Let me add my welcome to Winston.
It's always good to see you out to hear the word of the Lord,
and that's what we're here for, to hear what the Lord would say
to us from the book of Joshua. As you can see, my text is Joshua
chapter four, verses 14 through 19. In this book of Joshua, the nation
of Israel has reached a turning point in their history. As you
remember, Israel went down into Egypt, 70 strong, 70 souls went
down to Egypt. And somebody said over 5 million
came out. over five million were delivered.
And just recently they wandered in this wilderness for forty
years while their rebellious fathers who refused to go in
by the promise of God and claim this land as their own, as God
commanded them to do, they wandered out there until those rebellious
fathers died off. They could not enter in because
of unbelief. They've not had a glorious history
up to this point, but things are changing for this nation.
God has brought them to Canaan. He's brought them to the promised
land. And in the rest of this chapter, we'll be looking at
what it was, what it is to remember. You remember last time I preached. God had commanded Joshua to tell
Israel to choose a man from each tribe, 12 men. And for those
men to go into the bottom of that Jordan River, which God
had dried up, go there and pick out a stone. Each one, 12 stones
representing all of the elect of God in every generation of
every kindred tribe and nation. And they're to build a memorial
that would remind them and would provoke their children to ask
them about these days. What are these stones, they would
ask. Why are there 12, they would ask. Why are they here? What
are we to remember about it? So the rest of this chapter is
about remembering. And you can see the lesson, I've
entitled it, Remembering When You Got Here. Now first, let
me explain a little bit about what I mean by when. Remembering
when about an event is not just about a day or a month or a year.
It's about that. I mean, you could remember that
about when, but it also includes the circumstances, the specifics,
the little things that might come to mind about that event.
For instance, if I ask you to remember, remember the day you
got married, I mean, you'd remember the day, you'd remember the month,
you'd remember the year, that's your anniversary, you remember
that all the time. But you'd also remember that
it was a hot day in June, or it was a cold day in February,
or it was, the flowers were beautiful, or you'd remember all the people
who came. You'd remember other things than
just when. There'd be a lot of other things
you'd remember than just when. So, when we're talking about
when today, we're not just going to be talking about a date and
time. We're going to be talking about some of those other things.
And let's also understand where here is. It says remembering
when you got here. Where's here? Well, here for
national Israel, as I said, is Canaan. It's the promised land.
It's deliverance from that bondage in Egypt and here where they
have come to inherit a land that God has given them. It's the
land that God gave their father Abraham some 470 years earlier,
and it's entering in and beginning to take possession of that land.
That's where here is for them. But that's just history. See,
this is a picture. This is a picture of spiritual
Israel. And here for spiritual Israel, what I mean by remembering
when you got here for spiritual Israel, it's deliverance from
the bondage of sin and the bondage of the law that you were under
by nature. Here is knowing God as a just God and a savior. It's
resting in Christ for all of salvation. Remembering when you
got here is remembering when God set you down under this message,
under this gospel. He gave you eyes to see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and he calls you to put your
confidence in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh. That's
what I mean by here. That's what we're going to be
talking about. Now, remembering always presupposes a prior experience. We can only remember events and
circumstances that we have gone through before. If you ask me
to remember my trip to California, I couldn't do it because I've
never been to California. But now if you ask me to remember
my trip to the Alamo, I could do that. I've been there. I could
tell you some things about it. Prior experience is important
if you're going to remember something. It's necessary. This generation
of national Israel experienced this miraculous entry into Canaan. We studied that last time. They crossed over this Jordan
on dry ground. God dried up the Jordan River
and they walked across on dry ground. By command, they gathered
12 stones from the middle of that river, as I said. Now rightfully,
they're the ones commanded to build a memorial to this event.
Rightfully, they're the ones who can remember when. They can
remember when God brought them to this land, when they began
to inherit it. Those who have entered into God's
rest, those who have experienced the salvation God worked out
in the doing and dying of Christ alone, they are the ones commanded
to remember when you got here in a spiritual sense. So in our
lesson today, we'll see that remembering when you got here
is remembering that when was these three things. It was particular,
it was life changing, it was specific. So let's look at the
first point. First, remembering when you got
here is remembering that when was particular. Israel got here
to this promised land when God magnified Joshua in their sight. Look at Joshua 4 and verse 14. It says, on that day, that's
the day they came across that Jordan and actually set foot. on the west banks of that Jordan
River in the land of promise. On that day, the Lord magnified
Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him as they feared
Moses all the days of his life. The day being described here
is the one in which God revealed Joshua to be the one, the one
person in Israel who had the words of God, he had the works
of God, he had the authority of God, and God proved that.
when he commanded the priest to take up the Ark of the Covenant
and by his command to enter that Jordan River, and by God's authority,
God stopped the flow of that Jordan and made it a dry riverbed. Under Joshua's leadership, Israel
entered safely and unencumbered into that land of promise. That
was a particular day for them. On that day, Joshua led national
Israel into that land. On that day, God made a change
in the thinking of this nation. On that day, God caused Israel
to fear, fear Joshua, to esteem him, to reverence him. And it
says to esteem Joshua as they had esteemed Moses. Up to that
day, their esteem was to Moses. You see the esteem is changing
from Moses to Joshua. But this is not just a picture
of National Israel esteeming Joshua. It's a picture of them
esteeming Joshua and no longer esteeming Moses. Moses was the
man of law. He emphasized Israel's obedience
to the law. They'd been given a set of rules
and regulations, ten commandments, and his emphasis was on, and
other things, and his emphasis was on their obedience to them.
He stressed that Israel be careful to observe and to do all that
God commanded them. The book of Deuteronomy is filled
with these commands of Moses to this nation. Let's look at
just a couple of them. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 11,
verse 31. It says, Moses is talking, he
said, for you shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the
land which the Lord your God giveth you, and you shall possess
it and dwell therein, and you shall observe to do all the statutes
and judgments which I set before you this day. And then Deuteronomy
28 and verse 1 is another one. Moses said, and it shall come
to pass if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of
the Lord thy God to observe and to do all his commandments which
I command thee this day that the Lord thy God will set thee
on high above all nations of the earth. It's only fitting
that the man God used to give the law to Israel also be the
one that would be the one stressing obedience to that law. Obedience
to the law is important. Obedience to the law is vital.
The slightest disobedience to the law brings the curse of the
law. We see that in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 10. It says,
for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.
For it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not
in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. The law demands obedience. It was never given to be disobeyed
or treated lightly. Any disobedience to the law brings
the curse of the law. It's necessary that sinners see
that obedience to the law that is important, that is necessary,
that is vital. Now why is it necessary for us
to see that? Because the first design of law is to show sinners
their utter inability to measure up to the demands of that law.
The first design of law is to stop the mouths and bring sinners
in guilty. Look at Romans 3 in verse 19.
Paul writes here, 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.
It says, to those who are under the law,
the law speaks. What does it say to those who
are under the law? It says, the law demands perfect
continual obedience to the law. Why does it say that? To stop
the mouths of sinners and bring them in guilty. for sinners to
understand that we don't have anything in the way of obedience
to measure up to what God's law demands. And it stops our mouths
in order to stop us from trying to work out our acceptance with
God by our obedience. Who is under the law? Well, that's
a good question, and I wanna answer it in a little detail
here. We're gonna take a moment right here. On the issue of sinners
trying to work out their acceptance with God by the law, on this
issue, this issue right here, the heart of natural man, all
of us by nature, the heart is what the scriptures describe
as deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? Nobody under a message they call
grace thinks they're trying to work out their acceptance with
God by their obedience. Nobody thinks that. They think
they're looking to the blood of Christ and the death of Christ.
They don't think they're trying to work out their obedience.
Those under such a message think they're looking to Christ alone.
They're certain that their belief that their belief that Christ
died for them proves that they're looking to Christ. They're not
looking to their works. Why do you say I'm looking to
my works, they ask us. We're looking to Christ alone.
They have, as Brother Jim said in the back, in their own language,
made Christ their personal Savior. But Christ's not a personal Savior. He didn't die as a private person.
Christ is a representative. His death cannot be effectual
to one sinner he died for and be ineffectual to another sinner
he died for. You see, his death is the same
for every sinner he died for. His death put away the sin of
every sinner he died for. His obedience unto death established
the one righteousness by which God justifies ungodly sinners.
Christ can't die for one sinner and he go to heaven and die for
another sinner and him go to hell. That's not, that can't
be true according to this word. That's an impossibility. To think
that any sinner will perish that Christ died for is to discount
his death as the one cause of salvation. But the scripture
says his death is the one cause of salvation. To think that any
sinner Christ died for can perish is to make something in the sinner
the real cause of salvation. He died, but unless you do this,
you won't be saved. Unless you believe, unless you
repent, unless you get serious about religion, you won't be
saved. Under this thinking, the real
difference between saved and lost, the real difference between
heaven and hell, is not the death of Christ. It's not the death
of Christ alone. It's the believing or the condition
of the sinner. You see, this kind of thinking
makes believing a condition. It makes believing a work. It
makes believing a deed of law. And those who think this way
are yet under the law, although they don't know they're under
the law. I was under the law for years, claiming grace. thinking I was looking to the
blood of Christ, but I was under the law, because I thought the
real difference between heaven and hell came when I believed,
because I believed. Under the law applies to any
sinner not looking to the imputed righteousness alone for all of
salvation. Under the law applies to all
of us by nature. That's where we all start out,
under the law. And we stay under the law until,
under the gospel, the Spirit of God regenerates us and gives
us faith toward God and repentance of dead works. We stay under
the law until God, by the gospel, stops our mouths, and brings
us in guilty. Shows us that by our obedience,
we never were measuring up to God's standard. We could never
have found any acceptance before God in anything found in us.
Because I think a statement Jim made in the back, he said, we're all sinners. We're all
Everything we do is sin. We don't ever do anything that's
not sin. Our best prayer is sin. Our best
message is sin. So we can't find any confidence
in our obedience. we must find all our acceptance
in Christ's obedience. So we stay under the law until
the Spirit of God shows us these things, until he shows us that
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe it. Look at Romans chapter 4, 10
verse 4. It says, for Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
Now what exactly does this statement mean? I mean, we quote this verse
a lot. Well, it means a couple of things. It means that that
word in means it's telos, it means an accomplishment. The
same word is used when Christ on the cross said it's finished.
It's accomplished, he said. The work of salvation has been
accomplished. It means that. It means Christ
has met every condition for the salvation of those that the Father
had given him. So, Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness in that sense, but it's also in the sense
I'm talking about in this lesson. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. He's the end of a sinner thinking
that he's making some contribution toward his acceptance with God.
Because the sinner who believes knows that all of his acceptance
is found in the person and work of Christ alone. So sinners are
under the law until God stops our mouths, brings us in guilty,
shows us Christ to be the end of the law for righteousness,
brings us to true faith and godly repentance. Look back at Joshua
4 and verse 14. It says, On that day the Lord
magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they feared
him as they feared Moses all the days of his life. Now up
to this time in Israel's brief history, God had magnified Moses. And Moses had emphasized obedience
to the law. Moses and that emphasis, which
he gave to the law, had led this nation through their wilderness
wanderings. It had brought them to the border of the promised
land. Moses looked over into the promised land, but God said,
you can't go in because Moses couldn't bring them in. The law
couldn't bring them into this promised land. Joshua had to
bring them in. There had to be a change here
in leadership, and there had to be a change in the thinking
of Israel. Was Moses wrong to emphasize
the sinner's obedience? No, I've already explained. God
has never given a law that does not demand obedience. Christ
himself said in the Sermon on the Mount, Be ye therefore perfect,
as your Father in heaven is perfect. And he would never command anything
less than perfect continual obedience. Understanding the law's demand
for obedience is what reveals to sinners their utter inability
to keep it in a way that God can pronounce them righteous
by it. Moses rightly emphasized the
sinner's obedience. That was his part. That was his
role. And remember, when he did that,
he wasn't failing to bring out Christ. What was that law under
Moses? It was a schoolmaster. What was
it teaching them? Teaching them about Christ. In
picture and type, they saw Christ in that sacrifice, in that altar,
in that priesthood, in everything in that law. Everything in there
was a picture and type of Christ. So Moses, by commanding and demanding
them to observe these things which God had commanded, he was
only pointing them to that which would picture and typify Christ
to them. So that's what Moses did. That was his part in things.
But Moses is dead. God has taken Moses out of the
way. And there's a change coming for this nation. It's a change
in leadership. It's also a change in emphasis. Moses emphasized the sinner's
obedience to the law they had been given. But under Joshua,
that emphasis changed. Joshua began to emphasize the
Savior's obedience. That's why the Ark of the Covenant
took the forefront. You remember, this is the first
time the Ark led them. It used to be a cloud by day
and a pillar of fire by night led them. But now, the Ark of
the Covenant led them. The Ark took the forefront. It
was the Ark that stopped the Jordan River. It was the Ark
that made that riverbed dry ground. It was the Ark that provided
Israel safe and unencumbered way into Canaan. And that Ark
was Christ. You see, we have two pictures
of Christ here. One in Joshua, picturing his person. One in
the Ark, picturing Christ's work. That Ark contained the Ten Commandments
that Moses told them to be careful to observe. And it was over that
ark was the mercy seat, which God said, I will meet you right
here on that mercy seat. When you bring the blood of the
sacrifice and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, I'll meet you.
That's picture in Christ's perfect work, his obedience unto death,
his work under the law to obey it perfectly, to lay down himself
without spot to God. Okay, what's the significance
of National Israel fearing, esteeming Joshua and no longer fearing
Moses? National Israel entered in to
possess a land they had already been given. It was a land they
did nothing to deserve. It was a land they did nothing
to obtain. And it's a picture. It's a picture
of spiritual Israel entering into a salvation they have already
been given, a salvation they've done nothing to deserve, a salvation
they've done nothing to obtain. It's a picture of God's elect
finding righteousness in Christ's obedience alone, where we once
found righteousness in our efforts, in our obedience. I think this
is what Paul is describing of himself in Romans chapter 7.
Now, Brother Jim went over this last week, but this is applicable
to our lesson as well. Look at Romans 7 and verse 9.
Paul writes here, for I was alive without the law once, but when
the commandment came, sin revived and I died. In the first part
of this verse, Paul's describing a time in his religious life
when he was ignorant of Christ, and therefore ignorant of the
law. He was ignorant of its strictness. He was ignorant of its demand
for perfection. In that second part, when the
commandment came, sin revived and I died, he's describing a
time after God delivered him from this ignorance. So he's
describing his life before conversion and after conversion. Like all
of God's elect by nature, Paul was ignorant of who Christ was.
He was ignorant of what Christ had done in his life and death
to accomplish the complete salvation of his people. He was ignorant
of God's righteousness. And what does that mean? It means
he was automatically going about to establish a righteousness
of his own. When Paul says here he was alive without the law,
he doesn't mean when there was no law. The law was given to
Adam in the garden. There's always been law. He doesn't
mean apart from the law, he means without seeing what Christ's
obedience had done to fulfill the law's demand for obedience
and what his death had done to satisfy its demand for punishment.
Without the law is without an understanding of Christ's satisfaction
to law and justice. It's without an understanding
of the righteousness he worked out in his life and death. Without
the law is without the knowledge of a just God and Savior. To
be without law, to be under the law, is to be in bondage to my
own misguided notion that I can, by my efforts, work out at least
some part of my acceptance with God. It's to be motivated by
the fear of death, the fear of punishment. It's to be in need
of a deliverance that only Christ can bring us, which he said he
would bring in Hebrews chapter 2, verses 14 and 15. He would
bring deliverance to his people. Hebrews 2.14, for as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Christ also
himself likewise took part of the same that through death he
might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil,
and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. Two-fold work here you see. Christ
came to destroy him that had the power of death. To render
Satan, that's who had the power of death. And that power of death
is Satan's power to hold us in bondage, under the law, thinking
we're doing something to work out some part of our acceptance.
That's the hold he has over us by nature. He doesn't have the
power to put us to death. That's in God's hands. But Christ
came to render his people powerless, Satan powerless over his people
in that matter. and to deliver them, who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
Now, that verse 15 could be first applied to the nation Israel.
They were under the law. They had that law. They had to
obey that law. They had to make that sacrifice.
That high priest had to go into the Holy of Holies once a year.
They had to do that. It was imposed on them until
the time of Reformation, till the time Christ came. So we could
readily see that that applies to them, but it also applies
to all of us by nature. It applies to the bondage we
were under under that law until Christ came in time under the
gospel and delivered us from it. Ignorance of Christ's work
under the law, ignorance of the salvation, He already worked
out on behalf of every sinner He lived and died for. can only
lead a sinner to trying his or her best to make themselves acceptable
to God. It can only put us to going about
trying to work out our own righteousness. Now this is a cut and dried issue
here. It's not. It's a black and white
issue. There's no middle ground, no gray area, no shady area in
between here. Either the gospel has taught
you of and brought you to Christ who has saved you saved you or
me, the ungodly, unbelieving sinner, by his obedience alone,
or he's done that under the gospel, or you're still under the law
seeking to be accepted by your efforts. You either see yourself
totally, unchangeably acceptable to God based on the imputed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, or you have no alternative but to
be working to make yourself acceptable through your obedience. You see,
if Christ didn't get the job done for you, if he didn't get
the job done for his people, there's only one other way for
you to be acceptable, and that's something found in here, in here,
something found in us. Now that latter part is what
we're all doing by nature, and it's what we continue to do until
the commandment comes, as Paul said. Until God sits us down
under the gospel and shows us what Christ has done by that
law. Christ came in time. He was made under the law to
redeem them that were under the law. And until that gospel comes
and reveals to us that Christ has put away the sin of his people
and worked out the righteousness by which we're justified in God's
sight. Until then, we're under that law. Before national Israel
could enter Canaan, they had to be delivered from the leadership
of Moses and put under the leadership of Joshua. They had to be delivered
from the emphasis of their obedience to the law to an emphasis of
Christ's obedience, the ark taking the forefront. Before spiritual
Israel can enter spiritual Canaan, that is, before the elect can
enter into the rest that's found in Christ alone, we must be delivered
from the reign of law and put under the reign of grace. We
must be delivered from thinking that our obedience to the law
has given us some acceptance with God, to knowing that our
full and complete acceptance is in Christ. It's in the beloved. We must be made to stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled
again with that yoke of bondage, as Paul wrote to the Galatians.
That's why I say the first part of remembering when you got here,
you can see it's more than just a date and time. I haven't even
talked about a date and time yet. Remembering when you came
to rest in Christ alone for all of salvation is remembering that
when is particular. It's when God magnified Christ
in your thinking, when you saw him fulfilling all the conditions
for your salvation and you rested in his finished work alone. Second,
remembering when you got here is remembering that when was
life-changing. Look at Joshua chapter 4 and
verse 15. It says, And the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Command
the priests to bear the ark of the testimony, that they come
up out of Jordan. Joshua therefore commanded the
priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan. Now look on at Joshua
4.18. And it came to pass when the
priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord were
come up out of the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the
priests' feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters
of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his
banks, as they did before. When the priests brought that
Ark up out of the Jordan, It flowed and it overflowed just
like it had done before God miraculously caused that water to back up.
In a short while, things appeared to be right back to normal. If
you hadn't been there, if you hadn't experienced anything,
as far as you're concerned, things were just back like they were.
To the unaffected, to those not a part of this miraculous entry,
to the rest of the world that didn't experience this, it was
as if nothing had ever happened. That Jordan River was slowing
just like it had before and overflowing its banks in the springtime,
just like before. But to those who had witnessed
and experienced this great miracle, it was far from back to normal. It was anything but back to normal.
These Israelites would never be the same. They had begun a
journey that would take them through the rest of their lives.
In a promise to Abraham 470 years earlier, God had given national
Israel this land. Those of this generation were
the designated heirs of that promise. On this day, they had
begun to take possession of their rightful inheritance. This is
a picture of a sinner, one of God's elect, beginning to possess
the salvation they were given in Christ before the world began. Now, mind you, this is just the
beginning. There are going to be many struggles,
many battles, We're going to face many and numerous circumstances
ahead. Some we deal with well. We handle properly. Some not
so well. We'll stumble. We'll fail. We'll
falter. But Israel entering into this
land is a beginning, and it's a picture of every spiritual
Israelite beginning to possess their rest in Christ alone. And
it's a death and resurrection, spiritually speaking. It's not
a small thing is what I'm saying. It's an emphatic time. That's
how dramatic it is. Those who were previously dead
in trespasses and sins are given spiritual life, and they're given
faith to look to Christ alone. In the book of Acts, when Paul
and Silas came into Thessalonica preaching the gospel of Christ
crucified, the Jews of that city who opposed their message described
them this way. Those that have turned the world
upside down have come here also. That's what the gospel does literally
to everyone affected by this message. It turns our religious
world upside down. We see that we were looking to
our works, our efforts, even if that was our faith or our
repentance. to look into Christ and Christ alone. Paul said in
Philippians that it made him count those things he once saw
as gain to be loss, even done for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord. When, for national Israel, was
just a short trip across a river. This was just a tiny little river,
maybe 90 or 100 feet wide. But the picture is of a life-changing
event. So remembering when you got there
is not only remembering that when was particular, it's also
remembering that when was life-changing. And one more thing, the last
thing, remembering when you got here is remembering that when
was specific. Look at Joshua 4 in verse 19.
It says, and the people came up out of Jordan on the 10th
day of the first month and encamped in Gilgal in the east border
of Jericho. National Israel entered into
the promised land on the 10th day of the first month, it says
here. Their initial possession was
on a specific day of a specific month. When Israel departed Egypt,
God designated the month they departed to be that first month.
Look at Exodus 12, verses 1 and 2. Says, And the Lord spoke unto
Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall
be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first
month of the year to you. That's the month that they departed
that land of Egypt. God made that their first month.
And the tenth day of that first month was the day they took to
them a lamb. They shut up the Passover lamb.
Look at Exodus chapter 12 and verse 3. Speak ye unto the congregation
of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month, They shall
take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for an house. The lamb Israel shut up on this
tenth day. You see, they shut up the sacrificial
lamb. The lamb that would be offered
on the 14th, on the 10th is when they shut that lamb up. They
shut up the Passover lamb. It was a lamb whose blood would
ultimately keep them safe. When God passed over Israel in
judgment that night, that blood on their doorposts and lintels
of that lamb that they shut up on the tenth day is what would
keep them safe. The day Israel entered into the
land of Canaan was 40 years, lacking five days from the time
they departed Egypt. The first month is the month
they observed the Passover, and the tenth was the day that they
shut up the lamb that would be the Passover. It had been forty years lacking
five days from the time they came out of Egypt that they entered
into this land of promise. The day they entered in was that
tenth day, the day that they shut up the Passover lamb. Now
they're going to observe that Passover in the new land, in
Canaan, in the promised land, four days from now. This is the
tenth day. It's the day that God commanded
them to shut up the lamb. Now, how does this apply to you
and me? When did you, when did I, when
does any sinner enter in to possess the rest that is in Christ alone? When do we do that? We do so
when God shuts us up to Christ alone for all of salvation. We
do so when God shows us the futility, the utter vanity of trying to
work out a righteousness of our own and seals us in the righteousness
Christ worked out. It's the day a sinner becomes
crucified to the world as the world has already been crucified
unto them. Look at Galatians chapter 6 and
verse 14. Paul said, but God forbid that
I should glory, save, or accept in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto
the world. Paul makes two statements here.
He says that by Christ, by his death on the cross, the world
has been crucified to me. And by that same death, that
same Christ, he, Paul, had been crucified to the world. The world
crucified to Paul, and Paul crucified to the world. Now Paul is speaking
of himself here as a type of God's elect. The world crucified
to the elect is this. It means that nothing that takes
place in the world can separate God's elect from the love of
God or sever them from the certainty of final glory they were given
in Christ before the world began. The world crucified to the elect. Well, what does the elect crucified
to the world mean? It means that a sinner is brought
to the Savior who has bought his or her complete salvation. When was the world crucified
unto Paul, and therefore unto all of the elect, in the everlasting
covenant of grace, when Christ was made the surety of that covenant?
That's when Christ, as Paul quoted of Onesimus in the book of Philemon,
Christ said this to his father in the everlasting covenant of
grace. He said, if he, Paul, or these, the elect, have wronged
thee, or oweth thee aught, owe you anything, Put it to my account. It's Christ talking in eternity
as the surety. He said, I will repay. So the world was crucified to
Paul and to all the elect when Christ was made their surety
in eternity. When are the elect crucified
to the world? When God shuts us up to Christ,
when the commandment comes, when our mouths are stopped and we're
brought in guilty and we see that our hope is not in our obedience,
but in Christ's obedience alone. That's how Remembering when is
specific. Remembering when you got here.
Remember that it was particular. It's when God magnified Christ
in your thinking. It was life changing. It was
specific. May God bring his people to this
place to hear, to know and understand that their only hope is in Christ
alone. And may he cause us to remember
when we got here.