Now if you will look with me
in that passage that Brother Mark just read in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. I want to speak to you this morning
on the subject of the standard of our life in Christ. The standard of our life in Christ. Now obviously that title itself
is speaking of true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
if you're not a true believer, you don't have spiritual life.
Go by this standard. By nature, we're born dead in
trespasses and sins. That's spiritual death. Spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. That's why the Lord told Nicodemus,
he tells us, you must be born again or you cannot see or enter
the kingdom of God. And that's why a person who believes
the gospel, a person who believes in Christ, who's been brought
to faith in Christ under the preaching of the gospel that
Mark read about here, the Apostle Paul writing by the inspiration
of the Spirit in verse 18, the preaching of the cross. That's
the preaching of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the preaching
of his finished work. It's not just the cross as a
symbol or some kind of a religious artifact. But he's talking about
the blood of Christ, the finished work of Christ, what the scripture
calls in Romans 1, the righteousness of God. That's what this cross
is. It's the righteousness of God. Because that's what Christ
did in his obedience unto death. He established righteousness
for his people. But if a person believes that,
trusts Christ for all salvation, for all forgiveness, for all
righteousness, for all eternal life and glory, that person And
I'm not exaggerating to say this, that person is a miracle of God's
grace. That's what a believer is. A
believer is not one who is, as I said earlier, who rises above
the crowd and exercises his free will in some way towards God. No, that's not what it is. Our
wills are just as depraved as everything else about us, our
minds and our affections. He's a miracle. of God's grace. And so, when we talk about the
standard of our life in Christ, we're talking about those who
have life in Christ. What is our standard? And there's
a lot of ways we could state that, describe it, different
scriptural terms, but what I want to deal with today is mainly
these last three verses, that'll be my text of 1 Corinthians 1,
where he says in verse 29, he says that no flesh, and that's
all of us, No flesh should glory in his presence. Now that word
glory is a word that means to boast or to have confidence in. In other words, that no flesh
should boast in God's presence. And then he summarizes in verse
30 what seems to be a comprehensive statement of what it means to
be saved. And he says in verse 30, but
of him, the him there is God the father. It's of God, are
you in Christ Jesus? If I'm in Christ Jesus, what
does it mean to be in Christ Jesus? It means he's my representative,
it means he's my substitute, my surety, it means he died for
me, it means that he is the Lord, my righteousness, I'm in him. He is my Savior. That's what
it means to be in Christ. And then it means to be in Him
by faith. We're brought to Him by the Holy
Spirit under the preaching of the gospel to believe in Him.
And so we're in Christ. We live our very being as sinners
saved by grace is in Christ, but of Him. Now that being in
Christ is not of you. It's not of me. It's not of me,
it's of God. But of God, of Him, are you in
Christ Jesus? If you're in Christ Jesus, God
put you there. That's what he's saying. You
didn't put yourself there. Most people today believe they
put themselves there. That's right. And in essence,
that's just a blanket statement, or a hidden statement rather,
that says, well, I'm a little bit better than other people.
You can't deny that. I mean, you may try to, but you
can't. I'm less stubborn, less rebellious. I'm more humble,
that kind of thing. But that's not the way it is.
Of Him, of God are you in Christ Jesus. And here's what Christ
is made of God to His people. Who of God is made unto us wisdom,
He's our wisdom. And He's talking about in this
area of salvation now. We don't have any wisdom in salvation.
The natural man doesn't know anything about what really means
to be saved. He thinks he does. That's why
you have so much religion today. That's why man by nature is a
religious being. But it's false religion. The
only way of salvation is the sovereign mercy and grace of
God in Christ Jesus. and based upon his finished work
as the God-man mediator who did for me what I cannot do for myself.
That's the wisdom of God. Remember over here in verse 22,
look at it. He said the Jews require sign,
the Greeks seek after wisdom. That's really descriptive of
all of us by nature. What are people looking for when
they look for salvation? They look for signs. Now that
doesn't necessarily mean a vision up in the sky. That means they
look for different things in people to try to prove either
them and these other people saved. What kind of life are you living?
How do you appear outwardly? How do you feel? And then he
says, the Greeks seek after wisdom. You know, the Greeks, the ancient
Greeks, they felt like that they could attain salvation. Now, they didn't call it salvation,
and it wasn't the same kind of salvation that the scripture sets forth, but they thought
that they could attain union or communion with God or their
idea of the gods by their knowledge. Learn more and more and more.
And that's the way man is today in religion. It's either by feelings,
emotionalism, signs, or by knowledge. And it's not the knowledge of
God, but knowledge that man can attain to. But he says in verse
23, he says, but we preach Christ crucified. We preach the Son
of God incarnate, crucified, who died on that cross to put
away our sins and to establish the only righteousness whereby
God could justify the ungodly. That's what we preach. Now under
the Jews, that's a stumbling block, he says in verse 23. Because
you see, if you're trying to make yourself righteous by your
works, when I come along, or any true preacher comes along,
or any true witness comes along, and says, now look what you're
doing, and I want you to listen to this, what you're doing is
evil in the sight of God. Now man, by nature, can't understand
it. I remember, listen, I can remember sitting and listening
to the first man I ever heard preach this gospel of free and
sovereign grace. I thought he was crazy. I thought he was crazy. I told
my mother going home, she was a believer before I was, and
I said, Mom, I said, if what he said is true this morning,
I said, I'm lost and everybody I know just about's lost. That
man's crazy. You mean to tell me that all
my religious efforts, all my efforts to obey and to be good,
you mean that's evil? And somebody says, well, how
can that be evil? You've got to put it in this context now.
It's not evil before men. It's evil before Almighty God.
Why? Why? Because it's a denial of
His glory. It's a denial of his son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what this glory is
all about. So he says, we preach Christ crucified under the Jews'
stumbling block, under the Greeks' foolishness. That's foolishness
to the Greeks, to the Gentiles, that's what it's talking about.
But listen to verse 24. But unto them which are called,
now that's the calling of the Holy Spirit in the new birth.
How do I know if I'm called by the Holy Spirit? Well, under
them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power
of God, and the wisdom of God. This message that the natural
man will not receive and hates, to the called, it's the wisdom
of God and the power of God. There's no other way to be saved.
Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. Now let me show you what all
that means. You know, people read in the religious catechisms
all the time, and usually they all start like this. They say,
what is the chief end of man? What's the chief purpose of man
here on earth? And the answer is to glorify
God, to glorify God. Well, look back at verse 30 of
1 Corinthians 1. He says, but of him are you in
Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom. Christ is our wisdom.
Christ is our righteousness. Now here's what I'm saying. Here's
what this is saying. I have no righteousness before
God, but Christ. Well, does that mean that we
shouldn't try to do well and to be good and to obey? No, we
should, but that's not our righteousness before God. You understand what
I'm saying? Our righteousness before God
is Christ and Him crucified. My attempts to do well, to be
good, cannot make me righteous before God. They themselves aren't
even righteous because they come from me. They're the operation
of God through me, but they come through me. I'm not the source
of them, but they still come through me. And I'm a sinner saved by grace.
Christ is my righteousness. And then sanctification. That's
holiness. There are people today who think
that the more they work, the harder they work, the more dedicated
they are, the holier they get. That's not our holiness. Christ
is my holiness. And then redemption. Redemption. Can we earn our salvation? Can
we earn our blessings? Can we earn favor with God? No. Why? We don't have the price. I heard a famous preacher in
Atlanta on TV one time. He was talking about forgiveness
of sins. And he asked this question. He
said, what is the cost of forgiveness? And here was his answer. Repentance
is the cost of forgiveness. And I sat back in my chair and
I said, oh no, my friend. The cost is higher than that.
Your repentance, are we required to repent? Yes, but your repentance
is not enough to pay the cost of forgiveness. You know what
the cost of forgiveness is? The blood of the lamb. You say,
well preacher, you're just splitting hairs. Oh no. You know what's
at stake here? The glory of God. that no flesh
should glory in it. How do you know you're forgiven?
Well, I repented and he didn't. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from all sin. And you know, we sing that, don't
we? I mean, the preacher who made that statement, they'll
sing that song up there. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but your repentance. No, 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. Do I believe that? Do you believe
that? He's my redemption. Now why did
God set it up that way? This is God's doing. This is
not your doing. This is not the schemes and the
religions and the philosophies of man. Because every religion,
and I've studied a lot of them, every religion of man, every
religion of man, in some way is a religion of man's works
or man's will. So that men have reason to glory. But God's gospel is not like
that. Why? Look at verse 31. That according
as it is written, he that glorieth, Let him glory in the Lord. You
got any reason to boast? You got any reason to be confident?
Glory in the Lord. That's what he's talking about.
Glory in the Lord. All through the Psalms, you'll
read this phrase. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name. Why did you come to worship this
morning? Do you know that's a good definition
of worship? Giving unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name. A lot of people, they go to worship
services and they end up talking about who? Talking about themselves. I saw a sign yesterday and one
said they were having Pastor Appreciation Day. Now listen,
don't have a Pastor Appreciation Day here. That's not what we're here for. You know, the greatest joy that any true
preacher, any true pastor can have is what John the Baptist,
what was said of John the Baptist in the book of John. And it goes
like this, I can't remember the exact verse, but it says, they
heard John preach, heard John the Baptist preach, and they
followed Christ. And that's what I want. You're
hearing me preach, but I want you to follow Christ. Don't follow
me. Follow Christ. Christ is your hope. He's my
hope. I've got no other hope but Him. I've got no other righteousness
but Him. I've got no other salvation but
Him. That's what I want for you. The worst thing that can happen
to any preacher is to gain a following for himself. And John told him
that. He said, I'm not the Messiah.
I'm not the Christ. I'm not even worthy to untie
his shoes. He must increase. Christ must
increase. I must decrease. That's what
this is all about. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name. What is his name? Well, he has
many names in scripture. We could go through and do a
good study on the names that identifies God. But let me just
give you this. His name is his honor. He has a good name. You know, you go through life
and you see people who have a good reputation, a good name, and
you have some who don't have such a good name or good reputation.
God's name is his honor. God's name is his majesty. God's name is his reputation.
In this matter of salvation, how God saves sinners and the
eternal destiny of his people, his reputation is on the line,
not yours, not mine. We don't have any. We're sinners.
We're ill-born. We fell an atom. We're that base
thing that he talks about here, the base things of the world,
verse 28. Is that an insult to you? It's just truth. Shouldn't be. In other words, I'm a sinner,
and I don't have anything to recommend me to God. I don't
have anything to deserve or to earn salvation from God. I have
no right. Here's total depravity. Remember
I gave you these three things again? Total depravity of man,
sinfulness of man, means we don't have righteousness, we can't
work a righteousness, and we don't want one God's way. That's
what it means. We want it our way, but not God's
way. His name is his reputation. His
name is that which identifies and distinguishes him from everything,
everyone else, all idols. God's glory is revealed both
in his attributes, his nature. Many of you have probably seen
the famous book by the author Arthur Pink on the attributes
of God, and he lists them, you know, all of God's attributes,
his immutability, his infinity, his holiness, his love, his mercy,
his grace, his justice, his truth, all of those. Well, his glory
is the revelation and perfection of all of those put together.
His glory is his works. What God does, here's what His
glory is. What God does, He does it right. He never does anything
wrong. And it's always to the praise
of the glory of His grace and the good of His people, ultimately. Psalm 104, verse 31. Don't turn
there, I'll just read it to you. The glory of the Lord shall endure
forever. The Lord shall rejoice in His
works. But before God, We can take no
glory for ourselves. That no flesh, verse 29, that
no flesh should glory in his presence. The psalmist said in Psalm 115
in verse 1, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Not unto
us, not unto us. So whenever we consider something
in the realm of doctrine, any doctrine, you think about the
doctrines of the church, the doctrines of religion, that's
the teachings now. Somebody said we don't preach
doctrine, they're lying to you, they do, you have to. The only
way you can not preach doctrine is just keep your mouth shut. But how do I know if a doctrine
is right or wrong? How can I tell, how can you know
that what I'm telling you this morning is the truth? And you
should be concerned about that. The scripture says test the preachers.
One fella came down here to preach years ago and he got upset. He
said he felt like he was on trial. And I told him, I said, well,
the scripture says in 1 John 1, test the spirits, try the
preachers. That's what that's talking about. We ought not be afraid when people
want to check our message out. You should be concerned about
that. So any doctrine, how do I know if it's right or wrong,
truth or lie? Practice, any practice in the
church, or any method that we use, or any goal that we have,
how are we gonna measure its validity, whether or not it means
anything, or if it's worthless, or if it's right or wrong? What
standard should we use? That's the question. And that's
what I mean by this, the standard of our life in Christ is the
glory of God. First of all, listen, you know
the greatest revelation of God's glory, the perfection of his
attributes and the perfection of his work now, the greatest
revelation, the greatest uncovering, manifestation you might say,
showing forth of God's glory is found in one place, in one
person. And that's in salvation of sinners
by his free and sovereign grace in the person and finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the greatest manifestation
of God's glory. Now what I mean by that, listen,
you know, you can see, you go back and you do this on your
own. You read Psalm 19, for example, and it begins, it says, the heavens
declare the glory of God. shows forth his handiwork. You
can see something of the glory of God in creation. Romans 1
speaks of that. You can see his wisdom, his power. You can see that in creation.
Now, by nature, men deny that, and they'll turn it into something
selfish and self-righteous and sinful. You know, they look at
the sun, and instead of seeking the God Instead of concluding,
that must have been a great God who created that, we need to
seek and find more of him, they'll worship the sun. They'll worship
the earth. We got a lot of earth worshipers
today, don't we? They become pantheists, God's
in everything, he's in that pew there, you know. Well, God is
omnipresent, the scripture says, that's one of his attributes,
he's everywhere. But you can see something of
God's glory in creation. But where do we find the greatest,
the fullest, the perfect revelation of all of God's attributes working
consistently together, manifesting themselves in its fullness? Where
are we going to find that? I'll tell you exactly where.
In the glorious person and finished work. redemptive work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture says that it pleased
the Lord that in him, in Christ, should all fullness dwell. Colossians
2 and verse 9, in him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead,
Father, Son, and Spirit, the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Let me show you a scripture. Turn to Hebrews chapter 1. Let me show you how the glory
of God is connected directly to the glorious person and finished
work of Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? The Bible
says He is God in human flesh without sin. His name shall be
called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. His
name shall be called what? Emmanuel. was being interpreted
as God with us. No wonder the angel said, glory
to God in the what? Highest. That doesn't mean glory
to God up there. That means the highest manifestation
of the glory of God in the one who would come and be born of
the Virgin Mary. Glory to God in the highest.
He is the highest revelation of God's glory. Look at Hebrews
1 and verse 1. God. who at sundry times in diverse
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." Jesus Christ
has come. That's what the writer of Hebrews
is saying. He's come. God's spoken to us
by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he
made the worlds. Look at verse three. Who being
the brightness of his glory. That word brightness is the word
effulgent. That means that he is the brightness,
he is the highest glare, you might say, of the glory. But he's the brightness of his
glory and the express image of his person, meaning he is God
in human flesh, and upholding all things by the word of his
power. Now look what it's connected with here. When he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. You see, it's all connected here to the glory of God, the
glorious person and the redemptive work of Christ. That's what it
means when he purged our sins. What happened on that cross? Every attribute of God in its
fullness and perfection. Listen, listen, look at it this
way. It's summarized, and I want you
to turn here. Turn back to Isaiah 45. I want
you to see this. I want to make a point here that
It just astounds me. It has ever since I was brought
to see the truth. Isaiah 45 and verse 21. Here's
the thing. The effulgent, the highest glory
of God in the person and work of Christ can be summarized in
this phrase, a just God and a savior. You can summarize it in that
phrase. Doesn't mean you have to be a walking, talking encyclopedia
of every attribute of God. You could study all the attributes
of God your whole life and you wouldn't even touch the surface.
You'd be like those two farmers from West Virginia. I've told
you about them, haven't I? They always wanted to see the
ocean. I say this about West Virginia because I lived up close
to West Virginia in Kentucky. I don't say it about Kentuckians.
But anyways, two farmers from West Virginia, they always wanted
to see the ocean, so they vowed before they died, they would
go to the coast and see the Atlantic Ocean. When they finally got
there, and they're standing on the shore, and one of them looks
at it, and he said, man, he said, I just didn't realize that it
was this big. And the other farmer looked at
him, he said, yeah, and he said, that's just the top of it. And
that's the way it is with the glory of God. You could study
the glory of God the rest of your life, and you're only going
to see the top of it. And you're going to realize,
I just didn't know how big this thing was. But the Lord still
condescends to reveal himself to his people, and it can be
summarized in this one phrase, a just God and a Savior. And
let me put it to you this way. The moment we say in preaching
or witnessing that God forgives sin, We got a big problem. What's the problem? Well, God
told Adam, in the day that you eat thereof, what? You shall
surely die. The Bible says the wages of sin
is death. Now where does that come from?
It comes from the justice of God. The holiness of God. God is so holy and righteous
and just that He must punish sin. He cannot ignore it. He cannot deny it. He cannot
act as if it never happened. He cannot look over it. We've
all heard about judges in our human courts who let criminals
go free. And what do we do when that happens?
We are appalled. because injustice has been done. Isn't that right? Isn't that right? Well, God can't
do that. God must judge according to truth. Romans chapter 2 tells us. He
cannot look at you with pity and compassion and just say,
well, let him go free, I love him, without justice being satisfied. without righteousness being established.
So the question of questions, and here's what's sad, most people
in religion who even call themselves Christians and who claim to believe
the Bible have never even confronted this, and this is the heart of
the gospel. This is the question of questions.
How can God be just and still save a sinner like me? How can
God be true to himself in his glory, his honor, his holiness,
and still have mercy on me? How can he do that? And there's
not one philosophy or religion of man who can come up with that
answer, let alone even pose the question. How can man be justified with
God? How can he be both a righteous
judge and do what's right and still save a sinner like me in
mercy and grace and love? How can he be both a just God
and a savior? That's it. Now the answer to
that question is revealed in the gospel of God's grace by
Jesus Christ and it's the highest manifestation of the glory of
God. Look at it, verse 21 of Isaiah 45. Tell ye, and bring
them near. Yea, let them take counsel together.
Who hath declared this from ancient time? This is no new message.
This is an old message. This is an eternal message. Who
hath told it from that time? No man. Have not I the Lord?
That's Jehovah, salvation. And there's no God else beside
me. Now look at how God distinguishes himself there in verse 21. A
just God and a Savior. There's none beside me. That's
his glory. That identifies him and distinguishes
him. Look at verse 22. Look unto me
and be ye saved all the ends of the earth. Look unto who?
A just God and a Savior. Look unto me and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth. For I'm God, there's none else.
Verse 23, I've sworn by myself. There's an oath here. You know
what happens when God swears an oath? He engages himself behind
the promise. And if the promise would ever
fail, who would lose glory? Who would be considered of no
repute? God would. He swore an oath. I've sworn by myself, he says.
He has to swear by himself because there's none greater than God.
He says, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness,
justice, that's what he's talking about, and shall not return. God's going to do right. When
God saves a sinner, he does what's right. He doesn't pervert justice. He doesn't lie. That unto me every knee shall
bow and every tongue shall swear, surely shall one say, now look
at it, verse 24, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. That's the imputed righteousness
of Christ. In the Lord, not in me, not in
the church, not in baptism, not in my family, but in the Lord
have I righteousness. And in the Lord have I power,
strength. Even to him shall men come, and all that are incensed
against him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified, and shall glory." That seed of Israel,
there's the seed of Abraham. If you read Galatians chapter
3, you'll find out that the seed of Abraham are those who believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's your testimony. In
the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified. I'm not
guilty. Well, I'm a sinner, aren't I?
Aren't you? Well, how can I be declared not
guilty? How can God, who knows everything,
who sees everything, who sees even my heart, how can he look
at me and say not guilty and still be just in doing so? Well,
my friend, he doesn't charge me with my sins. He charged them
to Christ. He put them on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He placed my sin debt upon Christ. He accounted it
to Christ. And Christ paid the debt in full.
And God is just in looking upon an old sinner like me and saying,
not guilty. Not condemned. And it's better than that. Not
only does God look upon me as not guilty, he looks upon me
as righteous. Now, if you follow me around
this week, I hope that I'm gonna try to
be the best person I can be. But I guarantee you, in the end
of the week, you're gonna say anything but, he's righteous. You're gonna catch me at a bad
moment, I know I'm gonna have some there, I hope I don't. I'm going
to have some bad moments this week. I'll have maybe some moments
where I lose my temper or just getting frustrated and complaining.
You know what complaining is in the Bible? Anybody know? Unbelief. That's right. Murmuring. I do a lot of murmuring, don't
you? You ever done any murmuring? Woe is me. Why me, Lord? That's unbelief, folks. That's
not righteousness. But I'm clinging to Christ by
the grace of God and He's my righteousness. I'm justified. I have a righteousness that answers
the demands of God's justice. God can be merciful as well as
just. God can be gracious as well as
holy. He's a just God and a Savior
because I'm in Christ. My sins are washed away by the
blood of the crucified one. God's justice fell on him in
my place, and I have his righteousness accounted, imputed, charged to
me. He was made sin for us. Christ who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's God's glory. For God to be glorified, righteousness
must be established. Is that right? And for righteousness
to be established, Christ must come and die and be buried and
raised again the third day. That's the glory of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wrote in Galatians chapter
six, And I'll deal with this a little bit next week on this
subject. I told the ones at 10 o'clock
that I've been dealing with this booklet or pamphlet. Well, you
know, I start to write pamphlets and they turn into booklets.
But anyway, about the glory of God revealed in the gospel. So
I've had this on my mind. Paul wrote this, he said in Galatians
6.14, he said, God forbid that I should glory, that I should
boast, except in one thing, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that beautiful? Give you something to think about
before we leave. Read Philippians chapter three in verse three.
Well, read the whole chapter. But verse three, Philippians
three, I think is one of the most concise definitions of a
Christian you'll find in the Bible. Philippians 3.3. And that's
where the apostle Paul writes, for we are the circumcision.
Now he's talking about spiritual circumcision of the heart. That's
the new birth. Children of God, we're the circumcision. We're children of God. We worship
God in spirit. That means we worship him sincerely
from the heart, but it means also we worship him as he reveals
himself, not as we think him to be. So we worship God in spirit,
and we rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now that word rejoice in Philippians
3 is the same word translated glory in our text, 1 Corinthians
1, 29, 31, and Galatians 6, 4. We glory in Christ Jesus. We
boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. May the Lord bless His Word to
our hearts.