Now this morning I want you to
focus your attention on verse 30 of 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And the title of the message
is, What Jesus Christ is Made Unto Me. What Jesus Christ is
Made Unto Me. And if you profess to be a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, then when I preach concerning what
Christ has made unto me, then that applies to you too. Paul
used the plural here. Jesus Christ is made unto us,
but of Him, verse 30, of Him, of Him, the Him there is God,
God Almighty, Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And he says,
are you in Christ Jesus? That's the Savior, the Messiah,
the Lord of glory, Jesus Christ. His name means salvation. He
shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. Christ, meaning the anointed
one, the appointed one, the one prophesied from the very beginning.
The first proclamation of the Christ was Genesis 3.15 as the
seed of woman. The first picture that was given
by God to fallen man was of the sacrifice of a lamb whereby blood
was shed because that's what sin demands. Sin demands death.
The wages of sin is death. And then the righteousness that
would be worked out in the death of the Christ, of the Messiah,
the seed of woman. which he put upon Adam and Eve,
which is symbolic of the righteousness of God imputed to his people,
whereby we stand justified. And this is what Jesus Christ,
Christ Jesus, is made unto us, who of God is made unto us. That
word made is derived from a word that means generate. It's something
that he became. And so what it's speaking of
is Jesus Christ as God-man, as Messiah, the Word made flesh
and dwelt among us. Why did Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, the, we read about it in Revelation this morning, the
Alpha and the Omega, the one who's the first and the last,
who is eternal God, the second person of the Trinity, why did
he come to this earth? Why was he made flesh? and it
was to redeem his people from their sins. And so when we read
this, this is something he became. He was set up from everlasting
as the substitute and surety of his people. Salvation is something
in the mind and purpose of God that was given to his elect people
before the foundation of the world in Jesus Christ. That's
how it can be said that our names were written in the Lamb's book
of life, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And so the purpose of God is fulfilled and accomplished in
time through this one who was made flesh, Jesus Christ, the
Lord of glory. Who is he? That's the issue. He is God manifest in the flesh. He is Emmanuel. If he's anything
less, he couldn't save us. He had to be very God of very
God. He had to be very man of very man without sin. He had
to be both. And that is a miraculous truth.
It's a mystery that's beyond the understanding and explanation
of man, but that doesn't matter. It's revealed in the word of
God. And so we believe it. And so we preach the cross. We
preach the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at
verse 18, the preaching of the cross. That's the death of Christ. That's the accomplishment of
Christ. His death was an accomplishment. You remember when the Lord took
Peter and James and John up to a mount. We call it the Mount
of Transfiguration. And it says that he revealed
himself in his glory to those men. And remember it said they
saw in that vision he spoke with Moses and Elijah. Moses representing
the law, Elijah representing the prophets. And the lesson
there was that all the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets, concerned
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And they were discussing something.
Moses and Elijah and the Lord of Glory. They were having a
discussion. They were talking about something.
What do you think they were talking about? Well, it says in Luke
17 that they spoke of His decease. which he would accomplish at
Jerusalem. And the word deceased there is
the Greek word for exodus. So what it's saying there is
number one, his death was not the end of anything. His death
was the beginning of everything. His death was not a defeat. His
death was an accomplishment. And that's what this is talking
about here. The preaching of the cross, the preaching of the
death of Christ. Now that's a foolish thing to
those who are perishing. That's those who are perishing
in unbelief. That one who is God in human flesh without sin
could become guilty before his father based on our sins imputed,
charged, accounted to him and die in our stead. And out of
that death would come an everlasting righteousness of infinite value
whereby God could justify a sinner like me. That's foolishness to
the perishing. And let me tell you something
now. Even to ignore it or to belittle it or to not give it
the worth and value that it deserves is counting it foolishness. You
need to understand that. Somebody said, well, I don't
count it foolishness. I just don't care. You count it foolishness. Because if you knew yourself,
if you knew your sinfulness, if you knew your depravity, if
you knew your need, it would be the power of God. This is the power of God. The
power of God's not in the emotional, religious, ecstatic experiences
of men. The power of God is in the cross.
It's in Jesus Christ and him crucified and risen. That's what
he says here. To those who are saved, it's
the power of God. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God and the
salvation. The dynamite, we get our word dynamite from that word
power there. Same thing here, it's the power
of God. And then he begins to talk about how it's the wisdom
of God. Now look back at verse 30. What has God made Jesus Christ
unto me, unto us, unto his children? Well, who are the us here? Well,
obviously he's talking about those who are saved by the grace
of God. He's not talking about all without
exception there. And the following here in verse
30, what he describes here involves all the blessings and all the
benefits of salvation by God's grace in Christ Jesus and the
believers standing before God and stayed as a saint by virtue
of our union with Christ. In other words, everything that
we have before God concerning salvation, concerning blessing,
concerning acceptance, concerning assurance and security is right
here in verse 30. He says, but of him. Some translations
say, but from him. And it could be either way. Certainly,
God alone is the only source and originator of salvation.
Everything in salvation comes from him. Doesn't come from you,
doesn't come from me, doesn't come from the church. It comes
from God. Salvation's of the Lord. And
as sinners saved by grace, God alone is the source of our being
and our blessings, all by Jesus Christ. But of him are you in
Christ Jesus. The person and work of Christ
is the ground of it all. God's love is the source, God's
power is the source, Christ's blood and righteousness is the
ground. It's kind of like what he said in Ephesians chapter
2 and verse 10. when he says, we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus. That's what it means. And it's
all of God's power, not ours. It's all of God's goodness, not
ours. And it's all of God's will in
Christ Jesus, not ours. Now, the point being is this. This is what Paul said. If that's
the case, and it is, Where then can we fit our pride, our self-esteem,
and our self-righteousness into the scheme of salvation? You
can't. It's totally obliterated. And
that's what the whole point of this is. Verse 29, that no flesh
should boast in his presence. That word glory there, that's
the same word that he used in Philippians chapter 3 and verse
3 when he says we rejoice in Christ Jesus the word rejoice
there's the same word glory here means to boast or to have confidence.
It's the same word that he translated glory in Galatians 6 14 God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So where do I have any room to
boast about and glory in? When I stand up to give a testimony,
as they say, what should I say about myself? And you know what
testimonies normally are, don't you? They're just brag sessions,
usually. Let me tell you about what happened
to me. Why would I want to tell you what happened to me? Because
I think it's going to impress you. But I want to tell you something
right now. I'll tell you what happened to
me. I was a sinner saved by the grace of God. I was on my road
to hell. And God stopped me by his grace. Saved me by his grace. And I
don't have anything to brag about or to glory in. This is what
it is. And for this reason, Christ,
Jesus, became unto us These things, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. He's made the light of wisdom
to us. I dealt with this in the Bible
study earlier in Revelation, talking about the wisdom of God. But Christ, Jesus, is the light
of the knowledge of the wisdom and power and glory of God in
the salvation of sinners. We read about it over here in
verse 18. The preaching of the cross is
foolishness to them who are perishing. It's the power of God to them
that believe. And then he goes in about wisdom
and foolishness. What is this thing about wisdom
and foolishness? You know, back over in the book
of Psalms, twice, it talks about how the fool hath said in his
heart, there's no God. Literally, that would probably
read better this way. The fool hath said in his heart,
no God for me. No God for me. That's man by
nature. He either denies God, he obviously
denies the true and living God, but he either denies God or he
fashions a God likened to himself who will accept him and receive
him and applaud him on the basis of things that he thinks he has
done for God. And thereby you have false religion,
salvation in some way, at some stage, in some degree conditioned
on the sinner. But the wisdom that's being spoken
of here is the same that I brought out earlier in the Sunday school
lesson, in the Bible study. This is the wisdom of God in
the salvation of sinners. This is the only wisdom that
poses and answers the great question of questions. Remember I mentioned
how that question is posed in the book of Job. They say the
book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible, and that may be
so, I don't know for sure, but it doesn't matter. Still the
issue, the issue of salvation, the issue of acceptance with
God, the issue of a relationship with God, and the issue of overcoming
death and hell and living forever and ever and ever, Goes right
back to this, how can a man, a sinful, fallen, depraved man,
man generically, including all of us, fallen in Adam, how can
such people be just before God? That's the issue. False religion,
as I said, they don't even pose that question. I'll never forget
the first time I heard a man preach on how God can be both
a just God and a Savior. And it dawned on me, here I was
a second year seminary student, and I thought, you know, I've
never even considered that. I've never even considered that
question. How can a man be just with God? It's right there in
the scripture, but it just wasn't important to me. But that's the
question. You remember when Adam fell,
and he and Eve in their shame, sewed fig leaf aprons together
to cover their nakedness. What were they doing? Well, they
were trying to cover over the mistake. They were trying to
cover over the sin. They were trying to cover over
and hide themselves from the wrath of God. And that was the
issue then. How now, in my state, I disobey
God. I don't have a righteousness
now. I lost what righteousness I had. They had the righteousness
of man. That's what Adam had before the fall. I had that and
I've lost it. So now how can I appear before
God and be accepted now? Well, let's do our best. Let's
think on this thing, Eve, and let's pull those fig leaves down
and let's sew them together. That's got to do something. It's
got to count for something. False religion. That's what that
represents. What did God do? he brought in
wisdom. And how did he do it? In Genesis
3.15, he prophesied of his plan of salvation from before the
foundation of the world, and he did it by stating this term,
the seed of woman, who would bruise the serpent's
head. And he illustrated that by setting up the sacrificial
system of worship, which was a picture, a symbol, and a type
of the answer. to this great question, and here
it is, the wisdom of God. And what did he do? He slew a
lamb and made coats of skin. That's a picture of Christ crucified,
dying for the sins of his people as our surety, our substitute,
having our sins imputed, charged to him, and the righteousness
that he established imputed to us. That's what it is. There's
the wisdom of God. That's what Jesus Christ has
made unto us. That's what it is, that's the
word of salvation. This book is able to make us
wise unto salvation, Paul told Timothy, because this book leads
us to Christ and Him crucified and risen. In the book of Proverbs
chapter 8, you don't have to turn there, read it sometime,
you have Jesus Christ, the personification of wisdom, set up there. Answering
the question, how a holy and just and righteous God So look
at how he explains it now. Christ has made the wisdom of
God unto us. And when the Holy Spirit brings
salvation to us, when we're born again by the Spirit, what does
he do? He brings us to a saving knowledge
of this wisdom in saving sinners like us. And he gives three things. First of all, Jesus Christ has
made unto me righteousness. That's the wisdom of God. And
you know why that's the wisdom of God? Because I don't have
any righteousness of my own. There's none righteous, no not
one, Romans 3.10. This is our justifying righteousness
here. This is not our right living.
He's not talking about how we live right. Should we live right?
Of course we should. But our living right doesn't
make us righteous. Our doing right doesn't make
us righteous. Christ Jesus is of God made unto
me righteousness. This is my justifying righteousness. This is the righteousness of
God because it's the one that Christ worked out in his obedience
unto death. It's imputed, charged, accounted
to me. He's made unto me righteousness.
He is my righteousness. This is that legal righteousness,
that forensic righteousness. This is my standing before God.
I read it at the beginning of the service. He is the Lord,
my righteousness. And I have no other righteousness
but him. Romans 10 and verse four, for Christ is the end,
the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone that
believe it. When the Holy Spirit brings me
to faith in Christ, the Bible describes that in one place,
in Romans chapter 10, he describes it as believing unto righteousness. What does that mean? That means
I believe in Christ as my righteousness. He is made of God unto me. Righteousness. And I don't have any other righteousness,
for God made him sin. Christ who knew no sin for us,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's what we become, we who
are saved, we who are made wise unto salvation, we who believe,
who are the called, he calls them here. Remember over here
in verse 23, look at, or verse 22, the Jews require a sign.
They're looking for signs in the atmosphere, signs in their
experience. Remember what Christ said one
time, a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign?
You know what he means by that. He means this, the word of God's
not good enough for him. It's kind of like, you know,
somebody says, well, Lord, if this is right or if this is the
way I should go, show me a sign from heaven, you know, strike
me with lightning or something. I don't know. No, the word of
God is enough. The Jews require a sign. The
Greeks seek after wisdom, human wisdom, human philosophy. But look at verse 23, we preach
Christ crucified. There's the wisdom of God. There's
our righteousness, right there. Under the Jews, a stumbling block.
You see, if a person is going about trying to establish their
own righteousness, glorying in their own works and their own
will, when we preach Christ crucified as the Lord our righteousness,
what happens? Unless the Holy Spirit brings
them to see the reality of it, they stumble over it. He says,
unto the Greeks, foolishness. That doesn't make any sense to
the mind of man. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. But look at verse 24, but unto
them which are called. That's the calling of the Holy
Spirit in irresistible, invincible grace. And how do you know? Well, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and Christ the wisdom of God. He is my righteousness. Look back at verse 30. He's my
righteousness, he's my justifying righteousness, and secondly,
he's the power of sanctification to me. Now I'm gonna do several
messages, I'm gonna take several passages of scripture on this
thing of sanctification and what it really means and how we're
to look at it. But how you view sanctify, you
know, there's all kinds of different views of this. Sanctified, sanctified. The word itself can be translated,
in other words, it could be like holy. Same word. You can look at passages like,
I think it's Hebrews 3.1 talks about holy brethren. We're a
holy nation. Sanctified. There are people
today who will talk about progressive sanctification. and they'll talk
about progressive holiness, growing in holiness. Well, and most of
the time, those terms are very badly abused and taken beyond
the realm of scripture. But how you see sanctification
is determined a lot by how you define the word. For example,
take the word holy. If you define the word holy as
morally perfect, then you're going to run into some problems
in scripture. When the writer of Hebrews addressed
the Hebrew believers as holy brethren, he wasn't telling them
you're morally perfect brethren. He wasn't telling them that they
were perfect and pure in every way. You see, right now we are
sinners saved by grace. Isn't that right? We're still
a sinful people. I am not morally pure in my thoughts,
in my attitude, in my actions. Not yet. I will be one day. as
I'm brought to glory. But I'm not there yet. Now, I
am perfect legally in Christ. That's my righteousness. Christ
is my righteousness. But I'm not morally perfect.
So if you define sanctified or holy in that way, you're gonna
have some problems when you come to a lot of scripture. But what
does the word mean? Sanctification, sanctified, holy. Think of it this way, think of
two words, set apart. That's what it means. We are
set apart. And what he's saying here is
of him, of God, we are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification. In Christ, we
are set apart from the world. That's what that means. You see, we're called by the
Holy Spirit to live in and by Jesus Christ. Our faith is in
Christ. It's not yet perfect faith. We
struggle, don't we? Even with unbelief and doubts. That's what the writer of Hebrews
called the sin that so easily besets us. But we run the race
looking unto Jesus. The world looks elsewhere. The
world looks to their religion. The world looks to their experiences.
The world looks to their works or their will. We look to Christ. We rest in Christ. The world
boasts in all those things. We boast in Christ. That's what
sets us apart, you see. We're sanctified. There is a
sanctification by God the Father. We were sanctified, set apart
by the Father in electing grace before the foundation of the
world. God chose us in Christ. That's sanctification. We were
set apart. There's redeeming grace. We were
set apart by the Son of God, Jesus Christ, when he redeemed
us on the cross. He died for me. When he died,
I died. When he was buried, I was buried.
When he arose, I arose. Set apart in Christ. And then
we're set apart in regenerating grace. Turn over to 2 Thessalonians
chapter two. Let me just show you this. 2
Thessalonians chapter two. And look at verse 13. 2 Thessalonians two. sanctified by the Father in electing
grace, sanctified by the Son of God in redeeming grace, sanctified
by the Holy Spirit in regenerating grace. This is when we're born
again. Look at verse 13. But we're 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 through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you
by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We're set apart by the Spirit when we're born again,
given life, given a new heart, and called unto Christ through
the gospel. What sets me apart? It's not
what I wear. It's not the length of my hair. It's not doing this, not doing
that. Taste not, touch not, handle not. You know what Paul called
that in Colossians chapter 2? He said that's being worldly.
If you think taste not, touch not, handle not sets you apart
from the world, you're being worldly. Now, does that mean
that anything goes? It doesn't matter what we eat
or drink or do? No, I'm not saying that at all.
There are things we shouldn't eat, things we shouldn't drink,
things we shouldn't do. But what I'm saying is that's
not what sets us apart from the world. Now go back to 1 Corinthians
1. Let me show you what I'm saying. What we read in verse 18, the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.
Well, what sets me apart from that? But unto us which are saved
is the power of God. That's what's different about
a believer. You say, well, there's certain things that I'm not gonna
eat, and I'm not gonna drink, and I'm not gonna do. And that's
okay. Unless you think that's what
makes you righteous and holy. Then you got another problem.
That's a denial of Christ. But I'll guarantee you, those
things you won't eat, you won't drink, and you won't do, you'll
find unbelievers doing the same thing. That right? So that doesn't set you apart.
even though those things may be fine. What sets us apart? Well, you can say it a lot of
different ways. Paul said, by the grace of God, I am what I
am. That's what sets me apart, the
grace of God. Nothing in me, nothing I do. Where's my hope of salvation?
Where's my hope of righteousness? Where's my hope of forgiveness?
Where's my hope of eternal life and glory? Jesus Christ and him
crucified, nowhere else. That's what sets me apart. That's
sanctification. We're set apart. And that's what
Christ has made of God unto us. Scripture says in Hebrews chapter
10 that by one offering he hath perfected them that are sanctified
forever. That's sanctified in Christ.
I'm holy before God in Christ. But then look back at verse 30
now. He says, and redemption. Christ is my, he's made the right,
the justifying righteousness unto me. He's made the power
of sanctification unto me. And he's also the price of redemption
unto me. He paid the price. I'm bought
with a price. I belong to him. What was the
price? The blood of the lamb. Now some
say this is referring actually to the redemption of our bodies
in the second coming of Christ. Well, I believe that's included.
The completion and perfection of the whole purpose and program
of God is fulfilled by Jesus Christ who purchased us with
His own blood. It's future for us, but we have
it right now in Christ. I'm a blood-bought sinner. My
sins have been washed away. I sing about it. Do you? What
can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Now put it in the context. Look at verse 29 again. I'll
close with this. All this is so that no flesh
should glory in his presence. So of him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that according as it is written. We read about
it in Jeremiah 9, didn't we? Or I quoted it or read it earlier.
He that glorieth. You wanna boast? Well, it's man's
nature to boast. We gotta have confidence in something,
don't we? We don't live our lives in total despair. We're gonna
find something to hold on to, something to anchor us down.
Well, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. There's where we glory. That's
what sets us apart. We glory in the Lord. We glory
in Christ. We glory in his blood. We glory
in his righteousness. And it's all by the grace of
God.