Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
Now, the message today is the seventh message in a series of
messages that accompany a new book that we're offering free
of charge. The book is entitled, What is
a Christian? A Biblical Study of the One True
Faith. What is a Christian? And this
book, these messages are intended to help people to study the Bible
and do what the Bible commands us to do in the book of second
Corinthians 13 five, which is to examine ourselves, whether
we be in the faith, the Christian faith. And this, this process
of self-examination is so important. If you claim to be a Christian,
I claim to be a Christian. Well, I want to know from the
Bible if my claim is genuine, if it's true, or if I'm just
fooling myself. And in this self-examination,
I want to stress that the opinions and ideas of men and women do
not mean anything here. When we're talking about assurance
of salvation, assurance of being a true Christian, a true follower,
OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY? WE MUST
PUT IT TO THE TEST OF THE WORD OF GOD AND ASK DOES IT STAND
THAT TEST? THAT'S THE ISSUE. In this message,
this is the second part. These messages go along with
the chapters of the book that you can order. We'll have the
book, we'll have CDs and DVDs you can order. And as I said,
we offer them free of charge. We're not trying to make money,
make a profit. We're just wanting to get the
message of the gospel out. In fact, if you don't claim to
be a Christian and you're interested in finding out what a Christian
is, then this would be good for you. Each of these messages will follow
along with the chapters in the book, and I do stress that the
book goes into much more detail, and there are many more scriptural
references in the book. It's a detailed journey, I call
it, of self-examination through the Bible, and the book is to
guide you. The book is never meant to replace or even compare
itself to the Word of God. There's no replacement. There's
no human book that even compares to the word of God, but it's
a guide, just like preaching the gospel. Well, in this message,
we're going to be talking about union with Christ. It's the chapter
that's entitled, Christians are united to Jesus Christ. And so we're talking about union
with Christ. And whenever we talk about union
with Christ, as described in the Bible, you have to talk about
union with Christ in two aspects. The first aspect is what I dealt
with in the last message and it's the Christians' objective
union with Christ. Now when we talk about objective
union, What we're talking about is that which a Christian is
described as in the Bible as he or she stands in the person
of Christ and in the work of Christ. In other words, objective
union has absolutely nothing to do with our personal experience
our personal union by faith with Christ. Now, they go together. I'm not saying, when I say it
doesn't have anything to do, I'm talking about, when we talk
about objective union with Christ, we're talking about what God
alone does for his people, not what God does in his people. Objective union has to do with
God's electing grace. God chose a people before the
foundation of the world. It has to do with God's redeeming
grace. God sent Christ into the world
to redeem his people from their sins by his death on the cross,
Christ as surety and substitute of the people of God. And in
his death, he brought forth righteousness, what the Bible calls the righteousness
of God. A Christian, is a sinner saved
by grace who stands before God, washed in the blood of Jesus
Christ, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, freely imputed. That means to be charged, accounted,
reckoned with his righteousness. That's our justification. And
that objective union is the source of salvation, the ground of salvation. Now today, we're going to talk
about the subjective union of a Christian with Jesus Christ.
And when I say subjective, I'm talking about the spiritual union
that occurs in a person's life that is described in the scriptures
in different ways. It's described as the new birth.
Christians are born again people. Back in the seventies, it used
to be common for many people to say, I'm a born again Christian. Well, there's no other kind.
If you're a Christian, you're born again. And that new birth
is described in different ways. It's described as regeneration,
quickening, giving of life. You see, we're born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. When God the Holy Spirit brings
a sinner under the preaching of the gospel, and he imparts
life, spiritual life and knowledge to that person, and we talked
about it, gives them a new heart, a new spirit, all of that, he
regenerates, he quickens, They're birthed again. You must be born
again or you cannot see. You don't have spiritual eyes
without spiritual birth. You cannot hear. You don't have
spiritual ears without spiritual birth. Now that's the work of
the Holy Spirit in us. And here's what I'm saying. If
we're to understand what a Christian is from the Bible and what a
Christian is not, we need to understand that no one can truly
and biblically be called a Christian. who has not been brought by God,
the power of God, the will of God, the truth of God, into a
personal relationship, union with Jesus Christ by God-given
faith. And that's the subjective, the
spiritual union with Jesus Christ. Here's what I'm saying, all whom
God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, all
for whom Christ died on the cross and established righteousness
whereby they are justified before God. They will be in their lifetime
at some point brought under the preaching of the gospel and they
will be born again. They'll be brought into a subjective
spiritual experience, spiritual union with Christ. Now, one of
the passages, there's several passages of scripture, that we
can talk about. But we see this now, and we need
to make this distinction. It needs to be emphasized that
what Christ does for his people, God's chosen people, the ones
for whom he died, is the ground of their salvation, the cause
in the ground. His righteousness imputed, for
example, that's the ground of salvation. Now, spiritual life
imparted in the new birth is the fruit and the evidence. And
the Lord Himself expressed that in John chapter 12, in verse
32, when He's talking about His death. And He says in John 12,
32, He says, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, that is His
cross experience, He is dying for his people as their surety
and their substitute. And that's what we talk about
when we talk about the death, the burial, and the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. So why did he die? He died as
a substitute for his people to pay their debt to God's law and
justice, to satisfy every condition God requires for their salvation. And in that he died, he was buried,
but he didn't stay dead. He arose the third day for their
justification. The resurrection of Christ means
righteousness has been established. And righteousness established
for his people and imputed, charged, accounted, reckoned to them demands
that they be given spiritual life. So he says in John 12,
32, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all
men unto me. Verse 33, this he said, signifying
what death he should die. So now this drawing, he says,
I will draw all men unto me. Now, first of all, he's not talking
about all without exception there. How do I know that? Well, we
don't have time to go through all the different scriptures.
As I said, I've got more in the book. But here's how I know that,
because all men are not drawn to Him. All without exception
are not drawn unto Him. To be drawn unto Him means that
they're born again by the Spirit. They're given life, spiritual
eyes, spiritual ears, a new heart, a new mind, a new spirit. They
hear the gospel and they come to Christ. In the book of John
chapter 17 and verse 7, or chapter 16 and verse 7, Christ is speaking
to his disciples about his death and the fruit of his death in
the coming of the Holy Spirit to do his great work in the new
birth. And he says in John 16 verse 7, he says, nevertheless,
I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. Now that word expedient means
necessary. He's telling his disciples that
it is necessary for him to go away. Now where was he going?
He was going to suffer. He was going to die on the cross. He's going to be buried, He's
going to be raised again the third day, and then He's going
to ascend unto the Father. That's all necessary for His
people. And He says in verse 7, for if
I go not away, the Comforter, that's the Holy Spirit, will
not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
Him unto you. Now what He's teaching there
is this, that His work on the cross to put away the sins of
His people by His blood, His death, and by establishing righteousness
that is imputed to them, that's the ground of salvation. And
out of that great work of Christ on the cross, His death, His
burial, His resurrection, the death of the God-man, comes life
from the Holy Spirit. And he says in John 16 and verse
8, he says, and when He has come, He will reprove or convict or
convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
Now whatever world he's talking about there, he's talking about
people who are going to be born again. He's talking about people
who are going to be convicted, Holy Spirit conviction, of three
things, of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Now this is
how God's elect Christ's sheep, who hear His voice, are going
to be drawn to Him. This is how they're going to
be born again and converted to Christ. This is how they're going
to come to Christ and receive Him. Verse 9 of John 16, he says,
of sin, because they believe not on me. Verse 10, of righteousness,
because I go to my Father and you see me no more. And of judgment,
because the Prince of this world is judged. Now, the world that
he's talking about is God's elect all over the world, Jew and Gentile,
whom the Holy Spirit gives life and brings to be convicted of
sin because they believe not on Christ. In other words, he's
saying here that the conviction of sin tells us, convinces us,
that we have nothing to recommend us unto God. We're sinners. We
are, listen, without Christ we're nothing but sin. All we can do
is sin. We have to have Christ to wash
our sins away. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
My works cannot cleanse me of sin or pay for my sins. Baptism
cannot cleanse me of sin or pay for my sins. Sincerity cannot
do it. Religion cannot do it. Joining
a church cannot do it. Trying to live a life of obedience
cannot do it. Only Christ on the cross can
put away my sins. And then verse 10 of righteousness,
because I go to my Father and you see me no more. Christ came
to this world as the surety of His people. having all their
sins charged, accounted to Him. The debt of sin that His people
owed was charged to Him. He took it upon Himself. And
He suffered and He bled and He died to pay that debt. And out
of that comes righteousness, perfect satisfaction to God's
law and justice. And that's how Christ went to
His Father as the one who established righteousness for His people. And so therefore, we're convicted
by the Holy Spirit that we're sinful and cannot save ourselves
from sin. But that in Christ, we find righteousness. And you know, a lot of times
people will ask me, how do you know if you're under Holy Spirit
conviction. Well, in this book, What is a
Christian?, I've written a whole chapter on that subject. It comes
later on. Christians are those who've been
convicted of the Holy Spirit. We'll talk about that later.
But here's the way you know. Are you truly convinced of sin,
convicted, and of righteousness? Then you will find relief, comfort,
peace, salvation, justification, only in the Lord Jesus Christ
and the work that He accomplished on Calvary. You won't find it
anyplace else. Let me tell you something. You
say, well, I know I'm a sinner and I feel sorry for my sins.
Most people do. But if you find relief from the
guilt and the defilement and the damnation and the condemnation
of sin anywhere but in Christ as the righteousness of God,
the only righteousness a sinner can have, then you're not convicted
by the Holy Spirit. If you find it anywhere else
but Christ. And then thirdly, in verse 11,
he says of judgment because the prince of this world is judged.
Now the prince of this world is Satan. Satan is the accuser
of the brethren, and when he accuses God's people, the book
of Revelation chapter 12 tells us that we turn him away by pleading
the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ was the result
of the judgment of God upon Christ as the surety and substitute
of His people having their sins imputed to Him. In other words,
every true Christian is convinced that God judged him under wrath,
not in his own person, but in the person of Christ on the cross.
And therefore I can say, there is therefore now no condemnation. to them who are in Christ Jesus,
united to Him, who walk not after the flesh, but walk according
to the Spirit. I can say, who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
He's risen again and is seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us. That's a sinner who realizes
that, being convinced of that, who hears and believes the gospel.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth, to the Jew first and to the Greek also. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. You see, Romans 10.4 tells us,
it says, For Christ is the end of the law, the fulfillment of
the law, the perfection of the law, the finishing of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now, the commandment
of God to sinners then is this, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. The Bible tells us this, For
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10, 13. In other words,
if we understand the Bible, we will see that a true Christian,
even though ruined by the fall, chosen of God before the foundation
of the world and redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, how
then can any of us know if we're chosen of God? if we've been
redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ? Well, the Bible tells
us. The Bible tells us we know our
election, we know our redemption by our calling. And you see,
this personal union, this faith union with the Lord Jesus Christ
has to do with the invincible, irresistible calling of the Holy
Spirit. Think about this. True Christians
are described in the Bible in many different ways. One of the
ways is the elect of God, chosen of God. Another way is the redeemed
of the Lord. Now, what that means is that
before the foundation of the world, God chose me unto salvation
in Jesus Christ. Well, how do I know if I'm one
of the chosen? And then the redemption of grace, the redeemed of the
Lord. The Bible tells me that if I'm a Christian, Christ died
for my sins. He didn't die for everybody without
exception. He died for his people. He died
for his sheep. Christ said in John 10, my sheep,
the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. And he also said,
my sheep hear my voice. How do I know I'm one of the
redeemed? Well, 2 Peter 1, over in the book of 2 Peter 1, Verse 10, the Apostle Peter makes
this statement. He says, Wherefore the rather,
brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. He says, For if you do these
things, you shall never fall. Now did you notice what he says
there? Give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Now first of all, that's what
this book and these messages are all about. Are you really
a Christian? Am I really a Christian? Put it to the test. Have a challenge. This book, these messages will
challenge your faith. But don't be afraid of having
your faith challenged. Because my friend, that's necessary.
If your faith is challenged, go to the scripture and examine
it. If it's true, it'll withstand
every challenge thrown against it. If it's not true, wouldn't
you rather find out now than later? So give diligence to make
your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you'll
never fall, he says. You'll never fall from grace.
That don't mean lose your salvation. That means you'll never be revealed
to be a reprobate, as in 2 Corinthians 13, five. But notice what Peter
wrote there. He says, wherefore the rather
brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Notice it's not the other way
around. He doesn't say make your election and your calling sure. What my point is this, anyone
who claims to be chosen of God, anyone who claims to be one of
God's elect, on any other ground but the calling of the gospel,
or any other evidence, rather, but the calling of the gospel,
the truth, as it is in Christ. It's nothing but pride. It's
nothing but self-righteousness. The unbelieving Jews, for example,
they would say, well, we're the chosen of God. We're the chosen
nation. We're the elect of God. Well,
under the Old Covenant, they were for a temporary period of
time. But they carried that over and
self-righteously imagined that it included salvation and eternal
life and righteousness. And they had three things they
based it on. Number one was their physical connection with Abraham.
Number two was their physical circumcision. And number three
was their keeping of the law of Moses. Now, the Bible tells
us that none of those things give evidence of being one of
God's elect and being called of God. None of those things
give any evidence of salvation. You can be a physical descendant
of Abraham. You can be physically circumcised.
You can try to keep the law of Moses, but you'll always fail.
We're sinners. So what does he say? Give diligence
to make your calling sure. What is that calling? Well, over
in the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter one, the apostle Paul
addressed the believers, the Christians in the church at Thessalonica. And here's what he says in verse
four. He says, knowing brethren, beloved,
your election of God. In other words, I know that God
elected you. 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." I know your election because
of your calling, the calling of the gospel in power. Over
in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, the second letter to the church
at Thessalonica, In verse 13, 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul wrote,
But we are bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation, that's election, through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. Sanctification of the Spirit
is the new birth, that's setting apart. You've been set apart
by the Holy Spirit and you believe the truth. Now what truth is
it do you believe? Make your calling an election
show. Here's your calling. Verse 14,
where unto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's the gospel wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed. Remember Romans 1 16 and 17,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. For therein is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. It's the gospel that
tells us of the person of Christ, who Jesus Christ is. He's God
in human flesh. It's the gospel that tells us
of His righteousness. That's the merit, the goodness,
the value, the power of His obedience unto death as the surety and
substitute of His people. Back over in 1 Corinthians 1,
in verse 18, listen to the words of the apostle Paul here. He
says in verse 18, for the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness. But see, if it's foolishness
to you, Then right now, you give no evidence of being chosen of
God or being redeemed by the Lord. It's my prayer that God
will bring you to believe this message, and you will give that
evidence. And he says, but unto us which
are saved, it's the power of God, for it is written, I'll
destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where's the disputer of this
world? Hath 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 sign, the
Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified unto
the Jews a stumbling block unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto
them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power
of God and the wisdom of God." So a true Christian is one who
has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. who's been brought to repentance
and is kept by the power of God. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
by phone at 2-2-9-4-3-2-6-9-6-9 or email us through our website
at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.