how we ought to rejoice to know
that God the Father's pleasure prospers well in Jesus' hands,
always and all the time. God's pleasure prospers in his
hands, and that ought to give us pleasure in all things. I recall the first time I went
to Ashland, Kentucky to preach for Brother Henry Mahan. I was
26 years old. And the first people who walked
into the church building that night were Brother M. Adkins
and his wife, Ruth. I remember I was 26, so everybody
looked old to me then. But they really were. They were
chartered members of the Church of Ashland. with Brother Mahan
since they first caught him at Pollard Street Baptist Church
back in 1949. And then when they started the
church there in Ashton, they went with Henry there and were
with him the whole time. Just a delightful couple, delightful
couple. I remember, however, the first
thing that Sister Adkins said to me. We met and she asked,
Brother Don, How good does a person have to be to get to heaven? That's a pretty good question.
How good does a person have to be to get to heaven? I had never
really thought of things in just that way. I'd never read anybody
or heard anybody raise the question before. And so I paused for a
moment and replied, as good as God. And she beamed with a smile
hugged me and sat down, and we became immediate friends. If
you'll turn with me tonight to I Corinthians chapter one, as
God the Holy Ghost enables me, I want to show you how sinners
are made as good as God, and thereby made meat to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. Just hold your hands
here at I Corinthians one. For the sake of time, we won't
turn there and read it, but in the second chapter of Luke's
gospel, verses I think 25 through 35, we see our Lord Jesus as
an infant, just eight days old, being brought to the temple according
to the law to be circumcised. And as Joseph and Mary brought
the Lord Jesus into the temple, a man was waiting there. He was
waiting for the consolation of Israel. Jerusalem was abuzz with
the anticipation of God's Christ coming into the world. Herod
had even heard about it. The wise men spoke about it.
The shepherds spoke about it. Everybody was talking about it.
A few folks actually believed Him who was coming. One of them
was a man named Simeon. He was waiting in the temple.
He knew that when the Christ, the woman's seed would come into
the world, this man would be brought to fulfill the law. And
the first place he'd be seen would be in the temple where
he would be circumcised. And as Simeon saw Joseph and
Mary carry that little baby eight days old into the temple, God,
the Holy Ghost said, that's him. That's him. And Simeon walked
over and took the child in his arms and he lifted that child
up before God and blessed and praised God for the Christ who
had been brought into the world according to the word, purpose,
and power of God. And as he did, he identified
the Lord Jesus in specific ways. He said, this is the Lord's Christ. This is the Christ. This boy,
this one right here, he is the Lord's Christ. He is the glory
of his people. He is the light God has given
to lighten his elect among the Gentiles as well. This one, this
man, this little child, he is the consolation, the comfort
of Israel, for he is God's salvation. He said, Lord, now, Let your
servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Who is the Christ of God? He
is God's salvation. That makes him the consolation
of Israel. That's what I want you to see
and know. The Christ of God is God's salvation. That's what we read here in 1
Corinthians 1, verses 30 and 31. The Christ of God is God's salvation. He is not one who just provides
salvation, though he does that. He is not just the one who earns
salvation, though he does that. He is not just the Savior. He
is God's salvation. Salvation is the Lord's. He gives it to whom he will.
And this one who is the Christ of God is God's salvation. Salvation is not a doctrine. It is not a church. It is not
a confession of faith. It is not a creed. It is not
even an experience. Salvation is a person, Jesus
Christ, the Lord. Here in 1 Corinthians 1, verses
30 and 31, we read, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Now, as you well know, I either
quote or read this verse of scripture, like 2 Corinthians 5, 21 or Galatians
3, 13, almost every time I preach, not out of redundancy, but with
deliberate purpose, because here we have stated with utmost clarity
that the totality of salvation, Jesus Christ is. The totality
of salvation Jesus Christ is. And here's the reason. That according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now our text begins with this
little three letter word, but. What a magnificent word that
is in this place. The Apostle Paul, by inspiration,
has just declared to us that God makes foolish the wisdom
of this world, and that he has chosen to use insignificant,
weak human beings to confound the wisdom of this world. And
then he says, but of him are you in Christ Jesus. Wondrous,
wondrous grace. God Almighty has put us in Christ. I haven't begun yet to understand
that, let alone declare it. I just keep on hitting this nail
as hard as I can, as firmly as I can. You who are gods are in
Christ because God has put you in Christ. He has put you in
him. by His sovereign, free, electing
grace and eternal love, His sovereign purpose of grace in predestination
from eternity. The Lord God put us in Christ
eternally, immutably. and in time causes us to come
to experience this blessed union in the knowledge of His Son.
So that we being in Christ, being one with Christ, are accepted
in Him, blessed in Him, saved in Him, truly one with Christ. Our Lord Jesus in His high priestly
prayer in John 17, He says, Father, I want the world to know that
they are one with Me, even as I am one with you. I want the
world to know that you have loved them just as you have loved Me,
and you loved Me before the world was. The Lord Jesus praised God,
oh God, Make my people know and make the world to know that I
am one with them and they one with me. Well, how far can you
carry that? Just as far as your mind's imagination
can carry it. Run with utmost speed as far
as you can. And you haven't begun to get
started to understand this. We are one with Christ. One with
Him. We speak often of being one.
We are one body in the Lord. And truly we are in many ways. We are one, but really our oneness
is because we are one in Christ and one with Christ. We have
similar thoughts, we have similar feelings, we have similar desires,
similar purposes of one heart, of one mind. But our unity is
our union with Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. We're one with
Him. We're in Christ by the rich,
free goodness and grace of God, our Father. In Him, preserved
and blessed from everlasting. As I said, we were in Him secretly. No one knew it, including us,
until the time the Lord God came and revealed Christ in us by
His Spirit. And this is altogether God's
work. Our conversion, our saving union
with Christ is not the result of something we have done. We're
in Christ, not because we're wiser or better or have done
better or made a better decision than others. We're in Christ
because God put us in Christ. And it is God's purpose to make
this apparent to all and to force all to acknowledge it. God dispenses
His grace in such a way that He makes men see, with regard
to themselves and with regard to others, that salvation is
His work alone. Now look at what the Spirit of
God tells us it means to be in Christ. If you're in Christ,
if I'm in Christ, if we're born of God, if we trust the Lord
Jesus Christ, if God's given us faith in Christ, he is made
of God unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. I may come back at some point
in the future and try to deal with these things individually
and fully as they need to be. Let me just call your attention
to the highlights. Though we are foolish creatures
by nature, by virtue of our union with Christ, Christ is made of
God unto us wisdom. He is the shining light that
dispels darkness in our souls. He is the one who gives us wisdom
and understanding in all things, making us wise unto salvation. He is our great Joseph, our Zaphnath-paneah,
the revealer of God and the revealer of the secret things of God to
us. And He is our wisdom in an objective sense as well. I mean
by that, that it is our highest wisdom to know Him. Under the
personification of wisdom, our Savior says, He that findeth
me findeth life, and shall obtain the favor of the Lord. We look to Jesus Christ and trust
Him as our representative and our wisdom before God, this one
who stood forth and spoke for us before the world was as our
covenant surety, who has from everlasting been our intercessor,
our advocate, our mediator, and our priest, and who today continually
intercedes at the right hand of the Father for us, praying
for us continually. I don't know how to express that. We have a picture of it in Zechariah
chapter 3 where the Lord Jesus stands by and commands that Joshua
be cleansed and his priestly attire put on him and the accusations
of Satan are just nullified and hushed and he removes the iniquity
of his people. He is our continual advocate
with the Father. And it appears from that picture
in Zechariah that he just stood by, pleading continually, all that
he prayed in John 17. pleading continually for all
his people as is spoken of throughout the Psalms, pleading continually,
making intercession for the saints according to the will of God
on the basis of the five bleeding wounds he received at Calvary
as our substitute, on the basis of wisdom fully satisfied, fully
revealed, and fully accomplished in his death and resurrection
as our substitute. He is the embodiment of God,
the embodiment of wisdom, the word, the revealer of God, and
He is our wisdom before God, and He who is our wisdom. By
our saving union with Him makes every heaven-born soul wise,
truly wise, giving us the wisdom with which
to know God. giving us the mind of Christ
to understand all things so that though we're discerned and understood
by no one, he that has Christ has the mind of Christ and discerns
all things, understands all things, knows all things. Obviously,
that doesn't mean that we know everything there is to know,
but we know everything worth knowing. We know Him. We know how God
safe centers. We know who He is. We know where
He is. We know what He's doing. We know
that indeed the Father's pleasure prospers well in His hands. That makes us wise, wise unto
salvation, knowing God by the revelation of Christ through
the Spirit. He gives us wisdom within, causing
us to know His will. and to walk in his way, to discern
with understanding his word, to discern with understanding
his truth, to discern the mind of the spirit by his revelation,
so that we who are gods are continually taught of God from the word of
God with the mind of God inside us as God himself resides in
us in the person of his son. Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness. Righteousness. Now many people use the words
righteousness and holiness interchangeably as if they were one. And I'm
certain that I have done so and probably will again. But really
the two words are not synonyms. Righteousness is primarily a
legal term. Though we They use it and it's
properly used to describe a person's character. And it's used that
way in scripture at times. Righteousness primarily refers
to a person's deeds. It refers to that which is right
before the law. Righteousness is being right
before the law. Right in the eyes of the law.
Holiness, however, refers to one's character. Yet the Word
of God makes it abundantly clear that none are righteous right
before the law, and none are holy in character, sanctified,
except the Lord Jesus Christ. And He alone is made of God unto
us righteousness and holiness, righteousness and sanctification. He is our rightness before the
law. And in His grace He comes and
makes us holiness, sanctification in the new birth. If we would
have righteousness before God, Christ must be our righteousness.
And He must be made of God unto us righteousness. Now this is
the blessed gospel doctrine revealed in Holy Scripture. The Lord Jesus
Christ, God's Son, came into this world to bring in everlasting
righteousness. He did that, in the words of
the prophet Isaiah, by magnifying the law and making it honorable,
fulfilling every requirement of the law and justice of God.
I realize that there's a whole slew of folks who think they're
brilliant, more brilliant than other folks, and they get upset
because we talk about Christ's obedience being our righteousness. They say, no, no, no, no, no,
it's His death that's our righteousness. How on earth are you going to
separate those two things? His obedience is unto death. His obedience is crowned with
death. Our Lord Jesus, when he walked
on this earth, the full age of a man, did everything that God
requires of a man. And then he was made sin for
us, and when he was made sin for us, satisfied the justice
of God's law, and by his obedience unto death, brought in everlasting
righteousness and put away our sins. Just as we were made sinners
by the disobedience of the first man, Adam, we are made righteous
by the obedience of the last Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Brother Lindsey read it for us back in the office in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. This is what that means. Every sinner for whom Christ
lived and died and rose again is right. Righteous before the
law. The law of God has nothing to
speak against it. The law of God has everything
to speak for it. The law of God, the justice of
God demands the everlasting salvation of God's elect as much as his
grace. For Christ has fulfilled and
satisfied all the law. He's done for us everything God
Almighty requires of us. so that we are declared to be
as He is, the Lord our righteousness. He is made of God unto us righteousness. He who was made sin for us, when
He was made sin, had our sin imputed to Him, so that He bore
the guilt of sin. He cried, my guiltiness, my guiltiness,
my guiltiness. And the reproaches of them that
reproached him fell on him and his heart was broken. And then
he who died under the wrath of God, under the sense of guilt
because of sin made his, our sin made his, satisfied God's
justice. God Almighty in all His infinite
justice can require no more than Christ has paid. He has fully
satisfied the justice of God. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. And it did this that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him in exactly the same
way to exactly the same extent. as he was fully made sin and
thereby deserved to die because sin was imputed to him, the guilty
one. Now, we being made right before
the law are made in Christ fully worthy
of life, fully worthy of everlasting glory. He is our worthiness. When our substitute obeyed God's
law and paid our debt to divine justice, we obeyed in him and
we died in him. When he was justified in the
spirit, we were justified in him. When he arose, we arose
in him. When he sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high, we sat down in him. Bobby, that's
the very language of scripture. That's not a conclusion. That's
not a logical argument. That's exactly what the book
of God says. I am crucified with Christ. We're risen together with Him.
We're seated with Him. Christ is our righteousness in
such a sure way and with such everlasting value and efficacy. that being one with Him and redeemed
by His blood, we have His righteousness, and by His righteousness, we
have right and title to the purchased possession He obtained for us
and holds for us at God's right hand. Worthy of God's approval
and God's acceptance. This is the righteousness. for
which we shall be fully rewarded and everlastingly rewarded in
heavenly glory. What a blessed thought. It's
too great to be believed were it not written right here in
the book of God. He is a God made into us righteousness. And wondrous as this is, as long,
and we just keep on nibbling at it and learn a little bit
here and there. And yet, Mark, this is the very first thing
he teaches the sinner when he saves him by his grace. He convinces
you of sin, your sin, and of righteousness. Righteousness,
your righteousness, your righteousness in him, and the judgment, judgment
finished, because the prince of this world is judged. Of Him
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification. The Lord God demands that we
walk before Him and be perfect. He cannot, He will not accept
anything less. Now listen to me. I've said this
to you many times. Write it down, remember it, and
you'll hear it again probably Sunday. What God demands, God
performs. What God requires, God gives. Christ is our sanctification. God requires perfection. He requires
perfect obedience. That's what we see in Christ,
who is our righteousness. He requires perfect atonement.
That too we see in the righteousness of Christ, who by his death satisfied
the justice of God, fully satiated God's justice. We use pacifiers
for babies. You know what a pacifier is,
don't you? You got a squalid baby, and you stick that little
rubber thing in his mouth and try to get it to shut up. That's
the object. When Faith was a baby, she wouldn't
take one. We put honey on it, and she'd
spit it out. She wouldn't have it. And when she got old enough
to want it, we wouldn't give it to her. But the object was
to keep the child quiet. Jesus Christ, by His blood, is
our propitiation. He has silenced forever the anger
of God. For He has taken away God's wrath,
God's fury, God's anger, and every reason for it. He has made
propitiation for our sins. He satisfied the justice of God. But if you go to glory, you gotta
have something more than perfect obedience and perfect atonement.
You got to have a perfect nature. Got to have a perfect nature.
And Christ performed that perfect nature in us in sanctification,
in regeneration. Thus, by righteousness, satisfaction,
and sanctification, God makes His holy meat to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. When the Spirit of
God declares that Christ is made of God unto us, sanctification. He's telling us that sanctification,
like justification, like redemption, like election, like predestination,
like everything else that's got any connection with salvation,
sanctification is God's work. Sanctification is God's work.
Another word for sanctification is holiness. In the new birth,
God the Holy Ghost creates a new nature in us. It is called in
Ephesians 4, 24, a new man created in righteousness and true holiness. It is called in 2 Peter 1, 4,
being made partakers of the divine nature. It is spoken of in 1
John 3 as that seed of God. formed in us that can not sin. That which is born of God that
can not sin. You see holiness, I don't know how to get this
communicated. Holiness, that holiness without which no man
shall see the Lord is the character of the heaven born soul. Holiness
is not something we do. I just read an article this morning,
but I thought it was been a friend of mine for nearly 50 years. And I know he knows better, but
he quoted one of the legalistic Puritans and talking about holiness. Holiness is in your prayer and
holiness in your Bible reading and holiness is in your separation
from the world and holiness is in your love of the Lord. No,
it ain't. No, it ain't. Holiness is not
something you do. You can't do it. You can't give
it a shot, but you can't do it. What is holiness? Holiness is
perfection. perfection of character, perfection
entirely, that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord
is Christ in you, the hope of glory. You see, this whole business
of salvation, this whole work of salvation, the totality of
it, is in Christ, by Christ, and for the praise of Christ.
There's no room for you or me to glory. No room for us to boast
in anything. He of God is made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification. Now get this next thing. And
redemption. Redemption. As I've told you
many times in the New Testament, there are three different Greek
words that are used for redeem, redemption, bought, and so forth.
The word that is here translated redemption is a word that means
complete deliverance, a complete freeing, a complete loosing from
bondage. The Lord Jesus Christ is of God
made unto us complete deliverance. from sin and the fall, from curse
and condemnation, from death and darkness, complete deliverance
into the glorious liberty of the sons of God at last in resurrection
glory. He delivered us. by the power
of his grace, through the merit, efficacy, and power of his blood,
when he came and spoke peace to our hearts, giving us faith
in Christ, and speaking to us, imputing to us consciously free
righteousness, complete justification, through his blood, declaring
us to be the sons of God. Do you remember, my brother?
Do you remember, my sister? How you danced for joy when first
you heard the good news of forgiveness. Do you remember what it is to
be a prisoner immediately, newly set free from bondage? Oh, how
our hearts rejoiced and sang. God give us that continual joy
of deliverance, but give us something more. Give us the blessed hope
for anticipation of deliverance yet to come. Soon we shall be
delivered from these bodies of sin and death. Delivered from these bodies of
sin and death. When you get a telephone call
or an email, Brother Don's gone, the Lord took him, he died, don't
believe a word of it. Don't believe a word of it. I
never intend to die. I never intend to die. Our Lord
Jesus said, he that liveth and believeth on me shall never die.
No, no, no. This body's gonna die. I look
forward to it. I look forward to it. That will
be freedom, freedom. But then, there is another day
called the day of redemption. We're sealed by the Spirit of
God unto the day of redemption. What is that? Well, this thing
of redemption won't be finished until what you read back there
in 1 Corinthians 15, 24 comes to pass, then cometh the end.
It won't be finished until then. When we have mortal has been
raised in immortality. This corruption has been raised
in incorruption. This natural body has been raised
a spiritual body. And we stand before God in a
new heavens and a new earth with no consequence of evil. No evil consequence from the
fall. No evil consequence of sin. No regret of anything. In complete deliverance. In everlasting union with Christ. from sin, and darkness, and death,
and sorrow, and bondage, and questions, and doubts, and fears,
delivered at last into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. I travel every year to different
countries to preach the gospel. I've crossed the borders of this
land, north, south, east, and west many times. And in order
to go into another country, you've got to have three things. You've
got to have a birth certificate or some proof of citizenship.
And you must have a visa, something that gives you the right to enter
that country. And you must have a clean record. Children of God, we're going
soon into another country, into another land. And it'll be an easy trip. We
won't have any hassle at the border. I fully expect to cross
Jordan's Chile River just as the children of Israel crossed
the Red Sea with every enemy as still as a stone. until I passed over, and I'll
tell you why. I have proof of citizenship. I've been born of God. And I
have a clean record. No crime laid against me. And I have a right to enter the
country. What is that? Righteousness. Righteousness. Righteousness. Not of my doing, of God's doing. Not of my doing, of God's giving. not of my accomplishment of God's
doing. It is of him that we are in Christ
Jesus, who of God has made into us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. And the reason is all this, that
no flesh should glory in his presence, but let him that gloria
Glory in the Lord. Saints of God, glory in Him. Glory in Him. Glory in Him. Speak well of Him. Think well
of Him. Speak well to Him. Think well before Him, who of
God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Amen.