All right, I wanna preach to
you on the subject of our confirmation in Christ. When you hear that word confirmation,
what do you think of? You know, the word itself, to
be confirmed, to be in confirmation, it means to be established. It
means to be settled firmly, like immovable. so as to bring true
godly assurance of salvation, justification before God, peace
with God, all of that, to be confirmed, to be established,
to be settled. You know, many who call themselves
Christian today, and it's been so for hundreds of years, they
imagine that they are or strive to be confirmed by something
they do. I'm confirmed because I do this
or I do that or I don't do this or don't do that. But that's
not biblical confirmation at all. True biblical godly confirmation
is something God does for us by Christ and it's something
God does in us by Christ. So this confirmation, Paul talked
about this. He says in verse six, even as
the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. And verse eight, who
shall also confirm you to the end. This true confirmation that
no sinner can do. Any confirmation that you have
that comes from something you do or something you decide to
do is a false refuge. But that confirmation only which
God can accomplish is twofold. Number one, it's a work done
for us by Christ on the cross. We're gonna talk about that.
And then secondly, it's a work done in us that begins in the
new birth and continues on until we're glorified eternally. That
means it never stops. So let's look at this confirmation
first of all as a work done for us. by Christ on the cross. And I'll take you to one phrase
in the passage that I read, verse four. Listen to this. Paul says,
I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which
is given you by Jesus Christ. The grace of God which is given
you by Jesus Christ. That's a statement that communicates
and relays the absolute freeness of salvation, all given by God
to sinners in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's free. Have
you ever heard people talk about free grace? Oh, grace is free. We sing a hymn about that, you
know, that grace is free. You know, there in the Bible,
there's no other kind. If it's grace, it's free. You've
heard people define mercy and grace. Mercy is God not giving
us what we deserve. Grace is God giving us what we
don't deserve. And that's okay. But it's free. It's a gift. Salvation is a gift. That means it cannot be earned
and it cannot be deserved. If you deserve it, it's not grace,
it's not mercy, it's not free. If you earn it, it's not free,
it's not deserved, all of that. And what he's telling us here
in this one statement, now, Paul capitalizes on this as he goes
through the word of God in preaching the gospel. But he speaks of
the grace of God, which is given you, not because you did something,
not because you made a decision, Not because you were baptized
or not because you attended a church or joined a church, but it's
given you by Jesus Christ. That's how it's given. And every
aspect of salvation, every blessing of it, every benefit of it is
a sovereign free gift from God and bestowed upon His people
on the basis of what Jesus Christ has earned for us. by his obedience
unto death as our substitute and our surety and our redeemer.
This is the power of the righteousness of God in Christ which has been
freely imputed to his people and which by God-given grace
they receive in faith as we believe and rest in Christ. That's what
it's all about. Mercy and grace. You know, I think about this.
You might look at this sometime. You know, in John chapter 4,
Christ confronted a Samaritan woman, the woman at the well.
You all know the story. And he knew who she was. He knew all of her life. He knew
that she'd been married so many times, and she was living with
a man. She was an adulteress. She was a woman of ill repute.
She had to come to Jacob's well to draw water at a time when
nobody else was around. All of that. She was an infamous
sinner. And he spoke to her of the water
of life. He said, taking of the water
of life freely, didn't he? And over in verse 10 of John
chapter 4, he made this statement. because she didn't understand
what he was talking about. He being a Jew, she being a Samaritan,
why would he even stoop to ask her to give him a drink of water?
And he said this, he said, if you only knew the gift of God,
you'd ask me for the water of life and I would freely give.
Now, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter one, or chapter two, right across
the page there. And I want to show you something.
What I want us to understand is that by nature, that's the
very thing we don't know and understand. That is the gift
of God. The Bible speaks of the gift
of God. Christ Himself is the gift of
God. The Bible says that if God gave
us His Son, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son. Christ himself is the gift of
God. It's totally up to God's mercy
and grace. Salvation, redemption, it's all
the gift of God. The Bible speaks of the gift
of life. It speaks of the gift of righteousness. The righteousness that I have
is nothing that I've done or tried to do. It's what Christ
has done and what he not tried to do but accomplished on Calvary's
cross. But look at 1 Corinthians 2 and
look at verse 9. It says here, but as it is written,
I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him. The things of salvation. Even
the love, if we love God at all, that's a gift. We didn't love
him naturally. It didn't come out of our free
will or of our own goodness, because we have none. But what
he's saying is this, no mere fallen sinful human being has
ever conceived of the things that God has prepared for those
that love Him, believe in Him. But he says in verse 10, but
God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. It's by revelation.
That revelation is a gift from God through Christ. For the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. We don't
know these things naturally. The Spirit of God has to teach
them to us through the Word of God. And verse 11, for what man
knoweth the things of a man, save the Spirit of man which
is in him. That's all man knows. What we know by nature in our
sinful fallen state, even so the things of God knoweth no
man but the Spirit of God. Are you following his line of
reasoning here? The things of God in salvation. No human being, no fallen, sinful,
spiritually dead human being, I don't care how smart they are,
they can be Albert Einstein, I don't care how religious they
are, they can be the Pope or the Dalai Lama, they have never
even conceived the things that God has for his people by his
grace. Now what are those things specifically?
Well look at verse 12. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know. Now you remember what he asked
the woman, if you only knew the gift of God. Well, if we're saved,
if we're believers, if we've been blessed by God's grace in
Christ, that we might know the things that are what? Do you
see the word there? Freely given to us of God. Unconditionally. without a cause. All the blessings
of grace and of glory in Christ. And he says in verse 13, which
things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom
teach. All man teaches is salvation conditioned on sinners. In some
way, at some stage, to some degree, by some means. Man doesn't teach
this. This is godly teaching. The man
who teaches this is the man of God. he says, "...but which the
Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things of spiritual,
but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God." Have you received these things that are freely given?
Have you realized that salvation is conditioned on Christ alone
and and that he has fulfilled those conditions so as to ensure
the eternal salvation of every sinner for whom he lived and
died and arose again. That his righteousness, the merit
of his obedience unto death, freely imputed to sinners and
received by that gift of faith, that that's all of God and not
of you and not of me. The things that are freely, if
you've received those things, That's the evidence that you've
been born again. Because the natural man, man in his natural
state, he won't receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because
they're spiritually discerned. Think about that. Paul speaks
of the grace that was given to him, the grace that was given
to his people. The Bible says that sin demands
death. We all, the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life. Now how does that gift
come? Turn over to Romans chapter three.
Now he says here in 1 Corinthians one that it's given us by God
in Jesus Christ. Well think about this, look at
verse 19. Now he brought all people by nature as we are fallen
in Adam, ruined by the fall, All people by nature, born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sin, we're all sinners, all sin and come
short of the glory of God. And so he concludes this in verse
19, look at it, Romans three. Now we know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God. Now that's what we are by nature. Well, what does that mean in
my case, as far as salvation goes? Look at verse 20. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
God's sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. Now remember what it is to be justified. It's to be
forgiven of all my sins. Isn't that right? Forgiven, if I'm justified. I'm
not legally guilty before God. My sins are forgiven. We used
to sing a chorus. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you are free. They're all taken away. That's what it means to be justified.
And it means more than that. It means to be declared righteous
by God in His court of justice legally. He looks upon His people
as righteous, and that's the imputed righteousness of Christ.
That's the righteousness of God that's revealed in the gospel.
My sins were laid to Christ's account, charged to Him. His righteousness is charged
to me. That's what it means to be justified. So what's the conclusion
here? No flesh. can be justified in
God's sight by works of the law. Salvation cannot be by works.
But look at verse 21. But now, the righteousness of
God, without the law, that is without our obedience to the
law, is manifested, it's made known. Being witnessed by the
law and the prophets. Even the law taught this. Moses
in the law. Remember when Christ told the
Pharisees, Moses wrote of me? All the prophets. Look at verse
22. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ. It's by Christ's faithfulness
to do what he agreed to do. To fulfill all conditions in
his obedience unto him. and it's unto all and upon all,
it's preached to everybody, anybody who'll listen. But those who
believe, they stand in Christ, for there's no difference, verse
23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now
look at verse 24, being justified, being forgiven, being declared
righteous, how? Freely, unconditionally, It wasn't
a matter of God saying, now, I'll save you or I'll justify
you if you'll do this. Justified freely by His what? His grace. And based on what? Through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, through the work of Christ. Now, when you
look at 1 Corinthians chapter one, And Paul's gonna be talking
about confirmation. We're confirmed, we're set, we're
settled. How did all that come about?
Through the redemption that is in Christ, through the blood.
How are my sins forgiven? By the blood of Jesus Christ.
What can wash them away? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
How am I righteous in God's sight? It's not in me. It's not, listen,
God has enabled by the Spirit, and we're gonna talk about that,
He's enabled His people to do some marvelous, miraculous things. Listen, you know what the most
marvelous and the most miraculous thing that God has enabled you
and me to do if we're His children? He's enabled us to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you think that's a miracle?
I know it is. That's right. If you're a sinner
whom God has enabled to believe and to repent of your dead works
and to look back at your past, which naturally you loved and
honored, and to say it's nothing but dung in the light of Christ,
that's a miracle. But that's not your righteousness
before God. Christ is. That's Christ, what
he accomplished on Calvary's cross is the confirmation of
his people. It's the ground of our confirmation.
It's the ground of our assurance. It's the ground of our security. And that's a work that he by
himself alone accomplished 2,000 years ago on the cross of Calvary
before any of us were ever born. after Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
were already dead. He's my surety, he's my substitute,
he's my redeemer. That's my confirmation. My confirmation
was not being baptized as a baby. It wasn't being baptized as an
adult. My confirmation wasn't being schooled or anything like,
it's what Christ did. It's his blood. It's his righteousness. Now here's the second thing.
Now here's what Paul's mainly talking about here as he bases
that on what he said in verse four. Now let's read it again. Verse four, I thank my God always
on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by
Jesus Christ. That's not 50% grace and 50%
you. It's all of grace. There's the
foundation of our confirmation in the kingdom of God, right
there. And he says in verse five, that
in everything you are enriched by him in all utterance and all
knowledge. The church at Corinth was a church made up of many
people from many different nationalities, and they had many different spiritual
gifts. If you read through 1 Corinthians,
you'll find that many of them abused those spiritual gifts. Can believers do that? Yes, they
can, sad to say. But here's what he says in verse
six. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.
Now what's the testimony of Christ? It's the gospel. How God saves
sinners. It's the glorious person and
finished work of Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God. Manifest in the flesh. He's every bit God, the Son of
God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, in every nature
and attribute, God. And He's every bit human without
sin. That's who Jesus Christ is. The
Word made flesh to dwell among us. That's His testimony. And that's the Gospel. But it's
also the work that He accomplished on Calvary to put away our sins
by the sacrifice of Himself. By one offering, He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. He died on Calvary's cross. Because
our sins were charged to His account, He was obligated to
come and to die and to pay that debt. And he paid it. Jesus paid it all. All the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. So he paid it. And in paying
that debt, he alone, by himself, for his people, brought forth
an everlasting righteousness, which God has charged to our
account, that righteousness that cannot be contaminated. that
cannot be taken away, His righteousness imputed. And from His righteousness,
you can say it that way, from His finished work comes life,
spiritual life from the dead. Romans 8.10 says, if Christ be
in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life. Eternal life, spiritual life.
To who? To those who deserve it and have
earned it? Or even to those who want it?
No, because by nature we don't even want it. The natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. But life for the
dead. Just like he stood outside the
tomb of Lazarus and said, Lazarus, come forth. And physical life
was given again to Lazarus. He gives his people spiritual
life in the new birth. Regeneration. and gives us faith,
all because of the grace of God, through Jesus Christ. And so
he says the testimony, that testimony was confirmed in you. Look on
verse seven, so that you come behind in no gift, waiting for
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the same thing
as looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Verse
eight, who shall confirm you unto the end that you may be
blameless, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a work done in us that
begins in the new birth and continues on until we're glorified. And
what it is, we're established and we're confirmed as the testimony
of Christ was confirmed in us. Now, how is this testimony, how
is God's testimony, His gospel, His word confirmed in us? First
of all, by bringing us to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works. Look at 1 Thessalonians. Let
me show you what I'm talking about here. 1 Thessalonians chapter one. Paul's talking about brethren,
and he says in verse four, he says, knowing brethren, beloved,
beloved of God, that's what he's talking about, your election
of God. I know your elect. Well, how can you confirm that,
Paul? How can you know that about a person? Somebody asked me one
time, said, do you know all whom God elected? No, I don't know
all whom God elected. I know he chose a people, and
he's gonna save them. I know a few of them. I'm gonna
preach to anybody who'll listen, and he'll bring his people into
the fold. But how can you confirm that? Look at verse five. For
our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power,
and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what
manner of men we were among you for your sake." The gospel, you
believe the gospel, you believe in Christ, that's a miracle.
Now, this is a testimony to God's sovereign power to give a dead
center spiritual life with all the graces and gifts of the Spirit.
This is a testimony not to my power or my goodness or my persuasive
efforts as a preacher, but to God's power. This is a testimony
not to your power or your goodness or the fact that you rose above
the crowd and made the right decision. No, it's a testimony
to the power of God. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Now who has the power?
Not you, not me, not those who believe, God. This is not assurance or confirmation
based upon what God the Holy Spirit does within us. It's assurance
based on Christ and his merits, which the Holy Spirit convicts
us of and brings us to know and believe. This testimony is the gospel
of Christ. It bears witness to his deity,
his incarnation, his obedience, his suffering, his death, his
resurrection from the dead, his ascension unto heaven, his being
seated at the right hand of God, making intercession for us, the
redemption by his blood, justification by his righteousness imputed,
pardon and atonement of sin by his sacrifice, complete salvation
by his obedience unto death. It's the power of God. Faith
in Christ. And those who claim to believe
but have not repented, they have no confirmation from the word
of God. Those who claim to believe in
Christ, but they won't let go of their past, even their religious
past, they have no confirmation from God, for God's not willing
that any of his people should perish, but that all should come
to repentance. You see, what I'm saying is this, if I truly
believe this testimony, It's a gift of God's grace through
Christ. For by grace are you saved through
faith. That not of yourself, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. And what does that mean? It means
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in him. You
see, this testimony is not confirmed by my believing it. It is confirmed
as God's Word by bringing me to believe it. It's a testimony
to the power of God. Because none of us would believe
it if it weren't for the power and grace of God. Again, the
natural man will not receive the things of the Spirit of God.
So what I'm saying is this, if you're a believer, If you've
been brought to repentance of dead works and idolatry, you're
a miracle of His grace. And His testimony is confirmed
in you because you're doing something that you had no power to do.
Only God has the power to do it. He has the power to give. Only God can give life to the
dead. Only God can forgive sins. Only
God can bring forth an everlasting righteousness of infinite value
by which he can be just and justifier. Only God can bring an unrepentant
sinner to repentance. All of that. And then look here
in verse eight, he says, who shall also confirm you unto the
end. This testimony in the power of
God and the grace of God is confirmed by bringing us to glory, by preserving
us. What God gives in the freeness
of this gift by his power, he won't take it back. Did you know
that? Romans 11 29 says that gifts and calling of God are
without repentance. By God's grace, our hearts are
established with his grace in Christ. Over in the book of Hebrews,
chapter 13, verse nine, it says, don't be carried about with every
wind and strange doctrine. It's a good thing that the heart
be established with grace. By God's grace in Christ, you
know what? Our hearts are fixed, the scripture
says. My heart is fixed, the psalmist
wrote. My heart is fixed, oh God, my heart is fixed. I will
sing and give praise. Oh God, my heart is fixed. I
will sing and get, fixed on what? We have a fixation. You've heard
people joke about that. We're fixated on Christ. We're
fixated on His righteousness, on His blood. Somebody told me
one time, he said, all you do is preach the righteousness of
Christ. I know that, I'm fixed. I'm fixated on Him. If my heart
is fixed on Christ, who fixed it? God did. That's why it's
confirmation in me. I didn't fix it. If I have a
value for the glorious person and the finished work of Christ
and the glory of God, who gave that to me? God did. It didn't
come naturally. It didn't come by my free will
or my decision. God gave me a new heart. He gave
me a new will. He fixed me on Christ. Isaiah
26.3 says, thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind
is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. If our minds are not stayed on
him, we'll be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. I
believe that's exactly what Paul was talking about in 2 Corinthians
11 when he talked about the minds of professing believers being
corrupted by Satan subtly and drawn away from the simplicity
that's in Christ. That's the singleness, the singularity
of the fact that we know and understand that all of our salvation is confirmed and fixed and established
and assured because of Christ. He says this, he says, he's going
to, verse eight, he confirmed you unto the end that you may
be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. To be blameless
means to be unaccusable. Think about that. We who are
in Christ, you know right now we're blameless in God's side.
God cannot accuse us. The Bible says, who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. God says he will remember our
sins no more. That means he will not hold us
accountable for them. He keeps no record of them. They're
washed in the blood of Christ. Worthy is the lamb that was slain.
But what he's saying here in this confirmation is that this
blamelessness will continue and cannot change or be taken away. We're in Christ. And when Christ returns and we
stand before God, we will be found blameless. No sin laid
to our charge. Christ has died and risen and
is seated at God's right hand for us. The final judgment is
not a matter that can scare us. You know, a lot of preachers
use final judgment to scare people. Shouldn't scare us, listen to
this. In fact, it's a matter of confirmation for us. First
John four and verse 17. Hearing is our love, our love
for God, made perfect, not sinlessly perfect, but complete, reaches
its goal. Do you love God? Has that love
reached its goal? Well, what is its goal? Look
at it. 1 John 4, 17, that we may have boldness, confidence
in the day of judgment. Well, how can I have confidence
in the day of judgment? God, standing before God who
knows my every thought. Because as He is, as Christ is,
so are we in this world. How can I say that I'm perfectly
like Christ and is only by his righteousness imputed to me?
That's it. And when I get to glory, I'll
be righteous in myself. I would be sinlessly perfect.
Now, verse nine says, all of this is owing to him. Now, how
does all this come about? How does it stay? How does it
continue? Verse nine, God is faithful. By whom you were called
unto this fellowship of his son. Jesus Christ our Lord. It's because
God is faithful. You know, over in Lamentations,
it says it's of the Lord's mercies that we, believers, are not consumed. Great is thy faithfulness. He's faithful. He won't go back
on his promise. He will not take it back. The
gifts and calling of God are without repentance, as we said
before. We are confirmed in Christ. Isn't that a blessing? I hope
the Lord will give us a greater sense of that as we grow in grace
and in knowledge of Christ.