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giants,
of the giant, and it says, and there was again a battle in Gob
with the Philistines, where Elhanan, the son of Jeoregam, I got that
one out, didn't I, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath,
And I bet Aaron Wiles is sitting there thinking right now, boy,
thank God he didn't have me read this. He had me read 1 Corinthians
1 instead. But it says, he slew the brother
of Goliath, the Gittite. You might see the brother of
is there in italics. It wasn't in the original manuscript. But it was recorded in the book
of 1 Chronicles that this was the brother of Goliath, the one
whom You can find that in 1 Chronicles 20 in verse 5. So it says, "...the
staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam." These were
big fellows now. These were the high and mighty
of the earth. These were the great warriors.
These were the respected men of power. Men of power. Men of passion, you see. Some
of them were nobles in the Philistine country. They were looked up
to. And it says in verse 20, there
was yet a battle in Gath where was a man of great stature that
had on every hand six fingers and on every foot six toes. Four and twenty in number. And
he also was born to the giant. He was of this race too, this
family. And when he defied Israel, Jonathan
the son of Shimea, this is another Jonathan, not the one that's
already dead and gone, whom David made the covenant with, but Jonathan
the son of Shimea, the brother of David, slew him. And these
four were born to the giant in Gath, these four giants, and
fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
What's going on here? Well, these giants, these noblemen,
These great, mighty, powerful warriors whom I suspect that
any other reasonable enemy would say they cannot be defeated,
these high and mighty among men were brought down low, even to
death. You see, they were high and mighty
among men, but they were nothing before God. And that's the case,
isn't it? They were brought to shame. Look
at Psalm 132. Turn over there. I want you to see this. Psalm
132. This Psalm. Listen to two verses. Verse 17. The Lord blessing David. He says,
There will I make the horn of David to bud, to grow. I have ordained a lamp for mine
anointed. Remember that. Here's the light. Look at verse 18. His enemies
will I clothe with shame, but upon himself shall his crown
flourish. That's exactly what happened
here in this battle. It's another great lesson on
how those men, women, whoever, born of Adam, sinners, seek to
exalt themselves above the light of Israel, above the God of this
universe, the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all
who seek to exalt themselves shall be brought low, be brought
down. Christ himself taught this lesson
so many times. And the disciples, they learned
it, but they had to learn it again and again. You ever had
a lesson like that? You learn it, you say, well,
don't need to hear that again, go on. No, you've got to hear
it again. Christ brought them down, and he saved them by his
grace, and it wasn't long after that in Matthew chapter 18, they're
arguing over who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven. Isn't that like us? And he said, except you repent
and become as little children, because that's what we are. What's
that mean? That means that we're totally
dependent on our Heavenly Father for all things eternal, all things
spiritual. We can't look to ourselves for
anything. You take that little child, and that little child
who cannot do anything for himself, and you put him out, he's like
Ezekiel's cast out infant, lying polluted in his blood. His umbilical
cord hasn't even been tied off. And that's us by nature, spiritually
dead in trespasses and sin, without hope, without any prospects,
without life. And Christ said in Luke 14, 11,
He said, For whosoever exalts of himself shall be abased, and
he that humble of himself shall be exalted. Job talked about
it. You know, Job found himself lifting
himself up some. And his friends talked about
it. You know, his miserable comforters, some of the things they said
were right. Everything that came out of their mouth wasn't a lie.
They had the wrong attitude and they had the wrong instructions
for Job. They didn't see themselves in the light that they should
have seen themselves in, but neither did Job at times. But
here it says in Job 22, 29, when men are cast down, then thou
shalt say, then, when men are cast down now, then there's lifting
up. He shall save the humble person.
Well, my friend, it takes an act of God to humble sinners
like us, doesn't it? It takes an act of God. Proverbs
has a lot to say about pride. A man's pride shall bring him
low. Proverbs 29, 23. But honor shall uphold the humble
in spirit. Consider this. Consider how light,
and we're talking about David as the light of Israel. And ultimately
what we're talking about is Christ as our light. The gospel light. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and do what? Applaud you? Talk about how good you are?
Reward you? Remember your name? No. That
they may look away from you. and glorify your Father which
is in heaven." The light is the gospel. The light is Christ.
You see, not our works. He just shines on those works
because they're from Him. They're done by Him through us.
And the glory belongs to God. But look at Isaiah chapter 6. Consider how the light of Christ
exposes our shame. Here's David, the light of Israel,
the battle with these giants. You know what he did? He exposed
their shame. He exposed their weakness. Oh,
they're big guys. Probably won a lot of battles.
Probably went around Brighton. You know what happened to them?
They got killed. They're dead. I guess the only way you could
brag on them is to say, well, you had to dig a bigger grave.
They had the biggest graves in the cemetery. Now, I guess that's
about the only way you could brag on them, huh? Go out there and look at that
grave. Man, that's a big grave. Well, I don't care to be bragged
on like that. How about you? That's not much
to say about a fella. Just like Methuselah. You can
say, well, he lived the longest, but he still died. 969 years. Reckon how he did that? I'll
tell you, every breath that Methuselah breathed for 969 years was a
gift from God. Isn't that right? It was a gift from God. And every
breath that Enoch breathed in his short life, in Abel's short
life, that was a gift from God too. Do you know the difference
between Abel and Enoch? And Methuselah? They knew Christ. They had a
hope. They had a Savior. But look at
Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1. That's one of the reasons I chose
that hymn tonight. Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty. Thrice holy. High and lifted
up. Look here, verse 1 of Isaiah
6. In the year that king Uzziah died, this great and powerful
king. I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted
up. We're going to talk about high
and mighty. I'll tell you what, we'd better be talking about
God. We'd better be talking about His Son who's lifted up. We'd
better lift Him up. I think it was Brother Scott
Richardson who preached a message about that one time from John
12 where Christ told His disciples, and I, if I be lifted up, will
draw all men unto me as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness. And he had three points. He said Christ must be
lifted up, number one, on the cross. He must be lifted up on
the cross. He had to die as a substitute
for his people. He had to satisfy the justice
of God. He had to put an end to sin,
finish the transgression, bring in everlasting righteousness.
God must be just when he justifies the ungodly. And his second point
was this. that he must be lifted up in
the preaching of the gospel. You see, if you don't lift up
Christ, if you don't preach his glory and his majesty, and his
perfect finished work, his person as God's man, and what he accomplished
at Calvary, and how he died, was buried, and was raised again
the third day, and he's ascended unto the Father, ever living
to make intercession for us as our advocate, Jesus Christ the
righteous, If you don't lift him up in the preaching, you're
not preaching the gospel. He must increase, John the Baptist
said, I must decrease. So he must be lifted up secondly
in the preaching of the gospel. But now thirdly, he must be lifted
up in the heart of a sinner. And only God can do that. That's
the new birth. When you're brought low. Like
Isaiah, look here, he says, high and lifted up, and his train
filled the temple, that's his glory and his majesty. He says
in verse 2, above it stood the seraphims, each one had six wings,
with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet,
and with two he did fly. This is the messengers of God's
glory, it's what that's referring to. One cried unto another and
said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of a
great army. The whole earth is full of His
glory. John said, We beheld His glory.
Do you behold His glory? You know, the earth is full of
His glory, but by nature, men don't see it, do they? But some
do. And it says in verse 4, The post
of the door moved, that the voice of him that cried in the house
was filled with smoke. Now look at verse 5. In light
of that glory, the lamp of Israel, the light of the Spirit, here's
what happens. Then said I, Woe is me. For I am undone." If you look
in your concordance, that word undone, that means cut off. Cut off from life. Cut off from
God. Cut off from fellowship. Cut
off from salvation. I'm just cut off. Undone. In the light of His majesty,
we're brought low, you say. He said, because I'm a man of
unclean lips, what I say is sin. And what I do is sin. I'm sin
through and through. And I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips. We're all in this boat together.
For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." I've seen
the light of Israel. And all my highness and all my
might has been brought low. I have none. I have nothing to
recommend me unto God. Paul saw it. Philippians chapter
3, as you know, he said everything that I thought was profitable.
There's high and mighty Saul of Tarsus. You see, everything
that I thought recommended me unto God and made up my righteousness
before God. He said in the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in Christ, the excellency of that knowledge,
he said, I count it all but done that I may win him, know him,
be found in him. Now, when Christ, who is the
light of spiritual Israel, brings us low, knocks us off our high
horse, brings us down from our proud self-righteousness and
our high and mighty thoughts of being saved by our works and
our efforts or by anything we do, when He brings us down like
He did Isaiah here, He doesn't do it just to leave us down there. He doesn't bring us to despair
just to leave us in despair. It says in verse 6 of Isaiah
6, Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in
his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from where? Now,
where did he get this live coal? He got it from the altar. Who is our altar? Christ. What's
an altar for? Sacrifice. The soul that sinneth
must surely die. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. What's the burning, the live
coal that burnt that sacrifice? That's that consuming of the
sacrifice by the Father, Holy God, for His justice, and it's
a sweet-smelling savor for Him. And it says in verse 7, He laid
it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and
thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. We heard
that in the preaching of the Gospel when the Holy Spirit brought
us low by convincing us of sin, and then lifted us up in the
glory of the light of Christ. That's how he does it. Look over
at Jeremiah chapter 9. You see, the light exposes our
shame. That's why the natural man won't
receive the light. John chapter 3 says, that light
exposes me for what I am, a sinner. in need of mercy, with no hope
in myself. I can't help myself, and you
can't help me. You see, I'm a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell amidst a people of unclean lips. We can't help
each other in this matter of salvation. We have no place to
look but up to God, to Christ, and throw ourselves down, sitting
at the feet of Jesus, casting ourselves at His mercy, begging
for it. He's our only hope. Look at Jeremiah
chapter 9. Think about those giants. You
know those fellas had to be confident when they went to battle. Think
about Goliath. You remember when David slew
Goliath? Think about how confident Goliath was. Those bold words
that he spoke. Come on out here, you fellas.
Let's do business. Send your champion out. Send
all the champions out. We'll defeat them one by one.
That boasting and that bragging in the flesh. David looked around
at those men who were quaking in their boots, and he said,
basically, he said, why are you all afraid of this fellow? He's
defined the Lord God of Israel. Well, look at verse 23 of Jeremiah
9. Thus saith the Lord, let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches. That
covers just about everything men glory in and boast in. But
let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and
knoweth me. Who? That I am the Lord. That's Jehovah. That's the covenant
God of grace, which exercise loving kindness, but also judgment
and righteousness. He's a just God and a Savior.
And he did it in the earth. Where did he? Where's he doing
it? Calvary. That's where he did it in the
earth. God sent forth His Son made of
a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law. He said, for in these things I delight. It's not in your might
and in your wisdom and in your riches. God doesn't delight in
them. He delights in these things, saith the Lord. Look over at
1 Corinthians 1 that Brother Aaron read. It's quoted here. This is what Paul's teaching
here to the Corinthians, because they had become lifted up. And
you know what? One of the things that they were
lifted up in was their connection and loyalty to certain preachers. Have you ever experienced that? Well, we listen to Paul. Well,
Peter's our pastor. Well, Cephas, that's Peter. He's
the one I listen to. He's the one I first heard the
gospel. Does that count for anything? They said, well, Apollos, now
Apollos was probably a little more polished than the rest of
them. He was a little more intelligent. He was a Greek. Well, we follow
Apollos. You're all the dummies. We're
the smart ones, you know. And that's how they become proud.
And they were using that to cause division. We're going to follow
this man. What did Paul say? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
1 verse 13. Here's the issue now. Now, here's what you need to
think of when you get lifted up with pride because of your
connection with the priest. Listen, and let me tell you something. I thank God for any man who preaches
the gospel. I thank God for him. But look
here, if I use that to lift myself up in pride, as if that's a point
that you should be impressed with, this, of course, you're
not, you go out there and tell them you heard from Bill Parker,
you're not going to impress many people that I know around. But you know
there are preachers that carry that kind of clout. Why? And to use that as a point of
division? Look at verse 13. Is Christ divided? Now why does
he say that? Because we're the body of Christ.
He's the head, we're the body. Is Christ divided? No. Was Paul
crucified for you? When you brag about Paul and
your connection, was Paul crucified for you? No, Paul was a great
persecutor of the church before God saved him. Christ was crucified
for you. He says, were you baptized in
the name of Paul? No, I was baptized in the name
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then look over
at verse 26, 1 Corinthians 1. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. But God had chosen the foolish
things of this world to confound the wise, and God had chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things that are
mighty. Paul said, when I'm weak, I'm strong, because when I'm
weak, when I see my weakness, that's when I depend totally
on Christ. the power of God. He says the base things of the
world and things which are despised, God chosen, yea, the things which
are not to bring to nothing things that are. And he says that no
flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. He's my wisdom. If
I have any wisdom, it's him. So why brag on me or you or anything? He's my righteousness. If I have
any righteousness, it's Him. If I have any holiness, sanctification,
set apart, if I'm set apart from everybody else, it's Him. And
redemption. Some say that's talking about
future redemption and the glory. I think it's talking about the
whole thing. I didn't pay one penny to redeem myself from the
slave block of sin and bondage. Christ paid it all. Now why? That according as it is written.
This is where he's quoting from Jeremiah 9. He that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. The Bible says that a Christian
is one who is circumcised in the heart. Paul said in Philippians
3, 3, we're circumcised, we are the circumcision. Who worships
God in spirit from the heart. And he does it this way. He glories
in Christ Jesus. He has confidence in Christ and
no confidence in the flesh. Every bit of confidence that
these giants had was killed. You know the best thing God can
do for us is to bring us down low. Make us hungry and thirsty for
righteousness. But He doesn't leave us there.
He shows us Christ, our bread and our righteousness. the water
of life, thirsty for the water of life, hungry for the bread
of life. The best thing he can do for us is slay us, kill us
by the law to show us that we have no hope of salvation by
our deeds, but to drive us to Christ to see the whole law fulfilled
in him, to bring us to sorrow and to comfort. Blessed are they
that mourn, for they shall be comforted. You know, it begins
in regeneration, but as I said, it's a lifelong thing with us
because the old flesh will always rise up in pride just like the
disciples. Who's going to be first in the
kingdom of heaven? I can tell you that right now.
Christ is. He always has been, always will be. There are giants in our life
that plague us. The flesh is a giant. Satan is
a giant to us now. Now to Christ, they're nothing.
but to us, ourselves, the world. And that's why we have to continually
look to Christ, our Light. And this is why we have to continually
stay in His Word, which is our Light. The high and mighty will
be brought low. We just pray that it's for salvation
and not for eternal death.